Spotlight Cache Week of January 24, 2024: Are Grand Master, Loki, and Hit Monkey 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.

Spotlight Cache Week of January 24, 2024

This week, the featured cards will be the new Series 5 card Grand Master, as well as Loki and Hit Monkey!

Grand Master

Our newest Spotlight is Grand Master! He is a 2-cost, 0-Power with the ability “On Reveal: Move one of your other On Reveal cards here to the middle location. Its ability happens again.” This is the definition of a combo card. You only will get value from this card if you have another On Reveal already on the board. With that said, the combo potential for this card opens up a lot of interesting interactions.

Developers have clarified a few interactions with Grand Master: The target card must be able to move in order to retrigger the On Reveal. This means if the middle location is full, or the On Reveal card is already in the middle location, it won’t retrigger. If Cosmo is in the middle lane, the On Reveal card will still move to the middle location (if possible) but won’t retrigger the On reveal. With this in mind, you have to make sure your targeted On Reveal cards are staged well, or else you may play a [2/0] with no effect.

Now with a combo card like this, what kind of decks could he slot into? An obvious choice is in an On Reveal centralized deck. Using Grand Master, you can retrigger On Reveals of key cards that build your power. Each card in this list can benefit from a secondary trigger, except for Ravonna Renslayer. Her purpose in this deck is to open new combo options. Need to dig for cards? You can play Jubilee and Grand Master on turn 5. Want a chance for Arnim Zola to retrigger? Play both him and Grand Master on turn 6. This also helps with playing Ironheart and White Tiger. Don’t have Ravonna? You can substitute her for Zabu since you have several 4-Cost cards, though Zabu won’t be useful as often as Ravonna would be here.

For an alternate way to use Grand Master, take a look at this Bounce deck. His ability allows you to retrigger powerful spells from Nico, cause Beast to bounce cards again, retrigger Bast or The Hood, or even make your Hit Monkey gain extra power. You can even use Beast to allow you to play Grand Master a second time, which can further add to your flexibility.

To passively gain power while you activate your On Reveals multiple times, you can use Bishop and Angela. Angela also benefits from Grand Master’s move ability since you can add power to her lane, and then move the cards back out to leave more space.

Grand Master looks like a very interesting card that opened up a lot of interesting combos. His biggest weakness is Cosmo and the inability to select an On Reveal to target. If you have multiple On Reveals on the board, he could retrigger one that isn’t the intended target. I think this card is one that will pop in and out of the meta overtime as different decks gain and lose strength.

It may be hard to tell how effective he will be at the start, especially with lots of players running Cosmo specifically to tech against him during launch week. If you own Echo, now may he a good time to place her in your deck to tech against Cosmo teaching against Grand Master. I’m excited to see the new possibilities this card opens up.

Best Grand Master Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide: Let the Games Begin!

Loki

For the game’s current record holder for most debated card, its none other than Loki! Loki has seen a couple of changes since launch, but he still remains incredibly powerful under the right hands. His biggest strength comes in his cost reduction, though he requires a strong knowledge of game mechanics and deck archetypes to use him effectively.

One such deck that requires a lot of experience is this Sera deck. I say it needs experience because it is mostly a reactivate deck. Your goal is to play out your cost reduction cards like Quinjet, Zabu, and Sera, This allows you to frequently dodge priority and let’s you play your reactive cards like Shang-Chi, Enchantress, and Shadow King.

To fuel your hand with cards to dump, you can use Mirage, Snowguard, Agent Coulson, and Loki. Ms. Marvel and Gladiator can simply be late game power houses or ammo for Loki depending on the deck your opponent plays.

If you are newer to the game, it can be more difficult to use this deck since you need to know what your opponent is trying to do early in order to properly set up a counter.

For a more wacky take on Loki, this deck will rarely play the same match to match. Your gameplan here is to discard a big card or two and revive it with Ghost Rider. It can also use Quinjet with Nick Fury, Helicarrier, or Agent Coulson to get a wide range of cards at better costs.

Your finisher can either be Loki, where you dump your hand on the final turns, or Devil Dinosaur since you are adding so many cards to your hand. This definitely isn’t meant to be a super consistent deck, but more a fun, silly deck that will give you plenty of clips to share.

Despite his nerfs, Loki is still plenty viable. While he may not be a great card for new players, veteran players may get some crazy value out of his cost reduction. It’s definitely possible this card could make a meta comeback now that Blob has been adjusted.

Hit Monkey

Our final card this week is Hit Monkey! This card doesn’t see nearly as much play as he used to, but with an ever shifting meta and Beta Ray Bill on the horizon, Hit Monkey might just be ready for a comeback. You can already see Hit Monkey in a bounce deck in the above Grand Master list. While I have already showcased a Sera Control deck with Grand Master, this deck focuses more on point dump than card generation.

With the help of Zabu and Sera, your goal is to play as many cards on turn 6 as possible. This can help you dump as much power into specific lanes as possible without committing early to any locations. If you want to further this deck’s power capabilities instead of its reactivity, you can cut Kill Monger for Bishop.

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 week starts with a unique variant from artist Mark Brooks. This artist only has 4 other variants in Snap so far, with his most popular being for Rogue.

It’s election season again, and everyone knows the obvious choice is to vote for Loki. Make sure to show your support for both Loki and the artist Tradd Moore by sporting this variant!

Everyone’s favorite watercolor artist, Rian Gonzales, launches her Chibi Hit Monkey this week! What’s more to say about this adorable killing monkey?

Should I Cache In?

This week, 2 of the 3 cards are Series 5, so the value is pretty good. Loki and Hit Monkey aren’t seeing as much play as they used to, but they are both plenty viable, and may be more viable with Blob more in check. Grand Master looks like a lot of fun with a lot of potential, but his strength is difficult to determine on paper.

My recommendation this week is a bit trickier than normal. For newer players, I recommend you Hoard Your Caches. Loki is statistically a card that loses new players Cubes, and Grand Master looks like a card that will require a lot of Series 3, 4, and 5 cards to be strong. New players can benefit from Hit Monkey, but at a Series 4 card, I would recommend using tokens if you want him. I would also recommend hoarding your caches if you already have Loki and Hit Monkey.

While Grand Master is a Series 5 card, this is good week to use tokens and save your Spotlight Keys for a week with better value (unless you have your eye on those Spotlight Variants). I would recommend more experienced players Cache In if you are missing Loki or Hit Monkey, since the value is much higher.

Wrap Up

Do you think Grand Master 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:

Marvel Snap New Card Release, Spotlight Cache, and Series Drop Schedule