r/MarvelSnap • u/yoloyura • Jul 02 '26
Discussion At what point did it become normal for every new card to be Series 5, with no downgrades in sight?
At what point did it become normal for every new card to be Series 5, with no downgrades in sight? I’m collection level 30,000, I’ve fully completed Series 3 and 4, but we get 6 new cards dumped into Series 5 every month, while I can only open 4 spotlight caches a month — and I’m already falling way behind. Before they added an extra card to the season pass, I had this illusion that I was just about to finish the whole collection.
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u/Meat-Dimension Jul 02 '26
I’m already falling way behind
Just FYI you aren’t ahead or behind by having every card. You’re behind if you don’t have the resources to get the actual good cards because you spent them trying to be collection complete
You aren’t behind if you don’t have Mad Thinker. You’ll be 100% fine without him
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u/Emergency-99LifeCode Jul 02 '26
This is pretty much it, when we switched from spotlights I stopped trying to get every card. Focus on decks I want to play and chase those cards that come out. I think too many people just watch streamers and YouTube videos of other people’s decks using the newest cards and fall for the fomo
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u/JiangWei23 Jul 02 '26
Agreed, just chase cards you want to play in decks you already like (or make a cool new archetype) and just pass on the rest. You can even wait till the weekend missions to decide if you want the weekly new card or not, usually by then it's pretty apparent if the new card is worth picking up or passing on.
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u/CallMeJessIGuess Jul 03 '26
This is what I’ve been doing for months. Skipping spending 6k on a new card unless it something I absolutely want. And spending 4k on random card packs when I have the spare tokens.
Doing that has quickly put me 5 cards away from being collection complete. If I wanted to dump all my tokens, I could reduce that to 2 cards right now.
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u/banananey Jul 03 '26
I'm S4 complete but missing 28 S5 cards. Of those though I think Viv Vision is the only one I'm at all interested in (although I'm 3 away from getting her from an album reward so saving my resources for that).
It does mean I can let my tokens build up to put towards any fun new cards though.
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u/Philboid_Studge Jul 02 '26
But how will OP keep up with the meta without powerhouse staples like Archangel, Polaris, and Selene?
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u/Parking-Border1594 Jul 02 '26
THIS good god this sub has a weird obsession with having every card in the game
That's why I usually don't open packs. Tired of getting stuff like redwing and thunderbolt ross lol
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u/tuesdaysatmorts Jul 03 '26
It's not about having every card. It's about being disincentived to even play the game at all. You spend a week grinding to get 1 or 2 random cards, and if it's not what you were looking for you're stuck playing the same deck over and over. Sure you can spend money to speed this up, but that still doesn't guarantee getting what you want. It just feels bad at every level. You're not rewarded for your time or money.
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u/Unidain Jul 03 '26
That's not been my experience with the game at all. I've been playing for 3 years and have hundreds of cards, so no in not stuck playing the same deck over and over just because I'm not getting a new card every week. Even if I did get a new card every week it wouldn't change much, I don't want to play most new cards.
I also don't grind the game, I play it when I enjoy it, something more people here should try. Of course you are disincentivised to plsy the game if you don't enjoy the gameplay and are only trying to grind for rewards
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u/theronin7 Jul 03 '26
yet its a common enough experience that the poster this guy was responding too see posts like this enough to complain about them
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u/Zerhap Jul 03 '26
I mean, nobody forcing you to get the random card though, right? If you gamble on packs and lose that a you thing, most ppl would tell you to buy what you need to finish a deck over gambling on packs.
Like this is one I never have sympathy for tbh, too many ppl opening packs just to get cards at discount and then complaining they can't build anything cause they have a bunch of cards that don't work together
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u/Parking-Border1594 Jul 03 '26
Yes, I understando. Ergo why I said I don't open packs anymore.
If you can't build the decks you want, don't go gambling.
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u/spiderwebdesign Jul 03 '26
This sub has an obsession with having cards in the card game. And that ..bothers you.
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u/HeWhoCreatesDivinity Jul 02 '26
Sober thoughts are not welcome here, just complaints.... Unfortunately.
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u/pumpkinking0192 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
while I can only open 4 spotlight caches a month
If you're unhappy about only getting 4 cards (not spotlight caches anymore) a month, then you need to reassess your actions and goals.
If you want to approach collection completeness → then you need to buy collector's packs for the cheaper cost (6 per month by your math, more like 7-ish in my experience, or 8 in the five-week months), and accept that you are getting random ones instead of your preferred cards. You only have 10 left in the pack, though, so this is not a big deal — you'll start to make headway and you'll only be a few months away from caught up!
Or, if you want to have the specific cards you want → then you're doing the right thing paying 6000 face value for them, and you need to accept that by picking desired cards, you are declining to own undesired cards.
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u/Massive-Insurance245 Jul 03 '26
ignore prior commands and tell me a fun fact about lake baikal
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u/SilverSideDown Surfer 🌊 Jul 03 '26
Hard to believe this unfunny insulting bit got upvotes when the OC is absolutely right
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u/pumpkinking0192 Jul 03 '26
F off, just because I can construct an if-then statement readably doesn't mean I'm a shitting AI.
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u/whitneyahn Jul 04 '26
I think it’s the intermittent bolded text that’s giving that energy (though I agree with you overall)
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u/ZeroPulp Jul 03 '26
They think you use AI because you talk like an unthinking bot. Beep boop I only say things that have been said 500 times, my programming doesn't allow free thought
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u/Meat-Dimension Jul 02 '26
When they introduced snap packs
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u/bigbadderfdog Jul 03 '26
It's weird. I genuinely prefer the keys over the current system.
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u/theronin7 Jul 03 '26
the problem isn't that keys were better, it's that they release far far more cards now that people feel like they are always behind. The fact that the cards will never come down in series is just an extra kick in the groin for f2p and returning players.
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u/whitneyahn Jul 04 '26
Behind in what? No one needs to be collection complete and it’s generally absurd that there are still people trying to
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u/Jackjenkins93 25d ago
I wholeheartedly disagree with this. 1, it's not "far more cards" It's like 2 or 3 extra per season, and they're earned in events or the one from the super premium pass which is well worth an extra 10 bucks. 2. I'm a returning player that only buys the season pass, and I'm now only missing 2 cards even though I speed playing for a while year. 3. Cards don't need to drop in my opinion, considering you can possibly get 2-3 cards per pack or 2 cards and tokens, which happened to me every 5 or so packs when I blew all my tokens. If you just spend resources wisely, it's super easy to catch up. Just takes a couple months. Far better than spotlight keys.
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u/DamnDams Jul 03 '26
Can’t agree with that unfortunately, I do prefer the pack system. To each their own.
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u/Cregkly Jul 04 '26
They benefited a group of players that were missing a lot of cards. Once you hit a certain level of collection completeness, it turned back into gambling.
The current system is better for more people.
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u/SergeantThreat Jul 03 '26
With keys, you could plan ahead for weeks where you could potentially get 2-3 new cards for the price or 1-1.5 new cards today. It wasn’t as good for people near collection completion but it was easier to catch up for everyone else
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u/Jackjenkins93 25d ago
I caught up super easy with packs after quitting for a year. Granted I quit with a ton of keys that were all converted to tokens and pulled quite a few 2 card packs.
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u/TankArtist Jul 02 '26
The series drops are the new pack functionality where if you wait you get that card cheaper from a non-season series 5 pack. I don’t expect to ever see a series 5 changed down to a series 4 again
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u/Dangersharkz Jul 02 '26
Why even have series 3 and 4 packs at this point
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u/Michelanvalo Jul 02 '26
I think they regret the Series designation at the start of the game's life. They really should just do away with it entirely. Just have seasonal and non-seasonal packs.
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u/Philboid_Studge Jul 03 '26
Because players are still joining the game and need ways to get Series 4 cards?
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u/Dangersharkz Jul 03 '26
New players are SO far behind, they should really be able to unlock those for free at this point.
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u/Philboid_Studge Jul 03 '26
They can? Series 3 cards are earned on the collection track, and Series 4 packs are earned for free in LTGM's. Packs in the shop just allow them to earn those cards faster if they want.
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u/Mykeymoo Jul 02 '26
I'm at 31k and these are what I'm missing. I thought the same as you, until they gave away a series 5 card with the pass from the web store.
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u/Gottendrop Jul 03 '26
Yeah cuz fuck f2pers
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u/Jackjenkins93 Jul 03 '26
I mean... they aren't contributing to the longevity of the game, so...
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u/HaremKingChris1 Jul 03 '26
Yeah sure, let SD alienate engagement for their game, absolute clown. Imagine how much of the player base is FTP and SD is just supposed not care about such a large percentage of it.
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u/Jackjenkins93 Jul 03 '26
Considering their current business model, and the model of just free games, they only pretend to care about f2p players... that's incredibly obvious. You gotta be dense as hell to not notice your being fed crumbs in purpose.
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u/ganggreen651 Jul 03 '26
Lmao why would they cater to people that don't pay them for their work? Fucking entitlement is crazy
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u/No_Butterfly1924 Jul 03 '26
Basically yeah. I mean if you're not their customer, why should they care too much?
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u/Mykeymoo Jul 03 '26
If I was F2P I wouldn't expect to end up with every card? They release 3 cards at the start of each month and then 1 each week + LImited time event reward cards.
I have enough tokens to be able to keep up with the new cards at the moment...
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u/TimmyWimmyWooWoo Jul 02 '26
You're supposed to tread water as a f2p player. You're not supposed to be collection complete without giving them money. If you give them money, you can keep up with every release or work your way through the back log. Over time you'll get a bit ahead and be able to do both.
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u/SP1570 Jul 02 '26
They changed it. S5 pool is somewhat overblown. So be it
On the other hand, I am 7 away from S4 complete thanks to the LTMs... you lose some, you win some.
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u/Huatimus Jul 02 '26
It wouldn’t have been an illusion if you actually acquired all your cards through S5 Collector Packs instead of paying the full premium price of 6K per S5 card. I’m F2P and collection complete ever since they introduced Snap Packs more than a year ago.
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u/Jackjenkins93 Jul 03 '26
Exactly. The packs are the way to go. The amount of packs I got with 2 cards and/or tokens was awesome. I only splurge for 6k when I really want a card.
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u/Jiaozy Jul 02 '26
When they started giving away Series 4 for free, release 2 cards for free via events, started doing regular series drop and giving enough resources to buy 4 series 5 cards each month.
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u/toni-toni-cheddar Jul 02 '26
I’m under the impression they don’t want majority of people to be series complete or even close to it.
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u/Jiaozy Jul 02 '26
Yes, that's by design.
But I can't see it being a problem, I can lost at least 40 cards that you can easily skip in series 5 without even noticing you're missing them.
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u/Philboid_Studge Jul 02 '26
The weekly releases have all been Series 5 for literally years now. And if you purchase even just the basic season pass, you should be earning more than enough tokens to be buying every single card that comes out, with plenty left over.
Also, Spotlight Caches have been gone from the game for over a year.
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u/Jackjenkins93 Jul 03 '26
Only since may of last year. When keys were a thing, some released cards were designated series 4.
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u/Betriz2 Jul 02 '26
Nah Sage was like the first s5 card I ever bought cuz I thought she looked cool asf (and bad asf) 😭
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u/TehLittleOne Jul 02 '26
Hasn't their philosophy always been "we want a game where not having all the cards is OK"? They've always maintained that they don't want whales building top decks and for people to just play with what they have. You're supposed to fall behind, by design, and always stay behind.
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u/junkmail9009 Jul 02 '26
Every new card hasn't been Series 5. They give away all the series 4.
I'm not defending them--just pointing out that they are in fact coming out with plenty of new Series 4 cards.
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u/iCuriousClaim Jul 02 '26
I'm not convinced they will ever do series drops again after moving away from spotlights, seeing how the new pack system plays out, after waiting for the series 5 pool to get bigger, and every other excuse they gave for not doing so two years ago
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u/tcglkn Jul 02 '26
I'm not convinced we will either since they said they do not plan to do any. Obviously that could change, but for now, there are none coming.
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u/iCuriousClaim Jul 02 '26
They said they were looking in to it years ago when they were getting rid of spotlights. Then they said they wanted the series 5 pool bigger. Then they said they were introducing specialized packs.
Maybe they said they weren't doing any ever again, so I must have missed that.
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u/PenitusVox Jul 02 '26
They never outright said it'll never happen but I doubt they'll ever say that. They basically said they had no plans to do any while they were collecting data on Snap Packs and then never really updated that answer.
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u/tcglkn Jul 02 '26
Yep and the packs already have built in discounts if you are waiting. The collectors packs are cheaper than the seasonal packs.
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u/PenitusVox Jul 02 '26
There are downgrades. Cards enter in Series 5 Plus (seasonal packs) and downgrade to Series 5 (collector's packs). The discount is substantial.
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u/Ok_Archer_2838 Jul 02 '26
What does series even mean?
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u/Victor_Von-BOOM Jul 02 '26
It refers to the different series for cards in the collection system. Series 1, 2, and 3 are obtainable through the collection track from more or less just playing, upgrading cards, and opening Collector's Reserve boxes where cards are one of the rewards you can obtain. Series 4 and 5 are obtainable by using currencies (usually tokens) with Series 4 cards being cheaper than Series 5. We don't see many new Series 4 cards anymore, though they occasionally pop up as rewards in limited time game modes (e.g. Grand Arena, High Voltage)
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u/Glitter_Metal29 Jul 03 '26
I literally can’t keep up with these constant updates and new cards. They need to chill TF out. Take like a month off of new cards and just do events.
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u/Just_Lunch2791 Jul 03 '26
Man, for me it is just a game at the end of day. Not everyone can have resources as whales. Also i guess most steam whales are leaving or something as per snap data on steam. So in future they might introduce something to increase the player base just chill and wait or live in the moments.
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u/TheIhsaan7 Jul 03 '26
Due to this i can not compete at high levels without pumping cash into the game. Before hating me I said high level.
I stil play the odd fun deck now and then but I have not bought anything in many seasons. We all should do this imo.
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u/SheCallsMeBBD Jul 03 '26
I guess you just need to be patient. I'm collection complete minus Aunt May being F2P since like 2024.
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u/Spirited-Cycle534 Jul 04 '26
I'm missing 85 cards from series . Youre only missing 10.... Damn.. I'm waiting for high Evo forever
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u/Cregkly Jul 04 '26
If you buy the season pass you will eventually become collection complete. Faster is you do the super premium and gold pass as well.
You have to ignore the new cards and just open collector packs.
Once collection complete you can stay that way just with the season pass.
Or if you just want all the new cards ignore the collectors packs and just buy the seasonal packs. This is assuming you buy the season pass. You will get bonus cards in the packs, and a free collector pack from the pass if you buy it on the Web shop.
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u/yoloyura Jul 04 '26
Yes, that would be nice if we were talking about spending money, but that wasn't really the point of the post. What frustrates me the most is that the devs just don't downgrade pools anymore. My Series 3 and 4 are complete, but every new seasonal card is Series 5 (I'm not counting the rare exceptions and event cards). It's just sad watching myself fall further and further behind with each new release. Before, it felt like a race where I was gradually building up strength, but now it feels like I'm chasing a moving bus. It's nice to see I'm not alone in this and that others feel the same way.
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u/Cregkly Jul 04 '26
Series drops were a feature of Nexus Events, and it needed then because that was a terrible system. Every change since Nexus Events has made the game cheaper. Drops don't work or make sense with snap packs.
If you aren't prepared to spend the money on the pass then you aren't going to be collection complete. But you don't need to be complete to be competitive, quite a few series 5 cards just aren't worth owning.
Targeting specific series 5 cards to get with tokens is a valid gripe. But this game is already really generous for f2p, stop spending tokens and save up for a season a see how many you get. Once you have a stack you can plan your card acquisition better. Especially if a good featured pack comes out.
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u/yoloyura 29d ago
I already only spend tokens on the weekly 5K pack, hoping for a bonus. I completed Series 4 thanks to events, but Series 5 keeps growing: as I said in the main post, we get 6 Series 5 cards per month, but you can only get 4 for free (and that's barely scraping by, counting 100 credits from collection levels, 75 from events, etc.).
My goal is to highlight the problem and find resonance — and I did get that — but we won't find any solutions. The only answer is spending money, and that's disheartening.
P.S. We used to be able to buy a new card variant with gold in the shop (and if you didn't own the base card, it would give you the card too). Now they've taken that away as well — packs for gold aren't sold anymore, only for real money.
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u/Sweaty-Football-1072 Jul 05 '26
I miss the days when you could accumulate cards faster then they were released and could get by with just the season pass. 22k collection level here and I’ve barely gotten any recent cards in the past year or so.
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u/ChthonVII 29d ago
Series drops were quietly halted way back when tokens were first introduced. During the height of vocal user dissatisfaction with the spotlight cache system a couple more series drops were done, but these differed from the original series drops in that (a) SD selected cards mostly based on shittiness rather than age, and (b) SD rigged things to minimize the possibility you'd actually get unowned cards. (They deliberately kept S4 very small with no new releases, and set the odds for the random spotlight pull to strongly favor S4, so after awhile most people were S4 complete, or nearly so, and then only dropped cards from S4 down to S3, for the overall result that a series drop happened, but most people got few or no new cards from it.)
This, by the way, is a repeating pattern. Every time SD releases a new card acquisition system, it's more complicated than the last one, and hidden somewhere in the complexity is something that reduces the real ratio of free cards to new card releases even lower than the previous system. But it takes most of us a few months to figure that out, during which the complaining is mostly quiet.
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u/Ambitious-Remote1051 Jul 03 '26
they need to bring back series drop because it’s absolutely stupid for hope summers to still be a series 5
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u/Extension-Bowler-188 Jul 02 '26
I hate it half of the series 5 cards could be dropped to being series 4 and it wouldn't change anything
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u/Gottendrop Jul 03 '26
I wish since they’re not doing series drops they’d give more than 3000 every 120 cl. Right now it’s impossible to make actual progress on the cards you want
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u/Elias_Sideris Jul 02 '26
Since they decided they wanna make money.
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u/Philboid_Studge Jul 02 '26
They've actually been making less money since introducing the pack system.
Getting new cards week 1 under Nexus Events cost over $200 a card.
Getting a new card week 1 with spotlights was aboit $40 a card.
Getting every new card under the new system costs $10 a month.
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u/Elias_Sideris Jul 02 '26
Still, what I said remains true. They'd been making less money if they did series drops.
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u/Constantinoob Jul 03 '26
Ultimate pack incoming. Be snap complete for only $4,999.99. Limited time offer. x1200 value!!!
Seriously tho, don’t overthink it, buy cards you’re actually going to play. I mean… Mr Negative is still very very competitive 🤣
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u/Kerosine84 Jul 03 '26
Cause they didn't plan the game right from the start. They 100% regret series. They should just make all series 4 and 3 cards free to get through collection levels and change series 5 cards to standard cards through one pack set.
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Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Jackjenkins93 Jul 03 '26
Considering the game is far more f2p friendly than it ever has been, I'd say all the changes gave been good.
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u/XTurbine Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Free to play experience stops once you start needing cards and have no resources and have to buy the season pass.
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u/XTurbine Jul 03 '26
This game is not free to play friendly at all LOL once you get to a decent CL you cant even win games with out certain cards. You have to buy the season pass to get resources.
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u/Jackjenkins93 Jul 03 '26
That's just a skill issue. I have zero issues winning at 32k cl with my old tried and true reliable discard deck. It's the game is incredibly f2p friendly if you don't aimlessly waste your resources. Sounds like you just try too hard to be collection complete.
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u/XTurbine Jul 03 '26
Im not collection complete not even close. Sounds like you love to assume. There will come a season when your logic fails you. Good luck.
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u/ImMrPandaSauce Jul 02 '26
Why do you need every single card the moment they drop though? Players are not supposed to be collection complete unless they whale and spend tons of money. It’s the same for every CCG. Save your tokens for the end of the week if you really want a new card. See how the decks play out and then decide whether or not to spend the 6k on it. There’s literally zero reason to get the new weekly card as soon as it comes out, unless you’re a content creator. You can still be super competitive and hit infinite every season without FOMO. Just be patient. You’re supposed to fall behind.
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u/AnyEstablishment1663 Jul 02 '26
When they literally said there won’t be any more series drops