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Welcome to another edition of the Spotlight Cache Showcase! In this article series, we evaluate the contents of Marvel SNAP’s upcoming Spotlight Caches to help you determine if this is the week to spend your hard-earned keys.
This week, the cache includes the brand new Series 5 card, Ajax, as well as Series 5 Beta Ray Bill and Series 4 Darkhawk.
Ajax – Bring the Toxicity
Ajax joins Marvel SNAP as part of the Maximum Effort season. It costs 5 energy and has 7 power. It has the effect: "Ongoing: +1 Power for each card in play afflicted with negative Power." Ajax could be a staple in the Toxic and High Evolutionary archetypes given that both decks have many negative power-afflicting mechanics, with Hazmat, Scorpion, Red Guardian, U.S. Agent, Evolved Cyclops, and Evolved Abomination.
You must consider that this card might counter itself in a way. If Ajax becomes popular in the metagame, it could incentivize players to include Luke Cage on their decks, a card that is already core in Toxic Decks. Not to mention the exposure to Shang-Chi, a card present in 4 out of 10 decks.
These are two decks that could effectively use Ajax in the current metagame.
One last thing to mention is that Ajax should greatly benefit from Cassandra Nova, a card that will soon be available via the Deadpool Diner event.
Beta Ray Bill – a forgotten card?
The once-hyped Beta Ray Bill is currently only in 0.4% of Marvel SNAP’s decks according to our Card Tier List so its Cube and Winrate stats are somewhat not representative at the moment. BRB is most commonly played in On Reveal archetypes, where it synergizes well with Thor, Jane Foster, and Odin.
On Reveal
Beta Ray Bill is not a hot card in the current metagame, but it is still a solid Series 5 card of the On Reveal archetype. So, if you like that kind of deck, you could consider getting it.
Darkhawk – the card of the moment?
The last card in this week’s Spotlight Cache is Darkhawk, which is currently sitting in A tier with a +0.57 positive cube rate, a 58% winrate, and a 28.4% popularity in ranks 70 and up. Arishem’s release boosted Darkhawk’s popularity and power as a perfect counter to an overstacked deck. Darkhawk can be commonly found in the Darkhawk and Arishem decks, where it works well with Korg, Rock Slide, and Mystique.
Darkhawk has been a prevalent card since its release, with many nerfs in between. The only downside is that it is now on Series 4, so you are not getting the maximum value of your Spotlight key and you could get it via Tokens in the shop.
Spotlight Variants
Each week, you get the chance to unlock exclusive Spotlight Cache Variants for the featured cards. However, these variants will only appear if you already own all three of the featured cards, so be prepared to use a lot of Spotlight Keys if you're starting fresh! Remember, these exclusive variants won’t be available in the game again until a full year has passed since their release.
The featured artist for the Maximum Effort Season is Pandart Studio, so we should expect all Spotlight Variants for new cards, such as Ajax, to follow the same theme during this month. Beta Ray Bill receives a portrayal by Chase Conley, and Darkhawk gets a new variant from Philip Tan. If any of these tickle your fancy, be sure not to miss out!
Final Thoughts
This week’s Spotlight Caches boils down to how much you like playing Toxic and High Evo decks and, for the existing cards if you need to complete your collection. Ajax is already a mainstay in High Evo and Beta Ray Bill is, as we’ve said, an On Reveal staple, which has disappeared from the meta in for the past seasons. Darkhawk is arguably the best card in this Spotlight Cache week, so it is a great pick. However, the fact that is on Series 4 lowers the value of your Keys.
The other factor to consider is the upcoming Spotlight Caches. Next week we’ll see Copycat being added to the game in the same cache as Cull Obsidian and Thanos.
But what do you think? Are you using Spotlight Keys to get Ajax or saving it for future weeks? Let us know your thoughts over at @UntappedSNAP on Twitter/X. Alternatively, come and chat with the wider Marvel SNAP Community in our Discord Server!
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