Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, your weekly rundown of Marvel Snap’s hottest topics! This week we got the OTA that undid the previous OTA, a slight nerf to Mr. Negative, and I found a cool new website!
1) What are the best cards in the game now that tech cards are back?
Shang Chi is still limited, so the decks that are powerful are going to look pretty similar to what they looked like before. Move is on the rise and “Big points” is still a viable strategy, while End-of-Turn and Victoria Hand will have to adapt to the return of Killmonger, but remain powerful. Here are some of the cards that will be powerhouses in the new format.
Merlin has been underrated for a while, but is officially one of the best cards in the game now. With a wide range of synergies and uses, he's like a Swiss army knife that can get you out of all kinds of jams including solving location issues, canceling Limbo, and helping against the rising amount of clog decks.
Now that 1-Cost cards need to worry about Killmonger, we should see a slight decrease in the average power output in the first few turns. Let your opponent worry about Killmonger and extract extra value out of powerful low-cost cards with Iron Patriot.
Even if Shadow King hadn't been reverted he would be an important card right now. Shadow King is your best tool against all of the move decks running around, including traditional, bounce, and Tribunal, as well as helping against a lot of the other powerful decks in this new meta.
Juggernaut was good before he was nerfed, good before the robo-pocalypse, and still good now. He outcompetes NTW at the 4-slot in most decks and provides powerful protection against the returning tech cards if your opponent is pinning their hopes on them to steal a game at the end. You can set up deterministic win conditions by winning one lane with Juggernaut and another on raw points.
Victoria Hand decks are honestly a little worse with Killmonger back in the game, but they go from easily the best deck to just one of the best handful of decks. Bastion-Hand, Werewolf, and Ongoing decks that include Victoria are all going wild right now. Victoria Hand decks are the beneficiaries of some specific Marvel Snap math. With its low 2-Cost heavy curve, Victoria Hand decks are so much better at playing the various powerful 4-Cost cards (Juggernaut, Bastion, Moonstone, Stardust, Misery) while also happily fitting in powerful 1 and 2-Cost cards that can be sprinkled throughout (Demon, Merlin’s Spells, Shadow King, Goliath, and Mercury).
Armor? That's right. With so many people trying out Dormammu and putting Killmonger back into lists, as well as newer cards that destroy like First Steps Thing and Danger, Armor is a good way to steal some games this week. She can be used in an Ongoing deck for additional Goliath value or in one of the new Destroyer builds that people are trying out.
Shadow King being back at 2 and Killmonger being global again means the decks that make their living dodging them are as potent as ever. Whether it's in move bounce or traditional bounce, Beast is looking at a solid October.
2) Does Mr. Negative need to be nerfed?
One of the OTA buffs was actually a hidden nerf to Mr. Negative. Mystique going to 3/1 will have an impact on that deck's flexibility on the final turn.
Why the Mystique change matters: when Mr. Negative was able to get a 0-Cost Mystique, she could be played alongside unflipped versions of Gorr, Knull, and Iron Man. Mystique covered a lot of the decks weaker draws when it drew a lot of its most powerful cards too early. Since the introduction of Gorr and Sage, Mr. Negative decks have become too consistent. It used to be that when Negative decks didn't “do their thing,” they would lose. However, the increased ability to win when they don't fully pop off has made them far more viable for climbing on ladder. It wouldn't mind seeing Mystique go to 3/2 to further disentangle her from this archetype. If an additional nerf proves necessary, Jane could draw a set number of cards. If she's limited to 2 or 3, she'll still have value with Thor and Beta Ray Bill, but would make Mr. Negative’s output on the final turn more manageable.
3) Where can I find out which characters in Marvel Snap appeared in the MCU?
I found this wonderful website created by Redditor ZYinMD.
You can check which Snap characters appeared in every movie or TV show, MCU and otherwise, sort them in different ways, and even click on a card to see everywhere that character has appeared! Try it out!
Now, let's hop over to the official Marvel Snap discord and look at some dev questions and answers.
4) Question:
Given that Negasonic is now staying at 4 cost, is there any chance of Fenris Wolf reverting to 2 cost? What are the metrics showing for him since his change to 3 cost?
Answer:
Negasonic wasn’t a huge contributor to the strength of Fenris Wolf, though she was meaningful. I think time has shown that the ceiling of Fenris’s strength is more appropriate for a 3-Cost card.
-Glenn
Author’s Note:
I do think Fenris was too strong as a force multiplier at 2-Cost, but I also don't think he can be a part of a competitively viable strategy at 3-Cost. We still do have a solid curve of Fenris into Negasonic, but it's not only worse from a cost perspective, it's also just very hard to win priority with that line now. You can precede it with Mercury who fits the strategy quite well, but is going to reduce the value of the Negasonic. Negasonic still has some solid use-cases as a 4-Cost. I've seen people playing her in aggressive Sauron lists as a way to lock out a lane, but she could use a 6th point of power.
5) Question:
Why does KM have the ability to destroy opposing cards he already puts up a lot of power for cards that have the when destroyed x happens effect and kinda hurts decks that want there 1 drops on the field, wouldn't it make more sense balance wise to make his effect 1 sided since we have Elektra for the 1 drop kills
Answer:
Without interacting with enemy cards, his sole use case would be a Destroy synergy card. While that is a viable design—there are many other such cards—Snap also needs a release valve against swarming the game with strong 1-Cost cards. They have little to no opportunity Cost, and Elektra isn’t sufficient counterplay against that strategy—she’s much stronger against cards like Sunspot.
Current Killmonger affects just one location of cards, and we’ve seen a fairly significant surge in the strength and popularity of decks leaning on lots of 1-Costs, demonstrating this role against “wide” 1-Costs to be important. Could it be weaker, or filled by multiple cards? Maybe, but Killmonger is also positioned as a card players get early on to fill both roles in their collections, so we’d have to adjust for that too.
-Glenn
Author's Note:
There are very few effects that are as powerful as Killmonger’s that are also global, affecting all lanes. While I get that 1-Cost cards need to be kept in check, I don't like the way he can just be played at the end of the game to fully invalidate so much of what was played before him. The game is more interesting when 1-Cost cards matter and decks entirely focused on 1-Cost cards like Zoo didn't exactly take over the meta while Killmonger was in time out.
Making him local does impact his usefulness in decks like Morgan Le Fay and reduces his ability to navigate out of difficult situations in Deadpool destroy decks. However, that can easily be made up by giving him extra power. Making him a local 3/5 would help him find his way into even more decks with cards like the Hood, Korg, and Spider-Ham since you wouldn't have to worry about blowing up your own 1-Cost cards. I also think as long as Killmonger is global, he'll keep Elektra from being as interesting as she could be. She's better now than she was for most of her lifespan, but with a global Killmonger she has a hard ceiling.
You could also make Killmonger a more interesting card by limiting his damage to two lanes (Destroy all 1-Cost cards in other lanes). I was surprised by it, but I felt the game was a lot more interesting without global Killmonger in it and I hope they reevaluate his role down the line.
That's it for this week! Come find me on social media for more comics and Snap discussion! Let me know in the comments what you think about Killmonger and if you think he could use a change!