Stun Me All You Want (Expert Venom Goblin)

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
S.H.I.E.L.D. Meditation Retreat 0 0 0 1.0
S.H.I.E.L.D Armada 2 2 0 1.0
Hill Alter-ego 0 0 0 1.0

Web-Warrior Fanatic · 20092

Stun Me All You Want

Maria doesn’t care about being stunned or taking retaliate damage. She never attacks throughout the course of a game and leaves the dirty work to someone else. She’s the only hero who can be in alter-ego and still deal 30+ damage in a single turn.

Example playthroughs being stunned and still able to OTK villain's stage III:

Maria vs Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Expert Campaign

Maria vs Expert Venom Goblin (modified deck +3 Stealth Strikes)

Why So Many Cards?

No other hero can run 5 resource cards and 6 zero-cost events. That’s 11 cards that are useless if they’re drawn together after mulligans. But Maria Hill is a unicorn because of her alter-ego ability which can grab an expensive S.H.I.E.L.D. support to be a target for those cards. That being said, it’s still risky to run 3 Global Logistics together with 3 Meditations so increasing the deck size reduces the chance we draw dead hands with only those cards. Maria also thins her deck like crazy late game after playing her 17 upgrades/supports, so this also improves our late game by not decking out every 3 turns.

Mulligan

Maria Hill has one of the most unique mulligan strategies of any hero. We just want resources. Since she’s able to tutor a S.H.I.E.L.D. support with her alter-ego ability, we don’t have to worry about getting stuck with a hand of 3 resource cards and 3 Meditations. Aggressively dig for resource cards for a big early start and pivot between playing Meditation if you mulligan into a 6 cost S.H.I.E.L.D. support/3 cost ally, or using her exhaust for her alter-ego action to search for a S.H.I.E.L.D. support.

Scrying

Knowledge is everything for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Maria doesn’t want to go into a situation without knowing what her opponent is going to do. In order to not get Caught Off Guard early on or to survive staying in alter-ego, we recruited allies that can manipulate the encounter deck in Gambit, Blindfold, Wiccan and allies that can confuse in Professor X, Dazzler, Eros, making them all honorary S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with Maria’s hero ability. Combining them with Global Logistics keeps the encounter deck on lock so we can set up safely.

30+ Damage OTK

I’m a “Timmy” player at heart so i gotta have a way to do big burst damage. The way to do that with Maria is with The Iliad which as an action can deal 5 damage to an enemy. Throughout the course of a game, we move all-purpose counters to The Iliad to build it up and get Agent 13 on the table with 3x Command Teams and Field Agents. Agent 13 can ready up a S.H.I.E.L.D. support (like The Iliad) when she thwarts/attacks, and Command Teams can ready up Agent 13! This creates a powerful ready engine for The Iliad. On The Double can ready up The Iliad even more, or ready several Command Teams to ready Agent 13 and have her ready The Iliad. Field Agents may be needed to prevent Agent 13 from dying to consequential damage if you decide to ready her more than 3 times.

14 comments

Mar 08, 2025 phtephen · 8

I was wondering when someone would use Meditation in her deck. It seems like the perfect card for her to use for bringing out her ships.

Mar 08, 2025 Web-Warrior Fanatic · 20092

@phtephen Totally agree. Maria has one of the most fun mulligans, digging for any combination of resources, Helicarriers, or Meditations

Mar 09, 2025 SoloMarvelChampion · 2886

My first draft of Maria used Meditation but in my test games I was using her Alter-Ego Action to search for a support almost every time I was in alter, especially the first turn.

Having Helicarrier or Support Staff (both with a good mulligan) out on turn 1 lets you play any of the 6-cost big boys when they come to hand without a double resource, so I was always searching for one or the other on turn 1.

Mar 09, 2025 Web-Warrior Fanatic · 20092

@SoloMarvelChampion I think most of my games with her i ended up playing a 6 cost ship on turn 1, but can totally attest to how good it is to have Helicarrier and Support Staff turn 1. There was a game i mulliganed into Meditation with Helicarrier and it was a hoot. I think Maria has a flexible use of Meditation for any situation where she draws into a 3+ cost ally or support, but in situations where she only draws into resource cards and 0 cost events, her AE ability can bail her out. I found that this mitigated the downsides that most heroes have when running Meditation (sure she can’t use her AE ability and play the Mediation on the same turn, but she will never be stuck with a dead hand full of Meditations and nothing to play).

Mar 10, 2025 Mr.Bottle · 1

Great deck! What about a change between wiccan and Sky-destroyer?

Mar 10, 2025 Web-Warrior Fanatic · 20092

@Mr.Bottle Thank you! The benefits of Wiccan is that he's a cheap 2 cost ally that can remove threat/deal damage/block so he's a very high tempo card to keep Maria in the game early while Sky-Destroyer is a consistent way for Maria to deal damage in alter-ego throughout several turns. That being said I think it's a fine swap if you're finding you're not facing too much pressure early game because the benefits of Sky-Destroyer throughout the course of a game can be tons of damage!

Mar 10, 2025 SoloMarvelChampion · 2886

@Web-Warrior Fanatic I agree she has a fantastic mulligan! I also run Ready to Rumble so I can use her ability (or use Meditation!) and ready on the flip to hero so I can Thwart for 2. In every game I played except the one I recorded I was got Ready to Rumble on turn 1 lol

Mar 10, 2025 Web-Warrior Fanatic · 20092

@SoloMarvelChampion that’s a cool way to counter her exhaust-cost! All the best moments always happen off camera haha that’s why i record all my solo games :)

Mar 10, 2025 Mr.Bottle · 1

Nice! Can I put counters on Sky-Destroyer? Im trying This deck. In some games, I’ve had troubles (in This moment, Im notable to beat Ronan or Loki). But, in late game, I think Maria is almost level than Adam Warlock or Iron Heart.

Mar 11, 2025 Web-Warrior Fanatic · 20092

@Mr.Bottle Yes, I believe you can place all purpose counters on Sky-Destroyer. There is currently no written restriction anywhere in the rulings or in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that says counters cannot be placed on cards that don't have the word "uses" and cards like Rocket's Pistol doesn't have "uses" but still has counters.

I'm not sure if Maria can defeat expert Ronan in true solo because his early game pressure is so high, but i think this deck shouldn't have a problem against expert Loki--that's actually a playthrough I wanted to do so I'll try it soon!

Mar 15, 2025 wojciech · 8

I play it true solo. The whole campaign Agents od SHIELD is done and now started the Age of Apocalypse (I'm after Unus which is the hardest to me). In my opinion this deck is OP, haven't lose aby game with it. Good job @Web-Warrior Fanatic!

Mar 16, 2025 Web-Warrior Fanatic · 20092

@wojciech wooo that’s awesome! Thanks for sharing, good luck with the rest of the AoA campaign :)

Mar 19, 2025 cynthiacrescent · 1

@Web-Warrior Fanatic I've been playing this deck for a few days, and here's the report: it beats almost everything on Expert with good consistency (even Venom Goblin once you get enough practice), with the exception of Ronan.

Ronan is a miserable experience. You have a lot of scry to deal with Universal Weapon / Fanaticism, but Meditation suddenly becomes absolutely dead in your hand because you can't afford to play it turn 1. If you do, you don't get the free thwart for Cut the Power or have to get an ally out instead and miss the Pericles. Ronan's permanent +1 tempos you out so often that you just start spiraling, and you don't have any attack to take back the Power Stone with.

I managed to do it after a few tries after cutting Dazzler + Eros and 3x Meditations for 2x One Way or Another, giving me enough consistent resources on turn 1 (provided I hard draw the Pericles) to get out Pericles + 1 tough ally, take the Universal Weapon gamble, and go from there. It's such a horrendous and lopsided match up, but I'm not sure how to make it less bad. Maybe I'd swap out the Douglas for the Circe, but Justice allies aren't that great to spam out, and unfortunately we cannot play the original Nick Fury in this deck. Any suggestions?

Mar 19, 2025 cynthiacrescent · 1

I forgot to mention that I did try putting in the Stealth Strikes to take back the Power Stone, but it cuts into the turn 1 consistency so much and costs a lot that I'd ended up just letting him have the Power Stone the entire game while hard controlling him in scheme 1 as the way to go. Looking through cards though maybe Turn the Tide could do it, but I haven't tried it.