Hello! Wes and I have been playing Marvel Snap over the last week or so, and thought it would be good to get together and have a chat about what makes it special – and what tempted us both back for another collectible card game.
Donlan: I was getting to the point where the last thing I was after was another collectible card game, but Marvel Snap has come along and we’re both swept up in it. I guess I should try and describe it: you have three lanes in which you battle with cards, trying to get the highest point value. At the end of six turns you have to have won in two out of three lanes. Is that a fair description of the very basics?
Wes: Yep! I love the locations, even more so than some of the cards. Not only do they give each match a random element that challenges you to think on your feet, but they are packed to bursting with Marvel flourish. Take Luke’s Bar, for example. I love that as you hover a card over it, you hear that classic bar fight kerfuffle. Play your card there, then it’s chucked out back into your hand, as if Luke himself launches your card by the scruff of the neck.
Marvel Snap is packed with glorious little touches like that, which bring the Marvel part of the game to life. The developers have made each card play like its character should. Carnage, for example, destroys your other cards and gains power. Nightcrawler can move to another location, as if teleporting. Colossus can’t be destroyed, moved or have his power reduced. As you play him, you imagine him planting his feet deep into the ground, immovable and determined.
Ahhh! I have so much to say about this brilliant little game! What stands out to you?
Donlan: I’m still at the stage where I’m being surprised by stuff, and that’s always fun. It feels like there are a lot of cards that actually do quite outrageous things. I was winning a game last night and in my sixth turn I got a card so intriguing I had to play it, even though it would lose me the game. It was a really high value card but it destroyed all my other cards when I put it down. I just had to see if I understood it correctly. I absolutely love that there’s going to be a strategy emerging around a card like that. It also feels like it’s solved some simple stuff – like having Quicksilver, a one mana card, in your deck guarantees he will appear in the first round so you actually have something to play. And the way the locations open up over the first three turns to give the early game a lot of dynamism.
Speaking of cards, do you have a favourite yet? As a Hulk fan, I’m delighted that Hulk is such a blunt turn-six choice.
Wes: Oh god, Hulk. He literally just turns up to smash and that’s it. In terms of pure strategy, Odin is strong because he activates the special abilities of your other cards, which is a great combo with Ironheart for example. I love some of the troll cards that frustrate, too. Professor X locks down a location, which seriously messes with your opponent’s strategy (bonus points for the yellow chair!). Enchantress puts a stop to all the ongoing shenanigans you may run into.