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 October 8, 2024
This week, we get the newest Series 5 card Misery! Joining him will be the return of the Series 5 cards Namora and War Machine!
Misery
Decks with Misery
It’s week 2 of this Symbiote Season! This week we get our next Symbiote card Misery! They are a 4-Cost, 7-Power card with the ability “On Reveal: Repeat the On Reveal abilities of your other cards here, then destroy them.” Developers have clarified that Misery will only destroy cards with On Reveal abilities! So if you play Misery on a location with Hope Summers and Juggernaut, Juggernaut will retrigger and then be destroyed. Hope Summers, on the other hand, will not be destroyed.
Misery is basically a early game Odin with a drawback. You can retrigger important On Reveals, but they will be destroyed. When played on Wong and Mystique, the On Reveal card will only retrigger once (with 4 activations) instead of 4 retriggers (with 16 total activations). There is some interesting ways around this destroy drawback though!
Based on the text, the destroy function is not required for the On Reveal to retrigger. This means you can protect your cards with Caiera or Armor, allowing you to have a mini-Odin without any drawbacks! The question is, which decks actually need a mini-Odin?
Possible Meta Deck
CanadianAlfredo
I agree with many player’s views that Misery fits perfectly with Darkhawk and Ronan decks. Cards that negatively impact your opponent generally have low stats, such as The Hood, Black Widow, Master Mold, or Rockslide. You don’t play these cards for their stats though, you play them for their On Reveals. Misery capitalizes on this by getting extra triggers on these toxic cards, and your Power loss isn’t that severe. You are essentially trading off Power on your side for disruption on your opponent’s side.
Low Collection Level Deck
CanadianAlfredo
At a low CL, you really want to utilize the protection Armor gives. Misery can allow you to be aggressive on one location early, then swap to a second location late game. For example: Play Rocket Raccoon, Armor, Wolfsbane, and Misery on one location. On turns 5 and 6, play either White Tiger or Spider-Woman followed by Odin. This can give you 2 solid locations to win the game with. The Armor also protects your Wolfsbane from any Shang-Chi counter, as well as against Killmonger.
Fun Misery Deck
CanadianAlfredo
One of my favorite decks is the classic destroy list. That list generally has 1 flex slot, which made me wonder if Misery would work here. While the Cost is high, if gives you an option to go all in on a Knull combo by destroying an entire locations worth of cards. For example: If you retrigger a Venom on turn 4, Venom will eat the Misery, but Misery will then destroy the Venom. If you have X-23 in play, this could let you ramp out a massive Knull to set up for a Arnim Zola play.
I don’t think Misery revolutionizes this deck anymore than Angel being a 2-Cost did. I do think it’s a fun option for the deck though that can give you a different way to play the card.
Misery Prediction
Misery looks like a very fun new tool for the game, but it has a few drawbacks. There aren’t a ton of On Reveals that you want to destroy to get an extra trigger. If extra triggers are that important, you are probably playing a full On Reveal deck and will just use Wong and Odin for those retriggers. You can mitigate that destruction with Armor or Caiera, but you now need 2 cards drawn together to be effective.
With that said, I do think the Darkhawk Ronin deck is a great starting place for Misery. As time goes on and players get to experiment more, I think we will find stronger homes for the card. Future cards could also utilize this ability to a greater extent, so you could invest in Misery now if you think it has potential. If you are skeptical of the card’s strength, wait a few days and see what players are able to cook up.
Namora
Decks with Namora
Returning to Caches for the second time is none other than Namora! This card has found a nice home with the classic Wong + Odin decks. She basically upgrades this classic, early series deck to allow the option of buffing 2 cards instead of launching lots of White Tigers or Ironheart buffs. She doesn’t see much play outside of this style of deck though.
PulseGlazer
Specifically, this is the style of deck we are talking about. You want Wong and Odin to retrigger your powerful On Reveals. You can swap in and out lots of cards in these decks, like Cassandra Nova for Mystique, or Symbiote Spider-Man for Doctor Doom. Namora acts as a backup plan to White Tiger. If you have 1 card in each location, she can offer a +30 boost to each solo card with the combo. If you don’t have targets or can’t draw Namora, White Tiger can simply flood the board with Tigers.
Namora isn’t mandatory to stay meta competitive. The effect of buffing cards isn’t anything unique. She does, however, offer a great stat line of a [5/15] with a repeatable trigger. She definitely enhances the On Reveal archetype, and is therefore worth owning in my opinion.
War Machine
Decks with War Machine
Closing out the week is a card that has warped the meta over the last few weeks. I of course mean War Machine! The buff to be an Ongoing card made this card significantly better. You can now utilize his ability on multiple turns to make his decks more consistent. While he did receive a slight Power nerf, he is still alive and well in the meta.
Kingvenom
With his buff, War Machine has single handedly brought lockdown decks back to life. This deck showcases his lockdown abilities through Storm and Legion. Previously, this combo meant you had to be winning before all locations were locked. Now, you can have an entire turn to yourself! You also have more access to dodge the restrictions of Goose, Ebony Maw, and The Infinaut.
I don’t really need to elaborate more. We have all seen the impact War Machine has created on the meta. There is a good chance this card will be less effective with lockdown over the next few weeks due to more players getting access to him. Even after the new card factor wears off, he will definitely be a good investment for any player.
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 only become available again after one full year has passed.
After one year, these Spotlight Variants will be available for purchase from the Daily Offer section of the shop. They will cost 2,400 Gold per variant. 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!
Our featured artist of the month is PANDART STUDIO, and this week brings us the variant for Misery!
Continuing the latest trend, this is another one-off variant. This time, the artist is Arthur Suydam!
Salvador Larroca is the artist of this War Machine variant. Fittingly, it is the second variant for this artist, with the other being for Iron Man!
Should I Cache In?
This week we return to the peak value of 3 Series-5 cards. Namora is a solid, fun option for Wong + Odin decks to have new play lines. War Machine has taken the meta by storm and is a great option now. Misery has a lot of potential in both meta relevance and fun factor, but suffers from strict deckbuilding requirements.
My recommendation this week is to Cache In! The value is all there this week. Even if Misery doesn’t turn out to be super strong, the supporting cards give the week a solid investment for your keys. It’s also a great time for players to pick up War Machine now that he is significantly stronger than his first release.
Wrap Up
Do you think Misery 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:
More Content