Everyone’s playing Marvel Snap. First, my colleague Eric Switzer told me about it while it was in beta. Then, I went on holiday for a week and, upon my return, all my other colleagues were playing it. Then, everyone I follow on Twitter started playing it. I’m not exaggerating, every one of the one-thousand-and-something accounts I follow is playing the superhero card game, including Elijah Wood, John Cena, and Joe Biden (not the gamer one). And now I’m playing it, too.

Marvel Snap is a good game, but I’m not sure it’s great. I like its bitesize battles and the generous monetisation that veers away from the norm in mobile card games. I do find myself thinking, “I wish this was more like Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links” on a regular basis, however, but I quit that due to the overbearing loot box mechanics that were threatening to ruin my life.

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But “not having loot boxes” isn’t enough for me to spend the best part of a week playing a game, so what is it that keeps me coming back to Marvel Snap? I don’t particularly care for the characters, even if the art is really nice. You can tell that my allegiances veer more to Norse mythology than superheroes because Odin and Lady Sif have been upgraded the most, despite not working in the same decks. Miles Morales’ Spider-Man is the one exception – thanks Spider-Verse.

Marvel Snap’s Random Locations Keep Me Coming Back (2)

So if it’s not the characters, and the game is only okay, then what is it about Marvel Snap that has reeled me in like it’s Doctor Strange and I’m the highest value cards on the board? As you probably guessed from the headline, it’s the locations.

If you’re one of the very few people not currently playing Marvel Snap, the game has three lanes, and you can play up to four cards in each. Each lane is marked by a location from the Marvel universe, from Asgard to Xandar. While I care about these places about as much as I do the characters (read: not a lot), each one comes with a special ability that impacts the match. Whether you’re swapping hands with your opponent ahead of the final turn or turning every card in the left lane into the Hulk, playing to the strength of the locations you’re dealt is as important as synergising your deck.

As far as I can count, there are 79 locations in the game, and any three of them could appear in any one of your matches. Some create lethal combos, while others can turn the tide of the game as they’re revealed on turns one, two, and three respectively. But they’re always different, and therefore every match is different. I’m playing a movement deck at the moment, but the random board ensures I’m never bored. Some matches I can’t play Heimdall, one of the most important cards in my deck, and others I can play him a turn early to gain the upper hand. Other times I might not want to play him, because a location creates a better opportunity to utilise the cards at my disposal.

Marvel Snap’s Random Locations Keep Me Coming Back (1)

There’s a featured location every day, and clever players will likely build their decks around that, but I’m only at Gold rank at the moment so I’m not taking things that seriously. But whether you’re playing the meta, filling the board with buffed one energy cards, or picking your best girlies to have fun with, new locations every match will keep you coming back.

Taking aforementioned featured locations out of the equation, there are over 79,000 combinations and nearly 500,000 permutations of locations in the game. I’d wager I’ve probably seen them all over the past week, and I’ll see the rest when I clock off tonight. Adding random events to a competitive PvP game can be risky, but Marvel Snap leans into its catchy ‘one more game’ energy and has created a card game that is endlessly replayable no matter how many cards you have at your disposal.

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