Might as well start this little mood ticket with a confession; I’m what you might call a “homebody” when it comes to video games. When I really like a game, it’s very difficult for me to turn away from it, and I continue to play it very regularly even when its hype has faded a bit. So when I was offered to cover Marvel Snap, a mobile game primarily aimed at puzzle and TCG lovers, I chuckled. How could this game even thrill Hearthstone, comfortably installed in the TCG universe for more than 7 years?
It was without counting the genius of Ben Brode and his colleagues. Marvel Snap snapped me up. And not just a little.
They are beautiful, my heroes
We can think that the game is above all a fan service intended for aficionados of the MCU. Inevitably, when you lean on such a franchise to make a TCG, this is often the goal.
As far as I’m concerned, my crush on Marvel Snap is all the more impressive because I’m almost a critic of the studio. I will be very frank; I find Marvel movies to be far too expensive crap, with far too slick scenarios, and featuring even slicker heroes. But that is only my opinion. And I put it in writing just to make you understand that to drive me crazy about a Marvel-stamped game, you had to go there. And I feel a thousand times closer to the Warcraft universe, for example.
But the design of the Marvel Snap cards is so sublime, that I forget my aversion to this skewer of superheroes. Exit from the frame, 3D effect, retro look for the name of the hero… It is difficult to remain insensitive to the charms of Marvel Snap cards. So much so that I find myself scrolling through the cards in my collection, with a sustained gaze at my most elaborate cards, turning my phone to admire the details when they are foil. As for the aesthetics of the cards, there will be a before and an after Marvel Snap, and if like me you have a little collector’s fever, you will literally melt.
The perfect mobile format
The gameplay either didn’t strike me as transcendent at first. From the outside, the game board looked like a happy mess. But once the game in hand, my opinion on it changed completely. It’s a lot more cerebral than it sounds, there’s always a wide range of possible outplays, and sprinkle all that with an ounce of double or nothing with the Snap mechanic… With a format very short (4 to 5 minutes at the most), it is very difficult not to press the “PLAY” button over and over.
In my opinion, Second Dinner is not very far from the perfect alchemy for a TCG optimized for mobile. The only gray area obviously remains the monetization of the game. Even if Marvel Snap seems to us to be eminently free to play for everything early game, there are two or three subtleties that mean that all of this can quickly go wrong (cards exclusive to the Battle Pass, predatory features in the store…).
Breath of fresh air
Marvel Snap actually seemed like a breath of fresh air to the world of TCGs. Do you think I’m exaggerating? Just look at the originality of the artwork, the game format (forget the 35-minute games where your opponent takes five shots to play each of his turns) or the creativity of the gameplay.
I see Marvel Snap as a real slap in the face to the immobility of the TCGs. Admittedly, I’m not going to abandon Hearthstone either, which is still more open in terms of deckbuilding, possibilities, spectacular plays… Blizzard’s TCG remains quite dynamic, with surprising expansions, and even funny, and a great use of RNG. I will definitely come back there.
But damn it; discovering Marvel Snap after Hearthstone is a bit like discovering coffee when you only knew hot milk.
Which hero cards are most impactful in Marvel Snap duels? Which archetype is currently above the others? Here you will find the best decks to play on this new TCG, depending on the cards you have obtained.