After years of clamoring from its player base, Marvel Snap will finally get a Draft mode on Aug. 24.
Draft will be a limited-time game mode that will heavily modify the standard gameplay loops of the Marvel Comics-inspired collectible card game. An exclusive preview and interview with GameSpot detailed what Marvel Snap players can expect from Draft. Matches begin with players choosing a starter set that gives them three cards that fit different deck archetypes like destroy, ramp, move, or ongoing.
Players then draft seven more cards, which have modified cost or power stats specific to this mode or have “augments” that give them additional abilities. From there, players have to win five rounds of Draft to claim victory, building up their deck with two more cards (and more augments) over time.
Developer Sam Stoddard explained that the radical gameplay changes required for Draft are part of the reason it took so long for Second Dinner to make the mode. That’s also why it’s starting as a limited-time game mode and not a whole new permanent part of the game.
“Snap has a much lower number of cards, you have very small decks, so even the amount of variance you get isn’t super high, as well as the synergy is very high. There’s all these things that were really working against it, and it’s part of why it took so long to eventually get to a place where we were really happy with what we had as an offering,” Stoddard explained to GameSpot. “And so part of the LTGM thing is that we have a lot of known unknowns right now. I enjoy the mode a lot, but I designed it. I’ve talked to a lot of other people who enjoy it, but we definitely need to really stress test it with a much larger group of people.”
While there might be some issues that still need to be worked out, Draft mode is one of the most exciting updates for the game since its 2022 launch. Nearly four years and several controversies later, Marvel Snap maintains a passionate community and player base, with the game still receiving a brand-new card every single week. It’s my favorite mobile game, and one of my favorite Marvel games in general, so I’m very happy to see the mode finally arrive.
Draft will arrive in the Android, iOS, and Windows PC versions of Marvel Snap on Aug. 24. As for when it’ll return once this initial event concludes, Stoddard says that’s something Second Dinner “will be trying to figure out from all that data,” but that it won’t “be too long before it comes back because we definitely have a lot of things that we want to try out.”