Turn the Other Cheek (Expert Ronan)

OK. Hercules. Probably the hero our community talks the most about since... forever? He is a real puzzle in himself, and requires to unlearn everything we thought we knew about the game.

Setup your board first? Huge mistake. Rely on staples like Avengers Mansion or Nick Fury? Huge mistake. Hercules is all about tempo. You need to prioritize the cards you would usually use to finish the game. You need to sacrifice setup to come back stronger later. What an interesting design! Hopefully, understanding his very unique flow, you will master him and beat any villain in the game.

Action compression and Versatility

So as you understand, your absolute priority is to finish your labors ASAP, and your deck should be built for that purpose. Since Hercules needs to accomplish them by himself, it means using cards that let him do the job as fast as he can.

Since you don't know which Labor shows up first, versatility is key here:

• "You'll Pay for That!" helps you thwart a lot to Embody Pathos during the villain phase, or to keep the game state under control cleaning threat on the main or a scide scheme.
• Toe to Toe helps you to finish Protect Humanity faster with an extra Villain attack, or to Defeat the Hydra faster. Later in the game, with your Gauntlets in play, it deals 9 damage to the villain for 1.
• Savage Strike helps you to Defeat the Hydra with 1 or 2 activations less, or to heal a lot later in the game.

Your several readying solutions, combined with an aggressive Training should help you to Defeat the Hydra and Embody Pathos with one to 2 actions less than normal.

Keeping the game under control

With the priority to focus on Herc's side quests, you need to be sure you don't let the main game run to a point you cannot catch-up at the end. The rest of the deck is thus here to keep the game under control while you prepare for your grand entrance:

• Bug will consistently maintain the main scheme's threat on its status quo, as you will make a basic attack almost every turn.
• Spider-Girl will control a minion you have no time to take care of immediately, or your Hydra.
• Throg will offer you a turn to breathe if you have low HP and cannot defend. Interestingly, he does not need to exhaust to be the target of Protect Humanity.
• Professor X will offer a burst of thwart on a side scheme if needed.
• Keep Them Busy will do the same on the main scheme.
• Lockjaw is a versatile joker you can always call for an emergency.
• Machine Man will consume the resources of Olympus in the end game, to thwart for 4 and help you catch-up on threat while you finish beating the Villain to death.

Conclusion

Hercules. Aaaaah, Hercules. This guy is so much fun and so refreshing. Cracking the case of his deckbuilding is a mini-game in itself. Hopefully, this deck will help you getting the keys of his unique gaemplay loop :)