What’s the deal?

Marvel Snap is an online collectable card game (CCG) similar to games like Hearthstone and is surprisingly simple and easy to get into. It keeps the game mechanics to a minimum and involves building a small deck of twelve cards to face off against other players. The deck consists of various characters from the Marvel universe, and it probably comes as no surprise that with so much lore embedded in the comics, there is a wide variety of characters to choose from. The roster is regularly expanding and being updated, which means there will always be new cards to try and involve both well-known and obscure names. Even though I’ve digested thousands of comics over the years, there are always a few characters that pop up that I need to give a Google. I genuinely thought “Jeff the Baby Land Shark” was a late April Fools card when I first saw it! Almost all of these cards have an ability which is used to buff your cards or screw with your opponents. There are different categories of abilities that will trigger under certain conditions: “on reveal” will come into effect as soon as a card is revealed, “ongoing” lasts the game and “destroy” destroys your or your opponent's card(s), to name a few. In addition, some cards work in unison and complement each other, which means making a themed deck is pretty easy once you have enough cards (more on that later).

Playing is a snap!

Once you have your deck, gameplay remains the same regardless of which game mode you choose. You’re paired with a random player and over six rounds lay down cards from your deck at the different locations in the centre of the board. Each card has an energy cost and you can lay down as many cards as you can afford until the energy runs out. Energy increases with each round (round one you have one energy, round six you have six energy) and as the game goes on you can play more powerful cards. Along with an energy cost your cards will also have a power rating. The goal is to score the most power at 2 out of 3 of the locations in order to win. In the event of a tie, the overall power rating across all locations decides the winner. Like the cards in your deck, locations all have abilities which can greatly help or hinder you. Some may give your cards extra power or give you extra energy, but there are some that destroy cards or makes you swap decks with your opponent, which greatly forces you to change tact on the fly.  

Throughout the game is a cube floating at the top of the board which grants you points for winning a game. These points will let you climb a ladder to rank you higher and pair you with similarly ranked opponents. Likewise, losing a game will take you down in rankings. During the game you can “snap” which doubles the stakes and lets you win or lose more points. Your opponent can do the same at any point which means there are a maximum of eight points at stake. There is the option to retreat and cut your loses at any point, but snapping adds an element of pressure to the game for sure. I always try and stick a game out to the end in an effort to call the opponents bluff or try and surprise them with a last minute show of skill. 

Shuffling the ways you can play

There are currently three different gameplay modes. Ranked is the standard and every month or so your rank is reduced by around thirty points and you have to make your way back up. Rather than be matched at random, battle mode allows you to invite players to join you in a private game. These matches work slightly differently to a ranked match in that both players have a health bar with ten health points. You lose health based on the number of cube points at the end of the game, so snapping in battle mode will contribute to the losing players health bar dropping much quicker. There is also conquest mode which features leagues that players must compete in. These leagues force you to fight consecutive players to ascend higher and win more prizes, including tickets to let you enter higher ranked leagues. Ultimately, there doesn’t need to be that many different game modes given how simplistic the gameplay is, but having a few different options does keep the game feeling fresh.

Tons of incentives to keep playing

Aside from the vast array of cards in the game (currently sitting on 170) there are also many different variants, card skins, avatars and titles to collect to customise your appearance and deck. Although microtransactions play a part in acquiring all of these they aren’t necessary and the game is quite generous in what it gives you. Through completing daily missions you’re able to acquire the games two forms of currency: credits and gold. Along with boosters you receive at the end of each game, you can use these to upgrade the look of your cards, which will grant you credits and gold back periodically by climbing an upgrade ladder. I personally haven’t spent a penny on the game and have a ton of extras just from playing the game regularly. This combined with the developers constantly updating the game to ensure it’s balanced and seemingly listening to it’s audience and reacting accordingly, really does show they care about the fanbase and want them coming back for more. And it works!

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This game should suit everyone!

Having played quite a few CCG’s in the past, I can honestly say that Marvel Snap is by far one of my favourites. It’s a very difficult game to fault. At first glance it may not seem like much with only a handful of mechanics and a short play time, but it’s the simplicity that makes it so enjoyable.

Even the most seasoned card game player would be surprised with the amount of planning and strategy that goes into winning some games. It’s also a great game to introduce people to CCG’s as it doesn’t take long to learn and each game lasts literally a few minutes. Seriously, I put a pizza in the oven the other day and was able to knock out five games by the time it was done!

The fact it’s in it’s infancy and there’s still so many potential characters that could make an appearance is exciting to me as a comic book fan and given the regular updates, I can’t wait to see where the game is at in another years time when it turns two.