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 March 19, 2024
This week, the featured cards will be the new Series 5 card Mockingbird, as well as the return of Ms. Marvel and Kitty Pryde!
Cannonball
Decks with Cannonball
Our newest recruit to team X-Men launches this week, Cannonball! He is a 5-Cost, 8-Power card with the ability “On Reveal: Move the highest-Power enemy card here away. If you can’t, destroy it with a Rock.” This card is very interesting, but his strength is debatable. With several other cards like Spider-Man, Polaris, and Magneto, the ability to move your opponent’s cards isn’t new. The difference with Cannonball to these cards is that you sacrifice power for the possible destruction of a card. Developers confirmed that if one location is full, Cannonball will simply move the targeted card to the other open location. This means there is no 50/50 chance of getting destroyed, and both locations have to be full in order to trigger the destroy effect.
If you want to take advantage of Cannonball‘s full effect, there are 2 decks that come to mind. First is a Junk deck! Since you already want to fill your opponent’s board, Cannonball could be used to win a location your opponent thought was secured. Using cards like Debrii, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, and the Annihilus package, you can add decent power for yourself while flooding your opponent’s board. With Cannonball being a 5-Cost, you can Annihilus on turn 5, and Cannonball + Demon on turn 6 to flip a location in your favor.
CanadianAlfredo
Another deck style you could use Cannonball in aims to capitalize on the movement aspect. Using Kraven and Kingpin, your move cards can either buff your locations, or hurt your opponent’s. Using Spider-Man, Polaris, and Juggernaut, you could force your opponent to fill locations. This means by turn 5 or 6, Cannonball could move the highest power card to the location Kraven gets buffed in, to the location Kingpin removes power from the care, or possibly destroy the card if the other locations get filled! Alternatively, you would want to force Kraven‘s location to be filled for your opponent so you guarantee one location, then use Cannonball to divert your opponent’s biggest card to the location you aren’t trying to win.
CanadianAlfredo
Overall, I think Cannonball will have a lot of fun moments. With that said, I don’t see him being a meta card. You don’t see a lot of play in those similar move cards (except Magneto). Your opponent won’t often have 2 full locations on turn 5 because they want to keep options open for the final turn, which means you want to play Cannonball on turn 6 to get the destroy value. And as developer Glenn put it directly, “We’ve already seen with Stegron that just shifting Power arbitrarily around isn’t especially strong.” If the developer is telling you the effect isn’t strong unless you get the destroy function, and the destroy function is difficult to trigger, it may be a good sign the card isn’t that great.
Kitty Pryde
Decks with Kitty Pryde
Closing out this week is Kitty Pryde! This card has been a roller coaster of a card after multiple nerfs (both directly and indirectly) over several months. Even still, her popularity is on the rise again with the new card Hope Summers now warping the meta. With the newest buff to Elsa Bloodstone, the deck has new flexibility with which locations to stack cards into!
Highlighting Kitty’s newest meta deck, Elsa, Kitty, and Angela all make a comeback. The idea of the deck is the same as the old deck that used to dominate the meta. The reason the deck has returned is due to Hope Summers giving you extra Energy to help fuel extra plays and continue to play Kitty without sacrificing a turn 6 play like Magneto or Doctor Doom.
Kingvenom
If you haven’t seen the deck before, the idea is simple. You want to play Kitty onto Angela to stack power. Hope Summers gives you extra Energy for each time you play a card in her location, and Elsa can buff the card that gets played into her location and fills it up. To maximize this extra Energy, you can play move cards like Jeff and Vision to redistribute your power after you power up your Angela and Hope. The deck itself is very flexible with different cards you can substitute in and out, like changing Alioth to Magneto for a big card you can play on turn 6 (or turn 5 with Hope).
Ms. Marvel
Decks with Ms. Marvel
Joining the cache this week is the elusive Ms. Marvel! Despite her nerf, Ms. Marvel remains a powerhouse in the meta. Her ability basically makes her a [4/14] when triggered to both locations. Her ability is strong enough that she sees play in a range of decks, including Sera Control! Though she is a strong card, her appearance rate is a bit lower with Thanos dominating the meta consistently.
This specific deck aims to counter whatever your opponent brings to the table. Using Zabu and Sera, you get to hold your cards until the later turns to dump power and counters into the locations that need it most. Shang-Chi, Mobius, Killmonger, Enchantress, Shadow King and Legion are all at your disposal to counter your opponent’s gameplan. Ms. Marvel simply allows you to make that final turn more explosive by withholding power (so you lose priority) and adding it in when you need it to secure the victory!
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Ms. Marvel also works great in Loki decks! Since you generate cards to play, you will always have enough cards to play to each location to trigger her ability. By keeping priority, you enable your Alioth to trigger, or simply make sure your Loki activates without a hitch. The trickiest part of this deck is planning which cards go into which lanes ahead of time. If you copy your opponent’s cards with Loki or play generated cards from Agent Coulson or Snowguard, you have to make sure all of the card’s costs are unique to the lane or you could lose the Ms. Marvel bonus.
setcamper
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.
The newly launched artist Pandart Studio launches their Cannonball variant this week!
Artist Erica D’Urso launches their debut Kitty Pryde variant this week, joining the Hellfire Gala roster!
Artist Jorge Molina launches their Ms. Marvel variant this week, making it the second variant they have released in Snap so far!
Should I Cache In?
This week, we get what appears to be the new standard going forward for caches: 2 Series 5 cards and 1 Series 4. Kitty Pryde is making a comeback in the meta, and Ms. Marvel still holds her place as a competitive card. They both also help to empower their decks to be much stronger than without their inclusion. Cannonball, however, doesn’t look like an incredibly strong card in my opinion.
My recommendation this week is based purely off of if you already own Kitty Pryde and Ms. Marvel or not. If you own them already, Hoard Your Caches this week as Cannonball doesn’t look worth it. If you own one of the two (or are missing both) and are interested in their deck styles, I would Cache In this week for the value. If I’m wrong and Cannonball is much stronger than I anticipated, I will be sure to update this accordingly.
Wrap Up
Do you think Cannonball 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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