The Hole

Seems like I've unintentionally started a bit of a series here of Unusual Maria Hill decks.

Do you feel like Maria always plays the same? Or just looking for something different? You are in the right place. Keep reading, and maybe check out my other decks in this "series":

• Operation- Pinpoint

• I'm Blue

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Industrial Complex

S.H.I.E.L.D. is taking notes from the U.S. Government by making profit driven prisons. That's capitalism, baby! We got a new shiny toy in The Raft and today we are gonna take it for a spin. Combined with our other tools, we have devised a prison that no minion can truly escape, titled The Hole. It's now open for business, and business is booming!

The Hole has two main components:

• The Raft
• The Bellerophon

Clear the minions in front of you each turn with The Bellerophon, and send them to The Raft. 3 damage is enough to kill most minions outright, otherwise your allies, Sky-Destroyer and The Iliad are there to finish them off. Accumulate enough minions and you'll get some back as encounter cards for next turn. By doing this, you'll have minions in play to benefit from other cards every turn, but you'll never actually have to deal with any of them activating. Once online, you have a fully automated minion spawning threat removal engine!

Looking For Trouble

But before we get too far, we need to get those minions first. You want to make sure there's enough minions for this to be worth it. To start with, there are always 3 tucked under the Raft. After that, they start coming back as encounter cards, and these are the ones that we care about. I recommend at least 8 minions in the encounter deck. This gives us 5 to work with. More is better, since you can't guarantee that you can catch every minion. Some fall through the cracks, usually as boost cards.

Pull out more enemies with Angela and Looking for Trouble. Face the Past too to bring out Controller.

Target Spotter can pull them to you from other players, and it can prevent quick strike.

Profit Motive

Every time you wipe a board of minions, expect roughly 5-10 threat removal (depending on how many minions, and their SCH value). But this isn't the only benefit for keeping these criminals around. Hercules will be very cheap, or maybe even free to play. You'll also always get that tough status on Throg. And most importantly... the thing you've all been waiting for...

"Bring It!" is completely busted in this deck. You can ensure that you will have 5+ minions in front of you each turn, without ever worrying about their activations. Late game, when you have all of your supports out and a pile of minions, this card will let you just burst through villains even in multiplayer. I drew 7 cards off of this late game and did over 50 damage that turn (2 copies of All-Points Bulletin, ally attacks, multiple The Iliad activations).

The Wardens

I absolutely love the allies in this deck. A couple aggression staples, and a few that are fun but don't see much play. Each of them has a purpose here, and does it very well. Spider-Girl comes in clutch when a minion is just a bit too chunky for you to take them out in one turn.

Gathered Intel

I recommend playing The Raft turn 1 if you can. The consistent threat removal helps a lot, especially in solo. And you really want to start getting minions tucked right away.

One last thing about the Raft. Officially, when the Bellerophon takes out a pile of minions at once, you are supposed to individually resolve each minion going to the Raft one by one. Add them to the Raft, then shuffle and select one at random to remove. Rinse and repeat. That's what makes this whole thing work.

But actually doing that each time is very tedious when you are clearing 5+ minions every turn. Instead, I recommend resolving it as if it was simultaneous. Clear all the threat at once, stick all of them into the Raft together, then remove all the excess tucked cards. The actual gameplay difference is negligible, but you save a lot of time on upkeep.

I've only played this in multiplayer so far, but it should still work fine in solo. The number of minions in the deck doesn't change, you just might beat the villain before you fully build out.

This one is really great, and a ton of fun. Just hope you don't draw Gang-Up. Good Luck!