Marvel Snap Balance OTA Analysis and Decks to Play: The Mighty Have Fallen

Jean Grey isn’t part of this OTA, but she is the first thing that came to mind when I saw all the Guardians of the Galaxy were buffed. If you also account for Hope Summers being a very popular card, this should give Jean Grey a lot of upsides in the upcoming meta. Nebula also looks promising, but the 1-Cost is already being played in a couple of decks, so she doesn’t need as much help.

Wait a second… Why are we discussing these interactions and synergies in a game where Thanos and Discard are shutting down every one else? Well, they both got nerfed, so if there is a time to explore all those synergies you didn’t get to enjoy because they were not good enough for the past two months, now is the time!

When reading over the changes, I couldn’t help but ask is this enough? Indeed, this is going to be the fourth Infinity Stone to be nerfed, which leaves only the Power Stone and the Reality Stone the same as when Thanos joined the game. Also, it is the third balance update in a row with Thanos being included in the nerf category, after Time Stone and Lockjaw were big talking points in the last two. As for Apocalypse, the lower power is warranted, but do we really believe a 15 Power Dracula will be any weaker than a 17 Power one?

Without the buffs, I would already be writing a big no. However, with a few other synergies gaining some power as well, it might be closer than you think. Let’s explore!

How Much Worse are Thanos and Discard Dracula?

Discard, not that much. I’m pretty sure you can keep running the exact same list and be completely fine. As such, here is the best performing Discard deck since the last OTA where Miek received a buff.

Onto Thanos, then. Specifically, the Mind Stone. It’s a card that was so good that a lot of players Snapped on Turn 1 when they had it in their opening hand. The change to a [2/1] is absolutely massive.

• No more draw on Turn 1 means far less consistency overall. You will draw Infinity Stones more often on Turn 2, which makes your average early draw a little worse.
• If you fetch two Stones on Turn 2, when do you play them? You could pair one with a 2-Cost on Turn 3, but you typically want to play Hope Summers during that turn. Sometimes even Mobius M. Mobius.
• What about Cull Obsidian now? You can no longer play it where your Mind Stone is placed anymore, so, unless you played a different Stone on Turn 1, you are forced to get one down on Turn 3 in order to set up the 4-Cost.
• Playing all six Stones now costs one more energy, which means it is a bit harder to get a 20 Power Thanos (or a free Mockingbird). Indeed, the Mind Stone was instrumental in finding the other Infinity Stones to discount the new 5-Cost card.

The Space Stone, Mind Stone, and Time Stone have all been nerfed in the past, all with little to no impact on the dominance of the Mad Titan. This nerf, however, feels like a huge deal. Also, Psylocke lost a power, which is yet another small nerf to the deck’s early development. This makes it harder to land a strong Professor X early on.

Overall, the curve that went Mind Stone → Two Infinity Stones → Psylocke plus Infinity Stone → Mockingbird plus Cull Obsidian (yes, this was a Turn 4 option for Thanos) → Professor X is now much, much weaker and harder to pull off.

I’m not saying Thanos is gone for good, but the deck should be less oppressive to deal with. And, more importantly, it shouldn’t be as easy for it to Snap aggressively early in the match.

I think it’s still worth testing the current Thanos builds; they were so strong that the nerf might have just made them go from a great to a good deck. Otherwise, you could also look into other options when it comes to cheating energy early on to develop some points:

Mockingbird might be the card to pay attention to in particular since it might become much more difficult to play in the near future.

Adam Warlock in Cerebro 5?

When I read the patch notes, I wasn’t particularly excited by a [5/5] Adam Warlock. Indeed, I still believe one extra draw, conditional to winning the lane, isn’t enough to make me want to run the card in my deck. Still, the devs have mentioned they are curious to see the impact the change could have on the Cerebro 5 deck in particular, so let’s give that deck a shot.

For reference, we’re talking about an archetype with a sub 50% Win Rate and a negative Cube Average right now. If it wasn’t for Enchantress stealing a few games here and there, I don’t even think Cerebro 5 would appear in the deck tracker data. I have a very, very difficult time picturing Adam Warlock being the savior of that archetype.

Here is the current best performing list for Cerebro 5. Honestly, I don’t even know what to remove to get the new [5/5] added into the mix.

Captain Marvel is Back!

While I keep searching for a playable version of Adam Warlock, there are fewer doubts around Captain Marvel, a card that used to be great as a [4/5]. As the developers rightfully said in the notes, the meta isn’t what it used to be back in the summer of 2023, so there is a chance Carol Danvers won’t return to her former status with this reversion. Still, it is at least worth giving it a shot. The card should be perfect alongside the Elsa Bloodstone, Hope Summers, and Kitty Pryde trio in Move. It should add another flexible card to play in order to fill lanes without locking your points.

Another archetype should also be very glad to see the superheroine return to her glory days: Lockdown.

Let’s not get into too many details about this one. The buffs I still have to discuss will impact Lockdown quite a bit as well.

The Jean Grey Era

Alright, this might be a bit of a dramatic title (especially because Jean Grey isn’t being buffed to a [3/4] or [3/5] with the OTA). Nevertheless, this is probably the card with the most to gain from all five of the Guardians of the Galaxy being buffed in this update.

It is only a power for each, except Gamora who just got one of her five extra power points transferred to her base power, but those points can quickly add up if you play several of them. Here are plenty of decks to test how improved these cards really are:

War Machine is going to make me look like a fool, isn’t it ?

Closing Words

If Thanos was to lose a significant amount of momentum, it is very difficult to anticipate what the Marvel Snap meta would become. We would probably still be in an environment where energy cheating engines are the best foundation for a strategy. If that’s the case, Loki, Hope Summers, and other such cards would likely thrive.

But, even if energy remains the most important metric in the game, you still have to win through scoring points, which was a big emphasis of this OTA. Indeed, with fewer points for the top two archetypes and more for a rather unused synergy, the gap is certainly smaller after this update.

I doubt it will be enough to make the Guardians of the Galaxy a dominant synergy tomorrow, but this is still a step in the right direction.

I’m excited to see the impact of these changes and what new decks everyone can come up with. Feel free to share your ideas or decks in the comment section, or join us on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord. You can also reach out through my Twitter page to share your creation with the community.

Good Game Everyone.