marvel snap is a beautiful marriage of simplicity and complexity. This is Easy in that winning is just a matter of getting big numbers. This is complex due to the countless number of possible combinations between all the maps and locations in the game. For example, take the match below, in which I ran out of power 689,754.
Yes, 689754.
This absurd result is due to the exponential interactions of the Odin, Wong, Black Panther, and Ironheart cards alongside the Assault Citadel location. Marvel Snap calculations can be tricky to parse when card combos like this seem to melt the game’s calculations (and take around five years), but here’s my best memory of what happened.
When playing Odin on their last turn, each of their cards in that location with “reveal” abilities reactivated, which includes Black Panther’s ability to double his current power and Ironheart’s power buff to random teammates. Then, because of Wong, reveal abilities happen twice so Black Panther and Iron Heart activated Again. Then, because of Onslaught’s Citadel, which doubles continuous effects like Wong’s, Black Panther and Iron Heart each reactivate twice more. In other words, a single use of Odin’s ability actually affects Black Panther four times due to Wong and Onslaught’s Citadel.
But that’s not all!
Odin’s ability also occurs on reveal, so Wong’s power (which is always boosted by Assault Citadel) also applies to him. This means that Odin does his thing four times in total, and each of those reactivations of Black Panther and Iron Heart are quadrupled.
It took a very It took Marvel Snap a long time to figure out all of these calculations, and at one point the game seemed to drop the calculation of Black Panther’s true power. His horsepower at the end seems to be 689,730, but the gears were still turning and the numbers started to fade. But, no matter what actually happened, the fact is that I was utterly and utterly defeated in that match – that’s why it was also one of my favorite matches. These sorts of wild interactions are exactly what makes every match in marvel snap so unpredictable and thrilling.
