Marvel / Second Dinner
If you are a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe then you will be one of the many who love the new stratgeic card game Marvel Snap.
Released from beta on October 18th, Marvel Snap has gotten an absurd amount of positive reviews: 4.6 stars in Google Play (173K reviews) and 4.8 stars in the App Store (38K reviews).
That’s with good reason. There is a lot to like about the game.
From being able to spend just a few minutes playing to getting lost for hours, it’s up to the player how much time they want to invest when they open the game up.
There is an almost unlimited number of cards featuring even the most obscure Marvel characters, along with multiple versions of all of them, to collect and use.
Each player selects the 12 cards they want in their hand for each battle against an online opponent who does the same.
Cards are chosen based on the amount of energy they need to how much power they wield.
Once the game begins, there are three locations in which a player can place a card for battle. Each location also has a unique (and random) effect on the cards that are played there.
The battles take place over three rounds with the amount of energy a player can utilize going up in increments of one until the sixth (or seventh) and final round.
Whichever player accumulates the most points in two of the three locations is the victor. In case of a tie, the player with the most points on the entire board gets the dub.
Marvel Snap is very addicting strategy game with the bonus of taking place within the Marvel Universe thus containing a plethora of characters, some familiar and some obscure (and there’s more fun stuff still yet to come).
Of course, winning is the object of the game. As neat as Marvel Snap is to look at, it’s even better when you’re dominating.
Here are 25 tips for Marvel Snap to help you defeat your opponents
• Pay attention to the “tip of the day” on the welcome screen. It’s not always something that you already knew.
• Read Marvel’s guide to building your first Snap deck of cards.
• If you can upgrade a card, do it. The sooner you upgrade your cards, the sooner you get more rewards, which you can use to upgrade more cards. It also speeds up how quickly you can collect new cards.
• Make multiple decks. Once you gather enough cards you can created different decks based on what strategy you want to play.
• When making a deck, try to balance your low and high energy cards so you have a better chance of not having to sit out a round.
• Create your decks using cards that compliment one another. Some cards are made to just one thing and there are other cards out there that will help it do that.
• Pay attention to who is playing first each round. After the first round, this is decided by who is currently winning the match. Whether your cards turn over before your opponents’ cards can sometimes determine which cards you want to play.
• Read and understand what each location’s effects will have on your cards and quickly figure out which cards will be the most effected, both positively as well as negatively.
• Keep in mind that each location will only hold four cards. Also keep in mind that certain cards can open up a spot in a location when you least expect it (or your opponent least expects it).
• Pay attention to what round it is. Seriously. As simple as this seems, sometimes you get caught up and aren’t paying attention and leave lower energy cards in your deck that you could have played that round.
• Don’t be afraid to bluff your opponent into thinking you have better cards than you do by Snapping them. Marvel Snap has a lot of the same traits as poker. Use that concept to your advantage.
• When you Snap matters. Snapping too early when nothing has been revealed is fun, and can be a mind-f–k to your opponent if they’re a noob, but not very effective. Snapping too late indicates that you are feeling pretty good about your chances and changes how your opponent will approach their final moves.
• Don’t be afraid to place a card in an unrevealed zone. Sure, it could turn out poorly, but every time you have the only card in a zone where no cards can be played there you’ll look like a genius.
• Don’t forget that just because a location says no cards can be played there it doesn’t mean that you, or your opponent, won’t have a card that will take advantage of that.
• It’s okay to not play a card during a round. Often there will be situations where you just don’t have a card to play. Even if it happens twice in this game, there is almost always a strategy to come back and win you can use.
• Try to use all the energy you are allotted in a given round. Sometimes playing two lower power cards and using all the energy available versus using one card with more power, but leaves energy on the table, is the best strategic move.
• That being said, it’s okay to leave energy unused in a given round if you see an opening that’s just too good to refuse.
• Keep in mind what cards your opponent has already played. If you have a card that would have been stopped by an opponent’s card, but it’s now out of the way you then have more flexibility.
• Rock cards are the worst, but you can still use them to bluff an opponent or in conjunction with a card that gains points by destroying other cards.
• If you can, save certain lower energy cards for the end that you can use to knock the smile off your opponent’s face when you destroy a card in a location that thought they had locked up.
• Cards that produce random effects are just that: random. It’s like playing the lottery when you use these cards. Sometime the reward is great, other times you just wasted a turn. If you like playing the lottery then go ahead, but your chances of following any kind of strategy goes out the window.
• Take advantage of, and keep an eye on your opponent’s, cards with ongoing effects. Sometimes, even the lowest energy cards that have ongoing effects can be the difference between winning and losing.
• Experiment with all your cards. Sometimes you won’t realize how powerful a card can be, despite reading its description, until you actually use it in a game.
• Don’t forget that you only need to win two out of three locations. Watch you the game unfolds and don’t waste cards where your chances of winning are low.
• Last, but not least. Don’t be afraid to retreat. Sometimes you just gotta know when to fold ’em, as a wise person once said.