Miek and Skaar Decks: Bonus Challenge (Weekend Mission) 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 and Gold!

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.

Bonus Challenge: January 19, 2024

This week’s Bonus Challenge Missions are:

Variants

Miek

When you discard a card, this gains +1 Power and can move next turn.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Miek

Variants

Skaar

Costs 2 less for each of your cards that has 10 or more Power.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Skaar

Most players will want to be efficient with these missions, so today we will give you three different decks that incorporate Skaar and Miek.

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

For more inspiration, make sure to check out our latest strategy guide on Miek as well:

Performance

Miek is the Series 4 card release this month and the latest Discard tool. Miek gains power for every card discarded while it is on board, and at the end of each turn it moves to another location (if at least one card was discarded). It starts at only one power and requires you to discard cards to gain any benefit, and it also moves at random. So, is this additional scaling card what Discard decks needed to return to the meta, or does Miek have too small of an impact to really push the archetype back to the top?

Variants

MODOK

On Reveal: Discard your hand.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with MODOK

Variants

Blade

On Reveal: Discard the rightmost card from your hand.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Blade

Miek has a very clear synergy with Discard cards. It gains power and is easy to fit into early turns due to the energy cost. Cards like MODOK and Blade can help target key discard targets like Swarm or Apocalypse while getting the buffs going. This makes deciding on how and where to include Miek not difficult. If you are discarding cards, consider playing Miek. In this regard, it seems to improve the potential ceiling for these decks; if you’re a fan of the classic Discard style of deck, it is certainly worth considering for the synergy alone.

Miek does have some major flaws and weaknesses that are not obvious on the surface based on how much it scales and the second part of its ability.

Variants

Daken

On Reveal: Add the Muramasa Shard to your hand.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Daken

Variants

Gambit

On Reveal: Discard a card from your hand to destroy a random enemy card.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Gambit

Variants

Dracula

At the end of the game, discard a card from your hand to gain its Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Dracula

Variants

Wong

Ongoing: Your On Reveal abilities here happen twice.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Wong

The “and move” part of the text appears to be the downside included into Miek‘s design. It will only move once and at the end of the turn. The move is unpredictable, so where it lands is always a 50/50 (unless you have a filled location). You might think this isn’t that bad, but, in practice, it can fill locations more than you would like AND is hard keep it in place when you have to discard cards on Turn 6. The discard decks often now need to complete some discards on Turn 6 thanks to the America Chavez change, and this means Miek will not be in the same spot when you finish the game unless you also fill locations on Turn 6.

This is difficult for Discard without multiple hits on Swarm, so you are stuck not relying on the power in a location too often. The power ceiling may seem high, but where the power will land is unreliable – and it often only ends up around four power on average in a dedicated Discard deck. The current Discard strategies are very focused on what they are aiming to discard, which results in less movement and less power for Miek. It rarely gets to a high enough level to overcome the weaknesses, and, when it does, it feels redundant (such as in heavy Discard plans).

Heavy Discard plans (a.k.a. strategies that are looking to make big Discard plays with Gambit, Dracula, or Daken) negate your opponent’s board anyway, so it wouldn’t even matter if Miek was on the board at all (either because they have no board or you have a 36 power Daken on two lanes). The strategies that work for Miek are built in such a way that it does not rely on where the power ends up because they don’t need the power from Miek to win the game. Thus, while it can look great as a bigger number in these decks, it is often the case that you could swap the number from Miek with a 0 and still win the game.

Variants

Kingpin

When an enemy card moves here, afflict it with -2 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Kingpin

Variants

Killmonger

On Reveal: Destroy ALL 1-Cost cards.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Killmonger

Attempts to take advantage of the movement with other cards are not worthwhile due to how unpredictable the movement is and the requirement to also run lots of discard effects to keep it moving. Kingpin makes Miek an active liability; the feeling of playing Miek into a Kingpin deck is horrible because one move often negates the whole work you completed and then makes it into a moving liability as well.

As a 1-Cost, it has a heavy counter in Killmonger, which is not easily covered by the decks due to the lack of ways to reliably fit Caiera into many of the decks.

Is that it for Miek, then? Well, no. The card does have a clear home, and this means that if the archetype improves, the card will improve. However, the reasons it is not finding success may mean that even in an improved meta for discard, it may end up being the 13th card in a lot of cases. With the potential of the upcoming schedule and easily finding a spot in a specific archetype, though, Miek is potentially going to be worth picking up in the near future.

So, how do you use Miek and Skaar to rack up wins and complete the Bonus Challenge Missions?

Discard

Miek Discard

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 3 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The starting point for Miek is just a Discard deck that includes Miek. This uses Miek at its best as a basic scaling card that provides support to the rest of the deck. Swarms can help you force Miek into specific locations, but, outside of that interaction, this is just a basic Discard deck that does basic Discard things.

Black Knight & Skaar

Black Knight

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 3 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

While it is not the most efficient way to play Miek, this direction lets you complete both missions while having a strong enough deck to compete. Here you have basic Black Knight game plan combined with Magik into Skip -> She-Hulk and The Infinaut. Once you finish your Miek missions, try this with Sunspot in Miek‘s spot.

Daken

Daken Combo

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 3 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Lastly, you can complete the missions in style by playing the Daken deck. The goal here is to play Ravonna Renslayer to reduce the energy of Arnim Zola. This allows you to play Arnim Zola on Turn 5 on either Daken or Dracula. Then you can Discard your hand and either activate multiple Muramasa Shards or discard Apocalypse multiple times.

Skaar

Blobby Lashley

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 4 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

4.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

For Skaar, you can look literally everywhere and find some version of Thanos Lockjaw with Skaar and Caiera. All these decks work, and the complexity levels are growing over time right now as players adjust the deck to their personal preferences. Even with the Blob nerf, this deck should remain the most effective way of completing the Skaar 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!