The Great Ezekiel Sims Debate | Top Cards of the Month | Why is Scream So Annoying? | The Snap Chat Ep. 157

Is Ezekiel Sims a cracked 2-cost or an easy skip? Is Spider-Man Noir the next busted card like Wiccan, or just too many hoops to jump through? And what's the final verdict on Chameleon: a "skip" or the next Prodigy? Join Alex Coccia and special guest DeraJN 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 Guest Welcome
• 1:06 "Alright, Chums Up, Let's Do This!"
• 1:51 From WoW to High APM Gaming
• 4:53 The Great Lore vs. Gameplay Debate
• 11:05 New Card: Ezekiel Sims - Cracked or Skip?
• 22:54 New Card: Chameleon - A "Nay" From Us
• 29:38 New Card: Spider-Man Noir - Busted or Too Many Hoops?
• 36:39 Spider-Man Noir Deck Archetypes
• 37:02 Star Ratings & The "Wiccan" Test
• 38:07 Final Verdict: Spider-Man Noir
• 41:11 Top Cards of the Month
• 41:31 Top 1-Cost: Batroc is Cracked
• 46:03 Top 2-Cost: Why Scream is So Annoying
• 51:17 Top 3-Cost: Hercules & Terrax
• 55:52 Top 4-Cost: Wiccan & Malekith
• 59:02 Top 5-Cost: Enchantress & Man-Spider
• 1:02:06 Top 6-Cost: Zola & Destroyer
• 1:05:50 Mailbag: "The Best Way to Come Back is to Never Leave"
• 1:10:01 The Snap Creator Community

Transcript

Akex: 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of the Snapchat. Today I'm joined by one of my good friends, Dara. And you know what I have to say? I almost wish I was recording the last 20 minutes of our conversation'cause we went off the rails because just before I started recording I said, alright, Dara chums up. Let's do this. And he had no idea what I was talking about. Hit me in the comments, if you know what I'm talking about. Alright, chums up, let's do this. That is like, like, that is like holy language that almost every gamer should know. And you coming from a blizzard background, working with her stone and all that stuff, I thought you would've known but dare you didn't. And then you question me. Tell us about what you've done and what you've now learned.

Dera: 0:42

You know, I, I actually didn't just, I just didn't know the first part. Alright. Chums up. I like, obviously everyone knows let's do this. You know, that's, that's the quote. I know, you know, but

Akex: 0:53

I like how we're leaving out, like the most important, like after the

Dera: 0:55

leave it

Akex: 0:56

do this.

Dera: 0:57

So it's in the comments, you know, that's how it goes. Actually, now all the comments are gonna be this, you know, now we're not gonna have any interesting comments, but, you know, but whatever. All right, good.

Akex: 1:06

I just remember the internet back in those days. You know what I mean? When like trying to figure out like, oh, first of all, everyone had to be keyed for BlackRock layer, right? You had to get a key done. You had to go on like a massive quest, right? In order to get like access, you didn't get a

Dera: 1:18

key.

Akex: 1:20

I'm almost positive you had to get a key, you had to be attuned for it. Right?

Dera: 1:24

Did you or did just one person have to be attuned? I actually don't remember. That was back in the day. Yeah.

Akex: 1:28

I'm almost 99% positive. You had to be attuned to get into the Black Rock spire.

Dera: 1:33

It's possible. I just like did it and then never remembered that I did it. So it's, I literally haven't done that.'cause I never played Wild Classic. I just played like the original, wow. 20 years ago. That was the last time I played. Wow. So.

Akex: 1:44

Yeah, for the record, everybody who's listening right now confuse us. Like heck as to what we're even talking about. We're talking about the good old Leroy Jenkins, and we're talking about the original world of Warcraft back in the day. Uh, this is a World of Warcraft podcast now, but, um, but yeah, like, it's just so funny. So first of all, I, I have to ask Derek. Okay, so World of Warcraft, when it came out when I was in high school, right? So when I was basically from grades like eight to. 10 ish. I played nothing but Warcraft. Reign of Chaos. Warcraft frozen throne. Same. I actually got to the top 50 in North America. I was top 50 na as night Elf. Uh, believe it or not, I would literally, me and my, my best friend who lived next door, we would join like micro uh, micro wars. Kinda like, you know how like they had custom mods and stuff? It's where like Rodda started. Yep. I would literally go into verse him in micro wars where like you'd have two units and you'd have to micromanage your units to beat each other and stuff like that. To like physically train to play Warcraft three. And I was so good. Like I had all the hockeys down where I could, I would like hockey individual units and stuff like that, and then micromanage them all around the battlefield. It was like crazy. A PM through the roof. Total opposite of what we do now is card gamers. RPA our a PM is super low, but like what was your high school? Game that you were like Absolutely all in on, because for me it was Warcraft three, and then it was World of Warcraft into high school, into college, university.

Dera: 3:11

Oh, well I feel like we're the same age'cause it's exactly the same, so I played rate of chaos into Warcraft three. I played Doda though in Warcraft three, like I played, that was my custom thing that I played a bit of. Like, I also got, I got like top 200 actually on the ladder. We probably faced each other on the ladder if you're US east. So, you know, like that's possible like on Warcraft three thinking back. But yeah, I played, I played Doda, uh, like, and then I, uh, I, I didn't even play a card game. I literally didn't play any card games until Hearthstone came out. That was like the first card game I really played a serious amount of, which is kind of crazy to think about. Like, yeah, I was, I played, I played like eight months of wow and quit that, but. I wouldn't say, but yeah, Doda and Warcraft three were my bread and butter

Akex: 3:56

buddy. I literally had a Doda two channel that was what my YouTube channel was. I before I found that

Dera: 4:03

out last podcast.

Akex: 4:05

Yeah. So it's so funny, like, yeah, we are we the same person, but are we the same person? For me, I played so much. Wow. Growing up, like I remember doing like the slash time played or whatever slash played, I think was the command and it saying like. 27 days. Something, two years.

Dera: 4:20

Oh, only 27 days. That's not,

Akex: 4:21

but that's on one character. That was on my or shaman. And I was actually manning a night elf priest. And I was like, bru, like I think this is way too much time. Like if I had committed 27 days to like throwing a football, I'd be a quarterback in the NFL. You know what I mean? Like, not actually quite, you know what I mean? It's like if you think that, if you put in that perspective, like if I had just been reading books instead of playing, wow. Yeah. Where would I have gotten? Maybe, but you know what, if I, if I was reading books not playing, wow, maybe I wouldn't have had a career as a professional streamer slash YouTuber. Right? So maybe it all did work out actually. But, um, it's kind of funny, like how we all have, uh, very similar roots in games and like, I remember, um, my favorite thing about classic games, and I promise guys, we're gonna talk about Marvel Snap soon. Okay? One of my favorite things, and this might be totally crazy, I used to love. The instruction manuals. Because the instruction manuals didn't used to just be instruction. They used to be like lore guides. They used to have stories. They used to have tons of stuff. Like if you think about like the original StarCraft manual, I still have it. It's a thick piece of paper that has tons of lore about the history of the StarCraft universe. I remember getting like the Age of Empires manuals, and it would have complete biographies of each of the factions. You would read it as like an actual historical piece, like there was education found in those manuals and now they don't even exist anymore. And I think it's sad. Dara,

Dera: 5:42

you know, I found the teacher in the room. This guy's talking about books, you know, but yeah, I, that's just Wikipedia nowadays, you know that that's how it's a little sad, but also I don't mind, it's all like just digital and available for free and everyone just can go read up on the lore of whatever anytime they want. I think that's cool too. But. I'm going to spoil everyone in the chat here and be the bummer that like, I'm actually the opposite of a lore person. I actually have never really cared about lowering games, and I've never really played a game for the lore. Am I a bad person?

Akex: 6:14

You are not a bad person. I'm just disappointed. But, um, you know, it's one of those things where like, I feel like Lauren's stuff is definitely secondary to the experience for the most part. But I feel like if you really want to dive into the lore of something and you start like reading up on the game, you're playing and you start to appreciate like the nuance to what you're doing. Like for instance, prior to playing Witcher three, right? Even though I played the Witcher two, I never played the first Witcher. I actually ended up reading all like six or seven books of the Witcher series and it gave me so much additional context. And when I ran into certain cities or I bumped into certain people or certain things happened, I was like, wow. This is what the city looks like from the story and how it was different from my imagination. And I, it kind of added this different layer to the experience for me, which I appreciate. I remember doing that for the Witcher. I remember for Mass effect, I read all the novels for Mass Effect while playing the games as well. And it gave me a new appreciation for like who Captain Anderson was, his history, stuff like that. And like a lot of stuff would come from like, the story and the beats. We're almost referencing some of the written articles. Halo is big for that too. Halo is really big for like, a lot of the lore actually being found in literature as opposed to the game itself to kind of cons like bring into, um, like concept what you're seeing and why you're seeing it. So there, if I could sell you on lore, I'm gonna tell you it's definitely worth it. Like don't go, I'm not talking about like, you know, the Tumblr lore, you know what I mean? I'm don't do that. That's, that's a whole different category that's like, you know, the fan fiction side. We're not talking about that. We're talking about like official lore. I'm telling you, it's worth it.

Dera: 7:49

You see, I'm a big movie TV show, book person. Like I like that form of media for like storytelling. I just never found games to be the best medium for storytelling, you know? So it's just like if I'm going to like there are new games out like dispatch and other games like that do, I've heard great things that I haven't tried it out and I would be interested in those kind of games, choose your own adventure kind of storytelling games. But I feel like in general, just like I'm in a game for the gameplay, you know, I'd rather them cut out the gameplay and just give me a movie and I'll watch the movie, the TV show. But actually I did. It was something you said really resonated with me is that like you do see like the characters and that you feel a little bit differently. I kind of see it a little bit backwards actually for me.'cause actually. Bringing this back to Marvel Snap. Uh, the what, the, the Snapchat. He

Akex: 8:36

did it,

Dera: 8:36

you know, I'm

Akex: 8:37

talking about Marvel Snap.

Dera: 8:39

I actually, before Marvel Snap was not like a massive Marvel fan, you know, like I never really read the comics. I did watch every MMCU movie, you know, like, that was my Marvel, you know, it was like, I just, I had watched every MCU movie and I didn't really know many of the characters, but as Snap characters came out, I actually was introduced to a lot of the characters first in Marvel Snap. And like, I knew them, like, and how they kind of interacted and like, some of their abilities a little bit just because of that. And then when I would go watch a movie that they had a, the character in Snap before I saw the movie or whatever, I'm like, oh, there's Ebony Ma, you know, or something like that. I'm just like, there's this character, you know, it's just like, just random characters. I have no idea who they were, you know, before I, like, I never even paid attention to that character before I knew it in Marvel Snap. And now it, it comes out and I'm like, oh. I know who that is. That's kind of cool.

Akex: 9:30

I experienced the exact same thing, like watching back the original X-Men and seeing like Sauron and KR and stuff like that. Uh, I thought that was super cool. And you're right, like once you put a name to the face, it kind of, it, it's just like the story resonates a little differently with you, right? They're not just faceless characters that are like, you know, dime a dozen, like, nah, you know, that's, you know, that's iceman or whatever. And I think that's particularly cool, right? Even like Havoc. Havoc and Polaris and stuff like that. Like seeing them in like kinda the X-Men series was kind of cool too. I still have not finished X-Men 97. I'm on like the last episode, which is so stupid. Like, I, I don't know why I do this all the time. I do this all the time guys. There are a bunch of things that I'm on, like the last stage of like the New Dragon Age game. I'm literally on like the last mission. Like, it was like, are you sure you want to continue? There's no going back. And I'm like. All right, I'll play that later. And it's been like two years. Um, I've not finished X-Men 97 despite being on the last episode. There's a whole bunch of examples of this. I didn't finish, uh oh. What? Midnight Suns. I was on the last mission of Marvel's Midnight Suns for like seven months until I eventually just did it one day when I was sick. I was like, I just gotta finish this game. So I just did it. So, uh, you know, maybe, maybe next time we talk, I'll have to report back on the end of X-Men 97. But, uh, I mean, that was, that was fun, man. It's fun. It's so crazy me to think that, like, despite the fact that like, you know, we come from completely different areas, different countries, really, and yet we had such a very similar experience with like the games we were playing and where we've ultimately ended up too. Um, I think that's so fascinating. Just like I find. Ezekiel Sims. Fascinating. How about that transition? Ezekiel Sims, I gotta tell you, this is a card that, uh, to suggest that I'm not particularly excited about would be an understatement. Dara, Ezekiel Sims did come out in the series five packs this week, and despite ultimately having pretty okay stats, he felt slightly underwhelming. I'd be interested in your thoughts and, uh, what your experience with Ezekiel Simpson has been.

Dera: 11:29

I actually completely disagree. I think he's been cracked, like, actually, like, I'm not even just like glazing the card. Yeah. I actually have been playing a lot of Ezekiel Sims the last like, four or five days, and I think he's actually been carrying some heavy weight. Like I've been playing him in just like a, a hydro, uh, hydro stober deck. The hydro stober deck. I think just like it moves a lot of stuff around. He's moving around a lot. And it's just been really, really good. It like Ezekiel is a two six minimum in those decks all the time. And then he is a two eight and he cabos with Craven. He cabos with Hydro Stomper. So not only is he a 2 6, 2 8, he's also buffering these other cards around. So I think it's really good.

Akex: 12:13

Okay. Interesting. So, uh, like for me, I definitely felt like he was okay at times and I mean, it's nice to have like move, enable, uh, enablers and also even if he doesn't move, like let's say locations are full or whatever, he'll still get the buff, which I think is beneficial. Like he still gets that additional power. I think the buff to Vision helped because it gave you another line to like, oh, he's a two eight vision's now a five nine, so it'll allow Ezekiel Sims to jump again. Small things like that I think did help Ezekiel Sims overall, the problem was is that like, I felt like he was pretty high committal, like he was good power, like you're suggesting, but like how would you compare, like how would you sell someone spending six K tokens on Ezekiel Sims when they have something like a silk.

Dera: 12:55

I'm saying you put Silk and Ezekiel sims together. Like that's what I'm saying, like he's the, a card on the deck. I think Ezekiel Sims and Silk are pretty even in that deck. Like I, I actually think, uh, silk is a, is gonna be a little bit more, uh, one of the problems with silk is that your opponent can also move silk, right? So it has some downsides to it. Eco sims, you're the only one moving it so you know when it's gonna move. And I think you said something like, uh, about vision. I think part of the problem with people building out their eco Sims deck is that they may be overcom committing to the build around for Eko Sims, I think he's best. When you just have like, like three cards that are bigger than five power that can buff him up to six or eight power, like I don't think you should really commit too much. Like maybe have one card in your entire deck that, that can, uh, send him to eight power. Like you don't need him to be eight power every game. I think just trying to get him to six. Is where the sweet spot is.

Akex: 13:55

That's absolutely fair. So what you're saying is like, this happens all the time. Every time there's a new card that comes out, it's like, you know what? We want to, we wanna see what it can do. And we hyper fixate on that one card, right? It happens all the time. We hyper fixate. Can we get this card to go crazy, do the thing that we want it to do? And we lose sight of the fact that like some cards are simply just supporting characters. They're supporting characters for archetypes. They're not supposed to be the carry. Of the archetype. And so Ezekiel Sims while still being able to get to two six or two eight, which like you take all day long on any card, like imagine if Jeff was a two eight, right? Like it's stupid, right? So like, yeah, you're right. Yeah. The power's there. Not to mention it's not just two eight, it's the movement and then the hydro stomp gets plus one craven gets the pluses, like there's more happening than just like Ezekiel's raw number, right? But I like what you're saying there because you're like, well, instead of focusing on Sims, like with the new hydro stomper, like he's getting well over 10 power on a consistent basis. So not only are you getting a two six or two eight Ezekiel sims, but now you have a hydro stomper that's at three 12 or whatever. And the power across the board is just high enough that like, you don't need to rely on Ezekiel Sims to close out the games. And as I said, you even have vision now, which got, uh, which got buffed to that five nine, which in and of itself is actually providing a lot of power and utility as well. So overall, you're actually pretty, uh, pretty positive, positive on Sims. Now I am. I came away kind of like. I was okay with Ezekiel Sims. The challenge I had though is like, I don't feel like I can recommend that this car be purchased because like, I don't feel like the top performing versions of Move are gonna want him. I feel like they're still gonna be pigeonholed into human torch style decks. And I don't think Ezekiel Sims makes those human torch style decks, which is according to stats I'm seeing on Untap. I don't see him there. In fact, according to Untap, the highest win rate version of Ezekiel Sims is actually a Sauron Serer deck because it has so many high power cards that can bounce it around. It's running a 55% win rate. I did feature it in, uh, my deck of the week video as well, but that kind of surprised me. And then second to that is going to be a, uh, move shell with like, you know, silk and what whatnot, and morales. But what I'm trying to say is like. Do you think it's worth someone investing in a card like Ezekiel Sims when we know that like there's so much competition in the space and he might not even be in the top performing versions of move? Like how do you spend your tokens if you're someone who does not have unlimited resources?

Dera: 16:13

I mean, without the unlimited resources, like it's gonna be tough to sell anything that I don't think it, Ezekiel Sims is necessary to play a move Hydro stober deck even, or like any deck. I do think he's a strong, very good character that is very flexible and can go into a lot of different archetypes. Like I think if you're looking at it, part of the problem with the stats that you're looking at is the fact that he's so flexible. He's actually being put into so many different small tweak decks that there's not gonna be a large sample size for any individual decks. So you're gonna have to drop your stats down to like 20 games to get anything that's like remotely like in the realm. Like no one's played a hundred games of like the individual decks with them because you could just tweak one or two cards and all a sudden it's a whole new deck. And it's gonna be a completely different archetype. And the, the stats nowadays, you know, if you're trying to do a hundred plus games, you're not gonna find many decks out there. It's gonna be whoever made a video on the card and everyone copied the one video card, you know.

Akex: 17:12

You're right, there is some quality in stats right now. Yeah. Especially since that, like realistically, we're actually getting a lot less games based on what I see. Like even kind of going through untapped and seeing where the statistics lie and like how many games are being played, A lot of people seem to be playing in like the 80 to 90 and 90 to a hundred range. We're seeing much less infinite, straight up games. There's almost no games being played under Rank 60. So it looks like people are kind of ranking up towards the 80 range and then getting like stuck in this limbo, which we've talked about. And actually we have, we got like a bunch of comments about that too. I don't think we're talking about it today, but a lot of people talking about like the bots still being frustrating for the most part, and, uh, they're finding the grind experience, uh, you know, not favorable. It seems as though people really did like that robot. Every once in a while. They just gave them the eight cubes to help them kind of keep stepping up that rung. Because I think a lot of people just wanna get the infinite, they wanna get the 90 reward for the 500 gold. They wanna just start playing the game again. They don't wanna have to worry about the ranked experience or whatever. And I feel like they're getting kind of bogged down in, in that. But I do like what you're saying because like, you're right. It is hard to focus on like what the popular decks are doing sometimes.'cause there could be a cookout there where Ezekiel Simpson is underutilized. And we do see this from time to time where like, you know, cards come out and they're kind of ho hum. Like Prodigy was a great example of this. Well, prodigy needed a little bit of extra help, right? Because it got like the end of turn additions and obviously the, uh, invisible women for staff. So Prodigy comes out very, very ho-hum and now he's in some of the best x in the game. Because of the interactions he provides. Right. I just don't see that still in Ezekiel Sims. So for me, like if people often look to us to give kinda recommendations, I feel like Ezekiel Sims can be skipped because I don't think that he's gonna carry the move archetype of your playing move. And I don't think that he completely replaces Silk despite the fact that you brought up a lot of good points as to how he's, uh, differentiated. But at the same time, Dara, and I'd love, I'd love your thoughts on this. I almost feel like I prefer move the way Ezekiel Sims is being played. I don't like the human torch. I'm getting a massive human torch going, moving around tribunal, whatever the garbage deck does. I'm sick of that. I'm sick of these all like, these one trick move decks where it's like you either answer it or you don't. I don't like that, that play style. I like the idea of like, oh, there's a, a big cr, there's a big Ezekiel Sims visions moving around. I feel like that's the way move should be played. More of like a broad power across all these different cards as opposed to like this one stupid human torch car that just stands above the rest.

Dera: 19:33

I, yeah, I, I completely agree with you. Some of my most fun move decks are actually the hydro stuper decks. Essentially the, like, I was running hydro stuper deck like six seasons ago or whatever, like whenever hydro Stober came out. And I was having so much fun with it. It was actually one of my like favorite decks of the entire season, and I climbed the most with that deck the entire season. You know, it's, it's actually good. I think it's underutilized and I think that's one of the things that a lot of people don't really realize. And they even buffed hydro stomper for some reason, even though I think that card was cracked before they buffed it. And I think it's because they just want people to realize how good that deck is and be able to play it. And I've just, I've been having a blast with it and winning with it and climbing a good amount. I think it is one of those decks that are harder to play. Move by just an archetype is hard to play. It's just like that, that's one of the things. So it, you might not find a lot of success with it, and that might just be something that like, maybe it is a skip for some people because it's. You move just isn't for you. But it's like, I think if you want to play move and you don't wanna play it in a unique, not just, like you said, pump up the human torch, boring, old, old style move way, I think Ezekiel Sims is something that does enable that. And I don't like, again, I don't, I don't even think that Ezekiel Sims is only good in those decks. I think you could play Ezekiel Sims in any sort of tempo deck, and it's gonna be a good two six in any of those decks as well. And you could just throw in like bat rock into that deck. I know that that's not how you pronounce it, but that's how I say it. But

Akex: 20:59

Chalk the Leaper and, uh, Regis called him Batman. Yeah.

Dera: 21:03

Yeah. I, yeah, he's Bat Rock. That's what he is. But I, I like, he just follows Ezekiel Sims around and just like, it's just growing. So I, I, I still like, I, I don't know. I, I wouldn't say it's a hard skip. I think it's a very flexible card and flexible cards are the ones that I try and recommend the most actually. Like Merlin for example, is just like a super flexible card that like is also pretty powerful. Like I think that's something that, it's just a good pickup for people that are just looking at like, what series five cards can I pick up that like I could target that just are gonna be good Right now it's like, it's hard to pick just one because, or just a couple because you're like, okay, well you need five other cards to get that one to work. But a card that could just be slotted into a lot of different things I think is pretty good to pick up.

Akex: 21:51

I have been on the, I love Merlin so much. Train for so long. It actually warms my heart to who you're bringing him up. I feel like Merlin and I, I feel like I say this almost every single week is probably the best card in Snap that doesn't get the, like the conversation of being the best card in Snap. It's like the best card that no one actually actively talks about being the best card in the game. It's just accepted that it's super good. But people don't quite realize like, oh wait, this might actually be one of like the top five cards in the game. You know what I mean? And I think that Merlin is incredible. I think it was in a fantastic season pass design too.'cause it like literally could go anywhere. Talk about a great season pass card, right? Can go anywhere, doesn't own itself to any particular archetype. If like, you're a casual player, you spend the 10 bucks, you get a card, you can put in almost any deck you feel like putting it in really. Right. I love Merlin. Thank you so much for bringing it up. Even though he was not directly the convers, uh, topic of conversation, but talking about. The topics of conversation here. We do have another card that did come out here as I try to, organize myself, I always just make fun of Cozy not being able to find cars. Now that I'm doing it, I'm like always confused 95% of the time. Three, three Chameleon on reveal copy the text of another card here. You revealed this turn. This is the series four drop that came this week. And, uh, Darrel, I'll give you the floor. What are your thoughts on Chameleon?

Dera: 23:07

Uh, you know, I'm not, I'm less convinced on Chameleon than Ezekiel. Like, I think Chameleon felt a little bit like it, it didn't really feel like it really did too much. Like it, it's a, it is just like an extra, like mystique and cerebro, it's like an extra Silver Surfer and Surfer. But the, like, the condition of having to play it out on the same turn as the card that you want to copy does really limit what you can do with it. And it really limits like your overall output with it. So I, I think. It just doesn't quite feel like, uh, selling new and fresh and strong. It, it does feel kind of like a skip to me, but it does feel like it might be the next prodigy where like it does end up having some really big cracked combos that people just like haven't quite locked down yet. And maybe that's gonna be what's gonna happen with that card.

Akex: 24:00

You literally, your analysis was exactly what I was gonna say. Like, that's the perfect, congratulations, Dara, you did it. You got 100% on your analysis. Dude. I couldn't agree more. It's literally exactly that. You should not be funneling into this card because there's nothing to FOMO into. Most importantly though, it would not surprise me if like some machine gun gambit deck or some sort of C3 or some sort of other combo deck comes out where chameleon is like a key component of it because of the fact that combo's so well, I had some hope that the like combination of like hazmat with it and I, and Ajax would've had some potential, but those decks are running like, like 49, 50% win rate range, right? Like they're not excellent performers according to untapped based statistics. And it goes to show you that like, honestly, like chameleon just isn't, it just isn't it sometimes. This is the kind of card that I feel like if you're at least interested in first of all, fortunately it's only 3000, uh, tokens as a series four. But if at some point in time a card like this becomes relevant and a deck comes out, you're like, hell yeah, I wanna play that deck, then you invest in a card like this. I don't think it's something you have to chase at all. Uh, statistically we do not have, according to Untapped, just before recording, we don't have a, like a positive win rate deck that has like more than 200 games on it. They're all running 49.6% win rates, you know, 48% that range all very mediocre. And those are like Surfer decks, Ajax toxic decks C3 decks, C3 C3 running 47%. So I mean, like, these are not good stats. Eight ranks 80 to a hundred, so you even have some bot inflation there. Stats don't back it up. And it also didn't pass like the play test either playing with it. I'm like, it had its moments and I felt like, again, I've said this a couple times, but it's a kind of card that you can, you can make in highlights. Look good. But in reality, you know, you're like, nah, bro, this ain't it. You know what I mean?

Dera: 25:47

Yeah, exactly. That. That's like, it pops off when it pops off, but it doesn't pop off enough to, for you to be like, okay, this card is cracked

Akex: 25:57

and you have like a, a good eye for like, you know, like car design, stuff like that. It's one of the things I think that you're the best at. Don't you feel like this text is also very weighty? Like if you think about the weight of each individual word here, right? Not a lot of words, but like, they have to be revealed. This turn played here, copying the text of like, it's, it's a well designed phrasing, but it's also very complicated phrasing. It's like saying three or four things at once and all of it kind of narrowing the niche of what the card can do to the point where like, I wonder if you get rid of, like, if you get rid of this turn part, is it just too cracked? Can you convo on the next turn? Does it have to be here? Is that too corrected? Can you play it in different locations or is that, you know, are you just splitting up, uh, you know, Ironman Power, you know, Ironman five Mystique Chameleon, it's just too much. I'd be curious what your thoughts on that. Like, do you think that if you need to Nerf, or sorry, if you need to buff this card, is approaching, buffing it via a change in one of the key parts of the text a viable way?

Dera: 26:55

Yeah. I actually, yeah, I honestly, until you just said this, I, when I was playing this card, I felt like the most annoying thing that I thought would just be, make the card so much better, but not cracked level better, but just like, feel so much better is getting rid of the here. Like, I actually, there were so many times that I, I just like, just wanted to play my cerebro and this in a different lane or something, and it's just like, you have to play in the same lane and on the same turn. And that's just really annoying. I think. I, I don't really like the fact that it's here and I think the card doesn't need the, here like it mystique, like, you know, is a card that doesn't need the hear and it feels like. Maybe they're trying to differentiate it a little bit from mystique'cause it gets, it has two more power and it copies any text, not just like on whatever ongoing text. So I feel like if you remove the here, does it become too much like other cards Maybe. But I, I think this is a card that could benefit from exactly what you said, the treatment of removing that condition and then I think it would just feel a lot better

Akex: 27:56

in some ways. Like it, it could potentially be a power crept mystique at that at that point, but it still has to be played that turn mystique. You can just play that last card, right? So you play your Ajax turn five roll the turnover and then you mystique whatever mystique hast. Like you can still do that. Mystique has the flexibility of that turn. So I wonder if like with Chameleon, yeah. Can you get rid of one of these extra conditions and make the card good or is it just too good? Then there's also nothing wrong with just letting it cook for a bit, but I think with, one of the problems with the release schedule we have is that cards don't get a chance to breathe. Like you're either relevant or you have to really crack. The decks and you have to crack the zeitgeist somehow before people pay attention to you again. There's probably good cards that if we continued cooking with, we probably could have sorted out, but there's the new thing every week there's a reason to move on and I feel like at the end of the day, cards get lost in the mix. You know what I mean? I think a chameleon might might just be exactly, that might just be lost in the shuffle.

Dera: 28:51

Yeah. I, I get to see you. You could enable some other really cool commas with this card if you get rid of the hero, right? Like,'cause you could play two really massive whatever play cards. Like you could wave with an extra energy, play a six drop, copy the six drop in two different lanes. Like you don't wanna do that both in the same lane. That doesn't make any sense. You know, just like things like that where you could just enable some different combos that could be really cool with this card, but without being able to separate the cards, it really just limits it to, buff decks. Uh, like our buffing other lanes somehow, you know?

Akex: 29:22

Alright, so Dara, before we move on to Spider-Man Noir, we're gonna get a yay or nay for token spend on Chameleon Dara. Yay name.

Dera: 29:30

Nay,

Akex: 29:31

I am right with you. This is a nay from both Adara and myself. It's a skip. It's a skip, which is pretty good if you like saving resources. Now, I guess the next question is gonna be, is Spider-Man noir a skip? Is it worth your tokens? Is it worth the purchase? Is it worth the hoops you have to jump through to get this card to do its thing? So I have to, you know, quickly read the card here. Uh, it is a four six, which got buffed by the way. It wasn't always a four six. It's a four six. It reads on reveal if your other card's in play cost exactly eight total. Add the top card of your deck here. Set its power to eight as a zero eight. Dara, what are your thoughts?

Dera: 30:13

I think this card is busted. I think this card is gonna be really good. I think the deck will build itself in the fact that like, I don't think it's gonna be that hard to meet that condition, to be honest. And the only time it's not gonna be. Easy to meet that condition is when you get like random RRG locations that just give you random like thing on the board that puts you over the, the total. I think other than that, this card is gonna be just like popping off. I could be wrong, like, but I actually do think the actual, when you get this condition met, it is such a big power spike that as long as you can meet that condition, like at least, 50, 60% of the games, I think that that's gonna be really, really cracked.

Akex: 30:56

So it's so interesting that you mention that.'cause I'm actually on the opposite end. I can see this card not landing on its feet and not because of okay, first of all, obviously the, it's an amazing effect. It's an extremely powerful effect. These are so many hoops to jump through, man. Like, this is a lot. And I think from a deck building perspective, like it's possible. You can talk about Mysterio and there's ways to get the numbers there. However, you, as you said, like you get a monster island, you're cooked, you get like, you know, ninja and all of a sudden your, your math is off, you're cooked, you don't draw the cards. You're expecting to draw in the order, you expect to draw'em, you're cooked. Like, there's so much that happens and I feel like this is one of those cards. It's like, man, that's too much of a headache. I could do all this. Or I could just play scream right now and it just does the thing and I just do my thing. And it's so much less stress, so much less math, so much less draw dependence. I just feel like the chances of this card being like a mainstay is so low because of its complexity. Is it a cool card? Yeah, but it's also, I bet you there's a lot of people out there that are like, honestly, Alex, I don't even want to, this card's too complicated. I just don't wanna engage with it. You know what I mean? I bet you there are people that are like, even after I've read it, they're still not even a hundred percent sure what it does. It's a lot of text on one card for a singular effect. But you're right, it is powerful. But Dara, I'll pass it off to you in this though. Like when do you Snap with this? Do you Snap when you're looking at your hand and you see, oh, I might be able to do this, but then you don't see the next two locations. What if the next two locations scam you? It's like one of those things where like, how do you know when your Snap condition is?

Dera: 32:28

I think, uh, well, I'm gonna relate it. Back to another four six that has what some people thought were a lot of conditions and wasn't gonna really work out. And now it's one of the most played cards and most overpowered cards in the game, WCAN. And you know, that card also, everyone thought too many hoops is not worth it. I thought that too, even after the first two days of playing the card. And then now look at it, wicked is like one of the most cracked cards that ever people are playing Quicksilver to play Wicked. You know? So I think that's gonna be this card. I think people are going to maybe play some weird, like one and two cost cards that might not fit normally into the deck, but it's gonna enable this card to go off. And when it does go off, this card is stronger than Wiccan when it goes off, in my opinion. So I think it, I think that is going to be when you Snap is gonna be like, when you feel like you're reasonably gonna meet the conditions and you have the card in hand. That's gonna be the same thing as when you have Wiccan. That's what everyone does. They're like, oh, I have my three drop in hand. I have my Wiccan in hand. I'm gonna Snap them after turn two. You know, so that, that's pretty much how it goes. I think you're gonna do the same like this. You're like, oh, I have the curve and I have the card in hand. Snap. So I think that I gave you in a few, I turn one. If you have that, you're just gonna Snap, turn two, you Snap. I think that's gonna happen.

Akex: 33:44

That's fair. Now are there any specific targets you want to hit with this? Uh, eight Additional power. I mean, you can't control what's on the top of your deck. And so like, you know, obviously there's cards that you can use to lead into this, but we'll get into that in a second. What are the primary targets you want to hit with this?

Dera: 34:00

So I am curious if this, uh, if this card, does it reveal with eight power is the question I actually don't know.'cause it says add the top card of your deck here. Set the power date. So does it set it after or is it like turning over with eight power?'cause it, if it's turning over eight power, you obviously want to have like a Mr. Sinister a brood. That's gonna be huge, right? Like, like you could put like an Ironman, but I actually don't think that's gonna be the deck that you build with this. I think it is gonna be Mr. Sinister brood stuff and it's just gonna be. You get some big power juicers,

Akex: 34:31

let's be honest, right? Those are also the cards you might want to include in a deck like that anyways, because Mr. Sinister can be used to get the costs set up right for your play going into turn four. Um, you know, a good example of that is also, uh, Luna, while Luna not necessarily benefiting from the eight, but Luna adds her own power, which is significant. Her three and also her uh, her little ice icicle is gonna be a one cost as well. So that's another way you can do it. Uh, you have Squirrel Girl, which adds the three onto the field to play. Shauna does the same. There's lots of different options. However, I do like what you're saying here,'cause Brood and Mr. Sinister would probably be in those decks. I'm just trying to figure out, like, obviously people go to things like Ironman and stuff like that, Gores, right? But at the end of the day, I think that having these replicated effects in these buff style decks would probably go a long way overall. So I guess I'll pass it to you here. What kind of deck do you see this performing the best, and if you think it's gonna be that correct.

Dera: 35:25

Like, I could see it going into just like a Surfer deck. I could see it going into just any other buff decks, like anything that, where cards benefit from being buffed like it is technically, I don't know if you like, have this hit of Shaw, would Shaw gain power? I'm not sure, but maybe anything that could like double its power in some way, you know, or anything that could, just, anything that could move around, you know, like a night crawler even, you know, being set to eight power, that's pretty good.

Akex: 35:53

I think Sebastian Shaw would not get buffed because it's, the card's power is being set. It's not being buffed itself. I think there's another card that's done that in the past, like, like Sebastian Shaw. If it gets hit with like a, oh, that's not a good example. I was trying to think of like, BA sets the power, right? Agent Venom sets the power. Yeah. It's

Dera: 36:11

negative power, but yeah.

Akex: 36:12

Yeah. It's negative is like, yeah.

Dera: 36:14

There is a location that sets the power to five. Right. So would that, well that sets the, not the base power though. This doesn't say base power though. It just has set the power. So I'm pretty sure it would get buffed if it, like, if it counts Shaw being on the board when it gets the buff, a Shaw gets it buffed actually in hand, in board or in deck. So I'm pretty sure Shaw would get buffed.

Akex: 36:34

So are you suggesting that this could potentially replace the likes of like a Galata or a Gwenpool and a Surfer deck? Or do you think that like those are still staples in there? You know, like usually you would run galactic gwenpool, but do you think you cut one of them for this?

Dera: 36:47

Yeah, I, I definitely think so. I think, I think you would, it might just be a whole new deck archetype. It might not even run Surfer to be honest. It might just be like a similarish deck to Surfer, like just a buff up deck that, uh, runs this.

Akex: 37:00

Okay.

Dera: 37:00

Within my,

Akex: 37:02

now last week I came in star ratings, uh, wise around two and a half to three, feeling the doubt. Dara, if you were to provide a star rating, what would you provide out of five?

Dera: 37:13

This, I'd probably give it a four.

Akex: 37:15

Nice. Four. Okay. And what do you think prevents it from getting to five?

Dera: 37:18

I don't like just the conditions, you know, I, I like, it could be a five, like if it is like something that just like pops off enough, like if it ends up like 75% of games, this is going off. Like, like I think Wiccan is close to a five nowadays, you know, like, it, it, people have now made decks that are just so consistent with Wiccan that it just like, it gets its value so often and you're able to Snap well with it and you're able to get all the stuff with it. And this deck ends up being as consistent as that, which I don't know if it will be because Wiccan benefits from having, like, most good w decks nowadays run Quicksilver Domino. And Domino is just like a good card again because it was two four now, uh, like that's part of the reason why it's so good now. But, uh, this card won't use those cards, so it's not gonna have the consistency there that Wiccan does. So it's not gonna be a five like that, I don't think, but it'll be a four potentially if it can have some of the consistency.

Akex: 38:07

So it's funny to hear you say that because like, again, I'm playing a little bit as devil's advocate here because we just finished Automo Chameleon, where it's like the text and the hoops to jump through were the primary thing holding that card back. And it almost brings me back to mind of like what it was like to play the original Miss Marvel. Miss Marvel's original conditions were relatively straightforward. We actually oversold how hard it would be to meet the conditions of the original Miss Marvel. And then not only did they nerve for power a little bit, which they eventually gave back, but they increased the conditions substantially for Miss Marvel to get that effect. And that card has been basically invisible ever since. And so with something like Spider-Man Noir, you're looking at like a pretty extreme example of like having to jump through hoops to get that example or get that, uh, that P Pro off. The one thing where I see potential cube equity here is that your opponent doesn't necessarily, like, I'm not convinced that it'll read like a Spider-Man noir deck. Like you could Snap into this having played your cards down and they'll see like. Oh, they played Squirrel Girl and whatever and like, what is this a zoo deck? And like you Snap going into the turn four playing your Spider-Man noir, like I don't think it might reveal its hand as quickly as some other shells. Do you know what I mean? I think that could be potentially beneficial for it, but I don't wanna understate how hard it is to get ideal conditions all the time. And it's funny you mentioned Wiccan too.'cause Wiccan actually just remembered it got Nerf too, right? Like it was a four seven and you're right, people did doubt it and it has been consistently one of the best cards in the game for the longest time. I just, I wonder if Spider Manir can get there.'cause I feel like at some point, whether it's you or some crazy chef, someone's gonna cook a deck with this. That's gonna be surprisingly consistent with the way it plays out. And maybe that's exactly what this card needs, you know?

Dera: 39:47

Yeah, I think I have a day one prediction that this card is deemed bad. Like that's what I think is gonna happen day one. People are not gonna be able to really tweak it and find the exact sauce. Day one, maybe even day two, day three. People are gonna be like, ah, I don't know about this. It's kinda a flop. Similar thing happened to Wcan. I think that's, and maybe it will need a tweak or two with certain cards and then all of a sudden it pops off. I think that's possible. Like I think it's possible that it does flop upon release, but I think it will find its place and I think it will work its way in there. And obviously second dinner has been known to, if cards flop hard enough to give'em a little love. So this might end up 4, 7, 4 8, you know, who knows if it doesn't fit Well, it is four. Four,

Akex: 40:30

right?

Dera: 40:32

Well, yeah, so they might have found it a little bit too hard, but one thing that we've seen is that sometimes they don't quite cook the exact recipe for what is the best version of that card. You know, so I've seen their decks that they pump into the, the auto deck builder on day one, and those decks are almost certainly like six cards off of what is optimal. So I don't know if they're trying to give an optimal deck with it, but they could definitely. Do with some tweaks, you know?

Akex: 41:00

Yeah, of course. Uh, so that's, that's gonna be the conversation about Spider-Man Noir. So, uh, Dara here, coming in a little spicy on Spider-Man Noir. I have some doubts, but there is potential there. Most certainly Dara, that's gonna take us to one of my favorite segments we do every single month. And that is gonna be the top cards of the month. And this is our favorite cards that we've been playing consistently, uh, this month. They could be good cards. They could be bad cards, or the cards we're playing. The cards we're ranking with martyr's, not mine. But Dara, I'm gonna give you the floor. What is your one cost of the month?

Dera: 41:34

You know, martyr was maybe gonna be mine. That's crazy that you actually, almost like that was, I was debating between Martyr, but I actually was gonna just go with the boy we talked about earlier. Bat Rock.'cause I think like you

Akex: 41:45

stole mine. No way. How, what are the chances?

Dera: 41:48

Well, you, if you want me, I, I could just do martyr'cause that please. The other yeah. Bat Rock. I think. Is maybe the best one drop in the game. Like I think it is one of those cards that just like, it seems almost crazy that it is only one power because it just becomes like 15 or not 15, like 16 or 14 obviously'cause it gains plus two, but it's just like, it, it's like such huge numbers sometimes by the end of the game. That's just like, how is this a one cost card that just like does so much That's, I don't really understand how it is still a one cost card. Honestly. Like the fact that it's one cost, it does make it susceptible to Killmonger. But I think the card is just cracked and I've been using it a lot and I think it does enable that archetype that I was talking about with ego sims. That's just really cool. Uh, just moving a lot of stuff around and then just puff puffing up the. Hydro Craven.

Akex: 42:39

It's so funny'cause when you were talking about Ezekiel Sims and kind of, you know, uh, juicing a little bit, I was thinking to myself, I was like, I don't wanna bring it up, but like, I think one of the challenges with Ezekiel Sims is that like, I'm getting the truck, the leapers like to higher powers. You know what I mean? Like I was getting better ROCs than Ezekiel Sims. And for that reason I was like, oh, maybe I'm a little more ho hum on Ezekiel Sims than, than not. But it might just be the Petroc the leaper's crazy, crazy good. And even then, like when this card released into series four, like I think it was one of the best cards of that month too. And, uh, it does not surprise me that, that you enjoy it. Now, I do pick backups just in case theft of my card of the month is there. And I'm gonna say, I think that the hunger deserves a little bit of credit. I think The Hunger was a card that had a lot of doubts around it. You know, oh, it's, it's a skill. Whatever, horde plus three. What if Horde sucks? But what we're seeing is that with the Buffalo alongside Hoard, what Hoard got, like you got a major buff to the Zombie Scarlet Witch, you got a major buff to, uh, zombie giant man. And as a result, hunger as a skill is perfect. You play it on top of the Zombie Scarlet Witch, it's free real estate, especially since on turn six you can combo this alongside something like the, uh, the zombie giant man. And so I think that hunger ultimately ended up being a pretty good card for that archetype.

Dera: 43:51

Yeah, I completely agree with the hunger actually, that, that was my third card. If I, you know, had to choose three, it would've been Bat Rock, martyr, and The Hunger were the three cards I was thinking about this month. C So

Akex: 44:01

can I please ask you like what your sales pitch with, with Martyr was? I was just hovering and like, I gotta pick a card. I know he's not gonna talk about, so can you actually sell me on why you're gonna talk about Martyr in the first place?

Dera: 44:12

There's actually like three different decks that are using Martyr right now. That's, that's the thing. Like, uh, there like C five, I played a lot this season that's like, oh, it's one of these

Akex: 44:20

cos Okay, as soon as c5, I'm like, all right, here we are.

Dera: 44:24

I have, I have like a 66% winner at C five this season. It's pretty good. Like I, I was doing pretty well with C five. I think C five is back, honestly. Well, cerebral, just don't listen cracking.

Akex: 44:35

He's trying to bait you guys into playing C five, so he climbs easier. This is, this is fake news if I've ever heard it.

Dera: 44:42

No, no fake dudes. Like c five's been cracked since the ancient one, especially like the ancient one really pops it off. Uh, like I was playing a non ancient one version just'cause I saw it on tap and I wanted to give it a try, but I ended up ultimately putting ancient one back in because it's just like, it's way better. So like, it is just like a really fun deck though with Cerebro, like, has like four good decks right now that are actually all very playable.

Akex: 45:07

On that note, would you say that cerebral like C two is better than C3? Or like what was your preferred version of cerebral right now? C four. With the, with what's been going on with the Shadow king?

Dera: 45:18

I actually think C five might be my preferred version of Cerebro right now. Like funny enough. But I do think like C six, actually I was just looking at some stats today. C six looks like something I want to try and it looks like it might be overtaking as the top Cerebro. A lot of people are coping. C3. Am I coping? I mean like I think it C3 is really good, but I think it, uh, it runs into a few issues I think. But it, it just got some new support with Chameleon. Maybe people are still trying to figure it out. It's got, um, Baku, which actually I also thought about choosing, um, Baku as why one cost card.'cause it's also an interesting addition. But, uh, I think that's only gonna be used in C3, so I didn't ultimately go with that. But yeah,

Akex: 46:01

that is a whole lot of cope. As we move to number two, Dara, I'll give you the floor. Who is your number two of the month?

Dera: 46:09

Am I allowed to say Eki? Because like, that, that actually is like what I, I wanted to like, my favorite card of the month so far. Two draft, you know.

Akex: 46:19

Okay. Like we've, we already talked about'em, but like, you wanna glaze'em further?

Dera: 46:23

Well, yeah. Well, I Wait, I, I just wanted to glaze'em for a second there. Like, I, I could, I could choose another card, like it's all gonna come together. When you see, I chose Bat Rock and I'm gonna actually say Captain American, Sam Wilson. I think he's back in a big way that I'm using him into my move deck with Bat Rock and Bat Rock's just falling around that shield, you know? So I think that that guard actually is something that, uh, is one of the most flexible, you should pick that card up, get, if you don't have it yet, cards in the game.

Akex: 46:59

I feel like this card though, has completely fallen off from what it was. I wonder if like, it's still good, it's still seeing play in like obviously these move shells you're discussing with like hydro stomp or stuff like that, it loves that. It sees play in like the ongoing shells, which I think it still benefits from, especially with those spectrum, spectrum ones. But like this card is a shell of what it was before, like it was cracked before, but like do you think it can be a two three again? Like, do we need, does this need power? Does, does it need to be a one one again, like, you know what I mean? Like that was the initiative granting side. I feel like we can give Sam Wilson something back. Do you or is it just, is it where it should be?

Dera: 47:32

Uh, I feel like it's strong right now, so I don't think you'd need to give anything back. Like if you've given anything back. I think it goes back to cracked, you know, so like obviously it was a two three with a one power shield before, right? So it's like it was way better, like it is lost two power and the shield not having a power Definitely hurt it a lot because it was just free priority early, which was just too cracked of a, of a mechanic. I think right now it's in a solid spot where it feels strong. Uh, and it feels very playable, but it doesn't feel like it's going to be like overbearing in any way.

Akex: 48:06

It was kind of unfortunate when they changed the cost the shields from a zero, sorry, from a one to a zero.'cause then it knocked out the coup city in place that you were seeing with it, right?'cause coup City was a guaranteed play where you can move the shield at pick where co city in went. So this card has seen some very interesting, uh, changes over the last little bit. And it's funny that you picked a move card'cause by far my favorite card of the, uh, season thus far has been scream. Can't get over it. I've been thoroughly enjoying playing scream simply because, like, honestly, I ignore all the move crap that's going on. I do my thing and I just clap cheeks with it. I think scream what you shaking in your head about over there?

Dera: 48:39

I honestly hate scream players. I'm not gonna lie, you know, on I I every, everyone in the chat, right? Everyone in the chat, everyone in the comments, they. Are definitely saying the same thing. They're like, these scream guys, I can't imagine, you know, I see that scream go down. That is like one of the most annoying things in the world where I'm just like, ah, you know, it's just like that huge sigh. I'm just like, why is there a scream on the other side of the board? It's just like, it's so annoying to play against because I, that archetype, that whole archetype is just the most annoying deck to play against in Marvel Snap. Just'cause it's just like, you're like, I wanted to put my card here, now it's over here. I wanna put my card here. Now it's losing two power and screams got the power, you know? It's just like, it's very frustrating.

Akex: 49:21

That's crazy. That's such a hot take to me. Like you're seeing screams worse and like, like classic un interact, hella, or like Og G Man, like Wolverine, wave G Man. Like you say, it's worse than all those things.

Dera: 49:35

Yeah. Yeah, because it just like, it just makes it so I can't do what I want to do, where I want to do it, you know? And it is just like. Sure it doesn't always like work when the person's doing that. And there are decks that just like don't really care about scream obviously if you just like run Luke Cage, you know, or like you don't care moving around some of your power. But I feel like so many decks just get just, it's just a little frustrating. You're like, ah, like that car now they clogged me in this lane'cause they pushed all my cars over here. Or they like, it's, there is some RG involved from the other side. I do think it, for me personally is what I find annoying.'cause it's just like I have a plan that I'm planning out where I'm gonna put my cards, what I'm gonna do and all of a sudden that plan's doesn't matter,

Akex: 50:18

alright. Well I did have a backup just in case you got mad and I'm gonna say that this card is a card. I guarantee that no one was gonna expect me to pick. But I have to say that like in playing it this month, I've actually come away pretty impressed with it. And I'm gonna say like, I'm gonna say Zorn. I actually like Zorn. I was trying to do like some spider punk stuff. I liked what Zorn can do there kind of, you know, little cheeky extra moves, stuff like that. Is it some additional cringe in like the human torch stuff? Maybe, but he's not even making those decks that frequently. I think the zorn's kind of cool. I don't know if this is like his final form. I don't know if he's a great card, but I think that with the, with the, uh, the spider punk, I think he was a good addition to those decks and I enjoyed playing them.

Dera: 50:56

I had an 84% win rate with my Zorn deck, so, you know, I actually completely agree. I loved playing Zorn this season. And Zorn, if I had thought about it harder, I might've chose Zorn for this season, you know.

Akex: 51:09

I'm glad that we can, uh, agree on something there despite your, uh, your absolutely MOUs, uh, take on my screen pick here. I'll give you the floor for, uh, for number three. Who would you like to talk about as your favorite

Dera: 51:22

three cost?

Akex: 51:23

Oh, in Marvel, Snap, those

Dera: 51:23

stuff. Uh, I was waiting for this. I got a spicy one because it, it is actually hot off the presses. I actually just. Put this into a deck in my stream right before we recorded this and I was having a lot of fun with it. And it's a card that no one played when it came out. No one played when it got buffed. No one's been playing it recently, but you know, I think it might have a place in this new deck archetype with following the theme with the Bat Rock Captain America with the Shield. I don't know if you can even guess what I'm gonna say here.

Akex: 51:57

It's, I'm just putting random cards up there is, I have no idea who you're talking about

Dera: 52:01

as Hercules.

Akex: 52:03

Really? Bless my soul. Herc is on a roll.

Dera: 52:08

That's right. He's going, he went from zero all the way to hero this guy, because honestly, I had never seen this comic before. I, someone played it against me on ladder and I was like, let me put this into my deck. If you have Sam Wilson, you can literally just bump your shield every turn against Hercules. And it just goes, and like, we'll go buff your cr, it'll come back to Sam Wilson sometimes, you know? So it's just like a, it's pretty good. And then he just like silk going over there and then bumping into craving again. You know? And same with Ezekiel Sims, like, like a lot of people are running her, they were thinking Hercules just to like, pump up your, uh, your big human torch, you know? And like, sure. But I think it's actually better in this hydro stomper deck because it's doubling your move every single turn. Hydro stomper is pumping up getting even bigger. And it is, it is unstoppable, you know?

Akex: 53:01

I love having you on'cause you come in with these absolutely like just insane takes, which I appreciate'cause I can see it though, like the only problem is with Sam Wilson, right? The way the move resolves is like on turn three, you can't bounce'em on turn three. You gotta wait till turn four to start bouncing, which kind of feels bad. And even like, oh, some of that move mechanic stuff hurts. Like, even like with the shield specifically, like you move the shield with Elsa, the shield will not allow you to Elsa properly because like of the way the turn orders resolve with the carts face down and stuff like that. I almost feel like they should take a look at that stuff. But I'm here for the Hercules call, man. I'm here for it. You know, he, he's flying high is the nicest guy and at the end of the day I'm here for some Hercules. Uh, I don't wanna say, I was almost said, I'm here for some Hercules glaze, but if I use that word one more time, I think that, uh, I'm gonna get called out in the chat. I've been saying it nonstop. I'm gonna go with a spicy three. I'm gonna go with a spicy three. That I think is definitely worth it. I think that Tarax, the Tamers underappreciated. I think this card's good. I think dark Hawk's better than people give it credit for. I think that the, like the idea of clogging the deck and slamming down a big five drop in the case of something like a dark hok, I think that TerraX is relatively easy to get going. Uh, lane winning stuff. I've seen some like quicksilver wicked decks using TerraX.'cause you Quicksilver, you Domino and Domino's big enough now that you almost always trade with TerraX. You have Initiative TerraX just doesn't even look at their power, right? You just kind of win the Lean pump their deck with three rocks. He's got animation now and that's pretty exciting. I, I actually think TerraX is probably one of the least appreciated cards in Marvel Snap right now.

Dera: 54:30

You say at least appreciated it. It's actually well appreciated. Oh, not well. Super well, but it's actually, uh, in higher ranks, TerraX is one of the best cards. It's actually the one of the highest winning cards and one of the highest win cube cards. Like it. It is just like that. And Dark Hawk right now are popping off on the top rank charts. I think you'll see more of it as like people, uh, stop playing like the season's like theme of move, you know? So it's just like, I do think it'll like see an increase once that comes down a bit. But I think that card, very good pick it is a very good card, like you're saying. It's underappreciated and I do agree it's not play, it's played in 2% of top decks, which is not very high. Like iron Patriot is in 12%, you know, so it's like, I think, uh, it is one of those things that people aren't really catching on quite yet. But I, I think it's just like, it's a, it's an old deck, you know, it's just like a dark hawk deck go with the one new card in it. So people maybe aren't too keen on playing old stuff. They wanna try the new stuff. So I do think that they recognize the power though.'cause it is just like, if you look at the stats, it has one of the highest cube rates, one of the highest win rates of all cards. So I think it's good.

Akex: 55:51

Yeah, good call on that. And uh, for my four drop I was just gonna say that your did bring it up. Uh, my four of the month is Wcan for sure. I love this card. I can't get enough of it. I think it's fantastic. I've been chasing good splits with it. I can't get any luck with the splits. I'm bringing a tear to my eye, man. Just gimme some good splits for Wcan. But, um, I think this card's fantastic and we've talked about it so much. Uh, I don't want to continue to retread, uh, those tracks, but, uh, what's your for of the month?

Dera: 56:14

So for of the month, I think it's, uh, along the lines, not of Wiccan, but of Wiccan support cards. Uh, I've actually seen some, I had a really fun deck with Maliki actually, where. You were playing out, uh, like the domino to try and just like pull out your bad low cost card, so you're not really running many ones or two, no ones or twos in your deck, but you do run malus. So it's pulling out only really quality three drops and it ends up like that was an original like malate thing that when you first came out was also happening. But Malki I think is just like one of those. Still underappreciated cards, just similar to Tarek said, like it's super high win rate, super high cube rate, but it's still only around 2% played. So I think it's one of those cards that just like could at any point just come back and dominate.

Akex: 57:04

I wonder though, if like Malki Tarax and those types of cards, I feel like they might not see a lot of play because I feel like people don't want to invest in them when like, well instead of playing TerraX, I'll just put Rockside on that deck. It's almost the same thing. And like with Malki, they're like, ah, I don't wanna play Malki. I'll just throw man thing in there.'cause I already have that. I wonder if those cards have enough, like they're, they feel replaceable enough for the average player that they don't feel like they need to chase it. You know what I mean? Like, does that make sense? Like, I feel like these are cards that like, if you don't have the card, you don't really, you don't really see the magic that it's doing sometimes for your play.

Dera: 57:39

The way I see it is that typically, like for your Rockside example, I don't think you would ever want to just have rockside in your deck. Like TerraX is a, a, an addition to Rockside. You'd never replace it with Rockside. That's how like the deck would always run both. It increases just the consistency of the deck overall. Malachi, same thing. It's just replacing the consistency of the deck. It's just a strong, super powerful card. It basically draws a card and plays it. On the turn. So it increases the consistency of your deck so consistently that like it, if you replace it, you're just like replacing a good card, you know? And it's like there isn't really a replacement for it. I think that it is at the same power level that does the same thing. Sure, you could put something else in, but you're just now have a worse deck.

Akex: 58:27

You're right. The deck thinning part's pretty cool. It is important. And actually a lot of the, uh, current toxic techs are running like the Quicksilver, Wiccan lines alongside Malki, which is kind of cool too. Because you have this very consistent thing and then you malki, oh, I didn't hit the hazmat, but I hit a speed, and speed ends up being like three nine or whatever, right? Like it's just free real estate at that point. And now, oh, speeds outta the deck. I top deck my eja, I top deck my hazmat, I topek my Luke cage or whatever. Right? You're right. The deck thinning part is actually super important. It's a key component to Malika's game plan. I like to call it a lot. Uh, going into the five costs. Uh, Dara, do you want me to give you the floor or would you like to hear mine first? I'll let you pick.

Dera: 59:04

Maybe we should go dos'cause you might pick the same one as me.

Akex: 59:07

Really? I don't know. I I would be extremely surprised if you chose It's not spider. No

Dera: 59:12

way.

Akex: 59:12

It's not spiderwoman. I just want, I just like this card art so much. I just wanna throw the card art on the screen here. Give it a little bit of love. Uh, no, my five is gonna be enchant. I think that enchant is really good. I think that, uh, the amount of cerebral I've been seeing on the ladder and stuff like that, you just munch'em with the enchanter. I think the ongoings legit. I think that the, uh, the serer shells are legit. I think that Enchant as a five eight was one of the best nerf slash buffs that this card could have possibly gotten. It really differentiated itself from the likes of like other tech cards. I think that ENC Chances is in a great spot right now. I think she's absolutely worth playing and I think she's very good.

Dera: 59:49

Yeah, I, I completely agree. I think ENC Chances has like been in one of the best spots it's been in for all of the history of Marvel Snap, other than when they made it a four six for a while and it just like took over for a bit. But. I think it, like at a five eight, it actually feels somehow better than like at a four drop. It just like, it, it just, it plays out on curve and you were never really playing as like your last play as a forecast anyway. As it, because it would just, it would feel bad to just play it on your last turn and have like that two floating energy five eight just makes it like, feel more powerful. You can play on the last turn, but a lot of times you are just playing it on turn five and it's much more likely that you're gonna have it on turn five and that you can play it out and get good value for it. So I like a changer. That's a good pick.

Akex: 1:00:35

Oh, thank you so much for your approval. And uh, what are you thinking for the uh, the five drop of the month?

Dera: 1:00:41

Uh, the five drop that I had the most fun with, uh, was, uh, man spider. I played so much man spider. Honestly, it is just like, it's huge. It just like, it felt like such a cool card. Just like I, I felt like it was gonna get nerfed'cause it just felt like Panther on steroids. It just felt like, it was like I was getting like 400 power cards, like every game. And it was just like, felt like it was just always popping off. I don't know about you, but that, that card felt a little crack for a while.

Akex: 1:01:13

Uh, man, spider's really good. I like it. Does it feel like it's such a weird way to play Snap though? Because like, it is very much like, oh, do you have Strongs? Do you have, um, you know, shadow King? Like, do you have the answer yes or no? And that's what the game comes down to, right? So I wonder if the cube equity side was hurt on this card despite having a relatively solid win rate. But I, I do like the card. I think it's, it's the thing, it's immensely powerful. And it is, I think it's one of those examples honestly, where like you have a super premium season pass card that's certainly better than the season pass card. Like I think this is better than spider punk, despite the fact I like spider punk. I think from like a pure, like, well which one you, you taking into a tournament? I'm taking Man Spider a hundred percent. I am. I think that, and I think that Spider punk's a cool card, but like, yeah, I think this card was like the juiced card of the month for sure. And I think it's a very appropriate call out for your number five. And if you know what, if you don't mind, I'm gonna take the first six here because uh, it has to do with, uh, man Spider. I've been loving Zola this month. I zola, uh, spiders. And the key thing is, by the way, you have to make sure you play the man spider in the correct order. You have to man spider, then Zola, if you play things between it, they eat each other. There's a lot of weird interactions with that just before people in the comments are like, Alex, you said I could play Aum Zola. Why are they all eating each other? That's why. But I've actually really enjoyed Aum Zola because I've been doing stuff like even, I'm gonna tell you something, a deck that I've been playing, which I, I almost did for my five. I wanna say that the fallen one I've kind of started to grow on a little bit because you can do, if you fall in one and you get the combo right? You can go into turn six and do Black Panther Zola with six, with, uh, the, all that energy you've got. And no one expects that. And I think that Zola is actually a really fun card in this game. And I feel like it's, uh, it's, I don't wanna say underappreciated'cause I think people get it, but I think it's just such a fascinating, interesting card that does a lot of really cool things

Dera: 1:03:01

that's, uh, you know, I, I completely agree. Like it because of the man spider, just like getting two of'em. It's cracked it. I got, I, I actually don't care for it and like destroy, unless you're playing Nimrod Destroy'cause that's actually kind of fun. But I think, uh, when I say I don't care for it, I mean like, I think it's kind of boring, but uh, in destroy. But I do think that the man Spider Zola plays brought it back around. Like at times I like zola's when you're doing something interesting with it. Like I actually kind of like the, like human torch, zola kind of decks. I think those are more fun than like the other kinda Zola decks that are out there. But yeah, I think you probably see Zola the most in Mr. Negative nowadays, but I think that that's, uh, still just like, you don't even need Zola in that deck for it to pop off.

Akex: 1:03:49

Yeah, absolutely. And who is your sixth drop of the month?

Dera: 1:03:55

Honestly, I found it hard to really pick a sixth drop this month. I,'cause I feel like I'm not really running six drops this month, but the one deck that I did play quite a bit of. And I could, I could just say like, uh, the sixth drop that came, that was the most interesting card and it was destroyer, you know, so I was playing this like nightmare destroyer deck. And I think that that destroyer is big. It's 18 power nowadays, you know, so it's one of those cards that I think you could definitely play that card and find success with it, with a couple different decks with it. So I, I think it is kind of back in a way that like, it's almost as big as infant on now, you know, like this card started as like 14 power or something. I think it

Akex: 1:04:36

dropped was 15. It was a six 16, got nerfed to a 15, I think, and sat there for a while.

Dera: 1:04:42

Well, it was a six. No, I think he, I think it started as a 14 power card when it first came out. Did it not,

Akex: 1:04:47

did it? Oh, I,

Dera: 1:04:48

I

Akex: 1:04:48

remember like on the heyday of like Marvel Snap's original launch. I feel like it was a six 16.

Dera: 1:04:54

I think it got buffed to a, uh, six or 16 after a bit. Well, you know, I, I, I can, I can tell you what it was because it was the first card in Nexus events. So if I just go look up a Nexus Events video,

Akex: 1:05:11

I wasn't even in the game yet. I wasn't in the beta yet.

Dera: 1:05:13

Oh, you were? Oh. So maybe you only, you might have only seen it after it got buffed.

Akex: 1:05:18

I missed the wave season. I think I was invited to the beta. I think it was the Daredevil season.

Dera: 1:05:23

That would make sense. So yeah.

Akex: 1:05:26

Nexus events. I was, I was not part of the game.

Dera: 1:05:29

Yeah. Destroyer, was it? Oh, it was 16 on release. I was wrong.

Akex: 1:05:33

Boom, wrecked.

Dera: 1:05:35

Yep. For some reason I thought I remembered it at 14. Maybe, I don't know why it, it is been a long three years, you know?

Akex: 1:05:43

Yeah, I understand. All right, chums. Let's do this. Alex is ready. Go.

Dera: 1:05:47

Let's do this.

Akex: 1:05:48

Let's do this. That's right. We're gonna go to the Snapchat mailbag, my friend. We've got a couple questions, some funny interactions here. One coming from Slouching Games, and this was kind of interesting, slouching games commented, the best way to come back to a game like this is to never leave. And I was thinking about that comment because I think they meant it in like a positive way, you know what I mean? Like,'cause people were talking about, you know, burning out and stuff like that. But also I was thinking to myself like, you know what, they're actually kinda right because if you leave Marvel Snap, coming back is so damn hard. That like your best choice of if you ever intend to come back is just don't leave. Because one of the challenges I think new players are experiencing,'cause we are getting some new players here and there, like I've been getting a couple comments like, Hey Alex, I'm coming back giving it a shot. And you know, the new player experience, the new reward track is kind of good and stuff like that, but they're so far behind that they don't know what to do and they can't build any of the decks. And so many new cards are coming out that they're just like, ah, I'm gonna bounce off. I'll see you later. You know what I mean? So I'm curious what your thoughts on that statement. The best way to come back to a game like this is to never leave.

Dera: 1:06:49

I think that's exactly what the game designers, the system designers are going for in Marble Snap is that their goal is to make it feel like you can't leave. And I think that has actually done them pretty well from a business standpoint for the people that have stayed. But it has done them a huge disservice in the fact that a lot of the systems that are there to keep you making sure that you are just staying and that you have the fomo to keep in the game and do your weekly missions and keep up with it, is that when you leave, coming back, like you said, feels impossible. And I think that is their biggest gap for this game. If you're a new player, if you're coming back, if you're a returning player, it feels really bad and they need to do something about it to actually make it so that those players don't feel left behind, because that's just going to eventually kill the entire player base. Because if no one can come back it, when the people eventually leave, they're not gonna come back. But I think right now we have been seeing that it is a pretty good time. Your famous quote to be playing Marvel Snap. If you're a continuing player, if you continue to play. It feels pretty good. You get pretty good rewards. People have been telling me that they are free to play and they actually are gaining tokens every month. Like they're going up in tokens and getting every card. I don't know how that's possible, but it's just like, it feels pretty good if you're just like playing the game consistently. It just really sucks if you don't, you know?

Akex: 1:08:21

I feel that. Right. And, um, I think it's also natural, like, honestly, guys, if you're, a lot of people listen to this pod, they don't even actively play much anymore. Stuff like that, that happens from time to time. I, it's also okay to take a break, right? Like, I bring myself, I play Snap all the time. I still, I still love the game. I still thoroughly enjoy my time playing when I'm streaming. It's like the best time I'm having, but yeah. Yeah. Like, am I exhausted sometimes? Like, yeah. You know, it's like, try playing the same game for three, four years. Like, it's, you're gonna get tired sometimes, right? And so, forgive me if, like, I gotta be honest with you, sometimes at night I'm laying in bed. And I'm playing, you know, uh, ball X pit or whatever, and I'm playing some new thing. I'm playing Hades too, or, you know, you gotta kind of like, you know, get yourself out there a little bit, try some new stuff. But, uh, at the end of the day, snaps is, is a beautiful game. It's a fun game. And I feel like the monetization has, like, they've pulled it back just about as much as I think they can realistically. Does it have some pain points? Sure, it does. But I do think that this game ultimately is in the best spot today than it's been in a long time. And for me it feels like even the shenanigans around, kid Omega and stuff like that. I hope those were lessons learned and I suspect that they were lessons learned.'cause we have not seen that replicated with the game modes they've released thus far. In fact, I feel like the game modes Deadpools Diner, I'm convinced was an error. But like they've been remark, like remarkably generous, right? So as long as second dinner continues to learn and to community feedback, that I think we're in a great spot and every single day is better than the day prior. And that's a good thing for Marvel Snap And, uh. I just hope that, uh, you know, people that come back, they do have a positive experience and if they're not, I hope you guys do share that experience with second dinner so they can improve it.'cause we want you guys to be part of the game again. And then the last question of the day is gonna come from Day Walker and it reads, I love how connected everyone is in the YouTube community. Everyone has a story about everyone. It's such a great community. And I bring this up Dara, because that is something that I feel I personally enjoy about Marvel Snap. And the fact that like, you know, I can reach out to you about being on the pod. And not only are you excited to be here, but I feel like I'm talking to a legitimate friend that I've made over the years, whether it's yourself, Regis, Dexter, Cozy. I feel like we are blessed to have like a community of content creators that like really do kind of look out for each other. Like, I actually consider you guys friends. You know what I mean? And, uh. It's not just some sort of like facade like this, like, I actually love Dara. You know what I mean? And so this is something that I think is special and kind of unique in this community.'cause you don't see it in other ones. And I just wanna say like, not just this comment, but like, you know, for Darren and for everyone else, like, I, I do appreciate you guys and, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's been very, very nice to have a community of such supportive people around not only this podcast, but Marvel Snap in general.

Dera: 1:11:02

I love the community of Marvel Snap. It's actually like the, I, I'm sure you remember it, but just like that first tournament we had in New York City where you came in and all these other people flew in and I gotta meet you face to face. We gotta see everyone. And we were all talking and chatting. That was at the very beginning of Marvel Snap. And I was just like, I thought we would get more of that and we didn't. And it kind of, you know, it, it felt like a little bit, you know, like we. We're in the good times and we didn't even know it, you know, feeling somewhat, but it just like a lot of those connections, you know, like you, especially like, uh, we've just grown into real true friendships and we've stayed connected to this entire time and it is just like Marvel Snap is, the community. That's it. Is, that's what makes it,

Akex: 1:11:51

to give you an idea of the kind of Guy D is. I remember we met in, uh, in New York City, uh, obviously we had games with each other and stuff like that, but we went to a karaoke bar. It must have been like two in the morning, whatever. And to give you an idea of the kind of person D is Dara on his own dime, I remember in the karaoke bar you got munchies and food for everybody there. You ordered like a whole platter of food. Every, they came out with like pizzas and all these types of stuff, all on D'S dime to support the people who were visiting your hometown at the time. Right?

Dera: 1:12:17

That's right. Yeah. That was where I was stationed. You know, I, I was in New York City and I wanted to show you guys New York, you know, I wanted you guys to have a good time.

Akex: 1:12:26

Yeah, basically he's, he's basically Mr. Worldwide. Now. I have no idea where you even are right now. You seem to be moving across the world on a near constant basis. So maybe next time we chat, we'll have to catch up on where Dara is, where he's been and what's going on, because my man, you are literally Mr. Worldwide. And with that being said, I wanna say thank you so much to Dara. Dara, I'm gonna leave all the links down below. I know, I know you know him, but you gotta make sure that you're subscribed to his YouTube. Make sure you're, you're following on his Twich tv. One of the best streamers out there, one of the most highest ranked talented players you can find in Marvel Snap. His analysis is dead on the man knows card games. What can I say? And he's an absolutely fantastic person. Definitely support him. Thank you so much, Darren. Thank you so much for you guys for catching us this week, and we'll see you on the next one.