Table of Contents
Hello all! Welcome back to this week’s breakdown of what’s happening over on the Marvel Snap official Discord! This week, we get answers to questions such as: why haven’t we gotten the Deadpool emote, what borders are exclusive to bundles, could we see a card that limits energy gain, and more! If you want to stay up to date with what’s coming and what answers developers have for the community, make sure to check back here each week!
This week’s edition comes after the launch new Series 5 card Wiccan! If you don’t know if this card is worth Spotlight Caches, make sure to check out our weekly Spotlight Cache guide, as well as our Bonus Challenge guide!
Answers and questions may be slightly rephrased for more clarity and ease of reading. This week’s topics will be divided into Card Specific Questions, Other Questions, and Questions From You!
Remember, you can check out our new Marvel Snap Developer Tracker to see all questions and answers in real time! Topics can also be searched, filtered, and sorted.
Card Specific Questions
Q: Is Absorbing Man supposed to copy the ability of a card that has swapped sides?
A: Glenn “Yes; I think not doing so would fit the function and spirit much worse. He copies the last card you played that’s still in play, if it has On Reveal. If it’s moved or switched sides, it still meets those qualifications.”
Q: When it comes to cards that naturally counter decks, or get countered easily (like Darkhawk and Cassandra Nova counter Thanos and Arishem), how do you balance around these kind of interactions?
A: Glenn “It’s a common dynamic, commonly referred to as ‘splash damage’ or similar in design parlance. One of the upsides of a live service game is that we can account and adjust for these dynamics. For example, we nerfed Apocalypse when discard was overperforming based on the context of that metagame—now that it’s not, we reverted it. That flexibility ensure the game stays fun and healthy.
However, our goal is always first and foremost just to make cool cards. We didn’t make Cass to target Arishem; in fact, we lifted the design from a different card entirely for her. But it made sense for her, and the proximity to Arishem was a feature, not a bug, because we do like cards to have meaningful counterplay available.”
Q: Why does Loki give you a 12 card deck instead of swapping cards in your deck with your opponent’s cards?
A: Glenn “Your opponent’s starting deck had 12 cards in it; if you don’t get all 12, you’re not copying their deck. That text would likely read more like ‘Replace each card in your deck with a card from your opponent’s starting deck.'”
Q: Why does Collector get +1 Power when Loki draws a card after his ability?
A: Glenn “This is a bug we’re investigating, and a very weird one at that.”
Other Questions
Q: Why did I get some Flaviano variants two days in a row during his shop takeover?
A: Chris “It was a bug, we’ll be fixing this so it doesn’t happen for future takeovers. Sorry about the mishap!”
Q: Will Leagues and Deadpool’s Diner ever overlap?
A: Chris “Nothing set in stone but they will likely not overlap”
Q: Which borders are exclusive, and which qre just coming to the shop later?
A: Stephen “Matte Black, Matte Red, and the distressed Deadpool/wolverine borders are exclusive for events/bundles/etc.
The other borders can be found in Custom Card. The next update will have an expanded cosmetic shop to showcase borders better too.”
Q: What are the chances we see cards for characters without abilities? Like Aunt May or Mary Jane?
A: Glenn “They’re not characters we aim for because capturing their story with the core fantasy of our game can be tough. But when we have a design and a season that feels right for it, we’ll consider them.”
Q: Would you ever make a tutor card (like in Magic) into a card for Snap?
A: Glenn “No, I don’t expect we’ll make anything like that.”
Q: If a tech card isn’t seeing play during optimal times, isn’t that a sign the card needs a buff? Example: Using War Machine to tech against Sandman
A: Glenn “Sure, that’s a reasonable heuristic.”
Q: Will we see a card that prevents your opponent from gaining energy?
A: Glenn “I’d say this is a ‘when’ not an ‘if'”
Q:When alliances were in development, there were a few features that are currently missing from alliances, such as variants showing in chat (when an 8 cube victory occurs), different colour names, the top three players have a box to signify some kind of reward with the top players name being golden, and a notification alert next to the chat bubble. Were these concepts scrapped or still in development?
A: Addison “One of these is coming in the next major update but I’ll keep which one as a surprise 🙂”
Q: Are you aware that after the first round of Conquest you lose your custom cardback and your custom wheel of reactions?
A: Addison “Yep, known issue. No ETA on a fix at the moment. Thanks!”
Q: Do you consider what percentage of players own a card when analyzing data?
A: Glenn “We do weigh data for cards a little differently based on their Series.
For example, many players often note how popular Shang-Chi is, but Shang-Chi is also widely available and has a relatively generic function that many decks can choose to play. Compare to something like Carnage (strong and available, but narrow) or Jeff (strong and generic, but harder to acquire) and it’s clear why Shang-Chi would likely stand out in the data. But winrate and cuberate tell a fuller story of his actual performance.”
Q: How do Snap points get adjusted between seasons?
A: Glenn “Your SNAP Points reset each season based on your MMR, or true skill. As you play each season, they increase or decrease to reflect your performance during that time. Your MMR can also change, but it’s “stickier” and doesn’t move as easily.
Also bear in mind that you never see the exact result of the reset. Your SNAP Points reset with the season, and the games you play before Infinite can impact them before you see them.”
Q: How does player feedback influence the team?
A: Glenn “Primarily, it gives us player stories to inform discussions and help us review features and their updates. Often we’ll summarize it via reports, but sometimes we’ll pull specific feedback to share with the team if it’s particularly relevant or communicative.”
Q: Will Second Dinner be at PAX West this year?
A: Glenn “Some of us will be wandering the halls”
Questions From You!
Each week, I ask readers of the weekly dev update to leave their questions down in the comment section. That way we can ask those questions on your behalf, or let you know the answers if those questions have been asked before! I read each comment you leave, so I will be adding this section at the end of each week’s edition to highlight your questions that you asked last week!
Q: Where is the Deadpool Emote we were supposedly getting?
A: Second Dinner X Account “We are still working through the delivery process. We promise it’s still coming. Thanks for being patient.”
Q: Why isn’t Shang-Chi getting adjusted despite the community disliking him?
A: To summarize the numerous dev comments on the issue since this gets asked frequently:
Just because a card is unpopular, doesn’t make it worthy of an adjustment. Shang-Chi is an important balancing tool of the game that adds tension, counterplay, and strategy. In the same way that Sandman hard counters bounce, Sera, Pixie, and Mister Negative, Shang-Chi counters big cards to keep big card dump strategies at bay.
Many players include Shang-Chi as a tech card in their deck since he appears early in the game’s card Series. With such a large sample size, if the card was actually oppressive (or becomes oppressive in the future), he can be adjusted. Balancing cards do to only frustration of a tech card can lead to more frustration when players can’t react properly to big card dump strategies.
Q: How much does a players investment into cards (splits, borders, ect) affect the team now when it comes to nerfing/reworking a much-loved card?
A: Your question isn’t directly answered, but the team has made their thoughts clear on balancing. Any reworked or nerfed card is done so with intent on the card remaining viable. So even if you spend tokens on a card and gold to border it, the team intends to make the card playable. If the nerf is too harsh, they will adjust it.
Players will dedicate resources to nearly every card in the game, so refusing to adjust cards because players invested in them will cause heavy (or impossible) balance restrictions. Refunding players for nerfed cards also isn’t possible without redesigning the entire economy around it, which overall means less rewards to make room for refunds.
Keep Your Questions and Feedback Coming!
That’s all for this week’s update! Be sure to check back here at Marvel Snap Zone for next week’s update! If you enjoyed the amount of content in this edition, make sure to keep asking your questions to the developers by submitting it in their official Discord in the “#ask-the-team” channel. If you have questions and don’t use Discord, leave your questions for the developers in the comment section here, and I will make sure your question has been answered by the devs!
If you have feedback or changes you would like to see with these weekly updates, also let us know in the comment section!
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