Hulk's Responsibility, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Weapon

Hulk's got a lot of problems, but his top two problems are 1) a complete lack of good threat removal options and 2) an extremely lackluster economy. What Hulk is extremely good at is taking hits and hitting hard. I've been slowly getting up all those Basic cards that help Hulk out like Unshakable and Limitless Stamina that help keep him stay on the offense, but I've been wondering what aspect to throw him in.

Well, why not have SHIELD here to aim the Big Green Monster and support him from afar? Let's look at what this deck does in three groups

1) Fixing Hulk's Economy

Hulk's economy is not great, but The Holy Trinity is here to help out with that problem, with Helicarrier getting two copies since reducing costs is extremely important and the second copy gets a Physical Resource. Ingenuity and Moon Girl make use of Bruce Banner's one useful trait (Genius) by giving him another resource generator and an ally that can draw cards when needed. Nick Fury may be a dud early game, but with these cards in play to reduce cost his ability to Draw 3 is still huge. Ironheart is another cheap ally that helps you get your cards faster. Deft Focus can be used to reduce the cost of several of his cards, making it well worth including.

2) Dealing With Threat

This is what S.H.I.E.L.D. is here for. Nick Fury can take care of most Side Schemes by himself in Solo Mode when necessary, while Agent Coulson can prep you with Counterintelligence and Monica Chang can give you a buffed Surveillance Team to help keep threat under control. Any of this SHIELD cards can also help you with Global Logistics to control the villain and keep Hulk from getting stuff he can deal with. Vivian provides similar threat mitigation.

Of course, being a Justice deck, Hulk can actually deal with Threat himself a bit better in this build. Multitasking is extremely easy to pay for with Ingenuity and provides a physical resource if you don't need it. Concussive Blow helps you get safely back to Alter-Ego and is almost always going to be able to do damage in a Hulk deck. And with 18 or even 22 Hit Points thanks to Immovable Object, Hulk actually doesn't mind Great Responsibility hitting his health total if the villain gets an unlucky Advance. When you draw these before the villain phase, you can easily sit comfortably.

3) Hulk Smash!!

You already know Hulk's got the raw attack power to kill most things. But you probably also know he struggles more than one would think. Limitless Stamina is here so that Hulk has a way of coping with Treacheries that Exhaust him or if he has to Defend an Attack, but can also just double dip on Basic Attacks or get back up after healing. Plan B is also perfect for Hulk, since you have to discard cards some of the time anyway and this at least lets you turn it into damage.

Will this work? I dunno, but I'm excited to try it out. And I think it wins on Theme.

I prefer to keep Hulk at 50, since the cards you'd rather cut from his deck are his own cards. But if you want to cut down to 40:

• Cut one each of Great Responsibility, Multitasking and Limitless Stamina, or cut out Great Responsibility entirely if you think you can handle the threat.
• Unshakeable and Ironheart are good but hardly necessary.
• One copy of Counterintelligence is probably fine.
• Interrogation Room is mostly here as redundancy to make sure you can hit Global Logistics when you want to.
• You can cut one copy of Helicarrier and Ingenuity if you're on 40.
• I'd probably ultimately cut Concussive Blow.