The location Mount Vesuvius in Marvel Snap is a smooth slope

Although Marvel Snap is not solely focused on adapting theatrical Marvel or MCU projects and primarily celebrates obscure comic characters, it still incorporates the latest shows and movies in its monthly seasonal content when appropriate. This was the case with the popular Spider-Versus season of Marvel Snap, and it also applies to the current Loki For All Time season, which celebrates the release of Loki's second season on Disney Plus early next month.

This season was not particularly significant in terms of Marvel Snap metas, as only a few players have found an optimal use for the new Loki card in the mobile hit. Loki's "On Reveal" ability replaces the player's hand with cards from their opponent's starting deck, with each card having a lower cost value. This seems strong depending on what the opponent possesses, and as long as players are adaptable to the composition of cards in the opponent's deck, but otherwise it is rather weak. However, the true unknown introduced this season is the new location, Mount Vesuvius.

Marvel Snap’s Retreat Feature is a Blessing and a Curse

The "Mount Vesuvius" location in Marvel Snap prevents players from retreating after the fifth move. This locks players into the match once they have reached that point. However, there are already several ways to counteract this location if players want to retreat as late as possible in the game. This includes playing Magik, Storm, or Scarlet Witch at this location.

Although many players may be upset about the idea of losing their retreat option, it is likely that opponents will still play location swap cards on it during the reveal. If not, players must commit to the cards played. In fact, the retreat option had its pros and cons to consider before the introduction of Mount Vesuvius - it was an advantageous opportunity for players to lose more dice than they wanted if they knew they would lose, but it was also easily exploited for the same reason.

Opponents can also immediately retreat once a player decides to Snap and use more dice. This allows players to win matches, but they have few dice to show for it, as opponents constantly give up when they have only a few dice to lose. However, the retreat option is more complicated than just the decision to withdraw from a poorly progressing match, especially when considering the player's overall rank. It may seem that losing a match plunges players down several ranks, while winning a match may not even earn them a single rank.

Marvel Snap’s Mount Vesuvius Might Incentivize Retreating Early

The dice used and lost in the deck-building game Marvel Snap make this even more tragic, as players have to bet more to win faster, and a retreat at any point in a match nullifies any hopeful or preventive Snap. Mount Vesuvius doesn't seem to alleviate this problem; on the contrary, it may even worsen it.

Now that players are aware that there might be a turn where retreat is no longer possible, they may be more inclined to withdraw early if they don't feel satisfied with their hand by the third or fourth turn. In theory, it seems designed as a location to surprise players who usually like to retreat, but in reality, it could make more people than ever retreat if they feel even the slightest disadvantage compared to their opponent, instead of persevering and hoping for luck in the last few turns of card drawing.

If retreat is a feature that some players don't even use, they will be indifferent anyway, but at least it could take the place of a Jotunheim or Oscorp Tower in a game. The most interesting element of Vesuvius is that there is always the possibility of it appearing as the third location, giving players only two rounds to decide if they want to retreat in Marvel Snap.

Marvel Snap is now available on mobile devices and PCs.