Spotlight Cache Week of January 31, 2024: Are Beta Ray Bill, Elsa Bloodstone, and Galactus 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.

Check out our new Spotlight Cache Tracker and Planner!

Spotlight Cache Week of January 31, 2024

This week, the featured cards will be the new Series 5 card Beta Ray Bill, as well as Elsa Bloodstone and Galactus!

Beta Ray Bill

Variants

Beta Ray Bill

On Reveal: Shuffle Stormbreaker into your deck.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Beta Ray Bill

Variants

Stormbreaker

On Reveal: Double Beta Ray Bill’s Power.

None

view card details Start a deck Decks with Stormbreaker

As this season enters its final week, Beta Ray Bill premiers this week’s Spotlight Cache! Beta Ray Bill is a 4-Cost, 6-Power card with the ability “On Reveal: Shuffle Stormbreaker into your deck.” Stormbreaker is a 0-Cost, 1-Power card with the ability “On Reveal: Double Beta Ray Bill‘s Power.” This card is pretty straightforward, as it’s an alternate take on Thor. The fact that his Power can double (rather than a straightforward +6 Power) opens him up for more combo potential.

Variants

Thor

On Reveal: Shuffle Mjolnir into your deck.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Thor

Variants

Jane Foster Mighty Thor

On Reveal: Draw all cards that Cost 0 from your deck.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Jane Foster Mighty Thor

Thor and Stormbreaker obviously synergize well together in a deck with Jane Foster Mighty Thor. This deck showcases that concept. These three cards curve perfectly into each other, leaving you open to dump a lot of power out on turn 6. If you also draw Odin, you can play both hammers and Odin them. This gives you a [3/16] and a [4/24] with very little effort. You also save your power until the last turn, so you likely dodge priority (and thus, dodge Shang-Chi).

For alternate play lines, you have Lockjaw and Wasp to cycle your deck for big cards or combo pieces. You can use Grand Master as a small Odin to retrigger a hammer you drew (if you position your cards strategically), or move cards out of a Lockjaw lane to clear space, retrigger an On Reveal, and cycle a card in one move. If you didn’t pick up Grand Master last week, you can always substitute him out for something like Zabu or Jeff.

Hammer & Champions

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 3 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

To capitalize on Beta Ray Bill‘s ability to double his power, you can also use him in a deck like this! This deck aims to capitalize on cards that gain value from increasing their power, like Brood, Sebastian Shaw, and Daken. This deck basically is a Silver Surfer deck that runs the Jane Foster package for an extra line of play.

If Beta Ray gains an extra power from Okoye or Nakia, he can double to a [4/14] or a [4/16] with Forge. You could also sub out Forge for Nova to gain extra power on all of your cards since you have Killmonger already. If your Thor, Beta Ray, and Jane Foster aren’t drawn, you can use your Silver Surfer route to pump power out.

Buff Ray Bill

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 3 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Beta Ray Bill looks like an incredibly fun, yet simple card to play with. Unlike most new cards, his similarly to an existing card (Thor) makes him more predictable on how he will perform at launch. This doesn’t look to be a must have card by any means, but looks to be super fun in a variety of decks.

Elsa Bloodstone

Variants

Elsa Bloodstone

Each card you play to fill your side of a location gains +2 Power.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Elsa Bloodstone

Elsa Bloodstone is our second card this week, and its been no secret she has been nerfed into the ground. While she once dominated the meta, changes to her ability and power levels have sent this card from A tier to F tier in a matter of weeks. Second Dinner is fully aware of her lack of strength though.

According to Glenn on the official Q/A Discord, “The additional Power wasn’t enough compensation for limiting her to one lane, so we’ll likely improve her in the future.” Since we have an OTA scheduled within 2 days of her Spotlight, we could theoretically see a buff to her since developers have also stated they intend to buff cards before their Spotlights, rather than after their Spotlights are over. A change to Elsa is obviously not guaranteed, but will likely happen at some point based on developer commentary.

With that said, how can you use Elsa in the state that she’s in? Her only real home right now lies in bounce decks. Since bounce decks often fill a lane and empty it on multiple turns, it makes for a decent place for Elsa to slot in. After her latest change, you have to fill the lane she is in, rather than any lane on the board. This means to get value, you have to bounce cards on Elsa’s lane, or else your 4th card won’t get the additional power. You gain extra power from Angela, Bishop, and The Collector throughout the match. This list runs Elektra to attack popular cards in the meta like Sunspot and Nebula, but you can sub her out for The Hood very easily.

Bounce

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 3 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Outside of bounce decks, Elsa is too inconsistent and low value to use in other decks. She used to see minimal use in Kraven based move decks, but these decks have fallen out of favor in the meta for more consistent decks. Unless Second Dinner breaths some life into this once A tier card, this card just isn’t worth using.

Galactus

Variants

Galactus

On Reveal: If you’re winning this location and this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Galactus

Our final spotlight card for the season is the big bad Galactus! This card has had its upside and downs over the past year, but he is fairly viable in his current state. His current best deck is with the Annihilus junk package. Since this package sees play in a number of meta decks, you can often surprise your opponent with a Galactus if you lock them out of a location and it be under 5 power. Even without Galactus, the negative powered junk can give you the ability to win using Sentry, Annihilus, and a Demon to put power on their clogged locations.

Junk Galactus

Created by Kingvenom

, updated 3 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

In the past week, developer Glenn has stated that Galactus *could* see a revert to his 7 Power status at some point this year. If that does happen, Galactus could easily become a stronger card and his decks be more flexible. Until then, this deck stands as his best viable option to be useful.

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.

Artist Michael Del Mundo launches his only Marvel Snap art credit this week for none other than Beta Ray Bill!

Just like the last variant, this Elsa Bloodstone variant comes from artist Corin Howell, who also only has this variant as a credit in Marvel Snap.

Closing out the cache is week is a Bronze Age variant for Galactus by artist Keith Pollard. This is this artist’s second credit in Marvel Snap, which sticks with this week’s trend for unique variants.

Should I Cache In?

This week, all featured cards are Series 5, making this week a higher value week. Beta Ray Bill looks to be a solid, fun card. Galactus is a fun card that opens up a unique play line, though is a fairly mid card in the current meta. Elsa is a pretty bad card in her current state, though is a likely candidate for a buff in the near future.

My recommendation this week is dependent on the player and how the next OTA unfolds. I currently rate this Cache as a mid-tier cache due to the unplayability of Elsa and the low meta relevance of Galactus. If we see a buff from Elsa this week, I would increase that rating and say you should Cache In. The value is really high with all Series 5 cards (one of them a Big Bad) and they would all be desirable if Elsa is stronger.

If Elsa is not buffed this week, it becomes a more player-based recommendation. If you are missing Galactus, Cache In this week for the value. The value is there for two Series 5 cards that are playable. If you already own Galactus, I recommend you Hoard Your Caches. If you are interested in Beta Ray Bill, use Collector’s Tokens for him if possible. Unless you like the featured variants, Beta Ray is a tough card to recommend using 4 caches for by himself.

**Update** Second Dinner has confirmed Elsa is slated for a change in a future patch. This wasn’t clarified if this patch is live during the upcoming season, or a future patch. With no news on what that change will be, opening a cache for Elsa is risky. However, the developers want these cards to be played and made an active effort to tell players she is getting a buff BEFORE her change occurs. So I would update my recommendation to Cache In as she ups the overall value from this week.

Wrap Up

Do you think Beta Ray Bill 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: