pay to win, or paywalls?

[~Sound Sage~]

So, How is the monetization for this game? pay to win? paywalls?
can you earn cards without paying?

how does this all work? would like to know before i waste my time.

[ShaneCamp]

Cards are grouped in pools. All cards are unlockable in game.
As you play the game you get card boosters for playing matches for 1 of the cards in your deck per turns played per game, so for instance if you retreat on turn 5 you'll get 5 card boosters for let's say Iron Man.

You then use boosters and credits (earned by doing your daily missions etc.) to boost the rarity level of the card which gives the card various effects (make it 3D, animated, give it a shiny logo, or animated border) every time you do this it increases your collection level.

Every X collection levels you unlock a new card in the pool you're currently in, cards are always unlocked in random order in the pool you're currently in after you get through the tutorial.

Pool 1: Tutorial 'til somewhere in the 200s
Pool 2: Somewhere in 200s-486
Pool 3: 486-whenever you have all the pool 3 cards

Pool 4: Once you hit collection level 1000+ you are guaranteed 1 pool 4 card approximately every 40 reserve boxes you open, this can be more or less, so you could get a series 4 card in your first 3 boxes, then not see another series 4 card for 77 boxes, and it would still be in line with the math.

Pool 5: these are the omega rare cards, you have no guaranteed chance to ever get one, is all just RNG

Cards are constantly being lowered from Pool 5 to 4, and from 4-3 with the probable exception of the 2 big bads (Galactus and Thanos, who we all presume will remain in 5 for a very long time, if not permanently.)

When you go from pool 2-3 is basically like going from the kiddie pool into a wave pool, you'll have next to none of these awesome cards, and can go up against opponents with meta defining decks.

Once you hit collection level 1000 new card acquisition is basically cut in half, and replaced with various currencies and other random cosmetic stuff (avatars, titles etc.) this will feel especially taxing if you quickly progressed through your tier 1 and 2 and didn't push for high rank for the bonus rewards (much easier to do when there's only about 3-4 basic decks you play against)

Upon hitting pool 3 you gain access to the collector's shop, which will randomly rotate through any/all cards you don't have in series 3 onward, as well as 'ultimate variants' for cards, this is where the whale bait begins as many cash only bundles offer tokens required for you to buy things in this shop.

However once you've completed pool 3 any time you would have pulled a pool 3 card from a reserve the game will now spin an internal slot machine and award you between 200-600 collector's tokens

That said the recent datamine for next month appears to show they will be offering smaller amounts of tokens for various amounts of gold, and gold is earnable in game.

Currently the options to spend gold on constitute of: Save for a random bundle with good value (a lot of people are picking up the current Deadpool bundle which has tokens, and credits in exchange for a medium chunk of gold)

Blow gold on cool variants of cards you like (if you enjoy the game, and certain decks and don't care how long progression takes)

or finally convert gold into either credits, or more daily missions. (this is something whales and medium sized dolphins tend to do, it would not be my recommendation if you don't ever want to spend cash.)

Basically if you never want to spend money on the game then you never want to spend gold unless it's on a bundle that's unanimously deemed 'good' by the community, but you may also have less fun than drawing a variant in a deck you play every week, or attempting to speed up your progress to unlock new pool 3/4/5 cards faster.

[smetch]

I'd say P2W, I like it but I wouldn't want to play if I wasn't prepared to pay for the season passes, you can earn cards without spending any money but it will take ages.

[Viridium]

The game is super f2p friendly till you complete the pool 2 collection. Halfway into pool 3 you start to feel that it's imho quite pay2win. Without at least the monthly season pass (12€) you imho don't need to play it at all in pool 3+

There is a rather hard cap on how much money does earn you stuff on the other hand, there are surely no paywalls beyond the 12€ for the pass. You could pay 300€ and you would only be a few weeks further in the collection progress than someone that played as much as you did.

[sithlordofsnark]

The only money I'll ever spend on the game is season pass every month. That gives you a lot of great resources, such as gold and credits and boosters to upgrade cards. Also, until you hit CL 500+, using gold for mission rerolls is a good idea, but once you hit 500 or higher, save for bundles that come with tokens. There are several good bundles coming in March and April that have tokens in them which can be used to target specific cards in the token shop.

[Alcatraz]

It's f2p.

[Dr.Gloom]

Yes and no. One of the most powerful meta decks atm is pool 3. only. And some of the most powerful cards are in pool1/2. But you need all the pieces to make it work. On top of the card game, Marvel Snap provides you with a deck-building puzzle. Welcome bundle and 10€/$/£ on BP is enough to give you a nice boost. Everything else is not worth it. Once you reach CL 2k+, possibilities for deck building open up, but it will take some time.

[fabioecco]

When you finish collecting the newbie cards, you'll have to spend a lot or you'll be stomped by the meta decks.

I didn't know I could get card variants from collectors reserve (snap lootboxes). I'm missing A LOT of pool 3 cards and Ive just got a card I already own. This is news for me.

Dont buy the battlepass, half of it is FREE.
The other half are cosmetics plus 1 single card that wont help you unless you have the right cards to make a playable deck around it.

[Lady Ming]

And yet there are people who win consistently against the "meta" decks with pool 2 only decks. Gee its almost like knowing the meta decks and when to snap or when to leave is more important then cards. Oh right it is, but people need excuses for their cube spewing bad calls.

[fabioecco]

Originally posted by Ming:

And yet there are people who win consistently against the "meta" decks with pool 2 only decks. Gee its almost like knowing the meta decks and when to snap or when to leave is more important then cards. Oh right it is, but people need excuses for their cube spewing bad calls.

This person doesn't have a single deck made of pool 2 cards only.
Trust me.

[Lady Ming]

Originally posted by fabioecco:

Originally posted by Ming:

And yet there are people who win consistently against the "meta" decks with pool 2 only decks. Gee its almost like knowing the meta decks and when to snap or when to leave is more important then cards. Oh right it is, but people need excuses for their cube spewing bad calls.

This person doesn't have a single deck made of pool 2 cards only.
Trust me.

Never said I did. I have no desire to handicap myself. Nice straw man argument though. I made a blanket statement that is true for the vast majority of ccg players, in the vast majority of ccgs not just marvel snap. Players in CCGs always have excuses as to why they can't win. If its not complaints about the shufflers, or cheating, its something else.

As far as people winning versus full collections with just pool 2 decks go look. Just go on youtube or twitch archives and there are plenty of videos of very good players doing just that. Shouldn't take you too long to find unedited stream footage for that kind of thing.

There's more that goes into climbing in this game then just the cards in the deck. Yes cards help of course they do. But the fact of the matter is snapping and retreating are king, and are more important then cards overall. If you can't snap and retreat right then you will never climb very well.

[Spider Jerusalem]

Havent spent a dime and iam nearly pool3 complete and rank 73 and still climbing. can beat any meta deck, did that a lot cuz I am constantly compete with infinite rank. So it F2P through and through.

[Viridium]

Originally posted by Spider Jerusalem:

Havent spent a dime and iam nearly pool3 complete and rank 73 and still climbing. can beat any meta deck, did that a lot cuz I am constantly compete with infinite rank. So it F2P through and through.

Did you played in closed beta? Because if you aren't you would have a hard time beeing pool 3 complete even with paying for most bundles. There is no luck involved in pool 3 completion and the vast majority of the credits come from the daily/weekly rewards and even though I payed quite a lot I'm not pool 3 complete.

[Spider Jerusalem]

i started at the 3d week of panther season. now iam 2300+ cl and i have pretty much all cards i need from pool3. I bought deadpool bundle with free gold. thats all. I saved 4500 tokens for something like thanos or galactus.

[Z]

Originally posted by Alcatraz:

It's f2p.

Hey watch out, you said a forbidden word here. The hoe will spawn here and bash you.

[Zlehtnoba]

Originally posted by Viridium:

Originally posted by Spider Jerusalem:

Havent spent a dime and iam nearly pool3 complete and rank 73 and still climbing. can beat any meta deck, did that a lot cuz I am constantly compete with infinite rank. So it F2P through and through.

Did you played in closed beta? Because if you aren't you would have a hard time beeing pool 3 complete even with paying for most bundles. There is no luck involved in pool 3 completion and the vast majority of the credits come from the daily/weekly rewards and even though I payed quite a lot I'm not pool 3 complete.

That's not really accurate. If you buy the bundles, it's not hard at all. I started at release, bought the season pass and the token bundles, and have reached pool three completion a while ago (CL 3949 currently). After the lsat card drops to lower levels, I miss six level four cards, and eight level five cards.

Just a statement of fact, not a recommendation.