Another way of seeing the game.
Hello friends, this time we bring you a somewhat particular article. It is about the similarity of our beloved Marvel Snap with a traditional game of about 200 years old, well known in some South American countries such as Argentina or Uruguay, which calls itself El Truco (the trick). Then we will try to reach some conclusions from the experience.
Brief presentation of the Trick
We will not expose all the rules of this game here since it is not the intention of this article to delve much into it, but rather into the similarities with Marvel Snap.
Likewise, we can say that El Truco is a card game and is played with a deck of 40 Spanish cards (the 8, 9 and jokers are removed). Where over the course of several rounds or “laps” points are added through challenges and the first to reach a predetermined amount of points (15 or 30 pts) is the winner. The cards have a value, that is to say that some beat others. In each round or hand three cards are dealt to each player, thus each round consists of three plays or “hands” during which points can be won.
To learn more about the rules of the Trick you can visit this link:
Win 2 out of 3
Alright, so this is where the similarities begin. In the same way that in MS you have to win 2 out of 3 locations, in the Trick you have to win 2 out of 3 plays. The difference is that you can only play one card each play.
Snap or call Trick
On the other hand, we know that in MS 1, 2 or 4 points (cubes) can be put into play depending on whether nobody snaps, one player snaps or both players snap.
This is extremely similar to what happens when saying “trick” (or “calling” trick), that is, they can earn 1 point if no one calls trick or if one of the players retires without accepting the “trick” this corresponds to the “escape” in MS. If the rival accepts the “trick” the points at stake are doubled (2 points at stake) and if, on the contrary, the rival is confident, they can call “I want a re-trick” so that instead of putting 2 points at stake, they put in game 3. With the addition that in the trick we can re-trick after the “re-trick” saying “I want four worth”, obviously putting 4 points at stake in this case. In MS it would be 8 points since each player puts 4 cubes into play.
Another difference is that in the event of a tie in any of the three plays and one play being the same, the total points of the cards are not computed here, but the winner is the one who won the first play (“The first is worth two”).
Battle against friends
With the future and imminent implementation of the battle system against friends or “battle mode” of MS, we have noticed that each confrontation against the same friend will consist of several matches or rounds until one of the players takes over the 10 cubes of the rival.
Taking this to the Trick, let’s remember that a confrontation involves several hands or rounds, in which cards are dealt, until one of the players reaches the agreed 15 or 30 pts. In other words, each round would correspond to what is currently a match or matchup in MS.
Conclusions. When to snap. Bait and run
From the above we can conclude the following:
- It is not good to call trick if you are not winning at least one play. Making the parallel with Marvel Snap, we can say that it is not good to snap early in the game because if you do not win at least one location comfortably it can turn against us and we can lose more points than we should. This is even more significant in MS due to the randomness of the locations, which can detract from points or even destroy our cards. Furthermore, we are not even sure even when we have a good energy curve in hand because the opponent can play things that ruin our cards, be it increasing their cost, removing effects or discarding from our hand among some examples.
- El Truco is a strategic game in which you can lie or deceive your opponent. So let’s suppose that you have won the first move, if immediately after you call trick (you snap) it is probable that the rival will not accept and retire (escape). This technique is usually used to induce our opponent to retire when, having won one of the plays, we know that we have very few chances of winning the following ones, since we have drawn bad cards, for example.
- Another situation occurs when, on the contrary, we do not want the rival to retire but rather to bet more points. Thus having won the first move we keep quiet and play a weak card (a bait) on the second move in order to induce the opponent to call trick first (the opponent to snap) for us to accept the challenge and once we can see that we will beat the opponent’s play, sing the “I want to re-trick” (we snap after the opponent) to further increase the bet.
- The two previous techniques are the classic “bait or lure” and “make the opponent run” techniques and should be used with great care since they could turn against us if the opponent suspects or realizes the deception.
- The Trick is extremely similar to the Marvel snap, but all the cards are free. Yes, I’m seeing you Ben Brode XD. However, MS is still a very entertaining game and I particularly think that most of the players who have tried it are hooked on it.
