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Welcome to another Spotlight Cache Showcase! In this article series, 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 brand new Series 5 card Marvel Boy appearing in the box, alongside Series 5 Red Hulk and Series 5 Blob.
Marvel Boy – Small Falk’s friend
Marvel Boy joins Marvel SNAP as part of the Young Avengers season. It costs 3 energy, has 2 power. It has the effect: "After each turn, give 3 of your 1-Cost cards +1 Power.” Its ability resembles other cards you might be familiar with such as Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel.
This new card brings some extra support to decks we saw gaining popularity a few seasons ago when Gilgamesh entered the game. It can easily fit into Zoo or Swarm type of decks, as a self-scaling threat. It pairs particularly well with cards like Squirrel Girl or Shanna, to guarantee the effect activation.
These are some decks that can use Marvel Boy as an improvement.
Red Hulk
Red Hulk is currently in the B tier of our Card Tier List, having a +0.16 cube rate and a positive 53.5% winrate while being played in only 5.9% of decks in ranks 70 and up since the latest patch. Red Hulk is most commonly played in Ramp and Lockjaw decks where it is just a big 6-Cost card that you can cheat out earlier.
The last nerf the card got, reducing the +4 Power to +3 Power made Red Hulk more replaceable, so don’t go crazy if you are still missing the card.
Blob
The last card in this week’s Spotlight Cache is Blob, which is currently sitting in B tier with a +0.20 cube rate, a 54.7% winrate, and a 9.3% popularity in ranks above 70. Blob can be commonly found in Arishem and Thanos decks where it works well with having additional cards in the deck.
Similarly to Red Hulk, while Blob serves a purpose on this deck, it is not a must-have and can be easily replaced by other powerful 6-Costs without hurting your winrate that much.
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.
The featured artist for the Young Avengers Season is Flaviano, so we should expect all Spotlight Variants for new cards, such as Marvel Boy, to follow the same theme during this month. Red Hulk receives a portrayal by Ed McGuinness, and Blob gets a new variant from Eric Guerrero. 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 Zoo or Swarm decks since Marvel Boy is probably going to be a staple in that archetype. Red Hulk has been losing popularity since the last nerf, so it's not so interesting right now. Blob remains to be competitive at the moment, being in almost 10% of the decks, but that can change in the future depending on the meta and balance changes. That being said, these last two cards can be easily replaceable so you should base your decision of opening solely on the desire to get Marvel Boy
The other factor to consider is the upcoming Spotlight Caches. Next week we’ll see Wiccan being added to the game in the same cache as Pixie and Loki, with Speed the following week.
But what do you think? Are you using Spotlight Keys to get Marvel Boy 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 on our Discord Server!
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