Welcome to Eternals season! The season pass card for June is Gilgamesh, a 5-Cost, 7-Power card that can scale up to an enormous size. He'll gain one power for each card you have with increased power, including Ongoing buffs. He may be the largest 5-Cost card ever introduced and is reminiscent of other huge scaling 5-Costs cards like Darkhawk, Devil Dinosaur, and Ronan. How will he stack up to those big boys? We'll dive into the numbers and synergies involved that will help you make the biggest Gilgamesh around.
Season Pass Variant
How big is big enough?
For Gilgamesh to be competitive, he needs to become big enough to justify his energy cost and the cost of building around him. Let's take a look at how big similar cards can get.
When building around Devil Dinosaur, you will likely include cards that ensure your hand stays full. This means Moon Girl potentially allows you to play out two consecutive Dinos at lower collection levels. In comparison, at higher collection levels, it means cards like Cable, Agent Coulsen, and other cards that synergize with Loki in addition. If you're playing Devil Dinosaur, you're most likely going to be able to get him to at least 13 power, with 15 power being a reasonable expectation.
Ronan has a higher power cap than Devil Dinosaur, but he is more inconsistent since you rely on your opponent’s hand size and actions instead of your own. Playing a final turn Maximus, Master Mold, or both can fill your opponent's hand, but it's not the most reliable play and leaves you open to Shang Chi and Enchantress. Players have begun playing Ronan with Supergiant to combat this. Still, 15 power seems like a reasonable expectation for Ronan as well.
Of the three cards we're comparing Gilgamesh to, Darkhawk is easily the most competitive and has seen the most play in top-tier decks. Ronan and Devil Dinosaur have seen some play at the top levels, but mostly in rogue builds or, in particular, metagames that were especially favorable to them. This divide is because Darkhawk doesn't need an entire deck built around him—just Korg and Rockslide are enough. These cards are also disruptive to your opponent in a way that the support cards for Ronan and Devil Dinosaur aren’t. Additionally, there are enough locations that grow your ‘Hawk, either directly by adding cards to players’ decks or indirectly by allowing you to use the effects of Korg or Rockslide multiple times that Darkhawk occasionally clocks in at 20+ power.
The largest remaining single-lane 5-cost cards, Gamora and Spider-Woman, start at 8 power and scale to 12. Both are decent cards, but they're not considered strong enough to see massive play, mostly reserved for particularly strong synergies or fringe decks.
Based on the above cards, I think Gilgamesh will have to reliably get above 12 power to be considered playable and above 15 power to have a chance to be a competitive top-tier card.
Power totals for potential Gilgamesh lines
Let's look at a few potential Gilgamesh play lines to see how achievable those benchmarks seem.
By only playing Forge into Brood and following up with Gilgamesh later: 10-Power Gilgamesh
Just playing Angela, Bishop, and Kitty Pryde (which can be replayed together with Gilgamesh on turn 6): 10-Power Gilgamesh
Just playing Ironheart with three targets on board and later playing Gilgamesh: 10-Power Gilgamesh
Sunspot, Nebula, Debrii, Ka-Zar: 11-Power Gilgamesh
Patriot seems promising. However, is Gilgamesh really going to be worth it in place of Ultron or as a backup plan for that deck?
Patriot, Squirrel Girl, and Mysterio on board before playing Gilgamesh: 12-Power Gilgamesh
Patriot, Squirrel Girl, Mysterio, and Blue Marvel: 14-Power Gilgamesh
Nebula, Sunspot, Squirrel Girl, Ant-Man, Captain America, and Ka-Zar: 14-Power Gilgamesh
How useful will Gilgamesh be as a big body in decks with a handful of buffs? It doesn't seem inspiring to use him this way. For example, if you play Human Torch, Dagger, and Vulture, all having been activated in some way, you get: 10-Power Gilgamesh
I wonder how viable Gilgamesh would be just by playing a card that can buff itself each turn. You could play a sequence of Hawkeye, Medusa, Bishop/Sage/Wolfsbane, Rescue/Jessica Jones, Black Panther/Gamora: 12-Power Gilgamesh
It doesn't seem like a good line, though I think Rescue and Jessica Jones are somewhat interesting with Gilgamesh.
And finally, just so you don't have to do the math yourself, if you get a full board of 10 cards and Blue Marvel, you can make: 17-power Gilgamesh
What does it all mean?
The above lines and comparisons to the other 5-drops illustrate that Gilgamesh needs a deck more fully devoted to him than Darkhawk. A large part of the reason that Darkhawk has been so successful for so long is that you can easily fit a tech card or two into decks with him and still get the most out of him. There is some promise to Zoo/Swarming decks with Gilgamesh, Blue Marvel, and Ka-Zar. Still, I think these decks will have trouble getting over the top of a lot of the existing decks in the format and will be especially susceptible to opposing tech cards like Shang Chi, Killmonger, and Shadow King (though, unlike the cards above Gilgamesh thankfully dodges Enchantress and Rogue). Given all of that, I think the best way to take advantage of Gilgamesh will be to lean into the key way he differs from the trio of 5-Cost cards we've thus far compared him to. Gilgamesh is an On Reveal card, meaning we can activate him more than once.
On Reveal ideal lines
If you play Squirrel Girl, Medusa, Ironheart, Sage, Gilgamesh, and Odin, you'll end up with a Gilgamesh somewhere between 15-Power and 17-Power, depending on how your Ironheart hits shake out.
If you play Squirrel Girl, Medusa, Ironheart, Wong, Gilgamesh, and Odin, you'll end up with a Gilgamesh somewhere between 25-Power and 39-Power.
These aren't going to happen every game, can be disrupted, and may mean stacking your power inefficiently. Still, they feel like a better use of Gilgamesh than a toe-in-the-water approach that nets an 11 or so power card. The other question is whether Wong/Gilgamesh strategies can compete with the already proven Wong/Namora decks.
Alternate synergies
Okoye and Nakia seem like interesting partners for Gilgamesh. The issue, as always with Okoye, is drawing her in time to be useful. Another interesting idea is how Gilgamesh benefits from an opponent's Red Skull. If Gilgamesh and Red Skull are ever meta-relevant simultaneously, it could be a great matchup for Gilgamesh.
Scosco's Day One Gilgamesh Decks
Master of Animals
This deck has no series 4 or 5 cards other than Gilgamesh. The goal is to play Gilgamesh on turn 6, along with Squirrel Girl or Rocket Raccoon. If you have them, you could sub in higher series cards like Blink, Valkyrie, and Nico Minoru. The newly dropped card Nebula is also a strong choice.
The Machine that is Wong
Another deck that contains only low-series cards might be the best way to make a super-sized Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh Thena Catenation
Spotlight card Thena allows you to spread buffed cards across two lanes. You can then finish with Kitty and Gilgamesh or Kitty and Cannonball.
The Forgotten One
We can use Supergiant to conceal Gilgamesh for the final turn or hide a Shanna, Elektra, Squirrel Girl burst. I think Supergiant will work well with Gilgamesh and they could be played together with other packages, like Spectrum, Angela/Kitty/Bishop, and more.
Hero Patriot
This deck has both Gilgamesh and Ultron as alternate plans. A final turn consisting of Squirrel Girl and Gilgamesh can often be more powerful than Ultron. If you want to go all-in, you can sub out Ultron for Iron Man or Ant-Man.
Titanos
This Zoo deck also has a disruptive clogging aspect. Titania can lock an opposing lane, and you can then pull her back to your side on the final turn with a 1-Cost card, leaving Gilgamesh in another lane.
Conclusion
The season pass is always the best value in the game, and Gilgamesh adds to that value. If Gilgamesh were in Spotlight Caches, I might mark him as a skip if you've got your eyes on some of the upcoming cards or at least a wait-and-see. However, he's powerful enough and has enough potential that I think you'll be pleased with him as a season pass card. He's no Blink, but he's still a high-stat card that can grow to unmanageable size if things align just right. I think he's a little harder to build around than Darkhawk but probably as reliable as Ronan or Devil Dinosaur. That puts him in a spot where he's big and playable but unlikely to be tier-1 competitive. I think Gilgamesh is an absolute beast at lower collection levels, so if you're new to the game, get this month’s season pass.