The issue isn’t the constant balance of cards, that’s part of what makes Snap so engaging. The issue is that it’s so hard to acquire cards. No one would complain about a 1 power nerf to Nocturne if Nocturne didn’t cost months of token saving. If card acquisition was easier then players would be happier
I don't think they'll touch Wiccan's power points but how about this: On going: if you've used all your energy last turn, get +2 energy this turn. 🤔 Could work
I totally agree with your point! I think they should remove the gold tickets from the caches, increase the amount of collector tokens you earn through caches and other means, increase the frequency of series drops and release more series 4 cards, and maybe lower the amount of collector levels you need to earn a spotlight keys! Me and probably many players have lost interest in the game because of the amount of grinding it takes to earn new cards and the lack of a good rewards system in the game! If Second Dinner took the time to properly address these issues, I know for a fact that many players would come back to the game and it would be more welcoming to new players to play!
thats the part that makes snap engaging for you* the constant forced shift in balance, almost always not giving time for the meta to settle down on his own is, for me, the very worst part of this game
@@Lucas-g5e8bThat is your perspective that very few share because almost all of us prefer frequent balance changes to give life to the game and not stagnate in the same meta.
23:00 this is a broken question. The issue isn't cards being too powerful or too weak, the issue is how difficult it is to acquire new cards and how restrictive the snap economy is. No one would care if cards got nerfed if there were refunds, no one would care if cards get buffed later if they didn't have to wait Months for a chance to get it again. SD HAS to accept that their approach is broken and needs a complete overhaul. I used to spend close to $100 a month sometimes more, now I don't even buy the season pass. I refuse to spend money on a game that is inherently broken.
Totally agree. The answer isn't too strong or too weak, the answer is either less card releases and make them all more balanced, or increase card acquisition. As a complete F2P player I get about a key a week, and there is no way to keep up. It is crazy insane the power creep on this game. I have to just play for fun and give up on being collection complete or being hyper competitive.
This exactly is the elephant in the room that they keep dodging but keen players are honing in on. The stingy card acquisition / economy is hurting the whole system. It's a triple middle-finger to players/consumer experience: 1. frequent balance changes, no compensation. feels bad. 2. spotlight system intentionally gatekeeping player agency from acquiring cards they want. feels bad. 3. stingy on resources / tokens. feels bad. like this whole ecosystem can be summed up in one example: "Damn, finally saved up enough tokens / keys to buy Loki/Darkhawk/Zabu/Thanos/Red hulk/whatever the chase card of the moment, fuck, I got some duplicates and got 1000 tokens along the way.... 2 days later, damn it man, the OTA/patch killed my deck, without any compensation." I stand by my opinion, spotlight variants are overrated, has no place to be in the same gacha pool as base cards. Their whole spotlight system needs an overhaul.
I think the people that complain about card acquisition have never played another card game. It is so much easier to get cards in snap than say hearthstone or mtga, I pretty much only get the season pass(though I do occasionally get cheap bundles if I like the variant) while playing for almost a year and I'm only missing 12 cards, I also have 14 keys and 15k tokens. I spent significantly more in hearthstone and mtga while also playing for years and I was constantly out of wildcards and dust, there were also entire archetypes that I just couldn't ever play because I was missing so much for them. Opening packs was also very underwhelming, way more than snap, I would spend $100 per set release and it was pretty rare to actually get the cards I wanted, mostly I was just looking for dust and wildcards.
@@simeon6669 I'm not disagreeing, it's is easy to get a card or 2 a month as free to play, but the problem is the power creep, I have to choose to either get 2ish cards a month, hope they're the best ones, (but not so good it'll get nerfed, (red hulk) and also hope the bad ones don't get buffed (US Agent).) or I have to skip a couple months for getting cards, just to get all the new good ones. In other games I've played no new card totally trivializes other cards (like red hulk and Alioth did) I love this game, and play it hours a day. It does so many things Incredibly well. Credit where it's due, it is not pay to win, but it is pay to play (with the newest, coolest, strongest, most fun cards) it's still so much fun I play anyway, I just wish I could play with all the new toys. (I understand people have to make money, so that's why I'm trying not to complain, just give feedback and maybe insight.)
@@simeon6669 Anyone actually Defending Snap's acquisition system is probably low in collection level. Anyone thats been playing since global launch or shortly there after are hitting the most brutal wall when it comes to keeping up with competitive cards. "mostly i was just looking for dust and wildcards" EXACTLY!!! YOU DID THIS TO GAIN AGENCY! In snap you have no Agency whatsoever outside of using 2+months worth of tokens or rolling a bunch of keys into 3/4 empty slots to get 1 card you actually want. In Hearthstone say you spent all your Resources to craft a tier one deck and it gets nerfed heavily the next week then what happens? You get to dust those cards for full refunds. What happens in Snap when you decide to use months worth of resources to get 2 cards and they get nerfed? YOU GET NOTHING !! What happens in Hearthstone (or any other cardgame)when you don't get the newest released cards immediately? Nothing, you can just get those cards at any point, whenever you decide to invest in them. What happens in snap? You are DOOMED to wait for over half a year for them to come back to spotlights or pray that it shows up in your token shop rotation... This is a flawed system, stop defending it.
My biggest problem with nerfs and changes in general is that I cant keep up anymore. I feel like If I take a break for 1 Month, my decks dont work anymore at all. Thats like my biggest issue with these constant changes.
Funnily enough, your comment reminded me of Ben Brode's game design philosophy while he was running Hearthstone. It was the exact opposite of what SD is doing; HS used to take such a long time to nerf problematic cards, about 3-4 months long sometimes. He wanted the playerbase to be creative and try to come up with unique answers/counters to the strong cards. He also mentioned about people not wanting to play the game if their decks get constantly changed from buffs/nerfs.
one month? the meta changes every week! lol instead of trying to reach infinite every season, i find fun in getting cool variants and focusing my grind on splitting cards. having a deck full of inked or gold splits is satisfying regardless if it’s meta or not
See your feelings here are exactly right. But this feeling doesn't come from balancing.. it's not the nerfs or buffs that cause it. It's card acquisition. People who don't spend hundreds every month can't keep up with new cards.. and it's not that we have to have all of them, but the card acquisition system doesn't allow you to get the cards you want often enough. The spotlight system (while statistically giving access to more cards in numbers) don't allow much choice in which cards we want to own. And the token shop is useless as it's too difficult to acquire 6000 tokens regularly. Also the ability to pull cards you already own in spotlight caches is asinine!! Make it a random unowned card and people will feel much better.
@@biffleslegit8985feel the exact same way. Used to chase infinite and now it’s really just about getting splits and trying to get at least one cache within the week.
@@biffleslegit8985 Im actually doing the exact same thing lol. I cant keep up with the meta at all but Im still in love with all the artwork in the game so im focusing on that too.
For new players, there's a huge acquisition rate gap compared to the veteran. OG players get S3 complete at CL3000, new players at CL5000. OG players have more difficulty getting new S4/5 cards but that's only because they get plenty duplicates. New players can catch up on S4/5 more easily. S3 complete players on average get 2500 tokens each season, new players get 500 tokens.
All according to SD's business plan: 1. Release op cards, that everybody needs in order to compete 2. Cash in 3. Nerf them into mediocrity as soon as the next set of op cards is about to release 4. Rinse and repeat.
Exactly. Release balanced cards and we wouldn’t have this “problem”. And now we have a bunch of no-name characters as the top cards in the game while iconic marvel characters like Captain America, Hulk and Thor are rarely played.
Most of the cards that are released aren’t op, so I kind of get tired of people claiming this is the gameplan. Kitty Pryde was pretty much OP at one point, but guess what? She’s still good currently, not OP, and she was given out for free. For every Nocturne there’s a Hydra Bob that absolutely nobody needs to have. I spent tokens on Martyr. What an OP card! A lot of you will complain no matter what they do and claim the game is P2W on top of it when right now you can win games just dropping Ultron on turn 6.
@@kylexile87 ?? 'Op' means overpowered, not Kitty Release level of broken lol A card is already 'op' when everybody and their grandma can tell, that it will get nerfed eventually. SD has a habbit of releasing them anyway. Loki, Alioth, Blob, Arishem. Just to name a few and there are around 2-3 of them releasing each month. Yes, Snap's meta is still healthy, when compared to less succesful and worse mobile games, but giving them credit for not ruining their own game is such a low bar. A 50 / 50 ratio, between average and overpowered card releases, isn't as good as you try to make it sound like.
@@IdocarebutIdont there are far more "whiffs" than truly OP cards released my man. It's just the ones that are strong get highlighted immensely because of their usage. Also... OP/oppressive cards are never healthy for the game. So balance is going to be an ever lasting aspect of any game like this. If you're the type of player who gets mad when oppressive cards are balanced, then don't spend any money. Save your cash and your mental.
To me, its not a case of "how many cards have been released then nerfed so hard its dead" its how many cards have been released then nerfed AT ALL. They promised us theyd do better at testing and yet almost every card thats been released and saw some kind of meta success has been nerfed to some degree. Not every card needs nerfed 🤦♂️ they should go back to having the spare week with no new card in spotlights (start of season). It gives me players a chancr to get old cards that are still good, old players a chance to save resources and the dev team a chance to test significantly more. Literaly just money is the reason and its pure greed
yeh this game would be alot better with less cards released and give the meta time to settle, they also seem to be okay with a slightly busted card on release then nerf it a couple of weeks later.
I agree. More testing and more time to give players a chance to breathe. Let people be able to have a small catch-up on purchases and also give time for the game to settle before nerfs. But I also think they should change how progression works in ranked: 1. Lower the ranked reward value 2. Make bots more prevalent for lesser skilled players to infinite (CL and whatever other sneaky hidden metrics they don't admit to determine this) Sure this leads to more people in infinite. There's nothing there of importance! What it DOES give people however is the ability to learn more creative ways to deck build. Have fun and stop having FOMO. Try out whacky deck builds. The benefit of this also means conquest becomes the place where you truly test your skills. Snap mechanics, tryhard decks for avatar glow, places to spend earned points on hard to reach rewards. Ranked then becomes a less sweaty but still fun and rewarding place as you climb. It's also less of an issue when they shove alliances, leagues, DpD into your face and you can't keep up.
You don't have to buy every single new card though. You probably feel this way cause lot's of new cards are some level of broken. That's why they have to get nerfed. But hey 99% of playerbase only wants to play the nb 1 ranked deck so no-one would get them if they weren't
@nathankeunen9572 it's a card game, playing with new cards is fun. Not only that, but skipping on bad cards isn't great when a week or two later they get buffed into meta relevance and now your annoyed you missed out. It's always going to happen that the odd card needs buffed or nerfed after release but virtually every card released now gets changed shortly after in one way or another and that's bullshit
@@LastPancake New cards are fun but we I don't mind not having all of them. And I don't play "meta" cause it ruins the fun for me. More new cards mean more fun right ? Let's not release less new cards for the sake of complete collections
9:00 I wouldn't want a Wiccan changed Alex. Because Quick Silver finally has a home. I love Quick Silver as a Marvel Character and can finally use him lol
I think that they should prep the new cards for the week before its spot light. Then give this card to everyone for the week, giving players a chance to see if they like the card and how it plays. This also allow second diner game play stats. This would allow for a better balanced card before it’s released and any players pay any keys.
Lately it’s felt like they been nerfing just to nerf because it’s just good. They need to nerf broken, and problem cards not just card because they’re good.
So my question is when do you say a card is broken and not good. Like nocturne was in ALL the top decks. Nocturne itself may not be inherently broken but that clearly makes it too good. You just leave it alone and let it make all the other 3 costs irrelevant?
@@drdepression4605 when it’s an issue, when the community expresses concern. It just feels like they’re trying to hard to keep the cards like Goldilocks, not too cold not hot just fine. Nocturne was good but not worthy of a nerf.
@@casualgamer8722 how can you say that when it was in literally every top performing deck? It by far outclassed most other 3 costs. It had to be toned down. Copycat about to get the same treatment. When something is too good nerf it. That's what balance is. If a card is in every top performing deck that's the definition of worthy of a nerf.
If they can shave a point of power off a card that's in the majority of the top decks and not kill the card, then they should absolutely be doing that. Spoiler alert, the Nocturne nerf changed very little, she's still an incredible card, but removing the point of power means she's not an auto-include and people can be more free to experiment.
Mail bag question: What do you guys think of having rotating favorite variants in decks? For example, one game has your Artgerm She-hulk, and the next game has your Peach Momoko She-hulk, etc.
Regarding being upset about nerfs after spending our hard earned tokens - I think we (players) should start choosing cards based on our own play style and preferences rather than assumptions and current meta relevance.
Totally. I picked Wickan for 6000 tokens even though he is not that powerful right now, I think his ability is really fun and he has the potential to age well.
The only inherent flaw in that logic is that for a lot of the players, their first priority is acquiring the "strongest" game pieces (cards in this case) that allow them to win the most. There are definitely some players that prefer certain play styles and stick to their specific favorite ones, but I doubt they outnumber the people that want to win more than lose.
Imo this is the correct take. You can't have a good digital card game and not buff or nerf cards, just because people might get mad over it. SD will not get every card perfectly balanced on release. That's just impossible. So just buy the card if you think it looks fun and don't buy it if it doesn't. Just use common sense. If the card looks really strong, chances are high that it might get toned down and vice versa. Man, gamers really can't make their own decisions anymore. Need a guide for everything.
i mean that's all well and good to say but for players that have limited resources you can't just go 'i'll take this weak looking but fun card' if there's an objectively better card to spend your currency on. i think it's disingenuous to ask players to have to choose between them both when the game itself is so stingy.
Great point to discuss - too many nerfs. This is literally the reason why I've stopped putting any money int that game, even for season pass. Any card can be killed anytime and there is zero compensation for that. I don't know any other CCG which has such policy. This is anti F2P to the bone game design. It's good to have OTA's frequently but in current form it's a disaster.
"there is zero compensation for that" -> This ! I think that is more the problem vs the number of nerf. Trying to keep the game balanced is really nice in my opinion, but they could just give compensation for it when you just acquired a card.
People wasting resources is the problem. They want everything and they become sad when it gets touched. If they can understand you can't have every card the playerbase will be much more happy.
@@tigui02 the issue is that these cards most of them come out super overpowered just to make players buy them. They are broken over a month or so the the next card comes, rinse and repeat. The problem to me is how broken these crds are and they use it as a selling point. I.e. Arishem. That card by itself os broken and it broke so many other cards that needed to be nerf to the ground (outside of arishem) That card needs work asap...
The problem with nerfs is not the "how good is this card" part. The problem is people have their favorite decks and ways they play the game. With some small nerfs they literally destroy cards and make them unplayable in the decks you buy them for.
I still havent been able to make Junk work well since the round of nerfs they had at the beginning of the year. Completely killed the decktype for me. I mean, I like the Viper buff.. but its not enough. They basically killed the deck for me by increasing the cost of certain Junk oriented cards. Although maybe I just need White Widow. Still feels bad though.
@@An.Unsought.Thought I exclusively used a junk deck to get the Cassandra variant from the Diner by day 4. It's not broken good (and it's the kind of feelsbad deck that they will never allow to be broken good, so if that's what you're chasing I'd look elsewhere) but it's definitely still a valid, viable deck. It's also a great deck into Arishem, which is very popular right now.
An alternative to QS/Domino is a package of Kitty, Maria Hill, and Kate Bishop. Kitty on 1, Kitty/Maria or Kate on 2, and Kitty/Maria's recruit or Kitty/Kate's arrows on 3. The Wiccan proc success rate is slightly lower than QS/Domino but you get more versatility.
Mailbag: what do you think to the idea of limited time free card rotations? Something along the lines of MOBAS (league of legends ect) where for a day, weekend or week on a rotation basis certain cards are available for everyone to play and if people like them enough have the option there and then to spend tokens on them. It would give f2p players the chance to experience all cards for a short amount of time without dedicating tokens and feeling bad if they don’t like the play style. While giving the players that do, the option to purchase them directly with tokens.
I got to give SD some credit on the constant balance changes as I've never used the same deck to reach infinite. It keeps the game fresh for me as I would get bored really easy using the same deck ALL the time
Agreed. People want cards to stay OP just so they can see “return on investment“ but I’m glad they focus on game balance more. The matter is super diverse at least at the top.
Conversely, I've used almost exactly the same bounce deck to hit infinite for almost the last 12 months, so all these people complaining that nerfs are "killing" decks - the truth is most stuff that was viable before still is. People need to get out of chasing the "best" deck and experiment more, and balance changes help massively with this.
Maildbag: Not really a question, but something that I just wanted to mention. Despite playing Snap, I still get ads on YT in which Ben says something along the lines of "What would happen if you COULDN'T spend hundreds of dollars to get all the cards... We've prevented that specifically so that blablabla". Yeah, clearly they have. In fact, expanding your collection effectively is damn near impossible. Is SD really not doing financial good enough to make the game easier or even cheaper to progress? Do cards have to really be so inaccessible to guarantee they're making enough money?
@@ledsenkatt exactly, it's definitely hard to max out your account by spending 100€ per month. But the game goes one step further by making progress without spending money in the first place so unbelievably slow
They should make it where you can exchange or turn in all of the multiple duplicate splits for tokens or gold. I'm sitting on so many splits that are useless and just sit there clogging up space.
Mailbag: two questions for a Silver Surfer lover: 1) What's your favorite Silver Surfer comic run? I love the trippy art in Silver Surfer Black, and the Dr. Who vibes of Dan Slott's run are immaculate. 2) As a surfer "main" in Snap, I was shocked I didn't hear you mention trying the Quicksilver/Domino/Wiccan combo in a Surfer deck. The archetype is already overloaded with 3's, and doesn't really want to play 1's or 2's that much. If you add in Sera and Odin, it goes HUGE over the top. Try my list: V2NjbjYsUWNrc2x2ckIsRG1uNixNZ2s1LE9kbjQsSXJuaHJ0OSxXbmc0LFNic3RuU2h3RCxCcmQ1LFNyNCxTbHZyU3JmckMsUmc1
Mailbag: Idea for 100th Episode, have a Snap playoff (conquest style) between Cozy & Alex for ultimate bragging rights. There could be rules applied i.e. Arishem only deck, Wheel of Fortune etc. You could have fans voting for who they think could win and/or other interactions. What do you think?
That's funny, I was absolutely thrilled about Blob and pretty sad that he's been nerfed to something that is completely antithetical to the "nothing moves the Bloob" character.
You both make great points. I agree with Alex, cards that are a little more aggressive are more exciting to play, but they need to give something to players for compensation when nerfed. Give 1000 tokens.
My theory is that nerfs and buffs aren't just a way to balance but are actually a way to control and change the meta. Which if you want to be competitive that means you got to pokeman the game. Which increases profit. But makes it harder for the casual or ftp. The game has been out long enough that you can see the pattern.
There simply needs to be more ways to acquire tokens. Add them to the conquest track and or increase the probability from reserves. Possibly add a token pass.
500 spotlight tokens as a daily reward would be nice. SD stand to make more money by being generous to players but we live in a capitalist society. People with lots of money want to make more money quicker. I'd be interested to see how the increase in greedy tactics has come from SD and how much is pressure from Nuverse..
MAIL BAG: What do you guys think about changing Cerebro's power to "+2 to cards with the most appeared power on your side" (can be better wording but you get the idea), so the card would be less annoyed by locations.
Nico would be an interesting card to have activate on, you can play her early to get prio, then activate when the skill cycle to what you want it to be
Hey as a 21+ year Coloradan it brought me much joy to hear cozy talk about the Avs. I got a question to piggy back it what are your favorite professional sports teams for the “big 4” sports (football, basketball, baseball, hockey)?
Big Bird is probably the most powerful Muppet. Snuffleupagus started out as a figment of the bird's imagination, but Big Bird willed him into existence so that the other inhabitants of sesame street would be forced to acknowledge the fictional elephant's existence. Big Bird can create matter and one can only assume he can destroy it too. Don't mess with the bird
Alex I’m so happy you’re getting into Lorcana! I have been playing for so long being extremely competitive. I have a bunch of friends going to Toronto but I couldn’t get tickets. Good luck to you. It’s so cool that my favorite snap creator is also playing my favorite card game!
Mail bag Thought: I think Ive cracked the Adam Warlock Conundrum. If he was simply a 3/5 (or somesuch base power line) that had the ability: Whenever a your opponent draws an additional card during a round, you draw a card. He'd be a great counter to thanos/loki but otherwise a somewhat lackluster tech piece. Alternatively - you could give Crystal such an effect and give adam warlock an earlier drop with with his original effect. You could even go so far as to make a card that Doesnt allow extra cards to be drawn at all (a cosmo for this whole playline). Thoughts?
My trouble is more with card adquisition than with the nerfs. They have built enough equity to allow themselves more regular series drops. Every new release, and we are at 1 season pass card plus 1 per week, is series 5. Eventually we will have more series 5 than series 3, at 6k tokens each... Not even the spotlight caches can keep up with that.
Undertale cards for Marvel Snap! Sans: 1/1 Activate: During the next turn, lock down this location. (cards can't be added, removed, etc.) Papyrus: 2/8 Whenever you end a turn with unspent Energy, destroy one of your cards here below 0 Power. On Reveal: Add 2 -2-Power Bones to this location. Merge the ones that didn't fit with this card. Alphys: 3/4 Activate: Copy this card's Power to the top of your deck. Toriel Dreemurr: idk Undyne: 5/3 Ongoing: The Costs of your other cards here are added to this card's Power. Asgore Dreemurr: 6/10 Starts in your opening hand and gives you +3 Max Energy, but you can't gain or lose Max Energy. Asriel Dreemurr: 6/7 On Reveal: Replace each location with The Barrier. (gives 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards +2 Power) Chara: 6/6 At the start of the game, add a Real Knife to the top of your deck. On Reveal: Destroy ALL cards with less Power than your Real Knife. (maximum 3 Power)
As someone who just bought Nocturn before the nerf, I'm not upset with the purchase still. As you mentioned, she still does her job. However, as someone who had just bought Zabu and then he was utterly neutered... this needs to be corrected somehow.
One thing about nerfs and balance changes, the sure make chasing god-spkits rough. My gold, Zabu, Thanos, Professor X, High Evo Hulk and more just languish. And just split Nocturne 6 times in past 2 weeks I might've chose another card for
Just played my best Wiccan game ever! Against an Arishem deck: Sunspot on 1, Psylocke on 2, Wong on 3 onto Onslaughts Citadel, Wiccan onto Wong turn 4, skip turn 5, Cassandra Nova onto Wong citadel and Infinaut onto 15+ power Sunspot!!! Insane!!!
As a player who started less than a year ago, I could say the presence of second dinner, nerfing cards while they’re in the cash light prizes is a little too common, and it has hurt me on my journey of trying to make a decent deck a lot more times than I want to admit…
Mailbag Question: Throughout Marvel's history, they have published comic books for other properties such as Star Wars, Predator, and Transformers to name a few. Would you ever want to see the game branch out into third party characters that have a history with Marvel Comics? Personally, I'd be okay with it, but only much later down the line when Second Dinner has inevitably run out of notable Marvel Characters and are on to exclusively the D-Listers.
Thanks for replying! Iginla was an absolute warrior, loved him on Team Canada. He had a really good fight with Benn that's worth watching, too. As a Stars fan I prefer Eddie Belfour to Roy, but always loved his personality and swagger.
The nerfs absolutely suck when it takes so long to get cards, especially when that 4th spotlight cache “mystery” hits a dupe and only gives 1k tokens. Not even enough for a s3 card. I am missing so many cards and I’ve pulled dupes twice. It really really sucks.
I bought Casandra Nova and Nocturne with token's after being away from the game for a few months (in order to get some competitive fit all cards) only for them both to get slightly nerfed. They still work but it's also really frustrating.
I dont know how realistic this is but Id love to see the new card of the week free for all *that week* - play it, try it, level playing field for all players to some degree- then you can decide with some confidence if you want to invest in said card for your playstyle.
Snapchat mailbag question: Alex and Cozy, I wanted to get your take on my idea of a potential Cerebro rework. My suggestion is to change the text to: "Ongoing: Your highest BASE power cards have +2 power." With this change, Cerebro would only buff the cards with the highest base power, not their total power after other ongoing effects. For example, ongoing effects like Sewer System (negative location), Nidavellir (positive location), Man-Thing (negative card), or Red Skull (positive card) would still impact card's overall power, but would not affect the buff Cerebro gives. Also, cards that have power added through an Ongoing effect would still get the buff added based on their original base power. However, a card like Hazmat, or a location like Jotunheim, would permanently reduce the overall base power, and would still throw Cerebro off. I think this makes Cerebro more fun and playable without becoming overpowered, as there are still plenty of counters, as well as the decks being reliant on Cerebro and restricted in how they can be crafted. Also, how fun would it be to be able to add a big late game card to your Cerebro deck? Devil Dino in C3, anyone?
Question for the Snapchat mailbag: If there was a team tournament between the best decks of today with all the newer cards, vs some of the best decks of the launch, which team would come out on top and which deck would be MVP for each team?
Mailbag: I think SD needs to add a refund system to the game, for example, if a card gets adjusted in a range of 45 days after a player buys it in the token shop, they should get an option to refund it and get their tokens back, like alot of people are quitting the game because they spend like 5 months tryna get tokens and then they finally buy the card they want only for it to get adjusted a week later, i think the economy in the game needs to be reworked, please talk about this so it can atleast spread a bit
I don't think they'll touch Wiccan's power points but how about this: On going: if you've used all your energy last turn, get +2 energy this turn. 🤔 Could work
Bit of a distant relative (mom’s aunt’s second cousins nephew) is Glen Healy who won the Stanley Cup with the Rangers then went to Toronto to be closer to home he’s from Ajax
Problem with ONLY nerfing cards without following up with meaningful buffs to underutilized and underused cards (and the Angel buff can be in no way described as meaningful), is that it is a race to the bottom strategy. Where every deck is cookie cutter, similar interactivity, outputs similar numbers varying only on how it achieves them. It also has the knock on problem of creating stagnant metas. Every deck optimization that gets a lil' uppity and falls out of line is peppered with nerfs with some cards or entire archetypes (Loki, Traditional Discard post-Chavez) killed for the forseeable future. Then an overall hesistancy to buy into newer cards with the expectation of imminent nerfs, and new cards that release in an underwhelming state. The flip side is that only buffing and only releasing cards that are impactful power creeps cards out of competitive relevance until 75%+ of your card collection become functionally useless and only select competitively viable cards are coveted. Balancing in any CCG has to have balance. For every card and archetype you pull the rug from underneath, you should be buffing cards and archetypes back into meta relevance. AND looking at ways to reintroduce the cards you've killed off in a healthier state instead of letting them languish for months to years. That Kang rework is long overdue.
Alot of this is over my head. I only started playing a few weeks ago. Am currently in the pool 3 and a half. Little more or less. Im enjoying the game more and more as I get new cards. But, what has become clear to me is way to many cards and information to keep up wirh that overwhelms me at times.
So, one underrated part of the nerfs/buffs side of thing is the purpose behind them. In general, if you want every card to be playable, you're nerfing cards that are OP and buffing cards that are underperforming, but not to the level of being over powered. So, the top end of the game empties quickly with an OTA/patch, and the buffs feel far less impactful because they're not intended to fill the space at the very top. So, with a change like this past one, it can feel like there's not a great deck to play if you don't have an established favorite (or, at least that's how it feels to me).
Speaking of Red Hulk. It would have been very interesting to see if 6/11 Red Hulk gain +4 would have hit the same with Speed and Wiccan. People are now running Quicksilver and TRYING to curve out properly. OG Red Hulk might not have hit the same
I agree with Cozy. Im using a Wiccan deck that actually uses both Quicksilver and Domino with alot of 3 costs and when it works it works really well. It can win without Wiccan too
You must have never went to Mcds or watched tv as a kid because 90’s McDs was nothing but Ronald, Grimace, Early Bird and Hamburgler. That quad was in every commercial, had happy meal toys, everywhere inside of the restaurants. They were the IT crowd back then.
I don’t think Alex’s Blob example works in the context of Snap’s balancing. It’s hard for content creators and players to evaluate a card like Blob because we aren’t playing it. But the Snap team gets to play it. All the way up to it releasing. That’s what makes the process so confounding. Because as soon as Blob released, everyone recognized “Oh he’s good-good.” How did the Snap team miss that? It just doesn’t make sense. Unless the people testing aren’t playing full games or aren’t using good decks or don’t know how to evaluate cards.
As an Aussie who's had American McDonalds before, I gotta say that it tastes nothing like Aussie McDonalds! The beef tastes completely different! (Not surprisingly, I guess)
This may have been said, but - regarding the nerfs - what do you think if SD replaced the random S4/5 card on the collection level with recently adjusted cards from an OTA. So if they buff a recent card, players get the chance to roll via keys sooner?
i got the opponent's wiccan with copycat as they were setting up quicksilver and domino i don't remember how i even got the copycat (not in my collection and i wasn't arishem, i think it was camp lehigh) it was an instant snap but man that felt depressing to watch
You didnt talk about Wiccan in bounce. Hes pretty good there. The deck naturally plays on curve and has plenty of 1 and 2 drops. Also Wiccan help to mitigate the 2 major counters for Bounce: Sandman and Mobius. That extra energy lets you explode on turn 5 with Sandman and upset in part the Mobius effect on 5 and 6. Not the best card in the world but i really like this kind of cards that makes you think of unique deckbuilding or where you can fit him to make that deck even better, like bounce. Also making Quicksilver and Domino at least be somewhat playable is something to recognize xD
Snapchat Mailbag: As a mexican that lives next to the border (and loves the Snapchat!) I can confidently say in behalf of my brothers and sisters that we LOVE Jack in the Box, I find it funny that Cozy reveals that one of our joys of crossing is a drunk burger place. Then again, I can see why, no wonder there are pretty interesting late night deals and I would definitely love to have one while (Hulk) smashed. Do you guys have a favorite burger place, and what do you like the most about it?
I agree with that keeping the game balanced with OTA’s is a good thing. But we definitely need some kind of refund or compensation for spending on a card and than it get nerfed a day or two later. For me, cannonball was my 6000token spend that got “kinda nerfed” a week later. (Professor X nerfed virtually killing the cannonball deck)
I almost spent 6k tokens on Thena the day before she was nerfed. So glad I waited to see the contents of the OTA, because it saved me 6k tokens. Likewise I passed on USAgent initially, even though I had the keys.. only for him to be buffed a week later. SMH.
The easy answer is for SD to loosen their stranglehold on resources. If we got more tokens more often, this would hurt less. But every game decision becomes financial and suddenly we get more cards but it takes 4 keys to get them. It feels bad every time.
white queen, forge, deathlok, chavez, sword master, scarlet witch, ADAM WARLOCK, and rhino. all good activate rework candidates as they are p1/p2 cards that are all strictly outclassed by other cards, maybe not forge but you get it.
We have very different opinions of Glenn Jones' capability. Look around at the number of cards that have been touched up multiple times in 6 months. This should not be how adjustments are handled in a card game of this magnitude.
This is some of the most balanced marvel snap has been. I don't care if he changed the cards 50 times. At this point the end justifies the means. At this point its people not adapting to what they clearly want their model to be.
I would give Wiccan a 3.5 and I play domino but not quick silver in a high evo deck with a few 1 drops to compensate but the occasional miss on Wiccan wasn't the end of the world with sunspot, cyclops and misty knight. When Wiccan with she hulk and those others in that deck hit though, chef's kiss then Chef Curry night night gesture, the shit is a wrap.
Idk, Nocturne and Thena getting ONE point off does not need this level of dramatization. i like both and still use both and they still do what they need to do. Its not like Nocturne cant move or change locations anymore.
This this this. Gamers in 2024 are crybabys man. Like this game has its problems but damn. They didn't butcher nocturne or thena. and both cards were very tippy top of their cost ranges. It's like people expect cards that are clearly tol good to be left alone so they can abuse it. If you pick up a card that is clearly a cut above the rest you shouldn't surprise Pikachu face when it gets adjusted. If you meta chase don't get made when the meta you were chasing ends.
i'm very happy a goldfish can type this well nowadays... i'm assuming you are a goldfish cause of your short term memory, because you must not by cherry picking your argument with 2 """"nerfed"""" cards, when just last week or so they literally removed from the game one whole archetype, the loki one, killing the deck and leaving a bunch of cards that came with it in the garbage can
I just got nocturne the week marvel boy came out, however fortunately I didn’t use tokens and got her from the mystery slot with a key. I really feel for anyone that just used tokens. It just has to feel bad.
Thanks for talking about the nerfs. Seems like every viable card is a Nerf candidate at some point in the future no matter the niche: Cannonball, WW, Thena and now Nocturne has hit me on 2 of the four i used Tokens on recently. It's been brutal trying to maximize my token spending and getting later gut-punched.
I would love a shang-bait activate card. something like a 4/10 where you activate to drop it to a 4/8. Nothing gets me stoked quite like dodging a shang-chi.
The rewards are awful. There is no real drive for me to want to play. Just grinding to get a new card isn’t enough motivation. Just look at the rewards on deapools diner. That was a grind but it was fun due to the different types of rewards. I’m sick of pixels, avatars and god damn golden tickets. Give us something worth while
That's weird that Wiccan is performing so low. It has been performing really well for me with this list: Sunspot, Quicksilver, Psylocke, Kate Bishop, Zabu, Magik, Wiccan, Zola, Odin, Alioth, She-hulk, Infinaut. It's more of a ladder deck and not for conquest due to not running any tech cards. Also you can snap anytime u are going to drop Wiccan turn 3 and you kind of know if you should stay or leave on a non Wiccan draw.
@@mobawhattheheck5535 Good catch I meant to put Kate Bishop and was writing it quickly. I keep calling her Hawkeye cause of it being in bold letters on the card but thanks for catching that. I've done it many times since she's been released lol >.
Mailbag: Regarding Activate cards. Do you think they will print cards like Wong and Cosmo for Activate cards or do you think they will change them to affect both On Reveal and Activate? I was thinking it would be at least a good buff for Cosmo since he sees virtually no play anymore.
I wonder if the solution of making the cards available for two or even three weeks instead of one (i.e. still release a card each week, but make the spotlight caches fall into two/three sections... one for the new stuff, and one that was released a week ago) has ever been considered. You would give the balance team more time to work out a necessary OTA and you would give the player base more time to assess if they should use their tokens/keys for a card. Of course, that greatly impacts the monetization of FOMO... SD is never going to take a conservative approach for release bc then they wouldn't get the sales; Glenn essentially confirmed this on discord (not the sales part, but that they want every release to be impactful upon entering the game with the intent to nerf them later if needed). As much as I love the developers and team, at the end of the day SD is about sales first and foremost.
The issue isn’t the constant balance of cards, that’s part of what makes Snap so engaging. The issue is that it’s so hard to acquire cards. No one would complain about a 1 power nerf to Nocturne if Nocturne didn’t cost months of token saving. If card acquisition was easier then players would be happier
Amen to that
I don't think they'll touch Wiccan's power points but how about this:
On going: if you've used all your energy last turn, get +2 energy this turn.
🤔 Could work
I totally agree with your point! I think they should remove the gold tickets from the caches, increase the amount of collector tokens you earn through caches and other means, increase the frequency of series drops and release more series 4 cards, and maybe lower the amount of collector levels you need to earn a spotlight keys! Me and probably many players have lost interest in the game because of the amount of grinding it takes to earn new cards and the lack of a good rewards system in the game! If Second Dinner took the time to properly address these issues, I know for a fact that many players would come back to the game and it would be more welcoming to new players to play!
thats the part that makes snap engaging for you*
the constant forced shift in balance, almost always not giving time for the meta to settle down on his own is, for me, the very worst part of this game
@@Lucas-g5e8bThat is your perspective that very few share because almost all of us prefer frequent balance changes to give life to the game and not stagnate in the same meta.
23:00 this is a broken question.
The issue isn't cards being too powerful or too weak, the issue is how difficult it is to acquire new cards and how restrictive the snap economy is.
No one would care if cards got nerfed if there were refunds, no one would care if cards get buffed later if they didn't have to wait Months for a chance to get it again.
SD HAS to accept that their approach is broken and needs a complete overhaul.
I used to spend close to $100 a month sometimes more, now I don't even buy the season pass. I refuse to spend money on a game that is inherently broken.
Totally agree. The answer isn't too strong or too weak, the answer is either less card releases and make them all more balanced, or increase card acquisition. As a complete F2P player I get about a key a week, and there is no way to keep up. It is crazy insane the power creep on this game. I have to just play for fun and give up on being collection complete or being hyper competitive.
This exactly is the elephant in the room that they keep dodging but keen players are honing in on. The stingy card acquisition / economy is hurting the whole system. It's a triple middle-finger to players/consumer experience:
1. frequent balance changes, no compensation. feels bad.
2. spotlight system intentionally gatekeeping player agency from acquiring cards they want. feels bad.
3. stingy on resources / tokens. feels bad.
like this whole ecosystem can be summed up in one example:
"Damn, finally saved up enough tokens / keys to buy Loki/Darkhawk/Zabu/Thanos/Red hulk/whatever the chase card of the moment, fuck, I got some duplicates and got 1000 tokens along the way.... 2 days later, damn it man, the OTA/patch killed my deck, without any compensation."
I stand by my opinion, spotlight variants are overrated, has no place to be in the same gacha pool as base cards. Their whole spotlight system needs an overhaul.
I think the people that complain about card acquisition have never played another card game. It is so much easier to get cards in snap than say hearthstone or mtga, I pretty much only get the season pass(though I do occasionally get cheap bundles if I like the variant) while playing for almost a year and I'm only missing 12 cards, I also have 14 keys and 15k tokens.
I spent significantly more in hearthstone and mtga while also playing for years and I was constantly out of wildcards and dust, there were also entire archetypes that I just couldn't ever play because I was missing so much for them.
Opening packs was also very underwhelming, way more than snap, I would spend $100 per set release and it was pretty rare to actually get the cards I wanted, mostly I was just looking for dust and wildcards.
@@simeon6669 I'm not disagreeing, it's is easy to get a card or 2 a month as free to play, but the problem is the power creep, I have to choose to either get 2ish cards a month, hope they're the best ones, (but not so good it'll get nerfed, (red hulk) and also hope the bad ones don't get buffed (US Agent).) or I have to skip a couple months for getting cards, just to get all the new good ones. In other games I've played no new card totally trivializes other cards (like red hulk and Alioth did)
I love this game, and play it hours a day. It does so many things Incredibly well. Credit where it's due, it is not pay to win, but it is pay to play (with the newest, coolest, strongest, most fun cards) it's still so much fun I play anyway, I just wish I could play with all the new toys. (I understand people have to make money, so that's why I'm trying not to complain, just give feedback and maybe insight.)
@@simeon6669 Anyone actually Defending Snap's acquisition system is probably low in collection level. Anyone thats been playing since global launch or shortly there after are hitting the most brutal wall when it comes to keeping up with competitive cards.
"mostly i was just looking for dust and wildcards"
EXACTLY!!! YOU DID THIS TO GAIN AGENCY! In snap you have no Agency whatsoever outside of using 2+months worth of tokens or rolling a bunch of keys into 3/4 empty slots to get 1 card you actually want.
In Hearthstone say you spent all your Resources to craft a tier one deck and it gets nerfed heavily the next week then what happens? You get to dust those cards for full refunds.
What happens in Snap when you decide to use months worth of resources to get 2 cards and they get nerfed? YOU GET NOTHING !!
What happens in Hearthstone (or any other cardgame)when you don't get the newest released cards immediately? Nothing, you can just get those cards at any point, whenever you decide to invest in them. What happens in snap? You are DOOMED to wait for over half a year for them to come back to spotlights or pray that it shows up in your token shop rotation...
This is a flawed system, stop defending it.
My biggest problem with nerfs and changes in general is that I cant keep up anymore. I feel like If I take a break for 1 Month, my decks dont work anymore at all. Thats like my biggest issue with these constant changes.
Funnily enough, your comment reminded me of Ben Brode's game design philosophy while he was running Hearthstone. It was the exact opposite of what SD is doing; HS used to take such a long time to nerf problematic cards, about 3-4 months long sometimes.
He wanted the playerbase to be creative and try to come up with unique answers/counters to the strong cards. He also mentioned about people not wanting to play the game if their decks get constantly changed from buffs/nerfs.
one month? the meta changes every week! lol
instead of trying to reach infinite every season, i find fun in getting cool variants and focusing my grind on splitting cards.
having a deck full of inked or gold splits is satisfying regardless if it’s meta or not
See your feelings here are exactly right. But this feeling doesn't come from balancing.. it's not the nerfs or buffs that cause it.
It's card acquisition. People who don't spend hundreds every month can't keep up with new cards.. and it's not that we have to have all of them, but the card acquisition system doesn't allow you to get the cards you want often enough. The spotlight system (while statistically giving access to more cards in numbers) don't allow much choice in which cards we want to own. And the token shop is useless as it's too difficult to acquire 6000 tokens regularly.
Also the ability to pull cards you already own in spotlight caches is asinine!! Make it a random unowned card and people will feel much better.
@@biffleslegit8985feel the exact same way. Used to chase infinite and now it’s really just about getting splits and trying to get at least one cache within the week.
@@biffleslegit8985 Im actually doing the exact same thing lol.
I cant keep up with the meta at all but Im still in love with all the artwork in the game so im focusing on that too.
I would love to see updated videos on the current new player experience.
a Smurf account?
For new players, there's a huge acquisition rate gap compared to the veteran.
OG players get S3 complete at CL3000, new players at CL5000.
OG players have more difficulty getting new S4/5 cards but that's only because they get plenty duplicates. New players can catch up on S4/5 more easily.
S3 complete players on average get 2500 tokens each season, new players get 500 tokens.
All according to SD's business plan: 1. Release op cards, that everybody needs in order to compete 2. Cash in 3. Nerf them into mediocrity as soon as the next set of op cards is about to release 4. Rinse and repeat.
Exactly. Release balanced cards and we wouldn’t have this “problem”. And now we have a bunch of no-name characters as the top cards in the game while iconic marvel characters like Captain America, Hulk and Thor are rarely played.
Most of the cards that are released aren’t op, so I kind of get tired of people claiming this is the gameplan. Kitty Pryde was pretty much OP at one point, but guess what? She’s still good currently, not OP, and she was given out for free. For every Nocturne there’s a Hydra Bob that absolutely nobody needs to have. I spent tokens on Martyr. What an OP card! A lot of you will complain no matter what they do and claim the game is P2W on top of it when right now you can win games just dropping Ultron on turn 6.
@@kylexile87 ?? 'Op' means overpowered, not Kitty Release level of broken lol A card is already 'op' when everybody and their grandma can tell, that it will get nerfed eventually. SD has a habbit of releasing them anyway. Loki, Alioth, Blob, Arishem. Just to name a few and there are around 2-3 of them releasing each month. Yes, Snap's meta is still healthy, when compared to less succesful and worse mobile games, but giving them credit for not ruining their own game is such a low bar. A 50 / 50 ratio, between average and overpowered card releases, isn't as good as you try to make it sound like.
@@kylexile87 I can't trust anyone that used tokens of any number to get Martyr. Lol
@@IdocarebutIdont there are far more "whiffs" than truly OP cards released my man. It's just the ones that are strong get highlighted immensely because of their usage. Also... OP/oppressive cards are never healthy for the game. So balance is going to be an ever lasting aspect of any game like this.
If you're the type of player who gets mad when oppressive cards are balanced, then don't spend any money. Save your cash and your mental.
To me, its not a case of "how many cards have been released then nerfed so hard its dead" its how many cards have been released then nerfed AT ALL. They promised us theyd do better at testing and yet almost every card thats been released and saw some kind of meta success has been nerfed to some degree. Not every card needs nerfed 🤦♂️ they should go back to having the spare week with no new card in spotlights (start of season). It gives me players a chancr to get old cards that are still good, old players a chance to save resources and the dev team a chance to test significantly more. Literaly just money is the reason and its pure greed
yeh this game would be alot better with less cards released and give the meta time to settle, they also seem to be okay with a slightly busted card on release then nerf it a couple of weeks later.
I agree. More testing and more time to give players a chance to breathe. Let people be able to have a small catch-up on purchases and also give time for the game to settle before nerfs.
But I also think they should change how progression works in ranked:
1. Lower the ranked reward value
2. Make bots more prevalent for lesser skilled players to infinite (CL and whatever other sneaky hidden metrics they don't admit to determine this)
Sure this leads to more people in infinite. There's nothing there of importance! What it DOES give people however is the ability to learn more creative ways to deck build. Have fun and stop having FOMO. Try out whacky deck builds.
The benefit of this also means conquest becomes the place where you truly test your skills. Snap mechanics, tryhard decks for avatar glow, places to spend earned points on hard to reach rewards. Ranked then becomes a less sweaty but still fun and rewarding place as you climb. It's also less of an issue when they shove alliances, leagues, DpD into your face and you can't keep up.
You don't have to buy every single new card though. You probably feel this way cause lot's of new cards are some level of broken. That's why they have to get nerfed. But hey 99% of playerbase only wants to play the nb 1 ranked deck so no-one would get them if they weren't
@nathankeunen9572 it's a card game, playing with new cards is fun. Not only that, but skipping on bad cards isn't great when a week or two later they get buffed into meta relevance and now your annoyed you missed out. It's always going to happen that the odd card needs buffed or nerfed after release but virtually every card released now gets changed shortly after in one way or another and that's bullshit
@@LastPancake New cards are fun but we I don't mind not having all of them.
And I don't play "meta" cause it ruins the fun for me. More new cards mean more fun right ? Let's not release less new cards for the sake of complete collections
9:00 I wouldn't want a Wiccan changed Alex. Because Quick Silver finally has a home. I love Quick Silver as a Marvel Character and can finally use him lol
I think that they should prep the new cards for the week before its spot light. Then give this card to everyone for the week, giving players a chance to see if they like the card and how it plays. This also allow second diner game play stats. This would allow for a better balanced card before it’s released and any players pay any keys.
Lately it’s felt like they been nerfing just to nerf because it’s just good.
They need to nerf broken, and problem cards not just card because they’re good.
So my question is when do you say a card is broken and not good. Like nocturne was in ALL the top decks. Nocturne itself may not be inherently broken but that clearly makes it too good. You just leave it alone and let it make all the other 3 costs irrelevant?
@@drdepression4605 when it’s an issue, when the community expresses concern. It just feels like they’re trying to hard to keep the cards like Goldilocks, not too cold not hot just fine.
Nocturne was good but not worthy of a nerf.
@@casualgamer8722 how can you say that when it was in literally every top performing deck? It by far outclassed most other 3 costs. It had to be toned down. Copycat about to get the same treatment. When something is too good nerf it. That's what balance is. If a card is in every top performing deck that's the definition of worthy of a nerf.
If they can shave a point of power off a card that's in the majority of the top decks and not kill the card, then they should absolutely be doing that. Spoiler alert, the Nocturne nerf changed very little, she's still an incredible card, but removing the point of power means she's not an auto-include and people can be more free to experiment.
as a Detroit Red Wings fan, when Cozy mentioned Patrick Roy i felt my blood pressure rise
Mail bag question: What do you guys think of having rotating favorite variants in decks? For example, one game has your Artgerm She-hulk, and the next game has your Peach Momoko She-hulk, etc.
I've been saying this for a long time it be cool I'd buy more variants
Regarding being upset about nerfs after spending our hard earned tokens - I think we (players) should start choosing cards based on our own play style and preferences rather than assumptions and current meta relevance.
Totally. I picked Wickan for 6000 tokens even though he is not that powerful right now, I think his ability is really fun and he has the potential to age well.
The only inherent flaw in that logic is that for a lot of the players, their first priority is acquiring the "strongest" game pieces (cards in this case) that allow them to win the most. There are definitely some players that prefer certain play styles and stick to their specific favorite ones, but I doubt they outnumber the people that want to win more than lose.
Imo this is the correct take. You can't have a good digital card game and not buff or nerf cards, just because people might get mad over it. SD will not get every card perfectly balanced on release. That's just impossible. So just buy the card if you think it looks fun and don't buy it if it doesn't. Just use common sense. If the card looks really strong, chances are high that it might get toned down and vice versa. Man, gamers really can't make their own decisions anymore. Need a guide for everything.
yep i tend to get move cards regardless of if it’s perceived as a good or bad card. i’m over chasing the meta it’s too expensive
i mean that's all well and good to say but for players that have limited resources you can't just go 'i'll take this weak looking but fun card' if there's an objectively better card to spend your currency on. i think it's disingenuous to ask players to have to choose between them both when the game itself is so stingy.
Great point to discuss - too many nerfs. This is literally the reason why I've stopped putting any money int that game, even for season pass. Any card can be killed anytime and there is zero compensation for that. I don't know any other CCG which has such policy. This is anti F2P to the bone game design. It's good to have OTA's frequently but in current form it's a disaster.
"there is zero compensation for that" -> This ! I think that is more the problem vs the number of nerf. Trying to keep the game balanced is really nice in my opinion, but they could just give compensation for it when you just acquired a card.
The game is more balanced now than it ever has been before. There are tons of viable decks. Where’s the “disaster”?
People wasting resources is the problem. They want everything and they become sad when it gets touched. If they can understand you can't have every card the playerbase will be much more happy.
@@tigui02 the issue is that these cards most of them come out super overpowered just to make players buy them. They are broken over a month or so the the next card comes, rinse and repeat. The problem to me is how broken these crds are and they use it as a selling point. I.e. Arishem. That card by itself os broken and it broke so many other cards that needed to be nerf to the ground (outside of arishem) That card needs work asap...
I was surprised supergiant didn’t see play when sandman was everywhere
The problem with nerfs is not the "how good is this card" part. The problem is people have their favorite decks and ways they play the game. With some small nerfs they literally destroy cards and make them unplayable in the decks you buy them for.
I still havent been able to make Junk work well since the round of nerfs they had at the beginning of the year. Completely killed the decktype for me. I mean, I like the Viper buff.. but its not enough. They basically killed the deck for me by increasing the cost of certain Junk oriented cards. Although maybe I just need White Widow. Still feels bad though.
@@An.Unsought.Thought I exclusively used a junk deck to get the Cassandra variant from the Diner by day 4. It's not broken good (and it's the kind of feelsbad deck that they will never allow to be broken good, so if that's what you're chasing I'd look elsewhere) but it's definitely still a valid, viable deck. It's also a great deck into Arishem, which is very popular right now.
Yeah, that’s why I quit. It wasn’t just that the card got nerfed, but an entire deck/archetype is no longer competitive
An alternative to QS/Domino is a package of Kitty, Maria Hill, and Kate Bishop. Kitty on 1, Kitty/Maria or Kate on 2, and Kitty/Maria's recruit or Kitty/Kate's arrows on 3. The Wiccan proc success rate is slightly lower than QS/Domino but you get more versatility.
yeah just draw kitty on 1 every game easy
Mailbag: what do you think to the idea of limited time free card rotations? Something along the lines of MOBAS (league of legends ect) where for a day, weekend or week on a rotation basis certain cards are available for everyone to play and if people like them enough have the option there and then to spend tokens on them. It would give f2p players the chance to experience all cards for a short amount of time without dedicating tokens and feeling bad if they don’t like the play style. While giving the players that do, the option to purchase them directly with tokens.
I got to give SD some credit on the constant balance changes as I've never used the same deck to reach infinite. It keeps the game fresh for me as I would get bored really easy using the same deck ALL the time
Agreed. People want cards to stay OP just so they can see “return on investment“ but I’m glad they focus on game balance more. The matter is super diverse at least at the top.
Conversely, I've used almost exactly the same bounce deck to hit infinite for almost the last 12 months, so all these people complaining that nerfs are "killing" decks - the truth is most stuff that was viable before still is. People need to get out of chasing the "best" deck and experiment more, and balance changes help massively with this.
IYKYK: That Potvin - Hextall fight was the stuff of legends! Nothing beats a full team brawl where the goalies go at it, toe to toe.
Maildbag: Not really a question, but something that I just wanted to mention. Despite playing Snap, I still get ads on YT in which Ben says something along the lines of "What would happen if you COULDN'T spend hundreds of dollars to get all the cards... We've prevented that specifically so that blablabla". Yeah, clearly they have. In fact, expanding your collection effectively is damn near impossible. Is SD really not doing financial good enough to make the game easier or even cheaper to progress? Do cards have to really be so inaccessible to guarantee they're making enough money?
And you can still spend for the cards so it’s just a lie lol
@@ledsenkatt exactly, it's definitely hard to max out your account by spending 100€ per month. But the game goes one step further by making progress without spending money in the first place so unbelievably slow
They should make it where you can exchange or turn in all of the multiple duplicate splits for tokens or gold. I'm sitting on so many splits that are useless and just sit there clogging up space.
Mailbag: two questions for a Silver Surfer lover: 1) What's your favorite Silver Surfer comic run? I love the trippy art in Silver Surfer Black, and the Dr. Who vibes of Dan Slott's run are immaculate. 2) As a surfer "main" in Snap, I was shocked I didn't hear you mention trying the Quicksilver/Domino/Wiccan combo in a Surfer deck. The archetype is already overloaded with 3's, and doesn't really want to play 1's or 2's that much. If you add in Sera and Odin, it goes HUGE over the top. Try my list:
V2NjbjYsUWNrc2x2ckIsRG1uNixNZ2s1LE9kbjQsSXJuaHJ0OSxXbmc0LFNic3RuU2h3RCxCcmQ1LFNyNCxTbHZyU3JmckMsUmc1
Mailbag: Idea for 100th Episode, have a Snap playoff (conquest style) between Cozy & Alex for ultimate bragging rights. There could be rules applied i.e. Arishem only deck, Wheel of Fortune etc. You could have fans voting for who they think could win and/or other interactions. What do you think?
yess this is a great idea liking so they see
They got DEEP into the snap behind the scenes
I can't believe Iginla got a shoutout on the Snap Chat! Love from Calgary, Alex!
That's funny, I was absolutely thrilled about Blob and pretty sad that he's been nerfed to something that is completely antithetical to the "nothing moves the Bloob" character.
You both make great points. I agree with Alex, cards that are a little more aggressive are more exciting to play, but they need to give something to players for compensation when nerfed. Give 1000 tokens.
Best of luck in Toronto! I played in Fort Worth and it was a blast!
My theory is that nerfs and buffs aren't just a way to balance but are actually a way to control and change the meta. Which if you want to be competitive that means you got to pokeman the game. Which increases profit. But makes it harder for the casual or ftp. The game has been out long enough that you can see the pattern.
There simply needs to be more ways to acquire tokens. Add them to the conquest track and or increase the probability from reserves. Possibly add a token pass.
500 spotlight tokens as a daily reward would be nice. SD stand to make more money by being generous to players but we live in a capitalist society. People with lots of money want to make more money quicker. I'd be interested to see how the increase in greedy tactics has come from SD and how much is pressure from Nuverse..
I'll never forget when I got MMM with tokens and he got changed to On Reveal the next day.
MAIL BAG: What do you guys think about changing Cerebro's power to "+2 to cards with the most appeared power on your side" (can be better wording but you get the idea), so the card would be less annoyed by locations.
Storm has a ultimate. They gave it out earlier in the game. So if your newer you don't have that one. Check your variants cozy.
Nico would be an interesting card to have activate on, you can play her early to get prio, then activate when the skill cycle to what you want it to be
Hey as a 21+ year Coloradan it brought me much joy to hear cozy talk about the Avs. I got a question to piggy back it what are your favorite professional sports teams for the “big 4” sports (football, basketball, baseball, hockey)?
Mobius was completely murdered weeks after release, then brought back. Elsa was also destroyed shortly after release, then brought back later.
Big Bird is probably the most powerful Muppet. Snuffleupagus started out as a figment of the bird's imagination, but Big Bird willed him into existence so that the other inhabitants of sesame street would be forced to acknowledge the fictional elephant's existence. Big Bird can create matter and one can only assume he can destroy it too. Don't mess with the bird
Big Bird is a Vietnamese Trasvestite and Ernie and Bert are a gay couple..kids won’t catch that and adults who accept it need their heads examined
Alex I’m so happy you’re getting into Lorcana! I have been playing for so long being extremely competitive. I have a bunch of friends going to Toronto but I couldn’t get tickets. Good luck to you. It’s so cool that my favorite snap creator is also playing my favorite card game!
Wish you could have been there!!
Mail bag Thought: I think Ive cracked the Adam Warlock Conundrum. If he was simply a 3/5 (or somesuch base power line) that had the ability: Whenever a your opponent draws an additional card during a round, you draw a card. He'd be a great counter to thanos/loki but otherwise a somewhat lackluster tech piece. Alternatively - you could give Crystal such an effect and give adam warlock an earlier drop with with his original effect. You could even go so far as to make a card that Doesnt allow extra cards to be drawn at all (a cosmo for this whole playline). Thoughts?
My trouble is more with card adquisition than with the nerfs.
They have built enough equity to allow themselves more regular series drops. Every new release, and we are at 1 season pass card plus 1 per week, is series 5. Eventually we will have more series 5 than series 3, at 6k tokens each... Not even the spotlight caches can keep up with that.
Undertale cards for Marvel Snap!
Sans: 1/1 Activate: During the next turn, lock down this location. (cards can't be added, removed, etc.)
Papyrus: 2/8 Whenever you end a turn with unspent Energy, destroy one of your cards here below 0 Power. On Reveal: Add 2 -2-Power Bones to this location. Merge the ones that didn't fit with this card.
Alphys: 3/4 Activate: Copy this card's Power to the top of your deck.
Toriel Dreemurr: idk
Undyne: 5/3 Ongoing: The Costs of your other cards here are added to this card's Power.
Asgore Dreemurr: 6/10 Starts in your opening hand and gives you +3 Max Energy, but you can't gain or lose Max Energy.
Asriel Dreemurr: 6/7 On Reveal: Replace each location with The Barrier. (gives 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards +2 Power)
Chara: 6/6 At the start of the game, add a Real Knife to the top of your deck. On Reveal: Destroy ALL cards with less Power than your Real Knife. (maximum 3 Power)
As someone who just bought Nocturn before the nerf, I'm not upset with the purchase still. As you mentioned, she still does her job. However, as someone who had just bought Zabu and then he was utterly neutered... this needs to be corrected somehow.
One thing about nerfs and balance changes, the sure make chasing god-spkits rough. My gold, Zabu, Thanos, Professor X, High Evo Hulk and more just languish. And just split Nocturne 6 times in past 2 weeks I might've chose another card for
Just played my best Wiccan game ever! Against an Arishem deck: Sunspot on 1, Psylocke on 2, Wong on 3 onto Onslaughts Citadel, Wiccan onto Wong turn 4, skip turn 5, Cassandra Nova onto Wong citadel and Infinaut onto 15+ power Sunspot!!! Insane!!!
The hockey player shout out! Iggy and kippersof was my dream team as a kid. Hahaha wild.
As a player who started less than a year ago, I could say the presence of second dinner, nerfing cards while they’re in the cash light prizes is a little too common, and it has hurt me on my journey of trying to make a decent deck a lot more times than I want to admit…
Mailbag Question: Throughout Marvel's history, they have published comic books for other properties such as Star Wars, Predator, and Transformers to name a few. Would you ever want to see the game branch out into third party characters that have a history with Marvel Comics?
Personally, I'd be okay with it, but only much later down the line when Second Dinner has inevitably run out of notable Marvel Characters and are on to exclusively the D-Listers.
Thanks for replying! Iginla was an absolute warrior, loved him on Team Canada. He had a really good fight with Benn that's worth watching, too.
As a Stars fan I prefer Eddie Belfour to Roy, but always loved his personality and swagger.
Absolutely!!
The nerfs absolutely suck when it takes so long to get cards, especially when that 4th spotlight cache “mystery” hits a dupe and only gives 1k tokens. Not even enough for a s3 card. I am missing so many cards and I’ve pulled dupes twice. It really really sucks.
I bought Casandra Nova and Nocturne with token's after being away from the game for a few months (in order to get some competitive fit all cards) only for them both to get slightly nerfed. They still work but it's also really frustrating.
I dont know how realistic this is but Id love to see the new card of the week free for all *that week* - play it, try it, level playing field for all players to some degree- then you can decide with some confidence if you want to invest in said card for your playstyle.
Early bird is incredibly iconic Cozy how dare you
Snapchat mailbag question: Alex and Cozy, I wanted to get your take on my idea of a potential Cerebro rework. My suggestion is to change the text to: "Ongoing: Your highest BASE power cards have +2 power." With this change, Cerebro would only buff the cards with the highest base power, not their total power after other ongoing effects. For example, ongoing effects like Sewer System (negative location), Nidavellir (positive location), Man-Thing (negative card), or Red Skull (positive card) would still impact card's overall power, but would not affect the buff Cerebro gives. Also, cards that have power added through an Ongoing effect would still get the buff added based on their original base power. However, a card like Hazmat, or a location like Jotunheim, would permanently reduce the overall base power, and would still throw Cerebro off. I think this makes Cerebro more fun and playable without becoming overpowered, as there are still plenty of counters, as well as the decks being reliant on Cerebro and restricted in how they can be crafted. Also, how fun would it be to be able to add a big late game card to your Cerebro deck? Devil Dino in C3, anyone?
You guys should check out this new Pokemon Pocket mobile card game coming out later this year. Seems very similar to Snap
Question for the Snapchat mailbag:
If there was a team tournament between the best decks of today with all the newer cards, vs some of the best decks of the launch, which team would come out on top and which deck would be MVP for each team?
Cozy is a very smart guy. His points are almost always dead on point
Mailbag: I think SD needs to add a refund system to the game, for example, if a card gets adjusted in a range of 45 days after a player buys it in the token shop, they should get an option to refund it and get their tokens back, like alot of people are quitting the game because they spend like 5 months tryna get tokens and then they finally buy the card they want only for it to get adjusted a week later, i think the economy in the game needs to be reworked, please talk about this so it can atleast spread a bit
I don't think they'll touch Wiccan's power points but how about this:
On going: if you've used all your energy last turn, get +2 energy this turn.
🤔 Could work
I was pissed when they nerfed Elsa Bloodstone
They should lern to buff things to counter things. It’s Easy as that.
Na I definitely don't want that level of power creep
Bit of a distant relative (mom’s aunt’s second cousins nephew) is Glen Healy who won the Stanley Cup with the Rangers then went to Toronto to be closer to home he’s from Ajax
Awesome!! He had the best mask lol
Problem with ONLY nerfing cards without following up with meaningful buffs to underutilized and underused cards (and the Angel buff can be in no way described as meaningful), is that it is a race to the bottom strategy. Where every deck is cookie cutter, similar interactivity, outputs similar numbers varying only on how it achieves them.
It also has the knock on problem of creating stagnant metas. Every deck optimization that gets a lil' uppity and falls out of line is peppered with nerfs with some cards or entire archetypes (Loki, Traditional Discard post-Chavez) killed for the forseeable future. Then an overall hesistancy to buy into newer cards with the expectation of imminent nerfs, and new cards that release in an underwhelming state.
The flip side is that only buffing and only releasing cards that are impactful power creeps cards out of competitive relevance until 75%+ of your card collection become functionally useless and only select competitively viable cards are coveted.
Balancing in any CCG has to have balance. For every card and archetype you pull the rug from underneath, you should be buffing cards and archetypes back into meta relevance. AND looking at ways to reintroduce the cards you've killed off in a healthier state instead of letting them languish for months to years. That Kang rework is long overdue.
I want discard/destroy getting activate. I think it's a great way to amplify the archetype without the need of new cards
Alot of this is over my head. I only started playing a few weeks ago. Am currently in the pool 3 and a half. Little more or less. Im enjoying the game more and more as I get new cards. But, what has become clear to me is way to many cards and information to keep up wirh that overwhelms me at times.
So, one underrated part of the nerfs/buffs side of thing is the purpose behind them. In general, if you want every card to be playable, you're nerfing cards that are OP and buffing cards that are underperforming, but not to the level of being over powered. So, the top end of the game empties quickly with an OTA/patch, and the buffs feel far less impactful because they're not intended to fill the space at the very top. So, with a change like this past one, it can feel like there's not a great deck to play if you don't have an established favorite (or, at least that's how it feels to me).
Speaking of Red Hulk. It would have been very interesting to see if 6/11 Red Hulk gain +4 would have hit the same with Speed and Wiccan. People are now running Quicksilver and TRYING to curve out properly. OG Red Hulk might not have hit the same
I agree with Cozy. Im using a Wiccan deck that actually uses both Quicksilver and Domino with alot of 3 costs and when it works it works really well. It can win without Wiccan too
You must have never went to Mcds or watched tv as a kid because 90’s McDs was nothing but Ronald, Grimace, Early Bird and Hamburgler. That quad was in every commercial, had happy meal toys, everywhere inside of the restaurants. They were the IT crowd back then.
I don’t think Alex’s Blob example works in the context of Snap’s balancing. It’s hard for content creators and players to evaluate a card like Blob because we aren’t playing it. But the Snap team gets to play it. All the way up to it releasing. That’s what makes the process so confounding. Because as soon as Blob released, everyone recognized “Oh he’s good-good.” How did the Snap team miss that? It just doesn’t make sense. Unless the people testing aren’t playing full games or aren’t using good decks or don’t know how to evaluate cards.
As an Aussie who's had American McDonalds before, I gotta say that it tastes nothing like Aussie McDonalds! The beef tastes completely different! (Not surprisingly, I guess)
This may have been said, but - regarding the nerfs - what do you think if SD replaced the random S4/5 card on the collection level with recently adjusted cards from an OTA. So if they buff a recent card, players get the chance to roll via keys sooner?
Great episode guys
i got the opponent's wiccan with copycat as they were setting up quicksilver and domino
i don't remember how i even got the copycat (not in my collection and i wasn't arishem, i think it was camp lehigh)
it was an instant snap but man that felt depressing to watch
You didnt talk about Wiccan in bounce. Hes pretty good there. The deck naturally plays on curve and has plenty of 1 and 2 drops. Also Wiccan help to mitigate the 2 major counters for Bounce: Sandman and Mobius. That extra energy lets you explode on turn 5 with Sandman and upset in part the Mobius effect on 5 and 6.
Not the best card in the world but i really like this kind of cards that makes you think of unique deckbuilding or where you can fit him to make that deck even better, like bounce. Also making Quicksilver and Domino at least be somewhat playable is something to recognize xD
Snapchat Mailbag: As a mexican that lives next to the border (and loves the Snapchat!) I can confidently say in behalf of my brothers and sisters that we LOVE Jack in the Box, I find it funny that Cozy reveals that one of our joys of crossing is a drunk burger place. Then again, I can see why, no wonder there are pretty interesting late night deals and I would definitely love to have one while (Hulk) smashed.
Do you guys have a favorite burger place, and what do you like the most about it?
I agree with that keeping the game balanced with OTA’s is a good thing. But we definitely need some kind of refund or compensation for spending on a card and than it get nerfed a day or two later. For me, cannonball was my 6000token spend that got “kinda nerfed” a week later. (Professor X nerfed virtually killing the cannonball deck)
I got flamed Monday in Dera’s stream for saying Wiccan felt good in Thanos because you don’t need it to win. Glad Cozy is here to back me up
I almost spent 6k tokens on Thena the day before she was nerfed. So glad I waited to see the contents of the OTA, because it saved me 6k tokens. Likewise I passed on USAgent initially, even though I had the keys.. only for him to be buffed a week later. SMH.
Thank you for the consistent content
The easy answer is for SD to loosen their stranglehold on resources. If we got more tokens more often, this would hurt less. But every game decision becomes financial and suddenly we get more cards but it takes 4 keys to get them. It feels bad every time.
white queen, forge, deathlok, chavez, sword master, scarlet witch, ADAM WARLOCK, and rhino. all good activate rework candidates as they are p1/p2 cards that are all strictly outclassed by other cards, maybe not forge but you get it.
Cannonball got nerfed into the ground with intentional changes to other cards (prof X, doc oc)
The most Cozy thing i've ever seen: pulling out the casual statement that he used to live next to Patrick Woy for 5 years 😂
Patrick Roy!
We have very different opinions of Glenn Jones' capability.
Look around at the number of cards that have been touched up multiple times in 6 months. This should not be how adjustments are handled in a card game of this magnitude.
This is some of the most balanced marvel snap has been. I don't care if he changed the cards 50 times. At this point the end justifies the means. At this point its people not adapting to what they clearly want their model to be.
No need to touch cards when they don't need it. That's a stupid logic to follow to touch a card just cz it wasn't touched in past 6 months.
I would give Wiccan a 3.5 and I play domino but not quick silver in a high evo deck with a few 1 drops to compensate but the occasional miss on Wiccan wasn't the end of the world with sunspot, cyclops and misty knight. When Wiccan with she hulk and those others in that deck hit though, chef's kiss then Chef Curry night night gesture, the shit is a wrap.
Wanda didn’t solo Thanos when he had the stones. He was chasing the stones when she did it. She’s buff AF though.
Idk, Nocturne and Thena getting ONE point off does not need this level of dramatization. i like both and still use both and they still do what they need to do. Its not like Nocturne cant move or change locations anymore.
This this this. Gamers in 2024 are crybabys man. Like this game has its problems but damn. They didn't butcher nocturne or thena. and both cards were very tippy top of their cost ranges. It's like people expect cards that are clearly tol good to be left alone so they can abuse it. If you pick up a card that is clearly a cut above the rest you shouldn't surprise Pikachu face when it gets adjusted. If you meta chase don't get made when the meta you were chasing ends.
i'm very happy a goldfish can type this well nowadays...
i'm assuming you are a goldfish cause of your short term memory, because you must not by cherry picking your argument with 2 """"nerfed"""" cards, when just last week or so they literally removed from the game one whole archetype, the loki one, killing the deck and leaving a bunch of cards that came with it in the garbage can
Bobby Orr was a GOD in the 70's here in New England.
I just got nocturne the week marvel boy came out, however fortunately I didn’t use tokens and got her from the mystery slot with a key. I really feel for anyone that just used tokens. It just has to feel bad.
Nerf to cannonball was extreme soon after release
Just an idea. Early access for a number of players to give time to test the cards for a while before global release.
Thanks for talking about the nerfs. Seems like every viable card is a Nerf candidate at some point in the future no matter the niche: Cannonball, WW, Thena and now Nocturne has hit me on 2 of the four i used Tokens on recently. It's been brutal trying to maximize my token spending and getting later gut-punched.
I would love a shang-bait activate card. something like a 4/10 where you activate to drop it to a 4/8. Nothing gets me stoked quite like dodging a shang-chi.
I have friends who want to get new cards and we genuinely have to wait until the next OTA before i can safely tell them who to pick up. its ridiculous
The rewards are awful. There is no real drive for me to want to play. Just grinding to get a new card isn’t enough motivation. Just look at the rewards on deapools diner. That was a grind but it was fun due to the different types of rewards. I’m sick of pixels, avatars and god damn golden tickets. Give us something worth while
That's weird that Wiccan is performing so low. It has been performing really well for me with this list:
Sunspot, Quicksilver, Psylocke, Kate Bishop, Zabu, Magik, Wiccan, Zola, Odin, Alioth, She-hulk, Infinaut.
It's more of a ladder deck and not for conquest due to not running any tech cards. Also you can snap anytime u are going to drop Wiccan turn 3 and you kind of know if you should stay or leave on a non Wiccan draw.
... hawkeye...
@@mobawhattheheck5535 Good catch I meant to put Kate Bishop and was writing it quickly. I keep calling her Hawkeye cause of it being in bold letters on the card but thanks for catching that. I've done it many times since she's been released lol >.
Mailbag: Regarding Activate cards. Do you think they will print cards like Wong and Cosmo for Activate cards or do you think they will change them to affect both On Reveal and Activate? I was thinking it would be at least a good buff for Cosmo since he sees virtually no play anymore.
Yea I bought Nocturne the day before she got nerfed. Feels so bad.
I wonder if the solution of making the cards available for two or even three weeks instead of one (i.e. still release a card each week, but make the spotlight caches fall into two/three sections... one for the new stuff, and one that was released a week ago) has ever been considered. You would give the balance team more time to work out a necessary OTA and you would give the player base more time to assess if they should use their tokens/keys for a card. Of course, that greatly impacts the monetization of FOMO...
SD is never going to take a conservative approach for release bc then they wouldn't get the sales; Glenn essentially confirmed this on discord (not the sales part, but that they want every release to be impactful upon entering the game with the intent to nerf them later if needed).
As much as I love the developers and team, at the end of the day SD is about sales first and foremost.
I’ve been testing a zoo destroy deck with marvel boy kazar then surprise killmonger turn 5 and turn 6 knull plus maybe death!