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Starting Off Strong
There are many different elements to Marvel Snap’s Draft mode that I could focus on when it comes to improving your strategy and getting better results, but I think one of the most important ones is simplistic, and that’s getting off to a strong start. When you’re building your draft deck the very first decision you make, picking your first set of 3 cards, can potentially have the biggest impact on your whole run.
The Options
Right now there are two main things you have to consider about your starter selection outside of the specifics of the individual cards and that is the archetype tag you see below the cards and the color signaling their rarity. With archetypes it’s usually pretty self explanatory what they do whether they be direct keywords like Move and Ongoing or are more generalized terms like Swarm that refer to strategies that fully fill up all lanes. The reason this decision is so important is that the algorithm for Draft will be factoring in your first pick when it gives you more card options to choose from as you’re completing your deck.
So if I pick a move archetype starter pack it will be a lot more likely to see more move focused offerings in my subsequent picks. That’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t mix and match multiple archetypes, since that can be both fun and effective, but it’s worth really thinking about those options and the impact they will have on your later picks. So if you want your deck to get as many move cards as possible you should stick to offerings with the move tag on them to have better odds of finding more synergy in that specific archetype.
Rarity
Rarity is also something you have to consider though it’s a much easier choice by comparison. As far as I’ve experienced all rarity means when it comes to your starting pick is how likely this specific group of cards is to show up. With Common, Rare, and Epic being the ones you see most often. This system helps keep each draft exciting since you never know when you’ll see a more rare pick on offer and that scarcity can make it all the more meaningful when you find one that has some of your favorite cards. Who knows you might even find some powerful legendary ones too once in a blue moon.
Understanding Your Archetype
One of the most common pieces of advice I give to people in any card game is that feeling comfortable with a specific deck or archetype can often be more important than just attempting to play a deck with good winrate stats that you aren’t as familiar with. This is something that I think remains especially true in Draft since having that base line of familiarity will make it easier to make decisions regarding what cards you do and don’t want, as well as identifying augments and interactions that have more powerful synergy.
So especially in those first few games you play in Draft I’d suggest aiming for a starter set that uses cards you have a decent bit of experience with if possible. Due to the random nature of the offerings that won’t always be an option, but sometimes trying something new for the first time in this format can be its own kind of fun learning experience.
Though there’s also nothing stopping you from building a Draft deck and then going into one of Snap’s regular modes with something similar just to get a feel for how it plays. Even if it’s not the exact same, sometimes that bit of familiarity or new understanding of how cards interact together can be exactly what you need to know to get a key win later on in your Draft run!
Good Curves Win Games
To close things out for this article I want to touch on another core principle that you probably know from normal Snap, and that’s being able to curve out your cards each turn is what wins games. Marvel Snap is a game all about numbers so more often than not getting some points on the board is going to be better than getting no points on the board. Being conscious of your deck’s energy curve is one of the best ways to make sure you have cards to play each turn to build up power in every location and ultimately win the game.
So the cost of the cards in my starter set is something I think about a lot, since it dictates what other number of each cost cards I might want when building the rest of my deck. For this reason I generally have a preference of choosing sets with more cards that cost 3 or less since cheaper cards provide you with a bit more flexibility with your later pick options. Additionally once you have your early game options accounted for it can be a bit more clear what other selections might be appealing in those higher cost slots.
Higher cost options can have value too though, as 4 or higher energy cards usually provide a clear powerful piece to build around like Sera in a deck that wants to play a bunch of cards on turn 6, or Gilgamesh for a Zoo deck focused around buffs.
The addition of upgrades and augments in Draft also can make high cost cards a little less risky than they are in normal Snap since these additions can provide them some cost reduction to play them more easily in the early game or enable playing them with multiple other cards in the same turn. One of my more favorite runs involved giving Cannonball a Gamma Lab Explosion augment where his power and cost were both set to 2. This made him both more powerful and flexible to play, but this augment was offered to me mid way through the run so I couldn’t initially plan around having it.
The Fundamentals Will Take You Far
If there’s anything you take away from this article it’s that even if Draft has a lot of differences from normal Snap, the gameplay is still built on that core Snap foundation we’re all familiar with. So the skills you’ve learned previously in Snap are still able to be leveraged here. Draft does reward experimentation and trying new things though, so finding a balance between using those fundamental skills while also learning how to apply that knowledge on the fly to Draft’s new unique elements is the key to having great success in this new mode.