Marvel Snap is slowly leveling itself up

Marvel Snap has had an uneven year. It started strong with a season focused on dragons and a second volume of Guardians of the Galaxy cards. Second Dinner introduced cards that overwhelmed players with power and needed tweaking.

During the next two months, March and April, a new questlike mechanic called Objectives was introduced. The cards weren’t overly impressive, and the new keyword was bland because of its ho-hum effects and how it worked. They were also thematically too close to each other. It was two months of offerings that mostly felt skippable, well, except for Isca the Unbeaten and Techno-Organic Virus.

Since then, Marvel Snap has found its groove, introducing compelling cards that augmented some archetypes, while adding new ones. Along the way, Second Dinner has also found a good rhythm with limited-time game modes and compelling rewards such as Ozymandias and Mother Askani.

After the stumble, the team also added a slew of improvements that have made the overall game better. Here are three new features that have made the game better, and three that need a major overhaul:

Three features that made the game better

Wild Boosters — One of the key parts of Marvel Snap is upgrading cards. It’s how players improve their looks for bragging rights, while also raising Collection Levels in order to get Collector’s Reserve boxes, credits, boosters and the all-important Collector’s Tokens.

The problem with this system is that sometimes players had a card they liked or one they were trying to upgrade, but they didn’t have the booster for it. They lacked the required number of them to raise a card to a new level. Second Dinner fixed this by giving players Wild Boosters, which they can use on any card. It’s a godsend for players who are close to a card upgrade or want to try for a special Finish or Flare to make their card look extra impressive.

Split Rerolls — Another quality-of-life improvement comes when a card reaches Infinity level. That’s when players are granted a new Finish and Flare. In the past, if players had a bad result, they were stuck with it. Now, Second Dinner gives players a chance at one free reroll of either Finish or Flare.

To gain this option, a character must hit level 10, meaning that it’s been upgraded enough or players have acquired enough variants of it to raise it to that level. Once the option becomes available, each time an individual card of that character reaches Infinity level, players have a chance to switch up the Flare and Finish if they don’t like it. It’s another chance to get a coveted Ink finish or Krackle.

One of the new features Second Dinner recently added to Marvel Snap is the ability to get one free reroll of Finish or Flare for an individual card once it reaches Infinity level. But in order to enable that option, a character must reach level 10. For example, assuming the middle card above has reached Infinity level, to have the option to reroll a player has to make sure Captain Marvel as a character has first reached level 10. (Marvel)

Hyper Cube Rush — A running joke around Marvel Snap has been the concept of “Dadfinite.” Busy adults don’t have the time to grind to Infinite rank, so for them, reaching rank 90 is the best they can do. Second Dinner saw that barrier and offered a path to the game’s highest ranks through this recently introduced feature.

It gives bonus cubes several times a season, boosting players’ progress toward their Infinite goal. It makes the highest ranks attainable for players who are skillful but don’t have enough time to deal with the matches needed to hit the top tier.

Three features that need work

Series drop — It’s been more than a year since Second Dinner lowered the tiers for cards. For veterans whose collection is near complete, that doesn’t mean much, but for newcomers entering the game, it has been a burden.

Older cards such as Jeff the Baby Land Shark are still at the most expensive Series 5 status. Making key cards such as Cosmic Ghost Rider, Red Guardian, Khonshu and Sam Wilson Captain America more accessible is long overdue.

Alliance — Adding a group component to Marvel Snap was a smart move, but Second Dinner hasn’t updated it in a while. The feature is a way to encourage players to try new decks and go out of their comfort zone with Bounties. Unfortunately, the End of Week Rewards haven’t been great since Premium Mystery Packs were removed.

The bigger issue is that the Bounties haven’t been updated in what seems like ages, and they don’t account for other archetypes. They mainly focus on Discard, Destroy and Move decks when the game has grown beyond that to include Objectives, Affliction and Empower. It would be great to see Bounties featuring these cards with these abilities.

Limited-time Game Modes and Conquest — Although these offerings add a spiciness over a weekend, they’re not perfect. Modes such as the recent Grand Arena Showdown felt imbalanced. Other efforts were novel at first, but after running through them a few times, they feel rote. Second Dinner needs to bring back older ones such as Deadpool’s Diner or at least add another one.

That same issue bleeds into Conquest, which feels like it has been on autopilot for years. With so many alternatives, it seems to be the forgotten middle child. What it needs is better incentives and an easier path to complete the Infinity Conquest level. With Wild Boosters and other rewards, it could be a better experience.

Online: marvelsnap.com