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A brand-new Leader and a much, much stronger Wolverine are the two changes we got in the balance patch, alongside the new Battle Mode and the card Series Drops that were announced a few weeks ago. I won’t lie: I expected a bit more change in order to shake things up, but I have to admit that these two changes are pretty impactful already. Indeed, both Leader and Wolverine should be analyzed as completely different cards compared to what they were, and that is exactly what we are going to do in this piece!
Leader Change Analysis
Decks with Leader
Let’s start with Leader, which now reads: [6/7] On Reveal: Copy all cards your opponent played to the location to the right, but on your side.
Dev Note: Leader is a prominent “finisher” in the current Snap meta, and we’re not happy with some of the card choices and play patterns he encourages, especially his strength against other cool 6-cost cards. We’re changing Leader to only copy cards played at the location to his right, with more base Power to compensate. We hope that this change will reward clever predictions and reduce the frustration of playing against him.
Marvel Snap January 31, 2023 Patch Notes – Version 11.18.1
Effectively, Leader hasn’t lost its ability to copy what the opponent did during their turn, but it now only copies what happens at the location on Leader’s right. Several things come to mind:
- We never want to play Leader on the right most location since it would result in nothing being copied.
- We need to be careful with how we use our space in the middle and right locations so we have enough space for Leader to copy the opponent’s cards.
- Leader is actually able to help the location he is played on with 7 power, more than double its previous contribution.
- The opponent can “safely” invest into the left location knowing Leader will never produce more than 7 power there.
- Leader has become much harder to use and requires setting up the board in order to maximize its efficiency.
- Not copying anything sucks.
There are a ton of intricacies with this new take on Leader, but one thing is for sure: The card is far from its “just play me on turn six” iteration. It’s definitely a more targeted card and will force us to reconsider it from scratch.
When ahead on a lane that isn’t the right most one, the card could add seven power to it while also making sure we’re very strong on the lane to its right. As a result, Leader is still a consideration in the 6-Cost slot for certain strategies to be able to manipulate the locations and force the opponent to play somewhere specific.
Wolverine Change Analysis
Decks with Wolverine
In a patch where there are only two card changes (and Leader is one of them), Wolverine is, surprisingly, the most exciting card. The card went from completely forgotten to a hot topic as it now reads: [2/2] When this is discarded or destroyed, regenerate it at a random location with +2 Power.
Dev Note: Wolverine sees virtually no play at the moment, which is a bummer given how iconic he is. We’re giving him a substantial buff to reward players for activating his effect and create new deckbuilding options at both low and high collection levels.
Note: We have updated his text from “play” to “regenerate” to better reflect his gameplay functionality. This is purely a flavor and clarity choice.
Marvel Snap January 31, 2023 Patch Notes – Version 11.18.1
Let’s not sugarcoat it. Wolverine just went from a card nobody wanted to play to one a lot of people should be excited about. Let’s also not get too excited, though, as Armor and Cosmo are still very good and popular cards that are incredibly annoying for the Destroy synergy.
Regarding the Discard archetype, Wolverine is now a 2/4 when discarded, which might create some kind of competition with Swarm. I think the card still isn’t good enough to be included there as we can’t repeat the ability like a Destroy deck can.
A hybrid of the Destroy and the Discard synergies could be done in the early Collection Levels, particularly in Pool 2. Nevertheless, I think Wolverine received some major upgrades and is now a consideration in several Destroy-based decks, one of which we will explore below right now.
Deadpool, obviously
den
Deadpool is the go-to archetype for someone looking to destroy a card as many times as possible during the game, and Wolverine seems to fit that game plan perfectly. I don’t think it’ll be as good as Deadpool himself, but the deck now has a second card to abuse and that’s excellent news.
In addition to drawing a card to repeatably destroy more often, it might also help the deck fight against Armor and Cosmo. We wouldn’t have to auto concede when one of them is played in front of Deadpool or Wolverine because we can still try to abuse the other. It will be less than ideal but better than the automatic loss it used to be.
I considered including Arnim Zola in the deck, but the random nature of Wolverine could limit how often Arnim Zola is able to target the card.
Wolverine is a now a great early card
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When a Series 1 or 2 card is changed, it usually affects those early in the Marvel Snap experience more. Of course, those who have completed Pool 3 have more options to build creative decks around it, but they didn’t necessarily need the card to build a deck around the Destroy synergy. For those still in Pool 2, gaining a new card opens a lot of avenues and makes several of their other cards much better. Indeed, without Death, Deadpool, Venom or Arnim Zola, it wasn’t easy to build a cohesive deck around the synergy.
In this deck, we’re mixing the Destroy and Discard synergy to try to abuse Wolverine. It could become another card in the deck that is able to serve as an anchor to our point total while remaining flexible. A 2/4 isn’t bad, a 2/6 is on par with the best 2-Cost ceiling (Angela) and most 3-Cost cards, and a 2/8 immediately puts it in the conversation with some 4-Cost cards like Jessica Jones.
Leader, are you kidding me?!
den
It is honestly difficult to know where to start with this new Leader as our perception of the card needs to be revisited completely. I know it’s not ideal, but currently the best way to force the opponent to play on a certain lane is to lock the other two or otherwise make them unappealing. In advance, I’m sorry, but this includes using cards like Spider-Man and Aero in order to manipulate our opponent’s board. And whenever you think about Spider-Man, you have to think about Zabu as well…
So it pains me to say, but there is a solid chance the best home to test the new iteration of Leader is in an extremely similar deck to its current home: the Zabu Good Cards archetype.
Let’s hope I’m wrong on this one and explore another archetype that is pretty good at making the opponent’s locations difficult to use: The Lockation archetype.
This archetype hasn’t been considered competitive for some time now, but it still packs quite the annoying punch. The idea is to fill the board, block locations, and make our opponent’s life miserable. That last part was something Leader excelled at, so he should feel right at home in this new archetype.
den
Closing Words
I think I’m not alone in saying I wished we got more balance changes today, but I also recognize both cards make me want to build around them and see what they can do in their new form. Also, we already know some more changes are on the way around next week which should match the start of the new season. Apparently, Zabu and Silver Surfer will be impacted, which should provoke quite the earthquake if both cards lose at least half of their current popularity. Overall, it feels like a very positive patch and definitely a step in growing Marvel Snap even more.
I can only hope these changes will lead to some creative builds that I can feature in the next Infinite decks of the week or impact our weekly Tier List. We will, of course, keep you posted about that towards the end of the week. For now, let’s enjoy Marvel Snap’s Battle Mode. With tournaments being announced left and right, Marvel Snap Zone might have a little something underway in that regard too:
As usual, find the whole Marvel Snap Zone team on Discord where you can share your new builds around Leader or Wolverine. You can also contact me directly on Twitter.
Good Game Everyone.
Aaaaargh!!
I read the article, didn’t check ingame again and lost a game because of a tiny mistake in your article and my laziness not to double-check…so here it is for others:
article:
Leader: Copy all cards your opponent played on the location to the right, but on your side.
game:
Leader: Copy all cards your opponent played to the location right of here, but on your side.
It’s me and not the different wording. I misunderstood it as i am not a native speaker :/ Sorry for the false accusation!
Apologies for that, the initial information was directly from the patch notes. This has now been amended.
Leader didn’t even scratch the actual meta, with Zabu, Surfer and it’s variations (Dracula ones, Patriot Ones). Now he is almost useless. It’s like using a Hela in a Kazoo deck. The card is so bad now that I DARE anyone is using it in the Plunder, f.ex.
OK, I know “in certain conditions” it can work. But how probable are those conditions? They’re very far from probable.
RIP Leader, will be less used than Strong Guy.
It definitely made leader less attractive. I have already started looking for replacements in the deck he was in. Wolverine on the other hand is pretty stout I like the idea of him in my Galactus deck now