Welcome to Target the OTA, where we rate the latest balance patch and build around the changes. This time we've got a small, but fully buff-filled OTA! Infinity Ultron is the headliner with changes to the costs and powers of all of the Stones! Spoiler: he's busted! I'll give you some decks for him and a few to try out with the other buffed cards the moment the changes go live!
Just as Kate Bishop has the arrows in her quiver, Second Dinner has OTA balance changes as their balance arsenal. I'll give each change a rating from 0 to 4 arrows and a final overall rating as well. Did Second Dinner hit the target with this OTA or did they miss the mark?
This is the big one. Reducing the Stones from 3 to 2-Cost is a big deal. Two stones won't occupy your entire turn 6, Quinjet can put them to 1, and they can now become part of much more flexible plans. Power buffs were also given to the Space and Soul Stones. Hitting the “bad” Stones was one of the worst aspects of playing Infinity Ultron previously.
Now, putting down a 2/5, even if it doesn't do anything, isn't terrible. Reality and Power Stone remain the best Stones, but now a lot more potential has been unlocked for the Mind Stone, probably the biggest beneficiary of the cost reduction. My only real worry about this change is that it could make Infinity Ultron too strong.
Early Ultron
2 Bad Dudes
Supergiant is a bit of a pet card of mine. She can disrupt decks that have specific plays they want to make on turn 5 and she does some legitimately cool things in combination with cards like Echo, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Valkyrie, and Alioth or by hiding cards like Maximus, Gladiator, or Shang-able targets like Ronan and Devil Dinosaur. At 4/7 she should be less of a guilty pleasure.
Super Fun
Poison Sugi
Omega Red may be threatening in the comics, but he's never escaped meme-status more than a few times in Snap. He actually already received a sizable buff in February 2024—you used to have to lead by 10+ points to get a 4 power bonus. This extra power probably won’t bring him into the competitive scene, but it can't hurt to get players experimenting with him. He could work well with Thanos Ongoing or in Zabu packages. The deck below lets you hide things behind Invisible Woman as a kind of Ongoing prophylactic against threats like Rogue and Enchantress.
Omega O
Giant Bird Move
Giganto was never included in decks just as a big card to play on the left on the final turn. He has always been used for combos involving cards like Dracula, Jubilee, and Blink. And that's not going to change. Now he's just a little bigger, making those combos more appealing.
Final Rating
There's nothing negative in this OTA. It gives us a new meta threat in Infinity Ultron and encourages people to experiment with underplayed cards like Supergiant and Omega Red. That's exactly what I want out of an OTA, even if this one is on the small side.
Buffs are always more fun than nerfs, but nerfs churn the meta more. Given that we just got a huge OTA last week and about a million new cards on Tuesday, a smaller OTA is totally understandable. Hit the comments and let me know if you agree with my grades! Share your thoughts on this OTA!