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9: The Splitsmas Special!!
197 Plays1 month ago
Snap On This!! hopes you have yourself a merry little Splitsmas. 🎄🔔
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- It’s Splitsmas!! Also, what is Splitsmas? ☃️❄️
- ☢️ Lauren, Ben, and Rie pause the jolly to get Scornful and Toxic about the new cards
- Last Thursday’s OTA is both 🎭 bemoaned and celebrated
- Second Dinner leaves a patch and roadmap in our Splitsmas stockings 🧦
- Secret Homework now, Secret Homework forever!
- A Splitsmas game with a surprise guest 🎁
Follow us on Twitter:
Part of the Snap Judgments Network.
Featured decks:
- SafetyBlade’s Your Misery Now
- Ben’s Garfield Minus Garfield
- Lauren’s Dynamit3 Gams
- AdamStar's The Meme Deck of Splitsmas
Comics mentioned:
- Hellcat (2023)
- Scarlet Witch (2023 - Present)
- Scarlet Witch (2015 - 2017) (lol, bonus recommended Scarlet Witch run 🤭 –Rie)
The Twelve Days of Splitsmas
Lyrics by Adam Star (Marvel Snap Lore)
Performance by Rie
Cover art by Lauren
Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
YouTube thumbnail by Lauren's kid, Reggi
Jingle bells sound by juskiddink | License: Attribution 4.0
0:00:00 Intro / Our Week in Snap
0:08:55 Splitsmas: The Meaning, and Our Goals
0:15:49 New Card: Scorn
0:23:51 Next Week's Spotlight: Toxin, Zabu, Elsa Bloodstone
0:30:39 October 10th OTA
0:43:01 October 15th Patch
0:58:02 October 2024 Road Map
1:19:40 Secret Homework: Design a Reward Card
1:34:37 Next Week's Secret Homework
1:36:31 Game: Spotlight Voltage
2:31:16 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Splitsmas Special
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Episode 9 of Snap on This. It's the Splitsmas special! Because Splitsmas time is here! Sooner than we expected! But we're gonna celebrate in the best way we can anyway. And on that note...
00:00:22
Speaker
Reed, how was your weekend snap? And keep it snappy. Okay, so, you know, just to bring down Splitsmas right away, my weekend snap was leagues. Which, okay, hilarious story about leagues, which I don't think anyone likes, because I saw a team answer and someone was like, have you seen how much people hate leagues? And the answer was like,
00:00:51
Speaker
there's anything to salvage here. So that's where we're at and I had this perfect storm of i was I was not feeling well and I thought I wasn't going to care about the variance because I already have some I love of Moon Girl and Devil Dino until I realized it's gamer Moon Girl though. They're playing video games.
Frustrations with Leagues
00:01:12
Speaker
Um, so there was that. And, uh, I ended up, and this is the problem with leagues. I ended my league in second place with Let me tell you, yes. And that's why leagues are bad. And, yeah um, furthermore,
00:01:39
Speaker
Furthermore, this this was the couple days that everyone was playing Darkhawk and stuff. Um, maybe from Missouri Weekend Mission, I don't know. That's what everyone was playing. But I had decided, like, I'm not feeling well, and I want to play my Irish um, tourney deck. So that's what I played for 11,775
00:02:06
Speaker
Points of leagues was Arisham. Arisham then to Darkhawk. And Darkhawk, it was like, Darkhawk's to the left of me. Like, Mystiques to the right of me. like, you know, me, Arisham, and a bunch of goons that we just like, popped in from nowhere. No idea why they're there. And a couple counter cards, you know. Just like,
00:02:33
Speaker
you know, for the Irish and Brigade, but like, I do this to myself. But and I I can play a deck into its calendars over and over and over again.
00:02:54
Speaker
and win a decent amount of the time. and I proved to myself that I'm unhealthy. so like Leagues need to to be gone and I should not play that much again. Yeah. yeah I placed 28th in my league. that's That's where I was. Yup, way down there.
00:03:14
Speaker
I could not be bothered. Yeah. I'm like a survivor of leagues, that's where I'm at. I made it out. These points are weighing me down. Is it worth it? Yeah, you got like a layer of grime on you. Yeah. Yeah, now I gotta show off this moon girl. Double dino vein all the time, like yep. That was me. Okay, that was my week. Great. I felt like a week.
00:03:42
Speaker
Oh, all right. Well, my week. Endeavoring to keep it snappy. Let's see. To pick up some threads from last week, I did.
Snap Judgments League Experience
00:03:51
Speaker
my My reign of terror in the Snap Judgments League was finally brought to a close. I was knocked out of my POD's top eight by King of Bros.
00:03:59
Speaker
He was playing a War Machine deck, aka Snore Machine deck, so I ate my words. It was tragic. It was a good match though, and it was a lot of fun. And I felt much better about it because I learned after the game that King of Bros is a fan of Snap on this, so it's all good. Now we're rooting for King of Bros to win the whole thing.
00:04:20
Speaker
Or anybody else who listens to the podcast, if you're in your pod's top eight, we're also rooting for you. But Go King of Bros! Ladder-wise, I managed to tank my SP pretty thoroughly, playing unfavorable decks into an unfavorable meta, as Ree mentioned. And also I was doing some science with Scream and with Misery.
00:04:41
Speaker
Also, i was I was trying to like build cool misery decks, but the thing is, I was also aware of Safety Blade's cool misery decks, and so I was always trying to go in like the opposite direction, and trying to go in the opposite direction of good Safety Blade decks is not a recipe for success, it turns out. It's a wrong way to be a hipster.
00:05:04
Speaker
Yeah, very much so. So that didn't go great. But then I started working on some other things, especially after that OTA. And I have like some bold thoughts about what the Zabu rework means for me personally, I was doing some Zabu surfing, but then I was like, hey,
00:05:24
Speaker
what so Do we really need this surfer guy anymore? I don't know. So, I've also been a huge believer in Scarlet Spider, so I'm really trying to push that. And I was like, what if we tried to surfer without surfer? Really leaning... I mean, like it's already been co-opted by Gwenpool, pretty much. she She just came in, took over the whole thing.
00:05:44
Speaker
yeah So um I've been playing a deck that I call Garfield minus Garfield, alluding to the popper popular of 15 years ago or so or whatever. ah But anywho, it's Aranya, America Chavez, Zabu, Forge, Jeff, Okoye. That's right. I don't usually play Okoye, but we're doing that now.
00:06:03
Speaker
Rude, Hope Summers, Sebastian Shaw, Absorbing Man, Scarlet Spider, and Gwen Pool. That is three one costs, three two costs, three three costs, and three four costs. A very Ben Roller kind of energy distribution. And that has been kicking ass for me. I'm already back up where I was. I've tanked like More than two hundred snap points and now I'm back up to the seventy eight hundred range I drifted down a little bit testing scoring stuff. I'm sure we'll talk about that in a minute. That's the price of science. It's all good. The season's still young. um It's been a pretty fun week, but I thought I should touch on the part where I lost a bunch because, you know,
00:06:44
Speaker
I realized listening to the podcast, it probably sounds like all I do is win, win, win no matter what. And that's simply not true. Uh, but I do win enough. And so ah I've been a happy camper. That was my week in snap. Thanks. I, I'm really looking forward to trying, uh, surfer minus surfer, but I haven't yet. I think it sounds very clever and fun though. I'm looking forward to hearing your your thoughts. I think you'll have a blast with it.
00:07:12
Speaker
ah My Week in Snap, I went to try Safety's ah misery decks. I deleted some decks to make room for them. I think I copied two or three of them. Cued up a game and then Makari was in my hand and I was like, this isn't right, what happened? And I realized I queued up my my hand dump deck where I'm just trying to make gigantic mysterious. So i I threw in an Agent Venom and I and i I modified it a little bit. I wiggled around. I think think I put Zabu in there. I don't know. There were a bunch of changes. Anyway, um yes, I did. I did Zabu with ah Gwen and Absorbing Man.
00:07:50
Speaker
and And I climbed like 10,000 on ladder. The rank doesn't mean as much as the snap points themselves, and I haven't been paying attention to those. So we're talking like 28,000 to 18,000. So easier climbing than when you're higher up. But still, it was doing well, and it's a really fun deck to play.
Splitsmas Goals and Deck Experiments
00:08:14
Speaker
people snap on it when you when you have fired off a whole bunch of Gwen hits and ah Then you drop down Double-digit mysterious, and it's just it's just so fun So, uh, the rest of my week, uh, has been continuing with the b split conspiracy, trying to be critical of, uh, or not trying, effectively being critical of second dinner's compensation for the splits issue. Um, because splits miss is a wonderful magical time, but not sufficient.
00:08:50
Speaker
ah We might talk about that later because I don't want to rain on Splitsmas too much. um What is the meaning of Splitsmas? If you've been living under a rock or you missed our last episode or whatever, basically I found that ah split rates weren't what they were purported to be or what they had been for the previous 22 months.
00:09:09
Speaker
And then last week, second dinner acknowledged that this bug existed and said that part of the way they were going to solve it was to create a period of time that was approximately equal to the bugged time where split rates would be boosted. This is for inks, golds, and crackles.
00:09:27
Speaker
So they are normally sitting around 25% chance. They went down to a 17%. And now that Splitsmas time is live, inks, golds, and crackles show up at a 35% rate. It is time to do your splits if you've been waiting. And we expect that Splitsmas will last until somewhere like December 7th to mid-December, based on what they've said.
00:09:51
Speaker
Uh, so my question, I thought it would be fun, uh, to discuss what are your, what are your Splitsmas goals? What are you going to do during this ah time of boosted rates? Gwenpool. I gave her my pink cosmic border, which I mean, I think, I feel like I've taught maybe I'm very like video game hoardery with my borders, like but once I spend them, they're gone. and So you know, too like the way you stack health potions and stuff and you just end the game with a full inventory of consumables you never use. ah So many of my borders are just waiting like, no, I just, you know, I gotta make the right decisions.
00:10:32
Speaker
But I gave Gwenpool a pink cosmic border because I love her so much and I don't have a great split for her. Right now I'm running her through the booster shaft. Like I keep waiting for the Vayne show notes. Yeah, you've got time for it though. So what's your goal though? Are you gold, crackle, ink? What's your poison?
00:10:52
Speaker
Oh, with me? I mean, okay, I know what you're saying, but like, I'll know it when I see it. That's how it is. ah Like, you may not realize that the best, okay. Okay. Ben's going to be someone that we're talking song about. Okay. Ben loves cosmetics corner.
00:11:09
Speaker
We got the apology ah rainbow cosmic border. Okay and I just got that and didn't even look about it or think about it at all because I'm like it's rainbow cosmic.
00:11:23
Speaker
that right away like no we're gonna sit on that for a couple months probably decide what card that goes on but then the other night all right okay I have Rhianne Dracula should be Dracula and I have an ink with a rainbow sparkle and you wouldn't know that's the perfect That's the stardust flare, sorry, rainbow stardust flare. And you wouldn't know that's the perfect split for that card until you say it. You wouldn't guess that off the top of your head. No, I wouldn't. And that with the rainbow cosmic border is like the most beautiful thing you ever see. I saw it and it's like, like tears were in my eyes and I was like, this is it. The rainbow cosmic border has found its home. I couldn't give it to anything else but Dracula.
00:12:06
Speaker
beautiful. And then I sat and looked at it and like serotonin and dopamine flooded me and I enjoyed all of it. Memory of it. It sounds like your border hoarding strategy is successful. Like you do it until you know it is the right card. You know, it's not like you're hoarding them forever. You're just waiting for the perfect match. Thank you for validating my. I've got to see this. That's all I need to continue. it Ben, what are you going to do during split split? All right. So my biggest goal was, you know, I've got sort of my flagship silver surfer deck that I've been playing for a few months. I busted out when I really want to, like, win a lot, you know, usually. It doesn't it's not like always a favorable meta, but like I'm just trying to get that completed with inks because I don't once they gave me the option to ignore flares forever. I said, yes, please. Thank you.
00:13:02
Speaker
And so I don't worry about flares, I just want inks with ah rare borders so everything looks nice and neat and uniform. So the three cards I needed to get inked were Nocturne, Red Guardian, and Copycat. Because, you know, I've already inked a lot of surfer-y cards because that's a thing that I play a lot. So I already, just last night, got Nocturne in ink now. So that's off the list.
00:13:31
Speaker
So it's just Red Guardian and Copycat that I'm trying to get Ink Splits on. I've split them both several times, like it could could be any split now for them. yeah Another card that I've been working on for a long time trying to get an Ink Split is Grandmaster. You know, I got like golds and all that, but like I would really like ink for uniformity and just, you know, a crisp look. And yeah, those three cards, Grandmaster, Red Guardian, and Copycat, those are what I'm looking to get split up.
00:14:02
Speaker
now it okay i tend to be I tend to set a variant and for and border and like finish and flare. I set all that like per card. I want each card to look beautiful on its own.
00:14:19
Speaker
But I've certainly seen many players who want the deck to be cohesive. And I will say it is something to behold when there's, you know, a destroy or surfer, discard, whatever, some kind of cohesive archetype, and they're playing 100% golds or 100% inks. I think that that is ah is a very admirable and worthy goal to take advantage of this Splitsmas season.
00:14:42
Speaker
Uh, my goal is very specific and I might change, but for now this is my goal. I want White Crackle on Misery. That's it. ah There are four options for getting that White Crackle, but so it's perhaps too specific. I've only split her ah two or three times so far, and of course I'm using the bonus booster shop because I don't have misery boosters to spare. But you know, you can do a split every two days with bonus boosters if you're pouring all your credits into it. So I think you can visualize it. It's possible.
00:15:19
Speaker
um But I'll also be on the lookout for something else for another another good goal. I tend to run cards without any finish because I like colorful backgrounds, but I love having crackle around them. And crackle is the only flare that doesn't go in front of the artwork. So that's ah that's my particular poison. The only flare that shouldn't go in front of the artwork. That's right. Yeah. when it's When it's bugged to be giant crackle, ah it goes through the artwork.
00:15:48
Speaker
um Okay, we're gonna move on to, where this is still a regular episode wrapped inside of a Splitsmith special. So we're gonna talk about this week's new card, Scorn, a 1-2.
Card Analysis: Scorn and Toxin
00:16:01
Speaker
When you discard this, return it to your hand and give plus two power to itself and one of your cards in play. I didn't get her, how about you two? Oh, definitely we got her. Yeah, yeah. Tell me about her.
00:16:18
Speaker
um Okay, I'll go first. So I first put her back. So this, this breaks my heart to say because I tried to put her back into see where she might go with a lot of my last comfort discard stuff. But one, anecdotally, I am seeing scream like every fourth deck. So like meek is just not his meta. It's it breaks my heart. I love this card. He's a great card. He gives reach to discard, um which you know, doesn't have it otherwise. But like, he had to go from the deck. Everyone's playing scorn. So moon knight was just just helping. Can you take that you can throw in a statue probably be useful even without black bolt. But I didn't want to I did for a bit but I like it. I like to think of a deck outside of the meta too. But what I ended up with a sword master kind of deal and I won't lie. And I put into Ken and stuff I
00:17:15
Speaker
I did succumb to, to Wong. It's just, you know, like getting to Silver Samurai and, you know, Modok and just, just get, Squirt was just always like a one eight, a one 10, at least a one six. It was, it was a lot of fun to play. I played it. You mean her herself, right? Yes. Like her body was that, which means that she's also added like eight power to the board.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yes, she's so easy to activate. That's a big big card. And I won't lie, it's just fun to get more and more in on it um with things like Wong. And you know, Apoc, Jack, that's what I did, which is probably the more, maybe a more expected thing to do with her but and her works. I'm curious what you did with her, Ben. Oh, you did you do your 100 bad guys with swords? I gave it a shot.
00:18:11
Speaker
It wasn't working that well because, like, you do have to play Scorn at the end, right? And that kinda... I don't know. i i I tried one version of 100 Bad Guys with Swords. 100 Bad Guys with Scorns.
00:18:26
Speaker
um And it it it didn't work so badly that I won't come back to it, but it did work so badly that I thought I should try something else to get a sense of how this card really like feels. So I came up with kind of a cool mid-rangey discard deck, no apocalypse, ah which is a choice that probably kind of questionable, but it's Nikko, Scorn, X23, Blade, 4-1 costs.
00:18:53
Speaker
And then I've got Wolverine in there, not sure about that, might cut him for something else, but also might not, because sometimes Wolverine is correct, I don't know. Goes well with Niko, and then I've got Grandmaster Colleen, Gambit, Strong Guy, Swordmaster, Silver Samurai, Proxima Midnight. Silver Samurai is just there for disruption and stuff, and also to, you know, do targeted discard things. There's no stature to and enable, that was originally a feature of the deck, but it didn't feel correct.
00:19:22
Speaker
So I don't know, I'm still working out the kinks on that one, but it did start turning around my s SP plummet once I like. When I, when I was doing my score and testing, I did like lose a lot of SP, but then when I arrived at the mid range thing, things started to go positive again. So that felt like a better direction than the discard s server that I'd been trying. I'm not.
00:19:45
Speaker
blown ah there are some There are some unwieldy things about the card. I i do like i have been machine gun gambited pretty hard by some other people playing it, but like it works like less than... I also won against a lot of machine gun gambits, I guess is what I'm trying to say. ah i Yeah, I don't know. I think scoring is pretty skippable if you aren't into that sort of thing.
00:20:12
Speaker
but Still, a good card. like It does good things. all cards are Almost all cards, except for Emperor Hulkling, are good nowadays. so i keep you and If you enjoy this stuff, get it.
00:20:26
Speaker
you know that's That's what I said. Small aside, talking about Machine Gun Gambit is someone who reads a lot of comics, and I know a lot of those writers and artists are out there playing Marvel Snap. I've been waiting for the jokes to show up in the comics I'm reading, the Marvel Snap jokes. In things like Machine Gun Gambit, sometimes I just see pairings of characters. I'm like, is this best Snap? Is that a Snap reference? Sorry.
00:20:53
Speaker
so um
00:20:57
Speaker
Side tangent over. Lauren, you haven't gotten Scornbit. Do you have opinions or seen Scornbit? I haven't. I have a few opinions. I i also want a tangent, because Ben mentioned Strongguy. And Strongguy's ridiculous. If a deck can support him, he's a 3-9. I know! Call it the Stance Guy! Yes! Putting down on that citadel. Ooh, yeah, yeah. Why are his stats so big?
00:21:25
Speaker
He has a much smaller downside than say gladiator. i But I mean, yes, his his that restrictions, his decks are more restricted. But the decks that can do it. yeah I say this because I was playing my hand on deck, which never has any cards in it at the end of the game. And in the hand, we're in it.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah, of course. Of course. I need to look at this. I need to. Here's another deck. Take a look at that. I I got strong guy from Daily Bugle and all of a sudden my my turn six play is a three ten and a two thirty. It was just I didn't need him, but it was really fun. I was like, the strong guy fit in this deck. Anyway, Scorn. I think I think.
00:22:16
Speaker
This is such a hard card for me because she is extremely appealing to me as a I want to do silly things card, but not appealing to me as a I'm going to play this deck to climb ladder or play conquest or anything like that. So um she's very tempting, but I have to wait until she's a card I get in a bonus spotlight later. I haven't I haven't had a lot of trouble against her decks, but I.
00:22:45
Speaker
I think people are going, she feels like a card that after a little bit of cooking, there's going to be something more powerful figured out. Not nearly as long as like a pixie. Like I think like by the end of this week, there's going to be a more ideal scorn deck. And, uh, I think discard was already really strong. So, and she's just good in discards. She's just a good discard card, right? You know, if you're playing any kind of discard deck, it's like, you're not mad. Totally.
00:23:14
Speaker
but like Well, not any kind of discard deck. There are enough kinds of discard decks that there are some in which there's an incompatibility.
00:23:23
Speaker
yeah thing You're right. I don't really play Hela or anything ever so much. It doesn't even count as a discard. I hate that we even have to acknowledge that I'm not all discards. Play the cool discard decks, people. Is it swarm or is it Dracula 8?
00:23:46
Speaker
Those are the two opposing polar opposites for me of discard. All right. Next week's spotlight is toxin, a 2-1 on reveal. Return your other cards here to your hand, plus two power for each returned. Presumably that power goes to toxin. So if you bounce a whole lane, he's a 2-7.
00:24:09
Speaker
yeah Are you getting him? Not sure yet. I think, no, unless I get FOMO just because I'm, you know, I don't have enough keys for it. But I think, I think he's good. I put him as my number two, I'm pretty sure, in my list because I mean, look, it's a good bounce card. Bounce just is the thing that occasionally just gets out of hand and they have to nerf that. Remember Hit Monkey? He used to not be a three. um And I, you know, I feel like this isn't, it's just easy for bounce to get so good.
00:24:43
Speaker
and And it's just a good card so but I but you know I'm not much of a balance player myself so I'm Probably won't get it The only thing that makes me really want to get toxin is that I think it's going to open up more diversity in like in the bounce archetype. like There will be more kinds of bounce one could viably pursue. And so that that makes me like want to get in there and try to like find my own particular brand of bounce, which is like a thing. you know like I'm always trying to
00:25:24
Speaker
I'm not trying to build the same decks that I see other people playing, so this might mean that there's enough bounce to go around even for me. And so like then I would be interested. But on the other hand, I'm just not a huge bounce person. That's not my particular flavor of small cards kind of deck. I'm... I don't know. I'm ambivalent about bounce. i I'm not saying I would never. I'm not saying I have never. I'm not saying I could never.
00:25:54
Speaker
But yeah, I'm not currently big on bounce. I'm with you that he opens up bounce a lot. It's already a kind of flexible archetype, but having another enabler is so big. um It means you can pick any two of them, or there's going to be some version that runs all three. And a and I don't know, maybe even a 2-7 is good enough to justify being the only bounce card in your deck.
00:26:23
Speaker
um You know, as long as he's got some good targets, right? Your Ice Men, your Spider Hams, your Nikos and Hoods. I'm 100% getting toxin and... I think I said this before when we reviewed cards, but I'm most excited because I can play toxin and beast to balance each other. And that just seems really fun.
00:26:52
Speaker
It's really fun in a 12 turn game, for sure. You could mirage to get my my big juicy scorn twice. See, I know you're judgy about what you can do in six turns, but when you draw them both,
00:27:14
Speaker
I've had two beasts before, thanks to a Nikko or something, or cloning vats. The magic of Nikko for Nikko. So fun, having two beasts. Also, two beasts is different than a beast and a toxin, because the beasts both give you the discounts and stuff, whereas toxin is like a little bit on the slow side. I mean, meteor for sure, but slow. You're right, and beast was probably a two cost when I did that.
00:27:42
Speaker
Okay, Toxin's Spotlight Friends, Zabu, and Elsa Bloodstone. I love Zabu so much. Zabu is one of my favorite cards right now. Words I never thought I would say. ah Wow, I love new Zabu so much. Get that card if you don't have that card. but I've got a hot take on Zabu. But it is not that he's bad.
00:28:06
Speaker
huh it's have a hot take on I have a hot take on Zabu, but it's not that he's bad. And we'll get to that in just a second when we get to the OTA. Okay. Well, here's the thing about me. I love Gwenpool and I love counters. I love counters like Shang and Enchantress. I put- I put- All four of them. I'll put Shang in a deck, Annie deck, every deck. I'll put them and then go out and it's just like, ah, just getting that Zabu early and you don't have any fours in your hand and you're like, oh, I have a whole extra energy.
00:28:41
Speaker
You know, it's so good, and it could hit so many. And then, you know, if you draw them late, you know, maybe you can throw em mit fit them in somewhere or whatever, but like into a turn, but, you know, never meant to see a cat. like but So good. The Gwenpool on three. Gwenpool on three is such a play. It is. she She's such a good card. And then Elsa.
00:29:12
Speaker
was so good i know she used be what of my She used to be one of my favorite cards in the game, but how do you buffer in a way that's compelling? Like, is there any chance they take her back down to two cost after their whole thing about universally positive effects are going to be three costs? Like, she's just not good at three. I'm sorry. Anywhere you want to put her, you're like, wouldn't a hope be better? Like, or something, you know? It's just, yeah, it's rough with her. I want, she's a card I want to play. She's not a card I think is like good.
00:29:48
Speaker
to Yeah, I have like such positive associations because like I had some very fun Elsa decks back in the day. Me too. She was OP. She was so OP. Yeah. So in short, don't open for Elsa, but do open for Zabu, right? Or it's M3000 tokens for Zabu. Also, I realized last week, I think I said that Jean Grey costs 6,000 tokens. She's super duper series four these days. um Super duper.
00:30:15
Speaker
e On the second last Thursday there was an OTA. We're going to go through it pretty quickly because it's a weak ult at
OTA Changes and Meta Shift
00:30:47
Speaker
this point. um But Zabu headlining the OTA, going from a 2-3 that reduced the cost of four costs next turn to a 1-2 that gives the four costs in your deck minus one cost. Go for it, Ben.
00:31:04
Speaker
yeah Tell us why you have love this card. ah Well, yeah, as as I mentioned, I love playing Gwenpool on three. I thought about like, this is this Zabu change is why I realized that The surfer deck maybe doesn't want to be playing surfer anymore because like I would rather play a cool 4 cost on turn 3 than like start spamming my 3 drops onto the board with the hopes that like a plan comes together later. you know I ah really think this is like, you should always be like waiting for the thing that lets the deck take a change. like
00:31:41
Speaker
I don't know, I was sort of waiting for something like this to happen to make it about Scarlet Spider and Gwenpool, and this is like just what I was waiting for. It's very cool. um the ah The other big change, i don't I don't know if this is too much moving ahead, but like, for me, this this pet this OTA was about two things, the Zabu buff and the kingpin nerf. So, Rip Willy Fisk. See you never, probably. Dang.
00:32:10
Speaker
I and don't like this move change. The nerf being that Kingpin, Scream, and Fisk Tower will not target unrevealed cards, which really only affects Juggernaut. Admittedly, that is a big interaction because Juggernaut can pass. It really hurts Kingpin more so than Scream because like Scream still has enough to do, but like so much of Kingpin's value comes from the Juggernaut play. yeah like This is harsh.
00:32:40
Speaker
And yeah, they they massacred my boy.
00:32:47
Speaker
Rii Zabu? Oh, said I said, what I said, well, I said about Zabu. I wanna hear your hot take. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. My dog is being spicy for my hot take. Okay, here is my Zabu hot take. New Zabu is Maybe? Questionably? Better than Old Zabu? The core of this hot take is not that New Zabu is bad, and but that Old Zabu was really slept on. I think people... I think the switch from ongoing to unreveal, just like... That whole, like, the way that a nerf or a buff can psychologically affect the game in the meta and people just play a card way less than it deserves or way more than it deserves. um I think that's what happened with Zabu. Because...
00:33:36
Speaker
You know, ah old Zabu, you could still get your your three cost four and it could have come from your deck or from your hand. New Zabu can't do that. If it's in your hand, there's nothing you can do about that. You can't time it right. If you play Zabu late and you don't draw four, he's nothing. So the advantage of New Zabu is you can get his discount on multiple turns.
00:34:00
Speaker
And also, you can play him on turn one. Playing him on turn one is huge, in my opinion. Yes, opening up then. So Abu is now like the best turn one play in the game.
00:34:13
Speaker
Granted. But I don't i just like i think about like how Rehates activate cards, and I'm like, this has the same energy as an activate card. That's what I'm saying! And I'm correct! My subjective opinion is the only correct one, clearly. i mean I do agree that old Zabu was being slept on, although as I mentioned on a previous episode,
00:34:34
Speaker
I'm not going to do the science to figure out how to how to crack old Zabu because I didn't like that card very much. But like I did feel like other people should have tried a little harder to break the card. um And he was like, yeah, I do starting to get he was just starting to get some play rate. Good. you know Like in the like last month or so, I started seeing him in meta decks every now and then. I mean, like I think a lot of that has to do with Wiccan. Yes.
00:35:04
Speaker
i I think that New Zabu is an improvement over our most recent Zabu, perhaps not over Zabu Classic, but like... Never. I think over Unreveal Zabu, I think this is a huge improvement personally. But I do see i do see your your points, and it's true that New Zabu isn't much to look at if played late, although...
00:35:27
Speaker
It's much more convenient to squeeze in a little one-cost card late than to squeeze in an understated two-cost card. All right. That's fair. That's fair. Here's what I'll concede to Lauren, though. Psychologically, the joy... Okay. Playing Azabu, I'm gonna be like, okay, next turn I can play, like...
00:35:47
Speaker
Gwenpool for three should be equally exciting. It's like, I just drew a three cost Gwenpool! But like, it's way more exciting to draw a three cost Shang than to be like, I can play Shang for three. I don't know. Also, you get to do something on turn two in the the situation with New Zabu. It's like, turn two is a pretty cool turn to like, assert yourself and get some presence on the board, you know? Okay, Reeze talked just now.
00:36:14
Speaker
It does let you plan around your three-cost, right? I'm thinking about like a three-cost Gwen that you want to play as soon as possible, but something like a three-cost Shang or a three-cost Enchantress, if you draw that early, you can plan around that for your final turn. that's That is an edge that I will grant to New Zabu.
00:36:34
Speaker
And making something one cost, like I really discovered this with Aranya, how much this, it's like one cost are so much easier to like, in a deck, because I used to never play them as much because of Killmonger and stuff like that. But they're the things that are easy to throw in when you have like a little extra energy. So even if it wasn't as useful, it's like, well, I had an extra energy anywhere, let me just throw in this one cost around. There's so much,
00:36:58
Speaker
more convenient in that matter than a two cost that rate, like just the act of dropping something down from two to one. Right. Yeah. They're great for your, they're great for your energy curve. They're rough on your card curve. And so that's where it's like, you have to find the sweet spot of how many ones to run. The sweet spot is newsaboo.
00:37:20
Speaker
So good. Okay, we'll go through the rest of these quickly. Quicker than Zabu probably. Okay, Hellcal quickly because it's like... Oh, that's a big one. Yep. I mean, it only goes down to discarding one card, but it's still a decent Hella card and it's still a Hella card. It's a 4-7, which is good stats. At least decent stats. um Yeah.
00:37:44
Speaker
It's still a good discard card, slightly less good. Still very playable. And it feels less like specifically a Hela card now that it's not too. And that makes me more excited to play it because I didn't even want to touch it because it just begged me to start playing Hela the way it worked.
00:38:02
Speaker
It's right there in the name, hella cow. um Okay, widow's kiss. Yes, the tragedy, all the tragedy. I can't believe this. She was like the best tool in the game. She was like new Jeff. She went in every deck, you like you always wanted to have her. you know she Anytime, I'd throw anything. I didn't care about the anti synergy with Red Guardian. She was welcome everywhere and anywhere. And now, now. She's so bad now. She's so bad.
00:38:31
Speaker
It's so sad. It's not unplayable, right? It's so sad. Armor, Red Guardian, Stegron. When Stegron is the highlight of your synergies. I mean, people have armored me with it, but it's still just, you know. Nope. Yeah, that's too many steps for nothing. I think it's okay if your decks were running armor anyway for a good reason.
00:39:01
Speaker
Yeah, you don't put armor in for White Widow. And I just I can't imagine this is her final state because she's just so bad. We didn't even say what the change was. She lost her ongoing. I'm so like torn up about this. She was proud. She had probably replaced Mikko as my favorite card. I put her in everything. The changes only to Widow's Kiss. The thing that the token that she shoots out to your opponent's side.
00:39:26
Speaker
It used to be ongoing, minus three power, and then it would go back to zero, zero if the location was full. Now it's a zero, negative four always, but it destroys itself if the location is full. So your opponent has an easy way to get rid of it. Right. And how many decks don't fill locations anymore? Like, destroys one of them, but destroy has a different way to get rid of the card. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Like, does Hela care about that as a negative four? It's not that hard to get rid of without an armor.
00:39:57
Speaker
Okay. I mean, I said what I said about it. yeah They specifically mentioned the Red Guardian synergy. It's like, why are you running these two cards for what does that add up to like, uh, Red Guardian in the deck to solve real problems, not made up problems that you brought on yourself. Like Red Guardian has a real job to do. Let him do it.
00:40:20
Speaker
Widow's Kiss protects your opponent's cards from Red Guardian. you like it Exactly. That's an Iron Man you didn't like blank out. Oh, man. No, no, no. It's the silliest thing I've ever heard. It's worth briefly mentioning, they did this right after she was in the spotlight too, which is just yucky. Kind of a dick move. I know, I just got a very important finally. hu This is my, this is my, the masochid, my girl. 100%.
00:40:48
Speaker
ah Viper three five to three four. Like the rest of these are just little stat changes. um Viper is very good. I've seen people be upset about this, but like, Viper's a lot of points if she's sending over a void or a hood. She's what they call the perfect candidate for a nerf, because she'll probably still play equally as much in the decks that need her, you with minus one power, so she should have, yes, so she should have. Yep, that's exactly like any card that that you still play at the exact same amount.
00:41:17
Speaker
Good candidate for a loss of one. Scream and Grandmaster and Okoye all go 2-2 to 2-3. Scream I think is weird, but I guess that's like compensation for how soon they did it after her release. And I mean there was also a ah nerf to Scream in the same OTA.
00:41:37
Speaker
so It's true, but I don't know. It's like you were saying earlier, it's not, this doesn't hurt Scream nearly as much. It doesn't hurt her as much as it does Kingpin. She can only do one per turn anyway, like...
00:41:50
Speaker
Yeah. It's true. But i'm I'm happy for Grandmaster and for Okoye. I have never been an Okoye believer, but like, hey, a 2-3 is a different thing than a 2-2. It's a lot. as It makes a big difference. Grandmaster, I was playing him a ton at 2-0. Yeah, that card is very good right now. 2-2 is playing him even more. Like, I can't believe 2-3 ended up being the right stats. Maybe. You never know. Maybe. on and then The single worst card in the game, according to our dear co-host, Emperor Folkling, gains a power 6-11 to 6-12. They send an attachment. And much like Miker, this is not going to change anything. No, it really won't. He's not good. They keep saying, we can't put him to five, guys. It was broken. It was way too busted. Be sure you could. And it's like, well, he ain't working at six. Like, so I figured something else out. Yeah, I think this is where, like,
00:42:45
Speaker
This is where like Rule of Cool and Fun needs going. like They don't want Hulks to be smaller than 10, but if that's if he needs to be smaller than 10 to make him a 5 cost, i you need to. like I think that that would be a much more fun card. Anyway.
00:43:02
Speaker
That's the OTA. On to the patch. This was, I believe, the smallest patch ever in terms of what it what was in the official patch notes and also what was in the datamines.
Patch Review and Gameplay Changes
00:43:15
Speaker
It was like very disappointingly small. But we did get updates to six cards.
00:43:23
Speaker
Uh, okay. but These are, they're all November cards. We have no idea what's coming in December. I shouldn't say no idea. We have like card names that we suspect there's a, there's a rival season, a Marvel rival season coming in December. Um, right. That's the one maybe. Anyway, I think so. That's, that's the rumor that I have heard. And when I say rumor, I mean, I mean, it's, it's all but confirmed.
00:43:47
Speaker
But we know nothing about their stats or their abilities. like We have never had a patch that doesn't give us two months out, um except for last one, which gave us like half of November's cards. Anyway, um Frigga, these are these are all November cards. Frigga, an on reveal. She was a four, six, now a three, three. Add a copy of the last card you played to your hand. It's retroactive, the backwards, the last card you played. I think she's way more playable at three, three.
00:44:16
Speaker
Most definitely. agree Also, there's something that I only put together now. This is like the third time we've talked about this card or something. She's for hammers, right? Yeah.
00:44:28
Speaker
Like that that's like the the design intent here. Yes. Okay. I don't think we ever said that before. yeah Probably not because it's so much harder to do out of four. Still hard to use as a hammer card now, right? Like if you're using James, you're using to use for everything now, but like. Yes. If you're using Jane to pull your hammers, it's, I don't know.
00:44:56
Speaker
Hammers are just difficult like that. It's just, it's it's it's still a weird card. I'm still not entirely convinced that I want, I think I want to play this card more though at 3-3 for sure, like, than at 4-6. I'm still not sure I want to play it though. This is where my brain went with it. It's like, oh, well I could put her in like a little zoo deck, like with Kate Bishop and stuff, and if she gives me more ways to generate like new cards or whatever, but then I have to put less little dinky cards in my deck. You know what I mean? Because I can, I can gen more, which leaves me more room for my buff card and other cards. Cause it's the problem with Zoo decks is you got to make sure you have enough ways to zoo, but also you have to balance that, right? Because if you have too many tiny cards in your deck, you're going to like run out, you know, you're going to get
00:45:45
Speaker
two weird draws. so That's why that's Kate's so good, honestly. You know what I play instead of Jeff and Mostex, Kate? two yeah The arrows are fun and good. It's all cutting into my Nikko time, to be honest. True. I've got to think about Frigamore, but I was just going to say, I think Nikko and Hood, well, Demon, are both really cool cards with her. If you do the double Nikko, you get a four cost Nikko with the double spell.
00:46:14
Speaker
pretty oh yeah I don't know if it will keep its spell or if it will rotate, but... I think it'll rotate. That's usually how it works when you get a copy of Nikko. Like, you it won't stay that... Yeah, from cloning vets. Yeah, yeah you're right. Okay. You know, maybe there's some three casters, but yeah, I mean, she's just gonna be a tiny cards duplicator mostly. Yeah, so it's like, which is kind of what bounce cards do.
00:46:42
Speaker
So then it's like tiny cards, big power, which is where I, you know, went with demon. I really don't know what I want to do with her. Yeah, I totally, yes. I totally agree though at three three. She's like, she's close enough that I'm like, h I'm going to think about what I can do with this. She seems like it might be a fun little combo card.
00:47:00
Speaker
Certainly more options. Oh, you know what would be fun? U.S. agent. Give me a second one of those. Ooh, that's it. You can do that on curve. I do love being a devil. I'm a U.S. agent. That's very good. Yes.
00:47:15
Speaker
um Gore the god butcher Ongoing a plus two power for each on reveal card in play that hasn't changed He just went from a six negative three to a six negative one. I Think this card's boring Mike. I think it's boring too. It might be strong so doing hard to Say until we see it in action He's very Gilgamesh-y to me and I really haven't played much Gilgamesh at all. I think it kind of depends on like the meta as far as like how much on reveal you can expect your opponent to be playing. Cause like definitely some, but like a lot are just a bit, you know, I don't know. I mean, but they did have to give him that negative power cause I think just like on reveals are powerful. And if you have a whole deck of them, they can only cause them a long lane. I mean, you're going to be playing a ton of them for sure. But yeah, I agree. It's just not, it's just not that interesting.
00:48:06
Speaker
And most of his synergies are more ongoing cards, right? Invisible Woman with Taskmaster, Ravona Brenslayer, Onslaught... yeah Yeah... I'm not excited about this card, I gotta be ah be real. Also works with hammers!
00:48:27
Speaker
Speaking of cards that work with hammers. Yeah, King Eitri, whose power has changed so much, we're not even going to talk about the old ability. The new card. The new card is a 1-2, activate, draw a card that didn't start in your deck. At first I interpreted it as Agent 13, but no. Arsham Loki, hammers, hammers. Arsham Loki. I think Thanos is actually a really cool one.
00:48:54
Speaker
yeah I saw somebody say Thanos, and I'm like, that's probably the best use besides hammers. Maybe even better than hammers. Draw an infinity stone. probably yeah Pretty cool. People will love him. He's a cheap card. He'll go on several different things. He'll be thin. He's the the diner card, right? Or at least that's that's the that's what the data mines point to. That's what it sounds like. Our last our last diner card was very strong, because Antonova.
00:49:23
Speaker
Mm hmm. Hey, Laffey, the ice giant, right? Is that what they're called? Yep, that's correct. OK, he's a four five on reveal. Steal one power from each other card here. Kind of like a very sage or potentially very spider woman vibes with your Ajax. This card is very strong. Yeah. Yeah. Hi, Evo. Pylostats.
00:49:52
Speaker
It's a 411 if they have three things in the lane, a 413 if they have a full lane. Yeah, so like also- Are you hitting your own stuff too in that math? I guess your own stuff just goes- Oh no I was not, I was not hitting- But your own stuff just goes- That just like balances out. Yeah, unless you have Lootcage or Ajax. Then you just play Annihilus on turn five and you either blow up or give them all the negative stuff, you just- Oh my gosh, he's a super yellow jacket!
00:50:23
Speaker
I'm going to send over some nasty hoods. yeah this This card is too big to be this interesting. yeah i'm I'm a little bit annoyed. I think it should be a little smaller. I don't know. I agree. um Yeah, people will tilt because, you know, people will play them. I guess they'll just be a lot of Luke Cage, right?
00:50:47
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. absolutely a certain ah Yeah, a great example of a card that's not good on launch week. Yes. ah Yeah. Speaking of bigger cards with interesting abilities, Malekith is a 4-6. Was he like King of the Dark Elves or something? yeah On reveal, add a 1, 2, or 3 cost card from your deck here. It reveals at the end of the game. I believe you'll be able to tap on it and see what it is.
00:51:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. That follows precedent with dark dimension and stuff. Okay, so I'm assuming it's definitely random then, right? Random out of those one, two, threes, so you have to really control your deck if you want. You can curate, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's interesting. You have to think about ones that you do want at the end of the game, right? A Titania is not going to move because it's at the end of the game.
00:51:39
Speaker
I mean, a surfer, right? This is the card I'm at least sure of, but maybe? I don't know. I don't know how you build around it. If it's in a surfer deck, it's fine if it's a surfer, it's fine if it's a wolf spain. But there are other things it's not fine to get out. You're right. And if you want to hit things with a surfer. But maybe it takes us out. There's so many three-cost cards, you know? There's so many three-costs. Maybe it fits there somewhere.
00:52:07
Speaker
um I like the wolfsbane thing and the the sage idea. Those are both very good. the blank yeah age because like Those are cards that would benefit from revealing later in the game. So can you, Benjamin Roller, curate a surfer deck and to put an Alakith in?
00:52:25
Speaker
I mean, I'll definitely try. That's the kind of thing I'm into. Yeah. I mean, if I get the card, I don't know if I'll get the card. I think this card actually, this card's actually really flexible because it's a deck thinner. That's huge. Yeah. I think that is one thing about it that is pretty cool.
00:52:45
Speaker
Yeah, and it thins the low stuff out. You know how when your opponent's yondu and you're like, so what? You just made my draw better. yeahp You're yonduing yourself and you get the card that you yondued. Yeah, it's meaning you're getting the higher cast cards in the later turns when you want them. I feel like maybe there's something very obvious with Malekith that we are missing, but I don't know. It's just not my kind of card. to like There's probably a low hanging good idea with this card.
00:53:14
Speaker
But I'm not sure what it is. This one doesn't pull hammers. No, no, it does not. He's the bad guy. OK. But one more. hard It's like a combo, you know, like. That's the thing. I don't think he's a very complicated combo, though. I i think because he's in your deck, he's just good. He's just a good card.
00:53:38
Speaker
i think As long as you have, like, with the little bit of deck building restriction that, like, you don't want cards that are bad at the end of the game. Say, hood. Right? want cards that can be power. You don't want spider hands. You could go with the Valk. Also, I've got a question. When it says three costs with the capital C, does that refer to the cards permanent cost? Yes. Okay, so if you've done the Zabu on turn one, Malakith is not going to pull out a four cost with a reduced energy burden. I don't think so from what they said. Same with like a Mr. Negative. He does not affect you. It only pulls out like natural one, two, or three cost cards. Yes. If it were the other, it would say a card that costs one, two, or three. Okay. Yep. Cool. Cool, cool. Okay. The last one, Surtur, whose ability has remained the same, but stats changed. He's a three, five. After you play a card with 10 plus power, this gains plus three power.
00:54:40
Speaker
I guess the 2-2 version was busted. Every version of this card has looked busted. It still looks busted. It does. Right? You play it on three. You can play 10 power cards on four, five, and six. It's a huge shift from two to three. Then he's a 3-14.
00:55:00
Speaker
Yeah, just like I don't know why they keep changing it it just it. Every version of it that we've seen, this is the third one. They they all seem really good. What was its first version, 3-3 and it gained plus four power? Is that right? ah the That rings a bell. Cause yeah, cause then he would get to 3-10 with two hits. Yeah. It may mean it's even more likely to change again, you know, ah next time we see it. This one also crosses the 10 threshold with two hits, which means your scar is free on the last turn. Yup. Yeah. This, this is just a big dumb idiots card for sure. And I mean that as a compliment, it's going to go right there.
00:55:41
Speaker
It's going to be very effective. um Yeah, i just it's a 3, 5. It's already like efficient stats, even if you somehow completely shit the bed and don't play anything with 10 plus power. You still played a 3, 5. It's fine. like Yeah, that's true. I don't know. yeah i'm I'm not looking forward to that card joining the game.
00:56:06
Speaker
Is Fenris Wolf the only other card from the season that just it's not here because it didn't change? Because it still seems very strong to me. Yeah. i So yeah, I think Malakith seems very fun, except he's a generic good cards card. So if he's everywhere, I'm not going to be interested.
00:56:26
Speaker
There might be a specific application that just like wasn't tickling our brains the right way, you know, like we're just not attuned to. Maybe I will use him as a combo card. I don't know. um It looks like it's an all right season. ah Not extremely exciting to me, but it's all right. I had thought before these changes that there were going to be like a lot of skips for me this season from the way things looked, but I don't know. I'm pretty interested in and several of these cards. We'll see what happens. King entry just seems fun to me. I might be the one. I agree. A little cheap card.
00:57:06
Speaker
that lets you do your other bullshit better. What fun. Yeah.
Strategy Debate: Vibranium Mines
00:57:10
Speaker
ah You get to draw all those rocks from your Darkhawk opponent. No, why? Why, Lauren? Splitsmas! On this Splitsmas day!
00:57:21
Speaker
yeah Darkhawk can't hurt you. Still doing a useful thing, you know. Okay, yeah, you're right. Not great, but it's, you know, it's a step in the right direction.
00:57:36
Speaker
You're right, it's not the worst thing in the world to pull a rock out. Unless it fills your... Glass is half full. Hey, maybe you're pulling out a vibranium shard, huh? Ever think of that? Ooh. Oh, because I never play on vibranium mines, because I want my tarts. You know, it's still pretty unexciting.
00:57:54
Speaker
I do think people don't play on vibranium mines enough, including myself. I do when I'm playing Zudex and stuff. Like rocking up, but pulling up one fourth. Okay, the roadmap, the last thing to talk about before we move on to our side quests. They dumped the end concepts. I mean, they like talked about it, but it's not on the official image roadmap. And I think that's wise because they got a lot of flack last time for that section. So now they're only talking about things that are like imminent, um or at least actively being worked on.
00:58:30
Speaker
i They put high voltage in here and in the patch notes, and I think that's Silly, because it's like- They're pouting it out with- It totally felt like padding. um I don't know how much we want to talk about high voltage. It's here. I played a little bit. it Yeah, you should. First impressions. It's very fun, but I think the fact that it has no stakes, i it's a good thing that it only lasts a week. Yeah. It's so chill, feels good.
00:59:01
Speaker
which I like so fast. I like having a mode that's chill, yes. I like fast, I like chill. It's great for knocking out missions, like fill all locations. I can do that in three turns now. But I'm not at this point yet. I'm still having fun with it, but I'm just like, you know, if this was like, if this was a forever mode, I think having no stakes makes it.
00:59:26
Speaker
Like I just, I don't think the interest is going to stay over time. Right? Like I agree. That's why I think they're saying they, I think they talked about in a team answer or something, they want limited time. ah Like they're focusing, like they don't want to compete with, you know, the permanent modes.
00:59:44
Speaker
that are out there right now and and it's like after some of the other stuff just this idea it's like oh here's a chill mission stuff it's so fast right it's like it's like hey did you like snap because it was fast and casual even more you can't tilt as hard when a game is over in three turns you know And then it's like, oh, and we get a free card out of it. like i'm just Let me just fill up that reward track and let my tired brain just grind that treadmill for those rewards in a relaxing way. Yes, please. And thank you. To be clear, I think that high voltage is good for what it is. And I think they succeeded in
High Voltage Mode and Character Mastery
01:00:22
Speaker
their goals. And it's probably, yeah, I i like it better than Deadpool's Diner so far in my limited experience.
01:00:31
Speaker
i mean You know, we we record on Wednesdays, so we've we've played it a little bit. Yeah, I've played maybe 15 rounds. Yeah, that's about what I've seen out of other people is most people kind of dig it in its vibes and coming off of something like leagues, you know, it's like it feels It feels like more of a W than an L. Yeah, absolutely. Like compared to leagues, this is what I want in the way of like exciting events that pop up every now and then. Oh yeah. Yup. A mode rotation. Yeah.
01:01:08
Speaker
but If we have seven modes live at the same time, it splits up the player base really dramatically and all that. I think it's fun to have we don't this small rotating ones. And it's a very different deck building challenge. We haven't mentioned that. The idea that you're going three turns at random energy, it's like throw throw together some wild shit if you want. You probably want to play Ebony Maw in case.
01:01:31
Speaker
listeners I mean, the listeners probably know by now you're playing Ebony Maw. Are you Team Sunspot or are you Team Killmonger? I'm on Team Killmonger personally. um I got a little frustrated. They started me with six cost missions. So like, I had to play big cards, but I really wanted to play small cards. But there are different approaches you can take, so I don't know. I don't yeah think there's a whole ton to solve, though. I think we'll have yeah got it all figured out.
01:02:02
Speaker
by yeah But it's just a week. by the time it's in I do love that it's like it's such a different game mode that it it introduces a unique meta unique deck building challenges. um i I think a high voltage, high speed mode that did have stakes with cubes, I think that that would be a worthy candidate of being and a permanent game mode.
01:02:22
Speaker
i let be wild I have really enjoyed how fast a three-turn game is. I'll say that. and collector's vault. These are variants from bundles a year old that you can now buy for lots of gold. I'm fine with it. Yeah, now they can put bundle variant on your little shopping lists in the albums. Isn't that fun? Oh, don't say that. Oh, no. As if you didn't know they were going to do that. I mean, that's why they, that's what they want to do. Think about it.
01:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, this is going to be presumptuous, but if anybody at second dinner is listening, erase that. going to do it They already thought of it. That's why they're doing this. The side load ones, right? The ones that you don't have to have. Hopefully they'll be in that. Oh, like bonus ones? Yeah, they might be. um Here's the thing with collectors, they will be. I think so far that has been the case, right? Like Spider-Man, the bonus ones are old bundles. The ones they've had so far.
01:03:25
Speaker
Um, so collector's vault is only coming out periodically, right? Like we get one week of October and it doesn't rotate during that week, the entire week you have the same six cards there. So, uh, collector's vault is going to be a very rare, high FOMO type thing. Um, I don't, off the top of my head, there are no variants I've missed that I'm going to be looking out for.
01:03:48
Speaker
It's so expensive it would have to be. It's someone who's like a hip collector or something and they, you know, they put like what spotlight Jeff was a hip or something and someone didn't have keys for it. But they don't have the season pass ones in here. There's still no way for the hip collector to get hip Nimrod. And I think I really think season pass variants should be in here. Yeah, I mean, I guess like, I To be clear, I think more things should be available for more people who want them and stuff. I have zero interest in this feature, but like I'm glad for all the people who want things. Ditto. Not for me, but accessibility is good. it's too yeah It's too much gold. They're pre they're all going to be pricier than super rare, so yeah kind of out for me, but yeah.
01:04:35
Speaker
More padding, second anniversary celebration, free variant, Twitch drops, special bundle you can buy, a ah login rewards. like We get these things regularly anyway. Not to say I'm not grateful, but just like, why is this on the roadmap? Yeah, it's kind of awkward. Deadpool's Diner is coming back. I'm excited. It looks like it's not just a complete copy. It has a little bit of a reskin for a Thanksgiving theme, which is fun.
01:05:03
Speaker
i yeah i'm I'm cool with more modes that give us free cards. Yeah. Okay. In development, character mastery, I'm so glad this is back. Yes. I think they actually are going to do it, maybe. yeah You were skeptical last week, but then now we actually got some images of it. um I want my Valkyrie or Captain Marvel reaction set so bad. I want beautiful, unique of finishes and flares on the cards that I love.
01:05:35
Speaker
um i would be this is This is a feature that's for me. I am much more of somebody who loves splitting really deep on one card instead of going across my help collection. This is exactly what I like wanted it to be, or perhaps some other mode they've been and they talked about, but it's just like, give it a reward track that getting variance, you know, gets you along. So that everything that's useless and all the avatars and stuff that you don't care about, because you'll never use them. What were they also pitching? Was it was it prestige or something? That's what I was wondering, yes, it was something like that.
01:06:07
Speaker
you yeah i don't think I feel like that merged into this maybe but right this is the idea is that all the stuff you get that that is a no some of it is it's just it's like you can like yeah collect all the stuff of a character you love but also it feels like hey probably a lot of things you get will be progressing on some track somewhere maybe you know.
01:06:31
Speaker
Now, when this mode was first canned, it was because they hit some huge tech roadblock. And they've said that they brought it back because of the community outcry, which is great. I love ah love that they're listening and that they're introducing something that people want. I think what might have been cut is they were going to do challenges for cards.
01:06:51
Speaker
Remember seeing something about that? Yeah, that seemed cool and interesting. Yeah, like very specific missions for cards and and probably like tricky ones like, I don't know, make us a gigantic Deadpool or destroy Wolverine so many times. Yeah, I think that was the example they gave.
01:07:06
Speaker
um it's It's a bummer if those go, but like they were never gonna do them for every card, right? Like that's a lot to make up unique missions for every card. Anyway. Yes. ah Cool.
01:07:21
Speaker
Super premium season pass. They're getting rid of the $15 tier. Hopefully that means this is $15, but who knows? It might be more. yeah Instead of giving you 10 bonus levels on the season pass, it gives you more. It's just more season pass. You get more variants, more other things. They kind of hinted that there's something for deck builders in there. I think that's more deck slots. And I think that's a real bummer if true. That's a clear signal about what kinds of priorities they have and how inviting they want to make the game to different kinds of people. yeah To be clear, because yeah i was confused the I was confused the first time you said this, you are bummed out because you don't think that should be paid.
01:08:02
Speaker
No, not at all. You do think there should be more deck slots? The thing is, they keep releasing more cards. So in theory, if you wanted to have every card that you have be in one of your decks, Hearthstone, for instance, they added more deck slots once there were more cards. And they had a wild format, like Legacy. And yeah, this makes it clear that They really want you to be spending at least $180 a year on this card game that you can't take it with you. Like, man, I don't know. And it just like, it signals that they, yeah, I wish I'd written down my thoughts about this, but I think it's a very, it's very ominous if they paywall extra deck slots.
01:08:56
Speaker
That's what I think. That's that's some pay for play and in a bad way is is what I would say. I don't know. I haven't written up a manifesto about it, but it's gross. Sure. at Haven't they hinted that gold pass is like, or they certainly like, we've seen moves that like gold, they are trying to reduce the value of gold and h ah eliminate how much you have. I.
01:09:24
Speaker
I can foresee a future, depending on how much super premium season pass is, I can foresee a future where my five dollars that's going to gold pass goes to this instead.
01:09:35
Speaker
Especially for people who don't value cosmetics as much. Yeah, so I do think what I've seen from the community is a lot of worry that they're going to take things out of the $10 tier to prop up the $15. That seems like it would be so stupid to do because we have so many people who analyze the game that will look at the past and be like, yeah, they did that, right? And immediately it would be known and everyone would be mad. I don't think they're stupid enough to do that.
01:10:02
Speaker
I think it's what Lauren says. I hope not. I think it will be extra bonuses, like extra variance and stuff like that. And I won't lie, that probably will get me to spend an extra $5 in the game if they're going to offer more additional like cosmetics and stuff. I don't get it now because I don't. Yeah.
01:10:22
Speaker
To clarify, I'm very much in favor of that. I think that would be cool and very exciting for the collectors and yeah stuff. And I'm not opposed to them like making the super premium season pass more appealing and cool. I just specifically don't think they should paywall extra deck slots. No, you're exactly right. Because it's very frustrating. I regularly close the app because I can't decide what to delete. And I've got a cool idea, but I just i can't ah can't throw out Like, I've got a lot of cool decks that I love and I'm, yeah, I'm really players who stay near zero decks and I'm just like, how do you do it? I'm at 20 constantly.
01:11:04
Speaker
No, I agree. And that's the example of good versus bad monetization, right? Like bad monetization, making people pay a subscription for extra deck slots, basically. Good monetization, cosmetics that have no effect on the gameplay, you know, for for people that enjoy that to help, you know, pay for the game. So, you know, hopefully we'll only have the good type and the good type we see.
01:11:30
Speaker
album preview and wishlist, at which point they say we're going to let the image do the talking and it's not a very clear image. But I think the point is, when you're looking at a variant in the shop, you can tap the album icon and see which album it belongs to and how close you are to completing it. That's good. I have no idea what wishlist is. I hope wishlist lets me say I want baby Valk and it doesn't take me more than 10 months to get her.
01:11:56
Speaker
I hope right for you also. Yeah, that would be a great way to help their algo, right? Their algorithm, their, their, the variant algorithm is really, really bad. Yeah. i i Just as ah as a casual observer of it, yeah, it's real bad. It's so bad. It doesn't show me the cards I play a lot. It shows me cards I hardly ever play the exact same variant over and over again. I don't know what's going on there. ah Even like i I am not normally somebody who chases albums. And even like recently, I'm like, I really want Iron Man Eye Roll. That's an emo I could use a lot when somebody's being stupid with their emotes. And so I'm like, OK, fine. I don't love baby variants. But you know what?
01:12:35
Speaker
a goal for the gold that I'm stockpiling, I'm going to go for the baby variants to get Iron Man, I roll emote. I haven't seen one in months, like, I would spend gold if they would show them to me. Anyway, also, so I do like that they're going to show you, you know, which albums things belong to because there have I have purchased some variants in recent months, specifically to reach milestones in the albums to get resources.
01:13:02
Speaker
Like yeah it has come up for me. I got, I finally purchased 10 lifetime variants and got the, I filled up the progress bar. That's amazing. I also, you know, I got collectors tokens and big stacks of credits and like, yeah, I i might, I might buy a Jim Lee X-Men if one shows up in my shop. Not that I need this new feature to identify that because you can tell it's a Jim Lee X-Men is eyes and stuff, but, um,
01:13:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think this is a positive thing. I don't think it's a big enough deal to make a whole bullet point about on their roadmap, but good good for them for doing it. It probably should have been there the whole time. Yeah. i and but With how many variants are in albums now, how many albums there are, it's ah it's a good quality of life. yeah New limited time mode, which is probably on top of high voltage and diner, right? Another one. And then we can have quarterly rotations. And I think that's great.
01:14:04
Speaker
Uh, they had didn't say anything else about that in concept draft mode. They still haven't really done much for it. They identified some things they want it to be highly replayable, which I think is great. Well, no, I mean, that's, you're drafting. Congratulations. You done found it. they It's like a roadblock for your cards. Another, another of the ah key pillars for the mode, fun gameplay.
01:14:31
Speaker
That feels unique. That's an important part. That feels unique from Constructed. Yes. Okay. Except then I want to say that like they don't what they don't want it to feel like playing a weaker version of the normal discard deck if you draft a discard deck. And like, sorry, that's kind of draft. I think they're just admitting that they don't like drafting. They don't appreciate limited formats. They like That's ah the restrictions like they breed creativity and stuff and like it's all about being resourceful and pragmatic and adapting and making the best of the situation that you find yourself in. I just don't think they like drafting and that's not filling me with confidence.
01:15:13
Speaker
Credit where it's due, the core game of Snap is very innovative,
Potential of a New Draft Mode
01:15:17
Speaker
right? There's a lot of things that they grabbed from other games and melded together and and invented something new that's great. We obviously all love the game. I would like to remain open-minded to the idea that draft mode might be, that they may they may succeed in a new style of draft mode that is very successful. Oh yeah, i I really hope they name it. I hope so, obviously. um And I'm not convinced that they won't, I'm just worried.
01:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, same page. I want to bring in the flip side. Part of the reason two people like draft mode is because they can't. They can't play a meta deck because it's really difficult for someone to put together a meta deck in a draft mode. And it's fun to to not be like, to be like, okay, well, I can't face standard hella here or whatever. You know what I mean? like Um, so yeah, there's, there's all kinds of joys to draft and just that are inherent in the nature of it that I can see why some people wouldn't like, but yeah. If also I have to admit some like, uh, lack of experience with other games here, but.
01:16:24
Speaker
They have a card acquisition problem, and I have no idea how that relates to draft. Like, do you have to own a card for it to show up in the draft? That seems really contrary. For instance, in Hearthstone, in Arena, it doesn't matter whether or not you own those cards for constructed. They're just, it's what's in the Arena pool at that time. So like, I'm not even saying that this draft mode should have every card that's available in constructed. And I think that maybe that's part of how they could, if they curate it, but, uh,
01:16:53
Speaker
They could make it a ah healthy game mode, depending on how they do that, or an unhealthy game mode, depending on how they do that. Cause like, if it's always correct to pick, like, I don't, like if Jeff is an auto pick every time, maybe that's not fun. So maybe Jeff's not in or like, that's just an example, but yeah,
01:17:10
Speaker
what you mean it should be independent from your card acquisition journey and constructed. That's what I. Okay, I hope so too. The final thing that's featured on the road map is new cosmetic types and they show an image that is a game board. It's like a dinosaur world surrounded by lava instead of your space rock that we've played on the entire time. I have one thought on this, which I think is great. Yeah, add more game boards. People have been asking for that. If it's something that's like a paid cosmetic instead of like a seasonal thing for everybody,
01:17:44
Speaker
i Do you buy these if they're just for yourself? No, I'm not gonna spend any money on them. Okay, well, Ben might not buy them even if they're for your opponent, right? Like, I'm thinking if you split the board in half and your opponents can see yours on your half of the board, right? People like having cosmetics that they can show to other players. Oh, really? Yeah. yeah don't you think? Don't you think part of the fun? I mean, yes, you love looking at you like, Oh, this is my beautiful Glen pool. But also like, I love slamming down a ridiculous Valkyrie and be like, Yeah, I split Valkyrie that many times. Check it out. That's kind of the whole, that's the whole thing for me. I think the way I think it would be cool to have seasonal maps, to be honest. Like i wish they would do that like the music
01:18:29
Speaker
Like that's, that's what I would want. I would like that more than them being like collectibles. There's no way for them to make money off of that. They can't monetize those. Yeah. So anyway, that's my point. I think that they would, I think they would monetize better if they split the board in half and your opponent saw yours. That, that lets the whales be like, look, I bought the premium golden Colosseum. I don't know. Yeah. I think you're right. I'm all in favor of like more game boards, more variety for the people who.
01:19:00
Speaker
You know, if there are people who feel underserved by our silly asteroid, then yeah, give them, give them what they want. That's what I think. I, I'm fine with the asteroid and I would keep playing on this asteroid, you know, till the end. you're Here, here.
Secret Homework: Designing Incentive Cards
01:19:19
Speaker
um the
01:19:30
Speaker
thank
01:19:39
Speaker
soon
01:19:44
Speaker
Okay, time for our side quests. First up, Secret Homework. This week's Secret Homework was assigned by Ben. Take it away.
01:19:56
Speaker
Alright, secret homework. So, for those who don't recall, ah we were supposed to design an incentive card for a mechanic or synergy that players have not yet been rewarded for. And I gave several, you know, sort of starter thoughts, examples, things last week, and one in particular seemed to pique my co-host's interests.
01:20:20
Speaker
um Everybody seemed to like the locations replaced slash revealed thing. So I decided to run with that. And my first thought was like,
01:20:31
Speaker
maybe some sort of a teleporting character, maybe like Gateway from X-Men or whatever, or something like that, or maybe maybe someone who's known for their globe trotting. But then I thought, what's better than someone known for globe trotting, perhaps someone known for planet trotting, perhaps an absentee father who you'll never track down. And so I've got a limerick for you. Okay.
01:21:00
Speaker
Some have said that long hair don't care. Either way, Daddy Summers wasn't there. Swashbuckling in space with a grin on his face, he's the star jammer in chief, Corsair. Corsair, two, three. When a location is revealed or replaced, this gains plus two power and you get plus one energy next turn. So in theory, you could drop him down on turn two and get four energy on turn three when that reveals.
01:21:29
Speaker
I went with the energy thing to, you know, he's a Summers and he's not a mutant, I believe. ah he He has no particular powers or anything, but they all seem to love energy. You know, Cyclops evolved Cyclops anyway, cares about energy, Havoc cares about energy, even Hope Summers cares very much about energy. And so I was like, wouldn't it be fun? Like if you had sort of a rolling like extra energy thing that only kept going as long as you kept you know traveling to new planets and stuff and ah you know, revealing new locations and doing all that. And he gets bigger, you know, as it goes along. So, you know, if you reroll two locations in addition to the the reveal that happens if you play him correctly on curve on turn two, then like, you know, it'll be a two nine or something, but you really have to work for it. But yes, you get some extra energy while you're at it. So like, I think
01:22:31
Speaker
I don't think he would be like broken or anything, but I think he would be interesting and possibly good. And that's like really what I've been shooting for is like cards that might be good but wouldn't be broken. That's sort of my sweet spot for hypothetical, you know, dream design.
01:22:51
Speaker
I love something like if you had Nocturne, and Nikko's spell, and Legion, you could have four location changes in a single turn. Which obviously is like, that's the ideal situation. But I like that you could stay you could stack those up and have a ah very lovely turn six.
01:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, turn six with four extra energy and like you've already got a very large thing on one lane and you know, probably, you know, you've got Legion on a different lane and yeah, you know, I could see that being a game plan right there. So yeah, that's...
01:23:29
Speaker
That's my card. I haven't read anything recent with Corsair in it, but I just remember- No, this is me! Okay, sorry. I can't help back anymore. All right. This is so perfect because Corsair, who I wasn't that familiar with before, but he looks like a space pirate from the 80s. He's very 80s. He's very hippy 80s.
01:23:54
Speaker
I don't know. He brings the weed, I think. He's just shown up. He's just shown up in Phoenix. Phoenix has her own, it's called Phoenix, Jean Grey, title. It's like only four issues in. and One of the first things she runs, that she's off on her own journey. right and She's like having these conversations with Cyclops back and everything everything's like, okay, honey.
01:24:19
Speaker
like
01:24:31
Speaker
And she runs into Coursera immediately, who drags her into fighting um the Black Order, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, like that whole crew.
01:24:42
Speaker
Um, he makes up that it's for a good reason, but it's not for selfish reason, of course, because he's Courser. Anyway, so it's just like, when you said that, I'm like, oh, I know who it is. And he saw how, how, like, you know, how fortuitous he's just been in the comics. All right. So I was very excited. I am unfamiliar with that character. I was also unfamiliar with my character. Um, okay. I guess we're.
01:25:11
Speaker
Introducing my mechanic is tokens. Which was very challenging to write text that said tokens without saying tokens because we don't say that in the game. Anyway, tell me what you think. Does it start in your deck? Or does that not count? Here is the limerick. He's monarch, the bro of Cap Britain, makes more rocks and kisses than written.
01:25:38
Speaker
Tug's reality strings to dupe all of the things leaves all of his enemies shitten.
01:25:49
Speaker
Monarch! Monarch. His stat line is so tricky to me. I'm going to i'm going to go with 3-1. When you generate cards that cannot start in your deck, generate one extra in the same place.
01:26:03
Speaker
So you play Hood, you get two demons in your hand. You play Black Widow, you give two, what are they, Widow's Bites, you give two of those. You play Rock Slide, three rocks in your opponent's deck. Brood, three Broodlings. So anywhere that you generate tokens, there's one extra.
01:26:20
Speaker
um that's Which is obviously very strong. um Patriot's kind of a token card because a lot of the tokens are vanilla, but not all of them are, right? There are plenty that aren't. um The widow's ones, for instance. Hammers. Hammers also. Yeah, so you play Thor, you get two hammers in your deck.
01:26:40
Speaker
um Anyway, I have no idea how to how to stat him because you want him to be a setup card, but also it's really strong if you can like on turn, I don't know, turn four, drop a whole ton of rocks into your opponent's deck.
01:26:56
Speaker
Mmm, true. Yeah. So when I was looking for a character, I was looking for a character who could create life or create objects, because I'm like, they are creating tokens. And and Monarch is one such character. he is the He's the brother of the original Captain Britain, or at least the well-known Captain Britain. Braddock. Yeah, the the one from Excalibur and stuff. Yeah. I like the color. 90s kids know.
01:27:26
Speaker
It's the kind that lets you think about like pulling together different cards than you might normally, which is it's always a really fun card for me to look at. Yeah, kind of invent some new synergies. Yeah. Maybe busted like ah like a Wong white tiger is four tigers. that's I also don't envy you the the figuring out of the the stat line there, because I like i can't decide like what's too shrimpy versus like where... Yeah, I have no idea how to calibrate that for for that effect.
01:27:55
Speaker
Yeah, but anyway, I thought it was a ah very cool power. And so that's I love it tokens. So that's mine. Good job. look Thank you. um I went from a different angle instead of thinking mechanic
Introduction of Hellcat Card
01:28:11
Speaker
first. I thought of a character I really wanted to be in the in Snap that's not in Snap yet, and then I worked backwards. um So I picked the wonderful character of Hellcat, Trish Walker. Oh, Patsy. Yes, yes. Patsy, she really wants to be your friend.
01:28:35
Speaker
go She's friends with She-Hulk, obviously the Jessica Jones. They did an injustice to her, in my opinion, the way they ended her story um as a fan of the character. Oh, on that show. Yeah. Yeah. In the show, I didn't like the way how they left her off, but she's such Hellcat is such a good character. So if you're unfamiliar, to her mom in the comic books anyway was like a comic writer and did like a series about her and her friends that was kind of imaginary as Patsy Walker. So she was a child celebrity, which, you know, as you know, means you grow up really well when your parents exploit you um in such a manner. So she's all kinds of f-ed up. She's such a flawed character. It's delicious.
01:29:21
Speaker
um as, you know, someone to write with and stuff. She has two ex-husbands, um one of which and led to her second, which led to her death. And it was when she came back from the dead. Funnily enough, she only came back because they were trying to save Mockingbird and accidentally picked her up instead. So, you know, there's more for her to deal with. And um ah she just has like minor psychic powers kind of.
01:29:47
Speaker
in comparison to the broad spectrum, and she's just really into superheroes. She decides to put on the costume and go out, and she's a bit of an alcoholic and stuff. She's just all kinds of outed up, but that's right. There's so many characters they call flawed sometimes who are like, are they that flawed? My flaw is that I'm never late for work, and it's like, she is.
01:30:12
Speaker
like When you see characters like hock I Clinton Barton right in the map fraction run and you're like these are not superheroes and you see that that you see them in the panels with all these bandages all over the face like in the second. There's this run from twenty twenty three I'll link it for those I know some people out there have marvel unlimited the subscription.
01:30:32
Speaker
I'll put the link so you can find this run. In 2023, there was a five-issue run of Hellcat that I love. Christopher Cantwell wrote it. um Alex Linds did the art. And it's one of the first issues she goes out. She doesn't know if she murdered someone. She doesn't remember. Everyone else thinks she did it because she's a crazy lady who puts on a costume. And ah and you see this image. There's just this panel of her just like chugging this whiskey from the bottle, these little cuts all over because she's She's just a person, you know, and then the next issue it's just like band-aids like all like you would if you were in a legit fight She has to go home to fix her fight your nose bandage It's just it's horrific and like real and she's just a really real character Anyway, sorry, so I wanted to be in the game. So I worked backwards from there and to work with her story
01:31:25
Speaker
And the cat thing going on here i mean we're talking about hello we're talking about her coming for that back from hell ahead to be a discard card right. and When we think about discard we incentivize discarding the card.
01:31:40
Speaker
We incentivize bringing back cards only in terms of their power, right? That's how his idea discard just big, whatever big, bad cards, right? Even with Black Cat, it's just like she's a big stat line, you know, if you can bring her back. So it's like, what if we actually had a reason to bring a card back beyond just its power? So what I gave her was ah when this is returned from the discard pile, destroy a random enemy card at this location.
01:32:09
Speaker
Because I mean, sometimes sometimes she murdered a person. So like, I put her and then I thought, okay, what's the stat like? Because it's tricky, right? We've I mean, and this is like, optimistic. It's like right now, Ghost Rider and Hela are pretty much like, the kind of only ways to bring her back. So hopefully, maybe they're going to be more support in the future. Fenris Wolf for your opponent next month.
01:32:36
Speaker
yeah yeah um Right, so like I thought, okay, I liked her at a 1, 2 though, because then she's actually a negative 1 in Hella, but like she she destroys a card and on your enemy side of the board.
01:32:53
Speaker
also um a you know, finger back with Ghost Raider otherwise. And then one two is so tiny versus like a spider man 2099. I wonder if I'm not even saying I'm not saying the stats are necessarily wrong. What if she gets to do something cooler like take out the highest power card?
01:33:15
Speaker
Part of it is right now she works with Colleen. Colleen will discard her easily. or You know what I mean? With the low stat line, in some ways it'll make it easier for her to get discarded. i'm so i'm saying Don't change the stat line. Make her stronger. Let her take out the highest power card instead of a random one. I thought about that. Targeting one, maybe that's interesting. Yeah, we've seen how weak destroying a random one is. I think she could target if she was a 1-2. I know. Gambit's been getting me good lately.
01:33:43
Speaker
um But yeah, okay. He's such a jerk. But also this would be good because it would take her further away from Gambit, which I like, you know, and the cards are a little bit further away like that. Okay, and here is the limerick. Turn one, I drew sweet Patsy Walker, but to true I had to discard her. Oh, she didn't behave and she rose from her grave as the Hellcat. She's not here to barter.
01:34:12
Speaker
um Ooh. So wait, does she transform when she's Patsy Walker when you just heard her? Oh wait, here's the problem. Here's the problem. That would be fun. If she did a Bucky where she was Trish Walker and then came back as Hellcat, all the variants would be of Trish Walker instead of Hellcat. That's how they do Bucky, and I couldn't do that to her. I couldn't do that to her. I like her fashion. Okay, you're right, you're right. I'm not saving it for Ultimate to get as best as I can.
Designing New Game Locations and Spotlight Voltage
01:34:40
Speaker
Okay, I support this. All right, new homework. New homework is are going to be our first ever listener suggestion so um from okay, also from a friend. So you know, there's that but still,
01:34:57
Speaker
Um, the new homework is going to be somewhat simpler this week. It's going to be, um, just a new location, just invent a new location. And I, as an example, and to bring a call back from last week, um, talking about the Scarlet Witch, uh, as a location could be the last door. Scarlet Witch is last door.
01:35:18
Speaker
and um the You told us about this last week. Yes, and the suggested ability for it would be um get a random card whose energy is the cost of the turn. This location is revealed.
01:35:36
Speaker
Um, cause people arrive at the last door at the right time, you know, Scarlet, which is helping them at the right time. So the idea that you would have a card, you could play that turn for sure is kind of cool. I think thematically and also be wacky. Cause you'd normally only get a one, two or three, but if someone like location changes later for some reason, you'd then you'd get a four or five or six.
01:35:58
Speaker
I love that, yeah. And just be a little more chaotic, right? Which goes with Scarlet Witch on five and you get a five cost. That's cute.
01:36:09
Speaker
So yeah, so that's it that's the new secret. I love it, yep.
01:36:16
Speaker
tree um my knife taste bit
01:36:31
Speaker
duty years sanest tree
01:36:38
Speaker
Now it's time for our game, and I would tell you about it. ah But I have no idea what we're playing because we have a surprise guest. Ooh. What? Oh, this is why. Okay. You said it would make sense. Yeah. Surprise guest should arrive any moment now.
01:37:00
Speaker
Oh, they're even just called guest. It's such a surprise.
01:37:07
Speaker
gonna have a good three-person showdown I think I think I don't know very splitness okay so you all came dressed up it's This hat is so hot. Anyway, y'all, this is Snap Variants, a massive, important pillar of our community and the Twitter community at least. um And he's gonna run our game for us. Take it away. Yay, okay. Do we all get to play the game? You all get to play.
01:37:57
Speaker
okay OK, OK, so this game is called spotlight voltage, I guess. I mean, everything it has in common with the spot with the new high voltage is that there's three turns. OK, so here are the rules. I'm going to, you'll you' each take turns, and then I'll tell you a new card from one of the previous spotlights. And then you have to tell me the season pass.
01:38:27
Speaker
card and then the other two cards that were in that spotlight. So i know okay okay I know that this is somewhat hard. So you get to ask questions, right? So the first person, like we'll go in turns, but let's say restarts. I'll ask. She'll start with a season. ah She'll start with a card. And then if she can't guess it, then it'll move on to the net or then she'll get to ask a question.
01:38:56
Speaker
And then if she can't get it, it'll move on to the next person. They can ask the question until we we get to every person, which is just three. so a And your know points, if you can get it early, are are much higher. than So you can get it on the first chance. ah You get five points, and then four, then three, then two.
01:39:19
Speaker
so uh all right four then three then two then one okay anyway i'll get ahead of time that uh i have spent a lot of nights scrolling the calendar on marva sam's own so i feel pretty confident i just want to brag i think i'm gonna do well at this so that way if i do terribly i can you know have a farther fall I can do season passes. I cannot do the spotlight friends. We'll see. We'll see. Well, the first thing you guess is the season pass. If you can't get it, that's two points. We'll move on, right? The other two are worth four points if you can get them right on your first turn before you ask a question. OK? OK. And we're keeping score because you can't be bothered. No, I can keep score. I've got it all set up. I keep score. Who wants to go first? That's the question. It's such a dangerous precedent. I don't like this one.
01:40:14
Speaker
music Yeah, but the thing is that i' this is the only thing I'm doing, right? so Okay. All all right. Who's going first? Okay.
01:40:27
Speaker
okay So you're going to go first, but we're going to do a practice round just so you get an idea of what's going on. so Uh, it's not gonna affect anything in the okay, but i'll complain if I get it right and then I don't get points understandable Or somewhat easy so we'll see okay, so it's the the first one is scarlet spider So the first thing is what's the season pass card for scarlet spider? Um, that was last season Oh man, okay
01:41:03
Speaker
It's way harder than you think it is. I don't think it's too on the spot. OK. This season was and Agent Venom. And last season, I've already forgotten. How have I already? It's too on the spot. I'm already failing. Oh, it was um a symbiote Spider-Man. Yes. OK, so you can get two points. I'm already failing. What were the other two cards in that spotlight? It was Spider-Man.
01:41:34
Speaker
Was White Widow one of them? You got it, so then that'll be five points. Wow, what about the other one?
01:41:44
Speaker
Was it... Nomura? No, more now she was a different one. It wasn't Nomura. Okay, so ask a question. Like, you can ask how her energy or the variant or what type of card it was or...
01:42:07
Speaker
Yeah, give me, give me what stats? am ah ah te Can I have the, I have the powers? can i can hook it up you can Give me the, give me the power. Okay. It is a, ah wait, power, right? Six power card. yeah Oh, but it wasn't Nomura though.
01:42:37
Speaker
um
01:42:41
Speaker
Now I'm having trouble thinking of, was it war machine? So hard. No, it wasn't. I made a mistake though, not power energy. It's, it's, it was not, I told you the energy, not the power. Oh, a six energy card. Yeah, it's a six round. It was a scar? It was a scar! So then you'd get four points.
01:43:05
Speaker
and i gonna count yeah getting count so yeah Well, I mean, it was somewhat easy. Okay. Okay. The next one you're going to get, I mean, I starting off easy. Okay. So you want to start now? Okay. Go ahead. and Read the first one misery.
01:43:24
Speaker
um Misery just came out. Sorry, I had a date today. I know these things. Misery, ah the season pass card is, of course, Agent Venom right this season. And last week's spotlights were Nomura with Misery and another one I
01:43:58
Speaker
Hold. Is it more machine? It was. Okay. Don't forget last week, Marie Shirley. Don't do that on the podcast. That was the first one. It was easy, right? Okay. So who wants to go next? Does this one actually count? Yes, it does. Oh dear. Well, therefore it is yours. Okay. I'll take it now.
01:44:28
Speaker
All right, Madam Web. Madam Web, the season pass card was Symbiote Spider-Man. um
01:44:41
Speaker
And anything could have been in that spot like Cash. Anything.
01:44:54
Speaker
Summers, I don't think. Wait, was it? Oh, wait. Is that your guess? No, let me let me think. This is the Madam Web Week. What was there? Was there move stuff in there? I bet there was. i speak um What kind of move stuff would have been in there?
01:45:12
Speaker
was No, Hercules wouldn't be in there. Was he? I don't know. Hercules, was Hercules in there? It wasn't Hercules. Okay, it's fine. You have a question. You can ask a question.
01:45:26
Speaker
Let's see about energy cost. Okay, energy cost. So one of the cards is six energy and one of the cards is two. Is one of them Mockingbird?
01:45:44
Speaker
No. Okay. So we got the six and two energy. oh That means you're up, Lauren. I get to take over on the same question? Yep. Okay. So for now, for three points each, if you can get one of them. Oh my goodness. You get a question. I get a question before I guess? Yep. Okay. All right. i Tell me their power.
01:46:13
Speaker
Oh, this is gonna be great. Okay, ah it's a 6-10 and a 2-5. Okay.
01:46:24
Speaker
Silk? Yes, you got one. 6-10. That's not Mockingbird. It's not She-Hulk. Of course, now I know what it is.
01:46:41
Speaker
Oh, this is so not my gift. I knew it. I'm ready. You don't even need to ask me question a question, are you? I'm going to pass it. to i It's going to take me way too long. Isn't Elias the only 610 that's out there? I don't know, but you're right. Mocking her. Oh, yeah. But she looks season three. I mean, like, right, she's early. And we already knew it wasn't mocking her. She's already doing her job.
01:47:10
Speaker
OK, so you got two points, Ben, you got two points and Lauren, you got three points on that move. All right. So, Lauren, here's yours. It is Silver Sable. Silver Sable is also in the symbiote Spider-Man season. Yes. um I have no idea who she was with. This is not like ah Nimrod. No, not Nimrod. OK, all right.
01:47:40
Speaker
ah Give me energy okay, it is a six power or sorry six energy card cost and a Two energy cost oh my gosh can I believe how hard this is um
01:48:12
Speaker
Grandmaster. No. Okay. So, all right. So that means we move on to Ree. Do you want to ask a question? I mean, I kind of just feel like if I get the powers, that'll make it a lot easier for me. Yeah, maybe that's just how this is gonna go. But all right. It's a six, nine and a two, three.
01:48:39
Speaker
Okay, so it's got to be Mockingbird, right? Absolutely, yep. Oh, she's not a 610. Nope. Yeah, I'm good with what they are now. Oh yeah, she got nerfed under Shang and everyone's like, that's a buff. That is super nod. The two series that came with Silver s Sable.
01:49:05
Speaker
It's too early for it to be, it's not Kate yet.
01:49:11
Speaker
Um,
01:49:15
Speaker
Oh, I think I know what it is. darn Okay. I don't know. I have to say I'll go with Kate. Cause they said it. I'll let Ben have it. Cause I'm not sure. All right, Ben. I don't think there's any options for a two, three. Is it us agent is definitely us agent.
01:49:34
Speaker
ah us agent All right. So, Lauren, you have two on that round. Rhi, you had three. And Ben, you had two. All right. So now I'm going to get a little harder. I'm going to go back farther in time. ah But not too far. ah That means, I think, Rhi, it's your turn. OK. Circe. Oh, Circe. OK. That was the Eternals season pass. And our our card, our season pass card for Eternals.
01:50:12
Speaker
Why can I not remember? It wasn't Faistos, was it? No, it was a... It's gonna be some... No, I answer. I'm gonna take it that I got it wrong. I don't know. This is true. I've got the game show jitters. Okay, wait. all We're trying to guess the season pass. Is that what you're trying to do? Yeah.
01:50:39
Speaker
OK, so that's fine. somebody That means, ah Ben, you get you get to try. Season pass? Season pass, or this is the Eternal season? Seriously? I'm pretty sure. Is this a whole month of trick question of sorts? Huh.
01:51:02
Speaker
ah I could be wrong, but like, was Cersei the season pass card of? No, she wasn't. I ignore that guy. He's not my friend. I'll never play him either. OK, but eventually he gets the variant I saw in the in the data mine with the frying pan. But once I get that, I might kill him.
01:51:35
Speaker
okay Okay, okay, so now back to you, Reed, the other two cards. Okay. You want to take a guess before you ask the question? that went with seriously? Yes. Oh, man, do I get a question yet? You can just have a while. Stab in the dark. Yeah. Okay. um Annihilus.
01:52:01
Speaker
No, but now you can ask a question. Um, give me, can you give me like, like archetypes, like discarded a destroy or whatever, just a very, absolutely. Okay. One of them is discard and one of them is its own type. So maybe high Evo then not high Evo. Okay.
01:52:30
Speaker
All right. that Yeah. Oh, geez. What were the clues that we've already received? one One is discard and one is its own type, its own. And we know nothing about their their stats. Nope, but you can ask that. Okay. And these were in with Cersei and back in the Eternal season, which I clearly don't remember all that vividly. What would be there with, um,
01:53:01
Speaker
was, one of them is discard. There aren't that many cool fancy discard cards. It wouldn't have been a question um it wouldn't have been one of the, ah you know, maybe it would have been one of those. Okay. Ben, ask your question first. Could I get energy costs?
01:53:26
Speaker
Yes. One and four. But I'm not going to tell you which is which. One and four. And one is discard, one is its own type. I think that the one is the discard card and it's meek. You're right. So then you can guess the other one.
01:53:47
Speaker
And the other one is its own thing, and it costs four. That could be so many things. um Let's say... And it's not Hyevo. And it's not Hyevo. Miss Marvel. That was a good guess, but it's not Miss Marvel. Oh, that was a good guess. All right, Lauren.
01:54:16
Speaker
Mr. Negative is not a series four or five card. Only in our hearts. No, I don't even know what that means. I don't know it, but it makes it pretty hard to contradict, right? yeah Absolutely.
01:54:32
Speaker
a
01:54:35
Speaker
Gosh, I just played a deck full of fours too, because I got to rock the Zabu. Shuri.
01:54:43
Speaker
she series three know it series re read one last shot question um so you do next question oh you next question That's my fault. Okay. re I also want to know the, the answer to the question. you want to answer your question Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, I want an extra clue. ah Tell me this thing's species.
01:55:12
Speaker
I don't know. Okay. is elastic being all right oh An intergalactic fork forecast being, um tiny tribunal. No, wait. Silver surfer's dad.
01:55:40
Speaker
I'm so bad at this. All right. I'm passing. Okay. Last question. hurry Okay. Wait, I was going to say super scroll. I was just supposed to ask a question first. That's serious. You want to ask a question first cause that's not eligible.
01:55:59
Speaker
okay Um, all right. I need, I want, I want the power. Okay. So it is a four, five. intergalactic being but its own that is its own type.
01:56:22
Speaker
People are screaming at their phones right now. It's clear who does not play this card. and Yes, I don't play this card. No, I don't know. I have no idea.
01:56:38
Speaker
yeah All right, you you want it's over, but do you have any guests then? Do you know what it is? A four or five intergalactic beat. I mean, like, I'm sure I'm wrong. i'm I'm so sure I'm wrong. What on earth even is four? Like, I'm thinking four or fives and not none of them are eligible for this. Is it, what, like super giant or something? it's It is a deck that every that only, like,
01:57:11
Speaker
ah certain folks play and then no one else plays it. And it used to have a document like 12 pages long to explain it.
01:57:23
Speaker
play Yeah, that is a blind spot for me. I despise that card.
01:57:30
Speaker
um ni offensively Wait, did you got meek though, Ben, right? You did, yeah. Okay, great. All right, so you got ah you got three points on that and Ree got two. All right, so the next one, Ben, you're up. Cannonball. Wait, what trade was that? Wasn't that... What? Wasn't that Cersei?
01:57:56
Speaker
Was that the Cersei round? That was the Cersei, yeah. I got Gilgamesh. Do I get points for Gilgamesh? Yeah, you got Gilgamesh. Yeah, sorry, you got two points. Oh. All right. It was not Reed, okay. Great. ah Then Cannonball. Cannonball, okay. That was a five. That was a five ago. Cannonball's like way back.
01:58:24
Speaker
um Who else was in that season? Wow, this is hard. I think I know. Let's see. i mean yeah Think about your predictions. I hope my answer is the same as Lauren's because she's probably right. Oh, geez.
01:58:50
Speaker
This was so long ago. I... It was March.
01:58:59
Speaker
Oh, sorry. No, that that that is information I did not deserve. I don't even think it's going to help me. I think January was what? January was Planet Hulk. And after that... Ooh. Wow.
01:59:18
Speaker
Uh, season pass cards. What are season pass cards? You gotta give me an answer. It's not Deadpool season. What other seasons have there even been? This is horrible. Not Underbolts.
01:59:35
Speaker
yeah you Shoot.
01:59:39
Speaker
Was there you want to pass I think I'll pass this is this is horrible Oh summers. Yeah Yeah, I wasn't gonna get that This time thinking about okay All right spotlight for Lauren got two points for that. Okay. Yeah, I Cannonball. What else? Back to Ben. Is it back to Ben? Yes. We just do the season pass for two points and then go back to the. So you want to make a guess before you ask the question? No. What?
02:00:25
Speaker
what Can we talk about mechanics or anything like what? i can do can it What they do? OK, one is an ongoing and one is a a stacking card, a building card. Power accumulates accumulation card like Angela. Let's see, probably not. um Probably not now.
02:00:56
Speaker
um
02:01:02
Speaker
Elsa Bloodstone. It's not also a bloodstone. Didn't think so. perfect Lauren. Give me the energy. All right. So one is a one cost and one is a four cost. I'm going to go with Howard the Duck.
02:01:24
Speaker
It's not Howard the Duck. Oh! Okay, wait. one It's a one cuss and four cuss, and one is the stacking thing, and what was the other one? One was an accumulating card, and one is ongoing.
02:01:46
Speaker
And it was cannonball during hope summers. I'm trying to think of this as, is war machine make sense or was he not out yet? I'm going to guess why machine heart war machine. No, okay. Yeah. He's after that. was Did you ask a question? No. I think that was war machines release month. Yeah. That's what I was, I was realizing after. Um, okay. Wait, so did I, did I blow up cause I already got my guess. You get to ask a question.
02:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead. You still have two left.
02:02:29
Speaker
Okay, give me... I'm trying to think of something other than the power, but it's like, ah it's the most convenient thing. um Okay, let's just do it. Lauren gave me the nod. Give me the power. Okay, I'm gonna give you the power. One is an eight power and one is a four power.
02:02:50
Speaker
So we've got, uh, so one four is, it's gotta be martyr now, right? Cause like, what are there? Let me, let me, let me remind you, uh, there's a, there's a four cost and a one cost. There's a four power and a one. Oh wait, no, wait, did I say eight? It's sorry. It's one power. i'm I, I, I.
02:03:13
Speaker
Okay, that's what I said earlier, no one hates. A one-cast, and a one-cast, and a four-cast, a four-power, and a one-power. Okay,
02:03:27
Speaker
okay so it's probably... One's accumulating. ah one What is ongoing? Because one's accumulating. is kitty Is it Kitty Pride? It's Kitty Pride. Huzzah! Okay. Great! Does she get to keep it for the other one?
02:03:44
Speaker
I think we can let her keep this one and then move on for the last one back to Ben, since you since you did guess one already. So you want to ask a question? A four or ongoing, ongoing. Wait, so my guessing is Ben guessing. I'm going to give it to Ben since you had already guessed. OK, I guess the point. Or four with. Oh, is it.
02:04:16
Speaker
You get one one question. Okay. We already know about its stats. We already know that it's an ongoing card. um Can you give me any more information about how it's used?
02:04:35
Speaker
archetype Well, for a while, No, for a while, it was its own archetype. I think that should that should give it to you. Should or for that was its own archetype.
02:05:00
Speaker
I guess it was. Oh, geez. I don't know it. Is it. Is it Miss Marvel this time? Yes! It's Ms. Marvel! Okay. So, Ree, you got two points. Ben, you got one point. And Lauren, you got two points on that one. All right. It is Lauren's turn. Red Hulk. Scar. No! No! No! Did I say no fast enough?
02:05:33
Speaker
Did I say no fast enough? Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah, you know you it's fine. what What is your final answer? My final answer is Baron Zemo. Yes, it is Baron Zemo. Okay, what about the two other cards?
02:05:53
Speaker
um
02:06:00
Speaker
Jeff. Not Jeff. So you want to ask a question? Yeah. um Give me their species again. Okay, they are both human. Yeah, I didn't help. It helps a little helps a little
02:06:35
Speaker
Not a lot of humans. You sure they're human? ah No. I'm as close as I can get. OK, sure.
02:06:45
Speaker
um
02:06:50
Speaker
Elsa Bloodstone? No, not Elsa Bloodstone. All right, all right. OK. Do I get a question? Wait, by human, they can be superhuman, right? I mean, the species?
02:07:05
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, they're still superheroes. But mutants aren't humans. I don't think that either of them are mutants. So. OK. All right. All right. As far as I know. Yeah, right. All right. So that means it moves on to Ree. You want to ask a question? Yeah, I'm just. Yeah, I'm going to go through the energies.
02:07:34
Speaker
All right, so the energy cost is one and three. ah Three, okay. um
02:07:52
Speaker
Man, trying to think of which cards are still in series. I mean, a lot of them now, I guess, right? That would go what was... with Rebel, the card we all skipped. Yeah. All right. um Yeah, I know. I skipped. But you talked so long about that in your first string, right?
02:08:17
Speaker
um It's cards that I already have. I'm going to guess X 23. I don't know. It is not X 23. All right, Ben, what's your question? So we know their energy costs.
02:08:33
Speaker
One and three, they are humans, I believe. And they're probably humans. Okay, could we get their power? Yes. Oh, we just had this whole discussion about mutants and I guessed X-Men 3. Four and two.
02:08:51
Speaker
Four and two. Okay. um
02:09:07
Speaker
Uh... Echo? ah You got one! It is Echo! Do you think he can go for the second? Okay, so the the energy cost of the other one is three and its power is four? Yes.
02:09:26
Speaker
Well that is a toughie.
02:09:34
Speaker
i think Oh, I think I don't think I got this. I should guess something, though. um Is it Dokken? Dokken? It is not Dokken. Do I get a guess? ah Yes. here You get the final guess. Do you want to ask a question for yes or no? Yes, I do. Ben, I missed a three cost card.
02:10:00
Speaker
I think I know what it is. I'm going to eat it. Give me the archetype that's not surfer. ah It is definitely a surfer card. Oh, I think it's a mutant. Is it a mutant maybe? Is it Sebastian Shaw? That'd be really funny if then miss Sebastian Shaw. No, you had a little discussion that wasn't a mutant. Yeah, but wait, it's a human. i You have to understand that I don't have enough lore on Marvel to know that Sebastian Schaller is a mutant. He did his best. Sebastian Schaller. I'm so sorry, Ben. Did you cut it out? Well, you know what? We're not just mutants. It's OK, because... Duncan is definitely a mutant, so we're all really bad at guessing.
02:10:48
Speaker
i I'm not a mutant. <unk> yeah So wait, Sebastian Schump is a mutant? Yep. Oh, because he's part of that X-Men Hellfire Club. Oh, I see. Okay. They are mutants. So do I get those points? Was I right? I think you definitely do. You definitely got that point. Yeah. Okay. So Ben, you got two, Lauren got three altogether. Oh, yep, that's it. All right. Do you want to do one more round?
02:11:23
Speaker
Sure. okay Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. What's the scoreboard? Then I'll tell you if I want to do another round.
02:11:32
Speaker
I mean, if do you want to go like, I can go like super hard or we can go just like nice and chill. I will get any season pass card. Let me let me spotlight friends. Never. I will never get them.
02:11:50
Speaker
All right. Well, reason the lead with 17, because that first round, she just knocked it out of the park. that And then Lauren, you have 12, Ben with 10. Let's play another for sure. All right.
02:12:08
Speaker
OK. Let's go with. Yeah, let's go with this. ah So that means it's up to Europe. Re Annihilus. Oh, what was the season was a season was Annihilus category. Even I'm not even since that familiar with him from the comics. I think a fantastic four villain, I think, primarily, maybe.
02:12:44
Speaker
Intoxic kind of season. um Okay, I need to guess something. Man. um I know. Gwenpool. Ah, Gwenpool. Alright, Ben.
02:13:15
Speaker
Annihilus was a while ago, huh? I know, and yeah it's like... I've got a real bad feeling about... I mean, jeez, was that... was that even... Do you get a question, though? Is that a 2023 kind of...? No, it's a season pass. We haven't been doing questions on season pass. Lauren's gonna get it. This is how I get my points. Yeah.
02:13:43
Speaker
Annihilus. What is contemporaneous with Annihilus? um Shoot. Jeez. Season pass cards. What are season pass cards? Who are season pass cards?
02:13:59
Speaker
um I realize I have to try or the game is no fun, but like I am grasping at straws here. And that's where I was at. I'm like, I can't even name a season pass card right now. Yeah, I'm like, I remember Nebula, but like that was while ago.
02:14:17
Speaker
citizen Shoot. Okay. What goes with Annihilus? Nothing goes with Annihilus. but Annihilus is not a member of the Hellfire Club. I'm just like, I can't, I can think of like four season themes and none of them are Annihilus. Annihilus is not a TVA kind of girly. Annihilus is not, uh, what does Annihilus even go with? Nothing sucks. This is, this is. so yeah You want to just throw something out there?
02:14:53
Speaker
Sure. Um, uh, I can't even throw something out. I, this is just, I don't even know what season pass cards are. I didn't mean to break. but it was it is it I don't know scar was scar the season pass card. It's not scar. Does it help either of you? If you knew that it was November of 23.
02:15:23
Speaker
It was November of 2016. It's Ms. Marvel, baby. Yes, it is Ms. Marvel. I've read all of Ms. Marvel, and I don't remember ever going up against them. I don't think. Her season was cosmic, right? It was like Martyr, Gladiator, and Annihilus, but I don't know how she ties into those. She kind of doesn't, as far as I can tell. I spent my time wisely. Wait, yes?
02:15:53
Speaker
She wasn't a human and now she's a mutant is most recently a mutant, I believe. When she was created, it was when they didn't have the rights to, ah you know, to the the movie.
02:16:09
Speaker
that music So in the comics they were trying to hype up the Inhumans and they had all this run of Inhumans titles. Good luck with that. I tried to get into them and I didn't accept for this one character called Reader who is like the coolest but other than that anyway.
02:16:25
Speaker
So they actually had always wanted her to be a mutant, the creators, but you know the money dictated she needed to be an inhuman. So that's why now that they have the rights again and they're bringing the mutants and the X-Men back, they're like, well, why don't we just make her what she always should have been? She can be both.
02:16:45
Speaker
you know But to be honest it is very Miss Marvel to be like caught between two cultures so in the end of you know it's kind of funny. So wait, is she both or was she just retconned to be immune? She's both. ah She like always was one but she's also an inhuman. That's cool.
02:17:03
Speaker
Were her powers awakened by the Terrigen Mists? That's why she came back from the dead after they killed her in a manner that nobody liked. She was a mutiny. Because they were resurrecting people in the eggs, you know?
02:17:19
Speaker
of we remember softbas And with the power of hope and like the council combined anyway, yeah, the X-Men are crazy. But yeah, she was raised from an egg, which is another part of her teenage trauma to deal with now. So yeah, all right. I did not expect it to go there, but. Yeah, but it but it's comics, so it did. Yeah. OK, I was going to get distracted.
Wrap-Up and Reflections
02:17:48
Speaker
um Okay. Wait, do I guess the Sorry, I apologize. Yes. You have to guess and then you get to ask a question. Okay. I'm going to guess Celine. Not Celine. Okay. I thought that was the card they'd maybe put with an eyeless. Okay. um Give me... ah Ask a question. I want the energies.
02:18:20
Speaker
The energies, okay. ah It is... Wait, I said this right. Is it three and one? generally Oh, okay, so one, but not Selene. Yeah, three and one.
02:18:46
Speaker
Probably not.
02:18:50
Speaker
Was this, was this possibly Martyr? It's not Martyr. Okay. a One day. Okay, Ben. Okay, three and one in the Miss Marvel season. fool What I just, for some reason I think that the only one cost card is like,
02:19:20
Speaker
echo or something. ah um question before you guess I think was it? I don't think that no, it's not Howard the duck. I don't think they do that. What would they do? One of them costs three. And this three and one.
02:19:47
Speaker
How about um Let's get their power. Okay. Four and two.
02:20:03
Speaker
Four and two. Okay. Well then, you know what? I am gonna guess Echo again. It is not Echo. It's not always Echo, dang.
02:20:19
Speaker
That goes a good guess, though. That's about four-ish months before. Yeah.
02:20:29
Speaker
All right, Lauren. Okay. I'm a leaning X-23, but I want to hear the species. Species. Okay. I think they're both mutants. Yes, they're both mutants. X-23. One, two. X-23. Yep.
02:20:48
Speaker
Okay, nice. Okay, tom tell me the stats of the other one again. Three, four. four. Probably from further back, because this would have been X 23 second appearance.
02:21:08
Speaker
Is Jean Grey at three, four right now? I won't lie, that's what I was gonna guess. Have they buffed her yet? I don't think they have. ah To be helpful, yes, yes, she is. Oh, I'm guessing Jean Grey. It is not Jean Grey, but it was an excellent guess. and Last question. Oh, okay. Yes. A question first. That's good. um Give me the archetype.
02:21:38
Speaker
Destroy. Well, it's destroy and I'll say destroy and. strike ken it's it's de ken because it's a you really least is this back when it was completely predictable what the cycle was I think it's when they were trying to match things up. But Jean Grey was the week after. So I'm very good. So we got a point on that. And Ben, you got
02:22:13
Speaker
three points on guessing, uh, I need my ex 20. Sorry. Not, not, Lauren, laen lin four points. Sorry for Lauren. You got four points altogether and where you had, there we go. Maybe you don't want me to do this. Okay. Uh, next, uh, is better. Yeah. Oh my goodness. I think ben went exhaust Yeah, yeah. And the card. But the the card is aliyah. The season pass card is low. Oh my gosh, a lion. Yeah. It's look absolutely spotlight, though. um
02:23:08
Speaker
Nebula. It is not Nebula, but you get a question. Give me the... I don't want to ask a good question because then it's too helpful for my opponents. ah Give me the energy.
02:23:24
Speaker
okay It is one and three. It's time for Echo. oh um Howard's a decent one, although I don't think Howard had his first spotlight appearance until like January. No, it was a very long time. And it was his first and only. um Other high-series one-cost cards? Those things don't exist.
02:23:57
Speaker
a
02:24:00
Speaker
What's the other one? Three? Three.
02:24:13
Speaker
Hit Monkey. It is Hit Monkey. Oh, nice. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. you have You can guess the other one if you want. I can. Okay. Yeah. I really want to say Howard, but it's not because he was the same season as Hit Monkey.
02:24:44
Speaker
Kitty pride. Not kitty pride. Okay. Three. Okay, I get a question first? Of course. All right. Give me the... Okay, I should just ask for power, but I want the the the primary colors.
02:25:07
Speaker
and you know like either they're copy the characters name I love it. No, that's a fantastic question. And I won't give any more hints. Okay. So blue and purple and white. Okay. Squint your eyes and see those blobby colors. Blue and purple and white and pink makes me think of ghost spider.
02:25:35
Speaker
Does she have all of those colors in your outfit? And it's okay, it's a one cost. I'm talking about the card. That's the theme of the card. And the theme of the card. So it might be like the background colors? Okay. I think it's, I'm going to say Spider-Ham. It's not Spider-Ham. Okay. Back to you, Ben. All right. One more question.
02:26:03
Speaker
So it's a one cost card, that color stuff, not even remotely helpful. Let's see. That doesn't see colors, I forgot. It was kind of a neat one. I think it is really helpful, actually. Hey, the white might be, I don't know. Maybe. I'll bet it's color white. Anything. Oh, yes.
02:26:26
Speaker
what What has been guessed so far in the one cost department? Spider him.
02:26:33
Speaker
And Kitty, i am I guess. And this was Elias week. Yeah, like a week with one cast X 23. Was not X 20. Wait, you didn't. Did you ask a question? Ask a question. OK, let's see. um What what mechanically does it do?
02:26:59
Speaker
Cumulates power. Well, uh, card generation. Oh. Card generation. And this is a one cost card with card generation. Is this snow guard? It's snow guard. Yeah. That's a good question. Like all of her variants have that like, you know, pink and blue. Yeah. All right, Ben, you got it. Way to go. So that round, then you got one and Lauren had five. Wow.
02:27:33
Speaker
oh ah All right. No, you had two, Ben. Sorry. You have two, that one. Oh, that's all right. Yeah, I'm not too worried about it. Do you want the scores now? Give us the scores. This is the end of the game, right? I mean, I could go longer, but I think we've been we've been on for an hour. Oh, yeah, yeah. We we need to call it probably.
02:27:58
Speaker
I have enough for a whole other game, a whole other round. see that' That's the way you make it. I only got halfway through my stuff is what I mean. But oh, it was very close. But Lauren with 21 has inched ahead to seal the win. Followed by three with 18 and Ben with 12. You deserved it, Lauren. I barely remembered last week. so It was so decent passes. You really nailed them.
02:28:31
Speaker
So I don't think about the friends, but I know cards release week. Or at least the release month. I don't think I could do the release week in order. um My calendar scrolling wasn't helpful, I realize, because I'm future focused. You're always planning, yeah. But the future is the past. The past used to be the future.
02:28:55
Speaker
yeah Yeah, but then it's like, you know how like Sherlock Holmes said, like, I only have so much room in my head to remember things. So sometimes things are going to go out and I only have so much spotlight room and in my head, you know. All right. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, thank you so much for running the game. Snap variants. I could certainly point people to your stuff. But do you want to say, do you want to ah promote anything?
02:29:25
Speaker
Uh, I run a Twitter slash X account. I repost variance. I post deck guides. I do other random things on that account. So yeah, come very positive, always uplifting, not in a toxic way.
02:29:45
Speaker
i hope No, no, no, I just, I love that you celebrate people's splits, even if it's like their early splits and they're getting rainbow foils and like, you're not only highlighting the God splits. I love that. every Some people love it. Some people love those rainbow foils. Right. And we got to represent everybody in the community.
02:30:08
Speaker
That's seeing you tag on the current hell site. Sorry, when you have a good split, right? You know? Yeah, be a little bit like judicious about the tagging. like don't Don't go tagging folks all the time.
02:30:26
Speaker
Exercise a little restraint, but like if you are going to- No, no, that's what I'm saying. It's like, when I get a new split, it's like, is the snap variance worthy? You know? If you're doing 10 in one day, pick the best one. If you've got an all-time bagger, do make it public and stuff. Absolutely. Get it out. Just a split that you love. that I mean, it doesn't have to be that everyone else likes it.
02:30:54
Speaker
You know when you get excited and you you hit the split button and you're like, yes, this is what I wanted. The most exciting button in the game. Yeah. yeah That time I was rolling my eyes at it. The first time I really was looking at the ceiling, but we don't have video to confirm it. All the listeners are going to think I rolled my eyes at that. All right. It's been very fun. Thanks for having me.
02:31:25
Speaker
as always if you like what you heard please follow like subscribe comment all the things send us email at snap on this pod at gmail dot.com you could send us challenge ideas or whatever nice things hopefully um if you'd like to follow us on twitter all of our handles are in the video description or podcast show notes Um, we are on all of the podcast places and the YouTube place. So wherever you'd like to listen or watch up to you. Uh, we are happy to be part of the snap judgments network where you can listen to other great shows. Like how can she snap by no big deal. And the kid every Sunday, super fun show, uh, great vibes. And I don't know. I really love how candid they are.
02:32:15
Speaker
Like you get that in a lot of podcasts, but I feel like they they take that to a new level. It's something that I really enjoy. um Also check out Snap Decisions and Snap Judgments. Anyway, with that, Merry Splitsmas to all and to all a good night. May all your splits be merry and bright. And as Tiny Tim would want, bro bless us, everyone.
02:33:46
Speaker
um my twelve days but On