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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 December 10, 2024
This week, we get the newest Series 5 card Peni Parker. Joining her will be the return of the Series 4 card Gladiator and Series 5 card Sasquatch (soon to be Series 4 after the Series Drop on December 10, 2024)!
Peni Parker
Decks with Peni Parker
Decks with SP//dr
It’s week 2 of this Marvel Rivals Season, and with it comes our next new card Peni Parker! She is a 2-Cost, 3-Power card with the ability “On Reveal: Add Sp//dr to your hand. When this merges, you get +1 Energy next turn.” Sp//dr is a 3-Cost, 3-Power card with the ability “On Reveal: Merge with one of your cards here. You can move that card next turn.” To clarify Peni Parker‘s ability, the extra Energy is gained only when Peni is merged with another card. Sp//dr is simply a way to guarantee a chance to enable her each game.
Peni Parker is a very interesting card, but I’m not sold she is a good card. To start, her energy boost is a bit of a non factor. There are currently 4 cards that can merge with Peni; 5 if you include Phoenix Force. You won’t consistently get energy from her, so you can’t build around that part of her ability unless you want to ramp out a 5-Cost card.
The other half of her ability gives you an expensive Hulkbuster with a 1-time movement. A [3/3] is very under-statted for a 3-Cost, so you are really only playing this card for the movement or to play on curve. So if both halves of Peni’s ability are lackluster, how do you utilize her? Let’s take a look at a few decks.
Possible Meta Deck
This is the most popular idea for Peni: A Wiccan deck that uses her for a perfect curve into Wiccan. You can also use Agony with Peni to ramp out Wiccan on turn 3, ignoring the need for SP//dr completely. If you want a usage for SP//dr, it works well on Captain Marvel for the end of the game, or on Nocturne to transform another location. You can find many different versions of Peni Wiccan decks, but that’s because that seems to be the only idea most of us have to utilize this card.
Low Collection Level Decks
CanadianAlfredo
Peni is tough for low CL to utilize well. Her best usage is with pure move decks. The SP//dr can let you move your Multiple Man or Vulture, which is difficult to consistently do at low CL. With Hulkbuster, you can aim for a big Multiple Man that you can duplicate and move a few times, and finish with Heimdall. Merging with any card besides Multiple Man or Vulture nets a very low value play, so its a very specific combo to utilize. If you use the ramp from Peni, you can potentially play Heimdall on turn 5, and relocate your highest Power card with Doctor Strange on turn 6.
Fun Peni Parker Deck
CanadianAlfredo
This is an all-in combo deck that wants Human Torch to grow as large as possible so that The Living Tribunal can win you the game. Bounce cards let you play key cards multiple times, as well as protect from tech cards. The role Peni plays is simply giving your torch another way to move and gain Power. In a perfect world, you can play Araña, Peni, Agony + Human Torch, and Iron Fist + SP//dr. This would give your Human Torch 18 Power and a free move going into turn 5. You can bounce him with Beast or Falcon + Black Swan to give you a 72 Power Human Torch at least using Iron Fist again. For an alternate win condition, use Multiple Man to receive the buffs. His movement will spread Power naturally, bypassing the need to draw Tribunal. The deck is sure to be inconsistent, but it can be a fun deck to mess around with.
Peni Parker Prediction
I don’t think its a surprise to say I don’t think Peni Parker will be a good card. A niche ramp card with an over-costed Hulkbuster isn’t exactly a thrilling ability. I hope I’m wrong on this one, but playing a [3/3] with a single use move sounds like you are asking to fall behind on tempo. Even with Wiccan, you are spending 2 turns to play 7 Power so you can curve into ramp.
With cards being so hard to acquire, you have to pick which cards are worth going for. Peni doesn’t strike me as better than other cards this season, making her an easy new card to skip in favor of stronger abilities. If I had to take a guess on which new card would fast track itself to Series 4, it would be Peni Parker.
Gladiator
Decks with Gladiator
Returning again to the Spotlight cache system is Gladiator! This is a very popular card for both Power and disruption. His ability can let you waste your opponent’s tech cards, high value cards like Iron Man and Wong, as well as finishers like Hela! His 3/8 stat line is way above normal for a 3-Cost card, making him a great value. If he can’t destroy the card, a Shang-Chi can usually clean up any big target left behind.
PulseGlazer
Gladiator is often a popular choice for mill decks. He can give you a strong body on the board while also destroying your opponent’s deck. He combos well with Fenris Wolf as a way to get you a free card on your board. As mentioned before, Shang-Chi can pick up any large target left behind. Gladiator also works well with Grand Master for an extra trigger, as well as Yondu to help make your target a worthy kill.
Gladiator has been around for quite some time now, so it’s no surprise how useful he can be. He can see dips in play rate based on if the meta revolves around playing big cards, such as Surtur or Hela decks. While his ability is worth owning, he is a Series 4 card, making him much easier to access than Series 5 cards. If you don’t own Gladiator yet, I would definitely recommend him if you enjoy mill, Sera control, or Silver Surfer cooks.
Sasquatch
Bringing this week to a close is the return of Sasquatch! This is a card that never really found a place in the meta. Ideally it works with bounce, but you don’t want to dump your hand early just to play him. He was in a very strong Skaar deck that used Mysterio to cheat him out early, but the deck died out once Mockingbird was nerfed to 9 Power. The card now is a bit of a niche pick, but he is still playable.
den
This Thanos deck utilizes the same synergy with Skaar that Sasquatch’s previous deck had. To cheat him out early, you can utilize the Infinity Stones. He synergies well with Caiera as well, giving him protection from Shang-Chi when you play him early. His utility stops there, as his entire usage is in dropping Power at a discounted rate.
Sasquatch is a fun card idea, but ultimately isn’t worth building around. A 4/10 is very common now, and Sasquatch needs you to play 2 cards in a turn just to meet that basic stat line. You can definitely make decks that get good value from him, but his trickiness is being consistent. If you don’t draw enough small cards early game, Sasquatch becomes too expensive and stays in your hand all game. I would hope to see a buff to this card with his upcoming Series Drop this patch, but we won’t have to wait long to know if it will happen!
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 the studio NetEase Games showcasing their Marvel Rivals variant of Peni Parker!
This is a Gladiator variant from artist Don Aguillo, who has 4 total Snap credits. One of which releases later this season!
Known for their oil on canvas style art, this Sasquatch variants comes from artist Kai Lun Qu!
Should I Cache In?
This week copies last week’s annoying lineup of Series 5-5-4, which will soon become 5-4-4 with the upcoming Series Drop. This gives us another week of low value for your keys. Gladiator is the star of the cache, offering a range of strong decks he gets utilized in. Sasquatch is a fun Power-slam card with very niche usage. Peni Parker looks very underwhelming to me in her current state.
This week my recommendation is to Hoard Your Caches. It’s no secret this is a low value week across the board. Gladiator is the only worthy card unless Sasquatch gets a buff soon, which seems unlikely with a Series Drop happening. Keys are hard to collect fast enough, so this is a great week to build some back up while we wait for a better value.
Wrap Up
Do you think Peni Parker 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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