Card acquisition in Marvel Snap has been a controversial topic among players, and developer Second Dinner has made several changes to the system since the game's launch. With most players anticipating a set schedule for when they can expect certain cards to drop from Series 4 or 5 to Series 3 or 4, Marvel Snap has recently pulled the rug out from under many players by announcing that two highly sought-after Series 4 cards will not be dropping to Series 3 as anticipated. This move is not only frustrating for players waiting to score those cards, but sets a worrying precedent for future card releases.
Up until now, new cards would be added to Series 5 upon release and the addition of Marvel Snap's Token Shop allowed players to purchase these cards for 6,000 Tokens each. Every month, some Series 5 cards aside from a few permanent Big Bads would drop to Series 4, and Series 4 cards to Series 3. With Series 4 cards costing 3,000 Tokens and the recent addition of the Choose Your Card Shop giving players a free Series 3 card each season, players could consistently anticipate when and how much a card would cost, but it seems like that consistency is about to change.
Keeping Knull and Darkhawk in Series 4 Sets a Bad Precedent for Future Card Releases
The series drop for Marvel Snap's Guardians Greatest Hits season has been announced to include Master Mold, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Nimrod dropping from Series 5 to 4, and Silver Surfer, Dazzler, Sauron, Ghost, Shadow King, and Sentry dropping from Series 4 to Series 3. Notably missing from this group are Knull and Darkhawk, who dropped from Series 5 to Series 4 in February and were anticipated to drop to Series 3 this season based on past patterns.
However, along with the announcement of this season's series drop was the note that these two cards would be remaining in Series 4 a bit longer. Both Knull and Darkhawk are very powerful cards in the current meta, and many players are eager to get their hands on them, making their drop to Series 3 all the more anticipated.
After the announcement that they will be remaining in Series 4, many players took it as a sign that Second Dinner is trying to put a paywall in front of more powerful cards in order to entice players to spend money in order to obtain them. Marvel Snap has faced pay-to-win controversy in the past, and this latest move only adds fuel to the fire, calling into question the approach the developers will take to new card acquisitions in the future.
Beforehand, meta-defining cards like Marvel Snap's Shuri, Zabu, and Silver Surfer all received nerfs shortly before their series drop, leading to many players criticizing the developers for not balancing cards sooner and waiting until players had already spent a greater amount of money on them before nerfing them. Many fear the same thing is happening to Knull and Darkhawk with a nerf for the two coming shortly before they end up dropping to Series 3. In the meantime, Second Dinner is seemingly trying to take advantage of their prominence in the meta to squeeze as much money out of them as Series 4 cards before ultimately nerfing them and dropping them to Series 3.
Second Dinner has stated that future changes are coming to the card acquisition system based on player feedback, including two new seasonal cards joining Series 4 from the start, a mystery Series 3 card shop that costs 1,000 Tokens per pull, and new weekend missions designed to give Marvel Snap players more Tokens. While it's yet to be seen if these changes will improve card acquisition in Marvel Snap, many fans are not hopeful. It will be hard for Second Dinner to regain player trust after a series of decisions that seem to prioritize profit over game balance.
Marvel Snap is available now for PC and mobile devices.