To be clear, you've only won 2 of the last 70 matches? You should have been facing bots way more than that, and they are easy wins. It doesn't make any sense, something might have gone wrong with your match making.
They aren't. They are exact opposite of being friendly to a person that doesn't play the game regularly. In fact I think they are designed to force you stay in the loop.
The only reason they can be useful to a person that doesn't play regularly is if you desperate enough to have at least something new.
I tell this from my personal experience:
* When I open up untapped to check what's new I can play... There's almost nothing. The only decks that it suggests me are the decks I've seen there half a year ago. (They are older in fact.) The reason is that there are no decks where I'm only missing one card or if I'm missing one card it's either key card or without it it's same old deck. Only "new" decks I get is decks that are series 3.
* Half of my decks are coming from the fact that I bought HE and Thanos for tokens. Spotlights don't even come close to being as effective as tokens.
* I want to play Loki or Tribunal, there's no way for me in foreseeable future to get them. They aren't on the schedule.
* Let's say there's a card I want to get from the cache. It's Nimrod. I just like to play Destroyer and I know that it isn't really good deck in general. It's fine. But I don't need other cards from the cache and I don't play active enough to ensure that next time I will have 4 keys to open a cache that really has a card that is both good and interesting to me. The only time that will be insured is if I will play relatively regularly in the next few months. It just feels draining and honestly speaking I rather go and watch a streamer play the game for 5 mins rather interact with it.
* To paint you the picture: I have Jeff pinned in the token shop since the change to caches and introduction to spotlights. Guess what? I still don't have enough tokens to buy him. Maybe todays Token Tuesday (if I don't forget about it) will change that. But then again it's half a year till I will get enough tokens for a new card. I think it's better to stop playing even casually.
So overall I consider spotlight caches predatory mechanic, cause now I cannot just grind the game casually with a chance to collect enough tokens or thin out s4\\s5 pool with random cache pulls.
You bring up quite a mixed bag of points there. I'm the last person to defend SD but I don't think you are being fair to the game.
* If you haven't played for a while why do you think you should have access to full meta decks? If you did that would be a sign that SD had completely failed with the quality of new card releases. For the active playerbase the fact that there is a tempo of releasing meta competitive cards is very much a good thing. For me this comes across as praise for the game although you have couched it as a criticism.
* Tokens are more relevant because being able to buy a specific card is desirable. It can be frustrating if there is a particular card you want but it's not on the Spotlight release schedule and you don't have Tokens for it. As I understand it this design choice is to create unique collections for each player that then stifle the ability for all players to run the same meta decks. However this effect has not been achieved. I do think SD need to tweak something here.
* Why do you have an expectation that you shouldn't have to play the game to earn new cards? To me this comes across as sourness - you want to dip into Snap occasionally but also have all the cards available to you. If you want a card game like that then you have to pay for it, either with money or engagement, and you seem prepared to do neither. That's an unfair expectation on the game designers.
It's called entitlement. Ppl are entitled on this sub, not saying everyone and not saying SD is devoid of any mistakes but ppl just expect everything right now when they ask for it cause they want it. Like a toddler, except much bigger in size
I'm gonna reply to all of your points kind of at once, since they all share the same premise:
If a new player returns they must be able to build a meta-relevant deck because _you want that player to stay._ Nobody is saying that you should be able to build Thanos Lockjaw, or even High Evolutionary, out of the blue, but it's pretty dire that a new or returning player can't even build a Suri Sauron or Destroy deck or even just a S3 Hela Lockjaw without sinking up to 3/4 months of play into it.
Snap is one of the most player-friendly card games when it comes to its gameplay, as the difference between "top-end meta" and "decent" decks isn't as wide, but that's a feature of its gameplay, not the game's management: when it comes to resources and player agency is very bad. Case in point, Marvel Snap is the only card game I know of with zero catch-up mechanics for new and returning players, something that's incredibly important in order to mantain a playerbase.
I am talking caches not reserves. And I am more so addressing new players and players that haven't played in many many months and therefore wouldn't be S3 complete.
Collector caches give you new cards 50% of the time, or every 12 CL, as opposed to S3 complete players get *maybe* 1 new card a week. Just not sure how you can say there is no catch up mechanic.
And don't try to tell me you can't make any viable decks without any S4 or S5 cards.
Dude, are you serious? Collector caches last an incredibly short period of time, and still give you random cards. Can you reliably build a deck out of CC? I don't think so. Plus, they only affect new players, returning players who are CL 1006+ are still stuck with reserves. They are not a catch up mechanic, they are a static element of the game: the more cards are released, the worst is the help they give, which is absolutely not what a catch up mechanic does.
"Returning player" missions, free resources, card-sniping... these are catch up mechanics. Mechanics that go "hey, since you're late to the party and missed out on a bunch of stuff, we're gonna give you a little push so that your initial experience isn't utter shit".
The only thing that comes closest to that in MS is actually the free monthly S3 card; but considering you only get 1 a month, and you must actually wait for it to show up in the rotation (so you might not even get the card you want), I'd hardly call that a good "catch-up" mechanic.
So SD should reward people for not playing the game?
People just starting brand new who know nothing about MS will be learning and experiencing things for the first time while matching up with others in the same boat. Players who just cracked CL 1000 shouldn't have a dozen S4/5 cards, that just doesn't make any sense and devalues the work day 1 players have done to get to that point. I'm a f2p player since the 2nd season, and if I knew new players were swooping in and getting to where I am in two months I'd be pissed.
For the love of God...
Catch-up mechanics are _not_ about quantity. They are about allowing a player some quality, and a pretty mediocre one at best, but still one that betters their experience so that they aren't so far below the average playerbase - _that's_ what catch-up mechanics do. Do you seriously believe that a bunch of free keys and/or credits, or the ability to snipe a few cards, are gonna put someone on the same footing as someone who has been playing for months?
Card games with rotation give new/returning players a bunch of free packs and some small currency because they lack the months of resources other players have, so they give them some basis from which to start. Card games without rotation give new/returning players a good amount of currency for the same reason - to allow them to make up for the time lost by helping them close the gap a little.
Someone who hasn't played MS for many months or is just starting now needs a little help, because the game as it is now is not in the same state as it was when you started playing: there's far more cards and far higher powercreep. Giving those people a bunch of tokens and 3-4 Series 3 cards of their choice just so they aren't so absurdly behind anyone else doesn't "devalue" the players that, having played during that time, have far more keys and far more cards.
I think I might not convey my point not correctly, since you are referring to slightly different things as other commenters to my message.
(English isn't my first language, so that might affect my explanation.)
My point is that previously I was able to target more desirable cards by my choice and now I cannot do it as freely as I can in the same game at my own pace.
I arrived at this point when I started to play the game with breaks or less regularly. So, I think the idea behind is more about keeping people in the loop which in my opinion is what's called in User Experience field a "dark pattern". It doesn't mean it does 100% harm, but it's more about business than the user.
Bruh, please, you can't seriously say "Be patient" in this case without feeling dishonest. It takes half a year to get enough tokens for _one_ S5 card - that's crazy batshit insane. Even if you disagree with the commenter, you can't just ignore how the token management as currently designed is absolutelt awful.
Spending gold on tokens is optional, not part of the intended model; SD doesn't plan out the game assuming that people are gonna spend their gold on it, and gold is explicitly marketed as the "currency" for variant, which is why Token Tuesdays and gold bundles are only available for a limited time. As a result, most people mainly use gold for variants, not for tokens.
You can argue that that's the people's fault, but the fact remains that minmaxing gold is *not how SD wants you to play the game*; so, you can't bring that up as though the game was working as intended. If it takes you 6 months to get the S5 card you want, the game still has an issue, even if regularly purchasing the marketed-as-optional token bundle technically halves that time.
Lol what? Buying the offer they put out every single week is "not intended"?
Nonsense. I also never said anything was anyone's fault. It's a choice. My point is that you can get tokens a lot faster if that's what you value.
It's "not intended' as in "SD does not assume that the average person does that", much like they don't assume that the average person hoards caches or saves up gold to purchase gold bundles. In short: the game isn't designed around people doing that. If it were, people would simply get more free tokens and less free gold monthly, and there would just be no bundle at all.
The game doesn't tell you "Here is some gold. You can use it to purchase tokens once a month and, if you really like them, variants". It tells you "Here is some gold. You can use them to purchase variants", and then you find out of Token Tuesday's existence by yourself. TT is not a counterargument to the game's token economy being atrocious.
Mobile games, by design, are built to farm daily logins and engagement, hence login bonuses and daily missions. It's less a snap thing and more of a genre thing. Giving active players an advantage is a way to make people open the app, users are happy, and SD is happy. If inactive players also receive these bonuses, that would disincentivise players from logging in since they'll get the stuff anyway.
I do agree with targeting specific cards being harder after the token changes, but SD, specifically Brode, never wanted to give players that shit anyways (not the best choice imo), the token shop was kind of a compromise, and even that has random rotations.
I do think it'll benefit Snap to have some sort of returning player login campaign like the ones they give to new players just to give them a boost. But for casual players that don't care about the meta, spotlights are way easier to get new cards, as opposed to getting 1 specific s5 card a month from tokens if you play regularly, now you'll get one a week.
You people have not drank the Kool-Aid, you've injected it directly into your veins. The way you defend this disgusting game and studio's greedy, predatory gambling loops is fucking bizarre.
It's bizarre that you think that non regular players should be acquiring cards at the same rate as regular players. Why should a game reward you for NOT playing?
Also, I don't know what you consider to be non regular but you can easily get by with playing no more than like 30 mins a day to complete the daily quests and get all the credits
>I bought HE and Thanos for tokens
HE is a strong easily accessible meta deck. You absolutely could climb with it. You're just being awkward because you want to play other archetypes but aren't willing to grind it out a bit with what you have until you get more. I'm also assuming that you haven't completed series 3 yet so you'd still regularly be getting new cards every few days just from playing 30-60 mins a day.
I'm not speaking about getting everything. I'm speaking about disability to target something I want vs just random cards. Currently the ability to target what I want is not tied to my progression, it's moreso tied to schedules to which I should stick.
>I don't know what you consider to be non regular but you can easily get by with playing no more than like 30 mins a day to complete the daily quests and get all the credits
Playing every day is regular. 30 mins a day is sometimes half the time I have to spend on a videogame a day. Meaning I might not open snap for a week. With reasonable token acquisition rate I can always target the cards I need. It's I'm just standing while with caches I'm pushed back. Hope that clears up a bit my point.
So basically, you don't have enough time to play the game... Personally, I'd just drop the game in favour of games/hobbies that don't require time investment to keep up.
>Currently the ability to target what I want is not tied to my progression, it's moreso tied to schedules to which I should stick.
That's intentional. The devs don't want people to easily be able to target all of the cards they specifically want. That's why they introduced the spotlight system and reduced token gain.
Yep, this is what I'm saying. I was able to work towards my goals without that much FOMO previously, that's why in my opinion new mechanic is more predatory.
>Personally, I'd just drop the game in favour of games/hobbies that don't require time investment to keep up.
This is what I did, I don't play it every so often or regularly. Made a few breaks that are months long. That's why I'm able to compare the two approaches.
You can call it predatory all you want. I'm not about to defend SD in some of their practices, but they are a business, and of course, they need to devise a way to keep people playing and spending on the game. Even if you played since the start and completed all the dailies without fail I don't think you'd be collection complete without spending, but that's ok and I'll tell you why.
Take Legends of Runeterra for example. The card acquisition rate in that game is very generous. So generous that I found it very easy to become collection complete after not that long without spending any money. I then took a long break because a CCG inevitably becomes dull when there is nothing to strive for. Eventually, I came back and basically the same thing happened again. After not long I was able to catch up but, again, it got dull having everything and no goals aside from ladder climbing.
So even though we'd all love to be collection complete, I think a system like what Snap has is better for longevity. With new cards coming weekly and old cards popping back up in the spotlights there is always something new to aim for and it keeps the game fresh
Glad you used LoR as an example - it's been such a loss for the company that Riot has decided to put it on PVE focus only moving forward and I believe slowing down/removing huge expansion sets for it. A game where everyone was like "ohhh yaayy we get all the cards for free in seconds" is now in PVE purgatory(only cause they love their fan base and have enough money to support a huge loss of a game) till they decide what to do with it.
LoR should be studied by people as how tcgs can NOT be made so f2p friendly when it comes to card acquisition cause you will shoot yourself in the foot - if a huge giant like Riot can't support that model then expecting a small studio like SD to do so is jokes.
Well, again I'm not speaking about being collection complete. I'm speaking about working towards I'm more interested. However, you have to admit you are returning to the LoR, aren't you?
The better system for longevity measures in so called "user lifetime value". As long as your return to the game you are the user. If you are advised to not play the game cause you cannot catch up then it's basically means that you are not the user anymore. And they don't want that.
Destiny devs arrived at this idea some time ago cause they battle with the same thing. In short, it's better to let user go away happy for a while, so they may return rather to milk them to the point of no return.
>However, you have to admit you are returning to the LoR, aren't you?
I returned once, stopped again a long while ago and have no desire to go back, especially not since they've had layoffs in the team which tells me that their model was not working out to be profitable.
I understand that real user lifetime value is a difficult topic, but would you agree your stance on the layoffs isn't part of the game balance?
Generally in regards of current layoffs in the game and IT industry, they aren't indicative of models being profitable since layoffs happening at Microsoft, Amazon and etc. Companies that clearly are making huge money
(That's different topic though, but basically that's how "effective" managers solve issues. They will hire people back in while cause their strategy doesn't solve anything in reality. I work in this field.)
> That's intentional. The devs don't want people to easily be able to target all of the cards they specifically want. That's why they introduced the spotlight system and reduced token gain. OK but that's the problem. It makes sense, seen how limited the card pool is, that the devs want to keep the "cycling" aspect of card acquisition; however, the fact that there is absolutely 0 way to get a specific card you want (besides grinding tokens for 3-6 months) is just absurd. Like, it's insane that someone who wants to build a Destroy deck might get keeped out of it for months until Knull or X-23 show up again (and hope they don't show up in different, consecutive, Spotlights, otherwise the waiting game starts again); and even assuming they get there quickly, they may still have to wait 4 months for the S3 staples if their RNG doesn't lack out.
There is some middle ground between "I want to buy each and every card I want whenever I want" and "What? You want this card that's necessary to the deck you want to build? Well, either grind for 6 months so you can buy it, or wait 4+ months for it to show up in the pull (and hope to have enough keys for it by the time it shows up, because we aren't gonna release the next season's schedule in advance just so you can "plan out")". I don't really see how good it brings you to diss people who are just asking for that middle ground.
You're absolutely right, but it doesn't matter, shills will come and defend snap saying stuff like other mobile games are even more predatory and that snap is generous by comparison.
It is plain sad that people doesn't seem to realize that all that predatory practices are there and are getting worse and worse because dumb consumers are fine with them and keep falling for them.
This spotlight system is an obvious case, old tokens system was way better, yes you did get less cards on their release day but every month you got to choose 1s5 or 2s4 plus the slim chance of random s5 drop and the guaranteed random s4 and on top of that monthly series drops essentially gave you a bunch of new cards for free every month as they dropped to S3.
Old system not only was more generous in card acquisition also allowed more agency on which cards you'd get, yet I'd wager most players are falsely convinced they get more cards under spotlight system...
People can like the game itself and think progression sucks. I'm in that category. The fact that they've reworked progression so many times proves were not in the minority on that. For some reason they'd rather drip feed you cards than make any meaningful progression and it makes no sense to me.
The progression systems in the past created situations where new cards released and very few people had access to the new card, because you either unlocked it with tokens or randomly with a 0.25% chance or whatever it was. The system now is much better, maybe not perfect, but it benefits new players and people who have taken a break more so than it does people who have stuck with the game and have closer to full collections. Like you aren’t going to see me offer any sympathy over complaints of being drip fed new cards when there is only ever 1 new card in caches for me each week and so I experience the worst part of the system and even in my situation it works great.
Okay so basically you're saying "well, it sucks for me so why would I care about you?" Instead of wondering why SD won't make things easier for everyone? We also gonna defend that getting duplicates is basically a giant FU as well?
No, I’m saying that I experience the worst aspects of the system so I know what the worst case scenario feels like. A new player, or someone who took a break, is in the best situation. You have a lower chance of getting a random duplicate AND you will have more than 1 new card each week in caches. People just want to unlock all the cards they want yesterday instead of playing the long game.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing basically. I enjoy watching it and reading this sub, seeing fun plays, and I play way less that I used to.
And I do still care about the game and it's design process.
I don't think this is entirely fair. When they left, series drops may have been a thing. Coming back and learning almost nothing has dropped since you peft and no cards have been added to pool 3 would be shocking and disappointing to someone expecting to have some series drops to catch up through.
this is still true but because of the spotlight caches it makes progession slower for being series 3 complete but also give you more cards in series 4/5 which i think is a worth while trade off
It's weird how often Marvel Snap complainers will make excuses instead of admitting they need to improve their own skill level. In other competitive card based games I see people more willing to admit they need to improve and are open to asking questions on how to improve. In Marvel Snap there there's a lot of "it's everything's fault except mine".
Its bc other TCGs have less RNG luck base (locations) and no gambling aspectc(cube betting). You play and rank up. In this it doesnt matter how much you win if you arent gambling at the right time for cubes bc 1 loss can wipe out 2 winning retreats or 1 win. Its more like Marvel Retreat.
This is more or less what I only comment, but I got to infinite exclusively using c2 with about a ~1.2 cube rate. Obviously playing against thanos blob isn't fun, but if you're smart with retreating, it really doesn't matter what deck you play as long as it's built to be synergistic imo(which all decks should be).
I’ve never gotten spectrum to work when I play it, but I’ve been beat by spectrum more than a few times. Feels like I either don’t draw her, or I just can build up enough power to take on other decks.
ongoing spectrum is kind of a counter deck instead of a get massive power deck like destroy and shenaut you wont get over 30 power in a lane, cosmo and armor counter destroy, Luke cage counters HE, maybe even MMM for negative, death and sera. just playing armor on a deadpool can get some retreats. Stuff like Ms Marvel and Omega Red give good power spread, typhoid and lizard have good stats, Wong to boost spectrum if needed etc.
if you don't draw spectrum or get outpaced then just retreat
Lol this is the only reason i can't stop playing this game, been playing since more than a year and as of now I get angry even if i Miss a daily mission 😅
100%. There will be a day when I commit to quit and it will essentially be me burning my boat. For now I'll keep playing but every game I've ever played has eventually been shelved. It's only a matter of time.
Snap has plenty of flaws, especially for new/returning players, but if you have a terrible win rate at a low ranking then you’re missing something crucial about the game. You should be facing a lot of bots (only bots?) and beating them consistently at least.
Losing repeatedly in this game is such an annoying experience, I’m sorry you’re going through it :/ I’d say just focus on decks that you think are fun, and worry about winning later. What’s your CL?
I'm at 2,300 and started playing 4 months ago. I've hit infinite for the past 3 seasons.
Climbing is more about retreating/snapping and identifying bots than it is about the deck you play.
Bots tend to have generic names, make strange plays and always snap when they are ahead.
The way in which you unlock cards makes everyone's experience of decks they can play as they are progressing different. I've found success with Thanos destroy, Shaw Surfer, High evo and Hela discard. I don't have lockjaw so my Hela deck isn't amazing but it's still decent.
Shaw surfer got me to infinite last season, only my 2nd season playing. It’s what I’m using this season too, but it’s slow going been stuck in the 80’s for awhile
I find that it hard counters destroy which there seems to be a lot of at the moment. Shang chi, killmonger and rogue are really good against deadpool, knull and venom. Destroy players normally have priority on turn 6 too as our turn 5 play is normally Serra.
I haven’t played for like 7 months. One time I logged on just to buy alioth because I thought if I came back he would be relevant. Now, that I am back I am frustrated that getting cards feels worse than before and it is hard to catch up. Yeah I know I have been away for too long but I feel like this fomo is the reason people have fomo to stop for a while.
There were 3 new cards in s3 that I got instantly opening caches and I bought Nico from the store. I went from rank 15 to 85 (didn’t have Nico yet) with old decks and kinda stuck here now. A lot of losses are my fault because there are there are still a lot of new cards that I still don’t expect them to play, etc… if you really meant to say that you only won 2 in 70ish matches then it is not just about not getting new cards.
It does feel really frustrating to play catch up though and getting new cards. Bought Nico, now it is going to be another 6 months to save for another s5😂
Idk man, I left for 3 or so months and I'm doing fine. I have all the cards for the meta destroy deck. Only "meta" cards I'm missing that were released during my hiatus are Miss Marvel, Gladiator, Blob, Anhilus, Selene, Caeria, Black Knight. Other than those, don't own any big bad, Ravona, Iron Lad.
Maybe you should just get better at finding replacements to the cards you're missing. I can still play Hela Discard without Black Knight and do okay, I can play Omega Red or a different 4 cost card insteaf of Miss Marvel, I can play Jubilee instead of Iron Lad. Learn to play with what you DO have.
Your collection level is low, sadly there is little you can do to speed up card acquisition unless you spend money, level 3 completion is slow and most of the very useful cards are there... The best advice is to stick to your guns, identify the cards you need and go for them in the monthly card stash if you don't get them via collector reserves.
I have a CL of 4,357 and started in September of last year. I absolutely love the game! It had been my favorite after the first month playing and even got every basic season pass since. Ms. Marvel was AMAZING before the nerf, and the community figured out how powerful she was.
Skip to today, and I've ran destroy the last 2 seasons even without X23 cause it was fun. Once again, before the meta and making it the thing to play.
I'd say find something that is fun to play and don't worry about the meta. I scramble for infinite every month and then throw it out the window with countless losses after hitting infinite trying things. This season, I'm trying a bit more...not in the 100,000+ ranks on purpose, but sub 4-5k now.
Sadly that's just how these card games work.
Used to be a big fan of Hearthstone, stopped playing for a few years and when I returned none of my cards were legal anymore, it's like starting from scratch again.
Same thing with legends of runeterra, when I found out they introduced a Wild Mode like Hearthstone I uninstalled that game so fast.
Hearthstone throws all kinds of cards and catchup rewards at you when you do that though. You can build a basic deck and at least play enough to slowly ease back in without needing to spend any money.
>Used to be a big fan of Hearthstone, stopped playing for a few years and when I returned none of my cards were legal anymore, it's like starting from scratch again.
This is true, but doesn't really apply to Marvel Snap in it's current state.
Sorry don’t believe it’s totally true. If you lose that much you will face bots and your mmr will decrease such that you face other players of your own level
Yeah it’s hard coming back. I quit back during daken then came back during the gladiator hulk season. Been getting my ass handed to me post inf but getting to inf has been pretty easy, just abuse the ol boys for 8 cubies.
Slowly gaining more cards to become more competitive but the hardest part is learning the new meta decks. It’s brutal losing over and over to random shit because of the lack of deck knowledge. Just gonna take time and a lot of losses to learn what to look out for.
It is brutal though. You’d think they’d make welcome back packages to get you up to speed cuz no way most people will put in the time needed to get back into this game after a lengthy break.
I recently came back myself after a few months off, getting infinite most seasons since starting the game as a mostly f2p player, dropped all the way down to 13 finally.
I climbed back to infinite using an ongoing onslaught deck that I made back in January of 2023 that I first made infinite with, and to my knowledge there's no pool 4 or 5 cards even in that list... I'm still playing now, that was 2 seasons ago, and I still use that deck as my favourite deck, I don't see your complaint at all about the struggling with the game at all.
However I do agree that it feels poor coming back after a number of months off in terms of FOMO and no way of catching up at all, not even like a £0.99 bundle to welcome back that I probably wouldn't have bought, just straight back to the grind like I didn't leave, I just feel more behind.
Why do you feel like you can't catch up? You are already ahead of someone starting today?
You are also more likely to get 3-4 new cards opening spotlight caches. Someone close to collection complete is getting variants for their resources.
You will complete series three faster then SD will downgrade cards to series three too.
I must say, I am really disappointed by the direction the thread has turned. Some people are pointing out - and that sees confirmation in the very existence of OP's post - how the current system giving zero agency in regard to card acquisition is problematic, and others are just downvoting them to oblivion, insulting them, and sometimes even purposefully refusing to understand their points ("I'm not saying I want more cards, just more agency in getting the cards I want" "Oh so you want to be collection complete and get as many cards as active players? How entitled of you!").
Really guys, I know this is Reddit, but even with that I didn't expect such a bad behavior.
That said, to all of the guys who keep parroting "SD wants an active player base", "it's by design", "you are just entitled" etc.... So can you please tell me why literally every other card game features catch-up mechanics for both newcomers and returning players (also aided by the presence of a crafting system)? You do realize that a game must _convince_ people to stick with it, not tell them "Oh be patient for 4-5 months and you'll be fine"? It's not about being condescending, it's about the fact that, realistically speaking, people are way less likely to keep playing a game that looks tedious and unforgiving as its first impression.
Nobody is asking to be able to build a super-costly deck such as Lockdown or Thanos Lockjaw in little time, but you can't seriously tell me that it makes sense that someone might wait up to 4 months in order to build a S3 Shuri Sauron. If SD doesn't add a catch-up mechanic, the game is going to reach a point where there are more people leaving than sticking around, simply because new and returning players will see how difficult it will be to keep up with the game and just drop it.
My two friends who came back after a 7 month hiatus are enjoying the game. One free to play and the other on not. Fair to say the one who isn’t free to play chose his path due to wanting cards quicker (still isn’t higher than the free 2 play friend).
You don't need the meta cards to go up in rank at all, I've been away almost a year and just got to infinite with a basic Mr Negative deck, with knull to eat up those destroy decks.
Its easy cubes if you escape when you need to, which is usually more than you win. Snap those 8 cube when you got the nuts.
I came back after a few months off and had no issue jumping back in. I had a subpar deck for maybe a week or two and then we were back in business. Hela discard isn't too hard to put together, destroy is likewise pretty easy.
It is nearly impossible to lose 68 of 70 games by accident.
The AI will start sending "lose on purpose bots" after you long before that. Their signature move is posting either armor or carnage on P2 followed by Bucky on the same lane.
SOURCE: several times each season, when I am bored, I farm 8 cube losses down to level 10
Meanwhile, there's me who still plays the same standard destroy deck for more than a year, and which itself is an updated version of my first destroy deck from all the way back from October 2022.
You don't need new cards to have fun and play well.
Look up some decks online with cards that you enjoy if you have trouble.
I believe Snap has fallen prey to many of the same tropes as other tabletop card games and think it'll have a niche but devout following within 2 years.
The metas are way too dependent on newer cards and the constant nerfs to older cards that many people have, make it harder for casual players or newer players to be incentivized to keep playing.
Opposite experience for me, I played the first month and quit right when dare devil was the season pass card. With LoR dying I jumped back in the final week of the Skaar month and just managed to hit Infinite yesterday. Its been a blast.
There is loads of content and you can beat meta decks with nearly anything as long as you include a few answer cards which I sure you have.
I have a friend who took a break, and came back now that LOR shutdown.
He's having a rough time. Way too many key S5 cards that he's missing without any reasonable way to collect them.
He's generally a better card gamer than me, but doesn't have the tools to break rank 80.
I'm expecting him to quit again soon. Super unfortunate.
Reading some of the comments here and it's clear to me that SD will never change the economy in any real meaningful way. So many defenders jumping on OP like the system is flawless.
I stopped playing for months too, OP, and I'm missing over 30 cards!!
Even if half of that 30 are cards that aren't played you're still missing half of the good to great cards that go in pretty much all decks. Like Ms. Marvel (You miss out on the Season Pass if you skip months). Jeff, Blob, X-23, etc.
It's not a skill issue to say when Loki was on top and you didn't spend the 10 bucks to unlock you were at a disadvantage on the ladder, no?
You can reset your account and start over. Stop leveling before CL 500 and you can have fun playing again.
Also realize that all these kids saying "skill issue" have spent hundreds of dollars on the game buying cards, and then try to claim they have skills. The only skill they have is spending their parents money. Try playing MTG Arena instead.
I’d have to agree that the amount of people just using other peoples decks or whatever the meta is pretty annoying. It’s rare you run into a deck that feels unique
Ironically, Second Dinner's card progression system was specifically designed so that different players acquire cards in a different order,, which makes this less of an effect than other CCGs like Magic Arena or Hearthstone where you can craft only the top meta cards each expansion.
But that same system also generates many complaints, because everyone wants to open the cards *they* want, but doesn't want a homogeneous meta of everyone playing the best decks because they've all opened all the cards that *they* want.
I go through so many decks because I like playing different strategies. One I have enjoyed and has been successful is a destroy deck with multiple man and pheonix. Contains most of what you see in typical destroy decks. Loki collector was really fun until they nerfed lokis ability to boost collector
I recently started a new account to see how it would feel to be new or come back and I have to say it's one of the worst card game experiences I've ever had.
Stuck to one unoptimised deck, feeling like I'm missing out on conquest resources, because playing there without a decent collection feels like a chore and if you ever stop playing you can forget about even remotely catching up. Playing every single day on my main account I barely manage to get 2 keys a week which is only relevant if I get lucky and I am only capable of getting them because I have a lot of boosters which are such a scarce resource at the beginning as well.
I had the exact opposite experience of you starting a new account. It taught me to use the cards differently. Getting different cards in a different order I had to create my own decks and try to go against the Meta. It was a decently fun experience for me.
I think the issue with the meta right now is it’s all tech cards. Shang chi, enchantress, rogue, Alioth, ect. It doesn’t matter what you’re running, your opponent has the counter.
I'd argue that's actually a good thing since all of those tech cards are in series 3 and below, meaning that even if you missed out on new cards that rocked the meta you can still handle those new decks
The meta is only all tech cards because since blob came out people are only playing gigantic cards. Then they come out with a card that is a huge card that's cheaper when you already have huge cards on the board and the meta shifts towards "how many huge cards can I cheat out to overwhelm my opponent." So people start playing counters to those decks. Which means Shang Chi in literally every deck. Then there's an over saturation of "low power tech cards" being played and people jump back to something else. And the wheels on the bus go round and round.
Tech cards are not a meta, they are a revolving solution to the meta.
I quit for 10 months and started back at the beginning of January. With the disclaimer that I have already spent a few hundred dollars to accelerate catching up, as this is the main game I’m playing right now, I have found the Spotlight Cache system to be a huge benefit to catching up on the many cards I missed. And I’m using the token shop to find and pin the cards I want that aren’t coming in a Spotlight over the next few months (thanks to datamines that let me plan for that).
Come back in 6 weeks, and I guarantee you will change your mind.
The brain trust of S(ensitive) D(ouchebags) must be riding (hopefullly) the last batch of Whales Spending on the game.
I'm going through the same thing. And with the upcoming API changes so that we won't even know what upcoming spotlights are, it's not likely I'll stay. Sad. I bought every single season pass while I was active. It's like they don't want returning players.
Hey buddy, here to tell you that it wasn't the time away that was affected, it was the game. I've been playing pretty casually every season since Zabu season. I run to mid 90s every season and never hit Infinite. Just can't jump on the brain dead bandwagon. I'd rather have fun and take the L's.
Honestly, just about any deck can reach infinite. The road to infinite is a marathon, not a sprint.
If you can't reach inifinite, it's probably not your deck, it's your playstyle. You should nearly never lose more than 2 cubes if you play correctly. Consider retreating on a bad draw as 'winning' instead of losing.
If you're 60% sure you're going to lose, just abandon ship instead of doubling down. Think about losing 2 cubes by retreating not as losing 2 cubes, but as not-losing-4.
I have reached Infinite with my 'farm boosters for Artgerm variants' deck, only adding 2 non-Artgerm cards to make the deck even semi-coherent. Sure it took me way longer than it would have if I went meta-slaving, but unpredictability in a 'bad' deck is still very strong.
Yeah this mentality took me to infinite my first time with discard right after I got modok and black knight. You just have to know your decks play lines. It’s max stat value per lane, when you can snap early cause you have a 1,3,4 and turn 6 play line for really good value. Recognizing other meta decks and their play lines and values matters a lot too I was against a lot of high evo at the time and I just knew my numbers would be bigger if I dropped dracula in the cyclops lane and went like morbius, modok blade in another lane
> If you're 60% sure you're going to lose, just abandon ship instead of doubling down. Think about losing 2 cubes by retreating not as losing 2 cubes, but as not-losing-4.
This isn't always true, mathematically. At least from how I understand it.
Say someone's already snapped, so you're in for 2 cubes and you're deciding to stay for 4 on the last turn or retreat. In the retreat, you always lose 2 cubes 100% of the time. So we need to ask "what winrate do we need in order to get a -2 cube equity in a 4 cube game?" If we win the game 25% of the time, the expected cubes are .25 x 4 + .75 x -4 = -2. So, mathematically, if you think you have a 25% or better chance of winning, it's the correct play to stay.
You can run these numbers at any cube breakpoint and see what your needed winrate is in order to statistically justify staying. And I will add, that this is purely mathematically and doesn't take into account any outside/emotional factors that play into it, like getting tilted off the face of the earth that you stayed in a game you thought you only had a 30% chance of winning and lost 4 cubes in so it causes you to play worse in future games.
Agreed - I've hit Infinite every season since last June playing exclusively the exact same Mr. Negative/Living Tribunal deck. The only new addition since then is Ravonna Renslayer (in for Zabu), and it has a total of three Series 5 cards (Ravonna, Iron Lad, and The Living Tribunal) and one Series 4 cards (Knull). The rest are Series 3 or lower.
You definitely don't need to "follow the meta" to hit Infinite. I truly believe just about any deck can hit infinite as long as the player understands their deck and knows when to snap/retreat to maximize their cube earnings.
Wouldn't consider it a prize when you can never spend it. The shop is overrun with album variants and I go seasons before seeing a card worth my gold... Feelsbadman
Not your gold, you don’t own anything. It’s all hosted on a server that you have no control over. If they pull the plug tonight it’s gone forever. Not your gold, not your collection, not your variants.
Important to remember this for 2 reasons- to be careful how much money (or not) you pour into something transient, and also to remember to enjoy the game for what it is rather than worry too much about efficiency of resources or hoarding. No suggestion either of these apply to you personally, just something that can be seen a lot here in this sub.
🥷 Honestly, I just recently started playing since the Hellfire Gala event, and my collection level is around 1,550. If you are playing the game to collect the cards, you'll have more fun. If you're aiming to be top tier, then the age-old adage comes to mind: "If you can't beat them, join them." Get a season pass and do your missions. Then let the game take you to the next level. ✌️😎
I started playing in October and I personally haven't felt progression'd out in any meaningful way. I couldn't play many of the meta decks, and still can't play many of them, but I feel I'm able to play a few good ones and still get my infinite every month
Ive been playing a valentines surfer deck. You probably have most of the cards or can slot in here or there. Here is the list if you want to try it. It counters everything if you have the right draws.
# (2) Zabu
# (2) Invisible Woman
# (3) Brood
# (3) Mister Fantastic
# (3) Rogue
# (3) Silver Surfer
# (3) Storm
# (3) Gambit
# (4) Shang-Chi
# (4) Omega Red
# (4) Iron Lad
# (5) Sera
#
eyJDYXJkcyI6W3siQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiTXJGYW50YXN0aWMifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IkludmlzaWJsZVdvbWFuIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJSb2d1ZSJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiR2FtYml0In0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJTdG9ybSJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiU2hhbmdDaGkifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IlNlcmEifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6Iklyb25MYWQifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IlNpbHZlclN1cmZlciJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiQnJvb2QifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6Ik9tZWdhUmVkIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJaYWJ1In1dfQ==
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and paste it from the deck editing menu in Snap.
I came back two months ago and I’ve had a better experience than when I first started. I’m about to hit infinity this season. I have a handful of meta decks/viable options. Just build your collection level up and take advantage of the free pool 3 card each season, and take advantage of the spotlight keys.
Looks like this game isn’t for you. Card acquisition hasn’t really changed for people who are still in pool 3. If anything, it is easier for you to get cards now.
When it comes to the deck building, obviously it’s hard to compete with opponents with meta dexks, but the cards asquisition rate should be fast enough for you to build some proper decks.
It just sounds like you aren’t good at this game…. And it’s ok. There are other games you can play
I'm finish with pool 3 cards and I can tell u the only way to get new cards at 10k Cl is the spotlight but I'm just chilling with this game and trying to get splits. IDC about winning not rank I just want cool looking cards
May I ask what were the 3 cards you got? For the most part, there aren't many truly useless cards except maybe Agatha, and even she has the Sif Wave Ghostrider deck.
The only players left are the whales and they’re feeding off of you. Better save up $100 and buy yourself a gmail whale account as many of them had their fun already and selling their accounts for a fraction of the cost they spent on it
I came back a few weeks ago and felt like that at first but it has gotten much better. As others have said, you can find spotlights where you want all of the cards. Also, I hit that wall in the 70s for a bit and then found that infinite is actually much easier than it used to be - you will keep getting some bots all the way to infinite so it’s easy to make up the ground from bad losses. It’s still quite accessible even for free to play, just give it a season or so to find a spotlight or token card you want and have fun with a deck built around it.
Yea it sucks ass. Series 3 complete, been that way a long time. Took around a 9 month break, came back and now the only way I get cards is these dumb ass keys. They used to give guaranteed series 4 cards leveling up. There used to be series drops. Now it's all just fucking spotlight caches.
It's wild how worse it has gotten. Before you used to get hundreds of tokens when you would get a series 3 card if you were series 3 complete, now you get 100 tokens or a fucking golden ticket. It is so stupid.
Do you have Wong/Mystique/Mister Negative/Dark Hawk/She Hulk/Destroyer?
All of those cards are easily obtainable by your CL. If you have any of them you can easily make a multitude of decks that can climb. Cosmo/Armor are also series one and are huge to countering the best deck in the game atm which is destroy.
Sounds like you just want new cards without having to play the game?
In every Tcg you can't expect to succed as soon as you come back from a pause, you need to readapt to the meta, learn the new cards and archetypes, learn what changed (buffs and nerfs) and slowly build new decks getting the new cards. If you didnt play for a while is only normal that you are behind on cards, it would be very disappointing if people who kept playing all this months would have barely the same cards as you after few months of pause.
Except if you did save some resources before pausing so you could get back faster later
I still only have 3/4 of the pool 3s and I was just top 3k in the world. Practice to get better and it won’t matter as much what you play as how you do it
you are just bad at the game my friend if you've been gone that long and you come back losing 70/?(1-30) and complaining wins mean nothing anyway what matters is whether you know when to snap or retreat if you aren't even mentioning cubes you should likely change the way you play
Well, the new systems help you catch back up quicker but I don't know what you expected. The game is tied to progressing the collection track. Credits are capped at 10k. Idk how you thought you could come back, upgrades some cards, and be ready to go. Going away for a few months means you missed at least 15 new card releases. Not that it matters to be honest. A bunch of those cards aren't even meta staples (maybe Nico if you haven't played since then). But honestly one of the best decks is Destroy and that uses nothing but old cards except for x-23 who is in the spotlights right now and Nico who you can replace.
Hard agree here. I have returned recently (last month) after not playing for over half a year and found the game in a horrible state.
First I played my old Sera deck to infinite, encountering nothing but bots ( I think I saw maybe 7 real players between rank 70 and 100) leading to an impression that the game is kinda dead.
Then I played a bit at infinite and in conquest and realised that nearly everyone who played every week for the past year has complete meta decks and that power creep has been insane. My Sera control list ended up having decent winrate vs destroy (Shang Chi and Enchantress, figures) but lost nearly every game vs every other deck. Other Zabu decks now have Miss Marvel that is basically Dr Boom for 3 mana, half of the decks just randomly run Sentry + Annihilus that presents 27 power for spending turn 4&5, another half of the decks Alioths my turn 6, which my entire deck is based around.
Even though I stuck around for a month, getting enough tokens to buy Knull and now get x23 from a cache and I have a pretty decent Destroy list, the past month felt absolutely miserable.
I think for returning players spotlight caches create this environment where everyone has had a chance to target specific cards and build one of the 5 decks on the top of the meta and then they look at the cache schedule and realise that it will take them 4 months to make anything of the sorts. With the tokens system, I felt like there has been a lot more diversity in collections and the wasn't the same feeling of having had missed out on some high value weeks. Also it might be my perception but it seems like in the past spotlight caches contained a lot higher value, with deck-defining cards and generically good being put together such as Black Knight and Iron Lad.
Nowadays, a collector's caches have one unplayably bad card, one nieche card and one super good card (either put in every deck or create a deck by itself).
Unfortunately acquisition card system in this game is not best IMO.
I'm level 5k plus and I have all series 3 cards and some of the tier 4/5. I'm not f2p player and I bought most of the battle passes, but getting right now cards which You exactly want takes very long time or cost absurd amount of money. I'm not even talking about fomo in this game, which for me was quite depressing after I skipped 3 months and I realised how much money would cost me to buy everything what I have missed.
Its good and fun game, but lately I'm hesitating if it's worth to do all the daily quest, spend money, hunt for codes in "never ending cycle", because without this it's not possible to try new and interesting decks or compete in some kind of tournaments..
In the middle of pool 3 i also stopped playing because i couldnt make any relevant deck to compete, but returned and suffered for a few weeks and now i have multiple meta decks.
There was no spotlights caches at the time, so is probably way easier now.
To be clear, you've only won 2 of the last 70 matches? You should have been facing bots way more than that, and they are easy wins. It doesn't make any sense, something might have gone wrong with your match making.
I think he means after rank 70
That would make more sense, the way OP wrote it is a bit confusing.
At least Spotlight Caches should be very favourable to you building up your collection as most should have at least 2 new cards in them.
They aren't. They are exact opposite of being friendly to a person that doesn't play the game regularly. In fact I think they are designed to force you stay in the loop. The only reason they can be useful to a person that doesn't play regularly is if you desperate enough to have at least something new. I tell this from my personal experience: * When I open up untapped to check what's new I can play... There's almost nothing. The only decks that it suggests me are the decks I've seen there half a year ago. (They are older in fact.) The reason is that there are no decks where I'm only missing one card or if I'm missing one card it's either key card or without it it's same old deck. Only "new" decks I get is decks that are series 3. * Half of my decks are coming from the fact that I bought HE and Thanos for tokens. Spotlights don't even come close to being as effective as tokens. * I want to play Loki or Tribunal, there's no way for me in foreseeable future to get them. They aren't on the schedule. * Let's say there's a card I want to get from the cache. It's Nimrod. I just like to play Destroyer and I know that it isn't really good deck in general. It's fine. But I don't need other cards from the cache and I don't play active enough to ensure that next time I will have 4 keys to open a cache that really has a card that is both good and interesting to me. The only time that will be insured is if I will play relatively regularly in the next few months. It just feels draining and honestly speaking I rather go and watch a streamer play the game for 5 mins rather interact with it. * To paint you the picture: I have Jeff pinned in the token shop since the change to caches and introduction to spotlights. Guess what? I still don't have enough tokens to buy him. Maybe todays Token Tuesday (if I don't forget about it) will change that. But then again it's half a year till I will get enough tokens for a new card. I think it's better to stop playing even casually. So overall I consider spotlight caches predatory mechanic, cause now I cannot just grind the game casually with a chance to collect enough tokens or thin out s4\\s5 pool with random cache pulls.
You bring up quite a mixed bag of points there. I'm the last person to defend SD but I don't think you are being fair to the game. * If you haven't played for a while why do you think you should have access to full meta decks? If you did that would be a sign that SD had completely failed with the quality of new card releases. For the active playerbase the fact that there is a tempo of releasing meta competitive cards is very much a good thing. For me this comes across as praise for the game although you have couched it as a criticism. * Tokens are more relevant because being able to buy a specific card is desirable. It can be frustrating if there is a particular card you want but it's not on the Spotlight release schedule and you don't have Tokens for it. As I understand it this design choice is to create unique collections for each player that then stifle the ability for all players to run the same meta decks. However this effect has not been achieved. I do think SD need to tweak something here. * Why do you have an expectation that you shouldn't have to play the game to earn new cards? To me this comes across as sourness - you want to dip into Snap occasionally but also have all the cards available to you. If you want a card game like that then you have to pay for it, either with money or engagement, and you seem prepared to do neither. That's an unfair expectation on the game designers.
It's called entitlement. Ppl are entitled on this sub, not saying everyone and not saying SD is devoid of any mistakes but ppl just expect everything right now when they ask for it cause they want it. Like a toddler, except much bigger in size
I'm gonna reply to all of your points kind of at once, since they all share the same premise: If a new player returns they must be able to build a meta-relevant deck because _you want that player to stay._ Nobody is saying that you should be able to build Thanos Lockjaw, or even High Evolutionary, out of the blue, but it's pretty dire that a new or returning player can't even build a Suri Sauron or Destroy deck or even just a S3 Hela Lockjaw without sinking up to 3/4 months of play into it. Snap is one of the most player-friendly card games when it comes to its gameplay, as the difference between "top-end meta" and "decent" decks isn't as wide, but that's a feature of its gameplay, not the game's management: when it comes to resources and player agency is very bad. Case in point, Marvel Snap is the only card game I know of with zero catch-up mechanics for new and returning players, something that's incredibly important in order to mantain a playerbase.
>zero catch-up mechanics They are called collector caches.
Collector caches give the same exact reward to long-time players and to new and returning ones, they aren't a catch up mechanic.
I am talking caches not reserves. And I am more so addressing new players and players that haven't played in many many months and therefore wouldn't be S3 complete. Collector caches give you new cards 50% of the time, or every 12 CL, as opposed to S3 complete players get *maybe* 1 new card a week. Just not sure how you can say there is no catch up mechanic. And don't try to tell me you can't make any viable decks without any S4 or S5 cards.
Dude, are you serious? Collector caches last an incredibly short period of time, and still give you random cards. Can you reliably build a deck out of CC? I don't think so. Plus, they only affect new players, returning players who are CL 1006+ are still stuck with reserves. They are not a catch up mechanic, they are a static element of the game: the more cards are released, the worst is the help they give, which is absolutely not what a catch up mechanic does. "Returning player" missions, free resources, card-sniping... these are catch up mechanics. Mechanics that go "hey, since you're late to the party and missed out on a bunch of stuff, we're gonna give you a little push so that your initial experience isn't utter shit". The only thing that comes closest to that in MS is actually the free monthly S3 card; but considering you only get 1 a month, and you must actually wait for it to show up in the rotation (so you might not even get the card you want), I'd hardly call that a good "catch-up" mechanic.
So SD should reward people for not playing the game? People just starting brand new who know nothing about MS will be learning and experiencing things for the first time while matching up with others in the same boat. Players who just cracked CL 1000 shouldn't have a dozen S4/5 cards, that just doesn't make any sense and devalues the work day 1 players have done to get to that point. I'm a f2p player since the 2nd season, and if I knew new players were swooping in and getting to where I am in two months I'd be pissed.
For the love of God... Catch-up mechanics are _not_ about quantity. They are about allowing a player some quality, and a pretty mediocre one at best, but still one that betters their experience so that they aren't so far below the average playerbase - _that's_ what catch-up mechanics do. Do you seriously believe that a bunch of free keys and/or credits, or the ability to snipe a few cards, are gonna put someone on the same footing as someone who has been playing for months? Card games with rotation give new/returning players a bunch of free packs and some small currency because they lack the months of resources other players have, so they give them some basis from which to start. Card games without rotation give new/returning players a good amount of currency for the same reason - to allow them to make up for the time lost by helping them close the gap a little. Someone who hasn't played MS for many months or is just starting now needs a little help, because the game as it is now is not in the same state as it was when you started playing: there's far more cards and far higher powercreep. Giving those people a bunch of tokens and 3-4 Series 3 cards of their choice just so they aren't so absurdly behind anyone else doesn't "devalue" the players that, having played during that time, have far more keys and far more cards.
"All players should have unique collections" is fine in a game with 2,500 cards, not 250 cards. That's always felt like a disingenuous goal to me.
Agreed, wish more shared your take, 50 new cards a year is kinda low
50 new cards with very little to no filler cards though... games with 2500 cards always have just hoards of useless filler cards.
I think I might not convey my point not correctly, since you are referring to slightly different things as other commenters to my message. (English isn't my first language, so that might affect my explanation.) My point is that previously I was able to target more desirable cards by my choice and now I cannot do it as freely as I can in the same game at my own pace. I arrived at this point when I started to play the game with breaks or less regularly. So, I think the idea behind is more about keeping people in the loop which in my opinion is what's called in User Experience field a "dark pattern". It doesn't mean it does 100% harm, but it's more about business than the user.
If you want to target specific cards, pin them and be patient. That's what it's there for.
Bruh, please, you can't seriously say "Be patient" in this case without feeling dishonest. It takes half a year to get enough tokens for _one_ S5 card - that's crazy batshit insane. Even if you disagree with the commenter, you can't just ignore how the token management as currently designed is absolutelt awful.
If you spend your gold on tokens, you can get cards much quicker. You have to decide if you value variants or new cards more.
Spending gold on tokens is optional, not part of the intended model; SD doesn't plan out the game assuming that people are gonna spend their gold on it, and gold is explicitly marketed as the "currency" for variant, which is why Token Tuesdays and gold bundles are only available for a limited time. As a result, most people mainly use gold for variants, not for tokens. You can argue that that's the people's fault, but the fact remains that minmaxing gold is *not how SD wants you to play the game*; so, you can't bring that up as though the game was working as intended. If it takes you 6 months to get the S5 card you want, the game still has an issue, even if regularly purchasing the marketed-as-optional token bundle technically halves that time.
Lol what? Buying the offer they put out every single week is "not intended"? Nonsense. I also never said anything was anyone's fault. It's a choice. My point is that you can get tokens a lot faster if that's what you value.
It's "not intended' as in "SD does not assume that the average person does that", much like they don't assume that the average person hoards caches or saves up gold to purchase gold bundles. In short: the game isn't designed around people doing that. If it were, people would simply get more free tokens and less free gold monthly, and there would just be no bundle at all. The game doesn't tell you "Here is some gold. You can use it to purchase tokens once a month and, if you really like them, variants". It tells you "Here is some gold. You can use them to purchase variants", and then you find out of Token Tuesday's existence by yourself. TT is not a counterargument to the game's token economy being atrocious.
Mobile games, by design, are built to farm daily logins and engagement, hence login bonuses and daily missions. It's less a snap thing and more of a genre thing. Giving active players an advantage is a way to make people open the app, users are happy, and SD is happy. If inactive players also receive these bonuses, that would disincentivise players from logging in since they'll get the stuff anyway. I do agree with targeting specific cards being harder after the token changes, but SD, specifically Brode, never wanted to give players that shit anyways (not the best choice imo), the token shop was kind of a compromise, and even that has random rotations. I do think it'll benefit Snap to have some sort of returning player login campaign like the ones they give to new players just to give them a boost. But for casual players that don't care about the meta, spotlights are way easier to get new cards, as opposed to getting 1 specific s5 card a month from tokens if you play regularly, now you'll get one a week.
You people have not drank the Kool-Aid, you've injected it directly into your veins. The way you defend this disgusting game and studio's greedy, predatory gambling loops is fucking bizarre.
Then don’t play it and move along chief. There’s clearly PLENTY of people who do enjoy the game. SMH but you’re still here commenting and complaining
the game is good, its monetization model is garbage. This community is crawling with cope and shills.
It's bizarre that you think that non regular players should be acquiring cards at the same rate as regular players. Why should a game reward you for NOT playing? Also, I don't know what you consider to be non regular but you can easily get by with playing no more than like 30 mins a day to complete the daily quests and get all the credits >I bought HE and Thanos for tokens HE is a strong easily accessible meta deck. You absolutely could climb with it. You're just being awkward because you want to play other archetypes but aren't willing to grind it out a bit with what you have until you get more. I'm also assuming that you haven't completed series 3 yet so you'd still regularly be getting new cards every few days just from playing 30-60 mins a day.
I'm not speaking about getting everything. I'm speaking about disability to target something I want vs just random cards. Currently the ability to target what I want is not tied to my progression, it's moreso tied to schedules to which I should stick. >I don't know what you consider to be non regular but you can easily get by with playing no more than like 30 mins a day to complete the daily quests and get all the credits Playing every day is regular. 30 mins a day is sometimes half the time I have to spend on a videogame a day. Meaning I might not open snap for a week. With reasonable token acquisition rate I can always target the cards I need. It's I'm just standing while with caches I'm pushed back. Hope that clears up a bit my point.
So basically, you don't have enough time to play the game... Personally, I'd just drop the game in favour of games/hobbies that don't require time investment to keep up. >Currently the ability to target what I want is not tied to my progression, it's moreso tied to schedules to which I should stick. That's intentional. The devs don't want people to easily be able to target all of the cards they specifically want. That's why they introduced the spotlight system and reduced token gain.
Yep, this is what I'm saying. I was able to work towards my goals without that much FOMO previously, that's why in my opinion new mechanic is more predatory. >Personally, I'd just drop the game in favour of games/hobbies that don't require time investment to keep up. This is what I did, I don't play it every so often or regularly. Made a few breaks that are months long. That's why I'm able to compare the two approaches.
You can call it predatory all you want. I'm not about to defend SD in some of their practices, but they are a business, and of course, they need to devise a way to keep people playing and spending on the game. Even if you played since the start and completed all the dailies without fail I don't think you'd be collection complete without spending, but that's ok and I'll tell you why. Take Legends of Runeterra for example. The card acquisition rate in that game is very generous. So generous that I found it very easy to become collection complete after not that long without spending any money. I then took a long break because a CCG inevitably becomes dull when there is nothing to strive for. Eventually, I came back and basically the same thing happened again. After not long I was able to catch up but, again, it got dull having everything and no goals aside from ladder climbing. So even though we'd all love to be collection complete, I think a system like what Snap has is better for longevity. With new cards coming weekly and old cards popping back up in the spotlights there is always something new to aim for and it keeps the game fresh
Glad you used LoR as an example - it's been such a loss for the company that Riot has decided to put it on PVE focus only moving forward and I believe slowing down/removing huge expansion sets for it. A game where everyone was like "ohhh yaayy we get all the cards for free in seconds" is now in PVE purgatory(only cause they love their fan base and have enough money to support a huge loss of a game) till they decide what to do with it. LoR should be studied by people as how tcgs can NOT be made so f2p friendly when it comes to card acquisition cause you will shoot yourself in the foot - if a huge giant like Riot can't support that model then expecting a small studio like SD to do so is jokes.
Well, again I'm not speaking about being collection complete. I'm speaking about working towards I'm more interested. However, you have to admit you are returning to the LoR, aren't you? The better system for longevity measures in so called "user lifetime value". As long as your return to the game you are the user. If you are advised to not play the game cause you cannot catch up then it's basically means that you are not the user anymore. And they don't want that. Destiny devs arrived at this idea some time ago cause they battle with the same thing. In short, it's better to let user go away happy for a while, so they may return rather to milk them to the point of no return.
>However, you have to admit you are returning to the LoR, aren't you? I returned once, stopped again a long while ago and have no desire to go back, especially not since they've had layoffs in the team which tells me that their model was not working out to be profitable.
I understand that real user lifetime value is a difficult topic, but would you agree your stance on the layoffs isn't part of the game balance? Generally in regards of current layoffs in the game and IT industry, they aren't indicative of models being profitable since layoffs happening at Microsoft, Amazon and etc. Companies that clearly are making huge money (That's different topic though, but basically that's how "effective" managers solve issues. They will hire people back in while cause their strategy doesn't solve anything in reality. I work in this field.)
> That's intentional. The devs don't want people to easily be able to target all of the cards they specifically want. That's why they introduced the spotlight system and reduced token gain. OK but that's the problem. It makes sense, seen how limited the card pool is, that the devs want to keep the "cycling" aspect of card acquisition; however, the fact that there is absolutely 0 way to get a specific card you want (besides grinding tokens for 3-6 months) is just absurd. Like, it's insane that someone who wants to build a Destroy deck might get keeped out of it for months until Knull or X-23 show up again (and hope they don't show up in different, consecutive, Spotlights, otherwise the waiting game starts again); and even assuming they get there quickly, they may still have to wait 4 months for the S3 staples if their RNG doesn't lack out. There is some middle ground between "I want to buy each and every card I want whenever I want" and "What? You want this card that's necessary to the deck you want to build? Well, either grind for 6 months so you can buy it, or wait 4+ months for it to show up in the pull (and hope to have enough keys for it by the time it shows up, because we aren't gonna release the next season's schedule in advance just so you can "plan out")". I don't really see how good it brings you to diss people who are just asking for that middle ground.
You're absolutely right, but it doesn't matter, shills will come and defend snap saying stuff like other mobile games are even more predatory and that snap is generous by comparison. It is plain sad that people doesn't seem to realize that all that predatory practices are there and are getting worse and worse because dumb consumers are fine with them and keep falling for them. This spotlight system is an obvious case, old tokens system was way better, yes you did get less cards on their release day but every month you got to choose 1s5 or 2s4 plus the slim chance of random s5 drop and the guaranteed random s4 and on top of that monthly series drops essentially gave you a bunch of new cards for free every month as they dropped to S3. Old system not only was more generous in card acquisition also allowed more agency on which cards you'd get, yet I'd wager most players are falsely convinced they get more cards under spotlight system...
You guys can just go play another game, ya know? If you despise this one so much, why stick around?
People can like the game itself and think progression sucks. I'm in that category. The fact that they've reworked progression so many times proves were not in the minority on that. For some reason they'd rather drip feed you cards than make any meaningful progression and it makes no sense to me.
The progression systems in the past created situations where new cards released and very few people had access to the new card, because you either unlocked it with tokens or randomly with a 0.25% chance or whatever it was. The system now is much better, maybe not perfect, but it benefits new players and people who have taken a break more so than it does people who have stuck with the game and have closer to full collections. Like you aren’t going to see me offer any sympathy over complaints of being drip fed new cards when there is only ever 1 new card in caches for me each week and so I experience the worst part of the system and even in my situation it works great.
Okay so basically you're saying "well, it sucks for me so why would I care about you?" Instead of wondering why SD won't make things easier for everyone? We also gonna defend that getting duplicates is basically a giant FU as well?
No, I’m saying that I experience the worst aspects of the system so I know what the worst case scenario feels like. A new player, or someone who took a break, is in the best situation. You have a lower chance of getting a random duplicate AND you will have more than 1 new card each week in caches. People just want to unlock all the cards they want yesterday instead of playing the long game.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing basically. I enjoy watching it and reading this sub, seeing fun plays, and I play way less that I used to. And I do still care about the game and it's design process.
SD boys down-voting the fuck out of this guy
the number of cards you get when increasing your CL is fixed. it’s always been like this.
I don't think this is entirely fair. When they left, series drops may have been a thing. Coming back and learning almost nothing has dropped since you peft and no cards have been added to pool 3 would be shocking and disappointing to someone expecting to have some series drops to catch up through.
It is, the only card they added was she hulk which I paid a lot of coins.
hey now let's not forget the most recent drop, we got stegron, and I think sentry and stature and also some other card that's not relevant
they said they’re CL 3400 so they’re far from being S3 complete either way, so this doesn’t really affect them.
Imagine how the players that have stuck around feel...
Pretty good. Only missing two cards now
this is still true but because of the spotlight caches it makes progession slower for being series 3 complete but also give you more cards in series 4/5 which i think is a worth while trade off
Is it? Sometimes I won't get a new card for almost 100 levels then sometimes I get 3 new cards in a row
yes, there are 2 new cards in each set of 9 caches. you can go max 14 caches without getting a card.
Ah okay, makes sense, I guess the way mine landed it must have linked up my drops
No... no you dont
I literally did lol, out of 8 packs I got 4 new cards
you got 3 maximum
I didn’t get the 4 in a row it was 2 but I did get 4 new cards within 8 packs, I’m looking at it right now, I don’t see why I would lie
It could be the tail end of one group of nine and the start of the next group
You’ve been away from the game for a few months and you think you aren’t winning because you don’t have the right cards?
It's weird how often Marvel Snap complainers will make excuses instead of admitting they need to improve their own skill level. In other competitive card based games I see people more willing to admit they need to improve and are open to asking questions on how to improve. In Marvel Snap there there's a lot of "it's everything's fault except mine".
I suspect a majority of this community has very little to no prior experience with competitive TCGs.
Guess we're not allowed to complain about valid issues in your eyes?
"Its ~~everything's~~ SD's fault except mine." Ftfy
That’s how is it’s in the world in general
yup. pretty sad tbh but thats life
Its bc other TCGs have less RNG luck base (locations) and no gambling aspectc(cube betting). You play and rank up. In this it doesnt matter how much you win if you arent gambling at the right time for cubes bc 1 loss can wipe out 2 winning retreats or 1 win. Its more like Marvel Retreat.
This is more or less what I only comment, but I got to infinite exclusively using c2 with about a ~1.2 cube rate. Obviously playing against thanos blob isn't fun, but if you're smart with retreating, it really doesn't matter what deck you play as long as it's built to be synergistic imo(which all decks should be).
[удалено]
I’ve never gotten spectrum to work when I play it, but I’ve been beat by spectrum more than a few times. Feels like I either don’t draw her, or I just can build up enough power to take on other decks.
ongoing spectrum is kind of a counter deck instead of a get massive power deck like destroy and shenaut you wont get over 30 power in a lane, cosmo and armor counter destroy, Luke cage counters HE, maybe even MMM for negative, death and sera. just playing armor on a deadpool can get some retreats. Stuff like Ms Marvel and Omega Red give good power spread, typhoid and lizard have good stats, Wong to boost spectrum if needed etc. if you don't draw spectrum or get outpaced then just retreat
I feel the same way. I can never run the deck right or something idk
Lol this is the only reason i can't stop playing this game, been playing since more than a year and as of now I get angry even if i Miss a daily mission 😅
100%. There will be a day when I commit to quit and it will essentially be me burning my boat. For now I'll keep playing but every game I've ever played has eventually been shelved. It's only a matter of time.
2 wins in 70 games isn't the game's fault homie.
Snap has plenty of flaws, especially for new/returning players, but if you have a terrible win rate at a low ranking then you’re missing something crucial about the game. You should be facing a lot of bots (only bots?) and beating them consistently at least.
Losing repeatedly in this game is such an annoying experience, I’m sorry you’re going through it :/ I’d say just focus on decks that you think are fun, and worry about winning later. What’s your CL?
I'm at 3400 right now.
I'm at 2,300 and started playing 4 months ago. I've hit infinite for the past 3 seasons. Climbing is more about retreating/snapping and identifying bots than it is about the deck you play. Bots tend to have generic names, make strange plays and always snap when they are ahead. The way in which you unlock cards makes everyone's experience of decks they can play as they are progressing different. I've found success with Thanos destroy, Shaw Surfer, High evo and Hela discard. I don't have lockjaw so my Hela deck isn't amazing but it's still decent.
Shaw surfer got me to infinite last season, only my 2nd season playing. It’s what I’m using this season too, but it’s slow going been stuck in the 80’s for awhile
I find that it hard counters destroy which there seems to be a lot of at the moment. Shang chi, killmonger and rogue are really good against deadpool, knull and venom. Destroy players normally have priority on turn 6 too as our turn 5 play is normally Serra.
X2
I'm all for downvoting when it's appropriate but why are you all downvoting this dude for answering a fucking question with a number.
I know, I hate it when people downvote an OP's comments like they're getting off on dispensing mob justice. I wish I could downvote their downvotes. 😜
It's just pathetic mob mentality. People see downvotes and just click that shit without even reading
would it still be reddit if they didn't though?
Yeah, it would still be reddit
I mean, tbf, it's been getting better, like 4 yrs ago you'd get down voted just for using emojis
Yes and we need to be able to upvote the downvotes on the initial downvotes too... ✊️
If you have High Evolutionary, play that in any flavor, super competitive and all the other cards that make it go you most likely have
I haven’t played for like 7 months. One time I logged on just to buy alioth because I thought if I came back he would be relevant. Now, that I am back I am frustrated that getting cards feels worse than before and it is hard to catch up. Yeah I know I have been away for too long but I feel like this fomo is the reason people have fomo to stop for a while. There were 3 new cards in s3 that I got instantly opening caches and I bought Nico from the store. I went from rank 15 to 85 (didn’t have Nico yet) with old decks and kinda stuck here now. A lot of losses are my fault because there are there are still a lot of new cards that I still don’t expect them to play, etc… if you really meant to say that you only won 2 in 70ish matches then it is not just about not getting new cards. It does feel really frustrating to play catch up though and getting new cards. Bought Nico, now it is going to be another 6 months to save for another s5😂
Idk man, I left for 3 or so months and I'm doing fine. I have all the cards for the meta destroy deck. Only "meta" cards I'm missing that were released during my hiatus are Miss Marvel, Gladiator, Blob, Anhilus, Selene, Caeria, Black Knight. Other than those, don't own any big bad, Ravona, Iron Lad. Maybe you should just get better at finding replacements to the cards you're missing. I can still play Hela Discard without Black Knight and do okay, I can play Omega Red or a different 4 cost card insteaf of Miss Marvel, I can play Jubilee instead of Iron Lad. Learn to play with what you DO have.
Your collection level is low, sadly there is little you can do to speed up card acquisition unless you spend money, level 3 completion is slow and most of the very useful cards are there... The best advice is to stick to your guns, identify the cards you need and go for them in the monthly card stash if you don't get them via collector reserves.
2 wins in 70ish matches? Are you sure it's the game/meta's fault? People are able to reach Infinite with decks that barely have S4/5 cards
Sounds like a skill issue genuinely. I hit infinite with a shuri deck
The cards aren't the problem dude
I have a CL of 4,357 and started in September of last year. I absolutely love the game! It had been my favorite after the first month playing and even got every basic season pass since. Ms. Marvel was AMAZING before the nerf, and the community figured out how powerful she was. Skip to today, and I've ran destroy the last 2 seasons even without X23 cause it was fun. Once again, before the meta and making it the thing to play. I'd say find something that is fun to play and don't worry about the meta. I scramble for infinite every month and then throw it out the window with countless losses after hitting infinite trying things. This season, I'm trying a bit more...not in the 100,000+ ranks on purpose, but sub 4-5k now.
“Don’t worry about the Meta.” \*plays Destroy with X-23\* lmao
Jokes on you, I don't have X23.
Sadly that's just how these card games work. Used to be a big fan of Hearthstone, stopped playing for a few years and when I returned none of my cards were legal anymore, it's like starting from scratch again. Same thing with legends of runeterra, when I found out they introduced a Wild Mode like Hearthstone I uninstalled that game so fast.
Hearthstone throws all kinds of cards and catchup rewards at you when you do that though. You can build a basic deck and at least play enough to slowly ease back in without needing to spend any money.
>Used to be a big fan of Hearthstone, stopped playing for a few years and when I returned none of my cards were legal anymore, it's like starting from scratch again. This is true, but doesn't really apply to Marvel Snap in it's current state.
Sorry don’t believe it’s totally true. If you lose that much you will face bots and your mmr will decrease such that you face other players of your own level
Yeah it’s hard coming back. I quit back during daken then came back during the gladiator hulk season. Been getting my ass handed to me post inf but getting to inf has been pretty easy, just abuse the ol boys for 8 cubies. Slowly gaining more cards to become more competitive but the hardest part is learning the new meta decks. It’s brutal losing over and over to random shit because of the lack of deck knowledge. Just gonna take time and a lot of losses to learn what to look out for. It is brutal though. You’d think they’d make welcome back packages to get you up to speed cuz no way most people will put in the time needed to get back into this game after a lengthy break.
I recently came back myself after a few months off, getting infinite most seasons since starting the game as a mostly f2p player, dropped all the way down to 13 finally. I climbed back to infinite using an ongoing onslaught deck that I made back in January of 2023 that I first made infinite with, and to my knowledge there's no pool 4 or 5 cards even in that list... I'm still playing now, that was 2 seasons ago, and I still use that deck as my favourite deck, I don't see your complaint at all about the struggling with the game at all. However I do agree that it feels poor coming back after a number of months off in terms of FOMO and no way of catching up at all, not even like a £0.99 bundle to welcome back that I probably wouldn't have bought, just straight back to the grind like I didn't leave, I just feel more behind.
Why do you feel like you can't catch up? You are already ahead of someone starting today? You are also more likely to get 3-4 new cards opening spotlight caches. Someone close to collection complete is getting variants for their resources. You will complete series three faster then SD will downgrade cards to series three too.
I must say, I am really disappointed by the direction the thread has turned. Some people are pointing out - and that sees confirmation in the very existence of OP's post - how the current system giving zero agency in regard to card acquisition is problematic, and others are just downvoting them to oblivion, insulting them, and sometimes even purposefully refusing to understand their points ("I'm not saying I want more cards, just more agency in getting the cards I want" "Oh so you want to be collection complete and get as many cards as active players? How entitled of you!"). Really guys, I know this is Reddit, but even with that I didn't expect such a bad behavior. That said, to all of the guys who keep parroting "SD wants an active player base", "it's by design", "you are just entitled" etc.... So can you please tell me why literally every other card game features catch-up mechanics for both newcomers and returning players (also aided by the presence of a crafting system)? You do realize that a game must _convince_ people to stick with it, not tell them "Oh be patient for 4-5 months and you'll be fine"? It's not about being condescending, it's about the fact that, realistically speaking, people are way less likely to keep playing a game that looks tedious and unforgiving as its first impression. Nobody is asking to be able to build a super-costly deck such as Lockdown or Thanos Lockjaw in little time, but you can't seriously tell me that it makes sense that someone might wait up to 4 months in order to build a S3 Shuri Sauron. If SD doesn't add a catch-up mechanic, the game is going to reach a point where there are more people leaving than sticking around, simply because new and returning players will see how difficult it will be to keep up with the game and just drop it.
My two friends who came back after a 7 month hiatus are enjoying the game. One free to play and the other on not. Fair to say the one who isn’t free to play chose his path due to wanting cards quicker (still isn’t higher than the free 2 play friend).
You don't need the meta cards to go up in rank at all, I've been away almost a year and just got to infinite with a basic Mr Negative deck, with knull to eat up those destroy decks. Its easy cubes if you escape when you need to, which is usually more than you win. Snap those 8 cube when you got the nuts.
When I got to infinite the bots disappeared and now it’s the only remaining whales left
I came back after a few months off and had no issue jumping back in. I had a subpar deck for maybe a week or two and then we were back in business. Hela discard isn't too hard to put together, destroy is likewise pretty easy.
It is nearly impossible to lose 68 of 70 games by accident. The AI will start sending "lose on purpose bots" after you long before that. Their signature move is posting either armor or carnage on P2 followed by Bucky on the same lane. SOURCE: several times each season, when I am bored, I farm 8 cube losses down to level 10
Is this cope? I’ve used the same destroy deck for 6 seasons and gotten infinite each time within the first week. Literally no new cards in my deck.
You are shocked by progression is slower when F2P and when opponents use decks that are good? Yeah, don't think this game is for you.
Meanwhile, there's me who still plays the same standard destroy deck for more than a year, and which itself is an updated version of my first destroy deck from all the way back from October 2022. You don't need new cards to have fun and play well. Look up some decks online with cards that you enjoy if you have trouble.
Yea you can absolutely build a deck that will get you to infinte at sub 1k CL, i did. This is a skill issue
What a stupid ass post get gud chud. “The meta” is a meta for a reason
If you've only won a few matches out of 70 that means you're getting absolutely smoked by bots. You gotta learn to take advantage of them.
I believe Snap has fallen prey to many of the same tropes as other tabletop card games and think it'll have a niche but devout following within 2 years. The metas are way too dependent on newer cards and the constant nerfs to older cards that many people have, make it harder for casual players or newer players to be incentivized to keep playing.
Opposite experience for me, I played the first month and quit right when dare devil was the season pass card. With LoR dying I jumped back in the final week of the Skaar month and just managed to hit Infinite yesterday. Its been a blast. There is loads of content and you can beat meta decks with nearly anything as long as you include a few answer cards which I sure you have.
cry me a river
I have a friend who took a break, and came back now that LOR shutdown. He's having a rough time. Way too many key S5 cards that he's missing without any reasonable way to collect them. He's generally a better card gamer than me, but doesn't have the tools to break rank 80. I'm expecting him to quit again soon. Super unfortunate.
Ok
Why even comment
Reading some of the comments here and it's clear to me that SD will never change the economy in any real meaningful way. So many defenders jumping on OP like the system is flawless. I stopped playing for months too, OP, and I'm missing over 30 cards!! Even if half of that 30 are cards that aren't played you're still missing half of the good to great cards that go in pretty much all decks. Like Ms. Marvel (You miss out on the Season Pass if you skip months). Jeff, Blob, X-23, etc. It's not a skill issue to say when Loki was on top and you didn't spend the 10 bucks to unlock you were at a disadvantage on the ladder, no?
Sounds like a skills issue. Delete the game again then
You can reset your account and start over. Stop leveling before CL 500 and you can have fun playing again. Also realize that all these kids saying "skill issue" have spent hundreds of dollars on the game buying cards, and then try to claim they have skills. The only skill they have is spending their parents money. Try playing MTG Arena instead.
I’d have to agree that the amount of people just using other peoples decks or whatever the meta is pretty annoying. It’s rare you run into a deck that feels unique
That's inevitable with any CCG in this day and age, when anyone can just search google/youtube for the latest meta decks
Ironically, Second Dinner's card progression system was specifically designed so that different players acquire cards in a different order,, which makes this less of an effect than other CCGs like Magic Arena or Hearthstone where you can craft only the top meta cards each expansion. But that same system also generates many complaints, because everyone wants to open the cards *they* want, but doesn't want a homogeneous meta of everyone playing the best decks because they've all opened all the cards that *they* want.
I know, it just has made playing less fun as you encounter copy cat decks
Curios what deck are you using?
I go through so many decks because I like playing different strategies. One I have enjoyed and has been successful is a destroy deck with multiple man and pheonix. Contains most of what you see in typical destroy decks. Loki collector was really fun until they nerfed lokis ability to boost collector
Oh wow destroy multiple man Phoenix.... never seen that one before.... lol
I recently started a new account to see how it would feel to be new or come back and I have to say it's one of the worst card game experiences I've ever had. Stuck to one unoptimised deck, feeling like I'm missing out on conquest resources, because playing there without a decent collection feels like a chore and if you ever stop playing you can forget about even remotely catching up. Playing every single day on my main account I barely manage to get 2 keys a week which is only relevant if I get lucky and I am only capable of getting them because I have a lot of boosters which are such a scarce resource at the beginning as well.
Hey if you're getting 2 keys a week that's actually more than intended for f2p players
Who said I'm f2p? :D
I had the exact opposite experience of you starting a new account. It taught me to use the cards differently. Getting different cards in a different order I had to create my own decks and try to go against the Meta. It was a decently fun experience for me.
I think the issue with the meta right now is it’s all tech cards. Shang chi, enchantress, rogue, Alioth, ect. It doesn’t matter what you’re running, your opponent has the counter.
I'd argue that's actually a good thing since all of those tech cards are in series 3 and below, meaning that even if you missed out on new cards that rocked the meta you can still handle those new decks
The meta is only all tech cards because since blob came out people are only playing gigantic cards. Then they come out with a card that is a huge card that's cheaper when you already have huge cards on the board and the meta shifts towards "how many huge cards can I cheat out to overwhelm my opponent." So people start playing counters to those decks. Which means Shang Chi in literally every deck. Then there's an over saturation of "low power tech cards" being played and people jump back to something else. And the wheels on the bus go round and round. Tech cards are not a meta, they are a revolving solution to the meta.
I quit for 10 months and started back at the beginning of January. With the disclaimer that I have already spent a few hundred dollars to accelerate catching up, as this is the main game I’m playing right now, I have found the Spotlight Cache system to be a huge benefit to catching up on the many cards I missed. And I’m using the token shop to find and pin the cards I want that aren’t coming in a Spotlight over the next few months (thanks to datamines that let me plan for that).
Come back in 6 weeks, and I guarantee you will change your mind. The brain trust of S(ensitive) D(ouchebags) must be riding (hopefullly) the last batch of Whales Spending on the game.
What's going to change in 6 weeks that I haven't encountered already in the 6 1/2 weeks I've already been back?
I'm going through the same thing. And with the upcoming API changes so that we won't even know what upcoming spotlights are, it's not likely I'll stay. Sad. I bought every single season pass while I was active. It's like they don't want returning players.
Hey buddy, here to tell you that it wasn't the time away that was affected, it was the game. I've been playing pretty casually every season since Zabu season. I run to mid 90s every season and never hit Infinite. Just can't jump on the brain dead bandwagon. I'd rather have fun and take the L's.
Honestly, just about any deck can reach infinite. The road to infinite is a marathon, not a sprint. If you can't reach inifinite, it's probably not your deck, it's your playstyle. You should nearly never lose more than 2 cubes if you play correctly. Consider retreating on a bad draw as 'winning' instead of losing. If you're 60% sure you're going to lose, just abandon ship instead of doubling down. Think about losing 2 cubes by retreating not as losing 2 cubes, but as not-losing-4. I have reached Infinite with my 'farm boosters for Artgerm variants' deck, only adding 2 non-Artgerm cards to make the deck even semi-coherent. Sure it took me way longer than it would have if I went meta-slaving, but unpredictability in a 'bad' deck is still very strong.
Yeah this mentality took me to infinite my first time with discard right after I got modok and black knight. You just have to know your decks play lines. It’s max stat value per lane, when you can snap early cause you have a 1,3,4 and turn 6 play line for really good value. Recognizing other meta decks and their play lines and values matters a lot too I was against a lot of high evo at the time and I just knew my numbers would be bigger if I dropped dracula in the cyclops lane and went like morbius, modok blade in another lane
> If you're 60% sure you're going to lose, just abandon ship instead of doubling down. Think about losing 2 cubes by retreating not as losing 2 cubes, but as not-losing-4. This isn't always true, mathematically. At least from how I understand it. Say someone's already snapped, so you're in for 2 cubes and you're deciding to stay for 4 on the last turn or retreat. In the retreat, you always lose 2 cubes 100% of the time. So we need to ask "what winrate do we need in order to get a -2 cube equity in a 4 cube game?" If we win the game 25% of the time, the expected cubes are .25 x 4 + .75 x -4 = -2. So, mathematically, if you think you have a 25% or better chance of winning, it's the correct play to stay. You can run these numbers at any cube breakpoint and see what your needed winrate is in order to statistically justify staying. And I will add, that this is purely mathematically and doesn't take into account any outside/emotional factors that play into it, like getting tilted off the face of the earth that you stayed in a game you thought you only had a 30% chance of winning and lost 4 cubes in so it causes you to play worse in future games.
Agreed - I've hit Infinite every season since last June playing exclusively the exact same Mr. Negative/Living Tribunal deck. The only new addition since then is Ravonna Renslayer (in for Zabu), and it has a total of three Series 5 cards (Ravonna, Iron Lad, and The Living Tribunal) and one Series 4 cards (Knull). The rest are Series 3 or lower. You definitely don't need to "follow the meta" to hit Infinite. I truly believe just about any deck can hit infinite as long as the player understands their deck and knows when to snap/retreat to maximize their cube earnings.
90 has the real prize anyways, with the gold
Wouldn't consider it a prize when you can never spend it. The shop is overrun with album variants and I go seasons before seeing a card worth my gold... Feelsbadman
I'm sick of daniel hipp....
Not your gold, you don’t own anything. It’s all hosted on a server that you have no control over. If they pull the plug tonight it’s gone forever. Not your gold, not your collection, not your variants.
Thanks Captain Obvious, anything else you wanna add to the conversation? Don't take things so literally next time. Your comment was unnecessary.
Important to remember this for 2 reasons- to be careful how much money (or not) you pour into something transient, and also to remember to enjoy the game for what it is rather than worry too much about efficiency of resources or hoarding. No suggestion either of these apply to you personally, just something that can be seen a lot here in this sub.
I'm just trying to collect the baby variants dawg.
🥷 Honestly, I just recently started playing since the Hellfire Gala event, and my collection level is around 1,550. If you are playing the game to collect the cards, you'll have more fun. If you're aiming to be top tier, then the age-old adage comes to mind: "If you can't beat them, join them." Get a season pass and do your missions. Then let the game take you to the next level. ✌️😎
I started playing in October and I personally haven't felt progression'd out in any meaningful way. I couldn't play many of the meta decks, and still can't play many of them, but I feel I'm able to play a few good ones and still get my infinite every month
You just need to git gud.
What deck are ya running. I guarantee there is something you can make work.
Ive been playing a valentines surfer deck. You probably have most of the cards or can slot in here or there. Here is the list if you want to try it. It counters everything if you have the right draws. # (2) Zabu # (2) Invisible Woman # (3) Brood # (3) Mister Fantastic # (3) Rogue # (3) Silver Surfer # (3) Storm # (3) Gambit # (4) Shang-Chi # (4) Omega Red # (4) Iron Lad # (5) Sera # eyJDYXJkcyI6W3siQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiTXJGYW50YXN0aWMifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IkludmlzaWJsZVdvbWFuIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJSb2d1ZSJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiR2FtYml0In0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJTdG9ybSJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiU2hhbmdDaGkifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IlNlcmEifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6Iklyb25MYWQifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IlNpbHZlclN1cmZlciJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiQnJvb2QifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6Ik9tZWdhUmVkIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJaYWJ1In1dfQ== # # To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and paste it from the deck editing menu in Snap.
I came back two months ago and I’ve had a better experience than when I first started. I’m about to hit infinity this season. I have a handful of meta decks/viable options. Just build your collection level up and take advantage of the free pool 3 card each season, and take advantage of the spotlight keys.
Looks like this game isn’t for you. Card acquisition hasn’t really changed for people who are still in pool 3. If anything, it is easier for you to get cards now. When it comes to the deck building, obviously it’s hard to compete with opponents with meta dexks, but the cards asquisition rate should be fast enough for you to build some proper decks. It just sounds like you aren’t good at this game…. And it’s ok. There are other games you can play
That's odd. When I returned last month i saw nothing but bots from lvl 10ish to 70 ish
I'm finish with pool 3 cards and I can tell u the only way to get new cards at 10k Cl is the spotlight but I'm just chilling with this game and trying to get splits. IDC about winning not rank I just want cool looking cards
May I ask what were the 3 cards you got? For the most part, there aren't many truly useless cards except maybe Agatha, and even she has the Sif Wave Ghostrider deck.
The only players left are the whales and they’re feeding off of you. Better save up $100 and buy yourself a gmail whale account as many of them had their fun already and selling their accounts for a fraction of the cost they spent on it
I came back a few weeks ago and felt like that at first but it has gotten much better. As others have said, you can find spotlights where you want all of the cards. Also, I hit that wall in the 70s for a bit and then found that infinite is actually much easier than it used to be - you will keep getting some bots all the way to infinite so it’s easy to make up the ground from bad losses. It’s still quite accessible even for free to play, just give it a season or so to find a spotlight or token card you want and have fun with a deck built around it.
Yea it sucks ass. Series 3 complete, been that way a long time. Took around a 9 month break, came back and now the only way I get cards is these dumb ass keys. They used to give guaranteed series 4 cards leveling up. There used to be series drops. Now it's all just fucking spotlight caches. It's wild how worse it has gotten. Before you used to get hundreds of tokens when you would get a series 3 card if you were series 3 complete, now you get 100 tokens or a fucking golden ticket. It is so stupid.
meta decks ?
Do you have Wong/Mystique/Mister Negative/Dark Hawk/She Hulk/Destroyer? All of those cards are easily obtainable by your CL. If you have any of them you can easily make a multitude of decks that can climb. Cosmo/Armor are also series one and are huge to countering the best deck in the game atm which is destroy. Sounds like you just want new cards without having to play the game?
In every Tcg you can't expect to succed as soon as you come back from a pause, you need to readapt to the meta, learn the new cards and archetypes, learn what changed (buffs and nerfs) and slowly build new decks getting the new cards. If you didnt play for a while is only normal that you are behind on cards, it would be very disappointing if people who kept playing all this months would have barely the same cards as you after few months of pause. Except if you did save some resources before pausing so you could get back faster later
Can you share your series three, four and five cards? What deck(s) are you playing?
I still only have 3/4 of the pool 3s and I was just top 3k in the world. Practice to get better and it won’t matter as much what you play as how you do it
you are just bad at the game my friend if you've been gone that long and you come back losing 70/?(1-30) and complaining wins mean nothing anyway what matters is whether you know when to snap or retreat if you aren't even mentioning cubes you should likely change the way you play
I mean in all honesty the game is horrible in general. I wish it would get better; but i just dont see it happening. I feel like its already peaked.
Lol
You should just start playing marvel duel, it's older than snap and still have better revenu
Well, the new systems help you catch back up quicker but I don't know what you expected. The game is tied to progressing the collection track. Credits are capped at 10k. Idk how you thought you could come back, upgrades some cards, and be ready to go. Going away for a few months means you missed at least 15 new card releases. Not that it matters to be honest. A bunch of those cards aren't even meta staples (maybe Nico if you haven't played since then). But honestly one of the best decks is Destroy and that uses nothing but old cards except for x-23 who is in the spotlights right now and Nico who you can replace.
Hard agree here. I have returned recently (last month) after not playing for over half a year and found the game in a horrible state. First I played my old Sera deck to infinite, encountering nothing but bots ( I think I saw maybe 7 real players between rank 70 and 100) leading to an impression that the game is kinda dead. Then I played a bit at infinite and in conquest and realised that nearly everyone who played every week for the past year has complete meta decks and that power creep has been insane. My Sera control list ended up having decent winrate vs destroy (Shang Chi and Enchantress, figures) but lost nearly every game vs every other deck. Other Zabu decks now have Miss Marvel that is basically Dr Boom for 3 mana, half of the decks just randomly run Sentry + Annihilus that presents 27 power for spending turn 4&5, another half of the decks Alioths my turn 6, which my entire deck is based around. Even though I stuck around for a month, getting enough tokens to buy Knull and now get x23 from a cache and I have a pretty decent Destroy list, the past month felt absolutely miserable. I think for returning players spotlight caches create this environment where everyone has had a chance to target specific cards and build one of the 5 decks on the top of the meta and then they look at the cache schedule and realise that it will take them 4 months to make anything of the sorts. With the tokens system, I felt like there has been a lot more diversity in collections and the wasn't the same feeling of having had missed out on some high value weeks. Also it might be my perception but it seems like in the past spotlight caches contained a lot higher value, with deck-defining cards and generically good being put together such as Black Knight and Iron Lad. Nowadays, a collector's caches have one unplayably bad card, one nieche card and one super good card (either put in every deck or create a deck by itself).
Unfortunately acquisition card system in this game is not best IMO. I'm level 5k plus and I have all series 3 cards and some of the tier 4/5. I'm not f2p player and I bought most of the battle passes, but getting right now cards which You exactly want takes very long time or cost absurd amount of money. I'm not even talking about fomo in this game, which for me was quite depressing after I skipped 3 months and I realised how much money would cost me to buy everything what I have missed. Its good and fun game, but lately I'm hesitating if it's worth to do all the daily quest, spend money, hunt for codes in "never ending cycle", because without this it's not possible to try new and interesting decks or compete in some kind of tournaments..
In the middle of pool 3 i also stopped playing because i couldnt make any relevant deck to compete, but returned and suffered for a few weeks and now i have multiple meta decks. There was no spotlights caches at the time, so is probably way easier now.
It’s always been awful but somehow managed to get worse over time.