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43: A Taco on the Shore
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🤭📺 Snap On This!! demands six seasons and movie 🏫✳️🫡
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Weddings & Werewolves & Weeks in Snap, oh my! 😱
- Lingering thoughts 🤔 on last week’s cards
- Help! The Ancient One has fallen and can’t get up! 🧓🛟
- 😙💨 Higher Voltage is coming (Rie forgot what it’s called tbh)
- Secret Homework: How did you get into the Snap Community? 🫶🫵
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
- The InfiNOT
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
- Rie - Lvl 2 Magic Missile
- Rie - Smol Hela Rising
- Rie - Camelhawt
- Ben - Golden Move
- Ben - Mor ganleFay, Mor Problems
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:25:14 Last Looks: Every Card, Everywhere, All Last Week
- 0:35:00 The Ancient One
- 0:42:43 Kid Omega / Cobra
- 0:45:23 Nightmare
- 0:48:20 Secret Homework: Origin Stories
- 1:26:57 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:28:59 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Snap on This' Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. I usually say episode 43, but I didn't this time. Anyway, on here I'm Lauren Whatevs, here with my usual co-hosts.
00:00:13
Speaker
ah First up, Rhi, how was your week in Snap? And keep it snappy.
Rhi's Snap Journey and Deck Strategies
00:00:19
Speaker
Yeah, this week was such a roller coaster for me and Snap. I did play a lot of ah Snap. First, the goal was to get to Infinite because we've got all the like modes coming up, and I didn't want to repeat of last week. And it's just not fun anymore because I can't fun until I do all the things. So...
00:00:40
Speaker
So that was the goal. But first, I leveled up my Magic Missile deck from last week, which was my um my Merlin Agamotto Werewolf deck um to level two. Mm-hmm.
00:00:56
Speaker
In which I knew it was like, I knew there was a couple swaps out before, but now um we I e took out Rogue for Bishop because like, honestly, you're playing so many little cards. It's like, yeah, it's kind of dumb to not play.
00:01:10
Speaker
Bishop is a good backup for Werewolf, you know? It's a very Werewolf-like vibe in this little three-cost power builder. And then, of course, Elias ah came out for Infinity Ultron.
00:01:23
Speaker
And that was a lot of fun. 100% do not regret spending 700 gold disco shang.
00:01:36
Speaker
ah Getting so much more satisfaction out of disco shanging people than regular shanging people. It's sparklier. Wow. I know. I even spent, I already had like gold crackle for Shang and I like dipped into my like fucking video game or horde reserve of borders that I like refused to spend because I'm just like, I'm not sure.
00:01:59
Speaker
I have so many. and I gave him a red, ah red cosmic. Wow. Anyway. Yes, so that was fun, and it was working, but to be honest, in my heart, I couldn't get Hela out of my thoughts.
00:02:15
Speaker
And I put together, because Morgan Le Fay came out, I put together a small Hela deck, and it was so fun. It was so fun.
00:02:25
Speaker
like, zooped up 10 levels, like, ah to the 80s with this so fast. Yeah. Because it's just like it just works and it's not all in Angela.
00:02:40
Speaker
And Morgan lets you do things with Black Cat where it's like, OK, Black Cat is a scarred. discards and you bring her back with Morgan and now she's a 2-9 then you bring her back with Hela later and it's just like it's pretty glorious right like you're discarding gore who usually gets big on his own like a sage like I have staggered discards for each thing that you want Hela to bring back because that's her role and they're also low power so like they work well with first Ghost Rider right um you know and then there's little Fenris Wolfen for some fun and stuff like Iron Man Swordmaster is great because he doesn't get rid of your Morgan or Hela and he's big power and really and like know Moon Knight because if you discard a Morgan or a Hela you got the other one You know, the backups, you know, sisters got each other's back.
00:03:38
Speaker
So like, um, and I was just like, I was like, like so fun, so fun. And then, and then out of nowhere, I started just running into nonstop Fenris Wolfe.
00:03:52
Speaker
Which it's like, okay, I can, I did win some games, you know, against a Fenris wolf, you know, through some Hobbit trickery. But like, um you know, it gets tough and it gets really sad when you put a lot of work into a 2-9 black cat and then, you know, they get it for free.
00:04:13
Speaker
And I was just like, what, did everyone else discover Small Hela? You know what mean? Like, what happened? Why is everyone playing Fenris Wolf? Because you didn't see that as a counter to, like, Bullseye, because it's not really, doesn't really counter the Bullseye stuff well.
00:04:25
Speaker
And it's like, no, what realized, what I realized eventually is everyone's putting Fenris Wolf in their fucking Mercury Cannonball bullshit that everyone's doing. Yeah, attack two lanes.
00:04:36
Speaker
Oh, it's not even against my deck. It's not even against it. And it's just like my deck is just a casualty of random circumstance. It was so good. and It was so good until Fenris Wolf started being everywhere.
00:04:50
Speaker
And I was so devastated. I'm like, this is so not fair. it's like not even It's not even for me. You know what i mean? Mercury was released by accident. Right.
00:05:01
Speaker
am I getting kicked out of the bar? Anyway, it was just like so. um So that was devastating. And I was all like, hmm, you know, boo. Hey, snap. I was so tilted.
00:05:16
Speaker
But eventually, um eventually we rallied and honestly didn't feel good when I got Infinite because it was kind of like last week where it was like it was not like I was neglecting people, but there were things I should have been doing. so I'm like, it sure would be good if I got Infinite before the podcast and before i like all the stuff we've got going up. And it was plenty of times I should have been ah doing other stuff. So what I did was like this last week. hot location that just ended was, I'm already forgetting the name, but the one that sets everything to five power. Camelot.
00:05:54
Speaker
Right. That's because Camelot promises equality, but like it doesn't actually exist. you know Kind of like capitalism, but like Anyway, so and the like the hot location and that is what I named my deck. But hot is H-A-W-T because like we got nasty with it.
00:06:13
Speaker
I put together a surfer deck just to counter everything everyone else was doing. location and it's surfer you know what i mean
Ben's Snap Adventures and Tournaments
00:06:21
Speaker
it's just uh we took out in mercury um and like five hundred was it ben that said she was the new jeff well i heard that like jeff is like the card you need to like look at to like start evaluating mercury Although, like, that was completely ignoring this cannonball thing that, like, seems to have, like, sort of co-opted the card's whole existence.
00:06:45
Speaker
And, like, Mercury is about more than just Mercury Cannonball, but that is a lot of it, huh? I mean, right now... It's the villain, like, archetype where they're, like, they're, like, a lady who's, like, they're, they're like First Among Henches is just like way more cap like Dr. Girlfriend style or whatever.
00:07:05
Speaker
you know what i mean? Yeah. It's just like step out of the shadow. Like you've got your own thing you can do anyway. So like. um So, yeah, you know, Mobius for the negatives. Rogue for all that, you know, bullshittery.
00:07:22
Speaker
You know. Surfer. And yeah, and that just, and then I just like had to like be patient and like retreat when I should, which is like so hard for me. I like to surrender. Okay.
00:07:34
Speaker
So, um, so yeah, so I got infinite like earlier earlier today, in fact, and, um, congrats. Yeah.
00:07:46
Speaker
So I'm just glad to have it done before all this stuff. You know, I can't believe it. It's like when we were first doing the podcast, I was like doing day one infinite all the time and stuff. And now it's like, I don't have the time.
00:07:58
Speaker
um Yeah. So that's that's what I've been up to. A couple of different decks this week. and well We can snap. All right, Ben, how was your weekend in snap?
00:08:10
Speaker
And keep it snappy. My weekend snap endeavoring to keep it snappy as I so often do. A lot of stuff happened this week, so I should try to keep it snappy. Let's see. I also purchased a variant. That's like the second one to like two weeks in a row. This is unprecedented. This never happens. I don't know. I just, I saw, i saw the disco forge.
00:08:33
Speaker
I liked the cut of his jib. um just if you if you haven't seen it's a great variant a lot of these disco variants are great um and uh i'd also i'd been you know i'd randomly acquired the werewolf by night disco variant which is also very cool and i was like I don't know.
00:08:54
Speaker
I don't know. Like, i I was just like, I liked that one so much. Maybe maybe it just sort of loosened my mind. My thumbs basically did it by themselves. these yeah Man, is it is so easy to to get a thing. I mean, I was holding to confirm, and I was like, what what am I doing? Oh, okay. I mean, it happened. I don't, like, regret it. I was just like, I i didn't.
00:09:20
Speaker
deliberate over it in the way that I usually do when I make decisions about things. It's funny hearing you describe my everyday life like it it's a rarity for you.
00:09:31
Speaker
Well...
00:09:36
Speaker
It was like that's that's how it went. But any who, I don't I don't regret it. It's a very cool variant. Both of them are. um I don't know. I was I was just looking at the the disco album and like, I don't think I'm ever going to get that Spider-Man at the end, but I might get the Dazzler part way through. Who who knows what will happen? i I think I got to stop dropping 700 gold on variants, though. That's that's not a sustainable habit for someone with my priorities.
00:10:00
Speaker
um But anywho, other than that, my weekend snap, I built two cool decks. One of them was for the Golden Gauntlet 2 tournament. I did pretty well.
00:10:13
Speaker
ah Made it to day two. ah There were a couple frustrating games. There was one frustrating game on day one that I was not able to apply my full attention to because I had to look for...
00:10:25
Speaker
documentation that my partner needed at the vet. And that was, I mean, like, I don't know, i might've lost that game anyway, but that that was frustrating to me. And, uh, then on, on day two, I had a really frustrating one where I, i there was an ally of 50, 50, and I just took too long picking. I was going to pick the correct lane, but I didn't let go of the card in time.
00:10:49
Speaker
And, uh, the timer ran out and, uh, I lost the last three cubes. We were both the three cubes. If i just cannonball down on the Baxter building, it all would have been fine, but I didn't. ah And, uh, you know, if you, if you do the thing in time, then you've done the thing in time, but I didn't do the thing in time. So I lost that game of Marvel snap and that's, uh, that's how it goes. I,
00:11:15
Speaker
I would have had an eight two record and might have gotten into the top 16 if I had just ah done the most basic part of playing the game, which is dragging the card from your hand to the thing before the ah timer runs out.
00:11:28
Speaker
But I'm still pretty proud of how I did. 72 out of 870 something. don't know. There are a lot of Marvel Snap players I'm better than.
00:11:38
Speaker
um That's great. That I did better than, I should say. I was better than on the day. I performed better than under under those circumstances.
00:11:50
Speaker
For that weekend, i was I was doing pretty well compared to some other Marvel Snap players. And what was I playing that that served me so well? Oh, I'll tell you.
00:12:01
Speaker
a Very cool deck. um Batrock, Scream, Mercury, Kraven, Merlin, Spider-Man, Silk, Hydro Stomper, Polaris, Miles Morales, Spider-Man, Cannonball, and Heimdall.
00:12:13
Speaker
ah Yep. So I was an early adopter of the Mercury Cannonball thing. I heard Lauren say it on the podcast. i was like, oh that's gold. So, yeah, I um cannonball was already like a star in my career.
00:12:28
Speaker
My Zorn deck and stuff. So i just changed four cards from the Zorn deck. I cut the Zorn and the birds and Magneto. So both Magnetos, both birds, Vulture, Redwing, Zorn, Magneto, all gone.
00:12:40
Speaker
ah They were replaced with, in no particular order, Mercury, Merlin, ah Polaris, and Miles Morales. ah Merlin's pretty cool. like that card a lot. Doesn't really have much to do with the rest of the deck. um Just a very strong card, replacing locations, pretty cool.
00:13:01
Speaker
um That's all good. Yeah, i had I had a great time with the tournament and with that deck, I highly recommend it. ah It feels pretty strong. I don't want to dwell on it too long because I've got another deck to tell you all about.
00:13:12
Speaker
I did finally put my money where my mouth was and ah see what Morgan Le Fay is all about. So here's a deck. It's called Morg and Lefay More Problems.
00:13:24
Speaker
And ah it's got Meek, Scorn, Blade, Morbius, Colleen Wing, The First Ghost Rider, Corvus Glaive, Lady Sif, Dracula, Morgan Lefay, Modok, and Apocalypse. Initially, I had Swarm in.
00:13:37
Speaker
instead of Scorn. Because I was like, Scorn, that doesn't really go with Morgan Le Fay. You can't get Scorn back. But Scorn's so good. you You can't not play Scorn. Scorn's just too good. It's too good. And like there's too much more there' is too much Mobius around for like Swarm to be doing its own um or like reliably, which is pretty sad.
00:13:59
Speaker
And like when it worked, it was cute with Morgan you know getting like the the zero sex is and the... you know the is it's cool It's cool, it's cool, it's cute. But like, yo, that deck, pretty good.
00:14:12
Speaker
um Like Dracula, Apocalypse, discard, ah still very strong in all the ways it always has been. And and yeah, it's been working pretty well for me. I climbed up through the 80s with the deck I used for the tournament.
00:14:30
Speaker
Well, not all the way through the 80s. I went from, like, 85 to, like, 97, 98 with the Swarm version of this discard deck. And then I fell down to 95 because, like, things were going badly. The hot location had been propping me up, I think, because there were a lot of things that were good to play on Camelot, like Morbius, because, you know, Morbius likes getting an extra five.
00:14:54
Speaker
But, yeah, I'm really loving Morgan in this deck. She is great. You don't need to discard a bajillion things to like get a lot of value. it's It's just like cool to be able to be like, oh, well, I can discard that Morbius with the first Ghost Rider. like that That is such a fun... like That feels so good, discarding Morbius with the first Ghost Rider, just getting in it back later. And, like, you've discarded one more card.
00:15:19
Speaker
You've discarded a card that you wouldn't have felt comfortable discarding if you didn't have Morgan there. And that, like, lets your total, like, discard ceiling get higher because you're, like, you're pitching stuff that you wouldn't be pitching under any other circumstances.
00:15:33
Speaker
And it's, like, yeah, the the numbers get big. It's... She's... Like... like She gives you, like, one or more cards and is a four seven and, like, it's a card you wanted and planned on, and it's extra big.
00:15:49
Speaker
I would have loved, like, a cute, like, Dokken sub-theme in this deck, but, like, I could just tell it was... that that was too... too baggy or something. i like...
00:16:02
Speaker
I like this deck a lot and I highly recommend it.
Lauren's Snap Success and Personal Highlights
00:16:06
Speaker
I'm sure I'm going to get infinite later today because like as soon as I swapped out Swarm for Scorn, like things started picking up again and like the cubes started...
00:16:15
Speaker
trickling my, not trickling, ah tilting. Yeah. Like I don't know, whatever point is cubes were happening to me and I was loving it and I can't wait to finish the podcast and finish the climb to infinite there with that. What else happened in my week in snap? I built two decks played in the tournament.
00:16:34
Speaker
Cards came out. I haven't been able to play all of them yet. I haven't even... i i Before the tournament, I was like testing a million things. Oh, when I submitted my tournament deck, I had not tested it at all. I was just like... I tested around it. I tested similar things.
00:16:49
Speaker
I was like, nope, but these 12, I'm sure these these have got to be it because like the deadline is fast approaching. And I think I was right. I think those are the 12 cards in that that tournament deck that I described to you. So those two decks are pretty strong.
00:17:02
Speaker
Got some more 32 surface clears in Hades 2. um You know, <unk> I'm sure there will be a new update for that any second. i Also, I've now gotten an underworld clear on 32 fear with every single aspect currently available. All 18 them. Dang.
00:17:19
Speaker
But it's way easier. The underworld route is so much easier than the surface route. Now I'm doing 40s in the underworld. I can't... i like I did 32 on the surface with the Mel Staff, and I talked about it last week. And then the next thing I did, I tried 40 Underworld with the Mel Staff and got it first try. It was it was nothing.
00:17:38
Speaker
um So if you're if you're struggling with the surface, don't beat yourself up. It's like real hard. The Underworld is much easier. That's my experience, but I play with zero difficulty.
00:17:50
Speaker
Well, maybe someday. And also maybe never. What's it called? It's called fear in Hades 2, but sometimes I call it heat by accident. And like sometimes it's hard for me to remember the names of the different vows.
00:18:02
Speaker
like There's there's like vow of menace, vow of poverty. like I guess vow of poverty is easy to remember because it's convenience fee from Hades 1. But like sometimes I still call it convenience fee.
00:18:14
Speaker
And, ah you know, and things... it's It's hard to change. And once you learn words, they yeah they stick with me. Anyway, I don't know how your brain works, but like once once I have names for things, it's a you know it's done. Show's over, folks.
00:18:29
Speaker
Anywho, I believe that's been about my week in Snap.
00:18:34
Speaker
Okay, my week. I got married on Friday. It what it went really well. It was awesome. um Yeah. i Had really good rehearsal dinner and then pretty good dinner for the wedding. You know, we're serving like 100 people. Like it was and as good as could be asked for.
00:18:52
Speaker
then... and then We stayed a night in a bed and breakfast in Salt Lake. And the morning was like French chef breakfast. And that was phenomenal.
00:19:04
Speaker
And then the next night we stayed at this like really nice ski resort in Park City. And they have just absolutely legendary brunch on Sunday morning. And it's the second time I've had it. And it was phenomenal.
00:19:17
Speaker
Left in minor pain from eating so much. But that's okay. Like... don't regret it the food was so good um probably didn't need like six desserts on my final plate but they just you know they all look so good and like half of them had raspberry which is literally my favorite food anyway that went great i hit infinite on the night of my wedding i after my wife fell asleep i played just a little bit of snap i was already at 97 crossed the line using an auto merlin deck i'm not even gonna read it off but
00:19:51
Speaker
It's rocking ah Nicholas Scratch, Merlin and Agamotto. And it's a Wiccan thing. Like, it's really fun. It surprised me how fun it was. Like, I built this just to try to get some like Merlin reps in to talk about on the podcast in time.
00:20:04
Speaker
i I think last week. And I liked it so much, I took it all the way to infinite. um The rest of the week, I have felt very inspired by the game.
00:20:14
Speaker
And I've done like three or four cool clips this week. One of them, I've got a Human Torch that moves literally five times in a single turn. Like last turn of the game, Human Torch moves five times. And I play Taskmaster and it's beautiful.
00:20:29
Speaker
Gross. I hate that. I had to land the Hercules 50-50 to make that work, and I did. um had another one where I used um Ancient One to make three Mercuries, and then at the end of the game, I had split them all up into three different lanes, and then I have Cannonball on one lane. On the ah opposite side, I have Absorbing Man Grandmaster, so I Cannonball Mercury all three lanes.
00:20:55
Speaker
Beautiful. The final kill was like ah was like a 100-something power null on Onslaught Sigil. I already was winning the other two lanes. It's fine. um And then, what was the last one?
00:21:08
Speaker
Maybe I did two more. I had one where I did a Makari thing. um I think I talked about on the pod earlier. cause there's this There's this Redditor, I think XcomboX, who does these ridiculous Makari cooks. And I was very inspired and wanted to do one of my own.
00:21:21
Speaker
So I did a... I did an ancient one to make three Wongs. And then on the last turn, i did a symbiote Spider-Man on Makari and Frigga. And so I make six, six, 10 power symbiote Spider-Mans with Makari's ability. And then they all come down for free.
00:21:40
Speaker
Just, just beautiful stuff. I'm really having a lot of fun with the ancient one. Yeah. The very last one was a Nomura one, which was also an ancient one. um And I noticed like, oh, skills clear themselves. What if in a single turn i use Dao Mandala and Grandmaster? So I use Dao Mandala in the middle to make three Wongs.
00:22:07
Speaker
And then I Grandmastered Nomura into the middle. beautiful anyway uh so that's me describing my clips if you want to see them on twitter or blue sky i post them all there um i don't know maybe maybe they should go on the on the snap on this youtube shorts or something but for now that's where they live short form social media and um yeah anyway it was a great week uh that's awesome
00:22:39
Speaker
yeah I had a like a I already talked about my the bachelorette thing I did with my kid at the arcade. But then also after the wedding, it's just because of the way that timing worked with when my sibling, ah my sister came into town.
00:22:54
Speaker
um We did bachelorette night afterwards um and we did an escape room that was really fun. It was one of the best ones I've ever done. It was magic themed. We had to collect a poison apple, a glass slipper, and a magic lamp. And we found all three of them with time to spare.
00:23:13
Speaker
That's more like Disney themed than magic themed. like there there was know. It was a fairy tale themed then. Okay, but like there's not a dragon. There's a glass slipper. There was a dragon egg.
00:23:27
Speaker
um We had a blindfold Rumpelstiltskin. We had to... i oh There was a magic staff and i think two magic wands that all did different things. and We had to you know light up the fairy lanterns in different orders. and Yeah.
00:23:41
Speaker
Yeah. It's not like video game portions I hate where it's like, figure out the weird temple puzzles. It's just fight things. It is lot of just like temple puzzles.
00:23:53
Speaker
mean, that's escape rooms, right? Yeah, they don't do the combat portion, so it's all like temple puzzles. hu um There was a slide. It's the first escape room I've ever been in where there where there was a slide.
00:24:07
Speaker
So that was, you know, something. Oh, there's slide. okay there were at least three distinct rooms, maybe four. Like, it was a pretty big one. They should do it within me. In the single room, there were, you know, but there were like clear segments.
00:24:19
Speaker
What were you saying? Okay. Oh, no, it was, like, no. I was just, like, me and like it would be hilarious if they, like, made you slide, like, take a leap of faith and you had to slide into, like, the unknown to land into something. That be great.
00:24:34
Speaker
I wouldn't do it. I don't trust humanity enough. but Way to enter the final room was a slide. So that was, it was, it was fun. ah And then we played board games. We did just two. We did ah Quacks of Quedlinburg, my choice, and and Mysterium.
00:24:49
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Co-op, kind of the storytelling-ish, kind of Dixit-ish. Yeah. I only like playing it if I get to be the one that makes the clues.
00:24:59
Speaker
The ghost? Yeah. My brother got to be the ghost. i Because he said he's only done it like once before. i'm like, how? I've had this game for years. How have you only been the ghost once? um But anyway, it was very fun. It was a great weekend.
00:25:14
Speaker
And now... Do any of us want to talk about any of the, what, six cars that came out last week? Any extra thoughts beyond what we've already shared? You know, we sure can.
Snap Meta Discussion and Card Evaluations
00:25:25
Speaker
Before we move forward, I forgot. I should have ah said that the Golden Gauntlet 2 went like...
00:25:34
Speaker
very smoothly ah it seemed to me like given the the difficulty level of like wrangling 900 cats um like that's that's a lot of cats to herd y'all um or like 876 or whatever it was like that that was a huge thing and they did a great job and uh shout out to everyone who ran the thing and organized it and i was I was very impressed.
00:26:01
Speaker
And they was it was good last time. And I was like, I'm sure it'll be good this time. But they exceeded even the expectations that they did caused me to have for them with their good performance in the first one. Yeah.
00:26:14
Speaker
I mean, it's it's a good team with lots of experience. But it's nice to see like Second Dinner collaborating with them. And i've already seen like so much good out of it. like How it affects the meta and how we talk about the cards. like The one that that ended up winning was running you know Thanos, Agamotto, and Arashem.
00:26:29
Speaker
And he's like, I hate this deck. I want to get it nerfed. That's why he's playing it and trying to win with it. is He's like, this deck is too good. um Too much hate playing in Marvel's Snap.
00:26:43
Speaker
It's funny, isn't it? to me Apparently the problem is that Thanos starts in your hand, and that's just that's too good to have a Thanos in your hand when you have Arashem levels of energy.
00:26:54
Speaker
Yeah. It is. I saw one suggestion to make Time Stone draw Thanos, kind of like Agamotto's one spell draws Agamotto. Yeah. don't I don't hate that. I think that that's that sounds elegant and in its way.
00:27:09
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. Do it. I think it's at least at least one one way to address that ah that combo, specifically the Thanos and Arashem. It is also cool that in a 12-card game, you could run a 34-card deck. Is that cool, or is that like sort of a betrayal of the premise?
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's both.
00:27:33
Speaker
it's Are you deck building anymore when over half of the cards you didn't put there on purpose? um Yeah, I might argue a little.
00:27:43
Speaker
yeah i think that's the answer.
00:27:48
Speaker
All right. Yeah. Any other thoughts on the other cards? I've played a little bit of Hellion. I think he's really fun. i want to play a lot more. Yeah, I would like to play a lot more Hellion.
00:27:59
Speaker
I only played a couple games testing for the tournament, and I just didn't end up going that way. But I operate, you know, at least a week behind. I finally got to Morgan, and...
00:28:14
Speaker
I don't know. I've had plenty of experience with Mercury, though. I've been playing that deck a lot. my My move deck that I played in the tournament. and what what were What were the other new cards?
00:28:27
Speaker
Mostly I remember Mercury. Morgan Le Fay. Jennifer Kale. You have lots of Jennifer Kale thoughts? Nicholas Scratch, Alien, and Mercury. Oh, I played against a Nicholas Scratch today right before we started recording. he got up to six.
00:28:42
Speaker
Didn't win, but he got up to six. I've had quite a few sixes. um There was this one lane that they really won with with the three Agamotos. you know You know how that goes. The other two, not so much.
00:28:54
Speaker
Yeah. They picked... that I mean, I didn't put anything in that lane because I knew they wanted to make three Agamotos. They didn't put anything? They were putting a lot of faith in Nicholas Scratch to hold down the middle. And it did not go to pass.
00:29:10
Speaker
Oh, well. But no, I'm i'm sure there great Nicholas Scratch decks and people who love Nicholas Scratch for good reasons. And I, i you know, if if Nicholas Scratch is your favorite card, I'm not going to argue with you. You know, I'm sure he's fine.
00:29:27
Speaker
I will argue with you if he's your favorite card. There's something wrong with you. There are more fun cards out there. um Kate, Ancient One. Can I have a turn? Yes. I didn't know you wanted to talk about any of them. Please.
00:29:39
Speaker
Every time I started, I keep like, I can't get in. So like, I wait, try and wait for my turn and then we move on Okay. Um, I just want to say, only had one thought to share that I thought was worth sharing anyway about Mercury. And was the funnest thing I've done with Mercury because I'm not doing Mercury cannonball stuff. It's not fun for me while everyone else is doing it.
00:30:01
Speaker
But I did. was playing my Surfer deck, which I had, like, two cost cards, Mercury and Surge, and a bunch of threes. So didn't have a lot of early plays. And I was playing this other player. And they did a play, like, I've seen a lot, okay, where they started out with um
00:30:23
Speaker
Sam's Shield on the board. And then they played Batrock. On turn, you know, and then turn two, they played Silk and I could almost see them looking over at me because they saw me play a card in the same. theyre Like, OK, set it off, set it off.
00:30:40
Speaker
To reveal my Mercury.
00:30:44
Speaker
With a card full of those with Batroc, Silk, and Sam's shield. And they just retreated. And it was just like, and I was like, yeah, this what I wanted to do with Mercury. And then it felt very satisfied. and And I've been playing it the whole time.
00:30:58
Speaker
And it's usually more of a Jeff thing of but like, hey, I get a mover once. And then Camelot, you know, buffing her to Feb is pretty awesome. and then moving her out of the way. um So, ah you know, ah so just, yeah, getting to to ruin someone's beautiful silk setup, which I have to do myself and enjoy. So I don't know why I have to be so mean about it. But it was ah it was great fun and very satisfying.
00:31:22
Speaker
okay Glad to hear it. Reminded me of a couple of things ah that I should say real quick. um I'm so sorry. um Yo, Mercury. i was thinking about Mercury and what Mercury could be outside of Cannonball. One thing that Mercury could do that Mercury doesn't do is ah prevent... like You know how like Gambit can target things that are like behind armor or whatever, and they won't die?
00:31:47
Speaker
And that's like sort of a bummer and a waste of ah a Gambit. But like it is like cool for armor and stuff, and that's that's all good. One thing that I think would be pretty neato is if like Mercury removed the the movement possibility for the things in that lane. So like you could narrow down your potential Polaris targets or something. could...
00:32:09
Speaker
you could you could like Yeah, I think I expressed the like that those those words made sense. Like you could if they had like two two costs in different locations, you would play Mercury on the two costs that you were not interested in moving for them or something. i'm I'm just like trying to like find ways they could improve Mercury's utility if they want to take away the cannonball interaction.
00:32:32
Speaker
I don't think they're going to take it away. You don't think so? They might nerf it, but like they had to have seen it coming, right? Like Professor Cannibal wasn't seeing. not so sure they can be shockingly, shockingly,
00:32:47
Speaker
to i you know, there are a lot of adjectives I could pick. Um, so I just won't. Maybe they didn't foresee the combo with Fenris also. Maybe that's something that was, but i don't know. I kind of think they maybe, like, they decided that the Profex cannonball combo wasn't okay, and this is, like, an order of magnitude less okay than... This only attacks one lane, though.
00:33:14
Speaker
they move! Professor Cannonball attacks two lanes. They can move her wherever, though. Wherever. She's very good.
00:33:23
Speaker
yeah like yeah it's It's, yeah, it I don't know. It's it's not alright. I don't think it's going to stay. So as is, if you play Polaris, she can target something in the Mercury lane and it just doesn't move? And it won't move. And it's very frustrating because you're like, that's my toy.
00:33:40
Speaker
Why is my toy hurting me? My toy should be helping me. And like, the first time I did it, like I thought like, I knew there was a chance it might not work. I was like, maybe this will work. And it didn't.
00:33:52
Speaker
i mean Maybe Mercury and Scream just aren't friends and that's okay. Well, I mean, even outside of Scream, i like for Kraven stuff, like what if Scream wasn't even in the deck? Scream is not the highest performing card in that deck. But why are you putting Mercury in a Kraven deck?
00:34:09
Speaker
Anyway, she moves and cannonball and like sometimes cannonball shows up and she doesn't. or sometimes she shows up and cannonball. Like there are a million reasons to be playing. Mercury was doing some work. I don't know.
00:34:22
Speaker
I promise. It's crucial for the results. And the other thing that I wanted to mention, i mentioned this off the off the air, but like. I retract all my requests for 2-6 Silk. It would be too good right now in a Hydrastomper world. Even if Batroc went down to plus one on the the triggers, 2-6 Silk would be too good. She's got to be two five for now that like in ah in a post-Hydrastomper world.
00:34:47
Speaker
ah we were We were right when we were agitating for a 2-6 Silk all those times in the past, but it it would no longer be correct. That's what I said. um Glenn knew something we didn't know.
00:34:58
Speaker
I guess so. and Are we ready for Ancient One? Hell yeah.
Community Speculations and Card Updates
00:35:04
Speaker
three five the Ancient One. On reveal, add Daomondala to your hand. Daomondala is a three-cost skill with, on reveal, copy the text of one of your ongoing cards here onto your other characters here.
00:35:18
Speaker
Did you get her? You were kind of on the fence, Ben. did not. Gotta start saving the resources. I don't know. I guess Disco Forge was a more important priority this week.
00:35:30
Speaker
Then acquiring cards, what is the world coming to? Yeah. I did get her because I'm trying to... I'm just in collection plate, and it's like, well, if I don't, when next week when I roll, then maybe I'll get her. So, like, whatever. Just get her now.
00:35:45
Speaker
I haven't... Like I said, I wanted to... I was focused on getting to infinite first, so it was going to be a secondary goal to mess around with her, so I didn't get to do that. I will say, did play one auto deck with...
00:35:58
Speaker
the auto-deck with her, which is like, does not, it almost feels like she's better card than her for it already. And um I didn't even like ah get to do, nearly do anything with her. And then I have seen her, I've come up across her several times. I once even stayed in a game.
00:36:17
Speaker
i was like, I'm probably gonna lose cause they're gonna pop off in their ancient one, but I wanna see it. I figured they were gonna like Wong stuff or whatever. So I stayed in the game because they hadn't snapped to like be like, right, we'll see.
00:36:32
Speaker
ahead, pop off.
00:36:35
Speaker
No, I won. So I have not seen anything cool with the Ancient One yet. She seems really difficult. yeah You have to build around her. I tackle it. want to try, but like I just haven't time had time, like you said, pushing 10 minutes. Okay.
00:36:53
Speaker
I've played a lot of her. Admittedly, not in anything serious. Like, everything was to make a cool clip. She is extremely awkward, though. ah I just think she's way too expensive. at Her or the Mandala or both need to be two cost, I think.
00:37:10
Speaker
Because it's not just that you're playing a three and a three. It's also you need to play the ongoing card that you're spreading. And also you need to play the other bodies that you're spreading the ongoing power to. Like it's just, it's such a demanding combo.
00:37:23
Speaker
Right. even in turns or Even in games where I was getting Limbo out, like she's just she's very awkward. um Right, and you don't want copy a Pim's area. You know what I mean? The little ongoings aren't worth it. They're not worth it. You need to copy something big and impressive, and it's so hard to set that up.
00:37:42
Speaker
and Yeah, i think and I think there are good ones. like i i I did play against a couple Cerebro 5s using her, and that's like, when it pops off, it explodes. I've faced that also.
00:37:54
Speaker
That's very, very big when they do it. But again, clunky. Supergirl. um And I've seen like people trying to do like Patriot stuff, and I think that's good.
00:38:04
Speaker
um I was using Mercury in a silly way because I was trying to triple Cannonball, but I think if you were just using Mercury to give all of your cards, they can move once. I think that's kind of cool. like Because she's an ongoing that can move. Yeah, it's not it's not part of the ongoing, but it is part of her text, right?
00:38:20
Speaker
Yeah, and so Dalmondele does give a free move to all your cards. um Another thing I've really liked doing with her is using her with Martyr. um I think you could use her with others, you know, like a Titanium or a Hydro Bob or whatever, but Martyr is the best one where it's just like, she can be played out early, she's totally safe, and then later she's a 1-5 who doesn't have her terrible text.
00:38:40
Speaker
I love that. Yeah, but but you don't draw her. Like, are you all in on on the Ancient one? I don't... She's like a card that demands building around her, but she's not good enough to be built around.
00:38:52
Speaker
agree. Yeah, I think that's a very... ah That's a very accurate, like, that's that's a fair, that's that that that gets to the truth of it while not being unkind. I i like how, i yeah.
00:39:08
Speaker
She's super fun. She's fun. She can't be consistent. she's And so she's not good. I was trying to think earlier in my head while I was like doing some chores or whatever, like, all right, how put her together with Ms. Marvel for funsies? And the more I thought about it, I like, oh, no.
00:39:28
Speaker
Oh, no. Oh, dear. Yeah. It seems so promising, right? like That was the first place my brain went. But no, I don't see it.
00:39:39
Speaker
When they make her cheaper, we can try stuff, and then she'll be busted or something. I think. It being a skill is like a pro and a con too. Cause you know, like in my case, I had her being the skill. And so I could make three Wongs and still have space to put something there afterwards. But I also beat somebody who tried using her on the last turn to make three Ant-Mans.
00:40:02
Speaker
And it looked really, really good until the Dalmandala banished itself. Like, I mean, that's why you got to follow it up with squirrel girl on another lane.
00:40:14
Speaker
There you go. It is a three. Like, there's clearly things you can do with this. It's just, I don't know. Like, are you putting that much work into getting three Ant-Man? Like, ah you shouldn't be.
00:40:24
Speaker
That's, I mean, you can if you want. i I'm not living your life, but it will not make you win games of Marvel Snap. Yeah. I mean, it's not the worst. Like, that's, you know, three Ant-Man powers is worth 12 power, but it's just such a clunky way to do it. I don't know.
00:40:43
Speaker
It's very satisfying when people put a lot of work into their... egg Like I said, because of Camelot being the the hot location, watching people fill up their lanes so they can't play other cards there with like their Ant-Man and their Stone and then buffing them up to five and just saving my Killmonger right for the end, right when it'll hurt them the most.
00:41:03
Speaker
Oh, I've had my heart broken that way. Sometimes make evil when I'm playing. don't know. Sometimes we have fun and sometimes we just...
00:41:12
Speaker
I have the theory that we all have ah certain types of sandcastle kicking we enjoy doing. like lockdown. We all sort of enjoy it. Is there a kind that you don't enjoy? I i enjoy all of it a little bit.
00:41:26
Speaker
Yeah. um Someone tried to pop off with their ancient one earlier, so, you know, sometimes I'm giving... I mean, it's why it exists, right? If it wasn't fun for anybody, it wouldn't be in the game.
00:41:38
Speaker
But yeah, like successfully milling somebody does feel kind of like, ooh, cool. it's Is it good? don't know. Anyway. um I think that's got to be the balance, right? It's got to be fun, but not especially strong. If it's strong, no then then a strategy that's a nightmare to play against spreads everywhere.
00:41:57
Speaker
I play so much card gen and I've been playing so much Merlin and like Kate Bishop and stuff. Like when they try to know me, I just laugh. I'm like, I don't need those cards. Let me choose the ones I've got. Right.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, I totally, I beat somebody whos mill who milled me successfully the other day, and they killed like four of my cards, and I still won. It's like, okay, good for you You took all the G-sards out of my deck.
00:42:25
Speaker
um You're Zemo and you're Yondu. You just made my draws stronger. i had a decent starting hand. Yeah, sorry you didn't get that Agamotto when you pulled my, like, temporal manipulation.
00:42:41
Speaker
ah Oh, that'd be so weird if I could take it. um Vibe check on next week's cards. We have Cobra and Kid Omega coming in high voltage overdrive or whatever. It's it's in the show notes as higher voltage and even higher voltage, yeah which I appreciate, Rhi.
00:42:58
Speaker
And then they're both available at the same time. What? My emojis. Both like boring traditional high voltage and new high voltage are both available at the same time. Is that correct? No, I think i think they're both in the in the same mode.
00:43:14
Speaker
It's high voltage overdrive. It's that one where there's like certain cards are charged and if both players play enough of the charge cards and some weird effect happens, the board gets flooded with chimichangas or can't remember everything that was shown in the season video. Chimichangas.
00:43:30
Speaker
But with the mode getting ramped up, I'm expecting like a shop like Sanctum Showdown, maybe like for there to be two cards in the same. The season blog made it sound like Cobra and Kitamaga were both coming in this mode. And then Sanctum Showdown has maybe that's where where Mercury and Hellion were going to come in.
00:43:49
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway. Kid Omega is a Series 5, right? Yeah. Kid Omega is also the first event card that's a Series 5. so like, I really can't skip this high voltage thing.
00:44:04
Speaker
Even if he was a series four, he's good. oh yeah well, no, that's the thing. Like, I mean, like, at least that way I could get him for like less because I do find the psychic damage of high voltage to be um so it's worth some number of tokens. I'm not sure it's worth 3000, but I'm not sure it's not worth 3000. I'd have to think about it.
00:44:26
Speaker
Is it worth 7000 for a series four and a series five? Well, Cobra can go kick rocks. If Cobra arrives in your collection and you never play it, did it make a sound?
00:44:43
Speaker
ah ah That's a very good point. Maybe I just will skip Cobra. Like, who cares? I've honestly, too, I've finally been reading him in the comics for the first time.
Exploring Snap's Cultural and Personal Impact
00:44:54
Speaker
Probably not the first time, just the first time I paid attention. Because normally it's like there's so many little back, you know, p side characters going around that don't make an impression. But now that I know them from Marvel Snap, I like pay more attention when they show up in the comics.
00:45:07
Speaker
And he's like, such a wuss, to be honest. He's like, are we sure we can take down these heroes? And it's like, no, of course you can't. You're like a C-tier villain. So At least he's got some self-awareness, but you know, anyway.
00:45:20
Speaker
That's good. Good for you, Cobra. and then And then Nightmare. My vibe check on Nightmare is I'm so excited. This looks like a really fun card. It does. Maybe not a fun card to play against, but a really fun card to play against. I know, it's going to suck. feel like I'm going to come in next week and be like, I'm so tired of playing against Nightmare. Like, part of me wonders if the 3-1 thing, like, is that, like, just...
00:45:47
Speaker
Sometimes it's hard for me when they change the stat line on a card. Like like when they when are like when they just change like change something about the card, but it's like still the same card. like My brain was unable to adapt to non-activate Elixir. And like i just I couldn't make the jump to like, oh it's bad this way.
00:46:06
Speaker
like you know like I just couldn't get there. I'm like worried, like is the same thing happening with Nightmare? like is a 2-2 Nightmare like so good that... like I'm um so like, there's like some vestigial glow on this three, one nightmare or this three negative one nightmare. of why yeah That's the thing. I can't even say it's such a wild stat line.
00:46:25
Speaker
ah Like I don't, I'm like, maybe, maybe I'll sound very silly for, for having any doubts at all that like, cause like, yo, your opponent cannot know what's going on in your hand. Like that is very valuable. Like that's,
00:46:41
Speaker
this is a card that does a very, very big, scary thing, but like three negative one. Yeah. I don't know. Scurcy for three costs that's in your hand. Like has really spicy.
00:46:57
Speaker
Anyway, it's, it's unquestionably spicy and like, Oh man, when it works, it's going to like, you're getting, you're not going to win those games a little bit. Uh, you're going to win them a lot, but I'll finally play star brand.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, I gave it four unspecified units in in the ratings. So, like, i I do believe, but, like, I am starting to have some doubts. I'm like, three negative one, that is, like, woof.
00:47:28
Speaker
I don't know. That's three, more so than the negative one. Like, I think if this were a two negative one, i who cares? But, like, that's three, i don't know. I don't know. I mean, I was just talking about that with Ancient One where it's like three and two is like two would make a really big difference for her.
00:47:49
Speaker
um We've seen that with other cards, right? Like didn't Hitmonkey and Werewolf both start at two? Like a book the extra turn is a big difference. um where well Did Werewolf start at 3? No.
00:48:03
Speaker
you were You were right. He launched at three three and it was nerfed to a 4 cost. Completely unplayable. Yeah. So similar vibe, but not what I said.
00:48:16
Speaker
You know how Rockslide's a 3 cost card.
00:48:21
Speaker
Time for our side quest. First up, and only... We need some more side quests. Secret homework. This week, it was assigned Rhi... Okay. um This week, the assignment was to tell the story of how you got into ah the Snap community.
00:48:42
Speaker
so i will start. Definitely. When I was a little girl. for real. I was like, you know, I was a weird kid.
00:48:52
Speaker
I was homeschooled for a long time. was in a weird religion. i grew up in a rural area. Like, Um, you know, when I went to to public school, like I was wearing a bunch of but like hand me down clothes and it was like, you know, it's like I was an awkward little outcast. You know, kids are really good at the game of picking out the thing that's different.
00:49:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And, yeah, when I first went to public school and I was I didn't like really know how to connect or relate to other kids. I just like hung out on at recess by myself, you know, in the gym. What age was that?
00:49:32
Speaker
Oh, fourth grade was the first year i went to public school, but like it was like a weird experimental class. And then we moved to a different state. And then fifth grade was like my more normal, normal rural America ah schooling experience.
00:49:51
Speaker
But, you know, I did, like, when I was kid, like, I was also in a big family, and I didn't have my own room. I didn't have a lot of privacy. Like, I had this, like, this big golden, like, chair. I kind of remember it's, like, a ah throne, even though it's just, like, an old, like, not even a recliner. But, like, I would just close my eyes. it was very, like, the office, like, my room is my hair.
00:50:11
Speaker
And I would just, like, imagine things in my head for, like, hours. And that was, like, my private space. So, like... When I so this this is the setup that like when I was, you know, finally when we got dial up.
00:50:27
Speaker
Right. You definitely if you grew up with dial up, the sound of the modem perpetually like stick with you forever. Right. Yeah.
00:50:38
Speaker
I thought about trying to approximate it with my mouth, but I'm like, can't. Yeah, you want to try, but you're worried you'll get it wrong because you haven't like done it out loud. No, remember. I just can't replicate it. Those are some non-human... ah yeah Oh, yeah. I'm not built to do that. I mean, I would try. But, like, okay.
00:50:59
Speaker
So, like, this is all to say that it was it was very much like like an Ariel, like a Little Mermaid when the internet rolled around, where it's like the outside world, you know?
00:51:10
Speaker
It looked so interesting. You wanted to be where the people Yes, I wanted to be where the people are. Yes, instead of collecting forks and stuff, it was like pictures from animes I'd never seen because that we didn't have streaming and stuff.
00:51:23
Speaker
Like, you know, just like a Lord of the Rings news and like random arguments about stuff. So, you know, but like, OK, so while this was like a wild, ah fun world, also, it was like back in time, which is just always a less good place for a lot of people.
00:51:43
Speaker
And also, you know, the Internet didn't have as much to balance the toxic side of it. Right. Just because of of the way the world was. And I'm not to say that I didn't find some kind people, but it was like in some senses, like right coming out and being on the Internet and like and being a bit like naive about stuff. It was like very unwelcoming. It's like instead of finding ah Prince Eric or whatever, it was like, I don't know, whale hunters. And they're like, quick.
00:52:13
Speaker
you know, like mount her for hunting trophy wall or something. Because it was like, you know, it's just like the internet was not kind. know And then nobody was like, remember that like 13 year old girls are like still children?
00:52:29
Speaker
Don't scream like boobs at them and stuff like that. So, I mean, it was harsh and it was it was kind of mean. And the internet community, too, for like nerds at the time, it was very much like no girls allowed boys club. And, know, I mean, so it was kind of miserable place. Oh, and I did get grounded.
00:52:53
Speaker
When my parents found out I had been in chat rooms and on forums, was not allowed. I was not allowed to visit the human world. was wondering if they just were like clueless or yeah, that was one. No, when when they found out, think because they were snooping on my email address and I had like a sign up email from a forums from like some like I don't know, some like stupid anime or fantasy role-playing forums I joined or something. Yeah, got grounded from the internet a whole year. was like It was like if you got to if you got like you're like i have you got into the Black Pearl and you're like, I have freedom!
00:53:33
Speaker
The world is mine! And then like your ship gets burned down while you're like having a taco on shore or something. Anyway, So, um, but like at the same time, okay, so as an adult, right, and you I had less, I fought so hard when I was young to be in the space. Like, this is what I love.
00:53:50
Speaker
This is what I want. Like, I want to be in the space, you know, will conform myself to fit within it. And when you're an adult, and you're working, and you're tired, and you're like, Oh, I want to be yelled at by like,
00:54:03
Speaker
people on the internet. I don't have energy for my fun time to try and, like, make a space that is not welcoming for me. and I have... guess if you, like, knew me from streaming before this or if you...
00:54:20
Speaker
I have listened to the podcast. I think we talked about earlier. It's like I've always had a lot of like social anxieties and like just trouble. And it's just easier for me when I hermit up to just further, further like go into that to where I'm afraid to go out and just like have an interaction with this stranger and everything. So like,
00:54:40
Speaker
When I found Snap is an adult, and this was me, I'd been off of all social media for years. for years Like, I didn't, like, do things. I didn't do things where I interacted with strangers online at all.
00:54:52
Speaker
um But I found Snap, and I loved it. And my my couple board game friends um that I see once in a while, like not interested and did not want to talk about it. And I was obsessed because I'm a card gamer, you know, and this is my new card game.
00:55:08
Speaker
And usually we were all in it together. Like, even if it was like, you know, Legend of the Five Rings or like whatever random card game we're into. And so just, I don't know. I think I'd gotten lonely and I like ventured out.
00:55:22
Speaker
It was like, looked for the community for the first time, and I was so hesitant. Honestly, even playing Snap was hard for me. I was so worried about playing, and it was all fucking bots. I didn't know at time.
00:55:35
Speaker
But when I started, was like, oh, and what if people are mean? Because my experience of the internet is just like people were super mean and super awful to noobs, and I knew that, and that's why when I was younger, I just knew everything more than everyone all the time.
00:55:48
Speaker
And I hear. and i i didn't hear I used to wear, when I started, my avatar of the default avatars was almost always the Ironheart mask because I felt Like safe like like a knight's helm. I'm like, I am protected.
00:56:04
Speaker
um And I kind of went into the community with the same way. I started actually it was like with Chibi Agent 13, but I quickly changed to Noodle Silk avatar. And the entire time, I was just like, hey, as soon as like things get too tough for me...
00:56:21
Speaker
Or, you know, someone's mean, I can just be out. Like, I can just be done. I can just delete leave the account and it' be over. and And, ah you know, and then it was just, it became so rewarding. Like, you know, like I said, my whole life had been awkward.
00:56:35
Speaker
Most of my humor is referential, right? Which if you're hanging around people that don't like what you like or watch what you like, they're not going to get your jokes either. Yeah.
00:56:48
Speaker
feel like fine And finding my tribe. Not that I'd never found a tribe, but it's like the me that had always been a hold up and never and always all the parts of me that had always made me feel bad. And like I didn't fit in with people.
00:57:03
Speaker
was like people liked People liked that about me and that never been that had never felt like the case. Usually i just learned to be very quiet and like not speak very much and like all of that stuff. And so by the time things did get too hard for me and and.
00:57:21
Speaker
Like, you know, it it was the time where I would have just left and deleted the account. I had too many ties to too many people, to Ben and Lauren, to like everyone where it was like, I can't like whatever bad that's that's happened, know, just, you know.
00:57:38
Speaker
Internet online shit that goes on. um it wasn't It wasn't worth leaving all the people I'd found. So, ah you know, so I do love this Napkin.
00:57:51
Speaker
Currently, it's like it's been the struggle where you find that and you want to put all of your time into it. um But I have big project I'm trying to get done this year. And it's been really hard for me to balance because for a while I was very in and very involved in knowing all of the things and...
00:58:07
Speaker
um I'm still kind of in that struggle of trying to figure out how how to do that and, you know, being all the rewarding parts without, like, where my brain, I'm very crow-like, you know, something shiny ah will get me.
00:58:22
Speaker
Like, oh, Spike Lee. You know, you know, that's that's kind of a way along. Lauren was worried about would be too short, but that was a long tale of my coming in and kind of where I'm at now, which is just, I think, a struggle we all kind of have with social media and with the Internet and with our hobbies and all the things.
00:58:44
Speaker
It's like, how do we how we fit it all in when you're used to kind of deep diving into the things you love, being all about them. Okay. Yeah, that was mine. love that. You started further back in time than I expected.
00:58:59
Speaker
You know, I made a lot of edits along the way. I mean, cut not edits, but like cuts. and Jump yeah. It could have been much longer. Yeah. No, I loved it. It was great.
00:59:13
Speaker
Oh, with the, like, blips? Okay, sorry. No, you're good. Ben's assigning next week's homework, so I'll tell you my story. um i Yeah, i can I can go back a little bit, too.
00:59:24
Speaker
I have many times been super into a game where I, like, learn all about it and kind of engage with the community. Like, I've engaged, you know, I've gotten really into, like, certain subreddits or, before that, GameFAQs forums. Yeah.
00:59:39
Speaker
But to the point where I'm like active in the conversation and maybe you know helping solve puzzles or sharing information to noobs or whatever, but never to the point where I felt like I knew everybody's name and they knew my name, like I was a wreck to my recognizable face and I had friends. It was never to that point. It was ah it always felt very like internet anonymous.
00:59:59
Speaker
um
01:00:02
Speaker
And I mean, I had noticed that like certain, you know, like a smaller subreddit is is better, you know, to a degree like the Pokemon subreddit is just, it's way too big. But if you go to like competitive Pokemon or, you know, so if you get a little more niche, then suddenly you get like this really high quality, you know, a dedicated group.
01:00:21
Speaker
um But still, like never had it small enough and and intimate enough to the point where I was like making friends. But... a My, it's been, so it's been almost six years and I still don't know how to tell the story, but basically my wife died.
01:00:36
Speaker
ah and I had been doing data analytics for about eight years and I stopped because, you know, I was dealing with mental health and, and raising my child and just ah a very jarring life change that unexpected,
01:00:51
Speaker
um And but I but I still loved analytics and I like, you know, and there are a few mobile games here and there where I would like, you know, try to optimize them and participate in the community that way. But they never stuck with me like Snap has.
01:01:06
Speaker
i found Snap because of I started in December with the December of 22 with the Silver Surfer season. because I heard... had seen it advertised several times and passed on it because it just, like, looked dinky and light and, like, two mobile game-y and exploitative and all that.
01:01:25
Speaker
um But I heard... the McElroy brothers talking talking about how their dad was playing it lately. So probably the adventure zone, possibly my brother, my brother and me, but one of those podcasts, they were like Clint McElroy, celebrity hero clicks player also.
01:01:40
Speaker
oh really? Remember JPEG? Were trying you there for that? Just play a game. The old days. Oh, sorry. Joystick. I'm thinking of something else I misspoke. I mean, two of them founded Polygon. i Yeah. Yeah. ah Influential in the game space. And they've written for Marvel.
01:01:59
Speaker
um But anyway, I tried the game. I don't know why that was the thing that like pushed me over the edge. Like, oh, if Clint McElroy likes the game, like that sounds like so ah at least some degree of like, ah maybe there's something here, something quality, um not just.
01:02:15
Speaker
Lauren, keep your ears open. I swear to God, they'll they'll mention how many hero clicks their dad has. ah you if you they It comes up a lot if if you're listening for it. All right. Well, now I. Yeah, now it will definitely ah make my ears ring.
01:02:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:32
Speaker
Anyway, got into Snap, was playing it, and I, you know, the first few months I was playing just for fun. Then I started getting more and more into it. I wanted to learn how to climb to infinite. i you know...
01:02:48
Speaker
We started following sites like Marvel Snap Zone and Snap Fan and saw this, like, just plethora of data they had, but it felt like so little. Like, win rate, cube rate at the deck level and at the card level. I'm like, there's so much more that you guys could do with this data. Like, and I was just, like, hungry for it.
01:03:06
Speaker
And... It's a time where I don't know, I was about halfway through my disability, like my maximum disability leave. And so i was like, okay, I need to be, I need to like start shaking off the rust and get ready to go back to work.
01:03:21
Speaker
Um, I just, I was hungry for analytics. So I reached, I made a plan. I'll reach out to my favorite site first. And if they say no, I'll go to the next one. If they say no, I'll go to the next one. Like give me access to your data and I will do cool things with it.
01:03:34
Speaker
And, uh, so I reached out to howling minds who isn't active in snap at all anymore, but, uh, you know, early like lead content for, uh, Marvel snap zone and a super cool person.
01:03:46
Speaker
Um, And they pointed me to Terrence of Marvel Snap Zone, who is a very much behind the scenes person, if you haven't heard that name before. ah And I was just like, hey, can I get access to your database and in an exchange? I'll write cool shit.
01:04:02
Speaker
And he was for it. And I think I just got in early. Like, I don't know how many other people could nowadays not look size of Snap-on. you volunteer to work for free, like, that sounds like a pretty good That's a good point.
01:04:13
Speaker
I was on disability, and I was trying to do things above board, so I couldn't be earning money. So, yes, part of the deal was I would work for free. Give me free access to your database, I will write for free. So the first, like, I don't know, six to 12 months that I was writing at Marvel Snap-Zone, did it all for free.
01:04:29
Speaker
Yeah. But I got what I wanted. I got access to a database and started doing cool things with it. Like, oh, what's the win rate and play rate and cube rate for pairs of cards? Like, that's something nobody has looked at.
01:04:40
Speaker
um oh I remember. Yeah, or like, what day of the week or what time of day can you get the most cubes? And there were just like questions like that. Is it worth playing in unrevealed locations? Like, things like that that I just wanted to dig into.
01:04:55
Speaker
And that's how I did my Snappolytics series. which I love doing. and And if I weren't such a perfectionist and it wasn't so time consuming, I would still be writing it today. um But yeah, ah pretty early on, I'd written an article and Terrence was like, hey, why don't you get on Twitter and start promoting that?
01:05:13
Speaker
um And I was like, oh, well, I don't really like i I have a Twitter account, but I haven't used it in forever. And I've never really been a big Twitter user. But sure, why not? I'll do that. um and And I just i don't know. I fell in love with the Marvel Snap community on Twitter, which like, you know, lucky timing on that, too, because not that it's bad now, but it's very different now Twitter.
01:05:35
Speaker
how Twitter has evolved, yeah changed ownership and all that. Um, yeah. Um, a lot of good people have left with good reason. i don't, I don't begrudge them that at all, but, and so now I'm active on both Twitter and blue sky and it's just, it's just not the same in either place. Like the community is split and, and know, it feels more jaded now. And I, anyway, yeah,
01:06:01
Speaker
made good friends on there. They used to have like the symbol of happiness, the bluebird as their symbol. And they replaced it by the, like you've been marked for death symbol. It's just like, wait, you know?
01:06:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It just, it's really sad what happened, but I'm glad I was there at the time and I made the friends that I did. Um, and between like my articles and don't know,
01:06:27
Speaker
Free shit that I was doing on Twitter too, like mini articles, ah you know, analyzing how to optimize the game modes or optimize the economy or, um you know, discovering split bugs. Like I gained credibility and and recognition.
01:06:40
Speaker
um Definitely the friends is the part that I like most. Like that's important to me and it's and it's just different from what I've had in any other, pretty much any other game community. I did play Smash Bros.
01:06:53
Speaker
on... the Wii U and on Switch. I played those competitively. And so like for a while there, I was going to the weekly scene in person. And it's like, yeah, he learned to recognize people that way.
01:07:04
Speaker
Never got super close to anybody except for my brother, who I was already close to. um So Snap by far has been like the longest running game with like the deepest community connection.
01:07:17
Speaker
Got invited to like a ah few small discords. like I've had all the big ones, you know like Cozies and Dexters and KM Bests, but I find them, and and the official one, I find them really overwhelming.
01:07:28
Speaker
like I think the way you're supposed to use Discord is just hop in when the conversation's happening. like Have it be kind of... ephemeral and like but for me I'm much more like I don't know if it's because I grew up on forums and then read it and it's just like i don't know i feel more like a reddit isn't really a completionist type thing forums were more that way especially when I was into smaller games I feel much more like I want to be a completionist I want to read everything and so like smaller tiny private discords with just a handful of snap friends you know the first one that i got invited to because somebody on twitter noticed me and liked my stuff and and that like that really changed how i interacted with the game and and made it easier to develop friendships and to you know
01:08:09
Speaker
be a little bit more vulnerable and to be more intimate. and um And so that's still my favorite space is is tiny discords. Even like ours right now for Snap on this, you know, it's fairly public and it's part of a large discord, but we just have this little tiny corner of it. There's only a few people there and it's very easy to keep on top of five channels.
01:08:26
Speaker
No pressure to any of you who don't. i that's my favorite space in Snap. not sure where this story is going. I had direction, but don't really anymore.
01:08:38
Speaker
How's it now? um I get recognized every single time I play the game. When the first time that started happening over about, I don't know, a year or two ago, super weird. But now it's it's literally every play session where I have people like point, Spidey point and say hello. and it's just like, ah It's a strange experience, but it's very cool. And I'm always, you know, I need to get school.
01:08:57
Speaker
I need to get an enchantress or is it Gambit? The other one like a heart eyes. i need to get a happier emoji, but, you know, I can. I give them hellos and a fist bump at least. um I don't have any other emoji to to be more positive than that.
01:09:11
Speaker
um I think hellos and fist bumps are great. I think you're doing fine. I think need to purchase a special... You shouldn't feel the burden, but you a new cosmetic just so that you can accept the...
01:09:25
Speaker
the kind greetings of like to better accept the kind greetings of of your loving fans. I i don't know. I disagree. Gambit Hard Eyes is great. I was like, wait, how do I have them and you don't? But it's an album reward, isn't it? That's why I don't even have the first piece of the album for like, I think Enchantress is the Peach Momoko Thanos album.
01:09:45
Speaker
Um, yeah But that's that's that's what makes me think of it is like Rhi talks about using her heart eyes emojis. and'm like Okay, but usually it's only when it's like someone I recognize. Like I recognize them from the Discord or something. Like I don't think I'm recognized in the wild.
01:10:01
Speaker
People I think just think I'm a bot because they're like, oh, look, it's just a regular Rhi name, you know? like Yeah, so I don't know. My relationship with the game is weird. I got into the creator ah program on like my third try and basically because there were a couple other creators who were like, you should let her in Even though my my content creation is is unconventional. Like the writing I was doing was like once a month and and on Twitter. Yeah.
01:10:28
Speaker
Sorry, once a month on Marvel Snap Zone and then also constantly on Twitter. um And it's like, does being a Twitter user count as being a content creator? And I think for a handful of the users, it really does. It depends who you ask.
01:10:40
Speaker
Yeah. I think for some, they're critical to the community on Twitter. And that i think that counts. um but yeah it's not like i'm streaming it's not like i'm doing youtube it's not like i'm putting out articles super frequently because my articles tend to be huge deep dives that take lots of research and lots of work and even once i started getting paid it wasn't nearly enough for the work that i was doing it was mostly just a passion project um anyway i love this community it makes it ah like like recently when i'm going through like a hard time not super duper loving the game finding it frustrating it's like it's hard because like that's my community that's like my friends that's that's my space and so it's like they both help me get through that time but also like make me more resistant i don't know like it makes it harder to leave because i have to leave all that too um even though i'm sure people would be very understanding of taking breaks i think that's a healthy thing to do with a game lauren i would still be your friend if you didn't play marvel snap
01:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it'd be hard to do the podcast if I wasn't doing it, right? We'd find something else to do the podcast about is my position. oh we have friends that have taken breaks for months or even like more than a year, you know? It's just like, no.
01:11:52
Speaker
We value... It's like it's hard to find a group like there's a magic to like a group of like minded people coming together for space of time. Like I used to get so hurt when I would find that and like everyone would move out because it's like, no, you're my fan. my found family now and stuff, but I've just realized that's just the, it's just change, right? It's just the oceans of like, people have to kind of disperse and like reorganize. So like getting and holding to those magic moments of groups of people that can make stuff that can like, you know, and making our podcast or like that are just like hanging out or just like, there's a magic to it that it's worth chasing and holding on to because it is ephemeral, because it is transient, because of the nature of life.
01:12:38
Speaker
Okay, same. yeah that's That's really lovely and I agree. Ben? Tell me your story. Well, what what was the prompt again? How did you get into the community?
01:12:52
Speaker
You were one of my oldest friends. I don't even remember. I think we just found each other funny. Yeah, i just I thought you were cool on Twitter. That was it. Thank you. I also thought that of you. well Thank you. didto both of you.
01:13:07
Speaker
So, yeah, i guess I guess I entered the Snap community through Twitter, and I guess I've had – or I had ah Twitter starting 2014. Not sure what I used it for.
01:13:18
Speaker
think probably –
01:13:22
Speaker
wordplay. That's what I used to use Facebook for. I would, uh, I would use Facebook like Twitter. And then I think eventually I found out that Twitter was where you were supposed to say funny things, um, or whatever, but I didn't really feel like cause I didn't know the people on Twitter. I only knew the people on Facebook and I was like, nobody's going to know about my funny things here. So what's the point of even saying them? So I didn't really like use Twitter at all.
01:13:47
Speaker
Then like, In 2020, there was a bit of a pandemic and like you know some ah um social movements that I wanted to pay some attention to. I found myself you know spending a little more time on Twitter. I was like i had a reason to like remember that I had a Twitter account because I was like, I want to know the latest COVID updates and like how's things going and stuff. um So like I was using Twitter then and then like it sort of fell off a bit.
01:14:19
Speaker
But then ah I guess there are like parallel paths that I'm trying to like set up to like how I how I got onto to Snap Twitter because that's, I guess, where the community happens or happened.
01:14:34
Speaker
I don't know. i'm I'm not there anymore. So it's happening without me at this point. But yeah. I guess I started playing Marvel Snap because ah I had played some Hearthstone, but, like, I sort of... ah Things had gotten kind of sour for me over there just over time. There was, like, a lot of stuff to like about it, but i was I was learning more things about what was going on at Blizzard, and I was feeling less comfortable about supporting them and stuff, and it just, like...
01:15:08
Speaker
i at At one point, i just like I was like, I probably ought to just clean break it and ah move on to other things. Because like I've got other games I like playing. the you know to i didn't have a ah PC at the time, and it felt like if I really wanted to take like Hearthstone more seriously, i needed to have a PC and stuff, but I i didn't have one and couldn't...
01:15:33
Speaker
like afford things. And I just, I wasn't in a place to be taking card games super seriously when I was playing Hearthstone. And I was always like aware of that. Cause like I'm a person who has the capacity to take games pretty seriously.
01:15:46
Speaker
And you know, there've been games have been pretty good at, ah And i knew that, I don't know, when Snap came out, I saw an opportunity, especially like I definitely had to try it because like i love card games and all that stuff. And, you know, like I'd been aware that it was coming for a long time because, you know, I'd listened to podcasts and things and I listened to Hearthstone podcasts when I played Hearthstone and stuff. and yeah like i just yeah know This is the kind of thing that I would know about. like Marvel Snap's not going to come out, and I'm not going to hear about it. you know like it's
01:16:24
Speaker
So Global Launch rolled around, and i ah I dipped in, and I found out what was up, and I saw... that I would be able to have all the cards if I just, uh, or, are enough of the cards, like most of the cards, like I'd never, I'd never like had all the legendaries when I played Hearthstone. Cause I wasn't going to like throw a bajillion dollars at like boosters and things.
01:16:49
Speaker
Um, but like, I, I saw that like Marvel snap, that could be a card game where I could have all the cards so I could build whatever decks I wanted to. And I know that I'm good at that sort of thing. And, uh,
01:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, it was just really nice to finally, like Marvel Snap really, ah but it it felt like an opportunity ah to me.
01:17:15
Speaker
And I was, ah you know...
01:17:22
Speaker
it was like a It seemed like a good time in life to like really like throw myself into to these sorts of things and just see what would come of it.
01:17:33
Speaker
And how things really, i guess how it started on Twitter was I was using Marvel Snap Zone for like reference stuff.
Gaming Community Dynamics and Reflections
01:17:44
Speaker
I need to know things. And I was like reading articles and stuff, reading stuff.
01:17:49
Speaker
most everything that came out. And, uh, Dan used to have the infinite decks of the week column. And I was like, how do i how do I get my decks in there? And I realized, uh, Oh, I'd have to get back on Twitter.
01:18:02
Speaker
And, uh, so I did that. And, you know, like I, I would message Dan all these decks and things, and sometimes he would use them and sometimes he wouldn't. And I was just like, well, that's all right. But like then night I was like, well, and ah people need to know about these decks. So started playing with the tracker on.
01:18:27
Speaker
And then you can post stats and things. And the tracker tells, you know, if you're winning a lot of games, that's what the tracker is going to tell people. And I think I got some attention there. I i got into...
01:18:44
Speaker
glazers video with a werewolf by night heimdall deck that over 400 something games had like an above 60 maybe even above 65 win right it was very good in a lot of games played and stuff and uh that i think i could point to that as sort of my my breakout moment when uh I guess when Glazer found me.
01:19:10
Speaker
But yeah, ah that was that was nice. um And I, you know, I have thoughts and opinions about things. I'm not ah bad with words. um So, you know, I kept Twittering, kept doing stuff. ah You eventually started hanging out more on discords and things. Really...
01:19:34
Speaker
you're the, the Twitter thing. I, you know, I, I guess I got off in 2024, maybe, maybe, maybe I was still on Twitter in 2024. Um,
01:19:47
Speaker
um yeah, I think so. Uh, but not, not in 2025 when, whenever I quit was before that. Um, but yeah, things, things, uh, felt kind of gross over there. Y'all know why. And, um,
01:20:03
Speaker
I don't know. I'm not sure I've done a very good job explaining the thing. But yeah, i just I saw a game that I thought I would be good at, and I've been good at enough games to know that I could do that, and it has gone okay. I don't know.
01:20:19
Speaker
i like there There have been games that I've been privately good at. like i love ah there There are a lot of games that I've... when when i play I don't know. some Sometimes I like make up extra rules for XCOM. like there's There's a trophy you can get in XCOM for never upgrading your squad size from four.
01:20:42
Speaker
So I was like, well, how about I play it on Impossible? And not only do I never upgrade my squad size from four, but whenever possible... I don't bring a full squad and I only bring three soldiers on each mission.
01:20:58
Speaker
And so I did that and so like, I, you know, like I, I'm pretty good at that game. Catherine, the, the babble mode, uh, the procedurally generated like a time trial thing. You know, I got, I got like records and stuff there.
01:21:13
Speaker
um and like i knew i knew i could be good at games and stuff, and this was one that... I don't really like the games as a service model and stuff. I've got like mixed feelings about like the the trading card game model and like all this stuff, but like I do love the deck-building part.
01:21:34
Speaker
like I don't like the the part of getting the cards. like Acquiring the cards is always like so messy, and I just... like and In a perfect world... It's really just about like knowing the idea of the card and picking that idea of the card. that like Just like the whole like acquisition thing just compromises...
01:21:56
Speaker
ah the the whole, I don't know. And these, these are just scattered thoughts. Snap seemed like a good thing that I should throw myself into. and met good people there. I don't really have time for people that ah suck.
01:22:10
Speaker
So like, that's why you don't see me out in the, you know, the, the public square so much. Cause like, I am not interested in, uh, yeah, there's a reason why I communicate one way through the podcast. And like, I guess you can come find me in the discord if you really want to, but like, yeah, I just, I have no patience for, dipshits and assholes and stuff.
01:22:41
Speaker
So, um, Yeah, i I like talking about Marvel Snap ah with my friends. That's what I do. I want to get back more into, like, see, I feel differently.
01:22:55
Speaker
I want to get back into Blue Sky. i want to be more involved in our Discord channels and stuff. But you can see, it like, for me, it's, like, right when I was involved, I immediately went to, like, let me draw something and, like, find something every day for week. It's just, like, hard for me to not, like, throw myself into everything.
01:23:13
Speaker
But, like, I want, I love interacting with people. It's what's made it worth, what's made it worth it. uh, y'all are the best. Thanks for your Yeah. Oh, and I, I, I just, I made it sound, I don't like, I, I do, I do love the community aspect of snap. And I understand that like, that's like a games as a service thing. Like that's like part of it. That's like, that's why there's a community. And if snap just came out with all the cards and all the cards stayed the same forever and like, nobody was asked for more money at any point, like, like it would not all still be going on. And like,
01:23:46
Speaker
I get all that. I don't know. i'm not I should have prepared better notes for my answer to this secret homework. But I love games. I love playing games. I saw a game that I could play and maybe other people would care about it.
01:24:00
Speaker
And games. I love them. so yeah um You can keep it as brief as you want, but have you had community with any other games before? Have you like gotten it as involved as you have with Snap?
01:24:14
Speaker
ah There are like a lot of games where like i you like i absorbed a lot of information about Hearthstone. I was very knowledgeable about Hearthstone. like I listened to all the pods and things.
01:24:27
Speaker
ah like yeah But like I was not like participatory. like i would like play I played in some Marvel Snap tournaments, not Marvel Snap tournaments, some Hearthstone tournaments online a little bit. But like I was not like befriending people there or anything.
01:24:43
Speaker
I mean, like, I've, I guess like when I was a teenager, I was part of online communities. There was a, there was a ah PlayStation 2 game. Well, to call it a PlayStation 2 game is to ignore that there, there have been several other entries. um But ah there, there's, there's a popular, popular video game franchise that I was a member of some forums for when I was a, a whippersnapper, a teenager and stuff.
01:25:13
Speaker
ah But no, and i yeah i since then, it's pretty much just Marvel's... played a lot of games that... I don't know if Yeah, i I wouldn't mind being in a community for like other games that I play a lot. like I play a shit ton of Hades and stuff, and i was like I've looked into what the Bizarre community is like like if if I wanted to get into the Bizarre community, but like I don't know.
01:25:44
Speaker
like You can't like can't share deck lists with people and stuff. like there's It just doesn't seem The... like the I don't know.
01:25:56
Speaker
The soil is not as fertile for, you know, the growth of communal crops and things. Yeah, that's a good point. It's something that snapped us so well between deck sharing and, like, sharing your splits, right? It's, like, it's very easy for you to get into. I guess, I mean, the splits thing is, like... I know you're not into the cosmetics, but it's such an easy way for, like, somebody to end up themselves. Yeah.
01:26:20
Speaker
I really want to make sure that I'm, that all my friends know that when I like your, your splits that you shared, I did actually like your splits that you shared. I'm not like, when I say that I like, don't care about the split, like I, I kind of care a little bit and I care that you care and I care that you, you put those split combinations together and you shared them with me and I like it and don't think that my disdain for the things that I have disdain for, ah extends to you cause it doesn't.
01:26:47
Speaker
So I just want you to know that. Okay. and to Potentially offended friends of mine. I want you to know that I do like your splits.
Creative Gaming Concepts and Enhancements
01:26:56
Speaker
split Assign the new homework.
01:26:58
Speaker
oh Oh, yes, that's right. I remembered what it was. My new homework inspired by die ancient one. um that's that's I mean, like I know how to pronounce Tao because i read that I had to read the Tao of Poo for a thing once. but um I love that book. Anywho, if you're struggling to remember how to pronounce Tao, just think of Da Ancient One. That's the acronym.
01:27:27
Speaker
T-A-O and it's pronounced Da Ancient One just like Tao. Anywho, inspired by Da Ancient One, Uh, design for me,
01:27:41
Speaker
ah card That generates a skill. So you can't generate one of these free floating skill cards like astral projection or whatever. is is that the one that's coming?
01:27:54
Speaker
That is such a slippery slope into just a steaming pile of horse shit at the bottom. Oh my God. I don't like that at all. So this is gonna be a character that has an associated skill card with it.
01:28:10
Speaker
right reasonably i'm I'm sure we all understand. um Yeah. Glenn said the number is going to be low. You tell me what you hate about the freestanding skill card possibility.
01:28:26
Speaker
I'm going to magic. Okay. All right. Well, Reed doesn't have to, but Lauren, if you hate it for extra credit, you can tell me why you hate freestanding skill cards. Got to wait and see, but I'll tell you one thing. They don't have a lot of personality.
01:28:40
Speaker
Um, Yeah, that's true. I would prefer we didn't, to be honest. David, for the extra credit, how am I supposed to give you points if you just like spill all the gold here? Sorry.
01:28:52
Speaker
Sorry. I don't know what card I'm going to design, if that's anything. Yeah, have been a medium influence. If you liked what you heard, like, comment, subscribe, leave a review, etc. Comments go to YouTube or Spotify or to our little corner of the Snap Judgments League Discord called The Speakeasy.
01:29:11
Speaker
There are instructions to get there in the show notes or video description. ah We're part of the Snap Judgments Network. That's why we're on their Discord. ah Where you can listen to other great shows like The Infinite by Kier Nimbus. Comes out on Saturdays. Short and sweet.
01:29:27
Speaker
Bite-sized and casual leaning. Very good. You should listen to it if you want... and Snap content that's shorter um Anyway if you want to If you want to find out What we think about the new high voltage I'm sure we'll be very charitable about it Tune in next week Same snap time Same snap channel We did it No we didn't Alright I always had this thing For outro but gonna hug it if anyone has
01:30:00
Speaker
Take it away. Do it. Pull the trig. Okay. So the other game I've been playing on is, like, the new Relic Weapons. The Exploration Zone for FF14 has come out. And it's, like, it's so good because it's their third time, like, doing one of these zones. Maybe for technical. and what won't. Things. and and And it's, like, the best one so far.
01:30:23
Speaker
And um it's kind of like... ah the The Trial of the Sword, I'm forgetting the name this of a the Breath of the Wild thing, but where they put you back.
01:30:36
Speaker
um I mean, you have all your high-level abilities and stuff, but it's got its own leveling system. And you're all in this exploration zone, and there's all these monsters, and you got to weave your way around the high-level ones to like find all the places and get to the things.
01:30:51
Speaker
And every once in a while, they're like critical, critical, critical engagement. And you go um to on the map where there's a big glowing thing. And once the countdown like ends, it whisks you all like all. And this is like,
01:31:06
Speaker
Oh, should know how many people are actually in it. But something like 20 to 30 players. I don't know. It's a lot of players into the big these big giant boss battles.
01:31:17
Speaker
And they have their own little like mini. It's a play on the original Final Fantasy. So you have all these little mini jobs you can level up that give you abilities like Berserker and Time Age and stuff that that isn't actually in the game. It's so fun.
01:31:31
Speaker
And I have been playing as a tank, which already has all these heal abilities. And I was like specking Phantom Knight, which gives me more shit. And I was, okay, this was so fun because I'm like pugging with people, but like everyone's dying all the time. These are not easy fights. You have to learn them. You can't just like, this isn't World of Warcraft. You can't just like put in your add-ons and like brute force your way through stats.
01:31:56
Speaker
It's like you have to actually play the game and learn the fight. And so a lot of people are dying. And sometimes if you're just pugging groups, people just like, are hey, looking for group, looking for group, everyone groups up.
01:32:08
Speaker
You don't have like a healer or anything in the group. And so like there's been times where I'm getting in and I'm using my abilities where i'm like acting as both tank and healer for the group. i'm like, oh, this is a big AOE that's coming up. Meh!
01:32:21
Speaker
shield for everyone save people oh that person's almost dead here's my one little ability where i can throw on them and then like i heal them with every damage i do and it's just like all the time i'm doing mechanics and i'm like trying to like keep the whole group alive and here's the things i know they don't even know i'm doing it Because, like, when you're in big fight and you're, like, trying to stay alive and you're dodging shit and you're doing stuff, you do not notice, like, all the little things that are happening.
01:32:50
Speaker
And it's just felt like this. It's, like like, secret good deeds. Like, it's, like, I'm such a meme. I'm, like, that, like, you know, the kind of loner in the corner of the party who's, like, they don't know.
01:33:01
Speaker
They don't know I'm keeping them all alive. You know? But it's felt so good. That's the healer way. Right? It's felt like my Oh, because I never play healers, to be honest. But, like, doing... Like, being, like, our, like, group hero that's just been, like, keeping an eye on the group, keeping everyone alive, I felt so, like...
01:33:22
Speaker
that I don't know. it's like there ah so Sometimes you can't do a lot of like big good in a big way in the big world. So like doing little goods in little video games feels very satisfying.
01:33:35
Speaker
I think you have very effectively captured why I like playing Healer. yeah Oh yeah, playing Healer is a bad guy. have experienced that side of it. Normally I'm just like, I don't heal.
01:33:46
Speaker
I summon fire from the heavens I have a giant sword and nothing in between. the protagonist. Yeah. I just like the... When you're a healer, you're never doing a bad job, even when you're doing a bad job. You know, like, the team always, like, fucking needs you, like, so bad. that're Like, there there always should probably be another one of you or whatever, like, something like that, you know? Like...
01:34:13
Speaker
like he The healer is almost always like set up to be... ah like ah yeah You're always doing something useful whenever you're the healer. And I feel like it's a lot easier to criticize the people in the other roles.
01:34:31
Speaker
Okay, I was just thinking, so like they have this, I'm like, oh, I always commend healers because at the end of anything you do in Final ah Fantasy XIV where you join up as like a random group, you can commend random player. And then there are achievements, like mounts you can get and stuff if you get so many commendations.
01:34:48
Speaker
And it's honestly a really great system. I generally always commend someone because like, Why not just to get someone on their way to achievements? And it's usually the healer because you know sometimes I got a tough job.
01:35:00
Speaker
Sometimes they'd be rezzing me. Sometimes I'd be floor tanking. But like, um
01:35:07
Speaker
where was I going? but was like, what if we had this in Snap? I don't know. Like what if you had to come in, like after a match, someone could commend you. And if you got so many, you got like a rare back or something.
01:35:18
Speaker
There's no negative side. They can't like de-commend you or something. I love that. I know they did it because they liked my split. you know because and you have I do have a really good split. Or they were blessed by my deck.
01:35:31
Speaker
Or they just are nice and are just commending anyone that wasn't an asshole to them. and And then maybe it would lessen some people being assholes because you're not going to get the reward track if you're being...
01:35:43
Speaker
Right? Let's do it. Every emote in the game can be used sarcastically, right? Like, obviously a thumbs up. But, like, even fist bumps can be used sarcastically. And I guess you could sarcastically commend somebody, but then at least, like, they get something out of it.
01:35:59
Speaker
You know? I think that that's a great idea. kudos. I also, I would love to see them, like, do player profiles. Right? We already kind of, like, kind of have them. You can see your highest rank ever in your CL, but, like, I want to see, like, your free card do like a pop. I want it to be a little more personalized.
01:36:20
Speaker
I want to be able to show off my, you know, my sick echo or whatever that I'm not playing in the deck because she's echo. That'd be cool. Yeah, I think the Chinese version has that.
01:36:31
Speaker
But then you couldmen you could specifically commend their splits if it was that way. Anyway, it would be... ah I love that. let's Let's add more positivity to the game. Right? For real. Just incentives. Making games is all about, like, incentivizing the behavior you want in the games. Sorry, I'm on a whole, once I went on whole late night rant about, like, there you can design against toxicity and this is the responsibility of the game designer.
01:36:55
Speaker
Okay. You're right.