HUGE PAX West Live Show Announcement! | Spider-Man & Aunt May Previews | The Snap Chat Ep. 188

This week, Alex is joined by Marvel Snap content creator and physical TCG enthusiast: Dekkster! The duo kicks things off with a massive announcement—The Snap Chat is hosting a live, in-person show at PAX West in Seattle on Friday, September 4th at 3:00 PM!

After reminiscing about their hilarious 8-cube bot loss on stage at a previous PAX, Alex and Dekkster dive deep into a huge batch of new card reviews:

• Spider-Man (Brand New Day): Dekkster gives this 1/2 Move enabler a perfect 5 stars, calling it an incredibly flexible staple that power creeps Nightcrawler, while Alex debates whether the +1 power buffs will actually swing games.
• Aunt May: Why this 2/3 end-of-turn Move discounter is surprisingly clunky, highly deck-dependent, and likely a massive skip.
• Tarantula: They brutally roast this 2/2 scaling threat, arguing that its baseline stats are too weak to reliably trigger its own conditional buff.
• Tombstone: Finally, a card they both love! They break down why this Series 4 Destroy tool is a 4.5-star banger that perfectly synergizes with Nimrod, Fantomex, and Morgan Le Fay.

Plus, Dekkster ruthlessly judges Alex's variant splits, and they wrap up by chatting about the booming physical TCG scene, including Riftbound, One Piece, and the upcoming Cyberpunk card game.

Join Alex Coccia and special guest Dekkster 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 Dekkster

Alex 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of The Snap Chat. Joining me once again is my good friend Dexter. Dex, how are you, my man? We got a big announcement to talk about today. Are you hyped?

Dekkster 0:10

I'm hyped, man. I'm, uh, I'm a- I'm actually really enjoying Marvel Snap right now. I don't know about

Alex 0:15

you. I... Honestly, me too. Yeah. Yeah. I've been enjoying Marvel Snap. I have been enjoying Marvel Snap for several years now. I don't know if that's a surprise to anybody.

Diablo Shirt Tangent

Alex 0:22

But what I'm also enjoying is, I'm, I wanna shout out your shirt because it is an absolute classic. Oh. Can you show the people your shirt?

Dekkster 0:27

I wanna move

Alex 0:28

my- You gotta show it. You gotta do it better than that. That is an OG Diablo shirt. You absolutely love to see it, the OG art. Dude, I actually play a ton of Diablo. I don't know if you knew this.

Dekkster 0:40

Really? Yeah. You don't look like you play Diablo.

Alex 0:43

So it's, it's, so I have an Xbox hooked up to my bedroom TV, right? An Xbox Series X, whatever they call it. And what I do is I have my Xbox set up so that, like, when I'm going to bed and I'm too tired, and, like, my wife fell asleep and I'm not gonna watch a show, but, like, I'll just turn on my Xbox, and I'll play Diablo because it's kinda mindless. And then what happens is I'll play, and then usually what ends up happening is I end up dying in the game because I fall asleep, and then I wake up with a controller on my chest and with, like, the light off and, like, the game being like, "Please connect player one." So I turn off the TV and turn off the console type thing. So that's kinda how I, like, get myself into rest state, is usually by playing some D4. I've been playing a lot of D4. I have the remaster of Diablo II as well, but I haven't really dug my teeth into that yet. But, uh, yeah. So that's why I was hyped up to see your Diablo shirt.

Dekkster 1:31

I didn't get into D4. I don't know. Maybe we don't wanna go on this tangent. I was really into D3. Diablo III with the real money auction house is actually how I got into streaming. That's a long story. But I used to sell things on the real money auction house, and I would like, I was so good at the game, I was just farming things. I was, like, min-maxed, and I would sell shit, and I made, like, thousands of dollars. And then I bought a streaming PC.

Alex 1:54

Wow.

Dekkster 1:55

And then I started- Do- streaming Hearthstone. But anyways, no one cares

Alex 1:58

The real life auction house was, like, the reason why I didn't play Diablo III. I was like, "This is cringe." Oh,

Dekkster 2:02

really?

Alex 2:03

Yeah.

Dekkster 2:04

It was cringe, but if you bought things it was cringe. If you sold things it was different.

Alex 2:08

It's like winners and losers of the economies in life and in game, I guess.

Dekkster 2:12

Yeah.

Big PAX West Reveal

Dekkster 2:13

Yeah.

Alex 2:13

But we... Okay I already had the thumbnail made and, like, it was made, like, "Big announcement, huge announcement," all that stuff. We gotta get into the huge announcement. I mean, it's not actually that huge. I didn't mean to click bait. But it's kind of huge. It's kinda big. It's kinda fun, no?

Dekkster 2:27

I don't even remember what the announcement is.

Alex 2:29

That's how big it is. Thank you, Dexter. That's- You know it involves you, right?

Dekkster 2:34

Oh, okay. I know what it is. I remember.

Alex 2:36

Okay. Should we just do the announcement right now, just not hype it up too much? 'Cause I realize I've probably over-hyped it already in the thumbnail and title and stuff.

Dekkster 2:43

Yes, absolutely.

Alex 2:44

Okay. Guys, guess what? Dexter and I, and perhaps other guests, we, we don't know yet. We don't know yet. We are gonna be doing an event In Seattle at PAX West on Friday, September 4th at 3:00 PM, we're gonna be doing a live broadcast in person for Marvel Snap. We're gonna be doing a pod. We're gonna be doing like a little game show thing. I'm still, we're still working on some of the details. The plan is to have some giveaways, some, like, just general fun times to be had at PAX West. We're gonna be doing it on Friday, September 4th at 3:00 PM in one of the rooms there. It's gonna be a awesome time. So if you're interested in PAX, if you're interested in gaming, in Marvel Snap, in Dexter, then perhaps you might wanna consider joining us on Friday, September 4th at 3:00 PM at PAX West for a Marvel Snap show, which is likely gonna be a version of this podcast live that I then also am likely going to release on the Monday as well for, like, as a VOD. That's kind of the plan right now, and we're hoping to do some giveaways, some, like, game show type stuff. Just some general fun stuff.

Dekkster 3:48

There's probably gonna be, like, a giveaway, like Snap pack stuff, right?

Alex 3:53

Probably. I do know that for a fact that, like, uh, Second Dinner in the past has been like, "Yeah, we'll give you some stuff to give away." We haven't confirmed that right now- Oh but now that I'm saying it out loud, putting them on the spot a little bit to try to hook your boys up. But, uh- Yeah but yeah, like, we usually have some stuff that we can kind of provide as giveaways and stuff like that, just like some general, like, feels good for the people that are attending. And obviously, like, don't get me wrong, I realize, I'm like, "Hey, don't..." It's a big ask for you to be like, "Hey, come fly out to an event if you're not local," and stuff like that, right? That's... I just wanted to let you know that if you're into the Seattle area, in the Washington and greater area, and you're like, "I was thinking about going to PAX," and now maybe you have an additional reason to enter PAX West and join us on Friday.

Dekkster 4:33

It's actually a ton of fun.

Why PAX Is Worth It

Dekkster 4:34

Like, I never really went to PAX before, um, until, like, a year ago, 'cause Ryan Hartman was like, "You gotta come to PAX." And eventually I did, and now I'm freaking hooked, man. Now I wanna go to every PAX. Um, I'm flying out to them. I mean, I'm flying out to this one. You are, too. I went to PAX East. Did I go to East? You did go to East. Was it East, right?

Alex 4:54

Yes, that's PAX

Dekkster 4:54

East in

Alex 4:55

Boston.

Dekkster 4:55

Yeah. Yeah, and I'll go to whatever other PAX, but not Australia. That one's too far for me.

Alex 5:00

It's even further for me. I got a baby. Um, I've been to... First of all, PAX is where I learned how to play card games. I've told this story so many times. Ryan Hartman, also VP of Penny Arcade that's the name drop that was there. And also Ryan is one of the ones responsible for getting, like, the art and the variants and the PAX card backs into the game. They're often developed in, in, uh, kind of in line with, uh, with Dave Allen, who's one of their designers. So yeah, like PAX and Marvel Snap have had a very positive relationship that I think has been, uh, ongoing for years now. And, uh, it's great that we have an opportunity to be at the convention and, uh, just kinda share the love. And we actually, last year you and I did a little meet and greet where- Yeah a lot of people came, and it was, it was a great vibe, a lot of fun, and now we're kinda more formalizing kind of that general idea to make it more of, like, an experience, a show. Like, last time, last year was just kinda like a, "Hey, everyone just show up, talk about games and Marvel Snap, shake hands, take pics together," and stuff like that, which was still a f- a ton of fun, but this is gonna be much more of, like, a y- there's gonna be a bit of a show element, too, which I think is gonna be fun.

Dekkster 5:59

Yeah. Well, I mean, last PAX East, we also did, like, this, the preview of the upcoming season, right?

Alex 6:04

Oh yeah, that's right. We did it live- Yeah on stage. That was the- Yeah the Twitch stage.

Dekkster 6:08

Yeah, that went very smoothly.

Alex 6:10

Yeah, very s- yeah. R- Dexter's making a behind-the-scenes joke of basically the production being on fire while I was trying to edit the Marvel Snap client to try to get it to work live on stage while everyone was just sitting, staring at us, being like, "Why haven't they started talking yet?" Meanwhile, I'm, like,

Dekkster 6:27

working

Alex 6:27

with- It was fun, though the dev client, trying to get it to work.

Dekkster 6:30

I think it worked out. It was, it was a good time.

Alex 6:32

I'm actually surprised I managed to make it work. I was like, "I'm not a dev, but I'm just hitting buttons. I'm hitting buttons. It's gonna, it's gonna work eventually." And we, we g- oh, that's also when we got smoked for, uh, eight cubes at rank two by a bot.

Dekkster 6:45

They cheated, man. The bots are supposed to throw. So I thought we were gonna look cool, and we got smoked instead. But whatever.

Alex 6:52

It was ac- Yeah. I remember, like, people in the crowd were like, "Oh my God, they just got smoked at rank two." Not, like, rank two infinite, like rank two- Yeah on, like, the ladder, like-

Dekkster 7:03

Yeah topper wood rank. And some of the devs, some of the devs, the devs were like, "Oh," like, "you're not supposed to lose to that." "The bots should actually be throwing. Like, something's wrong. Why did you guys lose?" It's rank two, man. It's not rank 98. Whatever.

Alex 7:17

Yeah. In our defense, though, we were playing kinda s- silly to try and, like, showcase the new cards. Like, we were taking suboptimal lines, and we're just making excuses. I, I think what I said live in the VOD, which I saw, was like, "We, we are, we are professionals, but we just professionally suck," I think is how I described that, uh, that event. But, uh, we're doing a great job selling people on coming to PAX West. Hey, like, watch Dexter and I lose eight cubes against bots at rank two.

Dekkster 7:44

It's fun to watch live. But also if you're into any other card games, it honestly is like, it's a really good place to go and hang out. And they have a lot of like promos and stuff for other card games that they give out, so it's, uh... I don't think you'd regret it if you're into... I don't know. I would enjoy it. If I... Like, I play a lot of One Piece and Riffbound and, like, I, I would just go just for that. But Marvel Snap on top, that's also cool,

Alex 8:05

yeah, like, yeah, to be very clear, what Dexter's saying is 100% accurate. Like, like the Friday event that we're doing with Snap, like that's like just a fun extra thing. Like, for all we know, like there could be something else going on, right? But for what I mean by that is like perhaps you go and like you play Riffbound, you play One Piece, and just like they have a whole st- like basically it's like a hangar, like a st- not, not really a stadium. I don't wanna make it sound that big. But it's like huge, where it's all just new games, indie games, AAA games. Nintendo often has a massive booth. And then there's a whole building dedicated just to board games and card games and stuff like that. You know, you can just like... And you don't even have to buy everything either. There's like kind of like a... you can go and like, uh, like kind of like, sign out games at night and play with your friends at a table and stuff like that. Like, we played games with, with Ryan and Dave. It was a ton of fun. And- Mm-hmm they're like games you just... We went, went through and just picked a couple things and took it back to our table and gave it a shot. It was a ton of fun. Like, it, it really is an awesome experience.

Dekkster 9:01

Yeah. I think like Cyberpunk will be there too. Anyways, we're doing a great job of, of losing our audience at the beginning of the podcast instead of talking about Marvel Snap, which is what they came here for.

Alex 9:11

Is it why they came here, though?

Dekkster 9:12

They didn't come for me. Maybe they came for you

Alex 9:15

They came for you. I believe they came

Time To Talk Snap

Alex 9:17

for you. All right, you wanna talk shop? You wanna talk business now, we go to it?

Dekkster 9:20

Well, I f- how long have we been talking about this already? It's been 10 minutes.

Alex 9:23

It's been about 10 minutes, that's right. Okay, let's do

Spider Man Brand New Day Review

Alex 9:26

it. It's a brand-new day in Marvel Snap, and Spider-Man Brand New Day has entered the world of Marvel Snap. And my question to you, Dexter is he good? Because we're gonna be talking about Brand New Day Spider-Man. Yes, I did the naming in that order. Mary Jane. We're gonna be talking about Aunt May, and then we're doing a preview of Tarantula and Tombstone. But Dexter, we're gonna get started with Spider-Man Brand New Day, which I'm actually hoping to see the movie on. Like-

Dekkster 9:51

Yeah

Alex 9:51

I, like, I don't usually go to the theater. I'm not a theater person, but I might actually do it this time, 'cause I'm kinda hyped for this, so. I think- What do you think about Spider-Man?

Dekkster 9:59

This is the, the movie or the card?

Alex 10:01

Both.

Dekkster 10:02

Okay. Well, the movie, I think, um, the last time I was so excited for a movie was probably, like, Deadpool and Wolverine, I think. Uh, but this time, like, I, I think I'm gonna get, like, a babysitter, and then my wife and I will just go watch the film. I'm excited. But anyways, uh, card cracked, I would give this a five. I think it's very good. I think it's very flexible. Um, it's a one-four, assuming you move it twice. Uh, the fact that it can move i- is an upside, um, and then the fact that you can move it through other means is another upside, through, like, a Heimdall, a Fanfare, then it also gives you an additional plus one. Uh, it's flexible. It could be put in almost any deck. I think you will be sad if you do not pick this up

Alex 10:46

Interesting. I think it's good, but I don't think it's that good. I'm not going five stars. I do think it's a very strong four-star card, like a very solid four-star card. But, like, here's what I'm thinking, okay? So I wanna see, like, where's that gap? Where's that gap between my rating and your rating? 'Cause I think it's really good. I think the mobility's super awesome. I think that, obviously, the plus one power is, is relevant for sure. But one thing that I struggled with is I didn't see it finding that much of a home outside of Move specifically, which I kinda hoped it would. I was kinda hoping that, like, it was more of, like, a, a generalist card that can kinda go anywhere, kinda like how Merlin felt like it could go anywhere, and I don't feel like it hit that. I felt like it's being played a lot in Move, and there's... We're still seeing experimentation in other decks. It's still early, right? First week. Think about how long it took for Strife, and even Star-Lord, first week didn't seem great, and then all of a sudden people figured it out with Zola and everything, and that second, third week it was cracked, right? So, like, talk to me about, like, whether or not you think it has that wide meta applicability, 'cause for me it seems a little more narrow than I had expected, which brings my score down to about a four.

Dekkster 11:52

Well, I've mostly been playing Move so I haven't really had much time to experiment with, with other things. Uh, but I do feel like it does take that sp- There's so many decks where you're running Nightcrawler for no reason just 'cause he's a good 1/3 that can move, and it's not a Move deck, it's just you're running Nightcrawler 'cause he can go into... You get location you can't move into or whatever, he can go in there. Um, so that's where I feel like this is good. And I, I do feel like it is flexible in that sense. Like, if you're running even a Surfer deck and you're trying to buff Carter, people used to run Nightcrawler in that deck as well. This'll take that slot. Um, and I think, yeah, just really any deck, there's often a time where you're like, "Oh, I should add, like, a one-drop. Do I add Nico? Do I add Nightcrawler? Do I add Hydro-Bob?" And now this is also gonna be part of that conversation, probably replacing Nightcrawler. Um, but yeah, if there's ever a card you actually wanna buff up, a Maverick, Carter, I don't know, anything really. There's a lot of things that really benefit from plus one. So I feel like this is cracked. Maybe not five-star in the sense that, like, Mother Askani is five-star, um, so maybe if that's the scale, but this is a card that I think is very, very good, very flexible. And even if you're, like, a newer player, you can probably put it in any deck

Alex 13:12

I feel like you're actually ranking it 4.5. Like, uh, like, y- it's like, it's f- if Askani's five, like, then this would be 4.5

Dekkster 13:20

if five star is reserved for something that needs to be nerfed, then yeah, sure. But Mother Askani is, like, a s- six-star card on a five-star scale. Okay. Like, it's, it's too good. So that'd be, like, S tier. This would be, like, A tier.

Alex 13:36

I'm wondering, and this is what I felt, the mobility was good. Sometimes, like, having multiple cards in location, I almost wanted it to prefer to target the unrevealed card, but it was random, right? Just stuff like that. And I don't wanna sound like I'm playing it down, but do you feel like plus one is kind of inconsequential? Especially when you have Mavericks, and you have Sticks, and you have Forges, and you're not even using Forge that often. I just feel like there's so much power being pushed around right now in Marvel Snap, especially with Askani, with, uh, with Maverick, with Stick, as I, I mentioned. I feel like the plus one on this feels inconsequential. It doesn't feel like it's carrying that much weight, and it is a one-drop, so, like, why should it? And obviously you're, you're probably thinking, "Well, Alex, it's 'cause you play this into a Maverick and then replicate that effect and stuff." I just don't know if, like, the plus one power is actually... I, I don't feel the wheels in motion with that plus one power, like I do when I get Maverick popping, you know what I mean?

Dekkster 14:34

Well, I feel like it adds up. Plus one to Maverick is kinda plus two 'cause you're giving plus one to Maverick and then plus one to the next card you use. Um, if you're using Mary Jane or... What's that card that sings a lot? Um- Venus? Yeah, that one. It, it adds up. Everyone's running Venus right now, so you're running Venus and this, and the move is not plus one, it's plus two. And if you're also running a Mary Jane, it's plus three, so that's where I feel like it can get really crazy. My favorite deck with this has been, like, a Fanfe, Heimdall Topaz sorta deck, um, which not a lot of people are running But this ends up buffing a lot. And it's plus one. So it's a one-four. Like, are you... How is a one-four bad? That can move. It's not bad

Alex 15:17

inherently. No, it's, it's not bad inherently. I just, I just feel like- I could see

Dekkster 15:21

giving it a four, yeah

Alex 15:23

I just don't think it's cracked.

Dekkster 15:27

Okay. I mean, that's f- it's a very good card, but not an OP card. Not, it's not nerf-able. I don't think it's nerf-able.

Alex 15:33

I don't think it's nerf-able. I don't think. Yeah. In fact I'm not gonna say there's a chance that they buff it, but I feel like there's a chance they buff it.

Dekkster 15:39

Really?

Alex 15:40

I honestly do. I

Dekkster 15:40

j-

Alex 15:40

Yeah. I bet you... I would wonder, moving it to one-three's hard. I don't know. I don't know how they buff it, 'cause you move it to one-three and then Nightcrawler's now completely irrelevant. You don't move Nightcrawler to a one-four. I'm actually telling you that, like... I d- why am I talking about buffing a card I just said is a four-star card? I just, like, wonder that once the dust settles and we move past this week, if this card has the staying power. Like, I, I actually am not completely sold on it, especially if it's very move niched. Because, like, when I took a snapshot of the untapped base statistics just prior to recording, this is ranks 80 to 100 pool three plus, it had a 15% meta popularity and a 56% win rate. With bot inflation stuff, those aren't great stats, and I feel like season pass cards, especially ones that are much more impactful, they're seeing play rates into the high 20s, low 30 percentage.

Meta Fit And Move Debate

Alex 16:30

So, like, I... It almost makes me wonder, and this is a whole other conversation, I know I'm bouncing all over the place here, Dax, but it makes me wonder if Second Dinner actually messed up a bit by making Spider-Man a, a move card. I wonder if they made Spider-Man a more generically cool card. Like, what if it was not move-centric? What if they found another type of way to make this card, like, a Spider-Man that's not move? 'Cause it feels like- Oh Spider-Man is such an iconic hero that's shoehorned in his decks that not a lot of people wanna play, and I feel like that might be what happened too. They should've made him,

Dekkster 16:57

they should've made him so he, like, he puts a web on your opponent's side of the board, and they can't play a card there the next turn.

Alex 17:02

Bro, that's a great idea Why did I not think of that? And then you're like, "Oh, then you could Abs Man it after and then no one can play

Dekkster 17:11

the game." Yeah. They should do that. No, you know what? I think the card is very good. I think it's fantastic. I like the design of it, especially how it interacts with Mary Jane and Aunt May, but, uh, I think the reason maybe it doesn't feel so strong and you feel like plus one isn't that big of a deal is because of the rest of the meta. Maybe the rest of the meta's an issue. Victoria hand stuff's really annoying. Gambit stuff's really annoying.

Alex 17:35

Yeah.

Dekkster 17:35

Um, and I think the Gambit stuff is the main offender personally, but they kind of go hand-in-hand, Victoria Hand and Gambit decks.

Alex 17:43

Yeah, because Gambit is just feasting on Spider-Man Brand New Day. Like, it is- Yeah fodder for Gambit, unfortunately. Um- Yeah and that continues to be a really popular part of the meta. And even just, like, straight up Aurora decks, despite the nerf to Aurora, the Aurora Venus stuff is still outperforming the Move decks that Spider-Man Brand New Day is currently in. So, like, yeah, like there's good decks and, like, they've made the generalist Move deck better. Like, I remember when Move was most popular with Move Bounce, people just didn't like playing that deck. It was reserved for, like, the top echelon of the meta, really high skill ceiling, but people didn't, just didn't want to engage with it too much. And then now we have much more of a generalist Move that's using Kraven, this, obviously Mary Jane, Silk Venus sometimes. Like, it's much more of, like, a balanced approach of power instead of having like, "Oh, I'm gonna do this crazy thing with Human Torch and then, like, Taskmaster it or whatever," right? Or Frigate it or do the replication on Human Torch specifically. But, like, I don't know, I just, I, I'm concerned about the staying power, I guess, of these Move decks and I, I just... I don't know if people like playing Move

Dekkster 18:50

Maybe it's hard to play. I've realized this playing in my, in my chat, is usually, um... I don't know. People are like, "Oh, I wanna try this deck out." People are like, "This deck looks hard. This deck hurts my brain," sort of thing, and they don't wanna try it. So maybe it's, like, a skill issue that you're having.

Alex 19:08

Oh, it's definitely a skill issue, for sure. But I do think that also, like, because Marvel Snap only has four slots per location, move is naturally, like, incongruent with the game design sometimes.

Dekkster 19:19

It's really cool. It's something you can't really do in card games, like physical, you know? That- I think that's why I like move. Um-

Alex 19:27

You can do it in artifact.

Dekkster 19:29

I mean, you can also do it in... There's a lot of move in Riftbound and stuff, but it like... It's, it's different.

Alex 19:34

It's called ganking, which is-

Dekkster 19:36

Yeah, ganking

Alex 19:37

a perfect name for

Dekkster 19:37

a- But also moving, moving to locations and coming back. But this doesn't feel like move in, in Riftbound. It's a very different vibe. But honestly, dude, like, this season just made me remember how much I do enjoy move and how fun of an archetype move is. 'Cause I was kinda staying away from it. 'Cause I know that there's, like, size or move decks that have been around, and I just haven't touched them. I'm like, "I'm just not gonna touch that." But now I'm like, "Dude, I kinda just wanna play move for a long time." 'Cause it does, it tickles my brain a little bit, you know?

Alex 20:08

Yeah. But r- like, I even was trying to cope with, like, Hercules and stuff and Nocturne, and I, the- I found, like, even in my video where I released, uh, like, some, some reviews where I was running Hercules and Nocturne in the deck, like, there was some, like, bugs where, like, I would move Nocturne into a Hercules location, and then Hercules would bounce her out, and then Nocturne would double double change one of the locations, like, where she ended up. She wouldn't go to the Hercules location, change that location, and then bounce to the next one and change that one. You'd think she'd change two locations. She changed one location twice, which was kinda weird. And then I did it again- I just think- and it actually worked properly. I have footage of this. It made no sense. I was like, "This has gotta be a bug." I don't know, man. It does sound like a bug. Cam was even in my chat, was like, "Yo, that made no sense." I was like, "I don't know." So there's some weirdness around move.

Dekkster 20:54

Yeah, that is, that is weird. It is

Alex 20:57

weird. But

Dekkster 20:58

hopefully they fix it. So final rating, though? I still feel like it's a five. Maybe four and a half. All right. Maybe talk me down to four and a half, because I do feel if we are reserving five star for cards that should be nerfed maybe Gambit Horseman of Death and Mother Askani or something, those are five stars, then maybe this is a four and a half. But I do feel like it's a, it's a very good card. If you're a new player, I feel like you should get the season pass and you should get this. Or if your collection is not that big, if you took a, a year off and you're coming back, like, this is a good card that you can shove in all your decks

Alex 21:32

Yeah, 'cause empowerment is powerful now, especially with Venus. And like, yeah, and you're right Yeah like even in a Surfer deck, this could go in, hit Sebastian Shaw, stuff like that. I'm- It hits brood

Dekkster 21:43

I pulled up some, uh, some decks, top-performing decks running Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it is very flexible. A lot of them are Stick decks, Mother Askani decks. Some of them are just running CGR Stardust and Wilson Fisk. Cosmic Ghost

Alex 21:56

Rider.

Dekkster 21:58

Yeah, sorry, CGR, Cosmic Ghost Rider. You run in Zombie Galacti because it can buff things. You run it in Move, of course, and then, uh, some people are also running it in, like, that Professor X deck. Even run it in Aurora decks.

Alex 22:14

I do like that Professor X deck. I think that's a cool deck. That's a cool one. I like that one a lot. 'Cause you can even- It's- slide him in, buff up the Professor X and stuff to give it extra reach.

Dekkster 22:22

Yeah, people are running it in the Ronin deck that runs NTW Supergiant and all that, 'cause I think- That's cool that deck might have used to run the Nightcrawler. No, it's doing well. I guess it's low sample size, 30 games. Uh, but then it's also... Yeah, in Aurora, I don't know if you're buffing your Iska, if you're buffing other stuff. Just any deck that runs Venus as well I think does enjoy this deck, and Venus is a very good and popular card. So yeah, I guess I'll give it a four and a half, but I think depending on the meta, it could be five stars. Venus is... Is Venus five stars?

Alex 22:56

I think Venus is a five-star

Mary Jane Card Breakdown

Alex 22:57

card, for sure. I think it's a fantastic card, and I think Venus kinda transitions us as, into the next topic of conversation, 'cause I do think that it's very analogous to Mary Jane. Similar stat lines, similar effect, just minor nuance and difference here. Uh, Venus being a 3/3 that when your cards in play are empowered, give those cards an additional +1 power, and Mary Jane is going to empower cards by one. But it's a 3/3 that reads, "End of turn, give each of your cards that moved this turn +1 power." So very different, nuanced. The cards that get buffed by Mary Jane also get buffed by Venus, and I do think that, uh, Mary Jane being an end of turn is actually a superpower here. I think that it gives it one more additional turn to kind of, like, analyze the field of play and get those buffs out, so I think it's fast. It doesn't have to be face up in order to get the effect, which I think is awesome. But I don't know. Like, it's one of those cards where it's like- I like it, but I don't... Like, I wouldn't be like... It's not gonna do what Techno-Organic Virus did. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's just not that. It's not gonna have that meta penetration.

Dekkster 24:04

Penetration. I think that, uh, yeah, Spider-Man's, Spider-Man's really good 'cause he's flexible. He can be used in a lot of decks, even not move decks. Mary Jane is a card that needs to be in a move deck. But she does feel very good in those move decks, at least from what I've tried. Although, I remember Butt saying, Butt I think is, like, the best player and deck builder in Snap right now. He thinks this is not that good, unless his sentiment has changed. I haven't talked to him for a few days. But, um, i- he said Mary Jane feels a little bit not good. However, in my deck that was running Fan Faye, Heimdall, this was huge. This can give you... If you have... If you're moving eight cards with a Heimdall, this is plus eight on your last turn. If you're running Hel- Helion with this, if you're just playing Sam Wilson with this, if you're playing Spider-Man with this anything gets an additional plus one. And yeah, that being end of turn is actually huge, because if you're running something like Venus, Venus has to be face up in order for the effect to kinda work. So there's a lot of times where I had this and Venus in my hand, and I'm like, "I'm gonna use Mary Jane 'cause I can move Spider-Man, buff the Mary Jane, and then Mary Jane's also gonna buff the Spider-Man, even though I moved it on the same turn because it's an end of turn effect." But yeah, I, uh, I like this card a lot. I think in move, very good. However, if you're not a move fan, I think it's kinda skippable

Alex 25:29

Okay, fair enough. And for me, it's like I had a similar experience. Like when I was playing, like first of all, I came in giving her 3.5 stars. I think I'm gonna reset that down to like the three range, where I think it's really good in its niche. It does see some competition from Venus, and I'm still even through testing, I'm not even 100% sure if you wanna run both Venus and Mary Jane together. Because that was like one of the question marks I had, right? Like Venus theoretically makes Mary Jane pop off double as hard and makes those Heimdall swings even harder. But they're both three-cost cards, and like eventually you have to play the move cards you wanna interact with anyways. I did find that playing Mary Jane on three, Venus on four type thing was generally okay. But I guess we need more stats to see if Mary Jane and Venus actually outperform decks that do not have Venus in them and just Mary Jane move centric and stuff like that. But like for me, it was like one of those cards that like in testing, I actually did like it. The Heimdall swings were significant. But like then again, you're playing a Heimdall deck. When was the last time Heimdall decks were like meta relevant type thing? And I don't know if Mary Jane takes it to that next level because Heimdall is very awkward with board space, very awkward with positioning and macro stuff. And it actually surprises me that the top performing versions of Mary Jane don't run Hellion, because Hellion allows you to reposition your board in advance of a Heimdall play while also getting the Mary Jane buffs. So honestly, from a deck building perspective, I don't think we got there yet in the first week, which I think is a good thing. That's totally fine. But Mary Jane kind of underperformed for me, but I didn't hate it. Like, it could probably use some additional power though. Like it wouldn't surprise me if Mary Jane was ultimately like a three-five. Like I, I could see them adding power to the body

Dekkster 27:07

I... Well, I think three-five would be too good. I think a three-four would be a huge buff. I am the creator of the number one Mary Jane Heimdall deck. Let's go. Maybe also just Mary Jane deck in general. But I do feel like Heimdall is better than Hellion. I started with Hellion. Hellion's awkward. Heimdall's a big slam you can do at the end if you want to, or not. You could play, like, a Hydro-Stomper, a two drop and a one drop. Or Hellion was just weird, 'cause then on turn five, you're, you wanna play Fanfare and a one drop, or a three drop and a two drop, and I think that's what makes Hellion awkward, and also kinda works with the Mary Jane and Venus synergy. You wanna play one on three, you wanna play one on four, but you're also fine playing Mary Jane on turn five with a two drop. You could do Kraven, Mary Jane on turn five, and then on turn six- Silk you Heimdall. Or yeah, Mary Jane, Silk. And then on turn six you Heimdall. You can't play Hellion on turn six. You have to play Hellion on turn five, and then that makes your Mary Jane as your, your last turn, like, a little bit awkward. Um, so I think within the deck I built, like, someone's gotta have some other concept, but I'm looking at the top performing Mary Jane decks and I think mine is a top performer, and I do feel like my deck's very strong, but it's also very, uh, predictable maybe as far as, like, playing on Topaz.

Heimdall Move Decklist

Dekkster 28:28

Uh- Do you wanna read the deck list? Like, people can just kick the Topaz.

Alex 28:31

For the people listening and watching-

Dekkster 28:32

Uh 'cause I don't have it Sure. So my deck has one flex spot. It's 11 cards, but then, um, there's a lot of different versions. So I'm running Spider-Man, the new Spider-Man, Brand New Day. I'm running Vulture, Madame Web, Dagger, Kraven, Topaz, Hydro-Stomper, Mary Jane, Venus, Fanfare, and Heimdall. And the 12th card, which I've been swapping around between Spider-Punk, Prowler, and I think, uh, Deafening Chord. Yeah, Deafening Chord. And I also kinda wanna mess with Nightcrawler. Um, but those-

Alex 29:05

What about even, like, Web Slinger

Dekkster 29:06

Web Sling seems unnecessary to me, but it's not bad. I guess it gives you, like, plus one now or whatever, right? But-

Alex 29:14

Yeah, yeah, they changed it so that everything becomes movable and it gets plus one, yeah.

Dekkster 29:17

Web Sling.

Alex 29:18

Yeah, on reveal, next turn, one of your cards here is movable and gets plus one power when it moves.

Dekkster 29:24

Yeah, I mean, it's not bad. I think I wanted a one-drop, so on turn five I could do Fanfe and a one-drop. But Fanfe is actually, like, the star of this deck. Really? She's so good. Yes, 'cause with Mary Jane and Venus, you're essentially giving every card you hit plus three. So if you Venus on three, Fanfe on four, on turn five you go Mary Jane, Silk, uh, you can activate your Fanfe and you're gonna get plus three to every card you hit, and then you Heimdall again, and then every card gets plus two. So-

Alex 29:53

I played so much Fanfe. What do you think of my split?

Dekkster 29:56

I hate it. There's so... There's a, like a really good Fanfe split that I have. Not to talk shit on your splits. You know, every now and then someone comes in my stream and just, just like, "Alex would be disappointed or something," like, in your split. Like, they're trolling obviously, 'cause you have a lot of bad splits. But, like, you, you know, people are just-

Alex 30:15

Buddy, the last time I played Fan Fay was when Fan Fay came out. Straight up.

Dekkster 30:18

It's such a good card. It's such a good card. I love this card.

Alex 30:22

This is just like the stock green border on the stock card, 'cause I just... I could upgrade it, I just don't want to because I have better ways to spend my credits. Uh, by the way, Fan Fay, for those, like, d- listening in their car or something like that, it's a four-five activate. Give your other cards here plus one power, and move them to the right, 'cause I guarantee there's a lot of people that forgot what this card did because who the hell's thinking about Fan Fay other than Dexter Snap, who's also creating the number one Move deck in the meta right now.

Dekkster 30:48

You forgot about Fan Fay, didn't you?

Alex 30:51

Yeah, buddy, I forgot about Fan Fay. I didn't... I forgot this card exist- There's, like, some cards that I guarantee, like, there's people that have forgot existed. And- Yeah that's okay, because there's a lot of cards in Marvel Snap. Do you know, did you know that Series 5 is now larger than Series 3? That

Dekkster 31:04

makes sense.

Alex 31:06

It does make sense. What are,

Dekkster 31:06

what are- This is a serious work Series drops? I don't know what Series drops are.

Alex 31:09

We're just baiting engagements by even saying the words Series

Splits And Final Ratings

Alex 31:12

drop at this point. But, uh, anyways, Mary Jane, final thoughts, final rating. I don't know if you gave a rating. I gave... I'm going from 3.5 down to three. I don't love it. I think it's okay, though. But I just... The question is, is can Heimdall decks, like, withstand, like, the meta once they're... Once the shiny factor of the new card goes away, can Heimdall decks actually hold?

Dekkster 31:32

I think maybe. I don't know. I'm, I'm kinda like three-five to four on this card, but within its deck. It's not like something flexible, and again, it's not something, like, a new player should pick up unless they wanna play Move, in my opinion. Uh, unlike Spider-Man, which is incredibly flexible. So maybe, yeah, maybe a three and a half. But within, like, the Heimdall deck that I made, this is like a five-star card.

Alex 31:53

I do have a new split on Heimdall. Rating please, thank you.

Dekkster 31:55

It's not bad. It's a, it's pretty- Come

Alex 31:57

on, man. This is a great... No. You're just, you're intentionally trying to upset me. There's no way this is not bad. I mean- That is rainbow crackle on a rainbow border inked. Get wrecked, Dexter. This is a good split.

Dekkster 32:10

I, I think my problem with Heimdall, I don't really like, uh, his variants that much, and I don't like, um, I don't like rainbow cosmic that much. But it's not bad. I think this would look better without ink. That one without ink. Take the ink off, keep the rainbow crackle.

Alex 32:27

So, like, just base?

Dekkster 32:29

No, put rainbow crackle. But yeah, put rainbow crackle.

Variant Rarity Debate

Dekkster 32:32

Yeah, that's better.

Alex 32:33

This is worse.

Dekkster 32:35

No, that's way better.

Alex 32:35

This is so much worse.

Dekkster 32:37

You are a, uh, a victim of thinking that rare is better.

Alex 32:43

It is better.

Dekkster 32:44

No.

Alex 32:44

There is no way that you can convince me that this is purely- It's

Dekkster 32:50

so much better superior- It's so much better- than, than this with color. It's, it's got color- I won't let you un-click as, as the artist intended. When the artist created this piece, they did not expect it to look like that. When the artist-

Alex 33:01

What did they expect

Dekkster 33:01

when they

Alex 33:02

did this, then?

Dekkster 33:03

The artist didn't expect anything when they made this.

Alex 33:06

There is ab- okay, hold on. I will give you this, 'cause Flaviano does have beautiful art. That's also better. Okay, hold on, though. Flaviano's coloring into rainbow in... Okay, now this might actually be better. Not the other one. This one with Flaviano's coloring might actually be better.

Dekkster 33:23

Do you have any more, uh, Penny Arcade borders?

Alex 33:25

I have all of them, I believe.

Dekkster 33:28

Well, it'd look better on this than, uh, than the rainbow. Oh,

Alex 33:30

I think you meant the variants, the actual borders thems- the Penny Arcade border. So, yeah, I got two left.

Dekkster 33:35

Don't do it, 'cause you don't like- No? Heimdall. You don't like Heimdall. But I think, um... I don't know if that one's- All right better, actually.

Alex 33:42

I

Dekkster 33:42

think- All right it's much better without the ink, but, um, we'll let the commenters choose.

Alex 33:47

Yeah. We'll let them choose. It shouldn't be decisive. It should be like, "Alex is 100% right. Dexter's, Dexter's just baiting negative engagement." But

Ant-Man Booster Curse

Alex 33:55

that's fine. Let's talk about Ant-Man. Ant-Man, who, uh, the MC... By the way, I played a lot of Ant-Man, and I could not get boosters for this card. I do not know, understand what ha- I even joked about it in my video. I'm like, "I played, I played this card for, like, two and a half hours and only got, like, 10, 15 boosters for it." Like, it was one of those cursed things where I could not get boosters

Aunt May Rating Breakdown

Alex 34:15

for this card. Ant-Man is a 2/3 that reads, "End of turn, if you used a movable ability, give a movable card in your hand negative one cost and plus two power." I came in at 3.5, Sizer came in at 4- I, like, both liked Aunt May, but also think it's not good. Like, how do I explain this? I was playing Aunt May and I was like, "I'm having a lot of fun. This is actually kinda cool. 4/11 vision? I'll do that. Thank you. Thank you very much." But then generally speaking, I felt like either the decks were bad, non-competitive to the meta, and, like, while I understand that m- Aunt May's gonna get better which e- with each movable card that comes out in the future, what we have right now as a stock didn't seem like it was enough. So Aunt May for me I think drops to a two-star rating, despite the fact that I actually kinda had fun playing her. I don't think she's gonna be meta relevant.

Dekkster 35:07

I would even... I would almost give her, like, a one and a half. I think she's really bad.

Alex 35:14

Um- I wouldn't say she's really bad, but I see where you're going. Like, I, I know- understand the feel you have.

Dekkster 35:19

I think it's a bit meta dependent 'cause, like, minus one cost plus two power is not a big deal. Like, a 4/11 vision is not a big deal for, like, what you have to do in order-

Alex 35:29

You just finished saying that the plus one on Spider-Man is a big deal.

Dekkster 35:31

It is. It's different. It's a one drop that's an easy condition to meet. This is not as easy to meet at all. You need to build your deck around Aunt May in the first place, whereas Spider-Man's just a card you can throw in. True. Like, having a 4/11 vision, first of all, you have to put vision in your deck. Second of all, you have to draw vision and have a one drop for Aunt May to kinda hit. Um- Spider-Man

Alex 35:53

Brand New Day.

Dekkster 35:54

Yeah. So you need, like, you need that on turn one into Aunt May, into having vision in your hand. And then on turn... I guess you can move it and then she'll do end of turn, which is kinda the nice part. Um, so then you can play vision on turn four. Uh, but I don't... it's just it's... I think it's bad. I think having to build a deck like this is bad when you can just play a real move deck. Um, but I'm seeing people run vision, Nocturne, Mercury, just so they can buff it. I know, uh, talking to Butt again, he was more of a fan of Aunt May than he was of Mary Jane because he thought it was nice to just discount a card. Like, maybe just hold Mercury for the final turn. You discount her three times. She's a zero 10? Yeah. A zero 10, and you just slam her on the last turn with another card. Like, I guess that's nice, but I feel like it's cope because you have to build your deck around this. 'Cause there were a lot of times where I was just, I was getting May off, but she wasn't hitting She wa-

Alex 36:57

Bro, come on, man.

Dekkster 36:59

She, she wasn't hitting-

Alex 37:01

You can't j- you can't say that on a podcast. That is so inappropriate.

Dekkster 37:06

She was... I was getting her effect off, but it wasn't... there was nothing in my hand for her to hit Cause she, I didn't, I didn't draw the Vision that game, so she didn't hit anything, and I already played out my movable card 'cause I wanted to meet her condition 'cause I needed to get her effect off, right? So it's a little weird. I don't know. I think, I think the card is, uh, bad, and I would give it a one and a half. I need to mess around with it more, though. Like, I tried it for, like, an hour, and I was like, "This is just a bad card," and I gave up. But looking at the stats I do see she's ran in some decks where I feel like the decks are not performing very well, and, uh, they'd probably be better off if they were a real deck. Top performing deck for Aunt May that I'm seeing is running Cannonball Mercury.

Alex 37:53

Yep. Yeah, and that's, like, a 56% win rate deck, right?

Dekkster 37:57

Yeah. There's another one that looks promising that's just running a bunch of move. It's got Jeff, Hydro-Stomper, Rocket Raccoon. Literally every card is movable. Um, but I don't think it's worth it, personally.

Alex 38:09

No, and this card- I could be wrong does get better over time. No, you're not wrong. I think it sucks. Like, I don't... i, I liked playing it, though. Like, I had fun playing these decks, I think, 'cause it was, like, novel. Like, I don't play a lot of move. I'm not a move guy. I'm straight up not a move guy, but

Move Package And Splits

Alex 38:22

I had fun. And, like, I'm gonna read out the movable cards to give you an idea of, like, what she works with right now. So Aunt May's obviously movable. Spider-Man Brand New Day, Jeff the Baby Dolphin, Spider-Punk, who I played a lot of and I thought was cool, especially with, uh, Venus too 'cause it gets plus ones from Venus. Web Sling creates movable cards. Mercury, unironically, movable. Hellion, Dexter hates Hellion. I don't hate Hellion. Phoenix Force. I played some Phoenix Force. What do you think of this split, by the way? Fire border on a fire card.

Dekkster 38:51

It's nice. Clean, I like it.

Alex 38:52

You like it? Thank you. Rating from one to 10?

Dekkster 38:55

Seven.

Alex 38:56

Dude, F you. Like, it's not a seven.

Dekkster 38:58

10? Can

Alex 38:58

you at least give me some respect for... And I... No, no, now you're just

Dekkster 39:01

pandering. Seven's high, dude. Seven's high.

Alex 39:04

This is- That's- Okay, considering it's just, like, the art, yes, it's an Alex Horley. It's absolutely fire, pun intended. This is a natural nine, like a very low effort natural nine.

Dekkster 39:15

Okay.

Alex 39:16

Why do you gotta upset me, man? Like, why can't you just give this to me? What? Seven is pretty high. This is a really nice card.

Dekkster 39:20

Okay, we'll give it a, we'll give it an, an eight. Most of your cards I feel like are, like, a three out of 10, so, like, this is pretty high.

Alex 39:26

Okay. Okay, uh, Sam Wilson Captain America, also the shield is movable. Rating on this variant

Dekkster 39:35

Um,

Alex 39:36

six Rocket and Groot don't even. M- Madame Web don't even. Nocturne, Meek obviously not gonna be. Cloak. Vision, who was disrespected by you in my opinion, I think 411 Vision is just fine. And then obviously Nightcrawler rating on this split?

Dekkster 39:50

Oof. I think I don't like Cosmic and I think you like Cosmic. I think Cosmics are just too busy. You know, I, I, I've made this in the pa- I made this, uh, what the hell am I... What word am I looking for? A reference in the past maybe, is that, like, Cosmic is so busy it reminds me of those people who would wear, like, shirts and it had, like, a logo, and it was just constantly reprinted 100, 1,000 times on their shirt. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's just like, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, like everywhere. Like, I think those shirts are kind of ugly.

Alex 40:19

But what about, like- And I think- something like this, like a refraction border?

Dekkster 40:22

I like that. I like that

Alex 40:23

better. This is cleaner?

Dekkster 40:24

Yeah, I like the refraction better.

Alex 40:26

So what's your rating on this Jeff?

Dekkster 40:28

Eight.

Alex 40:29

Okay. I'll take an eight. Just a low-key eight from Dexter. It's actually a, a 10, which is fine.

Jeff Variants Tier List

Alex 40:34

I'm always like... I'm never sure what variant of Jeff I should use, 'cause I have so many different variants of Jeff. Um-

Dekkster 40:39

Yeah so, like- I think you chose one of the worst ones

Alex 40:42

So I got... This one I've always liked, but it doesn't look good in, uh, in inked. This is a good one.

Dekkster 40:47

I like that

Alex 40:48

Do you like the food fight one? I don't like this one.

Dekkster 40:50

Yeah. Th- this one, I like this one. You don't like this one?

Alex 40:53

I like the, like, the kind of exclamation mark things moving. Yeah, that's cool. I think that's cool.

Dekkster 40:58

Yeah.

Alex 40:58

This one I think is probably amongst the best.

Dekkster 41:00

Yeah, that one's great

Alex 41:01

This

Dekkster 41:02

one's just

Alex 41:02

cute

Dekkster 41:02

though,

Alex 41:02

man that one's not

Dekkster 41:03

What? I think the other one's way better than this one. All right. The Food Fight one is better than your other one. But yeah, this one is, this one's GOATed for sure.

Alex 41:11

Okay. I like your Venomized one too. I don't have it, but that's the ultimate, right?

Dekkster 41:14

Oh, I think it is the ultimate, yeah.

Alex 41:17

Okay.

Skip Or Buy Aunt May

Alex 41:18

I forgot it was ultimate So final thoughts on Ant-Mae, skip?

Dekkster 41:20

I would skip her. But I mean, she's... Isn't she... Is she free? How do you get her?

Alex 41:24

Bro, you don't know how you got her?

Dekkster 41:26

No. Uh, wasn't she through game mode? You're

Alex 41:28

supposed to... Like, when you're on the podcast, you're supposed to, like, have some understanding of how card get... The cards get acquired, right? Like, there's gotta be more than requirements. I don't remember if I

Dekkster 41:35

bought it or if it was a game mode.

Alex 41:37

Series five, man. What game mode?

Dekkster 41:39

Oh, big skip. There's always a game mode now.

Alex 41:43

I know, but not one giving a card. Yeah, High Voltage. I- It was just, like, a random High Voltage.

Dekkster 41:48

Yeah. Uh, skip. Big skip.

Alex 41:51

Yeah, big skip. Unfortunate. But yeah your hard-earned resources are not best spent on Ant-Mae. So yeah, very unfortunate. I like how also they cho- Like, considering, like, Marisa Tomei is Ant-Mae in MCU, they're like, "Okay, get, get us some of the haggard Ant-Maes." I just, I just- Yeah I thought that was an interesting choice. What? What are you... Do- You- No, I'm allowed to say that.

Dekkster 42:11

What, uh, what other-

Alex 42:12

You were way more inappropriate with Ant-Mae than what I just said

Dekkster 42:16

Ant-Mae variants are there? I said nothing inappropriate. You were taking things out of context.

Alex 42:20

No, I wasn't. I was not. I was not

Dekkster 42:23

taking anything out of context. Let me see. I'm looking at Ant-Mae variants

Alex 42:25

I'm gonna put Tarantula on the screen while you do this

Dekkster 42:28

Okay, well I'm not g- Aunt May, yeah, she always looks like that. Okay, anyways...

Alex 42:33

Yeah, they didn't go with, like, the Marissa Tomei variant.

Dekkster 42:35

Yeah, they didn't.

Alex 42:37

Very unfortunate.

Dekkster 42:37

Okay.

Tarantula Card Preview

Dekkster 42:38

Tarantula.

Alex 42:40

Do you wanna read Tarantula out as our preview? We've got two previews, Tarantula and Tombstone.

Dekkster 42:44

Is this series five?

Alex 42:45

This is series five, releasing on July 7th in the series five packs.

Dekkster 42:49

He's two energy, two power. End of turn, if you have the highest power among cards in play, give this and two cards in your hand plus one power

Alex 42:59

What do you think? Or do you want me to go first?

Dekkster 43:01

You go first since I read the card. That's how it works, I think.

Alex 43:04

Okay. So I came in at two stars. I'm gonna stick to that two-star rating. Sizer came in at four, so this is one of the ones that Sizer and I differentiated on, which, when a player like Sizer tells you you're wrong, it get, you know, kind of puts a p- pit in your stomach. I'm gonna get roasted by the internet, certainly.

Why Tarantula Might Flop

Alex 43:19

But here's the thing, okay, with Tarantula, and this is where I'm really, really concerned about it. It feels like... First of all, it has an amazing effect. If it just pops off, you're talking about, like, 215, right? It's crazy. Like, it's crazy what this card can do in theory, but it has the same problem, in my opinion, that Punisher War Machine did, where, like, the stat line is so bad that Punisher War Machine is incapable of winning its own lane. Like, it just does... Unless they just don't play. Punisher War Machine, 2/2, when drawn, mark one of the empty locations, and then you complete the objective, you get the +1 power. It's so weak that if they play anything, like, you, like, you can't just throw Punisher into a location and expect to win it. It's just not gonna work that way. And the problem with Tarantula is it's so weak that, like, there's a good chance that you're not gonna have the highest power among cards in play, especially since they nerfed Martyr, who was so universally good. And so it really, for me, feels like it's gonna slide into one specific deck. Dexter, what deck do you think that is?

Dekkster 44:18

Uh, Dracula Dump.

Alex 44:20

It is Wilson Fisk. You are correct, sir. Uh, Wilson Fisk, I think, is gonna be a great spot for this card because, like, those Wilson Fisk decks runs all those big bodies. Do you really think it's gonna go in Dracula Dump?

Dekkster 44:33

I don't know. It's not really a deck anymore. Yeah, I, I mean, I think it's a Fisk card just like Punisher War Machine is, right? Yeah. But you need a big one. You need a big one-drop. That's it.

Alex 44:42

Not brand new day Spider-Man.

Dekkster 44:45

And then... Well, he makes a three power. That's probably not good enough, yeah.

Alex 44:48

Yeah.

Dekkster 44:49

But I don't know, it's- So,

Alex 44:50

like, that's my major concern. Like, do you think that, like, the fact that it's a 2/2 is potentially too problematic?

Dekkster 44:55

Yeah, I think it's gonna be bad. I think it's really... I think this is a card where they're gonna be like, "Oh, we should buff that," and then they make it a 2/3 or a 2/4, but I guess I g- would've thought that about Punisher War Machine as well. Um, buffing two cards in your hand +1 power can get pretty crazy, especially if you have, like, a Sebastian Shaw 'cause +1 power ends up being plus, three power

Alex 45:13

Yeah, I agree. But the problem with even, like, surfer decks is that, like, they don't often... They're often very light on one-drops. They often don't... Some of them don't even want run one-drops, or they'll run, like, Chavez into intentional skip turn one, play Chavez turn two, and then Storm turn three, and that's how you get that buff across the board. And Storm is gonna buff your entire hand by two, so why the hell would you not do that as opposed to this?

Dekkster 45:39

I think this sucks. Yeah, I think it's really bad. Maybe, maybe two-star prediction. I think it's, I think it's gonna be disappointing.

Alex 45:47

Yeah, I don't know. Like, I guess the problem is, is that, like, you need an engine to get this proced, right? And then it's just so weak by itself, unless you play it on turn four with Wilson Fisk down. Like, if you, if you give this as not a turn two card, and you play it as a turn four card, this and then you play Techno-Organic Virus, then all of a sudden it makes more sense, right? 'Cause Techno-Organic Virus changes Fisk to a 10. This will come down, buff everything in your hand, and you get to replay Techno-Organic Virus. That's the line where I'm like, "Okay, that makes sense." Turn four, this and Techno-Organic Virus, Fisk is a 10, and you're definitely proced this, right?

Dekkster 46:25

And this technically hit Techno-Organic Virus? 'Cause it says cards, not characters. So I wonder- Good call if it can miss- mishit, and, like, hit a skill as opposed to character.

Alex 46:36

It most certainly probably can, because we have a ton... Like, I've been saying it for the longest time. Even stuff like Silver Sable, I think it's a damn travesty, uh, that, uh, Silver Sable does not hit, uh, characters. It hits cards, and I think it's really, really, really hurt this card that it can just do nothing. It can just fizzle, especially- Yeah with how many skills are being added to the game. Uh, rating on this, uh, this variant, by the way. It's purely Silver.

Dekkster 46:59

I like it. I'll give it a, a nine.

Alex 47:02

Thank you. Really? Actual nine, or are you just, just-

Dekkster 47:04

Yeah

Alex 47:04

baiting me?

Dekkster 47:05

No, it's really good.

Alex 47:06

Cause again, it's thematic. It's Silver, and everything's Silver.

Dekkster 47:10

And it's simple. It's not a cosmic- Right, there's

Alex 47:12

no flare.

Dekkster 47:13

Yeah.

Alex 47:14

There's no flare. All right. Tra- Tarantula's kind of potentially trashy, I think. But,

Dekkster 47:19

I think he's, like, a one and a half.

Alex 47:21

That low, eh?

Dekkster 47:23

I think he's gonna be really... I mean, hope- maybe I'm wrong. You have to have the highest card in play, so I guess you can play him on two, and then on turn three you play Gladiator Because you're not gonna get Wilson Fisk off on three if you're playing this on two. Yeah, you play Gladiator- Unless

Alex 47:38

your opponent passed

Dekkster 47:40

and you pull their Giganto, and you're just cooked. Yeah, well, then you lose. That's not the meta this should be played in, maybe. But I don't know, you have to slam a massive three-drop. debris? I don't know.

Alex 47:49

debris just, like, got nerfed, too.

Dekkster 47:51

I, I miss the OTA. I don't know. This is bad. It's his card. It's bad. Two, two at max. It's trash.

Alex 47:59

Two at max, yeah. I'm going with two. Sizer saw more in f- in his four rating. We'll have to see. I'll be... All eyes on Sizer for the cook of Tarantula. Yeah. But we do have another card coming, and actually, we sh- probably should've done this in the other order here. It is a Series 4 card. Um, I'm struggling to find

Tombstone Destroy Hype

Alex 48:14

it. There it is. It is Tombstone. It is coming on s- uh, July 6th as part of Team Clash. This is gonna be a card you can get for 800 gold, assuming that the pricing does not change. Also, free-to-play can technically access it. Although it feels grindy free-to-play, I kinda tried, and I was like, "Eh, I'm just gonna pay the 800 gold." Tombstone, I actually really like this. I don't wanna, like, bait your answer or your rating here. I actually think this is, like, a four to 4.5 star card. It's a 2/3 that reads, "On reveal, destroy your lowest power card at each other location."

Dekkster 48:45

Yeah, I think Tombstone's gonna be really good. At a 2/3, it's decent stats, but then on reveal, destroy your lowest power card at each other location seems so good. There's... Often, when I'm playing a destroy deck, I'm like, "I need another way to destroy these cards." You'll put in, like, a Deathlok in or something. Uh, so I feel like this might actually be a good card Or destroy decks. And, and normally a destroy deck, you're like, "Yeah, this is a good destroy card," but I don't know if it fits because you're, you- you've kinda, like, solved the deck already. Like, nothing else fits. But this might shake it up. This might shake it up, and you might start dropping Deathlok and things. I think... I don't know if it actually makes destroy better. It's a little awkward, 'cause sometimes you wanna stack a lane and, like, Carnage it or Venom it. But this one, you, like, you would wanna put your DP in one lane, you'd wanna put your Wolverine in another lane, and then you play Tombstone, and it destroys both of them. You know? And then they go- Yeah, but the nice

Alex 49:41

thing as well is things like, like Wolverine, they... Or, like, X-23, they bounce randomly. You can't always control the locations, and so Tombstones are really good at way to, like, impact those cards that you don't have the reach on. And the thing I really like about Tombstone too is the fact that it is a two-cost. It's a huge advantage over something like a Deathlok, because at two-cost, you can slide it in with Deadpool, Tombstone, X-23, Tombstone. Like, you're often playing these one-drops, Headpool. You're doing things where, like, that, like, the one-drops in destroy are so important to the general strategy that a- that additional savings that lets you slide it in on turn three, that otherwise Deathlok would require turn four or a setup on turn two, I think actually makes a difference, man. Like, I actually think that this card is potentially really good.

Dekkster 50:23

Yeah. I think just, like, Carnage is also really good, 'cause it only costs two. Sometimes on turn one, you just play X-23 into Carnage. Um, and Tombstone kinda fulfills that condition as well, so I think it makes it a little bit more consistent in that sense. Um, so yeah, I think it's really good at constant... If it was three, it'd definitely be bad. Um, I mean- Yeah yeah, on turn one you could play one into this on curve, or on turn three you could play this, and Tombst- or Tombstone and a one-drop. Yeah,

Deck Ideas And Ratings

Dekkster 50:48

huge. I think this could make a new destroy deck.

Alex 50:52

For sure. Or, you know, shake it up. And it's notable too that, like, a Nimrod could be the lowest power card at a location, right? Mm-hmm. So you could propagate- Yep Nimrods with a Tombstone. I'm also gonna say, I- I mentioned this when I had the discussion last week, but, like, destroy Thanos with, like, Firehair. Like, that- Ooh, yeah that was a deck that existed. I'm not gonna say it was, like, amazing. And I'm gonna bring up Firehair because, you know, it's a card that a lot of people don't really think about much. The 2/3 that reads, "When one of your cards is destroyed, this uses that card's On Reveal." I think that, like, Thanos destroy is actually a cool archetype, and I feel like Tombstone would go pretty well in that, no?

Dekkster 51:31

Yeah, I was playing Thanos destroy recently with Namorita, and then you have too many one-drops, so you would need to Carnage them or Killmonger them or Venom them. So I feel like that could kinda work with Tombstone. I guess Namorita would actually be weird with it.

Alex 51:46

You say Namorita so good. Namorita.

Dekkster 51:49

You said it well, too.

Alex 51:51

Did I?

Dekkster 51:52

Yeah

Alex 51:52

I, I remember, like, during the preview of, uh, Arana, I was with Cozy- Yeah and I said Arena or something like that, and Cozy was just like, "Okay." And, like- Well- Co- obviously as someone from San Diego, he knew. He's like, "Yeah, they're gonna rip him. They're gonna absolut- Comix is gonna rip him for this." Well- And then they d- they absolutely destroyed me to the point now where, like, if I even suspect there is a, you know, South American flavor to the name, I, I, I do the research, so Memoria is an example of that.

Dekkster 52:24

Cozy's, Cozy's, uh, accent is also really bad, so- it's really bad. He has no room to talk. Yeah.

Alex 52:32

So what is your final star rating on Tombstone? I'm going 4.5. I, I'm thinking, like, four range, maybe 4.5's high. Probably four, but I think that it's gonna make Destroy legit. We didn't even talk about Dormammu. Dormammu could go good in this, 'cause you could play this with something like a Bucky Barnes, right? Like, I think it's a really, really good card as a series four. I think it's a way better card than, like, MA is for sure, so there's that.

Dekkster 52:53

I think, yeah, it might be, like, a four, five. I'm also thinking, like, in these Fantomex decks. Even Milf decks. Ooh, I love Milf. Milf would be... Milf fell out of popularity, but I think- Milfs have

Alex 53:06

always been popular.

Dekkster 53:07

That's good

Alex 53:08

Thank you

Dekkster 53:09

Uh, Morgan Le Fay kinda just stopped being played. So hopefully this can maybe- Oh, she's the Knull we're talking

Alex 53:14

about

Dekkster 53:14

Yeah, MLF, Morgan Le Fay. What were you thinking? Yeah.

Alex 53:18

I wasn't thinking anything.

Dekkster 53:20

Okay. Um, yeah, Morgan Le Fay maybe would like this. You know, you play a couple one drops, you play Tombstone. Even on turn four, you could play a one drop left, a one drop right. You Tombstone, you destroy them both. You Morgan Le Fay, you bring them back on turn five, and then on turn six you have a massive... Oh.

Alex 53:35

Nothing came up.

Dekkster 53:36

Eh, Morgan.

Alex 53:37

Oh. Oh, Morgan.

Dekkster 53:39

Wow, you barely play this card.

Alex 53:41

Yeah. I have 63 boosters on it.

Dekkster 53:44

Oh my God, the... You can Tombstone hit a Wasp? A zero four? Come on, man. No, but I think, uh- Okay no, I think Tombstone, um, he'll be good and flexible, and there's a lot of things I wanna try him with. Of course, like, the classic DP stuff. And then, uh, I think, yeah, like, Phantomech stuff. Phantomech stuff is gonna be pretty good with this.

Wrap Up And Plugs

Alex 54:02

It's about that time, my friend, that we end our endeavor on this week's podcast. It was a fun one. It's always a fun one with Dexter. Dexter, although we've obviously discussed your presence on the internet at length, where can the great people find you to see some Marvel Snap gameplay?

Dekkster 54:17

Twitch.tv/dexter. I stream. I do also post YouTube videos every single day on my VOD channel, but it's literally just my stream cut up. And

Alex 54:29

then- That's still cool, though. I watch those.

Dekkster 54:30

And then eventually I'm gonna do a Two Noobs versus One Pro with Alex Coccia. Um, he's not the pro, of course. He's gonna be one of the noobs. And that's it. I also started doing TCG, physical TCG content on my other channel, Dexter, not to be confused with the other channel, Dexter. They're all called Dexter. It's confusing. But yeah.

Alex 54:52

First of all, one this basically accounts for you asking me to be on Two Noobs One Pro, 'cause I didn't know I was on it, so now I am. Two, your physical TCG channel, I actually watch all those videos, and I think they're really well done. I'm not joking, guys. The quality and the effort Dexter's putting into those videos is really, really high. They're really, really good, and I don't even, like, play One Piece, and I still watch them. And I love how you start with, like, the fist bumps with the people you're playing with. I think the... I don't know. I just, I love those videos a lot, and I hope that people, uh, if you're listening to this right now, and you've not at least checked them out, I'm gonna have them linked in the description. I do think they're really good, and it just might get you into a new card game that you'll enjoy.

Dekkster 55:27

My Riftbound ones actually do better than my One Piece. Maybe I retire my One Piece stuff, and I just do Riftbound.

Alex 55:33

Or-

Dekkster 55:33

Cause those-

Alex 55:33

you prep for Cyberpunk TCG.

Dekkster 55:36

Oh, I definitely will be doing Cyberpunk, too.

Alex 55:39

Yeah.

Dekkster 55:39

But that's not for a bit.

Alex 55:41

Not for a bit. It's actually sooner than you think, though. Isn't it, like, October?

Dekkster 55:46

Is it?

Alex 55:47

Only a couple months away, man.

Dekkster 55:49

Oh, shoot. Okay. Well, m- yeah, I'll get in on that.

Alex 55:51

Unless my memory does not serve me correctly, I think it's sooner than later, Cyberpunk TCG.

Dekkster 55:56

You might be right. Um, but also new Naruto. I

Alex 56:00

don't know anything about Naruto. That's when they wear the head- the sweatbands, right?

Dekkster 56:03

Yeah, the sweatbands. Yeah.

Alex 56:05

What were you laughing? They look like metal sweatbands. They're probably not- Yeah, yeah really made of sweatbands, but...

Dekkster 56:09

No, they probably... That's what they're for. Yeah, they'll, uh... That's, that's coming soon. I'll probably try that.

Alex 56:15

Oh, Naruto's the show where they run funny, right? Where they do the...

Dekkster 56:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex 56:19

Okay. Yeah, I know what that is.

Dekkster 56:21

Yeah. It's Bandai. It's a Bandai card game. They made One Piece. I think after One Piece they made Gundam, and then they're also- The

Alex 56:27

DBZ one's them too, no?

Dekkster 56:28

Yeah, yeah. DBZ's also them. Which they made an online client for that was supposedly really good. So maybe with Naruto they'll do an online client. That would be sick.

Alex 56:36

Wait, there's a DBZ online client? I didn't know that.

Dekkster 56:38

Yeah. They, they, like... It's supposedly good, but they, like, flopped their release of it.

Alex 56:44

I didn't even know about it, and I'm a TCG, CCG player, and I had no idea.

Dekkster 56:48

Imagine if Riftbound had a real online client.

Alex 56:52

Oh, that would be good. That'd be very good. That would be good. One can hope one day.

Dekkster 56:56

Yeah, that'd be nice.

Alex 56:58

I play too many damn card games, and you play even more, so that's absolutely crazy. But guys, thank you so much for watching. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of you. Down in the description below we'll have all the links to Dexter's fantastic content. Hope you enjoyed the episode, and we'll see you on that next one.