New Limited Time Game Mode: Grand Arena

Welcome to the Grand Arena! The brand new game mode where we let YOU pick your Champion to go out and conquer your foes. For the first time ever, we've included prebuilt decks, so even if this is your first time playing MARVEL SNAP, you can jump straight in and play.

 

 

What is the Grand Arena?

Grand Arena is an exciting new way to approach deck building and game play. In this mode, you'll be able to select one of the eight powerful champions to go to battle. Each champion has their own unique Skill card, and you start with them both in your hand at the beginning of the game.

 

You can either use one of the 8 prebuilt decks, or you can build your own decks around these new champions and surprise your opponents with super cool new strategies.

 

 

How do you play?

Before you jump straight into the Grand Arena, you'll get to pick your Champion! Grand Arena is unique in that you can either use the prebuilt deck, or you can build a custom deck in the game mode for that Champion! These 8 new custom deck slots are tied to the individual Champion and won't take any space away from your ranked decks.

 

Once you start, the game is played over your standard 6 turns, but you'll start at 2 energy instead of 1, and increase up to 7 by the end of the game. The REALLY exciting part is that you start with your Champion and their Skill card in your hand, so it opens up a lot of different play patterns and strategies. When the game starts, you will get to see who your opponent's Champion is, and can click on their banner to reveal both the Champion card and the associated skill card that starts in their hand.

 

The player controlling 2 of the 3 locations after 6 rounds wins the game. Winning will reward you with another ticket for entry as well as 10 XP to progress on the new reward track and 10 Glory to spend in the shop. If you lose, it's not all bad - you still get 5 XP and 5 Glory.

 

 

Designing Grand Arena

Grand Arena came out of a desire to have a game mode that would let us put the focus squarely on some of the most famous faces of the Marvel Universe, and give our players the ability to really feel like they are playing a deck based around one of these personalities. The card starting in your hand, as well as not being able to be discarded or removed from there was important, but we found that alone wasn't enough to make the decks feel that different from traditional Ranked mode. This is when we landed on creating a new skill card for each character, which could start in your hand and help push decks to really have a unique identity that felt different than the same collection of cards in Ranked mode.

 

One of the intended strengths of the mode was that we could keep the rules pretty close to regular Snap, which we know is fun, and use our lean on our experience designing new cards to create a new experience that both that we could also heavily update by changing which Champions were available, and what their cards skill did. Setting the mode in Sakaar's Grand Arena let us have an in-universe location that would make sense to include characters from all over the Marvel universe, but it also gave the art team the ability to create a new Gladiatorial inspired art style that they truly knocked out of the park.

 

When we looked at the timeline for development, it became clear this would be the perfect mode to line up with Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four: First Steps. After that, it was just a matter of deciding on which characters to include in the mode. The core Fantastic Four were obvious, but we also wanted to include some characters that were normally associated with them as villains like Doctor Doom, and we wanted to make sure to make one of the Champions a brand new card that players could earn within the mode, so we included Mole Man. When looking for a final character, we decided to play into the strengths of the mode, and highlight its strength of being flexible and expandable, and went with one of the most popular villainous characters in the game with Carnage.

 

Prebuilt decks came out of the desire to make sure that everyone had the ability not only to play the mode, but to really experience the fundamental flavor of how each character and their new skill card play together. We wanted to make these decks feel fun and aspirational to new and returning players, but also not limit existing players' ability to brew their own decks for the format. I'm hoping you all enjoy playing this mode as much as we have when developing it.

 

 

How long will the Grand Arena be here?

Grand Arena will start at 12 PM PST (daily reset) on July 24th and will end on August 7th at the daily reset. The two new Cards that we've included in the Grand Arena will of course be available to earn during this time, but If you miss out, you'll be able to find them in Snap Packs starting on August 21st.  

Grand Arena Economy

Battling your Champions in Grand Arena always leads to Glory and Event XP! Climb the ranks of the Arena Pass and claim a variety of rewards. Bring all the Glory you've earned to the Arena Shop and choose from a selection of prizes, including new Cards and Fantastic Cosmetics.

Here are all the details:

Rewards Per Match

• Win = 10 Glory + 10 XP + 1 Arena Ticket

• Loss = 5 Glory + 5 XP

• Tie = 5 Glory + 5 XP 

Arena Tickets

Each match of Grand Arena requires one Ticket to enter. Every player will start with 8 tickets when the Grand Arena opens. Every 8 hours, 3 additional tickets will be added to your total up to the soft cap of 12. This means that if you have 12 Tickets, there will be no additional Tickets added every 8 hours. The timer for the 8 hour ticket reset starts on the first time you enter the Grand Arena. If for some reason you choose to test the limits of how many Tickets you can buy and hold at one time, you will be hard capped at 99.

• One match: One Arena Ticket

• Starting Tickets: 8

• Tickets regeneration: 3 every 8 hours

• Ticket soft cap: 12

• Ticket hard cap: 99

• Cost per ticket: 10 Gold 

Introducing the Grand Arena Event Pass Reward Track!

Grand Arena features an Event Pass with two reward tracks: Free and Premium. Progress on both tracks occurs simultaneously, serving as the main way to earn Glory, which you can spend in the Grand Arena Shop. Purchasing the Premium Pass significantly increases your rewards and accelerates your progression along the track. In addition to Glory, claiming rewards grants Event Pass XP. The only exclusive item available through the Premium Pass is "The Thing Clobberin' Time" Emote. The Premium Pass costs 1,200 Gold and can be purchased at any point during the active event.

 

Event Pass Rewards and Levels

Based on previous LTGMs, we expect the average Free Event Pass player to earn enough Glory for one new Series 4 card. We also expect ~10% of Free Event Pass players to earn enough Glory for both new Series 4 cards while supplementing their progress with 930 Gold in extra Tickets OR having an elite win rate. This cst can be as low as 465 Gold if the Daily Offers Ticket bundles are utilized effectively.

If you're a true Champion of the Grand Arena you can absolutely get both Mole Man and Mad Thinker for free - but you may have to be FANTASTIC!

As for Premium Event Pass players, ~75% can expect to earn enough Glory for one new Series 4 card while ~50% can earn both new Series 4 cards without needing any extra Tickets while maintaining an average win rate.  

The Grand Arena Event Shop

New addition to the Event Shop: Daily Offers!

• Check in daily to see a rotating set of Cosmetic items, including Variants, Avatars, Emotes, and Borders

• A discounted bundle of 10 Arena Tickets for 50 Gold is available with every refresh  

The Grand Arena Portal Pull

Three brand new Grand Arena Champion Variants are available in this event's Portal Pull:

• Invisible Woman Champion Variant

• Mister Fantastic Champion Variant

• Doctor Doom Champion Variant

Each Portal Pull is priced at 1,800 Glory or 1440 Gold.  

All Offers Section

The All Offers section of the shop is loaded up with Champion sized Cards and Cosmetics. Here is a highlight of some of the new items:

Two Series 4 cards are featured in the Grand Arena Shop:

• The Mad Thinker

• Mole Man

  • Mole Man comes with a BONUS Champion Variant for no extra cost!

• Each card is priced at 2,000 Glory or 3,800 Gold

Two new Fantastic variants:

• Human Torch - Vincenzo Riccardi variant

  • Priced at 1,200 Glory or 1,176 Gold

• Mister Fantastic - Greg & Tim Hildebrandt Masterpiece Variant

  • Priced at 1,000 Glory or 700 Gold

Two new Fantastic Emotes:

• Human Torch Flame On! Emote is priced at 3,000 Glory or 2,130 Gold

• Mister Fantastic Feeling Fantastic Emote is priced at 3,000 Glory 2,130 Gold

Four new Borders are entering the Arena:

• Fire, Blue Fire, Rainbow Refraction, and Cosmic Purple make their Marvel Snap debut

• Each border is priced at 800 Glory or 744 Gold

Additional items include Avatars, Credits, PMVs, and more!

 

Extended Shop Hours

We've had a lot of positive feedback from the extended shop duration in other modes, so we will continue leaving the shop open after the Grand Arena has ended. You'll be able to spend your Glory in the shop until August 9th at the daily reset.

 

 

NEW CHARACTERS!

SERIES 4

On Reveal: Banish the top card of your deck. Add 2 Rocks to your hand. Set their Power to the banished card's Cost.

SERIES 4

At the start of each turn (after drawing), +2 Power if your hand is full.

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Grand Arena coming to Marvel SNAP?

• The Grand Arena opens up on July 24th at 11:00 AM PDT, and will run through August 7th at 11:59 am PDT.

How do I play?

• Once you have selected Grand Arena under game modes, it's just a matter of selecting which of the Champions you want to play, and entering the Arena. You will start with your Champion in your hand, along with a brand new skill card that is unique to them.

What should I play?

• Each Champion comes with a default prebuilt deck you can start off with to get a feel of how they interact with their skill card, even if you don't own all the cards. Once you have a feel, you can choose to keep playing it, or use cards from your own collection to construct a new deck to take advantage of the Champion and try out new and interesting strategies.

Are there any cards that are off limits?

• The first cards that are off limits are playing any of the Champions in a deck other than their own - so no Human Torch First Steps in a H.E.R.B.I.E. deck. You can use other versions of the cards, however, so Mister Fantastic and Mister Fantastic First Steps will play together in the same deck.

• Beyond that, we banned a few cards that either interacted poorly with the game's mode's mechanics or seemed to take a lot of the fun out of the extra energy. To that end, the following cards are also banned:

  • Gorgon

  • Spider Ham

  • Galactus

  • Mr. Negative

  • Black Bolt

  • Nimrod

  • Living Tribunal

  • Mobius M. Mobius

  • Professor X

  • Wiccan

  • Kang