I know everyone thinks that the Hulk is a tier D or F hero, but man when he draws right, he can mow down the villain quickly.

The problem is that he has to rely solely on drawing enough resources to power his big attack events. I think if you could save cards to help with the alignment of the stars, it would help this hero out of the F tier. For example, if Enraged stated: Put an enraged counter on the Hulk at the start of the villain phase. When the Hulk has 3 enraged counters or more, Hulk gains Forced Interrupt: When your turn ends, discard your hand.

That way he would slowly go out of control and would be in a calmer state after flipping to Banner and back. It would also tempt the Hulk player to flip to Banner instead of staying in the Hulk form all game.

What a disgrace! Hulk is the strongest Avenger and they neutered him here... Well, I'm here to tell you that Hulk is noy only playable but also enjoyable if you surround him with stuff he likes. Hulk is like a plant and needs to be given some TLC in order to really blossom. Just like growing things, he needs:

1) Water (Resources) Give him plenty of resource cards or cheap supports that will generate resources 2) Sunshine (Allies) The more low-cost allies, the better. Especially if they can help Thwart! 3) Good Dirt (Drawing Cards) Hulks hand size of 4 and forced discard in Hero form. Avenger's Mansion will do wonders to get those Hulk Smash cards into play...

When I first saw Limitless Stamina and Unshakable I thought these cards could help Hulk be a little less awful, but unfortunately, they boosted other 14+HP heroes, while leaving Hulk pretty dreadful.

I have to state the obvious: Hulk just has too many drawbacks. And that is baffling, considering that, apparently, he was designed as a "fun" and straightforward character for kids to play. Scenarios get more difficult, other heroes get buffed here and there, but Hulk remains a frustrating puzzle with basically no right answer that doesn't rely on luck of the draw.

The only hope I could potentially see for the Green Giant would be introduction of permanent cards that are played for free from your deck at the start of the game and having one designed specifically with Hulk in mind. My proposal would be simple: "Gamma champion" - [Permanent. You may include this card in your deck only if your hero identity has a "Gamma" trait. +1 hand size. When in hero form, all your hero cards cost one less.] This may seem like an incredibly overpowered card and it is, but considering that the only two heroes in the game (at the moment and probably for a good while) with "Gamma" trait are consistently considered to be among the weakest, I think only such a radical step would help these characters in a significant way. And even then, it would bring them merely closer to the average overall, nowhere near close the likes of Doctor Strange or Captain Marvel. An alternative to cost reduction would be either built in Plan B effect, increased ATK stat or piercing for basic attacks, but I'm pretty sure these options, while more balanced, wouldn't be enough to make Hulk relevant.

Hulk makeover:

identity:

Bruce Banner: Action (thwart): Remove 1 threat from a scheme (once per round). Banner may perform heroic action thwart only with no other tags in events as if he is in hero form. Hand: 5.

Hulk: Gains +1 attack per Rage token on your identity. Hand 4.

Setup card: Your identity cannot transform through normal means. After you thwart place 1 rage counter on your identity. After you attack, remove 1 rage counter from your identity. Forced Interrupt: Whenever there are 5 or more rage counters on Bruce Banner, transform him to Hulk. Whenever there is 0 rage counter on Hulk, transform him to Bruce Banner.

I think some of the past criticisms have been mitigated with the introduction of the Pool Aspect. Having access to 3 triple resource cards goes a long way towards patching Hulk’s resource issues, Stick-To-Itivness and Healing Factor are generally good. Cut-upper is an auto-include Stun card and Tic-Tac-Toe/Black-Out further mitigate dead hands by giving those cards a function. I disagree with the idea of reprinting/redesigning a card unless they are mailing free copies of it. A more realistic solution is introducing Gamma specific support similar to “The Sorcerer Supreme”.

The more I play Drax, the more convinced I become that he is exactly as Hulk should have been.

Imagine Hulk having ATK 2, DEF 2, THW 0, 14 hit points, and no drawbacks. Every time the villain attacks him, he gains 1 Enraged counter, up to a maximum of 3 (if he can't, he draws 1 card, just like Drax). For each Enraged counter, Hulk gains +1 ATK. When he shifts to Banner form, he heals 2 hit points for each Enraged counter and then discards them. Banner has a hand size of 6 instead of 5.

Now that would sound much more like Hulk, wouldn't it?

Then it's easy. Drax's Knife Leap becomes Hulk Smash. Intimidation becomes Sub-Orbital Leap. Make Thunderclap stun and confuse enemies instead of damaging them. Give Hulk some means to draw additional cards, like DWI Theet Mastery which might as well be his new Unstoppable Force. Give him a card similar to Wolverine's Regenerative Healing (why does everyone always forget about Hulk's healing factor?). You get the picture.

Yes, that's the Hulk I would have loved to see.

I think the only thing they need to do to make hulk a not bottom tier hero is to make him steady at say above 5 hp and stalwart below. It also seems thematic

Or maybe if you go to 0 health he flips to Bruce with 1 hp and you stay exhausted for a turn and you lose all your upgrades or something

Or both