They obviously go over the new stuff in the game,
but they also talk about their favorite movies and TV shows and what's going on in their life.
It's a very,
very fun podcast.
They do a lot of interesting things with that show.
So if you have not checked it out,
you definitely should.
Now,
let's hop into it.
This week is going to be pretty action-packed.
It's been a very long week for me,
so I have not been able to catch up with everything in the Snap universe.
But
I do have a bunch of new cars to talk about.
We'll obviously talk about the
Series 5 card that released this week,
the Ancient one.
But we'll also be talking about the four Series 4 cards.
I think that's the correct number.
And from my understanding,
two of these cards were not supposed to release when they did,
but they kind of did,
and they weren't able to roll it back.
So yeah,
we have a lot of those to talk about.
And after,
we'll talk about the Golden Gauntlet 2,
a little bit of my experience playing in it,
and then what ultimately the results were.
Very,
very good stuff.
Okay,
let's do it.
Starting off,
we have the Ancient One.
She is a 3-5 that says,
on reveal,
add Tau Mandala to your hand.
And of course,
Tau Mandala is a
3-cost skill that says,
on reveal,
copy the text of one of your ongoing cards here onto your other characters here.
So,
in a weird way,
you can sort of think of this like an alternative Moonstone.
Um,
it like,
I think that the Ancient one fills a very similar role where it's like,
instead of having Mystique where you just copy the last ongoing that you played,
or you have Moonstone that's copying all of the low cost ongoing cards there,
this one has the potential to be insane,
which is why it's so clunky to play.
As I say often with three cost cards,
right,
the thing I like about them is that you can combo.
three cost cards with each other on turn six that's what makes them so powerful i think in the ancient ones case it's more of like you can definitely do that you can do some very nutty stuff it's just kind of hard to you know make it work without being disrupted or um
sometimes you have the cards you want to copy but you don't have enough bodies and so like where does she fit best
Right now on SnapFan,
she's not doing...
Amazing.
She's running a 45%
win rate when played,
which is not what you like to see.
But
I say this sometimes,
I think part of the strength of cards like this,
it's the surprise factor.
Like,
her overwhelming power in combination with something like an Iron Man or like an Onslaught,
you know,
those big cards that get copied by this feel like
the sort of slam dunk that she can do um but i mean when i saw this i was hoping that patriot would be a good home for her right because you have things like squirrels and mysterio and other stuff like that that might
be able to be comboed off of that tau mandala um when you copy it with patriot the only downside is when you do that obviously patriot isn't buffing those tokens anymore.
So you're kind of throwing that lane in order to make it better for the other targets.
And so it's a little tricky sometimes.
It's like,
where's the balance in how combo heavy you want to be in that deck?
And again,
when you have options like Moonstone,
it's like her thing is very complicated for an effect that is good.
But,
you know,
there's just a lot of setup.
It's a lot of setup for something that I think can be replaced.
So for me right now.
I'm giving the Ancient one a solid 2 out of 5,
maybe 3 out of 5 if I'm feeling generous.
Like,
I see the potential,
there are things you can do with this card,
I just don't think that it's landing right.
I was also kind of hoping that Victoria Hand would be the right place for her,
but I'm not feeling that either.
I don't know.
Not my favorite card to come out.
I was kind of hoping for a little more,
but who knows?
Cards like this can always get better with new cards coming out.
We've seen that.
with cards like Scarlet Spider,
who was dunked on for a while,
but who has made his way into a lot of lists.
I think the Ancient One could possibly fill that sort of role where the decks that she wants to play in are trying to do something unfair.
So,
yeah.
That's my thoughts on her.
Next up is Jennifer Kale,
who is a 2-2 that says activate.
Next turn,
you get plus one energy.
This is Psylocke,
but an activate card.
And it's that simple.
I think there is a little bit more nuance in this,
right?
You're not using Jennifer Kale to play four costs,
which Psylocke allows you to do,
right?
If you get her on two.
What Jennifer
Kale does,
Jennifer Kaler.
Jennifer Kael,
what she does is she allows you to activate on turn four or on turn three in order to get a five or six cost card.
So in strategies that want to ramp,
this is helpful,
right?
It's like a way to get the electro effect without having to deal with the huge downside.
The big difference,
though,
is you kind of have to get Jennifer Kael down.
by turn three in order for her to be effective in that role right if you play her on turn four then you will get an extra energy um on turn six but it's like yeah that's not very helpful right like you need to get her down earlier because it's an activate and then after the activate that's next turn it's two turns of setup in order to get that ramp and
she you know
For that reason,
I'm kind of surprised she's a 2-2.
Like,
her effect is powerful,
so I understand that they want to be careful with it,
but,
like,
it's a lot of work to put her into your deck.
You're taking a big power hit.
You need to be able to play her earlier.
If you don't draw her on time,
she's kind of bad.
And then when you do play her,
it's like,
isn't Luna just kind of better in most instances?
Like...
You're getting a 3-6 body,
and yeah,
you're kind of helping your opponent,
but I think the stuff you're doing in your deck is always supposed to take more advantage of that energy,
right?
So,
I don't know.
I don't know how I feel about her.
I'm landing more like a 3 out of 5.
Like,
I think she's fine.
If I had to rate Psylocke right now,
I think I'd rate it something similar.
It's alright.
I will say I do love her in the comics.
If you guys don't know,
she was revealed to be related to...
Johnny Blaze,
which is rad as hell.
He's Ghost Rider,
if you're not aware.
But yeah,
as a character I like her as a
Marvel snap card,
I'm a little more middling.
Okay,
next up is Nicholas Scratch.
He is a 1-2 that says,
after you play a skill,
plus one power.
So
I saw a lot of discourse on this card being fairly negative about him.
And I think...
When you look at,
like,
how much effort you're putting in for the power,
yeah,
like,
yeah,
it's not the most amazing thing,
but as a reminder,
right,
Hydrabob is still an amazing card.
It is just a 1-4 that can give you some flexibility in locations,
right?
If you play two skills with Nicholas Scratch,
he is a 1-4.
Like,
that's...
That's kind of the goal,
right?
If you can get him to 1-5,
you're already at a premium stat line for a 1-cost card.
And if you get him to a 6,
you're really,
really cooking.
I think the criticism with this card comes from the fact that we just don't have enough cards that generate skills to really make the best use out of him.
The best card synergy with him by far is Merlin because you get so many
1-cost skills.
but it's like you know as a combo
Is that worth it?
Like,
Merlin by himself already does enough,
and having this card,
like,
tied to that is a little weird,
and also,
since this isn't an ongoing card,
you have to have this card down on the board before you start getting those spells,
so,
yeah,
I don't know.
I think he's just fine.
I feel similarly to him as I do with Jennifer Kale,
where it's like,
I feel like...
The card is perfectly playable.
I think it can fit in a couple of spots.
I just don't think that it's,
like,
gonna blow open the meta.
I think it's a fairly standard,
like,
this feels like a card that would release at the beginning of the game.
Like,
you would get it as a starter card if skills had existed back then.
It just feels like a natural fit,
right?
So,
I think that this card could get scary later on,
depending if you get,
like,
full-on skill decks.
it sort of reminds me in Hearthstone how you had like
all spell decks from the mage where you wouldn't really play minions you would just use spells to get minions on the board um i can imagine maybe later on
In Snap's history,
that becomes a thing,
in which case this will be a stable one drop in that deck.
But right now it's just OK.
Like,
it's fine.
It gets to a good number for a one drop.
And I think that that by itself is pretty valuable.
So if you're running Merlin,
you could probably run Nicholas Scratch.
That's probably fine.
I would argue if you want to get the most value out of him,
you probably have to run Merlin and Agamotto in order to make like a number that is big.
Okay,
next up is Mercury,
who was not supposed to release when she did,
but she is a 2-2 that says you can move this once,
ongoing,
enemy cards here can't move.
Okay,
so,
I was not the only person who saw this and went,
wait,
guys,
this is Professor X Cannonball,
right?
Right?
Developers,
you know that that's a thing?
They either knew it was a thing and didn't care,
or maybe it was an oversight,
I don't know.
It's a very unfun combo,
okay?
This card is cool.
I like that it's like...
an answer to move not that you know that's been super super needed but it is an answer to move and she is like a jeff with her own conditions and it's interesting and i feel like it's one of those cards you can throw into your deck as a tech card and not be super mad about it and those are the kind of tech cards that i like cards like red guardian right where it's like the worst that he can be as a three five and you're okay playing a three five in your deck uh if you don't get that like critical hit on your
uh,
opponent's card,
I think Mercury works in a similar way where it's like,
the fact that she can move,
it makes her,
like,
a little worse than Jeff,
uh,
right,
as a 2-2,
but that,
that enemy cards here can't move thing might be valuable on certain locations,
like,
uh,
Strange Academy or whatever.
The,
the combo with Cannonball is just nutty.
It is just so difficult to play around,
and since you play her earlier down in the game and then play Cannonball after,
it's like,
Yeah,
it's tough to avoid.
It's made a bunch of these decks come back that I feel are not super fun to play against.
I will say,
with the deck that I've been playing recently,
I have been able to make it work just because the deck uses
Victoria Hand,
right?
So even if my Devil Dino gets blown up by the Mercury Cannonball combo,
there's still Sentinels there that are getting pumped up.
That kind of thing.
Like,
there's ways to play around it.
It's just,
it's a crazy good combo.
Makes me feel bad for Professor X,
because you had to put in a lot of work to make that combo happen,
and this is just a two-card combo.
So,
that interaction kind of stinks.
I wish that wasn't what she was just going to be tied to for the rest of her life,
but as a standalone card,
I do like her design.
I think she's very cool.
I'd say a 4 out of 5 for Mercury,
honestly.
Like,
she doesn't feel broken in what she does,
but she just feels solid all around.
I would
I would highly recommend you get this card.
I think that she's a really cool inclusion into the game.
Okay,
last of the cards to talk about is Hellion,
who is a 5-8 that says,
on reveal,
next turn,
you can move cards to this location.
So a lot of people read this and they're like,
isn't it just Cloak?
And the answer is no,
it's not Cloak.
The reason Cloak is not always included in decks is because it's symmetrical.
You're getting a 2-4 body out of it.
And the effect is very good,
so they have to balance it,
right?
Hellion is a good body at a 5-8,
and his effect is strong.
I don't know,
man.
I'm like,
I'm looking at this,
and I'm looking at vision,
and I'm like,
they do different things,
obviously.
But they feel sort of the same in the way that they mind game your opponent.
Like,
if you're just playing a regular old tech deck,
and you have things on the board,
um...
You can use Hellion to just shift your power to win a lane.
Like,
I don't even,
like,
in a move deck,
I'm sure this is fine,
right?
It's probably fairly good.
Like,
you can do
Hellion, move all the things to the right,
then Heimdall to move all the things on the left.
Like,
I'm sure that's a fine combo.
But I'm just thinking,
like,
on a broader spectrum,
this card could introduce a lot of decks that really make it difficult to predict where power is going to be on the board.
Um,
I definitely have to,
like,
I don't like playing against this card,
but playing with the card,
it's like,
it feels pretty good.
So
I don't know.
Um,
I'm going to save for right now.
I'm going to give him a four out of five.
I feel similar to Mercury where it's like,
I feel like this is a good inclusion in a lot of decks and it's a solid body.
You know,
it does something that can surprise people.
Like,
I think that's pretty great.
Um,
so yeah,
that's,
that's where I'm at with Hylian.
Okay,
with all of the new cards out of the way,
we can talk a little bit about the Golden Gauntlet 2 before the end of the pod.
So this was held over two days this time,
and the sign-up process was done in a completely different way,
exclusively through Discord.
And man,
oh man,
being in that Discord,
by the way,
as people were coming in,
like,
I would just implore people,
read the rules to the server before you get in there.
I like,
there were so many questions that were being asked and like,
there were so many people who didn't make it past the first signup page because they just didn't read.
They went into the server,
they saw a body of text and they're like,
eh,
I'm probably in right?
No.
Uh,
there were instructions on that big block of text that told you how to sign up,
how to get into the channels,
how to do everything.
So that was a wild ride.
Uh,
but besides that,
Uh,
the server was a lot of fun to be in,
just to chill and chat about.
Uh,
I think they're,
the server's still up as of this recording,
but they are going to take it down,
um,
at some point.
So,
unfortunately,
all those beautiful messages will not be archived,
uh,
rest in peace.
But,
uh,
but yeah,
it was a great sign-on process.
I did actually get in,
which was super cool.
I think there was almost 800 players in this one,
in comparison to,
uh,
half that many,
uh,
last time.
Just about.
So it was chaotic,
but it was a lot of fun.
I went four and three in the tournament.
And just like last time,
it was open deck list.
So your opponent knew what you were playing.
And I expected to see a lot of Thanos.
Thankfully,
I didn't see all that much.
And I think the new card sort of spurred into that.
But yeah,
I went positive in order to make it to the second day,
uh the second bracket
I needed to get five and two at a minimum,
five wins and two losses,
but I just couldn't make it happen.
I actually have a video that's coming out tomorrow that is going to go over that.
So keep your eyes peeled.
Hopefully I keep my word and I edit that on time.
It's been a big project for me.
But yeah,
so
I brought my magic dino deck.
Uh,
I'm sure I've ranted about it on this podcast before,
but the idea is that you use Wiccan,
uh,
in combination with,
uh,
Victoria Hand,
Infinity Ultron,
Esme Cuckoo,
and that way,
on the last turn of the game,
you can play a
5-cost and a 3-cost,
and we have some great 5- and 3-cost cards in our deck.
Um,
and now that the Infinity Ultron stones are 2-cost,
uh,
you can do some crazy stuff,
um,
in this deck.
Like,
playing Victoria Hand,
Power Stone,
and Speed all on the last turn.
But yeah,
so I had a really great time.
My opponents were all super cool.
I wish I could have clutched it up,
but
I lost a lot to
Enchantress and Shang-Chi,
right?
Like,
Devil Dino is a fun card,
but unfortunately there are just so many answers in the game for this card.
It's like...
It feels like a liability sometimes.
A lot of games,
I had to play around the fact that my opponent was hoping I'd play the Devil Dino,
and then I just wouldn't,
which actually worked out beautifully for me.
But all that aside,
let's talk about the actual people who won this thing.
The event was streamed on the second day,
and I caught about four hours this time,
sort of similar to last time.
I made sure to watch some of the beginning.
I kept the stream on,
and I was able to catch the top four.
um
At the time,
I was still working on personal stuff,
so
I did not participate in the chat all that much.
But
I did get to see some of the most insane variants I think I've ever seen with our winner,
Roram.
The top four ended up being Roram,
Yakublovich,
Amthesius,
and Honifer.
And they did a stellar job.
All the matches were super fun to watch.
especially dude like as much as i want to be upset with roram's deck like you just you can't make up some of the stuff that happened there was a play where wolverine got discarded from
roram's deck didn't put what just didn't put the wolverine in their deck it just spawned and like it got discarded and it went to the right location
Oh my god,
what a crazy friggin'
play.
And like,
there were a lot of other really good moments in this tournament,
but...
By far,
that one just,
like,
that had my jaw drop.
I was like,
I could not believe.
And,
like,
the opponent couldn't believe it either.
They were pretty pissed.
And,
like,
I don't blame them.
People were calling them salty in chat.
But I sympathize.
I was like,
holy moly.
Anyway,
I do want to go over the decks here.
So,
Roram was the ultimate champion.
They brought a deck of
Thanos, Ausha.
Agamotto,
which is a 34 card deck.
They played things like Surge and Juggernaut and Shang-Chi,
Enchantress,
and yeah,
it just worked out.
And in a tournament like this,
you know,
having a deck with high variance means you're going to steal a lot of cubes,
and then on top of that,
right,
they're always betting on the fact that you don't draw your answers.
Things like Shang-Chi and Enchantress,
and then,
of course,
sometimes the game just serves them up to you on a silver plate,
and you can just...
absolutely demolish um i've seen some talk about like you know does this make thanos the most overpowered deck you know you know is this proof that the agamotto thanos deck needs to be completely
destroyed i don't really know like i'd say a a large part of ryan's success was the way that he played the deck um i don't think that it was inherently
more powerful than all the rest of the things up here,
but I mean,
you can't deny that a lot of it was extremely lucky.
So kudos to Waram for having the foresight to bring a deck like this.
It reminds me of the deck that Buttsquad brought last time with
Pixie and Mobius,
and the whole idea of that being,
you know,
your opponent is going to have a hard time predicting what you can do,
and you can sort of,
you know,
snap.
uh when they don't have the information for it so kudos to war m i think they they played the deck very well um in second place was a clue of yakublovich um who brought a fenris deck uh that had shang chi galacta gladiator um
it had a bunch of answers it also had merlin in there and i actually really liked this deck they had a similar philosophy right they had loki in here with the idea of like,
hey,
sometimes when you're in a pinch,
Loki it up,
get some cheap cards.
You already have a lot of tech in your deck,
so if you just need big numbers,
not a bad way to go.
I really liked their approach to that.
Amtheseus brought a Thanos
Spectrum deck,
which made it very,
very high.
And ultimately,
you know,
the cost of this deck is just that it dies to Killmonger.
Like,
so many matchups.
I'm surprised that they made it this far without putting in Kyera.
I'm shocked that people don't use that card.
It's in the game for a reason,
but they felt that that was the right way to go.
And to their credit,
right,
they made it to third place.
But ultimately,
it was that Killmonger that ended up sealing the deal.
And last but certainly not least is Hanifur,
who brought a really interesting clog deck that used Yellowjacket and Merlin and Werewolf by Night with the,
you know,
Sentry Annihilus combo.
And it was really,
really good.
I actually really enjoyed watching Hanifor play.
I think that they did a tremendous job,
and this deck was pretty creative.
I haven't seen it before.
So,
yeah,
all of these decks,
really cool in their own right.
I especially like
Hanifor's deck.
I think I was rooting for them the hardest during the top four,
but really fun to watch,
really fun to play in.
They have not announced if they're doing another one.
This one came so soon.
I wouldn't be shocked if they take a minute to,
you know,
take stock and figure out a more cohesive plan for the next one.
But this one was really great.
I'm glad that they're doing this again.
And if we've learned anything from the previous one,
they're going to use the tournament from this data to they're going to use the data from this tournament in order to make some pretty cool decisions for the game.
So,
yeah,
super cool.
Uh,
those are all the canoe cards.
That's the tournament that just happened.
I hope I didn't miss anything.
Um,
new patch also just came out.
Uh,
that's actually posted by Second Dinner,
which is super cool.
Make sure that you check out the shop.
Uh,
it's been updated.
And if you use the code WEBLAUNCH,
uh,
you're going to get some goodies.
So make sure you do that.
All right,
that's everything.
And if there's one thing that you can remember,
it's that I'm Infinite.
Thanks for listening.