Should You Spend Keys On Hydra Bob? - Spotlight Cache Review

Are Hydra Bob, Nebula and Galactus worth your precious Spotlight Keys?

Should You Spend Keys On Hydra Bob? - Spotlight Cache Review
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The new Maximum Effort Marvel SNAP season arrives tomorrow with Gwenpool as the Season Pass Card. However, today we are here for another Spotlight Cache Showcase! In this article, we review the contents of Marvel SNAP’s upcoming Spotlight Caches and decide if this is the week you should cash in those hard-earned keys.
This week we’ve got a brand new Series 5 card, Hydra Bob, appearing in the box, alongside Series 4 Nebula and the return of a Series 5 Big Bad, Galactus.
 
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Hydra Bob – Move is back to SNAP

Hydra Bob joins Marvel SNAP as the first Spotlight Card in the Maximum Effort season. It costs 1 energy and has 4 power. It has the effect: "After each turn, this moves if a player Snapped.” Its ability resembles other cards you might be familiar with such as Silk, Martyr, and Captain Marvel in the sense that the player doesn’t have full control of its movements.
 
Hydra Bob’s amazing stat line makes it an interesting card to experiment with in the Move Archetype and even outside of it, in some Zoo decks. While it can backfire, it is possible to reduce its variance by flooding the board.
The ability to activate its effect at will -with a cost- allows to discount Miles Morales consistently, generating 10 Power for just 2 Energy. As an extra upside, it can also help boost Kraven after moving, or you can just play it on Angela’s lane, for an extra tick and then move it away to free one slot. In the Zoo deck, its uses seem
 

Nebula – Growing potential?

The second Spotlight Card this week is currently in the B Tier of our Card Tier List, having a neutral cube rate and winrate while being played in 5% of decks in ranks 70-99. Nebula is most commonly played in Zoo and Ramp where it synergizes well with Kazaar and the flooding mechanics on Zoo and as self scaling 1 Cost card Ramp Decks.
Despite being a Series 4 Card, if you don’t have Nebula, it could be a good addition to your Marvel SNAP collection. The card doesn’t depend too much on synergies and that gives it flexibility. Moreover, one month from now on August 6, we will be getting Marvel Boy, which could boost 1-Cost card performance.

Galactus – The BIG BAD!

The last card in this week’s Spotlight Cache is none other than KNEEL BEFORE GALACTUS, which is currently sitting in Tier D with a negative winrate of 47.3%, and a fringe 2.1% popularity in ranks 70-99. While Galactus is not powerful at the moment, it is a unique card that Marvel SNAP devs have confirmed will not go down from Series 5. Additionally, it has a distinct and unique play pattern, so the decision to go for it might be more related to you enjoying Galactus or not, rather than its power level.

Galactus Deck

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Spotlight Variants

Each week, you have the chance to open exclusive Spotlight Cache Variants for all the cards featured within. These variants can only appear once you own all three cards featured, so you’ll need plenty of Spotlight Keys if you want one from scratch! Spotlight Cache exclusive variants will not be available in-game again until one full year has passed following their release.
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Pandart Studios is this month’s featured artist, and so it’s their Hydra Bob variant you’ll find inside the Spotlight Cache. Nebula receives an imposing portrayal by Sweeney Boo, and Galactus gets a new variant from Ron Garney. 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 Move and Galactus decks. Hydra Bob is probably Move staple and Nebula might find some increase in play alongside Marvel Boy in Zoo decks, which remains competitive even while we leave Gilgamesh season. Galactus is the “Power of Cosmic itself”, so if you like pulling those sneaky and cool plays, you can spend a key on him knowing it will always be a Series 5.
The other factor to consider are the upcoming Spotlight Caches. Next week we’ll see Ajax being added to the game in the same cache as Beta Ray Bill and Darkhawk, with Copycat the following week.
 
But what do you think? Are you using Spotlight Keys to get Hydra Bob 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!