Let's discuss what has changed this month!
There's a lot, so let's get right into it!
Series Downranks
There were fewer series drops than I personally expected, but it it was it is. Silver Surfer moving down to s4 was expected (next month should be Zabu). Senty has not been a well performing card, so take it for what it is. Knull is in a similar boat...and see below for Darkhawk!
From s4 to s3, I expected more. Coulson is the best of the 3, but being s3 complete is good in general!
The biggest takeaway here is the implications that the series drops are one per month. There was some underlying fear of "what if this first series drop is unique, and the next won't be for 3 more months?". But this all but confirms the plan moving forward is to do it monthly.
Game Changes
Card Balance
Darkhawk: [4/1] -> [4/0]
This is an old "change decision" from prior to the Zabu/Surfer nerfs...seems not too relevant.
Thanos: [6/8] -> [6/11]
They are sad Thanos himself isn't played much? Giving the deck an added power play seems absurd to me. If they wanted to do this, they should have nerfed stones alongside it.
Sandman: [4/1] -> [5/5]
This is interesting. Sandman is far more powerful himself as he is not costing you significant power to play, but he only impacts one turn (or 2 after a Magik). I like the change, but we'll see how it plays out. Obviously great vs Sera and She Hulk decks.
Spider-Woman: [5/7] -> [5/8]
Solid change, but still may not be enough to make her truly worth playing.
Namor: [4/5] -> [4/6]
I'm not a fan of Namor, but I may be alone here. This is still a good change to happen.
Dagger: [2/1] -> [2/2]
I'm also not a fan of Dagger, but again, power buffs on underplayed cards is a good thing.
Misc. Other Change
Text-Only Update to Yondu: Destroy the top card of your opponent’s deck.
I love it. They do clarify that Wolverine and Colossus don't truly get their effect while in deck, so they won't work with it. I wish they'd change that, honestly.
Sakaar: After this turn, put a card from each player’s hand here.
This is a solid change to make things less awkward. Previously, if Sakaar pulled Wave, Wave's effect would be active for the current AND next turn. With this change, it will only be in effect for the next turn (and you also gain some agency knowing it will happen before it does, and can change plays if needed as a result - don't play Sunspot to the lane if Carnage is in hand?).
Absorbing Man with Wong now functions correctly. Cards like Angela and Bishop (and locations) have had their text updated to say "after". Some generally good things to fix.
"Boosters from matchges now are 2x more likely to target cards that need more boosters to be upgraded."
This was not listed in the patch notes, but shared by a dev on discord. I LOVE this change!
New Bundles for March!
There's a lot of 'em...some implications of a new pattern for the future.
An April Fool's Day bundle just makes sense. Then we have a full week's worth of bundles, starting with Weekend1, then Daily1-5, then Weekend2, and a DailyFinale to top it off.
And quite interesting to me, we have "Token Tuesday" for every Tuesday in March. This could just be a series that will exist in perpetuity - we can hope at least! If this is the case and you want to buy every single one for a full year, that's a cost average of roughly 2400 gold per month.
Anyway, a ton here - some are variant focused, some token focused, some for gold, some for cash. Look around!
Upcoming Season Spoilers
While March was known in some circles, here's the image for March -
Nimrod has some cool interactions with say Galactus. Play Shuri on 4 and Nimrod on 5 (in the far left location), then Galactus on 6. The left will destroy first, creating a 10 power Nimrod in middle and right. After that, the other non-Galactus location will be destroyed, creating a 2nd Nimrod in the Galactus lane. Toss in a Wolverine for a t6 27-29 power Galactus lane.
And we, as of today, know April -
Hit Monkey has been a card much talked about as potentially busted since the summer, within beta communities. I'll be honest though, I have no clue what it is within the Marvel universe! He's wonderful finisher for a Sera Miracle list that's looking to drop multiple 2-drops on turn6. If you play 6 2-drops, he is getting +10 power and coming down as a [1/10] in essence. While that is the best case scenario, even with 4 cards played, it's still way above rate. But Sandman buff...
New Unreleased Cards
Stegron
Cool Zabu tech maybe? The fact it doesn't need to be played same turn seems quite strong.
J. Jonah Jameson
Crazy good battle mode card. Imagine playing this in the first round and emoting your opponent so that they cannot focus. Victory will surely be yours.
New Variants
New Variants to Game
Newly Available Variants
Footnotes -
Sorry for there being some complications with our first tournament. Don't worry, we have learned and are coming back in the future with things fixed!
And if you would like to see the post from Second Dinner, click here!