Marvel Snap April 18 patch notes and balance changes: Shuri, Leech nerfs, and more

Marvel Snap’s latest update was released on April 18 and introduced a bunch of new features, series drops, and, of course, nerfs and buffs. This includes nerfs for two of the game’s most popular and powerful cards, Shuri and Leech.

Shuri was the key card of the top meta deck before this patch went live. Leech, on the other hand, was one of the most used cards in a handful of decks, especially in Thanos or Electro/Sandman decks. The nerfs for both cards could heavily impact the upcoming state of the meta, especially Shuri decks.

“In the wake of our last balance change, we saw the metagame settle into a much healthier shape than it had been before,” Second Dinner said. “However, we were too shallow with our adjustments to the Shuri-Taskmaster decks, and Lockjaw-Leech shells (both with and without Thanos) have remained solid contenders. Today’s changes aim to push both of those decks off their clear top spots. Outside of Shuri-Taskmaster, the metagame is looking healthy on our internal metrics.”

Here are all the nerfs and buffs introduced in Marvel Snap’s April 18 update.

Marvel Snap Shuri nerf

• Previous: 4-Energy, 2-Power – On Reveal: Double the Power of the next card you play.
• New: 4-Energy, 2-Power – On Reveal: If you play your next card here, double its Power.

Shuri decks dominated the Marvel Snap meta before the April 18 patch. What made this deck powerful was how Shuri could easily produce a massive Power card, with Red Skull being its primary target to create a 24-Power unit. Taskmaster follows this and copies Red Skull’s doubled Power, making two 24-Power cards on two separate locations most of the time.

Shuri’s new ability will force its user to play its double Power target in the same location where you played Shuri. This may not seem big at first glance, but this restriction could heavily affect the deck. One example is how players shouldn’t play Cosmo in the same location before playing Shuri since it will make the latter’s ability useless.

Cosmo has been a staple for Shuri decks to prevent the opponent from playing Shang-Chi, which can destroy the Shuri target. The new Shuri ability prevents the possible added protection for the high-Powered unit, making Armor the only option to protect it.

The only chance Cosmo has to protect Red Skull or the double Power card is when it is placed after the turn Red Skull or the double Power card is played, assuming that its user is not in priority for the next turn. Though this can be harder to pull off post-nerf, potentially paving the way for the end of the Shuri meta.

Marvel Snap Leech nerf

• Previous: 5-Energy, 3-Power – On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all cards in your opponent’s hand.
• New: 5-Energy, 3-Power – On Reveal: At the start of turn 6, remove all abilities from cars in your opponent’s hand.

Leech is one of the earliest cards players can get in Marvel Snap. It is part of the series two collection, meaning it is free and does not cost players tokens. But it’s had one of the most powerful abilities for the longest time in the game. It can make your opponent’s cards in hand completely useless, forcing them to just play their cards for Power boost purposes.

Leech found a home in the majority of meta decks before the update. This includes Thanos/Lockjaw decks, where Leech can possibly be called by Lockjaw as early as turn four, triggering its ability-removal effect upon playing. Electro/Sandman ramp decks can also make Leech playable on turn four while having the possibility to restrict your opponent to play just one card per turn thanks to this deck’s engine.

The nerf on Leech heavily impacts the card. Though its power to remove card abilities is still there, making the opponent’s possible final move harder. But this change is already a big step to lessen the card’s dominance in the meta.

Other card changes in Marvel Snap’s April 18 update

Lockjaw

• Previous: 3-Energy, 2-Power – After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck.
• New: 3-Energy, 2-Power – After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck. (once per turn)

Lockjaw’s restriction is mainly for Thanos decks. Playing multiple Infinity Stones in exchange for multiple card swaps from the deck to possibly call high-Powered units is the main thing being affected by the nerf.

America Chavez

• Previous: 6-Energy, 9-Power – You always draw this card on turn 6, and not before
• New: 6-Energy, 9-Power – Starts on the bottom of your deck. Draw this on turn 6.

Jubilee

• Previous: 4-Energy, 1-Power: Add a card from your deck to this location.
• New: 4-Energy, 1-Power:  On Reveal: Add the top card of your deck to this location.

Leader

• Previous: 6-Energy, 7-Power: On Reveal: Copy all cards your opponent played to the location right of here, but on your side.
• New: 6-Energy, 2-Power: On Reveal: Copy the enemy card(s) with the highest Power played this turn, but on your side.

Leader was heavily nerfed in the January patch, which led to the card’s absence in most decks. The latest update makes it more usable compared to the right location restriction it previously had.

Marvel Snap April 18 full patch notes

Here are the complete Marvel Snap April 18 patch notes for your reference.

Token Shop updates

“Weekly Spotlight: When a new Series 5 card is released, it will be immediately featured in its own section for its first week in MARVEL SNAP. Once you buy the Weekly Spotlight card, this section will be hidden until the next new card is released. If you want the newest cards at release, here’s what you’ve been waiting for!”

“Ultimate Variants: Ultimate Variants are some of the most epic variants in the game. We felt they deserved their own section too! We’re moving Ultimate Variants out of the way of seeing Series 4 and 5cards and into their own rotation for those of you who want to make your decks that much cooler.”

“Series 4 & Series 5: This section functions nearly the same as previously, but only features Series 4 and Series 5 cards. This section will feature a card you don’t own from all currently available Series 4/5 cards and rotates every 8 hours. Series 5 cards will be added to this section once they leave the Weekly Spotlight.”

Game board update

“We made some updates to our game board! Check out the new art and FX!”

Seasonal Series Drop

“Some cards have been dropped down to a lower series! Cards dropping from Series 5 to Series 4:

• Ghost
• Stature
• M.O.D.O.K.

Cards dropping from Series 4 to Series 3:

• Shuri
• Bast
• Valkyrie
• Super Skrull
• Black Panther”

General updates

• “Players that reach Infinite Rank will only match against other Infinite Rank players.”
• “When you tap on a card for more details in the Shop or Collection, the Card Detail screen now features Artist Credits, Card Series Label (ex: Series 3, Series 4, or Series 5), and Variant Rarity Label (ex: Rare, Super Rare or Ultimate).”
• “When inspecting cards in-game, you can now “flip” them to see the Card Back in full detail. We’ve also updated other areas of viewing Card Backs to show their 3D details.”
• “After roughly 10 hours of gameplay in a day, players will stop earning Season Pass XP from gameplay for the remainder of the day.”
• “Collection Level Track has been extended.”

Balance updates

“In the wake of our last balance change, we saw the metagame settle into a much healthier shape than it had been before. However, we were too shallow with our adjustments to the Shuri-Taskmaster decks, and Lockjaw-Leech shells (both with and without Thanos) have remained solid contenders. Today’s changes aim to push both of those decks off their clear top spots. Outside of Shuri-Taskmaster, the metagame is looking healthy on our internal metrics.”

Shuri

• [Previous] 4/2 – On Reveal: Double the Power of the next card you play.
• [Update] 4/2 – On Reveal: If you play your next card here, double its Power.

Developer comments: “We considered a number of changes to Shuri, but they all tended to ruin her current decks. Some even theoretically risked making a new monster with different parts–that’s not a great risk to run when balancing a problematically strong card. The change we’re making today may seem small and subtle, but we expect it to be impactful and retain the same flow of play for her existing decks, which is a consistent goal in our balance philosophy. This nerf removes Cosmo’s protective capacity for her target, makes single-card answers like Valkyrie easier to aim, and indirectly buffs lane control elements like Professor X. We’re taking a risk here in that this nerf could leave Shuri still a strength outlier–if so, we’ll react quickly.”

Leech

• [Previous] 5/3 – On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all cards in your opponent’s hand.
• [Update] 5/3 – At the start of turn 6, remove all abilities from cards in your opponent’s hand.

Developer comments: “It’s never been our goal for Leech to be a heavily-played card, and we understand that’s been a frustration lately. When it’s happening, it usually means a finisher is generically strong against pure Power (like Leech-Leader) and/or a deck can play Leech earlier than turn 5 too often (like Lockjaw-Thanos). We’ve tried in the past to weaken the stronger cards in those decks, but it’s been a balance and design obstacle. Thus, we’ve decided to remove the ‘early Leech’ from the equation. Leech is designed to counter some powerful endgame cards and combinations from a unique angle without any setup, which is important to have around in the event those decks begin to overperform. This change should let him fulfill that role when necessary without ever making him a foundational piece of the metagame.”

Lockjaw

• [Previous] 3/2 – After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck.
• [Update] 3/2 – After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck. (once per turn)

Developer comments: “Lockjaw’s a fun and exciting card, but each trigger of this good boy basically draws a card and ‘generates’ up to 6 Energy at random. That’s a lot of variance to have in multiple competitive decks! As we add cards, new and improved ways to sidestep Lockjaw’s risks will also become available. Since we believe the most powerful and frustrating use of Lockjaw is triggering him multiple times in a turn, often with a snap along the way, we’re changing that. Limiting Lockjaw to one swap each turn forces the player to develop their board without letting them sprint ahead or spring a late surprise. This will make Lockjaw simpler to play against and less potent in decks incidentally playing lots of cheap cards, like Thanos.”

America Chavez

• [Previous] 6/9 – You always draw this card on turn 6, and not before
• [Update] 6/9 – Starts on the bottom of your deck. Draw this on turn 6.

Developer comments: “Previously, if you were about to draw America Chavez, you would just draw your next card instead. This means that over the course of the game, she’s a lot more likely to be the top card of your deck. Thus far this has been largely unimportant outside of Yondu, but it does restrict our ability to print cards that interact with the top of your deck. We expect this update to have little impact on America Chavez’s functionality overall.”

Jubilee

• [Previous] 4/1 – On Reveal: Add a card from your deck to this location.
• [Update] 4/1 – On Reveal: Add the top card of your deck to this location.

Developer comments: “Some of our players may remember a time where Jubilee had this ability! Back then, Jubilee would often be a 4/10 as she’d pull America Chavez very consistently. We decided at the time to change Jubilee’s effect instead of America Chavez’s, as the former was a much simpler change to communicate. However, we’re looking to design cards that interact with the top of your deck in the future, so we’re bringing this design back too! We expect this update to have little impact on Jubilee for the time being.”

Leader

• [Previous] 6/7 – On Reveal: Copy all cards your opponent played to the location right of here, but on your side.
• [Update] 6/2 – On Reveal: Copy the enemy card(s) with the highest Power played this turn, but on your side.

Developer comments: “We were clearly too harsh on Leader with his previous nerf, and we’re dismayed that action became a go-to example for how ruinous a nerf can be. Our balance philosophy is to preserve as much playability as we reasonably can when weakening cards, and we didn’t succeed here previously. With this change, we’re aiming to bring his strength back up to a playable spot for a 6-Cost card, but still avoid the oppressive impact his original form had. We have erred on the cautious side with his Power for now because some previous defenses against the original Leader, such as playing weaker cards before a strong one, no longer apply.”