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Welcome to another Spotlight Cache Showcase of the Marvel SNAP November War of the Nine Realms Season. In this article series, we review the contents of upcoming Spotlight Caches and decide if this is a week worth your resources or not.
This week we have the new Series 5 card Malekith appearing alongside Series 5 Thena and Series 5 Valentina.
MALEKITH – Now, Kith
Malekith joins Marvel SNAP as part of the War of the Nine Realms Season. It is a 4-Cost, 6-Power card with the ability On Reveal: Add a 1, 2 or 3-Cost card from your deck here. It reveals at the end of the game. Its delayed reveal effect is similar to other cards you may be familiar with such as Invisible Woman and Supergiant.
Malekith is an interesting build around card, but its greatest strength may by in its deck thinning. Cards that not only draw but also put cards into play, like Jubilee or Baron Zemo, provide huge tempo swings because of SNAP's quick games. In the case of Malekith, leaving these cards to unravel at the end go the game is both a strength and a weakness, depending on the card it ends up hitting. Thankfully, you'll be able to check the card and see what Malekith pulled - valuable information to know if you're playing Darkhawk Archetype and need to know if you hit Korg or Mystique or if you're playing Sera Control Archetype and need to know if you hit Hit-Monkey or Killmonger.
DECKS TO TRY MALEKITH IN
Unfortunately, if Supergiant's performance is any indication, Malekith's ability won't make a substantial impact. At 4-Cost, it's a heavy investment and although it puts a card into play, deck building restrictions and planning may be too steep for it to be worthwhile or consistent.
PROJECTED RANKING
THENA – The Power of Love
Thena is currently sitting in Tier B on the Card Tier List with a +0.75 average cube rate and 59.5% winrate while being played in 2.8% of decks at Rank 70 and above. Thena is most commonly played in the Agent Venom Archetype alongside Bast, Kitty Pryde and Agent Venom.
DECKS TO TRY THENA IN
For many players, this will be the first time they can get their hands on Thena - a quintessential piece to any deck playing Kitty Pryde. Some decks have even dropped Angela from the Holy Trinity of Kitty, Angela, Thena, opting just for the Kitty and Thena duo. While Thena has been stronger in previous metas, the card is still a powerful tool to add to your collection.
RANKING
VALENTINA – 50 Shade of Bad
The final card in this week’s Spotlight Cache is Valentina. Currently Copycat is sitting at Tier B on our Card Tier List, maintaining a +0.64 average cube rate and 58.4% winrate at Rank 70 and above. Valentina is most commonly played in the Affliction Archetype, where it synergies well with Luke Cage, Anti-Venom and Ajax.
DECKS TO TRY VALENTINA IN
Valentina has had new life breathed into it with the release of Anti-venom. Suddenly, decks focusing on using Luke Cage to counterbalance the negative power of the reduced cost cards is a real contender. Now may be as good a time as any to pick up Valentina and brew some interesting decks while the iron is hot.
RANKING
SPOTLIGHT VARIANTS
Each week, there's a chance you open exclusive Spotlight Cache Variants for the featured cards. These variants only appear once you own the base card, so you’ll need plenty of Spotlight Keys if you don't already own one. Spotlight Cache exclusive variants will not be available in-game again until one full year has passed following their release.
The featured artist for the War of the Nine Realms Season is Andrea Guardino, so we should expect all Spotlight Variants for new cards, such as Malekith, to get Andrea Guardino depictions. Thena receives a portrayal by ARTTREE STUDIO and Valentina receives a new variant from Eduardo Mello.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This week’s Spotlight Caches are solid additions to your collection. Although we predict Malekith to perform poorly, Thena and Valentina are useful tools if you don't already have them.
Remember to consider the upcoming Spotlight Caches. Next week, we’ll see Fenris Wolf release alongside Annihilus and Werewolf by Night, another week of three Series 5 cards.
How are you feeling about the new War of the Nine Realms Season? Are you using Spotlight Keys to get Malekith or saving them for future weeks? Let us know your thoughts over at @UntappedSNAP on Twitter/X. Alternatively, come and chat with the wider Marvel SNAP Community on our Discord Server!
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