Marvel SNAP OTA Balance Update — August 29

August 29th - Balance Updates

• [Old] 4/10 - After each turn, destroy this if you have another card here.

• [New] 4/10 - After each turn, destroy one of your cards here with less Power.

This would-be warlord of the seas saw some meaningful play early on, combining with Armor or Zero to be an efficient 4-Cost source of Power. However, the surge in strength of cards that can fill enemy slots at a location has made it very difficult for Attuma to justify play in any deck even with synergy cards like Skaar. Given we also want more cards that are good against these clog strategies, we decided to "UNO Reverse" with Attuma here and rework the design to focus on maximizing Attuma at the cost of the other cards. This simultaneously makes Attuma an enabler for things like X-23 while also a counter against cards like Green Goblin.

• [Old] 3/5 - On Reveal: Replace your deck with your opponent's starting deck. Give them -1 Cost and draw a card.

• [New] 2/2 - On Reveal: Replace your deck with your opponent's starting deck. Give those cards -1 Cost.

When we updated Loki earlier this month, we said we'd come back quickly if necessary. While some doubted its strength early on, we've since seen Loki's performance prove that the updated card was one of the strongest in the game. That overshot our goal by a bit, though we were happy to see some of the resulting shifts. We're going to try and tone Loki down by making the Power less efficient for the Cost as we remove the draw and move the card down the curve. If this doesn't work, we may return to adjusting the effect.

Why not just take away the draw and leave it at 3/5, or maybe 3/4? Well, one element of Loki we heard loud and clear from our earliest playtests was that the number of "Loki cards" you can access was a big part of enjoying the card. Three often felt too low–that's why we added the draw in the first place last time.

• [Old] 3/5 - When you draw this, steal the text from the bottom card of your opponent's deck.

• [New] 3/5 - When you draw this, copy the text from the bottom card of your opponent's deck.

We're making a light tweak to Copycat here, as the card has seen a more dramatic play rate than we expected and decks have also been shuffled more often than we guessed they would be. Stealing a card's ability isn't a huge part of the fun for the Copycat player–getting an exciting ability and the information is most of the play. The ability being stolen has mostly turned out to just be a frustrating part of the opponent having the card, so we're replacing it with a simple copy.

• [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. They cost 1 less next turn.

• [Change] 2/2 -> 3/5

While it's true that Bounce decks have been very strong lately, that's only part of why we're making this update. We have some upcoming new cards and changes to existing ones that will impact Beast's strength, and we determined the most appropriate solution was to return to "big Beast" and move it back up the curve to 3-Cost.

• [Old] 5/0 - On Reveal: Set this card’s Power equal to that of the last card you played. (if that card's in play)

• [Change] 5/0 -> 6/0

This change might seem a bit more out of left field, but it's oddly similar. Players sometimes ask about cards like Silver Surfer and Killmonger being design constraints, and they can be–Taskmaster has quietly been another as well, offering a clean and consistent way to duplicate pure Power. While it's been a while since Taskmaster was truly problematic, our most competitive playtesters identified some upcoming decks where 5-Cost Taskmaster was just going to be Way Too Much.

Normally, our default practice is to let the metagame sort itself out in these kinds of situations–discovering something busted is often pretty fun! However, in this case the concerns were so substantial, and the deck so strong, that we've decided to shortcut to the post-nerf state (which we still believe supports some great decks). Have fun looking for them! You shouldn't expect to see this sort of preemptive action often going forward, either.

• [Old] 5/7 - On Reveal: Move the highest-Power enemy card here away. If you can't, destroy it with a Rock.

• [Change] 5/7 -> 5/8

We adjusted Cannonball's Power down in an abundance of caution earlier this year. The card's play rate and win rate were very high, and we wanted to ensure (in concert with other changes) that the metagame would shift appropriately. It has, and we're comfortable returning Cannonball to 5/8 now.

• [Old] 6/16 - On Reveal: Destroy your other cards.

• [New] 6/14 - On Reveal: Destroy your cards at other locations.

We're sure many of you have a soft spot for Destroyer from those early Series days, using Zero, Armor, or Cosmo to dodge the downside–maybe with a side of Warpath to win the second location. However, this rad card has struggled to find its legs in later-stage play, so we've decided to change the effect to give it a better chance at supporting cards like Nimrod and Death. Given how well Destroyer can challenge to win its own location now, we're also taking back a bit of Power as compensation.