Spotlight Cache Week of July 18, 2023: Are Echo, Iron Lad, and Kang the Conqueror 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. This week, the featured cards will be the new card Echo, Iron Lad, and Kang the Conqueror!

Echo

Iron Lad

Kang

Currently, there is no duplicate protection for the random card other than the featured cards. In general, if you want a guaranteed chance of pulling the featured cards, you should save up at least four Spotlight Caches.

Echo

Variants

Echo

After your opponent plays an Ongoing card here, remove its abilities.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Echo

Echo is this week’s new card launch. Her ability states “after your opponent plays an Ongoing card here, remove it’s abilities”. This does have to reveal before the Ongoing card is played. It does not effect your ongoing cards though. For further clarification on this card, developers have elaborated on the card’s abilities in the official Q & A. They stated that Echo will disable every Ongoing card played, not just the first one.

Her ability sounds super cool! In my opinion, however, I think the card isn’t as useful as it seems… To start with, it requires Echo to reveal before the opponent’s ongoing card reveals. This means your opponent can just avoid that lane unless you manage to guess the lane they will play in and have priority.

The other issue is that many ongoing abilities want to be canceled, like Lizard. And with Shuri Red Skull back in the meta, Echo may also provide a nice place for your opponent to play their Ongoing cards to remove their drawbacks. I can’t see how Echo can be a good card when it can be easily avoided or backfire if your opponent benefits from losing Ongoing abilities.

There is one deck that I feel Echo might enjoy, and that is with Wong. Using Echo can prevent a Cosmo from ruining Wong’s ability, so you can pull off a combo or more reliably use the old school Wong ▶ White Tiger ▶ Odin combo. Of course, Enchantress can still disable Wong, but at least the abilities can still trigger once.

Echo Wong

Created by CanadianAlfredo

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1x Recruit Season

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Iron Lad

Variants

Iron Lad

On Reveal: Copy the text of your deck’s top card.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Iron Lad

With several months of gameplay to show his worth, Iron Lad is the star of this week’s collection! His ability makes him versatile for multiple deck types. Patriot decks, for example, have multiple great triggers for Iron Lad. Patriot is a great target for a better power value or to double your Patriot ability. Iron Lad can also copy Brood for massive value, Onslaught for an early turn 6 play, or an extra Debrii!

Iron Patriot

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Outside of Patriot decks, Iron Lad works well with Zabu for more cost-effective plays. Howard the Duck also works great so you can know exactly what card you will pull! I could go on for a while about the number of good effects Iron Lad could copy, but the general summary is this: Iron Lad is a great card and a versatile tool for many meta decks.

Good Cards Wave

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Kang the Conqueror

Variants

Kang

On Reveal: Look at what your opponent did, then restart the turn. (without this)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Kang

Being the only Big Bad to receive frequent buyers remorse, Kang is a solid “meh” card. His ability can be super beneficial, letting you see your opponent’s play at the end of a game and knowing if you can play around it or Retreat. The key reason to run this card is to save you cubes. Since Kang resets the turn, he also resets your Snaps! This means you can bluff without any risk.

In my opinion, Kang is a slept on card in Conquest. While many people argue that Kang makes your deck less consistent since it doesn’t add anything, I find personally that Kang adds a level of mind games to matches. Bluff Snap on turn 6. If your opponent leaves, you knocked some health off! If they don’t, they will question your late game snaps for the rest of the Conquest. “Did he draw his combo, or is it just Kang…” I actually have tricked players into skipping their turn because they thought my snap equaled Kang, and they didn’t want to give me information.

Outside of Conquest, Kang does see some play in Galactus decks. Since Galactus decks are very telegraphed often times, you can use Kang to bluff a Galactus you failed to draw. You can also use Kang to see if your opponent has the ability to out-power Galactus. So basically, Kang can help save you Cubes (or gain Cubes at no risk) if you have bad draws.

Iron Galactus

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 11 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

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)

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The Variants

If you already own the card 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 4 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.

Echo‘s variant is from artist Maria Wolf. This artist doesn’t seem to have many variants (yet) so it makes her art style a more unique look than of the common artists like Dan Hipp.

Iron Lad‘s variant is part of the Steampunk collection! While the other Steampunk cards don’t really synergize well, this is still a cool variant to have.

Kang‘s variant is from artist Kael Ngu, who has created many fan favorite variants. With the extra detail of other characters hidden in the blue spiral, this variant is definitely a cool addition to any collection!

Should I Cache In?

This week seems like a step down from last week’s Spotlight Cache. Iron Lad is definitely the best card of the set, with the other two cards being a lackluster support. All of the variants look to be solid pulls, though may not be worth a cache unless you have your heart set on it.

My recommendation this week would be to hoard your caches. With Iron Lad being the only card worth opening a cache for, and even being in Series 5 I believe it is better so save your caches and just spend your tokens on him when you have enough. While I personally enjoy some Kang gameplay, I couldn’t recommend someone spend a cache to get him. When Echo launches, if a meta deck is found that somehow uses Echo to work properly, I would change my stance to Cache In. But since I really don’t see this card doing anything special, hoarding feels like the obvious choice this week.

Do you think Echo 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: