Hulk Crush

I think I finally figured it out. I think the Hulk is good in Aggression, where he fucking belongs. And not only do I think he's good at Aggression stuff, but I think he's good overall while being in Aggression. (Note: After I had this idea, I took a quick scroll through the decklists and there are definitely some decks which do something like this, but don't commit to the same bit.)

Here's the weird part: You don't attack.

Well, like, okay. You attack. You just don't ever basic attack. At least not until you're ready to finish the game.

Hear me out. Use your mulligan and Alter-Ego hand... size (if we can really call it that) to desperately search for resource generators/cost reducers. In most encounters, you have a really safe turn or two to do this.

When you need to flip to Hulk and take some hits instead of allowing the villain to scheme, focus on defense and keep building your board state. If you get Smash the Problem when you need to thwart, don't defend yourself. You have plenty of HP to work with and Moment of Triumph to heal off a minion if you really need it. In encounters with few minions, it could be worth taking The Best Defense… instead, but a base defense of 3 is probably good enough.

Using the upgrades in this deck, you can have an attack of 9. It could technically be higher, but 9 is the best compromise I've found to keep things efficient.

Of course, 3 of that is coming from Brute Force. Those disappear if you actually make use of them though, right? Weeellllll...

Brute Force is only discarded when you use a basic attack. So let's just never do that.

Hey, I get it. Hulk Smash is like 90% of the reason to play Hulk normally, but let me redirect your attention toward Crushing Blow and Quick Strike... and how much cheaper they are... and how you don't need to be ready to use them... and all the options we'll have to pay for them...

Let's take a trip to the laboratory to review the math.

Hulk Smash at its worst is going to deal 13 damage in one hit (which is not actually bad). At its best, you can reasonably expect it to deal 19, after which you lose 3 damage from your next attack, assuming you are able to ready. That will cost you 3 resources. Not shabby if the resources are coming from upgrades instead of your hand, but the 3 remaining cards in your hand may be less likely to be playable at that point. Say we have Unstoppable Force and two other cards. You can ready, attack for another 6, and draw 1, but by this point in the turn you're far less likely to have enough of a board presence to actually make use of that extra card. So you're exhausted with a card you'll be forced to discard, and you'll have done 25 damage.

Now let's have a hand with two copies of Crushing Blow. Worst case (while still being able to play them), you'll deal 9 damage, including a basic attack. The number only goes up with every little addition to your board state though. Combat Training alone takes you up to 12 damage. Only 1 behind the worst case Hulk Smash. Add in Boundless Rage and you're at 15 damage. By the time we're at our maximum attack buffs, we're doing 27 damage, exhausting, and discarding our Brute Forces, putting us in a slightly better position than the Hulk Smash best case scenario, and we haven't even begun to account for any cost reductions or resource upgrades. With any two of Helicarrier, Quincarrier, and Martial Prowess, you'll have done 27 while still having two cards in hand, perhaps to play Deft Focus.

Being tactical about your cost reductions and resource upgrades, you can also weave in Quick Strike, which doesn't require any specific resources.

Where this deck really shines though is its ability to keep the damage high across multiple rounds. If you choose not to do a 9 damage basic attack, you get to keep that 9 damage momentum going, where Hulk Smash is stuck in your discard pile.

Now, it's not like other heroes can't do this too. They can probably even do it better due to not being gimped on hand size. In particular, I think moving these exact cards over to Drax would be nutso. The Hulk isn't exactly unique here (besides having, effectively, extra Quick Strikes) but it's the first time I've felt like a Hulk Aggression deck is viable on its own merit/not relying entirely on chance and pilot skill. Edit: Never mind. Hulk is actually quite unique here. Drax is the only other hero I see with Quick Strike-like cards built in, and his method would have to be a little more nuanced than Hulk's due to a lack of Genius, Avenger, and Superpowers. Drax also likes his basic attacks a bit more, and may not be able to sustain this damage output over the same number of turns (which I think is an indicator that Drax is the better solo version while Hulk is the better multiplayer version).

Quick justification for the above claim: I personally prefer multiplayer Champions due to the added complexity and ability for each player to double down on their strengths since they can rely on friends to cover for their weaknesses. A good Justice teammate can keep this deck in Banner form for longer, after which you can Hulk out with a full (or close) build and deal upwards of 4 players-worth of damage turn over turn. This deck doesn't need teammates to enable it, but it gets significantly faster, and proportionately more effective, with every teammate supporting it.

Testing: Rhino (S 1-1, E 0-1) Klaw (S 1-1)

In testing so far (which was just one night where I had nothing else going on), I will say this deck seems relatively fragile in solo, so I'm actually removing that tag. Turns 1-3 seem to consist of building out decently efficiently, then getting schemed out because my thwart options didn't appear, or I hit an encounter card that specifically exhausted me when I was setting up a Smash the Problem. The latter were particularly annoying because there was a 10%~ chance each time for it to happen (I checked after the fact).

I met a couple guys at my FLGS who are specifically looking to do multiplayer, and one of them loves playing Doctor Strange over all else, apparently, so we'll soon see how this deck works while it's being hard-carried

Option Considerations: (WIP) Drop Kick Relentless Assault Toe to Toe Assault Training Tac Team Marked Plasma Pistol Blade Vivian Angela Spider-Girl Throg Build Support "Now I'm Mad"