A couple of magical matrons really stood out in Marvel Snap’s second week of The Amazing Spider-Season, but just how brightly did Madame Web shine? Did she live up to the hype or was she another victim of an over-excited player base? All this and more on this week’s Snap Back!
Madame Web: Masterful or Mediocre?
It’s no secret that this spidery seer’s release was foretold to bring great change to the metagame, and the hype was definitely represented in-game as much as it was in outside discussion. Within minutes of the card being available last Tuesday, I went up against no fewer than four Madame Web decks in a row. The card has certainly made a splash into the game, but how does she stack up now that she’s been out for a week?
The short answer is that, yes, Madame Web is definitely a very good card. A lot of early attempts at deck-building around her, though, involved going all-in on the movement aspect of the card, using things like Mystique to copy Madame Web’s ability and Hercules (finally seeing some regular play in any real capacity since his release) to ping-pong move cards around the board to boost their power towards outrageously high numbers. Then, cards like Living Tribunal can spread that power into all three lanes, or Taskmaster will copy the buffed card’s power into a second lane as well. These builds largely fell flat, however, being too reliant on getting that final card play just right in order to win. Some considered that Madame Web may, in fact, not be the metagame shaker that she was purported to become.
Once players started experimenting with more trimmed-down “move packages,” however, the card really began to stand out. The number 1 ranked player (as of yesterday at least) is dominating the post-Infinite ladder with a deck that combines a move-based package of Madame Web, Dagger and Vulture along with the scaling threats of Angela, Kitty Pryde, and Elsa Bloodstone to form a particularly potent combination. Every card played in Angela’s lane increases her power by one point, and Madame Web’s placement in this lane ensures that the lane can always be free to add another card each turn.
She also enables clever card combinations that force your opponent into guessing games. I was matched against an opponent that first played Madame Web, and then Cosmo, a card that blocks On Reveal abilities, into the same lane. When the turn takes places, cards are always moved before any new cards are revealed, which meant that player was potentially threatening all three lanes with the Cosmo instead of just one, and in fact did manage to predict my play and stymie my efforts not once, but twice. Totally not bitter about that, by the way.
Ultimately, Madame Web seems like a card that can really bring a lot of options to a deck. She might not have shaken up the metagame with quite as much of an impact as was expected, but her ability to do things no other card can certainly ranks her in the higher tier of new releases this month.
Snap Back Verdict: Strong Recommendation!
Thursday’s OTA Was the Real Game Changer
It’s not so much that Madame Web under-performed in her release week as the over-the-air update, released on Thursday, September 12th, came with some massive updates to cards that quickly took the player base by storm (literally).
First off, War Machine, whose On Reveal ability allowed you to play cards without restrict on the next turn, was changed to an Ongoing card instead. Once War Machine is in play, his player now has multiple turns to play into unplayable locations, or play cards that normally cannot be played. This has resulted in the resurgence in popularity of decks that feature a combination of War Machine, Storm, and Legion. Storm is the premiere “lockdown” card in Marvel Snap, changing the location she’s played at to “Flooding” and allowing only one more turn of card plays there before it becomes the unplayable “Flooded” location. Legion’s On Reveal ability changes every location to the one he was just played at. Playing Storm into War Machine into Legion on turns three, four and five, respectively, results in a board state on turn 6 full of “Flooded” locations that cannot be played into without War Machine. Most of the time, this results in a no-win scenario for your opponent.
Even more surprising, though, was the update to a card that, until now, has largely been considered nothing but a joke card. In accordance with the release of the new series Agatha All Along (whose first two episodes can be seen September 18th on Disney+), Second Dinner has changed the titular Agatha Harkness from a card that famously would play all of the cards for you, and usually quite poorly, into a card that now merely co-pilots your deck, taking control to play on even-numbered turns only.
This allows players to now build their deck around this concept for some surprising results. A couple notes to start: Agatha always starts in your hand as a bonus card, meaning you start with one more card than your opponent and will usually get to see one more card in your deck. Agatha will no longer play your cards if she is discarded, and will also seek to play herself out as soon as she is able.
By filling your deck with mostly odd-numbered cards and including the three-card package of Lady Sif, Moon Knight, and Wave, you almost guarantee that you will be able to be rid of Agatha’s influence by turn four at the latest. Lady Sif always discards the highest-cost card in your hand, Moon Knight discards an even-numbered card from both player’s hands, and Wave reduces any card’s energy cost to 4 if it is higher. As a 6-cost card, Agatha will always be the highest-cost card in your hand and often the only even-numbered one. If not, Wave will ensure that when she takes the pilot’s seat again on turn four, she will play herself out. Combine this with cards like Black Knight, who creates a new 4-cost card with power equal to the first card discarded after he is played, and Ghost Rider, who returns a discarded card from the graveyard to his location, and you have access to one or even two powerful 14 cost cards with far fewer downsides than before.
This deck, or variations of it, has been absolutely blowing up in popularity since Thursday, seeing action at all ranks of play from lower tiers even up to highly ranked post-Infinite players.
Looking Ahead
The next new release, Araña, seems like a card who’s usefulness will depend a lot on if you decide to get Madame Web this week or not. As always, bear in mind the rest of the available cards in the Spotlight Cache and use those to make your decision. For example, as someone who’s lacking Sage, a card that still often sees play, I am much more inclined to use my Spotlight Keys this week so that I can get two new cards instead of one.
As a final note, with so many strong cards releasing lately, I think it’s worth it to take a moment to talk about FOMO and the Marvel Snap card acquisition system. Put simply – the game is designed so that you are incentivized to spend money on it. That’s why it’s free to play, after all. A player cannot maintain a complete card collection without spending money to achieve it, full stop. So if you aren’t spending money and feel like the game is getting away from you as a result, you’re not alone. The vast majority of players are free-to-play and most of them manage just fine! You’ll always be able to get at least one or two new cards each month if you’re smart and save your resources, and there will always be decks, like Silver Surfer, that only need one or two Series 4 or 5 cards to really help launch you into Infinite rank. Consider the kinds of decks that resonate with you and focus your resources into amplifying those decks first, and you’ll be well on your way to the upper echelons of the ranked ladder.
There are no major balance updates this week, just a standard patch which often focuses on under-the-hood updates instead. Expect the game’s meta to settle in once proper answers to Madame Web and Agatha decks start to crop up, and be sure to come back here next week to get your edge on the weeks to come!
