Marvel Snap Patch Balance Update Analysis and Decks: Bounce Stands Tall

Get your Killmongers ready! The mighty battle between Evolved Lockjaw and Bounce might have just crowned its definitive winner: Bounce.

Indeed, even though the dominant Kitty Pryde archetype was changed last month with Beast becoming a [3/4] card, Bounce has remained one of the best, if not the best, decks to build lately. Its biggest competition when it came to raw power, Evolved Lockjaw, just got two of its cards nerfed (Evolved Wasp and Evolved Hulk), leaving Bounce as the deck with the highest potential in the game. Well, as long as you don’t look at the fact that the whole metagame now knows exactly who to adapt their deck for.

Indeed, up until this point, every deck outside the top five (i.e. everything other than Sera Control, Bounce, and the three High Evolutionary decks) had to include some form of counter card to fight evenly. Still, it’s not so easy to adapt to both Bounce and Lockjaw since both decks require completely different cards to gain an edge against them.

For Bounce, it seems like Killmonger has been the go-to card, with Invisible Woman serving as great support. We also saw Shadow King and the Lockdown archetype do well against Kitty Pryde and friends. Against Lockjaw, Shang-Chi was the card to have, with Iceman and Cosmo doing a bit of work as well to annoy the deck’s synergies.

This situation lead to almost every deck in the metagame, except for Sera Control because it has the luxury of running both, to run either Killmonger or Shang-Chi in their list, but rarely both for lack of space.

Now that Lockjaw might not require a specific counter, the metagame could take very different routes in the near future:

• Will Bounce become the unarguable best deck, leading to every other deck running Killmonger and Invisible Woman?
• Can Wave make a comeback once Lockjaw is finally out of the picture and Bounce is the deck to beat?
• Does Lockjaw actually stay an excellent deck if Shang-Chi sees less play and Wave comes back?
• Does Lockdown just replace Lockjaw as the new High Evolutionary deck to beat, so nothing really changes in the end?

I am a little disappointed to not see more changes, especially as we got no OTA last week. I have been a big advocate for the risk of an unbalanced metagame due to too many changes rather than a stale metagame due to not enough changes. Nevertheless, while I don’t see many decks rising because of this patch, the dynamic among the ones at the top could be interesting to watch unfold.

Let’s explore all those routes and try to imagine which ones are more likely to happen.

What if… Bounce Takes Over Marvel Snap?

This is probably what will happen, at least in the short run. Indeed, considering Bounce is already on the rise as we speak (and is already regarded as the best deck in the game), I don’t see any scenario where Angela, Bishop, and Kitty Pryde don’t gain some momentum as a direct consequence of the patch.

What will change, though, is the fact that we can probably dedicate our full attention to countering it if that happens. Plus, as Bounce has been atop the metagame for a while now, we know exactly how to do it.

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.6

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2.3

Power

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Sera Control, for example, packs all the necessary tools to beat Bounce. Killmonger for the 1-Cost cards, Rogue for Iron Man, and an ability to fight on points on at least one lane.

Good Cards Wave

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.1

Cost

0-
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5+

3.8

Power

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Although extremely discreet in the past few weeks, this take of Good Cards Wave is known for dismantling Bounce’s game plan pretty well. Wave into Odin just locks them out of the end game, Cosmo can counter Beast and other On Reveal effects, and Iceman on Kitty Pryde, Angela, or Bishop is quite the blow.

Electro Ramp

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.6

Cost

0-
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3.4

Power

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Last on our list, if you really want to target Bounce specifically, just run its natural counter: Electro Ramp.

It is probably a worse deck overall compared to the other two, but you should push a few Bounce players to rethink whether they should be playing Bounce right now.

Other decks I could have mentioned are Galactus and Sera Surfer. Also, there might be a case for simply slotting Killmonger into your deck and seeing if it works.

Is High Evolutionary Really Out of the Picture?

Let’s assume for a second that Lockjaw does take a big enough hit to became just another deck in Marvel Snap. Actually, let’s double down on assumptions: imagine the change to Evolved Hulk is big enough for the Pure Evolution deck to see its synergies widely impacted. I mean, in the sense that it isn’t worth keeping unspent energy anymore.

In that timeline, we have two High Evolutionary decks out of the picture (or at least not taking a large part of the metagame hostage like they have so far). Now, what about Lockdown?

The deck has played around with the unspent energy synergy for a while now, only really committing when both Evolved Cyclops and Evolved Hulk are drawn. So the nerf to the latter should not impact this play pattern too much. Also, I don’t see any scenario where the change to Evolved Wasp is enough to hurt the deck, and, as per the developer’s words, it is aimed at Lockjaw first and foremost.

Last but not least, Lockdown is pretty good against Bounce; limiting their space punishes their aim to be super flexible until the very last turn.

So really, why should we not run something like this after the patch?

New Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Starter Card

3.4

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4.1

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Iron Lad can be Cyclops, I just wanted to emphasize on the Lockdown part. Iceman replaces Wasp, but it could easily be Spider-Ham.

Also, similarly to Bounce, because Lockdown has been a popular deck for the past month and a half, we should have an idea of how to react if the deck starts dominating the metagame. We would be looking for decks able to quickly fill a location in the first four turns, while still being able to impact it later on if needed.

I believe Cerebro 2 and Iron Patriot would be perfect for the role.

Iron Patriot

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.6

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3.2

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Speaking of Cerebro 2, Echo sounds pretty hot in the deck when she releases next week.

Cerebro 2

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.7

Cost

0-
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1.9

Power

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Can the Buffs Even Impact the Metagame?

We took a look at the nerfs and concluded that this will probably lead to some shake ups among the top decks, but there should be many changes regarding what is good and what isn’t in Marvel Snap overall.

But I haven’t talked about the three buffs (Gambit, Mystique, and Nakia) included in the patch yet. Interestingly enough, these are all 3-Cost cards, so someone with a love for surfing might be watching how these cards changed very carefully. In particular, Gambit and Nakia look worthy to explore, as both cards seem to be much improved with this patch.

Gambit is following in Venom‘s footsteps by going from one to three power; however, it now requires a card to trigger its destroy ability, making it more of a Discard card than a combo tool.

Variants

Gambit

On Reveal: Discard a card from your hand to destroy a random enemy card.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Gambit

Now, if we look at the two Discard archetypes, we see a little problem.

• Hela Discard doesn’t really have a reason to run the card. The archetype seems to do much better with a Lockjaw and Swarm variant, which uses targeted discard. I could see Gambit used in the Ghost Rider build of Hela since you could curve into either one in the same way we did with Moon Knight.
• Discard Dracula could use Gambit and replace Sword Master, but that means taking a random destroy over a guaranteed three power. I’m not sure if it is worth the trade to be honest.

So what can we do with Gambit now? In my opinion, we can keep him in mind and whip him out whenever there is a great target to destroy on Turn 3 against a deck with a rather slow start. If only Lockjaw didn’t get nerfed this patch, Thor or Lockjaw would have been incredible targets for Gambit.

Moving on to Nakia, the card has finally returned to its old self after about nine months (in a game where Bast exists). Also, with Killmonger most likely an auto-include if Bounce happens to run wild, Nova will be an easy choice if we want to give a one power bonus to our cards — the ones in play, though, not in hand.

With that in mind, I don’t really see much to do with Nakia except to try her out in a Silver Surfer deck with Brood. SafetyBlade shared the idea of trying her in Patriot Surfer, which is kind of a forgotten archetype now. It has all the cards we want to use Nakia with (Mister Sinister, Brood, and Silver Surfer), so it sounds like a good start.

Nakia ?

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Starter Card

2.7

Cost

0-
1
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3
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5+

2.3

Power

0-
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Last on the list of buffed cards is Mystique, which now also copies the On Reveal abilities of the Ongoing card she targets. Apart from gaining an extra energy (at the cost of a full turn), this change doesn’t seem to impact anything for now.

Closing Words

As I said in the intro, I wish there was way more in this patch to shake things up. Obviously, with the focus around the new Spotlight Caches and the Second Dinner team taking their summer break last week, I was not getting my hopes up. Nevertheless, I’m starting to feel like they are keeping changes for the future and purposefully only releasing two or three in each patch.

In normal circumstances, I think this is a very good strategy, especially if they want to be able to keep the pace of two to three OTA patches per season. Still, I have a hard time believing any deck outside the current top ten will rise from the patch and become a force in the near future.

Bounce looks like the obvious choice to grind, and Sera Control or Sera Surfer are solid counters with room for the appropriate tech cards. High Evolutionary was way too versatile to go down with just these changes, and it should keep at least one archetype (likely the more game play limiting one as well). Among the other decks, Iron Patriot, Good Cards Wave / Stature, and Shuri Sauron are all decks we know about, whether that’s how to build, play, or counter them. As such, even if the power rankings might be different when we take a look next week, I don’t see any new puzzles to explore — which was my biggest hope with this patch.

I hate to be a buzzkill when writing these kinds of articles. Hopefully I’m wrong in this part of my analysis. In the end, there are a few sleeper decks that could create a surprise. I’ve been having lots of success with Mister Negative lately, and The Phoenix Force isn’t done being experimented around. So who knows?

I’d love to hear your opinion about this patch, especially if it is different from mine. To reach out, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or on my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.