If you look at the Snap.Fan card stats for all-time, sorted based on appearance, Spider-Man 2099 sits at number 5 below cards released in the last few months. Our boy Miguel O'Hara has not found his footing in Marvel Snap; he is not found in any meta decks at the moment, nor was he found in any meta decks for the last 2 seasons. He even received a “change” at the start of the month, bumping him from 4 cost 5 power to 5 cost 9 power. While I am inclined to call it a nerf, it didn’t make a difference in the play of the card. I don’t think the power jump provided a compelling enough reason to be included in any decks.
It’s pretty easy to see why he isn’t doing well; his effect and cost are at odds with most deck archetypes. His ability can only trigger 1 time; you have to move the card to trigger the effect, and it will target a random card to destroy and add the awkward 5-cost placement… It puts him in a tough spot in a limited 12-card deck.
His raw damage level is high, just out of Shang Chi range at 9 Power, but at 5 Cost, the options to trigger his effect require a lot of commitment. You either have to pre-prepare on turn 4 with Iron Fist to push him over a lane when he is played on turn 5. Or you could use your final turn (very telegraphed) to pull him with Ghost-Spider or Doctor Strange.
Most other cards with movement-based interactions generally have lower costs or reduced costs. One exception is Miles Morales, a 4 cost and 5 power card that costs 1 energy if a card was moved the last turn. This leaves room for usage as his low cost will allow him to be paired with multiple cards or dropped early before turn 4.
His cost, effect, and power aren’t enough to justify putting him on the board. Because of his cost and required secondary trigger, he will always be a telegraphed intention. If he is already on the board, your opponent knows if this card moves, it will destroy a card in the lane in which it lands. This gives your opponent the advantage to either abandon a lane, prepare a counter or if they have priority, flood the lane to reduce your chances of hitting what you want. So your best bet is getting him out on turn 6 with a same-turn combo like Ghost Spider or Iron Fist. This, however, requires you to have considerable board availability to have him move freely, and once he lands, that's the end of his effect; it won’t be triggered again.
What does Second Dinner think?
When the card was adjusted at the beginning of February, they provided this Developer Note:
“Spider-Man 2099 has been a below-average card for quite a while–never one of the worst, but also not a true contender. We're open to considering more significant adjustments, but in the interim we've decided to experiment with a stat change. As we noted around Hercules in another update, we'd like to try and get some "big move" cards into fighting shape. 2099 represents an opportunity for us to explore the kinds of effects and statlines cards need to exist in that space while potentially giving an underperforming card some new life.”
This indicates they are looking for future adjustments to the card, but it’s hard to infer what those might be when they opt to increase his power and cost rather than reduce it. Reducing his cost might have seen him get more flexible use since he can be comboed easier.
In one of the “Ask the Team” requests on the official Marvel Snap Discord, a user asked why 2099 hadn’t received yet buff; Glenn Jones provided the following:
“The card isn't one of our strongest, but 2099 has positive win and cube percentages. Our data suggests he may be only very, slightly too weak, and we're not interested in a cavalier adjustment that could put him over the top. One more strong synergy card might do the trick.”
Second Dinner's internal metrics are likely far more encompassing than those of sites like Snap.Fan capture, we know that the card is just not played often, and by a large margin compared to the rest of the cards released around the same time as 2099. So it’s difficult to see where Glenn might pull this from without clarity around what metrics they see for the card and why they aren’t eyeing him for a function change.
Second Dinner may be concerned about the card's effect on the meta if changed in any direction. Move is often a highly unpredictable archetype to play against; cards move from lane to lane and, in many cases, grow to formidable power. Adding into the mix the ability to move cards and destroy them in the same action could make it a very frustrating deck to counter. Players have already shown a low tolerance for destroy card types, so adjusting this one to be more of an opportune play could feel like a double-edged sword they would rather not touch.
When does Spider-Man 2099 work?
There are a few decks that have tried to use the card and have found reasonable success. Decks like Dance Macabre from Reddit user /u/TheGamerMAKS relied on constantly shifting and moving both your and the opponent's cards, disrupting their play or destroying them with the pre-patch Kingpin who initially destroyed cards who moved to his lane instead of reducing their power. However, that patch effectively killed the card in this deck and eliminated a vital component of the entire strategy.
Dance Macabre - TheGamerMAKS
Some decks employ 2099 as a niche tech or support card rather than a serious consideration for the win condition. Like this deck that combines Hercules and Werewolf by Night to enable healthy power scaling and constant lane switching to keep the power moving between lanes. 2099 is used here as a release valve for a power-stacked lane or to disrupt an important combo. It falls a little short when the better option in most turns is to optimize your Werewolf, Dagger, and Vulture plays to scale power. Leaving little board space for 2099 to be played and activated while leaving ample opportunities for Werewolf to jump between lanes. You often play 2099 in the middle or right lane on turn 5, hoping to trigger his effect with Heimdall.
Zero to Hero
You’ll occasionally see him pop up in Thanos decks due to his synergy with the Space Stone. This deck provides a little more breathing room for 2099 since you also get the energy bump from the Time Stone and Killmonger or Carnage to reduce board clutter. You also have backup destroy options, so not to rely solely on drawing 2099, including Shang-Chi, to dispatch any large threats on the board.
Thanos Never Dies
Unfortunately, with very conservative cube management, none have compelling win rates, barely reaching an even +52%. The Thanos deck fairs the best based largely on its plethora of options, thanks to the Infinity Stones, but it still falls short when matched against any deck relying on high power spread across multiple lanes.
So how do we fix this?
Unfortunately, I understand why Second Dinner hasn’t done more to buff or rebalance this card. In my opinion, this card, in particular, is hard to shift in any direction without making it immediately hurt the meta.
“Make it trigger every time it moves!” You scream. But that would make it incredibly overpowered, even at 5 cost, they would likely reduce his power level to compensate for his disruptive capability. However, at 5 cost he has a considerable cost burden and can’t be played until near the end of the game when your board is nearly packed. Maybe you can pair it with cost-reduction options, but it would still remain too costly to pair it with anything that could make it move.
Reduce its power and Cost! I hear you cry. So okay, we drop it to a 3/5 or even a 3/4 to offset its disruptive behavior. Does that make it more compelling? Or does it still sit in an awkward spot of not being enough disruption when you need to use that energy to build up your other move cards and raise their power?
Okay, so maybe you limit the trigger to be both more flexible but more specific. Keeping the card as 5 power, what if the card instead countered a move deck and had an action like:
“The first time an opponent card moves, destroy it and move to its final location”
This allows the card to be more of a threat for move-specific decks and cards moved by you, like Spider-Man, Stegron, Aero, or Polaris. This still requires external functions to trigger the effect but would allow more external functions to trigger it. That could be compelling enough. It’s still limited to one activation but still moves, so it has synergy with other move activation cards and would serve multiple use cases. But would it still be worth it? I don’t know.
How do you think Second Dinner could change this card to make it better? Do you even think it's worth changing? Let us know in the comments!