Spotlight Cache Week of September 12, 2023: Are Alioth, Hit Monkey, and Snowguard 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.

Spotlight Cache Week of September 12, 2023

This week, the featured cards will be the new card Alioth, Hit Monkey, and Snowguard!

Spotlight Cache News

If you have wondered why Spotlight cards have been repeating before new cards were introduced, you haven’t been the only one. Developers have answered this question recently on their official Discord in their Q/A channel. When asked about why cards are being repeated already, Stephen responded:

One of the main reasons for duplicates right now is availability of variants for cards that can go into the spotlight cache.  If we do not have a spotlight variant for that card ready then we have to hold it until one is available.  We are building out our variant pipeline further to get in front of the needs to keep the spotlight cache fresh and without undo gaps between highlighting specific characters.

So basically, if a card doesn’t have many variants, it probably won’t get featured much (if at all). After recent datamines showed upcoming Spotlight Caches for the next few months, we can see Howard the Duck and Stegron will continue to have no spotlight features. Cards like Iron Lad, Legion, and The Living Tribunal also do not appear to be getting more spotlight releases until at least through November. With many cards not appearing, and many cards repeating, make sure to check out the upcoming rotation to get the cards you want most efficiently.

To help plan your caches, in my recommendation each week I will highlight when these cards are shown to appear again as far as we know. If a card will not be featured again for a while, I will make sure to notate that as well so you don’t miss your chance.

Alioth

For the first new card of this season, we have Alioth! His ability reading “On Reveal: Destroy ALL enemy cards played here this turn (including unrevealed cards)”. Alioth will be launching as a Series 5 card and has a 6-Cost, 5-Power stat line.

Alioth is interesting to me, as his ability is very strong, but you don’t want him in a majority of decks. In order for him to be effective, you have to predict the lane your opponent will play in, and you have to be winning the lane already (or have Alioth‘s 5 Power give you enough to win the lane). I can see this card as a possible tech card though. If your opponent is going to play patriot, cerebro, Silver Surfer, or other combo cards on turn 6, Alioth can prevent these cards from triggering.

I think the biggest uses for this card will come down to 1 main deck, and a couple of smaller deck ideas. The main deck will be with Galactus. You can Galactus on turn 5 and Alioth on turn 6, or X-23 -> Wave -> Galactus -> Alioth -> Odin. These play lines prevent your opponent from doing anything to combat you, which could be incredibly powerful.

The smaller decks that could use Alioth would be lockdown decks or ramp decks. Lockdown decks could use Storm or Professor X to lock a lane down, and use Alioth to secure the second lane you need. Jean Grey could also use him in a similar fashion since your opponent will have to play at least 1 card in her lane. Ramp decks can utilize the extra energy to play Alioth on turn 5 and Odin or Arnim Zola on turn 6. This play line may struggle though with getting enough power on the board to win 2 lanes.

With Hela casino decks gaining popularity, Alioth could be a fun addition! While he wouldn’t add a lot of Power, he could remove opponent’s power to help negate your opponent’s turn 6 play.

Overall, I think Alioth will be a very fun card! He has potential to become meta in the right decks without being too powerful. His ability might single handedly bring Galactus decks back into the meta in a major way.

Hit Monkey

The former bounce champion, Hit Monkey, has his Spotlight premier this week! Since his nerf to a 3 cost card, his playrate has dropped quite a bit. Even still, Hit Monkey is still an incredibly strong card in the right deck.

Hit Monkey can still perform well in Bounce decks despite his cost. Since some Bounce decks still play multiple cards on turn 6, Hit Monkey can slot in with the right support cards. His best combo partner is Mysterio since it counts as 3 cards played. This means just between these two cards, Hit Monkey can grow to a 3/8 which is a solid stat line for a 3-Cost card. In Bounce decks, you can use Beast to lower costs of cards like Kitty Pryde and play them out on turn 6 for little to no cost. This can grow Hit Monkey to very high power levels, all while dodging priority most of the time!

You can also use Hit Monkey in Sera decks to lower his Cost to a 2 on turn 6. Sera decks often include Bishop and Angela to help put massive power down on turn 6. Using Mysterio + Hit Monkey in a Sera deck, you can still have 3 more energy to add power to Hit Monkey, Bishop, and Angela!

While you may not see Hit Monkey on the ladder much anymore, he is still a viable card. If you didn’t pick him up during the Animals Assemble season pass, now might be a great time to try him out if you like these deck ideas!

Snowguard

If this Spotlight Cache came before the latest game update, this overview would be drastically different. Snowguard recently saw an update to “On Reveal: Add the Hawk and Bear auroras to your hand.” This update has single-handedly raised this card from one of the worst cards in the game into a very playable card.

With how drastic the change was to Snowguard, it’s almost an entirely new card, so players are just digging into what decks she is best in. With Loki running rampant in the meta right now, players have started to include her in the Loki-Collector decks. The main reason for this is it serves 2 functions: it buffs collector while providing ammo for Loki, and it allows players to have a way to interact with locations in a cheaper method than Legion.

While Snowguard doesn’t have a wide list of meta decks yet, I think this recent change has made Snowguard worth picking up. She now offers a way for several decks to add cards to their hand, but be consistent with what is added. Being able to predictably plan a Hawk or Bear play makes their effects much more exciting.

Spotlight 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.

This variant is by artist AIDA, who you will become very familiar with this season. They have lots of new variants spread across this month’s Spotlight Caches as well as the Season Pass, Daily Offer shop, and is even the artist for the Conquest Odin variant.

If you didn’t get enough Dan Hipp last week, you get more this week with Dan Hit Monkey!

This Snowguard variant comes from artist Justyna Dura, who is the artist for the past Mirage spotlight variant. With 2 upcoming variants, this is one of 4 announced variants from their collection!

Should I Cache In?

With our new knowledge of how Spotlight Caches will be released for a while, along with the new list of upcoming cards, I will be reviewing these slightly different. The recommendation will include an analysis of a few factors:

• Is this a Spotlight Cache Premier or a rerun
• Will there be future Spotlight Oppertunites for these cards
• Are the cards any good

For this week, all 3 cards are a Spotlight Premiers! Hit Monkey and Snowguard have no more planned Spotlight Cache features, but Alioth has 1 more feature at the start of November. All 3 cards have potential to be either fun or strong cards in a variety of decks.

Considering these factors, my recommendation this week is to Cache In. With 3 new Spotlight cards (2 of which are Series 5), there are good odds you will get a good value out of this week. If you add the fact that 2 of the cards won’t be returning to Spotlight for a while, this is the only chance to reliably get them.

Another factor I am considering is that the next 2 upcoming weeks feature the new cards directly into Series 4, so if you don’t have a ton of Caches saved, you can use tokens for those cards and get a large number of new cards this month!

Wrap Up

Do you think Alioth will be a good card? Will you be Cache-ing In this week? Do you like the new approach to rating? Let us know in the comments!

For the full schedule, check out our guide below:

Marvel Snap New Card Release, Spotlight Cache, and Series Drop Schedule