Marvel Snap April 18 update patch notes: Shuri & Leech nerfs, Token Shop changes, more

Marvel Snap’s April 18 update is now live and we’ve got the full rundown on everything in the latest patch notes. From a range of balance updates to the game’s most-played cards, and nifty overhauls to the Token Shop, here’s all you need to know.

This month’s Marvel Snap update is now upon us and like usual, it’s quite a big one. From nerfs to many of the most recent meta-defining cards to new features and ample bug fixes, there’s plenty to get caught up on.

As with each new patch in Second Dinner’s popular CCG, the meta is sure to change from this point forward, with a good number of key deck archetypes now forced to change up.

So before you jump in, get ahead of the curve with our full rundown on Marvel Snap’s April 18 update.

YouTube: Marvel Snap

Marvel Snap is currently halfway through its Animals Assemble season.

Kitty Pryde removed from Marvel Snap

Ahead of the April 18 update, Marvel Snap devs confirmed on the game’s official Discord server that Kitty Pryde will not be returning in the upcoming patch. Instead, the troublesome card is now targeting a return in the May update next month.

As it stands, Kitty Pryde has now been disabled across the board. She cannot be played in any matches, nor can she be purchased in the Token Shop or earned through your Collection Level track, devs confirmed.

“We’re reworking Kitty’s design to satisfy her existing gameplay synergies and goals in a simpler way,” they said.

Previously the card functioned as follows: 1-Cost | 0-Power – You can return this to your hand to gain +2 Power. Upon its return next month, it will function differently: 1-Cost | 0 Power – When this returns to your hand, +2 Power. Returns at the start of each turn.

To make up for the buggy release, Kitty Pryde will be given to all Marvel Snap players for free in the May update. Additionally, anyone who purchased the card in its broken state will be gifted 8,000 Collector’s Tokens plus a unique Kitty Pryde avatar.

Shuri & Leech nerfs headline new balance pass

Among the six core changes to popular cards in the new Marvel Snap update, two in particular are sure to shake things up more than the rest. After weeks of dominance, Shuri has now been nerfed with a unique effect change. Rather than simply doubling the Power of the next card, the buff only applies if you play your next card in the same Location as Shuri.

Similarly, Leech hasn’t had any stat changes, rather a text update is how Second Dinner looked to reduce its impact. Instead of instantly removing all abilities from your opponent’s cards in hand, the effect now triggers at the start of turn six. This means if you happen to Lockjaw your way to an early Leech, for instance, the effect won’t trigger until the final turn.

Marvel Snap April 18 update patch notes

The full Marvel Snap April 18 update patch notes are as follows, courtesy of Second Dinner:

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

– Token Shop Updates

• Weekly Spotlight: When a new Series 5 card is released, it will be immediately featured in its own section for its first week in MARVEL SNAP. Once you buy the Weekly Spotlight card, this section will be hidden until the next new card is released. If you want the newest cards at release, here’s what you’ve been waiting for!
• Ultimate Variants are some of the most epic variants in the game. We felt they deserved their own section too! We’re moving Ultimate Variants out of the way of seeing Series 4 and 5 cards and into their own rotation for those of you who want to make your decks that much cooler.
• Series 4 & Series 5: This section functions nearly the same as previously, but only features Series 4 and Series 5 cards. This section will feature a card you don’t own from all currently available Series 4/5 cards and rotates every 8 hours. Series 5 cards will be added to this section once they leave the Weekly Spotlight.

– Game Board Update

• We made some updates to our game board! Check out the new art and FX!

– Seasonal Series Drop: Some cards have dropped down to a lower series!

• Cards dropping from Series 5 to Series 4:
  • Ghost
  • Stature
  • M.O.D.O.K.

• Series 4 to 3:
  • Shuri
  • Bast
  • Valkyrie
  • Super Skrull
  • Black Panther

GENERAL UPDATES

• Players that reach Infinite Rank will only match against other Infinite Rank players.
• When you tap on a card for more details in the Shop or Collection, the Card Detail screen now features Artist Credits, Card Series Label (ex: Series 3, Series 4, or Series 5), and Variant Rarity Label (ex: Rare, Super Rare or Ultimate).
• When inspecting cards in-game, you can now “flip” them to see the Card Back in full detail. We’ve also updated other areas of viewing Card Backs to show their 3D details.
• After roughly 10 hours of gameplay in a day, players will stop earning Season Pass XP from gameplay for the remainder of the day.
• Collection Level Track has been extended.

AUDIO

• New card sounds for Squirrel Girl (Drag)
• New Location Sounds for Camp Lehigh
• Added VO support for Thai and Indonesian

BALANCE UPDATES

In the wake of our last balance change, we saw the metagame settle into a much healthier shape than it had been before. However, we were too shallow with our adjustments to the Shuri-Taskmaster decks, and Lockjaw-Leech shells (both with and without Thanos) have remained solid contenders. Today’s changes aim to push both of those decks off their clear top spots. Outside of Shuri-Taskmaster, the metagame is looking healthy on our internal metrics.

CARD UPDATES

– Shuri:

• [Previous] 4/2 – On Reveal: Double the Power of the next card you play.
• [Update] 4/2 – On Reveal: If you play your next card here, double its Power.

Developer Comments: We considered a number of changes to Shuri, but they all tended to ruin her current decks. Some even theoretically risked making a new monster with different parts–that’s not a great risk to run when balancing a problematically strong card. The change we’re making today may seem small and subtle, but we expect it to be impactful and retain the same flow of play for her existing decks, which is a consistent goal in our balance philosophy. This nerf removes Cosmo’s protective capacity for her target, makes single-card answers like Valkyrie easier to aim, and indirectly buffs lane control elements like Professor X. We’re taking a risk here in that this nerf could leave Shuri still a strength outlier–if so, we’ll react quickly.

– Leech:

• [Previous] 5/3 – On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all cards in your opponent’s hand.
• [Update] 5/3 – At the start of turn 6, remove all abilities from cards in your opponent’s hand.

Developer Comments: It’s never been our goal for Leech to be a heavily-played card, and we understand that’s been a frustration lately. When it’s happening, it usually means a finisher is generically strong against pure Power (like Leech-Leader) and/or a deck can play Leech earlier than turn 5 too often (like Lockjaw-Thanos). We’ve tried in the past to weaken the stronger cards in those decks, but it’s been a balance and design obstacle. Thus, we’ve decided to remove the “early Leech” from the equation. Leech is designed to counter some powerful endgame cards and combinations from a unique angle without any setup, which is important to have around in the event those decks begin to overperform. This change should let him fulfill that role when necessary without ever making him a foundational piece of the metagame.

– Lockjaw:

• [Previous] 3/2 – After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck.
• [Update] 3/2 – After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck. (once per turn)

Developer Comments: Lockjaw’s a fun and exciting card, but each trigger of this good boy basically draws a card and “generates” up to 6 Energy at random. That’s a lot of variance to have in multiple competitive decks! As we add cards, new and improved ways to sidestep Lockjaw’s risks will also become available. Since we believe the most powerful and frustrating use of Lockjaw is triggering him multiple times in a turn, often with a snap along the way, we’re changing that. Limiting Lockjaw to one swap each turn forces the player to develop their board without letting them sprint ahead or spring a late surprise. This will make Lockjaw simpler to play against and less potent in decks incidentally playing lots of cheap cards, like Thanos.

– America Chavez:

• [Previous] 6/9 – You always draw this card on turn 6, and not before
• [Update] 6/9 – Starts on the bottom of your deck. Draw this on turn 6.

Developer Comments: Previously, if you were about to draw America Chavez, you would just draw your next card instead. This means that over the course of the game, she’s a lot more likely to be the top card of your deck. Thus far this has been largely unimportant outside of Yondu, but it does restrict our ability to print cards that interact with the top of your deck. We expect this update to have little impact on America Chavez’s functionality overall.

– Jubilee:

• [Previous] 4/1 – On Reveal: Add a card from your deck to this location.
• [Update] 4/1 – On Reveal: Add the top card of your deck to this location.

Developer Comments: Some of our players may remember a time where Jubilee had this ability! Back then, Jubilee would often be a 4/10 as she’d pull America Chavez very consistently. We decided at the time to change Jubilee’s effect instead of America Chavez’s, as the former was a much simpler change to communicate. However, we’re looking to design cards that interact with the top of your deck in the future, so we’re bringing this design back too! We expect this update to have little impact on Jubilee for the time being.

– Leader:

• [Previous] 6/7 – On Reveal: Copy all cards your opponent played to the location right of here, but on your side.
• [Update] 6/2 – On Reveal: Copy the enemy card(s) with the highest Power played this turn, but on your side.

Developer Comments: We were clearly too harsh on Leader with his previous nerf, and we’re dismayed that action became a go-to example for how ruinous a nerf can be. Our balance philosophy is to preserve as much playability as we reasonably can when weakening cards, and we didn’t succeed here previously. With this change, we’re aiming to bring his strength back up to a playable spot for a 6-Cost card, but still avoid the oppressive impact his original form had. We have erred on the cautious side with his Power for now because some previous defenses against the original Leader, such as playing weaker cards before a strong one, no longer apply.

BUG FIXES

• The game no longer crashes on some Android devices when switching languages.
• There is no longer an infinite loop if Morph spawns randomly (eg: via X-Mansion) and copies Kang.
• The Series 3 Token Shop should now display properly when you have collected all Series 3 cards.
• Tapping duplicate Kang’s in play while the turn is rewinding should no longer cause that card to disappear.
• Spotlight cards in the Season Pass UI can now be focused by tapping anywhere on the card.
• Credit/Gold deep linking should now navigate to the shop from the Reward/Mission detail view.
• UI elements such as the avatar menu and emojis should no longer be clickable when viewing a card’s details in-game.
• Moving a card in the details view and releasing should no longer close the details view.
• Fixed an issue that could cause games to Aw Snap when certain card/location combinations were played with Galactus.
• Fixed an issue that allowed you to use characters in deck names that should be blocked.
• Fixed some issues that would cause Sandman’s VFX to play in situations where it should not.
• Cards added to hand by Camp Lehigh no longer overlap other cards in-hand.
• The Navigation bar doesn’t stay up when going to News items and then back to the main game.
• Kang should no longer cause the in-game music to be caught in a loop
• Snapping after Kang’s been played should no longer result in overlapping UI
• Claiming Collectors Reserve after upgrading a card should no longer fail
• Variant cards in the shop should no longer display the wrong card art when the shop refreshes
• The Raft’s VFX should no longer be missing when your opponent triggers the effect
• Sort and Filter UI elements should no longer remain open in the Collection tab when navigating to other screens
• Non-functional full-screen option should no longer be visible for iOS
• Fixed Camp Lehigh’s VFX
• [PC] UI elements should be properly anti-aliased on high settings
• [PC] Limbo should now display properly

KNOWN ISSUES LIST

• It can be difficult to interact with the emotes in-match on some devices.
• The Season Pass spotlight card text is too large in some languages.
• The Season Pass does not include 1 Mystery Variant in the Free track.
• Set as Favorite icon overlaps with the text icon in some languages.
• If you have the Series 3 card focused when the shop rolls, the screen will be blank for a moment.
• Banner VFX displays the wrong turn timer when Kang rewinds time.
• It can be hard to add or delete letters in the deck name on Android.
• Reconnecting text doesn’t show all the time when Reconnecting to a Friendly battle.
• Two players snapping on the same turn can cause the displayed energy pips to be incorrect.
• Sandman and Electro may not visually show the power on a location if the location is locked down.
• Retreating while Kang is rewinding can cause an Aw Snap error.
• After the shop rolls over, some assets might be missing (should be resolved after playing a match).
• The new player flow can be bypassed in some situations and cause the client to break until restarting.
• Quake’s shuffling of locations can prevent Shuri’s buff from being applied.
• Spamming the Pin button on items in the Token Shop may cause an Aw Snap error.
• Scrolling through the Shop can conflict with the newly added horizontal scrolling of the Token Shop.
• Claimed Series 3 Cards in the Token Shop can appear to remain claimable until you’ve exited and returned to the shop.
• Mission reward icons may be missing.
• “Rare” and “Super Rare” labels on cards are not always translated.
• Ongoing abilities delay the merge VFX for Klyntar.
• Mysterio’s token doesn’t update appropriately in all views when a using a variant.
• Cards that changed abilities such as Mystique may not show the updated ability text if returned to hand.
• Spectrum’s VFX for indicating which cards will be impacted by her ability aren’t always displaying
• When played on Sinister London, Omega Red’s copy plays its VFX multiple times.
• Cards in the Fast Upgrade section occasionally show the incorrect art.
• Quantum Realm doesn’t reduce the power of cards that have their cost and power swapped.
• Some item names in bundles have too-small fonts or can be cut off in some languages.
• Series 3 Token shop may show duplicate items before it’s rolled through each card..
• New Release cards don’t show your available tokens in the Shop UI.
• Token Shop doesn’t snap to the currently-focused card.
• Several currency/cache icons do not display in front of the UI/background when focused.
• Some variants have artist/variant name text that clips out of the nameplate.
• There can be a visual blip in the shop page.
• Time Stone doesn’t visually grant energy on the orb.
• [PC] The Carousel can be hard to scroll.
• [PC] Switching languages after switching between Windowed and Windowed Fullscreen can cause text elements to disappear in the UI.
• [PC] Playing Sentry can cause an Aw Snap error.
• [PC] Certain SFX continue to play when the game is no longer in focus.