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74: If Bad Cards Were Good
210 Plays20 days ago
❓ Are the cohosts over Overdrive? 🤔🤔🤔 What about this week’s new card? This week’s episode irons out the details. 🥊🗡️
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap!!
- High Voltage Overdrive 🔌⚡
- 👊 Lin Lie Iron Fist
- OTA 🤹
- Secret Homework 🤫: New Year’s Challenge 🥂🎉
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! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
- Ben - Shou-Lao Surfer
- Ben - Snowball Surfer
- Rie - Marvellous
- Lauren - 5clean-Up Crew
- Ben - Wild Move
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
- 0:25:40 High Voltage Overdrive
- 0:44:07 Lin Lie Iron Fist
- 0:51:37 Fin Fang Foom
- 0:55:50 OTA Discussion
- 1:11:11 Secret Homework: Challenge Yourself
- 1:23:23 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:25:38 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 74
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to episode 74 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, challenge yourself. I'm your host, Lauren Woodives, here with my usual amazing co-hosts.
Ben's Weekend with Marvel Snap
00:00:12
Speaker
First up this week, Ben, how was your weekend snap?
00:00:15
Speaker
And keep a snappy. Well, my weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy, as I literally always do. You know, it's been a pretty good weekend can snap. I've been playing a lot of snap. um There's a lot of fun stuff to do. I'm just...
00:00:32
Speaker
i'm I'm loving these decks that I've been playing. I've got a new one that I think is real fun, but I've also got an old one.
Snowball Showdown Golden Gauntlet
00:00:40
Speaker
ah let let me ah Let me tell you about what I ended up bringing to the the Snowball Showdown Golden Gauntlet winter action fun time party. um ah got it Is that its real name?
00:00:55
Speaker
Oh, I got real excited. I know. Wouldn't that be something? I'd be tickled. It's like Snowball Showdown is the is the actual name.
00:01:09
Speaker
is I think it's the Golden Gauntlet Snowball Showdown. Because i'm I'm sure Golden Gauntlet is in there somewhere, just to be confusing, even though it is.
Deck Strategies and Card Impact
00:01:21
Speaker
Anyway, point is, what I played was America Chavez, Surge Merlin, Brood, Captain Carter, Silver Surfer, Maverick, Hope Summers, Mercury, Absorbing Man, Cannonball, and Sholow.
00:01:32
Speaker
um So I've learned that a lot of lot of people have been playing the Show Low Surfer deck as as it was shared last week, and that's that's very cool, except I think this version is probably better than that one, but...
00:01:48
Speaker
Other people like that one, and I i like that people like it, so i I have not been like, y'all should get on the new one, because if you're if you're enjoying that one, maybe there's something about it that's cool. Maybe maybe having Nico in there has been helpful for you, so like don't don't think you're silly for liking that version that I shared last week. I just think this version is like...
00:02:09
Speaker
a little better and it just tends to throw up more points more consistently and stuff but that i took your first one to infinite pretty easily i did cut abs man for i can't remember agony i think it ended up being but i think i wanted to be kidding and it and it did wound me deep down in my heart
Achievements and Pod Goals
00:02:30
Speaker
i'm like what are we abandoning abs man did not have any uses for him He makes Surfer happen a second time. makes Brood happen a second time. I didn't mean a second, Surfer. These are important things. I think maybe you went all in on the Show Loud part of it, and that's fine. That's fine. But Show Loud does not ask you to go all in. I'm not just saying that. In this economy? I don't know. Every time I do the testing and I look at the numbers, Absman always seems to kind of holding it down. And I'm always I'm always thinking about cutting him, too. But then I do the testing and I look at the numbers. I'm like, oh, Absman is holding the world up on his absorbent shoulders. And I don't know. That's that's just my thinking.
00:03:17
Speaker
I'm sure you're right. I went too hard on Sholao. But, like, also, that gave me some snap equity, maybe. ah it could be. Maybe my win rate was worse, but it helped my Q break. don't know. Could be. Whatever's working for you, do it up. But I've got a new deck that is perhaps even more exciting, but I think I'll save that for new card times. um Other things in my weekend snap.
Rhi's Strategies in Marvel Snap
00:03:41
Speaker
Oh, man, I've just been loving Conquest. Um...
00:03:45
Speaker
I've also been, i think it's a hashtag pod goals season, as strange as that seems. Because I did just, you know...
00:03:54
Speaker
with the with the day one infinite i've been watching my my rank you know started out like rank 26 or something because there's 26 of you or there were more than 26 of us but point is i don't know i'm i'm still for those who don't know hashtag pod goals is when i try to finish in the top 1000 globally um and uh i didn't know it was a specific measure Yeah, that's hashtag pod goals.
00:04:18
Speaker
And I just want you to know that I measure your success more broadly. I do, too. It's just hashtag pod goals is a very specific thing that I did. I did twice in the the very early, early episodes of Snap on this. And I have I've never done since. But I have sometimes thought about stra now it's different from glory to the pod.
00:04:40
Speaker
too and The pod is like a much more broad concept under which hashtag pod goals does, you know, it it lives under that umbrella. But um but but yeah, I am sitting at rank 528 now and that's about the highest di've I've had it. I've been keeping it under 500 for the most part. It's pretty good.
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think I'll probably finish there because, gosh dang it, that show-low surfer deck just keeps a win in. It did all right in the Golden Gauntlet snowball showdown. i was hoping to do even better, but I placed... What did I place? I placed 64th out of... as far as There's a larger player count, but as far as people who actually played games and tried and stuff, I think there were 364 those players. So, you know...
00:05:32
Speaker
In the top, not quite sixth, in the top fifth, it's it's good. It was a little disappointing to me, but you can't, you can't you know, crush it super hard every time. and it was it was still perfectly respectable and nothing to be nothing to be too disappointed with myself about.
00:05:50
Speaker
But... um Yeah, mostly. I've just been loving the game, loving this deck I'm going to tell you all about later, and I'm so curious to hear about my co-hosts' week in snaps.
00:06:03
Speaker
Rhi,
Deck Building Process and Synergy
00:06:04
Speaker
did you snap any weeks? Yes. um ah Last week I was talking about how I was too lazy ah to cook from scratch.
00:06:18
Speaker
ah But this week I got back in the kitchen. ah Literally and snappically. And um I was inspired, like, because it had been while since I've been inspired to, like, work on a deck, you know? Like, I put together some stupid stuff, but, like...
00:06:36
Speaker
You know, there's time like we all have. Right. And then you kind of play it and you see, is this something I want to work on to make good? okay I know you make decks differently, Ben. You just sit and think forever and then you put all together because you're weird. but The rest of us, like we just kind of i reason said that, you know, we put together the deck, but then you like shop it, you know, you play it, you start seeing what it needs and, and you know you just like flavor it up.
00:07:02
Speaker
um And, ah you know, you got to find the deck that, like, you're excited enough to do that with. And it's not even for me about, like, if the deck's winning enough, it has to, like, be interesting and fun enough or whatever for me to some way.
00:07:17
Speaker
And then the spark happened because the season pass gave me um the Hellfire Gala variant of Ms. Marvel, um in which she is, like, wearing a fabulous dress, if you didn't know. And she's just got this, like, dramatic pose. Which is why I kind of named the deck. I'm just imagining her in it saying, like, marvelous.
00:07:42
Speaker
sort things like marvel's Anyway. um And i already have a lot of great variants of Ms. Marvel, to be honest, because there are like a million good variants Ms. Marvel, and I have a lot of them. And she's always been a struggle for me.
00:07:57
Speaker
But then but then I freed myself from my previous conceptions. Uh, that I was, that like, okay, because Ms. Marvel, to me, it's always, like, ongoing stuff, you know, usually you're playing ongoing stuff, and then when I'm playing all that ongoing stuff, I'm always thinking, like, Spectrum, right? Because, like, I've got all this ongoing stuff, and it's always a trap. I love, i love Spectrum, but, like...
00:08:21
Speaker
Like, Spectrum,
M'Baku and Ms. Marvel Synergy
00:08:23
Speaker
if you're not going to, like, magic wong, like, repeat it, you know what I mean It's just, like, often it's just not enough as someone who has consistently and tried. But anyway, so i'm like, okay, what if it's just, it's ongoing, but it's not Spectrum because Moonstone kind of opened those doors a lot, to be honest. And um and then I realized, I'm like, okay, what is the perfect card for Miss Marvel that will take her to the great heights of victory?
00:08:55
Speaker
And I knew it. And it was card I'd yet to play with ever, really, that I'd put in like a de i mean you know in a real deck. um and bau Okay, because I've been playing so much ah Galactus First Steps and stuff, I've gotten used to kind of like playing with the idea of there only being, like you only have the one two in your deck or you only have the one one in your deck. And it's like, M'Baku's way better when he jumps out and completes a Miss Marvel for you.
00:09:30
Speaker
ah Before i i put another key piece into this deck, I know it wasn't there originally, which is so bonkers when you look at the stack. Like, how did you not have this card in there? But before I put that card in there, I kept playing M'Baku as a 1-3. He kept, like, not, like, we're and I'm like, ah so disappointing. Like, why? Why every time is he starting in my hand? Why? And and and then I just, like, kind of and then I forgot about him.
00:09:59
Speaker
And then he jumped out to win. It was so glorious. We finished the Ms. Marvel in the right spot and won me the game. And it was everything I wanted it to be. And it was better because I forgot about it. Okay. the neck Anyway.
00:10:14
Speaker
So, like, but here's the thing. Obviously, if you're playing with M'Baku, you've got to have a Lockjaw, which is the card I did not initially put this deck for some reason.
00:10:25
Speaker
And so, it's so good, right? M'Baku can get you an early Onslaught, which, or an early Serra. an early Serra is so good. Okay, all kinds of stuff, right? If you're doing it early,
00:10:38
Speaker
um Lots of good reasons to play late, as we'll get into. And Mbaku's a 1-3 now, which, you know, like, a 1-3 isn't bad. If you just have to play it out for the 1-3 stats, you could be doing worse for yourself, to be honest. So, like, um and, you know, it's a cheap completion for a Ms. Marvel lane.
00:11:00
Speaker
Um, so, okay, the other, mean, you know, you can lockjaw as a, always lockjaw appropriately. But, like, the other key card for lockjaw in the deck is is Shadow King. i found out how to make make Shadow King fun for me. Because my problem with Shadow King is that he's he's really good. And this is why I took this deck and I've just been, like, like, chomping on show Oh, I just said it correctly before the podcast. You got it. Sholow, you crushed it.
00:11:35
Speaker
Sholow. To my limited understanding, you crushed it. I don't i don't claim expertise or anything, but I think you're doing it. Nailed it. Okay. Yeah, no, I've been crushing it because, right, it's all about buffing. And I normally like buffing. Why do I want to undercut myself in a game? We already do that enough in real life. Don't bring that into Snap. So like, you know, but yeah, so it wasn't fun. But you know what is fun? It's like lockjawing a Shadow King into after because you let them have print. Let them pull their all their shallow, surfer, maverick, all the stuff I'm seeing.
00:12:15
Speaker
Boom. Like, you know, Fina, Scarlet Witch, everything everyone's playing now is just like, You know, just numbers going up. And it's just like, do everything you want. Boom. Shadow King. He's not even here stick around. That guy's a loser. Get him out of here. And then you pull up an onslaught and just boom, everything's bigger. ah it's so good. It's so good. Okay, even Miss Marvel is a surprise in this deck that sometimes they save to play last turn because they think that they're done, that I'm done with power in that lane, maybe because I even filled it or something. Because people just don't expect Miss Marvel, to be honest, anymore, even in like ongoing decks. like um A lot of times, you know? and it feels like the meta's moved on. Yeah. yeah Or the game in general. Power crept, yeah.
00:13:04
Speaker
powerrept yeah Um, so this is the thing with the deck is it is it is a little more chessy than a late night relikes, but like it becomes instinctual when you played enough. And then as you got to be because you're Miss Marveling, know, got to take some care into how you build things.
00:13:24
Speaker
um And,
Lauren's Deck Updates
00:13:25
Speaker
you know, you don't want you want to spread out your twos. But this is OK. The other pieces have mentioned to Sarah is in the sec. Oh, because because. Right. Obviously, Moonstone, I've already said, um like, because we do have.
00:13:41
Speaker
Iron Man and Mystique in the deck with all these ongoing cards. Because Goliath, right? And Moonstone's like a lot of flex in this deck, too. Like, in the middle, are you trying to build a Mr. Fantastic Moonstone Goliath? You know what I mean? Like, thing in the middle, are you trying to build a Miss Marvel Onslaught? Like, you know, you're thinking about those things. You're placing out...
00:14:04
Speaker
ah you know, your cost to, like, have Ms. Marvel, if you can, in mind. but um Iron Man. ah This is the most fun i've ever had playing Iron Man. Because normally it's like, you know, like, Tony Stark is, like, a big, expensive man, you know, fancy suit, fancy car.
00:14:25
Speaker
but like, he is so cheap. When you have a Ravonna under a Moonstone and a Sarah on the board... And that's like just another way you can win big cubes because people aren't expecting you to play like a two
High Voltage Event Discussion
00:14:38
Speaker
cost Iron Man followed by one cost Mystique followed by like one or two. You know what I mean? Like, yeah and you're just like, followed by your Shadow King that just negated everything they just did.
00:14:52
Speaker
ah Okay. um So we have fun. ah But that's the flex because it's like, you know, Moonstone works with Goliath. You can kind of build out different things. You got to like think about where you might want a Shadow King later, what you're going to lockjaw. You want to lockjaw early, you want to lockjaw late.
00:15:10
Speaker
um You know, I think I think i mentioned... ah every card in the deck. And um I did, didn't, I like just, I like, I only started, had one run where I was playing where I like took some screenshots, ah but I did post a bunch of me beating Shalau in our speakeasy like Discord channel because, ah you know, if you find that code frustrating because you faced it a lot, it's really fun to just ah show yourself beating it over and over and over again.
00:15:44
Speaker
yeah might i might have to take a page out of your book with the with the screenshot dump because like sometimes i do find myself hoarding beautiful screenshots like a dragon when i have a deck that i'm excited about and you know i don't know but but if people like that you did it maybe they'll like it if i do it i don't know i don't know what else raise them and be like i took this because it was fun but it was playing against a bot clearly like i So I got to share this one. I had to go through it. Like, okay, bill no, now this one's spot. like Okay. um
00:16:19
Speaker
No, that's, I was excited share this deck. Hopefully. night Did you come up with the, the um i'm I'm not saying you couldn't, I just haven't seen it before. Did you come up with the Ms. Marvel M'Baku interaction?
00:16:34
Speaker
I mean, as far as I know, like i've I, I,
00:16:39
Speaker
Because N'Baku is targeted now, right? So like...
Game Modes and Community Response
00:16:43
Speaker
So if you set up Ms. Marvel, M'Baku is targeted now. So your middle your middle lane is full. ms marvel You already have one lane where you have activated Ms. Marvel. So it's like you're guaranteeing M'Baku is going to show up right where he needs to to activate the other lane.
00:16:59
Speaker
It's pretty interesting. So maybe I'm notting myself as someone who hasn't played enough M'Baku, but what what do we mean by he's targeted now? What change? What does he do? He jumps he jumps to your...
00:17:12
Speaker
Lowest power? Not full lane with the lowest power. It's Proxima Midnight. Okay. That's... I mean... People are playing M'Baku against me. I should probably have read the card a little more carefully. But good good for M'Baku.
00:17:29
Speaker
ah Being good at his job. Okay, you but you know, like, ah you know when he shows up and wins you the game by completing a Miss Marvel lane Like, you know your opponent is like, once played physical, called it Baku and Joy, and I was like, oh!
00:17:50
Speaker
Yes! You were rumbling it together. Oh, shit. got too excited. I was really excited. Okay. There were hundreds of us. Are you going to
00:18:04
Speaker
M'Baku is... was going to say something and I'm just flabbergasted by this excitement. um Okay, no, you're right, Rhi. Winning because of M'Baku is one of the best feelings in the game, and so maybe you have made like a dopamine machine because M'Baku normally only swings three power, right? And there's there's exceptions. Like in C3, he obviously swings a lot more power. That's where see him.
00:18:32
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah like C3 seems to be the main place where I see M'Baku. Every now and then I see somebody doing cute things with Blink and M'Baku. But
Event Mechanics and Engagement
00:18:44
Speaker
yeah, I think Lockdown's a great way to do it.
00:18:47
Speaker
ah Replaying an activate card on purpose is interesting. like But look, if you're doing if you're doing M'Baku and you're doing it with like Ms. Marvel and there's an onslaught on there, like he's swinging like what, 13 power sometimes?
00:19:01
Speaker
Possibly even more? I've played a ton of Scarlet Spider. I would dare say more than any of you because he's been in my buff deck for quite a while. But I have always said that if I'm going to play an activate card, it's going to be two cost or less. yeah And Lockjaw is grandfathered in, right? We love Lockjaw from the old days. Like, memory, we will always remember Thor Lockjaw. Enjoyers out there remember know.
00:19:26
Speaker
It's a good time. It's gone from us forever, and we won't we won't punish Lockjaw for that. god was such a good boy, to be honest. That was fun. what's exciting.
00:19:38
Speaker
I forgot to mention. Okay, it's so thematic that Lockjaw is with Ms. Marvel. Because, well, Lockjaw existed before, I believe, before. Nobody cares that much about the Inhumans, to be honest.
00:19:50
Speaker
X-Men are around. No. Okay. Sure. But, like, ah yeah, so Lockjaw was around, but when after Ms. Marvel was created, they paired her with Lockjaw because she's, you know, both inhuman and a mutant. And um she was running around. It was a big thing that they were kind of together in the comics, even though originally they weren't created together, they became a pairing, you know. i didn't know that. You know, like...
00:20:15
Speaker
Like Deadpool and Wolverine kind of are now, you know? Anyway, so ah so it's really cool that they're together in a deck, and i just you know i just wanted to brag on my theminess. That's all.
00:20:29
Speaker
Good. Plus, like, Sarah, I miss playing Sarah. We all miss playing Sarah because she has such good variants, and there's it's been hard to find reasons to. Compared to Surge. Okay.
00:20:43
Speaker
i Yeah, I got to infinite on like day three or so using Ben's deck. I made it to 85 doing fun, silly stuff, exploring new cards and whatever. But i kind of felt stuck ish in the mid 80s and then just absolutely cruised to 100. Thanks. Thanks to Shola ah and Maverick and Brood doing nasty things as ah as a combo.
00:21:07
Speaker
I entered at like 589, which I normally don't talk about. I just think it's interesting to compare to what Ben's doing. But I have since decayed to like 4,700-ish.
00:21:18
Speaker
um So yeah, I just, you know, that that's just, how if you can you can get, if you want to be top 1,000, just get in early. Just, so I mean, you still have to keep showing up after that. Because like, if you get in early and then you stop playing ladder, you will be overtaken. That's what If you want to finish in top 1000, you've got to grind to earn it. But if you just want to be there for a second, like just get in there early.
00:21:42
Speaker
Although last
Bugs and Performance Issues
00:21:43
Speaker
season, I had a very late. I had a super duper late infinite finish after falling all the way back down into the 80s from the 90s. And like they still somehow spat me out with like more than usual my amount of SP, which really confused me.
00:21:59
Speaker
So I don't know. It's weird. SP is it's a black box. It is a bit.
00:22:08
Speaker
I, I think the biggest, biggest news of this week is not a video that's going to be very accessible to people, but I worked with Scott. This is for once a month. We do champions video for fourth location, which is for our people at like the higher tiers. So this is like a target audience of just a few people, but it's one of the perks. Um,
00:22:31
Speaker
But I wanted Scott, who builds tons and tons of decks, to talk me through how I should fix my favorite deck in the game, which is a Valkyrie Cersei deck. And... um Because it has a few things. It's been nerfed a few times. it It was rocking magic and probably didn't need magic. That was the first change he recommended.
00:22:51
Speaker
And the main thing that prompted this was Sam Wilson changing from an ongoing, like from generating the shield for free to being on reveal. We actually ended up keeping Sam despite that being like the impetus. He's so awesome. He rules.
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's just like my deck wants a lot of bodies. It's Valkyrie and Mockingbird and Cersei. And it's like i need things to hit with that. And so his job was give me free thing to hit. um Anyway, it's ah if you're a fan of that deck, I call it cleanup crew. I'll put the updated version in the in the show notes. I've played it a few times so far. We put in um well we took out magic and magic.
00:23:32
Speaker
who else did we cut? um And we put in Grandmaster and Nico Minoru. So Nico just like, I don't know why she wasn't already there. She probably was in a previous version because she works great with the hood and with Valkyrie who are both here. um Yeah.
00:23:53
Speaker
Grandmaster, I'm not sure about yet, especially cutting... i'm almost magic like With magic, I could do Valkyrie Grandmaster or Cersei Grandmaster on the last turn.
00:24:03
Speaker
Do you have any other source of acceleration or anything? Is there any other way to get to seven on six? Merlin. Do you have e Merlins in there? Merlin's here, although I really don't like using Once and Future in this deck because it's a bodies deck. that's also like I didn't know if Merlin's even right in this deck, but we kept him. so I bet he is.
00:24:25
Speaker
there'll be squirrels there'll be ninjas there'll be rocks you'll one polymorphing isn't the worst thing in the world either um it's closer to the best yeah um well yeah and i have i have hood and and mysterio illusions and voids i have lots of things to hit yeah if you're playing in hood you kind of have to play merlin in my opinion
Lin Le Iron Fist Discussion
00:24:48
Speaker
There were some other suggestions, but Grandmaster sounded more fun than some of the other ones, like Kate Bishop was suggested. But Grandmaster sounded fun, so so I'm trying him first. And I've only played a handful of games with this so far, but I am enjoying it.
00:25:00
Speaker
So I'll have an updated version of that. ah Remind me to say some disparaging things about Kate Bishop later, because I also had her in one of decks and then took her out, because I did not think she has answer. Do you want to just let rip now? Why are we waiting? Because the deck has a card in it that we're going to be talking about later.
00:25:24
Speaker
Okay, i'll I'll try to remind you, even even though I don't know what the trigger is. Really appreciate on Kate Bishop. Okay.
00:25:36
Speaker
Oh, not right now. Okay, I misunderstood. um Anyway, high voltage. I did not get the premium pass. I just completed missions and and got Dragon Lord in two days and change, which is what... I already have Dragon Lord.
00:25:53
Speaker
Oh, no, I already Dragon Lord. Okay, yeah. He was really easy to get, and I applaud that aspect of high voltage overdrive this time around.
00:26:04
Speaker
i I like getting the card in two and a half days, although I don't think that's going to help them sell premium passes. ah so but I did. it Okay. I had the obvious experience where I got burned last time. Like, I got the premium pass last time. I didn't finish it. but Then I spent more gold to complete it. Then I didn't even spend all the tokens I got in the shop because I didn't, like, it was just like, I was, I'm like, this is Never getting the season pass. And then I saw, I'm like, okay, let's look at the top reward. was like Chibi, Rinconzala's Dragonlord. And I just went like,
00:26:40
Speaker
All the rest of my gold and all the chibi dragon brains I can pick up and it's like, oh, to be collection complete. not not i don't I don't even think I have all the chibi dragon brains probably, but like...
00:26:55
Speaker
so did i did get it and i am like, I do have Dragonlord. fact, I've been using him in High Voltage. I have just... I have i am like have been too lazy to make a deck specifically for it. I made a deck of literally all five cost cards.
00:27:12
Speaker
And I play it regardless. I play regardless of what the mission is. That's pretty much what mine is, too. And... and um
00:27:22
Speaker
Uh, yeah, no, now I'm at the night. I have been playing it more after the last experience. I'm like, fine. I like log in more and like play and make sure I get this stuff. And now I'm like, the next thing I will get will be the end of the track.
00:27:36
Speaker
Wow. if So, yeah. Okay. Well, maybe premium helps more than I realized. um i have some high voltage thoughts myself. oh This is the high voltage section now.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yes. Oh, sorry. thought that's what we were doing today. No, it is. Yeah, um I bought the Premium Pass just today before we recorded and got Dragonlord. Because I had been playing the high voltage, and
Anticipation for Fin Fang Foom
00:28:05
Speaker
ah it was fine. You know what? I'll say it. High voltage overdrive is better than regular high voltage. It's more fun. ah You can queue into it with a regular deck if you forget. It's fine.
00:28:16
Speaker
um It's better than regular high voltage. I still don't like it very much. You still can't snap. Yeah. It's still goofy as hell. There's too much going on.
00:28:27
Speaker
The charge thing will always happen. Don't even try to stop it from happening. It's just going to happen. It's fine. ah There's not a lot of time when it does happen matters sometimes. yeah You can you can sometimes make it matter a little bit, but like mostly we're just juice cool the weakest. So it takes out all their shit. like Yeah, I'm not saying you can't like leverage them at all. I'm just saying like it's goofy chaos mode and there's not as much...
00:28:58
Speaker
I don't know. There's not as not as much room for finesse and finagling and this, that, and the other. um But I didn't hate it as much as usual high voltage. However, I was having so much fun playing real Marvel Snap and Conquest and Ladder and stuff that i I found myself yesterday being like, I i cannot be bothered to check in every eight hours or so to do these friggin' missions. So that's why I got the pass. And i really do kind of want the Rian Gonzalez Dragonlord variant, but i don't think i'm goingnna I don't think I'm going to finish pass. I've missed too many mission refreshes. It's just, it's not going to happen for me, but I did want to get the card, so i I dropped the money. So second dinner, whatever they did this time, they struck the right balance. They made regular snap fun enough for me to play that I wanted the goal to spend the gold to, maybe that's the trick. Keep the main game fun. Pay to skip chores.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah. That's right. That's not right. That's twisted. Mobile games, events are supposed to get you in and playing the game actively and new and returning players, but also like to be exciting for the, for the consistent players. i like more not play being win I want to play real Marvel snap with like exciting decks that I'm excited about. Cause like I've got decks that I'm excited. You know, I've, I've been building decks in the past couple weeks that I haven't even talked about on the show. Cause there's just not time.
00:30:24
Speaker
Oh, my God. I just the monetization of events is so goofy in this game. i They haven't figured it out. And i look forward to them maybe someday figuring it out. I'm going to i'm going to rapid fire some pros and cons on high voltage.
00:30:39
Speaker
Pro, I got the card for free and in like less than two and a half days. That's awesome. Con, the premium pass doesn't get you straight to Dragon Lord. Like, they made it easier to get for free and harder to get for premium. That's goofy. Don't do that. and They've set the precedent that premium gets you the card. They should just stick with that.
00:30:57
Speaker
Even though I was just saying pay to skip the events. Silly. I mean, it got me it got me the card based on the the relative... I mean, i did I guess I must have played to like a fair amount. Also, I will mention that when I was playing High Voltage Overdrive on purpose and not queuing in with decks intended for other modes, the deck that I use... was ah ah the Scott Denham original from fourth location. And it was the ongoing deck and it mostly seemed to win. And I really enjoyed playing it. I thought
OTA Changes and Gameplay Effects
00:31:31
Speaker
it was very reliable, very hard to fuck up, and it won a lot. So go to fourth location and get that get that Scott ongoing deck. Hear, hear.
00:31:44
Speaker
um Pro, I really like the events not being ticketed, and that's one thing high voltage gets right. Con. three Agree, agree. It only holds three missions. You are burning missions if you skip a single eight-hour block.
00:31:58
Speaker
This is your most casual mode, I would argue. Stop. like there isn't There is no other mode where you get burned for not playing for one single eight-hour block, right? i mean, there has been in the past. Yeah.
00:32:12
Speaker
But they fixed them all except for this one. Yeah. Team Clash, you'll burn missions after 16 hours. Or like the other things, you can burn tickets after 24 hours. um If you get all the way down to zero.
00:32:25
Speaker
ah But... but No, I guess it is after 16 hours, you would be over 9 at that point. So the other modes, basically, you start burning stuff at 16 hours. Why is high voltage still burning stuff at 8? That's stupid. um I agree, because some people, like it's just not realistic, and they may want to put that grind in even, but they only have a time period where they can do it, and it's really unfriendly and a real turn-off to people to be like, this is going to happen in a time you can't even play.
00:32:55
Speaker
I might not have fallen off if it had been like a 16 hour situation, but just like once you missed the first mission refresh, it's kind of like, and then you miss another one. and it's just like Fuck it. I'm having fun playing real Marvel snap. I'm going to go do that and snap.
00:33:14
Speaker
This is already something that I was passionate about, but then I had like a reader point out to me that like their sleep schedule lines up with the eight-hour cycle, so there's just one of them they just can't do. Yeah, there's one that you just can't do, yeah. you eat You either have to bot like mess up your sleep schedule for Dragon Lord, or you say, well, i guess I guess I'm missing a third of the missions, and that sucks. It really does. I just feel so player hostile and ah do better second dinner.
00:33:40
Speaker
And finally,
Philosophy of Card Balancing
00:33:41
Speaker
it's neither a pro or a con. Just personally, i still i don't like high voltage or overdrive. I don't even know if I would say overdrive is better, but they're the two they're my personal two least favorite events. I know some people love them, so I'm perfectly happy for them to be in the game. But yeah, they just they feel so vapid. Oh, really? Okay.
00:34:02
Speaker
You like it, huh? feel like you're dogging it too much because um it's it still at least like slightly shorter. And you have to remember, I'm an Arashem enjoyer, though, which neither of you are. So like to me, getting the random cards and like, pru and you know me, I love...
00:34:20
Speaker
like improv like some people that's why i hate big combo decks i like to have flexibility because like and i play board games that way too i'm not operating to like this is the plan i'm going to execute and it's going to happen or i'll fail and lose you know what i mean and i like to like do it so this right with the random cards with the timing of the overdrive effect It lets me prove how much smart I am with what I'm giving than my opponent. And sometimes it's a joke with me. Also, get to play all these five cards that have, like, when do I get to play Gamora? Like, ever outside this. You know? go ahead, say.
00:35:01
Speaker
I don't have anything against Arashem. There's other things I'd rather be doing, but Arashem on ladder is a different experience. I agree that like yeah playing like a shield deck and having random cards to play with it is somewhat interesting and definitely skill testing.
00:35:14
Speaker
But in high voltage, it doesn't matter. and maybe that's We've had this conversation before. Maybe I just need to trick myself into thinking that winning matters in high voltage, but it just... It just feels like my decisions don't matter. And even if they do matter, who cares if I beat my opponent? We're all just here for missions. Like winning doesn't do anything. 20 volts. Woo. The most ah like emotionally anything that I felt during high voltage was um somebody gave me a rude emote mid game.
00:35:47
Speaker
And I forfeited the match. And that's like my biggest emotional memory of High Voltage. so Oh my gosh. Who the fuck is doing BM in High Voltage? People will do it everywhere. oh like People Beast emote me in High Voltage. I'm like, look at my deck. I'm clearly just trying to play 5 costs.
00:36:12
Speaker
i i so I thought Miss Minutes was my most hated emote because people miss minutes me all the time because I take a long time to take my turns because I like to win and think about things and like make the right play and like get cubes at the end.
00:36:28
Speaker
But yeah, I get Miss Minutes a lot. But like,
Timing of Card Nerfs
00:36:30
Speaker
man, I think I fucking hate that beast emote even more, even more. Audience, and you too, I'm interested in this too. When people miss minutes you, do you play faster or slower or no different?
00:36:41
Speaker
I do. the I stick to my normal behavior and I throw them in Agatha. okay yeahha That's one of the things that Agatha's good for. oh really? I auto-mute everyone, so I never see it if they do. It doesn't bother me. It's made the game so much more pleasant. I normally play very fast. If I'm playing slow, it could be I'm thinking, but it's most likely I'm watching TV or letting the dog out or doing laundry.
00:37:07
Speaker
Right. Most of the time I'm playing the game fast. And so when people miss minutes, I'm like, OK, we're going to play a six minute game. and I'm that petty. I'm that petty. I'm definitely the petty. It's because I'm cooking. yeah Yeah, it's like, I've got time. i don't know what your hurry is. But yeah, I'm either multitasking thinking really hard about the plays. So I don't know.
00:37:33
Speaker
Can I tell you, there is one thing that would make me like high voltage a lot more as a mode, and that's if the turn timer was like 20 seconds. Oh, super short? that would be kind Let's make the fast mode fast.
00:37:45
Speaker
I'd actually be okay surprisingly into that, I think. I think a blitz mode would be super fun. All the reasons you don't like it make it good for late night read because it's for the things I mentioned, but then if I missed something and was stupid wasn't... It doesn't really matter at all. You know what I mean? There weren't stakes.
00:38:07
Speaker
What? matter at all you know what i mean like there weren't stakeaks like Well, it's funny because I am a huge you guys i'm a huge proponent of getting an unranked mode into the game as a permanent feature.
00:38:20
Speaker
Like, let me, from day one, play Infinite Ladder, but without rank. I would love that. um But I also criticize high voltage, and that's something I've got square in my mind. It's like, okay, I don't like high voltage because the stakes don't matter. Yeah, but high voltage isn't the unranked mode. It's not even Marvel's set. Yeah.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah. So I think like unranked mode, you you are inherently buying in as either I'm here to just goof off and have fun, or I'm here to try to win in a mode where the wins matter only for this one game and contribute to nothing else. Whereas high voltage, there is actually like something you're working for, right? don't All right. Well, fun impromptu topic on high voltage.
00:39:05
Speaker
Do we have any thoughts Yeah, thought we were going to anyway after the... I wanted Okay, sorry, before we finish, I wanted to... week?
00:39:21
Speaker
Lauren has abandoned us. Okay, she's back. I don't know what Rhi's about to ask us about. We can talk about Dragonlord this week or next. I've played him enough. Okay, well, I haven't played him at all. I just got him.
00:39:34
Speaker
What were you saying, Okay, um... okay um
00:39:41
Speaker
Okay, I was...
00:39:44
Speaker
thing I wanted to bring up because it starts in high voltage that it's buggy right? I don't know I got some free stuff from SD dinner I assume maybe it was related to that didn't even look up I'm like this has got to be related like the high voltage bug is like you finish a thing and you can't like click on it don't know if this is for everyone I just assume it's for a lot of for everybody as far as I know yeah And this is kind of like I know. I'm late on mobile stuff, and it's the kind of stuff you just need to fix faster.
00:40:22
Speaker
usually i like they couldn't have missed it even once because it happens literally every time yeah that's why that one bothers me it's like it's one thing if you didn't catch some niche interaction that was going to take you a super long time or millions of players to find but claiming two missions in high voltage like like really and it's not fixed It's not fixed yet. It's still broken, which means your dev team isn't big enough or enough or something. They don't hold themselves to a very high standard sometimes, and it pisses me off.
00:40:57
Speaker
I have
Zombie Galacti Changes
00:40:58
Speaker
been playing Snap, and the bugs have been getting worse. these are the most This is the most buggy game. that I've played this long. I play FF14, which does a lot more than Snap does.
00:41:11
Speaker
And it is not this buggy. I've played, I've been playing Hades 2, you what I mean? Or any other live service game. But this game is getting worse. Like the collection screen bugs really have gotten obnoxious when I'm trying to move around my collection or do the unclaimed rewards. Like I had a game the other day um And this isn't the only time. It's been happening a lot more to me recently where it crashed.
00:41:39
Speaker
The game crashed. And I was annoyed because I was going to eight cubes to this person because they didn't. I knew they didn't know I was going to win. And I knew I was going to win. It was one of those things where I was going to get. I was invested. I was into this game. The game crashes. And I'm going back and I'm like, load. Load!
00:41:56
Speaker
Load! Let me get back! Oh my gosh! And then it takes forever, and then it hiccups, and it, like, starts reloading. I'm like, whoa! And then I reconnect into the game, right? And it starts with my call, please, yes. Let me take my turn.
00:42:11
Speaker
Crashes again as it tries to reload. And, like, and it's just, like, you know, by the time by the time i get in, it's just, like, and this has been happening more, and it is frustrating. And it's, like, you need, like, it's just, it's, like,
00:42:26
Speaker
You're not. This level of game, if your game is this buggy and it needs to be more of a priority, really does, over anything else they're doing, they need to make the game ah playable in a way that it's like little bugs here and there I've been able to laugh about, but it it is overall getting to a state where I am rage quitting because the game is breaking on me too much rather than because I'm a sore loser, which is usually why I'm rage quitting ah the game.
00:42:56
Speaker
And like, so, you know, and I just I felt like it was important. Like, I know I was real hype. I want to interrupt because I was excited to get in and play this week and play the deck. But the bugs have gotten bad. And things that I would think would be a priority, like their event that's only around one week, you can't click on the stuff, you know, like it feels like it would be more of a priority to fix that quickly when it's the kind of bug I feel like should be fixable quickly to be honest.
00:43:28
Speaker
They've built up a ton of tech debt in this game and it's always hard to sell the higher ups on let's stop shipping new features or things that we can monetize and let's focus on the tech debt.
00:43:39
Speaker
But... it It seems silly to me to be focusing on like new and returning players when the game is getting so buggy that you're going to start bleeding players. like How many casual players are going to stick around if it's crashing constantly? I hear from dedicated players where on their device the game crashes every like two or three games. And I'm like, I don't know if I would keep playing. And I love this game. like and That's rough.
00:44:03
Speaker
rough Okay. Let's talk about
Hosts' Personal Challenges
00:44:09
Speaker
this week's card. Lin Liet, Iron Fist. 2-2. On reveal, add the Sword of Fushi to another location.
00:44:18
Speaker
Sword of Fushi? It's actually like heat like HSI. Anyway, 2-2. Ongoing, if Lin Li Iron Fist is here, he has plus seven power. Did you get him? Have you played with him?
00:44:31
Speaker
Oh, yeah. yeah continue So go ahead. Give it. No, I mean, tell us what you've been doing. Hmm. All right. All right.
00:44:48
Speaker
I've been having, I didn't play with Linlea until, ah it had been out for at least a day, the Cord.
00:44:59
Speaker
So this is actually ah a fairly recent cook. Like this is a Yester cook right here. It's a deck that I'm calling Wild Move. Originally, it was Undying Fists and it had all three Iron Fists in it.
00:45:11
Speaker
um Also, this is the deck that had Kate Bishop in it, but does no longer. And wow, I just think Prowler is way better than Kate Bishop. Just way better than Kate Bishop in general. um And this is a deck that likes to have some bodies, although it does not struggle to put down bodies, because let me tell you about all these cards that make other cards.
00:45:35
Speaker
Ooh, baby. What's in Wild Move? It's Aranya, Nico Minoru, Spider-Ham, Surge, Lin-Lea Iron Fist, Captain America. Which one's Sam Wilson? You fucking know it. Captain Carter. Oh, the captains. Maverick. Yeah, he's around. Prowler, Fanfay, Show-Low the Undying, and Aurora.
00:45:54
Speaker
All right, so um what we do there is, you know, you play good cards at the end, like Sholao and or Aurora. I mean, usually it seems to be one or the other, but sometimes you play Sholao on five and Aurora on six, and that's fine.
00:46:11
Speaker
But yeah, it's got a little bit of move stuff. um Here's a cool tip about Linlea. If you play Linlea in the middle, ah and you've got Fanfei, you can always get the sword and the fist together.
00:46:29
Speaker
That's if you play Fanfei after, right? Yep. But I mean, that's what you do, because one of them costs two. One of them costs four. Anyway, that is that is cool. You could play Linlia later. And sometimes I do like to play Linlia later because ah you can manipulate where the you can know you can guarantee the the position of the sword.
00:46:54
Speaker
um So that's cool. I found the sword to be super helpful, just constantly hitting Death's Domain, soaks up an Aurora buff. Even if you don't bring them together, i still think this card is like good.
00:47:08
Speaker
i think it i think it like works. Yeah, just reaching into other lanes and... Also, just like putting down bodies for Captain Carter. ah Captain Carter and ah Sam Wilson are both great with Fanfei. My favorite thing to do in move stuff, and and it has been for some time with Sam, is ah you get you move the shield back onto Sam, and then you do like Heimdall or something, or in this case Fanfei, and scoot them both together so you get plus four in a single turn on Sam. That's neato. Other than that, you know, we're doing Captain Carter, Maverick, Show Lab stuff, same as in my Surfer deck. Ooh, baby Prowler, doing some good work. I love playing Prowler and getting skills for free, but what I have noticed, it's very often just correct to play Prowler if Prowler's around, because the sooner you get those skills, the sooner you can play those skills, and the skills are really good, even if you pay the one energy for them. um You know...
00:48:06
Speaker
Paying one energy to get more energy next turn, pretty cool. um Moving things. Also, everything in this deck moves stuff to the right. So, um yeah, ah that's that's the thing to keep in mind. If you're going to play Linlea not in the middle, you probably want to play Linlea on the left.
00:48:31
Speaker
Uh, yeah, this deck just seems to win a lot. Got, uh, tickets and stuff. I've got one infinity ticket with it so far and I'm well on my way to the next one. um it just seems to stomp and I highly recommend it. Spider-Am is a real good card. These, these activates, they're, you know, it's, it's not that like, it's just, it's a deck with a lot of good cards in it. And Aurora is, uh, pretty, pretty cool. You know?
00:48:58
Speaker
Um, there Yeah, activates, ongoings, onreveals, not a lot of end of turns. couldn't really i looked at all the end of turn cards and I said no to each one of them individually.
00:49:11
Speaker
But i really i hope people play that deck because I think it's another it's another club banger. dont i don't know what to tell you. It's really fun. Seems to win a lot. Oh, yeah. And the card. Linlea. Good in it.
00:49:24
Speaker
seems Seems like a real card. I've seen some other people trying some things with the card. And I think, I mean, like, I don't know. I'm i'm surely a little too close to the story.
00:49:35
Speaker
but perhaps a little Perhaps a little bit biased. But, like, I kind of think that what I'm doing with Linlea is, like, the right way to be doing Linlea. That's what I think. Hmm. I have been impressed with this card and it is fun.
00:49:50
Speaker
i i think we all knew going into it, we were thinking about move and bounce, but I've seen at least two other things, maybe three if we count Aurora as a separate thing. um C2, which is funny, but yeah, it's Mr. Sinister split over multiple lanes and you know what you can do with that? You can put the sword in a closed off storm lane. Okay.
00:50:12
Speaker
So I think that's pretty cute and cool. And the other thing I've seen people doing with it is doing like Frigga Bastion type stuff. And then we're like, we're not moving the swords or the Linleas at all. We're just making a bunch of them and having them throw swords at each other. like huh Yeah, that's pretty cool.
00:50:30
Speaker
That's one of the things that Niko's for in my deck is perhaps to get a ah second warning Yeah. and I mean, and there's multiple, right? That might mean that you have Linlea in two different lanes and they both have a sword or it could be you have two swords on a single one and that's like plus 14 power. Like it's not that upsetting. I've seen people doing Ancient One on the sword, which will change Linlea's text to buff himself, which is pretty cool.
00:50:55
Speaker
um Anyway, I have been, i expected him to be good, but I wasn't necessarily expecting him to be super fun, but I've had a lot of fun with him. And if any of those sort of archetypes are interesting to you, you should be considering it.
00:51:09
Speaker
Also, this base art is so good. Like, oh, yeah, they should they should probably keep Ryan Kinneard for the sake of selling variants. But I think Sholao is the only dragon card that the base art wasn't colored by or sorry, that the base art was colored by Kinneard, the normal color colorist of base art.
00:51:28
Speaker
And all the other ones were done by one of these studios. And like you can tell it's different.
00:51:36
Speaker
Okay, that's Lunglea. Next week's card, just a vibe check. Fin Fang Foom, 7-12, on reveal, gain the power of front row enemy cards here. Ben has been super high on this card all along. Yeah, I remain super high on this card.
00:51:53
Speaker
What was that? I'm just wondering what how are we're feeling about the impending release of this very large card. I think it's going to be super easy to play. i think that if you don't have priority going into the final turn, you can surely identify some lane that Fin Fang Foom will just win. Like, if if they haven't filled the front row somewhere, they're going to fill the front row with something big, and you can just straight-up counter it, gobble it, overpower it.
00:52:25
Speaker
Yeah, I really think... like there We haven't had a seven energy card that is intended to be played for good value. That's like not a thing we've ever done.
00:52:37
Speaker
And ah we've wanted it. i think that... are You could argue Galacti is that, but... It's like a combo piece, I guess. Yeah. And like you have to, this is just like, scars as as a value. no that's, the you you're saying he's not a, he's not a seven. Yeah. This is, this is a card that like intends to give you good value for seven energy. Like we haven't had one of these and this is going to be nuts. It's yeah.
00:53:07
Speaker
It's very strong. It it will, it will solo lanes all day long. And mean, you don't have to solo lanes. I mean, you can you can play it somewhere where you've played one to three other cards. And ah yeah, I probably won't need to because it's really big.
00:53:26
Speaker
Anybody else have some thoughts beyond it's really big?
00:53:31
Speaker
I think there's going to be... sp Yeah, so many ways to cheat it out, right? Like, there's things we've talked about before, Hela and stuff, but there's also New Dragonlord, and there's Blink, and there's Rhi's Jubilee, or not Jubilee, Lockjaw.
00:53:45
Speaker
There's, like, there's going to... Like, you can have decks that cheat out a lot of stuff, and, like, you don't feel bad about M'Baku changing into a FinFing Foom. I can't remember who was saying it late ah recently. don't know.
00:53:59
Speaker
might it It might have been Safety Blade on a fourth location video. Somebody recently was saying how Juggernaut is like one of the only cards left in the game, maybe the only card left in the game that just can solo a lane as a single card. Or ah at least like a single card you're playing on the last turn wins you the game. um Fin Fang Foom does that.
00:54:20
Speaker
So then it's like, the the energy is the thing that matters. And yeah, there's things like Cosmo and Elioth that might stop him. But, you know... ah this whole time i've been thinking about fin feng foom taking on a front row that has like five power but like sometimes people leave lanes open and then fin feng foom could be copying the infinat and he has over 30 power all of a sudden so yeah he's just uh he's just sometimes going to be a single card lane winner ah often going to be a single card usually yeah yeah
00:54:53
Speaker
And remember when Elias was a scourge? You just said Elias, I'm like, I never see Elias anymore. no I still see him sometimes, but like with skills everywhere, and he doesn't hit skills anymore. So I think that that like that really hurt him.
00:55:07
Speaker
um But yeah, old Elias that deleted cards, ooh, that it might be my least favorite card in the history of this game.
00:55:16
Speaker
It was also one of the first cards that like really rewarded having priority, whereas most cards rewarded not having priority. And there were there were a few that... Everyone hated Leader Arrow. There were others.
00:55:31
Speaker
yeah The Leader Arrow combo, and this was the same thing. like they basically Everyone was like, we hate a deck that's just about winning priority, and then you win. And then they're like, okay, but we made it a card called Alive. But we made it one that just deletes your cards. You don't even get to play them somewhere else. They're just gone.
00:55:52
Speaker
ah This week, there was an OTA. We're going to talk about that. Merlin, our nerf of this OTA, goes from 2-3 to two two ah Ben first. Ben, you've probably played this card more than...
00:56:08
Speaker
I mean, I've played this card a lot, but you've probably played this card the most. I mean, I hope everyone's playing this card a lot. This card's nuts. Everyone's playing Merlin lot. On more than one episode of Snap on This, I have expressed a wish that they do exactly this and make this...
00:56:25
Speaker
Largely symbolic nerf to Merlin, shaving one power off of him so that he can still be nuts and do all the things I want him to do. And I don't have to change any of my awesome decks that have Merlin in them. ah So that's what happened.
00:56:39
Speaker
It will be a little bit harder to target some of the spells because now Merlin starts a little bit smaller. So he's the same size as an America Chavez, for instance. So you have to play them in separate lanes, but you probably were already doing that.
00:56:53
Speaker
and it's gonna be fine um i i'm not usually playing merlin for that last point of power you know i'm playing merlin because i want to play those spells and uh you know it doesn't hurt that one of the spells makes merlin get big and that's same spell still makes merlin get big so he's gonna be just you know Where he was two seven he'll now be 2-6, but that's okay because most of the value was in the Polymorph and the extra energy and like all that stuff. i mean
00:57:27
Speaker
Also, fixing locations. I love fixing locations. This card is still nuts. this doesn't i mean A point of power does matter, but This card went from being like, this is like if instead of nerfing ah Mr. Fantastic First Steps to three energy, they just took a point of power off of him. That's like, that's the closest.
00:57:48
Speaker
And that like Merlin has always been Mr. Fantastic First Steps level good. And he still pretty much is. So keep playing Merlin, I guess is my advice. I'm glad they didn't kill him off because he is a fun card.
00:58:04
Speaker
Right? Like there's like i have to hit good cards that the team yeah there's good cards that the community hates and there's good cards that the community is like, that's fine. And I think Merlin is more in the second category. Yeah.
00:58:16
Speaker
He's a good hang. Rhi, any Merlin? Like Jeff. ah and know one Jeff was like the best card in the game at one point and nobody hated it. It's fine. Yeah. um No, the only thing I'll say, um because it's been said, is just that, yeah, this makes me feel less guilty about polymorphing Merlin.
00:58:39
Speaker
And that's about it. that failed and change Okay. ah phantomex goes from four six to four seven Otherwise, still the same ability still requires you to do the destroy and the discard together.
00:58:57
Speaker
in do you Do you think this is this is good enough for Phantom X? ah No, I think this is every bit as symbolic as the Merlin nerf.
00:59:09
Speaker
But he can be a 419 now. Yeah, he he he was already a 418 and that wasn't good enough because the problem is the conditions and the activate and the 4 part, you know, like it's just not.
00:59:22
Speaker
It's still not a plausible design. In my experience, he's one of the worst cards in his own deck, possibly the worst card in his own deck. um Yeah, I really thought he would be better, but I don't think this makes the difference.
00:59:37
Speaker
I was looking at this like, okay, well, High Evo moving from 4.6 4.7 felt different to me as someone who enjoyed it. But I realized the difference with that is that, like, with High, you know, you're not looking to play High Evo. You're doing it because it just happened to be the best choice or the only thing you could play. And Phantom X, it's like... you want to play it because you're trying like, probably you built your whole deck around trying to get it off. You know what I mean? So, like, it moving up one power doesn't make the ease of its, of activating its condition easier, which is why I assume it's, like, failing. I don't know. I haven't seen lot of things. I wouldn't have to...
01:00:26
Speaker
Like the the high Evo thing feels impactful because that's that's a four six moving to a four seven. This is a whatever 18 like I mean a four 18, but also the work and the activate. And like I I'm sort of folding all that in with the energy cost and it's no longer simple enough to be made into just a number. But like a whatever 18 to a whatever 19, that's not changing anybody's like overall like I don't think that's there.
01:00:55
Speaker
the The way that ah a real 4.6 to a real 4.7, as we're going to see later in this OTA, like that is more meaningful because, yeah, it's a larger proportion of the thing.
01:01:06
Speaker
I would have really liked to see them split the ability into being minus one for the discard, minus one for the destroy. Oh, that would be elegant.
01:01:18
Speaker
Wild childy. Yeah, and I don't know that it would be too strong. Like, 4.13's pretty good. Or 4.12 if you didn't give him the PowerPoint. Like, that's pretty good, but, like, you still had to... mean, one discard or one destroy is not all that hard to do. It's not that pretty good, the thing. The 4.12 thing is, like... Yeah, it's, like, Ares level, right? It's, like, it's fine, but...
01:01:45
Speaker
Anyway, Vulture, Multiple Man, and Fanfei all getting a point of power. ah They said to counteract, you know, their slowly tuning move in a world where they have hit Human Torch and they don't want the only move strategy to be move one person, one card around a whole ton and benefit off of that.
01:02:06
Speaker
So Vulture to 1-3, Multiple Man to 2-4, and Fanfei to 4-5.
01:02:13
Speaker
I don't play Vulture because I like cards that can carry their own weight from one location to another. like There's enough of those now. It's like, why would I bother with one that makes me do the work?
01:02:26
Speaker
well the reason i wouldn't bother with this one is the plus three part yeah the reason why old vulture was cool was because it did plus six when you moved it one time so like you're still not getting wild you're still not getting anything from this card like it needs to get bigger when it moves than plus three which is not worth the price of admission um but you know what card i am actually kind of excited about I don't even know if this card is even good with this buff.
01:02:56
Speaker
No. Multiple man. I bet multiple man is secretly good right now. With Maverick and Sholao. I think we make massive multiple. like Just throw it on Topaz. and i mean like I don't know. like There's something. like I really think it's probably not that hard to get meaningfully huge multiple men and kind of a lot of them.
01:03:17
Speaker
I bet multiple man is actually good right now. I haven't built the deck yet, but like, ooh, I was thinking about it. And I was thinking like, would it probably be fine at 2-3? I think like the the ingredients are here. we We can make a wonderful recipe if we think about it for a second.
01:03:36
Speaker
Not on the... But in my experience, nobody is playing it outside of Phoenix Force, right? Like I see multiple multiple man, I immediately assume Phoenix Force. Yeah, this would be like a new a new kind of deck, a new multiple man centric thing.
01:03:50
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds cool. ah Clea and Iron Lad both getting a point of power. Clea going to one three They cited support for the new Shang-Chi card coming later. Iron Lad going to 4-7.
01:04:04
Speaker
specific thoughts about these two? and like 4-7. I mean, yeah, I approve of the Clea thing. I also approve of the Iron Lad thing, and I think this...
01:04:16
Speaker
This is what I was talking about. This 4.6 to 4.7, this feels significant because sometimes Iron Lad's size matters depending on what he's copying. Also, ah yeah, just ah an honest 4.6 to 4.7 change is ah that adds weight to the thing. Like Stardust at 4.7 was just a different beast than Stardust at 4.6 and she's still great. But like 4.7 has some juice behind it, you know.
01:04:43
Speaker
I really like this. Iron Lads is super fun card that I hardly ever see anymore. Except for in like couple specific decks. I that they said that. They're like, we buffed him because he's fun. And I was like, yeah, agree. Make the cards that are fun more playable. Yeah.
01:04:59
Speaker
Clearly the game's just scaled around him and that he needs to catch up. And Clea's fun. One day I'm going to deck build with her. I've been meaning to for a while, but the spark hasn't happened yet. Mm-hmm. Marvel Boy could be a good start for you. I know that you've liked that card in the past.
01:05:15
Speaker
I've definitely played some Marvel Boy. Dragon of the Moon already. It's been one week. Goes from three two to
01:05:26
Speaker
ah they they just like had an abundance of caution. we all knew like Pretty much everybody ranks Dragon of the Moon as the worst card. The justification here. They're like, oh ah we weren't quite sure how it would land given its unique characteristics. What's so hard to analyze about this card? It's like it's on its face garbage. like The fact that their supposed uncertainty, like well, maybe there's something here that tells me that they don't understand how the game works. I don't know.
01:05:57
Speaker
It's interesting what they consider. Because, look, like, Sholao is obviously overpowered, but they're fine with that because it's buffing your own cards. They were worried about this card that steals power because they thought, like, it would annoy players instead of just laughing it It would be feels bad. because it's meaningless. Yeah. So it's interesting how they look at it, right? Because you can see it's like here they're like, oh, we like when you look at where they're so careful and where they clearly like knew something was going to be OP and just didn't care. Like, I will nerf it next month or whatever, you know?
01:06:33
Speaker
Now, I do kind of agree. Dragon of the Moon is it feels bad and it's not just Dragon of the Moon itself. It's what it comes with, right? Black Widow, Baron Mordo, Master Mold,
01:06:45
Speaker
Not very good cards. If the deck was good. But yeah, if that was too good, you would hate it. Right, they're not good cards, but also I don't but i don't want to run into a lot of Master Mold. like It's not a fun card to play against. so I you would fix Widow. I'm okay with them being cautious on this.
01:07:06
Speaker
um Widow too easily gets too good and then they nerf her into unplayable like again you know what i mean? Yes and see also other Widow. Yeah also white with the poor Widows. Okay. ah So we already hinted at a little bit but I think we should briefly talk about Xolau not getting hit in the first week even though all like clearly too strong.
01:07:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:34
Speaker
It's wild. They just want some more season passes. I mean, yeah, i I thought if there was a candidate for being like the quickest season pass card nerf in a while, I thought I thought maybe it would be this one. But I guess plot armor is real.
01:07:49
Speaker
Surtr was pretty fast. Well, like if to my memory, Surtr was one that they nerfed while he was still the season pass card. Does that sound right? Maybe. I'm not certain about that, but it was definitely within like the season after.
01:08:03
Speaker
But was like a week maybe his own season. but let's It was like a week. Went went from in like a week. so uh it's not it is precedented um is there any chance that show allow is is secretly being overrated by players but really when you look at the stats for the player base at large it's not actually that good not a chance okay just just wondering um
01:08:35
Speaker
Zombie Galacti, ah not a stat change, but the card changes so that it can only target, it can only infect characters, not skills. Yuck.
01:08:47
Speaker
You don't like it? No, I think this is big deal. Makes it too easy to target? Yeah, I think ah it it just means you're playing Majestic Wingbeat, you're playing Deafening Chord. ah How many more good skills?
01:09:00
Speaker
I mean, i don't think we're... Maybe we just start with the... Maybe we put the Hunger in as well. um But point is, you just want to know which things are going to be Zombie Galacti, and like it it just it makes everything more consistent and predictable. and ah yeah it it just ah Majestic Wingbeat stocks are way up. That's that's what I say.
01:09:27
Speaker
um I don't like this at all. I think it makes Zombie Galacti... better ah like not a little bit better but like a lot of it better and i don't think it's healthy or good and i think i think it was fine that there was this little obstacle for those decks i don't think we want zombie galacti to be too good i think uh man i don't know i i think they're just overcompensating because it's the zombie season was another season where they're like, we don't know what cards are good. And they put out ah a real stinker and now they're just, they're determined to make it relevant. And I think it's a mistake.
01:10:12
Speaker
They should have just designed a better card in the first place.
01:10:17
Speaker
Green. Yeah, I mean, mostly selfishly. i don't have this card. I forget to look out for it occasionally. So, you know, nerf it. i' say I don't see it a ton in game. It does surprise me sometimes. But in my position of running snap decks on Twitter, ah the Japanese players play this card a lot.
01:10:41
Speaker
um So I think it might be something that... ah that our server, the American server, is underrating how good Zombie Galacti might be.
01:10:52
Speaker
i mean, I don't know if they're playing them in a world with Sholao, but...
01:10:58
Speaker
Tell you, if you're not teched... Zombie Galacti is one of those cards like Mr. Negative where, like, if you're not teched for it, it's just going to trample you. Yeah. Okay.
01:11:09
Speaker
Okay. That was the OTA. On to our side quests. First up, and only this week, Secret Homework, which was assigned by
01:11:19
Speaker
Okay, so mine was to ah challenge yourself for the new year with something that would make you happy bring you joy. And bonus points if it connects you to other people. And I talked about I made a challenge to, like, ah watch a particular movie each month um selected by my friends, of which my January movie is Nimona.
01:11:45
Speaker
And I haven't watched it, but I still have half the month, so I don't get that. um So I did. I was like, well, I guess i already said that. So I did. i did do a new ah new challenge.
01:11:59
Speaker
um And I joined. Or I'm joining a, okay. To preface, my ah my board game retreat is in like two weeks.
01:12:12
Speaker
Oh, it's so gross. I know, it's so exciting. We get hyped. It's so fun because like someone will just be like, like this some morning, my friend is just like, two weeks, get spooky. And then everyone posts spooky GIFs.
01:12:24
Speaker
And then um the last person before me did a GIF of like some skeletons dancing, which immediately made me think of two ah game scenarios. One being King's Quest VI, where the bones are dancing before you get into the Land of the Dead. if you know, you know. And then um the other one would be Gitaru Man, which I know I mentioned in the before. There's the bone dancing trio, and that's what I posted a GIF of. and
01:12:55
Speaker
which is like my favorite when i mention a rare obscure thing and like other people get it okay i appreciate it i love you like yes we love it sorry i love that you have the board game retreat of course itself is fun and something that you're always like happy to have attended and all that you know but i love that you have this like semi-annual thing that you get to be excited about like But it's all the little rituals, That's so hard find. Right? You put into it. Like, when you make you have to craft these things. Like I said, like, we build the playlist.
01:13:26
Speaker
And I made a ah challenge, which some people joined in on where, um you know, but everyone does what they want, where we, like, put together playlists. So there's all this, like, build up to it. excited This year we're doing hoodies. Like...
01:13:40
Speaker
Costs keep going up on things, but like with art, like we know we're now officially like frog mascotted. Okay. Anyway, sorry. It's the whole thing. So I'm just too excited about it. Okay. But someone from there.
01:13:55
Speaker
started a book club, which I'm joining, which I've never ah really done except for once awkwardly, like for work because my assigned work mentor made me.
01:14:07
Speaker
I was like the only one that read the books. It was very weird. Anyway. a Mandatory book club is the worst book club. Right. And then when no one else reads and it's all your ah co-workers and you're the newest, youngest. priest It was it was weird. And it like didn't make book clubs awesome for me. Also, there was the one time you joined the book club with the Blade and Carol Danvers and Captain America. and who that was fun. And Midnight Suns, I did bring book club back. Uh, uh, okay. But, um, someone started and i so like, I am so excited because at first so to me, it was kind of, like I love reading books, but it's like, oh, we're going to get around in a social event where we just, we're not playing a board game or anything. We're all just sitting around talking.
01:14:53
Speaker
um and But it's like, wait, talking about WeBook and then what do we say? Like, just like, oh, hey, remember when that scene was awesome? Or like, ah hey, did you think about, like, did you cut, is this like a theory you have? I'm like, oh, okay, now I see it. I do see it. I see the appeal. especially if snacks are involved. But the hard part for me is that this is ah ah my board game retreat, which is a little more spread out. It's not all in my city, so it's not live. It's another thing you have to do over Zoom.
01:15:24
Speaker
It's hard for me at all times to be patient and present sometimes. But like I'm doing it, and I'm excited.
Book Club and Family Connections
01:15:33
Speaker
um But I am skipping the first one.
01:15:37
Speaker
ah Because it's Handmaid's Tale. And I already read that. And it's just not a time I can again right now. that's a little too real in January 2026. Let's it. Yeah. He's right. I'm like, I'm doing it. And this is the first book. And I'm like, don't the bastards grind you down. And I'll see you next month. You know?
01:15:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:00
Speaker
Okay, that was my challenge. I'm excited for it. I read it a lot, a lot as a child, and I've kind of fallen out, especially because I'm always behind on my comics. Okay, but ah next up, because Ben is assigning the new, we do have Lauren. am very curious to hear someone who continually wants to give yourself more work. How did you find something that would make you happy?
01:16:25
Speaker
I know. Yeah. The first thing that came to mind last week when you said challenge yourself and then was one thing and then you immediately said in a joyful way. And i was like, well, not that. okay um Yeah. First of all, I want to say I thoroughly enjoyed your explanation of book club as somebody who doesn't do book club. but Like that was, you're like, what do you even talk about? That tickled me. I do book club with my sisters and my mom. And it is over Zoom because one of my sisters lives in Chicago. And that's ah that's one of the ways I make sure I get to stay in touch with her.
01:17:03
Speaker
I could be better about phone, but I'm not good at phone. I guess that could be my joyful challenge is to actually call my out-of-state friends and family. I'm very, very bad at that. Phone calls. We're millennials. We can't do it.
01:17:18
Speaker
Well, the thing is, I like it when they call me. I like it when they call me, but I don't want to be the one calling. And it's not like... It's not like I need them to prove that they want to talk. It's nothing like that. i don't want to be a burden. And I'm sure people can relate to that to that feeling. And it's probably not a healthy one. But I have to know a lot. Whether or it's rational, it's very reasonable. yeah I don't want to interrupt somebody. Like, no. I'm never going to call somebody without texting them first. like um Anyway. that's how you just did it, unless it was emergency.
01:17:53
Speaker
okay i I don't know. My, it's not very, it's not very fun, but I think it's indirectly joyful. The thing that I came up with, it's something that I have really needed to do anyway, and might as well, uh, add some extra incentive and social pressure and whatever to it is.
Sleep Schedule and Well-being
01:18:12
Speaker
My sleep schedule is so whack.
01:18:14
Speaker
I need to fix it. I have for a long time had a problem where, uh, I could be tired as early as like 6 PM. And then as soon as everybody else in the house goes to bed, I am suddenly hit with so much energy because it is finally Lauren time. say, I say that like, I don't get it anyway. Like I used to have a much younger child and obviously then there wasn't a lot of Lauren time, but now I have a 14 year old. There's plenty of a alone time during the day.
01:18:42
Speaker
um But yeah, i'm just I just have this terrible habit. Probably, it's no certainly ADHD-driven habit. it And certainly Night Lauren not making as good of his decisions as Daytime Lauren. And so Daytime Lauren needs to find, like...
01:19:02
Speaker
tools to assist because other it's so easy to doom scroll or play Marvel snap late or get stuck on YouTube or whatever. There's, it's just so easy. It is almost always a screen that, that sucks me in. Wait, I told you to pick something that wasn't hard.
01:19:20
Speaker
and that' you make but You told me to pick something joyful. And so it is not directly joyful and it is not directly social, but it benefits my life in both of those ways. I am sure I will be a more energetic and happy a person if I am rested instead of tired all the time.
01:19:39
Speaker
And also if I'm spending my alonemp more of my alone time asleep, then i can be more present during my social time, ah even if it's just with my family.
01:19:51
Speaker
Although I do see other loved ones every now and then, of course. So it's a tough challenge. It's something I was planning on doing this year anyway. And so maybe it's cheating. But I think think it might be the thing that gives me the most bang for buck in my life right now.
01:20:08
Speaker
I love that. There's so much about like our physical health that affects like everything, and we forget. you Like, oh yeah, I'm really tired, and haven't been eating the best, and I haven't been getting any exercise, et cetera, and so forth. And it's like those things do um play, and we're going to need it.
01:20:27
Speaker
awesome. Ben, what was your challenge? Well... where was you and challenge well I wasn't sure which way I wanted to take it. I thought, you know, maybe maybe I should be reading more books because I used to read more books. And I still read some books, but more often I listen to audiobooks.
01:20:51
Speaker
Or I just don't.
Creative Games for Joy
01:20:54
Speaker
You know, I mean, like, I've got i've got i got a book... uh, last month as a gift and I got a gift card and I bought some more books yet to be read.
01:21:09
Speaker
so like that could be, that could be my thing. But instead i decided in the spirit of connection and, uh, joy and stuff that my challenge to myself is to bring more silly little games and creative things to snap on this in 2026. So next week, next week, I would like, I'm i' planning if if it doesn't happen next week, I don't know. maybe Maybe it'll be a monthly thing by the end of the month. we'll keep it I'll be back with a fresh installment of
01:21:47
Speaker
Snap shooters. If you don't remember what snap shooters is, that's when I say two things that sound kind of alike and you have to pick one and you can't ask anything about the criteria or I will get mad. um And ah I did steal it from Stradio Lab, and that's fine.
01:22:07
Speaker
ah So, yeah, I'm just going to come back with more segments and bits than ever. You should make us a bumper for Secret Homework.
01:22:19
Speaker
Just like, Secret Homework, I'm Ben Roller.
01:22:25
Speaker
That's usually how it goes. It even rhymes! Sort of. Sort of. Slant rhyme. There's a slant rhyme.
01:22:36
Speaker
And, uh... Oh, I'm excited! This benefits me and makes it more exciting than usual. Benefits? Mmm. a I don't get to do that with Ben ever.
01:22:48
Speaker
There's always repuns. There are Ben puns too if you if you go looking for them I just ah don't. that's That's what I do. I'm so dumb sometimes.
01:23:00
Speaker
You've got to be happily and I'm like... Okay, sorry. I love that. I'm very for more bits for sure. ah i love that um um all very four morebis for sure
01:23:16
Speaker
That's what we're calling it now. Every time you bring it out, we're like, what's the benefit? okay I suppose I must now assign next week's secret homework. Mandatory.
Wonder Man Miniseries and Marvel Snap
01:23:31
Speaker
You may have noticed, or maybe you haven't noticed, because I don't think they're promoting it very ah aggressively, but there is there is a Wonder Man miniseries coming to Disney Plus this month. ah Wonder Man, a Marvel Comics character that does not yet have a Marvel Snap card.
01:23:50
Speaker
um And there's no season to go with it or anything. ah We're just not we're not doing those tie-ins anymore, I guess not since Fantastic Four First Steps. I mean, to be fair, there's not a Wonder Man card already, so how are they supposed to sell us a redundant Wonder Man card if they haven't done the first one yet?
01:24:09
Speaker
So... um I was thinking maybe we could collaborate and come together to design a season or maybe just, you know, just the beginnings of the season uh,
01:24:24
Speaker
maybe the theme of the season could be Hollywood and or West Coast Avengers. That's, that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that that's, that's it. All right. I'm committing.
01:24:35
Speaker
The season is Hollywood and or West Coast Avengers. So I'm thinking, do you, do you want examples of of, I don't know. I don't, I don't know if, I don't, I don't know if I want to burn examples, but I can think of a number of,
01:24:49
Speaker
Hollywood-ish characters. would like to research and be surprised. Yeah, yeah. there There are lots of things we could get. Here, I'll say it. There will be a Mysterio variant because he's a special effects guy.
01:25:01
Speaker
um Anywho. ah But there there are some other characters that we haven't seen yet that we could get in there. Yeah, so we should each come with one or two cards. I don't want to make us design two cards because that's twice as much secret homework as usual. But, like, you can if you want.
Marvel Snap Card Design Challenge
01:25:18
Speaker
but just to to design one. One character and one skull, because Ben loves standalone skulls.
01:25:25
Speaker
That's what I say to that. I stuck my tongue out and not in a fun way. Yeah, audio listeners, imagine Yeah. In your mind's eye.
01:25:37
Speaker
All right, that sounds fun. Okay. If you like what you heard, You know what to do. Like, comment, subscribe, share, etc. um Come join us in the speakeasy. It's our little corner of Discord. We have fun hanging out in there. ah Part of the Snap Judgments Network. You can find the instructions to get there in the show notes or video description. Listen to other shows on the network. Like Snap Decisions from Joe on Mondays.
01:26:03
Speaker
It's good and chill and generally casual, but also has ah an eye towards other things in pop culture. And maybe that's interesting to you.
01:26:14
Speaker
Hey, he'll probably tell you about the Wonder Man show. He's not trying to sweep it under the rug. He probably knows all about it. It really is astonishing that there's nothing coming to snap for Wonder Man.
01:26:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's weird. Come on. Unless they're, like, going to surprise us and all of a sudden February is Wonder Man season instead of Apocalypse and they're pushing that. Like, there's no way, right?
01:26:43
Speaker
ah They have hidden data mines from us once before, and that was with the Rivals season. Yeah. I don't think they're doing that. There's no way. There's no way.
01:26:55
Speaker
ah Disney themselves are not doing a great job of promoting it, from my understanding. ah The only thing I've seen from it is other people pointing me to it. so The trailers look fun. I think it's fun. I'm i'm excited. yeah I'm excited to see it too. And I haven't seen the trailers, but I've heard good things about them. Anyway, tune in next week. Same step time, same step channel.
01:27:19
Speaker
I did not give myself enough breath for that one.
01:27:24
Speaker
I was halfway through and I was like, I needed to inhale.
Humorous Retelling of John Mulaney's Joke
01:27:27
Speaker
As always, we've all made a happy birthday sign. What?
01:27:37
Speaker
The John Mulaney thing, you know? Oh, I don't know John Mulaney. Oh, well, the premise of the bit is that you start making a happy birthday sign, and, like, the first thing you do is a big-ass and then a big-ass A, then, like...
01:27:56
Speaker
The other P is hiding under the hump of the first P and little twisty Y and then it's the second word birthday and you forget everything you learned and you're like surely more like this will take that same space.
01:28:11
Speaker
That's very good. Yeah. I just regurgitated the entire John Mulaney bit. Now I don't need to go watch it. Yeah. Mostly I only know him from a Big Mouth.
01:28:23
Speaker
Which I know is maybe a crime that I haven't. Yeah, Big Mouth is great. But I don't seek out a lot of stand-up comedy, even though I enjoy it.