Another OTA balance change for MARVEL SNAP dropped today, bringing with it two buffs to cards the developers thought weren't seeing enough play, two nerfs to cards considered too prevalent, and some adjustments to the frequency of certain locations.

We'll show the changes, then share our thoughts on what they mean for the game.

May 11th - Balance Updates

Quote From MARVEL SNAP

Another week, another OTA balance patch! In addition to 4 new card updates, we have some location frequency updates this week!
Let’s get right into it:

Drax
[Old] 4/5 - On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +3 Power.
[New] 4/6 - On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +2 Power.

The Guardians can create some of the most exciting gameplay in SNAP with their predictive playstyle. While they’ve been doing better with the release of Nebula, they’re still performing poorly overall at the moment. Out of all the Guardians, Drax stood out to us as the clearest buff candidate. Compared to other cards like Rockslide and White Queen with good stats and a guaranteed upside, Drax had below average stats for a very inconsistent upside. We’re giving him a small buff by moving some of his Power from his ability to his base stats to improve his baseline performance.

Rockslide
[Old] 4/6 - On Reveal: Shuffle 2 Rocks into your opponent's deck.
[New] 4/5 - On Reveal: Shuffle 2 Rocks into your opponent's deck.

Rockslide’s viability took a leap forward with the release of Darkhawk and Zabu, so it’s easy to look at this nerf and assume that we’re targeting Darkhawk by weakening one of his support cards. And sure, you’d be right–Darkhawk has been one of the 10 winningest cards in the game since release and featured in multiple strong decks. In fact, Rockslide often mirrors (or improves upon) Darkhawk's stats, as they're both in the top-performing "DinoHawk" deck. Since Rockslide's easier to adjust, we're making this tweak with the aim of weakening that deck slightly.

Enchantress
[Old] 4/6 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.
[New] 4/5 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.

Enchantress has grown in popularity since our buff to her two weeks ago, which was expected. While we’re excited by how much more she’s affecting the meta, she’s become one of the most played cards in the game, which is a bit over a mark. We’re optimistic that a small nerf to 4/5 will put her in a good position going forward. But hey, it was fun while it lasted!

Venom
[Old] 3/1 - On Reveal: Destroy your other cards at this location. Add their Power to this card.
[New] 3/3 - On Reveal: Destroy your other cards at this location. Add their Power to this card.

Venom has been the worst destroy enabler for a while now, averaging lower Power in destroy decks than his peers Deathlock and Carnage. While he’s seen fringe usage in decks with Taskmaster, we haven’t seen any of them really take off. We’d like to give one of Marvel’s most iconic anti-heroes space to shine, so we’re feeding him a hearty +2 Power buff.

Bonus OTA: Location, Location, Location

As our library of locations increases, we’ll be making ongoing adjustments to hit the sweet spot we like for dynamic games. To that end, we’re reducing the appearance weights on a few of our existing locations, which means they’ll show up less frequently in your games. It’s unlikely you’ll consciously observe these changes, but we thought you’d like to know.

Attilan
Krakoa
Lechuguilla
Morag
Plunder Castle
Sanctum Sanctorum
Subterranea

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That’s all for now, thanks for stopping by! This is the second to last week of our OTA trial period, with a full-sized patch coming next week and the final May OTA coming on 5/25. While we’re not yet set on a plan going forward, we know that we want to continue doing regular OTA balance updates, just at longer intervals between changes. We’ll let you know when we have more to share!

Meta-Defining Insights

We think these changes will have a small impact on the evolving meta, mostly because it included two slight nerfs to cards that were seeing a ton of play in decks that are very good.

Let's start by dissecting the two card buffs.

Despite a buff a few weeks ago, Drax was all but invisible in player's collections. He might see a little more play now, thanks to his higher floor. We imagine a deck that runs Zabu and can either predict or control where their opponent plays will find some utility for him. We don't expect him to show up everywhere, but if there was a deck that was running Crossbones, it should probably consider Drax.

Venom really was only ever good for decks running Deadpool, although there was some experimentation with big bodies like Red Skull feeding him Power. Funnily enough, this might make Venom see less play, as the only decks running him the last time we checked were cheeky Mister Negative lists taking advantage of a cost reduction that is no longer possible.

Now for the nerfs:

A slight deduction to the Power of Rockslide likely won't change much about the popular Darkhawk decks - he still costs 4, which is great for Zabu synergies, and he's been mostly run to give +4 Power to Darkhawk, anyway. This slight nerf may reduce the overall population of Darkhawk decks by a small amount.

We weren't fans of the buff to Enchantress when it dropped, but we suppose that it showcases the strength of the OTA Update for Second Dinner to slightly revert a buff that made the card a little too good two weeks after making it. Enchantress will still see play, and the Sera Control (and other Control) decks that were running her will continue to be seen on ladder, but perhaps some of them will try experimenting with other tech cards.

We're pretty happy with the reduction to the frequency of the locations listed, as most of them can create non-games that heavily favor specific strategies or punish players that are experimenting with deckbuilding. However, we agree that it's highly unlikely that most players notice any significant changes.

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