Hide your cards! Hide your favorite decks! It is once again time for an OTA balance update in Marvel Snap (Free), and this one isn’t even pretending to be nice about what it’s after. The only question is, will it be enough or will certain very strong decks continue to wreak havoc? To sort that out, we’ll first have to go over the many changes that came with this latest patch. To the Shaun Cave!
This OTA update hits a wide array of targets, but if it seems to have one deck in particular in mind, it’s the Hela Discard deck that has been running rampant for a while now. The first of the changes sees Hela’s ability weakened. Now when she brings back discarded cards, they’ll take a -2 Power penalty. Frankly, a small setback for this card. Black Knight’s Ebony Blade loses its aspect that prevents its Power from being reduced, too. And perhaps slightly related but more of a general change, Red Hulk goes from 6-Cost 9-Power with a +4 gain from his ability to 6-Cost 10-Power with a +3 gain from his ability. He’s now in Shang-Chi strike range and has less potential Power. Ouch.
The next kind of deck that is being tweaked here is the Lockdown type. Professor X is a staple of these decks, given he is the Lockdown king. Or, he was. Charles gains a point of power, now a 5-Cost 2-Power card instead of a 5-Cost 1-Power card, but the nerf to his ability is considerable. Instead of a full Lockdown on a location, his ability now offers a loophole for moving cards in and out of the spot. I… think this ruins Chuck? There were already good tools for countering him, so I don’t know that this was really necessary.
Following closely behind, Cannonball is taking a mild hit. He loses a point of power, going from 5-Cost 8-Power to 5-Cost 7-Power. His ability remains unchanged for now. This is another one that I question the need for, as Cannonball’s main use was as a chaser for Professor X and those days are now finished. In other move news, Stegron gets a buff and his ability is now more predictable. He goes from 4-Cost 6-Power to 4-Cost 7-Power, and his ability now specifically moves an enemy card one location to the right. This is probably going to work in his favor, but we’ll see how it shakes out.
A few more buffs round things out. Gilgamesh is the current Season Pass card, but you wouldn’t know it from playing the game. I’ve barely seen him show up at all, and I guess I’m not the only one as he is moving from 5-Cost 7-Power to 5-Cost 9-Power with no changes to his ability. Shanna and Captain America also enjoy some stat buffs. Shanna goes from 3-Cost 2-Power to 3-Cost 4-Power, and Cap goes from 3-Cost 2-Power to 3-Cost 3-Power. No changes to either character’s ability.
So what does this all add up to? My prediction is that Hela Discard decks will keep right on marching, with perhaps the addition of Luke Cage to remove the power penalty to Hela’s resurrections and potential losses for the Ebony Blade. Professor X is in big trouble now, while Cannonball and Red Hulk will likely maintain their popularity even slightly weakened. The Gilgamesh buff is absolutely needed, and I think it’s okay to give Stegron, Shanna, and Captain America a little extra power and see what happens.
It’s one of those balance updates where you can understand most of the changes, but it’s going to really sting for people who have built their strategy around Professor X. And just from a narrative standpoint, I feel like the new implementation of Charles’ ability doesn’t really capture his power. Well, what can you do? What do you think of this update? Let us know in the comments below!
