StayOnTheLeader · 2006
This is an update to the Hulkbuster deck I've really enjoyed playing which moves into theAggression aspect to really put Tony Stark onto the front foot and let him smash villains to pieces once he's set up
WHAT CHANGED
It was fighting Thanos that forced me to change the deck from what I previously had. Thanos doesn't have many minions and the ones he has are big Black Order dudes so the original plan of swatting little minions away and dealing overkill damage was tougher to put into operation. Thanos had a tendency to just keep bludgeoning away at me himself until he wore through my allies, and without regular Moment of Triumph healing he could squash my suit like a tin can in just a couple of hits.
While trying to think my way around that problem I hit on the solution - I needed to drop lots of the Aggression cards and Power of Aggression. This would give me easy access to Nick Fury and, importantly, Lockjaw who I could play with The Power In All Of Us. This works so well for Iron Man as with Tony's Futurist ability and the Repulsor Blasts I'm always filling the discard pile up anyway so I had a good chance of seeing Lockjaw, and once I had him he was a ready source of extra blocking against Thanos.
And the kicker: none of this was really possible until the Venom pack came along and gave me Plasma Pistol as a basic Tech upgrade option. I could drop the Hand Cannons that I'd been using for more chip damage to support my Powered Gauntlets, the Plasma Pistols made great sense with The Power of All of Us AND they were also an energy resource for Repulsor Blast! There were little extra ticks and synergies all over the place from making this move and I think it has made the deck that little bit more resilient and reliable. Once I'd switched over I beat Thanos at the first attempt, with my faithful hound Lockjaw always by my side!
Note: there's an argument for using Wasp instead of Hulk (cheaper blocker). The main reason I haven't is to keep the energy resource count high for Repulsor Blast.
HOW TO PLAY IT
Most of the original description for the Hulkbuster style of play still applies:
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STEP ONE: Mulligan HARD for your tech. You have 6 cards, your mulligan for up to 6 more cards, you're almost certain to stay in AE on turn 1 so then you see another 6 cards, plus two shots of Tony Stark's Futurist ability. That's as many as 24 cards in your deck that you'll see over two turns so you have a >85% chance to see & play 4 Tech cards so you can jump into Hero form on turn 2 with a good normal hand size.
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STEP TWO: Stabilise the board and improve your armour. Because you were in AE on turn 1 the chances are you need to play catchup, especially on threat. Into The Fray and Looking For Trouble can help with that and you've lots of cheap attacks to remove opposing minions. You also want to keep expanding your armour whenever possible on the first pass through your deck so you can build to the max 7 card hand size. Don't be too precious about your minions, they're just meat shields for you to keep you upright and firing Repulsor Blasts.
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STEP THREE: Bust some Hulks. On your second pass through the deck you should have your armour set up and a big hand size. With your upgrades out in play you're going to be drawing a lot of firepower every turn and it's time to take the fight to the villain. Hammer him with big Repulosr Blasts, while Relentless Assault/Into The Fray and then Moment of Triumph as a kicker on top should be able to keep you healthy. Your Plasma Pistols and Powered Gauntlets make it easy to set minions up for some big overkill hits and recovering a lot of health from Moment of Triumph.
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STEP FOUR: I dunno. I saw a good Shwarma joint a couple of blocks from here...