Marvel Snap has arrived on the card game scene with a Hulk-like smash; with super-fast games and a stable of legendary heroes and villains to collect. The game’s main play mode is a competitive ladder, and the only way to climb it is to win Cubes. But winning games is not the same as winning cubes, and a bad cube loss can set you back a lot of wins.
In this guide, we’re going to explain how to master the strategic and psychological methods of Cube gambling to make your ladder climb as swift and profitable as possible.
Cube Gambling
The single most important thing to understand about Cubes and ranking in this game is it is a gambling mechanic. Now whether you’re familiar with the world of real gambling games like Poker, or not, you need to understand some of the common concepts associated with gambling in order to succeed in Snap, because winning alone will not be enough to climb. In Snap, unlike most gambling games, you don’t directly pay to play. But you do pay if you lose. The Pot, as they would say in Poker, consists of two cubes, and either your or your opponent is taking it home. If no one Snaps and you see the final turnout, the worst thing that can happen is you lose two cubes.
If you escape before a Snap, that goes down to one cube. This means you are mostly free to play as loose and speculatively as you like for a very minor loss. On the other hand, if you win a no-snap game, you gain only two cubes. This is a very minor reward, and it will take you forever to climb the ladder like this. The only way to make any real progress is to embrace the Snap mechanic and gamble for cubes.
When To Snap
This is one of the hardest skills to master, and one of the biggest areas that will affect how quickly and successfully you gain cubes. Snapping on turn 6 when you have total control of the board and the outcome of the game is obvious to both players will not yield you anything. In fact, it is very likely to cause your opponent to retreat, losing you a cube. Snapping anywhere on turns 1 through 5 will yield you 4 cubes if you win, and crucially, 2 cubes if your opponent retreats, which is the same as if you had seen a no-snap game through all six turns to a win.
Once any player has snapped both players are now under additional pressure and need to make more urgent decisions about whether they want to see the game through or not. So it is very clear that being confident in your deck and the game situation and snapping early will very quickly yield greater rewards than just focusing on winning alone. Of course, this is easier said than done, so one of the crucial ways to know if you have the advantage is to build your knowledge of the game.
In a game like Marvel Snap your best method of making decisions about whether to gamble or not is by knowing what might be coming your way. In each game you will gain valuable information in the first few turns about what deck your opponent might be running. To use this information you must have a good idea of what the dominant and popular decks in the meta are, so you know the cards that are likely to be coming and work out if your opponent’s gameplan is progressing to plan; or if they are being hindered by bad draws or bad locations; or if you have the cards to stop or beat them. There are a variety of Marvel Snap community sites that can help you see these, and the best is probably Snap.fan. Another crucial factor in understanding what your meta looks like is your Collection Level. This will be a factor in determining the decks you are going to run into. If you are a newer player, you do not need to worry about Galactus decks, but a deck like Ka-zar zoo will be very common.
When To Retreat
In gambling there is a phrase ‘pot invested’ to describe the psychological state that you feel when you have gambled and feel the temptation to remain in a game you know you might lose; just because you have funds in the pot and don’t want to let ‘your’ money go. Snap has exactly the same potential pitfall, and one of the hardest abilities to master is to be able to walk away from a game, especially one where one or more players have snapped.
Working out when you are likely to lose any game requires the same skills discussed elsewhere, but you should also consider the cube economy. Taking a one- or two-cube loss will not make much difference when you are gambling aggressively in your wins and getting two and four cubes regularly. Taking an eight-cube loss will hurt a lot. Unless you are extremely confident of your late-game play or your opponent’s plan, it is best to walk away.
Bluffing
Snap Developer Ben Brode made his feelings on this subject clear with a famous post about Snapping with a handful of Rocks. Bluffing is another important gambling concept that has many applications in Snap. It is also one of the highest-risk strategies you can play, and one of the least consistent.
But there are many game states where bluffing can get you wins and retreats and Snapping is an integral part of this, as it attempts to convince the opponent that you know you have a game-winning situation. Bluffing is also very effective when you can see that your opponent is struggling with their card draw, combo pieces, or the locations in play. When you feel you have an edge, Snapping regardless of how good your own hand is can pile huge pressure on the opponent and win you cubes.
Rank Floor Boosts
A welcome recent addition to the Ladder was a five-rank boost each time you hit each 10-rank increment. So whenever you hit Rank 10 you will automatically be boosted to Rank 15. At 20, you go to 25, and so on. Before this change, you only received a one-rank boost at each floor, so this is a huge boost for all players looking to climb the ladder, and it also gives you a lot more room to breathe and experiment a little when you rank up.
