The 12 Labors Any%

Note: Aggressive Conditioning is mainly for multiplayer you can take it out for solo play.

This write-up is more of a stream of conscious than something official. Hercules is a hero that lives and dies with his first 3 turns. I believe for a strong Hercules deck you need a strategy that can consistently deal with all 3 labors as possible starters. Some games you might get all 3 gifts out by turn 3 and other games, you might need to stabilize the board a bit before going for your 3rd gift. I've read some people say that Hercules can feel very one note because you're doing the same thing over and over with his labors but I hard disagree. The journey to get to 3 gifts feels different every game you play and there are plenty of meaningful decisions you must make to ascend to Olympianhood. My Hercules games range anywhere from fast 6 turn demolitions to grindy 11 turn brawls. It just really depends on your labors sequence, your card draws, the encounter cards, the scenario, etc. This deck has the capacity to giga speedrun the labors, but is also robust against the worst case scenarios as well.

First I want to explain my rationale as to why I ended up with an aggression deck. I wanted to like protection Hercules and lots of people were finding success with it but I just couldn't get it to work. Clearing the labors felt inconsistent due to the starting labor variance and I never felt like I had a mulligan strategy that could consistently speedrun the labors. Clearing Defeat the Hydra and Embody Pathos didn't feel smooth. Let's go over my grievances:

Defeat the Hydra

• With 3 base ATK you're really reliant on finding a Lion of Olympus WHILE having the Hydra labor out to kill it in 3 readies. 33% chance of the hydra labor as your first labor, and also finding a Lion of Olympus? I'm not liking those odds.
  • If you DON'T draw Lion of Olympus on the same turn you have to defeat the hydra, then you need 4 readies total to kill the Hydra which is a ton of readies.
  • What Doesn't Kill Me doesn't work if you're at full HP (turn 1) and they're also expensive at 2 cost.
  • Leading Blow is a 0 cost ready, but you're also rolling the dice that your ATK won't get reduced. If you even get a -1 to your ATK, you still need another ready anyways so the card actually didn't do anything.
  • Army of One is a 1 cost ready just like limitless stamina but this card is very awkward in Herc's deck in general because you want high Amadeus Cho uptime.
  • The other option is to also set up the Hydra with 4 HP to be killed by Powerful Punch but what if you don't draw it in the following villain phase? With a hero hand size of 4 it's actually going to happen often. I've had this happen enough times to conclude it's not a consistent enough strategy to bet on.

Embody Pathos

• The 2 most common threat thresholds I've seen when finding a side scheme total out to either 9 or 10 threat. Sometimes you can find a side scheme that can come in with 8 threat.
  • Once again with 3 base ATK you're looking at 3 readies to clear this labor regardless of having Lion of Olympus in play because with 4 ATK, a 9 or 10 threat Embody Pathos still needs 3 readies.
  • Leading Blow doesn't work for this labor

Protection has a slight edge with the Protect Humanity labor due to more defense cards and Taunt but with 3 copies of Toe to Toe I don't even think Aggression falls behind too hard on this one. I also found taunt to be extremely risky because sometimes the villain would just smack you for 6-7 damage and now you're already on life support. Just yet another high variance outcome that I felt like I couldn't plan around. I know many people have had great success with Protection Herc but it wasn't it for me.

This is where Aggression Hercules comes in because I think this is his best aspect and Innate Aggression is the GOAT card that unlocks Hercules' demigod potential. He's able to cap his board pretty fast and aggression's ceiling is absolutely insane.

Format is Villain [Modular Set]: W/L Ratio

• Expert Klaw [Masters of Evil]: 5/7 (71%)

• Expert Magneto [Acolytes]: 2/6 (33%)

• Expert Zola [Blue Moon]: 2/2 (100%)

• Expert Juggernaut [Black Tom Cassidy]: 1/1 (100%)

Klaw and Magneto were the real tests because they're high tempo villains. I wanted to see if even under lots of starting board pressure, can Hercules still climb to the top of Mount Olympus and needless to say, yes he can. I have infinitely more Klaw plays than any other villain in the game since Klaw is my main deck testing scenario. My familiarity with the rhythm of the scenario and being able to anticipate certain things helped a lot with my success against him whereas Magneto on the other hand I only 2 or 3 plays prior to this. With Klaw I'm sitting at around 120.

I wanted to limit test this deck and decided to see how consistently I could beat Magneto. I was getting absolutely hammered by him at first and then managed a back to back win as the final 2 games when I got more familiar with his encounter set. Hercules is quite a technical hero so the unfamiliarity of the encounter set while learning a new hero definitely played a role in the early defeats. Magneto's turn 1 is quite volatile due to the double encounter cards start and flipping to AE even once can be extremely punishing. One of the losses I drew Shadows of the Past turn 1 which was a grind. Another game I drew Under Fire on turn 1 and a subsequent Shadows on turn 2. While unlucky and still resulting in losses, the deck was still able to stay competitive in these games.

Zola and Juggernaut scenarios are extra scenarios I wanted to test per the recommendations of content creator Stretch22! This deck annihilated them so I didn't feel the need to test any more but it was good to know that it is capable of handling these scenarios as well. Thanks for the deck testing gauntlet suggestion man!

Ultimately, I don't think win rate alone is a particularly reliable measure of a deck's strength or viability. This is especially true in true solo, where encounter card variance and the lack of other players can make certain scenarios disproportionately punishing. A deck can execute its game plan, build its board under pressure, and demonstrate that its core strategy is functioning, yet still lose because of an unfavorable sequence of encounter cards or the villain decides to hit you for 18 on turn 1 (yes this did happen to me against Magneto).

Throughout testing some of the important questions I asked were:

• Can the deck establish itself under pressure?
• Can the deck build out quickly and contribute to the board in a meaningful way in a timely manner?
• Can it respond to the problems the scenario presents?
• Can it recover when things go wrong and continue progressing toward its win condition with fail safes in worse case scenarios?

These are the things I want to evaluate when testing a deck rather than hyperfixating on the wins and losses. Hercules is a particularly interesting case because his labor requirements remain largely unchanged between solo and multiplayer. The amount of threat, damage, and defending required to progress them doesn't scale with player count. In multiplayer, however, he gets more breathing room to manage his Alter-Ego turns and capitalize on his resource engine making his multiplayer performance even more promising.

While I'll always keep track of my results because I find the statistics intriguing, I'd encourage people to take the win rates with a grain of salt. A loss doesn't necessarily mean a deck failed its test, just as a win doesn't necessarily mean it passed. What matters is how the deck performed along the way and was it able to pass the important benchmarks you established for your deck.

Start with Innate Aggression and mulligan hard for any readies keeping a single double resource to easily pay for the Innate. Hold 1 Lion of Olympus and/or Herc's Helm if you see them in your opening hand. Lion allows you to thwart 5 with Innate Aggression to clear the Embody Pathos labor in 2 readies. The Helm makes Protect Humanity much easier to handle and I do think this is worth holding onto in the opening hand. If you don't get Protect Humanity as your first labor then just use it as a resource. This gives you maximum flexibility to deal with any of the labors that come out. The first time this deck beat Magneto I got Protect Humanity as the first labor with no Herc's Helm and no Toe to Toe draws in the first 3 turns. I basic defended for 3 turns straight with the board state ramping up. I cleared Protect Humanity in the villain phase of turn 3 and went to AE, then flipped to Hero to clear the second labor on turn 4 which let me catch up on tempo and clear the board. This eventually led to a OTK on turn 7 with all 3 gifts in play.

There's some variance in how quickly you get to 3 gifts since most of the time, I think you want to stabilize the board on 2 gifts then push for gift 3 when you're ready. However, you can consistently get to 2 gifts very quickly within 2-3 turns and with 2 gifts Herc is online and already quite strong.

There are 3 "paths" you can take depending on the order you get the labors and how to best set them up:

1. You start with Defeat the Hydra or Embody Pathos. Clear the labor during turn 1 and end your turn in AE and eating a villain scheme.
   • Start turn 2 and second labor is the other one in the aforementioned labor pair. You flip to hero with 6 cards and most likely will be able to clear the second labor. This is the most likely scenario if Protect Humanity is your last labor.
   • Start turn 2 and second labor is Protect Humanity. Use as many Toe to Toes as you can making sure that you can basic defend for Amadeus Cho or having Herc's Helm in play. You must finish this labor in the villain phase NOT IN THE PLAYER PHASE. This is immensely important and I will touch on this in a notes section for this labor specifically.
2. You start with Protect Humanity. Like mentioned above, just play as many Toe to Toes you find and if you don't find any, you might have to just basic defend for 3 turns in a row which is fine. I've had my fair number of games that start like this and you get an explosive come back on turn 4. Any copies of Toe to Toe and Herc's Helm + extra villain activations only speed up this labor.

Worst Case Scenarios If you start with Defeat the Hydra or Embody Pathos and you just didn't draw any readies on turn 1 to instantly clear either of these labors this is the worst case scenario. Another worst case scenario is having to bring in the Lernean Hydra as your attack labor because no suitable 6 HP minion target exists in the encounter set. This problem however is alleviated in multiplayer because you can look at other player's nemesis sets. The Lernean Hydra slows you down if its your turn 1 labor and you most likely won't be able to one turn kill it but it's still manageable. You must accept that sometimes, you get a bad hand with a bad labor combination and you will have a slower start but that's okay. Relish in the opportunity to make a glorious comeback later in the game cause Hercules will have his time. Your goal is to clear your first labor at the beginning of the next turn.

Start of turn 2, immediately clear the labor then flip to AE and bring out the second labor.

• If the second labor is Protect Humanity then you'll just be following the same script as discussed before with timing it to finish in the villain phase. I think this results in the slowest start for Hercules but it's still manageable.
  • My game against Juggernaut went this exact path. Got the Lernean Hydra as my first labor and couldn't clear it turn 1. Cleared it turn 2 and got Protect Humanity as the second labor. I was still able to beat the scenario in 8 turns.
• If the second labor is the non Protect Humanity one, flip back to Hero (you still have your manual flip since clearing the labor put you into AE) and progress the second labor to be almost finished. Remember, you can't clear 2 labors in the SAME phase. Turn 3 you'll have 2 gifts out and from there you can claw your way back into the game.

Note: Protect Humanity
I think this labor deserves it's own section because I've found you really never want to clear this in the player phase. This is because if you do, then you end up drawing 4 and then you have to decide to flip to AE or not. If you don't, it'll take you 2 turns to go to AE then flip back to hero form which delays your progression. If you do go to AE during the player phase, first of all you'll be eating a villain scheme which could be very punishing depending on the scenario. You draw 4 cards going into AE and unless you draw a good hand with upgrades and supports, you might have 4 dead cards in your hand if they're all "hero action" events and resource cards. This is also where Lockjaw comes in because it gives you a great resource dump on those turns you flip to AE after clearing a labor but you might've drawn into a dead hand.

However, if you clear this in the villain phase, you get to flip to AE with the villain activation being an attack not a scheme. You'll start the next turn being able to immediately put out your next labor with 8 cards in your hand. You flip to hero form, use some resources to clear the labor and draw another 4 cards. This is the explosive comeback turn I mentioned earlier and you can do an insane amount of work with 2 gifts out and a giant pile of cards in your hand. You drew into Face the Past? Another 3 cards and go giga.

Innate Aggression
What a fantastic card for Hercules and it's the core card that makes this deck run. I thought the loss of resources to get it in play in the opening turn would be detrimental to your starting tempo but in reality its really really good. It helps Hercules reach key breakpoints to clear Embody Pathos and Defeat the Hydra smoothly. It reduces the number of readies you need by 1 to clear your attack and thwart labors which makes up for the resource sink to get it in play, while also helping you reach ATK breakpoints to kill chunky minions with a single ready to control the board.

• Defeat the Hydra can be cleared in 3 readies with a 12HP Hydra (you'll have 4 ATK and you can generally find a 6HP non-elite minion). With 2 readies in your hand + Innate Aggression, you can just auto clear this on turn 1 (assuming you don't have to pull in the Lernean Hydra). With just a single ready in your hand + Innate Aggression in play, you can set up Defeat the Hydra with 8 damage (2 readies), and then kill it immediately at the beginning of your next turn with your ready to have a big turn on turn 2 to stabilize the board and then flip to AE
• Embody Pathos can be defeated in 2 readies with a single copy of Lion of Olympus (assault with 5 ATK since you get +2 with Innate Aggression and Lion of Olympus). The beauty with 4 ATK, is it makes it much easier for you to catch up on killing chunky minions with 5 or 6 HP with your Golden Mace + only 1 gift and Lion of Olympus. This also makes Ares way less punishing and annoying to deal with since even with Face the Past you'll just one shot him. Later when you get Combat Training down you'll just be running down chunky minions like minigames at your local Chuck E' Cheese.

Note: Lion of Olympus is an extremely good card because it lets him reach ATK and THW breakpoints to be more efficient with his readies. I find myself just holding onto this card a lot of the time to have for the beginning of the following turn if I draw into it late during my current turn. If I know Embody Pathos can potentially be my next labor then it's even more imperative to hold onto this card. As we discussed beforehand, I also hold it during the mulligan phase in-case the first labor is Embody Pathos.

Toe to Toe

• This card is a swiss army knife beyond just accelerating Protect Humanity. You can get rid of chunky minions for cheap and also it scales really well into the late game since with Herc's Helm and Gauntlets of Hercules this can turn into 9 damage. Just remember you can't play it on the villain if you've used Face the Past on the same turn or there's a guard minion!

Hall of Heroes + Spoiling for a Fight

• Spoiling for a Fight being a 0 cost is absolutely massive. Yes you're bringing in a minion, but Herc being a 14 HP hero means you're using his HP early as a resource to accelerate his labors. A key card in this deck that still has its uses later in the game.

• The Hall is why I don't like putting other resource generators in this deck and quite frankly I don't think Herc needs them. You can easily play it with Olympus if you have 2 gifts out or with a single double resource card.

• One of the big traps of Spoiling for a Fight is you end up spinning wheels without actually progressing the board. You spawn a minion, you kill it with the same ready to bring it in, then rinse and repeat for however many times you wanna spoil for a fight. With Hercules though, your main sustain with comes from Prince of Power and Golden Mace with your amped up ATK stat to just massively heal every turn. Golden Mace also gives you overkill so you're still progressing the game. If you have Son of Zeus this can give you yet another massive 8-9 ATK basic attack with overkill. This also feeds your Hall of Heroes which can result in explosive turns when you're able to spare a turn into AE (especially in multiplayer this is very good because you'll be able to freely flip). The Hall is basically "refunding" each Spoiling for a Fight you play since 1 minion kill is 1 card draw while taking advantage of his identity upgrades.

Jarvis

• A very nice support card if the scenario has a fair number of statuses. Some examples being Magneto with the Acolytes modular set and Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet. If you don't get Nemean Lion Skin early for the steady then Jarvis can help clear those statuses early. The extra REC can also be nice since I do find myself basic recovering with Hercules before I can get Prince of Power into play.

The Direct Approach

• The dark horse card of this deck. With this deck you'll be starting every game with 4 ATK. With a single copy of The Direct Approach you'll be clapping any pesky side scheme that comes into your view. Heroes with 4 hand size like cheap cards and this allows you to draw into The Direct Approach + another ready and be able to do a respectable amount of work starting a turn in hero form. The combination of your allies + The Direct Approach is what lets Hercules keeps the threat under control in solo play. However, in MP you can situationally contribute to giga smashing a Build Support or Superpower Training or another thicc side scheme thats mean mugging you. It's a quiet card that does a lot of work for Hercules.

Blood Rage

• This card has the same timing trigger as Prince of Power so you can trigger Blood Rage first then Prince of Power to heal the extra HP. I've found that as a 4 hand size hero, this card is very nice to have.

Allies

• Primarily to help thwart and control side schemes and as a failsafe for Protect Humanity in-case shit goes very wrong and you lose Amadeus. They can be used to chump block in a pinch but I usually keep them out to thwart more or to defend for Amadeus since Spoiling for a Fight will bring in extra minions. The worst is when you have Protect Humanity out and you lose Amadeus and then stall out on being able to complete this labor because you have no other allies. I ran into this issue a few times and wanted to fix the consistency of the deck. The extra allies helps with this problem especially if you get ganged up on and your boy Amadeus Cho gets jumped by the bad guys.