Bastion's Potential Unlocked | Marvel Snap: Too Many Cards? | The Snap Chat Ep. 148

Will Bastion revolutionize Marvel Snap? Is the game releasing too many cards? Join Alexander Coccia and special guest ReZ Snapper as they chat about this and more on this episode of The Snap Chat and catch 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 Special Guest Announcement
• 1:39 ReZ Snapper's Journey and Inspirations
• 3:50 Marvel Snap Content Creation and Community
• 4:29 Food Review UK and Content Evolution
• 6:15 Chicken Balls and Cultural Differences
• 7:27 Card Preview: Bastion
• 10:08 Cerebro 3 and Deck Diversity
• 11:37 Ladder Grind and Meta Observations
• 18:54 Card Review: Viv Vision
• 26:01 Card Review: Sparky
• 31:20 Card Review: Moira X
• 37:35 Moira X: The Fun Factor
• 38:13 Dormammu Deck Frustrations
• 39:07 Omega Sentinel: An Underrated Card
• 43:19 Awesome Andy: A Disappointment?
• 47:26 Marvel Snap's Card Release Cadence
• 1:01:06 Snap Chat Mailbag: Viewer Questions

Transcript

Alex: 0:00

Hey everyone and welcome to the next edition of the Snapchat. I'm joined today by a very special guest, someone who I've been looking forward to having on the podcast for the longest time, long time supporter of the content, long time content creator in Marvel Snap, and one of the funniest guys in the scene Res snapper Res, my man. It is so good to have you on the podcast. Cozy is on assignment this week and we got res stepping on up. How are you my man?

Rez: 0:24

I am very, very well. Thank you very much for having me. This is honestly, such an honor to be here. Yeah, you, you guys have been a, a really big part of my life of enjoyment, of enjoying marble Snap alike listening to you guys even on holiday and stuff, and uh, yeah, it's very surreal to be here, but I'm very happy to be here.

Alex: 0:42

Well, we're happy to have you as well. And, uh, you know, you're one of the guys that I think that, uh, I have thoroughly enjoyed the content you've been making. Not only is this super informative, I think your formats are very good and if you guys are unfamiliar with Res, I'm gonna be leaving links everywhere, whether it's in description, in the pin comments, you're gonna find it. You gotta check'em out. And uh, dude, I think your content's fantastic, but like, you have like that X factor that I think makes YouTubers great, where it's like you have that entertainment factor, like, you know, you're doing a big breakdown, then all of a sudden you cut, you're like walking through the city and it's like, you know, you're like, I forgot about this one thing. And like, you've done that so many times, right? And I think that's so funny to me and it creates a lot of personality and I think you, like you ooze personality and I think that that is like one of the major secret sauces. On YouTube. And so, uh, I I'm just excited to have you buddy'cause I think you're by far one of the most talented Snap creators out there. And I think that, uh, we gotta pump this guy's subscriber number'cause he absolutely deserves it.

Rez: 1:36

I dunno what to say that, that is so kind of you to say all that. Thank you so much. And, and I actually want to say genuinely the personality side of things. You honestly inspired me to be more like myself on the channel. Like I did, I started my channel to just like when they announced Marvel Snap basically. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna get my foot in the door as soon as it launches. And then the beater didn't come to the UK so I was like, ah. Um, so I actually like cold turkeyed watching content and,'cause I just wanted to sort of learn the game and experience it when it launched in the uk. And so like I started making some videos, but I was like, I was hiding my personality quite a bit. Uh, and then I, I was watching you discover, discovered you and, and CO's content as well, and watching you guys and the Snapchat. And I was like, I wonder how much of my weird personality I can fit into these videos. And so I started teasing it a little bit. Uh, and then drew Bre, who used to do Snap or pass, uh, he stopped making content. And I, I was super cheeky to be honest, because I had never really spoken to him before. Absolutely loved his video series. And straight away, when he announced he was leaving, I was like, someone has to take this over this format and the visuals and everything like that. Someone has to do this. And I was like, I'm just gonna ask if he minds if I, if, if he minds if I do it. And he was such a gentleman, he said that I could take over. Uh, and then yeah, as, as, as I said, you, you've inspired me to sort of. Peel back the layers and start being more myself. So I'm, yeah I have you to thank for that as well. Well,

Alex: 3:07

that's fantastic. I, I sincerely appreciate that. And, uh, it's funny you bring up Drew Barry, fellow Canadian, by the way. Uh, drew Barry a little more north than me. Uh, however I remember that because on Drew Barry's like, I'm leaving video, he actually mentioned that the Snapper Pass series is going to continue because Res Snapper had reached out and said he'd like to continue it, which is wild, right? Like, it's so funny, even in his kind of, uh, his closing video there, he did mention that, uh, you had reached out and you guys had conversed about it. It was a, it is a great format overall. And it's also, those formats are difficult too. It's kind of like what we're doing here. Like, previewing things is so hard. Like it's so hard to preview things in a vacuum because sometimes when you get the card in your hand, like you see a whole other side to it, right? It's near, it's like so difficult. Actually on that note, you obviously listen. You are, I think, our first friend from the uk. Do you want to give the crew and the fans here a little bit of a breakdown of like who you are, where you're from? Because uh, I mean there's a lot of people saying that accent doesn't sound American. Yeah,

Rez: 4:02

that's right. So, yeah, I'm from the uk. I'm from, uh, I'm actually originally from a place called Bogner Regis, which is, that is the, a real name of a place, and that's where I'm from. I live in a, a town called Elsbury now, which is about an hour outside of London. Um, my content creation journey started in like 2006. That's when I started YouTube. Some channels that have long since been deleted due to some copyright strikes. Um, but, uh, yeah, they were fun. But, um, yeah, then, uh, my main success actually was from a channel called Food Review uk. Um, and that, that was what really I started loving creating YouTube from that point. And it, it was such a crazy story the way that channel, it's not that crazy, but I'll tell it anyway. So I was walking in the supermarket and I saw a Skittles milkshake on the shelf and I was like, oh, that sounds really weird. I wonder if that's any good. So I grabbed the bottle, opened YouTube search skills milkshake. No results. I was like, oh, there was results, but there wasn't like a review of the, of this product. And I was like, that's weird. I was like, it's weird that the main food review channel in the UK hasn't reviewed it. So I searched Food Review UK and I was like, uh, and it was like, no results again. I was like, there is a, a like a snack review channel in the uk. So I went home, made a logo, filmed a review, and then that was it. And so, yeah, that, that channel got quite successful. Not many people watch it now, but I still enjoy making content on it. And yet I've just loved making videos since then. So Marvel Snap I'd always wanted a digital Marvel card game. Like if you look a little bit around my room, you'll see a lot of Marvel stuff. Like I'm a huge Marvel fan, huge card game fan. So when, when it was announced, I was just like, oh, this is, yeah I, I can't not make content for this'cause I'm so passionate about doing those things.

Alex: 5:48

That's awesome. And I will say, is that on your food review channel, which I'll link as well. You guys got check it out. Uh, you reviewed chicken balls. Yeah. It's so

Rez: 5:56

funny, I was in, I think I was in your stream the other day, right? And I was like, I'm, I was like, I'm gonna review them. But because I set out that channel in like 2013, uh, there's like 5,000 videos or something. There is so many things that I've forgotten I'd done. And I had a look on there'cause I was like, I did actually do a Chinese takeaway series. I found the review. I was like, oh, I've already done them. But yeah, chicken bulls totally a thing. Like they are totally real. In fact, one step further than that, in the UK I would say they're probably the most popular item that people get from the Chinese takeaway in the, I dunno how similar your version is, but in the UK they're basically chunks of chicken breast covered in a very thick batter, which means the batter towards the inside is very fluffy and almost like a, almost like a pancake. And then the exterior is very, very crispy. And then you get a separate pot of sweet and sour sauce, which depending on. The type of restaurant you're going to will either be like brown or even like fluorescent neon orange, usually like that.

Alex: 6:57

I know it's, dude, that's exactly my experience as well. We get like the fluorescent, like orange red ones and uh, they're all like, my kids love chicken balls, man. And when I said that, people were like, bro, what's this guy talking about? And admittedly, as I mentioned last week, I actually had the privilege of having dinner, uh, with the development team from China and they actually watched the podcast and they're like, what were these chicken balls you guys were talking about? We need, I showed them a picture. They're like, yeah that's not Chinese food. Like that. You guys made that up. Like that's not on us. But uh, on

Rez: 7:25

That's so good. They're brilliant.

Alex: 7:27

Yeah, it is. But uh, dude, we got a lot to talk about today and uh, I want to tap into some of your knowledge, your previewing skills of cards.'cause we have a card. That's coming out this week, and it is Bastion. Bastion is coming out this week. It is a four three that reads on reveal. Add copies of your other cards here to your hand. Set their cost to two and their powers to three res. I'll give you the floor here. What are your, what's your general Star rating here on Bastion for, uh, for everyone else? Cozy and I, in our preview, I gave Bastion a three to potentially a 3.5 Cozy came in at four stars. We do a one to five star rating here. So Res, I'll put you on the floor here. What do you think about Bastion?

Rez: 8:10

I think he is absolutely awesome. In fact, I think he's so good that I've been getting heat on my channel. People are saying that I'm coping and stuff. I think I gave him five stars. Um, actually love him. I think there's huge potential for him. I think the kinds of things that you can do with him, I don't think they're even that dissimilar from like Moira X, which obviously we'll get onto Moira X later, but. I've been having a lot of fun with her as a spoiler preview for later. But yeah, and just the more I was thinking about it, all these kinds of cards were coming to mind that work well with him. Like I was thinking about ongoing stuff, maybe like an antman or even like some anti-venom stuff. Like you play anti-Venom iv, uh, you get your zero costed card on five, play that alongside whatever else you've played in the Bain location, and then you're like double dipping on potentially a very powerful card. So there's that sort of stuff like Discard might like him with, even if you, again, don't play him a little bit off curve, like a Dracula could be really strong bullseye Victoria hand and just the more I was thinking, so many synergies. So I really like him.

Alex: 9:19

That's fair. I mean, the superpower is probably making something that's like a forecast. Like a two point, a two and a three. Like it's wild how much versatility you can guys, like in the case of Dracula, like you said, you play Dracula in turn four, you bastion turn five. Right now it's a two cost. And are you able to drop your hand? Like is there an opportunity for you to, you won't be able to modoc at that point, but could you play the two three with like a Corvus? Is that enough to clean up your hand and just hit apocalypse or whatever? If you've been discarding pretty consistently we also have the Redshift now who's in it? So maybe you can start to target cards more effectively. You know, you're hitting things with Sword Master and you're hitting things with Redshift. You're hitting things with, you know, I mean you got this opportunity to actually chunk away at your hand to set up those types of plays. Right. Could be potentially fascinating. Where I am seeing a lot of potential as well, which I think is the place where a lot of people are gonna go with it, is going to be C3. C3 has already seen a bit of a resurgence thanks to Omega Sentinel, who we'll talk about later. But Omega Sentinel added a big infusion of interest into C3 and Bastion very naturally and even on curve can be played in that archetype, which is likely to be extremely beneficial for that archetype as a whole. Because right now we see a ton of C two so res, do you think that C3 could potentially see more play with the inclusion of Bastion?

Rez: 10:40

Yeah, a hundred percent. I think it's actually one of the main ones that I, I also didn't mention, but um, yeah, the, it, I really like the almost kind of insurance that it gives you as well.'cause often with C3, obviously you are playing your cerebral on the final turn most often anyway. Partly from avoiding it from being comfortable or you try and drop priority as much as possible. Partly from just leaving that question open for your opponent as to whether you've even drawn it. But this, at least it gives you the ability to double dip and that extra insurance if it does get disrupted. So I really like those elements. And also the fact that it then becomes a two cost card and also gets its power set to three as well. So it's basically ticking all the boxes that you would wanna do with Cerebro. So I think, I think this could make cerebral three go absolutely neonic not. The card megas, so as in it could get really good. But Al also Mega Sentinel has been brilliant for it this week as well. So, yeah, cerebral players are eating good.

Alex: 11:37

I felt like for the last little while, a major effort from the Marvel Snap team has been to try to make more archetypes of viable, and I, I actually appreciate that, like when I'm on the ladder, which honestly I don't, I. I, you probably share the sentiment. I think everyone does. One of the most common comments I'm getting lately has been the grind towards infinite. The grinding on the ladder has been far worse this season. They've definitely amped up the bots, like there's no question about it. And even when I was looking at like UNT tap based stats pre infinite, everything, the stats are way down, like way down compared to what they used to be like. It was very regular that we would have like that first week just sorting by cube rate. You'd have multiple decks with like hundreds of games played in the like one and plus cube rates. This week there was only a single one and the rest were like literally point, two tenths of a cube down lower than they were two months ago. And we even saw a little bit of that last month. And so as a result, I think that like. What you're seeing is not only is the play more competitive and the grind is more intense, but if you're playing the same decks over and over again, like people are gonna get frustrated and sick of it. One of the things that I've noticed, although the grind in rank has been significantly more intense, what you're seeing is a more variety of decks. I like the fact that Redshift has made Agatha a legitimate deck and now you're even seeing Agatha hella variations and that's great. Like, yeah, you, you can have an opinion about hella, but what I'm trying to say is, is like that's a deck I'm seeing and then I see a, you know, Surfer deck. Then I see a vision Surfer deck, maybe a second time in a row, but then, then I see something else. I see some end of turn, which I mean is kind of cringe, but at the same time, at least I'm not seeing it every game. There is more diversity into these archetypes and you can see a clear effort on second dinner's part to try to infuse archetypes that need help with more power. I mean, heck, it was. Cerebral was a meme up until a couple months back, right? Like, let's be honest, the major changes they've made to cerebral, they, they made him a two cost, now he's a three cost. Now he's doing plus three. And plus three has always been a superpower in Marvel Snap. But when you look at Bastion, I feel like it is trying to provide a massive tool for me. Two major archetypes to see more often. The first is gonna be C3, we see C two, we don't see C3. And the other is, I think Victoria Hand, who is seeing some testing right now. Honestly, Victoria hand's not bad and it's always been on the cusp of being great. But I guess res what I wanna ask is, do you think Bastion could be a card and one of the missing pieces that the Victoria hand shells have been looking for?

Rez: 14:06

Oh, definitely. I think Victoria Hand is, I, I love Victoria Hand. She's actually, she might even just be my favorite card in the game because I've always been a shield player. I don't. Typically play like full blown meta decks. I usually play a bit off meta. Uh, I like doing janky stuff. I like doing weird stuff. So, being a massive fan of shield decks, she was very much like the miss, or certainly at first she was a missing link for them. I think a traditional shield deck these days still doesn't quite feel powerful enough. You're spending a lot of time and, and resources actually getting out the card generators and then it is not always the biggest payoff to have just those generated cards with Victoria hand. But the types of decks that Victoria Hand is now able to fit into is brilliant. I love like the, kind of like the. The decks that focus on the hood stuff and getting loads of demons. Uh, I've been having a lot of fun with Moira X this week and being able to duplicate her, uh, and even just with I Mirage has even come back into the meta as well, which is really cool to see.'cause I, I loved her when she came out as well. So yeah. And, and I really love that it seems like cards are getting a, like we're getting cards with very specific, almost niche text now. Like Redshift is, is quite a niche card in a way'cause he is discarding discarding a card and then generating one as well. So it can easily fit into sort of like. Almost like a hybrid shield discard deck as well, which kind of was almost there with a heli carrier sort of style. So yeah, I really like the way that card design has gone and that it is getting more niche, more specific, which ultimately leads to more archetypes being able to compete. Yeah,

Alex: 15:46

that's true. And that's likely, probably indicative of the fact they've released so many cards in the game now. And if you're gonna continue to release 11 cards a season or whatever, which is a topic for this podcast later on eventually, like there's only so many catchall cards. Like there's only so many two threes that do plus ones, right? Like there's only so much design space for stuff like that. So I think that part of it is you have to get more niche, right? Yeah. Um, Marvel Snap's not the type of game that can do reprints the way magic gathering does. Like how many Soul Rings does a magic gathering player have, right? Like, you don't really do that here. Each card has to stand on its own, well, at the same time trying to compete in a 12 card shell. So that's one of the design challenges we have. Like, there's cards that legit see no play. Like there are cards that I can mention to you that you might forget exist in Marvel Snap, just because they're not able to make a 12 card list. So yeah, the niche down. And with that being said, those niches become like. Increasingly powerful because like Redshift for instance, like Redshift and Agatha was such a key synergy that it elevated that archetype well beyond whatever it was capable of. And it's kind of crazy to think about that because you could release a card and resurrect an entire archetype with that card. Yeah. Um, a good example of this too was like with Serer, you had Serer. It was way too powerful Launch, like Laughably launched like, I have no idea why it launched the way it did. And then you had Star Brand come out to try to give a little bit of extra love to that. And Star Brand was fine, but it still didn't do enough for that archetype and it took reworking sour on. Sauron being reworked and all of a sudden Star brand was like a sought after card because,'cause Serer started popping the hell off. Right? So it's pretty interesting to see how like infusions of power can happen with cards like this. It's also worth noting back to Bastion. You can copy things like Victoria. You can also copy things like Quinjet, right? Mm-hmm. Quinjet so good. Yeah, exactly right? And so you're able to do a lot of stuff and put down a lot of power fast. And um, it makes me wonder, like I tried to do some Mad Thinker stuff. Mad Thinker feels like a terrible card. I wanna throw something out here. Anybody that's playing Mad Thinker. First of all, if you have a deck that works, I'd like to see it commented down below. But I would like to see perhaps if a good buff to Mad Thinker.'cause I actually tried, especially with Mo Ax, his car was awful. And I think that if it gained the power while it was in your hand, like if it was like employer in hand. Kinda like a Red Hulk or something. It would make more sense if you're seeing it, get the plus two power while you're holding it in your hand, even with Moira X type stuff would be cool. But, uh, I think the bastion could do really well for the archetypes. So you're coming in at five stars? That's high. Yeah, I, I'm like three, 3.5.

Rez: 18:18

Yeah. I think I like it. Like I say, I'm, I'm borderline getting bullied by my viewers on it. Uh, I feel like I've overcooked a bit, but hey, I'm a man of fault.

Alex: 18:27

Listen, sometimes the, uh, the most fun is, uh, believing in something when other peoples don't believe and then all of a sudden that card pops off. And who's the genius? You're the genius. Red Snapper called it first. That Bastion was gonna be insane. We're gonna cut to the new cards that came out this past week. Do a quick review of'em there. And, uh, I think there's some really important stuff we gotta talk about because in their own right, I think all three cards have been very fascinating. Let's start with Viv Vision. Viv Vision is the three two that reads at the start of each turn. Give all cards in your hand plus one power if you're winning here. Otherwise, move this to another location res, I'll give it to you. What has your experience been with, uh, with Viv Vision for context? Cozy and I both came in as this card being our, our five star of the month, and I'll give you my thoughts on our ratings after I give you the floor here.

Rez: 19:21

Yeah, I think that was a very fair decision. I think she is very good. Just the ability alone to be able to give all cards in your hand. Uh, plus one power multiple times can be in the right deck. Like when you see that shore tick up or you know, it hits that brood and, you know, that's basically plus three feels really powerful. Really like the ability that she will move and try and seek out a, a different location if she can't win at the one she's at. That's really cool. And yeah, it's, again, it's kind of a niche card'cause it's like mixing like some potential move stuff. So I've played decks with like hydro stomper and, uh, the, the synergy of Silk and Bero Bero the Be Yes. Yeah. That I, I love that like,'cause he'll kind of follow her, which reinforces that you're gonna win that location. So that feels really good. And yeah, I like, again, I'm just like a very cop player. Like, I'll try and cope with like a weird auto move deck with like topaz and stuff in. So, uh, yeah, I've really enjoyed her playing her and actually I've been playing Surfer more than I ever have before because of this card. So, yeah, I think she's really, really good.

Alex: 20:29

This card has definitely slotted into Surfer. It does not appear to be working as well in some of the buff decks as I expected it to be honest with you. Uh, it's been a very clean card for Surfer. Now on aggregate, according to untapped from ranked 70 to a hundred, right now we're looking at a win rate of 54.3% positive cube rate in a popularity of 16%. Those are all good numbers, but they're not phenomenal numbers especially. Well, it's tricky too because as I mentioned prior, the bots are way more ruthless than they used to be. Uh, we still have some throw robots here and there, but I think the bots are really bringing in the numbers quite a bit.'cause we used to have season pass cards running 58% win rates, 59% win rates in that first week. And it wasn't until we got the purely infinite stats that we had a better indication of how they were playing on aggregate. Now you're looking at the revision running a 54% win rate bot stats included, but like. The card has been good and it's had popoff potential, but it has not seemed nearly as powerful as I expected it to. To me, I feel like I was off at five stars. It feels like a solid four star card, don't get me wrong. But five stars often reserved for those cars that really knock it out of the park. And I was expecting bigger things. It was maybe prudent to them to go from a three three to a three two, but at the same time, I wonder if they, I don't wanna say they buff this car.'cause it does. I don't think it needs a buff, but I wonder how, how meta relevant it's going to remain. Because what you're banking on right now, you're banking on Surfer decks that as a whole have been very good Surfer decks that have an, that they had been receiving infusions of power specifically with like. You have the, um, the human torch First Steps, which is a great Silver Surfer card that can get well over 10 power easily. And then you have Viv Vision pumping Sebastian Shaw, your pumping brood, your pumping Captain Carter, like everything in that deck wants it. However, in my experimentation with the Buff decks, like with you, when you have the Mr. Sinisters and you have broods, like that stuff works, but she doesn't quite seem to be as good there. Yeah. So I'd be interested in your thoughts. Do you think that she is gonna strictly find a home in Surfer or do you think that as the season goes on she's gonna continue being tested in other archetypes and, and can perhaps exceed the Silver Surfer stats somewhere else?

Rez: 22:45

Yeah, I think I agree with you. Definitely Silver Surfer is, is the main home for her. And I, I also have tried her in like a more traditional buff deck and they, I think that the thing that kind of let her down a little bit, there was just her raw power being two kind of. It's kind of low tempo and you're already in when you are playing cars like FAOs. And if you are playing a coer, which I do because I cope a lot you, you kind of, you need more than that. So she's not really, shouldn't feel like she's adding that much. You're not consistently winning as easily as you are in Silver Surfer, which can get the wheels in motion a bit more quickly and start running away with cards, like, especially with like Red Guardian and stuff. So yeah. Um, I think she definitely feels surprisingly not broken for a season pass card. You usually, like, I'm surprised they knocked her power uh, a piece of power, one point of power off of her before she launched. So yeah. But, but I do still think she's really good. And so any card that is as good as this, that even if. You are not necessarily getting a huge synergistic benefit from her in different decks. I think she might still be able to be good, just because getting plus one tool cards in your hand is generically good, especially in a deck where you might be playing all of those cards out. So you're getting, you're extracting all of that value from Has like maybe like something like a hand dump deck, something like that. Maybe there's an opportunity for her there.

Alex: 24:10

Yeah. Like basically the idea of like Sebastian Shaw double dipping on that effect. Uh, brew, triple dipping on the effect. Right. Um, it definitely goes off and it's, it's, it feels like power creep on a Kia for the most part. Right. Oh, rip. Yeah, I know Candle. It's kind of crazy. One thing I'll say though is it, to me it just felt like the movement side of VI vision has felt nearly irrelevant. Like I have not felt that in my time with VI Vision, which is pretty extensive thus far. It hasn't felt like that move mechanic has really served much purpose for me. Yes, you can move to another location and perhaps contest that and try to get the additional power. It's a nice little addition to the card, but I'm not convinced it adds power to the card. You mentioned Batra, but like, I don't think this actually plays in a move Shell, right? Uh, you can try to do some cute stuff with it, but I like, I doubt it'll be ever be the optimal way to do it. And so I've been. I've had games where, for instance, like she will move into a alter of death or something. That's pretty cool.'cause then they can't really contest there effectively. And there are gonna be locations that where you can take advantage of that. But I don't see the movement as a power generating opportunity. Right. Which I think is one of the challenges with the vi with vision.'cause half of her text doesn't seem like it's actually contributing to her power right now. So we'll have to see if new cars change that or whatever. So yeah, I'm, I'm, I would say that my five star rating is probably, uh, on the high mark. Given that, what do you feel like you would star this, having the chance to play it and, uh, retrospectively, like what would you give at Star wise? I think she's a

Rez: 25:38

followed, uh, uh, she's a followed saw, a followed, so, no, she's a solid. So, um, she, like, even if her main deck is only gonna be Surfer for the time being, I think she's still really, really good and like, good enough in that. To be a four star card. And I think she is broad enough that there is a future for her. Maybe it just hasn't been figured out yet.

Alex: 26:00

That's absolutely fair. And that'll take us to the next card here, uh, which, uh, is going to be Sparky. Sparky, the Doggo. And, um, a couple things. First of all, I've noticed, uh, I've noticed a lot of Sparky variants and I feel like, uh, a lot of people playing Sparky did buy the super premium season pass, which unlocked the base card. So, uh, I mean, that is one avenue. It was added to the Snap packs as well, but as a series five, not a series four. So that was something Cozy and I discussed last week. So Sparky, there's so Cozy, and I came in at, uh, I came in at four Stars. He came in at 3.5. And I gotta tell you, do you know what Sparky taught me this week? I just don't wanna play a move. Like, I don't wanna sound like a clown, but like I just don't wanna play move. Like I was testing Sparky, I played a couple rounds with'em and stuff like that. I'm like, I honestly, I don't wanna play this. Like, I'd rather play Omega Sentinel. Like I'm not, it's just one of those things, right? Like statistically turning at 53.4% win rate, but only a 3% popularity according to Ontap a statistics. Now I think that that win rate is gonna be lower than expected because people that like get the card and wanna test it, they're gonna play move some optimally. Like it's just gonna be one of those things where people aren't playing move to the greatest efficiency. And then the people that really do play move, they're the ones that gonna get the human torches to like, 300 power and stuff like that. Like they're gonna figure that stuff out, right? But for me, Sparky, although I think this card is likely a good card and a legitimate inclusion in move decks it's just not for me. It's just not for me. So I'd be curious about your thoughts on Sparky, your thoughts in the super premium season past it's changed that they made and just overall like, are you a move aficionado.

Rez: 27:39

First of all, yes, super. I, I really like what they've done with the super premium pass in, in that, making it series five, well, I guess a series five. I, I'm, I don't really mind about being a series five too much. Maybe it increases the amount of series five, which I maybe like less. But I, I at least like that they now give you a variant and thus it unlocks the base card as well. So that's cool. The card itself, this is definitely the card from the, all the injection that we had at the start of the season. This is the card that I've played the least. I played it like a handful of times, and I pretty much agree with you. Like, it's just move man. It, it's just, I generally don't want to spend. 10 hours figuring out my turn. And that's what move makes you do. And that's really good for the players who are like a super high level and want to do all those complicated calculations and, and figure it out. And that can definitely be fun. But yeah, it's, it's too much for me. Uh, one thing that I don't, I, I do think he's strong though. I do think he's strong. And I think the, like the stuff that you can do with human torch is ridiculous and that works really well. And just in general, we always see that any plus three is really good. I think the interesting element is that it's a card that has to, it's a, you are targeting a card that has moved, which is interesting.'cause in games where I have played it, I'm like I'm almost playing him down early and not even having moved things. I've also run into problems with Ro Lippa with him where like, Bero is kind of stealing, I, I'm moving something. And then Behr is, is is like catapulting over and then stealing that power that Spark has given. I'm like, oh, I kind of hope that was going to the Hume torch. So yeah, there's that. And I don't really like, I, I don't like the one power on a body, like that's something that's staying blocking it. Like in move you want room and this is a one power that's blocking one space. I don't like that element of him either. So yeah I do think he's good, but he's not for me.

Alex: 29:32

Yeah. So basically we, we kind of agree there. Now, star rating wise, like what would you rate it from one to five star rating?

Rez: 29:37

I think I'd probably go three. I'm sure that move players would, would probably give it higher, but I would go three.

Alex: 29:44

How would you compare this card, Sparky to Fantastic Car on release Silver Surfer, first Steps on Release, and Sparky, how would you rank those three?

Rez: 29:53

Uh, I would go Fantastic Car Sparky and there's Silver Surfer on release, however. Silver Surfer First Steps is moving up my rankings. Now she's a three five as well. I think that's really significant and I've been having a hell of a lot of fun with her. Do doing like iron patriot and I have been playing her in the Surfer deck, actually, like getting down an early Surfer to like duplicate that. So, as a Silver Surfer, Norin Rad, whatever his name is. Hang on. What's his name? Marvel. Wasn't the encyclopedia. Doug Jones. That's it. No. Did you actually pull

Alex: 30:28

directly to the page? How'd you manage to do that so fast? Do do

Rez: 30:31

you know what? I didn't, but actually in my Bastion video when I was, in fact it wasn't even on video, so I've got no proof of this. I could just be lying actually, I will just lie. I'll say it happens every time, every single time I do that, I get the right page without fail. Really when I, when I was preparing it for the Bastion video, I did get it to right page and I thought, wow, I've gotta do the lotto today. Yeah, I can't remember what we were talking about. I'm sorry,

Alex: 30:53

we were talking about Sparky. Uh, but yeah, Sparky, uh, his, his win rate's kind of middling right now. You are seeing some decks, finding success with him. Obviously move decks, so if it's not move, you don't wanna play move. This is largely probably a card that you can skip with confidence a little. Unfortunately, they brought it to a series five, would've liked to see that a series remain series four, but still enter the Snap packs. But I don't, uh, I don't do the finances at second dinner. I think, uh, that much is to be said. The next card will discuss here enough

Rez: 31:20

ma mustache to, yeah, exactly.

Alex: 31:23

The next card we'll discuss here is going to be Moira X. Now, okay, you look like you want to talk Moira X here. Now what I will say is that Cozy and I were skeptical, and I'm so happy when I'm wrong. I came in, I started at two stars, and then I ended up at three Stars Cozy. Agreed. Here's the thing, I think I love this card, not just do I think, is it a, it's a good card. It's running a 55% win rate, 6% popularity right now according to one tap, but this card is an absolute showcase of design and I think whoever at second dinner, a thought of this card B design the card and its animations and the team that did they need kudos because this card is by far one of the best designs they've done in a long time. Just the way it comes up, the effect that it has, the effect in the hand, you could tell this was a very high effort release and I certainly appreciate that. So kudos to the dev team for legitimately making a card that's not only incredibly fun to play, but has an an incredibly unique design as a whole. They knocked this one outta the park.

Rez: 32:39

Yeah, you might need to get that sense of bleep ready.'cause I'm about to drop one of the most explosive words you've ever heard. I think she's bloody fantastic. No, I thought, I think she's, she, she or she was a massive surprise to me as well. I thought she was gonna be good, but I thought she was gonna be more like one of the cute cards. Like, oh yeah, it's cool that you could do fun stuff about, I think I gave her three stars in my Snap or pass video. Oh. Absolutely. Biggest surprise. Out of all of these cards that came out, like you said, oh my God, the animation is incredible, the way those cards float around her. Amazing. And just what you can do with her, the fact that she's, she's worked and found success in proper just normal, destroy. Brilliant. But I've been sticking her at anything to be honest. So I've been doing, I've, I've, I, um, actually shout to Harry Perry Snap. If you're not, if you, if I, I dunno if a guest could even shout out another channel. Actually, this is unc. This is Uns and this is unbecoming of me, but, uh, Harry Perry Snap. He actually did a video about a deck that I posted a short about, which is like Dakin Ducken. I dressed up as him. I should know how to pronounce his name. But D Ducken friger is got like Nico Minoru. So you've got basically like three ways to copy dark and you've also got Victoria hand uh, and like venom and carnage and stuff. So you can do things like, uh, it's also got modoc in as well, just as like if you do get multiple Dins cooking, you do literally have just the modoc line that you can follow. Uh, but if you don't and you, you've maybe got one or two din, you can play the mirror master ard out, which gets plus two from a hand, which you might already ha have out. And then Venom that convert that power. And so it does all stuff like that. It's got Prodigy in in as well, which is you of course. And so Prodigy can copy darken. And whilst he's not darkened so he doesn't get doubled in power, he does at least generate a shard. And I think that's led to me having some eight cube wins because I had this one game where, um, I think my, my opponent took a lot of time on the final turn, then they snapped me back and I was like, I think they've count miscounted and missed aad. And then it, their turn was crazy as well. They were doing like Nimrod stuff, but I outpaced them by like one double. And yeah, I've been doing another deck which has got like more traditional shield stuff. I fricking love her.

Alex: 35:03

Alright, res, you just brought up Prodigy and that's hilarious. Do you guys want to see what res sent me? Just outta the blue. I'm minding my own business. Prodigy release is happening and this comes into my inbox. Guys, I'm not making this up. This, this is what re snapper is doing on his spare time.

Rez: 35:23

I can't even tell you how long this took. Even like, because like you had, you had the lights in your background. I, which I think perfectly matched like the energy and the power colors, but then they also weren't strong enough. So I like created like a couple of different layers of, you painted you orange and then like, made sure you were like, had some like highlights from that side. Did the blue bear, I had to extend your glasses.'cause the glasses are properly shaped, which meant I had to do the background. Yeah. And I was like, well, I've started so I, I'm gonna finish. So red snapper, while

Alex: 35:55

everyone else is making content, grinding new videos for Prodigy spends 12 hours on Photoshop just so he can send this to me. Not even like send it publicly, just to me. Just be like, yo, look what I did for no reason.

Rez: 36:06

I actually, I have, I have used it in a couple of videos, like I think I've put it on like a random deck, like not, not referenced it and then had comments going like, wait a minute. 13 minutes in, was that Alex?

Alex: 36:19

Oh, I gotta do that next time. Pros in the deck. You guys gotta keep your eyes before I'm gonna sneak this bad boy into it for sure. Um, anyways, I think that's so funny, dude. I had to show that. And uh, honestly, this goes to showcase just how good you are at, uh, at Photoshop as well.'cause it's not, it's not easy to produce something like that. Uh, but yeah. Anyways, I don't remember what we were talking about. Moira X. We should go back to Moira here. I love this card. I think it's phenomenal. Mm-hmm. For me, this is an absolute get card and I think that it's beneficial too because if you're relatively new to Snap and you have a low collection level, you can make such an inexpensive version of Destroy. Yeah. Where like X 23 somehow is still series four and I guess you are often using like Nico Minoru, but if you're gonna spend any money in the game and like splurge on a series five, like Nico is like one of the safest choices you can make. Like Nico is such a badass card. Like you can, even if you're like 3000 collection level, if you're gonna go like, I want a Series five card, like I think Moira is one of those cards that you could very easily get and then carry in a destroy shell and it's like all gold backed destroy cards. Like you can just play destroy until you block out every single day with Moira. And she is so fun and destroy because she can copy like deaths and she can get multiple venoms and like, it's just so good. It's, I don't know, man. I love this card so much. I don't even care if it's performing well. I had so much fun playing this card that I just can't help but recommend it.

Rez: 37:43

Yeah, I totally agree. And it's, it, it's kind of almost like you said though, it's the fun element as well. Like it's an even more fun version of Destroy because kind of every game is a little bit different stack in those venoms as well. Like I had a game with, I think it was cloning VATS with, I had like Moira and Venom. So by, by the end of the game I just had my only cards out was a venom in each location. Just a ma, absolutely massive venom. And I was just like this is too fun. She's too, she is insanely fun.

Alex: 38:13

Yeah. And one thing I will say is I tried her in, uh, Dormammu. And I found it frustrating and I almost wish this text had read when This is Destroyed, get a copy of the characters in your opening hand.'cause getting the additional deramus skills, it stuffed your hand and it just messed everything up. And I think that Deramus has always been close to being a relatively good way to play Destroyed. Like I, I don't think it's that far off. Like it's just not, it's not the best way to play Destroy, but it's not that far off. And Moira X could have been the infusion of power Dormammu needed. And it just isn't that because you, you're occupying way too much hand. You're not drawing cards. I even tried Mad Thinker in a Dormammu deck with Moira. I'm like, my hand's full anyway. But that stupid piece of crap just sucks. Way too bad. Couldn't even play it there. So that's just one thing I wanna say. But overall, Moira X what an absolute beauty card. I love it. Chef's Kiss. I agree. Absolutely. And that's gonna bring us to our next card, which is. Omega Sentinel. Currently, according to one tap running a 52.3% win rate and a very low popularity of 2.3. It's not being played much and I gotta tell you, I think people are sleeping on this card. I actually really like this card too. I, I like Moer X better. I think Moer X is a better card. However, I think that if you believe that the four three Omega Sentinel is not a good card, I think that you are incorrect. This is a very strong card. Its ability impacts, the entire board can be used in a way where like you can stack your activate with like other forms of like toxic or affliction to try to like target specific cards.'cause you can be like, okay, well I don't need this. You know, I don't need there. I don't know, fallen one to go down too much. And I, you can play something like a US agent there, drop the fallen one right down, then activate the sentinel and hit a different location. You could kind of control where she goes to some extent, which is kind of cool. Uh, but yeah, I have really enjoyed my play with this card. It's a four three and others can say, well, why would you just negative seven a card where you can punch it out with Shachi? That's fair. But this applies to the entire board. Shachi can whiff Shachi is su uh, susceptible to initiative and this car just doesn't really care that much about that stuff. I think Omega sentinel's fantastic. I think it's being slept on and I think it's an excellent series four release.

Rez: 40:30

Yep, I completely agree. In fact, the only reason I've not played her that much, I have played her more than Sparky. Uh, the only reason that I have played her so little is because I'm just literally having too much fun with Moyer X, but I think Omega Sentinel is absolutely fascinating as well. I think there's a hidden benefit to her that people are possibly underestimating in that if me as a player, if I see my opponent player, mega Sentinel, that's making my head tumble in an absolute fizz because I'm like, okay, what do I actually do? The fact that she doesn't necessarily hit the same location that she's at, that is, it just makes things, it makes the calculations for your opponents so difficult and makes her spend more time. And that means they might make mistakes. And then it's the fact that all of her power is in the Activ ability. She's just a, she's just a three power, which is good for Cerebro another cerebral card but also gives her the opportunity to be manipulated with transform cards, so CSI or Merlin. Um, yeah, so I think that element is really interesting to her as well. And. Sh I think she's gonna be crazy when Jocasta come or Jo Casta, however she come. Yeah, that's gonna be absolutely nuts because I know that we're talking about future, we literally talking about two weeks, two or three weeks time now. But I have to mention it because you pop her, you pop, you pop her off with Jocasta hitting the currently highest power card, and then when you trigger her again, that is probably gonna be a completely different card. So you are, you are attacking mul, potentially multiple locations. Um, yeah, I think she's so interesting and so good.

Alex: 42:06

Yeah, I was just gonna say the same thing. I believe it's Joe Costa. I said, yo Costa last week you did. That's. Yeah. And that's what, that's what set me off. I was like, man, to say that, that, uh, engaged the comment section would be an understatement. If you want to, if you're a YouTuber and you like to engage the comment section, just say people's names wrong and you'll be constantly cry. Everyone's super cool about it, but yeah, apparently is Joe Costa. And apparently it is also a very common mythology name that I should have been aware of, which I was not. So

Rez: 42:34

No, it's a Marvel character. A Marvel character fast. I don't care what any historians say, they run that.

Alex: 42:38

That's right. That's right. Just like the Eternals. I'm like, bro, I feel like I've seen all these guys before somewhere. I'm like, you know, Thena, I'm like, aren't you in, in, uh, oh man, I can't remember. What's it called from Super Giant. That amazing game. Where you go, your ha Oh, it's called Hades. I was gonna say, your Hades your Haes son. It's Hades and uh, Hades is such a fantastic game. Damnit such a good game. Yeah. Don't even get me started on Silk song. I didn't even play the original hall night and I had been playing Silk Song and I was like, okay, I gotta see what all the fuss is about. Okay. I understand the fuss. This is such a beautifully, well-crafted game. So yeah, I'm only a couple hours into Silk Song. I haven't had much time, but, uh, that game seems incredible. I might, I might have to post a video about something like that in the future. I don't know. Good. I I play so many games. Yeah, I watched that. Now admittedly, let's talk about awesome Andy here, who I was deeming ass hat Andy. Admittedly I've not played him. This is the one card that I just didn't have enough time to play So res. If you've had opportunities to play, awesome, Andy let me know. But I can tell you that no one cares about this card. It is running a 51% win rate at a 1% popularity. No one gives a hoot about awesome, Andy. I was thinking about putting him in like a CLIA deck or something like that. But ultimately I just, I ran outta time. There's so many Kurds being released in this first week and uh, I only have so much time in the day. I didn't get around to playing O Mandy, especially when I'm having so much fun with Moira. So much fun with Omega Sentinel. I just screw awesome Mandy. I didn't play him.

Rez: 43:57

Yeah, that that's fair. That's fair. Poor Andy. But also, I mean, look him, we can't respect anyone with a chalkboard and piece of chalk in their hand, right?

Alex: 44:05

No, we can't. Anybody holding chalk like the prodigy can't be respected.

Rez: 44:10

You can't respect those kinds of people. No. I actually like also Mandy, because I really, really, really like the Atlantis style. Sorry. Literally I love them so much. I can't remember what they're called. Like Atlantis style decks with Nour and stuff. I really love that and I love Frankie Renova who came out recently, absolutely. Sick card. I put my fire border on her. And you did the video on, on her, right? Yeah. And the meme Snap channel. I did, yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah, she's awesome. And so yeah, I've slotted awesome. Andy in there played a little bit with it. And he definitely cer certainly doesn't feel bad. He certainly doesn't feel bad. Uh, the thing that I really like about him,'cause,'cause he's like vaguely similar to like Ironheart, which I play in those decks. I like doing like the Odin version and I like Kari stuff in there. In fact, with the Kari stuff I do, like, I have like a little, a little flash of, um, some kooky stuff in there. So I do like snow guard to like refill your hand for the kaori stuff. Uh, and also like agent Corson as well, just an as another way to fill your hand for that and to give you a bit of unpredictability. But the crucial thing about Awesome Andy, is that he does give you some reliability that you don't necessarily get from Iron Ironheart. Like, you know where the power is going and you're going to ideally put one card in each of those other, other locations so that also Andy specifically targets them. That is the best thing about him, that, that feels really good, that element of him. That being said. Yeah, we've just had Herbie, we've just had Frankie Ray over, so the, the like, the two cost spot in those like Noura style decks is already pretty stacked. So he definitely, ah, he kind of feels redundant.'cause I, I like playing Frankie Ray and Herbie in those decks, probably more than, than Arthur, Mandy. And ultimately, if he doesn't work in those decks there's less opportunity for him. I think so. I he's fine though. I don't think he's bad

Alex: 46:00

for me. I mean, o Mandy's an example of a card that just didn't have to get released. Like that's kind of what I see. Yeah. Like this card was so unnecessary this season. And not only do I think it's the weakest part of the season, like I, I don't think it's even that good. I don't really, I'm not like, I, listen, I have coped with Nomex and that's exactly where I went when I was playing Frankie Renova. Right. And, uh, yeah. Awesome man. I just don't feel it. Like, I just don't see it. I don't feel it. Yeah. Ass hat. Andy will remain an ass hat because I just think that this card is not good enough. And if it finds itself in a deck, then that's cool. Like I, with that being said, I don't think people have tested yet. Like we haven't seen enough cooking with it. 1% per uh, play rate. The win rate means nothing. A 1%. Like who, like nothing really matters, but you are seeing 1% bought, inflated at a 51% win rate. If they want to buff this card, they will. They can. And uh, even if, just to kind of generate some interest in it, if it's like a two, two, theoretically it is putting some legit stats on the board. It isn't activate. And in this case, I don't know if activating is that much of a superpower.'cause sometimes activate can allow you to like, for instance, Sparky activates a superpower because you can create a stack where it creates an effect where you have like this chain happening os Mandy doesn't really chain anything, right. It doesn't really need to be inactivate. So anyways, that's just my take on os Mandy, but again, I've not played the card, so that is just my opinion on it. My friend what that's gonna do, it's gonna take us to our next conversation, which just like with os Mandy, where I suggested that perhaps this card didn't need to be released. One of the things that I think is frustrating people the most about Marvel Snap is the release cadence of the cards. We're seeing upwards of 11 cards being released per season. We do have one being released in the form of the game mode, which is, which is fine. And it looks as though, especially based on the last high voltage and stuff, that they've kind of eased off of the requirements of the game mode slightly, especially in comparison to the, uh, the Kiddo Omega fiasco, which was literally one of the worst possible decisions that could have ever made and legit sent people en masse out the door of Marvel Snap. And we have the stats to prove that res. I have to ask you, is Marvel Snap releasing too many cards?

Rez: 48:07

So I am someone who makes in-depth. Analysis videos for every new card that comes to the game. So when they used to release five, or I think it was like six on a, on a five week month, I think we'd get six cards. That was like, it was pretty doable. Like it is quite a lot of work to make the kinds of videos I make, there's a lot of like research and theory crafting and creating graphics and stuff. And then I'm, I'm this stupid idiot who makes more work for myself. So I do stupid memes where I'm like, I think I've got one. I can't remember if it's gone up yet, but there's spoilers for anyone who watches my videos. But I've made a joke soon where I'm sponsored by Pringles. I'm just, just for lawyers. I'm not, I'm not sponsored by Pringles, but I do stuff like that, which creates more work for me because I make more graphics. But that's not their fault, that's my fault. But going from five or six cards a season to 10. 11, 12, hang on. Yeah, there was like 11 there, there was 11 cards This season it's it's basically unmanageable for the kind of content that I make. Like I have a full-time job as well, so I'm doing it like before work and in lunch breaks and at the weekend and stuff. Uh, and so it's like, I literally have to be like, okay, I don't think I can keep this up. So I have to think about am I gonna consolidate? So like, am I gonna do like the series four releases that they do during the season? Am I gonna do that all in one video? But then how do I address all the things that people wanna hear about and stuff. So there's that element. And also I think that that's, obviously, that's a me problem, but that's, that's my perspective on that. However, the thing that is an A me problem is I think that the, one of the unique selling points of Marvel Snap was kind of is, but certainly was that. Every card is impactful, every card is meaningful. It's not like Magic. The gathering, which releases six, seven sets a year or whatever they do, which are like 250 card sets, which is like the slightly similar in most card games, especially traditional card games. And half, half the set will be filler or most of it will be bulk or whatever. With Marvel Snap, each card usually feels like it's doing a specific role. And that's really good. And also when they're coming out as infrequently as they were, every card gets the spotlight and gets like people playing it and stuff. With this past week where we just got, what, 4, 4, 5 cards at once, no single card is getting enough attention. It doesn't give us time to theory craft. Literally, both of us throughout this video has been saying, oh, I haven't replayed this card because, well, partly because we've been playing Moira X nonstop, but. Uh, but you know, you know what I'm saying. So yes, I think they're releasing too many cards and I would actually prefer that they take this back a little bit to give us all, some breathing time.

Alex: 50:56

It's not just the release cadence, right? Because we used to have one card per week, and then what they did was they added one card plus the season pass card. The season pass card used to stand on its own, and then they added a card to that week as well. And what that did was it made it that people that were just buying the season pass, were now no longer able to generate enough resources to remain collection complete. Now you have two paid series five cards. You have one series, five card a week, and a plethora of series four cards being released throughout the month, one of which is going to be a Deadpools Diner card. It's simply too much. I've been giving a lot of thought to this. While I've had conversations like, people that listen to the pod would know that, like Dara for instance was someone who had said that, that they like the idea of having more cards that keeps the meta afresh. And I agree. That is cool. I like the idea of cards that keep the meta afresh. But like what you just said, like, I didn't play awesome, Mandy, I didn't have time to play awesome Mandy. Like, that card just didn't need to come out. It didn't need to be a landmine in the series packs for Omega Sentinel and the other kind of good stuff. Right. And the, the cards this month are actually well designed. Like I wish more people had the resources to experience Moira X because if you did, maybe you would not leave Marvel Snap all together. And that's part of the challenge. I think that one of the things, and I've been really thinking a lot about this. First of all, this has one of the easiest fixes imaginable. And while I admittedly I'll say that I'm obviously a content creator, I'm not a monetization expert at second dinner or in the game industry. But also, I'm just gonna say they're kinda screwing it up a little bit. So maybe they should listen to who's not a monetization expert. It's too many damn cards. And if you think about what the major problems of Snap, the major problem is, is that they've not fixed the collection track since the introduction of it. Ever since they changed, they made collectors reserves and all that stuff and they made the tokens and they took the gold out and all that stuff. They've never touched the collection track. And that is something that every single player who plays Marvel Snap engages with on a frequent basis. If you're gonna release 11 more cards or whatever, you're gonna release 11 cards per season. Why aren't you increasing the rate of token acquisition in the collection track? If you're gonna change the way the acquisition system works, why aren't you changing the way the players acquire the means to acquire the cards? It doesn't make sense. And so I thought about this, it keeps me up at night. Why does it keep me up at night? Because viewership's down to about 33% of what it used to be, right? And again, that's like an US problem, but. It's also a you problem playing the game because part of my thought, and this is maybe the cynical side, is why are the butts getting so much better? Why? I think one of the things that, this is tinfoil hat stuff here. If they make the bots indistinguishable from players and increase the competitive nature of the bots, therefore players playing will not be able to see their individual matches as an indication of the health of the game. If the old bots were present and you were able to play and you match against fourth robots after another, you'd be able to surmise that there are less play people playing Marvel Snap. The matchmaking has to get wider, that it's not finding players, so it's feeding you bots. If they make the bots more indistinguishable from individual players, they're able to mask the exodus of players to some degree behind the bots that seem more capable. Again, tinfoil hat. I think that something needs to be done about the collection track. It is a relic of the original Marvel Snap design. It makes no sense that it has remained the way it is today. All this time, if you think that releasing more cards is going to benefit the game and benefit the enjoyment factor of the players playing the game. You need to increase the opportunities for players to actually get the cards to enjoy it. Because I'll tell you right now, they're not enjoying watching me play cards that they can't acquire. So something needs to be done.

Rez: 54:52

Yeah, I completely agree. Uh, as you touched on a little bit there, but like the, the viewer viewership of my channel is absolutely plummeted. Like the, the season pass video analysis videos that I did, uh, used to be like one of the more popular ones that I would release each month. But the Viv Vision one was like a quarter of what the normal views are, which it's a real shame to see like, especially as it's indicative of the player base actually shrinking. But I'm sure you do as well. I get comments from people saying that they have literally left the game because there's, they now can't keep up How for how long? Were players saying that the main problem in the game was the card acquisition. They came along earlier this year and said, oh, we fixed it. Here's Snap packs. And like they removed the spotlights and stuff. And yeah, at first it probably did feel better, but now we're at the point where they've literally doubled or more than doubled the number of cards that they're releasing into the game whilst keeping the same system. So it's like with the, the updated system at least. But it's a system that was built fixing the old problems. And so now we are literally back in, uh, possibly even a worse position than when we were already in where people can't keep up, they don't, aren't generating enough resources. And I'm seeing it more and more frequently, even from other content creators who are now saying, oh, well yeah, I've now run out of tokens, so I'm not getting every cards, I'm not getting half the cards and stuff. So, ha. Yeah, it's not a good situation and it's just gonna push more and more people away. So yeah. It again, and it, it's really frustrating that we're back into, so quickly we're back into the position where it's like, oh, we, there's problems with stuff like Character Mastery and the filters we've wanted to add, like activate and all the other abilities they've added for so long. There's so many things, so many quality of life updates that there could be. And it feels like we are creating more problems than, and, and we're still not getting the fixes to, to longstanding problems. So, yeah, it's frustrating.

Alex: 56:46

One of the things I thought about is why would second dinner do this, right? You have the new era of Snap, they're no longer with new verse. And sometimes you wonder like, was new verse, keeping the reins on them, like was new verse kind of reigning them in a little bit. Like who knows? But one thing I will say is that. Have a okay if you have a large dead, like even on Twitter, you see stuff. A lot of the developers in second dinner are from magic, right? And they bring a lot of skill. You're seeing a lot of the design in the cards being fantastic, right? However, I don't think, and this is just again, tinfoil had on Alex here one of the goals of Snap for a lot of players is to be collection complete. And it's been a pain point. However, I don't see the same drive for magic. The gathering players to be collection complete. It's simply not necessarily attainable. Even if you buy a bunch of boxes, it doesn't work that way. You buy it to buy like 15 boxes to get collection complete and still fill holes in your, your, uh, your collection. So I had this thought, what if they thought to fix card acquisition instead of improving it? If they make being collection complete, such a runaway impossible dream that people were to give up on it. That, that would solve the card acquisition problem.'cause people would not expect to be collection complete anymore. They would be happy with just getting, oh, I'll just get more wrecks this month, even though a bunch of other stuff is being released. I had that thought. I had the thought of was it a factor that so many people wanted to have access to every card and if they made it such a runaway impossibility that it was no longer an option and people just gave up on that dream and it wasn't even a dream anymore and not even a pipe dream. It was just, it was just impossible. It wasn't realistic. The way I'm not gonna be collection complete in riff bound. I'm not be collection complete in magic gathering. It's just not feasible. I'll buy a commander deck, I'll do that and I'll play with what I have. I had that thought, so I'd be interested in your thoughts on that.

Rez: 58:32

Yeah, that is very interesting. I hadn't thought of that. I mean, they, they have openly said that they don't, they don't, is have they said they don't want people to be collection complete or the, or they don't want it to be like a, a necessarily achievable goal. But the fact that you've framed it as that, as it's literally impossible and something that can't even. They can't even achieve. I hadn't thought of that. And yeah, that's, again, it's just, it's sort of the, the game that Marvel Snap is, the cards all have their own purpose. It's not like you don't have the level of specificity, sorry, I have to say that word very slowly because otherwise I'll say you don't have the level of specificity that you do have on Magic. The gathering cards where it's like, oh monkey Warrior of the Clouds, he's a legendary monkey cloud rider. So you don't have that in Marble Snap. And we don't have tribes at all in Marble Snap one. Maybe we would like them by the way. But yeah, you don't have that level. So the cards, they all do something. They all do something specific. And so that is why people want a full collection.'Cause missing when you miss one crucial card from a deck, that is kind of devastating in Snap when you start like missing a couple, it can block you out from an entire archetype. Hmm. Yeah. I like, I'm not a, not a, um, conspiracy theorist, but you could be onto something.

Alex: 59:50

Yeah. Potentially. And I it's a win-win, right? People forget about the dream of being collection complete and also the people that wanna really be collection complete, damn. They gonna whale, they gonna whale. Right? And so it's a win-win, uh, from that perspective. And I guess the thing I wanna leave, uh, this topic with was, based on my experience thus far, is people are leaving fast. Mm-hmm. And something needs to be done before it's too late. Yeah.'cause it already feels like it might be too late. And this is a game that I love and every single person that I engage with is incredibly positive. They love the game and it's been the monetization of the game, which has been such a repeated pain point. Even at Pax, I had the privilege of meeting so many people, both at the meetup, but even people on the Saturday that couldn't come to the meetup on the Friday.'cause that Saturday tickets and I was walking around with decks and we were at the show floor and people stopped us. A bunch of people stopped us. The number of people that said. Hey, you're the guy from Snap. I used to play that game, but it's way too expensive. Or I fell behind'cause I took like a month off and now I just, I just don't know what to do. It's insane. You have an audience of probably millions of people that would love to get back in the game, but it is literally impossible. It's just impossible. And when you pair that with the active turning away of players who currently play the game, you have a recipe for disaster. The writing's on the wall and that's gonna take us to our Snapchat mailbag. And uh, there is quite a few questions based on last week. Now, a lot of them were roasting me for not knowing a bunch of stuff.'cause Cozy, I Cozy gaslit me like 15 times on that pod. Like, I, I can't, yeah, I can't believe I fall for this crap, man. Dude, it was brutal. And wrestling Wrestle Ranger comes in and says Claw and Nebula do not have any kids together. Man. It's not my fault Res you got, you got something. Oh, go into the encyclopedia.

Rez: 1:01:39

Let's see. I've got the right page. No. Yeah, they're both, they both have hand stuff. It literally just says they're both Oh, they're both into hand stuff. Coke and the Monitor. Yeah. No children though. Yeah. Sorry about that.

Alex: 1:01:54

Yeah, no problem. So, yeah, so yeah, I just thought that Claw and Nebula looked identical to what Omega Sentinel did, and, uh, Cozy sold it, man. He sold it. Yeah. He's like, yeah, they have kids together. Chad's gonna let us know what their other kids' names are. Like. He sold it so good straight face. Mm-hmm. Like, I actually believed him. Yeah. So, wrestler Ranger Cozy got me on that one. Hundo PI accept defeat on that one. Absolute Chad gameplay from Cozy there. Astral Ragtime says, and oh, it's a bastion comment. So res I'll give you the floor on the, on the answer here. Astral says bastion's power isn't just in the power of reducing costs, but just that you ha can inevitably play those cards again. I can see him getting a lot of play in a huge variety of decks, dropping him on top of a Captain America, a human torch for steps, venom, Goliath, Mobius, or hell on swarm to set up an even bigger modoc or bullseye heck, even Ashan Chi or Red Guardian to drop again. He's got a lot of spice for sure is just a little obscured.

Rez: 1:02:59

Yep. I completely agree.'Cause literally when I was doing my analysis, I was looking at the cars and I was like, okay, like I normally feature like a handful of synergies, maybe up to like six cards of synergies with this card. I just couldn't stop. So I think I put like 12 Synergy cards, but I was like, and that's. Scratching That's just scratching the surface. Yeah, I just, I just think there's so many cards that you'd wanna do, like hit monkey, like in in, in just like a random yes, I appreciate Bastion is a forecast card, so you wouldn't necessarily be playing a hit monkey and having it get the actual ability trigger off. But then you crucially then have a two three hit monkey, which it like also lets you double dip on that. You might be playing a hit monkey in a similar deck as Sage. Again, it's just another card that you definitely want a two three of. You're going from zero power with three costs to two, three. So the double dipping the king of double dipping. Yeah.

Alex: 1:03:51

It looks like it has a ton of potential. And that's even discounting the potential for zal decks. Mm-hmm. Where you get'em with three costs or something like that and maybe sneak'em into little tighter lines. Magic Ironman like magic, like you want additional limbos.

Rez: 1:04:05

Yeah. So if you magic on Three Iron Man on Five, bastion on six. Seven. Oh, I thought you meant you want

Alex: 1:04:13

copy magic. Like you wanted more magics if Yeah. If you want, I guess.

Rez: 1:04:18

Yeah. Li limbo.

Alex: 1:04:19

Limbos got a limbo. That's true. I, I mean there was a time, there was a time when I was playing, uh, I can't bring it up again. There was a time when I was playing she not kang decks and um, I would actually legion the, uh, the limbo to prevent people from getting rid of it. Yeah. Because it was incredibly common to legion other stuff to get rid of it. So going into turn five with initiative, I would legion the limbo. Then they would legion and just re legion my limbos, if that makes any sense. Jacob, Kelvin comes in with the final question of the day. Because it's in reference to Alpha Flight.'cause Dapper Dave got me that on the bus, which I, I went to start reading actually a couple nights ago and realized that like it's an actual physical book. This might sound dumb, but like I didn't have an appropriate light at bedside to read it, so I have to invest. I've been trying to keep an eye at Costco for like bedside table lights and stuff like that because I only shop at Costco. Obviously it's, it's funny too, actually, I'll mention I was in a Call of Duty tournament and they even made reference to me being a Costco fanatic. I'm like, how did Call of Duty know this? Like, it's so literally the Call of Duty announcers shouted out the fact they're like,'cause I was like running around in the game. They're like, this guy's running around like, uh, like he's in the Costco. Alex is a huge fan of Costco. We're like, I'm like, how does this guy even know this? Like, this is crazy. Right? Really? They did their research and apparently they typed in my name and Costco came up. So during the week. Last week, sorry. I had the opportunity to meet Glen at Pax and I showed the omnibus that Dapper Dave gave me. And as I joked last in the prior week with Cozy Glen said, gotta release 10 cards a season. Can you name 10 alpha flight characters right now? And I was stuck. So Jacob, Calvin comes in, here's the 10 alpha flight characters for a season. Number one, guardian number two, north star number three, Aurora number four, puck number five, snowbird. Number six, shaman. Number seven, guardian. Eight is vindicator, nine is box, and 10 is taliman. Now one thing I'll say, and I don't have a con confirmation of this, I'm almost positive and someone in the the comments can let me know. And this is like one of those things, you know, when like Marvel, like you look at some of the older stuff, you're like, come on bro, this is the best you guys can come up with. Like, they're so inventive today and the comics are so good, but some of the older stuff like really goes off the rails. I'm almost positive. There is an alpha flight Canadian superhero called major maple syrup. Do you wanna look in your encyclopedia? Pull the encyclopedia? Yeah, let's,

Rez: 1:06:47

uh, you wanna actually look this guy up? There's an index. It would be a shame not to use it. Major. I've looked major maple syrup. I'm pretty hot on Marvel knowledge. I've got an encyclopedia. Did you know? But I've never heard of major maple syrup. And we got, oh, we've got Major Domo, major Victor. I'm not seeing major maple syrup. I'm sorry, did I just

Alex: 1:07:10

invent this in my head? Do I have a dream about this?

Rez: 1:07:13

You are Canadian. That's all you drink, right? Is that

Alex: 1:07:17

Yeah, that's all we drink. We don't have water

Rez: 1:07:18

up here.

Alex: 1:07:19

We actually, that's not true. We, we eat the snow and it eventually becomes water, but if we can just drink maple syrup, that's fine.

Rez: 1:07:25

Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Yeah, I've never heard of it. But I have to say though, I saw, I would be stunned if they weren't already planning like an alpha flight season. They must have talked about it. Like the, like it feels like the country stuff, Canada, great Britain, like the, uh, mi like Captain Britain and the MI 13, which is an absolutely awesome series. Like, uh, it delves into like gothic horror and stuff. Really cool. Uh, like surely they've gotta be doing that stuff. Alpha Flight. Alpha flight is absolutely huge for them not to be doing, alpha Flight might not be

Alex: 1:07:59

huge though. I don't know, like

Rez: 1:08:00

it's, oh, I listen, Wolverine is in Alpha Flight. There is no way that they do not wanna print another Wolverine. It's true. It's true. Is Wait, is Deadpool Alpha flight to you or No? He's Canadian though, right? He's Canadian, yeah. I don't think, I don't, I don't think he's been an alpha flight, but Wolverine certainly is, and they could do that, I dunno what they call him, like Wol, maybe Maple syrup.

Alex: 1:08:22

Wolverine. It's possible. It's possible. Guys, once again, I wanna say thank you so much to Rez for coming here today. As you can see, this dude is an absolute bastion. You see what I did there of just love and hilarity. This guy is truly one of a kind down below in the common section. I'm gonna have links to his stuff, including the food channel, and I'm gonna link the chicken ball video because you gotta watch it. Dude, thank you so much for being here. I sincerely appreciate it. Thank

Rez: 1:08:47

you for having me. It's honestly been an, an honor. I think I said it when we were off air, but you guys have been such a massive part of my Marvel Snap journey. Like it's, it is very rare. That I've had a, like a YouTube video or series that I specifically look forward to every week that I, I'm like, oh yes, it's Monday or Tuesday or whenever it comes. I'm like, oh, yes, it's coming. It's like, it's, it's Snapchat day. There's literally been a couple of YouTube videos like that, so it kind of almost brings me back to a nostalgic time of waiting for a TV show to come on and stuff. So, like one of my mates gets really excited when it's on as well. So, uh, yeah. Thank you to both of you for everything that you do for the community and, uh, yeah, this has been a true honor, so thank you.

Alex: 1:09:27

No. Well, thank you for joining us this week, and as I said before, guys, all of Rez is info's gonna be down below in the pin comment and the description. You gotta follow him because he's one of a kind. Thank you for joining us this week and we'll see you on the next one.