Some of Marvel’s most terrifying villains are some ofMarvel Snap’s most powerful cards, but the game’s latest addition, Kang the Conqueror, may have just broken the game completely. As part of the current season forMarvel Snap, Into The Quantum Realm, the cards MODOK, Ghost, Stature, and now Kang were added for players to collect and craft new decks around. However, Kang’s game-changing ability has had some unintended consequences that have resulted in matches being stuck in an infinite turn loop until one player surrenders.
Players are no strangers to seeing powerful card gimmicks for famous, universe-threatening foes with cards likeMarvel Snap’s Thanoshaving the unique ability to shuffle the six Infinity Stones into the player’s deck at the start of a match, or Galactus destroying the other two locations if it’s the only card at the location its played. However, these cards have ways of being countered consistently and typically function as expected. Kang, on the other hand, has a similarly match-altering ability, but it is much easier to abuse and create unwinnable situations for opponents, sparking calls for it to be patched.
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Kang Can Force Marvel Snap Players into an Infinite Loop
As a 5-Cost/0-Power card, Kang may seem rather unassuming for an iconicMarvel villain inMarvel Snap, but his On Reveal ability allows players to rewrite the course of a match by rewinding the turn that just occurred and replaying it, only without Kang. In theory, this allows players to see their opponent’s moves and then adjust their strategy accordingly, making Kang an extremely useful card for turning the tide of a match. However, this rewind ability has some odd interactions with certain other cards and locations that allow Kang to be abused to create an infinite loop, replaying a turn over and over until the opponent retreats.
One scenario where an infinite loop can be created is when Kang is played on turn 5 without his ability activating, such as when played at the same location as Cosmo. This allowsMarvel Snap’s Arnim Zolato be played on turn 6 and destroy Kang, creating two copies of the card at the other two locations, triggering his ability. The turn will then be replayed, but the original Kang will still be on the field since his ability was never activated the first time. This allows the player to continually play Arnim Zola to destroy Kang and trigger his ability repeatedly, forcing the opponent to retreat or suffer an unending match.
While this situation can be intentionally set up, an unintentional, albeit rarer situation can occur if an opposing Morph is created throughMarvel Snap’s X-Mansion location’sability while Kang is in the player’s hand. Morph has the ability to copy a random card in the opponent’s hand, gaining its ability in the process, and if Kang is the card copied, his ability will activate and restart the turn. However, it seems that both the cards that the X-Mansion creates and the card that Morph will copy are not randomly selected each time, because replaying the turn in this way will yield the exact same result, locking players in an unintentional infinite loop.
It’s pretty clear Kang is far more broken than the developers intended when designing his ability. The problem seems to lie in the fact that Kang’s ability is anOn Reveal ability inMarvel Snap, meaning it interacts with other cards and locations that affect On Reveal abilities. One way to solve this issue would to be change this ability from an On Reveal ability to a unique, single-use ability so that it can’t be activated more than once in a match. This would mean it is guaranteed to activate once, but limits it to only one use, ultimately making it more balanced.
Marvel Snapis available now for PC and mobile devices.
