Headpool Steals The Show | Collection Complete vs. Cosmetics | The Snap Chat Ep. 153

Is the new Headpool card secretly the best of the season?  Why is Zombie Scarlet Witch and the Horde mechanic underperforming so badly?  Should you focus on a Complete Collection or spend your resources on Cosmetics? Join Alex Coccia and special guest Harry Perry as they chat about this and more on this episode of The Snap Chat and catch 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 by a veryspecial guest, someone who I've
wanted to have on the Snapchatfor the longest time.
We are here with Harry Perry.
Harry, it is great to finallysee you and, uh, my man, this
has been quite a road to get tohere, to this podcast, this
moment right here, because youdid something so unconventional

(00:20):
to grab the attention of Cozy.
And I, I, I want you to kind ofbreak it down and, uh, take us
through what was going throughyour mind.
And again, I'm gonna link itdown below, but I'll give Harry
Perry the floor here.
It's an incredible story and Iwant you to kind of take it
over.

Harry (00:32):
Yeah.
Well, you've been a, a gentlemanin responding to it and being
patient in reaching out to mefor so long, I, I have to say
like, for all the claims thatpeople make about Alex being the
nicest person ever, it's sotrue.
I feel like I'll tell the storyof the video in a second, but
you feel like Keanu Reeves tome, where like anyone on the
internet who ever shares a storyabout being with Keanu Reeves,
they're like, yeah, he'sactually the nicest person ever.

(00:53):
You're like the Keanu Reeves ofthe Snapchat or of Marvel Snap,
because you actually reached outto me three or four different
times and I had to like denyyou, which is a horrible thing
to ask to be on your show andthen say No.
'cause I was busy like you, butyou just kept reaching out.
But yeah, the video, I just Istarted making Marvel Snap
videos like a year ago because Ifound the Snapchat actually,

(01:15):
like, I didn't even know peoplemade videos about Marvel Snap.
And then I found the Snapchat.
I was like, this is the coolestthing ever.
So I've just loved it eversince.
And I saw a bunch of as Cozy wasgone with his obligations, a
bunch of guests, I'd be like howdo, like, how do I get in that
line?
I don't know.
You know, like I, I guess I'lljust try, you know, like
there's, that's the worst thingthat could happen is that maybe
I'll get his attention, maybe Iwon't, but at least I tried and,

(01:37):
uh, it worked.
So here I am.

Alex (01:39):
But you didn't even explain what you did though.

Harry (01:41):
Yeah, I, yeah.
So if you don't know, I made avideo, uh, it was a while ago
now.
It was just titled Alex, this ismy audition for the Snapchat.
And I basically said I'd like tobe on the Snapchat.

Alex (01:54):
And believe it or not the person who sent me was Dexter.
Dexter was like, Hey, did yousee this?
Because I am subscribed to you.
But I guess here's the problemwith my YouTube feed, it's'cause
my kids will go on my YouTubeall the time.
'cause I have, like, I, I useYouTube premium and so they
don't get the ads.
So they use my YouTube for like,everything.
And my suggestion feed is likeMarvel Snap.

(02:14):
K-pop, demon hunters got colorsfor toddlers.
It's just garbage.
Like the whole thing is garbage.
And so like, I don't actuallyget recommended anything I want,
like my YouTube algorithm'scompletely broken.
And so, um, I didn't actuallysee your video right away,
despite the fact you used myname in the title.
Yeah.
The YouTube was like, nah,that's not relevant for this
guy.
And, uh, Dexter actually sent tome, which is absolutely

(02:35):
hilarious.
And, um, it's, yeah, it's great.
And I mean, this is one of thebenefits of having the
opportunity to have guests onbecause I actually think you
make really good content.
And actually one of thediscussions we're having today
is based off of one of thevideos you're most recently
released and you did a greatjob.
I thought it was very good.
You're recommending books andstuff like that.
We'll get into that discussion,but like, I think you're making
some really thought provokingcontent and, um, I'm very happy,

(02:57):
I'm proud to have you here.
And on that note, you guysbetter be subbing to Harry Perry
down below because this guy's agreat one.
Wow, thank you.
He's a great one.
And, uh, and you're, you're afather as well.
You, uh, you know, and I mean,we have a lot in common and I'm,
I'm just happy that you're herefinally.

Harry (03:10):
Yeah.
I appreciate that.
That was, that was really niceto hear you say and thanks for
letting me be here.
It means a lot.
Yeah,

Alex (03:16):
of course.
And, uh, I mean, we shouldactually get into that.
We should ask about like, whatgot you into Marvel Snap in the
first place.
And I know you, you know, yousaid you watched the Snapchat
and stuff, but before thatwould've even happened, like
what drew you into Marvel Snap?
Like what was it about this gamethat you're like, you know what,
I'm gonna install this, I'mgonna play this.
And you said you started makingcontent like a year ago.
Had you been playing prior, liketell us about what your Marvel

(03:36):
Snap experience was like.

Harry (03:38):
Yeah it's actually really random.
Like, I'm not a card gamer.
Like my brother is a big cardgamer.
He plays Hearthstone.
He played magic.
And so I've played magic againsthim, but they were just with
like, he has multiple decks andhe'd have to like teach me how
to play as I was playing againsthim.
And I lost every time, you know,so I just was never, and not
that I didn't like it, but Ijust never played card games.

(03:58):
And then I, um, like I'm a bigmovie person and so there's this
YouTube channel called QuarterCrew where like visual effects
artists react to.
Visual effects in films and theywere reacting to an an ad that
Marvel Snap made.
It actually is like a reallyhigh quality animation.
And so I went and watched it andI literally thought like, wow, I
enjoy whatever company paidanimation artist to make this.

(04:21):
Like, I wanna show them mythanks by doing whatever they
want me to do from this ad.
And then I found out, oh, it's aMarvel Snap.
Okay, I'll play a Marvel Snapgame.
I like Marvel.
I've been engaged in Marvelcomics for a while, and then I
started playing the game and Iwas like, wow, this is amazing.
And it just immediately hookedme.
And so that was probably for a,a, maybe like three or four
months before I started makingvideos.

(04:42):
I had just started playing, so Iwas like, maybe around the year
and a half mark that Snap hadbeen out.
I'm trying to remember when Ifirst started playing.
Anyway, I started playing andthen stopped playing, and then I
came back.
For the Hawkeye, Kate Bishopseason, because she's one of my
favorite characters.
And then that was, you know,went from there.
And then I started engaging inmore Marvel Snap stuff, found

(05:02):
the Snapchat, and then was like,oh, I bet I could make a video
that looks fun, and then therest is from there.
So it was, you know, literally aanimation ad.
It's a good one.
I'll send it to you so you canlike, include it in the
description or something.
It's a good ad.

Alex (05:14):
It's also kind of inspiring that you started
making Marvel Snap content, likewell into the be like, well
after it already launched,right?
So like, it wasn't like you werelike day one in the beta, like a
lot of us were, you're like, youknow what?
I like this game.
I'm gonna start making videosfor it.
And I think that's really cooland it should be encouraging for
other people as well, becauselike you recently crossed, you
know, a thousand subscribers,but I know it was a milestone

(05:35):
that you were hoping to achieveat one point, and, uh, you've
crossed that now you're onto tobigger, better things.
Try and get those numbers evenhigher.
I, I know it's like one of thosethings where it's like, um.
They, they really do start tosnowball after a while.
And I think that you're makingcontent that's, uh, high
quality.
You, uh, obviously you're aninfinite player and a lot of
your deck designs are, arefascinating as well.
In fact, you had one of thehighest performing high voltage

(05:57):
decks that you had kind ofcooked up, and it was a really
kind of budget friendly patriotstyle deck, and it was a top
performer in, uh, in Marvel Snapfor a while there.
And then, um, yeah, so like,yeah, keep doing what you're
doing and I'm sure success willfollow because, uh, you're,
you're sincerely talented, justlike zombie, Mr.
Fantastic.

(06:18):
I'm just joking.
Mr.
Fantastic.
Doesn't look particularlytalented.
He looks exactly a rough time tobe honest with you, but, uh, Mr.
Fantastic is a two two.
He is the new card that's comingout in Marvel Snap this week in
the Snap packs.
And, uh, he's an non reveal thatreads Hoard plus two activate.
Give four of your other createdcards plus one power.

(06:38):
Now, this particular card, Ithink is going to be, uh, an
important one for the zombiearchetype because, uh, as we'll
discuss shortly when we do ourfull review of the cards that
came prior, it's looking likezombies as a whole could
probably use some additionalsupport.
We do have support coming inwith the likes of the Hunger.
We have support coming withCentury.

(07:00):
However, as it stands right now,the archetype needs another
linchpin card and perhaps Mr.
Uh, zombie, Mr.
Fantastic can do that for us.
So last week, Cozi and Idiscussed the card.
I came in at three stars, Cozycame in at four.
Harry Perry.
What's your star rating onZombie?
Mr.
Fantastic.

Harry (07:20):
Yeah.
Wow.
The pressure's on.
He's probably the card that I'mmost excited for of the whole
season.
Like he's like my personal five,even if I don't think he
deserves a five.
So I'd probably put him at.
Realistically from hisperformance.
I think he's gonna be a fouractually.
I could see him being prettystrong.

Alex (07:38):
Okay.
That's good.
And I mean, uh, it's one ofthose things where I think he's
highly dependent on how good thehoard synergy is as a whole,
right?
Because this is obviously a cardthat you're not gonna run him
unless you're running horsespecifically, because I mean, to
some degree, awesome.
Andy kind of does what he does,except he doesn't have that
hoard mechanic.
And awesome.
Andy will hit anything in otherlocations, not just create a

(07:59):
card.
So there's a lot of conditionshere.
Now, Mr.
Fantastic is interesting in thesense that it's also the first
card of Marvel Snap that has anhonor reveal and an activate.
So you're getting an anadditional amount of complexity
here and it kind of opens thefloodgates into what design
space is available for theMarvel Snap team as they move
forward.
'cause now they're like, okay,hold on.
We used to have on reveal cards,we used to have activate cards,

(08:20):
we used to have ongoing cards.
But now can we have on revealongoing cards?
You know what I mean?
You have a card that comes down,does a non-real, and then has an
ongoing effect long term thatopens up a whole new can of
worms.
And I guess zombie mis arefantastic, is the first step
there.
The only concern I have and whatbrings down the rating a bit is
that like it sometimes, likethere's this issue of like a

(08:40):
jack of all trades type thingwhere like if you're not gonna
master something, are you gonnareally crack a 12 card deck?
Because if you're just kind ofgood at a couple things here and
there, it's like no, no, yougotta be good enough to crack
top 12 in a top performing deckto actually see a legitimate
amount of play.
And so I'm curious, do you thinkthis is a little too safe in

(09:03):
terms of its stats, in terms ofwhat it's doing?
Or do you think it can pumpnumbers enough to be worth
playing?

Harry (09:08):
Yeah, I think I, I do agree with you because I've been
experimenting within the deckanticipating zombie Mr.
Fantastic.
Just'cause he is a card.
I'm excited for most of theseason, so I've been like, this
is silly, but like trying tofigure out the deck design for.
Before he's released.
And um, so I've been playing alot of like created cards, both
like onboard created cards, sothings like Mysterio and

(09:29):
Squirrel Girl and Mr.
Sinister with the hoard.
And then I've also been playinghand created cards with Victoria
Hand and Hawkeye Kit Bishop, andthose types of cards with the
hoard to try and find are one ofthese gonna work with Mr.
Fantastic.
And the thing that I found isthat sometimes yeah, you get the
nuts, but on like an averagegame, it can kind of be hard to
get four created cards on board.

(09:50):
Um, sometimes those that like,that's not lining up.
And so I think an easyadjustment they could make to
him is to change that activateability instead of giving four
of your created cards plus one.
It could, I don't know, therewording would have to be
really complicated, but give, Idon't know if it's just like
inverse give plus one power to.

(10:12):
Created cards four times orsomething so it could like hit
the same target multiple times,I think.
But maybe that would just makehim lp.
'cause you create one hoard andthen your hoard gets plus four
power from that.
But I, the thing that I found isthat when he works, when you're
getting those created cards onthe board, I think he's gonna
really put out surprisingamounts of power to late turn.

(10:32):
Like it's, people aren't gonnacalculate what he does.
It's just a matter of if you canget the cards on the board.

Alex (10:39):
Yeah, and I, I mean, I think you touched on it right
there.
He becomes horde six, like if hejust sits right.
If, uh, you can do that with theactivate.
But uh, I absolutely agree.
I think it's unlikely thatyou're able to get four out
there all the time.
Like from a pure staffperspective, you're like two,
two plus hor horde plus two, sothat's two, four.
Then the additional 4, 2, 8.
Yeah, it looks great on paper,but I would be surprised if

(11:01):
you're getting more than like.
Two pros out of your createdcards, and you often aren't
gonna be waiting till like turnsix to activate him.
I think, because if you thinkabout like zombie giant man and
some other stuff like that, youmight be playing those earlier
out and they're gonna double dipon the power of the hoard.
And so as a result, there's achance that you might wanna
activate'em early, even ifthere's not an opportunity to

(11:22):
get as many pros from the actualcredit cards.
So that's, that's one of thoseconcerns I certainly do have.
And the other concern I havethough is obviously gonna be the
viability of hoard as a whole.
And when we discuss more aboutScarlet Witch, we'll discuss,
uh, the fact that I think she'sperhaps underperforming.
And although we don't have thefull picture yet, because we're
missing so many of thesesynergistic cards, if hoard

(11:44):
doesn't end up being a mechanicworth chasing, this becomes a
card that's not only 6,000tokens, but it could just be
straight up dead weight.
Now I suspect that they're gonnabe monitoring these mechanics
very closely.
'cause if Horde underperforms,Mr.
Fantastic won't sell right?
Season Pass won't sell, peoplearen't gonna play like it's so

(12:05):
Horde has to be good enough toencourage engagement during this
Halloween season.
And so for that reason, I thinkthat they're keeping a very
close eye on its balance.
But for me, I'm, I don't thinkMiss Zombie Mr.
Fantastic is going to be quiteenough for what we have right
now.
And um, and that's actually, youknow what, we should actually

(12:26):
transition a bit into thegeneral conversation.
We're gonna keep zombie Mr.
Fantastic in mind here, butlike, I think this is a perfect
time to talk about the cardsthat have been released and we
can tie back to Mr.
Zombie.
Fantastic.
Whatever.
I keep mess messing up the name,but Zombie Scarlet Witch, I
think.
Came in a little softer thanexpected.
I think that while the hoard wasgetting to like legitimate

(12:46):
power, I was, I was gettinghoard to like, you know, seven,
eight power.
And that's without any of theseadditional cards.
The challenge I had was, it'sextremely vulnerable to Hunchy.
It's extremely vulnerable toShadow Cane.
It's extremely vulnerable toCobra, even though no one played
Cobra against me.
'cause I think the card wasn'tgood enough to warrant the
direct counter play.
But I'm curious as to what youropinion on Scarlet Witch has

(13:08):
been and in general, the Hordemechanic.

Harry (13:11):
Yeah.
It's been frustrating to say theleast.
I was really excited for theseason because the Kitty Pride,
Angela Hope Summer's silkysmooth style deck has been one
of my favorites for a long time.
And legitimately every season Itry to include it in my climb to
Infinite on the ladder.
'Cause I always, every season Ido a video of all the decks that
I used on my Climb to Infinite.

(13:32):
And so I'm like always keepingtrack of these things.
And what decks were each seasonand how many times I'm repeating
them and how many times they'rebeing excluded.
Like, these are things that Igenuinely track.
And it's been sad to me howfrequently I've tried, but
couldn't include the kitty PrideAngela style deck into a, an
infinite video because they, shejust didn't perform.
So I was hoping zombie Scarletwould, would help that

(13:55):
archetype.
And more than anything, likecompleting the weekend missions
to win however many games, it,it was with Zombie Scarlet was
actually challenging because Ijust, I feel like the hoard is
good and the hoard, especiallyif you draw a zombie scarlet on
three and you have the cards tohelp it, the hoard itself I feel
like can get to pretty decentpower.

(14:15):
But to get the hoard to power,you're not getting enough power
in a second location, and youhave to have win two to win a
game.
And that's the problem that I'vehad is not necessarily, the
hoard is not good, but to getthe hoard good, the rest of my
deck isn't in a good winningposition.

Alex (14:30):
And it almost feels like for the most part and to, to
this conversation here, when youtalk about like zombie power man
for not power man.
Sorry.
The other one, what's, what'shis zombie giant man, I'm
confusing these names so bad.
Me too.
But he is so unbelievablydependent on the value of the
horde.
He's only doing plus one andthen he copies the power, which
is cool.
And for me it was interesting'cause I was able to do stuff

(14:51):
like absorbing man.
So play this on turn five thenabsorbing man plus Kitty on turn
six or absorbing man pluswhatever on turn six.
And I thought that was reallycool.
But the challenge was, is if youdon't draw into that zombie
scarlet witch early, the skirt'sdead in the water.
Like it does not stand on itsown at all.
And zombie scar, the witch, herpower is as such as a two power
card that even playing her onfour.

(15:11):
'cause in theory you're like,okay, I'll play her on four and
I hit her with the kitty rightaway.
And then all of a sudden youstill feel a little behind, like
there's just not quite enoughpower present.
And so I absolutely agree withyour assessment.
This is a card that if you'reable to draw it on turn three
and you're able to kind of getthe things flowing, yet the
zombie hoard gets to some decentpower, but it feels very risky.

(15:32):
You feel like it is a, it feelslike a one trick where you have
one game plan and if you don'tdraw your thing, then you're
dead.
Like you just don't have a note.
And uh, I don't know if decksthat are designed that way can
actually take over the meta.
I don't think they'll ever betier one.
So right now I do think thatZombie Scarlet, which has a bit
of a power problem, it also hasa synergy problem because

(15:52):
without all the other pieceswe've talked about, like the
Hunger and the Century and evenzombie, Mr.
Fantastic, you don't have outsbecause obviously Zombies Carlo
Witch, we want, because you getit on the board, it's like that
Hope Summers effect.
You just snowball the effectthat you're looking for.
But at the same time, if youhave Mr.
Fanta, it'll create the hordefor you.
Right.
Zombie, uh, sorry.

(16:12):
Zombie.
Essentially we'll create a hoardfor you.
We'll add to a hoard.
So right now, zombie ScarletWitch is the only way we can do
that, and it's felt like, uh,lackluster and very draw
dependent.
And so I'm wondering, like, doyou think that she could use
some extra power?
Do you think that she needs tomake a larger hoard, or do you
think we just need to wait tosee what, uh, the other cards
are gonna do for her?

Harry (16:34):
Yeah, I don't know.
It's, it's tough because I, likeright now in this position, I'm
like, oh yeah, absolutelyBuffer, take her to three power.
Heck even take her to four powerbecause the location that I've
been having the most troublewith in trying to win games with
her is her location.
Not necessarily the hoarded one,but the interesting thing is
that when these other cardsreleased, that might
dramatically change things.

(16:54):
However, the problem that I justsee with this archetype in
general, it even trying to, youknow, look into the future and
imagine how other cards aregonna interact with it, is
similar to what you said.
It just feels super delicate toplay and that like, one of the
most important things to climbon Ladder is.
Like confidence in your deck sothat you can Snap or Snap back
on an opponent or not retreatwhen you've been snapped on

(17:14):
because you're like, oh yeah, Igot this.
Like, you know, I'm gonna putthis power here.
When every time I was playingZombie Scarlet Lit, it's like,
well, my opponent counters me inone of 17 ways and my whole
strategy falls apart and I'vegot nothing to come up with
afterwards.
Like, it just felt like I had tocarefully stack this house of
cards, and if my opponent blewthe wrong way, that I like

(17:35):
couldn't respond to that.
And so it made me reallyhesitant to even Snap when I was
playing Zombie Scarlet Witch.
And so I don't, I don't know ifthat's like changing her power.
I, I, I don't know.
It's tough because like, okay,so you change her to an On
reveal.
On Reveal Horde plus one, andthen after you play a card here,
hoard plus two, same problem theHorde is getting is fine, but

(17:58):
what about her location or thatsecond one?

Alex (18:01):
Yeah it's a.
Yeah, it's a complicatedproblem.
And I guess like first thepeople that are interested in
the stats, she's currentlyrunning a 49% win rate and that
is from ranked 70 to a hundred.
'cause it is the first week ofthe season people are still
doing their climb.
So that's bought inflated stats.
Bought inflated stats.
You're running a sub 50% winrate.
Popularity wise, she's running a9% popularity.

(18:23):
This is unfortunate because ifyou're second dinner and you're
looking at this, you're lookingat a card that is supposed to be
right, first of all, extremelythematic for October.
Yeah.
And it's supposed to be the cardthat gets the, the ball rolling
for the every other card.
You're basically releasing theseason.
With the exception of thediscard ones.
We'll talk about momentarily,but like, I think that like.

(18:46):
They're gonna buff this ASAP,like, it wouldn't surprise me if
it gets sneaked into like apatch note on Tuesday or like
whatever the next OTA, like thisthing gets buffed.
Like, it would not surprise mebecause I think that second
dinner would rather at leastgenerate interest in this season
as opposed to, well, we gottawait till the last week when we
have all the pieces to see whatthey've done and then try to
buff it.
I think they probably do itsooner than later, and if they

(19:08):
overt tune it, then perhapsthey, they consider, uh, nerfing
it down the line, but notnaturally.
They don't want to do thateither.
Right.
That's problematic for itsother, for its own reasons.
So, yeah, I would think thatthis is definitely on the buffer
radar.
Like, would you agree?

Harry (19:21):
Yeah, I think so.
The only reason that I'd thinkthat they would maybe not is
that and this will go into ourtopic later about the video that
I made, is that like one of the,I think one of the frustrations
that a lot of people have hadwith second dinner is that they
only care about season passsales.
They only release the new cardsand like pay to win paywalls or
whatever.

(19:41):
So far, at least in the firstweek of the season, the best
cards released have been likeColonel American Zombie power
Man, like the cards that you canget free to play, so to speak.
So if they, like in some weirdmeta way, were like, oh, we're
gonna intentionally leave thebad card as the season pass and
give free to play players accessto the Good Card.
But I don't think second dinner,I don't think that interest

(20:02):
second dinner, like, I thinkthat's like really myopic
focused on one issue thatdoesn't actually matter.
So I, I think what they did tovi vision as you, wow.
Look at that.
You pulled up, right.
As I said, is the exact samescenario.
Like not only for theirinterests, do they want it'cause
they want make money from SeasonPass, like they want to release
cards that are good.
I think that's just whether it'sa, a paid card or whether it's

(20:23):
a, from the pack, like cardsthat are released should be
good.
So I think she's on the buffradar.
Absolutely.

Alex (20:30):
One thing I've said a couple times in the past was
that a lot of people think thatlike card games, that what
they're seeking is like perfectbalance.
I don't think that's correct atall.
I think in the case of MarvelSnap and with any card game,
you're seeking perfectimbalance.
You need some cards to be goodenough.
To not only warrant beingplayed, but to actually shake up
the meta.
Mm-hmm.
And Cozy and I have had thisdiscussion in the past, like,

(20:52):
would we lean towards them beingvery safe and conservative with
the releases?
Or maybe tune it up just alittle, like a little extra hot
little spice to it.
You know, I'm not talking tohabanero.
Gimme, gimme a jalapeno, throwit on top of a card.
Maybe just give it a shot, giveit a chance.
Encourage its play.
Because if it impacts the meta.
It feels fresh, it feels new.
And then the new cards that comeout, they do provide that like

(21:13):
more of an in interestinginfusion into the Marvel Snap
meta.
And it's funny'cause a lot ofpeople think that like, oh, they
released these overt tunedseason pass cards.
V Vision was not overt tuned.
In fact, it was surprisinglydifficult to play it as thir
three, two stat line.
And they held off for a longtime before buffing it to their
credit.
And even now that it's beenbuffed, the top Surfer decks are
not running V vision.

(21:34):
Oh wow.
The top buff decks are notrunning V Vision, like Vis is
still not making lists as athree three.
I just did the top 10 decks ofthe week.
Viv vision's not on it.
And this is a season pass cardthat largely underperformed.
Um, so, you know, I, I wouldn'tbe surprised if like.
That's the kind of thing thatwould surprise people.
And even then, like you had theMr.
Fantastic First Steps and thiswas an example of the other

(21:56):
direction where at a two cost hewas way too good.
He was way too good.
Yeah.
He was able to be put into everysingle deck.
And both of these I think,represent challenges for second
dinner, you don't wanna overttune the card, then Nerf it.
And then with the timing of Mr.
Fantastic.
It was a little rough too'causehe had just entered the free to
play like acquisition when theyhad to Nerf him.
So that's, that's a miss.

(22:17):
But I would argue that Vivvision's also a miss.
You don't want a season passcard and for the most part, an
entire season that feels like,well I can just skip this and
save tokens.
You know what I mean?
'cause it's just then your, yourmeta is stale for an entire
month.
You're just kind of standingstill.
So anyways, I'd be interested inyour thoughts on that because I
think that they have thisreputation of like releasing
overt tune stuff all the time,but like vi vision is proof

(22:39):
positive.
That's not always the case.

Harry (22:41):
Yeah, I think that we like the people who.
Are frequently the loudest, arethe most frustrated.
And like if I were a free toplay player and I was playing
against two cost, Mr.
Fantastic, I would've been ssuper frustrated.
Like that realistically was kindof not kind of like a, an
extremely unfair advantage topaid players was Mr.
Fantastic.
But you look at so many of theother season passes that have

(23:03):
been released, the vision is agood example.
Another one I was thinking abouttoday, Esme I can't think of the
last time I, I saw anyone playEsme.
You know, like she just likecompletely has disappeared from
the meta entirely except formaybe sometimes in Mr.
Fantastic Decks or not Mr.
Fantastic, uh, Mr.
Negative deck.
And so it like, I don't know, Ithink that there's like a weird

(23:24):
for every example of like, wow,this card was really overt
tuned.
There's another example of like,well, this card kind of
underperformed and I would justhope with how unique the hoard
archetype is that they would dosomething to put it in the
category of closer to overttuned than it is to under tune.
Because to your point, like Iwould love to see a bunch of
people playing hoard.
Just for something else in themeta, like I'd love to see more

(23:46):
people interested in playingthis archetype because it makes
the meta fun.

Alex (23:50):
It's been something that I've been thinking about that I
think that Marvel Snap andtheir, the design team, I think
one of their main focuses hasbeen largely that they want more
playable archetypes because wethink about the kind of decks
that we wanna play, but playingagainst the same cringe garbage
all the time is also superannoying.
You might be like, you knowwhat?
I'm a one trick, I just playdiscard.
I just wanna play bullseye orapoch or whatever, and that's

(24:13):
cool.
You play your stuff like, mybrother loves Marvel Snap, and
he only plays ongoing.
Dude will only play ongoing.
Wow.
He has Golden Howard, the duckgolden, everything ongoing.
He only wants to play ongoingdecks.
Right.
And like that's perfect though.
He, he's having a blast, man.
He even tries like, he's like,sometimes I'm feeling greedy.
He'll do like won mystique, likeSpectrum stuff.
Just wants to lose his mind.
That's cool.
You play your way, man.

(24:34):
And for those types of peoplethough, if he's going against
like, end of turn, cringe everysingle game, like, it's just,
it's gotta be exhausting, right?
So what I really like what theydid with the horse specifically
is exact what you said.
It's a whole new brand ofgameplay.
It's to me, not necessarilyequivalent to, but it feels like
a new type of archetype.
The way like Thanos is like a, away to play Snap.

(24:55):
Aisha is a way to play.
Snap Horde is a way to playSnap.
And when you play against thosetypes of decks, the patterns are
different.
It's more enjoyable, betterdiversity in the meta is gonna
be better for everybody'sexperience and for that to
happen, I think Horde needssomething because Scarlet Witch
just isn't doing it.
I agree with everything you'vesaid, it's definitely
underperforming.
A hundred percent.
And then as a result, and Iwanna touch on giant zombie,

(25:18):
man, this court's capable ofputting up big power, but in the
current state of Horde, it's notworth running.

Harry (25:24):
Yeah.

Alex (25:24):
But like, it kind of feels like, and I've seen the
comparison made where it's like,this is the Gilgamesh of Horde.
Right.
A five drop that gets into likethe 12 to 15 power range.
Like yeah, you take those allday long, but as of right now,
it feels rough to try to play,uh, zombie Giant man.
Before we move on to ColonelAmerica and Power Man, was there
anything else you wanted to addabout the zombies and the hoard
as a whole?

Harry (25:45):
No, I just, I agree with everything you said,
particularly about zombie Giantman.
I like drove myself nuts on thefirst day of the season trying
to force myself to play zombieGiant man.
It just like you, you draw himwithout Zombie Scarlet Witch and
you're just like, well, that's acard.
I'm not gonna play this game.
Like, he's just, he's so uselessin those situations and I, I am.

(26:06):
I was really excited about thecard because I just thought he
was gonna be fun.
And then he just becamefrustrating.
And so I, I really hope thattowards the end of the season
I'm able to come back around andbe like, no, I, I love playing
zombie Giant man.
But previous, like right up tothis point, I'm like, well, if I
am gonna try and do somethingwith the Horde, I'm gonna leave
out zombie, zombie giant man.
He's just not worth it.
He's not worth one of those 12slots.

Alex (26:27):
And it's one of those risks that Marvel Snap runs
where they release on like aweekly cadence.
Right.
Um, especially with somethinglike a new mechanic like the
hoard, if you introduce a newmechanic and the entire month is
borderline dedicated to it andyou don't really know how it's
gonna perform till you get allthe pieces, it's like a month of
holding your breath.
I mean, that's difficult forfree to play players.
Like, what do you do with yourtokens, man?
Like, what do you do?

(26:47):
Like it's, you can't dive intoany of this till you see the
complete picture.
Right.
And, uh, like, yeah.
So it, it is tricky from thatperspective.
But thankfully, I think theymust have thought of this'cause
they didn't just release hoardcards.
They released some discard cardsas well including Colonel
America.
The three three that readsongoing.
Your other cards here have plusone power for each turn.

(27:10):
You've discarded a card now.
I'll give you the floor here.
I'll let, uh,'cause I, I've mademy thoughts on Colonel America.
Very apparent.
I'm wondering what yourexperience has been thus far.

Harry (27:19):
I have been all over the board with him.
I, in the video I released onColonel America and Colonel
Empowerment, I was not gonna getthem.
I was gonna skip them just tosave my tokens for the season.
Just not'cause they were bad byany means, but I was like, oh,
that.
I don't need to play them.
Like my discard decks are justfine, I don't necessarily need
them.
And then a bunch of peoplecommented on my videos and on my

(27:41):
polls about how good they were.
So I f-ed into'em.
And, uh, it took me a while tocome around on Colonel America.
I realized that I was playinghim kind of wrong.
I made the comparison to speed.
That speed is one of my favoritecards in the game, but sometimes
when I play'em, I get distractedby like playing on curve.
So that speed gets value.
Like I have to play, I have toplay a three drop on three so
that speed can get plus onepower and then I don't play as

(28:03):
well.
I saw myself doing the samething with Colonel America.
Like, I have to discard a cardthis turn so that Colonel
America gets power.
And it just like made me playsub optimally.
And so I didn't like him atfirst, but once I moved on from
that and I thought like, youknow what?
Even if I just discard twoturns, he's still good power.
Let me like focus on justplaying a good game.
And Colonel America has beenphenomenal.

(28:23):
Like just such impressive power.
In fact, there was one game.
That I lost to a Ker Americabecause on the last turn, they
just got it was in one of thoselocations, the whichever one,
the kiln that you can't play inafter turn four.
And I was like, miles ahead.
Like I got a combo into therewith Red Wing.
I had a gigantic in there.
I was like, oh, there's no waythey're contesting that.

(28:45):
And sure enough, Colonel Americajust, ticked himself upwards.
So I'm really, really likingColonel America.
I think he's a good card.

Alex (28:51):
I love this card.
It came in so much better than Iexpected and I knew it was gonna
be good.
'cause when you look at Pulseone power for every other card,
it clearly is a great card.
And here's the thing though,what I loved about it was like,
okay, I was playing it in likethe, like kinda like the
bullseye shell, right?
Because I thought it was a verynatural spot for it.
I was also trying it in like,like traditional, you know,
apocalypse discard.

(29:12):
But in, in the, uh, in thebullseye shell, I was interested
because I was like, what if Idon't draw a dakin?
What if I don't draw a bullseye?
What if I don't draw thesethings?
But what if I'm able to, youknow, I don't know get a discard
going on swarms.
Can I use Colonel America tostart winning a location with
swarms?
Can I use Colonel America toturn locations or uh, yeah.
Locations into winning spotsthat where my opponent wouldn't

(29:34):
otherwise expect me to win.
Because when you have twodockings on the board, they're
expecting you to win those twodock and locations.
That's the point.
Those, they're towers of power.
But when you put Colonel Americawith your bullseye in a location
that you traditionally are gonnalose, and then you play your
modoc there, and then you playlike you're putting all these
incidental cards, your blade,your Colleen Wing, any card
that's not part of the corecombo, like they do their thing

(29:56):
and then they're donezo, you put'em with Kernel America and all
of a sudden you're like, whoa,whoa, that Colin wing's like
eight power.
Like yeah.
How did that happen?
Right.
And it's because of ColonelAmerica.
And so he's creating this tripleattack where you're threatening
multiple lanes while also stillhaving.
Your dock can pop off or yourbullseye pop off, or both for
that matter.
So that's where he reallyimpressed me.

(30:17):
He allowed the macro board playto matter more.
He made playing your early playsmatter more because he was able
to create a situation where carsthat traditionally weren't gonna
be carrying the win.
Carrying the win.
And that's why I love him.

Harry (30:32):
Yeah he made a challenge in deck playing against him that
like, typically there's thosecards you see on the board and
you're like, well, I'm gonnaavoid that location.
Like someone plays a lasher,okay, I'm not gonna play into
that location.
Or a Surfer player plays CaptainCarter.
Okay, that's a location Iclearly can't contest.
Let me focus on the other two.
And against these discard decks,it's like, okay, Mor Bs is over

(30:52):
there, Colonel America is overthere and Dracula's in the
middle.
Which one do I feel like I havea chance going against?
Because all three are lockingdown power.
So I'm, I'm really enjoyingColonel America.
I feel like he's a good additionto the archetype.

Alex (31:05):
Something I forgot to mention with Zombie Giant Man
was that he's running a 48% winrate and only a 3% popularity,
which is awful.
So that means there's people outthere playing Scarlet Witch
without the zombie giant man,which must be even worse.
I, I don't know.
But with Colonel America, andthe reason why I brought that
up, Colonel America is running anearly 54% win rate at a 6%
popularity.
So what you're seeing is lessplay rate astronomically higher

(31:28):
win rate than Scarlet Witch.
And when you see that, in myeyes, it's showcasing that the
hor mechanic is not doing it.
Scarlet Witch is not good enoughbecause Colonel America seeing
33% less play and is almost likewhat, 5% higher win rate?
That's pretty significantly.
You know what I mean?
And uh, that's a lot.
But yeah, so shining review fromboth of us.
For Kernel America, and itwouldn't, we should not surprise

(31:50):
anybody that the top performingshells are apocalypse based
shells, con based shells and thebullseye based shells as well.
Which is basically discard.
Yeah.
Actually not part of that is theAgatha.
I was expecting Agatha to makeit out there too, but Agatha did
not ended up making it in, uh,this particular set.
Then we have Zombie Power Man.
Zombie Power Man is anotherdiscard card that was released.

(32:11):
This one here is a, uh, seriesfour.
This one here is a two four thatreads, end of turn.
If you're winning here, discardthe Leftmost card from your
hand.
Harry, I'll give you the floor.
What do you think?

Harry (32:25):
Uh, I haven't experimented with Zombie Power
Man, as much as I would've likedbecause I've just been having
trouble with him.
Like I just, so many times I waslike, oh yeah, zombie Power
Man's really good.
I should put'em in here.
And then I'd look at my deck andI'd go experiment with it and be
like I think I'd actually prefera choline to target my discards
is just what I was experiencing.
But I'll be honest, I don'tthink that I've.
Ben very smart in my deckbuilding for Power Man.

(32:45):
So I'm like a question mark.
I'm like, I don't know.
He's tough for me to, to feellike, get a good grasp on and if
on, if he's worth it.
And I've seen both thingsplaying against him where he was
like, game winning for myopponent.
And I've seen other times wherelike he's game losing.
Like he's eating up those corecards.
In fact, that was one of myfavorite things to do when I was
playing against Zombie PowerMan, is like, I'm gonna
intentionally ignore thatlocation and let you win it so

(33:07):
that he's eating things youdon't want him to.
Which was like a good way tocounter him.
So I, I don't know, I think he'skind of average, I think yet to
be determined for me, but Ihaven't experimented with him
within a month enough.

Alex (33:21):
That's absolutely fair.
And I had played a ton of zombiepower Man and I was often trying
to play him with Colonel America'cause I know obviously the two
are gonna be unfairly comparedall the time.
And I, I definitely like ColonelAmerica more.
I think Colonel America is muchmore straightforward to play.
It's an ongoing card.
You discard things and discardshell.
It gets massive power.
Straightforward a sec.
And then with zombie power man,I think one of the challenges

(33:41):
was is that like you can'tnecessarily control the order at
which you draw cards.
Yeah.
You can't necessarily controlall these small factors.
And when you discard things,they go from the left to the
right.
And so Zombie Power man sitsthere with his two four, he's
capable of winning lanes.
And I almost felt like, oh thisColleen Wing Nerf makes sense.
'cause now they differentiatethe two three power from the two

(34:02):
four zombie man.
They differentiate the two cardseven further.
But Zombie Power Man issometimes in a situation where
I'm like, I can't win this nextlocation.
I'm gonna discard my modoc and Ineed that.
Or I'm gonna discard my bullseyeor I'm gonna discard whatever.
Like if you're discarding ksu.
Sure.
Like, it's not always gonna workthat way.
And so as a result, I foundzombie Power Man to be very

(34:23):
awkward to play.
But you're right, even in myreview video, I think the first
gameplay highlight I did iszombie power Man, popping off
hard.
Like he just, I think Idiscarded some swarms early with
Blade and then I played somecards and like I had multiple
zero, zero zero three swarmsjust sitting there waiting to
get munched.
And he munched them.
And that game became easy asheck because of it.

(34:43):
So there are moments for thiscard, but I think that it's a
particularly tricky card to setup correctly.
But you did bring up somethinginteresting.
What if your opponent plays itand they munched something they
don't want?
What about like, Colleen, likenot Colleen, what about, uh,
VIPing this guy over in alocation, they're winning.

Harry (34:59):
Yeah, someone commented on one of my videos and in my
Discord they say, you gotta trythis deck.
'cause one of, one of like thebest performing videos that I
have on my channel is, is tryingto give them destroyer with
when, uh, Fenris Wolf wasreleased, like discarding your
own destroyer and then vibratingover a Frus Wolfe and giving it
to em.
They're like, you need to dothis again with Zombie Power
Man, and then Viper over andthen play Havoc Center and then

(35:24):
Grandmaster on Your Viper andthen send over the havoc as well
so that you're eating theirenergy and their cards.
It was just like, just brutalcombo.
And the person who comes to islike, I've already had 18 people
retreat.
I'm keeping track the wholeseason, so I'll maybe report
back and see how many retreatsthey got.

Alex (35:40):
That's, that's hilarious.
Very, very draw specific.
Yeah.
And in theory that havocs stillgonna get to massive power.

Harry (35:46):
Yeah,

Alex (35:46):
that's true.
So I don't know, like it's stillprobably gonna win that
location.
But that's actually kind offascinating, but.
Yeah, I'm, I'm with you too.
Like for me, zombie power man isa big question mark.
Statistically he is slightlylower when compared to Colonel
America, he's running a 53% winrate flat, whereas the, uh,
Colonel America was like 53.8,so almost 54.
And then you have a 5%popularity, a little less than

(36:08):
that of, uh, Colonel America.
But still good, very good for acard that just recently got
released.
Time will tell.
And here's the thing though,what if you do get a card that
always discards to the left?
Like, what if that's a part ofthe text of a new discard card?
This card stays left orwhatever, right?
Then suddenly Power Man's like,yo, yeah, me and you are gonna
have a good time together.

(36:28):
You know what I mean?
And it creates some interestingdesign space.
But I do agree that the, uh, thecard itself can be a bit
challenging to play.
And that's gonna take us to, forme, and I don't wanna like, I
don't want to give away mythoughts too early here, but oh
boy was I surprised with this.
I came away.
I was a doubt.

(36:49):
Harry, I was a doubter in headpool and I might be crazy, but I
came in like, ho-hum.
Three stars.
Maybe it'll be good.
I don't know, man.
I like Moer X too much and I dolike Moer X too much.
Damn.
Was this card good?
Yeah, unbelievably good.
What are, what is your thoughtson head pool?

Harry (37:08):
I was the same.
I was like, considering notgetting him this season and I
was like, I just don't thinkhe's gonna be that good.
Like, I'd rather, you know, he'sjust gonna crowd up your hand.
Especially playing Moyer, likeall the same thoughts that you
expressed on the Snapchat.
And then I watched, um, resSnapper's video on MJ who was on
previously watched his video andhe was like, I think he gave him
a six star rating or somethingsuper high.

(37:29):
He's like, I think this card'sgonna be the best the whole
season.
I was like, what are you talkingabout?
There's no way.
And the amount of games thatI've lost to like 16 power
deaths that they're playingdown, you know, like this card
is crazy.
Which is cool.
Like, it's been cool to see.
You were talking about likeplaying against the same thing
over and over again.
I don't think I've playedagainst more destroyed decks my

(37:49):
entire Snap career than I havethis week.
Like he's destroys everywhere.
And that's, that's sweet.
And I think this card is a lotof fun.

Alex (37:57):
Oh it's so much fun.
And in fact, if we're gonna talkstats, you got, you wanna hear
these stats, 56.5% win rateaccording to when tapped, again,
ranked 70 to 108% popularity.
And you'd better believe, uh,head pool did make the top 10
where I talked about it thisweekend.
Yeah.
And, uh, it's so good.
And the thing that I did notaccount for, it comes back to

(38:18):
your hand and buffs itself,right?
It buffs itself.
And so all of a sudden you oftenget these head pools that are
like four power on their own.
It's a one four that also justbuffed everything else in your
hand.
And I found that playing mydeaths down was easier because
you're like, you have anotherinexpensive destroy target.
Yeah, the whole destroy thingjust started snowballing.

(38:38):
Started snowballing.
And I think we're gonna needsome more time to see, okay.
Does the power that head poolprovide, does it outperform the
likes of an agony?
Because you usually, you do theagony into Deadpool combination
that, that kind of got rid ofthe Hulk buster.
Before it used to be Hulk Busteryou played.
Now it's the agony.
Does head pool replace boththose cards?
Like you just don't need thatbecause when you play the the

(38:59):
Deadpool down first you, youplay head pool on top, then you
hit'em with the death lock orwhatever.
Or even actually Lady Deathstrike being tucked into these
decks.
Yeah.
Chef's kiss.
It's beautiful, right?
Uh, the Deadpool goes back firstand then head pool does, the
buff goes back as well.
So now you're playing an evenbigger dead pool early.
It's so good.
It's way better than I expected.

(39:21):
And um, this season I'm gettingd of playing destroy.
I think I, I can't stop myself.
And also I have to admitsomething, Harry, and I'm kind
of ashamed to say this, eventhough statistically, and I'm a
stats nut, even thoughstatistically I know that.
The version without Moyer X isbetter.
You damn well, better believeI'm playing Moyer X anyways,
because I love that card toomuch too.

Harry (39:40):
Oh, I'm in the same boat.
I, I was building it.
I haven't made my video on headpull yet, but I was like, oh, I,
I feel like I need to cut myeyes.
Like I just can't, like, there,there's so much about the card
that I love, including like theanimation.
Like sometimes I just hoveredthe card to just enjoy the
animation longer.
Yeah.
But I agree on Head Bull.
He's, I think like the thingthat I wasn't thinking about
when contemplating the car ishow he kind of just like

(40:01):
steamrolls the rest of thedestroy deck, what you were
talking about with death as anexample.
Like it used to be that on,unlike an average game, death is
gonna be like two to three cost,which is still great.
Like a three 12 is amazing, butI'm finding, playing against my
opponents is that death isgetting discounted to zero every
game almost.
Because like you said, you'vegot another low cost destroy

(40:21):
card that you can keepdestroying.
I think the way that he juststeamrolls the deck is good and
will make it pretty powerfulconsistently throughout the
Minnesota.
I think you're not gonna be theonly one getting to Infinite
with destroy the season.

Alex (40:34):
No, without question.
And the nice thing about Destroytoo is it's, it's a relatively
inexpensive deck to get into,right?
Obviously head pool's theopposite of that.
Head pool's, the most expensivecard you can get right now is a
super premium season pass card.
You got a fork over the 20, butso that doesn't ring true right
now.
But like, uh, if you don't, ifyou don't wanna play Moira Acts,
you wanna play dis uh,traditional discard.

(40:54):
Realistically, all you'retalking about is what Nico
Series five and I guess seriesfour X 23 and Nico is an amazing
card.
It's worth having no matter whateverything else is like.
Starter series three stuff,right?
So, I think it's a relativelyeasy archetype to get into.
And so if you love it, headpool's gonna be a great addition
here.
I, I came away super impressedand as I said, the stats
definitely do call for, uh, thiscard being one of the absolute

(41:17):
OG bangers of the season and thecook with lady district's
awesome too, because when you'replaying LDS, you get to wipe out
the bullseye.
You wipe out those Draculas,right, you wipe out, um, you
know, the sun spots that haven'tproced yet.
Like there's a lot of tech thatyou get to do and uh, I
appreciate that.
But, uh, alright, so we gottakeep moving on.
Now we're gonna move on to adiscussion that I'm gonna allow

(41:39):
you to lead my friend becausethis is a topic that you brought
in here, the collection completeversus cosmetics.
Harry Perry, you actuallyrecently released a video, which
I thought was very thoughtprovoking, and I'm gonna link in
the description down below.
Why don't you give us abreakdown of, uh, kind of your
thoughts about being collectioncomplete versus getting the
cosmetics you you want, and, uh,an idea of what you discussed in

(42:01):
that video and why it's soimportant to you.

Harry (42:02):
Well, I'll tell you the, what started it is that I
started a Discord, like that wasa newer thing, is that I invited
my viewers to come and join meon Discord.
And I started to see this likereally interesting comparison
between a few people in theDiscord where like one or two
people were like really focusedon token maximization and they
were talking about cards thathave been data mind and like,
like really?
Um, yeah, just like budgetfocused with their tokens.

(42:25):
And then there were other peoplethat were like showing brand new
ultimate variants they boughtand like, you know, maxing and
they're like, oh, and I had tospend gold on the boosters for
this one, so I could max thatlike, like just completely
different experiences when itcomes to currency in Marvel
Snap.
And so it kind of, it kind ofled to this idea of like, you
know, what, is there a, anappropriate mentality of
collection complete versuscosmetics?

(42:47):
Because, uh, to my own point,like to my own fault, the reason
that I was talking about havingto skip cards this season is
that I've been buying too manycosmetics, like the amount of
spotlight variance I've boughtfor cards that I enjoy.
And then, so then I was like, itwas creating the stress for
myself that like, I can't getthe new cards.
What am I gonna do?
How do I make a video about thenew card?
I haven't, you know?
And so it led me to this point.

(43:07):
Eventually I released this videoabout like games in general and,
and media and technology ingeneral do a lot to make us feel
bad emotions to con control ouractions and get us to act a
certain way.
Is there like a way that aspeople, we can take that back,
that we can kind of take theball back into our court and
have some control over that.
And that was the point of thewhole video is like, collection,

(43:29):
completeness or cosmetics iskind of a personal decision, but
you can enjoy either one and beat a really healthy place with
the game.
Is kinda what the video was allabout.

Alex (43:38):
Yeah.
Because in theory, like everyonehas, you know, there's a.
There's a scarcity of money,right?
You can't just, yeah.
Unless you're gonna completelywail and everything, you often
can't have both.
You can't have the cosmetics youwant, you can't have the
progression you want.
You usually gotta pick one orthe other.
And I do see, you know, playersactually destroy is a good
example of this, right?
There's gonna be destroyedplayers who have all, matte
black borders, inked,everything.

(43:59):
'cause they only play, I wastalking about my brother.
My brother has all gold,everything and every board were
imaginable on his, uh, ongoingdecks.
That's what he wants to play.
But here's the thing.
You're gonna sacrifice usingthose tokens and using your
resources on progression to getthose cosmetics.
And you're right, game companiesdo go out of their way to design
these tactics.
FOMO tactics are a great exampleof this, right?

(44:21):
You know, anytime there's, uh,some sort of FOMO being applied,
just like with the way, oh, evenin Marvel Snap use a great
example of this and there's amillion different examples, but
you know, if, you know, you, ifyou stay up to date collection,
compete complete, you only spendthe 5K tokens, not six k.
If you let the packs roll overand you skip cards, it's hard to
gamble that 5K'cause you're notable to target the card you

(44:42):
want.
You have to spend the extrathousand to get the card you are
picking.
And if you start missing tons ofcards, well then what happens if
you're like, you know what,yeah, I want to, I wanna start
playing head pool.
I need to get Nico Minoru.
And you're like, bro, I haven'tseen Nico Minoru in two months
in the rotation.
And then the rotation comes.
Yeah, you can pin her orwhatever, but you're sweating
man.
You're sweating there, waitingfor Nico Manar so you can play.

(45:04):
So there's a lot of likeinherent FOMO tactics that are
used by these types of games toget you to spend money and keep
the lights on.
Which, I mean, of course they'rebusiness, that's what you
expect.
Card games sell cards, right?
That's kind of the expectation.
But I like what you're sayinghere.
You're saying well make a choicesometimes, like don't, don't
allow them to kind of steer youremotions, but rather make a

(45:25):
conscious choice.
This is a card that you used, agreat example, Mirage.
Actually, I don't wanna steal itfrom you.
Tell me about what made youdecide to buy like a, a variant
from Mirage.
I think this is a great examplethat you used in your video.

Harry (45:36):
Yeah.
I just like, I love Mirage.
I love Victoria Han.
I've talked about that card manytimes and Mirage is one of my
favorite cards to, to companionwith her.
And so like, this was weeks agoI saw I, I like.
Put on the Reddit, like what'syour favorite Mirage variant?
'cause I have some good ones andI like, thought I had the best
one.
And then someone came back andit was one of the spotlight
ones.
I was like, oh no, that's somuch better.

(45:58):
I like that one so much.
And so I kind of told myselflike, oh, if that comes into my
shop, I'm gonna get it.
I really like that one.
No, it's not that one.
It's the one where she's on the,um, the like the moped, the
little scooter thing.
Do you have that one?

Alex (46:11):
She got some great, no, I don't have that one.

Harry (46:12):
I skipped that one.
She's got some great variance.
That's one of my favorites.
That one right there though.
I don't have that one.
Um, yeah,

Alex (46:19):
this is I think the original spotlight.
Yeah.
She seen twice, right?

Harry (46:23):
Yeah.
So it's the second one whereshe's with the scooter.
I don't know what it is aboutthat one I really like.
And um, it was really funnybecause I had, well, like, had
just done the math of like howmany tokens I had and how many I
needed for the season.
I was like, okay, I'm gonna begood.
I think I can get all thesecards.
And then like the very next shoprollover, she came into my shop
and I was like, oh, dang it.
Like, what do I do?

(46:43):
And so I ended up getting herand I was like way happier with
that.
And I ended, I can't rememberwhat card I ended up skipping.
It was one of them from lastseason.
And I was like way happier thatI had the Mirage variant.
And all I kept doing was playingthat Mirage variant.
And people were like, heart,like star eye emoting on it.
And like, it, like, I was somuch more fulfilled and so much
happier with the Mirage variantthan I was whatever card that I

(47:03):
can't even remember that Iskipped.
And, uh, yeah.
So I'm, I'm, you know, no buyersremorse whatsoever.

Alex (47:09):
That's awesome.
Yeah, and I mean, we lose sightof that a little bit.
Not actually, I gotta blameourselves a bit too.
Not, not necessarily like justus as content creators too,
because the way this releasecycle is designed is that, um,
we're kind of like.
Part of the problem.
Like we create these videostalking about the cards, and
does it FOMO people in?
Of course it does.
And I think one of the naturalpressures that people don't

(47:29):
realize is like, there's a lotof pressure on YouTube to get
things out fast.
Like, yes, I would love to humand haw about Scarlet Witch.
Zombie Scarlet Witch for fourdays to come to a very, very
accurate assessment with all thestats and all that.
But people don't want that.
They don't want a video fourdays late about they want a
video the day it's released withfirst impressions, Alex, make

(47:50):
the call.
Should I get this card or shouldI not?
Yeah, that's what they want.
Right?
And it's so hard.
And so it creates like thissystem where like we're talking
about cards and our, uh,evaluations could potentially be
flawed.
And then what happens is iscards could perform
exceptionally well.
And then all of a sudden, likeeven with my, my sample size, I
might only play 30 games.

(48:11):
Right?
Like, how many games can a manplay in a four hour stream or
whatever, right?
So your sample size is also anissue too.
And so like, you know, in someways us as creators we
contribute to this fomo thiskind of news cycle.
Although we try our best to beas critical as possible, as
truthful as possible.
But like sometimes you whiff,right?
And for me it's heartbreaking tothink that like, here's an

(48:33):
example that's, that's beenheartbreaking for me.
I loved fire hair and I thoughtfire hair was gonna be really,
really cool.
And it is really, really cool.
And I remember my videosuggesting, I think you gotta
get fire here.
I don't think there's anothercard like this, but
realistically it has had aturbulent.
Meta share.
Like, it, it seen some play inVictoria hand and that's cool

(48:54):
with like, you know, the, thehood into Victoria hand and then
you destroy it with the miseryand all that stuff and then like
you're feasting.
Sure.
But it has not had the metapenetration that I had hoped or
that I thought it was going tohave.
And so for me, I take thatseriously.
I know there's people out therethat bought fire here and have
not played fire here.
You know what I mean?
And I feel like that's a risk werun every week.
And so when you brought up thistopic of like, can we resist

(49:18):
these FOMO antics a little bit?
It meant a lot to me.
'cause I, I try to encouragepeople to wait till the end of
the week, see how the stats comeout and so it really struck
home.

Harry (49:28):
Yeah.
Well I appreciate that it's atopic that like, not necessarily
related to the FOMO taxes ofMarvel Snap, but just like in
general, I know you're ateacher.
I was a teacher.
I'm not currently, but Ipreviously taught high school
and like being among kids thatlike I really care about and
have a passion for helping themlive good lives.
I just like realized that ingeneral.
And not just on kids, but yousee it in them a lot e even as

(49:49):
me as an adult, that just likeour world has kind of made us
less intentional.
And so I'm, I have like a bigpassion for helping teach people
how to be more intentional inevery part of our life.
Because there's so many peoplethat are so smart working so
hard to take that away from us,which is like not trying to be
overly heavy.
So that like I, if, if I cansomehow contribute that to
Marvel Snap, I'd love to.

(50:09):
And if that means that morepeople are gonna buy Mirage
variants, then so be it.
I'll star eyes every single onethat I see.
'Cause I like, I think it's, it,it is an interesting thing how
we as content creators do,contribute to this.
Like the how I, I think there'slike an underestimation of how
much content creators controlthe meta.
Like, I, I really wonder if.
Next week in the top 10, youlike threw in a devil dino deck.

(50:33):
Somehow.
If there was a good one, thereprobably isn't.
But if there was a good devilDino deck, how quickly other
people would start playing that,which is like, amazing and like
speaks to how much people trustyou, which is a good thing.
So I, you know, I'm trying touse that small amount of trust I
have to, to help people be alittle bit healthier in, in the
ways that the game has theirgrips on'em.
But I'm, I'm curious for you,Alex, like in the conversation

(50:54):
of cosmetics versus collection,complete lists, like what gets
you fomo, more good cosmetics orlike the new cards.
What, what are you more of?

Alex (51:02):
So, it's funny you say that.
First of all, I feel like I haveto have every card.
I feel like I have to have everycard.
And, uh, so that's somethingthat kind of, uh, you know, I, I
try to stay up to date because Ifeel like the expectations that
I do play them, that I do getpersonal, uh, kind of experience
with cards.
I can talk about them on thepodcast with a degree of
confidence, right?
Because I think that's whatpeople expect.
I think that's rightfully so,too.

(51:22):
I think that people shouldexpect me to put, you know, to
play the cards I'm talkingabout.
So that's, that's number one.
With regards to cosmetics, Ifeel like I'm pretty good with
FOMO into things.
However, what I try to searchfor is I want one good variant.
Give me one good variant and onegood split, and I'll never look
at another.
For instance I don't know whatthey could do to get me to get a

(51:45):
better variant than this, or abetter split than this.
It's like for me, like thisdeath variant is too good.
I'm, I'm done.
I'm done.
Like, I'm not, I'm not gonnaseek another split here.
Like you, you can't get me.
Another example is like, shehulk, I don't care what you
throw my weight.
Like I'm just, it's so good.
I know.
It's so good.
Right?
I'm not trying to flex you.
I'm just saying it's like I justneed one good split and one good

(52:08):
variant and I am more thanhappy.
And so that's kind of the way Iapproach the cosmetics.
Uh, like this is an ultimatevariant.
Like I did fork out theridiculous amount of tokens.
I regret this by the way.
I regret the ultimate variant ahundred percent.
And one I will say I absolutelyregret is armor.
Here's a great example.
Okay.
I spent way too much money onthis armor variant.

(52:29):
And you're like, Alex, it's noteven that impressive.
I know.
Well, first of all, I thoughtthe, the, the red board mastered
nice.
And you know, she's armored.
So this metallic in thebackground I thought was pretty
cool.
Instead of going, yeah, it looksgood.
But honestly, like the honesttruth is that like I paid so
much more.
They, they released this one forfree, man, I paid so much money
for that expensive fantasy one,and then they're like, yo, I

(52:50):
don't remember what it was for.
They're like, we're gonnarelease this free armor variant.
And they just gave it away.
And yes, it's better than theone I'm using, but I did not pay
6,000 tokens for this.
So you damn well know to justhold my pride together.
I'm using the one I paid for.
So this is an example of wherelike I actually have absolutely,
like I regret all of it.
I regret every single token Ispent on this.

Harry (53:11):
No, I know what you mean.
Yeah.
I'm, I'm a big fan of splits inthe game.
That's actually probably one ofmy favorite parts about the game
is, is all the splits in thecosmetics of the game.
Like, I'm surprised how much Ienjoy that.
But yeah, the funny thing isthat Mirage variant that I talk
about, how much I enjoy it, itcreates so much conflict in me
though, because I have adifferent mirage variant that
they're obviously you cancustomize cards so they have a
God split on'em, but it looksbetter on the Peach Mom co

(53:33):
variant that I have.
But I'm like, oh, that onedidn't cost 6,000 tokens.
Like, I gotta use the other one.
So I know exactly what you mean.

Alex (53:41):
That's funny.
But, uh, but yeah, anyways, avery interesting conversation.
I feel like we could go onforever, uh, about that
specifically.
And, uh, yeah, let us know ifthere's any, like what you guys
think about, you know, fing intocosmetics or collection
complete.
And I, you know what?
I will say, I bet you with, withthe golden gauntlet being done
and like a little bit more of afocus on competitive Snap, which
is nice, I'm so happy thatthey're finally doing that.

(54:02):
I wonder if becoming collectioncomplete is something that more
people that wanna becompetitive, they seek, if
there's a competitive met outthere and they want to rank up
and they want to compete, theywant to compete for rewards or,
uh, whatever it is that they'rethat drives them, they gotta
have the cards.
You know what I mean?
And so, uh, yeah, lot, a lot ofdecisions to be made out there.
And uh, that takes us to ourSnapchat mailbag.

(54:23):
We've got only a couplequestions this week, and I think
they're doozies.
I think they're fun ones.
And one of them comes from Sashaand it reads, I learned today.
The word kernel is spelled thisway because it has Italian
origin, col, ello.
I can't even say I'm Italian.
I don't wanna say it, but it'spronounced kernel spelled
legitimately like a popcornkernel because of the Spanish

(54:45):
pronunciation of the wordkernel, which I guess has some
reference to popcorn.
So apparently there's some like,is it called etymology?
Which is how, I don't even knowif I'm saying that word right?
Like the way that language isspoken.
I dunno.
Someone I'll, whatever.
It's not the last word I'llmispronounce here.

Harry (55:02):
Yeah, I did.
The funny thing is, so I'mdyslexic and like kernel for the
longest time has been, so thisis the strange thing about
dyslexia is that like some wordsI still like, I don't know what
it is, I can't read them, but Iknow like I've just memorized in
my brain that like, oh, whateverthat thing is that I can't read
that is this, which is like theweirdest way to read language.
And kernel is genuinely one ofthose words that like, I

(55:24):
actually don't even know how tospell it, but I know that.
It's kernel, if that makes like,it's just a weird word.

Alex (55:29):
And the last question of the day comes from interior of
Kevin.
And, uh, wow.
We went, people went off aboutthis.
I never thought I'd like Alexmore.
And then he mentions Heroes twoand three.
Wow.
Literally my favorite nostalgicgames of all time.
My brother and I used to playthem as kids taking, uh, taking
turns at the pc.
What's crazy about this?
So here I want to hear aboutyour nostalgic games, but what's

(55:49):
crazy about this is I've beenplaying Here's of My Magic Two
and three for like weeks.
I don't know why I've beenaddicted to them.
I didn't even realize Old andArrow was even coming out.
And then like, then I juststumbled across it and literally
the demo was released.
Like last week.
I saw Grubby playing it onTwitch.
Like all these people wereplaying it on Twitch and stuff.
I'm like, what are the chances?
And then on Game Pass, which hasit's all other controversy, they

(56:10):
added literally Heroes two andthree to Game Pass.
I was like, you gotta be kiddingme.
Like I, I felt like I was theonly one on the planet paying
attention to this game.
And now all of a sudden, a 10megabyte.
Heroes two ends up on Game Passfrom 1996.
I mean, bless their hearts.
I, anyways, what are yournostalgic games from your
childhood that like you justcan't help but go back to Every
once in a while?

Harry (56:31):
Oh, the one that like, that is always my go-to answer
is um, um, Lego Star Wars.
The original saga that is likeepisodes four, five and six in
the Lego format.
That was my brother and I, wewould get in legitimate fights
with each other'cause it wasonly two player and we had
friends down the street thatwere also brothers that were our
same age.

(56:51):
And so like the four of us,right?
Me and the older brother andthen my younger brother and the
younger brother would likegenuinely get and wrestle
fistfights over who gotta playLego Star Wars first when we'd
hang out together as kids.
So that's like one that like,just is every time I go back to
that game, it just like feels.
Great.
Is probably the one but the onethat I still go back to, and

(57:11):
it's actually the only reasonthat I still have a, we u it's
right next to my PC here ismonster hundred three.
Ultimate, I just, the hours I'vewasted in that game, I just I
can't, it's the stu console thatit's the only reason I have,
it's for this one game.
'cause you can't play itanywhere else.
And I, I'm like the one personleft in the world who has a weu.
For Monster Hunter, and it's agreat game.

Alex (57:31):
You mean you're the one person in the world that even
bought the Weu?
Yeah.

Harry (57:35):
That too.

Alex (57:36):
Yeah.
But, uh, it's funny, I've neveractually played a Monster Hunter
game, but thinking back, likewhen you were talking about like
fist fights, I actually watchedmultiple fist fights happen.
I would give two scenarios whereI saw legit fist fights.
One, I was a kid, me and mybrother went to our neighbor's
house.
They had two brothers too, verysimilar to your situation.
We were playing, uh, perfectdark on N 64.
Yeah.
And we're playing, right.

(57:56):
And then, uh, one of thebrothers, Snipes, the other
brother, he's like, stop peekingat my screen.
He's, and everyone's like, yo,chill.
And then we're playing.
He gets him again.
He's like, you're staring at myscreen.
And literally, like, theystarted just fighting like pure
fist fight.
Dad had to come over.
Break'em up and I'm like, ah,we're done for today.
I guess and then the otherthing, we had a land party.
Oh, this is such a funny story.

(58:17):
So we're having a land party.
My parents, they went onvacation, right?
This is how cool I am in highschool.
My parents go on vacation andthey're like, don't do anything
stupid, Alex.
Like, we know you won't, butalso just don't do anything
stupid.
I'm like, yeah, I won't.
So I'm like, I'm just gonna havea party with some friends over
though.
They're like, not too many.
We're like, okay.
We everyone brings their PCsover, like their, their

(58:38):
monitors, everything.
We set up like tables, a wholeland station in my, my parents'
basement.
And uh, what happened was, islike we were all playing, we
were all playing, uh, Warcraftthree brain of chaos at the
time, and we're doing like eightV eight, like, uh, sorry, like
eight FFAs and all this stuff.
And I remember my neighbor, uh,my dad's best friend Bill came
into the house and was like, yo,comes into the basement to see

(58:59):
like, what's going on.
And he just, he's like.
10 dudes playing Warcraft.
He's like, all right, nevermind.
This is not what I thought itwas.
And he just leaves.
In the meantime, we're allplaying, uh, Warcraft three.
And my brother, anybody who'splayed this game would know my
brother.
Tower rushes like one of ourother buddies.
And Tower rushing is like ascumbag play.
We're basically like right offthe ramp, you just start

(59:20):
building in the other guy'sbase, like, you know what I
mean?
Like, as the person gettingtower rushed, it sucks so bad,
like you don't even get to playthe game.
And then literally my brother,like all of a sudden my buddy's
unit stopped moving and we'relike, uhoh.
And we can hear him come outfrom the other room and like, he
just started swinging.
Like there was no conversation.
He was like, basically like, howdare you tower rush me.

(59:40):
It just started throwing handslike immediately, like we had to
break them up, the whole thing.
And what was funny is it didn'teven ruin the night.
Everyone just kept playing.
So it was fine.

Harry (59:49):
Yeah.
Oh man.
Those, those experiences likethat are the best.
It reminds me of my, a differentgroup of friends, but down the
street he had an N 64 and, uh,we would go over there and we'd
play, we'd have, we had a, wewent as a group of friends, we
rode our bikes to a Walmart thatwas near us to buy a whiteboard,
like a giant one that you'd seein like a classroom so that we

(01:00:09):
could host our brackettournaments of Super Smash Bros
on the Nintendo 64.
And that's like one of my corememories is us like balancing
this whiteboard on my handlebarsand the back of his bike as we
like, rode in tandem together tocarry this whiteboard home.
And then we just someone wouldget super mad and they'd just
get up and just erase the wholewhiteboard and then like, punch

(01:00:29):
it and then leave the room andthen they'd come back like an
hour later and be like, okay,I'm back in the tournament.
You know, like, just, it was somuch fun.
But the other story you toldreminded me of one in, I'm sure
we're outta time, but we had aland party for Halo three.
The church that I was in haslike a, a youth group.
And one of our youth leaderswhen I was a youth loved Halo.
And so he had a land party inthe church building in, there's

(01:00:51):
like a big gymnasium in thechurch, like a basketball court.
And then on all the wallsthere's projectors.
So there's like eight projectorsI think in there.
Eight, eight or 10, I can'tremember.
I haven't been there in a while.
Anyway, eight or 10 projectors.
And so we, everyone broughttheir Xbox and we had a huge
land party playing Halo three inthe church.
And, uh, we were staying upreally late, just having a ton
of fun.

(01:01:11):
But it ended because two peoplestarted like screaming at each
other and almost startedfighting.
And the youth was like, whoa,whoa.
Like this isn't appropriate.
This is a church setting.
Everybody go home now.
And you know, but yeah,someone's always gotta ruin it.

Alex (01:01:22):
It always has to end in a fight somehow.
Right?
Yeah.
That's absolutely hilarious.
But, uh, yeah, Harry, honestly,it was fantastic having you on
the podcast this week.
This has been such a long timecoming, and as I said earlier in
the podcast guys, I trulybelieve that Harry's a fantastic
content creator.
Do me a favor.
Go hit the sub button.
You gotta sub to this man.
Give him some love'cause heabsolutely deserves it.

(01:01:43):
Thank you so much for joining usthis week, and we'll see you on
that next one.