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One of my favorite things in Marvel Snap is back: OTA balance patches! How nice it is to have new puzzles to explore on a weekly basis that challenge us to find the new best decks and how to use the impacted cards.
Speaking of impacted cards, this week was particularly spicy when it comes to the nerfs: three metagame staples took a hit! Spider-Man, slowly becoming a superstar with Galactus and Lockdown, alongside two of Bounce’s staples in Beast and The Hood were impacted. If I’m honest, these three changes could be enough to shake the metagame. Indeed, if these lead to both Bounce and Lockdown losing their dominant status, the decks at the top of the metagame could be very different when we look back in a week.
For example, if Bounce were to disappear because of these changes, Wave would probably lose a lot of its appeal. This might lead to the Good Cards Wave deck being less interesting to play, and, suddenly, we are left with only Galactus and Sera among the current top picks in the metagame. Well, we already know Galactus wins that battle, so we have a reason to bring Lockdown back to counter it. Except with both Spider-Man and Professor X being 5-Cost cards now, we would really like to have a way to get some extra energy to still play both in the same game.
I could suggest playing Electro for this, or including Psylocke in the current Evolved Lockdown archetype. Or, let’s bring back my all-time favorite deck to play: Thanos Control.
By the way, did you know there were two buffs as well?
What if… Bounce Disappears For Real?
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Even if Bounce went back to being a niche archetype due to today’s OTA, I don’t think Kitty Pryde has any reason to worry. Indeed, Sera Control has been inspired by Bounce lately, including half of the deck as its proactive package. And, conveniently, it does not use Beast or The Hood, so it should not suffer at all from this patch.
From this interaction between the two archetypes only, I don’t see much reason to believe the metagame will completely change. Wave should remain one of the best, if not the best, counter to this strategy. Also, Sera Control doesn’t have many reasons to deviate from its traditional list, which is weak to Galactus (another popular card). If Galactus still sees play, the Lockdown archetype also has a reason to be extremely popular, even with a 5-Cost Spider-Man in the deck.
As such, if Bounce were to be a bad deck all of a sudden, its global impact on the metagame probably wouldn’t be as big as one might imagine when reading the patch notes. The reason for this is another deck being able to step right into its place with a very similar game plan, which should push the same dynamic around it.
At worst, if you think Lockdown is much worse with a 5-Cost Spider-Man, you could try to revive another Thanos archetype and still dunk on Galactus in the process:
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Yes, you can replace Howard the Duck with another cheap Ongoing ability to play before Electro and buff with Spectrum. It won’t be a duck, though. Think about that.
Rogue Gets Good, and Medusa is Playable?
Considering she already got some decent playing time in the last few weeks, Rogue comes in as a bit of a surprise on this week’s buff list. I guess Second Dinner really wants to give us options against Ongoing strategies, which makes sense with the current Darkhawk controversy.
Still, even if Rogue sees even more play with this extra power, the big question is around Medusa who has effectively become the new Lizard (except you can only play the card on the middle location). That restriction could end up limiting Medusa quite a lot if you think about it. First, it isn’t as flexible as Lizard is, but it could also result in games where you cannot play Medusa at all. This is part of the reason I like exploring Medusa in the Silver Surfer archetype, as we have Storm to mitigate potential bad locations. Also, Medusa‘s five power seems to be a great setup for Storm on the following turn and might represent enough power to win the location before it is locked.
Silver Surfer looks kind of nice right now. Also, it has some Galactus counter cards if they’re needed.
Good Decks Left Out of the Patch
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One of the highest profile decks lately, Evolved Lockjaw is regarded as a top tier deck by many in the community. I wouldn’t be surprised if a significant part of the players abandoning Bounce turn to this archetype since they share similar traits. Indeed, Lockjaw and Bounce feature some of the highest potential scores in Marvel Snap if they can play as they wish, all while using some common energy manipulation techniques.
Already discussed in other parts of this article, Galactus has nothing to worry about in this patch. Indeed, Spider-Man becoming a 5-Cost is nothing but a power buff in the deck. Also, considering Sera Control and Evolved Lockjaw are available and very strong, Galactus should keep on finding favored match ups in the metagame.
It is precisely because Galactus looks so good that I believe finding the next Lockdown deck is important.
Similar to why I think Galactus should not suffer too much from losing Bounce among its good match ups, Wave should be able to find enough favorable opponents in order to remain a relevant card and push its featured archetype in the process.
I am a little annoyed by the Spider-Man nerf for this precise archetype since the card felt quite strong in a Zabu deck. It represented a nice alternative to Wave on Turn 5, and it was a nice counter to Galactus (which is otherwise a counter to the deck).
Rogue being buffed might come in as a counterargument to Patriot feeling “left out of the patch”. However, Patriot has showed some incredible progress since Iron Lad joined the archetype, and then some more with Invisible Woman receiving a buff. The deck is also quite solid against both Lockdown and Galactus thanks to its ability to reach unplayable lanes and Debrii.
There is some bad with Rogue, but I see more good for Patriot overall with this patch.
Closing Words
Nerfing one of the most popular and strong archetypes in Marvel Snap can feel like quite the change on the surface; however, I would argue most of those decks have a very similar archetype when it comes to trying to achieve victory. Bounce has Sera Control, Evolved Lockdown has Thanos Control, and Galactus could be compared to Electro Ramp in a way.
As such, even if it does lead to some changes in the decks you face on ladder, transforming the metagame will probably take a little more than a few nerfs and buffs. I mean, Lockjaw, Sera, and Zabu plus Darkhawk or Silver Surfer has been around for six months already, and they all had to go through nerfs at some point. As such, I would wait for the bigger monthly patch next week before thinking Marvel Snap is going to look a lot different.
Nevertheless, I’m excited to play some Thanos again, and I want to see if it can regain some of its old dominance. I loved that deck.
Have some hot takes regarding this OTA balance patch? A deck you think is particularly good to try in the new metagame? Find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.
Good Game Everyone.
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