The final part is here, everyone! It’s been a long ride and an absolute pleasure to share my experience on the matter, and I hope that all of you reading this will see the desired success. We went through basic, advanced, and expert matters on the technical side of things, but now I will address the factor that makes or breaks it in any game, to round up this article series on how to get to Infinite Rank in Marvel Snap.
As the title says, this is about your mind and the mental game. This indeed can be the end of you or can bring you to the top. Even if you have all the talent and tools, without a clear mind, it won’t mean anything. Here’s what you can do to improve your Mental Game, not just in Marvel Snap, but in a lot of different games as well.
How to Improve your Mental Game in Marvel Snap
Here’s the obligatory Table of Contents, if you wound up here out of order from somewhere and want to visit the older entries to this series:
- Grasping the Game and Card Mechanics
- Obtaining the Necessary Cards and Tools
- Understanding the Meta – Know Thy Enemy
- How and When to Snap or Retreat
- How to Improve your Mental Game
Even though I have some minor experience with sports psychology, I am for certain reasons obliged to emphasize that I am not a certified professional in the area. I am just sharing my personal experience which helped me reach my end goal in this game. Take it with a grain of salt.
Related: How to Clear the Settings Notification in Marvel Snap on Mobile – Answered
We’ll dedicate this sub-article to adjectives that start with the letter “C”, since C is 100 in Roman numerals, the rank I want all of you to attain.
- Calm – Because you need to make your decisions calmly and with vigilance. If you do not feel like playing, do the dailies with as least as Snapping as possible and be done for the day. If you get upset over a tough loss, take a break, whether it’s a few minutes, a few hours, or be done for the day. A mind that’s not calm will not make proper decisions, you’ll overlook some stuff and then you’ll lose more Cubes. If you win an 8 Cube match, don’t go crazy thinking you’ve already reached the finish line. You have just created a minor reserve for your future losses which arrive inevitably, like Thanos. You will soon realize that 8 Cube wins are worth A LOT. It basically allows you to retreat in up to seven next matches without being in the loss. It gives you the maneuverability to gauge which of the matches you want to actually play until the end. Think of it that way. Think of it as a filter for bad hands and bad matches, and you will have a platform to lift up your rank. Somebody might feel that this is kind of cowardly, but I do not see most of them in the Infinite rank. That’s how Poker players play, they wait out a decent hand which is worth keeping in play until the first three cards are revealed on the board (flop). You will see a lot of poker pros dump their pocket 10s if there’s too much action, because they are afraid of a lot of hands that outright nullify their pocket pair.
- Cautious – Because you need to be cautious about how you play and what you play. Take time to think out your every turn. This is not a speedrun contest on Twitch. Plus, it might annoy your opponent that you are taking that long to play out your cards, and they might “rage Snap” at you, which does provide an advantage to you. Also, everyone misplays from time to time. Please learn from your mistakes. Please learn from your opponent’s mistakes. You will oftentimes wonder about the “stupid” plays made by your opponent who “gifted” you 8 Cubes, but you might be on the losing end of such a situation in the future.
- Clever – Because a cleverly thought-out trap, combo, or general match strategy will certainly bring results.
- Coherent (or Consistent) – Because you need to be precise about what you are doing and stay on track, and trust the process as well.
- Cold – Cold rhymes with Bold. Cold-blooded Snaps, daring counterplays. Don’t yield an inch unless you really have to. Do not be afraid to learn a new deck and play with it. Do not be afraid of losing. Do not be afraid of winning (yes, that’s a possibility too).
- Composed – Have a well-composed Deck, or multiples if you can make them. However, the advice is to get used to one deck if possible and to grind with it. In case you really get burnt out, change it. Be a happy player. Do not let the game become a chore.
- Confident – Have faith in your Deck. After all, it’s
your creationsomething you ripped off a website, it worked for somebody else, why wouldn’t it work for you too? - Crazy – A dose of lucidity and craziness goes a long way to break out the conservative and restrictive play most people are forcing in the meta. Keep it under control, though.
- Creative – I know I made a joke about the Deck part above, but you can be creative and daring with your plays, even if you borrowed the Decklist. Why fight an obvious incoming Taskmaster on Turn 6 when you can just Cosmo it and make it Cosmo’s pet? 🙂 3 Power is still bigger than 0.
- Cryptic – Make yourself mysterious. Have them guess what your next move will be. Never let them know your next move. For all I care, play Galactus on a full Location on Turn 4. Don’t let your memes be dreams.
Sometimes, you will end up in a lock at a certain rank. You will have an equal win and loss of your Cubes and you will know that you are stagnating. This has happened to me too many times during this run. One hour of sitting at the same rank, then making miraculous progress toward the next bracket, and then getting locked again. Be patient. Do not let impatience get to you, because that leads to bad and desperate Snaps out of the desire to forcefully get out of your current place. Well, you’re getting out of your place alright, but perhaps not in the direction you wanted to. So, it’s sometimes better to stay where you are, rather than drop a rank (or two). Be especially calm and collected in the Match that might bring you to the next bracket (and grant you five free ranks as a “protection”). Winning that one may bring a lot of confidence and a lot of players rush recklessly to finally grab a hold of it, but then get disappointed when they lose eight cubes and drop down a rank because they got blindsided by a potential Turn 6 counterplay. Take it easy, and trust the process. If your deck has at least about 45% win rate statistically, with proper Snapping and Retreating, and maintaining a clear mind, you will reach the high ranks eventually. The season is long. There is time. Unless you’re Kang who keeps rewinding it.
Related: New Marvel Snap Card – Kang the Conqueror – Showcase, Decks, Counters, Synergies
Set realistic goals. Do not overburden yourself. Yes, you can grind from 30 to Infinite in a week, but why would you demolish yourself like this? Take your time. If you move one or two ranks every day consistently, you reach Infinite in 40 days or less (due to the ranking protection update which gives you five ranks instead of one). Does that sound better than putting pressure on you along the lines of “I must reach Infinite fast, I must win every match, I don’t have time to push to Infinity until the end of the season…“?
In recent sports history, for example, the name “Novak Djokovic” comes up when mental fortitude is talked about. Now, this individual has been a real wild rascal in his youth, but eventually, through enormous work, and self-improvement, he reached the heights of being regarded as one of the greatest players in tennis history, game-wise, and statistics-wise. If you can take anything from him, take the ability to not fear even when your back is against the wall. He has won quite a few titles while saving match points against himself. Where others would crumble and falter, he prospered. You lost a match? There’s always the next one, and the one after that. Do not get haunted by the ghosts of your past. Keep pushing forward, to the future, and infinity! After all, it’s just a quick-paced (mobile) card game, not the end of the world or your livelihood if you lose a match.
I wholeheartedly hope that this article series was helpful to you and I hope that I’ll see you in the Infinite Rank. If you see significant success, please share the article with your Marvel Snap friends.
