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In this week’s Marvel Snap Spotlight Cache rotation, Joaquin kicks off the new Brave New World Season as the latest Series 5 card. Makkari also makes its second appearance since Arishem‘s season in 2024, and Namora making its third return.
Joaquin Torres Falcon
The newest card (and first card of the new Brave New World Season) (or JT for brevity), is a 3-Cost, 4-Power card with the ability “Ongoing: The On Reveal abilities of your 1-Cost cards here happen twice.”
JT is basically a pre-discounted Wong that only doubles 1-Cost On Reveals. 3-Cost seems like a high trade off for being restricted to only 1-Cost card triggers, so why use the card at all? My first thought is to use him with Bounce, but the curve doesn’t make sense. Bounce needs to pick up the 1-Cost cards by picking them up, but JT would also be picked up by Beast or Toxin. His inclusion in Bounce is definitely possible, but I don’t think this is where he will excel long term.
Den has a great article about some interesting applications for Joaquin in his Day 1 Strategy Guide. To give some different potential uses for the card, I have thought of a couple of different applications you could also use.
Possible Meta Deck
CanadianAlfredo
Since Bounce isn’t looking to exciting, my first thought goes to Squirrel Girl, and therefore Patriot. A 1-Cost Ultron seems pretty good for Patriot, and JT can act as a better curve Wong. As a backup plan, you can use The Hood to give you a bunch of Demons that you can flood the board with, which also get boosted by Patriot and Ka-Zar. Moonstone can boost your JT and Patriot, while also potentially benefiting from Ant Man or Dazzler. Black Swan can help ensure your Demons or Squirrel Girl can be played out on the last turn.
This deck is pretty similar to a standard zoo deck that most CL can play. For low CL players, you may swap cards like Nico Minoru, Dazzler, or Black Swan for cards like Mysterio (for Patriot targets), America Chavez (for Power), or Hawkeye (for scaling Power with JT). The deck does use quite a lot of Series 3 cards, so I wouldn’t expect very low CL players to properly make use of the new card.
Fun Joaquin Torres Deck
CanadianAlfredo
This is a wild idea I’ve wanted to test for and while, and the new card helps make it more consistent. The idea is simple: Rocket Raccoon has high scaling potential, The Hood produces lots of high value cards, and Nico Minoru has a large number of options. Between Wong and Joaquin paired with Mystique and Moonstone, you should be able to get between 4 and 8 On Reveal triggers. Black Swan really helps enable your combo options:
- Multiply Rocket Raccoon‘s +4 Power scaling and copy his final Power with Task Master
- Generate a bunch if Demons in hand and play them out with
Hit Monkey - Nico Minoru can double her own Power, then copy with Taskmaster
- Nico Minoru can give you a copy of a card like a powered up Rocket Raccoon or
Hit Monkey
Magik can help you extend the game to give you more time to get your combo pieces, or give you the option to play Onslaught for more combo potential. I don’t expect this deck to win a bunch, but it should be a blast when it pops off.
Joaquin Torres Prediction
Joaquin feels like a fun card, but not a meta defining one. Since he’s just a slightly cheaper Wong with a worse effect, we already know the capabilities of extra On Reveals. Bounce already has multiple cards that can retrigger 1-Cost cards for better Cost efficiency or Power, so I can’t foresee this card really taking over any of their existing slots.
I don’t think JT is a card you need to prioritize. It’s a fun effect, but nothing new or exciting. He’s a good luxury card to own if you have the extra resources, but I wouldn’t go out of the way to pick him up.
Makkari
Decks with Makkari
Makkari has solidified her position primarily as a Silver Surfer card. Leaping out of your hand to add 4 free Power sounds great, but it isn’t enough value for most decks. Silver Surfer gives her that extra value by giving you an extra 3-Cost card that you don’t have to spend Energy on. She can even occasionally go to a location you don’t have access to play into.
den
This Surfer deck aims to give Makkari extra value thanks to hand and deck buffs. By using Nakia, America Chavez, and Gwenpool, you can potentially give her extra Power before she leaves your hand. This deck has lots of cards that want to be played on curve, so you don’t have to spend Energy setting her up. Additionally, and arguably more importantly, Makkari jumping from your hand allows Gwenpool to better target Brood and Sebastian Shaw.
Your replaceable cards in this deck are Red Guardian, Hope Summers, Copycat, and America Chavez. Good replacements include Rocket Raccoon and Groot, Okoye, Mysterio, Sera, Absorbing Man, or Killmonger. If you want the deck to be more combo-centric, try Zabu, Wong, and Mystique.
Makkari isn’t a must have card, but she does offer good utility for Surfer decks and hand buff decks that want to decrease their hand size. I would consider the card a luxury purchase since she doesn’t create any new decks, but is still worth owning.
Namora
Decks with Namora
Namora has been in and out of the meta quite a few times, but the card is definitely solid. She creates a new archetype style of 1 card per location and buffing them throughout the match. Due to her restrictions to get value, she is pretty exclusively used in specific decks built around her. She really doesn’t have many other existing decks that can utilize her well.
This deck aims to bring extra value through the cards Namora buffs. Wong and Symbiote Spider-Man offer ways to retrigger her ability. Lasher, Scarlet Spider, and Captain Marvel are your primary buff targets so you can maximize value. If you can get 2 cards (or more) to reach 10 Power, your Skaar can drop down to at least a 2-Cost, making him a good finisher on turn 6.
Your replaceable cards in this deck are Peni Parker, Zabu, Symbiote Spider-Man, and Skaar. You can swap them out with cards like Odin, White Tiger, Forge, or Hulk Buster. If Shang-Chi is common in your pocket meta, you may consider bringing Armor for a turn 6 counter to protect your buffed cards.
Namora is a very fun card that opens up new deck building opportunities. She doesn’t really have any replacement cards that can give the same value without making an entirely new deck style. I would consider this card to be a strong pickup to boost your deck building options since she creates a new archetype. She isn’t a must have to be meta competitive, but I find her to be more valuable than a luxury purchase.
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 not be available again until further notice.
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!
Should I Cache In?
My Recommendation this week is to Hoard Your Caches. The past few weeks have all been hoard recommendations, but we have some solid weeks ahead. This week simply doesn’t offer a strong selection of heavy hitting cards. If you own none of the featured cards, Namora is your priority pick this week in terms of good value. She isn’t required though to be meta competitive, so don’t be afraid to let the week go by and save for stronger cards.
New Site Changes!
If you are familiar with this series, you may have noticed some big changes from the normal style. We asked you for feedback as we overhaul for a Marvel Snap Zone 2.0! As many of you asked for, we cut down the intros to get right into the content. We are giving you core cards and alternate cards for the decks we showcase. If you have suggestions or comments about other changes you want to see, be sure to let us know here and in the feedback article!
Thank you all for your great feedback!
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