Overthrowing the Gatekeepers

Deck concept

I recently had the urge to return to Valkyrie. When I last played her (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/19413/valkyrie-keeping-heimdall-on-speed-dial-1.0) it was before the 'clarification' that Valkyrie hero and Valkyrie can't be in the same deck, but looking back at that deck I don't think I realised that Valkyrie can be a frequent-flipping hero. It was also before Gatekeeper came out.

Card choices

Let's talk about Gatekeeper first. Flight of the Valkyrior is one of Valkyrie's best hero cards but Gatekeeper is somehow even better, thwarting 4 for a single card. Unlike Smash the Problem, attaching Gatekeeper lets us benefit from the effects of Death-Glow, and Valkyrie pretty much always wants to maximise her basic ATK in any build, so the 2 HP that the minion gains aren't usually a big deal.

To maximise ATK we have Combat Training, Dragonfang, Combat Specialist, and Godslayer (for those beefier minions who are more often unique, or for the basic attack against the villain with which we aim to end each player phase).

To get all that lot set up, we have allies (Nick Fury, Ironheart, Annabelle Riggs), Hall of Heroes, Valhalla, Combat Specialist itself and that old standby Assess the Situation.

To make use of Annabelle Riggs and Hall of Heroes we need to flip, so Psylocke and Professor X help us do that safely.

Allies like Throg and Angela are there to give some protection and, in the early game, can set up the minion with Death-Glow attached so that Valkyrie can defeat it with a single blow.

Finally Side Holster and Valkyrie's Spear thin the deck a little.

Playing the deck

Valkyrie doesn't need a constant supply of minions. While she can defeat a minion and ready for one resource (or net zero resources once Valhalla is in play) she doesn't gain a lot of benefit from doing that. So the approach to minions in this deck is to take advantage of them when they come out, rather than to seek them particularly. As cards like Valhalla, Hall of Heroes and Flight of the Valkyrior get into play, minions become more and more valuable but that will be mid-late game with a lot of setup done already.

Early acceleration therefore comes from Nick Fury, Ironheart, Assess the Situation, and Annabelle Riggs. Annabelle Riggs in particular is fantastic because she is so cheap, and because she often gives you a choice of cards. Get into alter-ego as often as you can! As the deck is light on events it will get very thin as the game goes on, and Annabelle Riggs will get even better when that happens.

It is essential that Valkyrie enters the player phase ready, so she should never defend. If she starts ready, then Death-Glow lets her remove almost any number of minions and still attack the villain, thwart (for the little she can do with a basic thwart) or flip and recover. If she starts the player phase exhausted only Have at Thee! on a Death-Glowed minion can ready her. With the larger hand size in alter-ego and the benefit of Annabelle Riggs you can pull that off surprisingly often in turns where you start in alter ego (and maybe need to make a basic recover action), but in hero form it isn't going to happen that often.

You should be able to clear all the minions in play every turn and then hit the villain with a basic attack. With some set up, that attack will do 5 or more damage, even without Death-Glow, which will carve through most villains fairly handily. Late game with a thin deck you might get off a couple of Have at Thee! as well - you have lots of ways to get 8 or more cards into hand - so winning shouldn't be a big problem once the set-up is done.

How to lose with this deck

The way to lose with this deck is in the set-up phase if the encounter deck manages to accelerate away from you. Things can go badly if Valkyrie needs to hit a minion twice to get it down. Allies are the key to survival in the early game and you may need to discard some of the set-up pieces you want to play in order to get enough of them out.

Conclusion

No-one would claim that Valkyrie is the strongest hero in the game but personally I'm glad I went back to her. She's a lot of fun.