Best Valentina Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide

Valentina is the final Series 5 card for the April 2024 Season, Thunderbolts. It is a 2-Cost, 3-Power card that reads: On Reveal: Add a random 6-Cost card to your hand. Give it -2 Cost and -3 Power. Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.

Variants

Valentina

On Reveal: Add a random 6-Cost card to your hand. Give it -2 Cost and -3 Power.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Valentina

Strengths and Weaknesses

Valentina rounds out the Thunderbolts season this week and in what has ended up being an interesting month, Valentina could compete for the most interesting of them all, or just be a narrow hand size card.

For only 2 Energy, she will give you one 6-Cost card in hand. On top of this, this card will be reduce by 2 cost, but with the caveat they will also be reduced by 3 Power. This card has a wall of text and conditions, and you may have noticed it also has the random element as you can get any 6 drop.

With so much going on, are the conditions just too much for Valentina? Or are we looking at another premium 2 drop entering Marvel Snap? Let’s find out!

Variants

Loki

On Reveal: Transform your hand into cards from your opponent’s starting deck and give them -1 Cost.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Loki

Variants

Quinjet

Ongoing: Cards that didn’t start in your deck cost 1 less. (minimum 1)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Quinjet

Not many cards give you cards into your hand. This part of the ability alone may be enough for Valentina to find multiple uses. The most obvious application is Loki, for two reasons. First, cards maintain the hand size for the Loki turns. However, additionally you’re adding a 4-cost card for turn 4. Even with the reduction, the card is playable on turn 4, you are adding flexibility and can fill the curve.

This is also excellent with Quinjet, which can result in playing reduced 6-cost drops on turn 3. So, you’re supporting your general gameplan by adding cards to hand and you’re filling your curve more consistently. It is hard to imagine how this card does not elevate the general Loki gameplan, even with reduced power of the cards.

Then we need to analyze just how useful the cards will be that come out of Valentina when played. This helps us to determine how successful other directions for playing the card may be. Some examples of cards that are excellent with the conditions still:

• Doctor Doom will be 4 energy, 2 power On Reveal with two 5 power Doombots
• She-Hulk will be 4 energy, 7 power which will reduce with any unspent energy.
• Magneto will be 4 energy`, 9 power which will move all the opponents 3 and 4 energy cards.
• Red Hulk will be 4 energy, 6 power which gains power for the opponents skipped energy.
• Even Thanos is just 4 energy for 7 power (which could be 3 energy with Quinjet)

Now, that doesn’t mean the card cannot miss entirely, as some of the 6 drops could be unplayable for many decks:

• Knull will be 4 energy, -3 power (but it will gain power from opposing destroy effects)
• The Living Tribunal will be 4 energy, 6 power and split your power through all the lanes.
• Heimdall will be 4 energy, 5 power move your cards to the left.
• Destroyer will be 4 energy, 13 power destroy all your other cards.

Even some of the bad outcomes can have the use cases is the lesson here, and most the time the card will be something you could comfortably play on turns 3 or 4. That’s before we try to negate this downside.

Variants

Mobius M. Mobius

Ongoing: Your Costs can’t be increased. Your opponent’s Costs can’t be reduced.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mobius M. Mobius

Variants

Luke Cage

Ongoing: Your cards can’t have their Power reduced.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Luke Cage

Variants

Rogue

On Reveal: Steal the text from an enemy Ongoing card here.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Rogue

A few cards interact crucially with Valentina and a lot of them fall into the 3-cost slot, which allows for the potential for Valentina to fit into a few more styles of decks. Luke Cage is one which synergizes to reduce the negative power, which means you’re getting the full value of the 6 cost card. This could even be used later in the game to get the buffs back from the cards.

Variants

Devil Dinosaur

Ongoing: +2 Power for each card in your hand.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Devil Dinosaur

Variants

The Collector

When a card enters your hand from anywhere (except your deck), +1 Power.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with The Collector

So, if you’re not someone who wants to look at including Valentina with Loki, the other direction she may improve is the Devil Dinosaur and The Collector package. These decks often can struggle for midgame plays which make an impact and having one which can also support the power plays may be enough to bring this package back to relevance.

This highlights the floor for this card and why she may be about to find her way into many more decks than just Loki. She is a 2 energy on-rate card which gives you an option that is playable from turn 4 and can result in outcomes your opponent cannot reasonably expect to happen. For a comparison, consider all the times The Raft has given your opponent the one card which seems to flip the game!

The Verdict

Valentina is one of the easiest cards to identify her initial home for since White Widow. The big question will be though how many different places she can be played. The potential value here on a baseline could mean she finds her way into more decks but the true ceiling for the card will probably only be realized with Loki.

However, playing her as a 2 energy giving you options for later in the game seems on paper to be a valid strategy and way to play Valentina. Just how powerful this line is will be important for the longevity and universal appeal of the card.

Potential Score:

Loki

Basic Loki

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 21 days ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

With Loki being such an obvious home, this week will take a slightly different approach, demonstrating a few different directions to take your Loki build. Starting off with the basic approach, this deck could be adjusted to remove Hope Summers but the basic plan is simple. Play lots of cards which keep your hand full, make your best plays on curve and use Loki on turn 4 or 5 if your not ahead and cannot win with Shang-Chi and stats.

Slightly More Advanced Loki

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 21 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

By dropping Hope Summers, we open up room and this version runs another swing tech card and White Widow as a way to clog lanes and go for surprising wins. White Widow has lots of flexibility and can be a good play on every single turn of the game. Of course, we still have Loki here.

It’s Devil Dinosaur

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 21 days ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Trying to bring the cost of the deck down we get to this Devil Dinosaur deck. Armor has a lot of utility right now as you can stop Destroy in it’s track or even just lock out lanes with The Void or other negative power cards. As a Loki deck it’s never going to be super budget friendly but this is as budget as they get and Kitty Pryde can be swapped for Agent 13.

Bouncey Loki

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 21 days ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Finishing our journey we go with the hipster way to go with Loki. This deck looks to bounce the cheaper hand generation and use the cheaper versions to play Werewolf By Night! The plan here is to use Loki on turn 5 after Werewolf By Night and then use your opponents cards to keep bouncing and be generally unpredictable.

This is the only deck this week which is more of a prototype, whilst the three decks above this are established decks you can swap one or two favored tech or power cards in depending on the metagame.

Devil Dinosaur

Devil Dinosaur

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 21 days ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This deck looks to actually play the generated cards asap to reduce Mockingbird. We limit counters to our own deck with the tech cards selected and have Luke Cage as a way to turn our reduced cost 6 cost card back to full power.

Mobius M. Mobius could be bad for this deck so it may need to add Rogue over Cosmo but playing exposed Devil Dinosaur can be risky so starting off with Cosmo.

Ravonna Renslayer

Small Ball

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 21 days ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This month’s changes highlighted how many packages could be built around Ravonna Renslayer. This one is aiming to use the Junk against your opponent. We have Armor and Professor X to punish destroy and Annihilus players and Valentina gives access to good plays for turn 4 prior to the Professor X. Luke Cage can revert the negative impacts and Cannonball is a tech play which can be used into early Armor lanes also.

Variants

Closing Thoughts

Valentina could be about to compete for the best 2 drop and is a card you should keep an eye on. She adds an X Factor, but not in a reactive way, as your getting cards with powers and effects which can flip games in unique ways.

Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!