It was fun while it lasted for Black Bolt and Stature in Marvel Snap.
The odd couple that’s been terrorizing the ladder over the past few weeks with a very high play rate got brought down a peg in today’s over-the-air patch for Snap, with the aim of having them be playable but not nearly as common as they have been.
Related: Marvel Snap’s new Series 5 card is its first genuine game-changer in a while
“This one wasn’t on any of our bingo cards to start the year, but here we are,” Second Dinner said of the one-power nerf to the Inhuman. “Black Bolt ascended to the top of our individual card leaderboards a couple weeks ago, and has remained there unchallenged ever since, with a frankly shocking average number of cubes won per game when drawn. However, his discard effect makes him the sort of card we don’t want topping that list.”
Second Dinner said Black Bolt-Stature has been so good that it has been “quietly outperforming the field by a margin as high as Shuri or Thanos in their prime.” That’s quite good, and so Stature has had her power taken down by one as well.
“We have seen the numbers on the Black Bolt/Stature deck soften a little bit since our Wave change, which has been most impactful by turning a good matchup into a bad one,” the developer said. “However, it’s still clearly the best deck, and our playtesting for some future decks also indicated that this change would be merited down the line. So, we’re making it now in order to ensure we see this deck fall from its lofty perch.”
On the buff side of things, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Invisible Woman both got an increase of power by one, to five and three power respectively to help them both along in their roles.
The developer also announced that three of the game’s most restrictive locations in Plunder Castle, Milano, and Sandbar are being removed from the game for the time being.
Related: Marvel Snap’s most polarizing card may have just moved closer toward an inevitable nerf
“We’re taking them back to design, where we’ll be finding brand new effects to implement for each one,” Second Dinner said. “Once those are playtested and approved, we’ll reintroduce them to the game. We’re not 100 percent sure what that will look like yet, but you can expect to see them return in the next few months.”
The full patch notes for the update can be found below or read on the game’s official Discord channel.
Marvel Snap OTA patch notes for May 25
Black Bolt
- [Old] 5/8 – On Reveal: Your opponent must discard the lowest-Cost card in their hand.
- [New] 5/7 – On Reveal: Your opponent must discard the lowest-Cost card in their hand.
Stature
- [Old] 5/7 – Costs 1 if your opponent discarded a card from their hand this game.
- [New] 5/6 – Costs 1 if your opponent discarded a card from their hand this game.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead
- [Old] 3/4 – After ANY card is played here, destroy this card AND that card.
- [New] 3/5 – After ANY card is played here, destroy this card AND that card.
Invisible Woman
- [Old] 2/2 – Ongoing: Cards you play here are not revealed until the game ends.
- [New] 2/3 – Ongoing: Cards you play here are not revealed until the game ends.
