The season of Marvel Snap has come to its end in a state much less hopeful than in which it began, but does Scarlet Spider have the sauce to spice up the meta right now? With a whole month’s worth of evaluation, how did the Symbiote Spider-Man ultimately land in the ranks of card value this season? Read on and find out in The Snap Back!
Scarlet Spider is a Snoozer
For all it seems to promise, the Scarlet Spider is the one card this season that I really could not get off the ground. A smaller Dr. Doom you could pre-play on turn 4
sounded incredible, and the hand-buff style deck I slotted him into had him constantly clashing with Gwenpool for play priority. He did manage to get into some locations I otherwise couldn’t have on occasion, and getting at least one Gwenpool buff on Scarlet Spidey before playing him does lead to some surprise point swings.
There are some things to like about this card, especially if you manage to buff it before activation. Turn 4 activate cards continue to feel clunky in their execution, however, an issue which plagues the Scarlet Spider above perhaps all else.
Snap Back Verdict: Easy skip!
A Final Verdict on Symbiote Spider-Man
Fewer than twenty four hours remain in the Amazing Spider-Season of Marvel Snap, so for all you last-minute buyers out there, is Symbiote Spider-Man worth purchasing a season pass for? The answer is, of course, complicated.
On one hand, SSM is a card that has really struggled to find a home outside of Phoenix Force decks and Wong-style On-Reveal doubling shenanigans. Neither of these deck types has proven to be a power player in the higher ranks nor the post-Infinite echelons. Its rule to merge with the lowest-cost card makes it particularly vulnerable to card clog in a metagame where clog-based deck lists are very common.
On the other hand, Symbiote Spider-Man was just buffed to 7 power as of the latest OTA, getting another point of power alongside a card that SSM just so happens to have been finding some newfound success with: Galactus. SSM gives you a secretly super-sized World Eater, by activating the Symbiote after playing Galactus on the final turn. Now, with Galactus at 6 and SSM at 7, a player will have to beat 13 points in that lane or else suffer the wrath of Symbiote Spider-Galactus as he destroys all lanes but his own to ensure his player the victory. It’s clever, but ends up being just another gimmick in a deck that’s nothing but gimmicks already.
Ultimately, the Season Pass is always worth the financial investment. You receive over $120 USD in resources for the $9.99 USD that you spend, provided you’ve put the time in to play throughout the season. If you are just joining or re-joining the game at the end of the season, though, and basing your decision fully on the card itself? You would likely be better off saving the cash.
Snap Back Final Verdict: (On Card Value Alone) Mild Recommendation for Galactus or Phoenix Force Players, Easy Skip otherwise!
Looking Back (But Always Ahead)
With the We Are Venom season on the near horizon, we are looking at a rather dry spell moving forward in terms of additional game updates from developers Second Dinner. The next OTA update will not come until October 10, well into the season’s start. The latest OTA’s changes to Hela, granting an extra personal point of power but removing -3 (down from -2) from every resurrected card, mostly just cemented Luke Cage as an irreplaceable card in the deck list but also seems to have noticeably lowered the play rate of the deck regardless.
It’s hard to say that the game is in a better state now than it was when the season was first beginning. The card releases themselves, however, have generally been welcome additions to the Marvel Snap library. While the Spider-Men have languished somewhat, neither Symbiote Spider-Man nor Scarlet Spider are unplayable by any means. Silver Sable and Araña, meanwhile, have both proven to be useful in a wide variety of situations and deck lists, and Madame Web in particular may have unlocked the hidden potential of Move-based deck lists to consistently be top-tier competitors.
Next week, though, our two card releases in Agent Venom and Scream will have to bear the burden of shaping the metagame against Hela, but will they be able to succeed? See my predictions in tomorrow’s Snap Sense and, as always, my thoughts next week on The Snap Back!
