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62: Arachnobatics Was Right There
3 Plays1 second ago
💃🕺💃 The episode where the gang gets back together. 🙌 💖💕
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap
- Ben starts to get excited for arachnobatics 🕷️🕸️
- 🏊♀️ Lauren plays with Pools despite the chill weather 🥶
- Rie…rieturns? 😏🧜♀️
- Zombie Captain Marvel 🦸♀️ feels The Hunger 🍔🍕😋
- Secret Homework 🤫: Read a comic outside the DC & Marvel universes 👓📖
Mentioned Comics:
- Witchblood (2022)
- Dandadan (2021)
- Powers (2000)
- Nimona (2015)
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
- Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
- 0:23:40 Zombie Mr. Fantastic
- 0:24:27 The Hunger
- 0:27:05 Zombie Captain Marvel
- 0:34:42 Zombie Sentry / Zombie Galacti
- 0:39:36 Grand Arena's New Champions
- 0:51:39 Secret Homework: Read an Indie Comic
- 1:07:05 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:08:36 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Secret Homework
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 62 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, read a comic not from DC or Marvel.
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm your host, Lauren Whadevs, here with my usual delightful amazing co-hosts. First up, it's Ben. How was your week in Snap?
Marvel Snap Strategies & Deck Success
00:00:19
Speaker
And keep snappy. Well, my weekend snap, endeavoring to keep it snappy as I always do every time, every single time, without exception.
00:00:29
Speaker
It was pretty good. do you know why it was so good? It's because I was playing so much thank Sanctum Showdown. Oh my gosh. What a mode. what ah What a fun mode. ah Last week, i I was like, I had not played enough to know.
00:00:46
Speaker
i don't know. The deck I described last week, Turned out to be, um but I was worried it wouldn't be good without Guardians to to prey upon. It's just fine. It's very good.
00:00:59
Speaker
It's still very good in the mode. Oh my gosh. I think maybe I was, yeah. i Sanctum was a lot of fun for me and I felt like I was taking candy from more babies than ever.
00:01:12
Speaker
Oh my gosh. What a time. That deck, I highly recommend playing it when it comes around next time because I play it every time and it keeps on working. i mean, there there was one card I had to change this time, not because of the bands, just because Mercury wasn't...
00:01:27
Speaker
finding as many things to screw up. But, uh, the list is, but rock the Leaper, Hydra Bob, Kraven, Merlin, Spider-Man, Silk, Hydra Stomper, Copycat, Polaris, Shang-Chi, Miles Morales, Spider-Man, and Stegron. So, uh, file that one away for, uh, for next time.
00:01:46
Speaker
I don't know. I've still got the list that I used from the the second Sanctum. Oh, geez. Anyway, great mode. I love it. It's tons of fun.
00:01:57
Speaker
That deck is tons of fun. ah had a blast. Did not find time to play. um oh I did play some Snap. I won several games by accidentally queuing into regular Snap with that deck. Works pretty well. um the The fundamentals are there. you You can play it on ladder if you want.
00:02:16
Speaker
I mean, I'd probably put Scream in it first, but, you know, you do you. ah Yeah, so great great weekend snap for me. um Great
XCOM Gaming Journey
00:02:27
Speaker
weekend. Other games.
00:02:28
Speaker
I'm on the the final the final mission of my Iron Man XCOM run on stream. I took several days off because I've been busy with life things. But, I mean, victory is assured.
00:02:40
Speaker
Like, by the time you've unlocked the the good armor... you know nothing too scary can happen to you too abruptly. So like, you know, the the the stakes have... ah They're less real. they're It's less precarious. But wow, a lot lot of good soldiers sacrificed their lives to, you know, dislodge the the alien occupation.
00:03:09
Speaker
I mean, ah assuming we pull off this final mission, we will. It's going to be fine. But yeah, also... Also, really looks like I'm going to crack that 20-minute mark on Hades 2. So basically all the same stuff I talked about last week. It's still in progress, but it's ah progressing. Yeah, yeah. We're getting there. We're
Challenges in Marvel Snap
00:03:28
Speaker
getting there.
00:03:28
Speaker
And I'm excited to play some regular-ass Snap this week. I wonder what people are up to on the ladder these days. I'll find out. I'm looking forward to it.
00:03:40
Speaker
It's been a great week in Snap. That's all I'm trying to say. Sanctum Showdown. Hell a load. Yeah. I had a ton of fun in Sanctum 2, reminded by how tactical it is.
00:03:53
Speaker
and I don't know. Maybe I talked about that last week. I can't remember. But that is something that I just I really enjoy how how different it feels as a mode. Yeah. And although I've said before, I love sanctum so much I'd play it even if I didn't like need to.
00:04:06
Speaker
hey kind of haven't played it since getting the card. So I don't know
Destroy Deck Dynamics
00:04:12
Speaker
how true that is. It might have just been a busy week for me. I have for reasons I've been trying to get snap the PC version of snap running.
00:04:21
Speaker
The reasons will be apparent in the future. um And I got it. I finally got it running on my Mac, uh, running great. And then the next version of the game killed the method I was using.
00:04:35
Speaker
So, so then I spent all of the next day getting it running on my brother's steam deck, which I did, but I do feel ridiculous playing snap on the very big, the very big TV.
00:04:47
Speaker
have like a suitcase in front of it with the keyboard and mouse on it. It's very silly. Um, Steam Deck is like bedtime goals for me. One day I'll upgrade from my Switch. It's a really good system. I don't know if I would pay the amount that it costs. I don't even know how much it costs.
00:05:05
Speaker
But I would like a Switch 2 first. It's never too much. No price is too high. It is a really cool system. I have really enjoyed borrowing my brothers indefinitely.
00:05:17
Speaker
um He has a gaming PC, so I don't know why he got it, but I'm benefiting his purchase. This what I'm saying. If you're into PCs and, like, having the latest graphic cards and stuff, you're going to have a Steam.
00:05:30
Speaker
Which is how it is. Yeah. um Sorry. I'm sorry do real. The deck I've been playing for fun. Oh, you're fine. The deck I've been playing for fun, ah the deck that's working for me right now, is a destroy deck. What? um It's from friend of the pod, Burb, but also being played by friend of the pod, Sammy, who is a destroy aficionado.
00:05:53
Speaker
um It's really funny because I was like, what a cool deck. It's running six ones. And they were both like, wait, what? it Didn't even realize like that's why this deck feels so smooth. Moira really, I think, is the secret sauce here.
00:06:06
Speaker
But it's a pretty standard destroy deck, except for instead of trying to decide which ones to bring, yeah, just bring them all. So we've got Deadpool, Headpool, Moira X, Niko Minoru, X-23, Agony. She's cuttable.
00:06:20
Speaker
um But, you know, does help give a little boost to your Deadpool whatever. Carnage, Killmonger, Venom, Deathlock, all the destroyers, and then Nolan Death. And of course, Death is the ideal card to be cloning from Moira, but like as long as you're getting one destroyer and one one cost from it, like you can do some really silly things.
00:06:39
Speaker
I think it's fun when Moira makes herself cloning. um I just had a bunch of very silly games with this deck and I have won several gold conquests with this deck. So, um, uh, okay.
00:06:51
Speaker
Maybe I've been away from the pond a little bit long, but I recall a Lauren who was like play Deadpool and head pulled together. would you ever? I know. i know. i I like specifically said the place where I don't think head pool is going to work is traditional destroy. And here I am. This is where I'm playing it.
00:07:10
Speaker
I also think... I do also think Headpool is cuttable. But... You know. From the neck?
00:07:21
Speaker
yeah Nice. um Yeah, I don't feel like... I mean, in the and the most... am trying say? you sure that Moira X is the secret sauce? i' I'm just, I'm just, I'm just wondering. I'm wondering so hard about that. Cause Scott doesn't seem to be a believer either.
00:07:38
Speaker
In this deck, I think she's the secret sauce. She's what makes it work. The fact that it is such a low curve is because she kind of helps fill up the curve by, you know, generating more cards.
00:07:52
Speaker
Um,
00:07:54
Speaker
I don't It's super fun. Head pool, I feel like at most i'm I'm hitting him like twice with very rare exception. Like I have had altar of death location where I have Moira and I have like two or three head pools going at a time.
00:08:06
Speaker
But guess what? Your opponents retreat when you do that. So yeah. Anyway, it's a fun deck. Check it out if you like destroy or even if you
Rhi's Creative Struggles & Triumphs
00:08:14
Speaker
don't. I'm not a huge fan, but this is ah and um a breath of fresh air.
00:08:18
Speaker
i Just different enough to to feel fun for a week anyway. Okay, and Ri, I don't even think I introduced that I was taking the middle position for the first time ever. But anyway, Ri, how was your weekend snap?
00:08:34
Speaker
And keep it snappy. Okay, first I have to thank Scott for filling in for me. um I'm so glad. Scott is so like on his shit with Snap like I was before I podcasted.
00:08:47
Speaker
Hyper fixated on Snap. And I feel like that has like raised the intelligence level of my seat. Now for the next five episodes as the meter slowly depletes, I can just sit here and drool and be like, why don't Cap'n Marvel move? You know, those are my plans. Anyway.
00:09:02
Speaker
Just get you hyped. Okay. And then I did IS to go last um just because I didn't really play Snap at all. I'm not going to talk about Snap. And I didn't want everyone who might skip that because they're here for Snap stuff to miss Lawrence stuff.
00:09:17
Speaker
And I'm glad, right? She had this cool deck. She was like, oh, whatever. What am i going to say? And it's like, um excuse me. is Just say that you were admit that you were wrong about Deadpool and Headpool. That's worth it going first.
00:09:28
Speaker
Okay. No, it looks like a fun deck. Okay, so was out last week, and it was really like, ah and guess I can tell you a tale of two reads, you know? Like, I was was the best of reads. was the worst of reads.
00:09:45
Speaker
What's the worst? I have had insomnia, like, my whole life, and I'm sure some people out there also have struggled with it, and it's the kind of... thing where when it's like in just the regular bad times you forget the bad bad times it's like if you're like jessica jones and you're like i'm out here like barely like solving crimes you know but it's you know but it's a living i'm getting by and then you just see like the purple man out in the crowd and he's like i'm bad bitch it's like oh yeah this is what it's like
00:10:18
Speaker
this is what the real hard times are like. And I was just like, I could not, I was getting like two and a half hours of sleep a night. And it just like hits me to where eventually I'm just like not a real person anymore. Like me and a delirium is not great because my mind is already to like all over the place all the time anyway.
00:10:34
Speaker
And, um, Like, it was just, yeah, I was like, this is why didn't, because normally like Ben and Lauren too, we're like, oh, if we need to delay a day or whatever. And it's just like, I don't know when I'd be back.
00:10:46
Speaker
But ah like, I get to the point um where it's just like, i I'm like reading things and responding to things. And I realized like later, it's just like, oh, that's not even what they're talking about. It's just like in my head, like answering stuff. It just doesn't make sense to anyone.
00:11:01
Speaker
So, ah so that that sucked. It culminated in Saturday when my body kind of gave out. I mean, but like this week, ah it's like, you know, we're back up to like five hours, which is like functioning like four to five hours. Like you can get by in that.
00:11:15
Speaker
So that's not enough. You need more than that. I know. It's a lot better than two, though. Yeah. for let's Let's clear the six mark.
00:11:26
Speaker
It's like the 20 minute speed running Hades two mark. there's a Like six is enough. It's not good. like Like it's not the best, but it's enough to like less than six is not enough.
00:11:40
Speaker
Take care of yourself. But that's the thing with insomnia. It's not like a choice. Like I literally one day laid in bed for four hours. Also, this is some serious do as I say, not as I do nonsense.
00:11:53
Speaker
I hadn't thought about that because I'm like, is there? Don't take me too seriously. No, no, it's interesting when you say like take care of yourself because I was like, you know, at the end it's like, you know, feels like the time to like wrap that section up and be like, and this is a lesson in taking care of yourself.
00:12:08
Speaker
But the reality is for a lot of people, like that isn't like an option, right? It's like what I can like not work with, you know, or I cannot, it's like, the you know, you don't, you're doing what you have to because like you have to, to like, you know,
00:12:24
Speaker
like survive as yourself or other people are depending on you or, you know, whatever. So, you know, so I think there isn't a lesson. There's just empathy that like, you know, sex and I'm sorry. And it's like, it's not like,
00:12:41
Speaker
Like, I think we sometimes live in a society that wants to blame you so for your inability to, like, you know for things that are, like, not in your phone. and It's just, like, it sucks, and I'm sorry if you struggle with, them you know, physical, mental stuff.
00:12:57
Speaker
Anyway. So, okay. But getting to the better stuff, even, like... better stuff um
00:13:05
Speaker
I've been kind of in a slag for a while. um if you've been listening to the podcast, you know, I've been working on a synthwave inspired space station base builder.
00:13:20
Speaker
governmental sim uh mobile game that i've been working on for quite a while and it was it is a very large my problem is like uh with making things is like i think i've compared myself in the podcast before to like a crow and golem and really it's like the worst of both it's like i'm distracted by every shiny thing but like every shiny thing is also the one ring and it is my everything
00:13:47
Speaker
ah So I had to delay this. I was getting real close to like a limited alpha that I can invite my friends to see. and I ended up having to delay that for several reasons.
00:13:59
Speaker
And I've been having even trouble getting back I've been having this brain fog. I've always been able to like hyper focus and code. I had a coworker before, um this older gentleman, who ah you know COBOL programmer, back in the day trying to figure out object-oriented programming.
00:14:22
Speaker
Anyway, so one day he said to me, he's like, I look over and he's like, you come in and hes like you sit down you just get in this focus mode and you're just gone for hours and hours. So to that company, he's like, I wish I could do that. I just can't. I was oh, thank you for noticing my ability to hyperfixate.
00:14:41
Speaker
In my experience, that's the best type of coding there is. Like, you know, and I just been unable to get myself there. And I was at a very big portion and I decided take a a small break and do a game jam.
00:14:57
Speaker
And that's why I've been away from Snap. I mean, also with the insomnia, but mostly, I guess, specifically from Snap. I have been game jamming. It is a Oh, and first let me preface this before I forget to say it later. I have been coding it in WebGL. So it will play in mobile browser for both Android and Apple. though I'll be releasing in the Android App Store because I don't have an Apple phone and I can't test uh when it's ready i'm actually i'm actually gonna reach release in the app store and um yeah yeah yeah you can play it you can play it now when can i play it now because well when it when the the podcast posts i will post the link um with the password to the itch.io site
00:15:41
Speaker
Um, so that everyone can play. And okay, I won't, don't want to promise like a fully, a fully baked experience because it's one, it's just awful. There's a lot of placeholder art, right? That's not in. I am still in the process of putting the planned things in. So it's not like tuned yet, but if you would like to see it in the process of being developed, I put up, uh, usually multiple builds a day.
00:16:05
Speaker
At least one. So there's there's always a new snuff going in. is a I don't expect it to be everyone's jam, but it is a cozy rogue.
00:16:17
Speaker
based on a mermaid. And it is, it's been so fun because like my big game is so big and it requires so much infrastructure and like save load.
00:16:28
Speaker
um I could go on and on about save load systems, but like, that's not easy. Like people think you can just click save. And like, yeah, it's just the computer just, you know, saves the state and then it'll return. It's like, no, you have to perfectly like boil that down in the case of Unity down to numbers and letters into strings and floats, you know, and, um you know, and then you have to load it back up.
00:16:55
Speaker
And that's like one of the most important things about games. You don't think about it. Right. But if the game doesn't load right. right? Especially a game, big game, customizable game that put a lot of time into. If something goes wrong with your save file, it's devastating.
00:17:10
Speaker
You have to be able to save all the stuff perfectly. Anyway, and that's just like the core. This is so many systems, but this game, I've been able to contain myself and I can, i've it's like already there and now I can put stuff in and I can see it right away and like people can play it and that's like so rewarding for me. I've been, I've been needing that for so long.
00:17:28
Speaker
And, uh, and ah And I get to have all my fun. OK, fun stuff about coding your own games is ah you could have all these little hidden fun jokes for yourself. Like um to detect hexagons, which are the primary ah means of movement, I have to ah have a layer mask to just detect hexagon colliders and not other colliders.
00:17:52
Speaker
And I've called this layer mask only hexes. And every time I get it, I just like giggle to myself every time I have to code only hexes. I'm just like, yeah, show me those six sides.
00:18:03
Speaker
I hear they're all even. But that or like I just have an alert if like like, you know, a big like mini bus is in the tile next to the mermaid.
00:18:15
Speaker
I gave her emotes, of course. The method is called trigger emotion, you know, which of which there is an enum of values like happy, curious, alarmed. And if she if she is alarmed, I've called that like activate mermsense.
00:18:31
Speaker
It's all hidden in the code. You wouldn't know, but it's fun for me. um I get to put my little touches in. okay I made a little flock of fish that swim everywhere. um And they take colors from the gradient. So each flock is always like, you know, going to be slightly unique.
00:18:46
Speaker
There's always 20. What they do for you is they give you a speed boost if they swim through you. They're fast. And ah they it lasts for one second per fish. The thing is the crabs on the level, they can eat. They go through the tile with the crab. The crab can grab the fish.
00:19:02
Speaker
And you see it. It grabs a fish. And it actually takes a fish from the flock. It's not just like a generic animation. I have it grab an actual fish. And then that fish is gone from the flock. And if you stay in that little level long enough, eventually all the fish could be gone.
00:19:16
Speaker
No more speed boosts. I'll get eaten by crabs. Crabs, if they run into each other.
00:19:23
Speaker
ah Because just not space for two crabs. Yeah!
00:19:28
Speaker
Crab battle! Because it's like there's just not room for two crabs in a hex, you know? And they're kind of territorial. I've decided... One of them, the red one, always moves, it always passed clockwise. It'll go in a direction until it can't, and then it'll pick the next direction clockwise. Because I think when you have, like, you know, dangers, enemy characters, they need to have predictable patterns that people can pick up on. um And so I call them the clockwise crabs.
00:19:57
Speaker
And then the blue ones, I've decided they must be at war, and they only go counterclockwise. And, you know, and if they meet when they're spawned, I give them both a little like random. They get a randomized fight value.
00:20:10
Speaker
And then when they cross paths, whoever's the bigger fight battle wins. The other crab flips up, dies. the winner gets a crown! The winner gets little crown on their head. And if you get hit by the crowned crab, it'll take two pips of health instead of one. and Anyway, it's just... That's like a micro example of how vulnerable you are to scope creep, but also, it's so darling, and I love all the detail you've got on everything. But I contained it there! I just gave them the fight value. I was like, okay, but what if every time they get a fish, it makes them stronger? and then, like, what if?
00:20:42
Speaker
And then I was like, no, stop it there! I'm proud of you. Yes. The fight value is enough. So, yes, I am, I have and been able... to contain my scope creep. But, um, oh, it's so good. Like, it's just so fun to do things. I made, like, I call it wild water. It's just like a little whirlpool. And it's like, the mermaid spins and like spits them out.
00:21:05
Speaker
Anyway. So, uh, that That's ah ah i what I've been... That's awesome. What is its working game working name? Oh, it's called Mare.
00:21:18
Speaker
Because I was thinking... When I was thinking, I was like... It feels like... I wanted to like... I had like the witch's road in my head, but like the mermaid road. And I had written down the mer road.
00:21:29
Speaker
And my friend, Frank, who's like doing all the good art in the game. I've done a little bits of art that like are small and unimportant, like the crown for the crabs and little fish and stuff. But like all the good And, you know, I tell him, like, the Murr Road.
00:21:44
Speaker
And he's like, oh, what if, you know, you call it Rue Murr? Because, like, you know, like, Rue, like, the French name for road. And it's funny because, like, had actually thought of that when I was thinking of names.
00:21:58
Speaker
But I thought... mer-ru and I was like that doesn't sound good no it's like oh you just flip just do a little flipsy um and that's what it's called I'll be so excited if you check it out and you have any feedback go into a little um speakeasy discord and at me please I'd love to hear I will I will post it so ah it's just it's it's really fun for me um
Snap Gameplay Excitement & Critiques
00:22:25
Speaker
I'm excited to try it. last Last version I played was like a week ago. So it sounds like a lot has changed.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yes. And there's still so much more to go in. And like I said, and it's not, I have just put stuff in it. It's not tuned in a gameplay sense. But um i ah it brings me such joy. And I get to play it like every night, you know? Like it's not, it's small enough. It's it's small enough.
00:22:50
Speaker
And Oh my gosh. Okay. Last thing though. It's like, yes, when you, when you go and see it, everything that's in there, I did in a fucking week. I did. And it makes me want to like, just like, like i don't know, like gorilla beat my chest. Like, yeah, I still got it.
00:23:05
Speaker
So long. on this game without being able to like show it to people and then I can build this and it's like I still am that that programmer that can like do the work of 10 people like that's still me you know uh it feels it feels good all right um I've gone on way long I'm glad to see it so oh I'm so excited to play it it's uh we needed two two weeks uh worth of yeah two weeks since now
00:23:35
Speaker
um Yeah, it's very fun to see how much it has invigorated you. Okay, moving on to Snap Stuff. ah We already discussed before the show, none of us have anything else to say about Zombie Mr. Fantastic.
00:23:47
Speaker
Moving on. still sucks. No. I like, okay. I said I didn't have anything to say about him. I lost to one today because on their turn six, they played Zombie Fantastic Abs Man.
00:24:02
Speaker
yeah I'm not saying that's good. I just wasn't expecting it. Didn't account for that extra plus two on the hunger. i mean, on the horde. Anyway. Um, the hunger just plus one.
00:24:18
Speaker
The honor reveal is plus two. Oh, the honor reveal is plus two. oh Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. No, they didn't even use the activate ability. yeah. The Hunger. This was our prize card for Sanctum Showdown. one cost skill on reveal.
00:24:32
Speaker
Horde 3.
00:24:36
Speaker
I got it. I played Sanctum long enough to get it. It seems good. Standard in any Horde deck. And that's what I mean by good. It's good for its archetype. I don't think it's an especially strong archetype. yeah You too?
00:24:48
Speaker
I have a thought about it. And that is that there's a Rian Gonzalez variant for it that's actually cute. It's not the one that they show you on the pop-up. they They don't try to sell it for $20 to you, which is ah backwards in my opinion because that that one's ugly as hell.
00:25:06
Speaker
yeah Yeah, they they should have tried to sell the Rian Gonzalez one for more money. That's what I would have done if I were them. I didn't buy the Rian Gonzalez, but it is cute. Yeah.
00:25:17
Speaker
I do like that they had Rian do all the zombies. So if somebody wants cute zombies instead of nasty ones, they have that option. I think that was an unusually, ah yeah yeah, smart smart move.
00:25:29
Speaker
That reminds me of this. Okay, if you've ever played World of Warcraft, I used to be, I haven't i haven't touched it in 15 years, in in a long time, but I used to be dangerously like slash played, like obsessed, like, and like Joke.
00:25:43
Speaker
I mean, there were bigger problems than that, but I often joke I lost a relationship over it, which is kind of true. um Which, I guess I might as well just say it. It goes like, ah you know, my my boyfriend said, Rhi, can we talk about how much time you're playing World of Warcraft and how that's affecting our relationship?
00:26:03
Speaker
I said, yes, but not right now. I've committed to mage tanking this raid, and they need me. I'm the only mage that can do it. The regular mage is out. We'll talk about this later. Okay, Anyway,
00:26:16
Speaker
ah've been i've i've've I've unlearned how to contain myself in the podcast. Okay. But like the argument was like, I played an undead because I was for the horde, of course, back in the day. And I thought I made my character pretty. And everyone's like, ring she's on an undead. She's just, you know, categorically unpretty. She's just by definition, that I'm pretty. I'm like,
00:26:39
Speaker
ah like Anyway, so it's like, and now I feel like years later, I want to go back and see. like, Rian Gonzalez said they can be cute. So fuck off. All
00:26:52
Speaker
so Do you want to say anything about The Hunger? I know you haven't been playing Snap much lately. ah No, I have. I have a thought, but it's not super really. I want to save it for after Zombie Captain Marvel.
00:27:05
Speaker
yeah Okay, Zombie Captain Marvel, four four Activate. Destroy your other cards here to get plus three power for each. Move to a location you're losing. Did you get it? What do you think?
00:27:19
Speaker
I haven't gotten her yet, and ah no one seemed to want to play her in Sanctum Showdown. yeah That's not surprising. yeah So I don't think I've encountered one yet.
00:27:31
Speaker
um You know, like... and would she be bad i mean like i feel like that might be one of her better better spots you know pack up i guess you could go somewhere that you'd he like i cards cards that move to predictable places are pretty good in uh sanctum well you say predictable my understanding i haven't witnessed this myself but i've heard other people say it my understanding is she picks one of the locations you're losing even if that location is full.
00:28:02
Speaker
So if you're losing two locations, there's a, and one of them's full, she just a 50% chance. She just picks the wrong location and sorry, she doesn't move. That's bad design. That seems like a bug to me. That's bad. Yeah.
00:28:17
Speaker
Wow. Well, I don't know. I haven't, I haven't acquired her yet. I've been like considering the option, but I'm planning to hold my tokens probably, especially since the reports I'm hearing are, uh,
00:28:30
Speaker
Not very flattering. Really? Really? specific to captain marvel or do you want it after ah Okay, no, I'll just say one. It's like this one seems the most I love regular Captain Marvel.
00:28:43
Speaker
and like destroy. I was real. I'm excited for this one. And if people think she's bad, all the better for me because the only thing that can ruin for me is having to play a million mirrors with her.
00:28:54
Speaker
I still ah love I love you know, I love hand buff and other buff and all buff decks and like ah Captain Marvel flying to victory at the end of the game feels so good, especially after someone thinks they've locked it down in the last turn.
00:29:07
Speaker
yeah You thought you had that. Anyway, so this, she seems like a total joy. But what was curious, it's like, okay, so I haven't played Snap into it. That's like A really long break for me.
00:29:21
Speaker
And like, coming in, I wanted to ask you guys this week, this week of play and snap. If I were a brand new player, a returning player, would this week cause you to recommend snap to me? How would you sell it to me based on what you did this week in snap? Or would you not?
00:29:39
Speaker
Zombie season's pretty boring, so... Maybe not. Oh, no. Not getting his first name. Might have you wait for November, um both because the Spider-Verse cards look more fun, and they're also just cheerier, happier characters. Yeah. Like we're getting Spider-Punk, right?
00:29:58
Speaker
ah Fun. Yeah, he's the season pass card. Thanks, Adam, for remembering Archrom. Sorry. Called back to a few episodes back. Adam knew he was talking about Archrom. Okay.
00:30:10
Speaker
um Okay, I got Captain Marvel. I've played her in a few things. Criticism, she uses the exact same voice line as non-zombified Captain Marvel. Oh, for real?
00:30:21
Speaker
She just says higher, further, faster, baby? In the exact same way. They didn't even, like, distort it or, like, add reverb. It's so cheap to add an effect. Oh, my God. Okay. I'm really not happy with it, and I hope it's a bug. Wow.
00:30:35
Speaker
well i I have not been impressed so far. And this is a card that I gave four points to when we did the rankings. And it's funny because when we did the rankings, I almost gave every card this season below four.
00:30:48
Speaker
But I was like, no, surely there's going to be one or two good cards per season. So then I gave them to Captain Marvel and Mr. Fantastic. But I wish I'd stuck to my guns because it just turns out this is not a very strong season. Yeah.
00:31:00
Speaker
I think I overestimated how strong her ability is. Even if you take away the four cost activate thing, which is like, that's a big cost. Even if you ignore that her ability is the extra power you get is very similar to carnage.
00:31:15
Speaker
It's carnage plus three ceiling. Yeah. Um, Well, plus five if you count her base stats, right? But you're paying double. You're paying double for that. You're eating three things and getting a total of three more power for eating three things.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yep. um So I don't... Are people doing own nip-ma? I Safi's like, oh, we should just... Yes, Nimrod is the main one I've seen. I've also seen some Clog. Safety's like, we should just follow the rule where destroy cards go in destroy decks.
00:31:47
Speaker
But I don't think she does. I think she's too slow. I think four is just... Even if she was a four on reveal, I don't think traditional discard want or traditional destroyer wants such an expensive destroyer.
00:32:00
Speaker
On reveal, though? On reveal, though? I'd do it. I'd do it. I mean, i would I would play that card, yeah. And I will continue to play this card because she seems fun.
00:32:11
Speaker
But so far, doesn't seem very strong. um and And will, like, set a... I don't know. A reserve that I think this does seem like a more complicated card.
00:32:24
Speaker
I think in it wouldn't surprise me if this is a card where people figure something out to do with her a month or two later. Um, because like knowing when to time her ability, knowing what to do in the other locations to try to control her movement. Like there, there are some factors here that ah matter.
00:32:43
Speaker
I suppose. I'm a little worried that her thing just isn't good enough, you know? In that case, the buffer probably, right? Probably. Also the voice line thing that reminded me of something else that, uh,
00:32:59
Speaker
What was this booster pack that that came out on this past weekend? This 500 collector's tokens for 3,250 gold.
00:33:10
Speaker
Oh, so bad. i Completely separate department, but just like a similar ah inexplicably stupid nonsense choice. Yeah, I think Griffin said that the cost and the prizes were both bugged.
00:33:24
Speaker
But, like, how does that happen? How indeed. Also, this most recent Token Tuesday, it's just the deal from the shop. It's 1,000 collector's tokens for... Available Like, just how many shits don't they give anymore? It's wild.
00:33:43
Speaker
It is, like... You know, the the core game's good, and there's a lot of good things about it, and there are still good things happening. But it is hard to care about the game when it doesn't seem like they do. They do. Yeah.
00:33:55
Speaker
For real. It's, like, embarrassing. What if it's the lack of, like, caring by the people working there? They don't have enough of a staff to keep up with the amount they're trying to put through.
00:34:09
Speaker
I think bandwidth is a big part of it. And I think they must also just be lacking automated tools or like a thorough checklist system to do things like catching obvious interaction problems or bugs with the bundles or whatever.
00:34:25
Speaker
feel like just like one person could catch a lot of these things though. I don't know. but Maybe, maybe the solution is better automated tools, but like, just like a human giving a shit would go a long way. I think.
00:34:40
Speaker
Okay. We will... I agree.
Grand Arena Champions & Mechanics
00:34:43
Speaker
Vibe check on next week's cards. There are two. we are getting Zombie Century via Grand Arena, and we are getting Zombie Galacti...
00:34:53
Speaker
like that in the season video it's not it's not galactic y'all the plural of cactus is not cacti it's not octopi like what what are we doing y'all y'all no words what did one person work on that video because more than one person appeared on screen did no one talk to that guy did no one like tell him like hey i've been speaking english for a second i know about plurals what was that You just now made me realize, I thought when people said Galacti, they were like, they were referring to it as the like, the one to be made Galactus, not like the name of the card. It's like, yeah, all the cards that are Galactis that will become. it's like, oh, I miss that. you get Galactus, you are the Galacti.
00:35:39
Speaker
galactothiny i think we need to adopt that that's amazing yeah there's one galactor and six galactees um that's like the moby dick card people are gonna be chasing making that good for a long time excited to see i'm excited to see that happen that card is not anything don't watch wombat combat trying do something with this it's a very bad card But it looks really fun and I'm going to make clips of it. At least one.
00:36:09
Speaker
But it's not as bad as Zombie Sentry, which is the stupidest fucking card ever. It's so stupid to not about this card. It's really hard to say, right? They're both such stinkers.
00:36:21
Speaker
but Yeah, it's a rough week. But like, it's such a dumb, it's like, it's such a, why mechanic? It's just like, like, it's just so made up for nothing. It's like, I get it.
00:36:32
Speaker
They're like, okay, it's based on sentry and he does stuff on the right. So I don't know what buffs up, but think of the game? How is this based on any kind of lore?
00:36:43
Speaker
How it's just so, it's just like, like, such a stupid. It's an undesirable, it takes paint it ah you have to paint yourself into such a corner and the reward is so bad it's like so laughable it's like like you're letting somebody do so I I don't know I was about to take the podcast in a lewd direction and we're above that we're above that so uh it's it's at least until the end credits play Yeah, I don't. why Why would you why would you fill your right lane just to get three eight worth of set? There are so many better ways to get stats than by.
00:37:24
Speaker
It's so stupid. I don't I don't have seen since the zombie buffs and the release of hunger. I've seen more greedy zombie decks, right? They're doing things like Wong or Prodigy to make extra Scarlet Witches or they're playing Wong and Joaquin Torres like they're getting kind of greedy.
00:37:43
Speaker
You should be able to see that coming, but Sentry kind of fits there. Like, you're doing Horde plus four, if you do it right, a really lane. I guess that is, like, the biggest single-batch Horde thing you can do.
00:37:54
Speaker
But still, you're doing... But still. ah So, if you play him on a Wong, it's a plus eight to your Horde, and you played Wong, like, it's just... It's just specifically to go with the, like, the Sentry, like, that specific deck.
00:38:11
Speaker
It's so dumb, because, like, it's too, like, wacky otherwise. And it's like, what, are they going to release one that's on reveal, give cards for each of your cards a location on the left?
00:38:24
Speaker
like no make a mechanic where you can stab upwards won't that be cool and it's like but there are no enemies like upwards and it's like i don't know i ran up ideas for stuff like yeah but i i'm over i think you have sufficiently and accurately covered it go back to the question that you were asking about like is it a good time to come back to snap it's like you could go back several weeks like go back to mr fantastic hunger zombie captain marvel Zombie century, zombie galactic. It's like three weeks in a row of just cars that are just stinkers.
00:38:57
Speaker
How Garbo. Yeah. But then next season, like day one, we get superior Spider-Man, man, spider and spider punk who are all great. Oh, yeah.
00:39:08
Speaker
I mean. I'm not very excited about man spider. I think that card is trouble. That card says it's screaming trouble at me. Like it ever since I saw it in the, that card's no good. Y'all it's, it's, I mean, it's very good. That's the problem. It's it's a very good card and it's going to be trouble.
00:39:24
Speaker
I think I agree with you, but I've seen some mixed reads on that. Some people think it's going to be bad. And I'm like, kind of feels like sure. You can work in multiple lanes. 0% chance. That card is bad. I'm telling you.
00:39:35
Speaker
Okay, we are briefly going to cover the Grand Arena, the new champions, ah based on data mines. We are getting Ghost Spider, Hulk, Magneto, and Thor added to the mode.
00:39:48
Speaker
And so we see variants for the champion variants, but also we see their skills, and that's what we're going to talk about real quick. So ah Ghost Spider's skill, and for a reminder, or for people who haven't played Grand Arena, your champion and their skills start in your hand.
00:40:05
Speaker
And you start with two energy, we confirmed before the podcast. Thanks for remembering that, Ben. So Ghost Spider gets Arachnid Acrobatics, which is a mouthful.
00:40:17
Speaker
It really is. Four cost skill. On reveal, your champion, Ghost Spider, gets plus two power for each time one of your cards moved this game. I wonder what champion Ben's going to play.
00:40:28
Speaker
Yeah, for real. Also, guys, Arachnobatics, it was right there. so much better. It is. Or a racrobatics. That also works.
00:40:39
Speaker
um Seems good. Four is expensive, but i it'll work even if she's still in your hand, I think. so Yeah. It's cool to make her into a hydrostomper.
00:40:53
Speaker
Yeah. How much does Mercury screw you over, Ben? Asking for future-y. how much How much will Mercury hurt this deck?
00:41:05
Speaker
I don't know. Is Mercury going to be legal in Grand Arena? there banned cards? I forgot. There are banned cards, and they also, last time, they banned cards mid... Yeah, they spiced it up. They banned in the middle because it was like, this is hurting Invisible Woman too much.
00:41:23
Speaker
They gave it a little refresh. was I think they will protect the champions if... if some of the champions are just getting shit on, they'll update the man bust. Maybe they can't stand as champions without you know without being immune to tag cards.
00:41:39
Speaker
Perhaps they don't deserve to be champions after all.
00:41:44
Speaker
Hey, i I very rarely have opinions about what the title of episodes should be. will just bitter because the the types of decks I play usually like can lose out to like a move deck that I don't put in a lot of counters for. I understand. After I'm in Conquest and I see that Iron Fist and Human Tri- I'm like, oh no.
00:42:03
Speaker
Oh no. That's a cat me really tough deck to beat if you don't have...
00:42:12
Speaker
ben Okay, but i think I think the name of the episode should be Arachnovatics was right there. That's what I think. Okay, noted. Well, I haven't noted it yet, but I will in a second. ha um Is it good enough? you said you You said that Hydro Stomper's at three cost, but Hydro Stomper's also only plus one per move, isn't he?
00:42:32
Speaker
nope He's plus two per move? I think so. Maybe. i don't know. I just know that he's huge. No, he's probably plus one. per one i think he's plus one per move, so this is bigger. He feels plus two.
00:42:44
Speaker
he feels plus two. I mean, like, I play the card all the time. He's he's plus one, right? When I play a move, I play some Hydra Stomper. Yeah, it's plus one. He just gets so huge that, like, don't... I can't be bothered with the details. We're making big numbers.
00:42:58
Speaker
Okay, I was just railing, but Batroc the Leaper and Silk and Hydra Stomper is, like, the fucking shit. Okay. Still love that combo. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, no, it's a very fun combo. I love it, too. All day long.
00:43:14
Speaker
i think it's a strong enough combo that I've seen it in, like, hybrid decks where those are, like, those are the movers. Maybe you have one more. ah Anyway, Hulk Smash. This is traditional 612 Hulk's skill. I am curious if this Champion Hulk will work with High Evo.
00:43:30
Speaker
But, anyway, listen to this. Three-cost skill, Hulk Smash. On reveal, set the cost of your Hulks to four in deck or in hand. So Red Hulk, She-Hulk, and Hulk.
00:43:43
Speaker
I like this. Scar probably. want to play with him. Hulkling, even though he's not a Hulk. I don't think so. I bet they have to have Hulk the name. don't know if Hulkling is famously not a Hulk. that's That's the one thing we all know about him.
00:43:54
Speaker
What? Does it count? Is it terminology? Because I'm sure Scar won't count, right? I bet it's Hulk, Red Hulk, the name. With Hulk in the name. She-Hulk, Red Hulk, and Hulk.
00:44:06
Speaker
Regular Hulk. Like Bruce Banner isn't going to get this. That would count Hulkling if it cares about the name. would be so funny if it said Bruce Banner to four. Wow, that would be funny.
00:44:18
Speaker
I'm curious because, yeah, I don't think they're going to go lore and be like, well, these are all and technically Hulks or not Hulks. Hulkling's an iffy though because I can see him not, them doing the names but not counting because he's not Hulk.
00:44:31
Speaker
She dash Hulk. Red, you know. Yeah, he's just a real Bruce Banner. But this seems fun, right? Give you a chance to pull out your Thaddeus Russ.
00:44:41
Speaker
This is one of the... I like looked ahead. I'd not seen these, actually, prior to the podcast. And this is one of the two that most interest me for this. I want a Hulk smash. love I love a She-Hulk. This does seem fun.
00:44:54
Speaker
And I think, yeah, She-Hulk reducing from four, that's huge. And think Hulk will be pretty strong if you can play it with Haiba. ah And just pull some bullshittery with like Moon Girl, i don't know, Red Wing. just Just do some dumb stuff with big power cards. Sounds fun.
00:45:14
Speaker
Yeah. It definitely looks like a ah fun deck if you just want to turn off your brain or whatever. ah Big Dumb Idiots, as it's classically called. Shang can only take out one Hulk. they They're too powerful for Shang anymore.
00:45:26
Speaker
This is true. Yeah. Tis the season. ah Magneto! maybe Maybe Ghost Spider isn't the obvious choice for Ben. Four cost skill, Master of Magnetism. On reveal, move all enemy three and four cost cards to this location.
00:45:43
Speaker
If either side here is full, double your champion's power. I don't like this because the most fun I have playing Magneto is as as so as as a surprise. And if you're playing this, he can't be a surprise. And that's when Magneto is the most effective.
00:46:02
Speaker
In my opinion. That's have to say Boom. Done. good It might be kind of fun to move their threes and fours twice, but I don't know if that's a good thing to do. What if they're playing your well you you're one deck? I applaud you for looking at that angle, because I think that really is the issue here.
00:46:20
Speaker
But if you do the Master of Magnetism correctly, and you have a 24 power Magneto, maybe he'll be just fine playing against all the threes and fours. Yeah, I guess I'm not worried about like losing 24 Power Magneto's lane.
00:46:35
Speaker
I just don't think this is... Investing 10 energy. Yeah, I think i think this is like kind of a bad pattern. like If this is your gameplay, I don't know. um maybe Maybe I've got it all wrong, and Grand Arena is like different than regular Snap in its way, and like maybe I'm misunderstanding how this Oh, totally forgot. You could play this on turn three.
00:46:57
Speaker
Yeah. But like also how many threes and fours have they played on turn three? yeah You wouldn't play it on. Probably not that many. Yeah. I think it's clunky. And I think that we, nobody asked for 24 power Magneto and we certainly don't want it at the cost of playing a four cost card before that. Like 10, 24 Magneto is not a request I filed.
00:47:21
Speaker
yeah How often are you playing Shuri Magneto? Never. Yeah. um Okay, the Hulk deck just got better, because yeah, I forgot about the energy curve being different, so you can play Hulk Smash on two.
00:47:33
Speaker
And then you have four turns left to play discounted Hulks. Oh yeah, it doesn't wear off it's It's not an next turn, it's forever. Give yourself a handful of She-Hulks to drop the last turn.
00:47:44
Speaker
Be fun. Okay. One more is Thor. Thundering Hammer, two-cost skill. On reveal, shuffle Mjolnir into your deck.
00:47:55
Speaker
Draw card. Eight. just get Just get another Mjolnir. Yeah, this is not good. This is a bad 2-6.
00:48:06
Speaker
but But if you're building around Thor and doing silly things with him, like Odin's shenanigans... Are we getting quadruple value off of every Mjolnir?
00:48:18
Speaker
like Is the deck built... Is Thor's deck... Is the good Thor deck going to be like... It's going to be Firehair Misery. Is it? Are we sure it's not just Grandmaster and Wong and whatever else?
00:48:33
Speaker
It could be that, too.
00:48:36
Speaker
don't know. yeah You could always Loki stuff, maybe. i don't know. I don't know what I want to do with this, but I'm interested. This is the other deck besides the Hulk, because I love the Thors. Wouldn't you rather clone a Mjolnir in your hand?
00:48:54
Speaker
Like, if you're going to get an extra Mjolnir, don't you want to, like, Moongirl it instead? I don't even think it would be too strong. The of drawing second one is, like...
00:49:03
Speaker
Just shuffling more into your deck isn't good. I don't even think it would strong to if it just generated a Mjolnir in your hand. In your hand? I don't think so either. is the point of the card draw?
00:49:14
Speaker
I mean, card draw is good. Yeah. A card you can play on turn one to draw a card? it's It's just, like, compensating for itself. Something I'm not thinking of that I'm going to want to do with this card.
00:49:27
Speaker
Obviously, King Atrian Jane. I usually hate putting when they have like they're like put these cards together, obviously, unless it's like you know like a tribal deck.
00:49:39
Speaker
Unless it's a big enough set of cards, you can build your own unique goblin
Exploring Non-DC/Marvel Comics
00:49:43
Speaker
deck. But I am always like drawn into doing the Sores. I don't know. think they're fun. I'm glad he's a champion. I hope they can...
00:49:51
Speaker
In the comics right now, Thor, after being um betrayed Loki and being murdered, the title is switched now. Now he is the mortal Thor.
00:50:02
Speaker
And he is like, o yeah, amnes act he's like He's like not like he doesn't know who he is. He's like in the mortal world.
00:50:13
Speaker
Anyway. And like Loki keeps showing up in a very, um you know, like it's like to like taunt him. It's an interesting twist. We'll see where it goes. so Okay.
00:50:23
Speaker
um But yeah, it works. We don't know what's happening with the existing champions. i expect at least some, if not all, will return because otherwise there's only going to be four and there were eight the first time.
00:50:35
Speaker
um All the better if more, right? hope it's all them. um I kind of hope it's all of them. i think 12 is a manageable number. I don't think we need more than 12 at a time, but I think they could go up from 8. Yeah. yeah I would kind of like it to just always grow, but I understand if there's rotation.
00:50:52
Speaker
Also, at least with the current rules, you can't put one champion. You can't put, like, Magneto as a champion means you can't put Magneto in any of other cards. He's now on the ban list. so They would have to fix that if they...
00:51:06
Speaker
if they would demon they ah Too much overlap. and girl But we all recall that some of the champions last time were straight up dookie stinkers.
00:51:16
Speaker
Like, they weren't There were ones that were clearly the best. Yes. So, like, maybe maybe there are only eight and they got rid of Doctor Doom and whatever else.
00:51:31
Speaker
mole man or something i will miss i will miss torch if he is not here i had so much fun with that skill last time uh okay let's go on to our side quest first up and only secret homework this week's secret homework was from scott uh read a comic not from marvel or dc uh pass it to re first because he was filling in for you ah Yes. And it was a very good one. i i love love secret homework that lets me like push up my nerd glasses because immediately I was like, OK, well, if it's not Marvel or DC, are we discounting Image and Vertigo, which were used to be independent comic chains, but were, you know, bought by DC Marvel? better not be discounting them.
00:52:16
Speaker
Right? And immediately got to pull him like, oh, let's sleep get some Dark Horse or like pull out some Boom or some Avatar. I don't know. I just love... I love talking about comics to anyone who will actually understand any of the things I'm saying. companies i So I took it as a recommend. I haven't actually read comics all week, which is unusual for me.
00:52:40
Speaker
Like, you know, it's been an odd week. But... um So I didn't read a new one, so was just going to recommend an old one. Honestly, what this did was make me sick. I took the challenge out of myself of like, I'm not going pick Image or Vertigo, which is kind of the main two big sources in and um American Western comic press um for...
00:53:03
Speaker
ah for things that aren't DC or Marvel Universe, right? they're They're where you go, which kind of sucks that it's like, even that is owned by people, the editorial, like, kind of oversight there. um But, ah so i was like, okay, I'm gonna go out for that. So I pulled out my drawer. I forgot, I took a picture. i was gonna...
00:53:24
Speaker
show or podcast discord, but like of like all my non and then I pull out, I first, I pulled out my first join. was like, no, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, back to the quarantine.
00:53:36
Speaker
What's funny is they were already next to each other in the drawer. And now it's just like, it's the forbidden drawer of comics. The prison. Okay. Pulled out the next one.
00:53:48
Speaker
And it made me sad because the ones that I liked, the real indie ones that I would think like, that I know like probably Scott's never even heard of or, you know, my other friends that read a decent amount of comics that I wanted to bust out.
00:54:00
Speaker
It's like... they never really got a chance to fall. It's like, oh, this was a fun premise. And it's like, but it only got like four issues or five issues that they tried, but it didn't feel like a full complete, you know, was more, you know, the whisper of a promise.
00:54:17
Speaker
The fulfillment of of that. So like, and that bummed me out. And I think a lot of that, like I said, comes from the problem that right, like these independent comics, you know, these ones that aren't like from image or Vertigo, it's so hard for them to get a foothold.
00:54:36
Speaker
And if, like, you are interested in comics at all, you know, a lot of that is about the way they distribute, the way they need to get, like, pre-ordered. You know what mean? Like, a lot of comics just don't get a chance to even be out there for the people.
00:54:49
Speaker
And so, at first, this was, like, real... a real bummer for me. I was like, oh, I can't recommend modern fantasy. That's one issue that I thought would have been really cool. And then nothing ever else came out. Or Fair Lady, which was like a lady detective in a weird sci-fi slash fantasy world in this town that's just a huge robot from like old ancient wars that nobody knows. And she's trying to like solve them. And it's like, oh, that was so cool.
00:55:15
Speaker
I wanted that to get more. But it was like a little five issue like mini arc that never got to go anywhere. Or the the Axor Sisters was one I looked at, which was like, it's like a mom sold out her daughter's soul, which split into a different person. And now they're kind of like twins and an almost jackalot and they like have adventure.
00:55:33
Speaker
And it's like, not even the most amazing writing ever, but it's so fun. Right. And they, they kind of got a first little thing. And, and as far as I know, didn't get to go any further. And it's like,
00:55:46
Speaker
Bond of a boomer. Anyway, but ending a try, almost like was going to default to once in future, but I feel like I've recommended that to recently somewhere. But then I saw Witchblood.
00:55:58
Speaker
I forgot. Okay, so Witchblood is, oh, I don't even think you can see on camera. Well, look at that. Look at that Lisa Sturley art. I think the writer or the artist or both are actually from my ah my my my hometown city. It's not my, I wasn't like born here anything. Of Columbus. Columbus, Ohio. So it's kind of a little success story.
00:56:19
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I forgot. Sorry. the camera gets crapped. because I'm going to crop it in. So put it where you have been. ah oh And become a comic. Okay.
00:56:33
Speaker
It is a road trip. Like wild westy feeling um about a witch running from a vampire biker gang.
00:56:45
Speaker
We're trying to destroy or take over like source of witch magic. She's like a thousand years old. And still hasn't figured his shit out. The art looks dope. don't really Yeah, the art is so good. It's so fun. It's only five issues.
00:57:01
Speaker
So it's like one graphic novel. it's just a real fun romp. um So that is... that That's my recommend. And it's from Vault Comics, right?
00:57:13
Speaker
So, like, think when you can, if you can, you know, it's great to support just because it's not, you know, it's never good to consolidate all creativity under one bander and one editorial staff, in my opinion.
00:57:28
Speaker
Okay. um True that. Yes. That was me. We have Ben is giving next week's homework. So we will go to Lauren. I sure am. As soon as Rhi brought up the, like, what was Image and Vertigo. What was the other one?
00:57:44
Speaker
Vertigo is owned by DC and it is owned Marvel now. Yeah, that issue. As soon as you brought up that issue, I was like, oh, well, maybe I should just, you know... Ruined it for you. I'm such a great comics fan now. Don't even risk it. And so the way that I, yeah the way I tried not to risk it, and for all I know, it's owned by Marvel anyway.
00:58:03
Speaker
ah No, I'm sure it's not. I went to manga and I read Dawn to Dawn, chapters one through three. This is my favorite anime, like ah maybe of all time, but certainly within the past few years. It's a banner.
00:58:18
Speaker
It is so fun. And... Something that I'd wanted to read anyway to read you know the manga that the anime is based on. I would recommend the anime to anybody, ah but especially if you like animation and weird, weird shit.
00:58:32
Speaker
first I haven't finished it, but I'm very much enjoying it. Yeah. The first episode or two is a little horny. I think if you're not used to that in anime, it may turn you off, but like the rest of it's not like that. um I mean, the rest of it is like a normal level of like high school teenagers horny, not... Yeah, it stayed horny as far as I've been watching.
00:58:50
Speaker
Oh, no, I think the first two are much worse than the rest. Anyway, um ah worse is judgmental, more more extreme in that direction. Yeah, I will say there that it mellowed out a little. But yeah, they they do come out the gate horny. Oh, yeah.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yeah, I have nothing against a horny anime. And to give you an idea of the level of appropriateness, I was fine with my 13-year-old watching it. um Anyway. It is very fun. If you're unfamiliar with the premise, it's a nerdy guy in school who believes in aliens and ah at least semi-popular girl who believes in ghosts.
00:59:22
Speaker
And they run into each other and they're both like, what the fuck are you talking about? The ghosts aren't real. Aliens aren't real. And so they make a bet. and And Okaroon tells Momo to go to this...
00:59:34
Speaker
ah ancient abandoned hospital that's or ancient this abandoned hospital that's a hot spot for alien activity and she challenges challenges him to go to this tunnel that is known to be haunted and of course it turns out aliens and ghosts are both real and shenanigans ensue um it's yeah it's really fun and something that i love about it is like the the battles and the silliness and the supernatural elements are all like so extreme and wild but they still manage to have really authentic human moments for human teenagers and also like really touching episodes there's one in season seven that is just like season one and think it's episode seven uh that is just different from the rest and is a phenomenal piece of storytelling um
01:00:16
Speaker
Very moving, actually. Anyway, I got to read the manga. The art was beautiful. I was very impressed by how much action there was. Like these choreographed fights that I've seen animated, but then to read them in manga form and like, oh, some of these sequences only have like two or three panels, but they still tell such a story.
01:00:35
Speaker
um He's really, really good at ah showing movement with the illustrations. So I think that I would recommend the manga also. was a treat to read. Thanks, Scott.
01:00:49
Speaker
Ben? Well, I did not... Here's the thing. i was I was away from my home this week, away from my bookshelf, just packed with... and I don't know if it's just packed, but you know there were some independent comics that are at home that I couldn't read.
01:01:08
Speaker
And I was like, why do I have to read? i was like, what can I read while I'm away from my books? How am I to do this? And then I remembered... that 25 years ago, apparently, Powers was first published. And ah for the 25th anniversary, I recently got...
01:01:27
Speaker
the the first two volumes of that for free. Sorry, before we get further, can interrupt you to say when you say, like, how can I read without books? And then you said, but then I remembered like 25 years ago, and then thought you were going to say the internet was invented. I can see shit on my phone now.
01:01:45
Speaker
Which is how you will. Well, yes. Yes and yes. How can I read without the printing word? Okay, sorry. Powers, yes, I have it. I think, I think it was cause I followed Brian Michael Bendis on blue sky or something, but I, I became aware that powers was being given away for free for the 25th anniversary, the first two volumes of it.
01:02:08
Speaker
It was, you probably missed it. ah probably should have talked about it on the podcast, but i hadn't read it. Jokes on you. I haven't. Okay. Sorry. No, I'm sure. I'm sure you do. And, uh, great stuff. Also, uh,
01:02:22
Speaker
it's It's funny. ah the The first volume of Powers has a little bonus story at the end starring Warren Ellis. Oh, no. Yeah. Major creep.
01:02:35
Speaker
Not as bad as Neil Gaiman, at least. Yes, I can say for him. Triumph Metropolitan was so... From my limited knowledge, yeah, probably not as bad as...
01:02:46
Speaker
Truly monstrous behavior by Neil Gaiman, but still not great from from what I've read. um So i I don't mean to minimize whatever anyone who dealt with Warren Ellis went through. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. They they both seem...
01:03:04
Speaker
the no good to me, but you know what is good? First volume of powers who killed retro girl. I know who killed retro girl. Dang. Also ah felt a very but well, I don't want to spoil it.
01:03:18
Speaker
I guess, I guess I don't want to say why I'm like, wow, this was really ahead of its time. Cause I would, I would be spoiling some of the mystery if I, if I got too, too into that, but ah wow. The art's great.
01:03:31
Speaker
the The dialogue is very Bendis-y as, you know. Yeah. I liked the characters a lot. i was I was immediately taken by... um ah let let Let me conjure that I ah took a screenshot because that's the thing you can do when you're reading books.
01:03:54
Speaker
Well, I attempted to take a screenshot. Maybe i failed. Oh, it was on my other phone. That's right. Okay. who Who did I like?
01:04:04
Speaker
I liked ah this. There were a lot of characters I liked. But in like the first episode, or not episode, issue.
01:04:16
Speaker
ah So one of the cool things about Powers is that there's like... through a like there there's the main action going on on the page but then like on the bottom of the page for like most of the pages especially in like this first this first one uh they've got like news reports on like what's going on just like there's there's like a a media thing going on at the the bot like all right so up here we got like the action and then we got like a television thing going on down at the bottom and um My favorite of the of the powered people that I have met, the the powers, ah is Zora.
01:04:54
Speaker
So soon after her auspicious debut saving the city from what could have been one of the most horrifying terrorist attacks on American soil, when her cameras caught Retro Girl in action, she was in the company of the controversial Zora.
01:05:06
Speaker
Zora, with her shock of blonde hair and mystical powers that manifest themselves as a brilliant light show, seemed an unlikely comrade-in-arms for the sprite retro girl. Zora came under intense media scrutiny when she admitted that her powers stemmed from a total spiritual abandonment of all things religious.
01:05:21
Speaker
And that just tickled me. um Anywho, also, she's got a great look. So Zora was was my favorite character there. I'm sure she'll show up in later arcs. um there was There was a lot to like about it. read it all last night.
01:05:40
Speaker
I started on the second volume because that was also free, ah but I haven't finished that yet. But the the first arc, good stuff. Um, yeah. So I hope you got it for free when it was free. And if you didn't do that, I hope you like re already owned it.
01:05:59
Speaker
And you haven't read it in so long. I can't even, maybe you can go out and buy it with money. That's up to you. get it from your library or something. But yeah, that, that was, that was the independent comic that was available to me. Although I guess maybe it's not independent because Marvel and DC buy things. And it seems like maybe, maybe it has changed hands and been in both of those publishers hands at some point. I don't know. Oh, interesting.
01:06:25
Speaker
well Well, I don't know. I was just skimming some Wikipedia. i was skimming some Wikipedia and you know, these imprints, they, yeah, whatever. Whatever. Point is, good book.
01:06:37
Speaker
ah if if If I'd had access to my bookshelf, I was planning to reread Nimona by N.D. Stevenson. Oh, I love Nimona. There's a movie on Netflix. It's pretty good. meaning to watch it.
01:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's good fun. It's it's a bit different like in tone and stuff, but also good. Yes. Nimona's good no matter where you're getting it. That's that's what I think.
01:07:05
Speaker
Anywho. Oh, yes. Now it calls to me to assign next week's secret homework. So, y'all may have noticed, we got some goofy-ass action figure variants in the game now, huh?
01:07:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And I think they're kind of neat. They're kind of cool. I don't really want them, but I know that other people want them, and I'm happy for them, and I think that it's funny and appropriate and better than, like, plagiarized pixel art or...
Creative Attribution in Art & Gaming
01:07:33
Speaker
perhaps AI generated art from studios where the art has been like anonymized and like, you know, you don't really know who or what made it.
01:07:44
Speaker
or to what extent is even. Yeah. So I'm like, let's get. ah So, okay. let let Let me just get into what it is. it is.
01:07:57
Speaker
propose a fun new source of, like, something like the action figure variants. Like, what's what's an untapped way that we could be getting variants in the game? Like, repurposing something else that's already out there in the world.
01:08:11
Speaker
I have... I already know what I'm bringing. So I'm not going to list that as an example, but like, you could say like, you know how they're like MCU inspired variants. Like what if we, what if we took stills from the movies?
01:08:22
Speaker
Like, you know something like that, but like what, what could be variants, but isn't variants yet. And I've got a good one and I hope none of y'all come for it. Okay.
01:08:33
Speaker
okay
01:08:35
Speaker
Good one. Well, listeners, viewers, if you liked what you heard, like, comment, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and Spotify. Leave us a comment on YouTube or Spotify or come to the speakeasy. It's our little corner of discord where you can chat with us and other their listeners.
01:08:52
Speaker
um The instructions to get there are in the show notes or video description. We are proudly part of the Snap Judgments Network, where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions by Joe on Mondays. And folks, it finally happened. I recorded an episode with Joe just a couple days ago.
01:09:07
Speaker
ah It's definitely on YouTube. I think it'll be up on the audio by the time... you hearing this, I think he puts a small delay in there for guests. Not sure why. Um, but anyway, we talked about all kinds of things, uh, ranging from snap and conspiracy theories and Halloween and favorite movies. I think I did a much better job talking about Jennifer's body on that show than I did on this one.
01:09:29
Speaker
Um, And we talked about our top five Nintendo games of all time. And I did six because I could not narrow it down to five. Um, anyway, it was super fun and check it out if you, if you want to, uh, anyway, tune in next week. We will be ranking November's spider season cards,
01:09:49
Speaker
Same snap time, same snap channel. Okay, I can't dance to guitars. I have to bitch about the artist studios.
01:10:00
Speaker
Like super interrupt. Please do go off. Here's why. Okay, so it's not just that's the obvious wrong is it's a way to disguise like AI use behind its way to try and like pull off plagiarism, which cannot also be pulled off other ways.
01:10:14
Speaker
yeah, like in another sense too that is also slightly more obvious it's taking the credit away from the artists themselves right you know you're anonymous it's like off the serial numbers what if we could take away individuality away from art and make it more corporatized and we could profit harder off of that because nobody gets attached to the specific artist right so it's bad in that way but like to me i Those are the kind of more obvious ways that probably a lot of people already thought about.
01:10:43
Speaker
But like one of the things to me that's so like underhandedly devious about it is it's also it's also like demonizing collaborations of art, which, you know, I love to see things like.
01:10:57
Speaker
Like, okay, something that, like, for for my game and for my bigger game that we've been doing, because Frank does some art for that, like, ah mostly do the coding, and I don't have a lot of time for it, and my art's, like, not that great.
01:11:11
Speaker
But, like, I have learned a lot with Inkscape, which does, like, vector art. You know, it's a software. And Frank is much better at, like, kind of, like, painterly art programs, but, like, he's not the kind of, like...
01:11:25
Speaker
draws a straight line. So sometimes I'll do something in Inkscape, either from my head with a kind of vague vision, or he'll have like a concept.
01:11:37
Speaker
And I'll take it and I'll make it into this layout in Inkscape, all these background shapes. And he'll come over and he'll paint on top of that and give it shape. And it's cool because it's something neither of us would make individually. And we wind up with something that neither of us would do.
01:11:54
Speaker
And it's cool. And I want to see, like, seeing people collaborate or seeing, like, when I can put cool shaders, like the water texture in your game, you know, it's collaboration of, like, that and me moving it and, like, adjusting it with code. And it's, like, that kind of shit is cool.
01:12:08
Speaker
And together, people with different skills can combine them to make new things. And those studios could be a celebration of that. And they could call out the artists for their individual contributions to a piece, right?
01:12:21
Speaker
An artist doesn't need a piece of does It doesn't need to come from a single individual. It can be collaborative and we should celebrate that. We shouldn't say like, oh, that's studio. You know mean?
01:12:31
Speaker
That's the shitty thing. It's like, no, it's cool, but they're ruining it. They're ruining it. ah Anyway, it just bums me out. right. Sorry. Ran over. It's like how you see like one of those base art ones that's unusually good, and you're like, okay, I know Ryan Kinnaird did the colors and stuff, but who did these sick pencils?
01:12:55
Speaker
And then you go and you tap and you see. like Art is very often the work of multiple people, and that's good and cool, and sometimes they're saving it from Ryan Kinnaird.
01:13:05
Speaker
I don't know. Same thing happens games where like one developer gets the credit for a team and a lot of people, a lot of those individual ideas that people love in a game came from certain people, but it all rules up to like one person and it's like we need, we need to, and that's- And his name was Ken Levine.
01:13:25
Speaker
Yes, and that hasn't served our culture well. This idea that one person is responsible for what is really the work of many, many people. And we need to celebrate coming together and building something. Not being like, if you're not one person who's stealing all the credit for everybody else's work, then what are you even doing?
01:13:44
Speaker
It's like, I don't know. What a bummer. shouldn't end like that. Someone say something happy. Amen.
01:13:56
Speaker
I did a really bad job talking about powers, but I really did like it a lot and you should give it a read. Sounds good. Sounds interesting. All right.
01:14:08
Speaker
right