Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
It’s another week and Marvel Snap is seeing its latest changes roll out with a September 28 balance update. This week’s changes to the Marvel card battler saw Galctus take a whipping with the nerf bat again. Moreover, the developers feel that Kitty Pryde is a little too close to becoming a top meta card again, so she took a nerf in anticipation of changes ahead that could benefit her a bit too much. Psylocke, Squirrel Girl, and Snowguard Hawk were also on the slate, so see what kind of changes were made in this latest set of patch notes!
Second Dinner rolled out the September 28 changes to Marvel Snap alongside its patch notes on the game’s website. Galactus sat at the top of the changes, mostly due to the arrival of Alioth. The team expected synergy between the two, but Galactus’ performance alongside Alioth threatened to make him the kind of threat he was before previous major nerfs. Other changes can be seen below:
We expected Alioth to find a fast home in Galactus decks, which wasn’t a problem in and of itself. Exciting new cards shouldn’t hit the cutting room floor because existing cards might like them too much, especially if that card is Galactus–the whole reason we reworked him was to give us a knob that could rein him in. Given his metrics spiked well outside our acceptable range for over a week, we’re taking a harder line with this change than usual based on the impact we need. We liked Galactus right where he was before Alioth, so that’s our target range for his performance.
Kitty has been places. She’s seen things. And it’s been a fun ride! Kitty was an integral player in the metagame’s best deck at least four different times, and each of those decks was meaningfully distinct from the rest. That’s a pretty rare feat, and speaks to her raw strength as a card that both eats excess Energy and has cool mini-combos, like Angela and Hulkbuster. However, as we continue to make similar synergies, we want other cards to get their opportunities to compete with Kitty. This change is a little preemptive, as we expect Kitty would be too strong in October without it, and we’ll likely continue to explore different executions of Kitty for a future patch.
We’ve had this change internally for a while, but we wanted to wait and see how the dust settled on some of the live decks that play with Energy ramp and Cost reduction. We hope Psylocke can eventually join the Electro/Magik/Wave crowd as another common way to push for big plays. Ideally she maintains a distinct identity from those options as a 2-Cost card that offers different curves and deck design opportunities.
Like Mysterio and Shanna, Squirrel Girl’s total power has been on the low side for how much space she takes up among your locations. She’s largely been confined to supporting early Ka-Zar decks for new players and Death-based decks in competitive play. We’re glad to have her continue on in both of those roles, but she’s a fun and appealing enough card to give a little bit more Power to see if she can find more homes. She’s been acting pretty spooky since this change, though–you should be careful walking through Central Park next month.
We’re happy that Snowguard’s rework brought her in from the cold. However, the bulk of her strength has proven to be in concert with Loki and The Collector, where the extra cards she generates are the primary reward and the auroras are secondary. We don’t mind that much–the auroras are situational themselves–but they don’t need to be so efficient in that case, either. The Bear is gaining more Power because his effect has proven by far the weaker of the two.
This change is the first of a larger series of adjustments you’ll see go live in next week’s patch, as we shift the Cost and Power of several small cards that add cards to your hand to get a more diverse spread of enticing options for different goals and playstyles.
With these changes in the book, keep up with our Marvel Snap coverage on the topic for looks at best card synergy guides and the latest updates to the game, right here at Shacknews.