Table of Contents
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 January 14, 2025
This week, we get the newest Series 5 card Moonstone! Joining her will be the return of the Series 5 cards Black Swan and Nocturne!
Card Acquisition Update
Please note, the patch update on January 14, 2025 will increase the amount of Collector’s Tokens received for duplicates in the Spotlight Cache from 1,000 to 2,000 as per the card acquisition improvement update.
The patch goes live around 8 hours before the Victoria Hand Spotlight Cache reset, so players can wait to open until then. Please also see the reply from Griffin of Second Dinner for confirmation:
This is a great fringe case to note! You are correct, there will be a small window on the Tuesday of the patch update where after you download it you could spend Spotlight Keys and earn the increased duplicate rate of 2000 Tokens before the Weekly Reset. We’ll leave it up to players to make the call on if they want to wait for that chance or not.
An additional callout that we’ll be sure to add to the patch notes as well: players NEED to update to the new patch on the 14th BEFORE spending Keys in order to get the new duplicate rate of 2000 Tokens!
Moonstone
Decks with Moonstone
It’s week 2 of this Dark Avengers season, and with it comes our next new card: Moonstone! She is a 4-Cost, 6-Power card with the ability “Ongoing: Has the Ongoing effects of your 1, 2, and 3-Cost cards here.” To highlight an important detail, her effect only copies cards in the location she shares with the 1, 2 , and 3-Cost cards. If the cards are in a separate location than her, she won’t get their Ongoing ability.
This card has some interesting applications. Not all Ongoing cards are useful to copy (such as Luke Cage), but there are a handful of them that could have huge synergy with Moonstone. Below is a list of potential cards that Moonstone could synergize well with:
- Ant Man
- Dazzler
- Cerebro
- Ravonna Renslayer
- U.S. Agent
- Victoria Hand
- Patriot
- Mystique
- Captain America
- Speed
She could work with other Ongoing cards as well, but this list includes cards that are the most effective use of her ability. Mystique stands out as a highlight, since she can copy higher Costed cards and share them with Moonstone. These cards give Moonstone a potential home in a few decks.
Possible Meta Deck
CanadianAlfredo
Patriot works well with Moonstone for a variety of reasons. She can act like a cheaper Onslaught by effectively doubling your output Patriot gives. Especially with Ultron, you already want to stack your cards in one location, so playing Patriot, Mystique, and Moonstone all in one location can be very beneficial. She also empowers Ravonna Renslayer, allowing you to play Patriot and Mystique for only 1 Power each, which let’s you hold them until late game much easier.
Low Collection Level Decks
CanadianAlfredo
This deck takes the classic Ongoing deck and shoves in Moonstone. Surprisingly, low CL doesn’t actually have a lot of low-cost Ongoing cards to utilize. You have Ant Man, Captain America, and Mister Fantastic. To give you potential flexibility, you have Agent 13 who can generate more Ongoing cards. This list isn’t typical for Ongoing, but as you unlock more Series 3 cards, you can easily adjust to make the deck stronger.
Fun Moonstone Deck
CanadianAlfredo
Tribunal is a fun glass cannon deck. You either win by a landslide, or you probably lose. Moonstone’s inclusion let’s you take new, fun routes to power up your Tribunal abilities. Place Captain America or Ant Man with Ravonna on turns 1-3. Use Moonstone on turn 4, follow up with Iron Man and Mystique on turn 5, and Tribunal on turn 6! This should give you a massive location if you place the Mystique on Moonstone with Iron Man’s ability. There’s other play lines as well, but this gives you an idea of the potential.
Moonstone Prediction
Moonstone looks like a fun card to mess around with, but nothing too strong. She does have potential with Patriot, as well as possible Mystique copies. I don’t see this card dominating the meta though. As new Ongoing cards get made, her value will increase, but at this time I don’t really see her as a must have card. Since you have to stack all of your Ongoing cards into one location, her being possibly meta just means Enchantress will eliminate her potential threat.
Black Swan
Decks with Black Swan
Following Moonstone in this cache is the return of Black Swan! This former season pass card used to he incredibly bad, but she has found a few niches that she can fill since her buff. With her Activate ability, you can save that Cost reduction for a specific turn you need it, but without needing to play her the turn prior. She works well in a few off meta decks like Dracula hand dump or Thanos Lockjaw.
den
This deck uses Black Swan as a way to dump your hand on turn 6 for
Black Swan isn’t a mandatory card to own, but she can be fun idea you enjoy more off meta style decks. She creates some fun combos, but isn’t super consistent. Her biggest issue is being too restrictive. She can only be usable if played on turns 2 to 5, and she has to survive Red Guardian if played early. If you have the tokens or keys to spare, she’s a fun card to pick up.
Nocturne
Decks with Nocturne
Closing out the week is the return of Nocturne! This card once dominated the meta with her presence, but a simple 1 point Power nerf made the card vanish from play. At the time of her launch, the meta favored cards moving around the board to distribute Power. Now that War Machine got reworked (among other balance changes to cards), the need to move cards has dropped quite a bit.
den
This deck brings back that deck style with some new additions. Stack moving cards onto Angela to give her value. Use Galacta and Elsa Bloodstone to add Power to your high value or move cards. Redistribute your Power at the end of the match to win the location you can swing the easiest. Nocturne simply gives the deck a location control tool that fits with the movement idea.
Nocturne has turned out to be a very mid card. Her ability as a [3/4] just doesn’t make the cut over other cards in a deck. She isn’t a bad card, but the meta isn’t in a place that needs location control often. Especially not at that stat line. She might be worth picking up if you want to invest in a future meta, but for now, she will likely just sit in your collection untouched.
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 Pandart Studio‘s take on Moonstone!
Seth Adams releases his final variant of the Black Order collection this week, featuring Black Swan!
This unique variant style for Nocturne is by the popular artist Kai Lun Qu!
Should I Cache In?
This week brings back the best value of three Series 5 cards. Black Swan is a fun combo card for off meta decks. Nocturne is a relic of the past, but still has potential usages. Moonstone looks like a fun new Patriot card, but nothing too strong.
This week my recommendation is to Hoard Your Caches. These cards just aren’t worth it over the vast collection of cards you need to collect. If these were Series 4, they might be fun to mess around with if you have extra tokens. At Series 5, you need to use keys, and I don’t think these cards are worth using your keys for all piled into one cache.
Wrap Up
Do you think Moonstone 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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