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56: Snap On This!! Podcast Episode 56: The Graveyard of your Nuzlocke
102 Plays7 hours ago
🗞️ This week in Snap History as It Happens : It was the best of times 📈 (for the 10+ Power Snap meta), it was the worst of times 📉 (for the classic tech Snap meta) 🙀.
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🏪 Get your hot fresh Weeks in Snap right here! 🍪
- 🥏🐕📺✖️🗿 Last Week Card Vibes 2️⃣ Bastion 3️⃣ Next Week Card Vibes 🔦
- OTA 🤖 ROBOT APOCALYPSE NOW!! 🚨
- Secret Homework 🎒: Symbiote Spider-Man fun 🕸️
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
- Ben - Tidal Ring https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/tidal-ring/
- Ben - The Movers vs The Machines https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/the-movers-vs-the-machines/
- Rie - Existential Dread https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/existential-dread/
- Lauren - Pat-Riot!! (play Hood over Yellowjacket) https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/lauren-patriot/
- Ben - Secret Homework Wars https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/secret-homework-wars/
- Rie - Namora WIP https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/namora-wip/
- Lauren - Hypermobile https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/lauren-hypermobile/
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:46:36 Last Week's Cards
- 0:52:43 Bastion
- 0:56:57 Jim Hammond Human Torch
- 1:02:06 OTA Discussion
- 1:27:10 Secret Homework: Build a Symbiote Spider-Man Deck
- 1:42:29 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:42:51 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, build an exciting deck with symbiote Spider-Man. I'm your host Lauren Whadevs, here with my usual co-hosts.
Ben's Journey in Marvel Snap
00:00:14
Speaker
First up, Ben, how was your week in Snap? And keep it snappy. Well, my weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy as I sometimes do, it was a pretty good weekend in snap.
00:00:28
Speaker
um I played in the second Golden Gauntlet World Championship qualifier, and I happened to do quite well. ah With a 5-1 record in the Swiss rounds, I've qualified for Worlds. My tiebreakers, that's your opponent's win percentage on average, um they were not quite good enough to advance me to the top 16.
00:00:48
Speaker
But my only loss was to, I don't know how to pronounce this, but maybe Alice ofve alice Silvestro, perhaps? I don't know how to pronounce their name, but they finished seventh. So if you're going to lose to somebody, should probably be somebody in the top eight, right?
Deck Modifications and Strategies
00:01:02
Speaker
I placed 44th out of 792, which is about good enough for me. um Congratulations to all of our listeners who competed. No matter how you did, you're champions in my heart.
00:01:13
Speaker
And I hope everybody had fun. I played a surfer deck that is a very close relative of Wave Flourish, one of my my classic flagship lists.
00:01:24
Speaker
It's only four cards different. And it's pretty easy to guess like what I replaced them with. The four cards that I cut were Forge, Jeff, Nocturne, and Copycat.
00:01:35
Speaker
And Forge, what do you think that became? It became Surge, duh. um Jeff, what what could I have replaced Jeff with? Only the new Jeff, Mercury. Mercury. ah and but here's Here's one that's like a little less easy to guess. What would I replace Nocturne with?
00:01:53
Speaker
Merlin, baby. Gotta manipulate those Locacias. Yeah. ah Okay. Wait, I'm sorry. I guessed out loud, so I didn't hear what the answer was. Oh my gosh. No, you're you're allowed and encouraged to guess out loud.
00:02:06
Speaker
Okay. I didn't hear what the answer was. What's the correct answer? Merlin. I replaced Nocturne with Merlin. i do know you love Merlin. I was excited.
00:02:16
Speaker
That was like the one thing I knew
Reflections and Inspirations
00:02:18
Speaker
about. that That was the first thing I knew about what I was bringing for this tournament was got to have Merlin because I feel a bit naked without him.
00:02:27
Speaker
um But the the final card that I cut was Copycat. And I was up until like right before the deadline for deck submissions, I was trying to figure out how to get her back in there because Copycat is great in tournament play. And ah it's just really cool to know what's on the bottom of your opponent's deck. But I i was like i was a little worried that I would run into some Arashem because I ran into a lot of Arashem last time.
00:02:54
Speaker
And ah so the the thing that I guess you could say I replaced Copycat with was, I mean, this is just like a card that has to go in Surfer now. And that's Captain Carter. And oh, my gosh, Peggy was doing some work.
00:03:06
Speaker
Oh, man.
Achievements in Hades 2 and Deck Experiments
00:03:09
Speaker
So that that was a lot of fun. And i just, ah you know. I play a lot of Marvel snap, but I'm not usually trying all that hard, but it is fun to try all that hard. Sometimes I really like to, you know, just put myself right in it and just go, you know?
00:03:30
Speaker
um so that, that worked out for me and I, I'm sure there was a good amount of luck that helped me get where I got. And, uh, if you did not have the same amount of luck, you probably didn't do as well. And I hope you try again next time. Cause there is a next time. So, um,
00:03:46
Speaker
keep keep Keep going. Keep dreaming. Keep a chasing it. Yeah. That's exciting. You made it to worlds. Good job. Thank you. Yeah.
00:03:58
Speaker
i'm I'm pretty pleased about it, to be honest. i i was I was frustrated with my performance in the last one where I went three and three and one of them was a bye and the whole thing was just, you know, I just, I wasn't feeling, I wasn't in the zone, you know?
00:04:12
Speaker
You got to be in the zone. Yeah. But anywho, after that, I have not had quite as much time for gaming things because I've been traveling and I actually got some computer maintenance done. I'm working with more RAM now. Ooh, new thermal paste. Watch out. Ha ha.
00:04:27
Speaker
So haven't been able to play Yeah, I haven't been able to play a ton of other games this week. But before I left, I absolutely smashed my Hades 2 goal on stream. I'd been trying to get ah three consecutive clears on the first three nights of a fresh file, and I finally pulled it off.
00:04:43
Speaker
And then some. I kicked Grandfather's Teeth in six times in a row, baby. Nights 1 through 6. Holy moly! So I think I'm probably done flexing on the early game, at least until the 1.0 release. But I am considering using all this footage that I've accumulated to make some kind of a video guide or tier list for like early game boons or something. Because like it's just such a tight, like closed little ecosystem. There are only five Olympians you can get, and and you'll you'll always be missing one of them. You'll get four out of the five.
00:05:12
Speaker
And on the first night, one of them is always Apollo. And ah Blinding Rush, Wombat Combat knows I pick Blinding Rush every time because you got to go fast. um Anywho, I don't know what I'm going to do with that. But yeah, I've got a lot of footage and I think it would I just I have a lot of thoughts about which boons to pick and which to avoid, depending on which options you're trying to keep open and stuff. And I just I want to share that understanding with people if if they're interested.
00:05:36
Speaker
Anywho, also, ah just after I announced it last week, I missed the very second Final Fantasy X Tuesday that I told everybody about. was just i was on the road. I couldn't do it.
Rhi's Board Game Retreat Experience
00:05:49
Speaker
How dare you? I made a point of telling everyone last week, and then I just didn't show up. So I feel really bad about that. Sphere hunting will resume next Tuesday. But despite this busy week, I've actually found some time to get pretty experimental in Snap because that one is on the phone, baby.
00:06:04
Speaker
Such is the magic of mobile gaming. I ended up spending the tokens on Moira, even though I hadn't when we recorded last week because I wanted to try some stuff. And I've confirmed my earlier diagnosis from the card rating episode that she would be great in an eight-turn game of Snap.
00:06:21
Speaker
I found her to be somewhat less so in the six-turn version, or so it seemed to me. you know Maybe other people are having more success with her, but... I think she's a little clonky still.
00:06:32
Speaker
I also dusted off Morgan Le Fay for some goofy science, and she gave me an excuse to play some Dokken, who is still very fun. Although I think these Bastion Dokken decks that I've been seeing around are kind of barking up the wrong tree, y'all.
00:06:44
Speaker
Anyhow, that that's just my perception. Maybe they're doing great for people, and I'm just not seeing it. I also started tinkering with the just general discard stuff again for Alliance Bounties reasons, and I don't have anything good enough to share yet, but we'll see where it goes.
00:07:00
Speaker
I also...
Gaming Mistakes and Embarrassments
00:07:01
Speaker
Wait, are you doing Khonshu things? Yes, I have started letting Khonshu into my heart. Okay. I'm curious then. Follow up, please. let ah Let me know what you do with Khonshu.
00:07:13
Speaker
I will. Another thing that inspired some experimentation was I got a cool new Zorn variant. I've always been a fan of the card, and i I built something with him, you know, around the time of his release, but I sort of moved on to other things, and I never came back, so I'd been meaning to get back around to him, and the new variant seemed like a good excuse, and...
00:07:35
Speaker
Yeah, I built one of these ah one of these move everybody's cards around decks that I like to build. I have a very long history with those, putting Polaris and Heimdall move and stuff back before there was a scream to reward you and stuff. i just ah craven Craven was good enough to be the bridge between moving your cards and their cards back then for me.
00:07:57
Speaker
And um unlike my discard slash destroy experiments, that one is actually good enough to share. So I'll tell you what's in it. It's called The Movers vs. the Machines because, you know, there's a fun movie on Netflix, an animated one, ah The Mitchells vs. the Machines. I recommend it.
00:08:15
Speaker
It's good fun. And what's in this deck is Batroc the Leaper, Scream, Kraven, Merlin, Zorn, Spider-Man, Silk, Hydrastomper, Human Torch.
00:08:26
Speaker
Polaris, Cannonball, and Heimdall. So Zorin is kind of kind of a bridge thing there, ah like Kraven. you know He'll throw your Human Torch and maybe your opponent's stuff if you've got priority. I do love a surprise Zorin.
00:08:41
Speaker
um So that's a cool one. Also, for those ah who don't just have all of my my classic lists memorized, the deck that I played in the Golden Gauntlet this time was called Tidal Ring, named after the Poseidon cast in 80s 2. It's a very strong cast. I highly recommend it. It comes with the froth built in.
00:08:59
Speaker
Most of the other Poseidon boons that can froth, you have to get Slippery Slope first. So this one is sort of more self-contained. But that deck is America Chavez, Surge, Mercury, Merlin, Brood, Captain Carter, Red Guardian, Silver Surfer, Hope Summers, Sebastian Shaw, Absorbing Man, and Gwenpool.
00:09:15
Speaker
And I have one more deck that is good enough to share, but it's secret homework, baby. So you got to wait. I don't know why everyone is baby today, but it's it's a baby day.
00:09:27
Speaker
So that's been my weekend snap. all Okay, thank you. Rhi, how is your weekend snap and keep it snappy? Okay. and Okay. um Well, first, just to follow up, ah last week I did have an excellent ah board game retreat.
00:09:48
Speaker
It was on a lake, like right on the lake. It was amazing. We realized how much like a view matters feasted. and we feast like Vikings that had just like, I don't know, completed a quest, murdered a monster or something. It was just like tables. Amazing.
00:10:06
Speaker
Not just one table, but tables of snacks. You know that they make tubs of like dog treat size tubs just full of Skittles. Anyway, it was like the most food we've ever had at one of these things. It was insane. Yeah.
00:10:21
Speaker
The whole weekend was spent in like stomach pain of like over... like I had been there and in one hour, it had more grams of sugar than I would usually consume an entire month. It was insane. Anyway, but the real magic was like... ah it was just We had so much fun board gaming. A few board game nerds out there. My favorite new game that I I didn't play ton...
00:10:42
Speaker
of new games, to be honest, ah was Harvest. It's made by the people who made the Parks game, which is very cute art. And like, you know, you little animal farmers. I'm into it. Stardew Valley.
00:10:53
Speaker
Okay. um And, oh, yeah. And we had like, they had like, even a little fire pit and stuff. And it's just like, it's worth it. It's like that magic you feel when you can get like a group of people together ah and you're just having that moment and you're just in it. And you're realizing it like it's worth it, like all the time. And it's I know it's so much easier to just not do things all the time. And it's always a weird tension for me.
00:11:18
Speaker
it's people anxiety that I crave, like the closeness and and the connection of people. And um and when you pull it off and you pull it together and you're just like, this is.
00:11:29
Speaker
This is the force, my friends. This is what connects us. This is like, what else do we have as a reason to exist as a species besides like our connections to each other, to be honest. Everything's created out of that.
00:11:41
Speaker
Anyway, so get yourself board game treat retreat that, you know, reminds you the meaning of life like that. Okay, so then... Then would like to, for funsies, pull out my tradition of convenience of roundtable question for the co-host. And I will go first that you two have time to think of ah the question I'm about to spring upon you, which is, I would like to know your greatest video game shame of the week, please.
00:12:10
Speaker
your biggest mistake if you perfection itself which i i wouldn't doubt and then you can take it from somewhere else in your life but like don't humble brag please okay so for me i have been doing uh you know the relic weapon grind for this expansion and this has been occupying some of my time and ah yeah for that for the and My MMO, FF14, Final Fantasy 14. Oh, okay.
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah. And this step has been like going to do a lot of like old like dungeons, raids, old content, um and how that works in Final Fantasy is they let you sink down so you can even play with your friends at lower levels. It just like takes your level, yoink.
00:12:58
Speaker
Puts it down low. And I haven't run like old content synced for a while because usually when I have to run something old, I barge in with my, you know, my level, like, you know, my top level, like summoner and just like,
00:13:14
Speaker
You know, you're dead. You're dead. All right. Boom. Dungeon's done. You know, like finger guns. um So I haven't done it at level for a while, which some of it is like fights I don't really remember.
00:13:27
Speaker
when your level gets sinked down, sinks down your abilities, too. And interesting thing, we're starting to see, because like Snap's getting older for a fucking mobile game anyway.
00:13:38
Speaker
um you know And FF14 is over a decade old, so they've done a lot, whereas they've leveled up, they've kind of stretched out the abilities. So before, where you would have a lot more abilities at a lower level, now you have way fewer. It's a problem for getting new people into the game, because you have so few abilities since your level, because they've kind of like, hiked them out a little bit.
00:14:00
Speaker
And... um Okay, so I get down and I'm not used to playing. And my class that I play, Summers, had a huge rework. It doesn't even work, like, at all the same way like it did when I was leveling it.
00:14:15
Speaker
so there's just, like, a lot of low-level abilities. And I was playing... realized partway through dungeon, like, oh I'm sync so low. I just have, like, two abilities, you know?
00:14:27
Speaker
And I was no... I had forgotten my, I am a summoner. I had forgotten to pull out my summon, which gives me all of my abilities.
00:14:40
Speaker
Literally everything can do, I can It's like a Pokemon trainer, not with their Pokemon. Just throwing Pokeballs. You can't go into tall grass without one. And nothing's coming out of them.
00:14:50
Speaker
Right? Like, and it's so bad. It's like, and I feel so embarrassed because I've been running this with a lot of other high synced. It's like through roulettes, random stuff. So I've been randomly paired with other like high level people, synced down also on their relic grind, probably, or tombstones, whatever they're here for. it And it's like the like, I remember thinking this as I was getting into a dungeon. It's kind of like, oh, hey, oh, good. We're all real professionals. I see we're all sink down to level 50.
00:15:23
Speaker
and Not that like I love helping a newbie. always love carrying some new, you know, new player in their fresh ice through and, you know, totally will always wait for them to watch a cut scene, you know, like forever. Like we are, this is Final Fantasy. What is this? World of Warcraft game?
00:15:40
Speaker
No, we're nice. And, um, but you know, now we can just get through, get it done, clean it up tight, you know, all pros. And then I like run out and blast like level one spell, level one spell, level one spell.
00:15:54
Speaker
It's like, basically what I've been doing. And it's gotta be so embarrassing because you can see the party list. And when you have like a summer, it's like if you're in WoW and you have like a ranger, you know, it's like you expect to see the pet, you know? It's like, oh, where's your little friend?
00:16:09
Speaker
I'm just like, oh, anyway. So that is my huge embarrassing shame of the week. And nobody called me out on it.
00:16:19
Speaker
I'm just sitting here like doing nothing. That's so funny. Yeah. Oh, I mean, like, maybe that's the advantage to playing with, like, newer people is that they won't notice when you're... They are new. They were all pros.
00:16:33
Speaker
oh She was playing with other people who synced down. Oh, okay. I see. And it's like, it's the kind of thing where someone's going to like fucking, I'm going to go Reddit and I'm going to see a post and be like, okay, you know, I would never call out someone, but like, you know, because maybe they're just stupid or they're incompetent.
00:16:58
Speaker
I don't know. But you see, I was with the summoner. She didn't even fucking have her carbuncle out. The whole dungeon just blasting Outburst repeatedly like some kind of imbecile.
00:17:10
Speaker
Anyway, should it like it's like I'm always like knocking people I don't think should program because they I see their code, you know, and it's like, no, I am. No, I am.
00:17:22
Speaker
I am the loser. and and yeah I don't blow. Anyway.
Decks, Cards, and Infinite Rank Experiences
00:17:26
Speaker
Okay. That is my shame um i and it Honestly, it just happened to me earlier today when I was growing up.
00:17:34
Speaker
It was on my mind. Okay. Let's go. Let's go since we just had Ben's Week in Snap. Lauren first, please. Okay. I've been playing Silksong.
00:17:45
Speaker
ah I will keep okay i'll keep spoilers to an absolute minimum because I know it's Is it as hard as everyone says? everyone Everyone's like, oh, it's so hard. And then everyone everyone's like, no. It's very hard. hard enough. Okay. It's very hard. and I claim platformers as my best genre. They're just something I'm very good at. And also, I'm a fairly patient gamer, which you have to be in games that are high difficulty, and you're going die over and over and over and over and over again.
00:18:11
Speaker
But something... And I love a Metroidvania, but something about Hollow Knight and Silksong, just like... I don't know if it's because there's so much more combat than platforming, or if it's because the benches are so spread out. Benches are checkpoints.
00:18:27
Speaker
But... like I really enjoy them while I'm playing them, but I also find them incredibly frustrating in a way I don't find other platformers. I've bounced off of Hollow Knight several times. I've never finished I've gotten like halfway three times.
00:18:39
Speaker
um But I was like, you know what? We're going into Silksong. We're doing this. And right away, you learn that Hornet has a different down attack than the Hollow Knight does.
00:18:51
Speaker
I don't know if if the character is actually the titular character in Hollow Knight, but... The knight in the first game has it has a down aerial that just goes straight down.
00:19:02
Speaker
Very easy to bounce off of things with it. Hornet dives forward at like a 45 degree angle. And oh boy, does that take a while to master. um And so I think if I had to pick a great shame, it's that I just am not being patient.
00:19:15
Speaker
One on one combat I can do. I can learn patterns. As soon as there's two enemies on the screen, I'm panicking. And, you know, same thing with the platforming. As soon as I whiff one jump or one dive, I'm panicking. And the panic does not help. It makes things worse. So while I think I did some things good, like I got frustrated with the game, i put my Switch to sleep for a few hours. Like, I'm proud of myself for how I handled it that way.
00:19:39
Speaker
And I'm having great fun yelling at the TV. I don't have to. I can control myself. But I'm having fun yelling curse words at the TV and saying, what the heck? Lauren, I mean, I'm kind of trying to be nice to myself, but also it's fun to yell at the the monsters that are killing you. um Yeah, it is.
00:19:55
Speaker
The thing that I don't like about it, it's like having been spoiled by more modern games like Super Meat Boy and Celeste, where you like respawn instantly and there's like hardly any downtime. And like if you die, it's hard to feel bad. Super Meat Boy more modern?
00:20:10
Speaker
What's that? Meat Boy, I consider like the like pinnacle of and of modern platformers. that's or the the birth of modern platformers. thought predated Hollow Knight, but maybe. It does.
00:20:21
Speaker
Yes, it does. love that platformers can be so weird. They're like, what if you're a little weird baby? Like, binding a basic. Or what if you're just a meatball? It's like, okay. Yeah.
00:20:33
Speaker
all Okay, continue. So Super Meat they were the first to be like... Honestly, I just loved everything that every decision they made in that game was fabulous. But one of them was like, What if we made the game super duper hard, but you respawn instantly?
00:20:48
Speaker
So you you don't have time to be mad because you're already immediately controlling your character again, which isn't strictly true, but still like it made it so much more fun. And Celeste does that very well also. um And they another thing they do is they have tons of checkpoints. Like the levels are short or the screens are short and you die in one and you and you don't lose a lot of progress when you die.
00:21:09
Speaker
Hollow Knight is not like that. You have very far spread out benches, and sometimes they're, like, I would expect a ah modern game that's considerate of its player to put benches right before the big boss fights.
00:21:22
Speaker
Hollow Knight doesn't do that. They make you go through a huge platforming section, fight a bunch of minions to get to the boss, and when you die on the boss, inevitably, you have to do that again, and again, and again, and that is incredibly frustrating to me.
00:21:35
Speaker
And so, trying to be more zen about Silksong, I'm really loving it so far. i That's like every platformer. It's just like, and here's how I hate it.
00:21:46
Speaker
And it's frustrating. And it's over and it's over again. So I'm really enjoying it. It's been a great time. people. You people in your elven rings. And you're like, massacres, what they call it. for Okay. Oh,
00:22:04
Speaker
oh okay. Is that... Sorry, did I... kind of watch you take you off one okay No, no, no. That's good. all right. Ben, also, share your shame, please. My shame. i guess my shame... i don't... There are so many things i could be ashamed of.
00:22:19
Speaker
um Ben's like, I don't know. I don't really do things that wrong in video games. No, I super do. i mean, like... Do y'all think I didn't try a seventh time? A seventh time?
00:22:33
Speaker
No, I let Aerys curse me and my hubris was my undoing. Shame on you. Yeah, grandfather cut me down on night seven. It it happened. Other things? I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed.
00:22:48
Speaker
i'm a Well, I am ashamed about that. i it's I did not mean it to be a brag of any ah humbleness or or anything. like it's just not not not No brag there. should have known better.
00:23:03
Speaker
I'd been at it for like nine hours. This is a marathon session. my My wits were not about me. ah But yeah, other things, I'm ashamed that I have never... ah I complain about it all the time because this is truly one of the one of the great...
00:23:20
Speaker
One of the great sadnesses of my adulthood, but my PS4 crapped out and I just, it, it, you know, it's, it's very sad when you like move on to a new phase of, phase of gaming, but like,
00:23:34
Speaker
back when I was a console gamer, I started Hollow Knight and I was like, this seems like a very fun game, very much my cup of tea and my PS4 crapped out and I never tracked down another way to play Hollow Knight, even though it's like always on sale on Steam or whatever. And everyone tells me how much I would love it. And, you know, the like two hours of it that I played suggested to me that I would probably love it. Maybe I didn't even play two hours. I don't know. I played like just enough to get a taste and people come into my stream asking if I've played Hollow Knight because it seems like the sort of thing I would like. And I'm like, yes, that's right. Everyone in my life has told me that it is the sort of thing that I would like. And like, I'm probably like,
00:24:22
Speaker
i'm I'm not living my best life because I've failed to track down Hollow Knight to play. And Lauren made it sound like so much fun just now. And everyone makes Silk's song sound like so much fun fun. And I guess I guess I'm ashamed that I haven't been adventurous enough or whatever, you know, like It's it's ah also, you know what, speaking of shameful things and bad judgment, you know, I've been playing some I'm not like ah ashamed that I haven't hit infinite yet because like I have been doing like experimental stuff, but I haven't been like snapping in a very.
00:24:59
Speaker
in in a very smart way or retreating more accurately in in a very smart way. I'm i'm just like seeing what happens, but I'm not really all that ashamed of that. I don't There's lots of shameful stuff.
00:25:10
Speaker
Like, I don't know. Don't get me wrong. is I have plenty of shames. not Not all of them. I feel like speaking on a podcast, but like there's there's plenty to be ashamed of. I assure you.
00:25:24
Speaker
Okay. All right. okay I'm taking that. I do a little bit more. will say I am planning on playing. I do have Hollow Knight for Switch, and I had been playing it before before the days of of Snap.
00:25:37
Speaker
Took over over late night a lot of late-night regaming when I used to game in the Switch, and that was the problem. It was late-night gaming on the Switch, and Hollow Knight is sometimes hard when you're late-night re. So, like...
00:25:49
Speaker
I did play it for a bit, and then I got to a point where it was just dying repeatedly to a boss, and I'm like, maybe we just fire up Slay the Spire. That's time-based. But I do want to get back now, because don't know. I feel like late night Rhi has grown and matured and gained better hand dexterity, perhaps.
00:26:11
Speaker
Maybe. we're going to try again. Anyway. um Or, you know, I could play it during the day like a regular person, I guess. I thought of a shame. Yes. Okay, so while I've been traveling and stuff and away from my my ordinary setup and situation and without my computer and all that, I too have been, well, but I have been playing some Slay the Spire. actually...
00:26:36
Speaker
I have, like... Anyway, point is, I'm playing Slay the Spire on so many devices, and on my old phone, I thought I had cleared Ascension 20 with at least one of the characters. The the defect, that's... the Are you having bragging again? No. I'm saying... I've been walking around... I'm not good at Slay the Spire. I'm not that...
00:26:55
Speaker
no i most i'm not i'm not good to slay this fireer like i'm i'm not like i'm not that You know, there there are so many levels of being good at Slay the Spire above where I am. yeah But I thought I had cleared Ascension 20 with the defect. I'm going through my run history.
00:27:12
Speaker
I had not cleared Ascension 20 with the defect. And so I've been like for probably for two years now, I've thought that I cleared the highest difficulty. Totally fucking didn't. And ah you think you think I've ah maybe given it a couple tries? Yeah, I've given it a couple tries this week upon realizing this still haven't cleared it there. That's some shame. I thought I had done a thing.
00:27:33
Speaker
I haven't done the thing. And after trying some more, I remain not having done the thing. ah
00:27:42
Speaker
shameful. That does sound, yeah, shameful. Have you been telling people that you've done that? No, no one's ever asked, but I've been telling myself that I did it. I thought i had done it, but the run history does not lie. I was just going failed attempt, failed attempt, failed to attempt.
00:28:01
Speaker
ah you should You should go to parties and brag about it, and then we can turn into... you know it's like And it's like, the guy that's cleared Ascension 20 on defect? Okay, and then, you know.
00:28:14
Speaker
Anyway. Okay, back to Snap. So, um Did get infinite. um Not through severe trying, but through just playing enough. um I mostly played, and I will share the deck, I did switch off for some bounties and other missions stuff.
00:28:33
Speaker
It's generally, I haven't had a hard time the last couple months. I was actually trying to remember recently, when was the last time I was like, ah infinite is hard, or whatever, you know, or like, I'm struggling this time, it's not as easy. It's like the last few months have kind of...
00:28:47
Speaker
kind of not bad. Honestly, I think it's because I get started late and then everyone everyone's already there. So I'm just like You know, because as soon as I get to infinite, all I do is play people in the top 5000. I like never play someone who doesn't have the fucking number, even no matter how low I am. And it's like, when do I drop low enough that I fucking it just irritates me. It's like, how are these matches determined? My MMR isn't that high that I need to only be playing like ah five, the top five K. know that. OK, anyway.
00:29:20
Speaker
Okay, what I did was I rolled... I had enough tokens because I've kind of fixed... I feel like I've fixed my relationship with the game. It's no longer on my bullet journal to do, like, Marvel Snap missions daily, which it used to be.
00:29:37
Speaker
then I stopped doing them when I didn't feel like. And for a while, I was kind of dropping out a lot. But now I kind of mostly get them done, but I don't feel like I have to. it doesn't So it doesn't feel bad. um I've kind of made peace that I don't have all the cards.
00:29:50
Speaker
um even when they're out, which is kind of fine because like for me, just recently this week, I got to enjoy the the end of turn deck. I know it's already been nerfed, so I maybe didn't enjoy it in its peak heyday, which wasn't fun anyway because then it was just mirrors. It was just facing that deck all the time.
00:30:07
Speaker
But now I can see the Sooth Storm you know with Marvel Boy, all the And Black Cat. I was playing that. I'm like, this is kind of fun, you know, because I hadn't done it when it was like the big thing everyone was doing.
Meta Reactions and Card Changes
00:30:19
Speaker
um So I opened up to I was hoping for Spiky or Moira X. Moira. Why can't I say your name? Okay. um and And, ah you know, like Redshift maybe or something.
00:30:34
Speaker
And what I rolled for my two carts. It's a fun thing now. When I open one, I like to open a season five and a season four. You know, little like one, two. Ooh, balanced breakfast. Yeah.
00:30:45
Speaker
Right? It was thematic because I got Galactus First Steps ah because I never got the season pass. They never responded to my ticket to fix the thing. Oh, yeah, hey If you get a code for a free season pass through winning it or however you get it,
00:31:04
Speaker
Open the game before you enter the season pass in the webshop. Open the game in the new season first. Apparently that's the issue we found. Do you have more to say about that one? I've seen a lot of people having this problem. you know ah i mean um I have to be careful about and NDA, but like ah you know creators get codes, and so then when people have problems with the codes, they give them... like i I see that conversation.
00:31:28
Speaker
and i haven't seen an answer yet, but there has to be one because it is affecting a lot of people. and Okay, yeah. So I didn't think about that when I was opening, that I was still like maybe hoping to get that resolved and get a Galactus First Steps.
00:31:43
Speaker
um But, you know, that's not what happened. So I got Galactus First Surfer First Steps. And was like, it's not what I wanted, but it's so thematic.
00:31:54
Speaker
I can't even be angry. You know I love theme. Okay, so I was like, all right, let's check it out. Let's see what's going down. And I believe this was just, and I think it's just a meadow deck because it was the auto Galactus first steps at the time. And I've seen similar to this deck a lot. So I'm not saying, so probably you've seen the deck with, oh, the great thing about first steps Galactus Galactus is best as a surprise, right?
00:32:26
Speaker
Like if people know he's coming to the party, they're not going to the party, you know? He's got to like show up on the notes. So, um, but Galactus first steps fits that like Harold's like Galactus is coming, you know, the whole winter is coming ah before Game Thrones. Okay. Anyway, um,
00:32:47
Speaker
It does have that good feeling kind of to it. Right. And I do love dictating where they play. you know what I mean? In fact, when I've when I've decided where someone has played, I've decided my opponent has played to play somewhere and then they don't, which happens rarely when I have decided that they will play there. It like infuriates me. I'm like, good job.
00:33:09
Speaker
Well done. You knew you knew what I wanted to do.
00:33:17
Speaker
tension of snap, right? Is when you're playing against someone where you have to be like, how smart are they? know what I mean? Are they going to see what I'm trying to do? do they, it's like,
00:33:28
Speaker
Do they know I know that they're going to play e Zola there and therefore they will do something? Because if they do that, then I'll lose. And you're playing those Vizzini mind games with your opponent. as fun Anyway. so like Which layer are they on? what what What wavelength are they vibrating on or whatever? Exactly.
00:33:43
Speaker
always I always assume I'm smarter than them. That's just always how I play. Which is why it's so infuriating when they don't do what i expect. Okay. But Galactus First Steps, right? ah This deck, it Quicksilver and Domino, which it's like, they're actually fun to play.
00:34:02
Speaker
Most of the times that I tried them recently, they're a bummer. It's like, okay, I see why we have Quicksilver here for Wiccan, you know, and then we don't have to make sure we've included a ton of one-cost cards in our deck, but it's still kind of sometimes a bummer ah to play. ah We shouldn't mention... oh man, haven't been in the media so long. We used have a friend that was, like, obsessed with Quicksilver. Okay.
00:34:23
Speaker
Anyway, I don't know if I listen the podcast, but... um Quicksilver fun in this, in Domino. And then, of course, like, Negasonic, because, like, they know that you know that you're trying to get that lane because you just played Quicksilver and Domino, to be honest, even if you didn't have the Galactus there. And then that makes Negasonic so good.
00:34:48
Speaker
Speed. Um... I love speed. I got a good variant of speed. and And then it's just like a tech. I mean, it's Wiccan, right? Obviously, because we're we're already doing, we're doing Quixel, we're not going to know speed stuff.
00:35:01
Speaker
ah But then it's just a bunch of tech. Copycat, as Ben was saying earlier, copycat is just a good card, right? Any kind of good cards deck is going to have a copycat.
00:35:11
Speaker
There's so many cards that you get where you're like, this at a 3-5? Please and thank you. um And also that means they don't have it. Yes. You know what I So many ways that copycat is like the fucking best. OK, it took me several. i This was also a moment of shame for me is how long I realized that though I'm like, why is fucking Silver Surfer first steps in this deck at all?
00:35:35
Speaker
She's there to play ahead of Wiccan, obviously. Duh. So you can double up on the energy. I was so dumb on that for a while. Because it's like the only thing. And then it's just like, you know, it's Stardust. It's Cosmic Ghost Rider. It's a lie. it's It's like your opponent hates you as, you know, when you're playing Galactus, your opponent should always hate you is like the general rule of Galactus card. So in this deck succeeds, right?
00:36:00
Speaker
um You know, as much as you can not Cosmic Ghost Rider can wreck some of the games. played at the right time. Okay. um And that's what I mostly, you know, played into Infinite. I called the deck, I know it's a meta deck, so it's not really my mine, so maybe don't get to name it, but I name like pretty much all my decks.
00:36:21
Speaker
I've called it Existential Dread because it's feeling of it. That's what I love is the theminess of this deck. Look, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Stardust, Galactus First Steps, Silver Star. It's so like Spacey.
00:36:33
Speaker
Elias. It's like if you're gonna, you know, get eaten by cosmic horror, you know, it's the way. All right. um So, you know, we're going to talk later, guess, about the OTA. It does whack two cards in this deck. I'm not sure. yeah um Oh, it's already happened. I'm looking at it. I'm gazing upon it right now. I just realized.
00:36:57
Speaker
um In the game. So... um you know, probably it'll change. um but that's my weekend snap. Sorry for being very unsnappy. I didn't mean for it to be snappalicious.
00:37:14
Speaker
Okay. Hey, snap task. Always snappalicious. Come on.
00:37:20
Speaker
Um, yeah, it has not been snappy so far. Uh, I will still talk some about my Nuzlocke run. Uh, talk a lot about your Nuzlocke run.
00:37:30
Speaker
That's what everyone, you should have let you go first. Yeah. I haven't figured out how to tell this story in a good way. So see, I think like a Nuzlocke would be a really good thing for like a streamer. Cause like there's those exciting moments. It makes the, the game, the turn six so intense.
00:37:46
Speaker
It makes, you know, the losses like staying like i think it would be fun uh for a snap streamer to do uh i hit infinite on the second day
00:37:58
Speaker
um the hot location was olympia and i kind of wonder if that like soils my run because uh there's a bunch of decks that do a lot better with olympia but you know my opponents had that same benefit also No, sorry, I'm blanking. Remind me what Olympia is. Draw two cards.
00:38:18
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. So it's it's it's a great location for any combo deck. Like, just makes you so much more reliable. um And so I crossed the line with several combo decks.
00:38:31
Speaker
ah Invisible, last we spoke, I was on the brink of the ninety s I think I entered the 90s that night, and then the rest of my climb happened with Olympia as the hot location.
00:38:43
Speaker
i Invisible Woman First Steps, a deck very similar to the one Rhi was talking about. I got um went from 93.4 to 96.3,
Nuzlocke Run in Marvel Snap
00:38:54
Speaker
so that was a pretty good one.
00:38:56
Speaker
and was i think it was the third best deck of the run, maybe the fourth. i Two of the best decks were the same ones I talked about last time. There was a Tech Soup and there was Nimrod. Those did very well for me. And then what I crossed the finish line with was a Patriot deck.
00:39:10
Speaker
I had to make a couple swaps because of cards that were dead, but not too many. And then went from 96.5 to 100.1 with that. um And crossed the line with Valkyrie. I was fully planning on using Negative the whole time, but Negative is a combo deck that wants to be reliable, but does not like Olympia.
00:39:29
Speaker
you do not want to draw cards before you hit them with Mr. Negative. So that is interestingly one deck that actually is harmed by Olympia. And so I didn't use Mr. Negative at all, which is lie. I actually used him like a couple times. I was like, oh yeah, Olympia is dumb. I'm not going to use this.
00:39:44
Speaker
So although he was my, like my plan for making it through the nineties, I did not use him, but I'm very happy to have used Valkyrie. Um, I should have worn spoilers for anybody who's following my comic retelling of this on ah Twitter or Blue Sky because in the comic, I'm only at like rank 77.
00:40:02
Speaker
Oh, shoot. andit I forgot you said you were going to do I need to look at it. I haven't even been able to see this yet because I just got my computer back today. Oh, my goodness. And I don't i don't have a Blue Sky on my phone or anything. I'm like five.
00:40:14
Speaker
What do you call a single web comic? a Five episodes? It's not the right word. Yeah, but there's four of them. There's four panels. Yes, I don't know what they call A strip.
00:40:26
Speaker
Comic strip. or Are they horizontal? i'd I'd call it a strip. Honestly, even if they're vertical, I'd call them a strip. Okay, on five strips deep. um And only at like rank 77 or something like that.
00:40:37
Speaker
um in the In the comic, I have lost nine cards so far. ah When I crossed infinite, I had lost 67 cards.
00:40:49
Speaker
Oh, man. The graveyard of your Nuzlocke is, you know. Yeah, wow. There some casualties, huh? Yep. It was super fun. I highly recommend it to everybody. are you most sad about dying?
00:41:05
Speaker
Oh, um, there were a couple that I lost, like, very quickly. Cerebro was... Did you have a tragic last stand? Where they died?
00:41:16
Speaker
Like... I'm trying to think. There were some... There was an intense one There was a 50-50 on which card in my hand Dracula hit.
00:41:28
Speaker
But I won that 50-50. So, like, it was super intense, but, like, I won it. Um, let me go over my... i I feel like there was one that just like i only played a few games with it and it and it died really fast.
00:41:43
Speaker
Move died pretty fast and in Honestly, a lot of my losses a lot of my losses were like bad calls on my part.
00:41:54
Speaker
um I don't think I could do Nuzlocke. I would just never play. i would just It would just be bits constantly. i mean, there's a lot of, like, retreating and stuff. Oh, Clog. Clog died and in two games. And Clog is another one that, like, that is a deck I know well. I'm very confident with it. Like, I am going to use this in the 90s if I have to.
00:42:15
Speaker
And it also has very few cards that overlap with other decks. Yeah. So, like, that's... It's, like, a very good Nuzlocke deck in that way. um I did lose Hood, and so I couldn't use Hood later in my Patriot Valkyrie deck, who should totally be there.
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But I think he was the only one who I was like, oh dang, that that really sucks to lose. love
00:42:38
Speaker
I won't tell your other parents you said that. Yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
Cerebro was kind of sad because I'm pretty sure I lost him right before the hot locations. It was like Cerebro, him, it. Cerebro is a great card for, i mean, it's a very strong card right now anyway, but then for Olympia to make Cerebro even more reliable. Yeah.
00:43:00
Speaker
Cerebro. Now I'm wondering, maybe I didn't... Oh, no, I did kill Cerebro. I killed him in C5, too. That's the other thing I did that was dumb. I played... it I killed C3 by losing a bunch of important three power cards.
00:43:13
Speaker
Then I was like, I still have C2. but I played C5 first and killed Cerebro that way. um It was very silly. I've had some people be like, I can't imagine making Infinite harder. It's already so hard for me. But...
00:43:25
Speaker
There are a bunch of optional rules that make the game easier or harder. And so everybody can participate if they want to. I think also you could play without making ah infinite your goal.
00:43:37
Speaker
think part of the fun of a Nuzlocke is like that emotional connection or raising the emotional stakes and also being able to like tell a story about it. Something i have to do better next time because I actually recorded very few of the games themselves.
00:43:51
Speaker
ah not like screen record, but like wrote down what happened. Like I wrote down all the things that killed me, but I just wrote like Alioth or like miscounted Nimrods or something like, like I didn't like, it's not in the form of a story. And so that's something I'm struggling with. You need to make it part of the, the clip hunters show that I have in my head for you. Where you're like, and I follow you around with the camera and it's like shaky cam. And you're like, I've never seen a bounty hunter show because honestly they sound kind of dumb to me.
00:44:20
Speaker
but i'm imagining it you know very like over the top and you're like you know you're hunting those clips and then this would be like either a spin-off or like one-time event and you know i'd interview you and like anyway i think that's how with all this time i have to make a documentary show
00:44:43
Speaker
um so I'll have the Patriot deck in the show notes you should play it with Hood and instead of probably Yellowjacket it was fun crossing the line with some of my favorite cards so it it's a Pixie deck too I shouldn't just call it like Patriot it's Pixie it's ah it's a funky little deck yeah Pixie's it's interesting super duper fun ah anyway oh what's that Oh, I said, does that let you do some fun shit with Valk?
00:45:14
Speaker
like and fal Yeah, patriot Patriot and Dazzler are both like lane tiebreakers with Valkyrie. So definitely some cool stuff you can do. Plus, Sentry's in here. Void gets hit by Patriot and also is a great target for Valk.
00:45:28
Speaker
um ah people keep doing that remember you talked once about how much you loved like psyching people out with with the void and the hood and then you just play seriously people keep doing that to me lately and I'm just like laughing and she doesn't know why honestly even throwing right I just i I love how hard people try to stop the void it's like just play sentry and throw right like it's very enjoyable but it's Yeah.
00:45:58
Speaker
It is, though. It's daunting because, like, letting whole, just, like, completely letting a lane go ah is, you know, that can lose you a game sometimes because then when it becomes your only fighting, they only need to win one more lane because you've abandoned It's just... Oh, yeah. It's risky for sure, but it goes the other way, too, where I think sometimes losses happen because you spread too wide instead of just yeah focusing the two lanes you needed to win.
Opinions on Recent Cards
00:46:25
Speaker
Okay. Accurate. I'll turn out to take too much more time. If you want to follow more Nuzlocke shenanigans or get a more detailed version of the story, go look for my cute drawings on Twitter or Blue Sky. Okay.
00:46:37
Speaker
We're going quickly go over last week's cards because there's five of them. You tell me if you have new thoughts about any of them. I only have one off the top my head. We have Viv Vision, Season Pass.
00:46:49
Speaker
Sparky, the Super Premium Season Pass. Moira. Awesome Andy and Omega Sentinel. The thing I want to say about Awesome Andy, I don't even need to read off his stat line because it's irrelevant.
00:47:00
Speaker
I finally got to see his animation. It's pretty cute. Like he does a little chalkboard and then a smiley face next to the the characters he's buffing. That's it. I don't think there's much of anything relevant about anything about Awesome Andy. Okay. About any of those cards, do you have any new thoughts?
00:47:21
Speaker
Yeah. ah They all landed about where I thought they would. For me, the only one, I will say I did run into a Bastion. um just Well, actually, I've been running into lot of them because everyone's been doing the... The Victoria Hand is what I... oh wait. That's this week's card. Okay, i'm jumping ahead.
00:47:40
Speaker
Sorry, I was scrolling. Looking at the card. I want to hear about last week's cards. Yeah, last week's card is Viv. I actually, I feel like maybe people have been down on her.
00:47:51
Speaker
Is that the general vibe? But I find she has been great for me. I've been playing her in several different things. that's awesome. And there's a lot of times, so like, right, if you're at all dictating when you play, you can almost always get one free, you know, like one, at least one free thing on her. And then now you are dictating where they are playing, which can help you out in some decks.
00:48:16
Speaker
And um she's a lot of fun in, like, Surfer. And I started putting together a little, like, Move Surfer for her, but it's not all there yet.
00:48:28
Speaker
And I've also been, just mostly the Surfer deck. It's been fun. I ran into one of our our listeners um and a friend longtime friend of the pod, Ryan Wood. I'm not going to confuse him with the comic You got it right on the first try. Yeah. Okay. Because it this surfer deck because I was doing bounties. But I just honestly, i find Viv really fun and I like the characters I've been enjoying. yeah But it was like auto decked.
00:48:59
Speaker
So I had a, it was a random, was too lazy to like curate. So like, it was just like a random of my favorite avatars and decks. And titles. And it's kind of embarrassing to run into a friend when you haven't, like, you know, it's like you just threw on clothes because you were in pajamas. You're like, I don't know, just doing bounties or whatever.
00:49:16
Speaker
So I just, you know, normally curate ah my avatar deck and, you know, titles so that they match there together and they they fit the current re-spirit and all of that. But sorry, you had to catch me with ah with a random auto.
00:49:33
Speaker
Anyway. But yeah, Viv is fun and I like her and boo on anyone who might hate her. That is awesome. I would be to amend the thing I said about how they all landed about where I thought they would. I thought that a card that moved that much would have to be undeniable.
00:49:58
Speaker
But well here's the thing. i want I want Viv to be good, and I hope that she is better than I thought she was. And yeah, I just wanted to say that I know where Viv had landed. i i was surprised that she is not more at least present. If not, like I can't pretend to like know the quality of the cards because I've never played it.
00:50:20
Speaker
I'm just saying I thought I thought she would be around more. That was my prediction before the season started. think she's just really polarized. like She either snowballs or she doesn't, and mostly she flops when she doesn't.
00:50:32
Speaker
um But yeah, I don't... I really don't know what would do here. That don't, like, if you don't get them early, know what I mean?
00:50:42
Speaker
They're not as good, and you just they're just one of those things that in your deck where it's like, hey, if you didn't get it in the right time... Turn 5 is not anything. But for things like I have found where even just one trigger off of her onto my brood, onto my shot, worth it. you know and She's still going to get hit by Surfer and get the ah the two. She's still just great. I haven't played her in Surfer before this week.
00:51:08
Speaker
If you're fine with one, don't you just play Nakia? Yes. Yeah, but Viv moving has won me the game sometimes because won the game once because they forgot she was going to move if they beat me at that location.
00:51:25
Speaker
They would have won if they had let me win at that location. It was that scenario. Then we're asking our opponents to be playing suboptimally and to forget how cards work. I was sweating because I saw it. I was like, if they don't, it was because of like, if this card is winning, it was like, you know, because of the location nonsense.
00:51:44
Speaker
But I saw it. And like, if they let me win this location, if they don't play anything there, I'm currently winning. And Viv does not move, i will lose this game. and And I'm like, oh,
00:51:55
Speaker
And then they didn't see it And they're like, cards, cards, try to win. And was like, ah, your very attempt to win is what cost you you had done nothing. If you had done nothing. Okay. Anyway, sorry. get very intense when I play snaps sometimes.
00:52:08
Speaker
All right. We'll go on to next week's part. big week This week's card, in just a second, I remembered, i don't think I said about my Nuzlocke run that I wanted to say, it took 15 hours.
00:52:19
Speaker
And my normal climb to infinite is 7 to 8. So it was like almost exactly double oh okay to play the way that I did. um Interesting. interesting yeah Yeah, I played 15 hours out of the first like 44.
00:52:30
Speaker
I was like, that's, you know, sometimes I wonder how to fit any time in my life for things like... chores and art and here I am playing a lot of Marvel Snap. Anyway, I do love this game.
00:52:43
Speaker
This week's card, Bastion. For three, on reveal, add cards. Add copies of your other cards here to your hand. Set their costs to two and power to three.
00:52:55
Speaker
Did you get it? What do you think? I got it. I think it's a very strong card. Okay. Yeah, I've seen a lot of it running around. What, Victoria? It is a fun card.
00:53:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it's it's all those things. ah yeah Bastion was the the big bad of X-Men comics when I was a kid so ah sort of sort i had to get him even though he's not the best like I don't think he's like the X-Men's greatest foe by any stretch of the imagination in terms of like what he's about but you know hey yeah i've I've got a lot of his appearances you know he was he was in a lot of ah the comic books I got at the grocery store whatever
00:53:40
Speaker
yeah
00:53:42
Speaker
got Gotta get Bastion. what What were you doing with him? Didn't you say you had a a Bastion deck? Yeah. i seek your harmwork so Oh, there's overlap. Okay. talk about it But I saw a lot of Bastion on the other side of the board and ah seems like a very strong card. I didn't... I have... As I said, was not very impressed by these Dokken Bastion plans. I don't think that's... i I don't think that's anything, folks, but... um Maybe I'm wrong. i don't know.
00:54:12
Speaker
But yeah, in Victoria Hand. Woo, baby. Yeah. Victoria Hand and C3 are both nasty. Yeah. Yeah. Mostly I've been seeing Hand a little bit of Cerebro.
00:54:26
Speaker
I did not get Bastion, but I have been playing the best Bastion, which is 3-5 copycat Bastion, which have been getting because I have been running a lot of copycats.
00:54:37
Speaker
it is a fun card to run certain new card weeks, right? Yeah, when there's a card, a lot of people are playing, and so this power of 3-5 is exceptionally good in like almost whatever deck you're playing.
00:54:50
Speaker
You know what I mean? And yeah, a lot of Victorians, it's only been out for a few days, but if I continue to see as much of it as I have, I'm going to just have to play a counter deck just to like fucking It's just everywhere and it is strong. But you learn.
00:55:11
Speaker
The OTA we'll talk about in a little bit, but it seems like it seems more like a thematic imbalance patch than like an attempt at helping the meta. yeah And while i I like that, it is unfortunate that it aligned at this time when Victoria Hand like... Yeah, what we need is 5-8 Enchantress. That's what we need right now. That's the card for this moment.
00:55:32
Speaker
Ugh. Yeah. um Bastion I had a ton of fun with. I agree that I haven't seen him be super good outside of, you know, Victoria Hand in C3. I've done two fun things with him that I really liked.
00:55:44
Speaker
One is just Quinjet. Anything is super fun. um Personally, it was Quinjet and Grandmaster so that I could play the copies I just got and then... getting more copies on turn five.
00:55:57
Speaker
But of course that means everything has to line up perfectly. Um, but yeah, coin chat, super cool. Another one that's super cool, uh, with Bastion is Luke Cage, because you can make a copy of a gigantic venom and then you play it as a two, three and your opponent's like, Oh, cute venom. And you're like, yeah, it is. Then you play Luke Cage and it's all a sudden a two 15. Yeah.
00:56:17
Speaker
oh nice I don't think that's real but like it's cute and clever that's the sort of thing that tickles me okay he's a very fun card and that that I enjoy um but I think he's clunky i think the four is clunky and I don't know if they can change it because it might be too good if he's a three oh yeah I i think this card is already quite good enough that's what I think Yeah, it was one of those where it's like he has a couple really good synergies and that's going to mean that he kind of just can't go anywhere else because if they buff him, it'll be way too good for the for the good synergies.
00:56:57
Speaker
uh vibe check on next week's card jim hammond human torch a one two at the start of each turn plus one power for each bonus energy you have and we did just today get like confirmation on the official discord from glenn that he's just looking at like how much more energy you have than the turn number doesn't matter how you got that energy
00:57:23
Speaker
any Any opinions? I think this card looks like it stinks. Yeah. I haven't thought about it No, you've thought about it. Tell me.
00:57:34
Speaker
Oh, I going to say, feels like the Mad Thinker, Nick Scratch, that kind of one cost card where you're like, I see a deck it goes into, but I don't even want to put it in that deck compared to other things.
00:57:45
Speaker
Oh, but that does remind me. ah like the One of the best things I think I've said before Snap has done for me is like Mad Thinker showed up in a comic recently, and it was just a bit. And normally...
00:57:56
Speaker
Those villains just come and go, and I don't even remember them. like when i've but I've read so many comics. I know I've seen so many of these villains so many times. They don't stick in my head because I read so many, and they were in one thing, and it wasn't like an epic storyline.
00:58:08
Speaker
And this time I'm like, we're poker! It's him! Anyway. I know that It happens a lot now. I'm always like, are they are they are these the comic writers playing Snap?
00:58:19
Speaker
sometimes when you see characters paired, like... Oh, the timing. yeah Right? like... it's like Yeah, ahead. What are saying? thought was going to talk about Jim, so if you get something, go ahead. No, go ahead. i you know okay Okay. The only place I can see him in is Greedy Fallen 1, and in that case, why is your opponent staying in? like They can see your Jim Hammond on the board. They can see the 11 plus power that you... yeah you know are The 11 plus energy that you're getting next turn. like I hope I'm wrong. I hope there's something somewhere for him, but I ah can't figure out what it is.
00:58:55
Speaker
But Lauren, I bet his variance will be fire. How much growing do we think he needs to do to be worth it? All right. so How much power? Like how how much does he need to grow to be worth it? Do we think?
00:59:09
Speaker
because I still haven't made up my mind about this card. 1-6. Which is doable, but like... Is there like a deck where you're putting like Psylocke and Wiccan and you're just like, you know, and then trying to do something crazy on turn 6 with a bunch of nuts?
00:59:24
Speaker
What about your Silver Surfer Wiccan He's going to be a one ten in that. Only when it goes right. And why is your opponent staying in when it goes that right? don't know. And the problem is, mean, you know, I have these heralds called Quicksilver and Domino, and they mean I don't need to have other one and two costs.
00:59:42
Speaker
That's true, yeah. He's awkward and we can... Oh, it's so cool to see Quicksilver and Domino finally be good in something. You're going to see him so infrequently in Arishem, I guess. I don't even know what considerations go into building an Arishem deck. I've never done it.
00:59:59
Speaker
ah You usually put an attack in Legion. Legion is a requirement for Arsham. Seems like Arsham could work, but I still like 1-6. Only if he shows up at the beginning.
01:00:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like, Black Castle won five for free. You look at these cards and it's like... I don't want to discount this card because of how much it's not my kind of card. You know what I mean? I'm like, if this card was good, I would not notice.
01:00:32
Speaker
um What was I saying? I was just saying, like, the problem with the cards is, like, you both have to get it out early and things have to go right for the synergy of your deck that they're not helping with.
01:00:44
Speaker
You know what I mean? so it's like, at that And literally, whatever your synergy is, Nico is almost always better. Something you could still maybe pair with something in your deck that you could still maybe play late to effect. You know what I mean?
01:00:58
Speaker
And that's where these all these little cards that we're, you know, talking about good are falling into that problem. and i just I was more comfortable calling Nicholas Scratch a stinker before Nicholas Scratch
OTA Updates and Destroy Deck Strategies
01:01:11
Speaker
came out because Nicholas Scratch is my kind of card. So like I could see how he was not going to hit that mark.
01:01:17
Speaker
Whereas this kind of card I would never put in any deck under any circumstances, just like philosophically. I don't know. So like I am wary of discounting a card that I just fundamentally don't understand and don't vibe with. don't know.
01:01:34
Speaker
i don't know So like thinking about it compared to like a Nebula who I think is a great card. But Nebula's doing something, right? She has that control factor. Nebula does so much. um what What a cool design. It's going to be crazy with the Killmonger.
01:01:50
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. We'll get there. Diffle's Diner is next. Starts in like a week. I think. ah Well, I know it's about a week, but I think it's exactly. I think it's next Thursday.
01:02:02
Speaker
um We'll talk about it then. Next episode, we'll talk about New Diner. Okay, now we're going deep dive on this OTA. was written thematically, which I think is super fun. I think they should do it more often.
01:02:16
Speaker
um was actually funny, too. I know, it cracked me up in several places. Yeah, the robots are taking over and, you know, taking care of the tech soup meta that the devs have left us with.
01:02:30
Speaker
um These changes to me, just overall, they feel like an experiment and it's stated like explicitly in the notes that they're open to feedback and the metagame will be continued to be observed and more changes are coming and some of these changes are going to be reverted.
01:02:47
Speaker
which is why I think this feels more like a fun experimental and balanced patch than like full on like addressing the meta. Even though I know they've said before that they want synergy to be more important than tech.
01:02:59
Speaker
um We'll just, we'll go through them. Shang-Chi to four two and only destroys one enemy in a lane who has 10 or more power.
01:03:12
Speaker
A big hit. Thoughts? Big hit. I just want to apologize to any listeners who despise this OTA and everything about it, because I'm sure there will be some of our listeners who think this is the worst OTA we've ever received. And you know what I think they might have a point.
01:03:35
Speaker
I just wasn't playing these cards anyway, and so i can't bring myself to be offended by any of these changes, especially, like, too much, but, like...
01:03:46
Speaker
You know i like I especially like the only one card with 10 or more power. I kind of wish maybe it were targeted to like the card with tenor like the largest card with 10 or more power. You know what I mean?
01:04:00
Speaker
like i agree. Because i do think that this is going to feel like Slusha. He's hitting something. He's 412. Yeah, but this is going to feel like such a half measure or like such a less than half measure on like a gnarly lane where like...
01:04:18
Speaker
yeah where Where the opponent does, in fact, deserve some huge comeuppance, you know? Like, I don't know. Like, I could see... Like, the I mean, the point was to make the card weaker and worse. I just think maybe they overshot it by by shrinking him down to...
01:04:39
Speaker
like long stats and like, yeah, I, I think maybe they went a little too, I mean, that's, that's the theme with these changes is they went a little too far. ah And so like the, they opened with going a little too far and that theme will continue.
01:04:58
Speaker
The tension for Shang with me is because, i like, some people just deal with Shang by trying to play mid-rangey, you know, where they're going always keep Angela below 10 and, like, you know, try and keep their cards, however they're boosting them, just below shame I never want to hold back my cards. I want them to reach their full potential. So my tension with Shang is like, does can they win? when I'm playing Shang even, it's like, can can you win the lane with just Shang, you know? Or can they, if they just play Shang there, is that going to lose me the lane? Or do I have enough other little power there that Shang isn't enough to win it?
01:05:41
Speaker
and like... a This is making him so, for me, this is like, oh, this makes him so much worse. Right? Like, Shang used to destroy, this is my biggest thing against Captain Carter, is like, a Shang would definitely lose you that lane because you're losing Carter and all the big cards, right? If you weren't, like, mike you know, if you weren't trying, you know, to glass ceiling um Captain Carter to save her from a Shang. This is, like, really bad reasoning. Don't ever treat women like this. Okay.
01:06:14
Speaker
I was just like, where am I going? this is meant This is all bad. OK, but but like now it's like now it's like a shame does nothing to a card.
01:06:27
Speaker
You know what mean? Where it's like, I don't know that that's yeah, as far as we wanted to go. However, once again, getting into the broad ah scope of things, it's like because these will all be played less now, they will certainly be more of a surprise when they are played, which I like. But once again, it's like two power isn't winning lane, even if you just kill one of their 10 power cards. You know what I mean? You still...
01:06:55
Speaker
and that I've always loved tech, and the problem with putting all the tech to be everything in your deck is it's not enough power to overcome even disrupting all of the literally all of their plans. What about you, Lauren?
01:07:11
Speaker
think it's interesting you're both so hard on this Shang change, because like it is a big one, but to me this reads as the one that's most likely to last. um I could see him going back to 4-3.
01:07:23
Speaker
but think he goes to 4-5. or Or higher. But I think 4 or 5 might be a little too good. I think destroy one 10 power enemy is ah very good change for him. um And I imagine they have the statistics on how often is Shang winning because he killed two cards instead of one. I bet most of the time it's because he killed one. i People are going to be playing so much more aggressively for Gamma Lab now.
01:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. I like the option to go really, really hard on a lane to protect yourself from Shang. Like, it's fine. I can sacrifice 10 power. I have two more cards here who are, you know, 10 plus power also. Like, I think that's cool counterplay for Shang.
01:08:09
Speaker
I'm just thinking that one of the best things Shang did for us by limiting power, though, is limiting the amount of mental math we had to do on how things big would get. Because it's like Shang, it's like, I don't care how much bigger than they get than 10. You know what I mean?
01:08:22
Speaker
I don't need to figure that out because I'm just going to Shang that lane. You know what i mean? And now the problem is when it's like when ah ah the power in the lane can get up to like 60, 70, and you're like...
01:08:33
Speaker
it gets It starts getting too hard for you math late at night when when when that's primarily when you play Snap. but So, you know. i We'll talk about this later, maybe.
01:08:46
Speaker
Maybe we just talk about it now. Like there's ah these are all pretty much like common meta tech cards that are getting hit. And so that means yeah the other tech cards are not being hit. And, you know, I think that they're going to take up more share because that. So we have cards like Shadow King who did get hit ah valk that are still solutions for my opponent has multiple huge cards in the same lane.
01:09:08
Speaker
The other common thread of these tech cards that have been hit is that they're also the ones that all the low collection level players have, which seems um kind of ah unfriendly.
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's my least favorite thing about this. Yeah, I mean, if they nerfed, like, if it was all Stardust and all the new cards, people would complain too, I think, because we knew and people just got some. But yeah, but that's I'm thinking.
01:09:35
Speaker
Hurry up and do it. This is what I think I was telling Lauren is like when I think about the cards, most of the card tech cards that are really bothering me or preventing me from having fun, it's like Stardust because I can't do like Doom shenanigans. You know what i mean? There's a lot of stuff you can't do because of Stardust and um you know even Cosmic Ghost Rider, all that stuff.
01:10:02
Speaker
But these cards, I think the flip side I was saying was like, with these cards, ah with the classic tech cards being taken down, this kind of opens new avenues for, getting like, Sauron, right? Like, Sauron suddenly doesn't have to worry so hard about Shun when you're putting out three 10-power-plus cards in a lane, you know?
01:10:28
Speaker
um Yeah. um It'll be certainly interesting to see how the next few weeks go until the next balance patch. ah i The reversions are going to be by next balance patch, right? They're not going to let this go for two OTAs? No, I think some of these cards are changing right back or, well, at least changing again.
01:10:50
Speaker
If not, to right back to what they were, to something a little more playable than than these. Wow. think it's unfortunate. Some these cards are just hollowed out and just done-zo.
01:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's unfortunate. ah Some of those series cards, but like if they only hit high series tech cards, the meta wouldn't feel it in nearly the same way. Right. Like they just don't have the same presence as cards like Shang and Killmonger.
01:11:19
Speaker
True. Okay. Killmonger. So so that i just the experiment wouldn't work. Killmonger goes to destroying only one cost cards at his location.
01:11:30
Speaker
So good. I'm excited about this because Killmonger has really kind of become a staple a lot. Like, I do not play a lot of one-cost cards. Like, Nebula. I haven't played Nebula in forever specifically because there's enough Killmonger where just doesn't feel worth it in comparison to like, a Surge or, like, you know, some other generically good card that won't die or at least would be good. And um this does, though.
01:11:58
Speaker
I'm, like... Am I even playing this Killmonger anymore in my Destroy deck? Because Killmonger was there primarily as tech against other decks, not just to get my X-23 and Deadpool and whatever, you know?
01:12:12
Speaker
Also, Killmonger sometimes helps you get around, like, a Nowhere or Cosmo, and he doesn't do that anymore. like like That's very good point.
01:12:25
Speaker
He is not nearly as good offensively or reactively. I can't believe he's not growing in Right? For this? Now he's more surgical, though.
01:12:35
Speaker
Like, you can spare ah one cost on your own side if you want to. tre We We had Electra, right? like That is the thing. This is the, like, yeah, this is, I feel like now Killmonger is just Electra.
01:12:49
Speaker
But worse. So, because where are you going to play it? Maybe a surfer deck as, like, tech that you can buff. But, like, like I said, in my destroy deck now, now that it's not tech against other decks, probably, mean, you know, maybe you want to take out a nebula. It's like, is it worth taking out nebula or a black cat? Or maybe that's also in the same lane with a squirrel, because probably they're just playing Marvel Boy and they've just got squirrels everywhere. Yeah.
01:13:16
Speaker
What is all the ones here? You're right. Sorry. I'm not like I'm not the the destroy expert, but it's one of those archetypes that I play sometimes somewhat.
01:13:27
Speaker
ah none ah None of my destroy experiments this week were good enough that I felt like sharing them. So I'm clearly like not, you know, the destroy expert.
Enchantress Card Analysis
01:13:34
Speaker
But like, I feel like just destroying your own one costs in a lane is probably still something you want to do sometimes, at least often enough to like some destroyed decks will still run it, I think.
01:13:46
Speaker
I still think you should get a power boost. The ones that are doing come longer to reduce death. This is a huge hit to those decks. That is big hit.
01:13:57
Speaker
It's true. Deathbird decks are dead. Dead. That just means that now they can print a Deathbird card because you know they're going to at some point. That's what this is really about.
01:14:10
Speaker
That's what it's always been about for me. I think ah Zoo is going to love this, obviously. Enchantress goes from 4, 6 to 5, 8. Dead card. I don't think she can survive that. I like this.
01:14:26
Speaker
and Counter argument. I knew everyone hated this one the most. I kind of like it for me. One, you know I'm willing to play a 5, 7 Legion, even 5, 7 Cosmic Ghost Rider.
01:14:39
Speaker
I love a good 5 surprise card that will win you a game. Now nobody's going to be playing Enchantress because everyone's like dead card. So when I rack their entire living tribunal setup that they didn't expect because nobody's playing the card, it'll be fun for me.
01:14:56
Speaker
And I'll play. It's a 5.8. I'm used to playing to either just not playing a Legion because it won't win me the game, not playing a Cosmic Ghost Rider because not playing, or playing it because that power is enough for what I need in that lane and that was the best card to play, or I'm playing it on Shuri's Lab.
01:15:12
Speaker
And, you know, there's been times I played them out not for the power, because 5-8 is still like... You know, like i've plato I've played out tech, you know, at that power for, you know, when it didn't hit its thing.
01:15:26
Speaker
And almost always can you hit something. Almost every deck now has its mo it's Morbius Mobius. or mobius You know what i mean? Like there's a Morbius for most arcs. There's like a Hydra Stomper now. Everything is something.
01:15:40
Speaker
Yeah. and Everything has the, every archetype almost now has the, the ongoing that benefits from it. So like, she's still almost always going to hit something. So I love this change for me, to be honest, my little inked white crackle peach Mamoko split. Some things I like about this change.
01:16:04
Speaker
Primarily that like makes rogue better. That's cool. Yeah. That's cool. This is good for rogue. The thing that I don't like about this change is that um I've been having a great time pretty much never playing Enchantress and just letting other people be afraid of Enchantress.
01:16:26
Speaker
And this is bad for me. Yeah. You know, ah the threat of Enchantress was helping me out without me ever having to play her.
01:16:37
Speaker
um So that's a bummer. And like, i I guess this is good for the people who wanted to get a little crazier with the ongoing cheese whiz. I'm just not usually one of those people. And there's, there's another change coming later that like, I'm sort of selfishly like, ha yeah, my stuff, the the sheriff's out of town with who, but like,
01:16:58
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah, I think we'll we'll see. We'll see. how We'll see what this does. I just think that there are some very gnarly ongoing centric decks right now. Your Cerebros and your your your Vicky Hands and all that stuff. And, you know, other ongoing decks, you still see some Spectrum on going around. I saw some of that in the Golden Gauntlet and stuff.
01:17:23
Speaker
Like, ah I, ah yeah, i'm um'm I'm worried about this one, but I see some positive things about it and I'm trying to remain optimistic and not bummed.
Character Adjustments
01:17:36
Speaker
Enchantress is very often run with Zabu or Sarah. So I think that's worth noting that like she's not she's going from three six to five eight. Like it's a that's exactly what I was going to bring up, though. Like Zabu, we haven't talked about like classic pairing of Zabu with Shung and Enchantress. Right. For your tech stuff. So I'm like, is this a nerf?
01:18:00
Speaker
to zabu but it's like it really just kind of changes is because those were the classic zabu's already been on the decline though that's my perception anyway like i think the nerf to one really did well i don't know it probably you may abandon a cat when you feel like having different experiences probably i don't know i i find myself playing against less zabu than i used to I do think, and I think this nerfs Sabu further, but it does change it. Because, look, I mean, coming up, we have the Negasonic and Cosmo are moving to Cos 4.
01:18:34
Speaker
So maybe it's just a different kind of tech. ah Right. And they both have significant power bumps. Shadow King, 2-2 to 3-3. He's been this before.
01:18:46
Speaker
We've had 3-cost Shadow King. He's a bad card. three rejoices, though, which I hate. I hate that for you, Cerebro enjoyers. I hate that you can Shadow King my cards.
01:18:59
Speaker
okay Negasonic Teenage Warhead, 3-3 4-5.
01:19:06
Speaker
think this one's interesting. I forgot to say She's so much less... I like the Shadow King change selfishly for me as a person who is usually making the numbers bigger than what the card said they were at the beginning.
01:19:19
Speaker
So, yeah selfishly, hurrah. Making math, more math for all of us. Enjoy your time. People are at first are going to overreact to this OTA and just not play these cards, but I think a bunch of them will come back when the meta needs it.
01:19:35
Speaker
think some of them are out of playability range. The main place where I'm playing Negasonic, I am polymorphing her or Cersei-ing her or Velking.
01:19:47
Speaker
mean, she's already 3-3, but like it's a lane that's getting Velked, and so her low power doesn't matter. Now she's a 4-5, and that's not a huge power, but... like Five is decent power. Five is decent power.
01:20:01
Speaker
So that's that's the kind of power that can swing a lane with with a Negasonic. Right, but it's so, so you gotta, you need to play in a Pryo deck now, maybe with a Elias, who's also getting nerfed in power. So I'm kind of just thinking, what are you pairing with to get the Pryo you need for these tech cards?
01:20:20
Speaker
Hmm. I don't know. I want, I want to play your still. I just and figured out. Yeah, she still seems like a real card to me. Some of them are, I think, out of playability range, but Negasonic is still very justifiable, it seems to me.
01:20:38
Speaker
And part of the reason I've noticed, like i like I said, I've been playing her a lot lately ah because of the Galactus First Steps deck, is like what's made her so much better, because people are like, she's rampant now. And it's right. She's always been good. you know what I mean?
01:20:52
Speaker
But she's rampant now. And I think part of the reason is because everyone is filling their board so much more that she's also very useful if you just slaughter on a five when they only have one spot left in a lane you know what i mean like then they've just lost that's just a complete way lane win for you and it used to be harder to set up that scenario where there's so many places where there's only yeah something i do love about her she's a card that rewards throwing prio
01:21:22
Speaker
I like those cards better than the ones that reward having it. Doesn't she also in some cases reward having Pryo? feel like more rewards having Pryo when you're surprised playing her. Okay, you're right. She has a great design because you can use her both ways, right? Yes.
01:21:35
Speaker
was like, that's how I use her is I get ahead and then... Not having Pryo is when you can play her on five and just leave that lane alone because you want it and now you can focus on the other lanes. um But I guess you're right. In that case, your opponent knows it's coming.
01:21:49
Speaker
um sometimes can play
Cosmo's Increased Playability
01:21:52
Speaker
around it. A life takes a huge hit six, nine to six, six. and This, you don't play this card anymore, right? You think not?
01:22:01
Speaker
No, I don't think so. chris per and Which is kind of the only place he is. i think that life did not need to be six, nine at all. I think that it's been like kind of ridiculous this whole time that it's been six, nine. Yeah.
01:22:15
Speaker
yeah i think I think this card sticks around. That's what I think. He used to be my literal least favorite card in the game when he just holy game cards. God, I hated that card. Plythe has just been trouble on and off the whole time.
01:22:30
Speaker
I think he will get worse now too, though, with the Shung nerf. nerve Because now people are going to be way less afraid um to play like just big power cards, which Elias doesn't help against, right? You're trying to get the combo stuff.
01:22:51
Speaker
And now people aren't afraid to just play out their big old big old cards. No, but he helps against Darkhawk and Ronan and Gore, those types of big power.
01:23:03
Speaker
Black Panther, kind of. Yeah. Red Guardian, three two to I
01:23:11
Speaker
have been wondering how small is too small. How small is too small for Red Guardian? And I think this is it. I think this is too small. You know, at 3-1, think I might have still... But it still like, wow.
01:23:27
Speaker
If you're not even winning the lane by playing him there. He's a C-0 card. Wow. Yeah, I mean, unless you're knocking them down, unless they also they have one power. But I agree.
01:23:40
Speaker
But like, Ravonna friend, keep talking about how going to put together Ravonna shit. I'm going to try again this week. I'm committing. Don't commit. All right. I've already done it. It's too late. Okay. um She was almost in my secret homework deck.
01:23:54
Speaker
Right? Or Agent Venom is is in, you know, and that's where we go. Agent Venom with Red Guardian. your Cersei trick. Like you said, the same reason you were, you know, you were turning Negasonic.
01:24:09
Speaker
But I do agree that it's like you're doing something like that, probably, or he's not the best all-around tech card anymore. Jug, Jug, Jug reigns supreme again, I guess. Ooh.
01:24:20
Speaker
i Jug is a forecast and now. Jug is yeah yeah just fine. More than fine. He's still very good. but I haven't played Jug in a minute. Cosmo gets the gets the Juggernaut treatment. three three to four six For sakes, that's playable. Yeah, those stats are a little too real for my taste. This is another one that selfishly i i wouldn't i wouldn't miss if ah Cosmo disappeared for a couple weeks. I wouldn't be i wouldn't be upset about that.
01:24:52
Speaker
I love on reveals. I love flipping cards over and getting effects. Comes into play effects. They've they've always been my favorite. Give give me a give me a creature that... Draws. Yeah. Give me a Moldrifter. I'm trying to draw a couple cards with a body on the board. Ooh, and that one flew. What ah what a good card. And you could evoke it for only three men if you just wanted the two cards.
01:25:11
Speaker
Okay. We're not here to talk about Magic the Gathering, but yes, us things that go on the board that also do an effect are awesome. And I wish that Cosmo would just disappear instead of getting this like remarkably playable four, six side grade.
01:25:26
Speaker
Hmm. I'm going to take enchantress opposition stance here, though. I see what you're saying, and I don't really disagree with it. But for me, specifically, the way I normally play Cosmo is that I am playing Cosmo. Usually late in the game, I am doing other stuff. Like, almost, you know, I'm rarely playing late Cosmos.
01:25:47
Speaker
And... um And I want to hit them on turn three, almost always get prio. Cause that's when shit starts popping off in decks, you know, a lot of times. And that's where you can sometimes tell where they're going to play.
01:26:00
Speaker
don't know. for me, this, this makes them worse for the way I play them. I think, I think it's definitely a pillar, you know, it's for sure.
01:26:12
Speaker
It's just like twice as much power on the board.
01:26:17
Speaker
hey that's that's the weird unusual OTA um I don't normally recommend going and reading I mean if you're like super into the game and want to know all the reasoning all that then it's good to read the notes but I think these notes are fun I laughed out loud a couple times um it's Dalek Cadence right
01:26:37
Speaker
Like, if you if you read these, they're... It's been too long since I've read it. Kind of the cadence of... I'm not even a Dark New person, but, like, this is, like, type, you know? For sure.
Humorous OTA Notes & Symbiote Spider-Man
01:26:48
Speaker
The word exterminate is notably present... Or, and like, not present in the in the stuff. But, like, it will be changed.
01:26:57
Speaker
You know? Right. That kind of thing. Um... They have binary at the beginning and the end, and the end is a teaser for the zombie season next month. Okay.
01:27:11
Speaker
On to our side quest. First up, and only this week, secret homework. The secret homework was assigned by I suppose it was. Well, for those who may have forgotten, it was only one year ago this month that we got acquainted with...
01:27:31
Speaker
The first of many things. Symbiote Spider-Man. The first straight-up repeat character. The first activate card. um You know, just a fun... An interesting design that neither...
01:27:48
Speaker
you know took Marvel's Snap by storm, nor... yeah you know it was It was neither omnipresent nor ah nowhere to be found, and it's been around on the periphery this whole time. It's a cool design. It got a point of power. it I believe that it released at 4.6, and people have done things with it. They've fused it with NIMBYs. They've merged it.
01:28:16
Speaker
Someone probably merged it with Penny Parker at some point. Who knows? um Maybe someone did that this week. Who can say? i so the assignment was to just build ah build a new, fun, interesting deck with Symbiote Spider-Man. I'm i'm not telling you how to live your life. ah i myself...
01:28:35
Speaker
ah Didn't exactly knock it out of the park on my first try. I went through so many bad ideas. ah One of them that I really tried to make work again and again.
01:28:47
Speaker
not not that I don't know. I thought it would be cute. I was like, what can what can symbiote Spider-Man do that Absorbing Man can't do? occupies a very funny little...
01:28:58
Speaker
it it's sort it occupies a very funny little Funny little space. And I was like, well, maybe it would be cool on turn six to do a double Dr. Doom. and have you've you've already got, like, Doctor Doom 2099 out, and that would have been cute. I never pulled it off even once. Like, the deck just wasn't good.
01:29:19
Speaker
It didn't make any sense. It didn't agree with itself. So I tried, like, a lot of lot of variations on that theme, a lot of cards in and out, tried it without Electro, tried it with Electro. We were doing, like, ongoing things some of the time.
01:29:32
Speaker
I don't know. But what I did end up doing was just sort of a little... combo-y soup thing, you know? And as I mentioned, I thought about putting Ravonna in this one.
01:29:43
Speaker
Also, I have... ah Well, I'll just tell you what's in it. Oh, it's got a good name. It's called Secret Homework Wars because that's where Spider-Man got the black suit.
01:29:56
Speaker
Secret Wars. Very nice. ah Zaboo. Nico Minoru, Surge, Lasher, Grandmaster, Merlin, Ironheart, Captain Carter, Bastion, Absorbing Man, Symbiote Spider-Man, and White Tiger.
01:30:11
Speaker
um It's a real fun deck. A lot of the cards work together in cool and interesting ways. Merlin is so good. ah a lot of great um targets for Once and Future or Polymorph.
01:30:26
Speaker
Ironheart, great card to Once and Future or Polymorph. ah White Tiger, another great card to Once and Future or Polymorph. Zabu, great card to Once and Future or even Polymorph. Sure, why not? You know.
01:30:40
Speaker
um And a lot of lot of these cards are happy to have stats, to to like receive stats. Lasher is happy to have the stats. Captain Carter is happy to have the stats. ah Captain Carter, in a pinch, can be merged with a Symbiote Spider-Man to make a real tall lane.
01:30:58
Speaker
Symbiote Spider-Man is, of course, happy to merge with Ironheart, happy to merge with White Tiger, happy to merge with... Like, you know, even Surge in a pinch, it's not the worst.
01:31:09
Speaker
And depending on what spell you played Nico Minoru with, ah hey why not do a little double up thing? You know, the double spell is so good. Yeah, they're they're just like she end up at like like 22 power or something like that.
01:31:25
Speaker
Well, it depends what you did with her first. Like one of my favorite things to do with Nico and the doubling ability is to make the next card be Ironheart because that's just fun. um So you can you can get big old numbers.
01:31:39
Speaker
A lot of these cards fit together in cute ways. They're cute things you can do with Bastion. Hey, you know what's a cool thing to have at two three ah Captain Carter. That's the Mr. Negative version of Captain Carter is just what you get with Bastion.
01:31:52
Speaker
um It's fun to play. Honestly, even on turn five, it's fun to play a two, three surge. I discovered this during the most recent high voltage surge is just a once is enough.
01:32:06
Speaker
Surge is a pretty cool card. um Let's see. ah You know, you don't get angry at having an extra like Yeah, a 2-3 Ironheart, that's a good thing to have.
01:32:20
Speaker
um Also, you can very often play some things early with like Once in Future. So if you... you got yourself a ah turn four white tiger or something, you play a turn five bastion. And then on turn six, you're dropping a two, three white tiger and doing things. Just all kinds of cute stuff like this. And while I was so playing the deck this afternoon, like I only finally found a good Symbiote Spider-Man thing to do just today.
01:32:47
Speaker
But i was I was shooting up the ladder doing secret homework stuff. And that's that's how I know I've got the right secret homework deck is when it climbs. Um, so yeah, I recommend that list there.
01:33:01
Speaker
There were so many fun cards that I wanted to put in it, but you know, you only get 12 and yeah, this is just a, it's a loose affiliation of, uh, uh, millionaires and billionaires and baby, uh, Paul Simon.
01:33:16
Speaker
Um, I don't know, just, just some cards that sort of go together, some combo-y soup. ah sounds like who who's the Who's the next person? Somebody's a signing, right?
01:33:29
Speaker
I'm a signing. You're a signing? All right. um I was gone on board game retreat, and I kind of lucked out in that I forgot about Secret Homework, but I had already been playing some V.O. Spider-Man because I'd been messing around. with I've been working on Nomura for a while, trying different iterations over the past, like...
01:33:50
Speaker
two weeks and um simpio spider-man is still great in namora because you can you know copy your namora you can copy your white tiger um but you can also use it since it is a merge card you know you can merge with uh your I call them Nemora pillars. I realize maybe that doesn't make sense, but you know what i mean? The two one cards you're trying to... And the other two lanes you're trying to hit. um Absolutely. right I understand what you're saying. yeah
01:34:23
Speaker
Yeah. So you can merge it there so you still have your one card, but it's like... This is why... I mean, one part of the reason I started messing with Nemora was for Frankie Ray when I got Frankie Ray.
01:34:34
Speaker
so um i did I don't know if ever mentioned in the past, kind of belatedly, when she first came out. um So, like, that's the kind of card, though, you really want to hit it with, you know?
01:34:45
Speaker
card that's going to double up. I...
01:34:50
Speaker
I do issues with Frankie Ray and Nomura in that the only card I really want to play six cost, I want to play in my Nomuras is Odin.
01:35:01
Speaker
and when you have a card that is dependent on six card cosplaying, it's like you should at least have two. So I was trying to put Doom in the deck since it is some, you know, it is some Wong, some Wong stuff going on.
01:35:13
Speaker
so I'm like, Doom would be good because I also, like, I put, it so I also put in White Tiger. But there was so much Stardust running around that it was like, it really put me off of it.
01:35:25
Speaker
When I already didn't want to play an extra six cost deck, which kind of feels like then I need to take Frankie out because she's, I don't know. don't need to, but I hate it when I have only one way to trigger her.
01:35:38
Speaker
But some fun things I learned in the making of this were that, like... For funsies, Colossus was a great... He's going to be less now because all the tech cards are gone.
01:35:50
Speaker
I mean, Shang would still kill Nomura, but like people would be playing less Shang. You know what i mean? so um I have to fear it less.
Nomura Deck Experimentation
01:35:59
Speaker
But Colossus was a great Nomura pillar because it's like one of the things you you don't want to see late in Nomura when you planned out early as of turn three is like everything slides to the left. I know Ben loves those locations like or to the right.
01:36:13
Speaker
Yes, but you know what i mean, where where you're moving around and it's like, Colossus won't move. Colossus also still beats, like, Death Domain, all of those locations, and for Nomura, they can't shang You know what I mean? he he can't be Shadow Kinged. He is like... I was i just gonna ask, I honestly don't know the answer to that.
01:36:33
Speaker
Since they changed Shadow Kinged and Luke Cage interaction, like, I don't know if Shadow King, if Colossus stopped Shadow King or not. But... Can't have its power reduced. I'm trying to see if it ever came up where someone tried to.
01:36:46
Speaker
What, Shadow King should reduce its power? No, i think I think that Colossus should be impervious to that. That's what I think. I agree. That's how I've been playing it. But now that you think about I'm trying to think if I ever where someone did try to Shadow King me so I could see where it works. I assume they also assume. I'm going to have test it. Yeah, I don't actually know. I assumed.
01:37:07
Speaker
That makes them way less good if you can be Shadow King to honest. Never seen that come up. Maybe everybody else assumes that too and just won't play Shadow King on it. So that's why I don't know. I don't think I've seen this scenario.
01:37:19
Speaker
We should get to the bottom of that. It wouldn't hard to test. No, I'll test it after this. I do have, okay, like I was playing Irby for fun because he does the double up, you know what i mean? um the double up is good and or getting the extra energy, right? To play something big early can be good.
01:37:39
Speaker
I do think I'm going end up taking Frankie Ray. I had Cosmo as another pillar, but now I'm going to change it. Like maybe I'll try Storm. Sounds fun. um In that location.
01:37:50
Speaker
I'm now trying also Silver Surfer First Steps, another way to trigger a Nomura, you know what I mean? um I'm excited play around actually now, like post changes.
01:38:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool. Because Nomura is so finicky to location. So the Killmonger hurts that. I used to sometimes play Killmonger in Nomura just to account for like central parks and stuff. But so that hurts it.
01:38:14
Speaker
But other than that, it's like... Shang, you know, big concern. um so yes, I will definitely be playing more. I played through lots of iterations and I was like even scoping out changes we were talking and I'm excited to do more. So I am I am happy symbiote Spider-Man still be so good in Nomura.
01:38:40
Speaker
What did you do, Lauren? i I did i my plan. I went into my Symbiote Spider-Man deck with a single plan, which was Human Torch on six.
01:38:55
Speaker
And then on seven, I can play Ghost Fighter and Taskmaster. And as soon as I had it set up the first time, I was like, oh, wait, I don't want Taskmaster to hit the Ghost Fighter. No, you do not. um But you know what?
01:39:09
Speaker
It worked anyway. It was super strong. i don't I built it like a Clip Hunter deck. like I have Nico Minoru in here. She's in in a lot of my decks because the draw two is so good. i have Magic. I have Adam Warlock. I have Martyr, who are friends for Nico Minoru to destroy it or to beef up the Adam Warlock lane.
01:39:27
Speaker
um Those four end up in tons of my Clip Hunting decks. i But anyway, the plan is... Get Zorn down, have a Sparky or two. I have friggin' Prodigy here to make extra Sparkies.
01:39:43
Speaker
um Nico Movespell actually proved to be quite helpful in this deck, whether it was setting up the Human Torch or like let Prodigy become a second Sparky, but then get him out of the way.
01:39:54
Speaker
Zorn also helps with that. But then the whole plan is Ghost Spider is in a lane by herself. Well, sorry, she's the only one cost in that lane. So symbiote Spider-Man will target her and play the torch on Zorn. He moves. Symbiote Spider-Man was blocking the lane. So I know for sure Zorn is going to send to the other lane.
01:40:15
Speaker
becomes Ghost Spider, pulls the torch over, because now there's room. It's using the Symbiote Spider-Man merge ability very effectively. Sparky once or twice, and then Taskmaster, and it's just huge.
01:40:26
Speaker
And it lets you play the torch. um um You have to play the torch on the second to last turn. um but But he's not big enough to be a threat yet. So your opponent's like, ah whatever. i mean, I guess they see the Sparky on the board, but like they don't know what's about to happen, which is yeah Ghost Spider, multiple Sparkies, and then a Taskmaster.
01:40:47
Speaker
Sparky gives them like a plausible alternate story of what's going to happen next turn. Yeah. It's going to go back to that location. And they theyed they should know the Ghostfighter is happening too.
01:40:59
Speaker
But you can mix up the order that those things happen in. So that's is very it was very cool. um I probably played. eight ish games with it and i won seven of them and then the other one was just a retreat because it was adeline and i always retreat from adeline when i'm chasing a clip because it's a terrible location to reset your hand um unless you're ahead on on it then maybe it's helpful because it's actually drawing cards uh yeah i'm very excited about somebody of spider-man right now because today
01:41:33
Speaker
And we're going to talk about this next
Jocasta's Unique Ability
01:41:34
Speaker
week. But today we got news that Jocasta will activate a card that has already been activated. And so it was just like, I got my gears turning and I was thinking, oh, now something that we couldn't do before, we can make Symbiote Spider-Man merge with something and then activate him.
01:41:54
Speaker
Which is really nasty with things like Lasher and um ands Scarlet Spider's hard to do because it should be smaller than Jocasta for Symbiote Spider-Man to target it. But I'm very excited about that. I'm going to do very silly things with Symbiote Spider-Man and Jocasta. Mostly they're cute, but like... Yeah.
01:42:11
Speaker
I was thinking of a reveal for assigning it now. I should have waited. Oh. ah We can make cute Jocasta decks. I don't know. ah Anyway, not to get too sidetracked, I actually had a lot of fun with this, making a move deck with a little sneaky ghost spider in there.
Weekly Homework Assignment
01:42:30
Speaker
I assign next week's homework. i'm I'm going to pick pretty soft homework this time. It is, um want to hear one to three other topics besides Marvel Snap that you could talk about for hours.
01:42:43
Speaker
I think it's fun to find out what people are like that into or that well versed in. Okay. Well, listener, viewer, if you liked what you heard and you haven't already, like, subscribe, comment, rate, review, all all the things. Interact. Help the algorithms, please.
01:43:04
Speaker
We appreciate it. Also, give give us life by feeding us comments. um Come hang out with us in the speakeasy, which is our little corner of Discord. It's part of the Snap Judgments League Discord because we are part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions from Joe, your host with the most on Mondays.
01:43:23
Speaker
um You can find the instructions to get into the speakeasy in the show notes or video description. hey ah come Come see what we think about Deadpool's Diner.
01:43:34
Speaker
ah We won't have played it, but hopefully there will be ah an announcement of some kind ah next week. Same Snap time, same Snap channel. Yay.
01:43:46
Speaker
Dancing to imaginary guitars. Oh gosh. I can hear them. I don't know what you're talking about. What, you guys don't hear? I'm so flattered. Safety Blade named a deck after robots means activate.
01:43:58
Speaker
I saw that, yeah. And he shouted us out on the blue sky. And he climbed to rank two with Awesome Andy. Well, of course he did.
01:44:09
Speaker
Oh, I need to see. Oh, I don't have Awesome Andy, though. should tell you more about Safety Blade than it does about Awesome Andy. That's why. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I...
01:44:21
Speaker
misunderstand the situation. I agree too, that's for sure. Safety is an amazing player, but there's a lot to be said for people just not being experienced with cards and they don't think about the ways you're going to...
Admiration for Unconventional Deck Builders
01:44:38
Speaker
Even with Viv, even though she's season pass and she's everywhere, like I said, it's just not in there.
01:44:44
Speaker
People are quick to discount her
01:44:49
Speaker
I greatly admire safety as a player and even more so as a deck builder. But it is very hard to know, like, to understand his evaluation of cards because, like, he likes cards that aren't good. And it's like, is this card good because you're playing it or because it's actually good? And there's always, like, an extra layer of interpretation you have to do on top of it.
01:45:11
Speaker
I don't like anyone who doesn't like some bad cards. Yeah. You can't trust them. Yeah, that's true.