January 31st Battle Mode Patch and New Variants

Friendly battles are finally here! And our card downrankings as well. Oh yea, and some minor balances and new bundles and variants! Well, let's get into it.

Card Downranking

To start, feel free to read this article talking about stuff in depth.

There is one thing I want to add to that now though, which is an slightly deeper explanation of the "retirement saving" strategy.

Currently in pool/series 4 (s4), after the downrank, we have:

Agent Coulson
Attuma
Helicarrier
M'Baku
Maria Hill
Orka
Super Skrull
Shuri
Black Panther
Valkyrie
Bast

Now, I am going to use my own personal opinions and collection - but please use this logic for yourself rather than mimic my conclusion directly. Of those cards, I already have Bast, Black Panther, Maria Hill, and Agent Coulson. The Panther season pass and Bast I purchased. Maria Hill and Coulson I opened. That leaves 7 cards in s4 for me. Of those 7, I want Shuri and Valkyrie. I do not care about Attuma, Helicarrier, M'Baku, Orka, or Super Skrull. That means I am at a 2/7 chance when I get a s4 card to get one that I want. Reminder that it takes 40 Reserves to get one s4 card. Read this article if you want further details on that.

So I could open 40 Reserves and more likely than not, get a card I do not care about. The reality is, if I wanted to use the card I get this month, I would do so. But if I truly do not want the card, I do not see the reason to do so. I did open enough reserves to be s3 complete once again (and always plan to do so).

Let's say I wait until the end of this month and Agent Coulson, Helicarrier, M'Baku, Maria Hill, and Orka downrank from s4 to s3. At the same time, Sentry, Darkhawk, Knull, Sauron, and Silver Surfer downrank from s5 to s4. I actually personally want Sentry, Darkhawk, and Sauron. This would turn my s4 good options from 2/7 to 5/8. The size is changing based on what I already own. A 5/8 is a far better chance than the 2/7 I have now, and I may want to actively play with those cards next month. Perhaps my opinion changes between now and then - but for now, that is how I feel.

Upcoming Bundles

There are 4 upcoming bundles, some with collector tokens! Let's look at them:

Positively Charged :: Feb 7 - Feb 28. Price: 8000 gold. Gains: 3000 Collector's Tokens, 6000 credits, 155 Mr. Negative boosters, Be My Valentine title, Mr. Negative avatar, and Mr. Negative variant.
Westview Story :: Feb 14 - Feb 21. Price: 2000 gold. Gains: I Love You title, Scarlet Witch avatar, Vision avatar, Scarlet Witch variant, and Vision variant.
Steamy Hells Kitchen :: Feb 14 - Feb 21. Price: 2000 gold. Gains: Are You... My Soulmate title, Daredevil avatar, Elektra avatar, Daredevil variant, and Elektra variant.
Birthpool :: Feb 22 - Feb - Mar 3. Price: 3200 gold. Gains: 1500 Collector's Tokens, 3200 credits, 291 Deadpool boosters, Merc with a Mouth title, Deadpool avatar, and Deadpool variant.

Having another 2 bundles that give collector's tokens looks good to me - and nothing is priced for only cash, meaning that F2P and Dolphin players can both make significant progress towards this style of bundle. It is worth noting that the dolphin approach to the game does give more gold than purchasing directly on top of the season pass card, variants, and more. In my other post, this is partly why I said that I think Second Dinner is catering towards people that buy the season pass. I still think this is a decent approach and NOT p2w at all. They need to have an income, and this is a lower price tag then plenty of monthly subsriptions to other games or services.

Card Balance

Only 2 cards were changed today, but a tweet from a Second Dinner person also said that they have changed their backend process to be able to update cards without a full patch in the future. The first 2 cards that are planned to receive such a change are Silver Surfer and Zabu. We know nothing about how they will change, but the fact they now have this ability is great.

Cards that were changed today are:

Leader: [6/7] On Reveal: Copy all cards your opponent played to the location to the right, but on your side.
Wolverine: [2/2] When this card is discarded or destroyed, regenerate it at a random location with +2 Power.

I honestly like both changes I think. Unfortunately, I am not sure if Wolverine functions in a "good" deck currently - but the change to the card is interesting for sure. Now, he benefits from multiple destructions, which is nice, and perhaps could be played with Colleen Wing or something as well. With next season pass being Modok, perhaps that could be useful as well.

For Leader, I think this honestly makes him potentially more powerful when he works, but also creates a more clear way to play around him. That's overall just good! We'll see what he does, but I wouldn't be shocked on either end of the spectrum - people think he's bad or people think he's even stronger and worse to play against.

Friendly Battles

On this screen, you can clearly choose between create and join. If you create, you will get a 5ish digit number that you can share with a friend to join the battle (still no friends list unfortunately). To use this, you really need to find a community to play with people. For those that are already in the snap.fan community discord, we have a new channel there. If you aren't there yet, perhaps now is the time to join up!

Once you are in, both players have 10 life. What is normally the cube count for a game is now the health stakes in battle mode. At the end of the game, the losing player loses that much health (the winner gains nothing). You then go into your next game when ready, with the same deck. The match ends when someone hits 0 health. Knowledge is of course gained as you progress in the match, and that creates an interesting added dynamic to playing the game.

There is a minor accelerant to matches - once you hit game 5, every game will start with a neutral SNAP, meaning stakes are 2 cubes to begin. Both players snapping (pre turn-6) or one player snapping and it going to turn-6 means the game is capped on cubes (Note that by the time game-5 begins, a minimum of 4 cubes have been earned. If both players won 2 cubes, that 8 cube ends the 10 health regardless, so there's no worry about if it goes to 16 or not.).

This is global, and there was talk of ladder being global in the ?near? future. This is how tournaments will take place, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for where you can do that!