Marvel Snap May 7 OTA Patch: Ares, Silver Samurai, and Six More Cards Get Buffed

Second Dinner's May 7, 2026 OTA patch is a small but targeted set of buffs aimed at reviving Surtur, symmetrical discard, Guardians, and weak card-generation strategies. Ares, Silver Samurai, Starhawk, Kraglin, Zombie Captain Marvel, Spider-Man Noir, Major Victory, and Agent Coulson all gain a single point of Power.

After last week's meta-shaking OTA, Marvel Snap's May 7, 2026 balance patch dials things back. Eight cards each pick up a single point of Power, with the headliner being a long-awaited nudge for Ares and the Surtur archetype that has been sitting on the sidelines for months.

Second Dinner described this update as deliberately restrained: with the previous OTA still rippling through ladder, the team wants to give the metagame time to settle before pushing more aggressive changes. Expect a return to the more standard cadence in a few weeks.

Ares Gets the Headline Buff to Revive Surtur

Ares moves from 4/6 to 4/7. His ability is unchanged: On Reveal, compare the Power of the top three cards of both decks; if your total is higher, +6 Power. Second Dinner is candid that this is the patch's biggest swing, calling it “likely our largest potential shake up this week.”

The target here is the Surtur archetype, which leans on heavy top-of-deck cards to flip Ares' Power comparison. Surtur decks have been suppressed for months as the meta swung toward combo and over-the-top finishers, and the team views recent nerfs to those strategies as opening a window. The extra point of base Power on Ares is a small nudge designed to bring Surtur back into rotation without immediately making it a tier-one menace.

Silver Samurai Boosts Symmetrical Discard

Silver Samurai climbs from 4/5 to 4/6. His effect — On Reveal, each player discards the lowest-Power card from their hand — remains untouched. The change is aimed squarely at the symmetrical discard archetype built around Black Bolt and Stature, which has been absent from competitive ladder for some time.

Like the Surtur change, this is a modest upgrade rather than a power spike. Players who enjoy the discard playstyle now have a slightly stronger anchor for their gameplan.

Starhawk and Kraglin Get a Guardians-Season Catch-Up

Two recent Guardians of the Galaxy season releases also see buffs. Starhawk goes from 2/2 to 2/3, keeping his location-swapping odd/even Power buff. Kraglin moves from 3/3 to 3/4, retaining his deck-banishing Energy/Power gamble.

Second Dinner reiterated its design goal of keeping as many cards as possible competitively viable. Both Starhawk and Kraglin underperformed at release, and with enough time having passed, the team feels comfortable handing each one a free point of Power.

Zombie Captain Marvel and Spider-Man Noir Get a Power Bump

Zombie Captain Marvel rises from 4/4 to 4/5. Her Activate ability — destroy your other cards here for +3 Power each, then move to a location you're losing — demands significant board setup before paying off. Spider-Man Noir also moves from 4/4 to 4/5, keeping his conditional 0/8 generation tied to a precise 8-cost board state.

Both cards ask a lot of the player to deliver their full upside. Second Dinner acknowledged that prolonged lack of play justifies giving each one a little extra raw Power as a reward for jumping through the hoops.

Major Victory and Agent Coulson Address Card Generation

Rounding out the patch, Major Victory moves from 3/4 to 3/5 while still adding two random Guardians crew members to your hand. Agent Coulson matches that change, going 3/4 to 3/5 while continuing to add a random 4-Cost and 5-Cost card.

Second Dinner singled these out as some of the weakest card-generation cards currently in the game. The 3/5 statline pulls them closer to what is generally expected from cards that see meaningful play, without overhauling what they do.

What This Means for Marvel Snap Players

If you have been collecting variants for any of these eight cards, now is the moment to dust them off. Surtur and symmetrical discard pilots in particular have a real reason to revisit their lists, and Guardians-season holdouts like Starhawk and Kraglin finally hit statlines that match their effects.

Don't expect a meta upheaval, though. Second Dinner is openly playing the long game here, letting last week's larger OTA finish reshaping the ladder before pushing more aggressive levers. The next patch is expected to return to a more normalized cadence — meaning bigger swings, and the usual mix of buffs, nerfs, and ability tweaks, are likely a few weeks away.