103: Most Cringeworthy

Transcript

Speaker: I shared an Arshem deck? You shared an Arshem deck for Ri to play, and I was like, that looks cool. I want to get down on that, and then I just didn't get around to it. been busy.

Speaker: Something for Ri to play, yeah. The Agamotto deck? Oh, yeah, whoops. Wrong A guy. hey guy. Okay. A guys are all the same.

Speaker: I'll say it. A guy's the egg cards to your deck. I think... gosh they are more similar than i initially can i admit something okay this is horrible but to be fair i think i've previously admitted at one time i could not tell like ryan gosling and ryan reynolds were both completely understandable and their names were similar enough that like i couldn't like they were the same to me now i can because like he's been deadpool and that and i don't watch a lot of

Speaker: ah sad lovers die kind of stuff unless there's a lot of good fighting in it like sword play or whatever okay but point being I didn't realize for the longest time that Roseanne Barr and Rosie O'Donnell Two totally different human beings.

Speaker: No, but I see. I see. roy And it made news coverage of them very confusing to me. And the kind of, I scroll by headlines and I don't read into a lot of celebrity news. I'm like, who is this? And then it was just like only recently. like oh Oh!

Speaker: There are two different human beings that exist with two different names. they ascended to cultural relevance around the same time. like I can see like the parallels that, you know... It made a lot of things clear to me, to be to be honest with you. hi I like a lot of Ryan Gosling's movies, including the recent Project Hail Mary.

Speaker: But... you know I saw Barbie. He was in that, right? Love that. Yeah, he was just Ken. I thought he was great. Love Lars the real girl. notebook is the, like... Isn't the notebook... Wait, okay.

Speaker: Also, I believe he was Young Hercules, if I remember correctly. Maybe I'm wrong about that. In what? Young Hercules? In the show Young Hercules. Oh. I'm gonna double-check that. Was he? I don't even know what that is.

Speaker: I believe it was on before or after Power Rangers. It sounds familiar. Yes. I'm going to double check this because, ah you know.

Speaker: oh yeah, that's definitely the gauze. Yep. 100%. Young Hercules is right. series to The television series Hercules, the Legendary Journeys that aired on it originally aired on Fox Kids Network. um Yeah, this was 1998. And it in 1999. 50 episodes, one season.

Speaker: and it ended in ninety ninety nine fifty episodes one season starred ryan gosling in the title role one all right yeah la la land anyway um recently i uh this is really more into my weekend snap but i i pulled an all-nighter this week which is the first time I've done it okay it's pretty short anyway so I will i'll just seize the reins why not it's loosey-goosey uh I pulled an all-nighter and then I was looking like I it was like 4 p.m and I'm like I need to stay up until at least 8 p.m at this point I need to not completely botch my sleep schedule haven't pulled an all-nighter and I don't know five to ten years first time I've done that in a long time

Speaker: and like a true all-nighter I've had nights where it's like you know two hours of sleep but I haven't done zero and I had I had many big projects I was working on and they all had a ah the same due date and it was it was a crunch and uh so I was like okay I have four hours I need something to help me stay up so I was googling for movie ideas of something that's like something that's that is going to help me stay up, something that will not let me go. And and Fall guy by Ryan Gosling was one of them that came out, but not the one I ultimately chose. I chose Kate, which was very fun. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an assassin who gets poisoned, and so she has, like, a day to live, and she's avenging her own death. but a pretty Pretty fun concept. you know Kind of John Wick-y, but, like...

Speaker: avenging your own death is that's kind of funky um yeah it was fun uh and it did an okay job i ended up falling asleep for an hour but yeah i would not have given that movie that assignment but no i needed something even more intense i guess but it was it was still good i was glad to have to have seen it um yeah and then And then I got into um a little tiny corner of the official Snap Discord where the people who make... There's a Snap Wiki in the Discord. I find a lot of people do not know it exists. But in the official Marvel Snap Discord, there's a Snap Wiki and it has...

Speaker: really great articles on like, what's the order of things that happen at the end of the game? Or like, what are confusing card interactions? Like, it's actually a really great resource. Anyway, there's a channel where the people who maintain it bring up interactions for testing or like they look at bug reports and find stuff. And so I've been hanging out in there. And then it's it's been fun to be like testing the weird interactions. You know, that's something I did for Sinister Six. There were lots of interactions to test for Thanos. So that's been how I've spent...

Speaker: My week in Snap-adjacent things... I don't know. I'm very bad at week in Snap. And, you know, episode 103 is perhaps not the time to get into this.

Speaker: I think you're great at Weeks in Snap. I don't think you can be bad at Weeks in Snap. That's so true. I need to like... okay it's just my autobiographical memory is really poor. And I need like... I should be keeping like a journal every week to be like, okay, here are some bullet points. I can pick the most interesting ones to talk about.

Speaker: I've had a whole week, but I don't know what happened during that whole week. um my My wife has been doing lots of Instacart with her best friend. And they are...

Speaker: switching between instacart and parade of homes i don't know if that's if if that's like a global thing or just a utah local thing but instacart sounds vaguely familiar instacart's like doordash with groceries basically but parade of homes is like you pay like a 25 ticket and then for like three weeks there's just super nice homes that you can go and see i And so they've been having tons of fun doing that. And so I have been watching the recap videos from their recordings. They come home and show me these very large, elaborate, expensive homes. And and it's mind blowing.

Speaker: It's just like it's another world honestly. So yeah that's that's what that's what my family has been up to. It's been it's been a good week that All Nighter was very rough. I can't do those like I used to be able to. but But I think I'm mostly recovered at this point. That was a few days ago. So it's all good.

Speaker: ah Rhi? How was your week in snapping? Keep it snappy. Or don't. Okay. No, I... Take your time. time no o see?

Speaker: Not like now you say that after all this time. now it seems like conversely or contrarily keeping it short, but like it's just... That's always been implied. You can always take as much time as you want.

Speaker: We're like falling apart. was like, oh, I should make this. I'm like, I need to have like a really good weekend. You know, like, snap and instead it's just like, oh. You're among friends. No wrong way to do That's what's, some yeah, that's what's kind of sad for me is that I've actually been finding, ah not certainly not to escape other things, but like, I've been finding lot of joy in Snap again.

Speaker: um I know I've been complaining about a lot, which makes it kind of sad to be like, but now it's like for a while I've been on the outs with Snap and it was just like, oh no, I don't want to like, you know it's like I enjoyed getting together for the podcast every week and like being part of the whole community and stuff. And now too, though, it's like, but also like Snap is fun again.

Speaker: So, like, how how far? But I, like, you know, it's never been my goal to be, like, a snap content creator. um pretty Pretty time-consuming thing to do.

Speaker: um So, anyway, so it's, like, yeah, I'm just, like, can't, I'm not good at fakery. i cannot pretend for you to be more cheerful than I am. Sorry. For the listeners. Okay. Well, I did have a deck I want to share. and it's hilarious in that, like, it it's not...

Speaker: It's missing a card that I want to put in it because here's how it started. i was kind of getting the itch. Okay, I got to two infinity tickets with um the deck I shared last week, the um the Gunslinger Thanos deck. Great. mm Yay. Like through gold beating things, you know, um people that feel good. But it's like, okay, I've been playing it for a while. can of You know, play something different. And my first interest was I was thinking like,

Speaker: Man, there's so many cards that like move themselves these days. I haven't played a good old Silk Hydra Stomper, and I was curious. i'm like i you know i feel like you could really build a move deck that had nothing that moved like other cards. you know without um There's so much stuff, right?

Speaker: ah And good cards. There's so many good cards, like Drax, right, that move themselves and are also just generically good cards. And I'm like, oh, there's something here. and I'm like, i bet this is where I finally, like, make a Mary Chain deck. Because, like, m I bet that's all need is just those little extra pops on it.

Speaker: And so I went to make this deck and I made this deck and then I realized i did not in fact have Mary Jane. It wasn't that I, I had not just been unexcited to play her before. I just literally also did not have her.

Speaker: And, um, cause like, okay, but look at this deck. Okay. So the old, the old setup from before is still like Batrock Silk, um,

Speaker: craven hydra stomper right like hydra stomper deck those are those are those are the cards you start with but look at what we have now ezekiel sims right spider-man brand new day moves twice on his own um ezekiel sims is kind of like a silk you know you can force it to move um jeff new jeff better better jeff sorry old jeff i mean like right how often do you say old jeff that's not in combination with new jeff anymore sad it's like a you know now this now this baby shark is stuck wearing this dolphin costume the rest of his life because it's the only way he'll ever know love okay So, um, Jeff the baby dolphin, right? Also moves.

Speaker: Also beefs up little cards. I already mentioned Drax. Viv. Viv also moves herself while doing good things for you, right? So what if you harnessed her move? Because mostly she's not in, like, pure move kind of stuff. Mostly kind like surfer, other things.

Speaker: Um... And then Captain Marvel. Because you know if you're looking for old school fun in Marvel Snap, winning games with Captain Marvel.

Speaker: Winning with Captain Marvel, flying, flying to victory in a game you would have otherwise lost is so incredibly satisfying. i have a great split on her. i have a lot of good, you know, got good brains. So it's just like, and right, and she moves.

Speaker: And that also helps your Hydra Stomp or maybe your Kraven. Like, it just it's just so good. Okay. And then that last spot, right? I was like, MJ, because I felt like that was just the extra boost, right?

Speaker: The extra boost. Just give them all a little top up when they move. Didn't have it. I looked. I was like, okay, well, then we want tech. Oh, I forgot have tech. I did put i put deafening cord in for tech ah because...

Speaker: Because you can't handle a deck that doesn't have tech. I need, even if it's just like a legion or something, like give me some the control to control my fate. Move decks out Cosmo.

Speaker: That's what I tried. This doesn't have Madam Web, though, so that is not as Don't need Madam Web. yeah Well, you don't need Madam Web, is the truth. I don't have cards that move other cards. They're all cards that, like, benefit or grow. Yeah, which is which which is what's so great. they're Except for, like, craving you know some specific move cards, they mostly, like, anyway.

Speaker: it worked So the last one, so I did. i put it in Cosmo because I know Cosmo is just like, you know, is is a great shutdown. and none Yeah. And nothing yeah do I even have. Definite Cord is your only on reveal.

Speaker: Right. Exactly. So like, you know, easy enough to play around. I actually had a problem, though, with Cosmo in that. I wasn't getting the prio when I needed it to use it the way I needed to use it.

Speaker: Because so many people i was playing against were playing big early cards decks. And my deck was like small cards that build. And they're playing like Fisk, you know, Wilson Fisk style decks.

Speaker: yeah yeah A lot of Domino out there. Yeah. Yeah. Domino, like Galactus, the kind of stuff I was also playing. So it's like, and, and with Cosmo, right. You don't want to you want to have Pryo on Cosmo and you want to put it where you, you know, like you, like you want to, you want to halt it when they're trying to do something. Like you want to use it effectively. And And so I just wasn't getting the Pryo. It's like, this is when I need to use Cosmo with Pryo. And i just didn't have it too many times.

Speaker: And I was just kind of like, well... whatever i still want to like i was still winning with cosmo plenty because the deck was what i thought it's like this has enough good cards that move and just taking advantage of that move with the little um bonus and it's like okay i know i did consider venus but i just i didn't feel like there's a enough maybe i mean she wouldn't be bad i would certainly win with her as much probably more than the cosmo but then i was ah earlier I didn't get to test this yet, which is why you haven't tested. I'm like, you know who'd actually be good in this?

Speaker: Maybe? Not as good, I think, as Mary Jane, but like Chameleon, right? yeah Play him late with the like Batrock. Play him at the end with a Hydra Stomper.

Speaker: like this this deck has enough little cards. It might be. The problem is they build, though. I don't know. So I i i think this deck...

Speaker: actually is cool. I'm just like, really? I'm really annoyed. Like, I know this was like the dream a Second Dinner had was like, well, everyone won't play the same deck because they won't have all the same cards. So, you know, but there are so many cards that do similar as things or whatever. They can just, you know, pick it. But it's like,

Speaker: But no, when I build a deck and I want a specific card, i want to put that card in it. i don't want the the reason to be I didn't like pay as much money to also like have that card. So it's irritating to me that I can't play it um mary jane but i do think it's like you know fun and good also i got like sounds fun i won't lie do you see because i put it in show notes do you see that variant of craven the old comic cover yeah that really just makes like the deck like all worth playing for me because i just got it recently and it's hilarious to me it is very silly art it's pretty silly it's pretty silly okay um you have a sense for how big you're getting ezekiel sims

Speaker: I can see where he's worth taking out. i usually um

Speaker: I usually only get two procs, or max three, usually. i wasn't even thinking taking him out, although, um yeah, you don't have a lot of things that can trigger him third time. Silk, Hydra Stomper, and Captain Marvel are what I'm usually, like... I think New Jeff helps him, but maybe some other cards don't help him. Like, if you had Venus in there, I don't think that would help him.

Speaker: That's why I didn't want to put Venus in, you know? I'm like, MJ. It felt very appropriate. You know, no spoilers just to the end of the last Spider-Man trilogy, you know? Where's MJ? She's gone. She's not here with Spider-Man. Brand new day. you know was thinking old Jeff would be another trigger for Ezekiel Sims. yeah But I don't know. Maybe new Jeff is helping things trigger.

Speaker: So I have no idea. New Jeff does, right? Adding that it's little, but that's thing. I don't want to sub. MJ gives cards buffs if they move that turn, right?

Speaker: Yes. like I feel like that's good for this buck. One point each would be cool. I agree. Oh, I was thinking to replace replace Dolphin Jeff with Old Jeff. You were saying that, you know, ah out with the old and with the new, but I think i think in this case, Old Jeff might have a real purpose.

Speaker: But I don't know. It could only i did only trigger Ezekiel once, so maybe not. That's true. Okay. I did also play, I'll think about the, the, the getting the little buffs on the cards always feels nice, but like it might be worth it for the Ezekiel trigger.

Speaker: Ezekiel trigger. I did play Professor X in that last spot. I like that. That's interesting. ah Yeah, that did win me some games. And i would I could have just shared the deck like that, but really I wanted to complain because like I still just feel in my heart that I want to try Mary Jane there. But Professor X was solid If makes you feel any better, not having Mary Jane is... I don't know. I'm i'm looking at this whole deck through the lens of Ezekiel and like

Speaker: Mary Jane makes it harder to trigger Ezekiel Sims more, because if you trigger him, then he gets plus three on like in a turn. This deck ain't about Ezekiel, though. Okay, that's fair.

Speaker: feel like if Mary Jane does show up, maybe you kick Ezekiel out.

Speaker: Maybe it's okay if you get plus six on Ezekiel from two procs instead of plus six from three procs. right like but Can you proc him again after he's two five? um you have Captain Marvel and Hydro Stomper could.

Speaker: But yeah, you're right. Yeah, I guess so. Silk on Baby Dolphin. Silk on on Jeff Lane. Yep, yep. I see that. Also, maybe if Viv Vision has been handing out some some points to the things in hand. All right, all right, all right.

Speaker: I really like the idea. This seems like a fun deck. Well, let's get Mary Jane in there. I wish I could give you mine. i keep almost playing her and not playing her. And now I'm like, I really should.

Speaker: This is your chance. This is where can live vicariously through us. Oh my gosh. that ah i would Would that be fun or would that just feel like you were on the other side of the glass and just like, would it be sad?

Speaker: No, i am sharing this deck because I'm like, I do think like, I mean, probably someone out there else is also doing it. There's just enough cards. Sure. if you Like moving as we have established, moving by yourself without needing to be moved is already a good ability, right? Just for a game where you were trying to win two locations krebs against an opponent and surprise them and probably win all that.

Speaker: And then all of these don't just do that. They also do something else, you know, gain power and stuff. so And there's just enough of them now, right? It's like you just put them together and it's good, you know? it's interesting how many self-movers you found that aren't movable, right? Because, like, the self-movers deck, that's the Aunt May deck. You play a bunch of movable cards. I mean... but Okay, no there is a mix. We do have some Captain. i know They're not all self-movers in the fact that they're all movable. you only have That's what I'm saying. conditions to move You found so many movers that aren't movable.

Speaker: only Only Spidey and Jeff are movable. They move for me, Lauren. They move for me. It's cool. I think I will i will give us give that a spin. I will be cutting deafening cord because that doesn't... i two I'm open to suggestions there, but it has been very helpful.

Speaker: You know... like Maybe i'll I'll try keeping it in for a little bit. and need to do that more to try cards I'm not comfortable with. Slots open. you know i don't think there's anything wrong with it. I just personally do not find the same joy in tech that you find. Yeah.

Speaker: I'm much more combo. I just want to win by going taller than my opponent. like There's so many things that just go infinite tall anymore if they hit it. yeah you know Yes. true It's a problem.

Speaker: I was actually just having this conversation ah a little bit in... I think it was the fourth location Discord. Somewhere I was having this conversation today. There are there are four key archetypes in trading card games. right There's aggro, midrange, control, and then combo.

Speaker: And i think part of the reason why combo has been doing so well in Snap for so long is because they've gutted aggro, which is lockdown and clawed.

Speaker: yeah if if lockdown and clog were more viable i'm not saying they need to be the best but if they were more viable we would have those tools to deal with combo decks and then and then the uh the control decks would have more of a chance i don't know i wish i wish wish that they would not just because aggro is a style that i like but i just think it would be better for the balance of the game to you ah allow the fourth archetype to breathe also

Speaker: I'm not a fan of Scorpion Brand New Day. And irritatingly, when i wasted the last of my tokens to gamble for Mary Jane, that's who I got. And it was infuriating to me because I don't. It's like Bullseye. I do not like playing against that deck. You know, you just see it and they're just like, oh, I'm going to. I'm like, this is I don't approve of this use of Ancient One.

Speaker: feel like I do way cooler things with Ancient One. I got hit by the craziest one the other day. They did Ancient One on Scorpion. on like turn six. And then on turn seven, they played Prodigy and Mystique. So they had five scorpions. I'm like, you didn't need that many. You were fine. That's what I'm saying. If you don't have tech. It's wild. It's like, it's not enough. You went too hard.

Speaker: I don't, it's overkill.

Speaker: ah Okay. Anything else this week, Rink? Okay, you did just make me say, we we talked about the movie brand new day last week why does why does snap have a different uh design i mean scorpion brand new day has a different tail than scorpion in brand new day like you know the purple snap card has like three like his his tail is made of three things that are like bound together he's he's got like three tails and like you see You see the illustration there? I didn't notice that they were different. And then Scorpion in Brand New Day has a more conventional like single tail. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder if this like earlier art of Scorpion and they made that. That's just a thing. Is this based on concept art?

Speaker: But look, all of them are like that. all of the There's like five Scorpion Brand New Day variants and they all have that triple... tail thing going on. So I think Marvel Snap was working with old Intel and they you know maybe that's what it looked like at some point in the the film's development but not the finished product.

Speaker: Rie do you remember what you were going to say? ah Yeah but it's like stupid stuff. Oh that's stupid stuff. Rie.

Speaker: Okay we can move on. It's up to you.

Speaker: Um, maybe like if we need an outro or something. But has your weekend snap been? Tell us. My weekend snap? I had a pretty good weekend snap. i hit infinite.

Speaker: Um, I've been playing some decks. Oh, you know what? There was a situation last week with bounties where I didn't see any that I liked and I had to... The one that looked most appealing to me was, um...

Speaker: get three wins with, I think it was Silk and Hydra Stomper. And I'm like, well, we can do that for sure. But also I didn't have like a deck ready to go. And I just, I was like, well, let's do the thing. So i let it build me a Silk and Hydra Stomper deck. And I'm sure this was somebody else's deck. Like this, the the deck it gave me was a Cowboy Thanos with Dark Hawk and move,

Speaker: stuff, you know? Um, so that, that list is whoever made it, they, they cooked it strong. Uh, that is but rock the Leaper Korg, Spider-Man brand new day, Craven, Sam Wilson, Captain America, Silk, Hydro Stomper, Terax the Tamer, Viv Vision, Dark Hawk, Thanos Fractured Frontier, and Big Willy style, Wilson Fisk. I've played against that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's strong. It's not particular. i i didn't I didn't feel great about playing it, um but it it did pretty well. I didn't cross the finish line with it because I... You know, I got the three wins for the bounty pretty quickly, but I was like, well...

Speaker: I should start learning about cowboy Thanos and it's a little easier to keep like, I'm at least I can study the Thanos in my own hand. I still don't know which stones are which really. um I'm, I'm sort of trying to get there cause there's a golden gauntlet coming up and it would probably be good for me to understand what's happening with cowboy Thanos. But like, if somebody wants to pop by the speakeasy, make me like a very simple image.

Speaker: pointing to which stone is which on the revolver cylinder, you know, would be hugely grateful. I know one that was made by bullseye QWERTY. I can grab that for you. Oh, cool.

Speaker: Well, that would, that would be super helpful. ah Any who that's, that's pretty confusing. Cause like sometimes I'm like, well, I probably have the, the destroy one. Right. And I don't like, you know, like the only one I'm super sure about, or the one I'm most sure about is, um,

Speaker: space stone but like i've i've had some theories about which one was which on the other ones and i just like i turn out to be wrong sometimes i think i'm right about a couple of the others but i'm not not sure for what it's worth i am not colorblind but the red and orange are very hard to distinguish and i distinguish them based on position not by color so that is something you can learn to do presumably good So there was that deck, but that's not very interesting. I made some other decks. I, inspired by that one, I was like, I can i can make some more interesting Cowboy Thanos move things happen, I think.

Speaker: um I've got one that I've been working on. Cards have been going in and out of this one. It's called Bat Frack the Fronter, because it's ah it's a Batroc the Leaper deck in Fractured Frontier, so it has to be Bat Frack the Fronter, because that's just how you get all the words together. you portmanteaus and stuff. um That one is a little spicy. It's a little weird. ah The thing is, Thanos Fractured Frontier wants you to like have a low curve. That's the truth. But I'm like sort of fighting it a little. I'm going against the tide a little bit.

Speaker: Because I wanted to play Psylocke. And Psylocke made me want to play Majestic Wingbeat. Oh, I also, speaking of fighting the the low curve tide of Thanos, I mean, like this was still pretty low curve. but Like I was, I was running a version with Wiccan for a minute.

Speaker: It felt pretty good. Cause like Wiccan is one of those cards where you don't need to hit it every time. It's just like something that pops sometimes. And I was doing Mercury Cannonball stuff. I'm still doing Mercury Cannonball stuff in this one. Let me tell you what's in this version of Batfract the Fronter.

Speaker: it's constantly evolving but yeah this one's got majestic wingbeat patrook the leaper spider-man brand new day craven samuel's and captain america silk hydra stomper mercury sidlock fractured frontier cannonball legion i don't know if anyone heard last week but like my co-hosts were talking about legion and i muttered to myself i need to play more legion and so that's uh That's what I'm trying to do here and now. So we got, we got, oh yeah. And after Legion, we got Thanos Fractured Frontier. So three fibers. so sometimes the quick draws don't happen, but that's okay. Guess what? You don't need to hit all your quick draws with Thanos. It's fine. um He usually does enough. um

Speaker: And it was ah it's an opportunity to play Psylocke Fractured Frontier. I haven't had an opportunity to run up a jillion games with this deck, but like it seems to be positive on win rates and things post-infinite.

Speaker: but you know what else I've been playing post-infinite that is definitely positive on win rates and cubes and things, and ah has been a lot of fun? A new safety blade deck. Not even the newest safety blade deck. He dropped another one after this, but I was like, I'm still chewing the previous meal. um So that one is called the Tarantula. I don't know if that's how it's supposed to be said, but ah I don't know. Point is, I named it in my deck carousel. It's called Safety Ranch. This sounds kind of like safety dance and it's descriptive and I know it's from safety, so I don't get confused and think it was my own good idea. um

Speaker: That one is Spider-Man brand new day. King E-Tree, Hydra Bob, Tarantula, AKA Rancho. um Then we got Iron Patriot, Shadowlands Daredevil, a card I have literally never played before. ah Cosmo, Jane Foster Fractured Frontier,

Speaker: uh juggernaut karen page another card i haven't played yet and thanos fractured frontier with big willy style one more time um yeah and that deck is pretty fun pretty good uh do recommend and right now my policy is no matter what i'm playing thanos fractured frontier so that i can learn these goddamn stones um Because there is a golden gauntlet. And I did sign up for it.

Speaker: Don't know what I'm playing. Deck submission usually is in the evening. On the Friday. Before the Saturday. that When the event is. This time deck submission is at. 9am for me.

Speaker: Whoa. Which is some old bullshit. So basically, I've got to decide by tonight what I'm playing, which is boo. I mean, like, I know Snap is a global game and they're all times of day. So like, it's not it's not great for somebody. But I love figuring out around 6 p.m. my time what I'm going to play. That's that's my preferred time to finalize my deck, usually because the deadline's seven and I give myself time to change my mind about a thing. But yeah, so I guess I need to think about that, which is gross because I got other stuff I wanted to do tonight. um

Speaker: But I'll figure it out. I'll play do the other stuff tomorrow instead. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. I'm just like, you know, maybe I just sort of let go and let Grodd and I just pick a deck and it's okay.

Speaker: And hopefully ah the Ape will mind control me into... making good plays on Saturday. for sure. That's what happens when you let go and like Grodd, uh, you're just like, yo, Grodd, tell me what to do.

Speaker: And he gets in there with his psychic monkey powers and, uh, makes you make good plays. I hope. Um, I know we're a Marvel Snap podcast, but we've all read a DC comic book, right? Once or twice.

Speaker: We know about the monkey with the mind control and stuff. hey Okay. I do actually, but I also know Grodd as a godly figure in Adventure Time. so Oh, well. I was a little man Whichever one has a greater... It's not monkey-ish though. so I mean, really, technically, gorillas aren't monkeys either.

Speaker: Well, no, they aren't. But you know what?

Speaker: were We're getting loose. and can i Can I formally request that when you include this link to safety's deck that you use the absolutely cursed Karen page that he's using? I mean, I can't. The marvel Marvel Snap Zone doesn't let me pick variants on the the builder thing. Do they not anymore? They used to.

Speaker: I don't think so. Well, if you can, you should. yeah it's When you when when you like type in Karen, you can hit like variant, variant, variant until it gets to this cursed one, and then you can click it into the deck. Because I want everybody else to have the same problem I'm having. Whenever I look at this deck from safety, I cannot look at the other 11 cards because Karen just steals all my attention.

Speaker: Gross, glossy chibis that look like they had at least some AI in their you know, process at some point. It's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. It's not.

Speaker: i don't I don't know. i wasn't looking over their shoulder when they made this variant. You've had cursed cards, I feel yeah Yeah, I think it's very... What's the most cursed card? What's the most cursed variant that exists? That one, Spider-Ham. The Spider-Ham with the gross arms um floating on the pie waft. don't know you're talking about. There's a Pixel Modok.

Speaker: There's a... Pixel Modok is a classic. There's... um that there's ah

Speaker: Hope Summers in the same style as this Karen and she looks soulless and it's pretty disturbing. I think I'm most angry. I was trying to think off the top of my head. I can't I know there are plenty, but like, ah you know, there's that one blob variant and it's not the variants the avatar people love to use. And it's like, I know they chose that to upset me. Very upsetting Avatar. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Blub. With, like, white tears coming out of his horrific face. It's just like... All right.

Speaker: Yeah, you're right. This wafting spider ham is pretty cursed. Yeah, it's real cursed. Oh, wait. I want to see the wafting spider ham. Did you... I added it to the chat. Zoom in on his arms. there's He's like photorealistic cartoon pig. Except just like doesn't make sense. it does it like It's but it doesn't add up.

Speaker: It's the snout that like really bothers me. Right? And look. He stretched out his snout to pass the pie. to pat like It's like here comes the steam. And it's like if you're a cartoon and you're just embiggening, you know, at random the way cartoon says, you can stop at the steam. Why are you going over? And then it's like, okay, you're right.

Speaker: Everything about it is like bad to look at. I don't dig it even a little bit. Also, aren't those eyes on Spider-Ham not yeah nostrils? So it's not even like canonically.

Speaker: don't know. Because he's a spider with the radioactive powers of a pig. Yeah. Wait, what? He's a spider who got bitten by a radioactive pig.

Speaker: I did not know that about Spider-Ham. mean, I've read comments with Spider-Ham in him, but I did not know that. I don't know if they do it in the comics, but in the, in the spider verse movies, whenever his eyes are making faces, his nostril eyes are also making faces, which makes me think their eyes.

Speaker: But what do I know? I think it's just fun that he's got like, uh, another set of Spidey. I things. It is. Maybe Spider-Ham is just more cursed than we all knew. He's very, I know. I think it's specifically the variant. I think the character's fine.

Speaker: Um, excited excited to hear john mulaney in that next uh spider verse movie didn't have any speaking lines in the uh the second one yeah just briefly pictured um uh but anywho anywho anything else happen in my week in snap i played those snaps uh q rush hit like right as i was like at 99 or something it did not uh i don't think i got to enjoy its benefits really um What else happened in my weekend snap?

Speaker: Been playing some more Montabi. Oh my gosh. the I didn't know that people were so horny for getting infinite. Like, making infinite combos. I guess I i should have realized, because like Slay the Spire on Steam has those negative Steam reviews. like ah you know it's ah It's a great beloved game, but um they...

Speaker: they tried to balance against, uh, people making infinite combos, make them a little harder to get. And so people started review bombing it because, uh, the kind of gamers who like to make infinite combos in roguelike deck builders, um, they seem like maybe the worst. I don't know. that the only way they know how to win? It's super boring, right? Like, wouldn't you rather engage with the game systems and like, don't, don't you enjoy improvising with like different tools and like,

Speaker: cooking with exotic ingredients and stuff and like learning good principles that can be applied in different contexts. And like, don't, don't you want to feel smart?

Speaker: I don't know. You could still feel smart stumbling into an infinite instead of just trying to replicate one that you read about. Yeah. That's the thing. Like I'll, I'll do an infinite once and I'll say, that's cool. And then I will,

Speaker: not try to do it again because I already like don't those people want to explore and experiment I don't know maybe they don't but they write nasty reviews on Steam about Slay the Spark 2 and i don't know but point is there's been a balance patch already to Montabi to make it harder to get infinite and to be fair super easy to make infinite interactions in Montabi you can also make infinite-ish interactions in Montabi don't know point is they they made that harder. And that, that was interesting to me that like, wow, so many people love doing infinite combos. That's the, I mean, like i get it. I mean, like I've been infinite combos are part of card games. They have been since the magic, the gatherings. And I don't know.

Speaker: that's just weird. Uh, I forget what else I wanted to say, but I'm still having fun with that, uh, with that game still highly recommend it. I had, uh, I, i had a spare I had a spare code for a spare Steam key. And i I sent that to my old friend Alex, who is the one who got me onto inscription. he was like, Ben would like inscription. So he just got me inscription ah back back in the early days of the podcast. I talked about it. I'm pretty sure Alex is not a listener, but shout out, Alex. You know you're the best. um

Speaker: So anywho... that that was That was great to to share this this game that i put some some thought and work into and stuff, even though, you know, it's not my game. I didn't do the hard stuff. I just, well, I did some hard stuff. I wrote up a lot of ah lot of very detailed feedback about each run and what I did and what felt useful and what felt useless. And yeah, I don't know. I'm proud of it. I'll say it. I'm proud of the game. Anywho, was a good weekend in snap.

Speaker: I... am Oh, man, I don't know. there There are things I was talking to my co-hosts about, and i'm like, maybe the listeners would want to hear about that, but my co-hosts already heard about it. So I am not going to... don't know.

Speaker: um Yeah, I think that was probably enough for a weekend snap. Enough to be getting on with. that's ah Whatever's next. Could we talk about the OTA? Should we talk about the OTA? ah Yeah, we can keep it short, or we could do it after intermission.

Speaker: yeah. There's not a lot to talk about, I don't think. Well, I'm fine either way. Let's keep it short. Let's do it now. Okay. All right. um i cause Just because I was talking about playing, I'm glad they are, I think, knocking Fisk down. I've seen a lot of Fisk.

Speaker: I've read it. And not that it's like I'm mad. Like, you know, it's not... when other cards are super obnoxious because he's just like a stats, you know, like they're usually trying to do other stuff with it, but there is a lot of them.

Speaker: And like I said, I, it's, it feels like it's much harder to have a I wish they were hitting.

Speaker: i wish maybe they were hitting a Gambit Horseman of Death again in this because. Yeah. Because do find, okay, because it is more work, right? You have these decks now that you can just put out stat sticks, right? Cheap stat sticks, a 3-9, right? That's like no big deal anymore. We got three nines, you know?

Speaker: ah no sweat kind of stuff. So building up little cards has become so much harder to do now, right? And it's so much more dangerous of an activity as we've discussed before.

Speaker: And yeah, it's just safer to put out these big cards. And and it's like, And so Gambit, Horseman of Death, really, you know what he doesn't hit? Fisk. ah You know what I mean? Whereas I can beat Gambit, Horseman of Death with, say, like the deck I shared earlier because I just have enough cards. They did nerf him before. And if you can get enough cards with enough power. But a lot of times there is a bit of just the random, you know, like, did you luck out?

Speaker: And what they hit. um And it's like, I don't think it's fair that like things like Fisk are both less work and more defensible.

Speaker: You know, like, what about the little cards? Putting in the hard work, you know, putting in the hours, putting in the time on the board. Okay. Anyway, so justified. All right.

Speaker: It's my most important thought about the OTA. Okay. Yeah, I think he still gets played at 3-8, right? yeah like yep That's comparable to the other threes that come with risk.

Speaker: He has a risk too, it's just a different one. The risk is you might not get to discount him. um But you know generally, if you're running him in a deck, it's because it's a deck that can get his discount.

Speaker: so He was just a little too free 3-9. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: I do think this is like probably gonna kick him out of some, some decks, I think. Yeah. Cause it does feel like a tipping point. That, that three, nine was like that. That makes a big difference. And I think that at three, eight it's, I don't know.

Speaker: That's the thing. I, I underestimated him so much before we, we got him out there and like saw how he felt and you know, now Now that I understand what's good about him, I think that it's not... This isn't a good enough version of what's good about him.

Speaker: But I bet people will still probably like him. I don't know. Yeah, I think he's not gone gone. Any other interesting cards to talk about? One, Mad Thinker went from 1-2 to one three So I don't think that matters at all. But it's good. I approve.

Speaker: think... Oh, no. Okay. Sorry. I just saw it disconnected, but now we're good. I actually think Mad Thinker is being a bit slept on in the same way Dino still wins games.

Speaker: And that a handful of card choices, as long as you are giving yourself meaningful choices to play, is good. And Mad Thinker rewards you for that. And right, he's now a 1-3. And it's like at some point, there's that power combined with other cards where like, yeah.

Speaker: Let me just fill up that hand. don't know. It could be a fun thing to try. I don't think it's going to like break into the top of the meta, but yeah, I mean, it's a lot of extra power for, you know, for a one cost going from one, two to one, three is pretty big.

Speaker: Drax four, five to four, six finally joins Jessica Jones and rescue at 10 power. Okay, wait, just back to my... Have you guys... me I've been seeing, I feel like, a good bit more Agent 13.

Speaker: Since she got her buff to three power. Have you also noticed that, has it just been my pocket? ah She's in the new Safety Blade deck, I think. Let me take a look. Yes, she is.

Speaker: Yep. um Yeah. i And I've noticed quite a bit more of her, so i mean I mean, as you were saying, one two to one three is you know, not nothing. She is working for the dark side, though. It's a Gambit Horseman of Death deck. I mean, that's not its main thing, but that's one of its things. I'm like, you are working for the dark side, Agent 3. You're kind of doing something wrong if you're playing a created cards deck and you're intentionally skipping Gambit, though. I suppose that's He's very good at what he does, unfortunately. I wish that they would take him down, and if you need to, buff something else. I mean, I...

Speaker: While we're talking about it, should i just say what this deck is? Because it's got some interesting cards in it. Sure. It's Quinjet, Snowguard, Agent 13, Maria Hill, Red Wolf, Dr. Octopus, Fractured Frontier, Wild, Iron Patriot, Cosmo, Jane Foster, Fractured Frontier, Gambit Horseman of Death, Juggernaut, and Thanos, Fractured Frontier.

Speaker: Did I hear no Victoria Hand? You did hear no Victoria Hand. See... Do you think maybe Dr. Octopus should be Victoria Hand? I don't know. I mean, if you can justify running Agent 13, Dr. Octopus does the same thing. It also hands out six power. It's true. It's true.

Speaker: You know, maybe i would love to think that Victoria Hand is like obsolete, no longer worth it, no longer the the best way to do that. Oh, that that would be delightful to me.

Speaker: I haven't played with Dr. Octopus yet, but I've seen people doing some cute things with him, like Namorita or Jubilee Silver Surfer or America Chavez to make a beefy brood. like There is some cute things I've seen with him, and I'm i'm interested.

Speaker: and might I might try to do something with him this weekend. No, I... Um... Sorry, just slightly back to Gambit Horseman. I do think I have beat him with other decks plenty of times. It's like, I don't know if he needs a Nerf Hammer. It's more like it's just super punishing to little decks when he's, is there a way to make him less copyable?

Speaker: You know, like that's his real problem. I like him as a little tool for them. Like when someone drops one Gambit, you know, i get that infuriates a lot of people, but it's never infuriating as someone like doing like three Gambits. You know, like, kind of stuff.

Speaker: I don't hate the idea of him asking for other created cards so he can't count himself. But as soon as you have three gambits, that's irrelevant anyway. That really only helps the two gambit case.

Speaker: I guess if you had three gambits, the two copies wouldn't trigger each other, but the first one would be triggered. So it might actually be a meaningful nerf. don't know. I don't know. yeah I don't know, but I feel like I'm a, it's like, I don't know that he needs to be nerfed because he doesn't win as much as he used to for sure. But like when you're playing, you know, when you're playing a bunch little cards that you put a lot of work into.

Speaker: would he be more or less? less offensive if he started like if there was something in his text I don't know if they've got room for this to be in his text but like what if he destroyed the opponent's lowest cost card and repeated until he destroyed three or lowest power or lowest power or whatever yeah lowest power I like that better that way he's not sniping your hydra stomp maybe he's just getting your spider brand new day and like jeff in the dolphin costume or whatever

Speaker: could open up some new ground for him too like what if it what if that lets him take out uh an iron man right i mean it lets him take out a mystique but not an iron man if you still kept the cost as well like yeah but i'm saying what if you did just like destroy the lowest power card until you've destroyed three cost of cards and it's like okay so he does hit iron man and immediately stops i think that would that might be less offensive yeah It makes it not so ah not so devastating for small card decks. And Red Guardian would still target an Iron Man, so that's kind of a known threat, right? Yeah, that's true.

Speaker: I think... Yeah, I'm guessing they haven't touched him again because he some combination of he's popular and he's not a huge threat and his play rates are high enough. beat lot But like, i don't know, he just feels like one of those cards like Alioth or what they've said about Clog and Lockdown where it's like, yeah, they're not especially strong or mill, but yeah, things that they want to intentionally keep down. I think that think Gambit's fit that category, but... I would argue yes.

Speaker: But the people playing them have so much fun with them, and so they keep them alive. That's the best explanation I have. one player is having fun. Yeah. That's right.

Speaker: You know, people play it. i mean, and there are plenty, like I said, the meta right now is, like, mostly big cards. I think this is one of the least effective metas.

Speaker: Like, at least what I've been playing, and to be playing Gamut Horseman of Death, because everyone's playing Thanos, Galactus First Steps, like, all the powers in big cards.

Speaker: You know, people aren't building little cards. Gets in there and, like, clears out your board, that just means you can... make a better Thanos fractured frontier play and get more control over where you can play him and clone the smallest card there. Like, yeah, I feel like, Oh no, you broke my soul stone. Yeah.

Speaker: Um, I don't know. Also, we got, I think we stopped at Drax going from four five to four, six also group three, four to three, five.

Speaker: i mean, three, five is a bit of a stat line as I'd like to say, ah Is Groot the new Wilson Fisk? I think probably not. A little maybe. yeah But you do have to like correctly make the play. That's not that's not I don't want to say it's like hard, but it's also not easy. It's not guaranteed. The Guardians suffer. People on you all the time. um The one I'm excited about here is the next one. Hawkeye plus three to plus four. i like one fives. I thought about playing Martyr in a deck this week.

Speaker: I put her in. i don't think I hit the play button with it. I think I took her out before I hit the play button, but thought about playing Martyr. Yeah.

Speaker: And then we got Firehair to two four Anybody have some thoughts about these fine cards?

Speaker: I've been seeing Firehair lately. yeah Hawkeye is big. It'll be good at bounce. It'll be good for bounce, but not enough. It's not going to make bounce come back. Do we just play Hawkeye because Hawkeye is good?

Speaker: i I don't think that's impossible. 1-5 is pretty crazy. yeah If you have a low enough curve deck, then I could see that for sure.

Speaker: um Pretty quick draw friendly. Yeah, and i think it's i think I think his condition is easier to meet than Ant-Man's, honestly. It's a hell of a lot easier to meet than Rocket Raccoon. That's true.

Speaker: It is hard. i have thought about this. It's hard because it's like, oh, the quick draw does to add so much to little cards. But in the deck, like said, I went, I got two infinity tickets and like two tries, I think. Maybe there was a third I lost, but like... um The thing I forgot to mention about Quicksilver and Domino is finally they actually are good for keeping your cards from being, you know, or better for keeping cards. Because the thing you don't want to see Psylocke, Fractured Frontier, or Jane in your opening hand, right? You want to draw them. You want that quick. Like, oh, getting Psylocke on the quick draw is so good. And I get there's Doc Octopus, but it's like ah whole card slot.

Speaker: whole card slot for this guy? And depriving yourself of a card slot and card draw. Yeah. So like, but like Quicksilver and Domino, right? Like, I don't know. There's so much of them out right now.

Speaker: But yeah, it pushes it pushes those cards down. It's just like, ah quick draws. They have benefited like possibly more from quick draws. Just like as in their play value. Quicksilver and Domino's stocks are at an all time high. You are correct.

Speaker: yeah it's pretty interesting because I don't think that was the intention. Right. Whereas with Wiccan, they are very transparent. Like the the whole design for Wiccan was how do we make Quicksilver and Domino desirable to play?

Speaker: Similarly with Marvel Boy, they're like, if people don't want to play this with Squirrel Girl, we're doing something wrong. um But yeah, I've definitely had the thought like, oh, these ah quick draw really had the side effect of boosting these two. I think think they should have had one cost quick draw card.

Speaker: yeah Maybe it'll happen someday. um and then finally, as you said, the fire hair getting a point buff. I already think she's a really cool card, but yeah, you don't see her very much. I think partially that's because she's tricky.

Speaker: They specifically called out trying to be a good death friend when death comes later this month. um And, like, I could see that being a cool deck. Like, oh, you're going to... It's, like, bounce-ish. You play a bunch of a bunch of ones with good on-reveals, you Killmonger them, and then you bring them back.

Speaker: And if you have fire hair out, that means you did them all three times. Like, it's cool, but... don't know. It's not... was so stupid the other day. Have you ever, like, where you, like, just aren't paying attention while you're playing that hard... And you didn't realize one of the locations was the one that brings cards back on turn five?

Speaker: Oh. um And you and your opponent have to watch you like stupidly murder someone just for them to pop back up again I That was embarrassing. Are you talking like you murdered a ninja or something and it came right back?

Speaker: No, um I used a Shang on turn five to take out their big guy. And then at the end of the turn, it's just like, hey, I am again. I'm like, oh, I just didn't even like look at the location. yeah I was just not with it. Okay.

Speaker: That can be really rewarding, though, when when there's like a bunch of other cards that are destroyed. And like their little like one cost is the one that comes back first. And then the location is full. Within me, there are two wolves and one plays games so attentively. Right. So chess. mat I have like count I'm like I've I've thought about where they're going to play. They're kind of like masterminded it out.

Speaker: And then there's another wolf in me that's like the dopey head of Cerberus. And she's like, oh! And it's like, you don't know which one you're going to play. And some of them it's just like, boom, win, you know, win gold conquest, gold conquest, gold conquest. And then other times it's like, oh, yeah, like that's a card or mechanic.

Speaker: Okay. On to our side quest. First up and only this week, Secret Homework, the last of the season. This week's Secret Homework was assigned by... Rie.

Speaker: Take it away. Okay. Sorry. Is it me or are you like noticeably... Are you like more quiet? Can you not hear me? i am further away from my mic. That might be part of it. Maybe it's not. You just feel a little more quiet than you speak. Ben, speak please.

Speaker: ah Oh, that wasn't speech. I'm talking now. Yeah, like yelling does not help me. Here. Speech, normal volume. I'm saying things like I would normally say.

Speaker: as I so often do. Keep it snappy, blah, blah, blah. Is this better? Does she sound quieter to you? Lauren, things. I still quieter? Am I still quieter now? You sound pretty normal to me, Lauren. I moved the mic closer. have a dog in my lap.

Speaker: Let's start it over. Secret homework. Last of the season. Reassigned it. Take it away. Okay, i did assign making a playlist as the sort that I used to exchange. It was in When I was in the exchanging things, it was burning CDs. Now it's exchanging plays. I'm glad, like, while the technology marches we still like to...

Speaker: So the challenge was make a playlist for your favorite deck, meaning one song for the deck and then a song for each individual card for 12, 13. Or you could the same thing for the Fractured Frontier Season 1 to represent the season, one for each card that releases. Okay.

Speaker: And luckily did mine. Okay, because, like, when I'm making a playlist, I need to be, like, in the vibes, right? And actually, the last ah two weeks, I had...

Speaker: um been playing my Thanos so ah Fractured Frontier Thanos deck and not my RSM deck, which I did get the two avatars with. So the honor is deserved, right? You know, like the reward has been promised. Well, I mostly did make it back then. And then because I wasn't best, I had like one, very last song to pick. That was like the only one I hadn't really decided at the time. And that was like a super struggle.

Speaker: Then we got there in the end. We'll get there. Okay. So I won't go through everything. i just want to pick out a few highlights. The first, the first, the most important is the mea culpa.

Speaker: That is Shang-Chi ah song card choice. Hopefully those words the right order. Okay. um It is, okay, it is a it's called No.

Speaker: It's a 90s mashup of a bunch of ninety songs. And, okay, first I mean to to get to the point for the vehicle, but it works for Shang because, like, to me, that's what Shang is. It's just like, no.

Speaker: I can't wait in. No. That Black Panther's not going to get Zola'd. No, that Symbiote's not going to, like, merge into a Galactus or whatever. i don't know. um So, for me, it's the perfect song. Also, i could imagine... it Simon?

Speaker: Some reason I want to say Simeon, which I don't even know if it's a real name. Okay, Liu, who played Shang-Chi. I can imagine him singing. Yeah, like doing a karaoke. Who?

Speaker: Simu Liu. Simu! Okay, is that his name? I couldn't, sorry, I couldn't remember the name. like deb Okay. um I can imagine doing karaoke to this song.

Speaker: friend so it was a good choice for each of these so it was for me in all things i saw some like this is just the shang song for me and the new culpa is that there was this stuck with me there is a time on the podcast where i confused a song by the i think tlc i thought the spice girls Did it?

Speaker: Vice versa. Some reason i mixed up this music. Ben, of course, corrected me. This song is why. This song mashes all those songs together. And that's why I got confused. Do things jumble in my head?

Speaker: Yes. But in this case, this song. This song is why i was embarrassed for your amusement.

Speaker: Okay. Earlier, whenever that happened. Okay, so I saw that. I'm like, oh, finally. Finally, justice for Pastry. If only she could appreciate it. She didn't know it was coming.

Speaker: Okay. So anyway, first call-out song. um I really like a lot of these ones that I picked. um I do... ah Oh, okay. I do want to shout out my... Because most of these I tried to pick songs ah that weren't, like, I didn't think were super big.

Speaker: Hopefully. I don't always know how popular this song is. So maybe, you know, someone could see something new if they were to look at it. But I did one song instantly and without regret.

Speaker: instantly and without regret and with passion, ah that was a bigger song, and it was Blink-182's All the Small Things for Mockingbird. So i'm like, that's Mockingbird to me. That's how you get a Mockingbird. I play all the small things.

Speaker: Mockingbird is free. It's just too good. Also, I can imagine the character. I love that you tied it to her snap mechanics. Like, I have a Mockingbird in my deck, too, and I was thinking about how does this fit the Marvel character's personality?

Speaker: done both i've done both uh because like yeah some of that one was very much it was just too it's too fitting some of these songs like i agonized over and you know like this song or this song you know and then some of i'm just like that that one this was that case the same thing with um space ghost coast to coast like Is that is it just not going to cosmic ghost writing?

Speaker: a Space ghost. tell me you How many words? That is the snap card for that song. Yeah. And then, okay, also by title and general theme.

Speaker: ah For Quinjet, okay, because I did, if you're looking, for sharing the links for this. um Fembot, which is an amazing song, is the of the song for the deck overall. And then Quinjet is where it starts and goes in order that they appear in the deck.

Speaker: And Quinjet is a song called i Still Dream of the ninety s And I guess title isn't as long as I thought it was. I Still Dream of the 90s in My Flying Car. I'm like, if you're not interested by that title, well, then I still respect you.

Speaker: Your opinion is equal to mine. Okay. So, i mean, because it's music, right? should be about what reaches you. And sometimes for me that's different. You know what's weird? Okay, like all the small things I still love. I still enjoy. i actually spent a little time being like, can I find a cover that I find, like, ah interesting, you know, to just put something different? No, none of them are better than this.

Speaker: um But like some songs that I loved back in the cannot stay like they've just perpetually annoyed me now. You know, Jimmy world's the middle. Yes.

Speaker: I don't know. Some just irritating those song to me anymore. Some songs go and come back. I think like six underground. or the shoes, some song about shoes.

Speaker: kicks it's just like it came back they played it overplayed and i was so done with it and then it was gone for a while and it came back again okay anyway so um i didn't i'm not calling things songs out by how much i love them but um the interesting things i want to say about them so but that's oh okay then let me conclude let me conclude with uh where I started, I guess, which was like, I, the that the last song I had like really not picked or felt strongly about um before I stopped working two weeks ago was for Arisham himself. I picked one for the deck overall, Fembot, that was pretty like, on those, and I had so, I was just like, I had so many random stuff, I had stuff, I had like 10 songs, and I'm like, I don't know, nothing feels right.

Speaker: And then um i was Then, you know, I brought it back to its core and it's like the deck, the deck is, gone okay. Well, when I shared this deck a couple of weeks ago, I called it my, my sis Shem is in mint condition. That's the lyric from Fembot. That is my systems in mint condition. It is me.

Speaker: My systems. Okay. Anyway, but the, the, the actual long running re-deck is of course a re-shem, you know? um And so I'm like, well, okay, if this deck is really, like, about me, my personal flavor of R.H.M., and it's somewhat relating to robots, and I don't want it to be a sad song.

Speaker: um Then, I'm sorry, there's one song I i was like, oh, it's sad song. I'm like, no, it's too sad. I can't with this one. I didn't put any sad. I also to go sad that.

Speaker: They're all, they're all pretty, yeah, they're all pretty, they're all pretty good. Uh, you know, subjectively. Okay. No, no. Okay. But like, um I did pick, okay. And the last one is Robo's theme from Chrono Trigger.

Speaker: Why? i have a tattoo of Robo right here. Because Chrono Trigger is, of course, one of the greatest RPGs of all time. So, like, ending it with Robo, and it's like, yeah, the Robo theme, it's like, if it played, I would be like, Robo theme! I know it, you know?

Speaker: I'm into it, and I feel like... ah You know, nobody's ever recognized k Chrono Trigger in the wild. Some people like, I like your, like, pixel tats or like, you know, whatever. but no one's, yeah, no one's ever been like, I too have a deep and abiding love of Frog.

Speaker: and Okay, anyway. that was That was enough discussion for me um over my playlist. Um, who would like... ah Are we going in an order? Who would like to go next? I have i have me next because Ben would have signed it next homework if there were any, but I'm good either way. Do Lauren. Do it.

Speaker: Um, i So last time I did a playlist of all songs from a single artist because... It's just the way my memory works and the way I listen to music and all that is like the playlist building is not, is not aligned with, with my how my brain works. Um, but I involved my 14 year old this time, who I think has a great taste in music, very eclectic, but also like very clearly inspired by what I played for him as a child. Um,

Speaker: Sometimes he really surprises me some of the like old, old music that he pulls out. It's like, where did you hear this? It's just, I don't know. He, ah he's super into music discovery. um So he helped me, but I was like insistent that like, mostly these are songs and artists that I'm familiar with, but there are some exceptions.

Speaker: Anyway, I'm mostly going off of character vibes. I have, with a little help from my friends, ah not the Beatles, but the Across the Universe cover version. That's a jukebox musical of Beatles music that I love, which is fitting for Ant-Man's mechanics because he needs some help from his friends. um, Captain America, I have rat by Penelope Scott, which is, which might not seem like a good fit, but it's, it's, uh, it's very anti-authoritarian and like questioning, uh, questioning if the systems in place are the right systems in place, which I think does fit with Sam Wilson. So even if the lyrics directly don't fit him, uh, I think the vibes do. And that, that one's,

Speaker: pretty explicit if that's something that you're not comfortable with so be careful on that one um mysterio i loved reggie's pick for it that's my child um it's a they might be giant song which happens to be a band i loved uh when i was a teenager uh called stuff is way and the lyrics are absolute like nonsense like grammatically they don't make sense and i thought that was very fitting for mysterio's illusions uh mechanically or thematically either way um it's a very disorienting song Negasonic Teenage Warhead, at first we had something more punky, because that just seemed like obvious. Of course you would do that. um

Speaker: But then i really wanted something from Musicical, who is... i She's a trans woman who makes music, and I really like her music. Unfortunately, like... Reggie and I learned about musical through a YouTuber who ended up being problematic. And so that was like, oh no kind of awkward because they, they collaborate often. um And so now we don't like the YouTuber anymore who also made great music, but this is a solo musical project. um And I couldn't pass it up because it was still pretty high energy, but then it it also had the lyrics. um I'm going nuclear. Will you catch me when I explode? Which, you know, it's just like,

Speaker: Maybe laying it on thick, but you know, that's, that's, ah that's Negasonic. Um, I should have said I picked for the theme of mine. i picked my favorite deck of all time, which is dead since they killed Mysterio and changed Negasonic to a four. I tried to keep it alive with a few changes like Surge and Merlin, but it's just like, it's not the same anymore. Mysterio was really, really important to this deck and it doesn't quite work the same anymore.

Speaker: Um, But it's, you know, it's it's it's an honor to one of my favorite decks ever. It's actually not a lockdown deck. It's more of a control deck. It has, you know super giant and then ah Negasonic and then a bunch of ways to burst in power, namely Valkyrie and Cersei.

Speaker: Speaking Negasonic, in case one of our listeners is screaming this, ah we we all know that Negasonic Teenage Warhead, the the character, is named after a song. Negasonic Teenage Warhead. The second track on Monster Magnet's 1995 album dubs to infinity.

Speaker: okay I did not know that, but I knew it was a song.

Speaker: um Okay. One type of music my child loves that I hate is noise. um Like noise core, glitch core. There's a bunch of words for it. And I i really struggle with the ones that like go beyond rhythmic. I don't know if this one qualifies, but it's in that direction. i wanted for Supergiant, I wanted something that like really feels like there's something in your head, reading your mind, mind controlling you, out of control, monstrous, whatever.

Speaker: um Sentry, I picked Monster by Dodie, which is actually like a really like Sonic, the tone of the song itself is actually pretty like sweet and lighthearted, but it's about becoming a monster in the eyes of somebody else, you know, like an ex or something. um But in Century's case, I liked it as like this twist of like he's struggling with, like is he a monster because of you know the void that he can't control?

Speaker: um So that was my thought on that one. ah Final shout out for... Valkyrie. I picked This World by Sila Su and I'm shouting it out not because I think it's an especially good fit. It's kind of just like badass woman um dealing with the world but because I love Sila Su. It's um really unique music. It's it's like very reggae influenced but she's a European artist and I love her voice. So if you've never listened to her I highly recommend it.

Speaker: That's my quick tour. Wow. I love it. There's a lot of these artists I have like i am familiar with, but not those specific songs. so and stuff Yeah, look forward to listening through your two lists.

Speaker: All right. Are you ready for this? Yeah. Bootylicious is not on my playlist. Maybe an oversight. I couldn't decide.

Speaker: First, i was thinking like, I'll do a deck. Mostly I wanted to do a surfer deck because I had the idea. i was like, you know what? I've, I've, with all these playlists that we do, i tend to go very literal. Um, so I wanted to do one for a surfer deck just so that I could have the captain Carter song be, we share our mother's health by the knife because I'm very literal like that. And like, you do literally share our mother's health, you know, with Captain Carter, because, you know, she's she's mother. um But instead, I just decided to do one for each fractured frontier card. So I went the seasonal route.

Speaker: Interesting the season pass card is, uh, Thanos fractured frontier. And this was the easiest one of all of them. Cause there's only one song it could possibly be.

Speaker: Say it with me. Big iron, ah by Marty Robbins. Um, you might know it from the fallout new Vegas soundtrack or from, I don't know.

Speaker: i have it on vinyl. I got it at Goodwill. The, the record from, from which it comes. um You know, and that's the one that's all like... To the town of Agua Freya wrote a stranger one fine day Hardly spoke to folks around him didn't have too much to say.

Speaker: No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip. For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip. Big iron on his hip. You know that one? We all know that one, right?

Speaker: Oh, no, but like... I had been hoping you would sing it because as soon as you said it was in Fall New Vegas, I'm like, well, I know the song, but then if it is in that, but I don't recognize it by the you know artist or name. and And then as soon as you started singing it, it was, you know, it was i was I think I was going to incorrectly reference the wrong DJ for that Fallout game. but you know all ah new er Mr. New Vegas? I was going to mention 3Dog, but I think that's Fallout 3. That's Fallout 3.

Speaker: One dog ain't enough and two is too few. um Anywho, so that, like, it's literally a song about a dude with a big revolver. Like, come on um on. then we have the super premium season pass card. Maybe you've heard of her Jane Foster, Fractured Frontier.

Speaker: She judges the worthy. So I, of course... I've been playing a lot of Mugenics in 2026. I don't know if you heard. Um, and the, the song that seemed super fitting when I was like, well, what's a song about judging the worthy?

Speaker: i floated over to dig your own grave. The song that plays during the boss fight against, um, what you're killing God, of course. Um,

Speaker: it's a four part boss fight and the, the song evolves as you move through the different parts of the boss fight, but it all like keeps, what they do it with stems, you know, like it'll like switch to the next stems for, you know, how like, um, when you're fighting skill and the sirens in Hades two, and you take out Roxy and the drums stop, or you take out, um, jetty and the, the guitars stop, ah you know a lot of a lot of games are doing cool stuff with stems these days. I think the first one I noticed it with was ah Jack 2, where you get there's ah there's like a little added percussion track that's like kind of subtle whenever you pull out your your gun in a level.

Speaker: um So that's that's just a thing. But like, ah yeah, that if you wanted to hear all of the the dig your own grave stuff, it takes like 17 minutes or something, but somebody edited it down so you can hear all the stuff basically in nine minutes and 33 seconds.

Speaker: Uh, but it's a fantastic song. Uh, there's a lot of talking, uh, increasingly unhinged, uh, Bible verses and pseudo biblical stuff and other things. Uh, there's, there's a lot of talking. There's a great, uh, female vocalist whose name I don't know right off the the top of my head. Um,

Speaker: just all the music in that game absolutely rips. And it was a struggle not to use more Mugenics songs here. i I have one more later, but you know, anywho, then we've got Psylocke fractured frontier. Wasn't really sure what to do here. i don't, I don't know what makes Psylocke fractured frontier different from regular Psylocke or anything. I know that Psylocke, her power often manifests as like butterflies and stuff like that's sort of her signature telepathy shape.

Speaker: You know, she gets like butterfly energy around her face when she's doing and cool stuff. It's very cool. So I was thinking there are multiple songs called Butterfly. There's a Weezer song off Pinkerton. Yesterday I went outside and my mom's mason jar caught a lovely butterfly. It's very, um you know, I don't know. ah Point is, ah you know, a lot lot of butterfly songs I went with.

Speaker: The tackiest, just like most cringe worthy one that i was aware of, which is Butterfly by Crazy Town. Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know if y'all know that one. Yeah, I was like, when I saw it, I'm like, Ben would put this on his list. Yeah, I'm not endorsing this. I'm not saying the song know, but that's why you do it. It's like you like to troll sometimes with your songs. You like to wrinkle people. It's definitely the worst song on the list.

Speaker: and All the other songs are good. This song is such a meme, and I don't know why it survived so long as such a meme, but it is like funny for some reason. Yeah, it it it it it's absolutely important that it happened and we all allowed it to happen, you know, as a culture.

Speaker: um We never forget Butterfly by Crazy Town. um Then I've got Dr. Octopus, Fractured Frontier. And I was like, well, we could be super literal, get in here with the Beatles, Octopus's Garden.

Speaker: But then I was like, well, let's keep it literal, but with a better song. um Sorry, Ringo. um Peace and love. ah You know, so I was like, well, my favorite Radiohead album is The King of Limbs. And Dr. Octopus has...

Speaker: a lot of limbs. He may in fact be the king of limbs. Maybe, maybe the whole Radiohead album is about him. And there are a lot of good tracks on that album. um But I went with Lotus Flower. It was hard to pick. There are a lot of good, a lot of good songs on King of Limbs.

Speaker: Highly recommend. But that that one is very listenable. You'll probably do some of, some of them, even the ones I like are like, you know, they're a little, they're not immediately yeah fun to listen to some of them so some of them are are a little bit more of an acquired taste but this one is just like kind of a bop and then we got Red Wolf and ah I learned two weeks ago just how much I didn't know about Red Wolf so I decided to be safe and very literal and I went with Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran to you know

Speaker: It's a much better song than Butterfly by Crazy Town. I'll say it. Really, really, ah I think it's ah it's a it's a fun listen. good Good song. You've surely heard it before. it's ah you know say a mega hit. Um, then I've got for death, fractured frontier, you're dead by Norbert Tonega. Uh, you might have heard that one as the opening music for the, not the film, but the television program, what we do in the shadows. Surely, surely you've seen it. It's a great show.

Speaker: I haven't. The movie's good too. love it Uh, but yes, show is I feel the show has greater salience or whatever. um Then for Red Hulk, Fractured Frontier, i had to i had to dip back into Mugenics. The music in Mugenics is so amazing. It's so good. All of it is just, it's just bops top to bottom. um This one is tough. It's a song about being tough and it plays in the Jurassic when you're fighting. Well, that's the thing.

Speaker: ah the the music in each area in Mugenics is usually, with a couple of exceptions, it's the boss music, except, like, you don't have lyrics, and they, I don't know, they they do cool stuff with stems in other ways, where, like, you'll walk into a shop, and, like, it's a different style of music, but, like, it's still the same song playing at the same tempo, it's just, like, a different arrangement and stuff, um but anywho,

Speaker: this song about being tough is very good and uh red hulk as far as i know he's just a ah brutish guy who um has no time for no reading no writing no silly stuff um anywho those were the tracks i picked and uh yeah that's the loss ones you didn't pick something for hell cow or did i miss it Oh, I skipped it.

Speaker: It was Do the Beef Hop. ah If you've never heard of Do the Beef Hop, then I guess you haven't listened episode, I think it's episode 49, maybe, of the Beef and Dairy Network podcast. Oh, okay. yeah um I was like, what's what's a ah literal cow kind of song? And I was like, well, do i know do I know if Hell Cow is a beef animal or part of a dairy herd? I wasn't sure, but I was like, well, there are some dope songs in Beef and Dairy Network podcast. Highly recommend. If you don't if you don't fuck with the Beef and Dairy Network podcast, maybe you should try because it's real good. um

Speaker: And yeah, those those are the the eight tracks I picked. Amazing. Thanks for sharing. All of those links to all those playlists will be in the show notes or video description. All of them YouTube music.

Speaker: I don't know how that happened, but all three of us did that. um Despite it not being as popular as some of the other alternatives. ah The show notes tell me school's out for the summer. So that's the end of Secret Homework ah until season two. If that's a thing that happens, maybe.

Speaker: Maybe. Maybe. We don't know. Anyway. No one can read the future. A secret homework special episode? Who knows? ah Anyway, there will be one more episode until we go on hiatus.

Speaker: We're still determining behind the scenes if we're doing... I'm sorry for Remy. He's very mad. at opinionated He wants food or something. if suddenly It's thundering. Who knows what's going on? think in general a lot about things. so makes sense Can you wait five minutes?

Speaker: Can you hear him? Is he coming through on the mic? yeah yeah I hope people don't end up hearing just me yelling into the void. There is a dog who's being a punk. That would be funny. I know you need my help. Can you wait five minutes, please?

Speaker: Come here. Anyway, um totally lost my train of thought. There will be at least one more episode. There may be We haven't decided yet if it is the bonus special, exciting, fun thing or if it is separate from the special bonus, exciting, fun thing. But we do have such a thing planned. um So tune in.

Speaker: next week of course I'm getting ahead of myself uh like and subscribe so you can catch the next episode uh come hang out in the speakeasy it's our little corner of discord you can find the instructions to get there in the show notes or video description please stop come here I can't speak um come here thank you goodness gracious

Speaker: You're going to be on camera for this now. um We're probably part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Judgments, our titular grand pod by Pulse Glazer and Nick the Greek Geek.

Speaker: Are you waving to Ray? Uh-huh. Aw. You can tell he's a good dog. you can just He's a great dog. He's just suddenly hungry or something. um Anyway, tune in for our season finale next week. Same snap time, same snap

Speaker: Outro outro? Yeah, you had something. I know you did. Um, did have thing earlier. I think would rather talk about a different thing. You have, like, three-somethings.

Speaker: Yeah, do it. Oh, my gosh. I was literally thinking. I'm like, there are three. Okay, no, but, like... Uh-huh. Okay, um... Relax. I want to talk...

Speaker: Yeah. Talk about the ones I'm most excited about. Please. Okay, one I want to brag. um Oh, man. My life has but almost been very Steven Universe lately. You almost got two playlists, Arisham Blue and Arisham Yellow, to mirror not just, like, a Pokemon release, but also mirroring the Blue and Yellow Diamonds, where one would be, like, a more... slightly more, like, chill...

Speaker: Or, you know, mean, there wouldn't be more like fight, you know, but then, like I said, we were out of the vibes and I am like, I cannot settle to playlists when we have not been playing the deck lately, you know, channeling it. So. Um, that's just a side note. The side note is I finally got Ranger Guy. Finally, I got Ranger Guy. What is Ranger Guy, you ask? Okay.

Speaker: So, and of course, FF14, as per usual, my other, I like a lot of joy in my games lately. Um, there is uh, you know, a secret, not, there's a place you go,

Speaker: um to i It has its own special jobs, you know, its own inside game, and you have to collect the jobs of different sorts. And one job you can only get from fighting one specific fate that also has to be spawned by fighting things in the area so it doesn't, like, auto-spawn, like, other stuff.

Speaker: And it's the only way you can get the ranger job. And I'm calling it Ranger Guy because there's an episode of Steven Universe where he collects guys, you know? Yeah. They're like vending machine guys, you know, where you put in a quarter and it does random stuff. We don't, like, have that anymore is the thing.

Speaker: But it's gotchas. They found a way to make more money from it with fake things instead of real toys. So, like... um plastic is too expensive he collects guys and there's all kinds of guys you know um what are the guys i don't even know fireman guy that kind of thing yeah lots of guys there's even like taxes guy okay but the coolest of all the guys is a ranger guy You know, anyway, so I was like, and this was my, and this is my way when it was like Ranger Guy. And the concern is, okay, the new zone already came out.

Speaker: And it's like, well, what happens when all the adventurers have left the zone? What if I, and then like what? And then I never get to get Ranger Guy because like fate doesn't pop. There aren't enough people to do it. It's not a critical encounter. It's.

Speaker: I just know anyone to at me if they play FF14. I'm like, why would you call it clinical fate and know the different okay Anyway, so, yeah. yeah And then, and so, and I was like, I was, um I was playing and I got a special pot. It's where you follow a pot to a treasure chest through vague instructions it gives you as it follows you around. It's different part of the same game. Okay, but in the same zone.

Speaker: And I got that, and I'm like, fucking now is when, like, fate will drop, because you can't take the pots that lead you to the treasure into battle.

Speaker: They will leave you, and then you don't get the treasure chest. And that's when Ranger, that's when the Ranger guy fate came up. Critical encounter, sorry. And then, um and I was like, okay, do I, because I'm like, okay, I'm like, I had steeled myself. I was like, re you're going to go into this critical encounter. And like, every time you have done this critical cool encounter before, which is many times, might I say, it will not drop.

Speaker: And you will be sad because you gave up your pot and chance at a treasure chest, which might have something cool and new, like a mount in it for you. It's a, For the chance to get Ranger Guy. But nevertheless, we must try for Ranger Guy. And I like totally, you know, steal it and like be prepared for the disappointment.

Speaker: You know? Never expect anything. Can't have your heart broken. And then we got Ranger Guy! Yay! Okay, sorry. was a great story. What are you going to do with this? um Well, now I am like leveling up. So they give you special actions.

Speaker: And... um It is important that I have all the jobs and raise them all and have all the actions. okay well How much will Rangers Geisley play?

Speaker: I don't know. But now he's mine. In the collection. And it doesn't, it's like, i don't, it's like if the zone, if the zone becomes a wasteland and the monsters take over, you know, and comes Jurassic Park Lake, which I actually guess it already is, but you know, people are there fighting, you know, and then it's like, it's okay. I got, I got what I needed.

Speaker: My my collection is complete. Okay. um

Speaker: Secondarily, ah i made... Okay, no, this has been a long enough out, Joe. Real tired. oh okay okay

Speaker: Congratulations on your Ranger Guy. didn't mean to talk so long about Ranger Guy. You didn't talk that long about Ranger Guy. yeah it wasn't that long. It was really was pretty minimal.

Speaker: TBH. Okay. I think you should go about 20 minutes longer on Ranger Guy. Yep. I could i could hear about another 20 minutes of that. Okay, let me tell them one more second because this is like so out of character for me. this is so bizarre. Okay, so I have mentioned that like i I'm in a weird place. I've shunned social media. i don't know how how to deal with it. Like I wasn't part of it, but then I was and then it's like, you know, remember when you do stuff and then you get to share it and that's fun. And it's like, no, i don't have that anymore. done and like, i'm done with the

Speaker: And stealing all my – you know, i all these companies. But it's like it sucks, right? Because it's like – We don't have any place to go. Anyway, so ah I've mentioned that I, but I do.

Speaker: Reddit is like a place that is my scroll, you know, because I don't have Instagram or anything. So like that is where I scroll. But I have, my account is eight years old. Eight years I have had Reddit. In that time, it has been like minuscule, like crazy.

Speaker: I think one of the very, maybe, not the first. The first was someone, comment i ever made was someone being like, this is my username and I forgot the password. See? you can see it's here. It's a dead account. Nobody's ever written anything in it. I just can't remember the password to get in.

Speaker: was just like, should I just leave it? It's just like, no, excuse me on this Minecraft. like No, this is, this is in fact my, I do, I do exist as a person.

Speaker: It's very silent. Anyway. Then, okay, I was compelled, like, eight years, right? Very, like, never, like, almost never commenting, almost never. Very, like, I think the first time I felt, like, compelled to comment was in my disappointment, the the absolute shattering of my soul over Warren Ellis.

Speaker: turning out to have misused his powers in creepy and awful ways as he was like and he was even an author that had been very like trans metropolitan the comic very influential and he was younger the college and like i had like collected his work like i literally anytime i saw a comic he had written that i didn't have like i would buy it and it was just very devastating to me and it was just like i'm compelled to come to reddit on to express the disappointment that I cannot share nobody cares about but he was like my deep woundedness anyway okay so like that's the sort of thing then there was another time where it was like someone was like is there you know what is the specific music in this like scene and the specific scene in Final Fantasy between these two characters and it was like

Speaker: It was like a Ted Lasso like Roy moment. And I mean that when he says he's reading like a wrinkle in time. and and he's like, it has to be me. It couldn't be anyone else. You know, it has to be. It's like, I not only know the very specific scene between these two characters we're talking about, i know exactly what song it's playing.

Speaker: The song is Ink Long Drive from Great google Google Library Dungeon. I'm like, I must, I must answer this person. And I did. And it's good of you to impart your wisdom. hey so Right. And it's like this scattered over. years And then randomly, randomly last night.

Speaker: Uh. I had taken and taken some pictures of a silly Midwestern-looking glam I made. And my paladin and my shield is potlid and my sword is a ladle. I've just gotten this.

Speaker: And I'm in a very Midwestern-looking outfit, like the flappy, I forget what they're called, the flappy hats. with flaps on the sides and like a coat and scarf and some stonewashed jeans specifically I got I had from treasure dungeons I can make all kinds of jeans sales so all from like me farming treasure Yeah, bringing back treasure. Okay, and and making Ugg boots. they're basically Ugg boots, which I was never wore when I was young because I was like, I'm not like the other girls. Okay. I heard that. there was i I was a little bit like that when was here. I'm sorry. It's like I saw North Face Police in Ugg boots and was like, hmm, I'm too cool. Did you want to wear Ugg boots? were you like Were you stifling the part of yourself that wanted to wear Ugg boots or did you just not like Ugg boots authentically?

Speaker: It's hard to break apart those aspects of my personality the time, to be honest. You're right. Like, i I used to hate pink, and now I like it. So, um okay. So, I had put together, and I had, you know, I had gone i had gone to a um You know, I found the farming, ah like I'm like off the head. I'm like, okay, I'll go to the Red Rooster Farms because it'll look farming like for my farming outfit. And I also, and I, you know, I took out the special G pose mode where you take photos that I don't really know how to use in full. I've only started messing with. you know, and I took a photo and like mid battle pose. And then I took a photo on my little like tractor mount, you know, and like, and then, you know, and then it started raining in the middle of the photo shoot. I'm like, it's perfect Midwest, perfect Midwest thing. So when I pulled out of the like, fit it's probably not 50 umbrellas. I have a lot of different kinds of umbrellas. I pulled out the one that matched my outfit and also looked the most Midwest and took a picture in the rain. I took these and I was so proud of them. And I'm like,

Speaker: You know, I just don't, like, I'm not in like I said, I don't, I don't community that much anymore. It's sad. It's sad, lonely, weird life. and i And I was like, but I like, I like these pictures. i'm sure And like, late night re just randomly did something. It was like terrifying.

Speaker: I like, I like did a Reddit post in the FF14. so about it with my pictures because i was just like i don't know it was late night re sometimes she does things and but like i have to say right like eight years and um i made one post like about my mermaid game to see if like reddit would be a use so it's like i don't don't post ever and it's like probably the most successful thing i've ever done to be honest already not posting No, posting it was probably the most successful thing. I'm bad with remembering numbers.

Speaker: So like, I don't know, that might not be true. But it's like, like over 500 people liked it. And my favorite thing about it. My favorite thing about it is someone commented.

Speaker: It's like, okay, I don't I don't want to like, I won't actually read it. And I'm paraphrasing. So like, you know, just know, I'm like, I'm paraphrasing this person. And they deserve to be quoted more respectfully, because they, you know, they're pretty intelligent. Like, I'm just laughing at the fact that you're you know you're using La Nocea as your paradigm for the Midwest when it's actually like a tropic island by but like all these details about FF14 lore it's like so annoying it's just like no what are you doing is cute but it's so funny because like you know those it's just like oh I fucking am i fucking love these people

Speaker: ah I couldn't do it. Like, I get too too anxious sometimes to, like, answer people. You know, I did one reply where someone's like, I have to know where the shield is from. This I can do.

Speaker: Write a few words. But in general, I was, like, too afraid to like, reply to any comments. But it's, like, it warmed my heart so much. Right? Like, this is who I – I, like – the people who spend their time on this because they love it and then they know it and then they can say it and other people will appreciate it. I saw a whole Reddit post of like five pairs. This is one of the things earlier, actually, when you, when, when you asked me what was thinking about and I was like, we should move on. was like,

Speaker: You're talking about your fucking nerdy shit in, like, the ah the Snap Discord where you're talking about, like, arc can arcane interactions, you know? And i love i love that shit. in the In the Marvel Champions, I just randomly scrolled. I saw this post where someone was talking About five, about how we use the term chump blocking, you know, in card games. You're probably, a lot of you are probably familiar with if you played. It's where, like, especially magic and stuff, it's like a of times there's not overkill damage. So you can... You block a 6-6 with a 1-1.

Speaker: Yeah, so you block... So in Marvel Champions, you know, a lot of times you'll save your big hero character because in Champions, you're kind of playing you're playing one hero and you can summon, like, other heroes to help them. So yeah, you like chump block them to take all the damage. And this was I didn't like honestly didn't read it all, but I loved that it was there and well thought out was like how chump blocking as a term goes against the theme of like playing heroes. And how, like, thematically in the game, you're not, they're not, like, dying necessarily because it's, like, they're defeated. They'll come back. They go in the deck. So, which is an interaction. And how we should really be thinking about the interaction, like, as what they're doing. And, like, alternatives for words, ah you know, we could, like, use so that we didn't lose our thematic ability.

Speaker: Marvel Champions feel, which I, you know, like, I am so into theme and games. And it's just like, ah this makes me so happy. Like, this is this is what people should be doing their time with rather than figuring out how to make other people miserable. Like, I fucking love people that nerd out about the details of their shit. And then because, like, right, the comments are all people being like, we totally see your point. And it's like, I think that it's like almost kind of adorable to a lot of people. But it's like, you know, the term comes from here, from magic. And so it's just people tend to use these terms interchangeably between games. So it's going really hard to change. Like, they're actually addressing it logistically. Like, it'll be hard to change that lingo because of the shared nature of, ah you know, the same way, like, World of Warcraft lingo being the dominant force spread to a lot of and MMOs. But some of the World of Warcraft lingo came from, like, EverQuest and, like, earlier stuff. And just like, oh, shit.

Speaker: The nerdy shit is where the internet was good, right? The very best part, the very best part of the internet was a bunch of queer kids getting to come online and find each other, you know, and realize they weren't alone.

Speaker: And that like, because you can be in a Truman situation show in small town America other places in the world, right? where And I'm not trying to speak for experiences like I didn't personally have, but I've been connected to other people,

Speaker: ah that I wish could have had this. And, you know, and they got to see like, you can't like you can be you can exist in a place where everyone is wrong. ah You know, where everyone is wrong. This experience I have had. And the Internet allowed a bunch of people to get together and to share and write. And nerdism is the the last life, like, you know, line. I mean, for some people it was right a lifeline and for some kids that were bullied and stuff. But like of like people who love this detail of shit, finding each other and connecting. And I don't know how we do that anymore ah in this in this Internet that is that is about rage bait, you know, like that is about it's like i see stuff anymore. Right. Like like articles that get posted and then the things I know. I know the person who wrote that doesn't believe that in all their... Like, there's ah there's a post that was like, oh, like, woman don't ask for much. We just want, like, a little muscle tone, a little fat, like, blah, blah, blah, some physical characters. And she shows a picture of the Henry fucking Cavill, right?

Speaker: And it's like, she knows what she's doing, whoever wrote that, right? Like, we don't want much. And here's, like, Superman, which was the reply... But it gets that engagement, right?

Speaker: And the internet used to be about us cool people all finding each other. And now it's about like AI generated slop and what can enrage people the most is sad. right, I'm sorry for you like turning this into a rant, but this has just been my movie.

Speaker: I've been angry and bitter. The solution is to curate what you're watching, right? Don't let the algorithm feed you everything. It's hard not to, right? Oh, I know. I'm not going to say 0% algorithm, even though that is it's healthier to do no algorithm. thats weird Even in the following, right? I'm saying they keep trying and you can't like they keep taking away places to find things that aren't what they have decided. it's getting harder to that. Yeah, and then of course the things that are bait or AI slap or whatever, that gets boosted.

Speaker: that does better in the algorithm. You know, you get into pipelines that send you increasingly extreme. Like, there's a lot of problems. and and it's just well It's one way we fight it is to try to control your algorithm as much as you can.

Speaker: We're in a dystopia! Yay!

Speaker: yeah yeah