Marvel Snap Balance Changes and Patch Notes (2/6)

Marvel Snap Patch Notes Review (February 6th Update)

In this article, I’ll be covering the latest balance updates in Marvel Snap. I’ll be going over the recent changes, and talk about how they affect the meta.

I won’t be covering any additional changes they add to the game, like Locations or Sound FX, as the main focus will be on the current balance updates.

Balance Updates Summary

• Omega Red
  • Quite a large buff to Omega Red. Likely will see some decks with him, but he’s still not better than Ms. Marvel who accomplishes the same thing.
• Beast
  • A bit of a sidegrade for Beast. Likely won’t affect Bounce too much.
• Helicarrier
  • Buffed, but not enough to change the meta.

Omega Red Buffed

• [Old] 4/5 – Ongoing: If you’re ahead by 10 Power here, +4 Power to other locations.
• [New] 4/5 – Ongoing: If you’re winning here, +3 Power to other locations.

First up, we have a major update and buff to Omega Red. Previously, you needed to be winning by 10 Power to gain his effect. This was quite difficult to achieve as Omega Red himself is below even a vanilla The Thing at 4/6.

With this update, you now only need to win the location Omega Red is in to gain +3 to other locations. If you can achieve this, you’ll be getting 11 Power for 4 Energy cost.

This is quite a major change, and it will be interesting to see if Omega Red can make his way into meta decks. Even with this change, Omega Red is still weaker than Ms. Marvel, who provides 14 Power with an easier condition to fulfill.

Overall, it’s a good change, but I’m not quite sure he’s good enough to become a top deck. Even still, his effect can be very powerful and will likely see some play as players experiment.

Beast Rework

• [Old] 3/4 – On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. Give them -1 Cost.
• [New] 2/2 – On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. They cost 1 less next turn.

Up next, we have an interesting change to Beast. Bounce has been a good deck for a while now, but nowhere near its peak in past metas. This change to Beast is somewhat of a side grade rather than a straight buff or nerf.

Instead of being able to save cards Bounced from Beast, the discount will only apply for the next turn. While this gives the card less flexibility, 2/2 is much easier to play than 3/4.

Overall, I don’t expect Bounce to change very much. You can likely run the same deck as before, you just need to adapt your plays to make up for the change.

Helicarrier Buffed

• [Old] 6/10 – When you discard this, add 3 random cards to your hand.
• [New] 6/10 – When you discard this, fill your hand with random cards.

Lastly, we have a small change to Helicarrier. Instead of adding only 3 cards Helicarrier will now fill your hand with cards. Helicarrier doesn’t really see play in decks, and I don’t expect this change to do much.

There is some potential for a deck that mixes things like Discard and Devil Dinosaur/Quinjet, but I don’t imagine that archetype will take off. There are already good cards that add cards to hand without needing to run random Discard effects.

Outside of this scenario, filling your hand can often be bad as you miss your draw on the next turn. With more Discard support coming this month in the Spotlight Cache, this change can become more impactful as time passes.

Summary

This wraps up the Patch Updates for February 6th, 2024. Omega Red is definitely the biggest winner of this small patch, but I doubt he will affect the meta in a major way. It’s possible that a deck with both Omega Red and Ms. Marvel can make it’s way to the top, but I find that unlikely.

Beast was changed, but not significantly, and Helicarrier was buffed a little as well.

Overall, the meta is still in a similar spot, as this Patch was definitely on the smaller side.

Be sure to check out our Tier Lists for our current rankings on Marvel Snap decks and cards.

• Best Decks Tier List
• Series 4/5 Tier List
• Spotlight Cache Review

Good luck in your games, and thanks for reading!