Spotlight Cache Week of September 19, 2023: Are Ravonna Renslayer, Zabu, and Jean Grey 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 19, 2023

This week, the featured cards will be the new card Ravonna Renslayer, Zabu, and Jean Grey!

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.

Ravonna Renslayer

Variants

Ravonna Renslayer

Ongoing: Your cards with 1 or less Power cost 1 less. (minimum 1)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Ravonna Renslayer

Our new card for the week is Ravonna Renslayer! She is a 3-Cost, 3-Power card with the text “Ongoing: Your cards with 1 or less Power cost 1 less. (minimum 1)”. She will also be the first card in a while to release directly to Series 4!

Ravonna is an interesting card to me. Her ability is interesting and offers some new lines of play! One fun combo you can play is Iron Man and Mystique together on turn 6. Another use would be for Cerebro 3 decks so you can play Cerebro and another card on turn 4 or 6.

Renslayer Cerebro

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 7 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Starter Card

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Outside of these combos, I struggle to see where you want to play this card to make a deck stronger. It does let you play your Goblins for less cost, as well as many odd picks like White Tiger, Wolfsbane, or Black Widow. Several 4-Cost cards like Jubilee and Darkhawk get the benefits too, but Zabu does the job more effectively.

You can use Mister Negative with Ravonna to help dump cards that didn’t get inverted, but it doesn’t take Zabu‘s place to lower Negative since Ravonna is a 3-Cost card. The main issue I have with this card is that I don’t see what card you cut from your deck to add this in. It definitely doesn’t have a strong enough ability to base an entire deck idea around, so it simply supports an existing deck.

Negative Ravonna

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 7 months ago

2

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

My other big concern with this card is next week’s card, Mobius M. Mobius. His ability will completely negate hers, and I think everyone will be playing Mobius for a very long time. So even if I underestimate Ravonna and she has an incredibly powerful combo, it’s only good for 7 days before Mobius warps the meta. So all in all, I’m not very excited by this card.

Zabu

Variants

Zabu

On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Zabu

Speaking or cards soon to be negated, Zabu gets his first Spotlight appearance this week! If you don’t already know what this card can do, he is a strong tool that powers several archetypes. The deck Good Cards is powered by Zabu. He allows clunky draws to be corrected and let you play a 4-Cost on turn 3, and play 2 4-Cost on turn 6.

This allows you to play Shang-Chi and another big card on the last turn without needing to spend your turn 5 playing Sera. You generally will also play Darkhawk, Iron Lad, Captain Marvel, and Enchantress in these decks to really get good value from your Zabu.

Good Cards Stature

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 7 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Zabu can also be used as a combo tool. He can lower Mr. Negative to let you invert cards a turn earlier! Or you can play Wong on turn 3 so set up a powerful combo a turn sooner. These kind of decks won’t be as powerful as decks like Good Cards, but Zabu is a key piece to making these decks more consistent.

Negative Surfer

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

My biggest concern (again) is that next week Mobius M. Mobius negates the ability of Zabu. For both Ravonna and Zabu, you can remove Mobius’ ability with Enchantress or Rogue, but you have to draw the counter and spend tempo playing it out since they won’t be reduced cost.

I don’t typically harp on future content impacting current cards, but since Mobius releases next week, it’s close enough that I think it warrants including the card in the discussion as it may effect your cache decisions.

Jean Grey

Variants

Jean Grey

Ongoing: Players must play their first card here each turn. (if possible)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Jean Grey

Jean makes her second appearance this week in the Spotlight Cache. This card was very hyped when it was announced, but has not performed as strong as predicted. With so many decks running move cards and Kitty Pryde, her lockdown effect just hasn’t been strong enough to warrant including in your deck.

Even still, there are a few ways you can use this card. The obvious one is in a lockdown deck. Forcing your opponent to play into a specific lane can disrupt many gameplans, especially Galactus. You can also place Goose down to lock your opponent out from playing any 4, 5, or 6 Cost cards if they don’t have a card to play into Jean’s lane first.

Silk

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 8 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The strongest deck using her right now is the Angela and Kraven move deck. It forces your opponent to add power to one lane while you can simply move cards out of that lane. Her biggest weakness is a mirror match or decks that play multiple cards a turn.

While Jean is not nearly as strong as predicted, she is still incredibly strong in the right matchups. In the current Galactus filled meta, she is a strong counter. Outside of that, though, Jean Grey hasn’t found a dominant place in the meta. Perhaps she will one day, but today she is a heavily matchup dependent card.

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 AIDA, who is featured a lot this month in both Spotlight caches and the Season pass variants.

Fiona Hsieh is the artist for this Zabu variant. This artist has 6 total credits to artwork in Snap, making these variants a unique addition to any collection.

This variant is by artist Mukesh Singh. This variant is the only one credited to this artist, making it a unique variant!

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

This week, 2 of the 3 cards are Spotlight Premiers. Jean Grey will see a rerun at the end of next season, but the other two aren’t scheduled for more releases. Zabu is a meta card, but Jean Grey isn’t and Ravonna doesn’t look too promising.

My recommendation this week is is simply to Hoard Your Caches. Both Zabu and Ravonna are Series 4 cards, making them obtainable via tokens. Jean Gray currently isn’t worth opening a cache for herself. If you don’t own any of these cards, it may be worth Cacheing In, but there still lingers Snap’s newest meta shift…

Mobius has been the hot topic on the Developer Q/A Discord channel. His ability appears to be incredibly strong and directly effects two cards in this cache. With so many exciting cards coming out over the next two months, this cache just doesn’t seem worth the contents inside. If you really want Zabu or Ravonna, just use tokens.

Wrap Up

Do you think Ravonna Renslayer 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: