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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 August 20, 2024
This week, we get the newest Series 5 card Speed! Joining him will be the return of Series 5 cards Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Iron Lad!
Speed
Decks with Speed
We are already halfway through the Young Avengers Season, which means we have our 3rd new card of the month! This week introduces Speed! He is a 3-Cost, 3-Power card with the ability “Ongoing: +1 Power for each turn in which you spent all your Energy.” If you play on curve the entire match, Speed can become a [3/9]! Realistically though, he will often average out at a [3/6] or [3/7] in most matches you use him.
His ability is less restrictive than a card like Wiccan. You can miss a turn and still get good value out of him. On the other hand, his ability isn’t very attractive in a Cost slot that has the most competition. This begs the question, which decks actually want to use Speed over another card?
Possible Meta Deck
CanadianAlfredo
As a 3-Cost, Speed naturally gravitated toward Silver Surfer decks. These decks want raw Power, and the ability to Power dump on turn 6 is an added bonus. You can high roll with Nova into Forge for maximum Speed benefit, but he will often be a [3/6] or [3/7] without a Surfer buff. With Surfer, he Will often hit high Power outputs each game, especially if Surfer can trigger twice with Wong or Absorbing Man.
Low Collection Level Deck
CanadianAlfredo
As an Ongoing card, Speed works well with other Ongoing cards. He can be boosted by Onslaught or buffed by Spectrum. His high Power makes him capable of holding down a location by himself with the assistance of Mister Fantastic and Klaw. In an ideal situation, you can place Speed on one location, Namor on another, and the rest of your cards in the center. This lets you contest all locations early, allowing you to play your Klaw on turn 5, and your finisher on turn 6.
Speed Prediction
On paper, Speed should be great! He has good stats and doesn’t require any build around. In functionality, I struggle to find decks where you want raw stats over a strong ability. I can’t even think of a “fun deck” that uses Speed in any exciting way. You ultimately have to cut a card somewhere to make room for him, so his biggest weakness seems to be fighting for the most competitive Cost slot in the game.
I’m sure Speed will perform just fine. With that said, he will likely be a solid B-tier card that gets slotted into a “Good Cards” deck for raw Power with no deck requirements. Speed is a card you can pick up and be satisfied with, or skip out and be equally satisfied with saving your keys.
Jeff the Baby Land Shark
Decks with Jeff the Baby Land Shark
If you haven’t heard the news, IT’S JEFF WEEK! Lots of Jeff-themed events take place this week to celebrate everyone’s favorite baby land shark. Kicking off the week is putting Jeff into this week’s Spotlight Cache! You can also catch a Storm variant (featuring Jeff) in Twitch Drops from August 19th – August 27th. The next League will also be starting later this week, and will be centered around (you guessed it) Jeff!
What’s all the fuss about Jeff anyways? Well, Jeff is arguably one of the best cards in the game. His versatility lends him to be useful in a large portion of meta decks. His ability, while simple, makes him perfect to tempo out on turn 2, or to hold until later game. He can access restricted locations, make an extra seat on The Space Throne, or even bypass Sandman‘s restriction.
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To showcase his strength, this a Tier-1 meta deck that utilizes Jeff in different ways. First, he can be played simply on turn 2. You aren’t punished for early plays, since he can be moved late game to readjust your Power. Second, he can bypass the Sandman restriction, allowing you to play Jeff plus one other card (while your opponent can only play one card).
Jeff can go into so many decks and be useful every time. He is easily one of the best cards in the game, and a card new players should definitely aim to collect.
Iron Lad
Wrapping up this week is another stellar card, Iron Lad! This is another card that is arguably one of the best in the game. His ability can snowball games in your favor, especially in a deck with powerful effects. His usefulness isn’t as wide ranged as Jeff is, but he significantly increases the consistency of his best decks.
PulseGlazer
Speaking of best decks, Iron Lad fits perfectly with the classic Wong Odin decks. Every card Iron Lad can copy is a positive effect for you. Either you get a solid effect, double up on a good effect, or get a good ability with better stats than another card (like Jeff or Nightcrawler).
Iron Lad doesn’t belong in every deck, but he is truly a card worth owning. Like Jeff, Iron Lad is a card I highly recommend for new players. If you don’t own him yet, this is a great time to pick him up without using Collector’s Tokens.
Spotlight Variants
If you already own the cards the Spotlight Cache offers, one of these variants 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 be available after 1 full year of time has passed.
After the year, they will be available for purchase from the Daily Offer. 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.
As this month’s featured artist, Flaviano Armentaro showcases his Speed variant this week!
You can’t have Jeff week without a new Jeff variant! This one is by fan favorite Max Grecke!
The familiar name Eduardo Mello returns with the first of his new line of “Hi Jeff!” variants to celebrate Jeff week, starring Iron Lad!
Should I Cache In?
This week retains the maximum value of three Series 5 cards. Iron Lad and Jeff are 2 of the best cards in the game, which really pumps up the value of this week’s cache. Speed looks like a solid “OK” card. He’s nothing flashy, but nothing to ignore with his potential stats.
This week I recommend Caching In IF you need Jeff or Iron Lad. The value of the returning cards is as good as you can ask for. Speed isn’t worth a cache by himself, but he’s worth picking up if you already need another card this week. If you already have Jeff and Iron Lad, it’s likely best you save your caches for a more unique premiere card.
Wrap Up
Do you think Speed 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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