About the new April 18th Balance Patch: Marvel Snap Review

Shuri

[Previous] 4/2 – On Reveal: Double the Power of the next card you play.

[Current] 4/2 – On Reveal: If you play your next card here, double its Power.

Considerations:

Shuri's deck (despite the nerfs to Red Skull and Taskmaster) was one of the most popular in the game. According to data from Snap.Fan, the deck, this season, had more than 154,000 games and an impressive 59.18% winrate.

In my last patch review, I commented that Shuri was the problem, and she was the one who should be nerfed. It took a while to happen, but the nerf arrived! This change doesn't make the card disappear completely, but it takes away a lot of its strength.

Now, the card with the power doubled by Shuri is vulnerable to Shang-Chi (if you don't use Armor) and Valkyrie, since Cosmo cannot be in the same location as Shuri. In addition, as the player knows that the opponent will play at Shuri's location on turn 5 (or on turn 6, if they skip to play She-Hulk + Taskmaster), they can play a Professor X in another location and guarantee it.

Leech

[Previous] 5/3 – On Reveal: Removes abilities from all cards in your opponent's hand.

[Current] 5/3 – At the start of the 6th turn, remove abilities from all cards in your opponent's hand.

Considerations:

Leech's main problem was that he entered the field too early. Whether with ramp or Lockjaw's help, it was possible to have your hand nullified on turn 4 and even on turn 3, which made the experience of facing Leech unfair.

Now, with his ability no longer being On Reveal and always having a certain turn (the 6th) to happen, the card also becomes fair.

Lockjaw

[Previous] 3/2 - After playing a card here, replace it with another card from your deck.

[Current] 3/2 – After playing a card here, swap it with another card in your deck. (once per turn)

Considerations:

This nerf is a bit controversial, as in some cases it makes Lockjaw bad and in others, better.

For Thanos decks that used Lockjaw, this card change makes it unfeasible in these lists, as it will no longer be possible to play multiple gems at once and have your best cards played for free.

In the case of Thor's deck, the "nerf" in Lockjaw is more like a buff, as this list doesn't usually play that many cards in Lockjaw's location and often, in the last turn, for example, you play Thor's Mjolnir in that location and a card with plenty of points like Magneto and ends up losing Magneto, since he will be put back in the deck and be exchanged for another card, which sometimes can be one with small power, like Jubilee.

With the possibility to choose the card that will be put back in the deck (which can be Mjolnir or Wasp), you have a much better control of the number of points you will have in the Lockjaw's location, since the second card will remain in the place.

Leader

[Previous] 6/7 – On Reveal: Copy all cards your opponent has played this turn to the spot to the right of this one, but on your side.

[Current] 6/2 – On Reveal: Copy the enemy card(s) with the highest power played this turn, but on your side.

Considerations:

Leader was a problem in the game for a long time, and the community was very insistent on its nerf. When the heaviest nerf happened, the card became unviable and completely disappeared from the game.

This buff makes Leader viable, but not as strong as it used to be. However, in specific decks (and here I quote Sandman), Leader becomes a bit too broken and, often, the decisive factor to guarantee victory.

Here what happened was just a change of text, which killed the possibility of America Chavez always being the target of Yondu and also made it impossible for it to be pulled by Jubilee.

The changes, according to the developers in the patch notes, are to make interactions with the top of the deck more viable, as they have plans to release more cards with this mechanic.

There is not much to analyze in this case, as they are not so relevant changes. What we have left is to wait to check out these new cards that they will release.

Before starting this article, I played a few games in the new patch and found only one deck: Sandman Electro (with Leader and Aero).

Due to Sandman's ability to make both players play only one card per turn, both Aero and the new Leader shine in this strategy, and it is likely that the deck will be super popular in the first days of the patch.

This list is a direct counter to decks that use Sera and Hit-Monkey, as well as Death Wave and even Dino Hawk and Galactus. Therefore, we may see the Patriot deck becoming a counterpoint to the Sandman list, as this is a deck that circumvents the impossibility of playing more than one card per turn due to Ultron, which fills your board. Since Leader will only copy Ultron, and he doesn't have access to Patriot, Kazar and Blue Marvel, your drones will be stronger than the opponent's.

As for the main decks affected by the nerfs (Thanos Lockjaw and Shuri Zero) it is safe to say that Thanos Lockjaw ceases to exist and gives way to other versions, such as Valkyrie facing Control and Ongoing with Spectrum. This last one, by the way, by reserving the last turns to play high-cost cards (one per turn) like Devil Dinosaur, Blue Marvel and Spectrum, isn't disrupted by the Sandman deck.

The Shuri deck, in its standard version, should appear little, and it is possible that we will see more Shuri in the Galactus version, that uses Nimrod. Galactus, by the way, despite struggling against the Sandman deck, as I mentioned because of Aero, should appear more frequently, since the deck didn't suffer any relevant nerf.

Therefore, the main deck bets in these early days of the new meta will most likely be Patriot, Sandman, Thanos Ongoing and Galactus.

Did you like the balance? Which deck will you play with in these first few days of the patch? Tell me in the comments!