HULK is HULK

(Aggression Variant) - Last updated 08.30.2022 (added more detail)

Updated: Deck Changes:

• Replacing 1x Nick Fury /With 1x Machine Man: 08.30.2022
  • Machine Man is more reliable.
• Replacing 1x Throg /With 1x Bug: 08.30.2022
  • Throg wasn't doing enough.
• Replacing 1x Counterattack /With 1x "You'll Pay for That!": 08.30.2022
  • In solo we are still a little low on Thwart.

Currently Playtesting:

• Replacing 2x Recuperation & 1x Down Time for 3x Moment of Triumph

Deck Goals / Overview :

• The deck should Feel like HULK . Not a Deck where the Allies do most of the work.
• The deck should to be able to Win (more than he loses in Expert), Solo or Multiplayer.
  • We do play more than 90% of our games in Expert mode. Standard Diff usually only first time through new Campaigns, Teaching a New players or when someone wants to the Galaxies Most Wanted campaign. So this one hasn't been tested much on Standard yet.
• HULK should be Fun to play.
• Lean into HULK's strengths and enhance his weaknesses as best as we can.
  • HULK Kit Main Weakness:
    • Threat Removal
    • Low Hand Size
    • Once HULK is Exhausted his options and value become much more limited and causing multiple dead Hero turns per game.
  • HULK Kit Strengths:
    • High Recovery (Lets use that more)
    • Likes resources. (when in doubt go with the cards with resources)
      • Small Side Effect: This leads to any Encounter cards that require or resources to be a problem for Hulk. Lets keep an eye out for 's
    • Excellent base ATK and DEF values, needs to be able to use those values more often.
• Author Notes: As of this writing in August 2022 and the release of Sp//dr, FFG has released a number of cards to Help/Improve Hulk. There are a lot of them at this point, using them all in essence give him less deck building choices. But that's ok. That's has lead us to a HULK Core set of cards. After that is complete, we really only have room for about 9 Aspect/Ally cards. Either Aggression or Justice aspects work great to splash in the HULK is HULK Core.
• What you are reading now is the Aggression variant. (but with a quick swap of only 7 to 9 cards you can flip back to the Justice variant quickly, and still feels like HULK)

Now lets talk about some specific Basic cards and why, for this concept, they are now considered Core HULK cards.

Core HULK is HULK : (16) Cards

• Ally (0)
  • No Allies in Core HULK; See Aspect/Ally section below.
• Events (5)
  • 3x Limitless Stamina : HULK MVP. This is makes HULK feel like HULK. Wouldn't play HULK without this card.
  • 2x Recuperation : With Endurance and Banners Lab we have an 8 Recovery. Lets use that more often.
• Resources (3)
  • 1x Strength
  • 2x The Power in All of Us (We have a lot of Basics to pay for, and we can always use a )
• Support (2)
  • 1x Helicarrier ~ Economy
  • 1x Quincarrier ~ Economy; HULK Love that that
    • (only playable in Hero Form).
• Upgrade (6)
  • 1x Deft Focus ~ Best Economy in the Deck. Always a priority to play.
  • 1x Down Time ~ Leaning into Recovery
    • HULKs REC + Banner's Laboratory + Down Time = 8
    • We plan to use HULK's Hitpoints as game resources. Great to be able to recover them quickly.
  • 1x Endurance ~ Leaning into Hit points. 25 hit-points, feels like HULK.
    • First Upgrade candidate for replacement if the need arose.
  • 1x Ingenuity ~ Economy; AKA How Banner's Laboratory should have worked.
    • (only playable in Alter-Ego)
  • 1x Plan B ~ This fills a hole in HULKS heart.
  • 1x Unshakable ~ Very Core.

That's right 16 Basic cards + HULKs Kit of 15, make our HULK is HULK deck 31 cards. With room to splash 9 Aspect/Ally Cards in for customization.

Quick thought on Aspects for HULK is HULK theme.

• Leadership. TBD. Will have this one soon. Needs more play testing. But Clarity of Purpose works nicely with HULK.
• Protection: Threat removal is HULK's weakness. Haven't found a good Protection HULK synergy yet.
• Justice feels Really really good for 1 to 3 player games. (Not tested in 4 player yet)
• Aggression, needs more Solo testing. HULK likes Aggression.

Aggression Cards + Ally choices : (9) Cards.

• Ally (3)

  • Note on Allies: HULK doesn't want to spending most of his resources spamming Allies, nor do we want Allies over shadowing HULK. But the few Allies we choses must be best bang for the buck. Aspect Allies are what we prefer, though we struggle to find Aggression Allies that work better than out Basic Ally choices for the HULK is HULK concept..
• • 1x Lockjaw : This deck will only be able to manage 2 or 3 allies, being able to pull from discard is a great option.
  • 1x Bug
    • Basic attacks are sort of HULKS thing.
  • 1x Machine Man
    • who also benefits from the double of The Power in All of Us for cost and his Interrupt.

• Events (3)

  • 3x Smash the Problem ; HULK love this card.
  • 1x "You'll Pay for That!"
    • Little more flexible Thwarting.

• Resources (0)

  • none

• Support (0)

  • none

• Upgrade (3)

  • 1x Brute Force ~ Flex. Could be replaced. But it's a nice option to have.
  • 1x Combat Training ~ Oh my, why not?

Mulligan Priority:

Keep Supports, Upgrades and the Resources to play them. We have have a lot of cards to put on the table to get HULK feeling like HULK. Knowing what to expect from the Villain can help you make these calls. But unless there is a side scheme on the table that needs dealing with quickly (Looking at you Breakin' & Takin') we will almost always toss all the Events during the Mulligan. Here are some Rough card Priorities.

• Economy: Deft Focus > Quincarrier > Ingenuity > Helicarrier > Banner's Laboratory
  • Helicarrier being the most expensive, not quite as flexible.
  • Banner's Laboratory. HULK dislike this card. Stupid BANNER. But we have it, so we use it when we can. The REC is nice, and helps make Recuperation shine.

Final Notes:

If you've read all the way to this point, Thank you. Let us know if you have any other ideas, suggestion, or counterpoints to HULK is HULK. We'll update more, with any changes from the playtesting, as well as a trying to find a good Leadership variant.

Justice

Hulk is Hulk - Justice Variant Deck List Here