The new season of Marvel Snap (Free) has arrived, bringing with it some cool new Thunderbolts-themed cards. As usual, it has also brought in some big balance changes to existing cards. The meta has been all over the place in some ways lately, but one thing has remained very, very consistent: Thanos rules. Developer Second Dinner has come for the Mad Titan before with very little in the way of results, but it’s coming in for another swing in today’s OTA patch. Will this be the one that sticks? Or will it just be more dust in the wind? Let’s look at the details of this and other balance changes in Marvel Snap‘s latest update.
Two cards have been tweaked in an effort to stop the rampage of Thanos-themed decks, with a rare adjustment to the big guy himself being one. Thanos’ stats remain the same, and he still shuffles the Infinity Stones into your deck at the start of the game. But he now starts in your opening hand every time. That might not seem like much of a nerf, but Thanos is typically the least powerful tool in a Thanos deck, so forcing him into the hand no matter what puts some focus on him while also basically taking up a spot in your hand that can’t be played for at least a few turns. We’ll see how this changes things, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle today.
The Time Stone, fresh off its last nerf, is getting hit with the bat yet again. The recent change to its ability made it so that upon reveal you would get draw a card and give it -1 Cost. Well, the deal has changed again. Now when you play the Time Stone, its On Reveal ability will give Thanos -1 Cost next turn and draw one card for you. This pushes it towards Second Dinner’s stated goal of putting more focus on Thanos in decks that he is part of, but it also weakens it even further for general purposes. Will this finally be the form of the card that sticks?
The next card to get weakened surprises me a little, because I personally haven’t run into it very often while playing. Miek has apparently been helping rack up wins like wild since his ability was tweaked a little while ago, and that means his neck is on the line now. This one is just a small stat change, however. Miek goes from a 1-Cost 1-Power card to a 1-Cost 0-Power card. His ability remains intact, so you should still be able to power him up fairly well in a Discard deck.
Okay, that’s all the negative stuff. Let’s move into the buffs for this update. Three cards got unqualified improvements, and I think the biggest winner here is Crossbones. He was a 4-Cost 8-Power card with the limitation of only being able to be played at locations you’re already winning. Well, he’s been given a stat boost and is now 4-Cost 10-Power, bringing him into the upper Power ranks and directly into competition with Cull Obsidian in terms of value to a deck. I expect to see Crossbones a lot from here on out.
Sabretooth gets a smaller buff, but a valuable one. Before he was 3-Cost 4-Power, and now he’s 3-Cost 5-Power. There are so many useful cards for a Destroy deck that it was hard to find a spot for Wolverine’s nemesis, but this might help push him back into the mix. The last improvement is more of a reversion, with Angela going from 2-Cost 2-Power and +1 Power when a card is played at her location to 2-Cost 0-Power and +2 Power when a card is played there. You know, like before. So get those Kitty Pryde and Silk dance shoes on, along with all your favorite Move deck buddies.
Oh, and there’s one last thing in here before we go: a location buff. The Baxter Building used to offer +3 Power at other locations to the player who was winning it. It now offers +4 Power, for obvious reasons. And that will do it for this update. What do you think? Are you adjusting your decks as we speak? Is Crossbones your new Crossbro? Let us know in the comments!
