Spotlight Cache Week of January 10, 2024: Are Hercules, Werewolf By Night, and Howard the Duck 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 January 10, 2024

This week, the featured cards will be the new Series 5 card Hercules, as well as Werewolf By Night and Howard the Duck!

Hercules

Variants

Hercules

The first time another card moves here each turn, move it to another location.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Hercules

Kicking off this week’s Spotlight Cache is the new card Hercules! He is a 4-Cost, 6-Power card with the ability “The first time another card moves here each turn, move it to another location.”

At a first look, this looks like an okay card. Developers have confirmed that Hercules can only move 1 card per turn, and not 1 movement per card per turn. With that said, Hercules does synergize well with Kraven, but that’s about it. According to the leaked upcoming patch notes, possible spoiler alert – Kingpin is getting an ability change, so combining him with Hercules to destroy cards on turn 6 won’t work.

If you’re trying to make Hercules work, the best way is with a simple move deck. You can use Hercules to get an additional trigger on your move cards like Human Torch or Multiple Man. You can play your Kraven in Hercules‘ location to grow Power in that lane while you move your other Power to other locations.

Move

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 4 months ago

0

7x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Your biggest weakness here is tempo. You have to play Hercules on turn 4 to get value from him since he only moves 1 card per turn. If you play him late, he’s a [4/6] body with an unhelpful ability on the last turn. However, play him on turn 4, you can use Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, Cloak, or sub in Ghost Spider to move your target cards for a double bounce. If you play Heimdall on the last turn, the first card to enter Hercules’ lane after him will get moved again.

For a deck that focuses more on Kraven and less on Hercules, this style move deck does just that. It basically is the Elsa Bloodstone (or Angela) plus Kraven deck that died out after the nerfs to Elsa and Angela. You move multiple cards around with Spider-Man, Silk, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, Nightcrawler, Vision, and Magneto.

Hercules

Created by m_snap

, updated 4 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

You use Kraven to grow Power in a location, while either using Hercules to bounce cards out of Kraven‘s lane to make room, or give a second chance for a card to bounce into Kraven successfully. You also can use Zabu here to play Hercules on turn 3 to mitigate his awkward tempo.

I think the best way to sum up Hercules is lackluster. He doesn’t have enough support in the game to make his ability worth it. You can use him as a tech card against Jeff or Vision moving into a lane, but I don’t think this card is good enough to warrant including in your deck for a niche tech situation. This card might look better if it moved every card that entered his lane, but only 1 per turn makes him even more limited in possibilities.

Werewolf By Night

Variants

Werewolf By Night

After you play a card, move there to gain +2 Power if it has an On Reveal.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Werewolf By Night

Our next card in this week’s Spotlight Cache is Werewolf By Night! When this card first premiered, it was a force to be reckoned with. Since his nerf to 4-Power, his popularity significantly dropped. Even still, he is still a solid card in a few decks.

One such deck is with Loki. According to leaked patch notes – possible spoiler – Loki is getting a change to not interact with The Collector. Even still, Werewolf can work well in this deck style due to the number of On Reveals you use. Playing cards like Snowguard, Sentinel, Mirage, and Agent Coulson will boost your The Collector and move Werewolf. If you play Loki, not only will that move Werewolf, but the new cards you get could be cheap On Reveals which can help move your Werewolf even more.

Good Cards Loki

Created by den

, updated 4 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

1x Starter Card

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

To maximize your Werewolf movement, he also works well in Bounce decks! In this version, you use the Annihilus package to give your opponent junk. Which wouldn’t you know the whole package are On Reveal cards? Combine this Beast (and Falcon if you sub him in), you can let your Werewolf bounce multiple times with your bounced cards. You can also use the Zabu in this deck to play Werewolf on turn 3 as if he was never nerfed.

Wolf Junk

Created by ZombiesGoNomNom

, updated 4 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

While Werewolf isn’t the monster he once was, he is still a powerful card with a powerful effect. It’s worth mentioning you can use Werewolf with Hercules to allow Werewolf to move back out of the lane he moved into, but I think you would rather be playing more On Reveal card with that energy than to use Hercules. The fact they are both 4-Cost cards makes it very unlikely for you to play them both in a match and get any real value.

Howard the Duck

Variants

Howard the Duck

Ongoing: Tap this to see the top card of your deck.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Howard the Duck

At long last, Howard the Duck makes his first Spotlight Cache appearance this week, marking the official week that every Series 4 or 5 card have had at least 1 Spotlight feature. It’s a shame it came at the same time Howard drops to Series 4, making him more obtainable without a Spotlight.

Howard the Duck is no meta defining card. Rather, he is a fun card that can make other cards better and make your gameplans a bit more strategic. With Blob in the meta, Darkhawk decks have decreased, meaning those rocks shuffling your deck shouldn’t mess up Howard’s accuracy.

Hela Tribunal Infinite

Created by FaThorNewman

, updated 6 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

1x Starter Card

4.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

To showcase how Howard can be useful, check out this The Living Tribunal deck. Your goal in this deck is to win by either using MODOK into Hela, or using Iron Man, Onslaught, and Tribunal in a location. The trickiest part of this deck is knowing which route to take with the cards you have in your deck. Howard gives you a little extra knowledge to help achieve that.

You can see if a Jubilee or Iron Lad are good plays before you even use them. You can also simply see if you should play MODOK on turn 5 with Hela as your next draw, or simply pivot to playing Iron Man. Your biggest downside of Howard is drawing him late makes him a dead draw. His ability is nearly worthless on the final turn when you have to play him over your big cards.

Overall, Howard by no means is a meta defining card currently. Though his unavailability until now may have prevented him from being experimented with properly. While we won’t know for sure until he gets his week in the sun, Howard is simply a fun card to mess around with and create some fun moments.

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. 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.

This Planet Hulk variant comes from artist Eduardo Francisco, who is an artist who continues to grow their portfolio in Snap. Many of their variants are from Spotlight Caches, but several others are one off variants, and even the base Shocker art!

Our next Spotlight variant continues this month’s themed variant line – Comic Covers! This Werewolf By Night comic cover comes from Gil Kane.

Have you wondered what if Howard the Duck got the Infinity Gauntlet? Well this variant by Ron Lim depicts just that! This artist has a few variants in Snap, 3 of which are regular variants, while this one and the Annihilus variant are Spotlight exclusives.

Should I Cache In?

This week, Hercules and Werewolf are Series 5 cards, while Howard is newly Series 4. Werewolf has a little meta relevance still, but Howard doesn’t (though he can be a lot of fun) and Hercules isn’t promising. None of these cards are schedules for another Spotlight feature (will update if this changes after the next datamine) and only Howard is slated for a Series Drop.

My recommendation this week is to Hoard Your Caches. Hercules just doesn’t look that promising of a card, and Howard doesn’t warrant a cache. Werewolf is a good card, but he isn’t nearly strong as he used to be, and he definitely doesn’t make this cache immediately worth it. If Hercules is a surprise hit like Legion was, I would change my recommendation to Cache In. Otherwise, I would save those keys for a week with better cards.

Wrap Up

Do you think Hercules 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: