Marvel Snap Balance OTA Analysis and New Decks to Play: Great Update Ahead of New Season!

A lot of changes with the OTA Balance Updates this time, so let’s do a quick-fire round of their impact before I discuss the decks to play.

Card Reviews

Thanos

This does not impact the way we build around Thanos, but it might hurt the early turns. Indeed, one more card in the deck makes it less likely to find the time-sensitive early powerhouses, such as Strange Supreme, Sam Wilson Captain America, and Surge.

Not a big one, but a nerf nonetheless.

Galacta

Zabu and Surge are too good of a duo for me to believe this changes the fortune of the Good Cards archetype. It will hurt the Mister Sinister + Scarlet Spider duo in that deck, but the concept will remain largely the same otherwise.

Other archetypes might suffer from this change way more. Silver Surfer decks, Arishem decks, Nimrod and Black Panther… These should feel worse following the change, as the new Galacta won’t represent that incredible mid-game support anymore.

Red Guardian

The card remains a great disruptive tool against most early enablers. Surge is not part of this OTA, so you still need to stop her one way or another.

Misery

Already a strong card as a [4/8], this buff is mostly a small push for the likes of Mill, Destroy On Reveal, and other such archetypes using a touch of Destroy in their synergy.

Absorbing Man

A necessary buff to give this card some appeal. My first thought goes to Brood and the Silver Surfer archetype as a whole, especially with Galacta nerfed. There are other archetypes that are able to use Absorbing Man, such as Toxic, as well as basically any deck with Zabu and good On Reveal targets.

Wolfsbane

Probably the least impactful change in this OTA, but still a good buff for a card even limited collections tend to neglect.

Rhino

The competition among 3-Cost card was too fierce for Rhino, who is now challenging 2-Costs for a spot in a deck. Clog will once again be interested, especially since you can play Rhino into Viper now. I’m not sure anyone else will be on the market with Merlin and Surge available. Still, [2/5] is better than [3/6].

The Ancient One

A big change for the worst card of the season so far. The card found a home in Iron Hand, and that deck just got a lot better with Misery also buffed.

Ironheart

Not a big change here; Ironheart still represents the same power. However, it is now much easier to get six power out of Ironheart when playing her on Turn 3. Early collection decks with Odin should love this change, while others will probably quickly dismiss it.

Professor X

A “pretty small tweak” that makes Professor X worse overall if you consider the card wasn’t played in decks with Skills involved. Now Merlin will be able to swing that location with Polymorph, while the soon-to-release Clea will also be able to impact it with Flames Of The Faltine. Professor X will have to be played in Skill decks, or it likely won’t see play.

Lockjaw

The card has become a sort of cheap Blink without the guarantee of getting a higher-cost card. Lockjaw into Electro is now a thing, and multiple archetypes should quickly fall in love with that interaction. Otherwise, just activating on Turn 6 for a one out of three chance to get your big card is a decent proposition.

Another appealing 2-Cost has joined the chat.

New Decks

Testing the Small Changes

Power level wise, the buffs they gave to the Infinity Stones should mitigate the fact that you don’t automatically draw Thanos. However, it will feel bad whenever the Mad Titan is drawn instead of Strange Supreme, Surge, or Sam Wilson Captain America early in a match.

Rhino was playable as a [3/6], but so many other cards were better. The likes of Copycat and Red Guardian laughed at Rhino, and the card didn’t curve well in Clog either. Now a [2/5], the card should feel much better, even if you probably won’t play it over the likes of Merlin, Hawkeye Kate Bishop, or Surge when you have to make a choice on Turn 2.

One of the sole archetypes running Absorbing Man as a [4/4], Toxic Surfer should be a good starting point to get a feel for the buff to the card card. I checked whether Cerebro 5 was interested, but the only viable target looks to be Doctor Doom.

Here is another deck able to run Absorbing Man, although it doesn’t really need it. Indeed, I had to remove Man-Thing to give a spot to the newly buffed card. Still, Toxic runs plenty of great targets for Absorbing Man, especially among 4-Cost cards (which you can play one after another thanks to Zabu and Surge powering the deck).

Changes to Ironheart and Wolfsbane will mostly impact low collection players, so it is only fair they get a deck as well.

Iron Hand Gets Two Buffs

Misery has many other decks utilizing it such as Mill and Destroy On Reveal. However, those decks should feel largely the same, only gaining one power from this OTA. The Iron Hand archetype, on the other hand, gets a slightly better Misery and a much improved Tao Mandala from The Ancient One.

Before this OTA, the list featured above held a 0.55 Cube Average and 59% Win Rate across all ranks. Granted, there weren’t that many games recorded (only 120). Still, I would watch out for this deck following the OTA.

Professor X is Forced to Adapt

I know the goal with the Professor X change is to open more play patterns, which is a direction I support. Unfortunately, the 5-Cost was not played alongside Merlin at all this season, so it feels like a nerf considering all the decks playing Merlin now have a better shot at winning the locked location.

This deck is trying to work around this new Professor X with a King Eitri, Agamotto, and Merlin package. Next week, Clea will release and could open another deckbuilding avenue.

Who’s a Good Boy!

It is safe to say Lockjaw can be regarded as a new card with such a massive change. First, I want to salute the developers whenever they make these sorts of changes. I know it could break the game’s balance, but I will take that over a boring metagame any day.

So, is Lockjaw going to break Marvel Snap? Probably not.

I mean, there are a few other 2-Costs that might have a say in this, gatekeeping Lockjaw from becoming more than a simple synergistic pick. Let’s at least explore the synergies I was able to cook with this new [2/2] Lockjaw.

First up, the card no one wants to keep on the board: Electro.

Next up, another card you play solely for its ability: Nightmare

I wouldn’t mind swapping Storm either, so I added a Lockdown package to a Nightmare deck just to see how it goes.

Finally, you can use Lockjaw as a Blink or Pixie type of card just to help decks with low power cards make a bigger impact later in the match.

Closing Words

This is a great OTA, simply due to all the cards that have piqued my curiosity after reading the notes. From a meta standpoint, I expect Galacta will be the biggest change (even though Good Cards will likely remain a great synergy to build around). Still, this impacts Arishem, Nimrod, Silver Surfer, and a few other decks, so it will certainly have repercussions.

Obviously, Lockjaw is the other huge update, but I could see Rhino and The Ancient One gaining a lot of momentum as well. Each of those cards now not only look playable, but also have a clear synergy to build around for us to test. That’s always a good sign for the fate of a new or newly changed card.

That’s it for this OTA review. You can find everyone from the Marvel Snap Zone team in our community discord, alongside plenty of people to share your excitement about those changes.

Good Game Everyone!