The Pillars of Hercules

We all know those gifts make or break Hercules right?
Wrong!

…presenting….the PILLARS OF HERCULES!

It’s true that having those “gifts” make Herc’ “work”…
but we can make several of his signature cards work just as well by simply playing a few resource generators. Cards such as “Gift of Battle” are attack events, and as such they can be paid for with Martial Prowess. Once your Hellicarrier and Quinjet are out, that’s a free 5 damage without the need of powering up his “Olympus” card.

Your second pillar is going to be your ability to get multiple readies. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Limitless Stamina and Son of Zeus are going to give you multiple ways to achieve this. The gifts certainly make “Son of Zeus” function more efficiently, but they’re not strictly speaking required—and once your generators are up, paying 2 resources for Son of Zeus’s ready will be a breeze!

Look, sometimes things are not going to go your way. This is aggression—and threat mitigation is always an issue. Thankfully Herc’s THW:1 isn’t a problem, because we can just “smash the problem” and take the direct approach. This deck is tuned to multiplayer—I suspect this is where Herc is best suited—but these cards give you the option to contribute to threat management without relying on “Wisdom of Athena” alone.

Relax, I’m not saying “don’t complete the Labors deck”—obviously those gifts are what make Hercules shine. Kindly note that I included 3 copies of Savage Strike so you can slay that Hydra. I’m just saying it’s not the end-all be-all of how he can be played. Pumping up his attack stat is effective as-is and cards like Skilled Strike and Mean Swing are great economy for his low hand size of four.

Last but not least, you’re gonna want some allies to round out your deck. I’ve always found Professor X an auto-include for easy access to confuse. Apart from that you’ll need some Avengers to trigger Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Blade is cheap so he’ll be easy to pay for even with a hand size of 4. I considered Angela but personally I never liked digging for minions.

Tigra can stay in play indefinitely as long as she’s handling minions, which makes her one of my favorite aggression allies. My absolute favorite is Sentry, but I find him a bit expensive for Herc.

Thor? No brainer. Use his ability to wipe out scores of minions.

Throg? No brainer—a cheap Avenger who only gets better if you play him while engaged with a minion to gain tough.

Valkyrie?—um, she comes with a flying horse! This is a Hercules-themed deck, remember? It’s against the law not to include her.

Speaking of the law…if you want to break it so you don’t have to defeat the Hydra per se…may I suggest the “Power Drain” modular encounter set from the Green Goblin scenario? Electro has a printed health of 6 and lacks the Elite keyword—making Hercules’ Hydra labor much easier.

And that’s it! With the PILLARS OF HERCULES you can handle threats, generate resources efficiently, and keep your hero ready for action.

Gifts make a difference, sure—but with these pillars in place Hercules can shine even without perfect luck.

Multiplayer or solo, aggressive or measured, this deck keeps the battle moving while giving you flexibility to play smart.

Now flex those muscles and show the villain that even without the perfect gifts, the Prince of Power still reigns supreme!