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66: Two Paths Diverge in a Wood
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🏪 🛍️ This week Snap on This!! offers 20% more episode for the same price 🆓🆓🆓
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap (reasonably snappy 😆)
- Spider-Man Noir 🕵️🕸️
- 🌊 ⛈️ OTA forecast ⚡
- Dragon 🐉 Season 🐲 Datamines ⛏️
- Secret Homework 🤫: Slay that Spire! 🗡️🔪🔵🪄
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Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
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Featured decks:
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
- Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:20:27 Spider-Man Noir
- 0:33:32 An Important Reminder to Snap
- 0:38:22 Sanctum Showdown
- 0:39:10 OTA Discussion
- 0:56:56 Patch Chat
- 1:00:13 Datamines
- 1:39:30 Secret Homework: Slay the Spire
- 2:13:07 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 2:13:39 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Secret Homework
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to episode 66 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, Slay the Spire.
Host Introductions and Brief Updates
00:00:09
Speaker
I'm your host, Lauren Odez, here with my usual amazing co-hosts. First up, Ben, how was your week in Snap?
00:00:17
Speaker
And keep it snappy. Well, my week in Snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy as I... Always do. Yeah, let's say always this week. Every time. Keeping it so
Weekend Missions and New Cards
00:00:29
Speaker
snappy. Oh, it was a pretty good weekend snap.
00:00:32
Speaker
I remembered to do the weekend missions, except I don't think I finished the Spider Punk one. But I've been skipping a lot of weekend missions lately. um even Even when I don't hate the cards, I just, like, I have not been... um I just can't be bothered to play anything other than the cards I feel like playing at any given, and you know, like if they aren't the weekend mission cards, it's just, uh, I don't know.
00:00:57
Speaker
I don't know. Um, some cards came out. I, I have been playing a lot with one of the new cards, but we're going to save that for a later section. I've been, I'm still sick. Uh, there's, there's that, there's that big news. Um, so,
00:01:15
Speaker
Uh, what else happened in my weekend? I mean, like, I played a ton of Snap. I don't know what to say about it. Um... That's okay if you don't.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah, I also played some other games, but, uh... Yeah, maybe this is just the snappiest weekend in snap ever. All right. We have a lot of other stuff to talk about. Yeah, we have plenty of snap to talk about.
00:01:42
Speaker
Rhi, how was your weekend snap in Keepa Snappy? um I also i have a bit of a cold, and so I'm also on a Lethargy debuff this week.
Seasonal Cards and Deck Styles
00:01:54
Speaker
But in Snap, I did go on a bit of a spree and caught myself up on all the Season 4 and Season 5 non-seasonal that I didn't have. But I wasn't, like, super excited to play with any of them except for Headpool, um which I did have fun with in a Deadpool deck, of course.
00:02:15
Speaker
And it was very fun. It's like playing with a... ah like a friend's puppy, you know, where, like, you don't have to drink. Because that's how I am with Destroy, you know? It's, like, ah not in it for the long haul, but it's, like, great fun to play with. You're a tourist.
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I come back to it a lot. and I've played it a decent bit, but, um... ah So, yeah, that was fun. I mostly kind of had dropped out after a height Voltage.
00:02:48
Speaker
um A lot of that is Ben's fault for Simon Slay the Spire, which is what I used to do. I mean, like Nintendo Switch, which is what I have it on, like handheld, which is like how I pretty much always play it.
00:03:02
Speaker
Um, and, ah late night is like just one of the things I used to do before snap. So, uh, that kind of easily reoccupied that space in my time. Um, but coming back, don't, I was trying to have fun and it's like, I don't know. i guess I was like, I feel like I was just complaining about like, they're nursing out of the tech, but now I'm like, I'm trying to out and have fun.
00:03:29
Speaker
Everyone's playing Stardust. Um, I can't do my small hella. You know, I had that time where it was like, I kept switching decks and everyone was, they kept running into the counter. Like my Rockstex, they played Killmonger right at the end. Just like all the counters. So finally i was I was like, fine, you drove me to this.
00:03:51
Speaker
I went to the deck that I never took apart. My Irish M deck. I was like, fine, you can beat up on me. I'll come back with my big robot and my extra energy and drop that card on turn six that wins because you would never, ever be able to see that coming. hu But I knew. So ah anyway, that's I guess it was a villainous week for me.
00:04:15
Speaker
in Snap, but um I have been also, I've just been like less time for Snap and for like podcast prep.
Game Development and Design Space
00:04:24
Speaker
I've been like really like full bent on my mermaid game, which has seen mild scope creep, of course, but it's all been no necessary and appropriate. I promise just today I finished one of the three random bosses. You can run into at the end of a little like campaign run. and it's like, you know, the old snake game where you eat the apples and you try not to like run into yourself.
00:04:53
Speaker
Well, I made the reverse of that where the snake just continuously chases the mermaid and you have to lead it to the power ups to make it grow so can get long enough so you can trick it into doubling back in on itself. Yeah.
00:05:05
Speaker
taking itself down. That's such a good idea for a game. Snake, but you're not the snake. yeah I am so hype about it, to be honest. cause yeah Is that now the core mechanic of this game, or is that like that's a unique enemy type? That's a boss.
00:05:23
Speaker
Okay, so because it's like – there's like three depths, kind of like Hades style. But like this is – it's mini. It's mini cozy rogue. I'm actually worried that I might have to tune it down a little bit. I made it too hard for coziness. Yeah. But like, here's the fun of this. And this is the reason I'm like so mad at Marvel Snap.
00:05:42
Speaker
Because it's like the core of the game, right? It's hex grid map that builds out randomly with procedurally generated, um you know, dangers and like artifacts. You want to collect all of that stuff.
00:05:58
Speaker
And um there's like three depths to it. And like, you know. different styles going down, um Haiti style. And then you run into ah the but ah boss, which is going to be one of three random that are kind of based on the three different depths.
00:06:17
Speaker
And then... as victory. But then kind of over time, because the victory is you get to return to your mermaid village in triumph. And over time, you can help like, ah like, clearing out so many dangers and stuff makes your victory screen better because it builds up like your me your mermaid village, like cleans up the trash ruin and stuff. But, um,
00:06:40
Speaker
Okay. But the core mechanics, there's only like two, like I said, this is a phone game. It's, it's made phone. It's made to be like chill. Like my dream is that like my, my hair, my hairstylist who makes all my amazing colors.
00:06:53
Speaker
Um, I let her do like when I went in last time, she's like, okay, did you have anything? I'm like, no, as, as per usual these days, whatever is in your heart, you may do upon my hair. And she's like, okay, I have this vision. It's just this like color pattern my head of like neons, greens, and yellows. Are you in? I'm like, of course. I would follow you into a hair battle anywhere. and But like my dream for this game is like she could sit on her couch, too, and cosily play. And me, too. i like play I actually play it a lot at night.
00:07:25
Speaker
to sleep. Where was I getting? Okay, so the core mechanics of it are like, if you haven't explored a tile yet and you can't go in because like there's a barrier in the way, you can rotate the tile and then you can just move. And those are like the two things. and And the joy of designing under constraint um you know it's so fun. that's very you know i like thought of this and it's like, what can i do with what I have. And when I'm looking at accessories and stuff, it's like, if it's not going to actually do something, like I don't want to put fluff, in right? Like it's got to actually be fun or meaningful. yeah,
00:08:05
Speaker
And, you know, some stuff are appropriate. But it's like, then I think about Marvel Snap, and it's like, they have so much more design space in card game, a big card game, than I have in in my Mermaid um game. And it feels like sometimes they're just, like, not as creative with that as they could be.
00:08:28
Speaker
It's just like, with some of these cards, some of them are great, but others, it's just like... You know, like, they're just made to be commons, you know? um Like, Lauren was saying something about...
00:08:41
Speaker
like commons and card games earlier. And it's like, it's a great thing about Marvel Snap is that it doesn't have those, but it kind of does, doesn't it? Like in some regards, it's just a better, like for what they do. It's like, cause I was, put in Valentina for Iron Patriot and Arisham, even though I knew I'm patron is probably the slightly better card to have there. Cause don't want to play Valentina, you know, it's like, That feels like, right, there's one, there's like a slot for that thing, and then you play the card you have, unless you have the best card, and then you play the best card, unless you just really like another card, and you play that card, and it's like, it does kind of make things feel like they're a common sense in this game. Anyway, so, you know, I've been working hard, but not as much as Snap-ish.
00:09:31
Speaker
ah Thanks. So oh that's this is that's what I've been up to. Lauren, our third gracious co-host who is amazing very knowledgeable about Snap and math and statistics.
00:09:49
Speaker
Sorry, I wanted to give you an intro, but hadn't thought it out beforehand. But also, I would very much like to hear about your week in Snap. I'll take an impromptu intro. Yeah, the listeners ah missed the conversation on Commons because it happened before the show started. um And I don't even know if I ever fully baked the thought, but we were basically talking about too many cards in the game. How it feels like that.
00:10:12
Speaker
Even though there are plenty of games that have more cards. They also have larger decks. Yeah. Yeah. Like each card in Snap does, has more, more to lift as a single card.
00:10:25
Speaker
But, and so I think, I think if there's like the philosophy of the game is, is they don't want to have commons. They want pretty much every card to be playable. And honestly, they do a pretty good job of that. um There's what, like 20 cards that like don't see play at all in a tournament. Yeah.
00:10:42
Speaker
And I take it back because I'm like, what am I saying? Do I want there to just be Iron Patriot? No, I want to play Valentino. Well, like ah you just have a point that like the balance should be such that there are times where Valentina's the right answer. And that's harder to find. It feels like pretty much it is Iron Patriot. And that's where it's like, oh, does maybe Valentina need another point or something like that.
00:11:08
Speaker
geez It's too much, right? At a 2-4? I think Iron Patriot is too good. I think that's true. Yeah, that's probably it. Yeah. ah Give it a minus two or something. um He's a very easy card to play.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, i was just reading the card the other day I was really hoping it was a minus two because like that felt right and true and appropriate, but no. It was minus four at launch. I know, right? I was like, surely they brought it down to minus two. That's a reasonable number.
00:11:36
Speaker
But nope. Nope. Minus three still. I think, largely speaking, the direct to s four cards... are kind of the commons or at least the uncommons of snap, but there's been a few lately that are like these pretty good. Yeah. I don't think that's a marker of quality.
00:11:55
Speaker
Uh, okay.
Favorite Variants and Deck Strategies
00:11:56
Speaker
So I don't know if I celebrated before on the podcast that I finally got the Chris Anka Nico, which was the, uh, spotlight two months after she came out. That's called the runaways variant, but it's the really pretty one. That's like super dark and it's like three quarter view of her face. Okay. Yeah, I know it's got candles and ah constellations in front of her face.
00:12:16
Speaker
And I have so many Miko variants and they're lovely and all that, but I, that is one spotlight that I like regretted missing. And there are very few that I ever went for. Um, I did very wisely go for the echo one and I still love that one, but, um,
00:12:32
Speaker
I also went for Khori and I almost never play her. Uh, uh, expected that she was going to be a better card. Anyway, uh, finally got that one. Now that spotlights are available in the token shop, it took forever to rotate in, but it did.
00:12:46
Speaker
And so now my splitting quest is, I have like four different crackles on Nico, but I specifically want blue or purple to go with, uh, my new variant. So that's what I'm chasing.
00:12:59
Speaker
Things are looking, okay, sorry. Just like Nico, I just read Runaways number five today. it is so good. Written by Rainbow. There's so many. I almost took like three different pictures to share specifically with with you all, but then I lazed out. But it was just like, they've given it to like Nico where now she can do like magic without like her staff and the whole, so they've like kind of over time divorced her from that. And so she, and it's like, but this moment where she's like, comes into her own where she, cause she lost her ability to do magic. And like, that's her whole deal. You don't get to be a cool Marvel character if you don't have a cool gimmick, you know? So like, and she was feeling down and she wasn't doing a good job leading in the runways. And this like issue was kind of finally a triumph moment for so many of the characters. She like, she gets to it and she can do it because like she and Gert found it, like if they team up,
00:13:56
Speaker
They can make it work, which is also a moment for Gert, who can't do magic. And it's like, my gimmick isn't me. It's that that I'm just attached to this very cool dinosaur. Dinosaurs are cool. You know what I mean? so They are.
00:14:10
Speaker
Yeah, right. And she's like, but I also would like me to be cool, not just like get out of the way, Gert, so you don't get hurt, you know, and let your dinosaur do all the cool stuff. um So like they get to have a triumph moment. The like the like doombots that are after them literally like they're like eliminate the tiny the small magical girls.
00:14:33
Speaker
And it's just like, ah! Okay, and then um in this episode 2, Doombot, the character, right? who Who, Victor, who Iron Lead, ah no.
00:14:44
Speaker
Iron Lead is king. I'm mixing it up. Okay, Victor Mancha. Sorry, like, I have a cold, I'm too out of it right now. um To remember who he is. Okay, um... He ah has been trying to talk to Doom about me like, you it can be your own person. You're not Doom. And he's like, I am Doom.
00:15:09
Speaker
But he's like, I'm kind of part of Doom. And he's like, yeah he he felt like he had to return to Doom to protect runaways because like render into Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And he felt like he was of Doom. And he gets to have this moment because like Doom just got like blown apart. If you recall from previous discussions, he was kind of ruling the world.
00:15:31
Speaker
And he just had his downfall and Doombot like gets to find out like Doom, who he'd always felt like, but I am Doom, even if I am apart from Doom. Like it's, he'd been like sacrificing the Latverian children. This doobot who had specifically been taking care of children, making them goulash on the stovetops so that they wouldn't go hungry or eat, like, bad packaged foods. And he has small where he sees his idol. His idol had been, like, sacrificing the the thing they valued most. And he's finally, like, like just has a small where he's like, I am not doob. And it's like so epic. If you love Doombat the character, which I do, it's just like, oh, and he gets to come back. and like
00:16:18
Speaker
ah Okay, anyway. so So I'm just like, yay! Nico splits, what an appropriate time. Sorry, back your website. I didn't even have to go on so long about it. I need to catch up on runaways so bad. I hold it as my favorite Marvel property. Yeah, and Carolina just came back. And I am behind.
00:16:34
Speaker
um i don't I have read very little beyond the original ah BKV run. so There's plenty I haven't read. ah Anyway.
00:16:46
Speaker
i I was talking about splits. I've been chasing Niko and Merlin splits. Finally landed a good one on Merlin. For me, good is just like a crackle I like. I run base finish on almost every card. um Because I like my cards colorful.
00:16:59
Speaker
So, landed red crackle on Merlin. Do ever fall for an ink, though? Yes, I run currently one ink in my entire collection. Okay, what it is it? It's Jacinto Silver Surfer with Blue Crackle. That's a pretty good one.
00:17:17
Speaker
I also run an ink Silver Surfer. Jacinto, I run this. Okay, I don't have a Blue Crackle on it. I had a Symbiote Spider-Man. Yeah.
00:17:28
Speaker
See, we all have... Oh my gosh, we're all so cool. ah There's been so many surfers since, but it's still the best one. yeah um yeah I had also some Bay of Spider-Man in ink, but then I just got the Dan hip one and you can't ink a Dan hip.
00:17:43
Speaker
So can't you can't you literally can't the game won't let you. um They're like, straight to jail, believe it or not. Yeah. Base finish the best thing that ever happened to hip lovers. And I know that i know hip is a very divisive artist in Snap, but I enjoy them a lot. And largely because of how colorful they are.
00:18:11
Speaker
No, it grows on you. You can't hate hip forever. think he does a really good job of distilling characters down to like their essence. Oh, yeah. And they've gotten better some of them, right? He's gotten lot better, yes. Like, leaned harder in, done the little cute, like, side things. It's like, everyone kind of learned from Rianne. Now you see all those little chivites running around in all the background. think so. It's a good touch. There are a handful hips I don't like. I don't like the Angela or Jane Foster. It was like, they got a little weird, but then...
00:18:43
Speaker
yeah anyway um Like he was like trying to make them too realistic or something. I don't know exactly what it is I don't like about them, but I don't like those ones. um Which is fine. ah Anyway, I also have been playing tons of my my pet deck that I just... it's It's the one I go to when I don't have something else to play. And I've played some other stuff, right?
00:19:03
Speaker
But I gotta talk about Spider-Man Noir later. So ah it's my Valkyrie Cersei deck. And Supergiant is a star in it. uh and i merlin replaced negasonic when she became a four and it hasn't been the same since and i don't know what to do about that but um this deck is still super fun and still i still love beating people with valkyrie and uh i don't know so that's it'll be in the show notes again i've talked about it many times i don't know how many people i know at least one other person in the world has like played it enough to learn how to play it but anyway it's a super fun deck
00:19:40
Speaker
You've got like three ways to deal with the void. i guess you have even more now that there's Merlin. So, yeah. Four ways to deal with the I Stardust, right?
00:19:52
Speaker
ah If I run into an enemy Stardust, then yeah. Stardust would mess guess. No, just was like... I just did a stupid Arshem earlier where i had s Sentry and I'm like, oh, I gotta wait until I fill up the right side. And I was sitting there with like Stardust in my hand all time and I never just played them in a deck together.
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, that is a real technique to do. I'm like, oh, you dummy. Often get free Mockingbirds. That's sort of one one place where Supergiant's at odds with the deck because you actually want Cersei to do her thing early to make Mockingbird cheap.
00:20:23
Speaker
Makes sense. ah Okay. We all decided ahead of time we had nothing new to say about Ezekiel Sims. So we're going to go on to this week's card, Spider-Man Noir, ah four six On reveal, if your other cards in play cost exactly eight total, add the top card of your deck here.
00:20:41
Speaker
Set its power to eight. Did you get them? Did you try them? Did you run into any of them? Yes. Yes to all. I didn't. So I mostly just...
00:20:55
Speaker
And i haven't I only just got back in playing last night, and I've only seen a Deafening Chord, so I'm very interested to hear about your experiences. Okay, good. I haven't i haven't played Deafening Chord yet. I haven't seen or played against one yet, but it just came out today because new card on Thursday. Why not? don't know. I think we'll talk about Deafening Chord next week, probably. um Okay, go ahead, Ben. Tell us about Noir.
00:21:19
Speaker
I will say that when I opened my Deafening Chord out of my Seasonal Series 4 pack, I got fully refunded. In fact, I got more than fully refunded. i got all the tokens to get another Series 4 pack, plus 25 extra. So, uh... Very profitable snap pack.
00:21:41
Speaker
Nice. But... More importantly, Ezekiel Sims, who I did not get out of a snap pack. I dropped the full 6,000. Or not Ezekiel, Spider-Man Noir. Ezekiel Sims is last week's news.
00:21:52
Speaker
Oh my gosh. And he was 11,000 tokens for me, as I would not shut up about. But anywho, Spider-Man Noir, tons of fun. So that's my opinion. You know what card this is like?
00:22:05
Speaker
Everybody's going to think Jubilee. And they're not wrong. The card is like Jubilee. um But you know what else it's like? It's a lot like America Chavez is the thing.
00:22:16
Speaker
Cause like you want to be thinking like all the same cards are hits is, is my, uh, my thinking. And so that to me said, you should play this card in Surfer. And so that's what I did.
00:22:28
Speaker
And it seems to work pretty well. I've seen some other Surfer lists and they all seem fine. You know, they've they've ah they've all got their charms. You can do it with Domino if you want. But like, if you do that, I think you're probably asking for locations to screw you a little bit. Like if you lean too cutely into the...
00:22:47
Speaker
fulfilling the requirement of the car. Like if you, if you make your whole deck about like, how are we going to count to eight right on time? You're you're you've lost the plot. It should be, how are we going to win more games than we lose and let Spider-Man noir just be part of that.
00:23:04
Speaker
You're right, but let's highlight Domino Surfer is a very easy way to hit A because you get the guaranteed two and Surfer is full of threes. So it's two, to three, three. You can afford one. Locations are full of things that put things onto the board. So I think, I don't know, for me personally, I've been enjoying a more flexible approach.
00:23:27
Speaker
ah Let me tell you what I've got in the deck. I've got a America Chavez, I got Surge, I got Irby, I've got See, I'm dropping the H on Herbie. like Like I'm Rhi or something. You got it from Rhi. We've been hanging out. eddie Merlin, Brood, Captain Carter, Silver Surfer, Hope, Summer, Sebastian, Shaw, Absorbing Man, Spider-Man Noir, and Iron Man.
00:23:48
Speaker
um And it so seems to win a lot. I'm up a bunch of snap points with it. Honestly, I suspect it's not any better than my other surfer deck. ah My other surfer deck that I played it worlds and stuff um i i don't think it's better than that one but it's fine and it seems to win a lot so yeah i don't know can i ask an obvious question does it does the card do something for you so if you were like too lazy to get
00:24:22
Speaker
You can tell when he was activated. Asking for a late night friend. So he does two things. One is he's the first card that has dynamic text. He actually like at the end of his text box has a zero out of eight in parentheses that live refreshes. o So you don't even need to know that like Raptors cost one or the monster cost six or whatever. You can just tap him and see how much you're at. um The other thing, I mean, I guess you need to know to plan ahead. But yeah, I never when you have exactly eight on the board, he has like a white glow around him.
00:24:53
Speaker
It's very easy to tell when he's when he's on and stuff. um So don't don't play him if you don't see the white glow or whatever. But yeah, it's super easy to it's super easy to make it line up with Yeah.
00:25:09
Speaker
uh, for instance, uh, as is the case with the domino surfer decks, like a two and two threes will get you there. So if you play like surge or Merlin or Herbie, and then like captain Carter and hope summers, boom, you're there. um One thing that you can do is you can go one, two, three, and then on turn four, you play a two. And then on turn five, play Spider-Man Noir and a Merlin spell or something. There are a zillion ways to make it work. Sometimes you want to make a rock with Herbie to get there. Merlin is just like a rock star. Does the Merlin spell do anything? Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:49
Speaker
Oh, because like a polymorph will increase it by one. Yeah. And I meant I meant like as a thing to do on turn five alongside your Spider-Man noir. thought you were talking about first thing I was talking about. like Yes. Also. But when it comes to getting to eight, yes, Merlin is a rock star that ah you can once in future something. You can polymorph something like I see it so easy to make the numbers line up if Merlin's around. Yeah.
00:26:12
Speaker
um But also Herbie's helpful there. Also Herbie's not bad as a thing to get with Spider-Man Noir, especially if it happens on turn four, because then you got two chances to roll the doubling. I've got tons of screenshots of 16 power Herbie's.
00:26:30
Speaker
It's just, her yeah, her Herbie's kind of like if there were two cards that I was not sure about in this particular list, it would be Herbie and Sebastian Shaw, but they're both,
00:26:40
Speaker
so good at their jobs and doing their things. Like, I think there'll be people who are like, but why Sebastian Shaw? That's a bad hit for Spider-Man Noir. Don't you want Human Torch First Steps? And to that I say, no, I basically never want Human Torch First Steps. I want Sebastian Shaw. He gets real big off of like a million different things. Anywho, I'm telling you, the deck works. It's it's been printing tickets. I'm up a bajillion SP. And when I say a bajillion, I mean like, I don't know, a couple hundred.
00:27:11
Speaker
But yeah it like it the the deck, like don't knock it till you've tried it is my feeling. And also maybe you'll try it and it won't work. But don't. I don't know.
00:27:22
Speaker
I'm telling you, if you tried harder, it would work. I don't know. It's a real deck. Spider-Man Noir is a real card. And if you're not doing a minsturfer, I don't know.
00:27:34
Speaker
It's reassuring that you said that, like, specifically, like, not to be all in on it. You know what I mean? he's the Meaning he's not, like, a very narrow combo card. He's kind of like a um accelerator, you know? So, like...
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. and If he happens, he happens. yeah If he doesn't, it's fine. you you like You should still have other plans. And that's ah really clever using Merlin as a tool to help. like Because I was like, you know, you can't like... I mean, you can make squirrels disappear with Killmonger and stuff. But like yeah, things like Merlin and stuff. about Makes me want to build like a constant Constantine of detectives and magicians.
00:28:17
Speaker
dike of like detectives and and magicians
00:28:23
Speaker
oh and the That would be very re. that would be very re Also, I tried him in a Darkhawk deck and i i don't know those cards so I didn't make it.
00:28:37
Speaker
I don't think it was very. It seemed to be okay but I could tell that I i had not. and ah I don't understand those cards the way I understand the surfer cards. um And the other thing I was going to say, I feel like there might be like sort of a widely held misunderstanding of ah like, this is, I mean, I guess this is a card that can be vulnerable to location luck, but at least the way I've been trying to play him, you're,
00:29:13
Speaker
Locations only help has been, has been my experience with, uh, with him because you have all the information in the first three turns, right? So just don't get yourself into, I don't know. I guess i I don't think that this is a card where you need to like be worried about bad locations. You just want to be hopeful for good locations. And if you get,
00:29:40
Speaker
bad locations, they're they're just fine. They're neutral. You can just count to eight. make sure Make sure it's eight and play the card when there's eight. You know? i Don't count. Pay attention to the animation. I should have like prepared better notes, but like this card is not that hard to to use is is I guess what I'm trying to say. Yeah, your take has been the most positive I've seen anywhere. um Not that I've seen a lot of like, I haven't seen a lot of hate either, but I mean, safety said, why did they make this card or something like that? but
00:30:12
Speaker
That one was pretty nice. I think he's probably like 72 hours away from being like, this card's actually really fun and cool. Yeah, I agree. it seems like that It seems like a card that would follow that trajectory. um I did have to do the Stardust thing. The last time I did this, ah where i felt I felt the need to to warn my co-hosts like,
00:30:35
Speaker
Uh, know that expectations were low about this card, but I'm going to I'm going to come up positive for it on the episode. I got, got to give you a couple days to acclimate, prepare. Um, I'm not prepared to say this is a good card, but it is a very fun card. And as expected, when it does the thing, the thing is very big. yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
I tried it in like a few things, but you know, they were all day one decks, so nothing worth talking about. um The thing I liked him in best was Surfer, and it was a Domino Surfer deck. It's really fun to hit Brood. I only did that once, but of course that's awesome. That's like a, what, 30 power play? Yeah.
00:31:12
Speaker
um One thing about about the deck that I described that I did not mention, try whenever possible to play Spider-Man Noir on an empty lane so that if you do land Brood, there's room for all three of them.
00:31:24
Speaker
And also, if you land Captain Carter, she'll be in the front row. That's smart. But if you if you've already drawn both of those cards, it doesn't matter because Iron Man does his thing no matter where he where he sits. Yeah.
00:31:37
Speaker
yeah um It did have Iron Man just because he's such a good hit. Also, Iron Man almost belongs in Surfer just like the way he is. like yeah's It's fine to play Iron Man. The deck i had the deck i got, I think it was an auto build and I have no idea where it came from, unfortunately. I was looking around for it and I never saw saw anybody posting it. um It had Sinister in it, which is weird when Domino's there.
00:32:03
Speaker
um It's just like you can't hit eight with Sinister um with the way that the deck is constructed. So he was basically just there as like, this is good if you hit him with Noir. And it's true. He is. But um anyway, that deck could could use refinement. So I also won't be i won't be going into it further than saying it was Surfer Noir and that was a fun deck. Yeah.
00:32:28
Speaker
he's He's fine. i think he's probably just going to be fine. i think it probably is right for him to be a card that is not a build around. Like you need to be prepared to hit eight, but your deck needs to be able to survive if you don't succeed.
00:32:43
Speaker
Whereas there are other cards like negative and sort of Wiccan. Wiccan's like in between the two where like you need to hit the four for it to, you know, for the deck to do its thing.
00:32:55
Speaker
um But I saw at least one person post a noir deck that said, if you don't get noir, just retreat. I'm like, I don't know if he's that's not hard'all yeah i don't think he's that good. I don't think he's that good. Negative negative is is good enough to say that. um anyway i i had a I beat somebody who Spider-Man noired out, an Iron Man.
00:33:17
Speaker
I did Spider-Man. I pulled off my Spider-Man noir, but it only gave me a giant America Chavez. But like... Spider-Man noir is beatable, even if like they get the good stuff like a Gore or an Iron Man.
00:33:29
Speaker
Like you, it's not a guaranteed win if it goes off.
Deck Performance and Strategy Discussion
00:33:33
Speaker
Don't forget to snap. Like when you do get it, like I was Arishemming the other day and someone Cassandra Nova'd me.
00:33:44
Speaker
And then on turn six, they dropped a Darkhawk. They, like, super beat me. yeah They didn't snap me. I don't know for sure. Because, honestly, i if I thought they had a Darkhawk, I would have assumed they would have snapped several turns.
00:34:00
Speaker
You know what I mean? That's how they got two cubes out of you instead of one. don't think so. I honestly, it was just, I was so so I'm like, you know, it's like negotiate for your salaries, people.
00:34:16
Speaker
Get your cubes worth. I don't know. i think here But here's how would have happened. If they'd snapped me earlier like they should have, they would have still gotten cubes when I retreated turn six. You know what I mean And then maybe even earlier, because when I was in a worse position, i think I could have shamed their casario. did something. I had something good, but...
00:34:40
Speaker
I don't know. they were They surprised me with the Darkhawk. They should have snapped. though I was just so... I was so like nonplussed. Like, your deck is built to be Arashem. I am Arashem. What more are you looking for? You know? Okay. You're reminding me of... ah like couldn't track down what video this was, but some advice from Lambie back in the day where it's, and I'm paraphrasing basically, like, if your deck is doing its thing and you're not snapping, there's something wrong with your deck, right? Like, when your deck is doing the thing right, you should be in a strong, you know, like, you're in a strong position, like, take advantage of that.
00:35:20
Speaker
I think the way I heard Gunny T describe it once was, like, you have to snap, because, like, They have to pay to see your good stuff. Yeah, I like that phrasing a lot, too.
00:35:33
Speaker
But you have to know you have the good stuff ready it to go. Yeah, understand your deck and know when it's the good stuff. hu yeah But just something about the phrasing where it's like, if you're not snapping when your deck is doing the thing,
00:35:46
Speaker
when are you snapping? yeah like That's the people who are struggling to get to infinite and stuff because they're not taking advantage of their wins to get enough cubes out of it, you know? Like, waiting for, like, having the perfect locations handed to them or something. Anytime can tell you're, like, something has tipped in your favor, that's the time to snap, no matter how small it is. Like, anything that, like, bumps you over to 51 to 49, I think worth snapping about. You have to be a very good player for that, though. Use more generous boundaries if you are not as good at evaluating game. Okay, don't know, like 55 or whatever. I'm aggressive. If you're ahead, snap about it. I'm aggressive, too.
00:36:29
Speaker
i'm like But you also have to be good at evaluating the game. You have to be good at knowing you're at the 51%, right? like Technically, that's true. If you're at 51%, should be snapping. um If you're at 50%, you should be snapping. I do think that, like, maybe sometimes I'm perhaps more conservative than I've made it sound like. Like, there are times when I'm not sure I'm winning. And if I'm not sure I'm winning, I won't always snap about it. and Maybe I should snap more. I don't know.
00:36:52
Speaker
Maybe I'm not even doing a good job following my advice. You need to snap before you know you're winning. Sometimes it's okay to have snapped and then retreats. Oh, absolutely. Like, if you're playing a move deck and the first location that shows up or whatever is a move location, know what I mean? You make them pay that cube. Then maybe it doesn't pan out for whatever reason. then the location is Miniaturized Lab, and you're like, well...
00:37:21
Speaker
And then, yeah, and then you play until they eat snap or it gets to the end. And then you maybe retreat for two. That doesn't mean that it was wrong for you to snap initially, you know? Yeah, exactly. And were your opponents will try to tell you it was wrong. They will do stupid emotes when you retreat after snapping yourself. They are telling on themselves as bad players. You are the good player. Yep.
00:37:45
Speaker
don't don't Don't be discouraged by that. Like, that's them being dumbasses and you getting away with, like, leaving for two cubes when it was correct to snap. you You were right. You were doing the right thing. Yeah, you're basing all of your decisions turn by turn on, like, kind of probabilities to maximize your cube gain should they continue in that trajectory. Does it mean you should bet more on a losing hand? You know, you like... Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:12
Speaker
Wow, that was ah impromptu ah snapping and retreating advice. jerry Very important stuff to know, honestly. um Okay. We have Sanctum Showdown starting on Monday where you can get Hydro Man. Just, you know, something to be aware of. Or a bench! Yeah, and apparently...
00:38:33
Speaker
i I think it was in like the discord stuff where they were saying that the, uh, the past, like going up the track doesn't give you, when you get, x when you get charms, you don't get XP anymore.
00:38:46
Speaker
Like they fixed that bug finally.
Sanctum Showdown Preview
00:38:48
Speaker
So it'll be interesting to see how they adjusted the difficulty level, but they said most free to play players should be able to get Morris bench.
00:38:58
Speaker
Okay. we know anything about the ban list? the same ban list as last time. So I can play the same deck as last time? Yep.
00:39:12
Speaker
Okay. First up, we're going talk about this week's OTA. And then we'll talk about the patch. Even though that's not the order they happened in, the patch is more exciting to talk about. Or, don't know, it's it's a longer section.
00:39:24
Speaker
Whatever reason that your heart chooses. Sparky goes from two one plus 3 to 2-2 plus 2. to tutu plus two I think they cited in the notes that they like they don't think this is going to fix the human torch problem. Then why i do? I just don't get it.
00:39:40
Speaker
i don't get it. So basically the human torch problem? Yep. We know this isn't going to put out the fire, but we're not going to go get any water about it or anything.
00:39:50
Speaker
ah We're just going to see if this fan doesn't fix it. I mean, and we're not literally doing the opposite of fixing the problem, but like, oh my gosh, close enough. They already started defensively like there. Hey, we we told to you this would be rough.
00:40:07
Speaker
And it's like, oh, so when you're starting the conversation that way. ah Yeah.
00:40:18
Speaker
Sparky was probably too strong. Yeah, but I would. But I would really like to see them address the problem. Like Human Torches is too strong.
00:40:29
Speaker
And it seems like they don't know any other way to like do move cards. They changed Fanfei to make Fanfei better with Human Torch. That's true. This seems to be the only thing they know how to do these days. Let's do the Aranya thing where you move and give them some flat stats. like wait Just stop doing it this way. I mean, like I guess it's nice that you watered this one down, but like it just seems like that's all they know how to do now.
00:40:55
Speaker
Yeah. ah Okay, Storm goes from 3-2 to 3-1, citing the um War Machine Legion problem. Again, don't think they're actually addressing the problem here.
00:41:06
Speaker
even a little. This is not Storm's fault. Let Storm be a card that that has friends with other cards besides War Machine and Legion, possibly, the way she used to be. Cerebro 2 will not be happy about this. Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think it gets back to what you were talking about last week. was It's the problem with duplicating abilities. There's too many ways to duplicate abilities. And, like, Storm has never been a problem until you could just, you know, replicate or affect everywhere. more Legion and stuff, right? Yeah.
00:41:45
Speaker
it's I don't know how they can fix that interaction, but that's how I would like to see them solve this problem. Because I really love Storm as a card before Legion. And I really love Legion as a card. I don't want to see them break Legion.
00:41:59
Speaker
I think Legion is one of the most fun cards in the game. But their interaction is busted. They're like the couple that you're like, ah we love you both so much separately. Together, a disaster. Complete disaster together. you can Exactly. If you could just split up and stay in your own lanes, we would love you both to stay the way you are is sucks because yeah like i love both those cards individually and together they write and it's like they keep nerfing the cards out of their ability be to be played anywhere else rather than address the problem which is their fucking toxic relationship you know okay do you think maybe they could change yeah i'm thinking maybe they could change storm you know how like
00:42:50
Speaker
um iron Patriot like marks the location as like, this is the location where we're doing the iron Patriot competition. Maybe storm could mark the location as this is the location that's about to be flooded next turn or like something like maybe like some, I'm trying to think of like how they could separate the, the flooding effect from the copyable trend, like transformable. And that's one thing I thought of. i I think you make her ongoing, you make her professor X.
00:43:21
Speaker
yeah Yeah. She makes the location flooded so it would happen immediately? doesn't change the location. yeah right? You'd have to, like, next turn she gains the text ongoing or something like that. Like, it would be awkward.
00:43:35
Speaker
The other thing that comes to mind is make Legion a six cost.
00:43:40
Speaker
A lot of Legion plays are you play them the turn. I hate it. I never play Taskmaster now. i it's That's no fun. Don't do that. Ruins Legion.
00:43:52
Speaker
Is there a line of text they could add to the flooding or flooded locations that like would make them not copyable on the other locations or something? Yeah, it's just that just feels clunky, but yeah, you could do a really tailored... It's not even a naturally occurring location, so like if it is a little clunky, like it's not one that rolls naturally in in the course of an ordinary game unless somebody's storming.
00:44:19
Speaker
i mean like if If one of them's going to have awkward text, I think that's a relatively safe location to give awkward text to. You could also rework War Machine.
00:44:31
Speaker
But that yeah that is a pity to lose the deck that, you know, has Ebony Maw and Infina. But these days, that deck is just the Storm Legion deck. Mm-hmm. And Infinaud will get work elsewhere.
00:44:45
Speaker
Maybe you're onto it where it's just like Storm's location is flooded. and that would be like one new interaction where you could like, you anchor with like ghost spider or something. But it's like, then if you replicate, it's like it only, only her location iss flooded. So even if you tried to legion it, it wouldn't, but it would still have the effect. It's actually like the underlying location or something.
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Because this is the bonus of digital, though. It's like it can say flooded and stuff. You move storm because it's on your text box. And then that new location, it turns back to whatever location it was before. I that fix. Yeah, like Where she makes the location flooded, which is like a property of the location. It doesn't actually change the location.
00:45:33
Speaker
And then you can yoink her around. can fly. Yeah, then there's cute things you can do with it, right? love doing cute things. Or you can cop, you know, mistyker or whatever if you really want to, you know.
00:45:45
Speaker
We fixed it Do it, Esty. they could put a They could put a funny little, like... water filter thing on the the illustration of whatever the location was yeah it would be like so easy to do and it would also be kind of cool and fun yeah no i think that's a solvable problem what if it changed the name of the location so it was like flooded limbo yeah i think it should do that x mansion you shouldn't be counted on to recognize the illustration also did the
00:46:17
Speaker
to the limbo illustration change or something. I saw a funny limbo this week. Uh, I saw one too. I think what, cause I saw two locations like this. I think for some reason the backgrounds are missing. So it's limbo, but the background is black.
00:46:29
Speaker
i you know and of course like different artwork no new bug new patch new shit's fucked up um okay i noticed the collection screen was being even more badly behaved than it has been in the past they like slid it up so that card art that's not already loaded it loads on demand like it has like a downloading bar at the bottom of the screen It slows down everything else. and your phone Yeah, it sucks. But it seemed like the game itself is loading faster. because And it says at the bottom, like, other downloads will happen later. And I'm like, okay, so they split that up. And that's great if the game opens faster. But you can't murder the collection screen. Yeah.
00:47:16
Speaker
Oh, what is... I don't want say what is wrong with them. I know that they work hard and they're professionals and all that. And I think the QA team does good know that some them hard. But it is really wild how much like slips through.
00:47:30
Speaker
um okay Zombie Galacti gains a point of power. Goes from 7.4 to 7.5. I think they said like that they they knew they were being cautious on this one. And he didn't land high enough. So they didn't land high enough.
00:47:43
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think this... I don't want it to be a good card, though. no I also don't want it to be a good card. I think it's still garbage and they should leave it here. Leave it leave it at 7.5 and it will remain roughly as playable as it was at 7.4 and that's fine.
00:48:00
Speaker
Yeah. I'm okay with seven five ah hypothetically. 6-6 would be a problem. but Absolutely. 7-5 is still bad. Okay.
00:48:14
Speaker
Orca, I can't believe it took this long. Orca gets a buff. um i kind of wish orca and namor would go to on reveal instead of ongoing but yeah because uh ongoing goes from plus five to plus seven so he's now a 618 when he's by himself and that feels like you could actually win a lane with that sometimes Sometimes.
Card Buffs and Meta Challenges
00:48:35
Speaker
I feel like it was called for. It's already a tough proposition because there's a lot of like... because like but Here's the problem. There's so much Negasonic running around and stuff. It's like very vulnerable to try and just even win a lane with one card anymore than like old Snap Days. Old Snap Days, you would. like The classic long-running old reliable was like, you know, two-pass diverge
00:49:04
Speaker
in a wood, and one is Spectrum, and one is the Destroyer, as Robert Frost does. But remember, for so long, that was just like a reliable deck that could plot along. But now, it's so it's like you're just going to try and win a card, a lane with one big card that's so vulnerable to so many things.
00:49:27
Speaker
and So I like this for Orca. I have the hilarious pixel Orca. And ah i would, you know, I would like to... I also run Pixel Orca with Banana Flare. Also, i think it's worth mentioning that that ah the Spectrum Destroyer deck that you described, back in the day, that Destroyer in that deck, that was a 615 Destroyer.
00:49:56
Speaker
Old times. Yeah. yeah He's slowly kept having to be... He's run Professor X in armor and Colossus. Warpath. I don't think this orc is big enough even, honestly. that's That's my feeling. I feel like this change doesn't really matter. yeah i I kind of wish they would take a ah harder... Yeah, you know, maybe maybe do make him on reveal. I don't know.
00:50:20
Speaker
I don't know. I just know that I'm not... I'm still not playing this card. Yep. Okay. Odin gets a point of power, 6.8 to 6.9.
00:50:32
Speaker
That's fine. It's like when they give it to Heimdall, you know? Yeah, I'm not worried about this, but i also i wasn't feeling like Odin was especially weak. Not an unplayable card already at 6.8. But again, this is fine. it's It's not going to bump him over into problematic territory.
00:50:51
Speaker
I think it's a good change. It might be my favorite change the of the OTA. Wow. Wow.
00:50:59
Speaker
Odin Thosbury or nah? Oh. No, it's just being immature. Okay, in my head. Okay. No, I like this as a, you know, what usually like if I'm doing Odin, it's like Nomura.
00:51:14
Speaker
It's Nomura stuff. And ah so so I'm into it. just think mostly you're playing him for his ability. so i don't know. maybe they hit Actually, I'm assuming that they have the data. Sometimes you're trying to win the Nomura lane with like a sage. or like you know yeah I've been actually been playing Nomura in high voltage, so I've been doing that nonsense recently.
00:51:42
Speaker
Wave goes from 3.5 to 3.6. This one kind of surprises me. Yeah, I don't like this one. You don't? I looked at it I'm like, oh, I see. This is like the only way she competes with like Luna, right? Luna. Luna Snow is a 3.6. That gets you energy. Why wouldn't you play Luna Snow over Wave?
00:52:02
Speaker
i mean, Luna Snow... dead like I feel like it's easier for me to know that I'm going to take advantage of Wave in a way that my opponent will not than it is to take advantage of Luna Snow in a way that I know that my opponent will not.
00:52:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think Wave has a unique enough identity. but maybe it's like Maybe they have the stats to say she needed help? I don't think that the game has been in the healthiest places when people are playing Wave all the time.
00:52:31
Speaker
That's fair. But that was about energy cheat, because energy cheat always, like, when it's too abusive, it gets bad. But, like, how much are you seeing Wave? How much you seeing, like, Wave around these days? I feel like I'll see her more at 3.6, because 3.6 is, like, fucking bananas overstated.
00:52:51
Speaker
i mean i feel like i see luna snow i see luna snow all the time and i never see wave which is why that immediate wave i see wave i'm still seeing wave i see wave in two contexts one is people being done with galactus that's yeah always easy to play around the other thing i see is trying to do sarah onslaught in the same lane I haven't seen that in a minute.
00:53:18
Speaker
Yeah, I'm mostly running into the Galactus people, I think. I don't see a ton of it, but but I have seen that enough recently that it it clocked.
Card Synergies and Mechanics
00:53:30
Speaker
It's not going to clock it, man.
00:53:33
Speaker
White Queen goes from three four to three five
00:53:39
Speaker
it's good She's tough. I'll play her. I've tried her a lot of times, especially back when I was playing the Harold's ah harold's old of and the My existential dread.
00:53:54
Speaker
like Galactus First Steps deck. ah But as you saw, I played Coulson instead and that still ended up being preferable. She's a tough card and it's like not even though she's bad card, but it's like for what she does, I think you'd just rather play one of the two cards like Valentina because you're not guaranteed to get any kind of synergy out or out of her, right? So the synergies you're pairing her with are like Quinjet or with those same ones and for what she does it just, like a lot of times it just feels better to like knock an energy off that and go for one of those yeah, other options.
00:54:38
Speaker
Have you been trying to play her at all, Ben? like No, because this card is like, it doesn't, it generates a card, but like the card it generates is not especially good for you probably. And like, man, this just reminds me of a thing that I meant to mention about Spider-Man Noir.
00:54:56
Speaker
that That Jubilee effect of like digging one card deeper into your deck is pretty powerful, more likely to make your key stuff show up. Surfer is more likely to appear in a game when you played Spider-Man Noir. Anyway, point is, I'm saying White Queen doesn't do anything of the sort, doesn't dig you deeper into your deck, doesn't... like She's just not... I mean, why isn't she getting the 3-6 treatment? that's That's what I'm wondering.
00:55:21
Speaker
Because like her unreveal is so not good. It's... She's just not doing a valuable thing. It's tough.
00:55:33
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't be upset at all to see her go to three six. Okay. That's the OTA. Let's talk about the patch. Oh, wait, can I mention one more thing about White Queen? Specifically, ah what is this they're trying to tell us about? ah She might even nicely benefit from some of those other six cost changes as if there's going to be any detectable difference in white Queens performance based on this because just orca those orcas.
00:56:06
Speaker
what What are you talking about? what are you talking about? Look in low series, she might pull an Odin. Yeah, i mean, maybe, maybe, I thought the exact same thing when I read that. i'm like, why are you talking? How dumb do you think we are? Cheesy piece. It's the one that keeps trying to play White Queen. like These buffs also benefit Valentina.
00:56:36
Speaker
and and Emperor Hulkling. New Luger's six cards are awesome for Hulkling, though. No, they are. That's the thing. It does get better. Right? ah And diluting your chance to get Agatha, also pretty clutch.
00:56:55
Speaker
Yeah. ah Let's talk about the patch. ah The highlight, like the public-facing highlight, was is new this thing for new users. You get a Is it 35? I think you get a 35 day advent calendar. It's 28 days, but you can miss seven of them.
00:57:15
Speaker
um And along the way, you get a bunch of stuff, including snapbacks. Also four preconstructed decks. Pretty cool. And they come with series three, four, and five cards in them. And you get a card back and like, like, yeah, it's a nice little springboard for new players. So there's an Ultron Zoo deck, a Black Panther on reveal deck, a Mystique ongoing deck.
00:57:36
Speaker
I think that one also has Omega Red. And two of them have Omega Red. Yeah, it's true. And then another one of them I think has Drax. Maybe it's the Black Panther one has Drax, who's a series three card for some reason.
00:57:47
Speaker
um and then thanos who of course is like that's the big exciting uh that's the series five card that you get out of this as a new player you only get these as a new player there's no like my understanding is there's no returning player or like semi new player who gets these you have to be brand new since the patch um i think they should do something for returning players because i know the other games do a pretty good job of that heartstone i only log in to play battlegrounds but like they're always trying to be like do you want a bunch of good standard cards a bunch of legendaries and things and i'm like okay okay heartstone i'll look at them i'll look at them
00:58:30
Speaker
Yeah, it would have been cute if they had had, because they already do the daily logins. They just made an extra long one of 35 days that would just air alongside the new one. So like it you know existing players had something to just, you know, fensies.
00:58:51
Speaker
Yeah, and and they specifically called out, like, if you don't have Thanos, he's coming up in the next grand arena and you can get him that way. And I'm like, okay, that's good. What if somebody doesn't have Cold Obsidian? Oh, he's... Cool Obsidian is in the Thanos deck. Anyway.
Advent Calendar and New Cards
00:59:06
Speaker
It's fine. It's a good thing. I think that we'll continue to see... Oh, yeah, yeah. Overall, I do say. More of this, please. yeah I'm like, but the new players, what does that do for me? Right?
00:59:18
Speaker
It's not a new player. We're doing fine. We've got cards to play. No, I agree. i It's good. I would be interested in the card backs. I imagine they'll be available eventually because Ultron and Mystique, there's no way to have them.
00:59:31
Speaker
And Black Panther and Thanos are from past seasons. So I don't have Black Panther. That was from ah the first. No, that was from November 22. And that's before I started playing.
00:59:43
Speaker
Anyway, it's a good way. They needed to address that. Right. Like five. I started in surfer season. Yeah. Okay.
00:59:54
Speaker
I just wanted to make sure I understood. Yeah. Yeah, that was I started, you know, two months after public release. I have all the beta card backs because those they made available for so sale. But the Miles Morales season and the Black Panther season, I don't have anything from that.
01:00:12
Speaker
OK, we're going to talk about the data mines The real reason we're here. I don't know. I always find that to be a very fun part of the month is seeing what the next set of cards is going to be. um Dragon season, which we already kind of knew because some of them were in last month's state of mind and they're, you know, the titles and stuff like that, but they're here.
01:00:30
Speaker
um Ben, you take the first one. Sholau, the undying. It's 510. It's the season pass card. On reveal, give the last character you played plus two power for each turn you played two or more cards.
01:00:47
Speaker
So seems to me like, uh, one of the, you know, robots means activate. They, they were previewing that with Herbie. I guess they've been previewing dragons means playing big things, but also playing one costs and, and hopefully two cards a turn. I guess, I guess Kitty pride has been establishing that for us, I guess. Um,
01:01:13
Speaker
Because, yeah, Xolau wants you to have played two cards on two or more turns. Or two two or more cards on on multiple turns. Which is pretty hard to do if you like ah look at look at the the numbers here.
01:01:28
Speaker
Are we playing Xolau on five? If that's the case... Then you have to play a zero alongside him to get the extra one? Yeah.
01:01:39
Speaker
It feels like maybe maybe you have two eligible turns there. I think this card is huge. That's the thing. I think the card is good, especially because there are other cards that support it this month.
01:01:51
Speaker
And I just, I do, I like, I'm looking at the ways it can not work out. But really, I do think, you know, if you get like 516, that's pretty good.
01:02:02
Speaker
If you're getting it consistently. you know, um you can play them on the last turn of the game pretty reasonably and 520. um twenty And that's without any like shenanigans.
01:02:15
Speaker
Well, how how many how many turns have you played two or more cards? I was saying five. But yeah, four is probably the most realistic because like your deck is hard to do on turn one. Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:32
Speaker
And even on turn two, kind of still pretty hard to do. Especially if you're going to do something like Merlin to help support him. I feel like turns three and four are the ones you can count on.
01:02:43
Speaker
And then maybe also five if you're playing him on six. And then if you are playing him on six, then you hopefully turn six as well. So like I can see 518 if you play him on turn six.
01:02:58
Speaker
I was interested in your take if he if he was a big card that that works for players of small cards. Yeah. I mean, that that is what they're trying to do with these dragons. They're like, well, you you got the big ones that cost five or more, and then you got the little ones that cost one or whatever, you know.
01:03:16
Speaker
that That seems to be what they're encouraging you to do. I mean, we'll get to the rest of the cards. But yeah, that's that's the season pass.
01:03:25
Speaker
I love playing Kitty Pryde. do think this is a big card. I am opposed to the design space of like, for each turn, you did this thing. Like I was recently playing against someone who had um the discard one kernel.
01:03:47
Speaker
Chrome America, right? Yeah, and it's like, I was sitting I'm like, why is it just that I'm lazy and I don't like, it's like, not only is it multiple things you kind of need to keep track in your head, if you're like trajectory planning for the future, I get that it'll stay on the card right in the moment.
01:04:07
Speaker
But it's like, so you have to track how many turns you did that and you have to add it up. And so like, already that feels... Huh? There's there like no counter on the screen for that sort of thing at all. like Yeah.
Card Complexity and Speculation
01:04:20
Speaker
So even in Colonel America's case, if you look at their discards, you don't know how many turns those happened over.
01:04:27
Speaker
it's it's a It's a pain to figure out and adds more time to the main benefit of Marvel Snap, which is that like you can play it pretty fast. And it's like the longer you have to like do it's just like I feel like there's other design spaces they could go. I'm not opposed to like.
01:04:46
Speaker
the idea I love the idea of bigs and smalls. I've been itching to play Kitty Pryde, and it feels like the best thing to do with her is zombies, and I don't have enough of the zombies to do zombies. It's irritating, so I haven't been able to play. So i'm excited for Kitty Pryde, but um but i don't i don't like I don't like the cards that it's very difficult to like...
01:05:12
Speaker
Calculate they're going to be without tracking a lot and spending the time to like add up all the various cards you have with all the tricky little like conditions. Yeah. You shouldn't have to keep track everything that might be counted for one of these cards. Your your show allows or your Colonel America's.
01:05:32
Speaker
Yeah. the Game's leaning harder into vibe math. Like, into just, like, you don't know. you counting many times your opponent's cards have moved for Hydra Stomper? Like, that kind of thing. Like, it's just... yeah I agree. It's a dangerous direction, and they do seem to be going into it more frequently now, because, you know, these are recent cards. Colonel America, Hydra Stomper, Show Loud, like, that's... Oh, okay, but I do love Hydra Stomper. No, I also love Hydra Stomper, but, like...
01:06:01
Speaker
He is another part of this problem. And that's that's just the truth. yeah I know. i know sometimes Sometimes it's our problematic faves.
01:06:12
Speaker
But not the one I like. don't know if I do. I don't have those problems. Because like in some ways, Noel and Morbius have the same problem. No, Morbius. that's That's information you've got mostly. Except for Apocalypse and other things. like And Scorn. And...
01:06:28
Speaker
Morbius didn't become a problem until bullseye bullshit let go over the top, right? for's always It's just like, oh, it's just double what they discarded. But now it's like, who knows how much they discard on their last turn with Alder. Because there are enough things that go back to the hand when discarded. And like, Gnoll is like, or Death.
01:06:50
Speaker
They're like, they're calculable, but you have to be paying attention. And Gnoll... I mean, that one has the same thing as Morbius, right? Where like stuff died, but if it's still around, like it's still counting towards null, is it not? Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:08
Speaker
Like X-23 and Wolverine dying will beef up. It is a problem where you're like, i because it's like, I am not paying attention to all of this stuff all the time. Yeah. So I guess there have been a couple examples in the game for a long time.
01:07:21
Speaker
yeah But it does seem like it's amping up in recent. the more they have, the harder it is to like, yeah, you just got to keep doing the five. This deck can drop something that can single handedly win this lane.
01:07:35
Speaker
Anyway, ah sorry for the last minute swap on these next two. I was scrambling to try to figure out which one was the super premium. It's the Dragon of the Moon. Rhi?
01:07:47
Speaker
Oh, okay, let's see. Dragon of the Moon is a three. I should have looked at these. position it's good um It's a three-two. It's going to be ah a series five.
01:07:59
Speaker
um on reveal, steal one power from even-costed cards in all hands.
01:08:10
Speaker
Whew. Yeah. Yeah.
01:08:16
Speaker
ah Like, feel like Moon Knight is as far as this, like, kind of thing. i don't know. I feel like this just leans more into what we were just talking about. don't know. It's like, is it just... Maybe it's fine. Is it too strong for it to steal from all cards? I suspect it's not too strong. That's my suspicion. No!
01:08:34
Speaker
I don't think so, because it's just even-costed. Is it even-costed because it was too strong for it to just steal from everything? Oh, I thought it was because it's for flavor, because it's a Moon Knight thing.
01:08:47
Speaker
Oh, I see. okay like it's Is Moon Knight connected to the Dragon of the Moon? Maybe it's just a Moon thing. The Moon is even. It's a Moon thing, you know? Moon hates things that are even. Yeah, all Moon things are Moon Knight. Okay.
01:09:02
Speaker
Okay. i It's so weird that it's even-costed, though, because, like, it should be odd, right? like Yeah. Nobody's like, Mark Spector's so even-handed. like, divisible by two. You're like, no, that's one on mofo. defeats things that are evil. Yeah. Okay.
01:09:25
Speaker
He's odd. Three. Dude's a prime number. That's all I'm saying. right. I don't know. This card is...
01:09:35
Speaker
What's it going to be? Can we like estimate how much it's going to to get? Yeah, it's going to be a 3-4. 3-5. don't know. It's from your hand, too. yeah Do you want to be stealing from your card? And like do you count those stats? This is a loot from your cards. Yeah, it's a loot cage card. Ajax and loot cage, yeah. i Yes, I don't think this card's very good, is my sister. i don't either. It's so swingy.
01:10:01
Speaker
yeah The one thing this card and a few others have, have ah I don't know, I just, I have recently caught this, is that it doesn't say both hands, right? And this is the same with, ah Hydra Man doesn't say both players' decks. He says each deck.
01:10:16
Speaker
And this is all hands. I'm like, they're leaving this, they're leaving these cards open for more than two players in the same game. I think it's actually just to conserve space. I think you're partially right, but we know that they, can't remember if it's like a documentary something.
01:10:32
Speaker
Early YouTube videos. are There's somewhere I've seen that they like when they were playtesting Snap on paper, they tested 2v2 with five locations. They've talked about it. I don't think they're going to do it.
01:10:44
Speaker
You don't think they'll ever do two v two No, I think it's too ambitious. I think 2v2 would be so fun. I don't think they want to code or whatever. Can you imagine doing a tournament 2v2? Like training together as pals? Do you think that the game could handle it? Could it bear the weight of 2v2? Because don't think it can. think that if they were going to do it, they needed to do it way earlier before the spaghetti got all tangly-wangly. Oh, I hope you're not right. I don't think it's plausible. I think this is like I am this guy's dream talk.
01:11:17
Speaker
It would be so fun to play with the room. It would be like, the Chinese server already has this or something. Yeah. You can go fishing with a friend and then, yeah.
01:11:28
Speaker
um Go fishing in Marvel's... Yeah, they just added a fishing minigame. The Chinese version did have a fishing minigame. It has everything. Oh, it does? and The Chinese version literally had a fishing minigame.
01:11:42
Speaker
And you just caught fish. Why? I don't know! I don't know if they were worth cosmetics or what. I just... I saw screenshots and i was like, that's wild. um Anyway...
01:11:56
Speaker
Oh, we have a lot to say about this card. On the superheroes, would totally do that if it was like a little iron fish. Well, okay. Um, okay.
01:12:09
Speaker
Lockheed. Lockheed, also a week one series five card. Here's your Kitty Pride buddy. A two one. End of turn. If you played a one cost this oneco card this turn, afflict an enemy card here with negative two power.
01:12:25
Speaker
So definitely Kitty Pride, but I think also Clea. I'm with Clea. Yeah. Invisible Woman First Steps. Fantastic card. oh I mean, yeah, that's going to be nasty. Although...
01:12:37
Speaker
Oh, no. OK, yeah. so You could do that on the last turn. For some reason, i was thinking you couldn't do that on the last turn, but you totally could. Yeah.
01:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's very strong. Needed more help. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:12:53
Speaker
I mean, like, yeah, Lockheed and like Diamondback could probably solo lane. No problem. um Or maybe even just Lockheed. Why not? I mean, you have get a lot of me. Miss good. Angela, though.
01:13:07
Speaker
because you know, like, this is basically it's sort of like good Angela, except you can play the card anywhere and only one per turn, and it's got a cost one. Yeah, basically Angela plays three differences. I see the spiritual connection, yeah. Yeah.
01:13:23
Speaker
Yeah. They've been teasing the return of Angela in the new Doctor Strange like Asgard series. It's like I hadn't been picking up Doctor Strange solo, but I'm like, huh have longed to see Angela.
01:13:39
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Ben, I don't...
Dragon Themes and Card Mechanics
01:13:43
Speaker
Look, Sholao Lockheed definitely are like play small cards dragons.
01:13:49
Speaker
But I don't know if any of the other ones are dragons. Um, don't, I'm interested to see if, if you still have a connection for all the dragons by the time we get through them all. Well, I mean like, uh, there's a dragon Lord who is himself.
01:14:04
Speaker
I mean, he's an expensive card, but like he's like play small thing to bring out big thing. Um, Oh, don't knock that over buddy.
01:14:15
Speaker
I might need to finish this cat. Um, I mean, Majestic Wingbeat is a small card that makes your large card cost less. All right. i mean Yeah.
01:14:26
Speaker
it It literally is a one-cost card that cheapens your five-cost or higher cards. So, like, that's, like, the most distilled articulation of the theme that I've identified, I think. Okay. Yeah, maybe it's just just, like, a broad, like, a it's a vibe. it's not It's not as strong as robots equals activate. Mm-hmm. And, I mean, like, drag Dragon Breath cares about having five-cost or higher Anything else about Lockheed from you two? Okay. Ben, Majestic Wingbeat. Every time I see one-cost. Majestic Wingbeat!
01:15:00
Speaker
It's a one-cost skill. On reveal, give the leftmost card in your hand plus two power. If it's five-cost or higher, minus one-cost two. So... I mean...
01:15:12
Speaker
and so It's a 1-2 that makes an energy. I mean, like it' it seems fine if you have the leftmost as a guaranteed 5 cost or higher.
01:15:23
Speaker
And you can probably guarantee that. Which you can manipulate. It's just a skill. you're go to play five eighteen orca Can you imagine, like, the largest pixel-faced orca you've ever seen? Like, this is what you've been building for?
01:15:42
Speaker
I think this is a good card, though. It's funny, you're right. Yeah, I think it's a good card, too. And it counts for Lockheed. like It counts for Show Loud. Makes Show Loud easier to play alongside a second card. Do some sweet stuff with it. One of three standalone skills from this season.
01:16:01
Speaker
Too many.
01:16:04
Speaker
i'm in Three too many, I would even say. I'm curious, is majestic wingbeat, like, it's got a fun mouthfeel, guess. It's an interesting phrase, but, like, is that a thing?
01:16:15
Speaker
no that, like, these Chinese dragons are known for their majestic wingbeats? but It's like Sailor Moon, they're like, Majestic Queen Beat! The power of wind knocks you over.
01:16:29
Speaker
Exactly, like Dragon Breath, they get it. That's a thing. What is the Majestic Queen Beat? Also, it just sounds Dragon Breath, is that a thing? Or is that not something that's sort of covered by the the dragon cards?
01:16:42
Speaker
No, no, no, I get that, but like... But like dragon breath is like, I get that as a skill conceptually. Right. But majestic wing beat, I'm not like, oh damn, listen see to that dragon. That sounds majestic as hell.
01:16:55
Speaker
Yeah. It feels like a majestic wing beat should move something. know, like I, I guess. Oh, okay. And the higher you're flying, the lower energy is. Yeah.
01:17:06
Speaker
I think that, I think, I think you're, you're, you're riding the thermals or whatever. I don't, I don't know. I guess that would be a different thing. though There would be less flapping.
01:17:20
Speaker
I don't know. It doesn't make a lot of sense. All right. re I think this Lin-Lea. like leah Okay, thank you. I was just curious. I'm like i'm not sure. Lin-Lie sounds like a cool name. Okay, Lin-Lea.
01:17:33
Speaker
Iron Fist. On reveal, add the Sword of Fou-E-Z. Sorry, also for that pronunciation, to another location. um The Sword is a 2-2 with ongoing. Iron Fist is here he has plus power.
01:17:54
Speaker
And ah I'm going to say my opinion, which it is it is certainly a quest like that feels more work than it can, to be honest.
01:18:06
Speaker
really Well, De Ken, you're already doing stuff like discarding a bunch of ones or blowing up a bunch of stuff. This is like, move specifically this to this other location, not like... I mean, I guess you could Heimdall if you set it up to always be the left lane, but it's not as easy to... You play this card on the right and you get it wherever it needs to go. And you're going to use your ghost spider on that instead of on your like undoing Human Torch for the sixth time?
01:18:36
Speaker
I think you probably use Hellion, Cloak, or, you know, even Heimdall at the end. i Maybe Fanfei if you're feeling crafty.
01:18:48
Speaker
I mean, like, a Dokken that... Okay, Fanfei. Like, an honest Dokken, that's a 3-8 if you jump through the hoop for him. This is a 2-11. Yeah.
01:18:58
Speaker
yeah Okay, that's fair. It's only a 2, and Daken is a 3. I keep forgetting that. Also, you don't even do the quest, it's a two four Yeah, I think Sinister that's split into two lanes is actually a decent card on its own.
01:19:12
Speaker
Yep, yep. Discounts, Mockingbird. It doesn't soak up buffs. It doesn't like respond to help the way Sinister does, but I i think it's it's an easy it's an easy ask to to do the thing.
01:19:26
Speaker
Beefy curs eef card to hit with the Onslaught. Not that you're going to do that a lot, but... Moonstone? Oh, yeah, that's better. Would you do this to Miss Marvel?
01:19:39
Speaker
I guess you don't have a guarantee over which line it's going in. um we We only have the text here, but I wanted to call out the Linlea card has the Iron Fist like decoration on the logo and the Sword of Fushi has the Swordmaster style text.
01:19:56
Speaker
I think that's super clever because this is this is Swordmaster. If you didn't know, it's the same character.
01:20:04
Speaker
So, yeah. Next time you look at the card art, pay attention to their their logos. I thought that i was very well done. That is cool. That's cute. Yeah, this seems like a strong card. ah No, you're right. I feel bad. It's a two. that is that's ah That's a big two. But you are you are doing it in a deck, right? That's like moving stuff. You have to be moving stuff, yeah.
01:20:25
Speaker
Yeah. ah to A famously torturous and unrewarding deck to play. Well, mean, so that's kind of a thing, like, I don't know if move plays this.
01:20:39
Speaker
Right? Like... Oh, some kind of move plays this. Some kind of move. Sure. maybe Maybe this will encourage them to finally hit Human Torch. That's not the only type of move that you should be playing. um Fin Fang Foom.
01:20:57
Speaker
Classic Marvel Dragon. 712...
01:21:01
Speaker
On reveal, gain the power of front row enemy cards here. and was surprised this one wasn't the season pass. Big old card. I kind of thought he would be too.
01:21:11
Speaker
I think the most recognizable Marvel dragon. Yeah. Iconic. Maybe except for Lockheed, but Lockheed is. I won a giant fin fang foom hero clicks figure. and It's a wizard world Chicago one year by playing in a a limited tournament.
01:21:28
Speaker
and Yeah. yeah Seems seems really strong, right? Like. Easily a 7.15. That's part of why I thought it would be the season pass card was because I think this is the power level that they kind of want to see on a season pass card, right?
01:21:44
Speaker
like this is why they This is why they buffed Wave. Yeah, I think this is... ah Well, is it? ah Do you want to play this early or do you want to play this late? I think you want to play this late. It doesn't matter.
01:21:55
Speaker
I mean, later is better because because then your opponent might play bigger cards in the front row. You want to make sure there are two things to gobble up. Yum, yum, yum.
01:22:06
Speaker
Whereas if you play it on turn four after a wave, you're not guaranteed to have two things to gobble up. All right. I feel like this is a card to play on turn five or six and So how are you playing him? Luna Snow.
01:22:21
Speaker
You're ramping. Hope, Merlin, Surge, who cares? That's my whole problem with this card, though, is that like I just have a bias against seven cost cards that are meant to be played, unlike Arisham. Because it's like, you do. you have I don't like going for magic because I am more on the Legion side of that divine. like I enjoy taking them down more than like trying to like hope they don't have...
01:22:47
Speaker
The counter or yeah, or you have to like, rentmp but then you have to guarantee you're going to have put enough redundancy like wave and Luna and multiple cards in your deck to make sure you can play it. It's just like a dead card in your hand. you know I just play it in a deck. You blink it out. And Merlin and Surge. I feel like Hope, Merlin, and Surge, between those three cards, you've got it all sorted.
01:23:13
Speaker
i i assume I've got seven or eight energy on the last turn if I'm playing those three cards. This becomes the seven cost Hela for sure. oh true. Oh my no I don't like that at all. that's
Card Strategies and Synergies
01:23:25
Speaker
That's bad news, Lauren. Why did you break that to us? oh Maybe small Hela should get a little bigger.
01:23:30
Speaker
um yeah I don't like that one a bit. Because Hella runs Scar right now, right? um ah Not my Hella, but yeah. I forgot about that. That is such an improvement. case yeah Okay.
01:23:46
Speaker
Shang-Chi, Master of the Rings. Ben. oh Well, this one's a game start. It's a 3-4. ah The Ten Rings starts in your hand. on reveal, unlock their potential. So the 10 ring starts as 2-0 with end of turn. Give one of your other cards here plus one power.
01:24:08
Speaker
The upgraded version is ah to one and it at the end of turn gives your other cards here plus one power. Not not just one of them. All of them. Essentially all three of them.
01:24:24
Speaker
ah I don't know. i mean you have to play the 10 rings. That's like... you you're making a five energy investment between the the two cards.
01:24:36
Speaker
I, uh, I mean, it seems like there's potential here. I just sort of dislike the, it's so much clutter. I'm not always excited to,
01:24:46
Speaker
spend five energy to take up two spots on the board to buff whatever other cards I supposedly have found time to play. And you need other cards there to absorb the upgrades. la I think this is really hard to justify without Invisible Woman first steps.
01:25:01
Speaker
I mean, I think it's a surfer card, isn't it? Like, you put the brood down early on the ten rings or something, and then yeah you grow it every turn.
01:25:12
Speaker
sure I mean, or, you know, kind yeah a lot of things in Surfer respond well to receiving power. Yeah, it's a Justice Surfer card.
01:25:24
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's nice to have a thing to play on. I play a lot of other kinds of buff things, and it's like one, the problem, like, yeah, you have to have stuff out early, and it's like on two, it's like you're more likely to play like you'd rather play a Koi or something like this if you're buffing, because you have to get Shang later, and like that's awkward. I think you're kind of right where it's like, it's hard to see this outside of like... Is this a Wiccan card?
01:25:49
Speaker
Yeah. Because you just get a free two, and they don't need to run Domino anymore? Possibly. It game start. Yeah, that's true. yeah Lauren, you are so right. This is another, this is an option.
01:26:03
Speaker
And this is if you're playing Quicksilver. feel like you do want this over. feel like I would play this over. It gives you room to put another big thing in your deck. Quicksilver.
01:26:17
Speaker
I think you nailed it. I played so much Wiccan. I should have thought of it. Don't know that you'll have stuff to... because like If you play the 10 rings and you don't have things to grow with it, you just played a 2-0. Yeah. Domino a Domino's 2-4. Domino play this...
01:26:46
Speaker
Domino's primary responsibility is you have no... like For me, in my Wiccan deck, I have no other twos in the deck. She is the two, and my threes in up. and like so it's like It's like, oh, I can get a two, and I'm already playing Quicksilver, right? I would play this over Domino, even Domino. I've got a point in favor and a point against it. The point in favor is, like, if you are in fact playing Quicksilver, that's cool that the Ten Rings has a dedicated buddy. The point against is, if you're playing this instead of Domino, there's a Shang-Chi cluttering up your deck.
01:27:28
Speaker
Yeah. but Whereas Domino at least gets herself out of your deck and guarantees the... yeah Like, you see what I mean? Like, you're less likely to draw deeper into your deck and get the good actually think one of the worst things about this card is you don't know if you're going to get Shang-Chi at all. You play the ten rings on turn two, and then you just never get Shang-Chi.
01:27:51
Speaker
At best, they're, what, a two five? That's why I think it belongs in Surfer is because there are so many guaranteed things you can get value with the unupgraded 10 rings. Like you put it Captain Carter, you put Shaw down. Those are two things that you can leave there for multiple turns to soak up the guaranteed buff.
01:28:10
Speaker
This card is more interesting than I was thinking at first glance. I still don't like it. Both are so convincing. No, it's clunky. so Okay, Rhi, Dragonlord.
01:28:22
Speaker
Okay, Dragonlord It looks like it's coming from a limited time event, is what has been dynamined. And it is on reveal. Put a card from your hand here.
01:28:35
Speaker
um This, to me, feels like I'm probably only playing this if I'm doubling it up with Wong or cocking it or something, right?
01:28:47
Speaker
I guess if you're if you're it's one of the things where you're trying to guarantee you only have big, like, infinite cards in your hand or something. that' We're doing some kind of Dracula dump with this, right? Yeah. Yeah.
01:28:59
Speaker
Makari. Yeah, Strong Guy. i haven't played Strong Guy in a discard deck in a minute. Now it's all about like having full hands instead of empty hands.
01:29:10
Speaker
I think 5-5 is a really interesting stat line for this. It's a very strong ability if you don't think about stat line. very strong ability.
01:29:22
Speaker
And you don't care about the stat line because you're getting Fin-Fan-Foom out there something. This card's nuts.
01:29:31
Speaker
It can be hard. There are other cards that do that, that like pull like cards from your hand. And I've played enough Red Wing to know it's like it is cool when you pull off. Red Wing and what Ultron's Time Stone? One of the Ultron Stones, does it? Yes.
01:29:47
Speaker
But only the Ultron one is a non-reveal. Red Wing has a chore. without building as a chore This card is one the things. I know, and this is easier to pull off. I am saying it is hard to manage what's in your hand to pull.
01:30:02
Speaker
Yeah. You have to build a deck that is like, okay, I'm going to have, I'm not going to pull the fucking, you know, to drop. i never You play Macari, you play black cat, you know, that's interesting. But you built the deck to, to do that, which means I, I'm just trying to always put your, it's always like this card is nuts.
01:30:21
Speaker
It can do this crazy thing. And it's like, yeah. When you you build the deck to do the crazy nuts thing, you know, Yeah, mostly I think it's a bad card. It's already a deck like that. But it'll have niche homes.
01:30:32
Speaker
Oh, I think this card is going to be very good. we'll We'll see what happens. I think it'll have a home. i don't i still think it's like you got to... You can Grandmaster it. It's thing that will be hit.
01:30:44
Speaker
You can Grandmaster it. Wow. you can You can Grandmaster and Absorbing Man it. You play it on five, and then on six, you play Grandmaster and Abs. Black Panther, you know? like It's just like...
01:30:59
Speaker
Black Panther's not pulling multiple cards from your hand. don't know. It's 5-5 is bad stats, though. It's not 5-5. I know, I know. It's 5-17. Like, it's minimum. Right, it's 5-big, gives you energy. i get that, but... Yeah.
01:31:19
Speaker
Okay, there will be ducks that love this, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah. definitely have fun Brand of Xolau. These next three are Series 4 limited time event cards, maybe, but the in the data mines, their release date is like far out, so don't actually know how we're getting these cards.
01:31:40
Speaker
a Brand of Xolau is a one-cost skill. On reveal, one of your other cards here steals two power from the character that costs the most in your opponent's hand.
01:31:53
Speaker
uh i mean it's a one four in the same way that that silver sable is but it doesn't take up space on the board and it can do all the merlin werewolf zombie scarlet witch things um hitting specifically the character in your opponent's hand that costs the most it's like i don't know how much that matters um You know, obviously there are some good hits like like Iron Man, but... point where you don't want to clunk up. I was thinking about, like, werewolf grows stronger, all these one-drops, but things I wouldn't put...
01:32:40
Speaker
like just a million one-drops in the deck, right? Because that's the problem is when you have too many and tiny cards and your whole hand plays out and you didn't even draw a werewolf or something. And it's like, that's why they're still gonna... like It's like, there is a limit. like Some of these are really powerful, but it's like, you're still not gonna put more than a couple in your deck because like like things like um Hawkeye and stuff you know giving you...
01:33:08
Speaker
more cards without taking up that slot in your deck. yeah I think this card is no definite chord, and it's not even a web sling. I still don't like it. I still think it's cluttering up the game with garbage, and I wish it weren't happening, but I don't think it's too good.
01:33:31
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not impressed with this one. i mean, I think it's playable, I just don't think it's too good. Yeah. You're on the next one, Ben. Oh, am i Dragon Breath. That is a four-cost skill.
01:33:43
Speaker
On reveal, give a five-cost or higher character in your hand, plus three power. Afflict an enemy card at each location with minus two power. So it's a four-nine. Uh-huh.
01:33:58
Speaker
If they've played on all three locations, which they probably have. Yeah. I mean, i don't like it. Also... really forces you to commit to whatever that five cost or higher character in your hand was.
01:34:12
Speaker
I don't like cards that tell you what you have to play so much. I mean, like, Surge sort of does, but you can kind of ignore that. That's the secret. You should, yeah. I don't know.
01:34:27
Speaker
I don't like, i I feel about the same as Brand of Sholao. with Dragon Breath. I don't think it's too good, and I do think it's stupid and ugly.
01:34:44
Speaker
Rhi, any Dragon Breath thoughts? Um... I don't think i have anything to add to that. I'm also just, like, lacking. It's very expensive.
01:34:56
Speaker
I'm trying to think of what plays it. The first thing I came up with was Galactic. Or yeah i'm I'm thinking of five cost cards that like double stuff. The card that gives you more energy like you want to buff up. Fallen one. Fallen one. I actually see that. But Fallen one, if you have tons of energy, it's because you want to do other, like you want to play other big cards. It's true. Also, you probably have other big cards in your hand that may be, you know, diluting your chances to even hit Fallen one. That was the problem I was thinking with Galactus, too. I'm like, oh, but and you have Death and Knoll, and like how are you going to make sure that Galactus gets the plus three? like
01:35:35
Speaker
We already have... can't think... Is it Maverick? There's some card coming in December that's like Superforge. I'm like, that's just better than Dragon Breath.
01:35:47
Speaker
Yeah. okay oh Okay, I'm on the list. Wait, one more. Okay, Dragon Man 4-6 Series 4 card, maybe from a limited time event.
01:36:01
Speaker
And ah end of turn, plus one power for each location that's full on your side. oh like a Dazzler friend. I'd watch Dazzler...
01:36:15
Speaker
Writing ah dragon concert. No, I'm sorry. I don't what Dragon Man looks like. I'm not familiar. Dazzler is an ongoing so that can all happen at the end of the game.
01:36:26
Speaker
Whereas Dragon Man is end of turn. So he wants you to fill up your lanes early, which is bad. Or you do Invisible Woman shenanigans.
01:36:38
Speaker
It's kind of weird with all these end of turn cards. as They're kind of bad if you don't have Invisible Woman. I do like the challenge. no matter what I agree, but the challenge of filling up your lanes early, like when debris was old and you would have reasons to do stuff like that, it always felt super clever when you're like, I beefed mine up early, but it doesn't matter that I filled them up, which usually i like doing that counterplay where it's like, oh yeah, usually you hold back, but it's such a surprise. thought I was in trouble, but I have claw.
01:37:12
Speaker
yeah Let's try to solve this maze backwards. How big do we think Dragon Man needs to get to be playably okay? 412? I think 412 is more than big enough. Are you playing this in Affliction? where you're going to annihilate stuff over? Is that the plan?
01:37:32
Speaker
no Yeah. it can be It's a 4-6, though. It's tough. It's only locations that are full on your side. so I don't know where your place. You're getting possibly plus three per turn if you've filled the entire board and are done playing cards for the rest of the game. So, like, realistically, he's getting maybe plus one or plus two And if if plus two, you've still probably already given up the game by surrendering two lanes forever. is very...
01:38:01
Speaker
Yeah, Ares, a good card that doesn't make you fucking fill up all your lanes. You don't have to fill up all your lanes to hit 412 with this. How is this? But, like, look at the thing first steps, right? It feels like, it's like, how is this powerful enough to compare to anything that exists already? Even if 412 were good enough, which it's not. 412 is not good enough. Like...
01:38:29
Speaker
Like, you'd have to, you'd have to, you play this on turn four. So that's to fill up your second lane so that you can start soaking up plus two power at the end of every turn.
01:38:41
Speaker
This card is so bad. Yeah, I don't even want this in an invisible woman deck. This card is so bad. They're not released. Like, this this is like Tombstone. Like, this is one of those cards that we're never going to see again because it's just not good.
01:38:53
Speaker
You could do it in a Deathbird deck, you know? Like, fill up Ultron stuff, and then, like, Killmonger. You don't even get to collect your final plus two. I can't think it. It's so bad. This card is nothing. I'm like, how have we talked about it this long? if someone said something really clever in the comments, I hope they do.
01:39:14
Speaker
We were all stupid for now. There's nothing here. the the The numbers would need... This would need to start at Like... like And it would have to get plus two per full location. And then maybe we'd think about it. And then we're talking. All right.
01:39:30
Speaker
Let's move on to our side quest.
Secret Homework: Slay the Spire
01:39:32
Speaker
First up and only secret homework. This week's secret homework was assigned by Ben. Well, I didn't. ah Well, the the homework was play some amount of Slay the Spire. yeah.
01:39:46
Speaker
I didn't specify what what we needed to do how much Slay the Spire to play, were there were their goals? Were we supposed to play standard Slay the Spire? Were we supposed to do daily challenges? Were we supposed to play with a bunch of custom modifiers? I don't know. I left it had to do a slay. I left it open.
01:40:05
Speaker
Open-ended is great. Yeah, I think it's a real great game. I have here in the show notes, I just picked three cards from each of the four characters that I thought were, i don't know, interesting that I wanted to talk about. I picked three wonderful relics that that I wanted to talk about, but I was not sure um how much.
01:40:27
Speaker
i just i just wanted to make sure I had enough Slay the Spire stuff to talk about. but um you guys play much Slay the Spire? Yes. I should look at how much I did play. i played so didn't track it.
01:40:42
Speaker
Lauren is assigning. Okay, so Lauren gets to go last. So I guess I'll talk about some Slay the Spire stuff. That's usually the we do. I love Slay the Spire. actually meant to play some non-Slay the Spire games to talk about during this section. I wanted to play some Monster Train. couldn't bring myself to do it i would rather play slay the spire monster train is fine but it's no slay the spire let's be real people um also listeners if you've played monster train 2 and it's good you should tell me about it and get me excited but i keep meaning to solicit this information from our listeners the the recommendations or dis-recommendations about monster train 2 because i am curious but anyhow slay the spire it's a deck building roguelike thingy uh you you go through three areas you you've
01:41:29
Speaker
You pick your path on a little map. There forking paths and things. You can decide which kinds of chambers you would like to visit. There are several different kinds. There's a standard enemy encounter. That's sort of the most common one where you fight some kind of enemy and it does its own thing. And ah you try to beat it with cards. ah There are also elite chambers where you fight a really difficult enemy encounter.
01:41:55
Speaker
And then you get a relic if you beat that enemy, and relics are the best. There are also shops. There are mystery rooms where funny, interesting things can happen. It's a little bit like Oregon Trail, where like you'll have random events, and you'll be like, ooh, this is an interesting one. How will I navigate this? Do I have the right stuff?
01:42:15
Speaker
to get me out of this predicament. I don't know. So yeah, those are some kinds of rooms. There are also campfires where you can rest or upgrade one of your cards. And um the the core combat when you when you get in a fight with an enemy is you'll always know what your enemy is going to do, more or less. that It'll tell you above their their head.
01:42:39
Speaker
There'll be like an amount of damage that they're going to attack you for. It's like into the breach and that, uh, they, they tell you what, what they are definitely going to do Like the, the enemy behaviors are pretty much locked in, ah with a couple of weird exceptions for very rare cases.
01:42:59
Speaker
um so you want to finish your turn with enough block to weather whatever damage the enemies are going to throw at you. And hopefully you have enough, uh, ah energy to do that while also doing some damage or otherwise advancing your own cause, assembling your own death star, you know?
01:43:18
Speaker
um Anywho, there are four
Character Strategies in Slay the Spire
01:43:22
Speaker
characters. They each have different mechanics and themes that they emphasize. And there are some, some overlapping things that, you know, you you don't have to, your, your expertise with one character will carry like,
01:43:39
Speaker
The understanding of the game you get from playing the Ironclad will inform how you play the the the the Fallen or the the Silent. that's That's what it is. The Silent or the Defect or the Watcher. Those are the others. um So the Ironclad, it's some of its themes and mechanics are it gets blocked really well.
01:44:03
Speaker
ah The Ironclad also... is the best at navigating status effects and curses. Unlike in like a final fantasy where like you get a negative status effect and like, well, I guess there, there are final fantasy style debuffs and things, but one of the interesting ways that enemies will try to, uh,
01:44:25
Speaker
bring you low is by shuffling bullshit into your deck and the ironclad excels at turning that around. One of the cards that i put in the show notes here is called fire breathing. It's a power card that gives you a passive. And whenever you draw a status or curse card, you deal six damage to all enemies. So like,
01:44:44
Speaker
if you If you draw your card that indicates you're wounded, like, boom, I turn that into fire breathing on all my foes. That's neato. Another thing that the warrior, or not the warrior, that I i use so many interchangeable wrong words for the the four character classes. I always know who I'm talking about. If I talk about the rogue, I'm talking about the the silent. Anywho... um But yeah, the Ironclad is big and tanky. It is not worried about ah getting sick or cursed. It's great at exhausting cards that that takes them out of the deck permanently. The card that I'm talking about here is True Grit. This is the only upgraded card that I put on the the list of cards to talk about.
01:45:30
Speaker
ah Some of the cards... get a little better when you upgrade them. Some of the cards get a lot better when you upgrade them. The unupgraded version of true grit exhausts a random card in your hand. So you might be permanently getting rid of like your best card. You cycle through the deck over and over in combat. um So managing what's in there is pretty cool. And that's one of the coolest things that the ironclad does. And the third card I selected for the ironclad is body slam. That's an attack that deals damage equal to your block.
01:46:01
Speaker
So it is one of these cards that rewards you for doing another good thing that you should already like to be doing, which is getting enough block to not take damage. And so this lets your defense become also your offense. So that's neato.
01:46:15
Speaker
um I guess the the second class is the Silent, I believe. That's the name of the that's the name of the one, is it not? Probably. Yes, the Silent, that's correct. I'm so bad at these names, which is weird because I've played a lot of this game.
01:46:30
Speaker
But the silent is good at playing bunch of I say about the silent? She has the skull mask. And I've played, I've also played so much of this game. i mean, on the Switch. So it's handled. But the first time ever I looked at him, I'm like, oh, look at her little face.
01:46:48
Speaker
And it you can see, I assumed it was fully hidden. but You can kind of see it under. ho You learn something new every day. I think there's a lot of like interesting stuff to look at with the art. It's like fairly simplistic, but there' it's very cool. holistic And there's there's there's like a lot like going on. And you'll if you analyze like the character designs, you'll like you'll see a lot of the enemies in the illustrations and things of your cards that like maybe don't pop out at you like right away. But like usually if there's some...
01:47:24
Speaker
I don't know. Point is, look at the cards closely. They're super cool. Also, there are alternate extra simplistic artworks for each of the cards. You can you can activate beta artwork for any of them that you want. And those are also quite charming, although less polished. But anyway, the silent the three cards I picked for the silent to highlight what that one's about are Blur. That's a skill that gains five block, and it changes a fundamental rule of the game temporarily in that block is not removed at the start of your next turn. So you can actually like get a big surplus going.
01:47:58
Speaker
ah The Ironclad also has something to do. is like yeah it's like yeah I feel like you either get the one that removes no block at all, the power. like Blur just feels like a sad, you know, lesser ability of that.
01:48:16
Speaker
Well, the thing is, if you get enough blurs and if your deck is small enough, you turn. a fighter power. Yeah, there's there's ah there's an ironclad power that makes block... I think it's called blockade. Yeah, never get removed. You retain all your block, and that one's good.
01:48:32
Speaker
But i like how the I like how the silent does it, where you re-up on it again and and again, and like if you have 12-card deck and two of the cards are blur, and you have cards that draw cards, you're you're blurring every turn. You can actually stack up blurs and make... If you play two blurs in a turn... You get two stacks of the effect and it will last for two turns. Yeah, it's true. It upgrades to eight if you want to do that.
01:48:56
Speaker
I think Blur is a super neat card. Another super neat card. ah This one gives you some inevitability. It's noxious fumes, baby. It's a power. At the start of your turn, apply two poison to all enemies.
01:49:08
Speaker
So like you poison them, but the poison dissipates. But this adds more poison every turn. It only dissipates by one. So like your stuff starts to scale up and that can be like, there are a lot of ways that things can go wrong for you and slay the spire. And one of the worst ways is if you start running into enemies that snowball and they've got scaling effects that like get better, but you don't have scaling effects that get better.
01:49:31
Speaker
But like, if you can stay alive with noxious fumes on the board, you will kill anything eventually. um So it's, it's good to have a way to ramp up. especially if the rest of your stuff is dedicated to staying alive. And the third card I've got to highlight the silent is back flip, baby. It's another block skill. And this one draws two cards. Nobody else has a block skill that draws two cards. That's not true. The watcher does it's sanctity, but it's conditional and you have to, the previous card has to have been a skill, but like, also that's an uncommon. That's right. These cards have rarities. And that also gives the, that adds to the personality of the different characters. Like,
01:50:10
Speaker
the The fact that the silent has this block that draws two cards at common really like tells you what the silent is about. The warrior has a stronger block that draws one card. Um, but that's, that's a different thing.
01:50:23
Speaker
Um, so that's cool. Um, I didn't pick any of these cards, but the silent also just loves throwing shivs. So many shivs, shiv, shiv, shiv, shiv. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab. Lots of stabbing.
01:50:36
Speaker
ah Tiny, tiny little attacks. um That pairs super great with the point when you get the like power. I love pairing that one with the um every time you hit, it gets them poison. So you just say, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to remember the name of that power, but I do know the one.
01:50:54
Speaker
Uh, and what is it? Gosh, dang it. Uh, well, I didn't pull that one out for the notes, so I can't remember the name of the card, but I do know the power you're talking about. And it is indeed great with the shivs.
01:51:05
Speaker
Also, like some of these mechanics have like certain sort of bridge, like things like you can play the silent as being all about poison or all about shivs. But if you get that, it's like,
01:51:18
Speaker
a rare incentive to make a hybrid deck, not a rare incentive, but like a particular incentive to like hybridize those two mechanics that the silent has access to do your poison, your shivs together. And that stuff is, you can do after image Ben with the shifts. I just got that the other night again, where that's the one where every time you play a card, you play a card, you get a block. And it's like, that's the best to like, you know, an aggressive defense is fun in card games.
01:51:48
Speaker
Yep. The, all, all four of these characters are so fun and so cool to play and just, uh, they're, they're delightfully designed. I don't think they're all equally good. I think the watcher is much stronger than the others. Uh, that's, that's my opinion.
01:52:04
Speaker
Uh, but my favorite is the third character here, the defect. The defect is a little broken robot wizard and, um, uh, it has little magic balls and things.
01:52:16
Speaker
Um, The three cards I picked were stack. ah The defect has an interesting sort of strategy you can pursue where you generate cards and they're just sort of added to your deck for the fight. And like your deck just keeps getting bigger and bigger. What stack does you gain block equal to the number of cards in your discard pile. And very often I'm trying to keep my deck as small as I possibly can because consistency and predictability are very valuable. But I like that the defect invites you to like get crazy with the cheese whiz and like generate random cards and just hope that you can make the best of it. Like it's it's very much the R.H.M. approach. um
01:53:04
Speaker
Another card that I thought was worth highlighting was charge battery. I just love these block skills. They really tell you what the character is about. Charge Battery gains seven block, which is pretty respectable, and it upgrades nicely too. And next turn, you get an energy back! So you can, like, you're you're saving some for later. It's the Jennifer Kale of block cards.
01:53:26
Speaker
um Then we've got, well, really, it's just like Psylocke, but you know, either one. And the third card I picked for the Defect is Electrodynamics. It's another one of those powers that gives you a permanent sort of passive situation for the rest of the fight. And that makes all of your lightning orbs now hit all enemies.
01:53:46
Speaker
And you get to channel two of those lovely ah lightning orbs right then, right there. and That's just a card that feels great to play. And it really turns the tide and makes makes things pop. And last but not least, we got the Watcher. ah Very strong. um The Watcher has different stances that she can switch between. And they're real good. She has an angry stance that makes her deal double damage and receive double damage. So it's risky to end the turn on that one.
01:54:16
Speaker
But there's also a calm stance. And when you break calm, you get energy back. So like you can like really just burst it out. Also, you can sort of alternate between these things and It's so easy to go infinite with the Watcher. ah you can just it It does not take anything to go infinite where you're just switching back and forth between stances, making more energy than it took to do the process, drawing cards off of changing stances. um So to highlight that strategy, we got one power. It's called Mental Fortress. Whenever you change stances, gain four block. And that's that's how you just pile up a huge amount of defense that will become impenetrable. And the other side of that coin is this zero cost attack called Flurry of
Cards, Relics, and Gameplay Strategies
01:55:01
Speaker
Blows. Deal four damage whenever you change stances. Return this from the discard pile to your hand. So you can play a single Flurry of Blows several times in a turn. If you happen to have two of them in rotation, ooh baby, you're doing twice as many Flurries of Blows. Um, there are certain relics that reward you for doing a lot of attacks in one turn. So that's a great way to take advantage of those. Um, and the last watcher card I wanted to talk about is an exceptional one. It's called vault and it's a skill, uh, costs three or two. If you upgrade it and you get to take an extra turn after this one and your turn, and that's a card that exhausts itself. So it removes itself from your deck. Uh, that's also true of all the powers that I discussed, uh,
01:55:46
Speaker
Whenever you play one of those, it is gone from your deck. So you don't have to worry about drawing it again. Anywho, those are 12 slay the spire cards that i thought I should mention. Cause they're neato and there are way more cards than that. There are cards that I have like basically never played, which is just wild. And every time I do try to get outside of my comfort zone and play them, I like the cards that I haven't played yet, you know? And, uh,
01:56:11
Speaker
There's just so much to do and explore and learn. Just real quick, I want to talk about some relics, orange pellets. You can only get this one at the shop. And if you play a power and attack and a skill card, those are the three kinds of cards in the same turn, you get to remove all of your debuffs and debuffs can come from enemies. Debuffs can come from your own cards. Debuffs can come from potions. If you drink a potion that gives you temporary strength that goes away at the end of turn and you happen to fulfill the orange pellets thing, you wipe the, like the, the come down.
01:56:45
Speaker
So you stay high forever. If you if you wipe the. Yeah. So it I don't know. Point is, there are a lot of debuffs that you will want to remove and you won't even realize how many there are and how much good you could be doing for yourself until you start messing with orange pellets. So if you haven't experimented much with orange pellets, start experimenting with orange pellets. They're so good for you.
01:57:08
Speaker
Uh, anywho, another fun relic I wanted to talk about smiling mask. This one makes it so that the card removal service at the merchant always costs 50 gold. It ordinarily escalates. It costs 25 more each time you do it.
01:57:22
Speaker
Um, and as, as we've all learned from Marvel snap, uh, it really matters how many cards are left in your deck. Uh, there's a lot you can do if you know, well, I've got a one in three chance of getting the thing I want, you know ah So the more you remove cards, the more you can add cards and still have a consistent game plan.
01:57:46
Speaker
And the final relic I wanted to talk about is Wing Boots because it reminds me of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 that had a similar ah piece of equipment. And Wing Boots lets you ignore paths when choosing the next room to travel to three times. So, ah it's, it's like if you got to decide you didn't like where you were going on the Oregon trail and then go to the other path or whatever, you know, um, it lets you get more of the kinds of rooms that you want to get.
01:58:13
Speaker
So like, if you want to fight a bunch of elites to get a bunch of relics, uh, that's usually what I'm using it for. Although sometimes you need to visit a campfire like right now to heal.
01:58:24
Speaker
Um, So, those are relics. I forgot about potions. and i might i might have I might have selected a potion or two, but I've already talked enough. What what did you guys think about Slay the Spire? Did you have fun? Okay. Um... I...
01:58:45
Speaker
love card games and I love Rogues. So of course I love Slay the Spire. One of my favorite things about it is like because it is this a solo game, you don't have to get into the meta. And I haven't. It reminds me of like when I got when I first started playing Hearthstone. It was when the game was first new before there was time to have all this like internet meta build up around.
01:59:12
Speaker
I was like really good because it's just like i've played a lot of card games. I played lot board games. I'm good. Oh, man. And board games the other day, I swept like the last two times in board games. I swept all games of the evening, which, OK, like it's like it hadn't happened in quite a while. So like and it used to. So, you know, it's just like we're back on it.
01:59:33
Speaker
um Anyway, but um and I was really good. And then I like left Hearthstone and came back. And it was like, I feel like maybe if you would like started out in Marvel Snap up and then came way back later. and it's like, oh, there is a whole like meta, you know, with the auto deck builder kind of equalizes things a bit more. But otherwise, it's like.
01:59:56
Speaker
You know you're going out seeing all of this stuff, but slay the spire. All my initial, like, you know unjust biases and prejudice against card players, I've just stuck with. It's great. My favorite, I can't lie, is the defect I love just building up an orb factory, just like lightning, just like all the lightning things. It all hits everyone. Every time they hit you, you do everything. You just like, oh, just lightning, lightning.
02:00:28
Speaker
Like you get to the bosses and it's just like shh, shh, Lightning, lightning, lightning. It's just really fun to set up. Or just like yeah giving yourself powers, powers. Because like that's a whole build. Yeah, the defect loves powers. Right? to say When you get a new power thing happens, you're just like power, power. Like I built, I just ascended another level on defect because I've like, like I said, I play William William. not like goal oriented. lot of times I fall asleep halfway through the run the next night. It's like we abandoned this friend because it's not it's not fresh, you know. so you know, I play what I want.
Aggressive Strategies and Replayability
02:01:04
Speaker
But this is but it's like, ah you know,
02:01:07
Speaker
ah Putting together that like that like little, when you can get that little intense deck. Because here's how I play. It is the most aggressive. Because I'm like, right away we're going, because you have to get the three keys, right? And one key you can get on any level. It's just only from one elite, you know, the fiery in each level. I'm like, we are going for that. We see that on the map. We go for that immediately. That's goal number one. We're going to that. Two, we never rest. Resting is for the weak. We use that time to get stronger. We train.
02:01:38
Speaker
I don't how little to be Okay, I have caved once or twice to a build I was really attached to. But for the most part, it's like, you know, if you die, build deserved it. and It's better to go early instead going to drag this out. So, like, I'll caffeine drip. I'll never rest. I'll always, like, just be nothing instead Anytime I get the opportunity to lose HP to gain a power, that's what I'm doing. The same way I always take, like, max health over, like, the, like, you know...
02:02:12
Speaker
ah hit points are only one or something. I mean, play pedal to the metal and if the deck doesn't cut, it doesn't cut. its sweet yeah We live fast and we die young and slay the spy. It's the only way I know how to play. do Doing the high rolls. and It sounds like you challenge the heart every time.
02:02:32
Speaker
Huh? You were talking about the three keys. yeah You made it sound like you go for the three keys every time. Is that true? Oh, yeah. Well, okay. Here's how I usually play. Usually I always go in the first level. I'll go for the first elite. I always go. I dive for elites. I dive for question marks because my heart yearns for the unknown.
02:02:52
Speaker
well Also, question marks are good. They're really good. like It's better to go for question marks than standard encounters. I never spend gold on potions. They're temporary. I want permanent don't buy the benefits. relevant I want to remove cards. I always remove a card at a merchant unless I don't have the money for I'm always trying to whittle down my deck into something better. Don't forget, actually, one of the biggest things, if you just started playing Slay the Spire like this week, ah you know let me blow your mind. You don't always need to take a card. It's not good for your deck. Even if you don't have the singing bowl that rewards you for skipping it, it's very often correct to skip it.
02:03:34
Speaker
Deck builder games, which I have. ah ive Recently, we've been busting out Tyrants of the Underdark once again, which has kind of been shelved for several years. That's a fun board game. um But deck builders, the ability to thin your deck is always extremely valuable, right? To always just, you know, keep it down to your ah good cards. Poor stuff. so Yeah. So, like, i have fun. i love Slay the Spire.
02:04:04
Speaker
um the way i like I play is I just alternate usually. I'm like, okay, fine. And then we go as far as we can. and then, like, when I die there or if a you know, finish it or whatever, then, like, you know, I'll go to the next character. and then at some point I fall. That's how Slay the Spire goes.
02:04:25
Speaker
We slay. and to And then we sleep. Sleep. Sleep. It's the life. Oh, Rhi.
02:04:34
Speaker
ah so Someday, we'll we'll have to get you the PC version and we can try the mod where we can do the co-op. Yeah, i get some mods up. that would That would just be so much fun. The co-op one looks so sick to be a little Final Fantasy party with the co-hosts of Snap on this. Throwing our cards the big enemies.
02:04:54
Speaker
Ugh. Lauren, laura did you have a time? I think in some ways I inspired this ah homework because I had claimed I had not played Slay the Spire.
02:05:08
Speaker
But I hadn't played it much. And then I opened it up on my iPad and I had five hours on it. So that still probably isn't much. I'd be very interested to hear what your two playtimes are like. but Hundreds. um hundreds yeah It's got to be hundreds, right? I deleted my file immediately and started a new one.
02:05:25
Speaker
Um, and as I was playing, it was coming back to me. i was like Oh yeah, I have played this before. And I just checked when secret homework started. i i played four hours this week.
02:05:35
Speaker
Um, I got to the third boss, which sounds like is the last boss. Unless. Unless you feel extra. Yeah. So I got to the I've never beat the third boss, but I beat. But I got to it like, don't know, four or five times once with each character. i haven't gotten the fourth character yet because I haven't. Oh, you do need to beat that third boss to get that fourth one.
02:05:56
Speaker
Yeah. Um. will say there are things that I really like about it. I like how different the characters feel. I like that each character has like a handful of like distinct strategies, uh, builds that you can go hard on. Um, the,
02:06:13
Speaker
uh what is it silent and defect i were my favorites i mean i'm picking two favorites out of three characters i played um they both had a lot of fun where you are just having long turns where you're playing tons of cards in a single turn and and that just feels silly and fun to do um like rolling a handful of dice you know it just it's just it's just an inherently fun thing to get to do lots of actions in a single turn um I think currently I like the Silent better, but maybe I just haven't had that like magical run with the Defect yet where it's like, oh yeah. um
02:06:48
Speaker
Poison is interesting to me if I can't be a healer. Why would you be a healer in a solo party game? I mean, there's something to be said for it. The Ironclad with its six health at the end of each fight or the Defect with the self-repair power. Yeah, but want to other people.
02:07:06
Speaker
um So yeah, ah you two both sort of already answered some of my questions about about the game. I was wondering if I was deck thinning too aggressively because i do have a lot of deck building experience and I know that usually cutting down your deck is the right thing to do and so I am skipping a lot of free cards and often paying to thin my deck down and I wondered if maybe I was not playing correctly. You can't do it too aggressively though because strikes and defenses...
02:07:34
Speaker
are not like A lot of times, even if it doesn't particularly suit your deck, it's still just like more damage or than a strike card. or more So I do think it is possible to be like... I'm only four hours deep for the second time. ah and it's yeah Maybe I'm doing it too aggressively. Maybe i haven't unlocked enough cards yet. Maybe I just need to learn the game more. Who knows?
02:07:58
Speaker
Because bloating the deck gets more, but it's like your starter cards are starter cards, you know? They are. Yeah. Yeah. um So, I've... It has felt repetitive to me in only four hours. and And y'all are saying that you're playing for hundreds of hours. So there's obviously something that either isn't clicking with me or i just haven't gotten to the point where it like...
02:08:25
Speaker
it becomes interesting it's not that i can't do repetitive things right like i've but it's the repetitive specific thing think about there are people i think about this all the time i'm still in the sub right who play like stardew valley where it's like they're just walking across town maybe they're playing mods on the computer but i think a lot of them are console and they're willing to do that's what killed me i'm like so tired of walking across town every single day it's so repetitive and some people they're just hundreds of hours stitch and well in And I've played tons of Snap, which is arguably repetitive, or tons of Hades 2, which is arguably repetitive, or the first Hades.
02:09:02
Speaker
But those, I don't know, those didn't they didn't get boring in four hours. and don't want to call it silly, boring, but it's not
02:09:12
Speaker
i have a I'll try to push through and play more, but I could 100%. Coming back to it and pulling four more hours in, I'm like, oh I totally see why I dropped it after five hours last time. you feel no pressure to play more, but if you do, there's one thing that I realized ah made things go a little quicker. If you have a run that ends quickly, like before the first boss, or you can just like tell it's a stinker,
02:09:41
Speaker
you get You can pick these choices at the beginning of the run, and one of them that always shows up if you haven't gotten very far... You only get to pick the fun choices if you make it to the first boss on your previous attempt with the character.
02:09:55
Speaker
But one that's always available is make it so the first three enemies have one health. So that you can just like blaze through the first three fights. And also, depending on how you pick the path, you can maybe go through a lot of question mark chambers or shops or campsites. And like you can actually maybe even get to the first elite. like Maybe even the first elite. never picked that option. That option felt wasteful. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I never do either. It's like, no. It gets you out the gate, like, pretty quick. And also, if you can maybe fight the first elite and it's a hard one, maybe it's the gremlin knob who gets strong every time you do something that isn't, that's a skill.
02:10:37
Speaker
um that that's that's That's a tough elite enemy in the first area, especially if it's the the fancy one that's holding the key. Yeah. But anywho, I find that that one makes it get to the meat of the run quicker.
02:10:53
Speaker
And by the time you're actually doing full fights, you'll have like some cards in your deck, maybe some good ones. i don't know That's, that's just a little thing that I've found helpful. And like, you know, it's not as exciting as pick a rare card or like give up all your gold, but remove two cards from your deck. Like, you know, like they're,
02:11:14
Speaker
There are fancy ones, but you can still have a really good run even with that sort of simple one. And it speeds things up. But I understand your complaint because I feel like that's where it does get repetitive to me. I'm tired. It's like, oh, I always have the same starting deck, you know, and I'm only building it so fast.
02:11:35
Speaker
It's like, I really hope, I know they're coming out with the Slay the Spire 2 at some point. And I really hope they have it where you can get more of a variety in your starting exceed. Each of the characters also has like, I mean, they have like, they each have one unique, you know, card or whatever that they start with, but it's still the same basic, you know, set. And it's like, this isn't a board game.
02:11:59
Speaker
a little too slow to ramp up. um yeah Maybe the 1HP fixes that problem where it just feels a little slow to ramp up. i don't know. it I don't want to say it's bad. I had a lot of fun for those four hours and just like not feeling a lot of pressure to go any deeper.
02:12:14
Speaker
um Whereas, you know, other games sometimes get their hooks in very deep. ah But I'm also somebody who often bounces off of games. like I'm kind of like, if it's not, like if it hasn't like really grabbed me...
02:12:27
Speaker
Maybe I can find something else that will. Well, thank you for being a sport and giving it a shot. I was really glad. i was I was happy to play it again. It was fun to explore. And I got further, I don't know what the percentage is number of cards that you've collected.
02:12:42
Speaker
like cards you put in your deck, is that what the percentage is on your file name? Oh, the percentage, yeah. There's a percentage on your file. It's unlocks, I think. I don't know what it is, but you'll unlock this stuff like so fast, like you don't even like remember the time before you unlocked all the stuff. is Okay, yeah, I don't know what the percentage means, but I got further in this four hours than I did in my first time when I played for five. Wow. no Okay.
02:13:07
Speaker
I assign next week's homework. Next week's homework is show and tell. I want you to, ah yeah you don't have to do research on this, but it will probably be better if you do. ah Dig up an obscure Marvel character la Hellcow or Infinaut that you know might be fun to have in Marvel Snap and just tell us a little bit about that oddball.
02:13:31
Speaker
ah The weirder the better. i would love to hear about characters I have not heard about before. Oh, that'll be fun. Okay.
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
02:13:40
Speaker
Well, friends, listeners, viewers, if you liked what you heard and you haven't already, like, comment, subscribe, rate and review, leave a comment on YouTube or Spotify. I mean it.
02:13:49
Speaker
You know, do those things. It helps the algo and it feeds our souls. um Yeah. If they if they exist. um They definitely do. we All three of us, we are soul individuals.
02:14:02
Speaker
Soulful is often how people describe me. will stake my reputation on it. ah Or you can come hang out with us in the speakeasy, which is our little corner of the Snap Judgments League Discord. There are instructions to get there in the show notes or video descriptions.
02:14:18
Speaker
Description singular. We're proudly part... It's not like I've said this 66 times already. We're proudly part of the Snap Judgments Network, where you can listen to other great shows, like Snap Decisions from Joe on Mondays. Yeah.
02:14:32
Speaker
So, tune in next week. Same Snap time, same Snap channel!
02:14:40
Speaker
Oh, okay. do have something about. If there isn't other... I'm glad you do. Okay.
TV Show Preferences
02:14:50
Speaker
So I've been trying... I have a problem that hopefully a lot of other people have and isn't just me. Is that, like, I have plenty of TV that I need to watch that I haven't watched.
02:14:59
Speaker
Why? looking for, like, stuff to put on like, while I'm working. i like penny So it can't be one of the things that I really want to watch and pay attention to. You know, um or that they're why said, and so I was like trying to do, I've tried several new like TV shows and I'm like, oh, let's see how these do.
02:15:20
Speaker
And they all start immediately. like I don't know when I became such an old person in a square, but they all start immediately on the sex scene. And I was so like put off. I just like turn them both off because it's just like,
02:15:35
Speaker
ah Like, I'm not a square, but one, we're just like inundated with porn. Like, you know what I mean? Like, if I want to see someone in their most, like, objectified way, it feels like walking in. It's like, it's like, hey, this is a TV show. For you to get invested in this show, you need to like watch, you know, you need to invest in the characters. You need to like learn them. you need to relate to them. okay What if we do that by having you walk in on them having sex?
02:16:07
Speaker
And it's like, that's not that's not how I like people. It's very i did I did it in college. I walked. It very awkward. It did not. it in In fact, it further drove us apart. it It less wanted to be ever around them again. was in the wrong. it was I shouldn't. I mean, the door is a lot.
02:16:29
Speaker
I mean, they they were in the couch. But, like, it wasn't my house. Yeah, I, you know, my instinct was, i I think I was right to question that. Yes.
02:16:39
Speaker
No, I was totally in the wrong. it was very awkward. And that's just, like, why? Why? Like, okay, like, I don't mind a trope-y opening. Like, have me get up in the morning and show them getting ready. Like, that tells you a lot about a character and stuff, right? Like, if it's just, like...
02:16:58
Speaker
Like, you know, watch like some fucking porn. It's like, that's not what I signed up for. um so it's just like, I don't know. I wish they would stop doing it. It's like, I feel like they're just to be like, look how edgy we are. We're so edgy. You're going to see this person doing it before you see their face. And it's like, can we can we just.
02:17:21
Speaker
I have noticed that also. I'm not super sensitive to it, but and i don't know if this makes it better or worse for you, but I have noticed on many of these shows, it's really just the first episode or maybe the first two episodes where it like goes there.
02:17:39
Speaker
And we got to establish that they fuck. But once you know that they fuck. Yeah. Yeah. And then the rest of the season, it's it's tamer. It's like all of a sudden there's no more nudity for the rest of the show. It's like, why was there any in the first episode? Was it just to just just to hook people, I guess? Well, it's prestige TV. You wouldn't know if there weren't tits.
02:17:56
Speaker
i know. It's just... i It's that. it's it's like It's like they're just trying to check a box or something. And it's like, if this is the right show for nudity, why isn't there nudity in other episodes?
02:18:07
Speaker
um And I'm complaining in both directions. Yeah. um There either should be or shouldn't be. It's not it's weird that it's only up front and then never again. I'm not a prude. I'm just someone who has grown up on the internet where it's just like, you know, like where it's like everything is just like... you You've seen this before. Nobody's impressed. It's... Yeah. yeah Right? Yeah.
02:18:31
Speaker
And it's like, I don't need... don't need things to be edited. Maybe I'm just getting old, though, but it's just like uncomfortable to me. It does sound like that. I don't know. I don't know. yeah it reminds me of like when i like a group of us were all watching TV another time in college and we're flipping channels trying to find something. to watch This was like the old times when TV was different and you would flip channels. Yeah, not on demand. Like streaming.
02:18:57
Speaker
ah streaming Or like going down the cable list or whatever. And he turns into like soft core porn and we all just laugh because we think it's a joke. Then he just leaves it on it And we're like on the couch and and it's like, did you, we're all just kind like, do you think something's going to happen? It's not. Like, this is just weird and we're all uncomfortable now. that is That's how I feel with those scenes. Yes. I'm not like I'm not like morally opposed, obviously. I just I just need it. It's like I just say like watching it like voyeuristically is not the activity mode I'm in, you know, for for sure. yeah
02:19:35
Speaker
Is all. Yeah, I think if you're if you're going to if you're going to open that way, that can certainly be very telling about your character, but at least do something clever with it. what what What kind of TV are you looking for?
02:19:47
Speaker
Besides TV that doesn't start
02:19:54
Speaker
with the bucket. What kind of television are you looking for? The last one that I put on through that I'm not entirely sure how the season ended because it was, like I said, background, but it was a show called Shard Lake.
02:20:10
Speaker
And it's about, like, a detective, like, trying to solve a mystery in, like, medieval, like, the in a monastery.
02:20:20
Speaker
And he's got, like, he's got a, um...
02:20:26
Speaker
What's the right word? He was born with an arm that's very small. But the actor seems like actually like they got someone... you know I don't think he's wearing a prosthetic. And he's very good. Anyway, apparently... That's the same guy from Chaos on Netflix.
02:20:45
Speaker
I'm not familiar. I just randomly came into this and I'm like,
02:20:53
Speaker
You know, I'll put that on in the background. and was intrigued.