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51: Very Healthy Gaming People
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💧🐊 How aquatic was the Spinosaurus? 🤔 The SoT cohosts can’t tell you, 😔 but stick around anyway 🥺 for discussion of every card from the Heralds of Galactus season! 🌷☀️🍂❄️
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Your usual serving of Weeks in Snap 💁♀️🍽️
- 📣 Heralds of Galactus Season Rankings 🏄♀️
- Secret Homework 📚: Snap art 🎨 but speedy ⏱️
- 🥳 SoT!! anniversary next week 🎉
📮 Please submit questions to be used in our upcoming anniversary special! 🙏🙏🙏
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
- The InfiNOT
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
- Ben - Grand Arena S.C.R.E.A.M. https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/grand-arena-scream/
- Safety - RSPCA https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/safety-rspca/
- Regis - Double Trouble https://marvelsnapzone.com/decks/regis-double-trouble/
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:33:30 Invisible Woman: First Steps
- 0:36:35 August Card Ratings
- 0:38:46 Galactus: First Steps
- 0:46:23 Silver Surfer: First Steps
- 0:51:21 Stardust
- 1:01:19 Red Shift
- 1:04:09 Terrax the Tamer
- 1:08:10 Frankie Raye Nova
- 1:14:36 Air-Walker
- 1:19:15 The Fallen One
- 1:24:28 Cosmic Ghost Rider
- 1:28:09 Firelord
- 1:34:45 Secret Homework: Marvel Snap Fan Art
- 1:43:06 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:44:05 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, make some speedy Snap fan art. I'm your host Lauren Whadevs, here today with my usual co-hosts.
Gaming Burnout: Rhi's Experience
00:00:13
Speaker
They're great. First up, Rhi, how was your week in Snap? And keep it snappy. and Okay. um So, well, I pretty much took a whole week off of Snap because I burned out in Grand Arena. Because I decided to get both ah i did get both Mad Thinker and Mallman, which it turns out, now I realize like Arena, as of we're recording this, is ending tomorrow. It'll already be a...
00:00:39
Speaker
over by the time this comes out, but like it's like, oh, I actually had more time than I thought, but how was I supposed to know that? you Usually you have to, like, you know, my my thought when playing was always, like, well, I want to do this, so every time I play Snap, I need to play this mode until I get, you know, this thing that I want. So that's all I did, pretty much, in Snap.
Game Design Critique: Monetization vs. Enjoyment
00:01:01
Speaker
And it was a huge bummer, because I'd actually, like, I started the season, as we often do on a new season.
00:01:08
Speaker
It was, like, I had a small, like, fat stack of infinite tickets. Like, you know, not enough to, like, make it rain, but, you know, enough to maybe impress, ah like, a casual player or something.
00:01:21
Speaker
And, ah yeah, I just, like, they just all burned. They just all straight. Like, I just didn't play. I was, like, so... burned out. And it's like, it's so hard. I'm trying to fix my relationship with the game. I'm trying to stop caring about getting all the cards after being the kind of person that, like, spotlight planned as, like, my way to wind down at night slash stay up all night.
00:01:44
Speaker
Like, and stuff. Like, was super hardcore into all parts. I'm like, no, just... Just dial it back and look at the game. Like, what do I, you know, don't worry about that. Don't worry about the grind. And just like, what do I want to do in the game? What will be fun for me and spend my time doing that? And it is so hard to do.
00:02:02
Speaker
And I feel like, you know, if it's the same way for you, where it is hard for you to fix your relationship with the game, um you as the listener, my co-hosts are very healthy gaming people.
00:02:14
Speaker
um Then it's like, but it's not like all... your fault. You know what I Like, a lot of study, a lot of, like, metrics gathering and studying put into engineering these things to to get you into that grind. It's like,
00:02:34
Speaker
Like a while ago, I was listening um to some random food science thing, but they were talking about like, you know, what food scientists work. And i'm like, oh, that's interesting. What your food scientists working on? It's like, oh, how to break down the molecules of potato chips faster into your brain so that like it satisfies you faster so that you'll just like eat more and be more addicted and like...
00:02:58
Speaker
Like that brand over like less processed stuff. And I'm like, oh, that's sad. And it's like, but that's what's happened to the gaming industry. Like metrics are such a cool thing for someone who is a game developer, right? Like the promise of it initially they're like, hey, we could collect metrics.
00:03:18
Speaker
metrics about how players play a game and sure for the for a game that's already out usually that means it's too late but like hey the sequel like we could iterate we could maybe make things better i think there's a whole other interesting discussion to be had about like how you would look at metrics to actually like how would you use those to make gameplay whole different discussion let's say that for another time but it's just like But what they use metrics for, it's all about monetization and engagement. And engagement is not equivalent to enjoyment.
00:03:54
Speaker
Successfully getting people to log in so many days or to do this or to habitually spend money does not mean – ah that that like they're happy with the game.
00:04:10
Speaker
I know it's just kind of microcosm of like what's happening with the world at large right now. It feels like anyway, but it's like when I I remember when I was younger, how much it felt like The games industry was about better games, you know, was about like what was was better for the gamer. And sure, there's always been like the greedy underbelly, but they felt less in control. And it felt more like when things happen.
00:04:36
Speaker
Like, remember when the Skyrim horse armor came out? Yeah. And, okay, I don't know if, okay, so I should explain. I just kind of assume everyone knows what I'm talking about. But, like, Skyrim is one of the first times they brought microtransactions from, like, the, you know, from, like, phone games, where it mostly kind of got big, into regular games, where it's like, okay, before you just buy the full game, you know, right? And then it's kind of like, okay, but would people pay,
00:05:08
Speaker
forget how much it was. Maybe it was $2. Maybe it was like $15. fifteen I feel it was $2 for just like set you know, extra horse armor you can get in your And it was like a huge deal in the gaming and industry because people were like, not mobile games, not in our regular hardcore, like whatever people want to get these new casual gamers, what they want to do on their phones, which we should never call them casual because there's nothing more hardcore than phone gamers out there.
00:05:36
Speaker
Right. Don't try to diss them in a gamer way. They will game harder than you have ever gamed. OK, so like, but I don't know. It's like we used to collectively point and be like, that's bad and it would mean something.
Supporting Indie Studios and Industry Insights
00:05:51
Speaker
And now it's just like accepted that like and sometimes even celebrated. And if not celebrated, then just like, I don't know, nihilistically, like, yeah, things should just be about profits in for small number and burning something in the ground.
00:06:10
Speaker
And it's like, We don't have to accept that. And I'm not saying I have all the answers. yeah And, you know, support for the gaming studios that are small and that care about pushing games forward and doing something different.
00:06:25
Speaker
And like, I don't know, even if not trying to innovate, trying to care about the gamer first, you know, and not just like, how can I how can I use the power of math for evil do it Anyway, I just feel it feels like I'm like, like, like Obi-Wan looking looking at Anakin. Just like you were the chosen one, the gaming industry. That's our baby. Right.
00:06:50
Speaker
Like we grew I mean, you know, like I was born after the first very first video games. But you know what mean? Like we all grew up with it. Like like a lot of us remember when things went, you know, from like,
00:07:04
Speaker
Like polygons from 2D to polygons or from polygons to, you know, very uncanny valley. Semi-realism.
00:07:15
Speaker
Okay. But like, I don't know. And it's just, it's just like seeing what the game industry become is like looking like at a burning Anakin, know, the fires of Mustafar. Just like sad.
00:07:30
Speaker
Just sad. Anyway. Yeah. I have to rebuild a robot Vader. A good Vader. A Vader for good. Okay. So anyway, I am saying i mean to like go on forever, but it's like, I don't know. I wish we could use tools like metrics to improve the gaming industry instead of pillage it.
00:07:54
Speaker
You know, instead to squeeze all the fun and love and enjoyment out of it. Um, uh, that's my weekend. For what it's worth, I totally agree with you. I just watched something recently about how, I mean, there's all kinds of grim things you can watch about the future of the industry, right? But this was a more positive one where like AA might be like saving the industry from what AAA is doing because as technology gets cheaper and all that you know you have stuff like Baldur's Gate and Claire Obscure that are like smaller studios but big games that catch the attention of the you know gamers who prefer AAA over indie I've always been an indie gamer I mean I not exclusively right like I loved Halo I I get almost every Nintendo first party title eventually like I'm not immune to this but um
00:08:50
Speaker
I was right there in being a Nintendo girly, right? Like, I care a lot more about gameplay than I do about ah the best graphics available. Yeah. I do think there were some unique things about, like, not every studio can do the Baldur's Gate 3 thing. like Absolutely not. ah That's not, I don't know if that can be, like, the model that everybody follows. But, um yeah, I don't know.
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, i also I also get bummed out about it and stuff and wish that... Folks had different incentives and were, ah you know, working different angles and trying to make better stuff.
00:09:31
Speaker
I mean, there's all kinds of darling success stories in the indie area too, right? Like, obviously not every single one can be big, but stuff like, ah I don't know, Stardew Valley, it totally hit the mainstream, right? More those.
00:09:43
Speaker
Yeah. big struggle is with getting publishers, to be honest, right? And and like not having to give up the rights to your game and to all of that stuff.
00:09:55
Speaker
To do stuff that like you're kind of locked out of as a small-time developer. I know that there's some developers like Chucklefish Games who like figured it out and now try and turn around and like offer that service to other people just to like be fucking decent people. You know what mean?
00:10:12
Speaker
And not, like like, make people sign away everything just to, like, get a foot in the door. Anyway. I don't know if Noodle Cake is still that way, but they used to be. They were more of a mobile gaming, but they, like, really understood the publishing side of it, and they just helped to publish good games.
00:10:31
Speaker
I feel like Devolver is kind of like that. No. Anyway, yes, let's have less greed. it I think gaming is unique industry because like pretty much everybody in gaming is a gamer, right? At least like the developers. I think once you get up to the publishers, maybe that's not true anymore. but I think once you get to, I have been in enough corporations to know a lot of it it is about ah who you know and the level of confidence you display despite how earned or not it is.
00:10:59
Speaker
i also think there are a lot of different kinds of gamers and ah maybe not all of them share the principles we're talking about. you know It's possible to enjoy games and also um you know just be real horny for rapacious greed.
00:11:15
Speaker
they're They're not incompatible hobbies. I think Ben Brode might be that way. Yeah, I also think he might be that I think he might be a good game designer who also just wants to milk his games.
Ben's Gaming Journey and Strategies
00:11:30
Speaker
oh All right, Ben, how was your week in Snap? And keep it snappy. Easy Pete's. My week in Snap was pretty stellar, if I'm being honest. hello I find, well, a lot of things happened in the past week. A lot of things.
00:11:46
Speaker
I guess to follow up on a frequent topic of discussion in my weeks in Snap, and it does have a lot to do with the Snap that I did play this week.
00:11:57
Speaker
You know, I got that fucking night one clear in Hades 2. I got it like couple days after we recorded it on Saturday. I got it in front of an audience of Hot Tub Tony and Wombat Combat both.
00:12:09
Speaker
Grandfather went right on down on night one. i don't think there is any truly unique dialogue there, but there is interesting dialogue if on night two you then meet Hades. Because I think you get this dialogue no matter what if you beat Kronos before you meet Hades. But you can skip meeting Hades on night two if you really want to. I don't know why you would.
00:12:30
Speaker
ah he's going to give you some He's going to give you something good. His boons are very strong. Anywho, anywho... But he will be like, oh shit, you beat him already. So there there will there will be like a little bit of that when he when he first meets his ah his grown up, his is his now grown up daughter and stuff. He'll be like, oh fuck, and you murked Gramps already before we even got acquainted.
00:12:54
Speaker
or That was cool. And it's that's almost like unique. out there There are a lot of things that I think, yeah. I don't think there's a lot of missable or unique stuff. they I don't think they want to do that. I think that's a guiding thing for them. Anywho, anywho, but that then freed me up to, I was like, well, now, now what do I do?
00:13:16
Speaker
You know, i I did the obligatory weeping on account of ah no more worlds to conquer. I mean, there's plenty more to do in Hades 2. I'll find other self-imposed challenges and stuff. Anywho, anywho, then I was like, what's the deal with Grand Arena? Which one of these stupid cards do I want? Mad Thinker or Mole Man? They're both kind of charming, but utterly impractical and like almost like not even within range of being buffed to practicality unless they do something very bold, like ah make Mad Thinker grow in your hand or something. Yeah.
00:13:50
Speaker
So I was playing some Grand Arena and i wanted to make it fun for myself. So i went with Herbie because Herbie is a very strong champion. It's a real shame that I didn't tell people. ah I really waited too long to get into Grand Arena for real.
00:14:08
Speaker
um But I built a super fun scream deck. Yeah. S-C-R-E-A-M. um And that's Kingpin, Scream, Champion Herbie, Kraven, Merlin, Spider-Man, Prodigy, Polaris, Shang-Chi, Enchantress, Stegron, and Magneto. And I probably would have changed it some.
00:14:27
Speaker
I mean, the only thing I ever changed about it was it started out with Penny Parker in it because I wanted to be cute. But then... I swapped her out for Kingpin because I still wanted to be cute. What's up? What's up? What's up?
00:14:38
Speaker
Anyway, I love playing Willy Fisk. He's the man. um Anywho, that deck worked out. I played it on stream, too. i I played it for, like, four hours on stream. I got all the stuff I needed to get both of the cards.
00:14:53
Speaker
I did end up getting the event pass because, like, it just seemed... I could see how, like... The glory was... It was all going to like... Everything was going to take way less time than it would have taken if I had not gotten the event pass.
00:15:07
Speaker
So I did that. And then I just... I had so many tickets because I hadn't been collecting them on the on the event track anyway. Because when was I ever going to... You know, like, I already complained last week that, like...
00:15:21
Speaker
How am I supposed to keep it under 12 tickets? that's That's bananas. So I currently have like 20-something tickets. i I had like 30, and then I you know played a bunch of games. But anywho, yeah, that was super fun, and a lot of people showed up to ah watch it happen.
00:15:35
Speaker
It turns out people are more interested in me playing Marvel Snap than other games. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I host a podcast about this one. Who'd have thunk? Yeah, if i if I do a couple more of those, I will hit affiliate and then o and I can run ads to disguise when I need to take a restroom break. i don't love that I have to announce it.
00:15:59
Speaker
I don't love that it's super obvious whenever I need to do that. when I do stream. So that'll be cool. But also another fun thing that happened in my weekend snap is that a new season started and I had just the easiest, breeziest, lowest effort, least number. Well, I don't know about least. I don't know.
00:16:20
Speaker
Point is, I woke up pretty late and I was done with the season. Within. ah Yeah. Yeah. it It did not take very long to hit infinite. I was playing some decks.
00:16:33
Speaker
I'm going to talk about one built by safety blade. um This one is RSPCA. And i I looked up what that stands for. You know, it's the animal, you know, thing, you know, in the UK.
00:16:50
Speaker
And I, you know what? I'll look it up again. Why safety making UK references? He's a worldly... I'm confused.
00:17:03
Speaker
i think I actually know the answer, but I don't want to get it wrong. so I mean, the answer to the question about safety, but yeah we we should we should ask him to make sure I'm not making up Safety Blade fan fiction. um Anyway, been for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and I think that's because this deck has ah some kitties in it.
00:17:25
Speaker
Anywho, it's Kitty Pryde, Hydra Bob, Black Cat, Havoc, Thena, Mr. Fantastic, First Steps, Surge, Juggernaut, Invisible Woman, First Steps, Fantastic, Our Stardust, and The Thing, First Steps.
00:17:37
Speaker
And I think maybe he's put Mobius in there now instead of, like, Kitty or something, but... I liked this version, and this version was doing very well for me. It got me all... i I played it all the way through the late 80s, and I didn't stop playing it because it wasn't working. I stopped playing it because i there was a kind of bounty that I wanted to do, and I wanted to try a different kind of deck.
00:17:59
Speaker
because this deck doesn't do all the kinds of bounties, and I'm not going to tell you what the other deck is, because ah it's real good, and there's a tournament this weekend. There you go. Yeah, so you'll you'll hear about that deck, and... um Yeah, i had I had a lot of fun. i'm ah I'm enjoying Snap right now. There's fun stuff to do. i Yeah, we'll we'll talk about cards and things.
00:18:29
Speaker
I think awesome maybe that's all there is. Tune in to my next stream, even if I'm not streaming Marvel Snap, so that I can run ads and disguise my bathroom.
00:18:40
Speaker
Thank you. you You don't actually have to watch, just like, you know, idle there. Just, just, just, uh...
00:18:49
Speaker
Let me hit that three average viewers so I can run ads. well I don't need to make money. and If you do it before I'm in bed, I will try. Okay, thank you, Lauren. you're the best.
00:19:01
Speaker
I've been in your streams a couple times before, but it was like before I was working and my schedule was whatever. it's a little harder now. I veryy i understand. it I don't watch lot people either.
00:19:12
Speaker
The tournament you're participating in is is the Golden Gauntlet qualifier? Yeah. Let's go. That's very exciting. I'm excited for that. Yeah. Would love to hear if any of our listeners are participating. Of course, this first one is is optimized for Asian-Australia. sure listeners are participating. That's why I won't tell anybody what the deck is, because every time I enter one of these goddamn tournaments, I am guaranteed to match up with at least one person who's like, I love the podcast.
00:19:39
Speaker
And you know what? I love running into you all. Oh, that's awesome. Isn't the tournament open deck list? It is open deck list. I understand holding it until... I will not have the element of surprise, but I don't want to... Yeah, I get that.
00:19:58
Speaker
Well, I wish you good luck. I did verify RSPCA is also active in Australia, so that's probably the answer to the question.
00:20:06
Speaker
Makes some sense. Mystery
Marvel Snap Adventures and Player Base Speculation
00:20:09
Speaker
solved. Good job, dim shoe. Well... re spoke about um and very healthy gaming people and i'm a i'm a very healthy gaming person who also got a night one clear in marvel snap uh hell yeah yeah it's my fastest one ever it was like a little over nine hours of real time i played for like five of those hours so you know uh it was a pretty speedy run
00:20:38
Speaker
I don't think I had very many bots. There were a few that I suspected were bots, and then they emoted me. Mm-hmm. So... I had really weird matchups and I don't know if it's because I've messed up my MMR by clip hunting for two months straight without intermittent climbing, which is what i normally do is kind of switch back and forth and then hover around 10,000. Um, or if it's, and this is my suspicion, my suspicion is it's the player count dwindling. And so I'm, I don't know. So the the player base on average is getting less good.
00:21:14
Speaker
I mean, I haven't played since the start of the season and I used to be someone that would go for Daylight Clear. If that says anything. oh I don't know what's happening.
00:21:25
Speaker
um
00:21:28
Speaker
Supposedly, I've heard, I'm pretty sure I've heard Glenn himself say that when you cross into Infinite, your um MMR floor is locked. So you can't like intentionally tank your and MMR to have an easier climb next season. Right.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah. So like, if that's true, but they get things wrong about bots and matchmaking. They get things wrong. Right? Like, supposedly there aren't any bots in Infinite. Right. Don't even describe malice to it. It's just sometimes people get things wrong.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah. It's more likely to be incompetent. Disconnected with the code does not surprise me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, or like there's not supposed to be bots in infinite, and I've heard evidence of that the last couple months. Yeah, there's bots in infinite.
00:22:14
Speaker
Maybe there aren't bots in infinite like once there's a sizable population there. Maybe that's true, but um early on it seems like there are. Anyway, I had a good week. I ran Regis' Twos and Storm deck.
00:22:28
Speaker
That's not what he called it. That's what I'm calling Invisible Woman First Steps. Yeah. It's extremely strong. it It felt like the easiest
Game Updates and Player Preferences
00:22:36
Speaker
climb I've ever had. It's cruised through the 90s. Normally there's a little bit of yo-yoing at some point, but it's just very straightforward. like ah
00:22:48
Speaker
I think it's a very strong deck, but also a very easy deck. And that's like, I think, you know, that makes it more likely to be a nerf candidate because high play rate, easy and straightforward thing to do.
00:23:01
Speaker
Also a high win rate. Play it while you can. Make use of your prodigy if you have him. I saw a lot of people... on me What's that? and what What part of a bummer?
00:23:15
Speaker
That's what I've heard. Like I said, so I haven't played. I've mostly just heard. And like what I've heard has not enticed me back to the game. Because the first thing I think I saw like through Hearsy, like not through actually seeing myself, is I used to go watch every developer update. And I think...
00:23:32
Speaker
Maybe last season, the first time, I haven't watched it at all, but I, like, saw comments around it, and usually people were all hype and, like, oh, their updates are so cool and stuff, and everyone's like, this sucks, I'm tired of it, why are And was just like, oh, wow, okay, I guess, like, the developer updates aren't fun anymore, and then, like, all I've seen people say is, like, oh, everyone's just playing the end of turn deck, and it's so, like, I'm so tired of playing it like everyone on Reddit. and stuff it's just like it's not unbeatable but it is annoying it's not unbeatable but it is annoying when you just run into the same thing all the time you know like you like some vari variety so yeah um so yeah it's just been it's been kind of just like a bummer from the outside looking i'm sure i actually played it i could probably find some fun but there is fun to be had i've been a blast
00:24:26
Speaker
I need to figure out where to extract more fun because I feel like... Extract, it shouldn't be our job! I know. It should be helping us. I wish... I don't know. Like, for instance, I most enjoy Ladder and Conquest, and they seem to be waging this...
00:24:43
Speaker
like ever-increasing campaign to throw up obstacles in the form of limited-time game modes to keep me from playing the fun part of the game, which um seems a little stupid, if I can be honest. And then they hide it behind the you know card acquisition, which means everybody's going to be sweaty and prioritizing the game mode instead of having it be a fun, optional bonus thing to do. um Yeah, I certainly have criticisms. Yeah.
00:25:10
Speaker
And it seems like they're burning through goodwill way faster than they can afford to. yeah You know, maybe the casual player base is going to keep this game alive, but I have to think they care about the the core gamer base. but The core gamers also like running the golden gauntlet tournaments is definitely something that's much more of a core gamer thing, right? Like how many casual players are going to be tuning in or participating, even though they're advertising it in the game.
00:25:37
Speaker
yeah. I don't know. It's kind like a bummer, but I'm trying to have happier things to think about. iing so i feel like first dive I feel like I'm like running out of fun clips to chase with the cards I have. And the new cards coming out are not especially interactive cards.
00:25:55
Speaker
ah Sorry, I should say like synergistic. Interactive often means interacting with. Oh, I bet you can do some kind of clip with like Air Walker and Fire Lord. I'm hoping. Right. and Like the obvious stuff everybody else is going to be doing. You're going to find something real spicy there. I bet.
00:26:11
Speaker
I'll try. I'll try. um I was really excited for Fallen 1. That felt like a big combo card. right Make a huge Fallen 1. What am I going to do with 40 energy? But then ah I found a different combo that makes all my cards cost one, and it's easier to do than a big Fallen 1.
00:26:28
Speaker
So anything I could do with the Fallen 1, I could already do by making a massive Sarah. yeah I don't know. I know I could be competitive again, and and like trying to climb would be fun for a little while, but i can't I just know myself. I know I can't sustain a competitive streak for a long time. It's not um my favorite part of gaming.
00:26:49
Speaker
So, it's fine. I'm feeling fine about the game right now. um Better than I was a couple months ago, but also not like...
00:27:00
Speaker
super jazzed. I think it's really hard having two two months in a row of cards that are not especially exciting. so um I'm hoping september is ah September does look fun. September is all the is all that robots that mean activate. Yeah, what that month is going to be Enya. Activate!
00:27:23
Speaker
activate still I know you don't like activate, but there's like there's enough things going on there that like, you know, especially Jocasta opens up tons of like silly things to do. Why do I have to wait to have fun?
00:27:37
Speaker
want to wait a turn. Get me my cookie now. Okay. this first The first week, and we're going to talk about those cards in just a second, but the first week this season, I think it's so bland. Like...
00:27:50
Speaker
None of these cards are super exciting. um excited for Stardust, mostly just because from Ben. To be honest. I'm glad Ben is excited
New Cards and Deck Building Strategies
00:28:01
Speaker
for Stardust. I'm glad Safety Blade is excited for Stardust. I still think she's an extremely boring card.
00:28:06
Speaker
um Okay. Let's move on. ah new Any new thoughts on last week's cards? We never really talked about Mad Thinker or Mole Man. um That's because there has never been anything to say about them.
00:28:18
Speaker
yeah I'm now getting them and now I have no desire left within me to play them. I played just a few games with them outside of Arena.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah, I played They're fine. Like, I put them in like ah in, like, a Victoria Hand thing, and it was fine. I got Mad Thinker up to three or four power a couple times. Like, not great. Why are you running a one cost where that's what, like, he's such a goofy card.
00:28:47
Speaker
um It's so hard to get him proccing early, even if you have stuff like, don't know, Snowguard Kate Bishop or something like that. But that's the whole key is how you said it, you know? victoria It's Victoria Hand's joint. None of it.
00:29:01
Speaker
Hmm! Medthaker is not necessary to this at all. Mo Man totally isn't either. Like, yeah, he can generate two created cards, and they might have a decent amount of power. I played an opponent who got ah who hit Death with Mo Man and, you know, had eight power rocks.
00:29:16
Speaker
They couldn't keep up with... ah I was playing an arena deck with, with Mole Man who, uh, at least you got the skill there. Yeah. yeah i always skill That's a three, four.
00:29:29
Speaker
i was six timings, six times in the skill, uh, using like either Joaquin or Wong and then also ancient one to be able to hit the skill six times. And that's really, really fun.
00:29:41
Speaker
I don't think it's as good as what my human torch deck was, but it's really fun to have a handful of like zero 20 rocks. Um, Oh, but that was so fun. You put, like, I never thought I was Joaquin player because, you know, I don't enjoy balance. i don't want to play chess. And, like, you know, but it's like, here's how you could have fun with a mouse. And it's like, that's my kind of fun.
00:30:02
Speaker
I love having, like, putting them both together, right? Wong and Joaquin, and then throwing stuff down on top of Getting four times inf flame on. Super fun.
00:30:15
Speaker
Oh, and you, like, so you didn't share this version of the deck, but when you first started, because I remember the podcast I listened, I meant to bring it up. You started it with Clea it. And, like, I see the argument for how you changed it, but Clea was so fun when you were throwing those flames down.
00:30:34
Speaker
And, like, the thing, you could spread Wong and Joaquin, you could put them together and just, like, mauling. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah, Clea was really fun when she worked and it seemed like a Clea deck like, oh, I'm doing tons of hand buff and other buffing. And then I'm also running Joaquin like this is a Clea deck.
00:30:50
Speaker
But it was just I'm always trying to buff Torch, not Clea. she was very rarely the, you know, coming into play. ah For some reason, the Clea thing reminded me of one more thing in my weekend snap that I forgot to mention. With the season rolling over, I went on a shopping spree in the token shop, except I didn't think it through very well.
00:31:13
Speaker
And I started just opening Series 4 packs, forgetting that the Seasonal Series 4 packs go back a season further than the Series 4 packs do. Oh, no. Before you know it, I was opening fucking Cobra.
00:31:29
Speaker
Nick Scratch. was opening Nikki Scratch, Jenny Kale. I have all these cards. Yeah, now so do And, like, really the only card I wanted from that season was Clea.
00:31:42
Speaker
So, uh, you know, that she's a series five. Wasn't, wasn't eligible for that. Um, yeah. Wow. Just be careful. Be careful. I, I made some mistakes there. I would, I just wanted redshift. That's what, that's what I was opening the series four packs for. I was like, give me redshift.
00:31:58
Speaker
Uh, so I had to open all the series four packs to get ready. Oh no. And, uh, I felt pretty silly by the end of it. So that's one more thing that happened in my weekend snap.
00:32:10
Speaker
And, um, I wish it didn't. Did you get a reality in show of like all of the unloved series for like characters living together in house?
00:32:21
Speaker
All right. Sorry. What were you saying? There's some D-listers in there for sure. You get real in that life. Yeah. would there dlisters in there for sure you can in that in that life yeah I kind of love that they're starting to scrape the barrel, but also not just D-list characters, but D-list like snap cards. They're not very strong.
00:32:44
Speaker
um Did you finally get First Steps cards, Ben? like Did you also open First Steps? I wasn't sure. i was really like, am I being silly by getting these cards? Because I don't like them very much.
00:32:57
Speaker
But i i did I wanted to understand them, honestly. like Everyone else had been like playing them so much around me and everything. I was like, well, I i do need Mr. Fantastic for his steps. and like um gonna need I do want to try him while he's still what he is and stuff. and So yeah, I got all those those cards. And I needed them for that safety deck, anywho.
00:33:21
Speaker
But yeah, Fantasticar. very ah Very strong card, turns out. Okay.
00:33:32
Speaker
Any new thoughts from you two on Invisible Woman, First Steps, Twin Visible Woman, Tuzan Storm, etc.? Vanessa Kirby. I like Tuzan, but I have to think too hard about it. like understand like know It feels kind yeah um Oh, sorry, but I have not.
00:33:54
Speaker
I skipped weekend missions for the first time in a really long time. Hey, I'm part of you. I haven't played it at all. Yeah, that's the first time I've skipped weekend missions in like, oh don't know, maybe ever. This is gross. I'm very impressed.
00:34:07
Speaker
Oh, thanks. I haven't gotten to that point. Last season, I didn't play a single game of, well, I didn't get a single Conquest prize. I probably played a couple games just to test the mechanic or something. So, you know, still some growth, but I don't think I've ever had the point where like, oh, do I really have to do eight missions with the season pass card? That's going to be rough this season with Galactus.
00:34:27
Speaker
Oh, gee. Maybe this will be my first season. um Okay. Play him in a hell or something. You know, throw him in something that's more fun. my What I want to discuss with Invisible Woman is, do you think she needs a nerf? And if so, what is the nerf?
00:34:50
Speaker
I I don't think she needs to be 3-5. I will say that like I know that a lot of people are having a lot of fun getting super greedy with Prodigy, but there's no Prodigy in that safety deck that I was tearing it up with, and she kind of just like does her own thing, and you know you don't have to get crazy with the cheese whiz or anything.
00:35:11
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah, she seems... She's pretty good. Yep, yep, yep. Don't think she needs to be 3-5.
00:35:19
Speaker
How would you nerf her? Just lower power? Yeah, I'd start at three four see if that does it, and then Three? three
00:35:28
Speaker
three um Maybe you haven't been playing enough this week. Yeah, I haven't, but honestly, one, it feels like if they took away that interaction where doubling her in some yeah multiplies, it feels like that would take, that would go a long way to making people at least feel like she's less powerful.
00:35:49
Speaker
I like Rhi's nerf better. think that would be the first step. And if Taryn triggers an additional time. yeah Yes, instead of multiplying. That would be mine.
00:36:02
Speaker
Or i think possibly going to four cost. Although I had several games where she got hit by Iceman or Icebox and I still won handily. And it's like you were saying with... It goes to four.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah. Where like you don't need Prodigy. i like... i you know prodigy was like Prodigy was a snap condition. Prodigy let me beat Cerebro 2 and other decks that could go taller than just Invisible Woman by herself.
00:36:26
Speaker
um But I was often snapping when I only had an Invisible Woman and doing just fine. so Turns out shes she was really strong. Okay.
00:36:39
Speaker
We had five cards come out this week. We failed to do season rankings last week by choice. Yay!
00:36:48
Speaker
It was my choice. I thought of it ahead of time. I was like, usually do it in the first week of the season. I forget. I think the behind the scenes reason besides kind of sneaking up on me was we were also recording our bonus episode last week. And it just felt like lot of recording. So I decided to shorten the last episode. That's my official reasoning. It was really fun. And we'll talk about it more at the end of the episode. But next week. Also, it was easier. Like, you know, I noticed that.
00:37:19
Speaker
Oh, hey. Like the night the night before, I was like, oh, yeah, I guess we should do the rankings. Would have been a lot easier to do that if ah this were a five card season. But no.
00:37:30
Speaker
No.
00:37:33
Speaker
ah No, they're all like 10 cards now. No, you can only play 12 of them at once. We don't actually need this many. It's, uh, I don't know. goofy, if you ask me.
00:37:44
Speaker
It's so much. If it led to variety, that would be good. But I feel like it just means a lot of cards just get left out. We've got our fifth Absorbing Man now.
00:37:55
Speaker
Isn't that exciting?
00:37:58
Speaker
i kind of feel like she's the worst one. Bold. Mm-hmm.
00:38:03
Speaker
Um, don't know. Do we want to review which of these five cards we got? Is that interesting or you want to go straight into the rankings? Uh, I will say that getting my hands on the cards did change a thing or two.
00:38:21
Speaker
There were some cards I was prepared to give different numbers than the ones I ended up giving them with, ah having, having seen what they're about.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, me too. i'll And I might try to highlight those, because I did post my own personal rankings to Twitter before the season dropped, so I can highlight where, like, oh, I thought this card was going to be stronger.
00:38:44
Speaker
um Okay, let's just get into it. Galactus, first steps, a 6-12, the season pass card. My Herald is the next character I see you play.
00:38:57
Speaker
End of turn, plus two power if you're winning my Herald's location. if in hand or in play. We'll start with Rhi.
00:39:08
Speaker
All right. I give it two stars because I feel like I'd rather play Red Hulk for what it is. And that's why. You know, because it's like, you have to get You need to draw early.
00:39:23
Speaker
assuming, like I said, I haven't played. hasn't, like... He gave me a co-frew season pass. He hasn't showed up in my game yet. um So I haven't actually gotten him yet.
00:39:34
Speaker
But, like... Yeah, so I, um... so But I assume we were correct that ah the opponent can see, right? That it's gaining power? Yes. Okay.
00:39:45
Speaker
So then if it was a surprise, that would have upped him, you know, maybe to three stars. But, like, for what he is, if you draw him late, not great. You still have to win, whereas opposed to Red Hulk feels a bit easier to trigger without, like, you having to do work.
00:40:06
Speaker
And, you know, so that's where I'm at. Two stars. But not, like, useless, right? Like, not like nobody will play it.
00:40:15
Speaker
Ben? i also went to two stars for Galactus. Nice. so I like it. So you get real big when he's in your starting hand and everything else goes well.
00:40:31
Speaker
But, like... I could that, that first person nonsense. But if we set aside the first person nonsense, what if, what if Galactus is actually the character that wrote all the other text boxes and that's why they're all normal and his, his horse shit. Yeah.
00:40:49
Speaker
It's the first person. Other than that, I find the ability to be very flavorful, you know? like the The Herald does foretell his coming and all that.
00:41:02
Speaker
um that That's neato. That's a thing I remember from comic books. Those are the nice things I can say about the card. He seems real clunky. He gives away the game every step of the way. But, no. I just think I was a little worried that he would make the other the other big sixes look bad, but nope, I don't i don't think so. I mean, i still feel bad for Infanot, but...
00:41:27
Speaker
But that's what I'm saying. was going to bring up Infinite. For how much work you're putting into Galactus and needing to draw him early and playing the Herald and keeping winning that lane, it's like, wouldn't you just rather skip a turn five and drop an Infinite? Yeah.
00:41:42
Speaker
He's, like, super not worth it. Anyway, I gave him a two, but that's only because they're going to buff him because they need to sell some season and passes. But maybe they should just design more appealing cards in the first place.
00:41:54
Speaker
Like, I don't know. I don't know. Not a winner in my book. But hey, I will take an underpowered season pass card over an overpowered season pass card.
00:42:06
Speaker
i know i know that's a controversial take, but i that's how I feel.
00:42:12
Speaker
I'm also going two. might have gone three before the season started just because... I can't remember which big card I was low on. It was like around Scar or Blob somewhere back then. And I was wrong. And I've tried to overcorrect since that like, oh, big cards are good. and tend to underestimate them.
00:42:29
Speaker
We have a history there. Yeah, so like Red Hulk was the first time where I was like, no, this is a really big card. This is actually going to be the best card of the season, even though it's the one I'm least interested in. um And so, yeah, I think I've just overcorrected on that.
00:42:42
Speaker
So Galactus, first step, I heard original Good Egg Wombat Combat suggested this be Galactus and the first Galactus be Neil. And I love that. I'm sure it's not going to take off, but I love it. um This Galactus... I didn't get the joke until you said it aloud just now. I didn't understand. Because I'd seen it spelled out and, like, you know, the name.
00:43:04
Speaker
The um the first Sorry, First Steps Galactus joins the likes of Gore and Blob and Red Hulk and Evil Hulk and Infinaut as just being a huge single card lane winner.
00:43:20
Speaker
and You could throw like Nolan. There some others, right? ah But I think he's the literal worst one. ah He's most comparable to Red Hulk because he's like buffing face up and your opponent can do something about it.
00:43:35
Speaker
And so I kind of think there's something there. This is not a strategy I've ever employed because why would I make a spot in my deck for Red Hulk? But I know other people do this where they're showing the Red Hulk and they're like, yeah, go ahead. I'm going to drop Red Hulk. And then they never play Red Hulk.
00:43:48
Speaker
They know their opponent's going to shong. And so they play something else that's not Red Hulk. And he was bait the entire time. And you could do that with Galactus. ah Red hulking. Sorry. Yeah. mean to much I just think like...
00:44:02
Speaker
I think that... The way you optimize your deck so that it's better for you to play Galactus First Steps than for you to play Red Hulk makes that deck worse and also makes it really suffer when you don't get Galactus.
00:44:16
Speaker
So just clunky, like you said. Two points. I did think of one thing that I would... I had, like, one cute idea for what I think would be cool with Galactus or Neal.
00:44:30
Speaker
um And that is, i think that you each... I don't remember who suggested Silk and who suggested Batroc, but you you each suggested one of those as as fun heralds, I believe. If memory serves, I might be Rock.
00:44:44
Speaker
ah But those those are both great ideas, and I think it would be kind of cute to have, like, a move deck with Red Wing, where... you'd use Red, you know, Galactus, and maybe do that with a big Hindle Slide at the end or something. I don't know. Like, you're already playing a bunch of move cards? Like, be cute with it.
00:45:03
Speaker
I don't know. That's why he's two instead of one stars. But I'm not going to build that deck. It was just a fun little thought I had. Even so, there are, like, better things to blink than Galactus' first steps. Like, there's just nothing good to yeah okay yeah Red Wings. Red Wings does seem like probably the right direction to go. because He continues gaining power on the board, just like Evil Hulk and Red Hulk.
00:45:27
Speaker
yeah That makes him more vulnerable. like Your hope would probably be to play him at the end. After, you know.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah. But, like, you know, if he's, like, what's on average, like 616, something like that, assuming that you can protect the lane... yeah That's not bad. That's not a bad thing to throw down if you're also throwing Heimdall down on the last turn.
00:45:52
Speaker
Um...
00:45:56
Speaker
Yeah. Boring card. Yeah. I wonder what they're going to look into. It seems so tough to make a good season pass card because you want it to appeal to lower CL players also. um They should have switched them.
00:46:11
Speaker
I think lower CL players would be excited about that Silver Surfer card. should have switched certainly would have been at a lower collection level. I agree. They should have been swapped. Although I will go to Silver Surfer next. not a huge fan. Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four First Steps.
00:46:27
Speaker
A End of turn. If you're winning this location with an on-reveal card, copy its text. Ben? I gave this one a 2, but a high 2 this time.
00:46:39
Speaker
A high 2. So, ah ironically, this card seems a little clunky to me in Surfer. Because, like, what are you trying to do? You're trying to copy Surfer?
00:46:50
Speaker
And you're hoping to be winning your Surfer lane. That's not really... i mean, like, I'm not saying you should never... Like, you should try to, like, threaten the Sur... I'm all about threatening all three lanes every game.
00:47:01
Speaker
or Like, you know, like, make him make them work for it. But, like... I don't know if you can count on being winning your surfer lane to ah get your second go round of it with the Silver Surfer First Steps.
00:47:16
Speaker
So I don't know. I think like the effect is strong, but I think it's probably got better uses elsewhere. i don't I also, speaking of strong effects, I know the effect is strong because we've seen it a million times on a million other cards, and a lot of them are easier to control. Mm-hmm.
00:47:34
Speaker
easier to guarantee like your desired result so she gets a two you know like it's it's a high two because like we know that uh copying on reveals is good but um yeah this is not the best version of it so high two yeah i would go high two also i had her as number six in my twitter rankings and i just There's like five other cards that let you play multiple abilities. You know, your Grandmaster, Wong, Absman, Prodigy. It's got to be at least one more. Misery, Odin.
00:48:09
Speaker
um And yeah, she's really clunky. And the thing that she does the most uniquely is that you can play her ahead of time, which is also something that Wong can do. um and she And she's cheaper than Wong. So like that's her niche. if She can prepare it ahead of time.
00:48:26
Speaker
but like What are you preparing? the best I've seen so far is one pool. Besides... Oh, I like that. You have to win the lane with Nemora. Silver Surfer, Wong, Nemora.
00:48:40
Speaker
I saw that currently she's not working with Wong, but that's a bug. So, good yeah.
00:48:47
Speaker
was like, how? how And I was very quickly when you said that was a bug, because that defended my desire to live. I think she can probably be good in Surfer, right? She's a Surfer target, like... And maybe on occasion that means that you win the Surfer lane, even though usually that's the lane you throw.
00:49:05
Speaker
ah you feel like that's most common, that you're throwing the lane where you play Surfer. Yeah. you you You should definitely have two other lanes where something is happening, you know, like, you know, your Brood or your Shaw in another lane. You know, like, yeah, something like that.
00:49:21
Speaker
Yeah, but in this case, like, you've got to put Shaw with the Surfers or something, so that's... first step surfer doesn't copy the wrong ability mike shaw is one of the only threes that doesn't have an on reveal that you're running and maybe there's some other flavor of the deck like a captain carter lane where you complete it with surfer at the end i don't like i'm i'm not saying you'll never be able to cleanly line up ah the the surfers together to get your big double surf at the end i just think it's a little clunky yeah I would love to see her go to two. think that would be enough to make this a good text box. I think this card would be nuts at two.
00:49:59
Speaker
Yeah. three Okay, I give her a three. Because I love absorbing man. I'm big on the on reveals, as I just mentioned. I like to have my fun immediately.
00:50:14
Speaker
ah Undelayed. And she is one cheaper than abs man, which solves some problems that I have with abs man. I can set her up ahead of time in a way that's not as easy.
00:50:29
Speaker
It is telegraphed, but not as easily counterable as some other things. She's the Iron Ghost Tabs and Ghost Spider.
00:50:40
Speaker
some problems when you want to do things like a double spectrum or something, because then you have to worry about getting spectrum out early, stuff like that. So I think for me, she gives me, she's abs man, which I love with, ah you know, some problems, but also some solutions.
00:50:59
Speaker
And I'm to give her, willing to give her a chance, you know, just.
00:51:06
Speaker
Okay. Love it. Uh,
00:51:11
Speaker
I might warm up to her when she works with Wong because then there's actually some silly things you can do with her. But silly doesn't necessarily translate to being good. and It's just a different type of fun.
00:51:21
Speaker
on Our first week c series five cards, Stardust, a four seven Should have saved Ben for first on this one. Maybe it's good they that he's last. No, I'm happy to go. Cards can't be added to locations except by playing or moving them. I'm giving her a 2. I think she's super boring. I don't think her stats are good enough.
00:51:40
Speaker
I would like her a lot more if there were proactive things to do with her besides Gladiator and Sentry. um And I think that she' she's going to depend on a good meta. i I know that there are people who have enjoyed her so far and think that she belongs in, i don't know, good cards collections, but ah I don't see it.
00:52:01
Speaker
Rhi. um Um, I give it a three for me. And I know this maybe doesn't make sense with the way some people, but for me, it's kind of like allegiance kind of card when I think about deck building with it. And that it's, it's not got no power, right? Which is good. Like you can still throw it out and you're not, it's not like a super with, it still adds to the lane that while being under shung.
00:52:27
Speaker
and um, yeah,
00:52:30
Speaker
And sometimes it'll just like really kind of when you really mess up what other people are doing. So Legion is, I know, get the location change, but this is one that will just occasionally be really great for So that's where I think about it. I think it can fit into, yeah, like a lot of decks. You know, I do think it is kind of going to good cards. So, you know, give it three.
00:52:58
Speaker
Almost even thought about a four. Yeah. Hmm. Let's hear it, Ben. Well, I thought about I thought about giving Stardust a three. And that was, I think, where I would have put her if we'd actually done the previews.
00:53:16
Speaker
If ah I had not gotten to play some Stardust, I would have thought Stardust was a three. Because I do, ah you know, i was missing some things on that list last week, and I i filled it out. i I have what I believe to be the most complete list now of stuff that Stardust wrecks.
00:53:35
Speaker
I used to have a list of stuff that Stardust helps. That's not really a thing. but Don't worry about that. That's completely... that's a non-issue. Here's stuff that Stardust wrecks. Airwalker, angel a Angel, Angel, Angel, Airwalker, Angel, Arnim Zola, Baron Zemo, Blink, Brood, Bucky Barnes, Debris, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Doom 2099, Dormammu, Elixir, Emperor, Hulkling, roughly 20% of the time, Eson, Fenris Wolf, Fire Lord, Ghost Rider, Gladiator, Herbie, sometimes, you know, that rock is one of the four abilities, y'all.
00:54:08
Speaker
Hela, Infinity Ultron, Jubilee, Khonshu, J. Lockjaw, Lunas, N'ho, M'Baku, Makari, Malekith, Mr. Sinister, Multiple Man, Nimrod, Phoenix Force, Proxima Midnight, Red Wing, Rhino, Scarlet Spider, Sentry, Shauna, Squirrel Girl, The Leader, Ultron, Uncle Ben, White Tiger, White Widow, Wolverine, X-23, and a bunch of locations.
00:54:27
Speaker
um So that that last part is very important, the bunch of locations. Wait, so does Stardust... Question, sorry, from your list. Does Stardust really, like, basically destroy a Wolverine or X-23 by not allowing them to come back? Absolutely. They don't come back. Oh, nice. I didn't realize Destroy just nothing. Destroy is...
00:54:50
Speaker
It destroys really her because the Zola, Nimrod. like Yeah. you You queue into Destroy deck in Conquest. If you have if if if you have Stardust in your deck, like you're getting all 10 cubes. like they just If you draw Stardust, you win against Destroy. It's it's wild.
00:55:08
Speaker
um But what what else do I have to say about Stardust besides that awesome list? Okay, yeah. This is the only card we're writing today that I have played, and I've played a ton of her in multiple decks over the past 48 hours.
00:55:21
Speaker
Allow me to dispel a few misconceptions I've heard floating around, some of which I ah briefly bought into myself. Stardust is not like the other tech cards. She's not Mobius or Armor. She does not need to do anything more proactively, or any anything more proactive than just like...
00:55:38
Speaker
single-handedly winning a shit ton of games and being a four seven Forget about Sentry. Every other solution for the Void is better than stifling it with Stardust. You should be, the like, Cersei-ing it or Annihilusing it or Viper-ing it or polymorphing it or it once and future. Like, any anything is better than trying to get out of it with Stardust. That's a waste of time.
00:56:01
Speaker
Okay, that's fine. Because Stardust has better things to do. If your deck runs sentry, you don't want to see Stardust around at all. Like, that's that's a bad matchup for you if your opponent has Stardust.
00:56:12
Speaker
Finally, there's nothing niche about this card. She's not here to shore up a weak matchup. She's here to create a shit ton of strong matchups. If your deck can safely play Stardust, you should seriously consider playing Stardust.
00:56:25
Speaker
i've I've never been a big fan of Spectrum Ongoing, but like she's got to be bananas in that one. ah You should enjoy this 4-7 version of the card while you can, because it's not going to last. this is like This is the 3-5 Nocturne of of this season. this is ah This is Red Guardian at launch. This is like <unk>s like White Widow. This card is nuts.
00:56:47
Speaker
i Wait, so are you giving her a four? yeah high four.
00:56:53
Speaker
um I have so much respect for you as a player, but I just, I i would be shocked if she gets nerfed. There are going to multiple Stardusts in the top eight ah this weekend. i will be I will eat my hat. That might be true, but only because battle is a different format.
00:57:13
Speaker
I don't think that she is a ladder card. um Unless she is there to answer a specific meta that is skewed super heavily. Four is a lot to play for a card that is defensive. It's not as defensive as you can. can really count out advantages on these locations. It's clones for me, but not for thee. That kind of shit. like this is This card finds ways to matter.
00:57:38
Speaker
I agree more with Ben. Like, if I were playing the tournament this weekend, would think about that in my deck building, about playing against Stardust. Like, trying to make sure it wouldn't wreck what I was doing.
00:57:50
Speaker
Yes. i think you're I think there's just going to be more Redshift than Stardust in the meta. Like, it's just... Threats are better than answers, and Stardust is all answer. Stardust is a threat.
00:58:05
Speaker
She is not a threat. She doesn't do anything. she is an answer to what somebody else is trying to do. And she also lets you get ahead on locations all over the place. it's the The numbers... People are...
00:58:20
Speaker
the people are What are you thinking about locations? like forever Like going hard on Sinister London and then blocking it before your opponent has played there more than once or twice? Is that the kind of thing you're talking about? there There's that. There's a lot of other stuff ah you can get ahead like with Ock. You can...
00:58:36
Speaker
serious just play the you will you will see the opportunities i promise they're out there lot lot of leverage i have played one of your decks with her a few times and it went well but never because of stardust uh and i'm sure i'm sure i will have that opportunity eventually um Yeah, where I ruin somebody's day by having Starbust. Safety's raving about this one, and this is not one of the goofy ones. This is not a card that he's like trying to make happen. This is a card that... like This is an undeniable force of nature.
00:59:10
Speaker
Safety makes bad cards good, though. I agree.
00:59:16
Speaker
I agree with you, Ben. I'm totally in agreement with you, but it's like, I don't always, like, safety is such a good player and such a good deck builder.
00:59:27
Speaker
um that If safety is having fun with a card, that matters more. i's not that's not his That is not the nature of his infatuation with this one. Alright. We'll see. well we'll see Maybe I'll have egg on my face, but I don't think I will.
00:59:48
Speaker
um i ah regardless of whether or not she deserves a nerf i hope that they keep her weaker because she is not a fun card to have a lot of in the meta right similar to mobius he should not be a super strong guard he should not be a card that is super free to run uh because of the way that that could be so game warping And I think that that way about Stardust.
01:00:14
Speaker
and Personally, I think 4-7 is fine, but we'll see. ah first wave is a good amount of power for the ability. Okay, no, we're done talking about it. It's right? Like, it's Wiccan. We're fine if we whiff Wiccan because 7 is fine. It's the same power as Legion for, like, one less cost.
01:00:33
Speaker
Legion is far more influential card. And Legion also is just a card that wins games sometimes. Legion is a far more fair card. Okay, actually, when you were talking about like the comparisons, Ben, I wondered if Luke Cage was closer, even though less diversity of games that you just win. But Luke Cage is that type of card where you just win when he's in your deck because of certain matchups or certain locations.
01:00:58
Speaker
But with Luke Cage, he's only two power. Yeah.
01:01:02
Speaker
Right. Yeah, I know it's fewer matchups. I get that. There are a lot of locations that afflict you, though, and I don't think there's as many locations that Stardust affects. Granted, I need to play with her more, but... Okay, I'm so bored of time monsters. Redshift, Series 4 card. On reveal, discard the leftmost card in your hand to add a random card with the same cost to your hand.
01:01:29
Speaker
Re your first. Okay, three stars because, um harking back to our last conversation, it is targeted discard, which like is always useful and will find a place in a deck. Obviously not every deck.
01:01:47
Speaker
um It's not like a Jeff when Jeff released. Not not current day Jeff. And so that's where I'm at. I think it would be a solid card that will fit into you plenty of discard decks.
01:01:59
Speaker
and I said Redshift had to be a four. And, you know, kind of on the cusp here, I kind of want to take a point away just so that the listeners understand how serious I am about Stardust.
01:02:16
Speaker
ah i guess I guess I'll i'll give Redshift four, but it's not on Stardust's level. i guess i guess i'll give red shift to four but not on the it's not on stardusts level Anywho, it's a very good card, though. It's great for all the reasons we said last week. you know The Agatha thing, it's very it's very good there, but Agatha's one deck, and it still isn't guaranteed to win after you play Redshift. You can still beat... This not...
01:02:45
Speaker
this is not as transformative. I, you know, it's fine. And I, I do like this, uh, getting a card back for discarding a card. I think that's no, like the red shift is not just for Agatha and it's a really good card. So, you know, maybe, maybe a four, maybe a three, you know, depends how you tilt your head and squint and stuff.
01:03:08
Speaker
Uh, I'm a four on red shift. The four that I'm most sure of, i would be strong even without the Agatha interaction. But I think the Agatha interaction single-handedly like secures it as a four and it's not just Agatha Hela.
01:03:24
Speaker
There's other cute Agatha things you can do with it. It's a strong thing to be able to black knight or ghostwriter a Hela. um One of those things gets stopped by Stardust.
01:03:35
Speaker
And that's just, that's just a very strong thing to do. Agatha, as long as she's thinning your deck by one, makes this way more consistent. Yeah. And don't don't like that.
01:03:47
Speaker
But I do think Redshift like really elevates Agatha as a real thing to do. and she already was sometimes. She's gotten way better since you can control every other train with her.
01:04:02
Speaker
And now even if she's controlling every turn, what is she going to do? Black Knight, Redshift. Okay, great. um Terax the Tamer, three three on reveal. For each location, shuffle a rock into the losing player's deck.
01:04:18
Speaker
Ben. i I think I'm going to give this one a low 2. I thought about giving it a 1, honestly. For all the enticing potential here, Terax, it seems to me, looks like, haven't played the card yet, looks like the worst rock shuffler of the bunch, in my opinion.
01:04:33
Speaker
ah Being behind on any of the lanes when you play this card means it's not good enough, in in my opinion, if you're especially if you're playing it anywhere close to on curve, like before turn 6, because shuffling rocks into your own deck is bad news.
01:04:49
Speaker
ah Playing him on six with Mystique after Darkhawk, that sounded like a good idea when I thought of it last week. And I'm sure it will sometimes be a good idea. But ah then I remembered, you know why rocks are good?
01:05:02
Speaker
Because your opponent might draw them. ah Shuffling rocks in at the end of the game to make your Darkhawks bigger um is not as good as shuffling them in.
01:05:15
Speaker
for like multiple benefits and to deny your opponent draws and stuff. That's, uh, that's what rocks are actually for. The, the dark Hawk thing is like, that's, that's a fun, like you're, you're killing two birds with one stone, but like that, that bird is not good enough on its own. The the dark Hawk one.
01:05:33
Speaker
Um, yeah, I low too.
01:05:40
Speaker
I'm right in in that range too. I originally had Terax as the worst card of the season. not sure if I would still be there. Um, cause there are some things having Pryo means, you know, exactly where the rocks are going to go.
01:05:52
Speaker
And I think that's a super doable thing to do, but also like, are you running squirrel girl just to make Terax good? Like, does that make the value worth it over rock slide? um being three is a lot better than being a forecast. Um, yeah.
01:06:07
Speaker
So I think I'm coming in at one. Also, he didn't ship with an animation, and I think he was the single worst card to skip a week one animation on. You absolutely, yeah. His text box is confusing. He needs an animation to help people understand what's happening.
01:06:23
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Rhi. Yeah, I gave a one, honestly, because, like, because exactly what. I can't even see wanting to play this in a Darkhawk deck. As someone who, like, I tried a couple weeks ago to make a put-together Darkhawk deck.
01:06:40
Speaker
Ever since I had so much fun with Werewolf and Widows before... ah That blew up and then got nerfed. You know, i revisit it every once in a while. And it's it's hard. heard And this isn't going to solve it. I wouldn't even want to run it in this.
01:06:57
Speaker
Like I said, you need to run Squirrel Girl. It would be hard. You have to make sure you get Pryo to play early because that's when it's useful. And I'm sure they – I really don't know what they were thinking with this. It feels like it's so hard to pull off.
01:07:13
Speaker
and not just, you know, be a double-edged sword for you. um and it synergizes with so little. ah Like, it feels like. so that isn't just... There aren't just better cards. So, like, I can't... Right now, all the other cards that exist, I just can't see wanting to play this card at all.
01:07:33
Speaker
So one, co Cobra style. Yeah. I had a more or less perfect game with Terax where I played, like... Terax, Rock Slide, Darkhawk, Mystique, and Odin. Maybe there was Limbo. I don't know how i did that. It was a more or less like ideal game. Terax got three hits the first time and two the second time at the end of the game.
01:07:55
Speaker
And my opponents still just beat me by playing Invisible Woman. like The meta is making kind of the rest of the cards all look bad right now. But that's it. The context matters. like Even if Terax makes Darkhawk better, Darkhawk's not very good right now.
01:08:11
Speaker
ah Series 5, next week, we have Nova Frankie a 2-6. After the next time you play a 6-cost card, double this card's power.
01:08:24
Speaker
um I think she's a 2. She is like a 2-6 if you don't do anything fancy, but you still have to run a 6 and play the 6. And that's a big downside.
01:08:35
Speaker
um There is some really cute stuff you can do with her, like Nomura Odin makes her absolutely huge. um But that's one three-card combo. Like...
01:08:47
Speaker
um I think it's very likely that she's a good rate too, but I think... What am I trying to say? You put her into a deck that's running a six anyway, you don't do the opposite. You don't put her in a deck and then add a six because of her.
01:09:02
Speaker
like She's not enough to single-handedly justify running a six.
01:09:08
Speaker
Two sixes is not that special. Okay, so as someone, I love this card. I really debate. I will give her the three because she doesn't go in every single deck. I can't give her a four, but I want give her four.
01:09:22
Speaker
Because you know I play a lot. I'm always like, bustin' out. Even a Koye and a Ki. I think buff decks are the closest I've come to a comfort deck since the old discard card went away. And so I play a lot and this will be fun because here's why.
01:09:45
Speaker
Definitely, if you're playing in her buff deck, you and get her you can get her huge, right? Because she's going to double. And since when you're going to trigger you want to do it turn six. That's when you're going to play your six drop.
01:10:00
Speaker
Um... Like, then she avoids the Shang-Chi, you know what I mean? Like, oh I mean, depending how you've played it out. But it gets a lot easier to avoid it.
01:10:11
Speaker
So she's like a huge power pulse that you can play early. In buff decks, so many times you're holding on to cards. You're holding on to two-cost Sinister or something because you're buffing it with Gwenpool and you're waiting. And like...
01:10:26
Speaker
You know, she feels like, you know, if you play her early with some Ironheart shenanigans or Nemours stuff, she feels pretty flexible for a buff card. And she'll give me some new.
01:10:37
Speaker
I haven't had a lot of reason to play. You don't have a lot of reason to play six costs unless you're doing, like, some Black Panther stuff. So you want to run a Zola or whatever in buff decks.
01:10:48
Speaker
Usually you're getting up to four. You're like the magic, you know, the power buff girls. Yeah. With like Gwenpool and all that. And gives you a reason to maybe now put in a six, a six drop in there, which gives me some more room to play with buff decks than I've been with before. i love her favorite, favorite card. It's coming out this season. it you have to buffer a lot, but you said Panther Zola and that made me wonder, like, could you do Zola with Nova? It's probably not as good because Panther doubles twice.
01:11:18
Speaker
You'd probably want a panther, like Zola the panther, and that's what triggers her from your understanding. If you played Zola on Nova herself, she wouldn't double until after she'd already been you know cloned. i think I think she would double because... After the next time you play a six-cost card?
01:11:38
Speaker
It depends on if she needs to see you play it, but if it's just when the six-cost card resolves playing, that would happen after Zola makes the doubles. But I like she opens up room in the buffing design space. In a way, other buff cards they've been releasing haven't and have felt like they're just tripping over each other or whatever. And this is like, oh, this is a reason for me to try something different and new. And I love that.
01:12:04
Speaker
and She's like Mr. Sinister, but you can buff her when she's on the board. That's what I'm saying. Like, yeah I've played a lot. ah Ika or Ika, however you say it, had this this deck that was when earlier on when Gwenpool was out um that, like, was running Sinister, where you're getting a super huge Sinister and stuff. And it's like I've always wanted... i would love to play this card instead.
01:12:33
Speaker
um write cards you can play early. friends of Ironheart. Ironheart hasn't been in my buff decks for so long. like She's good with Herbie.
01:12:45
Speaker
A very similar card. But, uh... That's true. do we Do we need a number? Herbie can buff himself.
01:12:57
Speaker
Oh yeah, did we get a number from Marie? Oh, three. Because, like, I mean, it doesn't go in every deck. you're You're obviously, like, building around. Oh, right. You said you wanted to give her a four, but yeah.
01:13:08
Speaker
I want to give her a four, but like, by my own standards, probably not. Yeah. Okay, Ben. I give this one a two and not a particularly high two.
01:13:21
Speaker
um Seems fine. ah Maybe prioritize this one if you skipped Lasher and Herbie and you don't have any other cards that do this. Yeah.
01:13:32
Speaker
A six cost is not the easiest play to squeeze into a game of Marvel Snap, especially when you loudly announce that you're about to do it. um Yeah, I don't think those buff decks want to run a six cost card, but I could be wrong about that. I don't know. Like, I'm not convinced. They haven't wanted to, but they could.
01:13:51
Speaker
Yeah, you know, i think it's interesting that she invites you to try a thing that hasn't been good before. ha ha ha ha. interesting, but not, I mean, like this is another effect that we've seen all over the place. You know, it's not, I mean, like I understand, you know, that's very flavorful.
01:14:12
Speaker
She is supposed to remind you of like human torch effects and things, you know, like i I get it. I get why this is a doubling card. I'm just like, is this better than Herbie? Cause I'm pretty sure it ain't.
01:14:25
Speaker
I think this one's a stinker. But like not a bad stinker. It's a two. It's fine. A playable stinker. Yep. Okay. ah Air Walker, who is...
Exploring New Cards: Air Walker and More
01:14:41
Speaker
Air Walker next?
01:14:42
Speaker
Yes. Air Walker, who comes out, is a Series 4 card that comes out next week. I don't know why they did it like this, but they did. A three three When this is destroyed, replace it with a 4-cost card from your hand or deck.
01:14:57
Speaker
Three. Um, okay, I meant to go... had a mental note to go look up forecast cards for Airwalker before i ah gave him a ranking. And forgot to, because I'm like, okay, what am I bringing back by the shrink? Because it is three... You're not bringing it back, you're fetching from the hander deck.
01:15:19
Speaker
It's like... it's not It's not a resurrection effect. It's, uh... Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant. But like, what four cost thing am I trying to pull with Air Walker, basically, is what I meant to look at.
01:15:31
Speaker
And I didn't. So um I'm going to say... you want to go after us? Yeah, go ahead. I forgot to look up the boards. I will know.
01:15:45
Speaker
but All right. I will keep this one pretty short. Air Walker is a very strong card. I'm going to give it a high three. Might have given it a four.
01:15:57
Speaker
um Except this card fucking loses so hard to Stardust. Oh, my God. This card is like yeah y'all don't see the Stardust thing now. But like what this this comes out next week. Is that right?
01:16:12
Speaker
Uh-huh. You're gonna get it. Everybody's gonna... Stardust is already there if you look, but like oh you're not gonna be able to look away.
01:16:23
Speaker
Yeah. This card is gonna get its lunch eaten by Stardust. Okay. I'm also a high three. I think it's one of the best cards of the season. Ben and I are in high agreement this season, except totally opposite on Stardust.
01:16:34
Speaker
Um... Here's the thing. If you only have one four in your deck, you know exactly what card Airwalker is pulling. Even if you've already drawn it. Yeah. And if you have multiple, hey, maybe that's fine too.
01:16:45
Speaker
If it pulls Gwenpool or Galacta, I'm happy either way. um Cards are like decks that might care about pulling a four. you You know, a single four that's very important. Wiccan and Mr. Negative come to mind.
01:16:57
Speaker
Mr. Negative maybe can't justify having this much extra fluff around it, but... Anyway, there's a lot of great fours in the game. We discount them all the time with Zabu, and Airwalker just makes it like a full discount.
01:17:11
Speaker
Sort of because you have to pay for Airwalker, and then you have to pay for a way to destroy him. About that way destroy him, I realized I should have mentioned this. ah Kid Omega into Airwalker, that does beat Stardust to the punch.
01:17:24
Speaker
So i I think that'll be the way to do it. Kid Omega, you're Airwalker. and that lets you get Wiccan out on on turn three. like There's a lot of really strong stuff you can do with that one. um Yes, there's a deck ah deck building cost for having to get out a destroy card, but I don't think it's as high as having to run and play a six cost.
01:17:45
Speaker
um So yeah, it's kind of an interesting card because like I don't know that it goes into existing destroy decks. So then you have to find... you're you're mashing together destroy with something else.
01:17:56
Speaker
There's not a lot of fours that we love and destroy. Atuma?
01:18:03
Speaker
Atuma would be maybe the only one. Because as I was sitting, as I looked at him, this was my problem. To me, this feels, think I'm going to give it a two. Because it feels like maybe not even as good as fire hair, to be honest, for a fire type card. Oh. Because you need to destroy it.
01:18:21
Speaker
So while it's cute, you're like, oh, the possibility of getting out like an early Wiccan or something, but it's like you need to destroy it, which means you're synergizing some destroy in there. You're going to have more than one destroy card, um you know, which means you also then need to have more than one thing that benefits.
01:18:38
Speaker
said And it's like, this doesn't fit into a destroyed deck, really, compared to other things that you want to destroy while leaving room for destroyers. So it feels like you're trying to set up some cute, like, fire hair stuff.
01:18:51
Speaker
But, like, fire hair's cheaper and, like, easier to pull off with, like, one-drops and stuff. Like, don't know. I'm not seeing it as hard as you guys are. That's all I'm saying. i good.
01:19:03
Speaker
um There's also a notable synergy with Airwalker and Firelord, um which is very thematic, as I understand it. We can talk about that once we get to Firelord. ah The following week, Series 5, The Fallen One, 5-5, on reveal, set your max energy equal to this card's power.
01:19:26
Speaker
Ben. Uh, you know, I'm going to try to be really generous with this one and give it a two, but it seems really unwieldy to me. it asks you to build around it, but it offers relatively little juice for that squeeze.
01:19:41
Speaker
Um, even if, even outside of like the clip hunting situation, like i just, um,
01:19:49
Speaker
I don't see how this is the best way to do its thing. It's not my kind of card though. So maybe the real rampers out there can see something here that I have not been able to pick up on. So I'm giving it a two to be safe, but I think it's kind of a trap.
01:20:10
Speaker
um I'm, I'm off four. i had it as the best card of the season and noted that I kind of feel like I'm falling for a trap because It is a very flashy card just up front. And usually the cards that look really cool and flashy, they don't always end up being ah actually that.
01:20:28
Speaker
But he gives you a ton of hidden information. He's kind of Super Sarah. It does mean that you have to combo him to make him work. Right. You either ramp him out early with something like a.
01:20:41
Speaker
Psylocke, right? And then you have two turns where you have more energy than your opponent. um Or the big thing is Shuri or somebody else, Spider-Man, which gives you 11 or 13 power on the final turn of the game.
01:20:56
Speaker
There's a lot you can do with or energy. There's a lot you can do with 11 or 13 energy. And also, Fallen 1 sitting on your board is a 10, so it's not like it's completely useless that you've invested into that combo.
01:21:08
Speaker
Making big things as his own reward. But like turn six with 11 energy, you can just play Panther's Ola, both of them face up like like that's a big thing to do. And I'm sure there's lots of others.
01:21:22
Speaker
And your opponent can't see it coming. Like, to me, it feels a lot like Negative Jane, where, like, you're sitting there with 13 energy. Your opponent knows you're sitting there with 13 energy because you just used Symbiote Spider-Man Fallen one.
01:21:34
Speaker
What's in your hand? What are you doing with that 13 energy? It's incredibly hard for your opponent to read. The difference is that Jane didn't just fetch all your good stuff for you. Right.
01:21:45
Speaker
I don't think it's as strong as Mr. Negative. But I do think it's a real threat, and I think you're going to have to retreat against it a lot when it does its thing. So then it just comes down to how often can it do its thing?
01:22:00
Speaker
Currently, there's not tech specifically against gaining energy. Obviously, something like ah Cosmo could stop this. It says it's coming. Yeah.
01:22:11
Speaker
But right now, it doesn't exist, right? So like where where Mobius can stop Sarah, can't touch Fallen 1.
01:22:19
Speaker
Is this card better than Hope's Summers?
01:22:26
Speaker
It's different. It's a different deck.
01:22:33
Speaker
I don't know. i don't know the answer to that question. It does let you delay. and lets you delay all that energy. Yeah. Yeah. This is where I'm at. I give Fallen 1 a 3.
01:22:45
Speaker
One, think it's exciting. It has a fun thing. I'm into trying to to do stuff with it, too. I'll definitely put it with Frankie Raynova, because there's nothing. The big problem with playing six cards is that, like, that's your whole turn. You're playing that six drop.
01:22:59
Speaker
So any time, and a lot times that I try to build a deck with six drops, with Spectrum, with something like that, that's the problem is it's like hard to sacrifice your whole turn to one card if you're not cheating things out and um this yeah this lets you big build a big final turn maybe you can cheat out early i'll definitely put it with frankie ray it's gonna be part of the buff the problem i have in my buff decks a lot too is that i've buffed
01:23:30
Speaker
my hand to shit through multiple Gwenpools or something, I just can't play it all last turn. You know what I mean? So I end up with, I'm like, oh, ah have to, let you know, me i guess I'll play my 218 Mr. Sinister and not get to play my other, you know, giant-ass cards.
01:23:47
Speaker
hurts to leave giant-ass cards in your hand because you just can't play them all. And Fallen One is here. Fallen One is here to promise you. But what if you could play them all? ah, if you just gave me everything. it's like, I will give you everything. phone Anyway. Okay. So, um, I think, but obviously you have to like, it's a planned thing you're trying to do, but I'm excited. Yeah.
01:24:10
Speaker
I think it, it goes great with small, you know, I'm thinking of like the big card combos, you know, your Panther Zola and your Nomura Odin. But like you were saying with like ah a hand buff deck, like, I think it's great in that type of deck where it just lets you, you know, like a hit monkey or something, where it lets you just dump your whole hand.
01:24:26
Speaker
Super cool. ah Next week, Cosmic Ghost Rider, reveal. Remove the text from front row enemy cards here.
01:24:37
Speaker
I think it's a very bad card.
01:24:42
Speaker
um I'd give it a 1. You know, maybe that's too harsh, but I just... does not justify what it's doing. I think most of the things it wants to do can be done better by Shadow King or Enchantress.
01:24:54
Speaker
There are a few, like, Bullseye is one of the only targets I can think of, and Rhi's gonna love that. One of the only targets I can think of where it's like... Again, Enchantress can just do that better. Okay, fair enough.
01:25:07
Speaker
um Now, granted, if I say Enchantress and Shadow King can do it better, that's two cards. if If you, you know, and this is just the one. But I don't know. Maybe I need to pay more attention when I'm in my matches to what this thing hits. But like, I'm just I'm not impressed. It doesn't honor reveals. Don't give a shit if they get hit by this.
01:25:25
Speaker
Like, yeah I mean, like the text would be good if it weren't a five seven. If it were some smaller. Yes, that's exactly my point. Text. But that's exactly my point. A hard pill to swallow.
01:25:36
Speaker
5 hertz. And even if it was like a 510, I think the 5 is just that's yeah that's the problem. 510 would probably be good, but 5 is so hard. It comes down so late. three I give it a 2. I don't think it's as bad as a 1. I think it could just win you games and win them on a surprise, but once again, it's that Legion kind of spot for me, because it doesn't really synergize with other stuff, right? It's something you're throwing in a deck, because it's a decent amount of power, like Legion-like Stardust, and occasionally, you know, it just wins.
01:26:07
Speaker
This will win in a smaller way than those other two cards will, much smaller, and it's like a big cost and stuff, so it's like... I don't want to give it a one. I would play it before I would play Cobra or Terax the Tamer. um And it does have a little more body to it. but um
01:26:27
Speaker
But yeah, I think it needs it could it could be a bit cheaper. It's only going mostly win you won one lane, right? Yeah. Yeah, and if it does it on five, your opponent's retreating if it's that big of a problem, right? So you're either doing it on five or have to have it be your surprise at six, which is so expensive.
01:26:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:52
Speaker
Ben? Well, I'm sorry, Jennifer Kale. It's time to give back the trophy. The Emperor Hulkling Award for the worst card in recent memory goes to Cosmic Ghost Rider.
01:27:05
Speaker
This card is too little, both in power and ability, and it will almost always be too late. The card that dares to ask, what if Red Guardian was hot garbage? Oh my god, no.
01:27:17
Speaker
Skip this one. Not a winner. ah Maybe they'll buff it and it will be good, but wow, it's just... That's a tough proposition.
01:27:29
Speaker
ah five seven is not the not the spot for this this one. Cool text box, very neato. ah Wildly impractical. I kind of feel like this card should be a bad card.
01:27:40
Speaker
Like I was saying for Stardust and Mobius, like i kind of feel like this is in the same category, but not as extreme. like I think it could be more common, like a Red Guardian. like It's okay to have a semi-flexible text card.
01:27:51
Speaker
Granted, Red Guardian has totally fallen off since losing a single point of power. 3-5 is a real stat line, much like is a real vanilla stat line.
01:28:08
Speaker
ah Firelord, this is coming from high voltage towards the end of the season. If you really grind it out, it's possible you'll get them before a Cosmic Ghost Raider. A 4-6.
01:28:19
Speaker
On reveal, revive one of your discarded or destroyed three-cost cards here. Re. um I give this a three because you are playing in discarded destroy, but it's pretty solid in there. Because, like, you know, if you think about, like, in in destroy, sure, like, kid Omega to um a venom and then bring your venom back. You know what i mean? Like, you're always happy to be able to destroy more things and bring them back.
01:28:53
Speaker
And it feels more... ah you more generally more flexible than, um Phoenix force. So, and then like also for, for discard, you know, a lot of times you can accidentally discard something.
01:29:11
Speaker
um even if you just, you discard a moon night and bring it back or sword master you know, have those. So like, I think it's I think it's a pretty, ah pretty solid card. Once again,
01:29:23
Speaker
um With these kind of cards, you can't run too many of them in a destroy or discard deck because you need to have your core things that want to be discarded and things that are discarding.
01:29:36
Speaker
But it feels like a really solid place for your one or two spots for non-discard or non-destroy, right? Mm-hmm. Feels good.
01:29:47
Speaker
That's where I'm at.
01:29:51
Speaker
Ben? I gotta say, i wasn't really thinking too much about the discard part of the card. I think it's probably going to be more at home in Destroy, but it is like kind of cool as ah as a discard thing. it's i feel like Ghost Rider might be better for some of those purposes, but...
01:30:10
Speaker
um Yeah, Fire Lord's a ah cool one. i was Before I considered the discard thing, i was going to give it a very high three, and I'm still going to give it a very high three. It's a great card that absolutely gets its shit rocked by Stardust.
01:30:28
Speaker
And thus will not really land as, yeah, it's... It's now after it's downer.
01:30:40
Speaker
Can't even tell if this is a bit anymore. um Not a bit. Stardust is not going to see that much play and if she does, she's going to get nerfed. yeah she is gonna get nerfd Play her now. she's four seven She's not going to be like the end of september she's going to be like four five or something yeah we should play some fun friendly bed. week Lord comes out and everyone knows that everyone is playing Fire Lord, definitely people will be busting out the Stardust. You know what mean? Yes, that's true.
01:31:11
Speaker
um I would also give Firelord a 3. Seems super solid in both archetypes. um I want to note the Q interaction with Airwalker, where if Airwalker pulls Firelord, then Firelord immediately pulls Airwalker back.
01:31:26
Speaker
Now you can generate another 4. Of course, you have to have two destroyer options to do that. um But we already touched on the thing that I love most about Fire Lord, which is targeting Venom.
01:31:37
Speaker
ah That's not something that Elixir or Phoenix Force can do. i i mean, Elixir can if you only destroyed Venom the previous, like but that's a lot of work. The best thing to do with Venom is Kid Omega.
01:31:49
Speaker
Make a huge Venom, Kid Omega it, Kid Omega gets all the power, and then Fire Lord brings back the huge Venom. That's awesome. That's a strong thing to do. They can only shong one lane.
01:32:00
Speaker
ah I think that the venom interaction alone is is huge for this card, but also there's plenty of other things you can do with it. Threes are good cards. Okay. ae While Remy's yelling at me, I want to hear which one card of the season you're most excited about.
01:32:17
Speaker
We'll start with you, Rhi. I already said probably, you know, Fallen 1 is a close to Frankie Ray. But, you know, I love buff decks. And um compared to the other cards that are out being most exciting to me, for sure.
01:32:37
Speaker
Give me some new. I'll try some new design space and buff with some six costs.
01:32:45
Speaker
Ben, who are you most excited for this season? i I'm most excited about Stardust.
01:32:51
Speaker
Really strong card. i think I think if you spend some more time with her, it will be apparent. It's not my fault that literally nobody is playing this card to demonstrate it for y'all.
01:33:02
Speaker
No, I agree with you, Ben. I think it's amazing. Super duper low and it's win rate quite good. And in in my my personal data set, ah its cube rate is fucking phenomenal.
01:33:16
Speaker
like So I don't think this card is going to stay like it is. Play it now. yeah You know, even if it's true, it's only going to be high, high elo players that that are using Stardust like that. The regular player definitely get the most value out of it. You do need to, like, do some clever stuff with it. I hate to say.
01:33:38
Speaker
but yeah And cards that are only good at the top of ladder, they just don't get nervous. It'll still be good. It'll still be good. But like it's so many matchups, you just win. like And it's weird stuff that you don't even like expect. Like, oh, are you are you playing Mil? That loses to Stardust. Like, all these little these little things. Oh, Malekith? That's not even the thing that's like bad. like Just everywhere. like the The value is everywhere.
01:34:08
Speaker
You sold me! No, I totally am on Ben's side. Apparently I'm not reading out enough cards. Um, I'm and most excited for Fallen 1, although I'm sad to report that my interest has waned so much since finding this silly Sarah combo.
01:34:24
Speaker
Um... But I think making Fallen 1 do good, strong things, not amazing combo like Explode-y top tier. I don't know what I'm trying to say. Not a big, flashy combo, but just like making Fallen 1 do a solid thing, like just one Shuri proc, just one Symbiote Spider-Man.
01:34:40
Speaker
I think that that's easier to do, and that opens up tons of interesting space. So still most excited for Fallen 1.
Podcast Anniversary and Community Engagement
01:34:48
Speaker
On to our side quests. First up and only, the weekly secret homework.
01:34:52
Speaker
This week's secret homework was assigned by me, inspired by friend of the show, Adam Starr, who makes lovely snap fan art. I wanted us to make fan art, but with the limitation of making it speedy, so it was realistic for all of us to finish. So I put a 20-minute time limit on it.
01:35:10
Speaker
I admit I spent like 21 minutes on mine because I accidentally paused my timer partway through. Isn't that embarrassing? look bad And i didn't I couldn't cut the time because I paused it at like 16 seconds and I noticed too late. Anyway. No extra credit for going over. It's quite the opposite in this case, I would think.
01:35:30
Speaker
I'll try to put these in the show notes or video description in image form. But if you go to the YouTube, you can you can all have them on the screen. um i did i admit i spent an extra minute afterwards like today like days later i spent an extra minute because the yellow in this the pac-man wheel the energy wheel is was very faint and i decided i should go in and trace over it with a much easier to see color anyway uh i did a cosmic ghost rider worst card of the season as a pac-man ghost
01:36:01
Speaker
It's so good. I believe it's Clyde, the orange one. And the giant energy wheel that is his motorcycle wheel is in the form of Pac-Man.
01:36:12
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. That's what I decided to do with 20. I loved it before even I even understood it. Wow. I mean, like, i I didn't, I didn't put together the cosmic ghost rider thing. i was like, well, I, I love Pac-Man.
01:36:26
Speaker
love Ms. Pac-Man specifically. It's so good to use the orange one as the fire. Like, and say okay. Yeah. and So that's what I did. Uh, that was the inspo space ghost. Uh, very cool.
01:36:40
Speaker
Not the character Space Ghost, anyway. um I recorded myself drawing it, and I'll try to put that in the YouTube video, and I think you'll see, like, I didn't switch to, like, actually drawing it until there were, like, only six minutes left, so it was a mess, Cremble. I was sketching the whole time, I like, oh, I didn't save myself very much time.
01:36:59
Speaker
ah Reassigns next week's homework, so we'll go on to Ben to talk about your homework. i did, two i I really didn't want to be a perfectionist about it, which yeah I had to, like, impose a lot of restrictions on myself to make sure that I did the thing.
01:37:22
Speaker
Up to and including not leaving myself more than 20 minutes, really, to to do this. i I think I did it in 10 or 15 total between the two pictures.
01:37:33
Speaker
I've got one picture of Rhino. I used an ink pen without any ah pencil stuff just to really make sure that it felt not too...
01:37:45
Speaker
I didn't give myself the opportunity to make things too good or too complete or right. I know that there's like supposed to be silly or whatever. or That's like hard for me.
01:37:58
Speaker
So um yeah, I've got one of the Rhino. His proportions are a little janky. But then I've got another one that asks the question on everybody's lips when they think of Marvel Snap, or at least mine.
01:38:11
Speaker
Where the hell is Toad, huh? Where is Toad? Good question. he's ah He's, you know, trying to catch a fly with his little tongue. i Again, I wasn't wasn't really sure. I didn't didn't do any pre-planning with Pencil or anything. So, like, wasn't really sure of the proportions. I think if I'd...
01:38:31
Speaker
really thought about i i i meant for toad himself to be smaller i think i started with the tongue or something you did the assignment correctly it was not supposed to be this laborious thing i don't know i just like to do good i i have i have other marvel snap artwork i've got uh got a portrait of Safety Blade as Loki.
01:38:53
Speaker
I've got a fun little picture of Magneto saying, stop telling me not to do a genocide, Charles. You know, I've got some other pictures I could i could share if people want to want to see more of this kind of thing.
01:39:12
Speaker
I absolutely love the facial expressions on both of them. nailed that. Yeah.
01:39:22
Speaker
Three? Okay. So my initial dream is to do one of those like big posters with lots of that showcase like all the characters or something and do all the the regulars in our Discord channel.
01:39:36
Speaker
But I knew that was probably not going to happen. thats So like, let me start with the three of us and the speakeasy. And we'll see how long that takes. And that definitely was as much time as I had.
01:39:48
Speaker
So I drew what I love is I i finally um after i'm so happy to get it back. I was missing for months. um for a long time with my old broken phone, my little phone stylus that I like to use to paint and and make art, especially late at night. So this is, yeah, this is one of my first things of my new stylus phone. I used the, ah it's called, I believe, Pocket Paint is the app I use that I loved. doing with my son's phone.
01:40:19
Speaker
So it's, yeah, it's us and we're, okay. So Lauren, vision for you is, it was like, kind of like club owner look. I actually, okay, initially I did want to make you as i as a bartender in a cute little bartender outfit, but then I was like, don't know, maybe Lauren, mean, she's got more club owner and-in energy.
01:40:37
Speaker
um even though I wanted the cute bartender outfit. So I went for the club owner. and put you in pink. I wanted to go for like a flapper style, but like it was too many details that I didn't have time for. So we didn't get that far. But you are doing our classic snap on this giggle hand Facebook.
01:40:56
Speaker
OK, Ben, of course, is mouth trumpeting and is why you are full mouth open, um you know, more mouth trumpet as listeners have demanded.
01:41:07
Speaker
And ah with a little guitar and I picture this is a blue velvet suit for you, know, like very grand version ship. You would obviously be on the stage in the speakeasy.
01:41:20
Speaker
Myself, of course, is a noir detective with a fedora and a trench coat. Obviously, I'm in the speakeasy. It's my home base from which out. corn which i you know ah i hang in Shake down people sometimes. So, okay, I did cheat because um I drew these out on blocks.
01:41:42
Speaker
And then I phoned a friend. My friend Frank I know has an app that makes it really easy to put text on it. i was like, Frank, you put text on it for me. And he did. he put, he chose the words for Because I'm like, it's supposed to be a poster for a speakeasy for the Snap channel, the Discord channels.
01:42:00
Speaker
um And so he put, Summer's Hot, and the speaking is easy. Which did make me think, I'm like, it should almost be in the snapping is easy.
01:42:11
Speaker
Right? And then like, oh, why didn't we call it the snap easy instead of the speakeasy? Then I wondered if that was like, it might be reference too far. You know, sometimes my joke references are like a bridge too far and people just don't get them. And that's when I get like the smiles. I believe this is a Porgy and Bess reference. And we're trying to try to.
01:42:32
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, like, snapping wouldn't be any further from the the original, but, you know, i don't I don't know. I thought it was good the way it was. No, I like the speakeasy. I thought about and I'm like, I don't want it to be the snapeasy because i like it how it is. Anyway, so is um that is It's darling,
01:42:54
Speaker
and i love it with you And I would wear that. I know. I want to give you a little feather fringe and like where more flapper style stuff. but Future time. Okay.
01:43:07
Speaker
um So speaking of ah part of the reason i wanted to do it featuring like podcastness over like pure snap ah right is that next week we will record our episode 52, which means we did this for a whole year and we didn't even miss a week ever. And that's like really impressive for people that are just doing this.
01:43:30
Speaker
You know, it's obvious. So anyway, so for our anniversary for next week's secret homework, I want you to share either a favorite moment from the podcast or an aspect, a favorite thing about the podcast that you like.
01:43:48
Speaker
I want to leave it open, but like, you know, to to ah what you want to share in regards. um But it's about our podcast because that's what we're celebrating next week.
01:44:00
Speaker
That is perfect. Meta homework seems appropriate for next week's episode. If you liked what you heard, tune into that special episode next week where we're going to have listener Q&A and I don't know if we're doing anything else special.
01:44:15
Speaker
um find out bonus episode there is also going to be a bonus episode we played magic magic last week with mod supreme models running the game as our magic magic master uh say that 10 times fast and it was really fun you can come meet our characters i'm commissioning my child to draw some cute artwork for the thumbnail so definitely check that out um i'll share it in the speakeasy Anyway, it's just, it's fun. And we love doing this podcast and chatting with each other and ah talking to y'all.
01:44:48
Speaker
So anyway, ah do the normal things like comment, subscribe, et cetera, interact, help the algorithms, you know, ah subscribe if you haven't yet. And if you've listened to at least one of these.
01:44:59
Speaker
ah You can leave comments on YouTube or Spotify or come hang out with us in the speakeasy, our little corner of the Snap Judgments League Discord. The instructions to get there are in the show notes or video description ah because there's there's a few extra steps you have to take.
01:45:16
Speaker
Anyway. ah we are proudly part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions by Joe. Comes out at least once a week and he's a radio DJ with lots of experience doing that. Or he has a lot of experience as a radio DJ and that comes through on his podcast.
01:45:33
Speaker
and It's great. ah Anyway, tune in next week. Same Snap time, same Snap channel. Hey, guitars.
01:45:45
Speaker
I got nothing. Okay. If you got nothing, can give you, what I have decided to call. This could be a new outro segment for us. It's called re-leaded scene because Lauren is, this is the bucket stuff.
01:46:00
Speaker
I'm going to make puns of my own name in every way possible. I do live for repuns. Yes. Yes. So a really good scene is so when I'm doing like my weekend snap and um so a lot of times like it's like I have like thought trains going everywhere. And so I have to do like a fog of war on it so that like a picture comes clear and not say everything I'm thinking. It's hard to like.
01:46:24
Speaker
string together something coherent. And those are all the little things i like i think about and I want to go into, but I'm like, no, too fiery. you know If I was streaming, I'd just follow it wherever and I'm just like constantly lost all over the the nebula.
01:46:39
Speaker
But like, okay. Like an example would be, I think there's a couple weeks back I was i was talking about Oh, this is for if our English teacher ah is still listening. talking about hitting Ernest Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea.
01:46:58
Speaker
And that reminded me oh, man, I had the most bizarre. I had some crazy teachers. Sixth grade English teacher. He, joke, the entire school, like while he was teaching, spoke in this like fake French accent.
01:47:15
Speaker
Like, not only was I didn't know because I was, like, in rural, you know, was in the Midwest, and I hadn't, like, you know, traveled a whole lot or anything outside of the U.S. or something.
01:47:27
Speaker
So my understanding of what the French accent sounded like was pretty nil. So I didn't know it at the time. But it's a very, like... Over the top, stereotypical, not real French accent from my memory. Oh,
01:47:40
Speaker
But like, here's the thing. So someone, because a kid came in later and was like, oh, I saw, and I can't even remember his name. Mr. Whatever. Outside class, did you know? Like, that's not, he didn't do the accent at all. He just talked like a normal person. We're like, oh.
01:47:55
Speaker
He also, okay. Okay. Like crazy stuff about this guy. He, I remember we were playing Scrabble and um this way I had like used the word atonement because it was very long and used a lot of my letters.
01:48:09
Speaker
And he was like, Oh, you you you must read the Bible. I was like, yes, that is how I've been raised. He gave me, I was in sixth grade. He specifically came to me after class and he gave me a copy of a book and he said, read.
01:48:26
Speaker
I think, you know, think that this, you know, could be meaningful, you and special. Do you want to guess what that book was? Not something like The Phantom Tollbooth.
01:48:38
Speaker
It was Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. It's situated and indoctrinated to Ayn Rand philosophy in sixth grade, which I did read it.
01:48:49
Speaker
I am very grateful for Ayn Rand that she was able to get the assistance um from the government after she failed to support herself in her old age and was able to have a safety net to fall back into.
01:49:04
Speaker
you know, that was a good thing for her. But anyway, was just like, oh, man. I totally forgot that that guy existed before I started talking about Ernest Hemingway and Nancy. Because he's the one that he chose that for us to read those curriculums. So, like, who like who who does that? Who does that to a sixth grader? A very mysterious figure.
01:49:27
Speaker
Anyway. Okay. Sorry. That was amazing.
01:49:33
Speaker
All I had for this outro was just like, would like to offer some clarifications on the credentials and various entrepreneurial projects of my character in our Magic Magic campaign.
01:49:47
Speaker
But no, I liked learning about your English teacher more. Okay. I'm excited about Magic Magic. Okay.