Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, your weekly romp through the hottest topics in Marvel Snap! This week we're talking about Tech cards, Thanos, and Thunderbolts!
1) How much tech is too much?
Tech cards generally are experiencing all-time highs in play rate. I know some players are fatigued at facing the same tech cards for so long, whether it's the aggressive cards that have been with us since the beginning like Shang Chi and Killmonger, or the more passive tech cards that are especially strong at the moment like Luke Cage and Mobius M. Mobius. I can understand wanting to face something more novel and I get the frustration from being Shanged for the third year running.
However, I'll always prefer a game with more interaction as opposed to less. I would be perfectly happy with double or even triple the amount of interaction we have. Give us more new tech cards! I'd be happy if every match came down to actions and responses from both players. That's just a personal preference and how I prefer my card games to feel, though. I know other people have different ways they like to engage with the game.
The issue we have right now isn't precisely that tech cards are too strong or are seeing too much play. The issue is that we have one deck that can happily play all of them.
Thech
(click through to the deck page to see other tech options you can slot in)
Because Thanos has card draw and doesn't need to play many big power cards beyond an occasionally indestructible Thanos and a Strange Supreme hiding behind a Cosmo, it's in a unique position to fill the rest of its deck slots with tech. It's even playing Wiccan just so it can play even more of its tech out on the final turn! May 2025 Thanos reminds me heavily of January 2023 Shuri/Red Skull.
That deck was able to play a huge card behind Cosmo (usually a 30 power Red Skull) and something that can't be destroyed someplace else (Armor protecting Taskmaster, She-Hulk, Aero or something similar). Except that deck could only fit in Enchantress most of the time, if it bothered to have any interactive cards at all, and it certainly couldn't attack all three lanes like this current Thanos deck can. This Thanos build (and not the inferior Ongoing build) is a major problem in the current metagame because of its nearly unprecedented ability to leverage tech cards—it is reminiscent of Arishem upon its initial release.
The next OTA balance patch isn't scheduled until May 29th, but I'm crossing my fingers for an emergency OTA to spare us three weeks of a metagame that consists of one clear best deck alongside decks that are built specifically to counter that deck—reminiscent of Hela metas.
2) Have you seen Thunderbolts yet?
I went to see it last weekend! I thoroughly enjoyed it! MINOR SPOILERS: What I liked most about it was that it didn't have a traditional antagonist. Instead it was about overcoming personal struggles and it was very character-focused. It felt real and grounded in a way that some MCU movies don't and that lent it clarity and focus. I thought Florence Pugh’s acting was fantastic, as it has been in everything I've seen her in. The Little Drummer Girl TV series is where I first encountered her and I was blown away.
If I had one minor nitpick, it would be that Bob’s change was a little hasty. It seemed too easy to pull him back with just a few nice words. I feel like that could have been drawn out and earned a bit more. But again, that's a nitpick and I really enjoyed the movie. Check it out! And check out this cool Dan Hipp Thunderbolts illustration on Bluesky!
3) Why can't I play a Thunderbolts deck?
It's not against the rules! You can do whatever you want! Have fun! Enjoy yourself! I was really craving some Yelena Belova gameplay because of Florence Pugh’s powerful portrayal in the movie, so I've been playing a ton of games with this clog deck.
I want to play Yelena!
Is Yelena optimal? No, but that's not the point. It's been super fun catching people off guard with a White Widow into an Armor lane. Certainly no one expects it. One play tip: if an opponent has two cards in one lane on turn 4, Snap and play Titania and Green Goblin for a relatively risk free, full-clog play. Shadow King plus Cannonball on turn 7 is another fun combo. Do you need Daredevil in here? Nah, DD is for baby clog players, we're Thunderbolts*!
Here's another deck you can play between super serious Thanos runs to scratch that Thunderbolts itch, courtesy Chase Pitzer.
Chase *
Now let's hop over to the official Marvel Snap discord and grab a couple of developer answers to analyze.
4) Q: There have been some talks and confusions about Surge and about how she doesn't function like an "On-reveal" card.
Her text is as follows:
*"On Reveal: Give the top card of your deck -1 Cost and +1 Power. After you play it, repeat this ability."*
My question being; is it correct to say that her ability is divided into two parts; one which is an on-reveal ability and another which is a "trigger" ability?
So the on-reveal ability is this:
*"On Reveal: Give the top card of your deck -1 Cost and +1 Power."*
(.) full stop
and the trigger ability is this:
*"After you play it, repeat this ability."*
The abilities effectively being divided by a full stop.
Similar to how Captain America's Shield has an ongoing ability with a trigger ability that buffs cards.
Or is the entire ability actually considered to be an on-reveal?
Could you provide some insights in this design space and do you feel like there is any room for improvements in card texts that include multiple types of abilities/sentences; especially those without a keyword. (as something like Electro; it's very clear when his on-reveal stops and his ongoing starts as they have keywords)
A: The technical implementation is fairly similar to what you've described, but we didn't think "After you play the last card Surge affected, repeat Surge's On Reveal ability." added a favorable amount of complexity relative to its text length costs and remaining points of confusion.
Loads of cards are templated like Surge while working with multiple abilities in sequence--many more than you'd think. For example, Psylocke has 3 abilities!
However, because the trigger is dependent on the On Reveal ability being able to happen, we actually *prefer* making it look like one ability. We don't want VFX to fire if nothing is going to happen, so we mirror that dependency by uniting the text into a single ability that supports that goal. Cosmo stops On Reveals--the text is all within an On Reveal, ergo Cosmo stopping it lines up. It might not be obvious to everyone, but the footholds are there to climb to an understanding. That's very different from Electro, because he has two independent abilities that do have elements, like VFX, we want to keep discrete from one another.
-Glenn
Author's note:
There has definitely been some confusion about Surge. However, I don't really think this is a bad thing. As games develop, they always increase in complexity and there is something to be said for letting the player base learn the breadth of a new card’s functionality over the course of its first week. Giving players “the footholds to climb to an understanding” on their own is a good approach for a game that is upping its complexity.
Snap started with really elegant, minimal design, but that the time is right to start introducing more complex designs. The team has handled this increase deliberately and the new tooltip function (the little clickable question mark on some cards) is a clever way to ensconce a little extra text onto cards that can help with this transition.
5) Q: Now that we've entered a new season ever since Snap Packs were launched, how is the team feeling about its release? Do the team feel the current system is good enough to help players that want to be collection complete?
A: It's far too early to be definitive about Snap Packs' impact. So far, I think it's going pretty well and feedback has been great.
As has been stated before, making sure players are collection complete isn't the goal of the card acquisition system. If players wish to do that, Snap Packs definitely can expedite that process for them.
-Griffin
Author's note:
Fully collection-complete is something people are going to have to learn to leave behind in favor of more cards you actually want to play. Series 5 complete is affordably achievable, as is meta complete. You truly don't need every new upcoming series 4 card—just get the ones that are fun or roll for just a couple with Snap Packs. The new system seems vastly superior to me so far, but not because it helps more players have every single card. Though Griffin is technically right, Snap Packs can expedite being collection-complete… for cash. It's easier than ever to directly purchase the cards.
That's it for this week! Come find me on social media for more Snap and Comics talk! Head to the comments and let me know what you thought of Thunderbolts!