Marvel Snap has been very successful since its launch, even winning the best mobile game of 2022 at The Game Awards. However, part of the player community is not happy with the balance of some cards, especially Leader and its terrible oppression. All of this discussion has players wondering what are the best ways to nerf Leader.
Leader is a six-cost four-power card, which usually causes it to be played on the final turn of a Marvel Snap game, and its effect is to copy all cards your opponent played in the turn, but on your side.
Leader has been gaining popularity for over a month now, mostly in conjunction with cards like Leech and Aero. Since then, several players have been frustrated when facing this enemy.
Marvel Snap‘s latest update will bring long-awaited nerfs to Leader; however, the patch note leak showed which nerfs would hit the game and part of the community was not happy with how the developers handled Leader.
Ben Brode, Chief Development Officer at Second Dinner, made a clarification via Twitter to inform fans that more nerfs are sure to come to Leader, but that the team “are determining exactly which change to make.” Meanwhile, players will have to deal with Leader losing one power. Brode’s statement points out that Second Dinner is accepting the side of the community that wants to nerf Leader, even if another portion disagrees with a nerf.
The fact is that changing Leader’s power does not solve the problem. Its effect remains as impactful as ever, and the change doesn’t lessen how oppressive the card can feel.
Its effect is so powerful that it makes almost no difference in how many points it adds to the board. In fact, if Second Dinner lowers its power even further, it will become a welcome card in Mister Negative decks, creating even more problematic interactions.
5 nerfs we’d like to see on Leader in Marvel Snap
Every discussion started in streams and videos from content creators, Discord discussions, and Reddit posts have generated many suggestions from players.
Make Leader like Magik
One of the biggest problems mentioned by players facing Leader is the fact that it is played on the final turn and can be in almost any type of deck, making it a very powerful surprise tool. Reducing its cost to five and adding the effect of not being able to be played on the final turn allows opponents to prepare for a final turn, or decide to hand over half of their cubes to the Leader. It’s a way to restrict its effect while maintaining the character’s flavor.
Remove the effects of copied cards
Another suggestion seeks to integrate the effect of the synergy that Leader has with Leech, making the copies created by Leader not have their original effects. This makes Leader’s threat to decks with endgame combos much less overwhelming. In addition to maintaining the character’s flavor, this change creates a new synergy with Patriot decks, strengthening Leader’s presence in them while potentially removing him of other decks.
Copy only the first cards
Copying the opponent’s cards is a very powerful effect, but copying only the first cards played by the opponent in each location is a way to weaken this impact. In this way, Leader can still beat decks that play high-cost cards on the final turn, but it loses strength against decks that play multiple cards to create a combo on the final turn. This maintains its flavor and increases the strategies that counter it.
Make your effect reach only the other locations
Reducing Leader’s effect to only cards played in the same location brings it closer to the Guardians of the Galaxy archetype; however, having its effect only affect other locations, like the effect of Debrii or Squirrel Girl, allows new ways for opponents to counter it, thinking strategically in which locations the cards are being played. In addition to partially weakening him, it also increases the fantasy of a Leader with extremely high intellectual capabilities who uses other heroes and villains as pawns.
Have the copies be dropped at random locations
Still thinking about how to change the functioning of Leader’s effect, the devs could make it similar to Hela’s effect, in which the cards are played in random locations. This would make Leader’s effect not so deterministic and therefore less reliable to win matches. Despite moving the effect away from the character, he will still be able to win, but at lower rates.
Final thoughts on Leader nerfs
While Second Dinner has already attested to nerfing Leader in the future, his presence since the Marvel Snap beta potentially indicates that his strength is closely tied to the current meta, at least since The Power Cosmic season.
This means that as new cards are added to the game and players unlock more cards for their collections, new decks will rise in popularity and new cards will subsequently be hated by players.
The game can always improve, and it’s wonderful that the developer is willing to listen to the opinion of its players, especially because a more significant nerf to the Leader can expand the meta.
Published: Jan 6, 2023 08:02 pm