Top Cards In August | Cosmic Ghost Rider Breakdown | The Snap Chat Ep. 146

What's going on with Xorn's popularity in the new move meta? How is the current state of Snap evolving? Where do Cozy and Alex stand in their final Elixir rankings? 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.

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 Casual Banter
• 0:26 Haircut Stories and Super Cuts
• 2:34 Sponsorship Talk and Podcast Insights
• 4:00 The Fallen One Discussion
• 27:45 High Voltage and Top Cards of the Season
• 32:38 Merlin's Polymorph Spell
• 33:28 Marvel Snap's Balancing Act
• 34:32 Surge: The Two-Cost Powerhouse
• 36:03 Mr. Fantastic's Nerf and Impact
• 37:27 Shang-Chi: The Four-Cost Staple
• 42:58 Galactus and Other Iconic Characters
• 44:28 Marvel Snap's Hero Highlights
• 52:05 Mailbag: Food Debates and Game Features

Transcript

Cozy: 0:00

What's going on guys? And welcome back to another episode of the Snapchat. We are joined here towards the end of August, post-fall in one, and on the heels of a new season coming up. Alex, your haircut looking great as always. How we doing?

Alex: 0:16

Oh, thanks buddy. I appreciate it. Listen, I'm just trying to keep up with you. I mean, you get a haircut literally every week, and so like every day I get pretty disheveled. Yeah. Almost every day I get pretty disheveled and I'm like, I gotta keep up with Cozy, gotta get a haircut. I go, I went to like the cheapest possible place I could find. Like it basically, like I'm, I'm waiting to get a haircut and it's just a bunch of like, kids waiting to get their haircut prior to going to school and stuff. And I sat down and they're like, what do you want? I'm like, I don't know, just like, like the haircut. Shorter. Shorter is good. Where'd you

Cozy: 0:43

go? Wait, where'd you go?

Alex: 0:45

Uh, the place is called uh, super Cuts. Oh. Which in Canada is like the equivalent of like your bargain bin. We have, we got super Do you have super cuts? We got great

Cozy: 0:53

clips. We got super cuts, yeah. Yeah. I tend to actively avoid them. They're usually like attached to like a subway. And, uh, like maybe, uh, you get the haircut first. I think

Alex: 1:02

this one, the subway app is attached to some sort of, uh, fast food place. I can't remember what it's called. It's like, I don't know man. It's not, it's not like a massive chain. It's like a smaller chain in Canada and I can't quite remember the name. They sell, like, you save a a lot of money going there

Cozy: 1:14

though.

Alex: 1:15

You save a lot of money going,

Cozy: 1:16

you know what though? The quarterback, well, I, I guess he was the of the Falcon. You know Kirk Cousins? You know who Kirk? Kirk Cousins is? Yeah, I know Kirk Cousins. Did you

Alex: 1:23

say the Falcons?

Cozy: 1:24

He was on Minnesota. Well, he was on Minnesota. I was on the Falcons Kins. Yeah. So RG three Hear me out. You like that, right? Uh, hear me out. There's a quarterback show on Netflix. They like follow the quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins, he just signed a one 140,000,003 year contract, goes to Great Clips every single month, goes to Great Clips, doesn't go anywhere else. He goes there. He likes it. Sometimes man, just being a dad, like it's part of being a dad. Like you have your certain checklist, great clips, super cuts. It's all in the same, you know, it's all in the same thing.

Alex: 1:52

Yeah. Not sponsored by the way, but not, yeah. Yeah. Did you imagine a great, and actually it becomes very clear though, because like I was there and they actually messed up my si they cut my sideburn way too short. And they're like, oh no, they're like, that was an accident. I'm like, it's okay. It'll grow back. And then like, they went to fix the other side and they cut that one too short too. And then it turned into this like race of like, just cut. So like, I'm glad I'm wearing my headphones.'cause my, my sideburns are like literally three inches shorter than they're supposed to be.

Cozy: 2:17

I'm just gonna send this to the Great clips, super cuts. Uh, CEO and just this little, this clip and just say, we could sell you millions. Sponsor us. We need to find the weirdest sponsors. Man. I think it'd be fun. We haven't, we, we should try harder to get more, but we don't,

Alex: 2:33

yeah. We need to like explore that. People may not realize this, but in large part, this podcast for the hundreds of episodes we've done is completely unsponsored. And I know a lot of other sponsors, like, they put like a lot of like. They put like a lot of like, uh, even, um, like even in the audio side, they put a lot of stuff in. We've never done that. We should actually explore that. We should, but who we probably should between,

Cozy: 2:54

between Russell and the kid who's, who's doing that? You doing that? Am I doing that? Maybe I should do it. I probably should do it. I don't know. One of us,

Alex: 3:00

maybe we can both do it. We can take turns doing it.

Cozy: 3:02

I, yes, I, and I love the shirt choice again, by the way. Playing, playing Blue, not Adidas.

Alex: 3:08

Actually. Tomos sponsored. This was actually a sponsor. This was into the am They sponsored us. Uh, and uh, by us, I mean they sponsored uh, me and I think they did something with Regis too. I don't quite remember. But, um, but yeah, and I, it's funny, it was one of those CI circumstances. Again, this video is not sponsored by into the am but I actually, like, they sent me some product and I did a little integration for them. And I know that like a lot of people think like, ah, they're just hyping up this, these clothes because like they pretend to like'em or whatever. Like, I actually like the stuff I got. I was like, yo, this shirt's actually comfy as hell, man. I like it. And it just fits perfectly. And so like, I've been actually unironically wearing them despite the fact that they actually had sponsored, uh, some content to mine like a couple months back.

Cozy: 3:48

Well, Alex, head to toe guys, he got his hair cut to his shirts. We're working our way down the body to kick off the Snapchat today. You boxers your briefs kinda guy. You know, we, uh, we can kick off there. Don't answer that. Listen buddy. We had a, uh, a week of Marvel Snap, fall in one was definitely one of the cards. This season I think is, is a great one. I mean, we, can we, we can, we can't go into it. If you want to just talk about, you look at him in the middle of this image here and he's, he's looking yoked man. He is looking yoked. Is he feeling yoked? Alex, what were your thoughts? I think, uh, I think he ended up being kind of where we thought now.

Alex: 4:24

Uh, I think fallen one's mid. I, when I was playing, I was like, this card, it's not great. And like, I think it's fun. I don't even think it's fun. I didn't think it. Cool. Enjoy playing them that much.

Cozy: 4:35

There's a couple things that you could do to get the energy kind of high and it was like kind of different and fun and, you know, you play'em in, you know, Sherry and whatnot. Yeah. It, it, it kind of worked, but it, it, it obviously was not a good card, but I think it was a new way to play for like 10 minutes.

Alex: 4:51

Yeah, I know. It, it was interesting. And, uh, I think that this is the kind of card, which by the way, according to on Tappy statistics as a recording massively negative too below 50, right? Is he below 50% For sure. It's 44%. Yeah. Hundred percent. 44% went rate. Yep. So it's not doing great. I actually saw, the best I saw was ironically my brother I was streaming. I read it into him and then my brother, he was, uh, he was trying like the fall and stuff. He was actually kind of excited for it. He ended up getting 41 energy on turn six. But then he is just hold, like, I'm like, yeah, but then what are you holding? Yeah. Right. Like, you're not, he is just holding, not like, it's not, it's not worth it. It's not like you have a sunspot on the board or, so it's like, yeah, you got the 41 energy with your asur, like, you know, combo and everything like that with, uh, sym Spider-Man, but like, then what? Yeah, right. And then nothing happens.

Cozy: 5:32

It like, works in magic or whatever. You have like a draw engine maybe, and you got some extra lamb man going down, but Yeah. And in this, it's like, what are you gonna do with it? I, I kind of feel like all the cards we thought was gonna do good did well with it. The search was fantastic. Very and gang. And there's gonna be cars, as we've said. There's gonna be cards that come out that maybe can have a new passport. We just got Mr. Fantastic. So I don't know how many more like card power stuff we're gonna get in the, you know, shirt short term, but this is definitely gonna be something they visit back on. But yeah, it is just weird that we ended the podcast saying like, you know, Sarah's just, it is just such a safe option. Sarah is Sarah, why would you play this?

Alex: 6:12

Yeah, Sarah's such a great card and I think the only thing saving the fallen one from from anybody coping and hoping, which I know you're out there in the comments and let us know, like, don't get me wrong. Like if you got a deck that's working for you, like bless your heart man, go for it. Right. You know what I mean? It's just on aggregate hard. Yeah. Bless your heart. On aggregate, the fallen one's not doing great, but here's the thing the fallen one has no natural tech against it right now. So like Sarah obviously has Triple M, like, you know, rogue enchanter not Yeah. Oh, enchanters actually as well. You know, red Guardian. There's all these ways to interact with Sarah, whereas with the fallen one there is no tech piece for this. And so what I would suspect is probably gonna happen is if this card underperforms, they buff it to a five six, which is a massive buff'cause it double dips on its power and then they plan for a release that like deals with opponent energy, uh, more so than something like a Red Hulk does. You know what I mean?

Cozy: 7:02

Yes. Uh, I also have a quick question about the and this is, this is the stuff that I just happily don't get caught up with much anymore, but I saw it, I did see it. Were they offering packs on this guy but on different dollar amounts with like,

Alex: 7:20

so I know you're referring to it's super cringe. I don't know why they did it, and I hope is it they kind of gave their heads a shake. Basically what happened was is once you got the card, it popped up with a, like a popup. Like, Hey, you just got the fallen one. Would you like a spicy variant? That looks way better than like the hamstrung art we made for the base art, because I'm convinced those artists can do way better than what they're doing for the bass art. Sure. And I feel like, did something don yo, just make it worse, bro. Dumb it down. Make it worse so we can sell the variant. I mean, and then so they offer the fallen one and, but like my price was totally different than other people in chat and stuff like that. And I, I believe someone on Reddit actually made a comparison and they were like, like a massive range of prices for no reason. And it's like you were just kind of getting more boosters like yay boosters, you

Cozy: 8:06

know, do. And now, okay, so maybe, yeah, maybe I saw that wrong, but surely this can't be a thing. I'm about to say something. I need you to tell me. This is not a thing. Did they give borders to top players? But you had to, you had to pay for them. Is this right? Like there's no way this is like, this feels so, like I gotta be, there's, I probably misunderstood this, but

Alex: 8:30

I saw that somewhat disconnected. Cozy is so funny to me because like, it allows these conversations to happen. So basically what happens is like, yeah, so if you get to like infinite and stuff like that, and if like depending on your rank and stuff, you get the opportunity, you get the privilege of spending money on exclusive borders. That honestly they do look cool, but yeah, you're, you're paying up son. Don't get me wrong. You're getting the opportunity to purchase something. Yes, that is true.

Cozy: 8:57

The difference is like, yeah, following new cars awesome. When I'm like seeing stuff on, I read it and I just, it, I'm so in disbelief that I'm like, I don't even want to go down the pipeline of what this is. That's so crazy to me. You so their best players are like, congrats, you guys are killing it. Here's something you can buy. It's just, it is the it is just such a, it's just such a, it's just such a secondary thing to do. I just don't understand. Uh, it's funny, I thought I misheard

Alex: 9:22

it on the patch note. The, I, again, you kind of brought this up. A while ago, it might've been when we were talking with the Regis, but like now I keep an eye on the patch note, E otes at the bottom, and I just die laughing. I Oh, they're great. Like the trash can. The l like all, I'm like, oh my gosh. Whoever is, whoever's like they get creative has notifications on, and it was like putting in like seeding all those Emos is doing God's work because it's so fucking Yeah. Like I'm trying to, obviously I love this game and I want them to get those doubles, but when they throw out an L and then like, you just see the, it's just so funny. I just, I laugh. I I need to laugh though. I need that. Yeah. So, so thank you for doing that to us. You

Cozy: 9:58

uncomfortable laughter. This is a bit off the beaten path for a second. I do have a question. You said bless your heart earlier, which I haven't heard that since I was like, in my Texas days, like, it's a very, like, it's a southern thing to say a little bit like, like if someone was like a POS human, like, like my mom wouldn't be like, they're a POS, they'd be like, oh, they need extra grace. Required, you know, like the, the nice way to say someone's a a horrible person. Did you grow up in a strict, because like Canada, I don't understand the demographic, right? Like south, there's the south here, there's the, you know, you know, there's the Midwest, there's different like kind of stigmas or what, what is what, I don't like this. Where did you grow up? What's, uh, you, I don't know where you grew up, first of all, just because of the way you know things is, I, I swear you grew up in Willy Wonka's Palace. Like I have no idea where you came from, but what were

Alex: 10:45

you strict household? Oh yeah, man, my parents are right off the boat. Italians, man. Um, my dad came here when he was like 19. My mom came here when she was a baby. Uh, my dad stole an extremely thick accent to this day. Like my wife has a real hard time understanding him half the time. And, um, yeah, like when I was growing up my dad would be like, yo, like we're gonna, we're gonna go on a little day trip, get your friends on the street. My, my buddy Mike and all of us would all get together and we're like, Hey, where are we going? And my dad would put us in like this, like beat up minivan. We'd drive out and we'd be in a tomato field, and he is like, all right, start picking tomatoes. We need like three bushels. And then we'd like pick all the tomatoes and then we'd go back to the garage and he would boil them and we'd peel them and stuff like that. We'd make, uh, we'd make sauce. And so, yeah, like I, I came from like an Italian household, extremely strict. Like if I, dude. My dad told me straight up, right? Like my dad told me straight up, like, if, if I got like a, like a tattoo or something, or if I got like a ear piercing, like it was go time, like bring, bring the box, go time. Not even like son,

Cozy: 11:44

I'm, I'm disappointed. Let's just go right to the, let's just go right to the ring. I'm gonna throw a couple mic time. So like, let me, we'll go like category by category. So like movies where you like and it made no sense in the south, right? Like it, we could watch, I could watch a, an absolute glorious bloodiest, uh, serial killer. You name it with gore and blood. But as soon as Boom popped up, it's over. Like the whole, I'm grounded for nine weeks, the whole thing. What,

Alex: 12:10

where were you on that? So my I mean I was like the easiest kid in that sense because I was like very studious. I didn't watch anything. Even to this day, I don't watch horror movies. They just don't, I'd rather watch a Disney movie. Like I would not, yeah, that's fine, but would not, like, I don't watch any of that stuff, so it was never even an option really. Um, music, I didn't really listen to anything with like, swearing or anything like that. Um, you didn't listen to like rap or like, like Lincoln Park was like the edges, even like Green Day throughout a

Cozy: 12:35

FBO for no

Alex: 12:36

reason. Every now and then. Yeah. I think the craziest thing I had was, I remember in elementary school I was in like grade seven or eight and that was when Harry Potter came out. It was called the Philosopher Stone in Canada, I think in the state it's called the Sorcerer Stone, whatever. But anyways, I remember reading it and we were like, we got like six chapters in and then they all got taken away from us. Oh yeah. They got taken away from us because one of the moms said it was like teaching us like witchcraft and like, it was like, like devil's work and all this stuff. Oh, it definitely came from that. You, you, so you saw that you experienced that as well. We're in the same bracket of like Harry Potter books getting ripped from our hands. A hundred percent.

Cozy: 13:10

A hundred percent. Like I, I had it day one, I'm reading it and then yeah, mom finds it. I might as well just be putting hexes on people. Like let, but then I could play Pokemon with evolutions and, and, and, and, and pocket demons. Right. They don't care. And the same, same one for, wow, this is when I was younger. Right. Obviously they got older, they got less strict, but like World of Warcraft, demon magic old school rule, old school scape or just scape at the time, they couldn't tell. It was just Pixel. They're like, yeah, it's fine. There's magic in the game, but it's fine. So there was, it had to, there was a very careful balance. But yeah, I was definitely on the note. Witchcraft

Alex: 13:45

Dream. I can see Cozy playing World of Warcraft on an RP server getting married to some like. Oh yeah, the person they met online. See, that's something you would do.

Cozy: 13:53

I would hide it too. I had to hide it all, man. I had to get, I got like, I was rooting Harry Potter man, like with my other book behind it, like, I don't know, like the dictionary or, or something. So you, but you were just a straight line kid across music. Music. That one got me, that one's kind of crazy to me. Like you just didn't listen to anything like edgy? Not really,

Alex: 14:13

no. No. I, okay. There was the only edgy thing I liked couples. Like what were you doing? No, I didn't. Um, there was a point in time where Need for Speed Underground was really popular with my friend group and we played a lot of it on PC and I was like, you can do drag races. I dunno. It was a really cool game for the time. Good one. And, uh, little John's Get Low was on that soundtrack and that song stuck in my head for like a good two years. That's a good one. So that's probably the edges. And just those racing games would

Cozy: 14:39

be completely G-rated except for the girls that would wave the flags at the beginning. It's just like they would just like get the whole game, would get an m rating just for the girls that waved the flag at the, at the beginning of the game. Boxing games were the same. Yeah. The

Alex: 14:50

girl, the rink girl. Yeah.

Cozy: 14:51

Alright. Alright. That tells me a little bit more about the childhood of, of Alex Kocher. I needed to be aware of, of all of it. It also makes sense why you still don't watch movies as an adult. Like, it completely we're, we're kind of, we've come full circle. We've hit all phases. Phase four, phase five. Moving on. I guess speaking of, uh, even anything Marvel and saying phases we should move on to to our, our card of the week, the new card, Alex and my friend, I guess we'll go to this screen for the first time. What, uh, what are we thinking man? What are we thinking about? The five seven cosmic ghost writer. Gotta say love the logo on the bottom already. The art is killer as well. Yeah, it's good On reveal. Remove the text from front row enemy cards here and. I dig it. We got a new little tech piece here, bud. And, uh, you want to, you wanna kick us off? I can go, you can go whatever with the star rating.

Alex: 15:41

Yeah. Yeah. So I was thinking like right off the rip, like when I first previewed this, I came in at 4.5 stars, however that was before Ghost was introduced with its new text. And we needed something to really deal with the end of turn strategies. There is a concerted effort with second dinner, I believe, to make five costs more viable. Yeah. Making China, I, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing more good five costs because we have really good four costs and we have insane two costs, right? And everything else seems to be lagging behind a bit. In particular the five costs. And when you have five costs, sucking cards like, uh, Jennifer Kale don't make sense, right? Cards like electrode don't make sense. And so you need to kind of like make these five costs better.'cause like if I'm make an electro deck, I'm still putting just vanilla vision in. You know what I mean? Even though I don't really play those decks anymore, you know what I mean though? Cosmic Ghost Rider I think is a phenomenal tech card and it looks as though ghosts rework is not necessarily being used. I think the fear of Ghost took a little bit of the end of turn stuff outta the meta at top echelons of the MMR, you're still seeing a lot of it being played. Its win rates are still excellent. Its cube rates are still excellent, but from a meta share perspective, according to On Tap, it's gone down significantly. But Cosmic Ghost Rider answers a lot of those questions. It will rip away the text. Of cards like Invisible Women First Steps, who's been incredibly problematic. It's essentially Red Guardian across the front row. Um, so I do think that as a catchall tech piece, this is a, a particularly strong card. I don't think, because the end of turn meta has kind of calmed down a bit. I'm willing to go down to a four, but I think this is a very good card.

Cozy: 17:19

Yeah. I, I was gonna say around four, four and a half as well. I mean, you're getting a card that can hit two cards, right. That obviously tend to be on the lower side, but there's ways to go around that and to make it to where they're more valued cards. Also, just a way to kind of shut down what has been more and more popular is kind of mega lanes and it could get value in so many different ways as, as simple as like, getting rid of ongoing text or spectrum deck, whatever, like little things to help it, even when it doesn't get its huge value, I would say. More often than not, you're gonna get the value out of it, even though it's only seven power, which I like a, a, a ton to, and, and trying to use something like eight kill monger is fine, right? To be able to then open space on something. Maybe they played cheap and then it pushes a card up and then you could play it down. Like there's ways I feel like, to set him up for more success as well. There is, I have one card I think is really cool with this that I think works extremely well, and it's probably what you're thinking as well. I don't know, maybe there's only like, because this, because this is a general tech card, I feel like it's a little bit less, like, okay, there's 90 synergies we can spit out. But I think there's one really good one.

Alex: 18:24

Okay. I'm actually interested in learning listening to what you have to say, because for me a lot of it is what does it turn off? And that's kind of what I'm most excited for. So I'd, I'd like to hear your pitch first because I do have a list, but, uh. You're kind of, peaking my interest.

Cozy: 18:37

So you, you mentioned Gen Jennifer, right? And you're like, okay, yeah, well this is making fives better. And we kind of saw that a little bit with fall in one, right? Like people were doing, like pix even and whatever, just trying to play these fives earlier and like, yes. Uh, I think they've been trying to make five costs better for the last two years at Snap. It's just, it's, it's a difficult cost. I feel it. Is it because you got six being so strong? I think Luna Snow is probably the best synergy card with this because you are ramping to get to plate early, right? Bro, you're putting the icicle Yes. That's call. You're putting, you're putting the the opponent's lane you can shut down in the exact same vein of being able to ramp into this thing, plus whatever else was in that le I think it's just a really cool combo that is a no-brainer. Makes sense. And I love Luna Snow to begin with. Three six, I mean, everything is going for it.

Alex: 19:25

I like that. That's a nice offensive utilization.'cause it becomes a bit of a clog piece too. Naturally. There is a chance that the icicle ends up on the, the back row and that's okay.'cause you are gonna be then disabling two of their cars if you so choose. So that's, that's fine too. Right. You're not clogging necessarily, but you are gonna be hitting two of their cards. Yeah, that's, that's a great ramp option. I, I like that a lot. And I don't think there's many people that play more Luna Snow than me. It's actually one of the cards. I do have a God split on like gold, on gold crackles and everything like that.'cause I legit love Luna Snow. I fun card when they buffed it to three six. I'm like, guys, this is crazy. Yeah. Like, this is a phenomenal card. And so, uh, I love that call. I love it. And um, I think that's one of the ways where like this card could perhaps excel because it has this like evergreen interaction where, like Stardust for instance, we're seeing a couple decks here and there use Stardust. But Stardust has like this effect that like, if it's, if it's not doing anything, it's just not doing anything. This you're not playing cards. You're not playing Patriot decks, like you're not playing cards and just putting crap down. You're putting good cards down, you're putting Mr Fantastic First Steps down. You're, you're playing surges, you're playing Captain Carter's and Cosmic Ghost Rider claps their cheeks. And like, that's why I think that this card feels much more evergreen as a tech piece compared to something like a Stardust, which is very, very, very niche. This card, just like Red Guardian, it feels like a catchall from a tech perspective. And so, uh, I do like that call for Luna Snow. That's great. But like, I really think defensively it destroys a lot of really solid meta cards right now.

Cozy: 20:57

For sure. I think defensively it does really good and we've seen before, and sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it does, like with Mobius, but like whenever a piece can work offensively and defensively is when it really cooks. So even having one synergy of the Luna Snow is enough to be like, okay, I can get that combo if I need. Like, if, if that happens, awesome. And if not, to your point, yeah, it just works. It just works so well defensively that this can plug into so many decks now. E every now and then you're gonna have these times where it's like you're just gonna get that bad p whatever that happens, to, to anything. You can get to Shung Xi and they don't have high power. Right. Like whatever it might be. But I do feel like the five seven might, might be just right for this guy and in a such a competitive time in Snap between the cards in the deck, I think you can wear in a spot for sure.

Alex: 21:42

I think the reason why it's five seven is'cause if it's five eight again, think about what vision does, right? Yep. Five eight is such a fair stat line for a five drop, that there's almost no downside to including a catch-all tech piece like this into your deck. Like even when you think about what, like, oh, if we actually, if we think like even the thing last month right? Was released and that was a good five drop. That was a good card, but it required a little bit of setup, a little bit of nuance to get the maximum potential out of it with cosmic ghost rider. But if this thing's overstayed, like you have no disadvantage to running it. There's no downside. Yeah. Like the downsides to something like a. Like a, uh, a stardust is that like, it just, it does nothing. This thing, it's gonna hit stuff. And even if it hits one card, like if they don't have two cards in a lane, but you turn off surge, that might be enough. You know what I mean? Like, or whatever you turn off again, their their sun spots to mess up their prodigy, invisible woman plays like that's impactful. And the tech

Cozy: 22:38

and the text makes sense with the cost assignment, right? Like sometimes we see that not work, but in this case it's like, yeah, you want time for this to go out. You want time for them to be able to play the front rows, get that out, and then at five costs you're finally getting that, you know, that worthwhile assignment. So I agree, man, I think this thing's got plenty of, of, of gas behind it. And I also think it not only prevents some crazy s from happening, but it also opens up the floodgates a bit of what they can design because it is that release valve in a way.

Alex: 23:03

Yeah, it, it's a big net. I feel like this card casts a big net. It. It's not subject to like, the requirements of like a ghost. Ghost is only going to disable the on, uh, the end of turn cards. This one here, just like smokes their two cards and removing the text. Crazy. Like, remember what Leach used to do? It's Red Guardian's, obviously the most apt example. This is a really good card. It's a really good tech piece. And um, one of the concerns I have is like, we're getting a lot of tech in Marvel, Snap and Tech. While it serves an important role, uh, it can hamper the experience a little bit. Like it can be pretty irritating. Like I'm, I'm of the camp that I think Shahi plays a very important role in Marvel Snap. Uh, without shachi, you know, it's, it's very easy like cards, like blobs and so like, they start to make more sense. You need something to counteract as much as it pisses you off. Like, I understand Shachi plays an important role and you'd almost, I think you dislike Snap more without shachi, with the exception of, of high voltage, by the way, which we'll talk with shortly. Excluding him from high voltage think is perfect. That's such a great choice. But in regular ranked, like you need cards like that, right? I just feel like this one here might be a bit more of a catchall and I don't know, it might piss people off.

Cozy: 24:17

I was just about to say in, in fun game modes, limited type game modes, I think they don't have to be in as much, but yeah, in rank it for sure, like it's supposed to not feel good. Like when you're building magic, you're playing magic and you have like a ton of counters on the whatever. Let's say you play ful, whatever, and you get a board wipe. Yeah, it sucks. But also like, that's just what is supposed to keep things, you know, going, let's say Commander for instance. So tech cards doing the exact same, exact same purpose for that, this is Frank Castle, by the way. Yeah. Bro spoilers. I didn't know that. That's not, this is Frank Castle. Where, where like what did I spoil? What did, when were you gonna uh, it was either me or someone else. I bet you that someone in your shower with this, what did you

Alex: 24:53

spoil?

Cozy: 24:54

That cosmic ghost Rider is Frank Castles. Yeah, but you would've found this out on stream. Let's be honest.

Alex: 24:59

I, I don't know. That's probably unlikely. Is it?

Cozy: 25:02

Okay. I'll hold my

Alex: 25:03

tongue. Okay.

Cozy: 25:03

But now I'm curious though. Is this like a comic

Alex: 25:05

thing or an mc? No, I'm not

Cozy: 25:06

saying

Alex: 25:06

anything now.

Cozy: 25:06

Saying nothing. Yeah. Don't tell

Alex: 25:08

me anything because I'm still trying to catch up with things. I'm still trying. Look at his chest. You

Cozy: 25:10

can't tell with his chest. Now look at it closely. You can tell he's Punisher. Oh, it is the punisher chest, isn't it? Yeah. You could tell and yeah, it's uh, that'd be frank. Yeah, man, I think he's gonna be a good car. Definitely fun to, you know, they don't have the craziest fun factors right? Whenever these cards come out. But they're, they always age way better in the sense of people just like playing them. Red Guardian. Perfect example. People thought maybe he doesn't need the spot. And now we saw where he became high voltage. Alex, high voltage. I. Were you, were you, I feel like now it's like, what can get the job done the fastest and ongoing? Seeing that to myself. And before we get to that, I have to, I guess this is going into top cars play this season. What is your view on Mercury in cannibal?

Alex: 25:51

I'm surprised they've been dodging nerfs. Um, I feel like they are a package that as a two package or maybe particularly strong. I wonder who's the more problematic card. I wonder if it's Mercury and I wonder if it's cannibal. It's probably cannibal Mercury Moving is a POS though. Mm-hmm. Because it allows you to trade effectively so easily.

Cozy: 26:16

Yeah. You could play around it and then you, you can't. Right. Like, it, it that, I think that's like the thing that's the most frustrating. It's like, oh, okay. They play Mercury there. It's like, okay, I'll play you over here. Right. It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. Especially with the way that it carries out.

Alex: 26:27

And it is kind of weird that Mercury can move when she prevents cards from moving. Right.

Cozy: 26:31

Yeah, just don't, why maybe she

Alex: 26:33

just prevent herself from moving.

Cozy: 26:35

This car prevents itself from moving. Uh, but yeah, it is, it is interesting in my opinion.

Alex: 26:40

Yeah. I don't know. I, I think they're probably keeping a close eye on it. It wouldn't surprise me if they're Nerf candidates. They should be Nerf candidates. And they activate an entire package around destroy, for the most part. Right. Like, uh, you think about like the fenner inclusions and stuff like that. Like they enable an entire archetype to the most part. And even then, like if you just make random decks, like we're, see you could play like ongoing shells like you mentioned. And because Mercury's an ongoing guard, you just splash in Cannonball Yeah. Is not an ongoing card. It won't get hit by spectrum, but you just win a lane with it, you know what I mean? Like, so there's almost no risk to including it at all. And Cannonball went from a five eight to a five, seven back to a five eight. And then they released Mercury. So he's had his power changed a couple times. But I, I wonder it has to be on some sort of watch list. I wonder if they look at cannibals power or if they look at Mercury's effect, but at some point something's gotta give because they do have, yeah, they have a, a massive meta penetration of, uh, of pro well cannibals, 18%, which is, uh, one of the, the top cards of the season. What I wanna say about, uh, high voltage though, is I wanna give credit where it's due. Second dinner did an excellent job making this version of high voltage, much more free to play friendly. I think that, uh, you know, I'm like, if I played right now, I haven't missed a single rollover and I will unlock the card with plenty of time to spare, which is great. I don't care as much about the premium mystery variant. For me it's the card. I wanna be able to access that and I have been able to, and again, time to spare. So if you, if you missed a rollover here and there or whatever, you're gonna be okay. We needed that. No more of this kid, kid omega garbage. We need to have most that are fun to play and accessible. One thing I wanna say about high voltage that absolutely needs to go, and I did voice this opinion in the official creator discord, is they absolutely have to get rid of the win all three locations requirement, because I got that as my first mission on the onset of high voltage. Am I great? I'm only gonna do two missions like. For like days until I just incidentally unlocked this because although it's easier as a condition to get in high voltage, I basically had to play tribunal over and over again until eventually I just had a pop off. Right? And then I got it. But it's just annoying. And I think that if you're gonna be doing things, it turns a little time. Game modes. I think second dinner needs to be very fixated on player engagement, improving the experience and keeping people in their ecosystem and having garbage missions that discourage people from playing or are extremely frustrating. They counteract that. Uh, so massive win overall for me from high voltage and a, a miss still that they, on that note, like Quest as a whole have not been looked at in the longest time. Like Alliance, missions, alliances as a whole, the Daily missions. Those I could, I think could use some refinement. Yeah,

Cozy: 29:25

no, I agree with that. I think, again, it just goes back to what we were saying, just having it, uh, fun being the focus over like. Any form of sweat. I get it. Like, yeah, like winning all three, like yeah, you could do old draw on decks. You get light tribunal, I think was the most played deck in, uh, in high voltage, this se or this, uh, time around. But yeah, they definitely could just get a, just a look over all that. And it can't that is like bare bones, easy to just swap up, change up, get rid of maybe the lowest completion. Like they, they have the data for all that too that we don't even have that they could look at. Uh, good show.

Alex: 29:56

Yeah, for sure. Uh, but yeah, so overall high voltage, very happy with it. I believe later in the month they, they're doing another high voltage, but I think it's gonna be one of the shorter ones, like a weekend one with kind of toned down rewards. No extra card. I'm good with that. I think that's fine. Absolutely fine. So I'm, I'm glad to see that they're experimenting with the limited time game modes and now that they're starting to make more of like a roster of them, I'm happy to see them coming back. Although I would like to see the, um, the brand arena,

Cozy: 30:22

brand arena come

Alex: 30:23

back in, in some sort of reiterated form improvements.

Cozy: 30:27

Glad to see that they can add so much to that. That game out has a lot. Like high voltage, you can, obviously they've added the, the small differences there, but like grand Arena, they can always come back with something like bigger, different and really mix things up. And I think that one has the most growth to it for sure.

Alex: 30:42

Yeah, for sure. And you kind of alluded to it, we were talking about the top plate cards of the season and so we went to on top, we took a look at what the top plate cards of the season at each cost were. And a couple of these will surprise you. Some of them won't. Uh, some of them may be Nerf candidates, some of them, uh, may just outright shock you. So we're gonna be talking about them and why they may be the most plate cards and Cozy, I'll throw it out to you whether or not some of these need a nerfing, but top plates cards of the season. And this is post OTA. So most recent statistics at the number one cost. So at the one cost I should say, we have the hood running 14%. The hood is the most played one drop in Marvel Snap right now. Um, what are your thoughts on that?

Cozy: 31:26

I feel like the hood often finds itself back into that spot. Uh, you know, it there just when it came out, right? Think about when the game came out and what the hood was. There was n pretty much no way to get rid of it. Kind of. I mean, there was a couple of things you could do with it. Obviously the early Viper stage, even like I kill Maga before you play the demon, but like when it was released it made sense in the way that it worked. And like we're years out now and there's just so many ways to make the pro into a con and then you have just double or con into a pro and then you have double pros going for it. And so it often sneaks right back up into this spot. And I'm not surprised by what's ever due.

Alex: 32:08

There's a couple things that come to mind with the hood specifically. The first is that, um, I think it shows how much weaker one drops are compared to two drops. I think that the hood, while being an excellent card, fantastic card. Is not like, it's not leagues ahead of others. The way like Mr. Fantastic was as a two drop or the way surge is. Like, it's not like, you know what I mean? It's just, it's just not that. However it goes in almost anything. It goes in like bounce shells. It goes in shells that run vast agent venom. It, uh, you know, it goes, uh, currently in shells that are like trying to like basically clog the opponent much like you said with, uh, with Viper. But most importantly it's Merlin. Merlin allows you to target the hood with the Polymorph spell, giving you a two cost. And that's like what, exactly what you said. You take that negative turn into a positive and you're laughing.

Cozy: 33:01

Yeah. They just, you can't experiment too much with one cause. Right. Like, we saw them try to do that and then it ended up being Nico, uh Right. Or whatever. Like where it was like, okay, this is clearly, yeah. Oh yeah. Who only lived so so fast so far. Hydration ball player. But then you, like even the nebula that when that came, like there, there just isn't too much they could do there because of how cheap it is in the, the way the game, flows and goes. Like they can't get too unique with

Alex: 33:26

the abilities. I feel so bad for hydration, Bob, because I think one of the major problems for him is something that happens in Marvel Snap ad nauseum. It happened havoc in the last OTA. The worst thing you can do in Marvel Snap is fly too close to the sun. It doesn't matter what card you are. If you see absolutely no play, then all of a sudden people start playing you because some new card came out that all of a sudden made you viable. Like the way invisible woman first steps made havoc viable. It's not invisible woman first steps that gets nerfed. It's poor old havoc that gets his cheeks clapped because I don't know man. Because why? Why was it havoc that had to get nerfed?

Cozy: 34:00

We brought that up last Snapchat. I said you gotta be a seven out 10 in the game. And some comment was like, that is the damn truth. It is. You gotta ride your seven out, 10 being an eight outta 10, which can't be too good. That's why like in most games though, I avoid the meta or the top. Character player gun if it's Call of Duty because you just know, you know, it's not far away from getting nerfed.

Alex: 34:20

Yeah, no, for sure. On that note, I dunno if you played Battlefield Six was kind of cool. Yeah. Uh, maybe one. We'll talk about that. Closer to the release. At some point we gotta talk about like some other games too sometimes to the chagrin of others that are like, wait a minute, I thought this was a Moral Snap podcast. Uh, but anyways, number two, so cost two Cozy, you wanna take a guess? We actually brought it up during the Cosmic A Ghost Rider.

Cozy: 34:38

Yeah. Yeah. It's funny if, if he wasn't Nerfed, I was gonna say fantastic, but no surge. It's gotta be Surge. Most likely

Alex: 34:44

it's Surge. Oh yeah, it's Surge. Cozy got it's surge. 22% metas share according to untapped based, uh, statistics. Surge was a two two at release, got nerfed to a two one and its playwright has continued to the surprise of absolutely no one. For what it's worth, I love Surge. I think the card's a fantastic design. I don't wanna see it get nerfed to no oblivion. I actually, when people play search, I'm not even mad. There's waste to counter it. You, you can hit it with a red guardian on curve. I love the design, I thinks is a fantastic card and, um, but it's still running a 22% metas share, which might be high, but like, I don't, you can't do much more to it. Can you like, you know what I mean? Like, what do you do? You can't make, it's so funny when the card came out, you're, nobody

Cozy: 35:21

plays Snap like that though. And then like, she did single handedly change. A lot of the way you play, you play the game. Or at least you know, you, the risk versus reward system of it. This was just one of those home run releases. I feel like every now and then they hit one. That's just a, a huge home run. Had to tone down a little bit, but yeah, surge is awesome.

Alex: 35:38

Yeah.'cause it's a fun design. It feels fair. You can counter it with the likes of TripleM if you have to. There, ev there's nothing about Surge that's egregious. Like you can turn it off, you can deal with it. It's fun. It also has like the top deck side where it's like, you know, if you top deck stuff on curve, then all of a sudden it starts flowing good, but sometimes it doesn't help you as much as other times. Right? Like it, it feels like a very farewell designed card. So yeah, surge at 22% I don't think is, is as problematic. But here's the thing. Surge is only the top played card at the two slot in Marvel Snap because Cozy, do you wanna take a guess what the top plate three cost? It is just alluded to. It did. Snap

Cozy: 36:12

did. Yeah, it was gonna be the two, but now it's gonna just be the three. Mr. Fantastic.

Alex: 36:17

Mr. Fantastic. The original three one boom. Yeah, the original no f first steps Mr. Fantastic. 16% Medi-Share. And that is post Nerf. A significant Nerf, like we're talking a sizable Nerf man. Yeah. Going from a two to a three cost for a card that has an end of turn effect. It is a absolutely gargantuan Nerf. He's still seeing 16% play. He's still doing absolutely fine. He's still a good card. And it just makes me wonder like, damn. This card was really stupid at two. Wasn't it? Like really stupid. Yeah. That's when Kevin

Cozy: 36:47

Foggy made the call. He is like, Hey, this movie's coming out. Pump it up, gas it up. You know, who's the best hero right now in Rivals? Human Torch. Just saying. Right? So it's like, maybe this is a, maybe this is a higher conspiracy tin tinfoil hat moment. But yeah. I think the movie out of, uh, out of theaters in October watched there would just be like a mega Nerf in, in in October. October one. This card goes to shambles forecast.

Alex: 37:10

Can they even like Nerf it more forecast? Oh my gosh. I don't take away its identity completely. Yeah. They, they make it a five cost. It's a five three. No one plays it ever again. It's like him and pro, pro X or just chilling, crying. Dang sad day. Uh, I don't wanna do this. We talked about this card too. Four drops, which is the most popular four drop in the game. I did mention he was a bit of a necessity. Cozy. Do you wanna take a guess? Who the most popular four costed card in Marvel Snappers.

Cozy: 37:36

Mm. Jubilee.

Alex: 37:38

You are incorrect, sir. I can't manly you just, man, you're just joking around. Even though they uh, they got that creative host pocket jubilee that makes you wanna play it more often. Yeah. Right. Chung, Mr. Shung Chi, but he's, dude he is and he's been there since launch. I think it's Mr. Shaxi running a 25% Medi-Share. So I, I play this game all the time where like the, they don't have Shachi game where you just like play big chunks and just hope they don't get punched out into oblivion and they get punched out approximately 25% of the time. But it really, it's like one of those like 60% of the time it get punched out every time situations.'cause I feel like they always have shachi and I feel like it's one of those cards where like, if you're trying to make an offense, like when I'm crafting a deck for the fallen one or whatever, like I'm trying to do like the weak deck of, for like, uh, the new card of the week. I'm like, I cut hunchy for more greedy synergy options and then the deck is always better when I just cut something stupid and add Hunchy back. So, yeah, hun, she's been definitely clapping cheeks, but, uh, I, I mean, I said it before. I think he's important to the game. What are your thoughts on Hunchy as a whole?

Cozy: 38:36

Yeah, I agree. No, I, well, because again, it keeps people like you in check, right? Everyone would go for the greedy options and things would get outta control. And then eventually there'd be one greedy option that was found out. That would just be the one to run. And then, and then that would be it, right? So, yeah, he's, he's, he is ever important. And what it's been, we're on year three of the guy in the game. And, and you know what? I think it's, it's allowed the game has almost been balanced around him in a sense, right? In ways. So you can't

Alex: 39:03

get rid of him now. No, you can't. And, uh, moving him from a, like punching a nine cost to 10 cost was significant. That was a big nerve. Yeah. But like, you have Sge who makes him a three cost. You have Zbu who has maintained popularity, so like. There have been so many options and opportunities to keep Shanky viable despite that relatively modest Nerf, which was really a Nerf just'cause of power creep being so aggressive. Let's be honest with you, at the five cost Cozy, we talked about this one too. We already alluded to it. It's cannonball running 18%. Do you think cannonballs a Nerf candidate?

Cozy: 39:39

No, but well, yeah.'cause you said you think it's cannibal over mercury. I don't know. I wanna see what happens if, if you make mercury not be able to be moved, then you're really hurting that card a ton. But also it's a 2 0 5 and so I'd rather them do that than cannibal. Right. Unless they take it back to a five seven. But even then it's still doing the thing. It does so well. Right? Uh, I I said the

Alex: 40:00

opposite. I said Nerf Mercury keep cannibal. That's

Cozy: 40:03

what I think. Oh, you said that? Yeah, that's what I agree

Alex: 40:05

with that I said

Cozy: 40:05

that. Yeah. Yeah. A

Alex: 40:06

hundred percent. Okay. Yeah, I dunno, something has to happen. I think that he is at 18%. He is just too good. What if you change with six costs? Make'em the end of turn play. He's still the end of term play, but he's a five. So you people are sneaking stuff out like

Cozy: 40:20

demons and then they would give him higher power probably to compensate. I feel like we've seen these two card combos and they always fall, like they always get rid of him when it's just like dominant and it's for the most part, I mean I can't, I just, how long'cause it's been now, what a good amount of time that this has been wreaking half. Again, if you look at like, across just like top decks, you're gonna see tho those two, like, they don't like having two or even one card in like a ton of the top decks. And I mean it's pretty clear cut and obvious that they are,

Alex: 40:52

well one of the major challenges is, is that you can do, like, you literally can just like add fenris, hunchy and then cannonball mercury to any deck, anything, literally anything. And it's just a better deck now. Yeah. Pro X and, and Cannonball lasted all of like a month. Yeah, that was stupid. That was a really sad meta. That meta was as bad. Sad meta. Yeah, actually probably that meta was probably worse than the Spider-Man. Absorbing man meta where like, you literally couldn't play the game anymore. No. Like OG Spider-Man, you remember? No dude, you

Cozy: 41:22

literally couldn't play the, like No, there was no playing. What? That was pretty bad. But that, that, that was a special kind of bad, like that man for April Fools, they need to just have us play that for like a week. Just roll back the servers.

Alex: 41:38

They really needed to do those, like, those like, uh, like the X-Men events and stuff like that. Again, the unbalanced patches. That was such a great idea. Why don't they bring those back? Horrible marketing, pretty unbalanced

Cozy: 41:47

patches back. Horrible marketing name, but amazing idea. I think the un like the way that they would have to, uh, I think between that and the OTA, like, I don't know, maybe they thought casuals were gonna be too confused by it, but dude, those were fun. Like I feel like those brought some freshness. People didn't like about first, and then I think they really kind of, people really

Alex: 42:05

started to get used to it. What I don't like, and I still can't believe we're in the game of these featured and hot locations. Like I cannot believe that we still get hot locations in 2025. Like, is there, let me know in the comments, do you actually like hot locations? Of course you don't like, of course you don't like, there's no way, and I know there's like maybe three people that are gonna say they do, but you really don't. You think you do, but if they were gone, you'd be happy. I think

Cozy: 42:28

I'm convinced Ben bro just checks in every now and then he is like, how's the hot locations doing? You know, they still pumping. They're like, yeah, we still got'em in there. He is like, great. Alright guys. And then that, that's that, right? I, I, it's, it's all bro's fault. No, I, yeah, dude. We, but, but this has been, this has been the, the thing that's been talked about forever, that just they'll die. A game will die with H locations.

Alex: 42:50

Yeah, one of these days we'll have to go back to like a airing of Grievances episode where we just kind of just like beef with everything that's driving us nuts, like the bug where you still can't select the cost properly. Going to number six, would it surprise you Cozy, 70% of the Met Galactus First Steps. Now there's, this might be inflated slightly by the fact that obviously being the season pass card, you do get some rewards weekend missions wise for it. But I actually think he's aging. Okay. Dex have been okay with him. He's not obviously as incredible and as broken as something like the Mr. Fantastic First Steps was Butis First Steps I think is a fun card to play. I think it has good decks with it. It's bringing back some initiative based stuff like Negasonic. Oh, that's another card that goes with the Fenris Mercury. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Negasonic un ironically seeing a lot of play right now. Crazy. That's so funny. It's man. It's crazy to think that a card like Negasonic, which did get buffed by the way, remember how it used to destroy, solve multiple itself? Multiple, multiple times. Yeah. Like it got buffed and now it still saw no play until like another package comes out, other cards get released. Right. And to think that like Fenris and Negasonic and Gladiator and those cards have sat for so long, but then it was like the inclusion of Mercury. Then all of a sudden it's like, oh, why don't we just start slamming all these packages together and all of a sudden you got this insane cook. But anyways, have, uh, what are your thoughts on Galactus? Uh, first steps?

Cozy: 44:10

I thought it was gonna be a lie at Dr. Doom. I didn't know. Uh, I didn't think he, he would take this. Oh yeah. I don't know. I think he, does he ever get adjusted in any way? I don't know. I said this last time when we talked about him. I just think it's great that we've had Galactus who's just such a niche, niche deck, right. To then having such a iconic character. And actually the next topic we talk about are, are, uh, characters that this game has made us like. Love or just like more interested in, and Galactus was one of those for me. Like Galactus has always been such a big bad, and obviously, but like this game, like really even from like the start, maybe want to look into it more. So being able to play more like, cool. I enjoy that a lot. Maybe that's a good segue though, to go into it, but, uh, yeah, tho I mean, those being the top cards would, was Galactus up there on a hero that Snap made you fell in love with? So I don't know if you would characterize

Alex: 44:57

Galactus as a hero? Um, I, I heard Hero villain. I heard a suggestion that Life Bringer Galactus is specifically a hero. Um, and that's like a different, like an actual variant of Galactus. But anyway, that's, I, I really don't know. This is just me talking, but, um, in terms of heroes that I I, that this game made me love, man it's hard. First of all, Silver Surfer, I think. Like I didn't really understand Silver Surfer very well. And once Silver Surfer was released, I started to like try to look up some comics and figure out what, like, what a Herald of Galactus even was. And by like by association I started learning about Galactus and stuff. I thought that was really cool. Yeah. Um, I still haven't seen the new movie, but I know that, uh, Silver Surfer is featured prominently there, and I'm actually looking forward to it

Cozy: 45:40

for myself, dude. I think some like, I don't know, less, maybe not less known in some cases, like Agent Venom and whatnot, but, uh, like the story of age Agent Venom was really cool. Like Alga Moto, even like, we're like that the, like the prehistoric event, like that kind of stuff was really, even though it was super niche, I thought it was really interesting. It made me look into that more, if that makes sense. For sure though, like these heroes I knew or I liked maybe before or I didn't know too much, but I dipped into'em like way harder after Snap was like Angela Magic for sure loved magic, but this game really had me like dip into who Magic was and then Rivals has amplified that. Obviously, Jeff, we could both say Jeff very,

Alex: 46:18

very much. Oh yeah, Jeff for sure, man. Jeff, for sure. What I'll say with magic though, is I, I love magic too, but for me it was Midnight Sons. For with magic. Yeah. They did a good job, Nico as well. So like that, that's like, that's basically like a social stimulator for the most part. And I loved, uh, Nico Minoru and Magic in that. Like they were basically like whatever party I was doing, it was Nico, me and and magic nonstop. I don't care what, like, people were doing Tearless saying that those, those weren't as good. I'm like, don't care. Don't care. Those are my ladies, they're with me.

Cozy: 46:49

Do you feel like people hate Shung Chi more just by default? Like they see him on the screen and they're like, this guy's caused me so much pain.

Alex: 46:56

First of all, I actually, so the, I can't remember his name, the actor, he's Canadian. Um, he is a phenomenal actor like him a lot. Yeah. He was in, uh, he was in a production in Toronto, uh, where they, they did like, uh, like a little comedy series before he was shot and cheat, which is crazy'cause my wife and I actually watched that. Um, and then, uh, I think, I thought, by the way, Shachi probably an underappreciated movie in the mc. Very, yeah. That movie is so good. I don't think it ends as strong as some of the others, but like the bus scene and everything like that is absolutely crazy. Like, it's so good, man. And there's so like, oh man, I don't wanna spoil anything. But like, when he, like, there's like a moment where he fights his sensei in that, like when he goes to meet his sister. I don't know. It was so cool. I don't know. The whole movie's awesome. And it's like, it's so well choreographed. It goes well beyond anything else the MCU has ever done. So yeah, like, I, I don't think, I don't think Shun, she's been ruined. I can see why p it pisses people off, but I don't think so. One thing that really stood out to me though, here's a character that like I absolutely love and I, I didn't really pay attention to until I saw them in, like, I knew they existed, but I didn't know their name. And it was Ako. Ako was a character that I was aware of, but I didn't know their name. And like, and then when I saw, I don't even remember what movie it was, it was more one of the more recent ones. And, um, why Black Band? I, I. I think it was, uh, Wakanda forever, which she kinda gets in a little bit of trouble, I think. Because Princess Sheri, whatever, I don't wanna say anything, but with Akoi like the honor, that honor guard type role, like it is a, a character that I can't help but root for. Like she's one of my favorite characters in the MCU. Just'cause she is like, I'd like to say, man, if I could have anyone by my side, man, Ako wouldn't like absolutely just give anyone a beat down for you. You know what I mean? Like, talk about pure honor guard, man. I like it. It doesn't get much better than Ako Solid pick.

Cozy: 48:40

I, dude, mine is obvious now that I think about it more too. Dark Hawk. Dark Hawk was one of those I knew almost nothing about. And then like the, the rain that he had on this game for so long, you almost had to find out who he was. And then I remember, I think it was at Pax when I met you, I was doing like. Uh, interviews of like favorite heroes. And this one guy was like, uh, dark Hawk for sure. And I'm like, oh, you play Snap. He's like, I don't, no, not at all. I was like, oh, you're just like a tell me about it more. And that, that got me into him a bit more, even though his, his ability doesn't really like represent him well out a thing. But, uh, yeah, that was definitely one from the game,

Alex: 49:12

no question. Yeah. And I mean, there's so many, I mean, there's so many heroes and one of the things I've enjoyed is like watching Xmen 97 and be having like those neo uh, Leonard DiCaprio moments where like, you know what I mean? Where like something happens and you're like, I know that guy. Like SSON actually like disabling people's abilities in the show and in the, that's something that I think Snap has done really well. They actually tend to catch the cards for sure. Pretty thematically, right? There's some that don't make much sense. Like we still think like Scarlet Witch could, she makes sense.'cause like, oh, she's a little chaotic. She changes locations. She did exactly that in Wand Visions, stuff like that. But like, that's a great example. Dark Hawk makes no sense. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. But like some of them, they're just, they're really flavorful and well done. Sour one's exactly like that. Uh, I like how Kaza or Caza is a forecast and Zbu buffs him technically, even though you don't really play them like that. There's a lot of flavor like that, which I think is really cool. Do you have anyone else? I guess I didn't watch the Eternals until the Eternal season. And I, I was, I was pretty, I thought like Gilgamesh was an a what a do Gilgamesh in the MCU man. Oh, what an absolute Chad. Love him. But, uh, I thought that was, I was cool. Like, it was one of those situations where like, I was watching like the game footage, like in the trailer. I'm like, I gotta watch this movie, man. And then I wa I think someone told me that Broad's favorite movie's, the Eternals. Is that true? I, I think it was in the interview. You

Cozy: 50:37

didn't, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I was shocked by that. I remember it being like, oh, well it's good. It definitely gets unnecessary hate.

Alex: 50:43

Yeah, I, anyways, so anyways, yeah, like, I mean, if we had a list of heroes to like go through, like, I, I absolutely would continue to just pop off, but like, yeah, it's one of my favorite things has been being introduced to new heroes and stuff like that and, uh, having like a more just a core understanding of who they are and even like small things. Like I was, I was watching, um, like when it was, it is like a spoiler, but I was watching the new Captain America and when they introduced like Thaddeus Ross, I'm like, bro, I know where this movie are.

Cozy: 51:10

It's in the trailer. That's not a spoiler. It was in the trailer. I never saw the trailer. Oh, okay. That was in all the marketing too. Like it was unavoidable on the poster when you walk in. It was unavoidable.

Alex: 51:19

Okay. Which would've been a great reveal. Snap spoiled me

Cozy: 51:21

would've been a great reveal. I think. Squirrel Girl definitely is one of those two that I like, knew nothing about pretty much until I did.

Alex: 51:28

Yeah. Yeah. And, um, yeah I just, I guess white queen too. She did have the, uh, been 97 white queen made a comeback right. Oh, I, yeah. I didn't know much about I've, I've loved Emma Frost. Yeah.

Cozy: 51:41

For a long time.

Alex: 51:43

Really? Oh yeah. Hmm. See, for me, Emma Frost it, she, she occupies the same lean as Gina. Proud. More like my era of like World of Warcraft and stuff. Emma Frost and Gina proud more are like, you know what I mean? Do you know what I'm talking about? They seem like, yeah. That's

Cozy: 51:59

a fun poll. That's a fun poll. Okay. Okay. Childhood awakenings then essentially. Yeah. Essentially. Yeah. Snapchat mailbag, Alex, Mr. Alex, we, I'm sure got some interesting mailbag this time around. Walk us through, get us to

Alex: 52:12

question number one. Alright. Question number one comes as a packet of two. This is by far the most commented thing. Cyber SM says Alex and Cozy discussing Chinese food as peak content. Miss this for real. And I was followed up by the one and only Nina is new. Who said chicken balls? Really, Alex?

Cozy: 52:32

I didn't do a. Statistical tally, but I wanna say it was a 90 to 10 split that people, 90% were, what the hell were chicken balls? 10% were their sweet and sour chicken.

Alex: 52:45

I'm pretty sure they're officially called sweet and sour chicken. Uh, to me it's crazy that even with my description of them, you couldn't figure it out. Like you had no idea what the red sauce was. I still don't, I still don't know what you're talking about. That's this, this is more insane. The fact that you're still confused. It blows my mind like sweet sour chicken. I know

Cozy: 53:02

sweet and sour chicken, but like, that's not like a Yeah, like, I mean I get that with it's a one chicken. Chickens a piece of

Alex: 53:09

chicken in a battered ball. It's a chicken ball. No. See

Cozy: 53:12

I've never had that.

Alex: 53:14

Alright, well next time we get together we're gonna have chicken balls. Can't

Cozy: 53:17

wait. That was what did you say? They're actually

Alex: 53:20

great. I don't know what you're talking about. This is not like, this is not like a controversial like, oh, I'm making them. Eat. Like, this is why I think you grew

Cozy: 53:26

up in, in, in, in Candyland. Like, I don't know.'cause like you, you've never had a fish taco, but then like, it's like, oh, chicken balls. It's like, of course.

Alex: 53:34

Yeah.'cause I, I mean, when you go in Canada, at least in my area, like chicken balls and sweet and sour chicken is like very common man. It's common like top of the menu. Like you get there, it's like, man,

Cozy: 53:44

I want Chinese, I want chicken

Alex: 53:45

bowls. If I were to call a local, I, I could call every local Chinese place in Canada and say, yeah, can I get an order of chicken bowls? So like, yeah. Anything else? Unfazed un I I can almost guarantee it. They're not gonna be like, bro, you dumb. Like, they're just be like, oh yeah, yeah, no problem bro. When you think Mexican food, what do you think? Tacos?

Cozy: 54:04

Yeah. I don't know. I thought you're gonna pull some like, uh, like rice squares or, no, just right off the top of my head. Be squares or something. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair.

Alex: 54:11

I also guacamole you came to mind too, and I don't know if that's some fresh guac. Uh, no, that's, that's a solid big, I'm an enchilada guy. I don't know what enchilada is. Yeah.

Cozy: 54:21

Get outta here. I have no idea. I have no idea what that is. You're clearly lying, bro. This is for ga you, you, you are

Alex: 54:27

farming engagement right now. I, dude. Okay, so first of all, I, okay. I know for sure my, one of my best friends lives in la. You live in San Diego. I've been to both and I know that down there, like the Mexican culture and cuisine is like everywhere and you are fully immersed in it. And I even went to a taco truck enchiladas. Alex are, dude, I'm just saying in Canada we don't see as much. It's just not, if we're not even ordering Mexico, it's not,

Cozy: 54:51

it's not, it's in enchiladas are like such a common dish. I I, you know what a quesadilla is? It's a dish.

Alex: 54:58

I thought it was a sandwich. Do you know what a SI have no idea. Do you know what a quesadilla is? I thought honestly, I'm pic I think they're the same thing. I don't know. Isn't a quesadilla like an omelet? Do you ever get Mexican food? No. Almost never. It's just not prevalent up here. I don't know what to tell you. Like it's just not. We don't border Mexico. I just don't know how. You don't

Cozy: 55:20

know. I, you're my favorite human.

Alex: 55:24

All I'm saying is like, when, so when I was in Los Angeles, we were in, I think it's Santa Clara, I dunno, wherever the gym, uh, Arnold's gym was there. Gold's Gym. They're everywhere, but Yeah. Yeah, whatever the, the OG one, right? People were like working out on the beach and stuff. It's a specific beach in la. People go to Muscle Beach, they're like, oh, it's, I think it's called Muscle Beach. Yeah, there it is. So we were there and um, there was a taco truck there, and my buddy's like, these tacos are six. So we went up, we got the tacos, and they handed me, I was like, this isn't a taco. We're like, what is this? It's like, it, it was like totally d And they're like, no, that's like, those are real tacos. Like, that's like actual, like the bread. That is a real, not like Taco Bell Taco. This is a real proper taco. And the bread was like way smaller and it was like way more, I think it was more of like a corn. I don't know, man. I. Buddy. I'm just, people are gonna lose their minds. I, I've, I, I don't know. Maybe I need to indulge more. Max, you're lucky this is 58 minutes in,

Cozy: 56:17

because I am I'm blown away. I, this is, this might be up there on my list of, there's no way. Okay. I'm

Alex: 56:27

sorry,

Cozy: 56:27

man. I already we're talking about, like, I already know what the Snapchat mailbag is next week like there's no que like, it's gonna be pretty obvious. It's about the quesadilla or the, okay.

Alex: 56:36

Well, at least we know next time we get together, we have some content to record at the very age. Do you know queso,

Cozy: 56:40

fondle?

Alex: 56:42

I don't even know what you just said. What's the next question? Is that an, is that a person? Next question. Next

Cozy: 56:47

question.

Alex: 56:47

It

Cozy: 56:48

is a person.

Alex: 56:48

Oh yeah. Okay. Next question. From, uh, Santa Ma. Santa Ma channel, I think the way that Nama said, but anyway, says Cozy is having a second child soon. And here we are still at 20 D slots. Welcome back. Cozy.

Cozy: 57:00

That is something I, wow. If you would've asked me, dude, that would've been such a fun way to phrase it, when Snap was launched.'cause that was when my last one was born. You're like, Hey, by the time you have another kid, well there'll be more than 20 deck slots. I'd be like, absolutely. Sometimes you just get borders instead that you can pay for. Oh yeah, you gotta have those borders. You absolutely gotta have them. Got it. I, I can't believe how fast we got 20 deck slots and then just like never again. Kill the science. Cut the project.

Alex: 57:27

I know the technology does not exist. We got a couple more here. Quick Big Steve. Honestly, I know it's good to keep the game playable for all and let people know when you are unhappy and keep the depths humble. But I can't help but appreciate the game for how good it is compared to other free to play mobile games. We get unlimited energy to play. We don't have to wait for a recharge when unlocking a character. We don't have to level them up to use their skills or give them gear to level up or use a different currency. And the game doesn't make us watch ads or plate and berate us with paying for things unless you are in the shop. I get the hate and I think it's good to say these things, but I really love the game even with all its flaws. That's a 2023

Cozy: 58:07

take right there. Yeah. No, I, uh, I think the thing that's frustrating the most is, uh, that I disagree with a little bit of that and that what's frustrating is it, it is a great game. Like that's, yeah, that's the obvious. It is a very, very good game. It's the fact that it's a mobile game

Alex: 58:22

is what is the worst part about it. No question. We've said so many times where while we understand that Marvel Snap is a mobile game, it sh it's not, it should be better than that. I think mobile game territory comes with a specific expectation. And I think that Marvel Snap is beyond that. I think it's above that, and I think it should be above that. It's a better game than your average mobile game. It's mobile game of the year, on release and it for good reason. Right. And at that time, they hadn't monetized the way they have Now, if you take a look at the current climate around people's opinions on Marvel Snap, people say the same damn thing. Great game, terrible monetization, literally every single time. And it's unfortunate because they really do have the core of, of a beautiful thing here. And it's just, ah,

Cozy: 59:07

well the digital card market space is just so wide open. And I'm just if there's another strong, if, I don't know how much trademarked this game play is right outside of the snapping mechanic. Right. But you can, you can get really close to a gameplay. If someone made a game that was more free to play friendly, that was an ip, let's, I don't know, any big ip, it like Nintendo, let's say Nintendo made a card game with all the famous Nintendo characters and it played just like Snap and was snappy, like Snap maybe different thing than the cube thing. And it was free to play completely. I mean, that game would destroy this game. And that's what sinks Yeah, it would, they have an amazing game here. They have such a good game, but they, they, you don't wanna, you don't wanna Overwatch it when rivals came out, right, like Overwatch, like when rivals came out, they're like, oh my gosh, we gotta change everything. And like that. It's good to have competition. It's really good to have healthy competition. I think Pokemon Pocket was in a sense to the game. But yeah it, it's such a good, it's just, it is, it's a great ass game. This game is greatest game. It's just, at the end of the day, it's a mobile game and that's what's, uh, the bummer of it.

Alex: 1:00:13

Yeah. I, I absolutely agree. And, uh, yeah, I don't know. I still love it, for sure. Um, my engagement with it has been very much of like, I'm not forcing myself to grind. I play when I wanna play, I play to do the research, I play to test the cards. I do my job well, funny enough, like it

Cozy: 1:00:30

being a mobile game is what I love. Like in the sense of it being playable on mobile phone, and that's when I've been playing it even more. So it's the stuff that comes alongside mobile games, I guess is, yeah, if you not picking up what I'm putting now.

Alex: 1:00:43

Yeah, I hear you a hundred percent. And, uh, the last statement of the podcast here comes from Jack who says. As much as I loved Alex trying to explain Chinese food and then saying he loves orange chicken, which is literally made by the US chain Panda Express. The best moment was Alex telling Cozy it's not wham, and then goes to agree that it was George Michael who is the lead singer of Wham. I love you both. So glad you're back.

Cozy: 1:01:08

Just like the quesadilla and the enchilada. You just gotta let Alex gotta fly. Let him, let him peacock, right? Let him, let him, uh, you can't cage a bird that wants to fly and we just let Alex, you let him fly, baby. Not too high,

Alex: 1:01:22

but high enough. I appreciate that, Cozy. We need to end this podcast with a careless whisper. Thank you so much for watching, guys. We appreciate every one of you guys, and we'll see you on the next Snapchat episode.