Spotlight: Cash - November 2023
Welcome back to Spotlight: Cash, Snap.Fan’s monthly look at upcoming cash bundles and the role that money plays in Marvel Snap. In the ever-shifting in-game economy, Second Dinner can dial back the gold players receive, credits only stretch so far, and Token Tuesdays will come and go, but there is one currency whose flow the players–not Second Dinner–can control, and that currency is cash. Join us for a deep dig into the datamine as we preview November’s cash bundles. As always, bundle details are subject to change.
This Magik Moment
With the longest birthday on record, Magik continues to celebrate into November. One gold bar per cent is a pretty good rate; I bought a wedding ring recently, and, let me tell you, you will not get that kind of value in real life. Throw in 750 credits and an appealing variant of Magik–an opportunity to nab this series 3 card that unlocks a few deck archetypes–enough boosters to take her to infinity, and some cosmetics, and you’ve got a great bundle.
Magik’s Birthday Party!
Gold per dollar: 100
Credits per dollar: 50
Three Bags Full
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing is an unprecedented bundle containing more tokens than any bundle ever costing less than $75–at least until Peach, You’re So Cool the following week. That bundle, however, is $65, so Wolf still delivers great value at a relatively low price. 800 credits, a silly variant, avatar, and boosters round out the package, but most of the value lies in the tokens. Though a pay-to-win risk by October’s standards, Wolf has nothing on November’s. There is no ignoring that it offers a fantastic number of tokens for the price.
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Tokens per dollar: 83.33
Credits per dollar: 26.67
Mystery Machine
After enough mysteries to gag Agatha Christie in October, November’s five of its own and two left over from the previous month look like a trim and tidy assortment. Not only are they more affordable–you could have dumped $80 into just those mystery bundles with “October” in the name, compared to $37 for “November”--but among their number is one of the best values the game has ever offered. November 2023 Mystery 4 gives you the opportunity to acquire a premium mystery variant and 1,000 credits for the paltry sum of $1.99. This feels too generous to be true, and it could be altered before release, but for the time being it appears to be Second Dinner’s way of rewarding those of us with the social ineptitude to hide away from our families, log in, and spend money on Thanksgiving–which, let’s face it, a lot of us will be doing anyway.
November 2023 Mystery 2 packs together 200 gold and 450 credits with a variant at $4.99, a small but welcome upgrade from the 650 credits and 0 gold we have become used to at that price point. For $9.99, November 2023 Mystery 3 adds to its variant an underwhelming 500 gold and 500 credits, amounts that Festival Fireworks, Festival of Flight, and even October’s “time-traveling” web bundles sold for half the price.
That leaves only the gold option, November 2023 Mystery 5, which we will not be covering here; and the three $19.99 offerings, which also happen to be the first three of the month. For currencies, October 7 (1,000 gold, 1,500 credits) beats October 8 (1,250 gold, 500 credits and November 1 (1,100 gold, 500 credits), but only the last offers two premium mystery variants instead of one of the more mundane sort. Value that how you will, but November Mystery 4 is the clear best purchase of the whole lot.
October 2023 Mystery 7
Gold per dollar: 50
Credits per dollar: 75
October 2023 Mystery 8
Gold per dollar: 62.5
Credits per dollar: 25
November 2023 Mystery 1
Gold per dollar: 55
Credits per dollar: 25
November 2023 Mystery 2
Gold per dollar: 40
Credits per dollar: 90
November 2023 Mystery 3
Gold per dollar: 50
Credits per dollar: 50
November 2023 Mystery 4
Credits per dollar: 500
November 2023 Mystery 5
Gold offer not covered in this article
Carnage for Show, Wolvie for Dough
In a surprise move, Second Dinner dropped two web-exclusive bundles to see off the Bloodstone season. Fashioned “Friend or Foe,” they feature two of the edgier characters in the Marvel catalog, but there is more to the choice than simply the variant you prefer. Wolverine is bundled with 2,100 credits next to Carnage’s 1,600–presumably because the Carnage variant is the rarer of the two–and each comes with a corresponding avatar and boosters as well. Both are good values, so don’t feel like you are making the wrong choice if you prefer the Carnage variant to 500 additional credits. Remember that these are exclusive to the Snap website; you will not see them in the in-game shop.
Wolverine “Friend or Foe” Web Bundle
Credits per dollar: 210
Carnage “Friend or Foe” Web Bundle
Credits per dollar: 160
From Russia with Bite
The spy life must pay well, because this Black Widow brings with her 750 credits, 800 gold, and the usual sides of boosters and avatar. That puts this offer head and shoulders above November mystery 3 with its 500 gold, 500 credits, and none of the extras at the same $9.99 price point; and only slightly behind July’s Don’t Touch the Ocean (1,000 gold, 600 credits), probably the best $10 bundle before Second Dinner sprung the above Wolverine “Friend or Foe” on us. As a card, Black Widow sees the most play as a supplemental piece in Darkhawk and junk archetypes, so there may be some added appeal for players still collecting series 3
Half a World Away
Gold per dollar: 80
Credits per dollar: 75
Legal Privilege
This bundle has had quite a life already, and it hasn’t even been released yet. Originally datamined as including 5,000 collector’s tokens, 2,000 gold, and 3,500 credits with a variant of a very playable series 3 card by Peach Momoko–a perpetual darling of Marvel Snap high society–at the same $64.99 price point where it rests now, it was undeniably a pay-to-win extravaganza. Compare that to, for example, August’s Death Becomes Her, which carried 4,000 tokens, 2,000 gold, and 2,500 credits at $74.99, and it is fair to say that the original version of Peach was a step too far.
Fortunately, Second Dinner saw fit to tone it down to 6,000 tokens, 500 gold, and 500 credits, making it . . . still kind of a pay-to-win party, if not a full-blow extravaganza. Peach, You’re So Cool boasts more tokens than any other bundle ever below $99.99, and in terms of total currencies it stands on par with Death Becomes Her and Aspect of Heimdall, both $75 bundles. For that matter, it’s not far off of Positively Charged and the original Pro Bundle at $100 each. If you were to purchase gold in the shop and convert it to tokens via Token Tuesday bundles, it would cost you $110 and take five weeks to reach the amount on offer here. Peach, You’re So Cool is, simply, an opportunity to purchase a series 5 or two series 4 cards at a steep discount.
Peach, You’re So Cool
Tokens per dollar: 92.31
Gold per dollar: 7.69
Credits per dollar: 7.69
Whiskers from Space
At the midpoint of November, we see our first cash bundle with theming to match the Higher, Further, Faster season, Species: Flerken. Threat: Adorable. It pairs variants of two series 3 cards which have absolutely no synergy. In fact, what is the opposite of synergy? A quick Google search suggests antagonism or even antergy. These cards have that.
They are, nonetheless, both playable cards in their own rights and powerful in the right decks. The sum of 6,000 credits that comes with them, enough by itself to guarantee receipt of a spotlight key, are remarkable as well; never before have we seen so many in a bundle priced at less than $99.99. The customary boosters, avatars, and title supplement the cosmetic appeal, rounding out a very solid package–if you can afford the price tag.
Species: Flerken. Threat: Adorable
Credits per dollar: 171.43
Ticket to Nowhere
Here we witness the genesis of a new genre of bundle, conquest tickets packaged with currencies, and . . . it seems really unnecessary. It seems safe to assume that the tickets will be gold, but it is hard to attach much real value to them, first because conquest tickets are farmable enough that most meaningful rewards from the medal shop can be attained without much effort over the course of a season, and second because the prospect of achieving infinity is so remote that skipping the first three matches is unlikely to increase your odds by much.
These bundles therefore mostly come down to currency, for which they are comparable to typical mystery bundles. November 2023 Ticket 1 at $4.99, for example, looks like November Mystery 2, only swapping the variant for 50 more credits and the ticket itself. November 2023 Ticket 2 comes across as a strictly worse November Mystery 3, losing 500 gold and the variant for 200 tokens, 250 credits, and the ticket, at the same $9.99 price point. November Ticket 3 is probably the best of the lot, but it is a gold bundle we won’t dive into here; suffice it to say that there are better ways to spend your gold. That leaves only November Ticket 4, which, at $19.99, offers 100 more credits than October Mystery 7 but 400 fewer gold and, of course, loses the variant for a ticket.
The upshot is that these bundles do not read as good purchases. Of the cash offerings, Ticket 1 has the best return, but even so it is nothing great. For comparison, Festival of Lights, coming later in the month at the same $5 price, serves up the as much gold, 250 more credits, a variant, boosters, and avatar.
November 2023 Ticket 1
Gold per dollar: 40
Credits per dollar: 100
November 2023 Ticket 2
Tokens per dollar: 20
Credits per dollar: 75
November 2023 Ticket 3
Gold offer not covered in this article
November 2023 Ticket 4
Gold per dollar: 30
Credits per dollar: 80
Professional Rates
The downside to this bundle is apparent: It is incredibly expensive, stupidly expensive, enough-money-to-buy-another-game-or-two expensive. Okay, technically the price has not yet been datamined, but based on the similarity to Pro Bundle Mk. 2 and both previous pro bundles having sold at $99.99, that price appears likely to apply to this one as well.
If Peach, You’re So Cool wasn’t enough, here is another opportunity to claim enough tokens to buy a series 5 or two series 4 cards. With them come enough credits to climb the collection track for 1.5 spotlight keys. In terms of total value, this is very, very close to the Pro Bundle Mk. II, making it among the best ways to spend $100 dollars on this game. Provided, of course, that you want to spend $100 on this game
Pro Bundle Mk. III
Tokens per dollar: 60
Credits per dollar: 90
A Feast for the Eyes
At last, a bundle for people who enjoy illustrations of comic book characters eating calorie-dense meals. Once again, these two cards have a decided antergy, which makes for an odd pairing. Though Punisher is a starter card, Gambit is series 3. That might make the bundle more appealing for anyone who hasn’t collected him yet, but it is worth keeping in mind that Gambit does not presently have a significant winning presence in the meta.
On the currency side, Thanksgiving Dinner fails to impress. 300 tokens and 1,500 gold at $19.99 beats the shop rate, but it falls well short of something like June’s Hard Eight, which ran with 500 tokens, 1,500 gold, and 1,000 credits at the same price. This is one for variant aficionados only.
Thanksgiving Dinner
Tokens per dollar: 15
Gold per dollar: 75
Best of the Bast
The grand festival tradition continues, though for the first time the character featured is not of Chinese heritage. I suppose panther goddesses need love, too. The artist, Fiona Hsieh, does have a Taiwanese surname, so maybe the connection is still there. The holiday being celebrated is open to interpretation, as well. The Chinese lantern festival is not until February; Kwanzaa starts in late December. Of the many global festivals of lights, this seems to be splitting the difference between Diwali and Hanukkah, or perhaps it is simply an appreciation of people putting up Christmas lights after Thanksgiving.
Whatever the cause, the bundle is a worthy offering. 200 gold, 750 credits, an appealing variant, and incidentals at $4.99 place this midway between the classic Festival Fireworks on the high end and September’s Festival of Unity on the low–and both of those were great purchases. The trend of festivals providing great value continues.
Festival of Lights
Gold per dollar: 40
Credits per dollar: 150
The Bottom Line
November extends the pattern that built through October of larger payouts and unprecedented currency returns per dollar. While that does mean that there are some great options for cheap-to-play spenders, the pay-to-win Doomsday Clock ticks closer to midnight with the greater number of high-dollar, high-currency bundles. On the lighter side, there are some fantastic variants available this month, whether those be Peach Momoko, Fiona Hsieh, Punisher enjoying a slice, or just a flerken nursing her . . . flittens? As always, make a budget that you can afford, stick to it, and plan your purchases accordingly.
Best tokens per dollar
- Peach, You’re So Cool (92.31)
- Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (83.33)
- Pro Bundle Mk. III (60)
- November 2023 Ticket 2 (20)
- Thanksgiving Dinner (15)
Best gold per dollar
- Magik’s Birthday Party (100)
- Season Pass Premium [if you reach at least 49] (90)
- Half a World Away (80)
- Thanksgiving Dinner (75)
- October 2023 Mystery 8 (62.5)
Best credits per dollar
- November 2023 Mystery 4 (500)
- Wolverine “Friend or Foe” Web Bundle (210)
- Species: Flerken. Threat: Adorable. (171.43)
- Carnage “Friend or Foe” Web Bundle (160)
- Festival of Lights (150_
Best overall currencies per dollar*
- November 2023 Mystery 4 (512.5)
- Wolverine “Friend or Foe” Web Bundle (212.5)
- Festival of Lights (205)
- Pro Bundle Mk. III (195)
- Peach, You’re so Cool (179.23)
Other high-scoring bundles: Half a World Away (177.5), Magik’s Birthday Party (176.67), Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (173.33), Species: Flerken. Threat: Adorable (172.86), Carnage “Friend or Foe” Web Bundle (162.5)
*Expressed as credits per dollar, valuing gold at 1.25 credits (shop rate) and tokens at 1.4 gold (modern Token Tuesday rate), and adding 25 credits for each new card and variant
Thank you for joining us as we aim higher, further, faster, and we will see you back here for a look at the December bundles in a month!