Burning Questions 5/15
Welcome back to Burning Questions, your romp through Marvel Snap’s hottest topics! So far this season the cards have been better than I think most of the community expected, last month’s LTGM card has become the meta tyrant, Sanctum Showdown Overdrive Surge got underway! Plus, I, a person who only ever plays with the game on mute, found out that all of the flare effects have sound effects!
1) Will any of the new cards from this season get nerfed?
I’ve seen some sentiment that Shadowlands Daredevil is too strong and Wilson Fisk has been very powerful. Ikari is the LTGM card, Muse comes out next week, and we’ve still got Lady Bullseye and Stick coming up. Will any of them be powerful enough to get nerfed?
While I do think Shadowlands DD is strong and has landed stronger than most expected, it doesn’t form the core of an oppressive deck. It is a powerful 2-Cost scaler and those are always at risk of small balance changes, but I expect Shadowlands DD to skate for a while. Wilson Fisk isn’t quite as heralded, but I believe it’s the most powerful card we’ve gotten yet this season. But I still feel like he’s well within bounds. So that leaves the new cards.
Even if Muse lands strong, he’ll be part of an archetype in which he wouldn’t be the problem card. I doubt he’ll land that strong, but there is a chance he gets a different card or cards nerfed. The best candidate is probably Stick, but he too is more likely to get another card nerfed than himself. I’ve seen Stick described as “bad Maverick,” and that’s absolutely true… except that you’ll play them together! So, he’s not worse Maverick, he’s additional Maverick. I don’t think Stick himself is going to get nerfed, but I would be surprised if both Mother Askani and Maverick make it through the couple of OTAs following his release.
So far, this season seems much more within desirable balance range than the last few.
2) What's the best way to use Mother Askani?
Speaking of Mother Askani, the LTGM card from Grand Arena has been tearing up the ladder. Hope you got her for free!
The best thing to do with Mother Askani is to make gigantic Broods off the back of a gigantic Maverick! But Mother A. is really good in almost any deck including some that don't even have especially powerful synergy with her. That's a recipe for a future balance adjustment if I've ever heard one!
3) What are the most underrated cards in Sanctum Showdown Surge?
Cards that we expected to be strong like Vision and Stegron are strong. Other cards are unsurprisingly seeing high play rates like Techno-Organic Virus, Drax, Isca, Ares, Wilson Fisk, and Leader. But what are the mode-specific cards that have been a surprise or are still flying under the radar?
- Kingpin - Vision is one of the most powerful cards in the mode and there's very little in the mode that can affect it at all. Couple that with how good Stegron is and Kingpin has some solid value. Cards like Polaris, Spider-Man, Aero, and Magneto are decent with Kingpin as well, but he doesn't even need massive amounts of synergy to get value in the is mode as a 1/3. You can play him alonside a Drax AoL or Kraven on Turn 1 or you can play him on Turn 2 alongside one of you many 4-Cost cards.
- Ebony Maw - I wouldn't have thought this card would have any value in SSS, but games are ending on Turn 4 most of the time. Winning 5 or 6 on Turn 3 can be game-sealing and you won't need to play to his location on Turn 5, because there isn't one!
- Iron Lad - Iron Lad is one of the biggest beneficiaries of starting with 4 Energy. Just load your deck full of good cards and Iron Lad will have only good hits on Turn 1.
- Omega Red - Another spectacular Turn 1 Play, Omega Red is the best off-sanctum Turn 1 play in the mode.
- Thing First Steps - Playing out a Thing First Steps, especially on a non-Sanctum lane on Turn 2 can pay massive dividends on Turns 3 and 4.
- Darkhawk - What is the biggest 5-Cost card for Turn 2? It's Darkhawk! Following a Rockslide 1 or a Korg + Terrax on the two non-Sanctum locations on Turn 1 is pretty great!
4) What is your favorite flare sound effect?
I genuinely didn't know these had sound effects! Bubbles sound like bubbles and bananas make a squishy sound!
How good the appearance of a flare is doesn't correlate to how good its sound effect is. Krackle and stardust sound like a lifelong smoker breathing next to your ear, while the glimmer, tone, ember, and confetti flares all have cool sounds. Surprisingly, the level 30 Starfox 64 gold diamonds come with a pretty sweet sound. But the sound I liked the most is actually one of my favorite underrated flares: neon trails! Its like a quick little zap!
The one flare that doesn't seem to have a sound effect yet is Wakandan Tech, which is the one that should probably have one the most!
That's it for this week! Come join us on the Fourth Location Discord server and share your own answers to this week's Burning Questions!
Below the paywall, or over on the Snap Judgments Patreon, you can find PulseGlazer's thoughts!
