Gilgamesh and Thena Decks & Week 1 Review: Bonus Challenge Guide - Marvel Snap Zone (2024)

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 7, 2024

This week’s Bonus Challenge Missions are:

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 Gilgamesh and Thena as well:

Gilgamesh Performance

First up in The Celestials’ Finest season is Gilgamesh. The strongest Eternal is the Season Pass card for this season, and it was highly anticipated. The effect allows you to benefit from all the cards on the board that you have added power too. But is it just too much work to get a big enough outcome from Gilgamesh?

The base power at seven and the buffs only giving +1 to Gilgamesh is important here. This stops the card from reaching truly absurd numbers without being telegraphed. While this might make it feel like it is not a powerhouse, in practice it’s still a good card in the decks where it works. Blue Marvel and Ka-Zar, for example, have long been good at spreading power among small cards and tokens. This is at times (like early on in your Snap collection) the absolute best strategy you can play. These decks often had a weakness to decks that could just go bigger on two lanes—the key to Marvel Snap is winning two lanes after all—and they begin fall out of favor as you grow your collection. What Gilgamesh does is add a way to go big on a lane in the final turns. While that may not be as tall as some would like, it’s actually really effective in its role.

Although you may not feel like Gilgamesh is breaking anything, it specifically adds a dynamic to flood decks that they previously had to achieve by significantly adjusting their builds. This card just works with the play style these decks want to follow. This a valuable thing that I think will be underrated by many. However, it’s often a card that’s cut because it clashes with plans involving cards like Ultron, which still may be the best way to finish the flood game plan regardless of Gilgamesh.

The Verdict

Gilgamesh is holding up as a strong enough inclusion in decks playing on curve and working towards cards like Ka-Zar or Blue Marvel. However, outside of this strategy he can feel a little limited since he doesn’t hit the ceiling often enough. It’s a solid card included within the Season Pass but not as strong as it may have seemed pre-release. I think he is a worthwhile inclusion in flood decks, but these decks can still be built without the card.

Post-Release Score:

Thena Performance

On the opposite side of the coin is Thena. She is the first Series 5 card this month, and my pre-release opinion of her started to cool as the two card requirement seemed limited with where she could be played. The requirement is an anti synergy with lots of strategies, but the power out put is very high and often represents 10 power with ease.

Which leads me to the easiest way to activate her and why she has the potential to have serious staying power in Marvel Snap. Kitty Pryde and Angela are already an iconic Snap duo, and Thena works perfectly alongside them. She is a second scaling card in this strategy, and these early game cards can support many different styles of play. The big thing to understand when including her into your decks is that you only really need two or three activations to make her worthwhile. She is also not hard to activate considering just how many decks can afford to play only two cards on Turns 3 through 5. This already give you nine power on Thena just for playing the game!

The unfortunate outcome, though, is that this plan works best with the support of Ravonna Renslayer and Professor X. These two cards allow you to limit the game to two lanes, which then makes Cannonball a win condition that is almost unbeatable in many circ*mstances. With multiple scaling cards now available, these decks can also find wins without Professor X as well. This combination is likely elevating the results of Thena more than it may seem. Without this combination, the potency of Thena could be much lower since the decks including her would be vulnerable from more angles.

The Verdict

She is not a difficult card to activate, and she is probably featured in fewer decks than she should right now. It is relatively simple to get two activations if you play her on Turn 2, and that gives you a way to play differently to push power back onto her lane later on if needed. This means that she is easy to play but potentially complex to master. I believe she is one of the strongest cards we have had in some time, as she presents raw power and flexibility in lots of different decks. However, this is being slightly overshadowed by her dominance as part of the Professor X strategy.

Post-Release Score:

Gilgamesh

Going all in on Gilgamesh can be done in lots of ways, but this Zoo deck looks to reduce Mockingbird and use lots of 1-drops in addition to the Eternal. To this end, Caiera protects you from Killmonger when needed, and Echo makes an appearance to make sure at least one lane can be guaranteed to avoid Professor X. Gilgamesh then can come down on Turn 6 with plenty of buffs to win one lane, and the buffed smaller cards can hopefully compete for the other two lanes.

Thena

By now you have seen several versions of this deck (which originated right here), and Thena is here to push this deck even further. Now you have two cards that can play the crucial Angela role. This lets you scale to the point where Professor X is guaranteed to win a lane, and then Cannonball can win another without priority. Always prioritize playing Ravonna Renslayer first to open up your Thena plays significantly, and if you’re struggling with Professor X just throw him down on your largest lane.

Thena and Gilgamesh

If you’re looking to combine the two cards for the weekend missions, one of the best ways is with this Ravonna Renslayer and Patriot deck. This one allows you to play Ravonna to get some Thena activations. You also play Invisible Woman to protect your Ongoing cards, but this allows you to play Gilgamesh on Turn 5 and then Ultron an alternate lane on Turn 6. Gilgamesh just gives the deck a new way to compete, which can be effective at keeping your opponents from being 100% sure of what your end game is.

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!