Preparation Guide for the January 31, 2023 Marvel Snap Patch Update, First Series Drop, Card Rebalances, and New Season

Introduction

Marvel Snap’s next major patch is expected to hit on January 31, 2023 and there is are a few important information to unpack and dissect for this round! From the first Series Drop, balance changes, Battle Mode, a new season, and more, the next patch and season is bound to be an exciting one for all players.

In this guide, we will breakdown step by step what’s happening and when, collecting the scatter of information that is out there and help you decide what to do before the patch and the new season drops.

• 5 cards going down from Series 5 to Series 4, and 4 cards going from Series 4 to Series 3
• Potential card nerfs and buffs
• New season starts February 6, 2022 featuring new card MODOK
• Battle Mode
• New card: Shadow King

While we don’t know what time this patch will drop exactly, the last patch happened around 11 AM PST.

Series Drop

Firstly, in the context of this preparation guide, it is important to find out when the next Marvel Snap patch is happening! The next patch has been announced for January 31, 2023 in the Series Drop article:

This will be the first Series Drop for Marvel Snap where the following cards will be downgraded from their Series.

Series 5 to Series 4:

• Valkyrie
• Super-Skrull
• Bast
• Shuri
• Black Panther

Series 4 to Series 3:

• Luke Cage
• Absorbing Man
• She-Hulk
• Titania

That means these cards will be much easier to obtain after the patch. Kirallas has done an analysis on what you should be thinking about over the next day or two and how you should be spending your currencies.

If you’ve pinned a card that will be dropping in Series, the price will go down as well so be careful not to unpin it (do not press Esc, back button, etc).

If you are eyeing for these cards as well, you may want to consider not opening your Collector’s Reserves and/or saving up your Credits as well until the patch to have a better chance of opening them. The developers have said that the cache contents are back to being decided when they are opened, not when they are collected.

Improvements to the Collector’s Token and Token Shop system was also promised to make earning Series 4 and 5 feel much better as well, but no further details have been shared yet on this matter.

Card Rebalancing

The last round of card buffs and nerfs were minor to say the least, and not much happened as the meta has become dominated by Silver Surfer and Zabu. Aero and Leader are still good cards due to their abilities, and we’ve yet to see much Black Cat or Groot. Stephen from Second Dinner has confirmed card balance changes, but we’re hoping some significant ones!

While this patch is not going to nerf Silver Surfer and Zabu, it was confirmed by Glenn Jones (Principal Game Designer of Second Dinner) that they are planned to be adjusted in a week without requiring a new patch! At the very least, the problem was acknowledged but some tough decisions will have to be made in regards to Season Pass cards locked behind a paywall. With the new technology, we can also hope for more frequent updates too.

You can find our latest meta analysis here and how the patch may impact the current decks:

Quantumania: February 2023 Season

Marvel Snap’s next season is scheduled to start on February 6, 2023 and along with it the new Premium Season Pass card: MODOK! Remember that you will drop 3 ranks from your current rank (e.g. if you end the season on 79, you will be dropped down to 40).

Variants

MODOK

On Reveal: Discard your hand.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with MODOK

As stated before, it’s Black Panther that will be dropping down to Series 4 this month, as Zabu enters Series 5 at the end of the Season as well.

Details on the new season, once known, will be posted in this guide:

Battle Mode

Battle Mode is coming to Marvel Snap, finally adding an alternative play mode to the game other than the ranked ladder! Players can challenge each other to a friendly dual, to see who can take 10 Cubes from each other over multiple games. You can read more about it below in more detail on how it will work:

At first, it was announced that it will be region-locked, but Second Dinner has pushed on with working on the feature and will arrive fully fledged to allow cross-region matchmaking as well! This bodes for our own tournament circuit that we plan to announce soon, that will be have cash prizes and be free to enter for our Premium members.

New Card: Shadow King

Variants

Shadow King

On Reveal: Set all cards here to their base Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Shadow King

Not directly related to the patch, but Shadow King will be released as a new Series 5 card on January 31 as well.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this breakdown! All in all, going forward Marvel Snap will hinge on how will make the new card acquisition more palatable for users, and tough decisions will need to be made with card balancing, especially as Season Pass cards that have become a bit too powerful over the past two Seasons. The monthly Series Drop is definitely a good start as it will allow more people access to the cards that may in turn impact the meta significantly.

The Battle Mode is certainly also an exciting prospect for the community, and we can’t wait to see what everybody can cook up! Of course, be on the lookout for our own tournament circuit as well, as we’ve teased earlier.

As always, make sure to check out our YouTube channel for the latest video updates, and our Discord community to discuss further. We’ll see you again very soon!