Burning Questions
Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, a weekly look at the hottest topics in Marvel Snap! This week we got a new game mode and Thursday brought not one, but two OTAs! Let's dive in!
1) What was the most impactful change from the OTA?
Undoubtedly the change to Joaquin Torres is the biggest buff. The several hits Surtur took are also impactful, but putting Joaquin at 2-Cost is a major change. With Surtur gone, bounce may fill the void as a high stat output deck. That it can occasionally dodge most Bullseye hits is a bonus. It remains to be seen if it can out-point-slam the resurgent Hela archetype.
New Joaquin!
2) What do you think of Sanctum Showdown?
I love it. Unlike Deadpool's Diner it's different from regular Marvel Snap and unlike High Voltage it has depth. The rewards are obviously amazing, with most people able to get 3 or more new cards and a bunch of other stuff, but I actually like the gameplay.
Pros
- It's fun! There is tension and drama and many games feel tight and competitive.
- It's deep. The strategy and skill expression is higher than I'd anticipated. There are important decisions to make each turn.
- For example, knowing when to sandbag a turn to optimize for following turns is an essential skill.
Cons
- The cap of 12 Scrolls is unfortunate. You can have more than 12 from Twitch drops or buying them in the charm shop but you won't have any regenerate over that cap naturally.
- Some people started with 0 Scrolls due to a glitch. It was relatively easy to resolve by restarting, but there's no chance to make a second first impression.
- Deck diversity. I actually think this is a smaller problem than most. Sure, there hasn't been a ton of diversity, but we've had ladder metas that were worse. The card I was most concerned with, Scream, was going to get her own section in the Cons, but they banned her along with Cannonball, Negasonic, Makkari, and Rocket and Groot.
- Personally, banning Scream was the correct decision, but I'm not sure if banning the others will diversify the meta or actually narrow it even tighter between Guardians decks and move decks.
So far, I love the mode and think it's easily the best limited time mode we've had. Just like the previous ones, I do think it's best as a temporary mode, but I'll be happy to see this one return.
3) What's the best emote in the Sanctum Shop?
All three are cool. Sinister feels like he would be very useful and Jeff is obviously adorable, but you can't beat Fenris the absentminded scientist!
4) Q: Regarding the new text on Alioth and Gwenpool, I understand the "characters" keyword is meant for upcoming features, but does that mean that they still affect things like Rocks, Vibranium, and Kate Bishop's arrows even though they aren't characters?
A: Yes; these cards are still considered "characters," as the change is just to text and not to current function. We recognize that's weird.
-Glenn
Author's note:
What are they talking about here with characters and keywords?! Well, if you looks closely at the OTA patch notes you'll find this:
“Savvy folks might notice some small changes in language for these cards in this OTA. These adjustments create no functional changes currently, but with the upcoming Prehistoric Heroes Season, skills will be introduced to the game. These are cards whose functionality will be slightly affected by the introduction of that new card type. Stay tuned for our patch notes on March 4 for more details.”
So, essentially, we are getting a new card type: skills. Everything we have so far counts as “characters,” including, weirdly, rocks, Kate Bishop’s arrows, the Helicarrier, vibranium, and copies of other characters. The new type of card, skills, most likely refers to the cards that March season pass card Agamotto generates.
5) Q: Professor X now in game says “Characters” instead of cards. You mentioned skills coming next season. Does this mean you can play said skills on prof x lanes?
A: We did not intend for Professor X's text to change in the OTA. We'll be reverting that in a future update.
For full transparency, it is a change the team was/is looking at for the future.
-Griffin
Author's note:
Interesting! They debated allowing you to play “skills” into the Professor X lane! It will be interesting to see what skills we get in the game and how extensive that mechanic is!
Whew! What a busy few days! Let me know what you think of the changes to Sanctum Showdown in the comments!