The Great Ezekiel Sims Debate | Top Cards of the Month | Why is Scream So Annoying? | The Snap Chat Ep. 157 - The Snap Chat: Marvel Snap Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Akex (00:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of the
Snapchat.
Today I'm joined by one of mygood friends, Dara.
And you know what I have to say?
I almost wish I was recordingthe last 20 minutes of our
conversation'cause we went offthe rails because just before I
started recording I said,alright, Dara chums up.
Let's do this.
And he had no idea what I wastalking about.
Hit me in the comments, if youknow what I'm talking about.

(00:21):
Alright, chums up, let's dothis.
That is like, like, that is likeholy language that almost every
gamer should know.
And you coming from a blizzardbackground, working with her
stone and all that stuff, Ithought you would've known but
dare you didn't.
And then you question me.
Tell us about what you've doneand what you've now learned.

Dera (00:42):
You know, I, I actually didn't just, I just didn't know
the first part.
Alright.
Chums up.
I like, obviously everyone knowslet's do this.
You know, that's, that's thequote.
I know, you know, but

Akex (00:53):
I like how we're leaving out, like the most important,
like after the

Dera (00:55):
leave it

Akex (00:56):
do this.

Dera (00:57):
So it's in the comments, you know, that's how it goes.
Actually, now all the commentsare gonna be this, you know, now
we're not gonna have anyinteresting comments, but, you
know, but whatever.
All right, good.

Akex (01:06):
I just remember the internet back in those days.
You know what I mean?
When like trying to figure outlike, oh, first of all, everyone
had to be keyed for BlackRocklayer, right?
You had to get a key done.
You had to go on like a massivequest, right?
In order to get like access, youdidn't get a

Dera (01:18):
key.

Akex (01:20):
I'm almost positive you had to get a key, you had to be
attuned for it.
Right?

Dera (01:24):
Did you or did just one person have to be attuned?
I actually don't remember.
That was back in the day.
Yeah.

Akex (01:28):
I'm almost 99% positive.
You had to be attuned to getinto the Black Rock spire.

Dera (01:33):
It's possible.
I just like did it and thennever remembered that I did it.
So it's, I literally haven'tdone that.
'cause I never played WildClassic.
I just played like the original,wow.
20 years ago.
That was the last time I played.
Wow.
So.

Akex (01:44):
Yeah, for the record, everybody who's listening right
now confuse us.
Like heck as to what we're eventalking about.
We're talking about the good oldLeroy Jenkins, and we're talking
about the original world ofWarcraft back in the day.
Uh, this is a World of Warcraftpodcast now, but, um, but yeah,
like, it's just so funny.
So first of all, I, I have toask Derek.
Okay, so World of Warcraft, whenit came out when I was in high

(02:05):
school, right?
So when I was basically fromgrades like eight to.
10 ish.
I played nothing but Warcraft.
Reign of Chaos.
Warcraft frozen throne.
Same.
I actually got to the top 50 inNorth America.
I was top 50 na as night Elf.
Uh, believe it or not, I wouldliterally, me and my, my best
friend who lived next door, wewould join like micro uh, micro

(02:27):
wars.
Kinda like, you know how likethey had custom mods and stuff?
It's where like Rodda started.
Yep.
I would literally go into versehim in micro wars where like
you'd have two units and you'dhave to micromanage your units
to beat each other and stufflike that.
To like physically train to playWarcraft three.
And I was so good.
Like I had all the hockeys downwhere I could, I would like
hockey individual units andstuff like that, and then

(02:48):
micromanage them all around thebattlefield.
It was like crazy.
A PM through the roof.
Total opposite of what we do nowis card gamers.
RPA our a PM is super low, butlike what was your high school?
Game that you were likeAbsolutely all in on, because
for me it was Warcraft three,and then it was World of
Warcraft into high school, intocollege, university.

Dera (03:11):
Oh, well I feel like we're the same age'cause it's exactly
the same, so I played rate ofchaos into Warcraft three.
I played Doda though in Warcraftthree, like I played, that was
my custom thing that I played abit of.
Like, I also got, I got like top200 actually on the ladder.
We probably faced each other onthe ladder if you're US east.
So, you know, like that'spossible like on Warcraft three

(03:34):
thinking back.
But yeah, I played, I playedDoda, uh, like, and then I, uh,
I, I didn't even play a cardgame.
I literally didn't play any cardgames until Hearthstone came
out.
That was like the first cardgame I really played a serious
amount of, which is kind ofcrazy to think about.
Like, yeah, I was, I played, Iplayed like eight months of wow
and quit that, but.
I wouldn't say, but yeah, Dodaand Warcraft three were my bread

(03:56):
and butter

Akex (03:56):
buddy.
I literally had a Doda twochannel that was what my YouTube
channel was.
I before I found that

Dera (04:03):
out last podcast.

Akex (04:05):
Yeah.
So it's so funny, like, yeah, weare we the same person, but are
we the same person?
For me, I played so much.
Wow.
Growing up, like I rememberdoing like the slash time played
or whatever slash played, Ithink was the command and it
saying like.
27 days.
Something, two years.

Dera (04:20):
Oh, only 27 days.
That's not,

Akex (04:21):
but that's on one character.
That was on my or shaman.
And I was actually manning anight elf priest.
And I was like, bru, like Ithink this is way too much time.
Like if I had committed 27 daysto like throwing a football, I'd
be a quarterback in the NFL.
Like, not actually quite, youknow what I mean?
It's like if you think that, ifyou put in that perspective,
like if I had just been readingbooks instead of playing, wow.

(04:43):
Yeah.
Where would I have gotten?
Maybe, but you know what, if I,if I was reading books not
playing, wow, maybe I wouldn'thave had a career as a
professional streamer slashYouTuber.
Right?
So maybe it all did work outactually.
But, um, it's kind of funny,like how we all have, uh, very
similar roots in games and like,I remember, um, my favorite
thing about classic games, and Ipromise guys, we're gonna talk
about Marvel Snap soon.

(05:04):
Okay?
One of my favorite things, andthis might be totally crazy, I
used to love.
The instruction manuals.
Because the instruction manualsdidn't used to just be
instruction.
They used to be like loreguides.
They used to have stories.
They used to have tons of stuff.
Like if you think about like theoriginal StarCraft manual, I
still have it.
It's a thick piece of paper thathas tons of lore about the

(05:25):
history of the StarCraftuniverse.
I remember getting like the Ageof Empires manuals, and it would
have complete biographies ofeach of the factions.
You would read it as like anactual historical piece, like
there was education found inthose manuals and now they don't
even exist anymore.
And I think it's sad.
Dara,

Dera (05:42):
you know, I found the teacher in the room.
This guy's talking about books,you know, but yeah, I, that's
just Wikipedia nowadays, youknow that that's how it's a
little sad, but also I don'tmind, it's all like just digital
and available for free andeveryone just can go read up on
the lore of whatever anytimethey want.
I think that's cool too.
But.
I'm going to spoil everyone inthe chat here and be the bummer

(06:03):
that like, I'm actually theopposite of a lore person.
I actually have never reallycared about lowering games, and
I've never really played a gamefor the lore.
Am I a bad person?

Akex (06:14):
You are not a bad person.
I'm just disappointed.
But, um, you know, it's one ofthose things where like, I feel
like Lauren's stuff isdefinitely secondary to the
experience for the most part.
But I feel like if you reallywant to dive into the lore of
something and you start likereading up on the game, you're
playing and you start toappreciate like the nuance to
what you're doing.
Like for instance, prior toplaying Witcher three, right?

(06:36):
Even though I played the Witchertwo, I never played the first
Witcher.
I actually ended up reading alllike six or seven books of the
Witcher series and it gave me somuch additional context.
And when I ran into certaincities or I bumped into certain
people or certain thingshappened, I was like, wow.
This is what the city looks likefrom the story and how it was
different from my imagination.
And I, it kind of added thisdifferent layer to the

(06:58):
experience for me, which Iappreciate.
I remember doing that for theWitcher.
I remember for Mass effect, Iread all the novels for Mass
Effect while playing the gamesas well.
And it gave me a newappreciation for like who
Captain Anderson was, hishistory, stuff like that.
And like a lot of stuff wouldcome from like, the story and
the beats.
We're almost referencing some ofthe written articles.
Halo is big for that too.

(07:19):
Halo is really big for like, alot of the lore actually being
found in literature as opposedto the game itself to kind of
cons like bring into, um, likeconcept what you're seeing and
why you're seeing it.
So there, if I could sell you onlore, I'm gonna tell you it's
definitely worth it.
Like don't go, I'm not talkingabout like, you know, the Tumblr
lore, you know what I mean?

(07:39):
I'm don't do that.
That's, that's a whole differentcategory that's like, you know,
the fan fiction side.
We're not talking about that.
We're talking about likeofficial lore.
I'm telling you, it's worth it.

Dera (07:49):
You see, I'm a big movie TV show, book person.
Like I like that form of mediafor like storytelling.
I just never found games to bethe best medium for
storytelling, you know?
So it's just like if I'm goingto like there are new games out
like dispatch and other gameslike that do, I've heard great
things that I haven't tried itout and I would be interested in
those kind of games, choose yourown adventure kind of

(08:10):
storytelling games.
But I feel like in general, justlike I'm in a game for the
gameplay, you know, I'd ratherthem cut out the gameplay and
just give me a movie and I'llwatch the movie, the TV show.
But actually I did.
It was something you said reallyresonated with me is that like
you do see like the charactersand that you feel a little bit
differently.
I kind of see it a little bitbackwards actually for me.

(08:31):
'cause actually.
Bringing this back to MarvelSnap.
Uh, the what, the, the Snapchat.
He

Akex (08:36):
did it,

Dera (08:36):
you know, I'm

Akex (08:37):
talking about Marvel Snap.

Dera (08:39):
I actually, before Marvel Snap was not like a massive
Marvel fan, you know, like Inever really read the comics.
I did watch every MMCU movie,you know, like, that was my
Marvel, you know, it was like, Ijust, I had watched every MCU
movie and I didn't really knowmany of the characters, but as
Snap characters came out, Iactually was introduced to a lot
of the characters first inMarvel Snap.

(09:00):
And like, I knew them, like, andhow they kind of interacted and
like, some of their abilities alittle bit just because of that.
And then when I would go watch amovie that they had a, the
character in Snap before I sawthe movie or whatever, I'm like,
oh, there's Ebony Ma, you know,or something like that.
I'm just like, there's thischaracter, you know, it's just
like, just random characters.
I have no idea who they were,you know, before I, like, I

(09:22):
never even paid attention tothat character before I knew it
in Marvel Snap.
And now it, it comes out and I'mlike, oh.
I know who that is.
That's kind of cool.

Akex (09:30):
I experienced the exact same thing, like watching back
the original X-Men and seeinglike Sauron and KR and stuff
like that.
Uh, I thought that was supercool.
And you're right, like once youput a name to the face, it kind
of, it, it's just like the storyresonates a little differently
with you, right?
They're not just facelesscharacters that are like, you
know, dime a dozen, like, nah,you know, that's, you know,
that's iceman or whatever.

(09:50):
And I think that's particularlycool, right?
Even like Havoc.
Havoc and Polaris and stuff likethat.
Like seeing them in like kindathe X-Men series was kind of
cool too.
I still have not finished X-Men97.
I'm on like the last episode,which is so stupid.
Like, I, I don't know why I dothis all the time.
I do this all the time guys.
There are a bunch of things thatI'm on, like the last stage of
like the New Dragon Age game.

(10:11):
I'm literally on like the lastmission.
Like, it was like, are you sureyou want to continue?
There's no going back.
And I'm like.
All right, I'll play that later.
And it's been like two years.
Um, I've not finished X-Men 97despite being on the last
episode.
There's a whole bunch ofexamples of this.
I didn't finish, uh oh.
What?
Midnight Suns.
I was on the last mission ofMarvel's Midnight Suns for like
seven months until I eventuallyjust did it one day when I was

(10:33):
sick.
I was like, I just gotta finishthis game.
So I just did it.
So, uh, you know, maybe, maybenext time we talk, I'll have to
report back on the end of X-Men97.
But, uh, I mean, that was, thatwas fun, man.
It's fun.
It's so crazy me to think that,like, despite the fact that
like, you know, we come fromcompletely different areas,
different countries, really, andyet we had such a very similar

(10:53):
experience with like the gameswe were playing and where we've
ultimately ended up too.
Um, I think that's sofascinating.
Just like I find.
Ezekiel Sims.
Fascinating.
How about that transition?
Ezekiel Sims, I gotta tell you,this is a card that, uh, to
suggest that I'm notparticularly excited about would
be an understatement.

(11:14):
Dara, Ezekiel Sims did come outin the series five packs this
week, and despite ultimatelyhaving pretty okay stats, he
felt slightly underwhelming.
I'd be interested in yourthoughts and, uh, what your
experience with Ezekiel Simpsonhas been.

Dera (11:29):
I actually completely disagree.
I think he's been cracked, like,actually, like, I'm not even
just like glazing the card.
Yeah.
I actually have been playing alot of Ezekiel Sims the last
like, four or five days, and Ithink he's actually been
carrying some heavy weight.
Like I've been playing him injust like a, a hydro, uh, hydro

(11:50):
stober deck.
The hydro stober deck.
I think just like it moves a lotof stuff around.
He's moving around a lot.
And it's just been really,really good.
It like Ezekiel is a two sixminimum in those decks all the
time.
And then he is a two eight andhe cabos with Craven.
He cabos with Hydro Stomper.
So not only is he a 2 6, 2 8,he's also buffering these other

(12:11):
cards around.
So I think it's really good.

Akex (12:13):
Okay.
Interesting.
So, uh, like for me, Idefinitely felt like he was okay
at times and I mean, it's niceto have like move, enable, uh,
enablers and also even if hedoesn't move, like let's say
locations are full or whatever,he'll still get the buff, which
I think is beneficial.
Like he still gets thatadditional power.
I think the buff to Visionhelped because it gave you
another line to like, oh, he's atwo eight vision's now a five

(12:34):
nine, so it'll allow EzekielSims to jump again.
Small things like that I thinkdid help Ezekiel Sims overall,
the problem was is that like, Ifelt like he was pretty high
committal, like he was goodpower, like you're suggesting,
but like how would you compare,like how would you sell someone
spending six K tokens on EzekielSims when they have something
like a silk.

Dera (12:55):
I'm saying you put Silk and Ezekiel sims together.
Like that's what I'm saying,like he's the, a card on the
deck.
I think Ezekiel Sims and Silkare pretty even in that deck.
Like I, I actually think, uh,silk is a, is gonna be a little
bit more, uh, one of theproblems with silk is that your
opponent can also move silk,right?
So it has some downsides to it.

(13:16):
Eco sims, you're the only onemoving it so you know when it's
gonna move.
And I think you said somethinglike, uh, about vision.
I think part of the problem withpeople building out their eco
Sims deck is that they may beovercom committing to the build
around for Eko Sims, I thinkhe's best.
When you just have like, likethree cards that are bigger than

(13:36):
five power that can buff him upto six or eight power, like I
don't think you should reallycommit too much.
Like maybe have one card in yourentire deck that, that can, uh,
send him to eight power.
Like you don't need him to beeight power every game.
I think just trying to get himto six.
Is where the sweet spot is.

Akex (13:55):
That's absolutely fair.
So what you're saying is like,this happens all the time.
Every time there's a new cardthat comes out, it's like, you
know what?
We want to, we wanna see what itcan do.
And we hyper fixate on that onecard, right?
It happens all the time.
We hyper fixate.
Can we get this card to gocrazy, do the thing that we want
it to do?
And we lose sight of the factthat like some cards are simply
just supporting characters.
They're supporting charactersfor archetypes.
They're not supposed to be thecarry.

(14:16):
Of the archetype.
And so Ezekiel Sims while stillbeing able to get to two six or
two eight, which like you takeall day long on any card, like
imagine if Jeff was a two eight,right?
Like it's stupid, right?
So like, yeah, you're right.
Yeah.
The power's there.
Not to mention it's not just twoeight, it's the movement and
then the hydro stomp gets plusone craven gets the pluses, like
there's more happening than justlike Ezekiel's raw number,

(14:37):
right?
But I like what you're sayingthere because you're like, well,
instead of focusing on Sims,like with the new hydro stomper,
like he's getting well over 10power on a consistent basis.
So not only are you getting atwo six or two eight Ezekiel
sims, but now you have a hydrostomper that's at three 12 or
whatever.
And the power across the boardis just high enough that like,
you don't need to rely onEzekiel Sims to close out the

(14:57):
games.
And as I said, you even havevision now, which got, uh, which
got buffed to that five nine,which in and of itself is
actually providing a lot ofpower and utility as well.
So overall, you're actuallypretty, uh, pretty positive,
positive on Sims.
Now I am.
I came away kind of like.
I was okay with Ezekiel Sims.
The challenge I had though islike, I don't feel like I can

(15:17):
recommend that this car bepurchased because like, I don't
feel like the top performingversions of Move are gonna want
him.
I feel like they're still gonnabe pigeonholed into human torch
style decks.
And I don't think Ezekiel Simsmakes those human torch style
decks, which is according tostats I'm seeing on Untap.
I don't see him there.
In fact, according to Untap, thehighest win rate version of
Ezekiel Sims is actually aSauron Serer deck because it has

(15:42):
so many high power cards thatcan bounce it around.
It's running a 55% win rate.
I did feature it in, uh, my deckof the week video as well, but
that kind of surprised me.
And then second to that is goingto be a, uh, move shell with
like, you know, silk and whatwhatnot, and morales.
But what I'm trying to say islike.
Do you think it's worth someoneinvesting in a card like Ezekiel

(16:03):
Sims when we know that likethere's so much competition in
the space and he might not evenbe in the top performing
versions of move?
Like how do you spend yourtokens if you're someone who
does not have unlimitedresources?

Dera (16:13):
I mean, without the unlimited resources, like it's
gonna be tough to sell anythingthat I don't think it, Ezekiel
Sims is necessary to play a moveHydro stober deck even, or like
any deck.
I do think he's a strong, verygood character that is very
flexible and can go into a lotof different archetypes.
Like I think if you're lookingat it, part of the problem with
the stats that you're looking atis the fact that he's so

(16:34):
flexible.
He's actually being put into somany different small tweak decks
that there's not gonna be alarge sample size for any
individual decks.
So you're gonna have to dropyour stats down to like 20 games
to get anything that's likeremotely like in the realm.
Like no one's played a hundredgames of like the individual
decks with them because youcould just tweak one or two

(16:55):
cards and all a sudden it's awhole new deck.
And it's gonna be a completelydifferent archetype.
And the, the stats nowadays, youknow, if you're trying to do a
hundred plus games, you're notgonna find many decks out there.
It's gonna be whoever made avideo on the card and everyone
copied the one video card, youknow.

Akex (17:12):
You're right, there is some quality in stats right now.
Yeah.
Especially since that, likerealistically, we're actually
getting a lot less games basedon what I see.
Like even kind of going throughuntapped and seeing where the
statistics lie and like how manygames are being played, A lot of
people seem to be playing inlike the 80 to 90 and 90 to a
hundred range.
We're seeing much less infinite,straight up games.
There's almost no games beingplayed under Rank 60.

(17:33):
So it looks like people are kindof ranking up towards the 80
range and then getting likestuck in this limbo, which we've
talked about.
And actually we have, we gotlike a bunch of comments about
that too.
I don't think we're talkingabout it today, but a lot of
people talking about like thebots still being frustrating for
the most part, and, uh, they'refinding the grind experience,
uh, you know, not favorable.
It seems as though people reallydid like that robot.
Every once in a while.

(17:54):
They just gave them the eightcubes to help them kind of keep
stepping up that rung.
Because I think a lot of peoplejust wanna get the infinite,
they wanna get the 90 reward forthe 500 gold.
They wanna just start playingthe game again.
They don't wanna have to worryabout the ranked experience or
whatever.
And I feel like they're gettingkind of bogged down in, in that.
But I do like what you're sayingbecause like, you're right.
It is hard to focus on like whatthe popular decks are doing

(18:14):
sometimes.
'cause there could be a cookoutthere where Ezekiel Simpson is
underutilized.
And we do see this from time totime where like, you know, cards
come out and they're kind of hohum.
Like Prodigy was a great exampleof this.
Well, prodigy needed a littlebit of extra help, right?
Because it got like the end ofturn additions and obviously
the, uh, invisible women forstaff.
So Prodigy comes out very, veryho-hum and now he's in some of
the best x in the game.
Because of the interactions heprovides.

(18:35):
Right.
I just don't see that still inEzekiel Sims.
So for me, like if people oftenlook to us to give kinda
recommendations, I feel likeEzekiel Sims can be skipped
because I don't think that he'sgonna carry the move archetype
of your playing move.
And I don't think that hecompletely replaces Silk despite
the fact that you brought up alot of good points as to how
he's, uh, differentiated.

(18:56):
But at the same time, Dara, andI'd love, I'd love your thoughts
on this.
I almost feel like I prefer movethe way Ezekiel Sims is being
played.
I don't like the human torch.
I'm getting a massive humantorch going, moving around
tribunal, whatever the garbagedeck does.
I'm sick of that.
I'm sick of these all like,these one trick move decks where
it's like you either answer itor you don't.
I don't like that, that playstyle.

(19:16):
I like the idea of like, oh,there's a, a big cr, there's a
big Ezekiel Sims visions movingaround.
I feel like that's the way moveshould be played.
More of like a broad poweracross all these different cards
as opposed to like this onestupid human torch car that just
stands above the rest.

Dera (19:33):
I, yeah, I, I completely agree with you.
Some of my most fun move decksare actually the hydro stuper
decks.
Essentially the, like, I wasrunning hydro stuper deck like
six seasons ago or whatever,like whenever hydro Stober came
out.
And I was having so much funwith it.
It was actually one of my likefavorite decks of the entire
season, and I climbed the mostwith that deck the entire

(19:54):
season.
You know, it's, it's actuallygood.
I think it's underutilized and Ithink that's one of the things
that a lot of people don'treally realize.
And they even buffed hydrostomper for some reason, even
though I think that card wascracked before they buffed it.
And I think it's because theyjust want people to realize how
good that deck is and be able toplay it.
And I've just, I've been havinga blast with it and winning with
it and climbing a good amount.

(20:14):
I think it is one of those decksthat are harder to play.
Move by just an archetype ishard to play.
It's just like that, that's oneof the things.
So it, you might not find a lotof success with it, and that
might just be something thatlike, maybe it is a skip for
some people because it's.
You move just isn't for you.
But it's like, I think if youwant to play move and you don't

(20:34):
wanna play it in a unique, notjust, like you said, pump up the
human torch, boring, old, oldstyle move way, I think Ezekiel
Sims is something that doesenable that.
And I don't like, again, Idon't, I don't even think that
Ezekiel Sims is only good inthose decks.
I think you could play EzekielSims in any sort of tempo deck,
and it's gonna be a good two sixin any of those decks as well.
And you could just throw in likebat rock into that deck.

(20:56):
I know that that's not how youpronounce it, but that's how I
say it.
But

Akex (20:59):
Chalk the Leaper and, uh, Regis called him Batman.
Yeah.

Dera (21:03):
Yeah.
I, yeah, he's Bat Rock.
That's what he is.
But I, I like, he just followsEzekiel Sims around and just
like, it's just growing.
So I, I, I still like, I, Idon't know.
I, I wouldn't say it's a hardskip.
I think it's a very flexiblecard and flexible cards are the
ones that I try and recommendthe most actually.

(21:24):
Like Merlin for example, is justlike a super flexible card that
like is also pretty powerful.
Like I think that's somethingthat, it's just a good pickup
for people that are just lookingat like, what series five cards
can I pick up that like I couldtarget that just are gonna be
good Right now it's like, it'shard to pick just one because,
or just a couple because you'relike, okay, well you need five

(21:44):
other cards to get that one towork.
But a card that could just beslotted into a lot of different
things I think is pretty good topick up.

Akex (21:51):
I have been on the, I love Merlin so much.
Train for so long.
It actually warms my heart towho you're bringing him up.
I feel like Merlin and I, I feellike I say this almost every
single week is probably the bestcard in Snap that doesn't get
the, like the conversation ofbeing the best card in Snap.
It's like the best card that noone actually actively talks
about being the best card in thegame.
It's just accepted that it'ssuper good.
But people don't quite realizelike, oh wait, this might

(22:13):
actually be one of like the topfive cards in the game.
And I think that Merlin isincredible.
I think it was in a fantasticseason pass design too.
'cause it like literally couldgo anywhere.
Talk about a great season passcard, right?
Can go anywhere, doesn't ownitself to any particular
archetype.
If like, you're a casual player,you spend the 10 bucks, you get
a card, you can put in almostany deck you feel like putting

(22:34):
it in really.
Right.
I love Merlin.
Thank you so much for bringingit up.
Even though he was not directlythe convers, uh, topic of
conversation, but talking about.
The topics of conversation here.
We do have another card that didcome out here as I try to,
organize myself, I always justmake fun of Cozy not being able
to find cars.
Now that I'm doing it, I'm likealways confused 95% of the time.
Three, three Chameleon on revealcopy the text of another card

(22:57):
here.
You revealed this turn.
This is the series four dropthat came this week.
And, uh, Darrel, I'll give youthe floor.
What are your thoughts onChameleon?

Dera (23:07):
Uh, you know, I'm not, I'm less convinced on Chameleon than
Ezekiel.
Like, I think Chameleon felt alittle bit like it, it didn't
really feel like it really didtoo much.
Like it, it's a, it is just likean extra, like mystique and
cerebro, it's like an extraSilver Surfer and Surfer.
But the, like, the condition ofhaving to play it out on the

(23:27):
same turn as the card that youwant to copy does really limit
what you can do with it.
And it really limits like youroverall output with it.
So I, I think.
It just doesn't quite feel like,uh, selling new and fresh and
strong.
It, it does feel kind of like askip to me, but it does feel
like it might be the nextprodigy where like it does end

(23:50):
up having some really bigcracked combos that people just
like haven't quite locked downyet.
And maybe that's gonna be what'sgonna happen with that card.

Akex (24:00):
You literally, your analysis was exactly what I was
gonna say.
Like, that's the perfect,congratulations, Dara, you did
it.
You got 100% on your analysis.
Dude.
I couldn't agree more.
It's literally exactly that.
You should not be funneling intothis card because there's
nothing to FOMO into.
Most importantly though, itwould not surprise me if like
some machine gun gambit deck orsome sort of C3 or some sort of
other combo deck comes out wherechameleon is like a key

(24:21):
component of it because of thefact that combo's so well, I had
some hope that the likecombination of like hazmat with
it and I, and Ajax would've hadsome potential, but those decks
are running like, like 49, 50%win rate range, right?
Like they're not excellentperformers according to untapped
based statistics.
And it goes to show you thatlike, honestly, like chameleon

(24:42):
just isn't, it just isn't itsometimes.
This is the kind of card that Ifeel like if you're at least
interested in first of all,fortunately it's only 3000, uh,
tokens as a series four.
But if at some point in time acard like this becomes relevant
and a deck comes out, you'relike, hell yeah, I wanna play
that deck, then you invest in acard like this.
I don't think it's something youhave to chase at all.

(25:02):
Uh, statistically we do nothave, according to Untapped,
just before recording, we don'thave a, like a positive win rate
deck that has like more than 200games on it.
They're all running 49.6% winrates, you know, 48% that range
all very mediocre.
And those are like Surfer decks,Ajax toxic decks C3 decks, C3 C3

(25:23):
running 47%.
So I mean, like, these are notgood stats.
Eight ranks 80 to a hundred, soyou even have some bot inflation
there.
Stats don't back it up.
And it also didn't pass like theplay test either playing with
it.
I'm like, it had its moments andI felt like, again, I've said
this a couple times, but it's akind of card that you can, you
can make in highlights.
Look good.
But in reality, you know, you'relike, nah, bro, this ain't it.

(25:45):

Dera (25:47):
Yeah, exactly.
That.
That's like, it pops off when itpops off, but it doesn't pop off
enough to, for you to be like,okay, this card is cracked

Akex (25:57):
and you have like a, a good eye for like, you know,
like car design, stuff likethat.
It's one of the things I thinkthat you're the best at.
Don't you feel like this text isalso very weighty?
Like if you think about theweight of each individual word
here, right?
Not a lot of words, but like,they have to be revealed.
This turn played here, copyingthe text of like, it's, it's a
well designed phrasing, but it'salso very complicated phrasing.

(26:18):
It's like saying three or fourthings at once and all of it
kind of narrowing the niche ofwhat the card can do to the
point where like, I wonder ifyou get rid of, like, if you get
rid of this turn part, is itjust too cracked?
Can you convo on the next turn?
Does it have to be here?
Is that too corrected?
Can you play it in differentlocations or is that, you know,
are you just splitting up, uh,you know, Ironman Power, you

(26:40):
know, Ironman five MystiqueChameleon, it's just too much.
I'd be curious what yourthoughts on that.
Like, do you think that if youneed to Nerf, or sorry, if you
need to buff this card, isapproaching, buffing it via a
change in one of the key partsof the text a viable way?

Dera (26:55):
Yeah.
I actually, yeah, I honestly,until you just said this, I,
when I was playing this card, Ifelt like the most annoying
thing that I thought would justbe, make the card so much
better, but not cracked levelbetter, but just like, feel so
much better is getting rid ofthe here.
Like, I actually, there were somany times that I, I just like,
just wanted to play my cerebroand this in a different lane or

(27:17):
something, and it's just like,you have to play in the same
lane and on the same turn.
And that's just really annoying.
I think.
I, I don't really like the factthat it's here and I think the
card doesn't need the, here likeit mystique, like, you know, is
a card that doesn't need thehear and it feels like.
Maybe they're trying todifferentiate it a little bit
from mystique'cause it gets, ithas two more power and it copies
any text, not just like onwhatever ongoing text.

(27:41):
So I feel like if you remove thehere, does it become too much
like other cards Maybe.
But I, I think this is a cardthat could benefit from exactly
what you said, the treatment ofremoving that condition and then
I think it would just feel a lotbetter

Akex (27:56):
in some ways.
Like it, it could potentially bea power crept mystique at that
at that point, but it still hasto be played that turn mystique.
You can just play that lastcard, right?
So you play your Ajax turn fiveroll the turnover and then you
mystique whatever mystique hast.
Like you can still do that.
Mystique has the flexibility ofthat turn.
So I wonder if like withChameleon, yeah.
Can you get rid of one of theseextra conditions and make the

(28:18):
card good or is it just toogood?
Then there's also nothing wrongwith just letting it cook for a
bit, but I think with, one ofthe problems with the release
schedule we have is that cardsdon't get a chance to breathe.
Like you're either relevant oryou have to really crack.
The decks and you have to crackthe zeitgeist somehow before
people pay attention to youagain.
There's probably good cards thatif we continued cooking with, we
probably could have sorted out,but there's the new thing every

(28:41):
week there's a reason to move onand I feel like at the end of
the day, cards get lost in themix.
I think a chameleon might mightjust be exactly, that might just
be lost in the shuffle.

Dera (28:51):
Yeah.
I, I get to see you.
You could enable some otherreally cool commas with this
card if you get rid of the hero,right?
Like,'cause you could play tworeally massive whatever play
cards.
Like you could wave with anextra energy, play a six drop,
copy the six drop in twodifferent lanes.
Like you don't wanna do thatboth in the same lane.
That doesn't make any sense.
You know, just like things likethat where you could just enable

(29:11):
some different combos that couldbe really cool with this card,
but without being able toseparate the cards, it really
just limits it to, buff decks.
Uh, like our buffing other lanessomehow, you know?

Akex (29:22):
Alright, so Dara, before we move on to Spider-Man Noir,
we're gonna get a yay or nay fortoken spend on Chameleon Dara.
Yay name.

Dera (29:30):
Nay,

Akex (29:31):
I am right with you.
This is a nay from both Adaraand myself.
It's a skip.
It's a skip, which is prettygood if you like saving
resources.
Now, I guess the next questionis gonna be, is Spider-Man noir
a skip?
Is it worth your tokens?
Is it worth the purchase?
Is it worth the hoops you haveto jump through to get this card
to do its thing?
So I have to, you know, quicklyread the card here.

(29:53):
Uh, it is a four six, which gotbuffed by the way.
It wasn't always a four six.
It's a four six.
It reads on reveal if your othercard's in play cost exactly
eight total.
Add the top card of your deckhere.
Set its power to eight as a zeroeight.
Dara, what are your thoughts?

Dera (30:13):
I think this card is busted.
I think this card is gonna bereally good.
I think the deck will builditself in the fact that like, I
don't think it's gonna be thathard to meet that condition, to
be honest.
And the only time it's not gonnabe.
Easy to meet that condition iswhen you get like random RRG
locations that just give yourandom like thing on the board
that puts you over the, thetotal.

(30:35):
I think other than that, thiscard is gonna be just like
popping off.
I could be wrong, like, but Iactually do think the actual,
when you get this condition met,it is such a big power spike
that as long as you can meetthat condition, like at least,
50, 60% of the games, I thinkthat that's gonna be really,
really cracked.

Akex (30:56):
So it's so interesting that you mention that.
'cause I'm actually on theopposite end.
I can see this card not landingon its feet and not because of
okay, first of all, obviouslythe, it's an amazing effect.
It's an extremely powerfuleffect.
These are so many hoops to jumpthrough, man.
Like, this is a lot.
And I think from a deck buildingperspective, like it's possible.
You can talk about Mysterio andthere's ways to get the numbers

(31:17):
there.
However, you, as you said, likeyou get a monster island, you're
cooked, you get like, you know,ninja and all of a sudden your,
your math is off, you're cooked,you don't draw the cards.
You're expecting to draw in theorder, you expect to draw'em,
you're cooked.
Like, there's so much thathappens and I feel like this is
one of those cards.
It's like, man, that's too muchof a headache.
I could do all this.
Or I could just play screamright now and it just does the

(31:40):
thing and I just do my thing.
And it's so much less stress, somuch less math, so much less
draw dependence.
I just feel like the chances ofthis card being like a mainstay
is so low because of itscomplexity.
Is it a cool card?
Yeah, but it's also, I bet youthere's a lot of people out
there that are like, honestly,Alex, I don't even want to, this
card's too complicated.

(32:00):
I just don't wanna engage withit.
I bet you there are people thatare like, even after I've read
it, they're still not even ahundred percent sure what it
does.
It's a lot of text on one cardfor a singular effect.
But you're right, it ispowerful.
But Dara, I'll pass it off toyou in this though.
Like when do you Snap with this?
Do you Snap when you're lookingat your hand and you see, oh, I
might be able to do this, butthen you don't see the next two

(32:20):
locations.
What if the next two locationsscam you?
It's like one of those thingswhere like, how do you know when
your Snap condition is?

Dera (32:28):
I think, uh, well, I'm gonna relate it.
Back to another four six thathas what some people thought
were a lot of conditions andwasn't gonna really work out.
And now it's one of the mostplayed cards and most
overpowered cards in the game,WCAN.
And you know, that card also,everyone thought too many hoops
is not worth it.
I thought that too, even afterthe first two days of playing

(32:50):
the card.
And then now look at it, wickedis like one of the most cracked
cards that ever people areplaying Quicksilver to play
Wicked.
You know?
So I think that's gonna be thiscard.
I think people are going tomaybe play some weird, like one
and two cost cards that mightnot fit normally into the deck,
but it's gonna enable this cardto go off.
And when it does go off, thiscard is stronger than Wiccan

(33:11):
when it goes off, in my opinion.
So I think it, I think that isgoing to be when you Snap is
gonna be like, when you feellike you're reasonably gonna
meet the conditions and you havethe card in hand.
That's gonna be the same thingas when you have Wiccan.
That's what everyone does.
They're like, oh, I have mythree drop in hand.
I have my Wiccan in hand.
I'm gonna Snap them after turntwo.
You know, so that, that's prettymuch how it goes.

(33:32):
I think you're gonna do the samelike this.
You're like, oh, I have thecurve and I have the card in
hand.
Snap.
So I think that I gave you in afew, I turn one.
If you have that, you're justgonna Snap, turn two, you Snap.
I think that's gonna happen.

Akex (33:44):
That's fair.
Now are there any specifictargets you want to hit with
this?
Uh, eight Additional power.
I mean, you can't control what'son the top of your deck.
And so like, you know, obviouslythere's cards that you can use
to lead into this, but we'll getinto that in a second.
What are the primary targets youwant to hit with this?

Dera (34:00):
So I am curious if this, uh, if this card, does it reveal
with eight power is the questionI actually don't know.
'cause it says add the top cardof your deck here.
Set the power date.
So does it set it after or is itlike turning over with eight
power?
'cause it, if it's turning overeight power, you obviously want
to have like a Mr.
Sinister a brood.
That's gonna be huge, right?

(34:20):
Like, like you could put like anIronman, but I actually don't
think that's gonna be the deckthat you build with this.
I think it is gonna be Mr.
Sinister brood stuff and it'sjust gonna be.
You get some big power juicers,

Akex (34:31):
let's be honest, right?
Those are also the cards youmight want to include in a deck
like that anyways, because Mr.
Sinister can be used to get thecosts set up right for your play
going into turn four.
Um, you know, a good example ofthat is also, uh, Luna, while
Luna not necessarily benefitingfrom the eight, but Luna adds
her own power, which issignificant.
Her three and also her uh, herlittle ice icicle is gonna be a
one cost as well.

(34:52):
So that's another way you can doit.
Uh, you have Squirrel Girl,which adds the three onto the
field to play.
Shauna does the same.
There's lots of differentoptions.
However, I do like what you'resaying here,'cause Brood and Mr.
Sinister would probably be inthose decks.
I'm just trying to figure out,like, obviously people go to
things like Ironman and stufflike that, Gores, right?

(35:12):
But at the end of the day, Ithink that having these
replicated effects in these buffstyle decks would probably go a
long way overall.
So I guess I'll pass it to youhere.
What kind of deck do you seethis performing the best, and if
you think it's gonna be thatcorrect.

Dera (35:25):
Like, I could see it going into just like a Surfer deck.
I could see it going into justany other buff decks, like
anything that, where cardsbenefit from being buffed like
it is technically, I don't knowif you like, have this hit of
Shaw, would Shaw gain power?
I'm not sure, but maybe anythingthat could like double its power
in some way, you know, oranything that could, just,

(35:47):
anything that could move around,you know, like a night crawler
even, you know, being set toeight power, that's pretty good.

Akex (35:53):
I think Sebastian Shaw would not get buffed because
it's, the card's power is beingset.
It's not being buffed itself.
I think there's another cardthat's done that in the past,
like, like Sebastian Shaw.
If it gets hit with like a, oh,that's not a good example.
I was trying to think of like,BA sets the power, right?
Agent Venom sets the power.
Yeah.
It's

Dera (36:11):
negative power, but yeah.

Akex (36:12):
Yeah.
It's negative is like, yeah.

Dera (36:14):
There is a location that sets the power to five.
Right.
So would that, well that setsthe, not the base power though.
This doesn't say base powerthough.
It just has set the power.
So I'm pretty sure it would getbuffed if it, like, if it counts
Shaw being on the board when itgets the buff, a Shaw gets it
buffed actually in hand, inboard or in deck.
So I'm pretty sure Shaw wouldget buffed.

Akex (36:34):
So are you suggesting that this could potentially replace
the likes of like a Galata or aGwenpool and a Surfer deck?
Or do you think that like thoseare still staples in there?
You know, like usually you wouldrun galactic gwenpool, but do
you think you cut one of themfor this?

Dera (36:47):
Yeah, I, I definitely think so.
I think, I think you would, itmight just be a whole new deck
archetype.
It might not even run Surfer tobe honest.
It might just be like asimilarish deck to Surfer, like
just a buff up deck that, uh,runs this.

Akex (37:00):
Okay.

Dera (37:00):
Within my,

Akex (37:02):
now last week I came in star ratings, uh, wise around
two and a half to three, feelingthe doubt.
Dara, if you were to provide astar rating, what would you
provide out of five?

Dera (37:13):
This, I'd probably give it a four.

Akex (37:15):
Nice.
Four.
Okay.
And what do you think preventsit from getting to five?

Dera (37:18):
I don't like just the conditions, you know, I, I like,
it could be a five, like if itis like something that just like
pops off enough, like if it endsup like 75% of games, this is
going off.
Like, like I think Wiccan isclose to a five nowadays, you
know, like, it, it, people havenow made decks that are just so
consistent with Wiccan that itjust like, it gets its value so
often and you're able to Snapwell with it and you're able to

(37:41):
get all the stuff with it.
And this deck ends up being asconsistent as that, which I
don't know if it will be becauseWiccan benefits from having,
like, most good w decks nowadaysrun Quicksilver Domino.
And Domino is just like a goodcard again because it was two
four now, uh, like that's partof the reason why it's so good
now.
But, uh, this card won't usethose cards, so it's not gonna
have the consistency there thatWiccan does.

(38:02):
So it's not gonna be a five likethat, I don't think, but it'll
be a four potentially if it canhave some of the consistency.

Akex (38:07):
So it's funny to hear you say that because like, again,
I'm playing a little bit asdevil's advocate here because we
just finished Automo Chameleon,where it's like the text and the
hoops to jump through were theprimary thing holding that card
back.
And it almost brings me back tomind of like what it was like to
play the original Miss Marvel.
Miss Marvel's originalconditions were relatively
straightforward.
We actually oversold how hard itwould be to meet the conditions

(38:29):
of the original Miss Marvel.
And then not only did they nervefor power a little bit, which
they eventually gave back, butthey increased the conditions
substantially for Miss Marvel toget that effect.
And that card has been basicallyinvisible ever since.
And so with something likeSpider-Man Noir, you're looking
at like a pretty extreme exampleof like having to jump through
hoops to get that example or getthat, uh, that P Pro off.

(38:49):
The one thing where I seepotential cube equity here is
that your opponent doesn'tnecessarily, like, I'm not
convinced that it'll read like aSpider-Man noir deck.
Like you could Snap into thishaving played your cards down
and they'll see like.
Oh, they played Squirrel Girland whatever and like, what is
this a zoo deck?
And like you Snap going into theturn four playing your
Spider-Man noir, like I don'tthink it might reveal its hand

(39:11):
as quickly as some other shells.
Do you know what I mean?
I think that could bepotentially beneficial for it,
but I don't wanna understate howhard it is to get ideal
conditions all the time.
And it's funny you mentionedWiccan too.
'cause Wiccan actually justremembered it got Nerf too,
right?
Like it was a four seven andyou're right, people did doubt
it and it has been consistentlyone of the best cards in the
game for the longest time.

(39:33):
I just, I wonder if Spider Manircan get there.
'cause I feel like at somepoint, whether it's you or some
crazy chef, someone's gonna cooka deck with this.
That's gonna be surprisinglyconsistent with the way it plays
out.
And maybe that's exactly whatthis card needs, you know?

Dera (39:47):
Yeah, I think I have a day one prediction that this card is
deemed bad.
Like that's what I think isgonna happen day one.
People are not gonna be able toreally tweak it and find the
exact sauce.
Day one, maybe even day two, daythree.
People are gonna be like, ah, Idon't know about this.
It's kinda a flop.
Similar thing happened to Wcan.
I think that's, and maybe itwill need a tweak or two with

(40:09):
certain cards and then all of asudden it pops off.
I think that's possible.
Like I think it's possible thatit does flop upon release, but I
think it will find its place andI think it will work its way in
there.
And obviously second dinner hasbeen known to, if cards flop
hard enough to give'em a littlelove.
So this might end up 4, 7, 4 8,you know, who knows if it

(40:29):
doesn't fit Well, it is four.
Four,

Akex (40:30):
right?

Dera (40:32):
Well, yeah, so they might have found it a little bit too
hard, but one thing that we'veseen is that sometimes they
don't quite cook the exactrecipe for what is the best
version of that card.
You know, so I've seen theirdecks that they pump into the,
the auto deck builder on dayone, and those decks are almost
certainly like six cards off ofwhat is optimal.

(40:53):
So I don't know if they'retrying to give an optimal deck
with it, but they coulddefinitely.
Do with some tweaks, you know?

Akex (41:00):
Yeah, of course.
Uh, so that's, that's gonna bethe conversation about
Spider-Man Noir.
So, uh, Dara here, coming in alittle spicy on Spider-Man Noir.
I have some doubts, but there ispotential there.
Most certainly Dara, that'sgonna take us to one of my
favorite segments we do everysingle month.
And that is gonna be the topcards of the month.

(41:21):
And this is our favorite cardsthat we've been playing
consistently, uh, this month.
They could be good cards.
They could be bad cards, or thecards we're playing.
The cards we're ranking withmartyr's, not mine.
But Dara, I'm gonna give you thefloor.
What is your one cost of themonth?

Dera (41:34):
You know, martyr was maybe gonna be mine.
That's crazy that you actually,almost like that was, I was
debating between Martyr, but Iactually was gonna just go with
the boy we talked about earlier.
Bat Rock.
'cause I think like you

Akex (41:45):
stole mine.
No way.
How, what are the chances?

Dera (41:48):
Well, you, if you want me, I, I could just do martyr'cause
that please.
The other yeah.
Bat Rock.
I think.
Is maybe the best one drop inthe game.
Like I think it is one of thosecards that just like, it seems
almost crazy that it is only onepower because it just becomes
like 15 or not 15, like 16 or 14obviously'cause it gains plus
two, but it's just like, it,it's like such huge numbers

(42:10):
sometimes by the end of thegame.
That's just like, how is this aone cost card that just like
does so much That's, I don'treally understand how it is
still a one cost card.
Honestly.
Like the fact that it's onecost, it does make it
susceptible to Killmonger.
But I think the card is justcracked and I've been using it a
lot and I think it does enablethat archetype that I was

(42:31):
talking about with ego sims.
That's just really cool.
Uh, just moving a lot of stuffaround and then just puff
puffing up the.
Hydro Craven.

Akex (42:39):
It's so funny'cause when you were talking about Ezekiel
Sims and kind of, you know, uh,juicing a little bit, I was
thinking to myself, I was like,I don't wanna bring it up, but
like, I think one of thechallenges with Ezekiel Sims is
that like, I'm getting thetruck, the leapers like to
higher powers.
Like I was getting better ROCsthan Ezekiel Sims.
And for that reason I was like,oh, maybe I'm a little more ho
hum on Ezekiel Sims than, thannot.

(42:59):
But it might just be the Petrocthe leaper's crazy, crazy good.
And even then, like when thiscard released into series four,
like I think it was one of thebest cards of that month too.
And, uh, it does not surprise methat, that you enjoy it.
Now, I do pick backups just incase theft of my card of the
month is there.
And I'm gonna say, I think thatthe hunger deserves a little bit
of credit.
I think The Hunger was a cardthat had a lot of doubts around

(43:21):
it.
You know, oh, it's, it's askill.
Whatever, horde plus three.
What if Horde sucks?
But what we're seeing is thatwith the Buffalo alongside
Hoard, what Hoard got, like yougot a major buff to the Zombie
Scarlet Witch, you got a majorbuff to, uh, zombie giant man.
And as a result, hunger as askill is perfect.
You play it on top of the ZombieScarlet Witch, it's free real
estate, especially since on turnsix you can combo this alongside

(43:43):
something like the, uh, thezombie giant man.
And so I think that hungerultimately ended up being a
pretty good card for thatarchetype.

Dera (43:51):
Yeah, I completely agree with the hunger actually, that,
that was my third card.
If I, you know, had to choosethree, it would've been Bat
Rock, martyr, and The Hungerwere the three cards I was
thinking about this month.
C So

Akex (44:01):
can I please ask you like what your sales pitch with, with
Martyr was?
I was just hovering and like, Igotta pick a card.
I know he's not gonna talkabout, so can you actually sell
me on why you're gonna talkabout Martyr in the first place?

Dera (44:12):
There's actually like three different decks that are
using Martyr right now.
That's, that's the thing.
Like, uh, there like C five, Iplayed a lot this season that's
like, oh, it's one of these

Akex (44:20):
cos Okay, as soon as c5, I'm like, all right, here we
are.

Dera (44:24):
I have, I have like a 66% winner at C five this season.
It's pretty good.
Like I, I was doing pretty wellwith C five.
I think C five is back,honestly.
Well, cerebral, just don'tlisten cracking.

Akex (44:35):
He's trying to bait you guys into playing C five, so he
climbs easier.
This is, this is fake news ifI've ever heard it.

Dera (44:42):
No, no fake dudes.
Like c five's been cracked sincethe ancient one, especially like
the ancient one really pops itoff.
Uh, like I was playing a nonancient one version just'cause I
saw it on tap and I wanted togive it a try, but I ended up
ultimately putting ancient oneback in because it's just like,
it's way better.
So like, it is just like areally fun deck though with
Cerebro, like, has like fourgood decks right now that are

(45:04):
actually all very playable.

Akex (45:07):
On that note, would you say that cerebral like C two is
better than C3?
Or like what was your preferredversion of cerebral right now?
C four.
With the, with what's been goingon with the Shadow king?

Dera (45:18):
I actually think C five might be my preferred version of
Cerebro right now.
Like funny enough.
But I do think like C six,actually I was just looking at
some stats today.
C six looks like something Iwant to try and it looks like it
might be overtaking as the topCerebro.
A lot of people are coping.
C3.
Am I coping?
I mean like I think it C3 isreally good, but I think it, uh,

(45:42):
it runs into a few issues Ithink.
But it, it just got some newsupport with Chameleon.
Maybe people are still trying tofigure it out.
It's got, um, Baku, whichactually I also thought about
choosing, um, Baku as why onecost card.
'cause it's also an interestingaddition.
But, uh, I think that's onlygonna be used in C3, so I didn't
ultimately go with that.
But yeah,

Akex (46:01):
that is a whole lot of cope.
As we move to number two, Dara,I'll give you the floor.
Who is your number two of themonth?

Dera (46:09):
Am I allowed to say Eki?
Because like, that, thatactually is like what I, I
wanted to like, my favorite cardof the month so far.
Two draft, you know.

Akex (46:19):
Okay.
Like we've, we already talkedabout'em, but like, you wanna
glaze'em further?

Dera (46:23):
Well, yeah.
Well, I Wait, I, I just wantedto glaze'em for a second there.
Like, I, I could, I could chooseanother card, like it's all
gonna come together.
When you see, I chose Bat Rockand I'm gonna actually say
Captain American, Sam Wilson.
I think he's back in a big waythat I'm using him into my move
deck with Bat Rock and BatRock's just falling around that

(46:45):
shield, you know?
So I think that that guardactually is something that, uh,
is one of the most flexible, youshould pick that card up, get,
if you don't have it yet, cardsin the game.

Akex (46:59):
I feel like this card though, has completely fallen
off from what it was.
I wonder if like, it's stillgood, it's still seeing play in
like obviously these move shellsyou're discussing with like
hydro stomp or stuff like that,it loves that.
It sees play in like the ongoingshells, which I think it still
benefits from, especially withthose spectrum, spectrum ones.
But like this card is a shell ofwhat it was before, like it was
cracked before, but like do youthink it can be a two three

(47:21):
again?
Like, do we need, does this needpower?
Does, does it need to be a oneone again, like, you know what I
mean?
Like that was the initiativegranting side.
I feel like we can give SamWilson something back.
Do you or is it just, is itwhere it should be?

Dera (47:32):
Uh, I feel like it's strong right now, so I don't
think you'd need to giveanything back.
Like if you've given anythingback.
I think it goes back to cracked,you know, so like obviously it
was a two three with a one powershield before, right?
So it's like it was way better,like it is lost two power and
the shield not having a powerDefinitely hurt it a lot because
it was just free priority early,which was just too cracked of a,

(47:54):
of a mechanic.
I think right now it's in asolid spot where it feels
strong.
Uh, and it feels very playable,but it doesn't feel like it's
going to be like overbearing inany way.

Akex (48:06):
It was kind of unfortunate when they changed the cost the
shields from a zero, sorry, froma one to a zero.
'cause then it knocked out thecoup city in place that you were
seeing with it, right?
'cause coup City was aguaranteed play where you can
move the shield at pick where cocity in went.
So this card has seen some veryinteresting, uh, changes over
the last little bit.
And it's funny that you picked amove card'cause by far my
favorite card of the, uh, seasonthus far has been scream.

(48:27):
Can't get over it.
I've been thoroughly enjoyingplaying scream simply because,
like, honestly, I ignore all themove crap that's going on.
I do my thing and I just clapcheeks with it.
I think scream what you shakingin your head about over there?

Dera (48:39):
I honestly hate scream players.
I'm not gonna lie, you know, onI I every, everyone in the chat,
right?
Everyone in the chat, everyonein the comments, they.
Are definitely saying the samething.
They're like, these scream guys,I can't imagine, you know, I see
that scream go down.
That is like one of the mostannoying things in the world
where I'm just like, ah, youknow, it's just like that huge

(49:00):
sigh.
I'm just like, why is there ascream on the other side of the
board?
It's just like, it's so annoyingto play against because I, that
archetype, that whole archetypeis just the most annoying deck
to play against in Marvel Snap.
Just'cause it's just like,you're like, I wanted to put my
card here, now it's over here.
I wanna put my card here.
Now it's losing two power andscreams got the power, you know?
It's just like, it's veryfrustrating.

Akex (49:21):
That's crazy.
That's such a hot take to me.
Like you're seeing screams worseand like, like classic un
interact, hella, or like Og GMan, like Wolverine, wave G Man.
Like you say, it's worse thanall those things.

Dera (49:35):
Yeah.
Yeah, because it just like, itjust makes it so I can't do what
I want to do, where I want to doit, you know?
And it is just like.
Sure it doesn't always like workwhen the person's doing that.
And there are decks that justlike don't really care about
scream obviously if you justlike run Luke Cage, you know, or
like you don't care movingaround some of your power.
But I feel like so many decksjust get just, it's just a

(49:58):
little frustrating.
You're like, ah, like that carnow they clogged me in this lane
'cause they pushed all my carsover here.
Or they like, it's, there issome RG involved from the other
side.
I do think it, for me personallyis what I find annoying.
'cause it's just like I have aplan that I'm planning out where
I'm gonna put my cards, what I'mgonna do and all of a sudden
that plan's doesn't matter,

Akex (50:18):
alright.
Well I did have a backup just incase you got mad and I'm gonna
say that this card is a card.
I guarantee that no one wasgonna expect me to pick.
But I have to say that like inplaying it this month, I've
actually come away prettyimpressed with it.
And I'm gonna say like, I'mgonna say Zorn.
I actually like Zorn.
I was trying to do like somespider punk stuff.
I liked what Zorn can do therekind of, you know, little cheeky
extra moves, stuff like that.

(50:39):
Is it some additional cringe inlike the human torch stuff?
Maybe, but he's not even makingthose decks that frequently.
I think the zorn's kind of cool.
I don't know if this is like hisfinal form.
I don't know if he's a greatcard, but I think that with the,
with the, uh, the spider punk, Ithink he was a good addition to
those decks and I enjoyedplaying them.

Dera (50:56):
I had an 84% win rate with my Zorn deck, so, you know, I
actually completely agree.
I loved playing Zorn thisseason.
And Zorn, if I had thought aboutit harder, I might've chose Zorn
for this season, you know.

Akex (51:09):
I'm glad that we can, uh, agree on something there despite
your, uh, your absolutely MOUs,uh, take on my screen pick here.
I'll give you the floor for, uh,for number three.
Who would you like to talk aboutas your favorite

Dera (51:22):
three cost?

Akex (51:23):
Oh, in Marvel, Snap, those

Dera (51:23):
stuff.
Uh, I was waiting for this.
I got a spicy one because it, itis actually hot off the presses.
I actually just.
Put this into a deck in mystream right before we recorded
this and I was having a lot offun with it.
And it's a card that no oneplayed when it came out.
No one played when it gotbuffed.
No one's been playing itrecently, but you know, I think

(51:44):
it might have a place in thisnew deck archetype with
following the theme with the BatRock Captain America with the
Shield.
I don't know if you can evenguess what I'm gonna say here.

Akex (51:57):
It's, I'm just putting random cards up there is, I have
no idea who you're talking about

Dera (52:01):
as Hercules.

Akex (52:03):
Really?
Bless my soul.
Herc is on a roll.

Dera (52:08):
That's right.
He's going, he went from zeroall the way to hero this guy,
because honestly, I had neverseen this comic before.
I, someone played it against meon ladder and I was like, let me
put this into my deck.
If you have Sam Wilson, you canliterally just bump your shield
every turn against Hercules.

(52:30):
And it just goes, and like,we'll go buff your cr, it'll
come back to Sam Wilsonsometimes, you know?
So it's just like a, it's prettygood.
And then he just like silk goingover there and then bumping into
craving again.
You know?
And same with Ezekiel Sims,like, like a lot of people are
running her, they were thinkingHercules just to like, pump up
your, uh, your big human torch,you know?
And like, sure.
But I think it's actually betterin this hydro stomper deck

(52:52):
because it's doubling your moveevery single turn.
Hydro stomper is pumping upgetting even bigger.
And it is, it is unstoppable,you know?

Akex (53:01):
I love having you on'cause you come in with these
absolutely like just insanetakes, which I appreciate'cause
I can see it though, like theonly problem is with Sam Wilson,
right?
The way the move resolves islike on turn three, you can't
bounce'em on turn three.
You gotta wait till turn four tostart bouncing, which kind of
feels bad.
And even like, oh, some of thatmove mechanic stuff hurts.
Like, even like with the shieldspecifically, like you move the

(53:21):
shield with Elsa, the shieldwill not allow you to Elsa
properly because like of the waythe turn orders resolve with the
carts face down and stuff likethat.
I almost feel like they shouldtake a look at that stuff.
But I'm here for the Herculescall, man.
I'm here for it.
You know, he, he's flying highis the nicest guy and at the end
of the day I'm here for someHercules.
Uh, I don't wanna say, I wasalmost said, I'm here for some

(53:41):
Hercules glaze, but if I usethat word one more time, I think
that, uh, I'm gonna get calledout in the chat.
I've been saying it nonstop.
I'm gonna go with a spicy three.
I'm gonna go with a spicy three.
That I think is definitely worthit.
I think that Tarax, the Tamersunderappreciated.
I think this card's good.
I think dark Hawk's better thanpeople give it credit for.
I think that the, like the ideaof clogging the deck and
slamming down a big five drop inthe case of something like a

(54:03):
dark hok, I think that TerraX isrelatively easy to get going.
Uh, lane winning stuff.
I've seen some like quicksilverwicked decks using TerraX.
'cause you Quicksilver, youDomino and Domino's big enough
now that you almost always tradewith TerraX.
You have Initiative TerraX justdoesn't even look at their
power, right?
You just kind of win the Leanpump their deck with three
rocks.
He's got animation now andthat's pretty exciting.

(54:25):
I, I actually think TerraX isprobably one of the least
appreciated cards in Marvel Snapright now.

Dera (54:30):
You say at least appreciated it.
It's actually well appreciated.
Oh, not well.
Super well, but it's actually,uh, in higher ranks, TerraX is
one of the best cards.
It's actually the one of thehighest winning cards and one of
the highest win cube cards.
Like it.
It is just like that.
And Dark Hawk right now arepopping off on the top rank

(54:52):
charts.
I think you'll see more of it aslike people, uh, stop playing
like the season's like theme ofmove, you know?
So it's just like, I do thinkit'll like see an increase once
that comes down a bit.
But I think that card, very goodpick it is a very good card,

(55:13):
like you're saying.
It's underappreciated and I doagree it's not play, it's played
in 2% of top decks, which is notvery high.
Like iron Patriot is in 12%, youknow, so it's like, I think, uh,
it is one of those things thatpeople aren't really catching on
quite yet.
But I, I think it's just like,it's a, it's an old deck, you

(55:33):
know, it's just like a dark hawkdeck go with the one new card in
it.
So people maybe aren't too keenon playing old stuff.
They wanna try the new stuff.
So I do think that theyrecognize the power though.
'cause it is just like, if youlook at the stats, it has one of
the highest cube rates, one ofthe highest win rates of all
cards.
So I think it's good.

Akex (55:51):
Yeah, good call on that.
And uh, for my four drop I wasjust gonna say that your did
bring it up.
Uh, my four of the month is Wcanfor sure.
I love this card.
I can't get enough of it.
I think it's fantastic.
I've been chasing good splitswith it.
I can't get any luck with thesplits.
I'm bringing a tear to my eye,man.
Just gimme some good splits forWcan.
But, um, I think this card'sfantastic and we've talked about
it so much.
Uh, I don't want to continue toretread, uh, those tracks, but,

(56:12):
uh, what's your for of themonth?

Dera (56:14):
So for of the month, I think it's, uh, along the lines,
not of Wiccan, but of Wiccansupport cards.
Uh, I've actually seen some, Ihad a really fun deck with
Maliki actually, where.
You were playing out, uh, likethe domino to try and just like
pull out your bad low cost card,so you're not really running

(56:36):
many ones or two, no ones ortwos in your deck, but you do
run malus.
So it's pulling out only reallyquality three drops and it ends
up like that was an originallike malate thing that when you
first came out was alsohappening.
But Malki I think is just likeone of those.
Still underappreciated cards,just similar to Tarek said, like
it's super high win rate, superhigh cube rate, but it's still

(56:56):
only around 2% played.
So I think it's one of thosecards that just like could at
any point just come back anddominate.

Akex (57:04):
I wonder though, if like Malki Tarax and those types of
cards, I feel like they mightnot see a lot of play because I
feel like people don't want toinvest in them when like, well
instead of playing TerraX, I'lljust put Rockside on that deck.
It's almost the same thing.
And like with Malki, they'relike, ah, I don't wanna play
Malki.
I'll just throw man thing inthere.
'cause I already have that.
I wonder if those cards haveenough, like they're, they feel

(57:25):
replaceable enough for theaverage player that they don't
feel like they need to chase it.
Like, does that make sense?
Like, I feel like these arecards that like, if you don't
have the card, you don't really,you don't really see the magic
that it's doing sometimes foryour play.

Dera (57:39):
The way I see it is that typically, like for your
Rockside example, I don't thinkyou would ever want to just have
rockside in your deck.
Like TerraX is a, a, an additionto Rockside.
You'd never replace it withRockside.
That's how like the deck wouldalways run both.
It increases just theconsistency of the deck overall.
Malachi, same thing.

(57:59):
It's just replacing theconsistency of the deck.
It's just a strong, superpowerful card.
It basically draws a card andplays it.
On the turn.
So it increases the consistencyof your deck so consistently
that like it, if you replace it,you're just like replacing a
good card, you know?
And it's like there isn't reallya replacement for it.
I think that it is at the samepower level that does the same

(58:21):
thing.
Sure, you could put somethingelse in, but you're just now
have a worse deck.

Akex (58:27):
You're right.
The deck thinning part's prettycool.
It is important.
And actually a lot of the, uh,current toxic techs are running
like the Quicksilver, Wiccanlines alongside Malki, which is
kind of cool too.
Because you have this veryconsistent thing and then you
malki, oh, I didn't hit thehazmat, but I hit a speed, and
speed ends up being like threenine or whatever, right?
Like it's just free real estateat that point.
And now, oh, speeds outta thedeck.

(58:47):
I top deck my eja, I top deck myhazmat, I topek my Luke cage or
whatever.
Right?
You're right.
The deck thinning part isactually super important.
It's a key component to Malika'sgame plan.
I like to call it a lot.
Uh, going into the five costs.
Uh, Dara, do you want me to giveyou the floor or would you like
to hear mine first?
I'll let you pick.

Dera (59:04):
Maybe we should go dos 'cause you might pick the same
one as me.

Akex (59:07):
Really?
I don't know.
I I would be extremely surprisedif you chose It's not spider.
No

Dera (59:12):
way.

Akex (59:12):
It's not spiderwoman.
I just want, I just like thiscard art so much.
I just wanna throw the card arton the screen here.
Give it a little bit of love.
Uh, no, my five is gonna beenchant.
I think that enchant is reallygood.
I think that, uh, the amount ofcerebral I've been seeing on the
ladder and stuff like that, youjust munch'em with the
enchanter.
I think the ongoings legit.
I think that the, uh, the serershells are legit.

(59:33):
I think that Enchant as a fiveeight was one of the best nerf
slash buffs that this card couldhave possibly gotten.
It really differentiated itselffrom the likes of like other
tech cards.
I think that ENC Chances is in agreat spot right now.
I think she's absolutely worthplaying and I think she's very
good.

Dera (59:49):
Yeah, I, I completely agree.
I think ENC Chances has likebeen in one of the best spots
it's been in for all of thehistory of Marvel Snap, other
than when they made it a foursix for a while and it just like
took over for a bit.
But.
I think it, like at a fiveeight, it actually feels somehow
better than like at a four drop.
It just like, it, it just, itplays out on curve and you were

(01:00:12):
never really playing as likeyour last play as a forecast
anyway.
As it, because it would just, itwould feel bad to just play it
on your last turn and have likethat two floating energy five
eight just makes it like, feelmore powerful.
You can play on the last turn,but a lot of times you are just
playing it on turn five and it'smuch more likely that you're
gonna have it on turn five andthat you can play it out and get

(01:00:32):
good value for it.
So I like a changer.
That's a good pick.

Akex (01:00:35):
Oh, thank you so much for your approval.
And uh, what are you thinkingfor the uh, the five drop of the
month?

Dera (01:00:41):
Uh, the five drop that I had the most fun with, uh, was,
uh, man spider.
I played so much man spider.
Honestly, it is just like, it'shuge.
It just like, it felt like sucha cool card.
Just like I, I felt like it wasgonna get nerfed'cause it just
felt like Panther on steroids.
It just felt like, it was like Iwas getting like 400 power

(01:01:04):
cards, like every game.
And it was just like, felt likeit was just always popping off.
I don't know about you, butthat, that card felt a little
crack for a while.

Akex (01:01:13):
Uh, man, spider's really good.
I like it.
Does it feel like it's such aweird way to play Snap though?
Because like, it is very muchlike, oh, do you have Strongs?
Do you have, um, you know,shadow King?
Like, do you have the answer yesor no?
And that's what the game comesdown to, right?
So I wonder if the cube equityside was hurt on this card
despite having a relativelysolid win rate.

(01:01:35):
But I, I do like the card.
I think it's, it's the thing,it's immensely powerful.
And it is, I think it's one ofthose examples honestly, where
like you have a super premiumseason pass card that's
certainly better than the seasonpass card.
Like I think this is better thanspider punk, despite the fact I
like spider punk.
I think from like a pure, like,well which one you, you taking
into a tournament?
I'm taking Man Spider a hundredpercent.

(01:01:55):
I am.
I think that, and I think thatSpider punk's a cool card, but
like, yeah, I think this cardwas like the juiced card of the
month for sure.
And I think it's a veryappropriate call out for your
number five.
And if you know what, if youdon't mind, I'm gonna take the
first six here because uh, ithas to do with, uh, man Spider.
I've been loving Zola thismonth.
I zola, uh, spiders.
And the key thing is, by theway, you have to make sure you

(01:02:17):
play the man spider in thecorrect order.
You have to man spider, thenZola, if you play things between
it, they eat each other.
There's a lot of weirdinteractions with that just
before people in the commentsare like, Alex, you said I could
play Aum Zola.
Why are they all eating eachother?
That's why.
But I've actually really enjoyedAum Zola because I've been doing
stuff like even, I'm gonna tellyou something, a deck that I've
been playing, which I, I almostdid for my five.
I wanna say that the fallen oneI've kind of started to grow on

(01:02:39):
a little bit because you can do,if you fall in one and you get
the combo right?
You can go into turn six and doBlack Panther Zola with six,
with, uh, the, all that energyyou've got.
And no one expects that.
And I think that Zola isactually a really fun card in
this game.
And I feel like it's, uh, it's,I don't wanna say
underappreciated'cause I thinkpeople get it, but I think it's
just such a fascinating,interesting card that does a lot

(01:02:59):
of really cool things

Dera (01:03:01):
that's, uh, you know, I, I completely agree.
Like it because of the manspider, just like getting two of
'em.
It's cracked it.
I got, I, I actually don't carefor it and like destroy, unless
you're playing Nimrod Destroy'cause that's actually kind of
fun.
But I think, uh, when I say Idon't care for it, I mean like,
I think it's kind of boring, butuh, in destroy.

(01:03:22):
But I do think that the manSpider Zola plays brought it
back around.
Like at times I like zola's whenyou're doing something
interesting with it.
Like I actually kind of likethe, like human torch, zola kind
of decks.
I think those are more fun thanlike the other kinda Zola decks
that are out there.
But yeah, I think you probablysee Zola the most in Mr.

(01:03:42):
Negative nowadays, but I thinkthat that's, uh, still just
like, you don't even need Zolain that deck for it to pop off.

Akex (01:03:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
And who is your sixth drop ofthe month?

Dera (01:03:55):
Honestly, I found it hard to really pick a sixth drop this
month.
I,'cause I feel like I'm notreally running six drops this
month, but the one deck that Idid play quite a bit of.
And I could, I could just saylike, uh, the sixth drop that
came, that was the mostinteresting card and it was
destroyer, you know, so I wasplaying this like nightmare
destroyer deck.
And I think that that destroyeris big.

(01:04:18):
It's 18 power nowadays, youknow, so it's one of those cards
that I think you coulddefinitely play that card and
find success with it, with acouple different decks with it.
So I, I think it is kind of backin a way that like, it's almost
as big as infant on now, youknow, like this card started as
like 14 power or something.
I think it

Akex (01:04:36):
dropped was 15.
It was a six 16, got nerfed to a15, I think, and sat there for a
while.

Dera (01:04:42):
Well, it was a six.
No, I think he, I think itstarted as a 14 power card when
it first came out.
Did it not,

Akex (01:04:47):
did it?
Oh, I,

Dera (01:04:48):
I

Akex (01:04:48):
remember like on the heyday of like Marvel Snap's
original launch.
I feel like it was a six 16.

Dera (01:04:54):
I think it got buffed to a, uh, six or 16 after a bit.
Well, you know, I, I, I can, Ican tell you what it was because
it was the first card in Nexusevents.
So if I just go look up a NexusEvents video,

Akex (01:05:11):
I wasn't even in the game yet.
I wasn't in the beta yet.

Dera (01:05:13):
Oh, you were?
Oh.
So maybe you only, you mighthave only seen it after it got
buffed.

Akex (01:05:18):
I missed the wave season.
I think I was invited to thebeta.
I think it was the Daredevilseason.

Dera (01:05:23):
That would make sense.
So yeah.

Akex (01:05:26):
Nexus events.
I was, I was not part of thegame.

Dera (01:05:29):
Yeah.
Destroyer, was it?
Oh, it was 16 on release.
I was wrong.

Akex (01:05:33):
Boom, wrecked.

Dera (01:05:35):
Yep.
For some reason I thought Iremembered it at 14.
Maybe, I don't know why it, itis been a long three years, you
know?

Akex (01:05:43):
Yeah, I understand.
All right, chums.
Let's do this.
Alex is ready.
Go.

Dera (01:05:47):
Let's do this.

Akex (01:05:48):
Let's do this.
That's right.
We're gonna go to the Snapchatmailbag, my friend.
We've got a couple questions,some funny interactions here.
One coming from Slouching Games,and this was kind of
interesting, slouching gamescommented, the best way to come
back to a game like this is tonever leave.
And I was thinking about thatcomment because I think they
meant it in like a positive way,you know what I mean?

(01:06:08):
Like,'cause people were talkingabout, you know, burning out and
stuff like that.
But also I was thinking tomyself like, you know what,
they're actually kinda rightbecause if you leave Marvel
Snap, coming back is so damnhard.
That like your best choice of ifyou ever intend to come back is
just don't leave.
Because one of the challenges Ithink new players are
experiencing,'cause we aregetting some new players here
and there, like I've beengetting a couple comments like,
Hey Alex, I'm coming back givingit a shot.

(01:06:30):
And you know, the new playerexperience, the new reward track
is kind of good and stuff likethat, but they're so far behind
that they don't know what to doand they can't build any of the
decks.
And so many new cards are comingout that they're just like, ah,
I'm gonna bounce off.
I'll see you later.
So I'm curious what yourthoughts on that statement.
The best way to come back to agame like this is to never
leave.

Dera (01:06:49):
I think that's exactly what the game designers, the
system designers are going forin Marble Snap is that their
goal is to make it feel like youcan't leave.
And I think that has actuallydone them pretty well from a
business standpoint for thepeople that have stayed.
But it has done them a hugedisservice in the fact that a

(01:07:12):
lot of the systems that arethere to keep you making sure
that you are just staying andthat you have the fomo to keep
in the game and do your weeklymissions and keep up with it, is
that when you leave, comingback, like you said, feels
impossible.
And I think that is theirbiggest gap for this game.
If you're a new player, ifyou're coming back, if you're a
returning player, it feelsreally bad and they need to do

(01:07:34):
something about it to actuallymake it so that those players
don't feel left behind, becausethat's just going to eventually
kill the entire player base.
Because if no one can come backit, when the people eventually
leave, they're not gonna comeback.
But I think right now we havebeen seeing that it is a pretty

(01:07:55):
good time.
Your famous quote to be playingMarvel Snap.
If you're a continuing player,if you continue to play.
It feels pretty good.
You get pretty good rewards.
People have been telling me thatthey are free to play and they
actually are gaining tokensevery month.
Like they're going up in tokensand getting every card.
I don't know how that'spossible, but it's just like, it
feels pretty good if you're justlike playing the game

(01:08:16):
consistently.
It just really sucks if youdon't, you know?

Akex (01:08:21):
I feel that.
Right.
And, um, I think it's alsonatural, like, honestly, guys,
if you're, a lot of peoplelisten to this pod, they don't
even actively play much anymore.
Stuff like that, that happensfrom time to time.
I, it's also okay to take abreak, right?
Like, I bring myself, I playSnap all the time.
I still, I still love the game.
I still thoroughly enjoy my timeplaying when I'm streaming.
It's like the best time I'mhaving, but yeah.
Yeah.
Like, am I exhausted sometimes?

(01:08:42):
Like, yeah.
You know, it's like, try playingthe same game for three, four
years.
Like, it's, you're gonna gettired sometimes, right?
And so, forgive me if, like, Igotta be honest with you,
sometimes at night I'm laying inbed.
And I'm playing, you know, uh,ball X pit or whatever, and I'm
playing some new thing.
I'm playing Hades too, or, youknow, you gotta kind of like,
you know, get yourself out therea little bit, try some new
stuff.
But, uh, at the end of the day,snaps is, is a beautiful game.

(01:09:04):
It's a fun game.
And I feel like the monetizationhas, like, they've pulled it
back just about as much as Ithink they can realistically.
Does it have some pain points?
Sure, it does.
But I do think that this gameultimately is in the best spot
today than it's been in a longtime.
And for me it feels like eventhe shenanigans around, kid
Omega and stuff like that.
I hope those were lessonslearned and I suspect that they

(01:09:26):
were lessons learned.
'cause we have not seen thatreplicated with the game modes
they've released thus far.
In fact, I feel like the gamemodes Deadpools Diner, I'm
convinced was an error.
But like they've been remark,like remarkably generous, right?
So as long as second dinnercontinues to learn and to
community feedback, that I thinkwe're in a great spot and every
single day is better than theday prior.

(01:09:48):
And that's a good thing forMarvel Snap And, uh.
I just hope that, uh, you know,people that come back, they do
have a positive experience andif they're not, I hope you guys
do share that experience withsecond dinner so they can
improve it.
'cause we want you guys to bepart of the game again.
And then the last question ofthe day is gonna come from Day
Walker and it reads, I love howconnected everyone is in the
YouTube community.

(01:10:08):
Everyone has a story abouteveryone.
It's such a great community.
And I bring this up Dara,because that is something that I
feel I personally enjoy aboutMarvel Snap.
And the fact that like, youknow, I can reach out to you
about being on the pod.
And not only are you excited tobe here, but I feel like I'm
talking to a legitimate friendthat I've made over the years,
whether it's yourself, Regis,Dexter, Cozy.
I feel like we are blessed tohave like a community of content

(01:10:31):
creators that like really dokind of look out for each other.
Like, I actually consider youguys friends.
And, uh.
It's not just some sort of likefacade like this, like, I
actually love Dara.
And so this is something that Ithink is special and kind of
unique in this community.
'cause you don't see it in otherones.
And I just wanna say like, notjust this comment, but like, you
know, for Darren and foreveryone else, like, I, I do

(01:10:52):
appreciate you guys and, uh,yeah, it's, uh, it's been very,
very nice to have a community ofsuch supportive people around
not only this podcast, butMarvel Snap in general.

Dera (01:11:02):
I love the community of Marvel Snap.
It's actually like the, I, I'msure you remember it, but just
like that first tournament wehad in New York City where you
came in and all these otherpeople flew in and I gotta meet
you face to face.
We gotta see everyone.
And we were all talking andchatting.
That was at the very beginningof Marvel Snap.
And I was just like, I thoughtwe would get more of that and we

(01:11:24):
didn't.
And it kind of, you know, it, itfelt like a little bit, you
know, like we.
We're in the good times and wedidn't even know it, you know,
feeling somewhat, but it justlike a lot of those connections,
you know, like you, especiallylike, uh, we've just grown into
real true friendships and we'vestayed connected to this entire

(01:11:44):
time and it is just like MarvelSnap is, the community.
That's it.
Is, that's what makes it,

Akex (01:11:51):
to give you an idea of the kind of Guy D is.
I remember we met in, uh, in NewYork City, uh, obviously we had
games with each other and stufflike that, but we went to a
karaoke bar.
It must have been like two inthe morning, whatever.
And to give you an idea of thekind of person D is Dara on his
own dime, I remember in thekaraoke bar you got munchies and
food for everybody there.
You ordered like a whole platterof food.
Every, they came out with likepizzas and all these types of

(01:12:11):
stuff, all on D'S dime tosupport the people who were
visiting your hometown at thetime.
Right?

Dera (01:12:17):
That's right.
Yeah.
That was where I was stationed.
You know, I, I was in New YorkCity and I wanted to show you
guys New York, you know, Iwanted you guys to have a good
time.

Akex (01:12:26):
Yeah, basically he's, he's basically Mr.
Worldwide.
Now.
I have no idea where you evenare right now.
You seem to be moving across theworld on a near constant basis.
So maybe next time we chat,we'll have to catch up on where
Dara is, where he's been andwhat's going on, because my man,
you are literally Mr.
Worldwide.
And with that being said, Iwanna say thank you so much to
Dara.
Dara, I'm gonna leave all thelinks down below.
I know, I know you know him, butyou gotta make sure that you're

(01:12:47):
subscribed to his YouTube.
Make sure you're, you'refollowing on his Twich tv.
One of the best streamers outthere, one of the most highest
ranked talented players you canfind in Marvel Snap.
His analysis is dead on the manknows card games.
What can I say?
And he's an absolutely fantasticperson.
Definitely support him.
Thank you so much, Darren.
Thank you so much for you guysfor catching us this week, and
we'll see you on the next one.

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The Great Ezekiel Sims Debate | Top Cards of the Month | Why is Scream So Annoying? | The Snap Chat Ep. 157

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Great Ezekiel Sims Debate | Top Cards of the Month | Why is Scream So Annoying? | The Snap Chat Ep. 157