The newest cosmetic feature to be added to Marvel Snap, Custom Card, has another upgrade in this latest patch. Let's look at all the different aspects of the custom card feature and how you can use it to make your collection look exactly how you want it to. We will also talk a little bit about the future of cosmetics and what Second Dinner has in store for this side of the game.
Custom Cards
Custom Card allows you to choose the border for a specific card after you have at least one split on that card. This was a great feature to add because it meant you could keep splitting your favorite variant even after obtaining a good split to try something different or even better and not worry about being left with a border that didn't look good with the finish or flare. This wasn’t the end result for this feature, and during the last patch in May, Custom Card got a big upgrade.
Finish and Flare Combinations
Gone are the days of splitting different variants of the same card to get a good split. Instead, the Custom Card feature now lets you take any split combination you have unlocked and apply it to every variant of that character you own. Take my Aero, for example. I originally unlocked gold with white Krackle on my Coax variant, but the new Dan Hipp variant was released in the shop a few days ago. Well, instead of having to split my new Dan Hipp Aero to get a great split, I can apply my gold with white Krackle split, which I already unlocked immediately, to my new variant.
This feature works for any split combination you have unlocked for a character. However, there are some limitations. This is not game-wide, so just because I have a Gold Finish with White Krackle on my Aero does not mean I can move it to my Kraven. If I wanted it there, I had to unlock that same split on my Kraven. Also, this feature does not allow you to mix and match different Finish and Flare combinations. You still need to unlock specific combinations by splitting your cards. If I split one of my cards and end up with a foil finish and Blue Krackle, I can not take that Blue Krackle and apply it to a different finish that I have also unlocked. Instead, the game records each of the 128 combinations you can acquire for a specific character. You still need to unlock all those combinations, but once you do, it is available for all character variants.
As a quick note, when you create a custom card, it will always have full animations and a frame break. So, if you prefer cards to stay within their frame or not have animations, there isn’t a way to control that yet. It's possible they could add that in the future, but I am not sure it is high on the list of priorities.
Custom Borders
You can choose a specific border whenever you use the custom card feature. With this latest patch, they also introduced 9 collectible borders into the mix and the 7 base borders already available to each player. These borders look different from the base borders and have slightly different finishes. Currently, two different types of borders are in the collectible category with several colors: Metallic and Neon.
Many people have taken advantage of this feature and have great-looking decks and cards.
Here are a few bordered-out decks from members of the Marvel Snap community
These are just a few examples. If you go to any community site and scroll for a bit, you'll see many people using collectible borders in many different ways.
Sorry, No Free Lunch
These collectible borders add a lot of customization for players to mess around with and make their favorite cards or decks look fantastic. However, they cost gold to unlock instead of credits like the different stock borders that exist for every card. Also, each collectible border is only unlocked per character, meaning if I pay 500 gold for blue neon on my Jeff, The Baby Land Shark, I will not have access to blue neon on my Nocturne until I unlock blue neon on her.
Here are the borders and their cost
Let's break down the cost of the borders a bit more.
As we can see from the breakdown, there are a lot of resources to get all the borders. First, to get all of the borders for a single card costs a total of 6100 gold, which comes out to be $76.24. To bling out your whole deck with the same border can cost from 6000 up to 10800 gold, which can either be $74.99 or $134.99. For some, that is a lot of resources to spend on cosmetics in a game, but for others, this is a great way to make their favorite decks or cards feel special. Also, although gold is a paid-for currency, players still receive some gold for free while they play. That means players can achieve a complete collectible border deck from free resources. It just takes a lot more time than someone who pays for extra gold in the game. Now, that is an extreme case, and likely, most players will not border a whole deck but maybe 1 or 2 of their favorite cards. That is a much lower investment and something that can be fun to do. For example, you just hit rank 90 and got the 500 gold for that achievement, well why not celebrate by adding a special border to your favorite card? That is a simple, fun interaction that is now in the game.
Whale Life
Just because I could, if you wanted to currently get every single border for every single card in Marvel Snap, not only would it take a lot of boosters and credits to unlock the feature for all the cards it would also cost -
I have a feeling someone is out there with an account like that. But maybe not. Either way, that is attainable if you want to.
Response and Feedback
The initial response to this feature was a mix of good and bad. Being able to mix around your split combinations to any variants was a fantastic change that most people agreed was good for the game and good overall. The collectible borders, however, took the grunt of the negative feedback about these new features. Most complaints were about the cost and the fact that it was specific to each character, not game-wide. While those complaints have some merit, this is a purely cosmetic feature, and because it has no actual effect on the gameplay or acquisition of cards, I am less inclined to think these changes are bad. No one forces you to buy cosmetics, and if people want to use their resources, that gives them more power. I have not bought a border yet and am still contemplating whether I will.
The Future
Card customization is one of the fun things about Marvel Snap and a place of great enjoyment for several players. Second Dinner has stated that they plan to add more collectible borders and more split combinations and make them available for different price points and rewards at some point. Even looking at the home screen advertising collectible borders, we can see several designs they have already designed that are not in the game now. I predict some of these borders will be used for character mastery when introduced and offered as rewards, even at a higher price point.
Conclusion
The Custom Card feature and collectible borders are great cosmetic features introduced in the last few patches. Although these come at a price, there are still numerous ways you can customize them to make your decks shine in the game. Let me know in the comments below what you have decided to do with the new collectible borders and custom card features.