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45: Keep it Sweet, Keep it Elegant
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⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ This week’s episode is so massive it’s positively Shangable ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ 💥
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Weeks in Snap (but not always snappy 🫰 tbh 😔)
- 👻 new Nightmare thoughts 👹 Dormammu plots 🔮 Clea & 🫧 Astral Projection vibes
- Tuesday’s Patch is full of grace robots 🤖
- Thursday’s OTA has far to go stones to throw 🪨🪨🪨
- ✨ Sanctum Showdown strikes back ✨
- 📓 Secret Homework : put a twist 🔀 on an existing game mode 🕹️
Video version on YouTube.
PWRon Gaming's Tournament of Pride
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
- The InfiNOT
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:
- Rie - Agatha Dreaming
- Lauren - Mon3yball
- Lauren - Discarmammu
- Lauren - Wacky Dorm
- Lauren - Dorm: Plan B
- Rie - A New Nightmare
- Lauren - Guardian Sorceress
- Ben - Silk Scream 3 (Sanctum)
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
- 0:36:50 Nightmare
- 0:46:12 Dormammu
- 0:54:29 Clea
- 0:56:12 Astral Projection
- 1:02:33 Patch Discussion
- 1:41:33 OTA Discussion
- 2:02:15 Secret Homework: Secret Homework: Twist an Existing Mode
- 2:14:26 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 2:15:33 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to episode 45 of Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, put a twist on an existing game mode. I'm Lauren Wodevs, here today with my usual lovely hosts.
00:00:14
Speaker
First up, Rhi, how was your week in Snap? And keep it snappy. you Keep it snappy, you're saying. what if I insist.
00:00:25
Speaker
What's in is ah monologue. Shakespeare monologue. The likes which would make Hamlet or Macbeth weep. No, i don't expect that from my... From today.
Gaming Industry and Developer Perspectives
00:00:38
Speaker
But I did have some thoughts. I wanted to talk today about apologies and binaries. um Because... and For a programmer, I've never been that into binaries. I've always been more interested in gray areas, more of like um Kirk at ah his captain test, you know, where they're like, Ria has to be this or this.
00:01:04
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, yeah. The Kobayashi Maru. Are we saying? Yeah. yeah yeah they You know, like, ah what I want my own Spock. Spock.
00:01:15
Speaker
and ship Okay. um But, like, ah yeah, it's just, like, who says? And, like, why do they say? And who gave them that authority? And can I usurp that authority for myself?
00:01:27
Speaker
um Anyway, so, um you know, so it was kind of unusual for me earlier this week ah to...
00:01:39
Speaker
Suddenly I was just like, declare a binary, you know? But then immediately as soon as I thought that to myself, um declared it loudly and with conviction, i immediately doubted it.
00:01:53
Speaker
um And this is the binary I was thinking about. It's about game developers, right? Yeah. And on one side of this binary of the two different types of game developers, we're going to have what we call gamers, which I know is kind of a loaded term anymore, but I think we should reclaim it because if we let the bigots have all of our words, we have nothing to describe anything anymore.
00:02:21
Speaker
It'll all just be bad. My onomatopoeia for every word. It'll be terrible. okay And, um you know, like if I am OK, if by someone calling me a gamer, they mean you are a basement loser.
00:02:37
Speaker
um Yes. But my flavor of loserdom does not involve misogyny or racism. please identify me by my own brand of loserdome, which mostly only harms myself.
00:02:50
Speaker
If we all work very hard, we can get our insult back to its original meaning of, ah you know, sympathetic losers. You want to turn the clock back to like 2010. Right.
00:03:01
Speaker
Yes. To mean people find it easier to interact with, you know, polygons. Than people. So, okay. So one side is gamers.
00:03:13
Speaker
These are the gamers who ah make games. Right? And they give us our best. We talked about, like, super giant ah super giant games. Right?
00:03:25
Speaker
um They are definitely gamers. Concerned Ape, who made Stardew Valley. Oh, yeah. Definite gamer. Textbook gamer. Hero. Right. On the other side of this divide, we're going to have what I've decided to call gold gunners.
00:03:42
Speaker
Well, I like consonants. oh And alliteration. Yes. ah You know, and it tastes like candy coated carrot. don andda um Just talk.
00:03:53
Speaker
OK, so on this side, this is the people who have like career like reverse empaths, like instead of allowing Other people's emotions inside themselves, you know, to gain new experiences and grow and become better people.
00:04:11
Speaker
ah They keep them shut out, but trace those little tendrils, ah you know, like a mind flayer back. that to the person and to reach around and pick your wallet, you know? um And that's kind of their aim. And this is, you know, it's obvious, right? We've got like EA, Activision, are they called? Zynga? The mobile gate. Do they still reign supreme over the mobile landscape?
00:04:43
Speaker
Probably not. bet they've been overtaken. don't think
Corporate Apologies in Gaming
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not as up-to-date anymore as I used to be. Okay. And was like, this all made sense to me because I could clearly put people on either divide of the sign, you know, you for, you for passion spirit of games, you know, you're too many.
00:05:02
Speaker
uh, ah And then you transition from gamer. Over time ah they didn't have their own Uncle Ben's. They'd heard the lesson, with great power comes great responsibility.
00:05:17
Speaker
But they didn't have an Uncle Ben to die to make it really you know drive it home, change their lives. ah So they just sold out. like Blizzard. Yeah. that's like ah you know like it And Ben Brode.
00:05:31
Speaker
No. um OK, I do. I am knocking Ben Brode because I did recently see an article do where he was lauding Hearthstone, which I have played in the past, as being a new wave of low investment, high return games. And it's like, if that isn't some gold goon or speak, i don't know what is.
00:05:52
Speaker
Okay, so, but as soon as I said this, I'm like, hmm, there are some some companies that are kind of in the middle with this.
00:06:05
Speaker
like And I'm going to put up there the other game that sacks up all my time in attention, which is F of 14. Which, like, I'm not going to say Square Enix.
00:06:16
Speaker
I'm not going to say they're gamers, you know, in their modern in their modern sense, you know. um FFXIV, right, you know, the the workshop behind that specifically,
00:06:30
Speaker
hi is kind of gamer. They're kind of gamer. I think this is in large part due to the ah producer, Yoshi P. And not to say that the whole studio doesn't do that, but I think his original gamerness is what drove him with the power he had. he had the responsibility just hire a bunch of other gamers.
00:06:50
Speaker
you just got a bunch of gamers in the studio working for, you know, maybe a gold gunner company. and hold here Right? So, and that's kind of a midway.
00:07:01
Speaker
feel like there's the kind of gray area in the binary I'm trying to declare breaking in one you know as one does. So that brings me to where I saw this week three different apologies from gaming companies.
00:07:20
Speaker
And I feel like because, not because it fits my narrative, I divided these into the three different categories.
00:07:31
Speaker
And I thought it was an interesting comparison. um For the first company apology, i will discuss, I am going to bust out some real old millennial shit. Like,
00:07:44
Speaker
I know you all have your World of Warcraft classic, but do you remember, and I know it is still ongoing, and yet I must say, do you remember RuneScape? Of course. Probably someone out there is still playing.
00:07:56
Speaker
ah Old school RuneScape, as it's known. There's also, you know, RuneScape 3, but it's just called RuneScape. I won't get into it. I'm not currently playing it. i just know way too much about things. So...
00:08:09
Speaker
um They are gamers, to be honest. A lot of us who have played RuneScape did so because you could play it for free in a browser, right?
00:08:20
Speaker
Being friendly to the little gamer, you know, without all the the access. hey This is what the... beauty of mobile gaming could be. There's so many people in the world who don't have access to fancy computers, who aren't PC master race trying to pretend like consoles aren't like what a lot of us chill people are into these days.
00:08:42
Speaker
So like, um You know, so making really good game, not like a cash grab, but a really good game for mobile, gamer forward, gamer friendly, right? So many people, that's their only computer. It's their only console when you're looking worldwide.
00:09:00
Speaker
So RuneScape, and, you know, they've just, and it's like, they're still going, they're still putting it out. You know they're gamers because you look at their website and it's like, this is not a corporate.
00:09:12
Speaker
This looks as old as my memories of Friendscape and praying over bones. Okay, so, um, they put out, I saw this because I haven't been playing, you know, news can lately keep in touch.
00:09:25
Speaker
But some big waves came out recently because they put out a huge apology. Kind skimmed over the blog post. i haven't seen the video that accompanied it that were just like, hey We are so sorry. We've totally fucked up our monetization of the game. ah we've We've seen clearly by the numbers, it's only driven people away.
00:09:45
Speaker
um You know, want to be honest. Like, we really just want to monetize it in a way that can keep the game running. Which, honestly, if you look at a game with the history of RuneScape, you can believe them when they're telling you this.
00:10:00
Speaker
because you've seen the history of RuneScape and how long it's running. Like, we've been trying to do it. We've clearly been doing it wrong. want, we're really like, you know, sorry for that. Here's the ways we have done it wrong. Here's the things that gamers are, you know, are people have criticized us for that they're just right about.
00:10:21
Speaker
And, you know, here's what we're going to do going forward. And like I said, I just kind like skim this once. not trying pre-script. And I'm going to know about this as much as someone who is currently really into the RuneScape community. But like they're like, OK, we're going to start doing experiments to figure out.
00:10:37
Speaker
Experiment, science, innovation. Right. They're stealing someone else's like good idea. You know, like how ah well, Stardew Valley was built out of the love of the old Harvest Moon games. Right. right? But still kind of giving its own flavor to it. And then it just, you know, then a million soulless copies came off of that. And you can be that kind of game developer, just trying to grab up whatever cash you can out of one original idea, and split it into a million pieces and see how much money you can make off of each piece.
00:11:07
Speaker
Or you can be someone that is trying to figure out new ways to do things, which is always interesting and exciting to me in the gaming space. And even though this is monetization, which like, boo, I am, you know, you listen to me a lot, you know, I'm not a particularly Wall Street minded person.
00:11:22
Speaker
um But like, you know, but even like innovation and monetization of like, how can we just keep this game running? there like experiments. Here's how we're going to do it.
00:11:32
Speaker
We have this, we're going to have this, this way to give feedback. You're going to have these limited times that run, they will end, then we will get the feedback and we will see what works. You know, we care, we want to do what is going to be good for the gamers long run. Here's the things that people hated most. We are done with those. We will never do those again.
00:11:50
Speaker
um you know, we're cutting all this down. It was like, i was like, oh, wow, these are some people that love this game, that want to keep it going, that love gaming, that are interested in trying new things, you know, trying to figure out what works and not just capping the last way someone like built people for money. Anyway, so interesting note.
00:12:10
Speaker
You know, some some real gamer apologies. So are the second apology I want to direct your attention to is FF14. Yoshi P apologized in the recent live letter they had to the FF14 community.
00:12:26
Speaker
An interesting note about apologies between Japan and the U.S., um is that, you know, if you're familiar with the history of FFXIV, the game was terrible. They had to, like, they remade it from scratch.
00:12:41
Speaker
And this big, like, apology to everyone. And in Japan, and they were just, like, kind of apologizing over and over and over because there, you know, when someone apologizes for messing up and doing wrong, the general response from everyone else is like, oh, yeah, I like how you do that.
00:12:59
Speaker
Do again. Say that? What's that? You say? Okay. That's how it is over there. Over here, because like, I mean, it's just all about money. um Apologies, you know, you give them one. And then if you apologize a second time, it's like, what the fuck am I supposed to do with this?
00:13:15
Speaker
Now it's worth half as much. Now I got like sell two of these apologies. What the fuck? um You know, each apology decreases the value. So they had to tell. So in America, like you can't, when they were apologizing,
00:13:30
Speaker
ah For the original mistake of FF14, the localization team was like, you have we got to have at least have these apologies, if not like just chop them all down to one.
00:13:40
Speaker
Because like Americans aren't into that. um OK, but what they were apologizing for now is there's like a lot more bugs. FF14 had this like ridiculous reputation among and MMOs for being like,
00:13:54
Speaker
pretty good with its releases, not that buggy compared to other things. Like World of Warcraft has literal gamers test all their fights, so they're not a surprise when they come out. They have all these servers, they recruit free work from individuals to quality tests and stuff, and they still release without a ah lot of bugs.
00:14:16
Speaker
The FF14 team does all their testing in-house, right? So that the fights can release as a genuine, like, surprise. And, you know, and they tend to be pretty bug-free.
00:14:30
Speaker
They tend to be reliable about when they release. Like, good production management is very invaluable when it is found. Yeah. But lately, it's like people hadn't been happy.
00:14:41
Speaker
There'd been a lot of bugs. They had to do hot fixes. don't know. To me, it's been kind of low stakes compared to the games. But, like, he came out and he said, I'm sorry.
00:14:52
Speaker
We got complacent. um Can you imagine a company? Can you imagine Blizzard fucking admitting complacency? Probably someone will point out some quote now from some developer where they said it. but But, like, yeah.
00:15:07
Speaker
Like we got complacent. We grew as a team without adhering to the standards that had allowed us release quality content. We'd stopped like, which, right? Like, like kind of honestly expressing the things. And it's like, you know,
00:15:23
Speaker
We're sorry. We're going to do better. Yoshi P also, think this was recently he gave this, but he had to get he gave like a ah talk about producing a game and game development.
00:15:34
Speaker
And his like top five advice is number one thing. His number one thing that he said has led to the success of, you know, FF14 and everything is is listening. Listening to your audience, listening to the people who are playing your game, respecting your fans, because without them, there is there is no game, you know? There's no one there's no one to recruit. He, like, specified that as the most important thing, listening to feedback. And Yoshi P, it's like, you know, I'm sure some people, you know, have some, like,
00:16:06
Speaker
issues with him or whatever, but he is like a gamer. You know what mean? um and And it's like i i really... i respect how much he cares, you know, about what the fans think. Okay. Okay.
00:16:22
Speaker
The third apology, um you know, if if it could be qualified, that is now like about a week old. I think I read it last week, but it was second dinner's response to ah Kid Omega.
00:16:36
Speaker
And I believe if I recall, like I said, it's been a week that apology amounted to like, oh, I'm sorry. felt that way, bro.
00:16:47
Speaker
Definitely. Let's try and work on our communication skills a little bit better so get your feelings hurt. Peace. That was the end. Yeah. So, you know, that's what have to say.
00:17:01
Speaker
I have expounded a lot last week. I mean, the the what they said came out after we recorded. feel like it pretty much said my piece. but that That's what I wanted to think about was just like,
00:17:15
Speaker
ah The different ways companies apologize. I heard somebody recently put it as if the company is commoditizing or treating its treating its players as commodities versus remembering that they are delivering a service to their players.
00:17:34
Speaker
And I think that's really like that's a huge difference. Like, are we just bags of money? Like, we're just, you know... ah I don't know, cash cows to milk? Or are we are we human beings? like Like, even if we are funding you, are we, you know, humans with our own feelings and experiences? Yeah.
00:17:52
Speaker
Well, I think that a lot of the people there think of us as human beings. Like, the people who, like, design the cards want them to be fun and stuff, and I feel like they care, and I feel like a lot of people care about the players at second dinner.
00:18:04
Speaker
I just like that gamers in decision-making. The people stop thinking of us ah that way and start thinking of us the first way you described.
00:18:15
Speaker
Right. There are gamers on the second dinner team, but they don't. They're not in charge. ah No, they don't prevail over the gold gooners. Exactly. Right. Because there are some games you get out like so like right like concerned ape Eric Barone I think is his real name.
00:18:34
Speaker
um I can't still releasing Stardew Valley content for free just all the time. Right. And, you know, like people like him and there's so many of the people made Bologetic so excited for their game to get out there and see people react to it. When I make something, it's like seeing people like react to it.
00:18:54
Speaker
you know, hopefully in a positive light, really. you know what I mean? Like, that's what they want to see. They want to make something and they want to get it out there. That's the intent. And you can tell with Kid Omega, regardless of whether you think this was fine for them to do or not, the intent behind it wasn't like, oh, I can't wait for all of the players to get their hands on Kid Omega and see what they do with it.
00:19:15
Speaker
The clear intent, once again, whether you agree with it or not, was like, how can we make money from the release of Kid Omega? You know what i mean? and That was the feeling behind the release of it. um And it's like, that's not...
00:19:29
Speaker
You know, that's not gamers, i I'm saying.
00:19:33
Speaker
think and then the player response to that, right, is like there's goodwill. This isn't just that if you are a player forward company that you are sacrificing heaps of money, right? Like that's how you build a loyal player base. That's how you, um you know, a player base that is going to be feel good about giving you money and supporting you.
00:19:56
Speaker
And that's like second dinner with this kid Omega thing has really pushed me in the other direction where historically I have been very comfortable supporting the game financially. And it's a game that I put a lot of time into and I, and i you know, I interact with some of the devs and, and it brings me so much joy.
00:20:13
Speaker
i feel historically I have felt more or less respected as a player. you know, it's always had some like dark patterns and mobile monetization and stuff like that. But like, it was good for what it was bar. Yeah.
00:20:27
Speaker
But this is like, it's pushing it so far in the other direction that I'm like, oh, I mean, I'm not, you're not pushing me away from the game yet. I'll still play, but you are losing my dollars. Like, I don't feel good about supporting you financially. Yeah.
00:20:43
Speaker
That has been the practical effect for me. So when I think about this kid, like, cause I know it's very like the Marvel snap community for a long time. It's been like Marvel snap is dead.
00:20:53
Speaker
Long live Marvel snap. You know what i mean? Like, so, uh, how is that for me though? I've literally, I'm thinking about going down to free to play and here's where it is for me. For me, if the game, if I can have the whole card game, you know, or, you know, like pretty much the whole card game, um,
00:21:11
Speaker
for my subscription fee, the whole game. That's the deal I signed up Then it's worth it. But then if I can only have like 70% or 60%, well, then suddenly to me, it's kind of like, well, what's the difference between that and 40% of the game to me? You know what mean? Like, it's just like, what's the point of spending so like money in there?
00:21:34
Speaker
And because when I play games free to play, I don't get upset. You know, when they do stuff, I just eventually fall out. Right? It's like the people playing Diablo Immortal or something where it just eventually, or like the many other mobile games I've tried in my life where it's just like, it got to that point. It's like, oh, this is addictive. And then like an hour later, you're like, and I'm out.
00:21:57
Speaker
Because, you know, it's just like all all gem stuff or whatever, you know? like And you're just done. So that's my, I don't know. I have to see how behind on card, you know, collecting or how tilting it is when stuff like Dormammu releases. And I don't have the option of Kid Omega without, you know, spending more money to like play with. But, um you know, that's what I meant. It's like, oh, you know, i'm I might go down to free to play just to like enjoy it for what I can what it is.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah. really like the thing that you said about how much like how much percentage of the game the season pass represents, because we always talk about the season pass being a good value. And its value hasn't changed as far as you get a card for $10.
00:22:42
Speaker
But you're right that like, you know, now one is great that one card used to be one out of four cards, one out of five cards in a month. And now it's like half that. And it's like, oh, so you're yeah, it's not buying you as much game percentage wise.
00:22:57
Speaker
And it's kind of losing value that way. And in every bundle is losing value in that way. Yeah, they've really scaled up the card release rate, and i think too much.
00:23:08
Speaker
um Yep. Or at least like too much without compensating, right? Like, if they made cards cheaper to accommodate that, that'd be fine. If they were handing out more of them, but that's not really what's going on.
00:23:22
Speaker
Well, while we're on the topic, I'll say I'm... For now, I'm committed to Season Pass only. I don't know what that means for Super Premium Pass. Um... But I'm probably, I don't track my funding my spending well, but I'm probably like 20 to 50 a month on average. And it really varies. Some months I'm truly just the season pass, but other months I'll get a big bundle. So average is out.
00:23:43
Speaker
um But they're losing all that. I'm going to be season pass only. I don't want to support the company while it's treating players this way, while it's expecting me to check in three times a day. Honestly, the respect disrespect for my time is what I find most offensive of all. Yeah, the play to discount thing is just bananas insulting. It's...
00:24:00
Speaker
Right. And it's a good deal if you're If your time is unlimited and you enjoy playing the game mode or you don't care about your own enjoyment i and you're just thinking strictly about converting resources you got for free into your time is utterly valueless to
Critique of Game Monetization Strategies
00:24:18
Speaker
you, you know? Right. like Then, yeah, technically it's a good deal, but i just I'm so personally against it. and Like, on principle, i'm I did not and will not buy a card at at Kid Omega's price using event currency.
00:24:33
Speaker
And you're so right about the time. know that there's just some like, you know, some like exploitation metric out there that says if you can get players to log in every eight hours, that keeps them, you know, they're less likely to leave or they'll like spend more or whatever it is.
00:24:50
Speaker
than if you only require them in to log in once a day. And once again, allowing what exploitation metrics to to you know make your decisions regardless of what industry you're in, then it's like not not ethical.
00:25:07
Speaker
yeah It increasingly feels like they're just chasing KPIs instead of like, let's make this the most fun game it can be and ask players to give us what they think is a fair price for that.
00:25:20
Speaker
Oh, my God. To wrap up my high voltage experience, because I know last podcast, I was like, I've played every every single time. I haven't missed one and stuff. After that, I was just like, burned out. i I missed like several high voltages.
00:25:34
Speaker
When I came back, you know, late at night, as one does, I crashed out. I spent it all on like PMVs, which I got... Nothing super exciting. And then later, I did end up buying all of the stuff, all of the credits you could buy.
00:25:53
Speaker
That's what did. the Doctor Doom variant, because I liked it. And ah then the rest were on PMVs until I only had enough for a border in the last two.
00:26:04
Speaker
Last bit went to a mystery board and that's that was my high voltage and I didn't even go for Cobra because like 15k no thank you. Also a useless card. Yeah for a card I wouldn't play.
00:26:18
Speaker
I don't think I would have gone for a card I wanted 45k but like Cobra definitely not. Ben, what'd you end up getting? ah Well, for my what looks like it must have been six games of high voltage overdrive, I had a total of six reactors blown.
00:26:37
Speaker
You truly did not play the moon. Hell no. good for you it was fucking insulting um anyway like i i realized like maybe i didn't articulate it great last episode but like no i will not be jumping through that kind of oops for that like get out of here i i respect myself i i know i'm i'm bigger than marvel snap fuck off um like hell no yeah so uh i got credits i got all the credits that's what i did
00:27:08
Speaker
I also bought out all the credits and I got both emotes. I was only planning on getting forge, but then, and I shouldn't have done this. I did the math like with two days to spare and I was like, oh, if I get all the compensation and play every refresh, it doesn't matter if I get no wins. I'll have just enough for another email. I should do that.
00:27:26
Speaker
for I'm not going to use the Rocket email. I know some people like it, but for me, that's not that's not the type of email I'm going use. So, ah yeah, that's cool. I logged in you know five times. I wasn't planning to just to just to get Rocket.
00:27:37
Speaker
um But yeah, I had absolutely no volts left after that. like I perfectly ended up there. i had I got two boosters today from my leftover volts.
00:27:51
Speaker
Okay, Ben, how was your weekend snap? and Keep it snapping. My weekend snap, honestly, i was having a lot of fun. ah Might have had something to do with the fact that I was not worrying about high voltage overdrive and I'm pretty good at making, making my own fun.
00:28:08
Speaker
Um, so I was like, you know, there are, I've got like so many backlogged ideas for things that I should, you know, pursue and like, you know, leads I should chase down and stuff.
00:28:22
Speaker
So i was like, eh, I should try to shove Rhino in another surfer deck now that Merlin's out. Cause like that, I sort of like flagged that when Merlin came out, was like, You know, like, and the and the Rhino change between the Merlin and the Rhino thing. i was like, you know, like, hey, do we want to be polymorphing or once and futuring rocks?
00:28:43
Speaker
And the answer, probably. That's cool. hadn't thought of that. Nice catch. Also, Rhino, super great for just filling up the Captain Carter lane and stuff. So ah ah the the deck is called Everybody's Learning How, and it doesn't work anymore because the OTA fucking ruined everything. Yeah.
00:29:00
Speaker
um like the The name is I don't know if y'all remember. i i remember Brian Wilson, but and that the the and Beach Boys and all that. you know like let's Let's go surfing now.
00:29:15
Speaker
Everybody's learning how. Come on a safari with me. because Because this one's got Rhino and Zabu and stuff. Yeah. yeah these These are the the opening lines of Sniff and Safari. That's what I was thinking. Safari? Let's go surfing now Everybody's learning now. Come on a safari with me. Come on a safari with Early in the morning, we'll be starting now. No, you've got to stop.
00:29:43
Speaker
We're not monetized, but you've got to stop. I don't want to get this shut ah shut down. What is that?
00:29:52
Speaker
And we'll be hunting that singer song. ah But anywho, you know, ah so the deck is Zabu, Surge, Merlin, Brood, Captain Carter, Rogue, Silver Surfer, Red Guardian, Three Cost Rhino, Shang-Chi, Galacta, and Gwenpool.
00:30:10
Speaker
Wait, I guess maybe my thing hasn't updated since the OTA hit. Do you think it's adaptable? I mean, like Rhino probably just doesn't go in the deck if he's not a three cost. but Okay. like I think that Rhino and Merlin is fun. can still be real. Absolutely.
00:30:27
Speaker
Yeah, like they're they're cute together. Rhino's, what, now? um yeah i don't know i'm I'm still going to be like looking at this card and wanting to play it.
00:30:39
Speaker
i just I got so frustrated when Spider-Man wasn't a surfer card anymore. That was just like, you bastards. i mean like I understand it was good for Spider-Man, but like that was the fun deck to play him in. That was my feeling.
00:30:54
Speaker
I love him in Scream and stuff. Spider-Man's just a phenomenal card. Do not sleep on this one. That's a very strong effect and a great stat line. um But yeah.
00:31:05
Speaker
But yeah, I'm a little frustrated, so goodbye, Rhino. But yeah, I don't know if I finished out the four costs. I got Shang-Chi, Galacta, and Gwenpool. I think maybe I got distracted by seeing Rhino as he used to be, as a 3-6 on this screen. so that that That deck was a lot of fun for me. I was having a blast with that, because I was like, a you know...
00:31:29
Speaker
a I wanted to be playing Shang-Chi. I didn't... I don't love tech cards and things. Oh, yeah, I don't know if you heard. I put Rogue in that one. There was Rogue in that one.
00:31:40
Speaker
I should talk about how I got there, because like the the card that used to be Rogue started out as Luna Snow, and I guess that's what you'd put in there right now if you wanted to do...
00:31:51
Speaker
if you wanted to fill captain Carter lanes on the last turn, like Rhino does. And so like, I had both of them in there. Cause like, I was like, that's a good redundancy, right? That's cool. And like, but like Luna snow is just like too much acceleration and she helps the opponent and stuff. And like, I've already got Zabu and surge in there. Like but things are sorted, like Merlin and Zabu and sir, like we're spending all kinds of energy. Like we're not, we're not leaving stuff on the table. We're getting plenty of things on the board. It's all good.
00:32:17
Speaker
So Luna snow wasn't great. Um, Then for a minute, I was doing Alliance Bounties. It was Ironheart. She was kicking ass. I was almost sorry to take her out at the end. But um yeah, then then I went rogue.
00:32:31
Speaker
So, yeah, I've been playing lots of tech cards, and holy shit, do they win some games? I see the appeal. Wow, you can really just knock somebody on their ass for the good rogue or a Shang-Chi. Wowzers, yeah. And, like, oh my gosh, right now, out here in these streets?
00:32:47
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Between between the the nightmare and... um the kid Omega and everything folks are just leaving the biggest bodies just like unattended out in the open being like, yeah, Dormammu. That's, that's really the thing. Not more so than kid Omega. Although I am starting to associate the cards a little bit cause I do see them together with some frequency.
00:33:10
Speaker
Um, but anywho, yeah, Dormammu. Yeah. Folks are leaving Dormammus out. They're leaving all kinds of things out and it's fun. I get, I get the appeal. I, you know,
00:33:22
Speaker
I don't put Shang-Chi in every deck, but wow, he, uh, power, yeah, it must be. yeah Dang, he wins some games. So, that's a fun deck. Other than that, um, didn't play high voltage. That was fun.
00:33:37
Speaker
i had a blast doing that, because, yeah, I didn't have to, and, you know, like, I'm I hate to break it to
Exploring Diverse Gaming Experiences
00:33:47
Speaker
people. Kid Omega is a good card, even if the stats don't like suggest it's as ridiculous as maybe like the first YouTube video you watched about it. But like it's a very strong card. does not need to gain that much power if it needs to gain power at all.
00:34:00
Speaker
um I heard, I think, somebody on Snap Judgments proposed. that like it should gain the cost of the destroyed card in terms of power. And thought that an elegant solution, so I'm saying it on our podcast.
00:34:12
Speaker
I don't remember which one of the smart people on Snap Judgment said it, but somebody said it, and it was smart. So, good on ya. Other than that... I've been, ah you know, haven't been playing much of the bazaar. I've been a little bit losing interest there. i i mean, like, it's it's a lot of fun, but, you know, i just... i don't know. i We'll see. We'll see. I still play some, but i'm not I'm not playing as regularly. And I'm just having so much fun playing Hades 2. my gosh.
00:34:46
Speaker
Y'all are bored in the middle of the night and you want to learn what's good in Hades 2. I'm out here streaming at 3 a.m. I'm not telling anybody about it. And, yeah.
00:34:58
Speaker
I see the notifications when I wake up. Yeah. So I do it for the love of the game. I'm i'm not I mean, like, but if if you want to pop in, you can ask me questions about Snap. And if I notice them, I will I will answer them. But yeah, I'm just just loving loving that 80s life and loving card games.
00:35:20
Speaker
I feel like maybe I was too... I don't know. I don't want to don't want to bum out our listeners, many of whom seem very grateful for the the opportunity to grind a discount on Kid Omega. And, um you know, everybody's viewpoints are valid, so I'm not going to...
00:35:39
Speaker
be a bummer about that. um Yeah, I had a good time engaging with Snap in the way that seemed smart and appropriate to me. i was... That's how you should play.
00:35:50
Speaker
I'm a little bit disappointed that yesterday the hot location was not good for Rhino. So my last day playing that Rhino Surfer deck, I was playing on a very unfavorable hot location. I mean, like, Brood is also a liability on that one. You don't want three zero, like, wow.
00:36:07
Speaker
That hot location was, like, not a great way to say goodbye to this lovely Surfer deck with whom I had this brief, passionate fling this week. um You know, so it goes.
00:36:20
Speaker
C'est la vie, all that stuff, you know. Anywho, that's been my weekend snap. and ah Mine will be snappy because it segues very neatly into our next topic. um I got to play Rhi's Agatha deck. Nightmare Agatha deck. It's super fun and i was kicking all the ass of every Dormammu I faced because they put in so much effort for one lane and Agatha can easily take on other lanes.
00:36:48
Speaker
um So... Thoughts on last week's card. This is just me transitioning to talk more about Nightmare, because I've i've finally played him. um In both Rhi's deck and in the one that I talked about last week, I had an idea that I wanted to revive.
00:37:04
Speaker
Banjers, a while ago, made a like back when Ghostbiter was a two-cost, made a really cool deck called Moneyball. I've probably talked about it here before, because it's conceptually one of my favorite decks of all time.
00:37:14
Speaker
It basically has a ton of ways to mitigate bad effects, and then... you know cards that are overstated with bad effects. um And it does really cool stuff with... It was the first place I saw people doing Venom Ghostbiter stuff, which is just so cool. So I did a spin on Moneyball. I've got cards in here like Starbrand, Gladiator, Titania, Ebony Maw, Lizard, Maximus, Kulipset, overstated cards. And I'm like, okay, this is going to be great. This is the low-curve version for Nightmare.
00:37:47
Speaker
It's gonna give me explosive you know turn sixes where I can drop Ebony Maw Starbrand and Lizard all at the same time for, what is that, like 23 power? um And I just, I found, this is my experience with both Moneyball 3 and Rhi's Agatha deck.
00:38:07
Speaker
It's like Nightmare could win games, but the games where I didn't play Nightmare performed better than the games where I did. Like the decks were already already has such strong game plans, you know, like.
00:38:21
Speaker
reez deck I just think it's better to to do um Black Knight and Ghost Rider shit. like that's just That gets you that much power cheaper.
00:38:33
Speaker
i just think Nightmare is too big of a drawback. I think 3-1 was too big. yes just okay want you to finish. I have i have more Nightmare thoughts. so i basically yeah I want to hear your experience with it.
00:38:44
Speaker
So I also played a lot more Agatha. I got a purple crackle and ink split on her. now I'm annoyed because I'm like, I have the split I want her. And I'm like, stop hacking all the boosters, Agatha.
00:38:57
Speaker
So partially for that reason. um and when went to build a Dermammu deck in... I've played, like, literally all the games I've played since Tuesday, there's been, like, maybe one or two matches since, like, since Dormammu released that have not been against Dormammu. And so it's, like, been too irritating for me.
00:39:20
Speaker
So when I said I'm going to a deck instead, I, like, I was just kind of like... thinking about nightmare also inspired by i got um stingpunk doc ock which is like a joyful and glorious not bad say one hunt soft spot yeah so combined with that and i had been thinking about this because here's my experience with my own ag of the deck that i mean no i would hold nightmare depending it all depends on what my hand was right if Black Knight's out, what's going on with that.
00:39:53
Speaker
But oftentimes, if I had Agasson, at least Giganto or Infinite in hand as well, a couple other cards, like Nightmare was always like the best option. There are plenty of games where it's like, I wish I played Nightmare in Six. And so often, like I said, one would turn into Arnim Zolim just like one to him or like just all kinds of... ah All kinds of shenanigans. So it was weird to me that when when people a few people played my deck and then I saw they felt like Nightmare was awkward. And one reason they did, normally this is something that would bother me too, that negative one without a way to mitigate it.
00:40:30
Speaker
For me, so often i was playing those big cards. Like if I'm playing Agatha, if I'm playing Giganto, if I'm playing Infinite, the minus one just like doesn't even faze me. And honestly, kind of helped because I think a lot of opponents assumed I was giving up on the lane in which I was playing Nightmare.
00:40:48
Speaker
I do a lot of that with my Valkyrie decks. I make it look like that lane is totally abandoned and then at the end, it's like, surprise! Right? See? And that's what they're forgetting. Is that minus one?
00:41:00
Speaker
and Infonaut's still going to beat the 15 power they put there. You know what i mean? so it's like... So Nightmare, if anything, was often a bit of a mind fuck boon for me.
00:41:12
Speaker
um So I didn't actually have that problem. Normally, I also have that mind like, oh, hate that negative when I hate I must get rid of it. That small imperfection cannot exist. Okay.
00:41:23
Speaker
But like, so what I was thinking about this way, I started thinking about mitigating Nightmare, but not with, I mean, like I've seen the Nightmare junk decks and it's just like, yeah, yeah, i get it. He's negative. Yeah, I get it.
00:41:35
Speaker
And, um, and, and this led me though to, I'm like, okay, what if I do more like an on reveal nightmare kind of deal? So from what I like about nightmare is when even your low card.
00:41:46
Speaker
So some of this is the experience of, um, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start. Okay.
00:41:56
Speaker
Uh, When you have Nightmare, even your lower cards that are like backups to Nightmare or like other enablers, you kind of want them to have big power on them if possible.
00:42:09
Speaker
Because like ah just the best thing you can do with Nightmare is not just remove a bad card from a text, but put a good card, you know, put a good power on a high power card, a good text box, sorry, on a high power card wins you all kinds of games. Because it's not the other thing the opponent can really just account for all the time that you're, you know, um stuff. So I was like, OK, like zero then, right? Zero a card that can help me negate bad text, you know, like Nightmare does on high power cards.
00:42:46
Speaker
If I need to, if I'm going to just hit Nightmare, I do like a 1-3, you know, with a lot of other one-card techs. um The same reason, so in this flavor, I put Hood in the deck because like hitting a 1-6 Demon, um which a lot of times I try to hold anymore because fucking Dormammu is everywhere. So Killmonger is like rampant while I was playing this.
00:43:10
Speaker
So lot of times I was holding that Demon and And hitting a demon also, right? Also a 1-6 with a lot of one-cost power is pretty preferable than just playing a 1-6, you know?
00:43:22
Speaker
um So I put... This deck is just full of all these weird cards that synergize. Like, there's not, like...
00:43:31
Speaker
a super overall theme. Like we're ah junk deck. We're a whatever deck. It's just kind of like they all synergize. So like we have Viper, right? Who is also another way to get rid of your hood. it can mitigate your nightmare.
00:43:45
Speaker
um know, there's squirrels running around. and Viper's just all kinds of useful things. She's an on reveal, which I can also stop all my on reveals that I don't want in another way along with zero with Cosmo.
00:43:59
Speaker
right And I also like Cosmo because it stops for Mamu spells. If you can get Pryo and they have the kind of deck which you usually can with Destroy. because It's really easy to tell where the last ritual is going to go.
00:44:16
Speaker
Right? Where their X-23 is, where their stuff. So if you can get Pryo and put down Cosmo on a lot of decks. On a lot of decks, right? Like... Cosmo's still strong.
00:44:28
Speaker
And it also stops your own Gladiator, another card you love to hit with Nightmare. It stops dr Octopus, another card you love to hit with Nightmare, but also, like, very occasionally, depending on the deck you're playing, you just play out Doc Ock to try and, like, trip up their little word evaporations.
00:44:48
Speaker
um Cosmo also stops the Sentry if you didn't hit your Sentry with Nightmare. A Tuma, you don't mind hitting with Nightmare, but it also gets rid of a Hood. it gets rid of a Nightmare um but you didn't like.
00:45:03
Speaker
So there's just all these little ways that all these cards can work together. Cool Obsidian, because I have three one-costs in the deck. Four if I get you know the Demon out. So almost always can I just play Cool Obsidian out.
00:45:17
Speaker
Once again, you don't mind hitting with a Nightmare. It's a 410. Yes, give it Jessica Jones ability, please. I'll play around that. And then the last card that I... Oh, Sabu's the next. I've got all these four casts. Duh.
00:45:29
Speaker
Duh. Of course, Sabu's here. The last card on the deck is another way to mitigate Sentry, Hood, all the other Nightmare himself. Seriously. Because it's fun. Because it's fun.
00:45:43
Speaker
And this deck has been working pretty well for me the little bit that I've played it because nobody knows what the fuck it is. And like nobody's expecting you to get Pryo to slam down a Cosmo or like, you know, Viper over your nightmare at an inopportune time for them. It's just, you know, I like it. It's like a weird on reveal nightmare monstrosity that I've been having fun with.
00:46:10
Speaker
I've called it a new nightmare. That sounds great. um Yeah. So, and that's what I did instead of like playing Dormammu like at all. So, Don't need to really have much to say about him, except for him. I hope people stop playing him every single game. Yeah, he seems pretty popular.
00:46:30
Speaker
Going on to Dormammu then? yeah The Shang-Chi, you really can't tell where he's about to pop out. like there's not you know I don't know.
00:46:41
Speaker
he He's fine. I don't know. i I didn't get Dormammu. Oh, you didn't think Greg? There was a lot of talk of the hood and that reminded me that I wanted to hop back in time very briefly to my weekend snap to recommend the new Disney plus iron heart television program. um Oh my goodness.
00:47:03
Speaker
Um, well, you know, like I, I don't, i I don't really participate in the discourse, but if I were to guess, I would, I would say that like, I bet some people are going to be talking about how,
00:47:18
Speaker
friggin hella hot Anthony Ramos is as the hood in this show. Like these, uh, you know, like um I've been aware of him for, I did not realize that, uh, he, he looked like that shirtless. Um, you know, he's got a very pretty face.
00:47:39
Speaker
um I'm just like, I think people are going to be talking about the heat that Anthony Ramos is bringing. I did use him as a selling point to Jess. I think she would have gladly watched it anyway, but it's like, Anthony Ramos.
00:47:51
Speaker
ah Yeah, great raise a glass to this man's abs. That's what's up.
00:47:58
Speaker
I did play Dormammu. I played a lot of Dormammu. Okay? However... Did you look up his I just googled Anthony Ramos in the first, very first picture that they show I'm not, like, super familiar with him. It's just, like, him in a very seductive way.
00:48:17
Speaker
just know Yeah. What? Hamilton into the heights? In the heights? In the heights? Sorry. He's very talented. Yes, he's great. i knew I knew he was great before and like I knew he had a high charisma stat and stuff, but like, whoa, he's bringing the heat to this one.
00:48:34
Speaker
so Maybe we'll watch it tonight. Dormammu launched with tons of bugs. ah Some of them seemed very low hanging, but they just didn't have the tests to catch them.
00:48:46
Speaker
Like the first ritual worked with discarded cards as well as destroyed cards. And I was like, oh, this probably isn't going to last for very long. I'm going to enjoy while I can. So I've been playing so much discard Dormammu. It's so fun.
00:49:01
Speaker
And the OTA killed it So I don't have that much to talk about. um yay At least one of the ones I played was like discard destroy hybrid. So I kind of have the experience. Honestly, as we predicted, Dormammu is very reliable and easy to get out.
00:49:16
Speaker
The real question is, are you making him big enough that it's worth destroying what you're destroying? um And that's something that discard us very well. Like, I'm playing Black Cat non-ironically, and it's so fun when she's my starting hand, and on turn two, I can play the zero-cost ritual, and Dormammu is 17 power.
00:49:35
Speaker
um Lauren, what kind of monster is playing Black Cat ironically? I was going to say, i don't think anybody on this call would do something like that. anyway i'm so happy to be playing black cat i'm like i was really hoping they would see this as a happy accident like if they look at dormammu stats and discard dormammu is not the best version like just let it ride change his text you can like it's way more interesting as a card because if you can get past ritual one the other two rituals any deck can do right
00:50:08
Speaker
deck or card two mean can just afflict a single card and it counts.
Card Strategy and Mechanics in Marvel Snap
00:50:12
Speaker
Ritual three needs to just make it happen. Any deck can play him. not saying any deck should. Discard Dormammu. Alright, fair. We have Kanshu. Kanshu is discard. just think he's so fun and interesting. Kanshu's different beast.
00:50:29
Speaker
you know there There are similarities for sure, but like I think they could still sell you a discard Dormammu in a world with Kanshu. Anyway, if you want to go on, like... If you want to imagine the fun that I was having, i will i will have all three of the decks I was using in in the show notes.
00:50:46
Speaker
um One of them was ah disc very discard-heavy. We're talking like Bullseye, ah Morgan Le Fay stuff. One of them...
00:50:58
Speaker
this This one was the first one I did because I just wanted to test what would happen if I doubled the ritual. So I had Joaquin Torres in there and the second ritual can double hit. That's great. I'm hitting 25 to 30 power Dormammus reliably. um However, the only way this deck wins is if you hit Arnim Zola.
00:51:17
Speaker
because it doesn't have a way to win ah next lane so that's what led to my final plan my my third deck that i've been playing that i've had so much fun with yesterday where it's dormammu but he has two backup plans one of the backup plans is mercury cannonball or it's not backup plan it's for the second lane mercury cannonball and the other one is ramp into professor x whether that's luna snow or x23
00:51:42
Speaker
This deck playing Angel and Black Cat. Like, that's so fun. How many decks have you played that seriously play Black Cat and Angel? Yeah, that does sound... I'm I have seen so much Angel this week. know, but time now.
00:51:54
Speaker
It's like you introed it with like, this thing is dead. And I'm like, all right. Well, I was talking about a rhino deck that doesn't work anymore. i think we all get to talk about one defunct obsolete deck that absolutely cannot you know do its thing anymore.
00:52:09
Speaker
No, you're totally right. I'm just saying like in a movie when it's like, they're like, this character is dead. Occasionally we will you know have flashbacks. And it's like, yeah, but they're dead. don't care about them anymore. Yeah.
00:52:21
Speaker
um I don't know. I think he's a... I saw some people saying he's boring. I think he might be boring if he's destroy-only. I'll tell you next week. He's not not boring.
00:52:32
Speaker
i don't know. I thought he was super fun. um Yeah, I don't think he's overpowered. Like, you even though it's reliable to get him out, you sacrifice a lot of stuff to to get him there. So I don't know if Dormammu as is can be big enough to be reliably worth it, but we'll see.
00:52:52
Speaker
People seem to be having fun with him. I don't know. I haven't gotten to play him because I didn't get him because Destroy is currently a rich person's archetype. Yeah. And i I don't have a monocle, and and it's just not for me. and i'm sure I'm sure I'll get the card eventually. It does look like fun. yeah don Destroy will not always be a rich person's archetype.
00:53:16
Speaker
I hope. And I think there's probably still ways to play it cheaply. You don't need a whole Destroy archetype to back it up. You can get by with Carnage and Killmonger or something. um know you're the like The first ritual costs zero. like You can get him out if you start rituals on turn four. like is really If your priority is Dormammu, he's very easy to get out.
00:53:39
Speaker
Yeah, nobody nobody seems to not get him out. That's my... It's just when they evaluate poorly. I'm just like, I just have to win one other lane. And like ah the thing about like the discounts in that surfer deck that I described that, once again, defunct does not work. Don't play it. I'm not even going to put the list in the show notes, but like...
00:54:01
Speaker
that
00:54:03
Speaker
either by zabu or surge like surfer and shang chi was like always playful on the last turn it seemed like or rhino and shang chi whatever i needed to like make one bananas captain carter lane and then kill whatever the big thing the dormammu or the null or the you know i'm just saying these dormammu decks are they're just walking into it and i love it and yeah ah okay Okay.
00:54:29
Speaker
Next week's card. Just a vibe check, not a full review. Clea, When this permanently gains power, add Flames of the Faultine to your hand. I don't have a picture of Flames to the Faultine. I think it's a 1-cost skill. That's the sticking point for me.
00:54:46
Speaker
It's a 1-cost skill that does minus 2 to an enemy card, I believe. Hmm. on A random one, not even a targeted one. I've seen people think that she's going to be strong and I just don't.
00:54:57
Speaker
I just don't. She seems like it's way too much work to permanently make her gain power. Is there something there with like Bishop and where what like is there is there like a machine gun spell deck? Are we making it go burr?
00:55:13
Speaker
i mean, they all they all work on Joaquin Torres. That's something. I don't want to dismiss this card if there's something there, but I just don't see it. I forgot to say one thing.
00:55:25
Speaker
And we can finally make like a sword and sorceress deck. but it was like where you lifte angelance I don't know. I'm excited. I'm going to mess around with her. We'll see if I find anything. I'll get her. I'll mess around with her. i just i don't get it. i don't I can't figure her out.
00:55:40
Speaker
Um... Dormammu, something that I haven't seen people doing that has been working very well for me. Ritual 2 is the Lofi ability. um Playing that with Diamondback is really cool.
00:55:55
Speaker
It's a one-cost skill that afflicts everything in the lane. Yeah. Yeah. i have I have won games where I don't even get Dormammal out. I just used Ritual 1, or I guess it's virtual two Ritual 2. Ritual 2 against, or with Diamondback.
00:56:10
Speaker
Okay. That's pretty cool. Sanctum Showdown started. The prize is a Series 4 card. It seems attainable this time. 3-cost skill, Astral Projection. The very first skill that we can collect and put into our deck and so b split, and it'll have variance.
00:56:29
Speaker
I think it's... super weird i think it would have been better to just make it a character has text to banish itself yeah um yeah maybe this one was about yeah i think it's great mechanically i just think it's i don't like skills thematically as like something you can put as one of your 12 cards anyway i i don't even know if i like this one mechanically i think the nicest thing i can say about this card is that it seems attainable i didn't I mean, in general, i like the mechanical concept of putting skills in your deck.
00:57:04
Speaker
Like, new card types, fine with that. But i I think it's, I don't like it at all thematically, putting a skill in your list of heroes. I agree. For the utility itself, though, I'm interested. I think it makes it more versatile. Like, you can do more, you know, try different things with it, which I like.
00:57:23
Speaker
Okay. Its text is on reveal. Copy the text of an on reveal card in your hand because it's a skill. It will always banish itself. So something that changes its text like mystique does not work.
00:57:38
Speaker
Okay. rank it? Do you think our four points scale? I'll give it a four. Oh, wow Tell me what you're thinking. i don't know.
00:57:49
Speaker
it's it just seems powerful. like i'm I'm just like, in a vacuum, like that seems... ah You don't even have to have played the card. So many of the other things that give you a free on-reveal are based around doing an on-reveal that you already paid for once.
00:58:03
Speaker
This is like aspirational. like ah you know Maybe someday I'll be able to afford Arnim Zola. Like... There's definitely cool stuff. You're like cutting in line. it's ah yeah i think this does a thing that we haven't seen before, and there's probably a reason we haven't seen it before, and it seems like it's probably good. and I don't know. that's that's just like my i i haven't I don't know what the deck is, but I'm like, how is there not a deck here? This gives you a thing that you shouldn't have.
00:58:34
Speaker
okay And it feels like Marvel Snap has shifted. It used to be kind of a struggler... Struggler? Struggle hit Dazzler, right? To fill all your lanes.
00:58:45
Speaker
um And now it's like you're almost looking for more ways. Like, I put Venom in... uh like what my high my high voltage deck just to like gobble i do that more like you know which was lauren i think touted originally just a great way to like clear up space on your board more and more i need to clear up space or think about like not filling it up and skills are great for that you know um so i think in this day and age right yeah the skill that lets you do Sorry.
00:59:17
Speaker
i was like, how was the best thing I came up with on Amzola? It is the high cost on reveals. I think Zola's better. And, um yeah. But also, right, even with this, like, you're happy to hit... You'd be happy to hit, like, an Ironheart, and you don't have a 3-0 out there. you know what I mean? Clogging up your board. You just got the ability.
00:59:39
Speaker
Although, I guess Ironheart should change. Give it points. But, like, um yeah, so... went Oh, yes. I'll give it... Do I want to give it full four?
00:59:54
Speaker
Yeah, probably. Because copying a six cost in your card feels like pretty good. Wow. That you haven't paid for yet, you know? Yeah.
01:00:05
Speaker
I can't go four. You can't go four? You don't see it? don't think competitive decks are going to run it. i think fun decks are going to run it, and it certainly will have value sometimes. Wow.
01:00:19
Speaker
We'll see. It's bad to not leave a body on the board. And of course, there's ways to do that. White Tiger, dr Doom, like Zola. These are all things that do make bodies. See, I think it's good to not leave a body on the board. And that's part of why I'm so annoyed at these freestanding skills. I think that like everything you put in your deck should have to take up at least one spot on the dang board.
01:00:40
Speaker
and Right, this is what I was thinking. Ben, when you were talking about using Rhino last for Captain Carter, I was like, that is so clever because it's a way to hold back your power. Because part of the trouble you have decks like that is like not putting your power out to be shamed early enough.
01:00:57
Speaker
And Rhino lets you hold that till the last turn, you know, if you're playing like ah Rhino Surfer or whatever you're you're doing. Yeah. Because you have to be careful if you, like, Galact at a ah Captain Carter, you know, she's handing five power to the back row people as you staff those positions.
01:01:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But like I said, being able to hold back your powers is usually good, at least in this current meta with all the Shang and stuff. I guess there's other times with Elias, you know, where you're trying to get out ahead, but...
01:01:29
Speaker
Also, the number I quoted would be four now because Galacta is different. But, you know, I'm speaking from previous experience of how it goes.
01:01:40
Speaker
It's funny because I've seen people be low on this card, but you two are both so high on it that I was going to be like, I'm higher on it than most people, but I'm lower on it than both of you. um But, yeah, it's something I'll play for. I like Showdown. It's a reasonable thing to chase. It looks like a fun card. Those are all wins for me.
01:01:58
Speaker
Leader? People are going to use the Stigalactus people in Train 3. I hate it. Go for what?
01:02:06
Speaker
Galactus doesn't work. You have to be winning the locations. You'd have to have Claw. You'd have to have Claw. You'd have to have Mr. Fantastic. Oh, yeah. Goblin would work. Someone will do it. People love finding new ways to Galactus. It'll happen. That's true. Galactus clips are reliably popular. Very flashy.
01:02:29
Speaker
Very flashy. um We had a patch on Tuesday. I'm going to skip down to Spider-Ham. We had a change ah card change in the patch. That's not something that happens very much anymore, but it did.
01:02:43
Speaker
Spider-Ham went from 1-1 on reveal to one two Activate. Replace the text of a random character in your opponent's hand with oink.
01:02:54
Speaker
I know I've played Spider-Ham more than either of you. You definitely have, Fero. I'm always looking to put... so I think it's a great counter. I'm always looking to put it in to decks when I'm looking for some, you know, weird... Usually a card that I don't mind losing, you know, because of the one power. And this is my of this OTA. Look how they murdered my pig, you know? Like...
01:03:17
Speaker
i I'm sorry. I'm still not into activate. I still mostly just don't play activate cards. I mostly find them irritating. um And I think honestly just... What?
01:03:30
Speaker
No. ah yeah no I won't play it like this, to be honest. like I don't care for it It still will die. It can easily die to Killmonger before you can activate it. And I feel like their rationale was like, well, maybe you can time it right so that you can try and hit. and it's like, no.
01:03:48
Speaker
Yeah. yeah You know, it's sad. lot of it was like popping them out real fast. And then like and then maybe you're throwing them back into your deck with a Merlin card after he triggered a werewolf. You know what i mean?
01:04:03
Speaker
You're not usually... looking to be like, but what if his turn goes off way later? It's like, no, I want the, I want the boink hammer. and want to see it. I'll see it right now.
01:04:14
Speaker
No, I always miss it. I'm always looking away from my phone. Ah! and of been an unvial I think it could have been an on reveal. I don't understand why it has to be inactivated. It seems stupid. I agree.
01:04:26
Speaker
I think the change to random, that's the main thing, right? The change to random. That opens up the design studio. The leftmost thing that was screwing them. and it doesn't tell fantaing or The pig itself with the the you know the shadow yeah the the zero like they They fixed all the things that were limiting the design space. They could keep it on reveal so that it could actually a play. you know There's some cards where it does absolutely nothing if it hits them.
01:04:52
Speaker
right If it hits Thanos, that does nothing. He's still Thanos. The stone won't refer to him anymore. Yes, it will. He's not transformed into a pig. He's still Thanos. He still gets the the power. Wow.
01:05:04
Speaker
You can still summon Dormammu if his text says oink. Because he's still Dormammu. it's sos I thought you meant the old version. I was like... No, no, no, no. the old version are old version totally killed Thanos.
01:05:17
Speaker
The new version, if it hits Thanos, that does nothing. yeah He's still a 612. He still gets discounted. Don't still refer to him. That's so stupid. I don't... Okay. Oh, the pig had all the weird interactions with Mobius and change that? I don't know. Aren't commos a good thing?
01:05:39
Speaker
like the Shadow King-ing a pig? That was cool! ah And now you can't. I don't know. It's like pre-Elioth-ing something, kind of.
01:05:50
Speaker
I mean, like i'm sure like the thing is, I don't want to dismiss this card. Maybe it's maybe it's fine. I just like i think it's uglier, i guess. i thought I thought there were cool things about Spider-Ham Classic. But I understand that it was limiting design space, so like maybe...
01:06:06
Speaker
maybe But why activate? why act I'm really stuck on the activate thing. I don't know. That's my spider ham thoughts. Everything that Risa said, except you know without the the the weight of experience, because I don't play as much spider ham as she does. so Okay.
01:06:23
Speaker
um Yeah, I think it's it's a weird, clunky... I don't... Not a fan. But I also get that maybe it was a problem that he was always hitting cards at the left side. i Yeah.
01:06:35
Speaker
Anyway. It seems like a lot of variables have changed at the time. Well, they changed before because they didn't want him to keep hitting Apocalypse, right? right it used to be the highest power card. So, like, well, now we'll make it your leftmost.
01:06:48
Speaker
and i Yeah, which tends to be higher power. They noticed. Yeah, and they're just like, oh, the poor Thanos' of the world. Mm-hmm. Anyway, like I said, the random would still maybe make it like fine. It's the activate that totally destroys it for me.
01:07:04
Speaker
like i agree. Yeah, I think the activate's the main thing I don't like. Okay. We had datamines. New cards coming. These would be, i think, August cards?
01:07:20
Speaker
No, one more than the September cards. Because we have Fantastic Four, and then we have Galactus Heralds, and then we have, I think people are calling this like Androids.
01:07:31
Speaker
um I'm not super familiar with many of these characters. know some them. First up. I know some of them. Awesome. I know like two or three.
01:07:42
Speaker
Awesome, Andy. A two one Activate. Give one of your cards at each other location plus two power.
01:07:52
Speaker
Net 2-7 is pretty good. No, it's a 2-5. It's Other Location. Other Location. yeah Yeah, I don't like this card.
01:08:03
Speaker
this this is nothing but This is not a card that's being released. They're not doing that. No, this card sucks. this is sub-toxidoxi. It's redeeming quality.
01:08:15
Speaker
It's most redeeming quality is that like... Maybe with Nomura, you know, and then, it you know, synergizes with Ravonna, which so many cards have been moved out of Ravonna synergy range, to be honest.
01:08:32
Speaker
And think that the two ones never really work out. Right. They don't because they're red guardian. And then you have like a two negative. You know what I mean? Which is like, what am I supposed to do with that?
01:08:44
Speaker
And, um yeah, I mean, I like that it buffs cards, but yeah, I think it's rough. It's rough. I miss Nomura, though. Nomura feels so unfeasible anymore.
01:08:55
Speaker
Like, i tried to I tried to build with her a couple times over the last couple months, and each time it felt bad. Anyway. Yeah, I don't know how viable she is without Wong, and that's like, as soon as you start requiring ca combo pieces... but hurts reliability to one card you think she's good in sanctum or anything i don't really like think about namora very much yes i think she's good in sanctum okay but you have to play around it you have to have like move cards or kitty or something so that you can really control how many cards are there yeah i'm just like there's no room for her in my preferred sanctum strategy but i i was just like maybe that would be fun for somebody else who's into that kind of thing
01:09:37
Speaker
Okay, next. Bastion, 4-5. On reveal, add copies of your other cards here to your hand. Set their costs to 2 and power to 3.
01:09:51
Speaker
It's very cute. He makes them into Prime Sentinels. and those are like, you know, sleeper agent. Yeah, it's it's it's adorable. um Very cool.
01:10:02
Speaker
I don't know if I've mentioned this, but when I was reading X-Men comics as ah as a young child, that was Bastion was very much the big bad of the moment. Operation Zero Tolerance, 90s children's remember.
01:10:19
Speaker
I think that's what they say.
01:10:22
Speaker
yeah i think this sounds fun, but i'm like struggle to imagine what you do with it. Oh, it's got to be good. think sleep Obviously, Hood.
01:10:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, obviously, yeah, Hood hood for sure.
01:10:36
Speaker
But yeah, just like get an affordable little playable like on reveal things again. Like let Ironheart again. Like I'm always, let's let's just think about our good friend Ironheart.
01:10:48
Speaker
It becomes 2-9. That is a good one. Yes. I feel like this card has to be good. I just don't see how it is. I'm just on paper. you know I don't know. For the same reason I think Astral Projection has to be good. Bastion has to be good. and i'm not I'm not thinking about the the deck. I just... in ah In a vacuum. This is a good card.
01:11:08
Speaker
I think you have to. 4-5 is like... That's a lot of momentum to give up. 4-5, I don't think... You can Zabu it. Oh my gosh, why not? Why not get a 2-3 Zabu?
01:11:23
Speaker
Oh... Rhi, any thoughts about Bastion? Um, yeah, you know, I agree. Maybe it was some fire hair stuff. I don't know. It'll be ah it'll be interesting.
01:11:35
Speaker
Play with it when it comes out. Like, I liked Esme alright. feels like that kind of vibe of deck building for me. And more controlled. and More controlled. Yes. You've already got the ingredients in front of you. Yeah, I think it's also interesting to compare to moonon girl Oh, that's definitely the point of comparison you're going to want. i like this card better than Moon Girl. I think it's overall more powerful.
01:12:00
Speaker
um Okay. Danger. Four, six. Activate. Destroy an enemy card here with less power. Cool. It's definitely cool.
01:12:13
Speaker
You think so? don't like it. I think with the activate... I would rather play a Shang or Red Guardian for which one I was going for, you know?
01:12:26
Speaker
I suppose I could see that argument. I have difficulty evaluating this card. I feel like once I start playing it, I will know in an instant like if it's good or bad. but It's random, and I think that makes it bad.
01:12:40
Speaker
And you have to put out in advance. It gives them an opportunity to make sure they don't. You're not catching them with the surprise because you knew they were going to play that there They see that you put it there. so play there Counterpoint, what if you just want to kill their copycat or something? They play a copycat on three, and then you play danger on six, or on four, and it's a four-six. I'm sorry, I'm looking at the card and numbers and things, and speaking is difficult. too Yeah, you spend four energy to cancel their three energy. Like, I just... No, you get four-eleven in that case.
01:13:16
Speaker
or Or like, I don't know. Like, you know, like I think that there might be value in killing a medium sized thing. And I mean, we haven't really like gotten into it. But you have to play it. You have two turns play it. You have to play it in turn four or turn five unless you like Zaboo'd it or otherwise. I do think you it would benefit from Zabooing.
01:13:36
Speaker
And like, I think that like a four activate, you're correct, is rough under the best of circumstances. A four cause to activate probably is bad. I think, I think you've talked to me. And it's with less power.
01:13:47
Speaker
So it's like you, you're going to what, play this and Shang? Between the two, you just rather be Shang, right? Or... Yeah, you're right. Maybe Nomura. This is a promising design. like I want to help it out. I i want to get it there. can't you're championing this the way I did Hulkling. At least it's fun. and Instead, you're looking at this boing activate card. Come on.
01:14:13
Speaker
This is a more interesting card that you actually have control over. It's your kind of boring, is what you're saying. Yeah, Emperor Hulkwing shows up and tells you what he's doing today, and that's not good.
01:14:29
Speaker
You build this card up to double digits. You activate it. It kills a squirrel. Like, that that it's not targeted. ra Yeah, the Spider-Man 2099 of it all.
01:14:40
Speaker
Yeah, this card can get lost. Okay. I thought it was great. I said I thought it was hard to evaluate and y'all have convinced me it's not that hard to evaluate. Okay.
01:14:51
Speaker
It sounds like lemon to me. like the people criticizing the way people dress and Ben's like, you know, they've got heart. They're doing it. They're like, no, trash them like us. Okay. Okay.
01:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think it sucks. Jim Hammond, Human Torch, a At the start of each turn, plus one power for each bonus energy you have.
01:15:18
Speaker
Kind of a new archetype. We do have Sunspot. Do you think it starts losing power after two turns Havoc on the board, you know? oh Does Havoc count as a negative bonus energy? yeah so like that I don't think so.
01:15:34
Speaker
I think bonus energy and max energy are distinct.
01:15:39
Speaker
um i so well i so Do you think you could lose energy with Havoc and still get yourself some bonus energy with Wiccan or something? like Do you think that Havoc subtracts from the bonus energy that you would have from Wiccan? Do you think Jim Hammond will count...
01:15:54
Speaker
like Do you think he'll grow slower as Wiccan and Havoc coexist on the board? No. I think he would always be a two. um All right.
01:16:05
Speaker
You think even after Havoc starts gobbling up the bonus energy? okay All right. I can see the argument for like either outcome. No, wait. Wiccan does say max energy, doesn't he?
01:16:22
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, is bonus energy just stuff like Hope Summers and Nure Dimension? and but Yeah, I actually don't think Wiccan would count at all. is Is this the Feast card?
01:16:35
Speaker
And Fallen 1. Wow, wow, wow, wow. You're right. I would have thought Wiccan would have counted. would have thought Corvus Sclave would have counted. I think we're probably being too pedantic and expecting them to make too much sense.
01:16:51
Speaker
I think it's if you have... Energy Yeah, like, at one, you have one you have two energy, you have three. At any point that you have more than that, I think that's what they consider. I bet you're right. They want it to be simple. They want it to be Well, actually... you like if wicked Okay, you sold me. It's probably just the net number of energy you have.
01:17:14
Speaker
What I like about this card is I'm glad they're giving more. I don't know that I particularly love this card. You know, it also feels very, like, Sunspot-y. You know, like, kind of creeping on that territory. But you can spend the energy.
01:17:29
Speaker
That's true. you're right. You can spend it. That is good about it. Also, like, it is another tool for letting energy sit, which I haven't gotten to play She-Hulk for. oh Once again, sitting on energy instead of using it.
01:17:42
Speaker
Is this a tool for... like This doesn't reward you for sitting on energy, does it? It doesn't, but it synergizes if you're already Luna Snow kind of to it.
01:17:58
Speaker
I used to love energy skip. you know like I had fun with that. i had a lot of fun with high Evo kind of stuff for a while. It just felt it's just like almost always better to spend that energy. like You're just not getting value for it. so like More tools along that line is good, but it feels like weirdly worded it While creeping in on Sunspot's text, it's in a way don't like it. If we can't parse it, then... the odd yeah
01:18:35
Speaker
It's a weird card. ah I don't see him as stronger than Sunspot. Yeah, I don't think this card ships like this. It's goofy.
01:18:46
Speaker
Um... I mean, like, okay, you play Wiccan on curve, you end up, this thing ends up being a 1-5. But like... but like I don't know. I don't think that's worth it. Just so you can have him out on the board instead of waiting in your hand like a Titania.
01:19:02
Speaker
yeah Sometimes one drops are good though if you're expecting weird bits of extra like hope energy or whatever. like i mean, but I'll play Nicholas Scratch. You've seen me.
01:19:15
Speaker
I think there'll be an energy deck. Fallen 1, you Shuri Fallen 1 and on turn 6 you have 11 energy. That's something. But...
01:19:23
Speaker
something but Um... Yeah. And maybe in that case, he's better than Sunspot because you get the plus six power, or the plus five, and then you get to... ah You get to spend that energy.
01:19:41
Speaker
Jocasta. Jocasta? I don't know. three three Activate. Immediately activate your other cards here without using up their activate abilities.
01:19:52
Speaker
I... almost love it i designed a card like this for secret homework before but it wasn't on reveal and i really wish this wasn't exactly uh that's exactly how we feel about it's like this is what we've been waiting for to maybe make activate feel more worth it and instead you're like oh i really wish this guy doesn't have such problem it's got the activity right, so you you can't play Jocasta on turn six, but you can play your other activate card on turn six and then activate Jocasta.
01:20:24
Speaker
Oh, that's true. It does make activate, it helps make activate less awkward. But in that plan, you are still losing out on an activation that you kind of paid for, and that feels inefficient and also like just emotionally bad.
01:20:40
Speaker
And if she was on reveal, it would still work that way where you could play out that card during six. It's true. That's true. Yeah. Just the less activate we get in this equation, the better.
01:20:55
Speaker
I don't know. I think that there are plenty of activate, and they're making a lot more. Yeah, I think this probably are activates you happy to use again. And also, she can do it on, I don't know if it's a she. I think that's a feminine name. It is she. It's definitely a she. I am familiar with this character. Yeah. She's the one I think she is that's like, I'm into it.
01:21:15
Speaker
Like, that's something. She's the first reason to synergize activate. Because otherwise there's not like, hey, bonuses for all your activate cards. You have that. You know what mean? It's not like its own. This is the first deck to maybe be like, oh, have an activate deck.
01:21:31
Speaker
But this is the only card that puts them together. There's still not like a of reasons to put a bunch of activate. I mean, this the reward card for running the activate synergy. Do you think she works on cards that are already activated?
01:21:45
Speaker
That's what I was curious about. That's what I wanted to know. If she would let you let use an additional use, if it already happened, I was curious. But I do think she invites you to activate and then activate the card on the same Yeah, you could do that on the same turn. Yeah. yeah Definitely cool. like ah yeah I think that once the card uses up its activate charge, Jocasta has lost interest.
01:22:09
Speaker
But we already know, like, already some activates don't work well with each other. Like, look at Symbiote Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider, right? You can't... You have to use glue. It uses to deactivate. Whole cluster. Yeah, so, like... It's still, like, it needs more, I feel like, for you to be like, I'm gonna build an activate deck.
01:22:32
Speaker
Yeah, I don't see... like This is one where... you like I'm willing to believe in Bastion and Astral Projection just on the the strength of the text and the the thing in a vacuum.
01:22:46
Speaker
like I feel like this card could be good eventually, but I'm not willing to extend it the same like line of credit that I am for Bastion and Astral Projection. I don't see it for Jocasta yet.
01:23:01
Speaker
Maybe later. I guess if you like if you are if you can combine Jocasta with like awesome Andy and doing stuff like that, the buffs do allow you to bypass Shadow King, which isn't a super, you know, like fear now and things like Elias and stuff. But it's like.
01:23:18
Speaker
I just like announcing your plans is always is always way worse than, like, you know, sneak attack, which I ruin my own. I don't know if you guys ever do ninja sneak attacks, but I always have to do ninja noises when I'm running up, so it ruins stealth. Anyway, okay.
01:23:33
Speaker
That's activate anyway. It's like, there's no sneaking. Yeah, I think you're right. This card's not sneaky enough.
01:23:41
Speaker
Yeah. ah What are they going to do? Cosmo you? Well, you know, that's that's a very good point. Just knowing, right? Just the fact that I know what you're doing, and I know that's been enough whether I can play around it, you know?
01:24:00
Speaker
Alright, Karima Shepander, Omega Sentinel, activate... Oh, sorry, four three Activate. Afflict the highest power enemy card here with negative 7 power.
01:24:12
Speaker
That seems better than danger. Reliably a 410. Yeah. Then an Affliction deck. i mean, reliably, you have to get it out. It's a 4 cost activate. You have to get it out early enough.
01:24:25
Speaker
um This is one that Jocasta is happy to hit again. 7. Yeah, wow. I just it's like this card. It's the overkill problem. Because I was just thinking that, too. I'm like, oh, you could put this with Lasher. And then it's like, but then are you investing so much in one lane that you've overkilled with Affliction? You know?
01:24:43
Speaker
i i mean, we don't say that about Crossbones.
01:24:49
Speaker
Crossbones is a 410. And still invite him to the party. mean, if you're stacking a bunch of Afflict. If you're stacking Jocasta with Karima. Oh, if this is part of some Diamondback fucking fantasy. That's what I'm saying. There's always so much you want to win one lane.
01:25:07
Speaker
Bye. I don't know. I want to believe in this card, even though it is a 4 cost with Activate, which we have we we've we've been over.
01:25:19
Speaker
I don't know. I'm just biased against Affliction decks. I'm going to have to play against them anyway. I think it's a very cool design at the very least. even Even if I can't say like, oh, this card's going to blow the door off its hinges.
01:25:33
Speaker
ah It's at least neato.
01:25:39
Speaker
trying to think of like, when do you want this instead of 410? And I guess like if you're attacking a lane boy you if you're attacking a lane and your opponent doesn't have any cards there yet. Well, I guess a 410 It's shong proof.
01:25:54
Speaker
um This is true. But maybe like hitting enemy venom before they... so look it Like it's it's kind of niche, like... Yeah. I think Sean Proof is the isn the big winner.
01:26:05
Speaker
Yeah. um I don't think that's good enough. That's not enough of factor. You got to stack it with like Affliction, right? it's for yeah I would rather have a risky 410 out there than have to play it.
01:26:17
Speaker
Every 410 has to have a little drawback, but like having a one cost card here or being ahead here are better drawbacks than having most of your power locked in. Yeah.
01:26:28
Speaker
So yeah, it's just shitty call Obsidian.
01:26:33
Speaker
most of the time uh moira x a one two when this is destroyed get a copy of your opening hand that's a lot of draw yeah huh dude seems to really good i feel like it's the first time i've read this card what yeah it's definitely the first time i've read this card I don't know. I don't know. i think it's probably, it seems good, right? That's a lot of cards, huh?
01:27:08
Speaker
Like, how how is this not good? It's like a fire hair thing. You I mean? But that's the way we're all like, fire hair is crazy. And it's like, yeah, fire can do crazy things when you set it up to do crazy things, you know? I just want to put this in a deck with Uncle Ben. And it's not like, you know, maybe we put Nova in there. i don't even know if Nova makes the cut.
01:27:27
Speaker
Sacrificial one drops. But like if if you just have enough small, good cards, you would like to see them again. the three that you got in your opening hand, whatever they were. Maybe they're Spider-Man. Spider-Man's a good card, i was just saying. so ah Maybe we run Uncle Ben and Spider-Man. We're running lots of small... and We're running Surge and stuff. We're running New Mr. are Fantastic. we're you know We're doing good, cheap things.
01:27:53
Speaker
we We all love good, cheap things here. year this is the podcast of people who love good cheap things yeah moira x seems like uh pretty pretty fully bananagrams to me it's very cool about it there are decks that will love that killmongering we're carnaging probably in this deck uh we're definitely playing nico yeah just always played Nico.
01:28:18
Speaker
She's got to be one of my most played cards. I just feel like that destroy spell is going to be nuts in this deck with, well, that's too many cards if you're your hands full. that's That's great for Uncle Ben, not so great for Moira. Didn't think that through all the way. But you know like there's a deck here is what I'm saying.
01:28:32
Speaker
there's There are definitely enough cards that want that want to lock arms together and fucking follow the yellow brick road. ah we're we're Yeah, we're doing something. That's what I think. Great card. Cool.
01:28:44
Speaker
yeah I caught there. wasn't sure. You're good. Viv Vision, I believe she is the season pass card. Vision's daughter. 3-3.
01:28:57
Speaker
End of turn, give each card in your hand plus one power if you're winning here. Otherwise, move this to another location. Love this. Wow. That's nuts. It's very cool. This card isn't good. I've said that i that like so many times about these cards so far, but like this one I feel it the most strongly about.
01:29:17
Speaker
Love Viv. Glad she's coming into the game. And finally, it's like, yeah, it's a buff card, which I'm always occasionally just playing cards that are all about buffing your hand. And this solves the problem.
01:29:29
Speaker
So whenever I build those decks, I also almost always, any of my decks, put a card that will reach or move or something. And finally, usually my buff deck, it's the recipient of buffs that has to be able to do this. Now, finally, a card that will both buff and move.
01:29:44
Speaker
Perfection. This card is doing everything. It's doing all the good stuff. This is a cool card. ah like it a lot. And a surfer card. and it's a surfer card.
01:29:55
Speaker
and A move surfer card. do love those. yeah
01:30:02
Speaker
ah I'm going to use this with Mysterio. Because, of course, hand buff. a I have to say it.
01:30:13
Speaker
and never been escape I Mysterio. This is just a very good card. This is an everybody card. This is this card is for everyone everywhere. Yeah. Mandroid for the people.
01:30:24
Speaker
truly warlock three four activate for each unspent energy give a card in your hand minus one cost all
01:30:39
Speaker
right this is what i should have read when i was talking about human torch earlier like it i think this goes in that archetype like it
01:30:52
Speaker
It's a little clunky, right? You only get to do it once, and you have to choose when. Well, I mean, you're doing the She-Hulk thing. You know when you're short on energy. Yeah. Yeah. ah And three for an activate is fine, especially if it means you're getting, like, She-Hulk and Infinite out on the same turn.
01:31:11
Speaker
I don't think this conflicts with Infant, right? you think and just you play cards Do you think She-Hulk gets in the way because you don't want her to soak up the Warlock cost reductions?
01:31:24
Speaker
You do usually. I'm trying to think. It's been a while because it's not been viable. But I used to play But if gets one Moon Girl, right, to to She-Hulk. And then, right, and I had sexy pile of cards where you would do the skip to play She-Hulk Valk instead of She-Hulk.
01:31:41
Speaker
Yeah. And you said you had Moon Girl in that deck, right? So you had, like, cards in hand. yeah this is probably yeah Yeah, you probably run She-Hulk still. That's what I'm saying. know exactly what decks I would have put this card in. It would have been great because Sexy Pile of Cards was skipping to play She-Hulk Val, which wins you any lane if you play them both on the same lane. and then And it's like, oh, if I could also... The deck also had a bunch of counters, you know, like Shang and and stuff like that. Spider-Ham. Yeah. So, like...
01:32:12
Speaker
yeah and
01:32:16
Speaker
But also there was another one, think it was, um was it an eco deck? Oh, I think it was someone else. I don't want to miscredit. But there was a Moon Girl She-Hulk with Infinite deck I also played for a while that was, like, really great. And it's like this would have loved to go in there. Anywhere where you're, like, skipping turn five to slam down a bunch of cards. Yeah.
01:32:41
Speaker
But it's activate. Like normally I wouldn't like, but yeah. With Evo Hulk. And that's it's the same thing. It's like... If you don't have Limbo up, you can only get She-Hulk down to one.
01:32:53
Speaker
So that's where if at least one of those hits her, she'll go down to zero. And and that makes a huge difference. more than The dissonance is so unlikely to bite you in the butt, really. like there There's potential, but it's so small.
01:33:07
Speaker
If it hits She-Hulk more than once, those are wasted. But like it's worth it just for it to hit She-Hulk once. Yeah, I'm i'm convinced. She-Hulk friend forever.
01:33:19
Speaker
When I was skipping to play She-Hulk and ah Valk, like I said, I didn't play them because I don't like playing Magic because it's too easily turned off. and like you know please So was just trying to skip turn five and not skip a turn six. So like I said, that only put She-Hulk at one. So like, boom, love it.
01:33:38
Speaker
Finally an activate card. I can see where I would play. Well, yeah. You have to have a deck built around it, but yeah. I think there are... I think, yeah, this card seems... i'm i'm a little worried about this one, I guess, is my feeling.
01:33:54
Speaker
oh We'll see. Think about if you're playing Bolts of Bolthak a lot. um If you're playing Agamotto, the Bolts are really fun because they allow you to delay a turn. If you didn't draw well and you didn't set up to ping your werewolf around or bishop up or whatever you're doing, you can delay with Bolts because it's like, I'll just play all that shit out next turn.
01:34:14
Speaker
Sometimes you delay just so that they can't counter the shit you're doing or whatever. And this... kind of lets you do the same thing. It lets you delay and then ping werewolf around a million times in the last turn with a bunch of spells, right? That you can play out.
01:34:29
Speaker
Anyway, don't know. I like it. like Are we playing it in in an Agamotto deck with bolts of ball deck? Maybe not. Is that too greedy? But like and the promise is there, right? There's so many ways to fill up your hand with cards to play, right? like Cheap cards to throw werewolf around and stuff. Yeah.
01:34:49
Speaker
By itself, it's not just wear a delay. You don't want fill up the board. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so you can use the entire only one minute you get on turn six to melt your brain over where Werewolf is going. know, it is. Werewolf's the only one I'll do that work for.
01:35:10
Speaker
No, I'm just... Okay, it's just a delay by itself, but paired with She-Hulk, Sunspot, those sorts of cards, you get to double dip on the energy you're skipping. But even just the delaying and getting the energy later... Delaying is strong, yeah. It's already a very strong effect worth doing, you know?
01:35:26
Speaker
yeah um Also, cool one to use with Jocasta. Mm-hmm. Abso-crab. want to discount your entire hand by 10? but my gosh. Yeah. Oh my goodness.
01:35:38
Speaker
That would be... That will be... i mean, that's the that's the plan, right? that's That's why we do the things together. Yeah, yeah okay. Troublesome.
01:35:50
Speaker
Sparky, a ah Activate. Give your card that last moved plus 2 power and move it back to its previous location.
01:36:02
Speaker
Let me guess, Ben loves this. Yeah, I do. Also, now that I'm seeing all these activate cards, I have changed my mind about Jocasta. I will extend her that line of credit that I hope but i was not willing to.
01:36:13
Speaker
Okay. um Wow, this card's nuts. Yeah, Jocasta needs critical mass. Sparky? Sparky. I don't know who or what you are, but...
01:36:24
Speaker
i think it's I think it's Viv Vision's pet dog. All right. I'm reminded of another 2-3 that I met couple years ago at this point. um She was called Ghost Spider, and she was good enough at two three and people didn't understand, and but she's a 1-2, and she she would need to be a 1-2 eventually, but she was good enough at 2-3, and like this card is so much so much better than that. Oh, my gosh. Okay.
01:36:51
Speaker
Or is it? Yes, it is. I like this card so much. I think two is like the ideal for an activate because it lets you get it out early, but it's not vulnerable like a one is.
01:37:03
Speaker
still see a Rania played out in like... Oh, that is such a cool effect. that You are going to be able to just scratch so many weird little itches. Oh my gosh. The free move back is huge.
01:37:15
Speaker
That is... That's That's nuts. Send it back to your and web. I am sure my opponents cannot be trusted to remember what moved last and where it moved from. Oh my god. this This doesn't technically give me an information advantage, but like in practice, I think it will. This is disgusting with Torch Taskmaster.
01:37:41
Speaker
Oh my gosh. This is such a cool card. Very cool. I love it. I'm surprised it doesn't cross the line of too strong for you. Well, I mean, it's it's weird. and Also, the activate, I think, is going to keep it from being like, you know, if this were an on-reveal, will it curse?
01:38:01
Speaker
But it's not. it's you can pay for it ahead of time. That's good. Maybe in this case. i To me, this seems like one that you might actually prefer as an activate. You know, think sequencing.
01:38:13
Speaker
There are definitely there will be situations where you're glad to have the activate thing. But I think there will also be situations where just like the shock and ah the boom, it's happening. You didn't know.
01:38:25
Speaker
Turn six. What's up? Like, oh, wow. And on reveal Sparky on turn six would win some games. Also, you know what? It happens to be if you play that with Heimdall, that's eight energy, and that's the amount of energy you have if you once in future the turn before, and that's pretty cool um cool. Okay. The last one in this set. Super Adaptoid, 3-5, I think previously featured in Secret Homework.
01:38:56
Speaker
um On reveal, steal the text from an enemy activate card here. It's it's activate rogue. um
01:39:06
Speaker
Yeah. It seems bad. We have another counter. No, I mean, it seems bad, but at the same time, this will be good, because it's just that release valve, if ever. Because right now we're only...
01:39:18
Speaker
Good like activate counters, probably like Red Guardian, if you can get it alone, or it's low rate, or it's something that's shangable. So it's like, hey, if activate with all our new activate cards ever becomes a menace, people might start tossing this in. It's a 3-5, so it's not the worst power stat.
01:39:38
Speaker
But yeah, unless activate is a menace, you're probably not throwing it in as a counter. like write a surfer card that's also a counter, you know? Yeah, I like this card. and I think you're so right about the surfer thing. like i think I think this is about to become like part of the core group in surfer.
01:39:56
Speaker
Oh, damn. You think Activates are going to be popular enough for that, huh? I think it's a 3-5. But a 3-5 is good. with upside. Copycat is just like, hey, you cannot go wrong. 3-5s are good.
01:40:10
Speaker
um but But also, this is like a big game swinging thing. like Whatever their Activate is, it is something they do not want stolen, that's for sure. Well, I think it's also worth noting, I think this would still work even if they already used the Activate.
01:40:25
Speaker
I think you're right. ah Because activate, as far as I understand, activate, like if a card has been activated, is tied to the card itself. So Super Adaptoid hasn't been activated. But their card still has its text.
01:40:39
Speaker
So obviously it's better if you steal it before their card is used, but you could also steal it after. But Lauren, don't you, if you use Zola, an already activated card, you can't reactivate it, right?
01:40:51
Speaker
Yeah, but those are copies.
01:40:55
Speaker
Okay, fair enough. They have all the same modifiers on them from like stat changes and things, right? So like they they've they've got the same life experience, it seems like. ah We could test it now with Prodigy. I've never seen anybody do that, but you could.
01:41:11
Speaker
Can Prodigy steal text or copy text from a card that is already activated? It's been activated. Oh my gosh. I think he can. I hope my secret homework didn't overlap with other people's secret homeworks. We'll see.
01:41:24
Speaker
We'll see. i was just reminded by all this talk of of what we would do with Prodigy to get answers to questions. We
Card Changes and Game Philosophy
01:41:34
Speaker
also got an OTA this week.
01:41:37
Speaker
We're going to go over that. Hopefully most of these we can make pretty fast because we're going long already. Thanos got a bunch of changes. um Doesn't start in your hand anymore.
01:41:49
Speaker
Space Stone gains a power to 1-3. Specifically draws Thanos. Time Stone got its card draw back. And Reality Stone gains a power 1-2.
01:42:01
Speaker
to one two
01:42:04
Speaker
Yeah. I loved their philosophy that they said, because, you know, I'm always saying like, you know, disagreeing with them on things. But I love that they're like, hey, we don't like when you can just play a bunch of good counter cards that are not like otherwise synergistic and just, you know, ruin everyone else's day.
01:42:24
Speaker
We like that you want to invest in synergy and that you get rewarded for doing so. And I really because I agree. That's what I like. I think it's a lot of fun to deck building to me is finding unexpected synergies are like different than like top meta ones or just unusual ones. And I agree. It's like, well, those decks rule and they will win you infinite tickets all day long.
01:42:50
Speaker
um You know, and Thanos enabled that style of like just Stock at all the counters to ruin everyone else's day and like Sorcerer Supreme and Thanos will like win you the rest or whatever. So like it, like it.
01:43:03
Speaker
oh Yeah, I it's been mentioned on the podcast before, but I consider myself one of Marvel Snap's greatest Thanos ignorers. I just don't think about him very much.
01:43:14
Speaker
I think this is a good change. It's fine.
01:43:20
Speaker
Yeah, I also love that they stated that philosophy. I know not everybody agrees. I think Scott Denham specifically thinks that like when when or has said that when good cards are viable in the meta, that means that there's it's usually a healthy meta. There's good diversity.
01:43:36
Speaker
i don't think that Thanos is a good version of that, though. Yeah, and maybe that's a more extreme thing to us about our views. I think agree with that principle that Scott has, but I think that this is an example of a problem.
01:43:51
Speaker
There's a difference between good cards and attack. I disagree, though. Yeah, that's where I think the difference is. Because when I think about what... I was going to be like, say to my face, Scott!
01:44:02
Speaker
But then as you continued to talk, I was like, no, because I agree with him, but I think he's slightly talking about something. Midrange was like old Silky Smooth, right? yeah There was still a lot of synergies in that deck. It had little bits of tech, you know what i mean? you know You'd run like a Shang or something. i think maybe he's talking like...
01:44:22
Speaker
Like flex tape, like safeties, flex tape or something like that. But like, not just like a straight, like just all the counters, you know, with like enough inherent power, I think.
01:44:37
Speaker
And hopefully suck that will appear in the speakeasy to clarify. We don't want to put words in his mouth. Scott, we demand answers. No, we're just calling out our friend.
01:44:49
Speaker
are you ah Were you practicing some Thanos apology there? What was going on? I don't know if I agree that good cards should be like... super viable strategy you're like ever the best strategy but i can recognize that when it's viable the meta tends to be more diverse um i agree with the devs that like if you're working on so if you're investing in synergy that should pay off and maybe it means that you're maybe it means you're more sensitive to tech right like i could see like good card strength is that it has ah more versatile like a
01:45:25
Speaker
more even matchup spread, whereas Synergy deck might be more polarized, where some matchups it wins really strongly and others just totally get the threat. ones that are its really going its way, and it might be able to get better cube rates and things or whatever. But what's the point of Synergy if it doesn't earn you anything, you know?
01:45:46
Speaker
um Galacta and Red Guardian, these two both feel inevitable. i Galacta goes to 4-6 plus 2, and Red Guardian goes to three two The plus-3 power, like, they'll never, they always nerf it, right?
01:46:05
Speaker
Yep, we do. Both of these changes seemed specifically inevitable. You yourself called this, yeah. um No, I agree. I think when we were chatting amongst our snap on this, Ben, I think you said like, oh, I thought it was 3-2 already. I kept looking for it. No, I looking for it there. think I've done the same thing.
01:46:25
Speaker
I also keep thinking it's a 3-2 and going there for it because it does just seem, yeah. It it always should have been probably, you know. I mean, I love a 3-5, but should Red Guardian ever have been a 3-5? Probably. Probably. 3-5 with so much upside. It wild.
01:46:43
Speaker
Wiping um um wipeping a text box is nuts.
01:46:48
Speaker
Misery and Absorbing Man both gain a power. Maybe more along the lines of boosting synergy. Misery is 4-9. Abs Man is four five You play a lot of abs, man, right? I do play a lot of abs, man. And I like this this. This point counts. Like, sometimes I'm like, that's a point that doesn't matter. Like, whenever they give one to Electro, I'm like, we're not we're not playing a Electro for the stats, people.
01:47:14
Speaker
ah But like, hey, Absorbing Man, that does matter. Hey, Brood into Absorbing Man, ooh, that feels a little little heftier now, you know you could You could bash someone over the head with that.
01:47:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, the four or five absorbing man, big positive change. Not sure why Misery is getting this point. Four nine is a bit of a bod there. We're we're approaching like, um you know, crossbones territory and stuff. Like what's really going on here with Misery?
01:47:44
Speaker
Should misery be an overstated like ah you know thing? I mean, it does it does kill some stuff sometimes. you know It will break a few eggs, but like does it break so many eggs that it needs to be overstated?
01:47:56
Speaker
is this Is this a Polaris situation? I don't think... Yeah, I mean, you're often happy that she's destroying, right? Like you're playing her Fireharr, she's destroying the hood. ah Somebody was disappointed that last week I said Polaris in a very boring way and it wasn't very, you know, it wasn't very X-Men Legends 2.
01:48:17
Speaker
You know? He never says the name of the game, but that's what it would sound like, I think, if he did say it. Mm-hmm. I agree with Misery. I want to add, too, that also love the Absman.
01:48:30
Speaker
Obviously, yes, like along with the brood things, the good things that Ben does with it, there's also fun things. there's I remember one of my old buff decks before, because Absman used to be 4-5, right? like Back in the day.
01:48:44
Speaker
And um I would run like but my buff deck with Black Panther to be copied by Absman turn later. So there's just more fun to be had, you know? with The bigger Absman. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. i started We're gonna see Forge just Brood Absman come back, maybe?
01:49:07
Speaker
That's pretty good. Um... Wolfsbane 3-1 to three two I actually don't love this change because she's most commonly used as like a swap for sage and that doesn't work in Ravonna and negative.
01:49:24
Speaker
Right. make this change. I will say a three eight is a lot more appealing than a 3-7. A 3-7 to me is like, what are we doing here? Like, if you don't do something.
01:49:36
Speaker
But like a 3-8 that doesn't do something is like a little more like, oh, maybe. i don't know. But it still feels like she occupies that same spot as Sage in most places where I'm thinking about her in a deck. And I'm always picking Sage over Wolfsbane generally.
01:49:56
Speaker
yeah ah But I guess they felt like they could do this without messing up the early game. I think it probably makes the transition from the early game to like when you start seeing all these like late series cards and stuff. like It would be nice if your low series cards could like hang a little bit better.
01:50:14
Speaker
you know yeah I think this is probably like positive for early game players like in ah in a way that they will feel. So I applaud that. Maybe this is like a Shong thing where it's like it's always better to go from 9 power to 10 power even with Shong out there. it's like Maybe it's like that where going from 1 power to 2 power is always better even if you lose certain synergies. But I don't know. Nobody was playing her in Ravonna decks, right? like Were they?
01:50:46
Speaker
i tried. It's tough to play Because I loved Ravonna, but like... She's my go-to set when people are like, what do I do for Sage? Oh, Wolf's me.
01:50:57
Speaker
um Rhino goes from 3-6 to 2-5. That's a big change. Minus one, minus one is almost always a buff, with, of course, the exception that he's no longer a surfer card.
01:51:09
Speaker
RIP Rhino Dreams, Safari. But now you can curve right into him with Merlin. You go Merlin, Rhino, spell. like Yeah, that's true. Rhino plus spell on three.
01:51:23
Speaker
And two out of the three spells are specifically good with Rhino, so
01:51:29
Speaker
But is so big. That's huge. This is so good. This makes me want to put together old Sarah deck where you're just going to drop a bunch of high power 2s at the end, you know, and they can't really do anything about it. I'm into it. I'll throw Dazzler with Rhino on last turn with a bunch of other... That's what I want to i look it I look at the competition, these these Maximus and Lizards and things, and I'm also thinking of like Silk and Spider-Man, and I'm like, does Rhino do enough? I mean, like ah some of those cards don't do anything. Like, you know, Lizard, he has a thing that you would like to get rid of, but I don't know. like
01:52:12
Speaker
Spider-Man's a and he's got very strong effect. Yeah.
01:52:18
Speaker
And Rhino's a 2-5 and has an effect that you want to make the best of, I guess. Yeah, you don't play Rhino unless you have to be doing something like that. You have have a plan for it, pretty much. for sure.
01:52:33
Speaker
You want to be reusing and recycling and and all that. um hey Yeah, I like it. Ancient one, the Daomondala goes from 3 cost to 2.
01:52:46
Speaker
I think I said in my Ancient One review that either Ancient One or Daumandula needs to go to two costs. This falls exactly within the the parameters you described for what she might need. She's just too expensive. And this is a lot more intriguing.
01:53:01
Speaker
I do think it's interesting they didn't do two and then three. like That would have curved out better. Would liked it better, yeah. But this is fine. Like... You would rarely be like you'd hardly ever play Daumandala on three, right? No, there would be no reason. like do the You need more targets for it to hit. So this is probably fine. In fact, this is probably better.
01:53:23
Speaker
Do you think it's enough, though? No. That's what I think, too. I think they would both need to go to two. I think Ancient One and Daumandala would need to go to two. Yeah. Yeah. uh there something like the and that's your point where we're where ancient one and reducing cost goes from being totally are mostly useless to like way overpowered that you have to watch for you know there there is definitely some line and things get wild past it i don't know it's not a card i think about very much and i don't think i'm going to
01:53:59
Speaker
An interesting and timely change for Ironheart. Instead of giving three cards plus two power, she gives two cards plus three. That's definitely better. Much easier to curve out.
01:54:12
Speaker
Yes. I don't know if it's better to spread in more locations or less. Oh, no, this is a very good change because now you can play Ironheart on curve. Yeah. Right. Yes. This is so huge.
01:54:25
Speaker
I totally agree. That's the biggest problem is that often you're like, this is the only three cost or like, you know, that I would even want to play. And then you're giving up that two power because like, but you're settling for three, four iron heart. And it's just not a good feeling.
01:54:39
Speaker
here Also, Dominique Thorne, I think is the actor's name. She's, she's great too in the show. She just ah doesn't take her shirt off with the frequency that Anthony Ramos does.
01:54:52
Speaker
There are plot reasons for it. I mean, are there? Who knows? Yeah, his skin is extra sensitive to the sun or something. i don't know. He's got thing going on. There's some sort of demonic possession or something that is slowly consuming him and it's showing or something. And the demon says, I don't know what the clue is. Yeah, the demon is like, rip that shirt off.
01:55:19
Speaker
yeah He's got a... I don't know. i don't want I don't want to get too... Just watch the show. I've been enjoying it. It's lots of fun. It has ah it has ah a pretty serious grief plotline that I was like, ooh ah this is this is a Black Mirror episode, but they took a much more optimistic...
01:55:43
Speaker
ah oh As one might imagine, ah they did not want to adopt the tone of a really bummer Black Mirror episode. So they didn't. And it won't bum you out that much, but it will still deal with some heavy issues. So, yeah, I don't know.
01:56:00
Speaker
Loss. it We're all thinking about it. What?
01:56:07
Speaker
Okay. Professor X. Lost, like, it's a meme? Okay, sorry. That's the Is there a meme? Uh-huh. Oh, no, this is too long of a story. We can't explain Lost Ben right Anyway, it's a meme because you can represent it with just, like, five lines. And people are like, oh that's Lost. Like, you can hide it everywhere.
01:56:28
Speaker
And once you find it, you're sad that you ever found out about it. Now you have to see it everywhere. It's the dumbest thing. People reference it a lot. um Okay, Professor X now only locks down characters so you can play skills behind him.
01:56:44
Speaker
This change, actually, i don't know when it happened or if it's always been there, but I've been playing skills behind Professor X this week, so um it's cool. I won at least one match by using Dormammu's Ritual 1 that way and and ruined a Cerebro. So, you know.
01:57:02
Speaker
unexpected to play a skill there. I think polymorph is really cool. Astral projection might be, but that's a lot of investment into a single lane.
01:57:12
Speaker
Okay. I mean, it's fine. I like it as an enjoyer. I have a lot of cards that move and I just don't think about him.
01:57:23
Speaker
I found that it also is like the the way that skills don't take up space on the board, it's also nice that like you can use them in the locked down spaces of the board. It's kind of interesting.
01:57:36
Speaker
um Lockjaw, big change, goes from four five to two two and activate. After you play your next card, swap it with a card in your deck. So he only works once.
01:57:51
Speaker
And it's an activate. Hate it. It's terrible. I'm pretty sure. i I think they think it's a buff, and I think it's a buff. That's what I think. I don't know. Oh, you there's no way it's a buff.
01:58:02
Speaker
You think it's a buff? i It feels like they tried to buff, but like made them worse. here's Here's how I got there. What's the cost of lockjawing one thing?
01:58:14
Speaker
used to be four. see. Yeah. Yeah. yeah But don't you want to lockjaw more than one thing? No.
01:58:25
Speaker
I mean, like, you would if you'd paid for it. But, like, I think we're happy to lockjaw one thing once. I think we're happy to have a two-cost blink or whatever. You know, like, I think... Yeah, you're rolling the dice. But I guess you get a roll earlier now.
01:58:40
Speaker
Yeah, and you're only doing it once and you'll pay two for it. It's like, this is like, you're getting... Like, whatever you're lockjawing is something that, like, you're definitely not losing anything on getting rid of the lockjaw fodder.
01:58:55
Speaker
And then you get... potentially huge upside. Like, did like, I didn't lock. just started lost time No, three. i think was a Three. Yeah. remember when Lockjaw discard was a thing. Yes.
01:59:13
Speaker
ah The old days. Lockjaw Quinjet for free infinity stones. I played a lot of Lockjaw Thor Vision. Yeah, I got to say, I'm always like a little bit wary about Lockjaw's power level because Lockjaw was pretty fucking nuts as a Heroclix figure.
01:59:28
Speaker
He was, you know, he could teleport and stuff and he could carry a lot of, he yeah, he he could get in anywhere and he could bring anybody with him and it was a bother.
01:59:40
Speaker
And he he was not he he did not consume a huge amount of your points budget for your team. The rookie Lockjaw, I believe, was 24 points, maybe 27. I don't know, mid-20s in terms of points.
01:59:53
Speaker
I can see ah an argument that this is a buff more often than not. Being that much cheaper is is good, and you're definitely playing Lockjaw for his ability, not his stats.
02:00:06
Speaker
I just, I don't know. I'm going to be ticked if I play a Lockjaw deck and the thing he swaps does not help me. Well, like, the thing is, games of Snap are short, you know? Like, like ah you know, on a long enough timeline, all the other versions of Lockjaw are better than this one. It's just that, like, it's a six-turn game. There are 12 spots on the board. like where're Like, I really think that, like, it's just all about what does it take to do one Lockjaw.
02:00:37
Speaker
There's probably some cool sequencing things you can do with this. Oh, definitely. The activate lets you get a little little funky with it.
02:00:44
Speaker
OK, two more like last second changes that got announced. i Dormammu discard doesn't work anymore, as as I've already lamented. ah And also, they disabled the VFX for the first ritual, which was locking up the hand. Basically, a giant invisible card floated in front of the game, and you couldn't tap on your cards. This is why I didn't get used to Fanfei being Juggernaut or whatever, moving unrevealed cards.
02:01:13
Speaker
but You just you knew it was wrong. No, you no you start like you start getting attached to these interactions that were not what the developers intended, and then you'll just your heart broken. But was telling you before this show, I played OG Kitty, and she was so fun, even though I only got to play her for a couple days.
02:01:31
Speaker
And just wanted to enjoy this while I could, and that's why I've exclusively been playing. And not going to make you feel bitter and sad or anything? I'm going to start a campaign to bring back discard Dormammu. Absolutely.
02:01:45
Speaker
mean, um I'll I'm going to be up and I'll I'll I'll help. But I i don't know. I better feel like maybe i don't know.
02:01:57
Speaker
I don't know. yeah I just wouldn't have let myself get hurt like this. I guess is what I'm saying. Oh, I'm reckless with my heart. I respect that. It's probably better. Probably better that way, Lauren. You end up getting hurt a lot, but ah yeah, different type of vulnerability.
02:02:16
Speaker
Secret homework. On to our side quests. Secret homework this week was assigned by me, and it was to put a twist on an existing game mode, la high voltage overdrive.
02:02:30
Speaker
um
Game Mode Redesign and Future Plans
02:02:31
Speaker
I wanted to do Sanctum Showdown because that's up now, and it's it's a mode that I like a lot. And so I propose Sanctum Showdown Clairvoyance.
02:02:42
Speaker
I thought of a lot of funky things you could do with this. Like, there's a random effect that happens at every game. Like, once per game. And you know what it is. Like, a global rule that changes every game. But I'm like, that's too much like Overdrive. Even if it doesn't get triggered. If it's, like, always there.
02:02:56
Speaker
Keep it sweet. Keep it elegant. This is my change. If you snap, you can see where the next Sanctum is.
02:03:04
Speaker
Ooh. And so in some ways I worry that that's like snowballing, but in other ways, it's like sometimes maybe you snap even when you're not going for the lane, just because just so you can prepare for the following turn. Like I think it adds an interesting strategy twist.
02:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Reassigns next week's homework. Ben, what game mode did you twist? All right. The game mode that I chose to twist. I was so worried somebody else was going to do this.
02:03:33
Speaker
Um, I thought about coming up with like, I was not sure which modes might be safe because there aren't that many modes, right? All right. So the mode I've chosen to plus up, to revamp, to glow up glow up and and to, you know, just...
02:03:50
Speaker
give the juice. Um, anywho, it's friendly battle. And my twist is called oh the danger room update. Cause you know what? It's exciting to call things the this and that update. I've learned this from these two, ah Currently, we've got the unseen update. And before that, it was the war song update. And it's easy to remember what comes. It makes it easier for everybody to talk about it. That last one, that one had Ares in it. That's why it was the war song update.
02:04:18
Speaker
So this is not like the danger room season. This is just the danger room update to Marvel snap and everyone will get so excited. They'll just lose their shit. Anywho, friendly battle. What are we doing to it?
02:04:29
Speaker
We're making it easy to just like practice, to test things. You can play any game mode. It can be a regular Marvel Snap game. You can invite a friend. You can play against bots.
02:04:41
Speaker
You can, you know what, if I trusted them to implement something like the Gambit system from Final Fantasy XII, a PlayStation 2 game from 20 years ago, I don't trust them to do that. But if I did, i would say that you could program Gambits for the bot that you wanted to practice against or whatever. Is that strategy?
02:04:58
Speaker
No, you just want to see what happens. We don't have to do this prodigy nonsense to like test rules interactions. You just like get in there and like do the things or you could make it so that like the ah like it it could still be like a tool for like inviting your friend. But you like you could be playing illegal decks like like that kind of like it's just to like.
02:05:23
Speaker
and poke around, see what happens. or you could, like, give your opponent an unfair deck. Like, maybe give them, like, a bunch of Shang-Chi's and just, like, see, like, hey, does this deck hang if they're guaranteed to draw Shang-Chi?
02:05:37
Speaker
Like, i I wasn't sure how many options to offer, and I also should have done like better notes and things. but um But yeah, I think you can do it against bots. You can do it with a friend.
02:05:51
Speaker
You can play any of the limited-time game modes you want. you know You could challenge a friend to a game of Sanctum. Also, it would have a fun new Danger Room-themed game board. Love it. That's why it would be the Danger Room update. and people with the shit.
02:06:10
Speaker
love the idea, too, of being able to, like, to program, you know, like, the old style, as you said, to program the bot, basically. give it... Yeah, like, to to, like, see if it would, like, play into, like, one of, like, Lauren's interactions. Oh, and the other thing about putting this on a new game board that looks like the Danger Room is that Lauren, for her integrity, would still probably make her clips happen on the old game board so you can tell they happened in a real game of Marvel Snap, and Was I right? Were you already thinking that, Lauren? It would really depend. If it would like show off a cool mechanic, then maybe. But yeah, most of the time I would probably just go to It would be below your honor level.
02:06:50
Speaker
yeah That's what I think. I had that thought because i recently formally asked the devs for unranked mode. It's something I've brought up several times, but I guess I'm kind of double-dupping on this week's homework. It hit me during clip hunting that what if in unranked mode ah there's no snaps, no retreats. Well, if you're, if somebody retreats, a bot takes over, you can always go to showdown if you want to. Like that's great for the casual player. Right.
02:07:21
Speaker
And then I was like, but wait, would I use that? Cause I'm arguing that I want a place to do clip hunting without burning my rank. But if it was obvious that it was in unranked, what I, I think I, it I don't know.
02:07:36
Speaker
Anyway, anyway, three I would definitely use the heck out of danger room mode, though. Oh, good. I think that I don't know how many players that's for, but it's definitely for a player like me.
02:07:52
Speaker
um Okay, so for mine, I didn't do... couldn't resist the challenge of looking at Deadpool's Diner.
02:08:03
Speaker
And I didn't have time to completely overhaul the mode, which is kind of what it needs. But I wanted to talk through a couple things where I think it had an idea it to...
02:08:18
Speaker
um an act and it failed and how maybe that could be made better. And when I think about the point of Deadpool's diner, I think it's about they really wanted to bring home like this, the excitement of, of like the casino of like gambling, right? Of that like poker side of Snap.
02:08:42
Speaker
And idea was it's like the the excitement of ah being at these very small stakes, little tables, and like making it up to the big leagues. And now, know, the blinds are huge.
02:08:57
Speaker
And failed on it, though, because... Because one the smartest way to play was like really conservatively. know what I mean? as As Lauren often said in her guides where, you know, that was the best optimal way to play, especially when you're worried about completing the grind.
02:09:15
Speaker
you know, finish it. And ah also your track for rewards, you're seeing like just go up very like almost nothing because you're seeing the track for like the entire when you're supposed to get up there.
02:09:30
Speaker
So it like it just doesn't feel good. It doesn't have the feels and like the you i the way you interact with something, the feelings that a certain system gives you, the experience. experience it's the whole thing and people forget that because they want to get all like but our design was really i feel like sometimes they get that way about like when they're talking about deadpool's designer diner something like that where they're all like but technically we feel like it was good design because this and it's like that's bullshit like you know what i mean you can make the most avant-garde film you want and if it's not entertaining enough for people to watch they're just not gonna watch it right like
02:10:09
Speaker
Anyway, and like as an example, right, of how important this was. um so I think a lot of people know this now, but like back in I want to say, I hope I'm not like talking an EverQuest story, but I believe it was World of Warcraft.
02:10:25
Speaker
One of the old MMOs, older MMOs that came out. um There's a mechanic in lot of MMOs called Rest of XP, and it's meant to help the more casual player. When you log out, if you log out in a sanctuary, usually your character builds this bonus to the XP over time.
02:10:43
Speaker
And then you get in, use that up, and that helps you like catch up with your you know with friends that have your play obsessively. Not me, I never play obsessively. um But how this mechanic started was it's this is the exact same mechanic. It works the exact same way. But how it was how it was said before was that, like, OK, you play.
02:11:07
Speaker
at a regular amount of XP for this amount of time. and then once you've played beyond that, you get a you get a negative to your XP that you earn.
02:11:18
Speaker
it's same mechanic. it's the can But I've just stated it differently, and that's how it was stated by the UI in the game. Like, okay, once you've played this much more, you can only gain XP more slowly. And gamers hated it.
02:11:32
Speaker
yeah I'm going to be punished for playing game more? play the game more and I get punished? And now they're like, okay, you know, who we've brought it back.
02:11:44
Speaker
And, um yeah, now it's just that if you when you haven't played for while, you get a bonus when you come back. It's the exact same thing. say da But the feeling, the feeling is different, and that's what matters.
02:11:58
Speaker
It's the same way how they talk about having made Quicksilver um to show people that you don't, you know, ah need mulligans or whatever.
02:12:09
Speaker
um So, well, I got way off track. Anyway, so Deadpool's Diner, how do we bring back the excitement of the casino, right? and And I thought, well, the first thing it should be, it shouldn't be I feel like you want it to be big. You want it to be big flashy wins are what's matter. So I think the important thing is getting up to the new table and getting up to the table gets you the the rewards or just winning one game at it, right? You're not trying to grind into the next category.
02:12:43
Speaker
One win catapults you up to the next table. It's like all high stakes, but you go up and down like way faster, right? You lose a game, you go down the next table. So it feels that big,
02:12:55
Speaker
big rewards, you know, less, and you don't tie the rewards to this track that shows you the whole track. It's like, boom, if you hit the end, it's kind of like when you hit the end on a, like, you know, a hammer thing, it's like ding, ding, ding, and you get something. Now, I haven't thought about the thing.
02:13:12
Speaker
We want to make sure that if a player can't win enough games in a row, you know what I mean? Because they're not good enough. I still think people just for playing the game should be able to get rewards for the game. So,
02:13:24
Speaker
Something to counterbalance that, but also make it you get maybe every time you do hit that end table and win a game at the biggest table at the highest stakes, you get some like mystery pack reward that could be, you know, XM. So you can continue to get rewards for getting the highest thing, but you only need to hit there once.
02:13:44
Speaker
you know, to get to get the big reward. you can have that big, I won the game and now I'm to the next level. And then you lose. Not this like, let me play conservatively to get enough wins at this table to go the next one. No, you win one, you win it big, you move up, feels good.
02:14:00
Speaker
um So, I mean, and there's a lot of other things we could pick apart about Deadpool's Diner, but this has been a long enough podcast and I will rest my case there. i was hoping you would pick Diner.
02:14:12
Speaker
It's
Closing Thoughts and Future Episodes
02:14:13
Speaker
not like why I picked the homework, but I'm just like, I hope somebody does. And i and if it is anybody, it's going to be Rhi. I'm interested in failed game design.
02:14:23
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Assign next week's homework, please. Oh, yes, right. It is me. How customary to forget. um Okay.
02:14:35
Speaker
I am not being lazy at all. I certainly not think. No, we're doing a part two, as promised, as I promised both of you, and you were both pretty good and didn't bring too many extra ah video game-related music.
02:14:51
Speaker
Okay. share, you know? Pick one thing. That's still the rule. Just one. And bring it next time. one One game? One soundtrack?
02:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, like one thing or artist or project. Like, you know what i mean? just One show and tell. Yeah. Okay. That sounds fun. i certainly have some in the queue.
02:15:16
Speaker
well What did I pick last time? I think sword and sorcery. um If you liked what you heard. Final Fantasy X. Rhi, what did you pick last time? Wizard of Loneliness.
02:15:28
Speaker
Okay, thank you. I enjoyed both when I went back to listen to them. If you liked what you heard today, like, follow, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes or Spotify, leave have a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or come join the speakeasy. Hang out with us on Discord. It's this little corner dedicated to our show on the Snap Judgments League Discord.
02:15:50
Speaker
Because we are probably part of the Snap Judgments Network, where you can listen to other great shows like Snap Decisions by... The host with the most, Joe. I believe the show's on Tuesdays these days. so um Anyway, great show. Check it out.
02:16:06
Speaker
I think Joe's perspective is quite unique among among the podcasters. He tends to lean more casual than most. And I say that in a very positive way. um So, yeah. ah I don't know. Find out what we thought about Sanctum Showdown.
02:16:22
Speaker
I think that's that's the outture I used last week, and we didn't talk about it because yeah barely launched. So, actually... I love it. Yeah. Sorry for the bait.
02:16:34
Speaker
Actually find out what we think next week. I think next week we might play Tidal Tussle because this patch had some new titles. ah DM me.
02:16:46
Speaker
Lauren, DM me if you have ideas for fake titles. Anyway, tune in next week. Same Snap time. Same Snap channel.
02:16:59
Speaker
I'm already having so much fun with Sanctum. Oh, baby. Send me your deck. put it in the I totally will. Yeah, it'll be in the show notes. um Anybody who listens this far.
02:17:11
Speaker
It's very first thought, best thought, but it's got a winning record so far. Nice. I just pulled out the one that I was using by the end of the last sanctum and it has been very fun. a derivative of Reese.
02:17:22
Speaker
um That's what I did. Yeah. I got to go. I'm thinking there are some cards that some new cards. Hydra Bob is still nuts. Hydra Bob is still your boy.
02:17:33
Speaker
Yeah. But I'm thinking like that rock. Oh yeah. Definitely. Bat rock though. Oh yeah. You called it. That's ah one of the substitutions I made. Which I like means we'll start seeing a lot of Killmonger because I feel like everyone's going to use Batroc. It's just too obvious, right?
02:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, probably. But nobody's Killmonger yet. Werewolf Guardians was really fun last time and I wonder if Batroc can take that like over the edge.
02:18:02
Speaker
Maybe. Take us over over the edge, Batroc. I'm still... These fucking Guardians... the chumps rocky raccoon is the only one who knows what's up like mean i know she's not good i i really like twice in the twice in the games that i've played i wasn't confident enough i should have been twice i was like oh i know they're gonna play gamora here on the on the sanctum i should showing it and like no they're not dumb enough to play gamora there they're always dumb enough to play gamora there I've shown the Gamora today. They're doing it. They can't resist. They think everyone's always going to play on the Sanctum every turn and just going to curve up their little guardians and like it's goober shit. and Oh my God. I strongly recommend Copycat because if Copycat's a guardian, she beats. Yes. Copycat is the best guardian of the galaxy.
02:18:51
Speaker
Even better than Rocket Raccoon.
02:18:56
Speaker
Okay.
02:19:00
Speaker
Satisfied.