Chang Encounters

The key to effectively play Maria Hill is to have a good supply of all-purpose counters, so that she can use her reassignment ability and move them to the big supports. A lot of Maria decks use Field Agent for this reason. It's an easy way to get some cheap counters, but with this deck we wont be needing it. Instead, we will be producing more counters than you'll ever need, and it is all thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new Chief Officer Monica Chang.

Building a Surveillance State

Playing Monica will give us a free Surveillance Team, and add 1 more counter to it. That's giving us 4 free counters to move around. Fantastic! But that's not all. If you already had any in play, those copies also get a counter. So if you had 2 Surveillance Teams and then played Monica, you would get 6 free all-purpose counters. That's enough to last you the rest of the game, and we can do it just by replaying her a few times!

Chance Encounter is our main way to replay her. There are plenty of side scheme targets, between the 3 player side schemes in the deck, and One Way or Another. If you don't need Monica, there are other good allies here to recur, more on that later.

Commanding the Fleet

With all of these counters, what should we do with them?

The Douglass: Clearing 2 threat from each scheme is very strong, especially in a deck like this where we want to be clearing schemes. The ability to avoid crisis also gives us more freedom in picking side schemes with crisis icon on them.

The Circe: This not only lets us play Monica for free, it lets you play any of our allies and avoid any "play restrictions". This also combos well with Chance Encounter, letting us grab any ally we want and play them immediately.

The Pericles: This one has no direct synergy, its just really good. It's really important in solo, to give you some survivability while you build up your board.

Leading the Task Force

I have assembled an elite team of top tier agents for this one:

• Agent 13: She readies one of our supports, including the 6 cost ones. She's expensive, but that's what The Circe is for.
• Gamora: Must be played with The Circe, since we aren't a Guardian. We are looking for one of our signature events, especially All-Points Bulletin in the late game.
• Ghost-Spider: Same thing. Needs The Circe, looking for events.
• Heimdall: Playing him for free with The Circe is so good. Plus, you can continue attacking with him indefinitely by using The Pericles to make him tough.
• Nick Fury: Refunds the Circe counter you used to play him on the first attack.

Calling the Shots

Maria comes with some very interesting events. Reinforcements can generate a lot of counters, try to use it on as many cheap supports as you can. Keep in mind, you can even add counters to S.H.I.E.L.D. supports that normally don't get counters, like Helicarrier, Government Liaison, and The Triskelion. The Hard Call and All-Points Bulletin are her 2 big damage events, and they become really strong in the late game. Homeland Intervention essentially turns the 1 thwart from each Surveillance Team into 2.

The very first time I played Maria, I used my first turn to put a single 6 cost support into play and the first encounter card I drew was Caught Off Guard. Oh man does that feel bad. It brings up the question. What's the best turn 1 play? At this early stage, I'm still not sure. I still try to get a 6 cost support out turn 1 if possible. If I have a double resource, and an ally, I will likely go for The Circe turn 1 and use it to play that ally. Otherwise, The Pericles is a good option for early game survivability. Playing Monica Chang plus a cheaper support would also be a very strong turn 1 play.

Heimdall could easily be swapped out for Dum Dum Dugan, and honestly he might be stronger here. I just had a lot of fun with Heimdall! You could play with both of them, but that's a bit too much for me. Gamora and Super Spies could go too if you want to cut more, but they are really good here so I keep them in.

Monica Chang was always one of my favorite allies in this game, so this was a lot of fun to play. Let me know what you think!