Frankie Raye Nova: A Raye of Hope for the Meta?｜Tons of New Cards Reviewed | The Snap Chat Ep. 144

How is the current state of player retention in Marvel Snap? How do the new card releases like Frankie Ray Nova, Fire Lord, and Stardust measure up? Why are players concerned about the monetization of new cards like Silver Surfer Fantastic Four? Join Alexander Coccia with special guest Husky as they chat about this and more on this episode of The Snap Chat and join Cozy and Alex every week as they discuss all things Marvel Snap.

Have a question or comment for Cozy and Alex? Send them a Text Message.

You’ve been listening to The Snap Chat. Keep the conversation going on x.com/ACozyGamer and x.com/AlexanderCoccia. Until next time, happy snapping!

Episode Transcript

Alex (00:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of the
Snapchat.
I'm joined today with a veryspecial guest, Husky Puppies,
one of the highest ranked MarvelSnap players on the planet, and
a caster at the Golden GauntletHusky.
How are you, my friend?
I am doing

Husky (00:18):
absolutely wonderfully.
It is a absolute pleasure to behere.
This is a, a little bit of adream come true for me.
I've my first dip into contentcreation for Marvel.
Snap was listening to this, soit's.
It is come a lot further than Iexpected, but I am more than

Alex (00:37):
happy to be here.
How are you doing yourself?
What I'm doing Great.
And, uh, a lot of people mightnot realize this, but, uh, you
and I had an opportunity to meetat one of my absolute favorite
places on Earth, and you'reactually representing the shirt
right now.
Pax Unplugged.
We met at PAX East though, inBoston.
And, uh, you know, PAX it holdsa very special place in my
heart.
It's where I learned how to playgames.

(00:57):
I wouldn't be making content ifit wasn't for Pax in the first
place, but you and I got to meetand, uh, what a awesome
experience that was.

Husky (01:04):
It was absolutely phenomenal.
They say, don't meet yourheroes, but I'm, I'm gonna be
talking to the viewers for asecond.
This guy is like the nicest guyI've met in a long time.
It's like, I it, I was like, ohyeah, it's, it's, it's not gonna
be like it was here.
It's, he's not gonna be aswholesome.
And then it's just like, wow.

(01:24):
It was, uh, it.
It got some very good sageadvice for you outside of Snap,
and it was just a, an absoluteblast to be there with you.
It's a very fun time.

Alex (01:34):
It was a fun time.
And I know we got to chill withSTG as well, super Tech, God,
who is, uh, prior on the show aswell.
And, uh, Husky, I gotta tell youthough, you, you hold a record
for the Snapchat here, you'regonna be the highest ranked
player, uh, to ever be on theSnapchat because, uh, we have
had a couple major competitiveplayers, but you are my friend,
the highest ranked we've hadthus far.

(01:54):
And it takes a lot of effort, ittakes a lot of skill, a lot of
talent to get to the levelswhere you are consistently
competing.
Like in, I'll be watching yourstream, you're in the top 20,
right?
I'm like, how does he get there?
How does this man do it?
What is like one of thestrategies you use to like
propel yourself so high in themeta?

Husky (02:11):
A lot of it is connections.
I know a lot of very goodpeople.
It's being in the right space.
So that, hey, maybe I can't makea list for the meta that I
really like, that I really jivewith.
I can find someone else, I canget help with that.
And being able to be connectedwith other top people, get tips

(02:31):
from them.
It's it's a a positive cyclethat just spirals you up and
it's just a phenomenal place tobe.
There's a lot of very goodpeople, and I met a lot of very
talented, dedicated people.
And it's just, we've all cometogether about, you know,
learning and mastering thisgame.
Other than that, it's a lot ofpattern recognition and Yeah.

(02:52):
Time.

Alex (02:53):
Yeah, a lot of time.
A lot of pattern recognition.
I absolutely agree.
Right.
And, uh, what's interesting aswell is that like, I feel like
what you're saying is surroundyourself with excellence, right?
And you'll often, you know, uh,be able to excel yourself.
And I think that's one of thethings that like, has kind of
broken my heart a little bit inSnap was I feel like some of my
friends have started to driftaway from the game a little bit.
I know you've ex, we wereliterally just talking before we
started about how some of ourfriends in content creation, uh,

(03:16):
you know, bigger, small, youknow, and all of which
exceptionally talented havedrifted away from the game.
But, uh, but you know what,Husky, you're still here.
I'm still here.
We're still cooking.
And you know what, guys?
You're still here as well, andwe appreciate each and every one
of you.
Now, we got a lot of topics wewanna talk about today, but
before we do that, Husky, Iwanna talk to you about
something for a second.

(03:36):
I saw you on the GoldenGauntlet.
You were casting with Gregor andI gotta tell you guys crushed
it.
You guys were fantastic.
What's it been like, not onlycasting an event like that, like
a grassroots competitive MarvelSnap event, but what is it like
to just have an event like thatin the first place finally
happening in the Snap Universe?

Husky (03:56):
It is absolutely amazing.
I am sort of, yeah, as youmentioned, the representing a
lot more of the competitive sideof Marvel Snap to, and to see
that be recognized officially.
And then not only that, but alsomyself recognized officially is
it just a feeling of absolutebliss?

(04:16):
It's everything I wanted andmore, I only just hope it, it
continues gaining traction andespecially in, uh, hopefully the
next, I'm pretty sure the nextfew golden gauntlets will be in
a little bit easier time zonefor me.
So I'm very, very excited forthat casting.
It was.
I was a little bit nervous.

(04:36):
I, I had casted some otherevents beforehand, but this one
was big.
It was, it was very wellproduced, like shout out to the
production team.
It yeah, things started a littlebit late, but it's, things went
very, very smoothly and it wasjust a butterflies in my stomach
the whole time, but a, anabsolute blast.

Alex (04:57):
Yeah, you know what?
I felt the exact same way when Idid Deadpool's Diner.
And it was funny'cause I wasdoing it alongside Cozy.
So we had a lot of like naturalkind of, uh, synergy with each
other.
You know, we had been sofamiliar with each other, but at
the same time, you know, I wasnervous.
I was nervous doing somethinglike that.
And it was interesting to seethat Cozy who had been on camera
so many times and been in somany events for Marvel Snap he
was like kinda like the calmestguy in the room.

(05:19):
Like nothing was a surprise tohim.
He was, he was like ready to gowith everything.
And in some ways, watching himwork in that capacity gave me a
lot of confidence to work inthat capacity.
And so, uh, you know, it'ssomething that a lot of people
might not realize that like, youknow, even when like there's
technical issues which you guysexperience, and how do you fill
that time and how do you workthrough those things?
And, you know, you don't alwayshave the answers.

(05:40):
You don't always, like, youdon't have a script to go off.
You have to be light on yourfeet, you know, as they, uh, as
they say.
And you did exactly that.
So I just wanna say honestly,thank you so much for, uh, for
supporting competitive MarvelSnap and the team at the Golden
Gauntlet have been.
Been doing a phenomenal job,let's be honest, and I'm so
happy that second dinner issupporting such an initiative.

Husky (05:59):
Oh yeah.
It's I could not be happier withthe things, the way things are
going.
I was a little bit scared forthe health of the game with, you
know, the whole kiddo, megafiasco.
But it, it's really pullingback.
People are enjoying the gameagain.
It's, they're taking steps inthe right direction.
It's not perfect, but I thinkit's better and, um,

Alex (06:19):
better is good.
Yeah.
There's a lot of improvementsstill to be made though.
I, I feel like we are still ina, a process, unfortunately of a
bit of a downhill slope in termsof, uh, you.
Player retention, and contentcreator, retention, retention of
all types.
I think in Marvel, Snap Land ishurting a little bit, but um,
hopefully over time they, theydo take a serious look at their

(06:40):
metrics and they start toevaluate as to how they can
continue to support this gamefor the long term.
Because based on myconversations with second
dinner, I have to tell you, itdoesn't seem like they're.
Like tapping out, like it seemslike they want this game to be
successful long term.
And so I hope that they do takethe community feedback
seriously, because right now itseems like a very downward
trajectory.
Like I feel it in in my metrics.

(07:02):
I'm sure you feel it as wellstreaming wise.
And, uh, and so, and they mustfeel it in their pocketbooks as
well.
And I think that the answer isnot to, well, we're making less
money.
Let's charge more foreverything.
It's like, no, let's make theexperience better.
Let's keep the player retentionhigher.
Let's make this experienceunforgettable.
So you always want to come back.
And I think that's the key,right?
And I think that that's amessage I think that the player

(07:24):
base has been trying to say tothem.
And one of the things that'sbeen really interesting about
Snap is that a lot of theplayers, even the most vocal and
quote unquote negative ones,they, they often come from a
place of love.
Like they're mad because theylove the game they're playing
and they just don't like thedirection it's going in.
Or they don't like themonetization approach.
It's not about hating MarvelSnap.
They love Marvel Snap, andthat's why they're angry.

(07:44):
You know what I mean?

Husky (07:45):
Yeah, it's,

Alex (07:46):
they can't play

Husky (07:47):
it the way that they really, really want to.
It's with a card acquisition,and especially like returning
players not being able to reallycatch up in a meaningful way.
It's really, really hard if you,if you take a little bit of a
break, and that's been somethingthat has been hurting for a
while.
But yeah every time I seenegative feedback, it's

(08:07):
oftentimes out of a place oflove.
It's like, I love the Snapmechanic and like being able to
just reset the board and, youknow, leave for one after, you
know, a bad draw, a badlocation.
It feels so nice.
It's like, why haven't othercard games done this?
And it's just that the game issuch a phenomenal piece.

(08:27):
It, it's, there's a reason why Iplay it as much as I do at a
high enough level.
It's just, it's hard to getthere.
It's, and it's hard to get backif you, you

Alex (08:39):
know, slip a little bit.
Absolutely.
And uh, on that note, it'sprobably about time that we
discuss some of the new cards.
In Marvel Snap and we'll getstarted with Frankie Ray Nova.
Now, I don't know if I'm allowedto say this yet, but uh, you'll
be seeing me tomorrow on themain Marvel Snap channel as I
discuss Frankie Ray Nova.
And I gotta tell you, I wasexcited for the opportunity to

(08:59):
get to test the card a littleearly.
And so I will tell you that ithas some popoff potential.
Frankie Ray Nova is a reallyfascinating card.
It is a two three and it readsafter the next time you play a
six cost card.
Double this card's power.
Frankie Ray Nova has theopportunity to go well into the
twenties and thirties and powerif you want to get greedy

(09:20):
enough.
Not always the correct choicewith the likes of Shachi and
Shadow King, uh, floating aroundnow in prior ratings, maybe
because I got to place a littlebit of it in advance and I got a
little hyped up.
I came in at 4.5 stars, reallyexcited for the power potential
at the two drop might be alittle high.
I think there's a little bit ofroad rose colored shades there.
But Husky puppies, we usuallyrank things out of five, five

(09:42):
stars.
What would you come in at?
With's Frankie Renova.

Husky (09:46):
Oh, that's tricky.
Ooh.
I'd probably go a little bitlower than you.
Uh, I'm probably, this is, thisis going to be a, a strong card.
I think it, it may not be thestrongest thing to do, but a, a,
a two or three, that's onlyupside.
You know, it, it gets to a twosix with a pretty easy

(10:08):
condition.
If you just build your deckrelatively the way it wants to.
I'd say maybe a four stars.
Uh, 3.5 to four is where I'd go.
I don't think it'll breakeverything.
Yeah, it's, it's still verycheckable if it gets big, but.
It can

Alex (10:24):
get big.
You know what?
I got really hyped up and said4.5.
It's probably closer to four,like honestly.
Uh, but I do agree the downsidepotential is there, but it is a
relatively straightforwardcondition to meet.
I do like the idea that thefloor is essentially a it's a
two three, that's really thefloor, right?
But it's a two six.
If you do have a six drop, whichis not a difficult condition to
meet at all, uh, especiallyalong the likes of like, why

(10:46):
don't you just play the newG-Man, right?
Like, you could play the newG-Man and that works out well
enough, and you also have thatplay pattern that's kind of
exciting and fun.
But what I will tell you isthat, uh, just a couple things
that might not be inherentlyobvious based on the text.
The first thing is that it onlypros once.
So if you play multiple sixdrops, it doesn't matter the
first time you play six drop,uh, the six drop will reveal and
then Frankie Ray will adopt thepower.

(11:08):
Um, that is important for one ofthe synergies.
I'll just talk about it now.
One of my favorite places whereI was testing Frankie Ray, Nova
was in a Nomura deck, and Ireally liked this.
Yeah, so I really liked itbecause one of the major reasons
why it worked so effectively is'cause it worked really well
alongside cards like Symbio,Spider-Man and Odin.
Mainly because when you mergethe card with something like a

(11:30):
symbiote Spider-Man, that powerwill then get doubled with the
use of a six drop.
But important, with somethinglike a Nomura, if you hit like a
Frankie Ray on one side and acos one another, right?
If you hit Nomura with an Odin,the Odin will drop the power.
Uh, Nomura's effect will also gooff.
The power will be applied toFrankie Renova, and then she'll

(11:50):
check the condition.
So because of that, you're kindof double dipping on these
abilities.
And with a Nomura based shell, Iwas able to consistently get her
above 30 power, which I mean,it's crazy to see.
I, I have video evidence of itthat you'll see on the main Snap
channel, right?
It's one of the clips I used andit's wasn't that hard.
But the thing is, is that likeyou're begging for Shanti,

(12:11):
you're begging, like you don'talways win.
Marvel Snap Games with theselike towers of power that just
sit there and say, Hey, youdon't have the tech to beat me.
And then like, oh look, theyplayed Shadow King or whatever.
Cannonball Mercury, what?
There's so many ways you candeal with massive power.
I actually do like that aboutMarvel Snap, by the way.
I like that it's not just a, I'mjust gonna throw it down as many
big, big points as I can.

(12:32):
Like there's options.
I know a lot of people hate chs,but I wanted to just mention
that I do think Nomura is areally interesting place for
Frankie Renova and it's a verynatural synergy.
That'll work very well.

Husky (12:43):
See, my question for you is have you tried Blink Nomex?
You electro on three, blink onfour after playing Frankie?
No.
Renova on two and Nomura comesout of the deck, buffing up the,
uh, replacing the electrode,buffing the Frankie Ray as well
as the blink getting justabsolute massive value.

(13:05):
It is an

Alex (13:05):
a phenomenal time.
I did not actually test that.
So talk to me more'cause you'regetting me excited.

Husky (13:11):
Okay, so I built a list that actually worked without
Frankie Renova fairly well notthe best.
It had some very, very oddpicks.
It was a sort of a war machinedeck that also ran Electra as a,
a little bit of a tech piece forend of turn, all about ramping
out extra energy, cheating outbig fives like Nomura, like
blink turning, oftentimes a, anelectro into, at minimum war

(13:35):
machine and at maximum an infinor maybe a, an Elia.
Uh, you can really, really scaleout of control.
And I was using some oftentimesunseen two drops.
I was using Jeff, the baby landshark, just as a, you know,
that's a two eight that canmove, that's pretty solid as
well as Jennifer Kale.

(13:55):
And it's, if I'm playing thosetwo threes in a NoMo deck and,
you know, it wasn't my mostsuccessful deck at High
Infinite, but it, it's stood itsown and I'll definitely take
that.
This card seems like it's goingto be an absolute phenomenal
synergy piece for that.

Alex (14:13):
You know, what I really like as well about Nomura shells
is they do have some budgetoptions that work well because
if you don't pull the no Nomurapackage, if you're doing like an
Odin package with it, you couldvery easily do like a won white
tiger type like zoo style thing.
But also if you're missingsomething like Frank Renova and
you wanna get on the action,you're missing tokens.
Like you have options, like Iknow it's Coke, but like even

(14:35):
Colossus can seriously sit thereas a NoMo card and be like non
interactable, right?
Cosmo is also an option to becompletely non interactable.
And I, yeah, it's not thesexiest way to play Marvel Snap.
Like, don't get me, I'm, this issevere cope.
Yeah, but we gotta give somebudget gamers some love here,
right?
It's because we're just talkingabout new cards all the time and
everyone's like, I can't playthese things.
But yeah, there are gonna bebudget options as well.

(14:56):
Um, but yeah, honestly.
I thought about like a straightup ramp shell with Electro and
using Blink.
But I hadn't thought about it inthat way.
I hadn't thought about actuallytrying to use Blink to target
the Nomura.
I was thinking about using Blinkto target large six drops that
then could be followed up on.
Right.
Uh, but I do like that approachthat that's particularly
interesting.
I was also thinking about, wellwhat's a natural way to kind of

(15:18):
get some buffs to Frankie Ray?
And I was thinking like, what ifyou run like a big buff deck,
right?
Like you got like the fast dose,you got all the buffs, those
types of decks.
But like what if you're tryingto run something along the lines
of like a Mysterial bishopcombination with a Sasquatch
finish?
You could have a pretty widebalanced power output,
especially on turn six or evenon like, I don't know, I just
see a lot of power potentialwith like the hit monkey, the

(15:39):
Sasquatch, Frankie Ray, Novadoubling.
And when I was designing thatdeck to try to test it, I was
having a hard time putting intoo many buff mechanics there.
But at the same time, I did seesome potential in something like
that as well.

Husky (15:51):
Yeah, there is definitely some potential with that.
A deck that I've been takingnote of, especially with this
card coming out.
Is not the hit monkey SasquatchMysterio deck, but the
Mockingbird Sasquatch Mysteriodeck.
You get two very cheapactivations for Frankie Renova.
And, you know, you run agwenpool, Gwenpool can double up
on Frankie Ray can double up onthat mysterio.

(16:11):
It gets some absolute wild powerswings.
And you know, Sasquatch andMockingbird are probably two of
the really easiest fix drops toplay out.
They reduce themselves in cost.
There is six drop really only ifyour, your opponent has Mobius
or you have like a terribledraw.
And it's, I think that is theshell maybe other than Nomura

(16:33):
that I'm most exciting forsomething with Gwen Pool.
And then those two big six dropsas a finisher try to make sure
that Frankie Ray always has arelatively easy option to
trigger.
Because yeah, this is aphenomenal ability on a very,
very low cost card.
But if you can't play a six dropit, it becomes, you know.

(16:54):
It becomes a shocker.

Alex (16:56):
Yeah, definitely.
And one other thing that's worthmentioning, kind of like in the,
the discussion you're havinghere is like something like a
gwenpool or galata, those allwork because Frankie Renova does
not have to go down on two,right?
You can use it on turn five.
And in my testing I was actuallydoing it like that.
I was, I often playing it onturn five in conjunction with
another card on, on turn five.
The way I phrased that was kindof awkward, but you get what I'm

(17:16):
saying.
And then on turn six, you finishoff with your six banger, right?
So, um, I think there's adifferent, there's a couple
different approaches to how toget this card out.
And one thing that's been givingme hope is that like we have
these buff decks and like I'mgetting Mr.
Sinisters that are putting outlike 18 power, like not
individually, but like togetherthey're putting out 18 power.
I'm like, but I didn't even haveto work that hard for it.

(17:38):
You know, you get a little FAOshere, a little galacto there, a
little gwenpool here, and nextthing you know it like turn five
or six plus you're gettingdiscounts from Mr.
Fantastic First Steps.
Like you get these massive Mr.
Sinister that your opponent's,like where is this guy even
coming from?
And so if I could see Mr.
Sinister doing that, I wonder ifFrankie Nova can,

Husky (17:55):
I think it definitely can, especially with the ability
to be buffed on board and takingup one less board spot.
You can also hide this behindCosmo, which is really, really
nice.
Another really strong point is,uh, it's if you can re some of
the, the really big two drop inthree drop scalers that, you
know, you play alongside galactoand gwenpool.
Things like brood, things likethis, things like Mr.

(18:17):
Sinister also have phenomenalsynergy with juggernaut.
I would not be surprised to seea lot of juggernaut decks come
alongside and slot their wayinto any Frankie Ray cooks.
Just because, hey, you know, Ihave a very big Shang Target.
Put your Shang in this lane.
Nope.
Juggernauts pushing it away to,uh, some other lane where it, it
doesn't do any harm.

Alex (18:39):
That's hilarious because Juggernauts one of those cards
that honestly is forgotten aboutuntil you hit the higher Lars.
It really is.
It's probably one of the leastPlate.
Him and Shadow King are the twocards specifically, specifically
juggernaut.
People know about Shadow King,but like even at Lower MMRs,
people just do not appreciatewhat Juggernaut does to the game
on Turn six, like it isabsolutely soul crushing.

(19:02):
To get juggernaut sometimes.
And, uh, I, I like that.
I like that you bring him upbecause, uh, he is definitely
someone that, uh, needs somelove.
Now this is a little cope I wasthinking about, like, do I try
in high Evo shell where, youknow, Frankie Ray's getting
buffed alongside like a mistynight, then very easy, she hulks
or Fin Knots or Hulks orwhatever.
I was like, ah, I don't know.
I don't think you're gettingenough pros there, honestly.
Um, but I, I do agree that the,uh, the Mysterio stuff, uh,

(19:24):
alongside something like theSasquatch and the Mockingbird
has extremely high potential.
At the end of the day, honestly,I think this is a card that I'm,
I'm interested in becausethere's a number of different
ways to build it.
I think there's gonna be somebudget centric ways to build it
too, because you do have thingslike Ako Nikia, right?
And yeah, they're not thesexiest ways to build decks, but
they are relativelystraightforward ways to play

(19:47):
decks.
And Gwenpool, galata, those aretwo cars that like, if you don't
have in your collection, theycould very well be worth your
tokens because they're likethese long time.
Mainstays in the meta and youeven have things like Forge and
Chavez that are gonna berelatively inexpensive, that
players who pick this card upthrough the packs will be able
to kind of build a budget deckwith.

(20:07):
So really excited for FrankieRay Nova and I gotta be honest
with you buddy, I am a littleless excited about this next
card.
It's Fire Lord.
Fire Lord is a series four cardthat I think is releasing on
August 12th, which is, welltomorrow.
That's, yeah.
Okay, that makes sense.
It's releasing alongside, butit's entering the series four
packs.
It didn't release all the seriesfour cards at the same time for

(20:28):
whatever reason.
Fire Lord has phenomenal art, bythe way.
It's one of my favorite artpieces in the game, especially
for base art.
It's a four six and it reads onReveal Revive one of your
discarded or destroyed threecost cards here.
What are your thoughts, Husky?

Husky (20:45):
This is a very, very tricky one.
I think it is going to have atleast some people trying it out
specifically in a gambit versionof Surfer.
You know, one of the, the mainproblems with that is, oh, if,
if gambit hits your SilverSurfer, yeah, you're kind of,
uh, up shit's creek without apaddle.
But now you have a way to bringit back and the only problem I

(21:08):
see with this is, okay, maybeyou can do some fire hair stuff
with this, but like at a certainpoint this is kind of like a
worse Phoenix force justbecause, you know, it's one more
power doesn't get shadow kingedas easily, but it can't move.
And especially at high level,just having something that can

(21:28):
move around and is threaten allthree lanes is an absolute
phenomenal thing to do thatyou're kinda left with just the
de the discard synergy.
And it's okay, you gotta discardan exact three costs and you
know, you can do that with boardmaster maybe, but it's, that is
a lot of hoops to jump throughor something that really can

(21:50):
only come down on turn four in aSurfer deck.

Alex (21:53):
Yeah, you know what, and for me, like I'm still
struggling with what I'm gonnadesign with this particular card
because I just, it just doesn'tcall to me like Frankie Renova,
like I got Dex ready man.
Like I'm so excited for it.
I think it builds itself in someways with fire Lord.
It's like, is this just toocute?
Like am I trying to jump throughtoo many hoops for like
something that's really not allthat worth it?
Now we've been surprised withcars like this in the past, in

(22:15):
both directions because like Ifeel like something like fire
hair, you brought it up.
Great example.
You look at something like afire hair, that design has
seemingly limitless potentialand then all of a sudden you get
the card and you're like, Hey,you know what?
Like these are a lot of hoops tojump through and yeah, I'm
milling their deck hard, butlike still not really winning
that much, right?
Like, it's like, it's kind ofinteresting how that feels.
And fire hair I think is one ofthose cards that honestly is

(22:36):
gonna age like fine wine, that'scard's just gonna get better
over time, but fire Lord I lookat and yeah, okay, maybe, but
the stats are fine I guess, butit's like, it's a lot of hoops
to jump through.
Um, now star rating wise, wedidn't do star ratings.
I'm giving this a two.
I'd be interested in yours.
I think I agree with

Husky (22:53):
you.
I, I'm gonna say maybe, uh, likea two and a half, not because
this is a card, I think mostpeople are fine with getting,
but there are going to be sometop infinite people trying this
out and they're going to bedoing fine because they're good
players that are, and you know,they're coping a a little bit,
but it's, it's a fun thing thatthey can do.
You don't play every deck, evenat High Infinite for the win

(23:15):
rate.
You play it'cause you like it,you play it'cause it's fun.
Some people have a lot more funwith winning, but it's I'm not
one of those people.
I, I like fun decks that alsowhen I'm this stack, this card's
just hard to work with.
E especially with like, evenwith the fire hair stuff, if you
like destroy fire Lord is thefirst thing that gets destroyed

(23:38):
and then the three costs that itbrings back.
So if it was the other order,you could do something cheeky
with like, oh, I play venom onFire, Lord, and the three drop
and then it.
You know, it kills the threedrop and then revives it
afterwards, but it's just kindof ocular.

Alex (23:55):
It is, especially when like you have like four drops
like Gwenpool and Galata thatlike just buff brooded like,
it's like, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
It's like why would you jumpthrough all these hoops if you
can just do this?
And obviously surfer's not gonnabe the only synergy.
'cause there is another cardthat's worth mentioning here.
We don't have it yet'cause it'sa limited time game mode.
Series four.
Air walker is a three three thatreads when this is destroyed,

(24:16):
replace it with a four cost cardfrom your hand or deck.
And so in thinking about that,you could say, okay, what if I
turn to Kid Omega turn three,you air walker, you destroy it.
And what you're gonna do isyou're going to actually replace
that destroyed card with the MRnegative with the, you know,
whatever that you're seekingthat forecast card in your hand
or deck and then you're able tofire Lord it back out on turn

(24:40):
three.
I don't know.
But it's again, it's just toocute.
Like why are you jumping throughthose hoops for.
For ultimately very littlereward.
It might work with a negativedeck, but why are you running a
fire, Lord in a negative deck?
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
For that extra jaw when you canjust retreat and Snap on too,
when you have your S lock or voaor whatever the hell you're
playing.
Right?
So for fire, Lord, honestly,like I, I just don't see a lot

(25:01):
of, I just don't see a lot inthem.
I just really don't.
And it makes sense that this isa series four card, but of the
series four cards we'vereceived, this is by far the
worst of my opinion because wegot TerraX who'll talk about,
uh, in a moment here we havered, those were cool cards, man.
Those are really cool cards.
And I don't think Fire Lord isgonna fit the mold or the
niches, um, that they findthemselves in.

(25:21):
Like, they just, I feel likeFire Lord's answering a question
that we never asked.

Husky (25:26):
Yeah.
He's just, it's just opportunitycost, as you said.
It's okay, by building my deckso much around fire, Lord, it's
just, you're doing worse thingsthan most other four drops.
Unless there's, granted withother cards coming out.
Yeah.
You know, you can he'll get alittle bit better, he'll get a

(25:46):
little bit more synergy.
It's just the question of,alright, maybe he'll age
gracefully, but will he, will heincrease in power fast enough to
keep up with power creep andgood things are released all the
time.
We are getting a, at minimum onecard per week and it's like,
okay, is fire Lord ever reallygoing to be worth, putting aside

(26:08):
the new thing and going back to,uh, back to something that maybe
was left by the wayside.

Alex (26:13):
I'm not.
It's true, but at the same timeit, it reminds me of like the
elixir cope a little bit wherepeople are like, well kid
Omega's great.
No one's really playing KidOmega right now'cause it's
cringe.
But when they do, they're gonnabe happy they have elixir.
Right?
And gotta get elixir.
And I'm like, bro, I don't thinkelixir's ever gonna be pretty
particularly good.
I mean, there's a chance one dayElixir will be good'cause those
types of effect, as I said, likethey age well because like

(26:33):
they're gonna interact with newcars that come out in the future
and with fire Lord, we'll haveto see.
So we're both a little down onfire, Lord, my friend.
That's gonna take us to the nextseries of discussions.
We're gonna be talking about theprior cars that have just come
out this past week.
Now do note that in discussingthese statistics, we are using
untapped based statistics.

(26:53):
These statistics are gonna beutilizing ranked 70 to Infinite
Stats.
The reason for this is'causethis early in the season, we
simply don't have enough.
Post infinite statistics, yet wedon't have enough players that
are completely in infinite, andso there is a little bit of
about inflation, but it doesgive us a little bit of a
snapshot into, how the cards aregenerally doing, how the decks
are doing as well.
But of course we're gonna begoing off of our feelings around

(27:15):
the cards and how we've played'em, how we've played against
them, and et cetera.
Now first is gonna be GalactusFirst Steps.
This is a very fascinating card,one that I was excited about.
I came in higher, so last weekwe had Dexter on, and Dexter was
kind of like, ho hum about it.
I came in a little higher and inmy early testing with Galactus.
He felt a little lackluster.
It was a huge body.

(27:35):
I actually really liked thegameplay he provided.
I really liked the idea ofhaving a herald.
It almost reminded me of a, asanctum showdown.
Like it kind of had like this,we wanna fight for locations
type thing.
I actually really liked thisinclusion in the game.
I think this is a really welldesigned season pass card that
adds an element to Snap that Ithink is fun and engaging.
So for that, I'm all in.

(27:56):
However, with the actualgameplay, I was a little more
suspect at the start.
The decks that I was playing, wewere winning, we were climbing,
but it wasn't like anastronomical rocket ship climb.
Like sometimes like with whenMr.
Fantastic was right.
Like it wasn't, it wasn't that.
And I think we can both agreethat Galactus fantastic four
First Steps is not fan Mr.
Fantastic First Steps.

(28:17):
And it's not quite even close.
However, over time I feel likesome decks have started to come
out, which are starting toshowcase his power.
And at the very least, he mightbe better than I originally
expected.
So, Husky, I'm gonna give youthe floor here.
What are your thoughts onGalactus four first steps and
generally speaking, what's youroverall star rating?

Husky (28:35):
He is probably, I would say around a three star card.
I'll spoil you there a littlebit.
He is not a particularly badthing to play.
He goes in a couple of decks.
I, I used a c clogged deckrecently that felt very, very
solid at High Infinite.
And it's like, okay, this is a,something that, sometimes you

(28:55):
hit with and it gets really bigand then sometimes you don't.
It's a little tricky to buildaround, but just because it's
tricky to build around doesn'tmean that it's a bad card.
It just means it's, you know, alittle bit harder to slot in
where it shouldn't be.
I definitely say this is.
Something that you can play,something that is very

(29:17):
satisfying to play.
It's like seeing the animationgo off is very, very fun and
sort of a, it just, and justplaying himself just a, a
phenomenal play animation.
I'm very, very happy with that.
I think in any other card game,Galactus first Steps would work,
but because we have the Snapsystem and because you can Snap

(29:40):
on, hey, you know, maybe I getGalactus, uh, first steps to,
you know, that big unstoppablestat line.
Maybe, uh, one every three gamesI can Snap on one of, of those
every three games.
And then sometimes I just don'thave to play'em.
He is, I definitely underratedhim at first.
I don't think he's metabreaking.

(30:00):
Yeah, he's not Mr.
Fantastic.
That card is ballers.
That card is absolutely nuts.
That is free power and energycheat for playing him early.
And then it's just, you justsnowball from there.
I, it's I'm surprised that cardis allowed to exist, but it's it
does.

(30:21):
Yeah.
It's, it's fun.
It's cool.
You can get away with playing itand you can

Alex (30:25):
succeed and I like that.
It's definitely fun and it'sdefinitely not being played as
much as Mr.
Fantastic.
Around this time.
Mr.
Fantastic.
I think we're seeing a play ratein the high, like mid thirties
percentage wise in the metaright.
This card's running a 20%popularity rate according to
untapped, still a 56% win ratepositive cubes.
And again, that's bought,inflated, uh, but like that's
all absolutely fine.

(30:47):
There's been a couple ofinteresting decks, but like some
of the decks are just like,well.
I took the end of turn deck andI just slammed Galactus
Fantastic.
Four first steps in it.
Right?
And it's like, okay, like I getit.
But yeah, that deck's just gonnado good anyways.
But uh, but we have seen someinteresting cooks.
Uh, we have seen some stuff withlike, you know, with Fenris in
the Mercury Cannonball package.
I've seen some mega so stuff'cause you're working with

(31:07):
initiative.
I appreciate that stuff and Imyself have preferred the wcan
style shells.
'cause you do have theQuicksilver on one and when
Quicksilver is your Galactusfirst steps Harold?
It's kind of funny.
I, I dunno, I just like that alittle bit.
But then you have often veryinteresting follow up.
Like you have like the Mr.
Fantastics, the Mercury, theMerlins, the fenders, wolves
decent power to put up.
And then like by then he's six16.

(31:29):
You know what I mean?
And that's pretty fair.
It does have the Red Hulkproblem though.
Like you're not gonna catchsomeone by surprise with Galaxys
Fanta.
They're not like, oh, where'dthat thing come from?
You know what I mean?
It's like they know it's coming.
Whereas like with my Evo Hulk,I'm like, have they been keeping
track?
I don't think so.
And I'm like, ah, here it goes.
2122 Power Hulk.
It's never 21.
What am I talking about?
20 Uh, two Power Hulk boom slamsdown.

(31:50):
They're like, Brian didn'taccount for that, but Galactus
won't do that to you.
You know what I mean?

Husky (31:54):
So

Alex (31:54):
you call it the Red Hulk problem.

Husky (31:56):
I think that's actually a little bit of a sneaky upside
when you see Red Hulk pop up onthe screen or Galactus slowly
looming larger, your mind isthinking, okay, they're going to
play this card turn six.
And a lot of high infiniteplayers as well will make their
play around one big guy.
And that is a bit of a fearfactor that if you are strong

(32:16):
enough at predicting youropponents, you can definitely
exploit.
It's like, Hey, yeah, they'regonna prediction Chang, and then
I just.
Don't play any 10 plus powercards there and suddenly you are
playing a four three on the lastturn that does nothing.
It's, you know, it's a downsidejust'cause you know, it, it
shows what, how big it is.
They can do that math a littlebit easier, but if you can make

(32:40):
that math the wrong thing to doin that scenario, you are going
to benefit from it in a very,very cool and unexpected way.
Going with your, uh, with yourwcan built.
I definitely like Wcan a lot inthose sort of shells.
Six drops have always had theproblem of, hey, playing one
card on turn six isn't the bestthing to do.

(33:03):
You'd rather Marvel Snap is agame of two lanes you wanna be
able to contest to, or maybestop your opponent from
contesting to Galactus.
It played on six doesn't reallydo that, but Wcan can make it
come down earlier than six in away that, you know, other ways
of cheating it out, like Blinkand Jubilee don't do as well.

Alex (33:22):
No, not.
Yeah, I absolutely agree.
And uh, one interesting thingyou did bring up is like you
can, you could subvertexpectations by not playing him.
And so like you can do, like,instead of doing Galactus for
steps on turn six, well I'll do,I'll move my Mercury pump you
with Cannonball and play, uh,you know, Merlin skill or
whatever, right?
And it's like, what are gonna donow kid?
You know what I mean?
Like, you just get those becauseyou rip the cubes outta their
hand.

(33:43):
I do like that a lot.
It does look like that.
It is underperformingexpectations slightly, but we're
still cooking still early.
But, um, yeah.
Mr.
Fantastic Four.
It is not, this is not gonna bethat I don't even think it's a
buff candidate.
Like what did, I don't thinkthey buff this card.
Could they?
If they take it to like six 14and that's, I mean, that's very
obvious.

(34:03):
Like we're trying to sell seasonpasses, right?
Like, it, it's not a power issuefor Galactus four first steps.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, what would you, if youwanted to buff this card, what's
the dial uturn?
'cause I don't think you changethe power.
Like it's not a power problem isit?
There,

Husky (34:16):
there's a certain level of, anything that's too
overstated with people will finda way to play it.
It's just a, a fact of life.
But it's, if you really wantedto make this card playable and
it would hurt the flavor a lot,but you would make it a five
drop, you make it a card that,hey, you don't have to build

(34:37):
your deck or game plan about,ramping it out, uh, a little bit
early.
If you can make this a five dropthat people are just willing to
slam on five and then maybeprotect it on six and shuffle
the game around with like aCosmo, a juggernaut, maybe even
neonic, teenage warhead,something cool like that.
I think this card woulddefinitely go up in play rate a

(34:58):
lot, but that feels like I'mmaking a whole different card at
that point.
It's, ooh, maybe you could dosomething with the plus three
turn if you, you knock it downto like a six 11, but.

Alex (35:13):
Yeah.
That's a lot.
That's a lot.
'cause then it would probablyoutscale something like a Hulk.
Right?
And I don't know if younecessarily want that either.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I absolutely agree.
I think shifting it to a fivecost would probably be a massive
change.
The last time we saw that a bigshift like that was probably
Phoenix Force.
Right?
We saw a big shift down in costfor Phoenix Force and that kind
of change.
'cause Phoenix Force started asa five cost that did not and
then dropped down to four.

(35:33):
Oh yeah.
It was terrible.
Yeah.
It was like impossible to play.
Oh God.
Oh yeah.
Remember those days when theseason pass cards were hard to
play anyways?
Yeah.
So Galata four fantastic.
Four first steps.
I don't even know what I justsaid there.
I the names are getting too damnlong, but whatever.
You know what I meant?
Yeah.
I, I like the card.
Is it the best thing?
I mean, here's the thing though.
The season pass, the baselineseason pass for 9 99 USD still

(35:55):
represents a very good value inMarvel Snap.
If you're gonna spend money inSnap, the season pass is usually
the best avenue for that.
And the card is good enough andit's fun enough that it'll get
you through a season.
If you're like, I buy the seasonpass, I build a deck and that's
what I play.
But it's not gonna be a metashaker as of right now anyways,
but we'll have to see it.
It's, it's relying a lot on thesupport cast.
Like when I'm seeing some of thehigh performing decks do well,

(36:16):
it's like, well, yeah, they'redoing well because they're
running the Cannonball Mercurypackage and they're running, you
know, some meta stuff that makesa lot of sense.
They're running the fenris, uh,neonic gladiator stuff that's
getting, gaining in popular RISWolf Man, what a card.
It's coming outta nowherelately, eh, so like, oh yeah, I
do have hope for Galactus, butat the same time, let's be
realistic.

(36:36):
It's not quite as high hittingas a heavy hitter as Mr.
Fantastic was this past season.
And that's gonna take us to ournext card, which is gonna be a
very interesting discussion.
Husky, this is the SilverSurfer.
Fantastic.
Four first Steps, a three fourthat reads.
End of turn, if you're winningthis location with an on reveal
card copy, it's Text Husky.

(37:00):
I have a confession and it'sobvious.
It's obvious.
We, you're looking at the screenhere.
I haven't played this card.
I can't bring myself, honestly,I can't bring myself to play the
card.
I, I got the premium seasonpass, super premium season pass,
whatever you wanna call it.
And I always did.
I, it is something I tried toexplain to people in the past,
but it was just a variant on abunch of borders and like, just
random stuff.
I got it anyways.
'cause I love borders and I loverandom stuff.

(37:21):
And, uh, like I just, you knowwhat, I get a little goody bag.
I support Marvel Snap.
I make content for the game.
I'm okay with that.
But ever since they added thecard to the game in the super
premium slot, I have felt dirtymaking that purchase.
Like, even though it added valuefor me, technically, like it
feels worse, I feel like I'mkind of moving against the com.
It's a very difficult thing toexplain.
I have not been able to bringmyself to actually play this

(37:43):
card.
This is a Silver Surfer.
I am one of the most Surferloving gamers on the planet.
Man.
It is like the deck I play themost currently playing the F
version.
But like, I can't do it.
I can't bring myself to playthis card.
I haven't played a single gameof this card.
I, I, I don't even know what totell you.

Husky (37:59):
I'm gonna be real.
I haven't either.
I have played zero games withthis card.
Uh, coming from a contentcreator's perspective, it's hard
to make content for a card thatnot a lot of people want to buy.
This is, this is an extra 10bucks for not the same value as
the season pass.
That's a little bit of a hardspill to swallow, and it's not

(38:20):
really interesting enough of acard for me to really, want the
deck build with, I've seen alittle bit of people playing it
with like, iron, patriot surge,but that's okay.
You're doing it on three after agood two drop and then maybe
nowhere else.
It's just like a, okay.

(38:42):
Sure.
Yeah, you could, you coulddefinitely play that.
I but I don't think that thehigh level people I'm talking to
are either not really willing tobuy the season the super premium
pass or not really interestedenough to experiment with this
card.
Like, I'm, don't get me wrong,I'm very glad this card bores
me.
It's like I, if there is goingto be a card that is in the su,

(39:07):
the super premium, I would wantit to be one that, people are
fine with skipping.
That's what I want.
If they feel like, oh, they'repressured into buying this extra
value that feels bad, and it'slike, okay, yeah, I am, I'm

Alex (39:21):
fine with this one being bad.
Yeah, I like that take a lot.
And for me it's been interesting'cause I, I have been feeling
pressured to play it because Iknow there's a lot of people who
like it's kind of my job tocover the new card releases and
give impressions on it and whatI think and how it feels and
stuff like that.
But at the same time, it's likeI'm, I'm watching this player
release the player based dwindleman.
Like, I'm watching people turnaway from this game actively

(39:43):
every single day.
I'm getting messages from, youknow, long time subscribers
saying, Hey man, like I'm out.
Thank you for the content.
But like, I've been saying thesame thing for like a year, it's
been the same thing over andover again.
And I think that there were somepeople that were hoping that the
Silver Surfer f Task force forsteps was not gonna be a super
premium season pass card.
And that the Fantastic Car wasgonna be kinda like the thing

(40:05):
where it's like, well, you know,people were very angry about
this, but at the same time.
Fantastic car, in my opinion.
Husky, I'll let you chime in.
I think Fantastic Car is a waybetter car than this one is.
Oh yeah, exactly.
And the problem was, is whenFantastic Car Cooks started
coming out, like on day what twothat people were like, oh,
fantastic Car is actually super,what did people do?
They started buying the superpremium season pass and the

(40:27):
Fantastic Car see started seeinga lot of play and that self a
sent a signal to second dinnerlike, Hey, wanna make some money
work?
Let's make a super premiumseason pass card that banks, and
here's the problem is nowthey're gonna see the Silver
surfer's not gonna sell as well'cause it's not as enticing.
What do you think's gonna happennext month or the month after
that or whatever.
Next thing you know that superpremium season pass card is

(40:47):
gonna look pretty damn likesavory.
You know what I mean?
It's gonna have that sex appealthat this one is lacking and
that is a major concern I have.
I'm worried about the signalsthat's being sent to the second
inter monetization team, the.
And I don't know what to say.
I wish I had more to say aboutSilver Surfer.
Fantastic.
Four first steps, and I wish theconversation was not solely

(41:10):
focused on the card in relationto how it's being released.
I wish we were able to talkabout the actual merits of the
card itself, but Husky, we can'tbecause like, let's be real,
like, it's not like we are in avery difficult time for Marvel
Snap and this card is one of theproblems.

Husky (41:27):
Yeah.
It's just a, it's just not whatI, yeah.
I'll, I'll talk just for, forcontent creator's sake, I'll
say, yeah, just play this cardalongside Iron Patriot and your
win rate will go down.
There's some cheeky things youcan do, but like, yeah.
This card, it represents a lotmore than just the abilities.

(41:51):
It's repping a lot of the Yeah,the monetization.
I, I think, yeah, fantastic.
Car scared me a fair bit.
It's like.
Okay.
Uh, one thing that actuallyscares me a lot about the super
premium pass is what happenswhen there's a season pass
that's terrible, but a superpremium pass that's absolutely
phenomenal because you can't buythe super premium pass without

(42:14):
buying the season pass,

Alex (42:15):
unless I'm mistaken, can you?
No, you can't.
And that's a hundred percent amajor challenge.
And like, let's, let's behonest, that might happen by
accident, right?
Like, that's not something thatlike, the balance team sit down
like, oh, we're gonna make somecoin this month, right?
Like that.
It might, it honestly, it mightbe a true accident where they
think that the super premiumseason pass card's not as good
and then you or someone elsecooks something absolutely

(42:36):
insane and it pops off, it goescrazy and everyone wants it.
And next thing you know, it,it's like galacto, FTA four
first steps is, no one's playingthat, but everyone's talking
about the Silver Surfer.
Fanta.
Think about what Invisible womandid.
Two end of turn deck.
Like they're all, they'reinsane.
Like they're absolutely insane.
Wait, that was my card of themonth by the way.
And everyone poo-pooed on thatdude.

(42:57):
That was absolutely correct.
Yeah, that card is absolutelyridiculous.
Imagine if that was a superpremium season pass, like, oh my
God.
Like it would've been disaster.
Like That would've been likejust close up.
Just close up like do somethingelse.
It's over.
It's over guys.
Like just shut down because it'sover.
Yes.
But yeah, like yeah, that's themajor risk.
What happens in that that daywill come, whether it's an

(43:18):
accident or on purpose, it, itwill come where the super
premium season pass card isgoing to overperform by a
significant margin, the seasonpass card.
And the only reason why lastmonth it didn't really rear its
ugly head.
It was'cause Mr.
Fantastic Four was stupid.
Good.

Husky (43:35):
Oh

Alex (43:35):
yeah.
It's, you know what I mean?
It's like it's because that wasitself a stupid card and so
fantastic Four got to kinda likehide under it a little bit.
Oh yeah.
It's like we had the best

Husky (43:44):
card we've ever, like we've seen and has continued to
be.
Best card, if not like top threeand then Fantastic Car, which
is, yeah, it, it was a littlebit weak on release it, there
was some things you could dowith it.
It at High Infinite didn't seemuch play, but when Invisible
one First Steps came outsuddenly that breeds a lot of
new life.
Not as much as Mr.

(44:04):
Fantastic himself.
But yeah, it's, it's just aquestion of when do we get to
see those roles reversed becauseI think, honestly, we've
probably already had thatproblem happen already because,
you know, power level is onereason to buy the card.
But let's say just personalpreference, if someone wants
Silver Surfer, you know, the newSilver Surfer card, but doesn't

(44:26):
want the new Galactus card, theycan't get it.
It's power level isn't the onlything.
There are some very highinfinite people who do not care
for certain archetypes, do notcare for power.
And it's, that is something thatcannot be overlooked.
It's just a little bit lesschoice than I would really like
to see.

Alex (44:44):
Yeah, that's absolutely fair.
And uh, I mean, I guess that'smore or less our, our points on
Silver Surfer.
Fantastic.
For our first steps, we'll haveto see how she ages.
Honestly, the car's probablyfine, like, let's be honest, the
car's probably fine.
I don't think it's broken, but Ido see it having some potential,
uh, decent synergies.
But overall it's a card that,uh, you know, we're a little,
uh, remissed that exists in someways.

(45:06):
I don't even know if thatsentence made sense, but we're
going with it.
We're gonna be going to our nextcard of the season, and this is
the series five Stardust.
Wow.
This was a card that had somuch, I don't wanna say hype,
just fear fervor, fear, likejust general murmurs of
discontent.
Some people excited, some peoplevery fearful.

(45:26):
An absolutely insane effect.
And for the audio listeners, Iwill read it out.
Stardust is a four seven thatreads, ongoing cards cannot be
added to locations except byplaying or moving them.
Husky puppies.
Last week I came in at two starson Stardust, and I said that the
fear was largely overhypedbecause I felt and still feel

(45:51):
that because you can't use it inan offensive manner in a deck,
it's unlikely to have the metapenetration where you'll, this
effect will destroy the meta.
However, I will tell you, I'vewon a number of games just
because Stardust is sittingthere and your boy playing
against me is not payingattention.
I think this might be the nextecho.

Husky (46:16):
Oh, I, I've fallen into that trap as well.
It's, uh, I, I am not infalliblewhatsoever.
Yeah.
This card, I think best way todescribe this card, this card
released when we didn't need it.
This is a card that stops likean overwhelming hella meta.
Uh, something like that.
Uh, it's also very, very solidwith certain locations too.

(46:38):
You get to use those locations,use sort of sinister London,
shall we say, to get an earlylead and then turn it off.
But it's like, okay, this isreleasing at a time where, you
know, end of turn things are thebest thing to do and this
doesn't really affect any end ofturn things.
We don't need this card.
It's like, okay, yeah, Mobius isa great card, but when Mr.

(47:01):
Negative and Energy Chief is outof the meta, he's gonna look a
lot worse than he is.
I think this card definitely hasthe potential to improve, but
that's really gonna depend onfuture re releases, future
metas.
But honestly, I don't know howmuch this card can shine.
This card has a problem of beinga little bit too hard of say

(47:25):
like a hella counter that like.
Fres can, fres doesn'tcompletely shut down hella.
It really, really hurts it, buthella can still exist with
Stardust if, if hella everbecomes popular, Stardust shuts
that down.
And then Stardust himself kindof starves because if you're
playing, you know, a, a mirrorand then one of you is running

(47:46):
stardust and one of you isrunning a card that actually
furthers your game plan, it's,the guy who's not running
Stardust is going to win.

Alex (47:56):
Yeah, no, I, and I absolutely see that as well.
And like, to kind of likereiterate what I was trying to
say before too, was that likewith Stardust, when you compare
it like, so in terms of tech,right, it's much more, uh,
comparable to like a Mobius andMobius as opposed to an
Enchanter or Shan chi, right?
Naturally.
However, what I will say is thatlike this is what week 15 in a
row of me saying this, if thereever comes a day where second

(48:19):
dinner does what I'm asking andmove Pixie to a one class.
Right.
Move pixie to a one cost.
Okay?
Suddenly Moby and Mobius looks alot better.
And you're using it offensivelyas well as defensively, right?
Like you're using it to preventthe pixie from kind of scamming
you, this and that.
So Stardust doesn't really havethat yet.
It doesn't have that.
Well, you're gonna use Stardust.

(48:39):
Stardust because it works foryour deck.
And also you might catch youropponent, right?
It doesn't have that.
And the other thing that itdoesn't have, it doesn't have
the cube equity of the shuncheese and the enchanter'cause
Han Chi.
You can just like flip alocation, enchanter, you turn
off cerebral or whatever it is.
Cerebral, by the way, still oneof the.
Top points, power decks in thegame right now I still, people
don't talk about Cerebro.
Cerebral is obviously stillgoing insane, but Stardust

(49:00):
doesn't really do much toCerebro.
Yeah, okay.
It'll against C two, it'll stopMr.
Sinister, it'll stop brood.
Right.
But like those decks still canpop off against the stardust.
And so like, while it doesimpact a lot of stuff, way more
stuff than you might think, theway that like I Snap won a game
for instance, is I snapped on astardust that I was able to get
out on turn three.

(49:21):
I was just really excited.
I don't know.
I had no other reason to Snap.
And they happened to Snap asurged doom 2099 on turn three.
And so like my stardust comesout, they Snap on me, I Snap on
them, my stardust comes out,their doom 29 comes out and it's
just like your opponent'sretreated, right?
And it's like, yes, we did it,but like you can't.

(49:42):
It's much harder, like whenstart just sitting there, you
can't Snap going into turn fouror five and be like, oh,
Stardust bro.
And they're like, well, okay,now I can't do Myron, so see ya,
I guess enjoy your cube or two.
Whereas Che and Chanters can ripcubes outta your opponent's
hands.
You know what I mean?

Husky (49:56):
Oh, definitely.
It's, it's, I mean, there isstill some value in that.
It's like you recognize thematchup.
You say, oh, Stardust is gonnaget extra value here and you can
do it.
It's just, you know, it, itdoesn't affect the board on turn
six unless you make a, uh, apretty big call out and then
play it on turn six, which is alittle bit of a tall ask.

(50:19):
Yeah.
It's, uh, it's just not the bestthing to be doing.
You really want to be impactingthe board state.
And this is not really asurprise card.
Also, slight problem with thiscard, Mobius is not a
symmetrical effect.
Uh, Mobius is a, I get abenefit.
You get a downside.

(50:39):
This is a, this isn't a sym,it's a symmetrical effect.
You can use it to youradvantage.
You can like play gladiator andthen you don't have the bad
roles that, gladiator sometimesdoes.
But other than that, you know,like you are still not being
able to get location value outof the good locations.
After Stardust, you can't dostardust and then later do a, a

(51:01):
jubilee or a blink or hella.
You are limiting yourself andyour deck building as much as
you're limiting your opponent.
And it's like in a game whereyou're trying to cheat to get
ahead.
This is like, this is a veryfair effect unless you're
patching into a, a couple veryspecific matchups.
Also, this quick side tangent.
Yeah, C3 is kind of nuts.

(51:21):
Uh, I built a completely free toplay series one through three
Cerebro Deck.
Absolutely bonkers talk took mefrom like rank 40 to like, it
was a rank 20 or so.

Alex (51:33):
Unreal.
Very,

Husky (51:33):
very, very strong stuff.

Alex (51:35):
That's awesome.
And, uh, here's another thing Iwanna mention.
First of all, people are gonnaask, you're gonna have to go to
a stream, you're gonna have to,you're gonna have to bug him for
that deck list.
Okay?
You're gonna go to Husky Streamand we'll be linked all down
below.
But what I will tell you, um, isthat I had the thought as well,
okay, you minimize the downsideof gladiator, you minimize the
downside of century, youminimize the downside of Doctor
Octopus.
And then I was like, wait aminute, I kind of wanna destroy

(51:57):
something with Gladiator.
Yeah.
Wait a minute.
I kind of want that void becauseI got Merlin or I got Viper.
Wait a minute.
I actually just pulled their,uh, mystique with my doctor
Octopus.
So these downsides that you'remitigating, you often used to
your advantage with Clever Deckbuilding.
Yeah.
So it's yeah, exactly.
So like I, for me, I'm likeStardust.
I was playing the Stardust deck,which is, it wasn't even really

(52:19):
deck, I just put a whole bunchof cars that synergize with
Stardust in some ways just togive the card a shot.
I was like, honestly, I kind of,I kind of wish Dr.
Octopus disrupted one of theircombos right about now.
Right.
It's kind of funny how thatworks sometimes.
So I have a couple questions tofinish off the discussion on
Stardust.
First of all.
Would you get stardust?
Secondly, are you scared ofstardust?
And third is stardust wearingpants.

Husky (52:41):
Okay.
I I didn't expect that last one.
I'll be honest.
I, uh, okay, let, let's go fromthe top.
Would I get Stardust?
I think this is a card where,don't get it now.
It, it's like a, the, the 5,000tokens that you, or 1000 tokens
that you'd save from getting inpacks is not worth the, you

(53:02):
know, potential payoff in thefuture that, you know, maybe it
gets decent maybe it eventuallygets worth it in a very specific
meta with very specific releasesthat's not right now.
And sure, you can maybe make itwork.
Okay.
I, if I am, unless I'm likegoing for collection complete or
making content around this.

(53:23):
I am not getting this card.
Uh, this is, this is not a card.
You build your deck around andhave fun with.
This is a card you pick up whenyou really need it.
When you're at your wit's endand you can't beat the oncoming
hella storm, that realisticallyisn't gonna really happen.
A second one.
Am I scared of this card?
I play a lot of blink decks.
Mel like stardust really, reallyhurts.

(53:46):
Blink it, it makes it so youblink the card away and then
nothing comes back out.
Uh, you're kinda losing out allyour value, but it's kind of an
obvious Snap.
It's like, oh, okay, you're,you're doing that.
And also, oftentimes I'mblinking on four with priority.
And if you play start us, thenthink that I'm going to blink
and then do anything else.

(54:07):
You're kind of just playing afour seven.
It's like, that's, that's nice.
That's cool.
I don't care.
There, there's not really muchyou can do.
Is starters wearing pants?
See, the problem with me is I amterrible about cosmetics and
looking at card art.
I care very much about what thecard does, not really what the

(54:28):
card looks like.
I have bought two variants in mylifetime, and that was, uh,
after being donated to byviewers with that express
purpose in mind, uh, I I, Iwould hope so.
It's like, I, I would, I'm notgonna be able to unsee this.
Oh, God, I don't know.
No.

(54:50):
And I, I'm

Alex (54:51):
scared to look.
Why did you do this to me?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
In, just so you don't lose yourmind, we'll move on.
We do have two more cars to talkabout.
Us.
Husky tries to figure outwhether or not start us.
Is wearing Pantaloons.
The next card we need to discusshere is going to be TerraX.
The Tamer.
TerraX.
The tamer is, uh, honestly avery Are you, are you Googling?

(55:13):
Is is he wearing pants?
Yeah, I need to know.
I, it's like, um, how do youeven Google that?
I just see you're typing, like,what are you asking Cha?
EBT Like, is is this cardwearing pants?
I'm just like looking throughGoogle images.

Husky (55:25):
I don't think that's pants.
Okay.
I think that's like a lizardtype body, like a carpus.
I don't know, man.
It's like, okay, you're askingme the questions after you,
you're like, it's like it,you're just like, let's open
Pandora's Mocks.
What do you see in there?
And it's just like holding myhead up to it.
It's, I don't know, man.

(55:45):
I'm trying

Alex (55:46):
to make sense of this poo.
Alright, so let's make sense ofTerraX, because for me, I
actually came in low on TerraX.
I gave him three stars in thepreview.
And you know what?
Honestly, he's been probably mymost fun card this month.
I shouldn't say that.
'cause RedShift's pretty cooltoo.
RedShift's done some cool stufftoo, but like TerraX, I actually
enjoyed way more than Iexpected.

(56:07):
Now.
I could see this card gettingbuffed to three four.
Like just that.
They want to encourage playrates.
I think the win rates are kindof middling.
It's running 52%, 3% popularity.
And that's even with botinflation.
Like those aren't great stats,right?
Like for bot inflated stats.
So like for me though, it'slike, listen man, I was playing
a dark hawk deck as you wouldwith a card like TerraX.
TerraX, by the way, is a threethree that reads on reveal for

(56:29):
each location.
Shuffle a rock into the losingplayer's deck.
It's not.
The text is a little confusingin some ways, but one thing that
might not be fully appreciatedabout this is that if you play
with initiative, Carex's powerwill be applied to a location
and then his effect will procbefore your opponent's cars can
reveal.
So if you're winning a location,one, you're winning a location

(56:50):
two and on turn three on curve,you play TerraX into a location.
And even if both of you, you andyour opponent play into that
location, Carex's Power will beapplied, his reveal will happen
and the rocks will be stuffedinto his deck.
There's no animation, I don'tknow why.
Maybe they're releasing cardstoo fast.
I'm just gonna throw it outthere.
But anyways, no animation, butTerraX actually is pretty spicy.

(57:11):
Like this is some significantdisruption for your opponent
while also juicing your DarkHawk.
Yeah, it's, it

Husky (57:18):
is certainly a neat card.
I think its problem is it'sdoing a very good thing for Dark
Hawk.
The problem is, dark Hawk islike, it's not a absolutely
phenomenal wind condition.
A lot of the big dyes toeverything, tech car or five
drops rather.

(57:39):
Uh, dark Hawk, devil, dinosaurand Ronan, you know, they die to
Enc, chare, rogue Chang, justeverything under the sun.
And then some you know, they're,they're very vulnerable.
And this is a card that, yeah,it helps out Dark Hawk, but is
Dark Hawk really the thing youwanna be doing?
Uh, it's, it also does have theopportunity to backfire a little

(58:02):
bit, you know, sort of is inthat like airy sort of way and
where it shouldn't, you'rebuilding your deck in a way that
probably gets early term pyo,but then you know what happens
if you don't draw a one drop ormaybe you miss your two.
Like maybe you just play Coroneone, you play a decent power two
drop and then, okay, yeah, youshuffle maybe one rock in their

(58:22):
deck, maybe then two, and thenit's like shuffling one in your
own.
Is that really worth a three,three?
There are a lot of strong threedrops.
There are some very strong threedrops in this game that do a lot
of different things.
Like you are playing this overpotentially like a juggernaut, a
negasonic teenage warhead, andit's like, yeah, you shuffle in

(58:44):
the rocks and that gives thedark hawk power.
But like, okay, I play neonicwith priority.
I, I just take away that yourpower that you had on the board,
it's no longer on the board.
I don't have to jump through thehoop of playing Dark Hawk.
Yeah.
So it's part of, it's also, Idon't enjoy Dark Hawk decks as
much, so I'm a little bit loweron this guard than you are so.

Alex (59:04):
Yeah.
No, I, I like Dark Hawk, but Iagree.
Like, listen, I think this cardimpressed me from a playability
standpoint.
I think when you're actuallyplaying it, it's better than you
thought it was because of thatreveal interaction that it has.
However you are, right?
It's like instead of playingTerraX Deamer, you're probably
better off putting a Cosmo inyour Dark Hawk deck.
You know what I mean?
It's like

Husky (59:22):
something that, you know, instead of making your Dark Hawk
plus four power it, it keeps italive.
Alive, alive.
Yeah,

Alex (59:29):
exactly right.
So like I totally do see that.
And I did find opportunities toplay Cosmo on Three and then
Dark Hawk on Five and then thisalongside Mystique.
And I thought that was kind ofcool too.
Now I, it's, it's fascinating'cause like this card is
extremely niche.
It's literally a Dark Hawk cardbasically.
Well, right now, unless theyhave future designs, we have not
yet seen.
But literally it's a Dark Hawkcard and it feels Understooded.

(59:52):
So I think this is 100% gonnaget, get juiced up a little bit.
I almost, I, I almost can feelit right now.
And when it does, I feel likeit'll actually be a pretty
decent power infusion into thedark hok shells.
Whether or not those shells aregood, who knows?
I do know though, thatinternally do, do you remember
when Dark hok got nar and like,yo, internally, 0.5% of players

(01:00:13):
have been playing the crap outtaDark Hawk and is doing really
well.
We got an Earth and everyone'slike, wait, where did this come
from?
Oh, I would love to know whereDark Hawk sits internally.
You know what I mean?
It's one of those cards that Ifeel like we don't play anymore,
and I wonder if it's even good.

Husky (01:00:25):
Eh?
I I think it's, it's a very mucha meta call.
If you have a lot of errors, I,in the meta you play Dark Hawk,
you just, you take their lunchand, you know, kick'em to the
curb, laugh your way to thebank.
Uh, but it's like, we're notreally in an AEM meadow.
We're in a green points, end ofturn meta.
So it's like.
I could definitely see thisimproving.

(01:00:46):
And in the meantime, they, yeah,I could see this going to like
three, four.
That would be, I think that'swhere they put it.
Anything more?
Seems a little, a little bitgross.
I almost, I'm scared if they putthis to a three five.

Alex (01:00:58):
Yeah, three five's probably high.
I can see it going to a three,four for sure.
And I was even playing alongsidelike Cassandra Nova, who
obviously Feast on the rocks aswell and stuff like that.
But you're, you're right.
Considering what, like some ofthese real well comparing tarax
to teamer to the invisible womanfor steps not quite an, not
quite a good comparison.
Right.
So I got excited'cause I got toplay Dark Hawk again.
I do really like Dark Hawk, evenif it's not in Airstream Meta,

(01:01:20):
I, I just like playing it andthat's where I'm at in my Marvel
Snap career.
I'm like, bro, I just wannaplay, I actually wanna enjoy
playing the game.
So I still, of course I enjoyedTerraX and I felt like it was
close, but.
Bro, I gotta be honest with you.
Oh yeah.
I, okay.
So in my review of this card, Ivery quickly realized, it
reminds me it, so Redshift, thetwo three that reads on reveal,

(01:01:42):
discard the leftmost card fromyour hand to add a random card
with the same cost to your hand.
First of all, this, it reallyreminds me of like some sort of
Dragon Ball Z character.
It has a Dragon Ball Z characterfeel to it.
I don't know what it is, likethe maja boo era of drag.
Maybe it's the almost m on hisbelt that like, gives me that
maja boo feel.
But, um, long story short,Redshift, wow.

(01:02:05):
Wow.
I never thought I was gonna pullup my pixel Agatha and actually
unironically, you know, clapsome cheeks and have some fun.
But I think Redshift has singlehandedly brought back Agatha.

Husky (01:02:17):
Oh yeah.
It's, I I remember building thatoriginal back when Agatha got
buffed or significantly changedbuilding that deck.
And then it, it quickly fell offjust because.
It.
I mean, it still has thisproblem now of, hey, if you
don't get your Agatha out ofhand, you lose.
It's like maybe you can scrapeby a win or two, but like most

(01:02:39):
of the time you don't cheat outAgatha, you loses here.
But yeah, it's have you likedoing the math for getting Black
Knight on one or two with Agathais absolutely bonkers.
And in, yeah, it, I think it'sunder underperforming a little
bit just because a lot of thingsare going over the top.

(01:03:01):
But Hagatha is a, that's onedraw is so nuts.
That is like, you cannotunderstate just the consistency
and that absolute power spikethat, you know, like old Thanos
have, it's like, yeah, extra onedraw.
You just play that in Thanos aem aga Moto and then just win

(01:03:23):
the second golden gauntlet.
'cause.
'cause why not?
But it's, yeah, it's, I likethis card a lot.
This is cool.
I agatha's cool.
It's just a, a very neat deckbuilding exercise and I'm glad
it fails less often.
I, I think we'll see this shinea lot more later.

Alex (01:03:43):
Something that I'll note is based on untapped based
statistics, which I once againdo incorporate some bots here.
Uh, RedShift's Agathe deck arerunning almost universally a 56%
win rate, which is higher thanGalactus first steps.
So that's pretty impressive.
Like RedShift's, athe shells areactually putting in some work.
And what I love about it too isthat we haven't even really

(01:04:05):
started cooking with like,traditional discard.
Everyone's so just spiced upwith the Agatha.
Like I have not seen many cookswith the standard discard yet.
I don't know if you have seenothers yourself.

Husky (01:04:16):
I've seen a little bit of cooking with this card.
I've seen some very, very cool,some cool.
Agatha with like v hand sort ofstuff.
I don't think we're going to seethis in standard discard.
I don't think this is targetedenough to replace the likes of,
like even Colleen Wing or Bladeor anything like that.
'cause it's a lot easier to, tomanipulate the right guard in

(01:04:38):
your hand with things comingback to hand than it is the
left.
But, you know, this is.
I, I don't think it'll happenthere, but I think, yeah, it
definitely does have a littlebit of unexplored space that it,
it can maybe find a home in if Iwanna really be cop.
It's like, oh, you play Redshiftonto, you discard a three drop,
you, you play out a three dropand then you fire Lord it back

(01:05:01):
and eh, you get a second Surferfrom Redshift and you win 10
million cubes and you hitInfinite Rank one.
Congratulations Ben Brode iscoming to your house.
He will give you a littlesticker.

Alex (01:05:13):
That sounds like a great day.
I want that day.
That sounds fantastic.
But yeah, so yeah, it's,Redshift is definitely an Agatha
card.
And uh, here's a quick questionfor you.
So with aha now being actuallyplayable, is it time we start
changing the way she likehoards, boosters?
Like I know that is like a loreaccurate thing with the way she
absorb powers, but I alsobelieve that is a holdover from

(01:05:35):
like in the Alpha, the seconddinner team internally
discovered exploits usingboosters as progression where
they could like basically boughtFarm Agatha, bought farm
boosters and gained progress andall that stuff.
I don't know the exact details.
I feel like it's a team answerfrom like back in alpha, like in
the beta where it's like we hadto do that to Agatha because

(01:05:55):
people figured out a way to likebot or whatever with or Yeah.
So now that like you have cappedthe, uh, the season pass caches,
like no, like the caches only goto a certain, they used to be
unlimited, right?
They're capped now.
Yeah.
So there's no more aga thefarmer stuff like that.
Now that you've done all that,like, do we now make it so that
like you can actually aga Agathacan distribute some boosters?
Like does she have to steal themevery single game?
You know what I mean?

Husky (01:06:16):
Maybe it's like maybe she, she only steals them like
half the time.
Would be would be nice.
She plays half your turn, shegets like half the boosters.
You know, that, that makessense.
But yeah, I think that is aquestion of can people find a
way to bot and exploit thesystem Because, you know, the
season, season pass caches don'tgo infinitely, but by bot you

(01:06:38):
can at least get more than you'dwant.
And that's probably somethingthat the second dinner team
really doesn't want toencourage.
I really wanna get some boostersfor like, you know, my Black
Knight, uh, and I want a coolsplit on him or something else
like that.
It's, it feels a little bit badnow that Agatha is something

(01:06:59):
actually playable and it's like,okay I personally don't care
about cosmetics all that muchand it still feels a little bit
bad not to get them like, neat.
I got Agatha boosters

Alex (01:07:13):
again.
What else?
What do I do now?
Yeah, exactly.
I absolutely agree.
And with that being said, myman, that's going to conclude
our podcast today.
But before we go, you have togive us the rundown of where we
can find you.
'cause if you are interested inabsolutely fantastic Marvel Snap
gameplay, the high, some of thehighest ring gameplay you will
find on the internet.

(01:07:34):
Husky, where do we find suchgameplay?

Husky (01:07:37):
Oh, I'll say what?
I'll say, uh, what I said duringthe Golden Gauntlet.
Sign off.
You can find me hiding in yourwalls.
I'm in there.
You just have to look harder.
Or on Twitch at Husky Puppies35.
I got a Discord server as well.
If you are interested inbecoming a top player or just
even better at the game, findinga little bit more of that

(01:07:57):
experience, I would highlyrecommend that.
Uh, I do warn you if you comeinto my chat don't use the
exclamation point dex commandthat will let either time you
out or link you to Dexter'sdecks.
You have to do Exhumation Pointreal deck.
Uh, it's a little bit of achaotic wasteland to determine
who, how I got, gave peoplepower in my channel.

(01:08:19):
I spun a wheel like a wholebunch of times and just had like
a, you know, an all out fight.
And when the dust settled, it'slike, eh, these guys are still
alive.
Let's pick them.
But if you can make it throughthat chaos, come to one of those
two places, I'll be more thanhappy to have you.
And yeah, it's, it's a wonderfulcommunity.
It's Snap is not in the place Iwould want it to be, but I love

(01:08:40):
this community with a passion.
The, the, especially the partthat has been I, I've sort of
carved out and has beensupporting me I could not be
happier with them.
So shout out to them.
Uh,

Alex (01:08:52):
join if you'd like.
Absolutely.
Husky, thank you so much forjoining us today.
And once again, to all of you,either listening or watching on
the internet, we appreciate eachand every one of you guys.
Thank you for watching as well,and we'll see you on that next
one.