MARVEL SNAP – Beginners Tips

Gameplay Tips for New Players

• Save your gold and tokens. You must understand resources, what lots have value as you save your gold, what ones do not. Its gacha, so they will entice you.
• Save you caches and especially Keys, to 3-5 ahead. Do not rush up your collection tree. Match ups are based on three factors, rush up that line, you will pay. Bots easy low, harder high. Don’t spam emotes, or be shot.
• Learn each card and what they can do.
• Know the difference between archetypes and that they are not equal.
• Deck recognition, as you learn the cards, recognize the deck your up against
• 2 lane game, not three.
• Know how to snap, when to snap, when to retreat, never force a game or play an archetype you sux at.
• Conquest, you snap right away, winner take all, prolonged matches work against you.
• Remember its all illusion, cosmetics, not real. Variants rock, but you will draw them as well, so don’t use your gold, when you can get it anyway in time.

Think of the game as a puzzle. Sometimes the best move is to back off and lose fewer cubes. You won’t win every game. Some are set up to be hard for you. The game has a lot of random elements.

This is to make it different each time and to test how well you can adjust. Learning to deal with different locations is important. Scarlet Witch is a good card to play early in the game. People might not use her enough.

Game Steps and Phases

Overview

The game of Marvel Snap can be broken down into three major phases: Start of Game, Turns, and End of Game. Each phase has its own unique behaviors and interactions; understanding them is critical to mastering Marvel Snap.

Start of Game

The effect of cards such as High Evolutionary, Thanos, and Agatha Harkness trigger at this point in time. The effects trigger in the order the cards are in the deck. It’s important to note that Thanos shuffles the deck when putting stones in, so the order of “Start of Game” cards will be changed after his effect triggers.

Turn

Start of Turn

• “Start of the turn” location triggers happen from left to right.
• “Start of the turn” card triggers happen and resolve in reveal order.
• Draw a card for the turn.
• Priority is determined and you gain control of your cards.

Card Play

A card going from face down to revealed is subject to the following order:

• Player effects which modify the next card you play trigger from prior cards you played (ex. Forge’s +2 power is added to your next played card right before the card starts to reveal). You’ll see the VFX trigger before the card flips.
• Elsa Bloodstone triggers if her condition is met.
• The card flips face up.
• Any Ongoing effects apply (both other cards and locations like Xandar are included).
• On Reveals trigger.
• Player effects that say “After your next card” trigger (ex. Nico Minoru, Iron Fist).
• Locations with “After you play a card here” triggers trigger from left to right (ex. Death’s Domain, Luke’s Bar, Asteroid M, etc).
• Cards with “trigger” effects trigger in the order the cards were revealed (ex. Angela, Silk, Lockjaw, Echo, The Collector, etc).

After Turn

End of the turn triggers are subject to the following steps:

• “After turn” locations effects trigger from left to right.
• “After turn” card effects trigger in the order the cards were revealed.

End of Game

Phase 1

When the game ends, we first show all hidden cards. These are from Invisible Woman, Dark Dimension, and Supergiant. If there are many hidden cards, we reveal them in the order they were played on the board. It doesn’t matter when they were hidden. If both players hid cards, the player who went first in Turn 6 shows theirs first. We reveal cards using the same rules as when we play cards during the game.

Phase 2

Next, most other end-game effects happen. This includes special abilities from cards like Captain Marvel, Dracula, and Mysterio. These effects happen in the order the cards were revealed on the board.

Phase 3

Finally, M’baku might join the game. If there’s room on the board, M’baku will appear. If both players have M’baku, the one who went first in Turn 6 gets to bring out their M’baku first.

Move Mechanics

Here are the full components and special rules of moving:

• The difference between a “Direct move” and “Indirect move”
• Resolution of moves
• Simultaneous Moves
• Order of Operations

The difference between a Direct Move and Indirect Move

Manually moving a card during the staging phase (When you are playing cards) is considered a direct move. The order in which you stage moves can matter (Example shown later).

Cards and locations that enable direct moves are:

• Cloak
• Jeff
• Miek
• Nightcrawler
• Phoenix Force
• Vision
• Location: New York

All other movement would be classified as indirect moves, such as those from cards like Juggernaut and Ghost Spider, or locations like Aunt May’s and The Bifrost.

Resolution of moves

Now that we have clarified the two types of moves, we can discuss when exactly they resolve.

All indirect moves resolve right away. All direct moves resolve before cards are revealed. (The cards of the player with Priority will resolve first).

When direct moves happen, move resolves happen in the order they were staged. There is one scenario where the order cards are moved matters:

• If Hercules is at a location, and multiple cards are moving there, he will push away the first card resolved there.

In every other scenario, the order cards are moved doesn’t matter.

Simultaneous Moves

Simultaneous moves are when multiple cards move to the same location at the same time. Apart from direct moves, the other enablers for simultaneous moves are:

• Doctor Strange
• Magneto
• Juggernaut
• Heimdall
• Location: The Bifrost
• Location: Strange Academy

In the case of Simultaneous moves, cards resolve in the order they were moved:

• Doctor Strange pulls cards based on reveal order
• Juggernaut and Magneto move cards randomly
• Heimdall, Strange Academy and The Bifrost move cards based on Location order

Order of Operations

Here’s a quick tip when moving cards to K’un-Lun, Fisk Tower or Kingpin:

• K’un-Lun will always give +2 after move triggers (So after Multiple Man creates his copy, after Human Torch doubles)
• Fisk Tower and Kingpin will always afflict the card first (Before Multiple Man copies, before Human Torch doubles)

Account Progression

Below is a quick overview of activities a new player – or returning player that needs a refresher – will experience after they’ve downloaded Marvel Snap.

First, players are given the option to make an account or play without one. It’s highly suggested you link your account so progress is saved in the event something happens to your device/PC. After you log in for the first time, you will team-up with Nick Fury to stop the nefarious Doctor Doom in a tutorial battle. The basics of the game are explained in this tutorial which should take just a couple of minutes. Once completed, you will be given access to the starter deck you used in the tutorial along with a couple of other starter cards. You are also prompted to give yourself an in-game handle. At this point you will play against bots to familiarize yourself with Snap further. Please note: bots are still present in the live environment, just in a much lower percentage

Completing missions awards you credits which – along with the boosters collected while playing matches of Marvel Snap – are used to upgrade your unlocked cards. This is the main gameplay loop of Snap and the way you will progress up the collection track as you grow your collection (CL).

What is progression?

For the purposes of this guide: progression is how a player chooses to grow their account (through play & pay). As of the writing of this guide, there are currently 104 series 3 cards (with more added every time there is a ‘series drop’). Players aware of commonly found cards in archetypes that they share a profile with (see list below) will generally have an easier “progression curve” than most single meta/OP card could ever provide (of course there are exceptions to any rule).

What type of spender are you?

Spending money on Snap is as much about your choice as it is about your ability to pay. While spending does effectively speed up progression do not feel like you are falling behind by not buying the Season Pass or Bundles even. Since we collect at roughly the same speed the people you face on ladder in the early game have a different collections based on contents, but not so much size.

• Free-to-Play (F2P)
• Pass ($10 per season)
• Pass+ ($10+bundles per season)

What type of player are you?

You can be a mixture of types, but generally a player will gravitate towards one style of play more than others.

• Casual (Missions mostly, low-to-no Conquest; 0-3 hrs per week)
• Min/Max (Completes all missions, plays Conquest for all relevant rewards, participates in ‘outside events’; 1-3 hrs per day)
• Competitive (Min/Max but also cares about “playing the strongest deck always”; until the session is done)
• Less a progression profile and more a ‘state-of-mind’

Additional Player-types

Mark Rosewater from Magic the Gathering created the following 3 player profiles:

• A Casual or Min/Max player can fall under any of these 3 psychographic models
• Timmy: This player wants to win but in a big flashy way.
• Johnny: Prefers to “win in their own way.” They derive most fun from coming up with an idea, and then getting it to work. A loss only means the idea was bad.
• Spike: Tournament/Power Gamer that likes to win-at-all-costs.

Marvel Snap – Player Profiles

Casual & F2P

• This player logs on every few days to every days, completes missions, and is generally in the game to have a good time and vibe. Wins may come infrequently, but since you play so seldomly a loss or win streak isn’t something to be too hung up over. “You just play to play.”

Casual & Pass

• You are just as casual as a F2P player it’s just you recognize good value when you see it. The Marvel Snap Season Pass has been the de facto best way to spend money on Snap since its global launch. Not only does it give you exclusive cosmetics, but also additional gold. It’s a bonus to also get to play with a new card for a month before it’s added to the general rotation.

Casual & Pass+

• Like your other casual brethren you’re here to vibe. Thing is you have some disposable income that you feel the developers have earned. You buy bundles, gold from the shop, attend all the twitch streams. You are a Snap Casual+.

Min/Max & F2P

• Winning is your first priority. Why else would you play a competitive game otherwise? You care about getting everything you can, but whether it’s by choice or necessity – you don’t pay to play. Consider also looking into tracking your spotlight progress: ⁠Spotlight System & Keys.

Min/Max & Pass

• Winning two ways! Maximizing value means sometimes paying a little bit to get access to additional rewards beyond what is typically available. You’re not so loose with your money that you’ll buy every bundle, but the pass (card, gold, cosmetics) is too hard to pass up – even if the card ends up being mediocre.

Min/Max & Pass+

• Everything about the pass buyer above is also true here – you just also spend more than is needed because reasons. Money is freely given to things that make you happy, but even as a spender, you’re not willy-nilly wasting your gains. “A spender but not a waster.”

How to progress through the Early, Mid, and End-games.

Progression in Snap is not always a straight path. To offer my own anecdote, I started out playing Collector+Dino decks – going so far as to spend my first 2400 F2P gold on 2 Super Rare variants – only to fall in love with an entirely different archetype the next month. That’s not to say that I missed out by focusing on Collector, but I know others might not see it that way. In the end, this experience helped me define what I wanted my end-game to be: New cards that fit in decks I enjoy and/or art for cards I play heavily. I found that progressing through the collection track is not as simple as earn credits, upgrade cards – open new cards. Gold, Credits (and Keys), Tokens, all work side-by-side with your Rank towards growing your account in a meaningful way.

If getting to 100% card completion is your end-game: focusing on min/max strategies should be your goal. If you are interested in also gaining higher ladder ranks then following competitive players on social media. Conversely, you can also “skip the bad cards for good art.” The spotlight system can seem like a gamble but with planning and patience it can cater to players of any spending level.

With all this mentioned – Knowing the type of player you are will assist in how you will progress your account.

Progression (Intro & Early game)

Collection Levels: Start to end of Series 2

Your first few seasons of Snap will be spent gaining collection levels and moving through the first series (pool) of cards and into the second. At this stage (from CL 1-200 credits will almost seem too plentiful; continue to use credits optimally (per the guide linked above) as that “newbie boost” will soon dry out. Please note: Achieving Infinite rank (100+) during the early portions of your collection level will matchmake you with “collection complete” players. While frustrating to lose to more advanced cards – any games played rank 100+ do not effect progression and so is outside the scope of this guide. The idea of progression through S1 is to learn the basics of snapping and retreating. Learning how to optimize your credits spent to move efficiently up the collection track should also be a focus.

Progression (Early to Mid-game)

Collection Levels: End of Series 2 to 1,500

By the end of Series 2 you’re already on your way to being a Grandmaster of Snap – you get enough credits per day to open 1 (and sometimes 2) caches, and you see those “gold boxes” on the horizon. Congrats! You’ve made it past Snap’s onboarding, and will be soon in the end-game. Players should now have a solid understanding of game mechanics, and deck types (as well as the cadence the developers at Second Dinner like to adjust cards at). At around Collection Level 450 it’s a good idea to start thinking of which series 3 card you will be picking up as you move into that pool. Please note: Players receive one free series 3 card per season. If you enter pool 3 in the last 1-2 days of the season choosing “a good card” is better progression-wise than waiting for “the perfect card.”

Progression (Mid to End-game)

Collection Levels: 1,500 to 5,000

By the time you are 1500CL you should have roughly 2 to 3 reliable “deck shells” that you can build on. This goes for both Casual & Min/Max players, though a more focused player may be able to build 4+ (with a little luck and a lot of focus). Knowing what you like or want to play will help narrow down the player roads you’ll want to travel. Please note: The meta shifts faster in Snap than most other games. A card that was once used in “a Negative shell” may soon find itself in “a Galactus shell”. Just as well a Spike card may soon fall out of favor with the competitive crowd because of a balance patch but conversely be picked up by Johnny.

Cards/Synergies to progress towards:

There is some room for deck building with the season pass and Series 1-2 cards, but that’s better left for the chat channels.

S3+:

• Timmy:
  • F2P: Wong (Hazmat or Black Panther), HelaTribunal, Knull(Destroy)
  • Pass/Pass+: Annihilus+Galactus, Thanos+Something, “Spotlight Card(s) added to an old deck”
• Johnny:
  • F2P: Negative, Move (Phoenix Force), Beast+Falcon
  • Pass/Pass+: Cerebro, Pixie, “Spotlight Card(s)”
• Spike:
  • F2P: Midrange, Control, “Points” (Historically: ZabuSera, Thanos+Something, ShuriSauron, Loki, and Surfer)
  • Pass/Pass+: Whatever is S-tier (usually 1-3 spotlight cards added to a historically OP deck if not a whole new archetype – ask a Wesley Smile about old busted releases sometime)

Terminology for Beginners

Bluff Snap

Snapping in an attempt to bluff that you drew a card your deck typically runs when you do not have it, hoping your opponent will retreat thinking you have it in your hand.

BM/Bad Manners

Displaying poor etiquette during a game. This is generally shown by roping turns and spamming emojis.

Boomer Snap

Snapping when it is obvious you will win. Generally this means snapping on the final turn when you are notably ahead on power.

Bounce

A deck that returns cards to a player’s hand so they may activate the effects of those cards multiple times.

Budget/pauper

Decks designed to be affordable for players without heavy spend. In Marvel Snap, these would be decks that players in early- to mid-Series 3 would be able to construct and contain limited or no Series 4 or 5 cards.

Build-around

A card which lacks flexibility, requiring a deck to be constructed to make effective use of it.

Casserole

Winning all three lanes. The term originated on a Twitch stream where Ben Brode (CTO of Second Dinner) was discussing what the term should be for winning all three lanes, similar to how other sports have terms for specific actions (like “slam dunk” in basketball).

CCG

Collectible Card Game. A card game in which players collect cards. A broader and older term than TCG, it is now used to encompass games like Marvel Snap or Hearthstone, where there is no trading mechanism available.

Clog

To fill up the card spots on the locations of an opponent’s board.

Combo

A deck that aims to win by playing cards in a specific sequence that are usually difficult for your opponent to interact with.

Control

A deck that aims to restrict or counter the opponent’s playstyle through the inclusion of cards that heavily interact or disrupt opponents cards or the ability to play cards (ex. Shang-Chi, Enchantress, Storm, Professor X).

Cook

Slang for the act of creating a list of cards that perform well.

Counter

A card or deck performs particularly well against another card or deck, resulting in a poor matchup.

Cube Rate

The number of cubes per game a deck earns per game. This is in contrast to win rate, which only concerns itself with wins and losses, not to the number of cubes a deck yields.

Curve

The energy distribution of your deck. A low curve is a deck that is more heavily weighted towards low-energy cost cards. Conversely, a high curve is a deck that is more heavily weighted toward high-energy cost cards.

Curve Out

To play out multiple cards from your deck on the turn you have the exact energy to play them, typically resulting in an ideal play sequence for a deck.

Deck Thinning

Removing cards from your deck that increase the chance of drawing the cards you would prefer to draw (via effects like draw or cards that stay in your deck to improve your odds of drawing other cards, such as old America Chavez).

Deck Tracker

An external software used to track what cards are still in your deck.

Dump

Playing out a significant number of cards from hand to the board over one or two turns.

Energy Cheat

Being able to spend more energy than you would normally on that turn. This can be through ramp (ex. Electro, Psylocke, Jubilee) or discounts (ex. Loki, Sera).

Face Up/Face Down

Face up is used to describe a deck whose play sequence is very obvious or evident, or whose power deployment is easily predictable, typically leading to low cube equity. In contrast, face down is used to describe a deck whose play sequence or power deployment is hidden till the last few turns, or otherwise built to be unpredictable.

Flex/Flex Slot

A card in the deck that can easily be swapped out for another.

Float

The act of not spending energy. Skipping all energy use in a turn is known as a full float.

Go Tall

Playing a lot of power in one or two lanes, with the intent that your opponent will be unable to match the applied power.

Go Wide

Playing power across all of the lanes with the intent that you will be able to win locations your opponent does not apply significant power to.

Graveyard

A zone cards go when they are removed from play. Unlike other CCGs, Snap has two graveyards, one for destroyed cards and one for discarded cards. They are treated as physical locations, so cards like Wolverine or Apocalypse that are not fully destroyed/discarded and remain in play are not added to the graveyard. Cards revived by effects like Hela or Valley Of The Hand are removed from their respective graveyards.

Hard Counter

A card or deck that completely shuts down an opposing card or deck’s gameplan, resulting in a highly polarized matchup.

Hearthstone, aka HS

A prominent digital card game, it is responsible for pushing the popularity of digital CCGs to the forefront. Additionally, several of the founding members of Marvel Snap were developers on Hearthstone.

Lockdown

A deck that aims to prevent opponent’s cards being moved or played at certain locations.

Midrange

A deck that seeks to play multiple cards that provide efficient stats for their cost.

Mill

Removing cards from your opponent’s deck with the intent of leaving them unable to play cards in the final turns of the game.

Miracle

A deck that plays multiple cards in a single turn with the intent that an opponent is unable to respond or interact with your card plays.

Magic the Gathering, aka MTG

The first CCG/TCG to have been made.

Nerf

When a card is changed with the intent that it performs worse. This can be in the form of increased energy cost, reduced power, changed card text, etc.

Netdeck

Playing a deck that has been made by another user and distributed online, as opposed to creating your own.

On Curve

A way to describe a card being played on the turn you have the exact energy cost to play it (ex. Playing a 2-cost card on turn 2 would be playing that 2-cost card on curve).

OP

Overpowered. To be significantly stronger than other cards/decks in the metagame.

Play

When a card has staged, revealed, and resolved all of its effects.

Point-Slam

A deck that aims to win primarily by playing a ton of raw power in the last couple turns.

Ramp Cards

Cards which accelerate your energy growth, either temporarily or permanently.

Ramp Deck or just “Ramp”

A deck designed to allow you to play multiple high-energy cards before they traditionally would be able to be played with normal energy gain

Removal

Interactive effects that remove power or abilities from opponents cards, or completely destroy them.

Reveal

The act of a card flipping from face down to face up.

RNG

Random Number Generation; it is used as a stand-in for any kind of random effect.

Rope

When one player slows down the pace of the game, generally by spending the entire turn timer on their play. This term comes from Hearthstone, where an actual rope burns down as the turn timer has almost runs out.

Rope Snap

Snapping at the very end of the turn.

Scam

To beat an opponent in a game where you had an insignificant chance to win.

Shang-able

A card that is able to be destroyed by Shang-Chi’s On Reveal Effect.

Singleton

A deck that consists of no duplicates of a card. In Marvel Snap, all decks are singleton decks, but in other TCGs they typically aren’t.

Skill Cap/Ceiling

The maximum skill that a player would be able to express with a deck. A higher skill cap typically means that a more skilled player will be able to do much better with a deck, while a low skill cap means that higher skilled players will be able to perform only marginally better than lower skilled players.

Skill Floor

The minimum skill required to play a deck effectively. A low skill floor means that a deck is accessible to most players; in contrast, a high skill floor means that the deck is only playable by highly skilled players.

Sniping

Correctly predicting where your opponent will play a card.

Soak

Soaking is when a card gains power from a player not spending energy (ex. Evolved Misty Knight, Sunspot).

Stage

The act of playing a card to a location. It is unrevealed at this point (face down).

Surprise Card

An unexpected card to run in a specific deck given knowledge of the metagame that allows a deck to win games it normally wouldn’t otherwise.

Sweep

Winning a series against a single opponent without losing a single game.

Reverse Sweep

Winning a series against a single opponent where you lose every single game except for your elimination game, and proceeding to win all the remaining games.

Tahiti

The place a card goes when it is completely removed from the game (ex: The evolved versions of the cards in a High Evolutionary deck).

TCG

Trading Card Game. A card game in which players are able to trade the cards they acquire with other players or shops. Paper card games such as Magic the Gathering fall under this category.

Telegraph

A play or sequence of plays that make a subsequent play or a deck extremely evident or obvious to an opponent.

Tempo

Having “the lead” in the game. Tempo is usually acquired early on, and having Tempo means you generally have priority and have your “on-curve” cards.

Timmy/Johnny/Spike

Terms used to describe different types of idealized players, their motivations, and desires as defined by Magic the Gathering lead game designer Mark Rosewater.

Timmy

A Timmy likes to win big. Timmy doesn’t care about how frequently he wins, only how hard he wins. This type of player usually runs a more combo focused deck, like Wongor Mr. Negative.

Johnny

A Johnny likes to win in their own way. They usually build their own decks, and like the Timmy, prefer how well they win to how much they win. A Johnny will run all sorts of things, none of which are expected.

Spike

A Spike is a competitive player. They like to win frequently, caring little about how hard or creatively they win. A Spike will run anything, as long as it’s meta.

The Nuts/Nut Hand

The strongest possible hand a deck can have in a given situation. It is derived from the American Old West, where a player would wager everything they have, and place the nuts of their wagon on the table to ensure that they would be unable to flee and make good on their bet.

Mirror

When both players are playing the same type of deck.

Throw

To intentionally give up or make a mistake that results in going from a winning position to a losing one. This can be in relation to a location (you are giving up contesting the location) or in relation to a game (you threw a game by misplaying).

Tier 0

Decks that have significantly higher win rate relative to all other decks in the game such that it is near impossible to construct reasonable decks that can generate counterplay into them.

Tier 1

The best decks in the game, but not oppressive to the point of pushing out a wide swath of other decks in the meta.

Tier 2

Good decks that lose certain key matchups, and/or do not have a large enough power output to match more meta-relevant decks. An example of this is Destroy, in metas where it cannot effectively target Tier 1 decks or that Tier 1 decks are able to regularly interact with it.

Tier 3

Niche decks that have large issues when compared to other decks. These decks are generally only run by players very comfortable with them. Classic move decks tend to fall in this category.

Tier 4/5

Weak decks that lose to most other decks. These decks have poor win and cube rates, and are not worth running compared to other decks. Most decks in this category are meme decks, not meant to be taken seriously. Decks in this category are Cerebro 6+ decks and all-in Agatha decks.

Top deck

To draw the top card of your deck.

Trigger

An effect that happens when a specific condition is met or action occurs. These are effects that are not On Reveal or Ongoing Effects and can only be activated through the method specified on the card (ex. Silk, Miek, and Lockjaw).

Win condition

A specific strategy by which a deck is designed to win.

Alternate win condition

An alternate strategy by which a deck is designed to win when the primary win condition is either not drawn, is countered by the opponent, or disrupted by the revealed locations.

X-drop (as in 2-drop, 3-drop, etc)

A card that costs X energy to play.

Zoo

A deck that plays mostly one-cost cards with cards like Kazar, Shanna, and Caiera as supports.

“X/Y” (as in “3/5″, “2/3″, etc)

A shorthand to describe the statline of a card that costs X energy and provides Y power. This is inherited from, and stands in contrast to, other CCGs where both numbers describe the statline only.

Thanks for reading the guide, I hope it was helpful to you!