Marvel Snap’s Latest Update Nerfs Some Popular Cards

I’ve got some bad news for folks running Onslaught or Destroyer decks in card battler Marvel Snap: These cards and a few other powerful favourites have just been slightly nerfed by developer Second Dinner. But there’s some good news, too: The nerfs aren’t too bad, so you might still be able to use these fine cards in the future.

Marvel Snap is the recently released mobile free-to-play card game starring powerful superheroes and villains. What has made this game one of my favourites of 2022 is its focus on random chaos, quick matches, and small decks that only contain 12 cards It’s overall a fantastic game, and easily one of the best digital card games out there. And Snap also tries to change up how card games work, for example removing the mulligan entirely. But some things never change, like how digital card games always have to rebalance and tweak cards post-launch. With the most recent patch, for example, Snap has added a lot of new tidbits alongside nerfing five cards.

Let’s just rip the bandage off now and get to the cards that were nerfed. We’ll get through this together, folks. Here are the cards nerfed in the November 29 patch:

• Angela – Changed from a 2/1 to a 2/0
• Destroyer – Changed from a 6/16 to a 6/15
• Mysterio – Changed from a 2/5 to a 2/4
• Sera – Changed from a 5/5 to a 5/4
• Onslaught – Ability now stacks additively with effects rather than exponentially

So what’s up with these changes? Second Dinner mainly seems to be focused on making these cards a bit fairer, and to possibly cut down on how many decks are running them. For example, they mention in a blog post about the nerfs that Angela is a very popular card, which makes sense. When you play a card Angela’s power goes up by two points, a very useful and versatile card. So starting her at 0 power makes her just a bit less powerful right away.

Similarly, Destroyer and Mysterio get to keep their useful abilities, but are a bit less powerful now to help balance things out. Sera has also become a popular card, thanks to her ability that makes cards cost one less to play. And as a 5/5, she was a fairly solid card even without that neat trick. Now at 5/4, she’s still useful, but not as good as before.

The only card this time that has had its ability altered at all is Onslaught. Before, he doubled other ongoing effects at a single location. This could quickly get out of hand and lead to very, very long turns, as cards popped and popped and popped over and over. Now, you can’t go too crazy with him, as his effect only works additively instead of potentially doubling and doubling over and over in certain setups.

Overall, I do appreciate that Second Dinner (mostly) didn’t touch abilities: These cards still get to do all their fun tricks, but their base stats are a bit worse, making the decision to add them to a deck a little harder. They will still work, but you have to commit just a tad more to make them viable in your favourite deck. Moving forward, I hope Second Dinner’s future Marvel Snap nerfs are similarly small and focused. Now, let’s talk about buffing some cards, like, say, Cyclops!