Hulk - Always Ready Leadership

First, I want to note that I use a few homebrew changes to Hulk. I have only played 3 games with these changes so far and they do not make him overpowered by any means, but also helps bring him up a bit to match other beefy heroes.

Bruce Banner has a 6 Hand Size instead of 5. Hulk has a 5 Hand Size instead of 4. Add to Hulk text: Forced Response: When Hulk takes damage from the villain, generate a physical resource counter. When your turn ends or when flipping to alter-ego, remove all physical resource counters.

From my time playing this hero, its pretty blatant that his hand size, and therefore his lack of resources, really cripple him. When it comes to other 4 Hand Size Heroes, She-Hulk, Thor, Drax, Sp//dr, they have ways to draw more cards once they set up. For Thor its engaging with minions, Drax has his DWI Theet Mastery, and She-Hulk has Focused Rage. Hulk has the event Unstoppable Force, which is not very effective in the context of having a high cost curve and 4 cards in hand to start with. Giving Hulk a 5 Hand Size just barely moves the needle in a way to give him more options in deckbuilding since more than 1 card is likely to be played per turn. However, having 1 extra card in hand still does not help him with his resource economy.

The proposed addition can help him get his coveted physical resources and can add a new element to his playstyle, which is taking damage from the villain directly. Similar to Drax, getting attacked gives him a benefit and Hulk should be no exception. This also allows him to put his giant health pool to good use. In multiplayer, he can declare himself as the defender and take dmg for teammates, netting him extra resources for his next turn. And in solo, having just 1 extra floating resource really helps in his cost curve. There is still a weakness here in the fact that Hulk might take a while to get back health he had lost while staying in the fight, so switching to Alter-ego and getting good use out of Banner's Laboratory and other cards like Recuperation and Down Time. Hulk will still have the Enraged ability, which discards his hand. However, I feel like this additional ability supplements Hulk's main idea, which is not being able to carry cards over between turns. I kinda get what they were going with for theme, but I feel like this addition also makes sense. The more Hulk gets hit, the more angry he gets, the more energy he can use to get what he wants done.

Now to the deck. I thought it would be fun to try leadership with Hulk in a way that directly benefits his strengths. The main idea is to get a good number of cheap(ish) allies on the field, use them to either ready Hulk with Earth's Mightiest Heroes or draw more cards with Strength In Numbers, which both greatly benefit him. 7 resources might seem like a lot, but with the amount of high cost cards in his hero kit plus other supports and allies, being flush with resources makes playing Hulk feel more bearable, especially with the homebrew addition. If you don't think you need this many, you can take out the The Power of Leadershipcards. I like them to pay for allies or use them as physical resources in a pinch. Avengers Tower and The Triskelion are here simply to have as many allies on the field as possible. Avengers Mansion and Helicarriercan be removed if you don't think you need them, but card draw is always good and Helicarrier in a sense just generates a wild for you. Team Training and Mighty Avengers are here as nice stat buffers, maybe use these on a second deck pass if you have other priorities. Allies can be switched out for any other cheap avenger you like but these are some I have and found as pretty effective. Hawkeye is nice for a few simple reasons: cheap, can hit for 3 and thw for 2 with Mighty Avengers, and since you are flush with cash and might have to throw it away at the end of your turn, you might as well fire it off if any resources are unspent. Hawkeye is a personal pick. I like how they can soften minions or take tough off peeps. Kaluu can help get some of those really nice Hulk events in your hand and is also cheap like Kate Bishop. U.S. Agent is nice as a meat shield, especially with Team Training, which gives him 6 hp. I debated on switching him out but he is pretty nice for what he costs. White Tiger can be nice as an really nice here. Against certain villains, she can net you extra cards based on the villain stage. She becomes a 3atk, 3thw, 3hp ally for 3 cost, just very nice overall. Wonder Man is an ally I enjoy running. Many people do not like the card ability but it can be handy having an ally that costs 2 and can have an atk up to 4. If not, he can be a cheap blocker and be used for Strength in Numbers or Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Personally, I like Wonder Man. Bladeis cool in this deck. Costs 1, and needs physical resources. What's not to like!? And also, swinging for 3 each time.

Last thing to explain: Quinjet. I've heard that people really do not like this card. However, I feel like it works very well here. If you are spending your initial turns using Hulk events and setting up your supports, Quinjet can be a nice little discount to get allies on the board for cheap. The nice thing is that you can have multiple up at once, potentially being able to field anyone as soon as they enter your hand. However, time really has to be on your side. Ideally, if you are using events to keep the board state under control, over the next couple turns, you can potentially field an ally for free. It's a bit of a hard sell, but I feel like it works well here.

Honorable Mentions I had a few allies which I had used but ended up switching out for various reasons. Black Knight good for piercing, situational for the match up. Captain America is decent if you got the peeps on the field. You can essentially get him on the board pretty easily and in many different ways, from Quinjet, to 4 allies + Avenger's Tower making him cost 1 or less, there are ways to get him going.

Anyways, I've had fun playing this deck and it was effective for me, let me know what you think and if you try it out.