We’re heading into the final battles of the War of the Nine Realms in Marvel SNAP, with only week left to go in the season! Second Dinner is really pulling out the big guns to close out this war, too, with the return of Deadpool’s Diner, breaking news about card series drops, and not to mention the potential biggest 6-Cost card the game has ever seen. How will all this shake up the metagame? And how did the last new card release fare in the upper echelons of competition? Find out all this and more in today’s edition of the Snap Back!
Fenris Wolf is More Bark Than Bite
Fenris Wolf was one of the more hyped-up cards this season. I rated it fairly highly myself in my own predictions, and I stand by my statement that it provides one of the more unique abilities that Marvel SNAP has seen in quite some time. Usually, when a card releases with a unique ability, it’s often a card that becomes all the better when built around specifically.
Fenris Wolf, though, doesn’t really work like that. The early attempts at full-on mill decks started off strong but, as mill always does in Marvel SNAP, quickly fell off after only a few days. So far, it seems like players get the most out of Fenris Wolf by pairing it with only one or two enablers, slotting them as a “package” into other deck strategies to augment them.
On one hand, this has been a wild success. Some decks, like the Moon Knight/Black Bolt/Stature deck lists, have found major increases to their win rates after adding Fenris Wolf. Basically any deck that was already running Moon Knight, Shang-Chi or Gladiator has benefited to some degree by adding Fenris Wolf. Similarly to Malekith, Fenris Wolf’s ability to put another card into play for free means it’s basically always punching above its weight class in power as a 2-Cost card.
On the other, apart from the Moon Knight decks, and primarily only the Black Bolt/Stature version, Fenris Wolf hasn’t provided a noticeable increase to many decks’ stats, especially not when competing with other recent releases like Maliketh or Anti-Venom, who also add more cards to the board for free in different capacities. I tried Fenris Wolf in a variety of decks, and it never felt like a bad idea, but it also rarely felt like it was actively tipping the scales of victory in my direction.
That being said, it is still an interesting and unique design, which means it can always pop up again as a major player as soon as the right new card comes out, or even as players become more accustomed to how it works. Cards like this remind me of Grandmaster, another unorthodox 2/3 that was largely panned on its release, but has since been creeping into a number of deck lists that want to double up on their on-reveal effects. Collectors and long-term thinkers may want to get it while the getting is good, but people looking to climb can play any number of other cards, instead.
Snap Back Verdict: Mild Recommendation for Collection-Complete status chasers, Easy Skip for everyone else!
Deadpool’s Diner Arrives, Series Drops Announced
Last Thursday marked the return of Marvel SNAP’s first limited-time mode, Deadpool’s Diner. Unfortunately, almost nothing was changed from the original run, other than the adjustments to early tables that make it easier to pick up and play. The only thing I’ve noticed that was added is a number of new voice lines from Deadpool that pipe up a bit too many times for my liking. Otherwise, it’s the same high-stakes mode from this summer, with some slight variance in rewards.
The most notable change is the value of the new card being given away for reaching the 15 million Bubs milestone. King Eitri is a Series 4 card compared to Cassandra Nova’s Series 5, and even if he was on-level with Cassandra’s rarity, early reports have shown the Dwarven King to be somewhat underwhelming. Comparing that to the absolute necessity Cassandra Nova became in the battle against Arishem’s stranglehold on the game, and you end up with a mode that has far less urgency to it than before. Since he’s free to earn, I won’t do a Snap Back Verdict on Eitri, you should just put in the time to get him if you can. That said, he doesn’t seem like a card you’re going to need, and if you want him you can always spend the tokens later.
Speaking of Series 4 and 5 cards, in a rare Snap Back Breaking News story, Second Dinner released information just today on the long-awaited December series drops! For those unaware, part of the Marvel SNAP card release cadence used to be that, after a set period of time, most cards, which would release at the very rare and expensive Series 5 tier, would be downgraded to Series 4, becoming less rare and expensive, and Series 4 cards would become Series 3 cards, entering the fully free-to-play pool and becoming much more available for the majority of players. With the advent of the Spotlight Cache system, though, these Series Drop events became much more irregular and completely detached from a card’s overall age.
This Series Drop event will arrive with the December 10th patch, and with it, three cards are being moved to Series 3 and 9 cards are dropping to Series 4. The Series 3 entries are Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, and Snowguard, while Series 4 will soon welcome Beta Ray Bill, Grandmaster, Iron Lad, Phastos, Pixie, Sasquatch, Supergiant, Valentina, and X-23!
Looking Ahead
Sometimes, it’s hard to say for certain what the future of Marvel SNAP looks like. There have been times when things looked absolutely dire and times when it felt like SNAP was doing more than any other digital TCG on the market, but at this particular point in Marvel SNAP‘s lifetime, things appear to be at something of a critical juncture.
Deadpool’s Diner is, at best, a contentious topic in the Marvel SNAP community, and its return was met with at least a noticeable amount of grumbling. These Series Drops are, admittedly, rather anemic as well, with almost every card in the list being ones that are universally considered to either be not meta-relevant, or simply not good at all. These sorts of things begin to stack up over time, leaving the game’s community to fear that Second Dinner isn’t taking their concerns about long-term interest and the game’s card acquisition economy seriously enough. When you add the release of Pokemon Pocket, a brand new TCG with huge brand recognition, into the mix, you not only have a sea of players experiencing discontent, but another, brand new and shiny game to go try out instead.
I’m no game developer, just a guy who posts his opinions on the internet like anyone else. But to my mind, I think Second Dinner, overall, tends to keep a solid focus on their community, regardless of how that community may feel at times. The Series Drop announcement did state that they were aware that these drops would not solve the economy issues that players are concerned with on their own. It’s good to acknowledge these things, but one can only simply acknowledge without meaningfully addressing for so long. I think that it is fair to want to see something more sweeping done to address card acquisition, especially when the top meta decks continue to be fully packed with brand new Series 5 cards week after week.
Speaking of brand new Series 5 cards, we have Gorr, the God Butcher coming soon to round out the releases for the War of the Nine Realms season. Do you think he will become the massively-powered menace that he appears to be on track for? How do you feel about these Series Drops? What more should Second Dinner be doing to ensure the greatest experience possible for their players? To find out how all these things shake out and more, be sure to come back for next week’s edition of the Snap Back!
