Why Crystal is Finally Top Tier | The Quick Draw Meta Has Arrived | The Snap Chat Ep. 192

This week, Alex is joined by the king of the off-meta and Marvel Snap content creator: Bynx! The duo kicks things off with another massive reminder—The Snap Chat is hosting a live, in-person show at PAX West in Seattle on Friday, September 4th at 3:00 PM!

After the announcements, Alex and Bynx dive deep into the brand-new "Fractured Frontier" meta. They discuss why the game feels incredibly open following the Mother Askani nerfs, and debate whether the massive 36% play rate of Thanos (Fractured Frontier) is healthy for the game (spoiler: they both agree he might be the most fun card Second Dinner has ever designed).

Next, it's time for a massive batch of new card reviews:

• Thanos (Fractured Frontier): A unanimous 5-star rating. The hosts break down the insane skill expression, the power of Quick Draw triggers, and the incredible synergy with the newly buffed 3/6 Crystal.
• Jane Foster (Fractured Frontier): A powerhouse 3-Drop with a massive ceiling (3/12), but Binks vents about the frustrating RNG of her targeted buffs.
• Psylocke (Fractured Frontier): Why this high-ceiling cost-reducer is currently being jammed into the wrong decks, and how she could revolutionize Ramp and Combo archetypes.
• Red Wolf: Is this new 2/1 scaler the next Chamber? Alex and Bynx break down his incredible synergy with traditional Thanos shells and predict a potential rework for Mad Thinker.

Join Alex Coccia and special guest Bynx 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 and Guest Intro

Alex 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the next edition of The Snap Chat. This week I have the king of the off meta. We have Binks, and I wanted Binks here. I'm, I'm so happy that you were available this week, 'cause I'm like, we have such a meta shakeup happening right now in Marvel Snap, that we need someone with a wide breadth of knowledge with how the meta is shaping up in Marvel Snap. I think you're a perfect person for that. My man, how are you today?

Bynx 0:24

Dude, I'm great, man. I'm so excited to be here. I mean, we have had so many good cards, like, not only the cards this week, but, like, Sinister Six the week before that. Dude, Marvel Snap is on it, man. These, these most recent card releases are so fun to play with. There's so many interesting new mechanics to mess around with. I love the quick draw mechanic. So yeah, man, I'm excited to be here and talk about all the cards as well. And, uh, we were talking a little bit before, you have a really awesome trip coming up, man. You're gonna be at PAX West coming up next month, right?

Alex 0:54

Wow. Who's the host of this show? Because you are going right into the next topic of conversation. Perfect segue. Perfect segue.

PAX West Live Event

Alex 1:01

Uh, yeah, so PAX West, we've mentioned it in the past. Just thought we'd remind you guys that at PAX West, which is in Seattle, on Friday, September 4th at 3:00 PM, your boy Dexter, and perhaps other guests that have not yet confirmed, to be honest with you they will be, and me specifically, will be there to do a little bit of an event at PAX West. Uh, the plan is to do some sort of, like, trivia show with some giveaways and stuff like that. Of course, talk some Marvel Snap. It's gonna be a fun time for anybody in that area. If you don't live in that area, it's not, it's just the little thing we're doing is not worth flying out for, but if you happen to be going to PAX West come to the room, which has not yet been provided to me, on Friday, September 4th at 3:00 PM. I'll give more additional details in future episodes so you guys know where to come see us and where to get in on the fun. Binks, if you were going to PAX West, would you come?

Bynx 1:52

Ep- Oh, come on, man. You know I would be there. I would be the person who's there, like, a half hour early annoying the heck out of you guys while you try and get ready.

Alex 2:00

That's so funny. I'm actually super excited, to be honest with you. Every single time I've had the opportunity to, like, engage with, like, people from the community, and of course the dev team from, from Second Dinner, because there's a lot of them from the West Coast there, it's always been an absolute pleasure, an absolute pleasure. And in Boston, Dexter and I did this, uh, this little thing live on, like, the Twitch stage at PAX where we actually were the first to showcase... That was the Wolverine season, the Wolverine Weapon X. No, was it Wolverine Weapon X? No, no, no. That was the X-Men... Oh, no, I'm forgetting. It was the X-Men Returns. Not X-Men Returns. Wolverine was like the season- '97? No, not X-Men '97. It was the season with, like, Wolverine-

Bynx 2:36

Oh, Apocalypse. Apocalypse?

Alex 2:38

Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That season, yeah. And Sabanur and everything. Mm-hmm. So that was a really, really cool opportunity as well. I'm glad you remember more about it than I do. So yeah, PAX West is coming. We'll be there, again, September 4th, and we'll be, uh, doing our little thing on the Friday, 3:00 PM. The location is gonna be PAX, but the actual room and stuff has not yet been determined.

Season Meta Shakeup

Alex 2:57

But my man, I think what the thing we have to talk about right now is the meta so far in Marvel Snap, because it has completely changed. We got a lot to talk about today. We will talk about Thanos interview. We'll be reviewing Jane Foster, Psylocke, which I'm really excited for your take on, Red Wolf, which I think you're gonna be an expert in, and ultimately it all starts with the meta right now. Binks, what's your take on the Marvel Snap meta this first week of the Fractured Frontier season?

Bynx 3:26

Yeah, it feels really cool. I think ever since Mother Iskani got nerfed, because I feel like that was just such a, a thing that was holding everything else back because so many things were just worse than Mother Iskani. So when last month Mother Iskani got nerfed, I feel like things have moved around a lot. And then with this month having Thanos come in, which is just kinda like this m- mid-range weapon that is messing with things, it really feels, like, super open. You know? You can go a little bit more combo focused. I've been really liking Thanos with, uh, Sinister Six and with the, the new Thanos, having those stones to be able to get early quick draws and everything like that, so it feels cool for that that to be relevant again. But yeah, just like overall it feels like you can play anything. It's one of those really, really cool metas where it feels like as long as your deck has a pretty decent end goal, you can find ways to be competitive on the ladder, and that's, that's what I like the most. It's every time that there's, like, one or two, like, either staple cards or staple decks that have a power level that's like a whole tier above everything else where it feels like you either have to counter it or beat it, that's when it feels like as a deck builder you feel really, really hemmed in to what you can do and, and what you can, uh, try for. But yeah, definitely right now it just feels like everything's just super, super open, which is, uh, awesome to see. What do you feel like with the meta right now?

Alex 4:47

So there's a couple things. First of all, I agree 100%. I'm having an absolute blast in Marvel Snap right now. The only thing that kinda was like really... I, I thought that the new game mode came a little fast maybe. I thought that like- Yeah, yeah. K- came out of nowhere why we need the game mode on like the second day, like- Yeah of the season. That was kinda strange. But I was like, the meta's so great, we don't need a game mode right now. Like, I, I would just like to rank up if possible. I love it. I absolutely

Thanos Popularity Debate

Alex 5:08

love it. There is some concerns with, like, the prevalence of, like, the Thanos decks for instance, 'cause like there's... you're seeing a lot of them, and we will talk about Thanos specifically in a moment here. Uh, but just as a quick little aside, 36% popularity rate on Thanos himself. That's ranks 90 to top infinite according to Untapply stats. That's a lot of playing Thanos, and this is analogous to, like- The kind of the meta level that like Arishem was at when Arishem came out and e- every game was an Arishem game, but like I didn't mind 'cause it was like a super new cool way to play Snap, so it was a lot of fun. But I think the difference between what people are seeing now and say Arishem, is I think that the decks for Thanos: Fractured Frontier feel a little more fair, and I think that like I'm just having enough fun that like seeing more mirror matches with the new card, I think there's enough excitement and there's enough positivity in Snap that like I'm absolutely A-OK with a meta that's maybe a little one trick for a little bit until some more decks start to shape up around, around the periphery, 'cause I feel like there's a lot of fixation on Thanos: Fractured Frontier. But like to put in perspective like what you mentioned prior is like this is totally different feeling than when like you had like the one trick, like you have to counter them or whatever. When you had like, uh, the... What's his name? Oh, Star-Lord. Star-Lord, Master of the Sun. That was a horrible meta. Oh, God, Ben. Um, Shull-Lao was a horrible, horrible meta 'cause they were- Mm-hmm very one-trick focused. There was a very clear best deck, and in those situations, those decks you either countered or you lost, and they were super uninteractive. Whereas I feel like Thanos doesn't check those irrita- like irritating boxes in the same way that like- Master of the Sun did. So I feel like if you're gonna have a 40% meta card, Thanos being as cool and as fun as it is, is kind of okay in comparison to Master of the Sun or Shul-La or something like that. Very interesting, your take on that, because, like, I

Why Thanos Is Fun

Alex 7:00

don't know. I think that, like, this is some of the best Marvel Snap I've seen in a while, and I think that Thanos has been, like, a huge part of that, 'cause he's just been awesome.

Bynx 7:08

Yeah, man. I mean, Thanos God, it's just such a cool card. The animations are awesome. The way that it all works together is awesome. The fact that your whole hand is, like, crackling with electricity, like, every single turn. Like, the, the, i- the card is just so, so awesome, and I even think that if this card was, like, a decent bit lower as far as power level goes, I still think a lot of people would be playing it just because the card is so insanely fun. Uh, you made some comparisons to Arishom as far as, like, meta share, and I think that as far as, like, where I think they're different, I feel like Arishom was much stronger. Like, the uh, I'm a stout Arishom supporter and stan. I really, really like Arishom as a card. I always love going back and playing Arishom because, you know, I like randomness. I like being able to have random cards and figure out piece together the puzzle of how to play it, right? But the original iteration of A- Arishom where you had the extra energy every single turn, like the blob interaction where you could, like, blob and then you had two other cards that could chain the blob and just make giant cards everywhere. It just felt like it was so hard to get over the top of that deck unless you did, like, some crazy combo. But then Arishom also ran every tech card so that you could, like, fight off against those combos, right? So, like, I feel like from a power level perspective, I don't think Thanos is nearly as powerful as initial Arishom was. I feel like initial Arishom was way too over-tuned. You just got way too much value for the downside of having some randomness to your cards. Uh, where I do feel like they, they share a lot is how fun they are. Like, I, you know, I said something a little bit rambunctious I think it was, like, the second day that I was playing around with Thanos. I think this is the most fun card they've ever released, and, like, the more I play with it, the more I really think that's true. Like, this card is unbelievably fun. Like, you have to be thinking about so many things. Like, as you get those quick draw triggers, you have to, like, assess where your Thanos is at. Is it something that you wanna play on the final turn? Do you wanna play it on turn five to get the value from the draw and from the, the cost reductions that you're gonna be able to get? Again, the animations are out of this world. They're so, so good. So I feel like it has that same experience where, like, a lot of people played Arishom 'cause it was really strong, and a lot of people are probably playing Thanos 'cause it's really strong. But I think a lot of people play both those cards because it's a new and different way of playing Snap that's really, really fun for people to mess around with.

Alex 9:29

Oh, 100%. And that's the key thing, right? I feel like it's fun. And even when I'm playing against an Arishem player, when I'm t- uh, not Arishem, when I'm playing against a Thanos player when I'm testing something else, I'm still having a blast. Like, I feel like I've... Like, again, the card is relatively new. We are recording this on, uh, on the weekend, so it's only been a week, really, less than a week since it's come out, so it hasn't worn us out yet. But I just feel like this is it's some of the best Marvel Snap I feel like I've played in a long time. A lot of effort went into these cards, and I would say that, like, this is a conversation we've had many times. Actually, I think you and I have actually legitimately had this conversation where I tend to think that I like when releases come out slightly spicy, you know? Balance it, then put a little bit of chili on top just to make sure that it, it kind of shakes up the meta a little bit, makes it fun to play. 'Cause when we have these underpowered releases, I feel like it's like you play it the first day, then you're like, "Meh." You know what I mean? It's just, like, the whole week feels like you're waiting for the next jolt of energy in the meta, and this week has been nothing but a massive jolt of energy. I just hope that Thanos doesn't wear us out the way Arishem eventually did, and the way that, like, Master of the Sun immediately did. And I feel like Shialli for, like, a couple days wasn't brutal And then all of a sudden it was just like, "Okay. All right. This is, this is a little too much." People figured

Bynx 10:44

out like the right way to play it- Yeah where it just feels like you're just sitting there like, "All right. I'm just gonna get smashed on turn six. I guess I'll stand and watch them do the thing," right?

Balance Concerns and Dials

Bynx 10:53

And that's an interesting comparison too, like, 'cause, uh, I got a lot of those, like, in chat talking about its comparisons to Shul-Kull or its comparisons to Star-Lord. Now, when Shul-Kull and Star-Lord, they were, they came out way over-tuned, way too strong, completely took over the meta, felt like you either had to counter it or beat it. And then what they tried to do is lower the stats just a little bit, just give it a little tap and make it a little bit weaker, and that didn't work, 'cause the, the baseline of the card was just so powerful, and just like the engine of what it does, did was way too strong. So they eventually had to go through and, like, completely rework how the card worked, and I think that both of them now are in a, a pretty good spot. With Thanos, what's cool is that I do think that it's probably a little too high on the power level. It feels like why would you play any other five drop other than Thanos, in m- in my opinion? It just seems like it can go in pretty much any deck. If you're just getting one or two quick draw triggers, it's still just gonna be pound for pound better than, like, any other five drop you can throw on your deck outside of, like, really, really strong synergies. I really do think that, you know, eventually, especially if the play rate stays so high, they're probably gonna do the same thing they did with Shul-Kull and Star-Lord, give it a little bit of like a base stat reduction, maybe make a couple of the shots a little bit worse, and I think that'll work. I think that's all this will need to get, like, aligned in power level. So even though this is a powerful card that a lot of people are playing, I don't get any of the feelings of, like, Star-Lord or Shul-Kull from it, where I do feel like it's okay for this card to be, like, the best card in the game because it's so incredibly fun. Clearly, a lot of people really like it. And then as they're trying to make space for other stuff, they probably just need to make a small stat adjustment, and the card will fit into the decks that it fits into, but not be so strong that it feels like you can't play any other five drop, which I think is, like, the perfect thing they should be doing.

Alex 12:37

I do agree. It has, like, a ton of dials on it. There's so many ways you can, like, really tune the balance and stuff like that. It doesn't feel like it's too far off. It doesn't feel like it's absolutely, like, demolishing the meta, but it's, it's definitely coming in spicy, which I do appreciate.

Shots and Skill Expression

Alex 12:49

One thing I will say, that this is I'm stepping back a couple minutes now. You mentioned the animations being top-notch. I will push back ever so slightly. I think that the, like, the revolver loading animation of, like, the stone falling in, it f- it looks incomplete to me. Like, I see it and I'm like, "That looks like it just disappears." Or, like, I don't know, it feels like it's, like, half the proper animation. I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm wrong, but I was like, I... Okay, everything else is amazing. I love, like, how the streaks, it almost reminds me of, like, 15 years ago. You're a sports guy. 15 years ago when they added, like, the light streak to hockey pucks. Um, I don't know if you remember that. It was- 'Cause

Bynx 13:21

you couldn't see it on the, uh, the non-HD screens. It would just be... You would have no idea where the puck was at any point.

Alex 13:26

Yeah, it was absolutely horrible. They ended up getting rid of it, but, like, when they used to shoot the puck, there used to be, like, a streak of color around it. It was, it was a cool idea, I guess, at the time. But yeah, like, I like that with Thanos. Um, I just think it's a ton of fun. I think that, like, some of the stones are more powerful than others. The stones, the shots are more powerful than others. I think the plus one immovable's pretty cool. Copy your lowest cost card here. I was hitting stuff like, uh, like, uh, Karen Page with this. I thought that was really good. Uh, reducing the co- this is crazy. Reducing the cost of your cards in your hand by one. This is why you wanna get this out on turn five. It's just super good, man. And everything else is just whatever. Destroying the weakest enemy here is whatever. It's, it's solid, whatever. But-

Bynx 14:04

Oh, hey, you're crazy, man. Destroying the weakest here is nuts, man. Like, there's so often there's just gonna giant card that's by itself in a lane, you have priority, and you could just, like... I don't know. I've killed so many, like, star brands and so many just, like, big cards with a, with the Soul Shot. I actually think the Soul Shot might be the best of all of them. This one's crazy. And then, like, al- I also like the, um... There's a lot of thought process that you have to go into to take most advantage of it, because, like, the other one, the Copy Stone, th- there's a lot of times where I don't play around that coming into play, and then, like, I realize, like, I just have, like, little tiny cards in, like, each lane. But if, like, you really think about it, you can, like, get extra Wiccan triggers, man. You could go Wiccan into Thanos, replaying another Wiccan, getting six more power. I really, really like how, um... it's a very, very skill-testing card to be able to pay attention to what shots that you're getting and game plan around it. And it, like, I don't know, like, cards like that really, really, like... That, that aspect of the card is maybe my favorite part of like, getting the shots and then figuring out based on what shots that you have and how you've set up your board how to best take advantage of it. Like, I don't know, man. I d- like, the, the more I think about this card or the more, like, I chat about it, man, the more giddy I get about it. It's just, like, so cool how, how much skill expression is in one card. That's very rare.

Deckbuilding With Thanos

Alex 15:24

Yeah, for me, Thanos has absolutely delivered on the promise of being a really good season pass. It's actually, honestly, it's the perfect season pass card. It's basically an archetype-defining card. It's one that I think, like... Okay, some of the top-tier decks, they do have a lot of expensive pieces in it, but, like, also it starts with Quicksilver, Domino. Like so you can start to build around that. You can... There's a plethora of three-drops in the game you could be using. I feel like the deck kinda starts to build itself to some degree. Now, one of the top-performing decks actually has been the one I featured in the client, not trying to tap myself on the back or anything, but it... Okay, I'm trying to tap myself on the back a little. It was actually really exciting- Yeah 'cause, like, sometimes, you know, sometimes you, you miss them, sometimes you hit them, and that time I hit them, it was nice. And it was cool because, like, one of the key things I really wanted to do around the design of that deck was, like, what are some cards that aren't being played that I think are really, really good with Fractured Frontier Thanos? In particular, like, how can I put my own spice in these lists, right? 'Cause I think that, like, Quicksilver, Domino, people would've, would've been on top of that. I think it's a really natural, uh, kind of, uh, quick draw synergy there. But, like, for me, I think Karen Page was the one where I'm like, it's wild. And I had, I had designed it prior to Karen Page being a 4/6, and even then I thought Karen Page was good here because, like, listen, you're playing Quicksilver, Domino, you have a plethora of threes to quick draw through, and then Karen Page is adding two p- Like, it's actually crazy how good this card is. I feel like this was one of those cards that on paper is easy to dismiss. But once you actually start playing and you have a curve and, like, you're playing one, two, three, four, like a Wiccan deck would want to, you start to realize, like, oh, hold on, this is actually, like, a lot of stats. It's pretty solid. And it even goes further if that three-drop happened to be a Venus, which I've done a number of times. So I think Karen Page is low-key an absolute winner, and I think moving her to a 4/6 was a good idea. I think she should've been released at a 4/6, 'cause it would've been more obvious that this is a better card than people thought

Bynx 17:16

Yeah, Karen Page is interesting. Also, you're a teacher, and the squeaky sound that when she circles everyone I'm sure gives you the earbud like, like it gives me. The ear- oh man, the squeaky. I love that with Karen Page. It's one of my favorite things. Also like the, the revolver sound with Thanos. I didn't mention the sound of the revolver. Oh man, dude, that, that just hits the audio tick for me, like, perfectly. I, I love it. But yeah, Karen Page, really cool. I, I am gonna push back on saying, like, the deck kinda builds itself, because I feel like I, maybe it's because I'm such a Quicksilver-Domino hater because I like drawing my cards, and they make you draw your cards less. I mean, like, they lower the percentage chance of you drawing any individual card because you're basically force drawing Quicksilver and Domino, so you're actually gonna be playing Thanos less. So I feel like, um, there's so much to be explored with, uh, with what Thanos can do. I've actually really liked just playing Domino, like not playing the Quicksilver and the Domino. You kinda, you have that y- pressure that you put on your deck to draw certain cards. And like, even like if you play it in Thanos, if you play Domino and Thanos, it has a really interesting thing where it gives you a slightly higher chance of drawing a stone on turn one, because Domino will never be drawn on turn one. So it actually increases your odds of drawing a stone on turn one. Then you can play the Domino, like guarantee the quicks- um, the, uh, the quick draw trigger if you don't draw a mind stone and wanna play, like, a few more. So I actually think that, like, there's so much more to be explored with Thanos, 'cause I feel like a lot of people are hemming in a little bit onto the Quicksilver-Domino, into Wiccan kinda stuff, and I've played that too, and I think it's really good. But I think there's so much more to explore with, um, with Thanos in not really relying too much on needing to get as many quick draw triggers as possible, and just, like, fitting him into other decks where he can just be a nice complementary piece, not really the star of the show, not focusing on getting those quick draw triggers, but just using as kinda like a backup, getting some, cost reductions at the right time, copying a key card at the right time. So I r- I really think that, like, it I think you can lean into that aspect of it, like the Quicksilver-Domino, and I actually think, like, just the Thanos, uh, side is better. Like, playing mind stone on one into drawing two stones that both have quick draw and then playing two stones on two is crazy. Like, you're just loading up your Thanos immediately, which is, uh, absolutely insane. But, uh, yeah, I, I think that there's a lot more to it than just kinda going down the, the main path, and that's what I'm really excited about with this card, is that I don't even think it's really truly begun to bloom into what decks it can fit into and what decks it can make better, and that's what I'm most excited about.

Alex 19:50

Yeah. And what I kinda meant by the deck build itself was that like, okay, you go Quicksilver, Domino, bunch of threes, get the good threes in there. You know, you get the Venus, you get the Avatar of Life. Uh, you go Wiccan, Karen Page, and then like, okay, you're going Wiccan, what else is gonna work there? Uh, you know, go Galactus. Why wouldn't you go Galactus? Uh, Fantastic Four First Steps, absolutely phenomenal card. Working well with the curve. You're often kind of, getting that additional power being put in there. I- that's what I kinda meant was like, you know what? It kind of... The idea that I had kinda just started to build on itself there, and, uh, that deck has been one of the most popular, was also in the client too. According to Untap-based stats, running a 63% win rate .71 queues, which is great. That ranks 92 top infinite. So yeah, like, and a lot of that goes right hand in hand with the fact that just straight up Thanos is just really good. It's likely gonna carry a lot of different archetypes. And funny enough, just before we went live, I actually went to do, like, a little, little meta checkup on some of the things, get the most updated stats, uh, because I wanted the most updated stuff prior to recording. And Binx, I swear to you, this is coincidental. I did not realize this till just before we recorded, and I just said, "Oh, I don't wanna tap myself on the back," but you're not gonna believe this, sir. We're gonna talk about this guy in a second. But this deck right here, which suddenly I cannot find... Oh, there

Blink Jubilee Doom Package

Alex 21:02

it is. This deck here is currently the, as of recording, the highest win rate deck in Marvel Snap right now. Ranks 92 top infinite, 200 games and above, and it's the second deck I featured in the video, which is kinda funny. And, uh, so it's Quicksilver, Domino, so very similar design. Galactus, Fantastic Four First Steps on the top end there. Then you go Speed, Jane Foster, who we'll review in a second, Psylocke, who we're also gonna review, Crystal, who we need to talk about. But then the key thing I was thinking about was, okay, how do we sneak out some of these bigger chunks? So I thought to myself, okay, what if we go, like, the Blink route and do something like a Jubilee and a Wiccan, and then sneak out, like, a Doctor Doom? Just a very natural, inexpensive, very high quality six-drop that's gonna apply, like, this, this immense pressure onto the board. And this deck is actually doing really well. Really low sample size. The other deck we talked about is nearly 3,000 games. This one has 200 only, but the stats were there. But I'm curious if you think there's an opportunity for, like, like Blinks and stuff like that, like, kind of these archetype builders that have been forgotten about to kinda make a bit of a comeback with, uh, Thanos Fr- uh, Fractured Frontier

Bynx 22:09

Yeah, there's some really cool things I've been seeing, uh, with people doing, like, um, you know, utilizing something like Psylocke hitting a Sara, playing down the Sara, then, like, blinking the Sara into into, like, a six drop. There's just, like, a lot of really cool things. There's also, like, the Jubilee interaction. If you play it in an empty lane, you could play Jubilee. You get Thanos. Thanos copies the Jubilee, gives you, like, more cards and, like... There, there's a lot of really, really cool things. I think the Jubilee blink is just, like, a really, really natural and really powerful, like, two-card combination. Uh, you know, you're basically, like, walloping one lane as long as your Jubilee hits pretty well, because the blink is gonna flip it up into, you know, a five or a six drop. You're able to play an eight power card into a different lane, and you're just, like, really, really set up for the future. So yeah, I definitely think, like, blinking into Thanos, like, if you're trying to be a bit more, uh, like, locked into the, the Thanos archetype, you know, you can run Quicksilver, Domino, four five threes, maybe four fours, and then you just run Blink and Thanos as your other two, pretty much, like, guaranteeing that as long as you play a four drop on four, you get the Blink in hand. You get either the Blink or the Thanos, you're gonna be able to b- uh, play that card out on turn five. So there's some really cool things that you can do with, like, deck fixing and building your deck properly to, uh, to get Thanos as aggressively as possible. So yeah, I definitely think that there's, uh, some validity to these things, and you called out the Galactus first steps really well, too. I think that's, uh... Once it got nerfed, I feel like it got pulled back a little bit on play rate just 'cause, one power means a lot more in Marvel Snap than it usually does in a lot of other card games. But, uh, being able to have it in the opening hand and you play Quicksilver and Domino in a lane, it's very rare that people can fight back on that lane, and you're at least getting, like, two, sometimes three triggers pretty much guaranteed into, like, just having this massive Galactus to finish it out. So yeah, really, really good deck building there.

Alex 23:57

Yeah. That is, of course, if you draw it, 'cause two of your draws have been stuffed, which is exactly why you don't like the two cards.

Bynx 24:04

That's why you run the Jubilee blink. It g- it gives you outs. Yeah. You know? It gives you way more outs.

Alex 24:08

Yeah, and you have to do s- use Jubilee specifically. You can't use, like, Stryfe, because it's not Thanos, so it won't fire the shots. You can't use Iron Lad, 'cause it's not Thanos. It won't fire the shots. So Thanos has to physically hit the board, and that's why it has to be Jubilee as well, which I think is pretty interesting. And for those listening on the drive home and like, like, "Man, I wish they'd just read out the cards," the deck was Quicksilver, Domino, Speed Jane Foster, Fractured Frontier. Psylocke, Fractured Frontier. Crystal, who we have to talk about next. Jubilee, Wiccan, Blink, Thanos Fractured Frontier, Doctor Doom, and Galactus, Fantastic Four First

Crystal Makes a Comeback

Alex 24:44

Steps. Before we transition to the other cards that definitely deserve additional love and care, we need to talk about the first time in what perhaps Marvel Snap history where unironically this card is seeing play. The best pixel variant in Marvel Snap, and actually one of the best hover animations in the game as well. Crystal, the 3/6 that reads, "On reveal, each char- uh, each player draws a card." My man, Crystal is legit. She is in full force in the meta. What are your thoughts?

Bynx 25:13

Yeah, I feel like this is... crystal is an example of why I like playing Thanos with, uh, with the new Thanos. It's because it gives you more options for your quick draw triggers, right? Anytime you're drawing cards, because cards that you draw during that turn will still count as quick draw next turn, now instead of just having, oh, I either have to play this one specific card to get the quick draw trigger or not, now you have a choice of two, and doubling your options, pretty darn good, right? Like, I, I love that aspect of it. I think that Crystal also kinda got a pretty big resurgence with, uh, Daredevil, Shadowlands Daredevil, especially once it went to six power, because then it fulfills the Shadowlands Daredevil getting bigger. But just any way to draw cards. I do still think that people Don't think about the downside of Krystal as much. They just think of it as a 3/6 draw a card, kinda similar to how people think about Luna, that it's just 3/6, get extra energy. You are giving your opponent a card, so if you're playing a Fractured Frontier, mirror, you're making it a lot more likely that they're gonna be drawing their Thanos as well. You're giving them an extra option for a Quick Draw trigger. So I think there's a little bit more to Krystal than just, like, it's really good. But especially right now, uh, in, in the meta and where it's set up, like, just being able to get that additional card draw and get your engine online feels really, really important to winning those matchups anyway, so you can kinda look a little bit less at the downside. Like, w- because there's such a big upside to it, uh, outside of just drawing a card, but getting more you know, triggers ready. Even with, like, Sinister Six, if you play this on three, you might get access to all of your evil cards a little bit earlier so that you know how to set up your play lines a little bit better. There's a lot more cards that really, um, benefit you more than just drawing a card. You get additional effects with it. So that's, in my opinion, why I think that Krystal has really seen a resurgence. Where, where are you seeing or, or, or why are you finding Krystal to, to feel so much better now?

Alex 27:00

Well, I think the power helps. I think that having an, a legitimate, like, advantage, like, it's advantageous to play Krystal and get additional Quick S- uh, Quick Draw cards, exactly what you mentioned. If anything, she's bad right now because you're just helping them get Quick Draw cards in mirror matches, right? And if Thanos' popularity starts to kind of whittle down a little bit and you don't have those mirror matches, Krystal is now disproportionately even better. So there is that part, too. I just think that you wanna play to your, your game plan, and your game plan's Quick Draw, right? For y- who cares what your opponent's doing? Right. You wanna do your thing, right? You wanna do your thing. And so as a result, Krystal allows you to enable that.

Sinister Six Synergy

Alex 27:36

And finally before we move on, I wanna just mention here, you talked about Sinister Six, which I absolutely love this card. I think it's a great card. Love it.

Bynx 27:42

Love

Alex 27:42

it. I like Thanos better, but this is also like, this is a very, very, very well-designed card. I really like it. And you're right. When people were kinda poo-pooing on Sinister Six, first of all, I still thought even the week prior it was still a decent card. I was like, when Quick Draw comes out, Sinister Six is gonna have another reason to shine, and it is. Those decks are doing pretty well. Um, they're like They're definitely like A-tier decks with Thanos. So Curious boat, uh, well, you already mentioned it, but any closing thoughts on Sinister Six with the new Thanos and quick draw? I mean, the whole season's gonna have additional quick draws as well, so.

Bynx 28:13

Yeah, dude, I love this card. You know, I was talking about I really do think Thanos might be the most fun card they've ever released, and I think this card's top five. This card is so... It does something that no other card does, not even close. Like, it is such a unique play style. There's so much skill expression playing this card of deciding are you actually going to activate Sinister Six or not? Because there... I don't know how many games, especially early on, you don't even realize you're activating Sinister Six. You think you win the game, and then all your power goes to one lane, and you lose the other two, and you're like, "Oh, no. I, I completely messed that up." So you have to, like, plan out ahead so much earlier with Sinister Six than, than you normally have to, and you have to make those decisions of am I gonna be a Sinister Six deck this game, or am I not gonna be a Sinister Six deck this game, which is really, really interesting. Again, works amazing with Thanos. Like, uh, I was playing Thanos and Fractured Frontier Thanos and Sinister Six together, all three of them together, and it was so... Like, Mind Stone felt like the best card you've ever seen in your entire life. Like, you play Mind Stone on one, you get a quick draw trigger, you get your first evil character, you get all of your evil characters immediately, and you guarantee that two of them are gonna be one-cost that are on stones that will usually draw you more cards.

Sinister Six Praise

Bynx 29:30

And you get so many more quick draw triggers 'cause you're guaranteeing two quick draw triggers there. So then you could use the Fractured Frontier Thanos, and then, like, it, it's very, very likely that you can get, like, a turn three or turn four Sinister Six down, which is crazy because then you can actually fight for the other lanes. Like, when you're getting Sinister Six on the final turn, it can feel really, really rough. There's, like, cool stuff with Galactus and things like that you can do. But man, what a deck-building puzzle this card is. What a skill expression focus card of being able to sequence your cards that you play right and make those decisions to hold back certain cards because, like, actually activating it will be, like, bad for you. Just I can't say enough about Sinister Six. Amazing, amazing release. This and Thanos back to back, uh, it's the best two-week period that Second Dinner has ever had with card releases, and I don't think it's close personally

Thanos Five Stars

Alex 30:20

Star rating on Thanos: Fractured Frontier. Binx, I'll give you the floor.

Bynx 30:25

Give me five stars, man. I would just say- Oh, yeah it's a five-star card. It's a super meta relevant card. Can not only can it be featured in decks and be super powerful, but I think that any deck that you want a five drop, Thanos is probably the best decision to put in there. So I, I... Yeah, I think that it's a e- easy five-star card for me.

Alex 30:44

I agree. I came in last week at 4.5, and I, I was still wrong. Somehow at 4.5 I was not high enough. Shallow. It's absolutely... Yeah, shallow. It's absolutely a five-star

Season Pass Value Talk

Alex 30:57

card. Thanos: Fractured Frontier, a fantastic option if you're looking to, uh, to get into the Season Pass, and the Season Pass has a, uh, emote this time. I'm glad to see emotes making a back in the Season Pass. Agreed. Yeah. They gotta make a ba- I think that if they want to sell more season passes, make more fun cards like this that are really good, and add more value, like a- adding an emote's a great idea. I, I even, uh, kind of threw a little comment in there that I would like to see wild boosters in the Season Pass instead of regular boosters. Like, no one cares about the 15 Black Widow boosters you're getting in the Season Pass. Give me some wild boosters. I care more about those, right? So, anyways, a lot of progress being made, but that's not the only card that came out, and I just realized we forgot to mention Dr. Octopus. We'll have to talk about Dr. Octopus as well at some point. He's not on the paper. Not on the paper, on

Bynx 31:44

the- He might be better for next week, 'cause I feel like he's irrelevant until Red Wolf comes out, 'cause I feel like Red Wolf is a card that really, really wants to be quick drawn. So I feel like maybe that would be a good card to, to fit in next week, 'cause I think it'll probably at least start to see play when there's more quick draw cards then.

Alex 32:00

Well, he's not on the docket down here, so next

Jane Foster Breakdown

Alex 32:02

week it is, Binx. Jane Foster: Fractured Frontier, the 3/4 that reads, "On Reveal, judge four other random characters, +1 if they're yours, -1 if they're enemies. If you quick draw, you judge the worthy again," which basically doubles the effect. I'll give you the floor. I will mention that Thanos had a 58% win rate at 36 popularity. Would you believe that Jane Foster has, also has a 58% win rate, but the popularity's lower at 24%, it being the super premium Season Pass card. That does make perfect sense. Thoughts on Jane Foster, but two things specifically, just general thoughts and also do you think she's gonna keep her spot in these Thanos decks? 'Cause a lot of people are curious as to whether or not they wanna spend that extra 10 bucks, right? It's, it is a legitimately big ask, so is it worth it? Do you think it'll have some staying power?

Bynx 32:48

I mean, I think absolutely. I mean, you look at it, like I always try and whenever I assess cards, I try and kinda like break down to like floor and ceiling and like really think about it. The floor of this card is that you're getting a three-eight. Three-eights are really good in this game. You know, like, uh, cards having three-eights usually have downsides, unless you're Kraglin, which is a crazy card that not enough people are playing. But, uh, like Jane Foster at its floor is a three-eight whenever you like play it out. But then there's also a lot of cool little synergies that you can get with it. You know, Venus, when you play, uh, Jane Foster with Venus, you hit a bunch of your cards, you're, you're gonna get extra points there. You have the added bonus of any time you end up quick drawing it and, you know, if you're playing cards like Crystal or if you're playing Thanos, you're gonna have much more, uh, likely odds to actually have the opportunity to quick draw this. You're getting a three-12. Three-12 is really good. Three-12 is crazy stats for the cost. So any time you're able to get this out and play with quick draw, it is way, way higher than rate than normal. And even at its floor, I think it's like- kind of like either on rate or higher than rate. So it's like a good card when you don't quick draw it, incredible card when you do quick draw it. I think that this card is gonna be a mainstay in the meta for a long time. As far as, like, my personal opinions on this card it annoys me. I don't like this card very much, just from like a straightforward. I don't like the randomness of it. It feels so terrible to, like, quick draw one of these in the final turn and, like, all eight shots go to the wrong places, and it does basically nothing. So, like, from, like, a personal perspective, I don't personally enjoy playing this card, nor do I enjoy playing against it. I just really don't like the randomness involved in it. But from a power level perspective, if you're trying to win games, this card is really, really solid.

Jane Foster Rating

Alex 34:27

That is exactly what held me back a little bit on my rating. I came in at 3.5 stars. To be honest with you, I think it's, it's definitely a four. I think it's definitely, like, a strong card. It's definitely a four-star card, 'cause purely from the stats perspective, what you said, right? 3-8, 3- 3-12, that's... Th- those are big stats for a three drop. Yeah, yeah. What else do you want? Do you really want a f- a three drop going higher than that? No, we don't want that, 'cause that, that three drop then breaks the game. So, like, I agree 100%, this is a very good card. However, for me, it's that randomness, right? It's like, yeah, if I... If it only buffed cards, then I think it's way better. If it only debuffed cards, perhaps it's better. The fact that it kinda does one or the other, it's a little haphazard. It reduces its synergy. You can Venus, but half the shots, theoretically, are being wasted if you Venus first, right? Venus does improve the stat line of it, sure, but you know what I mean, right? Mm-hmm you can't play this with Scorpion, uh, the new Scorpion, right? 'Cause it's like, well, it's 50/50 if I'm debuffing or not, so I'll pick something else, right? So I do think that that does hold it back ever so slightly, but as a straight up stat stick, I think it's absolutely A-okay, and if you're gonna be playing Thanos, I do think that it's a great partner. No doubt, like, no pun intended, uh, you know, howdy partner, th- whatever it

Bynx 35:36

is thing. Both, both Thanoses. Yeah. Like, if you're playing a Thanos deck, even without the Fractured Frontier, like any quick draw card, I think in a Thanos deck, is just so much better because, again, you're just getting more opportunities to choose which quick draws you get, and the, the cards are gonna be quick drawn or have the quick draw ability more likely. So yeah, any decks that, that's drawing cards, if there's ever any card draw cards in the future, keep your eye on all of these quick draw cards that are available now because any additional card draw that comes into the game is gonna make these cards way, way better, like, just having more ways, 'cause it's really just Crystal and Thanos right now. Those are, like, the only... I guess Adam Warlock is one too, but that card's kind of, uh, a little bit weird to, to get online. You kinda have to build your deck around it. But yeah, man, uh, really, really cool and, and really, really strong card, especially when it's quick drawn.

Alex 36:20

What are you thinking from a star rating perspective?

Bynx 36:22

I like four. I think four is good. I think that it's not gonna be the star of the show. It's not gonna be a card that people are building around or keeping in mind or really. I definitely think it's just, like, a very strong card, a very great three drop option. A lot of cards are gonna like it, and it's better than most other three drops

Alex 36:40

Okay. I agree.

Psylocke Staying Power

Alex 36:42

The one that kind of, I'm not gonna say disappointed me, but I'm not sure is gonna have the staying power for me is Psylocke. I came in at four stars for Psylocke. Buck came in at 4.5 actually. And this is where I really need your input because for me statistically, uh, according to Untap-based stats, it's running a 57% win rate, so slightly lower than the other two, and half the popularity of Thanos at 16%, and even less than Jane Foster. Unironically, it's in some of the more popular decks, including the, uh, the Thanos one that we talked about before. But I feel like this is the most cuttable of the quick draw cards right now, where like even if you discount your Thanos I don't know if I want him on turn four anyways. I think I'd rather still play him on five, get an additional Quick Draw loaded, you know. Um, you don't wanna play him on six, 'cause you wanna discount your card, you wanna make him movable. There's things you want, right? But getting him out on four sometimes feels like it's too early, if that makes any sense sometimes. So, like, with Psylocke, I start to wonder if... you have Red Wolf coming out, you have Red Hulk coming out, and I feel like she's the first Quick Draw card that's gonna get kicked. It won't be Jane Foster, it'll be this one that gets kicked out. And I'm curious of two things from you, Biggs. One, do you think that it has the staying power in the current decks we're seeing? And two, do you think that Psylocke: Fractured Frontier is gonna start to carve out its own niche in the Marvel Snap meta as a ramp option?

Psylocke Ramp Potential

Bynx 38:02

Yeah, I mean, you, you hit the nail on the head. I think that a lot of people are just kinda hucking this into everything, because you just want as many Quick Draw triggers as you can right now. And, you know, there's just the, the two cards that we have right now, outside of, like, Thanos making all of your cards Quick Draw cards. So, I think that it is just kinda getting hucked into the wrong decks a lot of the times. I feel like Psylocke is a bit of a deck-building challenge of how much do you want to weigh how many, five, six, you know, even, like, Foom seven, seven-cost cards that you can put into a deck. But yeah, as a ramp card, man, I love ramp, and this card super excites me as a ramp card, man. Like, there, there really hasn't been a- another card that feels as straightforward of a ramp card as we've seen with, like, Wave, Luna, Electro. Like, those are, like, the three ramp cards, and they kinda have been for a really long time. It used to just be Wave and Electro, then Luna came in, and we haven't really seen anything since. So that's been, what, three years, or two, two and a half years? I don't know. I don't know- Kraglin when Reynolds came out. Yeah. Ah, d- but Kraglin is inconsistent, right? Like, you can't, you can't guarant- Kraglin, I- in my opinion, you should only run Kraglin if you don't care what it hits, or if you're only trying to get it as a three-nine, 'cause three-nines are really good. Because, like, I don't know if you've ever tried to play ramp Kraglin- It's awful. I know but you play it, and then you hit, like, your Luna, and then you're like, "Okay, well now I just pass on turn four." Sick. Like, I don't th- I don't think Kraglin's, like, a card that you, like, try and play as, like, a ramp card, right? But, um- I just wanted to

Alex 39:26

bring him up again.

Bynx 39:27

Yeah, yeah. I love Kraglin, man. That card's, that card is still so sneaky, man. The fact that people haven't really caught on to just how strong that card is is, is really, really cool. But with Psylocke, yeah. Like, there, there's a lot of things that Psylocke brings to the table, right? When you Quick Draw it, the card's broken. Like, giving your entire hand minus one cost is absolutely insane for a three-four broken, right? So like, it, we talk about ceiling and floor a lot, right? Like, uh, or I do at least. Uh, ceiling-wise, off, off the roof, man. Like, the ceiling is insane in this card. Giving all of your cards a one-cost permanent discount is insane. Now, the problem is the floor, and I think that the floor comes from a lot of deck-building ideas. And because people are just hucking it into things, it doesn't feel that strong, right? Because your deck isn't really built to highlight Psylocke or built to have enough cards to take advantage of Psylocke. I'm gonna talk about Thanos more. I, I know I've talked about normal Thanos like a million times, but I, I really am a, a strong proponent that normal Thanos works so well with, uh, all of these new cards. But, like, normal Thanos I think works super, super well with Psylocke, 'cause again, more chances to quick draw, more chances to high roll with it. And you have a bigger hand, which is gonna get more value out of Psylocke. But Thanos, you already wanna run, like, a few bigger cards, right? You know, it's a capital C cost, so even if cards are reduced past five, they get the additional reduction. If you're not getting the quick draw triggers, like Mockingbird, if it's already been reduced, you can reduce it a little bit further. So like any deck that has like a big chunk of bigger cards, even non, like, ramp decks that are trying to ramp into these big, scary cards, but just c- like, decks that have, like, multiple of these, is really, really gonna like to have Psylocke, because you're able to push those cards out a little bit earlier. Uh, I think it works great with Thanos: Fractured Frontier, honestly. Like, I, I think that those two cards work in really, really good tandem with each other. Like, you get like one big reduction with Psylocke, then you get to play the Thanos, and then you get another reduction. And like, I don't know, I've had so many games where, like, my hand is free on the final turn, and it's just, like, insane. I drop like 35 stats on the final turn if you can, like, line them up together. Uh, so I think that Psylocke is not nearly as plug-and-play as Jane Foster is, 'cause it's good in pretty much any deck. But Psylocke is gonna be a card that's gonna mature, and people are going to find ways to make it feel really, really broken with the right combinations of cards, and it's just gonna take time to really work out the best ways to use it. So I think that's the biggest difference. I actually think it's right on par, power level-wise, with, uh, with Jane Foster, just in a different way. Like, much higher ceiling, lower floor, lot more niche use cases, whereas, like, Jane Foster, you could just kinda throw in anything. So I'm really, I'm really, really high on Psylocke. I think it's an incredible card, and I think that it's a great deck-building puzzle to figure out the best ways to use it.

Ranking and Power Creep

Alex 42:11

All right, so how would you rank the cards one to three in terms of, like, we'll do power level first and whether or not, uh, I, I don't wanna say value, but, like, if you should be spending tokens or resources on them. Let's go power level first.

Bynx 42:24

Yeah, I think I would go Thanos, Jane, Psylocke. Agreed. And I think those are really close. But I do think Jane would be a little bit better, and then I would just flip Jane and Psylocke, in my opinion. I think that, I, again, it might just be because I hate the randomness, and playing Jane is very frustrating, and I do, I play the game for a living, right? So like, it's, my livelihood, my mental health is on the line with playing this. It's like I really, I really don't, I really don't wanna play Jane Foster like ever again. I'm sure I will, and I'm sure I'll, I'll find ways to feature it a little bit more, but the card just really frustrates me when it, when it doesn't go right. So yeah that's kinda how I'd rank them. And, and I really do think that for long-term value, I think that Psylocke has more long-term value because all card games do some power creep, right? Uh, and everything will slightly get better. As cards catch up to Jane Foster's like basal level, Jane Foster will start to fizzle away. Not very many cards do what Psylocke does. So I think that from a long-term perspective, I think Psylocke is the better option.

Alex 43:16

Love that call-out. And talking about power creep, just a reminder, Electro used to be a three-two. Was he a three-one- at some point? No, he was three- He never got to a three-one.

Bynx 43:25

Yeah, it was three-two, three-three, three-four, three-five, man. He's just slowly climbing his way up. And it's actually kind of funny. There was when it went from three-three to three-four, it actually felt bad because a lot of the good Electro decks at that time were using Lady Deathstrike as one of the ways to take care of it. So you, like, play out Electro into a lane, and then you'd Lady Deathstrike to kill it and then kill a bunch of other cards. I remember the change from three-three to three-four felt really bad because it just, like, nullified a bunch of decks, even though it's, like, probably still a little bit better. Just so often you wanna blink this card or, or get it out of the way, that it just felt weird to just keep adding power to it. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, it works great with War Machine now, but yeah, what a glow-up from Electro.

Alex 44:04

It's always funny, though, that people, like, fixate so hard while getting rid of Electro, then continue to play one card a turn for the rest of the game anyways.

Bynx 44:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex 44:12

It's kind of what they end up doing regardless, but yeah. I hear you. Electro, that was, that was a lot of fun, uh, to see him come back. I like Electro a lot.

Red Wolf Preview

Alex 44:19

But the question now becomes, Binks- Red Wolf. Are you gonna be a fan of Red Wolf, the 2/1, the brand-new Series 5 card coming this week that reads, "On reveal, plus one power for each card in your hand. Quick draw, give your hand plus one power," and it should say as well. So plus one power for everything in your hand, and if you quick draw it, it gives your hand plus one power as well, which is basically Nakia on a 2/1 body that's getting buffed for cards in your hand anyways. Nakia is RIP, rest in peace, completely useless, never to be seen ever again. Red Wolf, I will actually mention, by the way, it's probably a good time to mention it there is a very strong chance I will not be able to release a review of Red Wolf as I will be traveling on, uh, on assignment, I will say. Um, and so as a result, my scheduling may make it so I, I unfortunately may not be able to release a review of Red Wolf. But we're gonna talk about it right now. Binx, I think Red Wolf has the potential to be one of the banger cards of the season. Last week, I came in at 4.5 or 4. Let me double-check my notes. I came in at a solid four stars, and I said amazing floor, amazing ceiling. What are your thoughts on Red Wolf?

Red Wolf Synergies

Bynx 45:38

I think Red Wolf is great. There's a lot of things going on with Red Wolf, right? Let's not think about the quick draw. Let's just think about the on reveal, plus one power for each card in your hand. If you're just playing it by itself and you have a full hand, you're getting a 2/7. 2/7's really, really good. Uh, so I think that just from a basal level, there's good stuff with this. Another really interesting thing about Red Wolf, and this was what caught my eye, like as someone who liked to play-- A long time ago, I was, I was much more like combo-focused in the decks that I would like to play, and like there was never really a good repeatable two-drop on reveal. Like Forge is kind of like the only two-drop that you really wanna like use Wong or anything like that to get multiple copies of its effect, and even that's like not really that good. But Red Wolf is one of those cards where like if you hit this like multiple times, and you you know, repeat it or like even like you can Abs man it or you know, you can play it alongside Wong, like if you play it on top of Wong, the card becomes a lot more threatening, and there's just very few cards in the two-drop slot specifically that have that ability. So even not even thinking about the quick draw aspect of it, I think that there's some interesting things that could be used with this card in certain combo decks that, uh, I th- I think will take a while for people to really Figure out and explore, but I, but I think that it's really, really exciting. Now as far as the Quick Draw goes, uh, if you can play this card in Quick Draw, and it's crazy, right? You're getting everything in your hand plus one. You're getting like a two-five, like you're basically playing a two-five Nikia. Really, really powerful. So when you don't Quick Draw it, it can feel not that good just at a basal level, especially if it's later in the game. It takes a lot of like deck building of actually making sure that you have a lot of cards in hand. There's some interesting cards that I think work well with it that a lot of people might not think about, like something like Merlin. Like Merlin always adds cards to your hand and kinda keeps your hand quite filled. So even if you're gonna be running like a smaller deck, like having cards like Merlin or cards like, like Kate Bishop that can keep your hand filled can make Red Wolf feel a lot better if you're just kinda playing it for its stats and the Quick Draw is just a little bit of a bonus. But there is another card that you mentioned a little bit earlier, the, uh, new Doc Ock, which is kind of meant as like a Quick Draw card, right? 'Cause you're taking a card from the left side of your hand, you're putting it at the top of your deck, guaranteeing that it's gonna be Quick Draw next turn. I feel like all the cards right now Doc Ock doesn't really make much sense with. Like I guess getting Psylocke is good, but then like it, it just feels like weird. But like when you get to a, enough Quick Draw cards, like if your deck has Jane Foster and Psylocke and now Red Wolf: Fractured Frontier, I feel like Dr. Octopus actually has a decent use case. And especially with Red Wolf there's some cool synergy where, you know, you put the Red Wolf into the, the bottom of your deck, but then you're adding a card into your hand. You're adding like a random card into your hand. It's getting extra power. Then you're drawing the Red Wolf, which then gets the extra plus one power for the card that's in the hand, and it then buffs all of your cards. So like I, I feel like Doc Ock actually will see some play once Red Wolf comes out, once there's that like kind of, uh, enough Quick Draw cards to make its effect worth it. This card still might be bad for the record. Like I haven't really played around with it too much. Like this card could still be really bad just 'cause it's like you're not really doing much on the turn. If you draw it late it feels pretty garbage. But I really, really like the idea of how Red Wolf: Fractured Frontier gives you enough Quick Draw cards to make this maybe a card that's playable.

Alex 48:59

I like that call out. I do think that, uh, Doc Ock is gonna be much more relevant after Red Wolf, which makes perfect sense, 'cause that's when we're gonna review it. I do wanna mention though, that like when I try to establish like what I'm thinking star rating-wise and like power level-wise on Red Wolf, I feel like Red Wolf and Chamber share a lot of similarities. Obviously they have the same stat line, but they're trying to utilize power in the hand. Obviously, the quick draw functionality is completely different. But I think about Chamber, who has been nerfed, I'll add. Basically you gain additional power, two plus power for every five drop and more in your hand. This gets plus one for every card in your hand. So kinda similar. They're kinda cut from the same cloth, one might say. But it's this quick draw effect, and so it gets me a little bit excited because quick draw, obviously, especially if you play it in like, I don't know, you hit a Sebastian Shaw, you hit a Brood, like there's all these cards I, you know... S- I think about Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer used to run two drops as a standard package, right? Like I remember the days where I used to like, early, early Surfer, I would run like Forge and like Goose, so I could like Goose and then put like Broods under that, and they couldn't access that location at all or contest with it, which is total cope now. Like, you would never do that. Even Forge gets cut f- cuts f- uh, from these decks. But like, I feel like Chamber is an excellent card in Marvel Snap, partially because obviously of the ramp archetype that we discussed with Psylocke, but the numbers and the design aren't th- that far off for Red Wolf. My only concern is that where Chamber got the nerfed, I'm using in air quotes, War Machine, I can't believe they nerfed War Machine to a five-drop. We get... I, I c- I can't even find it. Am I not spelling it right? I was... Oh, I did spell it wrong. It's Mad- the Mad Thinker, the one-two- This is a real

Bynx 50:46

card in the

Alex 50:52

game- This card exists that you're allowed to put in your deck. At the start of each turn after drawing, plus two power if your hand is full. So like, Chamber has War Machine, Red Wolf has Doc Ock and Mad Thinker. That's what like kinda breaks my heart

Bynx 51:04

Yeah, I don't, I don't know if I f- I'm, I don't know if I'm going down the same line that you're on to, to see where those compare really, but like- I'm

Alex 51:12

not saying play this. I'm just saying that, like, the support structure for Chamber was so much better than what I think the s- support structure for Red Wolf is. But, of course, we do have the brand-new Thanos, which is a quick draw haven. So I'm just saying that outside- Mm of the new Thanos, it's like Mad Thinker, yeah. I don't know.

Bynx 51:30

I think the cards kinda just fit a little bit of different roles. Like Chamber is, was so important because ramp always had this problem where you'd kinda do nothing, you'd ramp, and then you'd just have to win with your big cards. What Chamber introduced to that deck, which really made it get, get a lot better, is, like, you then have this really powerful card, and I think Moon Dragon is another card that not enough people are playing in ramp, where you play this two drop out, and then it kinda just stays on the field, and then it just explodes in power on turn six. So I feel like Chamber has a much different role, where it kind of, like, filled this massive need for a style and an archetype, uh, that Marvel Snap had, which then elevated it to the point where it was super, super competitive and actually, saw a bunch of nerfs come down, uh, because of it. Whereas Red Wolf I see it as being much more of a complementary card to just about any deck. I don't know how much, like, you have to think about the decks. I also think, you know, a- again, I'm talking about Thanos again. I also think Thanos is insane for Red Wolf. It is. Like, like you play, like... you know, you play out a stone on turn one, and then, like, you play another drawing stone on turn two. You draw the Red Wolf, and then you could play, like, another drawing stone and then Red Wolf, filling your hand, hitting all of your hand with plus one, getting this powerful card down on onto the field. I feel like it's really gonna, uh, need that kind of, like, card draw to go along with it, and maybe that'll come from, um, you know, King Yggdrasil is another card we haven't really talked about, which I think that, uh, helps out a lot with, like, quick draw stuff being able to pull a card out of your deck and get you a little bit of extra value. Like maybe a deck that wants to run, Yggdrasil, and Shadowlands Daredevil, and Adam Warlock, and maybe even Crystal is gonna love a card like Red Wolf that's constantly refilling, constantly cycling their hand, likes small things to just slam down. So yeah, I, I, I- I don't know if like, um, I, I like the idea of like the, the actual like power level and how they gain power between Red Wolf and Chamber, but I feel like the roles are gonna be a lot different once the, the decks actually come out for Red F- Wolf for what it's doing. But yeah, I'm actually really, really hyped for Red Wolf. I think that it has like a pretty high floor, and I think it has a pretty darn high ceiling as well. Like, uh, just like if you can get like plus six on it and then plus six in your hand, you're getting what, like a 213 worth of value if we end up playing all those cards. That's crazy. That's like a lot, you know? Like, so I, I think that there's a lot to like about Red Wolf, and, uh, again, it's gonna be a card that probably gonna take some time for people to figure out the exact right way to play it, but once they do, I think it's gonna be a really, really sneaky card that, uh, a lot of people aren't gonna expect.

Red Wolf Ratings

Alex 54:01

There's two things I wanna say. First, Mad Thinker I think Now, listen, I know you already shook your head. Mad Thinker is such a forgettable, terrible card. Now, you know as much as I do that we don't know any patch information or OTAs. I'm gonna make this call out. I think that within this month I think Mad Thinker gets changed from a one-two. Stays a one-two, but the text will be at the start of each turn after drawing plus one, uh, plus two power if your hand is full, in hand or in play. So they'll make it so that if it's in your hand, it'll still get the plus. I think they might make that change. Might be a little bit of a buff. And I'll also say that, um, I absolutely w- agree 100%. I will be, be at an airport when the, uh, Red Wolf comes out. It is 100% a Thanos card. There's no doubt in my mind that it is gonna be an absolutely tremendous performer in Thanos for all the reasons that you said. You get those stones being drawn, and then you're gonna have a relatively inexpensive card that you can play on curve, and plus one on a six-card hand and on stones and everything. That makes a pretty big difference. That makes a huge difference. And the reason why I know, and this sounds silly, but the reason why I knew in my heart I was gonna play it in Thanos anyways, like OG Thanos, was because my versions of OG Thanos, I only, I only play two versions, right? One, I play the Fire Hair Misery stuff, which we're not quite there yet. Maybe in the, maybe later on this season perhaps. But the other reason why is 'cause when I play Thanos, I always find a reason to throw Devil Dinosaur in that deck. 'Cause Devil Dinosaur is not great, but he's always nice and chunky-

Bynx 55:29

Four

Alex 55:30

when it comes down to Thanos, right? So I always put, uh, Devil Dinosaur in those decks. I love it, and as a result, if I'm put- if I'm putting Devil Dinosaur in that deck, I think Red Wolf's gonna go in it as well. So I'm with you. I'm a strong four-star Red Wolf. I think it's particularly very good. The four is perhaps not great at times, but I think that in a Thanos deck, which is exactly where it's gonna be, it's gonna be an excellent card. So, uh, yeah, man, I'm with you.

Bynx 55:56

I'm also gonna go with four stars. I think that it's a card that's gonna mature really, really well, and that there's gonna be other cards that come out in the future that's gonna make this even better, and I think it's gonna take a while for people to, uh, really work through it. Then one last thing on the Thanos thing is that, you know, I was playing Thanos, uh, yesterday. There's not many two-drops that are good in Thanos. Like, there's, like, Strange Supreme, but then, like, kinda shuts off your Mockingbird synergy, and it kind of, like, feels weird sometimes. Like, you really have to build around that card. Like, I was playing, like, Iron Patriot. I was trying, like, Starhawk. So I actually do think that Red Wolf fills a pretty big need in Thanos, which is, like, a really good two-drop. So, like, not only does it, like, work well in Thanos, but I also think Thanos needs a card like this to really, uh, push up. So expect a lot of Thanos this month. I that is my big call-out. I think that Thanos is gonna be a card that people are gonna be calling... the old Thanos, not the new Thanos. I think people are gonna be calling for that card to be nerfed by the end of the month when the rest of these quick draw cards come out.

Alex 56:53

Last time Thanos had a locked-in two-drop was Jeff, the Baby Land Shark. When the Time Stone gave one extra power, you threw down the Professor X on turn four, and then you had the optionality of Jeff into the lane as well. That was the last time, I feel like. And I think that Red Wolf is going to, uh, be a major contributor there. And that's a long time ago. I'm glad that they changed that 'cause man, that was uninteractive.

Wrap Up and Plugs

Alex 57:16

My man Binks, I really appreciate you being out here this week. And, uh, you know what? Every single person watching here has to hit that subscribe button and subscribe to you, 'cause I think you're producing absolutely fantastic content. And uh, I think your stream is a ton of fun too.

Bynx 57:30

Yeah, I usually go live somewhere between like 1:00 and 2:00 PM Central Time Monday, then Wednesday through Friday, and then Tuesdays I put out a new video that I record offline, and then I do what I call degen hours on Tuesday, which usually starts around 9:00 PM, goes to about 2:00 AM. So if you're a little bit of a late night, Tuesday's the night for you. Uh, around the afternoon y- you'll catch me Monday, and then Wednesday through Friday.

Alex 57:51

Lots of options to watch Binks' content, and uh, definitely interact because it is some of the best content in Marvel Snap. Thank you so much for watching, uh, everyone. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of you. It's an absolutely fantastic start to the new season of Marvel Snap, and it just might get better. As they say, it's a great time to be a Marvel Snap player, and we'll see you on the next one.