Build a Hulk - Solo Hulk Justice (Undefeated on Expert)

Thanks. This is an interesting deck that I'd like to try. Unfortunately I don't own RoRS, and I can't see what would replace Clear the Area. Would it work with For Justice!, or is the cost too high?

For justice would be an obvious replacement - I think it would still work fine.

Trying to get better with Hulk. This seems like a great deck to try. Thanks!

This Hulk deck is a little slow but it does get the job done.

@gustave154Yeah, I couldn't quite get a hyper aggressive hulk build to work. So instead of utilising hulk's attack power I leaned more on his survivability which allows him time to set up. You will likely end most games with the majority of the upgrades/supports in play.

Didn't go undefeated but I played RotRS on standard & had a lot of fun. You can catch the games here if anyone is interested. www.twitch.tv Thanks again for the fun build!

@Doc1Ft I just watched through your games with the deck - cool to see it being played by someone else :) . Here are my suggestions if you'd like them:

I play the deck much more cautiously than you were. It's very much designed as a slow grind (which I admit isn't very thematic with hulk). So for example, I would prioritise getting out all 6 of the support cards (mansion, carriers and beat cops) because they all allow you to make you much stronger over time.

I would also heavily prioritise thwart. Even though it's a justice deck, the thwart is still a little light. An example of where I would play different is with daredevil - I almost never use him to attack, I would rather not exhaust him at all than use him to attack the villain directly. The thwart 2 is just incredibly valuable.

I think there were a few games where I felt like you switched from controlling to attacking a bit too soon. I would genuinely avoid playing hulk smash unless it was my only way to clear a minion or I win the game that turn. Another example is when there is 0 threat, 0 sideschemes and 0 minions in play - I saw that you took this as a chance to attack the villain with hulk - I would instead take this as a chance to flip to banner and recover.

As mulligan advice I would be a bit more aggressive digging through to find extra resource cards. For example - if you know you're going to play avengers mansion anyway I would discard all 4 of the other cards in my hand and then also dig with bruce's ability so I get to see 5 more cards into my deck. You never know when you might have an even stronger first turn - for example: a 5 card hand including avengers mansion, limitless strength, beat cop and power of justice can let you get out both mansion and beat cop on your first turn.

@L3w15 7 I am going to give it a second go & this confirms my gut feeling. It requires discipline to use this deck! Thanks for the feedback I will definitely be modifying my approach! Thanks for watching this is the kind of community interaction I was hoping to drive!

www.youtube.com

Link to YT for convenience.

Cool list! I had a deck working pretty much like yours (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/4850/hulk-solo-justice-draw-and-smash-1.0). I had reservations about Beat Cop; does it feel like 3 copies is too much given its price? Also, do you often get rid of side schemes on first turn without For Justice!?

Glad to see some solo interest for Hulk! Have fun!

@neothechosen I really like beat cop because without it you never have consistent thwart and always have to use your cards in hand to remove threat. Once you get out a few beat cops you can afford to do all of your thwarting without playing any cards from hand, that means you're free to play your hulk events from hand to damage the villain without sacrificing thwarting.

Most side schemes that come out on the first turn have 3 threat which I admit you won't always hit turn 1. It is possible though. Suborbital leap obviously does it. The other method is to use one card to thw for 1 and another to thw for 2. An example would be beat cop + clear the area. This does require you to have a double resource card, but the deck is packing 7 of those so if you mulligan for those in relevant scenarios you have a decent enough chance of hitting. If not, you should at the very least remove the side scheme on turn 2.

Thanks a lot! This looks like a very solid plan! I'll have to try this!

great write-up and really fun looking deck. always happy to see more love for hulk!

do you think there's room for riri and miles after wasp?

@dr00 They're certainly both strong cards that could easily fit in. Overall most of the deck is built around having a stable thwart output so I would only want to add them in to thwart more.

Miles in particular is comparable to a thwart 2 ally. A thwart 2 ally would thwart for 2 twice (4 total) and then block. Miles would thwart 3 then thwart 1 (4 total) and then block.

Ironheart is somewhat comparable to mockingbird. Mockingbird offers typically 2 thw and 2 "blocks" for 4ER. Ironheart offers 1 thw and 1 block for 2ER so she kind is equivalent.

Both cards could definitely be tested if you think the ally count is low.

Yay ER! Mockingbird is only one card so you get twice the impact for that one slot. Really interesting. I like Justice and it's really strong solo so I don't want to crutch on it but is also super dull. The cards in you deck are almost the same as I always put in mine...

Except.... while I have been trimming expensive economy cards apart from in the richest Heroes you have gone long on them with the poorest hero. On top of this 3 Beat Cops which are great eventually but so much initial outlay. Good idea to trade on his resilience to set up.

Do you get much value from one Espionage? I feel it's wheel spinning but it's a back up Counter Intelligence for discount Coulsons. I think I'd swap it for a Quake. I mean I will swap it for a Quake when I try this out :)

@Pickles A large part of the theory behind espionage was actually just because it is a fist resource preparation.

This is important in the following scenario: You have a 5 card hand including agent coulson and crushing blow. This means you can spend everything but the crushing blow on coulson, and then search a fist resource to let you play crushing blow in the same turn.

It's a fairly niche case but I thought it was just about worth it. Spycraft would fulfill the same role, but I think espionage is slightly better.

@L3w15 7 or you might get Coulson, a double resource & 4 other 3 cost cards with Counter-Intelligence already in play :(. The second Prep card went back in to my version of 41 cards....

Boy is it super slow! Justice is super controlling in general of course. I think I prefer She Hulk for this sort of thing or heroes that are just more fun in the first place to pair with Justice (Ms M or Antman are favourites)

Good job coming up with the deck though!

@Pickles Yeah there are multiple other instances where you might want the extra preparation.

And yes, it is definitely designed to be a slow deck. Probably one of the slowest decks I've played with. You're definitely leaning more into using hulks survivability to give you extra time to set up. In the early game you never really have to worry about your health which means you can afford to spend all of your time in hero form clearing as much threat as you can.

And yes, other heroes probably do the job better. As I say I tried to lean into some of hulks strengths, but fundamentally he is just weaker than other heroes in a lot of ways.

Hulk aggression only works on normal mode, where you can plow through the villains in a couple of turns. As far as Justice, it was the only deck that I had previously made that can win on Expert. That being said, it is boring to play Hulk that way and there are a lot of better, more fun characters to play that way.

Would you add Deft Focus to this deck now since Galaxy’s Most Wanted is out?

@Raichi

That's a really interesting question. In theory deft focus is a really good card and there are 6 targets in hulk's deck for it.

Unfortunately I don't think they are cards I find myself wanting to play very often. Both sub-orbital leap and thunderclap are a little situational so you don't play them every time you draw them. Hulk smash is obviously good, but the gameplan of this deck is still to avoid wasting turns damaging the villain until the late game when you are fully set up and in control of threat.

Overall I think deft focus wouldn't get enough use to be worth it.

Interesting idea to lean into Hulk's health total instead of his raw attack power. A couple of questions and comments.

1. Did you consider adding Endurance since it is a strength resource and helps with what you are trying to emphasize with Hulk anyway?

2. Also you can't use Espionage for anything but a resource since it requires you to be a spy to use. Same for Spycraft. You could use Target Acquired if you wanted to as it is a strength resource.

3. Given the above do you really think Coulson is worth it? I ask because i am not a fan of Counterintelligence as it is very inefficient at a cost of 2 for preventing the placement of up to 3 threat. On the other hand you can save it until you really need it and maybe that is what Hulk really needs.

4. While I love Avengers Mansion and Daredevil they are both 4 cost cards meaning that unless you have extra resources you can't afford to play them. Did this come up very often in your games or was it mostly a nonissue?

5. Any thought to using Wiccan or Quake instead? Wiccan in paticular can be a very strong card?

@calderc23 1) Endurance easily can be played in here, I just think it's a bit overkill. Endurance is a really good card for staying in hero form, but this particular build is really happy to flip down to alter ego anyway. That being said, endurance is a good enough card that you can run it in anything and it'll never be bad - so feel free.

2) You can use espionage so long as you control a spy character, that character does not have to be your hero. So you can legally play espionage whilst you have coulson out since he is a spy. That being said, a lot of the time I use espionage as a resource anyway. Counterintelligence is the much better card, so I usually only search espionage off of coulson when I want a physical resource after playing coulson.

3) As I said above, espionage can be played whilst you have out Coulson. Coulson is a ridiculously high value ally. The preparation he adds means that you only really paid 2 resources for him. That's the same cost as for justice, except he thwarts for 6! Both counterintelligence and espionage are slightly subpar cards, but they are necessary to enable coulson to be at his crazy high power level. Counterintelligence fits really well with the gameplan of flipping down to alter ego fairly often since it is insurance against the villain scheming. The idea is to use your high health to stay in hero form for an extended time and allow you to set up whilst keeping on top of threat, but then you should be able to remove all of the threat and then go down to alter ego with either concussive blast or counter intelligence stopping too much threat coming on whilst in alter ego.

4) There are plenty of ways of getting the extra resources needed. You have 5 double/triple resource cards. You have quincarrier/helicarrier to get you the extra resource. If you're in alter ego you have enough cards in hand anyway. If you're in hero then you could flip down to alter ego and use banner's lab to pay for it.

5) When I created this deck I chose not to play quake because it doesn't fit with the gameplan. Quake is a very good ally who is cheap for chump blocking and also gives justice a good way to deal damage. The high health pool makes the chump blocking less important, and since I'm playing hulk I didn't think I needed the 2 atk.

Wiccan fits a similar role - he is also good for dealing damage and being cheap. That being said, he does thwart along the way so he is definitely worth considering. The main reason I chose daredevil to begin with was for his 2 thwart stat.

Funnily enough, I think speed might actually be a good consideration in here to replace daredevil. Speed has 1 extra health but doesn't deal 1 damage. Again, hulk doesn't need the extra damage, but the extra health being worth 2 more thwart probably makes speed viable here.

I will be replacing daredevil for speed.

Feel free to add Wiccan too if you want to. Cutting cards is a little awkward though, I think mockingbird is probably the next card I'd cut if adding Wiccan.

@L3w15 7 I wanted to say thank you! I have been playing your deck to great success for a while now. Prior to that, I have been using hyper aggressive rush deck. But it is really frustrating as everything boils down to luck.

You really taught me that to be successful with Hulk, you need to build around getting the consistency and reliability needed to tough through difficult rounds. The ability to slow down the game and not rely completely on luck for good hands is really what win games for Hulk.

I recently built an aggression Hulk deck using that as inspiration. It plays great! I wanted to share my experience with you given your thought process is the cornerstone for my deck.

What really helped my deck find that consistency and reliability is Lockjaw. He provides so much for Hulk. I found that allies are usually less meaningful in a Hulk deck as compared to other Heroes because Hulk is just abysmal at cycling through his deck. You can play them at most twice a game if you have a really long game. Most of the time, it is only once.

However this is different for Lockjaw. Once he is in the discard pile, he acts as the 5th card that you can play anytime. This means he can be played 10+ times a game if needed. And if you dont need him, just dont play him. Throwing away a single card out of 40 cards deck just to get on demand flexibility is in my opinion very worthwhile.

Attack, Thwart and chomp block. He does it all. He by himself bring the leadership aspect into the deck. Everything that made leadership such a powerful aspect. While he cost 4 to play, he is 4 effective cost when played from the discard pile. No different from a cost 3 ally that you have play from your hand.

With your level of resource generation, he can be played frequently without disrupting you playing other cards. For my deck, i needed a guard dog, maybe for yours, an attack dog can serve you well.

@astaroth Thank you for the positive comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the deck and that it inspired your own!

The precursor to this build was actually an aggression build and back then I did play lockjaw. I think lockjaw is exceptional in aggression hulk. Aggression hulk typically aims to spend most of the game in hero form, and struggles with thwarting. Lockjaw perfectly counters both of those weaknesses because it gives you consistent blocking and thwarting.

In this justice build a though, I don't think lockjaw is quite as necessary. You're right that lockjaw can be treated as a 3 cost ally, but he does a lot less than the other 3 cost allies in the deck. Mockingbird blocks 2 attacks and thwarts 2 so has an extra block over lockjaw. And coulson (who you could say costs only 2) thwarts 4 and blocks which is also more than lockjaw.

Where lockjaw shines is in versatility - whenever you need a block or thwart he's there. But, so much of this deck gives you thwart that you won't need him much.

As a blocker he is also not as important here. Unlike aggression hulk, this deck is very happy to flip down to Bruce banner. Cards like concussive blow and counterintelligence help make this quite safe to do. And once you're in alter ego you have access to downtime and banner's laboratory to heal up the unblocked damage.

@L3w15 7 What i meant was Lockjaw can be an attack dog to potentially help you attack. Comparing Lockjaw to Concussive Blow. Both are 4 effective cost cards. While Concussive Blow provides confusion, Lockjaw deal 1 more damage and is on demand. This may give you the flexibility to deal more damage to villain/minions when the opportunity presents itself and win game earlier.

This is a great deck. Whether you decide to include or exclude, it will not determine if you can win, merely the speed of you of winning.

@astaroth The problem is using lockjaw to attack is much lower value than using him to thwart. Using him to attack twice is actually the worst value you can get from him - it amounts to 4 resources spent to deal 4 damage.

For comparison, hulk smash is dealing 10 for 4 resources, and crushing blow is dealing 3 for 2 resources.

If I wanted an ally to deal damage, there are plenty of much better options. Spiderman (miles) for example does that same 4 damage for 4 resources, and then also does a further 4 more over the next 2 turns.

The truth is the deck just doesn't need any more damage. Hulk's base kit is so damage heavy that you can almost always clear minions when you need to anyway.

Lockjaw is good in decks that are very weak in thwart, but I don't think he ever really should be used in this kind of deck.

@L3w15 7I see where you are coming from. That makes a lot of sense.

Any improvement ideas with current card pool?

@sedlak87 Surprisingly there hasn't been much that would obviously fit in here.

Some newer cheap allies could be considered - Ironheart and Wiccan for example could arguably replace mockingbird and daredevil.

The only other card from scarlet witch worth considering is multitasking. Multitasking is good, but I don't think I would put it in as you frequently won't get full value for it and there's not that high of a mental resource count. I think clear the area is still the best thwarting card for this deck due to its reliability and low cost.

The only card from GMW worth considering is deft focus, but I don't think it's good here since the cards that it discounts aren't the cards you actually want to play until the late game.

From star-lord and gamora the only card worth considering is impede, but again, I think it's just slightly worse than the thwart cards already in here. The main scheme only restriction really hurts it. Your small hand size means you really want your thwart cards to be as flexible as possible since you'll likely only have 1 in hand at a time.

When venom comes out there definitely will be changes to this. I think concussive blow is almost certainly going to be replaced by sonic rifle. The option to confuse them twice is really strong, and you can still deal the 3 damage the next turn if you really want to. It's a shame it's not a physical resource, but I don't think that's as big of a deal in this hulk deck as in others.

Thank you for the reply. What about Sense of Justice + Lay Down The Law?

@sedlak87

Sense of justice currently only has 5 targets so that's probably not enough unless you changed the deck in other ways.

Lay down the law is potentially very strong, but again suffers from not doing anything if you start in hero form. If you only get a 4 card hand, then you want to minimise the chance that you have a hand of unplayables.

That being said, when sonic rifle comes out swapping into alter ego will become even easier so lay down the law could become better.

"1) Hulk's Attack power. This means Hulk doesn't need any extra attack cards at all (Concussive Blast is only really played for the confusion)."

ypu mean : Concussive Blow I think :)

@miniGibs Edited and fixed :)

Green Goblin Expert mode shits on this deck so far.

@cdbshamanIt shouldn't do.

Remember to play as patiently as you can. This deck is honestly one of the slowest decks I've ever played. You do not want to waste any of your resources damaging the villain until you are completely set up.

Here's how I would start out my game against mutagen: In the Mulligan stage I would discard every card except for genius, strength, energy, limitless strength, mockingbird, coulson, under surveillance, beat cop, helicarrier, quincarrier and avengers mansion, banner's laboratory. It's also ok to keep clear the area for this specific villain since the main scheme starts on 2 threat. I wouldn't keep clear the area if I already have another way to thwart at all though (e.g. I already have an ally or beat cop).

Turn 1 you should draw and discard with banner's ability to further draw the above cards and then switch to hero and use hulk's base attack to clear the minion in front of you. At this point aim to bring out as many of the supports as possible to get set up for next turn. Prepare to take a lot of damage from goblin, but don't be afraid to go straight back into alter ego the next turn.

Here's an example 5 card hand you might have turn 1 after you've completed your Mulligan and also used banner's draw effect: Banner's lab, energy, beat cop, hulk smash, hulk smash.

With this hand you should spend the energy to play banner's lab, use banner's lab's ability and the 2 hulk smash to play beat cop, flip to hero, exhaust to clear the minion, remove 1 threat from the main scheme and end turn.

Green goblin is attacking you and then flipping 3 encounter cards, this is the scariest part of the game. I would avoid defending with hulk if possible because you may need his attack if there are any minions in play. However, if the last revealed the encounter card is assault or gang up or overconfidence or I see you and there aren't yet any minions in play then you can afford to exhaust to defend to potentially prevent 1 threat on the main scheme. If the last card is death from above then I wouldn't bother since you have 0 chance of preventing the 1 threat. You will be better off exhausting to recover for 4 than exhausting to defend for 3.

On your second turn your priority should be to clear as much threat as possible so that you can flip down to alter ego safely. The beat cop you have in play will help you with this. However, ideally you want a card like concussive blow, under surveillance or counterintelligence to really help feel safe from threat whilst in alter ego. Your secondary priority after the threat is defeating the minions. Hulk's base 3 attack might help a bit here, but to clear the bigger minions you need to have drawn a card like crushing blow or unstoppable force. If you haven't, and you can't clear the minion yet then don't be too worried. It is ok to kill it over 2 turns by attacking with hulk two turns in a row. At this stage of the game you are still mostly just trying to survive.

Ideally though, you will be able to remove enough threat to safely flip back to alter ego. Here you can make use of hulk's recovery of 6, and use the extra resource from his lab again to further help set up possibly aiming to get out another beat cop or a helicarrier etc.

It's a constant grind as each turn of the game you make some progress to clearing what's in front of you and slowly get all of your supports in to play. Once all 3 beat cops are out though alongside your resource generating cards you should comfortably be able to start dealing damage to goblin.

By the time you get him to stage 3 you should be so well set up that dealing with 4 encounter cards is perfectly manageable.

Wow... Thank you bro! I was totally playing it wrong. I was going after the villain and basically ignoring the minions unless I had Thunderclap. I also didn't prioritize setting up the support. I will try your strategy. Excelsior!

Have you beat Expert Klaw with masters of evil with this deck? That is my go to scenario for testing decks solo but I just can't get this deck to work. Any piloting tips?

@Danimal0808 Yes this scenario cleared every scenario with the recommended modular set on expert that had been released at the time of writing.

You basically need to play this deck very cautiously. The goal is to 'build' hulk into a good hero over several turns.

Ironically for a hulk deck, this deck actually should be dealing 0 damage to the villain for the first several turns of the game. Do not be tempted to throw damage out just because you have it. NEVER play hulk smash whilst a single scheme has a single bit of threat on it.

You need to bring out your beat cops as quick as you can so you have a reliable way to thwart. Then slowly each turn try to develop as many other supports/upgrades as you can whilst making sure you maximise your thwart.

The damage comes later. Once you have most of your supports and upgrades in front of you you should be able to comfortably thwart the board and still have resources left over to damage the villain as well.

@L3w15 7 Thank you. I was slow playing I had 2 beat cops out turn 1 and was feeling good, but minions and threat just kept piling up. Do you recommend staying in AE the first turn or flip right away?

@Danimal0808 - yes, and other villains on Expert. This Justice deck is so strong it could probably be added to just about any hero and beat any Expert villain.

The key is to BUILD YOUR BOARD ASAP. As L3 said, keep threat and minions as close to zero as you can until your board is built.

@Danimal0808 You have to judge in the moment whether or not you can get away with staying in alter ego.

I would probably wait until I manage to clear both of Klaw's starting side schemes before I flip back down to alter ego. Typically you want to use each concussive blow that you draw as a way to get back to alter ego safely.

Hulk's base 3 atk is one of your best tools to help clear a minion with. If you ever stay in alter ego for 2 turns in a row then you lose out on this, so typically it's better to flip down for just 1 turn at a time.

Haha, looks awesome! i must try this one out!

@L3w15 7Nice deck! What would you replace the Sonic Rifles with, when playing against a villain with stalwart (or maybe even steady)?

@Ikmyst. Monica Chang and 2 surveillance team.

Monica Change is another perfect card to work with meditation, and the extra thwart should help to still let you go to alter ego which is the main purpose behind sonic rifle.

@L3w15 7 regarding Meditation- are we able to use this to make a card 3 resources cheaper- paying for it with this and get the benefit of a hulk card as if we used only fist icons? I guessing no since no resources were spent

Really a fun deck, thanks. The “Beat Cop” card gives a really nice control of the threat build up. Still struggles a bit against minions-rich villains, but for example with Rhino Expert 2 it was solid during the whole game.

Again thanks

What a great deck. I have struggled winning expert games with Hulk but it wasn't an issue with this deck. It was a cake walk against Expert Rhino. Thank you!

what is the strategy when going up against hela? i find her very difficult with hulk but according to you you beat her on expert.

@Bluebirdataz86The strategy is the same for most villains, but still worth reiterating:

Do not attempt to advance your win condition until you are set up.

This is a very very very slow deck that aims to take several turns getting out a tonne of support cards before it starts actually attacking the villain.

So you're looking to ideally get out all 3 of your beat cops.