The Snap Chat: Marvel Snap Podcast
The Snap Chat: Marvel Snap Podcast
Peni Parker: The New Move Machine | The New Villains of Snap | Galacta & Luna Snow In Review | The Snap Chat Ep. 110
Will Peni Parker be the new move machine? What are the new cards that players love to hate? What are Cozy and Alex's final rankings on Galacta & Luna Snow? Join Cozy Snap and Alexander Coccia as they chat about this and more on this episode of The Snap Chat and every week as they discuss all things Marvel Snap.
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You’ve been listening to The Snap Chat. Keep the conversation going on x.com/ACozyGamer and x.com/AlexanderCoccia. Until next time, happy snapping!
What's going on, guys, and welcome back, or shall I say good evening. This is the earliest we've posted. It's a Sunday, not a Monday, due to circumstances. We've got a Snapchat a little bit early for you. And Alex and I are gonna break down the newest card coming, Penny, Parker, and Spider. She's gonna help you get energy with a new merge mechanic. And Alex and I are gonna break down the synergies and what she will bring. To Marvel Snap. On top of that, she's a ramp card. We're going to look at all the ramp cards and how they age and what they look like in the game currently. In our most enjoyable and fun cards to play, there's a lot to break down, a lot of fun to be had, some weird topics that we talked about in this episode. We talk about that all today on Or tonight, I guess, on this episode of the Snapchat. And as always, coming a little bit early this week, I am joined by Mr. Alex Coccia. What's going on, man? Hello, buddy. We are well, not well into the season. We're in week two into the Marvel Rivals. And Marvel Snap collab, Rivals has officially launched, and Snap is going into its new card this week. How we doing?
Alexander Coccia:I'm doing good, buddy. And I gotta say, I did something really stressful this week. Super stressful. And you encouraged me to do it. So I've been experiencing tons of crashes playing Marvel Rivals, and there must be people out there that would appreciate this and the stress that's Like, incurred by this, I reformatted my computer, and I've not done it in like years since I built the PC. I'm like the kind of person, dude, man, listen, when, you know how it is with like OBS, and like your audio software, and your, all your video stuff, you have it all set up, and it's like stringed together, and like, it's all like duct taped together, and like, I don't even do updates with like OBS or anything else, I don't do software updates, because if I update something and something breaks, it'll all fall apart, my whole system was a house of cards. And so now I literally have this camera app installed, my microphone installed, and Discord installed. So let's go.
Cozy Snap:Calculator, notes, and that's it, dude. I love it, man. Yeah, it's I've only done a couple fresh, fresh installs, man. And it's, it's like getting a new machine, though. It truly, it, it, it ramps that baby up. I, I need a fresh install myself. I have never felt more I've never put in more work in my life into anything than this last week, probably, and it's wild. Like, guys, to paint the picture for you, I mean, I think you guys can see on the Snap channel here, lack of videos this week, kind of warned you guys about it. Kind of for, you know, just a fun journey I wanted to take, I did a Marvel Rivals channel, and it's a game that I love so much, so I poured my heart into that. And it's going really well, which is awesome, and I'm loving the game, and also I love Marvel Snap, and so, Trying to turn and burn, again, if you guys have watched the channel, like kind of behind the scenes that goes into these videos, right? There's, you know, formulating the idea, and then there's I don't script write, but I do kind of bullet points of what my process is, especially if I'm doing, like, any type of skit or some visual that I want to do. Definitely the visuals and trying to come up with, you know, the production side as a whole piece as well. And then, you know, filming that. Editing that, and then putting that all together, is a beast, and to do that in a 24 hour flip, and I've done it now, day after day, sometimes two to three videos a day, on two channels, for, oh, going on two weeks, man. It's so, it's just, it's the most wild, Thing I've ever done, but I love it because it's not that I was getting comfortable with my my routine almost but like this feels Super challenging and my entire life. I love to be challenged. I do but oh boy I'm challenged. So I need a fresh install Alex cuz I am on lack of sleep, but enjoying it like it's fun, man It's fun
Alexander Coccia:It has been fun and you know, like, again, I've been on a very similar grind and it's been rejuvenating, kind of like you, you're right, you get a little comfortable and the key thing is you want to push yourself a little bit and the videos that I've been producing, like, I've been taking notes out of your playbook, right, trying to amp up the production quality, you know, and I joked about this in the past, but, like, I literally sometimes, I'm like, how does Cozy do that thing and I literally don't know what to Google. To figure out like how you do it. And then like, even when like, you know, the green screening stuff, it's like, you have like this incredible process to it. It's just, there is a reason why Cozy's videos look sound and are as well orchestrated as they are. It's because you've put in the time and effort over years to build those skills. And here's the thing. If you go back to like the first couple of versions of like Snap stuff, I remember watching your first Snap videos and thinking like, they were incredible. I'm like, how can this guy get any better? But somehow you've managed to get better every single time. You've learned lessons throughout these years, and now you're playing it to your Marvel Rivals channel. So, sir, it does not surprise me that you're finding success there, because you absolutely deserve it.
Cozy Snap:Well, A, thank you. B, if I ever need a good cringe feel of myself, I'll go back to my older videos. They feel good. They, they definitely Alex has found some of my old streams where I have a shake weight and I had my viewers buy any infomercial products. And I would buy like 10 of them or they would list them and show them. And I, and I bought 10 of them and I would test them live. I know. Yeah. We got the did you see the one with the slap shop too, with the tuna? Was that one? Yes, I did. Yeah. That was, that
Alexander Coccia:was a classic one. Listen, I still like, I love, love your old school videos. They're still phenomenal. Despite the fact you wear shoes on the beach. It's okay. I'll forgive it.
Cozy Snap:One time, one time. But yeah, man, it's been fun. And you know, what's been really cool is to see. People from Snap, like card gamers, you know, listen guys, if you, especially, I know a lot of you guys will feel known by it, if you play card games, it does not mean if you're successful there, you're gonna be good at shooters and fast movement games, and that's probably what has turned a lot of people off either rivals or just venturing into any other gaming, but I gotta say, man, tip of the hat, hands off to you guys, I've seen a lot of Snap people translate over to rivals, and they're just having a good time, and having fun, and I think that's what it does best, man. You know how, like, I think Snap has such a good kind of flavor and vibe to it. What it, what it gives out and the fun nature of it. I think Rivals does that too, and not to get lost in all the crazy competitiveness. Which is kind of what today is all about, you know? Snap, you know, there's, you know, a billion things to talk about in different areas. But today I wanted to focus on something like the most enjoyable cards to play. Cause we have a pretty fun one coming out today, Alex. So we've got a lot to talk about over here. What are we talking about on your side of the Snapchat?
Alexander Coccia:Cozy on my side of the Snapchat, we're going to be doing our review of both Luna Snow and Galacta. So stay tuned for that. We'll also be discussing the new villains of Snap because, hey, there's a lot of cards out there that are starting to piss people off and we're going to talk about them. And then finally, as always, our Snapchat mailbag.
Cozy Snap:Dude, you know what we need to talk about before we get into anything is. I gotta say, right, two games that I know with some of the best art is Snap and Rivals. Their art team, both of their art teams deserve mega raises. However, what happened with the, with the card backs this season? Did you see the Rivals card back and then the one you can earn and it's gold? And I'm like, out of all the, all the things they could have done with the art, I was so surprised. It might be the weakest card back we've ever had.
Alexander Coccia:It might be the worst. There's a couple card backs that stand out to me as being like, just painful, like there's the one that we got really early with like, the universe in it, but it has the Marvel Snap logo slapped in the middle of it, which I absolutely wish they would just get rid of, so that one pains me because it has the potential to be absolutely one of the best, but this one here is by far one of the worst. They could have gotten the key art, like they could have just googled like, Marvel Rivals logo. And just slapped it on the card, it would have looked better than what we have there, right? So it's like, it is pretty rough. It's unbelievable for a game that has incredible art across the board. Even the one, like, I remember in one of your videos you talked about, like, you know the Jeff the Baby Landshark, like, coming out from the, like, it's just so perfect, right? You could have gotten anything, and instead they're like, hey, let's get this, it's kind of bad.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, let's throw in the yeah, and then the, well, and then the alternative art one with, like, some of the heroes on it. I was like, oh, that one's pretty cool, and then have that be gold with the heroes black. Nope, didn't go that direction. But anyway, let's talk about Penny Parker, guys. If you don't know, Penny is a tank Vanguard in Marvel Rivals. And in Marvel Snap, she's a 2 cost, 3 power card on reveal, adds spider to your hand. And when this merges, you get plus 1 energy next turn. So anytime, it's a little unclear. But anytime anything merges into Penny Parker, you will be getting plus one energy for the next turn. Spider also gives the rare ability of letting that card move. The next turn. Correct as well, in which is crazy. We have a card that is our first, I believe, two cost that is generating a three cost in Snap, and is definitely unique. And this might be the hardest card to evaluate this month, potentially. Alex, how are you feeling about it?
Alexander Coccia:Okay. I'm still going to stick to like my three star approach. I still think like three star, I think it's going to be good. It's going to be fine. It's not going to be a medic, a cracker. One you're talking about like comparables. I think that Maria, Maria Hill, sorry. I was gonna say Maria, something else. I didn't know why I mixed up the names, but Maria Hill does something similar with the one into the two, right? I think that's the only example we have in Snap generally speaking. Obviously we have the Colson that goes three the four fives and stuff like that. But I do like what Penny does. And I'm gonna stick with the three stars because like, I think that like, there's so many cards coming out, and there's so much competition for card slots and for tokens and for keys, I don't know if this one calls to me. You know what I mean? I just don't think it calls to me, and I mean, the spotlight cash certainly doesn't, so.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, I think in the, in the early ratings, I said three and a half to four. I'm probably gonna, I, I might go with four. I'm gonna aim a little high. I think it could easily fall down because this one does have a tough one to evaluate. Before we get to the synergies, the reason why I want to give it that is I think if you don't complicate this card, it's good. So I think we're gonna talk about the ramp cards in a second. But being able to merge is something relatively easy, and it could be too narrow, and I think that's kind of the risk behind it. You know, if it's too niche, then maybe not, but we have a couple of merge cards that just kind of work across the board. And having Penny Parker give a create a card that's a three, That can also move a card, so you're getting benefit. And then, on top of that, so, you know, you are playing effectively with 5 energy, right, for a 6 power card that can move. Not the best, considering Vision is that, and it can move every turn. Like, there are some obvious things. But you're getting that 1 energy, and you're gonna be able to go every single time into turn 4 with 5 energy, and so being able to make these decks work, I think, is a thing, as long as you don't overcomplicate it. I think there are some specific decks with Penny. Let's talk about the synergies. Things that are going to really, you know, kind of elevate her play but in a more general sense, I think that's where she's going to shine.
Alexander Coccia:No, she definitely will, and I think you're right, like, just don't overcomplicate the card, don't try to dive too deep into it, like, this is clearly a much more of a support centric card, not a build around card and to that degree, like, we have seen that movement is extremely powerful in the case of, like, Nocturne and others, like, being able to access locations is, is very helpful getting the ramp part of this is very good too, and it's gonna breathe some life into some cards that have not been played in some time, which we're gonna talk about momentarily. But yeah, generally speaking, like, I do like that evaluation, and especially since you are playing it on curve, too, right? Like, there is value in that, like, there are times where, like, you just don't curve properly, and your, your entire game plan kind of falls apart, and this card's gonna prevent that from happening to, to some degree. So, you know, I, I definitely do think that this has a very decent floor. I just don't see the ceiling, like we see in some other cards, potentially, this month. But it definitely has a very strong floor.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, I'm, I'm going to be curious how it kind of slots its way across decks. I know, you know, you would look at something like Kate Bishop and, and maybe a card like that. Couldn't see being too good and obviously it's one of the better cards in the game. If not, you know, at least top 20, especially on play rate. And so I will want to see if Penny can fit that kind of role. And again, very hard to, to tell right off the bat. What I want to start with though, if we would, if we do want to bring up you know, specific synergy is not Luna. We'll talk about her in a second. But Phoenix Force, you know, I think Phoenix Force is super unique here because you have this deck that obviously we've got some merging stuff going on here but on top of that, we have cards that could be backup options, and Phoenix Force has always been a draw these things in this order and you win And if you don't, it's a lot harder to win, and I'm curious now, with Penny as an addition, can this be something way more reliable, and you don't, you, you kind of have a better floor with Phoenix Force, and then we already know the ceiling is winning, right? Like, it's gonna win, and I think that she could elevate this deck, And kind of earn that star rating alone just through Phoenix Force and some of these merge cards in it.
Alexander Coccia:It's entirely possible, because like, one thing that Phoenix Force struggles with is if you don't draw into the Phoenix Force, that's a major issue. And also, you kind of don't have many backup plans, if like, say early in the game, like, I do think that Penny can provide like, kind of like an alternate win condition to some degree, like an alternate strategy towards getting towards that endgame, right? Because with Phoenix Force, you really only do two three things. One, you bring, you merge Phoenix Force with Human Torch, move it around, Zola it, two, you do the multiple man, move it around, they, they retreat. And then three, you usually use the Nimrod line, right? Use the Nimrod Shuri line and generate some some value with the you know, the Deathlocks, the Carnages and the the Venoms. So if Penny can come in and create more of a mid range version of Phoenix Force, it could potentially be very interesting and maybe give it a much more straightforward play style.
Cozy Snap:Well, what's cool about that is you just named a few cards, right? Human Torch, Multiple Man, and Nimrod. And there's more, but let's talk about those guys. All of those with Spider is really cool. Multiple Man gets to move, so you get, you know, one interaction just happening kind of purely with the same energy ish, you know, you got the two into the three. And then Human Torch is obviously a really big winner, right? You play down, you play down Torch for just one, and the way that this will naturally curve out is actually really good, and it just works out with the deck. But you got that going into a 1 5, and then also you have a 1 10 not doing all that much, right? But then there's Nimrod too, and it's like, okay, you know, Nimrod's the 5, but you are getting that, that energy if you could pull that off. I need to see how it plays out, but if you're able to move these cards to set it for advance, like, for instance, like, obviously, like, how are you gonna get it with the energy to work out, to move a Nimrod to help you destroy it in a better location, like, there's just, I think it opens up some more game plans, potentially, with it. And again, it just makes that floor, your Phoenix Force Enjoyers, that much higher.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, and I mean, yeah, so like, it definitely does, and like, another deck that utilizes Human Torch effectively is gonna be like that little mover style deck. And if you think about it, when you use Spider onto the Human Torch, you can actually like, you know, you use Spider, they merge, right, and then what you're able to do is move it. So that, that gets the, gets the buff, but then also because Spider was the last card played, if the interactions are consistent as they've always been generally with merging, you should be able to play Ghost Spider and then pull the merged card back towards you, and then you should be able to beast it, right? So like, I do like the idea of using Human Torch alongside Spider to generate as much value as you can, because everything is like massive growth with Human Torch, like even just a single couple extra movements, all of a sudden this Human Torch is out of control, right? And it's definitely becomes a win condition at that point.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, and really the con with Penny, guys, obviously, like She's a 2, creating a 3. Anytime you have a token card creating something not good towards the end of the game, so you do have that. She's a ramp card anyway, and the way I look at it that way is like, you know, you get a turn 6 it feels really bad. I think Penny might be a tad bit better, potentially at least on 5 to 6. But yeah, having that extra energy could be another card too that just wants to work with magic more, which some of these decks do work with magic anyway. So yeah, I think the movers are a safe, a safe place to start here. And even just like, man, I was looking at cards that want to be, you know, we've talked about these all the time, but cards that want a little bit more power. Now, like Captain Marvel, let's say you don't, you don't really care if the, if Captain Marvel gets to move because she's going to move later. But I mean, you know, whatever, you can at least add that extra power to her. Not bad. More specifically, the Symbiote Spider Man, the Scarlet Spider, those kinds of ones, I'm going to save my full conversation for them for Snap's most enjoyable cards. I want to talk about them. I like those cards a lot. But I do think both of those could be decently big winners, in a way, relatively, they're not going to be massive winners, but big enough.
Alexander Coccia:Scarlet Spider has needed something for a long time, and it's kind of dodged getting buffed. And I think that might be because, I bet you that Glenn thinks that this is probably stronger than we're giving it credit for. Like, on paper, I think that this is actually probably a decent card, because if you think about the effect It's you, you do anything to buff this card up effectively, like it's going to pop off and like where we have Galacta as well, that could potentially impact this card. And so, yeah, with something as simple as spider and with the movement as well, you can then, you know you can also control where the the Scarlet Spider clone is going to end up cause it goes to another location. So if you move it, you can actually send it To to a location that maybe, like, you, you want, I don't know why you do, I'm just saying, technically, you can, you have that element of control. But any additional power here on the Scarlet Spider is basically, like, a double up, right? Anything you merge into Scarlet Spider, it's like you're getting double the effect of it, it just stretches the value a little bit further, so I like this color a lot, because this has been a card that, I think, is underwhelmed, but is probably very close to being relevant.
Cozy Snap:The thing is, though, and my only issue with this card and how it's gonna play out in some of these, again, these are the synergies that we're kind of having fun with, we're like, hey, this could be cool, this could be cool. But, because of the cost of how much this spider costs and when you want to play it, these kind of bigger cards you have to be much more careful about. If it was a 2, creating a 2, I'd almost like that better in a lot of, in a lot of areas. The only place that I like it being a 2 and 2 that, again, don't think is talked about, haven't seen talked about much is Wiccan. I mean, This is our first two creating a three, which is insane! I mean, you straight up now have one card that can do two rolls, and you can, you know, maybe Quicksilver on one, and then have a couple twos, and if any, if Penny is one of those, you have your guaranteed curved line to Wiccan. You're already doing the extra energy with Penny, and so you can really create more of a ramp heavy deck here with Wiccan in that. I think this has some potential for some really unique builds.
Alexander Coccia:Absolutely. Actually, I was working on a deck, which is basically Quicksilver 1, and then you have like the the Penny on 2 and the Cape Bishop on 2 as well, right? It's kind of like a, like a backup play type thing. And with that, you're right, like you get into the Wiccan pretty fast. The only question I've not been able to answer with this deck is like, okay, how do you have, let's say you don't draw into Wiccan, how do you still utilize the plus 1 power? So if you merge into the Penny, you know, what do you ramp into that makes this deck still propel itself forward, right? Because you do have that extra energy still. Despite the fact you didn't draw into Wiccan, because Wiccan likes to, like, skip ahead a little bit, right? But Penny Parker can't necessarily do that, obviously because it gives the plus one, not plus two. So, there are some options here, but I do really like the color of Wiccan, because this has been a card that's been, like, near the top, but then, like, people just be like, eh, I don't want to play. But it's been close to being an absolute meta banger, and maybe this is just another piece to the puzzle.
Cozy Snap:Well, what's cool though, right, is being able to play Wiccan early or any forecast early is, you know, ideal, especially looking at Galactica. I mean, name any of the forecasts that have come out recently, playing them earlier, the better, right? With Wiccan, another one drop, if you're not playing Quicksilver that I enjoy and I think is going to be having its time, like it might actually work in all of these kind of Penny Parker decks, is Agony, right? You play down Agony, turn one. You play Penny into Agony, that merge happens, you have 4 energy and then you can play Wiccan next. And then, and then you've got that extra energy ready to go, you have all this energy that you can mess with, so that, that Spider bot you created is that much easier to use. I think that Agony, like, you know, you've got, what, Hulkbuster, and Symbiote Spider Man, and a couple others, but I think just Agony and Penny, is a pretty strong 1 2 merge that can kind of float into a lot of decks. And, I mean, now you've got yourself an option that works. I mean, that package could be lethal.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, the, the Agony into the Penny Parker package is much more active. It's faster. It's a turn, it's, well, obviously it's a turn quicker than the other way with Spider. But what's key about this too, is like, I've been trying to wrestle with the idea of having Agony in these decks, especially with Wiccan, because I'm glad you brought it up because I've been working on one. But it's like, okay, if you have Agony Does that mean you cut Quicksilver, right, and then you rely on the Agony, because if you run Quicksilver, you're denying yourself a draw at the start of the game. If you run just Agony without the Quicksilver, you technically get an additional draw to hopefully draw into your Wiccan, so that you can go Agony, Penny into Wiccan, right? But then you lose, like, then you're kind of like hoping that the cards fall right? And you don't necessarily have snap conditions. It's kind of tricky, right? So I'm trying to figure out like, if you play agony, do you keep quicksilver or do you cut quicksilver? You know what I mean? Maybe
Cozy Snap:like a world you do like something like haven't put onto it, but like zbu, zbu, human torch in agony, right? So at that point you've got, you've got three different cards. They all play well. You get zbu you know, can get wicked to play early. You've got human torch that wants to have the merge cards anyway. And then you have agony, right? Like. That's probably the route I would go over Quicksilver, and then into the tubes, you would have, you know, Penny, and then, there's plenty of tubes to throw in there that just kind of work with the builds in general. Maybe Hulkbuster, I think at that point you're getting too committed to the merge. Like, I think it's two merge cards. One being Penny, and then the other one being an additional help, which Agony just curves out better, and you have more agency there, so I just, I like that a tad more. But I do, I mean, dude, I do think Symbiote Spider Man is not played enough. I think the experimentation with him has kind of been left alone, where there is more to him, and there's more to the kit that can be unlocked, that maybe Penny, you know, reawakens him.
Alexander Coccia:It's possible. It really is possible. The only thing is that really, I think that that combination works best if you're able to get Zabu out early. Because then this card's a three cost, you can do some early merger, because you can then merge on turn four instead of turn five. The concern with symbiote spider man, I think, is that it's too slow. I think that, like, by the time, like, you get that extra energy, it doesn't have the impact maybe you want. I mean, it still does, but it's just, it's definitely slower and you're moving into the endgame. But I do, I do think you're right in the sense of, like, we have not seen much Symbiote Spider Man, and I wonder if it's because it's just, I don't know. I was expecting to see it more this week, too, with Galacta and everything, but it still didn't really crack the shells, right?
Cozy Snap:It's the same as Scarlet Spider that you mentioned earlier. I don't know if it's because Glenn hasn't said anything about it, because they're good, or they're just activate and they're tough to solve. Like You know, because I look at this and I'm like, yeah, we could do this, we could do that, but then I'm like, I'm still just thinking about more basic ideas, and I'm like, alright, probably still rather go back to Agony and play Penny into even like a screen deck, right? Because one thing we're not focusing on is the movement factor and having that. I mean, any card, making any card able to move. Is a whole nother conversation that we could have. I mean, you, you look at, and realistically, it can only be, you know, at, at maximum of four cost and down. That's kind of how it's going to work in, in the game turns to be able to play effective of the move. But there's a lot of cards in here that, obviously, giving them the ability to move over one space with added power is massive. You can get to locations. But it's like, see what I mean? I just brought up the scream deck even. Yeah. I feel like there's a lot of little decks that this penny package could work into that need kind of a starting engine and want the extra energy.
Alexander Coccia:I do feel that a lot. And the other thing about it too is that like a card, like steamed Spider-Man, like it's, for instance, penny Parker's coming outs now we're talking about as being a potential thing that we can build around. It's gonna get better. Over time, as new cards are added to the game, like, we just finished having a conversation unironically about Quicksilver. Quicksilver was never buffed, but Wiccan was added to the game. Right? So if you keep buffing Symbiote Spider Man, then eventually there's going to be a card that comes out like, this is a Symbiote Spider Man card, this is the reason why it exists, and really, as we've seen a million times, you only need one deck for a card to be meta relevant. You need it to work where, like, once. Very well, good win rate, good cube rate, and it's, it's there. It's in the meta. Simulant hasn't found that yet. It could have been Galactus. It was close to being Galactus. It was close. It didn't quite reach it.
Cozy Snap:Well, now Galactus 2 just, just does that, does that job a bit more efficient and easier. And yeah, I mean, look at Nomura coming out. She did that to a lot of cards. I mean, heck, Scream made that whole archetype good. Like, that is the best part about Snap is there is usually one key to one engine to get the whole thing going, and that's the conversation today. Can Penny do that with the merge ramp feeling? And, you know, listen, we could spit out a couple fun ones, you know, Dokken and Sebastian Shaw, Miles Morales. Those are some of the other synergies I had. Not to take, you know, your spotlight there. Did you have any before we go into just the ramp cards and how they're gonna work?
Alexander Coccia:I just like how you managed to fit in Doc in there. You should have at least said Doc in Double Up.
Cozy Snap:Had to quickly, yeah, yeah, yeah. You had to get it in there. Check, check. Doc in Double Up, fine as wine. Maybe it'll be good as it ages. Yes, man. Let's talk about, though, Penny, and one specific thing is we're starting to get a lot of ramp cards, dude. Like, we, you know, back in the day, it was Wave, it was Electro, and kind of, kind of Psylocke, right? Now we've got a whole slew of different options, right? And so for people that like ramp decks and just in general, which it's so funny, man, we used to have such ramp dedicated builds and now we've kind of gone away from that. It's a bit more like mix a ramp card into a deck and have that kind of work out. Where does Penny fall in all of this? I wanted to talk about the RAM cards, your opinion on where they stand now, and then just kind of get that conversation started, buddy. Who do you want to start with?
Alexander Coccia:Man, okay, I mean, you want to start somewhere fun. How about Wave? Wave was largely considered to be one of the absolute best cards in Marvel Snap. It got changed significantly, right, with the way it actually handles the cost structure of cards. So for those that are kind of new to Snap, in the beta, and even in the early onset of the release, this card was way Right. Death Wave was a thing where basically you just like mega slam turn six after playing wave and stuff like that. It was, it was really an awesome card and it's kind of lost its identity a little bit. It got some play with Galactus, like literally I'm going to put Wolverine down turn two, wave turn three, and then G Man turn four, and you don't know which location I'm going to go to. That was basically the play. But also, and Oh, don't forget the Nebula on turn one to bait them into playing that location over and over again. Right. But that's, that is really classic. But yeah, she's kind of lost her identity a little bit, which is unfortunate. I think this card's actually kind of interesting, you know? You think
Cozy Snap:it still holds
Alexander Coccia:up, though, to the ramp cards
Cozy Snap:today?
Alexander Coccia:No, I don't think it does.
Cozy Snap:It's just different, like, it has its one time move, where we have a couple cards like Penny. And, you know what, I'll just go into our next one. Hope Summers, right? Like, I think Hope introduced a ramp card that can start doing something kind of that you can interact with and every turn, right? It gives you the agency. You know, with Electro, which we'll talk about next, but Wave and with Wave, or sorry, with Hope Summers and Penny, it's a different approach to ramp, and I think that's the new approach. I think that's what's getting played. We've obviously seen that before. Where does Hope Summers lie once again? That's probably the best card in the game for a little bit. Where is she now in the ramp scheme of things?
Alexander Coccia:It's so weird with Hope Summers, especially since like, you know, Luna came out this week as well. And I've been testing decks and playing a lot of Surfer and stuff, and I'm like, okay, well, if you compare the two, like Luna Snow and Hope Summers, it's like Hope Summers has this delayed effect, right? It's a turn later, but it has a higher ceiling. If you're playing something like Kitty Pride and Jeff, you can pump, pump. And then like, now you're going to you know, ramped energy per turn. With the Luna Snow, you get the effect immediately and you're able to go with Sarah on turn four, which is huge, right? I think that's like, that's the, that's the gravy. That's what you're looking for. Right. So they're different styles. It's like Luna Snow has the higher floor. For the immediacy of the effect, Hope Summers has the higher ceiling, because you're able to play into him multiple times, so like, I don't know man, it feels like, as good as Hope Summers is, and I know I made fun of you for saying Dokken, but I, is this card, I always say that this card is like the most disrespected card in Snap, but I still think it is to some degree, but has it been powercrafted, and is the 3 4 a factor, because every card is coming out at 3 5 Let's be honest, if this comes out today, it's not 3 4, it's 3 5, straight up, with the same stats, same line, not same stats, but stats go up, same line, everything, it's just a 3 5 because you know it's going to be, right?
Cozy Snap:Yep, and again, the way that you interact with it has just given the player more agency and we kind of saw that with Snap, like, the first cards that came to the game kind of held our hands, right? And then we really started getting to a lot more complex stuff, right? You know, when Zabu came in, there's all this energy reduction, and then Hitmonk. Like, there's a lot of different cards that kind of elevated the thought process behind playing cards. But Elektra was that. He was that simple, you know, Hey, play it down, you get extra energy, you get one card per turn. I mean, rest in peace that deck, right? I mean, you could still win with it, you know, but there's just so many It's just so hard to create that power mass that it used to hold. In today's world of Snap, with all the tech card options out there and just everything you can do.
Alexander Coccia:It's the amount of inflation. It's power inflation. The inflation's out of control, Cozy. See, if you think about it, you used to be able to play Electro Turn 3, right? You play, like, Vision Turn 4, and then you play Doom and Odin. And you're like, what are you going to do, bro? You got nothing. We're going to win this game, no problem. And now, you do that, and they're like, okay, I'll blob here, and I'll like They're like, they have so many answers for that. Like, it's not even close. They're like, okay, you do that, I guess I'll like, gore Mystique and smoke you. You know what I mean? It's like, what? That's not enough power? How is Doom mode not enough power? And it's just not anymore.
Cozy Snap:What about like a two A 2 0. So you get yourself A 2 0
Alexander Coccia:Electro?
Cozy Snap:Yeah, so you're getting an extra turn, because I always think about that, right? Like, being able to play down, let's say the new Doom coming out, Doom 29, he's a 4, right? So, being able to have a 2 Electro, that has 0 energy, so you're like, you're giving up, you're giving up power, to then be able to play a 4 early, the 5s, the 6s, I think that could revitalize the card.
Alexander Coccia:Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. So, Psylocke, except with the ongoing effect and power every turn.
Cozy Snap:Yes. And you can only have the one. Yep. There's probably room
Alexander Coccia:for that. I think you're cookin There's probably room for that in the game. It's gonna come out. They just stole it.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, they're gonna do it. They're gonna just do it for another card, probably. Psylocke, man. Psylocke, I think, is really cool, because funny enough, if you actually think about it, she has been nerfed and buffed a lot of times. Like, they kind of have kept her in this, like, this is where we want her. Yeah. Snip snap, snip snap, as I like to say. Also in Rivals. Good God, this, this woman just is in my nightmares, man. I don't know what she yells before her ultimate, but I, I, I wake up in my sleep of, you know what I'm talking about?
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, I know exactly, I don't know what she says either, but when you said snip, snap, snip, snap, it reminded me of The Office. When Michael's in the apartment, he's arguing with Jan. That's the
Cozy Snap:quote, that's the quote. That's the quote? Okay, that's what you were referencing? Okay, good. I was like, you brought me back in time. On a man the impact of three vasectomies. Also, this lady's thighs just make me uncomfortable, like, for a couple reasons. Psylocke. Jan's thighs? No maybe, but Psylocke too.
Alexander Coccia:Okay, fair enough. I agree, I agree.
Cozy Snap:Jan, I haven't thought about Jan in a while. So, hold on now. Hold on now. Dude, like that Office episode when Michael broke up with her, but then she had a boob job, and then he, he just like magically wanted to get back together. Like, that, that, that show. May it live on. It could never air today and I, I just, I, but I don't care. I love it. And just leave it alone. Don't do sequels. It is, it's a piece of history. I don't know how we ended up at Jan's boob job, but we come back to Psylocke. Where do you think Psylocke lands right now? I think she's, because of the 4s on the rise again, in a great spot.
Alexander Coccia:Oh, Psylocke's great. Psylocke's a great card. It's always been. And it's often been the card where, like, hey, you want to play a card on 2 that doesn't actually ruin your game plan and actually might even progress it significantly? A 2 2 Psylocke that lets you play something on, you know, a 4 cost in turn 3, that's amazing. It's the reason why, like, actually, it's being huge in the negative decks right now. We're actually seeing a lot of negative gore still. And Psylocke's massive in that. So yeah, no, Psylocke's a great card. And we even, the last time we saw it got nerfed, it got nerfed because of the the Lockjaw Air not Lockjaw Air, it was Lockjaw Thanos,
Cozy Snap:right? I think that was the last
Alexander Coccia:nerf, right? Because it was, it was ramping Professor X out, wasn't it?
Cozy Snap:Yeah, it was up to a 2 3
Alexander Coccia:at one point, yeah. Was it Pro X who was ramping out? It was ramping something out. What was it doing? I can't remember now.
Cozy Snap:It was ramping out, I think it was just the way, it was X, it was 100 percent Professor X, yeah.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, it's how fast can you get Professor X? Oh, no, because it was the time stone too, right? There was the time stone, there was Psylocke, and there was Mulch.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, you had multiple things to get X down, and that's why it would work so well, 100%. And she's cheap, works with the stones 100%. Yeah, Psylocke really good right now. Then we have Penny we just talked about. Luna will be way quicker on, but where do you Does Luna fit well into the ramp? Not anything else in your kit, but just the ramp section.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, yeah, she's a ramp card.
Cozy Snap:She
Alexander Coccia:has her own? Yeah, I think she puts the tag, if she's gonna put on a sticker and say I'm a ramp card, she does. For
Cozy Snap:sure, does she have her own niche in it though?
Alexander Coccia:No, no, I don't think
Cozy Snap:she does. for you, so that's fine. And then we've got Wiccan, who I'm, I'm telling you, This was one of those classic lines that we said that we think this card will age better, and it's, it's, it's a fun pick that will do. Wiccan to me, like, when Wiccan came out, and even now, it's like, I didn't feel Power Creep the way I felt with, like, Galacta, right? Wiccan is, is how you do a card right, like, I love these cards that have this con, they have this game within a game, the payback's big. And, I think he's feasting, man. I think he's, he's intimidating, kind of like Bounce Dex, like, I'd rather just play, you know, a Wave or a Hope Summers, but Wiccan does have his spot, for sure.
Alexander Coccia:I like, I like Wiccan a lot. He feels like a really powerful, but fair card. Like, when someone plays Wiccan, I'm like, yeah, you earned it. Like, I'm not gonna complain about that. When they play, like, Arish, I'm like, bro, get out of here. But when they play Wiccan, I'm like, okay, yeah, alright, I feel this. And then if you go into turn six on them, and you're like, you kind of forget that they have that additional reach, Yeah, you're like, you almost forget that they have the extra energy and you're like, oh man, they hit me with that extra Jeff or whatever, I wasn't expecting that, but I should have known, damn it, but no, I like Wicked Alive, it's definitely a fair card and a strong one at that.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, and then of course Erishem, as you listed, our last ramp card, maybe we're forgetting one, but our last ramp card is you don't have to do anything, you don't have to do anything and you get that energy do you think Erishem survives?
Alexander Coccia:Well, my friend, one of the topics we're talking about is going to be the villains of Snap. Do you think we're not going to talk about Airshim and the villains of Snap? Look at him, he's giving himself a thumbs down.
Cozy Snap:He's like, do you think Airshim survives? And then air thumb down is, is the maybe the answer to that. We'll see. We'll see, especially in like draft mode, if that comes. I think draft mode, if it is coming, they've pretty much confirmed it on the roadmap there. But yes, okay, so listen, Airshim may not bring people fun, But what cards do, Alex? This could be a briefer this could be a briefer subject, but I just wanna, I wanted to bring up, you know, in, in the sweat, in the competitiveness out there, if someone wants to pick up Snap, maybe you've been playing Rivals, I don't know about you guys, but like, I was playing with Moon Knight a lot, and I like, I was like, I wanna, I might go back and watch the Moon Knight series. Like, that's what these games do to you, right? And also, maybe you wanna come back, play some fun Snap, Maybe not try too hard, just have a good time. Alex, in that, what are your most enjoyable fun cards within the game?
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, I got a bunch of them. One that I always go back to no matter what. And I think you're touching on a good thing by the way. And this is the way I've been approaching Snap lately too. It's like, you know what? I don't want to lose sight of the fact that I love this game. I want to continue playing it in a way that I love the game. I don't want to grind rank one. I don't care about that. I could not care less. I want to have fun. I want to be informed. I want to enjoy my time with this game. And that's what we're doing, Cozy. So I really like this topic. Silver Surfer! It's Silver Surfer. That should have been obvious. Like, for me, it's like, anytime I just want a feel good deck, I go Silver Surfer. And I have, like, multiple versions of Surfer. I have, like, Classic Surfer, where I intentionally don't I have Buff Surfer, where I'm playing Akoye and Nakia. Like, Pure Cope. Like, I don't even care if I win or lose. I just want to play my version. I like it, man. Silver Surfer, I feel like there's so many flavors of it, you know?
Cozy Snap:See, because I was going to say, a Surfer to me, I end up thinking I'm going to have fun, and then I get sweaty because I enjoy how good he is and stuff. But, like, the buff version and stuff, like the The, the fact that he is I think he, I want more cards like him. Because he, what he does is he opens up the, the deck building potential so high. And, like, bro, I don't even care if they were lazy. Give this effect to 4s, 5s, whatever. Like, they'd have to figure out the stats and how it works, but I just think it's such a cool effect in the way that the card does work. So, I mean, obviously couldn't do it with, like, fives, because I don't know how you're gonna get fives that down, but, you know, I think it's a very unique effect that they could do, or even if they did it with, like, power, instead of cost, like, all three power cards could gain plus three power, like, you know, we have Cerebro, but it on reveal, that could do it, yeah anyway. Surfer, good pick. Okay, listen, we're both just going to, like, our staple homes. I get it, okay? To me, especially with the next season coming up, Airsham might be a little, listen, I'm not gonna say Airsham is not a fun card for a lot of people, I think it is. But for me, my airship is Agent Coulson, because I love the spontaneity of like, what am I gonna get, how do I make it work, and what do I do with the tools that it gave me. And the fact that they're doubling down on that next season has me so excited, because to me, that's like, how I enjoy Snap the most, and I'm looking forward to more of it.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, I play Coulson, and it's like, hey, here's Negative and Kang. I'm like, sick, thank you. And then Colby plays it.
Cozy Snap:Oh, it's like so obvious, like, here's a Mr. Negative, and then they give you like, you know, The best five in the game, like okay, alright, thank you Colson, just one, just a punch in the mouth, and then a little like pat on the back.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, no, I actually like it, and again, a good example of an amazing draft card that I couldn't wait to see, right? I remember you just building it up when Conquest Mode first came out, you're like, This is gonna be a good Conquest card, and sure enough, it was. And yeah, it's only gonna get better, because I think the hand sized decks are gonna get some love. Next month. So I'm actually really looking forward to that. We're going to get to play some Devil Dinosaur, baby. I can't wait, Cozy.
Cozy Snap:Break that relic out. Yeah, go up to the attic and dust that, dust that relic off. But I have one more I want to just go right into for me. And I think you're going to see a common theme. I straight up think the chaos of Cersei is one of my favorite cards to play with in the game. This is such a fun, build a deck how you want to build it. Roll a couple of dice and see what happens. It's just so cool to see the interactions of it. Funny enough, a lot of the RG stuff, I just find fun in the game. It brings that kind of, you know, been playing it for two years every day. I know what's going to happen in these games. I know what the opponent's going to do. I know what I'm going to do. I know what I'm going to do by turn six, but seriously, it just takes all that away and that's what I love about it.
Alexander Coccia:I like that call out because like, I think that a lot of people, they kind of poo poo on RNG often in card games. But like, if I think back to some of the biggest moments that I've experienced playing Marvel Snap, like in tournaments and other stuff, it's always come down to RNG. Like, Danger Room RNG. Like, I remember I got knocked out of a Conqueror's because I, I had the game won, if Danger Room did not 25 percent me. I was gonna beat Dera, I played it, Danger Room, I, the game, the board flipped. One. Boom. Snipe. RNG. Disaster. I'm like, no! And he eliminated me from pocket. I've never
Cozy Snap:spectated that game, actually. Funny to know.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, that's right. You were commentating. You and Dex, right? So, like, those moments, those RNG moments are so awesome. And so, like, Circe leans into that a lot. So, like, those high roll moments, those low roll moments, that's what emotion's made of, man. Because there's moments where, like, you play the card. People hold their breath. You hold your breath. What's she gonna get? And that's exciting, right? It's like a loot box in card form.
Cozy Snap:That's fair. That's fair. And, you know, I, you got several, but we're on the subject. So with that is Pixie to me too. I think it's the same thing. It's pointless. It's, it is, it is loot boxes here. Cause you play her on two and you're like, let's just see what happens. Let's just see if I get that one cost Dr. Doom. Or if I get that, 5 cost Zabu. Like, it's just, I just think it's such a unique thing in the game. And I, I quite honestly think Pixie's not played enough. I think that her ceiling is good. Like, it's really solid. And yeah, you gotta build the deck a specific way, and you're not gonna win all your games, but I find her way more consistent than something like Negative. Because it has a statistically, it feels like a much better chance for the pop off. And you're not waiting for this card to this card to this card. And, listen, man, if you've played Snap more than a couple months, negative in a Jane, you're out of there. Pixie, your opponent's like, I think I'll stay, you know, and they just don't know. So Pixie's towards, I always stay on Pixie. Always stay, buddy. Always. But yeah, those are my, those are some of the tops for me.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, I got a couple. I got a couple here. I would say Kitty Pride for me. I really like Kitty Pride's gameplay. If I could go back in time. Oh, when I was watching your video and I, I saw myself in the, in the Kitty Pride thing, I was like, oh my gosh, I remember that. I'm so, I can't believe you found that footage. That was like found footage to me. I was playing the OG Kitty Pride, pulling her off the table. Those were the days, man. Those were 24 hours. I'm so glad
Cozy Snap:that that video ended up doing well because that video sourcing wise, like I just talked about some of my process at the beginning of the Snapchat. To go back and find leader footage, of leader, and to go back and try to find It was so fun, to try to find that footage, and go back and just relive it. I think a year from now, if Snap is, you know, where it is now, and it is not going upwards, is I'm gonna do a lot of those kind of videos looking back, cause I think they're fun! I think they're really fun to relive some of the nostalgia, but also the look back at the chaos. And what you missed or what you went through, but yeah, I like Kitty Pryde. Good, good pick.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, the last one I'll end with, the ones that I like, I really like, is like the, I like Cyclops and She Hulk. Like that, that whole, like, deck archetype. I like Cyclops pew pewing, I like skipping, I like doubling up She Hulk, I like that high evo, sunspot, energy float type thing. I'm really looking forward to High Evo making a comeback, and I do think it will. I think Luna Snow is actually very good in High Evo. I also think that Bruce Banner is going to be, obviously, very good in High Evo as well. And so, like, I think that that deck might have a bit of a resurgence, and I'm excited for it, because I actually really like Cyclops. He I just like the pew pews, what can I say?
Cozy Snap:Dude, just looking at this makes me want Cyclops and Rivals so badly. So, so badly. Oh man, look how cool that is. But yeah Cyclops definitely that, there is something about She Hulk that it just hits me right in the nostalgia too. One of the first cards I got when they rolled out that whole series pack, which again, I wish they would do something like that again. Just like the rush of everybody having something a little bit different. One that I'll add is a lot newer. Kind of mentioned her last week, bro. I did already say Symbiote, Spider Man, and Scarlet Spider. Because those are just fun, the ways they work. I think Frigga is really cool. Like, very interesting, very different gameplay, and like, looking at my hand and looking at what I could do. Do I wait? Do I do it now? Maybe I draw something that could be a little bit better. I love, I love her. I think she'd be too good at a 2 cost, but I think 2 would infinitely make her so much more compelling to play. But I, I just find her extremely fun to play.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, Frigga's a fun card. Very fun card. And She's gonna come with time. She's gonna come with time. She's gonna be in a top meta shell. I can feel it. We're just not there yet, but there will come a time.
Cozy Snap:Yeah. And lastly for me, I'll end on the move cards, man. I, I scream for a reason. Play that deck a lot is because I already liked these styles of cards, and when I can start playing Arrow competitively especially in Snap, then yeah, you know I'm gonna have a, a good time, and I just think it's a fun, there's a lot of interactiveness with it, and it's just cool to, to ruin your opponent's game plan, and have a little bit overplayed the top power in a lot of the cost lots.
Alexander Coccia:That's fair. I mean, I was expecting you to bring up Arrow eventually. And for that reason, I will also bring up Captain Marvel. Especially with Galacta Baby, Captain Marvel's back.
Cozy Snap:Oh yeah, man. Oh yeah. Well, guys, those are the most fun cards for Alex and I. And we have ourselves a pretty fun one coming out in Penny Parker. Alex.
Alexander Coccia:I know, people are probably so confused right now. They're like, man, isn't this, is this a day early? What's happening? Yes, circumstances behold us. To release it a little early here, Cozy. And you know what? It's good. We're recording early in the, usually we record so late in the night. Like you guys might not be able to tell, but Cozy and I are like, buddy, we are in rough shape sometimes. And I'm three hours ahead of you, man. Like I'm falling apart sometimes.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, dude. I same here as I speak, actually. I am. So it's, it's fantastic. Yeah. I was playing. Some ranked games of Rivals yesterday, and I was like, barely able to, like, attack the ground. Like, man, I am I'm held together. But dude, what is Doing well, this is a terrible transition, but Can we talk about Galacta? Can we talk about this car that is doing okay? Doing okay in Snap, and a lot of people introduced to Galacta, didn't really know who she was. I heard of her before, but definitely, like, when the Rivals trailer came out, I was like, Oh, okay. And now, obviously, given, you know, Rivals being the second most played game in the world at the moment, people know Galacta pretty well, buddy. What do you think of her in Snap?
Alexander Coccia:First of all, she's got a great announcer voice. And it almost reminds me of, like, there's been a lot of games in the past where, like, the announcer is such a key component of it. I don't know why, but it almost reminded me of, like, do you remember, like Super Monday Night Combat?
Cozy Snap:Oh my god, I thought you almost said what I was gonna think of, and I'm like, you can read my mind. Yes, for me I, you know what, either you're gonna get this or you're not. If you played Mario Party, the first couple, there's an announcement, there's an announcer. They'd go like, 3, 2, 1, and it sounds Just like identical to Galacta and it put me back there is like the announcers You know what? I'm glad that they did this overall announcing theme for that game Because it's cool. It's just I don't know it reminds me of like old style games. Yeah.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah No, it definitely is a really nice touch and even like I remember what in Dota 2 you spilled like pick different announcers and stuff Like that it's announcers make a huge difference to the actual immersion of the game So we came in at five stars on Galacta I'd like to know what you think. I think we nailed it, because this card is cracked, but also cracked in a way where it's like really, really, really good, but not like completely soul shattering, like not like they completely missed way too high, but they definitely, it's definitely a little high. They didn't miss
Cozy Snap:too, they didn't miss too high, but it also is just a card that's like, oh, wow, this is just better than a lot of the options out there, right? Like,
Alexander Coccia:yeah,
Cozy Snap:guys, we're all getting a free Elsa this month. It's like, okay, well, that's because Galacta is just a much better, you know, card. I. For me, man, when I was making the video for her, it was so cool, because I was just not pigeonholed into anything. Because you could just play so much around her, and it just, you don't even need to try to synergize with her, like, she just does her thing well. The only con to her is that you have to play the card in another location, which isn't really that big of a con, just have to think a little, couple steps ahead. Yeah, really solid card, man.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, playing it in the other location is a bit of a con. It definitely is. However, usually you plan your strategy from a macro perspective. Take advantage of that. It almost reminds me of Miss Marvel in that sense. Where like, Miss Marvel, you had to kind of plan your movements a little bit. And I like that kind of macro play. Like, I like the idea of actually planning your play and not just throwing cards out there for whatever reason. Like, when I play Jeff, for instance, I just throw them into the darkened location. I don't even think about it. Think I just like throw them out there with Galacta. You definitely have to consider where you're playing your cards and stuff like that. Right. In order to maximize bangers, which obviously, oh, rude abs, man. Like we talked about it last week and we knew they were going to be good, but they're stupid. Like just absolutely stupid. Good. To the point where I'm like, man, I've had games where I've played like Galacton four, and then on turn five, it's Hope Summer's Forge. Right. And now you're sitting on seven energy and you can do like, I hope the the Brood, right, with both the Galacta and the Forge buff, into the Abs Man on the other side, it's like, buddy, what? The amount of power is crazy, yeah, it's, dude, and Surfer too, it's crushing in
Cozy Snap:Surfer! That's, that's what I used it in, that's what I made the video on, I was playing it in different stuff, but like, just, hey, how do you not, how do you not play this card, Galactic Surfer is what I called it, I mean, Dude, having Gwynpool in there, too, as this kind of backup that builds into the power play of what these do. But you just named it. Sebastian Shaw and Brood. These two alone just feasted with Galacta. And, man, it is. It's cool. It's, it's You know, we saw Gwynpool, which was our comparison to the card, shine in Surfer when her season came out, and this one just kind of evolved into that as well.
Alexander Coccia:It's really honestly crazy to me that some of the best surfer cards that have come out have been 4 drops. Like, think about it, right? Like, Gwenpool actually elevated it quite a bit. I wasn't even the biggest believer in Gwenpool Surfer, right? Honestly, there were even Gwenpool Surfer decks that weren't running Sera at all, right? I was like, no, I can't do that, I gotta run Sera. And just so you guys know, the best performing versions of Galacta still run Sera, right? However, what I will say though, is that like, with Galacta, just the power output is insane. And like, It just, it goes to show you how just naturally impressive plus three power is as a stat line in Marvel Snap. And so like we called it before, every single time a card's come out with plus three power, it's been crazy. It's just been crazy. And Galacta is almost near that. Now, when I was actually originally testing, I did have a surfer deck and I was, I think I was a card or two off of what ultimately became the top tier surfer deck. But for me, I was also playing it in a, in like an Agent Dina style deck. Right? Where I was playing Galacta with Thena and Kitty Pryde, and honestly, it was amazing there too. Like, I was doing the thing I mentioned to you, like, okay, well, I'm gonna let Kitty Pryde eat the buffs, or I'm gonna And it was crazy, because like, you're getting plus three from Galacta, you're also getting plus three from Thena, so just playing cards generates six passive power on the board. Thena goes up by three, Galactic gives the plus three. Crazy, like it's just nuts. And I feel like that archetype as a whole, like everyone's like all in on Surfer. Cause listen, Hey, I don't blame you. It's amazing. One might just say it's one of the most enjoyable cards you can play in Marvel Snap, but also Cozy, I think we're sleeping on the Thena variant of it a little bit, because it's just so much passively generated power just cause you're playing the game.
Cozy Snap:Yeah. I like the call out there, man. Question for you. We saw Surtur nerfed. We saw Agent Venom. Nerfed? Does Galacta enter the same field?
Alexander Coccia:That's so hard to answer. I don't feel like Galacta is as bad as like Surtr was at its launch. I feel like Galacta feels more fair, maybe because it's buffing the other cards. And like, cause Surtr you just look at you're like, man, look at this Surtr. It's nonsense, look how big it's getting. Whereas Galacta's like making everyone else big, and it's like harder to pinpoint like, hey, I know it's still like, you just do math and you're like, bro, come on. But like still, I feel like Surtur was much more of like a, look at this, look, it's a problem. The same way like, Red Hulk was like, look at this, blob, look at this 99 blob, damn it, right? Galacta's not doing that. It's not shining the spotlight on her, be like, Look at me! I'm ruining the game! You know what I mean? So I think she might dodge it for longer than expected.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, same here. I think so too. Gwynpl is a bad example, but Gwynpl did, right? So like, you know, she never dominated, but she felt good, and yeah, sometimes that Shaw in the hand was like 20 power, but like, okay, you know, that's just kind of how it worked, but it wasn't so glaringly obvious. I think that's kind of the thing. You could be good, but you can't be annoying good. Like that's, like we've seen that recipe in Snap. Like if a, if a meta deck is good, it won't get nerfed. If it's annoying good, it's gone. Like we have seen that, if there's enough ruffling the feathers, it's gone.
Alexander Coccia:Galactus was exactly that. It got nerfed at like a 52 percent win rate. Like it's not even good, it's just people are pissed off with it. And they just, so they just had to kill it a little bit, right? But yeah, so one thing I will say as we kind of move on to our next topic of conversation is that where would you, how would you compare Gwenpool and Galacta? Like, I'd be interested in your discussion about that, because for me, I think Galacta smashes Gwenpool. Like, I'm still using both, but I think Galacta's better, and it's not even in question.
Cozy Snap:Well, because it just gives you the agency. Anytime again, anytime you get the direction to play what card you want the power to, or where you want it, that's always gonna trump just getting power given to your hand. Like, like, randomly. We've seen that. How many times have we seen that? Stegraun, unplayable. Stegraun moves the card to the right. Okay, a lot better. Like, that just happens in Snap, and relatively, I would say, yeah. No question, Galacta better than than Gwenpool.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, and from a stats perspective, as we round out the discussion here this is pretty good. Rank 70 to 100 as we were still in that first week. So our infinite stats, we don't have enough games quite frankly with bots included, you're looking at 56. 7 percent win rate and 28 percent of meta popularity. So a lot of people got the season pass. There's no question about it. And that takes us to our next topic of conversation who ironically is in the decks with. Galacta, in the Surfer one specifically, is Luna Snow. The 3 5 Luna Snow who on reveal adds an ice cube. Still wish it was adds ice cube to the other side of the location. Luna Snow running a 55 percent win rate at 10 percent meta popularity. Once again, that is rank 70 and above as wits are in our first week. Cozy, Luna Snow in my experience with it, I gotta be honest with you, I liked it. I don't love it. I don't love it. We came in a little lukewarm. You came in at one of the greatest ranges you've ever done. You said two and a half to four. I was like, bro, I even kinda roasted you on a little bit. And I think probably it's going to end up in that range, surprisingly not. I found Luna Snow to be good. I liked the active, like, kind of immediacy of the ramp, while also not having the disadvantage of the Electro and others. However, the, the actual Ice Cube on their other side, too often, Far too often, they were able to play good cards because of it. I felt like, usually, like, Hey, you're designing your deck to take advantage of it, and that's true. But man, I was getting hit with some stuff fast. I was like, man, they had the cards. They had the cards. They were able to take advantage of the extra energy. They protected the Ice Cube. They actually used it like they thanked me for it. You know what I mean? So that was a definite disadvantage I felt.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, but I felt like, too, I think we said this. The reason I gave that range is because we knew they would have the cards. That's the flaw in Snap and new cards that come out. When you have something like Manthing come out, it sucks because there's Luke Cage, now Manthing can breathe more. People are gonna build their decks around the new cards because they know what to expect, especially the people that are sweating, right? So like, that's where it's like, I want to see as time moves on from this card, how it does. Like, even Anti Venom was countered, and then he's played a lot more, like, it's just, it's tough to call something like this this early. There were times where I'm like, damn, okay, well, I, I definitely shouldn't have played her, like, right then and there, because my opponent did better. But, you know, how does that look in February? That's what I want to wait and see.
Alexander Coccia:A great example of that, you said it right. Anti Venom's a good example of that. Ajax is another good example. Ajax comes out, everyone just plays Luke Cage. The card's literally impossible to play for two weeks. A week, definitely, right? And then the card afterwards has now been a very consistent high performer, because not everyone's playing Luke Cage, right? And so like, Luna Snow's Surfer deck with Galacta is currently the highest performing iteration of her because you can get Sera out on turn 4. Getting Sera out on turn 4 is a massive advantage because you can literally combo things with Gwenpool easier, like you just dump your hand. You can almost play a strong guy deck at that point, it's legitimately crazy what you can do with Luna Snow once Sera gets on the board on 4. However, what I will say is where I liked her the most was in High Evolutionary. I was testing this high Evo deck where I was playing Luna Snow and it was remarkably good. It was so good. I was playing the Misty Night. I was playing Sunspot. I was, I was playing Nebula. I love the idea of playing. As I mentioned, you play the Nebula, they play into the Nebula's location, and then you Luna Snow that location, and then it blows up their ice cube because they've played into that spot, right? Because of the the Nebula, it worked. It legit worked. And I was playing that deck and I had a great win rate with it. I wasn't crushing it. Like I'm not gonna be like, Oh, 65 percent win rate. It wasn't that, but it was good. But when Bruce Banner comes out, I'm telling you right now, you heard it here first, when Bruce Banner comes out, I'm going to make one and I'm sure that there's going to be a deck in a high evolutionary base shell. That's going to be cracked. It ha it has to be because those cards. Honestly, they work so well together, Luna Snow and Bruce Banner, that those high evolutionary packages are just gonna rise. They're just gonna rise. And so right now I think we're working with good decks. It's crazy to think that the Surfer decks are performing as well as they are, and they legit are, have been fantastic decks. But I feel like Luna Snow with Bruce Banner is gonna be a made in heaven combination. And so I think that you might unlock some additional power during that week.
Cozy Snap:It's cool that some of these you know, rival heroes are working together, right? Like, think about also playing, Rocket and Groot, you could play them in one lane and Luna in the other, and they're like, Okay, you know, do I just get rid of my ice core early, or do I, or my ice cube early, or do I play and have my power stolen by Rocket and Groot, right? Like, that's kind of cool too, like you have some of these cards and what you just said with Bruce. That are kind of synergizing with each other. So I find it you know, good job, flavor wise, what they've done with these season cards. But yeah, definitely interested. Luna is a character that I went from quite frankly, like not really caring about as a, as a Marvel character to like super fascinating. I think she's really cool and I hope she succeeds in Snap.
Alexander Coccia:No, absolutely. And I, as I said, I don't want to use the term age like fine wine. I don't think she's quite there, but in the immediate future, if you're an unsure about her, and this is the kind of disadvantage of the spotlight cash system. We really see the full capabilities, in my opinion, on the Bruce Banner launch. And then by that point, you're like, well, now I got to get Bruce Banner and I got to get Luna Snow if they work together. And so that's where it gets tricky for players, especially the FOMO side. Like, do you add her to the, I don't know, especially with the Spolly's being as bad as they are. We've, we've harped on that a number of times already. And maybe it's time we harp on something else. Like the villains of Marvel Snap, Cozy! There are villains in there, there are cards that are pissing people off, and it's about high time we discuss some of them. As we're looking at Erishem here, giving the gladiator thumbs down to himself, that's been referenced twice already on this episode. Cozy, Erishem is a great place to start, because there are a lot of people that Erishem just Disproportionately pisses off. It just pisses them off. What are your thoughts?
Cozy Snap:My thoughts are, I feel like we see things like this in a lot of games. So you have like, heroes and, and hero shooters, or you have cards like this where, on one side, it's extremely fun for the casual player that doesn't play a lot of Snap, they wanna come in, they wanna have fun, they wanna play cards that they don't have, they wanna do different things, right? So you have that, and then you have people who take Snap very seriously. And, a card like this is, Super incredibly frustrating, and makes tournament play tough, and all those things, right? So, it's funny, you have two sides of the coin, and for definitely one of them, It's the villain and some it's the hero, right? So it is, he's a very complex card in that nature, but I would say for the majority, he's the villain.
Alexander Coccia:I would agree. And the thing about it is that there's a lot of people that, as you said, play Snap Casually, which Hey, it might surprise you is the largest segment of the audience, right? The largest segment of the audience is where Marvel Snap excels is going to be that, that casual mobile game side, right? And yet we're, if you're listening, you're probably amongst the hardcore. And so it pisses you off a little bit, but one thing I will say about it is that you have. Cassandra Nova, right? And so Cassandra Nova is a great valve for applying pressure on Ereshim. And I feel like, generally speaking, while he does tend to surprise you, I think the thing with Ereshim is we're not adding enough cards to the deck. I feel like it's, he's still, he's still getting the Shongers, he's still getting his Shadow Kings, he's getting the tech pieces where I'm like, he doesn't have it, right? There's no way, and he always does. His turn six is actually Shongers and Shadow King, and I'm like, what just happened, right? But To be honest with you, I think one of the major problems with Erishim and what's really pissing people off is not necessarily what he does, and he is a part of the problem, but it's what the next card, Alioth, does at 19 percent of the meta. Because he gets to play out on turn 5. Alioth comes down on turn 5 in Erishim decks, and Alioth is a key component of those decks, and people aren't necessarily expecting them on turn 5, even if you know it's an Erishim player, like, does he really play it on turn 5? Next thing you know, you get wrecked, right? For the record, Erishim is at a 12 percent metashow right now. 12%. It's actually not crazy out of control, and this is according to untapped stats we pulled just before recording. Alioth is 19%. And I feel like there's more hate towards Erishim right now than Alioth, although Alioth is honestly the ultimate fun stealer of Marvel Snap.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's And again, it's, that's what's interesting. It's like the feeling of a card being good versus too good, and Alioth maybe is less like in your face. Because like, talk about when you play an Airship player, you know by the first 10 seconds of the game, right? Like the, the fun has changed for some people in the first 10 seconds of the game when you got something like the Loki coming out. Whatever it might be, right? Like, it, it's more obvious, and I think that's probably why it's more, In your face, but Alioth, I know for many, feel like Loki and Mobius there in the middle.
Alexander Coccia:Cozy, there is a card that has way more play than Alioth, and Erishem. Actually, almost double theirs, to be honest with you. And then it's Shan Chi. Now, Shan Chi often comes up as a villain in Snap, but this is one of those cards that like, I, I have to be honest, sometimes when I'm streaming and I'm playing and I get shongered, I, I just, I leave the play, I'm like, I'm gonna get Shan Chi for for sure, but let's send it, cause you know, why wouldn't we? And I feel like the people who are in the chat and stuff, they're like, Shongers, I hate that card. They're angry about Shan Chi. I think it facilitates a lot of anger in the Marvel Snap community, despite the fact that I think it's probably a very necessary release for Alpha and Snap. And I always come back to this example where I was in a tournament, it was like a smaller tournament, where we said, Hey, everyone gets to ban a card. I banned Shan Chi and other creators were like, Bro, what are you doing? You just screwed up this tournament, right? Let's just, let's just have fun with it, right? And sure enough, everyone bought like the most ridiculous, like. Absolutely, like, let's go completely vertical blob style decks, because they knew they were immune to Shang Chi, like, the And if you don't want that in Snap, you need something that holds everything in check, but at a 30 percent meta share, Cozy, and that's now with Fenris Wolf being in the game too, which obviously loves Shangers, is it just too much?
Cozy Snap:At this point, Shang Chi is like like taxes. You know, I hate him, obviously. I've come to accustom by it, you know? Like, I know they're gonna be there, I know he's gonna be there, and you know, I, I might be contributing to it a little bit, right? Like, Shang Chi, I'm playing him, so I can't be too mad about it. I can't complain too much about it. I remember when Alioth came out, when he was at his full, like, capacity. I would see, like, clips of people playing them, streamers playing them, and then they'd tweet out, like, Man, I hate this card! And it's like, dude, you were, you were, you're funding the problem, man. You're part of it. So I feel like Shang Chi is a villain, but I've come to terms with him.
Alexander Coccia:That's fair. So basically, you were the hero for so long that you've become the villain. You are the villain, Cozy. You are the problem.
Cozy Snap:Yeah, it's like Batman.
Alexander Coccia:Batman's a villain now?
Cozy Snap:No, but that's the, that's the famous line.
Alexander Coccia:Oh, that's from Batman? I don't know, I just, I don't even think I said it properly. You know, with great quotes come great responsibility.
Cozy Snap:I was on, you might have been on this call, but I was on a Marvel Rivals developer call, and the, it was like a Q& A, and the first question, like they, they had these like official questions that came up. The first question is, Is Batman coming to the game? I lost it. Of the audacity. I love it. I cracked up at that. Maybe, maybe he will. That would be, that would be epic.
Alexander Coccia:Aren't you forgetting that a couple of Halloweens ago I was dressed as Superman?
Cozy Snap:Oh, that's right. That's like
Alexander Coccia:My wife got me a Marvel costume. Broke the rules. Everyone in the family was dressed up like a Marvel hero. My daughter was Jane Foster. Like, talk about the depth of the costumes. What a niche, yeah. We had Jane Foster. Yeah, yeah. We had like we had the Black Panther, we had like And then I'm Superman, like a total clown. And anyways, I whatever. I should have bought the costumes that year. Similar to Shawn Cheese, Shadow King had a 26 percent meta share. Is Shadow King a problem or absolutely necessary?
Cozy Snap:I think he's a problem when he gets buffed out of nowhere, dude. I think he's probably necessary as long as cards like Thena exist, right? Like, I do think he's, he's kind of that shang chi for the lower threshold of cards and like those two can kind of hold it. You know, I feel like Shadow King probably has a lot more hate towards him than something like Red Guardian does. Maybe it's just like the cost assignment, but you know, he does something obviously pretty impactful too. But yeah, they're probably both in the same, you know, relative range.
Alexander Coccia:You know what, though? Here's what's interesting. So as I said, 30 percent meta share, Shadow King's 26 percent meta share. I feel like Shang Chi gets infinitely more hate. Way more hate. I don't think Shadow King gets nearly any hate. Like, almost none, to be honest. Like, you get Shadow King, and you're like, damn. They Shadow King'd me. Okay. 26 percent of the meta, right? Shang Chi's 4 percent more, and people, like, delete the card, right? It's kind of crazy how that works sometimes. I think it's the perspec perception of things. Like Surtr, for instance, at 13 percent of the meta, I feel like this has come way down. Is Surtur a villain still since his nerf?
Cozy Snap:He's definitely got way down than what he was, right? Like, I think there's a bigger beast to fry kind of thing. You know, I think there's a couple people that may not like him, but And that's what's so fascinating about Snap, man. Just a PowerPoint can change something that, you know, in your face dramatically. And it is, it's about staying under a certain radar. Like, do you remember how long Jeff, and probably up until, like, forever, Jeff was never like, man, I hate Jeff. Like, what a villain. What a Like he just a, I mean, come on, it's Jeff, the cuteness, but, but, but B, but B people just didn't like, Oh, they can move. They can play anyway. Ah, it's fine. You know, but that would, that one thing was winning that person. So many games, you know?
Alexander Coccia:And I guess the last two we'll mention here Gore Galacta. Now they're obviously brand new. Do you think that Gore or Galacta end up on the the naughty list for gamers? I
Cozy Snap:think Gore does, Galacta doesn't. I think Gore eventually, you know, as it continues to, it continues to age, people will be. Upset about it, but has he crossed that yet? At least not for me.
Alexander Coccia:He's just, he's so good with Mystique. Like, Mystique, Mystique an actual material buff on playing gore. It's
Cozy Snap:crazy.
Alexander Coccia:Wild. It is crazy. It's totally crazy. So you're thinking Galacta probably just keeps going, keeps trucking along as a super good card?
Cozy Snap:I think so, yeah. I want to see what happens when the season concludes, but I do, I think it might be fine. I'm curious on what, like, Doom brings to the game and what you know, Rocket does, but I think for now, yeah.
Alexander Coccia:Okay, that's fair. That's absolutely fair. So, Gore, possible new villain of Snap, as that takes us to our Snapchat mailbag, Cozy. Got a couple questions here. The first one comes from GB. Every week I see Ajax, and every week I get mad that he hadn't been added to the spotlight caction since he came out. It's been six months, let me see him again. It's a good comment, because, like, there are some cards I think a lot of people, with hindsight, are like, man, Ajax did really Age well. Maybe Anti Venom is going to age particularly well. Cards that on the release don't necessarily take off, and then, you know, Wiccan is another good example of that. There's a lot of cards we're discussing, so I can kind of feel that from people's perspective. Let's start bringing back cards on a more regular basis to the Spotlight Caches once we have that hindsight, right?
Cozy Snap:Yeah, man. Q1, I'm so interested to see what cards they bring down. Like, man, I really hope they evaluate, like, More of the impact cards rather than you know, does it suck? Yeah. Does it suck or not? You know, like what cards allow people to play new styles of decks and things like that. But you don't, Hey, by the way, I want to bring this up. It was really cool to see. Really positive feedback on our negative feedback. You know, I think that you know, for a change, it's like, wow. You know, I think we, we get plenty of and it's, we have plenty of defenders that are like, yeah, the narrative that we don't speak up is, is been dead in the water for like a year now. But it was cool to see people who had the opposite opinion to that be able to see that we care about this game. We love this game. Spoiler! You guys are going to be shocked at this. I've heard from nobody since we did that. Like, not one person from the Second Dinner side maybe it's, they see him laying in bed with another, with another game and they're mad, I don't know. But yes, nothing has come from it, but we have seen great response. And, you know, to this entire channel.
Alexander Coccia:It was heartwarming, and I can echo the fact that I've heard nothing, but that should surprise absolutely nobody. But, but I will say, it was nice to see that people were at least receptive. Receptive to the idea of having that type of criticism occurring. Because, like, listen, the only reason why you care, and the only reason why we care is because we love the game. You know what I mean? And that actually kind of comes into our next question from Robert Simpson. This is kind of an interesting approach, and it was regarding that harsh criticism on the monetization and the card acquisition. And it reads, Something that's always stuck in my mind was one of my coaches telling me, Don't worry, if I'm yelling at you, it's because I still care and I think you can do better. Worry if I stop yelling, because that means I've given up on you. Alex and Cozy and a lot of fans of this game aren't even yelling anymore.
Cozy Snap:Yep. That was really good, I saw that one. That's like, that was a Chef's Kiss quote and something I actually like, live by a lot. And yeah, it is I think that's what's the most concerning thing and and it's stated like there's almost there's nothing that will be done in December to change anything and that's why January is so important.
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, there's no question about it. And yeah, this rang true for me a lot. Like I've we've I mean you and I played football for four years in high school. I know you played football as well. And so you know, the the coach's mentality, It's something that I think resonates with a lot of people out there, and so, yeah, very well put, Robert, appreciate that comment a lot. The next one comes from Ricardo, and this is some, some tips for you know, some feedback for Second Dinner with regards to what could possibly help the card acquisition. This was heavily up voted as well. Ricardo had said, there's a couple things you can change to help. One, make Series 5 cards drop to Series 4 on a real schedule. 2. Make spotlight caches ONLY have series 5 cards. 3. Make the random card in the spotlight cache only a card you do not have, either series 4 or 5. And 4. Let players acquire series 4 or lower cards from regular caches on the track, and with a real, rare possibility of a series 5. Now Rob sorry, Ricardo, I absolutely agree with these, but this is one of those things where I'm like, this is all great, but I don't know if we ever get quite this far.
Cozy Snap:Yeah. I mean, it's There's realistic expectations, and again, like, I just don't know how serious the Snap team took this month and last month, and so that's why, like, January's a big one. I need to see what their response is first, and then we can kind of start. Seeing what is realistic, you know?
Alexander Coccia:Yeah, and this is the kind of game though, like, it's very hard for them to go into maintenance mode. Like, you think about the art, how much art work goes into things the art process, the new card every single week and stuff like that, like, there's a lot of development time here. And so, like, we want them to make active changes to make this game better and we've said it a million times, like, even us, our time is being pulled away from other stuff. You think people watching and listening aren't the same? Everyone's got, you know, Path of Exile came out too. Actually, this past week had like four massive launches. Like, on the same days, right? So, there's a lot of competition out there and it's about time you pull up your socks and start competing, dammit! And the last question of the day comes from Lord and it reads, It's hard when the most fun I've had this month was donating bubs.
Cozy Snap:That's a good person right there, man. That's a good person. And you know what, guys? You know who else is a good person? It's Alex Coccia. I want you guys, if you're listening, if you're watching, if for whatever reason, if you haven't just like, taken five seconds to subscribe, this man right here is a thousand subs from his hundred thousand plaque, and he's working on Rivals, he's, he's working on this channel. But like, let's get the man there, guys! Just, it's one can't wait! Let's get him there, let's get YouTube to send him something, and listen, I, if I gotta make a thousand friggin YouTube accounts, I don't think that's possible. I think they'd flag down my house. But I, I'll do it, man. But guys, if you've been listening, if you've been watching this content for a long time, like, a big way to pay that forward, especially this close, is to subscribe. So I encourage you guys to do that, man. Unsubscribe from mine if you need to, and subscribe to his. Do whatever you need to do, guys. But anyway, I love you, buddy.
Alexander Coccia:That, that actually means a lot to me. Almost very, very close to a lifelong goal and coming from you Cozy, that legit means the absolute world to me and as I said, the greatest blessing I have is getting to do this every week with you and with you guys. Thank you so much everyone, and we'll see you on that next one.
Cozy Snap:I know this was a little weird, guys. Came out early. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed today's episode of the Snapchat. Have a good one. Have a great one. Until the next one, happy snapping
