New Updates from Second Dinner
Below are the updates posted in discord from the Second Dinner team:
Another week, another OTA balance patch! In addition to 4 new card updates, we have some location frequency updates this week! Let’s get right into it:
Drax
[Old] 4/5 - On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +3 Power.
[New] 4/6 - On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +2 Power.
The Guardians can create some of the most exciting gameplay in SNAP with their predictive playstyle. While they’ve been doing better with the release of Nebula, they’re still performing poorly overall at the moment. Out of all the Guardians, Drax stood out to us as the clearest buff candidate. Compared to other cards like Rockslide and White Queen with good stats and a guaranteed upside, Drax had below average stats for a very inconsistent upside. We’re giving him a small buff by moving some of his Power from his ability to his base stats to improve his baseline performance.
Rockslide
[Old] 4/6 - On Reveal: Shuffle 2 Rocks into your opponent's deck.
[New] 4/5 - On Reveal: Shuffle 2 Rocks into your opponent's deck.
Rockslide’s viability took a leap forward with the release of Darkhawk and Zabu, so it’s easy to look at this nerf and assume that we’re targeting Darkhawk by weakening one of his support cards. And sure, you’d be right–Darkhawk has been one of the 10 winningest cards in the game since release and featured in multiple strong decks. In fact, Rockslide often mirrors (or improves upon) Darkhawk's stats, as they're both in the top-performing "DinoHawk" deck. Since Rockslide's easier to adjust, we're making this tweak with the aim of weakening that deck slightly.
Enchantress
[Old] 4/6 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.
[New] 4/5 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.
Enchantress has grown in popularity since our buff to her two weeks ago, which was expected. While we’re excited by how much more she’s affecting the meta, she’s become one of the most played cards in the game, which is a bit over a mark. We’re optimistic that a small nerf to 4/5 will put her in a good position going forward. But hey, it was fun while it lasted!
Venom
[Old] 3/1 - On Reveal: Destroy your other cards at this location. Add their Power to this card.
[New] 3/3 - On Reveal: Destroy your other cards at this location. Add their Power to this card.
Venom has been the worst destroy enabler for a while now, averaging lower Power in destroy decks than his peers Deathlock and Carnage. While he’s seen fringe usage in decks with Taskmaster, we haven’t seen any of them really take off. We’d like to give one of Marvel’s most iconic anti-heroes space to shine, so we’re feeding him a hearty +2 Power buff.
Bonus OTA: Location, Location, Location
As our library of locations increases, we’ll be making ongoing adjustments to hit the sweet spot we like for dynamic games. To that end, we’re reducing the appearance weights on a few of our existing locations, which means they’ll show up less frequently in your games. It’s unlikely you’ll consciously observe these changes, but we thought you’d like to know.
- Attilan Common -> Uncommon
- Krakoa Rare -> UltraRare
- Lechuguilla Common -> Uncommon
- Morag Uncommon -> Rare
- Plunder Castle Uncommon -> Rare
- Sanctum Sanctorum Common -> Uncommon
- Subterranea Common -> Uncommon
That’s all for now, thanks for stopping by! This is the second to last week of our OTA trial period, with a full-sized patch coming next week and the final May OTA coming on 5/25. While we’re not yet set on a plan going forward, we know that we want to continue doing regular OTA balance updates, just at longer intervals between changes. We’ll let you know when we have more to share!