Best Sebastian Shaw Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide: How Buff Can We Get?

Sebastian Shaw is the Season Pass card for the December 2023 Season Hellfire Gala. It is a 3-Cost, 4-Power card that reads: When this card permanently gains Power, gain +2 more Power. (wherever this is). Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.

Variants

Sebastian Shaw

When this card permanently gains Power, gain +2 more Power. (wherever this is)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Sebastian Shaw

Strengths and Weaknesses

Sebastian Shaw is an interesting pay off for buffing cards because you can get the benefit from any way you add power to the card. You can buff it in the deck and on the board and it will just get bigger and bigger. Strategies have existed around this idea in the past, but the Black King could be the crowning jewel and cement the buff package as an archetype in Marvel Snap.

Variants

Okoye

On Reveal: Give every card in your deck +1 Power.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Okoye

Variants

Nakia

On Reveal: Give all cards in your hand +1 Power.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Nakia

Sebastian has some clear synergies, and the first two cards to consider with it are Nakia and Okoye. This hand and deck buff package represent the simplest way of landing buffs on the new card. You can play these out while Sebastian Shaw is in the zone you are targeting, and the buff will supplemented by the +2 power from the effect. Another advantage of this direction is that you get control over where you choose to play Shaw once you have buffed it. You can also build the deck with cards that are supported by the effect like Brood and Mister Sinister.

Variants

Forge

On Reveal: Give the next card you play +2 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Forge

Variants

Elsa Bloodstone

Each card you play to fill your side of a location gains +2 Power.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Elsa Bloodstone

Forge is another great card with Sebastian Shaw. This allows you to target the card with the effect and potentially even recycle Forge for other cards. This targeted buffing is limited in Marvel Snap, and cards like Shuri don’t seem to do enough on Sebastian Shaw without the rest of the Wakandan cards. One other card that may find its way into some Sebastian Shaw decks is Elsa Bloodstone; it would represent +5 power on Sebastian Shaw, and you can build your deck to move some of the other cards around.

Variants

Silver Surfer

On Reveal: Give your other 3-Cost cards +2 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Silver Surfer

Variants

Nova

When this is destroyed, give your cards +1 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Nova

Finally, there are the board-wide buff effects. Two of these are effective with Sebastian Shaw: Nova and Silver Surfer. These can both be triggered in the ever present Silver Surfer style deck, and this may end up being one of the popular early directions for the card. Both encourage you to include Sebastian Shaw in decks that can take advantage of lots of board-wide power buffs over targeted buffs. One card that may be forgotten, though, is Ironheart. You can build decks where Sebastian Shaw is often hit by Ironheart, which makes it able to threaten lanes by itself if you can reactivate Ironheart multiple times.

Variants

Luke Cage

Ongoing: Your cards can’t have their Power reduced.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Luke Cage

Variants

Shadow King

On Reveal: Set all cards here to their base Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Shadow King

Luke Cage is something you will want to consider for these decks since one of the biggest counters is Shadow King. Unlike cards like Werewolf By Night, it will be clear where Sebastian Shaw‘s power is. This same counter card also impacts the other cards that are buffed with the effects, too, which could result in some dramatic swings. This could make them easily countered alongside Sebastian Shaw, and potentially ending up at 10 power with only two buffs may make it countered more often.

The Verdict

Sebastian Shaw seems to have a very clearly defined supporting package of cards that are already in the game. These cards have not been at the forefront of successful decks for some time, so we may be about to see Sebastian Shaw add power to some new and underplayed decks. The issue for Sebastian Shaw is how limited the card may be; it requires two to three buff cards (of which there are not many), and it significantly limits what other cards you can play in the deck. It is also easily countered without specific supporting cards, which may limit the total impact the Season Pass card has.

The power ceiling seems high enough to help these decks attack two lanes more consistently, but the limitations may end up holding the card back. Enabling a package that can potentially work alongside several other packages could be enough to bring some new life to the meta.

Potential Score:

All-In Package

Absorbing Shaw

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

4

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

When discussing how to best take advantage of Sebastian Shaw with the legendary QuineeEquinox, it became apparent that maximizing the card’s power requires that you hit it with buffs lots of times. One card that synergizes to achieve this is Absorbing Man. Including it into the deck allows for the buff cards to be reactivated, which necessitates going “all-in” on hand buffing and creates the deck shown above.

This Handbuff Shaw deck includes Silver Surfer and Killmonger because they have excellent synergy with Sebastian Shaw and Brood (your main power cards). Iron Lad is excellent on almost every card, too. Your ideal game should finish with Sebastian Shaw and Brood down and buffed. Consider this the baseline as we journey below through the ways to maximize the package with several different decks.

Patriot

Patriot Shaw

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

If you don’t go for the Silver Surfer finisher, you could dive further into Patriot. The cross synergy is with the other cards that benefit heavily from being directly buffed. Only Forge and Nakia can buff cards here, but the rest of the cards in the deck benefit from these plays. You can get ahead on at least one lane and prepare for an Alioth finisher on the other lane to secure the win.

Loki

Loki By Night At The Gala

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Scaling threats have paired perfectly with Loki to this point. Sebastian Shaw may at first seem like he does not fit, but the experimentation here is worthwhile as we can play him on turn 3 after playing cards like Forge or Nico Minoru, or to fill a lane post Elsa Bloodstone.

We then can Falcon the 1 drops back, keeping our handful and giving us fuel to scale Werewolf By Night, all this before playing Loki on turn 5. It is not as efficient a scaler as The Collector and Werewolf for the deck but as a third option to compete for lanes may find it’s way into some Loki decks as an efficient 3 energy card.

Black Panther

Wakandan Surf

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

I couldn’t resist trying to bring the full Wakandan family into one deck with the help of Sebastian Shaw. This includes all the payoffs for buffing cards, and you can try to use Wong and Arnim Zola to finish games off. There are more all in on combinations, but the power output can far eclipse the other decks in this list.

Hit Monkey

Hit Out Shaw

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This deck looks to get Bishop and Sebastian Shaw down in earlier turns. Then you work towards Sera on Turn 5, followed by Hit Monkey, Mysterio, and Silver Surfer on Turn 6. Killmonger acts as a secondary option for stats that is also an excellent tech card for Sebastian Shaw decks in general. The pure stats here can be huge, which potentially makes this a good direction for Ladder play.

Silver Surfer

Werewolf By Shaw

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

4

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

When considering the best all in Surfer package for Sebastian Shaw, the movement package seems like it may fit best. It adds Elsa Bloodstone as yet another way to buff the card, as well as add extra power to cards like Spider-Man and Jeff the Baby Land Shark.

Werewolf By Night

Buff And Bounce

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Things get more complicated here as we look to push Sebastian Shaw into the Bounce archetype. You can get Sebastian Shaw down for extra buffs, then pick the supporting cards up to buff more cards and keep the Werewolf moving. It might be risky to bounce Sebastian Shaw, but the number of 1- and 2-drops here can allow you to play it easily later on with other cards.

Elsa Bloodstone

BloodShaw

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

2

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Cutting more from the package, you can try to limit the deck to only two key buff cards: Nova and Elsa Bloodstone. The rest of the plan is just playing good value cards that can maintain priority for an Alioth ending. Here, Sebastian Shaw is just an efficient body to play into a lane that supports your key tech card: Killmonger. You can fill the lane with other cards that can move later on as well.

Ironheart

Tiger Safety

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

My personal favorite deck gets an interesting synergy with this card. Here you want to play Sebastian Shaw before playing Ironheart. If you play the lanes correctly, the Ironheart buffs will make Sebastian Shaw‘s lane a threat on its own, and the rest of the deck uses the retriggers to contest all the lanes simultaneously. The full power ceiling here competes with almost any deck in the game because you can activate Ironheart an absurd amount of times.

On Reveal Lockdown S2

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

1

5x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Recruit Season

2x Starter Card

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This leads me to the full budget option. This build can be built entirely in Series 2. It focuses on putting Sebastian Shaw down on a lane that you can then lock with Storm. Then you can try supporting the lane by hitting the card with Ironheart. White Tiger adds a lot of flexibility to the package. You only get a little value here, but it should be enough to improve the deck at the lower collection levels.

Variants

Closing Thoughts

On the surface, Sebastian Shaw looks like it won’t make as big of an impact as the recent additions like Loki and Ms. Marvel. However, it does synergize with a package of cards that have been on the sidelines for quite some time. This leads me to hope that it may bring at least a few new directions to explore. By adding power to these packages, it potentially raises an all-in buff deck to contention. Using a synergy with less popular cards seems like reason alone to explore this card.

Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!