Marvel Snap OTA Balance Update Analysis and Decks to Play: Good Cards Darkhawk out, Hello DoomWave!

Week after week, the Second Dinner team continues to show the community they are not afraid to take risks with the metagame with the OTA balance updates routinely shaking up a few of the dominant decks. In August, we were mostly accustomed to buffs, as most players were praising the balance at the top of the metagame with barely any deck feeling out of line. Instead, we had a group of dominant decks with different play styles and strategies, and the OTAs were adding new contenders to that group. Forge allowed the rise of Silver Patriot, Captain Marvel joined both Good Cards and Move Legion, Vision is now played in Thanos decks, and the new Spider-Man is a hit in both Silver Surfer and Move Legion. We have had many great changes this month (mostly buffs) that have lead to a metagame with a lot of good decks. And it might be time to change that. Indeed, even there are two buffs I’m eager to explore, the good decks are finally going to get the nerf hammer.

Legion and Captain Marvel losing one power is a hit to most of the strongest decks in the game right now. Move Legion, Silver Patriot, Good Cards Stature, and even InSheNaut are playing one of these two, if not both. In the end, only Shuri Sauron isn’t directly impacted by these changes. Plus, it feels worth noting that Good Cards Stature also has Rockslide changed, which will lead to Zabu losing two valuable allies and impact the deck on a much deeper level.

Then, we have two buffs. The one to Doctor Doom seems fairly easy to anticipate, as the card was the strongest 6-Cost card in the game before it was changed, and it should return to a similar status after the OTA goes live. Sure, we have more agency to stop it now. Spider-Ham is now an established 2-Cost, and Cosmo has gained momentum with Discard and Destroy rising after X-23‘s release.

Speaking of Destroy, the underwhelming card of the month, Lady Deathstrike, is also getting some love in the form of an extra power. While four instead of three for a 5-Cost might seem like a very minimal change, we can’t ignore the fact that Lady Deathstrike‘s power is much more significant than most other cards because of her ability.

Apart from that one (which is the only card we don’t have much data on), all the other changes could have some major impacts on the current landscape. I have my reserves about Legion feeling much different as a [5/7]; the ability has been feeling extremely strong as of late. As for Captain Marvel, Rockslide, and Doctor Doom, oh boy, do we have to talk about those!

What is The Future For Good Cards Stature?

As it stands, the Zabu, Rockslide, Darkhawk trio is no more. And Rockslide isn’t the only card that has left the ship – Captain Marvel also took a hit. Sure, one could argue that Darkhawk, Iron Lad, Shang-Chi, and Enchantress are enough to leverage Zabu. However, Shang-Chi and Enchantress aren’t cards you just throw on the board on Turn 3 after Zabu, and Rockslide was.

So yes, there is a chance Zabu and Darkhawk will remain a great pair, especially if other 4-Cost cards remain important in the metagame. Still, I feel like the developers want us to consider the Darkhawk synergy in other decks, like Devil Darkhawk:

Devil Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The deck did not get buffed, so it is hard to imagine it becoming a juggernaut all of a sudden. But it is probably the archetype to explore as it exploits 3-Cost cards pretty well compared to a Zabu shell.

Let’s circle back to the original topic now: what do we do with Good Cards Stature if Darkhawk is not a consideration anymore? Well, fortunately enough, one of the archetype’s all-time best card suffered a blow at the same time another one returned to its dominant form. As such, maybe we just ditch the Darkhawk synergy and use other 4-Costs to reform a Good Cards Stature around the Wave and Doctor Doom duo:

Good Cards Stature ?

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This is more of an experiment to keep the current Zabu shell intact while playing enough 4-Cost cards. I purposefully left Shang-Chi and Enchantress out because they are more situational, but they could join in on the fun easily here.

The idea for this deck is to get a Wave plus Stature play on Turn 5 into a Leader or Doctor Doom on Turn 6, just like we did in the past. However, considering Leader is a two power card, it could be discarded by Silver Samurai and brought back with Ghost Rider later on. In that scenario, Shang-Chi (or another three or four energy card) might be more valuable than Black Bolt, as we could play another card alongside Ghost Rider on Turn 6 when Wave doesn’t show up. Lady Sif is also a possibility to bolster the synergy around Ghost Rider.

No matter what, removing Darkhawk and Captain Marvel makes building around Zabu much more challenging. Maybe we should not just build around it for the time being and instead look towards other archetypes for Wave and Doctor Doom:

High Evo DoomWave

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

1x None

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

One concept I tried to work on with Zabu that I ultimately wasn’t happy with is with the Discard package. Indeed, many cards in that synergy are 4-Costs now, including Absorbing Man, so that might be worth exploring. Plus, Silver Samurai could discard Dracula, which we can easily bring back with Hela or Ghost Rider if needed:

Variants

Silver Samurai

On Reveal: Each player discards the lowest-Power card from their hand.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Silver Samurai

Variants

Dracula

At the end of the game, discard a card from your hand to gain its Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Dracula

Variants

Ghost Rider

On Reveal: Bring back one of your discarded cards to this location.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Ghost Rider

Variants

Hellcow

On Reveal: Discard 2 cards from your hand.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Hellcow

Variants

Absorbing Man

On Reveal: If the last card you played has an On Reveal, copy its text. (if it’s in play)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Absorbing Man

Do We Stop Playing Legion?

The short answer is probably not. There are several decks, especially those that are able to seize priority early with lots of points that should still use Legion a lot. In particular, I can’t imagine Silver Patriot or Move Legion getting rid of the card.

Both decks might feel a little worse, but looking at their numbers lately, I’d be shocked if any were to disappear from the metagame. Worse case scenario, Silver Surfer will finally be beatable, and Move Legion will become a solid Tier 2 deck. Plus, both decks have the flexibility to include Doctor Doom if they want to, so they might end up even stronger –at least for Patriot. I’m not sure how big the change to Captain Marvel will be for Move Legion, but the archetype still has plenty of good cards to explore, such as Polaris, Aero, and Magneto. While less flexible, they remain solid cards for the deck.

Iron Patriot

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

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)

1x Recruit Season

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Move Legion

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

1

3x 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)

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The Lady Deathstrike Interrogation

If the first four cards were all popular in the weeks leading up to this OTA, Lady Deathstrike is a much bigger puzzle to solve. Plus, Destroy is currently in the spotlight, which has lead to Armor and Cosmo becoming very popular cards. This means that Lady Deathstrike could have become a solid card, but we might not feel like it because it would get countered too often right now.

But when the card was released, a few ideas were tossed around, so it might be time to revisit some of them and see if Lady Deathstrike can contribute to a few synergies. With these two decks, we would work on helping the card from two different angles: getting it out earlier in Thanos Death, or getting some help from Forge in Deadpool.

DeathWave

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

3x 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)

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

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

DeadStrike

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

If I wanted to be dramatic, I would say that this OTA came in a week too late. Silver Patriot is already in place, and it is barely affected by any of these changes. As such, everyone already knows which deck they should turn their attention to if they wanted to get some good results right away. Also, Shuri Sauron was completely left out, which means we have another deck we can abuse if we don’t like the first one.

If I wanted to be optimistic, I’d say these changes are great, and they impact many of the top performers of the current metagame. The changes should lead to players reconsidering some of the staples in several of the best decks in the game, which pushes them to reconsider how to build decks they have not really questioned in several weeks. Plus, we get one of the best standalone cards in the game back in Doctor Doom, which should help many decks have a base power they can confidently rely on.

The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. Yes, we still have some decks we know are really strong, and the combination of Doctor Doom and Wave has proven its worth in the past. But we also got several puzzles to solve with this OTA balance patch. What do we do with Zabu? If we can’t abuse Zabu anymore, how much will this impact cards like Shang-Chi, Enchantress, and Iron Lad? Is Lady Deathstrike a good card now? Can Move Legion, a deck that is already challenged by Silver Patriot, survive nerfs to two of its cards?

All these questions are making this patch very interesting, and I think we should be in for a few surprises down the line with tons of creative decks to explore. I might not have found them this time, such as the Discard Zabu build, but I’m for sure hyped to try some of the most creative brews I’ll see shared around the community. And I’ll be sure to share them with you all as well in future articles.

If you had a deck in mind with the changes, feel free to come share it on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or tag me on Twitter where I share decks and biased opinions about the game there.

Good Game Everyone.