Marvel Snap March 21, 2023 Card Balance Update Analysis: Is It Really Enough? Decks to Play on Day 1 of Patch

Second Dinner has been quite stellar when it comes to shaking things up in the meta with their previous patches. One could criticize the speed at which they react to problematic cards, but it is hard to attack the various nerfs we have seen so far. For example, Zabu and Silver Surfer were a textbook example of how to tune down a card without taking them out of the metagame completely. If we look at the buffs they’ve released there also are some great changes to note, such as Wolverine and Sandman to name some in 2023.

With a proven track record, and a dying passion to see Lockjaw Thanos and Shuri Zero step down and give other decks a shot at being great, the community had huge expectations for this patch. This is an analysis piece, written mere hours after the patch was released, so don’t consider the next sentence to be Bible verse but here goes. How can the few changes we got ever be enough to shake things up?

Thanos going from a 6/11 to a 6/10 is non-factor, and so is Red Skull going from a 5/15 to a 5/13. She-Hulk becoming a 6/9 is debatable as to how big of an impact it will have, but it seems quite marginal for now. This leaves us with four real changes, which, granted, are pretty huge:

• Quinjet will not reduce cards to 0 anymore. This is completely logical and among the most anticipated changes in order to tune down Thanos Lockjaw. Great change right there because it should also impact the strength of the Sunspot and She-Hulk duo in the process.
• Space Stone will now move the card towards it, not away from it. Once again, looking to reduce Lockjaw abuse, so all good on this front.
• Aero will now only move the last card your opponent played instead of all of them. She did get an extra power point for the trouble to become a 5/8. This is probably the biggest change on a global scale as Aero should not be an auto-include in pretty much every deck anymore.
• Taskmaster, Mystique, and Absorbing Man will now only copy a card if it is still in play. Taskmaster, in particular, now suffers much more from an opposing Shang-Chi taking out its target. This makes Priority a much more important mechanic for Shuri Zero.

As we look at it, Thanos Lockjaw probably took the biggest hit, and Shuri Zero took a very minor one alongside an interesting Taskmaster change. Only Aero was meaningfully changed in the deck, but that change affects it in almost every other deck in the game. As said previously, Red Skull being a 5/13 doesn’t change a thing. I mean, who thinks they have more chances of winning a lane against a 26 power Red Skull compared to a 30 power one?

Still, if the nerfs feel like they weren’t necessarily enough to create the big shake-up many of us were wishing for, the buffs might still help on this front. We already know Second Dinner is capable of delivering some solid card buffs. So what do they have in store for us here?

There are no buffs.

Overall, a patch we waited about a month to see happen had six changes, three of which feel largely forgettable. I have scratched my head as to why it might make sense and how it could ever be enough to create a feeling of novelty in the current environment, and I believe I might have found a few reasons.

So let’s explore the implications of today’s patch together, as well as take a look at the decks one should keep an eye one for the near future.

What Is Your Excuse For Not Playing Shang-Chi? Shuri Zero Remains a Deck to Beat!

Variants

Shang-Chi

On Reveal: Destroy all enemy cards here that have 10 or more Power.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Shang-Chi

Other than putting Valkyrie in your deck, I can’t see how someone wouldn’t include the Master of Kung Fu in their deck. Indeed, while the card was already a staple in the previous metagame, Shuri Zero didn’t get hit that hard and Aero is much weaker so Shang-Chi could become the most valuable card in Marvel Snap. Also, the change to Taskmaster might make Shang-Chi an insta-win if you have priority going into the turn.

The card will still have hurdles to overcome against Shuri Zero. Cosmo and Armor are popular inclusions, and the latter is the reason Valkyrie was mentioned before. The nerf to Aero is still huge news for Shang-Chi fans because the card should be much stronger when one doesn’t have priority. Up until this point, if the opponent was in the lead, even an unprotected Red Skull was difficult to remove thanks to Aero dragging everything you played to another lane. Now, you could just play a cheaper card AFTER Shang-Chi and Aero will drag only that one. will still be able to destroy the card you planned to. And that scenario is only important if Aero retains it’s status of being a staple in many decks, which isn’t looking very likely right now.

If Thanos Lockjaw disappears, or at least gives up part of its play rate to other decks, Shang-Chi should also see fewer Leeches on its path and once again improving the card’s overall reliability. As a result, even if fewer decks give you great opportunities to use Shang-Chi, both juggernauts should be less popular and the opponents you face shouldn’t be able to prevent Shang-Chi as effectively as in the past.

Armor and Cosmo will remain a problem and remain the backbone of the defensive system for Shuri Zero. They at least have the benefit of being played early on, so you can adapt your strategy accordingly if you see them played.

Here’s how I would expect Shuri Zero to look for now:

Shuri Zero post patch

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

7

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.1

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4.8

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Without Sauron, the deck would likely switch Ebony Maw with Titania and replace Typhoid Mary with Captain Marvel or Vision.

Is Galactus a Contender With Aero Finally Nerfed?

Many players have shared their excitement surrounding Galactus not being completely dismantled by any deck with priority and Aero in hand anymore. Although I would argue Polaris, Debrii, Viper, Goose, and Cosmo could still ruin Galactus’s game plan, it is good news for the deck nonetheless.

Mostly, I think Shuri not being changed is the big winner for Galactus here. The deck can still use the Wakandan princess to buff Nimrod and set up a Turn 6 Galactus. The archetype could also largely benefit from Thanos Lockjaw losing some popularity as Leech could completely dismantle the deck, even when played on Turn 5.

The deck should then remain untouched regarding its usual 12 cards and could even see a net benefit from this patch. It might not go straight to Tier 1, but climbing back to a respectable Tier 2 archetype would still be a huge success for the Devourer of Worlds.

Galactus

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

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4.3

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How Much Room Did Combo Archetypes Gain With the Thanos Lockjaw Nerf?

It’s hard to imagine Shuri Zero going anywhere considering the nerfs it received, but Thanos Lockjaw might feel much weaker without 0-cost Infinity Stones. Some players have already shared their take on the deck post patch, with some of them claiming the deck is still strong enough to remain a serious metagame contender.

Even if it remains at Tier 1 status down the line, it seems extremely unlikely Thanos Lockjaw will take up a third of the metagame in the higher ranks. At the very least, the deck should join the rest of the good decks at the (more acceptable) 5 – 10% play rate. With that in mind, it should mean we are seeing fewer Leeches when playing Marvel Snap, so highly synergistic decks could have a shot at coming back. We already talked about how this could be a good news for Galactus, but other decks might greatly benefit from it too.

Here are a few examples of decks that could barely exist because of Leech ruining their whole game plan:

negative destroy

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

2

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Starter Card

4

Cost

0-
1
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5+

1.9

Power

0-
1
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5+

Dracula Discard

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

3

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.1

Cost

0-
1
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5+

4.1

Power

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1
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5+

Sera Devil Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

6

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

3.2

Cost

0-
1
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5+

2.8

Power

0-
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5+

Is Aero Unplayable Now?

I don’t think so. The card is obviously much weaker, and it won’t be the metagame staple it was up until this point. If Galactus becomes a force to be reckoned with, maybe Aero will come back as a tech card. But Aero still has one very powerful ally in Marvel Snap: Wave. Since Wave limits the opponent to playing only one card during the next turn, Aero could retain most of her power as a follow-up, with an extra point of power too!

If you are curious to test whether Aero is still a strong card, here are two archetypes which were playing Wave and Aero together already and have no reason to stop doing so:

AeroWave

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.1

Cost

0-
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5+

4.2

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0-
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Death Wave

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

13

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.3

Cost

0-
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5+

4.3

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Closing Words

You might have noticed that most of the decks I shared in this article are routinely featured in our Tier List. I could easily add Sera Control and Electro Ramp as well because every deck not nerfed and already decently positioned in the metagame should have improved with this patch. I tried to scan social media and Discord before writing this piece; I didn’t want to just include my personal opinion. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any original brews being shared as a reaction to the balance patch there either.

For the last month, Marvel Snap has really only been about two decks and the occasional archetype rising as we thought it might represent a potential counter. The rest of the metagame, meaning the remaining half of your matches, were mostly decks built to counter either Thanos Lockjaw or Shuri Zero (or decks strong enough to beat every deck not named Thanos Lockjaw or Shuri Zero). As time passed, only a handful of decks managed to be mentioned as viable archetypes. Sera Control, Galactus, and DoomWave are the logical archetypes one would think about now since we did not receive any incentive to look for anything else.

In my opinion, this is the consequence of this patch not featuring any buffs, something I consider a big missed opportunity.

Nevertheless, we still got what we were asking for, and hopefully diversity will slowly come back to Marvel Snap as more decks emerge in the coming days. Until then, join our community on Discord as many players are discussing the patch there. You can also find me on Twitter where I share decks and other Marvel Snap related content.

Good Game Everyone.