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49: All 20 Nations of Decklandia
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⚫🌏 Is our entire existence located inside a black hole? 😱 Who knows?! 🤷♀️ Escape the existential dread by listening to another 🍊 fresh episode of your favorite (😏) podcast - same Snap time, same Snap channel! 😊
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap and 🌟bonus🌟 biggest Snap Mistakes of the Week
- 🔦 Human Torch First Steps 🪨 Thing First Steps 🧠 Mad Thinker 🪨🪨🕳️ Mole Man 😶🌫️ Invisible Woman First Steps
- Last Look at Weekend ⚡⚡ High Voltage and First Look at ⚔️ Grand Arena
- 🙉 Secret (Happiness) Homework 🥰
- ️📢📋 Special Outro request!!
📮 Please submit questions to be used in our upcoming anniversary special! 🙏🙏🙏
🎵 Ben's Secret Homework: SONGS TO SNAP ON
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
- The InfiNOT
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
- Rie - Smol Hela
- Rie - Redwing Delivery Service
- Ben - H.E.R.B.A.L. Essences
- Ben - Hell Stomper
- Rie - In the Year After Colony 2099
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:24:41 Human Torch: First Steps
- 0:29:03 The Thing: First Steps
- 0:44:37 Mad Thinker
- 0:48:37 Mole Man
- 0:49:56 Invisible Woman: First Steps
- 0:52:46 Grand Arena
- 1:08:51 Secret Homework: Do Something that Makes You Happy
- 1:43:12 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:47:10 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Snap on This, a Marvel Snot podcast. This week's secret homework, do something that makes you happy. I'm
Weekend Stories and Marvel Themes
00:00:09
Speaker
your host, Lauren Whadevs, here today with my usual wonderful, amazing co-hosts.
00:00:12
Speaker
First up, Rhi, how was your weekend snap? And keep it snappy. Okay. um I did play, like, a ton of Snap this week because in my lifelong battle with insomnia, had a flare-up, and I was, like, gotten very little sleep the last few nights, which sometimes translates to a lot of Snap. And the thing about sleep-deprived-ry is that normally, you know, I'm trying to be out here living my Steven Universe ideals,
00:00:42
Speaker
But occasionally, won't lie. There is a tiny part of my soul that like wishes i could summon Omega-ree from the darkest of all reverses. Oh, don't speak that into it.
Comics and Character Origins
00:00:58
Speaker
To punish all those who have wronged me ah Anyway, so in that mode I was like, oh let's go bullseye hunting.
00:01:10
Speaker
I'm like, down bullseye, because I hate him. So, okay, to tell you how this went, we do have to wrap in a bit of a comics corner because it's just the way my brain works.
00:01:25
Speaker
And we are going to have to go outside of Marvel into DC, Justice League, a new frontier based on a ah comic of approximately the same name. It's one of the older DC cartoons.
00:01:40
Speaker
um It's very good. It's also very like adult. Probably don't have your kids watch it. Oh, is this one of their little like movies? You know, that the animated movies they do. Yep.
00:01:52
Speaker
It's one of the earlier ones. It's ah it's a really good one. need to catch up. I haven't seen a lot of the more recent ones. But, okay, the idea is it's set back in, like, the nineteen fifty s in McCarthy. There are numerous references to McCarthy in ah the film, which is kind of, like, between the Golden Age, right when the Golden Age was, like, crossing into the Silver Age of comics.
00:02:15
Speaker
So kind of like a new frontier on fronts. and there's a lot of the origin of some of the the justice league characters in this this isn't relevant but i'm make call outs because i really like these moments that are close to the beginning of the film one is a martian manhunter it shows his origin story which if you're not familiar martian manhunter comes uh to earth when a scientist is trying to like communicate with mars and he's trying to send a signal and And, you know, because, you know, science is hard. Instead of sending a signal, he accidentally teleports ah John Jones, Martian Manhunter
00:02:55
Speaker
ah to you know, to to Earth. And if you didn't know, or at least in this version of Martian Manhunter, when he first arrives, he's like a big, scary, like predator alien looking thing.
00:03:07
Speaker
You know, like, ah he actually takes the form of the more classic Martian Manhunter, if you're familiar with the cape and stuff, so that he can be, you know, more friendly to humans. um When he arrives, though, he gives the scientists a heart attack.
00:03:21
Speaker
ah Out of surprise, and the scientist dies. Um... But this this is the amazing part. And this is why I have to bring this out because like I love scientists.
00:03:32
Speaker
I learned early on I didn't have the patience for real science because real science is about patience and repetition and repeating your results and slowly iterating over small control groups. And I interned, actually, and I realized, I'm like, oh, people know me. They know my name is not synonymous with patients unless it is for small frightened lost animals.
00:03:51
Speaker
But... um so So scientists. But what I love about the scientists, instead of this, like, dark story, the scientists laying around, he's like, I'm so sorry. In his final moments, he's like, I'm i'm so sorry that I, like, ripped you out of your home.
00:04:07
Speaker
I didn't mean to do that. You know? And... um He's like wishing best for this. That looks like like a predator alien with glowing red eyes over him.
00:04:18
Speaker
And it's like because that's what it's like. They're so instead of fearing something they don't understand or they don't know, they're curious. Right. And he didn't assume this scary looking thing was out to kill him. Instead, he apologized for what he had done to it accidentally in his pursuit of ah mere communication. Anyway, so I just I don't know if any of my listeners are scientists, but, you know Just know if you're out there, great, deep, and binding respect for you. And so I love that.
00:04:48
Speaker
And then the fun thing with the Martian Manhunter, so he kind of takes over this guy's life because ah he can shapeshift and look like a human, but he doesn't know much about the humans. He learns it by watching like old tv Like,
Justice League and Character Dynamics
00:05:00
Speaker
they show a little montage where he turns into, like, Bugs Bunny as he's watching, like, cartoons.
00:05:04
Speaker
And he kind of goes around like Humphrey Bogart because, you know, obviously if you're going to pick someone from TV to emulate at the time, humanity, why not, like, a noir detective, to be honest? So, like... Anyway, Cole Mama from there, other shout out in Justice League is the is Wonder Woman, right? And I have run a lot of Wonder Woman for years. And usually she's like the champion of love. And I ah do love Wonder Woman. But a lot of times this is portrayed, she has to be like the reasonable voice and the voice of compassion, um as is often a woman's role in a a team setting.
00:05:38
Speaker
And, but like this is the younger, like angry, like fed up Diana. And um like they they just show this this scene of Superman flying into these jungles that like brings to mind to my, I'm not pretending to be a more than ignorant, but like kind of like Vietnam kind of ah jungle atmosphere. And flies in Wonder Woman and there's just like carnage. there's He's dead, once again, not for children.
00:06:06
Speaker
um All these like kind of like, you know, dead people in the ground and he comes in Wonder Woman's in a tent with a bunch of women with guns like celebrating, you know, and Superman is like, Diana, what is this? You know?
00:06:23
Speaker
um and she's like well these rebels you know they came they they murdered all the men in this town and ah you know caged the woman ah for for their use and and he's and he's she's like i didn't i didn't kill the men just took away their guns freed the woman gave the guns to the woman he's you're responsible for this carnage?
00:06:49
Speaker
And she's like, and she's just kind of like this, like what, you know, this is the fight between yours is like doing things the proper, you know, like being like, well, we'll wait and the law will take care of it. And it's like, but what about when the law fails?
00:07:01
Speaker
You know what I What about when the system fails, you know, and you're not changing it anyway? But good point. but So they're having this like heated argument where Superman's like, we don't do this, you know?
00:07:13
Speaker
And ah finally, like Wonder Woman stands up. She's been sitting this whole time with like a beer or something. She stands up, and she's taller than him. She looks down at him. And it's just this great moment of like of just like you know subversion of expectations because our media neither celebrates short kings nor tall queens, sadly.
00:07:35
Speaker
But like, ah you know, but also like, you know, if you think about it, it's kind of making a statement about whose moral argument rises higher. Anyway, so it's just like, I kind of love this for Wonder Woman, to be honest.
00:07:49
Speaker
Not related. Okay. So, two moments I love, but, like, Justice League New Frontier. Okay, so it's an existential Cthulhu-like threat coming to end all of existence.
00:08:00
Speaker
You know, this cult, this center. But it's all mysterious. None of it's, like, this... This isn't a story where the villain is, you know, the actual threat, right?
00:08:13
Speaker
The conflict is that people cannot come together to fight it,
Snap Strategies and Challenges
00:08:17
Speaker
right? Like the the superheroes are against the government, like martant the Martians are being blamed for this stuff when they're just like, like not part of the threat.
00:08:29
Speaker
And everyone's fighting. And they're gathered because like ah huge, you know, monsters coming in from the ocean and waves of dinosaurs, you know, as often happens and primal threats.
00:08:40
Speaker
And um and all of the people who need to defend humanity are just squabbling and fighting and maybe going to fight each other. And Superman stops and like everyone's like, hold up.
00:08:52
Speaker
And he gives, you know, this rising speech about how we all need to like work together and come together. We can't fight, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know how these speeches go with Superman. And, um okay, this is the moment where we come back because this is my like my bullseye deck.
00:09:07
Speaker
ah that it it Because here's what I did to make it. i was like, and and put all the bullseye counters in one deck. I have Mobius. I have Sandman.
00:09:19
Speaker
i have Red Guardian. i have Loot Cage. I even have armor because I've gotten a lot of... fucking gambits killing my Ms. Marvel setups and stuff. So, you know, I put these all in a deck together and it's like, I know you're not all used to being in a deck together, but listen up.
00:09:36
Speaker
There's a bullseye out there and of deck land here in danger to this threat. We've all lost to them before, but together, we build a team, we can take down Bullseye. believe in you.
00:09:50
Speaker
We can do this. And I, like, you know, i thought i tried to figure out a deck to go around these cards, and then... And then I was like, charge into, i don't i don't even know if I took it to ladder proving ground, probably both. and ah You know, but then I let in.
00:10:09
Speaker
And this is what happens in Justice League New Frontiers. Superman, spoiler alert, if you're real excited to watch this afterward. um He rounds everyone up and everyone's like, yeah, Superman, what an American, you know?
00:10:23
Speaker
And he like flies up, you know, pow to some dinosaurs, pow, pow. And then like the thing just like opens up his mouth, shoots out like this giant energy beam.
00:10:34
Speaker
And just like Superman just goes like, ping. I just, like, one-shotted. Just, like, one-shotted. Like, crit. Oh, I've had that happen in video games, you know? And just, boom, into the ocean, gone for the rest of the film until, like, Aquaman drugs his ass out at the end.
00:10:52
Speaker
And this is my bullseye. I lost. I lost. I mean, I'm not saying I always lost, but I was like, I built this deck to beat bullseye decks, and they were still mostly very cool.
00:11:06
Speaker
Wait, specifically Bullseye was beating you still? Yes. Oh, Because here's the thing. It's like, need the mix of counters, right?
00:11:17
Speaker
Like, you need to get them right. Because it's like, okay, you know, Luke Cage can be, like, ah the Bullseye afflict mechanic, but you've got Collector going off. You've got multiple decant. You've got all this stuff.
00:11:31
Speaker
And it's like, yeah, sometimes I got them. ah Like, you know, in a small way. And, like, they were treated early. most times, like, but they were still beating a lot of times. It was, like, It was an utter fail. I tried, like, adjusting things in the deck several times. And it was clear. it was, like, just, like, this was not... gave on it. It was such a... It was such, like, a fail moment anyway.
00:11:56
Speaker
It was, like, um build a bullseye, Hunter. And it turns out... It's, like, when... You know, like, it's like it was just, like, cosplaying is a real warrior all along. It was never one.
00:12:08
Speaker
Anyway. But then we found Success Lair. So after I ditched that, I'm like, nah, we're done with this. I played a variety of, like, random silly decks. I made some other random silly decks that have already been, like, deleted and gone. I played some more Morgan Le Fay, actually. Besides, she doesn't work well enough with Hell and put in Ghost Rider.
00:12:28
Speaker
Like, that was fun. And then the most fun had was, like, an auto Red Wing. I found a Drac to Respect again. um It was a Dracula Red Wing deck. Yeah. So, like, I had the most fun playing that.
00:12:41
Speaker
And in the most recent times, I've been playing... we'll talk later because it's new cards But I wanted to, I won't talk in depth about the Red Wing Day because I've been going on for so long. I wanted to end my week in Snap with ah the classic tradition of one week in which I pose a question ah to my fellow co-hosts. And this week, and I will go first so you have time to think about it. This isn't it.
00:13:05
Speaker
Super on the spot. I want to know your biggest snap mistake of the week. All right. And mine, biggest snap mistake of the meat of the week was not when I played Misery on Misery because I forgot that Misery would trigger Misery.
00:13:23
Speaker
That was embarrassing. I hate when you have to, you and your opponent are watching your stupidity play out. Yeah. Yeah, I shouldn't have done that. Read that animation along. Let's try and forget about this one. Okay.
00:13:36
Speaker
So, my biggest mistake... I bought Cobra.
00:13:42
Speaker
I haven't even played it. Like, late night, for some reason, thought it was going to be a great idea. And I'm like, boom! And I bought it, and then I'm like, why do I have this? don't know. I don't want to play it.
00:13:53
Speaker
That's definitely my biggest mistake. For no reason, buying Cobra. it's Counter all those frigid duck hens. That's what it was for, right?
00:14:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's for anything, Lauren. Come on. I was doing a Victoria Hand deck that was super fun. Good times. Okay, anyway. Alright.
00:14:20
Speaker
Who wants to go first? I will go because I thought of a very stupid thing I did just an hour ago probably. Okay. um It's the only... I mean, I i make like so many mistakes it's like the only one that particularly like stuck out to me as being like fun or interesting.
00:14:36
Speaker
ah So, you know the cool thing about um Rogue... is that she steals an ongoing effect, right? That's very cool. That's why we like Rogue.
00:14:48
Speaker
And you know, these these Grand Arena, some of them have some ongoings. And you know you end up with a lot of energy. And I was in kind of a greedy situation. And I had Absorbing Man. And I was ready to steal two ongoing abilities. But that's not how it fucking works.
00:15:02
Speaker
Nope. Rogue's text changes. And that's what I did. and that's that's what i did And I should probably know better at this point, having not not not played a ton of Rogue, but yeah knowing how things work.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good one. um The one that came to mind, you know, I've been clip hunting still, and I actually had a pretty good hand. It wasn't to the point where I'm like, you know the heart's racing. I have every piece I need. I'm like one turn away from pulling it off and I hope they don't have the tech to ruin my fun.
00:15:36
Speaker
It wasn't there yet, but it was looking promising. Space throne appears, but I'm like, I'm fine. I have magic. Put magic down, hit end to turn. She flips over and she's Captain Carter.
00:15:48
Speaker
So I don't know how often you've done that, but I semi-frequently just play the wrong card because has similar stat line and I'm not paying careful attention. know, I'm walking the dog or something. And yeah, that was disappointing to say the least.
00:16:06
Speaker
yeah Could certainly be more careful. I play very, very fast. I throw everything out, hit and turn. um use undo a lot. yeah. Ding dong! Sometimes you can't hit it in time.
00:16:18
Speaker
You're like, oh no, they're already going. What if I just waited 10 seconds before hitting end turn? I never snap till after. Because what I do is I'm like, throw my cards, end turn.
00:16:30
Speaker
And then I start thinking, I'm like, oh, I should snap. And then I said, but it's too late because they've already submitted. So like snap into the next turn. Yeah, I do that all the time. but's sweet yeah
Grand Arena and Deck Strategies
00:16:40
Speaker
do that all time yeah Okay.
00:16:46
Speaker
Ben, how was your weekend snap? And keep it snappy. My weekend snap was pretty good. um i played a fair amount. ah What did I play? I played a lot of old decks, but I did actually...
00:17:01
Speaker
Mess around with some new stuff. There's a card that... There are actually many cards that I've been meaning to play some more of. Oh, yeah, I tried to do some Herbie stuff in, like, you know, the same sort of Ironhearty Surfer deck that I built for a Secret Homework that I've just been having a lot of fun with. I don't think it's, like, the best thing to do with cards in Marvel Snap, but, like, I was i was having some fun with that, but... um Yeah, don't know. I think maybe they did fix Herbie and they just didn't brag about it or something. I don't know. He he wasn't misbehaving on me.
00:17:32
Speaker
ah Although i only played a few few games with that deck, so he might still be he might still be completely not twerking. But um I don't know. i I was not seeing a lot evidence.
00:17:45
Speaker
Oh, you neither? I've been playing Herbie in the last couple days. do think maybe fixed it. You think fix him? Okay. Well, then I am pleasantly surprised, and credit where credit good job making the card work properly while it was still fresh and new. Now, if you could just do Copycat, who came out more than a year ago now.
00:18:06
Speaker
um That would be stellar. i'm I'm pretty sure that card is still bugged, right? Y'all still seeing copycat problems? problem it's going wrong with copycat? Oh, she kicks me out of the game when I when i check her sometimes. Oh, yeah, that happens, but then I just go back into it.
00:18:20
Speaker
like she's not She's taking you to the menu, right? Not crashing the entire Yeah. But sometimes I can't get back in and like, sometimes I actually need to check the card and like that card did come out more than a year ago and maybe, maybe just maybe things should work.
00:18:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's bad. They're too busy making new cards work properly. That's the thing at new cards they're making them faster than I can get around to playing them um so I finally got around to playing a little more Hellion I played him a little bit when he first slid out early you know um but I finally got around to playing him a bit more having some fun with that ah The deck there Batok, the Leaper, Iron, Fist, Niko Minoru, Dagger, Surge, Kraven, Merlin, Hydrastomper, Vulture, Werewolf by Night, Hellion, and Heimdall.
00:19:07
Speaker
And that's been pretty fun for me. Also, you know what? Merlin, very strong card still. um I feel like it's easier to see why Mr. Fantastic First Steps is busted and all that, but like I don't think Mr. Fantastic First Steps is ah better than Merlin. I think Merlin is a i agree they really rare it's really really really really, really, really, really really really good card um i think depends on the deck right if you're running like brood maybe mr fantastic's the right choice but in a broader sense i think it's probably merlin
00:19:40
Speaker
Merlin solves problems and gets you out of, like, so many kinds of jail free. ah It's wild. It is wild. a Very strong card. Not as, you know, doesn't have as many numbers in the text box as Mr. Fantastic First Steps.
00:19:59
Speaker
And I think that that makes him seem less... tangibly potent or whatever. But, uh, yeah, if you're, if you're not playing Merlin, maybe try playing Merlin and you might do good things. I don't know. Merlin, Merlin does good things for me. i love Merlin and I feel safe when Merlin's in the, in the deck and, uh, yeah, just a real cool thing to play on turn two.
00:20:21
Speaker
Um, so those are some things I played in Marvel snap this week. Now I'm playing grand arena, having some fun with that, but I'm sure we'll speak on that in greater detail. Uh, in a moment, what else happened? I did continue to stream some Hades too.
00:20:36
Speaker
i think when last we spoke, I was like, Oh, I really want to beat my, my record for, uh, the fresh file clear. How many nights would it take to beat Kronos? And I was trying to improve on four that I said about a year ago, slightly before Copycat came out, but ah not a year ago. You know, I didn't quite make the year window. I missed it by a couple days, but that's okay because I beat my record by two.
00:21:02
Speaker
What? So yeah, colonels on day two, night two. Yep. That's nuts. It's well, that's the thing. Now there's nowhere to go, but night one, and that's going to be so much harder because like on night two, you can have a keepsake. You can have you can get some arcana.
00:21:20
Speaker
You know, on you can flip some tarot cards over and stuff. So when I did get this night too clear, it's it's all on video on the Twitch. If you want to check it out, you can just watch the final fight. You can watch that run. You can watch that entire session because like, oh, I did some fresh files before the one that stuck. I tell you.
00:21:37
Speaker
um Anywho, anywho. ah Yeah, I went with Vivid Sea, the Poseidon keepsake, so that I could guarantee that I would get access to Seastar and Sunken Treasure. And I ended up with 280 health on night two in the final fight against Kronos, which is cool because it was giving me plus 50% damage from all my sources because of a cool duo boon called Hardy Appetite that rewards you for having ah shit ton of max health.
00:22:06
Speaker
um So... that's That's my Hades 2 story for you. And other than that, I played some other games. But I think I told you about all the Snap and another one, so that's probably good for now. i don't know.
00:22:21
Speaker
Maybe I'll think of something later. i don't know. Okay. You can bring something up in the outro if if inspiration strikes Uh, my week in Snap, I did, I did more clip stuff.
00:22:35
Speaker
Still haven't figured it. I shouldn't say figured out. That's not the right word. I haven't even tried to figure out how to put them on the YouTube. I, I hope it's easy. my My plan is to do it in chronological order. And so I have to go back like a year and a half or two years to go back to my first cool clip with, uh, using a Nihilist to send a Null to the other side after killing a couple of voids.
00:22:56
Speaker
Uh, anyway, New mode came out, new economy. We actually had the blog drop a few days earlier than the event, which I think is a much better way to do it.
00:23:07
Speaker
Let people build some hype and do some theorycrafting and stuff like that while they can't play the mode yet. Maybe actually well learn how to play the mode while they yeah have nothing better to do versus just plowing through all the intro screens to get to the game mode as soon as possible.
00:23:21
Speaker
So... I have a guide to the economy because, of course, new mode, new economy. It's up on Marvel Snap Zone if you want to read it. um But even if you don't want to read it, I'll i'll give you two highlights. One.
00:23:35
Speaker
Don't claim your tickets, your free tickets that are like in the pass, in the event track. Don't claim them until you need them. right it's like You regenerate three tickets every but every eight hours, but you won't regenerate over 12.
00:23:49
Speaker
So just like don't claim tickets until you need them. That's that's my first one. My second one is, like is the premium pass worth it? It's like $15 of gold, but also like three weeks of free gold, if you want to think about it that way instead.
00:24:03
Speaker
um Mostly it just lets you play half as many games to get both of the cards. So if that's worth it to you, if you really want Mole Man and Mad Thinker, who I think both are not very, they don't seem very strong,
00:24:16
Speaker
um then yeah, maybe it's worth it. Currently, i'm I'm holding off, but I don't know if I end up like not wanting to play 350 games.
00:24:28
Speaker
um Maybe maybe i'll I'll spring for it. It's it's cheaper to do to get the cards that way than to wait for them to come and be available by tokens. Yeah. We'll talk more about Ground Arena in a little bit.
00:24:42
Speaker
Do we have any new thoughts on last week's card, Human Torch?
00:24:49
Speaker
I played him actually. ah you do? Go ahead then. No, I want to hear Reese's thoughts. Well, mine, I played him with the thing first step. So if we want save it, it's fine.
00:25:01
Speaker
Talk about it now. Kind of in combo. Do you have any Nerdtomb and Torch specific thoughts? Anything about... I didn't play him in Surfer, which is kind of like where I thought like the only place to play him, but I like him because in the deck I was playing him in, it's like, if he got Red Guardian, it's like...
00:25:23
Speaker
fine. You know what mean? But you felt good getting him down early because he would increase. And it's not... He doesn't... A lot of the times in my deck, he wasn't getting Shang-able power. But that's where it's nice to have seven, eight, nine power deck. Yeah.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah, he was a slot loop. I would say he could be replaceable, but it's like in the deck I was using him, he was really one of the best slots because it's like I'm trying to fill the board and I'm happy if it takes red and he's still fulfilling the point of, you know, being in the board space and all of this stuff.
00:26:06
Speaker
Honestly, I was pleased with him I like, it's like a side piece, I guess. I thought he was going to be like a main piece, but he's kind of like a, know. Are you often putting Tomb and Torch and Thing 2 in the same lane or separate lanes?
00:26:22
Speaker
ah It doesn't. That's the great thing. is it's like Normally, if I'm playing stuff like that, it's ongoings that are similar where you're worried about stacking them. we like ah Usually, I'm trying to spread ongoings to where if they have like an enchantress, you know if possible, they have to decide what they're going to take out. Maybe won't be enough. Yeah.
00:26:43
Speaker
But, like, this one, no. I mean, frequently, because honestly, it'd get to where where I needed to put the thing. You know what i mean? It's like not like I was usually planning out far enough in advance. Usually, Human Torch is coming down first, because usually I'm not playing them late.
00:26:57
Speaker
Although I had. I did a few good times. Oh, they're good, though, because, like right ah like, a Red Guardian can take them out, but, like, you can't enchantress him, you can't shang him, huh? Yeah.
00:27:10
Speaker
Oh, yeah. i was The things you're saying, but also what I've noticed when I play Tumen Torch is that even if they, like, Shadow King it or Red Guardian in it or whatever, like it doesn't really feel like they got that much ahead because I can't like articulate it, but I don't know. like that Neither of those things and entirely gets rid of him, and he's still there to you know soak up a surfer buff if you're doing that or like whatever else he might be. like The Shadow King solution is not it' not the end of his story. It's setback, major setback don't know.
00:27:42
Speaker
it's a setback a major setback even but like... i don't know i just i like I don't like the card very much, but I do like how how like safe it is to just play it early. And if they burn a card negating it, then like they burned a card negating it. you know like Who cares?
00:27:59
Speaker
Exactly. You set him down and you forget about him or you you know keep him in the back of your mind or whatever. But he's not like he's not such a and and this an investment that you can't you can't bear to see him brought low or whatever. you know like He's not too big to fail. He can fail and it's fine.
00:28:17
Speaker
That's the thing, he's bait, though, because there are decks where he could be a centerpiece of it, you know what I mean? And when they're playing you and you're putting him down early, they don't know if your big plan to win that lane is Human Torch, which is where they get behind you're like, shh, he's just here for fun. He's not here to work. So, yeah, that's kind of where I him being.
00:28:38
Speaker
And I love bait cards. It's yeah, use all your counters me shit up. Because there's nothing more freeing than when like you see, like, Sakaar, right? Sakaar that discards a card.
00:28:49
Speaker
And you see their Shang discard. And you're like, oh, I'm so free. I'm so free to play my Red Hulk anywhere and everywhere. I can't Shang this now. There's nothing more satisfying than knowing the counter's gone that you have to worry.
00:29:01
Speaker
Anyway. So, yeah. I think you'd say, we'll read the text off in just a second. I think you could say a lot of the same things about Thing 2, where it's like, It has the benefit of being a card that you're fine putting out early. It's just the nature of its ability. Not only is it fine, it's like it's preferable. How early can you put out the thing first steps, though?
00:29:21
Speaker
Without ramp, it's... Yeah. The thing is representative of a problem with five cost cards in general. But he is a 510 plus that isn't shingable. Like... um I guess maybe he's a 5'8 plus if you fill his lane.
00:29:37
Speaker
So... um anyway let's read them off the thing fantastic four first steps i think thing two is a cute name for it and called it is like it to cat in the hat a five six end of turn plus two power once per game if you say if your side here is full destroy an enemy card here with less power um I got him but didn't play him.
00:30:05
Speaker
But one thing that I experienced playing against him is if his lane is full but there is nothing in the opposing lane. That that was me. I didn't have anything there yet. He still just gains plus two power. And then as soon as I did put something there, he hit it the next turn.
00:30:19
Speaker
So that's kind of cool. He has has some intelligence on that. ah Did you two get to play him? I know ri you you you already said you did. I played against him.
00:30:31
Speaker
What? Okay. yeah It wasn't the base art. My never before scene was of ah the variant or a variant. I don't know how many variants are currently available.
00:30:42
Speaker
Oh, wow. Like, and I wonder if they got it from a premium mystery variant or something, because usually you have to wait at least a day for them to show up in the shop. Anyway. That must have been it, actually. i like that That's the only explanation, right? But yeah, I took a screenshot because I was like, I don't think I've ever seen the variant first. but Yeah, that's funky.
00:31:05
Speaker
I do have the editors. Before I got ah him, I did first game. I did a lot of stuff this week. um Different decks. And i was i dabbling a bit in Iron Shem, as one does. And ah that's the first time I saw him before even put the tokens down. like, oh, hello.
00:31:25
Speaker
ah This is an amazing deck ah card to get randomly. If you can get it like for a little bit cheaper, like from a Loki or something, or like from an Arshomony of Extra Energy, it's like you're really happy to see it because you fill in lanes a lot.
00:31:42
Speaker
And um the greatest thing about it is when he can be a surprise card at like the end of a game when you put him in last to fill the lane. And yeah, he doesn't get as big, But he's basically a Shang, right?
00:31:54
Speaker
And he's kind of like where a Shang will whiff. If you don't need to use a Shang, like three power isn't much, right? But when you're like ah playing card... There was one time when I was facing... this is where I messed up, is I thought they were going to Galactus and they Black Panthered instead.
00:32:16
Speaker
which is always the problem with facing that deck is when you get it wrong. and um But here's the thing. It's like if I had guessed the Black Panther correctly, it's like you I could have played it that turn, and as soon as the symbiote Black Panther went off, boom, end of turn, because it's the only thing there because they're Zolaing it next turn, right? So like...
00:32:37
Speaker
um So it's like, and then the thing's perfect. And the backup for thing he is one more than Shang, but it's like he is some power. he's He's eight power, you know, if you're playing him late, which can tip you over to win a lane. And once again, it's not Shang-able if you're um putting him out last turn. So I found him way more useful than I thought. What I played him in, and I did see this around, so I'm assuming a lot of other people did too. I don't know.
00:33:05
Speaker
um i haven't been in the discourse, but I played him with 2099, and he was very good. Wow. I was just wondering if that's where that sentence was going, because, like, yeah, that sounds like a good idea, right? 2099. got infinite tickets with it last night. What? What?
00:33:20
Speaker
two infinite tickets with it last night
00:33:25
Speaker
Yeah, I won two gold conquests in a row with this deck. And I... So if this is... Like, if I'm how far off I am off of what other people are playing, but this isn't this is what I'm playing.
00:33:40
Speaker
One, okay, so, like, Doom 2099, and I love it because it's a new flavor. It eventually will get a little bit old, but, like, you have more tools in it. It feels like you have a little bit more to do.
00:33:52
Speaker
um so you have your big cards, obviously, like Blue Marvel that you like, um and then, like, these things that end up filling ah the the ah Fill the lane type stuff, right? If I Fantastica, I would have put it in this probably.
00:34:12
Speaker
don't know if I actually would want another four costs in this. But I have a lot of end of turn cards, so it might be worth it. Um... Yeah. doom of course because it's a doom twenty ninety nine and and what's great to that red hole you just you need like you have one spot left in a lane lot of people de and how i know i've got that lane is like that they with the type of deck they're playing they only have one spot left in that lane and i know they just don't have a card that that's big enough You know what i mean? Because like I know the deck their deck they're playing and they don't have one giant big card in it to fit there. And I'm close enough. I can beat them with my my giant big card.
00:34:55
Speaker
So like Red Hulk is great for those situations where you need... um That big power. Also, it's just great shang bait in general. It's always been right because they see it increasing every turn, every turn.
00:35:08
Speaker
And ah you have prio. So they know the lane. They're like, this is the lane, you know, that you're going to win with Red Hulk. And they have their shang going. Yeah. You fool.
00:35:20
Speaker
I know that's what you thought. That's what we call a feint in sword play. If you read a lot of fantasy, like I do, that's how I know everything about swords. And then you play Dr. Doom instead, right?
00:35:34
Speaker
And then nothing shangable there. That's amazing. like just Win, win, win. Okay. Other fun stuff about this. I've been playing so much Makari because I think she's in my Red Wing deck too. Anywhere where you're trying to drop out to get big cards.
00:35:47
Speaker
And she's great because once again, you're just trying to fill lanes. And ah she also like gives you a prio in a way you like sometimes. And this is a fun point. Marvel Boy is in this, right?
00:35:59
Speaker
Because we have Squirrel Girl, who is a great lane filler, great for getting a prio early, which you like want sometimes works with Marvel Boy, um Blue Marvel. We have Sunspot, which is great because like sometimes you're ending up just skipping turns because youre you didn't draw your energy stuff.
00:36:18
Speaker
Hydra Bob, because once again, it's just a one for. And the moving stuff isn't as is big a deal in this because a lot of times I ended up feeling filling almost all my lanes, if not all of them, with this. I've already mentioned Human Torches in here.
00:36:34
Speaker
Do you ever to tricky things with Hydra Bob? Huh? Do you ever get to do tricky things with Hydra Bob? Like ah making it so that your lane is full for one of your first steps dudes and then getting Hydra Bob out of there?
00:36:49
Speaker
I have definitely, yes, Hydra Bob, because you can always pull those tricks with him. What I find sometimes, though, tricks I want to pull, and I knew it, and I shouldn't have signed sticks, I knew would fail, but end of stuff, location happens before Hydra Bob ever happens.
00:37:06
Speaker
I tried to be Trixie once and play him on the one where the cards flip on turn three and like then snap him away. And I was like, I know. He's not. Because I know from Sanctum that he'll flip before he moves.
00:37:19
Speaker
But like you know how sometimes you have that Kermit Palpatine on your shoulder just being like, do it. do like it. So I did it. And of course, that's what happened. And I looked like an idiot.
00:37:30
Speaker
But like, I had to make sure, you know, maybe we'd be different this time. Anyway, so like, um, so yeah, yeah. And they're just, they're just big. They're just, they're big stuff. And once again, it's kind of fine. Like sometimes Marvel boys out and you've only got sunspot. You never got the squirrel girl, but it's still fine. Once again, they read Guardian it. you're like, what the fuck ever.
00:37:54
Speaker
And you're not all in if they have a Killmonger. I'll usually still hold stuff if they have a Killmonger, but once again, you're trying to get Doom out early and then play one card a turn. So if you have Squirrel Girl, you just play her out early. You play all your ones usually out early unless you know for sure they've got Killmonger.
00:38:11
Speaker
Irby's great. I'm like, honestly, I looked at I'm like, well I almost wanted I was like Pedro right in here instead. But here's where Irby is so great is that like, when he can get you that like early, if you get him down early, um and he gets the energy thing, then you can get your doom out early.
00:38:29
Speaker
So like, you know, on turn three. no Not for getting your Doom out early. For dropping a Doctor Doom early, right? Which you always want to do because the Doctor Doom early isn't shangable, like there's no danger, and then that gives you room for your other stuff later on. So if you get them early, you can hit them up like on turn three and then like on turn four, I think then you have six energy for playing a Doom early. And then you play your Doctor Doom or your Doom 2099 four.
00:39:01
Speaker
um Honestly, getting stuff early out too, another good reason for having these little cards in your deck is to keep your tomb 2099 from being Red Guardian-able because it's protected by some little thing you know out there. Squirrel Girl's great for that.
00:39:15
Speaker
Squirrel Girl is great for protecting against Red Guardians. Play Squirrel Girl out in one, you've got these little one-cost squirrels. It's just like, try and Red Guardian me. you know Although with four power these days, Doom is pretty hard to Red Guardian. and He is, but some people still don't think and put stuff alone in a lane. Every time I've had to put him alone in a lane, because I'm like, I really want put him alone in this lane, want put these other cards here, and then I'm like, maybe safe, Sending your Doom 2099 to school, like, but if they get shanked, will they believe?
00:39:47
Speaker
Okay. Um... Yeah, and this has been bonkers so far. I've been winning so much with it. People just don't expect the output. And once again, like with Doom, you're just putting out like one card.
00:40:00
Speaker
So many lanes full, like the thing will win you stuff because you'll kill just the right card. It's kind of that gambit, you know, gamble, but it's more limited. You can, you know, to just the lane. So it's it's um it's even less swinky than Gambit with like getting the right one or the wrong one. But sometimes you just need that little boost with his extra power to pop that lane. You know, Human Torch, I almost never have trouble like filling lanes to pop everything off.
00:40:28
Speaker
Anyway, like I said, two infinite tickets last night was like late night rebrand, which is like, you know, better than some players, but, you know, full capacity. Also, this is before Invisible Woman.
00:40:41
Speaker
How do you think it's going to be after Invisible Woman? Okay, here's what I think is that I wasn't running. I did run into a little bit Enchantress, but not as much as we're going to see probably when there's, you know what I mean? eventually The new Invisible Woman, the one that lets you double your end of turns.
00:40:58
Speaker
She's going to make your deck even better. She will, but I'm just saying that I wasn't seeing as many counters to 2099 as we'll see when everyone's playing 2099. Oh, you think it's going to be everywhere.
00:41:13
Speaker
You don't think everyone's going to play Inviswoman First Steps with Doom 2099? No, going or I think they are. I think there might be different kinds of Invisible Woman decks, but I think that's definitely going to be... And then so people will play counters to it. Oh, Enchantress for the Doom bots. I gotcha.
00:41:30
Speaker
Yeah, like, I mean, Invis Woman will help it a lot, but that's still, i don't know. Like, people can still play counters that I haven't seen. But yes, obviously, she would be good.
00:41:40
Speaker
Like I said, I'd be iffy about putting Fantasticar in this just because it's already top-heavy, and they like I like all the the the big cards in it, you know? I think you're right. I think Invisible Woman's going to be a bigger influence than Fantasticar if you can't fit them both.
00:41:59
Speaker
yeah um So yeah, no, this deck was rocking for me. That's awesome. I'll have to try it. like a Yeah, sounds like a good time. I don't have the cards, but I approve.
00:42:13
Speaker
I liked your idea, of Ben, of doing something sneaky with Hydro Bob, because if you if you played Hydro Bob between... Tumen Torch and Thing 2, he would move in between their abilities. So you could have both lanes full.
00:42:28
Speaker
Anyway. I don't know, then, would the timing count? I already wasn't having too much trouble... filling stuff and you usually are if you got stuff out early and it's big you're trying to wait till the last turn to fill them so they don't they're not shangable you know yeah so my thought is on turn six you play bob and thing and snap let bob jump from the torch lane to the thing lane both of them get their super ability But would that trigger correctly for both of them?
00:42:58
Speaker
Everything with the same window resolves in the order it was revealed. So if you had Torch Bob thing, then they should resolve in that order. didn't even know that happen. to try that. Oh, but like Irby, Irby, Irby is like way more useful I've ever... I laughed at him compared to Nico. I'm like, Nico is a pound magic. We think a little, know, like I love... Well, I would never dis R2-D2 to be honest, but okay. Okay.
00:43:22
Speaker
So, like, Ernie, but, like, right, okay, the energy, it's like you almost always, especially when you're playing big decks, but he also is great in this because he sometimes you can use him to help fill the lane, know what I mean?
00:43:34
Speaker
Creating that rock sometimes, its purpose is just um to fill the lane. You never meant to have a 2-6. that either. Yeah, right, when you're just using him as a 2-6 for the double its power.
00:43:48
Speaker
um And I have definitely used it. Also, the other one, the ah buff two cards and two other lanes, which is useful in this because, you're you know, and you're filling most of your lanes with it.
00:43:59
Speaker
Nothing and Torch both like that extra power, too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
00:44:06
Speaker
awesome I don't think he's a direct competitor to Nico. I think they're just very different cards that happen to have a sort of superficial similarity about them. Similar, McCain. Having multiple, like, yeah, different abilities each turn.
00:44:19
Speaker
Like the Swiss army knife. You don't get to choose. ah Before we move on to our vibe check, heads up this Thursday, today, as we're recording, Astral Projection is now in the shop.
00:44:31
Speaker
If you missed it from, ah was it? Part of Sanctum Showdown. Sanctum Showdown. Okay. Vibe check on next week's cards. We will include also the Grand Arena cards here. So Mad Thinker, a 1-1 at the start of each turn after drawing, plus 2 power if your hand is full.
00:44:49
Speaker
I guess we'll do them one at a time, actually. How about that? Five check on Mad Thinker. I think he's... literally i don't know. He'll be big. Sometimes. Sometimes? In the same way that Nicholas scratches.
00:45:03
Speaker
But face up ones that have to stay on your board to grow, is it's not a good situation. And I mean, like, how many procs are you going to get? You're not getting it on turn one. You're probably not getting it on turn two. Like, do we think three, four, five, six?
00:45:17
Speaker
That takes him to one nine. That's ideal. Yeah. That's like best case scenario. That's basically where the ceiling is unless like Triskelion flips on like the first turn or something. Yeah. Or you blade your helicarrier.
00:45:29
Speaker
Yeah. i um I think this card is very cool. I think it's Garbo. I think it's unplayably bad.
00:45:39
Speaker
I agree. Compared to your other options, and But I think it's cool. And I'm I i dig it. i I hope. Also, I learned from the Flophouse that apparently the the percentage based like ah in in the newest Captain America movie, ah the the leader is always talking about what percentage chance you're going to do this or that. Apparently, i learned from the Flophouse podcast, that's a mad thinker thing that they just gave to the leader.
00:46:11
Speaker
They just amalgamated them. Oh, yeah. You know, I wonder if I'm being too harsh on it, because I'm thinking, like, I don't feel this way about Meek or Nebula or Sunspot. I don't see them and I'm like, ew, face up one costs?
00:46:26
Speaker
Gross. Like, yes they're vulnerable to Shadow King and and Killmonger, but they also only cost one. And also I miss Red. like he This will also happen in your hand. I thought you had to play it.
00:46:39
Speaker
No, no. Right? No, he has to be on the board. After drawing. After drawing means you can be at six. You can be six. Draw your seventh card. was like, oh no, it'll be way better if this happens in your hand. Yeah, oh, if this was a Red Hulk situation, maybe. I think it might still be bad, though.
00:46:58
Speaker
But it would be better. If he grew in hand, he'd be great.
00:47:03
Speaker
Well, how many procs would you get Even if you get two, it's a I mean, I guess I don't know. Everybody's running Titania. Yeah, that's true. I don't know. I'm still not excited. I feel like, I don't know. I don't know. Even if he grew at hand. I don't know. He'd definitely be better.
00:47:19
Speaker
Look, I think he's probably the worst card of the season. But also, if you're not running shang or sorry a Killmonger or Shadow King, like you might lose to a big mad thinker.
00:47:33
Speaker
I mean, numbers do win. i mean, it's just you're more likely to lose to a big Batroc the Leaper or, you know, some other card. Yeah. ah it Counterpoint to to my argument.
00:47:50
Speaker
When's the last time you lost a Devil Dino? Like, the deck that he helps is not an especially strong deck anyway. They should do something about that. i should They should give it ah some love.
00:48:02
Speaker
and Not this kind of love. ah thing Something a little realer. a little A little more Kahori or something. Maybe what there's something with like a like first Ghost Rider Swarm type deck.
00:48:18
Speaker
Victoria Hand? And bring it back. I don't know. you know what i mean? Where you fill in your hand with other silly stuff? I i have no idea. You could make a Mad Thinker deck. I just don't think it's... but He's not... I don't think any of them are especially good, and Mad Thinker's not going to be the thing that helps them across that line. Okay. Mole Man. That was a long vibe check. Mole Man, On reveal, banish the top card of your deck. Add two rocks to your hand.
00:48:45
Speaker
Set their power to the banished card's cost.
00:48:51
Speaker
This is the one I'm getting. You know I want to build a rack deck. This sounds like such a fun meme deck. I don't know if I'll have all the cards. I mean, I already kind of halfway built it with a Miss Marvel deck I was playing.
00:49:02
Speaker
um But, like, yeah. That's the one I'll get first. That was some stupid racks. I also like this card, and I also don't really... i just wanted to believe... i don't know. I feel like one of the times I looked at this card, it seemed okay to me. And every other time I've looked at this card, it has not seemed okay to me. And I'm trying to remember what I saw in it the time that it seemed okay to me.
00:49:25
Speaker
mean, the first time I saw it, I was thinking about 120 rocks after you banished Infina. And then I reread the card and realized I read it wrong. 26 Yeah.
00:49:36
Speaker
um yeah I don't think he's very good, but he's he's much more interesting and fun than Mad Thinker. I think I can't show my work. Maybe I could show my work. I don't know. I bet he's better than Mad Thinker.
00:49:51
Speaker
Still not worth playing. Yeah.
00:49:56
Speaker
Okay. And then i don't know what we're calling this card. I've heard Vanessa and I've heard um Princess Margaret from Madam Star. And I like Twin Visible Woman.
00:50:08
Speaker
They're not too long. They need to be short. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I have no idea what to call her. um Anyway, Invisible Woman, Fantastic Four First Steps.
00:50:19
Speaker
Twos and Storm. Yes! Yes!
00:50:25
Speaker
Or just Storm you want to keep it brief, but like i I wanted it to be Twosin's Storm. Twosin. I could just be Twosin. Twosin, yeah? If you want it to be shorter, Twosin. Brevity's the soul of witch or something.
00:50:39
Speaker
You know, the community will figure out which one sticks. 3-5. ah Activate this turn. Your end-of-turn abilities happen twice. three five with upside.
00:50:53
Speaker
Seems like a very strong card to me. I think I gave it four when we did the the ratings, and I stand by it.
00:51:02
Speaker
I'm excited for it. I don't think end of turn is an especially exciting ability, but it's always... Synergy cards are always my favorite. like Interactions, i think, are what make card games interesting and what let me do silly things. So this is the card of the season for me, having not played it yet.
00:51:19
Speaker
I mean, like, how much does it even need to do with that stat line? You know, like, the thing is, it's going to do a lot. like Yeah, it's just... This card is nuts, right? I think it's nuts. I mean, how much does counter it, right? Like, it's going to make your Human Torch thing to, you know, first ups, like, go off twice at the end of the game after they can be, like...
00:51:44
Speaker
they can be Shang, yeah, the action, all that stuff, you activate this on the last round. She's not really at a three five She's not really Red Guardian-able. like It's just like, oh, this is pretty powerful. I mean, it is an activate, but it's 3, so you got time to get it out.
00:52:00
Speaker
i I even like her in High Evo. I've seen, you know, people obviously have been trying to make High Evo happen with Fantastic Car, and I'm sure i know at least one of our listeners loves High Evo and might... ah and not look fondly upon my criticism but i don't i don't think it's in a specialist farm deck and i haven't been i haven't been uh convinced by fantastic car but i like what invisible woman does to high evo like double cyclops double hulk like i know that's what i love best about high evo is cyclops like yeah if you do a full pass turn five and you double sunspot
00:52:36
Speaker
Ooh, with an infinite hour? Follow it up on six? Yeah. Why is there like Moon Girl She-Hulks going around again, too? That's always a good time. Okay, also this Thursday, we have the start of the new game mode, Grand Arena, that we previously talked about just a little bit in my week on Snap.
00:52:54
Speaker
um It's going be two weeks long, and there are two cards available, as well as a bunch of other prizes that are mostly cosmetics. There's a handful of credits in there, too. Um...
00:53:06
Speaker
I don't know guys want to talk about it, but you start with a champion and their skill in your hand. There are eight of them. You start with two energy instead of one. so everything and I think that that is like the single biggest.
00:53:20
Speaker
change versus regular snap is like well there's no snapping so that's a big change but the fact that the curve is up by one like everybody's ramped the entire time it changes what you can do in snap you know uh turn six you can play mercury cannonball for example it's true I didn't. So this came out just, like, a couple hours before we started recording, so I have, like, really not gotten to play at all. so i have no opinion So I would like for you, please, ah to get me all hype and thrill. Assuming you like it, you know, if one of you doesn't, please, you know, debate it. I feel mostly positive about it, personally. I do miss snapping a lot. That's, like, my biggest note, but, um...
00:54:06
Speaker
Oh, okay. It's like a win. Like you're just trying to win. There's no. It's just win and lose. And that's, I don't know. Like it's gotten to the point where like almost no matter what game I'm playing, where like, if I think I'm doing better than I'm supposed to be doing or whatever, like, i don't know. I wish I could snap on encounters in the last of us.
00:54:28
Speaker
Like I want to everywhere all the time. Yeah. ah Betting on yourself is fun. Yeah. Yep. Interesting thing about snapping. Sorry, if I can briefly... Can wely if we just... No, get us in there.
00:54:44
Speaker
um I found the longer I play... Well, sometimes it is fun for you and your opponent to just watch something and you're just like... You know? Because we both just saw what happened.
00:54:55
Speaker
And so you're just like, well... like You're just helping them retreat because it's like, why are we playing this out a lot? But I found a lot of times when i ah A lot of times hold my snap, right? The longer you play, the more you don't want Because when someone snaps immediately on something happening, like I know what they're trying to do. You know what I mean?
00:55:18
Speaker
Or it's like, oh, you just drew this. You know what i mean? Or this location. And I can make a really informed decision, especially if it's in Conquest, where I'm starting get idea of what their deck, to retreat on it. So when I play, I assume other people have those reading skills.
00:55:33
Speaker
And I hold. Sometimes I'll hold turn later to Snap so they don't know that it's necessarily based on this location. You know what I mean? Yeah. or So they don't know. It's not because just like it's obvious that I just drew something or something just happened for me.
00:55:47
Speaker
Because like my goal, right, is like why get someone for a penny if you can get them for a whole dime, you know? Sometimes I do just want the penny, though. Yeah, okay.
00:55:58
Speaker
Sometimes you do, especially when you're not sure. You want to press your advantage early. Hopefully they either retreat and you just win it. If I don't want to find out if I actually have it, I will snap more aggressively. Before they get a stronger position, try to scare them off. Yeah.
00:56:11
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I do hold on to it for later to, like, conceal, like, what was the deciding, like, why think that I was doing that? To conceal the info so they don't know your strategy.
00:56:22
Speaker
Sometimes it's just, like, 15 seconds, 20 seconds. Like, get some distance from when we drew the card or when the location was the old. Sometimes it's a ah pause. A bit. Yeah.
00:56:33
Speaker
Okay. Anyway, just interesting. and We're suddenly still people snapping so excitedly, and it's like, I know why you just snapped. Like, it's quite obvious. and the The more I've played... I might have talked about this on the podcast a little bit before, but, you know, it's been, like, what, a month or two that I've been doing a lot of clip hunting, and I'm sitting at what I imagine is the bottom of Top Infinite.
00:56:56
Speaker
um And it's very different here than it is at High Infinite. Um... The way that people emote, the way that people stay in, like you can tell half the players don't care if they win or lose.
00:57:10
Speaker
um And the other half care way too much, which is probably why they're, ah you know, at the bottom half of the of the infinite ranking. Yeah.
00:57:22
Speaker
And like i I'm increasingly convinced that ah good casual mode in this game is one that encourages you to play to the last turn. Because the last turn is the most exciting turn. Except for when a clear shutout is happening.
00:57:35
Speaker
All the fun stuff happens when you have the most energy and the most engine building happening and all that. And that's one thing that's like the downside of the snap and retreat mechanic. Is good play discourages the fun part of the game. You have to be the kind of player who finds it fun to...
00:57:51
Speaker
manipulate your opponent in the way that snapping and retreating does so i don't know if a casual mode looks like there's no snapping you know i don't know how you have snapping if if you don't have stakes so like i think grand arena is a really good example of this and we've had other modes like s sanctum showdown and high voltage where there's no snapping but It's kind of a good test. You're snapping Sanctum Showdown.
00:58:17
Speaker
Oh, you're right. There's lots of snapping in Sanctum Showdown. There's a lot snapping Sanctum Showdown. I love It's a really, i I don't know why, it just like it's a different mode. There's no snapping. This snapping fulfills a very different like function. yeah so Yeah, it's not a double of the stakes. It's up but it's a plus one.
00:58:33
Speaker
But yeah, i'd like that is one reason I love Sanctum Shodown. You're right. It's good mode. Also, the snapping doesn't drive retreating in the same way. makes it no, does not. It's not double or nothing. It's like like, if you're retreating, you're just abandoning stuff that you could have gotten. Yeah.
00:58:54
Speaker
Grand Arena does not have that. If you lose, whether it's by retreating, losing, or tying, i should say if you don't win, you get 5 glory and 5 XP. If you win, you get 10, plus you get your ticket reimbursed, which is the real, like, that's the that's the big value of winning.
00:59:11
Speaker
Um... Yeah, I just think that, I think, like, Grand Arena is gonna be a really good test of what a casual mode could look like, because it's a mode that the only reason you retreat is is to get out early, like,
00:59:23
Speaker
um you know you're incentivized to stay in until until the end i've seen some of that the the retreating though i've only played i've seen some tale've seen a couple yeah right um yeah it's doing a lot of things right for a casual mode you know it has eight pre-constructed decks and you can play them even if you don't have the cards you know like i think carnage's deck has kid omega you can play that even if you don't have kid omega and that's cool I've got some other thoughts about what works.
00:59:53
Speaker
It looks slick. It looks good. This Choose Your Champion screen, I feel like I'm playing a fighting game or something. I'm like, oh, who's on the roster this time? And you know it's going to be different next time. i like It is like visually, it's pretty crispy. It looks like it's not as ugly as the high voltage landing screen. you know like It's just...
01:00:14
Speaker
It looks nice, and I like the the pre-built custom like tab switching thing. like The interface is like friendly and usable and all that.
01:00:25
Speaker
ah I wanted to build a custom deck right away. I wasn't going to fuck around with pre-cons, and that was easy to do. and um I've only played one of the champions, I suspect, yet.
01:00:36
Speaker
It's not one of the good ones. I think the ones that seem good to me, I think Mr. Fantastic seems very strong and Invisible Woman seems pretty strong. I went with Human Torch myself because I just wanted to play some familiar cards and I just threw together a kind of a surfery thing.
01:00:57
Speaker
But yeah, I don't think Human Torch is like... top tier. That's my personal opinion. Maybe I'm super wrong. Only played 12 games of it. But if you want to just like win a bunch, I probably wouldn't pick him. That's that's my feeling.
01:01:11
Speaker
I don't know. I thought I had other thoughts, but they fell out of my brain. so if We should have a lot more in a week, and there will still be another week of the game mode to go at that point. so Is it two weeks long?
01:01:24
Speaker
It's two weeks, and we can keep a high level. Yeah. yeah um I did appreciate that high voltage the weekend was like very low stakes. For me, i got the first two like borders that you could get. Then I saw you could only miss like one session to then get the premium variant. I'm like, I'm not playing that much.
01:01:45
Speaker
And then I was out, but it was fine because it's like, I'm not missing, you know, anything special, but it was there for people wanting to do it. So I appreciated they respected my time.
01:01:56
Speaker
I really liked the shorter version. I literally only used it for weekend missions. I think I got one thing off the price check track for doing that, maybe two. And that's it. I played like nine games and won eight of them.
01:02:07
Speaker
That was it. A fun place for bounties, you know? ah yes exactly minute Yeah, ah Something you can't do in a mode like Grand Arena or Sanctum Showdown where there is a ticketing system.
01:02:20
Speaker
yeah i I really don't like the ticketing system, and I know it makes it easier for them to control the economy, but... It feels bad. Games should not feel bad. They are video games.
01:02:31
Speaker
It feels bad and it it just encourages net decking. like Like, why would you experiment if you're using your precious resources in order to do so? Right. I know we're the kind of players who are comfortable doing that, but other players, there's no way. There's no way that that's how you're going to spend your resources ah trying to figure out how to play the game mode. you're just You're just going to use one of the pre-cons and then once the game mode is further solved, you're going to go grab a net deck.
01:02:58
Speaker
you
01:03:00
Speaker
I don't know. like um Tickets are fun sometimes. like I do think like they're a little bit exciting, but like not like necessarily in a healthy way and not in a way that's all like net fun for everyone, you know like net positive. like i I just think the zero-summification of something that doesn't need to be so... yeah I just don't think it's... I hope they stop doing it this way with tickets.
01:03:25
Speaker
That's what I Or if they're going to, they need to give a low stakes option, whether it's practice mode or if it's like conquest has proving grounds or Deadpool's diner has the bottom level yeah table you can go to where after you have a few hundred bubs like going and spending eight or however much it is to enter the bottom tables like it's whatever. The limited time mode should not be turning players away.
01:03:49
Speaker
Like there should always be a way to engage with it. So think that's just like this this tension that's coming with Grand Arena. It's really cool mode. there There seems to be a big marketing push for it.
01:04:00
Speaker
The pre-cons are very casual player friendly. like so it's like in this way, it's a really good casual mode. and There's no snapping. But then in this other way, there's like there's two cards on the line. Like everybody's going to be super sweaty.
01:04:11
Speaker
And then there's also this ticketing system. And what about your casual players who burn through their tickets super fast? Like they're just at odds with each other. And and I think that's a shame. Yeah.
01:04:25
Speaker
okay I'm excited to goof off with it so far I've only used pre-cons and mostly invisible woman deck slaps i just yeah it's really good it's ah it's a toxic deck yeah i'm I'm packing cage myself or an affliction deck I'll definitely start with pre-cons so I get a sense of like how it works you know ah Her a ability is just really, really good. i wasn't able to tell.
01:04:52
Speaker
um I did Rogue and Invisible Woman, and I'm not sure how that interacts with her skill card. Does it count the unrevealed cards that your opponent has at the location, or is it just the unrevealed cards? Because like the text of the skill card makes it sound like it counts opponents' unrevealed cards, and I just want like confirmation on that.
01:05:11
Speaker
Oh, It does read like it. goes off It totally reads like it's your opponent's cards, but I haven't noticed at all. Okay, so I wasn't sure, and i couldn't I didn't count their energy the next turn. like I wasn't sure exactly what they played and how they played it and how they paid for it and stuff.
01:05:28
Speaker
So I wasn't able to confirm or... I don't know. but yeah i's just I almost always use this ability when I have three cards behind her, and I almost always see her get a plus three. I haven't noticed her getting a plus four.
01:05:43
Speaker
I did just play force field on bar sinister and had 22 energy on the next turn. So that was silly. oh beby That's a lot. That's many energy. Yeah.
01:05:53
Speaker
Um, I don't want to tell people like pay attention to like, uh, content creators whose deck building you trust. Like I, this mode is going to get figured out pretty quickly. so,
01:06:06
Speaker
There are ways it's different. Like I said, that like one energy ramp difference really changes like what you can do, but um it's clear already that that a constructed deck or an all-custom deck is better than the pre-cons.
01:06:20
Speaker
Even if you just do small changes, like put Cosmo in Mr. Fantastic's ongoing deck. Yeah. um Yeah, and and somebody's going to find something that stomps all over all of the pre-cons, and and it's going to be interesting to see how the mode evolves. Two weeks is a long time.
01:06:37
Speaker
It is. I really worry it's it's just going to get solved in like a week, but you know maybe they'll OTA it halfway through, add some new band cards. Maybe they might. That could be kind of exciting. i don't know.
01:06:49
Speaker
i'm I'm feeling optimistic about this mode. i want to it's It's exhausting being disappointed by things all the time. i um Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know. Maybe that means they've broken me down, but that i'm I'm trying to... Yeah, I don't know. I just... I i think this one feels all right.
01:07:10
Speaker
I don't know. I'm choosing to
01:07:15
Speaker
feel sunny about it. I'm sunny on one. They deck slots. How do you feel about that? They're dedicated for the mode, but that's kind of cool. Oh, you got me too almost real excited for It's it's what you get one custom deck slot per champion and it's like doesn't take up one of your 20. It's contained to the mode.
01:07:35
Speaker
Which is also nice. You're not going accidentally load your um Grand Arena deck into the... Very nice. That is a serious quality of life improvement. ah Yeah, good on them. Honestly. um and don't know if just one custom per champion is enough, but... I mean, in ah in a perfect world, yes, we'd we'd have more slots.
01:07:55
Speaker
But still, yeah, improvement. I hope it's fun. I think it's really cool that most of the champions are thematic to the season, but then there's Carnage, who's not at all. And I'm excited to see like reruns of Grand Arena where they add more cards that are you know mostly thematic, but then a few oddballs. And I imagine the existing champs and skills will continue existing.
01:08:15
Speaker
think next time there will be a move champion. There is not a move champion this time. the Carnage moves, but he's not. Not really. Yeah. not really I saw that if you if you Viper Carnage, his skill still works. You can move him to an opponent's location and eat everything. that I don't know if that's intentional. It doesn't feel right, but it's really funny.
01:08:41
Speaker
um Anyway, speaking of ah maybe maybe the OTA stuff halfway through, there is an OTA next week.
01:08:49
Speaker
Okay. And we'll talk about it then. On to our side quests. First up and only, secret homework. It was assigned by three Okay, um so this one, the secret homework was do something that makes you happy. Whether it's in Snap or not, it's just like, feels like we're a little stressed and stuff. And could use that and actually, I remember to be easy. This is like really difficult for me, to be honest.
01:09:19
Speaker
Because like... This is just a year where I'm not doing a lot of things. I have some very specific goals, and I'm trying to get those done through other stuff. So the reason I'm not doing those things is because like i don't have the like kids i can't put the time or energy there. And if I do, then I'll be stressed that I'm not doing just stuff. So I'm like, well,
Final Fantasy 14 and Race Exploration
01:09:38
Speaker
what can I do? And I thought...
01:09:42
Speaker
and and And then, and then came upon me that I was like, okay, but what if, because one of the things that I miss is i used to stream, used to stream almost every day.
01:09:57
Speaker
But it's like it like it was very rewarding in that what was rewarding is that there were like 10 people that would enjoy listening to me talk about things that I liked and how I related those to like other things and stories and doing bits and stuff.
01:10:15
Speaker
And that was for me, but it takes a lot of time and energy. like i would i would guess I have so many anxieties about doing this kind of thing. don't have to work up to it. And um and then afterward, I would be like, well, I did a terrible job, obviously, and let everyone down. it's just like It was a lot of effort, but I really loved it. like I made up mythologies for all of my 10 people. you know We had a good time. Anyway.
01:10:39
Speaker
um And I was like, okay, but happy what if my happy thing that I do, what if it's right now? Right now!
01:10:50
Speaker
And I just get to talk a little bit about a thing that I like that is not um Marvel Snap. Um, you know, because that's what I like to do. And nobody kind of live action really, you know, wants to hear me go on about things that I like. So I thought in celebration of um Final Fantasy 14, there is a live letter today, ah no less. And in celebration that finally my people, ah the Vieira, who are a bunny people, long have we been discriminated against for very long and supple and soft years should be celebrated.
01:11:35
Speaker
as you know an intrinsic feature our species also like the hrothgar they're the cat people and to clarify there's it's it's like final fantasy there's not just there's two kinds of cat people you can't just have one kind of cat people is this as opposed to like ronso or something Okay, the Hrothgar are basically the Ronso, because they're like the more beast. Because when they first put in cat people, it was like, okay, but like cat people for like non-furries, where it's like, oh, mostly I want to be like a human girl with like, a little you know, with little ears and like a tail, right? So like they're just cute little cat girls. But Viera i bunny girls. ran like Yes. like
01:12:17
Speaker
I started as a cat girl, of course, but I'm like, I'm not a big tail person. like I don't know. Anyway, and once the bunnies came out, it was like, this is me forever. I'm a bunny. Even though...
01:12:28
Speaker
ah Oh, sorry. The Hrothgar are the more, yes, they're the more, the Ronsau, if you're familiar with Final Fantasy, they're like from ten basically. And they're the more bestial. If you're like not into cute little anime girls, you're more of like a furry, you know? Or like, you know, not just furries, but also like just people who prefer strong bestial.
01:12:48
Speaker
You know, looking character anyway. So because of their unusual head shape and because of our our long, beautiful years, we've been discriminating against and we have not been able to wear most hats.
01:13:01
Speaker
Right. Which is like devastating because like. Real life, I don't tend to like I always wanted to be a hat person, but I don't find it like comfortable to have stuff in my head a lot. So finally, in this, video you know, in video games, I can live out my fantasy of being a hat person and constantly wearing hats.
01:13:17
Speaker
So it has been denied to me for a long time. And finally, and they even showed a picture. So I know it'll be possible. Like, hey, we've expanded a whole bunch of hat for Vier, the bunny people, and Hrathgar.
01:13:30
Speaker
And it's like, finally, my bunny person will be able to wear a wizard hat, you know, become self-actualized, ah as it also is the case in real life. So,
01:13:43
Speaker
Sorry. That is a side note and a celebration um to say that's why I decided to go with Final Fantasy of all the many things I could talk about. I thought I would i would tell a cozy story.
01:13:57
Speaker
Cozy story from Final Fantasy of a recent... ah The Society Quest in Final Fantasy, which are the... um They're like the rep grind, if you're familiar with MMOs, where it's like, here's the faction, and you do daily quests for them, and you build your rep with them, and you get special rewards, like mounts and stuff.
01:14:17
Speaker
And in Final Fantasy, there's a storyline that's always attached to these. And latest one been, like, it's for gatherers. So it's, like, not always the most exciting.
01:14:29
Speaker
Yeah. ah Right, this was Gathers. Yes. ah The Gathering quest line, not always the most exciting. And I wasn't sure I was going to feel about it because this one took place in the nation of memmo Mamuk is, they were kind of the antagonist nation of the latest expansion, um don Trail. So it's a bunch of lizard people.
01:14:53
Speaker
They live in this kind of like underdark forest. That's part of why they're the bad people is they can't really grow much there besides bananas. These like weird underdark bananas, which everyone everyone has to eat all the time they get tired of. It's one of those things where it wouldn't be bad Except when it's the only thing.
01:15:14
Speaker
And um as one does when, like, one doesn't have food one likes, one becomes aggressor and other nations. And they kept trying to restore...
01:15:28
Speaker
They had this sense they wanted to restore their nation to this like perceived former glory they had. Because they used to breed, they used to be like if they could breed multiple tribes to they together, they'd be these big two-headed lizards. One head would usually be of like might and one of magic. One would be a wizard. with these, they would go forth and conquer.
01:15:47
Speaker
And, like, everything they didn't have at home, they would just take for themselves and bring a hat back home. And then they would have everything. and But, you know, eventually people were like, hey, we don't like being invaded and having all of our stuff taken.
01:16:02
Speaker
And, ah you know, so, of course, over time they lost it. But some leaders came along and were like, hey... What if we were able to breed a bunch more of these? Because it had died out, these two-headed, giant, super powerful lizard people.
01:16:18
Speaker
um The mammal jaw, to be correct. um You know, and go forth and conquer, and we can return ourselves to the glory that we once had. Yeah.
01:16:30
Speaker
And this is what led them into, you know, basically becoming the baddies, one of the baddies that you have to fight. What you find out is in order to try and breed ah these to breed these super lizards, it's like most like it's like 90 percent of, you know, more of these these children were nonviable.
01:16:55
Speaker
Basically, they're dying they were like bringing things they knew most of them were going to die. They were like sacrificing their own children, basically, to like to try to achieve this this perceived former glory. So when you come here and you've beaten them, of course, because, you know, most powerful being that's ever existed.
01:17:15
Speaker
and I like this. well, you know, in current days. And and so you come to this nation, it's like it's broken. And i mean, it was already broke.
01:17:26
Speaker
It was already broken, which is why they were, ah you know, aggressing and hurting their own people. And you helped break it more because you had to and to protect everyone else.
01:17:39
Speaker
And so this quest starts where like, hey, It's someone who has been of been chased out of their homeland. A lot of people had to leave Mamluk to, you know, basically because they disagreed with what was happening or to find a way to live, you know, to find something. And in this case, this individual, and I don't, this may not have been intentional coding, but this is the metaphor for me less.
01:18:09
Speaker
oh the the individual come to is wearing this super bright flamboyant outfit. And it's very noticeable because the lizard people back home on Mamuk, it's all drab colors. It's all um very miserable and dark.
01:18:25
Speaker
And so I can't help but think, like, but be reminded, like, some people have to leave home. And his friends are mad at, like, you left us, you left our home, you gave up on it. But it's like sometimes people have to leave home because it is not safe for them, you know?
01:18:39
Speaker
So though, things are better, right? The the leader has been defeated. Get into it. He's like, I want to come back. I want to come back. I want to help my home country.
01:18:52
Speaker
And I thought I got this scientist from Charlene, from the big science place, and we want to try and grow new food. Like, it's like, oh.
01:19:03
Speaker
you know, I feel like food is the way to a nation's heart sometimes. Anyway, so like, we go and like, I don't know how I feel about this. It's so downhearted. it So you go you know, you go through all these quests. You're trying to learn to like grow food and you work through like these pests that help and you work ways to get like light to grow it. You find ways to involve the community. You're like, hey, we have we have this problem where these these like these pests are like ruining crops. And it's like, well, hey, there are these like former soldiers with these big beasts of burden them.
01:19:43
Speaker
ah like, you know, we're fighters that like, they don't have anything to do now because the war is over. Maybe they can come here and that we they they're the only be strong enough to pull um our plows, you know, to like plow the fields.
01:19:57
Speaker
And it's like they're, are you know, and it's like they're trained. It's like this is a good matchup. So you find uses for all these people in the community, right, to come together and invested in growing new food.
01:20:08
Speaker
So people can have fucking something different to eat besides bananas. And to point actually do it and you have like additional vegetable, here's a different thing. It's so exciting. One of the quests is simply to go into town and let people know there are fresh vegetables here. They're giving away everything.
01:20:27
Speaker
And you go to these people who are just like, they're downtrodden, right? The cinema, you see them on their little paths. They're kind of alone. They're not talking. Like everyone's miserable. And you're like, hey, hey there's new food.
01:20:39
Speaker
You never head down this way. And I kind of thought people would be like hating on me because... you know, because of our past. But like, they're just like, oh, really? Like, they were, like, some people were so desperate for a bit of hope. They get so excited. You see this shift, right?
01:20:56
Speaker
So people come to the the vegetable stand and um and there's this big turning point in the quest riff for the first time. Can you imagine, can you fucking imagine bringing to a people who have never had this before, who've never had this, the of a restaurant?
01:21:13
Speaker
Hmm. And the ability to go down, right? the The original dream of a restaurant, food you didn't have to cook yourself after a long day, a place to gather with friends and family, right? And like an outdoor pavilion.
01:21:28
Speaker
And you see these miserable people come, who had been alone and wandering. And now you can go by and you see them in the restaurant, like chatting, like speech bubbles over their head, right? Like you see this place changing all um from just like giving them some hope, bringing a community together to like do something. And you culminate this all, like the final quest line is that you ah get them together didn't go into this because I've already gone way too long.
01:21:58
Speaker
um But with, like, the nation that they've always warred with that's, like, right next, you know, right next to them that have always been bad. And you work to make dish that is a mesh of their two cultures, like, of their two, like, yeah, two of their they're very popular dishes. And you involve. And it's not just you because I'm a master cook. I won't be – that's, like, the first job I leveled. And I'm always – like, could – they could have been, like – ah Clover, Clover, Clover Caswell is my character's name.
01:22:29
Speaker
And they would be like, um you know, Clover, obviously you're the master chef. You should just make this with your brilliance. Instead, they're like, no, you go and you search as part of the quest for like the old chefs, not like, like five star chefs of these places, but the people who work in like the back end restaurants, like, you know, when you think about people who know how to like roll dumplings and all these like,
01:22:52
Speaker
longstanding traditional ways of food that are, like, time-consumed but make beautiful, beautiful food. And that's who you find to come together and help you make this dish, which is, like, the right thing to do, right?
01:23:05
Speaker
And just was something my soul needed. It was so cozy. – because I don't – you know, like I said, I'm coming into this nation of miserable lizard people. I'm like, where is this questline going to be? um And Brent – read a measure of points to my soul in a way because I cannot affect things sometimes on the greater scale.
01:23:27
Speaker
So there, I've done it. I've done, I've achieved my secret homework. help I love That's so good. ah Not only a cozy story, but a surprise cozy story you weren't expecting.
01:23:42
Speaker
Unexpected cozy. Cozy your face. Very cozy. um
Music and Personal Connections
01:23:50
Speaker
Ben is assigning our next week's homework. So Lauren is up next.
01:23:56
Speaker
Yeah, there's a few things I could pick um from the week, but I wanted to pick something that I didn't just happen to do that made me happy, but something that I intentionally did for the homework. And so i kind of I kind of saved it for the last second, but it was you know today at work.
01:24:10
Speaker
I often listen to audiobooks or YouTube or podcasts. This is how I fill all my time. ah The only time I listen to music is when... And I'm like coding or writing because I can't do words in and words out at the same time.
01:24:24
Speaker
Generally speaking, there are some special exceptions. Anyway, I love music. Every time I listen to it, it makes me happy. And I'm like, why don't I listen to it more? And it's like, well, because podcasts and audio books feel more productive or YouTube or whatever.
01:24:35
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, maybe some of it is this ADHD thing where I just like, I need noise in or there's noise coming out. There's a classic story where I pick up my child when, when she's like three and I'm making an annoying noise in the car and she goes, wow, mom, could you please put on a podcast? You're really bothering me. And I was like, oh, you've noticed that like, I don't make the annoying noises when the podcast is going on.
01:25:01
Speaker
Um, anyway. listen to Speaking of my child, I listened to to Regina Spector, my child's namesake, Regina. um ah Because I love Regina Spector. It's something that I fell in love with in high school and got me through some tough times in college and ended up naming my child that.
01:25:18
Speaker
I've been to concerts with my late wife to see Regina. And also, a couple years ago, I got to take Regina to see Regina live, and that was very special. um I listened to my favorite album from 2002, Songs, um very cleverly named, and my favorite song, Prisoners.
01:25:36
Speaker
And I was belting today in the basement while I was working. um Fortunately, i was doing work that was really grindy, so like I didn't have to... It was okay for music to be happening and singing. i could still accomplish what I needed to accomplish, but it was very uplifting emotionally,
01:25:56
Speaker
and um The song, I just always loved it. ah There's not a particular reason. I just think it's a beautiful and very fun song, Prisoners. um But I feel so lucky that that when I went to the concert to see...
01:26:12
Speaker
Regina Spector live the most recent time. I've seen her a few times. um She played Prisoners. I'm like, I was never expected to hear this song from 2002. I never expected to hear it live in, well, it was probably 2024. And like, made me so happy that I got to.
01:26:28
Speaker
um so yeah, that's what I did. I listened to songs by Regina Spector and relived some past memories of seeing her live. Yay. Yay.
01:26:41
Speaker
and still I love that for you Ben? Alright well Lots of I did lots of things that made me happy This past week Excuse me One of them was i finished Season 2 of Poker Face As I mentioned on the podcast And Patty Harrison did show up In four episodes And she was fantastic ah Highly recommend ah She's just the best um
01:27:12
Speaker
Yeah, other than that, I guess, well, I already talked about all the fucking kick-ass Hades 2 I was playing. But the thing that I did that was sort of snap ajament a snap adjacent to make myself happy, or perhaps to share my happiness with other, I don't know.
01:27:30
Speaker
A thing I did, and it it filled me with all kinds of feelings, happy and otherwise, but I put together a ah playlist at the urging of mandatory burnout in our Discord.
01:27:41
Speaker
who's just a character, you know? And ah I'm glad glad they're there. And anywho, it was a long playlist. I did 40 songs.
01:27:54
Speaker
And they've all got something to do with stuff we've talked about on the podcast or something to do with Marvel Snap. Sometimes... ah It's very literal.
01:28:05
Speaker
Like, uh, the first song on the playlist is move on up by Curtis Mayfield. Cause I like cards that move. And, uh, yeah, I've got, I've got a lot of songs that I've named decks after. Like I've got surfing safari is track to not the beach boys original. I went with a very, uh,
01:28:26
Speaker
ah The Ramones cover, actually, which I have a funny little story. I first encountered that in like 2004 or something, probably 2005, maybe. I don't know. I downloaded it on LimeWire.
01:28:40
Speaker
I remember LimeWire. Here's the thing. i could not find any confirmation anywhere on the Internet that like... this recording existed, but like it was definitely the Ramones performing Surf and Safari. And like I could tell it was for sure really the Ramones because it was definitely like the 90s lineup with with Marky and CJ and all that. Like it was definitely legit, but I couldn't find anywhere on Wikipedia where they would have recorded this. And it turns out it was just like one of you know, one of those tracks that's only on like the Japanese version of the album or whatever.
01:29:15
Speaker
And ah the internet was not as fully fleshed out and thorough and full of facts as it later came to be. And now now the internet is like becoming less useful again.
01:29:26
Speaker
but But yeah, back in 2004, there was like no evidence that this recording like really... like there there There was nothing to corroborate this this fucking random-ass file I'd downloaded on LimeWire. And there are you know there are a lot of mislabeled things on LimeWire.
01:29:39
Speaker
But I was like, I was really sure this was what what it was, you know? And ah now now I know what it is. Yeah, it's ah on the Japanese version of Acid Eaters.
01:29:50
Speaker
Anywho, or something. i think I think that's correct. Then I got you know the song from the opening cutscene of Catherine Full Body. It's ah very similar to the song in the opening cutscene of regular Catherine, or one of the opening cutscenes of Catherine.
01:30:06
Speaker
But anywho, you know, it's just a different version. Got some K-pop demon hunters up in there. Got I'm So Humble from Popstar, Never Stop Never Stopping, one of my favorite comedies.
01:30:16
Speaker
And also a song that I've referenced on the show. I Am A Rock, a live performance from Simon and Garfunkel. That's a hilarious joke about rocks in Marvel Snap.
01:30:27
Speaker
I am a rock. and and um Also, I tried to like there are other secret connections between the songs. You may notice some thematic through lines as one song goes to another.
01:30:38
Speaker
Also, sometimes i was just zagging as hard as I possibly could just to to live my my most unpredictable lifestyle. Got Smooth Sailing by Queens of the Stone Age. That's a very good song. a Very good guitar solo in it.
01:30:52
Speaker
i um Yeah, that song just rocks. got Got some... Man, I don't know if y'all need to hear about every song, but I got i got two non-Claire de Lune WC pieces in there. ah Got Cool Doug at Night, the song that my discard deck is named after.
01:31:12
Speaker
I've got In the Blood from Hades 1. I've got Coral Crown from Hades 2. And I didn't double up on artists anywhere. I've got some local Iowa musicians.
01:31:23
Speaker
I got Empire Ants by Gorillaz. And if you can't make the lyrics of that song about Marvel Snap like five different ways, you really are trying. ah Lost in the supermarket by The Clash. Everything counts by Depeche Mode.
01:31:37
Speaker
Peggy Lee, why don't you do right from Fallout New Vegas, the game that is always in the Great Maybe Snap review game. um ah There's always a Fallout New Vegas review in there. So if I bring it back for like the one year or something, just keep your... keep your ears open for a review that sounds like it might be about Fallout New Vegas, because there will be one.
01:31:57
Speaker
I got Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There from Persona 5, the regular-ass Persona 5 intro music. The Persona 5 Royal intro music is fine, too, but I like the...
01:32:08
Speaker
but but but but but but but but but of bo You know that, you know, anyway, I've got On My Way by Maxton Waller from the second season of Dungeons and Daddies, ah very fun actual play podcast that surely has nothing to do with anything we would ever do.
01:32:24
Speaker
um oh Got galvanized by the Chemical Brothers. Saw that in an advertisement yesterday or heard it in an advertisement yesterday. And I was like, ah yes, songs.
01:32:36
Speaker
They do get used in advertisements, even, you know, even when you didn't need to hear them there. And I got Business Time by Flight of the Conchords. It's classic. One of my favorites.
01:32:49
Speaker
I love Flight of the Conchords. um And. Then I've got Don't Tell Your Wife About This Game by Brian David Gilbert, a song that has lots of fun game jokes, and references to game mechanics, mobile game things, just general tropes of gaming and stuff.
01:33:09
Speaker
but Then if if you have Don't Tell Your Wife About This Game, you need to have like some some real proper like some acknowledgement of... ah don't know.
01:33:20
Speaker
Romance as like wholly positive thing. So then I've got, you know, blow your mind by Jamiroquai. Every little thing she does is magic. A live version that's by the police. This is from my 2008 live album. I think it is.
01:33:32
Speaker
I got red roses for a blue lady by, ah well, this, I think the tune is by Bert Cainford, but the, the, The artist is Al Hurt for the recording I chose. And that's because there are so many blue ladies in Snap. I'm probably missing some.
01:33:46
Speaker
Also, tell me if any of these ladies are purple, but I'm pretty sure they're all blue. I mean, we is is Blink purple? Is Nebula purple? Blink is purple. Nebula's purple, yeah. Okay, so they're they're purple. I thought they might be purple, but, you know, we've got, like...
01:34:03
Speaker
mystique and nocturne and i feel like i came up with one more but i can't think who it was now so i don't know if you think of the third blue lady mystique i think i already said that but i might i may not have who knows who knows link is pink okay well whatever point is
01:34:24
Speaker
Okay, copycat. Yeah, see, blue ladies left and right. I knew they were in there. Anywho, then I got a Silent Shout. I think I had a deck named after that by The Knife from their 2006 album of the same name. Pretty good. Then I got Theme from Snuffbox by Matt Berry.
01:34:39
Speaker
ah Snuffbox came up when I was discussing Cool Tool. um ah the Yeah, and if you remember it, you remember it. And if you don't, don't worry about it. got... Oh, here's...
01:34:51
Speaker
There's a three song cycle about weekend missions. um We've got Friday Night by Tim Robinson from I Think You Should Leave. we got Night Fever from the film Saturday Night Fever.
01:35:03
Speaker
Bee Gees, I think, scientifically, you know, like... I don't think that the AI we ended up with is like good enough or the right thing to tell us what the best song ever is. But if we actually made a computer super intelligence that was worth a damn, it would surely tell us that like mathematically and just like structurally Night Fever by the Bee Gees is the best song ever. i think just like...
01:35:31
Speaker
yeah I think there's an empirical way that's true. any And then the third song in the weekend missions cycle is Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon by Queen. No, what about Monday?
01:35:41
Speaker
Monday is part of weekend missions now. that's the the i know, right? Here's the thing. I know there are songs about Mondays. just didn't feel like putting them on the list. They didn't make the cut. Are there no good songs? The only song I think it would be like that manic Monday, right? but I didn't feel like it. I was like, don't know. I think that...
01:35:59
Speaker
It's just better to get the weekend missions out of the way a little sooner. don't don't stress yourself once the week's begun. like having the pad of Monday because you're always like, well, I wish I could do it Monday. It feels better. Well, that's fair.
01:36:12
Speaker
But i didn't i didn't I didn't feel like getting Monday in there, and I thought I had dedicated enough Days of the Week songs. Also, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon covers all the days of the week. The the name is not representative of the full content.
01:36:27
Speaker
ah you know ah It's such a good song. It's only a minute long. I can sing the whole thing for you, including the guitar solo right now. But I won't. And you know, got more WC, got some Big Bang, G-Dragon and T.O.P. T.O.P. is the rapper plays Thanos on Squid Game.
01:36:47
Speaker
You got one more guest appearance in season three. ah Wow, that there were some things wrong with that third season. um Why did they bring back the VIPs? I thought they learned their lesson. They weren't in the second season.
01:36:58
Speaker
But yeah, those horrible English-speaking actors from the first season, they made a reappearance. Sorry for spoilers. Anywho, then I've got ah the man with the machine gun from Final Fantasy VIII, the Black Mages version.
01:37:12
Speaker
It rocks incredibly hard. um Then I've got Troy and Abed's Christmas rap, Christmas infiltration from Community. Okay, yeah. ah That's a very fun song. um You know...
01:37:27
Speaker
Donald Glover is obviously the better rapper of the two, but, you know, Danny Pudi does all right. You can tell he's got some musical theater training of some kind. Wait, come on, Childish Gambino? Like, that's not fair. Yeah, that's the thing. Of course, you're going to be worse at rapping than Childish Gambino.
01:37:45
Speaker
It's a thing that will happen. Then I've got Breezin' by George Benson. I like to think that's the Winds of Watum song. ah But it's just like a beautiful, just a...
01:37:58
Speaker
instrumental with like ah impeccable. It's just really good. That's not how I envision. You'll know so why it's there if you listen to it. you'll you'll You'll enjoy it. And I just wanted to balance out that some of these things were chosen to for I don't know.
01:38:16
Speaker
i This is not like the most well-balanced playlist. I had many different priorities I was weighing while I assembled it and put it into order and stuff. There are no rules to play listing.
01:38:27
Speaker
Play as playlist with your heart. I guess. Anywho, after Breezin', that's where I snuck in Coral Crown from Hades 2. Cause like that song is incredibly hard and heavy and stuff.
01:38:39
Speaker
And like, they're, Oh, I think I skipped over. i have the Shire from, uh, Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, Howard Shore, baby. ah one of, one of the goats. Um, yeah but then anyway, after a choral crown by skill and the sirens from Hades two, I've got far from the beaten paths by Jean-Luc Ponty, uh, that, uh, I like to think that song is about building off metadex.
01:39:03
Speaker
And, uh, it, it, it's a very cool song. I like, uh, I like JLP a lot. Uh, ah I'm a big fan of that album, Individual Choice. I got it at Goodwill because I saw the cover and it's just John Luke Ponty staring soulfully at you and looking kind of silly. And I was like, I got to know what kind of music this is because I just I didn't even know. I was like, yeah.
01:39:27
Speaker
it's 80 cents to find out what the fuck this guy's deal is. And so I did. And ah then I got some of his other albums and they're all really good. Then I've got In the Garage by Weezer. It's a live version. It's very good.
01:39:39
Speaker
ah He's got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too. Waiting there for me. Yes, he does. Or for him. Yes, he does. And then I've got Old as Fuck by The Wizards. It's probably the best rap song about being an immortal wizard ever.
01:39:55
Speaker
It's got a great... verse from ah Kyle Newacek, who is one of the creative forces behind the What We Do in the Shadows television program.
01:40:06
Speaker
um He also played Carl on Workaholics and directs some things. Then I've got Giorgio by Moroder from the last Daft Punk album.
01:40:18
Speaker
And, uh, that's a long one, but that one is also about building off metadex and experimenting and trying new things and trying to make something fresh and interesting and exciting.
01:40:28
Speaker
And then I closed it out. Track 40. Isn't it glorious by lipstick homicide, uh, a punk band from Iowa and, uh, they're friends of mine and, uh, they really, they're really, really good. Like, uh,
01:40:43
Speaker
Yeah, and it's a good song. it's It's from a while ago, but i I know for a fact they still play it sometimes. so And ah we we just covered how how fun it is when when the bands play play the old stuff.
01:40:57
Speaker
Anywho, that was the whole thing. Check it out. I think I mentioned most. Maybe I scrolled through some things and didn't talk about them. But, yeah, I also don't really listen to music very much these days. Not really for, like, 10-plus years, honestly.
01:41:12
Speaker
Yeah. um But I used to listen to a lot of music and I still think about a lot of music. Oh, I guess you listen to podcasts. Yeah, that's the thing. But then how you like dance while you do
01:41:26
Speaker
I mostly just do the chores.
01:41:30
Speaker
But so yeah, you know, i it was fun putting it together, listening to the tracks, putting them in order, picking which things. You know, there were a lot of things that had to...
01:41:43
Speaker
There were things that I wanted to put on it after I'd finished it, but I was like, no, just leave it like it is. um Yeah, just ah I think almost all the I don't know.
01:41:56
Speaker
And I think people might enjoy those songs. They're all mostly pretty good. a That's that's my feeling. I don't know. It's a fun project.
01:42:08
Speaker
Anything interesting to say about them. I love making playlists. So, yeah. If it made you happy, check it out. You did the job. If it made you happy. I'm not saying people shouldn't listen, but definitely, anyway.
01:42:22
Speaker
anyway Yeah, if if you want to like understand what i'm what I'm about, what I'm up to, what what kind of music I listened to 10 years ago back when I listened to music and stuff. I mean, ah still – I don't want to make it sound like I never, ever, ever listened to music, but – Yeah, I don't know. I still love music, and you should listen to music. I still recommend listening to music. I'm not and saying you should listen
Podcast Announcements and Personal Style
01:42:49
Speaker
to podcasts, although I guess it's sort of implicit, you know, the fact that we are recording one for you to listen to right now.
01:42:56
Speaker
So, don't know. After you get done with this episode, you could check it out if you wanted. No pressure. But the songs are good. i mean, i I do recommend them. there aren' They are all bangers.
01:43:09
Speaker
It'll be in the show notes or video description.
01:43:13
Speaker
Oh, and now I suppose I i must assign some secret homework. That's right. Guess what? Guess what? It's not the most exciting or the most a unexpected. I'm sure like if my co-hosts were trying to guess what secret homework I would assign, they probably already guessed what it is.
01:43:32
Speaker
That's right. You're going to choose an existing card and design a skill for it. And you can make a little pre-con if you want, but you're making a Grand Arena champion. Okay. Card and skill. understandably. Or some future iteration of the Grand Arena. Mantis.
01:43:53
Speaker
No, not committing to this. not committing to Mantis. Mantis could be the best champion. i I played an Arishem.
01:44:04
Speaker
I played a good Mantis. I'm trying to think if really quickly I can remember what it was. But I got a Mantis and like hee hee hee. Because it was one of those things where you know where they're going to play. And I knew what they were going to play. And then I'm like yoink for me. Oh I think it was a big ass kitty or something. Anyway.
01:44:20
Speaker
It's just like haha. So you know. Mantis. Good in Arishem. 0.01% the time. okay just on ah while While I'm thinking of it, hey, really take a look at those skills of those champions and what they do. Because, like, I think that the ones with the better skills are the better champions. And I've only played 12 games, but that's that's my read on it.
01:44:46
Speaker
And that's why I kind of think that I picked a stinker with Human Torch because his skill is... it Yeah, it's kind of at odds with his ability. It very much is. it's a Wow. i Sometimes I just throw it out there and just throw it out there, you know.
01:45:03
Speaker
But yeah I mean, they're strong because they're the champions, but also you guaranteed get the skill like you always draw it like that's. Yeah, you can do cool stuff even with cards that are a Mantis level of power.
01:45:19
Speaker
was going to say, ah it was ah a couple weeks ago I asked on Twitter for like, what card do you want to see me do a cool clip with? And original Good Egg Wombat Combat said Mantis. And I tried. job, Wombat.
01:45:30
Speaker
I tried. And I should have recorded this one because I had one where I got... four 20 power venoms using mantis i won because of mantis um but i failed to record that one because i was like we can do better than this i don't know if you can do better than that speaking of failing original good egg wombat combat you know that i was only able to achieve the the two knights chronos clear after Wombat Combat had already left the stream, but but only through the good vibes that Wombat Combat brought earlier in the evening. Only coasting on that energy was I able to muster the prowess to do what needed to be done.
01:46:15
Speaker
And thank you, Wombat Combat. Your presence always delights me.
01:46:23
Speaker
Oh, shoot. Wombat Combat also told me about a really interesting interaction that maybe you already know about. But hey, did you scoot Mercury onto Moonstone? Moonstone can scoot in the same staging phase. He runs with a Moonstone lane and you can just do it right away? What the hell?
01:46:42
Speaker
That's fun. That's just unnatural. Yeah. I found another one that works the same way after Wamit told me about that. If you move a Madam Web onto Moonstone, which is like you have to do some steps to be able to move a Madam Web. But if you do that...
01:47:00
Speaker
then you can move another card from that location immediately because Moonstone takes on the ability. That is neato. Yeah, I did a really fun clip with it. Anyway, ah don't tune out yet. I don't know how many of... I hope you all listen to the end because there's usually stuff after the outro, but...
01:47:17
Speaker
We have special outro for the next few weeks because this is episode 49 and we're coming up on episode 50. We have 52. We haven't missed an episode yet. So 52 means it's an anniversary and we're trying to do some fun stuff with that.
01:47:30
Speaker
um One thing we're doing is a listener Q&A. the You can ask us anything about anything. You can specify if you want a specific host to address it. um And you know, if there's anything that we're not comfortable answering, we just won't. So feel free, really, like, go for it.
01:47:46
Speaker
um The Google Form is how we're going to be collecting those questions. It will be in the show notes or video description. And please submit as many questions as you want. um Because we want episode 52 to be really super fun.
01:47:59
Speaker
Another thing we're doing, um Mod Supreme Models is going to be running a magical heist tabletop RPG for us, and we are going to ah record that and put it out as a bonus episode. The game is called Magic Magic if you want to check it out ahead of time, but...
01:48:14
Speaker
Anyway, we'll be doing that, and it's going to be super fun. and We're very excited. um That'll come out around the same time as episode 52. So look forward to that. Otherwise, if you liked what you heard, like, follow, subscribe, rate, and review.
01:48:28
Speaker
Leave a comment. You can do that on YouTube or Spotify. Or you can come hang out with us in the speakeasy, our little corner of Discord. Specifically, the Snap Judgments Network, or Snap Judgments League Discord.
01:48:39
Speaker
instructions to get there are in the show notes or video description. And I'm sorry to the one listener who was trying so hard to get into it last week. All three of us tried answering on YouTube and had our comments suppressed.
01:48:51
Speaker
So I don't know what kind of incantations need to be said to preserve comments or like, I don't know, but instructions to get into the discord are in the show notes or the video description.
01:49:03
Speaker
If you go into your podcast player or whatever, you should be able to find them there. There's a link in everything. Okay. And if you still don't get it, I don't know, DM me on Twitter or, or blue sky or something.
01:49:14
Speaker
Um, anyway, we're proudly part of the snap judgments network where you can listen to other great shows like the infinite bike here. Nimbus, which releases on Saturdays. It's a solo show that covers news and vibes on, you know, like card reviews and stuff like that and what's happening in snap, but it's pretty snappy. So if you want something that's actually snappy, uh, check that out sometime. Uh,
01:49:38
Speaker
Anyway, if you want to, i don't know, hear about the OTA or hear about Grand Arena or whatever, be here for episode 50. Tune in next week. Same snap time, same snap channel.
01:49:51
Speaker
Okay, real quick. I actually, I want to talk about bonus secret homework that I did. Okay. So back when I was a guy or thought I was a guy, I was a shirt guy. I had like 50 different threadless shirts, if you if you know what threadless is anyway.
01:50:06
Speaker
Yes! have threadless shirts! have whole bunch of them still. So tons of them were pop culture-y, but also... What's that? What what is Threadless? Just a t-shirt store where artists would upload. Sorry, I may shouldn't be explaining for you.
01:50:22
Speaker
No, you're fine. But yeah, it's just a high-quality tea shop that's on the web. It took off, I don't know, 15 years ago, something like that. I used to hang out there a lot. um But the thing that they did that was kind of unique is as i mean anybody could submit a design. And then part of it, it was actually like community on the site where like you upvoted designs in the ones that were popular.
01:50:43
Speaker
you know, became printed shirts and every week there would be new ones. And I'm sure it's, uh, I'm sure that all that has changed a lot over time, but anyway, i used to have tons of them and, you know, some of them are pop culture and some of them are just cute. Towards the end, I was getting really artsy ones, but,
01:50:59
Speaker
sometime over, I don't know if it was of approaching middle age or transition or what, that I kind of like stopped buying graphic tees. Almost all my tees are solid or or patterned.
01:51:10
Speaker
And i love a good patterned shirt or a patterned dress or whatever, but I haven't been buying graphic things because I thought I was too old for them. But this week I bought a K-pop Demon Hunter shirt. And I'm really excited. I'll probably just wear it next week. Is it Huntrix merch or are you boys?
01:51:27
Speaker
Oh, no, it's Huntrix merch. it's the It's the shirt that you can see several times in the show, but Bobby, their manager, is wearing it. And at ah beginning, it's got all three of them on it. It's really cute. And i yeah, i bought that. And then I bought two more for my wife and child.
01:51:43
Speaker
And then I bought one more because the first one I bought was actually a men's and I wanted a women's cut. So, so yeah, I have two. Yeah. That's very cool. You gotta get into like t-shirts.
01:51:54
Speaker
I want to get more into that first stuff. You know, like cutting up t-shirts and making new clothes. Oh, customizing them, yeah. Yeah. All kinds of fun stuff you can do for sure.
01:52:04
Speaker
You should do. Um, you know, guys' clothes are fine, but girls' clothes are way more fun. Yeah, I don't know how you have to put up with those tiny necks. I don't know.