Developer Second Dinner is shaking up the meta for Marvel Snap once again. Zabu and Silver Surfer, two cards that formerly dominated the meta, were hit with nerfs that may seem minor, but left a huge impact on the ways in which these cards are played. With previous complaints that these Season Pass cards were making Marvel Snap too pay-to-win, it's a good sign that Second Dinner is willing to address community concerns and rebalance overpowered cards, even if it disrupts popular deck types.
Since their addition to the game, Silver Surfer and Zabu decks were some of the most popular among Marvel Snap players. Given these cards were initially only available as part of the paid Premium Season Pass, many players criticized Marvel Snap becoming pay-to-win like so many other free-to-play mobile titles. With the latest Season Pass Card, MODOK, not having nearly the same meta-defining usage as either of these cards, these recent nerfs have helped to make the game much more accessible to free-to-play players.
How Zabu and Silver Surfer Decks Find Usage Post-Nerf
Before the cards were rebalanced, Zabu was great for flooding the field with strong 4-Cost cards thanks to its ability that reduced the Cost of 4-Cost cards by 2. As a 3-Cost/2-Power card, Zabu could be played turn 3 and then two previously 4-Cost cards like Spider-Man and Crossbones could be played the next turn, making it easy to overwhelm opponents with twice as many powerful cards as normal. This strategy became widely popular and forced the meta to shift around countering Zabu and preventing its Ongoing Ability from ruining the match.
In order to rebalance the card, Zabu was changed into a 2-Cost/2-Power card, but its ability has been made much weaker than before. Now it only reduces the Cost of 4-Cost cards by 1, making it much more difficult to flood the field with 4-Cost cards. Decks that were previously filled with 4-Cost cards to capitalize on Zabu's ability have had to completely restructure since players can no longer player two 4-Cost cards a turn from turn 4 onward under this new ability. To have a chance at making the old strategy work, players have been combining Zabu with Sera's ability to reduce the Cost of cards in the hand by 1, but this strategy is less than ideal since it requires both cards to succeed.
Silver Surfer wasn't hit quite as hard as Zabu, but the change to its ability has made the card significantly less useful. Previously, Silver Surfer was great for boosting the power of 3-Cost cards on turn 6 with its On Reveal ability to give all other 3-Cost cards +3 Power. This ability could swing the momentum of the match in the player's favor on the final turn if their field was filled with 3-Cost cards, making it difficult for opponents to anticipate and set up a counter.
The update to Silver Surfer changed its ability to give other 3-Cost cards +2 Power instead of +3. Unlike Zabu decks, Silver Surfer decks remain largely unchanged, but the turn 6 momentum swing that the card can cause has been rendered much less effective. Although Silver Surfer decks see more usage than Zabu decks after the rebalance, they still aren't as powerful as they once were and have made room for other decks to work their way into the meta. It's clear Second Dinner is willing to take community concerns into consideration and hopefully it will continue to tweak cards that become too overpowered in the meta.
Marvel Snap is available now for Mobile and PC.