Card draw simulator
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None. Self-made deck here. |
Inspiration for |
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None yet |
adsarf · 428
Deck concept
Valkyrie is fantastic at controlling minions, but she struggles with thwarting. Flight of the Valkyrior is a great card, but with only two of them, not quite great enough to make up for her THW of 1. A solo Valkyrie deck needs to address this.
Justice would be the obvious approach, but that means giving up the benefits of The Bifrost. I don't think I could bear to do that; Aggression has some tools now which are nearly as good as we could find in Justice. Here we use Smash the Problem to stand in for Making an Entrance, and Chase Them Down for Clear the Area.
Card choices
First the allies. The Bifrost effectively reduces the cost of each Asgard ally by one, which certainly helps get Heimdall into play. Just as importantly, The Bifrost can bring in an ally on a turn we have none in hand. Moreover we can choose the ally with the most appropriate cost and enters-pay ability (apart from Thor), although it doesn't search the discard pile, which means late in a deck rotation we may not be able to choose exactly the ally we prefer. These big gains in economy and consistency make an all-Asgard ally approach pretty irresistible to me.
I've seen some decks leave out Valkyrie, but I think the rules are pretty clear that she is permitted, and as Valkyrie is supposed to be threader of the Valkyrior, to me it seems thematic to have at least one other valkyrie for her to boss around.
Smash the Problem and Chase Them Down give this deck the thwarting it needs. With Angela and Chooser of the Slain it is not too hard to set up the conditions to play Chase Them Down. Flight of the Valkyrior is also really handy for clearing larger amounts of threat.
Godlike Stamina helps with staying in Hero form, as well as dealing with stun or confuse. This deck does benefit from going to alter-ego, but it has to be timed carefully, ideally when Heimdall can stack the encounter deck, and at least one Flight of the Valkyrior is in play to help clear the threat which inevitably gets placed while we are in alter ego.
Mean Swing is a bit situational, as Combat Training, Death-Glow and Dragonfang are usually enough, but it provides to feed Jarnbjorn so I think it earns its keep.
Alternative cards
I experimented with Earth's Mightiest Heroes for more readying, but that really means more Avenger allies, as it isn't reliable with the three in the deck as it stands.
Playing the deck
The Bifrost is the key to this deck. Once it is in play then you can reliably get out an ally almost every turn. That buys you time to get the full minion-management package (Hall of Heroes, Valhalla, Dragonfang) into play. Dragonfang is pretty much a must-play, but you can wait for the other two if need be. I would always prioritise Flight of the Valkyrior over either of them, because it is such a powerful way of clearing threat.
Angela and Chooser of the Slain should be used when you don't have a minion in play. Valkyrie can get through quite a number of minions by putting Death-Glow onto each of them in turn, but there's rarely much actual advantage in that. One minion a turn is enough to trigger Chase Them Down, Jarnbjorn, Hall of Heroes, Flight of the Valkyrior, and Valhalla.
Ideally, you should be able to take out a minion, ready due to Death-Glow, and take a swing at the villain every turn hitting for three (six with Mean Swing) and maybe slotting in some Jarnbjorn damage when cards allow. Aim to whittle away methodically, rather the deliver a huge game-ending combo.
You can't play Valkyrie's Spear; but really, why would you want to?
How to lose with this deck
By far the best way to lose with this deck is to put Death-Glow on the villain. When I first started to use this deck I thought it would be a good idea to do that when I reached the final stage, so as to accelerate damage to the villain and win the game a little faster. I was wrong. Not only does this deny triggers for Flight of the Valkyrior and Valhalla, but it also meant I got less benefit from each new minion that enters play, which means Angela and Chooser of the Slain become less attractive, and so there are fewer triggers for Chase Them Down too. With less control over threat, it becomes harder to get to alter-ego, so if I suffer a setback of any kind it is harder to recover from.
Drawing Shadow of the Past is another good way to lose. Seduced can be a huge problem because it prevents you playing Chase Them Down and limits your ability to trigger Flight of the Valkyrior, so it is difficult to get into alter-ego in order to remove it. Your allies are really key to handling Enchantress.
The other way to lose with this deck is not to value Flight of the Valkyrior enough.
Conclusion
With a larger hand size and fewer expensive cards to get down, Valkyrie feels easier to play than Thor, but maybe has a lower ceiling. I do enjoy her though.
3 comments |
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May 22, 2022 |
May 23, 2022Thanks for the comment I play true solo expert pretty much exclusively, so this deck is designed for that. I couldn’t tell you my win rate, except that it seems to have dropped now that I come back to this game after a few months’ break. The deck wouldn’t work against very low minion-count scenarios, but I did try it against Sandman, Kang and some other mid-count minion scenarios, so I wouldn’t count is as a highly specialised anti-minion deck. It only really needs ones turn. Valkyrie isn’t as powerful as say Version 3 Ironheart, but I haven’t experienced the issues you mention. With Bifrost I can play an ally almost every turn, and two of these allies enter Tough, so I found the damage I was taking well within the scope of Godlike Stamina. I don’t agree that Throg is over costed! Threat is also very controllable provided that you prioritise Flight of the Valkyrior when it pops up, rather than waiting till you need it. In my experience flipping was more often driven by obligations and the like than damage. |
May 23, 2022Thanks, I will try some of the concepts and see if I want to move Heimdall out of Scarlet Witches deck (or maybe buy a second Thor pack). |
Interesting concepts...what are your expectations (play expert/standard, take on all villains or stick to certain subsets, comparative solo win rate or the best you can do with her in aggression)?
I find she has lots of problems against expert villains most notably Death-Glow and all her cards are too expensive (the Asgard allies are equally overpriced, except Heimdall).
Her second problem is she has no defenses (against attacks with bonus effects) and burns through her 12 health. Thus she has to flip too often and then struggles with the waterfall of threat.