Priority in Marvel Snap Explained: Who Reveals First and Why It Decides Games

If you have ever played a perfect card and still lost the exchange, the culprit was almost always Priority. It is the most important rule new players don’t know exists, and understanding it separates a coin-flip player from one who controls the board.

What Priority is

When both players have cards revealing on the same turn, they don’t resolve simultaneously — one player’s cards reveal completely first, then the other’s. The player who reveals first is said to have Priority.

This ordering decides every interaction where who acts first matters.

How Priority is calculated

The rule is counter-intuitive on purpose:

• The player who is winning the game (higher total Power across all three locations) does not get Priority.
• The player who is losing reveals first — they get Priority.
• If the board is exactly tied, Priority is decided by a coin flip, then alternates each subsequent tied turn.

Developer note: this “loser reveals first” design is a built-in rubber-band. It hands the trailing player a tempo advantage so games stay close, which is also why blindly racing ahead on Power can quietly cost you the cards you needed to resolve first.

Why reveal order wins exchanges

Priority decides the outcome of any effect that interacts with the opponent’s board as it currently is. Examples:

• Destroy effects — your removal hits their card only if it has already been revealed/exists when yours resolves.
• Move effects — moving a card before the opponent locks in their location plan changes the math.
• Steal / copy / debuff — copying the strongest card or stealing Power works best when you act after they commit, or before they react.
• Location-altering cards — flipping or adding a location resolves in reveal order, so Priority decides whose version of the board “wins.”

The recurring pattern: sometimes you want to act first (to set up the board), and sometimes you want to act last (to react to what they did). Priority is the lever.

Manipulating Priority on purpose

Because the losing player reveals first, skilled players bait Priority:

1. Stay slightly behind in total Power on the turn before a critical On Reveal, so you keep Priority and your effect resolves first.
2. Then over-commit on turn 6 to flip the actual location wins, since turn-6 totals are all that matter for the result.

Conversely, if your plan needs to react after the opponent, you may want to be ahead so you reveal second and respond to their commitment.

A concrete example

Suppose you hold a card that destroys the lowest-Power enemy card, and the opponent is about to drop a key piece.

• If you have Priority, you reveal first — you might destroy a card that’s already there, but you can’t hit the one they play this turn.
• If you reveal second, their new card is already on the board and becomes a legal target.

So here you’d intentionally stay ahead to lose Priority and reveal last. The “right” Priority depends entirely on what your cards need.

Quick reference

Situation	You want to be…	Why
Setting up On Reveal first	Losing on board (have Priority)	Resolve before opponent
Reacting to their play	Winning on board (no Priority)	Resolve after opponent
Combo needs a specific order	Plan board Power 1–2 turns ahead	Priority is predictable, not random

The takeaway

Priority turns Marvel Snap from a stats race into an information and timing game. Once you start asking “do I want to reveal first or last this turn?” before you commit cards, you stop losing exchanges you should have won — and you start setting traps that opponents never see coming.