Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, your weekly look at the topics that are burning up the Marvel Snap community. This week we had a large deck win the Golden Gauntlet II tournament, a new two-card combo rise to prominence, and a rocky new shop rollout. Let's dig in!
1) Is Arishem/Thanos a problem?
The recent Golden Gauntlet II tournament was won by Roram playing a deck with a staggering 34 cards. Is it time to panic? Should this deck be on the chopping block for the upcoming June 26th OTA?
Patch 3.4 - Roram Golden Gauntlet 2 Winner
Roram himself has advocated for a nerf to this deck. I do think Thanos is tad too strong, but the overall power level of this deck is a bit more nuanced. Let's explore what uniquely positioned this deck to win the tournament.
Unlike past meta tyrants that necessitated harsh nerfs, this deck has clear counters. Roram was playing this deck into a post-Golden Gauntlet I meta game that wasn't focused on Thanos or Arishem, which is why it was such a good choice for the tournament. But Cassandra Nova, Darkhawk, and, especially, Gorgon are quite effective against this deck and none of those cards were played in high numbers in the tournament. Out of 742 entrants there were only:
- 5 decks with Darkhawk
- 33 decks with Gorgon
- 50 decks with Cassandra Nova
Further, Conquest/Battle mode is markedly more friendly to both Thanos and Arishem and Roram knew that as well. Thanos has the Snap equity (Mind Stone), location control (Reality Stone), and consistency (surprisingly) to be stronger in Conquest mode than on ladder while the random nature of Arishem has always made it more of a powerhouse in Conquest than on ladder.
Arishem isn’t much of a problem on ladder, but if there were a way to ban or nerf it only in Conquest mode, I wouldn't be opposed to that. I expected an explosion in the popularity of this deck in the wake of Roram's win, but that only happened to a degree, which is evidence that the deck isn't so far out of line that it needs a harsh nerf and that the meta game is catching up to it. Cassandra Nova can fit into a wide variety of decks.
Playing a deck with a lot of power and consistency, even without one of the aforementioned counters, has proven up to the task of taking on this giant deck. Both Arishem and Thanos may continue to prove problematic in Conquest mode and if Second Dinner is pinning a lot of their advertising and engagement strategy on tournaments, it still might be smart to give Thanos an additional set of small taps, but balancing around something other than ladder would be new for the balance team.
2) Is the Cannonball/Mercury combo too powerful?
The release of Mercury has breathed new life into Cannonball as a killer and lane winner. Will we see either of these cards in the upcoming OTA? Is this combo overpowered? Did Second Dinner not consider this pairing?
I don't think this pair is too powerful, for several reasons. First, it's important to think about what role Mercury would have without Cannonball. Her incidental move is nice, but no one is putting this card in a deck just for that or its ability to prevent opposing cards from moving. The entire utility of the card comes from its use with Cannonball, or at least the threat of Cannonball.
This, to me, seems like the clear vision the developers had for the card and decoupling them would make Mercury largely useless. Second, people have long complained that tech cards in Snap have become stale and that Shang Chi specifically has been at the center of the metagame for too long. I've advocated for more interactive cards to compete with Shang Chi. Valkyrie, Spider-Man 2099, and others have never quite been able to rise to the role, but Cannonball has in the past and this current combo with Mercury seems a lot more fair and balanced than the previous pairing with Professor X.
At 7 total energy, Cannonball/Mercury is significantly harder to pull off than Shang Chi, while still allowing some decks to drop Shang. Third, the types of decks that are using Cannonball/Mercury are varied and good for the game. Unlike the aforementioned Professor X combo, this new package doesn't demand it be put into a deck that locks your opponent out of the game. They can be put into a variety of decks from Wiccan to Clog to Kitty/Hope to Scream. This pair is singlehandedly allowing mid-range to compete in a combo-heavy and Thanos-centric meta, which I view as kind of a miracle that the balance team has never accomplished before.
3) What's the best use for The Ancient One?
It depends on your goal. To win games? Probably copying Victoria Hand, Captain Carter, or Ms Marvel. For fun? Definitely these insane combos from LaurenWhatevs.
Taking advantage of Skills banishing themselves (Citadel was just lucky icing on the cake). pic.twitter.com/ymAQZEvG9u
— LaurenWhatevs (@LaurenWhatevs) June 12, 2025
I played Tao Mandala left, then…
— LaurenWhatevs (@LaurenWhatevs) June 12, 2025
(Very much inspired by all of the sick Makkari cooks by /u/xcombox. 🫶) pic.twitter.com/ByZQHfFPi3
4) Q: Hi SD, I see all these posts about the new webshop release, and how it should be a great moment.
And, it gets worded down as 'a few hick-ups on release' but the reality is entire countries are now locked out. Do you just expect those people to drop the snap habits cold turkey? Habits that YOU created by adding daily log- in rewards etc? Does it really still feel like a celebration to you guys? To me, it feels more like I'm getting cut off and it's time to drop Marvel Snap (Playing for 2 years btw, CL 13K +)
A: I understand the frustration--there's certainly more than one thing going on. Please understand that what we're doing is unusual and very hard. Switching publishers alone isn't especially common for a game like ours, but becoming a publisher for the first time is additively atypical. "The blip" made this a necessary step for safeguarding the future of SNAP.
So yes, this is a big moment--we're accomplishing as a company something we weren't initially scoped or structured to do, and have worked hard to enable. But it's also likely to start with a bumpy road, because the degree of challenge is very high.
It's certainly our intent to make the SNAP that evolves from this point even better than it's ever been.
-Glenn
Author's Note:
I get it's not in gamers’ (or customers’) nature to extend grace to a development studio, but there's a lot that rings true in Glenn's answer. Their company wasn't built or organized for this and they found themselves in a position where they had to do it anyway. I wish the shop rollout was smoother as well and I hope the groundwork Second Dinner has been laying behind the scenes since “the blip” leads to smoother roads ahead, and soon.
5) Q: Currently, skills are tied solely to characters with magical relations- as the banishing animation looks like it magically disappearing. Will they forever be locked go these characters, or can we expect non magical characters to be able to use skills? And would there be a separate animation then?
A: They’ll definitely find their way onto other kinds of characters.
-Glenn
Author's Note:
It's definitely hilarious that Second Dinner is trying to get us to use the term ‘skills’ over ‘spells’ (since they function similarly to Spells in Magic: The Gathering), while making the first 15 or so clearly magical spells from magic wielders. Here are some ideas for what ‘skills’ that are not ‘spells’ could look like, using Elektra’s “On Reveal: Destroy an enemy 1-Cost card here” ability as an example:
Fighting abilities:
Spinning back kick, Spear Hand, Axe Kick
Equipment and weapons:
Twin Sai, Wakizashi Sword, Bo Staff
Ninja skills:
Hitsuke, Hand Death Ritual, Silent Scream
Oh, and here's a little reward for the lucky reader that gets to this point in the article first! A PAX bundle code: YBMDRlJ9vg (CLAIMED). Come follow me on Bluesky (@Scosco) where I'll be giving away another code!
That's it for this week! Head to the comments to join in on the conversation, join me on Bluesky (@scosco) for Snap and comic talk, and come vote in my poll about Thanos’ Stones!