So, we're here to discuss some expectations and predictions about the upcoming cards. Oh, spoilers maybe - Silver Surfer is the December season pass card. Will have a separate article on that in a week!
We are expecting all the rest of the cards to enter the collector token system (pools or series 4 and 5) "early next week" according to Second Dinner. On top of that, we are expecting a balance patch simultaneously. To learn more about that, go check out this article, and follow the links at the bottom for discussions of individual cards in the pools!
So, what sort of card balance changes as we expecting? While it's impossible to know what, there are a few cards on the radar to be nerfed. It's very hard to predict what could be buffed, as there's well over 50 that could use a buff!
My watchlist for nerfs:
- Angela - She's really strong as a [2/7] 2-drop generally. I'd expect her to either go to a 2/0 with same effect or [2/2] that gets +1 per card played?
- Aero - I think a lot of people agree the buff to 8 power was too much, but she saw little to no play at 6 power. I'd perhaps expect a nerf to [5/7].
- Cosmo - Seeing a ton of play with a very strong effect. Not sure how they'd change him, could be as low just a 1 power nerf...or adding mana cost if it's more severe in nature.
- Professor-X - Hopium. Card is not fun (like Cosmo). Don't really think he's overpowered necessarily, but who knows!
- Carnage - I've had this on my watchlist forever, so I'm gonna put it here. Just losing 1 power or somethng. If they don't nerf him, he'll still be on said list. He's been in a lot of "problematic" decks.
- Iron Man - Same as w/ Carnage - also in a lot of problematic decks...oh, and if you scroll down, he's gonna show up again in my current pick for the #1 deck after these cards go live (of course, since I don't know changes, I could be wrong).
- Sera - Skeptical on this being nerfed, but she's surely in the spotlight, so could take a hit...a couple power perhaps?
So here's my current take on a tier list for new cards (The order in a row is meaningless, too hard to get that precise with so much unknown):
S-tier cards
Bast and Silver Surfer are both in what I consider to be the #1 deck after the new season hits and people have cards:
For those that didn't play beta, "Negative Seratonin" was the top deck for a full season or more. Since then, Bishop and Mr. Negative (twice!) have both been nerfed. This was one of two top-tier decks that I was a creator/originator of (Dunkoro and Agent Carter, who both write, here were the main collaborators of the 2), both of which have been significantly nerfed since. But Seratonin is coming back. The deck looks to play very efficient cards that have upsides from Mr. Negative. Iron Man is the only real high-roll option to be hit by Negative, the rest just gain 0-3 power and lose 0-3 mana cost. Meanwhile, Sera allows for explosive and powerful final turns, with information on what lanes need what power.
Bast is huge for the deck. Sera is the only target that is hurt by her, and she basically hedges for Mr. Negative - one of the biggest sadnesses of the deck was drawing cards that wanted to be inverted before Mr. Negative was played (which is still sad). A [0/5] Iron Man is way better than a [5/0]. A [5/3] is still worse, but that 3 extra power helps a ton, as it's also doubled. And of course, Mr. Negative himself was nerfed from [4/4] to [4/1] to his current state of [4/-1]. Well, Bast gives him +4 power.
Silver Surfer is the other big new card for the deck. We are running 6 total 3-drops (Surfer is 1 of them), so we are basically guaranteed to draw at least 3 in a game. If we draw precisely 3, Surfer is still a [3/6], which is fine...but we're more likely to draw 4 or more, making Surfer a [3/9] or better. Brood is a new addition, which has synergy with all of Bast, Negative, and Surfer. While Brood is untested in the deck, it seems like a great addition with Surfer.
Some other cards have varying degrees of obviousness, but I am pretty confident in most all of them (yes, even Mr. Fantastic. He's a proactive 3-drop if desired and can steal Professor-X lanes.).
Also, if Angela does get nerfed to say a [2/0], Bast just instantly corrects this!
And finally on Bast, if Bast hits Mysterio, Mysterio and both his clones should be 3 power at end of game.
This deck is the main reason that both Bast and Surfer are in the S-tier. That said, I think Surfer has other possible decks, as 3-drop cards are very strong in general. Bast also has a lot of solid options, as low powers (0-1) are a cost tied to some very strong cards. Virtually any other Negative deck could possibly run her, just to make your early draws stronger.
Past every card already mentioned, things like Human Torch and Deadpool gaining added power helps their scaling. Who knows how many decks she could fit into...
Titania is my other pick for a super strong card. Unfortunately, I do not have a ton of experience in playing a deck that she slots immediately into, but I will experiment a ton if I see her to purchase. I'm going to list some area where she is strong and caveat this with her strength is in finding the right play for her in a game. I think she has a high skillcap, and some people will surely struggle with her. So here are some ideas:
- Full lane on opponent's side, [1/5] is strong. This is the obvious one.
- Final turn if we do not have initiative...play in the correct order, and she's simply a [1/5].
- Storm on turn3. Not having initiative on turn4 means we can play her as our last card into the Storm lane and she's simply a [1/5] in a now locked lane.
- Play her and on the same turn, toss her to the opponent's side, filling the lane for them. She is now stealing a slot for them for the whole game, and we can steal her back on the last turn. This is her strongest use. If that last turn play is say a Dr. Doom, we are even impacting the other 2 lanes (and a surprise Cosmo isn't stopping us).
- Play and send her to be the opponent's 3rd card. They can play a card (their 4th) to fill the lane and send her back...but then we can either send her back the next turn to go to the above scenario, or they feel pressured to commit to that same lane again (we're talking turns 4 & 5) and may just over-commit and lose the other 2 lanes as a result.
- We can use cards like Debrii and Viper to help hit the above scenarios. I think Viper will resolve before Titania moves sides, so keep that in mind (or I may be wrong).
- On a similar note, Titania should move after On-Reveals occur. So if we play Titania and Green Goblin (in that order) both into a lane where the opponent has 2 cards, Titania flips first, then Green Goblin should flip and move, THEN Titania will check if there is space for her to move. The end result here is if the opponent plays 1 card in the lane, they just get Green Goblin and Titania is again a [1/5], but if they skip the lane, they should lose both slots and we can pull Titania back on turn6.
- Spider Man + Titania as a turn-5 play. Spider Man as a 4-drop was always sad with no real use for that last mana, while locking opponent out on turn-6. This seems good (though we obviously can't send her to opponent on turn6.
The deck I'm planning to try with her to start may look something like this:
Fair warning, I am NOT saying this is the best deck. It's just a starting point. There are other cards worth considering.
A-tier cards
She-Hulk will be a natural include into, and redefine the Surfer Girls deck as we expected it to be back in...September I think? She is just an added card to be a 2nd (or 3rd) play on turn6 after a turn-5 Wave (and floating 2 mana, so she will cost 4-2=2 mana on turn-6). Even if we miss the kill triggers, Death could be played for 4 and She-Hulk for 2 after Wave. This alone gives her the tier. I do not think the Sunspot/Infinaut nonsense is good, but shrug.
Shuri I am less sure on, but she has a ton of potential and flexibility. If I am wrong on her, I think she is more likely to be S tier than down to B tier. She kinda acts as a 2nd Wong in the Black Panther decks that have been going around, and there is a combo deck that I linked in this article build around Wong and her that can play a 96 power Wasp on turn-6.
Valkyrie I am also less sure on, but she would be more likely to move down rather than up, if I am wrong. She is a natural fit into Cerebro-3, as Cerebro breaks parity in a 4 unit vs 4 unit lane, but she can almost surely fit elsewhere. She is basically a more reliable Shang-Chi, as she will nullify cards with 7-8 power or those in Armor lanes. Some people say to just use a Blue Marvel to break parity with her, which is fine if that's your strategy anyway, but I do not like the idea of adding Blue Marvel to a deck that doesn't want him otherwise...Ant-Man is a great card to pair with her, as he uses the last mana on turn-6, but we surely need more than 1 card to make her win the lane. We'll have to wait and see what works out the best, but she can just steal lanes in ways that Shang only dreamed of. As such, I put her in the A-tier.
B-tier
These cards are all here based on nods to existing homes.
Attuma is here mainly because of the Destroyer deck. The deck already runs both Professor-X and Armor, both of which mitigate his downside and seem more reliably than Warpath's downside (while also having 1 power more than Warpath). Furthermore, a turn-4 Attuma into a turn-5 Prof-X is incredibly strong and hard for the opponent to beat. He also may be playable in Venom or Zero decks, but I'm not a fan of either really. There's also a world he could be A-tier.
Helicarrier is just probably good/okay in a Hela deck? I despise this deck, but I'll probably have angry Hela players if I put...Helacarrier (I had to!) at C-tier...honestly, I think it's probably C-tier...
Luke Cage has 2 possible decks that I've seen thus far. The Wong/Spectrum Ongoing deck can run Luke and Hazmat and have an alternate win-con if Spectrum isn't drawn. Also, if our turn-4 is Wong and turn-5 is Sera, we can turn-6 Spectrum and Hazmat. The other deck is an On-Reveal Odin deck with Luke Cage and Wong again...and Bast as well. It may be better...a first draft of both decks can be seen here (they are not final or fully optimized):
A lot of people are super hyped about Absobing Man, but I just don't see it. He has some homes - in discard and movement...but these decks aren't all that to begin with. He will be played, he will have some good impact here and there, but I do not think he has the consistency or power to be above B-tier. Honestly, I think B may be too generous. I think putting him in the "On-Reveal" deck is a trap. We don't want to be playing him after 5 or 6 (from Wave) On-Reveals...we want him to be hitting strong 2 or 3 cost On-Reveals, hence saying movement or discard (Cloak or Ghost Rider for example?).
C-tier
Super Skrull is a powerful tech card in the right meta that has a lot of Ongoings to copy. Realize he does not steal them, so even then, I'm not sure if he's better than Rogue...so sure, at some point if you have a good read on the meta and expect Ongoings and have a slot to spare, go for it, but no decks are built around him.
Agent Coulson I perhaps have too high up at C-tier, but I think he has potential. He is under rate, but gives 2 potential options to be played. This allows you to play more reactive cards yourself, and rely on added options from him...I said I perhaps had him too high up, but it's also very possible he's too low, haha!
I wrote my hot-take on Galactus in this article. TLDR - I think he's bad for the game and will lead to unfun situations. I think he is easy to counter, but I would rather not be forced to add said counters to every deck I make. If I do not try to counter him, he can just win an absurd amount of the time (never 8 cubes though). Again, this is unfun. He is too polarizing. So how good is he? I don't know. Again, if I build to beat him, I think I will be above 90% winrate vs said deck. If I don't, I'll be sub-30%. C-tier made some sense.
D-tier
Thanos is the card I'm perhaps most wrong on. Who knows what people can do with him. He looks quite bad on the surface, but there may just be a solid deck with him. I still would be shocked if he made it to S or A tier...but I could see him getting up to B if the right version is found. I'm skeptical at the moment, however. He will be a lot of fun, I'm sure.
Also, he will be quite high variance based fully on Mind Stone. If Mind Stone is drawn early, the deck will have options and real plays. If it isn't, I think it will play out very awkwardly.
Orka is basically hot trash. It could go in a Destroyer deck as an added way to slam power in a lane, but meh. Destroyer killing Bucky is a strong thing that the deck does, if 16 power isn't enough to win.
M'Baku is hot trash. You'll draw him 75% of games. Cerebro-2 could use him (but I think he's still bad there) or Lockjaw could use him as a turn-6 final play into Lockjaw (also still bad there as you may pull him with Lockjaw), but these are both "cute" at best.
Maria Hill is also meh. A Ka-zar deck could perhaps run here, basically get a free [2/3] if we accept a random 1-drop. I'm not even sure if this is good enough, however...the other option is a Devil Dinosaur / Collector deck...but isn't Sentinel just better there? I don't think we ever run both...
Well, that's all of my takes. Come join us and share your opinions on the snap.fan community discord!
And again, there are potential nerfs coming next week...so realize this was all written before we have any knowledge about that!