Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, your weekly romp through Marvel Snap's hottest topics! This week we got the relaunch of Deadpool’s Diner and a full rework for Kang! Also, what would you do with $200?
1) What are your favorite new Deadpool's Diner locations?
Deadpool's Diner returned yesterday and between a much more achievable grind and some new twists, it has felt like a major upgrade over the old Diner. Here are my favorite locations:
Project Unicorn has been a blast. There's an element of variance, depending on what the Gwenpool hits, but it's the good kind of chaos.
Tying location effects to Snap's has been my favorite aspect of the Diner locations. As a big fan of cards like Polymorph and Sersi, I love having the ability to get a similar effect with a Snap.
My favorite location in the Diner so far. The name is a clever play on the Peak, it gives you some intel on what the opponent will be able to do, and tying it to Snaps makes it dynamic. Strategically, it's best to save it for turn 5 so you'll have a better idea of your opponent’s output range on Turn 6. However, sometimes it can just bail you out of a bad draw if you activate it early.
2) How can I get the most out of Deadpool's Diner?
Strategies: How to min/max the new Diner
Be Conservative with your Bubs initially
A good rule of thumb is to only play on a higher table when you have at least 2x the maximum Bubs you can lose on that table. Once you get to the higher Bub refreshes things get a lot easier, which is achievable in just the first few hours of play.
Front-load your grind
If your goal is to get as much from the shop as possible, rush through the Waffles and S’mores as early as possible to unlock higher tables. Every day spent farming at lower tables costs you Nachos. If you're going to spend on Bubs because you've hit 0, do it early. It can be a valuable way to rush through the lower tables more quickly.
Snap often, but smartly
Each Nacho mission requires 3 Snaps. The higher your Snap rate per game, the fewer total games you need. Over-snapping can backfire if it tanks your Bubs, but you don’t need to win every game. Just complete missions. Snap like mad before stopping for the day. Losing doesn't matter if you're going to wait for Bub refreshes, so just Snap 3x no matter what when you're close to ending a session.
Keep Calm
Don’t panic about losses. Most of the progress in this mode is tied to Snaps, not wins. The currency in the Shop is Nachos, and those are what you'll need to buy the items you want.
Set Goals/Expectations
Casual players should aim for Danger plus a few favorite variants and titles. Active players can push for the full shop if they want. The numbers are surprisingly achievable, especially if you aren't interested in all of the Borders and Avatars. Most players reading this will be able to get Danger and all of the cosmetics they really want.
3) What would YOU do with $200?
A new bundle was uncovered in the datamines and if it's released as mined, it would set a new record.
Let's dig into the value of this bundle. For $200 you get 12000 Credits, 2500 Gold, some variants, and boosters. The value isn't great based on these contents, but of course that doesn't tell the whole story. This bundle, and a couple others our intrepid dataminers uncovered, are closely tied to Albums.
The bundle contains two variants for the following album:
Some of the values in this album and variants appear to be placeholders, so we likely won't know the true “value” of this $200 bundle, but it does appear to be part of some larger shift in how album variants are marketed. It could be a way to offer extra value incentive to complete albums. It's a nice touch that the boosters included are for other cards from the same album. There are similar bundles related to a James Ryman album and bundles for both albums at lower price points.
Albums generally don't offer great progression value. It's a cosmetic system, after all. But they occasionally have interesting value propositions for people who don't own the card of a variant being offered. Also, because all of them are marked as webshop bundles, they may not be like traditional bundles at all. Could they be a replacement for the “whale track” system? That system has often included a single exclusive variant that unlocks at $200. It's likely this is similar to or a replacement for the Web Milestone track.
Regardless of the potential value relative to other purchases in the game, the $200 price tag has induced some sticker shock. We collected answers about what people would rather spend $200 on instead of this bundle.
Here are some of our favorite answers:
Sideline tickets to the Tampa Bay Bucs game
-Prashaun
A new fishing rod
-TheSnapNation
A ticket for a photo op with Gillian Anderson… (plus gas to get to the venue).
A Doctor Strange bust from Multiverse of Madness or an Amtrak train ticket from DC to NYC and then have $120-170 to spend in the city.
A two day Universal Studios ticket with 1 day for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and the other day at the new park Epic Universe.
- BEWD
Me? I'd get this giant book that's coming out in a couple weeks (and have some left over).
Now, let's hop over to the official Marvel Snap discord and grab some developer Q and As.
4) Question: Does the team have any cards on their "board" that one could describe as the next Kang? IE - Card is very clearly in need of a rework, but you just haven't found the right fit just yet?
Bonus - If the above answer is yes, could you potentially tease anything related to that list?
Answer:
I do have one specific card I’ve been debating changing for about a year. As for a tease… the character is not in the MCU.
-Glenn
Author's note:
If you want to know what “in the MCU” means precisely here, head over to the Discord where Glenn covers it more fully.
Here are my best guesses.
Jean Grey - Is a very popular character that has never gained much meta traction. This is the best bet as she's the only character both popular enough outside the game and unpopular enough inside it to warrant the attention and dev resources that a rework takes. While I've played a fair amount of Jean, she deserves a more powerful and impactful ability.
Warpath - Outside of very early Spectrum/Destroyer lists, Warpath has never seen much success. He seems cool theoretically in a game that requires you to win two lanes, but there's just too much that can go wrong.
Mojo - Another card I've used a ton (I have great Mojo splits), Mojo was perhaps once underrated, but is now just too underpowered to compete with all of the new cards. It would be nice to have a menacing Mojo in the game.
Spider-Woman - Despite having basically decent stats, Spider-Woman has never seen a lot of play. Is she underrated? Perhaps, but 5-Cost cards need to have a major impact because of how they combine with other costs along the curve. I would love a little stat boost for Jessica Drew, even if she doesn't get a rework.
Crystal - Crystal is a pretty cool character in the comics, full of personality. Her initial form was both bad and too risky to buff. Her new version has a handful of uses, but she's neither exciting, not seeing much play. She's got some great variants, so I'd love to see this get the “new card” treatment.
5) Question: A lot of the Game Start cards that shuffle additional cards into your deck make each other better:
- The random cards that Arishem shuffles are a lot worse on average than the cards that Agamotto, etc. shuffle, so shuffling further cards into your deck mitigates Arishem's downside.
- You're less likely to draw Agamotto before Temporal Manipulation with a larger deck, so Temporal will draw Agamotto more frequently (instead of whiffing).
- The same is true for Thanos and Space Stone.
- Kang.
There was already a change to Thanos to make him not start in your hand; there was a notable Arishem/Thanos/Agamotto 34-card deck built to take advantage of the previous effect. Do you believe that additional adjustments will be needed in the future to reduce the synergy between **Game Start** shuffle effects?
Answer:
I think you’re overestimating the “synergy” here. Adding cards to your deck has upsides, largely in improving your snap equity by making you much harder to predict, but the likelihood elements you’re describing aren’t impactful. If Agamotto and Temporal Manipulation are 2 in 16 or 22 or whatever, you’re reducing the net frequency either is drawn, not changing the order in which you draw them.
-Glenn
Author’s note:
I agree with Glenn that most of this synergy is weak. The first point, that Agamotto diminishes Arishem’s downside is technically true, but so negligible as to not be a concern. The second two points are outright incorrect. You reduce the odds of drawing the tutor card just as much as the target. Personally, the best way to play all of these Game Start shufflers is separately, except as a novelty.
That's it for this week! Come find me on social media for more Snap and comics talk! Let me know in the comments below what you think about the new Deadpool's Diner!