Shao-Lau is BROKEN | Dragon Lord Breakdown | Is Lin Lie Iron Fist a Skip? | The Snap Chat Ep. 164

This week, Alex is joined by a very special guest and one of the "OG" Marvel Snap content creators: Prashan! The duo dives deep into the "Dragon" season, debating whether the new Season Pass card Shao-Lau is "overtuned" to the point of being broken or just the meta-warping banger players have been waiting for. They also break down the new Series 5 release Lockheed, analyzing if its stats are solid enough to overlook its "buggy" animations and reliance on the Season Pass card.

Alex and Prashan also look ahead to the next release, debating whether Lin Lie (Iron Fist) is a hard "skip" for competitive players or a secret weapon for niche Spider-Man Noir decks. Plus, they break down the upcoming High Voltage card Dragon Lord for Ramp archetypes and discuss Prashan’s unique journey from collecting sneakers to digital card splitting.

Join Alex Coccia and special guest Prashan 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 Intro: The OG Creator Prashan Joins!
• 0:19 From Sneakers to Snap: Prashan's Content Journey
• 2:35 The Sneaker World & Expensive Hobbies
• 5:31 The Beta Experience: Getting Ghosted by Second Dinner?
• 6:19 Comic Book Deep Dive: Kang & Silver Surfer Recommendations
• 10:35 Lin Lie (Iron Fist) Preview: Is it a Skip?
• 22:22 Dragon Lord Preview: The High Voltage Reward
• 24:25 Is Ramp the Best Home for Dragon Lord?
• 24:44 War Machine & Chamber: Refining the Ramp Archetype
• 26:31 Dragon Lord vs. Red Wing: Who Does It Better?
• 27:43 Shao-Lau Review: The Elephant-Sized Dragon in the Room
• 28:40 Is Shao-Lau Overtuned & Meta Warping?
• 36:56 Lockheed Review: Buggy Animations & Friendly Fire?
• 44:30 Snap Chat Mailbag: Is Weapon X Dead Without Weekend Missions?
• 44:44 Defending Moiré X: The "Best Designed" Card?
• 47:41 Final Thoughts: Where to Find Prashan

Transcript

Alex: 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of the snapchat. Today I'm joined with a very special guest. For the first time ever on the Snapchat, we have Prashan, someone who has been creating content for the longest time in Marvel Snap. You're actually one of the, uh, the OGs, and as I always start every introduction with Prashan. First of all, welcome to the Snapchat. Welcome to this. Wonderful, and I'd love to know what got you into Snap because you've been playing for years just like the rest of us at this point.

Prashaun: 0:27

Oh yeah. Like. The crazy thing is I, I had a baby around this time, so I, I thought I wanted to stream, I thought I wanted to go into content. I was making sneaker YouTube. If you go back to my, like my YouTube channel, you could find that, but. Come to think like it's expensive buying a sneaker every week and trying to review it like a hundred dollars shoe and trying to review it, and then also trying to play a video game while you're trying to like feed a, a baby, like with your full focus. That didn't work. But I remember going on IGN and I saw like America Chavez, like fighting against all these like variants and I saw that it was a Marvel property. Like me being a comic book guy and a Marvel head, I was like, this is an interesting game. And then once my son was born, I was like, I can't really focus like on these games. I can't play Halo. Like I like I have to feed him. I have to like burp'em. I have to change'em. And Marvel Snap was like the perfect game. I think I was watching like TLSG, like, I was combing through YouTube, like looking for this game. I was like, I remember I saw this Marvel game. When does it come out? Then like I saw people like you, Cozy, TLSG, km, every, like everyone playing this game. And I was like, how do they get this game? Because you guys were all in like beta. And then I downloaded the game and then I started playing. I started grinding it out. And then I was like, I bought this super expensive computer. I have cameras at setups, like why not try to make content myself? And that's how I got into content creation and like. Snap con is when it really propelled me because like I actually got to meet like STG and then like, like guest and all these guys and Tucker and then I actually learned the ropes of Marvel Snap and content creation and collabing and all that kind of stuff. So that put me to a whole another level. I was making thumbnails on my phone. I was using Instagram to make thumbnails back then'cause I had no clue and I learned so much through them at that time. So, yeah.

Alex: 2:33

I love that. What an amazing origin story. There's two things I wanna touch on. First of all, the sneakerhead stuff. Now I am the least stylish person on the planet. Like, in fact, you can't really see in the pan the pants I'm wearing, I've had since ninth grade because like, oh wow. I just, I don't buy clothes at all. I don't do anything stylish. I just, whatever my wife buys me for Christmas, for my birthday, I will wear it till like, you know, like I'm in my eighties. Like I, I will not, like, I don't go out and seek things now. Sneakers I've never quite understood. Again, I'll go to Costco and I'll buy whatever they have on. Sale. If I, for work though, I usually get like, like sketchers, like work non-slip shoes, stuff like that. You know, gotta, gotta stay safe. But, um, I was in Los Angeles, one of my best friends, he lives in Los Angeles. He, uh, he works in the film industry there. He worked on Jimmy Kimmel, stuff like that. And, uh, like behind the scenes and he wasn't on camera or anything like that. And, um, one day we were there and there was a whole area where. You would go and there's like a shopping district. There was an outdoor mall. Oh, it's a super popular mall. The name is Evading Me, and I'm sure that someone in the comments will know exactly what I'm talking about anyways, it's like where, uh, there's like a store Supreme that everyone talks about, right? Yeah. Supreme. It's down there. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a supreme

Prashaun: 3:37

head of the.

Alex: 3:38

Yeah, so anyways, the reason why I bring this up is because, so we were walking down that little strip area and Supreme was there and I walked in and I'm like, yeah, I've heard of this. And I'm like, why is this shirt$400? I'm like, I don't understand. It's just like, this looks like the, just like the weirdest, like it's just the logo, like it's just a white shirt. And he's like, it, it's a huge name brand that's beside the point. But there were two sneaker stores there and I walked in and like the sneakers were like$2,000. I was like, why? Are they rocket boots? Like is this part of an Ironman suit? Like how could they be possibly this expensive? I was like, this is crazy. And then the store beside them was owned by the same people, I think, and it was a sneaker store, but these were used sneakers but only used once. So like if you, a sneaker is so cool that you're only allowed to wear it once. This is the store you go to.'cause it's like Used Gently and I'm like, okay, this one's like$1,500. They're like, yeah, it's'cause Todd Gurley wore it at a party last week. I was like, yeah, okay. Right. And then f NFL running back one the time. Yeah. It's a very

Prashaun: 4:38

expensive hobby, especially if you don't have, if you're not connected and you get everything like secondhand, like luckily, like I have friends and ways of like getting things like retail where I didn't have to spend. That money, that much money on like the resale.'cause like I have shoes now that are like$1,600,$1,500. What? That I bought for like 200 bucks when they first came out. Yeah, like originally it started with like baseball cards and like Pokemon cards and that stuff and comic books. And then it like went on to like sneakers and stuff. My collecting and now it's like digital Marvel Snap where I gotta get them all.

Alex: 5:16

That's right. You, you definitely do. And, uh, I think there's a few sneaker heads in the Marvel Snap community. I know that like, uh, like Penny Aade, uh, Ryan Hartman is a, is a sneakerhead. I feel like this conversation has come up a number of different times. So you, you're not the only one. I'm sure there's a lot of people that wouldn't mind having this conversation with you. Now with regards to Marvel Snap itself, um, I'm glad that you got in and are you. Brought me back to like the early beta.'cause remember I got in, in the second wave of beta invites. The joke is, and it's actually not a joke, I actually had applied as a content creator for Marvel Snap, and they just ghosted me. So I never got in on the opening wave. I was like, in the, I was like, you know that SpongeBob meme when, like, is it Patrick or whoever? Is it Squidward that's looking through the window and everything? Everyone's looking,

Prashaun: 5:56

everyone's playing outside and you're just inside like, ah.

Alex: 6:00

Yeah, exactly. That was me. And um, I remember you brought it up, like TLSG was there. I remember banks Binks and TSGI think were the two major ones at this start. Yeah, yeah. Um, they were, they were like crushing beta numbers. And then, um, yeah, then the rest is history. I, I just, I just love the fact that, you know, you got in, started making content and you fell in love with the game. Now you did mention that you're a comic head too and a Marvel head. Um, so like, what's your, uh, what's your background with like Marvel comics as a whole?

Prashaun: 6:26

So like in general, my dad used to collect comic books from when he was young. Like my grandpa owned like a grocery store, so he had comic books and stuff and it, I guess it basically went through me. But he liked Avengers and stuff like that. I felt like it was old timing, like the old that stuff. So. Growing up, like in the nineties, I was into X-Men, I was into Spider-Man. I feel like X-Men, the animated series, Spider-Man, the animated series, gargoyles, Batman, the animated series are probably like the best cartoons ever.'cause like visually it's for kids, but the stories were very adult to the fact like, you could go back and watch them today. So I, I just stuck with that. And then religiously, I go to the comic book store every Wednesday and pick up comic books, whatever my eye catches. So yeah.

Alex: 7:15

Okay, so I have to ask you then. So I am very recently getting into comics legitimately, where I'm really starting to fall in love with, like the story specifically with Marvel. I remember when I was a kid, ironically, my, my friends were into Spawn and I remember getting Spawn comics for my birthday. I dunno if that's a bit of a callback, but, um, and then, but now I'm really into Marvel and, um. It was recommended while I was streaming. People in the chat were like, you have to read House of X. Like, you gotta get the, uh, trade paper bound, whatever it's called, of House of X. So I put it on my, my birth, my birthday, my Christmas list, and my wife actually got it from me for Christmas. And I've been loving it. I've been reading through it, and it really made me love Moira even more. Moira is so awesome in the story, but I have to tell you, I'm gonna tell you right now. My favorite comic of all time thus far is Kang myself left to conquer. This is such an amazing story. I love it so much. I got it. And it's my favorite. What is your favorite, like if you'd be like, Alex, you gotta read this one. What's the one that you think I gotta read? Because I've, I have House of x, I got the Kang myself left to conquer. What would be the one you'd add to the list? So

Prashaun: 8:19

mine is like a deep cut, sorta like, um, it's a Silver Surfer comic and think has, it's like four or five issues. Basically. He makes a deal with Mephisto and tries to get like shala ball back from the dead and you have like Moonstone and Drax and Adam Warlock. It's a miniseries, only like four or five comics. But I remember actually going to the grocery store, it had to been like 1994 and actually picking up the comic book. And I read that first issue over and over and over again. I think I was eight. And it wasn't until like I was probably like in my twenties, I went to the comic book shop and I saw that same cover and I was like, oh crap. Do you have the rest of this? And he was like, yeah. So I was able to read the rest of the story and then it's a pretty cool story, like Silver Surfer, like. Like out in space alone, like looking for his love, looking for like his home planet. I, I think that's pretty cool. Honestly, like if you like Moira, like the sentence, a sinister and the whole cocoa era is pretty cool with Moira and like the Moira X thing, like how, I don't know if I'm gonna spoil this for you, but Mr. Sinister uses Moira as like, like a save point in time. So like her ability is whenever she dies, she resets the whole like timeline. So he uses her like a video game save point. Whenever he fails, he basically basically kills a Moira and then starts over. And I, I think that's pretty cool, the whole cocoa era, if you want to like be updated with Marvel stuff. I, I think that's a good start.

Alex: 9:54

Cool. That is Minoru spoiler from where I am in my story, but that's okay. That's just what that did is was just made me more interested to be honest with you. That's not like. Alex, do you know who Luke Skywalker's father is? Don't tell me. Yeah. I'm working on it. You know what I mean? But, uh, yeah, that's perfect, man. I, yeah, I love the story. I'm making my way through it. Uh, I just need to find time to sit down and read.'cause it, this way works for me. I sit down, I read, I open the comic, I read one page, and then like, someone's crying or like someone's calling me or something happens and I gotta get out. Yeah. Like usually I

Prashaun: 10:21

have to have like alone time and like

Alex: 10:23

Yeah.

Prashaun: 10:23

As soon as I get the book, I have to read it because I know if I don't read it, like in the moment, I'll just put it in a pile. Because I go every week and the pile just looks intimidated if I don't touch it.

Alex: 10:34

Yeah. Alright. You know what, we gotta start talking about some, some actual Marvel Snap now. Yeah, yeah. We are. We're well into the weeds here. And I'm gonna go a little bit of an order here because while we were talking, here's a little behind the scenes baseball. While we were talking, I realized I was supposed to have this screen up. But I didn't, we had this screen up the entire time, which is totally fine. I'm like, you know what? We may as well jump ahead to Lin Lee, the iron fist. Uh, we were gonna talk a little bit of, uh, Lau in Lockheed. We'll do that after in review. But let's do our preview of Lin Lee Iron Fist. We'll go a little bit outta order here today. Literally iron fist. Now this is a card that I got roasted on a little bit because I came in higher than most people. Just, uh, so you know, we do rate things from one to five stars. I came in at approximately four stars, but with a caveat of, I think it'll be four stars in the deck where it works. But I think it's very, very niche. This is not a card like Merlin. This is not a card like Lau where you're gonna be able to put it pretty much anywhere and it's gonna work. This is a very one trick card and. My hope is that it's gonna work in one deck, and that one deck is gonna work so well that it's gonna have a place in the meta. So I'd be interested, uh, prashan about your thoughts on the card star rating wise, and I'll give you first shot on a couple synergies you think are worth exploring.

Prashaun: 11:51

I don't know. I, I'm not really high on this card to be honest. Like, just looking at it, you just add the sword to another location, right? Like that. That's it. You're just spreading for power out on the board, per se, so I, I don't think it's as strong. Maybe you could put it, I, I don't know. Maybe there's some cerebral two out there. I'm not really sure on where to put this card. Like, for me, this, like, if I had to choose, I, I think this would be like a skip week, like, and just go on to the other card. But what, what do you think, like what is your perception of this? Are you high on this card?

Alex: 12:29

I have to tell you, I never considered C two. Like, do not intentionally ever reunite the sword and linley at all. I'm actually, I'm a terrible host. I didn't read the card out. I should read the card out first for all. The audio list is like, bro, what are you even talking about? Linley? The iron fist is a two two that reads on reveal. Add the sword of EE to another location. So it's adding an additional sword. It's a tutu that adds a sword. Uh, the sword of EE is also a two, two that reads ongoing. If Linley iron fist is here, he has seven plus power. Oh, okay. Gotcha. That changes

Prashaun: 13:05

it.'cause I, I didn't really read the card either. I just thought you brought the sword out and it was two two, and I was like, that's underwhelming. But that, that brings on a, a whole nother. Right there as long as they're in the same spot. So yeah, you could do some, some crazy stuff with this. Like if they're not in the same location, maybe you could use like what is web sling? Can't you bring a card back? Or even like a ghost spider or something. You, you could do some things or a move deck. You could use some crazy things moving a sword to him. But yes, I, I think this might be a card that you maybe play on curve like this. Be something is a one cost big skill.

Alex: 13:45

On reveal next turn, you can move one of your cards away from here. Yeah, that absolutely would work. And Wessling was a card that we had some hope for, but ultimately didn't end up taking over the meta very well. But it's a good call out. A hundred percent.

Prashaun: 13:58

Yeah, like I, I think it'll be interesting to see what decks this could be in. Maybe it could go in an ongoing deck. You just have another ongoing piece to just throw on on the board randomly at, at the end of the game. But I, I don't know. Like I I'm waiting to see what people cook out out there. Me personally, I, I don't, this is like a card. That's, that might be a skip for me. Yeah, I, I might get flamed in the comments for it, but it's okay.

Alex: 14:21

No, I think that a lot of people do agree with you. Now. I think that this, for the most part, first of all, your C two idea actually is not completely crazy. It does put two bodies on the board, and C two does want bodies on the board, which is kind of nice. I'm gonna lean towards hybrid hydro stopper now. I think that like ever since the change to the human torch, the versions of move that have been played. Are pretty cool. I actually really like that. I'm not a move enjoyer, I never have been. But this version of move the hydro stomper move where you're just trying to get a lot of different things happening, I think is actually really viable. I like that Hydro stomper was buffed and I know that's a bit of a hot take.'cause people are like, why'd you even buff hydro stomper? It's still getting well above 10 power regularly. Yes, but you need carry carts for the archetype. Archetype defining cards that punch above their weight class to give flavor to that archetype being played. And I think that Hydro Stomper does that. And with Hydro Stomper, if you think about it, if you're playing these types of decks, you have cards like Hellion who could very easily bring, uh, Linley iron fist and of course the sort of FSI together. You have the hood, not the hood, sorry. Oh, no. Cloak right out the hood. He looks like the hood. He is wearing a hood cloak. Cloak can allow you to bring them together. Hood probably does not make these decks, but what I'm trying to say is like these movement decks where you're using lots of moving pieces with spider punk and stuff like that, I think it go really well with, uh, the sort of FSI and Linley specifically.

Prashaun: 15:46

Yeah. Yeah. Those decks are my favorite type of move decks compared to like using human torch and vulture and dagger, like, I really do not like those decks.'cause you really have to count and be methodical. And then sometimes you don't get those pieces. But the fact that like you have like cards, like silk, you have cards like, like Hercules that can hurl things around too. That way you get one more plant for. Your hydros, stuper, you also have like cards like, um, what's his name that go Craven two. As soon as something moves in there, which is awesome. And then you can make your opponents pay too. If they're moving things around, you can have scream on the board, which I, I think is pretty cool. So yeah, that, that could definitely fit in that type of deck with Hellion. And then even, like you said, cloak. And Madam, Mme. Webb too, that's another, a piece too. I typically go fade away from her and the the crazy move decks compared to like having her with like vulture and human torch.

Alex: 16:43

Oh, I can absolutely see that too. Right. Mme. Webb is also a two costed card which obviously activates move very significantly. She felt like a very important part of like that human torch strategy to make everything go absolutely crazy. Move the torch around, combo it with, uh, like a ghost spider, things like that. Uh, Mme. Webb is definitely playable, but at the, at a two cost, they kind of step on each other's toes a little bit, but it's not that big a deal at the end of the day. I just think that like hellan at a five costed card, I feel like is a really good call out. And the other thing worth noting here is that, um, I know this is a little bit of cope. It's a little bit of cope, but I've been playing a ton, like a metric ton of Spider-Man noir. And this is a card, which I think is really fascinating, you think. And Alex, why are you talking about Spider-Man noir? We're talking about the sort of fie and lin Lee iron fist. This makes no sense. Actually does, if you want to get Spider-Man noir on turn four, play it down. You want eight? Power worth of cards on the field of play. On turn one, you play a one cost. That's one. On turn two, you play Linley iron fist. He adds a sort of ee and himself. They're both two costed cards. You've added four. You're at five. Okay, turn three. You play a three cost. Now you're at eight. Turn four. You play Spider-Man noir. He checks the board. Eight costs is on the field of play. He not only buffs the card to eight power in the deck, he pulls it to depth thin as well. So I actually think that low key, if the Sword of Foshee doesn't end up working well and Linley don't work well in the movement base archetype, it's gonna be a banger for Spider-Man Noir'cause it sets up a perfect curve for you to get it out. The only other car that does this effectively is Mr. Sinister and Mr. Sinister. I think it's probably not as good as Linley and, uh, the sort of fsi. So anyways, I wanna throw it out there. I know it's a bit of Coke, but Spider-Man noir is worth considering with this card.

Prashaun: 18:35

Yeah, that, that's definitely pretty spicy. I, I would rather play. Uh, that compared to Mr. Sinister,'cause you think about board space, right? Mr. Sinister and his clone already take up two spots in a location compared to that sword being at another spot. And you could play Spider-Man noir in like the middle or something and just spread it out. I, I think that's a pretty cool idea. Even though it's, it's pure cope. Someone will make it. We're

Alex: 18:58

always

Prashaun: 18:59

coping. It'll happen and it'll probably happen to me on ladder. I'm like, oh crap. Someone did it.

Alex: 19:04

That's right. That's, I, I hope that's someone's me, to be honest with you. But, uh. I guess the only other thing, so with Lin Lee, this is a bit of a weird one. I wrote it down, uh, moonstone probably unlikely to work here because Moonstone, I don't know if she'll get the plus two, the plus seven power, but she would technically double the impact that the sort of FSI is having for Lin Lee if given on the same location. If that works out as I would expect it to. But, um, I guess at the end of the day here, rating wise you said you came in a little lower. But I don't know if you give an actual star rating unless I'm just not remembering correctly. You wanna story, what

Prashaun: 19:37

are the stars one through five or one through one through

Alex: 19:39

five? What they actually mean though. If you're like, Alex what's a four star? I mean, I don't think we've ever actually defined what each one legitimately does. Okay. I would say that like a five star card is gonna be like absolutely meta warping four star is like legit playable. A hundred percent. Like you're gonna want it. Three stars is like maybe niche, probably playable, two stars is like forgettable but not trash. One star is like martyr on release trash.

Prashaun: 20:05

I, I'm, I'm gonna give this a two

Alex: 20:07

you think? A two A. Why, so why would you say a two?

Prashaun: 20:10

Me personally, like, especially looking at like, at all these competitive decks at the moment, I just think it doesn't fit unless like you try to build something completely new all around this. But when you're, when you're thinking about like two drops and. Like you'd rather play like a Merlin or something or a Kate Bishop I don't know. I just think the Lin LA isn't like a top tier tube.

Alex: 20:36

Okay, that's fair. And my major concern for the card is that it's incredibly niche. It's only gonna be likely paid in one or two decks. But here's the thing though, like. There are cards. We're being spoiled with cards like Merlin and Shala that get played in so many different decks. Like competently. We often forget there's cards like The Invisible Woman, first Steps Prodigy Jo Costa, that honestly, if played in just one meta crushing deck, suddenly becomes worth it. Right. Can Linley find that one meta crushing deck? I don't know if it exists. And I think that's where you're saying, you're like, you know what? I don't know if. This card makes sense for an existing archetype that we know is a banger.

Prashaun: 21:17

Yeah. Like maybe in the future. I, I think there's some cards that like we thought weren't good at first, and then later on other cards came out like Cannonball. Everyone wasn't high on Cannonball at first, and then Mercury comes out and then that's like a finisher at the end of the game. Like even now, like Scarlet Spider is like meta again. Yeah. Like at first, like it came meta with Nomura, you were able to play like Nomura and Scarlet Spider do some like tricky things there. But now with Sha Lao, like everyone's playing Scarlet Spider again, just so they could get that clone out there and then now like to combat that and counter that people are playing stardust,

Alex: 21:54

Yeah. Which is appropriate. It is just like

Prashaun: 21:55

a, a huge effect of like cause and effect with like cards being put in the game.

Alex: 22:01

And I guess the last thing I'll mention here is that with Linley being an honor reveal and the short sort of ee being a ongoing, you could potentially see some play for something like a Aurora deck because even if they're put into the same location, they will get double, uh, they'll get pumped by the Aurora, which is potentially very nice. Now, while we're out of order anyways, let's just continue with the preview. Let's continue with preview season here. Let's continue with Dragon Lord. Dragon Lord is a Series four card coming to high voltage. Now I believe they pushed high voltage back a day. So. Hopefully by the time you read, you read this, watch this. I think it's well on Monday. I think they're gonna be releasing it on Monday on the reset potentially. So just keep an eye out on the scheduling and things might have adjusted ever so slightly. But we have the dragon Lord, a five five that reads on reveal. Put a card from your hand here. Honestly, Prashan, I couldn't believe that this card didn't already exist like this. This is such obvious text, like it must have been some intern looking through the game trying to come up with like an idea being like, yo, yo, hold on. Did we forget, like this most basic type of thing? And sure enough, it makes me wonder like what other super basic effect has not really been used yet. But uh, this is a series four card available in high voltage and for a series four card. I actually think it's pretty good. Like I'm going to 3.5 range. I think it's good. I can see it actually hitting a four range. I could honestly see this. This is a strong effect. I think RAMP is. The best it's ever been. Right now, this Loves Ramp, loves ramp Electro into this pull in infant on easy mode. Right. I'm curious what you think about it. Yeah,

Prashaun: 23:29

for sure. Like, I, I really, I'm high on this card for sure. Too bad. It, it like, I hate like, I'm like a lore guy, so I hate that it's like wasted on Dragon Lord.'cause he is like a run of the mill, like evil villain for, uh, Shung Chi and Ironman. But yeah, like being able to pull something from your hand onto the board. Maybe you replace Blink, like instead of playing Blink in these decks, you play Dragon Lord just to pull that card out. That way you know what's coming for the most part. Or you have that more of a board presence per se. So you just play like chamber on two, electro on three, dragon Lord, let Dragon Lord pull something big. And then you just keep on going on with your day. Even have something like vision in your deck too, that way, like dragon more pools of vision. You can move that vision around where it needs to go and then just play other big stuff. So I, I think this is a pretty cool card, and especially if you could get this in a game mode for free. I, I think this is an awesome piece for everyone to have.

Alex: 24:25

Yeah. And uh, one thing I will say is I think that this card, even though I said like 3.5 to four, I wouldn't surprise me if this card surprise to the upside. It wouldn't surprise me if like that warm machine electro blink ramp deck puts this card in there and finds success. But the other side to that is that that particular shell, which has been very meta for a while. Is so good at doing its thing like, I wonder if it even needs dragon Lord. Like if you think about it, you get that extra energy, you're slamming down something huge on turn, uh, turn five, you're slamming down. You know, something like, well, OT plus Ebony Ma turn six. Like, I don't know if Dragon Lord even makes it. Like, what do you cut in those decks for something like a dragon, Lord. Not to say that the card's not good, it's just those decks have become so refined ever since the change to war machine. I wonder what you cut for this.

Prashaun: 25:12

Yeah, it's like maybe you cut blink.'cause blink has that unknown, but the curve on those decks are so good. You, yeah. You know what's coming for the most part. So it, it's, it is a, a tough cut for a dragon, Lord. But the text on it is so good though. The text is so good.

Alex: 25:28

I will say that like I'm talking about the buff to warm buff, it was supposed to be a Nerf to warm machine, but the change to warm machine going from a four cost to a five cost. And you were right to identify though that what really helped that archetype, that ramp archetype specifically was chamber chamber gave them like a play where on turn two you were adding like a massive amount of power That makes sense. Like you're trying to put huge chunks in the field of play Chamber does exactly that. Kind of sad that like. The top performing chamber decks aren't Nick Fury decks. I thought the moment was gonna come where Nick Fury was gonna be relevant, but that didn't quite happen for me. Yeah, I think it's

Prashaun: 26:01

more of like a iron, like iron patriot like Valentina type of thing where you play you chamber on two and then you play your iron patriot, then you buff your chamber that way, that card's discounted from the Im Patriot, and you just keep that priority going.

Alex: 26:19

It's a great idea, but, uh, yeah, dragon Lord, honestly, uh, not too much to say other than the fact that for a Series four card, it seems simplistic on the onset. You read it and you're like, that's not that exciting. But honestly, this might be pretty good. And the way I would think about it is it's a five five red Wing. Okay? Red Wing's a three five, right? But Red Wing does not. It actually requires you to prock it, right? So with red Ring specifically, you gotta move it. You gotta make it move. So you have to do that hoop, you gotta jump through that hoop. Is that hoop worth two energy and an extra card on board and a draw that you have to depend on versus, well, I'm just gonna pay the extra two energy and I know I'm pulling a card from my hand no matter what. So same power to cost a difference, but you don't have to jump through the hoop. What do you think about that?

Prashaun: 27:07

Yeah, it, it's pretty good. Even with like ramp, like what if you play like a Luna Snow, you could play dragon mortar turn early, like electro Yeah. Play a turn early, surge. A little bit of cope there, but you could probably get him out a turn early. Like, I, I think it's pretty good, especially if you're playing a lot of like big boys in your hand.

Alex: 27:29

Yeah. There's no question about that. Um, so yeah, so those are the previews that are coming up and what we gotta talk about now. We gotta talk about the elephant sized dragon in the room or the dragon sized elephant in the room. I dunno. Either way it works. I think my little analogy there shall lao this card is the season pass card and, um, you know, last week's, last week's, last month's season pass weapon X It was like, it impressed to the upside power wise, but like, it ultimately kind of felt like. I don't know if I actually really need to play this. Like it ended up, ended up not being the best version of Destroy. Right. But what Sha LA has done is it's kind of taken every single card that like has been on the periphery of being really good and amped it up. Like you talked about Scarlet Spider. Scarlet Spider was a card that was seeing some play, but not a lot. Right. And then you had cards like Kitty Pride, which obviously used to be meta defining and all of a sudden. Sha Lao comes and it just amps it up to the, the highest and degree. This is an absolute banger season pass card. Prashan, what has your experience been with Sha Lao thus far?

Prashaun: 28:40

Josh sha Lao is a crazy card. I, I think it's probably overt tuned. I hate to say that I get nerfed eventually, but like casting during the snowball showdown and then seeing all the decks play this, even playing this on ladder. Like you said, there's been plenty of cards that have been dusted off, like WASP is being played, that we were playing two cards every turn to maximize Shallal at the end of the game. And then the fact like Maverick too, like Maverick Cha Lao, like Scarlet Spider like goes crazy. The fact like you could have those crazy end of the turn plays with this card is very, very scary. So like, it's like you have to tech maybe a Cosmo or a shadow king. Just to tone this down a little bit.

Alex: 29:27

I'm actually working on this new deck. Uh, it's shall lao. I have R and Ironman in there and I'm trying to, shall allow the Ironman to like cleanly trade that location by surprise and stuff like that. It's actually been working really, really well. Uh, that deck also runs like an Agent Venom style list, which I think is kind of cool. You know, that's just a little peak ahead I guess. I haven't had as much time to do like deck videos, which I like. I love cooking things and sometimes I end up cooking stuff and just playing by myself. And then like, I don't end up like releasing a video for it. And because of that, like it doesn't, it doesn't hit the airwaves, you know what I mean? It was like, do I gotta like tweet this or something? I wanna see, like, I almost wanna see the stats. I wanna see a couple hundred games on this deck.'cause I actually think it's a banger. I've done that a whole bunch of times. That's, that's my latest cook I've been working on behind the scenes. I think it's really cool, honestly. Yeah. But yeah, this card that's. This card is really good, man. It's running a on aggregate across the board. All testing ranks 80 to 100 plus infinite. Um, we're looking at a 56% win rate at a 30% popularity according to untapped. If second dinner's plan was, let's release a really good season pass card, that meta warps and then. We sell season passes. I think they might have done exactly that'cause 30% play rate is absolutely astronomical. And on the upper end of the deck performance, you are looking at decks running e near 60% win rate with uh, almost 6,000 games being played like. And these are the Scarlet Spider Maverick stylists. We also have the an nihilist sentry package decks that are running Sha Lao as well. But at the end of the day, if you're looking for a deck to play, you can find a sha la deck. In the 60 percentile win rate, which is ridiculous.

Prashaun: 31:03

Yeah. It, it's such a good card. Like, it like, I don't know. The season pass cards have been mediocre, but they're starting off the year with a bang with this one. This one's freaking awesome.

Alex: 31:15

Yeah, there's no question about that. Um, and where have you been playing at the most thus far?

Prashaun: 31:21

Uh, it's been like a scarlet spider build. I just like build my board. Play Maverick. Play Scarlet Spider. I have like kitty pride in that deck too. The typical shallow owl deck and then just having my scarlet spider that's like 20 or 17 just fly across the board and I just take two lanes and take cubes.

Alex: 31:40

And with that you can also use Jokasta to MultiPro to Scarlet Spider if you have Ocosta.

Prashaun: 31:46

Joe Costa is in that deck too. Like it, it goes crazy. Typically, I don't get all the cubes that I deserve. Mostly like the opponent retreats as soon as they know it's coming, which is like, uh, but still, like this deck is, is pretty strong. This card is a very good card.

Alex: 32:02

No, there's no question about that. And I mean the conversation about the retreat system and Snap and how it's, I think starting to really wear. On people over time, I think is a very worthy conversation for another time. It's, I think, competitively one of the best. Like it's brilliant, but when you're just on the ladder and you wanna see fireworks, you wanna see stuff happen. It's so, it's so heartbreaking sometimes, especially as con, well it's also as a content creator, I'm not allowed to Snap. I don't Snap anymore. Like when I'm streaming, I can't Snap

Prashaun: 32:31

because if

Alex: 32:32

I, nothing happens, like everyone just leaves. So I'm like, I just don't Snap. I love when people Snap on me then, because I, even if I'm ahead, I'm like, thank you. Now I'm going to, you know, I get some extra cubes here.'cause if I Snap and they leave, it's like the content just sucks. Like I want, I either wanna win. Cool games seen through, or I wanna win games that look impossible to win. That's what I want to do. And I can't do that if everyone just retreats nonstop.

Prashaun: 32:55

Yeah. Sometimes you're like recording, like sometimes it could be like 45 minutes you get like. Four or five good games in a row, or like, it'll take like hours. It's like, come on, stay in the game, or let this happen. I want this to happen so bad. And then they just retreat and you're like, crap.

Alex: 33:11

Yeah. But yeah, if you're thinking about whether or not to pick up Sha Lao, it's a phenomenal card. The$10 you spend on the season pass tends to be the best 10 bucks you can spend in Marvel Snap. And 10 bucks is still 10 bucks though, right? And, uh, it does add up if you've play been playing Snap for years. But I guess the one risk for Sean, I'll throw your way, is, uh, like do you see this card potentially being nerfed? And if it does get nerfed, what do they change on it? Maybe

Prashaun: 33:35

the power not as much power. I think the condition is fine playing like two characters a turn or two cards a turn. I, I think that's fine. But the power, I, I think that's what they'll change eventually. I don't think they'll change it soon because like, everyone paid for this card and you know how that goes. I think Miss wasn't Miss Marvel that they changed like mid-season and everyone went crazy over that. So I, I think they'll wait a while before they change it, but I, I think that would be the change.'cause it, it is like overpowered. I think just a little bit.

Alex: 34:07

You could pretty much put anything in front of that. You can put like blank and then everyone went crazy after that. And it would always make sense in in Marvel Snap land, no matter what it was. And it could be gone crazy to the positive, caught crazy to the negative. No matter what happens, blank and everyone went crazy after that is always gonna be completely valid.

Prashaun: 34:29

That is Marvel Snap. That is Marvel Snap. Twitter in a nutshell.

Alex: 34:32

Yeah, I think that like the last time we saw like a late Nerf, that was very obvious that they did it just before it left the season pass. Just before it entered the series. PACS was probably Mr. Fantastic four first steps. I think that was the most obvious. Like, alright guys, like we, we see you there. Shall lao So you think it has some plot armor?'cause it's the season pass card got gotta sell those. Yeah, those season passes. It has to,

Prashaun: 34:54

definitely has some plot armor there. Like they can't change it. Everyone will be in the uproar. Compensation will be like the key word. So I think they'll wait a bit.

Alex: 35:03

Yeah, and, and it puts'em in a tricky spot too, right? Like you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't, if you're like, secondary's design team, like if I was them and I was responsible for making this choice. You have two options. One, you're like, okay, it's over tuned. We Nerf it right now. A, we heard our bottom line. B, we Earth the early adopters, and C, we didn't get that much of a sample size. You do it later before it goes to the series packs. Freedom play is annoyed. Gamers who bought, I feel like they got their money's worth because they stomped all the free to play players on the way to infinite. Like you really, there's no clean answer. And then there's the other argument. Well, why not release it like a little less or tuned? First of all, I'll tell you right now, this was a card where you read on paper it sounded like it was gonna be phenomenal. We all gave it like 4.5. We, this is clearly a five star card. This is clearly a meta warping card. Right? And like sometimes it doesn't jump off the page that way. Sometimes you have to play it and you feel it and then like. Even second dinner. I don't know if they cooked the top performing shelves. Like maybe they, they had an idea of where they want to go with it and then they put it out into the world and then like top tier players make top tier decks that second dinner wasn't able to cook on their own behalf. And then you get the, this massive outlier in performance. Right? So like, I'm not sure what they're to do, but I will tell you PR Sean, is that the plus three power effect has been so consistently overpowered to Marvel, Snap Hope, summers original Silver Surfer, Thena, um, they've all had plus three power and then eventually it's just like. No, no, no. Plus two power now it's just too much.

Prashaun: 36:31

Yeah. They should have known, but who would've known, like Scarlet Spider was gonna be the play, and then you'll double it up on the board. Like they probably didn't even realize that and play testing. They probably thought like one lane maybe will be overpowered, but like, the fact that you could split that like probably wasn't on their Bingo card at the time. So yeah, it, they are in a tricky position. With this card and the future of it.

Alex: 36:56

Yeah, and talking about Dragons Dragon, the meta up towards a skyward win rate, we have Lockheed. This was the series five card that released in the series five packs. Currently running on aggregate a 56% win rate, very similar to shall Lao uh, it's popularity play rate is only 11%, so about a third of the games with Sha Lao will have Lockheed in it. The best performing versions of Lockheed. Our shall allow decks. In fact, they're the same decks with Scarlet Spider that you're expecting to see. So in some ways, Lockheed is seeing a significant increase of, uh, in its win rate because it's being tied to what is a metal warping card in shall allow. So we almost have to distance ourselves from the win rates of Lockheed and try to evaluate the card individually. So I'll give you the floor here. Uh, Prashan, what was your opinion on Lockheed?

Prashaun: 37:48

So I, I like the card, like if you're playing on curve, if you're playing a lot of one drops, of course it goes well. Kitty pride, if you look at the lower walk key and kitty pride, so you're playing that one drop all the time. And I, I think it, I guess it goes hand in hand with those shall allow decks.'cause you want to play two cards every chance you could get. But overall, I think by itself, I, I don't think it has a home yet because I think affliction isn't where it used to be. Especially when debris got changed too, and then like, all, like, it just doesn't feel the same the way it used to be, like feel, but eventually, I think if they bring affliction back, I, I think this could be a key piece in it.

Alex: 38:28

So the first thing I'll say is that this animation looks like a bug. Like seriously, like that? That cannot be the animation. If that's the animation. Someone done goofed, no one was watching the interns, man.'cause like this, like Marvel snaps. Animations have been absolutely fire. Like even. Man, the Aurora animation, when you hover her over the board and she like, does the zip, zip, like kinda like the flash zip, it's so good. That's one, one thing that Marvel Snap really does well. Okay. I play a lot of car games, digital, physical. I play so many car games and one way that Marvel Snap stands out is a lot of those effects like, man, it's been a while, hover, shocker over the board. Like, you know what I mean? Like that, that, like that pulsing effect from the cart. Like that stuff really makes a difference when you put it all together and then you got Lockheed like disappearing on the board and just like spitting on the person on the other side. Like, come on man. Like what are we doing? But in terms of the actual cart, I'll tell you, I tried to cook some like affliction. It did not feel good. It just didn't feel great. But like when being paired with everything that you're doing with Sha la anyways, trying to play multiple cards, it's like, yeah. Plays. Okay. Obviously Merlin loves this card. Like if you're playing Merlin, this feels like free real estate, right? But at the same time, while it's good, it feels like, oh, I don't have Lockheed. My shall allow deck is still insane. But if you have no shall allow, your Lockheed deck probably sucks.

Prashaun: 39:50

Because even Lea, like we thought, like on paper too, Lea felt like she was gonna be a good card, but she doesn't even get that much play either. Like you see every once in a while. But like the Clea Nicholas scratch like Merlin thing. I thought it was gonna be a thing going forward. But no, we, we have zombies. We have zombies all the time.

Alex: 40:08

I'll tell you though, with the new sham, like sh chi, the new one coming out, I think that once its potential's unlocked, you might see some clia because then to turn getting the buff into every car to that location, CLIA will start to feed right. So that might be a time for Clea to come back. So stay tuned for Han. Stay tuned, my man, because C'S time might be coming with, uh, the new Honers, but yeah, Lockheed, like I, he's totally fine. Like Lockheed I think was. Good. I think the animation sucks. I think that the effect is obviously vulnerable to, to both, uh, Luke Cage and Shadow King. But overall it was just fine. It, it was good. It was a good card. It put a power like it did the thing. But I'll tell you as a two one as well, I felt like sometimes it was in a position for friendly fire with a Merlin.'cause Merlin will target like the lowest power card in a location or something like that. And like sometimes you're like, well now I can't play on lock. He,'cause he is gonna polymorph or something. Right.

Prashaun: 41:02

I think if he tucked the power away from a card and gained it himself, I think that would be a pretty cool effect.

Alex: 41:09

Like if he stole the power That might be op though.

Prashaun: 41:12

Maybe. But your opponent wouldn't try to play in his lane until like later maybe. Yeah, especially since it's a two cost, it deters your opponent from playing at that location. Maybe that is too op, but I, I think that would, that would actually sell the card a lot more.

Alex: 41:28

Yeah, the stealing part is, is probably a, a huge, huge upgrade. But, uh, so yeah, Lockheed, a little, little, uh, on the, uh, the softer side, I will say. Overall, but generally a pretty decent card. Not the worst, not the best. You give, you give it three stars. You said three star. Oh man, that's a good question. What did I give it last week? I don't even remember what I gave it last week. I had to look it up. Hold on. Lemme look up what I gave it last week. What would you give it?

Prashaun: 41:55

I

Alex: 41:55

think it's a three star.

Prashaun: 41:57

To be honest I think it's a okay piece. Maybe later on in the game of Snap, we'll look back at Lockheed, but as of now, like he's just a key, like a o okay. Piece in the shallow, loud deck that plays on curve.

Alex: 42:10

Both Cam Best and I agree to 3.5. So approximately three range. And I think the thing that like really stood out to me was that like it's getting carried by Sha Lao. Like Sha Lao is clearly the banger here, and Lockheed was a decent supporting piece in those decks. I'm glad that they released them in the same week. But ultimately it's like, as I said before, a shall la deck needs shall la a Lockheed deck needs shall la shall LA does not lead, need Lockheed. Put that on the fortune cookie and you're good fortune cookie, man. Uh, what's, what's the, uh, good news from a distance? What's the, what's the classic meme with, is that the Simpsons? Homer Simpson opens the fortune cookie says good news from a distance.

Prashaun: 42:56

I believe so. It might be, it might be Simpsons have done everything, so it could be,

Alex: 43:01

yeah, that's right.

Prashaun: 43:02

Anything you say. More than likely the Simpsons did it.

Alex: 43:05

That's right. Isn't that a meme census? Did it? What was that from? Did it Yeah, from South Park. Yeah, that's right. South Park. Man, that's an, that's another show I've not watched in a long time. I gotta, man, I've not watched anything, man. People are talking about like stranger things and everything like that. I was like, my wife was like, yo, we should watch some stranger things. Right? Keep in mind we only get to watch like 20 minutes a night before we fall asleep because like the kids just like exhaust us and we're like currently working through like, like season four. Of Stranger Things. Oh, okay. So we're like a full season behind like what everyone's talking about, which is kind of, you gotta watch it, you gotta finish it. Trying, man. We've been trying for like two months. We're trying. It's takes a long time. And even then I told my wife, why you be

Prashaun: 43:43

part of a

Alex: 43:43

conformity

Prashaun: 43:44

gate?

Alex: 43:45

I know conformity. I don't even know what you're talking about. No spoilers in the comments. I have no idea what that means. Conformity gate. But I already like, why is everything a gate, by the way? Like why is everything something? What's what? The gate. Everything's

Prashaun: 43:56

a conspiracy. Everything's something. I think it's the internet. Just the internet being the internet at this point.

Alex: 44:02

Because I remember like Tom Brady, like deflate gate. I was like, why is it a gate? Like, I don't understand, like, I don't understand like the vernacular that's being used. I just, maybe because, well, it's

Prashaun: 44:10

like from Watergate from back in the day, what the hell's Watergate? Like President Nixon, all that kind of stuff. It's US stuff. I don't know.

Alex: 44:18

It's the US stuff. Yeah. You're deep in the weeds now, man. I, I don't. I, it, I, yeah. Okay. I'll have to try to brush up on the, uh, vernacular, I guess. My apologies. Alright, let's move on to the Snapchat mailbag. We have a couple questions that was asked of us, but one of the, mainly that I really wanted to bring up here and it's Birchy gaming, uh, asked this question or not really asked it, but it's more of a statement and I'd be curious your thoughts on it. Prashan weapon X's play rate is about to go straight into the toilet now that we don't have weekend missions for him.

Prashaun: 44:51

Okay, true. You, you actually mentioned this earlier, that was a card that you really didn't need and destroy archetypes and yeah, you really don't need that card and destroy archetypes. Like you could probably just destroy a bunch of stuff and play null and death and be fine. Like I think the only thing this, I don't know it, the only thing that added to destroy, I feel like in a positive way. Maybe Moira just because the, maybe Moira.

Alex: 45:20

How dare you? It's not cold'cause you could get

Prashaun: 45:21

double the cards.

Alex: 45:23

Whatcha talking about Moira is my, okay. Well I just finished TA Home. Moira is like my favorite card ever.

Prashaun: 45:28

But, but like,'cause you think about what Wade Wilson Head pool, like all of these cards that have been added to destroy, like, you don't even need them in a destroyed deck. Like you just need Moira Knull. Artem Zola, maybe you could probably go magic to extend it that way you could get your pieces. But besides that, like none of the new destroy cards, like you don't need, except for maybe Moira. That's it.

Alex: 45:54

Magic is like insane Merlin beat though. Like you're just, you're begging for omni universal presence to just low kick you. But. So first of all, Moyer X, I'm gonna, okay, I'm gonna defend Moyer X here. So first of all, it's kind of sad that Weapon X literally can put up 20 power as a two drop, and somehow just doesn't, like, you're like, nah, I'm okay. You know what I mean? Like it's, but it's the type of deck you have to play. You're playing the squirrel girl stuff. You're playing like Shauna, skill Monger, all those things, right? But like. First of all I'll tell you right now, Wade Wilson, I didn't actually end up playing as much as I wanted to. I just I played like 10 games of him. I thought he was way better now than he was before. For sure. Didn't end up cooking too much with him. Head Pool surprised me to the upside. I think head pool was a legitimate addition to, uh, to the arc, to the archetype as a whole. Moyer X though, man. That the, the amount of cube equity you get from doubling death, from doubling, venom, from just having that extremely beautiful card and watching the effect, the emotional advantage you get from watching the animation is enough, right? I think more X is by far the best card. They one, okay, hold on. I'm not gonna say best card is in like power level, but in terms of design flavor and everything they cooked, man, Moira Acts in 2025. That is, it's tough to beat, man. They absolutely, whoever came up with a concept, the art, everything, they crushed it. It is such a beautiful card. It's, it's my favorite card for sure.

Prashaun: 47:25

Yeah. And then the lore aspect too, like we talked about a little bit Yeah. Before, but like the fact that like she copies her hand like basically resets her hand at the beginning, like it is crazy. It's like chef's kiss the way they like made that card. It's awesome. Definitely makes sense.

Alex: 47:40

Absolutely, my man. But anyways, that more or less brings us to the end of the Snapchat this week. Talked about a couple reviews, couple new cards. And you know what, guys, I gotta tell you a lot of fun stuff happening this week. We, we should have a high voltage with the, uh, freely accessible card. It should be relatively free to play friendly to get the new card. Dragon Lord, of course. It's been something that Secondary's been doing particularly well in the new game modes. If there's a new card there. Sometimes even just buying the premium version of the. Game mode pass or whatever, unlocks the card right away for 1200 gold, which I mean, yes, it's sad it's not eight, 800 gold anymore, but it really is the cheapest way to get a new card. And of course you can grind it. It's free to play. But um, yeah, it's, it's an exciting week.

Prashaun: 48:24

Yeah, definitely looking forward to this week in Snap. I don't know the, the new card might be underwhelming, but yeah, I'm still gonna grind it out on ladder conquest, new game mode. Tons of exciting stuff. I could practice some of these like cool decks from the snowball showdown. Like they, they should be up on Twitter and stuff, so I'm gonna play around with those.

Alex: 48:43

Yes. And I should mention, you did an absolutely fantastic job casting the snowball showdown. Uh, now look, look how, like, you look like you're still in the snowball showdown here.

Prashaun: 48:53

Yeah. I haven't changed my background. I have heim behind me. I, I'm not getting afflicted every term though, so We're, we're good. We're good. Yeah, I wanna say I'm Luke Cage at the moment. Is that Yeah, that makes sense. I'm Luke Cage at That's right, the moment not getting afflicted.

Alex: 49:09

Perfect. And guys, we are going to have the links to pr Sean's YouTube, where he makes fantastic content, including incredible shorts about Marvel Snap, your Twitch TV as well. Guys, I absolutely do welcome you to use those buttons down below to support prashan support the pod. And most importantly, guys, I hope you enjoyed this wonderful week of conversation about Marvel Snap, and we'll see you on the next one.