5 Tips for Buying Cards in the Token Shop and Preparing for the Series Drop

A new patch is approaching, and with it, the Series Drop will happen and some cards will become easier to get. So we have prepared 5 tips on buying cards through the Token Shop.

1. Know your Token Shop cycle

To understand which cards will soon appear in the Token Shop, and which cards you will not see soon, you can look into the game files that store information about the state of the Token Shop cycle (more information about how the Token Shop works can be found here).

The file that you need to open is located at:

• For the Steam version:

C:\Users\(Your username)\AppData\LocalLow\Second Dinner\SNAP\Standalone\States\nvprod\RewardState.json

• For the Android version:

Internal memory\Android\data\com.nvsgames.snap\files\Standalone\States\nvprod\RewardState.json

• For the MacOS version:

~/Library/Containers/SNAP/Data/Documents/Standalone/States/nvprod/RewardState.json

Unfortunately, there is no way to open the required file on devices running the iOS operating system.

You need to open the file and find the line “TokenShopCardsSeries5Box”. It will list all the cards that were recently shown to you from this pool in chronological order, and you will not see these cards again until the full cycle ends.

To find out which cards were recently shown from other Series, you can view the data in the parameters “TokenShopCardsSeries4Box” and “TokenShopCardsSeries3Box”, respectively.

Based on this information, you can calculate when it will be possible to see the desired card again. A player without a full collection of pool 3 cards will see on average 1 card from Series 5 every 2 days. A player who has a complete pool 3 collection will see on average 1 card from Series 5 every day.

The full list of cards from each Series can be found here.

2. Know the value of Collector’s Tokens

The graph shows the progress of getting Collector’s Tokens and obtaining new cards as your Collection Level progresses.

As you can see, the player’s progress has two important milestones. These points are marked by two vertical dotted lines. Now let’s compare what changes after reaching these waypoints.

According to our calculations, after reaching Collection Level 1006, the player spends 3 days on average without using any gold to obtain one Pool 3 card. During the process of obtaining the complete pool 3 collection , the player will receive approximately 9000 Collector’s Tokens (including 3000 Collector’s Tokens players receive when they reach Collection Level 500). Thus, we can say that if you spend all the Collector’s Tokens received to accelerate the progress of obtaining all the pool 3 cards, then all the Collector’s Tokens will accelerate the completion of the Pool 3 collection by 27 days.

Yes, a month of progress is a lot, but eventually you will have access to all of the Pool 3 cards. But the cards from Series 4 and 5 are much more difficult to get, even if we take into account that the rate of obtaining Collector’s Tokens increases by 456% after receiving all Pool 3 cards. As a result, you should evaluate if buying a Pool 3 card is worth your Collector’s Tokens if you’ll obtain it sooner or later. However, not all cards have the same value.

3. Know the value of the cards

As we said, not all Series 3 cards are equally valuable. Just like the value of Series 4 and Series 5 cards differs significantly depending on the card itself.

Among all Series 3 cards, I would highlight a few that form the basis for archetypes and could significantly help in climbing the ladder, regardless of the other available cards. Aero is also on the list as a good universal win condition on the last turn.

Variants

Mister Negative

On Reveal: Swap the Power and Cost of all cards in your deck.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mister Negative

Variants

Sera

Ongoing: Cards in your hand cost 1 less. (minimum 1)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Sera

Variants

Patriot

Ongoing: Your cards with no abilities have +2 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Patriot

Variants

Mystique

On Reveal: If the last card you played has an Ongoing, copy its text. (if it’s in play)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mystique

Variants

Aero

On Reveal: Move the last enemy card played anywhere to this location.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Aero

Also you can look at the most recent meta reports to see which cards are frequently used in different decks to determine which ones are strong by themselves or suitable for your playstyle and collection.

4. Know the schedule of the card series drop

In the announcement of the cards Series Drop, the development team made an important statement that could have gone unnoticed.

When choosing which cards to drop, we will often start with some of the ones that have been in that Series the longest. 

Marvel Snap Series Drop January 2023: First Edition Badge and Token Shop Improvement Announcement

In other words, it is likely that the cards will go down in series in chronological order, which is good for making predictions

Therefore, you can roughly calculate when a particular card will be in a certain series. This is only an estimated order and dates of the future Series drops. But at the same time, this calendar should very accurately show the minimum expected time for a Series drop for the specific card. Such information is extremely important when you are considering buying a card with Collector’s Tokens. And this is especially useful information when buying cards that form a meta or cards that could be nerfed before they even become available to a wide range of players.

5. Have fun!

This last tip doesn’t seem very useful and objective, but hear me out. The truth is that every player will eventually have the vast majority of cards and will be able to build a deck that perfectly fits his play style. So why not start building your favorite deck right now? What’s the point of the game if it doesn’t bring joy and you should always think only about the value and important decisions? Therefore, we suggest looking at buying cards from the different perspective and answer the question “Will this card will bring you joy?” and if the answer is yes, then this is a serious argument in favor of buying it.

Conclusion

The experience for each player is individual and consists of many different factors, including a different style of play, the order of obtaining new cards, current Collection Level and rank, as well as regular balance changes. Because of this, we can’t give you precise advice such as “This card is never worth buying” or “You should buy this card right now”. However, these 5 tips can help you decide whether to buy a card from the Token Shop now for the current price or wait for some time and get it later.