HULK is HULK (Justice)

• Last updated 08.29.2022 (See playtest notes below)
  • Oh my, I've not seriously playtested a deck concept this hard since my old competitive Lord of the Rings TCG days...

Updated: Deck Changes:

• Replacing 1x Daredevil /With 1x Machine Man : 08.02.2022
  • the 4 cost of Daredevil was making it too difficult to play vs other priorities.
• Replacing 1x Nick Fury /With 1x Blade : 08.29.2022
  • Lots of testing Has put both Blade and Machine Man above Nick.
• Removing 2x Running Interference : 08.20.2022
  • Being limited to only the Main Scheme with Running Interference, more flexibility for Solo play was needed.
  • Adding
    • 1x For Justice!
    • 1x Multitasking

Deck Goals / Overview :

• HULK should be Fun to play.
• The deck should Feel like HULK . Not a Deck where spammed Allies do most of the work.
• The deck should to be able to Win (more than he loses in Expert), SOLO just as Important as Multiplayer.
  • We do play more than 90% of our games in Expert mode.
• 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 Justice version. (but with a quick swap of only 7 to 9 cards you can flip back to the Aggression variant quickly, and still feels like HULK) But different. I honestly believe Justice version is the best all around HULK is HULK deck.
  • What this Deck is Not : Please don't Consider this a Justice deck. It's not. It's a HULK deck, just trying to be able to manage Threat long enough to get himself fully setup to SMASH. But it can handle it's own threat load, and shouldn't need another hero to carry the Threat load.

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.
  • 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.

• Justice feels really good. Just the right balance of smash and useful thwarting. Our favorite flavor of HULK is HULK currently.
• Aggression, needs more Solo testing. HULK likes Aggression.
• 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 in Solo. Haven't found a good Protection HULK synergy yet.

Justice Cards + Ally choices : (9) Cards.

• Ally (3) (!UPDATE Replacing Daredevil and Nick Fury UPDATE!)
  • 1x Lockjaw : This deck will only be able to manage 2 or 3 allies, being able to pull this loyal Hound from our discard is a great option.
    • Note: We must remember when Lockjaw is in the Discard pile, if we can't remember that, his value goes down quickly.
  • 1x Blade
    • I avoided Blade for a while, because of my love for the Plan B, I didn't think they would both fit well together. That was a mistake. Blade works very well in this slot.
  • 1x Machine Man
    • This slot was meant for a good Aspect Ally. But I've not found a better Justice Ally than Basic Machine Man. (who also benefits from the double of The Power in All of Us for cost and his Interrupt.)
  • 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 Justice Allies, and settle for these excellent (if lacking any HULK theme) Basic Allies. for Justice.
• Events (3) (!UPDATE replacing Running Interference UPDATE!)
  • 1x Running Interference
    • A good card for an Avenger, but limited to only Main Scheme
  • 1x For Justice!
  • 1x Multitasking
• Resources (1)
  • 1x Determination
    • First Upgrade candidate for replacement if the need arose.
• Support (0)
  • none
• Upgrade (2)
  • 1x Overwatch
    • This is a good card to get on the Main Scheme.
  • 1x Under Surveillance
    • For use in 1 or 2 player games. In larger player counts another Overwatch, or a Heroic Intuition
• Multiplayer Note (CO-OP!)
  • If another Hero in your Group likes to use their THW a lot, adding a Heroic Intuition to play on said Player as 41st card to your deck (or swap out Determination) can sometimes be, an amazing value to the game.
  • ps. in case you have an Aggression team-mate, maybe see about asking them to set aside a Combat Training for HULK. CO-OP!

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 Is 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. Really, Ingenuity works the way Banners Laboratory should have worked.

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.

Play Testing Notes: Last Updated: Aug 29 2022

• Been testing versions of this deck all month in Expert Mode, 70% Solo, 30% with a 2nd Player. A Lot of Rise of the Red Skull and Mad Titans Shadow villains. (Ebony Maw is great to test against)
• This deck has done very very well with excellent Win/Loss Ratio's. And when you lose, it's often very close. The difficulty balance feels very good. And it feels like a HULK deck.

Aggression Variant

Hulk is Hulk - Aggression Variant Deck List Here