OTA Review 7/16 with Decks!
Second Dinner has swooped in with an unexpected whopper of an OTA! There are major changes here, from nerfs to overplayed cards, buffs to forgotten ones, and debatable reworks! Let’s go through each change, their implications, and look at some decks that could have post-OTA success!
The Changes
- Mother Askani: 4/3 ⇨ 4/4, Original No Longer Gets the Buff or Cost-Reduction!
- Luke Cage: 3/2 ⇨ 2/2, Only Protects Front-Row Cards!
- Supergiant: 4/6 ⇨ 4/5
- Spider-Man 2099: 5/9 ⇨ 4/5, + Moveable Once, Destroy an enemy card there. ⇨ Afflict an enemy card there with -3 Power.
- Aunt May: 2/3 ⇨ 2/4
- Agent 13: 1/2 ⇨ 1/3
- Lady Bullseye: 2/2 ⇨ ⅔
- Triton: 3/4 ⇨ 3/6
- Card ⇨ Character for the following cards: Khonshu, Silver Samurai, The First Ghost Rider, Tarantula, Boomerang, Spider-Man Noir, Apocalypse Celestial's Chosen, Doctor Octopus, Silver Sable!
Analysis and Deck Ideas
Mother Askani
- [Old] 4/3 - On Reveal: Give the leftmost card in your hand +2 Power and -1 Cost, then copy it.
- [New] 4/4 - On Reveal: Copy the leftmost card in your hand. Give the copy -1 Cost and +2 Power.
I do think Mother Askani needed a change, and I'm happy about the shape of this one. She wasn't just the centerpiece of the tallest combo in Carter/Maverick/Brood decks, she has become the de facto "sick combo" card to enable the craziest combos in the game. She was limiting diversity and running wild in LTGMs. This is still a powerful card, but no longer one that can just be thrown into anything. She'll have to hook into synergies like Victoria Hand more to see continued play.
Luke Cage
- [Old] 3/2 - Ongoing: Your cards can't have their Power reduced.
- [New] 2/2 - Ongoing: Your front-row cards can’t have their Power reduced.
Woo boy, this has been a long time coming! Luke Cage has long been a design constraint and the fact that Affliction decks could both be shut down by Cage and also played Cage himself led Affliction into a weird spot where it wasn't seeing play because it couldn't compete on points and whenever it got a new card Cage would just come out to spoil the fun.
Is this a nerf? I believe it is good for the game generally, but there are plenty of ways in which this can be considered a side grade. How many cards does the average deck have in the back row? This card will still shut down Hazmat combos both with and without Ajax. However, this has opened up the door for deep Affliction, those cards that cut deep and target higher-power cards. This allows Omega Sentinel to have a role and Scorpion: Brand New Day to be used to amplify deeper Afflictions rather than being a card that wants you to afflict wide. This does hurt Cerebro, but only a little. They can still play around a single Affliction location, it just gets harder to play around multiple. The Cost reduction makes up for this.
In short, I think this was a necessary change for the game and I think the row-protection is a really clever way to do it that I hadn't considered. It leaves the card very powerful (more powerful in many ways), but in a way that allows Affliction strategies to exist.
Supergiant
- [Old] 4/6 - On Reveal: All cards played next turn don't reveal until the game ends.
- [New] 4/6 ⇨ 4/5
When Negasonic Teenage Warhead was changed in the last OTA, I was left scratching my head as to why NTW got hit instead of Supergiant. This time they hit the right target. Supergiant is filling an important role in the meta-game right now, but she's just a tad too successful at it.
Spider-Man 2099
- [Old] 5/9 - The first time this moves to any location, destroy an enemy card there.
- [New] 4/5 - Moveable Once. When this moves to a location, afflict an enemy card there with -3 Power.
This is another card getting a long-overdue change, but unlike Cage, I hate this change. It's nice to get another Moveable card for Aunt May (below), but did we really have to give 2099 the dollar store version of Spider-Punk's ability? I don't just hate this because it doesn't feel strong enough, but also because it just strips a cool card of its identity and makes it a pale shadow of another card. They clearly have some vision of us using Punk and 2099 in some kind of flavor-tastic Scorpion: BND deck, but that doesn't come close to justifying the lack of creativity with this change. They could have lowered his Power and still let him kill. They could have given him "Moveable Twice." They could have at least let him steal like Punk. Even if a deck with May and 2099 does end up emerging, I'll still oppose this change on aesthetic grounds.
Aunt May
- [Old] 2/3 - End of Turn: If you used a Moveable ability, give a Moveable card in your hand -1 Cost and +2 Power.
- [New] 2/3 ⇨ 2/4
I do think Aunt May is a cool card, but there really is a lack of targets. Is there finally a viable deck with her now that she's got this extra point and we get a new target in 2099?
May X
Agent 13
- [Old] 1/2 - On Reveal: Add a random card to your hand.
- [New] 1/2 ⇨ 1/3
Agent 1/3!!! Agent! 1! 3! Necessary change or the most necessary change they've ever made?
Lady Bullseye
- [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Afflict an enemy card with -2 Power. Repeat on a different enemy for each of your unspent Energy.
- [New] 2/2 ⇨ 2/3
It might feel weird to see this card getting a buff on the heels of dominant Team Clash and High Voltage performances, but Lady Bullseye hasn't made much of an impact on ladder. That's because in a normal game of Marvel Snap her Power/Cost ratio is just too fair at 1/-2. With Luke protecting the entire first row, Lady Bullseye's wide Affliction is still unlikely to find a place in the meta.
Triton
- [Old] 3/4 - On Reveal: Give the last character EACH player played last turn +3 Power.
- [New] 3/4 > 3/6
People may have made fun of Second Dinner being cautious about Triton out of fears of pushing Carter/Maverick/Stick even further into unreachable combo territory, but I actually think those fears were very well founded. If this card ever does find a deck it will be in one where the extra Power is being leveraged so effectively that the extra Power to the opponent will feel like an unimportant gnat. That doesn't sound like a fun deck to have in the game! Triton is a combo piece just laying it wait for a combo. I hope he never finds it!
Card ⇨ Character Changes
- Khonshu
- Silver Samurai
- The First Ghost Rider
- Tarantula
- Boomerang
- Spider-Man Noir
- Apocalypse, Celestial's Chosen
- Doctor Octopus
- Silver Sable
The most exciting change here is Tarantula who may finally be able to see play in the deck he seemed destined to see play in, Techno-Organic Virus. I have a theory that Second Dinner knows Doctor Octopus is due for a brand new day now that he doesn't target skills and we have new ways to Afflict our opponents hand!
Tarantula Redemption Tour
Final Thoughts
I think this is a great OTA... other than the awful 2099 change! That's the grain of sand in the ointment of an otherwise really cool OTA. I know some people are worried about Luke Cage being too powerful, but I think the change is healthy and opens the space for at least some types of Affliction decks to make their way into the meta, even if they're not the ones we had before. The character ⇨ card changes shouldn't be overlooked as one of the most exciting features of this OTA. Mother Askani was getting to the point that she was being shoved into almost everything and Supergiant was a super-bummer for a lot of interesting decks. This OTA gives us some things to build around and taps down the meta tyrants.
