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24: Unveil the Butter!!
209 Plays20 days ago
🎵 Back in app, yeah we're back in app (stores 🏪) 🎵
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Week in Snap: 🪒 Playing it Safe to 4k 🏆
- Ares 404: card not found 🦖
- ☀️🐍 Sons of the Serpent season (p)re-viewed
- BREAKING (at time of recording 🤭): Live OTA reactions
- Secret Homework: Character Mastery wish list 🧞
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:
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
Timestamps:
0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
0:22:05 New Card: Ares
0:26:39 Next Week's Spotlight: Joaquin Torres, Makkari, Namora
0:30:05 February Card Ratings
0:30:31 Sam Wilson, Captain America
0:40:00 Joaquin Torres, Falcon
0:47:12 Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross
0:53:51 Redwing
0:59:37 Diamondback
1:04:15 OTA Live Reactions!?
1:15:28 Secret Homework: Character Mastery Rewards
1:21:48 Next Week's Secret Homework
1:24:46 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Kickoff
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 24 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. I am your host, one third of your hosts anyway, ah Lauren Whatevs. And we're going to talk about Snap. ah It's an even numbered episode, so we're going to throw it to Ben
Ben's Weekend and Deck Strategies
00:00:18
Speaker
first. Ben, how was your weekend Snap? And keep it snappy.
00:00:23
Speaker
All right, well, endeavoring to keep it snappy, as I always do. I don't know what you've heard about me. Anyway, it's been an all right weekend, Snap. but um I played a fair amount. This was actually, I think, the first week since the launch of Alliances, where I, for a period of several days, forgot to pick up bounties. I was worried.
00:00:43
Speaker
Traveling, doing stuff. I got there in the end. I got there in the end. Speaking of traveling, I yeah went and saw a musical. It was Hadestown. Saw it in Iowa City. It was a great time.
00:00:55
Speaker
Got to see my family. Here's some here's some fine tunes. ah this It was a good time. not not Not my favorite musical of all time, but not my least favorite musical of all time. Pretty pretty good. um Other than that, snapping, though. Snapping, though. Did I snap some ah while I was you know traveling and doing other things? I always do, yes, of course. So I did get some games in. What was I playing?
00:01:20
Speaker
I was playing Discard, I was playing Surfer, I was playing a very cool Heimdall deck ah that I think I will tell you about because I think I've spoken at greater length about the other decks that I played this week.
00:01:35
Speaker
But this, ah oh, whoops, I almost saw the, oh no, they're trying to throw the OTA in my face. They're trying to throw the OTA in my face. We're trying to do live reactions this time, so I am gonna resist this information. um But I'll just tell you from memory, the deck has Iron Fist, Ghost Spider, Niko Minoru, Dagger, Craven. ah Okay, now i can now i've got the now I can see the list, okay.
00:02:03
Speaker
um Sorry, this is not great radio. But yes, Ghost Spider, Iron Fist, Niko Minoru, Dagger, Hawkeye. That's Kate Bishop, Hawkeye, by the way. Craven, Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Werewolf by Night, Vulture, Heimdall, and Magneto. It's Wolf Spider, 25A. Wolf Spider is a deck that I was playing back in 2023, and it was winning a lot. it's ah Yeah, a piece of history from from my past that no one cares about. But yes, Werewolf and Heimdall. I was thinking about their gaming system.
Token Tuesday and Pantheon Album Discussion
00:02:35
Speaker
25 because it's the year.
00:02:37
Speaker
Uh-huh. Also, Wave Flourish 25B is pretty cool. Turns out that one doesn't have Galacta in it. It does have Absorbing Man. It's still got Hope. Okay. Just in case you were wondering what I was going to do with Wave Flourish 25A. Also, I have experimented with running Mobius in that deck as Tech in the ah Rocket and Groot slot. And I give it a big old shrug. I think I don't like Mobius in Surfer. I think you don't want to be playing him on turn three. I think you've got better things to do. Okay.
00:03:06
Speaker
So I know this is what everyone was really worried about. So it's time for everybody to breathe a big sigh of relief because I have successfully defeated Prometheus with 32 Fear in Hades 2. After experimenting with many combinations of vows in Arcana, I settled on a kit tailored to the specific challenges of the surface route. I used Xynth, the black coat, with the aspect of Selene. Selene is much better in Hades 2 than in Marvel Snap. I said it.
00:03:33
Speaker
um Anyway, it was important for me to accomplish this before Patch 7 hitstyle was changing the game and probably sanding down the difficulty of certain enemies native to Mount Olympus. But back to Snap. Token Tuesday. It was a bad one. I hope you didn't buy it. Get the next one. It's probably a good one. And also there was this Pantheon album that just came out featuring a bundle exclusive Heimdall variant. But don't worry if you missed it, the Collector's Vault is there to help you finish this exciting new shopping list. Much as I predicted on this very podcast, You sure did. And yeah, that's what the collector's vault is for. It's so they can assign you bundle variants. What a raging disappointment. Very cool. Can we just power on the topic? The vault, as far as I know, the only kind of repetition protection you have is that it won't repeat the same variants two months in a row, which means, in theory, you could see a variant one month and then see it again two months later.
00:04:33
Speaker
um It just makes it like, if you're missing, you know, hundreds of bundle variants, which there are hundreds. Yeah, I'm missing most of them. It's like, even over a year, it might be like a 20% chance you're going to see that Heimdall once. It's just... Oh man, I was going to say, I don't even care. But then I remembered like, Anna Mae, Angela and Sarah exist.
00:05:01
Speaker
I don't know, maybe I would. has one There's one that I want. I want the Fiona... shit I don't know how to say her her name. yeah I also don't know how to say her name, but I can
Ree's New Phone and App Store Concerns
00:05:14
Speaker
spell it. I think you're talking about...
00:05:16
Speaker
H-S-I-E-H. Yes, and I'm sorry, I don't know how to pronounce that. um But that bast is beautiful. It's like the Constellation Realistic Panda one. Beautiful. I missed that bundle even though it was affordable. And I would really like that bast. That is the only thing that's in the vault that I will spend gold on. It makes me so mad. but the collectors vault that they make you like go through and click like, Oh, it's so exciting. This is the thing I'm getting. This is like an opportunity. If I'm going to the store, I don't want to be like, Oh, unveil like the butter.
00:05:56
Speaker
No, it's just like, you want me to spend money, don't act like it's a showcase, like on Wheel of Fortune or whatever, you know what I mean? It's like, not don't do that. It just pisses me off. It's like, exciting animations in video games should be for exciting things. Yeah, I've i've only opened the collector's vault one time. ah It was actually to to show a family member, be like, you believe this shit.
00:06:25
Speaker
But yeah, I was just like giving him a quick tour of the whole shop screen and its many features. And I was like, yeah, this this is this is the world I've immersed myself in, y'all. Just like mostly I don't care. Albums aren't for me, they're for whales. Absolutely, yeah. No, I do care about some of the albums. I've been waiting for some things to show up in my shop. Yeah, there's like two albums I've decided to chase. There's one emote I want, one card back I want.
00:06:52
Speaker
and And it takes forever for a single variant I want to show up. So it's like, I'm just actively disincentivized or being discouraged from op from starting any other album because the two I'm already in the middle of is are taking forever.
00:07:09
Speaker
That's exactly how I feel. I'm like, I have two albums I'm going for. One is for my, my Noodle Silk, which we know is Black Noodles, but we'll forever remain Noodle Silk. And, um, the, the re-end for, for like Chibi, um, Iron Land.
00:07:25
Speaker
I have those too. Oh, and Flaviano because Negasonic Teenage Warriors. Yeah, I know. I'm on three albums. It's too many. All right, second dinner. Fix it. Let me finish now. I'm very excited to get one more Jim Lee X-Men so that I can collect 2,000 collector's tokens. Yeah, that's a good trade. I would do too. That's like a token Tuesday. Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:46
Speaker
But i so I still don't buy, because like I'm going to get one of these 700 gold variants as a random. So i'm I'm not buying them out of the shop. I'm not um a goofy like that. But I have bought a couple of variants out of the shop to get those resource rewards ah from the album. So like it's not like I've never made use of the feature. But i I understand that it's not for me, and so it doesn't have to please me. Totally. And that's good, because it wouldn't. Cool. That was my weekend
Ree's PvP Mode Experience in Final Fantasy XIV
00:08:12
Speaker
snap. Yeah, yeah it was a good time.
00:08:15
Speaker
Okay, great. The speaker doing okay. That's, that that you know, there was more yo-yoing. The high point was 7,856 or something. I took a quick screenshot and then I tanked it. So, ah got to crawl back up there. But yeah, I think I'll probably make hashtag pod goals. Okay, and our third co-host, Ree, how is your weekend snap and keep it snappy?
00:08:40
Speaker
Okay, so interesting timing on this week. um Because of the greed of capitalism, I was forced to get a new phone against my will. And as we all know, the game hasn't been in the App Store.
00:08:57
Speaker
um It just came back like the other day so I didn't have snap and I do like I have a computer um and ah All of that so it wasn't I didn't like just not play snap all week, but there was a lot less snap um Then you know then normally I would get and it really made me think like um This is why One of the reasons for the big compensation packages, for people who just had it on their phone and ah are like super active players, it kind of probably wasn't that noticeable, um except for when you know you briefly had to like VPN and and and stuff like that, the disruption. But I was thinking, I'm like, okay, I got this new phone. I couldn't get Snap on if I wasn't like You know, had a lot of Snap friends, was like really into Snap, did a podcast, maybe I just wouldn't have played Snap until it came back into the store. And if I also wasn't tied in, what if after that week I just kind of forgot and noticed I was, especially as a more casual player, right? Like you don't have to have it totally broken. way You know what I mean? Yeah. It could absolutely be your off-ramp.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, right. And not even like, and like, I'm not even someone who's like angry at the game. Some people are. And it's like, it would have been so easy for me. um Like if I wasn't like tied in with a bunch of other people to play Snap.
00:10:26
Speaker
to just kind of like fade out or like, you know, easily just be like, Oh, I didn't realize that came back in, but I know I'm like two months out, I'm going to be like missing so many cards. It's like, it's just almost a guaranteed a lot of drop in players like being out of the app store like that is a big deal.
00:10:44
Speaker
So, I'm not surprised they were super generous in the compensation, which was, I mean, everyone probably was listening to audit, but it was like two spotlight keys, six premium variants, you know, like what, like how many credits? Well, it depends on if you got the US package or not. Oh, yeah, that's true. They were both big.
00:11:07
Speaker
um But yeah, you either got six series three cards or two keys, depending on your CL, and that's regardless of your region. Yeah, so that was a weird week. So I thought I would redeem the coupon I gave myself, having to smile and not, we all talked about rivals, which I get like Marvel rivals.
00:11:34
Speaker
fashionable right now or whatever. And I would my brief detour into my video game revelation this week, which is um in the PvP um that I play, which is front lines, and Final Fantasy XIV. Usually I play a summoner.
00:11:54
Speaker
because Because if you're familiar with Final Fantasy games, you know they deal the most damage. And some of the coolest things, right? Well, you know, okay. What I know about summoners is that you should stay away from the summoner!
00:12:12
Speaker
There's this old lady in Final Fantasy 10 who says it to you as many times as you want to talk to her. OK, that's because there's great prejudice against the art of summoning, but we won't get into that anyway. So because normally when I play PvP,
Critique on Fantasy Media's Realism
00:12:27
Speaker
yes, I'm very squishy and I mean die very quickly. But but I love looking over and like being like, oh, you're cute. Now, I would never disrespect a quality sword, but it's like Oh, a few little muscles and your little helmet over there. You know, behold my space dragon. And that, because the summoner lemon break summons Bahamut, this giant dragon, it just rains fire over everyone.
00:12:52
Speaker
Ah, like it's it's pretty awesome. and um okay But too many matches in a row, i there was like a shortage of tanks. The problem about being a you know a little a little waif that summons fire from the heavens is that you will die to every sling and arrow and small pebble that crosses your path. You need the meat shields.
00:13:17
Speaker
Um, so, you know, so I answered the call and I became a paladin. And I found my new calling in PVP because like the paladin's limit break, okay, which doesn't, you know, like on paper, it sounds less cool than summoning a space dragon to rain fire and all of your enemies for like,
00:13:38
Speaker
You know, however many seconds the palanins ability is invulnerability for 10 seconds. It's like if super saiyan mode, 25 seconds to activate instead of five episodes. And okay, so what this means is like, okay, front lanes is three teams of 24 players.
00:13:59
Speaker
three armies crushing for like various kind of captured flag goals depending on the map or whatever. And so when you're a paladin and you have your limit break up, you can stand like at the front of, uh, your army facing, facing nothing, nothing between so and like an opposing army filling your screen. And you're just like, you know, activate, let's fucking go and you try and you get to live out every fantasy battle, like helm, see every movie you've ever loved. And in, right? And you don't die instantly. Like normally, like the real story would be that you instantly,
00:14:43
Speaker
pairs with this you just do it and it's just ah it's just like it's so it's so good it's like like getting to charge into an into an enemy army like fantasy movie style is like peak nerd rush you know like the most rush you can get while sitting in your chair and actually like not doing anything anyway so um I love that video and tanks are very important in any and any multiplayer game. yeah
00:15:17
Speaker
yes so number palad and Is this with your same character? Your little wispy wave character? but of Obviously not a little beefy. but Okay, yeah, that's the importance of wardrobe. Yes, because in every routine you can be, you're actually in fact canonically the most powerful ah you know, of all, of all the people in the entire world. And so like, like, it's funny, because it's written into the lore, why you can just pick up jobs, like nothing, you know, you just met her at everything. It's so, it's so good. Okay, anyway, yes, so it is my wispy something, but but then she's like carrying a book, you know, is her weapon. And she's in like, you know, like a gown and or whatever. And like my paladin is like,
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, two totally different modes. Yeah, right? It's all about what you're wearing. Yeah. OK. Just like in real life. Well. Yeah. ah Okay, very brief side rant is like how angry I am what's happened to fantasy because that's what I was talking about. We had Lord of the Rings. We had a Helm Steep. It's like I understand what fantasy is and I studied history. I don't want to actually watch a battle where like a bunch of poor people stab each other to death and it's horrible in the race.
Lauren's Marvel Snap Success
00:16:50
Speaker
fantasy. And it feels like all fantasy television shows and movies for like forever is like, OK, but what if everyone is the worst and the cruelest? And it's like the most horrific. And it's like, but we're the first. Anybody can die. And the only way And we'll make it even more real by making sure everything's the worst for women. And everything is just like- That's how you achieve realism. Let me have fantasy. Let me have my fantasy battles. Bring back home, Steve. Okay. Anyway, all right. Sorry, sad ran over. That was a bonus that shouldn't have happened. know so I see the appeal of ah of a righteous fantasy charge over a messy real world bloodbath. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:37
Speaker
let's Let's have that sanitized fantasy violence with like you know no pangs of guilt or anything about enjoying it. Well, you know, because it's fantasy. Let's make carnage fun again. But that's the thing. I'm not enjoying literal carnage. And they're like, OK, but what if we show literal carnage? That's better. And it's like, no. like I'm not a psychopath.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah. You know, okay. re It's not exactly, it's not exactly fantasy, but there's a there's a TV series on Amazon called The Power, where teen girls. Oh, yeah, I've seen The Power. And then John Leguizamo.
00:18:17
Speaker
I have no idea who's in it. I'm actually only i'm only a few episodes deep, but I have heard good things about it. And teen girls suddenly develop the power to shoot electricity. And that causes a balance, like a shift in the balance of power, right? Just the fact that... They're really sweet. Yeah. So anyway, your world where everything is grimmer because everything's horrible for women is like...
00:18:41
Speaker
This shows the opposite of that. um yeah Let's move more power into the you know the hands of teenage girls. um My weekend snap. i I have continued playing a deck I fell in love with at the beginning of the season. I probably talked about it here before. It's a safety blade deck. Iron Patriot, Victoria Hand, very simple. um You're rocking both Mikko and Frigga so that you can clone um Victoria Hannah, just so you know, when you get two or three Victoria Hands, that's a lot of power for not a lot of a lot of energy. And similarly, you can clone your, you know, your Iron Patriot card, um or an Anti-Venom card, you know, to like, just, you know, double up on big discounts. um I've been just casually playing it, and I hit top 4,000 in ranked. And that's...
00:19:30
Speaker
It's is by far the highest I've been since last January when I hit top 1,000. I don't know how much further I'm going to push it, um because I feel the game getting worse the closer I get to higher ranks. And I want to be able to have fun. So I don't know i don't know where that sweet spot is. um I theorize that it's at the point where your SP, this is just my dumb like random theory, that at the point your SP and your rank are equal, that's the threshold for when ranked mode starts getting worse. The singularity happens. I think it's definitely like satisfying from like a ah you know like a numerology perspective or whatever. like I'm sure it's very aesthetically pleasing for you, but I think it's nonsense. It was around 7,500 for me. um I think as the season goes on, that number gets bigger. Yeah. ah Anyway.
00:20:30
Speaker
ah it's been It's been a fun season. ah Compensation was great. um yeah I had recently bitched about um struggling to find the variants for the albums I was chasing. I did that in my intro. and Then the next day, two of them showed up in my shop. so That's my advice to everybody is to you know complain about how horrible the shop is.
Ree's Weekend Snap Experience and Ares Card
00:20:54
Speaker
Okay. I do that all the time and it doesn't work for me.
00:20:58
Speaker
It's so bad. They say that it's got like an algorithm. It's like personalized to you and it does not feel personalized at all. I see so many days where there is, you know, variants I'm not remotely interested in. I feel like I've seen them multiple times. Just show me the frickin. Yeah, anyway, it's dumb to because these albums, they're not.
00:21:20
Speaker
We shouldn't talk about them again. They're just not doing their job, right? Like the ones that I'm collecting, I want the Iron Man eye roll emote. I just feel like that'd be useful. And it's in a Scottie Young album. I don't, Scottie Young's art is fine, but I don't like the baby variants, right? The ones of his, like the rocker raccoon ones that aren't babies, I like those, but I don't like the baby variants. But I'm collecting 12 baby variants just for an emote. Like here's gold that I've been spending for any other reason. They won't even offer them to me.
00:21:48
Speaker
Don't do it, everyone muted you anyway. It's not true. People email it back all the time. Sometimes I unmute people after I did an amazing...
00:22:02
Speaker
okay That is incredible. Okay, let's get into this week's card. The last of the Dark Avenger season, Ares of 4-6 with the unreveal ability. Compare the power of the top three cards of both decks. If your total is higher, plus six power. Did you get him? What do you think? I did not get him. Kind of felt like everybody took my advice and didn't get him.
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah, I have run into some out in the wild. ah One of them did not get its plus six. ah That happens. that's ah That's not a good card when that happens. um But when it gets its plus six, it seems perfectly serviceable and fine, but non-essential. And also, like it won't help Starbrand in two months. So if you missed it,
00:22:58
Speaker
Good for you, probably. I don't know. um But if you're having fun with it, I'm happy for you. But yeah, boringest card in the history of ever. um And it isn't even going to synergize with ah cards in the same vein to come. So I don't know why they thought people would be excited about it. Yeah, not Thaddeus Ross either. Yep. OK.
00:23:24
Speaker
I haven't seen it. I literally have not. I did not get it because I'm not, you know, honestly, maybe if I were a little more enthused about like the other spotlight variants or whatever, but like.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah. I've literally not run it. I have seen a lot of mill, so like maybe some ducks were running it. They're running it? Probably was in there. Yes. But it doesn't matter. Here's the problem with the mill ducks I've been running is literally all I've been playing is this like auto-Victorian iron patriot shield.
00:23:58
Speaker
nonsense, and I have fucking wounds. You're generating cards. Oh yeah, you're so much— No, no, me! I have so much in my hand, I don't even want to fucking draw a card. I'm already at fucking seven, because I have Wiccan, so I play to—like, normally you hold a snowguard, you know, to see if you get the collector, to see if you need it, you know what I mean? You never usually play snowguard in turn one, but like, when you have a Wiccan in your deck, you do, and I'm just like, I'm card rich.
00:24:25
Speaker
Like, gosh, just try and mill me. It's been glorious. We could have fliffed like a soul. Not even counting it. I have seen a handful of Aries. I did not get him. I think he's mid. um I will say a 4-12 is a good card. When it happens, 4-12 is a lot to deal with. um You know, until you have Shang and then it's fine. Does he have a cool animation?
00:24:50
Speaker
The animation isn't very cool. It's fine. I don't know what this, I think it's great. He swears when he loses like Gladiator. That's fine. That's true, that's great, yeah. Yeah, both the decks like come up together and there's like a cloud of smoke and when it clears, it shows the numbers on top of the deck and it's like 26 to nine and then, you know, 26 is bigger and Aries reacts accordingly.
00:25:12
Speaker
um i I had previously said I thought he might be good in Mill because, you know, then he's a finisher where you have more cards in your deck than your opponent and you can beat them. But I think he's actually bad in Mill because... I agree.
00:25:28
Speaker
In the new version of Mill that's going around, you run Death and that's just better. Yeah. Oh, you're right. A 0-12 is better than a 4-12.
Discussion on Upcoming Marvel Snap Cards
00:25:37
Speaker
It sure is. 4-12 is practically fair. I mean, I guess you're not getting her down to 0 very often, but even if you get her down to 4, a reliable 4-12 is better than a 4-12 you're gambling on. Yeah, I just think he goes in Surtur.
00:25:55
Speaker
And he's a very small upgrade to that deck. And that deck is getting two other upgrades in February and March that are incompatible. So I just, it is a very skippable card. um Yep. Okay.
00:26:11
Speaker
ah It's that time. It's a it's a new season next week. And so we're just going to very briefly talk mention that this, you know, we have Sam Wilson, Captain America coming as the season pass card, and we have walking Torres coming as the um the spotlight card and we're we'll talk about them ah in a second when we talk about the ah we're going to do our our predictions for next season. ah Walking towards his spotlight friends though are Makari and Nomura. I like both of these cards a lot. Two kids I love too. They're more offbeat cards like I think if you were to
00:26:56
Speaker
to speak to... Who would you speak to? Mikari definitely is a weirdo. Although Mikari is about to get less weird because of one of these new cards. There's a very Mikari-like effect that i ah and o I wonder if that's why Mikari's in the spotlight this week.
00:27:15
Speaker
I don't know which card you're talking about, so I look forward to hearing your theory. Well, it's the first one we're going to talk about. So are are we ready to transition to the to the ratings and rankings, or do we have more to say about these cards? Do we think it's worth spending keys for Makari and Nomura? I think for Nomura. I think Makari's going to series drop. That's what I think. Do you have a series drop coming this quarter sometime?
00:27:42
Speaker
But it's like 20-ish cards, right? 19, 21, some number in that range. Is that correct? We have no idea. They just said it's going to be bigger than the last one. I thought they concerned the size of the series drop. Yeah, I missed that if they did. It would be rare if I was up on some news that more innocent, but stranger things have happened. So maybe, I don't know. I thought maybe Griffin said how many cards there were.
00:28:09
Speaker
What was that? really I thought Rhee was saying something about Makari. Oh, no. I think Nomura. I was just saying she's a build around card. But she's very fun. But like junk, if junk is ever met, it like just destroys. That's true. Really annoying and obnoxious. um Because I feel like the last time I tried to build a Nomura deck, that's what happened. but There's some really nasty things you can do with the Mora though, like beef up a Black Panther or a ah Scarlet Spider, and then yeah spread that power around. It's pretty tasty. She's real exciting. She's like a big payoff card. Yeah, she's a very good card. I like the Mora a lot. I don't build with her very much, but I respect her a great deal.
00:28:58
Speaker
a 516 if she works properly is, that's a lot. That's a big old card. If she works properly once and you're not up to some, you know. Yeah, you're not doing Wong Nanigans or or I really like doing Grandmaster with her. It spreads the power really interestingly because after she moves, she hits Grandmaster. It's fun. Well, only only if she was the only thing in the lane when you played her the first time, which is probably like kind of an ask, but I don't know.
00:29:27
Speaker
I've had fun with her, I think. As long as you're having fun, that's that's what matters. um like You can always put a bunch of goblins in the deck. yeah like do hate you You know what, Ares is really good against decks with goblins in them. So that's something to note about our new addition. Just Rex decks with goblins such as the wolf spider deck I spoke about in my weekend snap.
00:29:51
Speaker
ye Okay, buts let's ah I guess we're getting into the patch and then we'll do the OTA after that, because there's an OTA today that we're gonna live react to. um Or not the patch, the ah February Seasons cards. Okay, let's talk about our Season Pass cards, Sam Wilson, Captain America. Our ranking system is all over the place. It's kind of follow your heart. We do give things somewhere between two thumbs down and two thumbs up.
00:30:18
Speaker
ah but it's not necessarily power, it's whatever feels right to you. Am I more or less describing that right? Yeah, I went on a four point scale for all of these things. Okay, great. Sam Wilson, Captain America. Our second Sam Wilson card and our second Captain America card at the same time. ah a Two, three. Game start, add Cap's shield to a random location.
00:30:49
Speaker
Ongoing, you can move Cap's shield. Captain America's shield is a 1-1 with Ongoing, this can't be destroyed. Give your Cap plus 2 power when this moves to Cap's location. I throw it to to Ben first.
00:31:07
Speaker
All right, so I got some thoughts about this. First, I'll give my rating. I give Sam Wilson, Captain America, a rating of four out of four hood mounted machine guns as seen in Twisted Metal streaming now on Peacock. ah Anthony Mackie stars in that show, that's why. I see, okay.
00:31:24
Speaker
I recommend it. it's It's good fun. I would describe that show as good fun. Anyway, this is a very powerful card. Probably too powerful, but I like it anyway. Spider-Man appears to have ushered in a new Golden Age of two fours, just like he did for the three five stat line. And I got a couple of quick thoughts on that shield.
00:31:43
Speaker
Cap's shield is a Makari that you never even have to draw. This happens at the start of the game. Sometimes it lands on Sanctum Sanctorum and you just win. Okay, sure, sounds cool. A very, very fair way to start the game. um The other thought I have about the shield is, I wonder if there's gonna be a text change, because as it's worded now, Captain America's shield, it's a little messy. The current wording suggests that the effect which triggers when it moves to Cap's location is a part of its ongoing ability.
00:32:11
Speaker
which seems like an inappropriate use of the keyword as I understand it. So that's just like a little formatting problem I have with it. ah But other than that seems like a very powerful card, probably too good. As I as i said, yeah, I think it's busted. Wow.
00:32:30
Speaker
three Yeah, I agree. I think it's going to be a really good card. Honestly, my dream for it is like a thematic lore dream. iss like Could this finally be the bridge like with enough going where we could have Sam Wilson, Captain America, Captain America, Steve Rogers, and Patriot all in the deck somehow? Patriot never goes with Captain in America.
00:32:57
Speaker
You know what I mean? And I want them all. The American Dream. that's If it makes you feel better, I'm sure you can play Iron Patriot in that deck. You'll go. Yeah. It makes me sad that they like it's like Patriot and Captain America just don't make any sense together. A missed opportunity to be sure. Yeah, I don't know that this is it, but you know maybe. There's so many on goings. Maybe there's some kind of weird like Okay, I don't know. ah Yeah. Maybe you also play Joaquin Torres Falcon and you play Squirrel Girl to generate a bunch of squirrels while still leaving enough room to move the shield around. his ah i'm trying to I'm trying to work with it. But that's what I'm saying. That's what I was thinking. Because you have Khazar, so then there's another target for Captain America to buff. You know, you have enough ongoing and you have little cards and you put like Kair in there to protect protect all your little one drops. I don't know.
00:33:53
Speaker
it's It's what I want. but did you When you said you agree, are you you're giving it a four point or a two thumbs up? Yes. Okay, I'm only giving Sam one thumbs up. One thumb up. I think it is a super cool ability that the shield starts on the board. I think that's great. And there's definitely strong stuff you can do with it. It could also start in bar with no name. And then you can move it. If you get Sam. If he shows up. If you get Sam on the board by turn five. But what if you have other ways to move cards? McCarrie never moves. Think about that. No, you're right.
00:34:30
Speaker
um Yeah, and as long as you get Sam on the board by turn 5, Sam himself is a 2-5, which is like, that's good, you know? Like, you put him somewhere, that's not where Shield is, and then on on turn 6, you move the Shield to him, ta-da, you've got a, I guess a 2-6, because the Shield is also there that was free.
00:34:50
Speaker
And yet you give him a one. If you get him on yeah if you get them on curve and you move there, back, there, back, ah he's ah he's a two, what, a two and seven? ah Which is good. If you get Sam and Cap, he's actually two eight because the shield is still around. He starts as a two, four.
00:35:10
Speaker
okay i was talking about yeah his body himself and if you get sam and cap on curve then he's i guess a two twelve two fifteen like that adds up a lot just having um you know both of them are estimating the effect of just having this one one start on the board Even if you never ever, if Sam Wilson wasn't even in the picture, you know what I mean? Because look at how, as a frequent enjoyer of Marvel Boy, you know how huge that is? You have a 1-1 already on the board at the start of the game? A 1-1 that can't be destroyed? And a 1-1 that I can read? Oh, dang.
00:35:50
Speaker
okay Solely for that ability? Like Ben said, just the times it might be on a sanctum sanctorum, your ability to move it. It's just the power, like I said, as someone who has played a lot of, as someone who just enjoys copying goose a million times to lock everyone out of the board and play a bunch of, play a my little I've done a lot of this kind of stuff. And it's it's huge to just start with this card on the board for like building into some things.
00:36:22
Speaker
I don't know. But it also takes up one space. I'll tell you. It also takes up one space on the board. It is cool. It's like a one one-card combo card. like More moves for other stuff. The fact that it moves, I mean, sure, it takes up a space, but you can scoot it around. It doesn't move for free, though. You have to pay two energy. You have to take up another
In-depth Review of Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres Cards
00:36:40
Speaker
space. you have to like If you get him late, you have to take up two energy on turn five to move it. you know like I don't know. I think there's downsides there.
00:36:49
Speaker
um I think super duper cool in Spectrum. Spectrum needs cheap ongoing cards, and there are very few of those, that especially ones that you want to run. I've seen Spectrum decks that run Howard or Quinjet just because they're cheap ongoing cards, and that's like, you know, this is this is a big upgrade on that. um And and oh my god both Captain America will love that. What is your realization that you just had? It's the stupidest thing ever. I just realized I can't even say.
00:37:21
Speaker
um ah youre ah It's a ability to be destroyed and then you destroyed it and then you brought it back with Phoenix voice
00:37:34
Speaker
I know, I was just like, don't even say it out loud. You have to bounce it and then soar on it. Okay, I know I'm sorry. like guess youre gonna going the i interest um I think ah another silly idea, but I think is actually somewhat real. I think this is actually a Hercules buff.
00:37:57
Speaker
get Hercules out there with both Captain America. It's pretty sexy. um that that's That's a clip thing, Lauren. yeah It's going to be a great clip, but that's a clip thing. That's not a real thing. Hercules with no way. Okay, if you just have Captain America, Sam Wilson, and Hercules on the same location, shield, shield, shield, shield, shield.
00:38:20
Speaker
That's real. I'm not even talking about like hoping and praying that I'm going to bounce it between my two Captain America at the same time. like That's cool, too. but um But then that's only one lane where all that power lives, if that is indeed the the plan.
00:38:36
Speaker
one lane that you paid five energy for. And that's it. That's a lot. That's that's three cards. And I mean, and it's two cards, two cards. And is it five? and I mean, like it's it's Hercules. It's two captains America. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. just Just Sam Wilson and Hercules. Just Sam and Hercules, you think. I think the other Captain America can get in on that. And that's cool too. But just Sam Wilson and Hercules is a cool lane.
00:39:05
Speaker
um I don't know. I think the shield's super fun with a move package, but obviously that is not the best way to play move. i Anyway, that's I think it's a very cool card, but I think it's very niche. ah And I don't know if like the best place is Spectrum. I don't think that says a lot of good things about a card. ah That's why I only gave it one thumb. Hmm. Maybe you've tucked me around. I don't know.
00:39:35
Speaker
Okay, next up. I still think it's probably two. I don't know. We'll see. I mean, season pass cards historically are very good. um You know, especially- I want to put it with Soran because he can't be. I've bangers. Okay. No, because then you'd ruin your Sam Wilson. sand Yeah, Soran ruins Sam. I just want Soran to have more cards. ah For real. Yeah. Yeah. You know, maybe...
00:39:58
Speaker
Maybe in April, we don't know. Okay, Joaquin Torres, a 3-4, ongoing, the unreveal abilities of your one-cost cards ah here happen twice. It's 3-4 Wong for one-costs. Ry, you get this one first. um Okay, it feels very bouncy to me, um which I get, I i mean, i yeah and super But it seems super powerful. I give it, I give it, I also give it a four. It seems great. I don't know. Are you excited for it personally? Um, no, cause I feel like probably it's best shenanigans would be in bounce and I don't really play a lot of bounce. Okay. Ben.
00:40:49
Speaker
All right, well, my thoughts about Joaquin Torres' Falcon. ah I'm going to give this card four out of four Andalite Morphin' Cubes, baby! Hey! Askafil devices. Anywho, in case you're curious,
00:41:04
Speaker
who Who is Joaquin Torres going to be friends with anyway? I took the liberty of sorting through the one cost on reveals to find, you know, sorting out the ones that you don't want to spam, you know, no Bast, no Spider Ham here. But here are the cards you could conceivably want to play with Joaquin Torres.
00:41:22
Speaker
The Hood, Silver Sable, Clint Barton Hawkeye, and by extension Basic Arrow, Rocket Raccoon, Agent 13, America Chavez, Elektra occasionally, probably not Plan A, but you know, like if you generate an Elektra, you can maybe kill two birds with that at some point. Iceman, Iron Fist, yes, Iron Fist. ah we've We've all played Iron Fist on Commortage and loved it, right? Okay. um Korg, Mantis, Maria Hill, Niko Minoru, Selene, Snowguard, Squirrel Girl, Yondu, and Zabu and Blade. Is this enough to make him good? Absolutely. He's going to be a bounce staple in an interesting card. In general, he does not, however, work with hammers. So banish those dreams if you were thinking about, like, how much fun you were going to have with hammers. Because it has to cost one. Zero cost does not count. Sorry, Yellow Jacket.
00:42:15
Speaker
um yeah other than that okay yeah school vi and grade You missed what I think is his best home. ah Now that Red Wing has been changed.
00:42:28
Speaker
a whole bunch of one-cost cards, the Infinity Stones. I think that might be the best way to use one. Oh, you think so? Yeah, this is definitely a Thanos card. that completely i knew I knew when I said the basic arrow, I was like, I bet I'm missing some generating card that totally works with this. And yes, several of them. Four or five, right? You make your fans a four-cost. ah You draw double cards every time you play an Infinity Stone there.
00:42:50
Speaker
um i good car I'm feeling so much more negative than you two. I give him one down. Really? Yes. And I think I would have given him one up or even two up with the old red wing that bounced one cost cards. That card was nasty. And the combo would have been sick. I think he's a lot harder to play and bounce now. He's a three cost, which means even if you play beast on him, you have to pay two again to get him back out. Oh, yeah, that's true.
00:43:21
Speaker
You're playing and we are bouncing him if you're bouncing anything. I guess Falcon. OK, you like you bounce the stuff with Beast, then you drop Joaquin and all the stuff on turn four. That's what I think. Yeah, and I i forgot about Falcon.
00:43:35
Speaker
um Maybe he's a one thumb up. I think three cost is very awkward and losing redwing is a excuse losing bouncing red wing is like a huge loss for this card. I was very excited for this card and now I am not.
00:43:51
Speaker
hu hum Interesting. yeah but This is a reversal of our roles. Usually I'm the one who's like, this is a stinky poo poo card.
00:44:03
Speaker
Oh, Lauren's over here just shooting everything down. Dang. I feel like me and Lauren usually agree more. know its Yeah, I got to be real. I'm just not super excited for this season. I do think Sam Wilson seems very fun. Oh, he's going to be bonkers. i And Joaquin will have highlights, but i I think three is so expensive to pay for what he's doing. He's a three-four. He's a hottie with a body.
00:44:30
Speaker
All right, having a real body is something, you know, like you can't say that about Wong, you know. fourteen No. I don't know. I can't see this card not kicking ass, but I've been wrong before. Scarlet Spiders still hasn't popped off in the way I predicted.
00:44:51
Speaker
um I guess you could play it with with Moonstone. Yeah, I guess you're definitely going to sometimes play it with Moonstone, probably, right? have No, because then you don't have enough room. You want to leave all the room for your windraps to, like... Yeah, Moonstone, Joaquin, and two of the Infinity Stones that have on-reveals and on-goings. I don't know. Maybe if you come up here, so you free up more space? and You know, Killmonger's actually a good idea with this card.
00:45:22
Speaker
That's what I was thinking, right? Especially when you said Thanos. I immediately thought Kilmanger. Because if you're drawing so many of your stones so early, you don't want to fill up your board like that. So it's maybe kind of the best version of Thanos, you know? Plus, Kilmanger's great because so many people are playing one drops now that, you know, being.
00:45:42
Speaker
Misery on Hood is obviously good, and and this curve works a lot better than doing it with Wong. So, oh maybe there's something there. you know I'm wondering if maybe there's going to be Ghost Spider involved in ah in a deck that would try to play Moonstone with Joaquin Torres. It would need something to yank your enormous Silver Sable out of there.
00:46:06
Speaker
You know? Yeah. Or something like that. Just get more space to do more nonsense. And then you bounce that without having to bounce Joaquin. Yeah. Maybe there's something there. Maybe it invents a new type of bounce that's not move bounce and it's not classic bounce. It's its own little weird thing.
00:46:24
Speaker
The moonstone part feels like it may be a leap. I just like I don't play much moonstone, so I'm not sure where I would start playing moonstone, but that might be a place I would try. I don't know. I'm not I'm not sure that's a thing, but maybe. Yeah, maybe Mystique's more practical or something. I don't know. When you have something that helps other cards, you want as much room for those other cards as possible, especially when it's specifically for tiny cards. Yeah, it's true. Like I don't see.
00:46:52
Speaker
You're already bouncing to make to hit these cards multiple times, though. It's just a big setup, because then you're spending three on Joaquin and four on Moonstone. So you're really banking, I guess. Yeah, I feel like if Moonstone is a bridge too far is kind of my feeling. I think Joaquin might be.
Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross and Deck Strategies
00:47:10
Speaker
OK. Well, anything's possible. The following week, fattiest Thunderbolt, Ross. You know, Red Hulk before he hulks out. ah A 2-2.
00:47:23
Speaker
When your opponent ends a turn with unspent energy, draw a card with 10 or more power. I will take this one first. I gave it two thumbs up. I am not excited for it, but I think it's very strong. This is a card that thins decks. How many decks does he go in? I don't know. um And part of that is if he draws Red Hulk, does Red Hulk get the extra power that turn? Because if he does, this card's a lot better. Yeah, I think maybe. I don't know.
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, who knows. unclear um good A better card for Surtur than Ares was, yeah he replaces Hydrabob who's in a lot of those decks. um And I don't know how many other things he goes in, um because you know I don't don't play decks that run 10 power cards very often, um but Finning is is a powerful ability. And ah when Adam Warlock was a 2 cost, he was a 2-0. And this is a 2-2 targeted draw. Like, there's gonna be stuff that you can do with him that's very good. That's what I Go ahead, then. You mentioned Adam Warlock, and I was actually thinking that would be a great way to test if the Red Hulk grows at the end of turn. Because Adam Warlock draws his card at the end of turn, right? Yeah.
00:48:43
Speaker
So like if you draw a red hulk off of Adam Warlock and the red hulk grows, then I bet that if you draw a red hulk off of Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross, the red hulk will grow. But I'm not going to play Adam Warlock in a red hulk. I'm not going to do that science. But if someone else would like to, I'm ah very curious to know if Thaddeus will be able to do the thing.
00:49:05
Speaker
My suggestion that I may not have made explicit enough is if Rolk gets the extra power, the turn that Thaddeus draws him, I think that you might run Thaddeus with Rolk as your only 10 power card. like that's just That's a strong combo.
00:49:24
Speaker
This is what I am trying to say is that like you're missing. So not only is he just, I gave him a four because like not only is he just great for chasing out like a red Hulk, which is already a decent card, but in drawing a card and thinning your deck.
00:49:41
Speaker
You have control because like cards that are ten plus power i mean sure you can claim an assertor and maybe i'll get you multiple so that's a good home friend but also right what if you just like wanna draw any you know you can control what you put in there and you're not sacrificing a lot how many like.
00:49:57
Speaker
You know six cost five cost cards that are that big are you putting in your desk you can very much target it which means which is like hey instead of the magic you know to make sure my combo happens here's a sad yes who is one less cost than magic right.
00:50:15
Speaker
and and it's just like And it's also not potentially giving your your opponent an advantage and being either being able to turn off magic or do it. So he's a way to enable combos, in my opinion, more you know in a better way than magic does.
00:50:33
Speaker
Right? Because you can control because how many cards in your deck are more than 10 power. You can very easily control that and still have a great deck around that. So I think he's great. Yeah. And some decks only need a little bit of thinning to be meaningful. Like maybe he goes in some flavors of Hela, right? Hela sometimes runs jubilee. I think definitely goes in Hela. Maybe instead of Jubilee, you're running Thaddeus. And even if he only draws one card, he's great. But, you know, he might draw more than one card. Like, he keeps on working. It's, uh... Yeah, you give him a two, Loren. Disturbing. I'm gonna say this about everything. Two thumbs up. That's a four.
00:51:11
Speaker
I gave him a four. Oh, okay. That's a four point scale. If you need to be angry at somebody for being wrong about Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross, I'm here. I'm here to get it done. All right, get some some contrarian. Let's go. Yep. So here's the controversy coming out of my mouth. Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross.
00:51:34
Speaker
I rate this one three out of four malpracticing therapists on Shrinking, streaming now on Apple TV+. plus That's right, Harrison Ford. he's He's probably one of the more responsible therapists on that show. I've only seen the first season, but Jason Siegel does some unprofessional shit, if you ask me. Anywho, any who, any who, drawing cards is very strong, but I think he misses out on a whole bunch by not being a one cost. I feel like, was was he dead in mind as a one cost at one point? I think I was more excited about that version of the card.
00:52:03
Speaker
um So he's friends with Surtur and Hela, I would argue. But who else? I'm not sure. I really don't know. I mean, deck thinning is great. So like maybe he's friends with everybody. I like drawing cards. I love drawing cards. I'll say it. um But which cards are you going to draw? Let's talk about these eligible targets before modification. So i'm none of these, let's let's forget about Okoye, let's forget about Fastos, let's forget about them the meddling fingers of Cassandra Nova.
00:52:31
Speaker
we're We're looking at crossbones, Cull Obsidian, Typhoid Mary, Arrow, Heimdall, Helicarrier, Red Hulk, Sasquatch, She-Hulk, Scar, Thanos. I said Thanos, I don't know why, it was fun. Thanos, Orca, Emperor Hulkling, Hulk, Magneto, Death, Red Skull, Agatha Harkness, Giganto, Destroyer, and the Infinite. You know, big cards. um Yeah, I just think he's three out of four. That's all I feel about him. I think he's very good, but like,
00:53:01
Speaker
and ah Turn 2, if you play a 2-2 and you don't draw any cards, that's very sad. Yeah, he's a bad. He's a bad body himself, for sure. like sometimes Sometimes you won't draw any cards with this card, and that's like a real bummer. And sometimes you'll draw a 10 power card, and then you'll draw another 10 power card, and then your opponent will waste some energy, and then you'll be out of 10 power cards that you could draw, and you won't even get to draw a card. like Sometimes they'll do the thing, and you won't be able to capitalize on it. yeah I just think this card is not the sure bet that he feels like he
Redwing Card Disappointment
00:53:34
Speaker
could be. you know and he's He is also bad late game.
00:53:39
Speaker
But like, what, you know, what, in the game of Mars, snap. What is it? There are a lot of good sure bets at 2 energy, I think. That's what I think. Okay, the next card. This card is the biggest tragedy to me as, you know, a girl who loved animals and dinosaurs as a child. yeah ah redwing first time this move of three three The first time this moves, add a card from your hand to the old location.
00:54:14
Speaker
Well, my feeling, this one gets two out of four worms, presumably gotten by the early bird. Not entirely sure what to make of this card. I still kind of see him as the ghost rider of move, but I'm not completely convinced that's something anybody actually wants, including me. i'm I'm a move enthusiast, but like i don't I don't love everything they try to bring under the move umbrella. I just don't think this card is as exciting as Firehair, for instance, coming out the month after. Just a way cooler card with similar themes and just, yeah. New Red Wing is a healthier card for the game, I think, than original Flavor Red Wing, but like
00:54:58
Speaker
I'm not excited to dedicate resources to acquiring it, and I'm not excited to play it. So I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm being unfair to it. yeah Cheating out of a big card for less than its cost is ah historically a cool thing you want to do in a card game. So um maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Red Wing is the the business, but I just don't feel it. Who's next?
00:55:22
Speaker
re I think like so I also rated it at a two because yeah it you know it is powerful to be able to swing one down from your hand but I was also way more excited about the last version three is costly he doesn't move by himself so like that spilled around so it's like it's a combo that could be you know powerful, but is it's like ah it's a hard to pull off. The only way I see playing and would be like in a surfer, maybe, where you often have more cards on turn six of the three-cost vari variety than you can play. but It's like, how are you moving them around? It's just so awkward, and it's sad, because yeah, I kind of took them from a card I wanted to win. I didn't. So what's your new rating on?
00:56:13
Speaker
Two thumbs down, ah one out of four. i oh My first note, is kind of it's kind of what Ben said. It's like, what problem is he solving? like I think sometimes it's interesting to look at a card that's coming up and be like, oh, they're trying to strengthen this archetype, or they're trying to make this one weirdo card work better. And I'm like, what is he solving? like Nico's move spell, people trying to run Iron Fist and Ghost Spider without a move package. I don't like him. I think he's maybe good in Madam Web, because then also if the card that he pulls out is not in the place you want it to be, you could move it the next turn after that. like That's something. um Madam Web Surfer with Elsa.
00:57:04
Speaker
Yeah. That's the one deck you can play Redwing in. um Of course, there's going to be clever things you can do. I think we talked about it the first time we talked about Redwing where it's like if you put him in a move deck where there's actually like move enablers, there are so many cards you don't like that deck needs to be sequenced properly. There's so many cards you don't want to pull out early. You don't want to pull out Heimdall early. You don't want to pull out an out of sequence i ghost spider like 2099 was like the one card we're like, oh, that would actually be a cool one to pull to pull down for free. you know You save yourself five energy. and But it's so hard to guarantee that it'll go your way with the rent. It doesn't pull out the most expensive card in your hand. It doesn't pull out the biggest card in your hand. It just pulls out a card.
00:57:49
Speaker
I would have different feelings if it was targeted in any way. It could be the leftmost card in your hand, or the biggest card in your hand, or even if it was the smallest card in your hand, because that's at least somewhat manipulatable. You can predict it. But with him being not targeted and three costs, I'm just like, this is a bad, yucky card, a super disappointing.
Enthusiasm for Diamondback Card
00:58:10
Speaker
I don't think anybody should get it unless you are the kind of person who gets every single card.
00:58:17
Speaker
I'm probably going to get it. Decisive. I know! Like, everyone just does this so hard in this whole time. I mean, like, I don't think it's going to be good or fun, but, like, I do want to have it so I can, you know... It's a three cost move card. You can't resist. He also, there's, like, Toon World Baron Zemo variant in the spotlights who, you know, is very desirable. But also, I do. I want to build... I want to build...
00:58:46
Speaker
so it was madam webb and know i just It feels so dangerous, like maybe you save him for like the last thing that you do on turn six.
00:59:01
Speaker
I know it's like what you move him with. You don't want to move Madam Web like so ah you don't want to move your surfer or you don't want to pull out your surfer early. Uh, no, it's just, it's just a very awkward card. Maybe you do want to pull out your surfer early. If you're going to like, I don't know, throw symbiote spider. abstracts That blazer for early. You know what I mean? Like, all right. You're right. With abs man and all kinds of nonsense. So, you know, with Odin is feasible.
00:59:37
Speaker
Okay, the last one of the season, Diamondback, a 3-3 ongoing. Enemy cards here, afflicted with negative power, have an additional minus 2 power. 3, I think? I also, okay, so I won't lie, just like...
00:59:57
Speaker
thinks the card looks cool and has a cool name and that's part of it. But also, so I'm gonna get it. It's three, it's surfer. I like i like having all the surfer cards that are, you know, makes sense in any way. And I think she might be, I gave her four because I don't know, I'm just hyped for, she may be the thing that gets me to buy Ajax.
01:00:17
Speaker
Um, finally, cause it's like, is this, there'd be like a surfer. I know I'm just like all into surfer right now. Um, affliction here with like loot cage is a three, you know, like, so it's just like, I think I'm into it. I'm definitely getting her. Yeah. And like you said, I'm probably getting Ajax cause like, uh, you know, kind of been wanting that anyway, but I gave her.
01:00:48
Speaker
I don't know, messing up the order. I gave her a two thumbs up. Four points, also. She's the only card besides Thaddeus Rosso. I am giving that to you this season. It is disgusting that her ability is asymmetrical. That is insane. um Very cool with US Agent. Very cool with Hazmat. Right? Like, Hazmat alone, like, she makes it so you don't need Luke Cage for Hazmat to be real. Like, it Hazmat is just straight up like minus six or minus eight to the enemy side, depending on how many cards they have there.
01:01:20
Speaker
um You write Annihilus, you know what I mean? Spider Woman is huge with this card. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, I forgot. You're right. I'm so hyped. OK. Like, I know you love Spider Woman. This is like, if they have three cards there, Spider Woman is a 517. Mm, delicious. Or I mean, we could call it an 820 because you have to pay for Diamondback. Yes, I think we should call it an 820. Which is still good.
01:01:46
Speaker
yeah um it's It's no 420, doom 99. Two card combo too. and so Yeah, right. I acknowledge that. I just think that there's a lot that you could do with her. I think she fits in very neatly into affliction packages. She's a good backup plan for Luke Cage. um You know, you have Ajax in one lane and Diamond back in the other lane. You don't need Luke Cage. like You have two ways that you're benefiting more than they are when there's global affliction.
01:02:14
Speaker
Um, yeah, that's true. I think she's great. All right. Turns out Lauren and I don't agree about any of the cards this season. Wow.
01:02:28
Speaker
So here's here are my thoughts about Diamondback. This is two out of four hypnotic snake acceptors like Jafar uses on the Sultan of Agrabah in the classic Disney film Aladdin. um So barring any moonstone shenanigans, the ceiling of Diamondback is 3-11. That's good.
01:02:47
Speaker
But it isn't easy, and it isn't flexible. There is a saying among comedians, local jokes get local work. So like, if you joke about your hometown a lot, you'll always be able to get booked in your hometown, but like that doesn't play on the road. um So like, Diamondback is very impactful on that one lane where Diamondback lives, and you're going to win it by a landslide. And that's stellar. But like,
01:03:12
Speaker
I don't know, it's just, it's so small and limited and like it requires like, it requires set up. And like the, the card that this works best with in my opinion is hazmat. Cause like the spider woman thing is an over commitment on that one lane to, to win it by a zillion points. But like, what what are we doing here? Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm skeptical. I'm, I'm full on skeptical of a diamond back.
01:03:42
Speaker
Okay, well there you have it folks. ah Those are our thoughts for the for the February season.
01:03:51
Speaker
I'm kind of excited, like having talked about it is fun. I think it's it's marvelous that we didn't agree on a single card. um Oh, we were close on some of those. True. We were in the neighborhood on a lot of things, but you just you are not the believer in the the cards that I was given force to. And I was not a believer in the cards you were given force to. Correct.
Marvel Snap OTA Changes and Meta Implications
01:04:12
Speaker
That's great. That's that's good radio.
01:04:16
Speaker
OK, next up, we live react like gamers and YouTubers to the to the OTA. We have not seen it. I'm yeah going to the official discord right now. This is very it dropped just like an hour ago. OK.
01:04:35
Speaker
No lengthy preamble this week, we've got a handful of buffs and nerfs to freshen up the metagame as the season comes to a close, so let's dive in! I'm not gonna read the explanation for all of them, but first up we have Dagger. A 2-0 plus 3 going to... 2-2 plus 2!
01:04:53
Speaker
That's her old power, right? Yep. We've seen this before and it was just fine. I'm glad for it. She's extremely strong um and move bounce has been dominating the top of the meta forever. um I never see it even having climbed all the way to like, you know,
01:05:11
Speaker
3900 rank. I never see move bounce, but I know that it's been terrorizing the top of the leaderboard for months. so i'm glad to be It around a lot of the tech I play, you know what I mean? Often and it's like, Oh, well, I've no way, you know what I mean? When they hit their stuff, like with dagger and, um,
01:05:34
Speaker
Human torch, like, you know, just there's just no, sta you just know they're gonna get. oh if Yeah, if you don't have tech, there's no way you can go taller than it, yeah. I've been playing a lot of Killmonger lately, you're like Shadow King. Ben, you don't play a lot of dagger, do you?
01:05:51
Speaker
I play a ton of dagger. Oh, you just don't play her in balance. Nope. I play her in Heimdall as ah as whoever you you whoever you like intended. that's That's my feeling. Somebody intended that you should play dagger in Heimdall and nowhere else. And maybe it was me. I don't know. But I feel like I'm doing the right thing.
01:06:12
Speaker
do you How do you feel about 2, 2 plus 2? I'm going to keep playing dagger. I was playing 2, 0 plus 2 dagger. And ah yeah, i you don't like i I love dagger. Dagger's a great card. Dagger does a good thing. Another move card. Aranya, a 1, 1 plus 2 goes to 1, 2 plus 1. I love this change.
01:06:39
Speaker
that's an interesting change i hate it
01:06:44
Speaker
big fan of human torch is it just a torch yeah paul is where i was playing her like and was her so like her i don't want her to have more power you know just fighting even for your know like I mean, you know what I mean? But it's like, I want that. power pool whole three You know, like we're in Wolverine, ah the sad, sad, sad day for, for, you know, Iranian fans who were doing cool stuff with her that wasn't moved.
01:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, I don't play her a ton. I like her in silly clip hunter things because like she can pop an Odin and then get the Odin out of the way to Absman the Odin, something like that. um She's definitely a good card and I think this is still very playable.
01:07:33
Speaker
um i She is going to be a little bit worse in one of the two decks where I do play her. And that is 100 bad guys with swords because she will not be as good for ah buffing up a Dokken that you would then double. oh yeah But she's still pretty good with Sebastian Shaw.
01:07:49
Speaker
ah you know and Yeah, i she's probably out of the deck in that in that one, but she's probably still in Heimdall move that doesn't have a werewolf in it because she doesn't go in the werewolf version because she doesn't have an on reveal. But sometimes I put her in Heimdall decks and I'll probably keep putting her in Heimdall decks. But yeah, the this is just to kill the Human Torch thing. It'll be interesting to see how much this changes her play rate because You think that the main thing that you use her for is for the move, but maybe sounds like it sounds like it might be the ah the buff. A lot of it is the Human Torch angle. Okay. Spectrum just goes 6'6 to 6'7. That seems fine to me. Yeah, she probably needs more than that, to be honest. No, for real.
01:08:41
Speaker
i my My stat, you know, the stats on the Snapdot fan thing, they got like reset a while ago or whatever. But for the longest time, I would just like look at my spectrum performance and be like, why do I even try to play this card? Like when I draw a spectrum, when I play spectrum, just like not getting a lot of cues there, are you, Ben? No, no, no. ah So, yeah, I was privately like wondering, like,
01:09:07
Speaker
what does everyone else see in this card? Are they getting way better results with Spectrum than I am? And they probably were. I was probably doing it wrong, but I just don't think Spectrum is like- Yeah, a brief resurgence with the like, Luke Cage, US agent, a man thing that deck, she had a brief resurgence with that. But like one one batch of plus twos is like not, I mean, like, I know you're hoping to like, wong it. So that's two batches of plus twos. But like, sometimes the best time with her was like, when Miss Marvel, like, we're putting together Miss Marvel ongoing decks, and like Miss Marvel is just
01:09:45
Speaker
rough anymore in that kind of really hurt spectrum but If you compare her to like surfer where you get what is he three three two plus two but then you also have three more energy to do something with yeah yeah yeah yeah I think she could she could be even a little stronger than this I think so too I think she could go to six eight and nobody would notice yeah I think plus three might be a little too much but six eight would be fine Oh, Nomura, 5'6 to 5'7. Ooh, okay, finally something I can be excited about. We lied earlier. I'm glad that that's happening before the before she's featured in Spotlights.
01:10:27
Speaker
Okay, leader gets the point of power. But I don't know that it makes her like vastly better, to be honest. I just wanted an excuse to play again. But it's like, uh-huh. Because she got buffed. Are we going to see all the goblins and junk decks now? like and i do I don't It's not enough to make it more a mainstay. She's she's too easy to to mess up with junk. It's true. cause There are a lot of ways she can go wrong. Just a couple of squirrels.
01:11:01
Speaker
Okay, Leader gets an extra point of power, 6-4 now. i've I've actually seen a decent amount of Leader, like not a ton, but like agree he's in the meta, like I see him sometimes. You know, definitely I just love a generated Leader. It's my favorite six cost to get off the raft. Yeah, or ah or a two cost one from Iron Patriot.
01:11:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's surprising. I don't feel like Leader needed the help. It didn't seem unreasonable. Yeah, kind of surprised. Agreed. ah Sandman gets an extra power. And yeah, I don't see Sandman anymore, yeah which I'm happy with. I don't like Sandman. I'm rooting for him.
01:11:44
Speaker
Are you? Is there anybody you're not rooting for? bound Yeah, there are definitely cards I'm not rooting for. Okay. None of them on this list. Oh, wow. i I scrolled down the list a little bit. Saw somebody I was rooting for.
01:11:57
Speaker
oh We'll get there when we get there. just you say you You say he's there to stop bounce, Ree? Is that what you were saying? Yeah, I mean, right? Isn't that his most? Because now that he makes things cost more, it used to be a way to, like, do a lot of decks. Surfer everything. And now when I run into a Sandman, it usually doesn't phase me that much because, like, yeah, I can't do everything I wanted. But, like, you know, I can still do stuff where it really hurts is when you were planning on, like, playing out. You can play around it versus him just being a retreat. ah Yeah. Unless you're playing bounce, yeah.
01:12:29
Speaker
Agreed. OK. Ms. Marvel gets a point of power, 4-4 to 4-5. I was just saying last week, I hope this isn't the way they buff her. I hope because they make her less good enough. No, not at all. Because that's not the problem. Her ability's still too restrictive. She is too hard to play.
01:12:47
Speaker
Um, she's, we're harder to pull off the Nomura. It feels like yeah like that they don't need to buff the body. They need to buff the effect. This is not what it was called for. And it's part of, it's just the fact that we're once again, we're filling the boards way more than we did like a year ago in the game, you know, back, back in time. And and that just makes her hard and hard to do. And if you're not filling that board, um, it means you're more vulnerable to tech usually. And also, you know,
01:13:17
Speaker
um You're just doing less. Anyway, so yeah, i me I'm i bummed like you said, Lauren. This is ah the way that they're doing it. It's the edge.
01:13:29
Speaker
Yeah. ah Luna Snow gets a point of power. Three, five to three, six. That's, I mean, I don't see a ton of Luna, but that is a little surprising to me because three five is a good stat line, but I guess, you know, giving, giving your opponent an ice cube is, is a sizable drawback. So maybe they're justifying with three six. Um, she seems a lot more playable to me at three six. I agree. Cause that's just like a pretty good, you know, it's not a stat line you hate when you miss it on whatever you're trying to do with it. Right.
01:14:05
Speaker
She's a very fun card. I definitely have not explored her enough. Yeah, I've been playing her in some decks, and I like her a lot, but like I have felt like maybe she needed a little help. She's a little too symmetrical, a little too... The rising tide lifts all ships, and really, I'm mostly concerned with my ship. Let's let's focus on mine a little more. And 3.6 helps us do that.
01:14:33
Speaker
For sure. Yeah, this change I like. Which is not to say I don't like the Ms. Marvel change. It's not the one I wanted. It's not the one she needs. And not enough. Yeah, it's not going to help her, really. All right, that's the whole thing. It doesn't get you excited to deck-build with her again. You're like, no, all the problems that were there are still there. Nope, I'm like, I'm going to lose all the same games I lost last time I tried this. Yep.
01:14:58
Speaker
Okay, small little OTA, eight cards, and they're all just- Oh, is that all of it? Yeah, just all number changes. Okay. Is that eight? I mean, I like
Secret Homework and Character Mastery Rewards
01:15:08
Speaker
the move that I don't play as being nerfed, because that's annoying, but it's just like, Namora's the most exciting thing for me, and it's like, I don't know that she's vastly more good at it. Yeah. It was just a rough metaphor to begin with, with all the junk and stuff.
01:15:29
Speaker
Next up, our side quests. This week, Secret Homework. It was assigned by Ree. Are you ready to take it away and tell us what it was? Yeah, okay. So I, with Character Mastery coming out, it was just simple. What's the reward you genuinely want to see from Character Mastery? Be that, you know, game resources or whatever.
01:15:53
Speaker
And mine I knew pretty immediately. What I want to see from character mastery is a frame, is a frame the border, you know, like the spotlight borders, the infinity avatar borders that is specific for, an avatar or like yeah, for a character. So like a Valkyrie border avatar, because that's, like, so one, I like it because right now the only way to get a different border is um
01:16:24
Speaker
is through spotlights, which I never use those because I think they look kind of wonky. They're disgusting. Yeah, okay. Some people use them and like them, and I can kind of see if it's just like, but the only other way is infinity, and not everyone is a conquest junkie, you know? And I think having more ways to get cool frames, which is a very difficult achievement. It does show your love for that character. I would love to i would love to see a character specific.
01:16:51
Speaker
like avatar border. Are you thinking it's a different border for every character or just like this is the mastery border and you got it for all of your Nomura avatars? I think that would be like that would be the way I would want it to work like it only works with this character but works with any avatar of that character. Yeah, I i love that. I think that's a very good idea.
01:17:17
Speaker
um Okay, mine, my first reaction was reactions. That's the thing that I've always wanted when they introduced custom reactions. But that's like, I'm pretty sure those are going to be there. They, you know, they were in the original character mastery announcement a year ago. um I really hope they're there. um Part of the reason I think they might still be there is the like the character albums we've gotten, you know, the ones that give you like,
01:17:42
Speaker
Carnage or Spider-Man or Wolverine ah reactions. It's never the character in its basic form. It's Thor with an eye patch or it's like Carnage mid-transformation. So I think that they still have the basic reaction sets for the characters out there and i would I really hope that's it. But I thought it would be bad for Secret Homework because I think those are probably still coming.
01:18:04
Speaker
and So I thought maybe ah maybe a little bit of cheating because I have to implement a whole additional feature to support this. But I think that the like the player profiles that you know you you're playing somebody and you can see like what alliance they're in and like what their CL is. and what their I would love to see them expand that screen a lot. um you know Let me show off what my favorite card is. Let me see what somebody's current rank is, not just what their highest rank ever is. I think that confuses a lot of people.
01:18:36
Speaker
um And I think it'd be really cool to put a couple medals in there. Is this something that Pokémon Pocket does? You can feature like three medals that you've won. um I think it'd be really cool to show off that, like, I hit level 30 on my Valkyrie mastery and put that right on my profile. I don't know if I- Especially if you took on it in people's, like, in the Alliance screen, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's another way to get to somebody's, like, profile. Yeah, I think that that's a great way to, like, expand the social elements of the game, is, like,
01:19:07
Speaker
Let me show off who I am. I don't know if I would show off Valkyrie, because like at least not when I'm running a deck with Valkyrie. I don't want you to be thinking about Valkyrie. She is a surprise card, and I do not want you to be thinking about her at all. But yeah something like, I don't know, Captain Marvel, who isn't a surprise card and is a card I really like and and have decent mastery on, or Misery, I'd love to show off like, hey, I'm i i'm dumb and I split Misery 50 times. like Look at my cool metal that shows my my misery mastery. Say that 10 times fast. Ben? All right. So I actually, there there was a secret homework we had recently that I actually assigned, but I forgot to like get into this this thing when I... So when I was pitching the X-Men Legends 2 season, one of the cool things about that season that I did not mention was the like,
01:20:04
Speaker
you know that video game had very cool load screens, very cool load screens they would change based on who was in your party at the time and like what boss you were making your way to fight and stuff and like they had beautiful illustrations like hand-painted stuff and like by by some of the same people who like did Magic the Gathering cards and things and like I think maybe there were some Alex Horleys in there I could be misremembering But like, there were some big name artists who did the load screens. So I'm thinking custom load screens, you master that character, you get a beautiful picture of them when you start the game, or perhaps when you queue into, you know, when you're doing the matchmaking, there's a very, very boring matchmaking screen that, you know, tells you how long you've been waiting for your match and stuff. And like,
01:20:53
Speaker
It just looks like the most basic ass screensaver on Windows 95. Not even one of the spicy ones, you know? Like, it's just not compelling. But, you know, I always have more fun when my friend Spider-Man is there. So ah let's get a good picture of him and let's stare at that while I wait for my next opponent.
01:21:15
Speaker
And i
Community Engagement and Network Promotion
01:21:16
Speaker
just i I was thinking, like I don't want another ugly kind of border or anything. No offense to anyone who does. like these I don't want a new way to emote. Just like let me have my own private beauty in the game. like Let me look at something nice. i I don't need to be rude to my opponent in a flashy new way. I just like and just want to have a cool time looking at art.
01:21:43
Speaker
That's what I say. That's a great one. Now, assign next week's homework. Alright, now, next week's homework.
01:21:53
Speaker
as As has come up several times, I got a long history of playing these these fun Marvel games. as i As I just said, I love it when my friend Spider-Man is there. um So this all this all started for me, like at least in a collectible gaming sort of way, with a miniatures game called Hero Clicks. And it's very fascinating to me how the focus changes on like which characters are considered essential and core to the Marvel brand and stuff.
01:22:21
Speaker
So when this first hero click set came out, it was called Infinity Challenge, and I had a bunch of characters I had never heard of. As I said, I you know like i know about the X-Men, I know about Spider-Man. That's the core of my Marvel ah participation. So I'm like, who's this Thanos guy? Thanos was the most ah expensive point total for any piece in the game. So like most of your team would be Thanos if you wanted to play Thanos. But anywho,
01:22:47
Speaker
That's neither here nor there. There are a bunch of these characters that are not in Marvel's snap because we cared about different people in 2002 than we care about now in 2025 or than we cared about in 2023 or whatever. ah So like there there's some characters that i was I was having a stroll down memory lane looking at this list. I was like, I haven't heard about Constrictor in a minute. Do you do you guys know who Constrictor is?
01:23:12
Speaker
Not at all. The instructor is just some dork who has Dr. Octopus tentacles on the ends of his arms. That's all he's got. He's basically like shitty Omega Red. What a loser. Anyway, so I would like each of you to pick one character from this list. You don't even have to know who it is.
01:23:34
Speaker
Here are all the characters in the first hero click set that are not yet in Marvel Snap, all of the Marvel characters that were apparently important in 2002. We've got Constrictor, Boomerang, not to be confused with Captain Boomerang from the Suicide Squad, Puppet Master, I believe that's a Fantastic Four villain, ah Blizzard, I don't know what Blizzard's deal is, Pyro, yes, I know what Pyro's deal is, Whirlwind,
01:23:59
Speaker
Mr. Hyde, Controller, Quasar, Nightmare. So those are 10 characters that were apparently important in 2002 that we don't give a shit about anymore. So if you would like to design a card for one of those, you can pick now or you can pick later off the air. And there are enough names that the fans can play along at home. Oh, heck yeah. Oh, that is funny. I did recognize some of those, though.
01:24:29
Speaker
I played a different Marvel miniatures game, Heroescape. Did they make Marvel sets of Heroescape? They had a Marvel set. and I had so much fun playing Heroescape with my brother. ah Anyway, that's a very cool game. Oh, yeah, I love Heroescape. If you like what you heard, interact. Leave a comment. if you're If you're listening on a podcast app, come comment on YouTube, because why not? Give us strength. Or I think you can comment on Spotify, too. ah We check those.
01:24:59
Speaker
Anyway, ah all the other like, you know, our socials and stuff like that, they're in the show notes, they're in the video description. ah We have a Discord that is hard to get to, and maybe I need to make a video about it or something, because everybody who shows up is like, wow, that was hard to figure out how to get there.
01:25:17
Speaker
There is a link in the show notes. But then once you're there, you have to go to a specific channel and click a button, a reaction to get access to the Snap on this stuff. We're part of the Snap Judgments League. We're part of we' we're piggybacking on their Discord. We would love to have you there. It's fun discussing.
01:25:35
Speaker
just with with listeners, and also we talk about the secret homework there, and listeners share their secret homework that they've done. It's very fun. um If you want to be there. If you don't, that's totally fine. We still like you. And you don't have to do the secret homework. You can just like come and like ask us questions. If we like say some goofy stuff that like didn't make sense to you, I will gladly explain myself.
01:25:55
Speaker
hopi ah And the reason we get to piggyback on Snap Judgment's network or Snap Judgment's League Discord is because we are part of the Snap Judgment's network where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Judgment's, our grand pod where Pulse Glazer and Roy talk to ah ah usually two guests from the community every week. It's it's a little different sometimes. um That comes out on Saturdays and is a great listen. i Yeah.
01:26:22
Speaker
If you want to like see what we think about the patch that comes out next week, and hopefully we see April cards, tune in next week! Same snap time, same snap channel!
01:27:09
Speaker
was glad and impressed, but the Animorphs reference came early this guess next week it's your week to feel sick, Ben, so watch out.
01:27:28
Speaker
Oh dear. It's a very cute name.