Card Balance Updates
Elsa Bloodstone
● [Old] 2/3 - After you play a card here, give it +2 Power if your side is full.
● [New] 3/3 - Each card you play to fill your side of a location gains +2 Power.
Developer Notes
Similar to our notes around Luke Cage last month, we've decided we took the wrong tactic with Elsa Bloodstone. Our rebalance to keep this effect local aimed to maintain Elsa's strength as a 2-Cost build-around, but the numbers necessary to make that work don't line up with our goals. So we're shifting Elsa up in Cost to 3/3 and widening the effect to all locations once again.
We're also restoring the previous functionality, so that Elsa applies the Power buff before On Reveals resolve, rather than after. We've decided to accept that both versions have some potential to be confusing, but the original execution seems to have more clearly lined up with players' expectations and existing content than our revision. Elsa will once more be able to buff cards like Beast (and unable to buff Brood).
*I am intrigued by how this will play out. It has been no secret that Elsa has been a low-performing card since she was last changed. She has emerged with the release of Hope Summers. However, is making Elsa 3-cost the solution? The more optimal play has been to play Hope Summers on turn 3, so is Elsa the default turn 4 play when in a list with Hope?
Miek
- [Old] After each turn, if you discarded one or more cards, gain that much Power and move.
- [New] When you discard a card, this gains +1 Power and can move next turn.
Developer Notes
The general direction of Miek was on the right track, but our execution fell short. In particular, interactions with Invisible Woman, Dracula, and Black Cat crossed our bar for frustrating and non-intuitive for many players. Miek still gains just as much Power, counting cards discarded one at a time or in bulk, but that Power will now be added immediately. We've also removed the randomization from Miek's move, giving players the option to make a move during the following turn if any cards were discarded. Overall, it should be a sizable buff to the bug.
*I am definitely on board with this buff to Miek. Player agency is important, especially with an archetype like Discard. Since Miek's release, I have always thought the interaction with Dracula was weird, but it made sense based on the previous text. This is a welcomed change to a Series 4 card released recently. Now, let's get some more Series 4 releases sometime soon.
Mantis
- [Old] 2/3 - On Reveal: If your opponent played any cards here this turn, draw a card from their deck.
- [New] 2/2 - On Reveal: If your opponent played any cards here this turn, copy one of them into your hand.
Developer Notes
Our efforts to differentiate low-Cost card generation have mostly gone well, but Mantis and Cable both came up quite short. We've waited to adjust them further, because ultimately we felt Mantis simply needed a rework in order to find a functional home. This design shifts Mantis's thievery from the deck to copying cards at a location. That can be a lot more powerful if you time it right, because the copy will retain any buffs–Venom in particular comes to mind as a very powerful card to copy! We'll keep an eye on the strength of this effect to ensure it finds the right balance point.
*As a Rocket Raccoon enjoyer, I say this from personal experience that the Guardians need some retooling. I don't think this Mantis change will be enough to push her into a realm of viability, given that you aren't certain what she is copying. At least with Mirage, you get a card at a power increase. If I got a Wasp because I played Mantis into my opponent's Hope Summers lane, it becomes a dead card in my hand in most scenarios.
Cable
- [Old] 3/4 - On Reveal: Draw a card from your opponent’s deck.
- [Change] 3/4 -> 2
Developer Notes
With Mantis changing to no longer copy from the deck, that creates room for Cable to move back down to 2-Cost, with a buff from his original 2/2 to boot.
*Cable got a cost reduction a week after Hope Summers was released? Nepotism, I tell you!
Time Stone
- [Old] On Reveal: +1 Energy next turn. Draw a card.
- [New] On Reveal: Draw a card and give it -1 Cost.
Developer Notes
Thanos has proven that combining the "toolbox" abilities of the Infinity Stones with a potent set of endgame cards consistently creates a powerful deck. After "Blob winter" we started looking more closely into exactly how the deck ticks and which parts of it are concerning. Time Stone really stood out as a warping presence in the deck with its ability to often capitalize on strong 5 and 6-Cost plays. We've decided to weaken that angle considerably in the interest of future-facing metagame diversity, so that Thanos isn't the default best way to ramp out those kinds of cards.
This change is expected to do some damage to Thanos, but the last few seasons were very good for the Mad Titan so a little break isn't so bad. Once we see how this change affects Thanos decks, we'll look for the right spot to add back some of the strength we took away in previous balance patches. Perhaps Soul Stone took the heat for Time Stone too early?
*Second Dinner will set the universe right, not Thanos. This might be a very impactful change for the Mad Titan. Not only are they taking away the ability to plan your next turn with the increase in energy with the Time Stone, but they have also replaced it with a random effect. The flavor of the Time Stone feels off, and so does Thano's grasp on the higher ends of play.
M'Baku
- [Old] 1/2 - If this is in your deck at the end of the game, it jumps to a location.
- [New] 1/2 - At the end of the game, this jumps from your deck to your lowest-Power location. (that isn't full)
Developer Notes
M'Baku has always been more meme than dream, which is a fine position for some cards to maintain–it's pretty fun to watch M'Baku do the thing. However, it's been clear for a while that M'Baku's strength was languishing. We decided to give the jump trigger the same targeting effect seen on Proxima Midnight, aiming for a location where you're more likely to need help. There will always be corner-cases with cards triggering in the endgame, such as Dracula and Captain Marvel, but we believe this is overall a positive. However, M'Baku may be found drinking at the Bar with No Name a bit more often.
*I am pretty low on this change. 1/2 just doesn't cut it any longer with the conditions needed for M'Baku to perform his abilityalong with the nerf to Lockjaw. M'Baku needed some power but I do like the text change.
Yondu
- [Old] 1/2 - On Reveal: Destroy the top card of your opponent's deck.
- [New] 1/2 - On Reveal: Destroy the lowest-Cost card in your opponent's deck.
Developer Notes
Back in the old days, Yondu was a frequent player in Destroy decks thanks to this trigger helping to discount Death while powering up Knull and providing some information. However, recent competition has almost universally left Yondu on the outside looking in as players grow their collection to include stronger synergy elements. This small change aims to give Yondu some new potential to function with cards like Cable and others in the near future that aim to steal cards from your opponent's deck, improving the quality of cards stolen by destroying the "duds" ahead of time. Given the existing effect was already insufficient for Knull to notice, this potential outweighed that consideration.
*To synergize with Cable? That is an interesting synergy they referenced. I don't project this to be a world-shifting change, but it is one to keep tabs on.
Leech
- [Old] 5/3 - At the start of turn 6, remove all abilities from cards in your opponent’s hand.
- [New] 5/3 - On Reveal: Remove the text from each card with an On Reveal ability in your opponent's hand.
Developer Notes
We're aware that Leech is among the least beloved cards in SNAP on any given week. However, Leech has served an important role for over a year, ensuring that there was some meaningful check for the various shenanigans players could get up to during the endgame. In that time, we've also made a concerted effort to design more specific disruption at better rates, such as Echo, Mobius M. Mobius, Shadow King, Caiera, Supergiant, and even a few more cards you'll see very soon. Thanks to those additions, we're ready to try restricting Leech to affect a narrower band of cards. We'd like to make sure Leech continues to play some kind of a role, so we chose to affect one of the bands he most consistently targeted already–On Reveal cards like Shang Chi and Legion that tended to steal the game on the final turn.
*I know Leech is not the most liked card in SNAP, but I genuinely feel that they nailed the flavor of Leech. This change will impact Leech's playability as he is helpful specifically against On Reveal cards. They could have taken it further to incorporate cards still in the opponent's deck, but I am interested in Leech's future.
General Updates
Features
Graveyard
- Did you look away for a second when your opponent played Turn 1 Yondu?
- Don’t you wish you could see what card was destroyed?
- Now you can!
- While in a match, tap your Player Avatar which can be found in the top left corner of the screen. A menu with your emotes will appear.
- At the bottom of that menu, tap on the word Destroyed or Discarded to see cards that have been Destroyed... Or, you guessed it, Discarded! This also works if you tap on your opponent's Player Avatar.
- Note that cards like Wolverine, Sabertooth, and Deadpool won’t appear here - they’ve been destroyed, but they are not destroyed. Healing factor, what are you going to do?
Undo End Turn
- As long as your opponent hasn’t ended their turn, you can go back to the staging step.
Custom Border
- Custom Border allows you to combine your favorite owned variant art, any border rarity, and a finish/flare combo you own for that variant to make the most stylish card.
- Custom Border appears at the top of your Card Variant list. Add them to your deck and set them as your Favorite to add to future decks easily.
- Complete three total Infinity Splits to unlock the Custom Border feature. After that, any Card with at least 1 Infinity Split has the feature available.
- Stay tuned for more updates to this feature in the future!
Gold Pass
- Looking for some extra gold throughout the season?
- Purchasing a Gold Pass will give an initial recharge of gold and then additional amount of Gold every day for the next 30 days.
Art & Visual Effects
Several older cards now have VFX:
Audio
Several older cards now have sound effects:
Several older cards now also have voice-over dialogue:
Location Updates
Developer Notes
As we add new locations to the game, periodically we need to review them to evaluate the total impact they're having on the metagame. After conducting that review, we've increased the rarity of several locations, which means you'll see them slightly less. Our motivations for doing so primarily centered around reducing how often locations add extra cards to the game, as well as balancing for locations that boost specific archetypes, like Destroy. Those locations are:
We've also lined up all of our locations with cards that trigger "After the turn" to use the exact same window. This inconsistency previously made a variety of outcomes unpredictable even while resolving locations from left to right. The affected locations that were previously triggering "late" are:
While this shift makes the entirety of the game more consistent, it is a meaningful functional change for cards that gain Power after the turn, such as Sunspot. This is because our default trigger order is locations -> cards, so Sunspot's Power gain won't help you win Asgard anymore, for example.
It's a potential consideration for us to reverse that trigger order, and we're investigating it internally. That would be a large change, because we'd make it for every trigger, to maintain consistency.
Last but not least, we've mined Subterranea a little bit and reduced the number of Rocks it shuffles into your deck from 5 to 4.
Bug Fixes
Card Logic Fixes
- Addressed an issue that was causing turn timers to be reduced even when Agatha was no longer in their hand
- Fixed an issue where Omega Red wouldn’t recheck power values after the game ended
- Absorbing Man should now properly copy Nico Minoru’s current spell rather than her original ability text
VFX & SFX Fixes
- Supergiant’s VFX should no longer be active when their ability has been disabled
- Nico Minoru’s VFX should no longer play incorrectly when she’s returned to hand and then replayed
- Fixed an issue that caused Nico Minoru’s spell VFX to scale incorrectly when she’s returned to hand
- X-23 should no longer show VFX for +2 energy granted
- Echo’s VFX should no longer activate when hovering your own Ongoing cards over her location
- Cosmo’s VFX should update appropriately if Cosmo moves to a different location
- Fixed an issue where Djinn’s granted by Noor Dimension when played would see their SFX fail
Other Fixes
- Resolved an issue that was causing the Collection tab to show cards in a single file column when going from Albums to the Cards tab
- Album rewards claimed in a previous client version should no longer appear claimable in the new client version
- Fixed a UI issue that would cause the “Hold to Confirm” text to persist on screen when equipping Cosmetic selections to all decks
- Corrected the text string for Daily Offer Shop refresh timer to no longer say “Mission Refill”
- Addressed a number of Localization issues for Daily Login Bonus UI across all languages
- Cleaned up some font sizing discrepancies in the Albums UI
- The “Make me a Deck” icon should no longer clip through and be visible on the Favorites tab of the Collection
- The Mystery Series 3 item in the token shop should now correctly display it’s title and description in its detail view
Existing Known Issues Fixed
- After upgrading the client, players may see Albums display as unavailable or locked, this can be resolved by relaunching the app
- Spider-Ham’s VFX can occasionally cause an Aw Snap to occur
- The text string for the Mystery S3 card in the Token Shop isn’t localized for all languages
- Some visual artifacts may occur when upgrading cards in post-match
- The edit deck button collider when selecting a deck isn’t large enough making the right side not responsive
- Occasionally cards drawn from the Mind Stone will flicker briefly in hand
- Spotlight Cache preview assets are occasionally failing to load on the main menu carousel
- The infinity split prompt extends out of frame in Japanese
- The currently selected deck may not always be the deck in focus when opening Deck Selection
New Known Issues for Existing Features and Content
- Nico’s VFX can show incorrectly for her opponent when she’s returned to hand and replayed
- Kang’s rewind VFX aren’t rendering correctly on the button itself
- Darkhawk’s VFX are disabled when he is forcibly moved
- Darkhawk’s Tribute variant gets his wings clipped when the card is split
- Knowhere’s VFX plays in its previous position if moved by something like Quake
- Corvus Glaive’s energy VFX plays every turn instead of just once
- Great Portal’s VFX always display in the center even if the location is on one of the sides
- When an opponent discards Swarm the VFX display in the top left corner of the screen
- Cards claimed off the Collection Track will show the Collector’s Cache/Reserve view instead of the card detail view if tapped
- Card Sorting is often reset to the default sort order after tapping on the Cosmetics tab
- The time to claim items off of the collection track has increased, especially noticeable at higher collection levels
New Feature Known Issues
- Flare Effects in the custom card menu can be inadvertently selected behind some of the other UI
- “Custom Card” doesn’t display on the nameplate when viewed in a match
- Favoriting a custom card as the Unlock Custom Card animation plays will repeat the animation
- During the custom card tutorial players can click on a deck in the background through other UI elementsand this can cause a soft lock
- When tapping on the Effects tab many of the UI elements will briefly flicker
- On rare occasions the Custom Card tutorial may soft lock and require a client restart to resolve
New PC Known Issues
- Occasionally the End Turn VFX won’t display
- An error can occur when attempting to upgrade a card immediately after using the Make Me a Deck function with it
Existing Known Issues
- Set As Favorite not responsive when claiming Album emote rewards
- Album reward quantities can sometimes display behind the reward asset
- The option to undo all actions won’t display if you tap on the button as a card is still animating into position on the board
- The VFX for a card being upgradable may not be visible upon receiving or purchasing enough credits to upgrade them
- The location backgrounds will occasionally be blank when Legion is played on Sinister London
- Card details are still visible when converted to Tokens from the Spotlight Cache
- Cards may render incorrectly when tilted in the Artist detail view after upgrading
- Cards destroyed by Yondu may not always be visible to the Yondu player
- The emote and information panels may not be fully rendered properly
- The “New” label in the Shop can be occasionally obscured by other assets
- Tapping on a card during the Deck Building animation can cause the background to unblur
- Seasonal Music may stop playing when changing languages through Settings
- Missing background scrim when cancelling a card upgrade from the post-match screen
- A Pig created by Spider-Ham targeting an evolved High Evolutionary card is not considered as having no ability text by things such as Washington D.C.
- Card Back assets may not render properly in all areas of the game for some devices
- The dropshadow of the title asset on the Cosmetics screen may be misaligned
- Shop elements can be interacted with in the background of the Fast Upgrade UI
- The “Show” text of the Collection search filter is sometimes vertically misaligned
- After buying a card from the Token Shop, the other timers may briefly show an incorrect timer
- On rare occasions when using the Smart Deck feature the cards won’t render properly and be invisible in the Deck Editor view
- Tapping on the same emote multiple times from the Collection will result in the asset not loading in the preview
- After tapping on the Clone button on the drop-down menu of a Deck, that drop-down isn’t closed
- Player’s can’t play to Super Skrull’s location when an opposing Jean Grey is in play elsewhere
- The transition is abrupt and the screen flickers when opting to go view a deck created by the Smart Deck builder from the Collection Track
- The “Nevermind” button will return you to the collection screen rather than the card detail view when opting to not make a deck with smart deck builder
- There’s a superfluous tab indicator on the new emotes panel that isn’t accessible
- Emote assets blink into existence when viewing Album rewards
- Clicking on the “Go To Deck” button after using the Smart Deck builder can briefly display the main menu before transitioning properly to deck edit
- Previewing the Infinity border of a variant in the shop and then tapping the purchase button without completing the purchase will prevent previewing other rarities until closing and reopening the card detail view
- The arrows for scrolling between rarity previews don’t grey out when there are no more options in either direction
- An On Reveal card played before Wong will see an icon in the card detail view that implies it’s affected by Wong when it hasn’t been
- Card ability text overlaps the upgrade text when upgrading during post-match
- Symbiote VFX for cards being merged by Klyntar flicker briefly as each card is merged
- Nico Minoru’s VFX aren’t displaying properly when she’s initially drawn to hand
- On very rare occasions the Shop button on the navigation bar may become unresponsive (restarting the app should correct this)
- The string for “Nowhere to Play” extends outside of the UI panel in Japanese
- If you have the S3 claim reward confirmation up at the time that the card timer rolls over, the UI is no longer closable
- Attempting to claim multiple rewards from the Collection Level track simultaneously can result in an error occurring
- The flare icon for some infinity split cards is occasionally missing its asset and displaying as a white block
- Occasional Z-fighting can be seen when card reveals and VFX occur while the player information panels are open
- Distorted SFX can occur when scrolling through the CLTR after upgrading a card
- Living Tribunal's VFX can repeat if played with certain other cards
- Card flare effects aren't playing to full effect
- Hulks generated by Gamma Lab show VFX for High Evolutionary but do not receive the updated ability.
- VFX associated with High Evolutionary’s evolved cards can occasionally persist after the card or location has been destroyed
- The pin button persists on the token shop after you’ve claimed that card but does not function
- Evolved Shocker’s VFX initially target nothing
- [Conquest] Occasionally the exclusive card progress bar doesn’t update appropriately until you’ve switched screens
- Missions may not visually update properly when on the missions screen as the timer rolls over
- Hard restarting your app in the middle of a Fast Upgrade can cause an error to occur after you’ve restarted necessitating another restart to fix
- SFX do not play when retreating on turn 1
- It can be hard to add or delete letters in the deck name on Android.
- Mysterio’s token doesn’t update appropriately in all views when a using a variant.
- Cards in the Fast Upgrade section occasionally show the incorrect art.
- Quantum Realm doesn't reduce the power of cards that have their cost and power swapped.
- Series 3 Token shop may show duplicate items before it’s rolled through each card..
- If you own all Series 4 and 5 cards as well as all Ultimate variants then the token shop will become inaccessible for Series 3 cards as well
- Logging out and attempting to sign in via a different method can result in a hang on the Assembling splash
- When Scarlet Witch or Reality Stone changes a location to Project Pegasus or Tinkerer's Workshop, this location can trigger two turns.
- Corners of cards can appear cut off when tilted during the card detail view
- A long delay can occur an indestructible card such as colossus is played on Murderworld
- Infinity Stone card descriptions overlap the art assets in Korean
- Upgrade button not greyed out when the player doesn’t have enough credits
- [Conquest] Repeatedly tapping on screen as you exit Conquest may cause the UI to break and require a restart to fix
- If a player immediately restarts the app after fast upgrading a card they may see the upgrade rollback
- Mission packs don't refresh if you're looking at them (need to change screens to see them update)
- The favorites icon may unintentionally be highlighted when equipping new cosmetics
- The “Set as Favorite” UI can become misaligned when swapping between languages
- The 20th deck can occasionally be partially obscured by the UI when scrolling through
- Occasionally the word “Free” on the daily 50 credits icon can change to a “0”
- The “Claimed” banner on the season pass may be misaligned for some levels
- The carousel banners for Weekend Missions occasionally show incorrectly as “Season Missions”
- The dropdown menu doesn’t move with the deck list as the player scrolls
- The losing player’s avatar in Conquest and Friendly battle will occasionally display incorrectly at match end
PC Specific Known Issues
- [PC] Mission progression toast messages can appear in and obscure parts of the Conquest UI
- [PC] It can be difficult to preview the Spotlight Cache cards from the carousel due to the buttons being too small
- [PC] Toggling between the Deck Edit and Cosmetics tabs of the Collection can result in the Favorites button being incorrectly highlighted
- [PC] Multiple tabs can be highlighted at once if using a touchscreen device
- [PC] The "Never Seen Before" UI can overlap the Retreat UI in Friendly Battles
- [PC] The background assets of the Conquest UI can briefly disappear when transitioning between UI
- [PC] Some UI artifacting can occur at different PC resolutions
- [PC] After toggling between portrait and landscape mode the player is occasionally brought to the Collection screen instead of the Main Menu
- [PC] The season missions tab isn't properly highlighted when accessing the missions UI from the Main Menu
- [PC] Hovering over the emojis in card detail view while in a match highlights the base emoji as well
- [PC] The main menu may flicker briefly when returning to it from other screens
- [PC] The “Swap this Variant into All Decks” UI modal doesn’t always close appropriately
- [PC] The weekly missions reward UI is missing its blur effect
- [PC] Using Fast Upgrade from the Shop can cause some minor but strange UI layering issues with the collection screen
- [PC] Mousewheel scrolling doesn’t work in the gaps between avatars in the Avatar selection screen
- [PC] The loading splash screen briefly displays on screen when completing a purchase from the shop
- [PC] Assets may layer or display oddly at the top of the Collection Track for players who have not unlocked Spotlight Caches
- [PC] The red notification pip may be missing from the Collection Level tab when there are rewards to claim
- [PC] Some cards viewed from the Albums UI are missing their series label
- [PC] After frequently removing or adding cards to deck, the ability to remove a card may become disabled until exiting and re-entering the Deck Edit screen
I hope your M'Baku's fly out of your deck and steal many cubes! Until next time!