Hulkling – Strength in Diversity: Draw, Draw, SMASH!

10+ damage? Easy. 20+? Common. 40 damage in one turn? Been there.

Strength in Diversity

This deck really shines in solo and low-player-count games: Hulkling can easily build up 12–14 traits by himself, turning Strength in Diversity into 12–14 damage or threat removal. And with fewer players, SiD is cheaper to pay for — making the efficiency completely ridiculous.

The goal is to get Strength in Diversity online early, especially in Expert where villains can put you under pressure quickly.

Hulkling already starts with 3 traits, so getting Hugin & Munin (3) and Vivian (3) into play brings us up to 9 traits very quickly. Suit Up and Make the Call help assemble the board, while Children of the Atom can add another +2.

The other half of the deck is drawing a ridiculous number of cards. The more we draw, the more often we find Strength in Diversity, and playing it multiple times in one turn becomes very realistic.

40 damage in a single turn isn't theory. I've done it — and that's what made me fall in love with this deck.

Resources – How Do We Actually Pay for All This?

I don't even run Band Together, because Hulkling already has excellent resource generation and card draw.

1. Shapes are resources first

Early game, I primarily treat Hulkling's 3/4 SHAPESHIFT cards as double resources (except Imitation Shape).

Add Energy, Genius and Strength, and 6/40 cards generate 2 resources.

Even better, Hulkling has several ways to get those Shapes back: Shape-Changer in Alter-Ego, Altman Residence, Wiccan, and later Alien Physiology.

So spending Shapes early lets us build quickly without really sacrificing the late game.

2. Draw cards → draw more cards

Imitation Shape, Nick Fury, Maria Hill and Wiccan give us plenty of draw.

I also combine these allies with Rapid Response, "Avenge Me!" and Command Team to squeeze even more value from them.

Maria Hill is especially good: another trait, THW 2, and a card for every player.

More cards mean more resources — and more chances to find Strength in Diversity.

3. Don't sleep on Strength in Numbers

Strength in Numbers might be the most underrated part of this deck.

Once Hugin & Munin, Namora and Vivian hit the table, I rarely let them die. They're not just allies anymore — they're part of the engine.

Exhausting 3–4 allies with Strength in Numbers to draw 3–4 cards for zero cost is already great, and with so many double resources those cards can represent considerably more actual resources.

Then there's Face the Past. It gets silly.

At that point, paying for Strength in Diversity or Avengers Mansion really isn't that scary.

The deck is also deliberately cheap: only 4/40 cards cost 3+, while 20/40 cost 2, so all that extra draw actually turns into more actions every turn.

4. Multiplayer makes it even better

This is a co-op game, and the deck embraces that.

Maria Hill draws for the whole table, and teammates can help pay for Strength in Diversity. Even one resource from another player makes a 10+ damage/thwart SiD ridiculously efficient.

And if they draw the perfect card for themselves instead? Great!

We're all fighting the same villain.

SHAPESHIFT – Resources Now, Superpowers Later

For roughly the first four rounds, my priority is building the Strength in Diversity and draw/resource engines.

Unless I draw Imitation Shape, I'm usually happy to spend SHAPESHIFT cards as double resources to accelerate:

Hugin & Munin → Vivian → Children of the Atom → draw engine → economy

The Shapes can always come back later.

Around round 4+, once the economy and allies are established, I change gears.

That's when I stop treating Shapes primarily as money and start treating them as Hulkling's toolbox.

Switch between SHAPESHIFT upgrades depending on whether you need damage, thwarting, survivability or card advantage, while taking advantage of Hulkling's ability to ready when changing Shapes.