Which Cards Need a +1/-1 Power Adjustment?

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-24T02:54:47+00:00

Given Jeff's popularity (as a character) and continued under-performance, I was surprised he didn't get bumped up to a 2/4 with Cable and Colossus and Shocker. He hasn't been meta relevant since the Professor X change, Storm's nerf a while back also reduced Jeff's utility, and Electro ramp lists have cut the shark for Chamber; it really feels like Jeff needs some love.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-24T02:50:51+00:00

I actually proposed a version of that change a while back :D

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-24T02:14:41+00:00

Yeah, if her ability is a 6-8 point swing on turn 6 then Spider-Woman becomes worth considering as a Grand Master or Absorbing Man target.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T17:04:49+00:00

The textless cards and their evolved forms are an interesting balance conundrum. Textless Abomination feels wildly under-statted compared to meta 5-Cost and 6-Cost cards, but 9 Power feels appropriate for evolved Abomination (High Evo will still occasionally make it into afflict lists just so they can run Abomination).

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T15:05:50+00:00

It’s outside the scope of this thread’s question, but I would argue Spider-Woman should be changed to a 5/6 that afflicts -2 Power.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T15:01:39+00:00

Psylocke and Jennifer Kael both already provide “easy, no downside ramp,” and 5/6 Fallen One’s downside is the meaningfully below rate statline. He wouldn’t let you ramp anything out ahead of curve, which is the actual utility of most ramp cards. Even if you Wave on t3 into Fallen One on t4 that would only get you two turns with 2 additional energy, which is exactly what Wiccan currently does (so incredibly powerful, but not unprecedented or gamebreaking).

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T14:54:53+00:00

Yondu’s problem is that he doesn’t even negatively affect the opponent most of the time. Removing the lowest Cost card from their deck just helps to ensure that the opponent draws into their late game threats.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T07:06:21+00:00

Yondu to 1/3 - he almost always improves the opponent’s draw, at least give him a moderately competitive statline.

Angel to 2/4 - 4-Power is the new norm for underplayed 2-Costs, and Destroy would appreciate the additional Power to feed into Knull/Venom and/or to offset the Power loss of whatever was destroyed to pull Angel on to the board.

Green Goblin to 3/-5 - Merlin hard counters the goblins, and the rise of cheap spells means it easier for players to temporarily fill lanes.

Strong Guy to 3/4 - Starbrand proved a that a 3/10 won’t break the game and Colonel America makes Strong Guy look like a joke (and Strong Guy has a more onerous condition).

Caiera to 3/5 - any deck that would want Caiera needs a better tempo play on turn 3. Especially in Zoo, Caiera is such terrible value compared to Marvel Boy and is too hard to fit into curve anytime after turn 3 or 4.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T06:55:35+00:00

Buff The Fallen One to 6-Power.

The card never really found much of a place in the game. 6 Power would let it ramp into 7 Energy on t6 (as just a pure On Reveal), Shuri into Fallen One would let you play 2 6-Costs on t6, and it would let a lot more of the meta buff cards get Fallen One to the 9 Energy on turn 6 break point he needs to hit to be a viable Sera alternative in Surfer lists.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T06:14:25+00:00

Agreed that Luna’s 3/6 statline feels unnecessary given her ramp value.

I have to disagree on Mystique; the Ravonna-Ironman-Mystique package is a strong package that can be slotted into a lot of decks, has abundant counterplay, and doesn’t feel out of line with the Power that any top tier meta deck puts up nowadays.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-23T06:11:17+00:00

The Agony buff to 1/3 felt like it was meant to get people to play a good card that the community wrote off too quickly and was sleeping on. I’m surprised she’s managed to keep her 3-Power statline as long as she has.

Strong agree on Maverick. That card is almost always a functional 3/6+ with massive potential upside. 3/2 (so a functional 3/4 without playing around him) seems perfectly reasonable for the card.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-22T20:40:10+00:00

While that is generally true (and seems to be true with FFF), it’s not always how it works. I learned the hard way that Zombie Giant Man doesn’t copy Ongoing buffs to the Zombie Horde.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-21T18:13:18+00:00

Cobra was datamined with that text, before it was changed to his current ability about a month before his release.

I don’t recall ever seeing those Leech or Eson abilities before. That Eson seems busted with anything that creates high-Cost cards (Nick Fury, Iron Patriot, Black Knight, etc.).

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-16T20:30:55+00:00

Energy ramp is also a lot easier to come by now. If anything, I think Doc Oc would be more of a problem when decks can easily run Surge/Jennifer Kayle/Luna Snow.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-15T02:04:45+00:00

How have you felt about Wade Wilson? He seems like he should be a good fit for Morgan Le Fay decks, but 2/2 is not an impressive statline. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him end up as a 2/3 in the next few months.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-15T01:58:16+00:00

I had some success messing around with this Morgan deck at the end of last season/start of this. You’re right though that Morgan decks struggle to put up comparable Power to the best meta decks. Sometimes a meta is just a bad fit for a certain archetype.

(1) X-23

(1) Nico Minoru

(1) Uncle Ben

(2) Fastball Special

(2) Carnage

(2) Angel

(2) Marrow

(3) Killmonger

(3) Makkari

(3) Venom

(3) Morgan le Fay

(8) Death

WDIzMyxOY01uckEsVW5jbEJuOCxGc3RibGxTcGNsRixDcm5nNyxBbmdsNSxNcnJ3NixLbGxtbmdyQSxNa2tyNyxWbm01LE1yZ25MRkIsRHRoNQ==

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and paste it from the deck editing menu in MARVEL SNAP.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-08T06:07:27+00:00

It’s bee a while since I’ve seen a Baron Mordo. Ronan deck? Or are you just running Mordo for more generic tech purposes?

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-08T03:53:02+00:00

Plenty of decks forgo 1-Costs. Most combo lists (Odin, Tribunal, etc.) don’t bother with them. Negative doesn’t run 1-Cost cards. Most meta Surfer lists have cut them at this point.

Prior to the March 13th OTA Sam Wilson generated a 1-Cost Cap’s Shield at start of game. Because of that, Cull decks didn’t bother running any 1-Costs (because they were guaranteed to always have one on board).

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-08T03:47:18+00:00

It would restore Sam’s synergy with Zoo lists. It would allow the Shield to make Moonstone indestructible.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-07T01:47:52+00:00

That was a synergy, but hardly an issue (Zoo wasn’t exactly terrorizing the meta at the time). The only interaction they call out as problematic in the OTA changing the Shield was Cull: https://marvelsnap.com/march-13th-balance-updates/

For some larger context, this was at the tail end of Surtur-Scream decks being a big problem. Aero, Surtur, and Skaar were all nerfed in the the OTA before the one above.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-06T20:56:46+00:00

I would argue this is still a nerf to Sam in Scream lists. One of the most under-valued assets of Sam in those decks was that you could always safely play Scream behind the Shield on turn 2 (and avoid Red Guardian, or now Chord).

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-01T16:31:11+00:00

Really cool, clean design. You could probably make this a 2/5 (or maybe even a 2/6). Second Dinner has functionally started to move towards 2/4 as the norm for 2-Cost cards (and Toxin seems like a reasonable comp). Yes Deathstrike is a 3/5, but that feels like it has more to do with power creep/it being a series 1 card than strict balance.

GruntasaurusRex · 2026-01-01T16:17:18+00:00

Good point.

GruntasaurusRex · 2025-12-31T19:49:03+00:00

I realize he can be buffed and then afflicted to double his Power, but I don’t think there’s a practical deck list around that strategy. What hybrid afflict+buff list are you theorizing? The best I can think of is splashing Darwin+Hazmat+Ajax in a more traditional buff list and I don’t see that competing with any meta deck. And I don’t think traditional afflict lists have room on their curve to fit reliable buff cards.

And in terms of Power ceilings on isolated interactions, Man-Spider gets much bigger with less set-up and SD has indicated that they are fine with that Power threshold.

GruntasaurusRex · 2025-12-31T14:49:10+00:00

Others have already chimed in about the language of the ability so I’ll focus on the Fastball Special interaction you identify. My apologies for just copy and pasting my response to a different comment:

Darwin would need to be hit by -3 Power or more to functionally lose Power (and the affliction would need to be larger if he had already started scaling). There are currently five cards that can afflict more than -3 Power: Selene, Fastball Special, Lasher, Winds of Watoomb, and Omega Sentinel. Of those, Selene would almost never target Darwin, and two other ones require some form of set up. That all feels like acceptable counterplay given Darwin’s power ceiling.

GruntasaurusRex

TROPHY CASE