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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 3, 2024
This week, we get the newest Series 5 card Luna Snow. Joining her will be the return of the Series 4 card Lady Deathstrike and Series 5 card X-23 (soon to be Series 4)!
Luna Snow
Decks with Luna Snow
It’s time for Snap’s first crossover season with Marvel Rivals! Leading the season’s first cache is the launch of Luna Snow! She is a 3-Cost, 5-Power card with the ability “On Reveal: Add an Ice Cube to each side of this location”. The Ice Cube is a 1-Cost, 0-Power token card with the ability “At the start of each turn, get +1 energy. Then destroy this if your side is full here.”
Luna Snow is an interesting new ramp card. These type of cards typically come with a downside to give you a penalty for getting big cards out faster. Her downside is giving your opponent a ramp card for free. Similarly to other ramp cards, there are ways you can mitigate this downside. You can utilize early game clog cards like White Widow and Titania , which can cause your opponent’s Ice Cube to break. You can use disabling cards like Red Guardian or Electra to mitigate its effect. To see different ways you can utilize this card’s ability, lets look at some decks she could see play in.
Possible Meta Deck
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As a 3-Cost, Luna Snow has good synergy with Silver Surfer. In this deck, Luna can be used to ramp out Sera on turn 4. This can give you some different play lines post-Sera. You can copy her with Mystique and play Killmonger, which would remove both player’s energy boost, but you know have -2 Cost on every card you have, so you don’t need the energy anymore. Alternatively, you can play Red Guardian to disable their Ice Cube and create a -2 Power clog card. You could also play Wong and Mystique together on turn 5, allowing a big payoff on turn 6 with Silver Surfer and Ironheart. If you fail to draw Sera, the extra energy can allow you to play 2 3-Costs cards on turn 5, followed by Silver Surfer and Absorbing Man on turn 6.
Low Collection Level Decks
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I will be showcasing a zoo deck as a fun deck to play, but it includes many Series 5 cards. Luna Snow works well with zoo decks, so I’m including a low CL version of the deck here that any player can make guaranteed! The ramp from the Ice Cube can benefit you in a few ways. You can ramp out your Blue Marvel on turn 4 and play Iron Man on turn 5, as well as the other way around. If you don’t have a good curve to utilize the extra energy, Sunspot can collect the leftovers and grow in size. To help you mitigate the extra energy your opponent gets, you have Electra to swiftly remove it. That Ice Cube also gets the buff from Ka-Zar, giving you another card to buff without packing your deck with too many 1-Cost cards.
Fun Luna Snow Deck
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For players with a higher CL and more cards unlocked, you can use this version of a zoo deck to utilize the synergy with Luna’s 1-Cost Ice Cube. You have a few strong points of value you can generate from the Ice Cube. You can play Nebula in the same location, forcing your opponent’s to break their Ice Cube or watch Nebula’s Power grow. You can utilize Caiera to protect your Ice Cube, preventing it from breaking with a full location. Marvel Boy can buff the Ice Cube each turn both cards are in play. The Ice Cube also is a generated card, giving Mocking Bird a discount. All of these usages don’t even get into the ramp potential the card gives!
Luna Snow Prediction
At first glance, I thought Luna Snow would be a pretty mediocre card. The more I think about her ability though, the more potential I see. There are several viable ways to mitigate the downside of giving your opponent energy, making it more viable in different decks. The utility of the 1-Cost also gives you more room to explore zoo decks. I’m sure player will find other usages for this card as well once she goes live.
I’m not convinced she is the next S-Tier card, but she does look very solid and a lot of fun. Most ramp cards in Snap see a healthy amount of play, so I could see Luna Snow fitting into that pattern very easily. Red Guardian is a prevalent tech card right now though, so she could be a liability in certain circumstances. Overall, I’m very optimistic and excited for her release!
Lady Deathstrike
Decks with Lady Deathstrike
Joining as the second card this week is Lady Deathstrike! This card has had a weird history. She was virtually unplayed at launch, which lead to her inevitable buff. That buff made the card surprisingly good, but too good that the developers quickly nerfed her. After that nerf, Lady Deathstrike never really recovered and sank down into obscurity once more. She isn’t unplayable in her current state, but you rarely see a strong meta deck with her inclusion.
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This list is a Annihilus deck with some negative Power inflictors in it. With U.S. Agent and Man-Thing, you can potentially lower the Power of cards enough to allow Lady Deathstrike to destroy them. You can also use her to remove your Hood, Void, or Mysterio Clone from a location of Annihilus doesn’t show up in time. This list does run White Widow, but destroying cards with Lady Deathstrike can let the Widow's Kiss be a big Power swing on the last turn.
Lady Deathstrike is not a card I would recommend. While you can cook up some decks with her like destroy, she ultimately isn’t consistent enough compared to other card options you have. With her also being a Series 4 card, she’s pretty easy to buy with Tokens if she ever becomes meta again.
X-23
Decks with X-23
Closing out this week’s cache is the return of X-23! Unlike Lady Deathstrike, X-23 is a destroy staple. Her ability to ramp out key cards makes her pivotal in decks like classic destroy and even Galactus! Her discard function rarely sees play, as there are no discard decks that really want to sacrifice a card for a one-time ramp.
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You may recognize this classic destroy list. It has stood the test of time in Snap as the ideal list of destroy cards. It is also X-23’s primary deck. Her ramp allows you to play out specific combos like Knull on turn 5 and Arnim Zola on turn 6. She can also help ensure you have enough energy to constantly destroy your Deadpool or Wolverine each turn. Without X-23, this Deck loses a very strong play line that can be difficult to contest without proper tech cards.
X-23 has been out for quite some time now, so many of you already own her. If you don’t own her yet, she is a must have for destroy lists. If you don’t want to spend keys on her, she is included in the upcoming Series Drop scheduled for next week. She will move down to Series 4, making her much cheaper to buy outright with Tokens.
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 Luna Snow!
Debuting their first variant, this Lady Deathstrike is by artist Creees!
This X-23 variant is one of 2 available variants by artist Stephen Segovia!
Should I Cache In?
This week has a more complicated value than normal weeks. While it is a 5-5-4 week now, it will soon be a 5-4-4 week once the upcoming Series Drop goes live. For that reason, we are analyzing the lower, upcoming value. Lady Deathstrike is an mediocre card that is easy to pass on. X-23 is a must have destroy utility card. Luna Snow looks like a fun new ramp card that could open up new play lines for existing decks.
For this week, my recommendation is to Hoard Your Caches unless you are missing X-23. While her value is dropping, is still a great card to own. For most players who already own her, this is an easy skip week in terms of value. Luna Snow could definitely be a card worth owning, but she isn’t worth 4 keys by herself. It’s a good week to use Tokens if you have any saved up for a newly released card.
Wrap Up
Do you think Luna Snow 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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