We have had a few days to see where the dust has settled from this latest OTA, so let's talk about the good, bad, and ugly of the most recent changes.
The Good
Guardians of the Galaxy
So, most notably, the biggest change in the actual volume of cards was the buff to the Guardians of the Galaxy cast of characters within the game. For the most part, this was a buff by one power to all the different characters except Gamora, which received a slight text change but no actual change in power. This is a good change overall and one that lines up with the slight one-power buffs they have been giving to other cards over the past few months, but because it is more encompassing and brings all of these cards into alignment, it is more meaningful than just buffing them by 1 power each. However, this does not mean that these cards are now amazing automatically because you can make a good change without making a card automatically better. This buff is most felt at the lower cost cards of Rocket Raccoon and Star-Lord and less felt with Groot and Drax. Then, the change is essentially nonexistent for Gamora. Rocket Raccoon and Star-Lord are cheap, high-powered cards if played correctly, which, due to their low cost, they are a lot easier to use in the later turns of the game than their higher-cost counterparts of Groot, Drax, and Gamora. This has significantly buffed their usage and will continue as the game grows. The other important note that makes this buff all the more important is that four out of the five are series one cards, meaning everyone has access to them at the start of the game. It is fantastic that we are seeing buffs and changes to lower series cards because it means more people have access to the changes. I have always wondered how many people own the different cards that get changed, but in this case, everyone could experience and experiment with this group of changes. That is a solid positive in my book.
Here is a Guardians deck that has posted pretty good stats since the most recent OTA.
GOTG
Captain Marvel
This is a slightly irrelevant change, and before I get hated for saying this since I know this was a change that everyone was shouting for, the main reason I say that is because it should have happened a while ago. Currently, how the meta of the game is playing out doesn’t help her usage, except for Cerebro 5, which we will discuss later in the article. So why is it in the good category if it's irrelevant? It is still a good change, and it is nice to see that they are looking at cards they have previously nerfed and bringing them back into a form of balance, which should be the point of these changes since they are called “balance updates.”
Apocalypse
I am sure putting this in this category also might be a little confusing since the consensus on this change is that it doesn’t do anything to the discard deck and its place in the meta. But, again, this is a balance update, and so while people grumble and complain, even myself, about these OTAs and patches, the fact that they are taking a look at one of the top-performing decks and making a change to its power level even if minor means they are trying to bring the cards into a form of balance. They don’t always get it right, but two powers is still a big deal in close games and make the difference between soloing a lane with Dracula discarding Apocalypse vs both Infanaut (3x) and Blob (2x). Now, could they have hit a different card in the discard deck? Yes, this might exist somewhat in the bad category because while I don’t have all the metrics that the developers do, Apocalypse doesn’t seem like the offender that makes discard so powerful. I don’t expect this to put a huge dent into discard usage, but I think it will mean some slightly closer games, which is good overall.
The Bad
Adam Warlock
I am going to copy and paste the first sentence I used the last time this card was changed here now, “I have too many variants for this card and never played him. I don't see myself playing him now that he has received this change or “buff,” as some say.” While that might seem a little harsh, this change doesn’t seem at all like they are aiming for balance but rather trying to get the majority of Marvel Snap players to act as playtesters for a possible change, and then when they gather that data, they can make a real change to balance this card. I could go on about this topic, but needless to say, the statement
“We believe the design could go to 5/6 fairly easily, but one of the archetypes we're interested in here is Cerebro-5, which can be a difficult deck to serve. So we're trying the smaller buff to see how that goes.”
acts like we are being used as guinea pigs here to see how a change would work. Now, is that bad? Not always, but in the case here, Cerebro 5 isn't a Cerebro deck that might need the extra draw, so putting a five-cost card into that deck to draw one card is a little odd since I would rather play a four-cost with a discounted Miles or one of my three costs with one of my two costs. There may be some considerations of using Wave to put him down a turn early, but that is not always going to happen. Anyway, the results are in from the last few days, with Adam Warlock versions of the deck coming in at a whopping ten percent lower rate than non-Adam Warlock versions. The sad part is that because they stated in the description that they wanted to see him in C5, he has had very little usage outside of that deck to test if this change does some good. On a happier note, we now have a true 5-cost 5 power card back in the game. Hazzah.
The Ugly
Psylocke
With an OTA labeled as having a primary concern of weakening the Thanos and Discard pretty dominant decks, these last two changes targeted the Thanos deck and landed squarely in the ugly category. Psylocke is back to her original power with the latest change, and while many people are touting this change as one of the good changes that the developers have hit right on the head, I am not entirely convinced. The reasoning is solid because all they are trying to do is shave some power from the Thanos deck, which, as I stated above, talking about the Apocalypse is a good thing. Also, because of the time stone change, Psylocke is too important of a card to remove from the Thanos deck, meaning this is a nerf in power and nothing else since she will still function as she normally would. Ok, it all seems like they did it, right? Correct, the logic is solid here, but this is a situation where the imbalance of the deck doesn’t come from Psylocke herself, and while shaving off one power is fine, in reality, that is not that big of a deal to the deck. Instead, it solidifies that she wouldn’t be played in other decks even more. Furthermore, this Nerf doesn’t do anything to the power level of Thanos, so while in all technical aspects, this is a Nerf and will mean games with Psylocke are one less power, the overall power and consistency of the Thanos deck is still there. Thus, to me, this isn't a meaningful Nerf, and it means she probably will need to be reverted once they come up with an actual fix to the issues that caused her Nerf in the first place.
Mind Stone
With this change, I do like how they are changing things around and trying to get to the root of the issue here because it is the stones that make Thanos consistent and something that many cards can fit into. However, this change feels like a band-aid. Especially with this statement, “We don't think this is likely to solve the "Thanos problem fully," but hopefully it meaningfully addresses the archetype while we investigate a wider range of solutions.” Are band-aids useful? Yes, but they are not useful when the wound is so big. This is really in the ugly category because it constantly reminds us that we must wait longer for a fix. It has been multiple months without any changes, and then in the last two weeks, we just got some small band-aids to the issue that is continuing to grow bigger and bigger. That's just an ugly feeling. In a tournament over the weekend, Thanos was six out of the top eight decks. That's pretty much the same as the SFWC. Could this be because people didn’t want to change on short notice? Possibly, but realistically, it is because Thanos is still dominant and able to abuse the more broken cards (that didn’t receive a change) than most of the other decks in the current format.
Cerebro Watch
Let's talk about C5 for a moment here. With the direct call out in the latest OTA, C5 was everywhere for the first few hours after the OTA was released, with some very interesting ideas.
Here are several different versions of C5
C5 Swan
C5 Wave
C5 ManThing
There are many different ways that you can build C5, and while all of them have different ways of attacking, they all have slightly the same problem. They lose to decks that go tall in two lanes and lose to Loki most of the time. The additions of Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock don’t change these things, and while a deck that is trying to go wide with a lot of power, most of the time, is just a little bit too slow and easy to counter. My favorite, though, is the black swan one-cost 5-power flood-type deck because it can burst a lot of power at the end of the game and make sure that power is played exactly where you want it to go. But they are fun to play because you get to use a bunch of good cards that can have interesting interactions, so while the OTA changes don’t push C5 into the upper tiers of the game, it certainly makes things a little bit better. What is your favorite Cerebro 5 deck?
Overall OTA feel
Honestly, this OTA feels irrelevant and frustrating. Those looking for an actual change to the metagame will probably need to wait for the next balance update because, as of right now, the same decks stuck at the top are still there. Now, is there a lot of room for different decks to compete? Yes, plenty of decks can compete well and should be competing well, but with the overall story that the best deck is still the best deck, most people won't change. This is frustrating for many people who want to feel like the meta is changing, which is what the OTA is supposed to provide. Still, the last few have been pretty lackluster, leaving us with a stagnant meta that is lacking a lot of change, especially when new cards are not making a big enough splash to change things up, and some make matters worse by fitting into the exact decks that are running rampant. Maybe War Machine will be the savior we are all looking for. Let me know what you think about the patch and its result on the metagame from this last week down below!