Fixing trust: A Message to Second Dinner

Marvel Snap faces several critical issues that need urgent attention. Two major problems stand out:

1. Card Acquisition
2. Series Drops

In February 2024, I shared my concerns about series drops on my blog and Reddit. At the time, I didn’t fully grasp the broader challenges the game was facing. Since then, my understanding of these issues—and how they might be fixed—has deepened.

Here’s my message to Second Dinner: you’ve lost my trust. I no longer believe you’re acting in the players’ best interests to resolve these problems. What I want is simple: regular communication about these issues and a discussion of potential solutions. A bi-weekly or monthly update would demonstrate that you’re listening and working towards fixes.

I’m not asking for a detailed timetable—software development timelines can and do slip. But if you continue down this path, you risk killing your game. Many games have followed similar trajectories, and the results are rarely good. You’ve already had months to address these concerns, and the patience of many players, including myself, is running thin.

Addressing the Core Problems

1. Card Acquisition

The current card acquisition system is slow, frustrating, and heavily skewed against players—especially newer ones. With five new cards released each month (one season pass card and four spotlight cards), resources like spotlight caches and the token shop are stretched thin by design. This creates several issues:

• Spotlight System Lockouts: Some cards, like Baron Zemo (released in April 2024), remain inaccessible for months. Zemo has not appeared in a single spotlight cache and costs a staggering 6,000 tokens—resources that take weeks or months to collect. Even then, players must wait for his occasional appearance in the token shop.Marvel Snap decks are small and highly optimized, so many cards don’t have equivalent substitutes. Without access to key cards like Zemo, players are locked out of entire archetypes. If they finally acquire the card months later, the meta may have shifted, making their effort feel wasted.
• Resource Scarcity: The game’s limited token acquisition and spotlight cache availability worsen the issue. Players are forced to make tough choices that often feel unrewarding, especially when meta-defining cards are out of reach.
• New Player Turnoff: Snap does a great job onboarding players in Series 1 and 2, but Series 3 (with 109 cards and growing) throws them into a chaotic grind. Without clear paths to unlock archetype-defining cards, new players quickly become frustrated and disengaged.

Suggested Fixes for Card Acquisition

1. Curated Unlocks in Series 3: Once a player enters Series 3, every level could provide a curated card, giving them control and direction over their collection.
2. Catch-Up Bundles: Introduce affordable bundles for specific archetypes to help new and returning players catch up.
3. Resource Improvements: Increase token rewards and spotlight cache availability to make the system more player-friendly.

2. Series Drops

The series drop system is another source of frustration. While Snap does a great job onboarding new players with curated card pools in Series 1 and 2, Series 3, Series 4 (27 cards), and Series 5 (73 cards) create an unmanageable bottleneck. Players face daunting odds when trying to acquire specific cards, leaving many unable to build competitive decks.

Key Problems with Series Drops

1. Inconsistent and Bloated Drops: Series 3 has 109 cards (soon to be 112), making it nearly impossible to acquire specific cards in a timely fashion.
2. Unclear Schedule: Players have no visibility into when cards will drop or why certain cards are chosen.
3. Poor Value: Recent series drops often include underwhelming cards, offering little to address the core accessibility issues.

Proposed Fixes for Series Drops

1. Predictable Schedule: Establish a regular, transparent schedule for series drops.
2. Cap Series Sizes: Limit Series 4 and 5 to a maximum of 20 cards each, with older cards moving down more consistently.
3. Lower Token Costs: Reduce the cost of Series 4 cards to 1,000 tokens and Series 5 cards to 2,000 tokens to improve accessibility.
4. Remove Duplicate Spotlight Cache Cards: Ensure players don’t waste resources on cards they already own.

Moving Forward

Second Dinner, the time to act is now. Your players need regular communication to rebuild trust and stay engaged. Developer blogs, forums, or live updates would provide much-needed transparency and show players you’re serious about addressing their concerns.

Take inspiration from Warframe’s developers, who host weekly and monthly update streams to discuss progress and engage with their community. While your monthly season updates are appreciated, they feel more like marketing tools than meaningful communication.

We’re not asking for miracles, but we do expect accountability and meaningful progress. The longer these issues go unaddressed, the harder it will be to retain your player base. Listen to the community, address these problems, and show us that you’re committed to making Marvel Snap the best game it can be.

Final Thoughts

I know these aren’t perfect, catch-all solutions, but they’re a starting point for dialogue. What do you think, fellow players? Are these issues affecting your experience? Let’s discuss.

Snap thoughts and deck theory crafting

1. Agatha Harkness
2. Crystal
3. Dagger
4. Hazmat
5. Leader
6. M’Baku
7. Quake
8. Spiderman 2099
9. Stature

Agatha is mainly used to farm boosters, the play rate is 195 out of 331.

Crystal looks like a good card that gives you a card draw. Not one deck comes to mind but various styles work with her.

Dagger could be a good move card not core but an option.

Hazmat’s old archetype is far more risky, on paper junk deck may be the best home for him. Not sure enough win conditions exist for that to work.

The leader is just a good card however has decreased in play rate.

M’Baku I don’t know what to think about this card

Quake looks pretty good these days I can see her working in a control deck or tech card against storms or certain decks abusing locations.

Spiderman 2099 as a move card could be good but not sure

Stature tech card against discarding that restricted by that mechanic.

The only two cards I want here that is Leader and Quake.

Series 4 7 / 23

1. Darkhawk – Combo
2. Echo – Tech card
3. Havok
4. Hit monkey – Combo
5. Howard the duck
6. Kitty Pryde – Bounce
7. Knull – Destroy
8. Lady Deathstroken- Destroy
9. Legion – Tech card
10. Martyr
11. Mirage – Combo
12. Nimrod – Destory
13. Silver Samurai – Discard
14. Zabu – Combo

Quite a few good cards here which have added basic archetypes too.  Mirage is normally found in Loki decks. Handful of cards I want Darkhawk, Echo, Hit Monkey, Knull, Legion, Zabu. New archetypes defining or flex cards that have powerful impacts.

Series 5 13 / 24

1. Annihilus
2. Blob
3. Caiera
4. Elsa Bloodstone
5. Galactus
6. Gladiator
7. Ms. Marvel
8. Sebastian Shaw
9. Thanos

Annihilus is a flexible card or is another tool for the junk archetype, improving the hood/sentry combo. 

Blob can be a big card finisher or of a wider package, flexible card fits into many archetypes.

Caiera has not defined a deck but has helped improve it. Not sure what to think about it.

Elsa is no longer the powerhouse she used to be.

Galactus can be a cheeky finisher that works in junk decks but uses too many cards. One of the few big bads that splits the player base.

Gladiator has found his place with Silver Surfer just good at times.

Ms Marvel has dominated the meta finding her way into all sorts of archetypes. The easy ability to spread power across lanes makes her super strong. She has various counters but they come with trade-offs.

Shaw is similar to Glad, he good silver surfer piece.

Thanos has found a place in many different archetypes, viable in some form for a while now.

Deck theory crafting

I want to try Storm/quake due to the amount of limbo. Not sure what package I would build it around. Not climbed much these seasons so far need to find a deck I enjoy. Meta has been a rather weird one for me. Just some brief thoughts and what I’m looking at targeting in spotlight caches. Kang still sucks ^_^

Small progress update for series 3.

80 out of 99 cards, the following cards are missing I have included the archetypes.

1. Agatha Harkness – Booster farming
2. Crystal
3. Dagger – Move
4. Doctor Octopus
5. Dracula – Discard
6. Ghost Rider – Discard
7. Hazmat
8. Invisible Woman – Combo
9. Jane Foster Mighty Thor – Combo
10. Leader – Good card
11. M’Baku
12. Mystique – Good card
13. Quake – High skill
14. Zero – Combo

Update – Gambit, Magneto, Mysterio, Titania, Viper leaving me with 14 cards to collect.

About 10 cards that I can fit into various archetypes and would work within my existing decks. Let’s talk about other cards that don’t have a home but could have a home.

Agatha is mainly used to farm boosters, blob can use her stats which are okay.

Crystal can be used with Rohan to fill your opponents hard.

Hazmat is a weird combo card, Luke cage nerf means it comes with serious downside.

M’Baku fun

Titania I can see this card working with a zoo style deck but these days that not a good deck.

Viper fits into junk style of deck.