Rain's Hercules Deck 2026 - Minion Smashing!

Disclaimer: I revamped all my decks for 2026 after the end of the Civil War cycle, and decided to find homes for many of my unused cards. This puts my lists at 45 cards, but I prefer fun over optimization. I keep all heroes built and play exclusively multiplayer, so I try to make the best all-takers multiplayer decks that I can with the limitation of not every card will necessarily be available. If you want to use this list but trim it down, by all means! With some cards going OOP, the bigger deck sizes may allow newer players to cut what they don't have and still be able to keep it near the 40 card minimum.

This Hercules build is focused on 2 stages: Labor-clearing, and post-labor combat. It focuses on different cards for each stage.

Labor-Clearing Stage

• Toe to Toe is excellent at clearing Defeat the Hydra and Protect Humanity labors; it is a cheap way for a lot of damage against the Hydra, and it prompts a villain activation for Protect Humanity. Plus, Hercules has the hit points to make it work. Be sure to have Herc's Helm out if you're exhausted!
• Spider-Girl is a back-up for Protect Humanity, but also keeps that nasty Hydra minion in check.
• Spoiling for a Fight Lets you ready for both Embody Pathos and Protect the Hydra labors; if you're lucky, you'll get a weak minion out of the deal.
• Limitless Stamina gets you extra activations against the Hydra minion and Pathos side scheme for quick clearing.
• Mean Swing lets you use your Golden Mace to help defeat that Hydra, so playing it early doesn't feel bad!
• Drop Kick can be used against the Hydra, but there's enough physicals in the deck where it stalls the villain with a stun so you can focus on the Hydra or Pathos side scheme.
• Aggressive Conditioning and Combat Training gives you an ATK of 5 for Hydra slaying and Assault Pathos clearing.
• Savage Strike lets you wallop the Hydra for a quick defeat - not quite enough for one hit, but you definitely won't need more than two. However...
• Godslayer might be enough to tip the scale over that edge for a one-hit kill, though. The Learnean Hydra is unique, so it's a bit of a Hydraslayer as well. ;)

Post-Labor Combat

• Spoiling for a Fight lets you get a minion that you should have no trouble slaying, readies you, and lets you heal off of the minion with a huge attack using Prince of Power. No more rolling down needed!
• Mean Swing puts that Sword of Peleus to use, so you can get huge basic attacks.
• Savage Strike pairs with Golden Mace and hopefully Mean Swing for a +12 attack with overkill; as mentioned with Spoiling, there's a good chance you're healing for a LOT.
• Drop Kick now is paid for free with Olympus for an easy stun and card draw - hopefully into one of your cheap events!
• Aggressive Stance in the late game, this lets you pull a 0-cost 5-damage The Gift of Battle after engaging a minion, which you can spoil into.
• "Now I'm Mad" can give you a base 6 ATK with your other upgrades if your hit points are low - which is easier to do without concern thanks to Herc's high hit points and Herc's Helm. Don't worry though, if you hit a minion and excess-damage it, it's one more hit point recovered to take you back out of the red.
• Blood Rage uses Herc's hit points to help accelerate his card drawing for his 0-cost hero events for defeating that minion you just healed off of.