Hulk Building Rage

Resources- Spend your time in alter ego building up your rage with cards like Helicarrier, Deft focus, Enhanced physique, and Quincarrier once you get to hero mode. Hulk can easily play these big supports and make playing cards later much easier. Just being able to play 2 big Hulk events in single turn is enough to wait it out for a turn or two. I usually am able to by turn 3 play up to 3 events on a Hulk turn since several of his cards draw cards if you play for them with a physical.

Damage- Cards like Brute Force, Adrenaline Rush, Combat Training, and Boundless Rage up Hulk’s biggest skill: Damage. Cards like Crushing Blow, Quick Strike, and Unstoppable Force can easily turn into big damage for little cost. If you have Combat Training, Boundless Rage, Brute Force, and maybe 1 or 2 Adrenaline Rushes, you deal 7 to 8 damage per attack. Paying 1 or 2 cost for 7 to 8 damage is good math. Having Godslayer upgrade also boosts Hulk’s attack when he attacks “Main” threats like the Villain or difficult Minions. Most non-unique minions are usually less than 3 or 4 health so a single punch or a Thunderclap is normally enough to kept them at bay. Plus with Immovable Object upgrade you gain Retaliate which will bring down higher health Minions to the point where they only take 1 attack to defeat.

Threat- Hulk’s biggest problem is his hand size and his lack of thwarting. 2 Sub-Orbital Leaps and 3 Smash the problem are good but aren’t that often drawn. An advantage to using Smash the Problem is that if you have Brute Force upgrade out you won’t discard it and you can save it for an enemy with Tough. Plus with Hulk being a 18 to 22 Health, you rarely need to go into Banner form. When you do flip to Alter ego, you do have the ability to heal a major amount of damage with Banner’s Lab and Down Time.

Allies- Having Brawn as your main Ally is mainly for his Thwarting capabilities. He can take off Tough statuses and Thwart Schemes at the same time. I rarely use him to block an attack unless he only has 1 health left. Blade is mainly used as a place holder if Brawn is unavailable. He can always take a big attack and if need be he can thwart or attack. With mainly Physical resources it isn’t hard to keep him alive till he needs to block.

Lack of cards- A problem I found playing with Hulk is that there have been many turns where I was just 1 card short or I had an extra card in my hand that wound just get discarded from his ability. However, cards like skilled strike were always playable. Also cards such as Adrenaline Rush and Resourceful were easily played. Resourceful is also a particularly usefully card with Hulk because you want to play him with the most amount of Physical resources as you can. The problem is that Villain cards and Attachments sometimes require a particular resource to remove. Kang’s obligations and Hero attachments also require certain types that are hard to fit in a Hulk deck.

Summary- Overall I think Hulk is at least a fun hero to play. You do have to sometimes go with what cards he pulls and flip to Banner to save a Hulk smash or Unlimited Strength. He has his challenges but he does have some unique advantages. There have been many games I have played where Hulk dealt 15-20 damage on turn 1. On solo mode, that would clear most Stage 1 Villains. He does not have the consistent flexibility of other heroes like Captain America or Spectrum, but when it come to damage, Hulk does prove himself (if you play him right)

House rule- Also I will sometimes play Banner as a 6 card hand size, because there is no way that Scott Lang or Drax is more resourceful than one of the top 10 smartest Heroes.