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82: A Lot of Wolves Look Similar to Me
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📦 Unboxing My Little Gambit (Horseman of Death edition)!! 🃏🐴
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- ⚔️ Isca the Unbeaten 🪖 Juggernaut Horseman of War
- Gambit Horseman of Death 💀
- ⏳ Next week card vibes
- 🪡🧵 Patch Card Changes & 🆕 Datamined New Cards
- 🌌 En Sabah Nur & the OTA ⚖️
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap!!
- Secret Homework 🤫: Your 4 Marvel Horsemen 🎠🎠🎠🎠
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
- Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Last Week's Cards
- 0:02:53 Isca the Unbeaten
- 0:09:27 Gambit, Horseman of Death
- 0:20:24 Sandstorm
- 0:23:52 Caliban, Horseman of Pestilence
- 0:26:45 Patch Chat
- 0:41:01 Datamined Cards
- 1:08:58 OTA Discussion
- 1:23:54 Our Week in Snap
- 1:50:08 Secret Homework: Choose Your Own Horsemen
- 1:57:37 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:59:24 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Marvel Horseman Naming
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to Snap on This, a Marvel Snap Podcast. This week's secret homework, name your Marvel Horseman. I'm Lauren O'Devs, here with my usual amazing, delightful co-hosts. As I am sputtering off the intro, I realized I have not prepared an intro question, but it is an even-numbered week, so it's Ben first.
Ben's Favorite Sport: Pickleball
00:00:19
Speaker
Ben, ah you know like what's your what's your favorite sport to play Oh, my favorite sport to play.
00:00:32
Speaker
geez. Or do not all of them are plays, you know? ah ah I don't know. Chess. What a fucking bullshit answer. Am I right? I don't, I don't know. I, uh, I played pickleball in PE e before it was, uh, you know, a nationwide craze. I feel like there's been a,
00:00:52
Speaker
a big pickleball thing in the past 10 years or whatever. And back when back when I was playing pickleball, no one had heard of it, including myself. That's that's my claim.
00:01:03
Speaker
um What are we doing here in PE? And ah we were playing pickleball. That's what's up. um Was it a whole net and racket class? I mean, this was just general physical education.
00:01:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was. The thing we did for like a week. My senior year, I did net and racket, and I loved that class. it was It was pickleball, but also ping pong and tennis and volleyball. Did you get in there with some badminton? Badminton. Yep, there was badminton, too. It was a great class.
Bree's Favorite Physical Activities
00:01:32
Speaker
Bree, what's your favorite sport to play or participate in or do or whatever the correct verb is?
00:01:40
Speaker
Um, okay. ah Switching my hands there, I guess. I played soccer growing up and talking about that. But my favorite current thing to do is ride my e-bike.
00:01:51
Speaker
o Oh, they're like ah you can we just do general physical activities? thought that's what we were doing. What's your favorite exercise? Oh, I like to go for walks. I take many long walks. I do like those too, but I can't say them out loud because I have a dog. walk really, really fast. That's kind of my i just I love it. It's like magic. You can teleport somewhere and it doesn't cost gas and you can go there.
00:02:16
Speaker
And it's just like, and it's so fun to think about like the radius around your house where you can just like make yourself be a place. And yeah, I think it's more awesome. Everyone should walk is so good for you too.
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah. yeah bike We have lots of good bike trails around here, ah but we do not bike very often. My favorite is is swimming. I like swimming a lot. Oh, nice.
00:02:40
Speaker
I always have. ah Even when the water is way too cold. i was the one who was like, you know, have a whole family reunion of 60 people and I was the one off playing in the water.
Marvel Snap Strategies
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, let's talk about some Marvel Snap. We're skipping Ansabunur because he was he was in the OTA, so we can talk about him in a second. But, like, what are your updated thoughts on Isuka? I think Rhea especially may have some.
00:03:08
Speaker
Yes, she's saying that because she knows, because immediately, if I got to, like, the 5K tokens or whatever to roll, and I'm just like, nope, no thoughts, even though I don't want any of the other tokens.
00:03:21
Speaker
And I rolled and I won and I got Isuka out of like, I don't know, five or six, whatever, however many I have in there. It was great. I've been playing ah her like pretty much all week. I've been rolling like out of playing whatever.
00:03:35
Speaker
um She's fun like I thought because she's a different thing and she's scary. Like sometimes people just retreat because they see her they run. I've had that happen. Right? Yeah, I've seen her a lot. I'm the person who retreats.
00:03:50
Speaker
And I've learned, ah you know, if you've got dueling Iskas, you definitely want to be the one later in Pryo. As is obvious. but Yeah, it's like, oh, because immediately the first time it happened, um you know, in my Iska, I was like, oh, you know, versus Iska. And then I was like, oh, but my Iska went first. Oh.
00:04:14
Speaker
oh This is kind of a late worm kind of situation. So, ah but yeah, I've seen her around plenty too. I think she's fun. I've played her, I've played her quite a bit.
00:04:29
Speaker
What are you playing her in? i I keep, okay, this is the fun for me. I wanted to see how she progressed in autodeck over time, like my own ah casual, ah late a late night re-experiment of which is ah science ah that is not accredited by any university.
00:04:46
Speaker
But like, I'm like, I want to see what changes over
Gambit Horseman of Death Card Analysis
00:04:48
Speaker
time. Dumping the the end of the mug, you know, that the the the flask of whatever kind it is. ah You know, the emote.
00:04:58
Speaker
Oh. Oh.
00:05:02
Speaker
like it it like Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. I believe it's Fenris. I don't think he's a werewolf. Oh, it's Fenris. I thought maybe it was werewolf by night. i did He's a lot of wolves look similar to me. i yeah yeah I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying it's how I perceive it.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah. OK.
00:05:25
Speaker
Oh, no, it started. It was cool because it was like Zabu, which I'm always down for some legs Zabu shenanigans. And for a long time, it was like Galactus First Steps with Hawkeye. But just today, when I got in earlier and i was like, let's see if it's changed because it didn't change for a little bit. It combined a deck, I've been seeing a lot of Inviswoman first of end of turn decks. And it's like, yep, I finally like mushed in to, ah yeah, and I'd already been seeing it being played. And that's finally what became ah my auto deck. And like, I just, and I want, someone saw, I had Sue and Jocasta out in Omega Red. and like, and they, they snapped, well, they I think they snapped me because they thought I was a bot.
00:06:12
Speaker
I was playing not one of my shiny avatars. It was like the new magic. It's just like, hmm. Because I like that look in an avatar. And you know what I mean?
00:06:23
Speaker
And my name's Ri. I've never changed it you know? So I know it looks like the generic when you face someone named Alex and it's like some basic uninteresting character avatar and you're like, but so I think because they snapped immediately. I was like, you're about to see my team.
00:06:42
Speaker
kitty in the rain sparkly border and know that you're not playing a bot if you waited two seconds but like um yeah uh and and yeah they should have retreated
Tech in Marvel Snap: Necessity vs. Fun
00:06:53
Speaker
and they they still people shouldn't underestimate if you get i mean you can beat just an invis woman for steps but as soon as they copy that it's like you really gotta think hard if you're gonna stay in that match you know it scales so ridiculously yeah right yeah they should have retreated anyway so you know End of turn is great. She's end of turn. She's great alone. She works in other decks. So I think we were all right to like her and respect her and her giant sword and her throne.
00:07:21
Speaker
and I have also seen Iska around. Or Iska. I like Iska. I feel like I'm probably going to say Iska. Probably the right way. that's you know i would breath it right way I don't know about all that. um But I do know that I've you know i've been seeing been seeing her. Saw her at the the Golden Gauntlet.
00:07:40
Speaker
I was able to win a game by setting up a tie. That's the way to do it. Lane where I had something with the six power. and I think it was ah it was like kiln or one of those locked up locations. So I knew they couldn't fix it or anything. supplement or do anything crafty. Um, yeah, cool, strong card.
00:08:06
Speaker
Good, uh, does cool things. I, I like how, uh, fuck with the bull she can be sometimes. you know I like that there's interactivity and, uh, you know, I can do stuff like that.
00:08:20
Speaker
Um, yeah, neat card.
00:08:24
Speaker
Do you feel like your heart's going to be every time you see Mercury? Like, ah, Cannonball. Cannonball's coming later. Where's the point? I mean, I'm the person playing Mercury and Cannonball is coming later. Maybe even absorbing it after that. I know. Every time I see it. ah I might have more Cannonballs than the person is even prepared to contemplate.
00:08:44
Speaker
Okay, I'm sorry, Lauren, please. I was just i like i agree. I like that Iska is interactable without having to run tech. I wish there were more cards like that. I still think there's way too much tech in the game.
00:08:57
Speaker
I know some people disagree and it's like and some people think that tech is the answer to get things back to like a diverse mid-range friendly meta and I do want that meta but also I just feel like everything I try to do that's fun gets gets rained on a lot too much.
00:09:16
Speaker
i don't know. Maybe it's not a solvable problem. I would like to think that it is. I feel like the problem is that fun it's fun is lopsided. The more fun you are having, the less side the other fun is having. Right.
00:09:27
Speaker
A Gambit that we're about to talk about is a perfect example of that very fun card to use, not a fun card to play against. um I mean, we'll get into it. um but I don't think they would have made this card if OG Gambit wasn't a popular card.
00:09:43
Speaker
i That's probably true. I mean, Gambit's a very popular character is the thing. Yeah. I just think that like original Gambit is ah just just full on randomly exploding with animation, a card on your opponent's side. It's very satisfying thing.
00:09:59
Speaker
ah that Casual players love it. This card, ah like it is everything we thought is annoying and people are duplicating it. Right. And duplicating it helps it because it's a created card. Right. yeah Like, so like all these bashings. So already it's like it's just like it's not fun. It's not fun. And it's like i like I know I know like it.
00:10:28
Speaker
especially um someone that works in code. It's like, I don't believe all the conspiracy theories, but the algorithm is a cruel mistress. Because I was playing a stretch
Impact of Gambit Decks on Gameplay
00:10:38
Speaker
of games with, like, my Iska deck, which is a more of a, you know, I got some some big juicy cards, some ripe targets, you know? And, like, and I just kept at least every other game was Gambit Horseman of Death being copied so that they can, like,
00:10:53
Speaker
blow up a million cards and um and so i switched to destroy you know and i'm like no okay all right dusted it off i hadn't played destroy since the last bounties you know and pull it out and i'm like all excited to be like go ahead strike down my wolverine my baby Make him stronger! And then, like, nothing. No Gambit Horstmann's of Death. They're like, the next six games.
00:11:23
Speaker
And, you know, like, my mix of Destroy, which has, like, Shang to beef up Noel and stuff as my tech in it, like, isn't doing much against the end of turn decks, you know, which are kind of the other part of the meta. It just sucked. And, like...
00:11:41
Speaker
I think it's like the fear because we've all seen so much like gambit shotgun gambit, you know, like anyone who's been around long enough to have just, you know, had like whole boards disappear on them. It's like, I don't know if the fear of him like the bark is worse than the bite, but I just see I'm like, oh, and then and did then they bastion. I'm like, oh, I have to.
00:12:07
Speaker
Okay, what's been your experience in the brief time he's been out?
Facing Gambit: Player Experiences
00:12:11
Speaker
yeah like I would have tolerated matches against him if I was still climbing to infinite, but I'm in infinite. I don't need to sit around in matches I don't want to play anymore. so it I played a few rounds against him to get the experience, but then it got to the point where like as soon as I saw Valentina, was just like...
00:12:30
Speaker
no like I don't I don't need to play this game. It's OK. I just yeah, did't did not. Not a fan of this card. I don't know why they added it. The objective is very easy to hit.
00:12:43
Speaker
And of course he was popular. Oh, I mean, Gorgon's good sometimes. I think Gorgon might help a little. so but What about Gorgon ongoing? Is this like, is this the thing?
00:12:58
Speaker
Like Gorgon Moonstone? We're also playing Joaquin Torres and Iceman. playing, I've seen a lot of, have you guys been seeing all the Master Mold and Ronin the Conqueror running around? I've seen that a lot. That was the deck that won Golden Gauntlet, so yeah. oh that's why I've been seeing it then. Yeah.
00:13:21
Speaker
People really like to give me giant robots, but um but like, that's right, but that's the given that they can't even play him. Okay, I don't know.
00:13:32
Speaker
Alright, wait, continue with Gamut Horseman of Death. That's
00:13:38
Speaker
No more from Lauren. Well, OK, there's
Critique of Gambit's Design Decisions
00:13:41
Speaker
one more thing. I think last episode I was trying to figure out ah if if Zola would refresh an objective card and it does. It does refresh it. um So that those wouldn't count as created for the sake of Gambit Horseman of Death because you didn't play them. play them But if you do get a successful Gambit off, you can Zola it later to make two more.
00:14:06
Speaker
yeah That's it. That's silly. why i don't I don't see why it should work like that. That's my opinion. Okay, well, here's the thing. ah you know Tuesday rolled rolled around and I saw a Gambit and I was like, maybe there'll be some time before the unfun Gambit decks emerge when I can do something cute and cool with Gambit because what if this is an Esme Cuckoo card?
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah. o hey You hit something expensive with your Esme? Is that the idea? Maybe, maybe. Or maybe Esme is just helping you get three power of... created cards because I was like, I'll put it in Surfer with Frigga and I'll put other stuff in and it'll be cute and fun. That is cute. I like it.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't very good. I'm not even going to tell you. It was like so bad. And also, everyone was coming out swinging with like the very obvious like, you know, good thing to do with Gambit. yeah The thing is, I'm not even sure that like the good thing to do with Gambit is like always that consistently great like here's the thing whenever i would switch away from my uh stupid little experimental surfer deck to like my real deck i would immediately like shoot back up all the the ranks that i lost it was like i'm not sure that gambit decks are as good as they are obnoxious is would agree that
00:15:34
Speaker
like yeah Yeah, right? Are they worse? Is my annoyance with all of my memories of shotgun gambit worse than the reality? It's in front of me. i don't know. I retreated to some. Maybe I shouldn't have. I don't know.
00:15:48
Speaker
If I'm like surfering, don't know. They're going to get one of my three costs. Like it might be a broodling. There's pretty good chance it's a broodling, you know, and I'm not.
00:16:00
Speaker
not weeping over prude links like usually surfer does seem very poised like that seems like a good matchup um not a fan of the card though and i regret spending 6 000 tokens on it i'm like why did i i was gonna have any fun with this card like i'm obviously not gonna have any fun with this card this is not one of my kinds of cards yeah but you know what i've just got too many damn tokens You know, ah like Lauren says, like, it's not that hard to keep up. And me, I, I somehow I failed to do it in this case, but I'm pretty good at skipping cards. I don't want to play.
00:16:35
Speaker
I'll just do it because I like watching the the stockpile of tokens go up and like the cards my collection eventually one way or the other. And ah yeah, I don't know. So if you're on the fence about Gambit, my advice is don't get him. He's no fun. He's stupid and not good for the game. Don't participate in that.
00:16:55
Speaker
That's my opinion. I mean, i kind of agree, but also like ah blame the designers, not the players. If you're having fun with it, it's in the game. Like, use it while you can. it can be both.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I don't know. I think that players are playing more tech than honestly would be good for them. I think maybe some players would be better off playing a little less tech. And like the designers made it as good as they made it. And the players just had happened to love.
00:17:27
Speaker
They love the comfort of tech. I'm kind of surprised how many people like interaction. Like, to me, that seems much more like a spiky, like a competitive player thing to do is to be trying to interact and counter your opponents and counter the meta versus just like, I'm going to make a big sandcastle, you know? But like, how is that?
00:17:48
Speaker
Like, if there's no, I don't know, but then why aren't you playing a solo game? right like if you don't understand i think some amount of interaction is fine i just don't know like like the deck that won the golden gauntlet tournament has like seven tech cards in it like just yeah tech is always right i mean in a tournament situation your ability to stop a lot of people is i i always try and take a lot of tech if i'm going we' competitive for sure it's also my play style
00:18:22
Speaker
I liked your avenue, though, with like going back to your thing. I know the debt that's totally a deck I can like see making, and yeah, it didn't work and taken apart in frustration. I like the thought, though. But also copying out of your deck. like I need to put into my deck-building repertoire more. I like the Esme thought, because I don't know how I thought, but it's like copying Isuka with Iron Lead was amazing. That was in one the other decks. Every time it was just like, oh, yes. seems good.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yes. yeah I will say. know if it's fun. You know, I've wanted to believe in Esme Cuckoo for the whole time. and like Yeah.
00:19:01
Speaker
I just can't help but notice that. maybe maybe it's my fault for not doing the right things with her but every time i put her in a deck it's not great it's not great and like sometimes i've even played some matches on the pc where i can check the the card stats on snap.fan and Did she ever get She's never really leading the pack now. She's not been buffed to my knowledge. She's still still and has always been a 3-4. Imagine she had a 2-3 that makes it a 2-3. Wouldn't that be i to be awesome? She seems like she should be a good card, right? But I think she's a good card in an 8-turn game. yeah like I think negative is really pretty much the only deck that uses her consistently.
00:19:49
Speaker
And even then, there's lots of negative decks that don't use her. like She's totally optional. I'm wondering if they should. yeah I just wish she was good but I don't think she is and that's a bummer because i I like I like the design it's a cool design and I just wish I felt better about including her in decks and I wish I happened to notice I was winning more but I don't I notice the opposite fair alright well we never we never read off Gambit Horseman Death but you you guys know you've seen him around
00:20:23
Speaker
ah Vibe check on next week's cards. We're including Sandstorm here. Sandstorm, our two cost skill from Team Clash. On reveal, add two rocks to your hand. Give them plus one power for each of your front row characters. Are you excited for Sandstorm?
00:20:41
Speaker
For now. Oh, yeah, because Osmond Diaz is going to wreck it. thought about it, and I realized my actual problem. It's like, I do want rocks to be good as opposed to bad, but I don't want it to be obviously and easily good. And that's what Osmond Diaz tips it into. Because there are decks that are good, but they're kind of clever, so they don't become, you know...
00:21:05
Speaker
Star-Lord-esque. You know, they don't become like what everyone plays because they're really good at tricksy. And that's where we talk about like what players are playing at the very top, you know, of rank, you know, versus whatever. And like this, all the rock kinds they're adding are making rocks too obviously and easily good, which will make them no fun because everyone will then play them.
00:21:29
Speaker
That's where I met on it. My beef with Sandstorm is twofold. It's the thing that Reeve said. And also... That's two cost of created cards in your hand, which happens to add up to five if you add, say, a frigid Gambit to it. And I'm yeah, sure, let's give that more ways to pop off. Great. Seems smart. Cool design. Great choices. Great.
00:21:51
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, like, maybe it's not the best that maybe like the thing is the gambit decks already seem to work pretty well or like at least they seem to achieve their, you know, gambit goes off on the regular. So maybe they don't even want sandstorm. Maybe maybe this is just a but I kind of think maybe they do. I don't know. Definitely like the Victoria Hand versions.
00:22:13
Speaker
which the yeah Victoria Hand has been very much complimented by Gambit. And you have two cards that are good to to duplicate. i'm just Sandstorm feeds them both.
00:22:24
Speaker
Gambit out here, pew, pew, pew, with those little cards in someone's like pile of rocks instead. Oh, no. okay The only thing that makes me feel better about it is that like, other than this, it's just Mole Man for rock cards that create rocks in hand and the rest of the rocks are coming from the board from locations or debris and all that. So I don't know, maybe, maybe Sandstorm doesn't go with Gambit, but like, I don't know.
00:22:52
Speaker
We'll, we'll see what happens. Yeah. mean, Gambit will also destroy those rocks. So you're going to invest in in a couple of one six value from it too. Oh my gosh. Dang.
00:23:03
Speaker
I don't, I don't like that. Uh, I'm, I'm excited for this card. I think it's very cool card. You know, if we accept that skills are a thing that's here to stay, uh,
00:23:16
Speaker
I agree. Rock archetype, I don't... I like that it's getting strong, but I don't love that it's just going to be so straightforward. I hope it won't be. I hope that there will be ways to make it interesting.
00:23:28
Speaker
right There will be flavors of rock deck. I think there will be. I'm hopeful. po Flavors of rock. Yeah. But maybe it'll just be... Maybe it'll just be the best one. It's just so much better than all the rest.
00:23:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah yeah. When I think of flavored rocks, I think of like salt. Salt. but But sure, let's go let's let's wide limit ourselves.
00:23:52
Speaker
All right. And then Caliban entering the Series 5 packs. Horsemen of Pestilence 3-4 objective. Have three cards that are four cost or higher in play to afflict the highest cost enemy card with minus seven power.
00:24:07
Speaker
I don't like it because I think Omega Red Mero already menaces. i think negative power because it's like a lot of times it hurts me a lot. until i Unless I have like a Luke, which is like kind of the unless you're also running Luke or Shadow King. Yeah. Like, I was talking earlier about, like, how did someone not retreat to my, you know, they were playing the Ronin Master Mold deck, and how did they not retreat to my end of turn? You know what got them? Because they played this Ronin, and, like, they had the Master Mold, they had the Sentinels, they had they, like, Maximus the last turn, like, ha-ha, look at your full hand. i'm like, oh, yeah, look how many times my Omega Red is about to go off on your Ronin.
00:24:52
Speaker
that you You mean Omega Sentinel. Oh, it just blasted it down to like... right and They had a full lane there. I had an Iska and like... And Omega Red in a different lane. And like and it's so it's like I...
00:25:08
Speaker
Now that I'm playing, now that I'm on the winning side, I'm enjoying her more. Just like sports teams, you know? But like... But like, it's like... Negative power, when when a lot of people play it.
00:25:23
Speaker
I guess then a lot of people will play Luke and it'll balance out. I don't know.
00:25:31
Speaker
What do you guys think about it? Yeah. egg yeah i think like there's something to be said i think omega sentinel is a good comparison and this is a cheaper card but you can go sillier with omega sentinel stuff like jocasta makes it instantly better so uh yeah i don't know how many homes caliban has but i think i think he at least goes in like 2099 but that's one home but that's one home e i'm I'm not sure he's got any Helms. I kind of think this card might be a little bit of a stinker.
00:26:01
Speaker
um You can't double it up. That's what I was thinking. that what you're looking at? It's like the rate's decent, but it's not scalable, and it's just like, I don't know who wants this card, really. Like, really. You know, because like single target affliction. It's only cool when Omega Sentinel does it because, you know.
00:26:21
Speaker
Multiple times. Because then you turn her into a machine gun. yeah Right. or marrow a lot of people are using Myra in Destroy to like pull her back. Or even see Morgan Le Fay.
00:26:34
Speaker
yeah Yeah. This is her year. Yeah. Year of the MILF. Wait, what? Okay. Let's go on.
00:26:46
Speaker
We had a patch this week and an OTA, but we're going to about the patch first. There were there were just some actual real things that happened in the patch. You can now hold 30,000 credits instead of 10,000. I saw some people being excited about this. Not not the 30,000, but i mean the more than 10,000. Oh, I was like, I don't know if I ever get above five.
00:27:08
Speaker
I spend all of my suicide enough to like make a split. fix That's happening. That's basically my strategy too. Yeah. yeah And then the shop shows cards in 3D and animated now, which like good it probably should have been the whole time. that That's a cool part of the game.
00:27:25
Speaker
can't you like Couldn't you previously like rotate through and like look at them? in the like Yeah, but now by default, if you see them, before you tap on them, they are already showing three d and animated.
00:27:38
Speaker
And then they confirmed that returning to Alliance's premium mystery variants on week two and four of a season. So that's, don't know, that was really important to some people.
00:27:50
Speaker
I think they should change it to be the personal the variant the border should be the alliance reward and the variant should be the personal reward. So people can be part of alliances that maybe aren't like doing as well. But as long as they they get the best reward as long as they put in their input and they're still right. And because like I think because I look at this and I think, oh, my alliance is going to really struggle to get those variants and it's not fair to like freemium and like the other players that are playing a lot. And I just so I just wish they would make it personal. Like I but usually hit the cap for alliance, ah like not always.
00:28:28
Speaker
um A lot of times they play enough, but like that that would make that would make people feel better about dying alliances. This will just make people sad, and and it doesn't help the turnover people trying to find and stay in active enough like alliances. Yeah.
00:28:46
Speaker
and then right And then people, you want people to be incentivized to return by returning to an alliance maybe with their friends, right? Than having to be booted out of an alliance to make. So they did say they want to make more changes, but as a stopgap, they should have made personal rewards stronger and kept the alliance rewards like a a mystery border. Good enough, but like not a punishment for all the alliances that are struggling, which is is a lot of them, right? Maybe not people. yeah Maybe people listening to the podcast are involved enough in ones. But like I play a lot. And I was i was in a alliance with a lot of high players. And we've booted a lot of players numerous times. And we still have trouble like keeping it. you know and like people drop out for weeks. And that should be fine. I've heard of lots of people having the same problem. Their alliances are getting too small or they're losing lots of activity.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah. they have to do someone that's just gone for a week or two. Yeah. And it would be so easy to make it for the individuals. Like, it wouldn't be any more trouble for them, really, don't think, unless they're really that worried about giving out too many mystery variants. But They've done it before. i made The personal reward, the stronger the reward. It never would have occurred to me because, as I've mentioned, like Lauren and I are in an alliance that you know hits the maximum every time. like no worries. and it's I think there was one time we missed it. It's one time ever. yeah
00:30:14
Speaker
One time ever. and ah Yeah, yeah. But that's not the reality most people playing. That would feel so better for people. I totally agree. If you could at least just pull your own weight and make sure you got the variant, because people do like getting the premium mystery variant. It feels good, and it's nice. Estee doesn't listen to this, but listen. We want to stay in alliances with our friends that sometimes take a whole month or several months break, but they come back. We don't to have to kick them, right? We don't have to keep kicking people turn it, you know, to turn like to try and get enough people in. It's just like this would be such an easy, fast fix. You need to like that's because this is the thing. They as developers probably also just playing with a lot of other people that play a lot. It's like you're not in touch. they don't care about Alliance rewards.
00:31:08
Speaker
Well, you know, if you don't care about your game, then I don't have anything to say to you. yeah uh we'll see i don't have a lot of hope for alliances but you know but apparently it's still of of something that they want to take care of a step in ah at least a more player friendly direction it's a small thing but you know it's an and it's an example of player feedback working But like, is it though?
00:31:35
Speaker
If it's not like, I just explained why I think this is the wrong answer. You explained a way better thing they should have done. Like they should have done that. Absolutely. I, I'm just saying this is better than it was last month.
00:31:48
Speaker
But then just all bad rewards. Yeah. Yeah. It's still not adequate, but you know, ah at least a gesture. I mean, for me, the the rub reward is the 500 credits. Like, I would prefer a variant over ah but ah over a border, but chances are I'm not going to use the variant either. Every now and then you get a good one. but You know, people like variants and you know they're just like a fun little, oh, well, that's nice. i got to And, you know, you get a variant, at least it's a variant out of the way. It's just like a nice little thing that feels good for people, even if it's not really a thing that feels great for me personally. I'm i'm aware of how other people feel about it and they should be accommodated.
00:32:26
Speaker
It's definite even definitely a bigger dopamine hit to open a card, even if it's a variant, than to open ah a border. Ooh, I got neon green. Where does it? Opening mystery borders are not exciting. It's like opening the wrapping. Sorry, go ahead. What saying? I do like opening a border if i like see that, oh, you now own 25 of this kind of border. I'm like, oh, that's kind of exciting. I could like i could go through a little phase if I wanted to. I could ah i could have a fun little border adventure. Distressed blue era.
00:32:59
Speaker
Yeah. this My distressed blue period.
00:33:05
Speaker
but Okay, there were some balance changes too in the patch. Unusual, but it does happen sometimes because some some balance changes, the ones that like change function behind the scenes, require a patch.
00:33:17
Speaker
So one thing is, ah cards that do multiple affliction or multiple buffs in a row, it will now count as a single hit.
00:33:29
Speaker
which only affects like two things right now in the game. But like for example, Cassandra Nova, when she hits a card a seven a deck full of seven cards, she does not get seven plus ones. She gets one plus seven.
00:33:44
Speaker
Really, the only thing that that's relevant for is Kohori and Stark Industries. That's the location that randomly gives out eight power. those two hitting Sebastian Shaw or Clea.
00:33:54
Speaker
that's like Those are the only interactions that are affected by this. Two cards that really deserve to get kicked while they were down, right? Oh my gosh. These cards are in like... They cited not that they were balancing these cards, but that it was...
00:34:09
Speaker
preventing future design space and i think we can see that in the data mind cards that we'll be looking at a recent topic of discussion how far sebastian shaw's stock has fallen like yeah so bad these days right he's often not even in the decks that he should be in like Yeah.
00:34:28
Speaker
Uh, Kohori gets a point of power. It goes from four six to four seven to compensate for this. It's fine. I don't think it's enough to make her a great card or even a very good card.
00:34:41
Speaker
Uh, and then Mysterio RIP. Although i am somewhat glad that this change, uh, hit Gambit Horseman of Death. One of my favorite cards in the game has been reworked. He no longer plays three cards at once.
00:34:57
Speaker
he does a he He is a 2-5 on reveal. Add an allusion to another location. Very White Tiger or Sam Wilson. Activate swap power with it.
00:35:10
Speaker
I saw some people being pretty positive about this and ah praising that it kept so much of the same story, so many of the same effects of Mysterio, like, ooh, where's my power going to be?
00:35:21
Speaker
But i I don't know. I think they totally crushed this card. I think that my second favorite deck of all time after lockdown is now dead. I don't think I can play it without Mysterio.
00:35:34
Speaker
So it's been it's been a real bummer. This is my least favorite change in the history of Snap. I think Ghost was an awful rework. I don't understand why they did that one, but like I wasn't playing a ton of Ghost before either.
00:35:45
Speaker
This is a card that like I play a ton of and now I'm not going to. So that's a bummer. um You can play him with Luke Cage and then he's Scarlet Spider.
00:35:58
Speaker
That's something. but Oh, yeah. I didn't think about that. It's cute. there's There's still some cute things you can do, but like you can't bast and then happen and then play a 2-9. You can't ah triple buff your bishop or triple discount your Sasquatch or Mockingbird.
00:36:17
Speaker
it's just ah it's ah It's a bummer. i'm I'm sad about this one. Yeah, I love this. Yeah, me too. And I don't even want to play this. I get what they're going for at the mind games. Like, which lane is the power going to go in? So it's like, oh, I have a useless card taking up one lane. This is an activate that I can't double up in any way to good effect. That's not going to benefit from being extra bonus. It's just to like, well, and it's like, you know what I can do? It's just they won't know which... which
00:36:48
Speaker
lane I'm going to play a card in so like that's a mind game which lane will discard on chances what if you Jocasta Mysterio and switch back whoa isn't that exciting gameplay other than that the only activate synergy to be had is Aurora right yes ah so like and it gives you so it gives you like reach you know but there's way better ways to get reach you know it could be a 2-4 definitely um And then he doesn't take up an extra board space.
00:37:19
Speaker
Like, who is this Yeah, who is this for? Like, this would have been fine if this were the original Mysterio design, but it is very sad to... Mechanics-wise. Yeah, just replace the... Yeah, yeah. he's what The original Mysterio is one of the buggiest cards in the game.
00:37:36
Speaker
Oh, for sure. I i hadn't patched the game, so I was playing old Mysterio after, you know you know, after his time. And like, sure enough, the first time I played him, I did like the game disappeared. and It got it. It wasn't what I needed to reconnect to. It was a game where ah they were like, sorry, this one's done. So you're not getting back in there. Yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker
Memory hold. i said was synergy list, but it will. The illusion will get a buff from Patriot, right? yep There's probably better patriot things to do, but like, you know, it's something. It's something, yeah. And I, you know, and I've tried doing cute things with it. There's not a lot.
00:38:18
Speaker
If you make a ton of illusions, he only swaps with the newest one. ah And if you make a ton illusions, you sound very well read. Yeah.
00:38:31
Speaker
ah yeah The other thing you can do with him the only thing I have found that you can do with him that Scarlet Spider can't do. You can so you can Viper the illusion over to your enemy side and then swap the power.
00:38:46
Speaker
Why? It's not good. It's not good until we have better options to afflict yourself. ah Which I have hope that we will someday have better options to afflict yourself for two reasons. One, it's one of the only things that comes up a lot when I'm trying to... A lot is not the right word. One of the only things that comes up when I'm coming up with cute combo clips that I'm just like, there's just... I have to throw out the combo i idea because i just can't afflict myself enough to do this cool thing.
00:39:12
Speaker
Only so many Yellow Jackets you can conjure. Yeah. Example, if I afflict my Maverick enough to be negative, then he could make my Goblin even scarier. That's kind of cool. That kind cool. you just... Self-affliction is so hard to do.
00:39:25
Speaker
um But also, there was recently like a team answer, and somebody asked, like, what card do you want to see like better supported in a new archetype and better supported in an existing archetype? And Glenn answered, Yellow Jacket for a new archetype. And i was like, oh, self-affliction, it's coming.
00:39:42
Speaker
um The other thing you can do with Mysterio is if the illusion transforms, you can swap power with that. So, like try to get the illusion into Gamma Lab, and then you can grab the 12 power on your on your Mysterio. But like I don't know. That's something technically, but I don't it's just a I tried. I tried. I tried to do, like, okay, I'm sad about Mysterio, but at least he can do this cool new thing, and he really can't.
00:40:10
Speaker
um To accommodate for the death of Mysterio, Sasquatch has been buffed by one, but they said a big old fuck you Hitmonkey and Bishop and Mockingbird.
00:40:23
Speaker
still see Mockingbird. I haven't seen seen a Sasquatch in the wild for a long time. Sasquatch needs Mysterio, but Mockingbird has so many so many friends. Yeah, Mockingbird has Thanos. Mockingbird will be fine. Mockingbird has friends everywhere. Andor.
00:40:38
Speaker
What's up? okay And then they once again reported that Lockjaw and Shanna were being switched to work on characters only, but it didn't actually happen. Oh, yeah? It didn't happen?
00:40:50
Speaker
It was like in the patch notes and everything, but like if you go look at Lockjaw and Shanna, they're still their old They're still the same? Okay. It's a resistant ah change.
00:41:02
Speaker
Okay, we're going to talk about data mines. We got cards for June season, which will be headlined by a new Jeff. i Ben, tell us about Jeff.
00:41:17
Speaker
Jeff, the baby dolphin. um yeah I think that's how you pronounce those punctuation uh anywho um the cards here your cards here rather reveal boosted oh we've got new terminology with plus one power you can move this once that's right we're gonna see boost on a lot of these cards um so yeah you can move it if you would like things to be boosted at a different location it's much smaller than traditional jeff as it is two two i don't know if i mentioned that but it's important um
00:41:55
Speaker
ah Yeah, Jeff the Baby Dolphin.
00:42:01
Speaker
Are you playing this in Move, Ben? Me? Yeah. um I mean, you're the most Move of this, I think. so that's sort of move but like what because i mean Is that what you're thinking?
00:42:13
Speaker
I mean, I know you don't play Human Torch and stuff, but I'm trying to think, right? You're boosting cards, you're moving stuff. Yeah. If anything, I'm like wondering, is this a surfer card? Because here's the thing. yeah i have played Jeff Classic in many a surfer deck because for a long time, that was a pretty cool thing to do, especially with like Hope Summers and stuff. And, you know, before we had so many good three cost move things, um it was like good to have a little move feller.
00:42:43
Speaker
um Yeah, you know, I'm just not that excited about this. car I mean, the boosting is nice. This doesn't have the Jeff ability, though. This doesn't say nothing can stop Jeff the baby dolphin.
00:42:55
Speaker
I think that's kind of the point, though, because otherwise it just does everything old Jeff does. But I like that it does some of what old Jeff does. I thought it's Jeff in ah but in a dolphin costume. Why does the dolphin costume? I think the dolphin dolphin costume stops him. It's inhibiting. An inhibiting dolphin costume. Okay.
00:43:12
Speaker
He's not quite the escape artist that he would be. He's really happy. And I've seen pets in costumes and they never look that happy, to be honest. really think so? Including my own pets that I'm trying to choose. have known a pet to enjoy a costume. i or Or at least a little hoodie or something. Not like a full thing, but like I knew a cat to enjoy ah a little shirt.
00:43:36
Speaker
I think he liked that everyone was looking at him. yeah I don't know what to think about this card. It's kind of like mobile Angela. It's going to be good though, right? don't know if the numbers are big enough. Cards that can move themselves are good, right?
00:43:54
Speaker
Cards that give other cards buffs because there are so many cards that benefit from buffs. are good. i He's going to have some hopes and he's a two cost which can like get peppered. and like I was just telling you that I play Toxie Doxie despite her being terrible. Look at this. Way better. just think the size of the buff is a little bit small is the thing. like think so yeah We like Elsa because she does bigger buffs. We like Forge because bigger buff. like You play a Maverick here. That's cool. You've got original Maverick.
00:44:29
Speaker
Okay, this is why I'm thinking about move though, Ben. Because what if you're boosting Nightcrawler? What if you're... Maybe it's Silky Smoothie kind of stuff. Yeah, I think it's probably good there. Or, you know, at least it's worth thinking about there.
00:44:45
Speaker
Silky Smoothie will see. I'm not like Shunny's card isn't green. Silky Smoothie dead. Long good.
00:44:52
Speaker
I think this card might just be okay, and that's fine. Cards can be okay, and it's not bad. seems good. i would I would play this card in draft mode all day long. I'd be very excited to see this card in draft mode because it's just generically fine.
00:45:07
Speaker
It does a thing that you can always use. Okay. Yeah, I think like zombies, though, I was wrong. Zombies. are I played zombies for a little bit and they're fun with Kitty and stuff like, you know, Kitty, Angela, zombies, stuff where you just, you know, where you play Elsa. I can see that. i can see it's going. there This card is like a two eight, right? If you really if you really like squeeze all the juice out of it. And the thing is, I know this guy named Juggernaut and he sucks.
00:45:36
Speaker
You could squeeze a little extra out of it if you're doing stuff like Maverick or cards that move. or like There are ways to make it a little bigger. Think about like Gilgamesh where you just want them to be boosted. Jack Flag. Just want them to be boosted. That's This is a Jack Flag friend for sure. Synergies exist. Yeah. You can down. It seems pretty well balanced to me. like A touch, too light, but still playable. and Maybe that's an appropriate place for a card to be.
00:46:05
Speaker
It's better than cards that are blatantly bad, you know? Or cards that are busted. Yeah. yeah ah Although, you know, busted cards are fun every now then. think maybe Jeff is my favorite card of the season. We'll see.
00:46:19
Speaker
oh i I couldn't possibly pick anything but Nemorita. Ri? Tell us about Nemorita. I know. she It's just it's she she looks too fun. The variant. That's what immediately Dreamy and like whatever that card is I like. agree All right. She's forty four um After the next time you play an ongoing card, double its ongoing ability.
00:46:43
Speaker
Okay, I had my first thought was like, oh, this seems really fun and like a shuri for ongoing. But the more I looked at it, I'm like, this isn't going in any of the ongoing decks I currently play. So where does it go? Because the problem is like on four, if I have her, I have Moonstone.
00:47:01
Speaker
I'm playing Moonstone. And part of that is because I need to play other stuff after Moonstone. So like... kick off the Moonstone, you know I mean? So it's like, I can't, she's so costly four. It's like, if I'm trying to copy, like I can double, if I want to double an Iron Man, you know, and I have the choice to do it the same lane or different lane with like Mystique, right? Who's cheaper. And it feels like for her costs, I'm wanting to play things like Moonstone or things that are going to be copied or boosted by an onslaught, right? Like,
00:47:36
Speaker
She's so expensive. What are what are we doing with her? Is she a big combo deck? Did you have thoughts? Here are my thoughts. There are a couple of old friends that I don't see around very often, but I think would be kind of cool with this card. ah You could curve up real neatly into an old favorite that I think everybody played in early series. Blue Marvel.
00:47:56
Speaker
Oh, okay. No, that was the second one I was going with. Yeah, Miss Marvel also. Pretty cool card. the And a cool thing to double and a thing that Moonstone cannot help you with. and that's You're so right. i take it all back. That's always like the sad thing. I swear, every time I'm like putting Moonstone or Miss Marvel in a deck, usually these decks don't see the light of day.
00:48:16
Speaker
um But I'm like, oh, man, it's just a shame that they can't be friends. But this is a cool... Man, I like this... Mystique is, you know, a very good card and everything, but the three oneness of her is kind of a bummer.
00:48:30
Speaker
I like playing cards that have at least as much power as their energy costs. That's what I like. You have to play this before. You can't leave play it on turn six after Ms. Marvel.
00:48:42
Speaker
don't know that I would put this in my Ms. Marvel list. i I feel like for a secret homework, I think I designed a card that worked like this, except it was like two costs and overpowered. But you're saying something combo with Taskmaster, right? Something more combo rather than like...
00:48:59
Speaker
oh I think this card's really hard to price correctly because like the the the concerns you're expressing, Rhea, are totally right for a four cost. But like if it was a two cost, it would be way, way too good. yeah um The obvious low-hanging fruit in my mind, or at least the thing that she enables that...
00:49:22
Speaker
that is new, is Nemarita-Sera. That is a two-card combo that gives you a two-cost discount. That's huge. There are ways to get those discounts, but they take more cards, right? like You can do Wave into Onslaught-Sera or Sera-Onslaught, either way. um so much You could get Lucky with Iron Lad and then play Sera. There's ways to do it right now, but this will be by far the easiest way to get a double Sera going.
00:49:46
Speaker
um I also think that... like Okay, so you double your... Blue Marvel or your Ms. Marvel or whatever, and then you double it again with Onslaught on six. And that's yeah appealing for sure. i think this card's nuts. That's my prediction.
00:50:03
Speaker
Yeah. It ah looks super fun to me. It will certainly open up some new things. And some Protect against some Enchantresses. it's I mean... Yeah, I guess. I guess. I'm going to double that Cosmo super protect. And you can play the next ongoing card like anywhere. Also, you don't even have play ongoing card the next turn. Namarita can keep it like... You can play one on six. Oh, you're right!
00:50:29
Speaker
It doesn't even have to be sequential. You can separate it out. I think this card is I haven't called that out. All right. I'm sorry for doubting you, Namorita. Separating out would be a lot cooler if she was cheaper, but I also just think she'd be too good if she was cheaper. Also, do you want to know a fun fact that I know from Marvel Ultimate Alliance?
00:50:46
Speaker
Yes. Namorita has been around longer than Namora, and she's Namor's cousin. How about that? So of course her name is like his name with an Eta at the end. Right. And who's Nomura? That's where Can you imagine if that's how they named Spider-Man characters? It's like Peter. And his Aunt Peterra. And Uncle Peteran. Penny Parker. Is that really so different? She is an alternate version of Peter. It makes sense. She's an alternate universe. Not like a living relation. Yeah.
00:51:28
Speaker
maybe namor is a family name uh jubilee silver surfer briefly seen in what if did did not even be like i'm very interested in the existence of this card um like i think she just like flashed on the screen and what if she doesn't have any lines she doesn't have any like nobody talks to her it's just like their way of showing look at the multiverse Yeah. Imagine imagine if Jubilee was the silver surfer. The visual language is very clean. Jubilee's like signature thing is the the big yellow coat and, you know, it can be easily mashed up. I mean, I and the big song i think it was a good idea. He looks cool. what if
00:52:06
Speaker
Yeah, for it's like it takes no explanation. You can see what like it's all very legible at first glance. i For after you draw a card, boost it with this card's power.
00:52:20
Speaker
So just vanilla, I play her on turn four. She's a four, six if I play out everything. That doesn't sound very good, but you can do silly things with her, right? You can you can maverick her.
00:52:32
Speaker
can put her behind a Captain Carter. Yeah, which also means synergy with with drawing abilities for sure. Yeah, I think this card is very stupid. I am not a fan.
00:52:43
Speaker
It finally gives you a way to make Crystal like asymmetrical. Yeah, 100%.
00:52:52
Speaker
I think this card's a bad idea. That's a lot of hidden information. Yeah. Like you draw like a brood with that thing. Even if you don't buff Jubilee, I'm not upset about that. Yeah. And the thing is you can buff Jubilee so many. I mean, like you're going be playing America Chavez. going to be playing Surge. Like it's also you can.
00:53:14
Speaker
like ongoing effects will boost Jubilee's power and then she'll make that permanent power on whatever you're drawing. It's like, yes it's so stupid. I just, I don't think they've thought about this as hard as we have. And we've only been thinking about it for five minutes. It's the same concerns you raised with stick where it's like stick on his own is not necessarily a problem, but it's stick plus captain Carter plus Maverick plus like we're hitting critical mass where you can just throw these everywhere.
00:53:43
Speaker
She pays it forward like so much harder than even like Maverick and stick. I think this card is so stupid.
00:53:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:53:54
Speaker
Next one, Rie. Oh, is Monstro mine? Okay. Monstro is an 8-8. ah This card's cost is reduced by the cost of your deck's top card.
00:54:08
Speaker
Over, I think this feels like a Mornare. It doesn't feel generally good. i do see it working well with, like, Mole Man, though. Right? Like, this is one where you want, like, a high cost.
00:54:21
Speaker
It's also somewhere with Hella. It's somewhere, I think, where people are like, I think people are looking it and being like, that seems weak. What, you're going to play it? You know what i mean? Like, how much of a discount are you going to really get? And it's like, look at the eight cost, though, and think about where you can play that in a ah in an interesting deck, I think, is the way to look at it.
00:54:41
Speaker
What about you guys? I did mess up the rotation, but you know, that's fine. That's all right. It's something we can deal with. Well, here's the thing. I think this card's nuts. Not even...
00:54:52
Speaker
for im like There's this card called Howard the Duck, and you have to like pay one energy and put him on the board, and then you get to tap him next turn and see what's on top of your deck.
00:55:04
Speaker
This is a card you need to have in your hand, and it tells you what's on top of your deck, especially if you're good. like I'm not saying like every new player is going to be able to do this, but if you know the contents of your deck and like you know how many things you have of which cost and you see what's in your hand and on the board, you can reasonably infer what's on top of your deck based on the discount this card has,
00:55:24
Speaker
on a given turn so like it's a howard that you don't even tell your opponent you've played because you didn't play it because you didn't have to because it's free and it's in your hand and also it might be like ah a two weight or something if you ever decide is that but like with howard you your your opponent knows that you're looking at the top of your deck when you play howard if you have monstro in your hand your opponent doesn't know shit and you know everything but you have to have your deck built a certain way to be able to infer as much. ever about it but You're still sacrificing a card in your deck, though. You're a monster. They pay the same price there. It is one of your 12 cards. But this is so much better than Howard. It's like ridiculous. like Somebody hates Howard at second deck. I agree it's a big upgrade on Howard for most decks, but i don't I don't know how many decks are going to want to run him. Like, yeah, maybe maybe you're running him. Oh, he might still be mad. just comparatively speaking, oh my god, there's no reason to play Howard ever again. He stays in the deck maybe if... What's that?
00:56:29
Speaker
Death is an 8 cost. cost I thought Death was 9 cost now. I thought Death was she was 9 cost. Maybe I'm wrong. What?
00:56:41
Speaker
I'm pretty sure she's an 8. You got the latest OTA. I know her from Polymorph. I just played her. I should have known that. She did used to be 9. She's been an 8 since May of going to be better for you in a Hella deck or something. That's right.
00:57:01
Speaker
But Monstro's free if you can put Monstro and Death in the same deck. don't think you can That's how you get a free Monstro. And Hela does repeat sometimes.
00:57:14
Speaker
Oh, like if you play around on a Kamar Kaj or something? too the same I mean, you play ah sometimes in a Hela deck, you see people playing two of it, you know?
00:57:25
Speaker
Like we were just talking earlier about how a good Iron Lad hit is a good Iron Lad hit, right? You know, if you get something like Isuka and... Yeah. Like think how much better Howard would be if he were were not so bad. Yeah.
00:57:39
Speaker
yeah Maybe we need a Howard redesign challenge. Yeah, I think so. I hope they're reworking Howard. this is so so like He's an interesting design. They just need to give him better stats.
00:57:50
Speaker
um Okay. I'm not that worried about it. like Howard will still have a home in decks that have lots of repeat spots or in ongoing.
00:58:03
Speaker
You definitely play him in Spectrum, right? No, never. and Okay. Ben, with our next one. All right. Next up, we've got Venus.
00:58:15
Speaker
I believe this is the super premium season pass. Oh, good to know. Oh, boom. I want it. Why? wait can on the one That's why it's always the one you want. The three, four. When you boost a card in play, it gets an extra plus one power.
00:58:32
Speaker
I don't like that. Only cards in play, though. um Yeah, I don't know. i So many of these, there are more boost cards to come. So, like, my my dissatisfaction with the the proliferation of boost, like, you know, it's it's worse than we've told you so far, I guess is all I'm trying to say. you think boost is any sort of buff, right?
00:58:56
Speaker
It's not like a unique word. It's it's just any sort of I think they're just updating the terminology. Like, Ironheart is boosting, right? Ironheart's going to be a boost card. Oh, he think I don't think they're doing that. i think retroactively everything's going to be boosted. I think they're updating how they talk. think they're... Okay, I could be wrong. So, all right, we have no idea. no one from Second Dinner has said anything. My thought is they keep adding all these new buff cards, and they're like, there are too many buff cards. And the players have complained about...
00:59:25
Speaker
All the cards overlapping. And they're like, what if we did buffs, but we gave it a different name so they don't interact with the same cards? Boost only interacts with boost cards, right? I could see it.
00:59:38
Speaker
And think about it. No, no, no. and when you look at how boost, like, look at how... um The other ones talk. their' bo The cards reveal here boosted with one power. You draw a card, boost it with this. It feels like boosting is a This is in play.
00:59:55
Speaker
You're right. It is i think different ways. You can update everything. that exists yeah Maybe so they can refer to buffed cards in a different way. do you remember when they added like start of game?
01:00:09
Speaker
like does okay taste i think I think it's like, yeah, so you can say cards that are boosted instead of cards that have gained permanent power or however it's like... It's an easy way to talk about it and to differentiate, narrow it even from like, say like how Shadow King affects like negative cards as well. Yeah, they're just trying to put fewer words in a text box.
01:00:32
Speaker
That's what I'm saying. But see how that could affect interactions. You know, they can narrow it cards to more specifically mean cards that have been buffed. I don't know. Venus is definitely like a horror. You got changed. says boost in his box, you know.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah. yeah This variant is fire, though. i like The rollerblades, the long red hair, the headphones. I'm chasing back. Sorry. This is certainly not the base art, but it is very fun.
01:01:02
Speaker
Yeah. just I don't know how good this is. I think it's one of the worst boost cards of the season, for sure. That's why I like it. I just told you I was playing Toxidoxi. I'm like, no one will play it. She'll be out to me with their rollerblades. She might be the Toxidoxi, yes.
01:01:18
Speaker
She is a big buff for Kohori. I know we said Kohori got changed, and this is why. But Kohori still gives out multiple boosts if she targets different cards.
01:01:31
Speaker
Yeah. So I think that's the one, that's the biggest interaction I can think of.
01:01:40
Speaker
I mean, Ironheart. And she works with Surfer, right? Why not play with Surfer? Absolutely, Surfer. I just don't think makes the cut Remember when Surfer gave Plus 3? Hmm.
01:01:52
Speaker
Nothing stays at plus three except the new cards. Something gives out plus three that's recent, I noticed. There are actually a few that have survived, too.
01:02:07
Speaker
are there there's a few i know I hadn't been noticing that lately because it's like Elsa is just plus 2. Like so many cards. Galacta is only plus 2 now.
01:02:18
Speaker
Yeah, Galacta used to be plus 3. I think Dagger is back to plus 2 right now. Yeah, they should they should put her back to plus 3. Sparky's plus 2. ah Vulture is plus 3.
01:02:31
Speaker
Okay, but that's Vulture. volture
01:02:36
Speaker
And also that's like the one situation where it's not good enough, damn it. Like that's the problem with Vulture is that he's plus three. What gives plus three to something else? Red Hulk, Cerebro.
01:02:47
Speaker
Cerebro. Cerebro is too good. America Chavez. Morgan Fay. Oh, Chavez does. Yeah.
01:02:58
Speaker
But there are ones where you have less control over where what gives the... but You know what i mean? What's going to get it? so you're... It's more randomized. Whereas, like, with Galact and stuff, you were very specifically picking targets.
01:03:10
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. think this one's mine. Yeah. Triton. 3-5. My understanding is he's related to Black Bolt and Maximus.
01:03:23
Speaker
Somehow. An Inhuman. Anyway. on reveal he he looks like a fishman but i think that's his inhumanness uh on reveal boost the last character played by each player last turn with plus four power so he's a three nine that gives your opponent plus four uh the only obvious use i can think of for that is cerebro you can tech against cerebro now without playing red skull that's fun i want to mess up cerebro
01:03:55
Speaker
I'm not sure what else you do with this, but like it's interesting. There's certainly cards that like if you buff your Maverick plus four and you buff their whatever by plus four, that's better for you. Yeah, that's like the that's the most like value you're going to get out of it. But I think even in like sort of an honest context, you can still like get some leverage.
01:04:16
Speaker
Yeah. I think that like, if you know that the last card they played is on a lane that you are not interested in winning. Oh yeah. Uh, you know, like sure. Boost, boost away, have more power on that lane that I am abandoning. You know, I do i don't think this is necessarily like a great card, but like, it's a neat card.
01:04:38
Speaker
I think it'll be good in a limited format, you know? Solid in that way. i don't i don't know if it's great in regular Snap.
01:04:52
Speaker
And it is great with Maverick and such. Your your Captain Carter is anything that gets ah multiplicative with the the blessings.
01:05:04
Speaker
Shall I read the last card? I don't have anything to add to what you guys meant. I agree with everything you said. um Okay, the last one is Submariner. ah When this is boosted in hand or in play, add a random one-cost character to your hand, boosted by the same amount.
01:05:23
Speaker
I kind of love this. It's the kind of randomness, the kind of controlled chaos I like. Because, one, you do get it is hidden information to you because it is in your hand. um And they don't see what it is. And the problem is, cannot play... i even got the collector's vault from the collector's vault. I got cartoon shadow that was in a bundle once because I just really liked it. I still can't play it.
01:05:49
Speaker
I just... I'll do it, especially mostly if I'm going to try and kill monger them because I hate not control. You know what i mean? You just throw it out there and you hope you get some ones that you like. And that's so tough for me. This lets you decide if you're going to, you know what i mean? What the one is, if you're going to play. And also it's like boosted, you know? So like maybe your hood, it goes up to like, you know, zero and like great or something. So, um, I,
01:06:16
Speaker
I like that. It obviously goes with a lot of things. It's going to your hand, so it goes with, like, Victoria hand and stuff. It seems, and it's a two-cost, so um I don't see this not being a card that people play with a lot, you know?
01:06:31
Speaker
So if this card is in your hand, it will sort of, like, tell on itself to your opponent, right? I would expect so. like they're they're not They're not going to be adding extra cards to your hand and not notifying the opponent. You think they're going to say see the card that gets added to your hand? I don't think they'll see the card. think maybe they'll see Submariner or something. They'll see Submariner pop out and generate a card, just kind of like how Red Hulk pops out and gains power.
01:06:54
Speaker
Maybe there will be a distinct animation, like a splash and like a card back going into their hand or wherever. You see Clea's animation even when she's in hand, right?
01:07:05
Speaker
Okay, yeah. It'll be something like that. Speaking of this sort of thing, did I see that they fixed ham? that it'll, like, the pig works again? They attempted to.
01:07:15
Speaker
I don't know if it actually worked. I thought I saw something that said it didn't actually fully work. It sucks. It got me once. I forgot a mystique had been, like, oinked because she looked like regular mystique. Yeah, there's no animation or sound effect or anything. yeah Oh, there's the one little white flash. It gets me less than when the bug was new, but it still gets me sometimes.
01:07:36
Speaker
I have to keep checking all my cards. I think this is a really interesting ability because this is Namor, right? Namor the Submariner. yeah This is Namor 2. This is a weirdo ability to put on such an important character, especially one who doesn't get played in the first iteration of the card. But yeah, this seems super fun. just would have expected a more mainstream ability on him and give the weird ability to a different card. Sort of super fun. I'm a little worried that it's like kind nuts. I think it's little too good. That's what I could be really good. Right. Like if you give him a big buff and you get like a one one plus six, that's a that's like a one eight in your hand.
01:08:16
Speaker
I mean, in a season with Namorita and Jubilee so Silver Surfer, like I kind of think this is like not the one I'm most worried about, but it's like it's third place for cards I'm worried about. I think probably.
01:08:29
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:32
Speaker
The season at least looks moderately interesting to me. It looks overpowered to me. That's a plus. and I don't know. feel like there's a good mix here in strength. There are a few stinkers, a few mediocres, a couple that I'm not worried about, but the three that I am.
01:08:51
Speaker
So that's discouraging. all right. Well, look forward to us ranking these cards at the end of May. We're going to talk about the OTA this week. First up, well, um everything in this OTA is one power buff, but we're we're going to talk about Nsabunur. We promised at the start of the podcast we would. So Nsabunur himself goes 4.5 to 4.6. His evolved form Apocalypse Celestial's chosensn Chosen goes 4.8 to 4.9.
01:09:21
Speaker
I saw some people turning around on this card before it got buffed. you still think he's a stinker I saw some people being like oh this is actually a good card or like they were they were starting to enjoy Enzabonur I was i was one of me I am the person well one of the people now you know did he need this buff um I can see that. And, right, I think people are coming off of what we had Star-Lord and Sholao and stuff, and they are still super strong. So I can see this in comparison. and it's also, it doesn't fit as in as many decks, right, as those other two cards will fit into. So this feels...
01:10:05
Speaker
Weaker in comparison, i don't think that means it's necessarily weak. Here's why I enjoyed it. One, a lot of Cosmic Ghost Rider running around. Why? Because it's really good against end-of-turn decks, you know, and plenty of other decks when they're stacking. Their low-cost cards are actually pretty powerful and stuff. And when you're playing an End Sabanur deck, you're filling a lot of those decks with, like...
01:10:33
Speaker
Like, you know, cards you don't care about. ah Little cards. um Kate Bishop, Hawkeye. Stuff like that if it gets hit, you know? Like, sure, go ahead try and cosmic ghostwriter. Go ahead. Even fin-fing foom Like, you know what i mean? Because he doesn't go off until the end of the turn. So you you just have... There's so many cards that that will hit those front-of-the-row cards that it's like having a little, like... Oh, they're fodder. It's so sad. Okay. But it's true, though. So, like... um And then right, you think about how fun it is to get the benefit of arrows from Kate Bishop, and then later she becomes a Shang. And they just so happen to play a big card there because everyone's playing big cards these days. It's easy to play high-powered cards. So Shang just takes care of that for fun. You know, um so ah a lot of times, yeah, like, and if it swaps out for another little card in your deck, you know what? Sometimes that works. It gets rid of um high evo negative decks where they've, like, blasted your card. It's like, boom, that's suddenly the lowest card that will get swapped out. That saved me with this. There are a lot of little tool uses um that you didn't think about until you were playing. And I think that's why you're saying what you were, Lauren, about people who've been playing it saying, like, oh, this...
01:11:49
Speaker
You know, there's there's uses for it. There's um little tricks. i venture And then, right, he becomes he becomes a... ah the Celestial is, what, a four nine That's great. You hit him... I've hit him with Iron Lad and an Iska deck.
01:12:09
Speaker
And then, like, you have two of them going off. And that's just super fun. Who doesn't want, like... Safety added it to his One Piece deck, which is a Wong deck, and i was enjoying that Celestial's Chosen is an on-reveal, so sometimes you play him on Wong, and he does two swaps.
01:12:28
Speaker
um Yeah, anyway, so I mean, but like, those are the majority of my thoughts. I think I'm happy to see him get 4-6, but like, um yeah, i've I've enjoyed playing him.
01:12:42
Speaker
what do you Did you guys have any thoughts about
Performance of Ensabonur vs. Other Cards
01:12:44
Speaker
it? Mm-hmm. different experience? I mean, I've been seeing him around. I'm still not very impressed when I see him around. he does not seem to like herald. I'm not retreating against him very often, I guess.
01:12:59
Speaker
um That's how you get cubes, though. People don't retreat against it. Yeah, I will say that part hasn't been happening in my experience. My experience is limited, and I don't see that many of this card. So like it's possible that there are people who are getting really good results with Ensabonur, and saba no and i just I'm not part of their rampage.
01:13:22
Speaker
their rampage you know their Their rampage has not reached
01:13:27
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I hope people are having fun with this card. I don't dislike the card. I think maybe it's not the best there is at what it does, like Wolverine or whatever.
01:13:39
Speaker
But um an extra point of power always helps in 4-9. That's a bit of a stat line right there. um
Strategic Advantages with Blink and Lockjaw
01:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, i wish I wish him the best. Wait a minute. like wolver What Wolverine are you talking about?
01:13:54
Speaker
That's one of his catchphrases. He's like, I'm the best there is at what I do. I was thinking mechanically. Oh, at the best at what he does, like Wolverine. I thought you were going to Lockjaw or something. Yeah, that is what I'm getting at. Lockjaw is a better card.
01:14:13
Speaker
yup I agree, but I think the thing that what I learned is that he's a totally different deck than Lockjaw. Yeah, that's probably true. so like I agree. I think what he does feels like its own kind of thing. And he's more of like, he's not like a thing. fit He's not like the finisher, but he's a strong. He's like a good, um like he fits in a deck that you don't have to super build around him in a way that makes him a little more synergistic overall, I think is his benefit as opposed to
01:14:47
Speaker
ah like you're saying, Ben, where it's like, I'm not afraid of him at the end. And I especially see with your decks and the way you play, it's like, you're going to go taller. You know you're going to beat him. You know what i mean? When you're looking at what he does, you're like, I don't see how this beats what I'm doing. And I can see that. Also, I've had like a very small sample size and I'm just remembering mostly I'm seeing cards get swapped for equivalent size or smaller cards. And like, that might just be because I haven't seen that many Sabanur's. Maybe...
01:15:15
Speaker
Maybe the real story is that he is getting value more consistently than I've just, you know, observed.
01:15:24
Speaker
I mean, but that's the randomness to it, right? Like, Blink, you know you're getting a bigger card, you know. Yeah, Blink's hell of a card. Lockjaw, you're getting off earlier, so you have a bigger pull. Because you are like mostly triggering him. I have triggered him early, just because I thought they were going Cosmic Ghost Rider me and stuff. and like um So you have ways... Filling up your front row is pretty easy. So he's just he's a tool that you can be clever about.
01:15:57
Speaker
think that's two ways that I've seen people turn around on him. One is like, oh, maybe this doesn't have to be an all-in Zoo deck. Maybe we just fill the front row and that's good enough. And I've seen him in decks that have like a higher curve than I expected him to show up in. you know like They're relying on Jubilee to be part of how I fill the front row. oh That seems cutting it close to me. but um But then that improves the kind of hits you can get from him. Yeah. So I think that's part of where people have been coming around on him.
01:16:27
Speaker
I don't know what the other one was. Maybe it was the double on reveal thing um that safety is doing, but I don't know Like I, I'm not worried about this being too much power. might be, but like, it's not like he's going to be a real problem if it is, if he needs to be reverted. I'm perfectly fine with them experimenting. In fact, i wish they would be a little riskier sometimes in their balance changes.
01:16:49
Speaker
I would like to see more of this card. Yeah. And I hope I do.
01:16:56
Speaker
Oh, I know the other thing I was thinking of is objective. It is it is um an interesting ability and like the way that it has timing, right? The way that you can
Consistent Value of Sabanur
01:17:06
Speaker
prepare the objective ahead of time or you can you can play N Sabanura ahead of time but avoid filling the front row until the last turn. like There's a lot of different timing ways that you can use this. And I think that you know him especially compared to the other objective cards we have so far where like the timing is actually something that you might...
01:17:25
Speaker
You strategically with with more practice. so Yeah. i you know I read they they mentioned that like maybe and in the notes they're like, man maybe people are kind of slow to figure out objective. And I guess I hadn't thought about it until you explained. But like, yeah, maybe they have been slow to figure out objective.
01:17:44
Speaker
I don't know. a Part of it is they didn't give us other cards that were interesting to time their objective with. yeah this is the most interesting one for sure. like Gambit has some component where like early on you're going to do a better job of... like of hurting their plan before it takes off, but later he has more targets. So like there's some decision there, but like and also later, like your opponent doesn't know they they can't count on any other stuff. None of it's solid. You know, if, if, ah if you're going off later. Yeah, that's true. Yes. There, there, there's some, i don't know, push and pull there. So Gambit has some interesting timing. Juggernaut really doesn't.
01:18:20
Speaker
Nope. I mean, the only reason to time him is to like avoid a shadow King. I don't know. Yeah. Or maybe, maybe to avoid taking cryo.
01:18:30
Speaker
he's Yeah. Anyway. All right. Let's talk about some of these other ones. I'm just going to list them off, but we can talk about any of the five debris, white tigers, tiger spirit, ghost, hydra, man, and pixie all gain one power.
01:18:50
Speaker
there any of those you want to call out as especially interesting? I like debris. I'm excited about that. I like, yeah, I'm just excited about her. Cool card.
01:19:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge. Three, eight. And you can make you some, you know, like, particularly with like, and what we just talked about. So I forgot what. rozzzi man did One of my, like, pull open a random deck was a surfer deck.
01:19:17
Speaker
And it had Ghost in it. And I thought it was still the, like, makes you go last. like, what a weird, but they put it in. Okay. And then I just it. I just, like, never used her. And then later like, oh, I could have maybe won against some end of turn decks.
01:19:32
Speaker
Yeah.
Critiques on Ghost and Pixie Cards
01:19:34
Speaker
I still think her design is so clunky. Like... yup In a world where there's Red Guardian and Deafening Chord and Cosmic Ghost Rider, why is she only targeting end of turn? And I know like make three maybe maybe it's comparable to Enchantress, but like ongoing is so much more common than end of turn.
01:19:54
Speaker
It affects all of them. So you're taking out a show cast. You're taking out their whole... it's and Like, it's an auto win. So, I mean, the problem is it's, like, the other auto win, like, the full-on counters. that Like, if you consider Mobius 1 to negative, if you consider Luke 1 to affliction.
01:20:13
Speaker
um Like, the problem is it's, like... End of turn feels narrower. i don't know. yeah whole the one is It takes up your whole... yeah you you gave Mobius and Luke, and they have other purposes. right They have locations, or they have like you can be the one who's who's causing the global affliction or who's using Pixie to mix up your costs. it's like What are you going to do with Ghost on yourself? you playing like Play Jocasta in a Patriot deck?
01:20:43
Speaker
And still, no matter how big they make Ghost, there's still the problem of like, by the time you know there's an end of turn lane that you want to like wipe and stuff, they've already ended at least one turn.
01:20:55
Speaker
like They're already like getting some of whatever they wanted, you know? Oh yeah, to cast is activated. little too late. Playing Thena in a Patriot deck, it just doesn't make sense.
01:21:07
Speaker
i They killed Ghost. Yes, they did. Honestly, I don't know which ghost is better because the old ghost i hardly ever saw play either, but she was more interesting. So much more interesting, though. Come on. those was That was a loss of cool.
01:21:22
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I agree. ah Pixie, my comment is fine, but I wish that they would try one cost Pixie. She might be too good, but I think it would be fun and they could revert it if it was too good.
01:21:37
Speaker
i We said this earlier, and I said that was too much information, and Ben agreed with me. Do you still agree with me, Ben? I did. It's all true. I kind of think that conversation might make it into the final episode, so didn't want to hit it too hard. But yeah, I think that could be trouble.
01:21:55
Speaker
Yeah. I don't usually do too much splicing around. So if that is in the episode, it will be at the end of the outro. And if it's not, haha, sorry, and not sorry. Yeah.
01:22:07
Speaker
We've already summarized. On to our
Tournament Preparation and Strategy
01:22:11
Speaker
side quest. I was so persuadable. I was team Lauren like, yeah, give it a try. let them fight. Who knows? It could be fun. It could be fine.
01:22:18
Speaker
But then Reed came in with some common sense and I was like, oh, I don't know about that. I just, you don't, I want to see them take swings sometimes. More often.
01:22:30
Speaker
I also like- I'd play it. I'm an Irish summon joyer. I'll get in on it, but i will I'll hate playing against it. I'll hate it. Like, how will I know whether to stay in? You don't, you won't. Snapping won't matter. Snapping won't matter. Snapping matter.
01:22:44
Speaker
Isn't that still true for toot for a turn two pixie though? No, turn two pixie is like so much slower and like you've drawn more normal cards. It's a one card slower.
01:22:59
Speaker
That's pretty important.
01:23:02
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah. That's one more turn to be playing cost-flipped things, you know? Like, that's one more turn when you can be playing a ah six cost that costs two, you know?
01:23:14
Speaker
Yeah, well, and and like you can see how big of a difference is it is when somebody gets negative out on three versus negative out on four. That's the thing is you're not ramping Pixie, right? Like there isn't like, oh, I invested a Ravonna to get my Pixie out of turn it earlier. You can't do that.
01:23:30
Speaker
Didn't that used to be a thing? Or not a turn earlier. She did used to be a 2-1. She could be made cheaper if you wanted play her later. but there was no way to ramp out Pixie. for what Well, I guess you wouldn't want to... Unless Tinkerer's Workshop on turn one. like It would have to be something like that.
01:23:48
Speaker
Or Sakaar. Okay.
01:23:54
Speaker
On to our side quests. First up, Weekend Snap. Ben, how is yours? And keep it snappy. Oh my gosh, my Weekend Snap. Endeavoring to keep it snappy this week without the aid of the five-minute timer. But, you know, I'll still try to just...
01:24:10
Speaker
burn through them real quick so last week when we checked in i was wondering what i was going to play in the golden gauntlet qualifier on saturday and i figured it out i um so on friday friday is when i figured it out Friday morning, I started playing with a card that I've never really put in a deck before. In fact, it's a card that I still don't have enough boosters to, like, split.
01:24:36
Speaker
Like, it's on, like, Ultra or whatever. It's it's got a red border. um But I started playing a card called Supergiant.
01:24:47
Speaker
um I'd noticed that people had played Supergiant against me, you know, for, like, years now and stuff. And I noticed that, like, man... Server really just kind of wrecks them when they supergiant you because like, i don't know, put down an absorbing man. ah You know, if you've got extra energy or whatever, put down.
01:25:10
Speaker
brood and surfer or surfer and absorbing like there are like so many things you can put at the end where like i mean my favorite is i have multiple favorites anywho let me tell you what's in the deck because it did pretty well for me not like qualifier well but like i'll i'll have to play in the next one but um i went for two and the the losses were very close and the wins were not uh so i'm i'm feeling good about the deck If there were another one tomorrow, this is still what I would play, and it's what I've been playing on ladder, and it's doing very well there. It's compensating for the garbage-ass gambit deck I tried to tried to play.
01:25:50
Speaker
Um, it's America, Chavez, Surge, Merlin, Brood, Captain Carter, Silver Surfer, Jack Flag. That's a little unusual. I wasn't sure if I was going to play Jack Flag or not when last we spoke. Hope Summers, Mercury, Absorbing Man, Supergiant, and Cannonball. And like the thing about having my own sort of particular branch of surfer stuff is like,
01:26:14
Speaker
it's It's very much the my deck, and nobody else was going to tell me to put Supergiant in it. had to get there on my own, you know? And I cut the things that are not in this deck that are in similar decks that I play.
01:26:30
Speaker
ah There's no Maverick in this one, and there's no Sholao, because those cards felt like they clashed with Supergiant. And I thought Jack flag, in addition to being just a very good card in general, in a vacuum or, you know, even within the context of the stuff you want to play in surfer, um, pretty good with super giant as like a hidden thing, you know?
01:26:56
Speaker
cause if it's in a, what turns out to be a captain Carter lane. Like that's a, that's a lot of value you've added that your opponent didn't know you could. ah So Jack flag is a great thing to play on your super giant turn. um Cannon ball is a great thing to play on your super giant turn. Cause like you haven't even played the mercury yet. You just know that there's going to be something worth mercury cannonballing. And then on six, you play mercury and surfer or whatever.
01:27:22
Speaker
ah There are just a ton of cool tricks you can do here with Supergiant, in addition to just like sort of hosing people who are playing like end of turn or whatever else. um Yeah, it feels great.
01:27:36
Speaker
I'm disappointed that I wasn't playing Supergiant earlier. um i really cannot understate how much I have never played this card except generated.
01:27:47
Speaker
Like, really, I don't have the boosters to split it. i Like, it doesn't take much. And, like, this card's been out for forever, so I've had it for a long time, even though I skipped it when it came out. It was a card that I didn't know for while.
01:27:59
Speaker
But, like, yeah, I do have the best variant. And also, like, you would think just, like, from random boosters and stuff from, like, events and alliance rewards and whatever else and, like, conquest stuff, like, how did I not have enough boosters to split this card? I still don't. I don't know, but I will be playing more of it in the future because, you know, after I've seen my friends having so much fun with it for so long, it's it's like one of Lauren's favorite cards.
01:28:25
Speaker
And I just, why didn't I do this sooner? I've known that like Surfer is good when other people super giant. Why did I not call from inside the house? It just, that's it's an interesting question.
01:28:38
Speaker
I don't know, but now I'm all about it. I'm loving it. um on some McDonald's levels, I tell you, and felt very strong for me in the the tournament.
01:28:50
Speaker
Most people were good sports. I had a great time. One person was not a good sport. That's all right. I crushed them, 10-0. um And they got what they deserved. They were fucking misminicing me in a tournament.
01:29:01
Speaker
I'm sorry. I'm actually going to think through my plays and try to win. and ah How dare you? It worked out a little better for me than it did for them. Also... They thought I cheated. They're like, how did you have a man spider in your deck after the match in the chat? I'm like, dog.
01:29:17
Speaker
I polymorphed a supergiant into it. I'm not playing man spider in my deck. You loser. yeah Anyway, I didn't say that, but that was the subtext. No, you were very polite. What a dork.
01:29:29
Speaker
Anywho, anywho. Yeah. I had good fun in the tournament. I was a little worried because i didn't get great sleep and I did not have great expectations of myself going in based on that. Cause I think it's important to be in a good mood and well rested. If you really want to achieve your potential,
01:29:45
Speaker
So that was great fun. That was like the big snap headline. I haven't been playing too much snap outside of that. I've been, you know, I did the gambit testing and stuff and that did not go so hot, but that's fine. I was not very invested in that, although I am disappointed to waste the tokens. But as I mentioned, I have. a surplus and it's fine so that's been the snap stuff but you know what else you know what else oh i played some more slay the spire right after we recorded uh finished that run and it was a clear i was playing with the regent the first of the new characters that i had unlocked i have so many slay the spire two thoughts there's so much interesting stuff
01:30:24
Speaker
ah The things that like seem familiar are not all as familiar as they initially seemed. think maybe ah Megacrit has done themselves a disservice by making Ironclad the first character that you play as because Ironclad has the most cards that appear exactly the same as they were in Slay the Spire 1.
01:30:43
Speaker
There are some conspicuous absences. The Ironclad is no longer about fire breathing at all. No, the Ironclad no longer loves to draw status and curse cards. It's no longer interested in that. You know who is the defect? The defect had some like status stuff in original Slay the Spire where it would, you know, make voids and burns and things that you would then have to deal with.
01:31:06
Speaker
But now those bugs have become features because the defect is into, oh my gosh, There's so there's a Magic the Gathering block from many years ago now. um It was the time spiral block and in the second set of time spiral block, Planar Chaos, there were color shifted cards which were like reprints of old cards except their mana cost would be in a different color and they were ah a different, they'd have a different name, but they had like a specific like template for the the card background and stuff. So like you could tell that they were being cute. Like you'd see Black Knight, except, oh it's Blood Knight. It's the red version, but they, but it makes sense to have protection from white because they're, you know, opposing colors. It's a whole thing. If you, if you know about the Magic the Gathering color wheel at all, I'll add. Anywho, point is there's a card called
01:31:56
Speaker
Fight Through, i think i think is the name, and it's a defect card, and it is Power Through used to be an ironclad card where you get like 15 block and you have two wounds in your hand.
01:32:07
Speaker
But ah yeah, now the defect loves wounds, and they've got a great new block card ah called, I don't know what it is it's like Blast Off or Jet Away or something, I don't know. it's It costs zero, gives you a six block, gives you a days, and And Daze is like the most manageable status. Anyway, point is, I've got a lot of thoughts. ah The new characters, the Regent is pretty cool. There's the other new character, though.
01:32:33
Speaker
I hope they have another new character that they're working on. I think two new characters and three or four returning characters is not the right balance. I think they need to hit the new stuff a little harder, although I have a high tolerance for like not breaking things that ah weren't broke.
01:32:50
Speaker
ah But anywho... My favorite of the two new characters is Necrobinder, but I prefer to call her the Bone Mama because Necrobinder, I don't know what's being bound. I'm confused by the name. doesn't make a ton of sense to me, but she's ah she's the Bone Mama. She's got a big old bone hand familiar thing.
01:33:11
Speaker
It fucking rules. She's got a Doom mechanic, which is very strong. If you're wondering what to do with Bone Mama, I'm telling you Doom and Souls. Souls are kind of like the Watcher's Insight cards that she could shuffle into her deck to draw cards for free later.
01:33:30
Speaker
Except this, there are like synergistic rewards for it. a lot A lot of things care about Souls. Also, there's some bridge cards with Osti, her Bone Hand Familiar. um really excited about Bone Mama. She's, she rules. Um, every character, very fun to play. They're all kind of my favorite.
01:33:47
Speaker
Um, pour one out for original blade dance, y'all. Uh, some things got, uh, nerfed, so to speak between iterations of slay the spire and the, the silence may be best common in original slay the spire is blade dance, which gives you three shivs in your hand.
01:34:07
Speaker
And now, It's the same thing, but it exhausts. You can only do it the one time, so ah can't get quite as crazy with the Cheez Whiz. But that's perfectly fair because there's a bunch of other new cool shiv stuff. There's a power that makes shivs retain in your hand. There's a power that makes shivs hit everything, kind of like that power that made the defect's lightning hit everything. Oh, speaking of lightning hitting everything, the defect has a new kind of... Or baby glass making a mess, hurting all the enemies. Oh...
01:34:37
Speaker
Man, there are some very cool new cards. Ironclad's got this busted-ass rare that just goes in every deck no matter what synergies you're prioritizing. It's called Brand. It costs zero. You exhaust a card in your hand, you take one damage, and you get strength, and it doesn't exhaust itself. You can keep doing it again and again. Upgrades to give you two strength.
01:34:55
Speaker
Hell yeah. Oh, my gosh. If y'all want to see what I think is good about Ironclad or NecroBinder, I don't know. As of this recording last night, I streamed some Slay This Fire and i took some videos, and I...
01:35:07
Speaker
cleared real quick. So like these, if if you want to see what's up, you don't have to like watch me deliberate over decisions for like two and a half hours or anything. I'm playing through these runs real fast, talking like 50 under an hour. These are things you can watch if you just want to like get a sense of like How does the ironclad kick ass nowadays? And it's different. It's different, but it's still very good. Shrug it off is still a hell of a card. Body slam plus still a hell of a card. um Oh, man, I'm having so much fun with Slay the Spire 2. But you know what? You know what? You know what?
01:35:38
Speaker
It pales in comparison to the fun that I had with Slay the Spire 1 this week because I played it with my father. Oh, my gosh. I was visiting my parents and ah I had i'd mentioned Slay the Spire like a week ago when I was talking to my dad. And I think I think the thing that pushed him over the edge into curiosity was that I likened it a little bit to Minesweeper.
01:35:59
Speaker
um I was like, it should come on ah to everything like Minesweeper and also like Minesweeper. Like, yeah. Mr. Policeman is given all the clues in that, like the enemies tell you like how much damage they're attacking for. And in Minesweeper, like they're just giving you straight factual information about like the, you know, the numbers and the, the, you know, the adjacency. Anywho point is my dad and I were sitting on the couch. He was on his iPad and he dropped the $10 to get slay the spire. And I was just, uh,
01:36:32
Speaker
trying not to backseat too much, just giving him good advice, being like, oh, this enemy is going to scale up, so don't actually try to block. You should probably just rush this one down. And I'd be like, okay, those, those, in these card rewards, this one is very obviously the the worst card. Don't even think about this one, but like, pick between these two. And I was so fascinated to see that he also grad gravitated towards shrug it off and body slam plus. And, uh, yeah, it was a great fun.
01:37:01
Speaker
I don't know if he's won the run yet. We had to stop, uh, partway through act two cause it was past his bedtime. But he's a real smart guy. I kind of kind of think he's got a good chance of ah clearing on his first try, even without my my guidance. And that was just such a delight for me. Really enjoyed that. Another thing, one last thing, Montabi's first open beta. I think they are likely to have another at some point is going on right now through... the 16th so by the time you're hearing this there won't be a ton of time left but it's real fun also didn't sign any nda about this one so i can tell you what's good if you ever want to know i'll tell you um feral knuckles really strong card uh makes the fighter trainer just uh one hit bosses or one shot bosses you you know what i mean it's a multi-hit attack that one shots bosses Anywho, anywho, these are just some fun card games I've been playing. Just having a blast. um
01:38:00
Speaker
I'm probably going to stream some more Slay the Spire. Come on, tune in. I've been having a lot of fun. Last night, i I don't know why, but one of my runs was Breaking Bad themed and I did Jonathan Banks impressions and... um he's a fun He's a fun voice to do, you know? He's all like, the problem with you, I bet, is that everybody walks on eggshells and nem they coddle you. bur but but And also my granddaughter. And Walter, ah everybody likes me because I'm a cooler bald guy than you.
01:38:35
Speaker
And I got way more riz than you, Walter. You're selfish. And you're... And, you know, it's a fun voice. I probably did it better on the thing because I'm trying to go fast now and I'm just riffing and and jiffing. And anywho, anywho, anywho, that's been my super snappy weekend snap and other card game stuff.
01:38:59
Speaker
Nice. Playing Slay the Spirit with your dad sounds fun. No, it was. I don't know if I could ever pull that off. I mean, with my dad. Anyway. It will play when it comes to console. It'll be fun.
01:39:12
Speaker
Yeah, im I'm looking forward to that. Rhi, how was your weekend snap? I'll keep it snappy. Okay, um i just and i keep a snappy I just wanted to use my weekend snap um to thank all of our commenters um on YouTube.
01:39:29
Speaker
hang out Because, ah you know, it really means a lot to us. And I get it. It's like, I mean, you know, like a lot of people take the effort to like, come out and comment every time, which not just like helps the videos and stuff, but it's kind of the fuel that keeps us going, right? It's the reason decided to keep doing the podcast. so um And specifically, i wanted to just follow up on my request from last week. um I did get a lot of, um i'm like, I'm going to try all of these games. um They're all going wish list. They'll pick them up sequentially and as they go on sale.
01:40:05
Speaker
um But they were all such great suggestions. Like, perfect for me. almost'm Almost like you listen to me talk on a book. Cassa, baby. Know what I like. OK.
01:40:16
Speaker
um And since there's just a couple, I thought I'd share them all real fast just because if anyone else was looking for like some new games to try, these are all relatively cheap and cozy.
01:40:28
Speaker
But we realized talking about it that my definition of cozy more meant comfortable to me than like you know there is um there is a more standard definition of what is considered a cozy game like genre. So, um but these, you know, ah try them out. One of our suggestions um from Adam was for these old, i want to say they're PlayStation games. I had heard of these back in the They're even old a little bit back in my time, but Suikoden and Suikoden the JRPGs, they have that...
01:41:00
Speaker
fun old classic like turn-based comment and if you're like into JRPGs, but they also had character collecting where you could do... like ah like There's like hundreds of characters you can get together and like occasionally there'd be these giant battles that would take place. like you know Side scrolling and like all your characters would be there and you build a castle and you can recruit like a blacksmith, you know what i mean? Base building. So JRPG was fun stuff and this was like...
01:41:28
Speaker
Xolari era, you know? I remember a friend had this once and i' really like I thought it was so cool and I wanted to play it, but it was like a whole JRPG. I wasn't going to like be able to play Friends House. So um I'm really excited to learn that they're on Nintendo Switch, which presumably, probably if they're released there, they might be on other platforms, but replay them. So...
01:41:48
Speaker
That's exciting. Another suggestion from Forest was Dave the Diver. i hadn't heard of this. It's on Switch and like a lot of other platforms. Charming pixel art. Not like the bad cheap pixel art you sometimes see in Rush games, but like actually decent fun pixel art. And it was like Lauren's played it. think. I completed it. I completed it before they added any DLC. So I haven't revisited it. But yeah, it's a fabulous game.
01:42:16
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds super charming. It's like you explore the ocean, I didn't get stuff and you run like a sushi restaurant by night. It's just like, oh, this is great. So, um and then another one from Zatoichi was called Once Upon a Galaxy, not Race for the Galaxy. Once Upon a Galaxy, Card Battler on, um it's a phone game, a mobile game going through space. I looked it up. was like, so I'm playing it. I want to try and wear like Card Battlers. I haven't done a whole lot. um It looks fun. Yeah, it looks cute. And the last one from our ah pre-formation of the podcast friend, Michael, ah Slice and Dice. It's like a ah dice. It's also charming pixel art. um
01:42:58
Speaker
Like, like oh it feel it has like a Bellatro feel to it from the screenshot you posted. But it's ah like dice, rolling, turn-based. It makes me...
01:43:11
Speaker
think of like a dice board games worker placement. I haven't played it, but I was like, yeah, this looks right up my alley. um Right. And the last two were even phone games. So I just wanted to pass along suggestions from other people because they all seem like super perfect.
01:43:25
Speaker
I'm super into it. And thank you, everyone. eight in commenting um You know, that's what that's, you know, We've had it we've had a long one, so I'll keep it snappy there. i would love to hear about Lauren's Week in Snap. How was your week in Snap, Lauren? and You can keep it snappy or not.
01:43:45
Speaker
How are you feeling? Wow. Open-ended. I don't have to keep it snappy. that's been It's been a good week. I think I started the week off staying up way too late.
01:43:57
Speaker
In fact, I know that's what happened. Yeah. It was either Friday or Saturday. i had finished Master Picross Puzzle 150 on S6.
01:44:12
Speaker
I only play the Master Picrosses
01:44:15
Speaker
process It's a unique type of Picross where there are some clues that span multiple rows or multiple columns. just makes it more complicated. um But that's like that's my cozy comfort audiobook game. And of course, I'm so deep into Dungeon Crawler Carl right now that I've been grinding on Picross.
01:44:34
Speaker
And I finished S6 and I was going to the eShop to get s seven And then I saw Pokemon Pocopia came out and I made an impulsive decision and stayed up for the next five hours playing Pokemon Pocopia.
01:44:48
Speaker
That's another great game. It reminds me very much of ah it's it's got a lot of Animal Crossing vibes and a little bit of Minecraft DNA. I'd say like 70, 30.
01:44:59
Speaker
thirty I was about to do bad math. 70, 30 is really charming. You're trying to build habitats to attract Pokemon, but you're a Pokemon. You're a ditto in the form of a human trainer. And so you can understand the Pokemon and the writing is very cute.
01:45:14
Speaker
And you're trying to make the Pokemon there happy, and that helps you level up the world. It's this abandoned world that humans and Pokemon have left, and you're trying to make the world a happy place to attract humans and Pokemon again. I actually haven't played it. That sounds better than real world. Okay, sorry.
01:45:28
Speaker
haven't played it since. But one of the cute things about being a ditto is when you when you meet other Pokemon, like Squirtle, Squirtle can teach you how to squirt water. So you can you can heal the plants everywhere by partially transforming into a Squirtle. But, you know... um it's kind of a cute way to do that pokemon yeah so you're but you're an anamorphs reference okay right um yeah yeah then you're muted muted i don't know how long he's been talking i just saw his mouth moving oh shit uh yeah you better not go over the two hour time limit would get trapped as an arcanine or some shit
01:46:08
Speaker
yeah I do want to hear all you want to say, but I wanted to interview you because I've never played Minecraft. Did you ever play Dragon Quest Builders? Yes, I did.
01:46:19
Speaker
The first one. Only the first one. Oh, well, should also play the second because it's better. Have I even played the first one? Maybe I've only played the second one. I actually haven't even played the first one a ton, but I recommended it to somebody who became obsessed with it. Play the second one, you'll get obsessed, and then we can obsess over it together. It'll be fun. Yeah, if you like... Also, I don't know that it's Ben's kind of game. just ship two I would agree with that, yeah. um But it might be.
01:46:45
Speaker
and Just not and but not similar to other games I've heard Ben talk about. ah Yeah, this one's very sandbox-y. It's amazing. But yeah, it's cozy in the sense there's no time pressure, there's low stakes, it's really chill.
01:47:02
Speaker
Super cute. I'll play it more eventually. i don't know. It's been busy. It's an apprentice season four is gearing up. We just officially announced it. It's going to have an island twist this time.
01:47:13
Speaker
So, you know, we may be taking some inspiration from some island-themed reality shows. We're looking for contestants, candidates. That's what they're called on Snoprentice. So if you're interested... island-themed reality shows. Survivor. you Survivor. You're Love Island.
01:47:30
Speaker
We're not doing Love Island. You know. Not much. As fun as that might be. Deal or no deal island. Yeah. Yeah. No, we're we're taking some survivor inspo this time into the next season. um It's more than thematic. It will affect the mechanics also.
01:47:47
Speaker
ah It'll be very fun. If you're interested in participating, DM me or Devilish who runs the show. Fuckboy Island. Yeah, that is... That was one.
01:47:58
Speaker
Didn't see it, but, you know. I'm sure that will heavily inform the season of Stepfranchise to come. Don't watch the same reality shows. okay Um, anyway, so, uh, we're trying to finalize a task list.
01:48:13
Speaker
So that's been keeping me busy, as well as all my other normal stuff, like writing economy guides for fourth location for the new team class. Um,
01:48:23
Speaker
I did a couple clips this week. i don't want to talk about them too much, but they're like, they're two that I'm pretty proud of. So check them out on fourth location, YouTube or Twitter or facebook whatever. yeah I watched them and they're bangers.
01:48:36
Speaker
Tune in. one Oh my gosh. That was the one where the person was emoting at you before it went off. That's loomy. Yeah. ah Two, one of them is fire hair and there's a bunch of stuff I did, but in short, I i killed a brood and a Spider-Man. So she generated a couple of giant broodlings and then, and then fucked off to another lane so that I could attack two lanes at once.
01:49:00
Speaker
uh and then the other one was a last second like a turn six i used symbiote spider-man connecting to a multiple man and then blasted it with sparky a whole bunch of time to make some very big symbiote spider-mans that super fun uh six symbiote spider-mans i it's like adding like 70 power or something like that in a single turn and those are always fun clips when you can be surprising um Yeah.
01:49:26
Speaker
The other one actually was a self-affliction clip that I was really close to throwing out because it's so hard to self-afflict, but I did pull it off with Joaquin Torres and Selene to make my Iska go negative, which means she keeps losing the lane every time she doubles. So she doubled a whole bunch of times, and then i flipped Luke Cage from behind Invisible Woman. Surprise! Surprise!
01:49:53
Speaker
That's cute. I love that. That's so clever. I think that one, that idea actually came from the original Good Egg. Wombat combat.
01:50:05
Speaker
What a twist. Yeah. Okay. On to our secret homework. This week's secret homework was assigned by me. It was to name your own Marvel horsemen, and you could assign them unique domains if you wanted to. i admit, I did not get that far. I thought about it. I thought about being cute about it.
01:50:24
Speaker
I thought about pulling some ah friendship is magic type type domains, but I was like, I'm just going to stick i'm just going to stick with the OG apocalypse domains. and This is who I came up with. I did not include some of my favorites like Singularity or Valkyrie because I wanted a team of people that I would have a good time hanging out with and that would also you know work well together. and I was looking for some diversity. so I have She-Hulk as my Horseman of War.
01:50:51
Speaker
She's tough. She's also smart. I figured she could be the leader, you know, except I suppose I'm supposed to be the leader in this scenario. Nico Minoru as my Horseman of Death. Ultimate flexibility, right? with that With the Staff of One, all sorts of magic, but just yeah any any weird situation, you know she could summon ah a horde of goats to protect us or whatever the situation calls for.
01:51:17
Speaker
Magic as my Horseman of Pestilence. I'm looking at demon armies and the ability to teleport as very useful abilities to have on a little crew.
01:51:28
Speaker
And then I'm grabbing not just Jessica Drew, Spider Woman, but the ultimate universe version for Famine. ah Looking for some mobility and most importantly, Danger Sense. That seemed very helpful for keeping my squad alive.
01:51:45
Speaker
So... There you go. Those those are my horse women. want to see them riding for a strong. It would be really fun to see.
01:51:56
Speaker
yeah you know that is something to be said about the the horsemen that are coming to Marvel's Nap is they do have cool art. Ultimate Wonder Woman has an undead Pegasus, and it's like every goth girl's like dream of like a unicorn. It's like this undead like flying horse, and I'm just like, ah Kelly Thompson knows how to do it sometimes. Is this absolute Wonder Woman? Yeah.
01:52:22
Speaker
Did I say something different? That's what I meant. Oh, did I say ultimate? Thank you for clarifying. Absolutely. Tana looks really awesome, too. Those are some comic books that I would like to read but have not read. She was just in.
01:52:38
Speaker
Yeah, I just read that comic. she it was ah It was so clever. went old ah Okay, maybe I'll comics corner it. Not right now because it would be in a probes, but like. ah Absolutely. school Is assigning next week's homework. Ben, tell me about your horseman.
01:52:57
Speaker
All right. Well, for my horseman, I've read some comic books. i I don't talk about it too much. But as I recall, Apocalypse likes to have mutants as his horse people.
01:53:10
Speaker
That's I mean, I don't know. They're exception. I guess maybe Juggernaut is a mutant these days. But historically, in the era of spider lore from 2004, Juggernaut was not himself a mutant.
01:53:23
Speaker
But anywho, anywho, I was like, I don't know. I remember them being mutants and also in X-Men Legends 2. ah Anywho, I love talking about X-Men Legends 2. So the mutants I thought would be fun to see in Snap if we were horsemanizing them.
01:53:39
Speaker
I tried to think of the most deserving mutants. ah Mutants like Banshee, Sean Cassidy, a classic X-Men character going way back, way back. um We got Molly Hayes from Runaways, ah you know, the the youngest runaway who is a mutant and gets real sleepy after she's super strong. ah You know, she's she's she's war. Banshee was pestilence. Then we've got Beak from New X-Men, from Zorn's class, his special class. That's right. Barnell Bohusk, who, as I recall, did not have any ah particularly interesting powers except ah looking like a chicken.
01:54:21
Speaker
um And he would be famine because he looks sort Why have you picked him? i don't... well i think I think they've done things with him since New X-Men. I think he's like in some exiles form or something. and You know, like he's been around. You can't keep a compelling character like Beak, Barnell Bohusk, down. And then Emma Frost, because we deserve to have a version of Emma Frost who's called Emma Frost and not White Queen, who she hasn't been since the 90s.
01:54:52
Speaker
So, yeah yeah, that's my death. Because Emma Frost is serious business. I don't know. ah just that that seems Those seemed like the right hats for each of them to wear. Wow, Wasabi really would like to come in. I can tell. Yeah, he he made an appearance last week, too. It is not to be because he doesn't respect the cords. You got to respect the cords. All
01:55:20
Speaker
all right, Rhi, let's hear it. Okay, so I did, i thought we were picking, i mean, you know, it was nebulous. I picked snap cards from my horseman, but I did. at first, immediately, i was, of course, I'm like, well, let me, like, dissect my identity into the four most important parts and make those domains.
01:55:39
Speaker
And then I realized, like, oh, this is, like, too much for secret homework. So instead, um as I so frequently do, I just turn to consonants. And I'm like, they're all going to start with the letter W because that's fun. um So the first one is Whimsy. the horseman of Whimsy is, of course, Hulkling, who is whoever he wants to be as long as it a six-cost card at any time.
01:56:08
Speaker
And never a Hulk. ah How whimsical. Okay. My second horseman is of witchcraft. Nico, of course. How could we not... You know, she's too good. Who doesn't want Nico as one of their horsemen? um Definitely had to pick her. Love a spell. Okay. Okay. And then, you know, it's my horseman and I pick cards. So, of course, my horseman of weird was going to be Moon Knight, you know, like it's yeah I was just like, you know, i was low scrolling through the cards looking for my horseman. So, you know, Moon Knight's got to be there.
01:56:45
Speaker
Okay. Then for the last one, i was like, let's go with, um you know, let's let's take it serious for a minute. and Let's go with the Horseman of Winrate.
01:56:56
Speaker
For last w And where did I go? You know, there so many I could sit there. was really sad I didn't put Silk anywhere. But when I think about what people do not respect that gets me so many cubes, had to be a Dracula. Had to be a Dracula. As my Horseman of Winrate. People forget.
01:57:15
Speaker
And he's so old. He's so sleepy. He's been dead forever. People forget. And it's like, no, he's coming back. He'll be bigger than you think, especially if there are like two or three of them. Okay. um You know, be afraid of the vampires. So the those...
01:57:30
Speaker
yeah Those are my four horsemen of W's. i Love it. And I am assigning next week's homework, and it is inspired by a YouTube comment um from Mpeg and probably some numbers, but i as you know, I don't and don't do with and don't deal with numbers.
01:57:52
Speaker
Except for in a coding sense. So remember that's where. But they were talking about one, know, they like the podcast. Thank you very much. And people are like, you're all RTS players. I think because we were spontaneously talking about Age of Empires and StarCraft and WorldCraft and all that time. see us charged.
01:58:12
Speaker
Right? And I was like, oh, yes, we are. And i do. i do love RTSs. So we're going have a super easy homework. Lauren needs it. She's tired. of and She needs rest. And I went next week. Let's just have a nice, ah fun. um discussion about RTSs. Your favorite or your history with them. You know what i mean? and just We'll just have a discussion if you want to think a little bit ahead of time to bring some points. That's cool. But like there's no work to be done. But to bring your lovely selves back for conversation on a genre of a video game that we all enjoy.
01:58:54
Speaker
Love it that will be umll I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on that. I have many thoughts. Okay.
01:59:05
Speaker
It's been a while since I've played one not on mobile. And mobile RTS is is a different thing. um That's why be fun to talk about. It's been a while. I have some things that I want to say now, but I'm like, I don't want to eat next week's lunch for breakfast. But I used to play a fuck ton as a child. Yeah.
01:59:23
Speaker
all right. Uh, listener, viewer, if you like what you heard and haven't already, please like, comment, subscribe, sustain the algorithm, sustain our souls. We're trying to hit 500 subscribers.
01:59:34
Speaker
Uh, We're not super businessy about this whole thing, but like that's that's our goal. That's what we're going for. So please, especially if you're an audio-only listener, please just go give us a subscribe on YouTube. You can turn off the bell. It's fine. ah Rate and review or come hang out with us on the Speakeasy, our little corner of Discord. You can find instructions to get there in the show notes or video description. We're probably part of the Snap Judgments Network, where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions by Joe on Mondays.
02:00:04
Speaker
Good stuff. Casual lean, lots of experience and comics knowledge. i Tune in next week. Same snap time, same snap channel.
02:00:18
Speaker
All right. Let rip. Tell us about Absolute Wonder Woman. Oh, okay. She's got a big old monster sword. Oh, hell yeah, she does.
02:00:29
Speaker
It's just like, okay, here's the thing about Wonder Woman. So I love, i didn't always love regular Wonder Woman because i didn't always love Superman because, you know, I'm like, I am of the night and the darkness.
02:00:44
Speaker
yeah yeah we were all edy We weren't all edgy teenagers. I was an edgy teenager, like a lot of sub suburban kids. And like, you know, and the thing is, it's like, but for it's like Wonder Woman.
02:01:00
Speaker
um is always like in that she's, you know, she's a role model. She's the best of us. um You know, she leads with love. She's of truth.
02:01:11
Speaker
And like, it's like those are such important ideals. But like having to be like the good person all the time and like the conscience of the group, I've complained about that. Like, it's like, you know sometimes you just want Like how they made created He-Man for their like, what do little boys want? You know, and ah they interview little boys and like, I'll be bigger than everyone, stronger and like have a big cat. And they're like, yeah, OK, let's make it. That's.
02:01:43
Speaker
you know, for money, let's give them what they want, you know? And Kelly Thompson writes it. She made Jeff. She knows what the people want. She's like, they want, they want adorable baby land shark. And then it's like, yes. And she's like for Wonder Woman. And if we're, we're getting to imagine, you know, which Wonder Woman's been re-imagined plenty of times. And she's like, for my re-imagining, I'm going to give the girls what they want. I'm going to give giant-ass buster sword. I'm gonna give her a flying undead horse.
02:02:15
Speaker
gonna give her magic-ass arms. She's gonna cast spells. She's gonna call on the gods. And she's still gonna be, like, this cool person that's, like, about the right things, you know? ah I love her Okay.
02:02:29
Speaker
And so it's just been a great... And it's like she respects Wonder Woman's history and the way she's like and reimagined things. um Like, i don't know. People...
02:02:42
Speaker
A lot of people read it are fans, all I'm saying. And ah Absolute Zatanna was just in it. And, ah I mean, she's still kind of ongoingly in it right now. But they had this introduction. He gets introduced. One, if you haven't seen her, look her up. She looks fantastic. I have been a Zatanna fan for a long time. Not on the basis that I had read anything about her that I thought was particularly great, but ah that she's a cool design, right? If you're someone that like was like way too into like constant Constantine, Constantine, um you know, when you were like a kid into the trench coat magician vibes. Hellblazer, for those who don't want to guess at how to pronounce. Yeah. um Yeah, i have issue I have an original issue number one of Hellblazer.
02:03:33
Speaker
praise Okay. um i don't I love it. I don't even know that it's like... It's just meaningful to me. Okay. And um yeah, so like Zatanna was the cool... And like I feel like they've acknowledged that in recent. Like she's got like a redesign of the coat. Anyway, Absolute Zatanna looks fantastic. Does she still wear a dope top hat?
02:03:53
Speaker
Look her up. ah No, she because she's got her hair is like too cool for it, to be honest. Okay. I should have, I should have, like, put a picture in chat for you. Okay, but, um, she looks cool. She comes in and she's, like, a villain, though.
02:04:10
Speaker
She actually, like, attacks, uh, Zatan, or, sorry, attacks Diana, attacks Wonder Woman, and, like, takes over her magic, right? Like, and controls it, and you're just, like, what no like no you're friends and um but what you find out is so veronica killed's veronica right um but veronica huge villain of wonder woman's right kind of like the lex luther of the wonder woman universe i want to show you this cover too of her it's so good okay um
02:04:48
Speaker
evil, plight against Wonder Woman. She's been using these parasites basically to control ah these people. So what Zatanna does, right? And she has to plot this while being like controlled by Veronica Kale. She takes over ah Diana, and then instead of, fra she uses it, she uses her voice, because she can speak her magic through her, to, like, lay out the spell and cast it to free Zatanna from the parasite, to remove it from her. And she's like, yes, thank you, did it, you know what I'm saying? Diana's just like, what the fuck?
02:05:26
Speaker
is going on like i don't even have and zetan just like all right thanks bye poofs out and it's just like oh it's just sleep i'm so excited now they get to like talk to each other like real people after we already like saw cool stuff and um oh um i'm really excited to see more to be honest So I just think it was like, it's just like so clear. Cause like you're following the story along and you're like, what's she doing? What's happening? And the, when the Matt, how is it magic works for Zatanna always is it's the backwards to speak in magic. You speak backwards. So a lot of Zatanna texts when she's saying spells is all backwards.
02:06:07
Speaker
ah And when they do it for a long time, It's kind of like, oh, I gotta read backwards. I'm like, I'm kind of like, do I have to skip? Yeah, I'm like, can use my powers?
02:06:20
Speaker
Because I don't actually want to, like, do the, you know. But Callie Thompson did a clever job because there's all this text of Diana, which is Zatanna speaking through her of this magic spell. And she's outlining. It's like purge it from her. She's like thinking like purge what? So you're falling away as you're slowly as your mind is held back from reading this to unless you've practiced reading backwards, which you freak That's amazing why you do that. I love you. Okay. So unless you can read that really fast, you're mentally slowed down. and And it's mirroring the confusion of like Diana with what's happening, which is Zatanna casting the spell to free herself from this like parasite that's controlling her. Yeah.
02:07:03
Speaker
It's like sometimes it's just like you think Kelly Thompson is just about fun. And then it's like, but like someone who's fun and can craft a scene, they're always underrated because people are like, yeah, but what if they're like Snyder and it's really dark and like choir sing?
02:07:19
Speaker
Someone looks out longingly over a lake and it's like, but what if you have fun and you can still add depth? Not to like, you know, i mean, i like some things. shit on Snyder all day long. Come at me.
02:07:31
Speaker
You know, yeah. ah you know But I'm just saying, it's just like, she's done such a good job. I mean, absolutely. I don't know. If you're if you're a fan of ah cool women raised in the Greek hell ah and carrying a giant sword and, you know, giving up an arm for people when required, but then getting a cool magic arm.
02:07:59
Speaker
You know, that that's very, everything except the huge sword is very Milanoi-coded. That's what I'm saying, because I've been playing? Down to the arm! was like, wow.
02:08:10
Speaker
I've been playing so much Hades that it's like bled in, I mean, not lately, I need to get back to it, but like, um but yeah, it's that vibe, because she they very much go into her connection to Greek mythology, you know?
02:08:27
Speaker
And she's like separated from the Amazons. She's been raised apart from them by all the female goddesses. Defying. Defying like the male goddesses. All the female goddesses raise her secretly. he and They visit her.
02:08:41
Speaker
Like Cersei's raising her, but she's visited by like Aphrodite and Artemis. And they train her. And they love her. And it's like, it's just, okay.
02:08:53
Speaker
Anyway. Yeah. That sounds awesome. You may have convinced me. There's so many comics I want to read and I'm very slow at reading them.
02:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, I'm so behind on books. Die! Has another series coming out. I've been holding it back to read it all at once. thought you were commanding me. writing... This is a graphic novel about the role-playing game thing.
02:09:22
Speaker
Yes. Which Reed did talk me into reading. I'm just reminding you. was very good. It has been a topic of conversation on the podcast before, but like a year ago.
02:09:33
Speaker
they They could be forgiven for forgetting.
02:09:38
Speaker
Yeah. Pixie's a little interesting. Why isn't Pixie a one They should try it. It would probably be too good, but they should try That's I think. But you think they should try it?
02:09:50
Speaker
I kind of think it might be fun if they tried it. right. I'm convinced. They should try it. All right. It's a lot of hidden info, right? It is. That's a very good point. Rhi, you are so true right now.
02:10:03
Speaker
I mean, they did it with Maybe they shouldn't try it. I know it's a different Loki now. I've already turned. We shouldn't record that conversation. I mean, we did, but not with any structure around it. Um, okay.
02:10:15
Speaker
okay like You're right. You could just chop it, and send it to the outro or something.