Valkyrie - Shieldmaiden!

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Valkyrie protection TTS Campagne crane rouge expert 0 0 0 2.0

neothechosen · 9806

Valkyrie protects!! I built this deck to take advantage of Valkyrie’s high def potential. Despite this being a protection deck, it does pack quite a punch! With a few key assets, Valkyrie falls into the category of heroes that can defend for herself and the team without losing much hp, and still dish out lots of damage!

Key combos:

  1. Valkyrie's Spear + Armored Vest + Death-Glow on the villain = 4 def.

Complete your block by playing Shieldmaiden, Desperate Defense or Never Back Down (last 2 you can pay with Nerves of Steel). Reap the benefits from Unflappable. It is possible – with luck – to defend up to 4 times in a single turn! (shieldmaiden, unflappable, desperate defense, ready, desperate defense again / never back down for a stun…).

  1. Dragonfang + Death-Glow on the villain = 4 atk I usually tend to defend with events that leave you ready to atk (desperate defense / shieldmaiden). So the villain deals no damage, then you can atk for

  2. You can also use Counter-Punch after you defend for 4 dmg… pretty amazing!

  3. Aragorn + Ever Vigilant Because “Aragorn” makes you AERIAL, you can play “Ever vigilant” and get a second 4 dmg attack this turn. This is a huge deal, Ever vigilant is a huge game changer!


True Solo play

I’ve tried this deck in true solo expert. In short: it can work but probably not against every villain (haven’t tried all of it yet… it’s getting hard to do so with every deck you build!)

First, get rid of the starting side scheme. The easiest way is to play Multiple Man on turn 1. Mulligan hard for him if you have to. With 3 copies, your chances are actually decent. MM then thwarts the side scheme and blocks the next 3 attacks. With luck, that’s 2 – 3 villain turns, time you will use to get set up, putting in play your spear, dragonfang, armored vest, Aragorn… so on. If you don’t have MM, maybe Flight of the Valkyrie with Chooser of the Slain will offer you the chance to clear the scheme, or Brother Voodoo + your own thwart.

Then, favor defense events that will keep you ready, and attack every time possible; abuse “Ever vigilant” to keep ahead on the main scheme while double-attacking. This is your ticket to victory!

Starhawk is also really helpful. Don’t block with him! Have him thwart the main scheme every turn, putting him back into play when he comes back to your hand. If you can manage not to revert to AE (possible if you block all the time), then the main scheme just stalls. Eventually your playing of “Ever vigilant” will do this job too.

Revert to AE only if necessary. The first time I played Rhino with this deck, I changed to hero form on turn one and never reverted back to AE. This, too, is very helpful to prevent threats from piling up.

Don’t forget to reap the benefits from defeating an enemy with death-glow attached when you defeat the villain’s initial stage (readying, Flight of the valkyrior,Valhalla).

That’s all there is to it! Pretty simple but lots of fun!

21 comments

Dec 12, 2021 InigoMontoya · 4063

I love protection decks! This looks like so much fun. Can't wait to get Valkyrie in the mail.

Did Leading the Charge just barely miss the cut? With 4 attack, it seems like a great add.

Dec 12, 2021 InigoMontoya · 4063

Ugh. I meant Leading Blow. Haha.

Dec 12, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

@InigoMontoya Lol! Makes more sense! Indeed, leading blow was in consideration, but Counter-Punch and Ever Vigilant offered a constant 4 dmg and made more sense with defending a lot. I may try a half and half scenario by cutting on one of each defense events.

Dec 13, 2021 wehehe · 129

Some nice ideas in this deck ! I'd like to build a Valkyrie deck to pair with Thor aggression (I really like the idea of Valkyrie playing Chooser of the Slain, followed by a Thor's Get Over Here!) and I'm not sure if playing her with Protection or Justice. I really like this deck as a good starting point for Protection Valkyrie.

I think that maybe a few more attacks would be great for this deck, what about Hard Knocks? It is a little expensive, I know, but I think it is a very strong card for a hero who likes killing minions.

Dec 13, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

@wehehe

Hi again! Hard Knocks sure is fun, it think it depends what you want to focus on. If you teammate is Thor and wants to play Get Over Here!, then I guess you may not have a lot of opportunities for Hard Knocks so, maybe you can focus on defending for the whole team instead. If you plan on letting Valkyrie hit the minions, then sure, go ahead!

Dec 14, 2021 dr00 · 38773

love the use of Counter-Punch to capitalise on that huge attack. do you find that you have trouble with threat without Hard to Ignore in true solo though? is Flight of the Valkyrie enough?

Dec 14, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

@dr00 Hi! Since hard to ignore targets only the main scheme, I don't miss it that much. In fact it's not the main scheme I worry about, I got it covered pretty much with Ever Vigilant / Flight of the Valkyrie, as long as I can keep in hero form things are ok (altough, as I said, I didn't get to play every villain...).

It's the start of the game with side schemes in expert that's a bugger, but I often got lucky enough to get Multiple Man to do the job for me. So far, so good!

Dec 14, 2021 dr00 · 38773

@neothechosen thanks for your thoughts. sounds good! can't wait to try it out

Dec 24, 2021 LordVampire · 1

No Hard to Ignore? With a Def that high and a Thw that low, Hard to Ignore is really… hard to ignore. I’d definitely include it in this deck.

Dec 30, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

@LordVampire

Sorry for the delay! Hard to Ignore is a good card, but I didn't feel like it was needed.

As I mentionned before, since Hard to Ignore targets only the main scheme, as long as you can manage to stay in hero form, Ever Vigilant does the job pretty well.

I guess you could try including it, but the challenge is : where to cut? (Unless you don't care about going over 40 cards of course...) If you're going for multiplayer, then you probably don't need Multiple Man's help thwarting...

Jul 31, 2022 TomasLoow · 1

I played this deck just now and it's really fun!

Just one small suggestions, have you considered playing Warlock instead of Starhawk? For the "stall the main scheme every turn" task, Warlock work very similar to Starhawk does for a bit less upkeep. Play Warlock, thwart twice, heal him for 1 resoure, thwart twice, heal for one ad nausem

Keeping Starhawk in play requires three effective resources for every three threat removed, Warlock just requires one resource for two threats after initially getting him on the board.

He's one resource more to get in play though and unlike Starhawk he cannot thwart twice the same round, but I found him a bit easier to keep around in the long run.

Aug 13, 2022 neothechosen · 9806

@TomasLoow Sorry for the slow response! TBH I didn't consider Warlock. cards in this deck are either going into play or I really want to play the events/allies that are . From an economy perspective, though, you are absolutely right and maybe I should give it a shot. Thanks for the suggestion!

Aug 19, 2022 Brusc · 8

Hey, I'm currently trying this deck, but as I'm new to Valkyrie I'm finding the Death-Glow upkeep rather awkward. Much of her kit depends on who you have Death-Glow on, an if it's on a rather healthy villain, you don't really benefit from much of her bonuses from it having been on a minion. Do you only switch to the villain when you think you can down him, because I'm assuming going into AE is a no go, most of the time?

Sep 29, 2022 neothechosen · 9806

@Brusc Oh wow I'm sorry I missed your message! I've mostly been away and unable to play much lately so I haven't been checking much.

To answer your question: I usually use it on the villain only once Dragonfang is out or Valkyrie's Spear so I get to 4 ATK or 3/4 DEF. It means I rarely if ever get the bonuses from Flight of the Valkyrior or Valhalla but I also don't really use Chooser of the Slain all the time, only if it gives me something in return (such as getting me 2 cards to pay for Ever Vigilant, and I only put an easily dispatched minion in play).

That may seem counter-intuitive but it was doing pretty well (haven't played it in a long time!).

Sep 30, 2022 Brusc · 8

@neothechosen thanks for the reply and don't worry about being late, I didn't really have time to play either since I wrote that comment. So I take it that the deck really is about getting your stats to a decent level and just leverage your aspect cards, ignoring most of her kit that revolves on the dearh-glow mechanic. It's getting really hard to love Valkyrie outside aggression which is my least favorite aspect... It seems they couldn't really decide what direction to take her in the design process. Anywho thanks for the reply and have nice day!

Sep 30, 2022 neothechosen · 9806

@Brusc Yeah, basically just what you said! I get the aggro thing, some characters just don't seem right outside of it, but it's soon going to be much better with professor X and Psylocke allies. I proxied those in a Valkyrie aggro deck last week, it was actually pretty good! So there's still hope for it yet!

Sep 30, 2022 Brusc · 8

@neothechosen I tend to favor thematic decks so even though those cards look awesome I'd be skeptical about adding them to a Valkyrie deck. But hey if you can build a nice flowing deck with them I'd be willing to give it a shot! Such a shame about Valkyrie on a general basis...really like the death-glow thing. But only retrieving it in AE form is just plain dumb... they could have just made you pay it's cost again to retrieve it so it doesn't completely screw with your tempo...alas it is what it is

Jun 29, 2023 Arczi · 1

Since the whole idea is too defend a lot and get ready, why not adding Electrostatic Armor to the set?

Jun 29, 2023 neothechosen · 9806

@Arczi Hi! Electrostatic Armor sure can work here, just not sure where to cut! TBH it's been quite a while since I published this deck and a lot of things have happened, might be in need of some re-work, For example, since last RRG, Shieldmaiden has gained the defense trait... Jocasta would make a lot of sense here. Professor X, for the confuse, altough not very thematic... What Doesn't Kill Me could fit... So, choices... If you're ok going over 40 cards, try Electrostatic Armor for sure.

Jun 29, 2023 Arczi · 1

@neothechosen Hi. I put Electrostatic Armor without removing anything else. It did pretty good job. For now I think it might be the best Valkyrie deck for me.

Jun 29, 2023 neothechosen · 9806

@Arczi

Thanks for the feedback! Glad it works!