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78: Always Thinking About Bast Angles
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💁♀️ 1x OTA Balance Update + 2x Datamined Seasons = 3x value SOT!! episode 🤑🤑🤑
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🧙 Magus ☀️ Star-Lord, Master of the Sun
- Drax, Avatar of Life 🧬
- the oops (mostly) all buffs OTA
- April Datamined Cards 🌦️
- May Datamined Cards 🌷
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap!!
- Snapshooters 👆👆
- Secret Homework 🤫: Watch Guardian Vol 2 📼
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
Grand Arena decks!
- Lauren's rocking listener Ironcloak's Iron Man (with Ravonna over Superior Spider-Man) and it's ABSOLUTELY CRUSHING
- Rie's rocking this mean Ghost-Spider thing that treats Ghost-Spider as a second Hydra Stomper / 2099 enabler
- Ben encourages listeners to do what he did and borrow one from Fourth Location
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
- Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Magus
- 0:06:15 Starlord, Master of the Sun
- 0:16:55 Kraglin
- 0:17:53 Major Victory
- 0:20:13 OTA
- 0:42:02 Datamined Cards
- 1:51:50 Our Week in Snap / Snap Shooters
- 2:17:19 Secret Homework: Watch Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
- 2:35:57 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 2:38:05 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Secret Homework
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, watch Guardians Volume 2. ah Loyal listeners, we're going shake up our format a little bit and jump straight into the Snap content. Weekend Snap will still happen, but...
00:00:18
Speaker
Later.
Star-Lord: Excitement & Impact
00:00:19
Speaker
um So, you two. ah New thoughts on last week's cards. Namely, Star-Lord. As Ben said before the show started, there probably isn't much to say about the other two.
00:00:32
Speaker
so I quickly have something to say about him. Oh, yeah. Magis, which is simply that, like, I rolled for him and got him. my gosh, yeah. He's stupid, wanted him. I haven't even played with him yet because I'm like, I want... Because
Challenges with Magus Card
00:00:51
Speaker
here's... Okay, I will admit that he he does seem like a problem child because the only reason I haven't played with him because I'm like, I want to cook. I feel like I saw Lauren say that she had like hadn't seen anything compelling yet, and I'm like...
00:01:04
Speaker
That makes me want to build the compelling deck to me. so mean but The problem with it, it is so bad. And I'm kind of like, I don't play as snap as obsessively as I used to. So, like, I have to, like, you know, budget my snap time into activities. And I'm like, I want at least get to 90 for the gold. And i got to have that
Underappreciated Cards & Unique Decks
00:01:28
Speaker
conquest group. So, like, um and the thing is, I know if I'm cooking, if I'm cooking with Magus, Magus, I already forgot how to say it. Magus.
00:01:39
Speaker
Ugh. then I'm just going to be losing a lot. yeah It's hard to cook and climb at the same time. Right. yeah yeah Yeah. I would fearlessly be like, whatever, I'll battle in the kitchen. But like, uh, not, no, it's this card, I guess not this. I know you're such a, you're such a card hipster and I'm that way too. Like a card that is unappealing to others is more appealing to me just because nobody's playing it. It's like, Oh, I've got, I got, I'm going to show you the cool thing to do with the bad card.
00:02:10
Speaker
um or vice versa, card that everybody's playing less appealing. ah and So yeah, I thought it was so funny. You rolled for Magus. You got him. You had like, what, six hits or something like that? And you rolled Magus? was one in five to get him, and you rolled him. You the one in five. you had an 80% chance of getting a better card.
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker
got it Future cook. Don't get me wrong. I have like
Star-Lord's Meta Influence
00:02:38
Speaker
a lot of love for the the janky cards, the weird cards, the questionably practical cards. But like Magus is like a bridge too far. And every time I hear like...
00:02:49
Speaker
I've heard people talk about like, well, we just haven't solved it yet. I know there's something cool to do with this card. We we just have to solve it. And like, this is one case where I just don't believe it. So and every time I hear people talking about it, it reminds me of um that one episode of Arrested Development where. um job is going to make the yacht disappear and uh george michael is just like really into it and uh michael doesn't like like this at all and like george michael's like no but it's driving me crazy it's like a mind puzzle an awesome mind puzzle michael looked at his son and saw that he truly was inspired by his uncle that perhaps the boy actually admired him and then michael's like i gotta get you out of here you're gonna come work with me at the office go wait in the
00:03:36
Speaker
and like there' just there's nothing There's no awesome mind puzzle to Magus. It's just like a bad design that like works the wrong way. Counter argument though, as someone who used to meticulously plan spotlights and like plan and re-plan my tokens as my relaxing wind down activity, playing Snap like a chaos gremlin is the most
Balancing for Player Types
00:04:01
Speaker
fun. Will I roll for this card?
00:04:02
Speaker
don't know. Yes, I will. Or six tokens, you know, to buy a card and then you just do whatever and you don't have all the cards. and And then you can't play any of your friends' decks.
00:04:13
Speaker
yeah That's fine. I want to anyway. want to play my own decks. If you don't roll for it, Knight Rhi will roll for it for you. Yeah. um Wait, Knight Rhi.
00:04:26
Speaker
Knight doesn't exist. it's only It goes from Rhi straight to Lhvi. Oh, I see. It skips. yeah um i'm I expect they will change Magus. I'm worried they're going to do it by buffing his power, and that doesn't help.
00:04:42
Speaker
I mean, how do you buff his power? He's already 3-5. I either want... Well, I'm 3-8. I don't know. ah I'd play that. um I either want them to change the ability, you know, make it so it does on reveals or whatever, or make him, like, a one cost, and then maybe we're talking. Yeah.
Introduction of Drax 2 & Synergies
00:05:01
Speaker
Like, the ability's still hard, but it's... The thing is, you pay so much energy to do the thing, and there just aren't hits that are worth it.
00:05:09
Speaker
And if you make him one cost, he's got more time to, like, there will be more cards that are still in the deck at the time when you could activate him. Like, you could go looking for a fire hair on turn two.
00:05:20
Speaker
You could, like, you could do actual real things with that kind of card at that cost. Like, yeah, that that would be a real card. Well, you wouldn't want to play with fire hair, though, because usually playing Killmonger in that deck, right? Yeah.
00:05:34
Speaker
It does change things about how the card works because when you think about it, it's like, well, you don't have five power on a one cost. You could look for Scream on turn two. I'm just thinking, like, what are two costs that are honor reveals? Victoria Hand.
00:05:50
Speaker
there's there's There's things. theyas to tomorrow Do it. Do it second dinner. but can't Keep him at a five. Just kidding.
00:06:01
Speaker
Um... Okay. Well, there were things to say about Magus. we want to say anything about Moondragon before going to the star of the show? Okay. Still
Major Victory & Guardians Cohesion
00:06:09
Speaker
garbage. The star lord of the show. I didn't mean to do that before, but you know then it presented itself.
00:06:15
Speaker
Our season pass card, the four five on reveal. I mean, you you all, if you're listening, you probably know this because he's everywhere. On reveal, next turn, you get plus one energy for each turn. You've ended with unspent energy. This gains that much power.
00:06:31
Speaker
ah We'll be talking about the OTA later, but they haven't touched him yet, which isn't so surprising. They usually usually wait for two OTA cycles to update a new card.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah, the season pass card. Yeah, he's a menace. Nerf it right out of the gate. Bummer for the OT. I feel like when they talk about it, feel like they were happy with it. They're like, oh, he lets all these high energy plays go. And I feel like then everyone's running him. Yeah, maybe they are happy with it. It's not fun. think sometimes they're happy the wrong stuff. I'm like, if they're happy with this, then they want it to run rampant for a while before they dress it. And before they're like, okay, well, it's a new season, so we need to...
00:07:14
Speaker
Nurse the last thing, that's the next thing. It's just like, hmm. I think that's good insight. They do want the season pass to make a splash because if it doesn't, it's like they didn't release a new card. And i think that's kind of their goal for most cards, but especially the season pass because so many people get it.
00:07:33
Speaker
And i wonder if... It's energy. i wonder if part of it though is balancing the game... Galactus first steps made a splash. That's that's a season pass card that made a splash and didn't piss everybody off.
00:07:46
Speaker
if Is that the last one? No, I just think it's like ah it's it's like a good like gold standard. Yeah. yeah Cards that buff and cards that give energy are just the universally, like, they'll be good, they'll fit into a lot of decks, then everyone will play him, then they begin to define the meta. And it's just like, I think he's just too, he's just too good and he's too easy to replicate with a whole bunch of different cards.
00:08:15
Speaker
um And he's going to get nerfed. And we all know it. And we know that that's just, I guess that's just the game now. They've kind of stated that they're just kind of fine with that. And they don't, they're not expecting cards to be balanced. that They do just want to have, i mean, it's just so weird that it's so good. And so many of the other new releases are um not at all.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah. You think they want to sell those too? Yeah, maybe.
OTA Updates: Nerfs & Buffs
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah. Also, it just like makes the game feel better and less silly when like most of the cards release in like roughly normal power levels. you know and i think that's the goal. Although this season has seemed a little... Uneven?
00:09:00
Speaker
Low power. Besides the hero. um I think part of it, if we look at Star-Lord and Sholao, Part of it is that they're balancing a game for two different types of players. There are the really heavily invested players, the core gamers who play a lot. And then there's casual players who might play less than half an hour a day. And so for Sholao and Star-Lord to be everywhere doesn't affect them as much.
00:09:28
Speaker
And that seems like, don't tough thing to balance. Well, Star-Lord made me a more casual player who's playing less than half an hour a day. So don't know. Yeah. It's converting everybody um in the wrong direction, maybe. I got i got other games.
00:09:48
Speaker
Okay. We are now going to talk about this week's new card. We have Drax 2, Drax Avatar of Life. A threef four end of turn, plus three power if your opponent played a card with greater power this turn.
00:10:03
Speaker
Move to that card if you'd be winning its location. Okay. I will just say I tested it with like Craven and Batroc stuff, and he is smart. He will consider that Batroc is going to follow him when he determines if he will be winning the location. So that's ah cool.
00:10:22
Speaker
Does he do that if Batroc is played second? Oh, wait, no. He he does his thing at end of turn, right? Wait. Yes. No, ah same question still stands. Yes.
00:10:34
Speaker
Well, it doesn't matter which order Batroc goes unless there's like a Hercules situation. Yeah. I don't understand. Yeah, of course. I, I, I'm sorry. and I'm confused. I'm very sick today.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah. I expect he would also consider Hercules before deciding whether or not to move. Um, He's got some smarts on him. Does Hercules still do random? He still does random stuff. So does that.
00:10:59
Speaker
it's so like It's not random. It's the well, random which location he shoots to. so you're saying Drax would consider the the definite part ah like like the the part that I think I see what you're saying. He would. think He would not move to the location if Hercules was there.
00:11:17
Speaker
Yeah, he wouldn't even try. um so like it plays it plays it all the way out like the the scenario okay cool cool um
00:11:30
Speaker
yeah he does not consider hydrostompers ongoing power which is the same thing as captain marvel captain marvel also doesn't see hydrostompers ongoing power which is very silly so odd that seems inconsistent Yeah. I hope that Drax incentivizes them to address that bug, which has been around for since Hydra Stomper. Yeah, because that's that's got to be like a bug. That's not that's not a feature.
00:11:57
Speaker
Right. All right. Did you two play Drax, see Drax? Ben? I thought I might get Drax, but I don't i just don't think it's... I don't know. I was like, maybe if I see it and it looks good, but I've seen it and it doesn't look good to me. That's that's my opinion. Okay.
00:12:18
Speaker
three I did get Drax. I paid the 6k tokens. I wanted them. It was impulse. And, um you know, I did like I didn't have a lot of time hit cook. So I started in like yeah, was silken And, like, I tried to put him into my Agamotto werewolf. And, like, weirdly, I just... It's not like i didn't win and stuff, but it just didn't feel right.
00:12:49
Speaker
It's not where he went for me, which is where I originally wanted him for. um and I also didn't play as much, so i didn't have time to cook to get somewhere that I was happy with. But I played the auto deck ah for Drax, which was a surfer. and i it was such a... It was kind of a little funky-looking...
00:13:09
Speaker
But Surfer to me when i so when I saw it, and the whole
Buffs to King E-Tree and Thor
00:13:13
Speaker
time, i won't lie, was the mystery for me that I was trying to solve of, like, why Quicksilver was in this deck. But also, it did feel right.
00:13:23
Speaker
it did feel right, but it's also... Weird. Anyway. is weird. Right? Okay. So surfer deck, you have kind of classic surfer friends. Brood Maverick is now a classic surfer friend, to be honest. It feels like. Has been since they've released. Yeah. Since they started. It's like he's always been here. um Okay, and then gwen pi Gwenpool also often in it.
00:13:49
Speaker
um And Makari, you'll see a lot in Served for Dex. Okay, and then we start to get a little unusual um with our last three spot being filled by Prodigy, right? um Oh, sorry, i forgot about Prowler. Hmm.
00:14:06
Speaker
ah He's here. um Also unusual for like more of a standard surfer that's not like going in a movie type direction. Movie. move Moving. Move. It's not like going to the movies.
00:14:17
Speaker
It could be going to the movies. Okay. Anyway, so... um Yeah, Jeff is here. Surge goes in anything. She goes what she wants. And then um America Chavez, also actually regular surfer friend, and then Quicksilver. And the whole time is playing.
00:14:36
Speaker
And I found I don't feel confident as to like a lot of times I feel like I'd give the definitive in here's, you know, the three reasons. And I found a lot of uses for him.
00:14:49
Speaker
but it's still so odd okay i think it's like one i'm like is it to push the other cards later and it's like that it does kind of help because when you want to play low card you know you want the low cards to play up front two there's a lot of thing thing so like You know, filling, keeping your yeah big cards in the back row is something you're sometimes thinking about. um yeah When you're playing Prodigy, a thing with Prodigy a lot, right, is lining up Prodigy and lining them up on the turn that you want to play them. So i initially I'm used to like Galactus first steps. so When I started, I was like playing Quicksilver out like I would in a first step segment. I realized it's like, no, sometimes that's the correct choice. But a lot of times it was to hold it. um Because what if I never got an America Chavez? Then on turn four, I could still trigger my prodigy on what I played on turn three.
00:15:54
Speaker
Right? Yeah. so I think that's a major reason is positioning your prodigy and everything correctly and making sure you have a one cost to do that because the only other one in the deck is America Chavez.
00:16:08
Speaker
i i I think Drax is probably good. i played a bit of him in a few different decks. He's mostly scaled big enough to be worth it. ah I don't like that your opponent controls him. And I also didn't find him to be super cute. Like I tried putting him in end of turn thinking like, ooh, somebody's going to play a Fin Fang Foom and my Drax is going to proc eight times. And it's just like it never happened. And so not super appealing to me, but I think he does kind of fit into that like high powered three in a high power meta, which we are definitely in right now.
00:16:46
Speaker
ah you know safer than Gladiator. Take that for... you know it's i mean, we have another 3-7. we want to move on to next week's cards, just a quick vibe check. Kraglin at three three but on reveal, banish the top card of your deck if it's 4 cost or higher, plus 2 energy next turn. Otherwise, plus 4 power.
00:17:12
Speaker
And I think before we
Future Stat Crunch in Marvel Snap?
00:17:14
Speaker
were not super high on this card. Did we talk about Wiccan maybe? Where there's a high chance of getting the extra energy and then also you have a higher curve that you can actually use that extra energy? Especially if you the quicksilver domino kind of Wiccan.
00:17:30
Speaker
Because then there's no bad hits. Because then there are no bad hits. Yes. Except for maybe other threes. You might have a few other threes in there. You might. Yeah, you probably should.
00:17:42
Speaker
i don't know. i I don't know. It doesn't seem like a great card to me. I'm not super into craggling until there's banished synergy. That's stronger. Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
And then major victory. By the way, I got to feature on the official Marvel Snap channel. I think the first series four card they featured there. um
00:18:06
Speaker
Three, four on reveal. Add two members of the Guardians crew to your hand. It's all the ones that give you plus four power and also mantis. ah I'll tell you, in testing, he gave me mantis a lot. I know it should only be, i think the math comes out to one third of the time because you can't roll duplicates.
00:18:26
Speaker
That's still so much of the time. It's a lot of mantis. Yeah. Yeah. um But i it it is something that his output is like consistent. there There are synergies you can build around because the Guardians all have similar abilities.
00:18:45
Speaker
Are you all excited to play Grand Arena to get major victory? I mean, i i think we're all going to build major victory decks for a secret homework. We we we may have talked about it at some point.
00:18:59
Speaker
when When we were raiding the cards. i'm I'm excited to to build the best major victory deck I can. You know, maybe that should be the homework this week. at that's um It would be topical. we That's a card that certainly won't be correct in whatever decks we build. And Mantis just got power buffs today.
00:19:24
Speaker
the Which is a buff for major victory. oh unmistakably. More power means more games won. How about you, Rhi? Does this card appeal to you in any way?
00:19:36
Speaker
I don't have anything new to say about it. Okay. Grand Arena is on right now. i If you want event coverage, you can check it out at fourthlocation.com.
00:19:47
Speaker
ah But we have it's only been out for a few hours, so I don't know. Do do either of you have decks already? I i haven't built anything yet. No. yeah I didn't even know what champions there would be.
00:19:59
Speaker
It's unfortunate timing because I do like sharing my event decks and, you know, maybe I can do that in the speakeasy or something, but like that's, it's just the way that it lines up with our podcast schedule. i can't really tell you about my new decks on an event that starts on Thursday.
00:20:13
Speaker
Okay. We're going to go on to today's OTA. i suppose this week's OTA by the time you're listening to it. Um, only one nerf right up front chamber going from two, three to two, two,
00:20:28
Speaker
How much is this going to affect your daily life?
00:20:32
Speaker
ah I don't know. I mean, one point of power sometimes changes things. I bet people will still keep playing Chamber. I haven't been playing Chamber, but to that I'm not the target demographic.
00:20:43
Speaker
I don't know what they like. They like like two 13s or whatever. or I mean, they're probably still like two 12s or something. I don't know what the... I don't know what the chamber numbers are. i just ah They're across the board for me. I don't sweat the details.
00:20:58
Speaker
Except when I do. I don't know. Probably still a good card, right? What do we think?
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it changes what he's played in right now, but isn't that the usual way when they shave these off? Eventually the deck gets enough corners shaved off if enough, you know and usually not just one card, that it'll kind of like overall tone the deck down. And like this is the start, you know?
00:21:24
Speaker
yeah And arguably the deck got a buff. We'll talk about Infinity Ultron, but I think there's a decent chance he fits in that deck now. um But yeah, i think this is making Chamber and Moondragon more in line with each other.
00:21:40
Speaker
But it's still like... Yeah, Chamber's still the best at this job. Yeah. guess I guess I see what you're saying, because Moondragon does kind of like the same decks that Chamber does. but They have some overlap in like twos that get big, but Moondragon is a lot more demanding of you.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think... you I feel like even if they deleted Chamber from the game, I still would not be reaching for Moondragon, I think. Well, not in the types of decks you play, certainly. Maybe not.
00:22:14
Speaker
Xiong, Master of the Rings. and I don't know if you two want to rotate on these, but... Both the base rings and the expanded rings get, are they what are they, unlocked rings have one extra power.
00:22:27
Speaker
So the base going 2-1 to one to two two the unlocked potential version going two two to 2-3.
00:22:35
Speaker
It's something. I'm still not going to use this card. Absolutely, yeah. This reminds me of a question I had that I didn't get the answer to. played a Deafening Chord on one, and I'm like, will that prevent them from being unlocked? The name is the same, but they never played Shang, so I didn't find out. They do get their text back if you play Shang. They do their text back.
00:22:56
Speaker
Okay, I wonder if they didn't, because... like ah they thought it wouldn't work or if they didn't because they didn't draw or if they didn't because it wasn't good enough. You'll never know.
00:23:09
Speaker
Like the play was in their best play. Sometimes that's a thing. I had times, I think when it was when I was working on the Shang weekend missions where it's like I had Shang in hand and I still didn't want to play him. Like it still wasn't the right move even though I drew him. That's rough. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:31
Speaker
right Yeah, this one is too. It's so telegraphed and it's not like the a big payoff like other telegraphed things, you know. and i I've said it many times. I'm sure I'll say it again. If you're going to be bad, at least be fun. And I just don't think this card is either.
00:23:50
Speaker
i do think there's some people who like this card. I've seen it around... Like, I don't I don't see this much of cards that are this, in my opinion,
00:24:02
Speaker
ah not not worth it. You know, like I I feel like Shang-Chi has captured some of the player base's imagination and they're having fun with him. And I sort of think they should keep buffing him until I want to play him, too. That's what I think.
00:24:22
Speaker
So I say this is a step in the right direction, but I want to get in on the fun. But right now, just not convinced it's a real card. i may Well, if I had him, I would be trying to play with him just because he's a buff card. For sure.
00:24:37
Speaker
just ran any of him. ah Ben, you want to cover Infinity Ultron? Sorry to give you one that has three changes. Oh, ah yeah. Infinity Ultron. Five, six. On reveal, add two of Ultron's stones to your hand.
00:24:55
Speaker
ah the The stones that changed are Ultron's soul stone. The original version was a two, three. Well, not a... why They've changed these before. I don't know what's original and what's not. I don't play this card. Anywho, the previous version of Ultron's Soulstone was 2-3 on reveal for each of your full locations. Give one of your cards there plus 2 power. The new one, still two three but now for each of your full locations, it gives one of your cards there plus 3 power. And we do love plus 3s around here.
00:25:23
Speaker
ah Then we've got Ultron's Time Stone, the previous version also being a two three On reveal, put a card from your hand here. And ah this one did get a stat change. Ooh, it's up to two four ah It's a little Dragonlord still, as it was before.
00:25:40
Speaker
Ultron Space Stone is the third and final stone to change. It was previously a two five on reveal move, the lowest power enemy card here to the location of Infinity Ultron. And this one is also getting a point of power. Ooh, it's a 2-6.
00:25:53
Speaker
We do like that. I would like to see that stat line on Silk. just ah Just a stray thought that passed my mind. ah what What do we think about Infinity Ultron and these new stones?
00:26:09
Speaker
I mean, I do like Infinity Ultron. Huh? Go ahead. Oh, was just going to say, do like him. And I mean, you know, was too weak. I mean, the last couple times I played it, ended up cutting him for other cards in the deck. So, you know, it's clearly needed.
00:26:30
Speaker
He's actually a super fun card, and I think that the OTA notes said like they were going for making the stones more consistent, and these are the three bad stones. And yeah, these are the three bad stones you don't want to draw, um and so it's nice to see them get stronger. You know, 2-6 is quite strong, but also...
00:26:47
Speaker
it's it's a weird ability moving the lowest power enemy card to the location of infinity Ultron. Sometimes it swings a lane, but very often it it affects neither lane. Yeah. is that Is that even like a and a desirable effect more often than not? is Is that like usually a thing you want to do? or is that occasionally a thing you want to do?
00:27:09
Speaker
Right. it's It's just weird. And... Obviously, the the Dragon Lord thing is strong, but like it's unreliable, so you can't build around it you You have no guarantee that you're going to get that stone.
00:27:21
Speaker
Um, and then the orange one just wasn't big enough and going plus three for each full lane could actually like, that's potentially three extra total power on this card that could matter. But again, you can't build around it. You can't build for the fact that you're going to draw that. So you can't build a deck that's always going to fill every location.
00:27:42
Speaker
um I don't know. The other stones are fun because they like really lean into infinity Ultron. Um, you know One of them makes a drone and one of them doubles Infinity Ultron's power.
00:27:53
Speaker
And then the sixth one is Blong. But that's like that's fun because it works with all the other stones. Anyway, I think he's he's a fun card and he needs a buff. I don't know if this is enough.
00:28:05
Speaker
People were playing him for a minute, weren't they? Yeah, sometimes. i I was seeing him around. i like it's It's a card I've never played myself, but so he seemed...
00:28:20
Speaker
Like in real decks, like I'm not imagining that. Right. Like he he was he was around, wasn't he? I think part of it is the Victoria Hand problem. And this applies to Major Victory also, where as soon as you're talking about created cards, you should probably just be playing Victoria Hand. And if you're playing Victoria Hand, you should probably be playing cheap created cards and cloning Victoria Hand.
00:28:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Victoria Hand. Yeah. It's like she just she really narrows the space of what you should be doing with created cards. Okay.
00:28:55
Speaker
reha um Okay, if you don't mind, shall we collect all these ones together with the point changes? Okay, so King E-Tree, Mantis, Kingpin, and Nightcrawler are all retaining their same abilities, but going up one ah point in power from two to three.
00:29:19
Speaker
And i think, one, this is big. As much as we normally we normally in OTAs are more poo-pooing of, like, the ones, ups and downs, this is where we do pay attention because the one cost and the two costs or so, you know, once you get to that energy level, that point of power feels like it makes a much bigger difference.
00:29:41
Speaker
I do think that makes... some of these cards more playable, particularly Nightcrawler for me. like ah But um it did make me wonder. like When I saw this, my thought was, like i wonder if Snap will be around the long enough to to get a stat crunch, like if they'll need that. like if A lot of games, particularly in and MMOs, where like the numbers go up as you get levels and stuff, and here you're not gaining levels except for collection level.
00:30:12
Speaker
But, like, the power creep happens, and eventually the numbers are just too big. It's just too unwieldy, like, for you to, like, mentally track or the get some noxious, you know, um to compute and store pointless. So they just, they take it one time, you know, they have an event and they just pull all of the numbers down at once. Usually it's called the stat crunch. And kind of wonder if we'll see that in 7, because now we've learned like a with an ability just doesn't cut it for 1 anymore, right? Like...
00:30:48
Speaker
That's an interesting idea. you guys have thoughts on that? Because I think they would actually like to do the opposite of a stat crunch. They'd like to do a stat expansion because that lets them essentially use half points. But math is already getting too much for me late night read Right. Is that the numbers are getting so big that especially on like total lane power, never mind on individual cards, that like yeah, you're having to do multiplication instead of addition and it's you know big numbers and and that makes the game less playable. And so...
00:31:17
Speaker
It's like pros and cons of adjusting the stat range. Because if you if you if you crunch it, then there's in an MMO, you can have something do one and a half power, but you can't make Nightcrawler a one, one and a half.
00:31:32
Speaker
You know, like this makes the game very awkward if you start using fractions or decimals. They might as well for how much like, I don't know how much I'm massing things anymore as opposed to just fighting. Because there used to be times where I would get down and count the numbers and I just don't even bother.
00:31:52
Speaker
Because when you're doing the numbers, it's not even just for one scenario because you're doing it for like different scenarios. Right. And it's just like too much. It's too much second dinner.
00:32:04
Speaker
I think it's kind of wild they're doing Nightcrawler 1-3, not touching Jeff. Right? Yeah, they even mentioned that in their justification. They're like, yeah, we know it's weird that it's the same as Jeff.
00:32:15
Speaker
We'll think about changing one of those later. But Jeff being a 2-4 suddenly makes a whole bunch of other twos a lot worse. This is the chain reaction and they that they have been in the process of, right? And they're kicking it off further now.
00:32:34
Speaker
But that 1-3 Nightcrawler, that's a pretty good card. Nightcrawler is a great way to get a Prowler on three with the the free skills. An early Pryo tool as well, right? Yeah, oh wow. Pryo across turns one, two, and you know, across multiple turns early in the game if you're trying to do a flexible way to contend with an opponent's Iron Patriot or Herald of Galactus or whatever they've got going on.
00:33:02
Speaker
I don't know. right so i I'm excited about 1-3 Nightcrawler especially. Right? The winner is Nightcrawler. loser is Mantis. Because she still retains the same ability. um But I'm sure you're not sad about Kingpin either. And I like King E-tree, obviously. I play him occasionally.
00:33:22
Speaker
and It's kind of a double buff to that deck because Thor goes 3-4 to 3-5. So and those two are almost always in the same deck. What's up? I think this ah the Kingpin change is well-timed because I would be a bit miffed if they were not giving this one a point of power. Now that now that we know that there's another one coming, I like it when they support the old ones.
00:33:47
Speaker
Especially because original, like regular Kingpin is such a cool card and I miss playing him more and I hope to play him again. he's i love Willy. He's my guy. What were you saying, Rhi?
00:34:00
Speaker
No, I'm glad you finished because I'm going back to what Lauren said. I was just thinking you're like, oh, because they buffed Lauren. I'm like, yeah, I love hammers, but I'm like, no, hammers suck. Honestly, if you're playing King E-Tree, it's not in hammers, right? E-Tree, like I would play in Loki. I would play in various other, like there's various decks where you play King E-Tree and it's like...
00:34:19
Speaker
You're not playing him with Thor because he's better than Thor because hammers are just so bad. they're They've gotten worse over time, I feel like. There was a moment of hope where it's like, will Frigga revive hammers? And it's like, no, the decline. Stocks on hammers just down, down, down. Do you disagree? no and and I worded it poorly. You always see King Eitri with Thor. You do not always see Thor with King Eitri. In fact, you usually don't. One of them got caught.
00:34:45
Speaker
He's the god of thunder. That's sad. ah Okay. Even in Grand Arena, his ability is not that interesting. It gives you another Mjolnir and draws a card. And then drawing a card's good, but... Don't worry. Do you know? Okay, sorry. site Minor side tangent. It kind of fits, actually, because Thor is going through, you know, he went through his Odinson phase where he was stripped of Thor and whatever. He's not... That's not what's happening right now. He got...
00:35:13
Speaker
Killed partially by betrayal by Loki, but it's all this grand thing because Loki's the god of stories now. Anyway, moving on. The point is he has been like resurrected as like a mortal and he has like a he's trying to go about as a construction hammer. But he's like, I feel the need for justice. And then and he runs into like some kind of like I mean, they might as well be a white power gang. I don't know. But they're like, a you know, they're a gang that's like obnoxious looking. And and they use Norse mythology and they're identifying. He's like, how dare you desecrate the name of Thor? And he doesn't know that he's Thor. But deep in his soul, he's like, they've wronged Thor and that wrongs me. And Enchantress, as usual, is up to her shenanigans.
00:36:00
Speaker
So anyway, so he is. Yeah, he's stuck. It's called the the the name of the comic right now is The Mortal Thor. Ooh, that's cute. It's mortal.
00:36:12
Speaker
um Yeah, it's it's it's it's enjoyable. Okay, that back to the show. Okay, back. There's just one more group. It goes 3-3 to 3-4. Another underpowered guardian. i think they said in the notes they might address the the higher cost guardians later.
00:36:29
Speaker
um Buffing Major Victory on his release week. i I'll be very interested to see if Major Victory is being played in two weeks from now.
00:36:40
Speaker
When do we reach... Sorry, go ahead. What was that? oh I think i think i we shouldn't expect to see people playing Major Victory until Sanctum comes around next time. Oh, that's true. and that is That's where I think the interest will come up, and I think it will be a mistake, but I'm looking forward to having other people do the experiment and seeing how that feels for them.
00:37:04
Speaker
Okay, just to delay here a little because we do have major victory and it's a guardian steal. weird How many cards do we have to help you? When's the threshold that guardians have enough cards to dictate your opponent's play?
00:37:18
Speaker
that Their power is is worthwhile. The thing is, their power is not really that good. It's above her, but it's not that good.
00:37:29
Speaker
But, like, how do you double it up besides Wong? You need to do, like, Wong, not, like, an abs man. You know what i mean? like you have to double it up in a certain way.
00:37:39
Speaker
like because there are other cards that you're like, oh, double it up. And it's like, it goes with everything. We see those cards. And the Guardians are, like, very c finicky. They're, like, only specifically...
00:37:50
Speaker
Two ideas for the Guardians that I really like. um I think both were from Iron Cloak, but I'm sorry if I'm misattributing one of them. oh Iron Cloak. Iron Cloak has great ideas. Friend of the show. One of them is for Mantis rework to be Wong for Guardians.
00:38:09
Speaker
oh Oh, I like that lot. Oh, my gosh. We'll see Guardians everywhere if they do that. the other one. Oh, like that. The other one was treating all of their abilities like a shared ability that scales. So every guardian you hit successfully, the next one's gains more power.
00:38:30
Speaker
Oh, scaling guardians. I like that. Oh, that would fix. I'll do it. Fix guardians. The problem is that but that one is complicated and they're like series two cards, you know, that's true. Yeah. Um, yeah but like you know We like them. We like the Guardians. yeah I think those are good ideas, and it's not that hard to understand. And it scales well for Series 2, because in Series 2, I play these two cards sequentially. They'll each get a buff or something. they'll you They each get plus one for each Guardian as you play it or something like that. That's understandable, and it's a low-key enough level. Because, look, we used to play Jessica Jones, you know? The Lobies...
00:39:12
Speaker
They, you know, they're not playing in the same playing field. So, like, they keep it low. And then at the top end, it's like you wouldn't do it unless you were playing, like, you know, a bunch of them. I don't know. They need to fix it. they Maybe there's a twist on it that kind of that scales, but not in a complicated way. Like, you were just saying, like, maybe each one buffs all the Guardians on the board. yeah You know? Yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker
Well, yeah, the way I was thinking about it originally is like the first one you hit is plus two. The next one's plus four. The next one's plus six. The next one's plus six. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. oh then You had to put more math in it, Lauren, because of course you did. Sorry. Yeah. But if you just buffed all the guardians, then that scales on its own. And it also makes it not as painful when you whiff a guardian. So i actually like that one a lot. is it just like more lines of text?
00:39:57
Speaker
I don't know. And so they're saying this gains plus four power. They're doing their current guardian thing, but also doing a global guardian buff. Is that the idea? Okay, what if it's just like a guardian ability and it's just like add X to ah all the guardians on the board, but it's more power. Like Gamora adds more at if she's a five cost. You know what i mean? but they all have the same test. So it's kind of easy to like...
00:40:24
Speaker
read and Would they still care about opponents playing in the same lane where they were played? That's how I imagined it. yeah okay Oh no, I didn't imagine. i just wait was not as you was I was not sure if we were all talking about the same thing. So that's why I'm asking all these stupid questions.
00:40:39
Speaker
No, i I like it if if you still have to land the the hit, but then it's not like, it's not the worst thing in the world when you whiff your Star-Lord because he's still there to get power when you hit all the other ones.
00:40:52
Speaker
Oh, okay. Like, it's an additional power. So, yeah, like, two lines of text. would take that out. One buff for calling the lane and another buff for having friends.
00:41:04
Speaker
And it's like, what when are the Guardians hanging out with Jean Grey? Like, she's honestly too cool. Like, Jean Grey was in space, went to have her own Phoenix journey of self-discovery, and she was just... didn't check in with the Guardians once.
00:41:16
Speaker
she read like i think she into the Guardian, but not like she was with them and became a Guardian. Other people will go to... Cyclops would go, and he would hang out with the Guardians as little side character. And Phoenix is like... She's too cool for that. She goes and flies and does her own thing. She is too cool for that. It's weird that she fits with Guardians. don't know. I don't like it. I think some synergies, some cross-themed synergies are fine as long as you also have thematic ones. You have Nebula, but then you also have Lizard, which is...
00:41:46
Speaker
Okay. Or Adam Warlock. That one is on theme-ish. Yeah. I can see the thread with Adam Warlock. All right. Well, that's the OTA and our thoughts on fixing the Guardians.
00:42:02
Speaker
yeah ah This patch that came out, hardly anything notable to talk about. They made the collecting ah collecting currency animations are are different now.
00:42:14
Speaker
um Cool. But they also released, or in the data mines, we have cards for April and May. Two seasons worth of cards on preview here.
00:42:25
Speaker
And we're going to go through all of them. So buckle up. cards Ben, tell us about April's season pass card. April's season pass card appears to be Strife.
00:42:39
Speaker
I believe that's some sort evil cable, as I recall. 4-6. Objective. Play three on-reveal cards. Use the highest cost on-reveal in your hand. Oh, that's what you get for fulfilling the objective. These are formatted in a way that's always super obvious. Snap fan doesn't have the...
00:42:57
Speaker
In the game, I think there's like an arrow or something separating the objective and the result. Snapband doesn't have that icon. so So yes, at the end of a turn, after which you have played three on reveal cards, that's when you get the objective. Use the highest cost on reveal in your hand.
00:43:14
Speaker
Sorry if I've asked this before. Objectives are going to count before the code got played, right? We don't know. Oh, that matters so much. I agree that matters a ton. Some of them are like... This one very much.
00:43:29
Speaker
Some of them are like, ah okay, this one, Wolverine, that we'll get to in a second. This has six or more power. That's like, that is like live updating, right? It doesn't matter if that happens before or ahead. Like there's not something that he has to see, right? But Strife, play three on reveal cards. Does he have to watch you do that?
00:43:49
Speaker
Does he have to be on the board? Does he have to be in your hand? Does it work in your deck? It makes a huge difference. um I love this card if it can if it counts ahead of time, but if it doesn't, no, yucky, this is way too expensive.
00:44:04
Speaker
Yeah, I have a suspicion that it does count ahead of time because otherwise this card is bad and it's the season pass card, so they don't want to do that. The other thing is the objectives happen at the end of the turn.
00:44:17
Speaker
And I think that, um, like something about that for like, logically, i think that that is because it would have been counting all of the things before. And that's why it doesn't like go in your, like the objective can't be fulfilled while it's in your hand.
00:44:35
Speaker
I think I, I, don't, I'm sorry, I'm sick. I can't trace my thought, but I think that for some reason, That made sense to me a few seconds ago because the objective thing happens at the end of the turn. I think that means it must be coming from the beginning of time.
00:44:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's like, oh, can you surprise an opponent with this on turn six? but you Like, I don't see why not. Okay, I do like this card because I love that beyond energy cheat, they're giving ways to play, like, right, this obviously pairs with Fin Fang Foom, with go the let so Zombie Galacti.
00:45:19
Speaker
Right, the seven cost cards. It wouldn't be connected to the other to the other ah targets for Galacti, but FinFingFoom's a great call. But wait, is seven Is zombie Galacti don't have the card? Is he not an on-reveal?
00:45:32
Speaker
he is an on-reveal, but he's weird. it's He and Dormammu are weird because they have like special that exact copy of special connections to the cards in your deck.
00:45:43
Speaker
So like if you use Astral Projection on zombie Galacti, it doesn't do anything. Oh, really? It wouldn't like pop your cards that are on board that are connected? right ok so has to be your original zombie galacti.
00:45:57
Speaker
also But Zola? Odin?
00:46:03
Speaker
like Has any other card ever told you to use an on reveal? Or like don't most of them copy an on reveal? I think firehair.
00:46:15
Speaker
Huh. Firehair uses on reveal.
00:46:23
Speaker
Because i'm I'm like wondering, like, could you do the zombie galacti while it's in your hand because you're using the zombie galacti's on reveal and not copying it for the...
00:46:36
Speaker
I think Strife is using it, but he doesn't. i don't know why he's not copying text. That's a good question. Would Strife do it for Strife's power? Would But you said it was a game start ability. Okay, I don't know. I guess we'll find out when. It won't work with Galacti, but like you could do Brood or Fin-Fing-Foom. Those would be great things that that Strife could use from his own perspective.
00:47:02
Speaker
Okay, but do you agree that it's good that we're putting in other ways to get things that aren't energy cheats? i like that. I mean, are we sure we're not energy cheating with this? I may be doing that in addition, to be honest, but you know what mean? Do we want to maybe copy Star-Lord or something?
00:47:22
Speaker
I
00:47:27
Speaker
hope not. It's another abs man, right? When someone has like 15 power, I mean, I understand. I also have played the game less because when I'm looking at turn six and it's like, should I retreat? You know, are they snapping or not snapping? And it's like they have like, they just like ah Fallen Wand and Star Lord and they've got like, I don't know, 15 to 20 energy. And for some reason they have like five or six cards in hand. And I'm like,
00:47:58
Speaker
Anything could happen. have like no fucking concept. I don't know. Subliminal. Yeah, I do not like your opponent having stacks of energy is not... Stacks of energy and a full hand, and it's so easy to get that.
00:48:12
Speaker
It's really fun to do, but it's so contrary to snap. This whole snap and retreat core mechanic of the game does not is not conducive with your opponent being able to dump their entire hand on the last turn. You know, there's a reason there were no cards that like did that when the game first released, I think.
00:48:32
Speaker
I think Hela's probably the closest, but also didn't have... Yeah, that is the closest. and And you know what? There's a reason Hela's been ah sort of ah a villain. Not not just like character-wise, but the you know the gameplay identity of Hela has been considered a villain.
00:48:48
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, I adore this card. I will play the hell out of it. if The objective counts before he's on the board. It has. Like, they they're not in the business of... yeah They don't... I mean, well, I don't know. They have put out some stinky season cards, but the season pass, like, that that tells me that it's gotta be like that, right? I hope you're right.
00:49:09
Speaker
um But, yeah. I mean, Forkaz, Forkaz, Zola, come on. Like, I'm gonna use the hell out of that card. Ugh. I mean... i guess you can't actually... I was thinking, and then Grandmaster, but you can't do that because it's end of turn. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:49:21
Speaker
Yeah, also, just like when it uses that on reveal, it doesn't like gain that text permanently. It's not like rewriting itself like Absorbing Man. So like you couldn't grandmaster because it is doing the Firehair thing. i yeah looked at Firehair, and yep, that's that's where that's where the use has been used before.
00:49:42
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think it's got to be counting from the beginning of the game, and it's probably a really good card, and probably not going to be fun. I've done lots of cool things with astral projection, but being able to target the highest cost changes things.
00:49:57
Speaker
Whereas astral is random. Also astral projection can't do things that require it to have a bot. i mean, like it can copy those on reveals, but like you don't get anything. Astral projecting brood gives you zero power. brieflings yeah right Yeah. Has as a corporeal form to absorb all these, uh, or, you know, do all the the different things.
00:50:19
Speaker
okay Yuck. Super premium, Rhi. Oh, super premium set. That means I won't get it. OK, because I was just excited because this is a skill called Techno Organic Virus.
00:50:37
Speaker
um So it is one cost and it has the ability on reveal. Copy this to your hand with plus two cost. Infect your other cards here.
00:50:47
Speaker
Replace their text. with the new text ongoing plus one power for each techno organic virus you've played. Okay,
00:51:01
Speaker
okay my immediate thought with this would be to play it in Galactus First Steps, Wiccan, Quicksilver Domino, because when you're playing those cards, they're not good cards, right? Like Quicksilver Domino for their costs. So when I am putting... When when I'm shaping my First Steps Galactus decks, which usually for me is kind of a tech suit deck with enough power, ah you know, to put you over the top and, you know, maybe a surprise Legion for funsies. But, like ah like, this would make your... You're consistently... If you can make something good out of Quicksilver and Domino by, like, slapping abilities on them, buffing them up, whatever you can do you're trying to...
00:51:47
Speaker
This will do that. The other benefit for that style of deck is that it adds itself back into your hand, obviously, which is another thing you're kind of hoping to do. like Some of those decks that don't run Domino will run Kate and stuff. Because you want... You're usually trying to fill up your hand a little bit later and have more variety. Because like usually you're playing things, or at least me and my decks, like Mobius and ah Stardust. You're hoping to catch someone, you know what i mean? On their counter. So you're playing a variety of counters. But if...
00:52:20
Speaker
if you If you didn't catch them, then that card's useless. Or if it's an on-reveal, like a red guardian or something, which is another card I play, you know, a lot of these counters I play, it's like once it's done that, it's fulfilled its purpose, and now it's just, you know, a dead low-power card. This gives it, you know what i mean? This could be that thing that turns your used tent cards into a um something else. So ah i like this card a lot for that. That's what I'd use it for, i think, first.
00:52:50
Speaker
I was getting it. How about how they you two? I was pretty low on it the first time I read it, but it is growing on me quickly. First, I don't i i thought it was just copying to one card, but it's every other card at the location. Yeah. So, i mean, if you hit three cards with this and then three cards with the the next one, you get the three-cost one.
00:53:14
Speaker
That's six cards getting plus two points. Because you're realistically only playing this twice probably, right? Unless you have something that energy cheats you or makes it cheaper.
00:53:25
Speaker
the other thing that I really like with it Sauron.
00:53:31
Speaker
Like this is another way to rid of you. Like you were saying bad cards but or like cards that don't have great abilities. But like, what if you have a card with a bad ability? Like you don't need to enchantress your lizard anymore. You just smack it with the techno organic virus. Only one cost. Yeah. Only one cost to get rid of a stack.
00:53:51
Speaker
You play Ebony Ma and Techno Organic Virus on the same turn. Yeah. Also, do think we should figure this card to get a one-cost Techno Organic Virus again? Because I don't know about this escalating business. I don't think you could do that, but you could use Nico's copy.
00:54:05
Speaker
or Yeah. so some There's got to be some way. Or Moon Girl. it's It's like such an investment to be playing this card over and over again and also playing enough cards in two lanes early enough to be getting the value.
00:54:22
Speaker
But like I do like that that it launders bad text boxes. I also kind of like it in Spectrum, but like a weird Spectrum that doesn't have to run only ongoing cards.
00:54:33
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. i'm i like This is my first time reading the cards, so I'm really not sure about this one. I don't know if I like the the the numbers and the expectation that you you play it twice and you already need to have the bodies there for it.
00:54:52
Speaker
That's the part that I don't like. The fact that you already need to have three cards at the location if you want value. Pretty expensive. it's It's like a lot of hoops to jump through, I guess. Maybe play you you could play it like a third time, yeah, with astral projection or something. Or for five energy if you are, you know, doing something that makes a bunch of energy. Oh, yep.
00:55:15
Speaker
Maybe that is the intention. That might be the intention there. It's like, oh, do we just miss out the obvious?
00:55:24
Speaker
has to be the highest cost one in your hand, but I guess that's how you get the one that's that's the five cost one. Yeah.
00:55:32
Speaker
OK, cool. ah Wolverine, Horseman of War, a four three with the objective. This has six or more power. Your reward.
00:55:43
Speaker
Give one of your cards at each location plus three power. that ends up being a 412 which we've seen plenty of those say aries or gwenpool once upon a time um good you you have to find some way to buff him but you only have to give him plus three power
00:56:10
Speaker
seems all right it's like how can i put this with no more but i'm not seeing it to be honest you No more totally. That would... that would ah how yeah How are we buffing him?
00:56:25
Speaker
i mean... Just America Chavez will get the start. It's not worth a
00:56:32
Speaker
You're right. It's not worth the Shuri. He's kind of expensive, honestly. But America, have to look out, right? America, you look out. Shuri doesn't feel worth it. What cards are we using what cards are reason to buff this guy? Also Gwenpool, the previously mentioned. Okay, yeah, Gwenpool, universally good.
00:56:52
Speaker
No, can... ah Surge already gets you a little closer. I feel like you just play a lot of buff effects and play this guy, you know?
00:57:04
Speaker
oh here we go. Okay. I've never tried to do a two-one shell swoop, but...
00:57:12
Speaker
What was that? Nomura is my favorite suggestion so far. She gives plus five in two lanes and then he gives plus three in three lanes. Oh, you mean like a synergy? She buffs him and then he like buffs her. That's cute. i like you but What about the big dragon?
00:57:28
Speaker
um The one who doesn't die. Cholau. o That's a good way to get three or more power. I mean, it's easy to get cards power. I just wanted to think enough hand.
00:57:42
Speaker
He's kind of expensive. He's a four. He's expensive for plus three. and And if you're hitting them, you don't, the problem with Sholau you don't want it to go on just any card, right? For this to be worthwhile, you want it to hit your like um Shaw or you know what i mean? Right? Yeah. I think this probably goes in a deck that is maybe not exactly Surfer, but like like Surfer and has a lot of Surfer-y cards in it, you know?
00:58:09
Speaker
Maverick and Kemp Card. Yeah. Just cards that love buffs. Scarlet Spiner. And you know, maybe maybe it is Surfer. i i who Who's to say? Maybe it Dac with this and Scarlet, you know? i just don't know if I would make room for this card because Surfer is a very competitive... like There are so many good cards. right It's hard to make room for a four cost that is sort of on theme, you know?
00:58:40
Speaker
He was kind of mid, right? As a card, probably. I'm not not super impressed by this card at first glance. Looks playable, but meh. you know Just like the other Wolverine that got added to the game.
00:58:52
Speaker
Oh, I think this is better than that one. I was like, I like OG. Yeah. Okay. Or at least less all in. Ben? Archangel, Horseman of Death.
00:59:07
Speaker
That's two cost for three power with an objective. And the objective is your cards are destroyed four times. And the reward for that objective is resurrect one here with plus four power.
00:59:19
Speaker
So, uh, it's a it's little destroy card and a little one, but, uh, it doesn't do its thing until you've, you know, gone down the destroy road pretty far. I mean,
00:59:33
Speaker
My thinking is you want to control which thing gets resurrected. So maybe three of the four destroyed cards are Deadpool and X-23 and Wolverine or some combination of two of those or one of those three times. That way you can guarantee that whatever actually died, yeah only only one card has actually died and hopefully it's big and loves having plus four power or something.
01:00:00
Speaker
Does that, does that, how, how is this card striking y'all? What what what does it make you think?
01:00:07
Speaker
I'm wondering how I can destroy something early so I can surprise drop this on turn six, assuming, like you know i mean? I don't need, it doesn't need to see it, which is what we've been assuming. But it's like you don't normally, it's not like discard where you can just toss big cards out of your hand early.
01:00:28
Speaker
yeah yeah So it's probably something smaller, right? huh Yeah, you have to pay for the cards that you're destroying. But what if maybe you use it, you can do some cute things with it, like bring back a Killmonger to like, ah if depending as on the deck you're playing against. Sometimes I'm playing against decks where I wish I could play Killmonger against them twice. You know, I had another thought.
01:00:54
Speaker
um if we're If we're doing the thing where three of the destroyed cards are out of the pool and you don't have to worry about them, that means that this could go well with a Kid Omega if you want to destroy something big and late or a Fastball Spesh. Or if there's a medium card or medium-sized card and we do want to be like...
01:01:16
Speaker
doing earlier game stuff, I love getting a resurrected Daken because that means there's more Muramasa shards floating around. Also, Daken loves having extra power because, you know, multiplying and stuff. so I do love that idea so much. I hope Archangel is a Daken friend.
01:01:35
Speaker
That's my hope. I do enjoy that. Yeah, it would nice to see him make more sense as a destroy card as well, you know? i would love i would love that for him. I see very little Elixir, and that's what I'm trying to compare it to. like This is plus four more power than Elixir is.
01:01:53
Speaker
Elixir's easier to target, it also has a restriction that Archangel doesn't have. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. What's the tradeoff? is it I think Archangel's better, actually.
01:02:05
Speaker
I think Elixir and stuff... is Do you think they're a little underutilized? Oh, my gosh. Every time I pick up a Morgan Le Fay deck or some, like, kind of wacky, like, destroy deck, they they seem, like, really powerful to me in unexpected ways that can get cubes. And it's almost been daunting to me. Like, the possibility, it's like literally everything can be destroyed.
01:02:30
Speaker
it because Morgan Le Fay would bring it. It was almost too powerful for me. like I almost think that sometimes destroy players win to these and they're like, no, back to the comfort of my Deadpool and my Gnull and my, you know what I mean? And my normal like destroy. it It's so different. It's so wild.
01:02:46
Speaker
Every time I play one, that's how I feel about these decks anyway. I think Elixir's underutilized. I hardly ever see him outside of decks that have tons of revive options.
01:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, I've got like plenty of experience with Morgan Le Fay, but I haven't really messed with Elixir, so it's possible I'm undervaluing what he's about. Just bringing back a Venom a lot of times can sometimes just like be all you need. Oh, yeah.
01:03:16
Speaker
Also, if you're bringing back a Venom that was destroyed, that Venom was probably eating a lot of those things that won't be going back into the destroyed pool. So that's that's a good point for Venom. That's what I'm saying. When I get in these morgula phase and it's just like, because you normally are like, you're not destroying your venom unless you're zoling it and your carnage and stuff. Those are your power cards. Those are the payoff that also help you destroy stuff. And now it's like, no, you destroy those as well. they all just come back. And it's like, anytime I play those, I like just win.
01:03:46
Speaker
Like people just aren't used to that style of tech yet. And ah it's just, it's too many options for me. It gets like bounce. It's like, I could destroy everything! OK.
01:03:58
Speaker
Sorry, I'll stop like being in wonder about it. This is one, and there there might be others, but this is one of the objective cards that I can see playing out early, too, like before its objective is ready. And you time it so that you know the fourth thing you destroy is going to be the one that gets revived. It's kind of interesting. OK.
01:04:17
Speaker
And they do get resurrected at Archangel's location. I mean, like, I guess that's one point against necessarily playing it early because you are telling them where it's coming out. anybody That's why the surprise of it is good, right?
01:04:32
Speaker
Because it's if you could find a way to kill a high-power card, then they don't know where you're going play it the last turn. it's it's the ah It's the Nimrod that you just get Omega or something. Yeah.
01:04:45
Speaker
right. Okay. Oh, am I up next? You're next. Oh, Polaris, Horseman of Pestilence. um A two two with the objective, cards in play are afflicted with minus 5 power.
01:05:02
Speaker
Put a card from your hand here.
01:05:08
Speaker
I assume just minus five power is out in total across the That seems really easy to do, right? It does seem really easy to do. Hazmat. Done. Yep. I feel like there's a reason Dragonlord costs five. Mm-hmm.
01:05:24
Speaker
The problem will be timing it right to get the card you want or building it so that if it pulls, because, like... I'd be worried about it going off too early from natural causes. Okay, what if you use it to pull a sentry into the right lane? i don't know.
01:05:42
Speaker
and then I don't think it counts negative power as affliction. I just like when I can cheat sentry. Oh, I'm sorry. I misunderstood what you were asking. I thought i thought i thought you were like saying like trigger it by playing sentry. but no you're you're saying No, I mean pull the sentry into the right lane. It's probably not the most useful. Play him where he's not allowed to be played. Breaking all the rules.
01:06:04
Speaker
Sentry and the voice spotted in the same location. you're playing a War Machine deck and then you have Arisham or whatever you get Sentry and you're like hee. Okay.
01:06:19
Speaker
use this to sneak a man thing behind goose i don't know yeah see i like i like when people do and okay besides hazmat actually i wasn't thinking of it but like something like a man thing or a a u.s agent gets you to minus five really fast really fast like i really think this card's going off all the time like locations will make this card go off thunderbolt's tower will make this card go off and then you just play luke cage Once again, you can't... It's nice that it pulls a card from your hand, but it feels like your hand you'll probably have enough in your hand. When it goes off, it'll be hard to control what exactly it's going to pull.
01:07:00
Speaker
But maybe you don't care. The base affliction deck mostly doesn't care. Ajax, good. Malekith, good. Luke Cage, good. like Diamondback?
01:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, this card seems real strong to me. That's my opinion. That's good one. Okay. Also, Mother Ascani. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say, still love original Polaris, and I'm a little disappointed this one has mechanically no nods to to anything about original Polaris. But we do already have a variant of this character in the game.
01:07:36
Speaker
the The Polaris. and Yes, yes, we do. Specifically. Uh-huh. Yep. Okay. Mother Ascani, an event card. 4-4. On reveal, give the leftmost card in your hand plus two power and minus one cost, then copy it. It's kind of a super majestic wink beat.
01:07:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:03
Speaker
for you to be you want to be pretty sure you have that card you want i copy can to gonna manage your hands you know what's on the left you're not putting this in your deck unless you're really sure you're gonna manage your hand right like well that's the thing i think you are gonna manage your hand probably or the thing that Or I feel like maybe this goes in like a pretty low-curved deck where like it'll be easy to manage the hands and get something desirable over there. Lots of things. Also, like reasonable think about all the times you've ever played Moongirl not for sheer volume for Devil Dinosaur whatever, but like just because there was like one card you wanted two of.
01:08:43
Speaker
And this is like a much better version of doing that for Moongirling a specific card. This one's bad with Devil Dinosaur. Yeah, yeah this this this is not as good with Devil Dino as Moon Girl is, and that seems appropriate, yeah fitting even.
01:08:59
Speaker
um But it seems real good to me. i I'm sure there's a way to make this nuts. It will have great uses. I think if we had Nico's Copy Spell as a reliable card that was always the Copy Spell, that's a really, really strong ability.
01:09:16
Speaker
And this kind of does that. Ooh, also, you know what this... I just love this about certain four-cost cards, like Absorbing Man, but this would just be a fun thing, and it would feel unified in theme and purpose to top-deck this with after Surge. you know i just love i love thinking about cards that are fun to top-deck with Surge, and my current favorite is Absorbing Man to get a second Surge train going. But like this would also be fun. right This would be a great surge card. Would you play this in a surfer?
01:09:52
Speaker
ah That's where I'm thinking about playing it. That's the archetype where I'm very often considering, like, what, you know, if a card looks like it might be a surfer card, that's how I start evaluating it, even if it might do other things.
01:10:05
Speaker
i mean, ending up with cost surfers? That's, yeah. Yeah, right? Okay. I don't know why I was down. i guess I was looking at Frigga. This is different. This is a little different thing. But it is very similar to Frigga in some ways.
01:10:25
Speaker
But yeah, I think this card might be better than Frigga. But like with Frigga, you're trying to copy something lower than this. And I think this is better. And i was I was comparing it to that. And I'm like, but she's not like that great. But this, your mate you're copying. It's different because you're potentially copying or you know what i mean, doing it to something bigger.
01:10:44
Speaker
yourre like rain Your options are greater for it. She lets you do something bigger, but I think mostly her good hits are going to be cheap. Because minus one cost is is so much more meaningful on a cheap card.
01:10:56
Speaker
Another cool thing about this card that cannot be said of Frigga is that um your opponent doesn't know what card you just copied and and discounted. Like double discounted, right? Does does it do it to the original?
01:11:11
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it does it to the original and then copies it. So yeah, I think this card's real good. That's what I think. Curious point about that. Okay, so we're so we're all into it then, but it's like a it's a limited time event card, and I feel like they've made an effort to make all of those kind of crummy.
01:11:30
Speaker
Dragon Lord, was that an effort was that an accident? yeah, you're right. Dragon Lord's pretty good. that's true. I rescind my slander. Dragon Lord is definitely the best since they started doing that.
01:11:43
Speaker
But this season, this season, it's like, I don't i don't know. i I would also be drawing. i I didn't think of Dragon Lord when you said that, Ray. I was just thinking of the two this season. And I was like, yeah, they they really have been putting some stinkers in the LTVs. You're going to blaspheme Major Victory and Starhawk?
01:12:03
Speaker
ah Yes. Yes. Easily. ah when corrupted Honestly, find me on the street. Ask me about him. I'll I'll tell you. I feel like we just don't even remember what, like you said, until between Cassandra Nova and Dragonlord, what even were the cards? We don't even remember. Agony, Lasher, King E-Tree.
01:12:24
Speaker
oh Oh, wow. Those are better cards than I remember. Yeah. I forgot about Agony being an event too. Those are early ones, and then there's like a whole year that I've lost. Although, Agony did not start out as a very good card. Agony was one, two, and there was nothing to do with it.
01:12:40
Speaker
She there. right. She got buffed. All right.
01:12:48
Speaker
Okay. I'm sure there are a bunch that I've missed. Basically all of 2025. One more. um one more for April. a Storm, horseman of famine. She's a three, two, like a, like so sometimes regular storm is probably right now. Right. I don't know how storm is right now. Uh, anyway, objective and two turns in a row with unspent energy.
01:13:11
Speaker
And the reward for that objective is give your other cards here and in your hand plus two power. Wow. Well, she's a star Lord friend.
01:13:25
Speaker
She sure is. Rewards you for the same thing.
01:13:29
Speaker
She's not. I feel like Star-Lord's still the way better card. But like, yes she's a friend. um I think she's... You can play Storm on ah four and then Star-Lord on five.
01:13:45
Speaker
Yeah. They curve up real nice and in that little undercurve where you're burning one energy every turn. Right. Yeah.
Card Strategy: Triggering on Turn Five
01:13:53
Speaker
She's good if the objectives are... If she has to be there to see you doing the objective. But I think she's great if she doesn't have to be there watching you do it.
01:14:04
Speaker
like And I'm assuming that she does not have to watch. Yeah. And she's one of the first of these objective cards we've seen, though, where you don't... You really do want to trigger her for sure before you turn six. So you're getting the bonus of that your cards in hand getting the buff. So you're... Yeah.
01:14:22
Speaker
Yeah. Here and in your hand. That's like, that could easily be 10 extra power. Of course you have to play those cards.
01:14:33
Speaker
but That's what I'm saying. So you want to trigger her on turn five. Don't play her on turn six. Yeah, five or earlier. And that's why I think turn four. And my hand is going to be full of fives. It's going be yummy, yummy, yummy.
01:14:50
Speaker
That is, i i would never have thought of the Bast angle.
01:14:58
Speaker
She's a Bast friend. I'm always thinking i about Bast angles. but
01:15:06
Speaker
Okay. Start us off with the season pass in May, Rhi.
Daredevil Season Pass & Shadowlands Card
01:15:11
Speaker
Okay, one, this is my introduction that we're having a, it looks like a Daredevil season, which like, I am a long running, it's so weird. I don't know why, ever since the Frank Miller era, I've loved Daredevil so much. I have, it is one of my longest running comic chains. I've gotten Daredevil for years and years and years and years, even when it's been very bad um based on this like love of likes the the premise and the small times that it is. And I will say it is my turn to be righteously infuriated that we're getting a Shadowlands Daredevil before so many characters.
01:15:50
Speaker
in the day like His blind spot would have been a great character. There's so many other characters we could have read in here. Anyway, but Shadowlands Daredevil is a two two ah with the ability on reveal, shuffle three demons into your deck. When you draw a card with six or more power, plus two power.
01:16:10
Speaker
My first thought, okay, I had an interesting when I was when i was advanced skimming two thoughts in quick succession. The first one is like, oh, this is great. Three demons, you know? Which are, a demon is a great, a one-six is just a great card. And like you can if you can control when you can play it,
01:16:28
Speaker
um right But then on the second hand, and that he he gets power, even better. um But on second thought, it's like that's putting them into your deck, preventing you from drawing other things. And it's a one cut it's great because it's 1-6.
01:16:44
Speaker
But it's not great when your hand is full of ones, you know what i mean? And you run out and you don't have cards to play. So honestly, the fact that this puts it into your deck, unless you... It's like I'd almost want to play E-Treat some stuff to mitigate that, or ah e it might kind of be bad feels. How are you guys thinking about this?
Deck Thickening Strategies
01:17:05
Speaker
I've got some mixed feelings about this card. One thing that I think we need to consider is that these are created cards in your deck. They're not created in your hands. so They're not friends with Vicky.
01:17:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Lauren, you are muted. That's a good point. Thank you. i had said that deck thickening is bad oh yes i agree that's that's my other uh worry about this card and i'm like re-hit on it right demons have great stats but they don't do anything and then ben hit on it even further with like okay so one thing that you do with stacks of demons that you get from the hood is vicky and you can't do that so um
01:17:49
Speaker
This joins the pantheon of season pass cards where like I get why they picked the character because you know Daredevil, he should he should be headlining the Daredevil season. But this ability is very weird for a season pass card.
01:18:06
Speaker
ah not Not a big fan, and i don't think it's super duper interesting. How else could you... miss Okay, King E-Tree would let you draw one. Are there other ways you could mitigate the, like, the deck-sickening aspect of this?
01:18:22
Speaker
You could just have tons and tons of draw. um You could Fastos and Jane Foster. I don't like a Crystal. People... I've seen people playing Crystal lately, and I'm like, for real?
01:18:33
Speaker
I love it. No, it's because of Star-Lord. That's that's the thing. Crystal on four, Star-Lord on five. I guess that's right. The idea is that you just have to get Star-Lord you're playing Star-Lord. So you then you need to draw your big power cut and then it doesn't matter because you have so much power and energy.
Card Interactions: Daredevil & Thaddeus Ross
01:18:52
Speaker
Also, although I do think that the deck thickening is sort of the headline here with Shadowlands Daredevil, we are kind of neglecting the second sentence. Sure. When you draw a card with six or more power, plus two power. You're right! More than just demons. Probably not just demons. Yeah. Is this like new chamber or something? Or like, I don't know. Maybe you're pairing with skipping energy? There's a deck where this is better than chamber. Yeah.
01:19:21
Speaker
What was that? So it doesn't I'm like maybe you're pairing this with the unspent energy stuff. So if you have a bunch of high power cards or like sunspot cards, then it doesn't matter that you're wasting a draw with like a demon. Because you'll go with Thaddeus Ross.
01:19:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it does, though, right? like Do those count as draws? Does Thaddeus put them into your hand or do you draw them? Oh, that's a good question. I'm pretty sure they count as draws. um But Thaddeus Ross is a great way to mitigate the deck thickening. And, oh, but you're saying does he pair? Will he get the plus two power? I'm pretty sure it's a draw.
01:20:03
Speaker
He says draw card. I think draw is just always when you get something from your deck into your hand is always a draw. But that's the perfect match because yeah then you get you're getting the high-powered cards you can play, so you're mitigating potentially losing a whole draw to just getting you know a demon.
01:20:20
Speaker
i like that. okay yeah Maybe there's cute things to do you if you give yourself enough draw power. I love cute things and decks. I do, too. It just feels like one cute thing, though. not I like cards that have lots of cute things. Yeah.
01:20:35
Speaker
If it's a tenero deck, then it's not fun. you know I do think it is going to be... i have a feeling It's going to be all right. like This seems like a very playable card, even though it's not to my taste and I don't like cards that shuffle things into your deck. But like I think about Agamotto, and I think this is a better version of shuffling a bunch of shit into your deck than Agamotto is.
01:20:59
Speaker
Are you actually going to leave things on the board? And it's consistent. It's three copies of the same card. You can plan around that. You can work with that. um Yeah, I think it's going to be good with, the you know...
01:21:12
Speaker
it's just the Vicky thing that not friends with Vicky. So that's not it. But like, who who else likes created cards? It's a Quinjet, but is is there some other card that likes created cards?
Wilson Fisk Card Analysis
01:21:24
Speaker
Am I, there are so many cards now.
01:21:27
Speaker
No, the problem is with Quinjet. And so like they, they changed it. So things just don't get reduced unless it's like, yeah, very specific cards. Gorgon, not helpful.
01:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, all right. Well, maybe maybe maybe that really is... i don't know. i got a hunch this card isn't nothing, though. As much as i wish it were, because i love to ignore cards that thicken the deck.
01:21:51
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, super premium season pass. Kingpin 2, Wilson Fisk. 5-9, but costs 3 if you have the highest power card in play.
01:22:04
Speaker
That sounds real good. I like the seaminess. I think this card's gonna get played a lot in that type of deck.
01:22:17
Speaker
Get Pryo. You can play a three nine I do like that this one has some mechanical connection perhaps to original Kingpin because original Kingpin makes the opponent's card smaller, making it yeah more possible for you to have the largest card. That satisfies me in a way that Polaris did not.
01:22:39
Speaker
I like it. I'm glad you pointed that out. It's tenuous. I don't know. Yeah, right. Think how easy this would be to pop a you you know, a squirrel girl and like maybe even play that early mockingbird to just like take down whatever they have to then get this fisk. And if you copy that, which, you know, but it's friends with, it you know, have more of these that just keep getting. because what you like about making cards cheaper. Kind of what you were just saying, Ben, was like, what likes created cards? And we were just talking about the problem is it bottoms out at one. So like, you know, like you're not trying to copy a lot of demons and play a Quinjet unless the Quinjet's for other stuff. But this, like, this you want, like, a handful of that you've made, like, vastly cheaper. Because nine, not a one nine, if you got it to there, you know? It doesn't discount off three.
01:23:37
Speaker
It always... Oh, won't discount off of three, will it? don't think so. It might bottom out at three then, so you can't get super tricksy. Probably for the best, to be honest. That's the case. You can't get, like, Quinjet and stuff going, too. Yeah.
01:23:50
Speaker
ah You know, I said before Pryo, it's not really Pryo. You just need to play a big card. And you can play something silly like, I'm not saying it's worth it, but you could do something like Martyr or Maximus and you will almost certainly have the biggest card.
Cost Reduction Mechanics
01:24:05
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. The cost three will override other reductions on it. one but the thing that it doesn't override is his natural five costs. So he's not a surfer friend. And that's that's one thing that bugs here. True.
01:24:17
Speaker
Also, Lauren, you said earlier you'd play a vanilla 3.8. I'm not sure I would play a vanilla 3.8. Really? I'll play. Yeah. Probably would. But I might play a vanilla 3.9. So that's that's what I'm thinking about. I'm like, this this one this one might be on the other side of the line for me.
01:24:36
Speaker
But this would be, oh, sorry. go ahead I just wish it had an ability, but I guess it is just here to be big and cheap. Right. It is kind of like Mockingbird in that way. And once you said Mockingbird, even but that wasn't like a connection you were drawing, but I'm like, yeah, I guess it is good to play three nines or whatever. And it's fine. It's good.
01:24:54
Speaker
Also, though, this would be another great Galactus first steps card because with turn three it' usually the big struggle to maintain that lane to keep buffing your Galactus first steps because it's like, OK, a lot of people don't even play a one. I mean, it's more frequent anymore.
01:25:10
Speaker
with everything, but like, right. And then domino is usually a big two because people are usually like setting up their Merlins or whatever they're doing. And three is usually where they're going to come down and try and steal the lane. And you're hoping like your speed or whatever you've got, unless you're doing something, you're just giving up on it and going to a different lane.
01:25:26
Speaker
And it's like, this is a good chance where you'd have that domino down on two that you still have the biggest card in play, and then you play it to keep your Galactus run going. And it's it's a good It's that card that's the other problem with Galactus first steps and when you're building that lane for Galactus. is like It's like, okay, for a lot of time, you're going to play the first three rounds into that lane and then sit there to like the end, or unless you have cards that are going to move out of that lane.
01:25:53
Speaker
or other stuff, and, like, this is a big enough card to justify taking that third spot in the lane, you know, and finishing it off later with something else. Alright. Sorry. One thing that you said there that just jumped out at me was, you mentioned speed, and this card is just, like, better than speed.
01:26:10
Speaker
Just, like, way better than speed. Yeah, you might play this instead of speed, right? Yeah, like, I think the speed, like, looks kinda... I mean, I've been a long-time speed skeptic, but, like, this card really... Yeah, I... I have a great variant of speed. you think this will work if you have a tie?
01:26:30
Speaker
Yes. Oh, that's a good question. If you have the highest power card input, yep, I think so. I would, by board game and card game rules reading, usually that means you would share it, I would think. I agree. They both get the buff from, well, and do the locations say cards with the highest power or...
01:26:53
Speaker
well like uh like you know throne room or whatever and monster metropolis they are friendly ties there
01:27:06
Speaker
you have all right i think it would work but you know we'll find out it is like a winner takes all like you have to have like the very highest the highest power card yeah can you ruin yourself with your own tie i don't think so um okay ben Ah, Punisher War Machine.
Criticism of Punisher War Machine Card
01:27:29
Speaker
This is a 2-2. ah It's the super premium season pass. ah The SPSP. Sometimes, well, we'll see if it stands for that. No, no, no. Wilson Fisk was the super premium.
01:27:42
Speaker
Oh, was Wilson Fisk the Super... Okay, that's right. That's my bad for making that I'm great at listening. Punisher War Machine is just a regular-ass Series 5 card, looks to me. um right Anywho, when you draw this tu to mark a location that's empty for you.
01:27:57
Speaker
Objective, win the location for plus one maximum energy. That's not how any of the other objective cards are formatted or written at all. That is... It's the wrong keyword! Yeah!
01:28:12
Speaker
That's really weird. I think it's because they ran out of space because they are pretty strict about three lines. And so they can't say, you know, when the locate, I mean, they could have just win the location and then arrow plus one max energy. I don't know. It's weird. You're right.
01:28:29
Speaker
Also, when they say objective, when the location, do they mean be winning the location at the end of a turn? They have to, because if it's at the end of the game, the max energy doesn't matter. Yeah.
01:28:40
Speaker
I feel like it's too easy to like... One, this is like... It's a weirdly complexly written thing, even though it's kind of easy to understand. But like, B, it's like... It gives you plus one max energy for the rest of the game. If you play this on turn two, it's way too easy to set up to win a lane on turn three. You play Nightcrawler on turn one. we just got buffed to one three, right? This card. And then boom. Like, you move Nightcrawler to the lane...
01:29:09
Speaker
Like you put your other three cost card and then for turns four, five and six, you have one extra energy. You could win it on turn two. Yeah, you could. I mean, I assume when you draw this, the location is marked for everybody. So your opponent knows about the marked location and they know you have to be empty for you. But I guess you're right. If you have a way to like spread power without a card in the lane.
01:29:34
Speaker
Oh, I didn't even notice. It says, Marco, that's empty for you. Empty for you. So it starts... How often does your opponent... ready to You play in the right lane on turn two. like Yeah, what if your opponent just doesn't have a two-drop even a one-drop?
01:29:49
Speaker
I'm with you. It's too easy. For too good of a reward, you would set up your deck to like get you that extra energy. You know you would put in a Nightcrawler or a Quicksip, whatever you needed to do to like make it happen. I don't know. i guess not a quick score in this case. it would be done Yeah, and I'm highly skeptical of this card. I don't i don't i don't like the cut of its jib.
01:30:12
Speaker
I don't think it's healthy or cool. Let's get it out of here. surely Surely speaking our disapproval on this podcast will make them think better of it. I like Strife as an alternate way right to getting cards that are high cut like seven you know like a fin-fing-fum without doing energy cheat. and This is like the reverse direction. More energy cheat. Which, once again, i think beyond just all of us finding it annoying, the key part, as Lauren said, that hurts the game is it's ruining the snap and retreat mechanic, which rely on you having a poker-style knowledge of the game. It's just getting harder. It's just getting more random and random whether your guess on the snap retreat is going to like matter or not. And then... and then
01:30:58
Speaker
And then that ruins what Conquest? It's like if the snap tree mechanic is gone, then like that's what evens out the game. you know what I mean? That's what makes it a competitive rather than just silly, fun, random game. And that's what we're worried about.
01:31:13
Speaker
That's why we're right second dinner. You listen to us. Yeah. Cowards. Yeah. Just kidding. um yeah this one's This one seems really random to me, which is what you were getting at. it's like It's not necessarily too easy to get the max energy because he does only have two power. so Then it's just kind of random. You play him on two, you hope your opponent doesn't play there on two. If they did, then you don't get the energy. If they didn't, then you do. Come back and win it on three. It's still very It feels like rolling the die.
01:31:45
Speaker
You're right. ah Okay.
Muse Card in Destroy Decks
01:31:48
Speaker
Next one, Rae. Okay, the next one is Muse, which is the three three with the ability, and the ongoing ability, plus three power for each location a friendly card has been destroyed in.
01:32:05
Speaker
Okay, so I know a three cost, everyone's like surfer first, but like it's obviously a destroyed deck. So besides a surfer destroy, my first wondering of this, I'm wondering what you guys think because I haven't played as much of these style of decks. But like the Wild Child, Phantom X, like discard, destroy with ongoing. Do you think some reason you do that with a Moonstone with other stuff like Wild Child and stuff?
01:32:29
Speaker
is that too like cute? I like Moonstone because of how big this is. Like Moonstone for plus nine is not the worst idea. you know, I'd like it better if Muse were putting the power in the locations where the friendly cards were destroyed.
01:32:44
Speaker
Then I think it would be a Moonstone friend. It's all centralized. Yeah. But it's all in one lane. And that, to me, just... Yeah. Maybe you're doing a... real abuse Maybe that's too many things. I mean, this looks like an easy 312.
01:33:00
Speaker
But yes, I do think this is a good card. I just don't think it's that kind of card. like Oh, like instead of a gnoll on the last turn. This lets you play it in ah some other stuff where sometimes you know you're like, but i only i can't play my gnoll and my death because dust didn't get cheap enough. Mm-hmm.
01:33:17
Speaker
okay
01:33:20
Speaker
Seems good to me. that just Plus nine ongoing is interesting a lot. And you can find a deck that runs Killmonger happily and can get you either two or three availabl the locations easily. Yeah.
01:33:36
Speaker
I mean, like obviously Killmonger is going to be your plan A for getting cards killed everywhere. But... i I think it'll be fun and interesting when you don't draw your Killmonger and you're still trying to make it happen and set things up and maybe maybe not even telegraph that that's what you're doing, but also maybe you will telegraph that that's what you're doing because, you know, don't know. don't Interesting card. does have the ongoing thing that you can just drop it on the last turn.
01:34:03
Speaker
Your opponent's always going to wonder now when you Killmonger a bunch of shit, are you about to drop a 12 power Muse and a 12 power Death?
01:34:17
Speaker
Okay. Ikari, 412 from a limited time game mode. You can only play this where an enemy is afflicted with negative power.
01:34:27
Speaker
That seems less risky than all the other 412s. Seems good for the negative power decks. Yeah.
01:34:38
Speaker
That's... Yeah. Which means if that... Go ahead, say... Oh, no, no, no. you You go. I was just ah I was thinking with my mouth. I'm i'm just chewing on stuff. I'll keep thinking without my mouth. You say your thing. Remind me.
01:34:56
Speaker
OK, do you guys remember? Didn't they at some point they've been talking about adjusting like Shadow King and like splitting up Luke Cage's. like ability and stuff. And I'm wondering when they're going to finally be forced to do that because they're adding all these more negative power cards and then that gets into the like, well, everyone's playing luot Cage or everyone's having a bad time.
01:35:20
Speaker
You know, like if there's too much negative power. ah Yeah, I kind of think we're already at the point where Luke Cage should be split up, but my guess would be they have considered it and have not found a solution that they like.
01:35:34
Speaker
I think you're probably right.
01:35:39
Speaker
I don't think this card's especially good. like I'm trying to think of the Affliction deck. What is it doing on turn 4? It's playing Malekith or Manfeng. ah Which are probably both better for it than Ikari. A turn 6, right? And then you're avoiding the Shang. Yeah. Well, I mean, like... I don't know. Like, the...
01:36:02
Speaker
Affliction decks, i i don't know. I guess I'm not the expert on like what they want, because like the last time I played an Affliction deck, it had Evolved Abomination in it, and I was pretty happy about that.
01:36:15
Speaker
um i don't Do they want to be playing 412s?
Ikari's Viability in Decks
01:36:20
Speaker
i do like I do like the consistency of this 412. I just kind of think that maybe for for Synergy 4 costs, we expect a little more bang for the buck.
01:36:32
Speaker
but Are you like playing this with fastball special at all kind of thing on turn six?
01:36:40
Speaker
You're playing it first and then fastball specialing it? Yeah, and then destroying it and then torpedoing it. and maybe that helps you with your Affliction. I haven't actually been playing Affliction. Now that I think about now that we're talking about it, I'm like, when's the last time I played Affliction? that's the game. think that would work with Diamondback or something. That could real synergy. That's the other part and I've been thinking of this card in comparison to is Diamondback. And Diamondback is what, a 311?
01:37:06
Speaker
okay I was thinking about Cold Obsidian. How many of those do you see these days? Not so many. That's another good point. So the two extra power worth it?
01:37:17
Speaker
I see a lot of crossbones anymore. Over Cold Obsidian, it used to be the reverse. Mm-hmm. Part of that is is ah Sam losing the one one cost shield for free. Oh, yeah. um Yeah, I don't know. I think this this card's playable. like Obviously, 12 power is nice, but I just i don't know what deck wants to do it. ah This might be a lot more real if Deafening Chord still afflicted, but it doesn't.
01:37:43
Speaker
so Red Guardian follow-up? Maybe it's not a full-blown afflict archetype, but you just have a few tech cards that are afflicting?
01:37:57
Speaker
Maybe. Are we ready for Lady Bullseye? please. No, I mean, no, thank you, but I'll listen. She's a two two with an on reveal, and that is afflict an enemy card with minus two. Repeat this for each of your unspent energy to a different enemy.
01:38:17
Speaker
So this is effectively 5-8 if you play it by itself on turn five without any any extra energy or something.
01:38:28
Speaker
That's just a little example. Or a Or a 6-10. hate it. Wonderful stat lines that we're all excited about. But it's like It's like, how am I supposed to know? I don't want to track their unspent energy. you know what I mean? So like how many times it's going hit? Like, it's the math of this. is If this my opponent is playing this and like, oh, i found like what is this doing to me? you know what i mean? And it's like.
01:38:55
Speaker
it's It feels like I don't know. andm like I'm not tracking how much energy they didn't spend every turn. It's not cumulative. It's just that turn. this game This turn, not this game, right?
01:39:08
Speaker
Oh, okay. I had the bullseye and the activate in my head so much. Okay, too. Okay. it So it seems like it's just one-time Affliction Sunspot. Star-Lord friend.
01:39:22
Speaker
Star-Lord sure. that's where you play. Like Affliction High Evo, maybe, where you're both not spending energy and you're afflicting the opponent, so you're dipping. Yeah. Maybe I'll finally revive my Spider-Bay deck. That's the only my only interest. I'll bring back Spider-Bay. right.
01:39:41
Speaker
yeah Oh, sorry. That was my high Evo deck that utilized um Spider Woman, who is no good anymore.
Maximizing Lady Bullseye's Abilities
01:39:50
Speaker
But it would use her with Shuri and Blink as, like, ways to do cool stuff. But it's just not good. It was a high Evo deck. And it's just not good enough. For a while, I'd been pulling it out. And it's like, you know, you can win with anything. But it just didn't feel right.
01:40:05
Speaker
don't know. But I feel like that's where this goes. All right. Same. Same.
01:40:13
Speaker
She's an interesting card. I'm just thinking, like, you know, one of the things that she does is she spreads out the Affliction. But, like, Hazmat does that, too. And she does it for one cheaper, kind of, but you have to have unspent energy necessarily to spread it around more. So I just... It's a very strange card. Yeah, that's what seems to It seem especially strong to me.
01:40:36
Speaker
i mean, like, I think I was being a little uncharitable by, like... suggesting five eight yeah i mean even though that's like accurate if that's what you're doing on turn five but like i'm sure there are better ways to lean into what the card wants to do but i it does look like a stinker right i'm not i'm not i'm not being silly am i does does this card strike anyone else as a huge winner You've got to be super with it. Can you double it up in a useful way? Yeah, do you have to get some Wong shenanigans or tons of energy from Star-Lord or Fallen One?
01:41:10
Speaker
i mean, I'm with you initially. is Is this the Fallen One so Do we think? Oh, like give yourself big... You know, like if you've got 20 energy, is it worth it to afflict like 36? Oh my gosh, this is the cutest meme idea you've ever had make a giant pool of energy with Fallen 1 and then just drop Lady I mean, I have cute ideas all the time. I'm not building this deck. Tell us more. I like the cute ideas. That's hilarious.
01:41:38
Speaker
That would crack me up so much. saw that. Okay. I'll let you know the next time I have one.
01:41:45
Speaker
read All right. Karen Page, who is a four or five. ah She reminds me. Sorry, this shout out to Scott because I know he's reading it. For some reason, seeing ah this picture reminded me of Janet. Janet from HR and the Poison Ivy strip. You know what I'm talking about.
01:42:05
Speaker
If you're cool out there and reading Poison Ivy, you also know. You're cool. I like you. Okay. Um, hand page on reveal, give a friendly one, two and three cost character plus two power. I mean, immediately right as the comparison to Gwenpool. Cause you have like the four, five I, it's just like, I get that they can work different ways, but it just feels like Gwenpool is better. And you would just want to play Gwenpool in most situations.
01:42:39
Speaker
ah Karen Page is better on the last turn, but mostly I think you're right. I think you prefer to have that information hidden in your hand. And if you don't have one, you have to specifically, Gwenpool will hit anything. She's not prejudiced on the cost of your cards, you know? And Karen's like, one, two, threes only in that order, sequentially. Right. I kind of like her.
01:43:06
Speaker
oh yeah? What are you thinking? Yeah. Well, the thing about Gwenpool is that, you know, in addition to not being able to play her on the last turn, also sometimes she just hits the wrong stuff. You know, you make your best effort to make her only hit the right stuff, but she hits the wrong stuff. And Karen, she could be like, you can you can know what she's going to hit. You can make sure there's a lasher and a maverick to to be hit or whatever.
01:43:33
Speaker
um I don't know. I'm not i'm not sure she does quite enough. Can you pause there for a second? I'm curious. if you so Do Lasher and Maverick already go in a deck together? I'm like, are you are we putting in deck cards for her? But it's like those are two cards that it's like, they could? Do they go together already and in any way? I've seen them i've seen them've seen it played together recently. I've seen it once or twice, people being cute with Lasher, yeah.
01:44:00
Speaker
Well, no, but like, weren' weren't they playing last year with like, was it like show like like sometime recently? I've been seeing some people playing last year. Okay, just this like, show loud targets and stuff. Okay, no, I was just intrigued. You said that, and I'm like, hmm, okay. I'm intrigued by this Karen Page deck. These are both activates. maybe Maybe you throw her in a, maybe maybe you played Jocasta on five after you've played this card, and then get more of that, because you don't want Jocasta to soak up the three buff.
01:44:34
Speaker
But like, you know, I... to be on Okay, Maverick Lashier... What one cost card are you trying to hit with or using? I don't know. Maybe maybe just whoever's there. maybe Maybe the one cost is not as... it's It's much harder to find a one cost card that cares about having extra stats. like they're They're not usually built for that. but And what turn are you hoping to play around?
01:44:59
Speaker
Returns. I think on four. i'm curious i'm just like i'm I'm feeling my way around this card by asking you questions. She could be a Wiccan alternative if your deck is built to do a 1-2-3.
01:45:11
Speaker
Oh, I see that. Because then you are, you're definitely having them out to play. your don't feel like you're wasting a turn to play around turn four, but you're saving your bigger turn. But at the same time, I was just not sure if 412, whatever that was, was eleven big enough to be anything. And this is 411, unless you're getting cute with the recipients. you are getting cute, right? You're definitely putting it in stuff that's going to like benefit people.
01:45:39
Speaker
but otherwise yous hard count on those things But I guess there there are a lot of threes that like to soak the things up. You know, you got you got Captain Carter or Maverick. And I'm I've gotten to the point where I'm interested in playing those cards outside of Surfer.
01:45:53
Speaker
So I don't know. I want to believe in Karen. Also, I like the character. i love the character. Thank you to the TV show and Deborah Ann Wall.
Karen Page's Utility
01:46:02
Speaker
Oh, she's the best. She's another power buff girl, right? We've already compared to Gwenpool. There's also Galacta and Kahori, and you just don't see them that much anymore.
01:46:13
Speaker
This is true. This is kind of a 2024 card, right?
01:46:17
Speaker
Gwenpool sucks on turn six, and you can still play her on turn six and then throw your activates and stuff. Yeah. So, like, all right. You guys are – at first i was like I was like, oh, I like buff cards, which is my immediate reaction to all buff cards.
01:46:33
Speaker
And then unless they're paired with energy or something, it's going to get really obnoxious. And then B, I was like, oh, but, like, she's just way worse than Gwenpool, right? But you guys have talked me around. I see it. You've also already paid for them. Like, they are on the board, whereas Gwenpool... Yeah, you're sure that you're hitting cards you're playing. But, like, Gwenpool might hit three different targets, and you can't afford to play them all.
01:46:52
Speaker
That happens to me a lot, where I have... I'm like... And it really sucks when you have a giant Sinister, and, like, other... And you're like, I can't play all this. It's so big. i want to play it all. Okay. Okay, one more.
01:47:05
Speaker
Another limited-time event. i I don't know how they just... They landed, so I got a bunch of them. Stick. 4-3. On reveal, give the next card you play power equal to this card's power.
01:47:19
Speaker
This is in the in the vein of Sholao and Maverick, but... But he costs four and it's an honor reveal.
01:47:29
Speaker
This sucks because if you're which most people are familiar enough to know who stick is if they've seen the Daredevil show and whatever. This card should have been a one cost and it should have done something no with Daredevil and Electra both.
01:47:44
Speaker
Right?
Stick Card Critique
01:47:45
Speaker
Like, I needed to do that. It would have been too cute because you would just, like, you play it on one and for some reason you would want to follow it up with either of those two. And it should be stuck first. I hate, I hate lore-wise the design of this character. And you wouldn't play this. You wouldn't want to play this with Daredevil or Elektra.
01:48:04
Speaker
I feel like at least one of us has designed a stick for a secret homework, and I'm sure it was two cost or less. Because we know what's right. Damn it. Yeah, a stick should be like little don't like card because I think it's too good. That's what I think.
01:48:18
Speaker
I think also it's not going to do healthy like play patterns. I just think this card is bad news. That's interesting to me. I mean, I know there's cheeky things you can do with it, right? Like you get Maverick involved.
01:48:32
Speaker
Yeah, you get Maverick involved. But how much bigger does that get versus Shuri? I guess for smaller power cards like your Captain Carter's.
01:48:43
Speaker
Well, also sometimes you get Maverick involved on on the other end. Like sometimes Maverick is what you play on turn five after Stick. Oh, and they both buff the same thing. Yeah. It does seem like a super combo enabler. just It just keeps passing. It's like it's another Maverick. It's it's it's one that passes the buff. It pays it forward.
01:49:03
Speaker
and And Maverick, that's like why Maverick is a problem, because it pays it forward. And this one's on reveal. This is Shuri before you had to play it in the same location. So you can't even like, like's true like oh, I lost Prime. Because a lot of time with Shuri, I'm like, oh, I'll just play my Shang unless it's unless they think it's going to be a Nimrod or something. And it's like, oh, just Shang it immediately after they play it. No big deal. But like, they just make another Shuri that you just like, I feel like that's what they did.
01:49:34
Speaker
It's little bit like Sholao in my estimation. And like the fact that it does the next card like Forge style, that's... you like The only problem with Forge is that he's small and the numbers aren't good enough anymore. like The Forge mechanism is good.
01:49:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think Forge is a very important card to compare this to because Forge is what, plus two for two cost? And this is plus three or four. You have to...
01:50:01
Speaker
but I'm saying you have to buff the stick to make it yeah you definitely get me very good. You have to buff it. But that's that's like what he's for. He's he's a battery. like he you You put it in and then he shoots it back out.
01:50:15
Speaker
but like he's He's just another Maverick. But he's a forecast Maverick that you don't get to decide the timing on as well as Maverick.
01:50:27
Speaker
but But you also can't play him on turn six. In many situations be better. But it's different. I think it's also good for different things too, right? Also, Everett can get deafened and courted.
01:50:38
Speaker
And this guy, you on reveal him, and then that that's guaranteed power. That you can float across the turns. is I remember one of the worst metas for me that I remember was when Shuri, before they made her in the same turn and people would just do a cosmo And Shuri and then play like Red Skull or whatever in the Cosmo lane. or yeah And so like this feels like you can do that. But I guess there is the work of you're going to need to buff Stick to to pull off that kind of thing, which is more work than just...
01:51:17
Speaker
Playing a Shuri Redstone. Well, yeah, but you're going to be playing Surge, America Chavez. You're going to be playing Maverick. And like the thing about comparing this card to Maverick is that you can't really do it because Maverick came out at a point when there wasn't already a Maverick.
01:51:33
Speaker
Okay, that's true. Having a second Maverick is not the same as having the first Maverick. Having a second Maverick is worse than having the first Maverick. Now we have backup options. That's a good point. Yeah.
01:51:44
Speaker
It does look like a real card, for sure. I've i've like never been more sure about anything.
Fun Snap Culture Segment
01:51:51
Speaker
On to our side quests. First up this week, I guess it's a side quest. ah We can snap. Ben. That was a mess. How was it? And us snappy.
01:52:03
Speaker
Well, my weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy, as I have always done and will always do. Come Who, me? um You know, i have played some snap. I've been playing a number of funny little mid-rangey decks and things with Prowler in them and stuff. And I've mostly been playing over in Conquest and...
01:52:26
Speaker
I don't know. but The quality of a deck in Conquest, like is it's hard for it's hard for me to speak with confidence about these decks because I haven't been playing them on ladder where people, in my experience, are mostly playing garbage and also mostly it's been bots for me.
01:52:41
Speaker
I think that's because I waited to start my climb. um But anywho, i have some decks that might be good, but I'm not sure enough yet because maybe they're just you know doing okay for me. um and you know I don't know.
01:52:58
Speaker
um Hopefully I'll tell you about some of them next week, but mostly I've been playing more Montavi that I can't tell you about. If I could disclose anything, I would only say nice things, but I can't, so I won't. But you know what I would like to do for my weekend snap?
01:53:15
Speaker
I've been threatening to for weeks, but here it is. The second installment of Snap Shooters. Oh, right. I'm doing that. We're not counting it as a separate side quest. Oh, you're going to make it a separate side quest. No, it's it's taken over. Record scratch. Air horns.
01:53:35
Speaker
Um, um In this segment, we're going to ask you a series of rapid-fire this-or-that questions to gauge your familiarity with and complicity in Snap culture. It's basically this thing or that other thing, and the only rule is that you can't ask any follow-up questions or I will freak the fuck out.
01:53:53
Speaker
yeah So, ah which one of you would like to go first? Lauren Ridd. can go first. I said first. Yeah, you did. I heard what I heard. Lauren, you're your' first.
01:54:07
Speaker
Okay, great. Fee-fi-fo-fum, fin-fang-foom-yum.
01:54:18
Speaker
Fin-fang-foom-yum. Okay, that's very interesting. Ridd. A picture that's worth a thousand words or a variant that's worth 5,000 tokens. A picture
01:54:33
Speaker
picture sure that's worth a thousand words, please. Okay. Fascinating. Lauren.
01:54:41
Speaker
Sheriff's posse's on my tail because I'm in demand. Or feels like some bots can see what's in my hand. yeah Um...
01:54:52
Speaker
The first one seemed more fun, but I have no idea what you said. ah Well, luckily you didn't phrase that as a question. What I said was, Sheriff's Posse's on my tail because I'm in demand. It's a line from Paul Revere from the first Beastie Boys record.
01:55:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's the winner for sure. Okay. Rhi.
01:55:13
Speaker
Big Scarlet Clone from Shola the Undying or Star Lords on the Throne, so now we're all crying.
01:55:21
Speaker
Okay, this is not... This isn't a follow-up question. it is commentary. See how there's no question mark at the end of my sentences. Why? I have been thinking about the nature of the game and trying to wrestle and understand it.
01:55:36
Speaker
And I think I've come to a couple conclusions. It's like... Are opinions on Snap as represented by Quips?
01:55:46
Speaker
But then maybe the other... So you pick... All right, I'm getting there. I choose Sholau because I would always choose a dragon. That was a big Scarlet Clone from Sholau the Undying?
01:56:01
Speaker
Yes. opposed to Star Lords on the Throne, so now we're all crying. Okay. Big Scarlet Clone. Yeah. Good to know. But also I am crying. enough. I choose both? That wasn't told to me. It was against the rules. I'm pushing the band.
01:56:16
Speaker
just this once. Okay. right Lauren, are you ready? Yeah. Not too bad. You're you're ready. Anulax batteries or Harbulary batteries?
01:56:28
Speaker
Harbulary. Hell yeah. All right, Rhi. What is this again? There's only one Lord of the Rings and he does not share power. Or there is only one Master of the Rings and he does not see play.
01:56:42
Speaker
Um, it's gotta be, you know, the correct one of the rings reference. Obviously, I can't. It's what's in my heart. All right, Lauren. Star-Lord, Master of the Sun, or Day-Man, Champion of the Sun.
01:56:58
Speaker
He's a master of karate and friendship for everyone. want Day-Man. All right. Rhi, prepping for a test with your nose to the grindstone, or Forgetting the text of Ultron's Mind Stone.
01:57:19
Speaker
Mind Stone is the one that double... I know. Okay, never mind. It is. I can't do it. It's on the spot.
01:57:30
Speaker
Okay, so I choose that one because I forgot. Forgetting the text of Ultron's Mind Stone as opposed to prepping for a test with your nose to the grindstone. got lost.
01:57:42
Speaker
I got trapped in the question. Yeah. um Yes. All right, Lauren. Michelle Yeoh as Alita Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or Michelle Yeoh as Ying Nan in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
01:57:57
Speaker
Oh, really? Huh. I want in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Yeah, that was a much better use of Michelle Yeoh.
01:58:08
Speaker
I was expecting Madame Morrible. I did not know she was double MCU'd. Yeah, I only just noticed this time. ah But that's that's secret homework. we get We get to that later. All right.
01:58:19
Speaker
The final one is to you, Rhi. You skipped three turns. Now I'm the one retreating or briefly shaped by Merlin. But now I'm done bleeding.
01:58:33
Speaker
Because he polymorphs you into a sheep. Bleeting with a T, yeah. Bleeting, yes. Okay, I, yes, Merlin, obviously. Okay.
01:58:45
Speaker
All right, this has been very interesting. Now I will assign both of you collectively score on a scale of 1 1,000 Dragons the Moon.
01:58:57
Speaker
dragons of the moon And your answers this week were about 987 dragons of the moon. So that's ah we have a good measure of your familiarity with and complicity in Snap culture.
01:59:13
Speaker
Thank you for playing Snap Shooters. I did steal it from Stradio Lab. And ah that's okay. You shouldn't hold it against me. So weeks in Snap, who else had one?
01:59:26
Speaker
Rhi, how was your weekend snapping? Keep it snappy. Now is my turn. I'm like, everything's discombobulated. When do I go? Okay.
Expedition 33 Obsession
01:59:35
Speaker
So I have...
01:59:37
Speaker
Kind of a terrible secret, and that's this entire time you've only been interacting ah with the remaining 11% of my former identity because the rest, the majority identity is now that of re-playing Expedition 33. Hmm.
01:59:58
Speaker
That is almost the entirety of my identity. I kept a little bit to play some Drax since I was excited for the card and I wanted to play it. And we already talked about that. But, um oh my God, I've been playing Expedition 33. Like, much, like, nonstop. It's funny because I was just telling someone, like, a couple days ago, like ah Like, oh, man, I can't game like I used to, you know. I used to, like, get sucked in and and game all day, all night, all week. You know what mean? Like, forget to, you know, do the normal people things. Just be gaming. Like, I know I'm too old. can't do that game for now. I need a break.
02:00:43
Speaker
I don't do this. And then I have just been... i have been... i have i have I have wrapped Expedition 33 around myself like a blanket to both retreat from the world and be enticed by all its many mysteries. And it's great pacing and storyline and like enthralling combat. And, ah you know, it is, i can't actually talk about it because that game is all spoilers. All
02:01:14
Speaker
I've heard very good things. I could totally ah talk about the premise based purely from what I've heard on podcasts. I know all about the the other expeditions and blah, blah, blah. But I went in super blind. I just like knew it was really good and people liked it. And it was just like what they good the whole game. It was like me watching Godzilla minus one. like Oh, my god I'm like stream and i'll be because like it broke me. I used to be good at keeping everything internalized. And I was just – no, I would have this stone face. People would give me good news and they're like, are you are you excited, Bree?
02:01:53
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, yeah, super happy in my head. Like, you know what i mean? Like I had just learned how to stone face it. And then at some point like everything like broke or maybe I was never as stone faced as I thought. Who knows? But like – and would say even – say oh straight Oh, yeah. So I'm playing this game and just the whole time anymore. I'm just like commentary.
02:02:18
Speaker
Just yeah, I'm just like, you know, it's just ah it's how I do games now. Okay. um So that is great. And i want to talk about it, but I definitely won't in case anyone else there like me didn't hit it when it was popular. ask you some questions about the gameplay? Yes.
02:02:37
Speaker
Yes. ah So I know it's got turn-based combat, but there are some parries or something, dodges, or so there there's some sort of like input. The comparison is to Final Fantasy. They're like, this feels like a true modern successor to like the old Final Fantasies.
02:02:58
Speaker
And in some ways it's so different in that it's it's like, you like you know, you the protagonist is like over 30. You know anything about like... Oh, that's not a allowed Final Fantasy.
02:03:10
Speaker
That's like... is But it is also like old ah JRPGs and anime in that that is considered extremely old.
02:03:22
Speaker
Okay, sorry. Little dig. I just thought of that. Anyway, so... um ah it's but it's like But in some ways, you know it's like, oh, it doesn't it doesn't feel that way. mean, in the way that like people will compare new, like, oh, like this old Pixel remake that's supposed to have the feel and that just kind of plays. like This feels like the modern successor in the way that like um even more modern and Final Fantasy games haven't quite hit all the same marks. And in that, it's like...
02:03:59
Speaker
And story-wise, oh my god, it's like the most heart-wrenching thing ever at times and also action and everything, but also like the levity and stuff. It's not unrelenting darkness. It's not like, you know, Elder Scrolls kind of stuff. And and the combat is is turn-based and you have these meaningful trees with the characters, you know, that I'm actually in there messing around with. But they mix the turn-based
02:04:30
Speaker
With almost Elder Scrolls in that like ah so much damage is done by the enemies if you don't like time the dodge um at just the right time. So you can dodge it, but it's not just once. They have attack combos that you have to kind of learn and memorize or you can like, once you get better at the game, you into it, you hear the sound and you see the animation and ah And you just like hit it at the right time. Perfect dodge, perfect dodge. Because you're in the rhythm. And this is from like a turn-based game. But it's not the difficulty of Elder Scrolls. This is a turn-based RPG that's still like you have to memorize.
02:05:16
Speaker
I think so. You're right. I've been saying Elder Scrolls like Marwin this whole time. know. I mix things up so bad. That's okay. I'm doing Elden Ring. This whole time I've been out of here. I think it was almost the same name as a very successful video game franchise. This is Elden Ring's fault, not yours. They're so in meaning, like in the sentences in which I mix them up. It's very unfortunate for me. But I figured it out by context. It's fine. I also figured it out by context and was just going with it. I'll tell you I
02:05:42
Speaker
um No, so like, it's like, so it's like you don't just dodge once. It's like, and then die. It's like you're, you're, it's It's real live action. It's not like kind of FF8 where it's like, okay, you hit the button while you're doing the attack. It's like meaningful. And when you master it, like it feels good. But at the same time, you don't get that unrelenting. The problem with like Elden Ring, right? It's unrelenting the whole
02:06:13
Speaker
combat, you know, like the whole like seven minutes or whatever you're in this fight and you've memorized their combo patterns to avoid them and hit your own attacks, um which they also have the side where you have to like hit the patterns.
02:06:27
Speaker
Um, This one, you get the breaks of a turn-based because eventually, you know, like it'll sit and you can just getting that little break for me makes a big difference in the difficulty with it doing these combos than in doing them in a game like that. It's such a good update to a turn-based RPG game. It's, um, uh, and when you hit like, so, and the parries actually do like a counterattack, um,
02:06:56
Speaker
Kind of stuff. And they make it so it's like you kind of have to do those or they do so much damage. It doesn't do it. And and this what this helps do is scale the game. Because in some of those RPGs, it's hard for them to balance it where someone isn't going to get to the end level and then like just like...
02:07:18
Speaker
that end boss is meaningless because they're just like, boom, boom, boom, right? This one, they each have unique attack patterns. You have to learn. And once when one, one does an actual feint.
02:07:29
Speaker
It felt like real combat because he's coming in. I haven't seen this, right? The first time you see attack, you're like waiting. You're trying to time the dodge. And he did a quick feint with his one hand before the real one came in that you had to dodge.
02:07:42
Speaker
And I was like so clever. It was like I was playing a fantasy novel. of Like, I just got feinted. Okay. Anyway, sorry, I made a lot of fantasy and the concept of living the sword play that I read about. It's very exciting to me. So like there's just this game really deserves everything. It does the thing that I love in the storyplay in the storytelling with the mystery of the world, where you're just trying to figure out what's going on, but you have enough to invest you. It's not all totally they did that well.
02:08:13
Speaker
part of what feels old Final Fantasy about it is they just drop you into a world with a culture that does things that are foreign, but they're all fleshed out in the world, right? The expeditions in this case, like, I don't want to say anything if you want to go in blind like I did, but you know what i mean? They have a culture built around these expeditions and that feels very old Final Fantasy storytelling.
02:08:36
Speaker
um Yeah, this game is fantastic. And... um I know my friend Frank has been wanting me to play it forever, so I'm playing it now. Nice. I'm insane about it. I'm intrigued. I was so sad that I had stop playing. I'm like, how much time? I'm like, no, you stop now and you do podcast show. It's... I so relate to that because there are weeks where I'm like, how do I play games? Like I used to love playing games and how am I going to find the time? But then every now and then there's a game that grabs me and there's a game or a TV show or whatever. There's something that grabs me. You know, suddenly I'm pouring dozens of hours into it. I'm like, where did this time come from? Like, what am I neglecting my family or something to make this happen? I don't know, but it is very fun being deeply immersed.
02:09:25
Speaker
Traveling the world means I can collect more hairstyles and I can see that. Like little mouse bugs. Rhi loves hairstyles. can change all of my character's hairstyles. That's great.
02:09:36
Speaker
Okay, anyway. ah This game is amazing. I'm obsessed with it. I love it. I'm like in i'm in Act 2. I just got into the place called Surin, if that means something to people playing. But like that's where I'm at. Like I said, I won't i talked broadly enough to give no spoilers at all about ah the plot.
02:09:58
Speaker
But I love it. Okay, sorry. Moving on. Lauren is our last co-host, and I would very much like to hear what she's done this week instead of otherwise. Sure. I have gotten deeply immersed into something, not a game.
Dungeon Crawler Carl Audiobook Praise
02:10:13
Speaker
um Dungeon Crawler Carl. I have I've seen... think at least one of our commenters has recommended it. Yes, I that. Yeah. And I've heard friends and podcasters and YouTubers and my sister recommend it And finally, i was like and I was in the middle of an audiobook and my sister recommended it. it' was like, okay, fine. ah You know what? I've had enough pressure. I'm just going to stop in the middle of the audiobook I'm in and start Dungeon Crawler Carl. And I'm currently...
02:10:40
Speaker
Like two thirds of the way through the third book. So I had just like, you know what? i'm going to start doing the dishes every day because that'll give me more time to listen to Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's so fun. um If you don't know the premise, it's it's very broadly. The world is ending thanks to aliens and they throw the humans into an RPG dungeon.
02:11:01
Speaker
And it's the story of car of Carl and his girlfriend's cat's donut princess donut the queen anne chonk uh and how they tackle the dungeon together and i will minimize spoilers but just say like the the audiobook is the story is fun but the audiobook is phenomenal and it wasn't until i got to the second book that i realized it was the same person doing all the voices this guy does female voices they're not perfect but they're like they're absurdly good um And yeah, his Carl and and Princess Donut are both lovely. Oh, that might have been a minor spoiler that there are voices for Princess Donut. But anyway, fabulous.
02:11:41
Speaker
Highly, highly recommend it Super fun, especially if you're into like nerdy RPG culture like that's relevant. But I also think it could be fun for other people who don't enjoy that. Lauren.
02:11:54
Speaker
OK, so I've also had this on to read and you caught me. This is such I have such a dilemma going on right now. Do you remember that I joined a book club? Yes. So we've determined the selection method of books in which a member will randomly be selected, but then, you know, removed until everyone cycled through to pick a book. They will put up a pool of three books so that people also have a little bit of it we You know, we get what people are most interested in. and okay, I was going to put Dungeon Crawler...
02:12:24
Speaker
car I got selected first. i got I just found out I got selected first. okay Lucky me. I was going to put that on the list, and but then somebody else, like a couple other people were interested in it and I'm like devious now. I'm like, oh maybe i since I know that will probably get picked by someone else later on, maybe I do my more. like who you pick yeah nice like I want to read.
02:12:52
Speaker
have you ever heard of the water outlaws I have not. It's apparently... um It's like a I didn't. Someone recommended it to me that I trust implicitly. One of my um friends from streaming on fantasy stuff.
02:13:09
Speaker
And so I just immediately put it on my list without like looking at it. And now I'm looking i'm looking at it and it's like this like LGBTQA plus, you know, fantasy about like woman warriors. I'm like, oh, this sounds cool as hell. like you know so Anyway. I do listen to a lot of ah stuff in the queer fantasy space. Um...
02:13:36
Speaker
Okay, anyway, so yeah. Dungeon Crawler Carl is absolutely exploding. I think the first book came out in like 2020, 2021, and he's already like up to like book seven or something. Like it's amazing what this guy's pace is. Oh. Is that like a TV show or something too? It got Greenlit to be a TV show. There's a webtoon. There's a comic covering one of the side characters.
02:13:56
Speaker
Like it is just so fun. Every floor of the dungeon is totally different. um the one i'm reading right now is underground subway stations and trains um which may not sound fun but it's like a totally different environment right uh that they have to learn how to battle in in train cars um it's just it's the characters are so funny and the sense of humor is a blast and it just it feels novel something about it feels really new and fresh and maybe i'm wrong to maybe maybe that's not true but From my perspective, it feels new and fresh and very fun and worthy of all the accolades. And get in now. I strongly recommend it.
02:14:41
Speaker
ah I hope you didn't already say this, but I remember commenters suggested they thought the audiobook was really well done. so i was talking about the audiobook. The audiobook is phenomenal. um They have, I believe, the same company that did the first audiobook that does the audiobooks has also gone back and done Audio Immersion Tunnel, which is like...
02:15:03
Speaker
more actors and music and sound effects and stuff like that. So like, if you're into that, I think they have that ready for the first book and maybe the second one, but honestly, like just the, just the narrator, Jeff Hayes is so good.
02:15:18
Speaker
It's incredible. Um,
02:15:23
Speaker
I was working on the video for Major Victory and Grand Arena. That kept me very busy. um Feel free to ask me questions if you have any. um But it came in at just over three minutes, which is quite a bit shorter than most of the other ones that make it there. But I had to talk about Major Victory.
02:15:40
Speaker
yeah That felt like a challenge. I appreciate short video to be honest. think Yeah. ah So I tried to make it entertaining and not not lose your attention. And I edited edited the fuck out of it. So that was like two days this week.
02:15:58
Speaker
um so So watch and enjoy that and leave nice comments ah on the official YouTube. Thank you. And then finally, i have been, of course, new event. i've been I wrote the economy guide on fourth location for Grand Arena. But I also this week...
02:16:16
Speaker
have been working on two different guides for things that I haven't really talked about before in Snap. So I'm just going to tease them here. I haven't teased them anywhere else, but to my amazing Snap on this audience, here's two guides that are coming as soon as I can write them.
02:16:34
Speaker
Number one, optimized booster farming. which sounds so boring, but it can save you tons of time and resources if you care about what card you're splitting.
02:16:46
Speaker
I have like a a series of like five tricks I have not talked about before that will help you split the card you want faster. ah And then the other one is manual emote sorting, which also maybe sounds boring. But gosh, there are some emotes I never use and some I use all the time. And I figured out how to manually sort emotes.
02:17:06
Speaker
So if you're interested in that, keep your eyes peeled. ah That is interesting. interesting Great. Snapshooters already happened, skipping right over that on the outline.
02:17:20
Speaker
Time for secret homework. Oh, this outline is a mess, but you know, that's what happens when we shake up the skin shake up the the ah format. i Secret homework.
02:17:31
Speaker
Ben, what was the secret homework? ah The secret homework was in honor of Guardians Greatest Hits Volume 2, our current season of Marvel Snap, I decided we should all revisit Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Volume 2, the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Marvel's Guardians Series Reflections
02:17:51
Speaker
film. um You know, ah it's a James Gunn joint. Yeah.
02:18:00
Speaker
i i don't I don't know how to introduce this segment. Do we need a synopsis or what what what do we need? Well, I wanted to suggest, okay, because um i know we'll probably just round table this discussion, But for secret homework, I kind of started early and stopped short.
02:18:21
Speaker
So I thought maybe I should like kick it off because I'm kind of in the pre because here's what I decided to do, which was like, oh, you know, we were already taking this chill. And I may have mentioned that a lot of times I'm like running background TV ah because of how messed up my brain is that I'm like specifically encourage making this a second screen experience.
02:18:43
Speaker
So I thought since I was doing that, I was like, I'm just going to start with Guardians 1, you know, because I'm always running back on and TV. What I didn't realize was that like Expedition 33 would kidnap my soul and hold up. No more Guardians could be watched.
02:19:00
Speaker
So I did watch... A good portion of Guardians 1, but I did that on those thoughts. So I thought if my thoughts on that came first, that would be good sequentially in the I'd love it.
02:19:14
Speaker
That makes sense. Okay. So ah when I started watching, of course, first I was struck immediately by remember when when Guardians came out, no one knew who the Guardians were. And that sounds so insane because now it's like baby Groot everywhere. you know what i mean? Like it's so mainstream. It's insane to me. And it made me think of of conversations we've been having lately where people, uh,
02:19:43
Speaker
want more novelty, you know, in the Marvel universe. I mean, we say at the same time where they're like bringing back all the older actors. It's like, it's the Marvel universe. So to find novelty, look, all they had to do is go find the guardians. And it was such a, a shot. it was such, it seems so wild at the time. They're like, they're going to try and make a main movie about these characters. No one's ever heard of. And one of them is a talking raccoon. And one is a tree that only says I am brute. You know what I mean?
02:20:13
Speaker
But it's like, that's the kind of like wildness. and you already know it worked once because it worked somewhere in the comics at some time. You know, it spoke to people and you can find that kind of wacky stuff. OK.
02:20:27
Speaker
And that's the nice thing i have to say. But for once again, I am reminded of how mad I am at James Gunn for nerfing Gamora in the movie. um Especially in the first one, because you know what I mean? She's so badass. She's so badass in the comics. But I realized this is the time when I was watching where I realized beyond I always say like, oh, they made her the conscience because someone needed to be the good guy and not just the rogue.
02:20:55
Speaker
But like I I read deeper into it this time when I was watching, I realized they were doing. the thing They were making her the viewer in the intro into the character. It's like she's the one that's going into the prison. and it's like, you know, you're seeing check-in and getting set up. It's like she's the newbie. But the thing is, usually that character is the main character. Usually you're seeing the the movies from through her eyes. But they give her those tropes.
02:21:25
Speaker
of being like And that makes it okay that she's rescued you know initially, even though she's supposed to be a badass assassin. you know It makes all that stuff okay because they're the new character and they're protagonists. So they're just kind of default the special. And with this, it's like they gave start Star-Lord is is your your your protagonist and your starting viewpoint. You're seeing like not remember the name of the girl he slept with, which, you know, that makes someone cool these days. That's what we all think. And, you know, but it's like but then they gave kind of Gamora the bad parts of like that storytelling where she has to be the weak one that's rescued, where she seems less cool, where she's like everyone else gets to be like. look at me. I'm playing rogue campaign D and d where we're all playing rogues instead of like goody two shoes. And she's like, I've got to be the one goody two shoe where the mission doesn't keep going forward. Because if we're all just, you know, if we're all just scum and villainy, the campaign falls apart and she gets, she doesn't get like, the benefits. Like, her character doesn't get the parts that usually come with that, that make them... it just once again gave more depth to my fury and the injustice I feel has been done to her character. And I feel like Nebula, like, I... As much as she seemed so, like, blah and bland, like, her arc was so good from that to Guardians 3 that, you know, I forgive, know...
02:22:58
Speaker
Some lacks there, but Gamora just, I feel like the MCO always kind of failed her a little bit. Not like the actress or anything like that, just the writing ah for the character um and stuff.
Gamora's Portrayal in Guardians
02:23:11
Speaker
And I'm sorry, I should have like talked for a long time. said man oh That's really good insight. Honestly, that's a really good point. She never gets to be a rascal like those, ah the lads.
02:23:24
Speaker
yeah During this, i was i was i lamented what they did to her in 3, which wasn't James Gunn. The Avengers killed off Gamora, and then James Gunn had to deal with that, and he did okay. There's plenty to blame James Gunn about Guardians 3. We can let him off the hook for that part. I liked Guardians 3. I appreciated you you know calling out some of the places they went wrong with Gamora even before that.
02:23:48
Speaker
me Yeah. Oh, OK. So, yeah. So you guys watched two, though. How are you feeling about that? We did the homework. yeah I did the the pre-homework.
02:24:01
Speaker
Right. Well, I don't know about you, Lauren, but i I enjoyed rewatching Guardians of the Galaxy, too. I had a pretty good time with it. It's a pretty fun movie.
02:24:12
Speaker
I think it might be my favorite of the three Guardians of the Galaxies. I'm not sure. I ah didn't rewatch the other two for this one. um I could briefly synopsize. I don't think we need to.
02:24:29
Speaker
It's been out for so long. People know what happened, right? just Just give us some broad thoughts on your rewatch experience. I mean, it's your homework, but... So, you know that the du we we know, we know the Guardians. They're all together now. Nobody needs to be introduced. I mean, there will be some new characters introduced, but, like, this movie is basically, it's all about, like, Peter Quill and his his papa and the issues of of his, you know, relationship.
02:25:00
Speaker
you know, the, the, the, the daddy issues and all this and other guardians have their issues. Rocket raccoon is behaving in self-destructive ways. Um, you know, Drax, the destroyer is, uh, being very fun and funny and stuff. I guess, I guess he's not really working through as much stuff. He, you know, he, he gets moments and things. Um,
02:25:28
Speaker
Gamora still has to be a fucking responsible adult who tells her boyfriend to confront his issues and feelings and talk to his dad and stuff.
02:25:44
Speaker
um This one's got Taserface in it. um Oh, ah I just thought I should...
02:25:57
Speaker
You'll never hear the horns of freedom when you die, Yondu. And the colors of Ogord will never flash over your grave. um That's the thing that Sylvester Stallone says in this movie with a straight face.
02:26:09
Speaker
um And you know what? He's wrong. The colors of Ogord will flash over Yondu's grave. That's right. Yondu is, uh, you know, he dies heroically at the end.
02:26:23
Speaker
You know, he, he's not Star-Lord's father, but he is his daddy. Um, there are lots of funny bits. I don't know. I, I liked the, the annual acts versus harbulary batteries so much that I put it in snap shooters.
02:26:39
Speaker
Um, you know i had I had smarter thoughts about this, but I did not organize my thoughts at all. and they're just ah The only thing I have in my notes is that Sylvester Stallone quote.
02:26:53
Speaker
that's the important part, right? ah i don't have enough. When we first you know see Yondu in this film, he is having the saddest post-coital moment in a space brothel on Contraxia with a sex robot who briefly toys with her hair before...
02:27:16
Speaker
hitting a button on the side of her head to fucking shut her consciousness off ah because she doesn't want to deal with sad Yondu or she isn't paid to deal with sad Yondu anymore or she has no agency because she's a robot.
02:27:29
Speaker
um I don't know. It looked like it was like literally the saddest scene like ever. And I was just like, dang. Oh yeah. And then Sylvester Stallone shows up and ah to the proprietor, he's like, you just lost the business of there are a hundred ravager cram clans and you lost the business of 99 of them just by so serving the wrong one. Cause y'all new traffic's children and stuff. But I'm like, this place was doing business with the other 99 ravager clans. Who the fuck wants to come here? It's the saddest place ever.
02:28:00
Speaker
Ever. um Even the music is really bad and sad and monotonous. i i like I watched this scene a couple of times just to like really take it in because I was like, wow.
02:28:13
Speaker
Yondu, you are in a you were in a low spot, dude. um But yeah, I guess i guess it's a really it was a really hot and happening joint with ah all 100 of the Ravager clans, or the other 99 other Ravager clans, where they slipped up and yet let Yondu hang out for a second.
02:28:32
Speaker
um Oh yeah, also the Sovereign, they're fun. ah They do all their their space dogfights in a little video arcade, and that's a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah, the Sovereign are real fun. and they ah They're cool.
Kurt Russell's Ego & Potential Ego Card
02:28:48
Speaker
um Kurt Russell is ah he's real good. He's a piece of shit.
02:28:55
Speaker
um Yeah, spoiler alert. Starlord's dad sucks. um I assume we're going to get an Ego card, not just the location that takes over your turn at some point. Do you think so? think it would just be the...
02:29:15
Speaker
What was that?
02:29:18
Speaker
Like, how would the card interact? I'm like, what would the card do? Would it like could be it could be human formigo. Just have a totally different ability. like like, how would it relate to the location? It wouldn't.
02:29:34
Speaker
Probably not. no cu it Right. It wouldn't make sense for it to. But they don't they don't really worry about that too much. I mean, Nushang has nothing to do with old Shang-Chi and all that.
02:29:45
Speaker
Throwback to Stingetrid earlier. They love recycling characters. and This one would almost be justified, sort of. um Okay, sorry. Other Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 thoughts I have. Who have I not talked about? Groot's there. He's a little babby Groot in this one.
02:30:03
Speaker
um Still says, i am Groot. um Apparently he's a little bit of a potty mouth. um
02:30:16
Speaker
Yondu does at one point say, I'm Mary Poppins, y'all. um My wife was laughing laughing hysterically before he said it.
02:30:29
Speaker
She says that she's she's seen it hundreds of times. So she knew what was coming. Yeah, that's a good it's a good moment. It's so hilarious that it still makes you laugh on the hundredth time. That's adorable. I love that. You know what?
Visual Effects in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
02:30:44
Speaker
There's something that struck me. I've seen this movie several times, but not always paying like the most attention. There's a point towards the end when things are getting a bit climactic. ah some of the guardians are flying around in like this piece of mining equipment that apparently Yondu used for some fucking space heist or whatever. And it's got these cool little like ball bearing things that like roll around the outside and they're like little repositionable, like little small laser drill cutter things. And like they can all concentrate at one point on the outside of the thing to make like a big laser or they can just go around, like do little spot zaps and
02:31:23
Speaker
It's, ahs yeah, it's faed there's there's a lot. I got to say, like, the the visual effects in this movie all looked great to me. um I really liked the part when Ego is dying and his face fucking collapses in, in a like like a big hole of sand fell through. That's very good. That's very cool.
02:31:43
Speaker
um they don't I don't love him regenerating bone and muscle. I don't know if that's because it's creepier because I didn't find it very convincing, but... disappearing Oh, yeah, yeah but that didn't look the greatest, but, like, there were some things that looked – I thought there were some notably good-looking effects yeah in this movie. Maybe it's okay if the bone and muscle isn't realistic.
02:32:02
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. But also, maybe maybe it could be better. I don't know. I just – I'm not always as charmed by CGI-heavy filmmaking.
02:32:16
Speaker
Right. Yeah.
Guardians vs. James Gunn's Superman
02:32:18
Speaker
I liked this one. I didn't like it as much as James Gunn's most recent effort, Superman. that that That movie fucking rules.
02:32:28
Speaker
um I highly recommend that one. Go go check that one out. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Any other important Guardians of the Galaxy thoughts? I'm sorry. What was that, Lauren? I couldn't hear i like Guardians 2 better than Superman. Superman's great, but... really you fair. I did like this one a lot. I liked it than I remember. I appreciate laughing in a movie.
02:32:53
Speaker
I, for as much as I enjoy comedy, I don't very often seek it out. Um, yeah, I'm waiting for you to pass it on. i Are you ready for me to talk about it?
02:33:03
Speaker
Yes, please. Okay. Sorry. I didn't know. i didn't know if we were cleanly dividing or not. Um, I'm not a movie rewatcher and maybe I should be because I forget 98% of it and it's like I'm watching it for the first time. So you think that'd be perfect for rewatching movies, but I don't know. I just appreciate novelty. And even though I've already forgotten it, I want to watch something I haven't seen before.
02:33:29
Speaker
um Although I have several times in my life had the experience of watching something I hadn't seen before and then about 80% the way through, I'm like, I think I've seen this. like ah Anyway, something something you know rings a bell or whatever.
Popularity of Guardians of the Galaxy
02:33:41
Speaker
um I meant for it to be a second screen experience, but it kept stealing my attention. And so it was mostly just a dedicated single screen experience. And I was laughing hysterically the whole time.
02:33:54
Speaker
I did have the conversation with Reggie about how the Guardians were unknown before the first movie and how that was such a strange phenomenon that now they're like, you know, ah so popular, something that the MCU pull off with several characters.
02:34:07
Speaker
Because Reggie... loves the guardians. And even when he was like two, I did a lot of rocket and group role play. Um, they were, they were Reggie's besties.
02:34:21
Speaker
We would hang out in the park and, and I was doing rocket and group voices. Um, the makeup is so good and you know maybe it's not that impressive to make somebody have a completely different skin color but i just think some of these shots where they're like up somebody's nose or whatever and it's still you know the sovereign have golden inner nostrils or or drax is like green just like so impressive or he's kind of bluish so impressive um i guess it's more than just skin color like drax has some pretty wild tattoo thing going on yeah um yeah
02:34:58
Speaker
love just I love how vibrant everything is.
Character Interactions in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
02:35:01
Speaker
i think the the The thing that makes it special is mostly the way that they all interact with each other. It's very character-driven, like relationship-driven. And so the plot I actually don't think is super important. It's like it's the MacGuffin that just lets the characters interact with each other in different situations. Yeah, there were some times when like we were splitting the party in ways that seemed arbitrary and just like, well, we just need to get the different groups of them in different, you know.
02:35:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm not super duper into the plot. I didn't think Ego was a very interesting character. like Kurt Russell does fine. i just i just I just don't think the plot is the point.
02:35:42
Speaker
um But yeah, i love I love seeing these guys interact with each other in different ways. ah Had a great time. Was happy for the recommendation and the rewatch. So thanks.
02:35:56
Speaker
Well, that was fun. i I guess I assigned new. I have to be very honest. For the first time, i I am at this point, and I do not know what the homework is going to be. What? So I am going to borrow the suggestion. That's you every week? No, I always try to prepare homework. Close enough. Oh, I said I assigned homework. It had your name in there, but it it is my turn. We go in alphabetical order. i recently discovered I always have to double check.
02:36:24
Speaker
Are you wondering what you did in the week previous? that what's happening right now? We could live check real quick. No, it's fine. I just like, it's like, oh my reality is not what I thought because like, I'm like, didn't we do Wonder Man? And did I assign Wonder Man?
02:36:40
Speaker
I assigned Wonder Man. not important. and Was that only two weeks ago? Did you assign Wonder Man? I feel like i assigned Wonder Man. I assigned Wonder Man. Hmm. I don't know what reality is anymore. Is there a week in between Wonder Man and this week? We all done lost the plot.
02:36:58
Speaker
It's, no, but I'm, it's Yeah, last week we ah played somebody else's deck. That was Riz. Oh. Did I not update? I didn't update the show notes properly It was the Wonder Man in there.
02:37:13
Speaker
Okay. I didn't have to. I thought of something for nothing. Okay, no, I'll save it for next. No, i I think this is great, or else I would have you know rushed us rushed us past it sooner. um I'm going to borrow what was suggested and have us make major victory decks, because yeah okay I believe we are never talking about this character again after this week. um And you know I wanted to...
02:37:40
Speaker
get to come yeah re likes cooking with a bad card so um and you know what maybe he's not bad phrase it like that a card that no one believes in it's but i wouldn't say it like that because that would make me okay sorry lapis lizzly okay anyway moving it on All
Community Engagement & Snap Judgments Network
02:38:06
Speaker
right. ah Listeners, viewers, if you liked what you heard and you haven't already, like, comment, subscribe, rate, review, <unk> etc. All the things. Come hang out with us in the speakeasy. It's our little corner of Discord. You can find the instructions to get there in the show notes or video description. We are proudly part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions from Joe.
02:38:28
Speaker
I wish him a very happy Friday the 13th. He loves Jason. Um, so yeah, with that, uh, tune in next week.
02:38:39
Speaker
Thanks for hanging out for this long one and this, uh, format experience experiment. Same time. This format experience. I hope you enjoyed your experience. And if you would like more snap on this experience, tune in next week. Same snap time.
02:38:58
Speaker
Same snap channel. That one didn't break my voice. Hooray. I always get so scared leading right up to that word. Really? It's an adventure.
02:39:09
Speaker
I feel like every time, know, no matter how much of yourself you throw into it, it's always the right amount, Lauren. Oh, thank you. You make it sound very easy.
02:39:22
Speaker
It did sound strenuous last time, I will say. was little worried for you. That one was rough. One of the roughest... I
02:39:33
Speaker
guess that's it.
02:39:36
Speaker
I mean, you know, I just feel that we've been going for so long. I know. It's hard to keep going after. I mean, if you wanted to, there was a relet last week with some topics that we never got to hear about.
02:39:50
Speaker
And I was very troubled. Wait, what are they still on the table?
02:39:58
Speaker
Oh yeah, they're all still up for grabs. you can talk about whatever still. We need a post-credits thing, right? Depends. Sometimes they're short.
02:40:09
Speaker
That's true. Sometimes they are short. It could end right here.