Marvel Snap Balance OTA Analysis and Decks to Play: Small Changes For a Big Meta Swing?

It is safe to say that Arishem had a huge impact on the Marvel Snap landscape since he was released at the end of last season. For the past two weeks, the game has been centered around the 7-Cost card; its ability to dominate, even with random cards, has many archetypes playing Darkhawk to have a fighting chance.

In this OTA, the developers took a careful approach to help with the issue. Two of Arishem‘s key cards (Blob and Mockingbird) will receive a slight nerf, and plenty of other cards are being improved.

Blob and Mockingbird are definitely still playable, especially in an Arishem deck. Ravonna Renslayer is now just cosplaying the old Zabu, and she also remains a very good card.

We have to look at the buffs in order to gauge how impactful this OTA might be. Four of them are just a power upgrade, but we saw how big one point can be at times. Besides reminding everyone of a card’s existence, cards Werewolf By Night and Hit Monkey have the ability to grow to big scores in the right decks, and a change in the power of cards that are in charge of winning a lane is often the most impactful.

Indeed, while Sauron will just be played on Turn 3 and contribute four power instead of its previous three, Werewolf By Night and Hit Monkey will usually be difficult for the opponent to anticipate until the very last turn. Where will the card end up? How big will it be exactly? It is through those questions that you can mess with your opponent’s mind and surprise them with that little power increase.

As for Bob from Hydra, let’s just consider if the card was released today and cost 6,000 Collector’s Tokens to acquire. It remains a skip in my book.

Moving on to the ability changes with Viper and Lockjaw, these are probably two buffs that will meaningfully change the fortunes of these two cards.

Viper now reliably gives the card you want, which is very often The Hood form your own deck. But, more importantly, that damn Widow's Kiss! This is the best Viper has looked in forever, and I believe she finally has a spot in Junk decks or possibly as a tech card for certain featured locations or opponents.

Lockjaw has finally had its limitation removed, and the card can now cycle several cards in a turn. At first, it might look like nothing, but the fact that you can throw multiple cards behind it on Turn 6 makes Lockjaw super unpredictable for your opponent. This meta has been a lot about trying to counter the strongest decks or blurring the lines enough that you cannot be countered. This version of Lockjaw does both of those things much better, as you can leverage the ability at whatever time you decide instead of being forced to play one card behind it per turn.

Overall, I like these changes, especially because there are a lot of them. If it was just three or four, I would have doubted this OTA’s ability to change the current Arishem domination. With a whopping nine changes, at least five of which are able to limit Arishem‘s power, we should see some slight differences in the meta after this OTA.

So, I’m sure the big question everyone wants to as is what should I play? Apart from Arishem, obviously. You can still play that, and the Good Cards Ravonna deck too.

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The One Power Difference

In most peoples’ minds, one power is often not enough for a card to go from almost never played to suddenly being good enough to be impactful. Yet, there are plenty of examples in the past when just one power changed the fortune of a card. As such, let’s give those five buffs a fair chance and see how they feel with that extra help.

Here are my ideas inspired from the current best performing decks for each card. It is worth noting that all of these builds were already doing pretty well on the climb to the Infinite rank, as I filtered to only look at the 80s and above when I searched for ideas for each buffed card.

Sauron has its signature archetype, and the update doesn’t change the fact that its best home will remain alongside Shuri. It’s very likely that the deck will feel similar to what it was, but, considering it is entirely reliant on its points output, one more is never bad to take.

One of the very few builds that was able to post a decent performance with Bob from Hydra, this one feels like a long shot. But, right after an OTA, surprising decks can do a lot of damage since the opponent will often have no clue as to what they should expect. Plus, if you aren’t a big Arishem aficionado, this gives you a chance to test the now [6/10] Mockingbird as well. Shanna could be a consideration to help in that regard if Mysterio and Squirrel Girl don’t feel like enough.

If Arishem loses some momentum, Darkhawk should as well, so keep in mind that Korg and the 5-Cost can be changed if the meta evolves in that direction. Otherwise, Bounce has always been the best home for Werewolf By Night. It packs plenty of cheap On Reveal cards to help Wolfy grow big enough to challenge a lane almost on his own.

Typically, the Junk synergy is a nice supporting cast because it can help you manage your space on the board for Werewolf By Night. Plus, a full location for the opponent means you can sit the 3-Cost there for a turn there to keep it protected from a Shadow King or Shang-Chi until you move it to its final destination.

As an added bonus, this one also allows you to test Viper, which seems like a great card in the deck. Even without The Hood, you can always give Spider-Ham or a random two power card to lock one of the opponent’s locations.

Bounce is also the best home for Hit Monkey (although Mysterio alone can be enough support, so you wouldn’t have to go all-in on the cheap cards). Here, you simply want to develop points while U.S. Agent and Nocturne help you bring some reactive power for opposing big cards or flexibility for locations.

Mysterio has been a great pairing for Gwenpool and Sasquatch lately, which makes the deck fairly simple to build—at least for testing if Hit Monkey is worth investing into. If not, you can always go back to Sage or another card that is able to grow its power.

With Mysterio enough to make Hit Monkey worth including in a deck, you can also explore your options outside the Bounce archetype, like with Sera Control. This purely reactive archetype has been struggling lately because it’s unable to keep up with the development of the top archetypes.

In that context, reactive decks are often forced to pack some points to make sure they can compete on that front, at least on one lane. Without the need to win two with just reactive cards, you can then try to leverage Shang-Chi or Shadow King while Hit Monkey or Angela can win another location.

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A Reliable Viper is Fantastic!

An ability change is frequently the best way to bring a card back into the game since Marvel Snap is largely based around leveraging powerful abilities (at least it is right now). With this in mind, I’m very excited about Viper. I believe it becomes a great card now that it targets your lowest power card. I already showed how the card could contribute in a Bounce Junk type of deck, but the Junk synergy can be played alongside plenty of other concepts as well.

Once again, the success of the Darkhawk package will be tied to how much popularity Arishem will retain after this OTA. But, even if the game was to go back to 12 cards decks, Korg is a fine card to send to your opponent if it means locking up one of their locations. Also, Rockslide into Absorbing Man will create a big Darkhawk regardless of the opponent’s starting deck size.

In that mix, Viper just comes in as support with the added benefit of guaranteeing you can give your opponent The Hood or a Rock, which was often a problem in the past. Indeed, her old ability would force you to play on a certain location to keep the card you wanted to send alone, which is antithetical to the purpose of Junk. The archetype tries to limit the opponent’s play patterns, not its own.

Galactus is one of the cards that could gain the most from this new Viper. Indeed, the Eater of Worlds wants you to keep a location empty so you can play him there. The old Viper forced you to keep The Hood alone so you could send it to your opponent, which already pushed you to play on two separate locations.

Now you will be able to play Ravonna Renslayer or Jeff the Baby Land Shark behind The Hood to secure priority on the lane while keeping the other two open for Galactus. It’s overall a much better set up for that part of the deck. Another bonus with this new Viper is the fact that she can now act as a small Annihilus since you are guaranteed to send The Void—even with other cards on the lane.

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Lockjaw is Improved… But is it Enough?

This Lockjaw is clearly better than the one we had after its nerf back in the Thanos Lockjaw era, but I doubt it will be enough to bring back the dog’s signature archetype. Indeed, when looking at the decks that are currently using Lockjaw, the best ones were Arishem decks, which feels more like a “I threw Lockjaw in a deck” rather than building around the 4-Cost.

With this change, you can give the old Lockjaw decks a try to see if an explosive Turn 6 with both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker is worthy of a Snap. To complement this core, you can go either tall or wide, and the meta will probably settle on whichever one will be best to use.

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Closing Words

Overall, I don’t think any of these changes is particularly impactful, but the sum of them is pretty interesting to look at. Indeed, I believe a large part of what is played in Marvel Snap right now is due to how we perceive the power of certain decks. Obviously, the most talked about decks are great, but we can quickly create a bubble where only certain archetypes are played while others with a similar performance fly under the radar.

With this kind of balance update, the developers are putting the spotlight back on various cards and giving the community a reason to give them another try—even if it doesn’t feel like one power will be enough. Let’s at least give ourselves a chance to be surprised.

Want to discuss this OTA or share the deck you are most excited to play once it goes live? Find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or you can follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.

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