Developer Update for the Week of June 15, 2024: Deadpool’s Diner + Sersi Edition (40+ Questions)!

Hello all! Welcome back to this week’s breakdown of what’s happening over on the Marvel Snap official Discord! This week, we get answers to questions such as: what’s up with the new Deadpool mode, what happened to Character Mastery, are Ultimate Variant reworks dead, and more! If you want to stay up to date with what’s coming and what answers developers have for the community, make sure to check back here each week!

This week’s edition comes after the launch new card Sersi! If you don’t know if this card is worth a Spotlight Cache, make sure to check out our weekly Spotlight Cache guide, as well as our Bonus Challenge guide!

Sersi Decks & Week 1 Review: Bonus Challenge Guide

Answers and questions may be slightly rephrased for more clarity and ease of reading. This week’s topics will be divided into Card Specific Questions, Other Questions, Deadpool’s Diner Questions, and Questions From You!

Remember, you can check out our new Marvel Snap Developer Tracker to see all questions and answers in real time! Topics can also be searched, filtered, and sorted.

Card Specific Questions

Q: Is there a reason why Sersi sometimes won’t trigger?
A: Glenn “We’ve discovered an unusual live bug that can cause Sersi to fail on occasion, and will have it fixed soon.”

Q: If Cassandra will be a reward in the Deadpool event, what will be in that week’s Spotlight cache?
A: Glenn “Cassandra will not be in the Spotlight cache that week.  There will be three returning Series 4/5 cards so there will no newly released card in the spotlight that week.  Cassandra will be in future spotlights down the road.”

Q: Will Phastos always add +2 Power if a card (like Wasp) is already at 0-Cost?
A: Glenn “1. No, he’ll apply the -1 Cost 50% of the time.”

Q: Does Phastos have a minimum 1-Cost restriction?
A: Glenn “Like other triggered abilities, he can reduce Costs to 0. We only use that minimum of 1 for passive effects right now.”

Q: Why make Phastos still 50% on a 0-Cost? Other card games would use this to let players have advanced options.
A: Glenn “I can’t speak to how other games work, but in my experience exceptions to effects can breed fairly meaningful complexity in maintaining systems. Once we have to test Phastos + Wasp uniquely from other cards, we’ll also be committing future cards that interact uniquely with them to extra tests, and future cards similar to Phastos to that functionality.

That can be worth it, for things we expect to happen enough (and be fun enough) to be worth establishing a novel expectation. But this is a fairly small impact on something we’re not directly encouraging that won’t occur much organically unless we cause it to, so it didn’t meet that bar.”

Q: Now that Professor X can have cards move into his location, can he be moved? Like with Great Web?
A: Glenn “Sure, that would work”

Q: Was the extra Power for Professor X meant as a buff, or an extra nerf with Ravonna?
A: Glenn “[The] OTA is certainly a nerf to Professor X. In the case of increased Power specifically, we did consider whether increasing the previous card to 5/2 was a nerf or buff, given it’s only 1 Power and solved the Ravonna part of the combo. However, while slight, the added Power seemed better because Ravonna herself could be relatively easily replaced by another strong card without losing much strength.

The deck would’ve been less good at playing Professor X on turn 4, but Professor X would’ve been very slightly better as a card overall.”

Q: Was the double nerf to Professor X necessary?
A: Glenn “Could we have gotten away with a stronger Professor X? Sure, maybe. But failing to address the problem is a worse outcome than over-addressing it, when the goal is to restore diversity to the gameplay experience. Professor X had become the dominant strategy, and in addition to our metrics it seemed clear that players weren’t enjoying it, so we erred on the side of safer than sorrier.”

Q: Why nerf Hela? I thought her winrate wasn’t that high according to your metrics?
A: Glenn “As we’ve stated in the past and in [the] Balance Update, winrate isn’t the only metric we use to assess metagame health. Cube rate, play rate, matchup spread, matchmaking bands, individual card metrics, and even upcoming content all play a role, among other factors.

In Hela’s case, the combination of creeping play rate over time and a lack of available or upcoming counterplay were the major factors that compelled us to weaken the deck. We weren’t thrilled with how more Hela tends to mean more Professor X either, but with him being nerfed we needed to ensure she wouldn’t go unchecked.”

Q: Why does Stegron aim specifically right?
A: Glenn “Nothing in particular. We wanted to him to ‘aim’, so we picked a direction.”

A: Addison “Glenn missed a perfect opportunity to compare Stegron to a certain actor….because he’s…alright alright alright”

Q: Why does Loki remain untouched when he remains the undisputed best deck at the top ranks?
A: Glenn “The data doesn’t support the premise that Loki has been the best deck at any MMR band recently, nor that this will imminently change. It could; if it does, we’d react then.

Do some of the best players in the game play a lot of Loki? Sure, but we can’t balance the game around the playstyle preferences of the best players. Most players will never even encounter them, so that pocket metagame isn’t representative of the wider experience. The players at the top of infinite would perform equally well with a variety of decks.”

Q: If a future card is released that could be used to tech against Hela, could we see her nerf reversed?
A: Glenn “I’d say it’s possible, but it doesn’t seem especially likely vs. tuning the number to -1 and adding Power to Hela, if we wanted to “restore” her. Changing card text and mechanics is more complex than stat updating, we don’t often do it unless we’re comfortable keeping it.”

Q: Why is a card nerfed instead of introducing a counter or buffing other cards? And why was Professor X nerfed when Cannonball was the problem?
A: Glenn “I’ll start with the second question: Because Cannonball is a more fun card with the potential to see use in a wider range of decks. I also wouldn’t classify his performance as precise; it’s gone up and down, and affected the balance of other cards in the past.

The first question is a different topic, but generally speaking balance issues are most effectively addressed directly. Indirect adjustments, like releasing a new card or buffing another, work from time to time. The latter is much less reliable, and has costs to the game system by threatening to create new imbalances elsewhere. In Professor X’s case, we’ve also tried both multiple times. Jeff, Omega Red, War Machine; even stuff like US Agent and Namora we hoped would have more impact against Professor X. Some effects we thought had a chance to hinder even turned out to be helpful, like White Widow or Klaw.”

Q: Why did Gilgamesh get +1 Power instead of +2 Power (with less base Power)?
A: Glenn “Every version of the card we played at +2 Power felt too strong, including 0 Power.”

Q: How is Sage at +2 considered fine, but gilgamesh at +2 was considered too strong?
A: Glenn “Gilgamesh at +2 can gain 22 Power. Sage isn’t even close on the high end, though she may have a more favorable floor.”

Other Questions

Q: What happened to new Infinity Splits? They weren’t on the newest roadmap.
A: Daniela “We’re working on them!”

A: Stephen “The work is largely done for these.  You can expect them a patch or two after Alliances.”

Q: Will you be removing the loading of opening Caches in your future improvements section of the roadmap?
A: Stephen “Yes that is part of improving tech performance.  We want to get to a place where there is no or very little loading circle time when claiming collection level rewards”

Q: Is Character Mastery being totally scrapped, or has it pivoted to something else?
A: Stephen “In July during Deadpool season we will be releasing the first character albums.  The first ones will be for Deadpool and Wolverine.  You will be able to earn additional rewards for owning variants for those two characters.  We will be giving bonus progress (not required) for any bundle/season pass/conquest/limited time variants as well.  These two character albums will also be the first time you can earn a custom Reaction.  Reactions are the angry/starry eyed/surprised/etc face you can put on cards and locations.

This does not fulfill the full promise of Mastery but we designed them to fill the gap for now.  The enormous response we are seeing about mastery is inspiring and has resulted in many conversations about next steps.  Please keep sharing your thoughts and feedback.”

Q: Will Alliances be region locked, or can you play across regions?
A: Stephen “Yes you can be in alliances across regions”

Q: Can the shop be improved where I don’t see constant album variants in my daily shop?
A: Stephen “Our hope is to get to a place where all variants are in an album (or more than one album).  The result of that is more and more cards in the shop will be part of an album.

What I think you are really asking for is a way to get the specific variant you want.  We have a dedicated data scientist and team focused on improving the daily offer shop experience to better offer variants that are relevant to each individual player.  That work is ongoing and will continue to improve over time.”

Q: Will new Infinity Splits be added to the pool of existing splits you can randomly get, or will they be gold purchases like the new borders?
A: Glenn “New splits will be earned as a new reward type across the game that you can apply to a character of your choice.  They can also be bought for gold if you want it now.  When you unlock a new split for a character it will also be ‘discovered’ and combo on all future infinity splits for that character.

For example, if you earn the ‘Bananas Flare’ that rains bananas around the card and you apply it to Magneto, you will immediately be able to equip your Magneto Custom Card with No Finish / Bananas Flare.  If what you really want is Gold Foil / Bananas Flare then you will have to get it through infinity splits.”

Q: Will Character Albums factor in splits or avatars? And will limited run variants give a boost to those albums?
A: Stephen “Avatars and Splits will not count towards Character Albums because they are built on the foundation of the existing variant albums.   Existing album tech is built specifically for variants and doesn’t allow for avatars/splits at this time.  Our content authoring tools require each one to be manually made through the tool so someone on the team would have to setup one for each character.  I dont have an estimate right now on how many we will make per season.  A lot of that will depend on how everyone responds to the Deadpool and Wolverine ones!

Yes we are going to start adding bonus progress for limited time variants on future variant albums!”

Q: What is the status of Ultimate Variant Evolution?
A: Stephen “We built some prototypes that were cool, but we felt did not quite deliver on the fantasy and value level of Ultimate variants.  We are going to continue to prototype it, but we felt it made sense to remove it from the roadmap because we aren’t sure when/if we will be able to ship it into the live game / in your hands in a reasonable period of time.”

Q: Any hint to what the new card mechanic will be?
A: Stephen “It will be a new keyword like ‘ongoing’ or ‘on reveal’

Q: Will the new card mechanic auto apply to old cards?
A: Glenn “Once it’s released, the new mechanic will be a tool in our toolbox for adjusting cards–the same as every other mechanic in the game.”

Q: What feedback are you looking for exactly about a possible draft mode?
A: Stephen “Draft mode has not been in concept since launch.  It is relatively new to our concept pipeline.  Previously we had decided not to consider draft as a mode due to its poor performance in other digital CCG and CCG adjacent games.  We hope to find a version that will change that and make it fun for a wider audience of players.

As far as feedback, it would be good to understand what makes draft fun for players that enjoy it and what pain points exist in traditional draft for people that do not enjoy it or were afraid to try it.”

A: Glenn “To add a design perspective: I don’t believe ‘just draft SNAP cards’ is the path to the most fun expression of draft we could do, and that’s our target.

While draft is an established concept, there are a lot of details to decide. Consider the below list of fun drafting games, and how many differences there are between them:
* Magic
* Hearthstone Arena
* Runeterra Expeditions
* Shadowverse Arena
* Clash Royale Mega Draft

And that’s without including autobattlers or paper games! These games have many design elements supporting draft in ways that might not be obvious to players. As just one example, they feature content division like colors, classes, regions, etc. and/or curate drafts around specific themes. These all path players towards a fun experience, and SNAP doesn’t have a clear analog to lean on–that has pros and cons.

I personally love drafting games, so I’m excited to be exploring it for SNAP.”

Q: Will black particle effects ever be improved?
A: Daniela “We know Black Splits could look better, it’s on the to do list! Thank you for patience!”

Q: Why was card acquisition improvements only in concept on the roadmap?
A: Stephen “Our intent for the roadmap is to be as transparent as we can about features that we have high conviction in releasing.  Card acquisition improvements is something that players are extremely passionate about and if we release something that does not meet expectations then the response will be extremely negative.  To achieve the player expectation bar for card acquisition changes in a way that is also sustainable and profitable for us as a company requires a lot of thought, experimentation, and iteration.

When we feel more confident in a solution, we will be excited to share more details and listen to feedback.”

Q: With the scrapped character mastery, are you interested in keeping the idea of rewards for having lots of splits on a character?
A: Stephen “Definitely want to create something to reward going deep on splitting a character.  I have 20+ splits for a few characters myself and wish something cool came from it.  I dont have any details or time periods on when that will happen right now, but once it gets more concrete and timely will share more information.”

Q: Are there any plans to add new rewards to the Premium Mystery Variant so mix up rewards from mostly 700g variants?
A: Stephen “We recognize that players who are variant complete have fallback rewards that are no where near as exciting as the variants themselves.  Definitely want to improve that experience in the future.  I dont have details or timelines to share on those changes right now, but will share more when I do.”

Q: How do you balance the difference in positive and negative feedback on changes to the game?
A: Glenn “Working on Magic, one of the lessons Mark Rosewater often stressed was that when people care about a game, they’re going to have strong emotions around it. Depending on the person and what they care about, those feelings might be expressed positively or negatively.

But they point towards the same truth: the player is emotionally invested in the game. It’s a valued part of their life now. That’s a serious thing, and we take it seriously in our role as stewards.

That said, the audience is also a lot of people! There are different wants and needs there, and it’s impossible to please everyone. Our responsibility is to build systems and processes that create the most satisfying experience we can. One of the unique ways we’ve decided to do that with SNAP is our willingness to change the metagame with action, not just reaction. Rather than try to get every card to a perfect point and leave it forever, we’re willing to return to old decisions and choose new paths to see what joy that might bring.

Hopefully, in this way we’re building a game that everyone can love–even if what they love occasionally changes, or temporarily fades away to make room for something new.”

Q: What decks do you enjoy playing? And could you share your lists?
A: Stephen “I used to post my infinite decks on Twitter but haven’t for a bit.  Right now I’m using a junk destroy and a move buff deck.  Last season I used a black knight war machine deck.”

A: Glenn “I often share whatever deck I play to Infinite on Twitter, and occasionally other cool ones I find.”

Q: Do you see an increase in card usage when a character is featured in media? Like did Nimrod see more play with X-Men 97′ being released?
A: Glenn “Not really, no.”

Deadpool’s Diner Questions

Q: Why does every new game mode need a new currency? Like the upcoming Deadpool mode has bubs
A: Glenn “Using mode-specific currencies ensures we can do what’s right for each mode without being constrained by existing game elements or how they might change over time. This adds considerable flexibility to development; that’s why it’s a common solution in games, from play modes to crafting items.

I can’t promise what we’ll do in a hypothetical future, but how players SNAP over the season is important to us. We’re a game, we want you to set goals for yourself and enjoy achieving them.”

Q: On the upcoming Deadpool track, it looks like you can unlock custom borders. Can you choose which cards get the borders, or is it random?
A: Daniela “You’ll be able to decide which characters the borders go to ☺️”

Q: For Deadpool’s Diner, what made you decide to go with doubling the stakes on turns 4, 5, and 6 and implementing high stakes play instead of stakes doubling on other turns or implementing the ability to Snap more than once? Also, if games can go up to a 32x wager if both players snap, how will we end up with enough Bubs in circulation such that there will be enough people reaching 500 million Bubs by the end? Finally, what made you guys decide to make Deadpool’s Diner a Limited Time Mode, as per the IGN description?
A: Stephen “Great questions!  I’ll do my best to explain it but feel free to ask follow ups.

We experimented with a few different ways to increase the number of snaps (player controlled with 3 each, auto doubling on turn 2, 4, and 6, etc) but found that it doubling on 4, 5, and 6 led to a feeling similar to texas hold em with the flop being the first 3 rounds and then another intense raise/call moment per card turn.  Fwiw, Diner is my new favorite way to play the game and has been pretty much all I play the past month or so.  I’m really excited for people to get their hands on it.

As far as the stakes going up, there will be 15 tables of increasing stakes.  The first table will be named “Cereal” (since this its Deadpool’s Diner afterall) and have Bubs starting at 10 on turn 1 and up to 320 by turn 6 if all 5 snaps occur.  The final table (table 15) is called Maximum Effort and starts at 6.4M Bubs on turn 1 and can go up to 204.8M Bubs if all five snaps occur.

Each table increases the stakes and also increases the potential earnings.  On the reward track there are moments where you can earn a new “Bub Regen / Menu Level” that will increase the amount of Bubs you get if you bottom out.  Our hope is that this will act like a ranked floor to help people always progress up to higher stakes and not feel afraid of snapping while still maintaining the tension of the higher stakes.”

Q: We saw in the screenshots the top value is at 50 million bubs, is that total won over time or current?  How many do we start with and how often do they refresh?
We bet ahead of time, are we able to bet more than we have? what about more than our opponent has? It was mentioned you move up to tables over time, what does that change on our end other than the rewards available?
A: Stephen “The reward track is cumulative not net!  If you lose all your Bubs you can get back towards climbing the reward track immediately.

Everyone will start with 240 Bubs.  If you lose them then you will get 1/8th of that regen cap every hour (8 hours to fully refill to your cap).  You can increase the amount you can regen over time by reaching certain reward milestones where that number can go up.  By the time you reach the final “Menu Upgrade” you regen cap will be 30M.

You cannot bet more than you have.  If you go ‘all in’ then that will be the max amount of Bubs in the match.  There is a minimum requirement of entry for each table.”

Q: Will the mode be always avaliable, and sometimes Deadpool themed? Or sometimes avaliable and always Deadpool themed.
A: Daniela “we don’t have full details yet on when it will be available after its initial launch, but whenever it appears it will always be Deadpool themed”

Q: I think a concern many of us have is trying to reach 500 million and losing it all. Will the “bub regen” basically help lock in a spot that you won’t go below?
A: Daniela “Hey! to clarify more, the reward track is tracking *lifetime* Bubs. so losing bubs doesn’t bring you ‘down the track’. So even when you’re losing games, you’re not losing progress towards the rewards. That being said, if you can climb up the tables, you’ll get rewards faster!”

A: Stephen “Thats right!  The intent is that if you go ‘all in’ and crash down to 0 that you will have a meaningful safeguard to help you get back into the action without starting over.  By the time you are pushing for 500M you will have a Bub Regen Cap of 30M.  You earn the 30M Regen Cap when you reach the 30M milestone reward.”

Q: Will Deadpool’s Diner replace other in game events like Avengers V X-Men?
A: Stephen “They are completely separate and have no contingency on each other!”

Questions From You!

Each week, I ask readers of the weekly dev update to leave their questions down in the comment section. That way we can ask those questions on your behalf, or let you know the answers if those questions have been asked before! I read each comment you leave, so I will be adding this section at the end of each week’s edition to highlight your questions that you asked last week!

Q: Will there be a black border coming soon?
A: Stephen “There is a black and rainbow cosmic border coming in a future update.  We dont have a specific date we can commit to yet for them.  They are super dope so dont blame you for asking about them.”

Q: Why is the credit reward for the Rian Gonzales chibi album so little compared to the Staying Hipp album despite all the variants being Super Rare variants?
A: Stephen “The reward in the Rian album is a Series 5 card variant (Iron Lad) that unlocks the ability to play with a Series 5 card if you dont own it yet.”

Q: What is the dev teams favorite variant in game?
A: Devs recently added a tag to the game to mark their favorite variants called “dev pick”. In a previous dev update edition, devs listed who picked what.
Glenn: Peach Momoko’s Magik
Daniela: Baby Morbius
Chris: Fiona Lockjaw
Addison: Pixel Korg
Alex: Winter Vacation Devil Dino
Bella: Artgerm Loki

Q: Why are there no longer bots in the 90s tier of the ladder?
A: Glenn “The only reason a player encounters a bot in the upper ranks of the ladder is if the matchmaking queue is taking too long to find them an appropriate match within their MMR band.”

Keep Your Questions and Feedback Coming!

That’s all for this week’s update! Be sure to check back here at Marvel Snap Zone for next week’s update! If you enjoyed the amount of content in this edition, make sure to keep asking your questions to the developers by submitting it in their official Discord in the “#ask-the-team” channel. If you have questions and don’t use Discord, leave your questions for the developers in the comment section here, and I will make sure your question has been answered by the devs!

If you have feedback or changes you would like to see with these weekly updates, also let us know in the comment section!