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In this week’s Marvel Snap Spotlight Cache rotation, Eson headlines as the latest Series 5 card. Wiccan also makes its second Spotlight appearance, and Beta Ray Bill is making another round in the Spotlight rotation.
Eson
Kicking off the new season is the release of the newest Spotlight card, Eson. He is a 6-Cost, 10-Power card with the ability “After each turn, put a created card from your hand here.” This doesn’t need to be a generated to your hand directly, so you are less restricted than Victoria Hand.
This card has Arishem written all over it. You can play him on turn 5 every game, giving you 2 free cards and a bunch of value. Who’s going to complain about that? Your only concern is ensuring Eson pulls good cards to increase his value.
Possible Meta Deck
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Arishem will probably be Eson’s primary deck. Many Arishem decks have been running Doctor Doom 2099 since he can be played on turn 3, and Eson lets you get more cards on the board while still only playing one per turn. Iron Lad can get lucky from time to time and find Eson, Doctor Doom 2099, or other high value targets.
Like any Arishem deck, the cards you put in the deck aren’t that important. You typically want Mockingbird for easy value, Legion for location control, and some tech cards to counter the meta. This deck runs Luke Cage to combat the high amount of affliction decks, but he could easily be swapped for something like Enchantress or Shadow King of you want.
Low CL Decks
For low CL players, you should probably avoid Eson unless you already own Arishem. You don’t have good cards to take advantage of his ability, so there’s no reason to force him into a deck and make it worse. You can pick him up if you want to invest in your collection, but don’t expect to get any value from him for quite a while.
Fun Eson Deck
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She-Naut is an old deck style that skipped energy to power up Sunspot and let you play Infinaut and She-Hulk. Moon Girl lets you duplicate your She-Hulk to get extra value. This version uses that Moon Girl to give Eson a way to pull the duplicated cards, which you hope is The Infinaut.
Nick Fury should give you some extra generation if Moon Girl doesn’t show up. Psylocke, Magik, and Hope Summers should let you get some extra value out of Eson. Madame Web lets you reposition cards where needed (possibly with Eson if played early), as well as give Redwing a chance to pull a card from your hand for free.
Eson Prediction
I don’t think Eson is a groundbreaking card, but I think he will be better than people are giving him credit for. He has limited usage since you have to generate cards, play him, and hope your card pull is worth the trouble. Ultimately though, a 6/10 that can pull nearly any card to the board for free sounds like a decent card.
I wouldn’t be rushing to pick him up on day 1, but I think he’s a card worth owning. Some of you crazy deck cooks out there will surely come up with some fun ways to use this ability, but for general meta usage, I don’t think Eson will see anything but Arishem.
For a detailed breakdown and review on Eson, check out our strategy guide below:
Wiccan
Decks with Wiccan
Wiccan has been out for some time now and it’s been proven he is a very strong card. It isn’t too difficult to play on curve, so as long as you draw him, your last two turns get a nice boost of energy. He is typically paired with Quicksilver to guarantee a 1-Cost without putting any more of them in your deck. Depending on if you need 2 Cost cards or not, you can also use Domino to guarantee a turn 2 play on curve. Wiccan has created a range of viable decks since his release. The one we will focus on here is a Wiccan-centered deck with on curve plays being your priority.
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You have your Quicksilver to guarantee turn 1, and a bunch of 2-Cost cards with some card generation mixed in. Victoria Hand will give those generated cards more value. Speed is a great way to reward yourself for playing on curve for Wiccan. The deck’s entire goal is simply generating good value.
For a Wiccan deck, your only real core card is Wiccan and arguably Quicksilver. The rest of the deck is just how you think you can stay on curve consistently while also making enough Power to actually win the game. Speed will be very strong with Wiccan, but he isn’t mandatory by any means.
Simply put, Wiccan is a great build around card. He definitely exceeded my expectations at launch, but it’s very clear now this is a must have card. He basically creates his own archetype and isn’t really a replaceable card in decks that use him. If you skipped out on him the first Spotlight round, this is a great time to pick him up.
Beta Ray Bill
Decks with Beta Ray Bill
Beta Ray Bill is a very fun card that is never really meta. He has a clear, distinguished home alongside Thor, Jane Foster Mighty Thor, and Odin. He rounds out the curve for these cards perfectly, making it a fun deck to mess around with.
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This version of the “Hammers” style decks uses Lockjaw to generate extra value. Since Lockjaw can cycle multiple cards per turn, you can dump as many hammers are you draw into his location to turn a hammer into a better card. If you can play Lockjaw and the hammers early enough, you may even be able to re-draw the hammers!
If you own King Eitri from Deadpool’s Diner 2.0, he also works well as a way to guarantee a hammer pull without the need of Jane Foster. You can replace Ice Man, Zabu, or Psylocke if you want to include him. The majority of this deck involves cards that are Series 3 or lower, so you should have no problem building the deck once you get Beta Ray Bill.
In short, Beta Ray is a very fun card, but not a must have. You can make a Thor deck without him, it just won’t be as high value. I would consider him to be a luxury card since you don’t need the card to be meta whatsoever.
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 not be available again until further notice.
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!
Should I Cache In?
My recommendation this week is to Cache In! It’s a solid value this week, but not the best for the month. Wiccan is an amazing pickup, Beta Ray is a fun card, and Eson has potential. If Eson pans out to be outright terrible, it would drop the value enough to say Hoard, but if he holds up to analysis, this is a decent week to cache in.
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