This is the buff OTA! Second Dinner gave out some long overdue buffs and some long, long-overdue buffs! A whopping 12 cards got buffed! In addition, one of my personal favorite archetypes took a (probably deserved) nerf. I’ll go through the changes, the philosophy behind them, and some fun ideas for the new format!
Just as Kate Bishop has the arrows in her quiver, Second Dinner has OTA 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?
The vanillas are getting buffed! The vanillas are getting buffed! There has been so much chatter for so long about new cards being “above rate” or “below rate”, and the Power of these no-ability cards was so far below actual rate expectations that I’m happy for this buff for its potentially positive effect on community discourse. There will be some (unjustified) criticism of this as power creep. First of all, some degree of power creep is inevitable, healthy, and necessary. Second of all, this isn’t exactly just power creep. Marvel Snap wasn’t designed with perfect curve on the no-ability cards. The way Snap works and their relative strengths are unique to Snap and pretty quirky. These cards were dramatically underpowered already. It’s not that the goal of the game is to make these playable outside of High Evolutionary or Patriot. Still, these were so far below the level of playability that it was skewing the new player experience as well as discourse around the topic of balance changes.
Now, as for the cards and their actual usefulness, it all comes down to High Evolutionary. Interestingly, Cyclops got a buff here, considering how solid he generally seems in that deck. The Thing and Abomination are, sadly, excluded. The Thing already got a buff back in July. Abomination got a buff too, but that was way back in September 2022! It would have been awesome to make Wasp 0/2 and Yellowjacket 0/3. Wasp would be a great card even outside of High Evo and Patriot! Yellowjacket would definitely see play!
This is not a small buff to High Evolutionary. The deck just got a bunch of points all at once. Proportionally, the lower cost cards got the bigger buffs. I’m especially curious to see if Shocker can finally see a little play with High Evo. Hulk is the only card that might see some play outside of High Evo in those decks looking for one more big target for Dracula, Redwing, Hela, and the like.
[Old]: 2/3 Ongoing: Your cards that were created in your hand have +2 Power.
[Change]: 2/2
Victoria Hand has been a powerful card since her release, through multiple iterations and changes to her own archetype and optimal 12-card composition. I hope this nerf does enough to bring her in-line with Second Dinner’s statistics, because Victoria Hand is a deck with an enjoyable play pattern, just one that has been a touch too good recently.
[Old]: 1/2 Ongoing: Your created cards cost 1 less. (minimum 1)
[Change]: 1/1
I was pretty surprised to see Second Dinner call Quinjet one of the two “strongest cards when you’re executing your game plan” in the Victoria Hand decks. Quinjet does so much in the decks it’s in that it’s not unreasonable for it to have a below-rate board presence at 1/1.
[Old]: 2/3 Ongoing: Can't be destroyed, moved, or have its Power reduced.
[Change]: 2/4
Colossus is on the buff list? Surely, they’ve made him a 5/10, right? Oh well, maybe next year, Piotr. If you’re truly itching to break out your Colossus variants, I recommend a Namora deck.
[Old]: 2/3 On Reveal: Draw a card from your opponent's deck.
[Change]: 2/4
Cable is a card that a surprisingly large number of people hate to play against. I’ve always found him to be a fun little card with a slight information asymmetry. He could definitely see play in a variety of decks now.
I’m looking forward to playing him as a solid 2-drop, but not in Mill, the deck that makes you feel like you’re doing something and taking a lot of game actions, but loses anyway.
[Old]: 1/2 On Reveal: After you play your next card, move it one location to the left.
[Change]: 1/3
They say they are trying to get Move into a healthy spot slowly, but Move is secretly fine after the Torch nerf! I’ve played a bit of it post-nerf, and it stood up decently, just not quite as absurdly tall. This buff might help more players realize Move wasn’t killed in the last OTA after all.
[Old]: 3/3 When this is destroyed, replace it with a 4-Cost card from your hand or deck.
[Change]: 3/4
I’m thankful that the devs specifically called out the Morgan Le Fay interaction in the patch notes, saying “we don’t specifically want to balance combo cards around specific interactions whenever possible.” They could have gone ahead and given Air Walker 5 points of Power, or even made him a 2/3. Will there eventually be another 4-Cost card worth fishing out with Air Walker enough to justify the effort? Definitely, but there certainly isn’t right now, so I’d have loved to see a more aggressive buff to give him a place in the game now.
[Old]: 2/2 On Reveal: Add 2 Sentinel to your opponent's hand.
[Change]: 2/3
It was a little odd that this card was statted so low. It could easily be a 2/4, as its effect can occasionally be a downside. This is one of the more interesting cards in the game, so I’m excited to dust off Ronan and take him for a spin. This is also a card that can be especially annoying to play against when it clogs your hand or costs you a draw, so it makes sense not to let it get too powerful.
[Old]: 2/2 Ongoing: The On Reveal abilities of your 1-Cost cards here happen twice.
[Change]: 2/3
There are some fun cards to play with Joaquin, so I hope this makes a difference in his play rate. I’m a skeptical of how much a single point can do for him, given the kinds of decks he occasionally sees play in. I'm planning to try him in a Werewolf Zombies deck first and bounce second.
[Old]: 2/2 When Destroyed: Replace this with a 1-Cost card from your hand or deck with +1 Power.
[Change]: When Destroyed: Replace this with a 1-Cost card from your hand or deck with +2 Power.
When I first read Wade Wilson, I couldn’t figure out the upside. Yes, you “fish out” Deadpool or another 1-Cost, but by the time you can destroy Wade, it’s already turn 3 and turn 4 before you can destroy Deadpool for the first time, and that's just too late to get Deadpool pumping up. This buff should make a massive difference since the change from +1 to +2 gets magnified by Deadpool. Wade Wilson might be helpful as a failsafe that increases the consistency of Deadpool destroy decks now.
[Old]: 4/4 End of Turn: Add a DoomBot 2099 to a random location if you played (exactly) 1 card.
[Change]: 4/5
Doom 2099 was in the penalty box for some time. Has the game moved past him with all the big combos roaming around? The timing of this is based on some upcoming cards! Moondragon feels tailor-made for a Doom 2099 deck!
Final Rating - 3/4 Arrows
The changes to the vanilla cards have been a long time coming, and High Evolutionary is an important deck for the game to keep relevant. Beyond that, I’m excited to see if Wade Wilson really makes that deck feel different to run and is worth it to increase its win rate in games where it doesn’t draw as well. I might try Cable out in everything to see if he can prove his value, and I am going to experiment with Joaquin Torres again. I do yearn for some more substantial changes, but we’ve got interesting new cards and a new game mode coming this week to keep things fresh. This OTA doesn’t have a major bomb beyond the vanilla cards, but it’s a solid OTA that should keep the meta healthy and provide a couple of new wrinkles.
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