Picking up a new card game can be challenging, especially if players feel like they've already fallen behind their competition. Marvel Snap hasn't even been out a month, yet there is already a dedicated player base that's figured out some great deck-building and strategy tricks for getting ahead.
If new players want to stand their ground in Marvel Snap, they'll need to learn some of the tricks necessary for success. Luckily, it isn't too late to catch up to the competition, and with these handy tips, players should be able to enjoy the game and win more matches.
10 Pay Attention To Cards That Move
One easy mistake new players can make is thinking cards are stagnant once they hit the board. It's important for players to pay attention to their opponent's cards and realize which might suddenly jump to a new location and put them behind.
When playing cards that can move, like Nightcrawler, players should look for ways to benefit from the various locations on the board. If, for example, there is a location where cards can't be played, Nightcrawler can still be moved there later. It will be hard for opponents to catch up unless they also have a way to move cards onto that space.
9 Know Which Player Will Be Revealing First
Like most card games, making sure events happen in the right sequence is important in Marvel Snap. It's important for players to know if they or their opponent will reveal cards first on a given turn. It can be easy to miss, but the player who is revealing first will have their nameplate outlined with an orange light.
Keeping track of this can be handy because it will prevent players from misplaying their card effects. For example, Elektra needs a target to activate her destroy ability as soon as she's revealed. If the opposing player reveals their card after Elektra has already flipped, she won't be able to destroy it, even if it was a valid target. Getting this timing down correctly can make a big difference in a game.
8 Complete Daily Missions To Earn Credits
The main way to progress and earn new cards in Marvel Snap is for players to upgrade the card they already have. In order to upgrade cards, they will need boosters for a specific hero and generic credits to spend on the upgrade.
While hero boosters are earned at the end of each round, credits are a different story. Completing daily missions will give players the credits they need to upgrade their cards and expand their collections. Players should make a habit of checking what challenges are available each day and ensuring their decks are built to complete them.
7 Predicting Opponent's Moves Is Essential
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=750&dpr=1.5)
It's not enough for players to just focus on what they are doing. Many cards in Marvel Snap care about where opponents place cards and when. Learning to predict the signs of where an opponent might place their card can be essential for making the right moves.
Some early cards players look out for are Hawkeye and Ant-Man. Hawkeye receives a buff if a card is played on his location the turn after he is. This gives players a good indication that their opponent plans to place another card there. Ant-Man, on the other hand, gets a buff when his location is filled, signaling to opponents a possible intention to pursue a certain location. Learning signs like this will help players better predict their opponent's strategy and counter it with their own.
6 Don't Over-Commit To One Location
When it comes to capturing locations in Marvel Snap, players must be careful about how they allocate their resources. It doesn't matter how much power they have in a given location, if they aren't winning two of the three, then they usually aren't going to win.
Players who are starting out can have a tendency to over-commit to a single location before looking at the other two. It's important for players to be aware of what's happening at all three locations throughout the game, and to spread their cards out strategically instead of pursuing them one at a time.
5 Don't Stack Decks With Too Many Powerful Cards
As new players fill their collections with new cards, there will be a temptation to throw all their most powerful cards into a single deck. This is a bad idea since Marvel Snap limits the number of powerful cards that can be played in a given game.
Cards cost energy, and in each turn, a player will only gain one more energy than they had the turn before. Without a seventh round, the game caps at six energy on the final turn. Since players will likely only get to play one six-cost card in a game, they should avoid putting too many in their decks. Instead, they should correctly proportion the number of a given cost with the likelihood they'll be able to play it when drawn.
4 Keep Open Spots On Locations If Possible
Unless a specific location rewards doing so, players should avoid filling up any single location too early in the game. Players will often need the flexibility to switch which location they hope to capture, and if there are no open spots, then they're out of luck.
Additionally, filling locations up early means they're being filled with low-cost cards. Opponents can easily drop a single higher-cost card at the location and capture it with that one play. There are also certain location effects that will randomly fill spots on the board, so it might be wise to avoid filling locations that aren't revealed just yet.
3 Wait To Earn Upgrades
Because upgrading cards is the best way to earn new ones in Marvel Snap, players may be tempted to speed up that process. In the store section of the game, there is an option to pay extra credits and upgrade cards earlier than normal. Doing this may actually hinder a player's progress more than speeding it up.
By spending extra credits to upgrade a card without earning boosters, players will lose more credits, which is the harder-to-earn currency. Players should be patient and upgrade their cards as they earn boosters. This way, their progress won't be slowed by lack of credits, and they won't be tempted to pay real money to speed it back up.
2 Look At Cards Together, Not Individually
Cards in Marvel Snap, like any collectible card game, don't exist in a vacuum. When determining the relative strength of a given card, it should be compared to the rest of the cards in a player's collection, as opposed to being looked at individually.
Some great cards will appear downright bad at first glance, but their true worth will only be revealed when looking at how they interact with other cards. On a somewhat related note, comic book fans shouldn't get hung up on canonicity. Reed Richards and Dr. Doom work pretty well together in Marvel Snap and fans will have to learn to deal with it.
1 Play Decks A Few Times Before Editing Again
One bad habit new Marvel Snap players can fall into is constantly editing their decks. There is a lot of variance in a given game of Snap, between randomly drawing cards, unknown opponents, and three randomized locations. Just because a deck doesn't win its first couple of games, doesn't mean it isn't put together well.
A lot of Magic: The Gathering players recommend playing a deck over 20 times before deciding to change it. Luckily, Marvel Snap games go by quickly, so it won't take players long to test a deck before making more edits.