Pretty much every card released during the Thunderbolts season of Marvel Snap has landed as a top tier card, which begs the question whether or not the final release of Valentina will make April one of the best months in the card game’s history. Let’s take a look.
How Valentina Works in Marvel Snap
Valentina is a 2 cost 3 power card with an ability that reads: On Reveal: Add a random 6-Cost card to your hand. Give it -2 Cost and -3 Power.
This works much the same as other card generation abilities, like that of Agent 13 and Nick Fury, but with reduced cost and power applied to only 6 cost cards. This reduced power can be negated with Luke Cage; furthermore, the reduced cost can be countered by Mobius M. Mobius.
Like other generated cards, Quinjet will discount the card generated by Valentina by one more, making it 3 cost.
The strength of Valentina depends on the strength of 6 cost cards in the game. Playing a 9 power Magneto on turn 4, for example, is a pretty great outcome. Let’s take a look at which 6 cost cards are great pulls for Valentina and which are disastrous:
Great pulls:
- Blob
- Doctor Doom
- Magneto
- Red Hulk
Situationally good in multiple decks:
- Alioth
- Arnim Zola
- Destroyer
- Giganto
- Heimdall
- Hulk
- Leader
- Odin
- Orka
- Onslaught
- Skaar
- She-Hulk
- Thanos
- The Infinaut
- The Living Tribunal
Good only in specific decks:
- Apocalypse
- Hela
- Helicarrier
- Knull
- Spectrum
- Ultron
Disastrous:
- Agatha Harkness
- Galactus
As you can see (and as long as I didn’t miss any), most pulls from Valentina are situationally dependent on your deck or outright bad. That said, you don’t have to play the card she generates, instead using it as fodder for Loki or ignoring it outright.
Best Valentina Decks in Marvel Snap
Speaking of Loki, Valentina works pretty well in Loki decks. That’s pretty much the only spot for her in the current Marvel Snap meta as she’s otherwise an inconsistent inclusion that would be better replaced by a Jeff! or White Widow. Thankfully, Loki has a couple of different flavors these days, and Valentina fits into both. Let’s take a look at a mill-style Loki deck first as it includes this month’s season pass card, Baron Zemo:
- Quinjet
- Snowguard
- Valentina
- Cable
- Jeff!
- Agent Coulson
- Hope Summers
- Baron Zemo
- Gladiator
- Shang-Chi
- Loki
- Mockingbird
You likely played against a lot of annoying Baron Zemo mill decks earlier in this month. This list takes away some of the mill consistency by removing Yondu and Doctor Octopus from the deck and instead slotting in a Loki package. It’s easy to snap with this deck if you pull a key piece of your opponent’s deck with Cable, Baron Zemo, or Gladiator, but if you don’t, generating some cards and then dropping Loki to steal your opponent’s deck works as one of the best backup plans in the game.
Loki, however, has seen more consistent success with a Kitty Pryde package this month:
- Kitty Pryde
- Nightcrawler
- Quinjet
- Snowguard
- Angela
- Jeff!
- Valentina
- Elsa Bloodstone
- Agent Coulson
- Shang-Chi
- Loki
- Mockingbird
Here, Loki also serves as a backup win condition if Angela into Kitty Pryde and Elsa Bloodstone doesn’t materialize. It’s a bit more boring than the previous list, but definitely a lot more consistent as you aren’t relying on stealing a key piece of your opponent’s deck to win.
Valentina Counters in Marvel Snap
The best counter for Valentina is simply Mobius M. Mobius, which you should consider including in your deck the first week or so after her release as you may see more Loki decks than usual, especially when the weekend missions roll around. Otherwise, a well-timed Cosmo can negate her On Reveal, but that’s an unlikely scenario as she costs less than Cosmo does. As you have no way of knowing what card Valentina generates for your opponent from such a large pool, you shouldn’t worry about countering her generated 6 cost card.
Who is Valentina?
Valentina Allegra De Fontaine is, like White Widow last week, a Russian superspy; however, she’s more mature and experienced than the other spies in the Marvel comics. She’s a triple agent for S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, and an organization known as Leviathan, often betraying the former two for the latter. As a result, she fits into the theme of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in Marvel Snap, yet comes with her own nefarious twist. Julia Louis-Dreyfus portrayed her in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series and in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Is Valentina Worth Your Spotlight Keys or Collector’s Tokens?
If you enjoy Loki decks, then yes – Valentina is a great edition to them that will often generate an alternate win condition but she is not completely necessary, as both Cable and Jeff are more consistent choices. If you’re not a fan of Loki decks or do not own Loki, then definitely save your resources for the cards releasing in May and June.
