As we close the Planet Hulk season, let's take a moment and review what happened throughout the season. Marvel Snap is a fast-paced game with constantly changing meta games and new cards introduced every week, so sometimes it's hard to understand what took place throughout an entire season. So, in these articles, we will discuss the latest season pass cards and how they have fared, as well as look generally at the different patches and how they affected the metagame.
Season Pass Cards
Skaar
As season pass cards go, Skaar was a pretty decent pick-up. He didn’t make any game-altering impact when he first showed up, but he was balanced. That being said, he was immediately slotted into two of the best decks in the meta at the start of the season, Thanos Lockjaw and Black Knight Sera. This inclusion can be perceived as a little overpowered because his usage stats have hovered in the 15% range throughout the season, but those stats are more related to his usage in the best deck and not because he is the best card. As more cards entered the mix and several OTAs throughout the season, his play rate did not change. Most of the cards released this season did not impact the meta much, so the top decks from the start of the month have stayed the same throughout. He still has a spot in a top-tier deck and plenty of use in other decks. Most prominently in the off-meta brew “Big Dumb Idiots.” Being a big guy who ultimately gets cheaper when you have other high-powered cards means that Skaar will have some lasting playability as long as Marvel Snap wants power on the board.
Here are two of the main decks that feature Skaar.
Thanos Lockjaw
Big Dumb Idiots
Sebastion Shaw
This card has been relatively quiet all season long. Unsurprisingly, his impact hasn't changed since his release last December. With Shadow King still running rampant, Mr. Shaw will have difficulty taking a key place in the metagame and will probably stay relevant to only surfer decks as time progresses. However, the recent change to Luke Cage has some upside for potential surfer decks, meaning his usage might increase starting next season.
Here is the highest-performing deck featuring Sebastian Shaw for this season.
Surfer - PH Season
Ms. Marvel
At the start of the season, Ms. Marvel received a Nerf to help make her more balanced instead of the 4/15 that she realistically was. This nerf, however, didn’t change a lot of her usage. She still is one of the best cards to include in your deck since the conditions for her power spread are easily met. She went from a 4/15 to a 4/14, which doesn’t change much. She is featured prominently in multiple archetypes and can easily be slotted into most decks.
Here are the top 3 decks that feature Ms. Marvel
Sera Tech
Lockdown
Darkhawk
Ms. Marvel's usage has stayed pretty consistent throughout both seasons that she has been a part of in Marvel Snap, and I only see that staying the same as more seasons come and go. If you picked her up as part of the season pass, this was a good investment.
Elsa Bloodstone
Elsa has received a couple of different Nerfs since she was released, and while she was at her height of usage and was doing well this season, she has fallen off. Currently, she doesn't have a consistent deck that she is a part of in the metagame, and while still a little helpful, she doesn’t provide the amount of power to stay relevant in the metagame as a whole. This is a significant departure from the previous season when she was heavily used in many decks because she consistently helped in most archetypes.
Here is the best deck from the previous season featuring Elsa Bloodstone.
Elsa - PH Season
This deck resembles the silky smoove deck that was prominent a few seasons ago. However, they have indicated a future buff or change to Elsa coming in the future, so maybe she will rise to prominence again next season.
Loki
The God of Mischief has been through a lot since his initial release. He has had a firm hold on the metagame for a long time. However, this season, he received a decent Nerf that removed his ability to add power to the collector. In one of my previous articles, I mentioned that this was a nerf to the collector and not precisely to Loki, which is true, but the change did help remove Loki from front and center to a deck that is reasonable to play against. This change allowed other decks to take prominence over Loki, which has been healthy for the game overall. However, Loki is always there, lurking in the shadows. Because Loki's ability is centered around taking your opponent's cards and making them overall cheaper for you, he can be used in some decks and provide good value. Most recently, he was featured in some Thanos-type decks to help with the mirror match because Thanos has been a top-tier deck the whole season.
Loki Thanos
While this list is fantastic and can help when you face the Lockjaw Thanos mirror, the best deck, including Loki, is more of the same card generation coupled with energy reduction.
Loki
Sera Loki
If Loki generates cards and lowers costs, he will be a threat that can be built around. While his nerf at the start of the season helped bring him down a bit, I think he is always ready to take over the meta if given the right nudge by either an OTA or card release.
OTA/Patch
Over this season, we saw 20 cards receive either a buff or a Nerf. Of these 20 cards, 2 were former season pass cards, and one was a card that was released during this current season. The other 17 were known cards in the metagame, with only two being in the game for less than a month. As a general statement, this seems like a good amount of cards to change throughout the season. However, most of the changes did not drastically change the metagame. The same decks at the top of the meta have been there the entire season.
Sera Control
Thanos Lockjaw
Hela
Other than Blob to help take Thanos down a peg, any OTAs have hit any of these decks. The Blob change is probably the most significant change during the middle of the season.
With the change to Blob, Thanos was brought down just slightly, opening the gates for more fair decks to hit the meta. Mainly, destroy and Darkhawk decks were able to come back and make a good impact on the game.
Darkhawk
Destroy
This led to a pretty diverse metagame that many people felt was fantastic, with nothing being overbearing, resulting in the last OTA being slightly anemic with very few meaningful changes. With the minor changes made to each card in an OTA, the meta has felt exciting for most of the season for those who like consistency. However, for those who like things a bit more volatile, the Planet Hulk season might have been a little dull, with most of the top decks being the same the whole season.
Conclusion
Overall, Planet Hulk was a fun season. The usefulness of the season pass card, Skaar, and the overall changes made to previous cards was not too much to create a frustrating metagame. Instead, it was maybe a little stagnant but pretty diverse in the play styles of the different decks you would encounter.
The biggest complaint about this season is the cards added to the game. Other than Caiera and Beta Ray Bill, most of the cards added this season had made very little, if any, impact.
Let me know what you think of this season in the comments below.