Table of Contents
Welcome back to our new weekly series Cache-ing In! Each week, we break down what cards will be available in the new Spotlight Caches, as well as the Spotlight Variants! The goal is to help you determine if you should “Cache in” for the content, or hoard for a better week.
Spotlight Cache Week of January 7, 2025
This week, we get the newest Series 5 card Victoria Hand! Joining her will be the return of the Series 4 card Grand Master and Series 5 card
Card Acquisition Update
Please note, the patch update on January 14, 2025 will increase the amount of Collector’s Tokens received for duplicates in the Spotlight Cache from 1,000 to 2,000 as per the card acquisition improvement update.
The patch goes live around 8 hours before the next Spotlight Cache reset, so players can wait to open until then. Please also see the reply from Griffin of Second Dinner for confirmation:
This is a great fringe case to note! You are correct, there will be a small window on the Tuesday of the patch update where after you download it you could spend Spotlight Keys and earn the increased duplicate rate of 2000 Tokens before the Weekly Reset. We’ll leave it up to players to make the call on if they want to wait for that chance or not.
An additional callout that we’ll be sure to add to the patch notes as well: players NEED to update to the new patch on the 14th BEFORE spending Keys in order to get the new duplicate rate of 2000 Tokens!
Victoria Hand
Decks with Victoria Hand
Happy New Year and welcome to the latest season of Marvel Snap! Kicking off the first Spotlight Cache of the year is the premiere of Victoria Hand! She is a 2-Cost, 3-Power card with the ability “Ongoing: Your cards that were created in your hand have +2 Power.” This means she behaves similar to Quinjet, but she gives +2 Power instead of -1 Cost.
This card looks like a nice addition to a struggling archetype. The Collector + Devil Dinosaur decks have been the primary usage for card generators since the game’s launch (excluding old Loki). Victoria Hand gives those random cards you generate a little extra boost to make them worth playing. The Ongoing part of this card is what really makes her stand out. You don’t have to curve her out on turn 2 to get good value. She can be played on turn 6 and buff all cards in play that were created in your hand. This gives her an easy way to dodge counters like Enchantress, Red Guardian, or Rogue.
Possible Meta Deck
CanadianAlfredo
This is a return to form with a classic Dino deck. Play your Quinjet and The Collector, generate a bunch of cards, finish the game with Devil Dinosaur. Victoria Hand gives you a new finisher option by dropping a +2 bump to all of your generated cards in play. She can also be copied by Mystique on turn 5 or 6, giving you a +4 overall Power increase. It’s kind of like a new Cerebro, where you want to play random cards instead of cards of the same Power. Sentinel works great in this list, as he synergizes with Quinjet, Collector, Victoria Hand, Mockingbird, and Devil Dinosaur. The deck has plenty of cards you can cut or substitute, making it very easy to adapt to your collection.
Low Collection Level Decks
CanadianAlfredo
Devil Dinosaur decks are already relevant for low CL players, and Victoria Hand simply helps improve aspects of the deck. It is similar to the meta deck, but low CL has way less card generators. This means you have to rely on Sentinel and Moon Girl to do the heavy lifting. You won’t get tons of random cards on the board with this deck, but even 1 or 2 cards gives Victoria Hand a [2/5] or [2/7] value.
Fun Victoria Hand Deck
PulseGlazer
This discard deck leverages Victoria Hand to buff Swarm(s). If you can discard Swarm and bunch of times, they become a [0/5] you can flood the board with! Alternatively, you can discard Helicarrier and play out any random cards you get to give them buffs. It’s definitely a hot take on this classic discard list, but it has potential.
Victoria Hand Prediction
Victoria Hand looks like a exciting new addition to existing archetypes. She offers a solid ability that is both flexible and scalable. You can wait until the end of a game to determine if she is worth playing or not, so you can maximize value each match. Her effect is simple enough to measure her capabilities, but interesting enough to potentially shake up the meta.
I’m really excited for this card. Thanks to Sentinel and Swarm, I think she will have some easy, go-to homes that she will see play in. I don’t think this card is a must have, but she looks like a low A, high B-tier card that can open up deck building options for you.
Grand Master
Decks with Grand Master
Joining as our second card for the week, we have the return of Grand Master! This is a combo card that lets you retrigger important effects on your cards. At first release, this card was very understated because the developers were cautious of his potential strength. Over the course of several buffs, he has finally found a few different homes across the meta.
den
Discard is one of the oldest archetypes in the game, but it recently has been including Grand Master as a way to double up on specific discard options. Gambit in particular can get you 2 discards and 2 destroys opposed to having a card like Lady Sif. Grand Master isn’t required to be competitive, but he definitely enhances the deck.
Grand Master has definitely proven himself to be a good card. Between discard, mill, and combo decks, he has plenty of homes to utilize his potential. If you didn’t pick him up during his previous feature, now is a great time to! He also is now Series 4, making him easier to pick up with tokens.
Kate Bishop
Wrapping up the week is the return of former season pass card,
Kate has clear synergy with the new card Victoria Hand, but this deck focuses on her synergy with Clog. Obviously the acid arrow if your best pull of the arrows, giving a 1-Cost Clog option. If you don’t draw it though, her basic arrow is low enough Power that Viper can send it over without benefiting your opponent too much. For more advanced plays, you can use your grapple arrow to pull a clog card after it changes sides. This can be useful if you want to play Green Goblin, but think they might fill the target location. If they fill it, Goblin safely switches side in a different location. If they don’t fill it, the grapple arrow will pull it over and safely clog it.
Spotlight Variants
If you already own the cards the Spotlight Caches offer, one of the variants below will take its place! If you own none of the cards, the variants will appear after you open all four caches. Spotlight Variants are time exclusive to their release week and will only become available again after one full year has passed.
After one year, these Spotlight Variants will be available for purchase from the Daily Offer section of the shop. They will cost 2,400 Gold per variant. So, if any of these Spotlight Variants feel like a must have for you, make sure to Cache In if you have enough caches saved to guarantee the pull!
For this month’s featured artist, we have Pandart Studio‘s take on Victoria Hand!
Artist Alberto Dal Lago, who was featured during Blink’s season, launches their take on Grand Master this week!
If you like unique variants, this Kate Bishop is the only art in Snap by artist salmon4dinner!
Should I Cache In?
This week gives us the lowest value of the season at a Series 5-5-4 spread. Grand Master is a solid combo card that has finally found a place in the meta.
This week, my recommendation is to Cache In! All of the cards this week are a great addition to any collection. While the Series value may be lower, the card ability value more than makes up for it. If you are low on keys though, I wouldn’t say these cards are must have to be competitive.
Wrap Up
Do you think Victoria Hand will be a good card? Will you be Cache-ing In this week? Let us know in the comments! For the full schedule, check out our guide below:
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