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65: But What if Twice as Much? image

65: But What if Twice as Much?

S1 E65 · Snap On This!!
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Sims 🏃‍♂️ & songs 📻 & spiders 🕷️ in this week’s Snap On This!! 🫛 with Lauren, Ben, & Rie. 👋

For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:

  • 🫰 Weeks in Snap
  • Revisiting Last Week’s Cards 🎸🚶⤴️🕸️🕷️
  • 🧓🦶 Ezekiel Sims & 🦎🫥 Chameleon
  • Spider-Man Noir vibes 🕵️ for next week
  • 🚥 Cer3bro Intervention 🚥
  • Secret Homework 🤫: 🎚️🔊 Arachnid Anarchy Character playlist 🎧🎶

Featured playlists:

Video version on YouTube.

Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:

Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:

  • Snap Decisions
  • Snap Judgments

Join us on Discord! 👾

  1. Join the server
  2. Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
  3. Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!

Featured decks:

Credits:

  • Cover art by Lauren
  • Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
  • YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
  • Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star

Timestamps:

  • 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
  • 0:16:38 Last Week's Cards
  • 0:30:25 Ezekiel Sims
  • 0:43:43 Chameleon
  • 0:54:00 Spider-Man Noir
  • 0:57:12 Deafening Chord
  • 0:59:49 High Voltage
  • 1:00:56 Cerebro Discussion
  • 1:11:52 Secret Homework: Seasonal Playlists
  • 2:14:27 Next Week's Secret Homework
  • 2:18:28 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript

Introduction and Secret Homework

00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to episode 65 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, make a seasonal playlist.

Meet the Hosts

00:00:10
Speaker
I'm your host, Lauren Woodevs, here with my usual amazing, sparkling, delightful co-hosts.
00:00:15
Speaker
First up, Rhi, how was your week in Snap? And keep it snappy. All right. Well, this week, keep it snappy. I did.
00:00:27
Speaker
i first, at the beginning of the week, it was a bit of a struggle because, like, I had started noodling with some stuff and I was facing a lot of mirrors, just in a lot of stuff that was fun. And it was just like, oh, what to play, what to play.
00:00:43
Speaker
Like... Hating the meta and trying to beat it is never as fun as just chasing your dreams, your card dreams, and then just trying to build that.
00:00:55
Speaker
um But like there's some metas you can't do that.
00:01:00
Speaker
But then, you know, things settle down a little bit. And know I was having fun because I was like... Uh, noodling with two new decks.

Rhi's Deck Experiments and Strategies

00:01:10
Speaker
have a third I put together and haven't even really, like, gotten around to, like, playtesting. And i wrote I brought back an old an old friend um inspired by,
00:01:23
Speaker
um
00:01:26
Speaker
Was first Ghost Rider that got a buff? Maybe it was a while ago to 2.7. My brain is like behind on this. It's pretty recent that first Ghost Rider. Okay, excellent. That's like last week or something. Yeah. Okay, great.
00:01:41
Speaker
I'm many years ago? It's like, okay, I don't know what time it is. But, yeah, so it's really, I'm like, oh, yeah, let me, you know, that got a little boost. Let me just do small hello.
00:01:54
Speaker
And it was great fun. I won't lie, Stardust just wrecks it. So, like... That's not fun.
00:02:04
Speaker
mean, sometimes you can outplay one. If they went in too hard in tech, sometimes you don't need to play the Hella. Because, you know, it's kind of a bigs and smalls deck.
00:02:14
Speaker
Because you've got Ghost Rider, like first Ghost Rider, right? But you're always going to play him like at a 2-7. I pretty much never shave anything off because I also have Sage...
00:02:28
Speaker
in the deck in Iron Man. and I'm just i like, I'm pretty much always saving it and hitting it on one of those two, um which is perfect because they build this deck to like the new Hella rules are kind of fun of like, there can only be one.
00:02:46
Speaker
At every energy, you know? um a little Hell's Ark of cards. And so and like, okay, well, you know, a Sage is easy to discard with a Silver Samurai, right? So we have Ghost Rider and Silver Samurai to discard those.
00:03:03
Speaker
Iron Man and Sage are like prime targets for that. A three and a five to bring back. um And I love...
00:03:15
Speaker
Yes, yes, you know I have Swordmaster in there, of course, because it also hits. I was hearing these odd numbers. Right? It also hits the Sage and the Iron Man.
00:03:25
Speaker
Black Cat, of course, because she's just one of the big, statted discard cards. Easy to fit in. And here's the thing. If it's an inopportune time to play her, it's the only one cost in the deck. So you just bring her back with hella later, you know?
00:03:40
Speaker
No bigs. um And love... This is the tech in the deck. ah Is Moon Knight and Silver Samurai as well, right? You're trying to get your opponent to discard their... People, love how much people don't think about that.
00:03:58
Speaker
You know, like... ah Because they'll, like, snap you and stuff because they drew their combo. And it's like, you know, was your was was it I-Namzola that you needed?
00:04:08
Speaker
You know? It's just really fun because, like... um You can take out a lot of stuff that way. Okay. So ah Fenris Wolf, because you're making them discard stuff.
00:04:22
Speaker
um And it's fun. Oh, man. I had... Oh, I took a screenshot. I wish I didn't think of it until just now. I would have prepared this because I know I have a screenshot or something. my and I had a super clever...
00:04:33
Speaker
Fenris Wolf play where by like bringing back their discard in like exactly the right order. it was a shang or something. I don't know. You know what i mean?
00:04:46
Speaker
Whatever I got of theirs, you was a shang. It like won me the game. And it's like, that's got to be so infuriating for them. Which kind of makes it more fun, to be honest.
00:04:57
Speaker
So like...
00:05:00
Speaker
ah So and then ghostwriter, regular ghostwriter is here because, you know, you got to have a backup because like, hello you know, hella arrives when she means to.
00:05:13
Speaker
So, oh, and then I think I just didn't mention statures in here because we have two cards to make them discard stuff. So, like, you know, when do you not want to play a one seven? You know, also a backup target to hit with like a sword master something, just not to like...
00:05:32
Speaker
but waste a good discard. And then gore. Because gore also is a great target. It's your third target for like Ghost Rider, first Ghost Rider, for Silver Samurai.
00:05:47
Speaker
Because even though what shows big in your hand still counts as that minus one. It's always going to hit it. And that's your six costs that you bring back with Hela. So it's kind of this perfect, like everything you discard, like Hela can like bring back and, um you know, unless they have a perfectly timed Stardust on you.
00:06:08
Speaker
um It beats a lot of things.

New Deck Inspirations

00:06:10
Speaker
It's really fun. It's just fun to play. Okay, so that was one thing I revived. I haven't even changed it from the very last semester round with it. um And then the other, there's the the the two new decks I was noodling with. one one One I'm saving for later because involves Spider-Punk.
00:06:29
Speaker
But the other deck was also inspired by the OTA, by Debris Boost to Seven. um And shout out to Wombat Combat, who also had a similar The original good egg idea Right? The original good egg.
00:06:46
Speaker
um It's called Rocks and Squirrels because it is a deck with all the rocks. It's so fun. It's got... um You know, to get your rocks, obviously, Debris and Rhino, which are just, like, great big cards, you know.
00:07:03
Speaker
Now that they're actually big enough stats now that, like, they're worth playing if you're boosting the rocks. Um, Irby. that was the card I originally forgot until, like, I saw on that combat.
00:07:16
Speaker
It went, like, a different, like, zombie galacti direction than I went. um But I had forgotten Army, who's also great in this.
00:07:27
Speaker
And then Patriot, of course, great with rocks and squirrels. Mole Man. Okay. Mole Man is actually fantastic in this because, like, everything else that I haven't mentioned is a four-up card.
00:07:43
Speaker
So, one, you don't mind hitting it because you probably aren't going to have the energy to, like, play out all these big-cost cards. But... um And it's really great to have like 1.5 or 1.6.
00:07:57
Speaker
You know, even if you hit Mockingbird, because if you draw Mockingbird, you hope she's a lot cheaper from all your rocks and squirrels on the board. But if you hit her with Mole Man, that's still a 1.6 you're getting out of her. Super value with Mockingbird.
00:08:11
Speaker
in this deck. one 4 to 6 rock that you're beefing up with a Patriot or i haven't mentioned Kazaar, Blue Marvel, Onslaught.
00:08:24
Speaker
Because that's just a great way to like, people don't expect Onslaught as much as they expect other things anymore. so it's And once again, it's another big card um that you can drop or you can use to hit a moment.
00:08:37
Speaker
And then my last addition that I put in was Valkyrie. Because why not? Most of your stuff, your benefits that you're getting or from, ah you know, are from ongoing. So, like, you're unaffected.
00:08:55
Speaker
um It's another Mole Man target, 1-5. And it also pairs nicely with a Mole Man rock, you know? A little Valk Mole Man rock action.
00:09:06
Speaker
So, uh, that has been very fun for me. And, uh, that's what I've been up to this week. Um, because have to talk about spiders later, actually. Okay. Awesome. Those decks both look interesting, and I will... Well, I'll try the rocks and squirrels one. I don't know if I'll try the hella one, although the, I really do appreciate how, like, carefully crafted and balanced it is.
00:09:32
Speaker
Um...

Ben's Marvel Snap Journey

00:09:34
Speaker
maybe Maybe I'll try it. That's hella in her lane, moisturized, you know. Doc was balanced. okay ah Ben, how was your weekend snap and keep it snappy?
00:09:50
Speaker
ah My weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy, as I so often do. ah It's been alright. I did some snap things.
00:10:01
Speaker
ah Let's see what all happened.
00:10:07
Speaker
i um I competed in the the golden gauntlets. And and that was that was good fun. I did pretty well.
00:10:19
Speaker
um Played the surfer deck that I described on the program last week. I wish I'd played a little better. um i i was doing quite well for the first four rounds.
00:10:33
Speaker
And then after I lost the first one, I got a bit flustered. And there was a really frustrating play where I um omniversal presence to Baxter building that I shouldn't have. And it, man.
00:10:46
Speaker
And then I was pretty flustered. um But even with all that, I finished like 40 something. I feel like I took a screenshot or something. I don't know, 41 or 43rd or something out of, don't know, 185 or something. Out of 185 who made it there by placing high in other tournaments.
00:11:09
Speaker
<unk> Yeah. Cream of the crop. or whatever very good. forty first or whatever is very good And the the really frustrating thing is that like was sick as a dog and I feel like I could have done a little better.
00:11:21
Speaker
I feel like I could't could it could have brought it a little harder. And maybe you can hear that I'm still, in fact, sick as a dog. ah This started like right after right after we wrapped recording last week.
00:11:33
Speaker
So it's been a real fun week for me. But um and in that time, I've had plenty of time to play Snap. I got to spend some quality time with Ezekiel Sims, as I'm sure we'll get into later.
00:11:47
Speaker
Um, I have not been streaming much cause, uh, constantly like coughing and blowing my nose and just being disgusting. And, uh, nobody wants to see that. So, uh, I'm been a lot of streaming.
00:12:01
Speaker
Um, what else has happened? oh I mostly want to talk about things that we're going to talk about later.
00:12:12
Speaker
Hmm. Hmm. Well,
00:12:18
Speaker
oh I don't know. I've been watching, watching some good TV. maybe ah the Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I'm sure. I'm sure we'll talk about all the things we need to talk about.
00:12:29
Speaker
And yeah, that's totally fine to keep it super snappy. And I'm sure I speak for the audience as well as myself. When I say I appreciate and admire your savvy use of the mute button today.
00:12:42
Speaker
Um, yeah, My week in Snap. i have been working on a secret project that probably won't be secret for too too long. um What else?
00:12:54
Speaker
I realized i like while while ah during Ben's week that the two decks I want to talk about have this week's cards in them. So I'll save those for just a second.
00:13:05
Speaker
i And... Snoprentice has been going on. I don't know if I've talked about it since season three started, but we are several episodes deep into it.
00:13:16
Speaker
um Friend of the show, phil J. word Woodward, is still... present it hasn't been fired yet oh i didn't even know he was competing yeah i don't know if i'm allowed to you know show favoritism or root him off you know but like i am really i hope he does well um maybe lauren has to be impartial but i'm coming out and endorsing right here right now it's got to be phil j woodward come on people We both use the same sparkly heart emojis our heart signifiers. As the selected, the preferred heart.
00:13:56
Speaker
And the same Electra variant we just like battled recently.
00:14:03
Speaker
um phil Phil's awesome. um yeah We have a bunch of great people on, who both returning candidates and new candidates. I strongly suggest checking it out. It usually airs on Saturdays, but also on Sundays sometimes.
00:14:15
Speaker
It's on Devilish's channel. um The thing that I have been doing, we've been working on the task list for months ahead of the season, but it's just it's become a real challenge to write good tasks constantly.
00:14:30
Speaker
ah that are based in the game. The creative tasks I don't find as challenging to make interesting, but the in-game tasks are so hard because over three seasons of the game, a the game has become less stable.
00:14:44
Speaker
and So when we stress it out, it crashes. Yeah. You know, it's one of the new candidates that got up to like eight onslaughts on one side of the board. You know, it's like the cards have changed since I won ah in season one. You know, there's stuff like there's way more ways to copy cards. There's ancient one to spread abilities around. Like somebody is like trying to rock eight onslaughts versus scroll and then surprised when the game crashed. and I'm like, the game crashes with three. Like you slow down. yeah.
00:15:16
Speaker
and And anything that's just make the biggest whatever, it's just a Shuri challenge. And so that's that's always trying to come up with interesting in-game challenges for them. This week, it's make your Carnage eat as many cards as possible.
00:15:30
Speaker
So it's not biggest Carnage because that's just a Shuri challenge. But it' Carnage specifically has to get big by eating cards. Yeah.
00:15:40
Speaker
I hope there are longtime fans watching where like Snap Apprentice has changed, man. From the early seasons. It has changed. It definitely has. Yeah.
00:15:54
Speaker
yeah I try really hard to write interesting tasks and it is a challenge where there are still several weeks that I need to find a task for. And I have a task list. That's like 31. Like task and like interesting.
00:16:08
Speaker
Like that's not right. Maybe so. That's not usually I call fun things.
00:16:16
Speaker
A challenge. I don't know. Yeah. There you go Challenge. All about the syntax. Um, Anyway, if you want to watch, I don't want to spoil which team won, but I will say both teams got many hundreds of points onto their carnages. So if you want to see how they did that, could be something you tuned into this week on Twitch.
00:16:38
Speaker
ah Anyway, we are going to talk about we're going to talk about new thoughts on last week's cards. Rhi wants to talk about Spider Punk. Will you read them off and then tell us what you want to talk about?

Spider-Punk and New Cards Discussion

00:16:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. Reading. All right. Spider-punk is can move this once. you can move this one It always feels like a bonus because I pretty much only put him in move decks. I'm like, oh, yeah, he moves too.
00:17:07
Speaker
Good job, buddy. Okay. When this moves to steal two power from the highest power enemy there. Okay.
00:17:18
Speaker
um i did this week put him in and my own deck. Because remember, I said I had played him before. and i was just like, ah you know,
00:17:29
Speaker
like He's fine. But okay, I put together a deck called Moves Got Memes. um Because I found a way to make it fun for me. I made a surfer deck with all the move cards, of course.
00:17:44
Speaker
It has um some a silver surfer, obviously. Zorn. Zorn is what enables the good times, to be honest. Whenever I get a Zorn early, I'm like, oh, we probably snap now.
00:17:58
Speaker
probably just for having that Zorn play on curve. But, you know, less good than Zorn, but buffable is Topaz at three.
00:18:10
Speaker
um Who also, if you're, in case you're just like, there's too many cards for you, sorry. Zorn is the card that moves a three and a four to a random different location whenever you play a card there.
00:18:21
Speaker
Topaz moves cards to the middle um whenever... You place a card at its location, so you don't play it in the middle. And Topaz only moves your own cards. Zorn moves everybody's cards.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yes, and this is so in the spirit of punk because it's anarchy. It's anarchy and move. Because the funnest thing to do put down a little Zorn cannon in the left lane, usually. Depends on the situation.
00:18:51
Speaker
and then maybe next turn... You know, put a Hercules there and let him, like, just zip off. You know, you don't get to decide where it goes, but you let Hercules decide. Because you've got Hydra Stomper, obviously. It's a move three's deck. So, you know, you just want to move cards.
00:19:06
Speaker
But what's fun is that the turn after that, you know, maybe a torch, maybe a spider punk. You know, whatever you want to move around. Then you drop it there and it usually goes like bing, bing.
00:19:23
Speaker
And it's fun. It's fun for me. I really enjoy it. Okay. And perfection is Red Wing. And not just Red Wing, but I got the Rian Gonzalez Red Wing.
00:19:42
Speaker
And the animation, the little wings are like flapping. It's so good. didn't know that. Yeah! I know. I mean, I like love staring at it and like the deck list. I'm like, okay.
00:19:54
Speaker
okay Anyway. So, and it's like, oh, cause like a lot of times you're lining up, you're lining up red wing. um Dropping a Red Wing on turn six, hoping to pull either your Silver Surfer or your Heimdall.
00:20:12
Speaker
Because, like, everything here can just move again. That's fun. Just let things fly. Let Hercules his thing. Oh, you do have a Madam. forgot.
00:20:22
Speaker
I got so, like, wrapped up in Anakin. Makari! Makari just falls where she wants, but she'll beef up. It's great. It's a Surfer deck. um And ah you do have Madam Web to help you, you know, get some extra power moving around a punk or a torch or lining up a red wing or if you didn't draw Zorn or Topaz, you know, Madam Web is here to just make things smooth. Sorry.
00:20:50
Speaker
My most recent experience with Madam Web has been that she hasn't been very competent in the comics. They're just like, she's like, spiders, like everything's, and you know, like gone to hell.
00:21:08
Speaker
This is like the spider society. And they're like, aren't you the one that's supposed to like see that and let us know like before? ah So, and she's like, yeah. Oops.
00:21:21
Speaker
Anyway, it's just like the whole time it's just like she's not doing well at her job. Unlike in the game, where as long as there are no Russians on the opposing side, she does fine.
00:21:36
Speaker
say Red Guardian is like her worst nightmare. Always, pretty much. um But yeah, you know, and I usually play her, like mid is usually like the right spot for everything's always situational, of course.
00:21:50
Speaker
But you like to set up a little like nice Zorin lane, Hercules lane, Madam Web, you know, give yourself, make yourself a little ping pong table. out of the locations to like ping around your three costs. It's very fun. Oh yeah.
00:22:04
Speaker
And then Batrock. Cause like, if you don't have Batrock following around, you know, your stuff moving, what are you even doing? And you're not all in. So if they do have the Killmonger, you got other stuff going on, you know, like you're not all in on the Batrock.
00:22:21
Speaker
Anyway, Lots of fun. Lots of people aren't expecting the red wing drop on turn six. Pinging out. um You know, all I had to do to enjoy Move to the Max was make it like Anarchy Pinball.
00:22:37
Speaker
and ah And we're good. So yeah, I had a great fun with this. I still am Once it died out, when everyone was playing move, it wasn't fun because Zorin is too helpful to them.
00:22:53
Speaker
Right? But as soon as the move started like dying out into more of like the man spider and like everything else everyone's been doing, there was less of it around. It got fun to play.
00:23:06
Speaker
Good times. Okay. Sorry. that that's my That's my punk spiel. I also have been trying to play Spider-Punk. ah I guess i I don't even know if I talked about... I don't know. I've been building decks, trying and trying to trying and to believe.
00:23:24
Speaker
I guess some of this will... ah one One of them is an Ezekiel deck. Actually, Spider-Punk's not in the Ezekiel deck anymore. I don't know. i've been I've been playing a boring... Not boring. An exciting ah move deck.
00:23:37
Speaker
ah Cards keep going in and out of it. It's not great. i don't I don't love it. I think part of that is because it's got ah some cards like Spiderpunk in it, who's not great.
00:23:50
Speaker
ah At least in my opinion. um But the the move deck I've been playing right now, the 12 cards, man, it just keeps shifting. Heimdall goes in, Heimdall goes out, this this kind of thing. But anywho, it's Websling, Aranya, Batalk the Leaper,
00:24:05
Speaker
Kraven, the Hunter, Silk, Cosmo, Human Torch, Hydra Stomper, Spiderpunk, Fanfey, Hellion, and Heimdall.
00:24:16
Speaker
And, um, yeah, it's about fine, man. You know, uh, there's, there's a play that's real fun. And I, I know for a fact, I'm not the only person who enjoys doing this, but you know what a real fun thing to do when you got four energy is.
00:24:34
Speaker
play web sling and then web slings little buddy, the doggy Cosmo. you You play Cosmo after web sling and then your opponent does not know where they are allowed to play on reveals.
00:24:47
Speaker
And um yeah, I'm not the only person who's noticed this is great. I've i've seen other other move players discussing it. um And we all, it's it's real fun.
00:24:59
Speaker
um And I haven't historically been like a huge Cosmo fan, but yeah, yeah. I've got come around to shoving Cosmo in all my my move decks, at least the ones where you move your own cards around.
00:25:12
Speaker
Especially with all these these activates, your fan phase, your Aranias and stuff. um So yeah, I i feel like Spider-Punk is kind of the weak link of that deck.
00:25:24
Speaker
um But um I've been trying. I keep trying. i tried a lot of things with Ezekiel and Spider-Punk was in a lot of them. um But we'll talk about Ezekiel in a minute. Do I have other thoughts about the new cards? Is that what were going to ask, Lauren?
00:25:40
Speaker
Perhaps... Well, you told me you wanted to say something about Superior Spider-Man. Oh, yeah. um I see you're all still trying to play a Superior Spider-Man. ah Good luck with that. I don't think he's very good.
00:25:53
Speaker
um he He makes maybe one energy per turn. I keep getting copycat Superior Spider-Mans and I don't know. I keep playing Hope. um I've been really surprised by how many I'm seeing.
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know why. Because, like, I got to say, on average, I feel like the the matches I play against the people with Superior Spider-Man don't go great for the people playing Superior Spider-Man. And I suspect they're probably having similar outcomes against...
00:26:24
Speaker
Everyone. Um, I don't think it's a special thing where like, I know the secret to beating superior Spider-Man. I think the secret to beating superior Spider-Man is, uh, to not be playing superior Spider-Man and playing better cards.
00:26:37
Speaker
So, um I think it's fascinating, like the cards that people like really latch on to. And wow, folks love Superior Spider-Man. So energy must be good, right? There's something very pure and sweet about that.
00:26:52
Speaker
And never lose that. If you got it for tokens, right? Aren't you just like sometimes I can see you just try, you know, you just want to. Keep trying Spider-Punk and that card's not good either.
00:27:07
Speaker
Like, I totally get it. Like, we're all trying to make things work.
00:27:15
Speaker
You know, it's just... ah they yeah we're Nobody needs to be playing all good cards all the time. Spider-Punk has been slaying for me. Against Bullseye. Because like if it's been heavyy he's been hitting Dekens because they've usually been the biggest thing in their lane at the time.
00:27:35
Speaker
And that kills that triple Deken. There's so many Bullseyes that rely on a super big Deken. Oh, okay, sorry, just remind me how fun it is. Spider-Punk feels the most useful is when you scoot him over onto something that doubles, that hasn't doubled yet.
00:27:53
Speaker
And that's when you feel like Spider-Punk is like... Feels really good....actually contributing. It's just you can't count on your opponent to be... doing that you know and like some of the things that double don't double where spider punk can get to them you know like you can't do it to to a black panther or whatever you know like uh man spiders already doubled unless they're gonna do it more yeah you know like uh i don't know i don't know point is i'm just like i'm fascinated by the the stinkers that
00:28:25
Speaker
Achieve like yeah like they they find their players, you know? And wow, if Superior Spider-Man hasn't found a lot of players for reasons I don't fully understand.
00:28:36
Speaker
But yeah, ah the the other cards are good too.

Card Acquisition Stories

00:28:40
Speaker
Man Spider, Web Sling. I was actually really hoping to pick up Man Spider this week if it could rotate into my shop.
00:28:47
Speaker
But I did a big whoopsie. And I was checking the the season five or the Series 5 pack, the the seasonal ones, to see how many cards were in the pool.
00:28:59
Speaker
And I backed out, and I was going to buy Ezekiel Sims. But the thing is, I only backed out of checking which cards were in the pool. And so I backed out of that and bought a Series 5 pack.
00:29:09
Speaker
So I'm now the proud owner of Zombie Galacti. but so So that's why i don't I haven't picked up Man Spider yet to to see if I like that card. I suspect I won't like that card. I think maybe like...
00:29:22
Speaker
So yeah, Ezekiel Sims turned out to be an 11,000 token card for me. That's how I've been choosing to look at it. um And we'll talk about him later. but So that's why I haven't tried Man Spider.
00:29:35
Speaker
And I don't think I will, because now i don't i mean like now now that I've wasted the money, I don't think I've got it in the budget the way I'm the way i'm looking at the future. Anywho, point is, I'm glad you're all still having fun with Man Spider, who seems like a real good card.
00:29:49
Speaker
And, uh, I'm not too sick of him yet, but I could see, i can understand why i i can already sense some discontent, uh, that I'm hearing echoing through the, uh, the channels of communication. I don't really spend a lot of time in a lot of the places, but like, I feel like I'm, I'm hearing, I'm hearing through the grapevine that maybe not everybody loves man spider. And I, I get it.
00:30:16
Speaker
And I'm at least not contributing to the problem. Yeah. Those are cards that came out. We talked about them. Yeah. Let's talk about this week's cards.
00:30:28
Speaker
Ezekiel Sims 2-2. After you play a card with higher power here, give this plus two power and move this to another location.
00:30:38
Speaker
Wow. ah ah Cool, fun a concept. Not a very a very powerful card and my in my experience. i I've been trying to have 11,000 tokens worth of fun with them.
00:30:54
Speaker
um ah that that's how that like That was the only way i could not get frustrated with myself for accidentally opening a Snap Pack I didn't mean to.
00:31:05
Speaker
um So I'm i'm like really trying to be positive. Here, let let me tell you the coolest thing about Ezekiel Sims. The coolest thing that happened while I was playing Ezekiel Sims.
00:31:17
Speaker
um He was like two six or something. maybe even two eight. And it was turn six and my opponent had priority. And I had multiple um you know juiced up cards in one lane.
00:31:33
Speaker
And with priority, they shadow-kinged me. And Ezekiel went back down to two And then I revealed and like a card in that lane. Ezekiel went up to two-four, moved somewhere else.
00:31:46
Speaker
A card revealed in that lane. And he slurped up a bunch of power. He went right back up until see it. Yeah, yeah. eli So, like, they shadow a kingdom, and he bounced right back.
00:31:58
Speaker
That's very cool. That's very interesting. Novel. Not easily ah replicable. ah Not a great game plan for winning a lot of cubes on a regular basis.
00:32:11
Speaker
I don't think this card is very good at all. I think they will need to fundamentally change some things. I think they could get a lot of... ah get a lot of mileage out of making Ezekiel trigger off of things that are equal to his power, uh, instead of, uh, greater than his power.
00:32:30
Speaker
Cause like just that, just one point makes a big difference if you could, uh, like, but that's, that's like the only knob they have to meaningfully make him better. Cause if you change any of the other things, it all like equilibrates, you know what I mean? Yeah. That's my, that's my favorite change I've heard so far.
00:32:49
Speaker
Because if they make him get bigger with each trigger, then you just make it harder to trigger him in the future. And if you make him start smaller, he ends smaller. yeah like All the other knobs you could change just make the card still bad.
00:33:05
Speaker
um So I think they should do that. And here's the thing. I think even if they do that, it's still a bad card this card is not like if you If you've been like waiting to know, like is is there is there some there here? Is is there room to believe?
00:33:20
Speaker
No, you're better off spending the tokens on Superior Spider-Man um or really any of the other cards this month. um Any of them. the Ezekiel Sims is... ah unless Unless you, like me, are really trying to just have a lot of fun with him...
00:33:40
Speaker
i I can't recommend. I played him in a lot of kinds of decks. There were two kinds of decks I didn't try him in that I thought maybe he could be cool in. I don't think I came up with this idea. i think one of our clever friends pointed this out, but like...
00:33:56
Speaker
be pretty cool in c6 right you know he's a two drop that can reliably get up to two six and that that seems that seems cool um and oh there was one more ah what was the oh shoot if i think of it later i should have written this um
00:34:19
Speaker
I should have written this down. There was another kind of deck that I thought maybe he could be interesting in. that I've seen people putting him in Sauron. Not sure if that's what you're thinking of. but no that wasn't it. You have so many fun tempo

Ezekiel Sims Deck Strategies

00:34:32
Speaker
cards. see that. This is fun. I like it.
00:34:34
Speaker
It's like another scaler next to Surtr where... You can actually reasonably proc him like four times. that sounds That sounds pretty good. I didn't try him. Okay, so there are like three things. I don't remember what the man I had.
00:34:46
Speaker
Man, this is going to frustrate me. Well, if it comes back to you at any point, you can interrupt. But I'll tell you what I what i have been playing. at my I'll tell you all about my best Ezekiel Sims deck. um It's a ah Scream one, and it's got Batroc the Leaper. It's got Scream, Ezekiel Sims, Sam Wilson, Captain America, Kraven, Spider-Man, Silk, Hydra Stomper, Polaris, Juggernaut, Miles Morales, Spider-Man, and Stegron.
00:35:18
Speaker
And, you know, before that, I tried him in the mass move deck that they really want to be real, even though they ah refuse to, you know... and rework human torch in such a way to, to make it plausible. But, um, yeah, I, I try, tried several tweaks mid, uh, man, I was, I was cooking a lot of, uh, mediocre move decks this, this week.
00:35:47
Speaker
Um, it's a good thing. I have like ah a deck that like wins a lot or I wouldn't have infinite with all, all this testing I was doing with other things. But, um, But yeah, I'm, I'm still trying with Zeke and he's definitely fun and cool.
00:36:02
Speaker
And I'm excited to know if either of you have, did, did either of you get him?
00:36:12
Speaker
I didn't because I was definitely going to. If I hadn't found fun in the decks I had talked about, I was planning on dropping. Probably dropping 6k for him because I didn't have a good shot at getting him.
00:36:24
Speaker
and don't have so many cards. I'm so intrigued, actually, this. I mean, my best idea had been my, like, werewolf, Agamotto shenanigans with Batrock and Silk. But, like...
00:36:36
Speaker
ah the Surgitor thing really calls to me because I enjoy Sauron. You know, I said I have a soft spot for him. He was my first um Series 5 card way back in the day. And um ah she you know what what is great for pulling out Sauron for is the time when people are playing all these tech decks and I've been facing a lot of just like decks full of like Stardust and Mercury's and like, you know, I mean, stuff that's just built to like kind of counter tech soups that I kind of play a lot myself, to be honest.
00:37:18
Speaker
But not fun for me when everyone's doing it, especially when I'm trying out here trying do some fun hell stuff and whatever. um So I switched back ah And I was playing a lot of ongoing too, and there's a lot of super scrolls. It's like whatever I was doing, people were countering.
00:37:35
Speaker
And it's just like and it's just always fun to be like, yeah, rogue my you know rogue my Typhoid Mary. like you know All of that stuff.
00:37:46
Speaker
So and did ah I did play. I was playing a Surtur Sauron deck, and I'm like, this is exactly the kind of shenanigans that would make the deck more fun for me.
00:37:58
Speaker
that exactly that I want to put into it. Okay. I'm excited. That's actually probably the first thing I'll do um when I get my hands on them. um But yeah, I didn't get, I didn't drop tokens on Chameleon either because i was just like, I was enjoying what I had. so I'm trying to save my tokens as like, you know, ah treat slash late night whim, anytime whim.
00:38:20
Speaker
You know how it goes. but yeah you angry yeah Yeah, I got him I'm not super impressed with him. wasn't expecting a lot from him either.
00:38:33
Speaker
um However, I don't know who this comes from. i got it through Prashan, but he said he got it from somebody in his Discord server. This deck is called Spider Island and it is a theme deck. OK, we have.
00:38:48
Speaker
It is also kind of expensive. It has four of this season's six new cards. ah It's got Web Sling, Spider Ham, Ghost Spider, Ezekiel Sims, Penny Parker, Spider-Man, Silk, Spider-Punk, Superior Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, Miles Morales, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 is chock full of spider people.
00:39:10
Speaker
It is very fun. It also has more synergy than you would think on first glance. So, like, I'm not going to call this a strong deck, but it's stronger than you'd think. I was surprising people with it.
00:39:21
Speaker
um And there's a little bit of synergy there, right? Like, Ezekiel Sims and the buff from Penny Parker's Spider... and spider punk are all ways to get green power for superior spider-man you're like why do i want that well you want that because it gives you an extra energy to play web slinger ghost spider alongside spider-man 2099 um you know penny parker's uh spider is a good thing to put on to scarlet spider then you get to uh make two four tens instead of
00:39:55
Speaker
instead of two four fives. So like there's some decent stuff here. And and Spider-Man 2099 is like he's big enough that you can often hit Ezekiel a third time. ah So, oh, and Penny, Penny Parker's a spider.
00:40:09
Speaker
I don't know what else to call it in a deck full of spiders. Penny Parker spider also is a way to hit Ezekiel. Like if it merges onto something else that's there, that'll count as the power of that card. And almost always plus five is even like plus five on top of spider hands, like more than enough to proc Ezekiel.
00:40:26
Speaker
So very cool and fun deck if you're looking for ah fun theme deck. I also found Web Sling to be really interesting here. Like I rarely needed it except for maybe to move Spider-Man 2099.
00:40:40
Speaker
But something I was doing with it quite a bit was using it to block Ezekiel. So I knew exactly where he was going to go. um And that that was actually useful many times. I even played it on a Cosmo lane once just to control where Zeke was going to go.
00:40:57
Speaker
So, uh, not impressed with the card. I would say totally don't, don't get it.
00:41:03
Speaker
Uh, unless it is super duper your type of thing. Like, you know, of course, of course, like bad cards are perfectly fine to acquire if they are an archetype that you enjoy or whatever. if you Speaking of, I thought, speaking of archetypes, I thought of the one where I thought it might be fun to try Ezekiel, the, the other one besides C6 and, um,
00:41:26
Speaker
I didn't try him in any sort of, ah move bounce type of deck or like even just, a I don't know. I'm, I'm like who, who's regularly playing enough big things that you could rock him multiple times and possibly even multiple times in a turn, possibly even multiple times in a turn towards the end when they aren't expecting it.
00:41:49
Speaker
I'm like, I don't know, maybe you, you, end up playing a big old sage that you played once before or something. I don't know. I'm like that, that, that might be a good thing.
00:42:00
Speaker
Yep. Uh, these sorts of things. So I, I wonder if that could be cute, if not good. Um, yeah and I'm, I'm honestly surprised ah that it actually did float into my brain again after, after I let it go. Um, well good job also I picked up chameleon, but, uh, he's still in the the original packaging.
00:42:23
Speaker
Sealed in the box. i didn't mention this last week but i i got wild and splurged and im about the the brett bean spider punk variant so like i really am rooting for these cards that i don't think are very good i really am like putting myself into them and making the effort meeting them more than halfway if you ask me i i i don't i don't like to to dump all over the cards without doing the the due diligence and and and investing myself in them and stuff you know i don't I don't mean to be a negative Nancy about these cards, and if you love them, I want you to know that I do, in fact, love them, too.
00:42:59
Speaker
Actually, I don't even... kind of doubt they're going to buff Punk, but... You really think so? He's, like, so not... I kind of doubt it, but... think that he'll be critical to move if they ever hit Torch hard enough.
00:43:17
Speaker
Right? Yeah. I mean, they're never going to hit Torch Hard enough. Yeah, not enough to make... i mean, it's still like, it's no Vulture, right? Vulture was, what, plus six? And Punk is plus four?
00:43:29
Speaker
See, like, it's just's just, you can't you can't hang with Vulture. Yeah. Well, maybe he does go to steal three, and then and then he's Vulture. Yeah, then he is Vulture.
00:43:41
Speaker
um Vulture who spreads it around.

Chameleon and Deck Synergies

00:43:43
Speaker
Anyway, Chameleon, our series four this week. 3-3 reveal. Copy the text of another card here. You revealed this turn. I think this qualifies as a card that maybe isn't a very good card, but is one that is very appealing to me.
00:43:58
Speaker
and so I'll be surprised if this is not a good card of some kind. But I would like to hear from you two first.
00:44:10
Speaker
Rhi, you're muted.
00:44:14
Speaker
Oops. Okay. um I didn't get it, but I do think the the type of thing i want to I would do is it would be like less of a surfer thing. I don't like the restrictions.
00:44:28
Speaker
I think I'd just be looking to copy like little cards like Nico and stuff. Maybe with like Joaquin Torres, you know, build out that kind of combo with him.
00:44:39
Speaker
You know, I like taking the big plays sometimes and bringing him down to the lower costs. I didn't actually play him, though. you know Curious to hear what you guys did.
00:44:53
Speaker
Ben? played him yes I acquired him. He's still in the ah not have you run into any Yeah, I've seen him um around. I've seen a couple. Not like high density, it seemed like.
00:45:12
Speaker
um Yeah, I feel like people aren't really trying with him yet. or i don't know. i have i'm pretty I have a lot of faith that this card will find homes. that's that's what Even though like it's not very exciting, ah in my opinion.
00:45:30
Speaker
it's, I just can't see it being bad. That's, that's all. I really, really hope they change it to a two cost. I think it would be a much more interesting. it would be broken at two costs. It would be very good too though. So like, I, I'm, I'm like thinking like, just while we were, while I was, uh,
00:45:50
Speaker
you know what would be fun with this card? I mean, like, it's kind of an overcommitment, but i'm I'm just thinking, like, what could you do? But, like, man, on turn five, you could just absolutely, like, stake your claim to a lane by dropping Morbius and Chameleon in the same spot on turn five. Oh,
00:46:10
Speaker
Like... Maybe it's too much of a good thing, but like, ooh, baby. They'd better have the Enchantress or they'd yeah and they'd better have something very cool going on in the other two lanes.
00:46:24
Speaker
I don't know. It just seems like a card that can't
00:46:29
Speaker
be bad. yeah a and Even if it's like the wrong shape to fit in every, like, you know, even if it's ah an awkward peg, I'm sure there are holes where it goes. I don't know.
00:46:43
Speaker
Yeah, I've seen a lot of people doing Cerebro 3, and it seems like... Okay, Cerebro 3 makes sense, but I think what you're missing is thing I'm always harping on when you're like, well, maybe in this deck maybe in that deck, is that the problem is he's not, like I said, you put him in a discard deck...
00:47:02
Speaker
And it's like, that means you're not putting in a ah card that discards things. No, sure. That's like a thing to do with a generating community. How is he going to be better than other things? So it's just like, well, like that one play sounds good. It's like in the long run you know, you're just like, maybe I just want a Sif or even Glaive, know? Yeah, no, you're totally right. Yeah.
00:47:30
Speaker
is Is he in Victoria Hand Decks yet? I've seen people trying it, but I don't don't know if I could pull off the top my head how successful that has been.
00:47:40
Speaker
feel like I've heard mixed reviews. um I think he's really, really restrictive. Same turn, same location. I think it's possible that two isn't too good. um i tried playing him. This was inspired by ah listener Iron Cloak, um but I put a few twists on it.
00:47:58
Speaker
I did an end of turn deck with the key thought being worst case scenario. If I have Jocasta down on turn six, I can play invisible woman first steps and chameleon. together and then i still have two invisible woman first steps that are rate ready to hit um but i also i wanted to put you know i was like okay but what else what else can i do with this and it's like well you can copy thena you can copy your havoc you can copy a marvel boy and so i also threw in aranya and zorn as ways to like spread out the things that chameleon is copying
00:48:34
Speaker
um And I've seen other people doing that with Ghost Spider, where it's like, you know, Chameleon gets his copy, and then the next turn you pull him out so that they're in separate lands. ah This deck was fun. I don't think it was an improvement over end of turn. People still vastly underestimate how much power this thing can put out um when you have a stack of invisible women.
00:48:54
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I've also been playing and I also played this cause I was like, you know, what do I do that just went once everyone was playing stuff. It was like, okay, what gets big?
00:49:06
Speaker
And like, I hadn't played this back in the day when it was meta and it was like, yeah, people, I beat with this a negative that got their magic out and like you know did stuff because it's like, oh, I'll just use that extra turn too.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, I beat a war machine that you know dropped Infinite, and I just like, I can go bigger than Infinite. What are you doing? Yeah. You know, and i'm I'm seeing a lot of these War Machine decks around.
00:49:36
Speaker
are they Are they good? Am I just playing something that, like, stomps them? Because, like, my surfer deck is just beating them with high regulate. Like... They're just annoying when they get the Legion after the storm and lock you out of turn six. That's like the big like play.
00:49:54
Speaker
i don't know why. i always seem to have the cannonball for it. Like, I'll i'll cannonball their their War Machine or their Infnaut or like whatever. ah I just always seem to... i don't... Is that deck like doing well right now or is it just popular?
00:50:09
Speaker
i think it's running well on the Storm Legion combo. And then... and also it It also must be good to some degree. There was one of them that placed like top 16 or top 8 at Golden Gauntlet.
00:50:21
Speaker
um Although I don't think that was the standard version. <unk>s The tech that hurts a lot of people doesn't hurt you. um Because a lot of times you can hide your warning machine somewhere they can't get to it.
00:50:35
Speaker
Like behind a storm or whatever. and um you know, like you're not you're not as vulnerable to don't know. It seems to do well.
00:50:48
Speaker
I did, sorry, pulling back. I was looking at your Chameleon deck, and it is what I think we were talking about. I can see as you were talking about all the things you warped to make it good for Chameleon, because that's you know what you were doing.
00:51:01
Speaker
But it's like that's always the problem with these cards. It's like, well, but what's really powerful about the deck is Invisible Woman first steps. Yeah. He was actually a lot clunkier than I expected him to be.
00:51:14
Speaker
um you know, if I don't have any energy ramp, really hard to match with a three. um So... I can kind of see him going to two. What's Zorn doing in that deck?
00:51:26
Speaker
Zorn? Okay, so that's actually the real reason I want to talk about this deck is because of Zorn. The main reason he's here is because if Chameleon and copies Sunspot or Thena or Havoc, one of them stays on the lane and Chameleon gets shot You disperse.
00:51:40
Speaker
Yes. That was the intention. um However... Zorn was winning was like responsible for half of the wins I had with this deck. Like, yes, end of turn is stupid big.
00:51:51
Speaker
But also, gosh, people were just like, it messes up their combos and stuff to like have Zorn yeet something off, you know, like Evo Cyclops. Bye. You're not on the lane with my cards. I had somebody play a Venom on a...
00:52:03
Speaker
was a Starbrand Crater where you can't play cards there that have 10 or more power. They played a Venom there, and the Venom got yeeted off. And then they had nothing... was a destroy deck. They had nothing left that could fit on Starbrand Crater. And so I won it with, like, three power there. was just a... I really liked Zorn as a defensive card.
00:52:25
Speaker
Me too. Yeah, when you're not playing against a move deck that just benefits from it, like, Zorn is a great... It's a great counter. so What a great way to win like a Asgard, like, or or to protect ah Iron Patriot. Like, don't know. I feel like I have underutilized Zorn. Like, there's something here.
00:52:47
Speaker
I'm so glad you're it. It's when you're playing a card for the first time and you get to see all those little tricks you didn't think. Like, I know. I noticed the same thing because have also been playing a lot of Zorin this week. It's like, oh, I can just win this location because, like, it's going to stick around here.
00:53:05
Speaker
Anyway. Sorry. Were you saying something, Ben? Oh, no. I was just, like, asking about Zorin because he seemed a a little bit out of place amidst all the the end of turn cards. But then i the The explanation immediately made sense and was like, oh, of course you want Zorn and um I'm glad to know that you're getting, you know... You're getting your Zorn's worth?...tertiary Zorn benefits and things. This is a neat card and I just, I wish there were more reasons and places to him and stuff. Yeah.
00:53:46
Speaker
Just a neat card that I want to work a little better in more spots.
00:53:54
Speaker
yeah i I like two costs that do things. That's fun.

Unusual Card Releases and Gameplay Mechanics

00:53:57
Speaker
yeah um k Let's talk about next week's cards. Weirdly, there's one coming on Tuesday and one coming on Thursday. and As far as I know, that it's just coming to PAX.
00:54:07
Speaker
like Did they mess up the schedule? I don't know. but That's what it says on the official Marvel Snap blog. so Tuesday, Spider-Man no Noir, a 4-6. On reveal, if your other cards in play cost exactly 8 total at the top card of your deck here, set its power to 8.
00:54:25
Speaker
talked about it before so this is just this is just a vibe check any new thoughts or yes now i thought of another reason to hate ah and it was like oh okay so like on top of like having to make all your little like carefully laid plans like but then what if like marvel snaps greatest adversaries squirrels totally so many ways your Spider-Man wire plan gets thrown off and it's like is what it's doing that you can't even control what card it's hitting so it's like is the path for the work you're putting in I'm bummed because obviously this is a card I really want to like yeah based on the whole characters vibes but like I'm so against this ability it's it's too much for me
00:55:15
Speaker
I don't know how you do it with Jubilee, but I almost wish that he would still do something if you didn't meet the criteria, right? Like he pulls the card if you no matter what, and then he gives it eight power if you meet the criteria, something like that, where it's like a halfway. But he just he just whiffs if you don't, you know, have exactly eight costs on the board. High Evo is a four seven, you know.
00:55:38
Speaker
yeah I mean, HaEvo was like a 4-4 or something once upon a time. Yeah, HaEvo launched a 4-4. They did lot make him more playable. And Noir was datamined as 4-4, and they bumped into 6. That's the thing. When we rated these cards, we were rating the 4-4 version of Spider-Man Noir.
00:55:56
Speaker
And personally, myself, I kind of feel like those two points of power make a bit of a difference. Like, a little more excited a 4-14 than a 4-12. Because is like...
00:56:09
Speaker
we really doing anything here um like that that that says to me like we could just be playing crossbones or you know call obsidian or something i mean like obviously you don't get to tutor out possibly iron man and set him to eight or whatever but like i don't i feel like four four is kind uh or four four fourteen rather is um no I don't know. I'm i'm i'm more willing to believe now that they've given him the two extra points.
00:56:42
Speaker
I, yeah, I think this card would have been a stinker at 4-4, and it might still be a stinker at 4-6, but at least now it's got a fighting chance. So that's what I think. He's going to be really when does thing. are still not very high, but, like, yeah, like, it is going to, it's going to, like, when it works, it's going to, like, whoa, hey now, you know, you're an all-star.
00:57:03
Speaker
don't necessarily think he's bad. I just, like, I just am against the idea of thinking. I really doubt the consistency. And then Thursday, Deafening Chord, a one-cost skill going to Series 4 packs.
00:57:17
Speaker
On reveal, afflict an enemy character here that costs three or less with negative one power and remove its text.
00:57:30
Speaker
ah Very strong. A red guardian that I might actually play. ah Red guardian's good too. i just ah Not this good, I don't think.
00:57:40
Speaker
um Yeah, this is this is little scary card. Don't like it one bit. It's no good.
00:57:50
Speaker
It's one, can you like straight out buy this one? Yeah, I believe so. You have to go through the packs. No, should be able to buy it for 3,000 tokens. think you'll to or you'll feel like a real dope. Okay, then I think, yeah, I think this is one I'll have to just because it just does seem like that power.
00:58:07
Speaker
Even if it's not an everywhere tech card, which I think there's a good chance that it is. It's so cheap. It's so cheap. It's not. Even if it's not, still there are still decks that will definitely, like, there are absolutely decks that will use this. you know, Werewolf, for sure.
00:58:23
Speaker
um The, like, the stacking ones, the Zombie Scarlet Witch and and Angela types love this card.
00:58:35
Speaker
Yeah, this one's interesting. ah I don't think it's interesting at all. I think this is the least interesting card. You should think it's too good. but Yeah, but also, it's not interesting.
00:58:48
Speaker
Like, we've seen we've seen this. Like, it's Red Guardian, but like... What if it was easier and more painless to play? That was that was always the problem with Red Guardian, right?
00:59:00
Speaker
Too many hoops to jump through, too much of a commitment. You to play mean, now now you have to play a a three three or whatever. I mean, it doesn't hit... It's just It doesn't hit Iron Man, so i'll give Red Guardian that. But, like, you know, you're not always... It's not often you're throwing the Red Guardian down for an Iron Man.
00:59:25
Speaker
yeah You could also run Red Guardian and Deafening Chord. Silence two of your opponent's cards. um Yeah. Interesting was a sloppy adjective for me. I was going towards...
00:59:40
Speaker
dangerous because this seems like a hard card to tune yeah i guess you could make it a two cost but like it is much much worse good yeah okay heads up high voltage is running ah when you hear this if you hear it when it's new uh just for the weekend cosmetics only or at least that's what it said in the blog I might play some to like knock out my weekend missions or if they have very tempting cosmetics, which I doubt.

Cerebro and Deck Dominance

01:00:08
Speaker
um But yeah, I know some people love high voltage.
01:00:14
Speaker
Yeah. I'll be using this opportunity to make sure I get in all my, my conquest games so that I can get the Palo Parente, um, lizard variant.
01:00:26
Speaker
Cause this, this conquest variant is not to be skipped. Um, oh yeah I remember I like I'm familiar with the artist from Magic the Gathering cards of my youth so it's a good looking lizard but lizard's got some good variants I think I currently rock the Rian Gonzalez but it might be fun to switch it up don't have that one It's so cute.
01:00:54
Speaker
It is very cute. On to our side quests. My show notes say and first thing cerebro intervention.
01:01:06
Speaker
That is because i put together the show notes and this was originally going to start as like, you know, a little side rant maybe. And we can stop just because I've been seeing so much Cerebro around. But, you know...
01:01:23
Speaker
ah I heard Thursday um complaining about it with his permission um to paraphrase things he was talking about. So I thought, you know, why not make it a full roundtable discussion?
01:01:43
Speaker
um First, i would like to kick it off by saying, hey, bro. never liked you, and I never respected you.
01:01:54
Speaker
But I could always count on you, like a Pokemon rival, to show up and try wacky things that were the opposite of what I was doing. Fun things, like playing Valkyrie behind Invisible Woman.
01:02:07
Speaker
Or, you know, playing out a Shang that would only get little bit bigger. Um, but you know, you, you sold out.
01:02:18
Speaker
You went mainstream. Uh, you're everywhere. It's just bastions. It's just sentinels. That's, that's the best you can come up with. You know, used to be fun.
01:02:31
Speaker
ah we used to be able to rely on you for a party. So, okay. Sorry, too long. Into opening bit. Okay. Okay. But for real, right? Like, it's like, it's everywhere because it's gotten too powerful because it's too consistently statted.
01:02:51
Speaker
Where it used to be, and this is kind of what Thursday was saying, it used to be like... and what you Cerebro players were doing was like, you can only make your C3 cards so big because you could maybe play usually just Cerebro Mystique.
01:03:07
Speaker
So you'd mix that in with the appropriate tech, you know, to counter, that would be enough. But now with like Bastion and stuff, where you can like multi-copy Cerebro.
01:03:18
Speaker
um You can just win out with stats and in like a little bit of tech. Um... And i don't i don't like it. and don't like C. Also, a shout out to um our friend Michael, who ah reminded me what C3 used to be, because as you know, I don't and don't touch it myself for ethical reasons.
01:03:41
Speaker
Okay. ah How do you guys feel about re-grow and how it's changed? And whether that's good for it. Yeah. One thing I don't like about it is it's it feels more...
01:03:54
Speaker
It's a big combo deck, right? And it feels more extreme than Mr. Negative or Hela ever did. Because of how strong it is. And because... mean, I don't want to say it's not telegraphed, right? You can see that they're only playing... It super is. You can see they're playing... You can retreat when you know you're going to lose.
01:04:15
Speaker
But it has that Hela component where it's like, you don't know if your opponent has Hela or not. So you just have to assume they do.
01:04:24
Speaker
At least with Mr. Negative, you can put pressure on it if they don't get Mr. Negative in time or if they don't draw Jane or if they don't get Limbo up. There's at least something to do. um And there is some tech that works against Cerebro, but not a lot.
01:04:39
Speaker
like i don't know. I kind of feel like we need ah we need a baby Red Skull that can mess him up.
01:04:47
Speaker
Maybe. i don't know. I think the card's too strong. That's true. And it's too easy to double it. Like, I think the card Cerebro itself is like just in the wrong spot right now.
01:05:00
Speaker
I think it needs to change. Another reason to play Sauron. will say I'm pleased to see Bastion getting such attention and prominence because I thought when the card came out. He already had it. It would get there. His hand? You know?
01:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, I know, but like i I thought Bastion was a card that is good enough that it could do two things. And sure enough, it can. but I bet it can do a third, honestly. so i think it's a neat card with potential and stuff, and i knew it would just keep getting better.
01:05:38
Speaker
i just I do hate that the current... a wave of cerebro stuff is so uh i just wish the game weren't so doubly so cloney these days you know like you know let's do it twice let's do it twice as many twice as many four times oh yay and that's just like not exciting or interesting and uh kind of played
01:06:05
Speaker
Sorry, okay, I didn't want to interrupt you in the middle of thought. don't know. Y'all fuck with Magic the Gathering? they they've Folks have horny for doubling over there for decades.
01:06:16
Speaker
It's not that interesting, folks. it's like yeah it's But well what if twice as much? It was interesting when it was just Wong and Wong was already a hard like thing to achieve.
01:06:31
Speaker
You're right. hadn't thought about this, about how much like there are multiple ways to like double up now that it's like almost like Wong seems irrelevant.
01:06:45
Speaker
And that does affect. It's affecting to this problem, right? This problem of where it just gets too hard. It's just kind of like, okay, well, I don't know who wins if we both hit our combos. We just find You know?
01:06:58
Speaker
Because it just gets to be too much to like math. Yeah.
01:07:04
Speaker
ah that It seems like an an inevitable problem to having an ever-growing card collection, right? It's like you're increasingly going to have to get cards that like split up their jobs, and you're going to have a lot more overlap.
01:07:18
Speaker
And guess the alternative is to like invent new play styles and new archetypes, but that's even more match-ups to balance and also probably a harder thing to invent than a card that's kind of like another card that's already there. Yeah.
01:07:31
Speaker
Are you saying that we're running out of design space for cards in Marvel's Step? Because that's sad if that's true. I hadn't really like thought to myself if that was true. like Could I design a lot better fun cards?
01:07:44
Speaker
So this is what you get. I think there's plenty of design space still, but just the nature of the game where it's a small deck size and all that is like the impact of having multiple cards that can do almost the same thing and they can all go in the same deck.
01:08:00
Speaker
like it yeah We have too many tech cards. We have too many doublers. like But how do you avoid that and still make cards that are interesting? I mean, I know. know you You've been saying rotation.
01:08:13
Speaker
Yeah, or like a limited time mode. But like also, quit quit printing cards that do the doubling. it's like But if none of them said double, then they're all going to say plus two. Yeah, then they're all just like that's better. There are more ways to design those cards. There there are like more ways to do plus two in like interesting ways again and again. like You can keep going back to that well so many more times than you go back to the doubling well.
01:08:37
Speaker
Because you go back to the doubling well twice... And like then it's times eight. It's just... Hey! Alright, cat's not doing the right things. I need to get over there. um yeah ah i mean I agree with the um thesis that Cerebro is too strong.
01:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, also I want to make it clear, like, I'm i'm upset about the card Cerebro. I think that's in a bad place. I don't think the people who are enjoying playing Cerebro are doing anything wrong or... i there' oh yeah.
01:09:20
Speaker
I'm not here to police what people are playing. But I think it's gotten way easier to control locations and the negative effects of them, right? I think that's what's always been the gamble with Cerebro before.
01:09:35
Speaker
to bigger degree as well. Yeah. Well, and Retreat and Snap mechanics have always made Cerebro possible to play, right? Or other extreme combo decks like Hella and Negative. um not' just more mean, the same thing you said with Mr. Negative. It's just too reliable now for, like, the strengths of the combo. Yeah.
01:09:56
Speaker
But also part of Thursday's complaint is that cerebra the Cerebro deck itself, specifically Cerebro 3, when you're building it, it almost builds itself at this point. There's very little room for variation.
01:10:09
Speaker
There are just so many cards that are just clearly the best in slot. So even for Cerebro apologists, it's gone a little too far.
01:10:20
Speaker
one of my favorite Sorry, go ahead. i One of my favorite fixes that I've seen is to make Luke like quite a bit more. you know Make him like a 4-4 or a 3-5. In some ways, like Luke doesn't really need a buff. He's a very good card at what he does. But also, it would it would make it so that Affliction is a viable way to stop Cerebro if they can't run. You don't want to make Affliction good, though.
01:10:46
Speaker
Why not? I'm fine with that. If Affliction is just doing like minus two, it's the same thing as plus two. Like, i don't know. Yeah, okay.
01:10:58
Speaker
You just don't like the way it feels to have your cards get hit. I think the card they need to change is Cerebro, that's what I think. ah ah yeah Plus three is probably just too good.
01:11:10
Speaker
i I guess maybe unless they make Cerebro more expensive. Yeah, they could make Cerebro four. i Somebody suggested that. People would hate that. It's kind of crazy. We had a two-cost Cerebro not that long ago. Yeah.
01:11:28
Speaker
no We're not just making this up. ah Cerebral 3 won the Golden Gauntlet World Championships. And also, there was a recent Team Answer where Glenn said it's been one of the strongest decks for a while.
01:11:43
Speaker
Yep. Not a good place for it. In my opinion. um Okay. Well, do we want to move on to the secret homework that I assigned? Let's do it. I'm going assign that.

Secret Homework: Spider-Themed Playlists

01:11:59
Speaker
Okay. So fun ah younger um I would always tack everyone into making playlists, into exchanging them. It was very fun. So I had kind of like forgotten that when I suggested this, but I remembered coming back to it.
01:12:18
Speaker
How fun it is. i mean, you know, there's mixed CDs and then like... Playlists. Now there's just the algorithm. Relentless.
01:12:29
Speaker
Unyielding. Unending. Okay. um So, it was like, hey, let's make playlist for the spider season because it's spider punk and the spiders ah And um let's do it like one song for each card slash character.
01:12:54
Speaker
um And then, you know, the bonus three would be the variants, Ghost Spider, Silk, and Black Cat. So I thought we would just, so we're not, like, each talking way too long, we'd take it, like, character by character.
01:13:10
Speaker
And I yeah will be very brief on some of them. and may have more to say about others, feel free to do the same. um Can we get a turn to talk about the assignment in general before we dig into the specific tracks?
01:13:29
Speaker
Let's do that now. That sounds great. and Okay. Lauren, take it away. Did you get to say enough about it? Okay. um You'll soon learn that my entire playlist is by a single artist, Regina Spector, one of my all-time favorites.
01:13:43
Speaker
um There were several reasons for that. One is i just don't listen to that much music anymore. ah Certainly, if you limit it to lyrical music, it's much less.
01:13:53
Speaker
I really haven't listened to a lot in like 15 years because when I'm doing... ah chores or driving or whatever it or working it's it's uh either non-lyrical music for work or like podcasts and audiobooks um which is like you know pro and con every time i listen to music i'm like dang i should do this more this really helps my mood But I don't know. I feel like when you're sharing a a playlist, there is a certain amount of responsibility ah when you're saying, when you're sharing it for somebody else to listen to, like, hey, I like these songs.
01:14:27
Speaker
You should listen to this too. And so I only wanted to pick songs that I knew. And for me, that is much easier to have like a deep understanding of what I'm doing. If it's Regina, who I've listened to a ton.
01:14:39
Speaker
There are certainly are other artists I could use. i have experience, you know, I made five, Playlists ranging from intensity of like, I want to be your friend to like, I want to, uh, I'm in love with you, ah to, to my current wife.
01:14:55
Speaker
Uh, I think it was like right before we started dating and that was very fun. And, uh, I used all kinds of artists for that. So like, it's something I'm capable of, but yeah, I think playlists are super cool.
01:15:06
Speaker
I think it's worth very briefly notice noting that, uh, listener mandatory burnout made a lovely, very considerate, and thoughtful playlist for me as a wedding gift.
01:15:18
Speaker
Aww. Aww. Yeah.
01:15:22
Speaker
Some people, it's like a love language.
01:15:27
Speaker
Ben, you want Oh, I was just saying the mandatory burnout's a winner. Oh, yeah. I was wondering if you wanted to just say anything about this before we started getting into the tracks. Oh. Inchmelt.
01:15:40
Speaker
I don't know. Playlists are, i don't really make it. I made, I made one for the podcast, but other than that, i don't really make playlists. I used to burn CDs. yeah and make it play Mostly about what's, what's 80 minutes or less.
01:15:56
Speaker
Uh, that's, that's usually how I think of things. Um, I don't know. I, uh, Yeah, I picked some songs. didn't I didn't put as much thought into this one as the the previous playlist I made for Secret Homework, but that's because I've been real sick and I just haven't had the ah energy and attention to, you know, I got other obligations, some some even more important than Secret Homework sometimes.
01:16:25
Speaker
That's entirely fair. ah But, yeah, I picked some songs. They're pretty good. Yeah. Okay, yeah, and don't feel it's like, because we have like a whole 13.
01:16:36
Speaker
We don't need to be long about all of them, but I thought it would just be better to break it up. um You know, little pieces at a time. So, yeah, the first song um you were to be inspired by opening the playlist, of course, is the main man himself, Spider-Punk.
01:16:57
Speaker
The song went with... It's called Love Impaired by Dinosaur94. um And it's definitely, you know, one of my rules for the playlist is like, we're we're passable on the nose in the best way. And, you know, it's literally lyric science that says I'm a punk.
01:17:17
Speaker
I'm a sucker, you know? um so ah that matches. And then it's about, you know, 11 hair, um, which kind of matches spider, spider punk, you know, takes a little bite out of, and of where he goes, you know, strugglingless relationships and really it's just a great, it's a great song that I like definitely jam out to the catharsis highly recommend.
01:17:45
Speaker
Um, dance party chores like when you're dusting you're doing other things listening to your headphones and jamming out to songs such as Love Impaired and it just to me it was just like I could totally see Spider Punk as a band playing this so that's what I picked not too much more to say about it ah Let's continue forth in this order, Lauren. Okay.
01:18:12
Speaker
um I started with a more literal... I definitely have some very literal ones. I started with a more literal one for punk that Regina's like hardest song, but I ended up putting that on deafening chord.
01:18:23
Speaker
And so ah for Spider Punk, I picked Us, which is actually a very... It's a very darling song, ah one that I love to play on the piano and sing. But it... It doesn't sound funky at all, but it has has those politics. and um you know The opening lines are, they made a statue of us, put it on a mountaintop, now ter now tourists come and stare at us.
01:18:44
Speaker
And that, to me, fits Hobie Brown, who is symbolized as a Spider-Man, but doesn't want to be. Doesn't want to be a symbol like that. Doesn't want to be idolized or commercialized. So that's what I went with.
01:18:59
Speaker
and Well, I, um was reminded, i have to mute my microphone.
01:19:10
Speaker
I was reminded actually, ah i I do have a song. But first, ah hey, there there's a load screen for this season.
01:19:22
Speaker
Y'all seen the Spider-Punk on the load screen? um Is this the same Spider-Punk from the the collage variant? is that Yes. Okay, well...
01:19:35
Speaker
Y'all, Creative House Pocket, i don't know. I did not want to be a party pooper, but like i've I've been a little suspicious of them for some time. And like take a look at the headstock of Spider Punk's guitar.
01:19:51
Speaker
got five tuning pegs on it that's not the right number at all oh no yeah so they've they've learned that they have to check the number of fingers but um ah oh no yeah sorry folks that's not a that's like not you know what it should be yep yep it possible that he just rocks so hard he knew It's not.
01:20:15
Speaker
It's really not, y'all. Kobe Brown plays six-string guitar. um he He doesn't play a five-string bass. I've seen a lot of fun drawings of guitars. You're allowed to not give a shit about the strings themselves. You can you can draw three of them, none of them. like You can... like anything you Any stylistic choice you take on the strings themselves is fine, but... like Sorry, there you've got the wrong number of tuning machines there upon that headstock.
01:20:47
Speaker
And that to me says you did AI. um But anywho, anywho, other things about the image also suggest to me that...
01:21:00
Speaker
They got the stink of AI on that one. i think it's honestly like for these studios, I think it's basically just industry standard at this point to use AI as your reference image.
01:21:10
Speaker
It's do better. Like just do better. do art. That's what we're here for. I want, I want to see, I'm not here to see images. I'm here to see art with, you know, intentions behind it thought, uh, human, just to be super clear. That was not my excusing it. I just, I think that that's the norm and, and we have to figure out to deal with that. It's just, it's just gross to see more and more of it in the game.
01:21:37
Speaker
And it just makes the whole thing feel cheap and, uh, yucky. Um, um But the song that I picked for Spider-Punk was Nazi Punk's Fuck Off by Dead Kennedys.
01:21:50
Speaker
And ah originally I had that one for Spider-Man Noir because he likes drinking egg creams and fighting Nazis a lot. um But...
01:22:02
Speaker
It's a non-punk activity. Yep. I had another one for Spider-Man Noir, so i i shuffled that one over to Spider-Punk because he's got an anti-authoritarian streak and ah Nazi punks can fuck off.
01:22:18
Speaker
That's my stance. Okay. We're going to snake ladder. Do your next one, Ben, based on Man-Spider, please. Okie dokie for Man-Spider.
01:22:33
Speaker
I had some thoughts. One of them, my first thought. I don't know if it was my best thought. i was like, maybe Spider is a man. ah and i'm thinking I'm thinking like
01:22:50
Speaker
maybe Make a Man Out of You from Mulan. But I decided instead to go with Mixed Business from the Beck album Midnight Vultures. Yeah.
01:23:01
Speaker
i um Interestingly enough, the lyrics of that song include shout out to a different Marvel character. one One of the lines of that song is word up to the man thing.
01:23:14
Speaker
but um But no, it's mixed business and man's fighter is is nothing if not mixed business. So yeah, it felt fitting. What about you, Lauren?
01:23:31
Speaker
I went. Yeah, this is one that was less literal. out Back of a Truck, one of her early ones. It's absolutely gorgeous if you haven't listened to old old the Regina.
01:23:42
Speaker
much less produced and very much carried by her voice. ah Back of a truck is, it's very ah fragmented and chaotic.
01:23:52
Speaker
And there's a section where she's talking about, ah ah there's roadway maps selling the back of a head. Hey, how much for that back of a head, man? Hey, wait a minute. Hey, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
01:24:03
Speaker
That's, wait a minute. That's my back of a head. ah you can't sell that, man. That's my back of a head. And so this there's this you know whole stanza about it. That's mine. Sell it back to me, man. um Which very much to me fit man spider, who is Peter Parker losing control to the feral spider inside.
01:24:21
Speaker
Losing his mind. You can see that. That's a good pick. Okay. ah I went with a song and hear me out on this.
01:24:34
Speaker
It's called Feel Sexy. By Ro Kapara, who maybe I'm mispronouncing, as I should put a disclaimer on any name that I pronounce.
01:24:46
Speaker
But I was... Okay, I won't lie. So I first, like, I had to look up Man Spider because I'm actually more familiar with Boy Spider at the minute because I've been reading Dan Slott's Spider Boy...
01:24:56
Speaker
series, which is a fun, it's like, oh, if you have like children that you want to read and share comics, it's one that's kind of like a ah fun for adults and kids type comic. I don't usually like spend a recommend on it. Like it's at that level, but it definitely is if you are looking for a child friendly ah comic.
01:25:19
Speaker
Anyway, Spider Boy.
01:25:23
Speaker
there's There's a boy spider. So I had to look at man spider. And the first thing thought when I saw the image of man spider, who hadn't seen before, but like in a while, was like, oh, if the Internet has taught me anything, like some people out there want to do that.
01:25:40
Speaker
Right. into
01:25:44
Speaker
I used to be continually surprised by the internet, like that there would be fandoms who are just like into certain like characters or types. And it's like, really? And now it's just like, no, all of it.
01:25:56
Speaker
So like that should make everyone feel good. like there's definitely, you know, yeah definitely there would be like a fan base of people out and into you, however you look, because, like, literally anything. Anyway, so, like, um, uh, so, okay, there was that thought, but then also, like, you know, he's got, he's got the six arms, and, um, it made me think of this song, because there's a line, like, the only times that I feel sexy are when you put your arms around me, and I've gotten all my clothes on, and that line is what made me think of it, so, because it's, like,
01:26:38
Speaker
He's got all these arms, but also he's still like half wearing the costume, you know, I got to listen to your playlist ahead of time. And that was something that just made me absolutely smile when I heard the line about like hold you in your arms. I'm like, that's why she picked it.
01:26:55
Speaker
It's like you think you're like half a spider where you've got multiple limbs and you're still like, man, no, I got to cover up. It's just like, a man, like society and bad parenting really did a number on us, like made us wear insecurity like a cloak.
01:27:13
Speaker
Like, like it's like you're half a spider. Just. be free, you know, let go of the confines of cloth. Like, um you know, I don't know. just can't imagine fur under all that, like spider fur. Because whenever you send spiders. Okay.
01:27:35
Speaker
Anyway, so that's what I picked for man spider. I think it's perfect, to be honest. um And then next up um is inspired by Superior Spider-Man.
01:27:49
Speaker
And I picked Skull Crusher Mountain by Jonathan Colton because it's a ah it's a song. Yeah. From the perspective of a villain.
01:28:01
Speaker
Who is, ah you know, like enticed if that were actually a synonym for kidnapping ah young lady. He's trying to like, you know, be like, I inserted...
01:28:17
Speaker
all the right coins and the vending machine. Why don't you love me? It's that kind of energy. And Doc Ock is definitely kind of there. And Superior Spider-Man is like a comic actually a lot of people have read, I found. like It's like the one comic they read or it gets recommended.
01:28:37
Speaker
It is good. It actually Fanslot, right? ah andlat right And the whole idea is it's right. Otto Octavius taking over Peter Parker's body, but he wants to be a better Spider-Man, a superior Spider-Man. just kind of, but he has that like, you know, what is villainy, but like, but like caring more about results and methods, you know, like,
01:29:06
Speaker
um I wanted to point out, this is like the emblematic of the whole song. As he said, made this half pony, half monkey monster to please you, but I get the feeling that you don't like it.
01:29:21
Speaker
What's with all the screaming? You like monkeys? You like ponies? Maybe you don't like monsters so much. Maybe I use too many monkeys? Is it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
01:29:32
Speaker
That's... you know, line. So it's pretty good. Totally recommend giving it a listen. It's

Song Choices for Spider-Themed Characters

01:29:41
Speaker
jam. That's what I picked. I felt like it fit the vibes.
01:29:44
Speaker
Superior Spider-Man. Lauren, please tell us. I went with Machine. and Kind of straightforward. It's one that is high on logic and low on emotion.
01:29:57
Speaker
um Kind of about the superiority of the singer, the protagonist, because... of being part machine and part organic. And so maybe it's a little surface, surface level for Otto, but that is, ah that one seemed like an obvious fit for me. Okay.
01:30:16
Speaker
I didn't get to listen to swing in as familiar with this one. Well, am most, I'm, I'm, I'm a fan of the superior Spider-Man. I, I read a, read a volume of that.
01:30:31
Speaker
um And what I went with was anything you can do from Annie Get Your Gun, the the Bernadette Peters version. um Because that is that is sort of the the premise. He's like, anything you can do, I can do better. Yeah.
01:30:50
Speaker
Yeah. don ah my My philosophy was nothing is too on the nose. So that's crazy what I did. Okay. um The next one up in my list was Ezekiel Sims.
01:31:05
Speaker
This was like, I had to like Google him. um again um Tell us what you picked, please, Ben. Ah, for Ezekiel Sims.
01:31:18
Speaker
so I've been playing a lot of Ezekiel Sims and either in my head or sometimes out loud, not so much because I don't have ah my regular voice. i don't I don't have all the tools that I'm used to. but So what here's what I think is fun to do.
01:31:37
Speaker
You play Ezekiel Sims, and you've maybe this is the turn after you've played. it Honestly, you can do this several times a game if you want. But you play Ezekiel Sims last turn. Now you play a larger thing.
01:31:50
Speaker
you hit the end turn button. The animations start and you say, ah ah and then when your big thing flips over, you say Zeke out.
01:32:03
Speaker
And that's right. The the song is a Freak by Sheik. um So you just ah you say instead of saying freak out, you say Zeke out.
01:32:15
Speaker
hamber And then he moves away. Yeah, I forgot that when- Nile Rodgers is one of my my guitar heroes. Anywho, what were you saying, Lauren?
01:32:26
Speaker
When we were talking about Ezekiel later or earlier as like the card of the week, I forgot to mention that like when you brought up his theme before where he like- If there's a threat that's too big for him to fight, he's just going to run away from it. You know? And I was like, I was feeling that so much when I was playing Ezekiel. I was like, oh, this is very thematic and good. So I was glad that you pointed that out.
01:32:50
Speaker
Oh. Grace us with the Regina Speckerson. They did a good job on that one. In in that way. i You know, credit where credit is due. Good for second dinner.
01:33:03
Speaker
I was this turn very happy to fit in a lot of my favorites. And so this is another one. This is one I love playing on the piano. Opere Moi. It rocks in English, French, and Russian in the same song.
01:33:14
Speaker
uh is very heavy and it feels grand and apocalyptic and mystical and so it just you know prophetic it it felt like it fit zeke's vibes i've got to say some of these characters i don't know very well so kind of surface level research to know and i may totally miss their personalities
01:33:36
Speaker
Okay. um Yeah, know, sometimes it's vibes. I picked a song that I thought of for Zeke Oil Sims, and it was it's the first placebo song i ever heard.
01:33:50
Speaker
It's called Nancy Boy. Someone put it on a playlist for me. um Like that. Yeah. way back in the day and I've always loved it and it feels like a good like spider song it's popping it's like spin me around you know Nancy Boy it's in and he talks about someone out for himself kind of like Ezekiel Sims but like ultimately I guess supposedly sacrificed himself for Peter so like you know still a good dude and you know it's just just another Nancy Boy
01:34:26
Speaker
Um, so i and I, I went pretty, like, it was pretty cemented for me. I'm like, yes, this is the one locked it in. Um, and the same with the next one, it was sad.
01:34:37
Speaker
Cause it was when I almost wanted to agonize. I had all these like ideas for Spider-Man noir, of course, cause I'm like, ah let me just make a whole, could have made a whole playlist for a lot of these characters, but.
01:34:49
Speaker
also Spider-Man. But I did just, I had to do the on the nose thing. I did a remix of Paint It Black. um It's by like St. Maxwell.
01:35:01
Speaker
I guess. And it's just like, it's just like an instrumental. And I can picture, i can totally picture Spider-Man Noir fighting. And it's going to be like, like one of those long one take fights. Okay.
01:35:17
Speaker
So like epic moments, we think of like Captain America in the elevator, right? You think of hallway fights, think of like Dairy Devil, the television show, like the early big long hallway fights. But for me, the OG fight of that style of closed in space, at least the appearance of one take um was the old, it's ah like 2003, think, film Old Boy, a Korean horror film. Yeah. Yeah.
01:35:48
Speaker
Right? There's that scene and then when you saw that, it's like that's the OG scene of a long take of a fight. ah The fight one can only do when one has been locked in a room for many, many years and had nothing to do but push-ups and imaginary fights.
01:36:06
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's messed up, though. Uh, you know, so, like, if if you're gonna watch it, like, be in for that, okay?
01:36:18
Speaker
Just, I'll spoil I'll spoil it for you, but, like, woo! Okay, so, um...
01:36:29
Speaker
yeah You said noir, right? For Spider-Man noir. For him, it would obviously need to be outside because needs to be in the rain, obviously, for Spider-Man noir. But like closed and tight in the city streets. and you can just i can Every time I do it, i just I'm just like visualizing this fight scene in my head. it just fits so well. I think they updated when I came back and like, oh, did they change the art in this picture?
01:36:56
Speaker
They changed it, it looks like, to look sort of like Wednesday, Wednesday Addams from the TV show because she had a she plays the cello, she plays a rendition of Paint in Black.
01:37:09
Speaker
It's very awesome and epic. So I went to the comic, like, is this the one that played in the show? i guess I should mention if it is, but no, I think they're just like on the hype train.
01:37:23
Speaker
Okay. What did you pick, Lauren? I picked my literal favorite Spectre song, Prisoners. It is, i think she actually has a lot of songs that have some lonely vibes, which I think fit with noir. But this one is It tired and lonely, but also there's this, like, resolve.
01:37:44
Speaker
ah And so, vibes. That's how I picked it. That's, like, that's the ultimate ah for playlist.
01:37:55
Speaker
Ben, what did you pick? I picked for Spider-Man Noir You Want it Darker by Leonard Cohen from into the eponymous...
01:38:08
Speaker
single from that album. Um, the title track, you might even say, uh, that, that album came out 17 days before, uh, Leonard Cohen's death.
01:38:18
Speaker
So like really, uh, really just sort of a final statement. Um, And it's a good song, good vibe, very dark.
01:38:30
Speaker
um Yeah. i yeah that's That's what I ended up with after shuffling away the Nazi punks fuck off because it was a little too punk. Yeah, I also... That the tracks go where they're needed on on my playlists. That's what I say.
01:38:50
Speaker
I approve. All right, give us your prowler as well. the next one uh for this one there was another i had a song that i thought about giving to the prowler but i shuffled it elsewhere where it felt more appropriate and i was thinking about the prowler and i was like what's what's there to say about the the prowler i was I was looking at his toys, one of them, Vibroshock gauntlets. I mean, that's a shocker thing anyway.
01:39:25
Speaker
But um I was just like, well, let's let's go on the nose. And I went with Good Vibrations, not the Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch one, but the Beach Boys, that Good Vibrations, as in she's giving me the excitations.
01:39:45
Speaker
And, you know, it's ah's a real good song. Classic for a reason.
01:39:53
Speaker
Okay. Prowler, I went with open, which is, it's ah again, it's vibes in some ways. It's kind of claustrophobic, but also um about waiting, which feels like, you know, sort of like a a hunter, a stalker to me.
01:40:09
Speaker
And most of all, there's this tension in it, um potentially lovely, perpetually human. And that to me feels very Prowler where he's, you know, pulled between his life of crime, but also his family.
01:40:22
Speaker
Specifically Uncle Aaron Prowler, right? I understand. Not Hobie Brown Prowler. Hobie Brown or Aaron Davis. Mad confusion. Yeah. The two different Prowlers.
01:40:34
Speaker
Okay. um For me, I went with Ready to Win by Tokyo Police Club. Song about, like, fucking up, which feels like that fits both the prowlers. They're both people who picked wrong side, ultimately usually choosing until like, go straight and, like, join the hero side.
01:40:53
Speaker
And um this song is, like, you know, like, about fucking up all this stuff, but it's ultimately triumphant. It's about being ready to win. And it's like, I feel like there's so much music out there that it's easy to find if you just want to like feel bad.
01:41:08
Speaker
Like everything's bad. And I like the kind of, you know, and how this song builds into like, you know, a guitar catharsis that like matches kind of.
01:41:20
Speaker
guitar sis? Yeah. Exactly. You gotta love it. guitar sis. Okay. um So that was my prowler. And then sling was a fun one. And I knew like pretty much right away.
01:41:38
Speaker
And it's for me, what I thought about with web sling is how it's okay. Like I am a huge fan. It is known, you know, my first tattoo ever was the Batman symbol.
01:41:48
Speaker
Also long been a fan of Daredevil. So it's like, you know, a established that I am a creature of the night. And, you know, a lot of their kind of openings are going out into the city that's like coming alive at night.
01:42:00
Speaker
But the spiders, all of them, their vibe is more like a city the city waking up, like New York in the morning, like the sun coming in right? Like pigeons are around, like street vendors are just getting set up. You're swinging through the city.
01:42:18
Speaker
And that's like the song. It's called lights up, like the whole city coming up, you know? And it even, there's like this point in it. I can totally picture them like swinging around, um where there's like little sirens in the background. There's like a little phone conversation. You can just totally picture,
01:42:35
Speaker
um ah the vibes of the spider. And I love that. I love that, like, you know, I hadn't really thought about that until I thought about this song, how much, like, the spiders are, like, kind of, like, that dawn and coming alive and also feeding into their whole themes as, like, because, like, say, like, the bat family, right?
01:42:59
Speaker
Like, they come from many. Like, the struggles are that, like... You know, they're more into the other thing than they're into their humanity and also other things. But spiders are always so connected so like the human, the human like struggle of like, gotta to pay my rent. Gotta like get to somewhere in time. Gotta stop like disappointing all my relatives, you know? They're so connected into that. And it's like, that's vibes. Anyway.
01:43:29
Speaker
So, uh, I loved the song for this. So I was pretty fast that I chose it stuck with it. Lauren, what was your web sling? For web sling, I went with buildings, which is a song about a strange relationship in a married couple.
01:43:46
Speaker
That's not why I picked it. I picked it because. Definition of swing. didn't even think about it. That's not even what I was talking about.
01:43:59
Speaker
Anyway, it very literally talks about tall buildings, right? That's the means for your web swinging around is the buildings. And also musically, it sounds very much like soaring through the air. so that's why I picked it.
01:44:13
Speaker
Yeah. Ben, why don't you pick your web sling? Well, for web sling... I knew that one of these cards had to be this song, and this seemed like the obvious choice.
01:44:27
Speaker
I went with I Miss You by Blink-182. I'm really upset that I'm sick this week because I have, not to toot my own horn, but I have a fantastic Tom DeLonge impression.
01:44:45
Speaker
man! That, like, all the best impressions is, like... Two thirds accurate and one third speaking to some greater, deeper truth that like is more important than accuracy to like, like you replicating, you know, the, the stuff and anyway, a good impression is an interesting thing.
01:45:08
Speaker
But anyway, um, I guess I'll try anyway.
01:45:14
Speaker
And as I stared, I counted webs from all the spiders, catching fiends and eating their insides, like indecision to call you and hear your voice of treason. Will you come home and stop these pain tonight?
01:45:31
Speaker
Stop these pain tonight. um So, yeah. And as I stared, I counted webs from all the spiders. yeah That's a pretty silly song, folks. Pretty silly song. That's my opinion. Always has been my opinion.
01:45:48
Speaker
kind of like it. I did used to play a cover of it because I like like silly songs. Hell yeah. What's the next Sorry. Yeah, that was too good. I was trapped in the moment.
01:46:06
Speaker
Okay. Who is... Oh, who is oh no it Chameleon! Who's your chameleon, Ben? Oh, for this one, ah it took me some time to arrive um ah at this one, but i i picked the best song for this one.
01:46:27
Speaker
um And that is Beneath the Mask from Persona 5. I went with the Rain version. ah In case you don't know which one,
01:46:39
Speaker
ah ah which one um Beneath the Mask is. It's the one that's like, I'm a shapeshifter at post-masquerade. Hiding both face and mind.
01:46:56
Speaker
ah free for you to draw. i'm a shapeshifter. What else should I be Please don't take off my mask.
01:47:08
Speaker
Revealing dark. And you know, the rain's under window. do. never picked out the lyrics before. yeah So Persona 5, folks. It's fucking got some really good songs. I don't know what to tell you, bud.
01:47:27
Speaker
um But yeah, you know, it's a good song. I feel like everybody knows that's like kind of one of the best ones in the game.
01:47:38
Speaker
and her
01:47:40
Speaker
That's my opinion. I feel like I'm not the only person who feels that. But that song that that game has a lot of very good music in it. Also, a man, that metaphor, Rephantasia, I still haven't played it myself, but all the music is still stuck in my head.
01:47:55
Speaker
ah My spouse has been replaying it this week while we're both sick. And I've just been been hearing the tunes. I have a version of where it's all just the nicknames for my current cat.
01:48:13
Speaker
but but but bla eating the horse ah yeah the i have a version of it where it's all just the nicknames for my current cat But I won't. to But yeah, I just say his nickname over and over or variations on it and make up make all the syllables line up. And it's it's too much fun.
01:48:39
Speaker
but But yeah, that Shoji Meguro. I think there were some collaborators, especially on the metaphor ReFantasio one. So I don't know if all my favorite metaphor ReFantasio tracks are Anywho, anywho, that's beside the point. Yeah.
01:48:57
Speaker
Yeah. All right. So that's what I had. i You may think based on titles alone, if you know a lot of Regina Spector songs that I went with Man of a Thousand Faces seems like a really good fit.
01:49:11
Speaker
oh yeah. No, I went with Edit. It does seem like a really good fit. Yes. Yeah. But then like when it came down to like the vibe of the music and like the lyrics, I didn't think it was as good of a fit as Edit, which felt to me more like ah losing your identity because it's shifting constantly. No, no stability in your own identity.
01:49:32
Speaker
which i dont I don't actually know Chameleon that well, but from like surface level research, that felt like a better fit.
01:49:41
Speaker
I approve. I also was like, man, I know I've read Chameleon probably like a ton, but he's always been one of those like B villains. It's never like stuck yeah Cause he's never had his own cool enough storyline or stick or whatever.
01:49:55
Speaker
So I did have to Google them And one, like, I'm like, uh, he, he seems sad. and um, two, you know, he does like, he does like to present well, like, you know, dress up in that little vest.
01:50:09
Speaker
I, ah kind of honestly immediately imagined him being ah the villain for Spider-Man Noir in this imaginary like animated thing I was making in my head.
01:50:23
Speaker
Because, you know, he looks like he could fit with his like vest and pinstripe and all all the stuff that he does. And so I picked a song called Ava Gardner um by Supernova.
01:50:35
Speaker
and um ah One, pairs nicely because like the lyrics are like, you know i'll be you'll be my Frank Sinatra, I'll be your Ava Gardner. And it's like, well, that's chameleon's ability. You gotta pair him with another card.
01:50:52
Speaker
And then... um i Yeah. It was like kind of the old-timey vibes. And I won't lie, a lot of it was like I also felt like in the playlist it was a good time to have a more mellow song.
01:51:07
Speaker
Because the next thing up is Deafening Chord, which, you you know, we all picked. Like something. um There were contenders for sure for Deafening Chord, but I had to go with my very first impulse and like refused to doubt it like even once and a song i haven't even listened to in years i immediately thought of the song free the by melt banana it is so good for deafening chord i love it it's it's one that you can jam out the literally the only lyrics i think i know like that i can pick out are like free the
01:51:45
Speaker
Okay. You're screaming it? It's great. Promise anyone that listens to it, has a long opening that you listen all the way to, at least until you hear the first Free the Bee. But it starts, and it's got kind of this, like, choral, and then these, like, kind of, like, sirens kick in, and then eventually it's, like, guitars, and then it's like...
01:52:06
Speaker
like builds. um And it's just like it's just to me, it was the perfect deafening chord song. um You know? ah That's what I went with. right I think when I was listening, something that's fun about this challenge is like knowing the context around it when I was listening to your playlist. I was like, this is for this character, right? like For sure. And then I went and looked at your list and yeah of course it was.
01:52:31
Speaker
It felt like it was pretty easy to pick out. and yet this one was very obviously deafening chord. noisy. um i went with Your Honor, which is by far the hardest Regina Spector song, one of the only ones that's using electric guitar.
01:52:45
Speaker
um And yeah, it's just ah kind of rage-filled and full of energy.
01:52:57
Speaker
Rage-filled and full of energy. Well, what I went with for Deafening Chord
01:53:07
Speaker
I feel like this one works on every level, just all of them. This, this freestanding.
01:53:17
Speaker
the The nerve on this one, just the gall of deafening cord. um I get mad whenever I see the autonomous delivery robot, the autonomous delivery robot.
01:53:32
Speaker
I get mad whenever I see the self-driving vehicle from San Francisco, self-driving vehicle from San Francisco. um That's right. The song is Autonomous Delivery Robot by Grandson.
01:53:46
Speaker
It's a fucking banger. Oh, my gosh. Just a really good song. I hate it. I don't know why every song in 2025 is not Autonomous Delivery Robot.
01:54:01
Speaker
um It's a really good song. It's a really, really good song. If you only check. And it's not the theant the sort of... It doesn't sound like most of the music that I gravitate towards, but I strongly recommend y'all check out Autonomous Delivery Robot by Grandson. You can watch the music video, listen to the audio, whatever.
01:54:21
Speaker
ah It's a banger and a bop. And... You know, like it's like, it's not just about the autonomous delivery robots. It's, they're, you know, they're sort of... They're threatening.
01:54:38
Speaker
Synecdoche, I think, is the literary device I think i think we're working with here. they' You know, they're just like one part of the thing, but they're a stand-in for the whole thing. um and But anywho, yeah. Yeah.
01:54:53
Speaker
I feel the same way about deafening cord, the freestanding skill card that's ah too good and bullshit and has no personality and is not a character. And in fact, ah sort of supplants and supersedes the character that should be associated with it.
01:55:10
Speaker
And um yeah, I just, I, yeah, check out the song. That's, that's how I feel about deafening cord. Hydro manis. Ah, yeah.
01:55:22
Speaker
For Hydro Man, wow, I guess I guess i got all the all the harder ones in here at the end. i don't listen to um um all the most hard music, but um for Hydro Man, there were a lot of options because really, it just had to be sort of wet, right?
01:55:37
Speaker
Yeah. So what I went with for Hydro Man was I Sat by the Ocean by Queens of the Stone Age from the album Like Clockwork.
01:55:51
Speaker
It's a great album. My favorite of theirs. And a great song. um Let me see if I got a funny ah Josh Homme impression.
01:56:05
Speaker
ah sat by the ocean and drank a potion, baby, to erase you.
01:56:18
Speaker
Fist down in the boulevard. Yeah, couldn't face too sick. But speaking of sick Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah.
01:56:31
Speaker
yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. Oh, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Oh, Oh, Oh, yeah. Oh, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, Oh, yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, Oh, yeah.
01:56:42
Speaker
yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. yeah. yeah. Y'all know the ones. Maybe you don't know the ones. Fucking banger of a song, banger of an album.
01:56:54
Speaker
ah Runner-up choice for the same card from the same album. Oh, why not? Smooth Sailing. Oh, wait, i already put that on my other playlist, so that's why it couldn't have been Smooth Sailing. It had to be I Sat by the Ocean.
01:57:07
Speaker
Great, great album. Great to and check it out.
01:57:12
Speaker
I went with folding chair, which is also about sitting by the ocean. Oh, that was that one's... ah I know that one. That Regina... That's a good Regina.
01:57:25
Speaker
i like that one. She's waiting for the salty water to cover up her ears. But also, there's like... I don't know, two or three times in the song where she's, ooh. And when she's doing it the first few times, it's it's it's nice ooze. But then on the last one, she is punching them like they're dolphin sounds. And it's delightful. It's fun.
01:57:45
Speaker
I haven't heard it off to listen. Okay. Go ahead. I, um, okay. I like, once again, this is just too easy. I did like briefly look up Hydra man who I'm not super familiar with.
01:57:58
Speaker
Um, but it's like, it's going to be a water thing. And you all are just so lucky. i this is where I refuse the obvious. It's like ocean man by ween is like right there.
01:58:11
Speaker
And I went to look up Hydra Man's thing and it's like, oh, there was an accident in the ocean. I'm like, oh, it's just calling for ocean. But I feel like if people have heard Ween, that's like the one Ween song they've heard and like want to put it on.
01:58:24
Speaker
So instead I put a song probably no one's heard of called Waterslide by Auto Magic. It's, you know, it talks about it's good for a villain because it's like, hey, like,
01:58:37
Speaker
You know, killing everyone is easy. Doing all the bad things is easy. um you know, I just want to get on my water slide and go back to a time in my life that was easier.
01:58:49
Speaker
Although, like, what did think about this was like, oh, man, the kids who, like, made this song were like, at oldest in their earliest 20s. And whenever you like go back, you want to be like, you know what I mean?
01:59:05
Speaker
How much life have you really lived to have all this nostalgia for your former time? And it's like, well, even kids have nostalgia. It's almost kind of false, right? Yeah. Because it's like, would you ever...
01:59:16
Speaker
like Like there are a lot of times you wouldn't actually want to go back in time. Like maybe there's a thing you liked about that time. But it's like, do you ever really want to go back into a time to like know less than you know now to like all of this stuff anyway?
01:59:32
Speaker
It's just like I got really into the like philosophy. So I water theme song for Hydro Man. Yeah. Okay, then we get into our bonus and You know, the fun the fun um Lady Spider variants that they had.
01:59:53
Speaker
and like, almost did a mini, like, ah Lauren challenge. and Because, like, all i was like, oh, the Underscores have three songs that like, line up here. But I did end up, ah there's some other songs that were too perfect.
02:00:08
Speaker
Also, I think it was funny. You had so many songs from that album on there, but like you didn't have Fidelity, which maybe didn't line up. But it's like, oh, that's the one I know best. That was always like my... That's the single, yeah.
02:00:23
Speaker
Right? It's like... Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And it didn't like super line up with anything, but it was like when I was younger and you had your like karaoke fantasy where you're like, oh, what if I got up and sing a song? And it's like really good. And everyone was surprised.
02:00:37
Speaker
And for me, it was always like, it's like, for some reason, I was going to say, that's a hard one okay. Yeah. You know, no and be everyone would be super impressed.
02:00:48
Speaker
Okay. I also can't sing, so like there's that. Okay. First up is Go Spider. And I am so grateful to this challenge that I gifted my future self.
02:01:04
Speaker
Thank you, Pastry. um Because I love this song called Can't Get My Shit Together, which if you've heard me talk about Spider Gwen, you know, obviously, is what I picked for Spider Gwen.
02:01:16
Speaker
um It's by Baby Queen. And it's such a fun song to listen to and jam out to. But it just kept getting too personal me because it's like, but it's not about me, though, right? Like, I've got my shit together, right? And just like, it was just two in my head every time I was listening to it. And now I can listen to it freely because I'm like, oh, it's about Gwen.
02:01:36
Speaker
It's just like not about me at There's some reason that fixed it in my head. So it's a really fun song to rack out to, add to your chores rave party list.
02:01:49
Speaker
and And, you know, that's all I have to say. obviously Obviously, the title speaks for itself and why I think it relates to Spider-Gwen. Lauren, what did you pick for Ghostbiter?
02:02:01
Speaker
I love the gift you gave yourself. I picked that time, which as far as I can think, ah maybe there's some like concert exclusives or something. But as far as I can think, this is the only other Regina Spector song that's electric guitars.
02:02:16
Speaker
um And so, you know, that that fits ah fit's ah Gwen, who who's in a and a band. ah And also, it's it's very much about ah not having your shit together and more in a nostalgic way. And I think that's something that anybody could relate to.
02:02:35
Speaker
Yeah. real That's the spiders. They're relatable, right? First and foremost. Okay, Ben, who did you pick? i I don't know. This one was extra credit. and Okay, it's okay if you didn't. I just...
02:02:51
Speaker
It's been a week. I'm sorry. i don't i i I'll have one for her next week. I tried. i just wasn't coming up with anything I liked.
02:03:03
Speaker
It's extra credit. Yeah, it's extra credit. Most of my picks have been direct hits by my own judgment anyway. and i just know nothing nothing none of none of my ideas were quite meeting my standards so i might No, it's good to meet the standards And it's okay to not do it every week We here You know, we want to live in the world That doesn't demand sick people We're compassionate But these these final three are extra credit, right?
02:03:34
Speaker
Yes They are, so you've completed the assignment Fulfilled Okay, so then know, Lauren, then drop us your Drop us your silk Okay, my silk is Nemekite Pa. um This is one that she has on two separate albums that, like...
02:03:52
Speaker
And of course they're both lovely, but don't more modern Regina is is much more produced. And and I'm picking that specifically the poppy one from what we saw from the cheap seats. is very It has a lot of energy and brightness, which I think kind of fits silk.
02:04:07
Speaker
But also, neme ki te pa literally means don't leave me. And so I feel like, and I don't know, you you will have to tell me, but i feel like she must have some of that anxiety, social anxiety after being in a bunker for 10 years.
02:04:21
Speaker
Yeah.
02:04:23
Speaker
That's where I went with it, too. I had... um Okay, i ah picked Antisocialite by the Foxies. It's a really um fun one, obviously. Self-title makes sense for Silk. But also, talks about like, hey, I'm i'm sipping a Capri Sun to feel the nostalgia. And that's like Silk's old deal. She gets out of the bunker. All of her references are like out of date. And it's like, that's one reason...
02:04:52
Speaker
Oh, man, we had a commenter few weeks. I don't know if they even still listen to our podcast say that, like, I was overly fixated on Gwen. And it's like, it has stayed with me ever since. And I realized it's true.
02:05:03
Speaker
Silk was always like my first spider love. I'm like, oh, like Spider-Man, but it's a woman like me. Women can be spider people too. And like, I just, I've had, I've had her first appearance.
02:05:15
Speaker
I like, I've gotten pretty much all of her runs. And I realized like, oh, I am like fixing it. And I'm
02:05:22
Speaker
anden citiesd you know okay um And then I felt bad. I felt like I was like, you know, I don't know. Like Silk and I used to be friends. Like friendship with Silk over. My best friend is post-Spider now.
02:05:34
Speaker
And like Silk doesn't deserve that. And I loved that feeling. I felt like the way I grew up and the way I was sheltered was like being stuck away in a bunker. When I got out, like I said, there was so much music.
02:05:46
Speaker
That's why it's like like Melt Banana was given to me on a playlist exchange. it's one reason I love doing it. It's where I got to like finally listen to good music. And a lot of... um You know, and I've said before, like we were a bit poor. Like a lot of my toys came from garage sales and they were outdated for my time and for my age.
02:06:08
Speaker
So like my references were like older than myself in a lot of ways, but also weird gaps. So I relate to that with Silk. And I think I didn't say the whole lead up to this was like there are lyrics in the song that are like, oh, and I'm sipping on Capri Sun to feel the nostalgia. And it just felt like it just it felt perfect for Silk.
02:06:29
Speaker
Um, okay. Last of this black cat and i um, I, I have, I have one for silk. You got a silk one. Go for it then.
02:06:40
Speaker
I picked Oakland nights from the unauthorized bash brothers experience. This is, um, uh, sort of, it' it's like the lonely islands lemonade about, uh, the bash brothers, uh,
02:06:59
Speaker
Jose and Mark, you know, the baseballmans. um Canseco and Maguire, respectively. And this this track features Sia. And um the the chorus is silk robes and kimonos.
02:07:15
Speaker
Silk robes and kimonos. Change out of your own clothes. These athletic days, but oh, those Oakland nights. And I mean, that's that's just the beginning of the chorus. There's a little more chorus. They go once they go once more around the paddock.
02:07:29
Speaker
But, um you know. a I prefer to be highly literal whenever possible. So it was just the first song that I could think of referred to silk.
02:07:41
Speaker
And I highly recommend it's a very short, ah it's like less than half an hour, I think, or maybe about half an hour. I would watch it It's very funny. I enjoyed it. And I don't even like sports things.
02:07:54
Speaker
So it's on Netflix. Okay. where to so Mark Diva directed it, I think.
02:08:03
Speaker
And end of, end of entry. and No, I am. I'm going to check it out. Okay. um I had not heard. Mike Diva. I don't know. some Somebody Diva. I don't remember things.
02:08:17
Speaker
Okay, ah for Black Cat, who is the last one? won't lie, there's a couple other ones i might have picked for if this wasn't like the last album on the track, and I also wanted like a bookend banger, but this one also fits it. It's Locals slash Girls Like Us by The Underscores um with Gabby Start.
02:08:37
Speaker
And it's such a good it's one of those that has ah buildup that like changes. That's kind of slow, but it builds into such a jam. And screaming like girls like a like, stop me if you've heard this one before.
02:08:54
Speaker
Girls like us are rotten to the core. And it feels like that, like, black cat, like, defiance of, like, I don't care what you say about me. ah don't care what you call me. You know what I mean Like, I know who I am.
02:09:08
Speaker
And I also like that it's called locals because I do feel like that's, like, a spider thing. It's, like, they're so, like, tied in to, like, often to, like, New York and to, like,
02:09:20
Speaker
Like making the big city into the small, like you see this in all the Spider-Man films, like think back to like Tobey Maguire when like they have all the villagers stand up and like, I don't know, like be like, I'm Spider-Man. or and You know, all the various scenes they have. You gotta go through me, New York.
02:09:37
Speaker
Right. But it's it's making it's turning, making neighbor, you know, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, your locals. That's what it's about. It's the big city, but it's still a neighborhood. And so, like, I just loved all.
02:09:53
Speaker
And, you know, and Black Cat's part of that. She's spider family like that. She's she's just firmly. mean, she but she's spider, you know. So um so that's what it's like a super banger, to be honest. So like.
02:10:07
Speaker
That's what I closed it out on. um Give us our final ifa no Regina of the evening. It's all the rowboats, which is also what we saw from the Cheap Seats, the newest album represented here because I haven't even listened to her newest two or three. um it is It's a museum heist, you know? So it's it's perhaps a more literal connection also. But it's tense and elegant and about... i you know, escaping from, from glass cases.
02:10:43
Speaker
Okay. Um, I love that. Cause yeah, like it is, I like the on the nose ones too. ah enjoyed I mean, I gave this, but like, thank you for humoring me. I do love making playlists.
02:10:57
Speaker
Um, also have one for black cat. Oh, you do go for it then. You missed one out of the three extra credits. It didn't sound like you had like missed out on all of them. so I was trying to not... I like to be thorough and I felt bad that I hadn't got one.
02:11:15
Speaker
you know nailed down for... It's actually perfect for for Ghost Spider because she doesn't have her shit together. so like the fact that she didn't show up prepared with the song is perfectly Gwen Stacy.
02:11:27
Speaker
I heard this iteration. Okay, go ahead with your Cat. picked for Black Cat. It's a good thing you like them on the nose. You just said so. um She's in to superstitions.
02:11:41
Speaker
Black cats and blue dolls. I feel a premonition. That girl's going to make me fall. That's right. Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin.
02:11:53
Speaker
First song I thought of involving black cats. It's like an iconic. It's a banger. It's a bop. Also, ah you know, ah speaking of Ricky Martin, I was catching up on Palm Royale. I think i think the second season has started. um But I, you know, it's it's on Apple TV.
02:12:17
Speaker
No longer Plus. Now it's just Apple TV. And now they've got a little hint of Claire DeLune. and so That's their name. Oh, they're just straight grades now? Mm-hmm. Um, but, uh, um, Ricky Martin's pretty good on Palm Royale. Uh, it's a real B plus television show. I, I think I heard some early reviews or read some early reviews that were like tent kind of, kind of mid on it.
02:12:40
Speaker
I mean, i'll I'll hit you with the premise. ah what does What does Wikipedia say it's about? i mean, like, just paraphrase. I mean, just like I've not heard of it. Well, it's a period piece. It's set in 1969. Kristen Wiig ah kristen wigg uh how about i just tell you about the cast the cast is fucking phenomenal we got kristin wig we got ricky martin we got

Gaming Discussion: Slay the Spire

02:13:05
Speaker
uh who else do i like oh leslie i didn't know he acted to be honest yeah i didn't either i was like who is this guy he looks kind of familiar and then uh you know i i was like oh that's that's ricky martin and yeah he's he's great on it honestly like it's it's
02:13:20
Speaker
fun it's It's fun. It's fun television. it looks like It's a good looking show and the cast is great and like the writing is fun enough. and like It doesn't have to be perfect sometimes. Can we just let the girls have fun sometimes?
02:13:34
Speaker
ah But anyway, we got Kristen Wiig, Ricky Martin, Leslie Blibb, Laura Dern. Everybody likes Laura Dern. Don't you want to hang out with Laura Dern? I sure as shit do. Allison Janney. Oh, man.
02:13:45
Speaker
Carol Burnett. it's It's, yeah, i check out Palm Royale. and I'm having fun with it. i'm I'm at least four or five episodes in, and i I'm having a great time.
02:13:57
Speaker
And that's my Ricky Martin Minute for you.
02:14:02
Speaker
um Did you have any closing remarks that i that i rudely interrupted? what what was going on there? I just said, like, I enjoyed this. And while I was looking through songs, I thought of lots of other songs. thank I wanted to do. I'm like, that's what tore me away from picking some songs. i'm like, no, this is, I'll save this for this character.
02:14:25
Speaker
Um, so maybe you can one day. um but no, go, go for it. You're assigning next week's homework. Ben, what you got for us? That's right. All right. Well, you know, a frequent topic of discussion among people on, uh, on this call and also just people who like card games and things in general, and um,
02:14:49
Speaker
come to mind my attention that, ah well, also it's probably come to the listeners' attention because we talked about it like last week. But Lauren has not really played Slay the Spire, not properly. And also, okay, so I went i went looking. i was like, what?
02:15:07
Speaker
and Because I was aware that there were mods and things for Slay the Spire. But i was I was making big promises to read. don't have for though. I only have it Switch. Oh, well, then that's that's an obstacle.
02:15:19
Speaker
All right. Because I i did go looking in at these mods and I myself, i was I didn't even, I wasn't all that interested. I was mostly looking for you, Rhi, to be honest.
02:15:29
Speaker
I didn't realize you only had it on Switch. But... um I was like, I'm not interested in this because I trust the game designers and I like the vanilla starting decks. And I think that a lot of the beauty of the game is deciding yeah how much of a hurry you are to shed that chrysalis.
02:15:47
Speaker
And, you know, yeah. Point is, point is. I learned that there's a mod that lets you play co-op Slay the Spire with multiple people where they all line up on one side of the screen like a fucking Final Fantasy party.
02:16:03
Speaker
yourre you three You're yourere however many characters. And I was like, oh, that's so cool. we got it We got to get Lauren playing Slay the Spire. And then we all have to party up and do a trio run.
02:16:14
Speaker
But if if you don't have it on PC, then... That's fine. Just play some Slay the Spire. That's the secret. Play some Slay the Spire so we can talk a little bit about it. Oh, it'll be Perth. That's also homework for the listeners. If you have not played Slay the Spire, but you like card games and things, I bet you'll like Slay the Spire. It's a really good game, fun game, lots of charm.
02:16:38
Speaker
ah You know, it's one of these games where like... it's It's like those FromSofts where like, oh there's a lot of lore if you read all the things, but also you don't have to pay attention to it if you don't want to. And, you know, like I just sort of I appreciate the lore in that like I read things, but I don't try too hard to I don't have, you know, enough red string to ah put together all the all the secrets of the Spire. But yeah, it's a great game.
02:17:10
Speaker
You will enjoy the time you spend with it is my theory. It's iconic. It created its own like genre, right? Basically, there's a bunch of Slay the Spire little like mini clones that have popped up. I have tried couple of them, and it's interesting to see... fuck with Inscription?
02:17:26
Speaker
No, not yet. I did buy it because it was on sale, and I downloaded it, and I need to play it. Wait, Lauren, you played Inscription, but you haven't played Slay the Spire? Correct. That is the most backwards thing in the world. game is like...
02:17:42
Speaker
In conversation with Slay the Spire more so than but a lot of other things. that I mean, that game is in conversation with a lot of games. absolutely fucking loved Inscription.
02:17:52
Speaker
Yeah, you gotta play Slay the Spire. That's my feeling. um Yeah. So, yeah. and And that goes for the listeners. I bet our listeners would also love put the love Slay the Spire if they haven't already. But also, if you don't want to spend the money, then just...
02:18:06
Speaker
Just, I don't know, play some other game that you like, maybe some other game with cards. It's good to to get get around with the the cards and things, you know, to play other card games makes you better at the first card game. and It's just you understand how things fit together better.
02:18:25
Speaker
that's that's That's my

Conclusion and Recommendations

02:18:26
Speaker
feeling. Okay, great. Well, listener, viewer, if you liked what you heard and you haven't already, like and subscribe, rate and review on iTunes or Spotify.
02:18:37
Speaker
Leave us a comment on YouTube or Spotify or come hang out with us in the speakeasy. It's our little corner of Discord. It's not even a full server. It's just part of the Snap Judgments League one. There are instructions on how to find our handful of channels in the show notes or video description or, you know, DM me. I'll help you. It's fine.
02:18:57
Speaker
um We're proudly part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to other great shows like the titular grand pod eponymous eponymous. don't know how to say that word that you used earlier. Eponymous. I said it right the first time. We got there. That's different word. Yeah. Eponymous.
02:19:13
Speaker
oh it's listenling okay um that's a different word um yeah um
02:19:21
Speaker
I don't want to, like, you know, breach privacy or anything like that, but at my child's school years ago, like, i don't know, to one two or three schools ago, there was somebody who drove i hybrid, or maybe it was even electric Mustang, and their license plate was EV Pona, which I always very much appreciated. combination of EV and Pona. Anyway.
02:19:47
Speaker
absolutely appreciate it. I enjoyed that joke every single time I picked up my child from the parking lot. um Yeah, anyway, listen to Snap Judgments. It's good. It's got Pulse, Glazer, and Roy, and comes out on Saturday, is question mark?
02:20:00
Speaker
um I don't know. Pulse moved to Vietnam. i don't know what his schedule's like these days. ah If you want to listen next week, and you should, tune in. ah Same Snap time, same Snap channel.
02:20:14
Speaker
Okay.
02:20:21
Speaker
I know it was long. I do have short random topic for discussion with someone already had.
02:20:31
Speaker
I was thinking earlier this week, so originally, hopefully we didn't answer this at some point and I've already forgotten, but it was like, you know, the default answer. It's like, obviously, if actually given the opportunity for real, I would take a long and extended time to think about it.
02:20:47
Speaker
But my default answer to like, what superpower, just off the top of my head, because like I can't get locked in analysis paralysis over such an important decision. would be the power of flight because like I have long trained myself to fly in my dreams and it mostly works.
02:21:04
Speaker
Sometimes it's more like a big hop, more like a Jessica Jones style jump. But if you work very hard, you can train yourself to fly in your dreams and it's amazing. And it's probably the only time you get to fly like in a non scary situation. So highly recommend.
02:21:19
Speaker
But this week, in a conversation with Lauren, I realized if I was a shape shifter, then I could turn into gifts.
02:21:33
Speaker
I was looking for husky doing the face and response. And it's like, the gifts are like, the inshittification of everything has made it harder for me to find the gifts I want to express the feelings that are within my heart.
02:21:45
Speaker
And I was just like, ah it would be so good if I was like a shapeshifter like Amethyst from Steven Universe or like any shapeshifter and I could just immediately form like the perfect gift for any moment. And I'm like, this is a big contender because like, like I would love to fly, but I would shapeshift into gifts so much.
02:22:06
Speaker
It's like when people ask me what my like real hair color was, it's like, who am I really? don't know. I'm into some random meme at any moment. Okay, so tell me, give me a power selection. It doesn't have to be like your number one choice.
02:22:24
Speaker
It just has to be fun.
02:22:28
Speaker
I mean, off the cuff, it's like time control, because I could i could always do with more time. yeah ah Or shape-shifting, which I think is probably a very common answer among trans people.
02:22:40
Speaker
um Reasonable. That'd be cool. And I think think either of those, there's there's fun things you could do with those. Also, ways you could abuse those powers. But I would i'd like to think that I'd be... would not give this to the expectations. Isn't that all power,
02:22:58
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Well, I think maybe we've actually talked about this on the podcast before because I think I've already said this answer. But I say i think and vaguely the the good ones, the good ones, like Lauren, you you mentioned a time thing. And I don't know. I don't and time. Time is very complicated and stuff. But I think the good ones are basically like super speed or teleportation. Those are the practical ones.
02:23:24
Speaker
But also the third one that I think would be like pretty fantastic is just, you know, like healing. if If you had supernatural powers of healing, that that would be pretty cool. and i I think I could probably stomach the great responsibility of such a great power if it, you know, because you'd get to do so much good. And yeah, those those are the three like really good ones.
02:23:50
Speaker
You shouldn't pick super speed though. The flashes always end up as sacrifices. Yeah. Yeah, well, I wouldn't be doing any fucking superheroing with it. I would just be, like, living my best, most efficient life and getting things done.
02:24:06
Speaker
Clean the house in an hour. would just adult harder. No, like, that's the thing. those like I just want the practical ones, the teleportation, the super speed, the the healing. You're right. They'd so useful. Yeah.
02:24:21
Speaker
I'm not trying to have fun. know what's fun? Like fulfilling your obligations. You try to have fun. Having time for leisure and stuff. Some of them are like a teleportation. Yeah, practical to not have to like commute or like, I don't know, it'd be fun to go visit my sister in Chicago on a whim. But also like you could make a lot of money with the a ability to teleport.
02:24:44
Speaker
And then you sure could. But I'm not even legally. You could just be like you could just be like transport service like. Oh, my God. You could be like the world's greatest process server.
02:24:56
Speaker
Oh, my God. Oh,
02:24:59
Speaker
I'm just like, I would, and I'm not saying I know want to be rich. I just, I want to be able to spend my time making art instead of art. Yeah. Yeah. Very simple.
02:25:09
Speaker
Good combo. Kind of a bummer for the end.
02:25:20
Speaker
Why do we keep ending? We're like, here's all the fun stuff and then here's return to your dreary lives. It is the end of the podcast. There is no hope or salvation.
02:25:32
Speaker
Goodbye.
02:25:44
Speaker
of like that's all folks? Like, you know.