Phastos, Sebastian Shaw, Gilgamesh 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 28, 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 Sebastian Shaw starting in your Deck	4	125 Credits
Win with Phastos starting in your Deck	4	200 Collector’s Tokens
Win with Gilgamesh starting in your Deck	8	375 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 cards’ performance this week.

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

Best Phastos Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide

Phastos Performance

The Celestials’ Finest season continues with Phastos. This 3 cost, 3 power card provides either +2 power or -1 cost to the rest of the cards in your deck. It has a wide range of outcomes, but does it bring anything new to the table? Will it be the next must-include card, or just something neat you can play in your decks?

It turns out that Phastos is more unique than he might seem, but he’s also more limited due to the random nature. The inability to know what the effect is going to do for you has resulted in the card feeling rather lackluster for many. But is this a fair assessment? Okoye and Nakia come to mind as two similar cards that are used to improve other cards either in your deck or in your hand. The advantage these two cards have is that you are very clear on the outcome when you play them. Phastos may give you a larger effect on the cards you hit, but you then lack the knowledge of the outcome. This makes the new card fall short of being an auto inclusion in many decks. However, it is far from useless, and it represents a new tool to try in some decks.

Silver Surfer is the obvious choice. This style of deck likes playing 3-Cost cards and Phastos is a 3-Cost card, but this deck does have other advantages to running Phastos. It is one of the decks that likes all 12 cards being cheaper or having more power, and this is key to finding success with Phastos. The deck you’re building has to be able to leverage both effects regardless of the targets they hit for Phastos to even begin to compete with the 3-Cost slot in your deck.

The other direction (which can be surprisingly effective) is Wong decks. These decks often have lower power cards that you would also like to combo, which means they can benefit from either the extra power or the reduced cost. These decks also often struggle for strong Turn 3 options, resulting in less competition for that slot in the deck.

Bounce decks are the last one to call out, but their place in the current meta may not make it apparent right now. These decks benefit from every card in the deck being impact by Phastos, and, although he’s not a requirement, including Phastos is valid.

Finally, the one archetype so far that seems like it will want Phastos in most versions going forward is Thanos. It is simply the best 3-Cost card you can play in this archetype. Phastos can potentially reduce all the Infinity Stones left in your deck to 0-Costs or make them all valuable plays at three power. Also, since Thanos is often just playing efficient stats on cards, having the slight boosts to power or cost can be huge. You’re never planning on seeing an exact set of cards with Thanos, so adding value to all of your cards is simply a good play.

The Verdict

So, why is everyone describing this card as mid? It’s simple really: it doesn’t do anything to create something new. It simply is an option to put into decks. Also, the effect is actually really limited; the only decks where it is truly worthwhile are Silver Surfer and Thanos. Outside of these two, some other decks have had success but then the opportunity cost comes in.

When choosing a card in Marvel Snap, you have to consider whether it is better for your deck than any other card you could use. Phastos often falls just short of this because his effect is too random and not core to the game plan. In short, he’s a great card in Thanos, good enough but not needed in Silver Surfer, and rarely worthwhile outside of these two. It isn’t a bad card, though, but I would only recommend you go after this one if you’re specifically a fan of the archetypes below.

Although the score is lower here, this card is very playable in a lot of decks. It just doesn’t advance the decks enough to make it an easy recommendation.

Post-Release Score:

Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer deck almost builds itself at this point. This deck puts efficient stats down and does it consistently. This makes it a simple deck to play while also being flexible in where it challenges locations. Most the 3-Cost cards can be adjusted, but keeping the core of Brood and Absorbing Man will carry the deck for you.

Thanos

Thanos is probably the most suitable home for Phastos because it allows for potential high rolls and to simply put down more stats. Sasquatch and Mockingbird both work really well now since both can be significantly discounted in the right circumstances, which often results in you just staying ahead the whole game. This is also the only deck where it seems like Phastos will be a mainstay, and you could end up finding that it is hard to replace in the future.

Beast

Decks like Bounce will find value from Phastos, but it’s often just not the best card to play. However, this a direction to watch with the Move changes and the prevalence of Junk decks because it can use the small buffs effectively once counters to Phastos are less prevalent.

Which brings me to this Move deck. This looks to take the basic Bounce approach and merge it with the Move shell. If you don’t own Hercules, it could also be time for Black Swan to shine here as the replacement (or your favorite tech card). The plan is really easy: play and replay Human Torch and Dagger with some movement in between.

Wong

Finally, Wong decks don’t often advance the game plan with their early 3-drop. This opens up an opportunity to try Phastos in these decks. He is very much the 12th card, but every card in the deck is improved with the effects, and that makes this version a valid way to play the deck.

Sebastian Shaw

Sebastian Shaw can support any Silver Surfer deck, so no Phastos, no problem this weekend. Here you want to play 3-drops and a few strong 3-Cost tech cards for the meta. This is a simple way to enjoy the weekend missions while playing one of the strongest decks in Marvel Snap right now.

Gilgamesh

Speaking of strong decks, the Gilgamesh mission allows you to play a deck that is potentially the best deck in the game for the missions. Zoo took off with the buffs to Gilgamesh and Shanna, and it hasn’t slowed down yet. This version leans on including Shadow King and Rogue because both they’re great in the current meta against the other top contenders.

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!