Reverse Lawyered

Intro

Everyone's excited. There's new heroes to play with some unique mechanics. A character catches your eye. She has powerful Hero and Alter-Ego abilities. She has two significant upgrades that her kit is tailor-made around. She really benefits from flipping. She's only got a 4 hand size and has a bit of a learning curve but with the right deck and sequencing knowledge, she can be an absolute powerhouse.

That's right, we're talking about Psy-

Who needs an X-Man, X-Force, X-whatever when you have She-Hulk?

This deck builds on the fantastic work in Jennifer Walters, Rules Laywer by MegiDolaDyne and She-Hulk, Red Lawyered by neothechosen. Highly encourage checking out both of those decks and thanks to both of them for the idea of continuing this series!

The concept of this deck is a bit of a different spin, with the focus on confuse moreso than stun (but with a good amount of stun still available). Using cards from Psylocke's pack, all the confuse allows you to flip as much as possible and take advantage of "Do You Even Lift?" and "I Object!" ideally every turn. I'm finding it a ton of fun and I believe it's one of the strongest justice archetypes for her to utilize right now.

Skip to Deck Strategy to get past the kit analysis

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Growing Pains

Releasing with the core box, She-Hulk was probably the hardest to 'get' for many. Compared to the rest of the heroes, she had more downsides and less upsides. She didn't have good events. Her upgrades were a bit awkward. She relied a lot on Alter-Ego for a character with no way to really stay there reliably. Her default aspect (Determination) was scrapped and condensed into other aspects. There wasn't as clear of a sequence to play as Iron Man or Black Panther.

Still, people tried to make her work. Some people swear she's one of the heroes with the highest fun factor. Others think she's infuriating, lumping her in with some of the lower tier heroes like Hulk or Valkyrie, never to be played again. At times, it's been a pretty fair assessment.

She's a hard character to figure out, and for good reason. A lot of the archetypes that would make her shine didn't come out until well after the core box released and people had moved on. Thankfully at this point, there's some really interesting ways to build for her.

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Swings and Misses

She-Hulk is a character with positives and negatives. Her kit includes some fantastic and dynamic cards while also having some of the least efficient cards in the game.

Let's dig into her events, starting with her most useful:

• Split Personality lets you flip and draw up to your hand size for only 3 cost. Can be fantastic to mitigate cards only playable in Alter-Ego or Hero form, of which her kit has both
• Gamma Slam is an absolute blast to play late game, dealing up to 15 damage to the villain. Early game this just ends up being a resource

She also has some events that are rarely worth playing ever:

• Ground Stomp seems tailor made to play against Ultron but is otherwise a 2 cost card for... maybe 3 damage in solo at best? More in multiplayer but still a pretty bad cost tradeoff
• Legal Practice lets you discard cards from your hand for a single threat off of a scheme while also only being playable from Alter-Ego. You're paying 2 ER for 1 threat you can remove. Might be some of the worst value the game has to offer. At least it's not just limited to the main scheme!

The key to playing her most effectively lies in her last event, conveniently the most prevalent card in her deck: One-Two Punch. At the end of the day, it's a clue to how she's 'meant' to be played. Attacking, readying up, and doing it all over again.

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Uneventful

She-Hulk isn't really an event based hero. She thrives off of using her basic powers, specifically her attack. The rest of her kit seems to support that approach, helping to round out her abilities by adding some card draw, thwart options and attack buffs.

To help with her small 4 hand size in Hero form, you've got two options:

• Focused Rage allows you to take 1 damage to draw a card. With 2 copies, this effectively just increases your hand size when in Hero form. It whittles down your health which helps so it can work nicely with Gamma Slam. She has a pretty solid 5 REC in Alter-Ego so it's not hard to heal either. Probably her most essential card to get her up and running
• Hellcat is a 3 cost ally you can return to your hand, letting you either play her again or use her as a resource to play something else. The helps a lot here if you want to build around a specific resource type

Thwarting is still pretty bad, but you do have a few options:

• Superhuman Law Division allows for a resource to be spent to remove 2 threat from a scheme while in Alter-Ego
• Jennifer Walters' "I Object!" once again feels made specifically for Ultron's Assault on NORAD but is still a prevention of 1 threat from a scheme when in Alter-Ego. This can be strategically used to help with a side scheme coming out or a main scheme about to be completed

Her attack is further bolstered by some really solid response effects:

• "Do You Even Lift?" allows for 2 damage dealt each time you flip to Hero form. Perfect for pinging off tough, getting rid of low HP minions or chipping away at the villain
• Superhuman Strength is a fantastic attack buff that allows for +2 base ATK plus a stun after you attack an enemy when it's on the board. In the past it's been a bit of an awkward option, wasted on minions that are defeated or stalwart villains. Thanks to a recent rules update, this is not the case
  • If you didn't already know, She-Hulk got a huge buff with Rules Reference 1.5. Due to the rules about valid targets, she can now keep Superhuman Strength on the board as long as you defeat the enemy, the enemy is already stunned, or the enemy is stalwart. This is huge for boosting her attack stats and has made this card much more valuable, effectively being able to work as a permanent attack buff if you build around it

After going over all of her cards, you'll notice a key split here: All of her damage dealing abilities are limited to Hero form (which is pretty standard), but the majority of her thwarting is limited to Alter-Ego. Why is this the case? Because she wants to change form all the time, ideally every single turn.

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Necessary Change

She-Hulk needs to change form constantly to succeed. Staying in either Alter-Ego or Hero form is the fast track to lose your matches, shove her back in the box and claim that "She-Hulk is just bad".

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Staying just in Alter-Ego gives you a solid hand size to help setup but leaves you unable to actually do much of anything.

• "I Object!" is not enough threat prevention to justify staying in Alter-Ego
• There's no confuse effects from any of her cards
• No damage can be dealt aside from allies
• Every worthwhile event you could play is a hero action and ends up a dead card. At least you have cards to discard for Legal Practice!

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Staying in Hero form comes with its own set of problems.

• The 4 hand size is difficult to work around in the early game. One basic power and one significant card is all you can do in a turn, turning a character that needs some setup to get going into an even slower character to play
• The villain will dish out a lot of damage that you have to take with the lack of any defense events
• Taking attacks and chipping away at your health with Focused Rage leaves you vulnerable to losing the game
• Having to defend or exhaust your identity card turns many of your hero cards into dead cards

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If you're flipping often, some (but not all) of these weaknesses are rounded out.

• "I Object!" and "Do You Even Lift?" constantly trigger and help you out with damage dealt and threat prevention
• Dead cards become less prevalent because you'll be in both Hero form and Alter-Ego every turn, allowing you to strategically use both with some proper sequencing
• Taking damage isn't a big deal because you can attack and ready up with One-Two Punch, flip over and recover for 5 HP in the same turn
• You end up with some solid card draw every other turn. Once Focused Rages are on the board, you end up with a lot that you can do each turn whether you're starting from Hero form or Alter-Ego

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There are still some issues that need solving:

• Thwart power is still a problem. With 1 base THW, Legal Practice, Superhuman Law Division and Hellcat, there's still a solid chance that you'll end up losing to the main scheme being completed
• There's still absolutely no confuse in-kit to stop villain activations when starting the villain phase in Alter-Ego form
• There's still a significant reliance on being ready in Hero form, with the only in-kit ready relying on your basic attack power (a dead card if you can't ready)

She-Hulk seems to really want to flip often to take advantage of both of her character abilities, her form locked cards and the card draw to set up some powerful turns. Unfortunately, you really can't justify flipping every turn in lower player counts. She just doesn't have the tools to support what seems to be her intended playstyle.

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Justice for She-Hulk

With such poor thwart options and such a strong focus on attacking with basic powers, I've always gravitated towards a justice build for She-Hulk. It's thematic, it covers some of her weaknesses and seems to be the most well-rounded for her in solo. It's been pretty stale for a while though. The Agent Coulson preparation deck has been the only viable archetype for some time and still almost always includes some real deck fodder with cards like Foiled!, Great Responsibility and Emergency often needed to help survive all the activations in Alter-Ego.

With recent packs adding some more variety to justice, I felt like it was time to revisit justice as a worthwhile strategy for her. All of the recent confuse cards have made flipping to Alter-Ego more viable than ever and some recent cards bolstering high HP heroes certainly didn't hurt. The addition of cards that helped to ready her and synergized with using basic powers to attack were incredibly appealing. With all of this, I felt like I could really use She-Hulk how she was meant to be used, flipping as much as possible, utilizing all of the tools at her disposal and really becoming a powerhouse. The added versatility of the build thanks to Rules Reference 1.5 was also a huge interest in trying to work with.

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Deck Strategy

This deck was created with a significant focus on confuse effects to be able to justify flipping to Alter-Ego as much as possible. There's a large focus on being able to ready up regularly as well as capitalize on a lot of the synergy of using She-Hulk's basic attacks. In addition, there's some thwart options to be able to maintain the board and some other additional cards to make the choice to flip down to Alter-Ego that much safer. Of course, the idea here is to flip every turn if possible.

Early game should focus on increasing card draw and getting out staple upgrades to keep the main scheme on stage 1 for as long as possible. Once card draw is consistent, a lot of damage can be dealt every turn while still maintaining the rest of the board. The villain ends up going down pretty quickly and the response effects from cards still end up stopping plenty of villain activations.

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Deck Setup

The best way to get She-Hulk working is to increase her card draw and help her first flip down to Alter-Ego. Mulligan targets in priority order:

• Focused Rage is that good. The earlier these are out, the faster we get to turns where we can flip from Alter-Ego and get 8 cards to work with at the start of a turn
• Deft Focus works with all of the superpower cards in this deck, of which there are 9. The earlier we can get this on the board, the better!
• Upside the Head, assuming the villain can take damage, is a low cost way to get a confuse on the villain turn 1
• Under Surveillance keeps the main scheme from going over to the next. While relying on confuse and "I Object!" is central to this build, the extra leeway here is very important, especially for extra activations during the villain phase
• Build Support is always a good option, thinning out the deck while offering a pretty solid benefit if you can get it completed early
• Helicarrier and Quincarrier are fine to play if you don't find anything else. I've found that resource generators aren't nearly as helpful as card draw for her early game, which is why these are so low

After turn 1, it's time to start flipping down to cycle through the deck faster, getting Focused Rages out whenever possible.

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Hero's Journey

Rounding out the rest of the build are cards focused on buffing what we can do in Hero form while covering for all of the weaknesses when flipping down to Alter-Ego.

She-Hulk needs to make the most out of the times when she's in Hero form. While her damage output is strong, we can easily increase this by adding options for her to ready up more, keep attack buffs on the board and offer options so that we can make the most out of the 4 hand size in Hero form.

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Getting Ready

With such a reliance on basic attacks and cards that synergize well with that, we have a bunch of different tools to make sure that we're able to get ready often and utilize basic powers to their full potential.

• One-Two Punch works to ready up after a basic attack
• Limitless Strength lets us ready up while in Hero form. Once Deft Focus is on the board, we can play this for 0 cost. This is the only event I included with 3 copies, and for good reason. It's that important
• Ready to Rumble will let us ready up on a turn where we start in Alter-Ego but have to use our REC first
• Unshakable isn't a traditional 'ready' card, but it's helpful nonetheless. One-Two Punch doesn't work if you tried to attack to get rid of a stun card and you can't play the thwart events if you're confused. This helps to stall any stun/confuse effects with the added bonus of being reduced to 0 cost with Deft Focus

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Rules Lawyering

Of course, a She-Hulk build isn't complete without at least some way to keep Superhuman Strength on the board and buff her attack stats.

• Mockingbird stuns the villain, rendering the response unable to be completed
• Deft Focus works to reduce the cost of Superhuman Strength so they're easier to play. If you're able to have both on the board, only one response can trigger
• Upside the Head's response triggers AFTER Superhuman Strength's does, meaning that Superhuman Strength will be discarded and the villain would be stunned before Upside the Head's response could trigger. Unfortunately, this goes against the strategy of rules-lawyering.
  • I wouldn't recommend playing Upside the Head if Superhuman Strength is on the board.
  • In a situation where Superhuman Strength is not on the board and the villain is confused, we can use Upside the Head's response to set up for some rules-lawyering and stun the villain. Assuming you're flipping to Alter-Ego, you'll start your next turn with the villain stunned and can flip back up and attack, keeping Superhuman Strength on the board after you play it. This requires a little bit of sequencing!

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A Little Help

Even though there's a focus on getting extra card draw established here via Focused Rage, some classic economy picks made the cut to help out with some of the higher cost cards. These end up having some nice synergy with the rest of the deck.

• Deft Focus is the most valuable, reducing the cost of multiple fundamental cards to 1 or less and allowing for both events and upgrades to be played far more easily
• Helicarrier and Quincarrier are both fine cards. The reason both are included is because of play restrictions on the latter. The extra works well with Superhuman Law Division while the former helps to reduce the cost of cards generally or as an alternative to Quincarrier when playing multiplayer
• Build Support is here because I struggle to justify to pay the cost to pay for either Quincarrier or Helicarrier in favor of Focused Rage. Also works with Clear the Area for the extra card draw

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A Safe Trip to Alter-Ego

To be able to consistently flip to Alter-Ego, the main tools that She-Hulk needs are:

• Options to confuse the villain
• The ability to keep threat on the main scheme relatively low
• Something to save you when you don't have either of those

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Discombobulated

For She-Hulk to confuse the villain consistently, there's a good variety of cards included that all are able to confuse the villain, keeping in mind that we can't rely on a single approach.

• Upside the Head works with her basic attack to confuse the villain. 1 cost, requires a basic attack. Only 2 copies because relying too much on being able to use your basic attack isn't always viable, even with so many readying tools
• Professor X and Dazzler can confuse the villain when they enter play
• Sonic Rifle banks two confuses on the board for turns for times when you aren't running into the other cards

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Taking Advantage

We also have cards that benefit from the villain being confused.

• Previously mentioned Upside the Head works as a stun if the villain is already confused
• Cypher gives you an extra card to draw when attacking a confused villain
• While I wouldn't recommend using it for this, Sonic Rifle can be used as 3 damage dealt to an already confused enemy

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Clearing the Table

I've bolstered She-Hulk's relatively weak thwart output by adding some solid allies and some low cost-event cards. Hopefully you won't have to resort to Legal Practice-ing.

• Clear the Area allows for 2 thwart and some extra card draw for removing the last threat on the scheme
• Lay Down the Law requires a bit of timing but the 4 threat removal for 1 cost can be super helpful, especially with how often you flip
• Professor X, Dazzler, Hellcat, and Blindfold all offer at least 2 thwart power, with many being able to use their basic powers multiple times
• Superhuman Law Division is still a solid card! We just can't rely on it as the main thwarting option

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Panic Buttons

Confusing and thwarting isn't always going to be enough. We can prep for bad times ahead with a couple of last resorts to help out when something goes wrong.

• Blindfold can help a flip down by knowing exactly how many boost icons you'll get and getting to discard an encounter card you don't want to deal with. In solo, this lets you know exactly what's coming during the villain phase. Remember to factor in the card you'll get if you're about to deck out!
• Under Surveillance increases the target value of the main scheme to help out when a confuse doesn't come soon enough and you need to take a full activation head on

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Other Card Considerations

• Beat Cop was too high cost for too little. Even though it was usable in Alter-Ego as well as Hero form, I just didn't use it. Minion damage was not something I struggled with. I ended up replacing it with events and scrapping once The Power of Justice was out
• Bishop just didn't work. While I did take a lot of attacks, he wasn't an ally I could justify playing a lot of the time. Once again, didn't really need the attacking power anyways
• Concussive Blow is just a worse version of Sonic Rifle with a focus on resources that I did not build around
• Float Like a Butterfly synergizes well with the confuse in this deck but ultimately the extra damage just isn't a weakness we need to cover for
• For Justice! ended up getting replaced with Lay Down the Law which is slightly harder to pull off but is also lower cost and works with all the form changing
• Global Logistics was something I was considering for a stronger knowledge of the encounter deck but I ended up scrapping my S.H.I.E.L.D. targets in favor of some better thwart options
• The Power of Justice only had a handful of targets and even 1 copy could just be used to better help the deck by replacing it with another card
• Spider-Woman was someone I wanted in the deck because of the synergy with confuse but only made sense to play if I had multiple confused enemies. Because I was just focusing on confusing the villain, it didn't make sense
• Superpower Training was a strong contender to get out Focused Rage faster but ultimately I ended up dropping in favor of Build Support. Once I had Focused Rage on the board, I was using this to get out Superhuman Strength which I could already play for 1 cost with Deft Focus. Ended up useful in very specific situations early game but whiffing most of the time

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Specializing the Deck

Personally there's not really much I would do to change based off of a scenario. The built-in versatility to rules-lawyer for stalwart villains means that there's not that many dead cards. Still, if you really want, you can make a few changes.

• If you want to increase the copies of any of the justice events to add more thwart/confuse, I'd take out either Ready to Rumble or Unshakable to compensate
• Under Surveillance can be removed when playing multiplayer, especially at high player counts
• Cypher can be replaced with Ironheart for a less thematic but more consistent card draw (I normally use him for the card draw twice when I can so I prefer keeping him)
• Helicarrier or Quincarrier could be removed if you really just want one. Build Support could be removed for this too, including more events in the deck instead

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Results

I'm really enjoying this in both solo play and multiplayer play. I've been able to take down some difficult scenarios, including Red Skull and Magneto. Most of my losses I can attribute to my poor gameplay and not necessarily the deck.

Maybe my favorite part of this deck is the unintended versatility. For the scenarios where confuse doesn't work due to a stalwart villain, you can just abuse Superhuman Strength like the original Rules Lawyer deck. It's always a fun time!