Burning Questions
Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, a weekly run through Marvel Snap's hottest topics. This week we got new cards that dish out buffs, had some reactions to those cards, and had the controversial release of one of Marvel's oldest vehicles. Let's go!
1) What are the best big buff decks?
It's early in the season, but it already feels like we have a BDIF (best deck in format). The new season pass card, First Steps Mr. Fantastic, has opened the floodgates on cheap green power. Decks that put out huge Sinister clones, fat Broodlings, and other cards of unusual size seem to be everywhere (alongside the decks best positioned to beat them; more on that below).
These decks are able to dodge Shang Chi with ease by throwing priority and/or growing big late. With the other new cards, H.E.R.B.I.E. and Fantasticar, also spreading buffs around, it's a big buff meta. But with so many different options of how and what to boost in the game, what are the best ways to leverage this extra power?
Classic
This is the most played Mr. Fantastic deck through three days. Right now the decks are especially greedy, but they are already starting to shift back towards some reactive cards like Cosmo, Juggernaut, Enchantress, and Shang Chi. Personally, I like to play Mysterio in my hand buff decks, while Iron Lad to high roll by hitting Mr. Sinister, Brood, or one of the powerful On Reveals is another fun, greedy option.
Surfer
A deck that has always had a variety of ways to leverage green power buffs can slide Mr. Fantastic right in is Silver Surfer. Sebastian Shaw and Brood are both such good buff sponges that you can now win games where you don't even draw the titular Silver Surfer. Surfer can adjust to the meta by focusing more on points or more on tech, depending on what it's facing. Mobius M Mobius is an especially good card right now that Surfer can play with less downside than other decks at the moment.
Car
It's not all tokens and natural buff sponges. There are so many ways that these cards can get buffs that the extra 2 power from Fantasticar at the end can push you to high numbers on the final turn, while still dodging Shang Chi. The above list is via Safetyblade, but there are also a lot of High Evolutionary based Car lists going around.
2) How can I counter the Hand Buff decks?
If power buff decks are so popular why aren't you winning all the time with them? As always, meta shifts happen fast in Marvel Snap and players are already positioning themselves to beat the dominant deck. Whenever a flexible, good, on rate deck like those mentioned above becomes dominant there are a few different boogeymen that rear their heads to either bring them down to earth or go over the top of them. The four horsemen of power check, Mr. Negative, Hela, Clog and Move Bounce, are here to power check all those green power buff decks, while Sera control is continuing to gain steam.
Sera control
Mister Fantastic and Surge have helped fuel a Sera resurgence that began last season. The relatively low amount of Alioth and the number of decks going for greedy power late has made Invisible Woman a must-include.
Clog
Not so much a full clog deck, much as a Werewolf deck with a clog annoyance package, this deck has been seeing a lot of play the past couple of days.
Negative
We see it every time mid-range decks start to get too greedy. Mr. Negative can put out more points than almost any deck in the game and it does so far more consistently than it used to. And far more consistently than I'm comfortable with!
Hela
It's not so much that Hela got better, but any meta that becomes about points attracts the interest of the Matriarch of Hel. There's been a devoted group, mostly following top player Denish, playing Hela to success recently already and the deck will continue to be a cube glutton until players adjust to it or Stardust comes out.
Move/Bounce
Move/Bounce is vulnerable to a lot of the same cards that the buff decks are vulnerable to, namely Shadow King and Killmonger behind Invisible Woman, but in the hands of an experienced pilot this deck can consistently put out more points than the buff decks can. This version comes from Thursday and is different from your standard stock Move/Bounce list. I definitely think there is merit to putting Mr. Fantastic into this deck. This deck is already decision-heavy, so if you decide to run the Killmonger in this be ready for some fast advance planning!
3) Do we need any more vehicles?
Following Fantasticar's controversial entry to Marvel Snap, we now have three inanimate vehicles in the game. Why stop at three? We could get Ghost Rider's Hellcycle, the X-Men's Blackbird, or the Punisher's Battle Van. Is Ghost Rider's motorcycle truly inanimate? What about specifically animate forms of transportation like Mirage's horse Brightwind. Here are some ideas for what these cards could do!
Hellcycle - 2/3
If your next card is played here, merge this with it.
After a card merges with this card, repeat that card's On Reveal.
I wanted the Hellcycle to potentially be useful with Ghost Rider, but also to feel like it's giving its rider a new life. There could be some interesting angles with the timing of the two On Reveals.
The Blackbird - 5/4
Return a random card here to each player's hand.
The Blackbird can zip people around at mach speed. It's inevitable that we eventually get an effect that bounces cards to your opponent's hand, but it's an extremely powerful effect, so they're likely to be cautious with it, so I built in some extra randomness that could lead to some hilarious results with getting each other's cards. I wonder if Snap would run into legal issues with Lockheed since the Blackbird was initially meant to be a modified SR-71 Blackbird.
Punisher's Battle Van - 4/4
Activate: Destroy all cards with power AND cost of 3 or less at this location.
Punisher uses his equipment to "deal with" street-level criminals. The van can be rigged to take a bunch of such threats out at once.
Brightwind - 2/2
On Reveal: Resurrect the lowest power discarded or destroyed card here (from either player) and give it +1 power.
In a nod to Brightwind's manipulation at the hands of Hela and his role in Dani Moonstar's ability to sense impending death, I chose an ability related to death and resurrection.
Now let's hop over to the official Marvel Snap discord and grab some developer Q and As.
4) Q: Hi Snap team! I was wondering how you go about choosing which cards come out in which order and in what method, especially for the normal series 5 releases.
- Using this season as an example, did you know Mister Fantastic would always be the pass card when you started designing them and created his ability with that in mind, or did you just build out the new Series 5 cards for the season, then choose which design would best fit as a pass card?
- For the rest of the cards, how do you determine who releases in what week? I can guess why Invisible Woman is last, but Herbie, Torch, and Thing could probably go in any order, or is there some secret method to the madness?
- You've mentioned a lot of the design is top down in the past, does this mean you always start designing for the season with the theme locked?
A: We usually pick the character and then work on the designs, though sometimes we make some swaps. For example, Dormammu was the Season Pass for last season at first, but traded places with Merlin eventually.
We select the card order based on a variety of factors, and those are unique each season. For example, starting with HERBIE gave players more time to learn all of his protocols ahead of Grand Arena.
Yes, we always figure out the season theme before starting design work. It might get tweaked, but that's rare.
-Glenn
Author's Note:
Top-down design is one of Second Dinner's greatest strengths, so it's not surprising they start with the character and work towards the ability. The majority of cards have a cool flavor fit with the character and are able to evoke that character in compelling ways. I'm curious why Dormammu shifted from Season Pass card to final card in the season. It's certainly an appealing card that would have attracted buyers to the season pass, but we've seen archetype enabling Season Pass cards fall flat in the past. It also seems like Second Dinner likes to end month with a big splash, so perhaps that alone accounts for Dormammu's repositioning.
5) Q: Can we get a commitment that a Kid Omega type situation won't occur again - that is to say, a LTGM won't have a reward that the team anticipates isn't earnable without other currencies?
A: Here's what we stated in our previous post about HV:O and Kid Omega:
"Our goal for all of these modes is to have something that players want to earn, regardless of their level of spend. Some events will be more focused on free-to-play rewards while others may include other rewards that provide more purchase value."
-Griffin
Author's Note:
Obviously, it's disappointing that Second Dinner hasn't felt like the fallout from the Kid Omega fiasco necessitates a new approach to limited time modes. One thing is abundantly clear: they feel the need to get more revenue from these modes than they had been. Grinding for a "discount" on a cash price is a terrible design and one that will continue to erode community sentiment and, even if it hasn't already, will cost the company money in the long term.
Hopefully they have data analysts skilled enough to control for the impact of the poor Kid Omega decision's knock on effect on everything from Sanctum Showdown engagement and Super Premium Season Pass sales to reception of future Marvel Snap features and even future non-Snap Second Dinner projects. I worry they're going to miss the hidden negative impacts that the Kid Omega fiasco that are going to continue for a long time. It's not a question of short term greed vs. long term profitability, it's a question of how well Second Dinner is going to be at actually analyzing the data that they have and we don't. Given their choices, I'm certainly skeptical.
That's it for this week! Come find me on Bluesky (@scosco) where I'll be giving out a couple of Season Passes this weekend!