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Marvel Snap has been a huge success, with unique gameplay elements to set it apart from other digital card games.
One of the elements is Snap’s location mechanic. Each match, players have to deal with locations that change gameplay elements.
There are a ton of different locations. Some give bonuses for moving cards, some add power, and some are so terrible that it isn’t even worth playing and make retreat the best option.
And that’s a problem. Some of Marvel Snap’s locations are not only annoying but directly go against the spirit of a deckbuilding game.
Marvel Snap’s worst locations
Certain locations in Marvel Snap might be annoying (looking at you, TVA), but don’t ruin the match. Instead, they actually require players to do a bit more thinking – which isn’t a bad thing.
However, certain locations simply don’t have a place in the current gameplay loop. There are a couple of main offenders here.
The worst locations in Marvel Snap (and why they are bad)
When playing a deckbuilding game, certain elements should be dealt with carefully. Mainly, um, the decks.
Deck manipulation can be fine to an extent. Things like draw and discard mechanics are totally acceptable. And even locations that shuffle rocks into your deck are also fine (but annoying).
It’s the locations that totally change your deck that are the problem. Locations such as:
- Mindscape – At the start of turn 6, swap hands
- Weirdworld – Both players draw from their opponent’s deck
- District X – Replace both decks with 10 random cards
- Ego – Ego takes over and plays your cards for you
These are the four main offenders. While other locations might mess with your deck (adding rocks, etc.), these locations take all of your hard work and make it pointless.
I don’t want to draw from my opponent’s hand. Even if I win, there is not a feeling of accomplishment for beating them with their own cards.
I don’t want to give the opposing player all of my pivotal cards on turn 6. And I certainly don’t want random cards in my deck, which makes winning luck of the draw.
And finally, Ego is terrible for pretty self-explanatory reasons. You don’t get to play the game…you opened…to play.
Admittedly, it’s a bit of an outlier here, as it technically plays your hand, but it still doesn’t have a place in the game (in its current form).
Also, for what it is worth, these locations are mostly considered ‘rare’ and ‘ultra rare’ locations, which means, theoretically, they pop up less frequently.
There’s a solution here
It would be one thing if these locations were only present in a casual mode.
But with Marvel Snap’s current ranking structure, every loss hurts – even more so when it comes from the game taking your deck away from you.
To alleviate this problem, it would be great if Marvel Snap was broken up into Casual and Ranked matches.
In Ranked, deck-changing locations would be removed, and players could earn the max number of boosters from matches.
In Casual, all locations are fair game, people could build ridiculous meme decks without worry, and in exchange, they earn slightly fewer boosters per match.
This allows the ridiculous locations to live on, while keeping them away from people who take their win/loss rate seriously.
Marvel Snap is expected to get some new game modes in the future, so hopefully, this is something the developers are considering, as well.
