They got me! They got me good this time! Just a couple of days ago, Marvel Snap (Free) had a proper App Store update that didn’t contain any balance changes to the cards. I thought we were getting away with a peaceful week here after the last OTA update flipped the tea table into orbit. But no, we’ve got a sneaky little late-week OTA update here, and it has some changes that are definitely going to hit the meta. Let’s pick them apart.
As usual it’s a mix of nerfs and buffs, but the biggest change here is to Angela. Recently she’s been wreaking havoc with her pals Kitty Pryde, Jeff, Nocturne, and Thena, and apparently she’s been doing a bit too well because today the bat came for her. She’s moving from 2-Cost 0-Power to 2-Cost 3-Power, and her ability will now only give her +1 power per card played at her location instead of +2. She’s still strong, but she’ll cap out a lot lower than before.
The recent rule changes to how Move resolves seems to have not really changed a whole lot, but a couple of cards took it a bit hard and they’re getting some adjustments to try to help them recover. Hercules moves from 4-Cost 7-Power to 3-Cost 4-Power, with no change to his ability. Surfer gang? Surfer gang. The Kingpin is joining the ranks of the 1-Cost cards, moving from 2-Cost 3-Power to 1-Cost 2-Power, and again no change to his ability. Miles Morales is also getting a little buff, gaining a point of power as he moves from 4-Cost 5-Power to 4-Cost 6-Power, with his ability remaining intact.
Things are rounded out with a few other “odds and ends” buffs. Second Dinner seems concerned about how much High Evolutionary decks have dropped off, and while this is just the first step in trying to help that type out, a buff from 4-Cost 4-Power to 4-Cost 6-Power for High Evolutionary himself is a nice start. I find these decks don’t really prioritize playing HE himself, so this might get him into play more often.
Nick Fury has a cool ability, but he’s another character you don’t see played as much as you might hope for how big his presence in Marvel media is. He’s getting a little more power, moving from 4-Cost 5-Power to 4-Cost 6-Power. Hmm, that’s three cards in this OTA that are moving to 6-Power. Maybe something can be done with Cerebro here? Well, I’ll leave that to someone else to figure out. Perhaps Shaun of next week as he puts together the July deck guide.
Finally, poor old Alioth. It’s been getting bounced around hard almost since the minute it was introduced, but this latest change is a positive one. It was 6-Cost 8-Power, and now it’s 6-Cost 10-Power. Its ability is unchanged. You might see a potential disadvantage here as it puts Alioth within Shang-Chi’s strike zone, but if you think about how Alioth’s ability works, you’ll see it’s all good for the big ol’ dust cloud.
And that does it for this batch of balance changes to Marvel Snap. What do you think? Do any of these affect you? Are you going to add any of the buffed cards to your rotation? Feel free to sound off in the comments below, and be sure to keep your eyes open for our newest deck building guide next week!