How to beat Hell Mode Ronan (Ronan + Expert 2 + Heroic Mode + Standard 2) solo

Introduction

I like a challenge.

So I looked around the game for one to beat. Ronan the Accuser is unfair. Ronan the Accuser with Expert 2, Heroic Mode and Standard 2 would seem impossible. I liked those odds.

It took me 37 attempts with lots of variations of this deck, but (during the second attempt) with this variation, I finally did it (solo). This guide will take you through how to do it.

Hell Mode Ronan

Ronan punches really, really hard every turn. So, you need a deck with lots of Tough or allies. Since Ronan can easily punch you 2-4 times per round (for 7-ish damage a time) you need to spam allies; Tough decks won't cut it. You draw 3+ encounter cards per turn, because Kree Command Ship gives you an extra cards per turn, playing in Heroic Mode does as well, and many cards have Surge. Because Ronan basically takes several times more turns per turn than a normal villain due to this, so must you, in order to beat him.

The Deck

Enter: "Bring It!". Due to Intangible letting you keep all minions out (for most of the game) and Ultron (and Relentless Android) giving you tons of minions, you can, once you have drawn Shadow of the Past, also in practice take several turns per turn (card-draw wise). This combination of factors is the reason it is possible to beat Hell Mode Ronan with this deck at all.

How to not lose

• You must never allow the main scheme to advance
• Therefore, you must never allow Ronan to Scheme (so if you ever draw Dark Dealings, cancel it using the ability on Kree Command Ship
• Also, therefore, if Ruination is the last encounter card you resolve in a given encounter phase, you probably want to cancel it too.
• Whenever you do not use the Milano to cancel an encounter card, use it to remove threat from Interception Imminent. You can do this even if Kree Commando is out, because the ability lacks the keyword THWART.
• Cut the Power must always go of course
• Let all minions stay in play for most of the game; don't waste effort on them. The only exceptions are that in the endgame, when you are trying to burn Ronan down, you have to get rid of Kree Lieutenant, and that if you fall behind on thwarting the main scheme with the Milano and you aren't drawing Just Passing Through often enough, you have to get rid of Kree Commando so you can thwart the main scheme yourself or with allies.
• Let Ronan punch you once early so you give him the Power Stone. Otherwise, you increase the chances that you get boost cards that give Ronan an Overkill attack, and that will drastically decrease your chances of survival.
• Don't bother getting rid of Universal Weapon using its innate ability; you are not trying to stun or confuse him and the cost of removing it is not worth reducing his stats by 1. Only ever get rid of it using Hero cards, see below.
• Fanaticism is the scariest card among all the encounter cards in the whole game. Twice, he will punch you for 8-ish with Pierce and Overkill. You can't discard it with a Hero Action and therefore not with Sunfire either. If you're lucky, they become boost cards or at least come out at the same time. Try to save high-health allies like Brawn, Hercules and Hulk for when Fanaticism comes out.
• Try to save Throg and Thor for when you draw Total Annihilation since that is the only time you know that an attack will have Overkill but not Pierce.
• If you can spare the resources (that is too say, if you are late-game or you got no minions in your hand (which will probably mean you die soon anyway)), try to get rid of Rogue Vessel. That damage bypasses your Intangible and will wear you down over time.
• If you draw Corrupted Programming, unless you can kill Ronan this upcoming player phase, you just lost. Start over.

How to win

• Round 1, hop into hero form. You will stay in hero form and Intangible for the entire game, period.
• Your main goal is to draw Shadow of the Past or, second best, Seek and Destroy, to start stacking up Droid minions until you start drawing so many cards per turn with "Bring It!" that you can outpace Ronan and kill him. For reference, in the attempt where I beat Ronan, I drew 19 cards the last round, with 13 droids out. I did 32 damage that round and killed him with a margin of 0 damage. It was the last possible moment, because the previous encounter phase I had drawn Corrupted Programming and Fanaticism.
• Early game, just survive. Play as many allies as you can to tank hits, keep main scheme threat down, and play Endurance and First Aid if you can afford it. If you do play Endurance, you can later play some other upgrade if you can afford it to soak Overwhelming Force.
• If you draw extra "Bring It!"s that you can't play because of its limitation, keep it for next turn. You don't ever want to risk being without it for a turn, and it's good to keep them safe from becoming droids as far as possible.
• The same goes for and Just Passing Through that you don't need to play a given turn; keep them in hand. This and the Milano are the only ways you can remove threat from the main scheme while keeping Kree Commando out in play, and Just Passing Through can even save you from advancing the main scheme on a turn where Cut the Power comes out and you can't get rid of it quickly enough.
• If you can afford it, you can use Sunfire or Phase Disruption to get rid of Universal Weapon.
• Why Cerebro, you ask? Because Forge lets you draw it, so he basically gets the ability "draw 1 blank resource". It's not great, but better than the alternatives. Having a 2-cost ally that gives you one resource (him or Ironheart often makes the difference between playing one or two allies in a turn in the early game.

Most turns (before you are so late game that you can try to make a rush for killing Ronan), your priority in the Hero Phase is:

1. Make sure the main scheme will not flip next villain phase
2. Play as many allies this turn as you can
3. Play First Aid
4. Play Endurance
5. If it is out, get rid of Rogue Vessel
6. Play Solar Gem
7. Use Sunfire or Phase Disruption to discard Universal Weapon
8. If Endurance is out, play some other upgrade to protect it from Overwhelming Force.

Use allies (before they soak a hit) to:

1. Keep the main scheme at minimum threat.
2. If Fanaticism is out, do nothing with them because every hit point matters.
3. Get rid of side schemes (yes, even benign ones, because we are happy to draw those again later rather than some other, worse card).
4. Get Kree Commando and Kree Lieutenant down to 1 hit point each, in case you need to get rid of them quick later.
5. Boop Ronan (this is extremely rare)

More importantly than anything else

don't get disheartened when (not if) you die. Beating Ronan is really, really hard. It's like practicing a raid boss in an MMORPG. It's a process. See each attempt as a learning experience. It takes a lot of practice and a fair bit of luck to finally have a successful run and kill him. Just keep at it. Or, you know, just play a normal boss, if this kind of challenge isn't your cup of tea.

Happy hunting!