Burning Questions
Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions! Each week we run through the hottest topics in Marvel Snap. This week we're talking about card strength, Spotlight variants, and cool combos!
1) Why are the recent cards bad?
I've seen complaints this week that Kahhori is bad. People were saying Captain Carter is one of the worst season pass cards in a long time. I've seen people say Agamotto is both too strong and too weak. Redwing needed a buff. Goliath is easily countered, Firehair is disappointing, Khonshu doesn't elevate discard in the way some hoped, and Eson, Starbrand, Thaddeus Ross, and Joaquin Torres aren't seeing much play, and on and on.
I don't think any of those cards are bad. Each of them does something interesting and powerful and each of them can be a part of a winning deck. The problem is that expectations grew so wildly out of control with overpowered cards like Sam Wilson, Iron Patriot, and other powerful season pass cards. There was a string of overpowered cards released that was driving power creep and changing the game in detrimental ways. There seems to have been a bit of an adjustment and that can only be good for the long-term health of the game. I agree that the metagame needs to be freshened up often with new card releases, but let's not demand that it swing wildly week to week. I'd rather it swing more on OTAs, but they went pretty safe on the OTA this week.
The new acquisition changes will also relieve some of this tension. By releasing more cards per season they don't need to be ridiculously overpowered to keep the game feeling fresh and it's more likely we'll avoid the one week “new card vs. hard counters” metagames that we currently experience so often. The new cards not feeling overpowered is a good thing since it means you can happily acquire just the ones that excite you from a gameplay perspective. None of the cards listed above feel totally “solved” either. Their win rates will rise for the players who spend time tinkering with builds and getting better with their play lines. They're not cards that you can just immediately plug into any deck to improve it. Cards that allow that have traditionally been among the more problematic in the game and it appears the development team is learning from that.
Here's a fun, winning deck each for (newly buffed) Redwing, Joaquin Torres, Captain Carter, and Kahhori. Each one takes advantage of the unique strengths of the card and rewards practice and repetition with the deck to get better with it.
Torres Bounce
Red Cloud
Get Carter Buff
Grand Daughters
2) What is going to happen to Spotlight variants under the new system?
Under the current acquisition system, the need to prepare special variants for any card returning to Spotlight caches created a lot of pressure. Having to get a new Hit-Monkey variant ready before he can return to spotlight caches, when most of the people using keys are crossing their fingers and hoping not to get it, seems like a waste of development resources. Not to mention the fact that in the scramble to make sure each returning card had a Spotlight variant, we often got variants that didn't exactly feel “Spotlight worthy.” One of the promises of the system was amazing new variants that you wanted to acquire and the system fell short of that. Not having to prepare these extra variants is one of the strongest positives of this new system. Still, it's cool to get a fancy variant for the brand new card. Is the Spotlight system going away entirely?
No. If you watched the recent developer Q&A video, you may have noticed the term “Spotlight” isn't going anywhere. There is still a New Card Spotlight and the Spotlight Card is the new Series 5 card released each week. Notice that Series 4 cards are excluded by this phrasing. This allows them to give us the extra series 4 cards without having to worry about getting enough art assets together. This allows them to choose more obscure characters, drop a bunch of them at once, and leave the Spotlight to feature the hot new Series 5 card.
Second Dinner has made it clear they're not going to commit to a specific strategy with Spotlight variants. That's smart because it allows them to remain flexible and avoid any broken promises.
Here's what I expect:
- They'll probably sell a variant for the new Spotlight card directly in the “Offers” section of the revamped shop.
- These might be purchasable with Tokens. I would guess something like 2000 Tokens, but I can imagine the price point being almost anything from 500-5000.
- They're likely to lean pretty heavily on feedback to determine what to do with older Spotlights. A rotating spot alongside the newest Spotlight variant makes a lot of sense, and makes them like “mini-ultimates.”
3) What's the craziest combo you saw this week?
Hey, check out this ridiculously fun Firehair deck from DarkMoogle and LaurenWhatevs!
4) Q: Locations like F.E.A.S.T. that say “ALL players” instead of “both players” have me wondering… will there be co-op or potential 2v2 Snap games in the future? Does that seem like something that would be interesting?
A: It's just a shorter word and locations are space-hungry. Not saying we'd never make such a mode, just that our grammar isn't indicative in either direction :) We have playtested some 2v2 variants, but that's all I'm saying!
-Glenn
Author's note:
Alliances have fallen short on improving the social aspect of the game, in my opinion, and 2v2 could help with that. That being said, there are some concerns with any mode that has more than 2 players and queues are at the top of that list. You could always inject bots into the system like that, but having one on your team doesn't sound especially fun. While 2v2 sounds novel, and I really hope they can keep coming up with game modes that feel different while still being fun, 2v2 sounds like a major development and logistical traffic jam. Still, additional players is a clear way to differentiate a mode, despite the inherent challenges. 1v1v1v1 or 2vCPU are other potential ways to make 2+ player games.
5) Q: If I updated the app on Tuesday 29, right after the weekly reset, could I get Agamotto and Eson in the Snap Packs?
A: For sure. Keep in mind the season doesn't end until May 6.
-Griffin
Author's note:
If you're missing some of the cards that will be moving down to the Collector’s Series 5 Packs and want to grab them before they move to a bigger pool, you'll have about a week to do so. This includes Agamotto, Eson, Starbrand, Firehair, and Khonshu. Whether or not this is optimal entirely depends on what you're targeting, how many cars there are in each of your Series 5 Snap Pack pools, and your resources. You can also get the cards from April 29th with Keys if you wait to update. This is something to keep in mind for two types of people. Those who have spare keys and are missing both Araña and Madame Web and whales who really want that Hydra Stomper variant. Most other people can happily wait.
That's it for this week! Come find me on Bluesky (@scosco) and head to the comments to share your opinions!