LogFAQs > #979327574

New Patch

Elsa Bloodstone
[Old] 2/3 - After you play a card here, give it +2 Power if your side is full.
[New] 3/3 - Each card you play to fill your side of a location gains +2 Power.

Similar to our notes around Luke Cage last month, we've decided we took the wrong tactic with Elsa Bloodstone. Our rebalance to keep this effect local aimed to maintain Elsa's strength as a 2-Cost build-around, but the numbers necessary to make that work don't line up with our goals. So we're shifting Elsa up in Cost to 3/3 and widening the effect to all locations once again. We're also restoring the previous functionality, so that Elsa applies the Power buff before On Reveals resolve, rather than after. We've decided to accept that both versions have some potential to be confusing, but the original execution seems to have more clearly lined up with players' expectations and existing content than our revision. Elsa will once more be able to buff cards like Beast (and unable to buff Brood).

Miek
[Old] After each turn, if you discarded one or more cards, gain that much Power and move.
[New] When you discard a card, this gains +1 Power and can move next turn.

The general direction of Miek was on the right track, but our execution fell short. In particular, interactions with Invisible Woman, Dracula, and Black Cat crossed our bar for frustrating and non-intuitive for many players. Miek still gains just as much Power, counting cards discarded one at a time or in bulk, but that Power will now be added immediately. We've also removed the randomization from Miek's move, giving players the option to make a move during the following turn if any cards were discarded. Overall, it should be a sizable buff to the bug.

Mantis
[Old] 2/3 - On Reveal: If your opponent played any cards here this turn, draw a card from their deck.
[New] 2/2 - On Reveal: If your opponent played any cards here this turn, copy one of them into your hand.

Our efforts to differentiate low-Cost card generation have mostly gone well, but Mantis and Cable both came up quite short. We've waited to adjust them further, because ultimately we felt Mantis simply needed a rework in order to find a functional home. This design shifts Mantis's thievery from the deck to copying cards at a location. That can be a lot more powerful if you time it right, because the copy will retain any buffsVenom in particular comes to mind as a very powerful card to copy! We'll keep an eye on the strength of this effect to ensure it finds the right balance point.

Cable
[Old] 3/4 - On Reveal: Draw a card from your opponents deck.
[Change] 3/4 -> 2/3

With Mantis changing to no longer copy from the deck, that creates room for Cable to move back down to 2-Cost, with a buff from his original 2/2 to boot.

Time Stone
[Old] On Reveal: +1 Energy next turn. Draw a card.
[New] On Reveal: Draw a card and give it -1 Cost.

Thanos has proven that combining the "toolbox" abilities of the Infinity Stones with a potent set of endgame cards consistently creates a powerful deck. After "Blob winter" we started looking more closely into exactly how the deck ticks and which parts of it are concerning. Time Stone really stood out as a warping presence in the deck with its ability to often capitalize on strong 5 and 6-Cost plays. We've decided to weaken that angle considerably in the interest of future-facing metagame diversity, so that Thanos isn't the default best way to ramp out those kinds of cards. This change is expected to do some damage to Thanos, but the last few seasons were very good for the Mad Titan so a little break isn't so bad. Once we see how this change affects Thanos decks, we'll look for the right spot to add back some of the strength we took away in previous balance patches. Perhaps Soul Stone took the heat for Time Stone too early?

M'Baku
[Old] 1/2 - If this is in your deck at the end of the game, it jumps to a location.
[New] 1/2 - At the end of the game, this jumps from your deck to your lowest-Power location. (that isn't full)

M'Baku has always been more meme than dream, which is a fine position for some cards to maintainit's pretty fun to watch M'Baku do the thing. However, it's been clear for a while that M'Baku's strength was languishing. We decided to give the jump trigger the same targeting effect seen on Proxima Midnight, aiming for a location where you're more likely to need help. There will always be corner-cases with cards triggering in the endgame, such as Dracula and Captain Marvel, but we believe this is overall a positive. However, M'Baku may be found drinking at the Bar with No Name a bit more often.

Yondu
[Old] 1/2 - On Reveal: Destroy the top card of your opponent's deck.
[New] 1/2 - On Reveal: Destroy the lowest-Cost card in your opponent's deck.

Back in the old days, Yondu was a frequent player in Destroy decks thanks to this trigger helping to discount Death while powering up Knull and providing some information. However, recent competition has almost universally left Yondu on the outside looking in as players grow their collection to include stronger synergy elements. This small change aims to give Yondu some new potential to function with cards like Cable and others in the near future that aim to steal cards from your opponent's deck, improving the quality of cards stolen by destroying the "duds" ahead of time. Given the existing effect was already insufficient for Knull to notice, this potential outweighed that consideration.

Leech
[Old] 5/3 - At the start of turn 6, remove all abilities from cards in your opponents hand.
[New] 5/3 - On Reveal: Remove the text from each card with an On Reveal ability in your opponent's hand.
We're aware that Leech is among the least beloved cards in SNAP on any given week. However, Leech has served an important role for over a year, ensuring that there was some meaningful check for the various shenanigans players could get up to during the endgame. In that time, we've also made a concerted effort to design more specific disruption at better rates, such as Echo, Mobius M. Mobius, Shadow King, Caiera, Supergiant, and even a few more cards you'll see very soon. Thanks to those additions, we're ready to try restricting Leech to affect a narrower band of cards. We'd like to make sure Leech continues to play some kind of a role, so we chose to affect one of the bands he most consistently targeted alreadyOn Reveal cards like Shang Chi and Legion that tended to steal the game on the final turn.