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58: Hire Someone Who Locks the Door
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🍽️ Deadpool’s Diner is over and tech returns! 🐕
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Weeks in Snap 🫰
- 🔦 Last Week Card Vibes 🧙 Warlock ✨ Next Week Card Vibes 🤖
- ⚖️ OTA Balance Updates
- Secret Homework 🤫: Toys & Collections 🧸🪀
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
- Ben - Jimmy Eat Energy
- Rie - Existential Dread (Hulkling Edition)
- (Mostly) Auto-Builder Nimrod
- SafetyBlade - Warlock Blink
- SafetyBlade - Danger! Idiots
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
- Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:16:20 Jim Hammond Human Torch
- 0:18:50 Warlock
- 0:25:11 Danger
- 0:29:00 Jocasta
- 0:33:21 Deadpool's Diner
- 0:47:37 OTA Discussion
- 1:02:22 Secret Homework: Toy Stories
- 1:14:13 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 2:16:28 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Secret Homework
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 58 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, share a favorite toy or collection. I'm your host, Lauren Whadevs, here with my usual fabulous co-hosts. First up, it's Ben.
00:00:17
Speaker
How was your week in that's me That's good. My weekend step was pretty all right. and keep it snappy.
Ben's Newfound Fondness for Jim Hammond
00:00:25
Speaker
Keeping it snappy. Well, after last week when I was so sure that ah Jim Hammond was not my kind of card, although I was pleased to see that he seemed like a real card to me. um Like five minutes after. Okay, we did play some Raven's Watch after the recording.
00:00:42
Speaker
But then like immediately after that, I was like, I don't know. Everyone's having so much fun with Jim Hammond. I'm going to get Jim Hammond. So I got Jim Hammond and now Jim Hammond is my best friend. I only play Jim Hammond now. um That's all I played in Deadpool's Diner.
00:00:55
Speaker
Worked pretty well. Been playing it on ladder. I'm up Vajillion SP. It's just ah it's a very cool deck. It's called Jimmy Eat Energy. like the band Jimmy Eat World, except with energy because Jim Hammond responds well when you have lots of energy.
00:01:11
Speaker
um He doesn't strictly eat it the way that a Havoc would. So like maybe it's a little bit misleading. I don't know. I didn't think it through that hard. I just, i thought I thought it was funny.
00:01:22
Speaker
ah But the cards, you may be curious. You may be wondering. The Hood, Kitty Pryde, Jim Hammond, Human Torch, Merlin, Hope Summers, Luna Snow, Wiccan, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Blink, Enchantress, Galactus First Steps, Giganto.
00:01:37
Speaker
You may be saying, Ben, those aren't the cards you usually play. And that's true. They are not the cards I usually play. That's a high curve. Yeah, the cards I usually play in this deck are Merlin and Hope Summers.
00:01:50
Speaker
End of list. Everyone else is way outside of my wheelhouse. um But as I'm looking at the deck now, I see i have an inked out Merlin. And I'm like, that's new.
00:02:02
Speaker
This week, I was lucky enough to get two ink splits, which um used to be a lot easier. ah finally got Scream in ink. And it only took a year. um So that's really cool. And, you know, to be fair, Scream is a card that I don't play very... No, I play a ton of Scream.
00:02:20
Speaker
I play
Excitement Over Hades 2 Launch
00:02:21
Speaker
a ton of Scream. How has it taken a year to get an inked one? ah Character Mastery is how? ah Not their finest work, I will say. um But, wow, that Deadpool's Diner, that that was ah that was that was fun ah for me for a bit. Until then, I don't know. I reached a point where, I don't know, I guess we're going to talk about it, aren't we? I shouldn't say too much about Deadpool's Diner.
00:02:44
Speaker
We can talk about it some here, and that's fine. That's what I did this week. i've got I've got a more important thing to mention, and that is today is the very special day did...
00:02:58
Speaker
i did
00:03:01
Speaker
I did make time for the podcast because I do have my priorities right. But oh my goodness, it's a Hades 2 launch day 1.0, baby. That's very exciting. It's lots and lots of fun.
00:03:12
Speaker
I'm having lots of fun. The game's a real full ass game now. ah More story stuff. Lots of new things. There's a new version of Lucid game. It's pretty good.
00:03:24
Speaker
ah You don't have to stand in the cast to get the blue stuff anymore. ah So and that's what I'm seeing because I started a new file. So like that's the big thing I noticed first. i'm like, Lucid Gain rips now.
00:03:36
Speaker
So that's ah yeah that's the deck I played, and that's my my Weekend Snap and other stuff. That was snappy ah during intermission, which we usually cut out you know because...
00:03:49
Speaker
of the nature of intermission i'm gonna have to queue up hades 2 so it's downloading on my switch for the rest of the show um i haven't played it for several patches so there will be lots of new stuff i i did get to the surface when i don't know what is it like the second or third boss there the harpy lady okay that's only the second boss there there that's as far as i ever got that was that was quite a while ago no wait the third one is like a pirate ship thing No, the the pirate ship was before Aeris still. Okay, that's as far as I ever got. Did you get to Mount Olympus at all? Did you meet Dionysus or Athena? No.
00:04:27
Speaker
All right. Wow, you got a lot to treat yourself to. I do, too, because I've mostly been playing Fresh Files for the past few patches. I'm excited. There's lots of late-game stuff for me to unpack. All right.
00:04:41
Speaker
Host three, but just because of the order we're doing things today, not for any other reason. Also an alphabetical order. I don't know. Sorry. How was your weekend snap?
Rhi's Deadpool's Diner Strategies
00:04:50
Speaker
and keep it third chair I was third tier flute in high school, so like, you know.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, so we're going in order of our flautist chairs. Um, Rhi. I've never played a flute in my life. I played the saxophone. You think maybe you'll be a prostitute just to pay for your lessons? You're learning the flute. Ladies wouldn't pay you very much for this. Looks like you'll never be a concert flautist.
00:05:15
Speaker
No, I don't even know where that's going. When you're unemployed, there's no vacation. No one cares. No one sympathizes. So you just stay home and play synthesizers. I'm familiar.
00:05:26
Speaker
is that Tom Covey? It's Intercity Pressure by Flight of the Conchords. Oh, it's Flight of the Conchords. I really know that. I was like, parody songs started playing in my head, but I hadn't put it together yet. Yeah, West End Girls parody for sure.
00:05:41
Speaker
All right. Well, what might be our messiest transition to date? Rhi, how was your week in Snap and Keep It Snappy? No, I am sad because like I probably won't play Hades until I rebuy I got it for my B-Day when you could only get it for PC because I was streaming more then.
00:06:00
Speaker
now, honestly, until I rebuy it for console because it's like... Computers more for work for me. Consoles more for gaming. So y'all enjoy. I'll get there. um Okay.
00:06:14
Speaker
like, I think like a lot of us spend a lot of time in Deadpool's diner through which we made out like bandits, you know, like nachos, nachos. Right.
00:06:27
Speaker
So first, pretty early in the week, I hit the, the meter refill. I never, you know, I never ran out of bubs. um Pretty quick, I just got into always just snapping three times um just for the nachos.
00:06:42
Speaker
And yeah, once you saw that you could get a rotating shop of borders, um you know, that's what we're doing. know a lot of people got the emotes too. only got one...
00:06:58
Speaker
Because I only rarely am out only when I'm playing friends. And one that popped up that I'm like, I would use that as the domino dice roll. I'm like, can foresee using that. I love that one. That's the only one of the 10 that were available I already had.
00:07:14
Speaker
ah It's a good one. So, yeah, I honestly felt like this was on it. This felt like such a win for them because Like coming out with these borders, it was like hitting a, uh, like a treasure dungeon and like, you're just much can I like drag out with me? Like, you're like, can't, can't even walk. You're like over encumbered.
00:07:42
Speaker
Like, yeah, I put all my, my stats into charisma intelligence and instead of strength to carry my spoils. Um, but, But yeah, right? And it felt good because when it's like when I didn't want to grind, but it's like, oh, rainbow borders. We're getting all 12 rainbow cosmic borders for sure. But it's like, skip a green neon, you know?
00:08:06
Speaker
And, i you know, it was a good feeling. Okay, so we'll talk more
Rhi's Deck Adjustments and Experiments
00:08:10
Speaker
about that later. But that is pretty much what I did almost all week. And I went back to deck that I talked about two weeks ago. um called Existential Dread. And this, I shared it right as an OTA was dropping that nerfed two cards in the deck. That was Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Elias. And I was like, okay, well, I still really love this deck.
00:08:36
Speaker
um I'm going to try and make some subs. Plus, it's like, I think that was the auto deck. And it's like, ah, it's time to, you know... Make the deck my own, you know, make it little homey around here. Switch out the curtains. So like, i was like, for sure, Negasonic has to go. Not because she's a bad card.
00:08:57
Speaker
ah for But because the deck requires a three in that slot. You want all the threes because you're trying to hit your Wiccan bullshit. Because it's a deck, if you remember, if you would recall, it's a Galactus First Steps deck. And it runs Quicksilver Domino as the only one and two in the deck.
00:09:15
Speaker
So it's like you really want to hit that three. um So I first tried Rocket and Groot. Didn't didn and feel great, to be honest. i Where I settled eventually Cassinova.
00:09:31
Speaker
One, because when I first put her in, there's lot of kings going around, and juicing up those decks. so like She's just an instant win against some things.
00:09:43
Speaker
And what I found was really fun was Silver Surfer first steps. He was mostly in the deck for Wiccan. But it's like, people hate.
00:09:55
Speaker
It's your opponent hates this one weird trick. And that's when you Cassinova them and then Silver Surfer first steps them. So they get like the double whammy in that.
00:10:06
Speaker
And it's a great use for when you like didn't draw the Wiccan or whatever, which is obvious. A lot of times your first place depending. um Then for Elias, and I don't even think Elias losing the points was necessarily too bad. It and might still be fine for the deck was doing, but I want to take the opportunity to just try something else anyway.
00:10:27
Speaker
And um when I'm looking the sixes, of course, we saw Emperor Hulkling. And I'm like, if that isn't the perfect thing do, especially it balances out for me. It's like how like...
00:10:42
Speaker
Everybody fucking, don't really honestly drink anymore, not because i'm opposed to alcohol, but like I just can't deal with hangovers and shit anymore. so um But like back when I was drinking, because everyone was drinking so much IPAs, you know, to try and kind of balance things out, I would try to drink more like stouts and stuff.
00:11:04
Speaker
You know, other varieties. But anyway, and in this case, this deck has such rigid structure with Quicksilver and Domino is always your one and twos. You know, that like Emperor Hulkling is that satisfying, like, know something different every time.
00:11:23
Speaker
Occasionally, yes, an Infonaut. But so many times now, like a gore or like, you know, just other cards that are super um great. and i Hulkling gets better with every great six ability that comes out. He's the best ever been.
00:11:41
Speaker
I have won the game with a Hulkling Heimdall. I've won it with a Hulkling Galactus. I've won it with, you know, plenty, plenty of Hulklings. So um that's a good time. And ah Happy Cat's still a gem, to be honest.
00:12:00
Speaker
Okay. So ah that was, you know, that's what I did. We'll talk more about. About Deadpool's dinner later. So, yeah, Lauren.
Lauren's Time in Deadpool's Diner
00:12:12
Speaker
yeah I mean, I'm not going to get through a week in Snap without talking about diner. That's how I spent most of my time. If you looked at playtime on events, I think this might be the event I've spent the most time in.
00:12:24
Speaker
um But I don't know if that means it's my favorite because it's not time gated the same way that like Showdown and Grand Arena are. Yeah.
00:12:35
Speaker
So I played a lot. For me, it felt like proof that an unranked mode would be great because the asymmetrical snaps, it meant that retreats happened less often.
00:12:47
Speaker
And I still retreated plenty. Scream and Kingpin, I just retreated in that matchup because I hate it. um
00:12:55
Speaker
Regardless of what I'm playing, it's the matchup against me, not the matchup against my deck. I just don't like what that deck does. um I'll stay in if it's if it's on my ladder climb, but other than that, I'm whatever.
00:13:08
Speaker
um You know, ah mental health first. And I find I'm happier when I am not playing against that deck. I didn't mean to talk that much about that.
00:13:18
Speaker
um But was just retreating when it felt like a lost cause. I got my three snaps in. I would give my opponent a chance to do their three snaps. I'd ask, snap! And you know if they did, great. And if not, then sorry for giving you a partial credit on your mission.
00:13:31
Speaker
um But still, it was more is it's a more fun game when it's going to the final turn more often and letting that play out. You get to choose your own stakes. I don't think it's as competitively interesting, so I wouldn't want that to be like the permanent case for ranked mode.
00:13:46
Speaker
But for some other mode, i would i would love a mode where we get to the we get to see the game play out more often. And I think Diner did that very well. I played the auto-build Nimrod deck almost the entire time. i did swap out Surge for Mr. Fantastic. I don't...
00:14:02
Speaker
It's not really the best choice. The best choice would be a two-cost Mr. Fantastic, but that's just you know not an option anymore. I think it might be Niko is the better choice. Because Surge, you just so rarely get two hits on this deck because it's high-curve deck.
00:14:17
Speaker
um Anyway, here here it is because just because I tell you auto-build Nimrod doesn't mean it's the one that will be built for you. You may not have these cards. Kid Omega, this is the one people ask me the most about replacing, and I think you don't need him, but he makes this deck both so much better and so much more fun, because the sequencing is really interesting.
00:14:39
Speaker
Carnage, Magic, Venom... Here's where the flex slot Mr. Fantastic First Steps is. Deathlock, Shuri, Phoenix Force also makes this deck extremely fun and flexible.
00:14:51
Speaker
Symbiote Spider-Man, Black Panther, Nimrod, Arnim Zola. Um, Phoenix Force surprised me. i used it more and more as this, as I got more comfortable with the deck and it just like, it lets you kind of mix up your sequencing. Like, am I going to Zola or am I going to Carnage Phoenix Force? It changes which two lanes I end up in.
00:15:10
Speaker
Anyway, uh, I don't consider myself a destroy player at all, but this particular flavor I find to be super fun. So, uh, I don't check it out if you haven't especially if you've got a kid omega or phoenix force that's just like rotting in your collection have both of those yeah i'm so jealous of your maria wolf magic the she's got blue crackle too and it's beautiful um i i rock maria wolf on ever on anything that has maria wolf that's she's my number one i do have lots and lots of hips but maria wolf's my number one artist in the game
00:15:48
Speaker
i Okay. but That's the vast majority of how I spent my time this week. I ended up with like 15,000 nachos and a million bubs. And it's like I bought i bought nine emotes and there's so many borders. So um I don't want to act like it's easy.
00:16:06
Speaker
Like I know that there are players who are going to run out of bubs or who are struggle going to struggle to make it to the top table. But once you got there and had a comfortable cushion of bubs, yeah, I was just snapping turns one through three every single time.
00:16:18
Speaker
Okay.
Jim Hammond Card Mechanics Discussion
00:16:20
Speaker
This week's card or last week's card, new thoughts on Jim Hammond, human torch. We already did hear a bunch of that from Ben, but either of you new thoughts on old Jimmy? I do have new thoughts about him. Okay. Um,
00:16:34
Speaker
He's really cool. ah He gets pretty big. He doesn't always get pretty big. Sometimes he'll get pretty big even if you play him on four. One cool thing about him is your opponent has no idea how big he's going to be.
00:16:46
Speaker
But you have a very good idea how big he's going to be. Uh, cause like you see what you, you see, you see what you've got in your hand, you know, whether or not you're going to hit Wiccan and Hey, sometimes the correct thing to do with them is polymorph him with Merlin. Cause you should be playing Merlin with him because like they're, they're friends. They don't play one. I mean, you can play Merlin without Jim, but you can't play Jim without Merlin.
00:17:08
Speaker
That's my thinking. Uh, very flexible card. Just like, the in the deck that i was playing there are two like big old sixers you got your galactus first steps and giganto and it's really cool to have like another threat and very often players will overreact to the jim hammond they'll see jim hammond as a huge commitment to elaine and it's like not always true ah But like, you know, on the other hand, if they ignore Jim Hammond, if they just like let you stick your Jim Hammond on kiln or whatever, and they they put down some middling amount of power there, then yeah, sure, lean in just once in future a million things.
00:17:49
Speaker
ah Hope it up. um I really like Jim Hammond. Very fun card. And he does reward you for doing a thing that's already good to do.
00:18:00
Speaker
And cards like that are, they tend to be good. Yeah, I like this one a lot. I like that it's like low pressure. And if you don't play his game, it's fine. He's just he's like, I need to play him more with Merlin. ah Because I'm not a huge fan of once in future. And I know I've learned from you, I need to be more of a fan of once in future.
00:18:23
Speaker
But adding Jim Hammond might help me like deal with that. yeah really like this This deck is like one of the better decks that I've built in recent memory. i would i would give This one is one to give a try, especially if you don't like my other decks, because this one is very different from my other decks.
00:18:40
Speaker
That's true. yeah i don't know if i read them off. One, two at the start of each turn, plus one power for each bonus energy you have. You might have figured it out from all the context clues.
Exploring Warlock and Deck Experiments
00:18:50
Speaker
And then this week's new card, we have got two because danger became widely available in Deadpool's Diner.
00:18:56
Speaker
But first up, Warlock, our Series 5 release, a 3-3. Activate for each unspent energy. Give a card in your hand. Minus one cost. Did you get him?
00:19:08
Speaker
What did you think? I'll just lead off and say the animation rules. Both when you're dragging a man when he's, like, lowering the cost of things. That's good.
00:19:20
Speaker
That's exciting. I plan to get him. I haven't gotten him yet. okay Okay. As you recall, i was really interested in this card and i was like, well, it's been 6k tokens. And I decided but I am going to roll and see if I can just get So I rolled I got...
00:19:43
Speaker
Moira. It's in my head now. Moira I can't say her name. Yeah. I can't do it. Okay. yeah I got her and then I'm like, okay, but I had enough for another role. So I'm like, we go again. And I didn't.
00:19:55
Speaker
I got Warlock. Okay. And I was very wrong about Warlock going in Spider-Man. Which I should have realized if I'd really been paying more attention. Because Spyro is more about skipping one energy, potentially on multiple turns.
00:20:12
Speaker
Warlock's more about a big skip on one turn. so ah So I quickly shuffled them out. But OK, super bonus, safety, you know, safety. Listen to the podcast.
00:20:30
Speaker
OK, which I know said before, but like, I don't assume everyone does, you know, every time. And um yeah, I had heard me mention Blink. ah With Warlock and made a deck.
00:20:44
Speaker
Because, safety, if you're listening, you're still my favorite deck builder. So oh, that's so exciting to get like deck, you know, deck idea that I certainly didn't pull off.
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah. So it's got, okay. To sell you on this deck. And I just found it today. So I haven't really gotten to play it a lot, but I will share it anyway, because it is a safety deck, which automatically means worth.
00:21:11
Speaker
And, um, It has, tell you what, it has Kitty Pride, Blink, and both Galactuses. so like, what fun.
00:21:23
Speaker
um So, i I will share um the Warlock Blink deck that I couldn't build, but nevertheless seems amazing. um i did play, so did roll, like, Warlock deck to get ah just a little bit of experience, and it's like, that was fun.
00:21:43
Speaker
but i love She-Hulk. It's like... Luckily makes that better. So, um, do you, did you play any with him? and ah tried him in like four different things and he turned out to not be as flexible as I expected him to be. I expected him to be kind of a Sarah replacement and not that Sarah can go everywhere, but like, you know, he's buying you five extra energy for the next turn.
00:22:08
Speaker
But the thing is, If it's spread out across a whole bunch of cards and you can't afford them all, you're losing out on discounts. And I said think i like I knew that, but i don't know. he just like he He has disappointed me.
00:22:20
Speaker
I've been surprised at how not good he is. and I think a lot of times when we get big ideas about cards, it's because we're thinking of taking them to the extreme. Like, what's the coolest thing we can do with Warlock? It's like, oh, we can use them with She-Hulks and make them free. We can use them with Infernox because we're skipping that turn anyway. We can use with Sunspot because we're skipping that turn, you know, and soak up that energy. And I'm like, usually doing the, like, middle-of-the-ground practical, reliable thing is actually better for the card. But, like, what I've seen with Warlock is a lot of people saying, like, no, you kind have to play them with Sunspot and She-Hulk.
00:22:49
Speaker
And I don't think that's true. I don't think they're in... I don't think all of those are in in Safety Blades' a Blink version of the deck, but... ah most of the decks I've seen people succeeding with Warlock N are using Sunspot and She-Hulk.
00:23:02
Speaker
And I think there's more ground to explore there, but it's just like, he is kind of slow. You have to have him out by turn four. You have to fully skip your turn five. And there's ways to do that differently, right? Like if you ah have Jennifer Kale out and Warlock out, that's a two card combo, but you could skip turn four and get a five five energy discount.
00:23:25
Speaker
I don't know. He does skip cards that are down to zero energy. So like I was doing some cute things with like Prodigy or Moon Girl, or I've seen people doing stuff with Black Swan. It's like you may you make your ones cost zero first, and then you make sure that the other discounts go towards bigger cards.
00:23:42
Speaker
was like, that's a little cute, but the more you demand on a combo, especially a card that has to come down so early, I just... I don't know. I've been enough been kind of disappointed by him. But Hopeful, like these three three stats, there's...
00:23:54
Speaker
there's Second dinner was worried about something. And I'm wondering if it's if it's maybe Jocasta. It's Jocasta. Yeah, that's that's my big take is that like maybe this card is not feeling spectacular to people right now. That's that's sort of what I've been reading from what little information I take in from the community is that people are dissatisfied with Warlock.
00:24:14
Speaker
And I think it's kind of a Wiccan situation. I think this card just hasn't hit yet. I think it will hit eventually. I'm going to pick it up just on confidence that like the this is a good effect. It will be good at some point in some context.
00:24:29
Speaker
And like by the end of the month, but that's my that's my feeling. Yeah. Hitmonkey stuff that I tried and played against was was very effective when it worked.
00:24:41
Speaker
Right? Like... That make lets you dump even more stuff. um you know I was able to play like Hitmonkey and Absorbing Man and Mysterio. That's kind of cool. But ah you could also could also just do that with Sarah.
00:24:54
Speaker
a I am excited. Once I do get Warlock for weekend missions and stuff, I'm excited to try the safety deck and maybe maybe even cook something myself. But I don't know.
00:25:04
Speaker
I don't know. I think it's a sound investment, though.
Danger Card and Community Insights
00:25:08
Speaker
Whatever and whatever ends up happening with it. And then the 2000 nacho prize from Deadpool's diner. She'll be a series four card in 30 days.
00:25:17
Speaker
Danger, a four, six. Activate, destroy an enemy card here with less power.
00:25:25
Speaker
I'm assuming we all got her. Have you, have you been able to use her yet? Not even once. I played her a little bit. I rolled the auto deck and it was that like Fenris Wolf gladiator kind of stuff, you know, that like cheeky nonsense.
00:25:44
Speaker
And and I didn't even really end up playing her. And I played a couple games, didn't up getting her out. I'm like, OK, but I see what the deck's about. You know what i mean? I see what she could do in it. um and i ah thought it was cute, but it it wasn't exciting to keep playing at the moment. And I got the same vibes, honestly, as what everyone was saying with Warlock. I was like, she will be... yeah She'll be a much better card when Jocasta is out.
00:26:13
Speaker
She's the kind of card that just honestly, like... Just having her in for one ability doesn't feel very good. Like you need to like double up or do something else with it, you know?
00:26:27
Speaker
um so that's the vibe I was left with for it. Yeah, it's interesting that they like have this balance consideration now with Jocasta, right? Warlock and Danger can't be too good on their own because they're going to be scary if they get too many procs.
00:26:42
Speaker
um I've played a bit of Danger. The main place I've played here is Safety Blade's Danger Idiots deck, which is ah end of turn control deck. So rocking both Stardust and Thing First Steps, two cards that I estimated low on.
00:27:00
Speaker
ah Danger is, she's fine. Most the time she's ended up being like a 4.8 or a 4.9 for me. But you know, one of the times it was an evolved Misty Knight, so that's probably a little bigger than that. and one of the times it was a Wong before my opponent could use it at all.
00:27:14
Speaker
ah Something that happened to me was getting hit by Omega Sentinel, and then Danger does nothing because she has negative power. um So that's a scary interaction on that one. You can still kill a Hood.
00:27:27
Speaker
You can still kill a Hood and give your opponent three power.
00:27:33
Speaker
Yep. um Anyway, ah this deck, Danger Idiots, Is very good. i got through two entire gold conquests in seven games last night ah because opponents don't want to stay in.
00:27:48
Speaker
I was very surprised. I was snapping turn one every game, partially because of time and partially because I have Deadpool's diner habits now. I was like, wait, I'm in Gold Conquest. But everybody was snapping back. So was like, cool, we can blaze through this. I thought this was a Proving Grounds thing, not a Gold Conquest thing.
00:28:03
Speaker
um But yeah, you know, like an Ultron deck versus Stardust or a Doom 2099 deck versus Stardust. Like, I have to concede a little bit. Like, I know, I think I already have said before, but Stardust is better than I thought she would be.
00:28:15
Speaker
um And she probably still is, even though she got hit in the OTA. i Yeah. ah i'm I'm not going to read it off, but check it out. It'll be in the show notes or video description. Danger Idiots. Very good deck. Or go to Safeties, Blue Sky, or Twitter. He just came back to Twitter and posted this deck. Go to his Blue Sky, though. don't Do that, please.
00:28:35
Speaker
Don't give Elon more money. really wish that we could get the whole community over to Blue Sky. I know I'm still active on Twitter, but it's only because it's like... That's the main place where I do my content creation and that's where it gets seen. There's just so much more eyeballs on Twitter than Blue Sky and I guess that doesn't change if nobody jumps ship.
00:28:58
Speaker
Anyway... Next week's card, Jocasta, 3-3. Activate. Immediately activate your other cards here. I think we've had a team answer that says that this will work even on cards that have already been activated. We have heard that.
00:29:14
Speaker
um Which is exciting. I was like 50-50 on that because of the way this is written. like it should work, but also like it's not super clear. But yes. This feels like Invisible Woman first steps.
00:29:29
Speaker
Like, right? It's going be one those weeks where all of a sudden it's like she's going to, like, take over and there's going to be all these activate decks. That's what it feels like to me anyway. Yum.
00:29:41
Speaker
yeah ah I mean, shi only needs like one good hit to be to justify being a three three. Right. Like if you get an extra hit on Omega Sentinel, she's a three ten. don't hate that. um But even better, if you can hit three things or stack up multiple Jocastas. Like the cool thing about doing the double Omega Sentinel thing is that it almost like has like a.
00:30:04
Speaker
it almost makes your opponent be playing a shitty tribunal situation where like yeah you take you take the top off the biggest thing and then you take ah the top off whatever the other biggest thing was.
00:30:14
Speaker
And like none of their lanes are good anymore. Yep. I think she's going to be super fun and definitely the sort of card you want to get because it will be relevant as future active cards come out.
00:30:27
Speaker
Yep.
00:30:29
Speaker
I'm excited. there I feel like there's tons of clip opportunity here. I've been like trying to pre-do the math. like If there's two Jocastas, I think that means four activates. And if there's three, I think it means 15. Which is a weird number, but anyway.
00:30:43
Speaker
I'll have fun with it when we're no longer in the Jocasta meta. but yeah You can still be Jocasta hipster, just use it with different activate cards.
00:30:56
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. um Wait, is Ghost Wapo activate or end of turn? I can never remember. End of turn. Okay.
00:31:07
Speaker
Super Adaptoid is the one you're looking for. Wait, who is? activate rogue. Super Adaptoid. Oh, who comes out ok the week after like they do. ok It does a rogue thing.
00:31:22
Speaker
i Wait, is he next? I think he's next week too. Yeah, I think so. together yeah vibe check it's good that they released the tech card you know at the same time don't have him in the show notes please hold buth blah blah blah uh super adaptoid is series four i believe actually says limited time event we're not getting another event are we oh no are we playing high voltage for super adaptoid oh my god i thought he came out the week after jacquesta Maybe it does.
00:31:54
Speaker
I don't think there's any card after you cast it. All right. like Live checking. Somebody go read the season blog. Schedule, schedule, schedule. We can cut this out if we need to.
00:32:06
Speaker
It says the week of the 18th. Now I'm confused. it also says the week of the eighteen now i'm confused ah it also says that thirty app and think he's just series... I think he was going to be in Diner, and then they changed their minds. like I think even early screenshots might have shown that.
00:32:21
Speaker
um But now he's just series four on Jocasta Day. 3-5. On reveal, steal the text from an enemy activate card here. Uh...
00:32:35
Speaker
He's fine. He'll definitely be good while Jocasta's popular. but Also, do we think the rules, like, if Jocasta can use a spent to activate, he can steal a spent activate, right? Definitely. Yeah, he's just stealing text. He's stealing the text.
00:32:51
Speaker
not Not the activate charge status thing. But better if you steal it before they can use it. Surely, yeah. Still. Cool card, relevant. three five is good enough stats that even if your opponent doesn't have an activate card, you don't like you're not super mad about it.
00:33:08
Speaker
you know yeah I think expectations are low for this card, but I think it might surprise people a little bit. 3-5 is just kind of yeah pretty good stat line. It's the stats that make me like, going to be just fine.
00:33:19
Speaker
Okay.
Deep Dive into Deadpool's Diner Event
00:33:22
Speaker
Deadpool's Diner, we've ah each talked about it a bunch already, but just wanted to, I don't know, vibe check on it. Did we like Diner 3 better than 1 and 2? Yes.
00:33:31
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Sorry, whenever you say vibe check, I'm like, I need i need an immediate answer. I'm like, that's not really what Lauren's looking for. but i know I...
00:33:43
Speaker
for some reason that's what the words say to me let's just talk about the gameplay first should be quick i'll stop saying it um did you like the gameplay more yes less competitive certainly more casual friendly it felt better so one of the things that felt bad I recall talking about the first one is like you would do all this grinding and your bar would go up barely at all. You know what I mean? And part of that was baked into the big bursts and stuff, but it felt bad. You know, I like to say about games is how they feel is like kind of the whole thing.
00:34:24
Speaker
yeah Anyway, so, and this it's like, because there were like the shorter tables, because um people were staying more. so you you would get more of your three snaps and all of that. People didn't have to, people wouldn't retreat like the first time you snapped, you know, and stuff.
00:34:46
Speaker
So it was actually a bit easier to grind. And then when you won, know, The bar was like, but and that's that's what you like to see. Like, oh, like half, over halfway the next reward. Yeah, let's get that next reward. Play another game.
00:35:02
Speaker
I feel like, I mean, just anecdotally guessing. this has to be one of the most played modes just because, it was so generous and because people wanted to like come in and like get those orders for cheap, get emotes they missed.
00:35:21
Speaker
He said, I only got the one emote cause I'm just not a big emoter. I'm likem like, I'm like real life. And, um, you know, ah But like a lot of people, know, would like would never spend like the gold on it or whatever, you know, this was their chance.
00:35:39
Speaker
And, you some people I think are like, it's too generous, but it's like, don't think so. It gave, you know, it felt good because I could opt out when I went. My saddest times were when I'm like, like, I remember the night it was like, what is it? i'm like, oh, Rainbow, Rainbow Cosmic Borders. I got to get all 12 of those.
00:36:00
Speaker
And I hadn't stacked up of enough nachos. And so I'm like playing it late at night, but I kept forgetting to snap. Yeah. Oh, yeah. i just ruin Yeah, I really did not like that. Like your snaps didn't roll over. yep I really wish they would roll over because like sometimes people will retreat on you, too. And then like, and yeah then you've got like two snaps. And now it takes double the number of games to get the same amount of nachos.
00:36:24
Speaker
Exactly. And it was just because, you know, yeah, I just forgot because I'm not used to snapping three times late night. So, um, But I think this is great.
00:36:35
Speaker
It gave a lot of people who didn't have a lot of these things um the opportunity to get things, you know, to stack up a bunch of stuff they didn't have. I finally have enough borders when I'm like thinking about like bordering out a deck or like just giving things board. I used to hoard them, you know,
00:36:55
Speaker
and ah They, you know, they need they needed a W. And I think this is a good W. I think a lot of people played and a lot of people didn't stress. And if people didn't feel like playing it, then, you know, yeah.
00:37:12
Speaker
They didn't have to, but I think a lot of people were coming back of their own accord and far after the meter. And it felt good. It didn't have the bad feeling of a grind because your time was being so rewarded. You're like, oh, this many games equals this in a way that feels like I'm earning something with my time. The way a game does instead of a job, you know, like where it's like measurable and immediate, like why we play games. Anyway.
00:37:42
Speaker
So yeah, thumbs up for me. I have some. Especially for how much I hated it. And the generosity. And how, oh, okay. Like, I historically have never applied a border even once, and I still haven't.
00:37:59
Speaker
But I did get a lot of the borders. I didn't buy any emotes, but i bought a lot of borders. And I will say, I'm now, I think, more likely to, at some point, actually spend like 400 tokens on ah on a border I need to complete a set of something like for some like I could like I think this has actually made me more likely to purchase a border at some point for real although really I just want to finish my green glyph border set from Sanctum Showdown because that means something to me because I enjoyed all the all the ass kickings I was
00:38:32
Speaker
The memories. It's about the memories. But like about the generosity, I've heard some speculation that this was a big old whoopsie as they seem to have a lot of big old whoopsies with um limited time modes or they have in the past.
00:38:47
Speaker
And I'm not sure whether or not this is a big old whoopsie because like I think maybe they knew they needed a W and ah maybe this was them trying to do a sure thing. Just like... ah flooding and flooding it with generosity or whatever um but if indeed it was a whoopsie and a bank error in our favor there's there's this there's this school of thought that that that's like why they do the more player unfriendly things like down the road like surely there will be an equal and opposite reaction to that but like i kind of have
00:39:22
Speaker
I have difficulty believing that because like if this is like a big problem for their bottom line every time they do a whoopsie and they're too generous about something, I can't help but think that like Occam's razor, like the like I don't just like the simplest and most like straightforward solution answer fix for that or whatever is um
00:39:43
Speaker
hire someone who cares and can like find their butt with both hands? Like, how is that not the direct solution to we keep accidentally giving too much stuff away. We left the shop unlocked. Don't like hire someone who remembers to lock the door.
00:39:57
Speaker
That's what you do. You don't raise the prices on the customers. You hire someone who locks the door. So like, I don't, I like, I don't think that, It just doesn't make sense that like, oh, well, that we should accept that because they were so nice by accident. Like, like, i like, no, that makes sense.
Game Design and Player Rewards Discussion
00:40:18
Speaker
Backtracking slightly. That is such like you said that. And I'm like, that is such a millennial view. Like, did something good happen? We'll pay for this later. Yeah, we're it's a grim time.
00:40:32
Speaker
yeah we're it we're yeah it's a grim time And yeah, I don't know. Maybe it was intentional and they wanted us to be flush with borders and feel like, you know, the thing i think it may happiness for once.
00:40:48
Speaker
yeah I'm in the camp that it was meant to be more generous than typically generous that it still ended up far too generous. Um, I got danger in five hours. Like if I was playing, I wasn't playing since rollover, but if I was, I would have gotten her in the first rollover.
00:41:05
Speaker
um Lauren, don't. That's such a step on me, mommy, like attitude. No. Five hours is like over a week for casual players?
00:41:16
Speaker
I'm getting to that. I'm getting to that. So as a as a player who played a lot, I was having fun. Things were cheap. I i got away with at least 50,000 gold worth of prizes. I bought nine emotes. I bought tons.
00:41:30
Speaker
tons and tons of borders, a bunch of variants. It could be closer to 100,000 gold. I haven't done the math beyond like, yeah, for sure, at least 50,000, which is crazy. And I've heard people be like, well, yeah, but it's not breaking the game because it's all cosmetics and not like cards. And and yes, but how are they going to motivate me and excite me for the next event? Like they're doing these once or twice a month. And if I'm so flush with with borders and I have every single emote, like...
00:41:57
Speaker
that That doesn't work indefinitely. um i do think it's a good idea to have to give somebody so many borders that like you know all the all the hoarders, you know we we play video games, some of us are like, you hold on to all of your potions because you don't want to use them up. mean You don't know when you need them. and bos Yeah, and then you end up using none of them. like it's It's a game design problem.
00:42:17
Speaker
um And so all of us who are doing that with our borders and just never using them, like it's good to to give so much that that breaks that, that people are like, OK, fine, I'll finally use some of my borders. um But I think basically it happened because there's no time gate on this mode, right? High voltage has time gate through the missions that refresh once every eight hours. And that's where like 95% of your volts come from.
00:42:41
Speaker
And the other modes have tickets. And so this mode is very hard to balance for hardcore players versus casual players. But it was more friendly to casual players because it let them put their time in when they have it.
00:42:57
Speaker
Whereas even as someone who plays... more than a casual person, I really hate it. I was like, I don't want to log in early in the day. That's for other stuff. Having to log in three times a day to knock out submissions feels terrible.
00:43:14
Speaker
And for some casual players, it may be that they're just going to play on the weekend and they don't, you know, have time. So allowing people to have that time when they have the time and still get to participate in the mode and stuff.
00:43:29
Speaker
Lauren, I think you were for sure in like way up in the top percentile of people extracting value from this mode. yeah i mean like I ground out some board. I played a surprising amount to myself, but I still left so much on the table. And I think that like same the casuals were not getting all that much gold worth of it. And also... like these are, these are like free things that you get that like, maybe you never would have spent on anyway. Like for, for me, that's certainly the case. That were those nine emails. There were some of them I really wanted. I've wanted miss minutes before, but not 2200 gold much did I want it, you know?
00:44:13
Speaker
So like, I don't, I don't really know how much they were bleeding on this. That's fair. Yeah. I wonder if there's a point with casual players where they're because this is what happened to me. You know how there's that like it's like the vibranium offers or whatever.
00:44:27
Speaker
you'd click in and you'd get like two tracks for free. And it was like have a minor amount of like credits and boosters. And they gradually over time started cranking that down and you would only get one track.
00:44:40
Speaker
And then that track was only, you know, boosters. And then the boosters like halved. And it finally got to the point where it's no longer worth it to me to click in.
00:44:53
Speaker
They found that point where it's like, I don't fucking care. You know what i mean? Like before I would get something and now it's like this pittance. It's like, you know, there's a point where they're looking at you and they like drop a penny and they're like, hit pick it up. and you're like, okay, I have some dignity.
00:45:09
Speaker
Like, Yeah, I have a shred of respect. Yeah, and they found that point. And I wonder what the limited time modes, they were so tuned to like the harder, you know, the people who play more than casuals.
00:45:23
Speaker
Enough casuals were just seeing it and being like, it's not worth participating at all, like with the amount of playtime I have. And like I said, even though this, like let the hardcore players feel like, like, hey, we got away with something.
00:45:35
Speaker
Oh. There's this once where the Talenti ice cream tubs, the giant ones, were accidentally priced. Like... wrong for like two bucks or something a piece and they're normally like 12 or whatever and they had to like honor the price and i like you know like walked out like i got away with something you know and it's like let people do that that's fun it feels good feels good to feel like an imaginary not realistic at all pirate you know like fantasy version
00:46:12
Speaker
So, yeah, and then let the casuals feel like they can get that meter, maybe get a couple borders, know, like All right.
00:46:23
Speaker
I feel like I've shared enough. yeah no and I loved it. ah I did like, like like you said, how you felt like you were actually playing games to earn something. I did really like that. And I don't think it needed to be as generous as it did. I would have still felt good if I was having to play two or three games for a border instead of just one.
00:46:44
Speaker
Or, know, 18 games for an email. would have, like, made me reevaluate. I think I would have been frustrated. I probably would have gone for one full set of borders, but I would have been frustrated with myself for doing it.
00:46:57
Speaker
I agree. I still would have been much more generous than past game modes. Past game modes where I feel like i grinded the heck out of them to get just the card and just the credits. And then there's a pile of cosmetics sitting in the shop that I'm not going to get because I'm not spending money on the game mode and I'm out of my limited resources.
00:47:19
Speaker
I did like being able to actually buy out the cosmetics. I just don't know that I...
00:47:24
Speaker
I don't know that I needed to be able to buy out the shop. I liked buying out the shop, but i would also be happy if, you know, I buy out two thirds of the shop. That would still feel pretty good. OK.
OTA Updates and Card Changes
00:47:37
Speaker
Should we talk about today's OTA? They reverted the robot tet robot tech takeover. say that sometimes fast um most of them killmonger cosmo shadow king aliath and red guardian are going back to how they were before uh negasonic teenage warhead and enchantress are staying right where they are enchantress is a 5a and negasonic i don't know what she has a four something i haven't played her since um four six or four five i don't remember let me double check that
00:48:13
Speaker
and Okay. Well, and then Shang is going back to for three, but is keeping that he only kills one enemy card there with 10 or more power.
00:48:26
Speaker
And still a random one. Thank you. So, thoughts about this set. I personally like that Shang is only destroying one, but I think it probably should be the highest power card there. i I wish that were the thing.
00:48:40
Speaker
But I'm fine with this. Exactly.
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah, I missed. I'm kind of glad to have some of these tech cards back. I missed you. There's one of these things that I'm more than fine with, and that is Enchantress staying at 5'8".
00:48:56
Speaker
I've been loving 5'8", Enchantress, in the Gem Hammond deck that I've been talking about all up episode. I've heard that from a lot of Oh my gosh, she's a gem.
00:49:08
Speaker
What a winner. She feels more like a lane swinger, right? Mm-hmm. It's only two extra power. It feels so good to like blink her out when you know. when you like i'm just Blink in that deck because like it's so easy to know like well it's this or it's this and like sometimes if the this or the this is Enchantress or Cosmic Ghost Rider they're the same picture.
00:49:30
Speaker
um Yeah. yeah oh Blink is such a cool card and an Enchantress friend. wow Play that deck I talked about. God damn it. It's so much fun.
00:49:42
Speaker
I will. Any of these that you wish they didn't change or they would change again? wish they would have spent more time with 4.6 Cosmo.
00:49:54
Speaker
Oh, really? i don't know. i don't I'm just not eager to see him back at 3.3. Are people sure that he wasn't worth playing at 4.6? They should think harder about it. I don't know.
00:50:06
Speaker
Maybe it's true. I just... I don't know. I'm curious. I liked a world with less Cosmo, but like I don't play a ton of tech. I play a lot of things that get eaten by tech.
00:50:16
Speaker
What were you saying about Megasonic? Oh, just I agree with them keeping her at four. We were seeing her a lot before the change in a way that was fun. And she's more fun.
00:50:30
Speaker
think she's even more fun to play when she's less in play. So, you know, then yeah. Killmonger is the one that I wish they kind of did like a half step on. Like, what if he destroyed cards at the other locations? Like, if he did two out of three locations. I like that. Lauren, that's good.
00:50:48
Speaker
i like that a lot. I just... He's... Every single one is huge. And that makes him so much different from Electra. Shits on the... Oh, that that makes it cool, too. He shits on Zudex so hard. and And, of course, every deck has, like, some cards that just eat them alive, but...
00:51:04
Speaker
I think Killmonger does enough good stuff proactively. don't know. I think a two-thirds Killmonger could be could be great. Yeah, that's that's so elegant.
00:51:15
Speaker
They should do that. And I am liking now that you said it, that it gives more distinction from Elektra.
00:51:24
Speaker
There were also other changes. Colleen Wing ate a nerf. ah Goes from 2-4 to 2-3. They said she's the highest winning discard enabler right now. And I think they wanted to hit an enabler because all the discard decks are doing well.
00:51:38
Speaker
Something like that. I know you have opinions about this one, Ben. I do. I think it's i think it's a bunch of horse shit. That's what I think. I think Queen Wing makes sense at two four and makes less sense at two three um i I guess i guess i'll just tell i'll I'll tell the listeners what what I told what i told our our private chat, and that's that they should have hit something else.
00:52:01
Speaker
I don't think taking a point from a small enabler will solve the discard problem. If they insist on hitting an early series card... Should have been Morbius or even Modok again. Colleen's stat line has somehow always made sense, and I think the team should be wearing that as a badge of honor, not throwing it away to protect Bullseye or whatever.
00:52:16
Speaker
ah Her effect is not so hazardous that she deserves to be like Luna Snow Atuma overstatted, but like she easily qualifies for the same two fours as an Invisible Woman or a Cloak or a Doctor Strange.
00:52:26
Speaker
It should at least be an interesting decision whether or not you play your generated Colleen. But at 2-3, she's rarely going to feel like an actual choice. As a general rule, I think it's just good for small cards in particular to make sense in a vacuum just to like add up.
00:52:41
Speaker
And especially so if we're talking about early series cards. And I just don't like that they did this to Colleen. She's a cool card.
00:52:54
Speaker
Okay. say I liked your argument that like two four is like compelling enough that sometimes you play her when she's generated. But also, i just there's a lot of discard cards that are overstated, like discard as a downside, when it is almost always an upside when you're playing it on purpose.
Debate on Colleen Wing's Nerf
00:53:15
Speaker
Hey, Colleen, sometimes you have to hold a Colleen because the cheapest card in your hand is Dracula, and like that's not what your deck is doing. like She is a little clunky from time to time, even in a discard deck.
00:53:27
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't have a problem with her at too far and maybe that's the point where it's like, you know, they say that that she's the highest win rate or cube rate or whatever, the highest stats enabler, but like if people aren't upset about it, then...
00:53:42
Speaker
Maybe that's not the place to hit. Let's hit Gambit is what I'm trying to say. ah Sure. And Bullseye also. Yeah, they could give Gambit a different stat line and he would still like make sense, but they could like shake things up. like What if Gambit's 4 or 5? I don't know.
00:53:59
Speaker
I'm a fan of Activate Gambit. Activate Gambit is also a good good solution, I think. Agatha goes from 614 to 612. She's just been doing well and she's not the downside she used to be.
00:54:13
Speaker
yep Makes sense.
00:54:17
Speaker
Stardust 4-7 to 4-6. Pretty sure you called this one. Yes, I recall asking in exasperated disbelief, but why is this card 4-7?
00:54:28
Speaker
I think I was saying that before it was even in our hands. ah Yeah, yeah i I may even have called the specific time. may have said that it would happen by the end of this month, this particular nerf to 4-6.
00:54:40
Speaker
yeah So congratulations to all the the The people who believed in Stardust and, yeah, she was pretty good at 4.7, probably still pretty good at 4.6, just not as, uh, yeah, no, not as many people believed me as I would have liked, but, uh, I do feel a bit vindicated.
00:55:03
Speaker
I don't know. I agreed with you then. Yeah, you Yeah, you did. Rhi was a believer. Yeah, and I played, and I've played her this entire time. She's in existential dread, and she hits so much stuff, and people forget.
00:55:18
Speaker
People just don't even know. And you forget about location, so blanking on the name, but the one that operates like Old Lockjaw, it'll swap one out for your deck. Quantum Tunnel.
00:55:30
Speaker
Yep. Thank you. Quantum Tunnel. So, like... um ah right? With Pryo and stuff, which, like, my Galactus First Steps deck is kind of about getting if you want it um You know, you can have that for yourself and then throw out the Stardust and throw off their whole, like, you know, Game 6 plan with that. If it, like, you know, that stuff just disappears. Like, Destroy deck, if you get it down.
00:55:59
Speaker
bru just so many decks, even just one piece of it. um You know? Yeah. ah I even getting a a point knocked off, I would not take her out of ah the deck I've been playing her in.
00:56:14
Speaker
mr Yeah, I think she will still be good. She was one of the cards that held down the fort during the techpocalypse. Yeah. um like The meta didn't really slip that far into like solitaire castle building, and I think she and Mobius were part of that.
00:56:31
Speaker
um Buffs. Viv Vision goes from 3-2 to 3-3. Totally makes sense to me. I don't know what they're going to do if this makes her too easy to snowball, but I think it's worth trying.
Buffs to Viv Vision and Dormammu
00:56:44
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it's going to too much. The tipping point. I also still been playing Viv a lot because I just really like her Yeah. I keep returning to like Surfer because the Surfer deck kind of became the party buff stack because they'd combined enough. And I've been playing with other stuff too. I just try...
00:57:07
Speaker
And she has felt like, like, I wish she was just a little bit better. And there's some point where she's too good and she gets played too much. But I'm excited for this because I still played her quite a bit.
00:57:23
Speaker
It's a good thing to see, sorry, that they need to nerf, or not nerf, buff a season pass card. Because we know there's been so many times that it's like season pass card was too overpowered and they had to like nerf it.
00:57:38
Speaker
memory bias on that though because we've had bad ones too black swan and esme cuckoo and yeah like there are they miss high and low yeah yeah exactly esme cuckoo wasn't even bad i think she just shouldn't have been the season pass card that's not a season pass card design i don't think agree with that yeah i think esme is an all right card just not not the not the right card for that job but Dormammu Go 7. The next one was a stinker. Oh my gosh, I forgot.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yeah, what a non-card that was. Probably the worst season pass. Yeah, I think the most egregious example. At least since public. I don't know about the older ones. like I think Miles Morales was one and probably not super good at the time. Yeah.
00:58:22
Speaker
Tormammu goes from 7.10 to 7.12. Love to see it. I am not threatened at all when I see Tormammu. Of course, i I selfishly wish they would change this that he worked with this card again. That was super fun. But I know that's not the like that's not the fantasy of the card. They want him to be a flavor of destroy. So ah buffing him a little bit seems like a good way to do that.
00:58:43
Speaker
I also don't want to see him everywhere. So I'm glad if he's a little underpowered. yeah Dormammu is one of the cards that I don't own, so i have no... i'm not I'm not benefiting from this, but like I think it's good and appropriate that Dormammu should be 7-12. That's what I think.
00:59:02
Speaker
That sounds right. Destroyer goes from 616 to 618. They just keep buffing this guy. Yeah. It feels needed. i so you know, I play, like, one of my two Destroy decks. I am a bit of a Destroy player.
00:59:20
Speaker
My Gundam deck, you know, has been feeling like weaker so i mean in destroyer feels like you know too it because the whole point of destroyer is usually that you can almost you can win a lane with him alone or almost you know that and just like an unbuffed nimrod or something
Updates to Lockjaw and Mystique
00:59:39
Speaker
maybe so like this will be good i'm excited to test it out because yeah my deck's been feeling weaker as time goes on
00:59:49
Speaker
And who could have seen it coming? Awesome Andy goes from 2-1 to two two and it's a decent card. He's now a 2-6. i mean But ah a very good body to upgrade.
01:00:03
Speaker
Probably good enough to play with Jocasta now. Maybe. i'm still kind of I'm still kind of... There there are only 12 cards in a deck. Are we sure but i will we sure we're making room for this guy? I don't know.
01:00:15
Speaker
We'll see. Lockjaw goes 2-2 to 2-3. They were surprised that he didn't hit at the two two And they also, I think they mentioned about using him with Jocasta and seeing how that goes.
01:00:27
Speaker
um I'll say that i'm' I agree. I'm also surprised that Lockjaw didn't hit at two two I thought that, like, just the fact that the price of Lockjawing one thing was lowered to two, I thought that would have been enough to get him into decks.
01:00:42
Speaker
i I tried putting him into a deck recently, I think, um... I don't remember what it was. Maybe it was a Bastion thing. I don't remember. but um Yeah, i I thought that 2-2 Lockjaw would have been good enough, and I think that 2-3 will get people more interested and we'll see some Lockjaw stuff.
01:01:02
Speaker
especially Part of the problem, it's like not the power, it's that like you can't act... Before, where it would just happen, you could pair it with Wasp, right? You could get it out in one turn, get Lockjaw and something...
01:01:19
Speaker
to do it and you could do that. I don't know, that felt like it opened more avenues for you and now you it's always going to happen the turn after and for some reason that's just big detriment.
01:01:30
Speaker
agree I agree. Although do think it's it it's a cool trivi it's a cool trade-off that you can do it on a different lane now. so That's true. Fair. I think I would take the instant one ah in one lane over activate in any lane, but still.
Nostalgia for Childhood Toys
01:01:47
Speaker
And then Mystique, I think this buff is so cool. Buff nerf is so cool. It's 3-0 to and they highlighted, they finally said something about Mr. Negative, and they're like, Mystique is being basically only in negative and this hurts her in negative and buffs her everywhere else notably she will not be pulled by jane foster if she's flipped in that like that i like that a lot yes me too oh my gosh she's still a ravona card like think she is i don't know if one power is enough to make her playable where people weren't already playing her but i i like i like to hear that negative's on the radar
01:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, for real. I've been facing a lot of negative in like... I did beat one with my Spider Bay deck, so it's like... um In Conquest, sorry for Gold Conquest, but, like... ah In general, it's tough, right? It's pretty easy for them to trigger.
01:02:47
Speaker
ah and so it's like you have to so hard rope them. hope they're the kind of player you can youank into more cubes when they don't draw that negative. yeah You have to snap really aggressively against negative. And I just think that deck's gotten super consistent.
01:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, too consistent. for For a while now, in fact. Yeah, I'm surprised it's taken so long for them to say anything about it, but maybe it's something that's only affecting, like, higher ranks? I'm not sure. don't know. That's a good question.
01:03:20
Speaker
Definitely a menace of conquest.
01:03:24
Speaker
On to our side quests. We ah were going to be playing Tidal Tussle this week, but Rhi isn't feeling well, so we are going to keep this short. First up, and only, Secret Homework. Rhi. Okay.
01:03:37
Speaker
I assigned secret homework. It was to talk about a like a favorite childhood toy or a collection. And um and because, you know, I've always been interested in toys, probably because I couldn't get the ones I wanted when was a kid, but I watched a lot commercials.
01:03:58
Speaker
um So I've always loved that, you know, Netflix has been like the toys that made us and all those kind of shows have always been interesting. So that's where it came from. shortening up what I was going to talk about because, yeah, I'm not feeling very well. ah When do I get a job if I wasn't feeling very well? But I did want to, you know, keeping it short, I was thinking,
01:04:23
Speaker
My um relationship with toys, in some ways, like the toys I had made me fans of things I'd never seen. Like for one example, my mom would get us like toys from garage sales a lot. And she gets a bunch of she got us some Ghostbuster toys. So I was a huge fan of Ghostbusters.
01:04:44
Speaker
And I never, ever saw the movie when I was a kid. Not ever until I was an adult and then I had trouble paying attention. And it's like, I don't have the nostalgia for that.
01:04:56
Speaker
But like, um but as a kid, I'd always be like, I love Ghostbusters and like sing the song and everything. and I think the lack of toys, there's this one when I was a kid that I always remember. um My dad was getting like his physics PhD at like ah University in Illinois.
01:05:19
Speaker
And we all lived in like this basement apartment. It was like no light and we didn't have any of our toys or anything. So all we had um to play with were like some stuff my muck.
01:05:33
Speaker
From like a garage sale nearby. And it was like, like you know, the these White Castle balls that used to be able to get? They were a little like like neon threaded black like plushy balls. And there was like a couple building blocks.
01:05:49
Speaker
And there was an old man
01:05:54
Speaker
I don't know why they made a Barbie doll. but It wasn't probably branded Barbie, but it was like that style. um And, you know, but we played with what we And we played one game.
01:06:08
Speaker
remember that was just like, like turtles and birds or something where it was just like we'd all get under blankets and siblings. And there is like this whole but it was like this whole you know how kids do reform this whole ritual of play.
01:06:24
Speaker
Like one of our ritual plays was like called Orphans, where you'd start out in the orphanage with the mean orphan lady and then you'd escape. Because every kid wants to be an orphan because you only have like these nonsensical ideas of what it means.
01:06:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they make it look pretty fun, right? and In the movies, you're Annie's and you'll sing songs and stuff. even Even when times are bad, you'll still sing a fun song about it.
01:06:49
Speaker
Yeah, and then you get rid of you know, because you're a kid, you know, what you think are your garbage parents and maybe get some rich ones instead. Anyway, but that was not a virtual play.
01:06:59
Speaker
And it was this whole, like, sequenced play or maybe, don't know that's just things I get involved in or age or all kids this way. There's many things in my life I'm like, we all, right? everyone's like...
01:07:10
Speaker
No. These experiences are universal experiences. Yeah. And one play was this. This is an older one. So when it's always sunny, there's this game like Charlie, if you show play and they're like under the button, I'm like, oh, this is bringing back childhood memories.
01:07:30
Speaker
Anyway. um So yeah, I don't know, just some thoughts about toys to keep it short. That was me. Lauren, share something.
01:07:42
Speaker
Oh, right. Ben is assigning new. Okay. Well, I was to talk about a rock collection, but you made it sound like it's more about toys was really your goal. So I picked a different toy to talk about.
01:07:53
Speaker
um There are a few that I could talk about, but I think perhaps Beanie Babies would be the quickest way to give some insight into my childhood. um I had a lot of stuffed animals and felt extremely attached to them. They all had names and...
01:08:08
Speaker
don't know if I would go so far as to call them like my children or imaginary friends. It it wasn't quite that, but like I was really attached There was one time I remember I left snip. She was like a Siamese cat or something ah in the locker at swim practice. And I realized halfway on the way to the church where, where boy Scouts was happening that are Cub Scouts probably at the time ah that I left her. And my mom was like, well, we can get dinner or we can get snip. And I absolutely chose snip as a no brainer decision. Yeah. Um...
01:08:40
Speaker
And if we played lots and lots of imaginary games with them, with my siblings, my sister, who is five years younger than me. I had, I had a forest themed bedroom. Why? I don't know.
01:08:53
Speaker
Uh, but that's what, that's what my mom decided. i liked animals, I guess. Um, that's cool. Yeah. No, it made the, like the glow in the dark ceiling stars slightly more appropriate. Um, not that they need to be appropriate. No, I had some of those and, uh, they were not part of the theme.
01:09:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. My mom sewed a bear rug. you know It was like a stuffed animal bear rug, not like a ferocious thing. was very cute. Anyway, um so I had like three fake pine trees in my room, and I pretended that they would like grew these beans that let you talk to your to your beanie babies. and so That was something I fostered a lot with my sibling, who was you know five years younger than me, enough that the imagination, you know there's a lot of trust there, and and that that game could just run away.
01:09:38
Speaker
ah With i don't like having a psychic connection to the Beanie Babies. but we yeah weve we Mostly it sweet, conversation-type imaginary games, but also sometimes we would just stack up piles of Beanie Babies on opposite sides of the basement and wail them at each other. you know like that was all That was also a thing you could do with Beanie Babies, is use them like, you know, yeah have a fight. Ammunition. Yeah.
01:10:04
Speaker
Um, and of course there'd be a few like precious ones that would be set aside. You know, my favorites are like the collectors ones are the, the ones I'm attached to the most. Uh, I ended up collecting a lot of birds and at some point just as I like, that was my thing. So then going forward, most of the beanie babies I chased down were birds like toucans and turkeys and parrots and puffins and stuff.
01:10:26
Speaker
Um, anyway.
01:10:29
Speaker
Still, I still have like two boxes full of them. And some of them got used by my child when, when he was younger.
01:10:40
Speaker
Ben. Oh, is it me? Yes, I suppose so. All right. Well, ah um, several things that I thought of. I, I, you know,
01:10:55
Speaker
I hate to use the example that was given, but I did have some Lego. Not Legos, because it's Lego. You have Lego bricks and such. um Did love that. Also had some K'nex.
01:11:10
Speaker
Also had some robotics. Everything that wasn't Lego had to have an X in it. um because I guess it was the 90s. You know how it is. um Or how it was, more accurately.
01:11:24
Speaker
um So I like you know toys where you can make things. Another very important toy of my childhood was paper. really liked paper, drawing on things.
01:11:38
Speaker
you know you You could take me anywhere if you'd let me like bring some paper and a pencil or whatever. um
01:11:47
Speaker
I, you know, i'm not like the the greatest visual artist in the world, but I i do all right. And I i enjoy it. And it brings me peace when I do it.
01:11:59
Speaker
should probably draw more in my in my everyday life. um That's pretty cool. Let me see. I talked about and talked about construct you know constructing toy things. Let's The Lego. I talked about the paper. what Oh, the third thing?
01:12:18
Speaker
This one I thought of sort of late in the game. like Whatever happened to the backs of cereal boxes? The backs of cereal boxes used to have activities on them. There used to be some literature on the back, you know.
01:12:32
Speaker
ah it wasn't It wasn't always great. wasn't always deep. wasn't always... I don't know, but like, it's gone downhill.
01:12:43
Speaker
I still enjoy a breakfast cereal from time to time, but but gone are the word searches and the the activities and the spot the differences is you want to see something really grim.
01:12:56
Speaker
This right here is a box of s'mores loaded. Got this at Aldi. That looks like such delicious dessert. That's exactly what it is. It's a dessert cereal.
01:13:08
Speaker
And so what do you suppose is on the back of S'mores Loaded? um This took me a very long time to realize that maybe it's arguably wordplay, but this is just the grimmest shit I've ever seen.
01:13:24
Speaker
Livin' Cereal Rich. Livin' Cereal Rich. Show us how you live cereal rich at Livin'LoadedCereal.com. your You'll never you you will never accumulate any wealth.
01:13:41
Speaker
The best you can do is eat cereal that lets you pretend to be wealthy for a moment. That's so bad. Oh, my God.
01:13:53
Speaker
So, yeah. Bring back the word searches. Get rid of whatever this dark shit is. Oh, guess mad, girl. Okay, but I meant to end on the paper and the drawing. I just, that was just something that like came to me midway through to the recording. And I grabbed that on the break.
01:14:13
Speaker
But yo, next week's homework in great secret. um This is not as secret as some secret homeworks have been because it's highly predictable because that's right. Marvel animation.
01:14:26
Speaker
Back at it again. They've done it, folks. Marvel Zombies. I guess the whole series is out there. We're all going to watch the first episode if we think we can bring ourselves to do it. No presh, except yes, presh. It's secret homework. You know, you have to commit. I watched it last night. It's not a movie. It's an episode. of marble zombies At least one episode.
01:14:48
Speaker
You are allowed to watch more. um Also, extra credit. This is where it ties in with the paper. used draw a lot of zombies when I was a kid.
01:14:58
Speaker
um So draw a zombie if you want extra credit. Be general zombie. i don't know. I think it's fun to follow fall fall folks for the yeah draw draw the draw the folks where the body parts are falling off and stuff.
01:15:15
Speaker
it's ah
Artistic Challenges and Humorous Recollections
01:15:16
Speaker
I don't know. it's more It's more fun than drawing a person who's all there. That's what I think. The closest I ever to- A good to get out of half- Sorry, go ahead. No, know you go ahead.
01:15:27
Speaker
I just to say, that's like such a good way to get out of drawing hands, which if you know you don't- You should do one. Just to, you know, don't don't run away from hands entirely. Give them one hand, but yeah, absolutely. Stump it up on the other.
01:15:45
Speaker
maybe Maybe drop a couple fingers. maybe you have No, you're fine. Maybe I've drawn a zombie before, but i don't think so. And I drew a ton as a kid. um But when I was in high school, i think it was like 11th or 12th grade, there was a contest to make anti-drug posters.
01:15:59
Speaker
And I had ah rat smoking and getting absolutely stomped as shit by a cat. Just just one cat paw and the rat cuts everywhere. And it just said, don't smoke.
01:16:11
Speaker
Oh, no. Dear. ah Anyway, that my lovely art. I don't think I won the contest, but it's okay. I was in 11th grade. anymore. I don't think you should have won the contest. don't like that very much at all. It gave me great message.
01:16:26
Speaker
Don't smoke or you'll get stomped by a
Engagement Encouragement and Network Promotions
01:16:28
Speaker
cat. um Anyway, if you liked what you heard, and it's okay if you didn't like that last bit, like, comment, and subscribe, rate and review, <unk> cetera ah The comments can go to YouTube, Spotify, or the Speakeasy, which is our little corner of Discord.
01:16:43
Speaker
You can chat with us and maybe share some of secret homework of your own. It's a little, just a little complicated to get there, but the instructions instructions are in the show notes or video description.
01:16:54
Speaker
ah We're probably part of the Snap Judgments Network, where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions by Joe every Monday. With guests. i'm I'm in conversation with him right now. To to come back and be on. I think it would be my fifth time on.
01:17:09
Speaker
um It'll happen. I think he got some new branding. And some new segments. Check it out. ah If you haven't before. Or if you haven't in a while. Anyway.
Preview of Next Week's Content
01:17:21
Speaker
um Next week. Not only are we going to be watching Marvel Zombies. But we will be ranking those cards. From the upcoming Marvel Zombies season.
01:17:31
Speaker
So that's always a fun episode. Check it out. Same snap time.
Winning a DARE Essay Contest
01:17:42
Speaker
Oh, man. I won my school's dare essay contest. Oh, hell yeah. There's my essay in front of the whole school. Dare is so funny. I get high.
01:17:54
Speaker
I'm like, no, I get high. I'm late. It's like, oh, kid. That doesn't, that doesn't.
01:18:03
Speaker
Oh, dear. Oh, a star. Oh, a star. You're a star. Be done being a star now.