The Snap Chat: Marvel Snap Podcast
The Snap Chat: Marvel Snap Podcast
The Merlin Nerf & OTA Review | Hela's New Weapon | Ranking Dragon Lord & Fin Fang Foom | The Snap Chat Ep. 165
This week, Alex is joined by the prolific streamer: Interrobang! The duo dives deep into the latest OTA Balance Patch, debating whether the nerf to Merlin actually impacts the meta and if the buffs to Vulture and Multiple Man are enough to cure "Bounce fatigue." They also break down the new High Voltage card Dragon Lord, analyzing if it's the perfect tool for Chamber & Ramp decks or a risky play for the uninitiated.
Alex and Interrobang also look ahead to the massive new dragon Fin Fang Foom, asking if this 7-Cost behemoth is destined to just be Hela fodder or if it can find a home elsewhere. Plus, they review Lin Lie (Iron Fist) with a split verdict: is it a hard "skip" to save tokens, or a secret weapon for Spider-Man Noir synergy?
Finally, they answer a spicy Mailbag question about whether Knull and Destroy decks are "free wins" for players regardless of skill. Join Alex Coccia and special guest Interrobang 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.
Have a question or comment for Cozy and Alex? Send them a Text Message.
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!
Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of the Snapchat. This week for the first time ever, we have the prolific Marvel Snap streamer in tarot. Bang, my man. It is great to finally have you on the podcast. How are you today?
Interrobang:I'm good, I'm good. Thank you for finally having me. I've been trying to get on here for some time. Glad it all, uh, lined up.
Alex:I know. Well, actually we tried to like connect probably about a month ago, and then of course you're like, you were out of country or something could, it was like nearly impossible. But, uh, I, I'm just excited to finally have you here because you are by far one of my favorite Twitch personalities in Marvel Snap. Oh, thank you. I think that your stream is hilarious. I think it's a ton of fun and you're almost always on, which I think is, uh, is awesome for the category.
Interrobang:Yeah. Um, I don't know how I did it, but in my 2025 Twitch recap, it said I streamed 366 days in a row, so I don't know what they're counting, but, uh, I broke, I broke the yearly limit, I guess.
Alex:Is it possible that like if you stream like complete DJ hours, it accounts for like two days, you go,
Interrobang:yeah. That, it must be that. I don't know if it was like a leap year or whatever. I snuck a day in there.
Alex:That's awesome. And I mean, this is the first time you've ever been on the podcast. So first of all, welcome. And one of the things I always like to start with is what got you into Marvel Snap in the first place? Like, what was the thing that you're like, huh, I should maybe install this game. And then from there, what was like, huh, maybe I should stream this game. And then now you've casted, you've done all this other stuff. Like what is the origin story?
Interrobang:Yeah, so the, the, the full elevator pitch is I'm a, I was a big Hearthstone gamer. And I, I followed Ben Brode over here when it finally happened, but. Marvel Snap was actually the first game to finally make me miss a, uh, daily Quest login for Hearthstone. And once that happened I was like, okay, this must be the game now.'Cause I, I never did before that. But I was initially worried about the three lane setup because I played, um, I forgot the name of it, but it was like the Valve Hearthstone Killer art. Killer Art, yeah. Artifact. And I just could not wrap my head around it. I was, it was too much to manage and too much to juggle. So when I heard that this one was also three lanes, I was like, ah, it's gonna be like that again. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do it, but it, it instantly clicked. I, I instantly loved it. I'm a big Marvel guy, so, you know, I resonated with the characters and stuff, so I just stuck around and, and really loved the game. And then as far as streaming, I was big in the Marvel Snap Discord. Just as a, a player. And then I guess maybe I, I used one too many clown emojis'cause I got banned from it. And that, that was like all I had like to connect with people in the game. So I ended up making a Twitter and then Twitter just took off. I became like this funny like Twitter personality guy. And then what happened was everyone went to the first Snap Con and like no one was streaming. Everyone went there. So I was like, okay, this is my opportunity to be like, all right, if, if you're looking for a Snap stream, I'm the only one on right now. And I, I, I think I made the title like Mr. Steel Your Stream. So like something and like everyone just came over to me and then they decided to stick around.
Alex:That's absolutely hilarious. And first of all, let me just clarify something. You got banned for using too many clown emojis. Like there has to be more to that. Like, unless like you are literally spamming clown emoji 24 7. Like you gotta gimme more context here.
Interrobang:Yeah, I was very antagonistic and there's a lot of Snap hot takes. Where at the end of the day you kind of just have to be like, you're, that's like the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And before I was like someone who didn't wanna completely offend people. That's kind of how I interacted with people. I was like, this is the most absurd take you could ever have or have a clown emoji. And I guess maybe, I don't know, I was too antagonistic. I got reported too many times and they were just like, get this interbank guy outta here. He is too, he's too mean to everybody.
Alex:But you're not banned anymore, right? That has been ified. I'm not banned
Interrobang:anymore. The, the big comeback story is they had to, once I started streaming and I became a Marvel Snap creator, they had to let me back in. The origin story is they created me. Really, they banned me. And the only way I could get back in was to become a streamer. So I, I did that and I got back into the Discord.
Alex:I don't know why, but that really reminded me of like, the storyline of like the Incredibles who's like, what's the, what's the kid that the, like Mr. Incredible won't collab with? Yeah. You know, and he gets so mad and he like, he's like, fine. Like, and I'll be the villain. And yeah. And then, you know, that, that's actually hilarious. Um, well first of all, it's, again, it's, it's awesome to have you and, uh, the success you've had in Marvel Snap is not a coincidence. You're incredibly entertaining. And so, uh, it's, it's great to finally have you on. Today we got a lot to talk about though. We're gonna be talking about the OTA, we're gonna be talking about our Lin Lee review. We're gonna be talking about Dragon Lording Review, doing a full preview of Fang F. And then finally we have a Snapchat mailbox question, which I think is particularly interesting. So, you know what? Let's dive right in. What are we gonna do first? What are we gonna do first? You know what? I think that we should probably. Talk about that. OTA, the OTA is a good launching point for the discussion here today because a lot changed. It was one of those OTAs where like, first of all, I like OTAs. There's maybe just like one Nerf and mostly buffs. I kind of like that, but very notably, they nurse the goat one of the absolute greatest cards of all time Merlin. And this is a card that like, listen, I know that there's a lot of opinions on, I think that this is one of the least problematic super good cards in Marvel Snap, where it's like, it is super good but it doesn't feel brutally unfair to play against. You know what I mean? Like it's power level has always been so consistently solid, but it's never felt consistently. Like it's not a game, a breaking card, but it's definitely to some degree a meta warping card. Especially if you like someone like, I don't know, magic like I do. So we're gonna go through the OTA here, but right off the rip, I would love to know your opinion on the Merlin Nerf taking him from a two three to a two two.
Interrobang:Yeah, I was kind of going to say the same thing that you did. He, he reminds me very much of Jeff, where like in the early days of two drops, Jeff was like in every deck. But you kind of weren't really mad when you saw Jeff come down. You were just like, yeah, of course they're playing Jeff and Merlin feels the same way. He does feel a little oppressive. I'm like, you, I I really like magic decks. I really wanna rely on turn seven. And before you kind of just had to worry about like a NOC turn or, or a Scarlet Witch or, or Legion started to become very oppressive when he was in every deck. But now I kind of avoid playing magic decks completely now. And if I do play a deck where they are relying on magic, I either opt for like a Luna Snow line or like another way to get extra cards out or something like that, because I just know that they're gonna have location change when I don't want it to happen. So that's the only really oppressive Merlin feelings I have. But as far as like. Two three. Two A, two two. I don't, I don't think that that's a Nerf at all. I don't think that's, and, and I know they, they really like leaning into the, well, one, one power could shift, you know, dramatically the play rate or something like that. But for a card like Merlin, I don't think it does, especially when one of us is spells I think it is the location change spell gives him plus two power. Yeah. So it's like it, you're not really gonna miss it if you get enough of these anyway. Right? If you get two or three of these, then Melin is still like a, a two seven at the end of the game, so it doesn't really matter.
Alex:No. And yeah, omni reversal presence is incredibly powerful. It is single handedly take in magic outta the meta altogether. And it's kind of sad'cause you're right, like you used to be able to rely on magic for getting those, those magical turns seven plays, squeezing things in squeezing lines and you couldn't do in six turns. And now it's like, well you have so many options. Luna Snow, as you mentioned, is a fantastic option. I still can't believe she's a three six. She probably gets nerfed down to a three five. I think that she was buffed with three six, be like, Hey, like you probably should be playing this. Like no one's even trying this. Card's really good. And then don't forget that even an electro was a three two at one point. It's now a three five with legitimate support too. So yeah, a lot has changed. And for Merlin it's been all about the incantations or the skills really. They're all pretty damn good. And especially Polymorph. I actually think that while a lot, uh, Omni Universal presence gets a lot of like. Fireworks for what it does and obviously it is meta warping to some degree. I think that polymorph is incredible'cause even some of those, like werewolf by night, mid-range decks, were running these centuries, a nihilist space package with hood and everything. Just because like you could polymorph that void into something legitimately powerful, like turning a void into a vision that's good you take that right. So, um, I do think the card overall is totally fine. The decks of the week this week, uh, you know, as we go into the, the weekends and stuff like that, we saw kind of early stats as to how Merlin was affected. It was largely unaffected. It still looked like an incredible car. So ultimately, not too much to be disappointed about there. The rest are all buffs though, which is kind of exciting. Now there's a card, um, that chemo very recently, but didn't perform as well as perhaps people were hoping or expecting. And that was Phantom X going from a four six to a four seven. What are your thoughts?
Interrobang:Yeah, I, I really want to like Phantom X, but I think the, having the end there discarded and destroyed instead of, or it's just making him too pigeonholed into this weird, combination of archetypes that when other decks are so optimized right now and they're doing what they're doing so perfectly. And so, often you, even if you get Phantom X perfectly, the perfect curve, the perfect trigger, he goes off exactly how you want. It's just not gonna do anything to like a perfect curve, shoe loud deck or, or you know, that new ramp deck or, or a hella that hits cor into Odin or something like that. It's just not gonna do anything.
Alex:Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, like he feels like the kind of card that well is pretty good when, like numbers wise, he's really good when you get everything to line up. Truthfully, and honestly it's a lot of hoops to jump through. And so, um, it makes sense that he needs a little bit of extra power. But what I think he really needs is more cards that kind of work alongside him to a positive effect. Um, he feels like he just needs more support and the hybrid archetype that exists right now, it just doesn't feel like it's worth playing.
Interrobang:Yeah, and I think there was, there was an opportunity, I think Glen commented on it, there was an opportunity, someone asked like, Hey, with this new discard or, and destroy archetype, do you wanna revisit saber tooth And like, make him playable? And he was like, no, saber tooth's cool. But like that was such a good opportunity to like just add legacy support to something that they're trying to push now. And like you said, if, if it had just a few more pieces that, that did what he was doing it would feel really good.'cause I really like wild child and I think wild child coming out at the same time as him was almost like the synergy he needed. But then you ended up just. Wild child by itself was good enough in, in Dex that we're trying to do something like this, like a marrow deck or whatever you're, you're trying to do with him. Because wild child is pretty interesting. But Phantom X is just, I don't know, maybe if he was a three, but even then, like you said, like the hoops are just too much.
Alex:I love that you bring up marrow because marrow is by far one of my favorite cards that was released last season and they were absolute bangers last season. I think this card is really punching above its weight. I love it. It's great. But it didn't get buffed'cause I don't think it needs a buff. It doesn't need to nerve either, I suppose. But this card is great. I love that you brought it up. Uh, let's go through the move package now.'cause at the OTA we saw a significant change in the move package overall. And it is gonna start with vulture. Vulture being the one drop that the, uh, move package now relies on. I don't wanna say relies on because it's one way to play move. It's not my preferred way to play move anymore, that's for sure. What are your thoughts on changing vulture from a one two to a one three? And I mean, let's remember we used to have human torch as the one costed, uh, powerhouse of move and that's no longer the case.
Interrobang:I am a, a big keen torch advocate, as you might know. Move, uh, move, bounce was like one of my favorite archetypes before it, it kind of got gutted. May some people might not consider it gutted, but I started God splitting every card in that deck'cause I just considered it so safe. Like it, it was so hard to play. It was only like oppressive at the very, very top, like 10% of of players. And I was like, okay, I can just start investing into this deck. And then all of a sudden one day it just got like completely gutted and changed. And now Ima torch, uh, what is this, like his third. Nerf that he's gone through. So, um, all, all, all those credits wasted on those, on those splits there. But vulture, I I, he can get pretty big if you, if you get him down on one and you have like Sparky and Ghost Spider and you're, you are playing like a, a Madame Webb kind of archetype. He can get pretty big, but at the end of the day, like I, I was playing a deck the other day that had elektra in it and Killmonger is still around. So, just having a a one drop be your powerhouse, you're just asking, there, there's so many ways for it to be addressed. You're just asking for trouble. And I, I, I think bouncing it and, you know, having that protection is still the only way to play it. But there's so often, more often than not now. I have a plan to throw a priority, and I still have too much power on the board from turns one to five, where if I bounce like my two biggest cards, I'm, I still have priority. So there's still like situations where you're like, oh my God, how do I still have priority and this vulture's gonna get completely destroyed when I drop'em back down.
Alex:Yeah. There's no question about it. Well, first of all, if someone's gonna electro snipe you or Electra snipe you, they deserve the dove. Come on now, let's be honest. Yeah, yeah. But um, you bring up a really good point.
Interrobang:I've, I was playing from, so another streamer was cooking with Electra, and I was like, oh my God, if this takes off, we're, we're finished.
Alex:So I know that you said that you were an enjoyer of the, uh, move balance archetype. Like you and size are. Obviously, you know, of the two of the, the big streamers, you guys were definitely, uh, the ones playing that archetype. But I would make the argument that I actually thought that that archetype was particularly interact, especially when you would play against it. And for Marvel Snap as a whole. Would you disagree with me saying that the more modern version of move that uses the hydro stomper, where you got like lots of moving parts with like spider punk and things like that with like all the powers being just generally higher and not relying on like one tower of power in that human torch tribunal play and stuff like that. Like you prefer this version of move overall for the entire, like Marvel Snap player base? Or do you, would you rather go back to the move bounce times?
Interrobang:I liked obviously I think the, the hydros, stump aversion is much more fair and I think if Marvel Snap is trying to move into a less especially for the mid-tier players, a less oppressive feeling than this is correct, like nine, nine times outta 10. As someone who has a bit of bounce non move bounce fatigue, like I'm so sick of just like traditional bounce and like werewolf decks, I feel like, like there, there was a time where if I wanted to win, I played a werewolf dick. And now I know if I wanna win, I could still play a werewolf dick and I just don't want to anymore. And a lot of people don't have a problem with that. They're just like, oh, I wanna win today. I'll play a werewolf dick. But I have so much fatigue from that. And I think move, bounce was just different enough where I could still play bounce and not feel like not have that fatigue feeling from like general bounce. So that's kind of like why I preferred it to, to traditional move. And I, I also just don't like traditional move in general. I, I do think it's very good when you hit your cards and you play it correctly and I think this hydro hydros stump version is very powerful. But it just, just in general not for my style of play but I do think if, if we're talking about less oppressive, that hydros stumper is much more fair, I think. R
Alex:right off the top. I have to say that I'm jealous that you're fatigued on just one deck. I'm just fatigued in general. Not, I'm not even talking about Marvel now. I'm just fatigued, man. Like, that's just, I'm just tired. I,
Interrobang:I think for, um, for, I think it was like three or four seasons, like the best decks kind of didn't change and they just, they either got more tools or the tools that other decks got weren't strong enough to compete. So I completely get that. I, I I, I've been feeling it too. The top decks for some time were not only were they not fun to play against, but they also weren't my play style. So I couldn't even just like, rage start playing them because I just didn't want to. So that, that's a tough spot when like the best decks aren't for you and the, BT or C tier decks just can't even keep up with them'cause they're like tier zero.
Alex:Something I will add, and this happened in, uh, rift Bound. So Rift bound iss, a physical TCG that I've been playing. Lots of you guys would probably know that. I actually do a podcast for Riff Bound as well. It's called Into the Rift, uh, with Joe Curley. Actually, it's a, a specimen from the Marvel Snap Days. Um, oh, right, yeah. Yeah. So one of the things that came up in Rift Bound was that like everyone kind of knows like the meta deck that are like people are playing in tournaments and stuff like that. And the meta kind of got to some degree, I don't wanna say figure it out, but people knew what they were playing and what was good. And then someone just said like, no, like, I'm gonna cook. Like I'm gonna do something unique. I don't wanna play those. I don't vibe with what's meta right now. I'm gonna make something that I vibe with and I'm gonna have fun playing and I don't care if people think it's good or not. And it ended up being an absolute banger and they turned their play style and their archetype that they like to play into what is now becoming meta. So the reason why I tell you this story is because if you're like, I don't wanna play werewolf decks, or I don't wanna play sh loud to fight despite the fact that he's kicking ass all over the place, I don't wanna play those. I wanna play something else. Play something else. Seriously. I'm not joking. Play something else. If you're like, you know what? I wanna bring back Evo a new version of Evo, I wanna bring back Moon Girl Evo with like, magic. Do it like actually do it. You might cook something cool, right? And so I just, I want the people listening to know that like sometimes you don't have all the cards in a game, right? What that can potentially do is also breed creativity. Approach it like a challenge. Instead of aiming for collection complete, be like, what do I have access to and how can I use what I have in a creative way that can catch my opponent's by surprise? And I think that sometimes when you have a constrained deck building like challenge, you might breed more creativity than you expect. So I love the fact you mentioned like the meta just wasn't for me, right? There's a lot of people that probably feel that way right now, and instead of like forcing themselves to play decks, they don't wanna play. I'm encouraging you to cook and have fun again. And that's something that I've been trying to do. Instead of grinding ladder or grinding rank or anything like that, I'm like, I wanna play Marvel Snap. I'm gonna play some Marvel Snap. And I, I'm doing what I love about the game and I'm not forcing other self to do any of the stuff I don't want to do in the game. And I think that's healthier overall.
Interrobang:Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And I, and I'm, if you've ever tuned into one of my streams, like, like all I do is cook all I, the first thing I do when I sign on to a stream is I think of a card I want to play with and then I try to build around it. And that's like the entire stream drilling that, that archetype or that that cook into the ground until it works. But I do think the nature of Marvel Snap, and I think the reason you even have to say this, you know, the decks are 12 cards, so it's so easy to net deck and it's so easy to. Find like seven cards that have synergy and then the rest of your deck kind of fills itself, right?'cause there's only so many either tech options or good cards that go along with those cards. So, I agree. I think people should get out there and cook. But I do think that there's like an underlying, and especially as we get more like synergistic pieces for these decks, like if we just keep making move pieces, move is just gonna get more refined if we just keep making bounce pieces. Um, which I, I think we, we will have an interesting discussion about Lin Lee in a second. It becomes harder and harder to experiment because your deck almost builds itself at some point and you have to, break outta that mentality. I think
Alex:That's a perfect point and probably a conversation for another day with only 12 cards in the deck. As you add more cards, the ceiling rises for the architect. Yeah, I saw,
Interrobang:I think it was, um, Cougar just posted a deck. He was like, look at this win. It was like he went like 17 and two and he is like, look at this new deck. I love it. And Binks commented, it was a Victoria hand deck and Binks replied and said, oh, I can't believe you don't have Moon Girl in here. And Cougar was just like, there's like literally nothing I can cut. Like I want Moon Girl in here and I can't cut any of the pieces. And you know, him and Binks had a back and forth about it, but I was like, this is everyone's problem right now because they wanna fit text, uh, cards into their deck and there's just nothing to cut.
Alex:Yeah, definitely. Fan fade. Do you wanna talk about it or do you care going from a four four four to a four five? Still the same effect. Uh, still activate. Give your other units here. Plus one power moving to the right. I don't care.
Interrobang:I, I don't care either. But I do think the reason we do, we might care is that it is a step towards where it should be, which is probably like a four seven or something or, or wherever it originally was, Nerf from. Alright.
Alex:So maybe care at some point, just not necessarily right now. Now I care about this one a little more. I'm having a difficult time, uh, typing'cause my, uh, whatever this is like an Alex setup problem. The cords for my, uh, setup right now are running across my keyboard. I don't know why I've done this. So when I try to type my keyboard, like all the cables hit the other buttons. Anyways, I gotta figure that out. Multiple man. Going from a two, three to a two, four I'm about this one here because when I saw this, I was thinking, first of all, I know people lean towards like, okay, can we actually buff this? Do like some Sparky stuff, Irania stuff, and like actually get like big multiple men bounce across the board. You could do that. But space and Marvel Snap is obviously a factor. And board space and like managing it is legitimately becoming more important, especially as more carts come out that utilize it. But this gave me a thought about like, damn, I wanna play Phoenix Force again. It was one of my absolute favorite archetypes, but this is only one net power on Phoenix Force. So I don't know if it actually moves the needle, but Phoenix Force has more support with a lot of these like, like fastball specials. There's ways to destroy things now that make Phoenix Force more playable. So I think I gotta cook it there.
Interrobang:Yeah, and I, I, I was a big Phoenix Force Tribunal, enjoyer and Torch was a big piece of that because if you could get him up to like 300 power, then drop tribunal and all of a sudden you're winning everything. But the backup line was multiple men and sometimes he was just too weak enough to bring home the w But maybe with this, you know, one, you know, one extra power four times, you know, wherever you put'em, you know, that might they move the needle enough to make a wind more often. But yeah, I think tribunal is in a good spot right now'cause not really anyone's running any ongoing counters. So maybe this brings that archetype back.
Alex:No question. And, uh, at the end of the day, it needed a buff anyways. So there's, it's a very low risk buff because it definitely needed something. Now I'm gonna say that this is the CLIA buff from one two to a one three clia being that when this card permanently gains power, add the flames of faulting to your hand, whether it's in hand or in place. So whether any, if it's in your hand or if it's in play, clea gets buffed, you add to this. This feels like it's getting ready for next week for Han's release.'cause I think that, uh, when you activate or unlock the potential Han's rings, clea is gonna feast there. Do you see anything else? I think this is just, they're moving in preparation of that new card, in my opinion.
Interrobang:I, I do think Clia in general is a sleeper deck. There's not a lot of Luke Cage running around right now. There are some stragglers still playing the, the Ajax kind of wcan tempo list. But I do think Affliction and Clia, is a slept on archetype. I think when Man Spider was like the flavor of the month, he was getting way too big for a deck like this to, to really make moves. But that has died down a bit and now we're seeing a lot of s Lao and, and that I feel like Chu LA is much more accountable than Man Spider, where you either have the counter or you don't. So yeah, I'm a big fan of Clea Deck and I think, that archetype has slept on a little bit.
Alex:And I suppose that clea obviously generating a one drop that you can use alongside, uh, schlau is probably good for the season as a whole, so, yeah. Or even,
Interrobang:um, uh, what's his name? The little dragon who's been Lockheed people? Yeah.
Alex:Yeah I'm still convinced that Lockheed's animation is not an animation, it's a bug, but whatever. That's a whole other conversation. Iron Lad, who, if you've ever read the, uh, the comic you know, uh, uh, Kang, only myself, left to Conquer, which I seem to bring up every single week. Somehow you would know who Iron Lad is. But, uh, this, this, uh, this year, it was one of, ironically, one of CO's favorite cards, right? And now it, it is just completely fallen off. I think that the last bastion of Iron Lad being played was in like, old school tribunal. Like old school tribunal was the last time I think he was ever played. I'd even seen him on occasion, played in like budget based, like Howard the duck ongoing decks where everything's ongoing except for Iron Line, basically. So you could reach in, hit spectrum or whatever, but outside that, like he saw absolutely no play. He was a four six, completely fell off the map. Now he is a four seven. Do you think this moves the needle? I don't think it does.
Interrobang:Yeah, this is another one where the, the problem with the card isn't its power level. I think Iron Lad is one of those include if you have room type of cards and it's very win more. Almost like Iron Lad when Iron Lad hits something you, it, it's either saving the day, right? It's either hitting that last draw that was the bomb card, like the hella or something that you were digging for or it's like, oh, I was winning anyway, let's see what Iron Lad hits. And it like go, it hits something explosive and you were winning anyway. I remember a time where Iron Lad was like the, one of the best cards in the game and he was like in every deck and that like, it really speaks to the power level of Dex right now where he just hasn't found a home. But yeah, I think one of these is one more power to a card like this just isn't going bring it back into anything.
Alex:A couple years back, if you're to be like, yo, Jeff Iron lad, those are cards you're not gonna play like you don't care about. Yeah. Anymore. It'd been wild to consider. It's funny to
Interrobang:think about that.
Alex:Yeah. Yeah, so Iron Line, not much movement there. Uh, we have a couple more changes, two more, one of which is pretty significant because it is the pay to win change. You go from a three two to a three four on Dragon of the Moon or Skm said, uh, Dragoon of the Mon on Reveals steal one power from even costed cards in all hands. They basically said, no one's playing it and no one really cared. So they gave it a very significant buff from a three two to a three four. I'll be honest with you, I joked about it being paid to win. This is perfect. Because if they wanted to really. Pay to win, they would've put she la who was so obviously more powerful as the super premium season passed. So before you get your pitchforks out, know that they clearly knew the She la was better than Dragon of the Moon and placed them accordingly. But this card actually did need a buff in my testing. It felt pretty rough. You were playing a suboptimal archetype. You're playing a Ronan Shell that already, it's like, I don't even know if Master Mold is ever worth playing. This maybe gives you a chance. I love Master Mold. You love Master Mold. Okay, gimme, yeah. I
Interrobang:love Master Mold. The joy. I, I really want him to be good, but he, he's just not there.
Alex:No, no, he's not there at all. And I mean, so Dragon on the Moon, like whatever, but okay. I'm actually interested in your take on mold because Master Mold for me, I always, first of all, I paid way too much money for this Cento variant. I had that one too. Yeah. This was like in a bundle that was like, I think it was like a hundred dollars bundle. I'm like, I really don't want this is so stupid. Why would I ever do this? Well, it came, it came with the Dark Hawk too. The Dark Hawk as well. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, this is, man, going back, there was a time where I was like just scooping up bundles. Now I don't remember the last time I bought one, which is unfortunate. You know, I still think the season pass represents a tremendous value in Marvel Snap. I think it does. For me, I buy the season pass every single time, no questions. But some of the bundles I still think are overpriced. Even the gold bundles, I think are leaving some to be desired. I don't know. I don't know what they're, uh, what they can do to kind of improve the, the conversion rate on that. But
Interrobang:the gold has been terrible. It's been awful. It's been awful. I was looking forward to this VOA one and yeah, number one has tokens in it, like completely tanks, the value of the bundle. But yeah, it's just the, I don't know, they, they, everyone wants them to lean into monetizing cosmetics, and that's a great idea when the other parts of the game reflect that. Right. So like the other parts of the game aren't reflecting you charging a hundred dollars for cosmetics. They're just, everything is a hundred dollars now. Like it doesn't matter.
Alex:Yeah, I immediately, like, I just ignore all the a hundred dollars bundles. I mean, I'm glad first of all if there's, if you're a whale out there, you're like, I don't ignore those a hundred dollars bottle. I, I buy those bundles. Well actually, first of all, thank you because a lot of people get mad at the whales, but it's the whales that keep the lights on. The whales allow the free to play players to have a free ride. Right. So anyways, yeah. So master mold, I've always said, I thought it would've been cool if master mold added two sentinels to your opponent's hand and then also had the ongoing gets plus one for every sentinel and play or something like that. And like it was like a two one and also gets benefits from your sentinels. And if they have to play theirs down, you buff their master mold. I love that. Something like that would be kind of cool. Uh, also an, an Aurora card, just throwing it out there. But we shouldn't be talking about master mold here'cause there's one more card we have to talk about. Well, I
Interrobang:did wanna say something about the Moon. Is it feels like they're trying to make this even cost means the Moon connection. Right? Because Moon night also. Discards and even costs. So I, if they're leaning into this Moon, is related to even, I wish there was like some kind of synergy there.'cause as soon as I, I, I really wanna like dragon on the Moon, but like you said, he is just like not there yet. And I tried to make like, like a Moon deck where like everything was, was related to him and Moon night and it just wasn't connecting. Maybe that's a silly idea, but if they're, if they're making this connection, then I want to like, see if there was something there with that. But yeah, maybe the problem is that it's all hands. Maybe it just needs to be your enemy, like him hurting you and then forces you to include Luke Cage or you, you kind of make it an Ajax deck or you, you leave out even costs completely. Like it, it really just kind of pigeonholes you into what you can do with him.
Alex:What you gotta do is you gotta discard him with Moon night and then bring him back with Concho and then you've completed the Moon circle. Yes. That's,
Interrobang:uh, that's actually exactly what I'm trying to
Alex:do. That was exactly it. Zombie galati not getting a numeric change, but a very important text change. Like I think people kind of glossed over this, but I'm like, listen, as someone who I made the video for Zombie Galati and I remember like playing it at the time and like doing like in the kind of preview, I was like, this is before I released the video. Kind of in preparation of it, I was like, oh, I don't think this card's good. I think this card's lacking something. And obviously they buffed it. And as we get more support for Merlin Getting Nerfed opens up like magic lines. We're getting more support in terms of the ramp lines as well. But the big thing here is now it will say, so game start, choose six other characters, not other cards. So if you put skills in your deck, you can actually almost ensure. That like, so you have like majestic Wing beat for instance in your deck. It will not transform, it will not even waste a P Pro that can make it. So you can guarantee that your wasp or your yellow jacket or whatever your deck designed around zombie galactic will actually hit what you want it to hit. So I actually think that being able to shape your deck using skills in addition to the additional power that Zombie Galati already received, this is probably good. And don't forget Maverick, who I think is a banger card, supports the hell of zombie galati. So I think we're very close. We're probably a cook away from zombie Galati being legit because I think it's probably closer than people think.
Interrobang:Yeah. I agree with all that. And I, I think when he, when he launched, I was as a Galactus fan, I was completely disinterested in him. I was just like, I don't see how this could possibly be good specifically because of the spell interaction. I think, um, that was something I wanted to bring up with Iron Lad is I think Iron Lad isn't good because he could still hit skill and when it hits a skill. At a a, opportune moment where you need him to hit something really powerful and he hits something that, just does absolutely nothing to the board. Yeah. And, and, and I think all of these cards where it's a the next card, it should always say, next character, it should always skip over the skill or something like that because it's just having Silver Sable stay Zero is keeping her, locked out of being included in Dex. And like, there's so many examples of that. If something happened to me, the other, I I think while I was playing high voltage where I think I cco, I like, I dropped Blob on Cocoa and it hit a, the next car was a spells. I just did nothing. Like it was such a waste. But yeah, I think all, all these interactions where it could be character and need to be like scrubbed and changed like immediately for a lot of these carts to flourish again. But yeah, that I, I, I've been enjoying Galati now with the change. And I think, um, the skill thing was a big, a big one. I, I saw some people want him to hit skills and they, they had some kind of explanation, but I didn't know, I didn't, I wasn't really getting it. I don't see any world where,'cause it doesn't matter if they go off or not, you just want them on the board. So I'm not sure why some people would, would want him to hit skills. But as soon as they made this change, I started playing him and I started enjoying it. But this is one of those decks where it does rely on magic. So I was using Luna Snow, I was using certain other, ways to get him out early. Because even when I had limbo on the board, I, I needed like a contingency plan. I was like, if he dropped, a location change at any point, I'm gonna be in a, in a bad spot. So you always have to like play with that in mind. Now.
Alex:I was thinking about, uh, what you were saying. First of all, I'm so glad I'm not the only one that could, that uses the term skill and spell interchangeably. You're probably gonna get cor corrected in the comment section, but that's fine. Oh yeah. For sure. But like, I think that, like, I think it's a good change and if you're someone out there that's like, oh, I want galactic hit skills, like, I, I would like to hear that take in the context action. Yeah. They gave me the
Interrobang:explanation, but I don't remember what it was.'cause I was immediately like, why would I ever want that? I was like, stop listening.
Alex:Yeah, no, I, I totally understand. But, uh, alright, so that more or less is the OTA I had a point to bring up about the majestic wind beat that I since forgot. But let's talk about Lin Lee, the iron fist. A tutu that creates the sword of Fsi a tutu. Now the way they read is Iron Fist is a honor reveal adds the sword of FSI to another location, and the sword of FSI reads ongoing. If Linley Iron Fist is here, he has plus seven power. I would be interested in your take here. Uh, I'll give you the floor before I give you, uh, what I think here, but, uh, how was your experience playing, uh, Lin Lee, the iron fist?
Interrobang:I actually skipped him. I don't think he's good. It seems like a lot of hoops to jump through to get a two nine on the board. I do think that he might have a home in a bounce shell where you have a bunch of swords on the board and maybe you converge them all into one spot and he's actually like a two, 18 or whatever you can make him. But other than that, I just think. Again, we were, we're going back to this situation where like the optimized decks are just too big and doing what they, you know, wanna do way too often for a card like Linley to be good. I think,
Alex:hold on. This is awesome. I love this because this is like the first time people assume that content creators will just buy everything out and I mean, I just buy everything out. But you made a conscious choice to skip Lin Lee iron fist and I think that people listening would obviously relate to that. And I want you to actually go through like what your decision matric, uh, ma decision matrix is. Go through the entire decision matrix as to how you determine whether or not you're buying carb. No, but seriously, like. What do you take into consideration when you're deciding what to skip, what to buy, how to spend your resources, and why? Lilly Iron fist just didn't make that cut ultimately, like, I think that's really interesting.
Interrobang:Yeah. I, I actually e even when I started streaming, I started out free to play and I, for the most part, I still am. Um, I get the see the season PEs is provided to me now. So even though I am not spending money. I can't in good conscious call myself free to play because I, I'm not, I don't have the free to play experience anymore, which is not having the season pass card. So I don't like to say that I'm free to play anymore, but I do not spend any money on the game. The bundles that I buy are always gold bundles. The season passes provided to me and all the resources I get are earned in the game. So I'm kind of like pseudo free to play for the most part, but I, I don't like to tout that because I, I do remember the time where I actually was free to play, and that's such a different experience in the game. Um, you, you're having a completely different time than everyone else who, who has the latest and greatest stuff. And it's not a resource issue. I think I have something like 300,000 tokens right now, so I could buy every card that comes out for the next, x amount of months or even years or something like that. But I think Marvel Snap is a very expensive game, and I think at any moment. There could be like three or four months in a row where I need every card, and then my token repository is like gone. So for cards where there are cer certain situations where I'm like, oh, this is a bad card, but it looks really fun and I, so I buy it. But in the case of Lin Lee, where I already have I think he's only good in bounce. I already have bounce fatigue, so I know that I'm not interested in playing it and I don't want it. And he looks pretty weak. He doesn't look like a must have card. I'd rather just save my tokens. And then maybe there's a chance where when I open a Series five card, he's like the bonus card that I get with it. You know, I've been opening like some two card packs lately, so maybe he'll be in there or something and I don't have to like, worry about acquiring him. But that, that's kinda like my mentality there where I can get everything. But I, I'm, I've just always had a free to play mindset, so I still, even though I can get everything I still operate like that basically.
Alex:I wanna make sure I didn't miss here. How many tokens do you have?
Interrobang:I have 300,000 tokens from being frugal. I, it's been acquired and it's been saved over time.
Alex:I was gonna say, the most insulting thing that one person can say about Linn Lee Iron Fist is that someone with 300,000 tokens decided to skip it to conserve resources.
Interrobang:Something happened, right? There was like a conversion, uh, event or something like that. I remember a bunch of, a bunch of things that I had turned into tokens. I forgot what it was, but that's where they all came from.
Alex:I don't remember. I remember there was a thing where someone about the, uh, the collectors reserves were being changed in a way, and then people had done the math to be like, the spotlight caches were being removed. Oh, no. Yeah. That was when it first, there was something recent.'cause I remembered, uh, yeah. I didn't participate in that. I was like, I'm not gonna do any of that. I think it was, but it sounded like you got a lot. Yeah.
Interrobang:Posted that she had a million tokens from something. I forgot what it was. But that, yeah, whatever that was, that's where most of them came from.
Alex:Ah, I see. Maybe I should have partaked in that, but, uh, so for what it's worth, Lin Lee, it was a weird video for me. I actually crushed with this card. I actually crushed with this card. I was streaming with it and like, I was getting people coming in and be like, oh, you know, this streamer thinks it sucks, this streamer, everyone says it sucks. And I'm like I have like a 70 something percent win rate over the last couple hours with it. Right. Like, I don't, I'm crushing with it. I was playing a Spider-Man war deck with it because Oh really? It allows you Yeah, man, Michael, it allow, yeah. Dude, it was so good. I loved it and it didn't ultimately, like, it didn't chic up the meta like it, honestly, even when I went to, uh. When I went to, what's it called, untapped? No, like very few plays on the deck that I, I posted because I think the people just decided like, oh, I'm out on Iron Fist, or like Linley Iron Fist, of course. And across the, across the board, the top performing shells, a 53% win rate deck, barely positive cube rate, 52% with some cubes on it. And that's like a hellion Madame web stall deck with hydros Stuper, like what you'd expect it to be. But I felt that the Spider-Man Noir stuff with like even Agent Venom, I thought was really cool because, uh, you know, you buff up in the iron fist by one and then you, yes. You lose one off of the, uh. The Spider-Man Noir, but you're pulling Iron Men, you're pulling Cassandra Novas, you're pulling like awesome cards. And the nice thing about this is that with Linley Iron fist, you play something on one and you play, uh, Linley Iron Fist On two, you play Cassandra Novo three. And because of the sword of FSI and Lin Lee Iron fist adding four on turn two in terms of its power, the Spider-Man noir is now active for turn four on curve. And so that's why I liked that particular shell. But it was one of those things where like in my review video, I was like, listen, I crushed, but I'm not convinced this is a good card. Like, I might have just, it might have just been a blessed run where like I, I just, I took, I took the turd to the Super Bowl and like who knows how that happened? But like, literally I had a positive experience, but I was very cautious. I was like, I don't think you should get this card. Like, yeah, you gotta wait till the end of the week and see how it shapes up. And ultimately I think it's underperformed.
Interrobang:Yeah. Yeah. And I, I'm a big agent, venom fan too. And, and as soon as they buffed noir, that's exactly what I tried him in first too, because I had the same mindset. I was like, okay, I'm hurt. I'm giving noir minus one, but everything else is good. So yeah, it, it doesn't really matter. But that's interesting. I didn't think of him in, in that, and I think that's pretty good home for him too. But yeah, like you said, like 53% win rate. That's good. That's serviceable. You can play that and win, but you're gonna try really hard, right? Like you have to put a lot of effort into it when you can just play sh lao and, win, probably win more and with less effort. And I think when they're trying to convince people to give these not so sure cards a chance, it, it's very hard for them. You know, they gave a hundred extra tokens this week for the weekend missions to try to convince people to give'em a shot. But like, it's just not enough to make people dip into their. Into their savings for a card like this one. They can just save for an auto win card basically.
Alex:Yeah, there's no question about that. And for what it's worth, the uh, 53% win rate shell was in Aurora based tech, which I thought was particularly cool. And for those out there that are like, Alex, what about C two? You're not autonomous. C two, I looked it up for you guys. It's uh, it's a 58% win rate. So there's that No, no, no. Sorry, sorry. I said 58. I meant 48. Oh no, 48. Very different number. My apologies. It is a 48% rate. I was like, wait, I try that now. Yeah. Yeah. Not 58. My bad, my bad. Um, 48% win rate on C two. So that's not there, but that's not the only card that came out. Dragon Lord. Dragon Lord entered the world of Marvel. Snap a five five that reads on reveal. Put a card from your hand here, which as I mentioned, when I previewed it. I cannot believe this text didn't exist already. Like this was clearly an intern going through the game, being like, yo does, does the put a card here? Text Not Exist. We have Red Wing, which is a more complicated version of what Dragon Lord should probably be doing anyways. What are your thoughts on Dragon? Lord? I kind of actually like the card. I think it's good.
Interrobang:Yeah. He is a car That is exactly my play style. I think he fits into the, the types of decks that I enjoy. I was a big Doom 2099 fan. I, I really like just playing a big thing, one big thing, a turn and, and being strategic about where I'm putting them and, and thinking, having the foresight to think, okay, if I put this here, how am I gonna win? You know, what am I gonna drop and how am I gonna win the other lanes later? And I think Dragon Lord plays into that. I think the only weakness that he has, specifically in the current state of Snap, the current meta and the current decks that perform well, we're very like. Either combo heavy or you want to play your cards yourself in very specific ways and in very specific places. So having Dragon Lord, drag it out early and have it go off, not where you want it to go, is not very good. Um, so I think Dragon Lord fits, especially in the, um, the new ramp deck that's been going around. I think that's like a perfect home for him. But other than that, like him pulling out, like him pulling out your shoe loud, early and buffing the wrong card, like you don't want him to do that. And that puts you in a spot where like if Dragon Load is the best thing you can play on turn five and you don't want him to pull three of your five cards from your hand, you're like, oh man, do I play him? Like it, it puts you in this tough spot where you're like. Obviously I have to play something, but I don't want him to do three outta the five things that he can do. So that, that's my only reservations with him. I think if you're playing him in a deck where anything he pulls is good, like an esan ramp, you know, that's perfect. Um, but other than that, it's kind of like a tight spot.
Alex:Yeah. So what I think dragon Lord's benefiting from is that when war machine got changed to a five nine, the new ramp archetypes really started to take off. But it wasn't just war machine. I threw a war machine here, but it was also chamber that did a tremendous amount to make those kind of like, uh, ramp shells worth playing. There's no question about a chamber really helped those ramp shells. And for Dragon Lord, like you have tons of things you can pull down. You got the red holes, you got the Galactus for steps, the dragon antos, the Infin knots. Obviously Infin knot's gonna be in that deck, right? But what I found particularly fascinating about Dragon Lord was that you have the obvious turnoff valve of stardust. I think that they were even a little conservative with Dragon Lord's power. I think they could have made'em bigger than a five. Five. I really do think so, because if you think about it, red Wing, although it requires that activation of the movement is a three five from a power perspective, dragon Lord is not that strong. Obviously it has an immensely powerful ability, right? Putting a card down in school. But it has the downside of what you just finished explaining. But you have the release valve in Stardust and Stardust is making a lot of the meta base shelves. So even though I came away impressed with Dragon Lord, I actually wondered, I wondered, would I, if I had limited resources, would I invest in Dragon Lord? Thankfully, you don't have to make that choice too hard because he is accessible through the free, free to play, uh, realm of the limited time game mode, and even then 3000 tokens for a se, a series four card. Is, half of what a series five is, but more, more importantly, 800 gold into the premium season pass. Then literally finishing like one set of missions to unlock the card is probably the cheapest card you'll get in Marvel Snap outside of it being given to you for free. So I lean towards, it's kind of worth having,'cause I, I actually really like it specifically if you have chamber already.
Interrobang:Yeah, I agree. And I think because the barrier to get him is so low we'll probably see him in a lot of stuff just because so many more people than usual have him. And that breeds experimentation, right? When maybe we'll see him. But I will say that I hate Stardust, I hate him. He's the, no, the new Mobius. I feel like he shuts down so much stuff that I wanna do. That he is my public enemy number one right now. I, for two seasons now, I've hit infinite with hella chamber hella. And when I see a stardust, I.
Alex:That must be very frustrating. It sure is. I don't play much Stardust. Even though like he was a card that at first when I read it was so funny, when we first previewed this card, there was like two camps. This card's gonna do nothing where this card's broken. Even on like the week of testing, it seemed like, yeah, like it's not a bad card. It seems totally fine, but like you can't really use it offensively that effectively. Like, you're like, oh yeah, I can use it with Gladiator or not. Accidentally bring down their gig Anto. Like sure. That's not end what this card ended up being at All. Right. Yeah. It ended up being like a Snap condition into turn six when you know the Surfer deck's holding brood and they're not gonna be able to do their thing. Yeah. Or it's against the hella player who you're gonna absolutely clap. Right. Because they're not gonna be able to do their thing. Or Concho player who's not gonna be able to do their thing. And honestly, the amount of misplaces, like anytime I have played stardust, the amount of people that will still try to play broods out or whatever, I'm like, damn man.'cause it doesn't do, like the Cosmo at least tries to warn you with little, like little blip. Blip. Yeah. Stardust just sits there with like a middle finger sticking up. Right. Like just doesn't tell. You probably need something
Interrobang:like that.
Alex:Yeah. But, uh, I can understand the heat for sure. For sure. But
Interrobang:it there, just so to touch on what you just said there, there's so many I play against so many people who are playing stardust against me. And then they try to play into like that location that swaps a card with your deck and they like, they don't realize that they're turning it off for themselves or like something like that too. Yeah I don't know how, but there's still like a learning curve with, with Stardust.
Alex:I watched them on play Stardust and then leave bar sinister open and I'm like, they're gonna screw this up. Like I know that they're not. And then sure enough,'cause I had already played into bar sinister for some reason, I don't know what it was. And then sure enough they played it and only one card went down. Like that's clearly not what you expected to happen, which is amazing. Kind of funny, but we got more dragons. We talked about a couple dragons here today, but there's a new dragon on the block, Finn Fang Fu who's coming out. And this is a chunky card you were just talking about hella, I think that I'm gonna have to give you the floor on Fin Fang fume here. Yeah. It is a seven 12 that reads on reveal gain. The power of the front row enemy cards here, uh, in Teang. This is, is this the card that Hell's been waiting for or what, like tell me what's your level of excitement for this card?
Interrobang:Complete hella fodder. Especially because he's a seven. Like when are you Yeah. Other than that, other than the ramp deck, who I don't think even think wants to play this. I guess maybe they'll experiment with it and see if it's good, but you just want this to pop out and do its thing without you playing it. And that's just complete hella fodder. And I think a lot of people know that already, so there's probably gonna be more and more stardust when Fing Fang F comes out. But yeah, this, I, I don't even think you, you drop, um, scar for this. I think you played both of them and you try to get scar out early manually and, and let fang from be your, your seven that comes back or something like that because yeah, it's just, it's just, so even if it's gaining six power, like from like a two, three power things in the front row, like that's still a, a seven 18. So, yeah, I think the card's gonna be really good.
Alex:It's also worth noting, just like how I talked about how like, oh, they buffed clia, that's a chain for change for Shanxi coming out, um, Nering Merlin and potentially bringing the Merlin playwright down with omni reversal presence being what it is might open up room for magic based decks, who, I mean hell is not really playing magic anymore, right? Like that's never really has for a while. But I'm just saying that like the more greedy, like, oh, we're gonna get this seven energy, whether it's through fall in one, or whether it's through Luna Snow electro ramp or whatever, or literally just using. Magic by Nerfing Merlin, you open up that lane wave for magic a little bit because the benefit of magic too is that you're gonna have more options. You're gonna be able to read, okay, where do I get the most value based on their board presence, like my opponent's board presence. They've had another turn to put things down, fill the front rows so you can maybe use Fin Fang fu to more effectiveness. Just something I thought about, not, I still think hell is gonna be the way to play it, don't get me wrong. But it didn't, it just occurred to me that Nerfing Merlin does open up a magic line with Fin Fang foo ever so slightly.
Interrobang:Yeah. Yeah. I think, um, I, I'm, I'm still, I'm in a place where, in the meta where I. I am gravitating away from magic decks just until they address. Yep. The auto include location change, but I think you're right. Like even if Maryland's play rate drops, a percent or something, then that's a percent for magic or something like that. But um, a lot of the hell decks are just playing corvus on, on three hoping it doesn't hit hella. And even if it does hit hella, maybe ghost writer will bring her back or maybe you can odin and try again. So a lot of'em don't even need a turn. Seven. They're doing everything a, a turn earlier. Anyway.
Alex:Another thing worth considering with Fing Fang Fu is going to be that, like I mentioned magic, but when you have cards like Legion being auto included in a lot of the war machine ramp decks too, that completely knocks the wind out of something like Fang Frum from that perspective too, even though they did recently change, like okay, they buffed. Electro, they buffed Luna snow to three, they buffed wave. So like all these like more expensive cards, like the gala, these like these seven costed cards. They have more opportunities to come out, but still, like there's nothing better than just popping it off with a discard and then bringing it back later. Right. Um, yeah, I even had the thought of like, well, is it worth getting rid of it in like a cons shell? Because you could target it directly with something like a lady sif, which I think is particularly fascinating, but I don't know if that's worth it, right? Mm-hmm. You do have weapon h in that slot. Now it's kind of interesting to think about how many additional seven costs we have. It's just that, like right now we don't have that many tools to make good utilization of them, but it feels like as more cards are added to the game or cards are getting buffed, suddenly the seven power or the seven costs I should say, doesn't feel as detrimental as it once was. And, uh, at the end of the day, are you just, are you convinced like I, I think I'm convinced I'm gonna be playing it in hella, but I was just trying to see if I can cook elsewhere.
Interrobang:Yeah, I think, I think it's. I, I wanna say it's auto included in hella moving forward. It probably can fit into other things. Maybe the ramp shell, I think, um, the discard shell, I think weapon H is so good. It probably doesn't need anything else, but it's funny to say that because I also don't want weapon H in the hella deck that I play. So it, it's interesting that it could be so good in, in one type of, you know, discard and not so in the other. So maybe it's just different, different versions of the same thing. F thing fu just fits better in hella.
Alex:I kind of find it surprising that they did give it 12 power. I feel like it's a lot. I think it's gonna be over 20 power very consistently. What do you think?
Interrobang:Yeah, I think so too. I, I think maybe they're just trying to make either seven costs in general or maybe dragons. They just want dragons to feel big and powerful. So. This is their version of, of making Fink Fang from that. Sh la was already like doing its thing over there, so they didn't really have to give it 12 power, but yeah, I think maybe drag, you know, they want us to connect dragons with huge power and huge swingy plays, so, you know, maybe they just wanted to give him that.
Alex:Yeah, no, absolutely. And uh, again, if you're gonna be jumping through the hoops of what a seven power cost entails, but the thing about Fing Fang F is with hella, like, you kind of dodge that to some degree, so we'll have to see if, uh. If it ends up being a meta shaker as potentially expected. But before we move on to our mailbag, I do have to ask star rating Rise one to five stars. I went last week, or not last week whenever we talked about it. I talked with Cam, be on the, uh, season preview. I gave it four stars. I'm sticking with that. I think this is a legitimately good card. I don't think it's a fivestar meta shaker the way, uh, Shula is, I think Shula is better because it has a much wider meta impact. But I do think that Fang Fu is good in particular with hella, but obviously stardust is perhaps a factor. This, uh, this upcoming week,
Interrobang:I think it's interesting because we were talking about Ds not having, having room to cut. I'm really excited to try Fang F in Hella, but I also have to decide what to cut. Right. And I think as I'm playing it, I. I may go back and forth. I may be like, uh, because like, what am I gonna cut? I might cut Legion, I might cut you know, maybe I, I forego the Odin line, which is, which is super strong, super powerful. Maybe I'll want it back. Maybe I'll be like, fing fang F is is powerful and a lot of fun, but I'm doing what I want the deck to do less consistently now. Or I don't have the tools to defend myself if I drop Legion or something like that. So, I wanna give it a four. But there's been so many times where and especially the Helleck that I, I play and I can constantly go back to, um, even when it, it's, maybe a BT or, or or CT deck. It's just so tight and it's so like if you drop one piece, you kind of have to rebuild the entire deck. So I wanna give it a four as well. I think giving it a three is kinda like dodging the question a little bit. So I'll go I'll go with the four. But I do see my, I do see a reality where I try Fink fang out and I just take him back out. So I hope it isn't that, I hope he's good enough to stay. But it's it's just these tight, tightly built decks, like there's no room for error or if, if what if the shell you're using is doing what it's doing well, why disrupt it?
Alex:That's true. It's gonna need some, uh, some careful deck building to really make it worth its time. Right. So we'll have to see how that shakes up by the end of that, uh, that first week it comes out.
Interrobang:But I do give it a four as well. I'm with you.
Alex:Perfect. Now you might be thinking, Alex, why are you showing a null on the screen? Well, that's'cause our mailbag question is all about null. We had an interesting question come from Dario. Dario asked, it's time to talk null. It's insane how often destroy has a free win no matter how badly the match went, as long as they can compete with one location and then slap down a null. It's just too much. The reason why I bring this up Interrobang,'cause I've seen comments like this quite frequently and I disagree. I think that null feels more challenging to get value out of right now, especially with the Nerf to X 23, which was kind of like a low key, like maybe a four to five power activator for Knull over the course of a game. I feel like Noel's stocks have actually gone down a little bit over the last little while, but I have repeatedly gotten comments about people who have actually low key started hating, destroy, and Knull is a culprit that they often bring up as being problematic. So I'm interested in your thoughts based on, uh, our comment from Dario.
Interrobang:Yeah, I think, um, it's funny, one of my rule of thumbs, um, I'm a conquest gamer and I have 40, over 40 infinity borders at this point. And one of my rule of thumbs is if your deck can't be destroyed don't bring it into infinity conquest because it doesn't matter what it's good against. Doesn't matter what it counters, if on game four you, you get paired up with a 1000 collection level person playing a rudimentary destroy list and they just have death and null, like they're just gonna beat you. So it, it's funny, it goes both ways, right? Like it, I think it, there's so many tools to counter null right now, especially with like cosmic Ghost Rider. If they're going for like a null RM play, you can drop the Stardust and then like he just kills himself and he doesn't come back out. So there's a lot of stuff that you can do and, um, I. Shut it down. And one of the things that I have gotten really good at is predicting where they're gonna drop the null. And then all you have to know is that you can beat the death in the other lane, right? So if they can only win two lanes, try to figure out which one you're definitely winning. Try to guess where they're putting their null, and then just make sure that you're, you're beating the 12 power in the other lane. Um, and that comes into play so much in conquest where like the destroyed players are very like by the numbers, like, you know, they're dropping null and death. If, if it's super obvious that they're put putting null somewhere, then just don't even fight for it. You know, let them have it and just beat the death in the other lane. But yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of ways to counter null right now, but it's very hard unless you have the tools. To beat a perfect draw popping off, rudimentary destroy deck. And that, that, that feels like by design, right? Like it's a very, like, your first synergistic deck. It, it teaches you the, that these cards interact with each other and they do the things and it's kind of everyone's first deck that they have every card for. So I would be very hesitant to change that experience for people because I think it's a very, like, like training wheels introduction into like deck building for Marvel Snap.
Alex:There's no doubt about it. Now I want to actually bring up something.'cause while you were taught and I was thinking to myself, I was like, you know what? I mentioned the change to X 23, which I think is fair. X 23 did take some power off of null because it's often one that you're destroying very often. But I need to mention there is a counterpoint to that, and that is going to be, it's it's head pool. Head pool added a lot of extra power into the recurring destroy archetype where like you're just bringing back the, like you're just adding power, destroying things, adding power. And so head pool definitely did. Perhaps offset what was happening with X 23. But for me, like I played a ton of destroy over the last little while. For me, it's not, it's not the null that I feel is so powerful. It's the Moira into multiple deaths or Moira into multiple deaths in multiple venoms that I find is incredibly powerful and null might be a byproduct of being able to have my way with my opponent because of Moyer X, which I absolutely love. It's my favorite, one of my absolute favorite cards in the game. But like I can see why Knull is frustrating and I love the fact that you said like you can show up with the most pay to win deck imaginable, and someone with a thousand collection level will like, will clap your cheeks with a null deck. Yeah. Because it's just, it is really, it's the barometer of Marvel Snaps. Meta destroy is like, it wouldn't surprise me if second dinner in a boardroom meeting says like. We need a 55% win rate deck. That is the, the constant that we tune everything to. And like whatever Meta destroy, running 55% is like the barometer. They decide how to balance things. It wouldn't surprise. Yeah, yeah.
Interrobang:No, I could definitely agree with that. Yeah. And, and, and yeah, I I, it's funny when, so I think, um, during the, the Weapon X season, obviously Weapon X was a Destroy card and I, I wanted to, cook with him and, and climb with him, but I didn't want to just play Rudimentary Destroy, so I really leaned into a Moira X Moon Girl deck. And I, I, by the end of the game, I sometimes I had like six or seven deaths. And that was a lot more fun than just playing like regular destroy and dropping my null and stuff like that. So, um, I agree. I think Moira X could get really, really crazy with, with Destroy and there's a lot of interesting things you can do there other than just, you know, destroy your stuff and drop your death and null at the end. So, I think no. It's funny that they're, that they say that about null.'cause you can kind of say that about any, any deck that has like a big card finisher at the end. I guess the only difference for Destroy is it also has the death or it also has the, the Deadpool if they've been like, juicing that up too. But yeah, I mean, Marvel Snap is just guess where they're gonna drop their big thing and, and play around that or, or beat it. Yeah, I don't know. Destroy is, I, I I, you know, I do have that rule. If you can't beat destroy, you know, get ready for it, it to end your run in the, in the most boring and, and mundane way possible. Because you just have to be ready for that. It, it just happens sometimes. But I, I agree with you where it's kind of like if, if this like poster child of Marvel Snap synergy isn't good, then it just teaches players like, don't worry about Synergy, just play cards that you can drop and, and do your thing with them.
Alex:I have nothing to add. Other than that, I just wanted to showcase my favorite variant that I own. Oh, beautiful. Which is this death. Yes. That's why. So I just threw it up on the screen. Yeah, I do. It's, it's probably my absolute favorite variant in, in the game right now. So
Interrobang:I have the, um, I forgot her name, but it's a, it's like the old black and white. I have ink, ink with black crackle. So it was just like, all this is it?
Alex:Yeah. That's cool. Uh, for me, when I'm doing my collection and stuff, I just want one amazing split per card with one amazing affair. I just want one that I'm just very happy with, and then I can move on to the next one. Right. But, uh, I've been actually having some bad luck with my splits
Interrobang:lately. Oh my God. The double mastery is like the worst possible thing. I've been like unlocking stuff that I don't want to hit like more often. Um, I'm splitting Blink right now, and I'm on like split like 25. I haven't even hit a single crackle yet. It's terrible. That's so sad. That's awful. Uh, and
Alex:Terro Bank, thank you so much for joining us on this week's edition of the Snapchat. It, uh, means the world to me that you'd carve time outta your busy schedule to be with us. Where can we find you on the great worldwide inter Innerwebs? I was gonna say,
Interrobang:well, I'm chronically online also. Thank you for having me. But I'm chronically online, so you can find me on Twitter, probably sending like a thousand tweets a day. Um, but I'm also live every single day. Like I said I cracked the code and I stream for 366 days in a row somehow. Um, but I'm on Twitch tv slash and interbank with an e on the end. I couldn't get my name, so I added an E. But yeah, I'm, I'm live every night, midnight t and that's where you can find me.
Alex:That's awesome. And of course we'll have that linked down below in both the description and in the pin comment section so you could, uh, make sure you go to twich TV and follow along. Thanks so much guys. We appreciate each and every one of you, and we'll see you on the next one.
