Headpool Steals The Show | Collection Complete vs. Cosmetics | The Snap Chat Ep. 153

 Is the new Headpool card secretly the best of the season?  Why is Zombie Scarlet Witch and the Horde mechanic underperforming so badly?  Should you focus on a Complete Collection or spend your resources on Cosmetics? Join Alex Coccia and special guest  Harry Perry 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
• 0:10 Harry Perry's Journey to the Podcast
• 1:09 Marvel Snap and Content Creation
• 3:16 Discussion on Marvel Snap Cards and Strategies
• 6:21 Zombie Mr. Fantastic and the Horde Mechanic
• 12:37 Zombie Scarlet Witch and Deck Performance
• 26:58 Colonel America and Discard Decks
• 32:52 Zombie Power Man: Game Winning or Game Losing?
• 33:22 Colonel America vs. Zombie Power Man
• 33:38 Challenges of Playing Zombie Power Man
• 34:24 Zombie Power Man Strategies and Combos
• 36:37 HeadPool: Initial Doubts and Surprising Performance
• 37:57 HeadPool's Impact on Destroy Decks
• 41:35 Cosmetics vs. Collection Completion in Marvel Snap
• 55:29 Nostalgic Gaming Memories
• 1:01:26 Concluding Thoughts and Farewell

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 wanted to have on the Snapchat for the longest time. We are here with Harry Perry. Harry, it is great to finally see you and, uh, my man, this has been quite a road to get to here, to this podcast, this moment right here, because you did something so unconventional to grab the attention of Cozy. And I, I, I want you to kind of break it down and, uh, take us through what was going through your mind. And again, I'm gonna link it down below, but I'll give Harry Perry the floor here. It's an incredible story and I want you to kind of take it over.

Harry: 0:32

Yeah. Well, you've been a, a gentleman in responding to it and being patient in reaching out to me for so long, I, I have to say like, for all the claims that people make about Alex being the nicest person ever, it's so true. I feel like I'll tell the story of the video in a second, but you feel like Keanu Reeves to me, where like anyone on the internet who ever shares a story about being with Keanu Reeves, they're like, yeah, he's actually the nicest person ever. You're like the Keanu Reeves of the Snapchat or of Marvel Snap, because you actually reached out to me three or four different times and I had to like deny you, which is a horrible thing to ask to be on your show and then say No.'cause I was busy like you, but you just kept reaching out. But yeah, the video, I just I started making Marvel Snap videos like a year ago because I found the Snapchat actually, like, I didn't even know people made videos about Marvel Snap. And then I found the Snapchat. I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. So I've just loved it ever since. And I saw a bunch of as Cozy was gone with his obligations, a bunch of guests, I'd be like how do, like, how do I get in that line? I don't know. You know, like I, I guess I'll just try, you know, like there's, that's the worst thing that could happen is that maybe I'll get his attention, maybe I won't, but at least I tried and, uh, it worked. So here I am.

Alex: 1:39

But you didn't even explain what you did though.

Harry: 1:41

Yeah, I, yeah. So if you don't know, I made a video, uh, it was a while ago now. It was just titled Alex, this is my audition for the Snapchat. And I basically said I'd like to be on the Snapchat.

Alex: 1:54

And believe it or not the person who sent me was Dexter. Dexter was like, Hey, did you see this? Because I am subscribed to you. But I guess here's the problem with my YouTube feed, it's'cause my kids will go on my YouTube all the time.'cause I have, like, I, I use YouTube premium and so they don't get the ads. So they use my YouTube for like, everything. And my suggestion feed is like Marvel Snap. K-pop, demon hunters got colors for toddlers. It's just garbage. Like the whole thing is garbage. And so like, I don't actually get recommended anything I want, like my YouTube algorithm's completely broken. And so, um, I didn't actually see your video right away, despite the fact you used my name in the title. Yeah. The YouTube was like, nah, that's not relevant for this guy. And, uh, Dexter actually sent to me, which is absolutely hilarious. And, um, it's, yeah, it's great. And I mean, this is one of the benefits of having the opportunity to have guests on because I actually think you make really good content. And actually one of the discussions we're having today is based off of one of the videos you're most recently released and you did a great job. I thought it was very good. You're recommending books and stuff like that. We'll get into that discussion, but like, I think you're making some really thought provoking content and, um, I'm very happy, I'm proud to have you here. And on that note, you guys better be subbing to Harry Perry down below because this guy's a great one. Wow, thank you. He's a great one. And, uh, and you're, you're a father as well. You, uh, you know, and I mean, we have a lot in common and I'm, I'm just happy that you're here finally.

Harry: 3:10

Yeah. I appreciate that. That was, that was really nice to hear you say and thanks for letting me be here. It means a lot. Yeah,

Alex: 3:16

of course. And, uh, I mean, we should actually get into that. We should ask about like, what got you into Marvel Snap in the first place. And I know you, you know, you said you watched the Snapchat and stuff, but before that would've even happened, like what drew you into Marvel Snap? Like what was it about this game that you're like, you know what, I'm gonna install this, I'm gonna play this. And you said you started making content like a year ago. Had you been playing prior, like tell us about what your Marvel Snap experience was like.

Harry: 3:38

Yeah it's actually really random. Like, I'm not a card gamer. Like my brother is a big card gamer. He plays Hearthstone. He played magic. And so I've played magic against him, but they were just with like, he has multiple decks and he'd have to like teach me how to play as I was playing against him. And I lost every time, you know, so I just was never, and not that I didn't like it, but I just never played card games. And then I, um, like I'm a big movie person and so there's this YouTube channel called Quarter Crew where like visual effects artists react to. Visual effects in films and they were reacting to an an ad that Marvel Snap made. It actually is like a really high quality animation. And so I went and watched it and I literally thought like, wow, I enjoy whatever company paid animation artist to make this. Like, I wanna show them my thanks by doing whatever they want me to do from this ad. And then I found out, oh, it's a Marvel Snap. Okay, I'll play a Marvel Snap game. I like Marvel. I've been engaged in Marvel comics for a while, and then I started playing the game and I was like, wow, this is amazing. And it just immediately hooked me. And so that was probably for a, a, maybe like three or four months before I started making videos. I had just started playing, so I was like, maybe around the year and a half mark that Snap had been out. I'm trying to remember when I first started playing. Anyway, I started playing and then stopped playing, and then I came back. For the Hawkeye, Kate Bishop season, because she's one of my favorite characters. And then that was, you know, went from there. And then I started engaging in more Marvel Snap stuff, found the Snapchat, and then was like, oh, I bet I could make a video that looks fun, and then the rest is from there. So it was, you know, literally a animation ad. It's a good one. I'll send it to you so you can like, include it in the description or something. It's a good ad.

Alex: 5:14

It's also kind of inspiring that you started making Marvel Snap content, like well into the be like, well after it already launched, right? So like, it wasn't like you were like day one in the beta, like a lot of us were, you're like, you know what? I like this game. I'm gonna start making videos for it. And I think that's really cool and it should be encouraging for other people as well, because like you recently crossed, you know, a thousand subscribers, but I know it was a milestone that you were hoping to achieve at one point, and, uh, you've crossed that now you're onto to bigger, better things. Try and get those numbers even higher. I, I know it's like one of those things where it's like, um. They, they really do start to snowball after a while. And I think that you're making content that's, uh, high quality. You, uh, obviously you're an infinite player and a lot of your deck designs are, are fascinating as well. In fact, you had one of the highest performing high voltage decks that you had kind of cooked up, and it was a really kind of budget friendly patriot style deck, and it was a top performer in, uh, in Marvel Snap for a while there. And then, um, yeah, so like, yeah, keep doing what you're doing and I'm sure success will follow because, uh, you're, you're sincerely talented, just like zombie, Mr. Fantastic. I'm just joking. Mr. Fantastic. Doesn't look particularly talented. He looks exactly a rough time to be honest with you, but, uh, Mr. Fantastic is a two two. He is the new card that's coming out in Marvel Snap this week in the Snap packs. And, uh, he's an non reveal that reads Hoard plus two activate. Give four of your other created cards plus one power. Now, this particular card, I think is going to be, uh, an important one for the zombie archetype because, uh, as we'll discuss shortly when we do our full review of the cards that came prior, it's looking like zombies as a whole could probably use some additional support. We do have support coming in with the likes of the Hunger. We have support coming with Century. However, as it stands right now, the archetype needs another linchpin card and perhaps Mr. Uh, zombie, Mr. Fantastic can do that for us. So last week, Cozi and I discussed the card. I came in at three stars, Cozy came in at four. Harry Perry. What's your star rating on Zombie? Mr. Fantastic.

Harry: 7:20

Yeah. Wow. The pressure's on. He's probably the card that I'm most excited for of the whole season. Like he's like my personal five, even if I don't think he deserves a five. So I'd probably put him at. Realistically from his performance. I think he's gonna be a four actually. I could see him being pretty strong.

Alex: 7:38

Okay. That's good. And I mean, uh, it's one of those things where I think he's highly dependent on how good the hoard synergy is as a whole, right? Because this is obviously a card that you're not gonna run him unless you're running horse specifically, because I mean, to some degree, awesome. Andy kind of does what he does, except he doesn't have that hoard mechanic. And awesome. Andy will hit anything in other locations, not just create a card. So there's a lot of conditions here. Now, Mr. Fantastic is interesting in the sense that it's also the first card of Marvel Snap that has an honor reveal and an activate. So you're getting an an additional amount of complexity here and it kind of opens the floodgates into what design space is available for the Marvel Snap team as they move forward.'cause now they're like, okay, hold on. We used to have on reveal cards, we used to have activate cards, we used to have ongoing cards. But now can we have on reveal ongoing cards? You know what I mean? You have a card that comes down, does a non-real, and then has an ongoing effect long term that opens up a whole new can of worms. And I guess zombie mis are fantastic, is the first step there. The only concern I have and what brings down the rating a bit is that like it sometimes, like there's this issue of like a jack of all trades type thing where like if you're not gonna master something, are you gonna really crack a 12 card deck? Because if you're just kind of good at a couple things here and there, it's like no, no, you gotta be good enough to crack top 12 in a top performing deck to actually see a legitimate amount of play. And so I'm curious, do you think this is a little too safe in terms of its stats, in terms of what it's doing? Or do you think it can pump numbers enough to be worth playing?

Harry: 9:08

Yeah, I think I, I do agree with you because I've been experimenting within the deck anticipating zombie Mr. Fantastic. Just'cause he is a card. I'm excited for most of the season, so I've been like, this is silly, but like trying to figure out the deck design for. Before he's released. And um, so I've been playing a lot of like created cards, both like onboard created cards, so things like Mysterio and Squirrel Girl and Mr. Sinister with the hoard. And then I've also been playing hand created cards with Victoria Hand and Hawkeye Kit Bishop, and those types of cards with the hoard to try and find are one of these gonna work with Mr. Fantastic. And the thing that I found is that sometimes yeah, you get the nuts, but on like an average game, it can kind of be hard to get four created cards on board. Um, sometimes those that like, that's not lining up. And so I think an easy adjustment they could make to him is to change that activate ability instead of giving four of your created cards plus one. It could, I don't know, the rewording would have to be really complicated, but give, I don't know if it's just like inverse give plus one power to. Created cards four times or something so it could like hit the same target multiple times, I think. But maybe that would just make him lp.'cause you create one hoard and then your hoard gets plus four power from that. But I, the thing that I found is that when he works, when you're getting those created cards on the board, I think he's gonna really put out surprising amounts of power to late turn. Like it's, people aren't gonna calculate what he does. It's just a matter of if you can get the cards on the board.

Alex: 10:39

Yeah, and I, I mean, I think you touched on it right there. He becomes horde six, like if he just sits right. If, uh, you can do that with the activate. But uh, I absolutely agree. I think it's unlikely that you're able to get four out there all the time. Like from a pure staff perspective, you're like two, two plus hor horde plus two, so that's two, four. Then the additional 4, 2, 8. Yeah, it looks great on paper, but I would be surprised if you're getting more than like. Two pros out of your created cards, and you often aren't gonna be waiting till like turn six to activate him. I think, because if you think about like zombie giant man and some other stuff like that, you might be playing those earlier out and they're gonna double dip on the power of the hoard. And so as a result, there's a chance that you might wanna activate'em early, even if there's not an opportunity to get as many pros from the actual credit cards. So that's, that's one of those concerns I certainly do have. And the other concern I have though is obviously gonna be the viability of hoard as a whole. And when we discuss more about Scarlet Witch, we'll discuss, uh, the fact that I think she's perhaps underperforming. And although we don't have the full picture yet, because we're missing so many of these synergistic cards, if hoard doesn't end up being a mechanic worth chasing, this becomes a card that's not only 6,000 tokens, but it could just be straight up dead weight. Now I suspect that they're gonna be monitoring these mechanics very closely.'cause if Horde underperforms, Mr. Fantastic won't sell right? Season Pass won't sell, people aren't gonna play like it's so Horde has to be good enough to encourage engagement during this Halloween season. And so for that reason, I think that they're keeping a very close eye on its balance. But for me, I'm, I don't think Miss Zombie Mr. Fantastic is going to be quite enough for what we have right now. And um, and that's actually, you know what, we should actually transition a bit into the general conversation. We're gonna keep zombie Mr. Fantastic in mind here, but like, I think this is a perfect time to talk about the cards that have been released and we can tie back to Mr. Zombie. Fantastic. Whatever. I keep mess messing up the name, but Zombie Scarlet Witch, I think. Came in a little softer than expected. I think that while the hoard was getting to like legitimate power, I was, I was getting hoard to like, you know, seven, eight power. And that's without any of these additional cards. The challenge I had was, it's extremely vulnerable to Hunchy. It's extremely vulnerable to Shadow Cane. It's extremely vulnerable to Cobra, even though no one played Cobra against me.'cause I think the card wasn't good enough to warrant the direct counter play. But I'm curious as to what your opinion on Scarlet Witch has been and in general, the Horde mechanic.

Harry: 13:11

Yeah. It's been frustrating to say the least. I was really excited for the season because the Kitty Pride, Angela Hope Summer's silky smooth style deck has been one of my favorites for a long time. And legitimately every season I try to include it in my climb to Infinite on the ladder.'Cause I always, every season I do a video of all the decks that I used on my Climb to Infinite. And so I'm like always keeping track of these things. And what decks were each season and how many times I'm repeating them and how many times they're being excluded. Like, these are things that I genuinely track. And it's been sad to me how frequently I've tried, but couldn't include the kitty Pride Angela style deck into a, an infinite video because they, she just didn't perform. So I was hoping zombie Scarlet would, would help that archetype. And more than anything, like completing the weekend missions to win however many games, it, it was with Zombie Scarlet was actually challenging because I just, I feel like the hoard is good and the hoard, especially if you draw a zombie scarlet on three and you have the cards to help it, the hoard itself I feel like can get to pretty decent power. But to get the hoard to power, you're not getting enough power in a second location, and you have to have win two to win a game. And that's the problem that I've had is not necessarily, the hoard is not good, but to get the hoard good, the rest of my deck isn't in a good winning position.

Alex: 14:30

And it almost feels like for the most part and to, to this conversation here, when you talk about like zombie power man for not power man. Sorry. The other one, what's, what's his zombie giant man, I'm confusing these names so bad. Me too. But he is so unbelievably dependent on the value of the horde. He's only doing plus one and then he copies the power, which is cool. And for me it was interesting'cause I was able to do stuff like absorbing man. So play this on turn five then absorbing man plus Kitty on turn six or absorbing man plus whatever on turn six. And I thought that was really cool. But the challenge was, is if you don't draw into that zombie scarlet witch early, the skirt's dead in the water. Like it does not stand on its own at all. And zombie scar, the witch, her power is as such as a two power card that even playing her on four.'cause in theory you're like, okay, I'll play her on four and I hit her with the kitty right away. And then all of a sudden you still feel a little behind, like there's just not quite enough power present. And so I absolutely agree with your assessment. This is a card that if you're able to draw it on turn three and you're able to kind of get the things flowing, yet the zombie hoard gets to some decent power, but it feels very risky. You feel like it is a, it feels like a one trick where you have one game plan and if you don't draw your thing, then you're dead. Like you just don't have a note. And uh, I don't know if decks that are designed that way can actually take over the meta. I don't think they'll ever be tier one. So right now I do think that Zombie Scarlet, which has a bit of a power problem, it also has a synergy problem because without all the other pieces we've talked about, like the Hunger and the Century and even zombie, Mr. Fantastic, you don't have outs because obviously Zombies Carlo Witch, we want, because you get it on the board, it's like that Hope Summers effect. You just snowball the effect that you're looking for. But at the same time, if you have Mr. Fanta, it'll create the horde for you. Right. Zombie, uh, sorry. Zombie. Essentially we'll create a hoard for you. We'll add to a hoard. So right now, zombie Scarlet Witch is the only way we can do that, and it's felt like, uh, lackluster and very draw dependent. And so I'm wondering, like, do you think that she could use some extra power? Do you think that she needs to make a larger hoard, or do you think we just need to wait to see what, uh, the other cards are gonna do for her?

Harry: 16:34

Yeah, I don't know. It's, it's tough because I, like right now in this position, I'm like, oh yeah, absolutely Buffer, take her to three power. Heck even take her to four power because the location that I've been having the most trouble with in trying to win games with her is her location. Not necessarily the hoarded one, but the interesting thing is that when these other cards released, that might dramatically change things. However, the problem that I just see with this archetype in general, it even trying to, you know, look into the future and imagine how other cards are gonna interact with it, is similar to what you said. It just feels super delicate to play and that like, one of the most important things to climb on Ladder is. Like confidence in your deck so that you can Snap or Snap back on an opponent or not retreat when you've been snapped on because you're like, oh yeah, I got this. Like, you know, I'm gonna put this power here. When every time I was playing Zombie Scarlet Lit, it's like, well, my opponent counters me in one of 17 ways and my whole strategy falls apart and I've got nothing to come up with afterwards. Like, it just felt like I had to carefully stack this house of cards, and if my opponent blew the wrong way, that I like couldn't respond to that. And so it made me really hesitant to even Snap when I was playing Zombie Scarlet Witch. And so I don't, I don't know if that's like changing her power. I, I, I don't know. It's tough because like, okay, so you change her to an On reveal. On Reveal Horde plus one, and then after you play a card here, hoard plus two, same problem the Horde is getting is fine, but what about her location or that second one?

Alex: 18:01

Yeah it's a. Yeah, it's a complicated problem. And I guess like first the people that are interested in the stats, she's currently running a 49% win rate and that is from ranked 70 to a hundred.'cause it is the first week of the season people are still doing their climb. So that's bought inflated stats. Bought inflated stats. You're running a sub 50% win rate. Popularity wise, she's running a 9% popularity. This is unfortunate because if you're second dinner and you're looking at this, you're looking at a card that is supposed to be right, first of all, extremely thematic for October. Yeah. And it's supposed to be the card that gets the, the ball rolling for the every other card. You're basically releasing the season. With the exception of the discard ones. We'll talk about momentarily, but like, I think that like. They're gonna buff this ASAP, like, it wouldn't surprise me if it gets sneaked into like a patch note on Tuesday or like whatever the next OTA, like this thing gets buffed. Like, it would not surprise me because I think that second dinner would rather at least generate interest in this season as opposed to, well, we gotta wait till the last week when we have all the pieces to see what they've done and then try to buff it. I think they probably do it sooner than later, and if they overt tune it, then perhaps they, they consider, uh, nerfing it down the line, but not naturally. They don't want to do that either. Right. That's problematic for its other, for its own reasons. So, yeah, I would think that this is definitely on the buffer radar. Like, would you agree?

Harry: 19:21

Yeah, I think so. The only reason that I'd think that they would maybe not is that and this will go into our topic later about the video that I made, is that like one of the, I think one of the frustrations that a lot of people have had with second dinner is that they only care about season pass sales. They only release the new cards and like pay to win paywalls or whatever. So far, at least in the first week of the season, the best cards released have been like Colonel American Zombie power Man, like the cards that you can get free to play, so to speak. So if they, like in some weird meta way, were like, oh, we're gonna intentionally leave the bad card as the season pass and give free to play players access to the Good Card. But I don't think second dinner, I don't think that interest second dinner, like, I think that's like really myopic focused on one issue that doesn't actually matter. So I, I think what they did to vi vision as you, wow. Look at that. You pulled up, right. As I said, is the exact same scenario. Like not only for their interests, do they want it'cause they want make money from Season Pass, like they want to release cards that are good. I think that's just whether it's a, a paid card or whether it's a, from the pack, like cards that are released should be good. So I think she's on the buff radar. Absolutely.

Alex: 20:30

One thing I've said a couple times in the past was that a lot of people think that like card games, that what they're seeking is like perfect balance. I don't think that's correct at all. I think in the case of Marvel Snap and with any card game, you're seeking perfect imbalance. You need some cards to be good enough. To not only warrant being played, but to actually shake up the meta. Mm-hmm. And Cozy and I have had this discussion in the past, like, would we lean towards them being very safe and conservative with the releases? Or maybe tune it up just a little, like a little extra hot little spice to it. You know, I'm not talking to habanero. Gimme, gimme a jalapeno, throw it on top of a card. Maybe just give it a shot, give it a chance. Encourage its play. Because if it impacts the meta. It feels fresh, it feels new. And then the new cards that come out, they do provide that like more of an in interesting infusion into the Marvel Snap meta. And it's funny'cause a lot of people think that like, oh, they released these overt tuned season pass cards. V Vision was not overt tuned. In fact, it was surprisingly difficult to play it as thir three, two stat line. And they held off for a long time before buffing it to their credit. And even now that it's been buffed, the top Surfer decks are not running V vision. Oh wow. The top buff decks are not running V Vision, like Vis is still not making lists as a three three. I just did the top 10 decks of the week. Viv vision's not on it. And this is a season pass card that largely underperformed. Um, so, you know, I, I wouldn't be surprised if like. That's the kind of thing that would surprise people. And even then, like you had the Mr. Fantastic First Steps and this was an example of the other direction where at a two cost he was way too good. He was way too good. Yeah. He was able to be put into every single deck. And both of these I think, represent challenges for second dinner, you don't wanna overt tune the card, then Nerf it. And then with the timing of Mr. Fantastic. It was a little rough too'cause he had just entered the free to play like acquisition when they had to Nerf him. So that's, that's a miss. But I would argue that Viv vision's also a miss. You don't want a season pass card and for the most part, an entire season that feels like, well I can just skip this and save tokens. You know what I mean?'cause it's just then your, your meta is stale for an entire month. You're just kind of standing still. So anyways, I'd be interested in your thoughts on that because I think that they have this reputation of like releasing overt tune stuff all the time, but like vi vision is proof positive. That's not always the case.

Harry: 22:41

Yeah, I think that we like the people who. Are frequently the loudest, are the most frustrated. And like if I were a free to play player and I was playing against two cost, Mr. Fantastic, I would've been s super frustrated. Like that realistically was kind of not kind of like a, an extremely unfair advantage to paid players was Mr. Fantastic. But you look at so many of the other season passes that have been released, the vision is a good example. Another one I was thinking about today, Esme I can't think of the last time I, I saw anyone play Esme. You know, like she just like completely has disappeared from the meta entirely except for maybe sometimes in Mr. Fantastic Decks or not Mr. Fantastic, uh, Mr. Negative deck. And so it like, I don't know, I think that there's like a weird for every example of like, wow, this card was really overt tuned. There's another example of like, well, this card kind of underperformed and I would just hope with how unique the hoard archetype is that they would do something to put it in the category of closer to overt tuned than it is to under tune. Because to your point, like I would love to see a bunch of people playing hoard. Just for something else in the meta, like I'd love to see more people interested in playing this archetype because it makes the meta fun.

Alex: 23:50

It's been something that I've been thinking about that I think that Marvel Snap and their, the design team, I think one of their main focuses has been largely that they want more playable archetypes because we think about the kind of decks that we wanna play, but playing against the same cringe garbage all the time is also super annoying. You might be like, you know what? I'm a one trick, I just play discard. I just wanna play bullseye or apoch or whatever, and that's cool. You play your stuff like, my brother loves Marvel Snap, and he only plays ongoing. Dude will only play ongoing. Wow. He has Golden Howard, the duck golden, everything ongoing. He only wants to play ongoing decks. Right. And like that's perfect though. He, he's having a blast, man. He even tries like, he's like, sometimes I'm feeling greedy. He'll do like won mystique, like Spectrum stuff. Just wants to lose his mind. That's cool. You play your way, man. And for those types of people though, if he's going against like, end of turn, cringe every single game, like, it's just, it's gotta be exhausting, right? So what I really like what they did with the horse specifically is exact what you said. It's a whole new brand of gameplay. It's to me, not necessarily equivalent to, but it feels like a new type of archetype. The way like Thanos is like a, a way to play Snap. Aisha is a way to play. Snap Horde is a way to play Snap. And when you play against those types of decks, the patterns are different. It's more enjoyable, better diversity in the meta is gonna be better for everybody's experience and for that to happen, I think Horde needs something because Scarlet Witch just isn't doing it. I agree with everything you've said, it's definitely underperforming. A hundred percent. And then as a result, and I wanna touch on giant zombie, man, this court's capable of putting up big power, but in the current state of Horde, it's not worth running.

Harry: 25:24

Yeah.

Alex: 25:24

But like, it kind of feels like, and I've seen the comparison made where it's like, this is the Gilgamesh of Horde. Right. A five drop that gets into like the 12 to 15 power range. Like yeah, you take those all day long, but as of right now, it feels rough to try to play, uh, zombie Giant man. Before we move on to Colonel America and Power Man, was there anything else you wanted to add about the zombies and the hoard as a whole?

Harry: 25:45

No, I just, I agree with everything you said, particularly about zombie Giant man. I like drove myself nuts on the first day of the season trying to force myself to play zombie Giant man. It just like you, you draw him without Zombie Scarlet Witch and you're just like, well, that's a card. I'm not gonna play this game. Like, he's just, he's so useless in those situations and I, I am. I was really excited about the card because I just thought he was gonna be fun. And then he just became frustrating. And so I, I really hope that towards the end of the season I'm able to come back around and be like, no, I, I love playing zombie Giant man. But previous, like right up to this point, I'm like, well, if I am gonna try and do something with the Horde, I'm gonna leave out zombie, zombie giant man. He's just not worth it. He's not worth one of those 12 slots.

Alex: 26:27

And it's one of those risks that Marvel Snap runs where they release on like a weekly cadence. Right. Um, especially with something like a new mechanic like the hoard, if you introduce a new mechanic and the entire month is borderline dedicated to it and you don't really know how it's gonna perform till you get all the pieces, it's like a month of holding your breath. I mean, that's difficult for free to play players. Like, what do you do with your tokens, man? Like, what do you do? Like it's, you can't dive into any of this till you see the complete picture. Right. And, uh, like, yeah. So it, it is tricky from that perspective. But thankfully, I think they must have thought of this'cause they didn't just release hoard cards. They released some discard cards as well including Colonel America. The three three that reads ongoing. Your other cards here have plus one power for each turn. You've discarded a card now. I'll give you the floor here. I'll let, uh,'cause I, I've made my thoughts on Colonel America. Very apparent. I'm wondering what your experience has been thus far.

Harry: 27:19

I have been all over the board with him. I, in the video I released on Colonel America and Colonel Empowerment, I was not gonna get them. I was gonna skip them just to save my tokens for the season. Just not'cause they were bad by any means, but I was like, oh, that. I don't need to play them. Like my discard decks are just fine, I don't necessarily need them. And then a bunch of people commented on my videos and on my polls about how good they were. So I f-ed into'em. And, uh, it took me a while to come around on Colonel America. I realized that I was playing him kind of wrong. I made the comparison to speed. That speed is one of my favorite cards in the game, but sometimes when I play'em, I get distracted by like playing on curve. So that speed gets value. Like I have to play, I have to play a three drop on three so that speed can get plus one power and then I don't play as well. I saw myself doing the same thing with Colonel America. Like, I have to discard a card this turn so that Colonel America gets power. And it just like made me play sub optimally. And so I didn't like him at first, but once I moved on from that and I thought like, you know what? Even if I just discard two turns, he's still good power. Let me like focus on just playing a good game. And Colonel America has been phenomenal. Like just such impressive power. In fact, there was one game. That I lost to a Ker America because on the last turn, they just got it was in one of those locations, the whichever one, the kiln that you can't play in after turn four. And I was like, miles ahead. Like I got a combo into there with Red Wing. I had a gigantic in there. I was like, oh, there's no way they're contesting that. And sure enough, Colonel America just, ticked himself upwards. So I'm really, really liking Colonel America. I think he's a good card.

Alex: 28:51

I love this card. It came in so much better than I expected and I knew it was gonna be good.'cause when you look at Pulse one power for every other card, it clearly is a great card. And here's the thing though, what I loved about it was like, okay, I was playing it in like the, like kinda like the bullseye shell, right? Because I thought it was a very natural spot for it. I was also trying it in like, like traditional, you know, apocalypse discard. But in, in the, uh, in the bullseye shell, I was interested because I was like, what if I don't draw a dakin? What if I don't draw a bullseye? What if I don't draw these things? But what if I'm able to, you know, I don't know get a discard going on swarms. Can I use Colonel America to start winning a location with swarms? Can I use Colonel America to turn locations or uh, yeah. Locations into winning spots that where my opponent wouldn't otherwise expect me to win. Because when you have two dockings on the board, they're expecting you to win those two dock and locations. That's the point. Those, they're towers of power. But when you put Colonel America with your bullseye in a location that you traditionally are gonna lose, and then you play your modoc there, and then you play like you're putting all these incidental cards, your blade, your Colleen Wing, any card that's not part of the core combo, like they do their thing and then they're donezo, you put'em with Kernel America and all of a sudden you're like, whoa, whoa, that Colin wing's like eight power. Like yeah. How did that happen? Right. And it's because of Colonel America. And so he's creating this triple attack where you're threatening multiple lanes while also still having. Your dock can pop off or your bullseye pop off, or both for that matter. So that's where he really impressed me. He allowed the macro board play to matter more. He made playing your early plays matter more because he was able to create a situation where cars that traditionally weren't gonna be carrying the win. Carrying the win. And that's why I love him.

Harry: 30:32

Yeah he made a challenge in deck playing against him that like, typically there's those cards you see on the board and you're like, well, I'm gonna avoid that location. Like someone plays a lasher, okay, I'm not gonna play into that location. Or a Surfer player plays Captain Carter. Okay, that's a location I clearly can't contest. Let me focus on the other two. And against these discard decks, it's like, okay, Mor Bs is over there, Colonel America is over there and Dracula's in the middle. Which one do I feel like I have a chance going against? Because all three are locking down power. So I'm, I'm really enjoying Colonel America. I feel like he's a good addition to the archetype.

Alex: 31:05

Something I forgot to mention with Zombie Giant Man was that he's running a 48% win rate and only a 3% popularity, which is awful. So that means there's people out there playing Scarlet Witch without the zombie giant man, which must be even worse. I, I don't know. But with Colonel America, and the reason why I brought that up, Colonel America is running a nearly 54% win rate at a 6% popularity. So what you're seeing is less play rate astronomically higher win rate than Scarlet Witch. And when you see that, in my eyes, it's showcasing that the hor mechanic is not doing it. Scarlet Witch is not good enough because Colonel America seeing 33% less play and is almost like what, 5% higher win rate? That's pretty significantly. You know what I mean? And uh, that's a lot. But yeah, so shining review from both of us. For Kernel America, and it wouldn't, we should not surprise anybody that the top performing shells are apocalypse based shells, con based shells and the bullseye based shells as well. Which is basically discard. Yeah. Actually not part of that is the Agatha. I was expecting Agatha to make it out there too, but Agatha did not ended up making it in, uh, this particular set. Then we have Zombie Power Man. Zombie Power Man is another discard card that was released. This one here is a, uh, series four. This one here is a two four that reads, end of turn. If you're winning here, discard the Leftmost card from your hand. Harry, I'll give you the floor. What do you think?

Harry: 32:25

Uh, I haven't experimented with Zombie Power Man, as much as I would've liked because I've just been having trouble with him. Like I just, so many times I was like, oh yeah, zombie Power Man's really good. I should put'em in here. And then I'd look at my deck and I'd go experiment with it and be like I think I'd actually prefer a choline to target my discards is just what I was experiencing. But I'll be honest, I don't think that I've. Ben very smart in my deck building for Power Man. So I'm like a question mark. I'm like, I don't know. He's tough for me to, to feel like, get a good grasp on and if on, if he's worth it. And I've seen both things playing against him where he was like, game winning for my opponent. And I've seen other times where like he's game losing. Like he's eating up those core cards. In fact, that was one of my favorite things to do when I was playing against Zombie Power Man, is like, I'm gonna intentionally ignore that location and let you win it so that he's eating things you don't want him to. Which was like a good way to counter him. So I, I don't know, I think he's kind of average, I think yet to be determined for me, but I haven't experimented with him within a month enough.

Alex: 33:21

That's absolutely fair. And I had played a ton of zombie power Man and I was often trying to play him with Colonel America'cause I know obviously the two are gonna be unfairly compared all the time. And I, I definitely like Colonel America more. I think Colonel America is much more straightforward to play. It's an ongoing card. You discard things and discard shell. It gets massive power. Straightforward a sec. And then with zombie power man, I think one of the challenges was is that like you can't necessarily control the order at which you draw cards. Yeah. You can't necessarily control all these small factors. And when you discard things, they go from the left to the right. And so Zombie Power man sits there with his two four, he's capable of winning lanes. And I almost felt like, oh this Colleen Wing Nerf makes sense.'cause now they differentiate the two three power from the two four zombie man. They differentiate the two cards even further. But Zombie Power Man is sometimes in a situation where I'm like, I can't win this next location. I'm gonna discard my modoc and I need that. Or I'm gonna discard my bullseye or I'm gonna discard whatever. Like if you're discarding ksu. Sure. Like, it's not always gonna work that way. And so as a result, I found zombie Power Man to be very awkward to play. But you're right, even in my review video, I think the first gameplay highlight I did is zombie power Man, popping off hard. Like he just, I think I discarded some swarms early with Blade and then I played some cards and like I had multiple zero, zero zero three swarms just sitting there waiting to get munched. And he munched them. And that game became easy as heck because of it. So there are moments for this card, but I think that it's a particularly tricky card to set up correctly. But you did bring up something interesting. What if your opponent plays it and they munched something they don't want? What about like, Colleen, like not Colleen, what about, uh, VIPing this guy over in a location, they're winning.

Harry: 34:59

Yeah, someone commented on one of my videos and in my Discord they say, you gotta try this deck.'cause one of, one of like the best performing videos that I have on my channel is, is trying to give them destroyer with when, uh, Fenris Wolf was released, like discarding your own destroyer and then vibrating over a Frus Wolfe and giving it to em. They're like, you need to do this again with Zombie Power Man, and then Viper over and then play Havoc Center and then Grandmaster on Your Viper and then send over the havoc as well so that you're eating their energy and their cards. It was just like, just brutal combo. And the person who comes to is like, I've already had 18 people retreat. I'm keeping track the whole season, so I'll maybe report back and see how many retreats they got.

Alex: 35:40

That's, that's hilarious. Very, very draw specific. Yeah. And in theory that havocs still gonna get to massive power.

Harry: 35:46

Yeah,

Alex: 35:46

that's true. So I don't know, like it's still probably gonna win that location. But that's actually kind of fascinating, but. Yeah, I'm, I'm with you too. Like for me, zombie power man is a big question mark. Statistically he is slightly lower when compared to Colonel America, he's running a 53% win rate flat, whereas the, uh, Colonel America was like 53.8, so almost 54. And then you have a 5% popularity, a little less than that of, uh, Colonel America. But still good, very good for a card that just recently got released. Time will tell. And here's the thing though, what if you do get a card that always discards to the left? Like, what if that's a part of the text of a new discard card? This card stays left or whatever, right? Then suddenly Power Man's like, yo, yeah, me and you are gonna have a good time together. You know what I mean? And it creates some interesting design space. But I do agree that the, uh, the card itself can be a bit challenging to play. And that's gonna take us to, for me, and I don't wanna like, I don't want to give away my thoughts too early here, but oh boy was I surprised with this. I came away. I was a doubt. Harry, I was a doubter in head pool and I might be crazy, but I came in like, ho-hum. Three stars. Maybe it'll be good. I don't know, man. I like Moer X too much and I do like Moer X too much. Damn. Was this card good? Yeah, unbelievably good. What are, what is your thoughts on head pool?

Harry: 37:08

I was the same. I was like, considering not getting him this season and I was like, I just don't think he's gonna be that good. Like, I'd rather, you know, he's just gonna crowd up your hand. Especially playing Moyer, like all the same thoughts that you expressed on the Snapchat. And then I watched, um, res Snapper's video on MJ who was on previously watched his video and he was like, I think he gave him a six star rating or something super high. He's like, I think this card's gonna be the best the whole season. I was like, what are you talking about? There's no way. And the amount of games that I've lost to like 16 power deaths that they're playing down, you know, like this card is crazy. Which is cool. Like, it's been cool to see. You were talking about like playing against the same thing over and over again. I don't think I've played against more destroyed decks my entire Snap career than I have this week. Like he's destroys everywhere. And that's, that's sweet. And I think this card is a lot of fun.

Alex: 37:57

Oh it's so much fun. And in fact, if we're gonna talk stats, you got, you wanna hear these stats, 56.5% win rate according to when tapped, again, ranked 70 to 108% popularity. And you'd better believe, uh, head pool did make the top 10 where I talked about it this weekend. Yeah. And, uh, it's so good. And the thing that I did not account for, it comes back to your hand and buffs itself, right? It buffs itself. And so all of a sudden you often get these head pools that are like four power on their own. It's a one four that also just buffed everything else in your hand. And I found that playing my deaths down was easier because you're like, you have another inexpensive destroy target. Yeah, the whole destroy thing just started snowballing. Started snowballing. And I think we're gonna need some more time to see, okay. Does the power that head pool provide, does it outperform the likes of an agony? Because you usually, you do the agony into Deadpool combination that, that kind of got rid of the Hulk buster. Before it used to be Hulk Buster you played. Now it's the agony. Does head pool replace both those cards? Like you just don't need that because when you play the the Deadpool down first you, you play head pool on top, then you hit'em with the death lock or whatever. Or even actually Lady Death strike being tucked into these decks. Yeah. Chef's kiss. It's beautiful, right? Uh, the Deadpool goes back first and then head pool does, the buff goes back as well. So now you're playing an even bigger dead pool early. It's so good. It's way better than I expected. And um, this season I'm getting d of playing destroy. I think I, I can't stop myself. And also I have to admit something, Harry, and I'm kind of ashamed to say this, even though statistically, and I'm a stats nut, even though statistically I know that. The version without Moyer X is better. You damn well, better believe I'm playing Moyer X anyways, because I love that card too much too.

Harry: 39:40

Oh, I'm in the same boat. I, I was building it. I haven't made my video on head pull yet, but I was like, oh, I, I feel like I need to cut my eyes. Like I just can't, like, there, there's so much about the card that I love, including like the animation. Like sometimes I just hovered the card to just enjoy the animation longer. Yeah. But I agree on Head Bull. He's, I think like the thing that I wasn't thinking about when contemplating the car is how he kind of just like steamrolls the rest of the destroy deck, what you were talking about with death as an example. Like it used to be that on, unlike an average game, death is gonna be like two to three cost, which is still great. Like a three 12 is amazing, but I'm finding, playing against my opponents is that death is getting discounted to zero every game almost. Because like you said, you've got another low cost destroy card that you can keep destroying. I think the way that he just steamrolls the deck is good and will make it pretty powerful consistently throughout the Minnesota. I think you're not gonna be the only one getting to Infinite with destroy the season.

Alex: 40:34

No, without question. And the nice thing about Destroy too is it's, it's a relatively inexpensive deck to get into, right? Obviously head pool's the opposite of that. Head pool's, the most expensive card you can get right now is a super premium season pass card. You got a fork over the 20, but so that doesn't ring true right now. But like, uh, if you don't, if you don't wanna play Moira Acts, you wanna play dis uh, traditional discard. Realistically, all you're talking about is what Nico Series five and I guess series four X 23 and Nico is an amazing card. It's worth having no matter what everything else is like. Starter series three stuff, right? So, I think it's a relatively easy archetype to get into. And so if you love it, head pool's gonna be a great addition here. I, I came away super impressed and as I said, the stats definitely do call for, uh, this card being one of the absolute OG bangers of the season and the cook with lady district's awesome too, because when you're playing LDS, you get to wipe out the bullseye. You wipe out those Draculas, right, you wipe out, um, you know, the sun spots that haven't proced yet. Like there's a lot of tech that you get to do and uh, I appreciate that. But, uh, alright, so we gotta keep moving on. Now we're gonna move on to a discussion that I'm gonna allow you to lead my friend because this is a topic that you brought in here, the collection complete versus cosmetics. Harry Perry, you actually recently released a video, which I thought was very thought provoking, and I'm gonna link in the description down below. Why don't you give us a breakdown of, uh, kind of your thoughts about being collection complete versus getting the cosmetics you you want, and, uh, an idea of what you discussed in that video and why it's so important to you.

Harry: 42:02

Well, I'll tell you the, what started it is that I started a Discord, like that was a newer thing, is that I invited my viewers to come and join me on Discord. And I started to see this like really interesting comparison between a few people in the Discord where like one or two people were like really focused on token maximization and they were talking about cards that have been data mind and like, like really? Um, yeah, just like budget focused with their tokens. And then there were other people that were like showing brand new ultimate variants they bought and like, you know, maxing and they're like, oh, and I had to spend gold on the boosters for this one, so I could max that like, like just completely different experiences when it comes to currency in Marvel Snap. And so it kind of, it kind of led to this idea of like, you know, what, is there a, an appropriate mentality of collection complete versus cosmetics? Because, uh, to my own point, like to my own fault, the reason that I was talking about having to skip cards this season is that I've been buying too many cosmetics, like the amount of spotlight variance I've bought for cards that I enjoy. And then, so then I was like, it was creating the stress for myself that like, I can't get the new cards. What am I gonna do? How do I make a video about the new card? I haven't, you know? And so it led me to this point. Eventually I released this video about like games in general and, and media and technology in general do a lot to make us feel bad emotions to con control our actions and get us to act a certain way. Is there like a way that as people, we can take that back, that we can kind of take the ball back into our court and have some control over that. And that was the point of the whole video is like, collection, completeness or cosmetics is kind of a personal decision, but you can enjoy either one and be at a really healthy place with the game. Is kinda what the video was all about.

Alex: 43:38

Yeah. Because in theory, like everyone has, you know, there's a. There's a scarcity of money, right? You can't just, yeah. Unless you're gonna completely wail and everything, you often can't have both. You can't have the cosmetics you want, you can't have the progression you want. You usually gotta pick one or the other. And I do see, you know, players actually destroy is a good example of this, right? There's gonna be destroyed players who have all, matte black borders, inked, everything.'cause they only play, I was talking about my brother. My brother has all gold, everything and every board were imaginable on his, uh, ongoing decks. That's what he wants to play. But here's the thing. You're gonna sacrifice using those tokens and using your resources on progression to get those cosmetics. And you're right, game companies do go out of their way to design these tactics. FOMO tactics are a great example of this, right? You know, anytime there's, uh, some sort of FOMO being applied, just like with the way, oh, even in Marvel Snap use a great example of this and there's a million different examples, but you know, if, you know, you, if you stay up to date collection, compete complete, you only spend the 5K tokens, not six k. If you let the packs roll over and you skip cards, it's hard to gamble that 5K'cause you're not able to target the card you want. You have to spend the extra thousand to get the card you are picking. And if you start missing tons of cards, well then what happens if you're like, you know what, yeah, I want to, I wanna start playing head pool. I need to get Nico Minoru. And you're like, bro, I haven't seen Nico Minoru in two months in the rotation. And then the rotation comes. Yeah, you can pin her or whatever, but you're sweating man. You're sweating there, waiting for Nico Manar so you can play. So there's a lot of like inherent FOMO tactics that are used by these types of games to get you to spend money and keep the lights on. Which, I mean, of course they're business, that's what you expect. Card games sell cards, right? That's kind of the expectation. But I like what you're saying here. You're saying well make a choice sometimes, like don't, don't allow them to kind of steer your emotions, but rather make a conscious choice. This is a card that you used, a great example, Mirage. Actually, I don't wanna steal it from you. Tell me about what made you decide to buy like a, a variant from Mirage. I think this is a great example that you used in your video.

Harry: 45:36

Yeah. I just like, I love Mirage. I love Victoria Han. I've talked about that card many times and Mirage is one of my favorite cards to, to companion with her. And so like, this was weeks ago I saw I, I like. Put on the Reddit, like what's your favorite Mirage variant?'cause I have some good ones and I like, thought I had the best one. And then someone came back and it was one of the spotlight ones. I was like, oh no, that's so much better. I like that one so much. And so I kind of told myself like, oh, if that comes into my shop, I'm gonna get it. I really like that one. No, it's not that one. It's the one where she's on the, um, the like the moped, the little scooter thing. Do you have that one?

Alex: 46:11

She got some great, no, I don't have that one.

Harry: 46:12

I skipped that one. She's got some great variance. That's one of my favorites. That one right there though. I don't have that one. Um, yeah,

Alex: 46:19

this is I think the original spotlight. Yeah. She seen twice, right?

Harry: 46:23

Yeah. So it's the second one where she's with the scooter. I don't know what it is about that one I really like. And um, it was really funny because I had, well, like, had just done the math of like how many tokens I had and how many I needed for the season. I was like, okay, I'm gonna be good. I think I can get all these cards. And then like the very next shop rollover, she came into my shop and I was like, oh, dang it. Like, what do I do? And so I ended up getting her and I was like way happier with that. And I ended, I can't remember what card I ended up skipping. It was one of them from last season. And I was like way happier that I had the Mirage variant. And all I kept doing was playing that Mirage variant. And people were like, heart, like star eye emoting on it. And like, it, like, I was so much more fulfilled and so much happier with the Mirage variant than I was whatever card that I can't even remember that I skipped. And, uh, yeah. So I'm, I'm, you know, no buyers remorse whatsoever.

Alex: 47:09

That's awesome. Yeah, and I mean, we lose sight of that a little bit. Not actually, I gotta blame ourselves a bit too. Not, not necessarily like just us as content creators too, because the way this release cycle is designed is that, um, we're kind of like. Part of the problem. Like we create these videos talking about the cards, and does it FOMO people in? Of course it does. And I think one of the natural pressures that people don't realize is like, there's a lot of pressure on YouTube to get things out fast. Like, yes, I would love to hum and haw about Scarlet Witch. Zombie Scarlet Witch for four days to come to a very, very accurate assessment with all the stats and all that. But people don't want that. They don't want a video four days late about they want a video the day it's released with first impressions, Alex, make the call. Should I get this card or should I not? Yeah, that's what they want. Right? And it's so hard. And so it creates like this system where like we're talking about cards and our, uh, evaluations could potentially be flawed. And then what happens is is cards could perform exceptionally well. And then all of a sudden, like even with my, my sample size, I might only play 30 games. Right? Like, how many games can a man play in a four hour stream or whatever, right? So your sample size is also an issue too. And so like, you know, in some ways us as creators we contribute to this fomo this kind of news cycle. Although we try our best to be as critical as possible, as truthful as possible. But like sometimes you whiff, right? And for me it's heartbreaking to think that like, here's an example that's, that's been heartbreaking for me. I loved fire hair and I thought fire hair was gonna be really, really cool. And it is really, really cool. And I remember my video suggesting, I think you gotta get fire here. I don't think there's another card like this, but realistically it has had a turbulent. Meta share. Like, it, it seen some play in Victoria hand and that's cool with like, you know, the, the hood into Victoria hand and then you destroy it with the misery and all that stuff and then like you're feasting. Sure. But it has not had the meta penetration that I had hoped or that I thought it was going to have. And so for me, I take that seriously. I know there's people out there that bought fire here and have not played fire here. You know what I mean? And I feel like that's a risk we run every week. And so when you brought up this topic of like, can we resist these FOMO antics a little bit? It meant a lot to me.'cause I, I try to encourage people to wait till the end of the week, see how the stats come out and so it really struck home.

Harry: 49:28

Yeah. Well I appreciate that it's a topic that like, not necessarily related to the FOMO taxes of Marvel Snap, but just like in general, I know you're a teacher. I was a teacher. I'm not currently, but I previously taught high school and like being among kids that like I really care about and have a passion for helping them live good lives. I just like realized that in general. And not just on kids, but you see it in them a lot e even as me as an adult, that just like our world has kind of made us less intentional. And so I'm, I have like a big passion for helping teach people how to be more intentional in every part of our life. Because there's so many people that are so smart working so hard to take that away from us, which is like not trying to be overly heavy. So that like I, if, if I can somehow contribute that to Marvel Snap, I'd love to. And if that means that more people are gonna buy Mirage variants, then so be it. I'll star eyes every single one that I see.'Cause I like, I think it's, it, it is an interesting thing how we as content creators do, contribute to this. Like the how I, I think there's like an underestimation of how much content creators control the meta. Like, I, I really wonder if. Next week in the top 10, you like threw in a devil dino deck. Somehow. If there was a good one, there probably isn't. But if there was a good devil Dino deck, how quickly other people would start playing that, which is like, amazing and like speaks to how much people trust you, which is a good thing. So I, you know, I'm trying to use that small amount of trust I have to, to help people be a little bit healthier in, in the ways that the game has their grips on'em. But I'm, I'm curious for you, Alex, like in the conversation of cosmetics versus collection, complete lists, like what gets you fomo, more good cosmetics or like the new cards. What, what are you more of?

Alex: 51:02

So, it's funny you say that. First of all, I feel like I have to have every card. I feel like I have to have every card. And, uh, so that's something that kind of, uh, you know, I, I try to stay up to date because I feel like the expectations that I do play them, that I do get personal, uh, kind of experience with cards. I can talk about them on the podcast with a degree of confidence, right? Because I think that's what people expect. I think that's rightfully so, too. I think that people should expect me to put, you know, to play the cards I'm talking about. So that's, that's number one. With regards to cosmetics, I feel like I'm pretty good with FOMO into things. However, what I try to search for is I want one good variant. Give me one good variant and one good split, and I'll never look at another. For instance I don't know what they could do to get me to get a better variant than this, or a better split than this. It's like for me, like this death variant is too good. I'm, I'm done. I'm done. Like, I'm not, I'm not gonna seek another split here. Like you, you can't get me. Another example is like, she hulk, I don't care what you throw my weight. Like I'm just, it's so good. I know. It's so good. Right? I'm not trying to flex you. I'm just saying it's like I just need one good split and one good variant and I am more than happy. And so that's kind of the way I approach the cosmetics. Uh, like this is an ultimate variant. Like I did fork out the ridiculous amount of tokens. I regret this by the way. I regret the ultimate variant a hundred percent. And one I will say I absolutely regret is armor. Here's a great example. Okay. I spent way too much money on this armor variant. And you're like, Alex, it's not even that impressive. I know. Well, first of all, I thought the, the, the red board mastered nice. And you know, she's armored. So this metallic in the background I thought was pretty cool. Instead of going, yeah, it looks good. But honestly, like the honest truth is that like I paid so much more. They, they released this one for free, man, I paid so much money for that expensive fantasy one, and then they're like, yo, I don't remember what it was for. They're like, we're gonna release this free armor variant. And they just gave it away. And yes, it's better than the one I'm using, but I did not pay 6,000 tokens for this. So you damn well know to just hold my pride together. I'm using the one I paid for. So this is an example of where like I actually have absolutely, like I regret all of it. I regret every single token I spent on this.

Harry: 53:11

No, I know what you mean. Yeah. I'm, I'm a big fan of splits in the game. That's actually probably one of my favorite parts about the game is, is all the splits in the cosmetics of the game. Like, I'm surprised how much I enjoy that. But yeah, the funny thing is that Mirage variant that I talk about, how much I enjoy it, it creates so much conflict in me though, because I have a different mirage variant that they're obviously you can customize cards so they have a God split on'em, but it looks better on the Peach Mom co variant that I have. But I'm like, oh, that one didn't cost 6,000 tokens. Like, I gotta use the other one. So I know exactly what you mean.

Alex: 53:41

That's funny. But, uh, but yeah, anyways, a very interesting conversation. I feel like we could go on forever, uh, about that specifically. And, uh, yeah, let us know if there's any, like what you guys think about, you know, fing into cosmetics or collection complete. And I, you know what? I will say, I bet you with, with the golden gauntlet being done and like a little bit more of a focus on competitive Snap, which is nice, I'm so happy that they're finally doing that. I wonder if becoming collection complete is something that more people that wanna be competitive, they seek, if there's a competitive met out there and they want to rank up and they want to compete, they want to compete for rewards or, uh, whatever it is that they're that drives them, they gotta have the cards. You know what I mean? And so, uh, yeah, lot, a lot of decisions to be made out there. And uh, that takes us to our Snapchat mailbag. We've got only a couple questions this week, and I think they're doozies. I think they're fun ones. And one of them comes from Sasha and it reads, I learned today. The word kernel is spelled this way because it has Italian origin, col, ello. I can't even say I'm Italian. I don't wanna say it, but it's pronounced kernel spelled legitimately like a popcorn kernel because of the Spanish pronunciation of the word kernel, which I guess has some reference to popcorn. So apparently there's some like, is it called etymology? Which is how, I don't even know if I'm saying that word right? Like the way that language is spoken. I dunno. Someone I'll, whatever. It's not the last word I'll mispronounce here.

Harry: 55:02

Yeah, I did. The funny thing is, so I'm dyslexic and like kernel for the longest time has been, so this is the strange thing about dyslexia is that like some words I still like, I don't know what it is, I can't read them, but I know like I've just memorized in my brain that like, oh, whatever that thing is that I can't read that is this, which is like the weirdest way to read language. And kernel is genuinely one of those words that like, I actually don't even know how to spell it, but I know that. It's kernel, if that makes like, it's just a weird word.

Alex: 55:29

And the last question of the day comes from interior of Kevin. And, uh, wow. We went, people went off about this. I never thought I'd like Alex more. And then he mentions Heroes two and three. Wow. Literally my favorite nostalgic games of all time. My brother and I used to play them as kids taking, uh, taking turns at the pc. What's crazy about this? So here I want to hear about your nostalgic games, but what's crazy about this is I've been playing Here's of My Magic Two and three for like weeks. I don't know why I've been addicted to them. I didn't even realize Old and Arrow was even coming out. And then like, then I just stumbled across it and literally the demo was released. Like last week. I saw Grubby playing it on Twitch. Like all these people were playing it on Twitch and stuff. I'm like, what are the chances? And then on Game Pass, which has it's all other controversy, they added literally Heroes two and three to Game Pass. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. Like I, I felt like I was the only one on the planet paying attention to this game. And now all of a sudden, a 10 megabyte. Heroes two ends up on Game Pass from 1996. I mean, bless their hearts. I, anyways, what are your nostalgic games from your childhood that like you just can't help but go back to Every once in a while?

Harry: 56:31

Oh, the one that like, that is always my go-to answer is um, um, Lego Star Wars. The original saga that is like episodes four, five and six in the Lego format. That was my brother and I, we would get in legitimate fights with each other'cause it was only two player and we had friends down the street that were also brothers that were our same age. And so like the four of us, right? Me and the older brother and then my younger brother and the younger brother would like genuinely get and wrestle fistfights over who gotta play Lego Star Wars first when we'd hang out together as kids. So that's like one that like, just is every time I go back to that game, it just like feels. Great. Is probably the one but the one that I still go back to, and it's actually the only reason that I still have a, we u it's right next to my PC here is monster hundred three. Ultimate, I just, the hours I've wasted in that game, I just I can't, it's the stu console that it's the only reason I have, it's for this one game.'cause you can't play it anywhere else. And I, I'm like the one person left in the world who has a weu. For Monster Hunter, and it's a great game.

Alex: 57:31

You mean you're the one person in the world that even bought the Weu? Yeah.

Harry: 57:35

That too.

Alex: 57:36

Yeah. But, uh, it's funny, I've never actually played a Monster Hunter game, but thinking back, like when you were talking about like fist fights, I actually watched multiple fist fights happen. I would give two scenarios where I saw legit fist fights. One, I was a kid, me and my brother went to our neighbor's house. They had two brothers too, very similar to your situation. We were playing, uh, perfect dark on N 64. Yeah. And we're playing, right. And then, uh, one of the brothers, Snipes, the other brother, he's like, stop peeking at my screen. He's, and everyone's like, yo, chill. And then we're playing. He gets him again. He's like, you're staring at my screen. And literally, like, they started just fighting like pure fist fight. Dad had to come over. Break'em up and I'm like, ah, we're done for today. I guess and then the other thing, we had a land party. Oh, this is such a funny story. So we're having a land party. My parents, they went on vacation, right? This is how cool I am in high school. My parents go on vacation and they're like, don't do anything stupid, Alex. Like, we know you won't, but also just don't do anything stupid. I'm like, yeah, I won't. So I'm like, I'm just gonna have a party with some friends over though. They're like, not too many. We're like, okay. We everyone brings their PCs over, like their, their monitors, everything. We set up like tables, a whole land station in my, my parents' basement. And uh, what happened was, is like we were all playing, we were all playing, uh, Warcraft three brain of chaos at the time, and we're doing like eight V eight, like, uh, sorry, like eight FFAs and all this stuff. And I remember my neighbor, uh, my dad's best friend Bill came into the house and was like, yo, comes into the basement to see like, what's going on. And he just, he's like. 10 dudes playing Warcraft. He's like, all right, nevermind. This is not what I thought it was. And he just leaves. In the meantime, we're all playing, uh, Warcraft three. And my brother, anybody who's played this game would know my brother. Tower rushes like one of our other buddies. And Tower rushing is like a scumbag play. We're basically like right off the ramp, you just start building in the other guy's base, like, you know what I mean? Like, as the person getting tower rushed, it sucks so bad, like you don't even get to play the game. And then literally my brother, like all of a sudden my buddy's unit stopped moving and we're like, uhoh. And we can hear him come out from the other room and like, he just started swinging. Like there was no conversation. He was like, basically like, how dare you tower rush me. It just started throwing hands like immediately, like we had to break them up, the whole thing. And what was funny is it didn't even ruin the night. Everyone just kept playing. So it was fine.

Harry: 59:49

Yeah. Oh man. Those, those experiences like that are the best. It reminds me of my, a different group of friends, but down the street he had an N 64 and, uh, we would go over there and we'd play, we'd have, we had a, we went as a group of friends, we rode our bikes to a Walmart that was near us to buy a whiteboard, like a giant one that you'd see in like a classroom so that we could host our bracket tournaments of Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. And that's like one of my core memories is us like balancing this whiteboard on my handlebars and the back of his bike as we like, rode in tandem together to carry this whiteboard home. And then we just someone would get super mad and they'd just get up and just erase the whole whiteboard and then like, punch it and then leave the room and then they'd come back like an hour later and be like, okay, I'm back in the tournament. You know, like, just, it was so much fun. But the other story you told reminded me of one in, I'm sure we're outta time, but we had a land party for Halo three. The church that I was in has like a, a youth group. And one of our youth leaders when I was a youth loved Halo. And so he had a land party in the church building in, there's like a big gymnasium in the church, like a basketball court. And then on all the walls there's projectors. So there's like eight projectors I think in there. Eight, eight or 10, I can't remember. I haven't been there in a while. Anyway, eight or 10 projectors. And so we, everyone brought their Xbox and we had a huge land party playing Halo three in the church. And, uh, we were staying up really late, just having a ton of fun. But it ended because two people started like screaming at each other and almost started fighting. And the youth was like, whoa, whoa. Like this isn't appropriate. This is a church setting. Everybody go home now. And you know, but yeah, someone's always gotta ruin it.

Alex: 1:01:22

It always has to end in a fight somehow. Right? Yeah. That's absolutely hilarious. But, uh, yeah, Harry, honestly, it was fantastic having you on the podcast this week. This has been such a long time coming, and as I said earlier in the podcast guys, I truly believe that Harry's a fantastic content creator. Do me a favor. Go hit the sub button. You gotta sub to this man. Give him some love'cause he absolutely deserves it. Thank you so much for joining us this week, and we'll see you on that next one.