Marvel Snap Balance OTA Update Analysis and Decks to Play: Merry Christmas!

I want to start this last OTA analysis of 2023 by saying these have been wonderful to have and cover all year long. They are easily on top of my list of favorite features added to the game, and they have largely contributed to keeping the game fresh and challenging all year long. With nine changes planned for this one (three of those to very important cards in the current meta), this last OTA for 2023 should keep us busy during the holidays.

Indeed, even if my curiosity has me wondering about a [1/5] Martyr and a [5/5] Ronan the Accuser, I have no doubt the nerfs should lead to significant changes in the meta. Professor X, for example, is now merely a “Pay five energy to lock a lane” kind of card, which should still work alongside Ms. Marvel – but it won’t be a staple in as many archetypes as it is now. Werewolf By Night also might not be the auto-inclusion it currently is in any deck based around On Reveal abilities now that you can only play it on Turn 4.

Last, Black Widow and Viper might have become stronger standalone cards, but they will also be slower to develop in their respective synergies because their cheap costs were a big part of why we used them.

None of these changes should kill entire archetypes, but the popularity of some should be impacted. I believe we have enough flexibility in the game to adapt and keep certain shells, such as Lockdown or Bounce, alive, even if they are heavily impacted.

Then, I think we should look at this patch as a redistribution of the balance among archetypes in Marvel Snap with the chance of seeing a few underplayed ones make a push to be considered competitive.

Which ones, you might ask? Let’s explore!

Bounce, Lockdown, Thanos, and Loki Will Need Some Rebuilding

There is a chance that Werewolf By Night and Professor X remain in their respective archetypes; simply playing them with a little less firepower is probably fine. For example, I can picture Bounce using Beast on Turn 3 to create a couple of 0-Cost On Reveal cards, which will enable Werewolf By Night as soon as you play it on Turn 4. Professor X still has Ms. Marvel, which can be a huge help. But that would only work for Lockdown, much less Thanos Control (although the Destroy version can play the 4-Cost card effectively).

If this is the future of Marvel Snap, then we will likely regard this patch as a disappointment and the meta is unlikely to change because of it. So, let’s pretend Werewolf By Night and Professor X took a big hit and assume their decks will suffer from this OTA, or, at the very least, be forced to adapt in some way.

In that scenario, I think Bounce is probably the archetype with the most work ahead because it is also impacted by the changes to Black Widow. Still, if there is less of Professor X, the deck should see some upside in this OTA.

Here are a few ideas on how to adapt each of those archetypes for the post-patch meta:

If Professor X was to be taken out of Lockdown, I believe the deck still has a good enough shell to build around. Plus, without Professor X in the way, Annihilus might become extremely reliable – especially with Goose or Storm to limit what can be played on the right most lane.

It’s hard to imagine the archetype going away with several cards it can still build around.

The Professor X driven game plan might be difficult to navigate from now on, but playing the card on Turn 4 might be able to work regardless. Still, even with Professor X out of the picture, Thanos Blob has other builds. Some are centered around the destroy synergy, and some are simply looking to develop loads of points (which can now use a buffed Gladiator, too).

With many 5-Cost cards to consider and that archetype always picking from a variety of strong options, Thanos should be able to bounce back and find something close to its current build.

Loki has picked up momentum lately with the inclusion of a Lockdown package featuring Professor X, which means both of Loki‘s best decks are potentially losing a key element. There is a third build of Loki, however, that is based around the Double Up! concept with Moon Girl included. That one potentially does not need either Werewolf By Night or Professor X to win some cubes.

This variant of Loki Collector probably needs some refinement, and it could end up being worse than a pure Double Up! deck with Darkhawk, Iron Man, and Ravonna Renslayer. Apart from Ms. Marvel (which is still a great Marvel Snap card) and maybe Zabu, all the other cards in the deck makes sense in regards to the original deck’s strategy.

The only archetype I didn’t include among the ones hit by the patch, Bounce, has to deal with both Werewolf By Night and Black Widow being nerfed. I could offer some ideas around Bounce, particularly with the Annihilus package since it has shown it can work in that deck. However, I don’t think there is a way to just build Bounce to feel as good as it currently is, so the archetype will have to go through a bit of rebuilding to feel great once again.

With that in mind, let’s look a little past this OTA and consider that Selene is joining the game next Tuesday. This might be the perfect opportunity for Bounce to take a fresh start:

Black Widow has a great synergy with Selene, so we could obviously think of still playing it – especially as a [3/3] is a pretty good body for the card now. Scarlet Witch could easily be replaced if needed. I don’t know if that will push the entire Darkhawk package back in the deck over time, but let’s not rule anything out yet.

We could even take it one step further and include the Ronan package in Bounce since Selene should entice the opponent to keep the afflicted card in hand. Therefore, if something like this might work after Tuesday, we might have a brand new way of playing Bounce on our hands; we would just have to fit Selene in that mix. Master Mold is a great card to replay with Beast anyway.

Explosive Archetypes Have a Shot at a Comeback

Archetypes looking to abuse certain cards (Darkhawk, Werewolf By Night, Professor X) aren’t getting great presents for Christmas. Explosive decks, however, might have received two new cards to experiment around: Maximus and Martyr. Both offer a lot of points for their cost.

I know, I didn’t include Martyr in this, but I’m not still not sure the card is worth running – especially in a deck that is able to discount its 2-Costs through Sera. I added Havok instead because you could play it on Turn 5 if Sera isn’t in hand. You would get a [2/8] from while keeping the ability to play Mysterio and Hit Monkey on the next turn.

Considering how long Sera Miracle has been out of the meta, there will obviously be a bit of refinement needed to get back to a solid deck. Both the necessary counter cards need to be figured out, be they Killmonger, Shadow King or Mobius M. Mobius, as well as the balance of points with cards like Jeff the Baby Land Shark, Martyr, and other flexible or low-cost, high-power cards.

Since we are on the topic of explosive decks that are aiming to hide their true potential until late in the match, I think it’s safe to say InSheNaut will probably rise as well:

If these decks were to indeed come back, and become dominant enough to be the center of attention, or Annihilus take over the metagame as a strong synergy to plug and play in many decks. Let’s not count Professor X out just yet. Indeed, as a [5/1], the card could have some synergies with Ravonna Renslayer or Mister Negative now. I doubt it would work with the latter, as the timing seems very complicated to pull off for Professor X to win a lane for Mister Negative. However, we could see a disruptive deck rise and ruin the quiet life of explosive archetypes if the metagame features too many of those:

Otherwise, if you like to annoy archetypes who think giving up priority is a good idea, there is always Galactus:

That deck typically plays Professor X, but with the nerf, Doctor Octopus should be a decent replacement to mess with an opponent trying to build a specific combo in hand.

Will Ronan the Accuser Finally See Play?

Most of the cards in this OTA already have a home or a package they are a strong part of. Even Viper, which we haven’t discussed yet, has Junk, potentially Havok, and Selene coming soon to be tested with. This leaves us with Ronan the Accuser to test and see if we can finally build a deck around it. Here are a few ideas to get the discussion about a [5/5] Ronan the Accuser started:

The basic, go-to option whenever we want to figure out if a card has potential in Marvel Snap is to throw it in a Good Cards build with a proven core and see if it can contribute. Maximus plus Shang-Chi on Turn 6 is already an interesting prospect.

Otherwise, there are other, more synergistic ideas we can explore, but these would really need the Ronan the Accuser crew to be able to heavily contribute to the deck. Indeed, the competition is fierce among groups of three to four cards that can be considered “plug and play” in a deck. It’s not impossible, but Ronan, Maximus, and Master Mold have a lot of ground to make up if they want to be compared to Darkhawk, Annihilus, or Devil Dinosaur.

Here are a few ideas where the trio seems to make sense:

I tried to make something with Sandman as well, as it could be a fourth card to consider alongside Maximus, Master Mold and Ronan the Accuser to keep the opponent’s hand size as big as possible, but couldn’t find anything I liked.

Closing Words

Overall, I really like this OTA because it forces us to reconsider several staples of this meta through impactful but necessary nerfs. I’ve always being in favor of buffing cards to bring more diversity over nerfing cards because the latter usually reduces the pool of popular decks. However, when a shell has been dominant for a long time, people will naturally gravitate towards it whenever they don’t really know what to play. This makes that shell look significantly weaker, which is sometimes the only way to break the pattern. Then, even if I think Professor X didn’t need to be hit so hard, I believe all these changes make sense in the grand scheme of things. They should all help the buffs to Gladiator, Ronan the Accuser, and even Punisher look more impactful as a result.

Plus, apart from the X-Man (which might require a bit of testing), I think all the cards nerfed in this patch are still playable. They will feel different at first because the timings and set ups will be different, but Viper and Black Widow might end up being stronger in more decks when we look back at this patch rather than niche in just one synergy. As for Werewolf By Night, the card will naturally be weaker, but, with Professor X out of the way, it should still represent a good building block for Bounce and other decks based on cheap On Reveal strategies.

Hopefully I’m not wrong in foreseeing a great OTA to close out the year. I also want to use this opportunity to wish everyone happy holidays!

As usual, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord if you would need anything, or follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game every day.

Good Game Everyone.