PATCH HIGHLIGHT
New Game Mode: Conquest
With this patch, we are excited to release a new game mode: Conquest. Found in the “Game Modes” section of the bottom Navigation Bar, players can enter Conquests of varying difficulty, earn Medals by playing games, and get exclusive rewards in the Medal Shop.
Conquest is unlocked after completing the Recruit Season Pass.
Check out the Conquest blog post for more information!
GENERAL UPDATES
New to the Token Shop - Mystery Series 3!
Open Mystery Series 3 cards for 1,000 Tokens to gain an unowned Series 3 card for your collection
Weekend Missions
Weekend Missions offer more goals and rewards for players, beyond their current Daily Missions and Weekly Missions. With the initial release of this feature, each weekend will have three Weekend Missions:
Win Games to Earn Credits
Win Games with Season Pass Card to Earn Gold
Win Games with Newly Released Card to Earn Tokens
Each of these reward amounts will vary depending on the difficulty of the mission. There will be Weekly Missions available for each new card release. Weekly Missions for a Newly Released Card are a great way to earn back Tokens with your new cards – essentially reducing the overall Token cost!
Series Drop Updates: Some cards have dropped to a lower series.
Cards dropping from Series 5 to Series 4:
Snowguard
Stegron
Cards dropping from Series 4 to Series 3:
Shanna
BALANCE UPDATES
We’ve got one major change this week, and two smaller adjustments we anticipate will make some of our lesser-played cards a lot more fun. We know this patch is coming a couple weeks after High Evolutionary’s release, but bear in mind we implemented these changes well in advance of his release, so we’ll be using OTAs and our next patch to address changes that may be related to that card’s impact on the metagame.
CARD UPDATES
Galactus:
[Old] 6/2 - On Reveal: If this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.
[New] 6/7 - On Reveal: If you’re winning this location and this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.
Galactus is a card we’ve kept a close eye on since release. His ability warps the game, changing the goal for both players from claiming two locations to waging war around cards that “counter” him/his finishers and priority. We don’t mind mixing things up a bit from time to time in that regard, but Galactus’s play rate was moving past the thresholds we set to determine both competitive diversity and also how frequently the game gets reduced to that state. Because Galactus is inherently counterable, we waited to see if the metagame could sort itself out, but it hasn’t. Galactus’s popularity has increased, his winrate has only grown, and many players don’t even enjoy beating him–these are problems worth solving.
The original design for Galactus is difficult to rebalance, because it has essentially one value we can adjust: Power. However, lower Power can mean that Galactus always loses priority, making post-Galactus counters like Shang-Chi or Enchantress difficult to play. Meanwhile, increases may let you beat these cards more naturally, especially Professor X. Either way, it’s still all about the counters. We considered making him the first true 7-Cost card, but that was just less fun and weaker with the same issues. We also considered full redesigns for Galactus but didn’t find anything that cleared our bar, which is very high.
Ultimately, we decided to make Power a functional way for us to tune Galactus, which led us to this additional “winning” restriction. Caring about winning this way lets players contest Galactus within the core fun of SNAP–using Power to challenge for locations. Relying exclusively on counters is frustrating because neither player has much control over their appearance, but every deck should have the ability to muster 7 Power. We expect he’ll be stronger in decks that play him on turn 6 after Hobgoblin or Nimrod, but worse in the stronger, more popular Galactus archetypes. If this change proves too much or too little, it’s also given us the ability to tune him further via OTA and find the healthiest spot.
Maria Hill:
[Old] 2/3 - On Reveal: Add a random 1-Cost card to your hand.
[New] 2/3 - On Reveal: Add a random 1 or 2-Cost card to your hand.
We’re giving Maria Hill the ability to roll a 2-Cost card primarily to make her a better thematic parallel to Agent Coulson. We expect this to be a slight buff as you’ll occasionally get a better card from her, and half the time your Quinjet will provide a discount in those scenarios too. Not a huge mover, but a more enjoyable card.
Dazzler:
[Old] 4/4 - Ongoing: If you have 4 cards at each location, +6 Power.
[New] 3/2 - Ongoing: +2 Power for each location that’s full on your side.
Dazzler’s old ability didn’t give enough of a boost to reflect the level of investment that filling your board demands, and never really found a home competing against many of our strongest 4-Cost cards. We decided to give her more incremental boosts as you fill locations, which also lets her benefit from Space Throne, and shifted her rate to 3-Cost. In addition to changing up the competition, she may have a home alongside Brood with Silver Surfer, in Patriot with Ultron, or other shells.
I like the new galactus update; reconfigured to a shiri-nimrod-destroy with a turn 6 galactus or destroyer for a more fun game.
I am curious to see how the Galactus change plays out. In my mind and against the decks I’ve played against it, it’s going to be a pretty decent buff the sooner they can get him out. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out!
Excited to try conquest mode too and give that a shot.
I don’t think it’s a buff really. Not only does he have to be the only card in his location, but he has to be winning as well. That makes it much easier to play around when you see Wolverine on turn 2.