Description
Kiernimbus talks about the newest card, Invisible Woman First Steps, and the latest OTA.
Please rate this podcast so I know how I'm doing!
You can find me here: https://linktr.ee/kiernimbus
This podcast is a part of the Snap Judgments Podcasting Network! You can show us some support by checking out the Snap Judgments Youtube channel (@snapjudgments) or the Patreon (patreon.com/SnapJudgments).
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
Lorne Whatevs and Ree, and it is a fantastic podcast. If you have not decided to listen to it yet, you might find that it's a lot different than some of the other podcasts you've maybe perused. In particular, they play a lot of games, and they have secret homework every week where they complete things off the recording and bring it back in in a sort of show-and-tell style discussion. I really like the podcast, and I'd recommend that you listen to it. It's a really good time. Now, let's hop into it. So this week, we're taking it pretty breezy. We have an OTA and a new card. As of recording this, I think the trailer for the newest season just dropped, but we'll cover that next week when it comes around. Let's start with Invisible Woman First Steps. Invisible Woman, Fantastic Four First Steps is a 3-5 that says, This turn, your end-of-turn abilities happen twice. So I'll be real, um, when I saw the first data marks rolling in for this card, and I saw the decks people were making, I was sounding the alarms. I was like, good god, this card is so broken, it's ridiculous, um, and I've come down on it a bit, but I still think this card is insane. When you hear end of turn abilities, uh, your mind sort of goes to cards maybe like Adam Warlock, or, you know... Mr. Fantastic Four Steps, you know, those kinds of cards. And while those are, you know, somewhat cool with this card, the combo that works the best is with Prodigy. You play that with Fantasticar, and with those three cards on the board, you can make some insane boards. I'm talking like 30, 40 power in two lanes, maybe even more. it's kind of ridiculous and this is thanks to uh cards like havoc and thena and you know the the cards that gain power um at the end of their turn because once you do that once you add the cards like human torch thena havoc suddenly at the end of the game they're gaining uh more than 10 power because they're proccing multiple times if you copy the invisible woman and it's insane it's nuts but it is a combo deck right so if they don't draw the right things if they don't get the right cards on the right turns if they can't line up things properly it then becomes a pretty okay deck and in those instances you know you can feel a little bit better about snapping into it or something Do I think that this design is going to end up being healthy? I'm not really convinced on that. I think like a lot of other cards this season, this just seems on a whole new power level, especially when you look at the stat line and it's a 3-5 and you're also proccing several effects. I didn't even mention Bruce Banner as a fun throw pick. You can also do sunspot stuff. It's just nuts. It is just nuts. But I think what brought this back down to earth for me was I realized it's kind of just another surfer deck. It's not surfer in that you're restricted to only threes, but it is surfer in that if you get the surfer and you get a discount on another card to copy it, and in fact, prodigy is also an option in that deck, right? If you get multiple procs of surfer, It can feel ridiculous. It can feel overwhelming. The amount of power on the board spikes up dramatically, but there are a lot of games where that doesn't happen. So the deck ends up being good, but not broken. And I'm hoping that Invisible Woman sort of lands in that area. So, what do I think about her in totality? I think she is a 5 out of 5 card. I've been saying this for a lot of the cards this season, but I think it's just true. These cards have really good power levels. They're extremely... uh strong in the decks that they're a part of and if you want to get them i think you should uh so that's where i'm at she has a 58 win rate on snap fan and that seems about right to me um it's a really cool ability i think that uh this sort of opens the window for more end of uh tur end of turn abilities to sort of prop up in card design, but it also restricts them in a way, right? You can't have anything too, too powerful. Otherwise this card is going to, uh, make some issues with that. You know, I think about, uh, cards like Wong and you know, you have to be careful if you, if you make something way too powerful, uh, it can become an issue. So that's how I sort of feel about it. I know that this card, uh, is only going to get better with time and her stat line is so decent already, it's like... Sure, why not? Throw her into your deck. Okay, now for the meat and potatoes. You know I always say this when an OTA comes around, and this one is really, really, really cool. I think this might be my favorite OTA to come out in a very, very long time. And part of it is because it's with cards that I like, and part of it is because it's tuning down some of the things that are making the meta a little unfun. So, let's go through it, shall we? The first up... is Mole Man. We covered Mole Man briefly when we were discussing the new game mode. If you recall his on reveal is that he banishes the top card of your deck and then adds two rocks with the power of those rocks equal to the cost of the thing that you got rid of. The basic way to explain this is if he spears your Infidon, those rocks in your hand are not going to get 20 power, they're going to get 6. So, with that in mind, they've actually given him a bump of power he's going to a 3-4 he was a 3-3 and i just think that's neat i think that that it's cool that um you know this card wet i already thought was pretty decent you know it's it's pretty solid um is now going to feel even better to play if you get a 1-3 rocks it's not bad right doing the math you know on the median of this sort of combo you're sort of looking at like a 5-10 If you add in all the costs and the power, and that's the median result, right? If you get some three power rocks, a 510, eh, sure. With a Victoria Hand buff, that's even better. With Patriot buffs, that's even better, right? So on the median, it's pretty decent. And then if you get a high roll, like let's say you get rid of a six cost. Now you're talking about, if you add all the math together, you're talking about a 516. Which is really good, right? And again, those other buffs can still apply, and it's really, really good. You're getting, like, two Demons in your hand, and a 3-4 on the board that you don't have to worry about with, like, you know, the Hood. So, I don't know, I feel like he's decent. In certain decks, you might find that he's almost like a good replacement for ramp cards, because if, for example, you're looking at Electro, who is also a 3-4, The cost to benefit of both of these cards might be exchangeable. Like, sure, you know, Electro gives you a little bit of energy. But with Mole Man, you don't even have to worry about that. You can just take the power and run. So, like, I don't know. I like his card design. I like this buff. I think it makes him playable. All right, next up, we're going to talk about Agony, who's moving to a 1-3 from a 1-2. And, yeah, I mean, this seems pretty cool to me. I think Agony has felt... A little on the weak side, mostly because she requires you to, you know, set up a play in order to get the two power when another card, like Galacta, might feel a little bit more intuitive. But at a 1-3, this is dangerous. I've played against a couple of Deadpool decks recently who are running this, and it's scary, right? If you play this on one, Deadpool on two, you've sort of skipped. lot of the the process in order to get Deadpool to a 1-8 on turn 3 and that and you know by that point it can snowball I also think that you know this this opens the door for some more interesting combos with other cards like Human Torch first steps or hell you know any card that you'd like to be buffed even things like Sebastian Shaw like like a 1-3 is above that you know above rate for a one cost card. and i think on scalers in particular it's going to be really really good so yeah i think this is a solid change i hope it doesn't make deadpool too strong but i mean you know destroy has counters so i'm never worried about that deck i i think it's okay okay next up is a uh buff that i'm particularly excited about it is domino who is moving from a 2-3 to a 2-4 and i think that this This is exactly what I mentioned they could do to make this card feel better. right you're already losing a draw in order to play a card that does nothing so if you get her on turn two she should feel impactful and a 2-4 is at that that perfect stat line where it's like It's not more powerful than synergistic cards or cards that, you know, have a bigger downside, right? But she's bigger than most 2-3s. She's bigger than most 1-2s. It feels really good. I've been trying her out in a Black Knight deck because, if you don't have to worry, if I skip the issues of drawing 1 costs and drawing 2 costs, if I include Quicksilver and Domino, I am losing 2 draws. But I'm also making it extremely consistent for me to get Wiccan and extremely consistent for me to get a big card and a card that discards. So I have a bunch of discarding cards like Blade, Moon Knight, Lady Sith. And then when I draw one of my big cards, it's very easy to guarantee that I'll be able to get those cards discarded for my Ghost Rider and my Black Knight. So, like, I'm loving this. and the backup plan. in that deck with wiccan is that i just i have the energy to play the big cards anyway so i'm really enjoying that deck um and i'm i'm excited to keep toying around it's probably not the best thing you could do with domino but i like that this opens the door for experimentation i i i love domino as a character and i have some great variants of her so i'm excited to try her out this is a great change okay next up is and this might surprise some people mobius going from a 3-3 to a 3-4. In the dev notes, they sort of mention that they have been making a lot of cards that have made it easier to reduce the cost of your cards, in particular with Surge and Mr. Fantastic, right? So by making him a 3-4, it gives players a good opportunity to throw Mobius in a deck and feel pretty good about it. As per usual, I have to bring up the idea that, you know, If a strategy is really strong and you have a tech card to beat it, is that the right philosophy for the game? I don't really know the answer, right? I wish I could say, like, no, clearly they just need to balance the cards that reduce stuff better. But I don't think that you can do that in a game and still have it be complex, right? You need things that feel strong. And making Mobius stronger, I think, is cool. It means I'm going to play him in more of my decks, but it does just mean that, like, there are more polarized matchups. If you have the Mobius and you see your opponents running another one of those decks, then you're pretty happy about it. I've been playing with a Mysterio deck recently that has Mobius in it just as a tech card, and he feels better now, certainly, at a 3-4. You know, it just feels strong. But, like, is that fair? I don't know. I don't know. I think that this is good for him. He's going to be played more decks. I just, I don't know. This paradigm is something that I get a little bit worried about. If you're not playing the discount, then you need to play the Mobius. And if you don't draw the Mobius, then you're sort of screwed in the matchup. It's just very strange. I suppose that sort of push and pull is exactly what you want in a card game though. So I assume this sort of design is exactly what they're looking for. Okay, next up is Black Cat, moving from a 2-6 to a 1-5. This is really, really, really cool. This is a really interesting card now. In particular, it's very reminiscent to me of maybe like a Hearthstone design? Like, the idea that it's extremely powerful, but it's a blink-and-you-miss-it effect, right? In Hearthstone, they have the temporary status tag, which... um makes your cards disappear in your hand if you don't use them by the end of the turn. And I feel like this card feels really, really similar in that vein, where it's like, if you get this on turn one, you're a static. That's a 1-5. That's better than Hydra Bob. That's better than a bunch of other one-drops. If you get this later in the game, you have to sort of make a decision, like, sure, I know I have the energy to play it. It's only one, but is that going to cost me some power with my other synergies or with my other cards? I think this is really, really cool. It's going to be weird thinking about her as something vulnerable to Killmonger, because that is always a threat, right, with Black Cat. But I see this as an absolute win. I think that this is going to make her way more playable, and you're going to see her a lot more in just regular decks. Like, some people are just going to take the risk, because it's going to feel really, really great when you're able to slip her into the curve, right? I think this is great. This feels like the right place for her. It's a risk reward that has, you know, value, but it isn't, you know, absurdly powerful. It's just really good. I like this. Okay, OG Invisible Woman is getting a buff to 2-4, and for a couple of reasons I have to assume this is because of the Fantastic Four season and all this synergy that's going on with the Fantastic Four as a group of cards. I also think this might be helping her in the grand arena since that event is still going on. But there is, you know, a legitimate argument to be made that like... She's just not as good as she used to be. This effect used to be cool because those tech cards that would normally get rid of your cool effects would, you know, be stopped by Invisible Woman. And she could also protect things from, like, Enchantress, right? You can hide your ongoings underneath her for the end of the game. But as cards like Alioth came out and Red Guardian, her effect sort of became less good. So, moving her to a 2-4 seems good. I like this. Like I was saying with Domino, right, you're sort of giving this card a bump to make it feel better in the case where it doesn't feel good, right? In the case where it gets stopped, you're still getting two foreign stats. So I think this is cool. I'm a little interested in playing around and maybe trying to get some Invisible Woman decks back, like getting some combos going. I think that would be really cool. So I like that this card is getting a bump. Okay, this is the last of the straight buffs here. Uh, Blink is going from a 5-7 to a 5-8. I- I love this. This is great. I think this is perfectly, uh, uh, valid. I- I also like that in the dev notes, they call out that 5-cost cards have been struggling. They- they straight up mentioned that, and I think I talked about this, uh, with The Thing when he came out. Um, they also mentioned that they just like this type of strategy, um, being implemented in their game, and I would have to agree. I- I run Blink. in a couple of my decks just because I think that her effect is really cool. It's a solid body that then gives you more power after you've completed an effect. In particular, I like using Blink in my Loki deck because I can get a one-time effect to go off and then throw that card away and get something much bigger, usually stolen from my opponent. So this is really cool. I love that this card is getting a bump, and 5-8 just feels really, really solid. That's like primo 5-cost stats, especially for a good effect. I would expect to see some more Blink in the meta. I'm definitely going to continue playing her. I think she's a really fun card in the game. So yeah, super, super cool. Okay, this one is like a sideways buff. So Dormammu is going from 7-11 to 7-10 in terms of his body. But... The thing that matters most here is that his skill, the one at the very end of his chain that said, on reveal, destroy two of your characters here to some Dormammu, is going to two cost. And this is really, really relevant in those sort of decks, right? In a destroy deck, you want a low curve because your finishers are going to be the high cost stuff. And this makes those breakpoints a lot easier to navigate. So, if you end up destroying, like, uh, I don't know, a Deadpool and a Wolverine in a lane, um, and you get to throw that Dormammu down in the lane, you're pretty happy about it because you can squeeze in some other stuff, like a four-cost death at the end of the game. That's a specific scenario, but you can see where these sort of things matter, right? The cost of death, the cost of gnoll. Did you destroy an X23? All of these things sort of feed into what you can do near the end of the game. I think having this at two costs makes it a lot easier to weave in with other cards. Especially on turn five, I think this matters with, like, Venom, right? You can play this and a Venom on another lane to get extra value. So, I think this is good. I think this is going to make this sequence feel a lot better to play. And losing one power on Dormammu is not going to be the end of the world, right? I think it only really matters if you're one of the decks that uses Hood as one of your destroy synergies. Then you're a little more upset. This is going to feel a little bit worse. But in most cases, this is going to be a lot better. Okay, ending here with the nerfs of this OTA. Gwenpool is going from a 4-6 to a 4-5. And they basically just mentioned that her and Galacta are sort of yin and yang of the buff category. category and having one distinctly better than the other makes it pretty clear which one you should be picking in most instances so moving uh gwenpool down to a 4-5 is sort of the direction that they want to go um And it makes sense, right? Like, she has a higher ceiling if she, you know, buffs a target multiple times, so her body should sort of reflect that. Galacta, of course, right now is a 4-6, that gives plus 2 to one card, so at the end of the game, if you tally up how much stats that they're adding, they usually balance out now that this is implemented, right? So Galacta is giving 4 power plus her 6, which is a 4-10. And Galacta is giving a little bit more, but you have to play those cards down in order to get the benefit, right? So at the end of the game, you'll end up with a 411 if everything goes right. So I like this. I think that this makes sense to me. Really good change, I think. If you've been playing Gwenpool in your decks, you're not going to stop playing her, and the same goes for Galacta, right? Like, their effects are just so good, you're probably going to want to keep them around. Last and certainly least, it is Sunspot going from a 1-1 to a 1-0 again. Which is a shame. You know, I think Sunspot, before Invisible Woman came out, has sort of been a niche pick. You mostly only play him in decks with like High Evo or something like that. And I think this just sort of solidifies that. They mention that they've made it a lot easier for this card to be good. This card pairs well with fantastic car it pairs well with uh invisible woman first steps and it's only going to get better as those decks get more refined you know especially because it synergizes with other cards like bruce banner uh which isn't stellar by any means but in this deck can prove to be very very good uh so i understand where they're coming from i don't think this is gonna change anything necessarily but it's pretty reflective of the power level of these decks I would suspect that if you're really hurt about this 1-0, you probably just switch to Hydra Bob, because that strangely works with a Fantastic Car still, but it doesn't work with Invisible Woman, so, you know, pick your poison. But that is all the changes that we have to talk about this week. Overall, really good patch. I really like this. I'm playing with Domino, I'm playing with Blink. A lot of these other cards, too, I'm interested in trying, like Mole Man and Invisible Woman OG. And the nerfs! feel fair. They feel, you know, like that they're warranted. I would still keep an eye on that Invisible Woman deck. I'm seriously worried about it. I know that right now it's okay. I'm coping with it, but like, it makes me nervous because I've been seeing it on ladder and if they draw the combo, I just have to retreat. It's just one of those things. So I don't know. I'm keeping my eye on that, but overall, I think this is a great patch. I'm excited to see what comes next. This next season is going to be really, really cool in terms of theming. As a reminder, you can view me on social media. I am struggling to post recently with everything going on in my life. But if you want to check me out, I am pretty frequently on Blue Sky. I'm also on Threads. And if there's one thing that you can remember, it's that I'm Infinite. Thanks for listening.
Description
Kiernimbus talks about the newest card, Invisible Woman First Steps, and the latest OTA.
Please rate this podcast so I know how I'm doing!
You can find me here: https://linktr.ee/kiernimbus
This podcast is a part of the Snap Judgments Podcasting Network! You can show us some support by checking out the Snap Judgments Youtube channel (@snapjudgments) or the Patreon (patreon.com/SnapJudgments).
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
Lorne Whatevs and Ree, and it is a fantastic podcast. If you have not decided to listen to it yet, you might find that it's a lot different than some of the other podcasts you've maybe perused. In particular, they play a lot of games, and they have secret homework every week where they complete things off the recording and bring it back in in a sort of show-and-tell style discussion. I really like the podcast, and I'd recommend that you listen to it. It's a really good time. Now, let's hop into it. So this week, we're taking it pretty breezy. We have an OTA and a new card. As of recording this, I think the trailer for the newest season just dropped, but we'll cover that next week when it comes around. Let's start with Invisible Woman First Steps. Invisible Woman, Fantastic Four First Steps is a 3-5 that says, This turn, your end-of-turn abilities happen twice. So I'll be real, um, when I saw the first data marks rolling in for this card, and I saw the decks people were making, I was sounding the alarms. I was like, good god, this card is so broken, it's ridiculous, um, and I've come down on it a bit, but I still think this card is insane. When you hear end of turn abilities, uh, your mind sort of goes to cards maybe like Adam Warlock, or, you know... Mr. Fantastic Four Steps, you know, those kinds of cards. And while those are, you know, somewhat cool with this card, the combo that works the best is with Prodigy. You play that with Fantasticar, and with those three cards on the board, you can make some insane boards. I'm talking like 30, 40 power in two lanes, maybe even more. it's kind of ridiculous and this is thanks to uh cards like havoc and thena and you know the the cards that gain power um at the end of their turn because once you do that once you add the cards like human torch thena havoc suddenly at the end of the game they're gaining uh more than 10 power because they're proccing multiple times if you copy the invisible woman and it's insane it's nuts but it is a combo deck right so if they don't draw the right things if they don't get the right cards on the right turns if they can't line up things properly it then becomes a pretty okay deck and in those instances you know you can feel a little bit better about snapping into it or something Do I think that this design is going to end up being healthy? I'm not really convinced on that. I think like a lot of other cards this season, this just seems on a whole new power level, especially when you look at the stat line and it's a 3-5 and you're also proccing several effects. I didn't even mention Bruce Banner as a fun throw pick. You can also do sunspot stuff. It's just nuts. It is just nuts. But I think what brought this back down to earth for me was I realized it's kind of just another surfer deck. It's not surfer in that you're restricted to only threes, but it is surfer in that if you get the surfer and you get a discount on another card to copy it, and in fact, prodigy is also an option in that deck, right? If you get multiple procs of surfer, It can feel ridiculous. It can feel overwhelming. The amount of power on the board spikes up dramatically, but there are a lot of games where that doesn't happen. So the deck ends up being good, but not broken. And I'm hoping that Invisible Woman sort of lands in that area. So, what do I think about her in totality? I think she is a 5 out of 5 card. I've been saying this for a lot of the cards this season, but I think it's just true. These cards have really good power levels. They're extremely... uh strong in the decks that they're a part of and if you want to get them i think you should uh so that's where i'm at she has a 58 win rate on snap fan and that seems about right to me um it's a really cool ability i think that uh this sort of opens the window for more end of uh tur end of turn abilities to sort of prop up in card design, but it also restricts them in a way, right? You can't have anything too, too powerful. Otherwise this card is going to, uh, make some issues with that. You know, I think about, uh, cards like Wong and you know, you have to be careful if you, if you make something way too powerful, uh, it can become an issue. So that's how I sort of feel about it. I know that this card, uh, is only going to get better with time and her stat line is so decent already, it's like... Sure, why not? Throw her into your deck. Okay, now for the meat and potatoes. You know I always say this when an OTA comes around, and this one is really, really, really cool. I think this might be my favorite OTA to come out in a very, very long time. And part of it is because it's with cards that I like, and part of it is because it's tuning down some of the things that are making the meta a little unfun. So, let's go through it, shall we? The first up... is Mole Man. We covered Mole Man briefly when we were discussing the new game mode. If you recall his on reveal is that he banishes the top card of your deck and then adds two rocks with the power of those rocks equal to the cost of the thing that you got rid of. The basic way to explain this is if he spears your Infidon, those rocks in your hand are not going to get 20 power, they're going to get 6. So, with that in mind, they've actually given him a bump of power he's going to a 3-4 he was a 3-3 and i just think that's neat i think that that it's cool that um you know this card wet i already thought was pretty decent you know it's it's pretty solid um is now going to feel even better to play if you get a 1-3 rocks it's not bad right doing the math you know on the median of this sort of combo you're sort of looking at like a 5-10 If you add in all the costs and the power, and that's the median result, right? If you get some three power rocks, a 510, eh, sure. With a Victoria Hand buff, that's even better. With Patriot buffs, that's even better, right? So on the median, it's pretty decent. And then if you get a high roll, like let's say you get rid of a six cost. Now you're talking about, if you add all the math together, you're talking about a 516. Which is really good, right? And again, those other buffs can still apply, and it's really, really good. You're getting, like, two Demons in your hand, and a 3-4 on the board that you don't have to worry about with, like, you know, the Hood. So, I don't know, I feel like he's decent. In certain decks, you might find that he's almost like a good replacement for ramp cards, because if, for example, you're looking at Electro, who is also a 3-4, The cost to benefit of both of these cards might be exchangeable. Like, sure, you know, Electro gives you a little bit of energy. But with Mole Man, you don't even have to worry about that. You can just take the power and run. So, like, I don't know. I like his card design. I like this buff. I think it makes him playable. All right, next up, we're going to talk about Agony, who's moving to a 1-3 from a 1-2. And, yeah, I mean, this seems pretty cool to me. I think Agony has felt... A little on the weak side, mostly because she requires you to, you know, set up a play in order to get the two power when another card, like Galacta, might feel a little bit more intuitive. But at a 1-3, this is dangerous. I've played against a couple of Deadpool decks recently who are running this, and it's scary, right? If you play this on one, Deadpool on two, you've sort of skipped. lot of the the process in order to get Deadpool to a 1-8 on turn 3 and that and you know by that point it can snowball I also think that you know this this opens the door for some more interesting combos with other cards like Human Torch first steps or hell you know any card that you'd like to be buffed even things like Sebastian Shaw like like a 1-3 is above that you know above rate for a one cost card. and i think on scalers in particular it's going to be really really good so yeah i think this is a solid change i hope it doesn't make deadpool too strong but i mean you know destroy has counters so i'm never worried about that deck i i think it's okay okay next up is a uh buff that i'm particularly excited about it is domino who is moving from a 2-3 to a 2-4 and i think that this This is exactly what I mentioned they could do to make this card feel better. right you're already losing a draw in order to play a card that does nothing so if you get her on turn two she should feel impactful and a 2-4 is at that that perfect stat line where it's like It's not more powerful than synergistic cards or cards that, you know, have a bigger downside, right? But she's bigger than most 2-3s. She's bigger than most 1-2s. It feels really good. I've been trying her out in a Black Knight deck because, if you don't have to worry, if I skip the issues of drawing 1 costs and drawing 2 costs, if I include Quicksilver and Domino, I am losing 2 draws. But I'm also making it extremely consistent for me to get Wiccan and extremely consistent for me to get a big card and a card that discards. So I have a bunch of discarding cards like Blade, Moon Knight, Lady Sith. And then when I draw one of my big cards, it's very easy to guarantee that I'll be able to get those cards discarded for my Ghost Rider and my Black Knight. So, like, I'm loving this. and the backup plan. in that deck with wiccan is that i just i have the energy to play the big cards anyway so i'm really enjoying that deck um and i'm i'm excited to keep toying around it's probably not the best thing you could do with domino but i like that this opens the door for experimentation i i i love domino as a character and i have some great variants of her so i'm excited to try her out this is a great change okay next up is and this might surprise some people mobius going from a 3-3 to a 3-4. In the dev notes, they sort of mention that they have been making a lot of cards that have made it easier to reduce the cost of your cards, in particular with Surge and Mr. Fantastic, right? So by making him a 3-4, it gives players a good opportunity to throw Mobius in a deck and feel pretty good about it. As per usual, I have to bring up the idea that, you know, If a strategy is really strong and you have a tech card to beat it, is that the right philosophy for the game? I don't really know the answer, right? I wish I could say, like, no, clearly they just need to balance the cards that reduce stuff better. But I don't think that you can do that in a game and still have it be complex, right? You need things that feel strong. And making Mobius stronger, I think, is cool. It means I'm going to play him in more of my decks, but it does just mean that, like, there are more polarized matchups. If you have the Mobius and you see your opponents running another one of those decks, then you're pretty happy about it. I've been playing with a Mysterio deck recently that has Mobius in it just as a tech card, and he feels better now, certainly, at a 3-4. You know, it just feels strong. But, like, is that fair? I don't know. I don't know. I think that this is good for him. He's going to be played more decks. I just, I don't know. This paradigm is something that I get a little bit worried about. If you're not playing the discount, then you need to play the Mobius. And if you don't draw the Mobius, then you're sort of screwed in the matchup. It's just very strange. I suppose that sort of push and pull is exactly what you want in a card game though. So I assume this sort of design is exactly what they're looking for. Okay, next up is Black Cat, moving from a 2-6 to a 1-5. This is really, really, really cool. This is a really interesting card now. In particular, it's very reminiscent to me of maybe like a Hearthstone design? Like, the idea that it's extremely powerful, but it's a blink-and-you-miss-it effect, right? In Hearthstone, they have the temporary status tag, which... um makes your cards disappear in your hand if you don't use them by the end of the turn. And I feel like this card feels really, really similar in that vein, where it's like, if you get this on turn one, you're a static. That's a 1-5. That's better than Hydra Bob. That's better than a bunch of other one-drops. If you get this later in the game, you have to sort of make a decision, like, sure, I know I have the energy to play it. It's only one, but is that going to cost me some power with my other synergies or with my other cards? I think this is really, really cool. It's going to be weird thinking about her as something vulnerable to Killmonger, because that is always a threat, right, with Black Cat. But I see this as an absolute win. I think that this is going to make her way more playable, and you're going to see her a lot more in just regular decks. Like, some people are just going to take the risk, because it's going to feel really, really great when you're able to slip her into the curve, right? I think this is great. This feels like the right place for her. It's a risk reward that has, you know, value, but it isn't, you know, absurdly powerful. It's just really good. I like this. Okay, OG Invisible Woman is getting a buff to 2-4, and for a couple of reasons I have to assume this is because of the Fantastic Four season and all this synergy that's going on with the Fantastic Four as a group of cards. I also think this might be helping her in the grand arena since that event is still going on. But there is, you know, a legitimate argument to be made that like... She's just not as good as she used to be. This effect used to be cool because those tech cards that would normally get rid of your cool effects would, you know, be stopped by Invisible Woman. And she could also protect things from, like, Enchantress, right? You can hide your ongoings underneath her for the end of the game. But as cards like Alioth came out and Red Guardian, her effect sort of became less good. So, moving her to a 2-4 seems good. I like this. Like I was saying with Domino, right, you're sort of giving this card a bump to make it feel better in the case where it doesn't feel good, right? In the case where it gets stopped, you're still getting two foreign stats. So I think this is cool. I'm a little interested in playing around and maybe trying to get some Invisible Woman decks back, like getting some combos going. I think that would be really cool. So I like that this card is getting a bump. Okay, this is the last of the straight buffs here. Uh, Blink is going from a 5-7 to a 5-8. I- I love this. This is great. I think this is perfectly, uh, uh, valid. I- I also like that in the dev notes, they call out that 5-cost cards have been struggling. They- they straight up mentioned that, and I think I talked about this, uh, with The Thing when he came out. Um, they also mentioned that they just like this type of strategy, um, being implemented in their game, and I would have to agree. I- I run Blink. in a couple of my decks just because I think that her effect is really cool. It's a solid body that then gives you more power after you've completed an effect. In particular, I like using Blink in my Loki deck because I can get a one-time effect to go off and then throw that card away and get something much bigger, usually stolen from my opponent. So this is really cool. I love that this card is getting a bump, and 5-8 just feels really, really solid. That's like primo 5-cost stats, especially for a good effect. I would expect to see some more Blink in the meta. I'm definitely going to continue playing her. I think she's a really fun card in the game. So yeah, super, super cool. Okay, this one is like a sideways buff. So Dormammu is going from 7-11 to 7-10 in terms of his body. But... The thing that matters most here is that his skill, the one at the very end of his chain that said, on reveal, destroy two of your characters here to some Dormammu, is going to two cost. And this is really, really relevant in those sort of decks, right? In a destroy deck, you want a low curve because your finishers are going to be the high cost stuff. And this makes those breakpoints a lot easier to navigate. So, if you end up destroying, like, uh, I don't know, a Deadpool and a Wolverine in a lane, um, and you get to throw that Dormammu down in the lane, you're pretty happy about it because you can squeeze in some other stuff, like a four-cost death at the end of the game. That's a specific scenario, but you can see where these sort of things matter, right? The cost of death, the cost of gnoll. Did you destroy an X23? All of these things sort of feed into what you can do near the end of the game. I think having this at two costs makes it a lot easier to weave in with other cards. Especially on turn five, I think this matters with, like, Venom, right? You can play this and a Venom on another lane to get extra value. So, I think this is good. I think this is going to make this sequence feel a lot better to play. And losing one power on Dormammu is not going to be the end of the world, right? I think it only really matters if you're one of the decks that uses Hood as one of your destroy synergies. Then you're a little more upset. This is going to feel a little bit worse. But in most cases, this is going to be a lot better. Okay, ending here with the nerfs of this OTA. Gwenpool is going from a 4-6 to a 4-5. And they basically just mentioned that her and Galacta are sort of yin and yang of the buff category. category and having one distinctly better than the other makes it pretty clear which one you should be picking in most instances so moving uh gwenpool down to a 4-5 is sort of the direction that they want to go um And it makes sense, right? Like, she has a higher ceiling if she, you know, buffs a target multiple times, so her body should sort of reflect that. Galacta, of course, right now is a 4-6, that gives plus 2 to one card, so at the end of the game, if you tally up how much stats that they're adding, they usually balance out now that this is implemented, right? So Galacta is giving 4 power plus her 6, which is a 4-10. And Galacta is giving a little bit more, but you have to play those cards down in order to get the benefit, right? So at the end of the game, you'll end up with a 411 if everything goes right. So I like this. I think that this makes sense to me. Really good change, I think. If you've been playing Gwenpool in your decks, you're not going to stop playing her, and the same goes for Galacta, right? Like, their effects are just so good, you're probably going to want to keep them around. Last and certainly least, it is Sunspot going from a 1-1 to a 1-0 again. Which is a shame. You know, I think Sunspot, before Invisible Woman came out, has sort of been a niche pick. You mostly only play him in decks with like High Evo or something like that. And I think this just sort of solidifies that. They mention that they've made it a lot easier for this card to be good. This card pairs well with fantastic car it pairs well with uh invisible woman first steps and it's only going to get better as those decks get more refined you know especially because it synergizes with other cards like bruce banner uh which isn't stellar by any means but in this deck can prove to be very very good uh so i understand where they're coming from i don't think this is gonna change anything necessarily but it's pretty reflective of the power level of these decks I would suspect that if you're really hurt about this 1-0, you probably just switch to Hydra Bob, because that strangely works with a Fantastic Car still, but it doesn't work with Invisible Woman, so, you know, pick your poison. But that is all the changes that we have to talk about this week. Overall, really good patch. I really like this. I'm playing with Domino, I'm playing with Blink. A lot of these other cards, too, I'm interested in trying, like Mole Man and Invisible Woman OG. And the nerfs! feel fair. They feel, you know, like that they're warranted. I would still keep an eye on that Invisible Woman deck. I'm seriously worried about it. I know that right now it's okay. I'm coping with it, but like, it makes me nervous because I've been seeing it on ladder and if they draw the combo, I just have to retreat. It's just one of those things. So I don't know. I'm keeping my eye on that, but overall, I think this is a great patch. I'm excited to see what comes next. This next season is going to be really, really cool in terms of theming. As a reminder, you can view me on social media. I am struggling to post recently with everything going on in my life. But if you want to check me out, I am pretty frequently on Blue Sky. I'm also on Threads. And if there's one thing that you can remember, it's that I'm Infinite. Thanks for listening.
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Kiernimbus talks about the newest card, Invisible Woman First Steps, and the latest OTA.
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You can find me here: https://linktr.ee/kiernimbus
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Transcription
Lorne Whatevs and Ree, and it is a fantastic podcast. If you have not decided to listen to it yet, you might find that it's a lot different than some of the other podcasts you've maybe perused. In particular, they play a lot of games, and they have secret homework every week where they complete things off the recording and bring it back in in a sort of show-and-tell style discussion. I really like the podcast, and I'd recommend that you listen to it. It's a really good time. Now, let's hop into it. So this week, we're taking it pretty breezy. We have an OTA and a new card. As of recording this, I think the trailer for the newest season just dropped, but we'll cover that next week when it comes around. Let's start with Invisible Woman First Steps. Invisible Woman, Fantastic Four First Steps is a 3-5 that says, This turn, your end-of-turn abilities happen twice. So I'll be real, um, when I saw the first data marks rolling in for this card, and I saw the decks people were making, I was sounding the alarms. I was like, good god, this card is so broken, it's ridiculous, um, and I've come down on it a bit, but I still think this card is insane. When you hear end of turn abilities, uh, your mind sort of goes to cards maybe like Adam Warlock, or, you know... Mr. Fantastic Four Steps, you know, those kinds of cards. And while those are, you know, somewhat cool with this card, the combo that works the best is with Prodigy. You play that with Fantasticar, and with those three cards on the board, you can make some insane boards. I'm talking like 30, 40 power in two lanes, maybe even more. it's kind of ridiculous and this is thanks to uh cards like havoc and thena and you know the the cards that gain power um at the end of their turn because once you do that once you add the cards like human torch thena havoc suddenly at the end of the game they're gaining uh more than 10 power because they're proccing multiple times if you copy the invisible woman and it's insane it's nuts but it is a combo deck right so if they don't draw the right things if they don't get the right cards on the right turns if they can't line up things properly it then becomes a pretty okay deck and in those instances you know you can feel a little bit better about snapping into it or something Do I think that this design is going to end up being healthy? I'm not really convinced on that. I think like a lot of other cards this season, this just seems on a whole new power level, especially when you look at the stat line and it's a 3-5 and you're also proccing several effects. I didn't even mention Bruce Banner as a fun throw pick. You can also do sunspot stuff. It's just nuts. It is just nuts. But I think what brought this back down to earth for me was I realized it's kind of just another surfer deck. It's not surfer in that you're restricted to only threes, but it is surfer in that if you get the surfer and you get a discount on another card to copy it, and in fact, prodigy is also an option in that deck, right? If you get multiple procs of surfer, It can feel ridiculous. It can feel overwhelming. The amount of power on the board spikes up dramatically, but there are a lot of games where that doesn't happen. So the deck ends up being good, but not broken. And I'm hoping that Invisible Woman sort of lands in that area. So, what do I think about her in totality? I think she is a 5 out of 5 card. I've been saying this for a lot of the cards this season, but I think it's just true. These cards have really good power levels. They're extremely... uh strong in the decks that they're a part of and if you want to get them i think you should uh so that's where i'm at she has a 58 win rate on snap fan and that seems about right to me um it's a really cool ability i think that uh this sort of opens the window for more end of uh tur end of turn abilities to sort of prop up in card design, but it also restricts them in a way, right? You can't have anything too, too powerful. Otherwise this card is going to, uh, make some issues with that. You know, I think about, uh, cards like Wong and you know, you have to be careful if you, if you make something way too powerful, uh, it can become an issue. So that's how I sort of feel about it. I know that this card, uh, is only going to get better with time and her stat line is so decent already, it's like... Sure, why not? Throw her into your deck. Okay, now for the meat and potatoes. You know I always say this when an OTA comes around, and this one is really, really, really cool. I think this might be my favorite OTA to come out in a very, very long time. And part of it is because it's with cards that I like, and part of it is because it's tuning down some of the things that are making the meta a little unfun. So, let's go through it, shall we? The first up... is Mole Man. We covered Mole Man briefly when we were discussing the new game mode. If you recall his on reveal is that he banishes the top card of your deck and then adds two rocks with the power of those rocks equal to the cost of the thing that you got rid of. The basic way to explain this is if he spears your Infidon, those rocks in your hand are not going to get 20 power, they're going to get 6. So, with that in mind, they've actually given him a bump of power he's going to a 3-4 he was a 3-3 and i just think that's neat i think that that it's cool that um you know this card wet i already thought was pretty decent you know it's it's pretty solid um is now going to feel even better to play if you get a 1-3 rocks it's not bad right doing the math you know on the median of this sort of combo you're sort of looking at like a 5-10 If you add in all the costs and the power, and that's the median result, right? If you get some three power rocks, a 510, eh, sure. With a Victoria Hand buff, that's even better. With Patriot buffs, that's even better, right? So on the median, it's pretty decent. And then if you get a high roll, like let's say you get rid of a six cost. Now you're talking about, if you add all the math together, you're talking about a 516. Which is really good, right? And again, those other buffs can still apply, and it's really, really good. You're getting, like, two Demons in your hand, and a 3-4 on the board that you don't have to worry about with, like, you know, the Hood. So, I don't know, I feel like he's decent. In certain decks, you might find that he's almost like a good replacement for ramp cards, because if, for example, you're looking at Electro, who is also a 3-4, The cost to benefit of both of these cards might be exchangeable. Like, sure, you know, Electro gives you a little bit of energy. But with Mole Man, you don't even have to worry about that. You can just take the power and run. So, like, I don't know. I like his card design. I like this buff. I think it makes him playable. All right, next up, we're going to talk about Agony, who's moving to a 1-3 from a 1-2. And, yeah, I mean, this seems pretty cool to me. I think Agony has felt... A little on the weak side, mostly because she requires you to, you know, set up a play in order to get the two power when another card, like Galacta, might feel a little bit more intuitive. But at a 1-3, this is dangerous. I've played against a couple of Deadpool decks recently who are running this, and it's scary, right? If you play this on one, Deadpool on two, you've sort of skipped. lot of the the process in order to get Deadpool to a 1-8 on turn 3 and that and you know by that point it can snowball I also think that you know this this opens the door for some more interesting combos with other cards like Human Torch first steps or hell you know any card that you'd like to be buffed even things like Sebastian Shaw like like a 1-3 is above that you know above rate for a one cost card. and i think on scalers in particular it's going to be really really good so yeah i think this is a solid change i hope it doesn't make deadpool too strong but i mean you know destroy has counters so i'm never worried about that deck i i think it's okay okay next up is a uh buff that i'm particularly excited about it is domino who is moving from a 2-3 to a 2-4 and i think that this This is exactly what I mentioned they could do to make this card feel better. right you're already losing a draw in order to play a card that does nothing so if you get her on turn two she should feel impactful and a 2-4 is at that that perfect stat line where it's like It's not more powerful than synergistic cards or cards that, you know, have a bigger downside, right? But she's bigger than most 2-3s. She's bigger than most 1-2s. It feels really good. I've been trying her out in a Black Knight deck because, if you don't have to worry, if I skip the issues of drawing 1 costs and drawing 2 costs, if I include Quicksilver and Domino, I am losing 2 draws. But I'm also making it extremely consistent for me to get Wiccan and extremely consistent for me to get a big card and a card that discards. So I have a bunch of discarding cards like Blade, Moon Knight, Lady Sith. And then when I draw one of my big cards, it's very easy to guarantee that I'll be able to get those cards discarded for my Ghost Rider and my Black Knight. So, like, I'm loving this. and the backup plan. in that deck with wiccan is that i just i have the energy to play the big cards anyway so i'm really enjoying that deck um and i'm i'm excited to keep toying around it's probably not the best thing you could do with domino but i like that this opens the door for experimentation i i i love domino as a character and i have some great variants of her so i'm excited to try her out this is a great change okay next up is and this might surprise some people mobius going from a 3-3 to a 3-4. In the dev notes, they sort of mention that they have been making a lot of cards that have made it easier to reduce the cost of your cards, in particular with Surge and Mr. Fantastic, right? So by making him a 3-4, it gives players a good opportunity to throw Mobius in a deck and feel pretty good about it. As per usual, I have to bring up the idea that, you know, If a strategy is really strong and you have a tech card to beat it, is that the right philosophy for the game? I don't really know the answer, right? I wish I could say, like, no, clearly they just need to balance the cards that reduce stuff better. But I don't think that you can do that in a game and still have it be complex, right? You need things that feel strong. And making Mobius stronger, I think, is cool. It means I'm going to play him in more of my decks, but it does just mean that, like, there are more polarized matchups. If you have the Mobius and you see your opponents running another one of those decks, then you're pretty happy about it. I've been playing with a Mysterio deck recently that has Mobius in it just as a tech card, and he feels better now, certainly, at a 3-4. You know, it just feels strong. But, like, is that fair? I don't know. I don't know. I think that this is good for him. He's going to be played more decks. I just, I don't know. This paradigm is something that I get a little bit worried about. If you're not playing the discount, then you need to play the Mobius. And if you don't draw the Mobius, then you're sort of screwed in the matchup. It's just very strange. I suppose that sort of push and pull is exactly what you want in a card game though. So I assume this sort of design is exactly what they're looking for. Okay, next up is Black Cat, moving from a 2-6 to a 1-5. This is really, really, really cool. This is a really interesting card now. In particular, it's very reminiscent to me of maybe like a Hearthstone design? Like, the idea that it's extremely powerful, but it's a blink-and-you-miss-it effect, right? In Hearthstone, they have the temporary status tag, which... um makes your cards disappear in your hand if you don't use them by the end of the turn. And I feel like this card feels really, really similar in that vein, where it's like, if you get this on turn one, you're a static. That's a 1-5. That's better than Hydra Bob. That's better than a bunch of other one-drops. If you get this later in the game, you have to sort of make a decision, like, sure, I know I have the energy to play it. It's only one, but is that going to cost me some power with my other synergies or with my other cards? I think this is really, really cool. It's going to be weird thinking about her as something vulnerable to Killmonger, because that is always a threat, right, with Black Cat. But I see this as an absolute win. I think that this is going to make her way more playable, and you're going to see her a lot more in just regular decks. Like, some people are just going to take the risk, because it's going to feel really, really great when you're able to slip her into the curve, right? I think this is great. This feels like the right place for her. It's a risk reward that has, you know, value, but it isn't, you know, absurdly powerful. It's just really good. I like this. Okay, OG Invisible Woman is getting a buff to 2-4, and for a couple of reasons I have to assume this is because of the Fantastic Four season and all this synergy that's going on with the Fantastic Four as a group of cards. I also think this might be helping her in the grand arena since that event is still going on. But there is, you know, a legitimate argument to be made that like... She's just not as good as she used to be. This effect used to be cool because those tech cards that would normally get rid of your cool effects would, you know, be stopped by Invisible Woman. And she could also protect things from, like, Enchantress, right? You can hide your ongoings underneath her for the end of the game. But as cards like Alioth came out and Red Guardian, her effect sort of became less good. So, moving her to a 2-4 seems good. I like this. Like I was saying with Domino, right, you're sort of giving this card a bump to make it feel better in the case where it doesn't feel good, right? In the case where it gets stopped, you're still getting two foreign stats. So I think this is cool. I'm a little interested in playing around and maybe trying to get some Invisible Woman decks back, like getting some combos going. I think that would be really cool. So I like that this card is getting a bump. Okay, this is the last of the straight buffs here. Uh, Blink is going from a 5-7 to a 5-8. I- I love this. This is great. I think this is perfectly, uh, uh, valid. I- I also like that in the dev notes, they call out that 5-cost cards have been struggling. They- they straight up mentioned that, and I think I talked about this, uh, with The Thing when he came out. Um, they also mentioned that they just like this type of strategy, um, being implemented in their game, and I would have to agree. I- I run Blink. in a couple of my decks just because I think that her effect is really cool. It's a solid body that then gives you more power after you've completed an effect. In particular, I like using Blink in my Loki deck because I can get a one-time effect to go off and then throw that card away and get something much bigger, usually stolen from my opponent. So this is really cool. I love that this card is getting a bump, and 5-8 just feels really, really solid. That's like primo 5-cost stats, especially for a good effect. I would expect to see some more Blink in the meta. I'm definitely going to continue playing her. I think she's a really fun card in the game. So yeah, super, super cool. Okay, this one is like a sideways buff. So Dormammu is going from 7-11 to 7-10 in terms of his body. But... The thing that matters most here is that his skill, the one at the very end of his chain that said, on reveal, destroy two of your characters here to some Dormammu, is going to two cost. And this is really, really relevant in those sort of decks, right? In a destroy deck, you want a low curve because your finishers are going to be the high cost stuff. And this makes those breakpoints a lot easier to navigate. So, if you end up destroying, like, uh, I don't know, a Deadpool and a Wolverine in a lane, um, and you get to throw that Dormammu down in the lane, you're pretty happy about it because you can squeeze in some other stuff, like a four-cost death at the end of the game. That's a specific scenario, but you can see where these sort of things matter, right? The cost of death, the cost of gnoll. Did you destroy an X23? All of these things sort of feed into what you can do near the end of the game. I think having this at two costs makes it a lot easier to weave in with other cards. Especially on turn five, I think this matters with, like, Venom, right? You can play this and a Venom on another lane to get extra value. So, I think this is good. I think this is going to make this sequence feel a lot better to play. And losing one power on Dormammu is not going to be the end of the world, right? I think it only really matters if you're one of the decks that uses Hood as one of your destroy synergies. Then you're a little more upset. This is going to feel a little bit worse. But in most cases, this is going to be a lot better. Okay, ending here with the nerfs of this OTA. Gwenpool is going from a 4-6 to a 4-5. And they basically just mentioned that her and Galacta are sort of yin and yang of the buff category. category and having one distinctly better than the other makes it pretty clear which one you should be picking in most instances so moving uh gwenpool down to a 4-5 is sort of the direction that they want to go um And it makes sense, right? Like, she has a higher ceiling if she, you know, buffs a target multiple times, so her body should sort of reflect that. Galacta, of course, right now is a 4-6, that gives plus 2 to one card, so at the end of the game, if you tally up how much stats that they're adding, they usually balance out now that this is implemented, right? So Galacta is giving 4 power plus her 6, which is a 4-10. And Galacta is giving a little bit more, but you have to play those cards down in order to get the benefit, right? So at the end of the game, you'll end up with a 411 if everything goes right. So I like this. I think that this makes sense to me. Really good change, I think. If you've been playing Gwenpool in your decks, you're not going to stop playing her, and the same goes for Galacta, right? Like, their effects are just so good, you're probably going to want to keep them around. Last and certainly least, it is Sunspot going from a 1-1 to a 1-0 again. Which is a shame. You know, I think Sunspot, before Invisible Woman came out, has sort of been a niche pick. You mostly only play him in decks with like High Evo or something like that. And I think this just sort of solidifies that. They mention that they've made it a lot easier for this card to be good. This card pairs well with fantastic car it pairs well with uh invisible woman first steps and it's only going to get better as those decks get more refined you know especially because it synergizes with other cards like bruce banner uh which isn't stellar by any means but in this deck can prove to be very very good uh so i understand where they're coming from i don't think this is gonna change anything necessarily but it's pretty reflective of the power level of these decks I would suspect that if you're really hurt about this 1-0, you probably just switch to Hydra Bob, because that strangely works with a Fantastic Car still, but it doesn't work with Invisible Woman, so, you know, pick your poison. But that is all the changes that we have to talk about this week. Overall, really good patch. I really like this. I'm playing with Domino, I'm playing with Blink. A lot of these other cards, too, I'm interested in trying, like Mole Man and Invisible Woman OG. And the nerfs! feel fair. They feel, you know, like that they're warranted. I would still keep an eye on that Invisible Woman deck. I'm seriously worried about it. I know that right now it's okay. I'm coping with it, but like, it makes me nervous because I've been seeing it on ladder and if they draw the combo, I just have to retreat. It's just one of those things. So I don't know. I'm keeping my eye on that, but overall, I think this is a great patch. I'm excited to see what comes next. This next season is going to be really, really cool in terms of theming. As a reminder, you can view me on social media. I am struggling to post recently with everything going on in my life. But if you want to check me out, I am pretty frequently on Blue Sky. I'm also on Threads. And if there's one thing that you can remember, it's that I'm Infinite. Thanks for listening.
Description
Kiernimbus talks about the newest card, Invisible Woman First Steps, and the latest OTA.
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Transcription
Lorne Whatevs and Ree, and it is a fantastic podcast. If you have not decided to listen to it yet, you might find that it's a lot different than some of the other podcasts you've maybe perused. In particular, they play a lot of games, and they have secret homework every week where they complete things off the recording and bring it back in in a sort of show-and-tell style discussion. I really like the podcast, and I'd recommend that you listen to it. It's a really good time. Now, let's hop into it. So this week, we're taking it pretty breezy. We have an OTA and a new card. As of recording this, I think the trailer for the newest season just dropped, but we'll cover that next week when it comes around. Let's start with Invisible Woman First Steps. Invisible Woman, Fantastic Four First Steps is a 3-5 that says, This turn, your end-of-turn abilities happen twice. So I'll be real, um, when I saw the first data marks rolling in for this card, and I saw the decks people were making, I was sounding the alarms. I was like, good god, this card is so broken, it's ridiculous, um, and I've come down on it a bit, but I still think this card is insane. When you hear end of turn abilities, uh, your mind sort of goes to cards maybe like Adam Warlock, or, you know... Mr. Fantastic Four Steps, you know, those kinds of cards. And while those are, you know, somewhat cool with this card, the combo that works the best is with Prodigy. You play that with Fantasticar, and with those three cards on the board, you can make some insane boards. I'm talking like 30, 40 power in two lanes, maybe even more. it's kind of ridiculous and this is thanks to uh cards like havoc and thena and you know the the cards that gain power um at the end of their turn because once you do that once you add the cards like human torch thena havoc suddenly at the end of the game they're gaining uh more than 10 power because they're proccing multiple times if you copy the invisible woman and it's insane it's nuts but it is a combo deck right so if they don't draw the right things if they don't get the right cards on the right turns if they can't line up things properly it then becomes a pretty okay deck and in those instances you know you can feel a little bit better about snapping into it or something Do I think that this design is going to end up being healthy? I'm not really convinced on that. I think like a lot of other cards this season, this just seems on a whole new power level, especially when you look at the stat line and it's a 3-5 and you're also proccing several effects. I didn't even mention Bruce Banner as a fun throw pick. You can also do sunspot stuff. It's just nuts. It is just nuts. But I think what brought this back down to earth for me was I realized it's kind of just another surfer deck. It's not surfer in that you're restricted to only threes, but it is surfer in that if you get the surfer and you get a discount on another card to copy it, and in fact, prodigy is also an option in that deck, right? If you get multiple procs of surfer, It can feel ridiculous. It can feel overwhelming. The amount of power on the board spikes up dramatically, but there are a lot of games where that doesn't happen. So the deck ends up being good, but not broken. And I'm hoping that Invisible Woman sort of lands in that area. So, what do I think about her in totality? I think she is a 5 out of 5 card. I've been saying this for a lot of the cards this season, but I think it's just true. These cards have really good power levels. They're extremely... uh strong in the decks that they're a part of and if you want to get them i think you should uh so that's where i'm at she has a 58 win rate on snap fan and that seems about right to me um it's a really cool ability i think that uh this sort of opens the window for more end of uh tur end of turn abilities to sort of prop up in card design, but it also restricts them in a way, right? You can't have anything too, too powerful. Otherwise this card is going to, uh, make some issues with that. You know, I think about, uh, cards like Wong and you know, you have to be careful if you, if you make something way too powerful, uh, it can become an issue. So that's how I sort of feel about it. I know that this card, uh, is only going to get better with time and her stat line is so decent already, it's like... Sure, why not? Throw her into your deck. Okay, now for the meat and potatoes. You know I always say this when an OTA comes around, and this one is really, really, really cool. I think this might be my favorite OTA to come out in a very, very long time. And part of it is because it's with cards that I like, and part of it is because it's tuning down some of the things that are making the meta a little unfun. So, let's go through it, shall we? The first up... is Mole Man. We covered Mole Man briefly when we were discussing the new game mode. If you recall his on reveal is that he banishes the top card of your deck and then adds two rocks with the power of those rocks equal to the cost of the thing that you got rid of. The basic way to explain this is if he spears your Infidon, those rocks in your hand are not going to get 20 power, they're going to get 6. So, with that in mind, they've actually given him a bump of power he's going to a 3-4 he was a 3-3 and i just think that's neat i think that that it's cool that um you know this card wet i already thought was pretty decent you know it's it's pretty solid um is now going to feel even better to play if you get a 1-3 rocks it's not bad right doing the math you know on the median of this sort of combo you're sort of looking at like a 5-10 If you add in all the costs and the power, and that's the median result, right? If you get some three power rocks, a 510, eh, sure. With a Victoria Hand buff, that's even better. With Patriot buffs, that's even better, right? So on the median, it's pretty decent. And then if you get a high roll, like let's say you get rid of a six cost. Now you're talking about, if you add all the math together, you're talking about a 516. Which is really good, right? And again, those other buffs can still apply, and it's really, really good. You're getting, like, two Demons in your hand, and a 3-4 on the board that you don't have to worry about with, like, you know, the Hood. So, I don't know, I feel like he's decent. In certain decks, you might find that he's almost like a good replacement for ramp cards, because if, for example, you're looking at Electro, who is also a 3-4, The cost to benefit of both of these cards might be exchangeable. Like, sure, you know, Electro gives you a little bit of energy. But with Mole Man, you don't even have to worry about that. You can just take the power and run. So, like, I don't know. I like his card design. I like this buff. I think it makes him playable. All right, next up, we're going to talk about Agony, who's moving to a 1-3 from a 1-2. And, yeah, I mean, this seems pretty cool to me. I think Agony has felt... A little on the weak side, mostly because she requires you to, you know, set up a play in order to get the two power when another card, like Galacta, might feel a little bit more intuitive. But at a 1-3, this is dangerous. I've played against a couple of Deadpool decks recently who are running this, and it's scary, right? If you play this on one, Deadpool on two, you've sort of skipped. lot of the the process in order to get Deadpool to a 1-8 on turn 3 and that and you know by that point it can snowball I also think that you know this this opens the door for some more interesting combos with other cards like Human Torch first steps or hell you know any card that you'd like to be buffed even things like Sebastian Shaw like like a 1-3 is above that you know above rate for a one cost card. and i think on scalers in particular it's going to be really really good so yeah i think this is a solid change i hope it doesn't make deadpool too strong but i mean you know destroy has counters so i'm never worried about that deck i i think it's okay okay next up is a uh buff that i'm particularly excited about it is domino who is moving from a 2-3 to a 2-4 and i think that this This is exactly what I mentioned they could do to make this card feel better. right you're already losing a draw in order to play a card that does nothing so if you get her on turn two she should feel impactful and a 2-4 is at that that perfect stat line where it's like It's not more powerful than synergistic cards or cards that, you know, have a bigger downside, right? But she's bigger than most 2-3s. She's bigger than most 1-2s. It feels really good. I've been trying her out in a Black Knight deck because, if you don't have to worry, if I skip the issues of drawing 1 costs and drawing 2 costs, if I include Quicksilver and Domino, I am losing 2 draws. But I'm also making it extremely consistent for me to get Wiccan and extremely consistent for me to get a big card and a card that discards. So I have a bunch of discarding cards like Blade, Moon Knight, Lady Sith. And then when I draw one of my big cards, it's very easy to guarantee that I'll be able to get those cards discarded for my Ghost Rider and my Black Knight. So, like, I'm loving this. and the backup plan. in that deck with wiccan is that i just i have the energy to play the big cards anyway so i'm really enjoying that deck um and i'm i'm excited to keep toying around it's probably not the best thing you could do with domino but i like that this opens the door for experimentation i i i love domino as a character and i have some great variants of her so i'm excited to try her out this is a great change okay next up is and this might surprise some people mobius going from a 3-3 to a 3-4. In the dev notes, they sort of mention that they have been making a lot of cards that have made it easier to reduce the cost of your cards, in particular with Surge and Mr. Fantastic, right? So by making him a 3-4, it gives players a good opportunity to throw Mobius in a deck and feel pretty good about it. As per usual, I have to bring up the idea that, you know, If a strategy is really strong and you have a tech card to beat it, is that the right philosophy for the game? I don't really know the answer, right? I wish I could say, like, no, clearly they just need to balance the cards that reduce stuff better. But I don't think that you can do that in a game and still have it be complex, right? You need things that feel strong. And making Mobius stronger, I think, is cool. It means I'm going to play him in more of my decks, but it does just mean that, like, there are more polarized matchups. If you have the Mobius and you see your opponents running another one of those decks, then you're pretty happy about it. I've been playing with a Mysterio deck recently that has Mobius in it just as a tech card, and he feels better now, certainly, at a 3-4. You know, it just feels strong. But, like, is that fair? I don't know. I don't know. I think that this is good for him. He's going to be played more decks. I just, I don't know. This paradigm is something that I get a little bit worried about. If you're not playing the discount, then you need to play the Mobius. And if you don't draw the Mobius, then you're sort of screwed in the matchup. It's just very strange. I suppose that sort of push and pull is exactly what you want in a card game though. So I assume this sort of design is exactly what they're looking for. Okay, next up is Black Cat, moving from a 2-6 to a 1-5. This is really, really, really cool. This is a really interesting card now. In particular, it's very reminiscent to me of maybe like a Hearthstone design? Like, the idea that it's extremely powerful, but it's a blink-and-you-miss-it effect, right? In Hearthstone, they have the temporary status tag, which... um makes your cards disappear in your hand if you don't use them by the end of the turn. And I feel like this card feels really, really similar in that vein, where it's like, if you get this on turn one, you're a static. That's a 1-5. That's better than Hydra Bob. That's better than a bunch of other one-drops. If you get this later in the game, you have to sort of make a decision, like, sure, I know I have the energy to play it. It's only one, but is that going to cost me some power with my other synergies or with my other cards? I think this is really, really cool. It's going to be weird thinking about her as something vulnerable to Killmonger, because that is always a threat, right, with Black Cat. But I see this as an absolute win. I think that this is going to make her way more playable, and you're going to see her a lot more in just regular decks. Like, some people are just going to take the risk, because it's going to feel really, really great when you're able to slip her into the curve, right? I think this is great. This feels like the right place for her. It's a risk reward that has, you know, value, but it isn't, you know, absurdly powerful. It's just really good. I like this. Okay, OG Invisible Woman is getting a buff to 2-4, and for a couple of reasons I have to assume this is because of the Fantastic Four season and all this synergy that's going on with the Fantastic Four as a group of cards. I also think this might be helping her in the grand arena since that event is still going on. But there is, you know, a legitimate argument to be made that like... She's just not as good as she used to be. This effect used to be cool because those tech cards that would normally get rid of your cool effects would, you know, be stopped by Invisible Woman. And she could also protect things from, like, Enchantress, right? You can hide your ongoings underneath her for the end of the game. But as cards like Alioth came out and Red Guardian, her effect sort of became less good. So, moving her to a 2-4 seems good. I like this. Like I was saying with Domino, right, you're sort of giving this card a bump to make it feel better in the case where it doesn't feel good, right? In the case where it gets stopped, you're still getting two foreign stats. So I think this is cool. I'm a little interested in playing around and maybe trying to get some Invisible Woman decks back, like getting some combos going. I think that would be really cool. So I like that this card is getting a bump. Okay, this is the last of the straight buffs here. Uh, Blink is going from a 5-7 to a 5-8. I- I love this. This is great. I think this is perfectly, uh, uh, valid. I- I also like that in the dev notes, they call out that 5-cost cards have been struggling. They- they straight up mentioned that, and I think I talked about this, uh, with The Thing when he came out. Um, they also mentioned that they just like this type of strategy, um, being implemented in their game, and I would have to agree. I- I run Blink. in a couple of my decks just because I think that her effect is really cool. It's a solid body that then gives you more power after you've completed an effect. In particular, I like using Blink in my Loki deck because I can get a one-time effect to go off and then throw that card away and get something much bigger, usually stolen from my opponent. So this is really cool. I love that this card is getting a bump, and 5-8 just feels really, really solid. That's like primo 5-cost stats, especially for a good effect. I would expect to see some more Blink in the meta. I'm definitely going to continue playing her. I think she's a really fun card in the game. So yeah, super, super cool. Okay, this one is like a sideways buff. So Dormammu is going from 7-11 to 7-10 in terms of his body. But... The thing that matters most here is that his skill, the one at the very end of his chain that said, on reveal, destroy two of your characters here to some Dormammu, is going to two cost. And this is really, really relevant in those sort of decks, right? In a destroy deck, you want a low curve because your finishers are going to be the high cost stuff. And this makes those breakpoints a lot easier to navigate. So, if you end up destroying, like, uh, I don't know, a Deadpool and a Wolverine in a lane, um, and you get to throw that Dormammu down in the lane, you're pretty happy about it because you can squeeze in some other stuff, like a four-cost death at the end of the game. That's a specific scenario, but you can see where these sort of things matter, right? The cost of death, the cost of gnoll. Did you destroy an X23? All of these things sort of feed into what you can do near the end of the game. I think having this at two costs makes it a lot easier to weave in with other cards. Especially on turn five, I think this matters with, like, Venom, right? You can play this and a Venom on another lane to get extra value. So, I think this is good. I think this is going to make this sequence feel a lot better to play. And losing one power on Dormammu is not going to be the end of the world, right? I think it only really matters if you're one of the decks that uses Hood as one of your destroy synergies. Then you're a little more upset. This is going to feel a little bit worse. But in most cases, this is going to be a lot better. Okay, ending here with the nerfs of this OTA. Gwenpool is going from a 4-6 to a 4-5. And they basically just mentioned that her and Galacta are sort of yin and yang of the buff category. category and having one distinctly better than the other makes it pretty clear which one you should be picking in most instances so moving uh gwenpool down to a 4-5 is sort of the direction that they want to go um And it makes sense, right? Like, she has a higher ceiling if she, you know, buffs a target multiple times, so her body should sort of reflect that. Galacta, of course, right now is a 4-6, that gives plus 2 to one card, so at the end of the game, if you tally up how much stats that they're adding, they usually balance out now that this is implemented, right? So Galacta is giving 4 power plus her 6, which is a 4-10. And Galacta is giving a little bit more, but you have to play those cards down in order to get the benefit, right? So at the end of the game, you'll end up with a 411 if everything goes right. So I like this. I think that this makes sense to me. Really good change, I think. If you've been playing Gwenpool in your decks, you're not going to stop playing her, and the same goes for Galacta, right? Like, their effects are just so good, you're probably going to want to keep them around. Last and certainly least, it is Sunspot going from a 1-1 to a 1-0 again. Which is a shame. You know, I think Sunspot, before Invisible Woman came out, has sort of been a niche pick. You mostly only play him in decks with like High Evo or something like that. And I think this just sort of solidifies that. They mention that they've made it a lot easier for this card to be good. This card pairs well with fantastic car it pairs well with uh invisible woman first steps and it's only going to get better as those decks get more refined you know especially because it synergizes with other cards like bruce banner uh which isn't stellar by any means but in this deck can prove to be very very good uh so i understand where they're coming from i don't think this is gonna change anything necessarily but it's pretty reflective of the power level of these decks I would suspect that if you're really hurt about this 1-0, you probably just switch to Hydra Bob, because that strangely works with a Fantastic Car still, but it doesn't work with Invisible Woman, so, you know, pick your poison. But that is all the changes that we have to talk about this week. Overall, really good patch. I really like this. I'm playing with Domino, I'm playing with Blink. A lot of these other cards, too, I'm interested in trying, like Mole Man and Invisible Woman OG. And the nerfs! feel fair. They feel, you know, like that they're warranted. I would still keep an eye on that Invisible Woman deck. I'm seriously worried about it. I know that right now it's okay. I'm coping with it, but like, it makes me nervous because I've been seeing it on ladder and if they draw the combo, I just have to retreat. It's just one of those things. So I don't know. I'm keeping my eye on that, but overall, I think this is a great patch. I'm excited to see what comes next. This next season is going to be really, really cool in terms of theming. As a reminder, you can view me on social media. I am struggling to post recently with everything going on in my life. But if you want to check me out, I am pretty frequently on Blue Sky. I'm also on Threads. And if there's one thing that you can remember, it's that I'm Infinite. Thanks for listening.
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