Cassandra Nova and Gwenpool Decks: Bonus Challenge Guide & Arishem Nerf Review

During the weekend, there is now one more set of Missions for players to complete: The Bonus Challenge! These involve additional rewards for winning games related to the week’s new card and the Season Pass card. These missions provide extra Collector’s Tokens, Gold and Credits!

You need to win games with the card starting in your deck, and it does not count if the card was generated by cards such as Cable, Loki, and Maria Hill. Each of these reward amounts will vary depending on the difficulty of the mission.

There will be Bonus Challenge Missions available for each new card release to allow players to earn back Collector’s Tokens and subsidize their cost. Players can also expect the rewards to be stabilized at 200 Tokens to help them plan their token budget for the month.

Maximum Effort: Bonus Challenge – August 2, 2024

The distribution for the Bonus Challenge this season appears to be similar to the April 2024 Thunderbolts Season and it has been confirmed by the developers that this month will be backloaded for the final two weeks. This week’s Bonus Challenge Missions are:

Mission	#	Reward
Win a Location with 10 or Less Power	8	150 Credits
Win with Cassandra Nova starting in your Deck	4	200 Collector’s Tokens
Win with Gwenpool starting in your Deck	4	150 Gold

Most players will want to be efficient with these missions, so today we will give you a few different decks that incorporate both cards featured each weekend.

We’ll also give you a short guide on how to get the most out of the decks and finish the missions quickly. First, let’s take a quick look at the new card’s performance this week.

For more information about the new cards, make sure to check out our latest strategy guides on Cassandra Nova as well:

Best Cassandra Nova Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide

Arishem Performance

The Maximum Effort season is rolling to a close, and it has been quite an interesting final week. Most of the season has still been defined by Arishem from the previous season, but each of the new cards has had its moment to make a real impact on the meta. With all the cards are already released, instead of my usual review of the card I wanted to take a look at the controversial Celestial who has been looming large all month—and was hit with a balance change going into the weekend.

If you just want some decks for the weekend, you can skip this section.

The biggest card this month wasn’t even released this month. Arishem has remained a pillar of the meta all the way up to this final week. Once again, multiple balance changes were aimed at the play patterns from Arishem, not Arishem itself, since those were the pain points with the strategy that most players were experiencing. While this is true and you’re now more likely to play against the cards Arishem generates, this still potentially misses the power of Arishem. Here’s what I mean; let’s take a look back at the first change to the Mystique interaction.

Mystique initially copied Blob. What this created was the ability to play Blob into Mystique, going tall on multiple lanes and requiring your opponent to have multiple counters to beat your play. This was quickly adjusted, and many thought it would be enough to drop Arishem‘s play rate. The players were focused on the cards that were beating them and assumed that, without this interaction and having to face two Blobs, they would be OK. The problem was never really that you lost to Blob into Mystique, though. You lost to +1 energy.

The Mystique into Blob play was just the best direction to take that extra energy on release; it put out the most power. All you do is add that interaction into your deck because it’s the best way to compete for two lanes. Once this was removed, players began searching for the next best way to make the extra energy work. Enter Doctor Octopus and Leech. These two cards played on Turn 4 can ruin opponents’ entire game plans and reduced their ability to counter the cards you play on the following turns. However, just like last time, you weren’t losing to those two cards. They were just the best thing to do with the extra energy, so they were included in the deck. Doctor Octopus in Junk decks has been frustrating at times, but it was never super strong because of the lack of time players had to resolve bad outcomes. With +1 energy, there are now two turns to play more cards.

So the interactions of these two cards have been removed, what now? Well, it’s simply a case of finding what the next best thing to do with the extra energy is. You’re still playing with a lot more resources than your opponent, and it appears unlikely that these changes will stop Arishem from being a viable way to play—especially given the change to Loki. This card is now significantly better when played on Turn 2 than Turn 3. When played on Turn 2, it also reduces your deck size and makes Darkhawk and Cassandra Nova (the two cards that have kind of been keeping Arishem in check) much less effective.

When you’re building with Arishem, you want to add cards to your deck that are much better a turn ahead. This is often just the good cards anyway, but cards that generate other cards are always better earlier as well. If you can do this, the extra energy makes the other cards you draw stronger.

Filling in the gap is not as hard as it may seem. The concept is simple: what cards are better with more energy? This usually means playing them earlier or with more energy alongside. Devil Dinosaur could be the surprise hit because it synergizes with card generation (which is still a strong thing to do with extra energy, even without Loki). Klaw is a card that sometimes feels slow on Turn 5, but playing it on Turn 4 could be backbreaking. Sersi could be a way to upgrade the random cards you play on Turn 4. Aero and Legion are both much better on Turn 4, or with more energy to play something alongside them on Turn 6. The list of cards to try in the slots that have opened up with these changes is long.

There’s also Vision, the generically great 5-drop that is easily one of the strongest Turn 4 plays you could make in Marvel Snap. In short, the options are myriad, and if you’re willing to try different things you may find the next game breaking Arishem combination.

The Verdict

Arishem is weaker without the Doctor Octopus play. However, playing a turn ahead is still a very strong thing to do in Marvel Snap. Many cards may end up filling the void, but starting with card generation and Loki makes sense. Outside of this, some things to try include Devil Dinosaur, the High Evolutionary cards, Klaw, Vision, Legion, and Sandman. All these seem like a great way to fill the gap on paper.

One thing seems clear already: having extra energy is still very strong.

Bonus: My Arishem Deck

This deck was my initial landing spot for Arishem after the changes. Copycat and Vision are the slots where I want to try other cards as the week progresses. Loki on Turn 2 is a very strong play. Nick Fury is a contestable inclusion, but having a way to find good 6-drops for Turns 5 and 6 has proven very strong as well. Copycat (and Nocturne) both have strong effects for less energy, and they could end up being core to the new Arishem. As I mentioned above, the best thing to be doing a turn early is usually just playing good cards. My initial thought process after the Arishem changes was just how do I get bigger cards down than my opponent more often. This has less interaction, but it leans on the extra energy itself to win games.

Sandman is the big interaction card, although it may seem out of place for some. Your biggest weakness here is combos and you’re often ahead on Turn 5, so Sandman acts as a block to many of the counters you could encounter.

Now onto the weekly challenge decks.

Cassandra Nova

Cassandra Nova hit the game hard and is part of the best decks in Marvel Snap right now along with Gwenpool. These are two directions you can take with her, with the Thena deck being the clear winner at the moment.

Gwenpool

As you can see, most of these decks also include Cassandra Nova. She is just one of the best plays on Turn 3 in the game, and you should be considering her for every deck right now. However, she is replaceable in these lists with a card of your choice (if you’re just trying to finish out the Gwenpool missions).

Closing Thoughts

Wins with the new card may seem a tall order some weeks depending what quality of card is released. Hopefully this guide helps you decide first if you want the card prior to the missions coming out, and what you can potentially play to complete the missions quickly!

Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!