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17: As a Gamer, I Can Only React Hyperbolically
223 Plays29 days ago
This week, Snap’s got big OTA energy, but a tiny patch. 🤏
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- It’s been week in a Snap… and Rivals 😬
- 🕷️ Peni Parker 🤖, Doom 2099, & Spotlight friends 🤝
- Patch News: Super Premium SP 👎 Character Mastery 👍 Datamined Cards 🫰
- OTA: No Country for Old Arishem, 🔨🔨 Hammer Bros, & Cere-Bros
- Cohost confessions of Secret Homework struggles 🙊
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- How Can She SNAP?
- 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!!
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:33:16 New Card: Peni Parker
- 0:45:18 Next Week's Spotlight: Doctor Doom 2099, Daken, Miek
- 0:53:41 Patch Discussion
- 1:01:40 Upcoming Cards
- 1:32:52 Character Mastery
- 1:38:27 OTA Discussion
- 2:15:07 Secret Homework: Old Deck Glow-Up
- 2:33:28 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 2:34:51 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 17
00:00:01
Speaker
OK, so yeah, hey, what's up? It's episode 17 of Snap on This. It's a Marvel Snap podcast. We talk about stuff. ah If you're a first-time listener, I'm sorry. I'm just kidding. I'm excited for you because this is a really fun podcast. I have a lot of fun recording it, and so it's inevitable that it's going to be fun to listen to, right? ah Anyway, I'm Lauren Whatevs here with my usual co-hosts.
Marvel Snap Season Progress
00:00:28
Speaker
They're amazing. It's an odd-numbered episode, so we're going to throw it to Ree first. Ree, do you want to be Ree or it's just Ree? We're going to workshop it on the fly.
00:00:37
Speaker
Okay. I would like it to be just Re, but I'm trying to say that without saying it's just Re. Okay, sorry all right. Well, it's just Re. um Yeah, Re, ah how was your weekend snap?
00:00:56
Speaker
And Re, keep it snazzy. Okay. Um, all right. No, so my week this week is a new season and I am definitely one of those people who is like, darling, you have almost to get to infinite. And like, what even is the card back?
00:01:17
Speaker
Get yourself that 500 gold and then just you know call it a day. But that's just what I say to people. How I am is like, what? You're not going to get infinite? If you're not going to get it in day one, that's fine. Get it. You're busy doing stuff. But you're going to get it in that first week, right? Or who
Auto Deck Building and Strategies
00:01:37
Speaker
even are you? It was a person anymore.
00:01:42
Speaker
you know this a this You're saying it's targeted at yourself, right? Oh yeah, I mean, sorry. You can also sort of by extension everyone around you that you interact with. Oh no, we all have different inward voices from outward voices, right? Sure. Okay.
00:02:02
Speaker
No, I'm just saying, like, in my head, it will weigh on me as the thing I need to do to get to infinite. And it's like, then it feels like I can't have fun. You know, getting to infinite, you know? um So, that's where I was at. And I went to the 90s super easily. Like, whatever I wanted to play gets me to 90s.
00:02:26
Speaker
And, um, but then when I was in the nineties, it was like yo-yoing, you know, and sure I could have like retreated more often, but as we had talked previously, there's, you know, sometimes like it's more important to play with your feelings, which want to see out more of those, you know, 50, 50 snaes.
00:02:48
Speaker
um Anyway, so what I ended up doing, my stuff wasn't working. I felt like I was treading water. I actually got all the way to 99 with one cube needed to cross the line and fell back down to 94. Because you know when you're on that tilted run where you just go ahead and lose a prisoner?
00:03:12
Speaker
No. Yeah. Walk away when it starts to happen like that. No. No, you don't stick with it. Whatever. The further you fall, the more impressive it is. When you climb back up, if you climb back up. OK, anyway, yes. So I decided I was like, OK, this was you know before Penny, this is a couple of days ago, whatever. This was over the weekend, was when I decided like, no, let's just do it. Let's just get to infinite. And um so I went to the auto deck builder.
00:03:41
Speaker
And I've thought about who the auto deck builder is. Is she like an entrapped-a-style tech girl? like Definitely not. Yeah, exactly. She's more like middle-aged, tired bureaucrat. you know
00:04:02
Speaker
yeah Like, this is me normally with the auto deck builder, like, oh, hello. So I just, you know, I've got this really great variant for like know, like, just like peeking over the desk and... um And with the auto deck builders always like, oh honey, and like the most, like the most, oh honey, you can honey someone. And like, no, you don't want to be playing that. Like legally, I must provide you with this card in the deck ah doy um and I'm going to take the most meta
Deck Building Experiences
00:04:44
Speaker
deck that I can build from your stupid little collection.
00:04:47
Speaker
And I'm going to drop out the least important card and the one you don't have. And that's where the card you wanted goes. And that's usually my auto deck builder experience. But in this case, I just walked in. I was like, show me your biggest skins, your biggest space lasers. And she's like, OK. Hit the buttons. The secret wares pop up. And it was just like, what is auto galact?
00:05:16
Speaker
And that stat was like, I was like, yep, that sailed me through the night. Yes, pretty quickly. You used it? Oh, hell yeah. Galacto with Mantis. All right, all right. Oh no, okay, no, sorry. Mantis is my usual auto deck builder experience where I take like an offbeat meta card that I want to play. And then it makes an 11 card deck and puts Mantis in it.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah. Correct. And that's what it is with a lot of because usually I'm going because I'm like, oh, you know, what ideas do you have this card I'd like to play with that's not meta? It's like, oh, well, that was your mistake. Don't bring a non-meta card to the meta builder. Anyway, yeah, what you've brought.
00:05:59
Speaker
Okay, anyway, so this auto-galacta deck, because it's probably moved on since, I assume, but it was fun, because it's it was a Galacta Wiccan deck, right? is Was it the meta? Okay, because you've probably seen this, because it was auto-galacta, right? It's got Kitty Pry, which I always love playing a Kitty Pry deck. Zabu, Zabu. Well, last week, auto-galacta was a different thing.
00:06:19
Speaker
But yeah now now it's Wiccan, I guess. Last week, it was like ah Mill discard Fenris Wolf. Yes. I remember that with Moon Knight and Fenris Wolf. okay But then when I was getting to the minute, it was a Wiccan deck with Zabu with Psylocke.
00:06:39
Speaker
I am slowly smidgening up respect, some measures, respect for Psylocke, which I don't remember how great it did. I just want to get this out of the way. I was very harsh on Psylocke last week. Even as I said the words, I regretted them.
00:06:55
Speaker
My luck is a perfectly okay card. Don't at me. um Sorry for interrupting. Continue, Re. No, I don't normally play her either, to be honest. so um but i do But Kate's in this. I do love some Kate Bishop, okay. And um Jeff is fun. Copycat. Nobody's... Okay.
00:07:17
Speaker
what okay The best thing Galacta has done is to let us play Captain Marvel again. I missed her. I missed playing her. Captain Marvel is everywhere. I know. It's annoying now. I guess that is the best thing Galacta has done, yes. I love Captain Marvel, and I have a beautiful variant and split on it, and I just wanted to fly. Fly to victory, Captain Marvel.
00:07:43
Speaker
Um, but it's also got Iron Man and Legion, which I, uh, I crossed the line in a beautiful Legion scam. I meant to pull it up so I could describe it in, um, breathtaking detail, you know? Paint my, my thousand words picture that I guess will spare you. But it was an amazing Legion scam that got me over into Infinite. Marvel Snapplor would be proud when you hear this Marvel Snapplor is for you.
00:08:10
Speaker
And also Elias is in it, and I can't lie, ever since I got the re-invariant of Elias, I'll Elias people all day. Oh yeah. Anyway, so yeah, this deck was just- I mean, if you're gonna do it, that's the way to do it, right?
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah. I haven't really played it since I got to Infinite because then I was like, okay, now I can have fun, do, you know, bring my own things and do what I want to do. But, um, it was, it was killing, it was killing for me in the nineties. That, that was, and then I did some other things that make more sense to talk about later because I was playing with hammers and stuff and it'll be appropriate at other times. So, um, yeah, that was my week.
Ben's Snap Adventures and Strategies
00:08:52
Speaker
Our other co-host, Ben. We're going to decide this on flight. Do you want to be Ben or Ben Roller, Benjamin Roller? They're all good and accurate. I'm Benjamin Roller, but I'm also Ben. It's complicated like that. it's Very difficult. Ben, we're going to roll on over to you. ah Very clever, I know. ah How was your weekend, Snap?
00:09:15
Speaker
ah It was pretty good. I mean, ah well, there was a combination of unusual circumstances that meant I didn't get to play as much Snap as usual in the past week.
00:09:26
Speaker
um I only just barely made my 4,000 for the the personal bounties last week. i'm I'm already on pace to do better this week, but yeah, last week was very light on snap playing. Some of that had to do with um rivals. In fact, a lot of that had to do with rivals and other stuff. Just life things intruding, you know how it goes. um So I started off this season with a pretty boring surfer deck. I just sort of...
00:09:58
Speaker
I put Galacta into the surfer deck that I like to play. My wave flourish. you know As you do. It worked pretty well, especially like for the the early part. It wasn't just because I was being fed some bots. like i just yeah it's one of those things where like when the season resets very often it's easy to get a streak of just wins on wins on wins on wins and then it does get a little bit frustrating when you start like only winning a normal amount of games and it just like feels like not as good but you know it's it's a truer experience or something i don't know i don't know but yeah i uh don't love galacta don't love playing against galacta don't love playing galacta
00:10:47
Speaker
But that's what I was doing. I even tried to shove in Galacta into a collector discard list. It performed okay. I think I could refine it a little, but I was not enjoying it as much as my like usual discard main deck. Scorn Master, a deck in a square from many weeks ago. um I don't know, yeah. ah Other than that, I've been playing that, Iimdall list that I've been playing for weeks and that, I, man, that deck really does kind of kick some butt, even though, as I mentioned last week, it rocks Angela, who's just not great right now, but... But that makes me want to play it so much harder, you know? Well, then you should, it's real good. Do you have Hydra Bob? I Iimdall too, I just, I'm so, I need to like... It's is Lauren who doesn't have Hydra Bob.
00:11:37
Speaker
I don't have Hydrabub. Oh my gosh! I like... I late night bought Hydrabub and I kind of regretting I wish I got Silver Sable instead. Well then you should definitely play this deck if you're looking to justify your iffy impulse decisions. Why are you regretting not getting Sable?
00:11:59
Speaker
you not a bounce player No, but like, but there are other things you can do, like with friggin stuff. Sometimes it's fun to just, I don't super regret it. Hydra Bob is fine.
00:12:14
Speaker
like yeah i been I have switched. Sorry, go ahead. I switched twice between pinning Ajax, pinning Bob, pinning Ajax, pinning Bob. I'm on Bob right now. And okay I just realized I was going to wait until the OTA to get Bob, and he's still Bob. He's untouched, yep. I think I might be buying Bob today. Hold the trade.
00:12:35
Speaker
I did get over this deck, and I'm playing him in the deck, and i'm how and it's good. It's fun, so you know, maybe you'll you'll like him probably. He also goes with Valc, right? so I think you'll like him even after he's a 1-4 again. That's what I think. Yeah, he still thinks you might even like him more. He should be. Justice for murder. Yeah, for real. Anywho, other things about my weekend snap.
00:13:02
Speaker
um I do feel like I'm entering a ah new deck building phase, so I should have more new decks coming up to be put in squares. It's hard to put out squares when I don't have a deck that I like really feel like confident in. but yeah As I mentioned, I'm still playing these decks from past squares. When I put one of my decks in the dang square, that means it's like a keeper and an all-time club banger, and you should try it.
00:13:32
Speaker
yeah that's yeah so So sometimes when I skip a week, that's just because I don't have anything that feels like up to snuff. You just keep repeating Heimdall, it's fine. We're all about quality over quantity here in Snap on this. Yeah, that's our official logo, Snap motto. I know, great. Also last week, I ah put on my meteorologist hat. um So the forecast for Token Tuesdays, the most recent one.
00:14:04
Speaker
1210, it was bad. That's 500 tokens for 700 gold. Don't buy those. They're not as good a deal as the other kind. So I hope you skipped
Marvel Rivals Discussion
00:14:12
Speaker
it. And I encourage you to join me in picking up the good one that's coming up on the 17th. Also in the new patch, I was i was just like looking at the data mine stuff for February and as as deep into the year as ah February 2025.
00:14:29
Speaker
They're still going to be on the the good alternating schedule, I believe, as long as these goofy January ones get corrected. And I bet they do. um So yeah, just join me on buying the good token Tuesdays and skipping the bad ones. I mean, it's your goal. Do what do with it what you will. But that is my tips. I don't get why they have bad ones. I don't know either. They still have the booster pack show up sometimes. So I don't know. But it's just to make the other bundles look better, maybe.
00:14:56
Speaker
I guess, and I mean like the bad ones are still better than a lot of the other offers, like those booster packs and stuff. For variants. That token Tuesday is still like better than a lot of things you could do with your gold. Yeah, you're selling me. I know it's my own advice, but you're selling me awesome. The thing is just buy the good ones. The good ones are even better than the bad ones. But tokens buy you cards. Why not? Don't you deserve the best, like Gaston? Absolutely.
00:15:27
Speaker
ah Rivals is here, and that did take up a fair amount of my time. um i'm just gonna I'm just gonna drop some thoughts real quick. I wasn't sure if we were gonna dedicate a whole segment or anything. but yeah Oh, we're not a Rivals podcast, but it's Rivals season, so i I'd love to hear about it, and I played it a little bit.
00:15:46
Speaker
feels relevant, especially because it was taking time from my snafing. This is the week I had. ah um Anyway, hero shooters, they're not exactly my home turf, but the genre is, it's like adjacent to the stuff that is, you know, in my my wheelhouse. so It's not like I was trespassing in the elephant graveyard or anything. It's still like sort of part of my kingdom. I'm allowed to dabble. I can branch out. I got range. um Absolutely. I've played Team Fortress 2. I know that everybody likes to compare this to Overwatch, but when Overwatch came out, I was like, oh, they're doing
Gaming Experiences and Preferences
00:16:21
Speaker
a Team Fortress 2. So it all depends on your frame of reference. You were just advising last week to play a variety of games.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yes, yes indeed. And i usually this is not even part of the variety that I would be playing, but yeah you know, it seemed relevant to our interests and I gotta get some experience, gotta find out. And unfortunately that does mean that you do have to F around um if if you wish to find out. um So I'm not over here like stringing together headshots in a symphony of murderous hand-eye coordination, but I do know to like point my healing ray in the right direction, drag my warm body over to a control point or whatever. Anyway, um as far as rivals go, I feel like I can evaluate it. I know what games are. um So the big roster, that's very cool. All being available to play for free from the jump. That's pretty cool. Hey, maybe ah take a...
00:17:20
Speaker
a page out of Rivals book, Marvel Snap. um Anyway, i I do get a little bit frustrated by the the lack of, like, guidance in terms of roles for the different people on your team. Like, it really stinks when you get stuck with five people who all insist on playing damaged characters and they just, like,
00:17:40
Speaker
They have to be doing DPS stuff, and they refuse to tank or medic or anything. um So that's kind of stinky. I bet they'll fix that. um I think the character design and a hit or miss. I think the level design is pretty cool like from an aesthetic standpoint. I don't know if like the layout of the levels is the best. I don't think I'm an expert. I couldn't tell you if it's great or terrible.
00:18:04
Speaker
I have found them hard to navigate. Yeah, I do get a little bit lost. I feel like sometimes I'm taking a turn and I'm like, why? There's no way this was the most direct path. What am I doing? Yeah, that can be a little frustrating. I think they could do better. But again, I don't consider myself an expert on the genre. And I know it would get better with experience. I just like going in blind with the maps I don't know, I have found some of them difficult.
00:18:33
Speaker
But yeah, the art design for the levels is very cool, especially the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda. Big fan of that. They've got a good look. They've got a little robot band. If you find the robot band, ah they're pretty cool. I took it. I love the robot band.
00:18:48
Speaker
picture. ah Anyway, that's cute. That's neat. um Anyway, I would say this is definitely a real game. I don't think it's like a great, I don't, I don't think it's, it's not a goatee contender. It's not going to win game of the year.
00:19:04
Speaker
If you've heard it described as an Overwatch clone, I will say it is not beating the allegations. But um as I understand it, Overwatch isn't even Overwatch anymore, so I don't know. Maybe there's room for rivals at the table. Again, I'm a card strategy RPG rogue-like kid, so this genre is not really on my list. but um We give it a tentative endorsement. if ah If you like this sort of game, you should probably check it out. You probably already have. Other than that, I've been playing a lot of Slay This Fire because I was traveling for medical stuff. And when I'm traveling, that means I'm playing Slay This Fire. All right. I love Slay This Fire. You don't need to use your data to play.
00:19:51
Speaker
That's what I used before snap came out. I was still doing a lot. It was like that and um, Hades the first on my switch or like my two at night games. There are two of my very, very favorites. I have played Rivals. I am one of the people cursed, and I know there are other people out there, but like I don't even generally play first-person video games at all anymore because I get motion sickness really bad. I'll look at games I'm excited about, like and person, because I'm following everything you can play from a third person. It makes a deal for me. Rivals was exclusively third person.
00:20:29
Speaker
Yes, but I'm worried. It's so like anything where I'm in like tight confines and I'm going around like I get motion sick easily. So I have, though, I have also been playing a new game that maybe some other people have tried. Path of Exile 2, the Alpha early release, which it's in. It's an ARPG, kind of like Diablo, basically. It's like Diablo. Yeah, I've heard good things about it.
00:20:58
Speaker
Yeah, PoE2 came out and this week and I've been playing it. I've been playing a sorceress and it's been so good and delicious. My only complaint is so far it's been all brownish, like I don't like, it's like and it's too much brown orange in the environment, you know, give me some color differentiation. But um it's it's a lot of fun, I think, if you're into that kind of game.
00:21:26
Speaker
This has been my recommendation. or is it also does it Is it single player or can you co-op? No. it is is both It has both couch co-op, which I have not tried the couch co-op, but I have tried the other co-op. Online, yeah yeah. Is it expensive? How much does it cost?
00:21:52
Speaker
Okay, so it is, it is, when it eventually releases, it will be free to play, but to gain access to the alpha, you mispay $30. Um, yeah.
00:22:03
Speaker
so and When it's free to play, will there be a bunch of annoying features that are trying to nudge me into microtransactions and stuff? Path of Exile has a good reputation for the way, in which is why one reason why people were all excited um for this. People have compared it to, like they're like, oh, this is a Souls-like ARPG. I'm like, I played some Elden Ring, and this this isn't that bad.
00:22:29
Speaker
But it is, it's like, it does scratch some of that that kind of itch where it's like not just a cheat. It's not like Diablo, you're just like, eh, but mish, but mish. You know, like when you're playing Titan, instead of Mortal Kombat.
00:22:45
Speaker
Buttons, mesh. Yeah, or they've got dodges. I was a sorceress, so I just needed to keep away and, like, throw out this cool, like, lightning attack. Just, like, lightning. Ooh, just zapping on him. Blinging everywhere and throwing out ice, but... in this sort and I haven't even tried. I was like, I'll try a different class. I'm like, okay, but what if I just log into my sorceress, though? Okay, anyway, so I didn't mean to talk about it that long, but I have been playing a little bit of that. Oh, you're fine.
00:23:13
Speaker
I've played very little variety of characters when I played Rivals. I still want to hear Ben's. It sounded like you were playing support, mostly. yeah I end up playing a lot of support. Also, I mentioned this before the podcast started, but I was advised to save it for the content. I will say, ah I like Marvel Snap better as a game than Marvel Rivals, but I like Marvel Rivals the game better than Marvel Rivals the season.
00:23:38
Speaker
Okay, now then, to answer Lauren's question about characters that I play. My number one boy about whom I to have some conflicted feelings, especially regarding the the character design. I spend a lot of time tanking it up.
00:23:56
Speaker
As the master of magnetism, Eric Lyncher, Magneto, don't love this character design. ah He looks like he, I don't know. ah to Yeah, i don't I don't love the look. ah It's a little hot topic for my taste. I'm allowed to say that I used to work there once upon a time.
00:24:18
Speaker
Anywho, yeah, I don't love his character design. I don't love his steroid swollen body. um But I, you know, he's got some cool moves and he's Magneto. I like Magneto. Magneto's a cool guy, ah sort of, ah you know. So yeah, I play a lot of Magneto. that's That's my tank of choice. I also play Thor when I'm tanking it up. Those are the two that I i tank with.
00:24:46
Speaker
And then I basically never get to play damage heroes, but when I do get to play damage heroes, I play Squirrel Girl. I play a lot of Squirrel Girl. And I play a bit of Hela, although I don't think my hand-eye coordination is good enough that I should be playing Hela. I'm not getting a ton of headshots. Hey, you can play for one fun. good It's true. And she turns into a bird.
00:25:10
Speaker
You gotta love that. It's very fun. ah Yeah, Hela's cool as heck. And also she does good team ups with Loki and Thor. Oh, the team up mechanic in this game is actually very cool. I didn't mention that before. I think that's one of its most successful things. um So you get like a bonus. if If I notice that like anyone on my team is playing as Loki or Thor, I'm incentivized to play Hela so that I can like resurrect them or something.
00:25:37
Speaker
I don't remember exactly what the deal is, but there are like multiple benefits. They're like tiny little icons that I only figured out what they meant like yesterday or not yesterday, but a few days ago. You get the idea. Point is, there's a little depth to like hero selection. So yeah, my damage heroes, Squirrel Girl and Hela. And then when it comes to support, I tried playing Luna Snow because I I wanted to give her a chance after hearing Glazer say some very, very harsh things about the character, the character design, everything about her general vibe and energy just seems to offend our good friend Glazer over on Snap judgments. So that made me want to give Luna Snow a chance in Rifles, just to be contrary. I don't know if y'all have heard him rant about Luna Snow, but Glazer has some choice words for Luna Snow and her whole deal.
00:26:25
Speaker
um Wait, in which game now? I'm like so... Uh, just in general. I think he despises the character. This is already too confusing. Yep. What? No, I know. I know. I know. I was confused too. I this is... I know, she's very cool. Luna Snow's the best. She just needs to get ready. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, I like Luna Snow in Rivals because she skates on the ground real fast and a lot of the game is spent...
00:26:49
Speaker
getting back to the action after you die. So she's like good at that. But I do think she's kind of one of the worst healers in general. Other than that, I have been playing some other healers. I'm trying to get good at cloak and dagger. I think cloak and dagger is a really good barrier. They seem so fun. At first I was scared away because I thought they'd be too complicated. A lot of these characters I initially was like,
00:27:15
Speaker
I'm just going to save that for later because that looks too complicated for my silly confused brain who, you know, like I don't play a ton of shooters or hero shooters or anything. So, yeah, I don't know. But I now that I've taken the plunge and started playing cloak and dagger, I've gotten a bit better and the numbers are starting to reflect that. So, yeah, those are like the six characters I played the most. We in a snow cloak and dagger, Squirrel Girl, Hela, Magneto and Thor.
00:27:44
Speaker
Them's my six. I have almost exclusively played Luna. um I'll go Jeff if somebody else is being Luna, and if there are her two supports, which happened like twice, then then I've played Scarlet Witch. ah who I just picked randomly once, it never took her into practice mode, didn't know what I was doing, and I kicked out the first time I used her. So yeah, she kind of clicked for me quickly. um Anyway, I haven't played a ton because all I have to play it on is my brother's Steam Deck, and it kind of runs like really bad there. I mean, I lowered all the settings, I finally got it going, but it's like
00:28:20
Speaker
it's it's kind of like experimentally supported right now so um it'll freeze every now and then not during the match but between matches and it's like that's just enough friction to be like okay i'm done for now um but yeah i i've played a few hours then sure sure wishing da Sorry, you're just starting to talk about you. i just I've had fun with it. I've played for a few hours. It's it's very cool. But you know I've had the experience of being the only healer with five DPS. That's miserable. I used to play a decent amount of Overwatch, but I played with friends. And ah I just think Hero hero Shooter is is a very boring. It's not fun if you don't have people to play with.
00:29:00
Speaker
so um I think that which i play your game being on like team chat and making call outs and stuff like that is fun. The other thing I really miss is because I played mostly like Mercy and Moira characters that are and Lucille like characters that are that are about placement more than they are about um accuracy with your right stick, um yeah is because I'm a
Marvel Snap Card Mechanics
00:29:24
Speaker
controller player. um And I just don't feel like there's any healers that are like that ah yet. Jeff, a little bit, I think Dagger has a little bit of like homing also, but yeah I just, yeah she does I really want a mercy-like character and there isn't one. um Not quite, no. I want a character where the main thing that I'm doing is being tricky with my movement, not tricky with my aiming. Anyway.
00:29:48
Speaker
ah My Week in Snap, how about that? I will talk about how how the secret homework went later because that was a deck building challenge, so I'll save that, but I spent a good amount of time iterating on that deck. The other thing I did was play a really mean mill deck, and I have not been a fan of mill before, but i Nick the Greek Geek posted one that featured death and it's just like well yeah that actually death gets fed like there are like what three mill cards yondu gladiator and misery maybe that are they're feeding both the mill strategy and the death strategy and that's very cool so I've had a lot of fun with that um
00:30:34
Speaker
So this is the deck. I can't remember what he named it. It had a very good name. I've named it Millen Killen Villen. um
00:30:44
Speaker
ah For the record, I committed to the candy cane on misery. so
00:30:49
Speaker
She's looking beautiful. um You can see her in last episode's shownets. This deck is the Hood, Yondu, Shadow King, Cable, Fenris Wolf, Grandmaster, Killmonger, Baron Zemo, Gladiator, Shang-Chi, a character I don't play very much actually even though he's very good, Misery, and Death.
00:31:10
Speaker
Um, and it is surprisingly, like this is like, it's like critical mass where misery makes it quite doable to actually prevent them from drawing one or two cards. and Cable's great for, you know you know, if you have their Hela or their Surfer or whatever. And then ah Death is like the power that you need really to like seal the deal. um So this this is, um I don't think it's a super strong deck. I don't think Mill should be super strong, but this feels like the strongest Mill deck I've ever seen.
00:31:42
Speaker
Um, and it's very fun. Um, I do feel like the bad guy. Uh, and I'm not, it's hard because it's kind of like the same thing with lockdown where it's like the part, the fun that I have is I just think I would have fun doing it against a bot. You know, the fun part is not making another human miserable.
00:32:00
Speaker
But I'm incidentally doing that. I'm sure there are some people who like that's what they like, right? There are people who emote toxicly. Right, there are people who emote toxicly. The appeal is to kick sand castles. And it's like, I wanna find a guy that I love like this. The one that's gonna kick your sand castle down is what she's saying, but it's for her enjoyment, not for your misery. Yeah, but I just like kicking the sand castle. I don't want it to be your sand castle specifically. I don't wanna hurt your feelings. But it's my sand castle. Why wouldn't you do that to me?
00:32:30
Speaker
But it's in the way of my fun. um and so yeah I have complicated feelings about it, but um when I have been frustrated many times throughout this week with deck building, I have turned to this deck and like it's been a little bit of a comfort deck lately. um I mean, this past week, it's been very fun. I won like two gold conquests with it. like It really is when it pops off. It is it can be mean. Okay.
00:33:00
Speaker
Let's, another 30 minutes of This Week in Snap. It's fine, we love it. um This week's card. This Week in Snap plus Rivals. Exactly, yeah. Really, This Week in Snap is just a ah collection of many topics.
00:33:15
Speaker
um Okay, this week's card is Penny Parker a 2-3 on reveal add spider to your hand when this merges you get plus one energy next turn and spider is a 3-3 on Reveal merge with one of your cards here. You can move that card next turn um This is perhaps the worst hosting I've I've done ah When it comes to new cards because I picked her up on Tuesday and I have not played her except for when I got her with cable a couple times so um Did you guys get her and do you like her? Yeah. Yes. Yes. And yes. Tell me about your experience. How did you get it? I purchased her with tokens because I purchased like, you know, a card with tokens most months. ah That's that's my ah strategy. um And yeah, this this was the right one.
00:34:11
Speaker
Right time. I got, uh, last week was a four key week, as I mentioned. So that meant I had a thousand tokens there and then, you know, good token Tuesday. You, and you know where the tokens come from folks. Oh, you said most months. I read it as, I heard it as most weeks and I was like, really? You're using tokens more often than keys?
00:34:29
Speaker
yeah i do token on ah There's usually a card I pick up with tokens in a given season. Okay. All right. All right. That seems about right. Especially if you're, you know, doing token Tuesday. yeah like religiously as I do. So yeah, I got I got Penny and I didn't have to worry about the luck of it. That's just nice. So now I'm sitting on a massive pile of ah keys, eight of them. Dang it. jealous So that's cool. So I've got the card. I don't have either of those variants. They look nice. I kind of like the the traditional trad squash. I'm going to call them. Yeah. You know.
00:35:10
Speaker
I'm not a huge Alpha flight fan, but I know about the two Sasquatches. Well, the two plus, there's more than, you know, on a long enough timeline. There's always many. An infinite number of individuals will carry ah whatever mantle. But, um you know.
00:35:26
Speaker
This gladiator looks nice, but I'm not like weeping that I don't have it. There are plenty of good gladiator variants. So yeah, I just got Penny because that seemed like the thing to do. ah Seems like a pretty good card. Penny is in the deck that I built for Secret Homework, so um can't I can't talk about that yet. You understand. My lips are sealed on that topic until the time is right. Until the the homework signal lights up the sky. Yes!
00:35:54
Speaker
So I guess we can talk about the other deck that I played Penny Parker in, and that is one from Safety Blade, if you can believe that much. I played his Spiderwebs list, and I haven't played a ton with it. But as usual, when I play a Safety Blade deck, I don't have to play a zillion games to like, figure out like, you know,
00:36:15
Speaker
builds decks that just work. And ah this one's a pretty fun deck. I like that. Oh, by the way, the list is Aranya, Ghost Spider, Human Torch, Iron Fist, Dagger, Madam Web, Falcon, Penny Parker, Juggernaut, Red Guardian, Vulture, and Beast. And I like this kind of thing. I like these decks that, you know, stop at three. I noticed that My first post on on Blue Sky, like many, many months ago, is just ah surfer decks that stop at three, I believe. Yep, I double-checked. Are you talking about your first-ever post on Blue Sky? Yes, my first-ever post on Blue Sky is two surfer decks that stop at three. Yep.
00:37:04
Speaker
I feel like my first comment ever in Blue Sky is commenting on your first post. and la I think that's all correct. I was an early adopter, you might even say. fact that I disappeared for like 11 months or whatever after that. I think a lot of people did that. But yeah, that was safety's spider webs list. ah Two thumbs up from me. I think it's good. I recommend other people check it out. Play it.
00:37:34
Speaker
um ah Yeah, bounce move. ah It's not usually my preferred flavor of move, but I just, I wanted to test out Penny Parker in a good deck that wasn't for my secret homework so that I would have right something that I could refer to and talk about. I hate move mostly and I hate bounce mostly, but I fucking love safety blade.
00:37:58
Speaker
And I feel like what could possibly, what could possibly, you know, tug the cold, dead heartstrings of my feelings for its move and bounce? Oh, well, he's in his move area, so there are going to be more opportunities. He'll put out more move decks, I'm sure. He's very excited about the- Perhaps the combination of the two decks I hate.
Upcoming Cards and Strategies
00:38:19
Speaker
We'll do it. We'll do it for me. I'm intrigued. All right. What'd you do with Penny?
00:38:27
Speaker
Oh, okay, so me. So I've only played her a little bit. I will i also got mired in Secret Homer and some other stuff. And um i I was at her and what I want to do, I won't lie, what I want to see her in is a Phoenix Force. I feel like my friend Frank was saying he made a Phoenix Force exact. So now I wish I had seen um But what I threw in was when I started looking at where she putting something together for, I threw in my It's a Gundam, my destroyer ramp, electro, destroy deck.
00:39:06
Speaker
And I actually, once I put her, I swapped out a couple other cards, I put Agony back, and I wish I could fit Dethan, honestly, like, at this point, but I think she's still a card that goes out. I've upgraded, now that I've swapped out enough cards, the deck is now called Talgeese. I've upgraded the name, if you get the reference, I think you're cool.
00:39:25
Speaker
and um ah Oh, so though I might as well save the deck. It's got Agony, X-23 Wolverine, now Penny Parker, Electro, Killmonger. Electro can ramp into a Tuma or Lady Deathstrike or Destroyer in two turns, but there's also Zola, of course, and Knoll because it's so fun to play like a Destroyer Knoll sometimes.
00:39:53
Speaker
You're just like, I don't care how much powers, you know, like Wolverine is bouncing around everywhere. but he's three It's just such a fun deck. Honestly, I can't believe that I like enjoy playing electro like ever. I've always kind of ah rarely been that into ramp and Nimrod say I've been an engine Nimrod lady dust Drake.
00:40:17
Speaker
Atuma are all in it as well. Atuma is such a just a useful tool to destroy ever since he unnerved. And it's just fun. It's right. like Now there's more reasons ah with Penny Parker to like beef up cards like Nimrod and move stuff around. It's it's been fun. That's what I've been doing with her so far. Do you think she's a plus tier? Is she a buff tier deck or it just it's just a fun thing?
00:40:48
Speaker
Um, so I took out Shuri was the card I took out for her, because I, and Shuri had been using, because it's like, Shuri Atuma was fine, because Shuri's just one point of power, Shuri Destroyer was fine, but I'm like, okay, but now that I'm like merging more stuff, now that I've got Agony, right, it's like,
00:41:06
Speaker
you know um i'll even merge in agony into electro into attuma because like i'm gonna play no later all of that's just power i'm eating up but now that i've agony back in that makes me want to put death in because i have more things that are distracting um I think I don't know that I have the best configuration of a Penny Parker destroy deck, but I think she has been good to my deck. I think she has been up great. I think I prefer it to Shuri. She's more fun anyway, and fun is the whole point. I have one thought about her that I forgot to express.
00:41:41
Speaker
um Before she came out, I was sort of hopeful that usually, like, you would... i I was hopeful that she would do better as sort of a a ramp card than I've seen her doing. Like, it seems like a lot of where she's been successful has been in, like, Wiccan decks, just to to make that curve, like, yep nice and natural and cool and stuff, but I kind of hoped she would have, like, her own sort of energy generation lane going for her.
00:42:14
Speaker
But it seems like mostly you don't put Spider on Penny, which ah is a disappointment to me because i I wanted her to be a big merge reward card, you know? Yeah, she just doesn't have enough power. um Yeah.
00:42:31
Speaker
And so i I've played her very little, right? I've stolen like two with cable, but like, you know, I've watched people talk about her and I've seen people be a little disappointed by how clunky she is. ah She's great in Wiccan, right? That like guaranteed curve two to three is excellent. Or you drop her on agony and then you can play Wiccan on three.
00:42:51
Speaker
um And so like basically the the thing I've seen is like yeah, Wiccan is one place to put her, and then the other thing is if you are putting her anywhere else, she almost needs to go with Agony or Hulkbuster. like You need that extra synergy to be merging again, but it just seems so hard to... it's a lot of It's a lot of work for not a lot of power to get one extra energy. Yeah. All right. I will i don't want to spoil too much about my secret homework deck, but all right I did play Agony.
00:43:22
Speaker
in and Penny Parker in that deck. and like It felt nice getting the agony into Penny Parker thing. but um A thing that I noticed about Penny Parker is that her timing is like a little bit reminiscent of activate cards. And yeah if you want to get the spider move on anything, you need to play Penny Parker on turn four so that you can play spider on turn five so that you can move on six. Yep. And like yeah that, for example, just like in terms of stuff that that clashes with, well, that
00:43:58
Speaker
that Suddenly, that deadline turns into turn three if you wanted to play Galacta on four, for instance. like that There's just a lot that's clunky about the getting a card that gives you a thing to do the next turn. like it's ah like if you If you were to like look at it Put your entire Marvel Snap game on like a line. like The second half of the line is turns when you're doing Penny Parker stuff or whatever, like if you play Penny later. I mean, if you play Penny earlier. But point is, like there are three turns when Penny Parker things are happening. There's the turn you play Penny Parker, the turn you play Spider, and the turn you move the Spider thing. So like yeah her her life cycle takes place over three turns if you want to like really squeeze all the juice out of her.
00:44:49
Speaker
which is, you know, unwieldy, i I will admit. Still, I think worth the squeeze. Them's my penny thoughts. Yeah, I haven't played her enough to measure strength, but it just kind of it seems to me like Spider could be a 3-4. Anyway. Probably.
00:45:09
Speaker
I would also be okay with Spider losing cost, but then it loses that Wiccan thing, which is kind of the best thing to do with Penny right now, so maybe that's not wise. Next week's cards, Doom 2099. It's that time for two. After each turn, add a Doombot 2099 to a random location if you played exactly one card.
00:45:32
Speaker
And the Doombot 2099 is also a 4-2 with the ongoing ability to give your other Doombots and Doom plus one power, which we have confirmed through the season reveal video trailer that it also applies to Doom Prime, the 65 Doom and his Doombots.
00:45:52
Speaker
um I had ranked this card very high, I think I had it second after Galacta. I've kind of cooled on it a bit as the season has gone on. um I still think it's like a lot of payoff for a very simple quest, but but decks these days are going very tall and I don't know if this goes tall enough without doing something clever with it.
00:46:19
Speaker
The reason I want to, I'm probably skipping it because I need keys for next season, so this is probably one of the ones I want to, and it's not like I don't think, I don't know if it's even feasible, but like it's like, what would be fun for me would be to be to you know have 2099 on the board, drop a spectrum onto a lock jaw to pull out like original doom. you know and just like yeah but like um But like, here's the thing, there's gonna be like one or two best decks with this card, right? It's it's like, here's that someone's gonna find it, and then that's the deck, and then where's the fun for us, you know? You maybe really love that one deck enough, you know? Yeah, if you love that one deck enough, then it's worth it, and if you don't, then it's like, it's just not fun for deck builders, it feels like.
Marvel Snap Season Pass and Updates
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, it does seem like a really easy to optimize card.
00:47:21
Speaker
I mean like I think I think you'll be able to make a good like if you have an incomplete collection you'll be able to have a little fun figuring out what your best version of the Dr. Doom 2099 deck looks like like that's exciting if you don't have all the cards and you want to you know flex your brain That's cool. but you' You mean like early series three, right? Yeah. If you like don't have all the cards, this this is a fun deck building puzzle for you. If you do have all the cards, much less so. Yeah. um But that's, again, you know the joy of limited. ah I think there will be some please there't be some clever things to do with it, but it's just...
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's going to be very powerful and very unfun. And also, like, if if the answer is like, well, you can counter it with ongoing hate, like what do you counter like one lane with ongoing hate? You can't do the whole thing because. ah The card himself doesn't have ongoing, right? Yeah, they're going to random locations. Yeah, you can't stop doom 2099 without like a red guardian. Yeah. Or a. And a lot. Early. Early death strike. Yeah.
00:48:36
Speaker
um Hey, maybe Deathstrike stock comes up. I'm just not enthusiastic about the card. Everything I said last time about him is still true, and I don't like that now there's a bad way to play your regular Dr. Doom, and you feel like you're not doing it right if you're an early series player who has Dr. Doom. That's the worst part of the game. It's just, it's gross. I mean, we'll get to that a little bit. That's where I'm totally with you, Ben, you know, catching up with you.
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah, with Captain America. um I and don't know if I'm going to get him or not. um might It might be a wait and see for me. ah doesn't seem like the type of thing yeah It doesn't seem like the type of card that I'm going to use. I don't want to play just one card a turn. That's no that's big card shit.
00:49:25
Speaker
That's the opposite of what I want to have happen on a plane. um um Okay, ah his spotlight friends though are Dokken, a 3-4, who gives the Muramasa Shard to your hand, which is a 1-1, 1-0. And if you want to destroy your... 1-0, I think?
00:49:44
Speaker
Anyway, if you destroy or discard it... I played it, I should know, but you're not ever trying to keep it. Yeah, you don't want the shard. I think it's so i think it's a 1-1. Anyway, if you discard it or destroy it, Dokken's power gets doubled. It's a fun quest, but it's a lot of work for a 3-8 when Gladiator exists or Surfer Dex haven't played him since my Angel Surfer Dex. I mean, I i played Dokken a little bit in, for instance,
00:50:14
Speaker
A hundred bad guys with s swords. You knew it was coming. I was excited. Okay. That's about the only place I play Dokken. And, uh, I mean, there, there are some times in some moments that Dokken has been like, sort of like a good enough card to play in a Dracula deck or whatever. Um, but mostly now, mostly Dokken's not a good card.
00:50:41
Speaker
It's just shoot too much squeezing to get such a, such like a piddly amount of juice. Like even as far as things that like double the effort you put into like boosting them, like Scarlet Spider, easier to get the the juice. um Just like everything, you know, your Mr. Sinister, easier to get your doubled juice. Like everything is easier than Dokken.
00:51:06
Speaker
I have seen Dawkins pop off when they're like using Zola and or you know Frigga or like I don't know something where you get multiple Dawkins and when the locations are goofy and you get you get to cloning and stuff and tossing multiple shards Quadrupling multiple Dawkins. It's very cool. Yeah, absolutely exponential stuff is dope It's niche and ah frankly your opponent should be retreating when that happens. Yeah, it and it never it should never, yeah. you're You're not getting eight cubes off of that. So don't open for Dokken unless you are a discard fiend. ah Yeah, if you like this card, get this card. like It's a cool card. You can build decks with it. You can like try to do stuff with it if you, you know.
00:51:50
Speaker
Yeah, if you have a cool idea, absolutely get this card. And meek a 1-1. When you discard a card, this gains plus one power and you can move next turn. It's kind of weird that Doom 2099 has two discard friends, but... um Meek, I know is a, Rhea is a big fan of it. And also I was on episode, I think it was 100 of Snap judgments with Glenn. And during that podcast, Glenn said that Meek is performing a lot better than like, he's one of the top one-cost cards and he thinks players underestimate Meek. Justice! Justice! Oh, I like people have always been like, yeah, whatever, Meek's amazing. Meek's amazing. Very cool.
00:52:33
Speaker
All right, and this ink, I am sad, this is what I'm sad about this week. I almost was like, do I get 2099? Cause I love this ink pulp. It's a very good variant of Meek. But the decant is so 80s.
00:52:50
Speaker
Yeah. It reminds me of this terrible Meek. I love the Meek though, the colors are beautiful on it. I think I have, yeah I mean, I hardly ever play Meek, but I think I have Dan Hip Meek that I got in a cache or something. and And I like that meek a lot too. So it's an easy pass for meek. I believe it's ink-pult meek. That's ink-pult meek. I want it. I want it. Really? I don't know. Sometimes late night retakes the reigns and we end up with Hyderabad and maybe we end up with the 2099 and a meek.
00:53:29
Speaker
Let's see. these are These are cool variants, but ah both very skippable, especially given that they're next to Doom, not into it.
00:53:40
Speaker
Okay. On Tuesday, there was a patch. It had very little content in it. um we've We've had a recent i dev answer from Glenn where he kind of explained that that OTAs are for balancing and patches are are mostly I don't know. What was it? Bug fixes? I mean, it's for it's for new features and we just we don't have new features coming to the game. And so patches are dull. I think we we were all spoiled by two years of patches having balance changes and they just don't anymore. um now that ota tech Now that their OTA technology has gotten better and they can do all of the balancing through OTA.
00:54:22
Speaker
um but They announced that the season pass that was tea that super what is it super premium past that was um teased in the roadmap, they have revealed what it is. yeah It's going from $14.99 to $19.99. It still includes the 10 levels of season pass.
00:54:44
Speaker
um Which is, that extra $5 that you could be spending right now is one of the worst ways you can spend money in the market. It's a really bad return on investment. It's literally worse than just buying gold for $5. Well, at the $100 rate. So I guess if you if you prefer to buy things in small chunks, maybe. But it it really is just it's a terrible use of your money.
00:55:09
Speaker
um There are bundles and stuff that are better. ah But now for $5 more, you also get three borders and an exclusive super rare variant. I don't know what it means that it's super rare. Does that mean it's going to be available in the variant shop a year later?
00:55:26
Speaker
No, like i I think, well, when they say exclusive super rare variant, does that mean, okay, I guess maybe that does mean that it's unique per season or whatever. It's unique per season because they've data mined one of them, I believe.
00:55:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's like the it's like the variants that are already in the Season Pass, but the ones in the current Season Pass don't have rarity. They're like Season Pass rarity. Yeah, it is odd that they specify. I see what you're saying. I wonder if it's related to Character Mastery.
00:55:59
Speaker
Oh, maybe. It's so bad. I was 100% planning on spending $20 a month on this game, because I assumed it was going to have some value, not as good as the $10 season pass. Nothing is ever nor probably should have that level of value in Marvel snap. But I expected something like gold pass level.
00:56:21
Speaker
Something that was like an easy yes, but there's no way I'm buying this. I thought they were going to take the $15 pass that to me it was like 10 levels never was. That's not true on my birthday month. I get myself the premium.
00:56:35
Speaker
But I thought like, but I was like, I'm like, okay, they're going to give us like three more exclusive variants. I bet into this, you know, into the $5 with maybe a couple, even other extra little things. And I'm like, that'll probably get me to do it. And I saw this and it's like, no, like, so for $10, like I get three borders and of is what I'm seeing out of it. And it's just like,
00:57:04
Speaker
Nah, this isn't it. It's disappointing. Yeah. ah Doubling the cost for what was not worth it before. It's really, really bad. I will like say, granted, if you love the borders or love the variant, then it has subjective value, right? Like like any bundle or whatever in the game, the cosmetic value. i don't tend to But if we're talking about progress value, it's just trash.
00:57:29
Speaker
Uh, then there's there's not deck slots. Yeah, I was going to say, I would like to point out something very positive about this. They are not charging players for a 21st or 22nd, 23rd, et cetera, a deck slot.
00:57:46
Speaker
and good So good for them. And hey, I just, I want to take this opportunity to give them credit for avoiding a monstrous thing that seemed very plausible. I would have believed that they would do it and I'm pleased that they didn't. And I just, I i don't want it to pass by unremarked upon. So it's very cool that they aren't charging us for extra deck slots. They should give us some for free though. yeah Don't count it as a win until we get them for free. Yeah, but I will count it as a win that they aren't charging it. I really do. I would have felt really upset if they had put them as part of this super premium season pass. So hey, good job.
00:58:35
Speaker
i'm still not buying it but i wasn't buying it before and you now buying and don't i'm just i'm i was just shocked when i saw this it's so much worse than i know it's it's just like a ridiculously bad value oh my god the thing is they know that their customers don't do math on these things like they they know that they They can put anything in front of us and a large fraction of the player base or a large enough fraction of the player base isn't going to bust out the calculator. They're going to assume it's a good deal and they're going to fork over an easy $10 a month. Everybody who's buying week token Tuesdays and booster packs, I guess. Honestly, I bet the people who buy week token Tuesdays don't buy these because week token Tuesdays are still pretty okay.
00:59:20
Speaker
Also, you know, i like that youre I like that you're calling them weak token Tuesdays. That's good because bad is like a little bit harsh because they're still not that terrible. okay Weak token Tuesdays. I'm going to remember. There's something I don't like is they're yeah treating borders. I'm sure this is part of their like value pitch. They're treating borders like they're premium.
00:59:42
Speaker
when, in fact, they are giving boards where they like candy. They are the new filler to go alongside boosters. It's not like candy. I have started doling some out, but they're still precious. They're going to get stingy. If you buy them to yourself, it's illegal.
01:00:02
Speaker
I just, I don't think, I don't think it's reasonable to treat them like they cost as much as they do in the gold shop. No, like that is, yeah. I mean, it's, it's so goofy that it's like this much value, but it's like you made up that value. You made up that borders cost this much when we don't get them for free, but we get them for free. So if you apply that logic elsewhere, Lauren, the whole thing falls apart. I know that applies to the whole game. I get that. Yes. But you don't have to buy borders in the shop. You can get them in other places.
01:00:30
Speaker
um It's been a while since we got an emote in the season pass, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, that was another thing. They cut the emotes out of the season pass, so I was like, oh, those are probably going to start coming in the super premium. I didn't even notice. I might consider it. Yeah. It's been two or three seasons. Maybe they'll add it later. They didn't want to do it immediately, because then they know we'd all be like, you took it. You know what I mean? That's what we didn't want to see, is them to cut things out.
01:00:57
Speaker
of the season pass. When the patch notes dropped, it was announced that it was the end of Splitsmas. However, they very quickly reversed course on that, saying that it would continue for another week because they are testing for bugs. So, um you know, that's a win, I guess. It's the second dinner being second dinner, at least.
01:01:24
Speaker
um
01:01:26
Speaker
Yep, they have committed, I will remind everybody, they have committed to tell us what the ah what the split rates are whenever they change, so. Anyway, they should be back to normal next week. a New patch meant that we got to see the February cards, and also what one or two changes to January cards. So, let's talk about those. I'm going to do the January cards first. um Bullseye goes from a 4-5 to a 3-3.
01:01:59
Speaker
Neither one of those is a great stat line, but this is better, right? 3-3 is a bad stat line, but if you're doing bullseye things, you're not playing him for his raw stats. Yeah, and an activate card that you can play a little bit earlier, like you're not going to complain about that.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, super important. And I am excited. Anytime you're not playing for stats, you want cheaper and cheaper and cheaper, so... Yeah, I am excited to play silly modoc swarm things with Bullseye. I think he's gonna be a strong card. Yeah, oh, definitely. I think maybe even in more than one kind of deck. Oh yeah, I don't think you have to do silly things with him. I just want to do silly things with him. Well, I think there are different silly things you can do with him. Yeah.
01:02:40
Speaker
What's the X-23 scoring action happening? yeah im from bullsey okay and then Moonstone goes from 4-5 to 4-6. I think that's a great change. i think I think Moonstone has a weird ability. She's she's the one who is like scroll for your own one, two, and three cards. Some people might say it's an onslaught. Moonstone did not need this extra point of power, but that's just a hunch. I have not like theory crafted a deck with her or anything. She's already super strong in her own location.
01:03:13
Speaker
yeah I feel like a like that ability is so good. that like it's Is it? on a point What are you using it on? I don't know, just fantastic. Yeah, Patriot Mystique. But like, she's so vulnerable because you're going in.
01:03:30
Speaker
Yeah, Ant-Man, Mr. Fantastic. Captain America. Ooh, you know what? US agent. Maybe Morbius. I don't know. But then, like, what else? What else? But the thing is, it's in the same lane. So it's like. You're not going to put Morbius and Strong Guy in the same lane. So I guess she doesn't, like, necessarily work in discard. So your Moonstone lane goes tall, but it doesn't. But that's why I'm saying Mr. Fantastic. yeah I think Patriot is also a real thing for her to do. but um I think she's fun, but not op and like I said if you're going in hard on her you gotta put like Cosmo in that lane, right? You're
Discussion on New February Cards
01:04:09
Speaker
gonna leave off all you're gonna leave all the cards you're gonna put in that lane to vulnerable and interest What about Madam web? Are there hygiene? Yeah, they're doubling Madam web doesn't do anything Does it not?
01:04:23
Speaker
Because you want to stack Moonstone, so why mess around with Moonstone? No, but like, if you have two of them, do you get two moves? If you play Madam Web in Park Sinister, you can only move one per turn. Oh, jeez. Because it's not saying the number one, and now you can move four cards. It's saying you have the ability to move a card per turn. It's just an on or off switch. I think it's dumb. I think it would be really fun if they made her onslaughtable. Okay, well, there must be something to do with this card, right?
01:04:48
Speaker
There is, and she'll be fun. Even mine thinks she's fun, which should clue you in on the kinds of funs to be had. Yeah.
01:05:02
Speaker
Okay, yeah. 4-6 makes her a more real card. I think um i think I'm seeing people overestimate her. Um, I, maybe I'm guilty of that. I don't know. I also, to me, she reads more like she works like scroll than like onslaught in that if you have moonstone and then mystique moonstone, I don't think she will copy the mistake.
01:05:25
Speaker
I don't think Moonstone can copy Moonstone is what I'm trying to say. ah despite them Even if you have a three cost Moonstone, does that make any sense? I don't know. Why? Don't put all that. I don't have to figure all that stuff out. I guess once you know it, you know it. Yeah, right? It's like I don't know how many times this Iron Man's going to quadruple or whatever. It's too much. I just assume enough. Yeah. When you have multiple onslaught and scroll, those shenanigans, that math gets really weird.
01:05:53
Speaker
um anyway and the order that you play the cards in matters. Victoria Hand? Oh. OK. Never mind. I was just, like, Moonstone doesn't, a Mystique Moonstone, you think, won't get copied by Moonstone, but like. Correct. You could put her in a different lane. Yes. Yes. And that feels good enough. Or, you know, a Mystique. It does feel good, I agree. I don't know.
01:06:19
Speaker
Even a Mystique Claw, like I don't know. Mystique Claw is great. That is a real use for this, for sure. um and don't Moonstone just seems expensive to me. Four costs for for doubling your 1, 2s, and 3s, so I think that she needed this power.
01:06:35
Speaker
um Victoria Hand, a 2-3. This is the card I'm most excited for next season. A 2-3. Ongoing your cards that were created in your hand have plus due power. It was just a text change. It does the same thing. Good text change, though. Yeah, pair They added the that were to the that were created yeah in your hand. Okay.
01:06:56
Speaker
Then February season, are these are in such a funny order. Our season pass card is Sam Wilson, right? Sam Wilson, Captain America? Yeah, yeah. He's a 2-3 with a new keyword, which we actually just got today in the in the OTA spoilers, but ah with Arisham. But the new keyword, game start, I think this is a wonderful new keyword. I think Thanos and Agatha could really use that clarity.
01:07:24
Speaker
um We didn't talk about these already, right? Or did we when Snap Fan happened? No, this is new. Nope, this is new. It's new that they have stat lines, but Snap Fan actually got their names and abilities like a week or two ago with the last patch. No, well we haven't talked about him. I haven't seen him. Okay, I didn't think we did. Okay. He's a 2-3. At the start of the game, he adds Cap's shield to a random location. So we have a new thing where you're starting with a card already on the board. That's kind of cool. And he has the ongoing ability to move Cap's shield. What's Cap's shield, you ask? Well, it's a 1-1. With the ongoing ability, this can't be destroyed. And give your cap plus two power when this moves to Cap's location. I think the use of cap is a little funny, but... I agree. But this works on on Captain America classic, right? Those Captain's America. Yeah. Yeah. um I think it's going to be very fun. it's I don't know like how much there is to do with it besides bounce it between your Captain's America.
01:08:29
Speaker
You know what I think about it? I think it dies to Killmonger. That's what I think. No! It has the ongoing ability. It can't be destroyed. Oh, well then what's the point of making it one cost? Um, it's kind of moonstone. So that you... It's very flavorful that it can't be destroyed. If you do it, then let's move. There's a precedent.
01:08:51
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, I guess that's why it costs one, so that Falcon makes it cost, it goes back off of Falcon or- It works with Falcon and Redwing. I don't know why you would want to use it with Redwing, but anyway. I also don't know why you would, but I guess, you know. This is not a weird- Sure, I guess it's good that it has a cost. It would be weird if it were free. Tokens should have costs, it's fine. Pigs are zero cost and they're great. Love a pig.
01:09:21
Speaker
or ah Or a genie, right? They're also zero cost? Yeah. Zero a one. Okay. ah I don't know what the correct order of the rest of the cards are, so we're going to wing it. um Do we have anything else to say about new Captain America?
01:09:39
Speaker
I think it's a weird. I do think it's like a weird cause it's like, it's like they almost cause people have wanted like tribal kind of in the game, right? Like playing X, what they did with the imbalance patches briefly. And it's like almost with these, with this doom and like this Catherine, it's almost their way of introducing tribal. But as we've discussed before, the point of tribals, you have enough options that you still having meaningful choices within and you don't hear, right? You don't have meaningful choices if,
01:10:08
Speaker
feels like. This is very much follow the recipe. Uh huh. Play these cards together. There's going to be some optimal configuration, right? Like it's just. Well, I like know I like that the season pass card is friendly for new players. That's something that I always. You want a season pass card and everybody has Captain America. So okay they can a brand new player can make use of this. I mean, if you're going to reference a card, I guess a card from like series one or like recruit season or whatever Captain America is in. like that That is like the safest thing to do. It's better than Dr. Doom a Series 3 card, as I recall. I might be misremembering. I don't know. I'm pretty sure Dr. Doom is Series 3. So like that's a little later in the game. But I still don't like that there's now a wrong way to play Captain America.
01:11:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I agree, right? Because that feels bad. It feels bad. I just immediately compare it to the way some things that I want to play. like But I don't have Ajax. And it's like, you know. It's it's just it's just too specific. It's too narrow. um I think it's it's the right character, right? this is The new Captain America movie is coming out in February-ish. Yeah. So I'm sure that's why they aligned it as such. But so thematically great.
01:11:29
Speaker
I just, I'm definitely more forgiving of this one than I am of Dr. Doom 2099. Like I'm like more willing to be like, yeah, but it's cool. And like, it is like, and I'm i'm glad that this character, like this character, I wanted this character to be good. yeah I didn't, I didn't want Sam Wilson to be the bad Captain America or anything. You know, like um I'm glad that he's an exciting card.
01:11:55
Speaker
Well, also, this could make the original Captain America playable, maybe. Yeah, and if we are going to make some, like, I don't like that now there's a wrong way to play him, but playing him at all was already the wrong way to play him, so... Yeah, for real, he got cut from my one meme deck.
01:12:15
Speaker
Synergy is a good way to buff those cards that they're like reticent to buff because how it affects the new player experience. But this is synergy of the like laziest and most like forceful kind. It's not fun for duck building. um Just live fact checking Dr. Doom is series three. Captain America is series one. So the latest you get him is like CL 200 ish.
01:12:38
Speaker
But you could get him as early as CL 18. I thought that the Series 1 cards came in order, don't they? There's a starting difference. I thought Series 2 was where they started getting random, or is it both? Oh, do they come in order? Maybe they do. I just have it labeled as Collection Level 18 to 214. So, I don't know. Maybe you get him at a fixed point. It was a long time ago now.
01:13:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're right. I think they are the ones that come in in a fixed order. Okay.
01:13:13
Speaker
Yeah, I hope it gets changed, but it just seems so... This doesn't look like a card that's gonna get changed to me. I agree. Which card? kept ah Sam Wilson, Captain America. so I think it's gonna ship like this. Yep, I think you're right. I think so too. Okay.
01:13:34
Speaker
Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross, second Red Hulk, which I'm sure he would be Red Hulk if we didn't already have Red Hulk, but we do. So he's a 2-2. When your opponent ends a turn with unspent energy, that's reminiscent, draw a card with 10 or more power.
01:13:54
Speaker
I still think it's meaning from your deck, then? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's not just generating a card. Yeah, enjoy your Red Hulk. That's what I thought. Red Hulk doesn't have 10 power, does he? yeah turn means that it doesn't take to turn nine Does he see a 6'9 now? I yeah mean like so much Red Hulk. He's a 6'10. I thought he He was a 9 for a little bit, right? next I think you're right. i think okay He was a 9 for like two months.
01:14:24
Speaker
okay um yeah So so this is for timing reasons, ah do we think that Red Hulk grows in your hand if you grab him with Thaddeus Ross? Or do we think that Thaddeus Ross grabs him and he doesn't grow in your hand? growss ah I bet he grows in your hand. That's more fun. That's more cool.
01:14:46
Speaker
I just don't like it.
Gameplay Mechanics and Strategies
01:14:48
Speaker
I feel like the end of turn should only happen once. That's what I think. Like your opponent ends a turn with unspent energy and then you get to draw a card with 10 or more power and then the turn doesn't end again after that. Like, I don't know. Okay. You're right. I feel like I believe that's how the engine works right now. the and There is just one single end of turn event, but I don't know. They might change that just because it's cool.
01:15:17
Speaker
I kind of like this to be honest. I was bummed when I would like it more if the original bull's eye rate was like find a one cost from your deck. And it's like, I just want to like, just let me get my scorn. Let me know I can get my scorn. That's all I wanted. And so when it's like, and I really, I don't as often play cards that have 10 or more power. So it's like, when I'm doing when i'm playing that is probably, it's probably fun, something fun I want to do to get into it.
01:15:48
Speaker
It's such an easy pass for me. It's a good card though, right? He's a good card. I think it's definitely a good card. This is like kind of an atom warlock power, but in the right deck it's- Make sure you have your lyeth.
01:16:08
Speaker
Oh, I just got changed to a nine. Oh, you're right. I forgot. Oh, yeah. OK. But I mean, is it a good card? I guess I'm not I'm not sure it's a good card. I haven't thought about it like hard enough, but I drawing a card at the end of the turn.
01:16:23
Speaker
Drawing is good. Yeah, but only if the opponent ends a turn with unspent energy. But then again, I underestimated Red Hulk, because I was like, don't people want to be spending all their energy? I'm obsessed with spending all my energy. Where is everybody else? But no, people hang energy all the time. Yeah. And also, sometimes if you are intentionally spending all your energy, you're playing wrong. Like, you're playing Shadow King on two. Don't do that. Yeah, that's true.
01:16:52
Speaker
Right? like I think that's a trap that a lot of people fall for is sometimes it's better to hold a card for for later. You know, hold on to that demon for a while. um Because Killmonger's scary.
01:17:04
Speaker
Okay, ahdadada let's go all the way up to Batroc the Leaper. A 1-2. Now this is a card. Everybody this, right? And was like, I want to watch this follow werewolf around. This is a 1-2. When a card moves, follow it to gain plus two power. Only once per turn. Probably should be only three times per game or something, because dang.
01:17:34
Speaker
Right, that's so fun. Even I want to play move looking at this card. Yeah, this card is going to be fun. Everything about this card is cool. like we We're all excited that Batrock the Leaper is in, right? From Captain America, the Winter Soldier, and other I think other MCU appearances, unless I'm... I might be wrong about that, but he's definitely in the Winter Soldier. I love that someone exists called Batrock the Leaper.
01:18:04
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, Batrock. I like that better than Batrock. I don't know how to pronounce it. I think he played by the one UFC man from like the 2000s. I could be wrong. I honestly don't even... I had no idea he was at the MCU. My vision cone of cultural awareness. I know some people were sad he was missing from Gwenpool season, so here he is. I just realized... I've seen these several times, but I just realized it's when a card moves. It doesn't have to be your own.
01:18:35
Speaker
So he can work with your polaris and juggernauts and. It's very cool card. ah In the right deck, the guy gets big.
01:18:54
Speaker
Yeah, Batroc the leaper is indeed. kill my she Played the one, the one guy, the one guy. OK, great. winter soldierp Yeah, he's in Winter Soldier and he's also in Captain America and the Winter Soldier. ah you You would know him if you saw him.
01:19:16
Speaker
All right, I guess I need to see those movies again or something. George St. Pierre or whatever. that's that's the That's the wrestler guy person. I think he's, I don't know. He's some sort of combat sports person. i used to I used to have friends who were interested in combat sports. I no longer have friends who are interested in combat sports. I occasionally have to scroll by combat sports on Reddit. That is my reaction.
01:19:48
Speaker
ah Cobra, a 3-6. You can only play this at a location where your opponent has exactly one card. All right. This card is so weird. This is the This is the one. It gets the Emperor Hulkling Award for the season. This is the skinker. This is the real bad one that you cannot play. Oh, my gosh. This card is so awful. Wow. This is a weird Bruce Banner we got on our hands.
01:20:15
Speaker
willikers I heard it speculated that maybe this card would be too good at three seven. Absolutely not. This card would not be too good at three seven. This card would still be too bad at three seven. This card is so bad. It's so weird. It synergizes with nothing. It's like the opposite of the Captain America. Like y'all have seen speed, right? Y'all know about speed? The bus. like No, no, the the three drop with ongoing. Oh, that's an ongoing. like um That's a good card for Moonstone. Yeah, it is. Okay, so yeah, speed. He gets bigger. ah You only have to like, three times he's Cobra size, but you're going to do it more than that. Cobra is so bad. Cobra is so bad. Don't play. Changes. I think I am. Absolutely.
01:21:07
Speaker
I am more certain that Cobra will change than I am that Sam Wilson won't. Yeah, I think like I think they do change him to three seven and then my advice still stands down by this card. I hope they change his ability. It's dumb.
01:21:24
Speaker
it's about It's a bad restriction. It's a really bad restriction. And it's just worse than Cull Obsidian. Not that Cull Obsidian is a bad card, but like that is like a very restrictive condition that Cull Obsidian has. And like this one is worse than that. Dang. And you can't It's just, yeah. well yeah Are you going to play it with War Machine? Not with those stats? No, you are not. Yeah. Are you going to play it with Acid Arrow?
01:21:54
Speaker
and Well, you can't you don't have enough control with Acid Arrow. I know! I screw it up for you. Yeah. It's really just... It's just... This is an unplayably bad card. this is like It really is Emperor Hulkling level. Like, don't play Cobra. I think this is this is worse. I think this is this would be bottom three cards in the game if it was added right now, as is.
01:22:22
Speaker
They did date him in a super cute reading and Gonzalez variant. Yeah, he has good variants, so they need to sell him, so they need to make him not shit. Okay. Diamond back, a three-three. Ongoing. Enemy cards here afflicted with negative power have an additional minus two power. This card is vicious. Yeah, this card is awesome. I love it. Also works with Moonstone. Moonstone, good card.
01:22:48
Speaker
Just because she has synergy doesn't mean she's good. i know Well, when we started talking about Moonstone, it's not my fault I couldn't think of cheap ongoing cards. we We needed to talk about more cards to jog my memory and make me think of good cards.
01:23:03
Speaker
It's only enemy cards, like just the Diamondback and Hazmat combo. Just that. It's disgusting. It's vicious. Diamondback is a 3.11 if we're not giving any of the bonus stats to Hazmat. Because you always have to be careful how you evaluate these things. Are we splitting up some stats? Whatever. But if they all belong to Diamondback, Diamondback is a 3.11 in that situation.
01:23:26
Speaker
i like Yeah, Diamondback, Moonstone, Spiderwoman probably just wins you that lane. And then what, you AJAX Silver Cerebella on turn six for another lane or something? I don't know. just well I like it. It only it only like counts once no matter how many negative power effects they have on them, right?
01:23:48
Speaker
So like if you has matted and spider woman, they wouldn't have, those cards wouldn't have an additional minus four. you're not thely minus both They're just, you know, options. Oh, just like different ways. Like yeah you want to have redundancies to make sure that diamondback is also a very cool mystique target. If your stuff's not working to mystique Ajax. Um, I also want to call out, she's really like, they could have given her the broken spine pose and they didn't. So great job.
01:24:18
Speaker
You know? Yeah. you can You can't see her ass and her and her boobs at the same time. I mean, anyway. It just seemed like the pose that's that's liable for that. and And they didn't fall for it. So I'm glad to see it. When I'm doing cool super moves like that, that is how I feel. Yeah, you want to like twist your spine in half. It's great. um I don't know. I have no idea who this character is, but she looks cool.
01:24:47
Speaker
Oh, Diamondback? She hangs out with Hydra, right? I've run into her in the comics before, but she's so low-key, I only kind of, and I've run into her, I know, but I'm like, she's just one of those lower, you know? I think she's usually runnin' drugs in whatever comics I read her in. Something like that. Okay, Joaquin Torres, Falcon.
01:25:12
Speaker
i ongoing the, or a three-three, ongoing the unreveal abilities of your one-cost cards here happen twice. It's a very interesting card. it's okay It's like Wong for one costs. But just for one costs.
01:25:32
Speaker
Yeah, but he has better power and lower cost than Wong, so it's like that might be a decent trade-off. There are one, there are one cost I want to repeat. No, there are. It's true. This is like a very interesting card. Repeat, Niko. I just don't know. I mean, Niko's in cost. One good one. All the bounce ones. Do you have one reveals? Like, a lot of them do have good on reveals. I don't know, Batrock doesn't have a non-reveal. You don't have to play any more.
01:25:59
Speaker
um Yeah, I I'm a little skeptical that I mean, like, it's it's very cool. It's so cool that, like, I'm probably going to get this card. And if it's fun. I was not sure this character, the new falconist to the birth.
01:26:19
Speaker
Well, like, I said that weirdly, but I mean, like, I read the comics. from with this Okay. I read the first appearance of Joaquin Torres. Yes. Okay, that's how I should have. But like, as right You were scrubbed in. Oh, please no. It was so waggy because it's like Sam Wilson had become Captain America um and like there's this Nick Spencer. I enjoyed a decent amount and they're like, okay, well now the Falcon title is open, right? so you know We're going to introduce the new Falcon.
01:26:57
Speaker
And this was the new, I was like, okay, what if it's a half bird, half man? And he's got like weird looking eyes and like arm wings. And then he's in this weird like leotard ease, but like this character was just created in like the last, I don't know, cause time is going by for me, but definitely in the last like 10 years. Okay, that was fairly reset, relatively new. And this is what he looks, it's just like, it was, when I saw him, I was like, you just kind of, you're like this poor kid.
01:27:29
Speaker
i but He's got like bird eyes Yeah, he's half. He's like half buried. He's been like morphed with I feel like it was he even worse with a red wing or something like it's just like I I can't even remember because it's been a number of years now since I read it, but it's just like when I saw him, I'm like, this is the new Falcon? And I'm sorry, that's so mean. I'm sorry to walk you in the forest. It's nice. Is he going to transform more into a bird or is he permanently? No, he's permanently. He's permanently the middle of an ant morph cover? He's a bird man.
01:28:09
Speaker
room to create them? Like, Shirley, you could ask me and I would have come up with this slick, probably some cool, like, techy girl with a jacket, you know? I don't know. Falcon. Could have had Captain Falcon. We could have had references to Captain Falcon. All right, I'm sorry. Falcon, ponch. Nintendo snapped way in.
01:28:31
Speaker
Oh, that would be expensive for me. Okay, anyway, it was so weird. What if what if Falcon, when you play it on the board, what if he says, show me your moves? That would be so fun. Would they do an Easter egg like that? I really hope so. Oh my gosh, I would buy it if they did that. That that would be out of character for walking.
01:28:55
Speaker
Joaquin doesn't say show me your moves. Joaquin is too young to have played Star Fox. Sorry, y'all. Smash Brothers. I think Captain Falcon is from F-Zero. Yeah, and better known because of Smash Brothers than because of Smash Brothers. Also, I haven't played whatever, yeah, and except for Smash Brothers. I haven't played his original game. and Smash Brothers is where he got... you know That's where he got the lines I was quoting.
01:29:24
Speaker
um Okay, um Redwing, a 1-2 on Reveal. Return one of your other 1-cost cards here to your hand to give it plus 2 power. Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. People like bouncing 1-cost cards. so ah And then you can bounce the bouncer. this this is Will you accept this one as a bounce the bouncer, Ben? Absolutely. No, this is like, this is, this is I mean, like it's not that I don't accept toxin as a bounce the bouncer. I just don't think that that's like, you know, plan A. It's it's just it's an edge case thing that does come up sometimes and you do do it. And I've done it. I like it. i'm like
01:30:03
Speaker
I like bouncing toxin with beast and doing the thing. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. But this one, this one you're cooking, you're going to be bouncing the bouncer a lot more with red. Oh, yeah. Especially my go him. um and then you get a drive some messes How many times are you going to play silver s sable? Oh, on top of walking. to ah I mean, maybe. Okay, actually that's a good combo though. Red Wing might be good enough that Joaquin Torres is a real card, but Joaquin Torres I don't think would be a real card without Red Wing. But maybe with Red Wing. But Red Wing lets you play it on Joaquin Torres, bounce two of them, and not bounce Joaquin Torres. You could pick up your Iceman and your Silver Sable that has just been doing double things. Yeah, it does get pretty wild.
01:30:45
Speaker
Unfortunately, you do need both of those cards and then whatever else, you know, the rest of it's flexible. Like you could get excited about doing the hood multiple times. Like you you can plug in whatever else, but you would need Joaquin and Redwing. Yeah. But yeah, together, like most show ups it is very like you will get out of control like real quick.
01:31:11
Speaker
You eventually get a bounce counter that's like ongoing plus two power for each card your opponent played. Oh, yeah. Yes, I think I think there should there should be some sort of reverse Sasquatch, right? Or or reverse Bishop. Yeah, or reverse Bishop.
01:31:30
Speaker
naked um
01:31:35
Speaker
i i I just want to say I like the character thematically. I don't know anything about him, really, but ah or or her. ah But I am a fan of the little animal companions. I want more of those. I think in the MCU, Red Wing is just a drone. But in the comics, it's a bird that's telling... Will they do an MCU variant?
01:31:56
Speaker
probably Yeah, I'm sure they will. But he's just a drone though. I'm pretty, I'm like 90% sure. No, I think we were right, because I thought it was more, I think, you know, and I did it, but we wanted birds.
Upcoming Game Updates
01:32:10
Speaker
Oh no, you're right. Yep. It's a little thing that like goes on his back, right? Yeah. That would be such a funny. I don't know, that would tickle me endlessly as an MCU variant. Just a robot. Okay.
01:32:26
Speaker
We have lots of, all the animals have robot versions. Do they? Okay, but it's not even a robotic bird. It's just like a, just a, I don't know. Yeah, okay, yeah. It's a drone, as we said. Okay, so there we go. February season, it looks fun. Certainly more fun than rival season. Definitely, yep, yep. If that's where we're set in the bar, it has cleared it. Woo.
01:32:52
Speaker
Okay, the other thing that came was progress on character mastery. This is not something that was officially announced, just something that's in the ah in the patch notes in the data mines. That's the word I'm looking for.
01:33:05
Speaker
um Currently, mastery is like it's a per level or per character. You can get them all the way up to level 30 and you start at level one. And based on the roadmap, we know you unlock like new flares and finishes and probably some other stuff too.
Character Mastery System
01:33:23
Speaker
When Character Mastery was first announced, they said that you would get reaction sets. And I really, really hope that you still do get reaction sets in the in the upcoming version of Mastery because I really want a Captain Marvel or Valkyrie reaction set. um Anyway, you have experience levels. Basically, you get 15 experience for every Infinity Split you do on a character.
01:33:52
Speaker
And then rare variants are worth 25, so like not even two splits. Super rares are 75, which is five splits. Spotlight variants are 125. I don't even know off the top of my head how many that is. ah Eight and a third split equivalent. And ultimate variants are worth 250, which is 16 and two thirds of splits. I'm surprised actually at how high splits are compared to the other things.
01:34:20
Speaker
i I think pursuing five splits instead of buying a super rare variant. aye Yeah, I like this. I have to say, this this seems encouraging to me. I obviously don't give as many shits about this feature as you do, Lauren. but you know like I want it to be good and to like feel good for players, especially the kind of players that it's intended for. And like I feel better about it personally that they reward splits because i I do like to split deep on my characters that I'm working on, or you know at least I used to when I had to worry about getting nice combinations of flares and ink or whatever.
01:35:02
Speaker
But um yeah, I really, I'm starting to think that they're actually going to do it. I know that we had seen an image before, but I thought it might've been a mockup, honestly. That's what I thought too. Not super convinced that this was going to truly materialize.
01:35:19
Speaker
But I think it, like this looks like they've actually started finalizing some thoughts and putting things into place to make it actually happen. I don't know. I really thought they were kind of blowing smoke for a minute. And I mean, when did they announce this feature the first time? How long ago was that a year and a half ago? It was a year ago. Okay. So yeah, maybe they're going to do it.
01:35:48
Speaker
Um, but then they canned it because of technical issues and they brought it back because of player demand. So I will say, yeah, hopefully it, it, you know, isn't disappointing because people really wanted it myself included. Um, and it's right there in the name, right? Character, character mastery. You want it to represent a character that you have invested in. Right. Um.
01:36:17
Speaker
I mean, we have to see it in game ranks. We're not seeing how the board track lines up and all the things, but I agree. This looks promising from the outset. It looks friendly. It looks like, okay, so the point is, right, you you should be character, you know, you pick one or a couple of characters you really like and that's like the point so you can get something at the end that shows like how much you really love that character.
01:36:40
Speaker
And so the way they've set it up where it's not like a like a whale thing as much because you get less right from spending gold to get variance to get in character and something it's like we really love this character where you're splitting it deep. Everyone gets credits for you know what I mean like that's It's, it's a progression that's friendly to season pass and free to play players. Right. If it it will will feel rewarding to them and that's what you want. You want to see it. Not where like who spent all the money. I mean, it certainly Wells would do books. They are already gonna have all these variants and stuff, but it's like, you know, when you see one, you can be like that person really loves.
01:37:15
Speaker
that character because they have the super special variant from character mastery or whatever. in that And that's the point, right? So we see how um much Lauren is a Valk lover or, you know, someone gets that on Hercules, you know, because I just love Hercules. So like, like it's hopeful, right? You need something. some good news Yeah. As is is ah with my 43 Valks that would be 51 if I split the eight that are just sitting waiting for mastery I'll be at I'll be at level 26 with Valc like right from the get-go and that's a character who I More or less. I think I think basically I've invested in her
01:37:53
Speaker
as just like a season pass by her like I didn't buy things to split her extra times I just put in the put in the reps and almost all of those were before the bonus booster shop had free boosters so I earned a lot of out boosters probably more than any other character in the game um And, you know, maybe you mean it's expandable, right? They could always raise the the ah level cap in the future and add more prizes or whatever. But yeah, I'm, ah anyway, optimistic. I think it looks good. I hope it comes soon. We need good news about Snap. Yes. Okay, next up, OTA.
Recent Card Changes and Impact
01:38:32
Speaker
Today, December 12th, Thursday. ah First up, the headliner, the the important change, ah or at least the one that people are making the most noise about, Arisham. Still a 7-7, but now reads Game Start. The, you know, keyword that Arisham is the first one to recently shuffle 12 new cards into your deck. On turn three, get plus one max energy.
01:39:00
Speaker
This is three changes, right? He gets 12. Yes. Instead of 15, they are all new cards. New cards. No duplicates. You're not going to get double Shang anymore or double OYF. And two turns of not having the plus one energy.
01:39:21
Speaker
i Yes, I found that the three changes all at once Makes this really hard to evaluate just for me personally. I'm like I have no idea if this is better worse ah side grade um no do know like it's worse I think it's definitely worse because like the second copy you might have of one of your tech cards really does make a big difference and But also like maybe not as big a difference as people feel like it does, but like also- The extra energy is huge. I feel like the loss of that is is big. because they And they already said they didn't have a problem with the cube rate or the win rate of artists from the stats, which did not make it a problem deck. People just chose to play it anyway, regardless of the stats.
01:40:12
Speaker
They've said this about Hell in the Past, the nerf is to make people simply to make people play it less. Well, they're like, we're trying to fix what's annoying without it. They did say that it's in the competitive range, but not that it was in the problematic range. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They're not saying, we don't know why people insist on playing this bad deck. They're saying,
01:40:34
Speaker
This is just a normal good deck, and people like to play it too much. The play rate is too high. The things that don't happen anymore. You don't play Loki on turn one anymore now with this change. That's true. You don't play anything on Colson on turn two anymore with this change. Yeah, it's a big change. And it's interesting, because like, yeah, turn one, having one extra energy, it's 100% more energy, right? Mm-hmm.
01:41:02
Speaker
um
01:41:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that makes a big difference. And and then there's also the factor of like having two energy makes it easier to spend any energy. but You can play a one-cost card or a two-cost card. right the one you if you If you only have twos in your hand, you play nothing. you're You're spending zero energy instead of spending two.
01:41:25
Speaker
So, one thing I like about this that like isn't necessarily like, it's more powerful or less powerful now, but like one thing I like now about this version of RSM is that it does invite you to play King E-Tree.
01:41:40
Speaker
because there will be that first turn when you have one energy and you need to help you. And now I think Eitri makes the deck. I think he's one of the 12 cards now. That's really exciting for him. That's good for the game. i'm I'm psyched on that part alone. Yeah. I know.
01:42:01
Speaker
I know a lot of players, especially you know in the semi-competitive or the core community, don't like this card. It's very hard to play against. um you know It kind of invalidates the knowing the meta and reading their deck and snapping and retreating, like that element of the game.
01:42:18
Speaker
But there's also a big portion of the community. i I think it leans more casual, but there's certainly competitive players too. Certainly, Re is among those who who like playing RSM. I think it's a very fun card to play. And I think the new cards serves both groups. ah Because you know the the the players who want you know especially the lower collection players who want to see a bunch of cards and play with cards they don't have and and have some variety, you get even more variety if you're not getting duplicates, right?
01:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, okay, you say that, but I still am like, the things I could do on turn one and two were some of my favorite things. But it's still forever. But you still get like those big later turns. Don't tell me how I had fun, Ben! My Cassandra Nova is just smaller now. We're just smaller now. I'm still worried about playing against art. I mean, I'm as worried as I ever was about playing against Arsham, which is to say, not all that worried, honestly.
01:43:28
Speaker
Uh, no, this is, this is, this isn't me. As someone who's probably played the most Irishman of all of us, it's sad, sad day for Irishman Joy. He still seems very playable to me.
01:43:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, as as a person who exclusively plays against Arisham, I'm like, well, the witch isn't dead by any means, you know? As is a gamer, I can only react hyperbically. What did I say? yeah You dropped a syllable, but I knew what you meant. And in fact, I'm the monster for correcting you.
01:44:05
Speaker
yes What you said was the thing that in my head
Card Adjustments and Meta Influence
01:44:10
Speaker
was. okay wait Typhoid Mary, i that her ongoing ability changes so that the other cards at the location have minus two power. This is a huge nerf, but apparently Surtur has still been the best deck in the game. and yeah yeah I agree with their text notes that I was surprised that their note said Serger is still the best deck in the game. I was also surprised by that. It made me wonder when they were written. What was that? Oh yeah, oh like okay. It made me wonder when they were written.
01:44:44
Speaker
Like, were these notes written yesterday, or were these notes written a week ago? It's true. But ah Glenn said in a team answer that this that the data that informed this OTA is as recent as December 6, which is their normal process. It's one week old. um But anyway, it also said that this is like one of the only places they could hit 10s, or like it's ah it's very hard to edit this to nerf the Sutter Deck, because so many of the 10s are balanced. I don't know.
01:45:13
Speaker
based on their power, right? And so you have to nerf them in a way that doesn't make them below 10 or else they're not Serder cards anymore. The way Serder feels to me- I'm not angry at this change by any means. It feels to me like Shuri Soran, you know what I mean? It's this kind of like, here's how you play it. Very formulaic. Yes, and it's like, but this time, like,
01:45:39
Speaker
Cosmo is, you know, helping. Cosmo was in Shuri too. That's true, but not in the thing that was a counter. Especially when she can hit a different lane, yeah. Now it's not really a counter, you know what I mean? With the kind of stuff you're doing. And it's just that, it's beaten. I've been, I mean, I'm not saying I've never beaten a Surtur, but I've been beaten by them enough, frustratingly enough to be, it's like... No, it's a good deck.
01:46:07
Speaker
Yeah, anyway, just saying. also i like I don't think typhoid Mary should suffer for its sins. I mean, it's sad that like they had to hit typhoid Mary, but also typhoid Mary had lost like so much of her mechanical identity when like they took it down to one lane and it's just like minus one, minus one. It doesn't feel like she's doing any of her typhoid Mary stuff lately. It was so small. Did you need to even enchantress her Luke Cage or Zero? like Or so I like that it feels more significant this ability that she has, you know, like, even though it is like worse, it's more distinct, unique, you know, like she got personality that she was lacking. No, 100 percent, because now it's like you could debris and then you can annihilate those like minus. Yeah, thats that's that shit we do like. Yeah. OK. All right. You're right.
01:47:07
Speaker
i mean If it's, if it's too big of a hit, they can make her a four 11, right? Like it'll be, yeah and then she's still, and then it's just a straight buff in like a, in a sore on deck. Not that there's a ton of those.
01:47:18
Speaker
um Alyeth is dropped from 10 to 9. I think this is a very good change. um I don't think Alyeth was a Serd or card, which the notes seem to refer to, but... I mean, a little bit on the end, you know, sometimes. Yeah, I mean, he's technically... Technically.
01:47:37
Speaker
um But yeah, a lot of strength is on his card, but it's always been his ability. And when they took him up to 10, it was like, I know his ability where he's eating text instead of eating whole cards is a lot less impactful. But still, he went from like, what, two power to 10? That's a gigantic change.
01:47:58
Speaker
You can't shank an alliance anyway, so I'm glad it's a, you know.
01:48:06
Speaker
I guess there was something in the the rationale for the Eliath change. Let me see if I can grab that. I took a screenshot of it and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. ah Yeah, their rationale for the Eliath change was, similarly, go Eliath is unnecessarily providing some extra tools to a strong starter strategy. We use Eliath as a fairly specific kind of tool and churning its strength is one of the ways we can create fluctuation within the meta game. It doesn't need any special help to earn the right slots. So that second to last sentence there,
01:48:43
Speaker
feels interesting to me. Oh. Were they intentionally just trying to remember? Yeah, they're announcing that our intent is to keep fiddling with Elias over and over again to create fluctuation in the meta game. And like, maybe they should mark those cards before people buy them. Like, they should declare their intent to like, oh, we're gonna like, wibble wobble this one around all the time. So like,
01:49:11
Speaker
just know that before you buy it because like it sounds like that's their plan that they don't want they never want to be done changing alia and i i don't like i don't agree with that philosophy they've been pretty transparent about part of the purpose of otas being balanced but part of it being just to keep the meta interesting and fresh yeah but they've like they've declared now that this card we're always going to be messing with it yeah it it is never going to find its right spot because we're always gonna like And you won't know, like, you'll buy it right before they decide it's supposed to be bad for a little while. Or maybe you'll skip it in a cache and then they'll decide that it's supposed to be good now for whatever.
01:49:55
Speaker
It's the tools they use to encourage people to play a card or not as well. And it's like, I don't know that Elias being, you know, 10 versus nine really like changes how much I'm going to play Elias in a deck, you know?
01:50:11
Speaker
Perhaps not I think it will for some people because like a lot of people just take the keys from the OTA like did the number go up or down like i'm allowed not allowed to play this i That much less good there's always the yeah the psychological effect
01:50:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not saying you're never allowed to change a card that you've changed before, but I think it sucks that they're declaring that this card will be forever shifting, and you don't know whether or not you want to own it. Yeah, it's like... I think almost like a giant nebulous paperclip.
01:50:52
Speaker
Are we trying to give them points for flavor on this one? I don't know. wibbly wobbly. So you're saying that this ah this design philosophy choice, this is this is top down. I 0% think that, to be honest, yeah would be nice, though.
01:51:14
Speaker
It would. It was a generous interpretation for sure. I just thought I would call attention to that because it rubbed me a little wrong. I can see why that's something that's bothering you. I mean, I think in some ways, every card is that way, right? They're going to move them back and forth. Yeah, I know, but they declared that this one is special and they're going to do it again. Yeah, this is one of the ones they changed proactively instead of reactively, maybe. I don't know.
01:51:40
Speaker
Okay, Enchantress returns to her previously briefly held 4-6 stat line. She gets an extra power. I think 4-6 is the right stat line for Enchantress. Oh yeah, completely inoffensive. The only question is, is she still a Pokémon? Does she still say her name? 100%. Why would they change that?
01:52:03
Speaker
Her name is Amore. Her famous catchphrase, Enchantress. It's really fun to hear her say that when snaps in other languages, too. um Oh, yeah? so That's a line I encourage you to check out. I think the Spanish one is the one that i I've heard recently that's like, oh, that's a hmm. I like it. I don't know what it is, but go ahead. She's a great tech card to throw into Zabu decks and stuff, so I'm hype. like Yes, I have a great split. i am ah play ah I'll play Enchantress all day. Especially with all these goer things running and in. Yeah. Oh, that there's plenty of reason to run her, and 4-6 just makes her... like it's It's only one point of power, but it makes her so much more playable when you when you're just playing her for stats. Okay. Black Widow, 3-4 to 3-3 after getting changed to activate.
01:53:03
Speaker
I mean, I was still seeing Black Widow. It's a good effect. Yeah, I'm happy to see less of her, to be honest. I still play her when she went to activate. Yeah, I completely believe the thing they said in their rationale about how like, we think maybe people were getting lost in the Grandmaster sauce. Yeah, I get it was so lost. It's just fun. Yeah, I think we've all, I've personally been guilty of that. Sometimes I noticed that maybe Grant is not the most productive member of the team and is maybe not always making the thing. So fun. But he is so fun.
01:53:42
Speaker
um And when you win a game because of Grandmaster, you do remember it. And I feel like that that may ah we may mean that he's stuck around longer in some decks than he should have. And, you know, yeah I don't know. No, not that he should have. He's like, Grandmaster is the story you want to tell your friends. It's like, OK, and then I grand-nasted it. And then went to center where there was a bomb, and then went off twice more. And then it was camera. to You know, it's like Grandmaster.
01:54:11
Speaker
and It's wingman. You can only play him in the wings. Black Widow. i i I mean, first of all, they they pointed to like, it's just that Dark Caucus perennial, perennially good. And that that was, you know, that that's really where her strength is. I'm wondering after this change if they just need to rework Black Widow. Like, is she just such an unfun card? They're going to nerf her anytime. she The effect really is unfun, just like yeah at its core.
01:54:42
Speaker
is Probably not something you want in the game.
01:54:47
Speaker
yeah which like White Widow had problems too, but I don't think White Widow is as obnoxious. If you could tune the numbers... The locking their hand is just like... Who i like who thought that was a fun one? Like honestly. Locking a draw is way more powerful than stealing one board spot.
01:55:10
Speaker
And it just means you don't get to see your deck do its thing that's like not fun like the whole the card is yeah, it's counterintuitive to the The part of the game that's actually enjoyable Even when you're the one doing it. It's not fun in the same way other mean cart mean hit my watch on the desk. It's not fun in the same way, right? There are mean decks that are fun. I mean, like, it's fun to do a counter, right? But Black Widow is countering some card that you and your opponent will never see, or yeah that your opponent will see like a turn later or whatever. Like, the point is, there's a card they're not going to draw, so you don't get the joy of seeing a thing get countered, you know?
01:55:55
Speaker
I don't know. I do. or I do kind of like seeing them screen. I do kind of like seeing them play the widows. But that part is maybe a little bit fun. But yeah, seeing them not draw this. I don't know. The fun part is my dark figure. I don't know. I just I think I think at this point after this change, if activate three three like or activate three four is worthy of nerfing, then I. I want to see her reworked thoroughly, not just switch to an activate.
01:56:25
Speaker
Okay, Frigga, the opposite change, three, three, two, three, four. i They noted it was a conservative stat line in the first place. I think that's proven pretty much true. I still so don't know if she's great, but certainly a little more. I don't want to be playing here all week. ah Okay, I already splurged. This is the main deck I've been noodling with this week. Her secret homework?
01:56:57
Speaker
Okay, I mean- Is it for Secret Homework or is it just for f- No. Okay. No, no, I'm just feeling guilty because I probably should have worked in Secret Homework Theater. no no no Let's set the bar real low for Secret homework this week. I made this hammer stack and initially, Frigga is the real key in it. Initially, I had Jane in it. I took her out. Honestly, Beta Ray Bill was out of it for a minute.
01:57:31
Speaker
It's just a Thordak. Well, you know, it's a Frigatec to be honest with you. Oh, okay, alright. Okay, so we have Frigate, right? For Frigate targets, Hydra Bob, because right, that's just one 5 power. And if you have hammers around and stuff, you're like...
01:57:52
Speaker
You know, you're kind of filling up your board. Hydra Bob isn't as big a worry of flying around as Martyr is, although opponents, if they are very smart, will sometimes use it against you. um But, okay, Sage, right? Sage is an amazing frigate target, as we know. Thor, obviously. Beta Ray Bill. Iron Lad. Oh my, I have Iron Lad-ed so many sages that I then frigged, and it's just like, glorious. quite Giant, giant Iron Lads. That's a big boy. Like, on top of the lungs, they're getting hit by Odin's sofa. Grandmaster? Grandmaster's in here. Okay. So here's why Jane isn't in, only King Atreus and And Zabu, I got all these forecasters, like Wong is here, obviously Wong is here. It's a hammer stick. Shang is in because like, Shang plus some hammers just win so many games, right? She's like, all right, Shang, you hear we win, huh? Are you ever playing Frigga on Wong?
01:58:54
Speaker
Surely. I'm just curious. You're not playing magic, are you? No. No. And how would you? No. So you'd play Wong and then you'd play Frigga and then you play Wong on six and...
01:59:09
Speaker
I guess a hammer? Is that what you're suggesting? Sometimes Wang gets three cost because of Zabu. Oh, true, okay. No, I'm not... No, on turn... Yeah, why don't we leave? So drop hammer and Frigga on Wang. Now you have two hammers in your hand and one on the board. I don't know.
01:59:28
Speaker
I was wondering. Oh, I've grand-mastered Frigga though. I've grand-mastered Frigga for some like delicious stuff. I thought we were cloning along, but okay. No, no, no, no. students Not Frigga-ing, get along, Frigga-ing along. You need something to answer that.
01:59:49
Speaker
Sorry, I misunderstood you. I thought you were, you also, like Ben, I thought you were saying getting two Wongs. No, that's too much work. Yes, I have done Frigga on Wong to get a bunch of bobs, a bunch of cheap little bobs. You know what's great to play on turn six? Shang, Bob, Bob. Bob doesn't generally move on turn six unless you plan for it.
02:00:09
Speaker
Um, so like, and like I said, so I only have King E tree and I don't have Jane because a lot of times I'm frigging a sword or, you know what I mean? I'm grandmaster. I'm throwing more hammers into just the deck. And sometimes because I'm putting two out, it's like, I don't necessarily need all the hammers to win. Sometimes it's just saging. It's just straight.
02:00:33
Speaker
you know, Sage is the plan. So you weren't like all in with Jane and stuff. um My greatest temptation, because there's Odin. I don't know that I mentioned Odin in a second. If you were wondering if I have been sorely tempted to take out Iron for Absorbing Man,
02:00:53
Speaker
I want, yes, and I should have already, but it's like, look at that Odin variant. I just kind of want to play some Odin with some hammers. But I do think that Absman hitting like for three with his Zabu, look with all the sagey and grand mastery. I know I should have already tried that. But this has been so, it's a frigid echo more than it can reflect. It looks really fun.
02:01:17
Speaker
And I have been, I have been, and this, so there's the Frigga buff and also they buffed Beta Ray Bill with this. So I saw that and I was like, yes, please. Thank you for noticing the hammers. It is of course called the Hammer Bros, is as mentioned in previous podcasts. This was my dream. This was my dream and for last season. And I achieved it.
02:01:45
Speaker
late. That's okay. All right. Okay. So this is, this was the deck I really kind of played with after infinite. I definitely haven't played with Furga as much as I would like to. I don't know. I've really just been struggling with deck building lately. Yeah. It'll come up in when we talk about secret homework, but I've just in general have been struggling with deck building lately.
02:02:12
Speaker
ah Sage, Sage is just fun. any You just always want to be duplicating Sage, tossing her around, reactivating her, oodening her. All the Grandmaster things. Yeah. Yeah. I get lost in the Grandmaster sauce for sure.
02:02:31
Speaker
Okay. Shuri, a 4-1 to 4-3. If you're going to buff a Shuri deck, I think this is a weird place to do it. Yeah. I kinda like it. I confess I've always been somewhat off-put by the just this ah notion that I'm gonna play a 4-1 and lock myself into like the most predictable playline ever. I'm like, no. And F4-3 is not like, you know, we're not calling it great tempo, but...
02:03:05
Speaker
you She ties a shang. It's it's better. You know, I mean, it's not better with Ravona, but like, yeah, it's like to take up an entire spot and to only contribute one power. It's rough. It's rough. That's why I don't like Bast or Spiderham. I'm just like, that's a that's a spot on my board. That's a one power spot. You know, you only get four of those at each location. Space to just the one.
02:03:34
Speaker
the Yeah, and i I guess this is a way to flexibly give basically, I mean, after the doubling, it's like a one power buff to any card you're gonna play after Shuri, it's two, it's two more power. But but it's you're locking all that power into the same lane. And I don't, I don't know, it just seems Unless you're playing like Vision, which is a Shuri card, but... That is a Shuri card, it's true. I don't know, I just... I don't know. I was trying to be positive, I'm not gonna play this card. I'm not a fan. Okay, here's the thing. So the best thing that can be said now is that when they shang the card, you know, unless you had an armor down. They need to have something else to blame, too.
02:04:19
Speaker
But here's the thing. So I just mentioned earlier how to put in Penny Parker. I took out with Shuri. The card I took was the cut I decided was the least important card in that deck to replace with her. And the whole point of Shuri in that deck was that she was going to die anyway because I was pairing her with like a Tuma or Lady Deathstrike or well, I mean, Destroyer would spare her. um She's good with robots.
02:04:49
Speaker
But like, you know, like most of the time she wasn't there to survive anyway, so the the three energy is like too extra unknown, I guess. Anyway, that's that's what I think about it. Yeah, I can see where you're coming from, Ben, as ah it's a positive, but I guess my my underlying point is I don't think it's enough. It's not enough to make Shuri Sauron a thing.
02:05:16
Speaker
I mean, you said you weren't going to play. I'm fine with it not being a thing. It's an annoying deck. I don't like playing against it.
Card Power Increases and Strategies
02:05:22
Speaker
It is a really hard deck to play against if you don't have the tech. Okay. Lockjaw four, four to four, five. I'm kind of surprised to see it, but I think it's a good change. I haven't seen hardly any lockjaw around. Yep.
02:05:35
Speaker
I haven't played him since he went to four, not at all. Yeah, he's so hard to play at four. Honestly, I i was today years old when I learned that Lockjaw is uncapped again. I guess i guess that was his last change. ah Completely passed me by. He's probably worth playing with, but yeah, I liked him in the old Thor Lockjaw vision days and he's not there.
02:06:03
Speaker
He was so fun and quinjet Thanos, but that was forever ago. And definitely busted. Oh yeah, that was ah ah was a time wasn't it? Free infinity stones and then space don't let you move Lockjaw and do it all over again. That was a silly deck.
02:06:24
Speaker
Rerotrange is nuts. We're going to talk about it in just a second. Stormbreaker already mentioned, go 0-1 to 0-3. I think it's interesting that they put the power on the hammer instead of on Bill, but it's cool. Yeah. I think they could give Mjolnir a power too.
02:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, i I agree with that. And I i kind of like the the decision to juice the hammer instead of ah the horsey Thor. I like it. Spread it out a little bit. Yeah. And also, if we are, in fact, copying hammers and it sounds like at least one of us is out here copying hammers. Oh, it's cooler to copy, you know, a hammer that has three power. That's what I think. oh OK, my thought was I'm going to like dense. I'm I'm doubtful Dennis, the one who innovated this, but.
02:07:08
Speaker
Den style Thor decks where there's always a Valkyrie in there because you're valking your hammers and this guy like kind of eliminates the need for that but um, yeah frigging Hammers is very cool missinging out with some with some frigate play. I'm just saying oh I am sure I am she seemed like my type of card when I grabbed her but I just I I missed playing Sage. played noen I'm glad you get to play her again. I've played her plenty because I played a lot of negative last month before Gore dropped. Cerebro goes from a three zero to a two zero. This change is nutty to me. um yeah it's must be It's still niche. Yes. First of all, it like.
02:07:56
Speaker
I don't know if, first of all, is the right word. Ravona, though, now you can play Cerebro and Mystique for free energy on the last turn. That opens up, I think, C2. A lot of Cerebro options. um But i I almost think 2-0 makes Cerebro splashable in some decks. Like, if you only are buffing two things, are you? I mean, I know 2-4 is not the best outline, but you play 2-4s.
02:08:23
Speaker
right yeah but Okay, up to six then? How many things do you need above? Yeah, you do need to above three things. Okay, three things. I think it's doable to to do three things to the point where like you also need it to sometimes be four or five things is what I think it always needs to be three things and it needs to sometimes be four or five things.
02:08:45
Speaker
Okay, so we're never splashing Cerebro. He's just... Well, unless unless we can make that happen. Like, what if what if we're doing like a Surtur thing and like everything in the deck is 10 or whatever? Like, what what if but if you are reliably getting three and sometimes four or five things? What if you're dumping giant Mysterios? You know, cerebra I... one I don't know. I don't see like I'm I don't think these are real ideas that I'm spouting out here. My real opinion of this card is that, uh, no, 2-0, Cerebro is still bad and it doesn't make a difference. No. And Cerebro maybe needs to give plus three if if we really want to like have this discussion. Yeah, would I think that'd be too strong? No.
02:09:31
Speaker
I think they would need to take it back to 3-0 if it were a plus three. but c two This makes This makes C2 so much better, which means a lot more people, or especially people who already loved Cerebro and just needed any excuse to go back to it for whatever tricky move shit they were playing around with. Thursday. Like, they're going to start playing again. Yes, like our good friend Thursday calling you out Thursday, and your Cerebro lover you.
02:09:59
Speaker
And here's the thing about C2. It is one of the only decks in the game willingly and not begrudgingly playing Shadow King. And what's going to affect with what I'm doing now more than Shadow King? You're like, no, I don't want to see all the Shadow King everywhere because everyone's playing C2, messing up my stages, ruining my big time. Everyone will be playing C2. I can just pick you up
02:10:29
Speaker
One big, we'll put out some deck for C2 and be like, man, I did a crazy thing with it. And then I'm going to see it everywhere. C2 and C3 have both been real before. Oh my gosh, these predictions. We got no Strydomus over here. We got Kismetri just for telling us.
02:10:51
Speaker
C2 and C3 have run random before and part of that is because Shang and Shadow King are just good texts that we don't always play because sometimes it's not the most fun. And that makes it fun for them. Don't make Shadow King fun for people.
02:11:08
Speaker
Shadow King is already great tech that's put Shadow King in all kinds of decks. Shadow King is so good and so un-fung that I don't think the Cerebro Change is going to have any impact on his players whatsoever.
02:11:22
Speaker
boom I don't know. We'll see. The people who have who have it in them to play Shadow King are already playing Shadow King, and the people who don't have it in them to play Shadow King are not playing Shadow King, and both camps are going to keep doing exactly what they're doing right now.
02:11:38
Speaker
or what they have been doing until now. but yeah still So youve you got a foot in both worlds, so I bet you'll keep on sometimes playing Shadow King. I mostly play when he's a surprise because no one's playing him.
02:11:52
Speaker
I wish Luke Cage still worked against him. I right? I like playing them together. They're left alone in the wilderness to the mercies of a shadow king. You could play Cosmo.
02:12:07
Speaker
a down being trauma Okay, I think the Cerebro change is very interesting. it makes it It makes the card itself a lot more playable. um Okay, you maybe you can't splash a Cerebro, but... It's just because you can play Valk in C3. Maybe you can splash a Cerebro in a Burnstone deck. Maybe that's where you splash a Cerebro.
02:12:29
Speaker
Oh shit! Wait, what's over here believing in Moonstone and it's making the world make sense? it's It's all coming together. Cerebro Mystique Moonstone is a lot of power, but then you have to play a C6 because of Moonstone. Okay, now kind of want to play Cerebro Mystique. That's ridiculous.
02:12:52
Speaker
I'm just going to enchantress that stuff. You know I am. If you're not playing like Cosmo. I'm playing Cosmo. Don't you worry. But then I can't hit Mystique Sadness. Okay.
02:13:06
Speaker
ah The last change of the OTA, Elsa Bloodstone gets a point of power. She goes to three, four plus two. It's a sweet gesture, makes zero difference. yeah Cards on that note. Yeah, it's not enough. No, she needed it. And she deserved it. And I i still train players, so like I'm really glad she's getting it. But yeah, it's not. i Like, Like, she's up here against Nocturne at three, four.
02:13:33
Speaker
you know like what like at least at least you know lady sips out there three five come on now making a three two plus three unwieldy especially since it like yeah it's just it's just i like her though Well, I like the card. I like the ability, conceptually. I like her too, but like, Galact is around. Yeah, we can do a little better than a 3-4 who can maybe once or twice a game, like, hand out a plus 2 to something. Remember when she was a Scourge? Remember when every deck was an Elsa deck? Of course I did. Yeah, she was awesome. Well, I don't think people even hated it. We were all just having fun elsing.
02:14:31
Speaker
met it jeff evey he's now in today's right That's the OTA, a very big one. What is it?
Deck-Building Challenges and Successes
02:14:42
Speaker
12, 11 changes?
02:14:44
Speaker
i because we're not having any more balance changes until January. ah You know, pending an emergency. Yeah, I'm not surprised they didn't, but I kind of thought they might ah do a week one like Maker 4-4. Yeah. yep Anyway, it'll happen soon, maybe. Okay. Moving on to our side quests, our secret homework. Secret homework.
02:15:15
Speaker
is from Ree, right? Yeah. Yeah. i
02:15:34
Speaker
and I I think my mistake was first of all like the the beginning of the podcast realized like I should have picked surfer angel as the one to do because there's collect now and like surfers great and like that would have just been a good time regardless.
02:15:50
Speaker
Why didn't I do that? But I picked Moonlight in Men, um which is a Sauron, Boon Knight deck, and with Blackblum stature. Okay, and i okay so I did actually just update it. um I took out some cards I put in Swarm, and Fenris Roof, and Zabu, and um Silver Samurai.
02:16:17
Speaker
oh Anyway, and it was like fine. It was winning, okay, but like it just wasn't fun. It was like, what's the point then, you know? Like it's like, if it's not gonna be like a great deck, it's gonna be like a mid deck. So then I'm like, okay, let me, then I pivoted and I'm like, okay, but what if I take like the Ebony Maw from it and some fun, and I tried to make a deck called Elias Me Daddy, where you just have Invisible Woman and put a bunch of mates.
02:16:54
Speaker
I'm very tickled by it, yes. It kept shifting as I was making it and eventually ended up as a Zabi like ones and four stacks with like zero and titanium martyr. And like, but you're like Gwen pulling them and then there's like a black swan. And okay, so there's something there, but what I had, what wasn't it?
02:17:16
Speaker
It was doing so bad. I needed to start making changes, but like I'm like, okay, this isn't it. So where I ended was um I was like, okay, where it all ends and begins where the full circle of the podcast comes back around to Emperor Hulk.
02:17:42
Speaker
Why? Because Valentina. I decided they're friends with Devil Dino. Honestly, but also Valentina, right? So maybe you loot Cage and then also then an anti-venom.
02:18:01
Speaker
I'm like, that's not terrible with a devil dino. And then I'm like, you know, what if we have like old style collector there, Mirage Zabu for the four drops? Snow guard? Because people still fucking forget that you played a snow guard and you have bears and hawks in your hand. It's like, I seem so tele- that's why I was against it. I'm like, it's so telegraphed. And then every time, now they forget.
02:18:28
Speaker
when you turn off the limbo or when you trigger Central Park again at the right time. Anyway, Quinjet, Nick Fury, Devil Dino is just a good holder for like when I'm getting random cards and you get the bad ones, you know? And then sometimes Hoechling just wins you a game because he's sometimes he's dead and sometimes he's like magic.
02:18:53
Speaker
um I don't even know if it's a moon girl, it is a moon girl, double dino deck. And this is where I found the fun in Secret Homework, finally and belatedly. So I had kind of been playing, when I got frustrated with Secret at Homework, I went and played with my hammers. And, um but Valentina is where I finally like ended just like, you know, and just sliding and it's, I've been having a lot of fun with it. That was me.
02:19:23
Speaker
That was, uh, that was how my secret home, I am sorry. It sounds like it might've been rough for some of you. It sounds like you were somewhat successful though. You ended up with a deck. That's fun. That was the point. Yes, I did. I did successfully. And, and ultimately getting to play Valentina, which was one of my goals. I've been wanting to play some Valentina. All right. On to Ben. Yeah. I hope it was, but went better for you.
02:19:53
Speaker
ah Part of the problem would is that I'm kind of I'm always doing the secret homework like I've been like all the time Yeah, I've always I'm always turning out apocalypse discard I'm doll move And all my silly kinds of surfer, my move surfers, my discard surfers, my plane surfers, my grandmaster surfers. Sometimes it'll be surfer with werewolf in it. See what I should have picked to do. I should have done a fresh Heimdall deck with werewolf in it. That's what I should have done. I haven't done one of those since a young Avengers season, because that was the deck that I used for hashtag pod goals. The first time was a beautiful Heimdall werewolf deck.
02:20:43
Speaker
ah It was very good and very cool. And it does need an update because it had White Widow in it. So that's what I should have updated. I only thought of that after I had already done something and proclaimed it good enough.
02:20:58
Speaker
So what I did do, I was like, well, I guess I'd make another Heimdall deck, even though I already have a Heimdall deck right now that I like playing, like that I've been playing for weeks and it's like so good.
02:21:12
Speaker
and But here is a deck that I guess I'm calling Heim and Penny Schmitt. I don't know about the name. i'm just I'm very wary of putting Penny's name anywhere near an S. It's just it's just trouble.
02:21:30
Speaker
but Anyway, the deck is agony, ghost spider, human torch, iron fist, dagger, craven, the hunter, in theaters now, maybe? Drug? Who knows? Who cares? Penny Parker, Volture, Hope Summers, Galacta, Heimdall?
02:21:55
Speaker
And Magnito. Alright, so the idea with this deck was to, you know, see how Penny was feeling in a Heimdall move thing, but also I wanted to try playing Agony because I still hadn't played Agony after getting Agony in high voltage whenever that was.
02:22:13
Speaker
um So my review of Agony, this is sort of a side thing. Not a huge fan of this card. I'm sorry, Rii. I think this one's a little bit of a stinker. The only time it felt good was when I was going Agony into Penny Parker, into Galacta. That's when Agony felt pretty good. And that could have been accomplished with a single Psylocke, a card that I had some uncharitable things to say about last week.
02:22:43
Speaker
ah And I've already recanted those statements. um But I mean, I made them and I knew what I meant. I knew why I said those things. I know what I was trying to say, even if I said it wrong. um But yeah, ah I'm just not not loving agony, not eager to play it again in the next thing, but.
02:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, this deck did OK. It's done OK. I ah went through like the 80s with this deck, you know, is fine. um It does Heimdall stuff. I am playing Human Torch here, a card that I don't play a ton of, but it seemed appropriate given what all was being done. A lot of the I've got I've got the dual ramp elements of Penny Parker and Hope Summers going on here. And the idea is that If you should happen to draw both of the six drops, you will play both of the six drops. So we're doing like probably Magneto first and then Heimdall, but hey, sometimes you do Heimdall first and then they just, they, they, they are not expecting a Magneto. They're never expecting Magneto after a Heimdall if you played Heimdall on five. They just don't know.
02:23:56
Speaker
um And likewise, when you play Magneto on 5, they're probably like, oh, they got their 6th job early or something, or they're probably gonna play an Elias, because everybody's playing Elias. Ben's probably playing Elias. Ben's never playing Elias. That's what you don't know. ah Except now you do, because I've told you. But... Yeah, know. It's worked fine. It's got Galacta in it, and Galacta does her thing. I did... ah There was that example that I listed earlier of how, like,
02:24:26
Speaker
Penny Parker, her life cycle is very long, and I was very often frustrated that it was getting in the way of playing Galacta on 4 if I was able to. I was always happy if Penny Parker allowed me to play Galacta on 3, but there were times when I'm like, well, do I play my Penny Parker now on 4 so that I can actually get the spider move out of it? Or should I just play Galacta because Galacta's Galacta?
02:24:50
Speaker
um And usually it was correct to play Galacta because Galacta is Galacta. um Yeah, it's a deck. it is it You know how like sometimes I'm like, yes, this deck solid, it works.
Valkyrie Deck Challenges
02:25:05
Speaker
there's there's There's this phrase I use that like it's in agreement with itself. This one is not in agreement with itself. Don't play this deck. It's ah it's not stinky-boo-boo, but like it's not great.
02:25:16
Speaker
so um You could play it if you want, I think I will. I will probably make the deck available in the show notes or whatever, but it's not square worthy, that's for dang sure. It's got a great name, let's be real.
02:25:34
Speaker
i I have a few pet decks that I could have revived, but I felt like I had to try Valk lockdown. I just pulled up my album of Valk lockdown decks that I have saved. um And the last one is from April. So my beloved archetype is... is yeah and To be clear, i have um the latest one is version 18. And I only versioned it up when it was one that I liked. So I have made this deck and iterated on it over and over again. And then...
02:26:08
Speaker
it's It's dead. um And I think part of it is because it's just a bag of tricks and the game is overall too power crept now to win with only a bag of tricks. You need some power. You just don't have that anymore. um This was a very bad time to try Valk Lockdown again.
02:26:29
Speaker
Um, partially because Captain Marvel's everywhere. So she's either going into my Professor X lane or rescuing the Valkyrie lane. Um, I tried having my own ah Captain Marvel. It wasn't enough.
02:26:42
Speaker
um I tried playing Storm because my all my old ones have storm all most of my old ones have Storm and Professor X both. Storm's just too hard to play up for. like I know she's technically playable, but when I'm trying to do sneaky things and I don't have tons of power, she just it's just not doable. You can't sneak a Storm anymore.
02:27:04
Speaker
um no we're storming And you could do something like Storm Jug and still win that way, but that's really expensive to do on turn four and five instead of on turn three and four. ah So it's just, I banged my head against the wall. I was iterating on it constantly and it just, it's just nothing. Not for metaphor. Yeah, I tried.
02:27:28
Speaker
I tried Galacta, and there's some good things with that, but Galacta into Valk is really weird. You have to have a way to throw the power to something else first and then play Valk, because Valk's just going to reset herself.
02:27:42
Speaker
um I was like, oh, maybe I could do Luke Cage. But it's like, it's just it's so many. It starts becoming too big of a combo. I will say one thing I really liked that I was playing with um for a while, I had both Yellow Jacket and Wasp in the deck. So of course, I did try Pixie things. And that just it's still just I didn't have enough power anywhere. If my high end is Valk and Professor X, it's just not enough. Valk doesn't lock down lanes anymore. Yeah. Yeah.
02:28:05
Speaker
um But I did really like having zero cost with Galacta, because you get three more power on the turn you play Galacta, and that's cool. That was the one like, I don't know if discovery is the right word, but that was the one thing that like I got out of this, like, oh, a zero cost and then Galacta deck's kind of fun. Yes, it is. Yeah, yeah i i i I went to look, because I'm like, I have used Falcon 1 decks since then.
02:28:31
Speaker
It was a Valk Cersei deck that, you know, it was a Valkyrie Annihilus Cersei deck. Like, it was the way you were dealing with things. We were using two of our fives to win the game, you know, to deal with Sentry's Void and... and things like that, but that was in June. So despite being a self-proclaimed Valk lover, and I certainly do try to cook with her every now and then, I haven't made a Valk deck I love since June, and that sucks. Yeah, it does. It's kind of why I'm stuck on deck building. I don't have to play Valk. There are other cards I like, but I don't know. I like doing tricky things and not power things, and you you really need power now a day, and I need to relearn deck building.
02:29:11
Speaker
There's no putting the toothpaste back in the tube, but like it's kind of a bummer how much power creep has happened and how many things that used to be viable really aren't yeah at this point. And that's that's a real bummer. And like they can't ah can't take it back to where it was. And I just sort of wish they'd had more of an eye towards sustainability. And ah yeah, I wish they hadn't.
02:29:40
Speaker
like It seems like the they've been burning the path behind them. You know like yeah you can't go back and ah I think they forged ahead a little too.
02:29:56
Speaker
i don't know what I don't know how to characterize it. I don't want to be like uncharitable or anything. but Yeah, I wish they hadn't power crept so hard so fast.
Power Creep in Gameplay
02:30:08
Speaker
That's what I think we can we can all agree the best metas are the ones where there's a lot of diversity. And it reminds me of this like I don't know. i Change of mind I went through where you know was one it was one of I think it was a KM best where he posted every now and then looking for hot takes on the game. And I posted that I don't think good card slop should ever be the best or should ever be like good, because synergy should be better than just
02:30:37
Speaker
throwing together a bunch of good cards. And Scott Denham was like, he actually loves it when when are you saying he loves it when good cards is good because it makes it means that tons of stuff is viable. And I think I have definitely I don't know if in the moment I changed my mind, but since then I definitely have like I like when good card slop is good because it means that you can make lots of stuff good.
02:30:57
Speaker
um
02:31:00
Speaker
you know You demand that the synergy decks have to do their synergy thing in order to be good cards. And that's how it should be. ah That should be the sweet spot that they're aiming for. um yeah
02:31:13
Speaker
and I don't know. i I will deck build again and it's it's a part of the game that I really love. like I'm self-proclaimed like 99% Johnny. I like expressing myself in the game through creative or I get enjoyment out of the game when I'm expressing myself and that's usually through deck building.
02:31:32
Speaker
And I still get that. I've gotten it since June, despite not making a deck that I love since then with Valkyrie. You know, I've done I've done my silly Mysterio hand dump stuff and I've done some cool clips. That's one of the ways that I get my Johnny-ness taken care of. But I definitely feel that I haven't like, I don't know, climbed or hit infinite with like a deck that I've made that I've loved. I haven't done that in too long.
02:31:59
Speaker
I don't know, maybe I'm going to personally challenge myself to do that next month or something because ah I want to. I just I need to change my deck building approach. I need to stop playing. Oops, all tricks, because it just is not good anymore. Yeah, so I had a miserable experience in my heart and breaking bad when Walter White he He's like, I don't know, he's parted ways with Jesse Pinkman for whatever reason. And then he like shows up on Jesse's driveway and he's like, we need to cook. I'm like, that's that's the vibe I'm getting from Lauren. Yeah, I need This is part of the reason why I do the clip hunting things. Like I need to get the creativity out somewhere, but lately I'm only having success with other people's decks and that's fine.
Creative Deck-Building and Homework
02:32:50
Speaker
I like playing other people's decks, especially creative ones, you know, your safeties and your ecas and stuff.
02:32:55
Speaker
What? Maybe you need to pull out some different cards. You know what I mean? Force yourself to play with some new cards. maybe Yeah. and maybe i maybe Maybe it's my big cards era. Who knows? Yeah. It doesn't have to be Lauren. You don't have to go that far. I want to see it. Sometimes want to do this. Don't change your the fundamental core of your being. I'll do it as soon as I get Emperor Hulkling.
02:33:22
Speaker
um Okay. I'm assigning next week's homework. I had several ideas. And we also have at least one good one in the queue from listeners. Please submit more. But the one that I want to do this week is like kind of a card design one.
02:33:45
Speaker
But what I want you to do is i pick a card. You get to choose an existing card and rework it to be more thematically accurate.
02:33:58
Speaker
oo So like if we were to swap Wong and Dr. Strange like everybody wants. Kind of thing. Yeah. I saw one the other day where somebody said to Jeff and Kitty and I was like, okay, actually that one sounds, that that makes a lot of sense to switch those two. Yeah. That was in Team Answers. Anyway, no, pick a card that...
02:34:18
Speaker
There are cards in the game. Echo is is one example that comes to mind where there are abilities that are really important to like their abilities that they need to make in the game and they can kind of like kind of come up with a way to explain how that character represents that ability. But they're not. They clearly aren't designs that were meant to be highly thematic. And so that's the goal is to find a card that is not especially thematically accurate and rework it. So it is good. Okay.
Engagement and Network Schedule
02:34:47
Speaker
I still have my my miserable secret homework notes up. Jonas, if you liked what you heard today, do all the social media things. I'm not even going to talk about them in like follow, et cetera. I'm not going to say any more. Join us on Discord to chat with us and play along with the secret homework or give us suggestions, whatever. But I always love seeing the comments of people have done the secret homework themselves and have contributed to their ideas.
02:35:13
Speaker
um You can send us questions and suggestions by email, snap on this part, at gmail dot.com. ah We are part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to great shows. ah Most days of the week, how can she snap on Sundays? Snap Decisions on Mondays and Tuesdays are show on Fridays and Snap Judgments on Saturdays. i They're all great shows. There's a lot of variety. You should check one of them out if you haven't before. Do it. That's that's my assignment for you is to try one you haven't before.
02:35:45
Speaker
um Yeah, so you want to hang out with us next week? ah You know, maybe next week we're going to play Tidal Tussle again because this new patch did add new titles. I just thought this was going to be a long episode with a patch and an OTA. And hey, lo and behold, it was a long episode. ah But tune in next week. Same snap time. Same snap channel.
Episode Conclusion
02:37:33
Speaker
I haven't even started thought about how I'm starting this bad boy. ah Just use the vocal emojis. You know, just invent that. It's a new form of practice. What? What?
02:37:46
Speaker
i
02:37:50
Speaker
but ah