The new patch includes balance changes, but not to Surfer or Zabu. They started overperforming after we locked the changes a few weeks ago. Fortunately we now have the ability to adjust balance without a new patch, and we are planning to adjust those cards in a week or so.
Thanos and Shuri decks have both been more dominant than we'd like for the past few weeks. The patch we're releasing later this month has significant changes targeting both decks.
#MARVELSNAP
Banning multiple of the most valuable cards with no warning doesnโt feel โstableโ or โconsiderate of the experiences of everyone involved,โ but does feel deliberately damaging to a specific audience.
Also indicts Rule 0, as these were obvious cards to flag in pregame convo.
UPDATE: Changes to the banned list:
Dockside Extortionist is banned
Jeweled Lotus is banned
Mana Crypt is banned
Nadu is banned.
Additional details: . or
The Blob change means merging Red Skull into Infinaut is 34 and you stop merging, but merging Infinaut first will stop Blob at 20 and leave Red Skull in the deck.
OTA is here!
Blob
[Old]
๐ต Cost: 6
๐ถ Power: 4
๐น On Reveal: Merge your deck into this. (and gain its total Power) Ongoing: Can't be moved.
[New]
๐ต Cost: 6
๐ถ Power: 0
๐น On Reveal: Merge cards from your deck into this until it gains 15 or more Power. Ongoing: Can't be moved.
This
#MARVELSNAP
balance update was a tough one with a lot of variables, and I know the nature of Patch Notes means they won't answer all your questions or concerns.
To that end, I'll answer select queries about the balance changes from today's replies to this thread.
Made Infinite with a neat brew. I bumped into someone playing something similar around 93, and used my version the rest of the way. Thanks for the cool deck idea, [opponent]!
#MARVELSNAP
Will be talking less Commander today, but in summary:
A crucial part of game stewardship is earning and deserving playersโ trust. Bans always carry material harm, but these only felt like betrayal because they did not match the RCโs previously set expectations and values.
Answering some
#MARVELSNAP
questions on Kitty Pryde:
You can return Kitty and replay her in the same turn. You can't play her and return her with her own effect, she needs to have started the turn resolved at a location.
1/5
As for whatโs next? Iโm joining the
#MarvelSNAP
team at Second Dinner as Principal Designer I!
Iโm stoked about the opportunity to craft content for the coolest new mobile game in the world. Theyโve got great crew too, and Iโm excited to get to know them all and learn heaps.
I got a late start on
#MARVELSNAP
infinite this season, playing very little in my off-hours (still need to finish the SP!)
So I decided to push with a cook, and wound up with two!
I ended hereโฆ
A chunk of my
#WotCstaff
design responsibilities include
#MTGSecretLair
and Universes Beyond, so crossovers are always exciting.
For these, I was the lead designer! It was a unique challenge, and I look forward to seeing them in action.
Big news: Yesterday was my last day as
#WotCStaff
.
Stewarding Commander, launching Universes Beyond, and building Spellslingers were all amazing, but my peers made Wizards a home. Magic and its players are lucky to have such a passionate and talented group behind the scenes.
Itโs unlikely Iโll continue using Twitter as a meaningful comms tool for
#MarvelSnap
much longer if the latest changes stick. Iโm not sure what that means yet for how Iโll connect with players moving forward, but Iโll let you know when I know.
As a torturous treat, I will disclose that the highest-winrate card in
#MARVELSNAP
has been there for a few weeks now...and I can't recall ever seeing anyone call for us to nerf it!
Enjoy speculating, maybe I'll tell you when it drops from
#1
;)
Didnโt play much live SNAP this month for various reasons, so I did my climb today. Been a while since I posted a deck; nothing too special, but it was fun to play.
We had the mechanical idea for a legendary source of Phyrexian mana early on. Kโrrik made sense because his millennia of iteration in a fast-time bubble makes him one of the most advanced Phyrexians of all time.
#MTGC19
#WotCStaff
@jfwong
If the CAG actually wasnโt looped in here, that is the new most inappropriate part of the whole decision. I canโt fathom a reasonable justification.
We've heard feedback around the missions players don't like in
#MARVELSNAP
. As we think about missions, I'm curious: What are your favorites? Are there missions you wish existed, but don't?
Itโs crazy how many takes on student loans are basically โthis system has ruined so many lives that itโs unfair to prevent it from ruining more.โ
So glad everyone is enjoying the
#MTGDND
face commanders. Iโm still working on a design write-up for you all, so if you have any burning questions, send โem this way!
#WotCStaff
#MTGAFR
@bootmanmstz
Why not? This seems like a game state where specific deckbuilding choices and tactical early plays will have a huge impact on the game. It's okay for what players do on turns 1 and 2 to matter a lot sometimes, what they do on turns 5 and 6 always does.
Just as a heads up, I wonโt be discussing potential upcoming
#MARVELSNAP
cards/abilities/interactions until theyโre announced on an official channel. Thanks!
Since I'm getting these questions a lot:
If you Legion on Flooding, the new ones will mirror the original--all three will become Flooded at the same time.
Mirror Dimension won't do that--it's a weirdo we're still poking at due to unique timing, like old Sakaar.
#MARVELSNAP
@LambySeriesGG
Would a maybe more accurate way to reframe this be โa Blob with less Power but a larger range has more cube equity than a stronger card with less varianceโ ?
Thought I might miss infinite for the first time this season after taking a week off and going on a ~-150 cube cold streak early on, but got there by preying on Thanos with my old friend Zabu. Tried a ton of cards in the Daredevil slot, but he won.
To properly celebrate the upcoming
#MTGLTR
release, I decided to start a megathread! I'll be sharing design nuggets as cards are previewed and interesting stories come up.
Did something a little different this season and played a brew for my entire Infinite climb (last 3 days). Just liked the deck.
Tried a variety of cards in the Vision/Debrii slotsโhonestly they even look bad to me but played well ๐คท
#MARVELSNAP
The Top 8 Decklists + Stats from the
@SnapDotFan
World Championship. From a tournament with 64 of the best players in the world, these are the decks that will be playing for $3000 tomorrow.
We promised BIG changes to card acquisition, and we're excited to announce the Spotlight Cache!
Get ready for more cards for more players! This change is making each card release more exciting and accessible for all players!
Ready to dive in? ๐
I'm closing this down now so I can wrap up my day. Thank you for the questions and the feedback--I was wary of wading in here, but I'm glad I tried it and hope you enjoyed it.
To celebrate the
#MTGBRO
Transformers cards, I thought I'd do a little thread of design notes for the cards. First up: Optimus Prime, of course!
#WotCStaff
1/?
Starting today, Iโm on mixed professional/personal vacation for ~2.5 weeks. My availability and responsiveness may vary, and I won๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝt be answering questions Iโd need a computer to verify. Just a heads up!
Oh hey, some more cards I designed :)
#MTGIxalan
Working within this IP was fun and also surreal. As a child, I was known for carrying a toy dinosaur or two around in case anyone needed a brief lecture about why dinosaurs were awesome.
@WillowCCG
Itโs pretty much just a flag, we all picked one we liked when the feature was implemented. I donโt actually recall if it has any frequency modifier.
Cards like this were much harder to balance in our previous design paradigm. We felt confident this couldnโt be 6 and likely shouldnโt be 9, but monocolored cards this potent are hard to vet! Glad we have a CPD team now.
#MTGBaldursGate
#WotCStaff
Also popular: why nerf Quinjet vs. making Stones start in the deck?
The Stones simply don't start in the deck. We believe adding niche exceptions to otherwise intuitive scenarios is the wrong way to add complexity.
On its own, Quinjet is also a meaningful future balance risk.
โIโll make a healthy choice today and get the fruit/yogurt/granola bowl instead of pancakes. Ingredients list looks good, just almonds.โ
Half-hour later, in urgent care with anaphylaxis because apparently they just mash a bunch of unlisted nuts in there?!
Pancakes for life.
As I'm always combing through
#MARVELSNAP
data, I've decided to quiz you all on some interesting tidbits of data from time to time.
As of 1/31, two archetypes in SNAP held winrates below 50% BUT posted cube gain rates in our Top 10. Can you name one or both of them?
The core concept for this particular Gandalf came from Ari Nieh early in design. It's a Saga-esque way to tell this piece of Gandalf's story--the journey into Moria and fight with the Balrog.
#MTGLTR
I answered this in error and imprecisely. If you stage Elsa and fill a location with another card on the same turn, she will buff that card if sheโs revealing first. Sorry!
This does not happen.
If you're a design lead with a sweet card, and a team playtesting it for months says "It's awesome, print it!" and someone who read it earlier that week says "It's scary, don't print it" who should you listen to? 1/2
At the risk of joining Discourse, I donโt like community members being put in the position to veto cards being designed, particularly main-set cards. Not everyone plays Magic the same way you do and I really, really dislike Standard being dictated by the Commander Rules Committee
Random
#WotCStaff
fact: My roommate and I both submitted IMA flavor text for Diminish and Enlarge, respectively. With no communication, we both named the cat โMittens,โ but (sadly) only Enlarge made it to print
I've seen confusion about our next
#MARVELSNAP
OTA being 4/25, so to clarify:
OTAs aren't scheduled independent of patches. We avoid doing OTAs 2 weeks in a row and also on patch week. Given a previous patch delay and those parameters, we simply chose 4/25 over 4/18 this month.
Gonna collect some tweets for
#MTGxLOTR
here in a thread, with a behind-the-scenes snippets.
Feel free to ask for things you're specifically curious about, and if I have shareable thoughts I'll seek to get them approved and added!
Lockjaw (bug): An existing display bug is extra-awkward.
The Collector (bug): Returning her to hand should buff Collector.
Beast (bug): She should hold Beast's Energy reduction permanently, but returning her with her own effect is currently changing her Cost to 1 instead.
3/5
@ChasePitzer
While I am not involved directly, I know this issue has the direct attention of our engineering leadership and that we had a solution being tested last week. I will also forward this along to them.
Since it's coming up a lot:
There's only been one strong deck using Leech, and nerfs to Thanos decks weaken him too.
Our time to implement behavior/VFX changes is also limited. We decided to take more time, find a change we liked and could make, then see if it was warranted.
This
#MTGBaldursGate
card has a fun โbackground.โ
As an exercise, I colorshifted several strong Commander cards into W, looking for printable ideas in another set.
I didnโt have a use for this one, so I threw it into our Commander leads chatโฆand voila!
#WotCStaff
Fernando Tatis Jr. smacked a grand slam on a 3-0 count with a big lead, leading to criticism from both managers.
What do you think about this unwritten rule in baseball?
๐ฅ
@MLB
#PadresTwitter
Reading reactions to all the
#MTGxLOTR
reveals is almost enough to cheer me up in spite of my wife's car getting stolen and destroyed last night.
"Almost" is pretty great, considering!
Itโs not about forecasting specific changes. Itโs about being trustworthy stewards.
โWeโre exploring a banlist philosophy that will aim gameplay more sharply toward what Commander should best support. That means youโll see some impactful updates in the near future. Thanks!โ
@BraudeSnap
@MarvelSnapBugle
High Ev will release as a 4/4.
Just as a heads up, I generally won't answer questions related to datamining. Making an exception here since it's a week away and our own previously advertised asset was inaccurate.
2023 was a super interesting year, packed with tons of opportunities to grow in interesting ways. Looking forward to more of the same in 2024, including teaching a course on game development for UW in January :)
@matuna
@seconddinner
I made the decision to make myself more public and available with SD's support. It's something some other devs I admire do.
I have thick skin and a simple policy of blocking being rude or communicating in bad faith, so it's not difficult aside from the sheer volume.
I typically avoided non-permanents with delayed triggers, but I was sold on this
#MTGxJurassicWorld
design when one player put up their hand and said "Stop--Don't Move!" as another began declaring attackers (in Commander).
The first balance changes of Into the Quantum Realm have materialized!
(New) Zabu - 2/2 card - Ongoing: Your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less (minimum 1)
(New) Silver Surfer - 3/2 - On Reveal: Give your other 3-Cost cards +2 Power
For more info see our in-game blog on the news tab!
Hey, I led design of this project! I hope they provide many future players with a fun first Commander experience.
Thanks to โฆ
@Chris_VanMeter
โฉ and โฆ
@Dudardd
โฉ for the assist!
#WotCStaff