How do pools work in Marvel Snap?

At the time of this article’s publishing, Marvel Snap matches players against each other not by actual rank, but by collection level. But there is a good reason for this.

Depending on the collection level a player has, they have access to different pools of cards. This prevents players in Pool 1 with lower levels of cards from being matched against players in Pool 3 who have way more complex and devastating strategies. But how are these pools split up and when do players get access to new pools of cards?

What is the pool system in Marvel Snap?

The reason why the cards are separated into pools is that everyone collects cards randomly. Besides the first couple of cards on the collection track, every card player gets is a mystery, to an extent. For example, while one player may acquire Captain America at Level 20, another player may not acquire him until level 150.

But to also stop players from getting ridiculously powerful cards way early into their career, which would make games very uneven, cards are locked into separate pools. Players are at least guaranteed to unlock every single card in a pool before entering a new pool. Currently, there are three pools of cards.

Pool 1 – Collection Level 214 and below

There are 46 unique cards players can collect in this pool. In the current metagame, the best cards players can acquire in this pool are some of the one-cost cards. These cards include Ant-Man, Squirrel Girl, and Nightcrawler. All of these cards are critical in the best Pool 1 deck in the game which utilizes Blue Marvel and Kazar.

Pool 2 – Collection Level 215 through 474

In Pool 2 there are only 25 unique cards despite it taking longer to go through. This is the slowest progression point in the game as there aren’t a ton of cards to collect. However, there are definitely some heavy hitters that will change the metagame for players progressing to this point. Cards like Killmonger directly counter the one-cost spam strategies from Pool 1 while Bucky Barnes makes the destroy deck viable at this point in the game.

Pool 3 – Collection Level 475 onwards

Currently, there is no Pool 4 which makes every card after Pool 2 a part of Pool 3. There are 74 cards in Pool 3 which makes up the majority of cards in Marvel Snap. Because of this, the current “end-game” is filled with strategies that players in Pool 1 and Pool 2 can’t even dream of.

There are cards with incredible effects in this pool like Mister Negative which swaps the cost and power of all cards in your deck. Or Agatha Harkness, a 14-power six-cost which always starts in the player’s opening hand but with the caveat of “her playing the cards for you.”