The latest Marvel Snap “over the air” or OTA balance update hit live servers today, Aug. 17. In this update, some of the less popular cards have been buffed for a possible usage boost in the current meta—namely Crystal, Shanna, and Forge.
Both Crystal and Shanna’s stats have been reworked, with the former now being a three-cost, three-Power card from four cost, four Power. Shanna, on the other hand, is now a three-cost, two-Power card from a four-cost, four-Power card as well. Both cards retained their latest effects and can now be considered as additional support for the Sera Surfer deck, which mainly revolves around using multiple three-cost cards to be boosted by Silver Surfer in the final turn.
“Crystal has consistently been one of our weakest cards since day one,” developer Second Dinner said. “We’re very cautious about pushing Crystal’s Power as SNAP’s small deck sizes make each card draw matter a lot more. However, we want to give every card a chance to at least see some play, so we’re giving Crystal a push with a Cost reduction to three. This should allow her to at least be a consideration in Surfer, and maybe even help a Ronan deck out.”
As for Shanna, Second Dinner said her power buff months ago “hasn’t really found success,” so making her a three-cost could pave the way for “more deckbuilding flexibility, and make her a more viable turn six play to add Power to each location.”
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The other card that received a buff is Forge, who is seeing more play in the meta after the release of Lady Deathstrike. Forge will now give plus three-Power instead of two to the next card his user will play, possibly making Lady Deathstrike’s Power to six instead of five which can make her a more dangerous threat.
“Many cards make great use of Forge’s effect, but he’s not quite powerful enough to be competitive at the moment,” Second Dinner said. “Given how many potential combos he has, we’re hopeful that a buff to Forge will have a really positive effect on meta diversity by enabling many new deck variations to be viable.”
Marvel Snap‘s season this August, Big in Japan, already introduced two new cards which are based on Wolverine’s story arc set in Japan. The first one is Daken, who is the latest season pass card, followed by Lady Deathstrike who was released just this Monday, Aug. 14.
You can visit the game’s official Discord channel to know more about the latest Marvel Snap OTA balance update.