OTA Balance Update Analysis and Decks – April 27, 2023: Is Enchantress Marvel Snap’s New Queen?

We are now entering the Over The Air balance patch era, which should last (at the very least) until the end of May. Even so, Second Dinner decided to start with a big one by nerfing two metagame staples, Sandman and Lizard, and giving a solid power buff to both Shanna and Enchantress.

Immediately, several things come to mind when looking at these changes:

• Sandman‘s nerf will hurt Electro Ramp’s ability to score points, and the deck might go back to being a disruptive archetype because of it.
• Lizard really needs to be protected in order to remain a great 2-cost card; however, with Enchantress being buffed in the same patch, it is pretty easy to play around its negative ability.
• Enchantress is so good right now, I’m scared to even try Patriot on the ladder tomorrow.

The big question mark is Shanna, which is entirely logical. It is the only card involved in this patch that doesn’t see play currently. A two power buff is quite huge, though, enough to get Shanna back in the Kazoo archetype discussion.

With an average power of two among all 1-cost cards, Shanna could be considered a 4/8 before her change, on par with Jessica Jones but with a big random element as a downside. After this buff, Shanna is an average of 4/10, placing her alongside the most powerful 4-cost cards in Marvel Snap.

The random element will remain, so Shanna might still not convince players with an aversion to RNG. Still, I believe she is definitely worth trying, at the very least alongside Ka-Zar in the Kazoo archetype.

It’s only the second OTA, but I’m already in love with these mini balance patches. With only four cards, Second Dinner has managed to change the complexity of the metagame and has given us a ton to think about, both from a match up and a deckbuilding perspective. Several decks seem to have a lot to gain from this patch, and it could shake the rankings of our next Tier List. Which ones? Let’s dive right in!

Note: The new card abilities will be reflected in the database later on during the day, and the meta section will also reflect data from the latest hotfix starting from day 1!

DeathWave and DoomWave Headline the Decks to Beat With Enchantress’s Buff!

Death Wave Enchantress

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

2

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Doom Wave Enchantress

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

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)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The Enchantress buff is explained as a way to help against some of the top metagame decks, such as Patriot, Devil Darkhawk, and Thanos Lockjaw Ongoing. I absolutely agree with that assessment; the Ongoing synergy has been the best synergy in Marvel Snap for quite a while now, pushing various decks to become serious contenders. However, there are other decks among those already at the top that hugely benefit from the Enchantress buff: DeathWave and DoomWave.

For DeathWave, Enchantress brings two main benefits:

• An answer to the deck’s most popular counter: Armor. I would expect Cosmo to rise as the new card against DeathWave as a result, even if the extra energy cost might make it too slow at times.
• The deck gains another power play alongside Death and She-Hulk on Turn 6, giving the archetype yet another tool to turn a lane around.

Looking at DoomWave, it is really quite similar:

• The build gains the same strong card on Turn 6 to pair with She-Hulk (when needed). I think Enchantress is stronger in DeathWave, but it should still be a nice addition to the deck.
• Another 4-cost to synergize with Zabu, opening a Darkhawk plus Enchantress play on Turn 6.
• The deck can keep running Lizard with Enchantress included in the mix.

Want to know the best part? The real buff to these two archetypes isn’t even Enchantress joining them. The cherry on the cake is Sera Control thinking it can make a comeback with Sandman nerfed and Enchantress buffed.

Yes, Sera, Sandman was nerfed. Ever heard of Wave, though?

Where Do We Play the New Shanna?

My philosophy when it comes to testing a card which never saw play in the past is quantity over quality. I will test a lot of different decks, throw a lot of stupid ideas in the air, and hopefully one of them ends up being worth something. Staying true to that philosophy, here are various decks with Shanna, where the card contributes in different ways depending on the build’s game plan.

Let’s start with the most basic idea for Shanna: the Kazoo archetype. In addition to her natural synergy with Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel, I really like Shanna for her ability to impact unplayable lanes.

With that in mind, we can use Storm pretty easily in the deck. And with a location locked early on in the match, or the board filling up from Squirrel Girl and Shanna‘s abilities, She-Hulk seems to find her spot to reward us for passing some energy in order to save some space.

Kazoo Flood

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Recruit Season

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Inspired by our own SafetyBlade’s Infinite Rank run on his Free to Play account, this deck is a little more complex than just a Kazoo build. Here we are mixing more synergies to create a swarm based deck that is able to generate board presence in different ways and at different times.

Once again, we find the Ka-Zar, Blue Marvel, and Storm trio, which I think are probably Shanna‘s strongest allies. Then, apart from the few mandatory 1-costs to make our buff cards worth, it’s mostly the top of the curve we need to have a look at.

SafetyBlade wasn’t sure the Sandman nerf was impactful enough to warrant removing the card from the list. We can keep it as a lockdown tool, which we can easily bypass with Doctor Doom or Ultron anyway. Both cards synergize with Patriot, Storm, Ebony Maw, and Blue Marvel, so they’re likely worthy considerations even without Sandman (in case the card ends up being too weak to be considered).

Satefy Swarm

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Recruit Season

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Last on the list is a control build. Shanna could end up contributing to those as well with synergies with Valkyrie, Carnage, Viper, and Professor X – in addition to the usual suspects, Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel. The big challenge with this deck is managing our space appropriately and not locking ourselves out of options.

This is probably the most flexible archetype when it comes to the cards one could include in the build and it offers a wider range of options as to how to surround Shanna. I tried to keep it Pool 3 friendly, but you could play Jeff or Stegron in this deck, or even go for the Thanos and Devil Dinosaur build.

Shanna Control

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Sandman’s Nerf Opens the Door To a Few Comebacks

I have already said Wave should limit how many combo oriented decks are able to come back after Sandman’s nerf; however, there are a few archetypes that are completely fine going against Wave, but were bullied by Sandman.

Particularly, She-Hulk should be a card to keep in mind after this OTA since passing on Turn 5 has become much more manageable than it was in the past. The card is at the core of two combo decks, both aiming to duplicate cards we can play for cheap on Turn 6. The way they operate early on is different, but they come together in their use of Moon Girl, Sunspot, and She-Hulk, three cards at the core of how the deck will generate points.

The first one was already featured as a silent performer in our last Tier List, and I would definitely recommend giving it a try:

MoonNaut

4

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The second deck features Stature as an additional way to create a cheap, high-power card to play on Turn 6.

Stature Combo

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

If we get this sort of balance patch every week, Marvel Snap will become a very dynamic card game!

This week, the Enchantress and Sandman changes are particularly interesting to me. I don’t think they change the cards too much, but they do impact the idea we have of those cards. Let’s take the Enchantress change, for example. As a 4/6, it is (obviously) stronger than a 4/4; however, if there were no Ongoing decks in the metagame, we would still never consider the card in our decks. On the other end, even as a 4/4, I was already running Enchantress as a card in some of my decks to counter the Patriot invasion going on this week.

By granting it two more power, Second Dinner mostly reminds us that Enchantress exists and is a very good card to consider when there are too many Ongoing strategies going around. It also alleviates the need to change several cards like Devil Dinosaur and Patriot to balance the current environment. In the end, as long as the weekly OTA patches are changing the complexity of the current metagame, it doesn’t matter if a card becomes too strong. At worst it can be reversed the next week.

I doubt we will see a ton of Ongoing based strategies running around the ladder for the next couple of days because we all have Enchantress on our minds right now. I doubt the card will stay in most decks once Patriot and Devil Dinosaur do not represent between 15% and 20% of the metagame. Even as a 4/6, if I am facing DeathWave and Silver Surfer all day, Enchantress will not make it into my deck. Once we reach this stage, the Ongoing decks will be able to come back and start a new dynamic once again, which can be supported or controlled with the next weekly patch.

May is looking like a very fun month to play Marvel Snap. If you’d like to share your takes on these changes, join us on Discord. You can also find me on Twitter where I share a daily deck and discuss everything about the game.

Good Game Everyone.