Hulkling, Touch at Your Own Risk

Hulkling is just about the most versatile hero in Marvel Champions. His shapeshifting cards allow him to swap and shift to meet every table state head-on.

But what if I presented you with a deck that wants you to eschew that flexibility (mostly) and instead wants you to focus almost exclusively on one, single shapeshifting form? And what if I told you that after the first few turns, you'd largely be twiddling your thumbs during the hero phase? What if I told you that it would theoretically be possible to regularly deal 10+ damage to the villain every time it dared touch you? What if I told you that it's also possible to do this two, or even three times per villain phase (provided a higher player count)?

Well, here we are. And here is the deck.

Every Hulkling Has Its Thorns; and DEF-based Damage, and Card Draw, and etc.

The beginning of the game is just about the only time you'll utilize Hulkling's superior versatility. With the Teddy Altman Shape-Changer action, grab the one that makes the most sense for the beginning of the scenario that you find yourself in. Generally, I'd pick Imitation Shape if there is a lot of starting Threat on the board, or Hulk Shape if there are set-up minions or negligible starting threat.

The first few turns are all about building out your Upgrades. Defensive Conditioning is a good one to mulligan for, and Electrostatic Armor, Flow Like Water, and Nerves of Steel are great secondary options. Change of Fortune and Unflappable are also great options, as they will help your economy as the game progresses.

You'll generally want two to three turns to set up your board. You'll rely on the other players at the table to keep the threat under control, and do some damage. You'll be able to contribute to the early game by tossing out a few key defend actions.

Once you're up and running, things get real messy for the villain. You'll prep by having a Ready for a Fight, flipping down, and using Shape-Changer to grab Armored Shape. If you already have it in hand, you should grab another shape to use for resources. You should also use your Recovery, if necessary. At this point, you should have Retaliate 2, Electrostatic Armor, and 1 to 3 Energy Barrier. This is 3 to 6 damage that an enemy will take just from looking at you wrong.

You can really bring the hurt by using your "DEF to Damage" Events. Hulkling has 2 copies of Armored Defense, and this deck has 3 copies of "Stop Hitting Yourself". That's five opportunities to deal your DEF value in damage to the enemy. Your DEF value at this point should be 4. Combining this with the above-mentioned retaliate/thorns, this means you're doing at least 7 damage during a Defend action.

Then you start adding Desperate Defense into the mix, and suddenly you're doing at least 9 damage, and you're readying yourself so you can do all of this again for your next teammate! "I Can Do This All Day" gives you more opportunity to Defend for your team, or leaves you ready so you can take a swing during the Player phase. Each of these Defense Events that you play also, you guessed it, damages the enemy thanks to Flow Like Water.

AND THEN, if you have the resources left over (you will), you can swing Excelsior. 2 more damage.

That's a lot of damage, not even on your turn!

chef's kiss

Change of Fortune and Unflappable keep your economy running during the Villain phase, and potentially give you the resources needed to continue to build out your board as necessary.

Eventually, you'll whittle down your draw pile into an efficient deck of defense-event death.