Quick Guide to Priority
What is Priority?
Priority is a game mechanic that determines which player flip their cards over first. Whoever “has priority” will have their cards moved and flipped over first. Additionally, the term “priority” is unofficial, widely accepted as the term for reveal order by the SNAP community
Priority is determined at the start of each turn as follows:
- Whichever player is winning the most locations has priority.
- In the case of a tie, priority goes to the player who has a higher point differential.
- In the case of a point tie (which is the case at the start of every game), priority is randomly determined.
To check who has priority, look at the name tag of each player. The player with priority will have a glowing border around their name. It’s noteworthy that the glowing effect take some time to appear, so watch out!
How Does Priority Impact the Game?
Often times, priority can be a deciding factor for which player has an advantage in the game. For example, Alioth is powerful when a player has priority, as it can remove the effects of unrevealed cards played this turn. Tech Cards can also be dependent on priority. For example, Echo and Cosmo can stop an opposing play made on the same turn, if they were flipped over first. On the other hand, cards like Enchantress or Shang-Chi can disable effects and destroy cards played on the same turn if they were played without priority.
Special Cases
Some locations and cards can impact which player has priority in special ways.
Ghost: The first example is Ghost. Ghost has the effect “Ongoing: Your cards are always revealed last. (Their On Reveal** abilities happen last.)” If a player has ghost’s effect active, they will never have priority. If both players have Ghost’s effect active, priority is determined as if nobody had Ghost’s effect active.
Bar With No Name: Bar With No Name is a location that reads “Whoever has the least Power here wins.” Since priority is determined by whoever is winning at the most locations, the calculation for priority is inverted at this location.
I hope this was helpful to you!
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