OTA Review
Marvel Snap just dropped the notes for today's OTA! A nice mix of cards got buffs, and one of the best season pass cards got a slight nerf! I'll walk you through what these changes mean and how to take advantage of them!
[Old] 2/3 - At the start of each turn, add an Incantation to your hand.
[Change] 2/3 > 2
Merlin is one of the strongest cards in the game, and almost certainly the best Season Pass card of 2025 (anything better than him got nerfed). I know I’m playing him in most of my decks. He definitely deserves a nerf, but he doesn’t enable anything toxic in the game; he’s just shutting out competition in his slot. With a 1-Power nerf, he’s still basically just as good, and this should open players’ eyes to how good it is to play Polymorph and Once and Future onto Merlin himself. It’s the kind of change that will have little impact, but that also means it’s definitely a change that should have been made.
Merlin is appearing in today's Featured Set based on Omalas’ recent tournament-winning deck! We got the notes early so that people could make an informed decision. Merlin is still worth your resources.
[Old] 4/6 - Activate: If you’ve had cards discarded and destroyed, afflict front-row enemy cards at each location with -2 Power.
[Change] 4/6 > 4/7
Fantomex was meant to be the payoff for the entirety of the Weapon X season. Fantomex isnt terrible but he’s certainly not been the exciting seasonal capstone he was designed to be. Hopefully, this prevents people from banishing him to their box of forgotten cards, and some people will continue to experiment with him.
We also got a trio of move changes as the reshaping of the Move archetype marches forward. I strongly feel that Fan Fei’s last change should have come with a 4/5 body, and it shows far too much timidity that they started her off at 4/4. Multiple Man and Vulture are great changes as they continue to try to diversify the move payoffs. With Human Torch nerfed, other move payoffs will need to rise. The goal is a move deck with multiple move payoffs instead of going all in on Human Torch/Tribunal, and these changes should help with that.
[Old] 1/2 - When this permanently gains Power, add Flames of the Faltine to your hand. (if in hand or in play)
[Change] 1/2 > 1/3
I love Clea! When she first released, I played a lot of her, but she definitely feels like she’s already fallen behind in this new massive point meta game we’ve been in for a while now. The extra point is nice, but they could have buffed Flames of the Faltine instead. I like using her with Marvel Boy, but she's also going to benefit from the upcoming Shang Chi card.
[Old] 4/6 - On Reveal: Copy the text of your deck’s top card.
[Change] 4/6 > 4/7
Iron Lad has two basic functions: redundancy and cheating. He can act as a redundancy to make sure you get your key combo piece. When used in this way, he enables some unwise stays when you really should retreat, but it’s a feature that brings some players a lot of comfort or can help with clip or combo hunting. His second use is to cheat something out earlier than you usually would be able to play it. This is where Iron Lad has fallen far behind. We have so many ramp options now, and he really doesn’t fit as a way to cheat out big cards. He’s far better at cheating out low-Power cards so that they can benefit from his larger body. This buff helps explicitly with that. Hitting an Iron Man or Brood with a 7-Power Iron Lad is significantly better than it was with a 6-Power Iron Lad.
[Old] 3/2 - On Reveal: Steal 1 Power from even-costed cards in ALL hands.
[Change] 3/2 > 3/4
How did this card get released at 3/2? Giving a card a full two-point buff (double its base power!) is a clear sign this card was performing poorly. Something is exciting about this card since it allows you to dust off some of your more rarely used cards, like Master Mold and Ronin. With two extra points of power, you can now have that fun without feeling like you’re just donating in the name of that joy.
[Old] 7/5 - Game Start: Choose 6 other cards in your deck. On Reveal: Transform those cards into copies of this.
[New] 7/5 - Game Start: Choose 6 other characters in your deck. On Reveal: Transform those cards into copies of this.
Skills are all the rage right now. With so many powerful skills running around, the Zombie Galacti were starting to feel left out! This change should make Galacti decks more powerful and give the deck a level of targeting on which cards are given the Galacti tag at the beginning of the game that can be exploited in interesting ways.
Final Rating - 4/4 Arrows
This might be a slightly smaller OTA than we’ve gotten used to lately, but it’s an ideal one in many ways. One of the best cards in the game got what amounts to a free nerf (exactly as should happen to powerful, but not oppressive cards). A classic archetype got a significant boost that will lead to new builds. A legacy card that has low utilization got a much-needed buff and will have people experimenting with him again, while three relatively recent cards got buffs that will make them a lot more fun to build around. Other than a Mantis or Rescue buff, I couldn’t really have asked for much more.
Hit the comments to let me know how you rate this OTA! What are you planning to build?