Marvel Snap players are split on the game’s new Sanctum Showdown mode, but its potential is undeniable

Marvel Snap’s newest game mode, Sanctum Showdown, has made for a fun addition to the existing game. Or it’s terrible. That depends on who you talk to.

The card battler is traditionally played across three locations, at which a maximum four cards each can be played. Whoever is winning two out of three locations at the end of the game, or has the highest score total, will win the match.

Sanctum Showdown flips the script on normal Marvel Snap by making each turn count. Every turn, one of the three locations will be marked with a number. If you win that location that turn, you win that number in points. The first to 16 points wins the game.

The first two turns have a location with one point up for grabs, but on turn three, it begins to heat up by offering four points at one location and one each at the two others, and doing the same with one random location being the top point-giver each turn after. Players can “snap” to ramp it up one point each, and the fun goes on from there.

I’m of the mind that the mode is quite fun, although a meta quickly took shape overnight featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy (they get plus-points if the enemy plays a card at the same location that turn), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (destroys the next card the enemy plays at that location) and Cannonball (moves the highest-cost enemy card from his location or destroys it if he can’t).

Sanctum Showdown has created a new kind of gameplay where, instead of building up towards a huge play on turn five and/or six, you have to think about the cards you play on each turn. Do you go all in on one location on this turn while abandoning the next potential big point-getter, or do you save it up? Do you play Move cards, or cards that directly counter the opponent at each location?

A quick perusal of Marvel Snap social media like Reddit shows that players seem to be split on the mode. It’s fun in theory, but it also has a habit of time-gating players by making entry into the mode exclusive to those with a Scroll. If you lose, you lose your Scroll, and if you’re out of Scrolls, you have to wait for a timer (every eight hours) to refresh your collection.

You can buy more, of course, but that requires using the Charms that you get in each match. Each point you score in Sanctum Showdown, win or lose, rewards a Charm, and Charms are the main currency to access the Sanctum Shop, which is filled with new cards, new variants, and other cosmetics like emotes and card borders.

Charms are slow to come by, especially if you lose, and the best way to earn them currently is via Twitch drops. I got all three new cards simply by playing a few hours and using my Twitch drops plus level-up bonuses to get it, but there’s still a whole slew of items I won’t come close to getting because how stingy the Charms can feel.

I believe that Sanctum Showdown has the same pitfalls as previous game modes: It’s limited time, so it has a sense of FOMO, Snap itself is a relatively unbalanced game, and this mode only makes it feel worse due to its limitations, and the meta gets instantly sweaty because of it.

I wish this mode and others like it (like High Voltage or Deadpool’s Diner) would stick around with rotating rewards instead of being taken away after a couple of weeks, giving players a chance to play different options besides just ladder and Conquest modes.

At its heart, the refreshing new take on Marvel Snap’s three location-centered gameplay is fun, but it just needs some work. Some other cards need to be banned or balanced for the mode, and maybe the prices of earn rates of rewards could be tweaked as well.

Either way, I’ve enjoyed my time thus far, but I don’t see myself heading back in for more cosmetics just to get dominated by the same two or three decks. Sanctum Showdown is available until March 13 for those who’d like to give it a try.