8/13 OTA Preview
Because of the upcoming Golden Gauntlet Qualifier Tournament, Second Dinner has decided to release information about the OTA early to help competitors prepare for their new environment!
It's not a massive set of changes, but one card that deserved it got hit, and there is one change that I think could make a major impact! Plus, a fun one that should get the creative juices flowing! Let's go through all the changes and their implications for the meta!
The Changes
- Wilson Fisk: 5/9 ⇨ 5/8
- Hawkeye: +3 Power ⇨ +4 Power
- Firehair: 2/3 ⇨ 2/4
- Mad Thinker: 1/2 ⇨ 1/3
- Hydro-Man: 5/9 ⇨ 5/10
- Drax: 4/5 ⇨ 4/6
- Groot: 3/4 ⇨ 3/5
Card By Card Conversation
Daredevil is right – Wilson Fisk needed to be taken down a peg. Fisk honestly started warping things to the point that every new low-Cost card started to get evaluated in terms of how well they enabled Fisk. I do wonder if this is one of those cases where 1 Point feels massive. The margin between Fisk and other 3-Costs was razor thin yet significant. Now, one of the other 3-Cost stat sticks could rise to the top (New Fractured Frontier cards Jane Foster or Red Hulk for example! Also, it's definitely Kraglin time!).
This is the headliner change from this OTA. +4 is huge on a card that we generally try to repeat multiple times. Bounce has fallen on hard times, but it's still powerful in the right hands. If you're a bounce-lover, this will likely push the deck into competitive viability for you. Hawkeye will push Star-Lord out of Bounce lists and could sneak his way into some zoo lists as well, including some of the recent Marvel Boy/Thanos FF decks.
Hawkeye might end up being more impactful, but this is the most exciting change. Firehair is an underrated combo card, partly because she's just a bit hard to use and has some complicated interactions. If this gets more people trying her, it could have a much bigger impact than the single point of Power would imply.
I want this card to succeed, and it's possible there will be future cards printed, meta shifts, or card changes elsewhere that will allow that to happen, but 1/3 isn't going to move the needle much on its own.
This is another card that I feel is underrated and not seeing the type of experimentation he deserves. The buff from 5/8 to 5/9 didn't move the needle, but 5/10 opens a new world of synergy with Skaar and Surtur. Hydro-Man on Turn 5 guarantees you can play Skaar plus whatever Hydro has discounted! Whether you're just playing a mean bully deck with Hydro-Man and Mobius or trying to do some shenanigans with one of ReZSnapper's favorite combos, Hydro-Man and Cable on the same turn, Hydro-Man can be powerful. Plus he plays quite well with Thanos FF, Shou-Lao, and others in decks that try to play a 5 and a 1 on the last turn.
I would love for the classic Guardians to be playable in the base game, but these changes, just like all past changes to the Guardians, is unlikely to make that happen. Still, it's nice that this also acts as a buff to Major Victory and we can always get a little use out of these cards in Sanctum Showdown and other modes with Sanctum scoring. Notably, Drax can now match with the other 4/10s, which makes him a lot more attractive in Sanctum than he had been.
Final Thoughts
The OTA is unlikely to change anything about the Thanos FF meta we find ourselves in, but the change to Fisk may stop the rise of ToV/Thanos decks a bit. I'm planning to tinker with Hydro-Man, Firehair, and Hawkeye in Bounce. I wish I could say I planned to tinker with the Mad Thinker, but that change is still not exciting enough!
Special thanks to Snap.Fan for card and deck art featured in this article. Come tag the SnapDecks accounts on social media and share your post-OTA cooks when the changes land on Thursday!
