Summary
Marvel Snap’s Season Passes each month dole out the same formulaic content, and while that’s perfectly serviceable for the live-service design of Second Dinner’s title it is still wonderful to see unique events that truly showcase the game’s authenticity and creativity. Likewise, players are used to seeing OTAs as part ofMarvel Snap’sregular balance updates.
This past week, however, sawMarvel Snapindulge in a festive day in an unusual and immersive way: a Valentine’s Week event where classic romantic character pairings are buffed for a limited time. That said, there’s one iteration that would’ve wholly benefited the event. There are a handful of love triangles in the Marvel universe, or at least multiple possible Power Couple pairings, and those should’ve been represented equally.
Marvel Snap’s Valentine’s Week Misses Out on Love Triangle Pairings
Valentine’s Week inMarvel Snapis currently celebrating iconic romantic pairings in the Marvel universe by rewarding players who fashion a deck together with their significant others in mind. Unfortunately, it isn’t fully representative of every relationship or connection that could be made between characters. Messy relationships and love triangles are nearly a staple of a lot of popular comic book media, and Marvel certainly has its fair share.
Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey; Crystal, Medusa, and Human Torch; orDeath, Thanos, and Deadpoolwould’ve all been amusingMarvel Snaplove triangles, for instance, with all three cards buffed if played together.
Snap’s Valentine’s Week Doesn’t Highlight Enough of Marvel’s Lovebirds
Otherwise, many fun Power Couples simply aren’t represented, such asMedusa and Black Bolt, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, or Thor and Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor. There’s potential for this kind of event to be fleshed out much further and this hopefully won’t be the last players see of it for a while since it’s great for engagement and leans on players’ adoration for the source material, particularly on a day where romance is explicitly celebrated.
Not only is this event a fun nod to characters who are intimately connected in Marvel source material, such as the recentDisney Plus link-up of She-Hulk and Daredevil, but it’s also a terrific incentive for players to experiment with deck builds they wouldn’t otherwise touch. Not many of these pairings are actually congruous, meaning it could easily lead to nothing of value if someone plans to play Gambit and Rogue together, and yet it’s fun to see how a deck full of lovers can stack up against RNG locations or tried-and-true meta builds.
Star-Lord and Gamora are a natural Power Couplebecause they both have the same On Reveal ability and can generate a ton of Power for players, for example, while Vision and Scarlet Witch complement one another well if the new location Wanda spawns is perfect for Vision to move to.
But because several characters have different romantic interests throughout their storied histories, the event is lacking in that department and does not fully reflect that broad stroke of paint that colors them. This could have been significant for gameplay as well since the possibilities for three buffed cards with drastically opposing abilities might make for an intriguing deck build.
Marvel Snap Power Couples Could’ve Offered Fun Lore for Multiple Partners
Elektra surely would have benefited from a Power Couple love triangle, and anyone who doesn’t know much about the pastflings, dates, or lengthy relationships of Marvel characterscould learn quite a bit about who a certain character has been involved with in the past. Seeing one character buffed by another without any prior knowledge of them ever being together would be neat and interestingly serve the lore, even if it is largely out of context with no discernible way to tell what the extent of their connections are.
Regardless, the meta is arguably monotonous anyhow when all players come across is the same Wolverine-Venom-Arnim Zola orJean Grey-Professor X-Alioth build, with events like this one hopefully challenging that schema to have more dynamic matchmaking and interesting match-ups. It’s unlikely that anyone will desire to keep these decks once the event has ended, but future events adding a bit more mix-ups to gameplay would be a huge boon regardless.
Valentine’s Week also isn’t a FOMO event where players miss out on exclusive rewards. It’s purely for fun and has affected gameplay endearingly for the last week with only a couple of days left (specifically until February 20 at 10 AM Pacific).
WHERE TO PLAY
MARVEL SNAP is a fast-paced, award-winning collectible card game with innovative mechanics that has been called “accessible, and utterly brilliant” and “one of the best card games” today.Build your deck of 12 cards. Each Card represents a Marvel Super Hero or Villain, each with a unique power or ability. The goal of the game is to outsmart and outwit your opponent. Learning how to play only takes a few minutes, and matches only takes 3 minutes.The game is designed so that every match feels different. Play your cards at 50+ different locations across the Marvel Universe, each with iconic game-changing abilities. From Asgard to Wakanda, new locations are introduced regularly to put your creative problem-solving skills to the test.Every player begins with a Free Starter Deck that helps you get started. From there, you can earn new cards to add to your collection simply by playing and mastering the game.Unlike other games in the Collectible Card Game Genre, there are no card packs in MARVEL SNAP. You can Play More to Earn More.
