This Week’s Marvel Snap OTA Nerfs the Game’s Worst Prison Card

Marvel Snap‘s meta has gone by fairly a number of slumps. We’ve been stricken by Galactus, Alioth, and now Blob, and there’s all the time one explicit card that’s on the heart of all of it: Professor X.

With this week’s OTA update, Professor X is lastly getting a small slap on the wrist, although it’s price noting that his core potential stays the identical. Other than X, a number of different playing cards have additionally gotten small nerfs, together with Viper, Werewolf by Night time, Black Widow, and extra.

Listed below are the entire adjustments on this week’s OTA replace:

• Professor X
• [Old] 5/3 – Ongoing: Lock down this location. (Playing cards can’t be added, eliminated, and so forth.)
• [Change] 5/3 -> 5/1

It’s all enjoyable and video games once you’re curving Warpath into Destroyer… however that’s not likely what’s been occurring with Professor X recently. As we’ve pushed on the flexibility to entry further Power or assault places with out enjoying on to them, Xavier has turn out to be a centerpiece menace in decks aiming to aggressively limit the play house inside the recreation. As we mentioned when adjusting Galactus many moons in the past, that’s a dynamic we need to management rigorously.

Professor X decks are particularly efficient at preying on metagames in flux or sure featured places. These are each occasions after we’d desire gamers deal with the thrill of what’s potential vs. insulating themselves from the specter of a locked-down location. For now, we’re addressing that downside with a Energy discount that we hope is stern sufficient to make gamers strive tougher to threaten these sorts of wins.

• Werewolf By Night time
• [Old] 3/3 – After you play an On Reveal card at one other location, transfer there to achieve +2 Energy.
• [Change] 3/3 -> 4/4

Like Darkhawk, Werewolf By Night time affords a number of totally different decks an early supply of stress that’s exhausting to compete with. Werewolf’s additionally a card that’s exhausting to grasp, requiring gamers to navigate tips on how to finest depart open areas at their places in an effort to maximize Energy and the variety of places Werewolf can threaten. That’s robust sufficient that some Silver Surfer decks have even reduce Brood!

When a card’s power is sufficient to unseat foundational playing cards in different archetypes, that’s often a bit a lot. We thought-about many adjustments however wished to attempt to keep the thrill of leaping ferociously across the board with a significant menace. To perform that, we’re going to strive shifting Werewolf up the curve to 4-Price. This could take away a significant quantity of Power and time from the cardboard, and in addition convey Brood again in from the chilly.

• Black Widow
• [Old] 2/1 – On Reveal: Add a Widow’s Chunk to your opponent’s hand.
• [Change] 2/1 -> 3/3

Shifting Widow’s Chunk to 0/-1 was an efficient enhance to Black Widow’s power, and there are decks enjoying Widow at the moment that we’re comfortable to see. We’re much less proud of how straightforward and rewarding it’s to make use of Beast or some places to play Widow a number of occasions. Getting caught with a bunch of Widow’s Bites might be pretty irritating for lots of decks, so we’re shifting to a better Price to make that harder. That is pretty related in precept to the change we made a very long time in the past to Rockslide, shifting a card’s Price to boost the power ground however decrease the ceiling, and that change labored properly!

• Martyr
• [Old] 1/4 – On the finish of the sport, transfer to a location that LOSES you the sport. (if potential)
• [Change] 1/4 -> 1/5

It’s clear that we missed low on Martyr, so we’re coming in with a fast buff right here. Considered one of our learnings from Martyr has been higher gauging the worth of “easy” Energy, which has been devalued in lots of latest metagames. Decrease-Price playing cards are below lots of stress to offer Energy in higher-level play. That’s a dynamic we’re going to proceed exploring as we develop future content material.

• Viper
• [Old] 2/3 – On Reveal: Considered one of your different playing cards right here switches sides.
• [Change] 2/3 -> 3/4

Between Annihilus, Selene, and our adjustments to Luke Cage, decks centered on gumming up the enemy’s aspect of places with dangerous playing cards have obtained lots of new instruments. Because the deck positive aspects choices, generally it’s attention-grabbing to take a look at shifting across the present items to see the place the play patterns may change. Viper’s not a problematic card–our aim isn’t a nerf, however a change, and three/4 is attention-grabbing in that regard.

Nevertheless, our motivations for this transformation are largely an abundance of warning round Havok. We tried some flip 3/flip 4 Viper + Havok ourselves, and it didn’t impress. However rather a lot has modified since then: Loki and Elsa are weaker, Luke Cage gives much less sure safety for Havok, some then-dominant decks have even disappeared. As a result of the potential for that mixture of performs might be so unfun, we’re making this transformation to make sure it doesn’t exceed our expectations and warp the metagame. It’s additionally only a good alternative to experiment with shifting Viper to a unique value.

• Ronan the Accuser
• [Old] 5/3 – Ongoing: +2 Energy for every card in your opponent’s hand.
• [Change] 5/3 -> 5/5

The Accuser has been on our buff listing for months, however we waited to drag the set off for a number of causes. There was some concern about tips on how to finest push previous archetypes, we had been additionally contemplating a extra important rework, and ultimately buffing Ronan headlong into Loki simply didn’t appear proper. We determined to stay with one thing easy for now, including some Energy to create a extra significant 5-Price menace.

• Maximus
• [Old] 3/7 – On Reveal: Your opponent attracts 2 playing cards.
• [Change] 3/7 -> 2/6

As a further assist piece for Ronan, we’re delivering a buff to Maximus right here. Maximus was one of many early additions to Silver Surfer, offering lots of Energy effectively. As we’ve continued to launch 3-Price playing cards, particularly Daken and Sebastian Shaw, Maximus has struggled to earn that slot. We had been comfortable to see the discharge of Blob present a surge to Maximus, and we’ve determined to capitalize on that momentum and see if Maximus may even play a task in different decks.

• Gladiator
• [Old] 3/7 – On Reveal: Add a card out of your opponent’s deck to their aspect of this location. If it has much less Energy, destroy it.
• [Change] 3/7 -> 3/8

This can be a very related change to the one we’re making increased as much as Martyr. Gladiator has been extra profitable than Martyr, nevertheless it looks as if there’s nonetheless room to enhance right here. Along with usually bettering the cardboard, shifting Maximus out of the 3-Price slot will create a void for some Silver Surfer decks that did need entry to a considerable amount of Energy on-demand. That’s a possibility for Gladiator to flex some muscle tissues.

• Punisher
• [Old] 3/2 – Ongoing: +1 Energy for every enemy card right here.
• [Change] 3/2 -> 3/3

Punisher has been unnecessarily weak for some time. Nevertheless, as a part of the brand new participant expertise, we must be cautious about how we regulate the cardboard. For instance, a 2-Price model would necessitate shifting another piece of early recreation content material to 3-Price. Even with that restriction, including a single Energy is mainly free and may simply make the cardboard a extra enjoyable recreation piece.

Whereas there’s little doubt that Professor X will possible nonetheless be fairly dominant within the recreation’s prison-style meta, this small nerf ought to not less than make it a little bit simpler for gamers to beat the lockdown. Along with that, seeing little buffs to underplayed playing cards like Ronan and Punisher (particularly with that latest Peach Momoko Twitch drop) is sweet as properly.

OTA updates are often nice for stopping the meta from feeling stale, and we’ve obtained feeling about this one too.

Marvel Snap is now obtainable on PC and cell units.