How does priority work in Marvel Snap?

Marvel Snap is a deceptively simple card game that's easy to pick up and tough to master. Your success will strongly hinge on your understanding of the game’s core mechanics, including turn priority. Priority determines which cards are flipped first in a turn, and knowing your position can be the difference between victory and defeat.

How does priority work?

A player's nameplate will glow to indicate that they have priority on the current turn.

In Marvel Snap, turn priority is given to the player who is currently in the lead, meaning, they’re winning the majority of locations on the board. If players are tied for locations, priority will go to the player with the most total power. Marvel Snap is actually constantly keeping track of who has priority in every match, saving you from having to do any extra math. The player with priority will have their nameplate highlighted, as shown in the image above.

Priority is something that you must be aware of in order to succeed in Marvel Snap and climb the ladder. Several cards and strategies in the game are empowered by being revealed first or last. For example, if you have priority on the final turn and play Shang-Chi, and then your opponent plays The Hulk, Shang-Chi won’t be able to destroy Hulk, as his ability was activated before Hulk was actually on the board. Alioth is another card that leans on priority. Since it can destroy unrevealed cards, having Alioth reveal first can cancel out an opponent’s counterplay before they’re even able to make it.

In this gameplay screenshot, the opponent has priority on the final turn of the game.

In extreme cases, having or not having priority in a consequential moment could be grounds for retreating. Let’s say your opponent is playing a deck that includes Kitty Pryde, Hit-Monkey, and some other cheap cards that they can deal out on the final turn. Even if you have Killmonger, Kitty Pryde’s natural predator, it's useless if you’re the one with priority on the final turn. Your Killmonger will be revealed, do nothing, and then your opponent will hit you with Kitty Pryde and a barrage of cheaper cards that you undoubtedly could have cleared off the board if you had priority.

If you’re hellbent on having your cards revealed last, Ghost’s Ongoing ability makes it so that your cards are always revealed last, regardless of the score. That said, be wary of cards (ex. Alioth, Galactus) that can take advantage of having priority. Visit our Marvel Snap topic page for more informative guides about the popular card battler.