Unsportsmanlike Conduct

For those of you that watch the NFL (No Fun League) you're familiar with the penalty of Unsportsmanlike Conduct stemming from Taunting. Hulkling is currently leading the league in UC penalties but everyone just deals with it because the guys got talent and he makes the game fun.

Let's take a look at why this hot head is tolerated.

Star of the Show:

Hulkling is one of the most diverse characters in the game with his form switching really impacting his stats but also providing great benefits from playing events in those respective forms.

Play Wiccan from your hand to grab Shapeshifter allowing you to search for the form you want.

Need to thwart? Find Winged or Imitation.

Need to defend and heal? Grab Armored.

Need to Hulk Smash? Grab...Hulk Shape.

This deck mainly centers on being in Imitation or Armored Form but switch as often as you need. Flip to AE regularly to grab a Form upgrade to either switch or have a free double resource.

Use the Altman Residence to shuffle cards like shapeshifter or Wiccan back in. The card draw here will ensure you see them again soon.

Taunting Puts Butts in Seats or rather cards in Hands

The main point of this deck is utilizing Taunt while in Imitation form. This acts the same way as Nick Fury where the attack doesn't happen and the villain instead schemes while also drawing an extra card totaling 4! While this may seem counter productive, Hulkling has 3 thwart in Imitation form meaning he can immediately counter a good bit of the threat put on. Follow that up by potentially switching his form upgrade from your card draw leading to a ready.

My favorite combo is to Taunt in Imitation form then basic thwart. Change form to grab another ready and then play Earth's Mightiest Heroes on either Blade or Victor Mancha to not only ready again but also get the new form upgrades bonus.

You can also hit Shapeshifter Strike after Taunting to ready your Imitation form then play EMH to get another ready, card draw and hit another thwart.

We also have What Doesn't Kill Me to heal and ready leading to more thwart if needed.

Taunt can be utilized in other forms as well. Play it in Armored Form to heal 2 and with the increased defense you can mitigate most of the damage if you choose to defend.

Defensive Conditioning gives us +1 defense also allowing us to basic defend for 4 in Armored Form alongside retaliate.

You can also defeat a minion with Hard Knocks to get yourself a tough card and then play Taunt taking no damage.

Face the Past in Imitation form also draws 4 cards and our shapeshifter Strike can easily dispatch Not So Super Skrull. Hard Knocks can after a basic attack can net you a tough card also.

Don't be afraid to Taunt twice in a turn, I've done it plenty and I still haven't gotten suspended by the league!

The Role Players:

Not everyone can be a superstar in this league, let's look at the supporting cast:

Blade and Victor Mancha are here to be batteries for EMH.

Victor can also defend for you in a pinch.

There are enough resources that Blade can use his activations but typically our events are better played.

Wiccan finds us an identity specific event which really helps us navigate different scenarios.

Need to switch forms? Find shapeshifter

Need to thwart? Find Impersonation

Need to deal damage? Find Shapeshifter Strike

Brother Voodoo provides solid 2 thwart and finds an event for us.

Hope Summers find a superpower card from our deck which can find us shapeshifter allowing us to find the form we want. All of our other events are superpowers as well giving some versatility here.

Jocasta is our partner in crime for Taunting. They can hide Defiance or Armored Defense under them allowing us to mitigate damage ir get a tough after the attack.

Other Considerations:

Assess the Situation is really good for Hulkling. Gives a larger hand size and triggers his form. Dropped it in favor of readies but Swaps can be made.

"Come Get Me, Bub!" is another cheap way to trigger your form and it would synergize with Hard Knocks but minion Summoning isn't something I wanted to focus on especially with being in Imitation form fairly often.

Iron Fist provides some stuns that could synergize with Taunt but he's on the expensive side and I didn't find myself playing him much.

This deck has been a ton of fun and plays extremely well. Due to Hulklings kit, you can really handle threat as well as pump out damage.

I'd love to hear any feedback or experiences with it!