Marvel Snap Most Wanted - October Results
The end of the Marvel Snap’s Most Wanted October poll is here, and with it comes some fresh faces, familiar fiends, proud newcomers, and farewells to another batch of the least wanted characters. This month’s results are exciting, but ultimately less interesting than I was expecting a few weeks ago.
When the first few days of voting began to come up, I felt like there was going to be a surprising shake-up in the upper-echelon of most wanted characters, but as the story goes and the numbers settled, this month’s Top 20 features only three newcomers. Before I share the full list, here are some interesting tidbits I’ve pulled from all of your submissions.
- The character who received the most total votes (meaning they were not skipped) was Aunt May, who was voted on in 84% of ballots. Aunt May averaged 2.88, putting her just over the mid-way point in rankings. This is a significant jump for everyone’s favorite Aunt. My theory for this is that over time, as Marvel Snap introduces more non-traditional characters (skills, duplicates, citizens and alter-egos) the idea of non-traditional cards will become not only more accepted, but also more popular.
- There continues to be only one character with average vote higher than 4, with Mephisto again topping the chart. The 2nd and 3rd ranked characters this month were very close, and spent most of the month over 4, before dropping a bit in the final few days.
- Last month there were seven characters who ranked under 2. This month, every character has an average over 2. That tells me that overall, this month’s characters (and the new additions to the poll) were more popular. (I would also say that this fact means the list itself is improved, as it is appealing to more people.) On the other hand, that also means that this month’s cut characters might be harder to accept for some, because overall they were more popular. As the list continues to grow more refined over the next few months, I am curious if this is a trend that can be maintained.
- The three characters that fell out of Top 20 were Chameleon (18th to 22nd), The Mandarin (17th to 28th), and Hyperion (19th to 31st). The character in the Top 20 who fell the most, however, was the young Franklin Richards, who was ranked 2nd last month, and dropped down to 15th. Is the success of the Fantastic Four season and movie beginning to wear off?
The Top Spot
To no one’s surprise, Mephisto reigns supreme at the top of the list for the second month in a row. I truly don’t expect him to relinquish this spot, as he is far and away the most popular character yet to be added into Marvel Snap. But that raises the question… Why hasn’t he been added yet? I have a few theories…
The first theory is that Marvel views Marvel Snap as a “kids game” - or at least, they want it to be accessible to a younger audience. Because of this, they are hesitant to add in a character that represents the devil. My precedent for thinking this actually lies in another Marvel game that also remains Mephisto-less.
Marvel United, a co-op tabletop game first announced on Kickstarter in February of 2020, now boasts a roster with over 350 character miniatures, of which there are almost 130 different villains for players to fight against. Three full seasons of the game, and a few single expansions later, and there is still one conspicuous absence: Mephisto. Fans in the community have held polls similar to the Marvel Snap Most Wanted, and Mephisto is always on top.
While Marvel and the game publisher obviously don’t comment on fan speculation, many fans believe Mephisto is too dark for a game that prides itself on colorful chibi artwork, and a family friendly learning curve. This could also be said of Marvel Snap, with countless chibi variants, and simple to learn mechanics.
That being said, Marvel United still lets players fight against demonic, or evil characters like Dormammu or Purple Man. And Dormammu and The Hood’s Demon are ever-present in Marvel Snap. My fear is that for some arbitrary reason Mephisto is a line Marvel is hesitant to cross in a game that could market itself to younger kids, within the historical context of moments like the Satanic Panic, that while passed, still lingers today in various forms of culture wars.
My second theory regarding Mephisto is that there could be some wariness regarding potential Chinese censorship. Marvel has a history of censoring movies for the Chinese market, and at times, that extends to Marvel videogames as well.
Mephisto, however, has appeared in a significant number of Marvel videogames, dating back to 1990, and as far as I can tell, most of them have released in China, with notable exceptions including Marvel Ultimate Alliance, in which Mephisto was the main villain of the first game. Fortnite, which includes a playable Mephisto skin, which was once available in China, but is now banned. (To be clear, Fortnite’s ban has nothing to do with Mephisto.)
Scosco has previously written about Marvel Snap in China. I reached out to him regarding his thoughts on censorship in the game, and if it could impact Mephisto’s release. On the subject, he said “Chinese censorship around demons and devil type stuff isn’t especially strict.” He did however share with me pictures of some of the censored artwork that exists in the game, including a less demonic Nightcrawler, and altered Punisher logos. (Special thanks to Scosco for his generosity in sharing information and screenshots!)
There are enough instances of Mephisto as a playable character in videogames released in China, and enough inconsistency in censorship enforcement, that I expect that this would not ultimately dissuade Second Dinner or Marvel from including Mephisto in Marvel Snap.
So where, ultimately, is Mephisto? More than likely, Second Dinner is probably waiting for the right time and right season. They know Mephisto is likely to be a profitable card on name alone. Are they waiting for a “break glass in case of emergency” situation, a movie or TV tie-in? Maybe it’s just Occam’s razor and we’ll have to wait until Second Dinner feels ready.
Joining Mephisto in the winners circle this season are Banshee, who jumps to the number 2 spot, beating out all other remaining X-Men, as well as everyone’s favorite space dragon - Fin Fang Foom, who is likely to be released towards the end of a Dragon season in January.
The Top 20 Most Wanted
When you look at this month’s Top 20, there are a lot of familiar faces. The biggest changes are the addition of Tigra, Arcade and Fantomex towards the bottom of the list. These characters are certainly deserving of their spots, with rich histories and popular stories between all three of them.
I’m particularly interested in the rise of Arcade, who is one of my most wanted characters. I’d love to see him implemented with trap cards, similar to Mysterio, where multiple cards are played at once and your opponent won’t know which is the trap until the game is over. Fantomex is datamined to be released in December, which might contribute to his rise over the past month.
I’m going to maintain the policy of not removing characters until they are announced in official media, so while Fantomex will remain on the poll next month, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Punk and Prowler will be graduating with the November Most Wanted list, along with Chameleon who slipped his way off of the Top 20 just in time to enter the game.
The Bottom
Watching the votes come in for this month’s lowest performing characters was a lot more exciting than the Top 20. Over the past few weeks at least 15 characters spent some time in the bottom 10. When the dust finally settled, it's now time to say goodbye to these ten lowest ranked characters.
- Rintrah
- Ruby Thursday
- Solo
- Kushala
- Queen Ramonda
- Shathra
- Mondo
- The Vox
- Microchip
- Red King
Last month I tried to come up with brief card ideas to pay my respect to the departing characters. This month, I’m instead going to take a moment to look at an interesting link between half of the characters.
To the untrained eye, Rintrah, Ruby Thursday, Kushala, Shathra, and Vox have nothing in common. Rintrah, an extra-dimensional Minotaur turned sorcerer. Ruby Thursday, a supervillain who replaced her head with an organic supercomputer. Kushala, an apache ghost rider and sorcerer supreme. Shathra, the wasp goddess from Loomworld who preys on spider-totems. The Vox, an Inhuman evolution, created by the Kree to serve as soldiers.
Quite the motley crew, right? They come from a variety of Marvel eras, and different corners of the Marvel Universe. But they all share in common a connection with another Marvel mobile game. Contest of Champions. (First Marvel United, now Contest of Champions references - is this, a crossover episode?)
These five characters, along with Kindred (who is actually the 11th lowest ranked character,) are all either playable characters in Marvel Contest of Champions, or have made it far in the game’s official Summoner’s Choice contest, which is a yearly competition in which the players can vote on which character they want added into the game. (In fact, Shathra actually won this contest in 2024!)
So what’s going on here? Do the two communities have such significant differences in the characters they want to see playable in their games? Is there vote tampering going on somewhere? (Summoner’s Choice has frequently involved social media voting at the lower levels of the contest.) As someone who plays both games, I’m curious - are there any other Summoners out there that find this mysterious - or is Kabam, Contest’s game developer, just making some bizarre choices in the characters they add into their game?
Ultimately, I do see a lot of potential in this list of characters. Shathra, especially, is a great loss in my mind. If I was a betting man, I would guess that she will appear in Marvel Snap at some point. Unrelated… Are there any good movies coming out next July?
Newbies
If anyone’s curious how this month’s newcomers fared, here’s the data.
Valeria Richards was the clear winner amongst the new additions, and probably should have been on the list from the start. I’m surprised N’Kantu placed so high, so I’m going to give myself some credit with my Character Spotlight. I’m also surprised he placed higher than Zombie, who I thought would have been more popular during a zombie-themed season.
At the bottom, Manphibian, Shiklah and Abraxas all floated in and out of the Bottom 10 at points in the season, but eventually found themselves some fans, which staved off their demise for at least another month.
Your Most Wanted
One of the new additions to this month's poll was that I asked you to single out your singlel most wanted character. You would think, with his place at the top, that Mephisto would also be the character most often called someone’s “Most Wanted” - but in fact, Mephisto was only selected twice, telling me that Mephisto’s rank is not completely about desire for his card, but belief that regardless of how you feel about him as a character - he deserves to be in the game.
The character who came up the most on the list, with five votes, is Speedball. Speedball is best known for his role leading up to the first Civil War event. In the story, Speedball is the only survivor of the blast caused by Nitro that kills over 600 civilians, many of whom were children. After the explosion, Speedball can only activate his powers when he feels pain, and he takes on the moniker of Penance.
I assume that Speedball’s popularity here has more to do with his role as Penance, than for Speedball himself. And honestly - I’m okay with that! I too would love to see what Second Dinner does with a character who needs pain to activate his power. Maybe something where afflicting him with negative power actually gives him positive power? Speedball is ranked 29 on the Most Wanted list.
Other honorable mentions on this list include Phoenix (Rachel Summers), The Mandarin, Toad, Goblin Queen, The Spot, Captain Britain and Longshot, all of whom received four votes.
Wrapping Up
Another month of voting is complete. You can view the full ranking of all 250 characters by clicking here.
I have a season pass to give away for the Arachnid Anarchy season! Take a moment to go through the full list of 250 characters and tell me which character you think should be higher on the list, and why! Think of it as your own mini-Character Spotlight! Be sure to leave your Discord name in the comment.
I’ll be back next week with November’s Most Wanted list, which will feature 14 new characters, most of whom have been selected based on recommendations that voters left for me at the end of the October poll.
With four high-ranking graduates from the list, I’m excited to see who makes it into the Top 20 next month. Did any of the results from this month stand out to you? Is there any particular information or data you would like to see featured or highlighted next month? Let me know in the comments, and thank you again for your continued support of Marvel Snap Most Wanted.