Table of Contents
Hi! I’m Glazer of Snap Judgments, the official podcast of Marvel Snap Zone. I’ve been playing Marvel Snap since its global launch and never, since the start of the game, has resource planning been a more integral part of the Marvel Snap experience. With Spotlight Caches containing a new card every week, trying to plan to target the cards you want is key.
Today, I’ll be acting as your guide through every Marvel Snap Spotlight Cache rotations currently planned or datamined (keeping in mind the new cards and the cache contents itself can be changed before release), ranking them from most desirable to least. I’m going to put a special emphasis on released cards, since we cannot know how good the unreleased ones are (remember, we mostly thought Loki would be bad, but War Machine would be game-breaking). However, if you’d like to check out the preliminary reviews on all the upcoming cards, check them out:
Without further ado, here are your Spotlight Cache rankings with an explanation for each of the 13 weeks for which we have information.
12. November 19, 2024
This is one of the two weeks in which we don’t have the full information we need to make a decision. Malekith, the card currently datamined for the November 2024 Season, has no Power, Cost, or ability currently listed in the game. As such, what we’re evaluating are Copycat and Red Guardian.
Opening this week is not a bad idea. In getting Copycat, one would have access to one of the best and most played three-cost cards in the game. Copycat was stellar with Mill and Darkhawk strategies, but since she now copies instead of steals an ability, That means that the previously desired shuffle of the opponent deck is no longer there, as her ability instead gives you information without that shuffle about what your opponent is unlikely to draw. This is still a powerful card and effect, along with a card worth having.
Red Guardian is another good utility three and was one of the most played cards upon his release. Since then, Second Dinner has released an absolute ton of powerful cards in the three cost spot, notably the card that comes in the same week as this, and Red Guardian‘s play rate has plummeted. Still, Red Guardian is a solid card to open.
This week is severely held back by the lack of knowledge about Malekith. With that knowledge, this could shoot up the list, and even now, if you are sick of finding replacement three cost cards for numerous deck, this week is one-stop shopping to prevent that.
11. Novermber 12, 2024
Frigga, mother of Thor, is here in the same situation as his enemy, Malekith, as a card lacking any details beyond a name. As such, we’ll be discounting this card from our consideration.
Valentina is a fine card. She had a home in Noki (Loki-free Loki decks that ran Shadow King and Luke Cage) before those decks were changed and wiped out. She was also good in Alioth before the change to give that deck more cards meant she rarely had enough of an impact. She’s not a bad card to have, but spends more time on the sidelines than not.
This ranking above the prior week comes almost entirely down to Thena, the most important early game power in Marvel Snap. Thena is excellent, often in top meta decks, and in those, she’s just a requirement to play the best decks, particularly if you own cards like Kate Bishop and Kitty Pryde. Go get Thena, asap.
10. October 29, 2024
Decks with Anti-Venom
Decks with Ghost-Spider
Decks with Supergiant
The first full week we’re looking at has cards of wildly varied power and a high volatility.
Anti-Venom is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. He makes the top card of your deck a [0/0], which is amazing with a ton of powerful effects from Ongoing like Iron Man or Darkhawk and On Reveals like White Tiger or Doctor Doom. This card is likely to be a very strong build-around, but new cards are almost always both good and pushed, so we’re looking to the other cards releasing.
Ghost-Spider is a very strong card. This former Season Pass card is a staple in both
Supergiant has always been a card with potential, but the right deck for her hasn’t been discovered yet, so she remains a fringe card. There’s some possibility she works to counter Activate effectively, it’s equally as possible that she just remains tantalizing.
A lot of players are going to want Anti-Venom, surely, but what you get with that card seems incredibly unclear at this juncture.
9. October 8, 2024
I’m worried about how good Misery is. Her change from a [5/10] to a [4/7] makes me think she wasn’t performing as a 5-drop, and as far as 4s that go in Destroy, we now have Attuma for that spot. Worse, we’ve seen powerful On Reveal enablers disappoint in the past, as it took Grand Master forever to find a home. Still, we so rarely get Destroy cards, and 4-7 is still a very good power-to-cost-ratio, so this could end up working in either On Reveal or Destroy shells. I’m reasonably excited to try it in decks with cards like Wiccan, Sage, and White Tiger, as using this on White Tiger or Ironheart seems like it has potential.
War Machine is the poster-child for not judging a book by its cover in Marvel Snap, or rather not judging a card before it’s released. The card was expected to be meta and put an end to play of Storm and Professor X. It did neither and remains a hugely disappointing card.
Namora, however, is quite good. Underrated at release, few people own her, but she is quite strong, especially as cards like Attuma get rid of the junk meta. Owning Namora opens up some cheap decks that are not otherwise accessible, and that gives a nice boost to this week.
8. October 15, 2024
I think Scorn will be great. She’s scaling power for discard lists, as every time she’s discard she gets bigger and gives her power to a card in play. Silver Samurai, Blade, and Colleen Wing all absolutely love this card, as it likely just replaced Miek. It can, however, end up a clunky card drawn late, which may hurt it from being a full build-around. I totally want to Wong a cheap discard and let this go crazy, but that we can do that, that there’s a third card now that stays in hand after being discard could be huge. Even if that big play pattern doesn’t come together, Scorn in classic Discard, a deck that’s currently competitive at the top of the meta, seems awesome.
Sebastian Shaw is the other really great card this week. He’s only really at home in Silver Surfer lists, but Gwenpool finding a home in those decks has allowed Shaw to really shine. He can be played early with Forge, late after Gwenpool, and in either case buffed further by Silver Surfer or Cassandra Nova. That sounds like a card worth owning, especially given the quality of Silver Surfer decks currently.
Meanwhile, Jean Grey had a solid month or so before she faded back to obscurity. We have proof of concept that Jean Grey Ongoing decks can work in the right meta. That right meta, however, seems to be exceedingly rare.
Scorn seems great, but Jean being a card that’s not really worth owning and Sebastian Shaw being limited to one deck limit this week’s upside.
7. October 1, 2024
Scream seems absolutely incredible as a build-around. She scales up, stealing two power whenever an opponent’s card moves… not just gaining that power, but taking it from the moving card. Since she can be played on two, one trigger is an effective [2/6], two [2/10] (the stats she gains + the stats the opponent loses). Since she’s once per turn, there can be up to 5 moves from the opponent, which means a potential [2/18] worth of stats by the end of the game. This is obviously great against the little movers decks that are all over the place, but this is enough stats to potentially make a move opponent’s cards deck (think Aero, Polaris, Spider-Man) deck real.
When last we talked about this month, Man-Thing was a nothing card. That’s no longer the case, as Man-Thing moving to a [4/7] has made it one of the best cards in slot. Man-Thing has a ton of homes, notably being incredibly strong in junk shells, as well as just a good general good stuff card when paired with Luke Cage. When not paired with Luke, it’s a solid backup enabler for Ajax. Yes, Man-Thing is now a card worth owning.
Mobius M. Mobius is constantly in and out of the meta, but the card is so often a game changer. It makes playing against Loki feel fair, stomps out Black Swan (soon to be an Activate card), Beast, Death, Mockingbird, and more. Mobius may not be a card you need right now, but in Marvel Snap, it will be a card you need.
Mobius and Man-Thing are Series 4 cards, though, and as strong as this week is in raw power, the card series keeps this from the top tiers of the list.
6. October 22, 2024
Toxin is the single card I want most in the game. I love Bounce decks and a card that bounces its lane and gets +2 power for each bounced card? Yes, yes I do want bounce Carnage very badly. This card will basically immediately make Black Swan a go to as a [2/7] bounce card that goes with Falcon and Beast just seems absolutely amazing. Give me this card now.
If Zabu is reworked before this Spotlight, this week will shoot up the rankings. Formerly the best card in the game, changing an Ongoing to an On Reveal really wrecked this card. Whether it becomes Activate or is otherwise changed, this card seems like it can shake things up if properly restored. Right now, it’s a Series 4 former Season Pass that just isn’t played.
The third card is Elsa Bloodstone, another former Season Pass card. This is a severely underrated card, but the prevalence of Thena really pulled it out of a lot of decks. I like Elsa and think she’s underplayed, but that she’s underplayed means no one is really deckbuilding with her, leaving her a skippable card.
5. September 10, 2024
Madame Web is my pick of the single strongest card we have datamined. She’s a [2/1] that has the Ongoing ability You can move one of your other cards away from here each turn. That’s insanely strong with Move cards like Human Torch, Dagger, and Vulture, and she works amazingly with Hercules. She’s almost a guaranteed two moves for a key card and three immediately with Hercules. That’s 8-16 Power for Human Torch or a 15-21 Power Vulture. I cannot be more excited for this card.
Alioth is an amazing Arishem card, and right now, it’s probably the best 6-Cost card that’s meant to be played on that turn. There’s not really a replacement for Alioth anymore – the card has simply overtaken Doctor Doom, Magneto and any other 6. There are no two stronger cards than Alioth and Madame Web, but…
Silk isn’t very good right now. The current move decks just don’t need her, and they’re likely to need her even less with Madame Web and Araña come out. Silk had its day, but now it’s a Series 4 card without a good home.
If you need Alioth and will play Madame Web, this is an awesome week to open. Silk though, is both Series 4 and weaker than every Series 5 card from here on out.
4. September 17, 2024
In previous iterations of this article, this week was #1.
Araña seems so powerful and is exactly what Move needs. This Activate card pushes the last card you played to the right and gives it +2 power. That works incredibly well with Iron Fist or Hercules. It’s especially great with Human Torch because it immediately becomes a [1/8]. I’m super excited for this card. It’s probably not as good as Madame Web individually, but the two in concert are insanely strong; you can push a card into Madame Web who can then move it again next turn, and then you can Ghost-Spider it back to Madame Web! They even made this Cost 1!
Ms. Marvel is another former Season Pass card, and its dive from popularity is a lot of what has pushed this from the top spot. The rise of Juggernaut, junk, and Alioth have really put a damper on this once meta card. It’s still good, but no longer a must-have.
Finally, this is the first Spotlight appearance of Sage. Sage is an amazingly powerful card that was kept in check the week it released by the “Leech-on-4″ meta. So many people skipped it because of that, and they are now lacking one of the game’s strongest cards. This is the week to make up for that.
As good as Sage is, and Sage is great, Arana is a card you only need for move decks, and Ms. Marvel is good, but not great.
3. November 5, 2024
Fenris Wolf seems like he could be incredible. With the news that activate can happen after a card is revealed. a Wolf on the board makes for an insanely mean Shang-Chi or even Killmonger. Your downside here is just very low if you can kill anything of use that the opponent has, and since there’s no counter to activate this could be quite meta-warping, as even if its not great, we can see fewer Shang targets or the rise of Caiera as a response.
Not the only wolf coming this week, we have the return to Spotlights of Werewolf By Night. Now a [3/2], Werewolf is one of the most powerful cards in the game. Able to dodge tech cards thanks to his ability, Werewolf is the early scaler that bounce most wants right now, and, as such, ends up being one of the metagames most interesting and consistently powerful cards.
Annihilus is in and out of the meta, but whenever junk is good, Annihilus is great as both an enabler and counter. The Annihilus package of Sentry, Hood, and Anni is all but gone, but with Sersi, Man-Thing, Ajax, Hazmat, Debrii, Mysterio, and more, this card is still among the best in opening up powerful and interesting playlines and decks.
2. September 24, 2024
I almost had this week #1 and the big reason it isn’t is because I’m not sure where Skaar will land. The recent (as of writing) buff to Attuma has seemingly made Skaar meta. It’s really early to be sure about that, but a [6/11] that gets cheaper, well, we know how good Mockingbird and Sasquatch are – Skaar is likely to be pretty damn powerful when he finally does hit, as he seemingly is right now. If this continues, this week will be #1.
White Widow is already great. She’s probably better than Jeff right now, as she offers all the play control of Nebula plus clog and disruption. I think she’s the best 2-cost card in the game, and I don’t think its particularly close.
Finally, we have Scarlet Spider. This activate makes an exact copy of itself, which seems pretty awesome with a lot of strength pumps. We’ve seen how good that is with Brood, a 2-base Power card. Making a similar effect on a 5 is going to be crazy strong. This also seems great in lockdown, and, honestly, an all upside [4/10] just seems like a card I’d love to play.
1. September 3, 2024
The more I think of Silver Sable, the more I like her as a bounce card. If your opponent plays the card she hits, she’s a [1/5] off the bat, and if they don’t, she’s operated sort of like a Spider-Ham, keeping it in hand. That seems pretty great, and is made even better by bounce where she immediately goes to [1/9] on 2 plays if the opponent plays the cards. This is just way better than Selene, right?
U.S. Agent was buffed almost as soon as he came out of Spotlights, and so few people have the card. Those that do know that in the right deck, whether a low-curve deck or a Luke Cage deck, he often represents like [2/11] in power, if not more. That’s phenomenal, and once more people have U.S. Agent, I expect it to become more and more meta.
Mockingbird was nerfed to a [6/10] and is still one of the best and most-played cards in Marvel Snap. Owning this card opens up a ton of decks that just don’t exist without her, and her versatility in everything from Token decks to Arishem decks is absolutely the real deal.
A key bounce card, a great, under-owned card, and one of the best cards in the game make this the best week to open Spotlights.
Conclusion
And that’s my ranking of every Spotlight Cache coming to Marvel Snap. Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think!
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