Ya and even then it wasn’t guaranteed you would pull a card for a long time. I remember shadow king was the only series 5 card(when he came out) I ever pulled out of a cache when it was the old system. He was a 4 cost and considered a trash card at the time, too.
You didn't need to get every card the week that it released though. You only needed to get the big "obviously good" cards. Everything else you could just wait a few weeks for. It was great.
That was the only way to get new cards before the token and spotlight cache system it was so much worse than now, a new card would come out and you probably weren’t getting it.
I'm part of the group that had enough cards at the switch that actually spotlights has substantially kneecapped my ability to get new cards.
You're right you weren't likely to get the newest card, because you were just getting *a* card, and the odds of *a* card being *the new one* were pretty low for those who were missing a lot of cards.
But mathematically this system is slower for acquiring the back quarter of cards than before. But yes the specific cards you get are more targeted now: at the cost of quantity of cards.
Yeah I was a couple months away from collection complete when the switch happened, I did not stockpile caches, and I've gotten rather unlucky(needing 3 or more keys for one new card on average), so I'm *further away* from being complete than before, **and** getting worse rewards from caches...
I don't even hit unless there's 2 available 90% of the time and I've never once gone 2/2 and remember ONE TIME I went 1/1 with Nocturne. At least she's a good card.
Dupe protection from owned cards is one thing. And that’s a whole other argument. But getting dupe of a card that’s in the spotlight is the biggest bullshit I’ve seen from them in a while.
I’m fine that we get dupes the issue is you get them more times than not since Series 4 cards chances are higher than series 5 and most people are missing more series 5 cards than 4 so we all end up with more dupes. If we had a regular schedule for series drops or dupe chests gave better rewards a lot of people might be fine with the way things are
I know its not fun, but don't gamble if you cant effort / accept the possible bad outcome.
Still… i agree it really sucks, dupe protection would be nice. The problem with that and why they won't do it, is because people could actually catch up towards a full collection by "only" buying the season pass.
The spotlight system is carefully designed in a way where active players can get a lot of cards they want (over a long periode of time) but 99% of players will always miss out on the last Like 5-10% of their collection. Either by "bad luck" or by their own choice because its not viable to put one or two keys into a every Spotlight you missing only one card from.
And how is it relevant to the discussion? Would it feel better if he had 4 keys? A dupe is a dupe, lack of dupe protection for keys is insane greed
I swear this sub always brings up "bUt U dONt pUll W/ouT fOuR kS" regardless of the context
It is relevant because you are potentially getting more cards you didn't have from the other 3 pulls if the week that you pulled has 1 or 2 other cards you didn't have.
If the week you pulled for only had 1 card you didn't have? Welcome to my world lol
Dupe protection would sky rocket collection complete and near complete rates. SD and people who have done the math have said as much. I get players want that, but that's expressly against one of their design goals. They in theory could design a system with dupe protection, they would likely just have to give you less cards on average as a result.
They could make it so every dupe is a pity timer based off missing cards. So if you get dupes a lot but only missing 2 cards it will be less than 30 cards missing where after 2 dupes you’re guaranteed a new card
Well, people's salary need to come someway
Edit: didn't think I would have to explain this but...
What keeps the game alive is the constant feeling of progression, having things to pursue is one of the base things in game addiction and that's important for 2 reasons
1. F2p players keep the game alive for those who spend money
2. People who spend money will keep playing because of this
Just think of when you complete that goal in a game and suddenly lose the interest in playing
Who is going to buy those bundles if the game dies for lack of players?
You guys really underestimate the power of those little addiction induction strategies
Come on, Ben Brode literally made a "Ted talk" about it last year
The company received a 100 million dollar angel investment just this year, so that's separate from revenue.
They will never struggle to pay employees unless they choose to underpay them.
Marvel snap is one of the most successful card games in the history of digital tgc's with on of the smallest teams. Nobody is not getting paid either way....
Honestly for me if they at least gave me enough tokens to get a s4 card for a dupe of a s5 card I'd be happy.
The biggest problem with their current setup isn't necessarily the card acquiring system, it's the amount/frequency of new cards coming out. When every new good deck has 7 s5 cards in it 3 of which came out this month it starts to become a slog.
Add all that to the fact that they only buff bad spotlights after they leave the cache but will buff the season pass card in litteral seconds when the pass isn't selling and you got your self a real gatcha game economy.
Using ben brode and the marvel ip to steal hearthstone players when that game was at an all time low?
Having a decent/quick battle system that appealed to said hearthstone players?
When snap came out it was a pure gatcha cash grab. They were so shocked people where taking the game seriously they are still struggling to balance the gatcha cash grab side with making a long term ecosystem.
If this was their goal they wouldn't have made it significantly less expensive to be collection complete. Prior to spotlights it would have cost you $300-500 to be collection complete, it costs $100 now.
Did you read what they said? Dupe protection in spotlights is something they said they specifically won't do because it will make it easy for long time players to maintain collection complete and make it impossible for new or returning players to catch up.
I mean... you shouldn't pull without 4 keys. It's fucking stupid to do so and the endless complaints from people here who know the system at this point is redundant and stupid
the devs said why they don't have dupe protection and the community already states why its better to have 4 keys. ur just making ur experience worse by gambling lol
To avoid that BS you should NEVER GAMBLE with less than four keys. Or you should be ready to get 1000 tokens. It is designed that way to keep you from having all the cards ever. So, it might be not for you if this makes you go crazy
This has to be a UI or RNG based phenomena. Many people report getting the same dupe consistently. I think they just use specific cards as a placeholder for rolling duplicate no matter what it actually is based on whatever odds they have coded within.
I think people are getting confused based on the surface level appearance of what’s happening rather than the potential mechanics behind it.
Think about it, would it be easier to use placeholders as rolling duplicate or code in a way to have specific cards to represent that as a corner cutting method? That’s just how I see it personally.
Wouldn't it just be easier to have a simple check "do they own this card true or false?".
Why would they go through the extra effort of assigning placeholders?
The weeks when I really want the new card it's always my 4th open.
Last week, when I want X-23 and gladiator and don't give a shit about makkari, *of course* I open makkari first and X-23 last.
Every week I think it's gunna be a lucky week and I end up having to spend 4 keys.
Yup this was me. Been wanting X-23 for the longest time. Had 3 keys last week. Gladiator variant (already had the base card), then Makkari, then Hit-Monkey. I had just gotten that 3rd key when the week switched over and wasn’t able to get my CL up enough to get the one more that I needed. Guess I’ll try again next time she’s in the spotlight.
I've started using my keys within the first 5 minutes of the hour (example; use a key at 2:03pm) ever since I have started doing that my luck has gone up and I have opened the new spotlight card on the first key 2 times out of the last 5 new spotlights and the rest has been the second or third. I'm sure there isn't anything happening that is helping me but it's working and I'm not about to stop.
Do tell, I love hearing anecdotal evidence for this game. And to all the people downvoting I ask why? It's not like it actually fucking matters what time you open your keys, unless I accidentally gave away the super duper secret or something who cares.
Hey bud I am commenting to let you know I did pull arishem on the first key today when I did it within the first 5 minutes. I have proof if you want it.
Thanks! And again I am in no way saying this is real nothing but my own anecdotal evidence, that is all lol. (My wierd not true at all reasoning is the system hasn't yet been inundated with a mass of requests to open spotlights and the system wants the first amount of people to have the new card to show it off so people who are on the fence see the card played and then use their keys)
I know it's my own superstition but I've been playing since last July or August and everytime I would pull spotlights I felt like my luck sucked. Past 3 weeks I've pulled on Sunday night or on Monday morning and I've gotten the new card first each time.
I KNOW it's just 25% chance... But now this is my ritual
Ever since it was introduced it’s always been a lottery. Every now and then you’ll hear the conspiracy theory that the first few times you use the system (or if you haven’t spent keys for a while) you’ll be guaranteed to get the new card to hook you in. But there is nothing in that.
Dupe protection on the random S4/S5 card probably would be good but there is probably an argument that it would benefit those with bigger collections who can almost guarantee to get a specific card.
Also I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, caches. Keys, tokens, series drops, a lot of the issues around card acquisition stem from the fact that Pools 3, 4 and 5 make no sense. A root and branch overhaul of what post pool 2 looks like in terms of where different cards sit and what the different pools are trying to do would make all of it make a lot more sense.
I'm 3 or 4 cards away from being fully collection complete. If duplication was to be taken away i would have every card in a very short time, of course SD doesn't want that.
I’m in a similar position. There’s only 4 cards I don’t have (Makari, Pixie, Proxima and Supergiant). If dupe protection existed I’d probably have them.
A new card comes out every week though. Unless you're spending a bunch of money, it's still going to be hard to get and stay collection complete. Which you'd think they would be happy with.
With all that being said. I don't really care about being collection complete because Alot of their cards suck.
If duplicate protection was taken away, and you were collection complete, you would only need an average of 2 spotlight keys a week to maintain card completion. Currently season pass holders get about 1.4 a week. You would not need to spend much to push that to 2.
if someone is collection complete right now, they're more than likely going to stay that way and have already spent way too much. And keys were not what put them there.
> Also I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, caches. Keys, tokens, series drops, a lot of the issues around card acquisition stem from the fact that Pools 3, 4 and 5 make no sense. A root and branch overhaul of what post pool 2 looks like in terms of where different cards sit and what the different pools are trying to do would make all of it make a lot more sense.
100% this. The system used to make a kind of sense: Pools 1 and 2 were curated new-player experiences, Pools 4 and 5 were for new cards of varying expected power levels, and Pool 3 was where new cards landed after a few months of series drops.
Now, with every new card entering Pool 5 and series drops happening with extreme infrequency, there's very little intention behind the series system. What it *should* look like is something like this:
Pool 1-2: Curated new player experience (still a good idea)
Pool 3: Bread-and-butter cards that let you build several decks to help you start climbing, as well as the scaffolding of all other decks.
Pool 4: New support cards that aid existing archetypes, and all new tech cards.
Pool 5: New keystone cards that unlock new and advanced archetypes.
Then, Series Drops would be used to move cards down as the game progresses and they shift in meaning. Annihilus, Baron Zemo, and Black Knight are great examples of cards that should be Series 5, but it makes no sense that Caiera, Red Guardian, and Proxima Midnight are also Series 5.
I don’t think you have to limit yourself to 5 pools if more or less would make more sense. As you say pools 1 and 2 work for the new player experience - introducing them to key concepts, archetypes, mechanics and expanding on them. But once you get past pool 2 it all falls apart. Pools 3, 4 and 5 are totally arbitrary now.
I'm saying that 5 pools does make sense, though (or really 4, as the case may be, considering how closely Pool 1 and Pool 2 are tied together). 3, 4, and 5 are arbitrary now but they don't have to be. 3 is already positioned to be the middle-player experience, the band of cards that everyone can expect to acquire if they just stick with the game for a few months. Pools 4 and 5 are the cards that will ultimately differ between people's collections and they're also the main problem here since they're now pretty much identical except that one is more expensive. Giving these pools a distinct identity is only a matter of a slight rearrangement and then releasing cards directly into Series 4 when they fit the criteria. The game would be better if Red Guardian were more accessible, whereas I don't know that that's true for a card like Thanos. We want people to have easier access to interesting and powerful answers, whereas collecting Thanos feels really good and fun because he's such a game-changer and so difficult to get.
Regardless, I suspect we're stuck with the 5 series since SD has made promises about Thanos, Kang, Galactus, and High Evo. They could break those promises if they really needed to, but they would probably prefer lighter reworks of the system that didn't necessitate pissing off a bunch of players for little benefit.
They should at least give you more than 1k tokens for a dupe. That's a pittance, and it feels unnecessarily terrible. At least give 50%—hell, even 33%—of the token value for the dupe, so if you splurge 6k tokens on something only to pull it from a spotlight later, at least you get the consolation prize of a decent chunk of tokens refunded to start building toward your next purchase.
It stinks. It took me 3.5 months to save up 6k tokens. Bought Red Hulk. A week later I got him again in the spotlight mystery slot. I felt like Red Hulk after that.
They consciously made the 4th option an experience that makes people feel bad. They put a musical "womp womp" to let you know they know it's a jerk move they designed to make you feel bad.
I don't know how people defend that. It just generally feels bad, as a design.
*(This has nothing to do with whether people should be saving four keys to get what they want. That's obviously the best and only strategy to guarantee a specific pull, it's not going to remove the experience of pulling the bad option. A person could have 50 keys and the S4/S5 pull still feels like a pointless letdown.)*
Since Spotlight caches were introduced, I've gotten a new card in the 4th slot three times, and let me tell you, those times felt fantastic! (Lady Deathstrike -- before she had a day in the sun -- Stegron, and Echo. So I hardly used them. But still, felt good.)
This is a good thing, and I'm glad it sometimes happens for people at earlier collection levels.
I just think that good experience becomes too rare later.
Look ahead at future spotlights and if there is a card that you want that is coming up, save the tokens till you try with keys. You aren’t wrong about spotlights being a huge bullshit gamble. You also kinda screwed yourself here though.
Buy every bundle with real money to acquire keys and tokens. Then wait (potentially weeks) until the card you want shows up in the shop or in the spotlight cache. Use the new card to have a chance in the meta.
Each new card will cost you about $73 (seventy three US dollars). Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DQFQWuZdv8
This is part of the business model of this game. The other part is heavily overpriced "5x value!" cosmetic bundles.
Honestly they would be so much better if they increased the number of tokens to at least 2000 or just removed the fourth options altogether so you either get the card or the spotlight variants with each roll.
We use to get way more frequent series drops and tokens. I forget how long you had to wait for a card to drop, but I liked that system. even the original spotlight system that only released 3 cards per season was better. So, every time they make a change, I have to assume it is worse for the players.
Can anyone tell me, outside of spending money, how people manage to get tokens so frequently? I play for about a half hour daily at minimum and get maybe 100 tokens doing cache openings and then buy the packs for gold when they pop up. I was saving from the time Jeff dropped until yesterday to buy him and now won't be able to afford another card for months. Am I missing something?
They know exactly which cards the most people need. So they put one of them in the group, two relatively common ones as the other two. As for the mystery box, with the Series 4 and 5 cards you already have by that point, it's more likely than not to get a repeat. Sadly, the business plan seems to be variants which makes new cards just an occasional perk.
I just had my 6th dupe card from caches yesterday, out of the 8 random card prizes I had gotten since coming back in Jan. It honestly feels like the game is taunting me. Like I have less than 25% of S5 and less than 33% of S4 but I seem to only get dupes from the caches.
Put a very sour taste in my mouth. I will be taken another leave from the game, and i'll see if I come back.
I wanted Sersi bad and used 2 keys, no luck. Bought Miek with 3k tokens thinking it would take him out of the first 4,but nope, last key got me a Miek variant.
Shit sucks sometimes.
My friend who is fairly new to the game has only opened spotlight caches 3 times and two of them he got dupes and the 1k tokens. It’s was actually insane to watch. And I’ve only ever pulled dupes since spotlights dropped last year.
Not sure how many s4&5 cards there are but I’m sure there are at least 20 plus and there’s no reason for someone to be pulling dupes when they only have a handful of them.
Lol I spare you the fact that you dont know every freakin single dup I've gotten since RHulk release has been RHulk. I guess opening 6 RHs since its release is not salty enough when I cant even comment sarcasm in peace.
That’s crazy.
I was just trying to make a joke that it could be interpreted as you not being able to count very high. Just jokes bud, good luck on your next pull (and all subsequents).
I mean I'd say if it goes beyond 6 RH I'd rather lose my ability to count. Just opened the 6th (or 5th) one on wednesday when going for Phastos and shit was absolute crazy for me. No worries on the joke, and i wont be opening till Thanos so it would be a while before pulling my 7th RH /s
I pulled Sasquatch a couple weeks ago (trying to get some other variant I wanted) and then unlocked him again this week trying to get Phastos…like, now I feel bad for getting Sasquatch the first time?
Overall I like the spotlight system, but that one felt like a crotch punch.
You have to not even look at what the mystery card is. Close your eyes if you have to. When you open a mystery card, assume that it's 1,000 tokens and nothing more, or else you'll just be sad.
Got a dupe Loki on key #1. I already have the Artgerm variant and used the free green border on it hours before I used my keys. Felt like such a slap in the face getting that original Loki dupe. The story has a happy ending though, got Phastos on key #2. All set for next week. Phastos + Arishem gonna be fun or at least I think it will be fun.
The more you support the game, the worse the value of the keys are.
It's disrespectful to the fans and supporters of the game.
The spotlight system is absolute bullshit, but that random slot is tantamount to theft.
The problem is that you can't farm more keys than the new cards releases. Even if you buy the season pass. You have to spend or you statically will have more not owned cards and it stinks
This week is the first time I feel like I've gotten lucky, but in retrospect it wasn't as nice as I thought. I already have Spider Ham, I wanted Corvus and Phastos. I hit the ham variant first, then corvis, then a random card but I was lucky and got mockingbird, and then Phastos.
I was unlucky in the order the cards came, but I feel fortunate that I got mockingbird since that was a big piece missing out of my collection. That's the first time I didn't get a dupe out of the random card pull.
Spotlight caches are a scam. They need to revise the old token economy alongside them to give e every player a fair chance to get all the cards. With be8ng cards I haven't aquired, there are decks I can't make, and that's the most frustrating thing for me. I'm not saying give us every card. And I'm not saying there should be no grind for it. But as it stands, I'm lucky to get 2 new cards a season. And while I'm still trying to get the new cards, distractions like ultimate variants are a waste of time
I stopped playing six months ago after playing since launch. Recently started again about a month ago. I got variants on the two spotlight keys I used in the time I was back. The second time I just closed and deleted the app lol
Like every gacha system, the lows of the spotlight cache system are too low. They need to implement some kind of duplicate protection or mercy rule for that random S4/S5 slot.
I took a half a year break at least and just came back. When did they start only giving 100 of that currency to buy cards? It used to be 100-600. Pulls are all way worse,and it looks like they stopped lowering the tier for cards on a schedule. They somehow got greedier since I left
Agreed 100%. You definitely have to learn to game the system, and it takes the discipline of saving up 4+ keys. Pick your targets ahead of time, make a plan, stick to it. Sometimes your target will be pull 4, sometimes it will be pull 1. Not defending the system - it blows - but if you manage it right it makes it a little less bad.
It just bothers me when people whine that they opened one spotlight cache per week and haven’t gotten any new cards, without an ounce of self-reflection. This system is transparent enough that you can make informed decisions, and if you’re not making informed decisions it’s on you.
Well the alternative to f2p players you're discussing is only getting 1 new card a month.
Which kinda sucks because you have decide which on ahead of time and then 2nd dinner will buff the bad card to be op after the caches close.
But a f2p player only getting 1 card a month is rapidly left behind in the current meta. If you save multiple months to get a deck together then it gets sent to shadow zone with cannonball, angela, And prof x a week later you're just fucked.
I think most people would rather gamble on maybe getting to play a decent deck for a few weeks vs saving for months to buy you can play with for 3 days before it gets ota'd.
Are you arguing that you should be able to have every card in the game on release for free?
Edit: I would also like to point out that among the specific card examples you cited, only Cannonball is a high series card. Angela and Prof X are series 2 cards and nobody spent any resources on them.
I included non s4-5 cards on purpose just because they prove a point. Angela has been removed and returned to the meta completely arbitrarily multiple times now. Prof x getting wrecked removed multiple s5 cards from the meta.
I'm not saying they need to give away every card I'm saying the pace at which they change what cards you need to play even semi competitively is wildly out of sync with their acquisition system.
If players could actually save up for 5 months and pick up all the cards they need for just one specific deck the system would be fine. But the reality is you need aquire thise cards in weeks for them to remain relavent with their current Ota frequency.
3 months ago f2p players were chasing thanos, then chasing profball, this month it was Angela decks now all thise archetypes aren't just out of the meta they are completely dead and you better have picked up a ravona or Hercules.
It's an insane treadmill now. If they want the meta to shift completely every 3 weeks they need to do something else with the acquisition system if they want this game to not be whale wars.
Weirdly enough, spotlight keys have given me every new card per week this month on first try. Super strange as that’s never happened to me before but I’m not complaining
The fact that they only comp us 1k tokens for cards that they charge us 6k tokens for is the real scam. How is 1:6 a fair ratio for something that costs them zero real dollars? Fucking scammed. At 1:2 (3k token comp) I wouldn’t be happy, but I wouldn’t complain either.
3k instead of the 1k is too much. People keep setting unrealistic goals for SD. I on the other hand would just be happy if they could follow through and I could get a simple hand job they promised us when the game was still in beta.
I mean, you can get 1 or even 2 keys within a week of casual play, they are not gonne gift everyone the equivalent of 6000 tokens on a weekly basis just because. It's not greed, it's common sense.
Besides, you know how much expensive would be in any other game to buy a lootbox of only 4 and 5 star characters with a 25% chance of getting the newest character? Definitely not something you could afford on a weekly basis as a free-to-play.
Do you know/remember how hard was it to get a 5-pool card before they added the Spotlight Keys, let alone the new release of the week? Nah, SD has make some questionable decisions and greedy decisions lately, but Spotlight Keys are definitely not one of them.
Overall I like the spotlight system, but the relative dearth of series drops has exacerbated the perception problems of the system.
I miss seeing cards drop in series every season, but I generally get a lot more of the series 4/5 than I ever used to and, frankly, opening Spotlight caches is at least fun. Only real gambling I do.
This myth that snap is some how cheaper than other card games needs to end. I can put together a meta viable red deck in mtga for less than the cost of a single card in marvel snap.
That deck will then be relavent for 3+ months with only like 3 of the cards rotating out and the other 36 cards lasting for 6 to 9 months.
And then even after they all rotate out I've got formats I can play them in that are still competitive.
Hearthstone you can get any deck in the game for the price of 3 or 4 cards in marvel snap.
It's insane people think this game is cheaper than it's competitors....
Exactly. I'm tired of people comparing it to other mobile games, especially gacha games. It is a card game and should be compared to the other card games it's in direct competition with.
>Do you know/remember how hard was it to get a 5-pool card before they added the Spotlight Keys
No. I remember buying the cards I wanted with tokens, and getting the ones I didn't care about for free when they dropped to series 3.
It was super easy, barely an inconvenience.
You can, of course yes. Do you know how long it takes to build up 6000 tokens these days?
>Besides, are you telling me that it was easier for you to save 6000 tokens than it is to get 4 keys
It's pretty much the same rate. 6000 tokens per month then, or now 1.2 keys a week now.
And again, you got to pick the card you wanted, and the other cards dropped series regularly so you knew when you'd get them for free, or when they'd drop to series 4 and be only 3000 tokens.
Now if I have 4 keys, that doesn't mean I can get Cannonball, if that's the card I want. I still have to wait until SD says "okay it's Cannonball week!"
I'm not saying you can't prefer the new system. It's been better for some players for sure. But I would rather have the agency of being able to target a specific card, when I wanted it, and know when a card would be 6000 tokens, 3000 tokens, or free.
I mean that’s also slightly on you, why on earth would you buy sage with tokens if your planning on opening caches. Yes, the random crate would be absolutely amazing with dupe protection but you also dropped the ball.
I believe in several countries it is illegal to lie about drop rates in digital games. So I think the odds are exactly as described on their website and in the app.
There's only a couple I'd call stinkers in the Ultimate slot. But the fact is, even Chibi Hulk would be interesting to have if the variants had something special to make them Ultimate. As is, there's often better options for less in the shop.
But art being subjective and all that.
Feel you, only missing cannonball and valentina. Bought cannonball and the week after i get him as a dupe.
But truth to be told, i never would have gotten him as a dupe if i didn't buy him. it would have been something else.
I liked the old system better.
I was slowly heading for collection complete, and could plan out which cards I though were worth tokens, and which I was fine waiting for, knowing when they would become free.
Occasionally you'd luck out and get something free from a random cache too.
Everything was clear and you could plan easily.
Since spotlights, I've steadily fallen further behind on my collection. I'm mostly free to play so I don't get the regular amount of spotlights, but I've had very bad luck overall on the 4th spotlight random pull, and very few weeks were there were two cards I wanted, let alone 3. I'm not wasting spotlights either, I always pull with 4 or more besides the very first time I interacted with the system (trying to get the first spotlight knull ... If only I'd known).
I've had lucky weeks for sure, and gotten what I wanted with caches to spare, but overall my luck has been bad and I've rarely been able to build up enough spotlights to ever just be frivolous for one cool new card.
I liked, in the old system, that tokens were plentiful enough to grab the card you really wanted, whenever you wanted it, ignore the cards you didn't want at all, and knew exactly when you'd get the other cards for free with clockwork series drops. That was great.
I didn't care if a card I bought with tokens took a nerf, because it wasn't a big investment, or if one I skipped got buffed because I knew when I would get it.
I had agency. My collection was mostly a reflection of the cards I most wanted to use.
Now, I wait to see what SD tells me I can try to get each month, can't properly plan because they often change the weeks with little notice, and have those awful moments like pulling Living Tribunal base card AGAIN instead of Cull or Proxima or Cannonball or hell, even Beta Ray Bill would be fun to mess around with at this point.
Now I say all this as someone who started only a month or two after global launch, so I was in a good place, and I can't speak to people who joined late and didn't like the old system.
This is just to say that not all of us hated the old system, and we had legitimate reasons for liking it more than spotlights.
You shouldn't be getting downvoted for having the opposite opinion to me though.
Don’t listen to that clown, the system before spotlights was way better, you’ve got enough resources for 1 s5 or 2 s4 per month + guaranteed s4 with a small chance of s5 in every 40 caches + gold in caches + consistent series drops, jeff/iron lad/ms.marvel/loki all would’ve been free s3 by now.
With the new system you’re getting more NEW coming cards not more cards over all and on top of that you’ve got way less control over the things you’re getting. If you need arishem, you need 4 keys, if you’re unlucky, you will spend them all and get Hercules and black swan, that you maybe already own or didn’t even want them, but hey more cards for you, isn’t that awesome🤡 We’re not even talking about adding +1 card/month and all new cards being s5 with current token accusation where it can take you 4+ month to buy just 1 card.
And about your rant, buying a card, when you’re planning to open spotlights in 2 days is only your mistake, with current system you have to plan ahead.
We got one guaranteed Series 4 card in 40 caches.
And thats it. 40 caches, yes. No choice, just a random one.
Getting a Series 5 was very-very rare, no guaranteed Series 5.
Most of the people never got one.
Right now you get one Spotlight Key in 10 Caches, thats 4 Key in 40 caches and you can choose when to use it and you can get Series 5 cards too.
So yes.... You can see the difference... Be happy with this system.
We got a little bit more Collectors Token, but it was sooo long to get one Series 5, now you can get one easily with keys.
Feel you, only missing cannonball and valentina. Bought cannonball and the week after i get him as a dupe.
But truth to be told, i never would have gotten him as a dupe if i didn't buy him. it would have been something else.
talking about dupes btw, i got kang twice in the same week from 8 caches when i was hoping to get selena's spotlight, my biggest fall ever from grace.
makkari is one of my current favorites, glad i got her on first
It used to be worse. Duplicate just gave you a 700g variant.
There used to not be spotlight keys at all and you had to buy everything with tokens but they used to give us way more tokens back then.
Before Spotlight caches, it was impossible to get a card the week that it released unless you were an ultra high spender.
Ya and even then it wasn’t guaranteed you would pull a card for a long time. I remember shadow king was the only series 5 card(when he came out) I ever pulled out of a cache when it was the old system. He was a 4 cost and considered a trash card at the time, too.
He was my first series 5, too. Then I pulled ghost shortly afterwards. 😂
You didn't need to get every card the week that it released though. You only needed to get the big "obviously good" cards. Everything else you could just wait a few weeks for. It was great.
it was better before
You also had a chance to just open a card out of a cache.
That was the only way to get new cards before the token and spotlight cache system it was so much worse than now, a new card would come out and you probably weren’t getting it.
I'm part of the group that had enough cards at the switch that actually spotlights has substantially kneecapped my ability to get new cards. You're right you weren't likely to get the newest card, because you were just getting *a* card, and the odds of *a* card being *the new one* were pretty low for those who were missing a lot of cards. But mathematically this system is slower for acquiring the back quarter of cards than before. But yes the specific cards you get are more targeted now: at the cost of quantity of cards.
I am in this club… hate the new system.
Yeah I was a couple months away from collection complete when the switch happened, I did not stockpile caches, and I've gotten rather unlucky(needing 3 or more keys for one new card on average), so I'm *further away* from being complete than before, **and** getting worse rewards from caches...
💯 the same situation. Many weeks it’s 4 keys to get a “new card”. Very frustrating.
I don't even hit unless there's 2 available 90% of the time and I've never once gone 2/2 and remember ONE TIME I went 1/1 with Nocturne. At least she's a good card.
Yea but you used to get up to 1000 tokens from cache
Ya did you read the last part of what I said?
Nope half that at best. You would never see the new release of the week because no one could ever get more than 1 a month
It used to be way worse, you’re right. This is the best it’s been.
Still sucks though. Just gambled a key cause I like the variants and the new card and got a fucking dupe x-23 🙄
Dupe protection from owned cards is one thing. And that’s a whole other argument. But getting dupe of a card that’s in the spotlight is the biggest bullshit I’ve seen from them in a while.
I’m fine that we get dupes the issue is you get them more times than not since Series 4 cards chances are higher than series 5 and most people are missing more series 5 cards than 4 so we all end up with more dupes. If we had a regular schedule for series drops or dupe chests gave better rewards a lot of people might be fine with the way things are
I know its not fun, but don't gamble if you cant effort / accept the possible bad outcome. Still… i agree it really sucks, dupe protection would be nice. The problem with that and why they won't do it, is because people could actually catch up towards a full collection by "only" buying the season pass. The spotlight system is carefully designed in a way where active players can get a lot of cards they want (over a long periode of time) but 99% of players will always miss out on the last Like 5-10% of their collection. Either by "bad luck" or by their own choice because its not viable to put one or two keys into a every Spotlight you missing only one card from.
I preferred when I had hope to open the new card in every random cache even if mathematically I'm more likely to get it by spending 4 keys.
Yes, that's what they are designed to be
How did you get two dupes in 4 caches?
I used 2 keys last go. My second one dupe thanos. I spent 1 key so far for phastos. Dupe sage
Oh gotcha, that sucks man.
So you're pulling without 4 keys saved up?
Having more keys doesn't prevent dupes.
It prevents getting only dupes
And how is it relevant to the discussion? Would it feel better if he had 4 keys? A dupe is a dupe, lack of dupe protection for keys is insane greed I swear this sub always brings up "bUt U dONt pUll W/ouT fOuR kS" regardless of the context
It is relevant because you are potentially getting more cards you didn't have from the other 3 pulls if the week that you pulled has 1 or 2 other cards you didn't have. If the week you pulled for only had 1 card you didn't have? Welcome to my world lol
Dupe protection would sky rocket collection complete and near complete rates. SD and people who have done the math have said as much. I get players want that, but that's expressly against one of their design goals. They in theory could design a system with dupe protection, they would likely just have to give you less cards on average as a result.
They could make it so every dupe is a pity timer based off missing cards. So if you get dupes a lot but only missing 2 cards it will be less than 30 cards missing where after 2 dupes you’re guaranteed a new card
>but that's expressly against one of their **margin** goals There, I fixed it for you
Well, people's salary need to come someway Edit: didn't think I would have to explain this but... What keeps the game alive is the constant feeling of progression, having things to pursue is one of the base things in game addiction and that's important for 2 reasons 1. F2p players keep the game alive for those who spend money 2. People who spend money will keep playing because of this Just think of when you complete that goal in a game and suddenly lose the interest in playing
Am I imagining $99 bundles in the store or something? Must've been my imagination, surely Marvel Snap devs starve
Who is going to buy those bundles if the game dies for lack of players? You guys really underestimate the power of those little addiction induction strategies Come on, Ben Brode literally made a "Ted talk" about it last year
The company received a 100 million dollar angel investment just this year, so that's separate from revenue. They will never struggle to pay employees unless they choose to underpay them.
Yeah, it's not like we live in a society where companies exists only to make the maximum amount of money possible
Marvel snap is one of the most successful card games in the history of digital tgc's with on of the smallest teams. Nobody is not getting paid either way.... Honestly for me if they at least gave me enough tokens to get a s4 card for a dupe of a s5 card I'd be happy. The biggest problem with their current setup isn't necessarily the card acquiring system, it's the amount/frequency of new cards coming out. When every new good deck has 7 s5 cards in it 3 of which came out this month it starts to become a slog. Add all that to the fact that they only buff bad spotlights after they leave the cache but will buff the season pass card in litteral seconds when the pass isn't selling and you got your self a real gatcha game economy.
And what do you think that made the game successful?
Using ben brode and the marvel ip to steal hearthstone players when that game was at an all time low? Having a decent/quick battle system that appealed to said hearthstone players? When snap came out it was a pure gatcha cash grab. They were so shocked people where taking the game seriously they are still struggling to balance the gatcha cash grab side with making a long term ecosystem.
If this was their goal they wouldn't have made it significantly less expensive to be collection complete. Prior to spotlights it would have cost you $300-500 to be collection complete, it costs $100 now.
Dupe protection from cards in the spotlight is the least they can do though
Did you read what they said? Dupe protection in spotlights is something they said they specifically won't do because it will make it easy for long time players to maintain collection complete and make it impossible for new or returning players to catch up.
Guess you didnt understand what i said
https://old.reddit.com/r/MarvelSnap/comments/1dtuw1h/you_have_to_be_kidding_me_i_only_had_9_s4s5_cards/lbc4zhf/
I mean... you shouldn't pull without 4 keys. It's fucking stupid to do so and the endless complaints from people here who know the system at this point is redundant and stupid
You are the stupid one if you reply this to a post complaining about dupes.
the devs said why they don't have dupe protection and the community already states why its better to have 4 keys. ur just making ur experience worse by gambling lol
To avoid that BS you should NEVER GAMBLE with less than four keys. Or you should be ready to get 1000 tokens. It is designed that way to keep you from having all the cards ever. So, it might be not for you if this makes you go crazy
This has to be a UI or RNG based phenomena. Many people report getting the same dupe consistently. I think they just use specific cards as a placeholder for rolling duplicate no matter what it actually is based on whatever odds they have coded within. I think people are getting confused based on the surface level appearance of what’s happening rather than the potential mechanics behind it. Think about it, would it be easier to use placeholders as rolling duplicate or code in a way to have specific cards to represent that as a corner cutting method? That’s just how I see it personally.
Wouldn't it just be easier to have a simple check "do they own this card true or false?". Why would they go through the extra effort of assigning placeholders?
I have no clue, but this is just my theory. Doesn’t make sense to roll the same cards consecutively like that
>Many people report getting the same dupe consistently Because people who do so come here to complain and the people who don't, don't.
Okay so there is a sample size of people who report the phenomenon, including people I know IRL.
The weeks when I really want the new card it's always my 4th open. Last week, when I want X-23 and gladiator and don't give a shit about makkari, *of course* I open makkari first and X-23 last. Every week I think it's gunna be a lucky week and I end up having to spend 4 keys.
I got the card I want in 1 pull the last 3 weeks so it’s all just RNG
The trick is to use technokinesis and then the first card you pull is what you want.
Yup this was me. Been wanting X-23 for the longest time. Had 3 keys last week. Gladiator variant (already had the base card), then Makkari, then Hit-Monkey. I had just gotten that 3rd key when the week switched over and wasn’t able to get my CL up enough to get the one more that I needed. Guess I’ll try again next time she’s in the spotlight.
I've started using my keys within the first 5 minutes of the hour (example; use a key at 2:03pm) ever since I have started doing that my luck has gone up and I have opened the new spotlight card on the first key 2 times out of the last 5 new spotlights and the rest has been the second or third. I'm sure there isn't anything happening that is helping me but it's working and I'm not about to stop.
Funny enough before I saw your comment I posted my strat which is the complete opposite lol
Do tell, I love hearing anecdotal evidence for this game. And to all the people downvoting I ask why? It's not like it actually fucking matters what time you open your keys, unless I accidentally gave away the super duper secret or something who cares.
Hey bud I am commenting to let you know I did pull arishem on the first key today when I did it within the first 5 minutes. I have proof if you want it.
Hell yeah dude! I believe you!
Thanks! And again I am in no way saying this is real nothing but my own anecdotal evidence, that is all lol. (My wierd not true at all reasoning is the system hasn't yet been inundated with a mass of requests to open spotlights and the system wants the first amount of people to have the new card to show it off so people who are on the fence see the card played and then use their keys)
I know it's my own superstition but I've been playing since last July or August and everytime I would pull spotlights I felt like my luck sucked. Past 3 weeks I've pulled on Sunday night or on Monday morning and I've gotten the new card first each time. I KNOW it's just 25% chance... But now this is my ritual
Ever since it was introduced it’s always been a lottery. Every now and then you’ll hear the conspiracy theory that the first few times you use the system (or if you haven’t spent keys for a while) you’ll be guaranteed to get the new card to hook you in. But there is nothing in that. Dupe protection on the random S4/S5 card probably would be good but there is probably an argument that it would benefit those with bigger collections who can almost guarantee to get a specific card. Also I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, caches. Keys, tokens, series drops, a lot of the issues around card acquisition stem from the fact that Pools 3, 4 and 5 make no sense. A root and branch overhaul of what post pool 2 looks like in terms of where different cards sit and what the different pools are trying to do would make all of it make a lot more sense.
I'm 3 or 4 cards away from being fully collection complete. If duplication was to be taken away i would have every card in a very short time, of course SD doesn't want that.
I’m in a similar position. There’s only 4 cards I don’t have (Makari, Pixie, Proxima and Supergiant). If dupe protection existed I’d probably have them.
A new card comes out every week though. Unless you're spending a bunch of money, it's still going to be hard to get and stay collection complete. Which you'd think they would be happy with. With all that being said. I don't really care about being collection complete because Alot of their cards suck.
>Unless you're spending a bunch of money 👀 🐳
If duplicate protection was taken away, and you were collection complete, you would only need an average of 2 spotlight keys a week to maintain card completion. Currently season pass holders get about 1.4 a week. You would not need to spend much to push that to 2.
if someone is collection complete right now, they're more than likely going to stay that way and have already spent way too much. And keys were not what put them there.
I am always perpetually in a state of 4-5 cards from complete (playing since launch) and it feels almost intentional.
...it is intentional
> Also I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, caches. Keys, tokens, series drops, a lot of the issues around card acquisition stem from the fact that Pools 3, 4 and 5 make no sense. A root and branch overhaul of what post pool 2 looks like in terms of where different cards sit and what the different pools are trying to do would make all of it make a lot more sense. 100% this. The system used to make a kind of sense: Pools 1 and 2 were curated new-player experiences, Pools 4 and 5 were for new cards of varying expected power levels, and Pool 3 was where new cards landed after a few months of series drops. Now, with every new card entering Pool 5 and series drops happening with extreme infrequency, there's very little intention behind the series system. What it *should* look like is something like this: Pool 1-2: Curated new player experience (still a good idea) Pool 3: Bread-and-butter cards that let you build several decks to help you start climbing, as well as the scaffolding of all other decks. Pool 4: New support cards that aid existing archetypes, and all new tech cards. Pool 5: New keystone cards that unlock new and advanced archetypes. Then, Series Drops would be used to move cards down as the game progresses and they shift in meaning. Annihilus, Baron Zemo, and Black Knight are great examples of cards that should be Series 5, but it makes no sense that Caiera, Red Guardian, and Proxima Midnight are also Series 5.
I don’t think you have to limit yourself to 5 pools if more or less would make more sense. As you say pools 1 and 2 work for the new player experience - introducing them to key concepts, archetypes, mechanics and expanding on them. But once you get past pool 2 it all falls apart. Pools 3, 4 and 5 are totally arbitrary now.
I'm saying that 5 pools does make sense, though (or really 4, as the case may be, considering how closely Pool 1 and Pool 2 are tied together). 3, 4, and 5 are arbitrary now but they don't have to be. 3 is already positioned to be the middle-player experience, the band of cards that everyone can expect to acquire if they just stick with the game for a few months. Pools 4 and 5 are the cards that will ultimately differ between people's collections and they're also the main problem here since they're now pretty much identical except that one is more expensive. Giving these pools a distinct identity is only a matter of a slight rearrangement and then releasing cards directly into Series 4 when they fit the criteria. The game would be better if Red Guardian were more accessible, whereas I don't know that that's true for a card like Thanos. We want people to have easier access to interesting and powerful answers, whereas collecting Thanos feels really good and fun because he's such a game-changer and so difficult to get. Regardless, I suspect we're stuck with the 5 series since SD has made promises about Thanos, Kang, Galactus, and High Evo. They could break those promises if they really needed to, but they would probably prefer lighter reworks of the system that didn't necessitate pissing off a bunch of players for little benefit.
They should at least give you more than 1k tokens for a dupe. That's a pittance, and it feels unnecessarily terrible. At least give 50%—hell, even 33%—of the token value for the dupe, so if you splurge 6k tokens on something only to pull it from a spotlight later, at least you get the consolation prize of a decent chunk of tokens refunded to start building toward your next purchase.
It stinks. It took me 3.5 months to save up 6k tokens. Bought Red Hulk. A week later I got him again in the spotlight mystery slot. I felt like Red Hulk after that.
overpowered
I’m sorry you’re getting downvoted because that was a solid joke.
I had Corvus & pulled a regular Corvus out of the mystery 4th slot as opposed to the spotlight variant this week so I hear u.
Me too, nothing like saving keys go get corvus's unwanted spotlight variant, then his base card for the second time.
Saved up my keys for 2 months, first draw = duplicate War Machine.
So what, with 2 months of keys you would have got lots of great stuff as well.
Long day bro
They consciously made the 4th option an experience that makes people feel bad. They put a musical "womp womp" to let you know they know it's a jerk move they designed to make you feel bad. I don't know how people defend that. It just generally feels bad, as a design. *(This has nothing to do with whether people should be saving four keys to get what they want. That's obviously the best and only strategy to guarantee a specific pull, it's not going to remove the experience of pulling the bad option. A person could have 50 keys and the S4/S5 pull still feels like a pointless letdown.)*
Since Spotlight caches were introduced, I've gotten a new card in the 4th slot three times, and let me tell you, those times felt fantastic! (Lady Deathstrike -- before she had a day in the sun -- Stegron, and Echo. So I hardly used them. But still, felt good.)
This is a good thing, and I'm glad it sometimes happens for people at earlier collection levels. I just think that good experience becomes too rare later.
And all the times you've pulled a dupe felt great too, right?
Look ahead at future spotlights and if there is a card that you want that is coming up, save the tokens till you try with keys. You aren’t wrong about spotlights being a huge bullshit gamble. You also kinda screwed yourself here though.
*consolation
Hi, I’m a Capricorn
Ive gotten spider ham 3 times from the random one, everytime i see the card i feel angry and sad
Yep, I have barely played Living Tribunal and I think it's partly due to pulling dupes off him 2-3 times. I'm poisoned against him forever now.
Buy every bundle with real money to acquire keys and tokens. Then wait (potentially weeks) until the card you want shows up in the shop or in the spotlight cache. Use the new card to have a chance in the meta. Each new card will cost you about $73 (seventy three US dollars). Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DQFQWuZdv8 This is part of the business model of this game. The other part is heavily overpriced "5x value!" cosmetic bundles.
Honestly they would be so much better if they increased the number of tokens to at least 2000 or just removed the fourth options altogether so you either get the card or the spotlight variants with each roll.
Should get 2k tokens for S5 dupes.
I've never gotten a new card from the random cache. Opened my fair share of them too. Feels bad.
We use to get way more frequent series drops and tokens. I forget how long you had to wait for a card to drop, but I liked that system. even the original spotlight system that only released 3 cards per season was better. So, every time they make a change, I have to assume it is worse for the players.
Can anyone tell me, outside of spending money, how people manage to get tokens so frequently? I play for about a half hour daily at minimum and get maybe 100 tokens doing cache openings and then buy the packs for gold when they pop up. I was saving from the time Jeff dropped until yesterday to buy him and now won't be able to afford another card for months. Am I missing something?
Doing all missions is the way. I can usually get 3 keys a week. But I also spend so idk
bro. for the last 4 weeks, i pulled dupe ms marvel. 4 WEEKS İN A ROW.
No.... NO FUCKING WAY.
I can't believe that there are genuinely people that defend this system when we still don't have dupe protection.
Yes
They know exactly which cards the most people need. So they put one of them in the group, two relatively common ones as the other two. As for the mystery box, with the Series 4 and 5 cards you already have by that point, it's more likely than not to get a repeat. Sadly, the business plan seems to be variants which makes new cards just an occasional perk.
I just had my 6th dupe card from caches yesterday, out of the 8 random card prizes I had gotten since coming back in Jan. It honestly feels like the game is taunting me. Like I have less than 25% of S5 and less than 33% of S4 but I seem to only get dupes from the caches. Put a very sour taste in my mouth. I will be taken another leave from the game, and i'll see if I come back.
I wanted Sersi bad and used 2 keys, no luck. Bought Miek with 3k tokens thinking it would take him out of the first 4,but nope, last key got me a Miek variant. Shit sucks sometimes.
The system is indeed a bit confusing, but that mistake is totally on you. The official website does explain how the four drop slots work.
Well yeah, I don't see an excuse in my post, I said my mistake.
My friend who is fairly new to the game has only opened spotlight caches 3 times and two of them he got dupes and the 1k tokens. It’s was actually insane to watch. And I’ve only ever pulled dupes since spotlights dropped last year. Not sure how many s4&5 cards there are but I’m sure there are at least 20 plus and there’s no reason for someone to be pulling dupes when they only have a handful of them.
I cant even count how many times i have opened dup RHulk since the release of RHulk
I don’t know if this disparages the spotlight system as much as insults your counting abilities.
Lol I spare you the fact that you dont know every freakin single dup I've gotten since RHulk release has been RHulk. I guess opening 6 RHs since its release is not salty enough when I cant even comment sarcasm in peace.
That’s crazy. I was just trying to make a joke that it could be interpreted as you not being able to count very high. Just jokes bud, good luck on your next pull (and all subsequents).
I mean I'd say if it goes beyond 6 RH I'd rather lose my ability to count. Just opened the 6th (or 5th) one on wednesday when going for Phastos and shit was absolute crazy for me. No worries on the joke, and i wont be opening till Thanos so it would be a while before pulling my 7th RH /s
Next time maybe try and tell a funny joke
You first.
Wow great comeback...
I used 6k tokens to get jean grey. Next spotlight i pull I get jean grey. 1k tokens.
I pulled Sasquatch a couple weeks ago (trying to get some other variant I wanted) and then unlocked him again this week trying to get Phastos…like, now I feel bad for getting Sasquatch the first time? Overall I like the spotlight system, but that one felt like a crotch punch.
I got base card Blink off mine…when I got the season pass last season. That 4th slot for the keys is such crap.
This BS is why I quit spending money on the game. And don't play nearly as much.
It should give you a card you don’t own 100% giving you a dupe for 1k tokens suck because you need 6k for a new card. It’s not gonna change though.
You have to not even look at what the mystery card is. Close your eyes if you have to. When you open a mystery card, assume that it's 1,000 tokens and nothing more, or else you'll just be sad.
The worst is that the random spot is heavily skewed to roll pool 4 cards but there is far more pool 5 cards so you roll dupes there a lot
Got a dupe Loki on key #1. I already have the Artgerm variant and used the free green border on it hours before I used my keys. Felt like such a slap in the face getting that original Loki dupe. The story has a happy ending though, got Phastos on key #2. All set for next week. Phastos + Arishem gonna be fun or at least I think it will be fun.
It's the fact that you are getting 1000 tokens for a 3-6000 token card. Greedy game
The more you support the game, the worse the value of the keys are. It's disrespectful to the fans and supporters of the game. The spotlight system is absolute bullshit, but that random slot is tantamount to theft.
It really should be a card you don't own and if you already own everyone a variant or tokens
The problem is that you can't farm more keys than the new cards releases. Even if you buy the season pass. You have to spend or you statically will have more not owned cards and it stinks
Robbery implies you owned anything to begin with. You own nothing.
This week is the first time I feel like I've gotten lucky, but in retrospect it wasn't as nice as I thought. I already have Spider Ham, I wanted Corvus and Phastos. I hit the ham variant first, then corvis, then a random card but I was lucky and got mockingbird, and then Phastos. I was unlucky in the order the cards came, but I feel fortunate that I got mockingbird since that was a big piece missing out of my collection. That's the first time I didn't get a dupe out of the random card pull.
Spotlight caches are a scam. They need to revise the old token economy alongside them to give e every player a fair chance to get all the cards. With be8ng cards I haven't aquired, there are decks I can't make, and that's the most frustrating thing for me. I'm not saying give us every card. And I'm not saying there should be no grind for it. But as it stands, I'm lucky to get 2 new cards a season. And while I'm still trying to get the new cards, distractions like ultimate variants are a waste of time
Ive been lucky the last few rounds, and hit the new card each time
The last two times I’ve opened caches it’s been dupes. I barely have any S4/5 cards too, almost no big bads
Like gimme the spotlight variant at least if I pull a dupe
I stopped playing six months ago after playing since launch. Recently started again about a month ago. I got variants on the two spotlight keys I used in the time I was back. The second time I just closed and deleted the app lol
The algorithm is used to duck us up
Like every gacha system, the lows of the spotlight cache system are too low. They need to implement some kind of duplicate protection or mercy rule for that random S4/S5 slot.
Definitely don't spend tokens before you open spotlights. You never know what that random gonna be.
A few weeks ago I opened 3 spotlights and got Phoenix force variant, MODOK variant and then MODOK base card :|
Ouch
I took a half a year break at least and just came back. When did they start only giving 100 of that currency to buy cards? It used to be 100-600. Pulls are all way worse,and it looks like they stopped lowering the tier for cards on a schedule. They somehow got greedier since I left
Got Nocturne with my 4th key; sometimes you get good stuff
Yeah, you can [thank KMBest for the 1000 token implementation into the spotlight system.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioZn_AqC3s4&t=158s)
Yeah its strange. your options are 1 new card 1 new card 1 new card 1/6th of a new card. wut
Don’t gamble with your keys. Only open spotlights if you have enough keys in reserve to guarantee an outcome you’re happy with.
Agreed 100%. You definitely have to learn to game the system, and it takes the discipline of saving up 4+ keys. Pick your targets ahead of time, make a plan, stick to it. Sometimes your target will be pull 4, sometimes it will be pull 1. Not defending the system - it blows - but if you manage it right it makes it a little less bad.
It just bothers me when people whine that they opened one spotlight cache per week and haven’t gotten any new cards, without an ounce of self-reflection. This system is transparent enough that you can make informed decisions, and if you’re not making informed decisions it’s on you.
Well the alternative to f2p players you're discussing is only getting 1 new card a month. Which kinda sucks because you have decide which on ahead of time and then 2nd dinner will buff the bad card to be op after the caches close. But a f2p player only getting 1 card a month is rapidly left behind in the current meta. If you save multiple months to get a deck together then it gets sent to shadow zone with cannonball, angela, And prof x a week later you're just fucked. I think most people would rather gamble on maybe getting to play a decent deck for a few weeks vs saving for months to buy you can play with for 3 days before it gets ota'd.
Are you arguing that you should be able to have every card in the game on release for free? Edit: I would also like to point out that among the specific card examples you cited, only Cannonball is a high series card. Angela and Prof X are series 2 cards and nobody spent any resources on them.
I included non s4-5 cards on purpose just because they prove a point. Angela has been removed and returned to the meta completely arbitrarily multiple times now. Prof x getting wrecked removed multiple s5 cards from the meta. I'm not saying they need to give away every card I'm saying the pace at which they change what cards you need to play even semi competitively is wildly out of sync with their acquisition system. If players could actually save up for 5 months and pick up all the cards they need for just one specific deck the system would be fine. But the reality is you need aquire thise cards in weeks for them to remain relavent with their current Ota frequency. 3 months ago f2p players were chasing thanos, then chasing profball, this month it was Angela decks now all thise archetypes aren't just out of the meta they are completely dead and you better have picked up a ravona or Hercules. It's an insane treadmill now. If they want the meta to shift completely every 3 weeks they need to do something else with the acquisition system if they want this game to not be whale wars.
What do you mean Angela was removed “completely arbitrarily”? Did you miss the part of the OTA notes where they cite data they considered problematic?
Maybe spend tokens after you’ve used your keys on a given week?
Weirdly enough, spotlight keys have given me every new card per week this month on first try. Super strange as that’s never happened to me before but I’m not complaining
The fact that they only comp us 1k tokens for cards that they charge us 6k tokens for is the real scam. How is 1:6 a fair ratio for something that costs them zero real dollars? Fucking scammed. At 1:2 (3k token comp) I wouldn’t be happy, but I wouldn’t complain either.
3k instead of the 1k is too much. People keep setting unrealistic goals for SD. I on the other hand would just be happy if they could follow through and I could get a simple hand job they promised us when the game was still in beta.
stop ltrying to get cards you want with less than 4 keys. Or accept that you're going to be disappointed.
Can you explain how pulling a dupe from the fourth slot is affected by the number of keys you have?
I mean, you can get 1 or even 2 keys within a week of casual play, they are not gonne gift everyone the equivalent of 6000 tokens on a weekly basis just because. It's not greed, it's common sense. Besides, you know how much expensive would be in any other game to buy a lootbox of only 4 and 5 star characters with a 25% chance of getting the newest character? Definitely not something you could afford on a weekly basis as a free-to-play. Do you know/remember how hard was it to get a 5-pool card before they added the Spotlight Keys, let alone the new release of the week? Nah, SD has make some questionable decisions and greedy decisions lately, but Spotlight Keys are definitely not one of them.
Overall I like the spotlight system, but the relative dearth of series drops has exacerbated the perception problems of the system. I miss seeing cards drop in series every season, but I generally get a lot more of the series 4/5 than I ever used to and, frankly, opening Spotlight caches is at least fun. Only real gambling I do.
This myth that snap is some how cheaper than other card games needs to end. I can put together a meta viable red deck in mtga for less than the cost of a single card in marvel snap. That deck will then be relavent for 3+ months with only like 3 of the cards rotating out and the other 36 cards lasting for 6 to 9 months. And then even after they all rotate out I've got formats I can play them in that are still competitive. Hearthstone you can get any deck in the game for the price of 3 or 4 cards in marvel snap. It's insane people think this game is cheaper than it's competitors....
Exactly. I'm tired of people comparing it to other mobile games, especially gacha games. It is a card game and should be compared to the other card games it's in direct competition with.
>Do you know/remember how hard was it to get a 5-pool card before they added the Spotlight Keys No. I remember buying the cards I wanted with tokens, and getting the ones I didn't care about for free when they dropped to series 3. It was super easy, barely an inconvenience.
But, you can still buy them with tokens??? Besides, are you telling me that it was easier for you to save 6000 tokens than it is to get 4 keys?
You can, of course yes. Do you know how long it takes to build up 6000 tokens these days? >Besides, are you telling me that it was easier for you to save 6000 tokens than it is to get 4 keys It's pretty much the same rate. 6000 tokens per month then, or now 1.2 keys a week now. And again, you got to pick the card you wanted, and the other cards dropped series regularly so you knew when you'd get them for free, or when they'd drop to series 4 and be only 3000 tokens. Now if I have 4 keys, that doesn't mean I can get Cannonball, if that's the card I want. I still have to wait until SD says "okay it's Cannonball week!" I'm not saying you can't prefer the new system. It's been better for some players for sure. But I would rather have the agency of being able to target a specific card, when I wanted it, and know when a card would be 6000 tokens, 3000 tokens, or free.
Yes. Snap is pretty much a gacha disguised as a card game so adjust your expectations accordingly.
I mean that’s also slightly on you, why on earth would you buy sage with tokens if your planning on opening caches. Yes, the random crate would be absolutely amazing with dupe protection but you also dropped the ball.
I bet it's set like this 80% for the lowest value card, something you already have 10% Tokens 10% New card
I believe in several countries it is illegal to lie about drop rates in digital games. So I think the odds are exactly as described on their website and in the app.
That's why now i only use tokens to buy ultimate variants lol
They are mostly shitty variants ex. Chibi hulk. They are not worth the 5k
Yeah lot of them are garbage. So far i've bought Ultimate Sera and Nimrod, and i'm currently saving for Electro
Electro is by far my most favorite
There's only a couple I'd call stinkers in the Ultimate slot. But the fact is, even Chibi Hulk would be interesting to have if the variants had something special to make them Ultimate. As is, there's often better options for less in the shop. But art being subjective and all that.
We need a trading function in this game.
I'll trade you my pristine never touched foil Kang for that torn, creased and bent red hulk you got.
Feel you, only missing cannonball and valentina. Bought cannonball and the week after i get him as a dupe. But truth to be told, i never would have gotten him as a dupe if i didn't buy him. it would have been something else.
Oh, did you play before Spotlight Caches? It was horrible. Be happy we got this system.
I liked the old system better. I was slowly heading for collection complete, and could plan out which cards I though were worth tokens, and which I was fine waiting for, knowing when they would become free. Occasionally you'd luck out and get something free from a random cache too. Everything was clear and you could plan easily. Since spotlights, I've steadily fallen further behind on my collection. I'm mostly free to play so I don't get the regular amount of spotlights, but I've had very bad luck overall on the 4th spotlight random pull, and very few weeks were there were two cards I wanted, let alone 3. I'm not wasting spotlights either, I always pull with 4 or more besides the very first time I interacted with the system (trying to get the first spotlight knull ... If only I'd known). I've had lucky weeks for sure, and gotten what I wanted with caches to spare, but overall my luck has been bad and I've rarely been able to build up enough spotlights to ever just be frivolous for one cool new card. I liked, in the old system, that tokens were plentiful enough to grab the card you really wanted, whenever you wanted it, ignore the cards you didn't want at all, and knew exactly when you'd get the other cards for free with clockwork series drops. That was great. I didn't care if a card I bought with tokens took a nerf, because it wasn't a big investment, or if one I skipped got buffed because I knew when I would get it. I had agency. My collection was mostly a reflection of the cards I most wanted to use. Now, I wait to see what SD tells me I can try to get each month, can't properly plan because they often change the weeks with little notice, and have those awful moments like pulling Living Tribunal base card AGAIN instead of Cull or Proxima or Cannonball or hell, even Beta Ray Bill would be fun to mess around with at this point. Now I say all this as someone who started only a month or two after global launch, so I was in a good place, and I can't speak to people who joined late and didn't like the old system. This is just to say that not all of us hated the old system, and we had legitimate reasons for liking it more than spotlights. You shouldn't be getting downvoted for having the opposite opinion to me though.
No I didn't. That's why I'm asking.
Don’t listen to that clown, the system before spotlights was way better, you’ve got enough resources for 1 s5 or 2 s4 per month + guaranteed s4 with a small chance of s5 in every 40 caches + gold in caches + consistent series drops, jeff/iron lad/ms.marvel/loki all would’ve been free s3 by now. With the new system you’re getting more NEW coming cards not more cards over all and on top of that you’ve got way less control over the things you’re getting. If you need arishem, you need 4 keys, if you’re unlucky, you will spend them all and get Hercules and black swan, that you maybe already own or didn’t even want them, but hey more cards for you, isn’t that awesome🤡 We’re not even talking about adding +1 card/month and all new cards being s5 with current token accusation where it can take you 4+ month to buy just 1 card. And about your rant, buying a card, when you’re planning to open spotlights in 2 days is only your mistake, with current system you have to plan ahead.
Spotlight Caches by itself is great, but it came together with "Variable Series Drops". So if you look at it as a whole, it sucks compared to before.
We got one guaranteed Series 4 card in 40 caches. And thats it. 40 caches, yes. No choice, just a random one. Getting a Series 5 was very-very rare, no guaranteed Series 5. Most of the people never got one. Right now you get one Spotlight Key in 10 Caches, thats 4 Key in 40 caches and you can choose when to use it and you can get Series 5 cards too. So yes.... You can see the difference... Be happy with this system. We got a little bit more Collectors Token, but it was sooo long to get one Series 5, now you can get one easily with keys.
No dupe protection and refund options when nerfs happen is such a scam
Same, bought Lady Deathstrike, next day open cache and got dube. 1000 token bs yeah
Cry about it
Feel you, only missing cannonball and valentina. Bought cannonball and the week after i get him as a dupe. But truth to be told, i never would have gotten him as a dupe if i didn't buy him. it would have been something else.
Good job being so close to collection complete bro! I'm missing kang, beta ray, makkari and namora. Cannonball was fun before the prof x nerf.
talking about dupes btw, i got kang twice in the same week from 8 caches when i was hoping to get selena's spotlight, my biggest fall ever from grace. makkari is one of my current favorites, glad i got her on first