Hulk Draws

Leadership is my least favorite aspect but after having little success building a Hulk deck based on the other aspects, I set out to make use of the tools Leadership offers to compensate for Hulk's main weaknesses, his hand size and threat management. The result is an enjoyable deck that makes use of allies to draw quickly through your cards and handle schemes while relying on Hulk to deal most of the damage.

Due to Hulk's limited hand size, I've avoided including cards with a cost of 3 or more, with one exception. The non-hero cards selection is explained below.

Allies:

Your 8 allies have five main purposes:

• Thwart
• Draw you cards
• Power the Band Together and Strength In Numbers
• Remove toughness from enemies
• Chump block when necessary

Do not expect your allies to provide much damage, that's Hulk's job. Depending on the cards in your hand, make use of Hulk's high defense and hits points instead on chump blocking with your allies. Keeping a wide board will provide you with valuable cards and resources. Although you will remain in hero form most of time, your allies can provide you with sufficient threat management to revert back to your alter-ego when you need to recover or avoid discarding a valuable card (i.e. Hulk Smash).

• Ant-Man: Pay-what-you-can allows efficient use of resources and decent thwart power.
• Blade: Low cost, good resource sink, and no consequential damage. Can be used to block a minion or soak a couple of indirect damage but avoid chump blocking unless necessary.
• Ironheart: Card draw with a body.
• Kaluu: Search for an event with a body. His ability is unlikely to be a dud since events compose 40% of the deck.
• Maria Hill: Card draw for you and your friends with a body and decent thwart power.
• Stinger: Low-cost body to empower Band Together and Strength In Numbers.
• White Tiger: Great card draw potential (especially at expert mode) and decent thwart power. This is the deck's only 3-cost inclusion but she almost pays for herself.
• Wonder Man: Still uncertain about this one. Can provide good value to Hulk instead of end of turn discards and can thwart at no additional cost.

In principle, Lockjaw could have served as a good resource sink but I rarely got to play him during playtest. Hawkeye or Yondu can also be considered to get a higher damage output out of your allies. Although I do not own him, Adam Warlock can also be a good option for added threat management with this physical-resource heavy deck. I tried out Star-Lord instead of Wonder Man but he can sometimes lead to feel-bad moments. I have not tried them in this deck but Spider-Man, Ronin, and U.S. Agent could also be good higher cost replacements. The later two also make good targets for Inspired.

Events:

• Assess the Situation (x3): This understated card helps setup powerful turns.
• Strength In Numbers (x3): An amazing engine for the deck.

Make the Call is not included. You will draw into enough low-cost allies for consistency. Only Kaluu's and Maria Hill's abilities trigger when they enter play. I've tried to improve the deck's threat management by including the somewhat lackluster To the Rescue! It quickly became apparent that it is more efficient to have your allies take care of the thwarting.

Resources:

• Band Together (x3): You will often get 2 to 3 wild resources out of this card unless drawn in the opening hand or early game.
• Strength: Staple resource card.

The deck includes 6 physical or wild resource cards that can be used to get the most out of Hulk's hero cards. Energy and Genius are not included in order to maintain a higher proportion physical (67.5%) and wild resources (7.5%). The Power of Leadership is also not included because the deck only contains 6 Leadership cards that cost 2 or more (15%). I have tested The Power in All of Us in earlier versions of the deck that included the Helicarrier, Quincarrier, Avengers Mansion, and/or Lockjaw but it was cut since the latest version only includes 4 basic cards that cost 2 or more (10%).

Supports:

• Team Training: Worth it to get more mileage out of your allies.

The Triskelion can also be a decent addition for this deck but it is somewhat of a win-more card. Stinger provides a similar benefit. As mentioned below, the less costly Enhanced Physique was preferred to the Helicarrier, Quincarrier, and/or Avengers Mansion.

Upgrades:

• Enhanced Physique (x3): A controversial inclusion but it makes the deck run smoother.
• Inspired (x3): A cheap way to get more value out of your allies and also provides physical resources. Blade, Ant-Man, and Wonder Man are the best targets for this upgrade.

I have tried replacing Enhanced Physique with Helicarrier, Quincarrier, and/or Avengers Mansion but those costly support cards did not get played as consistently.