You are now a Sentinel!
The ultimate progression of man and machine, Bastion is coming to Marvel Snap!
Born from the unholy fusion between Nimrod and a Master Mold, Bastion has awoken a man but with his hatred for mutants intact.
Often in charge of the Human Into Sentinel transformation programs, Bastion finds himself at odds with Professor X and his X-Men. With powers such as Teleportation and Time Travel, he is definitely a formidable foe.
In Marvel Snap
In Marvel Snap, Bastion turns cards on the board into created cards in your hand. He even keeps that Sentinel theme by making them have 2 Cost and 3 Power.
Upon reading this I immediately thought of two paths. Copying abilities as many times as I can, and cheating costs of bigger stuff. We’ve seen both of those strategies have their time in the sun in competitive Marvel Snap, so Bastion to me seems like a slam dunk of a card.
Compare and Contrast
The current premier way to copy a card is with Frigga. Both Frigga and Bastion work after playing what you want to copy. If they both worked the same way we’d be looking at a classic “quantity vs quality” debate. Bastion wins there by virtue of copying more stuff. The issue is that they aren’t strictly the same. While Bastion’s ability to set the Cost and Power is a good build around, it can be a hindrance. Suppose you want to copy something with more than 3 Power, then you’d want Frigga over Bastion.
Synergies
If we are looking for a card that wants to be copied a bunch of times, then we have to start with Victoria Hand. The whole VHand archetype is predicated on copying Victoria Hand, usually with something like Frigga or Moon Girl. By including Bastion we gain another method to copy her and open up a new exciting line. Turn 2 Victoria Hand, Turn 3 Frigga, Turn 4 Bastion getting you an extra Victoria and Frigga sounds devastating.
Here’s a card you weren’t expecting me to say. If you want to cheat out some big targets for Bastion, Wave is a good way to do it. You can play something big like Gorr or Iron Man that love getting extra Power, and then play Bastion on turn 5 to get a 2 Cost version for the final turn.
Cerebro fans rejoice! Bastion making 3 Power copies while having 3 Power himself means he’s a shoe-in for a slot in Cerebro 3 decks. Imagine a couple copies of Cerebro or Mystique with 3 Power themselves and you’ll see why this is going to be a powerful synergy, and that’s only scratching the surface.
Counters
If you want to stop your opponents from dropping a bunch of 2 Cost copies, then look no further than Mobius. When they think they are going to get a 2 Cost Gorr, they will instead be staring at the 6 Cost copy in their hand. By playing Mobius you get to make their turn 4 feel especially bad because without the cost reduction, all they did was play a 4/3 and clog up their hand with stuff they can’t play.
The other axis of attack against Bastion is with the Power of the created cards. Perhaps they are looking to turn a small Ongoing or an On Reveal card into something with more juice thanks to the granted 3 Power from Bastion. A well timed Shadow King will turn all that effort wasted.
August’s Day 1 Decks
Bastion VHand
Bastion’s first home is, as mentioned earlier, with Victoria Hand. By loading up the deck with as many copiers as we can justify (Nico, Frigga, Bastion), you are sure to have games with 2 or even 3 copies of Victoria on the board. Just be sure you don’t skimp out on making other created cards otherwise you won’t be taking advantage of all those +2 Power boosts from each Victoria Hand.
Bastion C3
Cerebro has gotten a HUGE boost in power with Bastion. Copying Cerebros is one thing, but giving them the right number of Power to contribute to the gameplan is a whole other. Not only will each Cerebro be giving out +3, but they themselves will be getting that buff now too. Combine that with the recent release Omega Sentinel dishing out 7 points of affliction, and the classic Sentinel to keep refueling your hand. It looks like Cerebro 3 has taken on the theme of Sentinels of all shapes and sizes.
Variants
Final Thoughts
Bastion is a Series 5 card launching Tuesday in the Seasonal Series 5 Pack for 5000 tokens and the weekly Spotlight for 6000.
Bastion is quickly shaping up to be my favourite card of the season. Not only do I see potential in creating new decks, but I see him enhancing already existing ones. That to me is the hallmark of a good card.
Let me know what you think about Bastion. Tell me about any synergies I’ve missed or Bastion decks you are excited about down below!