I’ve been hooked on card games since I was just a kid. When Yu-Gi-Oh!, the game based on the trendy anime in the early 2000s, became fashionable in the schoolyard, I was the typical one who was dedicated to tell all the possible strategies to my classmates. And, although most of us had “fake” cards (those were different times and we were kids), I tried to make sure that before playing we both had a good balance in our decks so that the game would be satisfactory.
This passion continued to grow in high school with Magic: The Gathering, but even more so through online card games. The main game I spent hours and hours playing was Urban Rivals, an online title (which is still around, although it has changed a lot since I played it) that was based on short, simple, quick games, based on throwing a character into combat with a wager, and trying to predict what your opponent would do before you saw it. The game was based on different factions, which allowed you to make all sorts of different teams.
Since I stopped playing Urban Rivals, I have rarely come across a title with these characteristics. Hearthstone, perhaps, was the one that most resembled it, but it still seemed more complex than I would have liked, and with a theme that sometimes became repetitive.
But it has been Marvel Snap, from the creators of Hearthstone, and everything has returned. The melancholy of a simple, effective and addictive game like Urban Rivals has hit me, and it has done so together with a surprisingly effective mechanic, an unbeatable theme like Marvel (and from which you can get an awesome flavor) and a huge range of possibilities to carry out all kinds of strategies.
It has become, practically, the ultimate Marvel game. Because, as much as Marvel’s Spider-Man is a great title, it’s only based on one specific character and doesn’t explore everything it has to offer. And, frankly, Marvel’s Avengers is not an example of anything… it’s closed for a reason.
How Marvel Snap works
Marvel Snap is a card game under the Marvel license that consists of quick six-turn games based on three different locations. At the end of the game, the player who has won the most locations (or has the most points in case of a tie) wins.
In each game, the winner wins cosmic cubes, with which he or she moves up in rank in the game and can use them to unlock new cards or get prizes to unlock new icons, titles or alternative forms of each card. Each deck consists of only twelve cards, and each card has a cost, a power number and an effect that relates to each character.
Undoubtedly, Marvel Snap’s gameplay is one of its strongest points. In the end, the games are very short (you don’t take more than ten minutes in each one) and frenetic, where the winner can change at any moment. Everything is usually decided at the end, since the points you can use are increasing and you can hold your strategy until the last turn.
In addition, the fact that the decks are so short means that you can count on many decks and try different strategies until you find your favorite. For example, at the beginning, the continuous effects deck worked very well for me (based on characters whose effect does not only appear when they are revealed, but they remain for the whole game). But, as I’ve progressed as a player, I’ve ended up drifting towards other hybrid decks that allow me to change strategy at any time and surprise at the end.
One of the most interesting things about Marvel Snap is the way it works in “pools”. In order to maintain a certain logic when it comes to unlocking cards and not have an imbalance when it comes to unlocking them when you go up in rank, Marvel Snap works with pools; collections divided into four different levels.
There are five pools at present, and they are based on your collecting level. The first one goes up to level 214, the second one from 222 to 474 and the rest from 486 onwards. The last three pools are divided by the rarity level of the cards. A priori there is an important division of power between the cards, but from the beginning there is already a great balance to get a good deck.
Collecting: a key element
One of the key points of Marvel Snap, beyond its gameplay, is how it integrates collecting. All the cards have several levels, but they don’t improve their power or anything, they simply change their base appearance making it better. So, first they “break” the frame to make the design prettier, then you can see it in 3D, then it shines, etc.
In addition, all cards have alternative skins that can be unlocked or purchased in the store. In addition, in your own profile you have several customization options (avatar, message, etc.) that allow you to take the game to your own territory.
This sounds silly, and it may be silly depending on the player, but it allows everyone to have a greater incentive than just winning. Marvel Snap never fails to give the player an incentive to grow their collection, try new cards, play with different skins, and earn collector points.
Also, like many other games, it is divided into seasons, adding new cards, new skins and all kinds of improvements for the players. The updating is constant. The last of these updates, in fact, changed the Wolverine card to make it more powerful, so they have no qualms about optimizing their cards to make the game as smooth as possible.
The balance, in fact, is something you can feel from the first games. You may not know how to play yet, but you have possibilities: there is no one player better than another in terms of cards, only different strategies and experience. So anyone can be a master even if they have only been playing for a week.
Integrating Marvel into a card game
But perhaps the highlight of Marvel Snap is how well it integrates the Disney brand into the game. Rather than simply using the IP to make an entertaining game, they have seamlessly inspected every detail of the House of Ideas world to make fans feel right at home.
Each card effect is related to its character. Thus, Wolverine regenerates when destroyed, Captain America gives more power to his allies, Storm “floods” the location where it was played and Hulk, simply, has a lot of power. All of them are adapted to the style of play that suits them, and play with all kinds of references that will delight Marvel fans.
The same goes for the locations. There are more than 50 locations available that draw from the Marvel universe, and all of them are places that we have read about in comics or seen in movies and series. In addition, each of them has a different effect (which can lead you to win or lose a game), and are integrated seamlessly into the game.
There is, in short, a love for the Marvel universe that is to be appreciated. Not all the characters are the most famous, in fact there are many that I was surprised to see in the title, so it is also a fantastic portal into Stan Lee’s universe.
Also, whoever thinks that this is (only) about superheroes is wrong: we have dinosaurs, soldiers, robots, aliens, mad scientists and much more. There are cards for all tastes, and it is even advisable to try to make decks by theme. The X-Men, for example, is one of the most useful.
Much room for improvement
Marvel Snap is, all in all, a great game to get hooked on or to simply pass the idle hours on public transport or before going to sleep. But we must remember that it came out at the end of 2022, so it still has a lot of room for improvement.
One of the most serious flaws it had has just been fixed: the local PvP mode. Until recently we couldn’t play against friends, and that meant that no real community was generated around the game. However, this is something that has just been fixed with the latest update: you can finally play against friends.
This, however, is still in a very embryonic state. There is only one form of local PvP games, and it doesn’t leave room to do much. Just short back-to-back games with the same deck. That’s why I think it’s vital to add new features in the future so that the formula doesn’t run out sooner rather than later.
On the other hand, there is also an obvious problem that attacks all card games: it can be repetitive. These are very short and dynamic games, which leads you to play more and more, but how long can this formula last? I hope a long time, but for that you will have to put a lot of effort into it.
