Part 2 of my In-depth series. I have decided to cover the Hulk pack as well as it has been fully spoiled and I have a bit of experience with it.


Aggression

The main win condition of this game is to reduce the Villains HP to zero and Aggression is definitely capable of doing that but what is often overlooked is Aggression has another main strength and that is minion control. No other aspect can deal with minions as quickly and efficiently as Aggression.

But Aggression does have it's challenges. Aggression is the most one-dimensional aspect of the four; it has great damage output but it has overall poor defense capability and it's threat removal is limited. This makes aggression challenging in solo because both thwarting/scheming as well as negating villain attacks carry greater weight. And because of Aggression's strength at minion control, Aggression's value does go down in situations with fewer minions, such as solo and certain scenarios.

I will state however, that the upcoming Hulk pack has 2 cards that will go a long way towards covering those above weaknesses (You'll Pay for that for threat removal and Drop Kick for damage + stun). Aggression is also stronger in Multiplayer where you can have teammates that cover your weaknesses while you focus on your strengths. In 2p, Justice and Aggression is a strong combo as they can both just focus on what they do best.

Decks

Currently, there are 3 main decks, but 2 more are coming with Hulk's pack. The names are mine because there are no "official" ones. Also, as mentioned above all aggression decks have a general weakness of thwarting and defense so these are not mentioned as deck weaknesses. Also, these decks are more or less loose groupings of similar cards, so opportunities for hybridization between decks are abundant.

Big Event Aggression - This deck focuses on the more expensive events such as Relentless Assault, Melee, Upper Cut, and Tac Team (tho not an event). These are high impact cards that do not rely on external factors such as your basic attack or other cards. In the core set, decks were of this type, but after the release of Thor, this deck fell mostly out of favour with the exception of Ms Marvel. Hulk's pack has some help in Martial Prowess and Drop Kick (Although Drop Kick is good is most Aggression decks) so we will have to see. As it is on the more expensive side, it is best with heroes with resource generaion and regular hand sizes.
Strengths - High Impact Events, not reliant of basic attack
Weakness - on the Expensive side
Best with: Ms Marvel, Captain Marvel
Sample decks: Ms Marvel: https://marvelcdb.com/deck/view/8150
Captain Marvel: https://marvelcdb.com/deck/view/2666

Axe Aggression - This deck focuses on Jarnbjorn to efficiently convert physical resources into 2 damage. In addition, it runs cheap and efficient damage events such as mean swing and skilled strike, which both efficiently add damage as well as power Jarnbjorn. It is an overall cheap deck but can also easily pivot to having some the more expensive events also. The main disadvantage is that it has a great reliance on your basic attack and drawing Jarnbjorn later can hamper your damage output.
Strengths: Inexpensive and efficient cards.
Weaknesses: Reliance on basic attack and Jarnbjorn, relies on signatures for burst damage, and physical resources limits options.
Best with: Black Panther, Captain America, Hulk, Thor
Sample deck: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/1723/a-sample-axe-aggression-deck-1.0

Hulk Aggression - This deck focuses on maximizing the effectiveness of Hulk ally by maximizing the physical resources and minimizing mental resources. The deck can be made similar to several of the other decks, tho Axe Aggression will likely be easiest to convert. Hulk ally is incredibly efficient if he discards a physical resource, but he is still random, even in a stacked deck. And cutting mental resources means you can't run Chase Them Down meaning your thwart potential is even lower, however, You'll Pay for That in the Hulk pack can solve that issue.
Strengths:Super efficient Hulk ally
Weakness: RNG, limited card options, reduced thwart capability
Best With: Thor
Sample deck: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/1722/a-sample-hulk-aggression-deck-1.0

Revenge Aggression - This is a new deck that Hulk's pack enables. The idea is that you use cards like Counterattack, You'll Pay for That, and Toe to Toe as super efficient cards in exchange for taking damage. Aggression tends to take full face damage often anyway so You'll Pay for That and Counterattack are efficient cards keying off what is happening anyway. With Toe to Toe, you have to be a bit more careful with using it on the villain, but remains a very efficient card.
Strengths: Super efficient damage cards, better thwarting than normal
Weaknesses: Relies on signatures for burst and minion control compared to others.
Best with: Hulk, She-Hulk, Thor
Sample deck: https://marvelcdb.com/deck/view/34085

Ally Aggression - This is a deck that kind of existed before but was underdeveloped. Hulk's pack makes it legit. This deck uses Aggression's lineup of high value allies supported with combo cards such Honorary Avenger and Enraged. Pair with a Leadership deck for maximum synergy.
Strengths: High Value Allies with strong combos, more allies to block than typical.
Weaknesses: Expensive, relies on signatures for burst damage, combos rely on drawing when needed.
Best with: Black Panther, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Dr Strange?



Cards

Legend:
S - Very strong card that should be used in every Aggression deck.
A - It is not used in every deck but it is a defining card in a specific deck.
B- A good card used in many decks but is not essential.
C- An overall weaker card but has synergy with specific heroes.
D- An overall weaker card that does not have strong synergies but is still marginally playable.
F- Not worth the paper it was printed on.

Please take the ratings on cards from unreleased packs with a grain of salt as they are based on speculation and limited game-play.

Brawn - C - 4 atk/4 thw and a block is good, but slow. Better in a specialized deck with enraged.
Hercules - C - Decent ally but requires heroes with resource generation as well as scenarios with more minions.
Hulk - B - Efficient ally but subject to RNG, even in decks built around him. Can also be used as a pure blocker.
Sentry - A - Very strong stats. Worth the encounter card, at least in Expert, tho the encounter card may be more of an issue in heroic modes.
She-Hulk - B - Decent by herself, tho expensive. Better in decks with Honorary Avenger.
Tigra - A - A high value ally that is in almost all decks, but does need minions to get value
Valkyrie A - A very efficient offensive ally who has great burst when she is played.

Chase Them Down - A - A very efficient thwart card in an aspect that needs it, but requires minions.
Drop Kick - A - If the kicker is achieved, it is on par with some of the best signature cards in game and covers one of Aggression's weaknesses but the ease of doing so depends on the hero and deck.
Get Over Here - C - Works well with Thor and has the niche use of clearing stun but overall on the weak side.
Mean Swing - A - 1 card for 3 damage is the most efficient damage card in the game, but does require a weapon and a basic attack.
Melee - B - A solid card but eclipsed by Relentless Assault for dealing with single minion. It is good vs 2 minions and with Ms Marvel.
Relentless Assault - S - Very efficient for an aspect card and one of the best non signature anti-minion cards in game.
Skilled Strike - C - too low impact to justify card slot in most decks but can be used in Axe Aggression in addition to Mean Swing.
Toe to Toe - B? - It is good vs minions tho against the villain, it is situational; sometimes strong, sometimes not.
Upper Cut - C - Not the most efficient card but the burst damage and physical resource gives it a home in some decks.
You'll Pay for That - A - Aggression lacks thwarting and this is a very efficient thwart card, but it works better with higher hp pools.

The Power of Aggression - A - Aggression has a lot of good 0 and 1 cost cards, this card only gets full value on a small handful of cards in some decks like Axe and Revenge Aggression therefore it can be cut to make room for other cards. This is great in the more expensive deck types tho.

Hall of Heroes - A - Rewarded for doing what you are good at. Card draw is always good.
Tac Team - C - Tac Team is a solid card but often eclipsed. I like it with Capt Marvel due to the energy resource.
Battle Fury - B - 1 cost & 1 dmg for a ready is a good deal. Requires defeating a minion but can stay in play until it happens.
Combat Training - S - It will not only give good value over the course of a game but it allows you to one shot minions you would not have been able to before.
Counterattack - A - A very efficient damage card for heroes who often take full damage to face.
Enraged - C - A difficult to use upgrade but can be effective with specific allies.
Jarnbjorn - A - 2 damage for 1 resource is a really good trade. A very strong card
Martial Prowess - B - Resource Generation is good but this one is limited. It's value depends on your hero and the deck you are using.

Heroes

Black Panther - Since Black Panther can start with a weapon and can also make multiple attacks in a turn, it can make great use of Jarnbjorn and Mean Swing.

Black Widow - She is all about preparations and while Counterattack is a good card, she doesn't particularly want to be taking full damage attacks, and it also has anti-synergy with Synth Suit. So while it can work, she will generally have better success elsewhere.

Captain America - With Super Soldier Serum and his ability, it has great synergy with Jarnbjorn. But since that combo is self contained, he can honestly build any of the decks or a hybrid around it.

Captain Marvel - She does not have much in the way of synergy, but it is still solid as her damage potential is rather high. Her resource generation is well suited for the more expensive aggression decks.

Dr Strange - Aggression's lack of defense as well as well as Dr Strange's 1 atk makes it overall ill-suited. Tho, Giving tough to allies has interesting applications with the upcoming Ally Aggression deck.

Hulk - Aggression has the most physical resources by more than double making it the easiest to get the kicker on his cards in addition to having the most synergy. And since it is so easy to get the kicker on Drop Kick, it is almost like having 18 signature cards.

Iron Man - Similar to Dr Strange, 1 atk and lack of defense makes it ill-suited overall.

Ms Marvel - With Shrink boosting Chase Them Down, and Embiggen boosting the plethora of events (and double boosting Melee), she has very strong synergy with Aggression. The normal weakness of thwarting is completely nullified and with flipping and Wiggle Room, she has defense covered too.

She-Hulk - With One-Two Punch, she greatly benefits from Combat Training. And the upcoming Revenge Aggression deck will be a great fit for her due to Gamma Slam.

Spider-man - He doesn't have much in the way of synergy, but they do complement each other as Spider-man gives defense to aggression and aggression give minion control to Spider-man. Thwarting is still on the weak side tho.

Thor - With Thor's minion emphasis, the minion control from Aggression is the perfect companion. And his high hp pool is well suited to the upcoming Revenge Aggression deck.

Overall, Aggression is a fun aspect with many different ways to approach it. It has a very strong card pool, so when played to its strengths, it can be very effective but the one-dimensional nature of the aspect does make it more challenging overall.

I added some sample decks to the deck section.

Not able to post an Ally Aggression deck at this time but it looks something like:

Honorary Avenger x3, Enraged x3, Combat Training x1
Nick Fury, Mockingbird, Tigra, Valykrie, Sentry, Brawn, She-Hulk
Mansion, Helicarrier
First Aid x2, Relentless Assault x2
Resources x3, Power of Aggression x2

Good stuf again.

Although I think you may have the hero combinations backwards....I have found for me that Aggression works better with heroes that can already thwart and have better hand sizes, not so well with Heroes like Thor and She-Hulk that cant.

1 hour ago, IceHot42 said:

Good stuf again.

Although I think you may have the hero combinations backwards....I have found for me that Aggression works better with heroes that can already thwart and have better hand sizes, not so well with Heroes like Thor and She-Hulk that cant.

CA and BP are good as they can make up for the thwarting deficiency and I think Ms Marvel is the best aggression deck period, because her thwarting is extremely strong.

But Thor, She-Hulk, and Hulk have the most synergy with aggression so it is a situation where they amplify the strength rather than compensate for a weakness. It's just that solo is not balanced very well for that style.

That said, You'll Pay for That is an amazing card with those 3 heroes, and will go a long way.

Aggression has become my favorite aspect because it's just so fun to throw damage at bad guys.

I do think Doctor Strange has more Aggression synergy than you're giving him credit for, though. Particularly for a solo ally Aggression deck, where running "Enraged" finally looks economical. And the upcoming card "Press the Advantage" (Red Skull box) works pretty well with him, too. I am admittedly not an expert deck builder by any means, but I've been surprised at just how well he works with Aggression.

36 minutes ago, maniakmedic said:

Aggression has become my favorite aspect because it's just so fun to throw damage at bad guys.

I do think Doctor Strange has more Aggression synergy than you're giving him credit for, though. Particularly for a solo ally Aggression deck, where running "Enraged" finally looks economical. And the upcoming card "Press the Advantage" (Red Skull box) works pretty well with him, too. I am admittedly not an expert deck builder by any means, but I've been surprised at just how well he works with Aggression.

Admittedly, I play very little solo, so these articles are probably biased even tho I am not intentionally doing so.

I didn't think ally aggression was much of a thing right now currently, but maybe I am wrong about that? But I do mention that he does have synergy with ally aggression.