[Marvel Snap] 28/09 Balance Update: Devourer on a diet

Another OTA and probably one of the harshest, and most divisive ones so far. First of all, let’s see their excuses justifications:

Galactus

[Old] 6/7 – On Reveal: If you’re winning this location and this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.

[Change] 6/7 -> 6/5

We expected Alioth to find a fast home in Galactus decks, which wasn’t a problem in and of itself. Exciting new cards shouldn’t hit the cutting room floor because existing cards might like them too much, especially if that card is Galactus–the whole reason we reworked him was to give us a knob that could rein him in. Given his metrics spiked well outside our acceptable range for over a week, we’re taking a harder line with this change than usual based on the impact we need. We liked Galactus right where he was before Alioth, so that’s our target range for his performance.

Kitty Pryde

[Old] 1/2 – When this returns to your hand, +1 Power. Returns at the start of each turn.

[Change] 1/2 -> 1/0

Kitty has been places. She’s seen things. And it’s been a fun ride! Kitty was an integral player in the metagame’s best deck at least four different times, and each of those decks was meaningfully distinct from the rest. That’s a pretty rare feat, and speaks to her raw strength as a card that both eats excess Energy and has cool mini-combos, like Angela and Hulkbuster. However, as we continue to make similar synergies, we want other cards to get their opportunities to compete with Kitty. This change is a little preemptive, as we expect Kitty would be too strong in October without it, and we’ll likely continue to explore different executions of Kitty for a future patch.

Psylocke

[Old] 2/1 – On Reveal: Next turn, you get +1 Energy.

[Change] 2/1 -> 2/2

We’ve had this change internally for a while, but we wanted to wait and see how the dust settled on some of the live decks that play with Energy ramp and Cost reduction. We hope Psylocke can eventually join the Electro/Magik/Wave crowd as another common way to push for big plays. Ideally she maintains a distinct identity from those options as a 2-Cost card that offers different curves and deck design opportunities.

Squirrel Girl

[Old] 1/1 – On Reveal: Add a 1-Power Squirrel to each other location.

[Change] 1/1 -> 1/2

Like Mysterio and Shanna, Squirrel Girl’s total power has been on the low side for how much space she takes up among your locations. She’s largely been confined to supporting early Ka-Zar decks for new players and Death-based decks in competitive play. We’re glad to have her continue on in both of those roles, but she’s a fun and appealing enough card to give a little bit more Power to see if she can find more homes. She’s been acting pretty spooky since this change, though–you should be careful walking through Central Park next month.

Snowguard Hawk

[Old] 2/3 – On Reveal: Ignore all location abilities until the end of next turn (or the game).

[Change] 2/3 -> 3/3

Snowguard Bear

[Old] 2/3 – On Reveal: Trigger the effect of this location.

[Change] 2/3 -> 3/4

We’re happy that Snowguard’s rework brought her in from the cold. However, the bulk of her strength has proven to be in concert with Loki and The Collector, where the extra cards she generates are the primary reward and the auroras are secondary. We don’t mind that much–the auroras are situational themselves–but they don’t need to be so efficient in that case, either. The Bear is gaining more Power because his effect has proven by far the weaker of the two.

With that shared, I can’t help but feel that both this and the previous updates have been, at best, misguided. Even as a Galactus Hater™ I have to admit that he is not the issue of the matter here: Its the fact that Alioth is a “I win” card in any condition where its the only space it can be played. And just like the previous Collector nerf in regards to Loki, this seems like them trying to avoid altering a recent paid release rather than genuinely attempting a balance. Loki can still infinitely copy cards to a player’s hand and Alioth can still erase the opposite space, so these barely feel like a bandaid.

Meanwhile the Kitty Pride and Squirrel Girl changes feel a bit odd. I get the idea, but a ‘pre-patch’ to consider cards that haven’t even been released yet - and thus have no practical data on performance - is more than a little awkward.

Gotta say that the Psylocke change also is a little out of the left field, reminding me of when Nova out of all cards got a power buff. Sure, its nice to see, but I have never seen someone playing those cards for Power.

Still, this is definitely going to be a shaking up in the meta, even if not the one I desired. Thoughts?