Is The Sinister Six a Massive Trap? | Grand Arena's Broken Meta | The Snap Chat Ep. 190

This week, Alex is joined by content creator and recent Spider Showdown caster: Rez Snapper! The duo kicks things off by recapping Rez Snapper’s experience casting the massive community tournament, breaking down the off-meta Move/Hulkling deck that took home the championship. Alex also shares his chaotic experience attending San Diego Comic-Con with his family, reacting to the massive Marvel Studios announcements (including Avengers: Doomsday) and Rez Snapper’s hilarious strategy for avoiding movie spoilers.

Next, they tackle the current state of Marvel Snap's game modes. They celebrate the new Hyper Cube Rush event for making the brutal 90-100 ranked grind far more palatable, but pull no punches when discussing the current state of Grand Arena. Alex and Rez Snapper vent about the frustrating dominance of Custom Dr. Doom decks ruining the mode and the baffling oversights in the pre-made deck selections.

Finally, it’s time for new card reviews! Alex and Rez Snapper break down the latest releases:

• Spidey-Sense: Why this 5-Cost Skill feels completely underwhelming and struggles to find synergy within the Move archetype.
• Scorpion (Brand New Day): A 6/8 Ongoing that doubles power reductions! They discuss its potential with Man-Thing and Anti-Venom, and how it’s currently battling an army of cheap Luke Cages.
• The Sinister Six: The ultimate deck-building puzzle! A 6/12 that merges the first six characters you draw. The hosts brainstorm wild combos using Fastball Special, Adamantium Infusion, Quicksilver, and Thanos to try and crack the code of this perplexing new archetype.

Join Alex Coccia and special guest Rez Snapper as they chat about this and more on this episode of The Snap Chat—and catch Cozy and Alex every week as they discuss all things Marvel Snap.

You’ve been listening to The Snap Chat. Keep the conversation going on x.com/ACozyGamer and x.com/AlexanderCoccia. Until next time, happy snapping!

Transcript

Welcome Back Rez Snapper

Alex 0:00

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the next edition of "The Snap Chat." We have MJ, otherwise known as Rez Snapper, back here on "The Snap Chat." My man, it is great to have another connoisseur of chicken balls present on "The Snap Chat." How are you today?

Rez Snapper 0:15

Yeah, I'm very good, thank you. Uh, chicken balls might be on the menu tonight, actually. We might get Chinese. We're thinking either Chinese or Indian, so yeah, chicken balls could be coming out. But yeah, thank you. I'm good. How are you?

Alex 0:25

Oh, buddy, I'm doing fantastic. Even better now that you're here back on the pod. You're one of my favorite guests.

Casting Spider Showdown

Alex 0:30

I mean, you're, uh... Actually, I was gonna say, you have now done a major tournament. Congratulations on hosting the Spider Showdown. Uh, that was, uh, remarkable to see. I was, uh, I was watching, cheering you on from the shadows, and even the comments section was absolutely loving you and, uh, Parry Manilal. So it was absolutely fantastic to see you get an opportunity to kind of showcase your wits on a grand stage.

Rez Snapper 0:54

Yeah. Thank you so much. That was, yeah, absolutely wild to get the opportunity. I was, I was quite nervous. I think, I think it probably showed a, a, a few bits, but, um, yeah, settled down a bit, and man, Parry was so nice just kind of taking the lead a little bit and really settled my nerves, and yeah, it was just amazing to get the opportunity. I was quite surprised to be asked, and yeah, not something I've ever done before, but it was, it was a lot of fun, so yeah.

Alex 1:16

Is it something that you hope to do again?

Rez Snapper 1:18

Yeah, I would definitely do it again. Yeah, now that I've I was doing like a little bit of practicing beforehand. Like I was just- I went on DarePlayy's channel. I just muted it, and I was like, "Let's see if I can actually do this." This was like a few days before, and I was like, "Okay, yeah, I think I'll be all right." And yeah, I would definitely do it again.

Alex 1:33

Once you get into the flow of things, I find that, like, you settle in and you start having fun, and you become less stressed about the performance and just kind of take in the moment a little bit. Uh, but I, I do know that feeling. Like I, I really felt it not so much when I, I did-- I don't, I've only casted Snap a couple times. But when I was doing Riftbound and I was doing it in person, and there was like a full production team there. And like literally we were like live taking like weatherman segments and stuff, and there'd be like a team of like six people, like camera, grip, and all these different things, audio, just waiting for me to actually, perform properly. Like it was a lot of stress and, uh, but I surprised myself. I was like, "Hey, I actually did a pretty good job there. That was pretty solid." And then once you start to settle in and you start to have fun with it, it like, everyone is just better off. And then, uh, but like for me, I thought like you looked like you were having a ton of fun, like constant smiles and like I thought your commentary was fantastic. So I really do hope that, uh, we see you back in the Golden Gauntlet circuit.

Rez Snapper 2:33

Thank you, man. I really appreciate that. And yeah, just to, just to touch on, on your Riftbound stuff, I, I, I don't play Riftbound, so I didn't stick around for long, but I did dip in to see you. I was really excited to see you on there. And you, you were just like an absolute crazy natural. So yeah, you absolutely smashed it, so yeah, well done. I c- can imagine the nerves and the pressure is insane in like a live environment like that.

Alex 2:52

Thank you, buddy. I, I really appreciate that. It's, uh, it was a phenomenal experience and just like you, it's one that I, I hope to be able to do again. It's, uh, it was nice. It was a learning experience, a stressful experience, but, uh, you learn from challenge and change, and that's exactly what I learnt in that moment there. But what we gotta do here is we gotta talk about Marvel Snap more specifically. Guess what? We're gonna do a little bit out of order here. We were gonna talk about the Spider Showdown anyways, but let's talk about it right now because it was a fantastic tournament, and, uh, I was watching, and I actu- actually had it on in the background and stuff like while I was, like, with the kids and stuff, too. And I'm almost... I never got confirmation of this, but I'm almost positive that in the semifinals was Beta Ray Bill Lover community member in Marvel Snap. And so, uh, I hope that, uh, you know... They, they were obviously very successful, and, uh, they did lose their quarterfinal match or semifinal match to the then champion. Do I have to say BU++ or am I allowed to say butt on the internet?

Rez Snapper 3:49

I, yeah, I understand it's a meme uh, which I definitely was not in. I was not in on. I'm a bit, like, ignorant of a lot of the corners of the community of Marvel Snap. I, I do know Beta Ray Bill Lover, though, 'cause he actually comments on my videos as well. So, yeah, that was an absolute... When, when I saw him pop up and that we were going to his game, I was like, "Oh my God, I actually get to commentate on someone who I half know and who I know, like, comments on my videos and stuff." So yeah, that was awesome. In fact, just so many of the community members and stuff, some of my favorites,

Alex 4:18

yeah, congratulations on that run, Beta Ray Bill Lover, and honestly, that, that should be, like, inspirational for anybody listening and watching because, like, realistically, that could also be you. Beta Ray Bill Lover is obviously a lover of Beta Ray Bill, obviously a lover of Marvel Snap, and, uh, found themselves in the semifinals, and so that, that was just a remarkable run. Fantastic. So yeah but I'm gonna say Buck 'cause that's what, that's what it is. BU++ ain't, ain't the real name. That is a censored variation of the

Champion Deck Breakdown

Alex 4:45

man Butt. This is the champion deck that they took to the Spider Showdown, and I love these champion decks because there's always... there's always a through line. Like, I remember when Cougar won in the Golden Gauntlet. Cougar had, like, almost a deck that was exclusively series three cards. And then here we have a, essentially a move deck. You have Hellion in there, Hulkling. There's a lot of really surprising things. Actually, do you wanna read out the cards to give everyone an idea who may be listening on the way home from work what this deck is- Yeah and, uh, how it perhaps performed?

Rez Snapper 5:17

Yeah, so it's Betrutk. It's Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Kraven, Sam Wilson, Silk, Cosmo, Hydro Stomper, Copycat, Nocturne, Hellion, Alioth, and Hu- uh, Hulkling, Emperor Hulkling. And I think it was, I think I actually mentioned this when we were commentating on Butt in the earlier rounds, but it was the inclusion of both the Hulkling and the Copycat that added that, it's the, well, the randomness from Hulkling and there was some absolutely crazy pulls. Like, there was an, an Alioth one time and other ones that I can't remember off the top of my head, but it was definitely crucial. And then the Copycat, not only knowing what your opponent is less likely to draw, but also there were, like, some mirror matches because this rough shell was a very popular one during the tournament. And in the mirror matches it, in o- on one of the matches we saw, it p- she picked up Kraven and it was just like, oh God, like double Kra- when you got double Kraven and all that sort of stuff going on. Yeah, absolutely sick deck.

Alex 6:20

And I love that you're highlighting the randomness, right? Copycat and Hulkling some people might see as, like, risks, right? They don't inherently help your strategy. They don't inherently increase your synergy. But they generate just enough chaos that your opponent is unable to really make accurate reads on what the state of their game is. Also because of Copycat, you might create Snap conditions in a tournament scenario that wouldn't exist otherwise. So I really do like the

Why Alioth Made Sense

Alex 6:50

inclusions here. Uh, in your opinion, with regards to Alioth, why do you think that Butt decided that it was time to pull out the Alioth?

Rez Snapper 6:56

With the ban list for the s- uh, for the Spider Showdown tournament, they wanted to create a sort of a, a mini meta. What do you call it? A pocket meta? I don't know. Anyway, a meta for the tournament that sort of allowed those combo heavy stuff like Man-Spider uh, they limited location changes, so magic was, uh, was, like, very popular. And so I think Alioth was one of the things that can, or one of the few f- like, cards remaining that can really shut down some of those plays. Like, actually, it wasn't actually Alioth himself, but there was a game where Emperor Hulkling was Alioth, and that managed to catch a Zombie Galactai player off guard. So it's those things like that, it just, uh, j- oh man, so good. So yeah, I think Alioth is a crucial one in w- when you are limited with tech card options.

Alex 7:43

Yeah, and I think that, uh, the Cosmo would be absolutely necessary considering that, uh, there was likely a very high instance rate of Shadow King play, uh, in a competitive

Community Tournament Shoutouts

Alex 7:54

tournament. So yeah, I wanna say congratulations to BUT. Congratulations to you. It was a remarkable event. Uh, very well done. Very well run as well. Congratulations to the team that ran the event. Uh, the entire thing, it's, uh, it's beautiful to see Marvel Snap competitive play starting to take main stage, and it, it took a while to get here, and it was, uh, community initiatives that got it there, uh, you know, via, you know, Guest Gaming, STG you know, and their teams. So, like, it was one of those things where this didn't have to exist. This might not have ever existed if it was just, you know, left to, the s- the Snap team and Second Dinner. It was, it was definitely a community effort to kinda get this off the ground, so congratulations to them. Congratulations to the team. Congratulations to you. Congratulations to BUT, and congratulations to the viewer who's listening who's gonna be the next champion, who's gonna register for the next Showdown, whether it's a Golden Gauntlet or a themed Showdown. But yeah, phenomenal work. Phenomenal work.

San Diego Comic Con Trip

Alex 8:46

So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna go backwards, 'cause we were supposed to talk about Comic-Con San Diego. I had an opportunity to go to Comic-Con San Diego. I've never been to Comic-Con before, and as you guys know, I, I was, uh, I was in California the past week and getting to go to Comic-Con. Uh, and it was remarkable. I got to bring my entire family to Comic-Con, and, uh, I'll flash a couple pictures on the screen here because, uh, it was, it was really cool, but it was also extremely busy. Like, when I'm t- I'm telling you, like, I'm pushing, like, a, uh, like a buggy through Comic-Con, you know? 'Cause I'm like, "Oh, I gotta meet this vendor. I gotta talk to this person or do the..." It was near impossible to push a buggy through Comic-Con To the point where there was a, there was a moment where I told my wife like, "Hey, like I have to meet this, this person. You take the kids for a sec, go to a quieter area and then I'll, I'll, I'll kind of catch up with you." 'Cause it was almost impossible. It was like shoulder to shoulder, completely rammed. Absolutely wild. The preview night was like really cool because like it was kind of like... It's funny 'cause the preview night they say like, "Oh, it's kind of like, it's the calm before the..." They called it the calm before the storm, and it was, it felt like a storm. It felt like the storm still, right? Um, but getting the opportunity to be at Comic-Con and kind of be a part of that experience. I didn't stay for the entire event but, uh, it was, it was a really cool experience.

MCU Announcements Hype

Alex 10:02

A lot of really big announcements coming out of it. I wasn't there for the Marvel, uh, showcase specifically, but we do have Black Panther 3 coming. We do have, uh, I think Secret Wars was hinted at as well. So I think that the MCU, they're trying to like really kick it off now.

Rez Snapper 10:16

Yeah, so I, I wanna say, um, San Diego Comic-Con is basically on my bucket list. I would absolutely love to do it. I have to say, though like I watch a lot of content online about it, both in just general, uh, in movie stuff and especially toy stuff, 'cause I'm just a big toy guy in general. And the, the, yeah, like you say, the crowds look-- Like, that's the one thing that makes me think I'm like I'm not sure how actually cr- like crazy I'd be about being in that environment." That being said, it is still something I really wanna do. I got up early this morning and watched, like-- I know they don't film the, the c- the panels and stuff, or not all of them at least. They certainly don't film the Marvel Studios one. So I got up early today and watched someone's YouTube video where they just had, like, multiple Twitter feeds open and just going through the news 'cause I'm, like, a crazy person, and that's the way that I... Like, I'd rather, instead of just, like, going on my phone and, like, checking Reddit or whatever and seeing the announcements, I'd rather, like, see them sort of half... And I, this makes me sound mental. But yeah, I'd I like finding out that way. So seeing, um, oh God, the Black Panther 3 announcement and the Ghost Rider announcement as well, absolutely sick. I'm so excited for the future of the MCU, man.

Alex 11:22

Yeah, and Ghost Rider's featuring Ryan Gosling, which is kind of awesome. Fantastic actor, and Canadian, by the way. Canadian. Gotta love him. But, uh, yeah, then, like, obviously you have the additional Avengers: Doomsday hype. Um, the, the Avengers: Doomsday trailer they dropped, and I, maybe this is just pure ignorance on my part, but I was like, "Hold on. This is basically just a shout-out to, like..." There are so many people in that movie. It was just a highlight reel of, like, every single hero and actor that's gonna be in... It is, like, I f- it had, like, an Endgame feel to it. Like, it looked like they were like, "No, no, we're going for it. Like, we know that we've been stumbling a bit, but we are absolutely going for it with Avengers: Doomsday." And, um, I don't know. I don't wanna-- there's a major spoiler. Not a spoiler. There's a major, like, kind of, uh, moment where someone returns, and I don't wanna s- If you haven't watched it yet, wa- Yeah, yeah, MJ's taking off his... If you haven't watched the trailer yet, give it a watch because, uh, there is a returning character that I think is a fan favorite, uh, that was, I think, revealed for the first time at San Diego Comic-Con for Avengers: Doomsday. Which- Oh, okay so if you have not seen that trailer, go ahead. But I think the trailer has, like, 50 million views in, like, almost two days, so I think most of you have seen

Trailer Spoilers And Avoidance

Alex 12:33

it.

Rez Snapper 12:33

I, I actually-- So a-another mental thing about me, so I avoid trailers like the plague. Like, I avoid trailers to the extent that i- when I'm in the cinema, I c- I close my eyes, and people sometimes, like, bang into my legs that are outstretched 'cause I'm just, like, sat there on my reclining chair eyes closed and people like trying to walk past me. It's embarrassing, but- I'm so sorry. Did I just spoil

Alex 12:55

something?

Rez Snapper 12:56

I'm, I, that was unintentional. Oh, no you didn't. No, you didn't. Don't worry, you didn't. I, yeah, I've been, like I've, I see stuff on Reddit occasionally and stuff, and also like I'm a massive Lego fan so I've, like they've just shown today the Avengers Doomsday Lego sets, which are s- like sick. And they're like, there's been some discourse in the Lego community for like the past couple of years that Marvel sets basically could be so much better 'cause we like hardly ever get leg printing and stuff, and every single Doomsday figure has leg printing. Apart from like Mr. Fantastic and uh, The Thing, but they've got like special legs anyways. W- this sounds super nerdy for like Lego vibes, but anyway. Yeah, I'm very excited. So yeah, and don't you, you didn't spoil anything, so don't worry.

Alex 13:36

I just imagine you sitting in a theater like watching Dog Man with your eyes closed 'cause you don't wanna see like the animated trailers for like other Disney movies and stuff.

Rez Snapper 13:44

Honestly- It's like I- it's bad. I will li- I literally, I'll be watching a trailer for a film that I have never heard of, that I don't know the name of it and I barely know what it is, but as soon as I see enough that I'm like, "This film looks good," I'll close my eyes. I won't even know what it is.

Alex 13:58

I feel that. And s- there's something nice about going into a movie and knowing absolutely nothing. Like for me it was uh, it was Project Hail Mary, which showed up on like the streaming services, and I knew nothing about it but I know I've heard of it and I remember seeing like on my YouTube feed like scientists discussing its validity and all this stuff. I was like, "Oh, there was like discussion about that." Then I, I watched it and I knew nothing about what it was gonna be about, so it was like a complete surprise, which I think was really cool. So I totally feel that. Uh, as a high school teacher though I tell you that I remember, it hasn't happened lately, but I remember around, uh, Endgame, like literally the day after like the midnight release, like the cool thing was like, like literally spoiling. Like everyone was into spoiling, so like students were like running in the hallways at like literally before the opening announcements like screaming every conceivable spoiler for Endgame. And it was like the funny thing to do, and kids were like kind of, like random kids were like wandering into other classes and be like, "Hey Sir, did you know that..." And then just like said like a massive spoiler. And I'm like, so like I already knew the entire plot of Endgame by the end of the day because like it was like a big thing. It was like kind of like the, I almost don't wanna say it 'cause there's someone who has not read Harry Potter, but do you remember the whole like Snape kills Dumbledore thing?

Rez Snapper 15:07

Yeah, yeah.

Alex 15:08

It was basically that, except it was all about Endgame and it was like literally three days of it.

Rez Snapper 15:13

But that makes me feel physically sick. That gives me panic sweats

Alex 15:18

Yeah. I, by the way, whenever I, I just realized, I, I almost, I might edit it out that I said Snape kills Dumbled- Dumbledore, 'cause there's someone listening that's like, "Wait, what? No." There has to be someone that... I and I, it's like, it's like, you know, I mean, it should've been, I should've used the Star Wars ex- I'm not gonna spoil another movie, but I should've used the Luke Skywalker's

Rez Snapper 15:38

father example. I think, I think you're all right. Like, we're about to start the reboot of it. I think it's all right. Statute of limitations is off. That's like 20, 20-year-old spoiler now, right?

Alex 15:46

For what it's worth, I, I, Harry Potter's a good read, for what it's worth. But, um- Oh,

Rez Snapper 15:49

yes. I've hardly read any books. I have read Harry Potter, and I really like it.

Alex 15:54

All right. There we go. Harry Potter connoisseur Red Snapper. Oh, okay, we have to talk about Marvel Snap eventually, right?

Comic Con Wrap Up

Alex 16:00

But- Yeah just to kind of close the loop on Comic-Con, was a cool experience. It seemed like if, if you're really into collecting, there was a lot of, like, exclusives and stuff, but the lines were insane. I... Lines were capped. I couldn't even tell where some lines were beginning or ending. Like, it was, it was wild. But if you, if you've experienced Comic-Con, down below let me know, uh, how your experience was. San Diego was alive, though. Like, Comic-Con was like, people were doing stuff. Like, the city was alive for Comic-Con. So it was fantastic to see, and, uh, it was a great opportunity to finally be able to get there and go. Let's continue chatting, because we got something else to talk about here.

Hyper Cube Rush Meme

Alex 16:35

We have Q Brush thoughts. This is Marvel Snap related. And I saw this meme on Reddit, and, uh, I was thinking to myself, "This is a pretty good meme," 'cause I know this exact moment, 'cause I, I show this moment to my kids all the time. Like, when they're like... I always say, like, "Hey, do you, like, do you remember when, like, Iron Man he was, he was angry with Spider-Man 'cause Spider-Man had to be better? Well, you gotta be better. Don't push your brother," or whatever, right? Like, we always talk about this moment for whatever reason. I, when my kids watch Marvel movies, we can only watch, like, specific segments that, like, they're n- they're not, like, too violent, or, like, they're like, I... So, like, this, like, the scene where he tries to save the boat. Is this another spoiler? Uh-oh. But anyways-

Rez Snapper 17:13

No, you're good.

Alex 17:14

Do you wanna do a dramatic reading of the meme on the screen for the people listening in their cars?

Rez Snapper 17:17

Yeah, so this is from Homecoming, right? So yes, Peter and Tony. All right, this is... Oh, God. Hang on. Have I got to do the accents? All right, this is not working out. I'm gonna need the cubes back. Oh, I, actually, should I be doing the I- Maybe I'll do the... I could aim for Iron Man. Sorry.

Alex 17:31

Okay, okay. I'll be Spider-Man, you be Iron Man.

Rez Snapper 17:33

Okay, cool. All right, this is not working out. I'm gonna need the cubes back.

Alex 17:37

Please, no. This is all I have. I'm nothing without Hyper Q Brush.

Rez Snapper 17:43

Okay, if you're nothing without Hyper Q Brush, then you can have Hyper Q Brush, too.

Alex 17:49

Yeah, so that was the dramatic reading of the comic. So yeah, I guess this is all about, like, Hyper Q Brush and your thoughts on it. I'm gonna I almost wanna say something, but I'm gonna give you the floor first.

Is Cube Rush Good

Alex 17:59

What are your thoughts on Hyper Q Brush?

Rez Snapper 18:02

Oh, I, I had hit infinite already, so I have, I technically have not actually seen it. I've only seen like screenshots and whatnot and just the, the things that my friends and community members have, have talked about. So one, like s- one complaint that I do hear about Snap, and I, I, I would say I don't actually agree with this complaint. I think there's, the, I think this is a weird complaint what I'm about to say, right? But I hear, I hear it from people that say there's too much to do and it's too overwhelming. Like I say, I think that's a str- I think it's y- it's better to be in a situation where there's too much to do than too little to do. And I sort of think if there's too much to do, like it's not like it's mandatory. It's a game. Like what do you wanna get out of it sort of thing. That being said, I, I do get it, okay? And so for those people who wanna focus on limited time game modes and do that sort of stuff, um, if something like Hyper Cube Rush helps them to get to infinite, that can only be a good thing. And I also heard that like it releases in Dolphins and stuff when you do like get, when you're getting double the amount of cubes. So basically everyone I know who was engaged with it absolutely loved it, and I think it's great if more people are able to get to infinite, and it's just only a good thing. That, that is my impression of it as someone who hasn't actually interacted with it.

Alex 19:12

Yeah, so for me what happened was is, uh, so like usually the first couple days like playing the new cards, the new seasons, stuff like that, I get to usually about like rank 95 range. And then I, I just kinda take the foot off the gas. And what I did was is I was like, "Okay I got to rank 95," and then there was a limited time game mode. I played that and I said, "You know what? I'm gonna actually stop grinding ladder 'cause A, I don't want to. I just don't." But knowing that Hyper Cube Rush is coming, which by the way is basically that like, for those that are listening to me like, "What is Hyper Cube Rush?" Hyper Cube Rush is essentially, I think it was like a stock of 20 cubes, so whenever you won a game they would incrementally improve your cube rate. So if someone retreated for one cube, it would give you an extra cube, which was cool, right? Anyways, so I said, "Yeah, I'll just play the limited time game mode, and when Hyper Cube Rush is on I'll, I'll go play and I'll see what's up." Sure enough, game mode ends, Hyper Cube Rush comes on, and, uh, I'm like in the high 90s, and everyone in the high 90s knows that it's just like these one cube retreat games which are like super sweaty and just kind of I, I almost want, I almost wanna use the word awful, honestly, to describe it because, like, I just... It's just... Post infinite is so much more fun because, like- Yeah people actually stay in games, people emote for fun. Like, it's just such a better experience, honestly. And then, um, yeah, I got to infinite, uh, relatively straightforwardly playing, uh, playing a deck that, like, was off meta doing my thing. And those one cube games, which can be really frustrating to experience, they felt like you were getting a greater return. And it almost reminded me of the asynchronous snapping of, like, Deadpool's Diner, where players are just playing their game. But at the same time, I think there's something to be said about, like, this, the, uh, like, the s- the synchronized stakes increasing in Marvel Snap. I think that's a, it's a cool thing. But when there's too much on the line as you're kinda getting into the high 90s, these one cube retreat games really detract from the experience, and it feels like you're just crawling through quicksand. And it just sucks because you just, you wanna get to infinite, you wanna, you wanna accomplish that goal, whether it's for the card back or so that you can, a- again, play the game in a way that has a little less, uh, less stress. It just, it... That cube rush, it just helps. It just helps ever so slightly to get you to that finish line, which I certainly appreciated. And so yeah, does it have a good return for people who are post infinite? No, it doesn't. But I don't think it's trying to help those people. It's trying to help the people that are much more casual which is a, believe it or not, significantly greater portion of the Marvel Snap audience, uh, get to, uh, feel like they're participating in the, uh, the post infinite, uh, kinda gameplay, get those card backs. And also, it gives them an opportunity, like you said, to engage with all the game modes that Mar- that Marvel Snap and the team at Second Dinner have been investing their time in. So I actually think it's a great addition to the game. I think it's a complete net positive. I think that, uh, even if you're the most aggressively competitive player, you lose absolutely nothing by enabling more players to get to infinite. If anything, matchmaking just improves in infinite 'cause more people are in the pool. But if you're ranked one, nothing... There's nothing wrong with a ranked 14,000 person coming in three weeks later. There's nothing wrong with that. I think it's a pure positive. I think it's a great idea. So for me, it's a thumbs up. I like cube rush.

Rez Snapper 22:28

Yeah, totally agree. Also really like your point about the, um, the sort of similarity to Deadpool Diner. Like, there's that extra bit, like, sort of less risk, and you're getting m- more reward sort of thing. Yeah, really good.

Alex 22:39

Yeah, for sure. So yeah, hyper cube rush definitely a good thing. I like that type of inclusion. Let us know what you think in the comments, and let us know if it helped you get to infinite.

Grand Arena Problems

Alex 22:49

Uh, the next point of conversation here is going to be that of Grand Arena. And I got some bad news. I got good news and bad news. I just... Grand Arena this time around, it seems a little, like- Off-putting. I actually like Grand Arena. I think it's really cool. I think that, like, low-key, one of the innovative things that they do there is the second energy that you have on turn one. I think there's a lot of good things. I'm-- Doctor Doom's on the screen here because you've probably seen a whole lot of Doctor Doom in Grand Arena, and there's a couple key points I want to talk about here. First of all, I think that, uh, the decks are awful, and I'm not sure how that happened. The... Obviously, you have the opportunity to custom build decks, and that's a whole other point of conversation I want to get to. But we have the Thanos deck that has Quinjet in it, which makes no sense at all, and I, I almost wonder, like, how does that happen, right? Like, how does, how does that hap- Like, I understand, like, what, were you looking at a prior deck list? Were you trying to pull deck lists from prior Grand Arenas you didn't look through? Like, it's, it's obviously an honest mistake, but it's a kind of a silly mistake. Thanos stones no longer interact with, uh, with Quinjet, have not for a very long time, actually. So that was kind of a bit of an oversight. The Doctor Doom, uh, signature ability and that deck is just really good, and the problem is, is that if you look at just the pre-mades, the balance isn't actually all that awful. There's... So, like, the Magneto deck, for instance, is the top performing deck. That would not s- That is probably not what people would expect, but for the pre-made, it's about a 51% win rate. Then you got the Mr. Fantastic at 50, Doctor Doom at 48 despite its popularity, and then Captain America 47. But then Ghost Spider 42, Thor 35, Thanos 33, Iron Man 30. Iron Man down at 30. So you have this massive discrepancy with the pre-mades. So what am I trying to get to? Rez custom decks are almost all exclusively Doctor Doom, and they're running a 77% win rate That's not good. And so for this variation of Grand Arena, I'm honestly like, I just, I can't, I can't. I'm just like, "No, I'm done." Like, I can't do this. I wanna play the Iron Man thing. I like playing the ongoing stuff. I can't do it. It's not worth it. So there's two things that come. One, mistakes like the Quinjet Thanos, that can't happen, right? Shouldn't happen, can't happen. If it does happen, OTA it, 'cause that's not cool.

Premades Versus Customs

Alex 25:11

Second thing, if you're gonna allow pre-mades and customs, right? You have to kind of account for the fact that these Doctor Doom custom decks are way, way, way, way, way, way stronger than the other ones. I still, and I'd love to know what you guys think, you, Rez, and of course the audience. I still, in my heart of hearts, prefer pre-made only. I like that, and I like that when it's pre-made only, they get the backend stats, they make the adjustments to make the decks more even, make it much more of a balanced experience. I know that there's specifically content creators that don't like the idea of having non-custom. But for me, I think the experience is generally better on aggregate for most players with just pre-mades. So I'm gonna pass it to you 'cause I just did my entire spiel. What are your thoughts on Grand Arena, the errors being made in the deck building, the lack of balance, and then finally the pre-mades versus customs allowing to kind of, uh, be intermixed?

Rez Snapper 26:12

Yeah. So I, I echo all of your thoughts, first and foremost. I, I find it very frustrating that clearly so much effort has gone into this game mode. Like, I mean, technically speaking, this is a brand-new game mode. It is, of course, combining elements from a couple of existing game modes, but technically it's brand new. So that means it's got some brand-new elements. That includes some brand-new design elements. It's got... a- again, and when I'm saying brand new, y- yeah, they, they are fusing stuff, but s- effort has still gone into it. So for example, the logo, like the little f- the little flashes of the Grand Arena stuff that is combined on the Sanctum, like the Sanctum has the, I don't even know what you call it, but the feathery decoration around it, all that sort of, all that sort of thing. So a- a- and clearly just, you know, in general, effort goes into creating anything, let alone a video game like this. So for so much effort to go into creating this, and then the elements that are just unbelievably important, like probably l- like more important than a logo, like the actual game experience, like the deck selections and the, the pre-built decks, all of that stuff, uh, uh, a- and actually crucially, the ban list basically not having been updated. There was also issues with some of the previous champions who aren't in this game mode are still banned from being added, being, from being able to be put into decks. It's just like, it's very frustrating and very sad that, that they haven't, like, looked at that element of it.

Doom Dominance And Fixes

Rez Snapper 27:37

Dr. Doom should not be in this game mode. This is a game mode where it's, it's Sanctum, so from turn three you get obviously points for all, for one of the... Well, you get extra points for one of the locations. You can't have, you can't have a champion skill which lets you play Dr. Doom on the third turn. Or sorry, on the second turn. Uh, and so you're heading- Every game. Every single

Alex 28:00

game.

Rez Snapper 28:00

Yeah. Yeah. You're, so you're heading into turn, you're heading into tu- is it? Yeah, you're heading into turn three when the, where it starts to snowball and y- you're guaranteed to be, like, having at least power at that location. Like, Dr. Doom should just not be in this game mode. Like, it's not compatible with this game mode unless the skill was different. So that's the first thing. Uh, like you said, the, the decks that, I mean, they presumably just weren't looked at. Like, or they couldn't have been. Why is Quin- like, the Thanos one is essentially unplayable. Um- On the c- on the custom, uh, I totally agree with you. There should be an OTA, like there should have been an OTA straight away to fix that sort of thing. Again, like, again, I sort of get it, like people are busy and can't always manage this stuff. Uh, for the pre-made versus custom, yeah, I think, so I absolutely love deck building, and so one of the things that I've actually loved about this game mode, even though it's been so heavily skewed, is that this was our first opportunity to g- to do a custom Thanos deck. So actually being able to get him to 20 power more reliably through the likes of Shuri and Stick and whatever. So it's been cool to actually play the Inevitable skill card. But when it quite quickly devolved into just a Doctor Doom fest because, uh, like even I tried to, like, not fall into the Doctor Doom stuff, but it's like when you get, when you're against Doom every turn and just the snowball effect, you're like, "Well, I mean, if you can't beat him, join him." It was that sort of thing. But I do probably ultimately agree that even though I love deck building and I love the custom decks in this, it is probably a better experience for everyone if it just sticks to pre-made only. Or better, uh, pre-made and custom, but better balancing. Like, I think if Doctor Doom just wasn't in this game mode, that would be a lot of the problem solved

Alex 29:40

Yeah, I, I know that we floated in the past that, like, pre-made people queue into pre-made people. But that obviously is probably a engineering complexity for Second Dinner, which might not be worth the hassle, which I totally understand. Like, let's be honest. Uh, but yeah, like the experience... Th- I actually really like Grand Arena, and this experience has sucked. It's felt really bad, and I feel like this has been the worst Grand Arena's been, which is a shame because I actually really like the gr- uh, the game mode, and I actually really like Sanctum scoring. I think San- uh, Sanctum scoring might actually be the superior variation of Marvel Snap. Part of me likes it more than standard scoring. Part of me. I'm not sure if you, if you just took it away and just gave me Sanctum scoring for, like, ranked and stuff, I don't know if I would love that. But I'm telling you, in the game modes, I tend to really like it. I think it's a really good implementation of the scoring system. I think it's very, uh, very well thought out. It's great for Marvel Snap. It gives cards a chance to, to breathe that, uh, don't often get a chance to. But yeah, when you're turned to Dooming every single time, like, it kind of defeats the purpose of the mode. And when you see a 70% win rate, 77% win rate on a deck, that's like, that's too

Doom Deck Fallout

Alex 30:46

much, man. And like, that's not just it. Like, even the different variations of the deck on Untap, it's like 77.5, 75.5, 73.6, 71.2. They are all high. Like, it's not just like, "Oh, there's one outlandish one." Like, no, every single variation of this Doctor Doom deck is absolutely just clapping the cheeks of everything else. Massive discrepancy there. I think it's a big miss. If, uh, you're gonna make the game modes a major component of the Marvel Snap experience, which I think they are a great component to the Marvel Snap experience, they just have to be better than this. So yeah, a, a little bit of a miss here, but, uh, I do have faith that, like, Second Dinner looks at this as a learning experience. We probably do not see Quinjet and Thanos again. Probably a little more effort into the deck building moving forward. And, uh, I know that they've tried their pre-built only type thing, and uh, anyways, I have no idea because I just feel strongly one way. I, I really do like the pre-builts. But um, and in this case, it's the custom Doctor Dooms, which have absolutely destroyed this game mode for the most part with no chance of recovering it. So anyhow-

Rez Snapper 31:51

Yeah just a rough

Mode Concept vs Balance

Alex 31:52

run.

Rez Snapper 31:52

And it's just like, I, I just want to quickly say as well, I, like, I agree with you. I actually, uh, the actual concept of the game mode I think is absolutely brilliant. Absolutely love Grand Arena, absolutely love Sanctum Showdown, and in theory, from, like, the amount I've played of this, I, I do actually like the game mode. It is just the balance and the choices and the, the sort of the additional decision-making that they've done that has sort of Ruined it really

Alex 32:14

Yeah, for sure.

Spidey Sense Review

Alex 32:15

Okay, let's talk reviews. We gotta talk about some new cards that came to Marvel Snap. Do you wanna start with Spidey-Sense or Scorpion? Well, I clicked Spidey-Sense first. Do you wanna give me a rundown of your thoughts? Uh, this is the review of Spidey-Sense. Uh, Spidey-Sense is a five-costed skill that reads, "On reveal, give your characters here plus two power. Costs one less for each movable card you've played." Uh, Rez, what are your thoughts on Spidey-Sense?

Rez Snapper 32:43

We're now gonna move on to Scorpion, Brand New Day. No, um We are moving on

Alex 32:46

to Scorpion, Brand New Day.

Rez Snapper 32:48

No. So yeah, it's actually a li- a little bit less interesting and a little bit less exciting than I was expecting. I do actually think it's vaguely fine. I think it probably could be buffed down to a four. I th- I think the problem with it is like the Aunt May stuff and the, uh, I g- I don't know what kind of sub-archetype it is, but just the things that are tagged as movable, which is like a very subset of characters, those aren't necessarily particularly cohesive between each other. They're not particularly cohesive with this necessarily, other than you can stack them, get the buff, and then move them out so you can sort of separate that buff a bit. But apart from that the, they don't really interplay all that well together, and so it's just not a very interesting thing. I, I actually tried to do it n- outside of Move just with a couple of like the more high-utility cards like Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Jeff the Baby Dolphin, that generally work in a lot of good decks. Tried running it with that. Doesn't really make much sense. And so yeah, it's fine

Move Archetype Problems

Alex 33:47

It's like... So as someone who actually liked the play pattern of Aunt May, like I actually kind of liked playing the Aunt May decks, despite the fact they weren't very good. This card still felt underwhelming, and it still felt like I don't wanna play this for four or three because the, I didn't draw properly or whatever, 'cause it, it in and of itself is not a movable card. So you draw this, you have one less movable card to work with. And so, like, I don't know. I almost wonder if like it should get discounted when you activate a movable ability. If you're gonna keep it at five, make it so that if Spider-Man Brand New Day moves, it goes down to four. If it moves again, it goes down to three. Maybe that's just too easy, 'cause the payoff's there. If you give movable cards plus two power, those are movable c- Like that's a Nightcrawler that's a five. Like, that's not insignificant, right? So the payoff is definitely there, but it just felt like it just didn't feel like that whole archetype is worth it. And I still think, and we didn't talk about the OTA 'cause I feel like it's a little, uh, we missed the, uh, the episode with the OTA there. But when we talk about the change to Spider-Man 2099, like it almost doesn't make sense. Clearly the archetype needed help, and so if you're gonna release Aunt May, you're gonna release Spidey Sense, you need better movable cards. They made Spider-Man 2099 a movable card. It's a 4/5 that reads, "Movable once. When this moves to a location, afflict an enemy card here with negative three power." But like why would you ever play this over Spider-Punk, right? 'Cause when Spider-Punk moves, it obviously has the affliction, but it actually steals that power. So I am like just... I'm kind of flabbergasted at how this movable archetype has kind of floundered and continued to flounder. So until that entire archetype makes sense, unfortunately, I do think that we're in a situation where Spidey Sense is just forgettable, despite the fact that I think that the payoff is pretty decent. I can see them, as you mentioned, MJ, bringing it down to a four cost or simply adjusting the text to make it so that as cards move, it gets discounted. Something has to happen, 'cause as of right now, the whole archetype does... It just feels underwhelming. Yeah,

Rez Snapper 35:46

totally agree.

Alex 35:48

But at the same time, because it is either through the premium track 800 gold or, if you grind it out, free to earn, it's still the kinda card you wanna add to your collection, 'cause you'd rather get it now in the limited time game mode than have to pay the tokens later or pull packs for it or whatever. Your tokens are more valuable than, um, I wanna say your time. Your time is incredibly valuable, but the 800 gold buy-in is far less than the 3,000 tokens that Sirius Four... So it's one of those things where if you can get the card, you still get it, despite the Doctor Doom Festival that we did complain about prior. But for me, it's underwhelming, and honestly, even on Untapped as of like literally recording, it only has a 0.5% popular. So almost no plays, very little stats. People not interested in this archetype unfortunately, 'cause it's just not really I mean, Move is good. Like Batman the Leaper just won a tournament. Move is good, just not this ver- uh, version of Move, I guess

Rez Snapper 36:46

Yeah.

Alex 36:47

So do you wanna transition us to the card that you wanted to tra- transition to us before?

Rez Snapper 36:51

Yeah.

Scorpion Takes Over

Rez Snapper 36:52

So moving on to Scorpion S- Scorpion Spider-Man Brand New Day. I'm never gonna call it that, by the way. Scorpion Brand New Day, uh, or New Scorpion. Certainly not saying that full title. All right, 6/8 ongoing, double the power reductions on all enemy cards. Oof. Yeah, I like this one. I think this is really cool. This has obviously taken the meta by storm a little bit. There's... You've got the... I mean, I've, I've played a little bit of Snap today, and I've played alt- almost exclusively against S- Scorpion Brand New Day. So yeah, it's been pretty crazy. People are calling the... There's, like, the, a version out there that's, like, Blink and stuff, and it's, like, people are calling it, like, the anti-inverse exode- the inverse Living Tribunal, right? Where you just go absolutely bonkers with, uh, Lady Bullseye and stuff. And I actually have been enjoying it in Grand Arena as well, doing, like... at the start of Grand Arena, the f- like, maybe the first day or two I was doing, like, Hope, Lady Bullseye, Hope, C- Chameleon, Lady Bullseye, like, Grandmaster stuff. So I, I love that kind of combo anyway in, in limited time game modes. And yeah, it's just really cool to have, like, a proper final turn finisher for Affliction decks, and gives thick, stupid people like me a slightly simpler, like, curve and path. We just, like, casually playing through the cards. You play your Ajax on five, you play your Scorpion on six. You're like, "Yeah, cool, I know

Stats vs Vibes

Rez Snapper 38:10

what I'm doing."

Alex 38:11

This card for me is weird. It is gonna be very difficult to get, like, an accurate assessment. Like, hey, you're, you're going off vibes, and that's all we can really do week one. Vibe, it passes the vibe check. It does. But statistically, according to Untapped, it's not doing very good at all. It has an 11% popularity, which is good for a first week card, especially with, like... Yeah, 11%'s pretty good.

Rez Snapper 38:34

I can't b- I just- I can't believe it's not 100%. Honestly, I've played so... I've played against... I, I'm not

Alex 38:39

joking- I know, me too when I

Rez Snapper 38:39

say I've played it against it exclusively today pretty much.

Alex 38:42

Its win rate is 50.3, and its cube rate is 0.02, so barely on a razor's edge positive on both fronts. And I think that's kind of fascinating. The top performing deck is that Blink deck you're talking about. Uh, it is Echo, Fastball Special, Luke Cage, Lady Bullseye, Scorpion, Mystique, Magik, Hazmat, The Ancient One, Luna Snow, Blink, and Scorpion Brand New Day. That's running a 56% win rate at .37 cubes. Still, like, that, those stats wouldn't break, like, my top 10 video probably, right? Yeah. Like, it probably wouldn't maybe sneak in at 10, 'cause we have decks that run to, like, the 50 cube rates. We have g- we have decks that are running 61% win rates. So it, it's not crushing, but also it's the week of the ga- of the card's release. People are putting Luke Cage in, but at the same time, they neutered Luke Cage a little bit to give this card more chance to breathe So like, yeah, I know he's cheaper, but he's- Yeah now it's more susceptible to the Hazmat plays.

Rez Snapper 39:44

It is. H- I don't know, man.

Luke Cage Everywhere

Rez Snapper 39:46

So f- again, first of all, e- everyone, everyone is playing Luke Cage. So I was actually gonna try and play some games earlier on stream where I was gonna I've got a, something I call, I call it a Selene pull-off. I don't know if that's I don't know, depending on the territory that might be... Anyway, it doesn't matter. I pulled deck. You

Alex 40:00

we've had the conversation about pull-off before. And I, I promise you, in North America, that does not mean the same thing.

Rez Snapper 40:07

Okay, cool. So I've got a Selene deck that I was g- I was gonna play. It's like Dragon of the Moon and Selene, and like, you tank their hand, and then it's got Doc Ock in there, just 'cause I like playing kooky stuff. And like, so, but I was playing and I was like, I mean, everyone is playing Luke Cage at the moment. The h- I don't know, I f- I think he almost feels better than before. I ha- like, I haven't seen games where h- like, he's not ma- where he hasn't made a difference is, yeah, that's what I mean, where he hasn't made a difference. And the fact that he's cheaper so you can sort of squeak him out on the final turn with like along- alongside a Forecost or whatever. I don't know. I think Luke Cage is still putting in the work.

Alex 40:45

He definitely is, and the reduction cost is massive. It absolutely massive. It als- unfortunately for Fantomex, like Fantomex was actually seeing play. Yeah. And then this destroys Fantomex, because now he's cheaper. He literally counters Fantomex completely. I'll bring it up for people that, 'cause Fantomex is not necessarily popular, but it was gaining in popularity. Fantomex, a four-seven that reads, "Activate if you've had cards discarded and destroyed. Inflict front row enemy cards at each location with negative two power." On paper, really cool card completely destroyed by, uh, by Nicholas Cage there. But I will say that, like, we're talking about Scorpion: Brand New Day, I have to say that the Ancient One's the big winner, I think. Es- in particular Tal Mandala, who, oh, I say who, but it's a skill that reads, "For two cost on reveal, copy the text of one of your ongoing cards here onto the other characters here." This used to be three cost, if I remember correctly.

Rez Snapper 41:35

Yeah.

Alex 41:35

And it got buffed, and now this basically it's that, like, inverse tribunal where, like, I'm seeing games, like the mirror matches, where, like, one person wins with, like, negative 280 on their side, and the other person has negative, like, 450. I'm here for it. So good. I like what, what's happening. It's kind of funny, but I wonder if it's gonna wear thin if it becomes too meta popular.

Rez Snapper 41:56

Yeah, I do. I d- yeah, like we said, Luke Cage is just so everywhere, it's so hard to judge in this first week. Like, this, this is impossible to judge. Also, I, I do think it's surprising that Lady Bullseye was buffed 'cause definite- like she... Cool, my light's just gone out. I'll switch it. Um, yeah, because co- yeah, I just- You're

Alex 42:14

not totally fine without the light. Okay, fine. You don't

Rez Snapper 42:15

have to worry about the

Alex 42:15

light.

Rez Snapper 42:16

Fine. Let's leave the light off. Uh, I could open the curtain a bit more. Anyway, no, fine, whatever. Don't worry about the w- the light. I'm blinded by... Cool, I've gone completely. Yeah, so I dunno where we were, mate.

Alex 42:28

You were... I- I've been- I- now I'm forgetting where you were. You went, you, like, completely derailed. You went off the tracks as soon as that light turned off. You were- And now it's a spiral you were talking about Luke Cage being everywhere.

Rez Snapper 42:38

Oh, yeah. Luke Cage is everywhere. It's totally impossible to judge in this first week. I love the concept of Scorpion, love the character, and also love that Michael Mando's coming back in the film. So yeah, I'm fascinated to see the future, and I think the present is extremely interesting, even in the presence of all this Luke Cage, so could actually be scary.

Alex 42:57

It's one of those things where, like, I look at the stats. The stats, in some ways stats don't necessarily lie, but they kinda lie sometimes. And I look at this and I'm looking like, okay, Razor's Edge positive on cube rate and win rate I don't know, man. I don't know. I think it's probably better than that. Um, I think that there's still room to cook, and I think the meta is highly against this card despite the change to Luke Cage. So as a result, it's one of those situations where I'm like, "What if we just, like, wait a little bit and see if this card starts to take over?" It reminds me of Annihilus where on, on the first week of Annihilus, it's like this card feels weird, and then all of a sudden it took over.

Rogue Tech Answers

Alex 43:36

I've been playing more Rogue lately. I think that, uh, one of the ways that you can absolutely beat this deck is by taking their, their Luke Cage away from them and then allowing them to implode their entire front line, which they weren't expecting to prior. That's one way to do it. And also you can, you can just take... You can also just take Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is kinda cool, and that's also how you win. So I think that Rogue is a huge tech piece if, like, you're like, "Ah, I'm sick of this thing." Rogue, honestly, people I think forgot that card exists for the most part, and it has been buffed so heavily. It's act- three, it's a 3/3 now. It used to be a 3/1. It is a 3/3 that will change the scope of that game, whether you want to take Scorpion: Brand New Day or whether you take their Luke Cage, 'cause you're probably running Luke Cage right now anyways, let's be honest. This is a great way to win games. So if you're, if you're trying to get to infinite and you're finding yourself in the pocket meta nightmare that MJ is, play some Rogue.

Rez Snapper 44:27

Yeah. I actually had, uh... I got Rogued so hard today that I nearly died. Uh, my opponent was in- Like in real life? Literally. Like, it nearly finished me off. Uh, my opponent played Gorr. They were a negative deck. My opponent played Gorr. There was a Daily Bugle, so I had their Rogue, and they must have known that I had their Rogue. So they played Gorr on the penultimate turn, and then I played... I had priority, so I played Rogue on their Gorr, and they blindly played their Rogue at my Rogue loca- at their, like, Gorr/my Rogue location. So they stole the power back from Rogue, and it, it s- sent my head to t'moon.

Alex 45:05

Wow. It's like Rogue Inception. Rogue Inception.

Rez Snapper 45:08

Literally, yeah.

Alex 45:10

I've never seen Inception, so I can only guess at what that could possibly mean.

Rez Snapper 45:13

Oh, yeah, still not. I think... Did we speak about this on my, on the first time I was on here, I think? Or I- either that or I'm just remembering an episode that I've watched.

Alex 45:22

Um- It's, it's been an ongoing thing where my inability to find time to watch Inception is, has been stressful for many people, including one Cozy Snap.

Sinister Six Preview

Alex 45:30

Um, but let's talk about The Sinister Six. This is the new card coming to Marvel Snap. Uh, MJ's dead.

Rez Snapper 45:40

I had a bit of fluff in my mouth. I was taking it discreetly out of my mouth. I think I've got another one

Alex 45:44

See, I almost wanna cut this, but at the same time, I think the people need to see. They need to see the full scope of what Rez Snapper's all about. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think it's fair. That's- I'll leave, like... Gotta keep all these moments in there.

Rez Snapper 45:57

Yeah, that's the advert for

Alex 45:58

me. You just like

Rez Snapper 45:58

this. If you like any of this, God help you.

Alex 46:01

Just falls off the screen. Anyhow, all right, let's talk about the Sinister Six. Uh, this is, like, the big bad card coming this, uh, this month. It is a 6/12 that reads, "Game start. The first six characters you draw are evil. After you play them all, merge them into this and add this to the last one's location." Okay, so this is a very confusing card.

Why It Might Fail

Alex 46:27

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. In fact, when I first did the preview with Binks, this feels like so long ago now, Binks came in at four, I came in at two, 'cause I was like, "I think that this card's probably bad." And the more I think about it, the worse I think this card might be. And I don't know if I'm alone in that, but every single combination that I can think of, I feel like this screws itself up. So, like, let me just finish this train of thought. So let's say you play a pretty low, like a low curve. That's cool. I think that's probably one of the best ways to do it. But then, like, you blow up your Kitty Pri- uh, Pry. You blow up your Thena. You blow up whatever, right? It go... The power gets applied to Sinister Six, but, like, then what do you do? Well, Alex, you play Taskmaster. You copy the power. That's a great idea, MJ. I wish I thought... I did think of it, MJ. And you know what the problem is what if you draw Taskmaster and then it gets absorbed? It's, so it's gone. You lose that ability to... Well, then you, you get... Well, yeah, play Zola out. Well, then you, now you gotta ramp. Now you have to have Zola, and you gotta hope that Taskmaster and Zola don't get, both get drawn and become the bad cards, 'cause if they do, they're also zero power and the Sinister Six sucks. There are so many question marks. Now, I love the, I love the card, 'cause I think it's a deck-building challenge, but every single deck that I've pen and paper thus far, I look at them like, "This is absolute poo." Like, there is no way that this card does not just step on its own toes the entire time. So yeah, I'll, I'll leave it there for you. I do have some other ideas as well, but, like, I actually kinda think this is, this might be horrible. And I don't wanna say horrible, I don't wanna, like... I don't know. My first instincts tell me that this is gonna be a bit of a challenge because of the randomness of the draw

Rez Snapper 48:13

Yeah. I basically largely agree with you. Now I have to say my own personal feelings of like, of just me as just a human being, I am unbelievably excited for this card. Not only do I love the characters, but as you said, the deck building challenge, it just makes my brain fizz. So I'm like, "Oh, this is, this is such a sick thing to try and solve." I felt a similar way with Zombie Galactai as I I spent weeks trying to create a Zombie Galactai deck that wasn't magic. Uh, and I got there, and one of my favorite cards now, and I think it's a similar sort of thing for this. I think there's definitely, there's, the, I think there's one thing above, above all others which is the most obvious, uh, not obvious, what I expect to be the thing that people gravitate towards first, and that is... Uh, actually I have to shout out my friend here. I've been bullying him relentlessly for months to try and like become a content creator and like, 'cause he's such a like lovable guy, he's infectiously funny, and he's brilliant, and I'm like, "Dude, everyone, everyone loves you." He knows so many people. Anyway, I've been bullying him into creating an account. I think he has just set up a Twitter account, so I'm gonna say it. Go and follow Marvel Snapoli, so Snap O-L-I, Snapoli. Go and follow him, 'cause this was his idea. We talked about this and I, I w- I was like, "Oh my God, you're a genius. You might have done this." I have since seen it on Reddit to be fair.

Possible Builds and Counters

Rez Snapper 49:34

It's fastball special and adamantium infusion Because the game start text is the first six characters you draw, it means that those skills are safe. So you can get the, on the final turn, if you've got both the cards, of course, you can blow up your Sinister Six and then recreate another location. So that technically gives you two. Now, that alone is possibly difficult because it means you're either, uh, well, you're either extending the game with magic, which of course is an option or maybe you're play- you could be playing like Wasp and Yellowjacket to allow you to do the combo on the final turn as lo- as long as one or both of them are evil. You just make sure those are both the last cards that you play, and then you do fastball special, um, and adamantium infusion. One of the problems I see is that there's just loads of counters, so Shadow King, Shang Chi, Stardust. Th- they're not meta, necessarily meta relevant, but if Sinister Six ever got out of hand, things like Silver Samurai and Moon Knight would probably fester on them. Um, also Baron Mordo. Baron Mordo is kind of low-key a counter. But I think there's a few other... Sorry, and I know I've been speaking for ages. I'll, I'll give you s- I'll give you a a chance to speak in a second, but I just want to say a few more things.

Alex 50:45

No, you're, you're allowed to speak as long as you want. It's one of the benefits of a podcast. You get to talk for as long as you want.

Rez Snapper 50:50

I can't believe they're letting me do this. So another, another thing is I think maybe cards that generate bodies could be good. I think Askani'Son could be particularly good if you can get the Askani'Son early, especially as I think in general with a Sinister Six deck, it's not the most important thing, but I think you do want to play a decent amount of high power cards. I haven't really mentioned this yet, but I think, I think you need almost an exclusively like low-cost deck, like so many ones and twos. I'm not sure you'd even want to go much above two. Uh, like I think you can maybe afford Crystal for the extra deck reliability, but other than that, I'm not sure I'd be going h- much high above that. Like I've seen people mention Thanos. I don't think that's a goer because like if you draw Thanos that basically breaks it and one of the stones literally draws Thanos so yeah I'm not crazy about that the Taskmaster stuff again exactly on the Arnim Zola stuff exactly as you said they you just can't risk them coming out you basically got a 50 chance that they're going to be evil in every single game because I think I'm right in saying that you would have drawn all your evil cards by turn three which means 50 of the time you're yeah whatever but the last one I want to mention this this is the one that I've made my Snapple Pass video and this is the one that I was thinking about more and more after that I was like one of my favorite archetypes is just normal shield and I was thinking like if you can do enough with like Iron Patriot and maybe that Askani son and just generate enough cards and have those cards that you know aren't going to be evil those generated cards maybe them is that enough to do it but I don't know yeah and the Wasp and Yellow Jacket I think again might be crucial to push that Sinister Six reveal to the final turn because again I don't think you want it counted but yeah I'm not sure it's it's an absolutely fascinating card though but I think I'm more more in line with you and I don't I think that the challenges are too much for the Sinister Six

Alex 52:38

Yeah, and for the record, I don't want to say it talk like in a way where like, oh, I'm mad that they really... No, I think this is great. I love that they're releasing a card that has a deck building challenge that does not have an immediate like, well, I'm going to stick this in the butt championship winning deck and I'm just going to win with like... I love the idea that you don't just take this card and slam it into an existing archetype. Like, hey, look, I did it. Like, I love the fact there's a deck building challenge, right? Much like Zombie Galactus, you mentioned. But there are so many challenges here. Now, I had not considered the fastball special adamantium infusion combination. And you're right, them being skills does prevent them from becoming evil, which is super helpful. And obviously, perhaps part of the consideration for the design of this card, because as we saw prior, they almost never wrote the first six characters you draw. They almost always put the first six cards. And so that is a very deliberate inclusion here, which I think makes a big difference. So yeah, perhaps skills might be able to split that difference there. But there are a lot of challenges around

More Cooking Ideas

Alex 53:38

it. And I do think about like the way Dormammu gets summoned. This also kind of gets summoned. You don't have to pay six to play it, right? Like it kind of comes down the way Dormammu does once you satisfy the requirement, which is pretty awesome. I had the thought of like, okay, what about like Quicksilver Domino? Because Quicksilver Domino, if you're going to do like a Taskmaster Zola thing, it'll prevent you from drawing your Taskmaster Zola early or at all, depending on, you know, how the game's going, I guess. But I thought about Quicksilver Domino because they do disrupt your draws ever so slightly to prevent cards you want to get later from being impacted. And then you can use something like a crystal to perhaps pull yourself into a winning condition of Zola or of course a Taskmaster, which is possible. You can use Magik to extend the game. If Magik gets, uh, gets the suck by the Sinister Six, that's totally fine. That's what you'd expect. Limbo still exists. So I do think there's a couple different ways. There's a couple different ways. I also had this thought of like, okay, hold on, Sinister Six kinda clears all the locations. That's the other challenge, right? Sinister Six is gonna be really good at winning one location, right? The fastball special adamantium infusion combination does help to clear out a second location. Uh, well, un- unless, of course, they're playing a ton of Luke Cage. But I had the thought of like, well, what about, like, Orka? Like, what about Namor? Like, cards that are towers of powers in individual locations. Like, if, if you don't draw... Like, maybe, honestly, maybe if you're gonna run a bit of a top end. I know that, like, having a smaller curve is probably gonna be the way, but what if you run, like, Taskmaster, Zola, and Orka? There's gotta be a chance that one of those three comes out not evil. And then, like, Orka, I can't even remember, is that 21 power or 22?

Rez Snapper 55:20

Yeah, I don't know

Alex 55:20

Orca, it's, it's 11 plus seven. Uh, that's a good math there, Alex. Oh. Not even close to in the 20s. I... That goes to show you how I've not played Orca in a while. It's 18 power for those curious. Uh, seven plus 11, that is 18. So yeah, so Orca, and for the record, when I said 21, it wasn't that, like, I couldn't do the basic math, it's because I couldn't remember what the base power... I have not played Orca in a long time, so- Yeah, that's fine I couldn't remember his stats. We, we got you. Also- No one can, don't worry yeah, but, um, so, like, I wonder, like, okay, so if you have Orca, you have Taskmaster, you have Zola, one of them might be able to close out a lane. One of them might be able to close out a lane. But what if you don't draw them? What if you draw them early and now all of a sudden you're like, "Well, now Orca, Taskmaster, and Zola," all of which are effectively useless for the Sinister Six, are now my top six cards. But at the same time, if you've played Quicksilver, Domino, the chances of that happening are very low. So, like, I think that's an approach I might try to take. But yeah, overall, this is not a FOMO in-ca- I mean, it could be. Listen, if you... I'm gonna take that back. We're taking turns talking for extended periods of time. If you want a deck building challenge and you don't care about winning or losing, then hell yeah, get Sinister Six. Why wouldn't you? I just realized something. I brought up Orca and didn't actually put him on the screen. I was talking about Orca like he was on the screen. That's my error there. There's Orca for those curious. But yeah, if you're interested in the deck building challenge, then, uh, I think that the Sinister Six is absolutely worth getting because it is one of those few opportunities where from the get-go, you get to try to deck build with everyone else. Everyone else is also confused, and if you can, uh, if you can withstand negative cube rates while you're cooking, then maybe it's the card for you. So I'll let you close out on MJ.

Rez Snapper 57:05

Yeah, I'm gonna be cooking absolutely relentlessly with this card. But not only, like, this could be any character and I'd be absolutely obsessed with trying to solve this. It's such an MJ-coded card, like, just this massive... But like a problem, a problem to solve. I absolutely love that. And literally on top of that, literally, I'm just a massive s- a massive Spider-Man fan. The Sinister Six, some of my favorite villains. I think the card artwork is crazily good, even for the base artwork, I absolutely love it, and there's sick variants. This is just... Th- this, this card is my life in Marvel Snap for the next, like, month probably. So yeah, I can't wait, but I absolutely cannot certify it.

Ratings and Wrap Up

Alex 57:44

Yeah. So star rating, I'm gonna stick with two. I have hope, but I do think that it's probably gonna come out on the weaker side. Perhaps some deck building geniuses out there, you guys listening in the, uh, in the peanut gallery there perhaps might cook something incredible, but I'm coming in at two stars. What's your rating?

Rez Snapper 58:02

Yeah, I'm, I'm just slightly above you at 2.5.

Alex 58:05

All right. Tempered expectations on the Sinister Six, but what is not tempered- is your need to subscribe to Rez Snapper, 'cause I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Alex, I wanna see as much cooking with the Sinister Six as possible." What better man to watch cook Sinister Six than Rez Snapper, who is also live on Twitch today.

Rez Snapper 58:25

Yeah, I actually Twitch streamed. There was actually... Oh my God. Watch it back actually, 'cause it might actually have been the funniest stream I've ever done. Had the, the rogue moment sent me, nearly killed me. There were a couple other moments that nearly killed me. Uh, it was crazy. Yeah, so it was fun.

Alex 58:39

We're gonna have all of Rez Snapper's socials down below so you guys can follow along. He's one of my absolute favorite content creators in Marvel Snap. Absolutely hilarious. Fuck yeah, true. And, um, you know what, man, I, I'm just glad that you had an opportunity and the time to join me today. You're always a pleasure to have on the Snapchat, and I'm certain we'll have a chance to speak again.

Rez Snapper 58:58

Thanks for having me on. Every single time I come on, I feel really honored to be here, so yeah. Thank you, man.

Alex 59:03

Of course. Thank you so much for watching, everyone. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of you. Be sure to hit that subscribe button for Rez Snapper. Follow him on Twitch TV as well, and when he goes live, join right away and tell him, "Hey, I came from the Snapchat." We'll see you on that next one