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Welcome to another Spotlight Cache Showcase for the Marvel SNAP October We Are Venom Season. In this article series, we review the contents of upcoming Spotlight Caches and help you decide whether or not if this is a week worth your resources.
This week, we have the new Series 5 card Toxin appearing alongside Series 5 Elsa Bloodstone and Series 4 Zabu.
TOXIN – Bouncin' Makes Me Feel Good
This week, Toxin joins the other symbiotes of Marvel SNAP's We Are Venom Season. It is a 2-Cost, 1-Power card with the ability On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. +2 Power for each returned. Its Bounce effect resembles other cards you might be familiar with such as Falcon and Beast.
Toxin is the first card with a Bounce effect to be added to the game since release, joining Falcon and Beast as the third Bounce Archetype pillar. Whereas Beast plays into the Energy discount angle, Toxin will play into a more power output line. Similar to cards like Wolfsbane or Hit-Monkey - Toxin will gain power based on your investment into a location. Better yet, this can be combo'd along with Beast to drop Toxin multiple times, dodge Shadow King or reinvest that power into another location. At 2-Cost, Toxin brings with it an extremely flexible way to get multiple bounces throughout a game. If you're bouncing 1-Cost cards back to your hand, you now have the ability to play them four times if you time your Falcon, Toxin and Beast correctly, if not more.
DECKS TO TRY TOXIN IN
We've also previously discussed how deck building is moving more towards micro-package territory, with packages like Ghost-Spider and Dagger being included in War Machine Archetype lists. Toxin offers a cheap and powerful way to drop a 7-Power card on the board, while giving other cards an opportunity to proc again. Toxin won't be pigeonholed into being just a Bounce tool - we'll be seeing it used in the Surfer Archetype, Sera Archetype and any other deck that wants to play strong, low-cost card multiple times.
PROJECTED RANKING:
ELSA BLOODSTONE – Monster Mash(er)
Elsa Bloodstone is currently in Tier B of our Card Tier List with a +0.25 average cube rate and 53.0% winrate while being played in 0.5% of decks at Rank 70 and above. Elsa Bloodstone is most commonly played in the Agent Venom Archetype, alongside Kitty Pryde, Thena and Madame Web.
DECKS TO TRY ELSA BLOODSTONE IN
Elsa Bloodstone isn't the powerhouse she once was in the heyday of Silky Smoove, but the card is still able to put out respectable power in the right shells. The Kitty-Thena-Angela package is still strong and Elsa adds an extra bit of power to its ceiling. Paired with Madame Web, and you have a constant buffing lane that you can rotate cards out of at will. Both the Agent Venom and Sera Miracle shells are dominating the top of Tier A at Rank 70 and above, so Elsa can easily slot into these decks and perform well.
RANKING
ZABU – Return of the King
The final card in this week’s Spotlight Cache is Zabu, but the grand return of our lovable feline hasn't been what we expected. Currently Zabu is sitting at Tier C on our Card Tier List, maintaining a +0.10 average cube rate and 49.5% winrate at Rank 70 and above. Zabu is most commonly played in War Machine decks, where it synergies well with War Machine, Crossbones and Cull Obsidian.
DECKS TO TRY ZABU IN
Once the ultimate Marvel SNAP powerhouse, Zabu has seen a fall from grace that would rival even that of Leech or Leader. The recent buff has brought the card back to some lists, but it remains a lackluster inclusion. Even in its best-performing decks, it is the weakest link, and the deck could often be made slightly better by reworking its composition. It's important to remember that Zabu is also a Series 4 card, which is hard to recommend using keys to acquire. Poor stats, resource allocation and meta standing are all stacked against Zabu this week.
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 all three featured cards, so you’ll need plenty of Spotlight Keys if you want 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 We Are Venom Season is Pandart Studio, so we should expect all Spotlight Variants for new cards, such as Toxin, to get Pandart Studio depictions. Elsa Bloodstone receives a portrayal by David Nakayama and Zabu receives a new variant from Sean Galloway.
Final Thoughts
This week’s Spotlight Caches are a mixed bag. Although we project Toxin to be a new must-have staple, the ranking range from Tier A to Tier B to Tier C. Worse yet, while Elsa and Zabu won't be anything to write home about, Zabu is a Series 4, which is a sub-optimal use of resources if you're trying to budget your keys.
Remember to consider the upcoming Spotlight Caches. Next week we’ll see Anti-Venom, Supergiant and Ghost-Spider. Another week hindered by a Series 4 inclusion, but Anti-Venom is our most anticipated card of the season and many players skipped Supergiant on her debut - this should be a two- or three-card week for many.
What do you think? Are you using Spotlight Keys to get Toxin or does Bounce not interest you? 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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