MARVEL SNAP's new experiment of weekly balance changes using "Over the Air" updates began today, with changes to four cards.

April 27th - OTA Balance Updates

Quote From MARVEL SNAP

Welcome to the new world of regular balance updates using OTA! OTA stands for ‘Over-the-Air,’ which means we can change the game without a big download. We’re making four changes today to freshen up the game balance, let’s dive right in:

Shanna
[Old] 4/2 – On Reveal: Add a random 1-Cost card to each location.
[New] 4/4 – On Reveal: Add a random 1-Cost card to each location.
Shanna has fallen a bit flat since release. Even during the height of Zabu’s might, she was a low-performing 4-Cost card and we’d like to give her a better chance to shine. This buff is simple, but highlights that Shanna wasn’t being appropriately compensated for needing four available slots to hit her ceiling. In general, cards and decks that fill many slots early are safer to make strong, since there’s plenty of game left to react or retreat and their ability to gain cubes is impeded. This is especially true in Shanna’s case, where the randomness and the existence of cards like Killmonger makes her a bit riskier. Hopefully this additional Power is enough.

Lizard
[Old] 2/5 – Ongoing: -3 Power if your opponent has 4 cards here.
[New] 2/5 – Ongoing: -4 Power if your opponent has 4 cards here.
When one card becomes a clear outlier on play rate because it’s playable in a huge number of decks, that’s something we flag and keep an eye on. That doesn’t mean we always take action–it’s important for us to keep in mind that the Series structure can serve to make cards appear overplayed when they’re actually just widely available. However, when we have a clear top card for the Cost and can slice a little bit of strength away from it without necessarily dethroning it, that’s largely a solid change for us to make. So that’s what’s happening here, with arguably the softest nerf we’ve ever made.

Sandman
[Old] 5/5 – Ongoing: Players can only play 1 card a turn.
[New] 5/3 – Ongoing: Players can only play 1 card a turn.
Since Sandman’s change from 4/1 to 5/5, we’ve seen him become a foundational piece of an Electro-based strategy that slows down the opponent and makes his effect feel asymmetrical by contesting multiple lanes with Dr. Doom or just some heavy hitters. That’s certainly the deck we expected to see, but it’s become more popular than we’d like. This tap on the main man makes him a less competitive source of Power, giving added edge to players committing cards early and making the endgame choices of each player more likely to ultimately determine the outcome of the game.

Enchantress
[Old] 4/4 – On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.
[New] 4/6 – On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.
It’s been particularly telling to us that in a world where Armor, Patriot, Darkhawk, Devil Dinosaur, Sandman, Blue Marvel, and even Knull are major players that Enchantress is a poor performer on both popularity and actual winning. There are mitigating factors, of course–Energy curves, priority battles, and so forth. But ultimately, she’s not functioning as a solid counter for Ongoing cards, especially the symmetrical ones that Rogue can’t interact with. Hopefully, this change lets her contest locations in addition to neutralizing major Power problems like Darkhawk or reclaiming a big turn 6 from an early Sandman.

Cutting and Insightful Commentary

While the occurrence of a balance update wasn't a surprise like the first time they sprung one of these on us, this set of changes looks like it will have a real impact on a few decks in the current meta. We'll start by saying we like most of these changes, but let's get into the nitty-gritty of how we feel about each card changed:

Nerfs

Lizard - We like the change, specifically because it punishes decks that were running the card as a good 2-Drop without hurting decks designed to remove its downside.

Sandman - Not an insignificant reduction of Power for a card that's seeing a lot more play since he got a significant Power boost. We expect the amount of Electro/Sandman decks to fall slightly with this nerf. Other decks will likely cut Sandman entirely.

Buffs

Shanna the She-Devil - That additional Power should make Shanna a lot more attractive to Zoo decks, since she's no longer taking up a spot with a measly 2 Power that could go to something a lot stronger.

Enchantress - We're not so sure we agree with the developer's reasoning for this one. With only 4 Power, Enchantress was already efficient removal for Control to combat Devil Dinosaur or Darkhawk decks; the reason she wasn't seeing play was because players were finding other ways (like Super Skrull) to combat those strategies. The bottom line is that players like playing with Ongoing effects, and don't like having their powers stripped away. Giving her an extra 2 Power could be a nice incentive for Ongoing Zero decks to use her as a tempo 4-Drop, but we don't think that making Enchantress more efficient is going to be healthy for the game.

How do you feel about these balance changes? Share your thoughts in the comments!