Makkari Decks & Week 1 Review: Bonus Challenge Guide

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.

The Celestials’ Finest: Bonus Challenge – June 21, 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 with Nakia starting in your Deck	4	125 Credits
Win with Makkari starting in your Deck	4	200 Collector’s Tokens
Win with Silver Surfer starting in your Deck	4	125 Credits

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 cards’ performance this week.

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

Best Makkari Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide

Makkari Performance

Next up in The Celestials’ Finest season is Makkari. This 3 cost, 4 power card is rarely played since she will always run herself from your hand at the end of the turn. This is to a random location as long as space is on board. So is this a “free” card that can be played in every deck, or is it sometimes simply a dead draw that would be better as any other card in your deck?

Makkari does have a cost to play: she costs you a slot in your deck. This should not be underrated, as you will have lost a different synergy card by choosing to put her in the deck. She can also lands randomly, so she could hit locations where you don’t need the power or that are simply bad for you. However, this hasn’t stopped her from appearing as a core part of some strategies where she may end up being best way to play the deck.

Sandman and Electro both restrict how many cards can be played, but Makkari is not played and therefore will still hit the board. She can also run to the board in early game and give you priority to support your other cards later in the game. And, because you’re limiting both players in what they can play, the extra four power and potential extra plays make her a perfect fit in these decks.

Of course, Makkari is a 3-Cost card, so she works perfectly with Silver Surfer; however, it can feel like she is pushing out better cards in the “traditional” Silver Surfer deck. These decks often just focus on best-stats-for-cost cards, which can become an anti-synergy with Makkari due to cards like Brood filling up the board. Even with this, it turns out Makkari can work within these decks—but she isn’t necessary.

Two versions of the deck have some better synergy with Makkari and could be ways to get more use out of her in particular. The Nakia direction focuses on buffing the cards in your hand and in your deck, which makes Makkari bigger prior to the free play. Strong Guy and the 3-Cost Discard cards make an interesting build that leverages Makkari‘s guaranteed play to keep your hand empty for the buffs.

Moon Girl builds have also been interesting directions with Makkari as a way to make room in your hand to copy the key cards. These seem to need more work to be truly competitive, but the synergy worked better than expected.

The Verdict

Makkari is a solid card that supports two archetypes, and she has a chance to be a core card in these decks. Thus, she is a card you may want if you’re a fan of Sandman or Silver Surfer. She feels strong enough to improve some of these builds, but she’s not the only way to make the decks work.

Makkari is stronger than expected, as she actually has uses, but she doesn’t push these decks further than they were prior to her release. The synergy is there, though, so if the decks below look like your style, you may actually enjoy Makkari. Many will find that she doesn’t push anything new for them and is easily replaceable.

Post-Release Score:

Sandman

Makkari fits perfectly into Sandman decks, and this one looks to do everything it can to hit Sandman on Turn 5. It includes the Jubilee and Blink combination for a further shot at pulling Sandman when needed, too. Makkari is then simply an excellent draw on every turn because she can be extra power early or late game.

If you have a smaller collection, try these cards instead to get ahead and stay ahead the whole game. This may struggle a little into a Makkari mirror since you may pull the Makkari out of the deck for them with Maximus, but the rest of the game plan is very similar. You can usually drop enough power to win after playing Sandman.

Silver Surfer

The basic Silver Surfer deck is now leaning heavily into the Mockingbird cross synergy. This allows for Mockingbird as a finisher if you miss on Silver Surfer (and she just represents a lot of stats). It’s simple to play, and Makkari will have times where she helps a lot by being an extra card where you wouldn’t normally be able to fit one in.

This version plays more for the buffs on Brood and Absorbing Man, but the rest of the build is very similar. Want to drop stats? This direction works just as well and includes a fewer of the new cards.

Strong Guy

When I saw the Strong Guy deck from Regis, I had to take a shot at building a version myself much to my detriment, but here is something fun to try for the weekend. And it does work Here you can discard targets like Swarm and Proxima Midnight. Makkari helps keep your hand empty for the Strong Guy proc at the end of the game, and 2-Cost Swarms transform into 3-Costs with Sersi on Turn 5. Brood can be swapped for other 3 drops pretty comfortably as well, but it’s often just the best 3-drop to play regardless of what else you’re trying to do with your Silver Surfer deck.

Moon Girl

Finally, this is the direction I think may be least explored. You have She-Hulk and Mockingbird as your main targets to copy with Moon Girl. If you hit Mockingbird, simply play what you can the following turn before Turn 6. Copying Makkari can also be huge with two of them running from your hand on the following turn.

Nakia and Silver Surfer Decks

This week’s missions let us dust off Classic Sera Surfer for a baseline deck which can earn you the rewards. Hope Summers is replaceable with favorite 3 drop of choice and the rest is simply a major throwback.

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!