A Brief History of Teams in Marvel Snap
In March 2024, we got an Imbalance Patch, not too dissimilar from the Patch Experiment we just had over the last two weeks. In this case we had a list of cards split up into two teams, the Avengers and the X-Men. It didn’t change the card’s abilities or stats, but it gave a bonus for playing as many of one team as you could. This incentivized you to build your deck a certain way, maximizing on Avengers or X-Men. There was actually a meta X-Men deck at the time, utilized in top ladder play.
This was our first taste of having teams or factions in Marvel Snap, something that is a standard part of other card games. People like to be able to synergize their decks with cards that are alike, and teams are a good way to convey that from both a flavor and gameplay perspective.
The August Datamine
Last month, seemingly unnoticed, we learned about cards that fit into six teams. Avengers, Thunderbolts, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Web Slingers, and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Each of these teams has with it 6 new card names. Each card was an existing Marvel Snap character combined with the team they represented, for example, DoctorStrangeAvengers. I saw a few people speculate that it could be a potential “High Evolutionary” situation, where the cards get new abilities unlocked somehow.
Another popular theory was that they would be Grand Arena champions. Neither of these theories made sense to me. The first one because dropping 36 new cards from a High Evolutionary esque card would be an insane amount of content to drop all at once, while them being Champions didn’t fit with the previous Grand Arena naming scheme. Without further ado, let’s have a quick look at the teams!
Avengers
- Captain America
- Doctor Strange
- Hawkeye
- Hulk
- Thor / Mjolnir
- Vision
Thunderbolts
- Ghost
- Sentry
- Taskmaster
- Toxie Doxie
- Valentina
- Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
- Drax
- Gamora
- Groot
- Mantis
- Rocket Raccoon
- Star-Lord
X-Men
- Cyclops
- Jean Grey
- Jubilee
- Nightcrawler
- Professor X
- Wolverine
Web Slingers
- Agony
- Anti-Venom
- Ghost-Spider
- Scarlet Spider
- Spider-Man 2099
- Symbiote Spider-Man
Brotherhood of Mutants
- Lady Deathstrike
- Magneto
- Mystique
- Scarlet Witch
- Selene
- White Queen
The next piece of the puzzle was a single name, “Team Up”, which on its own means nothing. What could it be? Snappers who closely follow snap.fan datamines should have their spider-sense tingling over a single name in the files. A small datamine like that is how we first learned about “High Voltage” and “Snap Packs”.
This leaves us currently with 6 different teams and the name “Team Up”. Datamines don’t often give us the full picture, so we’d have to wait for more information to come.
The September Datamine
This month’s datamines have helped paint the picture that this is going to be a new game mode. Each of the teams grant you a bonus. So it appears that you are being incentivized to play as many cards from a faction or team as possible. Here’s the full list of each Team Up bonus:
- Avengers - Avengers at full locations have +X Power.
- Thunderbolts - Friendly Thunderbolts reveal with +X Power at locations you are losing.
- Guardians of the Galaxy - Give ALL cards that reveal at a marked location +X Power.
- X-Men - When you first fill a location with X-Men, +X Max Energy.
- Web Slingers - The first time a friendly card moves each turn, give the top card of your deck -X Cost and +X Power.
- Brotherhood of Mutants - End of Turn: +X Power to a friendly card at a location you are winning.
While we have most of the ability from the datamine we don’t have the crucial part, the part that explains how much Power they get! This makes it a little difficult to judge how good each bonus will be, but we get enough to understand the theme for each team.
In a great surprise, we also found stats and abilities for two whole teams! The Guardians of the Galaxy and the Thunderbolts. From this we can surmise that each card is getting a new version playable only in this game mode.
Thunderbolts
- Ghost 3/6 Costs 1 less for each location you are losing.
- Sentry 4/10 On Reveal: Add a -9 Power Void to a random location without a friendly Thunderbolt.
- Taskmaster 6/0 On Reveal: Set this card’s Power equal to the total Power of Thunderbolts you played last turn.
- Toxie Doxie 2/2 On Reveal: Give 2 characters in your hand +2 Power. You can’t play them next turn unless they’re Thunderbolts.
- Valentina 2/-1 On Reveal: Add a random Thunderbolt to your hand. Give it -1 Cost.
- Winter Soldier 1/7 You can only play this at a location you’re losing.
Guardians of the Galaxy
- Drax 4/6 On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, double this card’s Power.
- Gamora 5/7 On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, destroy their lowest-Cost card here.
- Groot 3/7 On Reveal: Discard a non-Guardians card from your hand unless your opponent played a card here this turn.
- Mantis 1/1 On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, give a Guardian in your hand -2 Cost.
- Rocket Raccoon 1/2 On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, draw a Guardians card.
- Star-Lord 2/3 On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, give friendly Guardians +1 Power.
It looks like Guardians retain their identity of getting a bonus whenever you play it in the same lane as an opponent, but change it up from the standard extra Power, to more varied abilities. The Thunderbolts seem to want to be played together as much as you can, while also working with some sort of “if you are losing here” theme.
Predictions
We have a few pieces of info so I’ll have to try and fill in the blanks with some personal theories. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw these teams was the tabletop game “Smash Up” and the Magic the Gathering product line called “Jumpstart”. What do these two games have to do with Marvel Snap? Each of those features gameplay where you take two halves of a deck and shuffle them together to create your deck. Why is that relevant? Each of the six datamined teams have exactly six cards… that’s half of a Marvel Snap deck!
My prediction for how Team Up will work is that we will start each game with a deck made from two randomly decided teams. That way every game will be unique. It also would feel a lot like the preconstructed decks from Grand Arena, which lots of people wanted to be the only way to play the mode, rather than have opponents steamroll them with their metagame built decks.
I wasn’t sure what the game mode twist was going to be that kept it fresh and interesting, but seeing that there will be potentially 36 new cards only in the mode, you’ll want to keep playing to see all the different deck combinations and how they interact with each other. Just look at the Guardians/Thunderbolts deck above and you’ll see how compelling a random deck can be!
Final Thoughts
A lot of people are anticipating an eventual “Draft Mode.” In Magic the Gathering we call that a “limited format”, as you are limited in what cards you can deckbuild with. But drafting isn’t the only type of limited format. My theory for what Team Up could be would also fall into that category, and it’s something I’ve personally been hoping we’d see in this game for a while. The idea that anyone can pick up and play Snap is something that I feel like we’ve been losing since the game started, so a limited mode would help level the playing field between old players, and new and returning ones.
How’s my theory sound? Do we think I’m close? Let me know your thoughts about the Team Up related datamines. Check out our datamine articles to see everything we found about Team UPs.