Marvel Snap is one of the better card games I have played with a variety of valid deck types to use and frequent updates, a snap system I have mixed feeling about, and an odd monetization system.

Each player creates a deck of 12 cards, draws three to begin, and then draws one card each turn over the course of a six turn game. Every turn gives players a total energy value that matches the current turn and the goal is to play your 1-6 cost cards that each have an associated power value and ability into three different lanes to try to end up with the most power in two of those three lanes (or more total power if you tie). You and your opponent play cards at the same time with your board only be visible to you until both players hit the end turn button (or when the turn timer runs out). Both players taking their turns at the same time solves a major problem a lot of card games have where the person that goes first can often end up with a major advantage, while the added strategy of the currently winning player having priority in showing their cards first can add another layer of strategy based on what you and your opponents cards do when it comes to effecting other cards on the board. From the beginning of the game you can play cards to any location but only the location on the left is revealed with the middle being revealed on turn two, and the right on turn three. Revealed locations will show a specific location that has their own game altering text. A location might increase or decrease the power of cards, prevent cards being played their, have players draw cards, and 0 power rocks to the location, turn all cards into The Hulk, duplicate a card played on the spot, have the game last only four turn or last for seven turns, etc with the locations that have the biggest effect on games being the ones that show up less often.

There are three game modes that can be played. You can play normal matches where you play one round against an opponent, winning can see you gaining higher rank for 1-100 with each season giving you either credits, gold, card variants, card backs, and avatars every 10 ranks. For every rank you pass divisible by 10 you have three ranks added to your total. Each rank requires you to gain seven cubes. When a game starts the cube count is at one, on the final turn the current cube value doubles, if someone retreats the current value is given to the winner, if someone hits the snap option the current value doubles and the opponent can either retreat before the increase, do nothing so it doubles, or snap themself so it doubles again. This means that games can end with cube values of 1, 2, 4, 8. The losing players loses the cube number and can go down in ranks. At the end of each season your rank is dropped by 30. Once you reach rank 100 you are playing for cubes and can see your total ranking among other players but you will not lose rank until the monthly season ends. The other main mode is the challenge mode where you play multiple matches against the same opponent with whoever takes 10 cubes from their opponent being the winner. These matches don't effect your rank but gain you points that can be spent on a card, avatars, credits, gold, card boosters, card variants, etc that are available on the challenge store for the season. The challenge mode has a proving ground, silver, gold, and infinite section where you have to win a ticket in the previous area to play matches in the next with the higher areas offering more points. The proving grounds being a great place to just mess around or test out a deck since you can't lose anything and can only gain a silver ticket if you win. Challenge mode otherwise can be a bit odd as for a fast game people can really drag out matches and when it comes to decks having multiple games with the same person can mean you can take time to see what cards people have and how they play but it also means that you run into a deck that will easily counter yours in a mode that wants you to beat multiple people in a row multiple times and having more than one match makes it even less likely you will win against a deck that is even an adequate counter to yours. The final mode is a mode with no stakes where you can just invite a friend to a private match played in the challenge style.

The opponents that you play against are actually not based on your rank, they are based on your collection level which is the progression system of the game. This means that when you start, if you are any good at card games, it is actually a good idea to try to focus on reaching max rank because you will be paired against a lot of terrible players just trying the game because of the Marvel name or bots to fill the low level games that are easy to beat. As you go up in collection level you will enter new tiers that match you with opponents who have access to the same kind of cards.

The progression system is based on acquiring credits, gold, card boosters, spotlight cache keys, and cards that are in pools 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that can effect how you unlock them. When you start you have the pool one cards and very quickly gain the pool two cards by gaining collection level. You gain collection level by spending credits on cards that you have boosters for to raise your level. Upgraded cards gain a different colored border and 3D and animated details on the main card. Card boosters aren't a thing that really prohibits progression they are just points assigned to a card you used at the end of every match or gained for a random card you own through the progression system that allows you to upgrade that specific card (or a variant of the card) with credits. Credits are gained from completing very easy daily challenges of which you have a maximum of six with two being added every eight hours, you can also go to the store to gain 50 credits free a day, doing the six challenges and getting the free 50 gets you 500 credits a day that can roughly raise your collection level by 10 a day, with you gaining something something every two level for the first 200 or so ranks then at every four level afterwards. Each week also gives you additional credits, gold, and season pass points by completing 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 daily challenges. These are some of the easiest and less time consuming daily and weekly challenges I've seen in a game like this that makes progression pretty easy if you can spare a couple minutes for around 2-4 matches a day.

There are issues with the system where once you reach the pool 3 cards that gaining them becomes random and can take a lot longer while you are now playing against people that have a wider variety of cards, you do unlock one free to gain pool 3 card a month that you can somewhat choose but it is chosen by offering a random one you don't have in the store and then switching it every eight hours so you can't just easily choose the one you want or need most as soon as the month begins. The rarer pool 4 and 5 cards can only be gained in two ways (these aren't necessarily the best cards they are just the newer cards). By getting tokens that are much more random to acquire or require gaining some points by buying the monthly season pass for $10 or once you reach around 1000 collection level you gain gain a spotlight key every 120 levels (about a weeks worth of progression if going solely by challenges) that can be used to unlock one of three weekly options or a random pool 4 or 5 card (or a variant for one if you already have one of the three on offer and roll them or some tokens if you pull a random card you already own with the random option). You can certainly play the game as a free player, though it would have been much easier to be one in the earlier days of the game, but I would recommend.....
Full Review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Kennan/review/1233156/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya2YGdkfIkY&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741249271830331861

Marvel Snap is one of the better card games I have played with a variety of valid deck types to use and frequent updates, a snap system I have mixed feeling about, and an odd monetization system. Each player creates a deck of 12 cards, draws three to begin, and then draws one card each turn over the course of a six turn game. Every turn gives players a total energy value that matches the current turn and the goal is to play your 1-6 cost cards that each have an associated power value and ability into three different lanes to try to end up with the most power in two of those three lanes (or more total power if you tie). You and your opponent play cards at the same time with your board only be visible to you until both players hit the end turn button (or when the turn timer runs out). Both players taking their turns at the same time solves a major problem a lot of card games have where the person that goes first can often end up with a major advantage, while the added strategy of the currently winning player having priority in showing their cards first can add another layer of strategy based on what you and your opponents cards do when it comes to effecting other cards on the board. From the beginning of the game you can play cards to any location but only the location on the left is revealed with the middle being revealed on turn two, and the right on turn three. Revealed locations will show a specific location that has their own game altering text. A location might increase or decrease the power of cards, prevent cards being played their, have players draw cards, and 0 power rocks to the location, turn all cards into The Hulk, duplicate a card played on the spot, have the game last only four turn or last for seven turns, etc with the locations that have the biggest effect on games being the ones that show up less often. There are three game modes that can be played. You can play normal matches where you play one round against an opponent, winning can see you gaining higher rank for 1-100 with each season giving you either credits, gold, card variants, card backs, and avatars every 10 ranks. For every rank you pass divisible by 10 you have three ranks added to your total. Each rank requires you to gain seven cubes. When a game starts the cube count is at one, on the final turn the current cube value doubles, if someone retreats the current value is given to the winner, if someone hits the snap option the current value doubles and the opponent can either retreat before the increase, do nothing so it doubles, or snap themself so it doubles again. This means that games can end with cube values of 1, 2, 4, 8. The losing players loses the cube number and can go down in ranks. At the end of each season your rank is dropped by 30. Once you reach rank 100 you are playing for cubes and can see your total ranking among other players but you will not lose rank until the monthly season ends. The other main mode is the challenge mode where you play multiple matches against the same opponent with whoever takes 10 cubes from their opponent being the winner. These matches don't effect your rank but gain you points that can be spent on a card, avatars, credits, gold, card boosters, card variants, etc that are available on the challenge store for the season. The challenge mode has a proving ground, silver, gold, and infinite section where you have to win a ticket in the previous area to play matches in the next with the higher areas offering more points. The proving grounds being a great place to just mess around or test out a deck since you can't lose anything and can only gain a silver ticket if you win. Challenge mode otherwise can be a bit odd as for a fast game people can really drag out matches and when it comes to decks having multiple games with the same person can mean you can take time to see what cards people have and how they play but it also means that you run into a deck that will easily counter yours in a mode that wants you to beat multiple people in a row multiple times and having more than one match makes it even less likely you will win against a deck that is even an adequate counter to yours. The final mode is a mode with no stakes where you can just invite a friend to a private match played in the challenge style. The opponents that you play against are actually not based on your rank, they are based on your collection level which is the progression system of the game. This means that when you start, if you are any good at card games, it is actually a good idea to try to focus on reaching max rank because you will be paired against a lot of terrible players just trying the game because of the Marvel name or bots to fill the low level games that are easy to beat. As you go up in collection level you will enter new tiers that match you with opponents who have access to the same kind of cards. The progression system is based on acquiring credits, gold, card boosters, spotlight cache keys, and cards that are in pools 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that can effect how you unlock them. When you start you have the pool one cards and very quickly gain the pool two cards by gaining collection level. You gain collection level by spending credits on cards that you have boosters for to raise your level. Upgraded cards gain a different colored border and 3D and animated details on the main card. Card boosters aren't a thing that really prohibits progression they are just points assigned to a card you used at the end of every match or gained for a random card you own through the progression system that allows you to upgrade that specific card (or a variant of the card) with credits. Credits are gained from completing very easy daily challenges of which you have a maximum of six with two being added every eight hours, you can also go to the store to gain 50 credits free a day, doing the six challenges and getting the free 50 gets you 500 credits a day that can roughly raise your collection level by 10 a day, with you gaining something something every two level for the first 200 or so ranks then at every four level afterwards. Each week also gives you additional credits, gold, and season pass points by completing 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 daily challenges. These are some of the easiest and less time consuming daily and weekly challenges I've seen in a game like this that makes progression pretty easy if you can spare a couple minutes for around 2-4 matches a day. There are issues with the system where once you reach the pool 3 cards that gaining them becomes random and can take a lot longer while you are now playing against people that have a wider variety of cards, you do unlock one free to gain pool 3 card a month that you can somewhat choose but it is chosen by offering a random one you don't have in the store and then switching it every eight hours so you can't just easily choose the one you want or need most as soon as the month begins. The rarer pool 4 and 5 cards can only be gained in two ways (these aren't necessarily the best cards they are just the newer cards). By getting tokens that are much more random to acquire or require gaining some points by buying the monthly season pass for $10 or once you reach around 1000 collection level you gain gain a spotlight key every 120 levels (about a weeks worth of progression if going solely by challenges) that can be used to unlock one of three weekly options or a random pool 4 or 5 card (or a variant for one if you already have one of the three on offer and roll them or some tokens if you pull a random card you already own with the random option). You can certainly play the game as a free player, though it would have been much easier to be one in the earlier days of the game, but I would recommend..... Full Review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Kennan/review/1233156/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya2YGdkfIkY&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741249271830331861