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44: I Wanna Meet This Sword
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📹🎤 Does High Voltage: Overdrive bring Omega luls or lows to Marvel Snap this week? The Snap On This!! team investigates later tonight at [that same Snap time] on [that same Snap channel]. 📺
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Weeks in Snap ⚡⚡ High Voltage Overdrive
- 🧓 Ancient One 🐍 Cobra 👻 Nightmare ☢️ Kid Omega 👹 Dormammu
- Secret Homework 🤫 : Design a skill generating card 🃏➕🃏
Video version on YouTube.
PWRon Gaming's Tournament of Pride
Lauren's Ultimate Guide to High Voltage: Overdrive
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
- The InfiNOT
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
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
- 0:10:01 High Voltage: Overdrive
- 0:20:42 High Voltage: Overcharged
- 0:46:11 The Ancient One
- 0:48:37 Cobra
- 0:52:01 Kid Omega
- 0:56:16 Nightmare
- 1:06:53 Dormammu
- 1:09:15 Secret Homework: Characters with Skills
- 1:26:57 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:28:59 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 44
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 44 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast.
Secret Homework: Card Design Challenge
00:00:07
Speaker
This week's secret homework, design a card that creates a skill.
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm your host Lauren Whadevs, here today with my usual co-hosts. First up, Ben, how was your week in Snap?
Weekly Snap Experiences
00:00:20
Speaker
And keep it snappy. Well, my weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy as I so often do. um You know, it's been a pretty light weekend snap. Mostly I've been playing Ladder and Conquest because, I mean, we'll talk about it, but...
00:00:37
Speaker
No, I'm not going to um not going to blindly play High Voltage in hopes that they adjust the prices to make things affordable. um No, not not going to ah going to do that um for a variety of reasons, some of which should be obvious.
00:00:53
Speaker
um But yeah, I played some Ladder, some Conquest. I've been working on some new decks that are not yet ready to share because they aren't... andt I feel like they are not as good as they will be once I get them a little more figured out.
00:01:07
Speaker
There was this one werewolf deck I was testing out that like really crushed it in Conquest, just went straight through silver and gold, got me an infinity ticket, then I took it out on the ladder, and it was just getting its ass handed to it. So I'm not going to tell you what's in that one. I will tell you that I still love that deck that I played in Golden Gauntlet 2.
00:01:27
Speaker
um You know, it's Batroc, Scream, Mercury, Kraven, Merlin, Spider-Man, Silk, Hydro Stomper, Polaris, Miles Morales, Spider-Man, Cannonball, and Heimdall. That's a great deck. A lot of fun to play.
00:01:39
Speaker
Still having a lot of fun playing it. I kind of, I mean, yeah. um I enjoy ah working on new decks, but it's also fun to win games with decks that work.
00:01:50
Speaker
Yeah. But even with the the testing of decks that haven't quite worked, it's it's great to just get some hands-on time with new cards because, you know, you don't have to win games to gain understanding, you know? it's
Hades Update Excitement
00:02:06
Speaker
ah that's That's the real victory sometimes. Wow.
00:02:10
Speaker
Sometimes it's the only victory you need. um Other than that, the new Hades update did indeed come out as as i have predicted. You called it. Yeah, yeah.
00:02:20
Speaker
I started talking about it two weeks ago and I said it would happen any minute now. And yeah, it did. Yep. And it's a lot of fun. Highly recommend. Oh, wow. These Vow of Rivals versions of these boss fights.
00:02:34
Speaker
lot of fun. ah Something inevitable happens in the Skilla boss fight. There's a familiar face that pops up in the Aeris boss fight. A lot lot of lot of unexpected but familiar faces popping up in...
00:02:49
Speaker
Funny places. um Yeah, I ah if you haven't checked in in a while, there's a lot to do. There are new romance things, a lot of quality of life improvements. Oh, my gosh. The whole Stardew Valley like crop bullshit.
00:03:04
Speaker
ah Wow. A lot of things are just a lot smoother and like just they do everything for you. And, you know, it's, it's all as easy as it should have been all along, even though it didn't seem especially burdensome at launch. I really appreciate that they have streamlined and, uh, just sanded off the rough edges.
00:03:24
Speaker
And, uh, Oh my gosh, they've added so much art in this new update. That's, that's the real cool stuff. Everything looks so gorgeous. Like it, from like the, the portraits of the characters to the, the gameplay itself, the, the action, everything looks crispy right now.
00:03:43
Speaker
Um, shared Narcissus with us and he looks fabulous. He is indeed a beautiful flower as the little, uh, Uh, the, the, the, his little sub name thing, his, and his subtitle, uh, in the, the dialogue things has always described him as a beautiful flower, but he just looked like placeholder art of, uh, of a hooded figure, uh, this whole time.
00:04:06
Speaker
More than a year now. Yeah. I've been playing this game for more than a year. it was a $30 investment. Um, um There are other games where $30 does not get you nearly as much joy and
Listener Engagement and Feedback
00:04:21
Speaker
fulfillment.
00:04:21
Speaker
So um I'm pretty, pretty glad to be playing Hades 2. And ah yeah, that's that's been my week in Snap and other stuff. Great.
00:04:34
Speaker
And our third host, Ree, how was your week in Snap? And keep it snappy. Okay, I'm keeping it very snappy um this week because I sneaksepting comics corner into secret homework.
00:04:51
Speaker
And i played a lot of Nightmare. have a lot to say about high voltage, so I didn't want to... And digress too far. just wanted to our listeners a very heartfelt thank you for all the nice comments we get always, but especially over this past week. We are yeah but but humble.
00:05:15
Speaker
podcasters who you know do this in our spare time and we don't have all the time to put into it that um full-time content creators do so we really you know appreciate for me like uh you know seeing seeing the comments every week or a big reason that i do this and um it's a lot of me feels good that i get every week so uh you know peace and thank you for the comments. We got a little real last up, and yeah, the response has been good.
00:05:48
Speaker
and Yeah, so ah that was all i was going to say for my weekend snap, because I have lot to say about other things. Back to my third. thought you were speaking the comics corner.
00:06:00
Speaker
but For secret homework, it's related. ellfre Oh, I see. i warped secret i was like, how can I warp secret homework to the comics corner that I didn't get to talk talk about several weeks ago?
00:06:14
Speaker
I went on a dystopian fantasy.
00:06:19
Speaker
Okay. i My Week in Snap, obviously, spent some time with Nightmare, card I was very excited for. I'll talk about that in a second. um And then High Voltage. This is where we're going to sneak into the High Voltage conversation.
00:06:33
Speaker
um It dropped, and everybody was very upset about um a bunch of things. But you know doing some basic math revealed that Kid Omega was fucking in expensive. um So I was like, all right. i How many Ultimate Guides have I done by now? Let's do another one!
00:06:51
Speaker
you know i kind of expected it to be more similar
High Voltage Mode Analysis
00:06:54
Speaker
from one high voltage to the next, but no, this one was quite different. and So, you know i spent time doing math and analysis, and that that was a lot of what my Weekend Snap looked like.
00:07:03
Speaker
um I should talk about something exciting before fully going into high voltage overdrive. I got another clip and this one was a task master task master copying strange Supreme because there's something funky you can do with merge cards where if you merge something onto an existing card, suddenly it becomes your last played card, right? Like you can put a Hulkbuster on something that has been on your board forever and it counts as your last played card.
00:07:34
Speaker
I was like, oh, I saw somebody do something funky and high old and in high voltage with like... It was just like the perfect setup where Lemuria was there on the last turn. And then a Juggernaut ended up pushing a card that Strange Supreme ate... Or ended up pushing Strange Supreme, even though they weren't on the same location. Because Strange Supreme ate something at the Juggernaut location. It was really weird. And i was like, whoa.
00:07:57
Speaker
I don't know why I hadn't thought about this merging situation before. um with you know Strange Supreme's auto-merge. But anyway, I used Invisible Woman to copy Strange Supreme at the end of the game and make a big, fat Taskmaster.
00:08:11
Speaker
um That's fun. I miss Invis-woman tricks. I know. Yeah, there's some really good ones out there. A little harder to do with Taskmaster at at six costs now.
00:08:22
Speaker
But also, as soon as you mentioned Taskmaster, was like, ah that's often a worse card for me to get in high voltage. like Specifically when the transform effect happens, and you're like, no, it's a really giant juicy five cost, and it's like, no, Taskmaster, copy this three power. It's like an infinity stone for me. I've been playing some infinity ultrons.
00:08:49
Speaker
So it's like, I'm like, ugh. Yeah. It used to be a really cool deck back when Tasky was a five where you would put down Invisible Man and then you'd play Shuri outside of Invisible Woman, Taskmaster on Invisible Woman and Destroyer off.
00:09:04
Speaker
So you'd end up with like, you know, 30 power, 32 power Destroyer and then a 32 power Taskmaster. super cool. um and like real like that sounds like a big combo but like it was a real enough deck you know you've got like nimrod in there or whatever like you could do stuff with that deck and then if you drew the nuts to do the task master play it was super cool it was like three cards right something like that four four four game it's not terrible um yeah yeah yeah it's not terrible um
00:09:34
Speaker
Four is too much to be your only game plan. Your only thing. if it's like you I can snap on this. and Yeah, that's cool. I said the thing. you That's the name of the show.
00:09:47
Speaker
I mean, I don't know about in your homes, but in our homes, when one of the characters says the name of the show or the movie, we all go, they said the thing. Uh-huh. Honestly, if you're not celebrating, what are you even, what are we doing?
00:10:00
Speaker
Right. Right.
Overdrive Mode Exploration
00:10:02
Speaker
OK, let's talk about Overdrive. um and don't know. What do we want to talk about? The mode itself? like let's Let's leave the economy stuff for the end. because that's Yeah, let's start with the mode.
00:10:14
Speaker
its It is intrinsically tied into the game mode, but also it doesn't have to be. like We can imagine a world where this mode came out in the exact same state but had a good economy.
00:10:26
Speaker
um I think I personally have found it more fun than High Voltage. I'd still probably rank it as like my second lowest mode um in the game.
00:10:41
Speaker
it's It's very random and winning still doesn't matter very much. But mixing in the random cards into your deck, you know, making it like Arish and Maris kind of, it does make it so that every match is very different.
00:10:56
Speaker
Something I appreciate. Normal high voltage gets kind of samey. I agree. I feel like they solved some problems and created some new ones by solving those problems.
00:11:09
Speaker
So one problem was, aside from just increasing the ban list ever and ever more just to like force the meta to shake up, they had a problem where it's like you were always playing Ebony Maw, you were always playing Mirage, you know you're almost playing Link.
00:11:24
Speaker
bar andancy but Like the decks got extremely similar time, which is not fun. You know what i mean? So um they added like an extra turn, right?
00:11:36
Speaker
With some extra bullshit. Which, by the way, like chimichangas are fun, but like waiting for the animation to play out. Oh my gosh. Is it not fun? full bat.
00:11:48
Speaker
Right? ah So the length of the the time it takes for the animations to take place, plus the fact that you have that whole extra turn of waiting time, makes the game longer, which is like one of the which is you know anti what everyone liked about high voltage or tolerated about high voltage if they didn't like it. It was like, at least it's fast.
00:12:14
Speaker
Right? Yeah, it's really fast. It's harder to get tilted when you're playing, like, three-turn games that are super fast, all of that stuff. So they solved, like, one problem by forcing, you know, into forcing this more diverse meta of, like, decks you'll see in it, but, like, thereby lengthen the game, which is, like...
00:12:37
Speaker
The same thing that Conquest does to the base game, right? Which it's like it solves the problem that you're you can't determine the best player based on one game because of luck. You know what i mean? So, but you know, by extending the length of of by having to play multiple games in Conquest, then they've also kind of killed by solving a problem with make snaps. So, fuck, just how fast it is compared to, like, yeah almost literally every other card game, to be honest, that has depth.
00:13:05
Speaker
You know what I mean? So... You know, there's that... Yeah, the Arisham stuff, too, also like brings in fun, but also like makes it feel less like you're in control.
00:13:17
Speaker
And they did also bring back some of the problem where it's like everyone's got Shang. It's just Shang everywhere, all over. yeah know what mean? And it's like maybe that's an interesting challenge where you're like, can I build to just like not get Shang'd? But it's like yeah you have too much random cards, so it's just like...
00:13:35
Speaker
Who drew the Shang and when are they playing it? And on what lane? Tech piles and good cards. It's just like that's optimal when half your deck is handed to you. Shang, I feel like, is super necessary for the game, but metas where every deck is running Shang are not fun metas. The fun metas are when Shang naturally falls out of play. When he's there, just like he always is, and the high-power stuff might be happening, but people just for some reason are in playing Shang. Those are just some good metas.
00:14:07
Speaker
Pretty tasty. Anyway, so those are my, those are some overall thoughts about the mode, I guess, for me. I totally agree. I had the same thought where was like, okay, you did make the mode more fun for me anyway. I've seen some people who loved high voltage not enjoy this one.
00:14:23
Speaker
um But it's a weird way to solve the problem is to like make it worse at the thing that makes high voltage special, which is it's even faster. um so anyway, ah they, you know,
00:14:38
Speaker
I'll add to what I was saying, too, in that they negated themselves a little bit in that I am an Irish and enjoyer. I've always loved Shield and Random Cart Generation because that's information you have. The other person doesn't.
00:14:53
Speaker
And I like improv-ing, as I've always said. So like that could be that's fun for me about this mode. But then it feels completely negated when the effect is like transform your cards. It's like the cleverness of me playing out what I did, which I have done, you know, it's fun for me to be like, oh, look at this, like, you know, random weird thing I can do because I'm playing this combination of cards that I usually wouldn't in the deck, you know.
00:15:16
Speaker
um That's really fun for me. But when it's like my cleverness is negated, they're all just going to transform into random stuff, which I know something you can plan for. but this is something always say about board games. I want...
00:15:29
Speaker
Right? I want a little randomness in my board games, but not so much. Like, not Settlers of Catanthal. It's like, I want a little bit that I can account for. Not stuff that just, you know, is so big. It's like, okay, just have to count that all of these cards will be garbage and potentially ruin everything.
00:15:48
Speaker
I'm like... yeah I compare it to having items and hazards on in Smash Brothers where it's like it's a party game. It's right for some people. That's how my wife likes to play Smash Brothers.
00:15:59
Speaker
But I would much rather play, you know, there's still some randomness involved, but not so much randomness that it's a party game. And like, I know that there's, i'm I'm sure there are players who feel that like the added complexity of high voltage overdrive or whatever is, um that's like raising the the potential for skill expression or whatever.
00:16:23
Speaker
But um I don't, I don't think it is. I think it's just ah added complexity that's, unpredictable and that you can't really manage and like things are too far outside of your control. And yeah, it, it, the items and hazards in smash is like a, it's a very apt comparison.
00:16:42
Speaker
Um, yeah, I don't, I don't know. I mean, like I do, I do like it better than regular high voltage. It's just regular high voltage, uh, gave me better reasons to engage with it.
00:16:54
Speaker
And this one super didn't. Yeah. Like, both of them I don't like as much as regular snaps, so I need a reason that I'm going to be playing in a less fun way. You know, I can get a card by spending 60 minutes in this mode every day or whatever.
00:17:09
Speaker
That might be worth it for me. don't know. I think some of the design... like two i'm just saying that it's like Because I'm critiquing it as, like, game design and because I want it to be better all the time, compared to High Voltage before, almost might just enjoy it the same because, like, they had different pros and cons, you know what I mean? Yeah.
00:17:33
Speaker
I'm sorry, what were you saying, Lauren? I think... some of i don't know if it's like visual design that's failing to do its job of communicating or if it just needed a better onboarding experience, but i've seen lots of people not understand the game mode. like Thinking that the the reactor effects are completely random when they go off i or like not understanding how they scale every turn or why on turn four suddenly it changed from draw cards to generate a blob.
00:18:03
Speaker
It's like, i mean, all that information is available, but like people are just going to go in and play the mode. They're not going to read the blog first when you release the blog at the same time the game comes out. I don't know why that's their strategy.
00:18:14
Speaker
If the blog came out a day or two earlier, there'd be time for people to understand how the mode works. yeah Yeah. And there'd be content creators that covered it. If you preferred it in video format, like I think it's a really strange strategy that the blogs drop, like on the release minute of the, of the game mode.
00:18:32
Speaker
Like, they have a very good onboarding experience for Chorus Snap. Like, there are, you know, comic-style text bubbles that pop up. And it's like, we don't need that a ton in Snap, but every now and then, like, you're a comic book.
00:18:43
Speaker
Somebody who worked there at some point understood the value of explaining things. Yeah, and you can make it super short and sweet, just like, hey, notice the reactor has little lights that light up? That happens when you play a charged card. Like... Yep.
00:18:57
Speaker
I don't It almost never doesn't go right? got there with power inference, but, like...
00:19:03
Speaker
Oh, you saying? I'm just like, how often is it going off for you guys? Mine at all, in pretty much every game. There's been like one game that was notable to me because I'm like, oh, the reactor never went off. We didn't play enough church.
00:19:15
Speaker
I didn't end up playing a ton games, but it usually went off for me. Yeah, but I've intentionally either set it off a turn earlier or a turn later by controlling how many charge cards I'm playing. Like, depending on if it's beneficial for me or not, or if it's like, if it's one of the ones I know...
00:19:31
Speaker
changes on turn four like you can kind of play around that um you know go for the galactus effect or the blob and see if that can win you the game in a game that's not going very well for you but again like this effect did not feel very fun to me no But I've probably won one or two matches that way. Yeah, but it should maybe maybe they should pick more fun effects. Yeah, it's another one that is of slow animation also. I don't want to sit here and watch, you know, what is it, 16 cards explode?
00:20:05
Speaker
um Like, there's a reason World Ship is so rare. Yeah. um Anyway, it's like, it's an okay mode. It's good enough to play for a week.
00:20:17
Speaker
um yeah i would i would like to see a high voltage focus on being faster how do you make like yes still make tweaks to make the game you know to pursue making it more fun and solve the problems of high voltage but but you're it should be a design constraint that our goal is to make it faster than snap like you know of course now yeah ah agree um
00:20:42
Speaker
Okay. listen The economy.
Game Economy and Pricing Concerns
00:20:45
Speaker
i you can You can collect every single like fill every single mission. You get three missions every eight hours.
00:20:53
Speaker
You can get everything from the daily inbox vaults that they're sending out and the replacement for Twitch drops because Twitch drops aren't working right, so they're just going to go to your inbox. you You can get everything that's free, and you still won't be able to afford Kid Omega.
00:21:08
Speaker
Um, that's crazy. Like, yeah. Yep. Also, it's worth noting, these are these these are the missions that don't roll over every eight hours. So, like... Oh, that was a huge part of my critique. is like It was okay that it sucked that high-voltage missions didn't stack before, but like it was okay because you only needed two-thirds of them to get the first Ghost Rider. It wasn't okay, but it was easier to put up with when when the other things weren't as bad.
00:21:38
Speaker
you know Having to check in twice a day is so different. Yeah, no there should be stacking. Definitely, there should be stacking. But...
00:21:51
Speaker
That was some of the feedback that I gave to the you know in the creator area. as i was like Because I had a bunch of friends saying like I was just improving my relationship with Snap by taking it more casually.
00:22:04
Speaker
And all of a sudden, i hate that they're making me play every eight hours. And obviously, you don't have to. But like it feels like you have to. Cards are so valuable in this game yeah because of the nature of card acquisition. It's like, if I can play to get a free Series 5 card, I'm going to do that.
00:22:19
Speaker
um But you can't. You can play to get a discount on a Series 5 card. And that's crazy after the precedent they've set in, you know, every previous game mode. I heard It doesn't feel good.
00:22:31
Speaker
Go ahead, Dan. I don't think... This didn't make a lot of sense to me, but is there any possibility that the prices were so egregious in terms of Volts because they accidentally released Mercury and Hellion too early? I don't i think they they meant to make Kid Omega cost that much. That's what I think.
00:22:50
Speaker
I think so, too. ah And I saw a theory that kid omega or sorry that Mercury and Hellion might have been in the portal poles with Cobra, which would make it a more reasonable, you know, 15,000 poll.
00:23:03
Speaker
um But they didn't have the same release date in the data mines that that Cobra and Kid Omega had. So I think it's more likely that they were supposed to be in Sanctum Showdown, um which is, you know, starting next week.
00:23:16
Speaker
um But ah we should ah we should allow them to, like, defend this decision with the pricing. um So I guess... Their ongoing goal, according to an answer here with limited time game mode shop rewards, is to give players more control and flexibility over how they ah spend their earned currencies. Most rewards in the LTG, the LTGM shop will be fully earnable using LTGM currencies alone. However, some top tier items may require additional gameplay and other modes to earn enough gold to make up the difference.
00:23:52
Speaker
um For example, Kid Omega from HP Overdrive is priced in the shop at the same cost as a standard Series 5 card. Players who want to acquire it can use their earned Volts to reduce the cost by buying it directly and supplementing with Gold.
00:24:05
Speaker
Alternatively, players can use Gold to purchase bonus mission refreshes that help them earn more Volts. One thing we didn't mention in the blog, we're delivering 500 Volts daily to all players' inboxes and 1,000 Volts on the last day, who cares? so As always, we appreciate your feedback on LTGMs and Shop Rewards. Your thoughts help shape future updates and improvements.
00:24:22
Speaker
Okay, so like the thing is... Wait, hold on. there It's worth noting they changed that answer. So instead of saying the same price as a Series 5, they said a premium price to a Series 5. They did? Really? Oh, so... They edited it. Yeah. right.
00:24:38
Speaker
That's fascinating. And this isn't the last communication they've they've given on this issue. there's There's another communication they gave that honestly kind of ticked me off a little more. um But like they ah they know that people expect that if you play the mode and you do the missions, you'll be able to get the card, right?
00:24:56
Speaker
So... It seems pretty clear to me that the plan here was to get players to start playing the mode, do the thing. They get into it. they They've, you know, they've cleared missions. They've been coming back every eight hours to jump through the hoop that they know they have to jump through because we've done this before. It's nobody's first rodeo.
00:25:14
Speaker
So then it's going to get towards the end of the week. They're thinking people won't notice until then. And I'm sure that a lot of people won't notice until then. A lot of a lot of people probably still haven't noticed. They're going to realize, oh, I'm not going to have enough for Kid Omega.
00:25:28
Speaker
And now I have to pay the extra because I'm already in for a penny and for a pound. It's like they they know that you're going to get hooked with the sunk cost bullshit. And... it's It's so greasy.
00:25:39
Speaker
like they They know that you have the expectation, based on all the previous limited time modes, that you'll be able to get the card. And then like you'll get to the end, and you'll just have to bridge the gap, because you're already in so far.
00:25:51
Speaker
And, like... Then later, like what, like two days later or something, we have somebody bugged them about it. Like, are you going to address that massive negative feedback to the new high voltage overdrive mode, the ridiculous volt cost of get Omega? Are you making any changes or improvements to try to make the community happy?
00:26:10
Speaker
And now I know this is not Griffin's fault. I'm sure they they told Griffin to say that they'd heard about it. But like. Griffin's response was, we've heard your feedback loud and clear, and it's been shared with the team. When I have an update, I'll share it with you all. Thank you.
00:26:24
Speaker
So that's like basically saying, well, stay in line, keep checking in every eight hours and doing this bullshit. Like ah for for what what what? What is the adjusted price going to be? Even if they lower the volt prices, how much are they going to lower them?
00:26:37
Speaker
And those who notice that high voltage is a bad time investment, they're already going to be behind. So like second dinner do you compensate the players who did buy it already no for real uh the faithful the who yeah who went for it and just like yeah or the people who decided it wasn't going to be worth it and they should just like drop the money right away like they have created such a mess for everyone ah like ah so i'm not i'm not gonna jump through the hoops of like doing the missions every eight hours just in case they decide that I should be able to afford kid Omega by the end because enough people yelled at them.
00:27:16
Speaker
Like it's like, this is just such a, such a greedy, like foolish short-term move. And it really makes me think that like, they're just in such a hurry to, to burn Marvel snap down for the insurance money so they can move on to their, their match three bullshit.
00:27:34
Speaker
Like,
00:27:36
Speaker
It's like, I'm wondering if I should keep buying the regular season pass because that's like a vote of confidence in the game's future. And I don't think they're as invested in the future of Marvel Snap as I am. I think I like they said it was going to be a 10 year life cycle for this game.
00:27:54
Speaker
That was like the goal. Yeah. Bullshit. They don't mean it. Or maybe they meant it at the time. They don't mean it anymore. Right. It does feel like that. does feel like milking your existing player base dry. Oh, shit.
00:28:08
Speaker
The new coming players is like that's that's dry. Now it's time for us to milk the existing player base as much as we can.
00:28:18
Speaker
Burn the game to the ground. um And this, like, I don't know, this is such a wild thing to do. Like, they've had some positive press lately. They like they self-published their first patch. And yes, there's a bunch of like problems and bugs and stuff that happened because of that. But like, it was an exciting change. Like, it's an exciting time. We're leaving Movers. Nobody was angry about that. not bound by them anymore. And, and yeah it's a new era in Marvel snap. And it's like, Oh, but actually we're just going to make this mode angry and piss it or we're going to piss everybody off.
00:28:45
Speaker
And then next month, we're going to ask you for an extra $11 to buy fantastic car in the super premium season pass. Like that's, Wild. That's wild to make this move right before you're asking everybody to spend an extra $11 every month.
00:28:57
Speaker
And they had the opportunity to pretend that everything that ever seemed greasy or shady that they've ever done, they could have said, oh, it was big mean daddy noovers who made us do it.
00:29:08
Speaker
But not anymore. Mask slipped, guys. You've been full of shit all along. Like, it's really disappointing.
00:29:20
Speaker
I think their goal is little bit different. My theory is that they've been trying to figure out how to add more and more cards to the game and, you know, and prevent kind of collection complete.
00:29:39
Speaker
um You know, so adding more cards to the game in a way that's not obtainable easily by people. And, ah like, they they kind of, like...
00:29:51
Speaker
screwed up in how they're doing because they're changing a lot of things, patterns that players already have. And I kind of disagree, obviously, with the gold to begin with because my my stance has always been that a subscription, a season pass to the game should enable you to be collection complete it's a card game.
00:30:09
Speaker
You know, yeah and yeah, and whaling should be limited to like cosmetics and Kid Omega is way too powerful a card to lock even like season pass buyers like myself out of obtaining without spending additional money.
00:30:29
Speaker
um I will say to the like the feeling right of this compared to like what was a successful shop, I would say, in um the last Sanctum Showdown where you get in, it's like, oh, here's all this stuff that I want.
00:30:44
Speaker
You know what i mean? I did feel like you were getting stuff a little too slowly, but it's like it felt obtainable to get all this stuff. You could plan out the order. You were going to get things. In this shop, they did one thing that I like in which they did offer like a big variety of like rewards and it repeatable. It was like, oh like if I had all these vaults, I could go and like you can get like...
00:31:06
Speaker
pre You know, random, like, premium variants and stuff. And I was hyped to see all of that before I realized how few volts. We had this amazing shop.
00:31:18
Speaker
And yet, even as like, a paying customer, I had been given this pittance of chicky cheese tokens. for the shop and i have not missed the single i'm pretty sure i've which is not normal for me normally because of my limited time and my time like my time is already already don't have time to play other games that aren't snap and final fantasy you know and i miss that i really do but i podcast they're pretty good they're pretty good there I know that's what I'm saying, but I'm like, I'm not going to play no snap and continue to do a podcast about snap.
00:31:52
Speaker
You know mean? It's dedicated time. And normally have a dedicated time of day, you know, usually it's late at night or whatever, but you know what I get all my missions done and stuff. And then if, if, if it's like a different day, maybe I get to play twice in a day at two different times of the day. I get myself a little snap break early in the day.
00:32:10
Speaker
But I never log every eight hours and like grind out a set of missions. And I've been doing that. I've been doing that. And it's not because I want to. And it's not because I'm enjoyable. Because it's like if there's a chance I can get like an Omega and like, you know,
00:32:27
Speaker
do the stuff, I need to take it. So like, I've been doing that. And when I look at my vaults, it's like I made I just got enough to I think finally make a poll if I wanted to like one in three to see if I can get Cobra, which is like a card I'm not really excited about. And I could get I already have um a million great variants for Storm. already have a good Iron Lead variant. And it's like, I would rather, if I was going to get one of those for 15, I'd rather just spend my vaults on the, like, random variants. You know what i mean? To see if I can get one for a card I don't have one for, whatever. And...
00:33:02
Speaker
um And second, it's like I haven't spent anything. When we were in s Sanctum Showdown because I could plan out, um because I could see where I was going to get, I actually got little rewards through the week. I think a lot of people who are playing in any sort of semi-serious way, like me, are sitting on their token of vaults.
00:33:22
Speaker
As people who this game and in-game currency is like the source of dopamine. This is why we play games. Let us spend in-money currency that we maybe don't do in our regular, you know, lives. we We're trying to reduce the consumerism and, you know.
00:33:39
Speaker
all the stuff we got going on so like you know and instead it's it's like i have to just sit because like mate because there's a chance maybe they'll give us some extra volts on the backlash of kid omega i honestly don't think they will you know we'll see but like griffin came in to be like Oh, I told them, I told them, guys, I told them, and they told me to tell you that I told them.
00:34:06
Speaker
Like, i don't know. Anywho. Well, because they're not going to see anything until they're sure of exactly what they're going to do right? If they are going to do anything. And so, yeah, I
Player Experience and Community Feedback
00:34:16
Speaker
just have to sit in this bank of volts basically until the whole mode is over and then, like, to see if, you know, well, okay, yeah, i didn't get enough for Kid Omega, so I guess I'll use it in this. And, yeah, I don't know that I have an ME to keep going for, like, every eight hours when I've been doing that and my rewards feel so pitiful. I'm like...
00:34:36
Speaker
for it And I don't even get to spend those because I have to see what goes on. and like, yeah, this was a bad miss. And Kid Omega is strong and good from what I've seen personally playing the game.
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah, and they locked it behind behind gold. That's the most pay-to-win thing that has existed in this game. Well, I mean, whoever makes the decisions asked the designers, what's the best card that we can put in the shop?
00:35:05
Speaker
And, you know, they told them, you know.
00:35:11
Speaker
don't want to sign all these ulterior motives, it's decent there. probably what happened I feel like they have literally always said they don't want players to be collection complete. And that's honestly how I think they want. They mostly, mean, you know, they want whales, but I think they just want the majority of the players don't because they want that to force some balance into the meta, like, or some variety into decks and that people just don't have all cards, which lessens the work of having to balance stuff so equally if everyone doesn't have all the cards and so stuff. And, um...
00:35:47
Speaker
You know, so I can pin that on them because I feel like they've definitely ah said that. But yeah, this is like a huge bummer. It honestly, yeah, it does make you start wondering like, you know, where you snap on this when Marvel Snap gets shut down because they're like, you know, like they do strip it for parts. But like,
00:36:11
Speaker
We'll see. It's still a good card game, right? That's why we're all playing it. Oh, I hold out hope. Hopefully they fix it. if If these business idiots don't ruin it, we'll see. i think i think that there will be...
00:36:25
Speaker
compensation of some sort i have no idea what that'll look like and that seems like really tough to deal with like and i don't know if this is enough time for them to you know maybe backpedal on some decisions that you know like the super premium season pass having a card that's going to just look bad this at this point which it already was going to but now it's Yeah, but now it's going to look even worse.
00:36:47
Speaker
And don't know, like like they're getting super duper review bombed on Steam, probably on the app stores too. I haven't looked. haven't looked either. Oh my God, if I did a great maybe snap review game, are they gruntled about this?
00:37:02
Speaker
Maybe it comes back next week. yeah That would be good. wonder if could find games that had similar sounding reviews to what we were saying. Overdrive edition. What's Here's the thing.
00:37:12
Speaker
As soon as people think, it's like even the people who are willing to spend money, if they think the ship is going down, they don't want to put their money into variant into all the showy pieces. you know what i mean? you't get to keep You don't get to keep the art when the game dies. You can't can't take it with you. Exactly.
00:37:29
Speaker
Right. So that's where you see people starting to like actually hold back because they're like, well, I don't want to spend money. I'm sure the game's going to stay around. I feel like some people are getting into that. mean, character mastery was and punishing people for investing heavily.
00:37:43
Speaker
like It's really weird. Yeah. they just on a They're just on a real a real tear. I appreciate that in some ways Snap is an experiment, right? It's a different sort of of digital card game or just collectible card game than other ones because it has a really low card count.
00:38:01
Speaker
And... It turns out part of the, part of the answer to the experiment is when you have a very low card count, people want to be collection complete when there aren't factions, you know, it's not like I can say, Oh, I play red and blue. I'll get a hundred percent of red and blue.
00:38:15
Speaker
Um, I just I think it's a losing cause to say that people aren't goingnna want to be collection complete. um And I think that's exacerbated by their balancing system, which is awesome. I like that the balance changes you know once or twice a month.
00:38:29
Speaker
It keeps the game fresh, um but it also means that you have to have everything in case it might be good. Yeah, it means that the garbage cards could be great or you know, the few cards you did invest in suddenly suck and you have to go somewhere else.
00:38:43
Speaker
um I do appreciate that you brought up the the shop being a good thing, ree because it's not all failure. Like, I agree. I want to see a shop in every single limited time, limited time game mode.
00:38:54
Speaker
I would much rather focus on like cards and credits, whereas other players might want to focus on variants. And like, I like that they give us that choice. thought worked great in Sanctum Showdown.
00:39:04
Speaker
Yeah. Sanctum Showdown was too generous. And I know you were saying that you thought that it was too I understand that they can't do that every time. But the Twitch drops accidentally... Twitch drops raised your progress bar, and that made... That ended up making it too generous. But...
00:39:21
Speaker
um don't know. They're also this time, this is the first time that they're doing this, but the shop is staying open an extra day after the event ends. And I think that's also like player friendly. That's a good thing. That's a win.
00:39:33
Speaker
I think we'll see that every time probably. um But the yeah, they, they really fucked up with this one. I kind of wonder if they should skip Sanctum Showdown later in the month.
00:39:44
Speaker
ah later like like It starts a day after. They would need to they would need sentiment to be like the polar opposite about however they handle this next Sanctum Showdown thing. I think they should just skip it. Like, I'm sad because I love Sanctum Showdown. I'm like the one person who thinks, wow, that's really fun. We're the three people.
00:40:04
Speaker
okay That's true. that's true That's true. That's true. I think maybe I am the most enthusiastic even among us about it. I'm just like, I can't wait for Sanctum to come back. But I honestly think the smart move for them, if they don't want to get yelled at, and if they don't want to highlight how badly they're fucking up, is just to say, we did our limited time mode for the month.
00:40:26
Speaker
ah We'll see you in July. you know That's what I would do if I were them. I wonder if we're going to be having... wonder if we're going to have an onslaught of limited-time game modes, because we're getting two back-to-back.
00:40:37
Speaker
Oh, that's how they scrape everybody off. That's how they scrape me off, that's for sure. I will fall off the side of the ship like ah like a dang barnacle. Glazer interviewed the designer of Overdrive, and he talked about how like there will be a bunch of modes coming pretty soon, and I'm like, oh, does that mean that like and you it was going to be three that like rotated monthly, and now it's going to be...
00:40:59
Speaker
ah You know, there's just going to be tons of them. will say if they're just doing modes for mode sake and not ah hiding incredibly valuable rewards, I don't mind at all. Like, no, bring on the modes. I want to play all the modes. I want to try. I'm with you there.
00:41:13
Speaker
Like, i I did not mean to make it sound like I don't like enjoy new gameplay experiences. Very much do. I was I'm just worried about, um you know, how they're going to handle like
Gaming Industry Trends
00:41:27
Speaker
rewards and resources and things.
00:41:30
Speaker
ah Okay, yeah. if we're Okay, if we're if we're all done trashing on I have voltage, I do want to sum it up by saying I do think that this is just a problem with very much in the games industry and also in companies at large, but just the idea that a game needs to be infinitely profitable until it dies and how that has changed. the nature of games that can get made anymore. Like old games we love just can't get made. And when games are made that are made for value, that aren't made like the the mobile game format popular. Because what mobile games did is they found a whole audience of gamers that previously didn't have money or realized that they would be interested and didn't buy consoles and didn't get into gaming that way.
00:42:13
Speaker
But mobile found a whole new set of gamers and people who do like games. So, you know, they just needed it to come conveniently. And then without, you know, kind of the whole background and the love of the gaming industry behind it, you know, like people love sports for the love of sports.
00:42:32
Speaker
It's like they were just like, let's use all the psychological tricks to like... Get them to spend as much money as we can. Profit increases quarter over quarter until it dies. And we make the next thing that will do the exact same thing. And it's like where you see games like Hades 2 that come from value, it's from studios with such a passion for what they do.
00:42:56
Speaker
you know, that don't, like, sell out. That's why you see so many good game designers leave and want to go make their own studios. It's, like, really hard and punishing out there, but it's, like, because, like, that's the game. If you want to make a Baldur's Gate 3, if you want to make a game that will make money through sheer sale they sales... Sales.
00:43:16
Speaker
you as I speak, then you know what mean? Like Baldur's Gate 3, right? That's just like a $60 game and maybe like a few expansions, you know, like the Skyrims and all of that. It's like, ah you know, that's that's been a bad, they found they can make money cheaper and easier and faster.
00:43:34
Speaker
And, you know, we're only getting good games from people whose passion for games is like that strong. You know what? I'm probably going to spend more than $30 on Hades 2. I'm probably going to buy it on you know my spouse's Switch or whatever. i'm i'm I'm probably going to buy a few more copies of Hades 2 for friends or whatever.
00:43:54
Speaker
I don't know. So I don't want to make it sound like, yeah, you can make an awesome game, but you're only ever going to get $30 out of N Roller from it. That's not entirely true. Yeah, they earn my goodwill, of course.
00:44:06
Speaker
um It's one reason I'm ah i'm a Nintendo fangirl and always
Card Acquisition and Design Strategies
00:44:09
Speaker
have been. on And I know that they aren't totally it innocent in this area, but they still mostly just put out solid games. You get the whole game up front and they're just fun, high quality games.
00:44:21
Speaker
um Like the new Donkey Kong looks amazing. ah But then also the new Mario Kart's 80 bucks and you know people have struggled with that. i Okay,
00:44:33
Speaker
I wanted to... know. I know we didn't talk numbers or anything like that, and I don't think we need to at this point. If you're really interested in them, you can check out you know my thing on Twitter or Blue Sky.
00:44:44
Speaker
um It's like you have to you have to play like five to six hours every single day in order to afford Kid Omega with a 50% win rate. That's atrocious.
00:44:54
Speaker
um what about the the What about the stuff for which you'd have to play more than 24 hours a day? Yeah, if you want Cobra 2, you have to play more than 24 hours a day. a to machine Or pay, right? um And I just hate it. it's just It's so player hostile. An event should be fun. Horrible look.
00:45:15
Speaker
Not a punishment to your players. We should all feel like we're celebrating this game that we love. That's not how I feel. My plan is to get the cards with tokens. I will keep playing Overdrive as long as it's kind of fun, and I'll probably put my vaults towards credits or something.
00:45:36
Speaker
I will wait until July 16th to get Kid Omega with tokens. I don't know about Cobra. Maybe if I accidentally get him in a snap pack. Um...
00:45:47
Speaker
And I suggest you do the same. I suggest you do not spend gold on Kid Omega, but also don't harass people who do. I've seen some of that, and it's like... Oh, yeah, that's really gross behavior. Don't do it. That is so yucky. There's no reason to wallet watch other people.
00:46:03
Speaker
that's That's really gross behavior. Okay. Anything else?
00:46:13
Speaker
Let's talk about the cards. First up... Well, I was going to do Nightmare, but let's let's do the let's do that let's do the others. Cobra. Oh, wait. No, no, no. Sorry. I'm i'm skipping ahead.
00:46:26
Speaker
any Any thoughts on Ancient One last week's card? The Ancient One? The Ancient One. Yeah, she didn't go to 12 years of school for a little. Okay.
00:46:38
Speaker
And you have you have new thoughts? Yes. Okay. So I do think I found the actual best current actual real meta place, not saying it's an S tier place for the ancient one.
00:46:50
Speaker
And I feel like if you know me, you know, I'm really opposed so to Cerebro. um But also I dabble in Cerebro, is always a always a c five Why C5? Well, because it is not entirely, it's never entirely reliant on Cerebro like the other Cerebro decks are.
00:47:14
Speaker
It is great fun for your Cerebro to get discarded by like locations or whatever. And then they snap you you lost your Cerebro, you're done. And you're like, oh, oh.
00:47:27
Speaker
Oh, you haven't yet? Not yet begun to fight. And that's C5. It's a lot of fun. My biggest problem... And it's like, yes. Yes, it is as fun as you would think turning a whole bunch of cards into Cerebro in what location.
00:47:43
Speaker
My biggest problem with is that Shang is so rampant in the meta. Like, almost literally every deck is playing Shang. And it was hard for me... to keep the energy below Shang level to the last minute when I needed to play stuff out in a certain order energy-wise. Like, that tension is really difficult right now just because Shang is so prominent.
00:48:05
Speaker
But ah I do think if you want to play some Ancient One and you want to pop off sometimes and you want to have, like, a solid, you know, B-tier deck to pal around with, ah you know...
00:48:18
Speaker
I'm calling my C5 deck right now high fives. You know? So, I'm both clever. like it. Short and sweet. Yeah. Okay.
00:48:30
Speaker
Punches. It slaps. Literally. Okay. Cobra. so a card that we've had very positive things to say about. two three Activate. Destroy an enemy. Created card. Here.
00:48:48
Speaker
ah I just, I want to say, i think it's silly to release this mode, or to release this card through Overdrive instead of before Overdrive, because he would actually be useful in Overdrive.
00:49:00
Speaker
That's what I was going to say. This card is a 10 of 10, and the only way I play him, which is when I get him randomly in Overdrive, and it always works because it's Overdrive, and I think this is the best Cobra will be for while.
00:49:13
Speaker
Hmm. I will say it's neither here nor there, but the first Kid Omega I saw was in my first game of Overdrive from someone who had already purchased it. Oh, wow.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, so that was that was my introduction. um I think I've only seen one purchased so far. So yeah, somebody could have had Cobra in high-voltage Overdrive if they were a maniac or whatever.
00:49:37
Speaker
um Wow, they really just didn't want to make... this card good like every version of this card has been like just bonkers awful uh this is the best one so far though right slow improvements yeah but that's damnation by faint praise right there yeah
00:49:59
Speaker
i think this one should be an on reveal absolutely why couldn't it be it like it wouldn't it wouldn't be broken i'll tell you that much I feel like they think it makes it better.
00:50:10
Speaker
right Because you can wait? But like... Deter your opponent from playing there. and Yeah, exactly. Warn your opponent that like the other two lanes are safe.
00:50:20
Speaker
Yeah. Activate. Yep. It really is. Somebody did point out to me Valk is another synergy. It's probably not good enough. um Because the only one I had thought of before was Luna Snow as a proactive synergy. But you could also do like debris Valk and then guarantee that one of their rocks gets destroyed and therefore you have more power. But I'm like, that's too many steps. That's not good. That's not worth it.
00:50:46
Speaker
i yeah For the secret homework, my first idea for card design was specifically something to, like, help Cobra out.
00:50:57
Speaker
I ended up abandoning this idea, but I was going to do something inspired by, like, Magic the Gathering. They've got hunted creature cards that, like... generate things for your opponent. like They're they're like overstatted creatures that like put things on the board for the enemy. like You'll play a dragon or something, and it'll give them some knights or whatever. or like you know Yeah, something like that. and I was going to do something similar specifically to help out Cobra and give him something to do.
00:51:27
Speaker
you would play him with your hunted whatever. i i couldn't get the flavor right, so I abandoned it. kind of mongoose?
00:51:36
Speaker
Anyway, sorry. That's the gathering stuff right there. I don't if Marvel has a mongoose.
00:51:43
Speaker
That nimble mongoose. The Odyssey block remembers. I don't know. Anywho, that was just my thought about Cobra. I was like, i I feel so bad for this bad card and I want to help it, but I didn't even do that.
00:52:01
Speaker
Okay. Kid Omega to one activate, destroy the next card you play this turn to gain its power. Okay, um so Ben told his first experience of seeing Kid Omega.
00:52:15
Speaker
So i will share mine, which was on Tuesday when I had just gotten my little nightmare and I first put, you know, i got together my first nightmare deck and I went into Proving Grounds to go test it out.
00:52:28
Speaker
Bam, Kid Omega. And I'm like, oh oh, shit, on Tuesday, like high voltage overdrive just came out. It's like a whale of a flex. And then, know, here's what they did with it.
00:52:39
Speaker
It was proving ground. So I was already in it. And I was glad even if it was like if I had lost like a silver ticket or whatever, i are ah you know, if I had to spend. I wanted to see this. My first time seeing Kid Omega was excited. Like, oh, what you got planned?
00:52:53
Speaker
What you going to do? And of course, what they did was like very obvious. And like, so it was just like, this is so powerful. It was, Kid Omega, right? And then Shuri and then Black Panther got Kid Omega immediately followed by Elixir.
00:53:12
Speaker
And I was just like, oh this is not good. Okay. So I do, you do have one chance To ah Red Guardian the Kid Omega. he is 2-1, so you both are required to be running that counter and then have it and play it ah before this can happen.
00:53:29
Speaker
But here's the problem with like with Kid Omega's power. It's like it's not like the... The kind of old stuff where you could say it's like Elixir can go either lane.
00:53:41
Speaker
You know what mean? Because before when I think of Black Panther stuff, I'm thinking Arnim Zola, right? And it's super powerful Black Panther into Arnim Zola, especially if you beefed him up previously. But it's very predictable, right? is It's like downfall. You know where the power is going to go with Arnim Zola and you can plan around it. and With this combo with Black Panther and Elixir and all that, it's like, oh, it can go either lane.
00:54:05
Speaker
Elixir's only two power. You know what mean? There's more they're going to be playing on that turn as well. it's like, ah. And this isn't even the beginning. This is only the beginning of what I feel like one can probably do with Kid Omega. That's definitely why Elixir got the, like, can only target last turn, right?
00:54:23
Speaker
Otherwise, you could be completely unpredictable with it.
00:54:28
Speaker
i don't know.
00:54:33
Speaker
it's Its stats so far are ridiculously good, ah including in high infinite, like top 10% infinite. This thing is rocking like, I don't know, over 70% win rate. And that's ridiculous in top 10% infinite.
00:54:47
Speaker
um Kambessa, part of it is that Kid Omega is just, match the matchup is very good into Nightmare, which is what everybody else is playing. Mm-hmm. But I heard Scott Denim say this, and I heard you say it on the podcast, Ben, that Kid Omega would still be a good card if it didn't gain power. And I think that's probably true, especially in a deck that's doing something like Shuri Black Panther or Shuri Nimrod.
00:55:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really good card. i mean new Super good card that costs gold. None of us have it. I'm glad I probably wasn't going to play it anyway because it's not like my kind of card.
00:55:29
Speaker
I don't like... I play the shit out of it. Mostly. That's kind of why I don't like Batroc the Leaper. he's He's a little over the line. What? I just don't like cards like this.
00:55:40
Speaker
All I hear Ben say is like, here's how I don't like to have fun. No, your fun is very different in thinking. Yeah, find niche ways to use the card. I would use it a lot in in weird combo things, but...
00:55:53
Speaker
yeah ah like a deck. I love Nimrodding. It's like, shame me now. That is fun. getting Baiting a Shang on ah on a Nimrod. That super fun. If you can fool them if they don't know you're a Nimrod deck and they're just like stoked about the Shireen, you can get him. like Yeah, it's so good. and uh okay nightmare three negative one on reveal replace the text of each card in your hand with text from a random card of the same cost did you get him i did not yeah oh you didn't oh yeah i guess it's not not a super dunk no it's not
00:56:39
Speaker
Okay. You said you played a bunch of them. I know you were excited. I've played. on seven I've been very excited for nightmare, but I didn't build any of my own nightmare decks because of all the high voltage stuff.
00:56:52
Speaker
Um, so I'll try to have an original nightmare deck, uh, next week. I have an idea that I'm really interested in exploring. Uh, haven't been surprised that everybody's putting him with Sauron or war machine. And I've tried both and they're both good.
00:57:04
Speaker
Uh, some of them literally both in the same deck. Um,
00:57:11
Speaker
is super fun. The stats are just middling, and I don't know if that's like, oh, this card is is just a middling card, or if it's this card is going to take more than a week for people to figure out. I think it's more but...
00:57:24
Speaker
but Also, it's a learning Yeah, you can get bad rolls. lot of games I lost more than one cube were me forgetting I had nightmarred a card trying play it.
00:57:38
Speaker
I'm like, I've won! And then I'm like, oh, forgot. the visual The visual on the transform card is not clear. And that's for both you as the player and as the opponent.
00:57:51
Speaker
The opponent's cards don't flash green or anything. So you have to tap every single thing that they put out after Nightmare comes out. That's obnoxious. Yeah.
00:58:01
Speaker
I mean, if it's a card that has an animation, right? Like if if Typhoid Mary does a backflip and shoots Pink Bazooka, you know you know it's Gwenpool. I suppose so. But there's tons of stuff that doesn't have animations or sound effects, and and it comes out and does nothing. you're like, wait, what is that?
00:58:18
Speaker
um I was surprised when you said the stats were middling, because I thought you meant like just the sheer amount of power it puts out on the board. I was like, wow, you know I've actually noticed it puts out very high numbers.
00:58:30
Speaker
i and I meant win rate, cue rate. Yeah. yeah I've got to say, i'm i'm like I'm rooting for the card Nightmare because it's like interesting and cool. I don't like playing against Nightmare decks very much because I don't like playing Shang-Chi.
00:58:46
Speaker
And I kind of feel like I should probably be one of the everyone playing Shang-Chi right now, but I don't want to. it's so It's so hard to stay in against an enemy nightmare. Like, okay, yeah what crazy Infernaut do they have in their hand?
00:59:01
Speaker
you know? Is it Infernaut Galactus? Is it Zola? Is it She-Hulk? This matters. My Infernaut was once... Okay, go ahead and say. Okay, ah real quick.
00:59:12
Speaker
First time I saw a Nightmare, I got a Giganto that was a blob. And when I say I got, I mean my opponent got a Giganto that was a blob. yeah You got hit by that. Yes, I did. I did. that That was one of the things that I did not have a Shang-Chi for.
00:59:28
Speaker
yeah The one for the infinite was a gnoll against a destroy deck. Holy moly. I'm this is an infinite gnoll against like a dedicated destroy deck is like the biggest fucking game you've ever seen.
00:59:47
Speaker
Okay. Did you get your thoughts out for a... More or less. It's super duper fun. When it does the thing. And it does the thing a decent amount. that You did the thing. like that it hit Moon Knight. Your Moon Knight will no longer Moon Knight. Anyway.
01:00:03
Speaker
um I actually built two different decks with it. um And they both actually pair them with War Machine. Which they knew was a popular. but i I did play a little Sauron.
01:00:14
Speaker
just Just to do it. Because I have soft spot for Sauron. But like... ah But it was like, I don't know, it felt like the normal, like everything to do.
01:00:25
Speaker
And I wanted to try some different stuff. So I went two different directions. And my first deck was an answer coming from Soran. It was answering the fact of all the Shang. Honestly, you have to address, if you're playing a big cards deck, you have to address the amount of Shang.
01:00:44
Speaker
So I didn't want to play Soran because I wanted to play Armor, Which, it's fun when I get to play I rarely play her anymore, and she's just fun. Like, when you run into a destroy deck, and like, I hope I get to drop this at exactly the right time.
01:00:59
Speaker
And, you know. So, and, yeah, now you can protect your cards, and it's still, and it's fun to find those old armor synergies I hadn't for a while with, like, a tomb and stuff.
01:01:10
Speaker
So, ah one is a War Machine, ah Almost a Sauron style, but instead of Sauron, it's still got Surtr. It's got War Machine. It's got Armor and Cosmo.
01:01:23
Speaker
Once again, you got to protect your cards. um And then it's got Zabu and the big four drops. So it's synergized, like I said. Atuma, already great with Armor.
01:01:35
Speaker
Crossbones, you know, something you can still play if you don't hit it. Cold Obsidian, you've still got some one drops in there. um If you don't hit that. And then, you know, Giganto fun now. Giganto is finally big enough to include in these style of decks, you know, almost as big as Infinaut.
01:01:56
Speaker
So, ah you know, so that that's the idea. idea And it's got Ebony Maw, of course, I forgot because we got War Machine. So, you know, War Machine and Nightmare equals like, why would you not put a one seven in the deck, even if sometimes you can't play it? Such low energy.
01:02:12
Speaker
Yeah. So I was tempted to fit in a Madam Web, but I thought Armor and Cosmo were the way to go. So that was one direction I went. And it was kind of like a Sauron style of deck that that to answer all the shang that is wrecking the Sauron decks.
01:02:29
Speaker
and um The other one, it was something, it was exciting for me. um One, because, yes, I already spoiled Moon Knight's in it. And, you know, Moon Knight has never been as fun as me since they made it theoretically better.
01:02:46
Speaker
Not for me. Not for me. um Okay. And... ah You know, Moon Knight, but it's like, okay, someone, a card I'd been wanting to mess with for a long time since they got changed in an OTA and I still just had never gotten around to is Agatha.
01:03:02
Speaker
Agatha, right? She doesn't control every single turn anymore. Still takes all your boosters, though. Still very greedy. um And I also haven't gotten to play a lot with Black Knight.
01:03:13
Speaker
you know what I mean? So, like, that that's the idea behind this deck. This is Is that Nightmare is another way to get rid of Agatha on three. Right? That is good. And she thins your deck. Like, that's great. I like that lot.
01:03:30
Speaker
is like when you're discarding a big card if it's you know agassa's fun i'll take a four fourteen but also again giganto and infinite and to play these cards for a long time and they work really well in these steps Ghost Rider's here like, you know, have an alternate way to pull back a big card. You got Lady Sif, of course, always just fantastically doing her job. She's just a fantastic, solid card.
01:03:58
Speaker
I hope she gets to get a vacation sometime from how regularly she just shows up and performs. um Moon Knight also... Here's the great thing. This deck is built... So Moon Knight will not discard your nightmare. Okay, so this is me using...
01:04:12
Speaker
Using Moon Knight. Getting to do new things with Moon Knight because of the change. Right? Won't discard your Nightmare like um or your Sif or your Wave, like which is good. So I fiddled with other things, Corvus Glaive and stuff like that.
01:04:33
Speaker
Corvus Glaive. So anti-Ladies Sif. So unreliable. um I did end up putting Wave in that as my other, like, play Agatha, you know, do whatever.
01:04:46
Speaker
Surge, uh, because Surge is just still really good. And it's like, you don't really care if Agatha, like, you're like, please play Surge on two. That would be great.
01:04:57
Speaker
I had tried a blade there. But Agatha was frequently discarding Moon Knight and giving me sad 4-3 ebony blades.
01:05:08
Speaker
Little tiny, sad ebony blades. so um So Blade did have to come out from where Reliability would shuffle some things in. And then once again, Machine is just kind of a backup to be able to play Giganto and Infinite. I almost considered taking him out because the deck is so much more focused than other things. But um at this point, it still felt like the most useful thing. so Yeah, it's been really fun. I found, like I said, my biggest fault in playing these decks is both that I've been playing way too much high voltage overdrive.
01:05:40
Speaker
So I just like, can't be patient. I'm like, well, we've played two games already. Snapshot, I shouldn't stay in this game, but I just want to be done. Just move on to the next thing. So I've been impatient in that way.
01:05:51
Speaker
And then the other big thing is once again, just forgetting, forgetting that I've nightmaired cards. Please make it more obvious. Please make it more obvious. Some of us play our card games late at night and not all there. And we need big showy effects for little tiny late night brains.
01:06:11
Speaker
Um, So yeah, it's been fun. And it's like, I guess so many giant ebony blades. You know how I love a big sword. So, um, yeah. I just realized you could nightmare the ebony blade too. i don't know if you've, yeah, it's probably not something that comes up a lot, but that's cool. It come
01:06:29
Speaker
get four pound i've had a jessica jones ebony blade that's just like just leave me alone i'm like oh i want to meet this sword that's just done with humanity you know that's like fuck off i'm tired you fuck anyway okay stories about my cards constantly i'm gonna i'm gonna try that one that one sounds really fun i i don't know where i was going with that anyway next week's card Dormammu, 7-11. I think they shook up the schedule, but anyway, it's Dormammu.
01:07:02
Speaker
Last I looked. Game start, begin a summoning ritual. Step one is a zero-cost skill. On reveal, merge your highest power destroyed card with Dormammu to continue.
01:07:15
Speaker
And then you get step two, which is a one-cost skill. On reveal, Dormammu steals one power from each card here to continue. And then the last step, a three-cost skill. On reveal, destroy two of your characters here to summon Dormammu. This is just a vibe check, not a full review.
01:07:35
Speaker
My vibe is I'm worried that... ah I think it looks super fun, but I'm worried that it will be samey. Worried that because you so reliably get step one in your hand at the start of the game, that...
01:07:52
Speaker
Summoning Dormammu is going to feel repetitive. And it will always feel cool playing a 415 or whatever he ends up being. Yeah, sounds like a very consistent card. That's that's my feeling. I think that yeah speaks to... That's probably a point in its favor. I think that probably means it's strong.
01:08:13
Speaker
that's That's my feeling. I thought it was strong when we rated it. I still think it's strong.
01:08:20
Speaker
um I feel like for me it feels like Khonshu for destroy. Perhaps maybe a little more powerful. um Which I like, right? Which gives another option. And you're right, I think.
01:08:33
Speaker
It'll be more samey but like at first, but hopefully the future it'll lead to more things, you know? like i feel like Phoenix Force maybe is finally getting some room to expand. It was a samey deck, but it was fun and it was different.
01:08:47
Speaker
um so So I'm glad Dermama exists. I love a quest card. I will get it. I haven't thought like not bill anything yet. and So I'm excited for it.
01:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited too. I like seeing established archetypes get new flavors. And just the kaulu like coded, you know, cultish summoning is enjoyable. Yeah, the ritual deeming.
01:09:16
Speaker
On to our side quests. First up and only this week, secret homework. This week's secret homework was assigned by Ben. All right. Well, this week, our secret homework, inspired by DaAncientOne, again, a wonderful mnemonic device for remembering how to pronounce Dao.
01:09:34
Speaker
um ah the that We're supposed to, you know, design a card that generates a ah skill card. ah There was also an extra credit about explaining what gripes you have, if any, with ah individual skill cards just...
01:09:49
Speaker
hanging out on the collection screen, not being characters.
Comics and Card Game Storylines
01:09:52
Speaker
But I decided that there would probably be enough negativity this week, given other topics of discussion. And you know what? You gentle listener, you can imagine why why one or more of us might have distaste for...
01:10:07
Speaker
you know, skill cards like astral projection that is not tied to a character. But anywho, we all, uh, we all picked a character and designed a card and probably more than one card because these things generate skills.
01:10:21
Speaker
So we all designed at least two cards. Um, and being the, uh, the person who assigned the secret homework, the, um, The student teacher, if you will, um because i don't I'm still a student, but also I don't know if student teachers were really assigning a lot of homework. That that felt like that was the main teacher's job primarily.
01:10:44
Speaker
um I'm sure they graded a lot of homework, student teacher. So sure. No, great I'm not going to. I'm not i'm i'm not here to evaluate. No, that ain't it. That ain't it.
01:10:56
Speaker
But I will tell you what I designed. And I'll tell you how I got there. I was inspired by something a listener said in the Discord. ah They were responding to last week's secret homework about our origin stories for the s Snap community and stuff.
01:11:12
Speaker
And ah they they like they'd gotten into all sorts of Marvel things through through Marvel Snap. And they they like they were learning things and they were like, are our Whiplash and Omega Red the the same dude?
01:11:24
Speaker
And it's very understandable because like their deals are ah pretty identical. One of them's got a dope high pony, though. um Anywho, anywho.
01:11:35
Speaker
ah So, yeah, they got they got tentacle arm things. um For those who have forgotten, Whiplash was the Mickey Rourke character from Iron Man 2. ah Doesn't come up a lot. um So Whiplash 2-1. On reveal, add whip right and lash left to your hand.
01:11:58
Speaker
ah Two skills. That's right. Whip right. there's there's There's a similarity between the two skills. You'll you'll see the theme here. Whip right. so it Cost one.
01:12:09
Speaker
It doesn't have power because it's a skill. You know how it goes. ah On reveal. Move an enemy card here one location to the right to give whiplash plus two power. And ah so they do have to be able to move to the right. You can't play this skill without moving a card to the right and expect Whiplash to get plus two power.
01:12:29
Speaker
this is This is Gambit language. We're doing a thing to do another thing. And if you can't do the first thing, you don't get the second thing. But yeah, so moving cards. That's pretty cool. Do a little Stegron.
01:12:40
Speaker
Do a little Stegron. Make Whiplash a little bigger. I mean, like, it's a two-turn thing and, like, not as well-statted as Stegron. And there's one more skill to tell you about. So don't even begin trying to evaluate this card compared to Stegron yet.
01:12:53
Speaker
Anywho, Lash left. Ooh, it's one energy. Still doesn't have power because this one's also a skill. Get with the program. On reveal. Afflict an enemy card here with minus two power and move it left.
01:13:06
Speaker
ah So, you know, kind of a Winds of Watum situation. Also, it's lash left and it afflicts just like lasher. ties in with existing top-down kind of design stuff.
01:13:20
Speaker
ah But yeah, it's it's a little bit Winds of Watumi. Also, that one does not have that Gambit style 2 in it, so you don't have to be able to move the card left to afflict it with minus 2 power, because i I based the language on that one off of the language of Winds of Watum, and Winds of Watum doesn't care if the card moves, it's still going to afflict.
01:13:41
Speaker
And um so yeah, Whiplash, all together, like you may notice that these stats come out to 4-5. You're spending 4 energy getting 5 stats worth. You're moving 2 cards though, so this is good.
01:13:54
Speaker
ah Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. like It seems understated, but also you would know if moving 2 cards is worth it. I'm telling you, this this card would be fine. That's what I think. I think the skill names are fantastic.
01:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, the symmetry is fun. I like it. OK, I'm assigning next week's homework. So, Rhi. OK, so I did, as i said earlier, ah
01:14:24
Speaker
Cede my week in Snap Time so that I might comics corner during Secret Homework. Because I basically was like, how can I use Secret Homework um as an excuse to talk about the latest run of West Coast Avengers?
01:14:40
Speaker
ah It's been so fun and such a surprise. Okay, West Coast Avengers is usually kind of like the little weird, the little wonky Avengers, you know, out on the West Coast.
01:14:52
Speaker
And if that excites you, you'd probably backtrack on that excitement to learn the current team is led by Iron Man, who is like, like, I like I like Tony Stark. Fine. I like Iron Man, but I won't like for my like super bazillionaires or whatever to like be into caves and furry costumes, I guess.
01:15:14
Speaker
Anyway, no, I negate that I said that, please. Okay. So also, I sat in front of my head when I said, like, don't say that. No. Okay. So moving on.
01:15:27
Speaker
um Several times an episode. Iron Man's leading it. Okay. Also, Rhodey, but like, to be honest, he's not been like a real character. They haven't had time for him to have a storyline yet. haven't they failed to flesh out Rhodey as a character? you don't say.
01:15:44
Speaker
Um, yes. Okay. And this is what makes, this is what brings the Iron Man twist to me to make me excited, though, because they like to set up Iron man versus the rest of the Avengers, you know, as as big money does. And And like he and it's like in their civil wars, i the the obnoxious thing about them is like how obvious they are. So like the first civil war, like, you don't require all people with some like and doing to like sign up for registry, you know, like if you're not doing it to all says it.
01:16:23
Speaker
Right. That's just so obviously wrong. And then society is just obviously wrong. And then Civil War II, if you're unfamiliar with Civil War II, and it's a big deal for me because they really like warped Captain Marvel's character from how she had been in this comic, which was kind of bummer if you were fan of Captain Marvel at the time.
01:16:42
Speaker
um But the argument was it was Iron Man this time versus Captain Marvel. And Captain Marvel, it's basically Minority Report and profiling. Like, oh, we have this way. We built this, like, psychic machine. We can see who's going to do crimes. And we can stop them and arrest them and lock them up before it happens. And it's like, oh, man, we've already had, like, the science fiction behind this, you know, with Minority Report. Yeah.
01:17:07
Speaker
And it's just, you know, it's just... If you, like, don't think that profiling is wrong, then you've just, like, been in a position of privilege or not lived enough life to have, like, seen the negative effects of that. Probably listening to the Rock Marvel Snap podcast.
01:17:23
Speaker
So, like... But this is generally agreed upon, right? like I'm not like saying anything controversial. This is like the obvious morality of like like probably don't kill people and rob them, you know is how I feel about those sides.
01:17:38
Speaker
But here's how they pitted Tony against the other Avengers here, is he wants to do villain work release program. like a villain like kind of work release program He wants to encourage reform among imprisoned supervillains who maybe, you know I mean, plenty of supervillains, you know, turn to to crime for, like, various reasons that don't mean they're, like, at their core an evil person or whatever. in that And that's the idea behind it, which is just much more interesting tension, right?
01:18:12
Speaker
Because when Carol comes to argue with him... You kind of are like, know, both sides got some really good points here.
01:18:23
Speaker
Because inmate, not really an inmate, actually kind of a free criminal at this point, um to be in the West Coast Avengers?
01:18:35
Speaker
Ultron. Yeah. Ultron, because here's what's been going on with Ultron lately. So Ultron, like after, I don't know, getting catapulted into a sun again, you know, however, the Avengers are always eventually kicking Ultron's ass.
01:18:49
Speaker
um You know, Ultron, you know, got together and was just like, hey I've been pretty failing hard over and over at my goal. Things aren't working.
01:19:00
Speaker
So as an artificial intelligence, let me just like split myself off into to multiple entities. um You know, see which ones come up with the best ideas.
01:19:12
Speaker
ah Call the rest one because we don't want weaklings because we're Ultron. Yeah. And let's just try it. Let's just let those Ultrons try different paths and let's try something different than we have before.
01:19:23
Speaker
And um so, yeah, there's a lot of Ultrons. There's more than one. It's kind of a reveal, so I spoiled it for you. um No, it's in the first issue.
01:19:34
Speaker
I didn't spoil it for you. Just read it. Okay. And this Ultron was like, hey... maybe I've been wrong about things and I should fight with the Avengers and I should like atone for my crimes.
01:19:48
Speaker
And all the other Ultrons were like, this sucks, you're stupid, but like, you know, showed enough power to be given one of the, you know, Ultron identities. So this Ultron came to Earth um and was like, I don't even think they'll listen to me or believe me, but I have to try because I must attend my past aggressions.
01:20:06
Speaker
um Immediately sacrificing himself to or itself to save ah to save Tony Stark from certain death.
01:20:20
Speaker
And thereby completely earning his trust. And Tony could have just let Ultron die, but Tony, you know, is good with some machines. Saves Ultron. So this is inmate one.
01:20:32
Speaker
And how all the other Avengers feel about this is like, hey, Tony, is that fucking Ultron on your team? Is that fucking Ultron?
01:20:42
Speaker
Which you kind of have to be like, you know, some people have been murdered by Ultron. You know what I mean? Some people have been resurrected after being murdered by Ultron, you know, kind of superheroes.
01:20:52
Speaker
um So like, ah you know, so it's like it's like we know, know, is even more bazillionaires um with eating even stronger ah centers of willpower have learned imprisoning villains doesn't always work to to reduce all the crime. I mean, if you're even locking up the villains in the first place, and because Ultron's wandering around free.
01:21:22
Speaker
So, yeah. So this was already a much more interesting position of me where there wasn't one obviously morally correct answer you know of the, yeah, it's wrong to kill people. it's right It's wrong to hate someone because they're a girl. you know And it's like, what are you not doing?
01:21:41
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, so that's interesting, right? You know who else is in the series? Fucking Firestar. Do you remember that card that got canceled from Marvel Snap?
01:21:54
Speaker
This is my first time, like, paying attention to her in the comics. I'm sure I've seen her backgrounded several times. Some, like, crossover stuff. But, oh, she's got problems. She's like she's like an elf.
01:22:08
Speaker
With fire powers. My kind of character. Very interesting. Anyway, and um so because I could i could keep going, but I've been going for a while. I have to mention the wheel the real heart of the series, which was like a complete surprise to me because the other inmate – inmate ah to to join Ultron, which, you know, it's Ultron's pretty interesting storyline. and They already had me hooked.
01:22:35
Speaker
ah Is a former, like, very B-tier villain called ah Killer Watt. um But they've rebranded. They're like, yeah you're not allowed to be in the Avengers and have, like, Killer Watt.
01:22:48
Speaker
So they force him into the name Blue Bolt, which he hates. And I think, okay, and I see this setup, and I'm like, okay, this is like the joke throwaway little henchy character that's like...
01:23:00
Speaker
you know, kind of a B and kind of stupid and, like, all of this stuff. No. Blue Bull is the heart of the entire series. This character I didn't even really, like, pay attention to or know, which is so good because of the subversion of my expectations that he would be a joke character. They gave him, like, so much depth.
01:23:23
Speaker
He's doing that. He agreed to do this. Right. But they talk. He still has to return to the prison every night. Like they release him just to go out superheroing. And, ah you know, and like Rhodey's like, hey, should we we tell him we're trying to get permission to, like, let him stay here at the Avengers Mansion with the rest of us?
01:23:43
Speaker
and like Antonio is like, no, I don't want to get his hopes up in case it doesn't go through. But then you see this from and how upset he that like these people pretend to care about him. You know what i mean?
01:23:54
Speaker
ah just something he's like in fucking like cuffs and stuff. You know what I mean? It's just like and you get this like the sympathy for him right off the bat, you know, and even though they've shown him as kind of this like a fuck up character and with Firestar, right?
01:24:10
Speaker
Everyone's stoked that she's here. No one sees like how much she's hurting and how fucked up she is. And um you know she like they they have ah real moment of connecting. And she is fight drunk and like comes on to him.
01:24:28
Speaker
And it makes sense. Even if for them to start a love story. And Blue Bowl is just like, you are amazing. But you are like so fucked up right now. You don't need this. What you need is to fucking check into rehab, like fucking take care of shit. And you're amazing. You'll come back and work and and we'll all need you. And he talks Firestar into going to rehab when Tony, who has been a fucking alcoholic, is like not kind of like noticed and paid attention to this, you know.
01:24:57
Speaker
and um
01:25:01
Speaker
There's even this moment later on where, you know, Blue Bolt's talking about like how much he hates Blue Bolt. And they're like, well, what do you want to call yourself? This is what Blue Bolt does. As soon as all the cameras are on them and they're like, thanks to the West Coast Avengers saving us from Monster AB09.
01:25:18
Speaker
And um they're like, and who are you? and he looks at the camera and he's like, call me Wonder Man. And I'm like, call me Wonder Man. I'm like, bitch.
01:25:31
Speaker
And they're really bad. Because Wonder Man, if you're not familiar Wonder Man and Marvel, he's like a movie star. do we not have a Wonder Man card yet? um I don't know. He'll get there. He's easy. Yeah.
01:25:43
Speaker
Yeah. So, and it's like, it's the show and you think Blue Bolt's just always stirring the pot. But then, like, they find out, like, when Wonder Man shows up to, like, God, shit. um It's like, has, like, a vendetta. And this is what he said. He's like, I have a vendetta against, like, Wonder Man that Wonder Man doesn't know.
01:26:03
Speaker
Because Blue Bolt's dad was, like, always, like, like, like wonder man was this hero from like the action movie, the old movies wonder man was in and stuff. And it was always like, why can't you be more like him? And it's like, wasn't it good? It was like, know, yeah he was like an abusive father and stuff.
01:26:23
Speaker
And there's all this like drama, you know, behind it. And it's like, you see that and you see the way they did a really good job in telling the story of how blue bull is, is dealing with that by like,
01:26:34
Speaker
I don't know, acting out like a kid by being funny about it in ah in a snarky way. And ultimately, the Wonder Man is a true Avenger and a sweetie. Like, in I think this is even the very last issue that I've read.
01:26:48
Speaker
Like, he he goes, he brings him to see his dad. Because Blue Willow had mentioned, like, yeah, my dad would fucking can love to see you. And it's this great moment because it isn't like, and Blue Boat and his father patched things up and all were healed. And we like, you know, everything's good now. It was just this moment where his his dad was just kind of like, well, you know, maybe you could come back and and talk sometime with me.
01:27:13
Speaker
You know, and Blue Boat just says like, well, yeah, you got to have a funeral sometime, right? I'll come back. But it's just this kind moment where it's like, Maybe there's hope for a future. you know what I mean? Maybe things could be healed in the future, even if not right now, which is how things work, right? It's never like an instant.
01:27:33
Speaker
It's never a quick thing. It's long. So it's done well. Anyway. So I will stop talking about West Coast Avengers um and how much I've been enjoying it and telling you my card.
01:27:45
Speaker
um So it is Blue Bolt, of course, um as I put him in tutu with the ability add Call Me Wonder Man to your hand.
01:27:58
Speaker
And I wanted to do like a big kind of flashy thing with the skill that did a lot of stuff um that felt very thematic to me to Blue Bolt. So I made it a five cost skill.
01:28:10
Speaker
And what it would do would say, Blue Bolt to this location. Return one of your cards at this location to your hand. Afflict another random card of this location with eight power.
01:28:23
Speaker
ah Return Blue Bolt to his original location. um Because he has to go back to jail. Kind of still currently. Yeah, it's telling a story. Right?
01:28:33
Speaker
Yes. He has so much, like, oh oh he does electric power. Sorry. I never once mentioned his actual ability. And it's funny because when the other Avengers come to, like, have it down with Iron Man, goes up against Storm.
01:28:48
Speaker
And she's he's like, oh, I know you. You're the mutant that makes lightning. And Storm just, like, comes out like Adam. She's like, I the lightning. I mean, a little milder than I'm doing it. But, you know, it's Storm. I can't imitate the force and, like, gravity and power behind her voice with my teeny little re-voice. So, you know, and up the drum of it. Anyway, and Blue Ball, they just show this part, you know, like, him just looking at me, he's like...
01:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, okay. You just sew it off. Like, it's like, oh, I don't fucking talk lightning this time. Anyway. So, yeah.
01:29:21
Speaker
And it's five because it does a lot of stuff. I figure it could be one that could be fun to, like, do random shit.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Future Events
01:29:29
Speaker
Yeah. It's your turn five. It's explosive.
01:29:34
Speaker
ah Okay. My card. Um... My design process, I thought of the skill first and then had to figure out something to thematically match it. So my card is Nova Prime.
01:29:50
Speaker
ah There have been several Nova Primes. I picked a Ronnie Rael, who is the one in the MCU played by Glenn <unk> Close. um But kind of the figurehead leader of Nova Corps.
01:30:03
Speaker
ah Two, three, on reveal, add planetary blockade to your hand. And then Planetary Blockade is a one cost skill. On reveal, permanently add three power to this location and prevent it from being changed.
01:30:20
Speaker
So I picture it being, know, having an animation on the frame around the location, sort of like what happens to the power when Claw or Iron Man are in play. um yeah Yeah, I thought it'd be a cool thing for a skill to do to add power to a location but there's no card left behind. Yeah.
01:30:42
Speaker
Yeah, and it's kind of like a reverse instead of like blowing up. Yeah, i really like that. that's That's such an interesting and like and like completely, that says some new territory.
01:31:00
Speaker
I like it. But it would also be like, i know i trust them to program it and stuff. Like, they could actually make that effect happen. that's and That's a new thing they haven't done that I think they have the skills to execute.
01:31:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think that feels like it's within the... It's close enough to what's already there. Anyway. I... i
01:31:25
Speaker
Okay, I assign next week's homework. Reading the outline. um And I have a dog on my lap that's distracting me, Remy. ah my The homework I'm assigning is inspired by high voltage overdrive.
01:31:39
Speaker
i want you to design a new game mode that is a twist on an existing mode. You don't have to invent an entirely new mode. You don't have to invent draft.
01:31:51
Speaker
Just come with a twist. That would be interesting, fun to play, whatever. um Could be a big twist or a small one.
01:32:00
Speaker
Yeah. So if you liked what you heard today, like, follow, subscribe, write and review on iTunes or Spotify, leave us a comment on YouTube or Spotify, ah or come chat with us in the speakeasy, our little corner of discord. It's technically part of the snap judgments league discord.
01:32:18
Speaker
Um, instructions to get there are in the show notes or video description. And Hey, maybe you could come play secret homework alongside us. I always love seeing listener secret homework.
01:32:29
Speaker
Um, We're probably part of the Snap Judgments Network. That's how we're on their Discord. ah Where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Judgments by Pulse Glazer and Roy on Saturdays.
01:32:41
Speaker
ah they you know They always have guests. Usually other content creators, but sometimes community members or second dinner employees. ah Yeah, check them out.
01:32:54
Speaker
yeah I imagine most of you already have. um Most of you probably came to us from them, but they're grandpods. so ah yeah Anyway, ah also, I wanted to announce... It's been publicly announced, and so I'm going to share this, that in two weeks...
01:33:13
Speaker
aye I'm commentating a pride tournament that's being thrown by Power On Gaming. I'll try to put something in but in the show notes that can tell you how to enter the tournament. Because i as far as I know, it's open entry.
01:33:25
Speaker
But I'll be commentating on Sunday. Not this one. this This Sunday, they're doing a Juneteenth tournament with black creators, including Friend of the Pod, Safety Blade.
01:33:36
Speaker
I hope. yeah hope he wins. But, you know, I'm... i'm Oh, you he's... is this Is this tournament happening at a time that's like reasonable for him in Australia?
01:33:47
Speaker
That's true. it because That's usually why he doesn't compete in things. 3 p.m. Eastern. going to guess no. Okay. Well, I still bet he'll do fine. but Anyway, not this Sunday.
01:34:00
Speaker
The following Sunday. It is a two-day tournament, but just the second day is being commentated by myself, Gregor, and Tebbs. um And it's to raise money for Trans Lifeline. So come watch. Come watch.
01:34:12
Speaker
Donate. um It's my first time commentating anything, so yeah come make fun of me. Oh, don't do that. There won't anything to make fun of. It's fine. I invited it.
01:34:23
Speaker
ah Anyway, ah if you want to, I don't know, what's next week? Is there a patch in OTA? I don't know. Find out. Find out next week. ah Same snap time. Showdown.
01:34:35
Speaker
There is Sanctum Showdown. And we have no idea what they're doing to it. They might do something different, right? I mean, it's not enough to get a subtitle, but maybe something will change. ah Come hear our thoughts on that because we loved it the first time.
01:34:48
Speaker
Same Snap time, same Snap channel.
01:34:55
Speaker
My noisy chair. Yeah. So what's up? I don't know what y'all want to talk about. would love to highlight... I would love to highlight, however briefly, Ree's crochet journey and that you're wearing one of your crochet things. You don't have to model it or anything.
01:35:15
Speaker
was so like i just really proud. i mostly did it so I could show Lauren. Okay. You talked about wanting to do it and you did it and it looks great and I think that's awesome. I made, okay, I made another bear in the pattern of the bears I made you.
01:35:31
Speaker
I wanted to make a blueberry, but I can't finish because I feel like, feel like I maybe accidentally made like a Hitler bear. Oh, it looks like a mustache to me.
01:35:42
Speaker
The nose, I struggled every time I've made this bear pattern because like the holes don't all quite line up. And I tried to do it a different way this time. I just haven't been able to finish it.
01:35:53
Speaker
I moved on. I'm making like a sun shroom now. It's supposed to be a mushroom, I'm going make it with yellow and white instead. So it's from breath of... I love all these little cute twists you do on your patterns.
01:36:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So good. But I don't know what to do with the bear. I've seen it. No, I can't even see it.
01:36:16
Speaker
can you pick it it like it's on top of coming back for a fourth season guess i could try already like weaved it in and nodded it real good and gotten better at that so like i could i don't know i feel like maybe he should just be resigned oh is there a limbo of like unfinished amigarum like a purgatory where it's like it's like a doll hell like it's like story buildings just like just like all these like half crochet it's like the updated it's like all the people that got half into the hobby and then they're like this looks what I made looks like gar garbage and they throw it away in the omicron it's like no but you made me you've created me I'm an now and then they like because of that they've gotten bitter and decided to take over like kawaii land or something okay I don't know I'd watch that alright yeah anyway yeah
01:37:09
Speaker
Okay, I guess that's the end.