Table of Contents
Every two weeks, Marvel Snap undergoes an “Over the Air” (OTA) update, which does not require a full patch. Cards are able to be rebalanced with their stats (Power and Energy) only via a hotfix, whereas major ability reworks are reserved for patches. This article is our in-depth analysis of the changes, how it might impact the current meta, and some potential decks you can play from the get go!
OTA Balance Update Overview
It takes a grown person to admit they made a mistake, and, considering how many impactful changes we saw in Marvel Snap over the last few balance patches, at least one was bound to be wrong.
According to the developers, Mobius M. Mobius becoming an On Reveal ability was that mistake, which they are fixing in this OTA.
However, if you look at the picture above, the changes to cards defining the Marvel Snap landscape are not done. This time, Shang-Chi is the target; it will only destroy double-digit cards from now on.
First, we can see how that means more freedom to buff cards, as Warpath, She-Hulk, and Jessica Jones immediately gained a power. The first two are in order to stay in Shang-Chi‘s range, and the last one is to stay one power under it. Then, the fascinating part about this nerf are the cards that didn’t receive a power change and are now free from a potential Shang-Chi on the opposing side:
- All the seven power cards can now benefit from Elsa Bloodstone‘s buff (or Forge and Nico Minoru) without any worry.
- You can now grow cards up to nine power (The Collector, Werewolf By Night, Devil Dinosaur, Venom, Bishop, Sunspot, Angela…) without fear.
- Some nine power cards can be played on curve, such as The Living Tribunal in games with seven turns, which was much riskier to do in the past.
It might not open as much as Mobius M. Mobius‘s nerf, but changing a card as impactful as Shang-Chi has to announce that some changes are on their way in the Marvel Snap metagame.
As we do every week, let me take you on a tour of what could be Marvel Snap for the week to come.
Sera, Mister Negative, She-Hulk Going Back in the Closet?
One of the biggest upsides to come from the Mobius M. Mobius change was the amount of decks that came back when the card was out of the way. Sera had more space to exist, leading to Silver Surfer, among other Sera Miracle like decks, to come back. Mister Negative and Ravonna Renslayer finally managed to build some momentum as a unit, although they did not manage to become important parts of the metagame yet. The most significant return was probably InSheNaut, which immediately placed itself as one of the top tier archetypes in Marvel Snap.
The revert to an Ongoing ability is said to target Loki in particular, which ran wild without Mobius M. Mobius in the metagame and became the best deck in the highest ranks of the ladder – and ruining the experience of many players (at least according to social media).
Despite that, I would like to present you with this:
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Loki always had some available space to run a counter card, which it has attributed to Shang-Chi or Cosmo lately. While Cosmo might remain in the equation, the nerf to Shang-Chi and the return of Mobius M. Mobius are both pointing towards the deck now running Rogue in that slot. Which, of course, begs the question: Is Loki really going to suffer from this?
Probably a little, at the very least, since Loki is a 4-Cost card, which means if the opponent plays Mobius M. Mobius on Turn 3 then you need to play Rogue before you can go for Loki (and that will mess with the flow of the deck a bit). However, with Werewolf By Night now in the deck, I feel like you can just play Rogue and an On Reveal 1-Cost card on Turn 4 and go on with your match.
Can the decks we talked about in the first paragraph do the same? Are those able to react to Mobius M. Mobius‘s return as well as Loki, or are we losing those archetypes once again and closing the metagame more than helping it?
I believe Sera and Mister Negative can run Rogue if they have to, although Mister Negative is already struggling as it is. The deck might not have the luxury to adapt to other decks and should instead focus on its own power for the time being. In the case of Sera Surfer, we probably will see the deck run Mobius M. Mobius itself and be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this patch overall:
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I am afraid High Evolutionary is going to have a tougher time adapting; running Rogue means removing another important card from its game plan. This means Leech, Cosmo, or maybe Armor needs to go away to make room for Rogue or Enchantress.
The last time Mobius M. Mobius joined Marvel Snap, it took less than a week for InSheNaut to disappear from the metagame. Let’s see how long it takes this time around. Itould be a shame if She-Hulk was buffed to a ten power card only to see its featured deck absent from the metagame as a result of the same patch.
In addition to entire archetypes, there are also several cards that should suffer from Mobius M. Mobius returning to Marvel Snap:
- Miles Morales, Stature, Swarm, and other cards whose whole purpose is to discount their cost.
- Most of the Ongoing cards will probably see a lot more of Rogue or Enchantress on their way with the addition of an ability that lots of decks want to get rid of.
Jessica Jones is Now a Premium 4-Cost!
A [4/9] card is a pretty good deal in Marvel Snap, especially when it comes with an ability you can copy with Iron Lad, double with Wong, Odin, and Kamar-Taj, and reduce with Zabu. I mean, we are often fine with a [4/10] Darkhawk, so a nine power Jessica Jones with no set up required already sounds great.
You know what happens when they give us a new solid 4-Cost card: we immediately want to test it in a Zabu archetype, so here are two ideas to get a feel of the new Jessica Jones:
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If you are afraid of Mobius M. Mobius coming back and ruining Zabu and Ms. Marvel in this deck, I would suggest removing Storm and Nebula to include Echo and Cosmo. Place both in the middle location to protect your Ms. Marvel and prevent the opponent from being able to play their own there since it is usually the best location.
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I’m not sure Rogue is actually necessary in a Zabu deck. Indeed, if you get Zabu down on Turn 2, you should already get a 4-Cost out by Turn 3 when Mobius M. Mobius comes out and have your curve underway. It might simply be better to play another 4-Cost card instead of trying to deal with the Ongoing ability.
As such, it might be even better to remove Rogue and Alioth from this deck to include Black Widow and America Chavez for consistency, or simply picking another disruptive card. I heard that Mobius M. Mobius was pretty good back when it was an Ongoing ability, in case you’re looking for another 3-Cost in your deck…
A Few Decks Worth Testing After Their Buffs
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Although we discussed how Mobius M. Mobius could put a dagger in the hearts of decks looking to exploit Sera on Turn 5, I cannot pass on the opportunity to test this silly idea. You probably got it from looking at the list, but, with Strong Guy now a 3-Cost card, you should be able to build a Discard Surfer deck and end up with an empty hand once you play two discard abilities plus Silver Surfer on Turn 6.
Snowguard might be a little ill-advised here since it fills your hand, but the Hawk and Bear have proven to be valuable additions to a Silver Surfer deck. It’s hard to judge without testing it first. If you don’t like the deck built this way, or you just don’t want to mix Move and Discard, here is another way to build this deck that is more straightforward:
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In this case, you focus much more on raw power and look to develop across the board by building explosive patterns with Swarm, which can be buffed with Nova. If Mobius M. Mobius were to come back, you can always use X-23 to get to six energy on both Turn 5 and Turn 6, alleviating the need to rely on Sera to get a bunch of 3-Cost cards out.
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The Phoenix Force used to love Doctor Strange early in its existence. Indeed, the whole idea relied on getting several Multiple Mans across two locations and then using Doctor Strange on the third one to drag all of them at once, as they were all your highest power card.
I’m not sure the discount is particularly helping that game plan, and it might be best to find a 4-Cost card to pair with Doctor Strange on Turn 6. Still, it could open some nice patterns with Venom on Turn 5 by opening the way for Arnim Zola on the next turn to duplicate that power.
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Whenever a card becomes cheaper, typically around the one or two energy mark, I immediately think about Beast – especially if it has an On Reveal ability. Indeed, the possibility to repeat cheap abilities numerous times in a match is one of the most flexible ways to build power in Marvel Snap, alongside being able to use the available space in different ways. With Werewolf By Night now available, it feels like you could build various threats to contest multiple lanes.
The first one would be similar to the Phoenix Force deck above, with Multiple Man growing to become around five to ten power, which you can then move en masse with Doctor Strange or Heimdall. The second one would be with Werewolf By Night since it grows naturally as you play your On Reveal cards. If you can’t find Multiple Man in time, you could grow Human Torch and pair it with Werewolf By Night to have two separate high power cards to challenge locations.
Falcon and Beast are particularly important in this one, as they will allow you to manage space and clear the way on Turn 5 for Multiple Man. Then it can move freely and spread its power all over the board.
Closing Words
You probably noticed I didn’t include Mobius M. Mobius or Shang-Chi in the featured decks. The reason is simply because I still consider these two to be playable in a variety of decks and not a specific archetype. If you see a trend that would be countered by either of these cards, you should consider finding a spot for it – as long as you can fit their cost in your deck’s play patterns.
I believe the change to both cards will be quite impactful for the Marvel Snap environment. Shang-Chi should remain a solid counter card, but the overall amount of power you can develop is a little higher now. You might start running into situations where Shang-Chi destroying a big card might not turn a lane around anymore. For example, Jessica Jones plus any 2- or 3-Cost card would easily amount to 12 or 14 power, and this means that destroying a 10 power card on that location probably requires a 5-Cost card alongside Shang-Chi to challenge the lane.
With that in mind, instead of just a generic and powerful counter card, Shang-Chi might become more specific, which will obviously lower its play rate and maybe even push it to disappear for a bit with Shadow King carrying the torch in the meantime.
As for Mobius M. Mobius, I expect to see the card quite a lot after the OTA for the simple reason that most of the best decks are currently based around the fact that it has been gone from the game for ten days. We will have to see how big of a difference one energy can make for the card, but there are so many decks looking to cheat energy in the current Marvel Snap that I can’t imagine Mobius M. Mobius not returning to be, at the very least, popular in Silver Surfer. I think it’s more likely to just become a solid 3-Cost card that can be included in a variety of decks that do not already have a card they are forced to play at that moment.
Once again, I salute the risks the developers are willing to take in order to shake things up. Sure, the Mobius M. Mobius experiment fell short, but the change to Shang-Chi proves that they want to keep on trying to keep the game fresh and different from one week to the next.
Feel free to share your opinions about this OTA in the comment section below. You can also find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.
Good Game Everyone.
