Golden Opportunities - January 2024
In the mysterious and ever-changing arena of the Marvel Snap economy, gold–and free gold especially–is always scarce. Spending it wisely can make all the difference between fast-tracked progression and cash-strapped depression. Join us now as we look for the true gems among the gold bundles to find the best opportunities to spend Snap’s premium currency. Because this is based on datamined information, details are subject to change.
Chit Chat
Instead of copying over the separate entries for Booster Packs and Token Tuesdays each month to tell you not to buy them, I have chosen to summarize them together. Booster Packs are one of the worst values in the game, and you should never buy them. Token Tuesdays generally deliver a worse rate of return than non-recurring bundles. They can be worth purchasing situationally, but generally, you are better off saving your gold.
Booster Pack
Credits per gold: 0.83
Token Tuesday
Tokens per gold: 0.71
Soar Spot
It was just November that Second Dinner (the bundle) came to the shop, bearing 3,000 credits and 310 boosters to accompany an Iceman variant at 2,000 gold, so Take Flight, Soar On’s 2,800 credits and 155 boosters at the same price look stingy by comparison. It still beats the shop rate, and Sauron is a series 3 card instead of Iceman in series 2, but this is still far from a top-tier bundle on those merits.
However, it is probably no coincidence that this runs concurrently with Wakandan Wunderkind, a massive cash bundle featuring Shuri, another series 3 card with which Sauron forms part of the nucleus of the ever-competitive Shuri-Red Skull deck archetype. For newer players willing to spend $100 on Wakandan Wunderkind to become more competitive in the meta, Take Flight, Soar On makes for an ideal complement. For the rest of us, it is only appealing if the Kim Jacinto variant makes up for the subpar currency return in your mind.
Take Flight, Soar On
Credits per gold: 1.4
Ratings Stunt
A last-minute bulking up of tokens rescued Artist Showcase: Inkpulp from slipping into obscurity since offering only 3,000 tokens at the 4,200 gold price tag was right in line with the modern token Tuesday. Now Delivering 4,000 instead, it has leaped up to be one of the two best gold bundles on offer for January, very close in return per gold spent to Boon of the Savage Lands, assuming that bundle remains as determined.
The Inkpulp offer has two series 3 variants in addition to tokens. These variants feature a more menacing version of Mojo, a character typically depicted as a mound of banana pudding on a mechanical crab. The package also includes avatars and enough boosters to upgrade both variants to infinite once.
Artist Showcase: Inkpulp
Tokens per gold: 0.95
A Purchase from Prehistory
Here’s a relic from an earlier era–no, not the Savage Land with its prehistoric creatures trapped in Antarctica, nor Ka-Zar himself as a Tarzan knockoff from when that was a popular enough property to emulate. No, Boon of the Savage Lands itself is a near-perfect duplicate of July’s Cosmic Wildfire, which once, in those long-forgotten days of yore, appeared as if it could be the last great gold bundle.
The present bundle substitutes Ka-Zar, a card that is received in the toddlerhood of the player experience, for the series 3 Black Panther and adds to the mix two conquest tickets and a few more boosters, so it seems to be more directed at established players than those looking to add a tool to the toolbox as may have been the case with the now-classic bundle. Regardless, if Boon of the Savage Lands maintains at 6,000 collector’s tokens and 2,000 credits for 7,500 gold, as the data mines have shown, it offers a great return and is one of the best bundles this month.
Boon of the Savage Lands
Tokens per gold: 0.8
Credits per gold: 0.27
Ticket to Nowhere
For the final gold bundle of the month, we have the incredibly pedestrian January 2024 Ticket 3. 300 tokens and 600 credits for 900 gold are right in line with the shop rate and token Tuesdays. With no discount, a conquest ticket of negligible value, and nothing else to recommend, January Ticket 3 should be an easy pass. There is, however, a chance that it will see a buff at release, as many mystery and ticket bundles have over the last two months.
January 2024 Ticket 3
Tokens per gold: 0.33
Credits per gold: 0.67
The Golden Mean
With only four non-recurring bundles to its name, January is a hard month to conclude from. The two better options, Artist Showcase: Inkpulp and Boon of the Savage Lands, sit on par with the best gold bundles of December, while nothing sinks quite as far as that month’s worst. If there is one thing to say about the market for gold bundles this month, it feels safe, measured, and unafraid to court established spenders with smart buys.
Best tokens per gold
- Artist Showcase: Inkpulp (0.95)
- Boon of the Savage Lands (0.80)
- Token Tuesday (0.71)
- January 2024 Ticket 3 (0.33)
Best credits per gold
- Take Flight, Soar On (1.4)
- Booster Pack (0.83)
- January 2024 Ticket 3 (0.67)
- Boon of the Savage Lands (0.27)
Best overall currencies per gold*
- Artist Showcase: Inkpulp (1.68)
- Boon of the Savage Lands (1.67)
- Take Flight, Soar On (1.41)
- January 2024 Ticket 4, Token Tuesday, and credits at the shop rate (1.25)
- Booster Pack (0.83)
*Expressed as credits per gold, valuing tokens at 1.75 credits based on the Token Tuesday rate of 1 token for 1.4 gold and the shop rate of 1 gold for 1.25 credits, and adding 25 credits for each new card and variant
We hope that illuminates the gold market for you and that you will join us again next month for a gander at February’s gold bundles!