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79: The Sloppification of Everything
189 Plays4 days ago
🙋♀️ Woman wins all of Marvel Snap 🏆 with this one weird trick 😲🫨 [SD hates it!!! 😤]
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:Drax, Avatar of Life 🧬
- 🔵 Kraglin
- Jack Flag 🚩 Starhawk ⭐🪶
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap!!
- Secret Homework 🤫: Make a Major Victory deck 💙✌️
- 🗣️ Special Request! 💕
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- Snap Decisions
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- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
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Featured decks:
Grand Arena decks!
- Ironcloak - Lauren's Arena Deck (with Ravonna/Echo/Armor over Superior Spider-Man)
- Rie's Arena Deck
- Lauren - Major Clog
- Ben - Major Homework
- Rie - Too Sexy For Turn 5
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
- Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Drax, Avatar of Life
- 0:04:28 Kraglin
- 0:11:01 Jack Flag
- 0:14:25 Starhawk / Events
- 0:22:54 Our Week in Snap
- 0:40:17 Secret Homework: Build a Major Victory Deck
- 1:03:51 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:04:53 The Future!
- 1:09:28 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Homework Assignment
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, make a major victory deck. I'm Lauren Wodevs here with my usual amazing, delightful co-hosts, Ben
Drax Analysis and Meta Discussion
00:00:12
Speaker
and Rhi.
00:00:12
Speaker
And we are going to talk about last week's card, Drax Avatar of Life three four End of turn, plus three power if your opponent played a card with greater power this turn. Move to that card if you'd be winning its location.
00:00:26
Speaker
It's an odd numbered episode. Ree, tell us about Drax. Have your thoughts evolved at all? um I have played a good bit of Drax. I thought I would put him in move decks, you know, and I honestly don't really think that's where he goes. Where he ended up playing mostly was in like Galactus first steps, like a solid three there. He's... ah You know, I guess it'll probably honestly depend on meta because you're expecting people to play big cards, right? Not a lot of room little small cards to to keep him activated. But he's been really handy and he's great when you have to use another of those cards that when you have to lock in a lane, um you can grow bigger without.
00:01:14
Speaker
like moving necessarily, especially if you fill up other areas. um So I do, I like the card. I don't even remember what I rated it, but I think it's a solid card that fits in, ah you know, fits in certain decks. um Probably like Doom 2099, another, you know, like those kind of decks where um not every deck, probably not even a surfer deck, to be honest.
00:01:42
Speaker
um Yeah, Ben's nodding. Yeah, but like there's places where Drax goes. I just don't think it's move and I don't think it's server, for which may have been some of the like initial ah or at least, you know, what I looked at. it's like it's three cost moves, you know.
00:02:02
Speaker
Sounds like you're saying it through the places I would have liked it to be, you know, i would have been excited about that.
00:02:10
Speaker
Ben? Yeah, I think last week I'd like run into one or two Draxes and I had been playing Surfer. So Drax was not like looking that great to me just because of, you know, my own choices. But um having seen more Drax in the past week and played a greater variety of decks. I'm a little more impressed with what it does when it's on the other side of the table.
00:02:36
Speaker
And I sort of meant to pick it up, but I forgot to. And now the card is Kraglin. And, you know, if I get Drax later, I'm sure I will. It'll be good. I'll be happy about it ah it's and It's a neat card. I don't like that you don't control where it moves. I saw a lot of opponents getting confused about why Drax didn't move. Sometimes I got confused about why Drax didn't move. And then I read the card again and it made sense. But like, you know, this a tricky little slippery fish.
00:03:05
Speaker
Yeah. Sometimes it doesn't make sense because he, like Captain Marvel, does not see the ongoing power of Hydra Stomper. yeah But that was recently addressed in the team answers. I was happy to see that that's like on their radar because that's been going on ever since Hydrastomper released.
00:03:23
Speaker
Anyway, I do like that. Is it Hydrastomper or like? As far as I know, that's the only that's the only one. Although Hydra Stomber is the only one that cares about moving. Yeah, but it's not only the one move that they don't count. It's like they don't see its ongoing power at all. Even if it has a bunch of ongoing power, they just read it as a three or whatever its base power is.
00:03:44
Speaker
um Is it three? Is it four? I think it's... think it's a three-three. Three now. I think it's three now. I like that the Drax design, it's like...
00:03:59
Speaker
It's complicated. Like you can tell this is a card that's coming out later in the game's lifespan where it's more complex, though though text boxes longer, but it's really not that bad. It's just two steps. And I like that they're two distinct steps
Kraglin Card Discussion and Improvements
00:04:10
Speaker
like that. You get the plus three power, even if it doesn't move.
00:04:13
Speaker
um It would be probably a bad card if it didn't do that. Yeah, yeah i I agree with y'all. It's got some power. It has to be the right meta. It's a good tempo card that can have decent output.
00:04:27
Speaker
All right. And a similar card-ish. Kraglin came out this week. 3-3 on reveal. Banish the top card of your deck if it was 4 or higher.
00:04:42
Speaker
Plus 2 energy next turn. Otherwise, give this plus 4 power. So, like Drax, it can be a 3-7 sometimes. Did you did you get Kraglin?
00:04:54
Speaker
Either of you? Oh, sorry. Not my turn, but no. if you but if no i'm proud of both of you. Well, yeah, he just doesn't even... It just doesn't even seem fun. just seems kind of random. You know what mean? Just kind of like, here's two things that Snap does. don't know.
00:05:19
Speaker
I only saw it once in, I think it was playing Arisham. Yeah, it was. And I was like, this and it didn't make sense to play. And I'm like, when would you make sense to play? i don't know that you would over other options. You know what I mean? Like, yeah if I had, like, I had random, non-synchronous options in my hand, and that all felt better than Kragle. So that's where I'm coming at it from. But um did solve the mystery. Some I'd been doing ah to do missions a lot this week and I come in and open up a blank deck. I don't know how often y'all do this, but like...
00:05:58
Speaker
um Open a moment and let it fill and see whatever it is. Because it used to always be the same. It used to always give me like bullseye or cerebro, I assume out of pure hatred. But like, no, I get like something different. I've been getting something different almost every day It's interesting. I've been playing like some kind of like random stuff. I feel like I just caught it in a mood. And, um...
00:06:23
Speaker
ah the last one though made no sense to me. I'm like, what card am I missing from this? like It was a weird collection of like little things. It made no sense to me. And then I'm like, oh, this is Kraglin. It's supposed to be a Kraglin deck. And it looks like nonsense. And it's like, sometimes I'll see these, and you've seen me. I'll play weird stuff to check it out. But like this deck I looked at it and I was like, even if I had Kraglin, I would not want to play
00:06:54
Speaker
yeah and Okay, so I'm sorry. I'm so mean, I feel like, to this card, but like... No. you don't have to apologize to Kraglin.
00:07:09
Speaker
Marvel's Snap needs to apologize to Kraglin. Yeah, he deserves an apology, but not from you. i expect to see a personal letter addressed to Sean Gunn.
00:07:19
Speaker
Um... if It's like Kraglin in the comics or the movies. I've definitely seen this character multiple times and never has it stuck with me. That's how I feel about the card as well.
00:07:32
Speaker
He's great in the movies. Yeah, he great in the movies. um Yeah, I got this card just because I i do. i have you know the stockpile of tokens. i might as well just get every card that comes out.
00:07:49
Speaker
Plus, you know, talk about it on the podcast. Like, I make content. So, you know, and I hoped that both of you two would skip to this card because it is a stinker. i played it a little bit.
00:08:00
Speaker
ah The best thing I found to do with it is big rampy type stuff, right? Like, it kind of goes in, like, a Wiccan deck as, like, a weird backup plan. Like, a deck that you have a high chance of hitting the extra energy and then you can actually have cards to spend that energy on. Yeah.
00:08:15
Speaker
hey I can see that. What is the unique thing it does is you can have six energy on turn four. Right? That's like, that's the thing that it does. And wave already lets you do that, although, you know, benefits your opponent also.
00:08:33
Speaker
But then, you know, we're limited to 12 cards in a deck. so the unique thing is you can now run Kraglin and Wave both in the same deck. And I saw people doing that, trying to do cute things with like Galactus or whatever. But don't know. I kind of don't think anybody should should get this card, even if you are a Galactus enjoyer.
00:08:52
Speaker
It's a... Yeah, I have ah said this before several times, but like if you're going to be bad, at least be fun. And this card is not even that.
00:09:05
Speaker
I don't know what they're I don't know what they're thinking, and making this a series five card. OK. Agree. Wonder what the vibe check on. Yeah, i mean, did you say what will they buffet to? Yeah, because they will. But like how?
00:09:21
Speaker
What dial? I don't have to bother for a while. It's not a season test card. That's good point. ah They're pretty good about buffing things that that flop hard. But yeah, they might give it a Spider-Man Noir buff. You're just going to give it
Game Mechanics and New Synergies
00:09:35
Speaker
a power. Let's be real.
00:09:38
Speaker
The only time Spider-Man Noir is him swearing because he is not having a good time counting. Hmm. Well, he's still pretty good, though, even when he does swear. Setting the next card to eight can be great thing. He definitely is. It wasn't that hard to count to eight people. I feel like history is going to be rewritten and everyone's going to be like, Spider-Man Noir was impossible to use at launch. And it's just not true.
00:10:07
Speaker
uh the other the long-term buff i hope to see to him is is banished synergy and then all of a sudden i'm looking at craglin and yondu again like they are real cards i think it's gonna take both both the buff and the banished synergy coming into its own yeah yeah i worry about banished being too rewarding and i don't know Well, they have, and you know, they can always change their minds. They've said you will not be able to pull things from the banish pile. They are gone from the game.
00:10:40
Speaker
but the But they are open to doing synergy like like a Morbius for discard. ho banish Or a Nicholas Scratch or whatever. That's fine.
00:10:52
Speaker
I don't know if that would be too strong, although granted all skills banish, so like then you start having some overlapping space with with Nicholas Scratch. ah Okay.
00:11:03
Speaker
We're going to vibe check next week's cards. There are two because think it's Sanctum Showdown that starts next week. um First up, Jack Flag, the Series 5 card. They're just hitting us with threes.
00:11:15
Speaker
Three weeks in a row. Ongoing. Your cards here with increased power have plus two power. We were all very high on this card in our in our early rankings, if I remember correctly.
00:11:26
Speaker
you Still feeling good about Jack? Are you planning on getting Jack? Yes.
00:11:33
Speaker
know if I'll pay 6K. That'll be a spontaneous decision, I'm sure. But if I do, I definitely just want to start with, I know it'll be normie, but like a ah a surfer um ongoing, you know, with all the captains.
00:11:51
Speaker
you know i I think ongoing will make it unique enough. and People are going to be throwing this with Brood, you know? Yeah. Right, but like it and with Captain Carter and you know Steve Rogers, it just seems like Finn.
00:12:06
Speaker
I'm going to be boring and probably not invite Steve, but do the same thing.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yeah. Reasonable. Well, he does really seem like a surfer card, but you know maybe I'll throw him in Spectrum or or Aurora or something so that I can i can be more of a hipster.
00:12:24
Speaker
I don't think he looks super fun, but he does look strong. And so he meets my criteria of being one or the other, if not both. ah I mean, maybe, maybe, maybe he's fun. Maybe you can like something with like ancient one or whatever. You can do something silly with that.
00:12:41
Speaker
them all Is that fun or is that frustrating? You don't like Ancient One? No, i mean, like, when it works, is I mean, like, i feel like Ancient One is one of these cards where it's, like, it's really fun and cool when it's not working, and then when it works for my opponent, I'm just like, what an unfun play pattern this is. Oh, for your opponent, I see. Okay, I'll take off Ancient One. How about Moonstone? Moonstone seems like something that could cross this into the fun category.
00:13:09
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, wow, that, yeah. I think this card's going to go a lot of places. This card's mighty mighty strong. Also, after these other threes, especially Kraglin, it's just like, dang, it's just not going to make Kraglin look very good.
00:13:25
Speaker
ah Also, I'm thinking about Kingpin, who we talked about last week. ah You know, Kingpin from like two months from now. like, oh yeah why was i why was I cutting a 3-9 so much slack? This is a three eleven easy before like...
00:13:38
Speaker
horse shit you know is it that easy like it has to be in a full lane everything in that lane has to have green power before jack flag i don't think it's like it's free but it's almost free but yes these are very big numbers way bigger than craglin bigger than drax like this is a very big tempo card speed is gone um except maybe in wicc index not that you see speed in surfer that much anyway but um Or in ongoing. i don't know. Maybe you see them in ongoing sometimes. i just feel like Jack Flag is is obviously better than Speed um for most decks.
00:14:18
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. ah At least excited for a card that's going to make a splash, unlike unlike his predecessor. And then from Sanctum Showdown, limited time event card, Starhawk, on reveal. On odd turns, give your cards at the left location plus one power. On even turns, give to the right location.
00:14:39
Speaker
At least coming out the same week as Jack Flag, and there's some synergy there. Yeah, that was such a blessing. to Starhawk. Gonna make Starhawk look much better than it actually is.
00:14:55
Speaker
Starhack feels like such a... It's just like with Kraglin, where they're just slapping things like, here are things that are in Snap, you know what i mean? totally it's Throw it away, and it's like, ah it'll alternate, and it'll be buff. It's just like, it's not... There was a time when when almost every single new card that came out felt like unique and exciting, and like it was doing something new, and I get that...
00:15:22
Speaker
We have, you know, as more cards come out, right the space, the design space starts to get smaller. But once again, i mean, just the consequence of them releasing so many cards, I think.
00:15:38
Speaker
And, ah you know, just not... putting that sizing up i guess to handle that appropriately yeah cards don't feel exciting or unique or special it's just like what does this do whatever i'm with you like craglin and especially starhawk feel like marvel snap slop it feels like and hey i came up with it everything's slop the slopification of everything i hate it yeah Also, both cards are more complex than they are like good at their jobs. It doesn't justify it, yeah. They're not interesting or good enough to to justify how complex their text is. Starhawk is the worst version of a Starhawk-like card, and it's also like the most complicated. like Awesome Andy is a better card than this. Toxie Doxie is a better card than this.
00:16:29
Speaker
And those are not great cards, but... And Jack Flag's ability is kind of slop also in the sense that it's just... just Power means more power. like there There are lots of cards like like that, but it's at least clean.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, like a Captain Carter friend, a Maverick friend. like you know Just one that goes with all the usual suspects. and I guess it is clean. but yeah The new cards are either powerful... or it's it's All cards are powerful or slop. They're not like...
00:17:02
Speaker
What was the last like interesting card? They were like, this is a neat card that does something different and is playable. like it's just So many are just like, oh yeah, this is Star Lord.
00:17:12
Speaker
It's not like cool. i think I would point to Dragon Lord as that, but also it's like that felt that ability felt like one that's like, how is that not already in the game? Which maybe be is an argument that's a lot.
00:17:24
Speaker
And Essen is similar to Dragon Lord, you know? So it's not like we hadn't never... There's that Ultron Stone that has the same text. Or Red Wing. yeah like what What if they just like started making cards that had Thanos' Infinity Stones text on them? Would that be exciting to like be like... I mean, I guess they sort of... they die I don't know. right ah Evolved Shocker, Scarlet Witch, we have a bunch of them. Armor...
00:17:54
Speaker
I guess that doesn't protect Thanos from being discarded, but you know, um, yeah, Starhawk really seems like a stinker, but you know, next month has, has limited time game mode cards that look fun. They're the, the rock archetype cards.
00:18:08
Speaker
Also they hit this one in Sanctum, which you you'd have to like, you'd have to punish me for playing that to get me not to play it in a way worse than forcing Starhawk into my hands.
00:18:20
Speaker
so I played it so much Grand Arena this past week. I was sad when it was gone because it was saving me from this meta. And it's like, I liked Grand Arena before. I held it as like maybe my second or third favorite mode.
00:18:33
Speaker
But yeah, I'm excited to play Sanctum again for sure. I enjoy Grand Arena too. Yeah, it's got some charm. Especially as a refuge from the current meta.
00:18:46
Speaker
uh the main i don't know what i loved about it so much part of it was i got that one deck from iron cloak i was running that had i had it in last week's show notes we didn't talk about it because of the timing of our recording but i gotta run valkyrie and just run over people with valkyrie and that's one of my favorite things to do and uh grand arena enabled that for me with flying colors Oh, speaking of Ironcloak, I got to apologize. I noticed this when I was listening back for the timestamps, but we we gave Lady Bullseye a short shrift. She gets the first minus two for free. She's an actual good card. She starts out two four. She scales well. Also, you're going to be like... like
00:19:27
Speaker
I kind of thought it might be a good card even without the first one being free, but it's definitely a good card.
Grand Arena and Deck Strategies
00:19:33
Speaker
And Ironcloak also noticed that I totally misread what it hurt us. That missed that. Yes.
00:19:42
Speaker
I also enjoyed Grand Asari. and no's You turned back into Grand Arena. Okay. um I enjoyed it too because I was bummed out because I didn't want to play it and I started playing the pre-con decks. I'm like, these are sick. Especially compared to like anyone that had modified one. Yeah. And then I just kind of out of the blue and I did just went ahead and built my own. And it was, I did just share like I said, because we had like, I came up with it like right after, before we posted it. So we did share because we know it's past now and it's not good. But like, I, I built a Spider Gwen deck that just used Spider Gwen as a second Hydra Stomper. So it was just silk, bat rock nonsense, just like, The most, it's so easy. If you're just trying to like move Silk around a bazillion times and Batrock and a couple other cards, so easy to get like giant Hydra Stompers when you have Merlin and you're just like, bam, and you've got like Werewolf. And I did that and I used, ah so that was mostly Gwenpool. I didn't make it a move deck. I think that's the trap with her is like trying to go pure move, at least for me, because I don't enjoy pure move anyway. So I used her like that. And then the only thing that the big other use for it was to pull on Spider-Man 2099, which was fun and novel to do because of the band cards in this, because you couldn't shang people because people weren't were just leaving cards alone in lanes and stuff because they weren't expecting the usual tech. And so it's just like my um sombrero Spider-Man 2099. Oh my God.
00:21:25
Speaker
Just pulling over and killing their giant card. They just like made huge, very, so very fun and satisfying. And I enjoyed that. I did. As soon as I got major victory, I did like stuff i meant to play more. Nope.
00:21:39
Speaker
oh Yeah. Hmm. I think a big part of, i mean, definitely why I enjoyed Echo and Valkyrie were because the other tech cards were gone. And I think that that that was part of the reason why they were able to be so effective. Um...
00:21:56
Speaker
But also playing against pre-cons, it's just like, you get to the point where I know what I'm playing against. I know I don't have to worry about this tech, or I know that Hulk pre-con has Lady Deathstrike and I have to play around it. And it plays it differently knowing what tech there is to watch out for. um And I've seen a lot of people call for, okay, pre-cons only queue into pre-cons, or customs only ah queue into customs, and I don't know if that's the right solution.
00:22:24
Speaker
I think it would be a better experience for the pre-con players, probably. But the queue times... There is the queue times issue, and there's also... like If it turns out that one pre-con is just clearly better than all the others, then isn't the optimal thing to do to just run the great pre-con and not worry about any of the custom decks? yeah so that's one That's the one thing where I'm like, ied I don't know if that's actually the right solution. right If somebody's that upset about losing with pre-cons, they can go net deck.
00:22:54
Speaker
Yep. That's it for our core snap content onto our side quests. Uh, we can snap. Rhi, how was your, we can snap and keep it snappy.
00:23:07
Speaker
Okay, I will say um with Snap, which i played less of. her ah This is something that makes me played less of. But freeing myself from getting to Infinite, just letting myself break that streak was such a gift. Because like, now I see like there's so many people that stress about it because they have this streak.
00:23:32
Speaker
And, ah you know, just from the bottom of my heart, like so many of y'all are really good players. And it's like you could get to it. It's kind of a time thing. And snapping is is less meaning like our knowledge and our ability to determine snap scenarios used to be better and more attainable. It's now harder.
00:23:55
Speaker
To be good or not about snapping, in my opinion, at least. Maybe some people... Star-Lord alone changed that dramatically. Yes, it's harder to tell yeah what people have, what they're going to be able to put out, which means the climb is longer because you're being good at snapping used to be...
00:24:15
Speaker
ah more meaningful because it used to be more achievable. Yeah, you could be good at snapping. Now it's harder to be like, right? it's It's just like not as feasible. So for myself that now, when i look at, you know,
00:24:31
Speaker
what I'm doing with my snap time, I go, I'm like, okay, well, let me get to 90, which I did this season to get that gold. But then I looked at the infinite back and I'm like, that won't join my favorites. And I know I never use, i have enough deck backs. I like my favorites. I never use deck backs that I don't like care about.
Gaming Experiences and Comparisons
00:24:52
Speaker
So like, I'm just not going to you know, bother like to get in. That's, that's like so free. I do. Like i said, I will get the group and stuff, but it's just like, i hit my goal. I got tonight and that's like way easier. Probably.
00:25:07
Speaker
i don't know. Then whatever that is through the nineties. So, um, you know, so that's good. And, ah you know, I mostly have played more Expedition 33. It's been more of my time. Oh, it is so good. um Still recommended. I want to say, too, something once again, um without spoilers, although I am, I believe, you just I'm like right before the final battle. So close to finishing it. Remember, this was made by a smaller French studio,
00:25:45
Speaker
And so there was a smaller budget in making the game. and I am so impressed with how they used what they had make it look higher budget, where they didn't worry about a lot of clipping so they could still have, you know, glorious hair, like moving around and where they put the resources and the graphics and where they put how they built it.
00:26:11
Speaker
um I mean, it reminds me a way, you know, when I was working on Merm Game, how I built it in a foundation and then kept that core in a specific way that I knew would me minimize the amount of bugs that would happen from adding new features. And I feel like they did the same. Like, I opened Snap and it is like...
00:26:31
Speaker
It is buggy. It is bad. I'm constantly I get kicked out of games a lot now. Like there's various if they fixed one thing, you know, something else has broken. The red dots are just like ah apparently never getting it. It's astonishing how many times they've addressed that and it's still there.
00:26:51
Speaker
And like, they put the time in with Expedition 33 and the time they have that like where there are bugs are small enough not to be a nuisance. You know, i haven't even really like if i noticed when it didn't stick with me, it was like a minor like filled issue or whatever. And the game crashed once ever. And it took me so like a second until the you know, when things went black, like, storyline what's going on because it never happened it was so out of the blue and like and I really didn't lose much game and it was notable and it's like almost rare that you don't like snap at least doesn't crash you out of the game if not the app anymore so anyway i just uh I'm just uh really impressed with expedition 33
00:27:43
Speaker
And I love it. And I recommend it. Okay. ah That was plenty long for my weekend snap.
Gaming Updates and New Releases
00:27:50
Speaker
um I guess we're keeping normal rotation. That would mean Ben is up.
00:27:55
Speaker
Next. tell right I'm going to interrupt. That was snappy. um You reminded me just talking about the state of bugginess in Snap. ah Recently, I think it was today or yesterday, I opened Snap and it asked, what's something in Snap that frustrated you recently? I don't get the survey questions very often, so and that is exactly what I listed, though, is like so many games crashing to the menu and occasionally some games crashing to the point that they just don't exist anymore. right like When they crash to menu, you can usually reconnect and it's mostly just a pain, not like you lost the game or whatever. But I've also had yeah had times where it kills the game, like it goes to menu or crashes the app and there is no reconnect options like the game doesn't exist anymore. That that particular instance of that game is just gone. And it's like, OK, did I did I get credit for that? Like, did that consume a ticket? I don't know. It's it's gone into the ether. Anyway, that was that was the feedback I gave them.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah. OK, Ben. All right. My weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy. I'm setting a timer for five minutes. This going to be the snappiest. I'm sure it's been snappier than that before. um So this is going to be leisurely, basically, is what I'm trying to say. Anywho, much like I have also unburdened myself from worrying about Infinite.
00:29:07
Speaker
um I'm pretty sure... i I don't know. i like i got a finished pretty high last season as long as I get that gold at rank 90.
00:29:18
Speaker
i I climbed with the Secret Homework deck. I'm up on ranks with that. We'll we'll talk about that soon. um You know ah more so than Marvel Snap, my ah my thoughts and gaming times have been with ah a new video game release. um I get some mixed feelings about it. I don't know if I'm going to give it a wholehearted recommend, but I have been playing a lot of Mugenics this week. um It's sort of...
00:29:50
Speaker
You know, the the vibe is ah very much like, what if the It's like the Sewer Boys from Dix the Musical played Cult of the Lamb.
00:30:04
Speaker
And they were like, we should do that with some Pokemon and XCOM in it. But like that's that's basically the vibe. um There's a lot of stuff that I think is interesting and good about it.
00:30:18
Speaker
There's some stuff that I am less sure is good about it. here is So in ah Slay the Spire, a game that I talk about a lot, um the ironclad has ah a self-damaging mechanic. You know, it'll do a reckless strike and it'll shuffle a wound or two into your deck or whatever. Or there's ah there's a block card that shuffles two or puts two wounds into your hand. And like, I guess the idea is like, you know, the the ironclad is sacrificing their body for the play or whatever. And that's that's all fine. In Mugenics, there are so many items. And mostly I think that's really cool.
00:30:55
Speaker
ah you know if if you If you talk about which poop mask... ah you You have to talk about which poop mask ah is equipped to your cat. Because multiple. Because there's more than one poop mask. I've got like screenshots of an inventory. but like Multiple poop masks. ah So that's that's about where the game is on grossness. But what I'm talking... what what The thing that has bumped against me the most...
00:31:23
Speaker
is there's this item called the razor blade, and I don't like the idea of my cats doing self-harm. like yeah The razor blade deals five damage to them and gives them two strength and dexterity, and you can use it multiple times a fight. And here's the thing.
00:31:38
Speaker
It's pretty good, but like it's pretty yucky. Is that a theme that that clashes for you? Yeah. and like There are so many yucky things in this game that I have like more patience with than that one, but like every time I get that item, I'm like, well, this stinks. Also, it's pretty good. I should probably use it, except I don't want to, so like mostly I don't. and Usually in games, I just...
00:32:03
Speaker
I choose the thing that works as a general rule. That's my philosophy. i like doing well. Oh, but. There are so many things that work in this game. That is very cool about it. I like all these different combinations of effects. There are so many different status disorders and effects, and so many of them are double-edged swords.
00:32:22
Speaker
like yeah if If you get cursed in some way or mutated in some way, there's almost always the silver lining. and Man, there's there's so much to love about this game. But like there are occasional moments where I'm just like...
00:32:35
Speaker
Was this worth it for the, like, the to be shocking or edgy or whatever? Like, I'm just like, I don't know. But a lot of the writing, the dialogue from the characters, the weirdos you interact with around town and ah sometimes drop off excess cats, too. I mean, like, there's so much to love about Mugenics. It's a really cool game for the most part. But also, is not for the weak of stomach or the faint of heart or the... um the the the morally rigid. That sounds right based on other games I've played by the developer.
00:33:12
Speaker
But yeah, other than that, I guess I have played a little Snap here and there. I had the most fun doing secret homework. um I've got more. I've got 34 seconds left. ah Other games. fan now I don't know. I've been watching some watching some shows living my
Achievements and Major Victory Deck Strategies
00:33:29
Speaker
life. um Still sick, as as you may have noticed. Sorry to hear it.
00:33:35
Speaker
But, you know, it's a pretty good weekend snap. i'm ah I'm up there at rank 87. I just need to get to, you know, 93 or whatever, collect that gold. Maybe I'll finish infinite. I usually do.
00:33:46
Speaker
But I know I'm good at card games and I'm not that worried about my streak. But if you are, that's fine. Anywho, that's the timer, baby. Yeah.
00:33:58
Speaker
yeah
00:34:01
Speaker
I'll talk about my weekend snap. i first of all, I'm excited for Mugenics. I heard about it when it was first announced. 14 years ago or whatever. um because am a huge fan of Edmund McMillan's work. I have played probably, i don't know, eight of his games, a ton, uh, biggest ones being super meat boy and a binding of Isaac that you may be familiar with, but there are tons of others. Uh, he had one on new grounds that was inspired by his high school reunion, uh, called time fuck. And I, it's just a flash game, but I consider it one of the best games I've ever played. It's just, uh,
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah. um It's kind of a
00:34:42
Speaker
what's a procedurally generated platformer and it's a puzzle platformer and it's done very well. Anyway, um I look forward to playing it eventually. Oh, i think I think procedural generation is a fun playground for design, like how to do it properly, like how to do it well. Like, don't know. Hmm.
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't remember if it was the levels themselves were procedurally generated or if it was like your path through multiple levels, but they were all human. Anyway, there's tons of ways to do procedural generation.
00:35:14
Speaker
But one thing it did well was like players could submit their own stages. And then based on how players performed on those stages, it was rated with difficulty level and a fun level. And so then when it procedurally generated a series of maps, it would pull only levels that were high and fun and then the appropriate difficulty for how far you were in your run.
00:35:34
Speaker
Really cool game. Anyway, also a huge fan. Yeah, I'm also a huge fan of Super Meat Boy and Binding of Isaac and several others. But I'll get to Mugenics eventually. I'm not in a huge rush. I've waited this long. I can i can wait for it to hit Switch 2 or something. There's a lot of hours of playtime that it will ah demand or request from you. So, like, I don't know. you've've You've got a child, Lauren. I'm almost like, do you have time in life for Mugenics? I'm not sure. You know, but sometimes sometimes games suck me in. My child is pretty self-sufficient at this point, being 14 years old. As old as the announcement of Mugenics.
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:19
Speaker
i The thing I'm talking about this week is is I beat Marvel Snap. ah What does that mean? Well, I don't know if my co-hosts are even aware that Marvel Snap has achievements because as far as I know, they exist only in the iOS version of Marvel Snap, which is strange because like as Google Play has achievements, doesn't it? Certainly Steam does. It does.
00:36:41
Speaker
yeah Like, why did they add them to iOS and not the other platforms? I don't know. But I got the very first one in and mid-November and just finished in mid-February. So it took about three months to finish all of them. um None of them are very clever. I used to be huge...
00:36:59
Speaker
it must have been around that time because i got the first one for playing 50 reveal cards on November 19th. Wow. That's like, that's, that's, I bet that happened in like four games or something. Yeah. That probably happened pretty fast. Uh, I also have under 50 cards that same day.
00:37:18
Speaker
So I might've been playing a move deck. Maybe it was sanctum time. Um, I don't know another word for this. I used to be an achievement whore. This is back before I got married. No receiver.
00:37:32
Speaker
That's a cute way to say that. Sure. ah Back in the Xbox 360 days, I used to chase achievements down, i you know, grab games that that could have.
00:37:43
Speaker
you know, ah easily, not necessarily easily achieved it achievements, but I was very interested in what made achievements fun as I chased them down. Like this is, my brain is very oriented to game design. And I'm thinking like some, some achievements are just like beat the game and you get them all. And it's like, that's not nearly as interesting to me as achievements that ask you to play the game in a unique way. There should be some achievements that you get along the way as you figure out the game, but there should also be some that are like,
00:38:07
Speaker
you need to like ah Geometry Wars classically had like the pacifist one, whereas like you survive a certain amount of time without shooting at all, which is not what you do in Geometry Wars. That's a shooter. um And then later, I think pacifist became a a core game mode in future in sequels for Geometry Wars. um But yeah, these achievements are bad.
00:38:26
Speaker
so ah They are not interesting. They range from playing reveal cards to moving cards, playing ongoing cards, completing daily missions, winning matches with a snap. They are basically the same thing as the least interesting alliance bounties.
00:38:44
Speaker
And I would love to see them added to other platforms, but also made more interesting. From the creators of the Marvel Snap titles. Marvel Snap Achieve.
00:38:57
Speaker
They feel so phoned in. They do each have unique artwork that is present nowhere else in the game. So that's something. um And it's only on iOS.
00:39:08
Speaker
Yeah. i My guess is like. Probably at Tim Apple's personal request. Yeah, must it must have been something like that. Like iOS had like a Game Center rework and like said, we'll feature you if you add achievements to your game or something. I don't know. I don't know what the story is. It's super weird.
00:39:25
Speaker
um But I've been keeping an eye on that one. My last one was complete 500 Alliance bounties. It took three months to do. I'm sure some people could do that faster, but I usually stop taking bounties as soon as I finish my individual rewards. Yeah.
00:39:44
Speaker
I think they're fun. I keep taking them forever. or I take them unless we've achieved the alliance reward, which is fair anymore because it's difficult out there. I misspoke. I keep going after I get the individual. Once the alliance ones are done is when I'm usually like, I'm good. yeah um I think i think ah you and and Thursday are like that, Ben, where you just keep picking them up because your bounty numbers are always very large. Yeah.
00:40:13
Speaker
Maybe not always, but often. Often. Okay, on to the secret homework. This week I assigned it. It was to make a deck with Major Victory. And I'm excited to talk about these because we all made very different decks. um Yeah, we did. I started with... um Okay, I ended with a Clog deck.
00:40:33
Speaker
I started with one that was much more of a Victoria Hand Clog hybrid and shifted further and further towards Clog. And the thought process is... What's a card that works with both Major Victory and... but like I'm looking for synergy with Victoria Hand and Major Victory.
00:40:52
Speaker
Those have synergy, right? It's like, how do I get the Guardians to hit reliably? Daredevil. Now, what's synergy with Daredevil? And that's Clog. Clog lets you make sure that you're playing your Dr. Octopus or your Titanium Green Goblin, your Hoggomb, whatever. lets you make sure you're finishing a lane. Okay.
00:41:10
Speaker
right and then on turn six i can either finish i can either win with cannonball and bringing titania home or i have two guardians in my hand and it's much easier to guess where your opponent is going to play if one of the lanes is clogged um and i did win games this way with a clogged lane and then guardians taking the other lane um yeah and daredevil also plays nice with the guardians that's wraps up that thought um you know if you have guardians in your hand you can make sure to land them with their devil i tried really hard to keep mantis in this deck she was there most of the way until it made its cloggiest iteration um
00:41:50
Speaker
She's fun sometimes. Sometimes. I think I had one match I won because of what Mantis copied. And Daredevil helps make sure that you get the copy. But it's just like she doesn't do anything to make the copy better.
00:42:03
Speaker
Right? Like you can do Victoria Hand or Quinjet, I guess. But it's just she pales so much compared to Mirage, right? Where Mirage gives you the plus two power and Mantis just like doesn't...
00:42:15
Speaker
Yeah. Although with Major Victory in the deck, Mantis is always kind of there. There's always a risk of Mantis showing up. It is rough for Major Victory that Mantis is in the pool.
00:42:28
Speaker
What were you going to say about Mantis, Rhi?
00:42:33
Speaker
I would say, okay, I actually did. ah Well, I mean, I think even earlier we were bemoaning Mantis together. Like, after that, I actually, did pretty good for me because, like, um she i for i can't even, it might have been a Star Lord or something. it was something that was enough, but I am running a Quinjet.
00:42:56
Speaker
and a victoria hand and you know a lot of times people are playing like one big card um and because i'm you know warlocking and skipping i can still like play her as like a one cost you know mantis so um She did get me something I played. But I looked out kind of and guessing their location. I didn't actually have a good clue. like oh That's why she was useful because I got the one big card they played that turn. yeah i got i for she My most memorable mantis in history was I caught a man spider.
00:43:35
Speaker
And then I got, and I didn't have priority. So I got the man spider after the merge and the double. That wasn't this time, but that is, that's like in history of the game. That's my most memorable mantis. And it's like, I get the concept, you know, when they changed her to this, they mentioned venom as being something that she could counter. It's like, I get the concept of it, but like, you have to not have prior and you still have to pay full price for the card. And there aren't that many cards that like are worth stealing like that. i don't know.
00:44:04
Speaker
She's rough. It would. Is there a way to make her effect like happen at the end of turn without making her an end of turn card? Like keep her on reveal, but like have the thing actually happen at the end of the. Oh, yeah, you could do that on reveal, but like at the end of the turn, copy a card that your opponent played this turn. That would that would be a real buff, not a huge one, but a real one.
00:44:27
Speaker
It would at least make her fun stuff happen more often. We need an official counter for like all the times we've ever discussed Mantis. It's just a changer, improver, and fixer. It's got to be the most of it. It could just be the secret homework every week. Redesign Mantis. That's the ah Well, we'll get to it. Anywho.
00:44:50
Speaker
um I started with Jean Grey, and it doesn't look like either of you went that way. but that I think that's how I directed myself towards Claude. I was like, gene she's the Guardian's card. right she she she messed me up more often than not by the time I had Titania in there too because it's like I would clog him with Green Goblin Titania and it's like oh I guess I have to bring Titania home on turn 5 that's not good synergy so she became Nebula who also motivates my opponent to fill a lane faster anyway I'm not going to read off the whole deck although my co-hosts are sure certainly welcome to read off theirs but ah listener if you want to see it you can find it in the show notes Ben?
00:45:33
Speaker
Well, first, a word about Jean Grey, who I played a little bit in the past week. ah That's because I got my... grand arena deck of choice from fourth location and scott i guess really wanted to play gene gray in the mr fantastic deck and i played 10 games of it that way and decided that uh basically any other card would improve the deck i cut gene gray i put in sam uh
00:46:04
Speaker
you know, Steve was already there. They're doing S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff a little bit. Sometimes I would forget about Sam and play as Stardust first, and that was a mistake. But, um yeah, man, I just wish... Jean Grey is one of maybe the most...
00:46:20
Speaker
disappointing cards in Marvel snap. Cause I want her to be so good. Cause you know, iconic character also really cool ability that seems full of promise and potential, but just like in actuality, never seems to just never really seems to make sense or give you a significant advantage. I think maybe the game is too short or too long or too. ah She's just ill, ill fitted for the game.
00:46:45
Speaker
um Anywho, but I did build a deck and I think it's so cool that everybody, the pulled on different threads with major victory. Um, i was like, what's interesting and unique about major victory. Lots of cards make cards. Uh, Colson, he gives you two cards, generated cards. Um, And I'm like, are we doing Victoria Hand stuff? I very early decided, no, we're not doing Victoria Hand stuff. So I'm like, what's special about Major Victory?
00:47:17
Speaker
All the cards Major Victory generates are on reveals. And ah unlike, say, a Kate Bishop, there's no Pym Arrow compromising the the consistency, the predictability of the on reveals and stuff. Because, like, sure, mostly Kate makes on reveals, but, like, that Damn Pym Arrow.
00:47:38
Speaker
Anywho, so I'm like, who likes on reveals? And a lot a lot of things like on reveals, but none more than Werewolf by Night, who's so motivated by on reveals that he just runs all over the board.
00:47:51
Speaker
um So I was like, we're going to do major, but major victory in Werewolf by Night. And what else sort of like makes sense here? So I'm just like moving cards around. Also, I'm like the Guardians, they they care about the location things. I can't justify Nebula because I just don't think she gets big enough to be worthwhile. um But.
00:48:11
Speaker
I can justify Galactus first steps. I can justify Adam Warlock. Maybe. I don't know if I can justify Adam Warlock. I felt like playing him. I haven't played much Adam Warlock in my life, especially not since he got better, you know? Um, honestly none before he got better, but Anyway, anyway, i was just like, I was excited to play some cards that I'm not playing all the time. Speaking of cards I'm not playing all the time, Psylocke. I just wanted to play Psylocke, you know? Well, actually, Psylocke, I decided i could get excited about playing Psylocke because I decided this should be a Wiccan deck.
00:48:46
Speaker
And... ah That's, ah I don't know. Adam Warlock showed up first and i was like, you know, maybe we go Wiccan from there. So here's what's in the deck. Yes, I still read decks out. It's the hood. It's Deafening Chord. Not really a one cost you want to play on turn one to set up Wiccan, but also sometimes if you have the Wiccan in hand and you can see how it's going to go. Why not just burn the deafening cord? Who gives a shit? Nico Minoru.
00:49:10
Speaker
You know, those, those are the cards you want to play on turn one, the hood or Nico Minoru with a, with a good spell. Uh, that, that's plan a anywho. Then we've got Adam warlock. more're like Adam snorlock. Uh, he's pretty slow to get going. He doesn't get out bed. That's fair right away. Um, but I am still excited to play him. It's just fun to put the, you know, and portmanteau things and, you know,
00:49:36
Speaker
Anywho, anywho. Then we got Surge. That's right. ah We got some classic Ben Roller favorites. We got Surge. We got Merlin. Then we got Psylocke, one of the spicy ones that I was just excited to spend a little more time with. Werewolf by Night, Major Victory, The Reason for the Season, Stardust.
00:49:54
Speaker
The... You know, it just felt like the right thing. I needed a four, and i was willing to not demand that it have on reveal, although I would have liked it to have on reveal. But I was like, I don't want to play Star-Lord. Yeah.
00:50:11
Speaker
Also, Star-Lord and Wiccan kind of clash, if you ask me. you know They do. In fact, maybe maybe you don't even have to ask me. you could you Search your feelings. You know this to be true. Anywho, Stardust is just great right now. Also, I was having so much fun with Stardust in Grand Arena that i was just like, let's let's keep this trainer rolling because I'm trying to get Stardust inked out. I've got got gold Stardust going on right now but i'm like i just want that ink so it can be friends with all my other ink splits and uh then we've got wiccan as i mentioned earlier and galactus first steps you know the galactus with yeah that's where the two came in yeah yep and uh yeah i'm i'm positive on the on the ladder i think i started at rank 85 or 86 i'm at at rank 87 now
00:51:01
Speaker
um It's fine. ah It's a little suboptimal. I, you know, it's a little bit of a, you know, it's fine. These are mostly good cards most of the time. i mean, Psylocke's a little bit shruggy, you know, and Adam Warlock is, I feel like Adam Warlock feels better to play than ah We all like drawing cards, and the reason we like drawing cards is because it's good, but also sometimes it clouds people's judgment of what's actually going on in the game, I think.
00:51:39
Speaker
um But anyway, I enjoyed my time with Adam Warlock, and I don't think I'm going to play him again soon. But I'm having fun with the deck. It's very cool. This was such a fun little secret homework.
00:51:51
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Good. That's what I think. I play Adam all the time, including in the Grand Arena deck. I won many a lane. Yeah, but you're trying to spend clips and things. Well, yes, but also, i play him in real decks sometimes, too, and I won many a game with Adam and Valkyrie with that one little point at the end of the game ticking me up just, you know, 12 to 13. How about Major Victory himself? How did you find the Guardians?
00:52:16
Speaker
Were they helpful for your for your werewolf?
00:52:21
Speaker
Uh, yeah, actually so surprising. Well,
00:52:27
Speaker
I will say major victory was not the most structurally significant part of the deck. Oh, that was like part of why I went Wiccan with it was to be able to cast all these generated cards, you know, you know, yeah play them.
00:52:40
Speaker
Um, so, you know sometimes the guardians were helpful, Yeah, I will say the the unrevealedness of them was consistent with Werewolf to get Werewolf where I wanted.
00:52:59
Speaker
i it's good i could I could tell when I was playing that I was like kind of getting lucky. I mean, like i I played enough games that it should all sort of have come out in the wash, but my perception was that I was not generating Mantis very often, which I was pretty happy about. But like you know i was I was playing Draxes and getting the the bonus stats and stuff, and i was always happy to see ah Rocket Raccoon. That's like sort of the...
00:53:27
Speaker
the best one, but also Gamora has a certain heft. You know, she shows up, swings the lane pretty hard. Um, you know, i don't think it's like a great card, but I think in some ways, you know, it's got a more distinct identity than Coulson and, you know,
00:53:48
Speaker
Yeah, probably i liked i I thought it was fun and cute and not overwhelmingly practical, but also ah climbed with it. I'll i'll climb with ah a silly thing a little bit.
00:54:00
Speaker
And yeah, ah I might keep playing it just to, you know, do a little additional research, get to get some more data. Okay, sweet. Rhi, tell us about your journey. You seemed to be having a pretty good time.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yeah, sorry. I've been sitting for a long time. Okay, um yeah, mine turned out better than i could have hoped for. i got a gold ticket with it in then four games.
00:54:33
Speaker
um Which I didn't mean to do. I wanted to take, when I build the deck first, I like to take it to Proving Grounds because um a lot of times immediately I'll start playing i'll be like, no, I don't want this card. And then I get annoyed if I have to play out like a whole... conquest series with a card I've already decided I want to replace and change. So um when i but when i pulled up conquest, I had already opened a silver for some reason and I started it and I was like, okay, whatever.
00:55:06
Speaker
But um hu this deck is full of ah bait and surprises. Okay, I guess let's start with making it. When I was looking at Major Victory, i went i ended up with a similar thought pattern as Ben with looking at the on-reveal nature. Because my problem with Major Victory is like, okay, if you're just looking for a card that makes cards to fill your hand, Like, why wouldn't you just snow guard or something? Right. a lot cheaper, a lot better value. Right. So he's not good in that sense. And then if you're looking for a card that it's like cards you might want to play, Coulson, you're going to pick Coulson. Coulson is far better. The card for that. Right. Because the Guardians themselves ah aren't very good. Okay. So I start looking at the Guardians and I'm like, okay, you know, they are consistently on reveal.
00:56:03
Speaker
So maybe that's one aspect we worked with. I did put like Gore originally in the deck, but he ended up leaving this. also thought about Gore. Right? Yeah, but then he didn't end being as good as other things you were in the doing the deck. Okay, that's interesting to hear. Yeah, we both... see He went there, he went out. But, like, my other point with the Guardians with looking at them was, like, okay, it's hard...
00:56:28
Speaker
To, as you were saying, to guess correctly with the Guardians, even though people are playing everywhere anymore, it's it's still difficult. And once people know you are playing the Guardians, like Sanctum has trained them to, like, screw you. You know what mean? To actively work against, especially in a conquest scenario and whatever.
00:56:52
Speaker
so I'm like, OK, the Guardians in our best. If I can pull them back for turn six, because turn six, you usually know where your opponent is playing based on the state of the game or they're playing across all the lanes. You know, um the other aspect I looked at with on reveal is things that I would want to repeat. Right.
00:57:15
Speaker
um I ended up taking long out initial consideration, but I was like, OK, when I have Guardians, I know that's an ability i would be fine repeating in some way. And how I ended pulling this all together is a ah a completely different outfit and look and revival of an old ah Moon Girl Valkyrie She-Hulk deck I used to have fun with. um But it is now called too Sexy for Turn 5. Because it was a deck where frequently you will be skipping, if in your best case scenario, you'll be skipping turn five.
00:57:53
Speaker
And it was a joy to bring it to me because usually when I'm playing a skip turn five deck, you're playing an Infinaut, right? Or maybe skipping turn six because you're playing an Infinaut. um But ah one of the reasons i'm skipping turn five is because I have Warlock in the deck, right? But Warlock isn't an all or nothing like Infinaut is. So when I did get like the Mantis, you know what I mean, from Major Victory, I could play that Mantis on turn five and still get most of my benefits from Warlock.
00:58:26
Speaker
However, okay, reasons you're skipping, She-Hulk is in this deck, which is a great copy with Moon Girl. um Valk is, because see here's the here's the idea, is like you get a lot of cheap cards for a lot of energy, and you just crush it on turn unturned sex um And how this keeps working and why I won two silver. And it was against me. The first deck was against a Soran deck.
00:59:00
Speaker
Starbrand, Soran, classic, classic Soran deck. Surtur Soran. And then the second was against a Scarlet Witch. um Zombie Giant Man, that normal thing.
00:59:12
Speaker
um And I beat them both because ah I surprised them each game. Normally this deck for me, I'd be like, oh, it's a ladder deck because... ah You know, ah because like it's only good for one surprise. The stack has so many surprises. I could just beat them both ways so many times. And the Guardians are surprising how big they get when you've made them cheap. I put a Quinjet in this, right? can copy cards with Moon Girl.
00:59:41
Speaker
um you know, Major Victory is giving me the Guardians. um I have a grand Grandmaster. I feel like, okay, but people have been grandmastering Star-Lord, but that's what my deck has so many metacardes in it. That's the bait.
01:00:00
Speaker
The bait is that it has Victoria Han. has Star-Lord, Master of the Sun. um You know, but like people think when they take one of those out, they've got me and then they snap. This is how both of all the games I won were like, that's not true.
01:00:18
Speaker
I snapped on some on the the second one once I got more confident. But like they'll snap on because they take out your Victoria hand. Because most decks with Victoria Hand are built around Victoria Hand, right? right Most decks with Star-Lord Master of the Sun are built around pulling that off, right? um but This, I have, like, it's like you take out one, it's not built around that.
01:00:44
Speaker
um And people don't expect when you have like two, like, you know, to cost Groots, some two, like one cost She-Hulks, free sometimes because of nonsense, you know.
01:01:02
Speaker
Sorry, I got distracted. I think i was talking about Grandmaster. So excited. Okay. Grandmaster, okay. Honestly, works with the Guardians, right? That you get. yes Works with Star-Lord Master of the Sun.
01:01:15
Speaker
ah so amazing with Valk on the final turn. I know Lauren's done Grandmaster Valk a lot. But, like, this time i can do I can pull it off so much of the time.
01:01:26
Speaker
It's so satisfying. Someone like had to fist bump me after. It's like they build up their giant stack. ah You know, these giant, huge power cards. Valk. Grandmaster to Valk, the other lane, you know.
01:01:42
Speaker
win with the low it's delicious yes okay other wonderful combinations zabu right zabu turn one grandmaster turn two right get yourself some cheap moon girl star lord master of the sun i've got an ab absorbing man here is my other forecast warlock is fun warlock has been useful um right so and uh Hopefully, oh, I do have a Sunspot as well in the deck. Because, you know, energy soak. I'm almost always, usually if things work out, i'm trying skip turn. Okay. ah I think that I've happened to mention all the cards in the deck. But it's just like there's so many surprises, right? Like I won because people weren't expecting me to drop She-Hulk in combination with everything else that I have here, right? It's such a weird mix. um And then you win with Valk the next time.
01:02:38
Speaker
um And, yeah, I had a lot of fun and it ended up being good. like Is Starlord typically happening on turn four because you're skipping turn five? Okay, sometimes Zabu gets it. Like, not all the time is Starlord the best at a play, which is what I love about this deck. It's like, there's so many mana cards in it, but it's like, it's not about them.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's like and you and Ted Lasso when he's ah so Jamie is like the star player on the team and ted Lasso's coach is like, OK, but what if we just use you as bait?
01:03:11
Speaker
You know, instead of you s scoring the goal, everyone, you know, pretend like you want the ball and we pass it to the other player and he'll make the shot. And that's what I'm doing with like my star players here. I'm like, get all the attention! But you're not the real, you know, Moon Girl copying She-Hulk. And then me, and then with Quinjet, right?
01:03:31
Speaker
Me just playing a whole bunch of Guardians, right? With, like, free She-Hulk. It's just so much power. It's that game of, like, they're just not expecting you to be able to outpower them or Valk them. All that stuff.
01:03:46
Speaker
What were talking about? Sounds like such a fun deck. Awesome.
Future of the Podcast and Audience Engagement
01:03:51
Speaker
All right. What's next week's homework? New homework. OK, so here here's what I want for new homework. I was like, let's ah we'd had a deck building challenge. Let's take it a bit easier. I want you to bring Snap to a new IP. It's one of your favorite IPs, intellectual properties.
01:04:14
Speaker
um Yeah, and I want leave it open. So what would this mean if you're just excited to talk about like a card that would be there, if there would be slight differences bringing it to this, if there would be cool events or new features that would fit into it? Wherever, ah you know, makes sense for the IP that you bring it to that you want to talk about.
01:04:33
Speaker
um If you're tight for ideas, you can just do cards locations. That kind of stuff. ah But yeah, I'd love to see like the idea of Snap as like a multi-location quick turn, you know, the general concept ah seemed something.
01:04:49
Speaker
Awesome. Awesome. Okay. ah We're going to open up a brief discussion about the future of the show. And I know that sounds scary, but we promise it's not scary. We're not sunsetting or anything like that ah yet. I mean, that's bound to happen eventually. Probably. no we're going to live forever.
01:05:11
Speaker
We and Marvel Snap are going to live forever. um But yeah, that's not that's not on the table right now. But you may have noticed already that we've shaken up the format a little bit with moving Weak and Snap to the second half of the show.
01:05:26
Speaker
The intention is to not scare off newbies who are coming in to listen to this show. ah But like we want to know what part of the show do you love as we're trying to...
01:05:37
Speaker
I don't know. We want to make it... We want to improve it. We want to make it sustainable. um We've had people express an interest in supporting the show, and we don't really have a good way to do that currently.
01:05:49
Speaker
um And so, like, we'd like to make it ah easier to grow, but without losing our identity. I think it's like... that's That's the goal, right? Does that ring true to you, Tim?
01:06:02
Speaker
Yeah. So... You know, like a really good way to grow is to collaborate with others. And we could have guests on the show and we have a couple times before. We also feel like it kind of changes the nature of the show if it's a guest show.
01:06:16
Speaker
um Yeah, I think so. We've like what we've talked about is we think the best way if we can grow to like 500 subscribers, then we can open YouTube memberships.
01:06:27
Speaker
So that's what we're kind of I think part of what we're looking at is like if yeah, if we did that, like what kind of content mean you see? And yeah, just what what do you like about the show or not? You know, like how can we improve so that we can grow to 500 subscribers? You know, we don't do like so we don't do the this stuff i mean i guess if we like did giveaways to like you know and like i know like some people can just buy them or whatever but that would be a way to do it that's like i don't know that's not us so um so yeah
01:07:05
Speaker
So even even if you're like even if you're not interested in you know paying for SNF on this, it would be really helpful if you went to our YouTube page and just subscribed. It's it's super free. And if you're an audio listener, I understand.
01:07:23
Speaker
i don't always go and subscribe to the YouTube channels of things I'm just listening to on on my phone. But like it would actually really help us if you could, if if you feel like it. And it is...
01:07:34
Speaker
You're not signaling an obligation or an interest in paying for it if you do that. but That's a whole separate thing. It would just be helpful. we we can't accept We can't accept anybody's interest for that until we get to 500. So it would be super cool if you could do that.
01:07:52
Speaker
Right. And we've talked about doing things like Patreon. Um, but I don't know, we have a small niche audience and it feels like a, you know, tight community. We have the speakeasy where people can come and talk, like feel like we have loyal subscribers, but not a ton of them.
01:08:07
Speaker
Anyway, if that's something you're willing to do audio listener or YouTube listener who hasn't subscribed yet, there's no, there's a link right near the top of the show notes that says video version on YouTube. That'll take you right there.
01:08:18
Speaker
Um, Yeah. So tell us tell us what you love about the show as we're trying to experiment with the with the format. And we talked about making weekend snap rotating show and tell with only one of us going. But it it kind of felt like losing something that's core to the show.
01:08:33
Speaker
So I don't know. But tell us what you like. Tell us what kind of bonus content you'd be interested in seeing. Yeah, also, I know for me, I'm always like, should I not be off? I know sometimes I get real off topic in my discussing, and I can be more, as you know, snap focused. So, you know, we're looking at whatever feedback component. While Ben and I insist that something people i can tell Rhi that that's nonsense and that we like learning things.
01:09:00
Speaker
Yeah, ah confirm that Ben and I are correct, that Rhi's tangents are critical to the show. Yep.
01:09:10
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. ah There'll be more on the topic, but that's just, you know, just, just starting that conversation with y'all. Certainly leave, leave ideas or feedback or whatever in the comments, or you can come hang out in the speakeasy and let us know show notes to get there or instructions to get there are in the show notes or video description. It's our little corner of discord. We're probably part of the snap judgments network where you can listen to other great shows like snap judgments, our grand pod by pulse glazer and Nick degree geek on Saturdays. Yeah.
01:09:39
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you for listening. And if you would like to listen next week, ah tune in Same snap time, same snap
Casual Banter and Gaming Preferences
01:09:48
Speaker
channel. Oh, yeah.
01:09:51
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. I thought I was assigning secret homework this week. And then I wasn't relieved about it. thought I was assigning it last week. So, you know, it's been a. The panic.
01:10:02
Speaker
Remembering stuff is hard. You guys ever get gaming shoulder? i just learned that's a thing. I mean, I don't know if it's a thing, but only because I have. I've been gaming Expedition 33 so much. playing WeTest. This has never happened to me before. It hurts a lot, like, behind just my one shoulder. Just from gaming. Are you posing bad? i mean, bad posture? Maybe I am. Maybe I'm sitting. I don't know what it is, but it's like, it's it's only been...
01:10:29
Speaker
Gaming so much. And it's like, oh, I've got gaming shoulder. ive no I have definitely had like gaming based repetitive stress injuries. Right. Like, especially when it's like an an abnormal controller or an abnormal action. don't know Like. some Some action games ask you to claw.
01:10:48
Speaker
They don't ask you to, but I do claw when I'm playing some action games, like hold the controller like weird. so that anyway, I have a funny controller stance for fighting games, which is, I mean, fighting games, especially.
01:11:04
Speaker
It helped me so much to to move the jump button and snap to the to the Z button or the R1. Wait. wait Snap has... Are we adding jumps? I meant to say smash.
01:11:15
Speaker
I don't know if that's what I said. I was like, that's gameplay switch. I wanted to do a one-star review of snap. Can't jump in the game. Handpad Cosmo. Zero stars.
01:11:30
Speaker
for real okay I do hate games where I can't jump. It's so obnoxious. It's like, it's one of the ways in Final Fantasy how we know people came from WoW or not. Because people like me are just like, boing, boing, boing, horse.
01:11:48
Speaker
Jump, jump, jump. And other people are like, what are you doing? steel um but Why would you? when You can move, yeah. You can jump.
01:11:59
Speaker
No, I usually try to put on cute emotes. I'm just like eating pizza. I'm like sp sparkling. Okay. Anyway. I like to do the pizza one because it was hard to get emote for a while. So I just wanted to show off.
01:12:12
Speaker
Okay. Anyway. But you can jump in Final Fantasy X too. Ooh, they learned how. Because mostly they reuse all the same level asset things and stuff. Like like mostly you're running around in places from Final Fantasy X where you couldn't jump.
01:12:27
Speaker
and now you can't in Final Does the jumping do anything? ah Sometimes it helps you get somewhere you couldn't get to, or it helps you jump down to a place where you would have had to like walk back a longer way. it's so It's not the most structurally significant change that right right we made.
01:12:47
Speaker
It's a little bit like, well, isn't it cool? you can You hold down the circle button, and you'll jump off the little ledge down under the room below. I don't know I hate jumping puzzles, though.
01:12:59
Speaker
hate them so much. I'm so bad at them. Like, parkour? like like And games. Jumping puzzles and games? Yeah, I'm trying to think of what a jumping puzzle is. So, like, in they have these in different um games. I just ran this Expedition 33 where there's this, like, random level you could find where it's, like, hard. It's, like, difficult jumping to get to places. Like, in...
01:13:25
Speaker
and It exists across multiple games, but like in FF14, right, there's multiple and it's places where you can't fly. So it's usually in cities and it's just a very one of the notorious ones is across this big Kugani tower, this big um kind of eastern I guess if you're from the US, you would call it Eastern.
01:13:46
Speaker
I'm like, wait a minute. I'm just like centralizing. Okay. Anyway. There's an Eastern hemisphere that's called as such. It's fine. I have to question my language constantly as someone who was raised in the middle of nowhere. Okay, so, um, uh, but yeah, it's this giant tower and you have to like do this like really hard jumping. The really clever people do speed runs, but I hate it. It's like we're one and then you fall down and you have to jump all the way back. And if you get to the top of the tower, that's right there's a special little like vantage point you unlock, which you get enough that's achievement. So there's that, right? And then there's the even more difficult job. I mean,
01:14:28
Speaker
You just got up the tower, but then you get off the tower. There's another vantage point way down at the bottom that's on a lamppost that you can only get from jumping off the very top of the tower precisely. onto the And I have never gotten the top of the tower because I hate jump puzzles and bad at them.
01:14:48
Speaker
But I have gotten the lamppost because kind soul stood atop the lamppost and is like, have cleared the lamppost. Worship me. And I said, I worship you. That's amazing. I can never clear the lamppost. I'm like, all right. Now, if you're a blue mage, you can do something that is very you can't do otherwise. And any other class in any other way, which is murder yourself in a city. Hmm.
01:15:14
Speaker
Like through ah an obnoxious bee sting. Because here's the trick. If you can murder yourself next to the lamppost, someone who is more skilled and talented and far better than you can make themselves a ah white mage or some res in class and res you up onto the lamppost.
01:15:34
Speaker
You're by feeding your way to the special unlock vantage point. That's amazing. So I have the hardest vantage point to get in the game. Without the second hardest one.
01:15:46
Speaker
should have just said that and not told the story of how I got there. No, the story's great. I thought the blue mage skill was going to be like a swap teleport or something like that. But no, it's a final sting where you deal a whole bunch of damage and murder yourself. And the hope is that you can take out the enemy there for this, like, because it's a special circus class.
01:16:07
Speaker
Okay. So for clarity, the jumping thing is it's about execution, not about solving the puzzle, right? Like, you know what you're supposed to do. It's just hard to actually execute.
01:16:18
Speaker
You don't always know. Mostly, you know, but sometimes you're like, am I supposed to jump on this knob or this knob to get there? mostly about the difficulty i' executing. i love platformers. Jumping your way. Yeah.
01:16:30
Speaker
It's like one of the only genres I'm actually naturally good at. Maybe it's not natural. Maybe it's how many played. We should knell themselves together and form the Voltron Ultra Gamer. We all are good at different things and games. could combine them to it. Do any of us fuck with shooters?
01:16:47
Speaker
I mean, have some shooter experience. I've played Halo and Overwatch. You know, I'll use a gun in a Fallout or something, but I'm not like... like bats, to be honest.
01:17:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I'm not great at shooters, um which is partially because i'm always I've always been a controller early, and I feel like the best shooters are using mouse or even motion controls.
01:17:12
Speaker
Sometimes they're nice because they put auto-aim for the controller people where it'll just kind of, um and it's like, I like that. That's usually why they separate the cues from console and PC. Because PC is easier.
01:17:26
Speaker
Mouse is always easier. Still, you see some people are just incredible at how fast they can aim. That's just mind-blowing. Back when we played Overwatch, I liked to play support characters who were not super high-accuracy aiming. That's what's up.
01:17:45
Speaker
Although, sniping somebody with Mercy's pistol is a blast because that thing has no range limit.