Snap Into Marvel: The Invasion Of ‘Marvel Rivals’

The “War of the Nine Realms” season started strong with a meta-defining season pass card, then limped to its conclusion thanks to the return of the overly-tedious Deadpool’s Diner. Well into that season, Second Dinner finally announced the long-under-wraps December theme: Marvel Rivals, a tie-in to the new Marvel-themed platform shooter game. 

With the “Marvel Rivals” season now in full swing, let’s take a look back at where the “War of the Nine Realms” cards rank, and do some rampant speculation on the next batch! 

“War of the Nine Realms” Recap

1. Surtur – The clearest indication that Surtur is the best card of the season comes from the fact that it was nerfed midseason, after blowing up the meta by driving a variety of “point slam” decks. Even after that nerf (and the supporting nerfs to cards like Skaar), Surtur has remained a reliable presence in several decks, an easy 3/7 or 3/10 thanks to the kinds of high power cards that get played in lots of decks on turns 5 and 6, with the added benefit of building power in a second lane as it grows. 

2. Gorr the God Butcher – Coming late in the season, Gorr shook up the meta almost as much as Surtur; combined with Deadpool’s Diner, it helped revitalize Negative decks, and has proved a worthy inclusion in decks which look to build power in one lane then drop a big Ongoing card like Darkhawk or Iron Man in another to closeout the game. 

3. Fenris Wolf – One’s opinion on Fenris likely depends on one’s preferred play style. I tend to favor the more reactive “attack your opponent” style, and the act of destroying a card then reviving it on my side has proven immensely fun. 

4. Malekith – An argument can be made that this is a stronger card than Fenris, but I haven’t had much luck with it. The random element is reminiscent of Sersi, with less upside (limited to only low cost cards in your deck at the end of the game). But I wouldn’t object if someone wanted to slot this higher. 

5. King Eitri – The prize of Deadpool’s Diner is, as expected, a perfectly fine addition to Hammer decks (it’s less effective in Thanos and Arishem decks, which already have ways of drawing more cards and don’t succeed thanks to extra cards but rather extra power, respectively). Though somewhat more surprisingly, its proving to be less effective than the standard Mighty Thor ‘turn 5 to draw the hammers” play, and thus is far from essential. 

6. Frigga – The dud of the season, Frigga’s cost devalues the extra card she generates (on turn 3, you’re duplicating a 1 or 2 drop; on later turns, you’re burning the chance to play a better card to play her, and then still need to the energy to play her duplicate), while her power isn’t significant enough to earn her a place in Surfer decks. Making her something like the 2/3 Grandmaster (a copy a card in a lane where she’s played) might help, but for now, she’s a big whiff. 

“Marvel Rivals” Preview

And now, let’s rank the upcoming Marvel Rivals cards. An extra long season thanks to the holidays, we’re getting six new cards even without a special event, though this batch seems like it might be more of a mixed bag. 

1. Galacta – Like Gwenpool, Galacta is another power buff card, and at 4/6, it’s basically a more targeted Gwenpool. The key will be building up the lane Galacta is played into because it requires the cards it buffs to be in other lanes, but nevertheless, like Gwenpool, Galacta seems poised to be another solid season pass card, even if it doesn’t blow up the meta like Surtur. 

2. Luna Snow – That Luna Snow, a half Ramp/half Junk card is probably the second best card of the season speaks to how weak this season feels. It took Wiccan some time to find its place in the meta, but it remains to be seen if the added twist of granting your opponent extra power (or contorting your deck to eliminate their ice cube while preserving yours) can be overcome. 

3. Doctor Doom 2099 – Doom 2099 has the potential to put out a lot of power, especially when paired with regular old Doom (as “normal” Doombots will get buffed as well). The question is whether there’s enough room on the board to develop enough power to compete in the current “big power”, combo-heavy meta while only playing one card per turn. 

4. Peni Parker – Peni’s ability seems a bit complicated, but the gist of it is that it she creates a Hulkbuster (ie a 2/3 card) which, when merged with another card, allows that card to move. She also generates 1 extra energy in the turn after the merge. It’s a cute way to tie this Spider-Verse character into the move-oriented Spider-Man family of cards, but also means its utility is mostly limited to that archetype (and maybe Deadpool Destroy). The extra energy piece is worth watching though – it could be enough to vault Peni into the evergreen ‘good 2 drop across archetypes” consideration alongside cards like Kate Bishop.

5. Rocket Raccoon & Groot – While this duo’s shared card seems a little underpowered (the ability to move is nice, but the “stealing one power” piece doesn’t seem like enough to make it competitive, especially when, like most Guardians of the Galaxy cards, it also requires a card to be played into the same lane into which it’s played), hopefully this means Snap is going to further explore character combo cards like this, in which characters with their own cards in the game get a second shared card with someone else. Something like Rogue/Gambit, Iron Man/War Machine, or Hawkeye/Black Widow shared cards could be a lot of fun.

6. Bruce Banner – Similarly, while this is poised to be the dud of the season. Statistically speaking, Banner should transform in just under 50% of games where it’s played as soon as possible (assuming energy is floated every subsequent turn) but that’s still a heck of a dice roll. Hopefully though, it means we might get more “alter ego” cards in the future, like Peter Parker or Tony Stark, as another way to work classic characters long in the game back into the “new card” churn.

On paper, at least, “Marvel Rivals” seems like a weaker season relative to “War of the Nine Realms”, with only 1-3 cards seemingly set to become archetype mainstays. But the Snap community is a clever bunch, and there’s every chance one of the seemingly duds will end up wreaking havoc on the meta!