Marvel Snap – A Data Expert Review

For those who don’t know, Mr Brode is one of the core people behind Hearthstone. The game has been announced in May and after some tests and much hype, it was released on the 18th of October, 2022. I love playing and following card games and will review various aspects of the game from the perspective of an analyst and player.

Theme

The theme is Marvel comics, to nobody’s surprise. All of the favourite heroes and villains are battling to win various locations, I think. The focus is on heroes and not the narrative.

Game Design

This area is where Marvel Snap shines for me. There are a lot of special key elements, some that are different versions of existing mechanics, and overall the combination of all of these make up an amazing experience. I will mention the most important ones in my opinion, and provide other examples of that specific mechanic where possible.

Resource generation is pretty similar to most games: you get one more energy per turn, and it is not dependent on drawing special cards like in Magic: the Gathering. I still believe there can be much more strategic depth behind this, but it works – quite well.

Decks are made of 12 cards; you draw 2 at the beginning, and one more each turn. There are a total of 6 turns, so in most matches, players will see at least 66% of their deck. The deck size is small, and to make it consistent you see and hopefully get to play a big chunk of your deck. Other games with bigger deck sizes generally achieve this consistency by adding multiple copies of cards; for example, Magic allows up to 4 copies of a card in a 40-60 card deck. I found this to be a good balance; there are some games in Marvel Snap where I had bad draws but in most games I executed my game plan with enough variety to challenge me.

The games have three lanes players battle over. There have been… many attempts at this multi-lane approach (Artifact – in memoriam) and Marvel Snap’s approach is closest to what Gwent has. You and the opponent play cards on the 3 lanes and whoever has more points there wins. The special thing about this that elevates Snap to the next level are “Locations”.

Each lane is a location, that has a unique effect. For example, the first may buff all your cards by +2, the second one increases energy costs, while the third one destroys any card played there! Also, they are not open information; one lane is revealed per turn. The game has 6 turns, so by the time you have complete information about the board, half the game is over. I love this mechanic a lot; it adds a whole level of strategy on where to play your cards. No two game is played on the same board, and some cards make you see what the lanes are before they are revealed – to give that information edge over the opponent.

Speaking of cards, each card is a character from the Marvel comics. You may start with Rocket Racoon from Guardians of the Galaxy, not a super strong being in the Marvel Universe. Eventually a few turns later; you play Odin, the ruler of Asgard and father of Thor. The main aspect of the card is its power, ranging from negative values to high enough to win a lane alone. Most cards also have an ability, that is either a one-off, a consistent effect, or a special one. There are already so many different archetypes among all the ranks of the game and as they keep adding cards, the diversity just increases.

Finally, the most important part of the game: the Snap. It is a system that lets you wager on the outcome of the game you are playing. Once a game you can snap, and double the number of points you will win or lose from that match. If you feel like you will definitely win, then you Snap and rank up twice as fast in one game! The opponent can also snap, and if both players are feeling confident, a single game can be worth 8 points, which is almost an entire rank on its own.  This system is from modern Backgammon, where there is a “cube” players use in the same way – double the number of points in a single game. There are entire best-of-9 series decided by one game in some tournaments! I am not yet good enough at it to bluff and optimize my rank increase but this one mechanic changes the way casual and hardcore players play the game drastically. You are not dragged down by the system if you are great at Snapping, but you can also lower risk and the proportional reward.

In summary, the gameplay is a combination of amazing mechanics that blends in so well that it creates a wonderful game. Each game is very different, takes 5 minutes, and just leaves you clicking play one more time.

Monetization

I always like to examine how a game makes revenue. Over the years I had seen some quite intricate systems for monetization and got quite good at spotting “pay-to-win” (P2W) games. Note that I don’t think P2W is inherently a bad thing, but that is a discussion for another time.

The starting point is understanding how you get cards. Those are what you play with and chase after all. In Marvel Snap you get cards by playing the game, and only that. Each time you win and finish daily missions you get tokens for your cards. Say, 10 of them for your Nightcrawler card. Once you hit thresholds, you upgrade your card, and it is a purely cosmetic update. The card becomes animated, becomes 3D, or adds a cool border. Also, you get “collection points” by upgrading cards. These collection points reward you at certain thresholds, and this is how you get new cards. Once you do have the card you have it forever and it can only rank up, not down. The card you get is relatively random. There are certain levels where you can only get certain cards, called a Pool system but that is too lengthy to explain here. Instead, I want to share my experience. This way of getting cards over time, in a trickle fashion is a great balance between giving me something to look forward to and also feeling I can compete without having that one amazing card due to bad RNG. I still do not like there is RNG, and no other way to craft cards/fish for them in a specific way. The upside is that the game is so balanced, you can most likely muster up a S Tier deck with whatever you end up getting from the pool.

Finally, there are different variants of each card, and that is also a purely cosmetic aspect. You can have a pixel-drawn version or a black-and-white old newspaper look on your favourite hero. Each variant is counted as a separate card, so you need to level up all of them individually but that does not dilute or slow down your progression. In terms of getting cards, Marvel Snap is fair, gameplay based, and not pay-to-win – there is nothing to pay that impacts the game. Well, almost nothing but I think that is not a dramatic enough of an issue for me, explained in a bit.

Next up are the currencies in the game. There are 2 actual currencies, plus a few progression currencies like the collection points mentioned above. The actual currencies are credits and gold. Credits are gained in-game and can be purchased with Gold, and are used to upgrade cards. Gold is sold for real money, and used to buy credits, and variants from the shop, and get new daily missions if you run out of them. Progression currencies are for your rank, your collection, and finally a battle pass.

Oh, the dreaded battle pass. As a nice surprise, the battle pass (BP) is well-balanced and in my opinion worth the money. The best part is there are weekly missions for each week of a season, and those give you a huge boost on their own enough to get you quite a few levels. They also do not expire, so you have the option of binging on all those missions with specific decks in the last 3 days of a season (I am guilty as charged). Most levels do not give rewards for Free progression but the paid rewards are definitely worth the cost. Now the controversy – because there just had to be one.

Once you purchase a BP, you automatically get the card of that season and a variant at level 50 of the BP. Some people may think this is pay-to-win as you get more cards to build decks from, but honestly, that would be a stretch. First of all, the cards are added to the various pools after the season so at worst you are handicapped for a single season. The game is still new, so I am sure they will approach this differently just by the merit of having more and more cards added. Also, no card is overpowered (OP) on its own. Well, as of this writing the new Silver Surfer season just started and there are some claims of that card being imbalanced. We will see how that unfolds.

Finally, there are some bundles you can purchase for real money, and that lets you unlock cards you would not have otherwise. Again I let this slide, as you can get those cards just by playing the game and not insane hours either.

My overall impression is Marvel Snap has a pretty balanced and generous monetization. As a free-to-play game, this is a necessity and I believe they landed on a good model. They probably could have made more money with some minor changes and the fact that they didn’t is a plus for me. I will likely purchase Battle Passes while I am actively playing, and maybe a variant with all the free Gold I got from the BP and some rewards. I am happy with that.

What I would like to analyse in Marvel Snap?

I will try to go over what I would like to analyse in this game and why. First off, I am very curious about how they measure balance. The basis for the win rate should be not only on the card but card-location combination. This requires a ton of players and a good diversity in the decks played, which luckily Marvel Snap has for the time being. Then the balancing decision should target some aspect of the card – is it too powerful for its cost? Is the ability the problem? Understanding the game fundamentals like tempo, and the likelihood to win at various points of the game is needed and I think playing the game actively and consuming strategy content and trends among the community is necessary to analyse the gameplay well.

For the monetization side, I am very curious about the standard metrics of success; what are the conversion rate of players, the average value of a player, and the cost per acquisition? However, I am most interested in Battle Pass related metrics. That appears to be the main revenue source for the game and I would expect a higher number than similar mobile card games. The lifetime value of the players on the other hand is pretty steady (almost like a monthly subscription model) and the growth would come from more players rather than creating a few super whales (1% of users who make up 10% of the revenue by themselves, or similar).

As another curious point, one of the focus areas of the advertisement campaign was “made by Ben Brode”. He appears in some ads himself even. I would very much like to see whether they are successful. I guess that they have a higher cost per acquisition but also higher conversion and the highest ROI. A very specific audience would know who Ben Brode is and likely found in older but more niche platforms like Reddit and Youtube instead of Facebook or Instagram. I am not entirely sure about TikTok but I am guessing no one is certain about how to approach that platform yet.

News to follow about the game

• I am interested in how the Silver Surfer debacle is going to end. As a mid-ranking player, I don’t think it is overpowered, but I also don’t have access to some cards that higher levels have. The developers recently showed they are not afraid to actively balance cards, and quite quickly in fact. If they detect a problem I am sure they will address it, and I doubt it would single-handedly change how many people purchase the BP or why.
• The holiday season is approaching, and I wonder if they have plans to capitalize on it in some way. I can’t imagine seeing the Santa version of the Hulk for more than a few days at most, but maybe a temporary event to get people in the festive (and spendive) feeling. Or at least some snow and decorations on the game board?
• New game modes are something I definitely expect. The game being made up of multiple different mechanics makes it quite easy to spin new game modes. Maybe one that is all the same location, all three lanes. Or only certain cards are allowed, but accessible to everyone regardless of their collection status. There are so many avenues that can be explored, that I am confident we will see more ways to play the game.
• They say the third time is the charm. If I was thinking strategically, I would aim for hype for the next season. This will be the true test of time for the core player base – not inflated by the numbers at release and in a challenging period right after the holiday season. The higher percentage of people they can get to actively play through January is going to be critical for the performance of the game in 2023.

Conclusion

Marvel Snap is an amazing card game; full of fun and strategy set in a universe with a huge, dedicated fan base. It is free-to-play and balanced for all types of players, and the paid aspects are definitely worth the investment for a player. In my view, this is one of the wins of the year that will hopefully go on to have many successful years of development and support. Well done, Second Dinner.