Valkyrie - Nibelung Valesti

Valkyrie is a cool hero who has a lot working against her. She needs 3 ATK, but doesn't always start with Dragonfang. She has an unreasonably devastating nemesis set. She's poor at threat management. Her economy can be a bit rough.

But no one can rip through minions the way she can. This deck aims to consistently get her online quickly while giving her some tools to answer her weaknesses, ensuring that Valkyrie gets an opportunity to shine and do what she does best: steadily advance on the villain while their army crumbles before her divine assault.

It is absolutely imperative that Valkyrie get to 3 ATK as soon as possible. It's an important breakpoint for minion slaying, and games where Dragonfang is buried at the bottom of the deck can feel miserable. To that end, we have the full three copies of Combat Training included. That means four cards to look for in the opening hand to get up to that vaunted 3 ATK. Mulligan for these cards, hard. They are the most important thing you can draw, and you should be willing to throw your entire hand away to find one, with one exception.

That exception is Valhalla. The consistent healing and card draw this grants you is unparalleled, and it's the second most important thing you can get into play. (I would argue that in other aspects, you can throw this card away while digging for Dragonfang, and possibly retrieve it with Visit Valhalla; in Aggression, the priority is reversed because you have Combat Training to fall back on, ensuring you should draw an ATK-boost quickly if you don't have one in your opener.)

Once you have 3 ATK, things are relatively straightforward, at least when things are going well; decimate minions while using Death-Glow to consistently ready and put out more damage. Use your threat removal cards whenever you have room to do so; you need to ensure you have breathing room in case you draw Shadow of the Past. Most of your damage is going to come from Basic Attacks, so use your hand to support doing that (it's better to remove threat with the cards in your deck than with Valkyrie's Basic Thwart).

However, things don't always go well. So, here are some very specific notes on piloting this deck before you charge into the fray.

• Valkyrie's Spear - This is basically a dead card, and you shouldn't play it unless you have nothing else you can do with your hand. Its only purpose is to be sacrificed to Caught Off Guard.

• Skilled Strike - This card lets you spike your damage cheaply and easily. It helps Valkyrie slay minions that have more HP than she has ATK (including early on if you didn't manage to get Dragonfang or Combat Training), and it can be free extra damage on the villain when there's no immediate pressure. Use it liberally!

• Quincarrier - The main reason this card is here is to help ensure that Valkyrie can break out of Seduced if she draws Shadow of the Past. The resource is nice, but you are not here to play a long setup game, you are here to slash through everything and put the villain down before unlucky encounter card draws stall you out. Do not make the mistake of sacrificing plays that would otherwise stabilize or advance the game in favor of getting Quincarrier into play. Only play it if there's nothing else productive that you can do with your hand, or if playing it won't stop you from doing the primary things you're here to do (namely, KO minions and play cards that will help Valkyrie survive whatever the villain throws at her, like allies or Flight of the Valkyrior).

• Hall of Heroes - Similarly, this card is not a goal of the deck. It is a failsafe. It's a Mental resource, so you can pitch it to clear Seduced, and if you get it into play early, it's all but guaranteed to stack up counters. However, you do not flip down in order to draw cards from it. Flipping down with Valkyrie is a last resort that you want to avoid; if you do have to do it, though, you had better come back with a vengeance immediately afterward, and that is what this card is for. It ensures that when you flip back up to Hero form, you are coming back ready to fight, not grimacing while you limp back into the fray with nothing useful to do immediately. You will never, ever have the luxury of staying in alter-ego for two successive turns; use this to make sure you don't feel like you have to.

• Chooser of the Slain - This is a strange card whose purpose doesn't quite line up with the text. The purpose of playing this isn't really to draw more cards; you'll spend a card to put Death-Glow on that minion, which will return you to the same number of cards you had before playing it. Rather, it ensures that you have access to a minion to KO in order to trigger other cards, like Chase Them Down, Flight of the Valkyrior, Hall of Heroes, and Valhalla. It can also let you cycle a card or two in search of a better card to play than what your hand currently offers, or to get specific resource types to remove a villain attachment. Remember that it lets you search the entire deck and discard for whatever minion you'd like, and that the minion is put into play rather than revealed. Use this to find easy-to-slay minions to trigger your other cards, or short-circuit nasty minions like Monster, engaging them on your terms and avoiding their When Revealed effects.

• Death-Glow - Don't attach Death-Glow to the villain unless doing so will end the game. You want it on minions to trigger your other cards and get readies for Valkyrie. However, it's worth calling out that attaching Death-Glow to a minion you won't manage to KO until the following turn is still a very good use of a resource; make sure you factor that in when making decisions about how to spend your cards every turn.

• Shieldmaiden - Related to the previous point, if you do have Death-Glow on a minion when the player phase ends, you might actually have a chance to use Shieldmaiden to defend against that minion! Don't go out of your way to engineer this situation, but if it comes up, use Shieldmaiden against hard-hitting minions to mitigate some damage!

• Shadow of the Past - This card ends games. It can be true in a lot of cases, but for Valkyrie, it's a very specific and punishing spot to be in. Hopefully you can knock the villain out before it comes up, but if it does, your best defense is to have an ally out alongside Flight of the Valkyrior. Having an ally KO a minion still satisfies the triggering condition for Flight of the Valkyrior, meaning you can use it to get rid of Powerful Enchantments so that Valkyrie can clear Seduced. If you have Hall of Heroes in play with at least three counters, use it to find cards to clear Seduced if you need to, hopefully maintaining enough cards that you can launch back into the fight without losing too much momentum.

I've spent a lot of time trying to get Valkyrie to work, and while she can have frustrating moments, I hope this deck helps other people find the good in her. She plays uniquely, even among the heroes who focus on using Basic Attacks, and while I've mostly played her solo, it feels great in multiplayer when you can consistently clear other players' minions without missing a beat. She's taught me to deckbuild differently, and honestly I think playing her has helped me improve as a player. If you've been frustrated by her in the past, give this deck a shot and see if it changes your mind about her!