Spotlight Cache Week of April 9, 2024: Are U.S. Agent, Jeff, and Mirage Worth It?

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.

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Spotlight Cache Week of April 9, 2024

This week, the featured cards will be the new Series 5 card U.S. Agent, as well as the return of Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Mirage!

U.S. Agent

Variants

U.S. Agent

Ongoing: 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards here have -4 Power.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with U.S. Agent

Kicking off week two of this season is U.S. Agent! He is a 2-Cost, 3-Power card with the ability Ongoing: 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards here have -3 Power. This card is essentially the opposite of Man-Thing, but is that a good thing? I think this card may suffer from the same issues that Man-Thing faces: In order to get value, you need to hurt your opponent while not hurting yourself. This Ongoing ability afflicts both sides of a location, which means you either need to avoid playing high-cost cards in that location or use Luke Cage.

It’s also important to note that the ability only affects 4-, 5-, and 6-Cost cards. You don’t usually see a board flooded with high cost cards, and especially not all in one location. This means you will likely struggle to find value in enough match ups to make him worth using.

Despite his theoretical flaws, he could be useful in the right decks. This Zoo deck won’t have much issue dodging the negative Power from U.S. Agent with most cards costing three or less. The curve of the deck also allows you to hold the Agent until the final turn. This can help you maximize the effect by placing him on a location where your opponent already has high cost cards played.

U.S. Agent Zoo

Created by CanadianAlfredo

, updated 1 month ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

2.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

To use U.S. Agent‘s ability more synergistically, this deck can take advantage of the negative Power to fuel Abomination. By locking out a location, you can also force your opponent to play their high cost cards into one location and therefore make U.S. Agent more effective. Moon Girl also allows for a few interesting play lines: Double She-Hulk, Abomination, and even U.S. Agent! Two Agents in one location means -6 power per high cost card, which could be detrimental to certain decks you might face.

Evolved U.S. Agent

Created by CanadianAlfredo

, updated 1 month ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

4x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Overall, I think U.S. Agent is the big dud card of the season. The fact that Man-Thing isn’t meta relevant is a signal to this card’s future. Especially while players are playing Luke Cage in Toxic Sera, this card just isn’t worth the negatives it brings.

Jeff the Baby Land Shark

Variants

Jeff the Baby Land Shark

You can move this once. Nothing can stop you from moving or playing this to any location.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Jeff the Baby Land Shark

All hail the return of the legendary, all-powerful, and adorable Jeff the Baby Land Shark! Simply put, Jeff is arguably one of the best cards in the game. His versatility combined with his low cost makes him a card you could slot into almost any deck and see good results. His ability to be played or moved into any location without restriction makes him an excellent card against restrictive locations like Sanctum Sanctorum, The Space Throne, Crimson Cosmos, and even a Flooded location! Even if you play him into a location before these locations appear, he can simply move over to them!

I could highlight a dozen different decks featuring Jeff with how widely used he is. This week, I’m showcasing a top tier meta deck that ranked at the top of our latest Meta Tier List. The deck itself isn’t new, but it’s strength has grown with the latest Angela buff and the recent Elsa Bloodstone change. Jeff helps the deck in a number of ways: he buffs Angela; he can be buffed by Elsa as the final card in a location; and he can move out to a different location to clear space for more cards for Elsa. He can even move into Kraven‘s location to provide an additional power boost! You could use Nightcrawler in place of Jeff in this deck, but Jeff is immune to Killmonger (which is a significant factor when Destroy decks are also in the meta).

Silky Smooth is Back! – Video Included – Zal Snap

Created by zall

, updated 1 month ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This deck is just one of many ways to utilize Jeff. To give you an idea of his flexibility, here’s a few decks he works well in:

• Lockdown
• Cerebro 3
• Electro / Sandman Ramp
• Thanos
• Loki
• Shuri

I think this shows the general idea. Jeff the Baby Land Shark is a great card that every player should have as a utility in their collection.

Mirage

Variants

Mirage

On Reveal: Copy the lowest-Cost card in your opponent’s hand into your hand. Give it +2 Power.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mirage

Last but not least this week is the return of Mirage! She is a decent card that primarily sees play in a single deck, Loki. While gaining your opponent’s card with +2 power can high roll you an amazing card, but, unfortunately, the fact that it is restricted to a copy of the lowest cost card often means the card usually isn’t useful to you. Loki helps balance out the lower rolls by simply transforming it into another card from your opponent’s deck. If you roll a good card like a [2/5] Jeff the Baby Land Shark or a [1/8] Demon, you can simply play it out for the stat advantage.

SpaceKitty (Shang/Zabu?)

Created by SavageYeti

, updated 2 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

With the recent change to Cable, Mirage has been replaced in the popular Loki decks. This leaves her in a rough place since she doesn’t have a competitive home in any other deck. Perhaps she will find a home in some new decks in the future. For now, this card is easily replaceable and not necessary for any collection.

Spotlight Variants

If you already own the cards the Spotlight Cache offers, one of these variants will take it’s 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, with no estimated time on when they will be available again: The developers recently mentioned they are looking to make Spotlight Variants available in the shop 1 year after their release, though no mention of cost yet. 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.

Viktor Farro launches his first line of variants to Snap this month! This week features Viktor’s take on U.S. Agent!

This adorable variant comes from the classic Eduardo Mello who creates the majority of Snap’s base art, as well as some variants.

Phil Noto returns for a second week to premiere his Mirage variant! This makes 2 of his 4 variants now released.

Should I Cache In?

This week keeps the standard value of two Series 5 cards and one Series 4 card. Jeff the Baby Land Shark is clearly the highlight of this cache. U.S. Agent looks lackluster at best, and Mirage has fallen out of favor in her best (and only) deck. It seems as though the developers are using Jeff as a way to drive interest in this week’s cache because the other cards aren’t that great. His last feature was at the start of December where he was grouped with a repeat of Man-Thing and Stegron. How often do you see those cards in the meta then versus now? You didn’t then, and you still don’t.

This week is a very simple recommendation. Hoard Your Caches unless you still need Jeff and don’t have enough Tokens. Jeff is really the only reason to open caches this week. Fortunately, with better caches on the horizon, this week makes for an easier decision to build your hoard.

Wrap Up

Do you think U.S. Agent 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: