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30: Strange and Punishing Things
223 Plays10 days ago
Lauren, Ben (-ish), & Rie get fired up for new hair next week ❤️🔥🤭
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Week in Snap: 👋 Saying goodbye to Sanctum + 💭 Comic Corner
- ⭐ Starbrand 🔥 Firehair
- One Hell(a) of an OTA? (🐈⬛💖)
- Secret Homework: Obscure video games 🔍
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
- The InfiNOT Podcast
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:26:44 New Card: Starbrand
- 0:32:54 Next Week's Spotlight: Firehair, Cassandra Nova, Nico Minoru
- 0:36:41 OTA Discussion
- 1:07:43 Secret Homework: Obscure Games
- 1:22:48 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:31:23 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 30 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Whadevs. With it being an even-numbered episode, we're going to throw it over to Ben first. Co-host Ben, how was your week in Snap?
00:00:16
Speaker
And keep it snappy.
Ben's Marvel Snap Experience and Strategies
00:00:18
Speaker
Well, it shouldn't be too hard to keep it snappy, as I always endeavor to do this week, because I didn't play ah whole ton of snap, especially after Sanctum Showdown disappeared.
00:00:30
Speaker
That really bumped me out. I was having a great time in Sanctum Showdown. Oh, wow. Got so many dang cards. So many cards. Oh, wowzers.
00:00:41
Speaker
um Let me see what I got. I ended up with... Wicc, no, already had Wiccan. where How do I filter these new cards? Show me the newest.
00:00:52
Speaker
Only the newest cards for me. That's right. I got Ares. I got Gore. i got Anti-Venom. um Who else did I get?
00:01:03
Speaker
Those are some good ones. Yeah, maybe that's... Oh, yeah, I said Ares, Gore, Anti-Venom. And then the three portal cards. Oh, and then the three portal cards. Oh, and Bruce Banner.
00:01:15
Speaker
And Bruce Banner. I paid gold for the last one, ah which I guess turned out to be Ares, but mostly I got there with charms. And wow, I had a lot of fun with that game mode. I really enjoyed the gameplay. I loved my deck. It is a shame I i disassembled it.
00:01:35
Speaker
And there's no point talking about it on the podcast because I'm sure there will be different cards banned next time and this deck won't work the same way. But, oh, wow. I really felt like I had it like figured out. like i was just I was winning so many more than I was losing and it was feeling great. I was having a blast.
00:01:52
Speaker
It was a great times. And then Ladder and Hella and like why would I want to... like I just wasn't that interested in that. But I started playing a little bit of ladder. You know, i once Sanctum disappeared, I did have to do my dailies, and I was doing them on ladder.
00:02:10
Speaker
So I've been slowly climbing up. I'm still in the 70s. i I really have not been playing ladder. But the deck that I have been playing... is an oldie but a goodie.
00:02:22
Speaker
That's right. It's Wave Flourish, my very tried and true Silver Surfer list that I've been playing since, I don't know, sometime mid-2024, late 2024. I don't know. The newest card in the deck is probably Gwenpool.
00:02:37
Speaker
So... That should tell you something. um I don't know. Maybe maybe copycat. I don't know. I don't know. I don't remember the the release orders of cards as we have learned while some games. Those are from the same season.
00:02:51
Speaker
Okay. Okay. then Then yeah, sure. Copycat's newer, but just barely. All right, Copycat's the newest card in the deck. But yes, for those who don't recall, that's that's a America Chavez, Forge, Jeff, Brood, Silver Surfer, Red Guardian, Hope Summers, Nocturne, Sebastian Shaw, Copycat, Absorbing Man, and Gwenpool.
00:03:13
Speaker
And I've had a great time with that deck. It has always done right by me in tournaments, on ladder, in post-infinite stuff, in conquest. It's just it's just a great go-to. Highly recommend if you if you enjoy Silver Surfer-y things. It's just a very solid, well-balanced list that just keeps being good over and over again. And that's what I have found to be true with it so far. um You know, just this season. It feels strong into the meta at this moment, but...
00:03:43
Speaker
I don't know. OTA is going to shake things up. And yeah. Yeah. We'll see what happens there. I don't know. It absolutely will. It probably wasn't. i didn't play it enough to say that it's definitely like solid in this meta, but it felt it felt like it was doing the things. The number was going up and the I wasn't running into that many bots, although you never know.
00:04:04
Speaker
I don't know. That's my rambling weekend snap. Trying to spin content out of not that many games played, especially after Sanctum went away and nobody wants to hear about Sanctum. And just that's just what I was playing, dang it.
00:04:18
Speaker
Oh well. Hey, if you're doing all right in hella clog negative meta, I'm pretty sure it'll do fine once that meta ends.
Rhi's Insights on Sanctum Mode and Comics
00:04:25
Speaker
um Our other co-host, Rhi, how was your weekend snap?
00:04:30
Speaker
Okay, so want to use my weekend snap to talk about comics because my my ah comics corner is a nebulous floating thing that only exists when we will it into reality.
00:04:44
Speaker
So first would briefly just say about Snap. I made out in Sanctum. I got all cards, new cards that you can get. I got grinded out all three new cards.
00:04:55
Speaker
Then I grinded out ah three of the four cards myself with charms. I never ran out of scrolls. I ended the time crossed with still scrolls to be spent.
00:05:07
Speaker
um As you would in any good video game playthrough. And then... i
00:05:16
Speaker
I bought the last one with gold, with all of my gold. I have like no gold anymore. It's a very weird position for me to be in. like A variant could come up that I wanted to buy and I would not have the purchasing power for it, which is a position I usually don't allow my gold level to fall to.
00:05:30
Speaker
um But yes, I got Joaquin Torres. I did get Scream next after Bruce. Yay! Yeah! And, you one other card. Oh, Toxin.
00:05:45
Speaker
You know, he's so bouncy. I've already tried to play him, but I'm like, so much bouncy. Okay, anyway. um So, that's why, other than that, outside of that, and I also just played so much Sanctum that I played, like, ladder. Like, I'm not even infinite yet because I've just barely played any ladder at all. In my non-Sanctum time, have been putting...
00:06:08
Speaker
Nomura and Agamotto together in all of the ways and experiencing the vast joy of images of Icon, ah turning Zabu and Psylocke and whoever whoever else we have there, Phaestos, into ah other Nomuras.
00:06:25
Speaker
And ah that's been a great joy. Yes, I made one first with Nimrod and it crashed and had so much fun. But it's like Nimrod was the star, to be honest. Nimrod was the star of that deck.
00:06:36
Speaker
And I was like, no, but this is about Nomura. This is her spotlight. So I mean, not metaphorically, not in the sense of game terms. Okay. ah So I put her together with some other cards and... and You know, she works with Agamotto because what you want to do with Nomura is not fill a bunch of locations.
00:06:56
Speaker
And Agamotto allows that to happen. So, OK, distracted. OK, so Comics Corner. um I have been catching up on Avengers recently and I'm not all the way caught up. So don't spoil it for me.
00:07:11
Speaker
Listeners, if you're all the way, because I know they started into the next crossover. So with the Doom, because here's the whole problem that's upcoming ah for them is that ah so when Blade was possessed by the first vampire Varney and tried to send the world into Eternal Night, as one does, um then ah to in order to save everything, as one of the things, ah they gave Sorcerer Supreme to Doom.
00:07:40
Speaker
Hmm. Like, you know, like, hey, villain, take this temporary power. Do you promise to give it back? And he said, yes, I promise to give it back when the world is safe again. Because, you know, like, come on.
00:07:57
Speaker
We all were reading that. And we're like, well, obviously his definition of the world being safe is going to like vastly, you know, like they always like do this. Read a book. I mean, honestly, Avengers, you gullible dipshits.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah. So that's like, so that's, he actually just stopped by the Avengers to be like, hey, why haven't you, with your power, like, just, just stopped, just taken over the world and made it perfect. And they're like, hey, you know, so they tried it.
00:08:27
Speaker
They like good faith. Oh, Avengers. good faith arguing doom for first time. um So they're like, you know, hey, we went down the road and here's all the like right reasons why it's wrong, why you don't get to decide what's right for everyone, all of the things. and Is it like on the Bachelor family of shows where like Hawkeye will will pull you aside and be like, Victor Von Doom's not here for the right reasons.
00:08:55
Speaker
I think he's, you know. Yeah, someone needs to be like, hey man, just give it up. But like, yeah, so at the end, he's like, okay, you've proven it to me that you are weak and you will not do it. and You've cemented me in my actions. And that I go, we failed to convince him. It's like, no, he only ever came ah to you know, to to convince himself of his own rightness in this argument. It's like,
00:09:18
Speaker
I know people like that. um Okay, McKay, Jed McKay, think has been writing Avengers, and he's hidden this bit. He does, like, good team stuff that's fun sometimes. so And you know, like, it's like just like all the leaves are wrestling in the wind for this coming up, because they also recently in um I think it was maybe even the last issue I read where like, you know, Avengers versus X-Men. Carol Danvers comes up and says, Cyclops, Sky Summers, get out here. Do you think that you can beat us to a game of baseball?
00:09:53
Speaker
Because that's that's how Avengers versus X-Men happens now. They have like an adorable little game of baseball. And they like you flex your powers. In Twilight? Yeah, they they have a vampire baseball game.
00:10:06
Speaker
Oh, I have never seen Twilight. I refuse to watch it even ironically. watched all of them in the past year for you know, yeah just for broadening my horizons. And, uh, wow, there's some wild movies.
00:10:18
Speaker
Not gonna read the books. Those movies are wild. Okay, I did hear the vampire sparkle. I thought it was a joke at first, but it's, like, real, apparently. No, that was, like, the basis of the entire series. Yep.
00:10:30
Speaker
Oh, that they sparkle? but She had like a dream about a vampire sparkling and that's why they can't go in the sun. and Okay. Well, yes, I've neither read nor seen nor respect the Twilight series. Not that I judge you if you like them. That's fine. You can like them.
00:10:45
Speaker
I like lots of these stupid things. These movies have one the great Uncanny Valley babies. ah Just the creepiest little CGI child. Oh, wow. I so hate the YA setup of like, she's one girl, but there are only two boys that exist in the whole world.
00:11:02
Speaker
And she must choose one. this And as the whole world ending because she is a teenager, which is like true and accurate and real. But like, of course, I'm an adult.
00:11:15
Speaker
but So, like, I like, but like, I don't know. I mean, but I see now I'm just sounding like insulting you. I like lots of juvenile things. So I'm not judging. I just i don't like that. Like fantasy, which is a genre I like has gotten all mesh.
00:11:32
Speaker
Everything gets meshed up in romance. And it's like, I don't I don't care for it personally. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Anyway, so this is what, like, the Avengers, ah you know, have had going on. This season, I kind of just want to talk about Black Panther briefly.
00:11:50
Speaker
A little setup. um Okay, so recently Thor had to leave the Avengers because, you know, as Thor does, he's like, hey, I'm all about Midgard. 100% Midgard until I get shit going on in Asgard because, you know, they're my real family. So, like,
00:12:09
Speaker
so to take his place he's like well we clearly need some thunder on the team um or some lightning you know hand in hand so he goes to storm of course right so storm joins the avengers and storm because storm is everything as she has in the past this is not unprecedented The Avengers is a revolving wheel of adventure-ness. But like, so when she joins in, so if you were unaware, Black Panther and Storm are famously together now, famously divorced.
00:12:42
Speaker
um It's pretty awkward for Black Panther. So he decides to go on the solo mission alone, right? And Sam Wilson is like, hey, like, are you just doing this because your ex is coming on? Because, like, this is really dangerous. And, like, really, you know, like, you shouldn't just do it to avoid. And he's like, yeah, no, I'm a dip.
00:13:06
Speaker
Because, like, I'm a do not fear death. The only thing, I love the way they he phrases it, so Black Panther. The only thing the Black Panther fears is losing.
00:13:18
Speaker
And I lost Storm. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'd be embarrassed too if I lost the woman with the best variants. In all of the game. Like, pretty bad.
00:13:30
Speaker
So he goes on this. Oh, okay. So like, T'Challa this time is like having things. A while ago, Ta-Nehisi Coates had a great run where Wakanda was like, so hey, what if... So I know there's this whole monarchy thing.
00:13:48
Speaker
But kind of seen the outside world, know, joined it a bit and like democracy thing for a while. What if we all we all get a choice, you know, and and ultimately. um You know, they they do.
00:14:02
Speaker
Because, like, you know, if he's going to really be a true king, you know, recognize and the choices people is the most important. It's a wild run because it's when they brought Shuri back and she was, like, old when she came back, but then she came out in the movies. So they decided to de-age her in the comics.
00:14:21
Speaker
But instead of taking the route they should have taken, which was like the JRPG route of like, just this is just the way the world is now. Accept it. Like, they're like, let us explain how she de-aged back from an old woman.
00:14:36
Speaker
yeah Anyway, so T'Challa at this point oh, everyone was so good. That's where the Midnight Angels get introduced, which is where a pair of his, like, bodyguards decide more than the king, they love each other. And they're going to come out of the closet and protect the little people. sometimes when, know, some bomb lesbians come out of the closet, ah monarchies get toppled.
00:15:00
Speaker
Because they were the huge, they were so cool. Like, they were, like, the coolest part of that run for me, to be honest with you. um So at this point, Etel's like, okay, my bodyguards are more into each other than me. I'm not a king anymore. I've been deposed.
00:15:14
Speaker
Everything's my little sister's way cool. Yeah. And, um you know, so he goes to this, like, this, like, planet with these, like, all these warring tribes.
00:15:26
Speaker
And he decides to, like, unite them to take over the you know, the king. He has this great little monologue, which, like, monologues in comics are always iffy because it's, like, Yeah, they get born really easy, real fast, a real tropey.
00:15:39
Speaker
um But he's kind of talking about how he's, you know, he's just like how he challenges them. and the point, you know, his violence is just almost like a byproduct of him challenging the leader of putting on this show to convince everyone to join him. So he comes, he does like, it's like, and this is where like Black Panther is at his best, because it's like,
00:16:00
Speaker
Because he's like a king by nature, you know, not just by blood. So it's like Black Panther sometimes is best as like strip out all his tech, like sword of temple of him from Breath of the Wild, where like all of his gear has gone away, back to square basics.
00:16:15
Speaker
here's ah Here's, you know, a twig branch you can use as a sword, go. And from this, he like unites the warring tribes, you know, joins everything, climbs the top. And as he's the top at the top, he sits and wonders like...
00:16:29
Speaker
Am i just building myself another kingdom um to replace the one I lost? You know,
Lauren's Take on Sanctum Showdown
00:16:35
Speaker
and just has this moment of like deep therapy that a lot of men don't usually allow themselves.
00:16:41
Speaker
So like, um you know, it was, you know, it was an interesting, it made me reflect on like, you know, Black Panther's journey thus far. Anyway, so there's, that was my random sporadic ramblings on comics for however long I did that.
00:16:57
Speaker
not that long it's fine we love reese comic corner i found it very entertaining and informative just enjoyable all around can talk so much about comics to be honest well i want to hear about your week though lord sure speaking of reese comics corner we added two more channels to our discord ah which is you know part of the snap judgments league discord but there's a channel dedicated to reese comics corner that's that's what it's called go talk about comics there if you want to There's also one, it's called Report Your Shame. I don't know if going to keep that or not, because to me it sounds kind of mean.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah, I don't love it personally. I me about it, but no, yeah. I don't know if the bugs are impeccable. Yeah, it's it was my name, but not throw models under the bus, but models the motto supreme over there was asking, oh it needs to have a clever name.
00:17:49
Speaker
And that was one of a few I gave. And I was like, oh, that, you know, if you get the joke, if you're if you're lighthearted about it, then sure, it's great. But if you're like sensitive about your climb, maybe report your shame isn't the isn't the friendliest vibe.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I get the feeling that some people are sensitive about their climbs. That's the feeling get. I think so. I think the problem is just like, yeah, like how people should interact with it is baked into the title.
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, ah right. And I think we have more sensitive people who need to... I'm very sensitive. I am a snowflake in the summer breeze. I'm a very sensitive person too. Not necessarily about my infinite climb, but about other things.
00:18:33
Speaker
um You know, very empathic to the to to those around me. um And it's for it's for helping you with your infinite climb. Because i talked about in the previous episode about you know reporting my cube gains and losses to Glazer. And it wasn't something he asked for or asked me to do. But I did it proactively. And I found that like when I knew I was going to be reporting, I made much better decisions.
00:18:57
Speaker
So that's the whole point of this channel. You can, if you want to tell us that you're going to be focusing on climbing. And then you know... like you have to report to us later. So maybe, maybe you'll make better decisions. That's the whole point. It has worked successfully for at least, at least one person so far. So, you know, check it out. If you, if you want to.
00:19:16
Speaker
um To wrap up on Sanctum, ill I got seven cards. Also, I probably spent about 1,000 1,500 gold total on the entire event.
00:19:27
Speaker
um Some of it was spending extra on scrolls because i just I really loved it. I had a lot of fun playing the game mode. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. And then after last week's episode, when I said something like, guys, if the next card I get is whole cling, I'll play a whole cling deck.
00:19:44
Speaker
And of course, that's exactly what I did. I paid gold to finish up that card and I drew a whole cling. So I owe you a report on a whole cling deck. I haven't done that yet. And then the seventh card I got without any gold. I grinded my way through. The compensation helped a bit.
00:20:00
Speaker
And I got Essen. ah So um my set of cards on top of the three that you know the three portal cards. I got Corvus Glaive, Essen, the Searcher, the Celestial, the Eson.
00:20:15
Speaker
Oh, okay. I've heard more and more people call him Essence, so i was like, oh, maybe this is the correct pronunciation. i have no idea. No idea. This the first I've heard of it. Okay, Esam the Searcher. I mispronounce things like someone that mostly reads.
00:20:30
Speaker
I like Esom better, but I have no idea. And I don't know what like the source of the name is or anything like that. I also have no idea. On his release week, I had avoided spending tokens and keys just in case I got him from Sanctum. And that's exactly what I did.
00:20:44
Speaker
I got Corvus, Thaddeus Ross, Hulkling, and Essen. And I don't know how much I'm going to play any of them. But hey, it was like seven cards for 1500 gold.
00:20:56
Speaker
Right? That's the victory of Sanctum. I'm down to only missing four cards now. There's a point where it was like back to like missing 11. It's like, thank you, second dinner.
00:21:06
Speaker
I am down to only missing four cards. Good job. I'm a season pass buyer. i should be mostly collection complete by my opinion as a subscriber to the game. yeah I agree. um And I have like a, have weird feelings about Sanctum. Like,
00:21:23
Speaker
i I don't want to give the vibe off that I'm upset about getting seven cars for 1500 gold. That's an amazing deal. like growing my collection. i i like having toys, even if they're not toys I'm going to play with very often.
00:21:35
Speaker
um And I would have used all my scrolls anyway because I was having so much fun in the game mode. But also, I did not like the pressure to grind because yeah it's the best deal ever. I have to get as many medallions as possible or ah charms as possible. I need to try my best. I need to you know playing a be playing a deck that's doing well. and like and didn't like that aspect of it. But I would still be playing Sanctum if it was around today. And that's not how the previous game modes have been. The previous game modes, i'm like I'm glad when they're done.
00:22:04
Speaker
um yeah Do you two feel similarly about Sanctum versus the other game modes? Like, do you like Sanctum better than High Voltage and and Deadpool's Diner?
00:22:16
Speaker
Well, i I think some of it is like, it just feels good to win. And like, I wasn't winning in high voltage the way I was winning in Sanctum. that It just like was not the same. You cracked it. Yeah.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah. i I like I would ah i if if the pressure were lower and the rewards weren't so good, I would have experimented more. But I found very early on a deck that was just trashing people. And I just kept playing it the whole time.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with that. I never got to like the full level of trashing that you did, but by the time I found a deck that was winning two-thirds of the time, which is still great... That's trashing people. I think that's trashing people. like I'm not going to fiddle with this anymore. It's working. like Maybe I could make it better, but I don't want to risk...
00:23:02
Speaker
not doing... know. Anyway. They hit, like, different parts for me, like, in the game. So, like, in Sanctum, it hit the, like, hey, look, look how clever I am.
00:23:13
Speaker
Because, like, there was one big strategy that, like, most people that were just trying to get through and get stuff were using, which was Guardians, right? Guardians to be drum, and can you play them right? So then that next tier that, like, honestly, sometimes you don't see this a lot in ladder because it's just more...
00:23:30
Speaker
You know, the decks that are intertwining or more complex. But here there was a very real second tier that just went all the time that was just like, I know the strategy everyone else is playing and play around that, which is just make people with their guardians by moving stuff from around. feels so good. It's so funny.
00:23:47
Speaker
but Watching them whip like four is hilarious. Yes! The surprise Iron man the kitty that built... So it's like, we did it in different ways, but we did it, and then you win, win, win, and it's like, I feel so good, I self-sancted and you were getting rewards. must feel really bad for those other people, right? The people getting by with Guardians and trying to... like Learn into that, yes.
00:24:09
Speaker
I mean, I went on a bad stretch... Like, I don't know, the half of a week following the second round of bans? Like, I was having a very bad win rate, and that was, like, very disheartening. There were bots, though.
00:24:23
Speaker
That's true, yes. If you lost, like, three in a row or something like that, you you would keep getting bots until you beat one. But think that was another nice thing about the rewards being low-costed gold. Because if it wasn't your ticket, you know what i mean? You could kind of pick stuff up for not too much.
00:24:40
Speaker
The thing with high voltage for me is this satisfied a different part. So this one was like figuring out. Like I said, spent the whole first night of Sanctum. Because remember, we did a podcast after that. And was like, I have done all of Sanctum.
00:24:53
Speaker
Here's what I've learned. You know, like the old-timey Mariner. And it's like, it's been one day. It's like, oh. But anyway, high voltage, though. It's the fun.
00:25:05
Speaker
The decks that I don't build because they're not reliable enough for me. For me, I like to be, but I want to be able to compete everywhere. you know I don't like these real narrow decks, so I build broadly.
00:25:18
Speaker
But with high voltage and kind of lesser emphasis on winning, I got to just be like, what can I do with the lot of energy? You know what i mean? And have fun that way. And that satisfied a different portion of fun for me. you know So I like different things.
00:25:35
Speaker
But I agree. Sanctum could stay around forever if they rotated lists to freshen things up and have a new thing to solve. But like at the same time, I think they... They can't, though, right? Because they need people in Conquest and stuff. I mean, they have bots in both modes, but it's like... And they, you know... don't know. They're cautious about splitting up queues.
00:25:58
Speaker
I loved how Tactical Sanctum was. i think high voltage is fun, but the thing I like most about it is knocking out bounties easily. Like... yeah That's not like inherent to high voltage, right? that's not It's like meta fun, um which is fine, but I don't know. I feel like high voltage gets solved so fast. And maybe people feel that way about Sanctum because some of the decks were very samey, but yeah I found it found it fun to answer all the saminess.
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah. Okay.
Discussion on New Marvel Snap Cards
00:26:31
Speaker
I like Sanctum better than Conquest. Oh, I agree. Like, rather than playing multiple games, one longer game.
00:26:40
Speaker
yeah I do prefer it. Okay. This week's new release, Starbrand, a 310 ongoing. Your opponent has plus three power at each other location.
00:26:56
Speaker
Did you get it? Have you tried it?
00:26:59
Speaker
I haven't gotten it yet I might get it. I'm not sure. not Not sure. i'm i feel like if I get it, I'm not going to use it. but Yeah, I know that feeling. I don't know. But if I am going to get it, I might as well get it while I can get some tokens on the weekend. So I don't know.
00:27:16
Speaker
We'll see. Yeah, it's always a tough call. Yeah. um It was pretty much what I thought, to be honest. I don't know that I see that he goes in a... Like like like I said, he will go in Sauron. He will, you know... and combbined What I did with him is I just... I assume that my list probably looks like a lot of other lists. I didn't see what else is out there, but it's Surtur cards and it's Sauron cards with a little Zabu action, of course, which I guess is Surtur, right? Usually mashed together and honestly know feel like i think i saw some people saying it was mid for me it crashed because like i didn't see like i didn't see shang once while i was playing this deck somehow i'm star brand week um which like i don't know if you you know if you're going into you know have unprotected snap without shang like i just don't know what to tell you like when you're when it's star brand week so i just slaughtered with it all day long but that's only because like i feel like i wasn't seeing obvious counters and enchantress right if you have a deck that doesn't rely on any ongoing so many decks now peace and some ongoing where your hand you know like so many of those like and if you don't need it all just chantress forever
00:28:31
Speaker
Beautiful. I got I got someone to I have such a beautiful inky white crackle enchantress um currently on a peach momo with the white neon border and it got you know it got the hard eyes and and she deserves it.
00:28:45
Speaker
I was glad I got to bust her out anyway and Zabu friend always fun. Yeah. I got Starbrand in one key, which is always like, it always makes i was waffling. And when you decide to get it and you spend the keys and you get one, you're like, yeah, I'm glad I made that decision.
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, well done, Past Lauren. And the Fastos and the Scar variants are good, but like, you know, not good enough for me to keep spending keys. Fastos is very good. I'm doing it.
00:29:12
Speaker
Live on the air. Do it live on air. Let us know how it goes. Starbrand went basically exactly how I thought. Like, it is a very manageable downside. i don't think it... Ooh, Scar. Scar first.
00:29:24
Speaker
I don't think that... I don't think it makes Sauron good enough, but it it helps Sauron. Waiting for the next spotlight key. I also got Scar. I got two keys, Scar and then Starbrand. What I wanted was the face dose variant. Oh, you got the face dose variant. I wanted it.
00:29:41
Speaker
That's what I, that's that's honestly what tipped me over the edge. Even though, even though I'm not like a variant person, I am a fast dose person. And yeah, I, I was the silk person. And there was a time when I spent extra spotlight keys for silk, really breaking all the rules of my own like personhood.
00:29:58
Speaker
i don't know. Yeah. Let's get Starbrand. I want to celebrate that, but it sounds bad. This is more than my answer now. Starbrand, no tokens for me.
00:30:11
Speaker
No tokens. Me neither. Hey, you know, a three is not bad, especially if you wanted the Fastos variant. I did. I won't spend an extra key for it or an extra two, but I wanted it.
00:30:23
Speaker
yeah I put Starbrand my own deck. I goofed off with him. And I did try a couple other things. Like, I might have played Surtr a couple times. um I put him in Moneyball deck, which is something that Banjers made a while ago.
00:30:38
Speaker
ah to manage a bunch of cards with downside right like this is uh old atuma with armor and zero and like it was an extremely cool deck and i put that in an updated version of this list um so i'm rocking ah zabu because there's three four costs and zero armor cosmo and enchantress are all ways that i'm managing downside um it is really really fun to hit enchantress on like i had one game where i hit it on star brand and opponents mobius on or morbius on the same turn at the end of the game it's just like a huge swing awesome um enchantress is a great card but i i just think she's so she's hard to run unless you're doing like sarah tech deck or you want to enchantress your own things um
00:31:29
Speaker
You know most of the time you just want like a Shang or a Red Guardian instead because they're more flexible. i know, it's sad. She has so much better variants. Yeah. I really wonder, like, can you make Enchantress a 4-7? Like, when they first made her a 4-6, she was everywhere and they quickly put her back down to four five Anyway.
00:31:48
Speaker
Oh, I also have Venom to to manage downsides because if he eats Starbrand or Atuma or Typhoid Mary... then then they do ongoing ability goes away um yeah cosmo is stopping maximus and gladiator who are just big old stats right and then and then i have scar in here because there's there are uh three tens plus another ten of venom hits ten which is very doable and it was very fun i don't know if it was good Um, this was during Helameta, so, you know, then not so many mid-range-y things can be good.
00:32:23
Speaker
I don't even know if this counts as mid-range, because Cosmo is kind of, like, the only one that's anti, or is, like, tech for your opponent. Um, the rest of it's just playing big shit on your own. Um, which normally is is a good strategy, playing big cards.
00:32:38
Speaker
Um, if you if you can afford them. I don't know. Uh, it's fun. Not my not my jam, but it's, like, it's, like, It's kind of a sweet spot where it's like a clever deck that plays big cards. And so like, I can, I can go hang out there for a little bit.
00:32:52
Speaker
Um, okay. Next week we have fire hair. I'm so excited. a two, three. When one of your cards is destroyed, this uses that cards on reveal.
00:33:05
Speaker
and this happens as many times as you have on reveals get destroyed. I'm 100% getting her. I am worried about the meta that she's going to engender with stuff like clog and and mill.
00:33:20
Speaker
But I think there's so many cool things you can do with her and I'm psyched for that. Question. Does her ability count for werewolf?
00:33:31
Speaker
I don't. Let's see what the text of werewolf is. Werewolf asks you to play a card. It's when you play an on-reveal card. You're right. It's not whether or not the on-reveal goes off, because you can play one behind Cosmo and it'll still move. Yeah, you would have to stage a card to make Werewolf happen.
00:33:47
Speaker
Yeah, but I'm also thinking like ah like Sinister London, the second on-reveal doesn't move Werewolf, right? course it doesn't because you didn't stage it. Yeah. It has to be a card you played. So no no for fire hair doing that.
00:33:59
Speaker
But it will follow the card not to the location where it was staged, but wherever it ends up. So if you play Spider-Man, it follows Spider-Man. Yep. I have really missed my Werewolf Darkhawk deck that got slain. It was a casualty of the widows the double Widow's nerfs and stuff. And so I started and not um and started working on a deck another Darkhawk deck for Firehair because, you know, Iceman-ing and Corriging.
00:34:34
Speaker
and courting all of that that'd be fun and misery i've always meant to do more with misery so those are my plans for fire i think that's great fiddling with the deck yeah i think that's a very good idea because like destroying makes more room for the werewolf to run around and even though it won't you know chase back to fire hair or whatever that that would just be too good to be true anyway you know i think that's a ah very cool synergistic lane to walk down also thinking about like Death Bird deck, like Death Mockingbird stuff, and you have Firehair on the board when you Killmonger and all a sudden you get too much of stuff.
00:35:20
Speaker
I don't know exactly what it looks like, but Killmonger seems like a very cool thing to do with Firehair. know, what if you're doing that like... Oh, because then it all happens at once! How fun, right? Anno stones?
00:35:31
Speaker
kind of cool. That's a big setup. The big fire hair payoff. Silver sable stuff. I wish my hair do that. It's a bummer to kill your silver sable or whatever, but like, you know, you know hit the top card of the deck again.
00:35:46
Speaker
i love making them draw a repeated bad, you know. Yeah, if you hit multiple different cards, you know. Great. Wither everyone. Yeah.
00:35:58
Speaker
Anyway. I think she's going to be fun. I'm going to put Killmonger in my deck, maybe. Okay. yeah ah Her friends are Cassandra Nova and Nico Minoru, who are both excellent cards if you're missing them.
00:36:10
Speaker
Oh, yeah. go there i'm hoping those are Those are some staples right there. Those two. Yeah, they're kind of muskets. Yeah, and the the Nico and the Firehair are both excellent spotlight variants. Cassandra Nova's okay. She's she's golfing, I think.
00:36:25
Speaker
it's fine yes yeah that feels and that feels true to the character to me yes she is a very like golf and make plans for the world to burn type character okay uh we had an ota a today and first up a whole bunch of hits to hella which is exactly what i think everybody was hoping for you think there'll be enough ah no
00:36:55
Speaker
We'll see. I think they will be psychologically enough to back off Hela for quite a bit. think they'll be psychologically enough for a certain kind of player, but maybe not all the kinds of players that I would hope. let's Let's read them off. Hela goes 6-9 to 6-6, which is a huge hit, just just minus three power.
00:37:12
Speaker
Swordmaster and Hellcow lose a point each, 4-6. And Black Cat, this change is is wacky, four ten to 2-6. I'm excited. yeah You know I love Black Cat.
00:37:22
Speaker
Mm-hmm. ah Hopefully I'll get a player again. I think it's cool if you compare her to another 2-6 like Maximus where it's like this is probably a smaller downside, right? The only thing is you can't topdeck her on one.
00:37:37
Speaker
is that huge for her? I think I disagree about the relative downsides of Maximus and this black cat. I don't think and don't think two six is quite big enough.
00:37:48
Speaker
With this downside, I think 2-6 would be great on okay Silk or a lizard as it now is, you know, I agree with that. But I think this downside with the 2-6 bod, I don't know.
00:38:01
Speaker
Go on, Rhi. This is a giant buff to her because before, right, the big thing with Black Cat is you were almost always, like, you know mean? You were drawing her turn one and discarding her, and now you have one less card to do things with, of playing her were now, but now she's both still a great set. to 2-6 is a stat to which we have not managed to convince them to put Silk yet, right?
00:38:25
Speaker
Right.
00:38:29
Speaker
So like 2-6 is a really great, you know, stat. Like Lizard's hard to pull off without if you're not going to get rid of him because people just be filling their lanes all the time now. So like it's a great stat.
00:38:41
Speaker
And now, so pretty much you're going to want if you have her and draw her, as if you're not putting her some dumb deck where you don't like, you know, you're Doom 2099-ing or something. Yeah. you're going to want to play her for those stats.
00:38:54
Speaker
And now there's only one turn that you draw her that you can't play her. That's so good. And then you can still like, you know, and there's still like the pulling her back shenanigans, but just the, just for her stats in some kind of deck that's,
00:39:12
Speaker
Maybe low, like, you know, like I have a deck that is called Squad Small that I like continually update and change over time. It's changed quite a bit, but I use it for the fill all locations bounty.
00:39:24
Speaker
And a lot of it is about like goosing and like making big cards miserable. It's got nothing above a three in it. And it's like, you know, I feel like i feel like maybe it's time for it to change again.
00:39:38
Speaker
And welcome a little black hat. I do like, I want to like this this new this new version of Black Cat because, as you say, it does like incentivize you to play it alongside a bunch of other small cards.
00:39:50
Speaker
Like, ah you you want to have a lot of one drops, probably, so that you can play Black Cat on three and not feel like an idiot, you know? And like, you know, I think that also the deck would have threes so that you could play Black Cat on five and not feel like an idiot, you know? ah and I love ones, twos, and threes.
00:40:08
Speaker
And that's... sir it's Like, i want I want this card to be good enough. I'm just not convinced it's there. I mean, like, outside of, discard things. Never believed in Black Cat Ben. You know, I knew you would say something like that. And I don't know. i I've been rooting for Felicia this whole time. Like, look.
00:40:30
Speaker
I like mike Black Cat, the character. She's cool. i just No! And she meant a lot to me as a little girl that wanted to be a Spider-Man, but was born a girl. And she was like the one that got to swing around and do stuff.
00:40:44
Speaker
Sure, it was mostly so that people could gaze upon her large chest at various poses, but like but you know that was what i had. As a kid. So like I've always loved i've always had a soft spot.
00:40:59
Speaker
They like did this thing where they made her go insane in the comics and she became a criminal mastermind. It was not just like like a boss leader but like literally like batshit and it's like oh I hate this for her. And then she went to prison and she was just like I hate Peter. You know? And it's like What happened to you? It's what characters do when they get lost sometime and they don't do anything for a while. Some writers are like, well, let's just do some fire out shit with them.
00:41:28
Speaker
Okay, stay. Yeah, I'll be very interested to see how many decks can so can rock Black Cat. like like a small things deck. Like, it might be pretty quirky to do that. two six might be a little bit too small.
00:41:41
Speaker
I can still see situations where that's better than Maximus. But of course, Maximus on the last turn can actually help a Ronan deck. So, you know. and you can You can hold him for that last turn. Even, like, you know, and even if Ronan, like, doesn't show up, like, it's cool to have a 2-6 to drop on the last turn that you've been hanging on to all game. And you can't hang on to the Black Cat. she's just unhang-on bull. Black Cat demands when you play her.
00:42:05
Speaker
Yeah, but Maximus, you don't want to play before turn six. you know This is true. He's a real sage like that. Anyway, I think that he's just weird. hate Maximus for that. I like never play him. I'm like, give them an advantage.
00:42:19
Speaker
It's a huge I totally understand. I'm right there with you. It just makes me uncomfortable. like Why should I give you something? Yes. Nothing for you.
00:42:31
Speaker
Hela's text now plays one card per cost. You're not discarding a two in an existing helidex or in, you know, pre-OTA helidex. So she might still play Black Cat given it's four less power. So maybe not.
00:42:45
Speaker
But she could play Black Cat for a two six. And now she can have a different four. I don't know, a coal, something like that. It's But, you know, who's coming along that, I mean, like, I don't know if this is, like, anything at all, but I mentioned it last week, and, you know, the idea has just sort of, like, stuck with me. I'm like...
00:43:05
Speaker
Would it be fun to discard maybe sometimes Morbius with the with the first Ghost Rider in in like a hella context? You know what I mean? Yeah. And like that would be the two drop I would want to resurrect. like you know If I could get like a 2.8 or a 2.10 or something like something fun and wild, and then I also get to play that big overstated...
00:43:27
Speaker
little Ghost Rider guy, and like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know that he gets to 8 or 10 in Hela, though. Hela's rarely discarding more than 3 or 4 cards. I hope this Hela do what everyone wants, though. It's just that everyone plays less.
00:43:43
Speaker
There's less Hela to be seen. That's all everyone wants. Hela's just rough. She is rough to play against because it's very uninteractive. She's very hard to counter. you know Even like the best counters, you know something like a Fenris and a Cosmos, like you have to have multiple of them and you have to guess right. She's just hard. A lot of guess and read.
00:44:04
Speaker
Unless they put down an Invis woman. That's my favorite. That type of Hela's gone. You hardly ever see it anymore. um I don't even know if it's good with new helitext. Maybe. Maybe you can make it work. No, it's probably not because I did see it recently and I crushed it.
00:44:22
Speaker
I'm like, that's where shit's going down. Yeah. They lost. um But she also chases everything mid-range out of the meta because she just goes a little bit too tall for them.
00:44:34
Speaker
And so then what ends up happening is the meta to answer Hela is clog and negative. And that's just like, that is just not a fun meta. Clog, Hela, and negative are not fun decks to play against when they're taking up a significant portion of the meta.
00:44:48
Speaker
So I'm glad they hit her so hard so fast. think it says something about Surtr that instead of doing something with Scar, they were like, nope, we're just going to nerf the fuck out of Hela elsewhere. She can keep 712 Scar.
00:45:00
Speaker
um Yeah, that is an interesting choice that i you know, I don't know. I don't know what I would have done. That's what I say. Yeah, they've really made it sound like Surtr is a lot better than the like fan sites data shows.
00:45:16
Speaker
I mean, I could certainly believe that data is so incomplete. Like I was just thinking how I never play on PC anymore, like never, ever. And I like only play on my phone. I'm sure there are a lot of people who only play on their phones.
00:45:29
Speaker
Yeah. Like this is just like such a tiny subset of the the player base. I think honestly, yeah Or if not a tiny one, then like certainly a misrepresentative or like, it's definitely a skewed one.
00:45:46
Speaker
hu yeah it's biased for sure. And and like I think a lot of these people are also in addition to like maybe taking it more seriously than the average player. I think they're also maybe more likely to be.
00:45:59
Speaker
followers than thought leaders perhaps? I don't know. I think maybe some of the people who insist on like using untapped all the time and only playing on PC are maybe the people who are also getting all their decks on untapped and playing the... I don't know.
00:46:14
Speaker
I don't know what it looks like, really. um and The next hit, Doombot 2099. I love to see this. The bots are going from 4-1 to 4-0.
00:46:26
Speaker
I'm really not a fan of... of doom 2099 i think he gets way too much power for how little work he puts in you know he doesn't need to combo with anything specific just play one card like could be any of your one cards um this is a big hit like so much like he's like what a four five plus nine a four fourteen now that's still big but yeah oh yeah yep
00:46:56
Speaker
Yeah, and they specifically called out that this seemed like the only thing they could do, or at least the next step to do, because if they hit Doom 2099 again, then he gets down to a Yeah, he becomes a Ravonna friend.
00:47:08
Speaker
Yeah, and we we love we love seeing him on three. That's what I've learned. Maybe I did that math wrong. Is he an 11? 411? That's not even that big. No, he's not at 411, is he? What does he start at He starts at 4.2?
00:47:21
Speaker
ah think so. I mean, aren't these things in front of us? I don't have Doom 2099 proper. Yeah, he's He's 4-2, so he goes up to 4-5.
00:47:33
Speaker
Or did he did he make it up to... I have not much Snap this week. He's a the change. The lost a power he power. He went to He's still three so he's out doing bos are four zero he's a four twelve three do by on average Now, granted, that's a 412 that also gives plus 9 if you play Doom.
00:47:59
Speaker
Like, plus 9 more if you play Doom proper. um Or plus 6 more if you play... Also, I think you've done the math wrong. I think if you get 3 Doom bots, which is, like, standard, right? You get 3 Doom bot They give each other 2 each. They're each 9.
00:48:14
Speaker
they're they're each They each give themselves plus one. they don't give no No, they give other Doom bots plus one. You're right. Okay. All right. I don't know what I'm talking about. Not even little bit. So Doom goes to six, and each of the bots are at two.
00:48:27
Speaker
So he's a 4-12, which is Gwenpool and Galacta. this is This is maybe an appropriate range. I think it might be too hard of a hit. like And this is a card I do not like playing against because I think he has a similar problem that Hela does in that he chases out mid-range decks. Your average deck can struggle against Doom if you don't have a way to answer it.
00:48:48
Speaker
yeah now it doesn't You can cancel Doom with a single card. A US Agent is often enough to beat Doom 2019. Well, I don't know if it's often enough. Like, at it's real easy to hide him. And, like, if, God forbid, the first Doom bot lands in his lane, you know, you're never Red Guardian-ing that Doom 20-9. I mean... Yeah, he protects himself from the Red Guardian. It's not that easy to Red Guardian Doom 20-99, is all I'm saying. Anyway, just think it's too hard of a card to counter and too easy to do what it does, right? Like...
00:49:21
Speaker
I don't care if there's some, if there's a four 19 out there, but you have to do something fancy and draw really well, you say, say a Mr. Negative. That doesn't bother me as much. I know people hate negative, but that doesn't bother me. Doom 99.
00:49:33
Speaker
do ninety nine I just feel sad. It doesn't bother me, maybe because I'm not like losing to them a lot or something, but like um when I see one, I just feel sad for them. like They only get to play one card a turn now.
00:49:47
Speaker
I'm going to have way more fun than they are And generally, I do. Also, if you're only playing one card a turn, it gets easier to predict what you are going to do. So it is easier for me to guess correctly and counter things that you were going to do so don't know that's my problem with doom 2099 it's like i'll play it sometimes i i generally play like almost everything i try every once in a while i bust out negative just see like maybe now i'll like it no never i love negative um i do think it's a little bit too consistent nowadays
00:50:22
Speaker
um okay cap shield uh sam wilson's token that gets on the board for free is going to zero cost so that coal obsidian can't abuse it um i think that's a good change i think coal being a 410 means you should have to pay a deck building cost and i i i believe i believe if we if we go back and check the tapes i complained about the shield having a one cost yeah like before it came out i was like that's silly and nonsense And I still feel that way. ruins all the ways that I played this card.
00:50:56
Speaker
Sam has dropped from now. Oh, I think Sam's still just fine. I think the card still does what it does and what it does is good. If Marvel Boy can't buff the shield, don't even want it. I don't know. I was playing some in Heimdall and he was doing just fine. He was still getting big.
00:51:13
Speaker
Sam is still good, but Zoo is taking a stray for Coal Obsidian. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Although it shouldn't have worked like this to begin with. It's like, it's nonsense.
00:51:24
Speaker
I don't know. That's my feeling. think There's also something sensible about it being a free card and being a zero. Like, not everything has to work that way, but like it's nice when there is a mnemonic like that.
00:51:36
Speaker
Well, sometimes the tokens have a cost and it makes sense. Like, the Scarlet Spider token is gonna be four costs, you know? And like the Brood tokens are gonna be three costs, and the Sinister Clone's gonna be two costs, and that like all makes a certain kind of sense.
00:51:49
Speaker
But like, why does this two cost Captain America start the game with a one cost card on the, I don't know. It's it's weird and wacky. I don't know. That's what I think.
00:52:01
Speaker
I think it always should have been zero. ah So that Killmonger hits it and you can be like, ha ha, it can't be destroyed. I guess. I mean, if you really want to hybrit i highlight the vibranium element, that i sure. i guess I guess maybe that is evocative and like a fun way to make it mechanical. and I don't know. maybe maybe maybe it's always maybe Maybe it was appropriate that it should be won just for that Killmonger interaction. Maybe maybe i'm wrong and Electra for our earliest game players.
00:52:29
Speaker
ah Loki goes from 2-2 to one two i think this is a wild change. Besides Arsham getting him back on turn one. Loki was dead.
00:52:42
Speaker
He needed something. And this will have people we can try doing Loki things again. Maybe we'll find something. I am like, is this my entry point? is this Is this the gateway Loki? That's me hooked?
00:52:56
Speaker
Just a little tiny history. He finally convinces Ben. no He seems all right. I mean, like he's just a one cost. You can play him any time. ah You know, maybe maybe this is this is the moment.
00:53:06
Speaker
Who knows? Next week, i'll I'll report back and we'll see if I played any Loki. I'd give it about a 40% chance. 40% chance of Loki. um sure you're gonna I'm a busy person. i've got I've got other irons in the fire.
00:53:21
Speaker
there's There's stuff to do.
00:53:25
Speaker
In the fire hair. Oh, okay. Exactly. Thanos goes from 610 to 612. And the space stone goes 11 to 12. I choose to believe... and the space zone goes one one to one two
00:53:40
Speaker
i believe her This buff is celebrating Squid Game Season 2, which one of my favorite K-pop stars plays a rapper called Thanos, whose rhymes will obliterate half the population. Yeah.
00:54:02
Speaker
So good. wish I was making any of that up, but I totally am not. That's the character. I'm glad that you're not. And he's a lot of fun. Squid Game, season two.
00:54:12
Speaker
look Look for my boy T.O.P. as Thanos. He paints his fingernails the colors of the Infinity Stones, and I saw that, like, i don't know, early on, and I was like, oh my gosh, are those the Infinity Stones? And sure enough, it comes up later that, like, yes, those are. That's just and fantastic.
00:54:28
Speaker
Wow. But yeah, the big buff, I think. 612? man. I don't know about all that. 512 with Time Stone? 522 when you get Power Stone working properly? This is like big.
00:54:42
Speaker
Too big, I think. You know what Magneto's secret has always been? He's also the Hulk. Yeah. It is very big, and you get it you definitely draw this card, right? Thanos starts in your hand.
00:54:56
Speaker
Yeah. But, i you know, they've readjusted all this all the stones to be Thanos-focused, and I think it's cool when Thanos does the thing that he's even bigger than the integral. I'm into it.
00:55:07
Speaker
I suppose. I'll give it a try. I mean, like, he is the big bad. just want to play Mockingbird some more, to be honest.
00:55:18
Speaker
i Mockingbird goes great in this. I'm really going to try that. Mockingbird Thanos is going to be cool. um And Death. And Firehair. Yeah. Okay, Wolverine, 2-2 to two three Good.
00:55:33
Speaker
We like seeing early cards, and popular characters. This had me bust out some of my own and destroy fun, like my own Gundam decks and stuff.
00:55:46
Speaker
Just, yeah. um I like it. I'm glad. I'm glad, Wolverine. I see him, and I wonder if, like, could I perhaps play him in discard again? did Does this point of power make that? Does this make that difference? I don't think it does. Usually not, no.
00:56:05
Speaker
I like that they have that option with Wolverine in X-23. like it. he It's just he was good enough when I first got into discard, and that makes me sad that he's not good enough anymore.
00:56:18
Speaker
Yeah, make a... Discard's not good enough! it's like we're Wolverine and 23. It's like, they're usually like, you know, part of the X-Men and stuff, but sometimes they go off in their own journeys and like do stuff. And that's when they're in discard. And it's just like, you know, whatever it is.
00:56:36
Speaker
ah anyway, doing crossover adventures with blade, you know, that kind thing. Exactly. You get it. Absolutely. Okay.
00:56:47
Speaker
Bruce banner, two changes, only one of which affects the text. Uh, Still a 2-1, but at the end of the turn, if you have unspent energy, a 33% chance to Hulk out instead of 25. I mean, we saw this coming, right?
00:57:01
Speaker
We saw it coming, but I hate it. Yeah, I also hate it, and yeah. We don't want Bruce to be a good card. No. but we don't. no I was like, oh, now I'll play him. I'll him in Spider-Bay. He wasn't good enough before, but now maybe he is. Do you want to play against people who are running Bruce Banner, though?
00:57:20
Speaker
On the last turn, there's a random chance that they get plus 11 power. That's why you got a red guardian him. It's only a 2-1. You're going to spend your 3 energy to stop there, too. It's vulnerable.
00:57:32
Speaker
Um...
00:57:35
Speaker
Only if they don't have... It depends what they're playing. What are they playing in this deck? What else am I taking out? Misty Knight? This is going in Hyde, right? Oh, I have things to say about the second change. Yeah, like additional change not reflected in text. That's what we need. Let's introduce card specific rules just for just for Bruce Banner that like we're not telling you about in the text.
00:57:56
Speaker
Like what? Goofy. that's my generous interpretation. The new change is that Bruce keeps power modifiers after hulking out. And I'm fine with that, except that's not how any other transforming card works. Nope, not even a little.
00:58:13
Speaker
So it should be in the text. If it's not how everything else works. fine with that being an ability, but it needs to be... I don't have Bruce Banner. I was going to check if they updated the like you know the new like examine the card to see the additional text. does he have tooltips?
00:58:30
Speaker
I don't know. I don't have him. oh Well, the good news is I have Bruce Banner now, so we can the bottom of this. The other cards that have Transform have a tooltip that specifically says their power modifiers are reset.
00:58:44
Speaker
I think there are two ways that they can this. His only tooltip is about end of turn. There's not even a tooltip about hulking out. that ah That is missing the point of the tooltip. Yep. Yep. I'm fine if transform cards keep their modifiers, but it should be consistent. And I have two proposals for this. One, every card that transforms is consistent. I don't care if it's Cersei or Tarnax or Niko or Morph. I don't care.
00:59:10
Speaker
My other one is cards that transform themselves keep their power. I'm fine with that, too. That would be Morph, Bruce Banner, and Konshu. Yeah. you know But I want it to be consistent. I understand rule of cool. I get that. like It's fun that Bruce, you can beef him up a little bit.
00:59:28
Speaker
you can What are you hitting him with anyway? like Galacta. Whatever. You're going to miss out on a few turns. Incidental things. Wakandan embassy. you know Stuff happens.
00:59:43
Speaker
Cards change power. But it's also cool that they restart. Like, I won a game the other day against Ajax and Mystique Ajax and Hazmat because I surceded three of my cards, and all a sudden they weren't inflicted anymore. Yeah, that is cool.
00:59:58
Speaker
Okay, I did math on Bruce. Previously, the average was it would took take him four turns on average to Hulk out. Now it's three. The other thing is, generally, if you play him on two, right, you have four turns to proc him.
01:00:11
Speaker
He used to have a 69% chance to Hulk out in four turns. Now he has an 80% chance to Hulk out in four turns. Well, 80.5%. If you're skipping an ATL, those chains. That's a big jump. That's an 11% increase.
01:00:30
Speaker
Yeah, right. You have to skip four energy to do it. If you only skip two energy, then it used to be a 44% chance, and now it's 56% chance. like this Wow. This is a increase, right? Yeah.
01:00:42
Speaker
But it's still just a tough thing to pull off, because I've played plenty of High Evo and Sunspun stuff, and it's like, okay, generally, all the ways that I've done this stuff, you have a card you want to play on turn three that's...
01:00:55
Speaker
three costs, you know what i mean? Like cyclops, know, whatever you're doing. so it's just like,
01:01:03
Speaker
Is this the deck that plays Black Cat? You play Black Cat on three and then you you have an energy No, I don't actually think that's the thing. I'm just like, there are these loose pieces in my brain and I'm like, I was just complaining about a two cost that you would want to play on turn three and then you would have an extra energy and you would need to play one cost to go with that. Except, you know, like and it was still it was still in in the RAM, you know.
01:01:26
Speaker
I wonder, I feel like this makes them way more playable, though, because before it's like, I'm not skipping enough energy that I'm going to practice. There's no way this is a good enough two cost. And now it's like, oh, there's a much bigger chance. So even though I'm definitely, even if I get them down on two, it's not likely I'm going skip energy every single turn after that.
01:01:45
Speaker
um You know, because like a lot of people aren't playing Shocker in like... Yeah, I would say nobody's playing Shocker. um Right, so that's the thing. When you start skipping energy in those decks, it's usually from turn three on where you've also skipped one because you didn't draw something. Otherwise, you've got missed. You think about the progression of cards you want to play. So you're like already subtracting one from the Bruce Banner chances because you're not.
01:02:10
Speaker
you're not That's I'm saying. Because you're talking about straight sta statistics. And when I'm thinking, I'm like, well, this is the way that I would play it, you know, ensure other people would play it differently. In practice, it won't be like that. But yeah, that's why in practice, things that seem super powerful really aren't. Because it's not worth, you know I Like skipping playing Cyclops or whatever isn't going to be worth it for like a Hulk at the end of the game. You know what I mean? Like compared to other things that you're building towards, like that are not, that's why you don't just play straight power the whole game. Cause you know, you can you can add things up more to the sum of the parts. So anyway, I just think. Even with three bites of the apple.
01:02:50
Speaker
Three is now 71%. saying it's a consideration. maybe this is too powerful. I'm just saying because you know you you almost definitely are not skipping all of those turns even if you play them on two.
01:03:05
Speaker
I've been playing a decent amount of High Evo skip energy deck recently because I'm playing Hulk just to try to make Baby Hulk appear. Yeah.
01:03:16
Speaker
it might all be a conspiracy. It might all be a coincidence, but it's worked very well for every other variant I wanted. So I'm sticking to it. Um, If you get five turns, that that deck is playing Limbo. If you get five, it used to be 76%, and now it's 87. Like, it's pretty wild.
01:03:36
Speaker
um But if you're putting in the effort of putting in magic to get Limbo, Those decks often run magic. That's true. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. But it's still just not free. And then, like, there are other cards who cost cards.
01:03:51
Speaker
Like, Angela could get to a 12 if I put in enough work. You know what I mean? like Yeah, yeah. have a definitely This version of Angela? Angela, as she exists month In Sam's time, she can get bigger because the game goes... don't know. You can do more stuff.
01:04:11
Speaker
and I didn't finish up my thought with saying that i was that I've been playing it a lot lately, and I am skipping energy almost every single turn. like You're generally just playing a turn behind. Okay. it depends right like if i don't have misty on the board then then i'm fine with you know dropping cyclops on three like it's fine because then maybe you get four four swings at the pinata or three swings at the pinata it's probably breaking open and getting hulk everywhere yep gross um i just i don't
01:04:47
Speaker
It's definitely a big improvement. I just don't want this card to be. out Yeah. Does this is this a card that should be improved? I think we would. ah Well, ah re are you rooting for are you rooting for Bruce? It's OK if you're rooting for Bruce. You can be honest. I don't want him to be menace, but I don't want him like what the other option is. He sits around for another five months until they think about doing a rework. Like I want. That's a good point.
01:05:10
Speaker
I like that this change made me want to try this card. Will we find out that we hate this card? Maybe. But before opened this card and I was visibly disappointed.
01:05:20
Speaker
Brand new Series 5 card. I'm like, I am so disappointed to have rolled this from Sanctum. And now it's like, oh, I'll put this in Spider-Vang. Seems alright. Or you know what mean?
01:05:31
Speaker
Or I'll try other things. ah So like, that's the exciting part to me. If he becomes a menace, obviously boo. right. I'm going to borrow some of your team optimism.
01:05:43
Speaker
Series five cards should feel good. Yeah. i agree. I'm giving this change a wait and see. I don't have a hard opinion about it yet. Yeah. yeah But okay generally, I love that snap.
01:05:55
Speaker
Basically, every card is playable. Most cards are playable, even if it's in a very niche way. I'm OK if there's weirdo cards that aren't good. Like you have to you know, this is for somebody who wants to play the RNG game.
01:06:08
Speaker
I'm fine with that. Stay over there. Like it's it's cool when it happens. But I don't want it to be a card that... just have meme-y deck, though, and I had no interest in this card. Yeah, meme-y is fine. I'm fine if he's if he's good enough for a meme deck, but I don't want him to be good enough for a competitive player to play, ever.
01:06:24
Speaker
I've played Hercules, you know what I mean? We love Hercules. Honestly, rarely. Some of us love Hercules.
01:06:36
Speaker
I'm just saying, for me to have a card to be as little interested in it, and it's not because it's some big six-drop dummy card. I mean, not like... people who play it are dummies, but like the card itself is a big dummy stat stick or whatever. It's like, this should be a card that intrigues someone like me and it does not. And that is a problem.
01:06:54
Speaker
That's fair. um Final change. Deep Space is being turned off for now because has bad interactions with Iron Patriot. I'm not sure exactly how you trigger it. I think Iron Patriot is played there played right on turn two, and then on turn three, Deep Space appears.
01:07:11
Speaker
And then the game repeats his animation over and over and over again. Oh, yeah. Oh, is that how that happened? Okay, i wasn't i I think I've seen it, but I don't think I knew what caused it. I didn't pay attention. So instead of fixing it, they're just disabling it, which I'm sure they'll fix it eventually, and Deep Space will come back, because it's a somewhat interesting location. It is that. like Deep Space.
01:07:31
Speaker
I like Deep Space. I like that Nico can affect it. That's very clever when you do it. yeah think she and Legion are the only ones who can get rid of it. Yep, Nocturne's not doing it, that's for sure.
01:07:45
Speaker
On to our side quests. This week, secret homework assigned by Rhi. Take it away. Okay. Yes, so my secret homework was to recommend obscure game.
01:07:59
Speaker
And I have, you know, as we probably all do is game characters, have tons of really obscure games. The first things that came to mind, actually discarded them because they were all old favorite nostalgia games.
01:08:13
Speaker
And I'm like, would they actually be good to recommend today? Would someone still be able to enjoy them the same? And I wouldn't want to do that unless I went back and like replayed them recently, and even though it's the color of ah my nostalgia. So I dug and I was like, let just think.
01:08:29
Speaker
I hope this is sufficiently... obscure I wanted to ah pick a very different style of game um to what I would normally play it came out in 2015 and to look it up it was it was written and directed by Sam Barlow it's called Her Story um i feel like I've talked to Lauren about it before you i I've played this game Yeah, it's the idea is the whole game. There's only one basic um mechanic, which is a search engine.
01:09:01
Speaker
And ah you're basically looking to to to uncover the story um basically through like kind of like police interviews and stuff. So the only thing you have is search. And so like you're looking at these videos and kind of trying to solve a mystery uh,
01:09:19
Speaker
um you know discovering new things uh through the search and i have a real soft spot when i was a teen i really wanted to be a detective that was like legit my goals like i will and it turns out like the television ah view of the police force does not quite line up to the reality of situations but there was a time where like my dreams to be like i'm gonna be a And a trench coat and a fedora. No, okay.
01:09:49
Speaker
I realized that modern detectives happen, but like I loved solving things. So anyway, this kind of satisfied that itch. I loved watching like detective series and we turned into detective and I got to do that. And it's just such a different, it was the time, you know, we've seen a lot of different things now.
01:10:05
Speaker
But it's just the cool, the idea that you're just kind of like investigating through ah through searching um the Internet, which is something we do all the time. So that's my I have I have plenty of others that I thought about going back and we talked about whether we were going to allow honorable mentions and we decided no, because maybe we will bring this back.
01:10:29
Speaker
So we will save them or we will talk forever. About the many obscure games we know. So with that said, I think Ben is assigning new homework. And I will ah pass the secret homework baton to Lauren.
01:10:44
Speaker
Okay, um my list, which I tried to keep throughout the week, is 44 long, and it honestly could have been a lot longer. Because this was just off the top my head. I didn't scroll through my like you know my libraries or anything like that.
01:10:57
Speaker
um But I'm going with the very first thing that came to mind. It started as iOS, but you can get it on...
Exploring 'Year Walk' Game Experience
01:11:03
Speaker
Windows, Mac, or Wii U also. um It's called Year Walk. And it's by this little studio called Simogo, which makes lovely iOS games that are often very narrative heavy.
01:11:14
Speaker
This is based on a Swedish tradition called...
01:11:18
Speaker
something like that. I don't speak Swedish. Um, where you go on a walk at night in the middle of winter and you, and you starve yourself all day. You skip water, you avoid fire.
01:11:30
Speaker
And then at the ah chime of midnight, you go walking out towards the church and you see like a procession of people. And that could tell you like, um, who's going to have funerals within the next year. And like, this is, like this is a real thing that they based a fictional story on.
01:11:44
Speaker
Um, and it was just, it's creepy. um This is a 2013. twenty thirteen I don't know if I said that. ah I played this when I was working night shift and I don't know what I was thinking because it is a little scary. I'd be lying if I said there were zero jump scares. But the thing that it does so beautifully that I think is super interesting is once you beat the game, beat the game, you then...
01:12:06
Speaker
It's not quite over yet. Like, there's an extra bit of story. If you go into a companion app that they released that told you, like, on the surface, the companion app is just telling you, like, some of the Swedish folklore surrounding the the monsters and ghosts that you see.
01:12:21
Speaker
um But when you beat the game, you get a code that you can use in the companion app that unlocks a whole, like, second... ending and and i've played other games that have done this since but it was one of the first that i did where it was like just this like oh this really interesting experience that i that i felt like i discovered they didn't market it this way at all and so sorry i spoiled it for all of you um I played it ah this week, you know, knock out the whole thing, including the second ending and like ah less than two hours.
01:12:51
Speaker
um So it's still functional. If you want to hunt it down, it is a little scary, but very cool. It does some fun things with the fact that it's mobile, you know, like at some point you're seeking out.
01:13:03
Speaker
There's no easy way to say this drowned babies. It's related to one of the Swedish folklore stories. Um, And when you, when you, when you sounds like the ray of sunshine we all need in our lives. It's a little disturbing, but it's just so fascinating.
01:13:19
Speaker
Um, and it has, i don't know if a happy ending is the right way to do it, but you are like, as somebody in the present, you are influencing the past in a meaningful way.
01:13:30
Speaker
Um, In a positive way. It's not exactly cheery, but um you make things better. And ah anyway, so at one point you find blood dripping upwards. And what do you do to solve the puzzle? You hold your phone upside down. Like, you know, just a little cute things like that.
01:13:48
Speaker
um Anyway, it's cool art. It got me into like, it was one of my first steps into... valuing story and not just gameplay, which I used to be really like heavy on like mechanics are king, like stories, for mechanics have to be good.
01:14:05
Speaker
And I've increasingly found that there are other things that
PS2 Memories and 'Grandia Xtreme' Exploration
01:14:09
Speaker
make a game valuable. And, you know, even if it's a 90 minute game that is story heavy more than anything else, it still has a lot of value.
01:14:17
Speaker
I recommend it. If you are not, if you're not too scared for a couple of jump scares, Ben, what's, Oh, I'm so afraid of jump scares.
01:14:29
Speaker
Well, my game has no jump scares in it. um And the story of how I came to play this game is like a little odd. So I and it seems relevant because like ah this game is so obscure. It's like, how did I actually come to play this game?
01:14:49
Speaker
um So it's Christmas 2002. two thousand and two ah i've I've been raised in a household where like we don't really fucks with video games. like You can maybe play an educational computer game if we ordered it out of the book orders at school, but certainly none of these games that you would see in the PC games aisle at Target or whatever with all these...
01:15:11
Speaker
you know, creepy covers and things, but yeah, mostly educational stuff. But like after, after much pleading and begging and, you know, the squeezing the, getting a foot in the door with, with the Game Boy Color after much begging and pleading like this, this was the, the first video game thing that I was allowed to have was the Game Boy Color. But then,
01:15:33
Speaker
It was 2002, Christmas, and like the DVD was becoming the standard for for home video. So we had to... we We ended up... My parents decided, of their own volition, with with no like cajoling or too much pressure, that like the smart thing to do would be to get PS2 from Best Buy. And because ah my family is much like me, they, of course, opted to get the one that had been opened and returned.
01:16:03
Speaker
Because it's cheaper. So it was like $30 cheaper or something. So they get this this opened and returned PS2. And it has a disc in it. And I'm left to conclude that ah this JRPG was so... Like...
01:16:23
Speaker
obtuse and just like wild that whoever whoever got this ps2 bounced off of it so hard that they returned the ps2 to best with the game disc inside yeah it took me years to like actually figure out what how how this happened like why was there this weird disc that that just came inside the PS2. I like, I thought, did every PS2 ship with a copy of Grandia Extreme?
01:16:52
Speaker
Cause that's the game. Grandia Extreme. ah yeah you may, you may have heard of the Grandia series. This is not one of the numbered titles. ah For those who don't know, the the Grandia series was a series of JRPGs in the, I want to say the late 90s. Yes, the first game came out in 1997 for the PlayStation 1 and the Sega Saturn. That was Grandia.
01:17:16
Speaker
I haven't played that one. I've played the others. I've played Grandia 2 and I've played Grandia Extreme because and Grandia 3 because they were all available on PS2. Although Grandia 2 was also on Dreamcast and has since been ported to PC.
01:17:30
Speaker
Um, Grandia x Extreme is only playable on the PlayStation 2. It did not sell very well. It was very strange. It, um, it was, ah it's so hard to describe. Um, it was a JRPG.
01:17:44
Speaker
It had some celebrity voice actors in it. And this was before every game had celebrity voice actors in it. And the celebrities were of a certain, of a certain caliber that like,
01:17:57
Speaker
Okay, there were three celebrities in the cast. Mark Hamill, by far the most famous, voiced the antagonist, Colonel Kreutz, and he was great. ah The main character was played by Dean Cain from Lois and Clark and a bunch of Lifetime movies and stuff.
01:18:17
Speaker
And ah Lisa Loeb, the musician, played the character of Lutina. um And wow, this game was so, like, punishingly difficult. It had very unforgiving mechanics.
01:18:32
Speaker
There is one place to save in the entire game. And, like, you have to travel back to your, like, home base to save. And, like, the the teleport points, the the travel points are not generous.
01:18:45
Speaker
Some of them are only one way. so like, if you want to go back home and save, you got to start the whole dungeon over, baby. Damn. Like, there... And then there's a post-game dungeon that's 100 floors long, and you have to open ah gateway to get back into the dungeon to resume it.
01:19:03
Speaker
And then you can open up a one-way gateway back home five floors later. So if you decide that you need to go back home or save the game and do something else with your life or whatever, you need to know that you can grind through five more floors of procedurally generated dungeon to, like...
01:19:19
Speaker
save your progress. It's ah there there were so many strange and punishing things. But like, I do love this game. This game is like phenomenal. It has like all eight of the characters are very different. They each have like their own unique moves and things. Also, they have equipment that like, the equipment is equippable by different characters determined basically by like, how butch is this character? Is this character allowed to wear this shirt? Like, if if if it's if it's one of the the more effeminate men, they can wear this shirt, but not not if it's one of the macho men and stuff like that.
01:19:57
Speaker
like This is like such a weird, big sandbox of a game. like There are so many strange pieces of equipment with unusual effects. Like, oh, well, you'll always be berserk if you put on this mask, but it will it make you have a really strong critical attack. and like just like so many strange pieces of equipment, strange skills.
01:20:20
Speaker
There was a a lovely mana egg system by which you would synthesize things and you'd just like breed them like chocobos or whatever, except like it very cool game.
01:20:31
Speaker
Very, uh, no one's played it. Was it turn-based? Yes. Very turn-based. It has like, uh, just a beautiful battle system that is in many ways, like too good for the rest of the game.
01:20:45
Speaker
yeah and It is so weird and wild. And the music is phenomenal. I love it. it like has like It's got like and jazz fusion elements, like prog rock, like city pop. It's like drawing from all kinds of things. And it's like very bright and colorful graphically. And like everything looks very clean and crisp. just Just a beautiful game with a lot of cool things and a lot of... like impossibly unfriendly things about it i played this game without it like a manual or anything and there are so many like all the characters have so many goddamn statistics and they're all represented by like three letters and like you're like don't know what res means but uh i you know i figured it out over over like many years and trial and error like i understand all the systems of the game but like
01:21:37
Speaker
Oh, baby. It did not come easily. And, yeah, I just, i I love that game, and I miss having a functioning PS2 on which to play it. have memory card with files and things.
01:21:48
Speaker
still do.
Designing Marvel Snap Cards from HeroClix
01:21:49
Speaker
And I kept a, I didn't keep my PS1, but I kept the um the memory card, because you can, let's see, you have you have to save PS, ah you can play PlayStation 1 games on a PS2, but you yeah can only save them on a PlayStation 1 memory card.
01:22:03
Speaker
Oh. Old console problems. Yeah. It's true. i wonder if you could I wonder if you can emulate that. Anyway.
01:22:15
Speaker
Next week's homework. Or wait. and The memory card. that I don't know. I might be misremembering some things about memory cards. There's something like that. I don't know. I'm trying to remember how I played PlayStation 1 game. Did I have a PlayStation 1 memory card? I don't know.
01:22:29
Speaker
Whatever. My memory might be tricking me. It's happened before. Should have installed a memory cone. Maybe went corrupt. Okay, so
01:22:42
Speaker
sorry. Oh, yeah. Am I assigning homework? Is that why we've arrived at the the dead air moment? Okay. That's why Ria and I are being quiet. Very cool secret homework ah secret homework assignment that everyone's super excited about. So eager are all of us.
01:22:59
Speaker
Alright. So you may remember ah few weeks ago, we had my my... I guess my last one was the what-if thing, but the one before that was the Infinity Challenge Challenge, where I was like, okay, any character from the first Marvel Heroclix set that hasn't had a Marvel Snap card yet, ah pick one of those and make one.
01:23:20
Speaker
Well, it turned out that, like... because of because of reasons, obvious and unfortunate. ah like All of the female characters in the first HeroClix set have already got Marvel Snapcards.
01:23:36
Speaker
So what I did was I went through the first five HeroClix sets of Marvel HeroClix, and I found every female character that is not yet represented on a Marvel Snapcard.
01:23:47
Speaker
And ah the sets in question that I went through were From 2002, the second HeroClick set, Clobber in Time, a smaller expansion. Then 2003's Explosion and Critical Mass.
01:24:00
Speaker
And then 2004's Ultimates set. these These are the sets that i I picked the female characters from that are not yet in Snap. And those characters, some of them we've designed cards for in the past because...
01:24:13
Speaker
You know, the same reasons that there were not and enough female characters in the first HeroClick set. Anyway, point is, here are the characters. And i will I will, of course, mention the ones that we've already secret homeworked cards for. um Spiral.
01:24:27
Speaker
Destiny. i I've designed a Destiny card. I believe that was for my X-Men Legends 2 season. Madam Mask, or Madame Mask, if you prefer. um Boom Boom, a character who has had many other names, I believe, but Boom Boom is the one we're going with.
01:24:44
Speaker
Then we've got Deathbird, the one that has a name that, you know, confuses me every time Lauren wants to talk about a certain kind of deck. um Then we've got Hepzibah, one of the star jammers and apparently a character that's been used in a lot of recent comics that I was unaware of until I started doing some research for this secret homework.
01:25:06
Speaker
ah Marrow, Morlock and an ex- person and ah just a real, a real bony one. um Calypso, Morgan Le Fay, Princess Python, Callisto, Anaconda, Hellcat, he's already designed Hellcat card, Vindicator, and Goblin Queen. And Scott,
01:25:27
Speaker
has a theory that, uh, second dinner does not know the difference between, ah the goblin queen and, uh, Celine or Selene, if you prefer. he thinks that they think these are the same character and that's why she synergizes with goblins.
01:25:43
Speaker
Yeah. That's theory. And I think he's right. That's. Oh, yep I think they're just a little confused. They dress similarly. I'll put Madeline Cryer. get it. i get it. Surely they watched the new X-Men show. You would think. And they know now.
01:26:01
Speaker
Now they know. I don't think they did at the time. But yeah, that's like 15 characters or so. I'll put the list on the the Discord or whatever. um Also, there there was one other female character, Brood Queen, although it's unclear to me what kind of brood the brood on Brood is.
01:26:21
Speaker
So, like, that might already be a Brood Queen. I don't know. did a Brood Queen. What was that? I did a Brood Queen for Secret Homework. Oh, you did already? Okay, well, then that one would have had an asterisk by it anyway.
01:26:34
Speaker
you know Yeah, you did, actually. know okay I thought that seemed only little... didn't expect you remember them all. There have been quite a few now. Honestly, we've we've gotten there. Okay, so those were the cards.
01:26:46
Speaker
We love to design cards. Yeah, we do. Lots of good ones there. I like to talk about video games and comics. Well, you get to... We take a lot of prep work.
01:26:56
Speaker
Okay. okay i mean, I'm sure you have feelings about some of these characters. No, I'm already
Board Games and Social Dynamics
01:27:02
Speaker
excited. Boom Boom is a character I've recently, I've kind of seen around for a while and has lately come more into my attention. I'm like, she seems cool. I would like to read more about her and I will take this opportunity to do so.
01:27:15
Speaker
Sorry for spoiling it. Spoiling. Hey, feel free to zag on us. Just because you talked about Boom Boom today doesn't mean you have to bring her... Also, wait, wasn't that in Battlestar Galactica? Like, sharing Boom Boom Valeri?
01:27:29
Speaker
ah Yes, absolutely. Yep, uh-huh. Also, you know what know what it reminds me of? it reminds me of a little show called Are You The One? ah ah reality ah romance show that... Okay, so, like...
01:27:45
Speaker
Oh man, it's so hard to describe the premise. But there there is, there is ah part part of the format involves inviting someone else to the Boom Boom Room, which is what it sounds like. no And it has the dumbest name.
01:27:59
Speaker
No, you ruined it. I know, I know. Mine is cool because like... Yours is cooler, but I needed to tell you about mine. It was too much for me to carry by myself. but You understand that, right? Shoulder this burden. and I'm going to save it so that's not the last thing. I've seen this show once. It fell apart at the end.
01:28:19
Speaker
But like the board game, if you're a gamer, you know the Battlestar Galactica board game. I love the Battlestar Galactica board game. I play it with my friend Jeremy. Oh, man. Only one person?
01:28:30
Speaker
Okay, I was so good at it then. No, no, no. I also i also make my spouse... i don't Don't get me wrong. We assemble we assemble a ah ah You know... and that a squadron A squadron of... What what are the what are the the ships? You know, the the little... The ones that the the humans have.
01:28:51
Speaker
not Not the Cylon ones. don't know. You know, the ships have names. They've got, what are they? are these vipers I forget what they are. Yeah, vipers. That's what they're called. They're vipers. But like, no! We assembled a viper squadron.
01:29:05
Speaker
We were, like, okay, so this game, I was really good at it because I could always figure out who the Cylons were, but then no one would believe me because I, you know, would behave maybe similarly to when I was Cylon.
01:29:18
Speaker
And, oh it was such it was like the original hidden role game. like It was so good when it came out. And you could base it because the idea is it's actually based in sci-fi. like Some people are your secret robots and you'd be doing stuff around the ship and it made sense.
01:29:35
Speaker
And then they took it all to all this... like like um secret Hitler stuff where it's like based on nothing and that's no fun for me. I hate dumbed down ah hidden role games. But yeah, in this one, that's how I know the card because it was always like, Sharon, boom, boom, Valeri.
01:29:54
Speaker
Because that's what it does. Oh, side note, if you were really into the Battlestar Galactica game, they re-skinned it into Cthulhu, which, you know, once you strip that of all the racism, Cthulhu mythology is fun.
01:30:06
Speaker
and And so it's it's now, it's it's called... um Oh no, what is it called? It's such a generic-y, like, Eldritch Horror kind of name.
01:30:17
Speaker
But ah it's just Battlestar Galactica reskinned where you're on a boat. And some people are, you know, hidden cultists. And it's like, you know, so if you want to play modern take on it. Okay.
01:30:28
Speaker
Also, I think I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but there was a Battlestar Galactica trading card game, and the cards did have the corners cut off of them, yeah just like every piece of paper that was handed around on the bridge. Okay.
01:30:41
Speaker
I know I've said it on the podcast before, but it bears repeating because it's wild. Is the game name Unfathomable? Yes, that's it! Oh, that sounds right. It does have a clever little, you know...
01:30:52
Speaker
I have to admit, i've never been but it's just say I've never played Battlestar Galactica or Unfathomable, even though I almost played Battlestar Galactica once. Like, it was at the table. I don't know what happened. But I've played a bunch of hidden role games.
01:31:05
Speaker
Okay. I have a bunch of hidden rule games. No, fantastic ones. and And decent ones. um But I have i have a problem that sounds like similar to what you have. I am a convincing liar, but nobody believes me when I'm telling the truth. Like, I'm bad at telling the truth. i don't know.
01:31:23
Speaker
Anyway, if you like what you heard, uh, do the things like comment, subscribe, et cetera. You can find the information to do those things or to join us on our discord, uh, in the show notes or the video description. We're on YouTube. If you're not watching us there, we're on podcast apps. If you're not listening to us there, you don't need to do both as the same content, except you see our pretty faces in one of them.
01:31:43
Speaker
Um, We are proud to be members of the Snap Judgments Network, where you can listen to other great shows like Newcomer, the Infinaut podcast. That's Infinaut ending in N-O-T.
01:31:56
Speaker
Hosted by Keir Nimbus. I listened to it today and I really enjoyed it. It was like 20 minutes long. So if you're looking for some short shorter form Snap podcasting coverage, you can turn and tune into the Infinaut podcast on Saturdays.
01:32:11
Speaker
Um... Anyway, if you want to tune in next week, I think we're going to be playing Tidal Tussle 5. And now we have to, now that I've said that. hello Yeah. like um You know, thing where it's like, it never happens, but we say what happened in next pod. That'd be a fun thing.
01:32:26
Speaker
Oh, it'd be really fun. Like Arrested Development. Yeah. ah Yeah. So if you want to see us ah fight Cylons next episode, tune in next week. Same snap time, same snap channel.
01:32:41
Speaker
It's so much warmer in this room than I thought it would be. Yeah, I don't know why, but I am also quite toasty.
01:32:55
Speaker
I am toasty, having worn this all episode, but here's why I've been a beanie girl lately.
01:33:07
Speaker
So I'm bundling up every day. I've got a heated blanket. I've got slippers. I've you know, um, beanies every single day. And sometimes I just keep them on all day.
01:33:17
Speaker
So that's where we're at.
01:33:21
Speaker
You told me you had some bullshit you want to talk about. No, it was only bullshit if we had nothing else. It's such shower thoughts. But it's only relevant this week because it's about hair and fire hairs next week.
01:33:31
Speaker
I was, okay, this is this is a little bit of narcissism. am sorry to admit to it. But if you've watched the podcast, you may notice my hair changes, you know, on a regularly on a monthly basis. And I have moved from, like, a phase, and I was thinking this, I'm like, it was more of, like, synthwave laser sword master, you know, phase of hair.
01:33:54
Speaker
so I'm like, what is this, more like fairy princess? And I was like, no, because I wouldn't want to be a princess. What would I want to be? And was like, probably the leader of the Toad Battalion.
01:34:04
Speaker
But then I was like, wait a minute, fairies have wings. Why are they riding on toads? And I'm like, well, we're very ableist of you. Because some fairies might have been injured with their wings, or maybe some weren't born well, and they still want to fight the fairy wars to defend the fairy homeland.
01:34:22
Speaker
Plus... Think about this. So that's already, it feels, you're like, you're like in the Toad Battalion, which is full of all the the fairies that are cool enough to like, you know, have faced some hardships and still be like, the baddest mofo fairies around.
01:34:37
Speaker
But like, lances are heavy. so like, it makes sense that like, you couldn't carry a lance as a fairy and also fly. You'd probably need to ride a Toad. And I was like, lances are not as cool as swords, but sometimes you like to shake things up.
01:34:54
Speaker
And sometimes you need it for the triangle strategy of like, you know, sword lances beat swords beat archery. So I feel like I've seen some, I've seen some magic, the gathering fairies with some lances and they looked pretty cool.
01:35:11
Speaker
<unk> Because around about the lore, one block, I want to say. that's That's where I saw these Lance fairies. Wait, where? I'm not about the Lorwyn block. I just want chronologically place where I'm recalling seeing these cool-looking Lance fairies, and I think it was Lorwyn block.
01:35:31
Speaker
All right. So end of the day. So one, two, I felt bad because I was like totally dissing on my last Pathfinder session on maces. was like, who would carry a mace and a sword, right? Like, that's so late.
01:35:43
Speaker
I don't know. I just find it's like my little Morningstar thing like versus sword. And I thought this is what I always do. Like when I mock people for not having, I'm like, who hasn't watched Star Wars at this point in their life, unless they're trying. And then someone's like, I've never seen Star Wars. I'm like, I'm sorry, sweetheart. You're very sweet. missionni It's actually like a lot easier to not see things than to see things.
01:36:03
Speaker
I know, right? So this is why I'm socially awkward and putting my foot in my mouth. So I was just like, yeah, maces are dumb. And it's like, I like maces. And it's probably because you're kind of person who would play a cleric, which is true. because and and And then also I was dissing clerics.
01:36:18
Speaker
but In my current campaign, I'm i'm a Tempest
01:36:26
Speaker
Do you have mace? Uh, no, actually. So you're fine? No. Okay.
01:36:39
Speaker
That's just a hack. Is that what all that setup was?
01:36:51
Speaker
But yeah. Fair enough.