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Marvel Snap will fix its biggest problem by adding a new shop

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Marvel Snap from the former Hearthstone devs at Second Dinner made a strong first impression when it launched and is considered one of the best mobile games of 2022. Unfortunately, one issue that’s plagued the game since its beta days: it’s impossible to unlock specific cards intentionally. Thankfully, the next season of Marvel Snap will change that. During a developer update video teasing The Power Cosmic, Marvel Snap’s next in-game season, Second Dinner detailed the Collector’s Token and Token Shop system that will make targeting cards easier. 

Currently, Marvel Snap cards are split into Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 sets, and players earn cards within each series randomly before progressing to the next. The random nature of it means that players might have to wait for a long time before they actually get the helpful cards they want. Once The Power Cosmic season begins, players will be able to purchase specific cards with a new type of currency called Collector’s Tokens. This is not a paid currency, players can only earn it through gameplay rewards after Collection Level 500.

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Players can then spend Collector’s Tokens in the Token Shop, which features one new card every eight hours. Players can pin cards they really want, earn Collector’s Tokens to spend, and then purchase the specific card for themselves via the Token Shop. It’ll still probably be faster to get cards through raising your collection level, but giving a non-randomized way to earn cards is much appreciated as a longtime Marvel Snap player.

Token Shop and The Power Cosmic Season | Developer Update | December 2022

Of course, the addition of this system increases the need for more high-level cards, so Second Dinner will also add brand new Series 4 and Series 5 cards when The Power Cosmic season rolls around. The following heroes are part of this new Series.

  • She-Hulk
  • Titania
  • Luke Cage
  • Absorbing Man
  • Maria Hill
  • Agent Coulson
  • Helicarrier
  • M’Baku
  • Attuma
  • Orka
  • Galactus
  • Valkyrie 
  • Super Skrull
  • Shuri
  • Baster
  • Thanos and the six Infinity Stones

Currently, Second Dinner plans for Series 3 cards to cost 1,000 tokens, Series 4 cards to cost 3,000 tokens, and Series 5 cards to cost 6,000 tokens. When The Power Cosmic Season begins, players will get a certain amount of Collector’s Tokens depending on their Collection Level and must then earn more via Collector’s Caches and Reserves. Specific rates for Collector’s Token rewards are detailed on Marvel Snap’s blog. 

Marvel Snap is available now for PC, iOS, and Android.

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Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Marvel Snap road map reveals new competitive mode, token shop rework
marvel snap friendly battle mode impressions key art

Second Dinner released a road map that revealed several significant updates coming to Marvel Snap over the next couple of months, including a new competitive mode called Conquest and revamps of the mobile card game's Token Shop and ranked modes.
The developer went into more detail about all of these features in Marvel Snap's in-game blog. Conquest was thoroughly explained, and we learned it's a competitive version of Friendly Battles' health-based fights. Conquest mode will be split into multiple leagues (Proving Grounds, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Vibranium, Infinite), and players must win three consecutive battles in one to move up to the next and get better rewards. Players will be rewarded with Conquest medals, which can then be used in a new cosmetic-driven Conquest Shop. This major new feature is expected to launch in June, but some updates are coming before then.
In Marvel Snap's next patch, Second Dinner will increase the number of Collector's Tokens players get from opening Collector's Caches and Collector's Reserve, and add the ability for players to claim a free Series 3 card once per season. This should shorten the amount of time it takes to get new cards, and set the stage for a Token Shop revamp in April. That rework will make the Marvel Snap Token Shop much more comprehensive by featuring new Series 5 cards in a weekly spotlight and giving Series 4 and 5 cards their own dedicated shop sections.
More modes and easier card acquisition have been some of the most-requested things from Marvel Snap players since launch, so it's great that Second Dinner will finally deliver on these fronts in the coming months. 

Looking at the long term, the road map also teases several features that are in the development in concept stages at Second Dinner. These updates include widescreen support on PC, Smart Decks, the ability to equip avatars and titles by deck, personalized shops, global matchmaking, social Guilds, card emotes and emojis, mythic variants, PC controller support, season audio, and a Test Deck mode that will let players try out certain deck builds in an unranked mode against AI.
Marvel Snap is available now for PC, iOS, and Android.

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Marvel Snap is the first game to nail MCU movie tie-ins
Key art for Marvel Snap's Into the Quantum Realm season.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hit theaters this weekend, and you will know that’s the case even if your only connection to comic books is through Marvel Snap. Throughout February, Marvel Snap is in its “Into the Quantum Realm” season. It’s all centered around content themed on that microscopic world from the new Marvel movie. It introduces cards based on Ant-Man movie characters like M.O.D.O.K., Ghost, Stature, and Kang the Conqueror, as well as new locations based on places that have been in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies like the Quantum Realm, Quantum Tunnel, Camp Lehigh, and the Sacred Timeline.
Into the Quantum Realm Season | Developer Update | February 2023
Developer Second Dinner made similar tie-in seasons for Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever last year. As a fan of both Marvel movies and Marvel video games, these Marvel Snap seasons have done a fantastic job thus far integrating the two. Marvel’s film and gaming efforts have mostly remained separate, often intentionally, since a couple of terrible tie-in games during the MCU's Phase 1.
Often, it feels like comic book games have to be  either direct tie-ins or wholly disconnected from the films in theaters at the time. However, Marvel Snap shows that any comic book game can still feel relevant to what’s happening in theaters in subtle but satisfying ways.
A seamless crossover
With each new Season of Marvel Snap, I love keeping an eye out for what's new in the card game. Because of how wildly different each round can be, new cards and locations can impact games differently every time they appear. M.O.D.O.K., in particular, opens up some interesting strategies as it can discard your entire hand upon its reveal. Before I know it, I find that I'm using new cards and looking up information on the characters and locations I am playing with.
One of the unspoken strengths of Marvel Snap is how casually it can introduce or reexpose its players to a vast amount of characters and locales from the Marvel universe. Not only is that approach good for shedding light on less popular corners of the universe, like The Savage Land, but it also makes it a good marketing and crossover tool for the latest Marvel movie.
M.O.D.O.K., Ant-Man, and the Quantum Realm are on the top of my mind right now, as Marvel Snap is one of the games I play the most. Now, I find myself a bit more excited to see Quantumania than I was based on the trailers, even after mixed reviews. That's just effective marketing.
This is technically not a direct crossover event or a brand-new tie-in game; it’s just exposing me to the right Marvel content to supplement what I’m seeing in the cultural zeitgeist. Then, once Quantumania being in theaters isn’t as relevant, Marvel Snap can move on and continue exploring new parts of the Marvel universe with future seasons.
Finding success
This seasonal tie-in approach Marvel Snap takes is an effective and clever piece of marketing that keeps me engaged with both the game and MCU films. In fact, no superhero game before has been able to tie into movies quite like this. Marvel Strike Force and Contest of Champions character cameos feel a little too ham-fisted, while Sega’s licensed Marvel games from the late 2010s were too much of a mixed bag to ever work. Marvel’s Avengers, a live service game featuring many characters getting new movies and shows, was also never able to get this cadence right.
Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania | New Trailer
While Marvel’s Avengers would get costumes based on the MCU, it rarely ever felt in line with what the MCU released at the time. Occasionally, additions like the Red Room and Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor would line up correctly, but those felt like exceptions rather than the rule when the game didn’t have a consistent seasonal structure. Even though its narrative purposefully wasn’t connected to the MCU, Marvel’s Avengers' post-launch support could have attracted more attention and even bolstered the movies had it lined things up as well as Marvel Snap has.
As Marvel’s Avengers loses support later this year, its failure to capitalize upon and enhance the game with MCU tie-ins in compelling ways can be seen as one of its many failures. It also raises questions on how future D.C. games will connect to their universe. James Gunn’s current plan seems to incorporate video games heavily, having them filling gaps in his narrative’s story rather than directly tying into a specific film or just serving as supplementary hype material like Marvel Snap.
Admittedly, the resources and effort required for a new game are very different from what’s needed for a new Marvel Snap season. Still, Second Dinner has shown how comic book movies and video games can nicely tie together without stepping on each other’s feet. Simply getting players in the correct headspace and theming for whatever’s in theaters is enough, especially if the game in question is a live service title with a seasonal structure.

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Marvel Snap is dangerously close to becoming a pay-to-win game
Venom effects on a Marvel Snap playng field

Marvel Snap is undoubtedly one of the best free-to-play mobile games on the market. With over 14 million downloads and counting, it's clear that the quality, as well as the casual and card game nature of the title, are doing a great job at keeping a sustained interest among players.

MARVEL SNAP | Gameplay Trailer

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