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Marvel Snap March 21, 2023 update: Cards, General, Balance Updates and more

Marvel Snap introduced its latest update on March 21, 2023! The patch features the Series Drop, a handful of card balance updates to shake up the meta, card acquisition changes, and bug fixes.

Key Highlights of Marvel Snap March 21 update

  • More Tokens: Players who have not yet finished Series 3 will now earn 4x more Tokens than before.
  • Shop Update: Cards can now be acquired from the Shop in two different sections:
    • Choose your Card: Series 3 cards have been separated into their own shop section. Instead of purchasing one Series 3 card a month with tokens, players can now choose one Series 3 card to unlock each month for free! So, save those tokens for Series 4 and Series 5!
    • The Token Shop: The Token Shop now contains only Series 4, Series 5, and Ultimate Variants.

General Updates

Seasonal Series Drop: Some cards have dropped down to a lower series!

  • Cards dropping from Series 5 to Series 4:
    • Zabu
    • Sauron
    • Shanna
    • Dazzler
    • Shadow King
  • Series 4 to 3:
    • M’baku
    • Orka
    • Attuma

When you tap on a card for more details during a match, the big card detail screen now features Artist Credits and Card Mods.

Audio changes

  • New Card Sounds for:
    • Thanos
    • Nimrod
    • Master Mold
    • Negasonic Teenage Warhead
  • New Location Sounds for:
    • Morag
    • Bar Sinister

Moreover, the almighty Thanos now has VFX along with all of the Infinity Stones.

Card Updates in Marvel Snap March 21, 2023 update

Thanos: 6/11 -> 6/10

Develeopers have increased Thanos’s Power in a previous patch that was built during a time when Zabu and Silver Surfer were suppressing the success of Thanos-based decks. We’re happy to keep him at 9+ Power for Shang-Chi’s sake, but given his recent success, we thought it appropriate to pull back on that buff just a touch. This change won’t dramatically impact the success of Thanos decks, as most of the strength is in the Stone interactions.

Marvel Snap Into the Quantum Realm update
Image via Nuverse

Space Stone: On Reveal: Next turn you can move 1 card at this location. Draw a card.

This is among the strongest Stones in Thanos decks due to its ability to create bonus Lockjaw triggers and disguise where strong cards might move. This change reduces its efficacy with Lockjaw by removing the incentive to play Space Stone itself for a Lockjaw trigger, flattening the number of bonus trigger opportunities for Lockjaw, and restricting the strategic options for late-game movement. Developers expect this to reduce the tactical flexibility of Thanos decks and make them more fun to play against.

Quinjet: Now reduces costs to a minimum of 1

Cost reduction is powerful, and Quinjet was one of the very few cards capable of reducing multiple cards’ Energy cost to 0. While players have enjoyed this interaction in some cases, such as The Hood’s Demon, ultimately it creates both an ongoing risk for future design space as well as fueling the dominant Thanos decks of today. This change should be a meaningful net reduction in strength to Thanos decks across the board.

Red Skull: 5/15 – Ongoing: Enemy cards at this location have +2 Power

This change is singularly aimed at reducing the strength of combining Red Skull with Shuri and Taskmaster. Outside of those interactions, this change is mostly a buff to the base case usage for Red Skull, giving you 9 or 10 Power at crowded locations rather than 7 or 9.

She-Hulk: 6/10 -> 6/9

She-Hulk is a key component in the strongest Shuri decks, but it sees widespread play in various decks thanks to its strength alongside Sunspot, Wave, and Moon Girl. The players mostly think that’s cool, but that she’s more powerful than she needs to be for those combos. In addition, we want to encourage playing actively to locations, rather than holding cards for explosive turn 6s, so devs are continuing to weaken a few of the best cards for the latter.

Marvel Snap Spider Man Venom Cover, Marvel Snap March 21 2023 Update
Image via Nuverse

Aero: 5/7 – On Reveal: Move all enemy cards played this turn to this location

Aero is a tricky card for players. The actual game balance for Aero has been healthy, and she fulfills a vital role in our game by providing interaction, especially against dangerously polarizing cards like Galactus. It’s important for Aero to be versatile and strong in order to be a widely playable “tech card,” but devs don’t want her pushing the majority of other 5-Cost cards out of decks.

Unfortunately, that’s the behavior devs are seeing. Aero can also be frustrating to see, denying players the option to play their own endgames. This change seeks to keep Aero strong where she’s needed, foster more competition among 5-Cost cards, and add counterplay to make her more fun to play against.

Mystique

Mystique, Absorbing Man, and Taskmaster – These cards now require the previously played card to be in play in order to copy its attributes. Here are their updated templates:

  • Mystique: On Reveal: If the last card you played has an Ongoing, copy its text. (if it’s in play)
  • Absorbing Man: If the last card you played has an On Reveal, copy its text. (if it’s in play)
  • Taskmaster: On Reveal: Set this card’s Power equal to that of the last card you played. (if that cards in play)

This adjustment is part balance, part matching expectations. A meaningful chunk of Taskmaster’s strength in Shuri decks is his ability to copy a card’s Power even if it’s been destroyed by Shang-Chi or similar, an interaction that somewhat often gets reported as a bug. Hopefully, this change weakens Shuri decks slightly and more cleanly matches players’ intuition when they see these cards for the first time.

Morbius: Morbius’s Power no longer updates in-hand or in-deck, only at a location

The future improvements discussed above will also apply to Knull, but until devs make them he will continue to function differently relative to Devil Dinosaur and others. The reason for this is that it’s very important for Knull players to be able to quickly and precisely calculate his Power while making endgame decisions about their 6-Cost card.

As a placeholder adjustment, Knull will no longer update his Power in your deck, so his functionality with Mister Negative will be the same as his fellow Ongoing cards. Notably, he will use his potential Power for effects like The Peak location until devs are able to make our desired improvements–that’s a trade devs have decided to accept for improving the general use cases of Knull.

Widow’s Bite (text-only): While this is in your hand, cards in your deck cannot be drawn

Widow’s Bite inaccurately described its in-game effect. While devs considered updating the effect of Widow’s Bite to only prevent drawing your own cards and effects like Cable from drawing your cards, devs ultimately decided it was a better experience to just simplify the text and keep the current effect rather than create these edge cases.

Bug Fixes and Optimizations in Marvel Snap March 21, 2023 update

  • Cards created by Sacred Timeline no longer retain power/energy alterations when copied to the player’s hand.
  • Fixed an issue that would cause some players, who had not played for several months before updating to the latest build, to see Battle Mode as locked.
  • You can no longer see un-owned cards’ abilities when toggling the artist view in the Collection.
  • You can no longer click objects behind the Retreat UI.
  • When inbox messages are long, characters no longer disappear.
  • Fixed another instance of Attilan VFX getting stuck on screen when it activates.
  • The end-of-round UI/VFX now plays in the correct order when an opponent retreats.
  • SFX now appears when collecting a card from a Collector’s Reserve.
  • Clicking Gold/Credits from within the card detail view now take you properly to the shop.
  • X-Mansion and Nova Roma now have text when they’re featured on the Carousel.
  • Jessica Jones’ VFX should move with her now when she moves to another location.
  • The Raft’s card VFX no longer goes towards the player who did not receive the card.
  • Fixed an issue that would cause card descriptions to disappear when focusing a card in Fast Upgrade and then one in the Collection screen.
  • Cards that lose their ability due to Leech no longer get that ability back if they’re pulled back in play by another card.
  • Daredevil VFX no longer gets stuck on screen if a player retreats during turn 5.
  • Claimed text UI banners no longer overlap with Season Caches.
  • Increased the size of some fonts in Thai that were too small in certain UI elements.

Known Issues List

  • The game can crash on some Android devices when switching languages.
  • If Morph spawns randomly (eg: via X-Mansion) and copies Kang, there is an infinite loop.
  • It can be difficult to interact with the emotes in-match on some devices.
  • The Season Pass spotlight card text is too large in some languages.
  • Set as Favorite icon overlaps with the text icon in some languages.
  • The Series 3 Token Shop does not display properly when you have collected all Series 3 cards.
  • If you have the Series 3 card focused when the shop rolls, the screen will be blank for a moment.
  • Tapping duplicate Kang’s in play while the turn is rewinding will cause that card to disappear.
  • Banner VFX displays the wrong turn timer when Kang rewinds time.
  • It can be hard to add or delete letters in the deck name on Android.
  • Spotlight cards in the Season Pass UI can only be focused by tapping on the lower-left of the card.
  • The reconnecting text doesn’t show all the time when Reconnecting to a Friendly battle.
  • Credit/Gold deep linking does not navigate to the shop from the Reward/Mission detail view.
  • Two players snapping on the same turn can cause the displayed energy pips to be incorrect.
  • Several UI elements display with empty info for a brief moment when switching to the shop screen.
  • Sandman and Electro may not visually show the power on a location if the location is locked down.
  • Some text is hard to read/missing in the Russian language.

Balance Changes in Marvel Snap March 21, 2023 update

Devs found it harder to anticipate the metagame shifts during the past month due to unanticipated changes to Zabu and Silver Surfer, and due to technical limitations, they were unable to make timely modifications. Thanos developed into one of the most powerful decks during that time; the Mad Titan had truly been held back by his poor matchups against Zabu and Surfer.

Another notable winner in this tournament was a Shuri-based deck, and both of these archetypes have outperformed our expectations for game balance. The changes in this patch are meant to put things back in order and weaken each of them. Devs continue to research upgrades and enhancements to both our balance technology and our approach to scheduling modifications, and devs anticipate sharing those findings with you in the near future.

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