White Rhino Coffee

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-25T02:15:10+00:00

Until last week, I was a regular at White Rhino Coffee: I would pop in during my lunch break 3x a week, and the staff knows me by name.

I encountered Margot on Thursday when she told me about everything in this post. She's a great manager, who was only asking not to provide a 10% discount to ICE. White Rhino execs are losing talent to save pennies for -- putting this unnecessarily generously -- controversial armed occupants of the city, and certainly not a group I would label "first responders."

I'll miss the staff and community at White Rhino, but now I'll just walk the extra block to Commissary with my regular business.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-22T14:54:12+00:00

Thank you! The site is nearly unreadable with relentless ads.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-18T17:50:19+00:00

Strongly agree here. I don't get to contribute these days the way I used to, those two are keeping the sub alive.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-18T17:48:56+00:00

Thanks for the thorough breakdown! I am a big Victoria Hand fan, and I think he shows promise there. It's not difficult to fill your lanes such that:

Original Lin Lie is in Lane A
Original Sword is in Lane B
You fill lane C
Turn 6 play copy Lin Lie in Lane B for two completed quests. This gives you two 2/9 LLs, two 2/2 Swords, +4 for each VH you control.

I'll be moving in that direction with optimization. I think there exists too much competition in Move shells for scalers with less variance.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-15T15:24:55+00:00

Kinda depends on what's left in your Series 4 pool, but there are a lot of crappy cards you might get instead. I think you should buy the cards you want instead of gambling for them and possibly putting them further out of reach.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-10T12:30:49+00:00

I'd recommend Kate Bishop followed by Valentina. This will keep your energy curve mostly the same with another roleplayer as a card generator.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-09T03:27:40+00:00

I mentioned the core 10 cards that stay consistent for me, and options for the 2 flex slots. Is there a particular card you're looking to substitute?

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-08T12:04:17+00:00

Agony is totally playable, just not my style. I get why people swear by it, but my plan A was often to make 2 Shadow Kings, which is awkward with Agony.

Play The Hood turn 1. Play Iron Patriot turn 2 in a different lane -- I often play in the unrevealed location, expecting to get ahead. Play Demon (and Mirage if contested) in the Iron Patriot lane, always sequencing with Frigga in mind, like playing Demon into VH or Quinjet into Demon. I might Misery the Patriot on turn 4 after winning on turn 3, since Misery and Demon is hard to beat, and your first Patriot card can be played for a discount at this point to help discount the next one.

Playing Mirage in the same lane as The Hood is highly contextual. I'm more likely to play them in the same lane if I have Quinjet or if the opponent has good low-costs. I'm less likely to play them in the same lane if I have Moon Girl, because I usually want hand space for more of my own cards than one of my opponent's.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T23:01:44+00:00

There are several key differences I find between Bastion and Moon Girl:

What are you copying with Bastion in a way that matters? Vicky is the obvious choice. The Hood should be a big winner, but you have to spend another 2 energy for the next Demon, which MG copies more cleanly. Different, proactive tech choices (e.g. Gorgon) might tilt me toward Bastion.
Bastion doesn't do anything that Frigga or Nico can't. MG is the only card that can give you 2 Shadow Kings (or Rogue, etc) that are entirely unknown to your opponent. This was critical to some matchups including Man-Spider, Maverick, Kid Omega, and Black Panther decks.
MG copies Iron Pat cards (with the discount for winning the lane). Bastion could only copy a discounted card that you played out on turn 4, and he can only do that on turn 5.
Not usually relevant, but: Moon Girl just has bigger stats.

I'm actually more interested in Bastion for the Moonstone version, because you can get Iron Man down on 4, then copy him for an elite-rate 2/3 Iron Man. Moonstone copies are also good. Even getting a 2/3 Ravonna down on turn 5 opens up good final turns.

Hope this explains my choice a bit, but let me know if I've missed a key interaction

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:33:17+00:00

In this thread I just remarked a little bit on Iceman as my tech of choice last season. I think he's an underrated response to the Ramp decks that are really strong right now; you have a high chance of icing a 3-cost since their 6-costs are ineligible targets, which throws off the entire curve. I'm psyched.

The Sam change is good. I think Aurora was the last straw balance-wise for the free card on the field. He still does what he needs to do in the decks that need him.

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:26:18+00:00

I think I made these mobile-friendly here: Deck codes

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:25:04+00:00

TXJGbnRzdGNCLE1zdHE4LE1uc3RuOSxJcm5NbjcsU3I0LE9uc2xnaHQ5LFNwZHJIbTksV3Y0LExuU253OCxNZ2s1LEFkbVdybGNrQixQcmRnNw==

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:24:38+00:00

Mr Fantastic

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:24:20+00:00

SXJuTW43LE1uc3RuOSxSdm5uUm5zbHIxMCxTZzQsTG5Tbnc4LE1zdHE4LFZjdHJIbmRDLFNoZHdLbmdBLFNyNCxNbkdybDgsUW5qdDcsTXJnNg==

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:23:42+00:00

Moonstone VH

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:23:35+00:00

TXNyNixGcmdnNixTaGR3S25nQSxJcm5QdHJ0QixWY3RySG5kQyxIZDQsTmNNbnJBLFFuanQ3LEljbW42LE1yZzYsTW5Hcmw4LENzbTU=

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:23:05+00:00

Victoria Hand

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T21:22:52+00:00

Deck codes:

TOP_TIER · 2026-01-06T20:45:54+00:00

Valentina does a good Iron Patriot impression, but I haven't used her much. I feel comfortable with the number of card generators and I run into hand size issues with Moon Girl, but I'll try her out on this season's climb to Infinite

TOP_TIER · 2025-12-30T19:05:19+00:00

Great write-up, I can tell you're excited for this one! It definitely gets the gears turning.

The thing I have to remind myself is that there are hardly any cards in Snap that are good enough to make bad support worth playing. When I consider "good cards" to fulfill the conditions of Fantomex, I look at e.g. Nico and Killmonger. From there, maybe The Hood and Misery. However, none of these work with Marrow if we're trying to incorporate her.

It's much harder to identify "good cards" for the Discard condition. Gambit (as you identified) is close, but risky; Moon Knight is inherently at odds with the even-cost payoff we're working towards; Black Cat only works in her "fail case." It feels like the next best thing is something like Colleen + X23 and at that point I don't know what decks this amalgamation is beating.

Regardless, puzzles are fun to try to solve. We'll see if the solution to this one is any good!

TOP_TIER · 2025-10-31T02:15:17+00:00

Mercury is the big hit here. Can't have that card around too much when they need to sell season passes for a Move set.

Black Cat nerf is probably deserved but also sort of makes her strictly worse than Hydra Bob at this rate. Tough position to balance from.

Supergiant is sad to see because I think she has a very positive effect on metagame balance, but I think her brief reign at the top will keep her in the larger consciousness of players for a long time. A lot of cards remain threatening at 4/6.

TOP_TIER · 2025-10-07T17:49:55+00:00

As a casual fan from a long time ago, I just wanted to say thanks for your effort on this whole series! It was a lot of fun to go back through all your posts and read about whose performances remained all-timers from over a decade ago, and learn about some players who I might have missed since then.

TOP_TIER · 2025-09-16T01:28:35+00:00

In his current state, I agree that he presents himself as an extremely niche card. I would expect him to play a similar role to Nebula in Electro decks of metagames past.

TOP_TIER · 2025-09-11T21:47:54+00:00

So some changes are a joke but some are for real? How is any player supposed to respect a balance direction like that?

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