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68: Zombie Richard Reads
208 Plays7 days ago
🧳 The episode where Lauren returns from her travels to the Fourth Location 🚀 and Snap Chat guesting 🎙️ to her usual Snap On This!! beat 🕵️ (with cohosts Ben & Rie, ofc) ☺️
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap
- Weapon X ✖️ Adamantium Infusion 🩻 Chamber 🔥
- Pre-construction only Grand Arena begins! 🏹🎯⚔️🏺
- 🌬️ A moving OTA
- Secret Homework 🤫: Board game club 🎲
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
- Ben - Viv Noir Surfer
- Ben - Don't Noc It Til You Try It
- Ben - Secret Surfer
- Rie - Dracshu
- NotMyDance - Scratch That Zom
- Smlz - Infinaut Ramp
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
- 0:30:43 Prowler
- 0:37:00 Weapon X
- 0:43:05 Adamantium Infusion
- 0:46:48 Chamber
- 0:58:27 Wade Wilson
- 1:01:33 Weapon H
- 1:04:58 Grand Arena
- 1:20:58 OTA Discussion
- 1:44:23 Secret Homework: Play a Board Game
- 2:08:09 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 2:10:07 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Weekly Snap Highlights
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to episode 68 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, play a board game. I'm your host, Lauren Whatevs, here with my usual amazing, delightful co-hosts. First up this week, Ben.
00:00:15
Speaker
How was your week in Snap? And keep snappy. Oh, gosh, my weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy, as I so often do. Well, here's a little behind-the-scenes tidbit for y'all. This weekend snap has been, like, nine days long, so a lot of things have happened, and more than usual have happened in my weekend snap. Ooh, just today, i got a thing I've never seen before. They're asking me how I'm liking Marvel snap.
Deck Experimentation and Strategies
00:00:45
Speaker
Thumbs up, thumbs down. Hmm. Well, that's a complicated question. What did you give I'll have to weigh that. I don't know. ah they it's this i don't I don't enjoy the dichotomy. I feel like i'm I'm going to be saying something I don't mean either way.
00:01:03
Speaker
And that's that's frustrating. So I don't know. I might just close the game and reopen it and hope they don't ask me again. um But anywho... Uh, what, what else happened? I was going to look at my decks to be reminded of, uh, which things, but I remember what I've been playing. I've been playing lots of, oh my gosh, I've actually been playing lots of decks. Okay. I've been playing some surfer things. I've been playing some move things, some scream things. I've been playing it all baby.
00:01:33
Speaker
um Any of it good enough to share? Probably. Yeah, I don't know. I've been doing a lot of experimentation with Spider-Man Noir, and I was doing so before the the buff.
00:01:48
Speaker
The buff. Oh my gosh. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. I don't know. I don't know. I wasn't asking for that. I certainly did not. I liked the card just fine at 4-6 and ah picky.
00:02:02
Speaker
that's that's ah That's my opinion. But anywho, anywho, yeah, let's see. I had a cool move deck with... Yeah, I'll tell you what's in this one. I haven't played enough games to know if it's, like, super good. Mostly...
00:02:19
Speaker
ah It's got Nocturne in it because I wanted to play Nocturne. I hadn't played Nocturne in a while. My old friend Nocturne, ah you remember her, she makes locations different and she moves. um So my Nocturne deck is called Don't Knock It Till You Try It. And it's got Batroc the Leaper. It's got Voltur. It's got Dagger. It's got Kraven. It's got Cloak. It's got Hydra Stomper. Spider Punk.
00:02:47
Speaker
Nocturne, Prowler, Stardust, Hellion, and Heimdall. And, um you know, you move stuff and you do things and you do location tricks. We were just talking before the recording about Quake and how sometimes you lose to locations not being the location you thought you were playing on and stuff. And Nocturne ah can...
00:03:12
Speaker
take Yeah, can can get a similar effect going. Anywho, so that's fun. ah But what else? What else? Oh, I've been... All right, so Safety Blade, as I predicted, finally did get on the Spider-Man noir train.
00:03:28
Speaker
I predicted this on some previous episode, maybe two weeks back. I don't know. But anywho, there's been an exchange of ideas. i I was inspired by his fondness for Viv Vision, a card that I've never really, ah ah you know, I don't know. i've no I have not been the staunchest supporter. I mean, she seems fine, right? Except the thing is...
00:03:55
Speaker
I don't know. Safety said that she seemed to be, like, winning games and stuff, and, like, he felt good. Like, you put her on the board, and it just, like, seems like you're winning or whatever, and I tested that theory. She seems all right.
00:04:10
Speaker
Here's the deck where I'm playing her. I think i think this deck is actually pretty darn good. i ah Yeah, if if you're going to play one of my decks that I talk about this week, probably this one. It's got America Chavez, Surge, Merlin, Brood, Captain Carter, Silver Surfer, Viv Vision, Hope, Summer, Sebastian, Shaw, Spider-Man, no Noir, Absorbing Man, and Iron Man.
00:04:33
Speaker
And um yeah, i I know that like a lot a lot of these surfery decks and stuff, they're they're not playing Iron Man like I like to play with Noir. Yeah.
00:04:44
Speaker
And i I still think it's worth it. I think that Iron Man's a pretty cool card. Makes things twice as much. ah Historically, strong effect.
00:04:57
Speaker
Especially like in a deck where like with Surfer, you've got so much like agency about where your points go at the end. um Yeah, a noir. her not I don't know. Point is, yeah i just i think Iron Man's already sort of a natural fit with the play patterns of Surfer.
00:05:18
Speaker
Like, not natural enough that you should be playing them without noir and stuff and Surfer, but like... you know, he's been kind of cuspy on theme for, for that archetype, I think for a while. Anywho, anywho, ah that's a good deck. I don't know if I feel like talking about more decks. I'm still playing the same surfer list from golden gauntlet, the one with the mercury and cannonball,
00:05:42
Speaker
And that, uh, that also seems like a good fit. It might be better than the noir stuff. I don't know. They both seem to like, du it's very difficult to tell what like the best version of the deck is when everything's performing just fine. And like you're winning tons of games and stuff. It's like, it's very champagne problems, but like, I don't know which versions of my surfer deck are the best. Cause they all seem to win a lot. Boo hoo.
00:06:10
Speaker
Okay. Um, But other than that, what's been going on in a weekend snap? Ooh, well, Grand Arena has come, and there there will be much talk of that. One thing that I want to mention right now before I forget is that, like, man, unlike a a high voltage or a Sanctum Showdown, when you mean to be playing Grand Arena, but like, you you you left to...
00:06:35
Speaker
collect some rewards for, a you know, you you left to check your bounties or pick new bounties or, you know, clear your missions or whatever.
00:06:45
Speaker
And then you queue into a ladder game. Unlike with those other limited time modes, gosh, dang, you queue into the ladder game with your regular ass ladder deck. And there's that big old cube at the top of the screen and you get to snap. And before you know it, you've forgotten all about that grand arena you meant to be playing. And, uh,
00:07:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know. Like, it would be way easier if they if they stuck you with your Grand Arena deck, and then you're like, oh, well, I'd better retreat right away. But... um Yeah, that's that's neither here nor there. And you might you might even think it's related to Grand Arena, and we should have saved it for the Grand Arena part. But ah no, it popped into my head now, so now's when I'm saying it.
00:07:27
Speaker
Ooh, one more thing about my weekend snap that I almost forgot to mention, but it was pretty exciting for me personally. I tried a demo for a game called Montabi, and it's...
00:07:44
Speaker
It's sort of like Slay the Spire with ah very Pokemon-inspired trappings. um Oh! And... I thought it was super fun. There's ah there's some stuff that is not present in Slay the Spire. like You've got like multiple units. You've got your your trainer, your Montabi trainer, and you've got up to two Montabi on your little... They're 18 spaces. It's sort of like Snap. There are three lanes, but it's not like a best of three kind of situation. I don't know. Point is, it's it's a work in progress very clearly, but I had a lot of fun with the demo,
00:08:24
Speaker
And I think it's just it charmed me. And I really hope that it comes together into a good finished prod prod product. Yeah, yeah. You know, I i just ah I don't know how long they've been working on. I know this is like the second iteration of the demo and some of the it's a little bit.
00:08:48
Speaker
sparse in some departments, but ah it seems like it's coming along. I didn't play the first version of the demo, but I looked at the patch notes and i I'm glad that I played the second version because it's got more features and I don't think I could handle less features.
00:09:04
Speaker
But ah one thing that stuck out to me is the music, which was pretty cool. I wish there were a bit more of it and stuff, but what is there is actually pretty poppin'. Some of the the little shops and cafe musics and vending machine musics are real... ah they've got personality and zip. Anywho, so that that game has cards in it. I didn't mention that part. I guess I guess i sort of, you you might have inferred when I likened it to Slay the Spire, but yes, there are cards. So...
00:09:41
Speaker
It's sort of snap adjacent. Anywho, that's that's been a week or
Rhi's Gaming Journey
00:09:45
Speaker
nine days. As I as I mentioned, I would love to hear about one of my co-hosts weeks. Do we want to zag? Do we go to Lauren? What do we do? I don't know.
00:09:53
Speaker
I feel like now that I've spoken it, I kind of want. No, Lauren does not want to go next. OK, Rhi, how was your weekend snap?
00:10:05
Speaker
All right, ah First of all, you do have to give props to um our our shining star, Lauren, of ah both statistics and splits misses, ah who was on, you know, the Snapchat.
00:10:26
Speaker
And she was so good! The biggest podcast. Yeah! Yeah! And i would like to take the opportunity, since it's possible that we may have new listeners, to propose new bit wherein we pretend there was an original fourth member of our podcast. You know, um is just randomly be like, you know, i miss Flambone. Remember, it's the best of us.
00:10:56
Speaker
Never lost a game of Snap in his life. And at that time, he pulled out his flaming trombone, and he and Ben performed a concert.
00:11:08
Speaker
Oh, that's where he got his name from. That's what you would think. Oh, is it not? Curse the day Infinity Nikki stole him from us.
00:11:22
Speaker
Wait, so Flambone hosts an Infinity Nikki podcast now? Yeah, he dresses anime girls in sweet fits, you know. was We miss him every day.
00:11:38
Speaker
had the best rapport with all of us, individually and together as a unit. We miss you forever. We miss you, Flambone. yeah fly though um Sorry. So, yes, Lauren, I'm sure we'll talk about that more in her week in Snap. Mine kind of started, I mean, not to, I like it when my week's in zig and zag, where it's like, it was a bad week, it was a good week, it was a bad, and then, you know, it's balanced out, or karmically. It's like back when I used to drink more, I drank a lot more, like, stouts and stuff to counteract all the IPAs.
00:12:14
Speaker
drunk in the world, you know, just trying to, you know, cosmically balance out beer. Now it gives me too much of a headache too easily. I hardly ever drink. Okay. So, uh, no, it started out and I did like buy Prowler, but then I couldn't even enjoy him because like everyone was doing move stuff. Someone was also playing Mercury and Shadow, you all this stuff. And it was like, and then, um, and then for some reason I decided to like blow all of my tokens.
00:12:44
Speaker
on after Prowler, which I'm on series for seasonal cards, trying to get deafening cord. Cause I should have just bought it for the more, but I was like, no, I'd be fine with that.
00:12:56
Speaker
You know, it's a lean, it's a lean solstice this year. Like, We'll get Daphne and Cored next year in better times. And then I was like, no, I want it. And part of it is safety's fault because I can't play safety decks anymore because like I don't have all the cards. Safety is always, that's why we get along. you know Safety is always always chasing shinies, just like me.
00:13:19
Speaker
He listens. I'm sorry if that's not how you feel about yourself. Anyway, but now I don't I don't have all the shinies and it's just like I want to record anyway. And I did not get it. You know what I did get was like zombie power man and zombie ant man. So like I don't have like zombie Richard Reads or anything. So it's like I can't play any zombie. I don't have Colonel Captain America.
00:13:44
Speaker
So I got the two zombie cards from like two different styles. Zombie Richard reads thumbs like ah it's it's like it's something to encourage like young boys to read. But like, you know that this isn't for the girls because zombie Richard is kind of gross, but he does like he he is promoting literacy and like the love of books. What? I said about zombie Richard Reeds. I'm like, who is this character? Zombie Richard Reeds.
00:14:17
Speaker
And like, you know, like he's a little gross. He's got like a worm coming out of his eyeball, but like, he's like not like threatening scary, but he's like, he's, he's for messy boys, you know, very like, uh, you know,
00:14:30
Speaker
Did I mess up his name? and links so In a really fun way. that Oh, with an S at the end. I see. Zombie Richard Reeds. Oh, Reed Richards! Not Richard Reeds. I am so sorry. I was trying so hard to get in enough snap for the podcast that I am now... I'm now Richard Reeds-ing it. Okay. Alright, so... um So, yes, this is the point where it's like, oh, this is so much fun.
00:15:04
Speaker
I'm having so much fun in my game that I play to have fun. This is lot of fun. and And I didn't, like, i did it was my first month. i also didn't get i didn't get it to Infinite last month. I just didn't play enough. And there was this moment, too. I'm like, I could do it because I've done it before. i'm like, I could decide right now I'm getting to Infinite and I'll get to Infinite. Like, it'll happen. um I just need to put in the time. and then I was just like, no.
00:15:31
Speaker
Look at that. freed yourself. The Elsa, yeah, the let it go just poured out of me. And I just, I also didn't get the conquest fan. I was just done. I was like, I'm just done. It sounds intensely healthy Was it? Okay. Anyway, yeah, so we started and in the season than I've been, you know, like I've never started. So it's just like, oh, no. Now I'm here in the sixty s um So we do get a 60.
00:16:00
Speaker
Say nice. Make the joke. Okay. But, like, I haven't done that in a long time. Okay. But I started, and it's like, why do I even want to play? Like, and this is one reason I haven't been getting a snap. Nothing excites me. I can't. I don't have all of the new cards. I don't even have enough of the cards, say, to play, like, the real zombie Scarlet Witch deck I've seen running around. Yeah. And I'm not excited. I don't have the time right now to like, cook as hard. some i'm like So I'm not, like, trying to pick up over. I don't know. I'm just a bitter old hag, honestly. Snap sometimes. So I was looking through my cards just to see what hit me first that I wanted to play. And you'd think I'd, like, turn...
00:16:40
Speaker
ah to my old friend Dracula, but I didn't. I went to Squirt. like, oh, Squirt's always a good time. who What's she up to? um And I'm like, okay, if Otto rules me anything but bullseye, I'm in. And it wasn't. It was Khonshu and Dracula.
00:16:57
Speaker
Oh, and after, and it's just like, I've been playing, it's just been win, win, win. And this is such a okay, it's changed, right? Like this from like the last time I would consider what a basic Dracula would be. And I do, I miss my Meek. Meek would be in here if this was, this was one I had made. But I just wanted to give it a shot because col I haven't played Colleen in a minute. I don't have a good split on her. But, um...
00:17:24
Speaker
uh people don't respect like after all this time i come back and this card has been out forever the tricks i pull with him i have done time and again like a vampire has lived for a thousand years and still they will not respect a dead man like it's just like oh the time's like sinister and it's like do you you see on the board My sinister London, drag I've got multiple drag. You've seen that I've hit my apocalypse multiple times. What do you think is going to happen here? You've seen it all.
00:17:58
Speaker
I'm going to win all three lanes on this one, babe. And I did. Okay. Anyway, and this happened time and time again. and i if I forgot, if there's one thing I like... ah It's winning can again and again. It does feel good. It did bring back some joy. yeah i And it made me think, this is what... Okay.
00:18:19
Speaker
I was thinking, you know, before it was like, Kanchu, yes, just because Moon Knight Relevance and Discard, which is, you know, used to be the comfiest thing for me and is still a bit of a home. So, like, you know, before...
00:18:34
Speaker
Whatever I thought about it, like, I think I thought it would be its own archetype, right? a Slightly more independent. But, like, what I enjoy that it did for basic discard when it comes into this, like, deck that's just, like, it's just, you know, just a scorn gambit.
00:18:51
Speaker
Proxima, fair. Nothing fancy. No Moon Knight. No Silver Samurai. Sad, but true. MODOK, of course, because MODOK, like, goes in literally almost every discard unless you just, you're doing something wrong. I don't know. But, like, Kanchu, you used to fear an old discard. I was always trying to avoid discarding the Morbius. if i could I was even building around, you know, you want to not discard the Drac. And with Kanchu, you're happy to just res a Drac, you know, on turn six with, like, a whole bunch of extra power to begin with. Or a Morbius, you know, that got discarded early. And it's like a new, that's, you know, that's what, what Khonshu does. And, ah and I enjoyed it about them. And it's not, it's not, it's not the worst sometimes if, you know, you didn't get the apocalypse and you're just going to discard Khonshu one final time to like get Dracula, you know?
00:19:53
Speaker
Uh. Some of that. So, ah so you know, that's that's mostly what I was doing in Snap. And I did today because it just today unlocked on the day we are recording this Friday, a later than we normally record, to some Grand Arena. So I'm going to talk about that when it's appropriate time.
00:20:15
Speaker
At this point in time, though, um I would like Lauren to tell us all about her week
Lauren’s Snap Experience and Collaborations
00:20:21
Speaker
in Snap, please. And thank you okay ahead of time. Gladly. um I agree that the game is more fun when you're winning.
00:20:29
Speaker
Even though I'm not like a super spiky person, I think that that is just ah probably a pretty broad experience.
00:20:38
Speaker
I imagine something that's hard to balance in a PvP game, right? Because like every game inherently, when somebody's the winner, somebody else is the loser. It's true. That's why they're trying to get bots sneakier, so they can control your win-lose rate to parameters that keep you engaged. And if they can hide the bots from you, they can do that without you seeing I think you're right that that is part of it.
00:21:00
Speaker
There are certainly thoughts where that's their job. like super bad at hiding the bots, but also I've noticed that people are super bad at recognizing the bots and are very often complaining about bots that are like definitely humans. That's just a thing that I've noticed out there. Yeah, agree with that.
00:21:16
Speaker
um so Some of the like oldschool like loser bots some of the old school loser bots are still very easy to spot. like They're running America Chavez in a discard deck or Domino in a C3 deck. what are you doing? Or they have Nakia or Hellcow or Daredevil. The giveaway cards. They're more creative than you.
00:21:42
Speaker
But yeah, the bots that like are trying to you know help with queue times and they actually play well, those are much harder to identify um nowadays. Anyway, yeah, I was on the Snapchat. I talked to Alex Kocha. That was super fun. um That's a podcast that There's so many Snap Podcasts now that I don't keep up with any of them.
00:22:04
Speaker
um But there are many that I listen to periodically. But anyway, Snapchat is one that I listened to before I even started content creation. So that that was fun to ah replace Cozy, ah who is very rarely on the show now that he is almost dedicated to Marvel Rivals. um And we had, yeah, we got ah a ton more visits and followers on this channel because of that. YouTube has this, it's only like a month or two old. They they let you collaborate and say like two or more channels posted the same video it it's a pretty cool feature don't know if you've noticed that or not um so yeah the snapchat showed up on our channel anyway i don't know if you've got any but questions or anything about that like you two have both seen the snapchat before uh yeah pretty straightforward i got got to rank the uh got to rank the weapon x season cards again this time on a five point scale um i noticed that
00:22:59
Speaker
Oh my gosh. yeah Five points get a really through me. Who were you? There was one card that you were like higher than I realized when we when we ranked ours. Who who were you? oh There were quite a few I gave fours to that I was like, don't... I don't know if should have given them a four. two that You ended up giving a four to. What was it?
00:23:19
Speaker
man. a Maverick? Maverick. Yeah, it might have been. think Maverick. um I thought it was something else. Maybe Aurora. But I don't think I was tempted by five on Aurora. No, I don't think you were either.
00:23:33
Speaker
ha ah go to i mean, there are only so many cards that came out. Yeah, anyway, yeah. Whatever. If I think of it later, I will remark on it. That was fun. I always like collaborating with other creators. But most of the time when I'm doing that, I...
00:23:51
Speaker
I am checking their math. It's fun to do something different. um i like I like chatting about this game that I love. um On that podcast, I revealed, just because of how big the audience was, believe.
00:24:07
Speaker
I revealed that Scott Denham from Snapfan, he comes up on this podcast plenty of times, is ah um'm I'm working with him to make a new website for Snap. It's called Fourth Location. I think we'll talk about it more here when it actually launches, but essentially it is not...
00:24:25
Speaker
It is not a competitor. It's not a direct competitor to SnapZone and Fan and Untappd. It's just a platform for Scott and I to continue doing our Snap content. I would love to move my like economy articles off of Twitter.
00:24:38
Speaker
So that's that's like all big motivation for me. um Yeah, just collaborating. I'll have i'll have like economy analysis and stuff like that. We'll be there when it launches. all love the name. It's perfect.
00:24:51
Speaker
It's a very cute name. It was Wildchild. Wildchild was the one you were super high on. Oh, you're right. I didn't even realize how high you were. And I mean, I'm high on Wildchild, too. I was like, but like, wow, Lauren almost gave it a five out of five willikers. Yeah.
00:25:08
Speaker
there's so many that are hard because like wild child is one where it's like very clearly i think the best card in that hybrid deck but but how good is the hybrid um it's gotta be viable right they will tune it to be viable or else there are like now three cards that are dead if that deck is not real um
00:25:32
Speaker
ah We'll talk about fourth location more later. We're shooting to launch by December 16th. That feels very ambitious to me, but Scott thinks it's doable. So maybe if I can set my perfectionism aside, we'll pull it off.
00:25:43
Speaker
And there will be content about the new game mode team clash. I've been climbing to infinite. I've really struggled with finding a deck. I like this month.
00:25:54
Speaker
I've made it to 90 something like 95 or something. I'm just kind of waffling. I think I'm at 93 right now. um Climbing with safety blades,
00:26:05
Speaker
Galactus Uatu deck during the Altar of Death hot location was very fun. Took me a second to figure out how that deck worked out. Figure out how that deck worked. But yes, very fun to play Galactus on Altar of Death because very easy to ramp into, very easy to proc. And then you have like...
00:26:24
Speaker
Bucky Barnes, Armor, ah Scarlet Witch as as ways to win on turn six. And people stay in because they're like, what am I going to do? like This is Alter of Death. It's just going to be a tie game if we stay in. It's kind of little do you know.
00:26:42
Speaker
um yeah I'll post that deck, but don't play it. It it needs Alter of Death or like Death's Domain or something to be... Maybe it even needs Alter of Death because it's the... Maybe next hot location. i don't well I don't know what the next one is, but they they bring these death locations back as hot locations yeah on a regular.
00:27:01
Speaker
Imagine there will be several them this season. I took the hot location as a wonderful invitation to go play some Conquest. So that's what I did. played a different surfer deck than the than the ones I mentioned in my weekend snap that you'll never know about, but it had debris in it. So just use your imagination.
00:27:20
Speaker
I am aware of several streamers who do not play on Hot Location Day because it's Hot Location Day. um And then I got to play Cosmic Invasion. I grabbed it on Switch 2 that my wife surprised me with.
00:27:34
Speaker
And it's pretty fun. I've only played single player so far. um That's the the Pixel demo. Is it cross-platform? Yeah. It's cross-platform and four-player. if i got it on PC, we could be buds, pals?
00:27:49
Speaker
Yep. There are two things that I really like about it so far. One, it feels difficult. There are one or two levels that I lost on my first try. And you can level up your guys and maybe I just need to do that a little bit and then it'll be easy.
00:28:06
Speaker
um But yeah, I felt like I actually had to worry about dodging and blocking, which is not a normal thing in in my experience in... in a Like, totally spaced. What is this genre called? Beat'em up? It's scrolling. Yeah, it feels like you just mash. Like, get your combos down. Don't even get hit in the first place. Maybe some exception for bosses. but um Blocking and parrying feels really hard to me.
00:28:29
Speaker
But there are some of the characters that dodge instead, and that's been fine. The other thing he does that's very clever is Oh, my, I'll get to that in a second. Uh, my, the other thing I like about it is it's tag team. So every player actually controls two characters and you can both swap at any time to just be like, fully like, I want to be Spider-Man or I want to be martyr. She's not called martyr in the game, but I'm calling her that. That's what snap people. Um,
00:28:54
Speaker
okay um Or you can just stay as Spider-Man and summon Martyr to come and do like a combo piece with you, and then you're still Spider-Man after the combo. and that's That's been really fun and clever, and that feels like a ah twist on the beat-em-up game. like If some enemy has you trapped or grappled, you so you tag in your your partner and they they save you.
00:29:16
Speaker
um So I think if you're playing four-player, that means there are eight heroes involved. um There are a lot of characters that... There's like, what, half the characters? A little less than half that you have to unlock?
00:29:28
Speaker
I've just unlocked my first one, which is Phoenix. um My favorites so far are Wolverine and Captain America. Neither of those are characters I'm like super duper into. like I want to play the ladies. um and And Storm and She-Hulk are fine.
00:29:46
Speaker
I'm excited to unlock Phyla Bell. You get to play her for a little bit in the tutorial, and I really liked her there. Um... They did a good job of mixing in on you like surprise characters or or like lesser known characters. like there's ah There's a lot of the ones that you'd expect, but then there's also Martyr and Beta Ray Bill and Cosmic Ghost Rider. There's some weirdos in there, and that's been really fun too.
00:30:09
Speaker
In the demo, you get to fight Beetle, who is not in Marvel Snap yet, for reasons that I could not tell yeah like really pretty like prominent like you. ahead. Beetle is not a character who appeared once and never again. Yeah, also great costume.
00:30:28
Speaker
Those fingies. Gotta love those fingies. need Need more beetles. Anyway, I didn't mean to talk about Cosmic Invasion so much, but it's super fun. We should talk about it after the podcast. guess That's what I think.
00:30:40
Speaker
Okay. Happy to. um And then the though deck I wanted to talk about actually runs Prowler. So we're just going to shift over to new thoughts on last week's cards.
00:30:52
Speaker
We all decided ahead of time. We didn't have anything new to say about Hydra Man, but we're talk about Prowler for a little bit. 3-4 on reveal, add two Thief's Tools to your hand. Set their cost to zero if a card moved last turn.
00:31:04
Speaker
Ben or Reed, do you all want to say something about Prowler first? Yeah, I've been playing Prowler. Prowler was in the deck that I mentioned earlier with Nocturne. And you know what I often found?
00:31:17
Speaker
often found that even if I had somehow not qualified to play Prowler for the the free skills... it was still usually right to play him for the expensive skills. And when I say expensive, I mean costing one and possibly refunding it next turn.
00:31:32
Speaker
Um, Yeah, I like this card a lot, and I'm really excited to experiment more with it. I was really hoping that I would shoehorn him into a surfer deck in time to talk about that, but I've already got other surfer irons in the fire. i had a debris surfer deck that I don't have time to tell you about in detail. So, like, I don't know.
00:31:52
Speaker
ah Maybe next week I'll have more to say about Prowler, but he'll be even less...
00:31:59
Speaker
timely. Unfortunate. Whatever. But cool card. I hope you picked him up because he seems real good.
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah. Definitely fun. Bree? Any Brawler thoughts? Like you said, I just didn't... like it He was too hot. I'll play him. I mean, I guess now probably he's cooled off enough, but then then I have to get interested again. so That's a fair. point truth um The one deck I wanted to talk about It's what I've used for most of my Climb so far, but I've been switching around, ah especially for bounties. But this is a deck from Not My Dance that is a very skill-heavy deck.
00:32:39
Speaker
It runs Deafening Chord, Hunger, and Web Sling, all three of those. Nicholas Scratch to benefit from the skills. And then you get even more skills from Prowler and Merlin.
00:32:50
Speaker
um You've got Joaquin Torres here because all of the skills are one-cost cards. ah So just... Super fun deck with tons of synergy, and then it's a zombie deck on top of that. um So, Zombie Scarlet Witch, and then you get Spider-Man to, you know, proc her but move off of her.
00:33:07
Speaker
You have Zombie Giant Man and Abs Man, who are ah strong finisher. And then Werewolf, because we have tons of skills! um So, the deck... It kind of builds itself once you get to the point where you're like, let's throw in as many skills as we can, as many cheap skills as we can.
00:33:26
Speaker
has a little bit of a learning curve. Like, I have found there's a lot of tension because all three of your three costs, you want to get out early. Well, Prowler, you don't need to get out super early, but he's like, you have to make sure that you get the cheap skills. Early enough.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah. To be able to use the skills and also stack them with Joaquin Torres and then like, am I even going to be able to play Giant Man? Most of the cards, Abs Man can't target because most of them are skills. um But it's been super fun.
00:33:57
Speaker
Has really changed. Like I was as you were talking, I'm like, oh man, remember, it used to be you like be mixing up like some Kate Bishop with some higher cost on reveals.
00:34:08
Speaker
And now it's all skill now when you're doing werewolf, you're like you're just Merlin, you're just Jennings skills or um having. Because it used to be. at Yeah, I remember when Agamotto came out and you I was just like, oh, this you know this will be super fun with Werewolf. And now it's just like all Werewolf does.
00:34:28
Speaker
And it's really good. Moving him like four times in one turn is a plus eight. And not having to, you know, have the space with the cheap card you play. So much easier to manage the board space. yeah Yes. um And then, of course, you mix in something like Zombie Scarlet Witch, who is currently the best one of these, but it could be Angela or Hope or whatever.
00:34:48
Speaker
Ben might think Hope is better than Zombie Skylar Witch. Perhaps contextual. Anyway, like the another way that skills are great. You just keep hitting Zombie Skylar Witch over and over again.
00:35:00
Speaker
um Anyway, very fun deck if you have the pieces. Probably not every one of them is required, but you need a critical mass of them for sure. And Prowler just contributes. Being able to use Prowler's things on Joaquin Torres is so fun.
00:35:18
Speaker
I, uh, this reminded me of a thing I kind of meant to, there are so many things I meant to mention in my weekend snap that I did not, but, um, I was, that surfer deck that I i mentioned, the, the noir one with, uh, with Iron Man and stuff.
00:35:32
Speaker
One, one reason I think Iron Man is, is cool in there perhaps, uh, specifically is because of hope. Um, And that's also like kind of a a thing with... i don't I should have written down how I was going to ah express this thought, but like that deck, that ah the Noir Surfer deck I was talking about earlier, very often you'll be like... Not not very often, but like sometimes you won't be spending all your energy in the early game, but like Hope and Merlin in particular, as well as Surge, like just the the acceleration package in that deck...
00:36:08
Speaker
Well, when I say acceleration, I don't know. Point is, very often you're skipping energy on the early turns and then you're like spending eight energy on turn like four or five or whatever. And like you you catch up. I don't know. It was that That's like, I think that maybe a lot of people were... I think a lot of people were really struggling with Spider-Man noir because they... I don't know. I don't think they were looking to play him in decks like that where like you're...
00:36:41
Speaker
not using your energy efficiently at first. And then, I mean, efficiency doesn't matter because you make so much energy late. I don't know. That's, that's where he seems to fit together really well for me, especially if you're looking to proc the Jubilee type effect. I don't know.
New Card Releases and Evaluations
00:36:55
Speaker
Sorry about the digression.
00:36:59
Speaker
Quite all right. Okay, now we're going to talk about the cards that came out this week. There are three of them. Four if you include the Grand Arena card, but talk about him next week. ah Season Pass, Weapon X Wolverine, 2-2.
00:37:14
Speaker
After one of your other cards is destroyed, plus one power. After every third time, improve this effect by one. I am going to start this one out on a real bummer because I hate I look at this card and I am like, you ah do not want to be destroyed. You do not destroy other things. All you feel like is the prelude, a prequel to ah to a better card called Wolverine.
00:37:44
Speaker
with Yeah. It's just like, it's such a bummer. And I even saw someone play it and it was kind of cute. They were like killing squirrels and Laura and stuff. And I am just sitting there. I forget what i had.
00:37:59
Speaker
was already like from turn one, I had something in my hand that was going to foil it like at the end of the game. I was going to let them build it up all the game and ruin it for them on turn six. What?
00:38:10
Speaker
That didn't make me love Weapon X to play more. So that's where I'm at on it. Back to you. I wish I had had time to There are just so many cards coming out. I don't have time to play all the ones, you know? So I've only played against Weapon X, and I can't tell if he's... In fact, I suspect he's not making the decks that I'm playing against. don't know.
00:38:39
Speaker
I don't think he's making things better, but I'm not sure because I haven't done it myself. And as I complained earlier, I don't know. My decks just seem to work right now. And it makes it really hard to tell like what is or is not working for my opponents.
00:38:56
Speaker
But I suspect Weapon X is not working. I don't know. that's That's just been my perception. He does get kind of big sometimes, a little bit. But, like, I don't know, shang him. He's not coming back.
00:39:06
Speaker
You can cannonball him. He's probably the biggest thing in his lane. He's just... Yeah, I i don't think he's doing anything. So Shadow King is everywhere right now? Oh, yeah. too So much. It's kind of a bummer to me. Yeah. Yep.
00:39:23
Speaker
Yep. yup Um, yeah. Kind of seems fine in Grand Arena. I played... i fla Helps a lot to have the Berserker Rage skill. It does seem pretty good.
00:39:37
Speaker
Um... talk about that a little bit later uh i've played each of the new cards a little bit uh not super inspired by any of them weapon x i'm like i'm trying i'm thinking about how to make a clip for weapon x which is like how big can we get him if we do a stupid amount of destroys right like we're either gonna do an invisible woman first steps with a tuma on x twenty three or we're gonna do like Ultron Killmonger shenanigans and multi-proc those.
00:40:06
Speaker
I don't know. I'm thinking about it. But that's still just like... There are so many other cards that could get bigger in an easier way. um and and And, you know, he's a two.
00:40:17
Speaker
But he's just not a very exciting card. i think I have not been impressed with... with the decks that use him. like like they They seem kind of as I expected. They seem playable, but not as good as just traditional Destroy.
00:40:34
Speaker
um I was not even and really having fun with him on Altar of Death Day. and it's not that I don't like Destroy. like the The little Destroy deck that runs six ones, that has been so fun for me. And I've been running it for, you know, I've been playing that ever since Head Pool came out.
00:40:50
Speaker
And where were Were they the same season? I don't remember. Anyway. No, they weren't. Because Hypool's a zombie. No, I guess you're right. no But close. They were the adjacent seasons. Neighbors.
00:41:02
Speaker
Back to back. Anyway. That deck has been very fun for me. And I like Nimrod. So there's like there's some flavors of Destroy that appeal to me, but not this one. Adamantium Infusion.
00:41:14
Speaker
A four-cost skill on reveal. ah This is in the Super Premium Season Pass or Series 5 Snap Packs. Unreveal, revive your highest power destroyed card here with its power doubled.
00:41:25
Speaker
This is the first time ah since the introduction of the Super Premium Season Pass that I did not get it. um I got the card, but I just got it in a Series 5 pack. I have ah tokens to spare, and it just didn't seem like... I didn't really like the variant that's in the Super Premium Season Pass, and it's like, you know, save some money.
00:41:46
Speaker
ah ah do think it's worth mentioning that this card... It's kind of like Jubilee. It needs a space next to it. I've seen a few people mess that up. So make sure that when you're playing it, has a space next to it, and then it banishes afterwards. If it's the fourth garden, it's lane able will not summon anything.
00:42:04
Speaker
Ooh, you know what? That reminds me of a similar thing. Random-ass Merlin tip. Try not to use Omniversal Presence on a lane that already has three things in it.
00:42:15
Speaker
Because I mean, like, I know it feels safe because you're like, I'm leaving myself space for later. But you're also not leaving yourself space if it's a location that generates a body. And sometimes the body is good and you want it. Sometimes it's Monster Island. So don't give your opponent a monster that you can't also receive.
00:42:31
Speaker
Okay. Merlin Tip concluded. think if you're playing with magic, you are just playing with fire and you should embrace it.
00:42:43
Speaker
That's what I think. I love killing Limbo with Omniversal Presence. And then they reacted. It's like, I had Merlin on the board. Did you not see that coming? ohm like yeah It's the Snoeguard effect. People are like, oh, you can play Snoeguard's cards?
00:42:57
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. When she used to just be for Loki or whatever. Okay. Anyway, Adamantium and Fusion. Have either of you played it or seen it?
00:43:10
Speaker
oh I've seen it. No, it seems really good. i mean, maybe I've seen it. don't know. But yeah, no, I, mean okay. I've definitely seen it, but it's like, I don't have it. And I lost all my tokens chasing, chasing, chasing music.
00:43:26
Speaker
I never got. So, ah yeah, I won't be getting for a while.
00:43:33
Speaker
Ben? Seems fine. You know, it does the thing. seems It seems strong. I mean, like, i don't, I'm not playing it. So, like, I have, like, I don't have...
00:43:45
Speaker
You know, i i play against it and sometimes I win and sometimes I lose and it just seems like a normal card, you know. I mean, an offensive freestanding skill that I despise, but you know, other than that, it's a normal card.
00:43:59
Speaker
Seems good. I don't know. ah Yeah, I've been impressed with it. um I haven't gotten to use it a lot. like The decks I was playing it in, i was like it wasn't always the best thing to do um I look forward to Fastball Special. I think it will help a lot because then you don't need Carnage to do both cards on turn six.
00:44:23
Speaker
You two options for that. Yeah. Man, Carnage... Fastball Special is really just stepping on Carnage's toes. I mean, like, I know that Carnage destroys more than one thing in this location, but it's like Carnage used to be the the card you turn to for a two-cost that destroys things, but, like, no, i don't I don't think he's... Oh, I think Carnage is the better card.
00:44:53
Speaker
You really think the better card of those two? Maybe. Fastball Special doesn't add any stats to the board. They're they're very different. yeah yeah What do you mean Fastball Special doesn't add any stats to the board?
00:45:10
Speaker
All the affliction that you apply gets removed from the board. Except for like Wolverine and X-23. Okay.
00:45:20
Speaker
Nimrod. No? No? like the The whole destroy path, anything that gets destroyed... Yes, it's because you want to destroy things, but directly it doesn't add any stats. That's true. orage adds The numbers are the same. eight um Anyway, one thing I want to say that's cool with adamantium infusion that I did not think about until after it was already out...
00:45:45
Speaker
If it summons a destroy card, like Venom or Carnage, they will destroy it. And then Firehair will use Adamantium Infusion.
00:45:55
Speaker
And that's cool.
00:45:59
Speaker
You get a double Adamantium Infusion and a very big Venom. Man, I don't know if they should fix that about skills. like The game gets so confused when you bounce a polymorph back to your hand.
00:46:13
Speaker
I don't know if y'all have ever experienced that, but the game gets real confused and your hand doesn't look right and there's a ghostly polymorph that you can't play and it's just like... I don't know if you used to be able to play it, now you can't.
00:46:28
Speaker
But it's weird.
00:46:31
Speaker
Last I checked, and maybe this has changed, but last I checked, if you polymorph a two into beast, what's it called? Astral projection? No, if you do it into astral projection, it doesn't banish itself afterwards.
00:46:46
Speaker
Totally should. That's weird. Chamber, our last one, series five. Two, three, activate plus two for each five cost or higher card you have here and in hand.
00:47:00
Speaker
I'm surprised how much Chamber I've seen. I didn't know this card came out this week. It's okay. That's why I moved it up a week for you. In the show notes. Which re-prepares.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah. I'm surprised you didn't know because I've seen a lot of people playing Chamber. I think I've seen more Chambers than I've seen Adamantium Infusion or Weapon. I haven't seen any. yeah And I don't think he's very good, but he does do something. So you have to remember that he does something. Because, like, i've I've heard anecdotally about a lot of people getting snuck up on by Chamber. And he's an activate. There's no way this card should be sneaking up on anyone. So just remember that it's not a vanilla 2-3. He does do a thing. It's not very good, but...
00:47:47
Speaker
It's the fire. It's like Echo. There's nothing about flaming fire that just nobody sees. It's the it's fine. ah You know what I mean?
00:48:00
Speaker
This is fine. It's not fine. yeah I only played a little bit with him. It is fun to get out a card like White Queen or Nick Fury and have it be useful.
00:48:13
Speaker
um think he does justify... I think he justifies playing those, but I don't think the deck justifies being played. That's what I'm asking. Yeah. I don't think so. Like, if you run Chamber, I think those cards are good enough to be played with him.
00:48:28
Speaker
But I just don't think that deck is is is real. um That said, people did not respect my Chamber. They they assumed he was a 2-3, and they did not expect that he was going to gain 6-8 power.
00:48:41
Speaker
And he did every time, and he won lanes. But it just... I didn't really like the deck. I think I do owe Chamber a small apology because I gave him a 1 on Snapchat and he's probably a 2. Yeah, he feels more like a 2 to me. I also think maybe I owe Chamber a small apology.
00:48:58
Speaker
But just just a small 1. I would do this with like... I would do this... This would be fun with Wicked and could see that. I have no idea what other people are doing with them, but it's like, oh, that's where you can throw a bunch of, like, high-cost cards. and Because that's what I was looking at. so I'm like, where would I put it and what I have? And it's like, oh, where i only have my one-cost Quicksilver. And then I have Domino as my only two-costs. Enough threes to be somewhat guaranteed. I'll at least get one.
00:49:29
Speaker
um and then, like, you know, and then, like, a lot of uppers. Yeah. in your hand. I like to put on a lot of support, like, you know, like, Legion and all of those, and then you have your options for what will most, like, tips. but You know, I like to, like, prepare for, like, battlefields, right? And so, so cards, like, what I like looking at Chamber now, at first, I won't lie, i just squirmed them, like, I was just, like, activate, get out here. You're not welcome. Freeze, like, bar. Okay. But, like, um but now looking them and, like, ah i
00:50:07
Speaker
You know, mean, I guess that would be like the, it would be putting in another two in the deck. But at the same point, I do have a lot of like big cards, not necessarily going to play them all.
00:50:20
Speaker
And, hu you know, maybe maybe, maybe I'd give him an audition. i don't know. I'm not going to pay him though.
00:50:30
Speaker
ah One deck I've seen that he's in that ah is somewhat appealing to me, I've only played it it a couple times, Smiles has a deck that is running three ramp cards, ah Jennifer Kale, Electro, and Luna Snow, and then also has Blink as a way to... Yes, I've been seeing this deck around....to get energy.
00:50:53
Speaker
And it has War Machine, so you can play Ebony Mon, Infinaut. But the deck runs seven cards that that would work with Chamber. So ah he seems like an okay fit there.
00:51:07
Speaker
I don't know. The deck seems a little awkward to me if you don't get the ramp, but like there's a lot of ways to ramp. So yeah maybe that's not a big concern.
00:51:17
Speaker
Five-cost cards have just been a tough slot. Usually when you have one, it's just the one. Yeah. A big combo move. i mean, it comes up in their, like, you know balancing notes sometimes that they're, like, they're trying to make fives playable.
00:51:31
Speaker
They're just going to give it a Zabu eventually, and then it'll be busted for two months. in In the past ah in the past like month or so, they they have grown on me, these five costs. Because ah that Golden Gauntlet Silver Surfer deck, I jammed Cannonball in there. And I was like, hey, this guy feels pretty good. Especially like if you've got enough ramp stuff where you can play him alongside a three on turn five or six. like that That was feeling good to me. And now now I'm experimenting with Iron Man.
00:52:05
Speaker
And so I'm in my five cost era, and it feels very strange to me. But like now I'm like, well, surely I'm going to play one of these five costs in my Surfer deck. And like no, that that historically, for me, has ended at four. That's where the that's where the the curve stops. But I don't know. Maybe I'm on five costs now.
00:52:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that that's the other thing. ah Man, when I was trying to poorly explain like the the start slow and end big like thing with the the surfer curve, i I should have mentioned this is all like in comparison to like how you would set up a a Sarah type curve for like.
00:52:47
Speaker
There you only get the acceleration pretty much for like turn six. But if you're doing like hope once in future surge type stuff, you get big pops on earlier turns, like even as early as four or five sometimes, depending on how locations treat you. I don't know. Anyway, I'm just saying secretly.
00:53:06
Speaker
Don't tell anybody, especially not safety, but um I kind of think Hope just eats Sarah's lunch in Surfer. if you're yeah I don't know. That's that's my opinion.
00:53:17
Speaker
It's all a matter of taste, though. you remote Back when Equinox played Snap, she wrote up this whole theory about why Sarah... I can't remember it was Sarah in general or Sarah in Surfer.
00:53:28
Speaker
But either way, it was this whole thing about Sarah's not really worth it. And it was a fun fun Twitter essay to read. Very mathy. Anyway, next week's cards, we've got a vibe check. Just call the math and just like hit the vibes hard. Just like, play Legion inside.
00:53:45
Speaker
I'm like, fuck yeah! I always skip over the graphs. I just have to trust the graph maker. Now that I'm into five costs, should start playing Legion. Legion's so fun. Everyone else has made it look like so much fun for years now. Years now, and I've never put Legion in a deck on purpose.
00:54:03
Speaker
It might be the card that has made me literally laugh out loud more than any other card in the game. I mean, they're great. Oh my gosh. My favorite thing is when someone Legion scams me and it doesn't fucking work. I've got a beautiful screenshot yesterday with with three bar with no names that I won for eight cubes.
00:54:19
Speaker
And it was not my idea. Not my idea to make every lane bar with no name. Oh, you didn't see it coming? They just they just flubbed it? That's funny. Yep. That's a hard scam to pull off because everyone knows about it. so if if you're That's why I like to put deckx Legion in decks where people aren't going to expect them because like if they at all think you're going to have then you've got to play the game of playing just enough power down so they don't it's not super obvious you're just going to Legion them. you know and then You want to try and snap them and stuff. You can't snap right when it shows up.
00:54:53
Speaker
In that specific game mentioned. Those are hard. The interesting thing was that one of the three locations up until turn six had been ah Sinister London.
00:55:04
Speaker
ah Is that the one that makes them go to different locations? So like we were all really ah tiptoeing around that one because like you don't want good stuff to end up on Bar With No Name. But like I'd gotten a little risky. I played my Iron Man on Sinister London. I was like, I'm fine if Iron Man and Iron Man alone shows up on Bar With No Name over there. But then of course the whole situation changed when every location was bar. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's just fun story time. ah It was fun for me, the the the teller of the story. And I appreciate you both accommodating me.
00:55:39
Speaker
Where were we? I really like Bar With No Name and Cancun both. Oh yeah, great locations. I could do with them being slightly more common. It's so fun how much they change the gameplay. Yeah.
00:55:51
Speaker
And really interesting interactions with other locations sometimes. Locations are how you get to be clever with like not otherwise it would just be a straight solving of the meta and like, you know, it would ruin Snap. think If we had all ruins all the time. Yeah.
00:56:10
Speaker
Imagine if you had a mode where there were only eight decks and only those eight decks. Imagine how quickly meta might be solved. Indeed. It makes you feel like a real war general because you're like, I didn't just bring an army.
00:56:24
Speaker
i studied the terrain.
Location Dynamics in Marvel Snap
00:56:28
Speaker
lulled my enemy into a sense of false security before I circled around.
00:56:35
Speaker
to catch him anyway it's ah it's i don't know it's like that's i it makes me sad it's like i get hot locations sometimes really annoy me but when people are just like really down on like a diversity and there's some of you know locations that be annoying but it's like that's what yeah the ones that annoy me are the ones that do i think a big reason we're still playing it do you do you know offhand what your least favorite location is rocket pad
00:57:06
Speaker
really Even less than Ruins.
00:57:11
Speaker
It's not even 10 for me. do you have least favorite location? you do I do. I mean, really depends on the back. Because squirrels really make me mad sometimes. Subterranea is good for you. Subterranea builds character.
00:57:31
Speaker
Personally, I shine most brightly in the face of adversity.
00:57:37
Speaker
My least favorite location by a very wide margin is Crimson Cosmos. I have to say like... Oh, yeah, games. Yeah. I hate Ponder Castle. Let me play my tiny cards. Is life already hard enough for small cards? I'm most likely to retreat from Chrism in Cosmos. It might be the only location that I hate. Some of them are like... Doesn't that make you kind of love it? Doesn't that make you respect it? Isn't it good because it's so impactful? Don't you feel good when you... Bring back Ponder Castle. Yeah, do!
00:58:09
Speaker
yeah du I didn't mind the occasional play. I didn't think they needed to completely get rid of it. It just seems exactly i like. I liked Plundercastle better than Crimson Cosmos.
00:58:20
Speaker
um I liked Milano. Okay, too. That was the one where you could only play on turn five. Uh-huh. Wade Wilson. 2-2. When destroyed, replace this with a one-cost card from your hand or deck with plus one power. Just a quick five check. Are you excited about this card at all?
00:58:39
Speaker
Yes, it's the Hulkling effect for me. For some reason, you guys hating on him made me like him more. I want to do a bunch of Deadpool stuff. I like finding cards. i always I want you to prove me wrong.
00:58:53
Speaker
The original Bullseye, right? Wasn't he going to be like a two cost finder, like a Daredevil finder in the data mines? He was a one that drew a two next turn. So cool. ah It's like the real bullseye where it's like, oh, he's just the maniac that I can't appreciate. But like,
00:59:10
Speaker
um the ah idea of being I like the idea of being able to find cards in my deck. Yeah, tutoring is great.
00:59:21
Speaker
We didn't mention when we raided... But I think he's slow. Yeah, that's the thing. He is slow. We didn't mention when we raided Wade Wilson and we felt terrible. Listeners, we conferred about this. The the hosts of Snap on this.
00:59:35
Speaker
After the episode, we felt really bad that we didn't mention that you could on one turn um do the... you could destroy Deadpool and Wade Wilson on the same turn and he'd spit the Deadpool back out for you. And that's a really big deal. He's still garbage. um But just on principle, I didn't like it when it was Mr. Fantastic three.
01:00:00
Speaker
And I don't like it when it's Deadpool three. ah Where's beetle. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Where's where's I know I reach for this one all the time, but where's toad. Hmm. Hmm.
01:00:12
Speaker
I don't know. because we're too busy Is he our second card like this? What was that? yeah Is he our second card that's just like the alter ego? Like Bruce Banner? I think he's the second one.
01:00:25
Speaker
and Yeah, I mean, like there are a lot of alter egos. their human, their citizen, i don't know what to call it. Civilian, that's the word I'm looking for. Are we getting more civilian cards?
01:00:41
Speaker
I get I mean, it doesn't really matter to me if like that. That doesn't make it any better, in my opinion. i mean, like Bruce Banner has like sort of a client like I know you're wrong. can respect Bruce Banner, but like I don't I don't like this Wade Wilson precedent. Like Wade Wilson is not different enough from Deadpool, if you ask me.
01:01:02
Speaker
You're wrong, though, that this doesn't make it better. Wade Wilson is better than Deadpool and Wolverine. Deadpool and Wolverine colon Deadpool. That is a worse option. ah Yeah, you know, I guess it could be slightly worse, but it's still basically Deadpool. Are we cutting is zombie Richard Reads more slack because he's a zombie? like I don't think so. I think he's still Mr. Fantastic Three.
01:01:32
Speaker
ah You're correct. Weapon H, 714. When discarded, put this back with minus two cost. He's a hulky wolverine. Hell yeah, this card's nuts.
01:01:44
Speaker
yeah I hate it, because everyone will play discard now. He's like... um It's like, he'll be good. I feel like that's obvious. It'll even be fun to play, but it's like, everyone will play. And discard is like...
01:01:59
Speaker
secretly good. People just haven't been playing it later. Are they playing Bullseye? Which don't like. probably doesn't get the respect he deserves. That's a good bet. And this will bring attention to how good scoring is. And I just started playing again and I'm going to have to draft it. know. And we're going to have to wait for him to die down.
01:02:19
Speaker
Then we can come back around and pick up the the pieces once once the crowd moves on. that's That's how I feel anyway. I assume you're feeling similarly. I don't know. I'm putting words in your mouth.
01:02:30
Speaker
I don't think he's clearly better than Kounchou. And so I don't think that he's going to long-term be a big boost to discard. I think he's not the Dracula version.
01:02:42
Speaker
I think you can. You're going to play Apot, Konshu, and Weapon Age in the same deck? I think so, yeah. Maybe. And then you take out some of your earlier benefit cards for more cards that discard, you know? Like, just, I don't always play Lady Sif, and she's great. Why don't I always play Lady Sif? Well, now maybe I always will. I haven't built the deck, but I'm definitely going to be...
01:03:03
Speaker
trying to find an excuse to play Hellcow. I don't know if it's going to leave the house that way. i don't know if that's what we're wearing out, but I want to play Hellcow.
01:03:18
Speaker
Hellcow might have something. like There's got to be something with the fact that it's an activated. Now that we've got so many, I like that it says discard two cards. That's what I like about it. It doesn't anymore. Does it not?
01:03:29
Speaker
Does it do one? It was too good. it was a Hella card when it discarded, too. There go your Hellcow plans. It goes to show how much Hellcow I'm playing in my life.
01:03:41
Speaker
All right, so I guess it's I'm going to have to wait for a rework or something because I'm not interested in that design. No, no, no. Is it is it the stats now? Is it a 4-8 or something? No. what What does it have? What does it use to do? Discard one. all right, black check. Listen to me typing. I'm not even going to mute my this microphone. 4-6...
01:04:00
Speaker
activate discard one card from your hand what a garbage card i'm not playing that's why nobody plays it they went way too hard when they nerfed her um anyway there was like that window where she was discard two and everybody was playing entirely unappealing design bad job huh yeah i didn't think they would do something like that I almost think they should take her back to discard too, but make her an honor. They should. That wasn't a card that was supposed to get activated.
01:04:36
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you can play. on stuff um wow You could play Jocasta Hellcow. That's a deck. I want to see somebody
Grand Arena Experiences
01:04:47
Speaker
do that. A big old Jocasta stack with Hellcow.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah. Prodigy or something? I don't know. Chameleon? No. Okay. ah Grand Arena started a few hours ago from time of recording. We've all played at least some of it.
01:05:07
Speaker
um It is with eight new champions and their skills, all using beautiful pixel art from Cosmic Invasion. ah And there's no deck building. These are the only eight decks you can use are the pre-cons, which is ah choice.
01:05:24
Speaker
um I have seen some people ask for that, for the a simplified mode. i don't think there's anything wrong with trying it once. Yeah. I just hope they don't try it again. of wish that it was separate queue.
01:05:38
Speaker
Like, if somebody wants to play pre-cons only, fine. Send them in the pre-con queue. But if somebody deck builds, send them in the deck build queue. I'm it. think probably to split the...
01:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Yeah. um But it works for me because I don't have I don't feel like I have a lot of time right now for messing around. I just got to get in and get some games.
01:06:04
Speaker
I've been cracking up this whole time about this, Lauren, because I see you put in the show notes. Have you been playing the Sentinels deck? Yes, and I freaking love it. I've been playing it too. It's my most played deck. Really?
01:06:20
Speaker
oh I've been beating it every time I've come I didn't say it had been going well. that's That's been my experience. Mostly I find that it loses. But Lauren says she's 16 and 3 with it.
01:06:33
Speaker
I don't know if we're playing different people or what, but like I can't compete with these these Weapon X. They're putting up the big numbers. And Sentinel seems to like cap out at 30 per lane. Are you? No.
01:06:45
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. My experience with Grand Arena started when I like was going through, I'm like, okay, yay, the pre-cons. i Like I said, I'm into it. Let me go through and see like what you know what they put together, um and I'll pick my first deck by what you know like my own deck preference is.
01:07:08
Speaker
And ah the first thing I was like, oh, look, oh, they decided they decided the close these decks for us. And I'm like, that changes things because I was looking through and I'm like, OK, maybe.
01:07:23
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. And I got to Sentinels, which is last on the list. I was like, immediately, I don't care what is and is in this deck. I am not playing this foil ultra porters. Are you kidding me? Get some ducks.
01:07:35
Speaker
designers in here. Have you consulted Splits Master about this? This is horrendous. This is an assault on my eyeballs. I hate this. I don't care. i like You know me, I love random cards. I love miraging. I love Merlin.
01:07:53
Speaker
All of these look great to me, but they don't look great. They look terrible. Oh my gosh, I can't believe you've been playing this. Just looking at it in the show notes hurts. hurts me.
01:08:04
Speaker
I played... Okay, no, tell us... I don't want to move on before you... Tell us tell us more about your Sentinels. Okay. okays The Sentinels decks has... I did actually go back and look through some screenshots. Mostly it's 30 to 35, but in multiple lanes, which has been plenty for me. I had one game where I got close to 50 in a lane. um And there wasn't like Nexus or anything like that. i just had I just had everything stacked right. Yeah.
01:08:30
Speaker
I think part of the reason Sentinels works is because people really us underestimate how big Project Armageddon is going to be. That's the ah the Sentinels Champion skill. And it gives all of your Sentinels on the board plus one power for each created card you've played that isn't a Sentinel.
01:08:46
Speaker
And the deck runs Merlin. It runs a bunch of other ways to get creative cards, but Merlin especially. Works much better when he shows up. Every single skill of his you play makes so that Project Armageddon buffs your Sentinels even bigger. I have gotten plus 9, plus 10, plus 11.
01:09:03
Speaker
To every single one of my Sentinels, people do not expect your Sentinels to get that big. You finish a lane early and they're like, that's no big deal. And they're like, psych. Of course, victoria ah Victoria Hand can also make your Sentinels bigger. And so that's your other plan.
01:09:17
Speaker
Your plan is either go all in on Project Armageddon or make lots of Victoria Hands. I think it's very easy with this deck to clog up your hand. So be careful. Don't play Maria Hill and Hawkeye and Mirage. like You need to be careful about the like the plan Bs that you're investing into.
01:09:35
Speaker
Anyway, very, very fun deck. It's my favorite so far, but I've only played two of them. Annihilus I tried, and it was both boring and didn't seem very strong. Yeah. I tried Iron Man and I won that one and I was like, well, let's try one of the clear ones. at thisli And then I got so frustrated with Sentinels that I had to keep trying it.
01:09:56
Speaker
ah I don't know. i um two ah Two losses, one win with Sentinels. So like maybe maybe it is not as bad as I think. That's not that bad. Come on. But I don't know.
01:10:07
Speaker
when i get When I get two losses in a row right off the right off the start, i I get a little... i don't know. That seems like too many in a row. Rhi, which one have you been playing?
01:10:20
Speaker
Okay, I haven't switched off. I was like, okay, you know, I'll hop around, play until we lose. But then we don't lose. We never lose. And then when discovered the real joy, i i saw I thought that this would be a bomb upon my, like, my...
01:10:37
Speaker
My tired oversold does not have all the time I would like for Snap right now. and um But what's really fun about it is because like they're not allowing, um it's only the pre-cons, like the tech is like mostly gone. So I get to do the stuff that I that i can't do in the in real world Snap because it makes me feel too vulnerable. Like, I don't like playing. It's why I don't even like playing magic. Because like I said, I like to ruin the limbo. So like, i want to put one out there. You know, it's just like it feels you feel so yeah, it's like, if I'm doing stuff, I like to protect it. you know? And um so this lets me do a lot of combo-y stuff that I don't go all in on, you know? Like, I'm not someone that likes to retreat on a turn four because I didn't draw a negative, you know? I'm in for the fight. You're gonna gonna pull this game. You're gonna fry it out of my cold, undead fingers. They're gonna discard
01:11:47
Speaker
Apocalypse one last time. Okay. so um like So now i got to, i i looked at it and like i I do want to play this ah Black Panther. Hmm.
01:12:02
Speaker
Like a deck and it is nothing. Everyone thinks it's just going bigger than everything. Oh man. Panther's just getting huge and his ability is so fun. It's like, I'll put it, you know, you put it on a lasher and it's like once it's, it's so funny. Cause they're like, Oh, they made it so big and they put an iron man there and it's like, Oh,
01:12:28
Speaker
negatives like ah Or you can task that because it's like you get that extra energy. and it's just like oh just It's like playing with construction what you know like when it's like Would you like to go play with the bucket thing the wrecking hammer? Wrecking ball?
01:12:47
Speaker
You know, construction things, words. and like And that's what it feels like because it's like the safety rails are off. You don't have to worry about like destroying yourself and property and maybe, you know, whatever. It's just like just going at it with a stupid Black Panther stuff.
01:13:08
Speaker
Which I, like, don't do all that much, to be honest. um i I never play a Taskmaster. a whole a whole six costs on a Taskmaster? No thanks. I'm getting that one for free, and it's going to cost a lot less. It's like I got it from Lost Your Name.
01:13:27
Speaker
You know, the card that gives you those. Anyway. so Valentina? Valentina? Thank you. I was thinking like V, V, Seinfeld. I was like, I'm sorry, I'm so dead today.
01:13:43
Speaker
Go ahead. i mentioned Taskmaster and it reminded me of a card design that popped into my head earlier in the recording, actually. And I didn't feel like mentioning it then. We were talking about Dracula and stuff. And I was like, I'll just keep this to myself and maybe I'll think about it for later. And I thought about it and I don't know. I think it would be kind of fun.
01:14:02
Speaker
i don't I don't know what character this would be, but, like, maybe make a three zeroro And it's sort of like Dracula, except it's replace instead of add, you know? Because I was just thinking about, like, earlier Taskmaster versus Dracula and how they, ah you know, they they ah they're similar cards.
01:14:22
Speaker
But Dracula has that big difference where you bring him back with Khonshu, he gets to keep those 12, plus, like, whatever, you know, the the stuff. don't know. It's just like... so you want to make a Leska Drax? Yeah, a little shitty Dracula.
01:14:36
Speaker
But then you get two Draculas. Yeah, but then you do get two Draculas. That is not two Draculas. That is a Dracula and a quarter at best. Oh, I think you play them both. I'd play them both. No, no.
01:14:48
Speaker
The benefit of double tracks is like too awesome. so How much do they stack, right? And now you've got to worry that you've got to play this one after this one so it gets the benefit. It's like, I don't know. I disagree. liked Dracula when he was replaced before, didn't you?
01:15:04
Speaker
It's new that he's addition. is it I mean, if that's new, it's like just a long, long time. That's like a year old at least. That's super old. A year This game is like, it's not even, it's barely toddling. Do you two want to bet on when it happened?
01:15:23
Speaker
When did it happen? At least a year. More than a year. Must be. January 9th. This year? well Oh, wait, it is more than a year.
01:15:37
Speaker
yeah
01:15:41
Speaker
January 9th, 2024. all right, i can be I can be forgiven for forgetting that he used to work that way. All right. I was, like, feeling a little bad, but no. All right. So, yeah, why not have both? 4-0 replace, and then he turned into 4-1 gain.
01:16:01
Speaker
Because we're at the end of the year. yeah We were at the end of the year, so I was thinking, like, I don't know. I rolled over backwards. I totally get But yeah, I forgot. It used to work like that. So I just designed a card that used to be. Um...
01:16:16
Speaker
yep
01:16:20
Speaker
Any other things y'all want to say about Grand Arena? I think that um I like pre-cons. I think it's cool and interesting to let people play with new cards. Like Black Panther has superior Spider-Man in it.
01:16:34
Speaker
One of the champions is Weapon X. Right! I think that's great that they're giving people, they're showcasing a card. It's the card they're selling. It's a good move. It's marketable you know it's marketing for the card that they're selling, but it also lets players trial that card.
01:16:51
Speaker
Sure, in the best environment that card will ever have, but it's still good to let people try it. you know People know that the cards that are making good are one time. They can still like get to toy around with it. Even if they don't get it. that's that's That's great. I love it. Do you know another great way to try before you buy with card games like this?
01:17:14
Speaker
la la la la la la la la limited play, baby. Oh my gosh. There are so many Hearthstone cards that I never played in Constructed, but I would give them a chance in Arena. And ah then sometimes I would play them in Constructed if I learned that I liked them. But yeah,
Card Strategies and Adjustments
01:17:30
Speaker
you know, you draft a card that you you you don't like own or whatever. like you know in in these situations, sometimes you're dealing in with loners, although like in paper card games very often if you're doing a draft you you paid the price of entry so that you could keep the product and all that but like with these digital card games it's much more often the case that like you're getting temporary like it's it's just for the the event you know and uh so yeah I think if they had a draft mode, if if i if I thought they were capable of adding a draft mode at this point, i I no longer believe they are. But, you know, if I thought they could technically achieve it, that would be a great way to get people trying before they buy and, you know, maybe getting a taste of some cards that they didn't know they would like.
01:18:13
Speaker
But yeah, it's cool that they're doing it in Grand Arena. I also like it there. And I just wish that I could build my own deck as an alternative.
01:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, I look forward to... There are a few of these champions where I'm like, I really look forward to future Grand Arenas when they cycle in and I can actually build a custom deck with them. The pixel art makes me wish that this is the quality of pixel art that all of the pixel art is. Right? Yes. It's beautiful.
01:18:43
Speaker
And the pixel art we do have is what it couldt been it's kind of of questionable origin, like some plagiarized poses and things, and it's just not good.
01:18:57
Speaker
And pixels are 16-bit on the other side. uh i played a lot of grand arena so far um i've given how much time we've had um so i just wanted to give a few quick tips iron man his skill's crazy like you get the plus one or you get plus two power for each lane you're winning and it only costs one if you have priority it's like tarax you know exactly how many you're gonna get and he has a bunch of early priority cards so I found Iron Man kicks my butt if I'm going wide. He has Hydro Bob, doesn't he? In a mode without snaps. He has Hydro Bob and and Black Cat.
01:19:34
Speaker
um Oh, in a mode without snaps, yeah. It's just to get that ah early lead for his ability. ah I suggest not going wide when you're playing against Iron Man until after his skill has already been played because it makes a big difference to reduce how much he gets from his skill.
01:19:53
Speaker
Weapon X Wolverine, this is more of a tip if you're playing as it, but it checks if if the card is less than the power of your Weapon X, it checks that for each card. So like if you destroy, um who's in the deck? If you destroy X-23 to push Weapon X to six power, it will then also destroy Sabretooth.
01:20:15
Speaker
And so I've seen people, I saw one player who was doing this very beautifully, destroying X-23 every time to stay ramped, and managed to kill death with with ah the Berserker Rage. It was very impressive. Anyway.
01:20:29
Speaker
ah What else is quirky? There's only one more that I think is weird. Rocket Raccoon's ability is kind of like Carnage. It like moves the champion and then redoes the on-reveal. He gets double if he comes from Joaquin Torres instead of moving to Joaquin Torres. And I think that's completely backwards, but something to be aware of.
01:20:48
Speaker
Watch out when he's coming from Joaquin. will double proc. Okay, that's it. Those are my hot tips from playing for like an hour.
01:21:00
Speaker
Move on to OTA. We had all big OTA this week. um Wani, you want to want to take over and lead us through this OTA? Sure.
01:21:13
Speaker
All right. First up, Human Torch. Previously, this card was a three three When this moves, double its power. It is now a 3-2 with the same text.
01:21:29
Speaker
Couldn't happened to a nicer person.
01:21:34
Speaker
I'm also happy. Everybody You know I've said, like, move is what I don't, because don't even text Shadow King an awful lot. It's like, a move deck will scare me when it hits its stuff.
01:21:46
Speaker
And ah Ben had some very, I feel like you were saying something. um Very thoughtful about doubling in power, if you want to repeat that for Yeah, all right.
01:21:59
Speaker
I've come to the conclusion, move probably should not have a doubler, like, of any kind. ah The part where you get to move the cards around, that's already, like, a really powerful thing to do. You've got, like, so much agency in, like, which lanes matter and, like, your opponent does not. So, like...
01:22:18
Speaker
Maybe we don't need to be doubling at any part of that process. Like maybe the number shouldn't be times two when you move a thing. um Maybe we should just, but I mean, we used to have this card called Vulture and he was ah elegant and beautiful and I loved him and I miss him very much.
01:22:39
Speaker
There's a one cost card that has the same name, but it's not actually ah the same thing.
01:22:47
Speaker
So, yeah, I don't know. I like that they took Human Torch down a peg, but I still don't think that he should be doing his thing at all. I agree with you. I kind of think that they should just make him Vulture.
01:22:59
Speaker
Yep. Or is it 3 plus 6? Let's make Vulture Vulture. Swap him back. um Yeah. Torch has just been ridiculous ever since he's lost the threat of Killmonger. like That was how you used to deal with Torch. That's what kept Torch in check.
01:23:14
Speaker
Yep. Right? Not... Shong and Shadow King, those things work, but you have to accurately hit the card that's moving all over the board. i just This is a big hit. I don't know if it's enough. I think he's still a very playable card. I also don't think it's enough. reference They keep giving him move plus flat stats.
01:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, it basically means two thirds power. Right. And that scales up with every double. yeah So where he used to be able to get to, I don't know, like 96. Now he's ah whatever two thirds of that is. I can do math. 64. So 64 instead of 96, like that's a very big difference. But 64 still wins lanes and he catches the same plus two from Sparky and all that stuff. Like it's just it's not fixing the problem.
01:24:03
Speaker
yeah okay can i Can I take the next one? Because it's one I feel strongly about. okay good Because it's War Machine who is going from... Because I have played a decent a bit of War Machine. it kind of appears with the Nightmare kind of like funsies. style deck. ah Going from 4-6 ongoing, nothing can stop you from playing cards anywhere. the same ability, of course, but going now to a five nine
01:24:35
Speaker
This is a huge bummer for me, because I feel like we have talked about on the podcast before, but this is another example of the the Storm Legion paired combination.
01:24:49
Speaker
ah like wrecking other cards, like paying for that, whether it's Storm paying for that, Legion paying for that individually. It's like, it's just that interaction that's busted. And I think this takes away so many more interesting things you can do with War Machine because now you can't ah Like, it's like you you, if you're playing an Ebony Maw with Mermachine, you know, you're having to play that on turn six, which means you're not playing an Infanat, you know Like, it's like less fun things you can do because you have less time to benefit from Mermachine. So it's going to be more of a just a ramp, I guess, or whatever. i don't know. I guess you could still blink him out.
01:25:35
Speaker
But like... I really wish that they would tackle the actual real problem of that interaction instead of just continually making all the cards around it less interesting in any other deck.
01:25:53
Speaker
and I really agree with you. And I don't know how much this is going to help. That deck was already running Lockjaw and Jubilee to try to cheat out War Machine.
01:26:05
Speaker
i'm Not really in the business of playing cards, honestly. It makes War Machine. now Camping Fun Decks. War Machine's a ramp card. Like, you go from Luna or Electro into War Machine, and you get the same curve as before after that.
01:26:20
Speaker
um And I don't know, this might actually sort of be a buff, like in the same way that like Enchantress as a as a five with better stats. Yeah. Has some ways seen better play than a four with worse stats. But like not for the way I play. it i'm not like paired with nightmare as a backup for nightmare and stuff, you know, like. Yeah.
01:26:43
Speaker
I need the time to play out the cards. It makes him way more narrow. right like You only get turn six, and that was what was bad about him when he was previously... What was he? When he was on reveal? reveal yeah so it was a four six, and then a while later a four seven.
01:27:00
Speaker
On reveal. And... That was part of what made him so bad. is that you had a you you only had the one turn and you had to spend it on War Machine. I don't know how they could have fixed this. They sure seem to change this card a lot.
01:27:16
Speaker
yeah Maybe that means stuff before me the effect is like not healthy or good. Problematic effect. Yeah. Ultimately, the other War Machine stuff hasn't really been a problem, though. It's it's the Storm Legion interaction that is that is the problem and the reason that they have made this change.
01:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, but I like those cards. I like Storm and I like Legion for other people. I agree. I like both of those cards a lot, and I hate that this interaction. link One interaction is breaking everything. Yeah.
01:27:51
Speaker
Okay. ah Maybe we'll just do a rotation then. Morgan Le Fay. On reveal return all your discarded and destroyed cards to hand with plus three power goes from four seven to three four.
01:28:08
Speaker
I think it's a great change that's going to make her much more playable. um These combo cards that require a lot of moving pieces. They like being able to be played earlier so you can do things with all those moving pieces. However,
01:28:23
Speaker
this does ruin an interaction with air walker and one of his only ones, like it was pretty much Morgan or Mr. Negative. And that's just like gone now. And think about that.
01:28:35
Speaker
Yeah, that kind of like good for her bad for him. who i Yeah. One of them is getting up better in this. But you know, whenever a card moves from four to three,
01:28:49
Speaker
Is this going surfer? ah i think it does. um I'm making the commitment on the air right now. You heard it here first. I'm coming back next week with 200 bad guys with swords.
01:29:03
Speaker
um All right. It's going to have Morgan Le Fay in it. Morgan, Dokken. don't know. Maybe I should actually make it two weeks from now when we can have more. What's coming out two weeks? Do we get... There's some more of those discard, destroy, bridge cards coming. I think Team Clash might be starting. All right. Maybe I should wait on 200 bad guys with swords. But by the end of the month, I'll be back with the squeak wall. And it's going to be fun.
01:29:34
Speaker
Discard Destroy Surfer.
01:29:38
Speaker
I look forward to it. It's a commitment. Okay, Elsa Bloodstone is we going from 3-4.
01:29:47
Speaker
Well, okay, go for it. Finish it off. Elsa Bloodstone! The first time you've ever heard that name on this recording. Elsa Bloodstone, old, 3-4. Each card you played to fill your side of a location gains plus two power.
01:30:02
Speaker
And the big change is she's going to three five That's right, that premium 3-5 stat line that we all love to see. The Spider-Man stat line.
01:30:13
Speaker
um or Well, you know, the previous Spider-Man stat line. I call it the Spider-Man stat line because he he broke the news. He was he was debuting the 3-5 for cards with good effects. that was those like ah That's your snap history lesson from the person who forgot what Dracula used to do.
01:30:30
Speaker
ah So, yeah. The Spider-Man stat line for Elsa, I love it. i ah Elsa seems like one of those cards that's sort of hard to get in the right place.
01:30:42
Speaker
But I feel like this is probably the right place, and I'm excited to just try to play her more. I know that other people have been playing her in the meantime while she was 3-4, and that's been working for them, and I'm very happy. But I like it when cards are 3-5, personally.
01:30:58
Speaker
I only stopped playing her because Shadow King has been so prevalent in the meta. It's been really easy for them to ruin those Angela like style stacks, which I do love. But, you know, so I also love this. i was playing her at 3-4, but because I loved her, and because it's a card I really enjoy. um and I think the 3-5 is a good move.
01:31:20
Speaker
over obviously over giving her back the plus three that made her boosted. Yeah, we can't do that. i I love this card. She's super fun. I'm glad to see her. Obviously, it helps a lot with making her more playable.
01:31:33
Speaker
Kind of wish she was a two-cost, but three-five seems like a good second option. they i have one question. This is for my co-hosts.
01:31:45
Speaker
I'm pretty sure I know the answer. She doesn't work with Iron Fist right now, right? She doesn't work with, like, Spider-Man. Cards that start in her lane that don't end in her lane don't get the plus two, do they? They used to? he gives it She gives it before they reveal.
01:32:03
Speaker
Okay. I feel like that changed at some point, and they did initially. It changed, then it changed back. It changed back? Okay, so I like this card. Again, fully, all the way. Okay. Okay. ah She used to be end of turn and then she was a Valkyrie card. I'm so glad I asked because I was like, I'm sure I know the answer and that Iron Fist and Spider-Man don't play. But um wow, that's great. That's very cool. I love it. When did that change? Was that one year, two years? Oh, I think it was.
01:32:33
Speaker
yeah February of 24 is my guess. We're doing a lot of live fact checking on this. um She because she was very briefly a Valkyrie card and that was a really fun deck, but nobody played her like that.
01:32:47
Speaker
The one nice thing about it being after the card was played is you could like play brood to fill the lane and then she would buff brood. um Like it didn't have to be in slot four, but now it has to be in slot four.
01:33:00
Speaker
ah to du March of 24. Was I off by one month? Wow, that was shockingly close. but i'm I'm impressed. I'm always impressed with you, too.
01:33:13
Speaker
ah ah That was just ah it was a time in my memory because January of 24 is the month that I took ranked mode seriously. I cracked top 1000. And i started that the previous month by having a lot of fun with an Elsa Valkyrie deck.
01:33:30
Speaker
OK. Swordmaster. Yeah, Swordmaster is the same text of discarding an odd-costed card from your hand on reveal, um just gaining a power going from 3.6 to 3.7. Swordmaster a card I play regularly because I just like playing off-color discard whoos is what I enjoy. so um And it's like I like to play a lot of Moon Knight kind of stuff as well. And I agree. I mean, I think i i they had nerfed him, right? Didn't he used to be 3-7? Yep, absolutely. He has been 3-7. That's one of the numbers. Right, and they nerfed him, and I'm glad he's back because I still played him, but, you know, it hurt. I did miss and the one point of power, so it's good for me. i'm excited about this change because i he was he was in the previous 100 bad guys, and he will be in the 200 bad guys
01:34:26
Speaker
I mean, he's the titular swords. Yeah. Well, I mean, also Dokken. They both had swords involved because the Muramasa shard. Yeah. Shards of a sword. Helicarrier goes 610 to 612. Seems... no Could not give less of a shit.
01:34:45
Speaker
It's great because i as someone who frequently gets randomized Helicarrier, like the plus two for a six cost makes it way more equivalent. And it's in the spirit of Helicarrier, which is a randomizer kind of card. So the idea that it's now better when you get it randomly from like, you know, Valentina or whoever, like...
01:35:07
Speaker
ah it's nice that you're not because like that's how I'm usually getting helicarries anymore because haven't played actual helicarrier deck in a while used to back in the day do you think this is gonna this is a big change for if they ever make discard null yeah I guess mad thinker was the last time people were probably pulling out this card you think
01:35:33
Speaker
Yeah, and that was like two people experimentally. but and I can't even remember the last time this card was relevant. I had fun with how it came back in the day.
01:35:44
Speaker
it was memes! And now it feels like it's hard to even make it memes, but I'm like, but I haven't tried. Maybe, maybe, maybe there could be memes. But also, do you think they are ever going to make a discard null? I was just thinking about it. I was like, what what does this change for? And I'm like, well, a discard null would count two more power. if If we were playing Helicarrier again for some reason, don't think they're ever going to do discard null?
01:36:06
Speaker
It's too free. even if it costs seven. Yeah, it's too... seven zero. way Way too much power that you don't have to pay for. I think you're right, because there are so many ways to bring it back if it's in a discard deck anyway. It would just be like, yeah, I don't know.
01:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, they couldn't do that. I don't think. but we Oh, but is it my turn to say like a card to speak it into the world? All right. Dormumu. That's what Ironheart calls it in the Ironheart show.
01:36:37
Speaker
Old. Game start. Begin a summoning ritual. Add step one to the hand. And guess what? Big change. Now it's a 7-13.
01:36:47
Speaker
ah You know, I said about Helicarrier that i I guess I care marginally more about this than the Helicarrier change, but this is still, I don't know. are Are we running out to play Dormammu now?
01:37:03
Speaker
I've seen a decent amount of it. I've seen a lot of it. Is this making the difference? I totally forgot. Dormammu is the one weapon X deck that i enjoyed playing and thought was actually pretty strong. Oh, yeah. um It yeah absolutely helps. What did he start as? Like, 7-Eleven? And they keep creeping him up? guess so. and it Something is wrong if you're playing Dormammu. Definitely wrong with like the power fantasy or like the ah the theme of the deck if you're going through all these rituals and Dormammu doesn't win his lane. so Yeah.
01:37:37
Speaker
Like, they've got a... Do you think maybe the rituals are what they should change? Well, they did once. The last ritual went from a three cost to a two cost, and I think that made a huge difference.
01:37:48
Speaker
But, like, do you think they need to do that again? Something with the rituals? But I also, like... The making Dormammu big being the answer I like specifically, right? that Because that's like, like Lauren was saying, it fulfills the fantasy of the card and it makes it more manageable as an opponent. You know what I mean? Like...
01:38:08
Speaker
That's because what annoys me is I know when I see Dormammu at some point going to yoink some power from my cards. Do you think they could take him a little further though? Like 715? Oh, is that the argument? To make feel like it matters. I'm just saying like this one point of power on like a fairly complicated card that is usually dealing with more large. I don't know. I would just. But the problem I like the incremental. It doesn't feel very impactful.
01:38:34
Speaker
But what if they get it too big and then suddenly it's very good and everyone's playing it until the next OTA? That would be annoying. I would be okay with that. Dormammu is kind of like a ah significant character and a serious other dimensional threat. you know know it could It could be ah a meta player for a minute.
01:38:57
Speaker
I don't know. yeah It's possible that they could handle getting bigger. And if this isn't good enough, they're going to keep creeping it up. and But he's had other buffs too. Like Moira X was kind of a Dormammu buff because then you can have two skill chains going. And I've seen people doing that. I think that's maybe the most significant Dormammu buff. Kind of. yeah i've seen that making a difference. That's true. That's true.
01:39:21
Speaker
Maybe if they like swapped the ritual steps or something. like I think it hurts a bit that the first ritual is the one you have to destroy for. Because it's hard to destroy something big early. it is.
01:39:33
Speaker
i don't know Okay, um I think we should move on. And even though it's me, i actually think Ben should take it because I have i haven't played any Spider-Man Noir. I don't have the card, and you have played a lot of it.
01:39:45
Speaker
So I'm most interested in your opinion on this change. Well, my opinion is not very high of this change. But um Spider-Man Noir previously was a 4-6 with on reveal. If your other cards in play cost exactly 8 total, add the top card of your deck here. Set its power to 8. And the new text and body, it's a 4-4 now. And on reveal, set the top card of your deck's power to 8. If your other cards in play cost exactly 8 total, add it here.
01:40:12
Speaker
So, the floor is much higher, and the ceiling is slightly lower. And my big take here is that this buff...
01:40:28
Speaker
I think they really meant to like give this buff to Zombie Galacti or something. like I think there in their in their justification, it's gotten i had it.
01:40:40
Speaker
All right. So they're they're talking about how they've ah they've missed on their on their quest cards lately several times. And I don't think they actually missed on this one. I think they're just feeling insecure because they shat the bed so hard with Zombie Galacti. That's what I think.
01:40:55
Speaker
um and And other cards ah like that. I think that Spider-Man Noir was perfectly just fine as he was.
01:41:07
Speaker
I think that now he's too versatile, ah does too much for anybody without asking them to do anything. and ah I don't know. It's still very powerful if you if you line up the Jubilee thing because ah drawing a card right onto the field is... That's really good. That gets you deeper into your deck and stuff. it's it's still worth chasing yeah it's It's still worth chasing the good version of the effect.
01:41:36
Speaker
But like now they're like discouraging you from caring as much about that. And I think that that was like the whole fun of the card was caring about it and setting it up and... you know You didn't have to. it It wasn't that hard, folks. It really was not that hard to count to eight and play the card.
01:41:54
Speaker
I don't know. i that's That's my opinion. But i'm I guess I'm glad that more people will be experimenting with I kind of suspect there's a chance it gets changed back at some point.
01:42:05
Speaker
I don't know. I really don't think that this buff was about Spider-Man Noir as much as it was about other cards.
01:42:14
Speaker
It was a very fast buff, right? And they tend to be slower with these things and wait for the stats and all that. But that could speak to how poor his stats were.
01:42:25
Speaker
But his stats weren't that poor on untapped and stuff. Maybe in some part that's... But untapped is only certain... Like, it's a self-selected group of players. I know. Mostly I shit on any number that comes from there. Except when it supports my point. But...
01:42:42
Speaker
You are different than the average player and it could be that Noir just flopped hard with with the player base, and that could be on the players. But I love this change. you know When we were critiquing how War Machine was making things more narrow, like this does the opposite. This opens up more opens up more uses for him. It is still a very big difference between doing the the small proc and the big proc with him.
01:43:08
Speaker
right Being able to do the Jubilee effect is ah is a big difference. It's, like you said, still worth chasing. but you don't... have to chase it and that makes him way more playable are the only the only criticism ah criticism i have is that it might be too good of a buff but in that case i think they will just tune the power i don't think that they're going to set it back to the old text uh bummer i did think of one more thing and one thing that i actually do like about this um the card got much better to absorbing man
01:43:42
Speaker
Uh, cause now even, even if you do the full big proc on, on the first one, it's still worth getting the small proc off absorbing man. Yeah. Yeah. yeah So the the effect is repeatable now, which is cool. Cause it was a distinctly non-repeatable effect in its original form. Cause
Digital Board Games and Family Gaming
01:44:02
Speaker
once you've done the thing, you are not doing that again.
01:44:08
Speaker
Reed, do you have any thoughts? Uh, no, like I said, I don't have the... I haven't even been all that much, to be honest. So, a little late. Yeah. Okay.
01:44:23
Speaker
Well, on to our side quests. First up and only this week, Secret Homework was assigned by Rhi. Okay. Um, the Secret Homework was to play a board game...
01:44:36
Speaker
um You know, broaden it up. and Digital game board game would have been nice. I kind of let myself down on my own hopes for this because I'd hoped to schedule something for the three of us. But um I have been... ah Really working and finishing out my mermaid game and then it's occupied a lot of my time this week and i am just now thinking, I'm that is kind of talking about
01:45:07
Speaker
it Oh, more words today. Okay. Of board games, because like did I did, made ah the the procedural map of the roguelike is a hex space, but it's like kind of this mix of like almost turn-based movement with like actual, with like, um real time you know, with like real-time movement. Yeah. And, um but it was kind of inspired by, yeah, like rotating, ah board game pieces you put in that because my brain likes to like mix all kinds of things up and it's like this is one way of kind of like I don't know mixing in ah board games into into a digital space where you can do things that can't happen on a physical table because the benefits of a physical table space is like is with people and I know there's there's a lot of my friends who do
01:46:06
Speaker
like some board gaming solo. And it's just due to, you know, especially over COVID and stuff, a lot of that kind of more alone time thing took off. But it's like, what people really love about board games is doing it with, at least for me, is doing it with people I know, and then showing them how much better I am.
01:46:27
Speaker
Board No, just kidding. It's just a really good time. I love trash talking and getting into like oh yeah space empire building and, you know, fake alliancing. mean, not fake because like I like to establish myself. It's important to me to establish myself as a trustworthy player. So for all future games, they know that if they enter an alliance to me, I would not betray it. They will have to betray me and then I will have to so The Fury of the Thousand Sucks. Okay.
01:46:54
Speaker
So, but, like, um, but, like, right, that's the joy, like, of in-game, ah board games, right? Or at least if you can do digital with, like, camera, you know, at least fake it that way. it's not quite as good as in-person. The best of all is board game retreat, of course. Sorry, I'm eight weeks out. We're thinking about doing hoodies this time instead of t-shirts. I'm hoping we do, because, like, I wear hoodies lot more, to be honest. So, like,
01:47:20
Speaker
um Anyway, so I'm getting hype. Okay. But, ah like, the... lost my train of thought because I got too excited.
01:47:30
Speaker
It's a good problem. Yeah. Okay. um So, board games, I'm excited. The board game I played this week just because I actually happened to play it and not because...
01:47:48
Speaker
It was with my friends. um And it was Kanban. It's a car factory game. It's not my favorite in theme, but it does rise above the one where we're building efficient water dams downstream of each other called Barrage, which has an epic steampunk looking... It looks like you're getting into some kind of steampunk siege like kind of game. And then you open it up and it's like, here's some wooden blocks.
01:48:21
Speaker
on a very like graphy looking, bland looking board and you're building for electricity. and Like i why? are like, how is this what create the creative people making board games are like, you know what I want for a theme?
01:48:40
Speaker
That is what they want. It's like the Lawrence of the world being like, hmm, what if it was about building efficient spreadsheets? And you're like one of us finds this guy. Who's the from ah Brooklyn Nine-Nine? There's always the ones that are like, I'm into organizing. and you're like, okay. you know It's a necessary part of life, but I don't know about fun. Anyway, Kanban is car factories. And the problem with it is we pulled it out...
01:49:09
Speaker
Rare enough. And the problem when you've played... Yeah, Santiago, thank you. um When you've played enough board games, like, we're really good at even, like, you know, if you're out there and you play a ton of board games, you can see a big daunting thing that's full of a million icons, and you're like, no problem. know what I mean? One game I'll figure it out because you just know how these games work. And, like, there's going to be, ah like like, a five-piece legend to interpreting this icon map, and then you're fine as long as it's not, like, on the opposite end of a table you can't see because you're too short.
01:49:41
Speaker
So, um like, ah but, like, sometimes when there these really big, complicated games, it takes you the whole game to, like, kind of learn it. And you're like, okay, now I can do strategy. And Kanban was one of those games for me where it's like, this was finally the first time after it we all said, okay, let's play it again quickly.
01:50:02
Speaker
Before we all have to relearn it so we can like strategize harder at being the most efficient makers of upgraded cars in all of Japan.
01:50:18
Speaker
So, um like, okay, and then back to what I was saying before, the benefit of digital card games is doing stuff that just can't be done right physically on a table. I like my physical table stuff to have majestic visual candy for my eyeballs. And like digital should do that as well in different ways and also do mathy things.
01:50:49
Speaker
And i've so I've played what I've been playing a lot of actually with with when I have played with friends. I think I haven't played for a while. But um is ah digitized, like, like just versions of existing board games. And some of them that works because they were too much as a board game, to be honest, like through the ages.
01:51:09
Speaker
um but like some ways it's holding it back. It's like when we're like when it's like when we took films and we're like, let's just like film plays, you know, and it's like, hey, guys, did you know we could like turn like the camera could pan and we could like put it in a different like. Like, it didn't just have to be, like, you know, moving. You're limiting yourselves with the restrictions of an old format that and the when that's not the format now.
01:51:36
Speaker
We're seeing the new – I feel like we're still in the beginning rise of this because, like, like the phone is the perfect format for an async – digital board game, you know, for friends to play. It's the perfect time for it right now, you know, because of how everything is.
01:51:56
Speaker
And um right now we're just seeing like, you know, the direct translations of existing media, but we're going to see more people harness that. kid It's like, like among us, right? And, but that's real time. The whole idea is like just taking a simple concept,
01:52:15
Speaker
And being like, but what can, what little twist can we add that we can do? Because it's a digital part. I'm excited. I'm excited for this future. i would like to play these games with all of you, my friends.
01:52:26
Speaker
That said, Lauren, please tell us about a board game. Yeah, I'd love to. um i have a lot of board game experience and a lot of and digital video game experience and like a decent amount of hybrid. um And definitely the like...
01:52:45
Speaker
Board games, in air quotes, that are designed for digital first, I think those are stronger because they can take advantage of the medium. um I can't pull any names off the top of my head right now, but I feel like when I used to frequent Board Game Geek, it's been years, but when I used to, it seems like there were some digital implementations that were widely regarded as being like an upgrade really adding something to the game.
01:53:14
Speaker
There's been all sorts of different ones, like Seven Wonders. We still use a lot and that's just a companion app, but like it included digital exclusive promos that you could use as your your wonder. um Or like scoring systems or whatever. Anyway, I'm going on. I didn't know about that. Carcassonne is one that I really loved, i but I wanted to try a new one. um I think one of the advantages of... I've re-talked a lot about like what the benefits of digitization are. I think some of it is just like games that take a lot of setup. or
01:53:49
Speaker
Or if the solitaire, like the AI of the game, either doesn't exist or is complicated to run. right like A lot of modern board games, like we were saying, are getting solitaire modes. That's a popular thing. But sometimes the solitaire is going through a deck of cards and like randomly deciding what the AI does. And it's's it's strange.
01:54:08
Speaker
Also, Lauren, just thinking, because it's even easier in board games when with them trying to fake an actual DM or something, but it's like a lot of games, there's the one versus the many type of game, you know, like the Scotland Yard, you're hunting down. And a lot of times people don't want to be like That, like, the opponent, they want to be part of team, right? Because the opponent's either harder to play, has different roles, or they like just playing with everyone. At least for me, usually, I prefer to be, know, because, like, I'm definitely one of the scrappy I like your co-op. So, yeah, exactly. And this is a place where, like, easily, you know, could program
01:54:51
Speaker
Like, simple, you know, you could that could be handled, right, digitally. we You wouldn't need someone to step into the role of antagonist. um But I just, there's so there's so many times we can't get together with our friends at the exact same time in async. I just would really love that option to be able to do more. Yeah.
01:55:13
Speaker
um So a big fan of like digital player aids. Sometimes those are helpful. One of my favorite examples of kind of mixing a board game with digital is what is it? Escape Curse of the Ancient Temple. You get 10 minutes to play and it's real time dice rolling.
01:55:32
Speaker
You're trying to collect all the stuff from the like Indiana Jones style temple and then escape with your lives. um And there's a soundtrack that plays with it. And like three times during the soundtrack, everybody has to return to the center room whilst you lose one of your dies. it's just like the real time element is really fun and it works better because there's this soundtrack that plays with it.
01:55:51
Speaker
Um, you get more tension and all that. And then of course you can go to YouTube and find like the yakety sax version of that, which is also fun. Anyway. Um, the game that I picked to this time is cartographers. It's a, it's a rolling, right? Kind of, but there's no rolling on the box itself. It says cartographers, a role player game. Um,
01:56:12
Speaker
Which I just think it's a strange choice because they're referring to the roll and write genre where you roll dice and then you draw ah railroad tracks on your board or whatever. um But anyway, you flip a card, you have a shape that you need to put on your board. You get to choose if it's like fields, water, city.
01:56:30
Speaker
forest maybe there's another one on top of that every now and then one of the cards comes up as a monster when you're playing multiplayer you get to draw the monster on somebody else's board so you're trying to put the monster shape in a place that is awkward for them that messes with their goals um And it's random every game, which four goals are you're scoring based off of. The game is divided into four time periods. And so the first one you score a and B and then B and C and then C and D and then D and A. That scoring system i actually think is really interesting because like once you're on to round three, you can totally abandon goal B. It doesn't matter anymore.
01:57:07
Speaker
But you still have to keep goal A in mind because that scores in in the in spring and in winter. um Anyway, very fun game. I play it with my siblings often. it is i felt the ah that let's play Kanban again soon before we all forget how to play it, because I've had that experience a lot lately. I used to have a weekly game night and now it's like every two or three months with my siblings. And it's very easy to forget any game that I haven't played tons of times. So I am increasingly leaning towards games that are easy to learn um because I hate having to relearn them every single time.
01:57:43
Speaker
Anyway, cartographers, it was it was cute. It was an okay implementation. It was perfectly functional, but it like, it felt old and ugly and bare bones, but it was functional. And it let me play single player with an AI that did everything for me. you know, it drew the monsters for me.
01:58:00
Speaker
um And I think it has a multiplayer option, but it does have the nice advantage of being very easy to just play on my own. And and that's you know that's hard to get if you can't get people to the table very often.
01:58:15
Speaker
So I was happy to play it. I'll probably play it a few more times when it's not homework. have you Have either of you played roll and write before? I don't think At like at board game retreats. So like not in my regular rotations, but like every time they've been in, like, oh, this is an interesting, different. What I have played a lot more of is like the idea, but placing, you know what I mean?
01:58:43
Speaker
Like a matching tile. But yeah, yeah. I was trying to think when you're doing if Cartographers is one of the ones I've played, because all of them it's like I've played like once or twice. Yeah, Cartographers is very cute and simple, like one single sheet in front of you. um the one The other one that we play that is a bit more complicated is called Dinosaur Island, Roar and Write.
01:59:06
Speaker
You're drafting with dice the things that you can draw on your board, and then thematically it's it's a Jurassic Park. You're doing a dinosaur theme park. And ah Trying to make it as exciting and profitable as possible without letting too many people get eaten by dinosaurs.
01:59:23
Speaker
It's fun if you're looking for a game like that. It's like medium-weight game. It's not super heavy, but it probably takes like an hour, whereas Cartographers takes like 10 minutes.
01:59:34
Speaker
Anyway. Ben? All right. Well, i I am hopeful that perhaps there will be a through the ages in in our near future. um dan i did not actually play any dang digital board games. I only played an in-person board game.
01:59:55
Speaker
And there is a digital version of this board game that I did not find time to try. i wouldn't have anyone to play it with. and Maybe I have. I don't know. it is it But the game i ended up playing was Talisman, a magical quest game.
02:00:13
Speaker
i was traveling for the American holiday. um And, you know, I've got got some cousins that I saw, and we've played Talisman many times over the years.
02:00:27
Speaker
I didn't realize until I was doing a little supplemental reading here that that game was first released 1983. It
02:00:38
Speaker
Older than I am, it turns out. Although I think it's gone through some revisions. I don't know what it looked like initially, but, um you know, i I think I probably started playing it around 2007-ish.
02:00:52
Speaker
I don't know. So i've I've been there with it for a minute. And... um
02:00:59
Speaker
it's kind of, <unk> it's a fun game. It's not very well balanced. I'll say that there's a lot of goofy stuff. And in fact, my cousins, their set of talisman, they have somewhat modified. There's some numbers on some cards that they have crossed out and written different ones on. And frankly, i applaud them for it. I agree with the the ones I saw. I was like, yeah, that thing should have more than one craft. that That card is not a threat if it has one craft. So, you know.
02:01:29
Speaker
I'm sorry, Lauren, I couldn't quite catch that. I think there was a ah thing. was just saying, doing your own, your homebrew balancing. That's awesome. Yeah. I, I, you know, like in theory, I'm, I'm a big, uh, trust the designers kind of person for the most part, except sometimes the designers are, um, just like way off and super wrong about stuff. So, uh, you know, nobody's, nobody's infallible. Um,
02:01:56
Speaker
Anywho, was really that was a it patches for board games. So where it's like maybe some people if they buy it and they never like look it up, but a lot of times they will release like new versions of rule books of board games to balance after some time.
02:02:14
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I think I think the base um i think we were playing like fourth edition talisman and they had further modified it. Also, it's got like a bunch of expansions and things. We played with one expansion or two, maybe.
02:02:28
Speaker
But I didn't didn't mess too much with that. Although I think one of my characters was from an expansion or actually my only character. I played the gladiator. The gladiator can make followers fight for them. So ordinarily followers are just doing... That's kind of the opposite of how a gladiator works. So, right. Yeah. Yeah, I know, right? You think Gladiator is like a solo combatant. But nope, apparently they're leading an uprising of some kind. So I had my horses standing up on their hinders, punching people with their hooves, I guess. I was trying to imagine how each of my followers was somehow getting into the brawl. But very nearly won that game of Talisman. I was on the crown of command. That's the space in the middle of the board where you get to cast your evil spell that kills everyone gradually. have 50% chance at the of every turn to...
02:03:27
Speaker
damage everyone and um wow I am so glad that I got my bad luck out of the way in this board game where I didn't care about winning or losing at all because like I rolled a truly spectacular run of ones twos and threes I must have rolled like 20 times for this like In theory, you get to the you get to this space on the board once you've cleared a million challenges and done all the things and stuff. And like it's basically game over when somebody gets to that space most of the time, like 90% of the time in Talisman. But this time, I was just whiffing so hard.
02:04:04
Speaker
Somebody... of my cousins just like walked right up behind me, passed all the same challenges and things that are supposed to be grueling and separate the the weak from the strong and such, and just like came up behind me, killed me, and ah cast the spell and killed everyone else. So, um but yeah, I'm so glad I got the really bad luck out of the way there, because I i truly did not care about...
02:04:32
Speaker
Winning or losing is just about the good company and such. But um one thing that like, I didn't play the digital version of Talisman. But one similarity that I noticed while I was playing it was that like, it kind of starts out a little bit like a Battle Royale video game that you might play nowadays, a PUBG, a Fortnite or something, where like,
02:04:56
Speaker
everybody, every character has a different spot on the board where they start out and it's just about like, well, I got to get the good gear. I got to get some good gear fast, like maybe get a good follower to get my stats to an acceptable place where I can like deal with hard things and stuff in much the same way that like you figure out where you're dropping and then you, you try to locate some kind of weapon and like maybe some healing supplies and you know, maybe some sort of, uh,
02:05:25
Speaker
uh, traversal aid or something, you know, like I, the patterns seemed familiar to me and I, I had never noticed that about the, the different games and stuff.
02:05:36
Speaker
Anywho, uh, I had a lot of fun doing that. Uh, one thing, you know, there, there were no alliances or anything, but alliances and board games are quite real. I was, i was reminded of that when Rhi was, uh, speaking of these things and I,
02:05:52
Speaker
I mean, there are actual alliance cards in a lot of games that you exchange. Sometimes there are Like, ah through the ages and stuff, there are different pacts and agreements you can... different kinds of alliances you can have. But sometimes they're quite informal. Like, I've got a group of friends that I've been playing Risk with since we were, like, in elementary school.
02:06:14
Speaker
And there's just sort of, like, ah a running... de facto alliance against me, i guess is is how you would sounds like you would say. like It's like assumed that there will be a team up on Ben at some point, unless like things have gone very strangely.
02:06:31
Speaker
feel like that happens to me, too, with my friends, to be honest. Yeah, it's just like, and I sort of thought they would grow out of it, because like this shit started when we were like eight or nine, but Nope.
02:06:45
Speaker
Nope. Some things are evergreen, I suppose. yeah That is part of the fun. And you know what? A lot of... They arrived at that policy because I tend to beat their asses. And it's all fair. You know, it's ah ah it's a sign. They clearly respect me. And that's fine.
02:07:06
Speaker
um A lot of our table talk... at our gaming is all of us trying to convince each other we're not doing that well and someone else is doing better. Oh, no, for sure. They're like... Have you seen?
02:07:23
Speaker
yeah that's that's board games. Like, don't screw me with that mechanic. I'm already not doing as well. or It just looks like I'm doing good because of this, but X is why I'm not... I usually am just like, go on, do it. I know you will anyway, because you always can't go...
02:07:43
Speaker
I just try and hit him with the guilt. How how effective is that tactic? Does anybody get persuaded? do because we know I know that I will not convince them. you know If this isn't going to be like a hidden role game, I'm not trying to convince them they're like the secret cultist or Eldritch 4 or Cylon or something. it's like If people say beat up, I'm going to beat up.
02:08:10
Speaker
So board games, they're mighty fun, but you know what else is fun? Being entertained. As, as I so often am, I was inspired by Adam star, Marvel snap lore, just doing these fantastic little comics and things.
02:08:27
Speaker
Uh, he's, he's always got new ones. Also, he's always got old ones. Sometimes, sometimes he'll hit you with the rewind and, You'll be like, yeah, that was funny the first time and it's still funny now, damn it.
02:08:39
Speaker
Our community does not deserve him. What was that? Our community doesn't deserve him, honestly. oh dear. Marvel Snap does not. I'm saying in general, Marvel Snap in general, Adam is an incredible person. And the things that he does, I wish we had more fan art in the community. And he's he's almost single-handedly holding that up.
02:09:00
Speaker
And it's great that you said that because um I'm going to it doesn't have to be ah cartoon or anything. ah It could be a cartoon, but I want us all to make.
02:09:14
Speaker
a creative thing with the intent that it should entertain. Because I like to have fun, and I know that serious art is cool, but I sometimes like things to be fun and goofy. I recall an earlier Secret Homework where there was an extra credit of writing a limerick.
02:09:34
Speaker
you can You can do a limerick as the main assignment this time if you want. You can draw a picture. You can write a short story, but you have to recite it. So it had better be entertaining. I would like to be entertained.
02:09:49
Speaker
That's that's my thought. And you know what entertains me more than the creativity of my friends? Nothing.
02:09:57
Speaker
That's what we're doing. OK, love it. Very fun. Open ended. I look forward to seeing if any of the listeners join in. If you like what you heard and haven't... can't be sad.
02:10:10
Speaker
it has to be strictly entertaining. If you like what you heard and haven't already, like and subscribe, rate and review iTunes or Spotify. Leave a comment. YouTube or Spotify.
02:10:21
Speaker
Or come hang out in the speakeasy, our little corner of Discord. It's part of the Snap Judgments League Discord because we're part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions by Joe on Mondays, often with guests, the host with the most. um If you want to figure out how to get into the speakeasy, there are instructions in the show notes or video description.
02:10:42
Speaker
But until next time, tune in next week. That wasn't a smooth transition at all. Save Snap time, Save Snap channel!
02:10:55
Speaker
I do have a post credits thing and that is an apology to you my co-hosts I forgot to switch off my VPN thing so I've been having that's why I've been having so much trouble hearing things that you folks have said because sometimes you cut out for me because my connection is shit because I was trying to watch the boot place on Netflix and so I was pretending to be in France they've also got Future Man from Hulu it's not on Hulu anymore ah and it's so fucking hard to find that show but it's on French ass Netflix so in case you've been wondering where Future Man went that's where we just watched Good Place on Amazon Prime which of course has ads unless you pay even more yep also it's on Peacock now also with ads but on French ass Netflix no ads
02:11:44
Speaker
should have done Super entertains you. kind of ties back to secret. Super entertaining all the way until it makes you cry harder than you've ever cried. was crying so much! I don't normally at TV shows. was way more than I expected.
02:12:03
Speaker
yeah ah ok ah let me ah i would i would also like to propose randomly because i'm staring at it um because i was listening to it ahead of time this is why i this is a reason a reason besides uh delicious macarons i love it um from mijomi which i'm probably mispronouncing horribly i had my to do my task pop off saying that they were going to be shipping again soon
02:12:35
Speaker
Oh, they're so good. I like every time I want to reward myself, I'm like, we deserve this. we did Okay. um But no, there's a, my, my soothing album of choice for when I just need to like, cause I've just been, I've been trying to have a big week of getting a lot done, but I've been really sick. So it's been like a real struggle of like, it's like, oh, did you do a million things? I'm like, i don't know. It was probably just less than a normal amount of things, but it was really hard. Yeah.
02:13:07
Speaker
ah There's an album out now called Zelda's Midwest Emo Mixtape. Oh, my gosh. And it's produced in part by Game Chops. And I thought of this because spy it was my Spotify. route I am not endorsing Spotify because it turns out they're super evil and bad to artists. This is a division of Spotify. And I'm sorry that I have the Good Place problem.
02:13:32
Speaker
I have a good place problem of like, it's too hard for me right now to be personally responsible ethically for every single item I consume on a daily basis. It's just like too much. So right now I'm still sadly on the Spotify. But if you also are streaming on any service that has Game Chops, of which I found out I'm a point three global listener of Game Chops. Another little special video, which was the only cool part because it was the human. don't know that is, good you.
02:14:01
Speaker
Okay, there's... Spotify wrapped it up because it's mostly AI slop that they... But, like, ah but the the one cool human connection feature is, like, sometimes if you're one of the top percent, like, that performer... And Game Chops is, like... They do a lot of like video game remix. They partner with people to help ah release albums. And since I listen to lot of video game remix music, that's why i'm one of their top listeners.
02:14:27
Speaker
Game Chops was number one on my YouTube. don't know what they call their rap, but whatever YouTube music version is. This is the first time hearing that. Yeah, and they did... They did a little video that was like, hey, maybe you're listening to Coffee Date.
02:14:40
Speaker
like, ah, Leonardo, yeah, I do listen to Coffee Date. And, you know, they just went It was like a real person, you know, like connecting with you, the viewer, in the way I like, where it's like...
02:14:53
Speaker
Non-threatening. Not in scary concert. I'm not a concert going. Yeah, someone actually just cameraed in front, and they were in a little light costume, and it was Game Chops.
02:15:04
Speaker
Mr. Game Chops. No, I don't know who it was, because Game Chops obviously just made. Derek Game Chops. Yeah. But like that was cool and that was like the one human moment that they should lean into instead of I think the other stuff.
02:15:22
Speaker
But yeah, from the point three, listen game check, you need a little soothing album in your life, please go check out Zelda's Midwest Emo Mixtape.
02:15:36
Speaker
Sounds a winner. Hell yeah.