Marvel Snap now has a multiplayer battle mode for you and friends

Marvel Snap is several rare things at once: a licensed superhero game that's fun; a card game that's graspable and allows for casual play; and a free-to-play game that doesn't feel warped by microtransations.

As of today, it now has a PvP battle mode to enable friends to pit their decks against one another. It's either making a good thing better, or it's the beginning of the end of all the things I mentioned above.

Snap's battle mode is designed to allow "highly competitive, friend vs. friend play." Pals who want to play together will need to share their 'battle code' with each other in order to get started. Matches then consist of back-to-back games in which each player begins with 10 health, and the winner deals damage to the loser at the end of each game. The damage inflicted begins at 1 and doubles by Snapping. The loser is whichever player runs out of health first.

Developers Second Dinner say that "even more competitive features and opportunities" are coming to Battle Mode in the coming months. That's where my natural, fearful instinct kicks in, because I don't want Marvel Snap to become about PvP balance, chasing the "meta", and having to either pay or grind to keep up with other players.

Playing with friends seems fun though, and it's possible that less casual players already think it is about all those things. You can find a full set of patch notes for today's update on Steam, although I can't tell if the planned progression tweaks are among them.