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8: The Most Exciting Button in Snap
142 Plays4 days ago
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🪜 Lauren, Ben, and Rie talk about their infinite climb for this week in Snap
- Misery (this week’s new card) and Scorn (next week’s) are discussed
- Lauren Brockovitch uncovers 🕵️ the mystery of the disappearing splits
- Secret Homework experiences were not equal this week 🎒😆
- 🏆 Tourney talk!!
Video version (usually) on YouTube (in this even-numbered episode, Moon Knight discarded Rie’s video footage 🤷♀️🤭🌙).
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Introductions
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Episode 8 of Snap on This, proudly part of the Snap Judgments Network. I'm Lauren Whatevs, here today with my usual co-hosts. They're amazing. First up, Ben Roller. How was your weekend snap and keep it snappy? Well, keeping it snappy, my weekend snap was pretty good.
Gaming Highlights and Strategies
00:00:24
Speaker
I i hit infinite shortly after we recorded last week.
00:00:29
Speaker
Um, using a combination of decks, a lot of that Agent Venom surfer that I was talking about last time, um, I entered infinite with significantly more snap points this time. I was grumbling about it last month. I was like, gosh, dang it. When, when will, when will my rating reflect where it was last month? And yeah, so I started in the 7,700s this time, so much less grinding to do to get you know, to the 8000s and things. That's got to be really rewarding. Yeah, it's it's nice because like a lot of it is just like throwing time at it and stuff. And I haven't really even with hashtag pod goals, I haven't been like grinding a ton or anything. I've been playing a pretty
00:01:16
Speaker
moderate amount, I would say. But yeah, ever since I hit infinite, I've been like treading water on the old SP, trying new deck ideas while the month is still early, you know, before I commit to things that I know work. I've been doing, I've been trying to make screen work because I usually wait until things are a little bit old before I get interested.
00:01:41
Speaker
I've been doing a scream surfer deck based on move surfer decks of my past. i I think I'm going to have to cut Kingpin, which is a little sad because I like playing Kingpin. ah That's a bummer. But yeah, that and Scarlet Spider stuff, some secret non-surfer ideas that you might hear about in the future.
00:02:01
Speaker
um While I was working on our secret homework for this week, I played a bunch
League Competitions and Expectations
00:02:06
Speaker
of conquest. It did not go well. More on that later. But on the more competitive side of things, I was the only undefeated player in my Snap Judgments League pod after four rounds of Swiss. That's amazing. That's pretty exciting. But now I've got to keep it going through the top eight. So I don't know, somebody's going to kick my butt, probably Caesar or something.
00:02:32
Speaker
What are you going to do? Does your record affect like, is it just your seed in top eight or? I think it's just my seed in top eight. Like I think I'm playing against the person with like the worst tiebreakers of the three ones that made the cut. Yeah. I don't know. In theory, this, this first one should be the easiest. We'll, we'll see what happens. i' Well, I'm going to do that after the recording tonight. So.
Rhee's Marvel Snap Journey
00:03:01
Speaker
There will be news of it next week. I'll, I'll either be very happy or very sad. Um, yeah, that's, that's been my week. I'm sorry. I usually. You're fine. Is top eight single Elon. Yeah, I believe so. Okay. I could be wrong, but i I've never made it that far.
00:03:20
Speaker
Well, I'm, I'm a little nervous about it, but yeah, it it might all go well. It's gone well so far. Folks. Folks been losing to me. I hope they keep it up. Yeah. Sorry, I try to keep my Week in Snap snappier than that usually, but it was all I know. You're doing fine. It's not even minute four yet. are other happy Our other-host, Rhee, how was your Week in Snap?
00:03:49
Speaker
um Okay. So to be honest with you, I think I'm entering my Marvel Snap bad girl era. I have stopped using my innocent noodle silk avatar. I started using my avatar, which it's like the avatar does a lot for me and how in the attitude I'm bringing to a game, to be honest with you. Yeah.
00:04:21
Speaker
So because I was going to start this with an apology because I went to infinite and I did it and this was before misery came out. So I know everyone's been facing a lot of dark cock since misery came out or at least I have.
00:04:40
Speaker
So I assume some people out there have as well. and um But I made... So I was going to apologize for being a dirt cock back to Infinite, but you know what? I was just like, you know what? No. No. I
Deck Strategies and Adjustments
00:04:54
Speaker
am the herald of dirt cock. You're not the one who created this card. You're not responsible for it being...
00:05:02
Speaker
a nightmare to play against if it even is that, right? um good i'm glad i put all those rocks in all those decks i regret yeah yeah um i mean superund um because it's it's a thenon Darkhawk, werewolf by night. So the idea is, if you get if you can get your werewolf out, you're pinging them around with Spider-Ham, Iceman, obviously Corgan Rockslide, and the widows, both white,
00:05:34
Speaker
um And Black Widow. And um there's a Grandmaster in there. I love the Grandmaster in this. Because you know what people love more than being Black Widow'd once? Two turns in a row.
00:05:50
Speaker
Um, don't do a Spider-Hymn, you'll probably hit the same card. Um, so I usually play Spider-Hymn in the middle, but like, uh, that's fine. And then right with Agent Venom, everything being bigger, it's just obviously better. Oh, and there's an Iron Man in there ah as well, because, you know, there's the Mystique, so hitting that with an
Card Experiences and Game Excitement
00:06:08
Speaker
Agent Venom is great, so that's a good backup.
00:06:10
Speaker
So that's what I took. I really love bouncing. I think it was playing a bend deck. It was where I realized I really, as much as I don't generally enjoy move, I love bouncing werewolf around a board. It's really fun. several couple cards Yeah. And very satisfying animation. It's like quick.
00:06:32
Speaker
yeah It's fun. And you know, who doesn't like being ice-manned and hammed? Widows. Your opponents, that's who. And then drawing rocks, yeah. So that was my week. i I wrote that all the way. I put it together, and I like took it through a silver conquest or something, and I'm like ready. And then I just wrote it all the way to infinite. So ah that that was my week, back to infinite.
00:07:02
Speaker
That's awesome. On the Broad Code. Although I've changed it now. Originally it was the Broad Code for the Racks. But like now for spooky season, I've renamed it Werewolves and Widows. Oh, cool. It's a very good name. i I like the alliteration. Yeah. um The rhyme is also good from Broad Code. Do I get deaf names? Yes. I spend a lot of time sometimes.
00:07:30
Speaker
It's important. It's just like your avatar in your title. It prepares you for battle. It sets the mood. You gave me one. I had a week one infinite this week for or for the season for the first time in a while. I also used Ree's deck at least through the 80s. I loved this deck and had so much fun with it, except Iron Man. I was having terrible luck with Iron Man.
00:07:57
Speaker
So maybe around 87 or 88, I popped US agent and instead, it wasn't better, but I tried. um
00:08:08
Speaker
I thought it was the one card I thought about replacing, Lauren, was Iron Man. like But around, there was this something, and he does hit sometimes, but that's cool. I was like hearing that. Interesting. Yeah, I just i couldn't get enough power. It was like, and it's probably, Iron Man's probably fine if you get the Agent Venom off, right? Yes, and I think that's the difference. When I missed Agent Venom and Dark Hawk, Iron Man alone wasn't enough, and so that's why he felt kind of lacking.
00:08:34
Speaker
um neith little words before yeah But otherwise, I totally loved it. Iron Man did steal some games. It just wasn't very many. He didn't feel like he was doing nearly as much lifting as as the other cards. ah And then through the 90s, I switched to an Eka deck that's like a Sera tech deck. And this thing is an absolute menace. It's rocking Agent Venom.
00:08:56
Speaker
um Sarah tech's fun. I haven't taken it to infinite in a while. But this thing just, I think I lost less than 10 times between 93 and 100. Like it was just the fastest 90s I can remember. um But yeah, it feels good to finally just to be done early and to be able to goof off. um I wanted to prioritize. First of all, I was just kicking ass with with your deck and then with Eka's deck. And so I was like, wow, things are good. Let's like, you know, the meta could shift. Let's just let's just knock this thing out. But I also wanted to knock it out early because we've got a week of high voltage coming up and we don't know exactly what that looks like. But I want to earn a free card. So I would like to not worry about rank during that week. Wait, when is that? Do we know?
00:09:44
Speaker
and yeah Maybe? I don't know. And then speaking of bad girl era in Marvel Snap, I just picked up the nightmare Momoko, Captain Marvel, and I can already feel he's yeah the the darkness calling to me. So yeah.
00:10:04
Speaker
it can some the date say ah Okay, we're gonna move on to this week's new card. It is Misery, a 4-7 on reveal. Repeat the on reveal abilities of your other cards here, then destroy them. Again, I hate this text. She just she just destroys the on reveal cards.
00:10:22
Speaker
um
00:10:25
Speaker
Anyway, ah thoughts about the card? i don't know I don't know who's going first this week, but did you get Misery?
Upcoming Cards and Game Changes
00:10:31
Speaker
And what do you think? I did get misery. I have not yet played misery. I've played against a fair amount of misery. um that For a minute there, I tried using a tech card. It's not usually something I do. I briefly and tried on Cosmo for size in my life. um Probably didn't help anything at all. i Still not a huge believer in just
00:11:02
Speaker
Yeah,
00:11:05
Speaker
ah it's ah yeah I don't know. So I guess I was seeing enough misery that I felt a need to respond to it. um I don't really like the decks I was playing against, to be honest. I think like they've already fallen out of favor a little bit, and I'm happy enough about that, because who likes getting milked? Who likes getting clogged up extra? you know like ah One widow's fight is like enough or whatever. you know i just
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah. it's It's a cool card. I'm sure I'll feel more positive about it once I start tinkering with it, but I i had a stupid secret homework deck to play this week. And that was i was using all of my innovation juice. I was trying to salvage that. So yeah, I don't have strong feelings about misery, but I did acquire it. Tell us the success from the way you talk about it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, people were definitely...
00:12:04
Speaker
using the card. um And I did get the other two cards. I got Nomura and War Machine. um Oh yeah, it was a three card week. Yes, it was a three card week. I'm never going to use War Machine. I said it once. I've i've said it several times. War Machine? More like Snore Machine. Am I right? How dare you? Am I right?
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you've been, Roller. No. Okay, like, I get that, like, it's maybe not the most reliable or anything, but it's fun to play an infinite after, like, ooh, I just broke the rules. I played on turn five. But guess what? Infinite's still coming down. Like,
00:12:45
Speaker
You need some of this like bad girl energy. It's pretty fun. sir mom watch the rules you I don't know. War Machine is not inviting me to play any of the cards that I like to play. that's fair It's inviting me to play cards that I don't like to play and I'm like, no, I don't.
00:13:07
Speaker
like to Why would I start playing Ebony Maw and Infinite now? I already know what I like. It's raw power that you normally you're not allowed to have. So like, you know, and so as a woman, you got to love that shit.
00:13:24
Speaker
no You mentioned seeing
OTA Changes and Mastery Feature
00:13:26
Speaker
lots of of misery and I agree. I've seen lots. Do you feel like you saw more than scream? because I think I did, like, at least for like the first, you know, the first 24 hours. I don't know how it's going to be longer than a week or two. It's still still in a screen, to be honest. People love that card. Yeah, I still see some screen. I think it reminds me of that one. Yeah. I mean, it's real fun. The draining the power is, it feels devious. It's true. And it's another good animation. Like it's just a lot of that.
00:14:02
Speaker
I saw people were doing the mill and um... Uh, you know, all, all that stuff. So then, so that made it less interesting. The one thing I actually do think I want to try first, uh, that I didn't make was I, I saw somewhere out of the corner of my eye and fit parrot, I think made us stand out stacks and people have been having success with and that interests me. Um, I haven't tried that yet, but I think misery on the stone seems really fun. Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:36
Speaker
so I also think it sounds fun. What I have been trying to do with it, and it's not all there yet. It needs more work. It's got the juice. Sometimes you work on a deck and you play for a while and you're just like, you know what? It's just not. You know what I mean? You just have to trash a little deck. Sometimes you're like, okay, this has it. This has the fun, but half of the deck has to be changed.
Controversy Over Split Rates
00:15:01
Speaker
Maybe it's like 40% of the deck needs to go, but it's, you know, it's there. And the idea is, of course, okay, it was a four keys week for me, which I'm sad about. I was really hoping for two keys, but I do have a Nomura variant now, so worth.
00:15:18
Speaker
But, um, that's, and then, and so we had to use the Nomura variant. So, and it's like, I haven't seen anyone else doing that with misery, but, um, this is the next, so it's like a Nomura deck, and the idea is your pillars are going to be either misery, a tumor, or venom. Um, and you have, like, White Widow, Ironheart,
00:15:43
Speaker
um And what's hilarious, was there's so many times I just didn't play misery because Venom was the better choice, because like Wakanda had hit my like, you know, my cart, like White Widow and stuff, and it's a foreign. Too much stats to throw away. But, and I mean, and Lauren said this I think before too, is just good tech for a lot of locations and random stuff, right?
00:16:06
Speaker
Um, so, um, yes, I think my problem right now is I'm a little too, no more focused. Um, which is not how I like to deck build this to be all in on the combo. I need to be a little more, so I need to, you know, in case we don't drive. Yes. Or I need some more iron lad in there or something to make sure I hit it. But like. It's working, because I've been playing a lot of the Tuma in the last season, and he's pretty baller. He gets rid of goblins, he gets rid of hobgoblins, annoying rocks. Right? And so what if it's like you play the Ironheart on him, but now he's free to be Nomura. And there's been a little bit less shang around, so he doesn't feel
00:16:52
Speaker
um quite as vulnerable. So yeah, so it's like- A Tuma with Nomura is really clever. But it's not though. Like it's so obvious that nobody like does it because it's like putting nails- So obvious that nobody else is doing it. I don't think I've seen it. When a Tuma's in Atlanta, they're both in Atlanta, you know? Like they- Oh, it's almost like they were designed to, yeah.
00:17:15
Speaker
yeah ah Yeah, no, so Attuma is right, especially against just Clog is just general tech right now, and then Nicely goes with Nomura, and they make, like they're kind of, I feel like I don't see those as much for Nomura decks, but like Venom and now Misery, like great. That's what I like, I call them Nomura players. But um ah that's, the deck is called Do It for Her. It's all for Nomura.
00:17:45
Speaker
And that's what I've been working on. And I need to get some of the cards around it fixed, but it's got something.
New Side Quests and Mechanics
00:17:55
Speaker
I'll keep working with it. I dig it. Misery Nomura is very cool.
00:18:00
Speaker
yeah I also got the card. I also got the card. I put it in my first attempt at secret homework. I grabbed it with tokens, which I haven't done in a while, but I was like, you know what?
00:18:14
Speaker
I should probably make sure that I have keys whenever there is a multi-card week, which the next multi-card week is, I don't even know when it is, it's probably a while away, whenever Proxima and Corvus show up maybe.
00:18:27
Speaker
um But I just, I don't know, I had a surplus of tokens and I didn't love the variants. I think the Nomura variant is super cool, don't get me wrong. I just, realistic art is not really like, it's not my thing as much as very comic-y, stylish art. It's more that it's the only one you can get. There's no other, there's no Nomura variants beyond spelling. That's fair, but I like base art, so.
00:18:53
Speaker
that's pretty good I know some people are like anti base art like I'm if I have a variant I must use the variant but I'm like if I like the na and the variant I'm gonna rock the base art yeah I recently switched back to base art hope summers cuz the only variant I had was the pandart one from the season pass and I just don't like it very much yep that's that is one where I'm rocking the base art Um, I put her in clog, which I know everybody's doing clog and mill. Um, we don't have to be proud of being hipsters here. who do it's fine ah My clog was definitely unconventional because it was secret homework. There was a spider woman in there. There's a, there's a nocturne in there. Um,
00:19:39
Speaker
i I love this card. I have no sense of if she's good or not, but she's super fun and I'm so excited to keep playing with her this week. um she is she just She feels like my jam and I don't know what that looks like yet.
Valkyrie Women's Tournament Recap
00:19:54
Speaker
ah Maybe I'll report back later with something cool. Yeah, I think I'll definitely want to talk about Misery once I've played Misery. hu Yeah, of course. We can always revisit. Yeah. A lot of thoughts.
00:20:09
Speaker
I will say I've played a lot of Mill, and even when they're successful at stealing two draws from me, I'm still winning. So yeah, I'll reiterate, ah it's good that Mill is not good. Yep. Yeah. um yeah i Okay, we'll move on. Those are my thoughts. Misery revived a bad archetype i in Playwright. I thought it was Hella that everyone was mad at right now.
00:20:39
Speaker
No, it still is. Yeah. We're just taking a little break, okay? It's possible to be upset about more than one thing at the same time. That's true. Okay, ah next week's spotlight. The feature card, the new release, another symbiote because it is the season. A scorn, a one-two. When you discard this, return it to your hand and give plus two power to itself and one of your cards in play.
00:21:09
Speaker
i I think Rhea and I both had it as number one in our preseason rankings. If not number one, it was high. yeah um It'll be a good discard card. I'm excited to go back to this card. Yeah, it'll be a great discard card. Yeah, I've seen a bunch of people say that like, oh, the old version, which definitely I thought the old version was very cool, very fun to do an explosive combo with to get some exponential growth and all that. Yeah. But I've seen people be like, oh, the new version, like, I don't know that it can go on and it could be an apocalypse backup anymore. And I'm like, they both get plus four power when you discard them, like, she doesn't start at six, but
00:21:50
Speaker
I don't know. You still play this in Apocalypse for sure. That's what I think. I think you play both of them and I think it's totally fine. Yeah. It's easy to, it'll be easy to play your Entering Six. Yeah. Most importantly, Friends with Swordmaster. That's the real headline here for Swordmaster. No, I'm going to get a show off my inked Swordmaster. I'd be like, that's right. Very important. I was playing him before he was cool. So I've like an inked with, um, with Sparkle or Rainbow.
00:22:19
Speaker
sir yeah again it's and just draggging about my be and There's probably not very many people rocking Ink Swordmaster. yeah i'm I'm impressed. i I don't know yet if I'm gonna get her just because...
00:22:39
Speaker
I'm scared before like I just discard. I'm just like discard is not an arc even when I have fun with it like I'll dip into it every now and then but I just I never stick with it. So I'm interested. I'm intrigued but also I I know I'm gonna want resources later. Yeah, I think I have to get her just because discard And it's good. i don't I don't play every discard card. like I've said on the pod I'm not a big fan of Corvus Glaive. I mean i ah respect Corvus, but I don't play it. But like this is one that I would play. I would absolutely play this card. this is like This is the kind of card that I like. I like cards that get bigger and have like efficient stats and reward you for doing like
00:23:26
Speaker
the thing that your deck wants to do and are not picky about the order in which it gets done. And this is like yeah very much one of those. I just, I love living that non-linear lifestyle. And I think this one is unskippable for Benjamin Roller.
00:23:42
Speaker
I missed Meek too. I'll finally get to play with him again. I saw him recently. I was playing Irish and and he showed up and I was like, Meek! I'm so happy to see you! Like, you'll be useless right now. You're very useless when I'm playing. It's still good to see you, buddy. So I'm excited to put together a discard deck again. I haven't since since since second day I destroyed my last comfort discard, so that'll be cool.
00:24:07
Speaker
Rip Moon Knight. So definitely something you're picking up, right? Yes, for sure. I figured. yeah okay ah Joining Scorn in the spotlight is Jean Grey and Sebastian Shaw. Thoughts on these cards?
00:24:26
Speaker
ah One of these cards, I play a whole lot. One of these cards, I do not. I did try Jean Grey in my Secret Homework deck for a time. Oh my gosh. It did not work out. She did not stay in there. um But like there are cool things to do with Jean Grey, and if like you've ever had an interest in the card, I highly advise you to pick it up because she's very cool and a lot of fun and super interesting. and i I don't know exactly like who all listens or watches our pod, but um I bet they're the kind of people who have cool Jean Grey ideas. That's what I think. So, hypothetical listener who has a cool Jean Grey idea, pull the trigger, drop those keys, tokens, whatever. just Well, maybe not tokens, keys. try Try to pick her up with a key. Let's let's not spend $6,000 on Jean Grey.
00:25:21
Speaker
but um But yeah, and Sebastian Shaw, if you don't have Sebastian Shaw, a member of my household ah does not have Sebastian Shaw, and I i hope they ah they acquire Sebastian Shaw so that I can make a better surfer deck.
00:25:40
Speaker
yeah He's like only a surfer card, right? No! I've seen people try him in other stuff, but isn't he... He was? Like Gwenpool? They really want to make boosting things like a tribe sort of thing. I honestly think they've gone a little bit overboard in terms of like cards that reward you for doing that and cards that facilitate doing that. Like they've been a little heavy-handed with it in recent seasons, I think. That's just my feeling, you know, with your Scarlet Spider and your Gwenpool and like all that stuff.
00:26:10
Speaker
I don't know. I guess, i yeah. I could see Sebastian Shaw maybe fitting somewhere outside of Surfer, but also maybe not. Just like not as- I'm telling Glenn Poindex. Scarlet Spider is kind of like better outside of the Surfer realm. I don't know. That's my feeling. But you can play- But also you gotta have Sebastian Shaw. On turn six, um where you can't, you know, get your benefit out of That's true. you you You are correct that he is not an activate card. I just think he used to be solely a surfer card, and now he he fits into the general fucking deck. Is he a scorn card? Maybe. Oh, because he'd be on the board, and with a discard, you often tend to have fewer things on the board. But then you're getting away from the the discard pursuit.
00:27:09
Speaker
Yeah, but then you would have scored a six every time you discard instead of a four. Maybe he would be a fat Shaw. Well, back to a secret homework deck that I actually liked and was proud of, um that 100 bad guys with swords, that's got Sebastian Shaw, and it will definitely have Scorn in it when I make a new version of that.
00:27:31
Speaker
And i think I think they'll be friends there. That was a discard surfer list in case we have any new listeners and it kind of ripped, honestly. i yeah yeah I still have it assembled in my collection and everything. So that's how much I liked that. That's serious. That's commitment. yeah um I'll say I love Jean Grey. I think she's a super fun card, acknowledging that the community at large does not like her and she does not perform very well.
00:27:58
Speaker
but Between Spectrum and War Machine, I have a blast with this card. um And she's very fun for like, I love throwing her down on turn five just to control what my opponent's gonna do. And hey, if I have Cryo, maybe I'm gonna play Megasonic. And if I have War Machine up, then I can just, who cares about that lane?
00:28:17
Speaker
People forget about playing some of these tech cards, not on curve. Like a goose on turn 5? A goose on turn 5 when you know they need to put the big, you know, yeah, thing.
00:28:31
Speaker
so ah Yeah, but that's a good point is is playing things off curve as a tech the way you would play Cosmo at the right time on a wong. Yeah, I think people definitely try to play her as like early and then build the deck around her like, oh, I have movers so I can pull things out or whatever, or juggernaut so my opponent has to keep playing there.
00:28:54
Speaker
That's fine, but yeah, I think she's i think she's what is it as a tech card. It's just fine if that. Yeah. Anyway, um I don't think you should go for Jean Grey unless you love war machine or spectrum. yeah She fits in those two places. I don't know, maybe there's a cool surfer deck with her somewhere. yeah I really want to encourage our listeners if they have like an idea or even like the start of an idea like keep keep pulling the the thread I don't know see if the whole sweater unravels or whatever you know yeah and prove me wrong maybe there's a third great place to put Jean Grey how do you want to play a war machine spectrum like an ongoing war machine I haven't done that yet
00:29:41
Speaker
i i think I think my lockdown deck does rock spectrum. I can't remember anymore. um But yeah, I mean, Professor X, Madam Web, War Machine, you get a bunch of great little lockdown flavored ongoing cards. Okay. I got an OTA coming out later this week, which we'll cover next week. Something to look forward to maybe. Are they going they going to touch Tella again? I don't know.
00:30:12
Speaker
Hopefully Hell Cow, right? Maybe not in Scorn Week, though. I don't know. She actually hasn't been tilting me that much. Like, i've been beat I beat her like half the time, so it's like... an okay. I don't know. Yeah. Let's see, the Ika deck I was running with Rogue. Rogue taking taking her lootcage really helps the matchup. Okay. We're gonna go on to...
00:30:39
Speaker
the controversy that was hinted at last time where ah split rates were not what they seemed. ah Something that I was just starting to look into last week and since have collected tons of data from 36 players and found that ah ink, gold, and crackles specifically were not happening as often as they used to be. It was a pretty significant nerf.
00:31:03
Speaker
um They went from about 25% frequency to about 17%. We're like 1 in 4 to 1 in 6. I had enough data. It was it was really...
00:31:16
Speaker
funny seeing some people respond to this. We're like, Oh, this is just anecdotal or like you can you know, RNG means you can have hot streaks and cold streaks. And I'm like, we have 36,000 splits here. We have a lot of data. Um, 30,000 split. Anyway, there's a lot of data. Somebody else did the math and it's like a one in nine octillion chance that nothing changed. Yeah, that the rates aren't changed. It's like, um, that's like if every human on earth did something constantly for like, a century, still wouldn't even get close to one in Octilian.
00:31:50
Speaker
um So yeah, this is far and away the biggest ah tweet I've ever had, a hit tweet, which I don't, it's not like a toot my own horn thing as much as like, this is a ah topic that is sensitive or important to many players, whether it's um you know SD being dishonest and greedy, which is not my take, I think it was an accident, but that's certainly a popular take.
00:32:19
Speaker
um and people who care about their splits and people who spend money on the game and all of a sudden the splits aren't what they thought they were. um It spread very wide. you know I saw many YouTubers covering it, Snapfan covered it. a Anyway. Did you go for the details of ah ah what what actually happened, Lynn?
00:32:41
Speaker
A little bit. I haven't talked about all the events, but i I talked about what I found, which is that the rates for the generally considered most desirable splits, the ink gold and crackle went from a one in four chance to a one in six chance invisibly ah with the August 20th patch. So that's been going on for what, like seven weeks, something like that.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah. I'm happy to continue talking. Make a difference in people's lives. so Yeah. Yeah. This was your project. Like, you gathered. Yeah, you're kind of the main character of the story, Lauren. I know. But it's also a podcast and conversation. I don't want to talk forever. Oh, OK. Well, my thoughts on it are it didn't affect me a whole ton. But hey, I do like to get an ink split from time to time. And I think that I i i mean, I think it was a problem. and i'm glad that it was caught and you know discovered and I'm glad that there is a remedy that has been proposed and I hope people get compensated if they were throwing money, chasing splits that were not coming to them. And again, it isn't like an issue that's real close to the center of my participation in the game. So like it's it's a little bit like not in my backyard exactly. like i
00:34:01
Speaker
I guess I'm qualified to have an opinion on it, but I don't feel it as forcefully as I'm sure some other people do. ah One thing that I found was interesting ah when they finally acknowledged the problem. They said it had something to do with future implementation of character mastery, a feature that they announced that they had scrapped, and frankly, I don't know. I'll believe it when I see it. I kind of think, I don't know. That that that was the part that seemed least credible to me. I don't know. really
00:34:35
Speaker
Yeah, i I kind of think maybe they forgot that they admitted that they weren't going to do it or something else. I said i saw somebody I can't reference like a team answers or something, but they basically said like,
00:34:48
Speaker
We decided to, you know, reprioritize it or to invest the extra resources because, yeah, they saw when they announced the cancellation that like, yeah, there was such a response like, oh, people really cared about character mastery. of my Yeah, they did. I i heard people were like acquiring variants and things that they would not have otherwise done based yet. i When I say people, like I meant Lauren and I'm like,
00:35:11
Speaker
friend throwing money away on this fucking promise that they ripped out from under her. And yeah, i I was a little bit peeved about that. And so like when I heard this back again, I was like, Oh, no, hopes are gonna be back up. And if they if they pull this again, I'll be very frustrated with them. So I hope they don't. And I hope I hope they really did like realize that, oh, people like this idea and were invested in it. And we should follow through and not take their money for something we weren't gonna do. um Yeah, so i I hope that's what's going on. And it's not that they just forgot that they told us that they canceled it. And we're ah hoping to string us along further. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I i want to assume the best. And ah I want to think that everybody's operating in good faith. But I also think that we should be, you know, we should hold all the possibilities in our mind at once. That's what I think.
00:36:07
Speaker
Um, my responses were this one. Okay. Like I knew it. Like I didn't know it, but I had noticed I had been getting lost cause people used to be like, three, you're magic. How you get ink so quickly when it becomes available. I'm like, Oh, no big deal. You know, I just love me. Um,
00:36:26
Speaker
and I've been getting it a lot. I've been having to split a lot more. I'm not a whale, like so it makes me sad when I have to get all these prisms that I'll never use. Although, now that you can at least use the effects of a card on base art,
00:36:45
Speaker
It does make it better. It helps a lot, yeah. This is silver lining for sure, but what I noticed in getting that validated, because I thought, I'm like, well, I don't split at a data level to go beyond anecdotal. It could have been anecdotal for you or me.
00:37:03
Speaker
Right. That's what I'm saying. I just thought, well, maybe I was lucky before and now I'm in an unlucky stretch, you know? And the same way neither Lauren and I have ever gotten a free card out of, you know, spotlights. I've gotten so many. It's very silly. I mean, I've had runs of bad spotlight luck, but I've also had runs of good spotlight luck.
00:37:25
Speaker
Yeah, so it was nice to see that, and you know, like, confirmed. I haven't lost my magic. and It will come back. And now I'm going to have to patiently save my credits because um as they announce, they are going to, I think, when they update and fix this, they are going to increase The percentage um of inks and golds once they're available, right? Yeah, for those who are unaware, the remedy is that there's going to be a period of time where it's split rates are like better for the desirable things that yeah, so.
00:38:00
Speaker
In theory, it sort of cancels out, except that people maybe already spent money during this period of time. And maybe they don't want to spend a commensurate amount of money like in the next period of time. I don't know. Exactly. Yeah. yes like it's yeah The point is save your credits. Save your credits for when the chances are a lot better to get good splits in your card. And I know when it's hard, when it's late at night and you're like, I work hard today and I deserve the dopamine of splitting the card. No, save those credits. Save them for later. Just to be clear, you don't need to save your credits. You can upgrade your cards. Just don't split them.
00:38:42
Speaker
Oh, well, that's, you know, I have also, you have to remember to not split them. So maybe just. I have a pile of Professor X's. I have a pile of Professor X's that have not been split, just saying. Lauren, who am I? Okay, just you. Has the power to look at this shiny button. Click me. Click me. Look how glowy I am. And be like, no, wait. No. I once heard somebody, I once heard somebody describe that as like the single most satisfying button in Snap. And I kind of think they're right. I mean, this the button to Snap is pretty satisfying.
00:39:18
Speaker
But I think the split button is like the single button that's loaded with the most, though the biggest dopamine hit, right? If you're as invested as possible without money, it's something that you can do like once every two days.
00:39:31
Speaker
Ben's face when we're talking. You're more like, yeah, yeah, Ben's face. He's like, this is not exciting. What are you talking about? I don't know. I do think it is exciting. I'm just like, it's not really the most exciting. I mean, your eyes and eyes while you're talking. Don't lie. No. I look at the ceiling sometimes for inspiration. I have a very interesting ceiling. How are the duck? How are the duck? Is the single most exciting button and snap.
00:39:58
Speaker
um I mean, maybe. I forget to click it all the time. That's what, that's the problem. More sparkles and Howard the Duck and I will remember to click on him. Sparkle him up. Yeah, they really do need to like make him something to look at. You need to bedazzle him. He needs to quack at the beginning of each turn. Yes, wait. Hey, listen. Or just say his little, hmm, at the beginning of each turn.
00:40:23
Speaker
ah Yes, I think that their their solution to like counter the bad luck with good luck for a stretch of time, which they say will be approximately equal, I think it's a very clever fix that I hadn't considered it at all. I think it almost completely balances out anything that was that was spent for free, like your free credits earned in the game.
00:40:44
Speaker
Now, did you blow all of your boosters during August and September? And now you have none left in October? Yes, yes I blew 2,000 boosters on Professor X and did not get a single good split.
00:40:58
Speaker
um So yeah, anecdotally, I mean, that's why I even looked into this in the first place. I'd seen a few people say anecdotally, and I'm like, I'm 20 splits deep into Professor X with not a single good hit. What's up? A lot of people were chasing like crackle and stuff. Okay. Um, but that's why my second reaction when I saw they did it was if you could picture ah from perks and rec, the character going like,
00:41:24
Speaker
it's
00:41:27
Speaker
like did this Okay, how many credits am I getting? And when am I getting these? Right. and you may be so handsome At the end of their little article or their announcement where they talk about like the new rates and they talk about um about like acknowledging the change and huge, huge change going forward that I think like this is one of the things I wanted to come out of this is they are going to continue making the rates transparent. I love that. I really hope that they're made transparent in game. Um, but even if they're not in game, it's still nice to have official rates and that we can hold them accountable to and that so that people can make educated decisions. Um,
00:42:08
Speaker
But they, at the very end of their little article, they left it open. They're like, we will follow up later for possible compensation. Which, you know, they didn't like commit to it, but they also, I'm surprised they said it at all. I'm surprised they said compensation at all. um But yeah, I definitely think there should be some. I think there should be boosters for everybody. Basically get half your boosters back. God splits were half as rare. Give half your boosters back.
00:42:34
Speaker
And then any paid credits, half of those should be returned to two, including credits that you got from the season pass. Yes, I got the season pass. Free credits would be, I think it would be very fair for them to do that, but that would be wild. That would be a gigantic reimbursement to the community. Seven weeks of of credits, I guess it'd be three. I have 125 credits right now. I use all of my credits.
00:43:02
Speaker
Yeah, i I keep my my credit balance basically to zero. Oh, yeah. a I would feel a lot angrier if I saved up 10,000 and then ah before ah before August and then blew them all during the nerf time. that That would be ticked about. And I'm sure there are some people in that position. Yeah, no, it was interesting, though, because I was actually, because I'd been having so much worse luck with splits, I was like, well, I guess we'll just get everything up to get my custom cards.
00:43:30
Speaker
Like I'm like, now I know I got to save free. Yeah. I saw a few people who had split, splitting wide instead of splitting deep. That's a split. This is amazing. Yeah. Now it's like, okay, we're going to have seven weeks of like really good rates. Um, to talk about those rates really quickly, the the boosted rates are about 35% versus the 25% we used to have. And the 17% we have now.
00:43:57
Speaker
um If you average the 35% and the 17%, it's just a little bit above 25. So ink, crackle, and gold alone, um the average rates between the bad time and the good time.
00:44:12
Speaker
are a little bit above what the original rates were. So they balance out. But because god splits are like complicated, they're compound, you have gold and ink, and then you also have crackle. And because both of those rates are improved, the rate of god splits is actually quite a bit higher now. Anyway, you're going to have a 25% chance of hitting a god split for seven weeks. So if that's your thing,
00:44:41
Speaker
You know, you're welcome. Yeah, hit the most exciting button and snap over and over during that time period. Lauren, you're kind of the splits miss Santa. No, you don't understand. Lauren gathered all of this data, like connected with the people, put it together, sent it to second dinner as well as posted it publicly. so i mean And i am it it seems that's
00:45:12
Speaker
That's how they noticed it and they wouldn't have otherwise. so you know yes so when So make sure to leave out. You do have to go public yeah want result is if If you're ever in a situation where you've noticed something like that, ah you probably want to tell your friends rather than whining about it to them directly. I don't know. That's that's just my advice. It was very effective, certainly.
00:45:36
Speaker
um my friend you You could start like a Jessica Jones office. You could be like a cool detective now. Report your snap crimes to me. Like some tall legs will walk into your office and be like, are you the snap detective? OK, I'm sorry. I'm like full on this. I turn around in my chair, yeah.
00:46:00
Speaker
oh Yes, credit where it's due. I had 35 other players donate their data, which is awesome. This included several whales um and content creators whose names you would recognize, but nobody agreed to share their like. I want to be careful with the anonymity here in case somebody you know is uncomfortable with that.
00:46:23
Speaker
lots of players donated their data, enough that we could prove it was statistically significant. um And then also a special shout out to Snap Variants who collected a good portion of the data, probably like a third of it, um and also was doing preliminary look at the data and was the one who was like, oh, it looks like the August 20th patch might be the culprit. I later confirmed that, but you know he steered me in the right direction. So just want to give that credit.
00:46:51
Speaker
<unk> We also work on this. um We have a joint deck we like to work on that Lauren calls desperate because it's good. Mockingbird. It's about like putting out a bunch of ones with squirrel girls and Shannon's a nonsense mid kill mongering them or whatever. We're like death and all. It's such a cool deck that has like it's had good stats, but hasn't ever really had a big play rate.
00:47:20
Speaker
Everyone has those decks that you revisit every couple months like, how does this do it? How do the new kids fit into this? okay My secret homework might fit in that category. Splitsmiths, they should give everybody the title, Mary Splitsmiths. They should lean into this time period.
00:47:41
Speaker
i don't be curiousious yeah i i I think like they're they're handling it pretty well, and I think if they keep handling it well, this could honestly be remembered as like more of a W than an L for them. They just do it right, but I don't know if they will. Well, we'll see. All right, moving on to our side quests. We're going to start up with Secret Homework.
00:48:09
Speaker
we need ah We need a little like jazz stinger for that or something. Secret squirrel. ah the the This week's Secret Homework was assigned by me. It was to...
00:48:24
Speaker
Make a deck using your two co-hosts, like underrated cards that we talked about last week. Now, I talked about Yellow Jacket, Ben talked about Nocturne, and Re talked about Spider Woman. So each of us had two of those respectively to deck build with. I will go first as the challenger. I was a little bit naughty if you guys want to reveal the spoiler in chat. I used all three of the cards. What?
00:48:52
Speaker
I'm interested to see if anybody else- I'm like ruining the curve for the rest of us. Extra credit. I made a diagram! I already see an interesting similarity in our decks. okay cool okay um sorry no i'm excited yes First I went for... this is my second build. My first build was Clog with Misery, and I was like, okay, if I have Spider Woman and Yellow Jacket, I want to use the Yellow Jacket to knock down some some debris rocks or some or to make Hood...
00:49:24
Speaker
ah even lower power, and then send it over with a Nihilus or Viper. um And then once I've clogged them up, Spider-Woman's awesome against clog. So that was my thought. And it was fun, but it was it was only okay. My second take, which I'll have on the screen, will also be in the show notes. I went back to ah one of my old favorites. It was a priority chasing deck. ah Has a little bit of lockdown in it with Storm.
00:49:54
Speaker
But this is the Yellow Jacket, this is using him instead to steal priority. And then Nocturne helps me get back into the Storm Lane if needed. Spider Woman helps me keep priority going into turn 6 because she's a big turn 5 play. ah And I've built this deck. I don't know, nod to Ben. I've loved Scarlet Spider in this. I actually play him on four and then activate him on five. Very good for having Prio on turn six. Once I have Prio, you got Negasonic or Eliath to just like guarantee the win. um This deck has been performing very well where I'm at in infinite right now, which is like, I don't know, rank
00:50:43
Speaker
18,000, something like that. That's such a cool use for her. I never thought about that as a her is a tool for prior keeping, because she's a big swing on five. And so many people are like kind of filling up their boards anymore. So she's really's that's really kind of an extra value.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, and this is only occurring to me now, but between Nebula and White Widow, I'm encouraging them to fill up a lane. Right? Yes, you are. And if I put them in separate lanes, one of them's good for the storm lane, and the other one's good for, hey, I got Spider-Woman. So yeah, that was my deck. I have had a blast with it. I think I will continue using it beyond this week. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it is. It's cool. I love getting prio.
00:51:36
Speaker
with Negasonic as your backup. Oh, I should also, Nocturne has actually, this deck, this deck is like all in, get priority on turn six and then finish the game. So Nocturne has actually been great for killing all the Limbo's. Yeah. Nice.
00:51:54
Speaker
see She's great at that. Even if they see it coming, it's fine. i hope yeah yeah I have a big powerful turn six play. I'm fine if you see it coming. Also, they wasted their time playing magic, who is smaller than Nocturne, just to get undone by Nocturne.
00:52:09
Speaker
No, it still hurts too because they were like they they wanted that turn 7 for a reason. Yeah, also also they built their life around it. it's yeah i I have to say, as much as last week we discussed the power of not wiping limbo sometimes, usually it's correct to wipe limbo. That's my experience. Yes. I think that like at least 70% of the time you wipe limbo. I'm surprised by how often if you my dog. I'm surprised by how often if you don't wipe limbo, they don't. You think that your opponent would play as if you were going to, right? Yeah. And like sometimes I see them still just yeah sometimes I still but still see them do this like teeing up their turn seven on turn six and I'm like,
00:52:55
Speaker
Really? You were gambling I wasn't going to get rid of limbo? What did you do? I probably just forgot about it. It certainly never happened to me while I was playing. But I forgot there was a knock tune on the board. That's fair. I do think, I don't want it to be like glaringly obvious, but I think it needs to be like somewhat visible when Vision, Jeff, I'm Vision can always move, but Jeff. And they have a move charge.
00:53:20
Speaker
Yeah. I want to see them floating on the opponent's side if they haven't moved yet. And Glenn is all for like the cognitive load, like lighten how much you have to remember. That seems like something that fits in that category. Make it legible. Don't make me remember. Yeah. Let us play our dumb card games late at night tied. Exactly. Gosh, I need a third pile next to destroyed and discarded for hit by Spider-Ham. Anyway. Yeah.
00:53:51
Speaker
stuff like that. And you'll miss it information. Right. Rea, tell us about your homework. So you can see I have sent it to you. This is my secret homework number three, because it is in fact the third that I put together, but then I had a ton of fun with it. So once again, you know, just just ah no more Mrs. Nice Rea.
00:54:20
Speaker
So you know this song from Lake the Swan Princess and I'm a Mr. Nice Guy? I kind of been picturing that I i had a... a musical number. Okay, but in my bad girl era. So it is kind of a clog, but the kind of idea is what if you're just throwing out negative power and if you don't care if it hits them, it hits you, it doesn't matter. And here's why. So and we've got Yellow Jacket um and the Hood and Celine
00:54:53
Speaker
That's so fun. She ruins so much because she's like, she hasn't played a ton so she can really ruin someone's day because they're because they're not used to seeing her. And it's like, yeah, that's a negative three in your hand. um And ah Kate Bishop, because, you know, we we have the toxic arrow that just aids. And when you have a lot of cheap cards in your deck, it's nice to have a cheap card that gives you more cheap cards. So if you have a lot of them, you have stuff to play out in the later turns.
00:55:22
Speaker
Also, Goblin, Debris, Nocturne, of course, Viper. We're getting into the reasons why we don't care if we make all of our cards more negative, because we have Viper, Sentry, Atuma. I told you I've been playing so much Atuma lately. It's so good. Annihilus and Cersei, because she's so fun, to be honest. And this is the kind of deck where you're just like, YOLO.
00:55:45
Speaker
I love this. Right? So many times I throw out a debris, I hit yellow, and then I played Yellow Jacket Viper, so they get a... And then sometimes, you where you're getting dumb rocks out and stuff, so you have several rocks out there, you hit them all with Yellow Jacket, you send them over with an eyeless. Like, this deck can work with locations.
00:56:08
Speaker
better. Because, like, did you get squirrels clogging up your stuff? You don't care. You have, like, a Tuma, you know, to destroy them. You know, Viper, it's gonna be worse for your opponent. Anything bad you get is going over to them. Um, I, I, it's fun. This is, is finding all the little interactions and synergies you haven't noticed before. And because I never played Yellow Jackets, like, having a new card.
00:56:36
Speaker
So there's so many opportunities. And like Celine just hitting, like once Celine hit Kate, um But I played Kate. She gave me arrows. She's still Kate. She's great. She's good. Minus three does nothing to her. But then I hit her with Yellow Jacket and sent her over with Viper. The fun stuff. And that's the thing. don't care what you like. Hit the hood, all of this stuff. If you lose the power, you know, like Cersei it, you know.
00:57:08
Speaker
Nothing, you know, nothing is forever. So it was so much fun, actually. It took me a while to get to the stack. Like you said, it was my third iteration, but then I ended up having so much fun playing it. Cersei is such a cool group of Selene. I love the Selene here. Selene is actually so much like Sable, um except you control five of the power.
00:57:34
Speaker
and your opponent controls three. If your opponent plays the card, which maybe they won't, right? If your opponent plays the card with Sable, it's a 1-5. If your opponent plays the card with Celine, it's a 1-8. Yeah, that's...
00:57:48
Speaker
And it doesn't matter. You have so many ways to get rid of your stuff. You don't care what you're hitting with Selene. Normally, you're planning super hard, and you're not playing her. It's like, whatever. I'll have an after turn with this. Selene's a 1.8 if they play the card, and you give them the card. Yeah. Right. She's a 1.5 with homework. You have to have a way to send a lot of additional effort. She's not nearly as flexible. But she's worth it. Her ceiling is very high. It's true.
00:58:17
Speaker
Yeah. um She's not as flexible, granted. that Sable does deserve the ah the edge for being more flexible. Yeah. That's the joy of this deck. I don't know. Idiot proof, you might say. Sure. It's once again, it's just breaking rules. Normally things you have to care about when you're playing. like Don't play Yellow Jacket over your cards. Here, you You're going to seriously see them. It's just very freeing and fun.
00:58:44
Speaker
so um So yeah. ah We both just- That's a really cool deck. I don't know if there was another option, but we both kind of just use Nocturne as a good cards card. What's hilarious is I wanted to hear if she used to try to hog goblin. I won't lie, I forgot. I was so concerned about getting a deck for Yellowjacket because Nocturne is such a generally useful card. I forgot to, I was playing it for a while. I'm like, oh, I forgot to put Nocturne. I took a low range. That's very similar to what I did.
00:59:19
Speaker
But I want to try Hobgoblin in that spot, because it's just, eh, it just seems really fun. Sorry, not turning. It does seem fun. She is great. Like I said, gets rid of Limbo's, gets rid of bad locations. um But it's just hilarious that I build a deck for you. Well, but she can hold a spot, right? She can hold a spot that gets hit by the void or by a debris rock. So she's not useless here. No, she's useful.
00:59:44
Speaker
I'm so sorry, Nocturne. I feel like I'm like talking her down and she is... And like in my deck where I could throw her into the storm plane. Like there are uses. Alright, I'm gonna say plenty of critical things about the cards I was i was playing. I'll just charge, Nocturne. I won't be offended. Alright.
01:00:03
Speaker
Um, no, I, cause I generally love playing not turn. It's just funny because it's like, my like you said, my focus was so hard on yellow jacket. It's kind of like the one child was always getting straight A's, you know? And it's like, ah, but this child is an F student. He got it. He needs extra attention. Yeah. Yellow jacket was so much fun. I hadn't played with him before and it was fun to throw all of these cards down.
01:00:29
Speaker
So thank you for the assignment. I also am going to be playing the stack further in the homework. I'm so happy for you too.
01:00:40
Speaker
All right, let's hear it. All right. So the cards I had to use were Yellow Jacket and Spider Woman. And of those two, I think that Yellow Jacket is indeed the one that you sort of have to slow down for and make make the deck about Yellow Jacket, because Spider Woman is a much more direct and ah straightforward card, I would say. yeah So really, this is mostly a Yellow Jacket.
01:01:09
Speaker
um It's called Spider Jacket because I was not feeling as creative with the name this week as a hundred bad guys with s swords. um So I've got Yellow Jacket, of the Hood, Aranya, Hazmat, Dibbery, Hope Summers, Vipper, Scarlet Spider, The Sentry, Annaios, Ajax, and Spider Woman.
01:01:42
Speaker
um And ah so yes, Yellowjacket is sort of the reason for the season. ah We need to make the dream of sending rocks over with Annihilus happen.
01:01:54
Speaker
um And so the idea is... um Yeah, you hopefully on one you play either the Hood or Aranya, preferably the Hood, I guess. um the The part of this deck that came the latest I worked through so many iterations to get here. They were all so bad. I was doing, I was doing Proving Grounds. I could not string together a match when, I mean, like, some people wanted to snap, some people didn't. I just, I went with whatever my opponent was doing. If they snapped, I would, I would join them in the snapping, but like, I was trying to play real games for like, you know, science or whatever. Um, but anywho, I wasn't going to like.
01:02:37
Speaker
be a jerk in Proving Grounds and not snapback if they wanted to do that. So, yeah, I was really struggling to win with this. um Yeah, as I said, the dream is to shrink things with Yellow Jacket and send them over with Annihilus. And if you use up Aranya and then you Yellow Jacket Aranya and hazmat Aranya, you know, you can send over a little mine that's all used up. So that's kind of cute.
01:03:04
Speaker
Well, can we like pause and mourn Aranya? Scream blake has been killing my Aranya playing. It's sad. Oh, I think Aranya is still a beast. And like if they're doing their- When Scream's out and I'm doing my Deadpool Aranya thing- Yeah, but when they're screaming and they can only get it once per turn, they're probably trying to move your thing that turn anyway. So like if you just play Aranya, they can only get you coming or going. They can't get you both.
01:03:31
Speaker
like you know Everyone's from Deadpool playing them. Play your Aranya card on the right lane.
01:03:39
Speaker
ah Yeah, that too. that I do that a lot. but It still gets the plus two power. As far as interesting things to say about this deck go, a Spider Woman was really kind of kind of unwieldy. there were I like wanted to be playing more fives and stuff, but like Spider Woman meant that it had to be an Ajax deck just so that like every card was like doing their thing and like fulfilling their potential. and no But like I wanted to like live both of these card streams as much as I could.
01:04:11
Speaker
So like, if you're playing Spider-Woman, you ought to play Ajax, I guess. I have her in high Evo. In a high Evo, I think. Yeah. It's why Evo, A-bomb, and Ajax are the only two cards that are like reward cards for, or like mission cards for affliction, right? Yep. I think about that a lot, and that will come up in the Secret Homework for next week, actually.
01:04:36
Speaker
um The only other thing that I have nice to say about this deck is I really like Aranya and Scarlet Spider as a two-card package. um Scarlet Spider was like... Yeah, that those two were like the last change I made to this deck in its evolution and they really did make it better. Not good, but better.
01:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, Scarlet Spider is a heck of a card, and when you put him in a deck that doesn't work, it really highlights how independently good he is. hu So yeah, don't play this deck, I guess is all I'm trying to say. ah Play my deck from Last Secret Homework, 100 Bad Guys with Swords. That one. That's so much better than this deck. I really feel like I failed in the challenge. You did your best.
01:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, but best sucked this time, and it was not for lack of trying, so that really frustrated me towards the end of the week. I decided to shift my energy and my self-worth into next week's homework assignment, so that one's going to be a banger. Okay. Are we ready for it? I'm ready. I'm excited now. I'm so ready to hear it.
01:05:50
Speaker
All right. So you you all, you and the listeners, everyone lost respect for me on that last one. So I can turn around perception, get my favorability rating back up there. Next week's assignment is.
01:06:07
Speaker
Design an incentive card for a mechanic or synergy that players have not yet been rewarded for. We were just talking about Evolved Abomination and Ajax being the only rewards or payoffs for affliction synergy. And ah I was also complaining earlier about how I think they've leaned a little bit too heavily on like the the boosting theme. with, you know, your Scarlet Spider, Sebastian Shaw, Gwenpool, like, that kind of stuff. Like, isn't it cool to play cards that make your cards bigger? I'm like, yeah, duh, of course, that's its own reward. Stop, like...
01:06:40
Speaker
making it paint by numbers for me. um Anyway, so do something for something that doesn't have a card like that. And I've got some fun examples that you can use if you want just to get started. Like like these are just examples of the concepts. I've got a more specific example coming in a moment, but like locations replaced slash revealed, like you can make a card that like maybe you can play it on two and it gets like one little juicy charge from the third location revealing and then like from nocturney things or nicoing things or scarlet witching things and like depending on how you designed that scaling card that could be like a pretty cool like tribal synergy where there was none before just like a thing that you kind of want to do anyway much like shuffling in rocks for dark hawk i think i think it would be cool if you picked a thing that is already kind of
01:07:28
Speaker
useful to do. Oh my gosh. That's just a suggestion, but this is quite okay. Yeah, I want that cart too. Maybe maybe i'll I'll do that one for next time. Wait, you just said a cart that scales based on location changes, so like Scarlet Witch, Legion, Shenanigans, that so much fun to have.
01:07:49
Speaker
Okay, while while i'm just pitching while I'm pitching ideas that are and underdeveloped, um you could make a card that's sort of like Patriot for your opponent's cards, where it rewards you for blanking text boxes on as many of your opponent's cards as possible with Leech or Red Guardian or Enchantress or whatever. gang You could also maybe maybe you want to do like an activate payoff or recharge or something. Something to support this emerging keyword that we'll hopefully see more of. You could do something that rewards you for playing all evens or all odds like those Hearthstone cards I was talking about the other episode.
01:08:28
Speaker
But I have one specific and concrete example for you coming up, but first I need to tell you about the extra credit for this assignment. This is extra credit for the true overachievers and teacher's pets among you. By the limerick about the card you have designed. Ooh, limerick. Oh, I've got one more example for you. This one more specific. Hunting mutants is such a big ask.
01:08:52
Speaker
But robots are made to do tasks. His bots beget others, and if I had my druthers, they'd all bolster Bolivar Trask. Bolivar Trask, 1-1, ongoing, plus one power for each two-cost card in play. That's right, he ties in with both Sentinel and Mastermind. You probably don't want to play a deck with all three of these cards, but like, you know, like Wiccan and Speed, sometimes it's just the thought that counts. You don't actually have to like play them together.
01:09:20
Speaker
um So yeah, it wouldn't be like Surfer, it wouldn't be like a whole build around lifestyle, but he would at least like ask you to consider playing Sentinel and Master Mold in the same deck. And I don't think it would be too good. I thought about like the numbers you might expect to see counting two cost cards on your side of the board and your opponent's side of the board. And I don't think the card would be broken, but I don't think the card would be bad per se. I think it would be pretty cool. So like do something like that.
01:09:50
Speaker
I love it. I think it's worth noting. I mean, totally. You can have more than one mission card for the same thing, right? Like that's how we build decks. That's how we have synergy. But I just like, you know, while we're on the topic, before a listener yells at us, Sarah is the two cost mission card right now. Because she gives the biggest discount to two cost cards. Yeah, that's just like part of her thing, though. That's not like her whole like Her, her identity is making things cheaper. I mean, like, yes, specifically to cost you get the largest just percentage increase, but that's, I don't think that counts. I, all right I think, I think you're being, you're being silly. because you tried yeah and right Yeah. She, she can be used for other things too.
01:10:40
Speaker
I still do. I'm just in love with this location change scaler. So all I want to do is deck the card that doesn't exist. you If you want to use that one, you can do that. I'll think of my own lesser idea. All right. Well, maybe I'll use one of the ideas that I briefly touched on. I don't know. I just wanted to like give you some examples. I didn't want to just let you loose in the in the wild.
01:11:07
Speaker
But yeah, if you really wanna fucking stick the landing, write a limerick about it. That's what I say. All right. Okay. That's super fun. a And for our last topic, we are going to talk about a very fun event that Ria and I participated in this weekend, um this past weekend. Power On Gaming put on ah the Valkyrie Women's Tournament of Power. There were... There were more than 12 women invited that I'm aware of, but there were 12 women and feminine-aligned players. At least one is non-binary that I'm aware of. Anyway, ah there were 12 of us competing in a tournament, and we were each assigned two female cards that we had to use, and we built a deck, and then it was single elimination at first. um It was streamed live, had a lot of viewers, super fun. Ben was in the chat.
01:12:03
Speaker
um And I think we're just going to talk about our experience participating in that tournament. Oh, because i think you're going to head it So, like, congratulations. It's been exciting.
01:12:25
Speaker
So we're impressed. Okay, I'm sorry. Maybe we were supposed to lead up to that at the end. Don't bury the lead. We've got that the champion right here. And also the would have been champion most definitely in my opinion. I thought you were going to say third place instead of would be champion. Yeah. Okay. Lauren technically got third place, but like we all know that ah the only reason that, yeah.
01:12:54
Speaker
yeah yeah it would have been one of you two that's what i think and and i had to battle to go to the finals so you know yeah it could have been us at the finals if we weren't you know i'm just so impressed with both of you and like i don't know like i want to stay proud but i didn't have anything to do with it but like you can be proud i i knew you two would go so far and do so well and i'm just Yeah, I'm so happy for you. Really, you know.
01:13:29
Speaker
Okay, yeah. I think we've talked about this on the pod before. The two cards I had were Moon Girl and – sorry, not Moon Girl. They don't mean Girl Jack. It's Sarah and Dazzler. It's Sarah and Dazzler. I was like, I don't want to do a Patriot, Ultron kind of thing. This seems like the obvious, but I went Moon Girl.
01:13:57
Speaker
And I played like, I played like, like to play a lot of counters and stuff. So I was moon girling. I mean, Hit Monkey for power, obviously, but um like Red Guardian, US s Agent, um and Ant-Man in case I didn't get my s Sarah out and I needed more cheap cards to play ah with Hit Monkey. And I had, I had like my first match ever. And in the tournament was glorious. because And they showed it from my opponent's view. Mayday, who is a streamer, is very cool. They showed it from her perspective, which is great because it looked so cool. I got a free Sarah from a location. So I had two Sarahs on the board and I had Moon Girl. And And they have it and they're like, oh, you know, your situation looks pretty good. Maydays. And then they show my cards reveal on the opposite side. And it's like, Shadow King. Hit Monkey with Hit Monkey little animation to the other side. Hit Monkey. Like, you know, just like a million cards drop and it was like so epic. And I i saw it when I saw the turn. I'm like, oh my gosh, I look so cool.
01:15:13
Speaker
through an explosion and walked away slowly. Because when you look at my perspective, I'm on the, like, and I talked like each, I thought they were going to do this. So I was like just talking the whole time because I had your cams on. So it was like streaming. I feel really bad. I also swore constant.
01:15:32
Speaker
loud please But when you see it from the other side, it just looks so cool and collected. Just effortless. Yeah. yeah ah Okay. Tell us about your deck and your cards right now.
01:15:49
Speaker
ah My cards were Nico Minoru and Gomorrah. I made a lockdown deck. I rocked... We talked about this deck before here, but I rocked Professor X and Storm for and Nagus.
01:16:04
Speaker
had somebody else who was lockdown- Oh, Jean Grey, as lockdown. And then obviously War Machine. But in case I didn't get War Machine, I also had Madam Web and ah Captain Marvel to help like move around um into the lockdown lanes. a It did very well against my first two opponents. Ree was my third? Yes.
01:16:28
Speaker
Uh, Ree's tech just kicked my ass, like, between Shadow King and US Agent. ah I love my tech. no the Now, when we played each other, I i felt like, oh, I drew terribly, I played terribly, it was a bad matchup, like, all of it. um But when watching it in retrospect, kind of like what you were saying, where it's like, from Mayday's perspective, it looked cool, like, watching it, like,
01:16:52
Speaker
not in the moment, but watching it, you know, ah as if ah as if I was an observer, ah it didn't it didn't feel nearly as bad as it felt in the moment.
Tournament Highlights and Player Strategies
01:17:02
Speaker
um So i that that was good. It was good to be like, oh, this it actually I'll actually like kind of put up a fight. This was possibly winnable. But yeah, Riesztek was awesome. And ah I'm sad that one of us had to take third instead of being the top two.
01:17:19
Speaker
I really wanted to see you both in the finals. also That would have been so fun. Big congratulations to everyone who competed. I don't mean to impugn anybody's skills or whatever by saying that I think that my two co-hosts were the only ones who would have won. I don't know. There were lots of great players. You're all great. you're youre like there There are some real real pros in there. and yeah It just would have been a very exciting showdown.
01:17:47
Speaker
um But we had the same. So in our match, people don't know we both played Quake in our decks. And I know you never play Quake. Lorian is a friend of Quake. So wacky. This was one of my first times playing Quake. Quake came in clutch like many times for me. I am. I've done like youve wasted my storm card that you had Quake. It's like I can't I can't lock you down.
01:18:12
Speaker
Oh my gosh, my brain melted from all the quakes. I'm like, okay, do I save my quake after her quake? Is she going to quake this turn with the quakes? you like i a I think there was a moment where you were like, oh, what if she quakes and I have a quake on the board already? and you're like
01:18:33
Speaker
But not only did we both play Quake, we both used the exact same Quake variant. Steampunk Quake. Because when I first came out, I was just like, how did you get my Quake? And then I was like, wait, that's a different border. Like, that's not my game. And then I remembered, you know,
01:18:55
Speaker
would have always been on my mind. But I have the Quake. I have this Quake variant because you gifted it to me. ah You had an extra PMP code. Oh, yeah. That you gave me and I got Stan Punk Quake and I was so excited. I'm like,
01:19:13
Speaker
No one doesn't know. Does she remember she's gifted me the instrument of her own demise? I feel like such an epic like like like moment in our tale as friends. like We were once friends in this gift you have given me. I must not ah a defeat you. In the final match, in the final game where Ree destroyed me, I had, I think, Gamora in one lane and Captain Marvel in another.
01:19:41
Speaker
like i had gotten white hot room i had something that made it so i could pop down both of these cards right and you popped down us agent in both of their lanes and it was like ah i was a so good
01:19:57
Speaker
play ah where someone was playing super squirrel. I don't even think they knew I had the US agent yet. Actually, it was a low C. She's a really, she's a really cool streamer and deck builder. But um but she had she had played super scroll down. And like, um I remember later, like when I was watching this, people were like, so Oh, you're forgetting your U.S. agent. No, I was holding the U.S. agent because I knew she was going to throw more big guys down in that lane if she didn't know I was going to U.S. agent, which she did. It was glorious because then when I put it down and her super scroll hit it, she hit all like all of those cards were hit for like eight. It was like the most fun. It was so much fun.
01:20:45
Speaker
um So it's just like, ah, US agent can really come in clutch, especially as a surprise. Get your cubes worth out of throwing him down for the first time. um Anyway. So 12 players is kind of a strange count for a tournament. ah so that There was a final three and Rhea and I were the only ones who played in that round. um Basically that was decided by who had the most cubes left from their previous matches. And is it CharmyCharm who went to Grand Finals with you? Yep. CharmyCharm had the most cubes out of the three of us. I think she was like far ahead of Rhea and I. Rhea and I were one-off.
01:21:20
Speaker
<unk> And ah then going into the grand finals, it was not only single, it was a best of three instead of a single elimination, and they gave you new cards and you had to make a new deck.
01:21:32
Speaker
Yes, I had Scarlet Witch. Talk about that. And we had very little time to put together new decks. I got Scarlet Witch and She-Hulk, and I was like, okay, what do I... I actually went and I had just played Lauren, and I was like, War Machine is in a bed. You know what I mean? She-Hulk goes with infinite. I mean, Scarlet Witch is location. I never played Scarlet Witch.
01:21:58
Speaker
so and I was really, she was the card I was worried about because I don't like, I mean, I don't always think I like chaos, but you know, Scarlet Witch, sometimes she doesn't like you. So no, that's, I get, I've gotten all of her comics for many years. I love Scarlet Witch. She was important for your matchup. She was!
01:22:19
Speaker
So I put them in a High Evo Arashim deck. Normally in an Arashim you want to play a Legion, Scarlet Witch kind of fits that. She's so cheap when you have that extra energy to just row down and turn along with other stuff. And then She-Hulk with High Evo.
01:22:40
Speaker
um was a good fit, so I had Hulk in there and Sunspot to soak up energy. And this is my first time playing like a high Evo arch, and it worked out well. And Scarlet Witch was like the game changer. It's the way, it's the how I won like the first match. I think I got a lot of cubes out. i've I drew her twice um in two matches in a row and took out a limbo, because Charmy Charmy's playing a ah negative surfer deck.
01:23:08
Speaker
Um, with magic. cool So, uh, yes. Cause here's the thing with the negative, I'm so used to. um When I face them in ladder, it's when a negative hits on three or something, you kind of just end up retreating if they snap you or whatever. But I was in it here in conquest and you forget with the negative surfer that it's like, you don't know actually how many cards, I'm like, what else are they gonna play in the surfer? And it's like, well, she could have a zero three, a mistake, she could have a, you know like you forget how much they can really output on that final turn. I got got good sometimes forgetting that the negative got hit early.
01:23:47
Speaker
But um yeah, taking down a limbo was clutch. Scarlet Witch really, I gave her a red matte border. I have the art germ bundle variant that you won't be able to get until that new...
01:23:59
Speaker
shop feature even comes out and I've got like red stardust flair on her and she looked beautiful like winning those caps. She looked beautiful kicking ass. I'm sorry, I doubt it. Yes. So, oh, okay, cool story about what Scarlet Witch has been doing in
Scarlet Witch and Competitive Play
01:24:18
Speaker
the comics. I'll say I haven't talked about this in a podcast before though, but she So she's in, like, this little town, you know, ah running her own little magic shop. Just trying to, you know, she's kind of in this mode of both kind of wanting to atone, you know, flip for passings, and ah just, like, chill and meditate. She's got, like, the dark hold within her at this point. So she's running a little magic shop, and she has, it's called The Last Door. It's just this door in the middle of her of her shop, and someone who is, like,
01:24:51
Speaker
out of all like hope and all chances. This is the last story. It's like magic spell. So they find the store and they wander into her shop and she helps them. And it's episodic of like of like helping people that wander through the last store. It was a cool run anyway. That sounds really cool. You've already overrode it. Yeah. I love the concept.
01:25:12
Speaker
and Anyway, I got distracted. So yes. Oh no, that was interesting. We went to, uh, so Skyler would help me get a lot of cubes and close out the first round fairly quickly. And then here's the problem with me and the secret of, uh,
01:25:31
Speaker
When things drag out, i get shret I start making mistakes. i start It's like like in fantasy convents, if you read a lot of fantasy novels, they're always the telling the character, just like, just wear them down, let them wear themselves out, and then make a couple like, you know, take them down quickly at the end.
01:25:46
Speaker
I'm the person that weighs themselves though. A lot of things go on. And the last one was going on so many rounds and I kept forgetting about the negative and it went down to the second match. We went down to, we were like at like one and one health or two and two health with like the two, I can't, I think it was just one and one though somehow.
01:26:08
Speaker
ah Yeah. And, um,
01:26:14
Speaker
It took me a couple of minutes after I can't even remember. Now I can't even remember off the top of my head. It's been, it's been exactly how the last, the last, one I know the match before the last match was Yes.
01:26:34
Speaker
and Yeah, mostly a lot of the tournament I had to stop myself from doing bits to the camera. I'd be like, but tell you, it's magic. And then I'd go into this way. I'm like, no, refocus in the game. And I didn't- Like you did it. And then when they played this, they didn't mute me all the way. So the casters are trying to cast and I'm sitting here like, and then I told Laura, and this was like Clone Wars. And I'm just like, oh gosh, okay. But, um.
Deck Building Credibility and Endurance
01:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it was it was it was very thrilling and I was I had so much anxiety about playing competitive stuff And it was I'm glad I did it was very rewarding. You didn't drop a single match though right? You've made it all the way through single elimination. And then in the best of two or best of three, do you won the first two matches? So you went undefeated, um at least at the match level, you had a beautiful run. I think Arsham was an excellent choice. And you really showed off a lot of piloting skill there.
01:27:36
Speaker
Yes, I remember what I'm calling out Glazer, our grandpa, because I remember watching in the chat, there was a game where he was like, okay, the location that gives you your opponent's highest card, trying to eliminate the white house White Palace, okay, um, had happened, they got my Hulk, my Evo Hulk, and I was like, be okay, and yes,
01:28:00
Speaker
But I got a white queen. And ah so it was like turn five. And I was like, okay, this is the last turn they could play the magic. And I don't know if they have the magic yet. And when I'm watching people watch me on the tournament, like, why are you not playing a Hulk on turn five? Because he was only he only cost five for whatever, or you know,
01:28:21
Speaker
where I just had the energy, I don't know. But you know, people were yelling at me, because normally you would, because when you're hoping you draw something else, you know, you're using up that energy, that I played white queen instead, and here's why. Because if she had, she had played the magic, I would have gotten back a Hulk, and I could have played Hulk, Hulk, because I knew she didn't have the shame. So I'm just putting all of my power down, where, do you know the glory of playing a deck?
01:28:49
Speaker
with a lot of power when you know your opponent doesn't have a shang or a shag. That is so... Oh, yeah. Oh, she's looking and stacking all these ten costs. Like, no fear. No fear. Oh, so good. um But then I always have two. And then it's like, but if she does... Likely this Hulk will be the biggest power. It's Arashama. You know what I mean? Who knows what I'm going to get? If she doesn't play the magic, I still have the choice between the lanes. I bolster up some of the White Queen of where to put my most power.
01:29:17
Speaker
and Yeah, that's an incredibly smart play. It's an incredibly smart play and it reminds me of like, it's one of Lambie's tips if you go watch Lambie advice videos on YouTube, ah where it's like you create your own luck, right? Like you you have to create the opportunities for good things to happen to you.
01:29:38
Speaker
Um, you could probably say that about life, but specifically in the game, right? Set up the opportunity for the good luck to happen. If you don't even try, then, you know, you're throwing away all the, all the times that the luck can be there. And in a game like snap where there's, you know, uh, where you can snap for extra cubes, then the lucky swings are even more valuable. Yep. Anyway.
01:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, I snapped aggressively in all of my games. Yes. You did great. Yes, I do. And you did great. I think it was Glazer who dubbed your deck Ari Shem, which is very good. It got featured in one of Glazer's daily videos. You're the only player in the tournament who played the namesake card, Valkyrie. You got it from Ari Shem. Yes.
01:30:30
Speaker
Yeah, it was just, it was so fun. You crushed the interview at the end. I was glad to be a part of it. Except for I forgot to mention her podcast. No, you didn't. Well, because I got reminded by someone who was not on film. It looks like I got of it out of nowhere, but someone's like, podcast.
01:30:53
Speaker
That's great. um Yeah, it was a good time. It was awesome. brought Glory to the pad. You sure did. Oh my gosh. I'm so impressed with both of you. Oh wow. Well thanks. Now you have a chance with Snap Judgments League. We look forward to hearing about your glory. We'll see. We'll see. I know that... ah A lot of other people are in the other top eights, even if I make it out of my pod. I don't know. We'll see what happens. That tournament is a lot larger, a lot more players, much more stacked competition because of that. oh You also handle all of our laddering because once I get to infinite, I'm just brewing and having fun generally. You're like, I'm not climbing on ladder. So, you know, you bring respect. I might i take a season off from hashtag pod goals, but like now that they're giving me more snap points, it's like, It seems silly. That's why you don't care. You've got to at least maintain. Well, I don't know. I just wanted to like, and snap no I've always like wondered like, for what, but what do people like need in terms of like proof of your credibility as like a neck builder or whatever? I just want people to like take the cook seriously. You know, like I i just want people to like listen when I say like,
01:32:15
Speaker
Hey, y'all are sleeping on this card or whatever. This is actually good. It's really what it's all for. I just want to establish that I know what I'm talking about. And like I feel like a lot of people already thought I knew what I was talking about. So now I'm like, well, why am I grinding it out again and again? like If most of the people who were going to listen to me were already listening to me, and I've probably convinced the other people who were persuadable or whatever, like, now am I like... I mean, you're having an existential Marvel snap crisis. You're like, you know, you need to find a new joy, like... Mid-snap crisis. Like learn to love Yellow Jacket or something. No, but they're like already good cards that people don't appreciate that I do appreciate and I want to champion them and continue to do that. Your decks are always crazy fun. I'm not looking to adopt new orphans like Yellow Jacket.
01:33:11
Speaker
I'm over here. America Chavez is a good card. Now all I want to do is have like Ree's home for like Orson Karts. All the unwanted kinds. Put you on the deck. A deck full of them. Yeah.
01:33:27
Speaker
Before we move on, I just want to say you were talking about how like you're your own enemy when you're playing over a long stretch, your attention and all that. And I think i think that's just like that's part of any sort of competition, right? Sure. to be Could be sports, could be esports, could be a tabletop card game or whatever. But that's a huge part of competing in tournaments is having the endurance.
01:33:49
Speaker
And yeah, that's, um I don't know, I find that hard too. I think most people do. um And that's part of the skill that makes a long-term champion is somebody who can go round after round after round and still play well. Or who can be quick to take advantage of their opponent's errors because their opponent's going through the same thing. yeah With that,
01:34:15
Speaker
If you enjoyed this episode, please do all the things, like, subscribe, comment, etc. If you'd like to follow us on Twitter, our handles and the podcast handle are listed in the show notes or video description. This is on YouTube or on all your podcast places if you want to check us out on the platform you're not listening to us on.
01:34:34
Speaker
um Send us questions, suggestions, ah secret homework challenges at SnapOnThisPod at gmail dot.com, or you can just DM to one of us, that's fine too.
Podcast Promotions and Conclusion
01:34:47
Speaker
Anyway, ah we are part of the Snap Judgments Network, where you can catch several other great shows. How can she snap? Snap Decisions, Snap Judgments. Today we're going to highlight Snap Decisions, which is Joe's podcast with new episodes on Mondays with guests and Tuesdays with the usual show. He also does ad hoc news coverage. So a great one to listen to if you want quick, frequent coverage.
01:35:13
Speaker
um Yeah. With that, I will share, dear listeners, I don't snap on half of you half as well as I should like, and I snap on less than half of you half as well as you deserve.