Marvel Snap September 14 update patch notes: The Collector nerf

The latest Marvel Snap update for September 14 includes some big nerfs to The Collector along with Shadow King buffs.

The season of Loki is well underway, with the God of Mischief and Alioth already wreaking havoc on unsuspecting Marvel Snap players. However, Second Dinner has elected to trim some power off a long-time powerhouse in The Collector, who’s gotten a boost when paired with Loki.

But it’s not all bad news for Dino deck and Discard deck players, as Spider-Ham, Shadow King, and Black Cat are also getting buffed this patch.

Let’s take a look at all the big changes being made in Marvel Snap’s latest patch notes for September 14.

Second Dinner

The Collector finally faces nerfs

Taneleer Tivan was already a strong addition to Devil Dinosaur decks as he ramps up with each card drawn from outside the player’s deck, potentially reaching 8 or 9 power when played in combination with Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, and/or Moon Girl.

The Collector

• [Old] 2/2 – When a card enters your hand from anywhere (except your deck), +1 Power.
• [Change] 2/2 -> 2/0

But with Loki, who can cheaply (only 3 cost) replace the player’s with a copy of the opponent’s starting hand, pairing him with The Collector can instantly get Tivan to 6 power at turn three!

As a result, The Collector is having his base power drop from 2 to 0, meaning that Loki will only springboard him to 4 power when they’re played in combination. However, it also likely means that we will see far less of Taneleer Tivan in those Devil Dino decks.

Marvel Snap September 14 card balance updates

The Collector wasn’t the only card to get changes in the latest patch notes. Let’s delve deeper into the other updates.

Shadow King

• [Old] 3/3 – On Reveal: Set all cards here to their original base Power.
• [Change] 3/3 -> 2/3

The recent surge in Shuri and The Collector has been good news for Shadow King, who is seeing play despite being relatively inefficient and occasionally reliant on revealing last. We decided to take a similar approach here to what we did successfully for Luke Cage and Invisible Woman, boosting his base rate to a level that players can justify playing in a wider range of strategies than Silver Surfer and Cerebro. We expect this will also relieve some of the pressure on Shang-Chi by diversifying the ways in which players can counter huge amounts of Power.

Lady Sif

• [Old] 3/4 – On Reveal: Discard the highest-cost card from your hand.
• [Change] 3/4 -> 3/5

Lady Sif is one of those cards that’s always been solid and had a home in a couple specific decks, most obviously Apocalypse, Hela, and Agatha. However, her individual performance hasn’t been stellar, and when a lynchpin card for so many decks isn’t doing well, we like to poke at that a bit. We don’t feel this will upend the metagame or anything, but pushing some medium-performance decks towards some time under the sun is one of the things we like to do via OTA, so let’s try it out here.

Spider-Ham

• [Old] 2/2 – On Reveal: Transform the leftmost card in your opponent’s hand into a Pig, keeping its Power and Cost.
• [Change] 2/2 -> 1/1

We suspected the change in last week’s patch might be damaging to Spider-Ham’s usage, but we weren’t sure–probably something like 65% sure, but that’s a fair amount of doubt. Given we had an OTA coming just one week later, we decided to launch the patch with his 2/2 stats, then buff to 1/1 if that week indicated he needed the help. It did, so here we are.

Black Cat

• [Old] 3/7 – If you end the turn with this in your hand, discard it.
• [Change] 3/7 -> 4/9

Black Cat’s been one of our weaker-performing cards for a long time. That might not be something we can fix with an OTA, but we’ve played with this version enough ourselves to at least be interested in seeing what develops, especially with a couple future cards forthcoming. Yes, this makes you more likely to discard her than play her, but the only decks interested in Black Cat were already assuming you’d be doing that. Increasing her Power makes that a better perk, and the number 9 is especially apt for the feline femme fatale.

For more information about the best Loki decks in Marvel Snap, check out our guide.