History VideoGame / MarvelSnap

* UnstableEquilibrium: Alioth's ability invokes this. When revealed, Alioth will destroy all opposing face-down cards in their lane. Barring special cases like Invisible Woman, Ghost, or Dark Dimension, the only way for opposing cards to be face-down when Alioth reveals is for their player to be winning. This allows Alioth to destroy potential comebacks the opponent tried to play in the final turns of the game.
* UnstoppableForceMeetsImmovableObject: Can be invoked between Juggernaut and Blob. Juggernaut moves all cards (including face-down ones) played on the same turn in his location, while Blob's ongoing ability prevents him from being moved. The winner in this case is "whoever reveals first" -- Juggernaut will move an unrevealed Blob whose ability isn't active, but if Blob reveals first then Juggernaut cannot move him.

* MisterSeahorse: If they copy the abilities of Mister Sinister or Brood, Iron Lad and Absorbing Man will create a Sinister Clone or have two Broodlings burst out of them.

** Patriot decks. Patriot's Ongoing ability boosts the power of cards without abilities by two, so this deck involves playing cards that have no abilities, such as Misty Knight, Cyclops, and the Hulk, or cards that generate other cards with no abilities, like Debrii, Brood, Mister Sinister, and Doctor Doom. This deck is severely hampered by cards that can eliminate other cards' abilities, such as Enchantress or Leech.[[note]]However, if your opponent plays Leech ''after'' you have played Patriot, [[FeedItWithFire you now have an entire hand of cards capable of being boosted...]][[/note]]

** Leech removes the abilities of all cards in your opponent's hand.

* PointOfNoReturn: Card upgrading goes exactly one way. If there was a combination of borders and effects that a player takes a liking to, it's not recommended (though the game never communicates this) that they go any further as there are no customization or roll back options.

* AdaptationDistillation: Although the game is primarily based on the comics, more than a few elements from the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse have made their way into the game. One of the most obvious things is [[Series/WandaVision Westview]], [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron Sokovia]] and [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Vormir]] appearing as locations, with Westview even having the red Hex around it. More subtle things include Agatha Harkness, Korg, and Ebony Maw being in the base set, who are minor at best in the comics but {{Breakout Character}}s for the MCU. Carol Danvers' pet flerken is called [[Film/CaptainMarvel2019 Goose]], instead of [[ComicBook/CaptainMarvelMarvelComics Chewie]]. The name "Marvel [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Snap]]" probably isn't a coincidence either [[note]]Although it was how Thanos activated the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics[[/note]]. A more infamous instance of this occurred during the Valentine's Day 2024 week where certain couples got power bonuses if their partner was also in play. Rather than have him get a bonus with his more famous paramour Elektra (which was even shown in one of the game's animated trailers), Daredevil got one with She-Hulk as a reference to her 2022 live-action show.

** For Discard decks, Sword Master was initially a powerful 3-Energy card with a whopping 6-Power that discarded a random card from your hand, making him a stronger version of Blade who did the same, a less risky alternative to Hell Cow who shared his power in her first two iterations but was riskier to play as she discarded two random cards instead, and put out more power on the board than Lady Sif or Colleen Wing, who could be counted on to discard the highest or lowest energy card from your hand but only had 4-Power each. Almost everyone in this group received a major adjustment, with Blade getting an errata that made it so he always discarded the rightmost card in your hand, Hell Cow having her power buffed to 8, and Lady Sif having hers increased to 5. Sword Master remains an asset for Discard decks in Series 1 and 2, even getting an additional point of power in 2024, but rarely sees any action in higher levels of play where targeted discards are more desirable.

** Apocalypse gains +4 Power and returns to your hand every time he is discarded, potentially ending up with 16 or more Power in a discard-themed deck.

** Apocalypse is a 6/8 that immediately returns to your hand with +4 power when discarded, and is intended to be played on the final turn as a massive power card. Certain discard-based decks don't actually ''play'' him, as he can be used as reusable ammo for Wong+Mystique+Gambit (which needs to discard a card to destroy an enemy card), or become the sole target for Dracula (who discards Apocalypse, boosts him, and ''then'' gains his immense power at the end of a game).

* SkillGateCharacter: A number of Series 1 and 2 cards, sometimes through no fault of their own, become less optimal and consistent as a player's card collections grows.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: If you have Agatha Harkness in your deck, all boosters for the match will be assigned to her, meaning you don't need to play the JokeCharacter long to geta good amount of boosters to upgrade her card.

** Pixie's On Reveal shuffles the costs of all the cards that started in your deck (read: cards like the Infinity Stones, Rocks, Mjolnir, and Stormbreaker are unaffected). Maximizing the benefits of this with Mobius (which prevents cards from having their costs ''increased'') can reap huge rewards with powerful cards like the Hulk potentially costing 0 energy to play if they trade their cost with Wasp or Yellowjacket who typically both cost 0. However, there's nothing preventing two cards of the same cost from swapping with each other instead or their original costs from landing back on themselves after the shuffle is done.

** Conversely, Mysterio and his illusions all qualify as being played in all three locations (if possible) at once. This gives him great synergy with Bishop, and Hit-Monkey, who can have their effects triggered for each of them, as well as Elsa Bloodstone, who will buff him and/or his illusions that happen to fill her location.

** Pixie's On Reveal shuffles the costs of all the cards that started in your deck (read: cards like the Infinity Stones, Rocks, Mjolnir, and Stormbreaker are unaffected). Maximizing the benefits of this with Mobius (which prevents cards from having their costs ''increased'') can reap huge rewards with powerful cards like the Hulk potentially costing 0 energy to play if they trade their cost with Wasp or Yellowjacket who typically both cost 0. However, there's nothing preventing two cards of the same cost from swapping with each other instead.

* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Location scoring can suffer from integer overflow, turning a positive score negative if the power there goes over 500,000,000. Which, while extremely rare, can happen.

* BraggingRightsReward: Reaching Infinite Rank just gives players a new version of one of the current season's card backs (usually made by placing additional gold on it somewhere) and puts them on a new leaderboard (with no milestones apart from the ranks themselves) with fellow Infinite Rank players. Additionally, they won't have to climb as much to reach it again after ranks are rolled back the following month. Surmounting Infinite Conquest will give them a new border for whatever avatar picture the deck you used to do that had at the time.

* RandomEffectSpell: Nico Minoru's ability cycles through a spell list every turn she's in your hand or deck, the effects of which are varied. When she's revealed, all but one affect your next played card[[note]]turning it into a 1/6 demon, replacing the location it's played in, giving it +2 power, adding a copy of it to your hand, destroying it and drawing 2 cards, moving it one location to the right, or doubling Nico's power[[/note]]. The player cannot choose what the next spell will be, but they know the outcome of the current spell if they play her. Returning her to your hand from the field will resume her spell cycling again.

** America Chavez' original power would cause her to always be drawn on turn 6, providing players with a decent last-turn card to fortify or potentially turn a location. However, since she couldn't be drawn before, it also means a higher chance to draw one of the other 11 cards. The developers found that America was not added to the deck for the power but instead to make the rest of the deck a little more consistent. She was also ''much'' more likely to be destroyed by Yondu or stolen by Cable while in the deck, which allows her to act as a sacrificial target to protect your more valuable combo cards from being sniped. This ultimately resulted in a complete rework of her kit, turning her into a 2/3 On Reveal character that gives +2 power to the top card of your deck once played.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** Several cards have effects that relate to their abilities, e.g. the speedy Quicksilver always appearing in your starting hand or Wolverine and Deadpool returning after being destroyed due to their HealingFactor.
** Various cards partner well with characters they're allies with in the comics.
*** The ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur cards synergize ''perfectly'' (Devil Dinosaur gets more powerful the more cards the player has in their hand while Moon Girl duplicates ''every'' card in their hand).
*** Thor's On Reveal effect adds a 0-power Mjolnir to your deck, while Jane Foster Mighty Thor's On Reveal effect draws all 0-cost cards to your hand.
*** Death and Deadpool work together (Deadpool requires to be destroyed to double his power while Death's cost decreases each time a card is destroyed), and they even work with Death's Domain as well as Death's Altar (where cards played here are destroyed). This references the Thanos-Deadpool-Death LoveTriangle from the comics. Likewise, Thanos and Death work as you may need to destroy the infinity stone cards sans the Power Stone, and that can be helpful to help dominate a lane.
*** ComicBook/CloakAndDagger both synergise well (Cloak enables both players to move cards to where he's played, and Dagger gains two power for each card in the opponent's location she moves to).
*** Quinjet (reduces cost of cards put into hand from outside your deck) compliments other S.H.I.E.L.D. cards well, as most of them usually have the ability to add random cards to your hand (e.g. Maria Hill, Agent Coulson, Nick Fury).
*** Angela gains power for each additional card played in her location. Her lover Sera reduces the cost of cards in the player's hand, making it easier to fill Angela's lane. For Valentine's Day 2024, they even got the power couple treatment.
*** Ka-Zar and Shanna, being a couple in canon complement each other (Ka-Zar boosts all 1 cost cards and Shanna places a random 1 cost card in each location). Additionally, Zabu (Ka-Zar's pet) also complements the fact that they're 4 cost cards (Zabu reduces the cost of 4 cost cards by 1).
*** Nebula is a 1-energy, 1-power card that gains +2 Power for each turn where the opponent ''does not'' play a card there. This baits opponents into playing at her location, which benefits all the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who have a bonus if an opponent plays there on the same turn.
*** Cerebro offers a +2 bump to a player's highest power cards. Most players using this try to build their deck on cards with the same power in order to maximize this bonus, typically 2 or 3. Professor Xavier used to be a 3-power card before his power lowered to 1.
*** Jeff the Baby Land Shark was briefly taken care of by Elsa Bloodstone at one point in the comics. Elsa gives +2 to a played card that fills her location. Jeff can grab that buff, then move to another location to open that fourth slot again while also decreasing the space in another location so that Elsa can buff another card faster.
*** Gambit discards a card from your hand to destroy a card on the opponent's side. Frequent Gambit ally Wolverine cannot be discarded - if this happens, he instead is played to the board for free.
*** Red Skull has a negative effect which buffs all enemy cards at the same location. The Soul Stone weakens all enemy cards by -1 power at the same location. In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', the Red Skull becomes the guardian of the Soul Stone on Vormir.
*** Caiera protects all your 1- and 6-cost cards from destruction. The latter include Hulk and Skaar, respectively, Caiera's husband and son in the "Planet Hulk" comic book storyline.
*** Spectrum gives +2 power to each Ongoing card you have in play; Ms Marvel is an ongoing card.
*** Cull Obsidian requires you to play him with a 1-cost card; Thanos, who has the Black Order on his side, has the Infinity Stones which are 1-cost cards.
** Some cards have a counter within the characters:
*** Kingpin destroys all cards that move to his location on turn 6, and later got reworked into giving any enemy card that moves to his location (on any turn) -2 power. Move decks may contain spider-people, most of which rely on moving or can move cards.
*** Gambit discards a card from your hand to destroy a random enemy card. Deadpool, who fought Gambit, relies on being destroyed.
** Several cards have abilities that relate to or play off of locations which are meaningful to that character. Some are harmonious:
*** Wong, a member of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and Kamar-Taj, their HiddenElfVillage, both trigger On Reveal effects twice.
*** Cosmo and the location Knowhere both prevent On Reveal effects from occurring. Cosmo is largely associated with Knowhere.
*** Mr. Fantastic grants power to adjacent locations, as does the Fantastic Four's headquarters the Baxter Building.
*** Asteroid M moves all 3 and 4 cost cards to its location, as does its creator Magneto.
*** Mojoworld gives +100 power to the player with more cards there, encouraging both players to fill the location. Meanwhile, Mojo's power increases by 6 when both players fill the location he's in. Similarly, Dazzler (who spent time as an amnesiac in Mojoworld) also benefits from filling locations.
*** All Atlanteans rely on being the only card in a location, and Atlantis gives a power boost of 5 if the player only has one card there.
*** Patriot and Washington, D.C. both award boosts to cards without powers.
*** Shuri doubles the power of the next card the player puts down in the location she's in, while Shuri's Lab doubles the power of any card played on it.
*** Onslaught and Onslaught's Citadel both double Ongoing effects.
*** Hobgoblin and Green Goblin are negative power cards that switch sides when played. Oscorp Tower flips each card in play there after Turn 3.
*** Death starts as an unplayable 8 energy, 12 power, but gets cheaper for each card destroyed during the game. Death's Domain and Altar destroy any cards played there, making it easier to feed characters to her and bring her cost down.
*** Mister Sinister creates a clone of himself when played. Sinister London and Bar Sinister create clones of any card played there, the former at a random location and the latter filling the lane itself.
*** Galactus and Worldship (Galactus's ship) both reduce the number of locations to one.
*** K'un-Lun boosts the power of any card moved into it. Iron Fist, the protector of K'un-Lun, knocks the next card played to the left.
*** Attilan (home of the Inhumans) and Crystal (Inhuman nobility) both reshuffle your current hand into your deck and draw three cards.[[note]]As long as Crystal is played in the middle location[[/note]]
*** Savage Land adds two 1-cost raptors to either side of the location. Ka-Zar boosts the power of 1-cost cards by 1.
*** The Hood was a low-level New York gangster in the comics until he encountered a demon, reflected in his -3 power and the 6-power Demon he creates. The two NY bar locations both harmonize with his power: The BadGuyBar, "The Bar With No Name", gives the win to the lower power score, which suits The Hood perfectly. Meanwhile, "Luke's Bar" allows the player to keep playing The Hood, generating a 1-energy, 6-power Demon over and over without having to account for the -3 of The Hood himself.
*** Titan makes 6-cost cards cost 1 less; Thanos: the Mad ''Titan'' is a 6-cost card.
*** The Milano, the ship of the Guardians of the Galaxy, only allows cards to be played there on Turn 5, ensuring people will play there as it is their only opportunity. All of the Guardians except Nebula have an On Reveal, which triggers when someone plays at the same location on the same turn.
*** Aunt May's house (specifically the lineup of suits there highlighted in ''Into the Spiderverse'') will give the first card played there a +3 and then move it. Some of the spider gang introduced in the same season have related powers: Ghost Spider would allow you to pull the moved card to your desired location, and Miles Morales gets cheaper if anyone moves.
*** Camp Lehigh adds a random 3-cost card to each player's hand. Captain America is a 3-cost card.
*** Both the Ice Box and Iceman increase the cost of a random card by 1.
*** The Great Web pulls a random card to itself each turn if it can. Spider-Man and many of the Spider-Man adjacent cards (Miles Morales, Silk, Ghost Spider, Spiderman 2099, Kingpin) trigger an effect upon their own or another card's movement.
*** The Hub is largely associated with S.H.I.E.L.D. and gives you a random card, as does its members.
*** You can't normally play cards in the Sanctum Sanctorum, but you can move cards there. Doctor Strange's ability is to move the highest-cost card(s) to his location. Strange Academy also moves cards too.
*** Flooded Locations don't allow you to play cards there. Jeff the Baby Landshark, who can both walk on land and travel in water, can be played anywhere where there's space and can be moved to any location as well.
*** White Queen and the White Palace both give you a copy of the highest-cost card in your opponent's hand.
*** The Miniaturized Lab disallows anybody to add cards there on turns 3, 4, and 5. Ant-Man, Wasp and Yellowjacket can be played before turn 3.
*** The Negative Zone reduces the power of all cards there by -3. Annihilus sends all cards that are less than 0 over to the opponent's side.
*** The Hellfire Club disallows playing cards that cost 1. All the cards that have Hellfire Gala variants and members of the club have their default cost over 1.
** And some work the opposite:
*** Killmonger destroys all 1 power cards on reveal. Wakanda protects any cards played there from destruction.
*** New York allows either player to move cards there on Turn 6. Kingpin will give -2 power to any enemy card that moves to his location (he previously destroyed all cards that did so on Turn 6). Kingpin's Fisk Tower will give -4 to cards that move there anytime. Additionally, most Spider-Verse Spider-men may be in move decks, which rely on movement and could be destroyed that way.
*** Knowhere prevents On Reveal effects, but each Guardians of the Galaxy member and the Ravagers has an On Reveal effect.
*** Heimdall moves all that player's cards to the left. The Bifrost moves everyone's cards to the right.
*** Hell's Kitchen pulls a 1-cost card to your hand. Elektra (who's a 1-cost herself) destroys a 1-cost card on the opponent's side when played.
*** The Pet Mansion, when revealed, makes it so players can only play cards here this turn. Jeff, who's Gwenpool's pet, has nothing that can stop him from being played in any location.

*** Deadpool doubles in power every time he is destroyed. Negasonic Teenage Warhead will destroy herself and the next card played on her location, making her useful to pop Deadpool one more time. This iteration of her powers aligns much more to ''Film/Deadpool2016'' than her comic counterpart.

*** Kingpin destroys all cards that move to his location on turn 6, and later got reworked into giving any enemy card that moves to his location (on any turn) -2 power. Move decks may contain Spider-Verse spider-men, most of which rely on moving or can move cards.

** Luke Cage's ongoing ability prevents your cards at his location from having their power reduced.

** For Discard decks, Sword Master was initially a powerful 3-Energy card with a whopping 6-Power that discarded a random card from your hand, making him a stronger version of Blade who did the same, a less risky alternative to Hell Cow who shared his power in her first two iterations but was riskier to play as she discarded two random cards instead, and put out more power on the board than Lady Sif or Colleen Wing, who could be counted on to discard the highest or lowest energy card from your hand but only had 4-Power each. Almost everyone in this group received a major adjustment, with Blade getting an errata that made it so he always discarded the rightmost card in your hand, Hell Cow having her power buffed to 8, and Lady Sif having hers increased to 5. Sword Master remains an asset for Discard decks in Series 1 and 2, but rarely sees any action in higher levels of play where targeted discards are more desirable.

*** The Miniaturised Lab disallows anybody to add cards there on turns 3, 4, and 5. Ant-Man, Wasp and Yellowjacket can be played before turn 3.
*** The Negative Zone reduces the power of all cards there by -3. Annhilus sends all cards that are less than 0 over to the opponent's side.

*** The Great Web pulls a random card to itself each turn if it can. Many of the Spider-Man adjacent cards (Miles Morales, Silk, Ghost Spider, Spiderman 2099, Kingpin) trigger an effect upon their own or another card's movement.

* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: So long as there's a location to go to, Jeff the Baby Land Shark can be played or moved into it. This includes bucking a Sandman or Electro's restrictive "only play 1 card a turn" ongoings, allowing his user to play him and another card during the same turn provided they have enough energy.