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.

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

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.

@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).

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

@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!

@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

@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 :)

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.

@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!

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!

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

@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?

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.

@cynthiacrescent Thanks for sharing your experience! I pretty much agree with your conclusions and I agree Ronan is a struggle. I also agree with keeping the main scheme on stage 1, I think adding in attack events to steal the Power Stone is a recipe for disaster because it's already a disadvantage to engage in a tug-of-war for the Power Stone for normal heroes, but for Maria who has to dilute her deck with attack events it's an even bigger disadvantage. The biggest thing I think it comes down to is round 1. Maria has to draw into double resources/Meditation and be able to to play Pericles AND 1 other card. Then when she flips with a tough status card, she needs to hope Ronan doesn't get a piercing boost effect with his first attack or else she just dies/takes too much damage to catch back up. If Maria can luck into those conditions she can sail through the scenario, otherwise it'll be a constant struggle to catch up.

In regards to changes, I think your idea to add One Way or Another is a really really good idea against Ronan. Grabbing Superior Tactics to draw 3 is really helpful. After playtesting this matchup myself, I actually found Meditation to still be useful on turn 1 and throughout the course of the game. The Douglass put in work to bypass the crisis on Cut the Power if Maria doesn't exhaust to clear that side scheme on turn 1 with the Power Stone. I would actually recommend cutting out 3x Command Team and Agent 13. Ronan doesn't need to be burst down and those cards don't really help Maria catchup (the only downside imo is losing the extra all-purpose counters from Command Team to reassign but I don't think it's that big of a deal).

@Web-Warrior Fanatic I definitely will try cutting the burst package, that should improve consistency. It does seem like Pericles > flip up > take an attack and 2 encounters > shuffle back Universal Weapon > search Douglas > flip down is going to have to be the line every game. I didn't prioritise the Douglas much during my games but it makes sense now that I think about it, especially with One Way or Another. If bigger minions come out it's such a pain to deal with because we don't have much of a breathing room to play the Iliad, and some bigger Kree doesn't even die to a single bomb, but that's why I like the heavy ally build of this deck because they give a lot of reach.