We have brand new game modes hitting Marvel Snap, starting today! Also, we will look ahead to game modes coming later this month and what we expect for July.
HIGH VOLTAGE OVERDRIVE
JUNE 16 - JUNE 25
High Voltage Overdrive is an alternative new version to the fan favorite mode, High Voltage. It keeps the style of gameplay you remember with a few twists. Let’s take a look at all the changes and additions to High Voltage in this new Overdrive mode!
GAMEPLAY
Charged cards are just like cards that have been hit by Surge. They have -1 cost and +1 energy. You and your opponent will each get 8 of these cards randomly shuffled into your deck at the beginning of the game. Additionally, when a total of 5 charged cards have been played (counting both you and your opponent) a massive effect will go off. Here are the different effects that can happen at the end of the turn after the requisite 5 charged cards have been played:
Scaling Effects:
- Give each charged card +1/+2/+3/+4 power (no matter where they are)
- Add 1/2/3 Chimichangas to each player's side of each location.
- Move 2/4/6 (total) cards one location to the left
- Transform charged cards in play into ones that cost 0/1/2/3 more
- Destroy the 1/2/3/4 lowest powered cards for each player(on ties, choose one at random)
- Repeat 1/2/3/4 random 'On Reveals' for each player
- Each player draws 2/3/4 cards. Their costs all become 3.
These will scale up each turn. For example, if the reactor shows the “Give each charged card +X power” effect and 5 charged cards are played on the first turn, each charged card will get +1 power. If 5 have been played by the end of the second turn, they'll get +2 power. There are 4 turns, so these scaling effects have 4 levels. However, some wouldn't have an impact on the final turn, so those ones only have 3 levels and will be replaced by a random non-scaling effect on the final turn.
Non-Scaling (only on turn 4):
- Destroy the two locations with the lowest powers. (if there is a tie, leave one at random)
- The winner of this game gets twice as many volts.
- Each player adds a Blob to a random location. (if able)
Overdrive starts things off by adding an additional turn. Instead of 3 turns for High Voltage, Overdrive has 4. The extra turn necessitates a change to the Max Energy we get, so instead of the 2-5 you are used to, it’s now 2-4. There also isn’t any extra Energy given on the last turn.
CHARGED CARDS AND THE REACTOR
In Overdrive, you’ll have 8 “Charged cards” created into your deck after Deck Building, increasing your deck size to 20.
These created cards will each have -1 Cost and +1 Power.
Playing a Charged card does nothing on its own, but when 5 Charged cards total have been played, that’s when the Reactor will “Overload” and produce a new effect for the remainder of the game.
The effect is different for each game, and you’ll know ahead of time what the game changing ability will be.
BAN LIST
Thanks to datamines we were able to find out the brand new Banlist for Overdrive. It looks like the list was catered to keep away things that both benefit from your opponent having a large deck size, and increasing your own.
OVERDRIVE SHOP
High Voltage Overdrive will be receiving a shop in a similar style that Sanctum Showdown had, instead of the usual reward track. There will also be a Portal Pull just like Sanctum had, but this time instead of three new cards to pull from it’ll be one new card, Cobra, and two variants. In addition to that, the high-end reward for the mode is Kid Omega, the series 5 card that is top of the list of many player’s highly anticipated cards this season.
Strategies
Don't Fill
Careful management of board space will be critical in this mode. If your opponent gets a bunch of +2s from Chimichangas and you miss out on some because your board is full, you'll be at a disadvantage. If you have no space for a Blob to be added, you'll be missing out on power.
Points Matter
Playing high-powered cards will help with stacking enough power into lanes without filling them, avoid getting destroyed, win single lane showdowns, and fuel a potential Blob. High-powered cards with solid On Reveals are even better, but Shang Chi will be lurking in a lot of decks, so you'll have to be careful about when to deploy them.
Low Power is a Liability
Low-powered cards without On Reveals will be worse in this mode than in other modes. There are a lot of cards in Marvel Snap that are played for their effects and not their body. This mode throws those calculations out of balance to a degree.
Cards to Consider
Here is a list of some of the most important cards in this mode. If you don't see your favorite card here, check if it's among the banned cards at the bottom of this page.
Format Staples
These are the cards you can expect to see a lot of in HV: Overdrive. In addition to the classic High Voltage powerhouses, Shadow King is going to be a force to be reckoned with, Mockingbird will be easy to discount, and Knull and Death take on added utility. Oh, and Gambit’s back!
Cards that are better in this mode than High Voltage or ladder
Movement generally seems much better here than in classic High Voltage. I am curious if Kraven might be worth playing even without any synergistic partners. Invisible Woman gets a chance to exist in a world without Alioth!
Cards that are worse in this mode than High Voltage or Ladder
Iron Man is still a powerful card, but he'll be weaker here than he's ever been. He, and other low-power Ongoings, risk destruction. Affliction feels unreliable, and, even though board management will be incredibly important, clogging cards could end up backfiring.
High Voltage Decks
Overdrive Move
Sco Overdrive
Overdrive WWBN
Overdrive Deathbird
Overdrive Shuri
Overdrive Firehair
SANCTUM SHOWDOWN
JUNE 26 - JULY 3
As of right now, we don’t know all the rewards for the return of Sanctum Showdown, but we do have a couple datamined that show some of the emotes and other currencies that we can get this time around.
The banlist for Sanctum Showdown remains unchanged, including all the cards that were banned mid week last time it was around.
It’s currently unknown if there are any changes to the mode this time around, but with 12 new cards already planned for this season I would imagine the Portal Pull might not feature 3 new cards this time around. We’ll have to wait and see!
Head over to our guide on Sanctum Showdown here!
Confirmed Rewards
CHAMPION’S ARENA
JULY 2025?
In the near future, we’ll be seeing a brand new game mode, Champion’s Arena!
While we don’t know too much about the specifics of how it works right now, we do have a few datamines that can give us an idea of what to expect from the mode.
It appears to be themed around the Fantastic Four First Steps Season that we’re getting in July, as it features a bunch of the new First Steps cards.
In Champion’s Arena you will have a specific “Champion” selected out of a set of 8 possible characters, some new, and some that you already have in your collection. It seems as though these Champions will not be something that you can add to your deck, but they will give you a specific new skill that you can use in the game. These skills are quite powerful since they only work in this mode.
- Mister Fantastic
- Invisible Woman
- Human Torch First Steps
- The Thing First Steps
- Herbie
- Doctor Doom
- Mole Man
- Carnage
What game mode are you most excited for? What deck are you bringing into High Voltage Overdrive? Be sure to let us know what you think of these new game modes down below!