May 23rd – Balance Updates

This week is slightly heavier on nerfs and sideways changes than usual, as we’d like to reshape the existing metagame a touch. We’re hoping a couple of the existing top decks will slide into more even positions within the larger field. While the current metagame is fairly healthy on our internal metrics, it’s not as healthy as some have been and we’d like to aim more closely for those targets while keeping things fresh.

 

• Captain America
  • [Old] 3/3 – Ongoing: Your other cards here have +1 Power.
  • [New] 3/2 – Ongoing: Your other Ongoing cards here have +2 Power.

As you may have seen in various social media discussions, we’ve been reluctant to buff Captain America. The reasons for that aren’t necessarily obvious, but they include keeping the early game simple and maintaining existing tutorials. However, this change we eventually arrived at shouldn’t threaten either of those.  While Spectrum is a strong deck on the competitive side, the Spectrum deck performs worse for newer players with smaller collections. This should be a tidy buff to that archetype for early Series play.

 

• Spectrum
  • [Old] 6/7 – On Reveal: Give your Ongoing cards +2 Power.
  • [Change] 6/7 -> 6/6

Of course, the Cap change is a pretty decent buff to existing strong Spectrum decks too. We want these decks to hold a spot in the metagame, so we’ve given it a lot of rope while waiting to see if cards like Enchantress would be enough to fight back. However, the deck has remained a top performer and approached levels that would require a rebalance–that made the Cap buff above more dangerous, so this is a small compensatory nerf to keep things in balance.

 

• Luke Cage
  • [Old] 3/4 – Ongoing: Your cards can’t have their Power reduced.
  • [Change] 3/4 -> 3/3

One of the best cards in the top Spectrum decks, Luke Cage does extra work by also hampering afflict decks a bit, making it harder for them to contend for the metagame crown. A slightly weaker Luke Cage is good for these decks, and also paves the way to slot Luke into successful Cerebro shells once more.

 

• Baron Mordo
  • [Old] 2/3 – On Reveal: Your opponent draws a card. Set its Cost to 6.
  • [New] 2/3 – On Reveal: The top card of your opponent’s deck costs 6 until turn 6.

Baron Mordo has long been one of the weakest cards in Marvel Snap, often functioning as a worse Yondu for players in that the drawback could mean your opponent just gets a free card. This tweak to the original design maintains the disruptive intent, but makes sure the effect is more strictly negative for your opponent.

 

• Grand Master
  • [Old] 2/0 – On Reveal: Move one of your other On Reveal cards here to the middle location. Its ability happens again.
  • [Change] 2/0 -> 2/2

This is a significant but fairly straightforward change to a card beloved by many players that’s failed to find a role in the metagame. While we often aim cards high on release, Grand Master was a unique case where we felt our testing was unlikely to identify the best possible thing to do with the card–it’s just got so many potential applications. It turns out that we were too conservative, so we’re trying out a sizable buff.

 

• Werewolf By Night
  • [Old] 4/4 – After you play a card, move there to gain +2 Power if it has an On Reveal.
  • [Change] 4/4 -> 3/1

Werewolf By Night is a card we’ve been reticent to let live at 3-Cost, as the sheer amount of leaping can get out of hand fast. That said, in the months since its original release we’ve also seen a lot of strong and successful experimentation among 3-Costs, and Werewolf seems a lot more fair in today’s world than it did upon release. Plus, being able to start with a small amount of Power is more evocative of the werewolf canon we want the card to communicate (starting weak, becoming a monster).

 

• Leader
  • [Old] 6/2 – On Reveal: Copy the enemy card(s) with the highest Power played this turn, but on your side.
  • [Change] 6/2 -> 6/3

Probably not a lot of Leaders on the balance bingo cards at home, but this card has been languishing of late. We were hopeful that Leader’s stocks would rise with the release of Red Hulk, as that made Leader a clean answer to one of the best 6-Cost cards in the game, but that’s not what wound up happening. This buff isn’t likely to move the needle in a big way, and we wouldn’t want to–Leader’s not a card players enjoy seeing too often. Even so, there’s enough room to improve that we feel confident a point of Power will be a small, but helpful, bump.

 

• Leech
  • [Old] 4/2 – On Reveal: Remove the text from cards with On Reveal abilities in your opponent’s hand.
  • [Change] 4/2 -> 5/5

Speaking of unexpected outcomes, we’ve decided to take Leech back to 5-Cost. Our primary Leech target with the initial move to 4-Cost was Annihilus, though we did see value in strengthening one of the few answers to a handful of other powerful endgame threats. However, Annihilus wasn’t substantially affected by the increased presence of Leech, and the winrate for Leech itself grew higher than we’d hope to see against other strategies, narrowing the range of competitive viability with the game. Of course, we’ve also heard the public discontent around leaning this hard on Leech as a valve within the metagame, and we’ve determined we don’t want this card bearing that kind of weight. That said, 5/3 was just not really playable, so we’re giving back some more Power in an effort to keep Leech meaningful.

 

• Sentry
  • [Old] 4/10 – You can’t play this at the right location. On Reveal: Add a -8 Power Void to the right location.
  • [Change] 4/10 -> 4/8
• The Void
  • Change: 4/-10 -> 4/-8

We have determined it’s necessary to weaken the Annihilus shell in the interest of metagame health, and this adjustment is in pursuit of that goal. We’d hoped to avoid it entirely–Sentry at 10 Power is a more interesting card, especially with stuff like Skarr. To that end we’ve explored potential revisions to Annihilus instead, but weren’t able to find a change we could stand on confidently in time for this OTA. We may revisit Sentry later if that work proves more fruitful, but for now we’re just reducing some of the bite that combo packs by reverting Sentry to its original stats.

 

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That’s all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!