Protection (sort of) Hulk that actually wins

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Hulk Not Defending, Hulk Attacking Backwards 2 0 1 1.0

DukeWellington · 5293

I have been desperately trying to build a green Hulk deck forever. I've failed a lot, but learned along the way. I am pleased to announce that this deck here is extremely consistent and can defeat all the villains. It is very satisfying to play.

I'd like to explain why this deck works so well. To understand that you have to know why both Hulk and protection are so bad. Hopefully this analysis will help your own deck building and playing.

First, I will analyze Hulk. His main problem is severely awkward draws resulting from many points of anti-synergy in his design. For instance, his small hand size plus forced discard drawback suggest a deck build with a low cost curve. Unfortunately, Hulk needs high cost cards to succeed and a bunch of 1 and 2 cost cards effectively make Limitless Strength a dead card. However, if you put high cost cards in your deck you often can't play them and even with Helicarrier and Quincarrier you end up discarding a lot of unplayable cards. It's rough discarding 2 cards at end of turn when you only have 4 to start.

Also, Hulk has 3 defense, but you can't hardly ever use it because you absolutely need Hulk ready to attack, especially if you want to use Hulk Smash. Hulk can't ready enough to both defend and attack. His high HP is better suited to face tanking undefended attacks and thus has anti-synergy with his 3 defense. Hulk might as well have 0 defense because you use it so rarely. A hero with just 3 attack, 4 hand size, and a forced discard is pretty bad.

Then, there's the protection aspect. Why is it bad? Essentially, most of green's cards do nothing to help you win. Instead, green makes it so that when you win--by some other means--you have more HP. Healing and defending just make the game longer, and without any thwarting ability, a longer game just makes you more likely to lose to threat and side schemes. Basically, if you're playing protection Hulk and Legions of Hydra comes out, you can just resign (not with this deck) because it's game over. Red can tempo out a win, yellow can thwart all day, blue can do whatever it wants, but green loses.

To sum it up, protection is an aspect of "win more" effects. It doesn't help you win, it just helps your wins to be more dominant, when you do happen win, like being at full HP.

After experimenting and losing a lot I was ready to just give up on protection Hulk. Then there was a trend toward colorless decks, using The Power in All of Us to pay for high cost basic cards like Avengers Mansion and Nick Fury. I tried out another deck called "Hulk and his dog", which used Lockjaw from the discard to smooth out Hulk's notoriously awkward draws. That deck used a sprinkle of justice to mitigate Hulk's poor thwarting. Could I do the same, but with a sprinkle of protection instead?

The answer, my friends, is a resounding yes. This is, by far, the best protection Hulk I've played, and just one of the best Hulk decks, period. I haven't played it against Kang or Mutagen yet, but it's beaten everything else pretty convincingly, so I'm not worried. It usually wins on turn 4 or 5 because Hulk Smash is so ridiculous.

Here's how you play: you're going to stay in hero form almost exclusively, so you need your mulligan and first turn AE ability to get out an expensive basic support like Avengers Mansion. Then you switch to hero and smash. You only defend when you can use Never Back Down and/or Counter-Punch to keep up the tempo, otherwise you face tank or chump block. Most of the time allies are used for thwarting, and because of that you shouldn't have any problems with threat. In fact, if you have a really bad draw you can flip to Bruce Banner and smooth it out. Play Nick Fury whenever you can, because he's usually enough to just win, and Lockjaw out of the discard is amazing. Other than that each hand has to be played as a stand alone puzzle, maximizing value. Sometimes Assess the Situation smooths out your hand and draws an extra card, sometimes it heals Warlock. It all depends on the situation. The resources are all physical or mental, except Endurance, so you should always have what you need. Hulk Smash is obviously your finisher.

That's it. I hope you try it out for yourself because it really is such a smooth consistent winner.

9 comments

Feb 16, 2021 dr00 · 44789

looks great! never back down seems really great for hulk

Feb 16, 2021 DukeWellington · 5293

@dr00 I agree. Play experience has convinced me it is the best defense event for Hulk. Since Hulk only ever wants to attack, Counter-Punch is just a cheaper version of Desperate Defense or Indomitable and Preemptive Strike is too inconsistent. In contrast Never Back Down uses Hulk's 3 defense to get two rounds of 0 damage, important for a face tank strategy. If you can use both Never Back Down and Counter-Punch it's a more cost effective Drop Kick tacked onto your block. But if you don't use it, it discards for physical. It's perfect for Hulk.

Feb 16, 2021 dr00 · 44789

@DukeWellingtoni hadn't given it much thought, but everyone you've said makes perfect sense. i appreciate your thoughts

Mar 02, 2021 journeyman2 · 25509

@DukeWellington I've been reading and enjoying your decks. I think we build in similar ways and I love your creativity and the way you think about card interactions. It really suits my style. I like that Never Back Down is a better Tackle here.

I was just wondering how often you play Heimdall and if Clea wouldn't be a better choice for ?

I'm also not sure how well splitting the resource requirements of the deck works just for Warlock since you have Quincarrier and Experimental Research, but Perseverance seems like a good choice in your deck.

Another to consider is Momentum Shift. It's a worse Energy Barrier, but useful for the resource when not needed. Though this might not be necessary with all of your stun. Muster Courage is another choice, since it seems you want stun/tough a lot. Though I wouldn't be surprised if these don't stand up to testing.

I do think The Night Nurse and Unflappable should be added. Unflappable is just outright better than Assess the Situation and Avengers Mansion with all of the defending you'll be doing. The Night Nurse covers your stun removal.

I tried to keep recommendations to 1- or 3-cost for Hulk. If I were piloting this, I'd do

-1 Heimdall

-3 Assess the Situation

+1 Clea

+1 The Night Nurse

+1 Unflappable

+1 Perseverance/Muster Courage

I enjoy your decks! Keep it up!

Mar 03, 2021 DukeWellington · 5293

@journeyman2Your comments are greatly appreciated. Ultimately I disagree with your suggestions, although they are worth considering, and some I actually tried, like Clea. The main issue is that you assume a lot of defending, but in play there is not a lot, mostly Hulk face tanks the damage. The games are short and dirty, win fast or lose. With this deck I mostly win, but against tougher scenarios it might take a few tries. Each card in the list is there because it makes a big impact in an efficient short term way and in a way that maximizes Hulk's chances for a smooth consistent draw.

Anyway, Clea is a good option, but I would swap her out for Warlock (the weakestcard on the list), not Heimdall. I mostly use allies for thwart, not blocking, and Heimdall is a game winner. I actually play him often with Power in all of us. I do not like Unflappable, barely ever triggers, obviously never triggers when face tanking or when villain is stunned, almost never play it. Perseverance is no good because you usually only have 2 chances to play it, including the first turn. Of all your suggestions I actually think Muster Courage has the most potential, because the toughness let's you face tank without losing tempo. I suspect it's just too expensive, but I'm willing to test. It also might be worth it to swap Warlock for Night Nurse, but I've never had problems with stun to think it necessary.

Momentum Shift is too low impact, although not terrible. I strongly disagree that Assess should be removed. I think it's one of the best cards on the list. The key is flexibility, which allows smoother draws. Unflappable is totally inflexible and causes awkward draws by comparison. Electrostatic Armor is another similar card not included because Hulk doesn't block enough and it's too low impact.

I am not offended if you disagree. This list was developed because of a lot of playtesting and tweaking, which I think is why it's my most popular deck.

Sep 09, 2021 rstorcdk · 5242

@dr00 Actually Never Back Down and Counter-Punch are terrible cards for Hulk. All response cards are. Imagine that you draw 2 of each on your turn. you con't do anything but use your basic attack. Then you are forced to discard them creating a dead turn for Hulk. I recall doing it with his pre build deck. I had double ressource and 2 "You'll Pay for That!". I had a dead turn and we lost because of it. He is without a doubt the absolute worst designed hero in the game. FFG should create an updated version of Hulk and include him in one of the upcoming Hero packs for free.

Sep 09, 2021 DaveL · 1

@rstorcdk I thought the same thing at first. but it's actually at the end of your turn, not the end of the phase :D He is still trash tier though and I agree that we should get another version for free :D

Sep 10, 2021 dr00 · 44789

@rstorcdknot sure why you quoted me, but that all seems like some rules mistakes, and they are actually really flexible for hulk. you know what you have in your hand and what resources you need when you would play them or just save them as a resource. you draw at the end of the hero phase and these are available for that villain phase, then can be resources later if you don't need them, so you can get the most of your hand for that round.

Sep 10, 2021 rstorcdk · 5242

ya DaveL just cleared it for me. Definitely a rule misinterpretation on my part.