Activate Ability Guide: The Next Game-Changing Mechanic - Marvel Snap Zone (2024)

The newly datamined keyword “Activate” lets you play a card with no immediate ability, but you can trigger the “Activate” ability on a later turn to reap the rewards. In a sense, this feels a bit like a delayed On Reveal that you can time for maximum efficiency.

How it works appears to be simple: Play a card that has the “Activate” keyword. Once on the board, when you want that ability to trigger, simply long-press (tap and hold) the card with the “Activate” ability to tell the game you are going to activate the ability that turn. Once your turn plays out, the card will “Activate” and trigger the ability stated on the card.

Since the ability is only datamined so far, we don’t know the exact timing of how this works. So we aren’t sure if you can activate first then play cards, or play cards and activate last, or if activate always triggers at a set time. As we learn more information about this new mechanic, we will clarify these timing mechanics.

There are only three cards to look at so far, but they already cover a wide range of possibilities around the Activate keyword. In particular, the ability to use the Activate card as a setup and play its target later on makes the keyword much more flexible than most On Reveal cards.

Araña already looks great alongside Vulture, Multiple Man, and Human Torch, while Symbiote Spider-Man can synergize with basically any 5-Cost On Reveal card in the game.

We don’t know much about the new keyword so far, but we can already see plenty of ways to leverage this new way to play Marvel Snap. There are also a few threats to keep in mind, as waiting too long to pull the trigger on an Activate card could mean you don’t get to use it at all.

Let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of this new mechanic!

Strengths

Power-to-Cost Ratio

Araña is a [2/4] with the ability to move a card, which will likely add even more power in the process. There are plenty of 2-Cost cards that can represent much more than four power, but they either aren’t particularly flexible to use or force you to play a certain way. The datamined 2-Cost gives you the possibility of reaching an unplayable location or synergize with move oriented cards, while being a decent contribution to your power total.

The same could be said for Scarlet Spider, which is a [4/10] if you simply activate it the next turn. That’s already a pretty solid points output. Plus, you can buff it or fill one of your locations to control the size or location of the clone.

The worst of the bunch for this category is Symbiote Spider-Man. Still, it is clear that the card was designed to be played in a synergistic way, and plenty of cards have been played with a [4/6] stat line while having arguably worse abilities.

Synergy Potential

Clearly, this is where the Activate cards we know of already should shine. Araña has Move written all over, and Symbiote Spider-Man looks like the Grand Master we wished for. Both cards seem destined to be an upgrade for their featured synergies, serving as powerful support tools. These are due in September, but they already have plenty of cards to pair up with in the current available collection.

Here are a few for Araña:

For Symbiote Spider-Man:

And, of course, I saved the best for last. Scarlet Spider simply feels too easy to leverage in its current form. I could talk about how Symbiote Spider-Man alone makes it busted, but all power boosts will make the Activate a scary prospect for the opponent. In a deck dedicated to maximizing the card, I wouldn’t be surprised if this routinely popped out a double digit copy on Turn 6.

Here are a few cards to consider (outside the other two Activate cards) to help the card create a huge clone:

Flexibility

This is likely the biggest upside of the new keyword: we can control when we want the ability to go off. I have discussed how this gives you time to maximize the abilities through buffs or drawing the perfect card. However, the more important aspect is probably how the “Activate” keyword allows you to spend energy during a turn and reap the rewards during another. In between playing and activating, you can set up an answer to a future problem while keeping the ability to develop during the turn where that problem would arise. For a deck without flexible play patterns, this can be a massive upgrade by giving it a ton more resiliency and consistency in how it carries out its game plan.

Not only will the Activate keyword allow you to play Vanilla cards that you can activate later on (depending on your draw or some random elements you’d like to check), it also enables you to play against your opponent by blocking a Debrii, Hobgoblin, or other space limiting card, for example. Once the threat is gone, you can trigger the Activate to move or merge a card and get back an available spot on that location. This is already what we do with Jeff the Baby Land Shark or Nocturne, but there are so many more possibilities with the new mechanic.

Weaknesses

The Delay

There are still a few mysteries around the Activate keyword, but a big one to me is what should you do with those cards when drawn on the last turn of play. Indeed, if you need to wait a turn before you can trigger the ability, this means that any Activate card is just a Vanilla card on the last turn of play. Unfortunately, they paid for their abilities with power, so those cards will often be catastrophic to play as Vanilla cards.

The other problem with having this delay is telling your opponent a lot about your future turns. Sure, you can always bluff when you want to pull the trigger, but they still know it is coming eventually. If you take Scarlet Spider as an example, the opponent could preemptively play Shadow King to turn it back to a five power card, even if they know you might have more buffs in hand. That isn’t ideal, but they still get to deny part of what you built around the card.

This delay also puts the cards at risk against certain abilities:

There are others with some mild impact, but these two could be a disaster sine they simply cancel the entire point of the Activate keyword. Indeed, Red Guardian removes the ability altogether, while Supergiant locks the card until the end of the match (meaning you won’t get a chance to activate it).

The Need to Activate

I said the power-to-cost ratio was pretty good for these cards, but this is only true IF you get to activate them. Otherwise, just like Cosmo with the On Reveal mechanic, these are terrible to play as raw power options.

Of course, this is never your intent, but as I just discussed the cards that are able to annoy the synergy I felt it necessary to mention how you are forced to activate them if you want them to be worthwhile. If the meta adapts and starts countering the Activate cards, you might have to activate them aggressively just to avoid the worst case scenario of never being able to use the card’s ability.

Closing Words

Overall, I only have good things to say about introducing a new keyword in Marvel Snap. I have been praising the more aggressive balancing mindset in the OTAs, so I’m naturally excited to have more avenues to explore with Activate joining the game.

There is still a lot to unravel around this mechanic, and I’m sure the developers have more than just three cards in store for us. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the first ever “expansion” with a dozen Activate cards released at once!

One can only dream…

As usual, feel free to let us know your opinion in the comments below. You can also join us on theMarvel Snap Zone community Discord, or reach out through myTwitterpage where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.