Is Invisible Woman Insane? | Should Game Mode Rewards be Better? | The Snap Chat Ep. 142

Is Invisible Woman insane? Should game mode rewards be better? Join Alexander Coccia with special guest Ken The Super Tech God as they chat about this and more on this episode of The Snap Chat and join Cozy and Alex every week as they discuss all things Marvel Snap.

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!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
• 0:14 Comic-Con and Cozy's Absence
• 1:08 Ken's Collection and Favorite Artists
• 2:13 Discussion on Infinaut and Card Buffs
• 3:05 Upcoming Card Releases and Reviews
• 3:46 Invisible Woman Card Review
• 14:45 The Thing Card Review
• 20:28 Human Torch Card Review
• 24:28 Grand Arena and Rewards Discussion
• 24:46 Discussing Grand Arena: Initial Impressions
• 25:15 Grand Arena Rewards and Gameplay Mechanics
• 26:22 Future Hopes for Grand Arena
• 27:21 Concerns About Player Engagement and Monetization
• 32:36 Event Pass and Player Experience
• 34:21 Prebuilt vs Custom Decks in Grand Arena
• 36:15 Weekend Game Modes and Player Enjoyment
• 37:31 Snapchat Mailbag: Season Pass Pricing
• 46:56 Marvel Lore: Magneto and Scarlet Witch
• 49:55 Closing Remarks and Community Shoutouts

Transcript

Alex: 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of the Snapchat. I'm joined today by none other than the Super Tech God. Ken. Ken, how are you my man? It is great to have you here today filling in for Cozy Snapper. For those of you guys that are like. That's not Cozy. Where's Cozy at? Well, Cozy has had a hell of a week, man. He was, uh, obviously at Comic-Con. He was sick prior. We're actually gonna incorporate Comic-Con into the next Snapchat and then that all fell through. Schedules were absolutely insane. And now he's on his way to China. He's literally flying out to China. And so as a result, super Tech, God has come to save the day. One of my favorite people in the Snap scene, by the way, Ken, me and you are like legitimate OGs. Of, do you remember back in the day, you and I, we were streaming for like 10 people rating each other. Oh my. Like those were the good old days of Snap. Like that was beta way in beta.

Ken: 0:47

Yeah, super fun times, man. Bayla Times was the greatest as always. Like you said, we had a few people in the community, but it was always a good time. Loved the cards, love the energy. Snap future was so bright back then and now we here. So enjoy it. And especially thank you for bringing me on and yes, for those who are listening and not watching, ho you just got a tan, God, you worry.

Alex: 1:07

Got a tan. And for those that might not know the uh, know the STEG lore, this man. Keeps the lights on at second dinner. This man has every single variant in the game. Like when you talk about whales, s STGs, not a whale, you are like a kraken in the waters of, uh, like I gotta ask you, man, like, what inspires you to like have to collect every single variant? And while I'm asking you that, who's your favorite artist?

Ken: 1:34

Ah, so my favorite artist was Kim Jato. For a long time now, creative House Pocket has taken that slot. Love the art from Creative House Pocket. They are so, the art's so beautiful. But, um, what got me into it, man, is just basically, I love the art, love comic books, love Style and Snap and especially all the cards and after the wonderful, um, next event, and being able to get those resources back after that whole mishap and being able to collect all those variants in the collection track. I was like, you know what? I wanna continue this. I wanna continue and get every variant and be able to showcase those cards and those artists when playing the game. So that's why I had to do it.

Alex: 2:11

You know what, man? And, uh, that, that's phenomenal. And I gotta tell you, there's a reason why the Finon is on the screen right now, and, uh, I know that you are a legitimate OT truther, how much would you love for the Finon Tamika Comeback and Marvel Snap?

Ken: 2:25

I would love it, man. I've been preaching this all the time. Infin not needs a buff. And we get at least an additional power on him. I'll be happy 21. That's all I'm asking for. But yeah, big time. Infinite fans, for all those who don't know, finite is one of the best cards in Marvel Snap I feel to this day. And yeah, it'll be great to get him a buff, especially with all this power creep happening in the game currently.

Alex: 2:45

I mean, it's funny, I'm someone who plays a lot of Evo and like I would be playing Evo and I have like a Hulk that's like 18 power on turn six. And I'm like, why even have the infantile when you can get a Hulk up to, uh, 18 power or something like that, right? And so, yeah, I agree. I wouldn't even say one power. He needs to be like a 22 or a 24. Give him something, right? Like we got. A card that needs some love. So let's give'em some love. But STG, we got so much to talk about today. We're talking about Yes, the Invisible Woman First Steps, the card that's coming out. Tomorrow we're gonna be talking about the thing First Steps, which came out last week. And, uh, we hadn't had an opportunity to discuss the Human Torch on this podcast either. And so we're gonna be talking about. Number of different cards. And then of course we'll be talking about the limited time game modes. We're giving our impressions of not only the grand arena, but more importantly whether or not the rewards have been good enough. So I'm excited to get into that with, uh, with STG. And then as always, our Snapchat mailbag. So STG I'm gonna send it off to you first, right close. Usually ships it off to me right off the riff, and it's like, Alex, that's fine. What's your star rating on The Invisible Woman? I'm gonna put you on the spot. The Invisible Woman is obviously a card. That is super exciting. STG. What's your reading?

Ken: 3:53

I mean, of course this card was the most anticipated, and of course people who did not wanna get fantastic card was waiting for this card. But for me, this card I think is gonna be epic, especially with the other end of turn cards that are coming out or came out this previous month. I definitely think this card is gonna be up there. I have to give it at least a four rating. The fact that it has the ability to, of course, activate and then turn on the end of turn abilities and happen twice per game. I think again, with fantastic car, with human torch with the thing and everything else, sunspot, et cetera, is gonna be a huge, huge. New and awesome card to bring into Marvel Snap. So four, definitely a four for me,

Alex: 4:31

buddy. That's hilarious.'cause Cozy started at 3.5 in our first preview, and then he ended up at four at the end of the pod. So you and Cozy right along the side of each other. Now I came out and I said, I gave this a five star at a five. I said this was gonna be my card of the month. And you know what, th now that like, we're almost done the month, which is crazy, man. Time flies when uh, you're having fun in the grand arena. I actually wonder if this card could be better than something like the human torch. Like the human torch me seems so good. Even the thing has been really good, Mr. Fantastic. Has been so, everything's been good, man. These cards have been bangers, right? And so like in retrospect, I'm like, is my five. The right call, and I'll tell you what made me think about that. And I, I'm still gonna stick with it. I'm still on my five. I'm not, I'm not deviating from my original plan, but what I will tell you is that it kind of gave me pause when they buffed the the Doom 2099'cause Doom 2099. Was a very straightforward and obvious synergy with the Invisible Woman First Steps. And when I saw an OTA Buff that card, I was like, well, that's kind of risky. Like, wouldn't you think? And clearly Glenn and the Balance team would've planned for the fact that that card's gonna be used in tandem. And it made me wonder if it's actually weaker. Than was expected and they were comfortable boo uh, buffing doom 2099 in advance of the Invisible woman launch because it wasn't as good in their, in their internal testing as perhaps we might have thought.

Ken: 5:54

That could be the case. I mean, I think Doom 29 9. I also think they did it because they wanted to bring it back into the meta'cause after they nerfed it to everything, it was just like, Hey, nobody wants to play that card. But now the fact that we have these cards that can buff, end of turn, it just made sense to start buffing those cards like Doom 29 9. I think this is just gonna make it even stronger and even better. So maybe that's the reason why they did it, but I also think because. Again, they wanna bring that back into the meta.

Alex: 6:20

And like, I really do think Doom 2099 is gonna be one of the key places where, um, you're gonna see Invisible Woman played. Obviously the effect is massive. It, it creates its own zoo effect. But one of the things I felt was strange was that Doom 2099 was off the most powerful coming out on turn three. So the invisible woman wants to come out. On turn four, maybe turn five, like you still want to get that doom 2099 out on turn three. And then you wanna follow up with that that invisible woman because naturally you can just play that one car and it keep getting those bots going right. Um, but obviously that it doesn't just stop at doom 2099. Right? I had this thought about. Evo, like we both are Evo lovers naturally with the Infin. Yeah. Um, you know, infinite love here going strong between the two of us of course. But you got like, you got sunspot obviously. You got Cyclops, you got, you got Misty night, you got lots of opportunities to take advantage of these end of turn effects. And so I wonder if that'll be a good spot for it, especially since the fantastic car version of those builds have proven to be very effective.

Ken: 7:22

Yep. Correct. I agree a hundred percent. That's exactly where I think she'd be best at is going to be in those Evo lists. With the end of turn cards, we also have to consider, your favorite, one of your favorite cards, which is Surfer, right? These are three costs, so might as well put her in a Surfer deck. And I think her alongside human torch and Surfer in that package might also be another huge step for this card. So, yeah, no, I think the strongest definitely is the hi.

Alex: 7:46

Yeah, so there's, there's a surprising amount of versatility here. Like there's so many end of tur cards that have proven to be very good and even in the Evo shells, like things like Adam Warlock, which obviously doesn't necessarily not really at all work with, and I shouldn't say that actually.'cause you could, if you're winning that location, you're confident you're gonna win it. You could double draw without a morlock, that's true. Would would you not? You would double draw. Right. Which is actually kind of crazy why that might be the only card that would do that. I just realized that that's not like, that's not in my notes. I was just thinking about how Adam Morlock is now suddenly playable in Evo shells because of Fantastic car, but this would allow you to double draw.

Ken: 8:20

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.

Alex: 8:22

Yeah, absolutely right.

Ken: 8:24

Interesting. We also have thought that issue now where, where like Fantastic Car works with She Hulk. I know it's not supposed to, but because it still does. Will this also work with She Hulk? Will this. Allow she hawk to get a double discount. I know it shouldn't, but that's the question.

Alex: 8:42

So I believe that at the patch you'll see she hulk lose the fantastic interaction. Yes. Clearly it's coded as an end of cur, uh, end of turn, costs one less per power floated or energy float or whatever. Right. I said that so poorly, but you know what I mean. Right. Clearly it's coded like an end of turn card. Its text does not say end of turn. And so I think that's what we're seeing. And I bet you a patch will revert that, especially considering there's enough controversy around Fantastic Car. And the Evo decks are doing so good as they are. They don't need the She Hulk version. In fact, the versions I've been playing myself, I cut she Hulk because I'm like, I'm playing fantastic R turn five. You know what I mean? Like I'm sure. And and with Merlin, with Merlin falling back, you can almost play. More magic because Merlin was destroying magic. But now Merlin's not taking up as many decks because Mr. Fantastic is occupying that lane and Serge is occupying that lane. So magic's back. Yep. But I still don't think you need the magic. Turn. Seven. I think you can win the game on turn six with these Evo decks. Six.

Ken: 9:42

I totally agree with that. That's a great point. Yes, I've been saying that a lot in the streams. You do not try, do not win in seven because it might hurt you. Definitely aim for six and in that evil, fantastic car package, you're definitely winning in six. There's no need for the seven, but I am happy that Marilyn has taken a step back. He was causing some problems, but he was definitely rampant in the meta.

Alex: 10:02

It's funny you say that. Now I know this is somewhat off topic, but I almost think. And this might this. Oh man, I don't know. This might be a hot take. I wonder. Like how close Merlin and Mr. Fantastic First Steps are? I think Merlin is probably better than people give it credit for. I think that the reason why you're seeing Less Merlin right now, more Mr. Fantastic First Steps is the, first of all, it's the new shiny thing. People wanna play with new shit. Yeah. But I also think that it's like, so risk free to play, like it's so like, oh, I put it down on two and it just like gives me high fives in my deck and I just don't have to do anything about it. Whereas with Merlin, you're like playing a century that's gonna put a negative nine on the board. And you gotta deal with that. And like Merlin I think has a higher high sometimes where it's like you gotta work for it more. And Mr. Fantastic, you don't have to as much. So I think Merlin might be better than we're kind of giving you credit for right now, because I think Mr. Fantastic is like the new shiny thing. But I think Merlin's still amazing.

Ken: 10:57

I don't know, I, I gotta disagree. I think Mr. Fantastic is here to stay and he's gonna take that two spot. I don't see Merlin coming back unless. They put out a card that deals with spells or a Cana or whatever you wanna call it. But I think for sure Mr. Fantastic is here to stay. He is the probably the best two cars drop now in Snap.

Alex: 11:17

Yeah. Listen, he's damn good. I just think Merlin's damn good too. That's what I'm trying, we're talking about two, like, like golden bars here is what we're, we're comparing to. Absolutely. Stars, right? Um, absolutely right. I guess continuing on, um, invisible Woman, as we continue to deviate in conversation, I just wanna throw some cope out there. I, I don't know if this is a good idea. STG, so bring me down if I need to come down. But I was thinking about thena and havoc, right? Those are obviously really good turn and, and turn effects, but the types of decks that play those cards usually run bass. They run Agent Venom. And do you really want to give up the additional power you have from, from someone like the invisible woman in order to activate that? Is it really worth it?

Ken: 11:58

But I don't know. I don't know. I like the havoc play. I think the havoc is fine.'cause getting eight power after you play that card and then activating with invisible women, I think is huge. Um, Thena part, maybe not, but I agree. If, okay, if Invisible Women is the only card that can get the negative effect of bass hitting it, then yes, you're fine. I think that's awesome. You build a deck around bass and around those other cards and just have invisible women and hope. That you play invisible women early enough that you could play bass. And not have to worry about not hitting those cards with those additional three power. Okay.

Alex: 12:33

Okay. A reasonable approach and, okay, I have some more cope. Alright. And again, if I'm completely outta my mind here, call me out. But I had this idea, and it might be the deck that I go to on launch day. What do you think about Strange Supreme? Because that will allow strange Supreme to just double suck on a turn. He'll pull one card, he'll pull a second card. And like the problem is, is that like strange Supreme doesn't, he's so vertical as it is. I don't think he needs the extra power, right? No, but I had that thought of like, could you actually double suck with Same, uh, with Strange Supreme? Would that be worth it?

Ken: 13:04

I don't think it is, to be honest. I think the way he is right now, he is powerful alone in that one lane. I don't think he needs the extra, I don't think he needs the extra suck in that, that turn with the activate from Invisible Woman. I think he's totally fine the way he

Alex: 13:19

that, you know, that's kind of what I suspected, but I'm just gonna, I just wanted to throw it out there'cause it wasn't an under turn effect. Um, another one I was thinking about was like, is, is, you know, Thaddeus Ross and then you have like, you know, obviously, uh, Redhawk, but those are. Like, first of all, why are you playing Tha Ross and secondly Red Hulk? It's like, well that's kind of win more. Like he's probably cleaning that lane up anyways. I really do agree with you with the sediment that like it's gonna be in those Evo shells and it's gonna do remarkably well there. Yeah. The only concern I have, and this is the last thing we'll say about Invisible Moon when we move on, is is it end of turn Wong though? Like, do you know how, like you see on Reveal cards? Imagine Wong was a series five card today, right? First of all, if it was a series five card, it'd be like a, it'd release at like a four, six, let's be honest. But like if it's a Series five card. It's like, is it just like Wong? Is it just too damn greedy? You know what I mean? Is is invisible woman, the Wong of this archetype where it's too greedy and you probably just end up cutting it anyways. I believe in whatever package

Ken: 14:11

you put it in, it might be because you're right, if you think about it, especially in an evil shell or anywhere else, getting that additional power, do you really need it?'cause I think the power you already put out is strong enough to help you win that match. So it might be a little greedy. You're absolutely right, and I think that's why your bass, Athena havoc, those type of decks might love this more. Even the Surfer decks might love this more because again, putting it in the Evo shell will be the best, but you're already putting out so much power. Do you need it there? That's a good point. I think you're

Alex: 14:41

right. You're absolutely. All right. And that's enough. Talk about the Invisible Woman. The next topic of conversation is going to be the thing first steps. Now this card released this past week. We'll also be discussing the human torch as well. So STG, I gotta ask you what were, uh, was your thoughts on the thing first Steps? Now Cozy and I both came in at 3.5 stars. We did think the card was going to be good. We just thought it was gonna be perhaps one of the weaker of the bunch. I found it to be. Better than expected, but I'm curious about your thoughts as a whole.

Ken: 15:15

Yeah, me too. Going into it, I thought it was gonna be a three, right? Two and a half to three. That's what I felt about this card and playing it, it's, it definitely exceeded my expectations. Um, the fact that it gets that additional power every turn and then the plus two power, and then if the lane is full, it destroys your opponent's card as weaker than it, it's just. So good, especially on that last turn. Your opponent thinks they're winning. It's an ongoing deck. You go ahead and destroy their onslaught. It's such a great feeling. It shuts down all the blue Marvel, you know, madness is happening. The thing really set this game up and I have to give it at least a 3.5. I do agree that's exactly what it should be. I think if it was less in cost, just a four costs, it would definitely shoot up to a four and a half. But the fact that it's a five cost and you have to kind of figure out when you're gonna play it, especially if you play it on turn five or in turn six. That's the reason why I think 3.5 is a perfect score for it.

Alex: 16:07

I agree with you, but at the same time, like, how many amazing four drops do we need in this game? Like we, we actually need some banger fives, man. How dare you. That's true. Ask them to bring true another four drop that's broken into the game. But like it's exactly it though, right? And like, uh, the cart, if it was Fortnite, it would be crazy, but like, I kind of. I compare it to, uh, Spider-Man 2099 in a nons insulting way where it's like, okay, look at what you have to do to get, uh, Spider-Man 29 9. To destroy a random, you gotta move it, right? Doesn't sound that hard. You got, madam, we, you got all these things and they're similarly powered to some degree. And Spider-Man 29 sees no plate'cause of the random randomness of the effect. This card is similar. And it still has a random destroy factor. The only challenge is Spiderman 2099 can destroy any powered card and I found that the thing I often was like, damn, I actually kind of wish I could destroy something stronger than it. And that is a very important balancing factor.'cause if you could just punch out Red Hulks and Hulks and whatever, then that would probably be an overpowered card, let's be honest. Right? Correct. So I do think it's a very important thing. But it also adds a lot of nuance to the card. Why don't I put it on the screen here? I gotta put it up on the screen. Um, it adds a lot of nuance to the card because realistically it does a great job of like making it so that you really have to consider how you position it, where you position it early. So for instance. If I'm playing against a Surfer player and I've seen that they've put like Captain Carter in a location, I might actually try to quickly fill the location to destroy the Captain Carter right off the rip with the thing first steps. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then all of a sudden, if they play brood and then I, I don't trade like. It's frustrating, but I think it's balanced. I think that this is probably one of the more balanced of the cars they've released this season thus far.'cause it feels fair and I feel like it's also occupying a very important spot in Marvel Snap, where we need something good at the five slot and we finally have something good at the five slot that can go into any number of different shells and.

Ken: 18:03

Correct. Agreed. You're a hundred percent accurate on that. It is one of the most balanced cards they put out this season. And again, like I said, I was just hoping if it was less, it'd been so much better. But I agree with you the thought process of where you put him and where you play him has to be thought out as you're going through. Your turns because again, you wanna make, make sure you can fill out that lane when you play with him, right? Whether he's the last car in that lane, or if you're playing early on five, at least on six, you know exactly where you're gonna put your other card to kind of turn off or destroy one of your opponent's side cards. And in most cases, like you said, if it's Captain Carter or anything else that you know, Hey, if I do this, this is perfect setup. I think it's great for it. And the thing he, like I said, yep, big surprise. I definitely enjoy the everything about this card, so I totally agree. Super balanced card.

Alex: 18:46

Yeah. And uh, from a win rate perspective, across like some of the decks we're seeing post Infinite, um, some are running near 56% win rates and that's like a zoo variant, which is awesome. Man. This card is being played in zoo and it's doing a great job there. You're running about about 56% win rate. And then in the evil based shells with Fantastic Card, you're looking at about a 55.4% win rate according to Untapped. Um, and then you have this like Dr. Doom Red Hawk variation with. The Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic running a 54.8. So you're seeing like these 55% win rate decks already in its first week. And I think that's pretty solid. But what I've also noticed is that outside of zoo, these were archetypes that are already performing very well. And in the case of the the EVO version, this version of Evo running, the thing actually performs worse than some of the other ones without the thing. But this is currently one of the top versions of. Zoo because you get to play this on turn five and on turn six you still have Gilgamesh. But then it steps on the toes of blue Marvel a little bit of my testing. So I still think there's some ironing out that you can do with that particular shell. But overall, I did come away relatively impressed with the thing. And um, I know there's so many memes about saying like, here's the thing about the thing, but I'm actually curious about what your thoughts are, uh, in closing on the thing here.

Ken: 20:03

Yeah, like I said, I think it's a great card and we're gonna talk about this mode later on, but I been utilizing the thing as my champion in Grand Arena. I'm having the most fun with him there. That extra energy helps him and his special spell works great with him. But outside of that, the thing is a phenomenal card I definitely look at and keep it at a 3.5. I'm pumped. You're right, we have finally have another good five cross card in Snap and yeah, the thing deserves it.

Alex: 20:27

Yeah, absolutely. And uh, another card that honestly. I was gonna say, came out very hot, is human Torch First Steps title come up very hot. I'm making fun of like, you know, here's the thing about the thing. And I come out making fire jokes about, uh, the human torch, who is an absolutely fire card. Uh, this card absolutely blew me away. I thought the human torch was absolutely remarkable. And, um. I would be interested in your thoughts as well. Now, I came in at 4.5. This was almost my card of the month. Yeah, this was almost my card of the month. I leaned off it a little bit because I thought that maybe the invisible woman was gonna be stronger with Doom 2099, and now I'm starting to doubt that a little bit. But by golly, the amount of power human torch has been putting out. And listen, I'm a Surfer guy. I'll play Surfer until I block out every single night that, that's not even a concern to me. The fact that this thing gets juiced by Surfer. And then end of turn, doubles is, oh my gosh, the amount of power this thing is putting up is ridiculous. Ken, my man, what are your thoughts on the human torch? Fantastic. Four first steps,

Ken: 21:26

100% of four and a half. It's, I going into it, I said the same thing, four and a half. The fact that this car gets hustle and power after every turn and being able to double its power once that lean is full, and again, in the Surfer deck, like you mentioned, Surfer hits it, buffs it, and then it doubles. This card is phenomenal, and that's exactly what we've been doing with it. Playing alongside the brood and many other cards with it. Super, super fun card. But yeah, Duffy High up there. It definitely I think might be the card of the month. We just gotta see what Invisible women actually does, but I think this might be it for sure.

Alex: 22:00

I actually wonder about that too. Like even though in our rankings I had ranked invisible women higher than Human Torch First Steps, I'm like, can Invisible woman actually surpassed this? I've heard some people suggest that maybe this card, is a little too spicy. A little too spicy. It is niche though. It is niche and um, even in the grand arena, I don't find this deck is good. But I don't find it as intuitive as like the Herbie Deck, for instance, and some other things that are happening. But for surfers specifically, this card is crazy. And current Buff Surfer stats are running nearly a 58% win rate. Astonishing cube rates. And those decks they run like the Zbu with the Shanxi Galactic Gwenpool. You've got FAOs in there and like they're, everything just benefits this human torch. Even if you pull him late. Like even if you play him late on turn five or whatever, because he's getting juiced by Gwenpool or Gala, he's coming out massive, right? And then he doubles and he gets his power every single turn. I don't know, man, this card has been absolutely remarkable to me. And, uh, as a Surfer, enjoyer, for me, it felt like an absolute auto include to my collection. But I, I still wondered, it is very niche.'cause in other shells he's not seeing nearly as much play. Uh, he did see some experimentation according to untapped, in like a fantastic car based list and it didn't necessarily perform great. There again, there are better versions of the evil, fantastic car shell that do not run the human torch versus the one that do the, uh, run the human torch. Because I think that the filling of the, of the locations could be somewhat, more challenging in an evil based shell. But overall, man, I think this card's been absolutely crazy. And um, I'm curious to see how it'll compare to some of the others long term. Because here's the thing though, some cards are marvelous. Now almost all cards are Marvel. They really just need one deck. They need one deck that really kind of sets it apart and allows it to be meta relevant. And I wonder if this being primarily in Surfer is enough for it to be worth picking up.

Ken: 23:56

I think so. I think because the other decks that you could build around, it will have to be something that can fill up the lanes, whether you do it late in the game or not. But I think because it's the three costs and because of, again, it works so great with Surfer and now's gonna work great with invisible women, right?'cause she's also the three costs and doubling his ability. Again, it's gonna be tough to put him in a different niche and say, okay, it's a great card, but I'm sure there will be some type of list where. He will shine as long as you find a way to be able to buff him, as well as fill up that lane.

Alex: 24:28

And that's gonna take us to our next topic of conversation, which is the rewards available in modes like the grand Arena. You also had the high voltage, uh, you know, a couple weeks back, maybe it was just the last week actually, which was essentially that like miniature version of high voltage with the uh, the shorter rewards with the borders and stuff like that. Yeah.

Ken: 24:44

With the weekend.

Alex: 24:45

Yeah. We need to talk about, first of all, grand Arena and generally what our thoughts are. Uh, STG, I'm gonna give you the floor. What are your general thoughts on Grand Arena? Its rewards, the decks, everything as a whole. What do you think?

Ken: 24:56

I think it's perfect. I think this MO should have been out a long time ago. Um, I love everything about it. The gameplay is fun. There's no Snap mechanic of course, but you do get that extra energy per turn. I do love the fact of picking a champion. That champion also has a special ability. I think that's all a cool way and new style and strategic play of Marvel Snap. So I definitely enjoy it. The rewards are very good as well too. Very fair. Um, very good in the cost and the benefit of you putting in that time and grinding and getting those rewards between getting two new cards, some emotes, borders, and of course, my favorite, the variance. I think this mode is a, a five perfect score, and I wish it would be here longer so we could spend more time with it. I also wish, they decide to bring something else like this to the game and bring more freshness to it, and I, I really enjoy it. Phenomenal mode.

Alex: 25:45

I gotta tell you, man, one thing I love about Bo you can, is you're always so positive. Every time I've had a chance to chill with you, you're always so positive and like. I, I, first of all, I love the mode. I think this is by far the best mode that they've created outside of the core Marvel Snap experience. I think that starting with two energy is insane. Like it's, it that in and of itself completely changes the way the game plays. I think that the commander base system or the champion based system, whatever you wanna call it, I think it's awesome. I really do think that they cooked here and they did a great job. Like I really love everything that they did here with all the different, uh, champions. And I hope that they bring this back. Wouldn't it be great? Now, I know there's people that love conquest, but I'm just gonna throw this out there. Wouldn't it be great if every single season, at the start of the season, you had the regular ranked season, the season pass card, whatever, all that stuff, right? And you also had the grand Arena, new season start. And with the Grand Arena, every season it's like 10 new heroes. So now, next season it's like Ironman and Ironman Skill, Antman and Ant Man Skill. And there's different champions. And the next season it's 10 new ones. Maybe they can theme them. Here's Noel and his associates, here's all the villains, here's Galatis. You know, Harolds. And wouldn't that be so amazing? Right. And I think that it gives a scope where a small team can do it. And also like, I think it would just be really exciting.'cause I, I love the mode, I will tell you is that like. In the unpaid track. I feel like it's still a little slow. I still feel it's slow. I think that they can be giving you a little more XP per win. I think you, you can be getting a little more XP per loss. I think it can be fast tracked a little bit, and one of the concerns that I have is that what's the purpose of the, like what is the goal? Of the new mode, is it to re-engage players, right, and keep players engaged in Marvel Snap, or is it to make that sweet Moula? Because listen, what I think Marvel Snap needs to do right now is they need to be focused on getting players into this game. They need to be focused on keeping players into this game, and when they get here, they need to all unlock cards and have fun with the rewards. Do you remember the first Deadpools Diner when. Like getting Cassandra Nova required some grinding, but it was achievable. It was achievable from free to play players all the way across the board and you didn't have to like crazy grind for it. You kind of just had to play. That I think was peak. That's exactly what you wanted. And in this mode, like even for me, I don't like I'm, I could already unlock mo man. Matt Tinker. I think I'm gonna unlock Moleman right now. Actually. I'm just gonna, I'm literally gonna do it live on the pod right now. I'm getting moleman just'cause I think that's right. Mole Man's kind of interesting, but like with that being said, I don't know if I'll make it like, even as someone who makes content to the game, I don't know if I'm gonna unlock Matt Tinker. I probably will. I probably will, but like it would take a significant amount of grinding and that's something I don't want to necessarily do. I wanna play Marvel Snap'cause I love Marvel Snap. I want I, I want to play it when I want to play it. I don't wanna feel obligated to play it. And this new mode is so good STG. But at the same time, I. Feel like, although listen, obviously it's way better than kiddo make Like that is clear. But I think they could have made it ever so slightly more generous to make the fixation, not about unlocking like the cards, but more about like, oh man, look at this Snap. Just absolutely knocked outta the park and I'm getting all this stuff. Ah, it feels great to be a Marvel Snap player. I'm gonna continue to be a Marvel Snap player. You know what I mean? Man. No, I totally agree.

Ken: 29:11

I agree. I think it gives a end. Whatever. Yeah, it's 10. I'd be way more generous that I could agree with you a hundred percent, but I love your idea of different champions and different things month to month. I think that would be so good for the game. And yes, I agree with a hundred percent what you're saying. You have to bring people in the game, keep them in the game, and have people who are playing it enjoy on collecting and getting and unlocking new parts. And once they figure out that balance, I think we're in a good place. But back to this mode. I agree. I don't wanna feel like I'm grinding. And you're right, I'm not. I'm not gonna get mad thinker. My goal was to get Mo man and I got the variance. I do want to get that emo for um, Pedro Pascal. I do wanna get that emo. I'm not too sure about that one, but I wanna get that one. Well, I get it, it's three K. It's so expensive. I know that, that's what I'm saying. I might not, but um, for sure. I totally agree. The grinding is something we didn't really want for it, but yeah, mo man and the variance, that's my goal, so that's what I'm gonna aim for. But I do enjoy the mode so much. I do hope we have some changes in cars that get banned real soon. But other than that, I think the mode is perfect. And yeah, back to your idea, we can get this every month. It'll be one of the best things ever.

Alex: 30:17

And I wanna be clear, like as all things like when, when Conquest first came out, we were excited about that. It's the new shiny thing. We played it, we played it, and then all of a sudden, like, meek, you won't find me in conquest. Man. The only time I'll play conquest is I used to do it just to unlock the premium mystery variant. And then I would do it just to, uh, unlock the vari, like the actual core variant that it would display if it was something I wanted. Right. And then I'm like, I, I can't even, you can't even drag me into conquest right now. I don't even open my caches'cause I just don't want the tickets. You know what I mean? And if, if this grand arena, which I honestly think is by far the best thing they've done in a while, to the point that like. For the last couple weeks, no one's mentioned the draft mode to me. Nobody has mentioned draft mode to me over the last, the last week. Everyone's taught about the grand arena. They really did cook here, man. And, um, I just think that this, this could be something they stick around with, but I really do think this is a great, first of all, the rewards is so much better than it was prior, but really I think that we're still a little too stingy. With the rewards. Um, I think that we could be getting more perga. Like, I'm not gonna get the fight. These borders are beautiful. I think these are fantastic, and there's gonna be people who choose the borders over the new card, for instance. And that's fine. You can absolutely do that. And I love the element of choice. I really do wish it was more of a celebration of Snap and being able to like actually get the two new cards and get a couple borders and like walk away being like, damn, I played Snap. I got rewarded for playing Snap. These guys cooked. Right. It's just a little too far from that where it's like, I feel like at the end of the day, like the monetization team saying is like, we still want the gotcha moment. We still want the, oh, you got the first car, but guess what? For 900 more gold, you can get that second card. What do you think, bud? You know what I mean? I, they, they, I still think they went after that gotcha moment. And I mean, let's be honest, man, if I was on a monetization team, this game would've gone outta business. So I get it, but at the same time, it's like I just, I want Marvel a Snap to be successful. And I, I want people back in the game. I, and this is exciting. I'm glad they did it, but. The rewards, I think they really need to consider how they shape these rewards. And I would like for them to emphasize more of the player engagement side. And for what it's worth, I think that this particular mode is very close to it. But overall, man, yeah. Uh, what do, what are your thoughts on the event pass? By the way, I did buy the premium one. I'd be curious to your thoughts on the event pass.

Ken: 32:41

Um, I think it's fair. Um, I did purchase it as well. I think if you wanna, get additional rewards and also get that last thing, um, avatar, right? Or thing what's at the top of it? The thing Otte? I think it's worth the pass, bro. I didn't know that was there. And I, yeah. And I do like the fact that if you are free to play. That's the only thing you're missing. You still get everything else. So it was just an emo, which I think is very fair to both free to play players and those who wanna spend money in the game. But for me, I think the pass is a great choice, especially if you don't want to grind as much and you want to get more rewards for your grinding. I think this is the way to go. And of course, again, for free to play players, you don't have to do it. The only thing you'd be missing out is that thing emo. So I think a lot of modes and a lot of passes should be just like this in all the modes that Snap decides to bring in. You know, thinking about both sides, both the free to play players and of course those who like to money in the game. So for me, I think it's a great job they did with the event pad.

Alex: 33:38

And honestly give credit words due. I'm so happy they made it gold instead of like, here's a 9 99 paddle pass or whatever. I'm so happy that they allowed you to spend gold on it. Gold is, it's still a difficult commodity to come across. Let's be honest. Back in my old days there, they used to be able to get'em from the collectors reserves and they took that out and, you know what I mean? Uh, like I, I get it. Gold is still hard to come by. But it's still possible to come by and therefore you're able to use it on things like this, which I think is, is helpful. Right. And if it would've just been a dollar sign there, I think that would've been, uh. Somewhat discouraging, of course. But, but anyways, uh, actually I wanna run one more thing by you for the grand arena, and that is, what are your thoughts on the idea? And I did float this in my review of it. What are your thoughts on the idea of, I, first of all, I think these prebuilt are fantastic. This is, oh, this is beautiful. I think they should be doing this all the time. This is so good for all players of all collection levels. But like my thought was wouldn't it be interesting if matchmaking was restricted to pre-built versus pre-built and custom versus custom? Because it only took a day or two between before everyone's pads, enc, chara, hunchy, and Alyth in their decks. And like, man, just the pre-built first day was like so fun. And then of course you try to play, you know, Mr. Fantastic and like. An enchanter grandma comes down, you're like, thanks, bro. Sick. So like I, I'm curious about your thoughts, whether the pre-built should have been, maybe pooled together in a pre prebuilt, uh, matchmaking system.

Ken: 35:07

Yeah, I agree. I think they need to have two separate queues, right? The prebuilt go against the pre-built and the custom goes against the custom. I mean, that's the only way they can do it. But if they do do that, will that become a problem? Will people say, oh, they are doing deck. Balancing or deck, matchmaking, right? Because that's basically what we are asking for here. We're asking for custom to go against custom and prebuilt to go against prebuilt, and I think that would've been the better route because I agree. The people of the lower collection levels or the free to play players that don't have all the cards. Using their prebuilt decks and going up against those who have a better collection and those that do have the super scrolls and the enc, chaches, et cetera, and is taken away from the funds. So I totally agree. I wish they had two different matchmaking for both prebuilt and custom.

Alex: 35:50

And I guess one thing I just wanna mention here is, um, we've had two very different philosophies on event rewards. We have this one here, which is like that shop type system. What we said is much, first of all, way better than the omega red stuff that was happening. Not omega red, you know what I meant? Kid Omega. But also I want to just bring quick mention to the limited time game mode of high voltage, which was that weekend one, which was just. Borders, uh, no cards present. What did you think about that? Like were you okay with the idea of like, a less stressful, but like less reward centric path for someone who wanted to engage in a limited time mode over the weekend?

Ken: 36:23

Yeah. I, I think that's great. I think for a weekend, having no type of modes that only lasts for a weekend and is less stressful because when you do back to back like they did before, having. The high voltage overdrive. And then having sanctum, you had to worry about grinding for two things to try to get the rewards. So the fact that you have a mode that's just a weaken and hey, you can get some cosmetics. Not crazy cosmetic like, like special variants, but you know, premium mystery variants or borders. I think that's awesome. I do like that because it brings a different flavor to the game on the weekend. You don't have to worry about, oh, should I go ahead and just play for my weekend missions? Oh no, I can play high voltage. You know, have some fun and have a blast in that mode and not worry about, oh my gosh, I need to herb and grind before the weekend's over. So I'm huge on that. I'm a big fan of it. I said I, we have to give them props for that, and I do wish they do more of that, right? Because they get to a point, especially in the middle of. Snap season where it's like, okay, things start to get boring because now you have one more card left. We're about to end the season. So to bring that kind of flavor and switch it up a little bit, I think is great for everyone. Whether you're, whether you already are infinite or you're still trying to get there. I think bringing that extra mode on a weekend is fun.

Alex: 37:31

Alright, STG. Now we're going into our Snapchat mailbag here and we have a very good question and I would say overall statement from Alpha PT 93 70, and it's about the super premium season pass, which has been obviously a major topic of conversation in the Snap community. The statement reads, bottom line is that I'm okay with giving them 120 euros a year to keep playing their game. I'm not okay with giving them 240 euros a year. That's not a good business proposition for me and I'll never do it ever. And if they continue to do things like this, they're changing the temporary game modes to be Grind Fest slash second job slash discount to purchase cards. I might stop being okay with giving them 120 euros a year completely. If anyone else wants to spend$10,000 a month to play the game, that's totally fine. That's not me. You do you. I'll do. Me and me personally. It's getting sick and tired of seeing them knowingly and not caring about consumer backlash. Do shady decisions like this every month. I bring up this question, uh, from Alpha pt because this was one of the top voted. Or top up voted comments on one of the recent Snapchats, and I think that a lot of people did vibe with the idea that the season pass at$120 a year was not inexpensive, but you did get a lot of value. But at$240 a year, especially for something as meta impactful as the Fantastic car. That's a lot of money on a mobile game. However, and I don't usually chain questions together, but Beard Almighty came up with a great idea, which I absolutely loved. And Beard Almighty said this, the solution is so simple. If they wanted a season pass and a premium season pass, then they should have added a second rewards track with the card at the level of the usual season pass card at the same value proposition of the first early access to a card for each wood stole, annoy some, but the value would still be there. Many would buy it anyways. So I think the statement here is saying, well, if you're gonna charge me 10 extra dollars for an additional card, why aren't I getting the boosters and the gold and everything else that's alongside the original season pass? The value proposition isn't quite the same. Even if realistically paying 10 extra dollars for a Marvel Snap card, a series four, whatever, it could change to a five in the future technically is good value, but. But STG, and this is where I wanna ask you a question. What are your thoughts on adding a little bit of more rewards to that premium, super premium season pass? Or do you think that a meta relevant card is simply enough?

Ken: 40:11

No, I like that. I think I like that idea from the bearded gentleman. Being able to add the additional track works out in everybody's favor, right? Because if you do spend the extra$10, you get that extra reward, the extra track. And if you don't. Those people who only spent the$10 can still grind their way to get that additional card. So I do like that idea. I was on board on, listen, I understand it really depends on how you feel if you wanna spend money or not. And that card, yes, it's Series four card, but like I said, I'll be afraid if it was the other way around and Fantastic Card was the$10 first, and then Mr. Fantastic was the 20. It'd be a big problem. So to avoid that. As that person mentioned, I think that's the best route to do it and I, I agree. I do spend extra$10, so why don't I get an extra track on my bonus? I totally agree with that.

Alex: 40:59

Yeah. I mean, it would make the value proposition of that second season pass definitely more interesting. It just becomes concerning when, like a fantastic car has clearly been a good. But what if, and you kind of brought it up, like, what if it was Mr. Fantastic on the pre super premium season pass? And that might happen, but even inadvertently, like there's a chance that, you know, the balance team says, all right Mr. Fantastic, that card is gonna be better than Fantastic Car. So we'll put that as the primary season pass and the super premium one. We'll make the weaker card that the whales can buy and that's fine. But what if someone figures out a cracked shell in two months from now? It's the super premium CS of pass card, which is absolutely going insane and in. And honestly like Fantastic Card has been one of the top performing decks in the meta. Like what are we talk, we might be even, even living that right now. Like let's be honest, we might be living that right now. And so, um, I think that having two cards paywalls for an entire month will frustrate people and it's, I'm glad that FTA car of series four, we have no guarantees that'll remain that way at the end of the day, if the concern is the value proposition of that extra$10 right. I do agree that, obviously an additional track would be fantastic, but I wonder if secondary would be like, that's just too much. Like you already give so much in the original season pass. I wonder if they would be hesitant to give even more in a super premium season pass that has a secondary track, um, that would essentially double the rewards of the first, you know what I mean?

Ken: 42:30

I mean, they should try it, test it out and see what happens. I think it would work out for everyone. Be honest, and I do understand it might look greedy, but not really. Right? You're spending the value really matters there because you are spending$10 to get one card and already a track. So if you're spending another$10, you should also get a card and another track, right? I mean, you should already be getting that. So to me, I don't think it's greedy at all. I think it's logical and it makes sense and I think maybe they should test it out and see what happens. But I think in the long run it will work out for them. Better because people might say, Hey, you know what, I might as well just spend the$10, get the card and, and get the extra bonus, versus, hey, not spending the$10 and just dealing with the extra to the bonuses.

Alex: 43:06

And I had this thought as well, and I'm not a monetization expert at all, uh, STG, but I had this thought of like, okay, I'm okay with wailing, a bit like I'm okay with, you know, putting money into the game and supporting it. That's fine. Like obviously I'm incentivized. We both incentivized to, to help keep this game alive. Let's be honest. And I wonder if okay, if they provide more opportunities to whale. If a trade off is that the free to play experience gets better, but I, how do you, how do you quite do that? How do you make it so that you, people like you and I are encouraged to buy that super premium season pass help keep those coffers stuff, keep those lights on at second dinner's office, but at the same time if their mindset is so fixated on, okay, kid Omega, let's make as much money from Kid Omega as possible. Can we make it so that, okay, listen, make the season pass super premium, season pass pass worth it. That's where you can make your additional extra money. Make the game mode cards easier to acquire. You know what I mean? If you need to make money from some secondary source. And actually I, now that I think about it, they're clearly doing that. They're clearly testing the waters as to how they could try to make some additional revenue. The super premium season pass is one data point. Omega red was another data point. Uh, then you have the data point from the game modes and stuff like that. Clearly they're trying to throw a lot of stuff out there to see what sticks and what doesn't work. I fully expect we won't see another Kiddo Omega again, and if we do, then this game is essentially Club Penguin. It's dead, right? So let's be honest, they gotta be smart with how they do that. But I guess what I'm trying to get at, uh, STG and what your thoughts are on this is how can we make it, how can we make it so that we have some fair wailing opportunities to help support the game? But by doing that, we can pull a little bit of pressure off the free to play experience. And then allow the card acquisition to be improved by way of saying, okay, you will need to make money to keep the lights on. That's fine. We'll give you extra here'cause it's worth it. So you can ease up here where people are getting frustrated.

Ken: 45:07

I think at some point they need to figure out what. Especially'cause okay, they were doing cosmetics, they were doing a hundred dollars bundles and that wasn't a big problem, especially free to play players because they didn't have to worry about getting those expensive bundles to be able to play the game. So I think they have to figure out a way to get back into that mode of, here's the whales that want to get X, Y, and Z and they will spend money on this, but also give the free to play players a way to achieve a certain thing. So in, in a quick thought. Why not have the ability of whales being able to purchase something and getting it faster, but still giving the free to play players a way to get it without having to spend any money. So you want people to grind and play the game. Have the free to play players, do it, do not block them, or put something behind a paywall where they can't reach it unless they spend money, but give them, additional time that they have to take to actually get that thing where the whales can just say, okay. I'm not worrying about that. I'm gonna spend on my goal and get this card. I don't feel like grinding. I don't have the time. I wanna get the card and play with it and do what I have to do. And then you give the free to play players. All right, well listen, you guys are gonna have to play longer, right? You're gonna have to grind harder. Get what you, I think if they could figure that out, they could figure that balance out without them losing money. And they please themselves. They please the freedom play players and the whales I think is success. And that way is the the best way they can handle.

Alex: 46:26

The golden ticket. Everyone's happy, everyone wins. That's what we're really looking after. Yeah. And if they had that answer, I think they'd probably pursue it. Right. I think that part of the challenge is, is that that might be the, uh, the golden ticket to freedom that everyone's trying to figure out and haven't, hasn't quite yet figured out. And uh, I hope they do. I hope they do. And, uh, I hope they're getting a lot of data and a lot of feedback. I would expect, as I said prior to never see the omega red situation again. That played a discount stuff is. Borderline insulting, and I hope they never walk that path ever again. And, uh, I would expect them not to. Our next question here comes from a levitation, and this comes in conversation regarding Magneto because I was confused and I was surprised to learn that apparently Magneto was supposed to be the father of Scarlet Witch in Quicksilver. And that seemed to come to a surprise to me. And Leviton had mentioned that fun fact. Magneto was sadly reconned to not be the father of Scarlet Witch in Quicksilver several years ago. Him being their father itself was a recon, but a cool one. In fact, they were reconned to not be mutants at all, and I had to look it up'cause the word was used so much. Recon is retroactive continuity or recon for short is a literary device in fictional storytelling whereby facts and events of established narrative are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by supplementary published work that recontextualizes or breaks the continuity of the former, somehow that definition makes it even more confusing, but. I don't know what your lure knowledge of Magneto was, but apparently he was the father of Scarlet Witch and Quicks, and now he's not. And even then it was changed. I don't know, man. Is it my fault that I'm confused?

Ken: 48:09

Uh, not your fault, but to me, he is the father of Quicksilver and he is the father of Scarlet Witch. So Really I mentioned that. Yeah. He is, and I mentioned it in my streams a long time ago that I wish Quicksilver. Had the ability that Ghost had no, not ability. That Ghost had to reverse as Quicksilver would work great with his father if you had priority.'cause then Magneta will always pull cards first before somebody can do something in that lane. And of course, Carter Witch is his daughter. So she had the ability to change the location if it became a problem. So yeah, I said some synergy. There would've been great, father, brother, and sister. So to my knowledge that hasn't changed. Magneto is quick. Silva's father and father, which is father as well. Not Scarlet Witch. Yes. Scarlet Witch. Yes. Scarlet Witch's father. So when did that change? I have no idea. And as you can tell, Quicksilver and Magnio both have the same, Silver here. So Yes, they are father and son.

Alex: 49:01

I just, I don't know, man. And I, I think about Scarlet Witch, right? And, um, she must be the most disrespected card. Marvel Snap. Let's be honest. What an absolute trash heap card. Like one of the most powerful heroes in Marvel lore is this.

Ken: 49:17

Yes. Yes, I know. And uh, it's funny enough, me and Steven spoke about this too, like what cards would be great? Like they should have cards. That now changes because of how great they really are. They should have some new abilities, right? Not just high evo abilities, but like they should be revamped because. Again, like Scarlet Witch, she should have a way better ability and be respected more in Marvel Snap. So I totally agree with that.

Alex: 49:39

My man. You brought up one of my favorite people on the planet. Cino. Cino Cino. And you know, I gotta tell you, we gotta, we gotta shut out the Snap, uh, the Snap cast, my man. The Snap cast is a great piece of content you guys can be engaging with. If you're interested in more Marvel Snap podcast content. STG, could you please tell us where we might find some additional podcasting content?

Ken: 50:03

Definitely on the Super Tech Guide YouTube channel. And of course if you listen to any type of podcast anywhere, Spotify, et cetera, look up the Marvel Snap Cast podcast. You find myself, Sino and its guest gaming as the host. We have a blast every week. And of course, make sure you guys stay here and check out Snapchat with Alex and Co.

Alex: 50:21

Buddy, you're the absolute best. You know what guys? STG, legitimately, one of the OGs of the Snap community, one of the first people to actually welcome me into the Snap community. I came in here as a, as a Dota guy, like a month after the beta originally launched. And this man welcome me with open arms, early raids. All that stuff, man. I, I couldn't explain to you how much you mean to me, my man, so I'm so glad that we were able to get you on the Snapchat. You, thanks so much for filling it for Cozy. It means the world to him as well. And guys, it would mean the world to me if you use the links in the description down below to check out Super Deck cos content to check out the Snap Cast podcast as well. And of course to send some love to STG on Twitch as well. Where, dude, I don't know how you do your schedule. Like, do you not sleep? I thought I didn't sleep your schedule. Like I go, I'm going to bed, and you're starting your stream, and we're in the same time zone, my man. I don't know what you're doing

Ken: 51:13

because of course, you know, we have family, we have work, you know, we do our things that we need to do, and then we do our time and our time Saturday. My time is in the nighttime, so I'm here.

Alex: 51:23

I hear you, my man. But thank you so much for joining. I appreciate every one of you guys. Of course, the viewers, the listeners, and of course STG will see you on that next one.