My kid and I have been playing a lot of this game over the past couple of weeks. He loves his Justice Iron Man and he generally cleans up threat like a champ so I can work with whatever hero I want to try out.

Today I played Hulk with a pretty one-note Aggression deck - I built it to do one thing and only one thing - hit hard and often.

The problem is that you need to get amazing card draw to do any of that. If you don’t have a multiple resource card on hand when you have one of his showstopper cards like Hulk Smash then your whole turn is going to be “I dump my hand for Hulk Smash.” Sure, minimum 13 damage on a turn is good... but there were so many turns where I didn’t have anything like that, or worse, Hulk turns where my hand had two double resource cards, Skilled Strike and maybe something like Drop Kick.

I guess my expectation was that I would come in and have these amazing turns where I attack three times like I did with She-Hulk... but Hulk is a different beast. So my expectation now is that I’ll probably get one solid attack event and then a basic attack if I’m not exhausted from blocking or something on a turn and I should be happy with that. Or maybe a pure Aggression Hulk build isn’t the way to go? Is it possible that he’s better suited to one of the other aspects? Hard to imagine, being Hulk and all.

Overall the deck seems restricted by the low hand size (even in Bruce Banner form it’s still only 5 cards) and high cost of many cards.

Still, we took down Expert Rhino and Wrecking Crew with this team so it’s for sure not terrible...

A few impressions on Hulk from what I've played so far.

1. In solo play unfortunately aggression is a less engaging experience than other aspects. This has more to do with Aggression's reduced ability to remove THW via cards that function well with Hulk. (ie. reactionary cards are often not as useful given you can't save them while in hero form due to his forced ability). Justice, Leadership and Protection all fair better in solo due to this and deck building with Hulk provides it's own set of puzzles to solve.

2. Multiplayer really opens up Hulk but often encourages other players to support him through helicarrier discounts and avenger mansion card draws. If you do this in 3-4 player he get's really wild! It's been fun to work together and honestly dive deeper into the cooperative opportunities this game provides. His aggression build functions far better and even the pre-con is engaging because he doesn't have to focus as much on THW.

3. For my money, the most fun I've had with him is in protection. This is thanks to the new protection upgrade you get in his pack alongside staples like Night Nurse to remove pesky stun tokens. once he has retaliate 1 + 1 damage when he defends you can do funky things like counter punch for 3 + deal 2 extra damage, occasionally if you don't take any damage unflappable than lets you draw a card for the following turn also.

4. Hand size does hurt, but it means he is a bit more accessible to younger and newer players. Providing less decisions and increasing the focus on resource management lets players really just focus on hitting hard just like Hulk would. I wish Banner and his lab oozed a bit more of his genius theme but it's a nice hero pack to pick up and jam for fun!

hulk is out?

My first impression of Hulk was: On my first turn, I dealt 17 damage to Rhino and stunned him.

That was an awesome draw though. 18 health feels like a lot which tempts me to take hits on the chin more often but I think not defending with him is a trap. Once your health gets in the single digits, it feels a lot harder to get your recovery going cause you can't risk the threat going up for being in Alter-ego that much.

I've been most successful with the Hulk Aggression build. I took Toe to Toe out of his pre-built and ran Skilled Strike instead. Hulk needs attack actions in his deck if for no other reason than to bump stun so you can get back to working toward the win condition. I feel like Hulk is a "full speed ahead" hero where you want to KO the villain as soon as possible.

He feels so much better when you have some cheaper allies to thwart for him. I think building into the all physical resource type is a "trap" which made me not put time tested good cards in the deck just because they weren't physical.

The most fun I've had so far has been Hulk Leadership. I've played 3 games focusing on using Quinjet to bring in my Avenger allies, but only won once. I've been "defending for my allies" not using them to defend so they can do their jobs. Strength in Numbers and Get Ready (both physical resources btw) can then make Hulk have huge turns once you get allies out.

He feels like he has some of the same problems I initially had with Thor, but more satisfying cause he can consistently put out greater damage than Thor IMO.

9 minutes ago, Sc00ter1979 said:

hulk is out?

Maybe my store broke street date, but they've had theirs since Monday...

They called me, I didn't ask questions. Way I see it, Hulk was 2 months late, after all.

51 minutes ago, Sc00ter1979 said:

hulk is out?

Official release is tomorrow, the 7th. Many stores in Europe have been sitting on Hulk Packs since May. I personally don't think any game stores are particularly at fault for selling this one as soon as they get it

it magically popped up on my local retailer website today too. well dang. time to reschdule lunch

1 hour ago, Sc00ter1979 said:

hulk is out?

The release date is tomorrow, but lots of people are starting to receive it. Lots of stores in Europe broke street date anyway and released packs 2 months ago...

I went into one of my local shops on Tuesday to look for some of the earlier expansions I don’t yet have and they had Hulk on the shelves. I think with Covid and reduced store hours/business, a lot of shops aren’t playing the “official release date” game anymore, especially if it means that they have to sit on sellable product for a week. They don’t know if there will be another lockdown order before the street date hits.

Just got Hulk and started playing. Started by playing the unadulterated Hulk Aggression Deck and lost about 4 games against Standard Rhino before taking him down in the first three turns with 2 hulk smashes. Stun and Tough are a real problem for Hulk as he so often has only one attack and getting confused is also a pain as you have to clear it before you can use any of thwart cards Hulk has. However he is not Thor (who is now not a bad hero now anyway). Hulk plays as you expect, massive attacks that can or almost take out a standard villain's health in one turn.

Observations

1. Understand that on some turns you will have only one attack (the basic ATK) and as Hulk you have to discard any unused cards. If you want those cards then flip down to Banner. This may be hard to do if you have Boundless Energy in play which goes when you flip.

2. The ally Brawn is valuable and should not be used to take damage if it can be avoided. He should always be put into play imo. Every time he attacks he takes one threat from any scheme. He has five health so that is 5 threat over 5 turns and his attack of 1 nicely removes tough clearing the way for Hulk.

3. Recommend dropping two "Martial Prowess" cards (you can only have max 1 per player. ) for 2x 0 cost "Chase them down" . One of the problems with Hulk's deck is there are no 0 cost cards despite having a hand of only 4.

4. Solo is like Thor in that the ability to thwart is limited and using Hulk's card to thwart expends most/all his cards to do. Sub-Orbital can save your game but is a mid to late game card. Getting this card early is a waste and you are at the mercy of the deck as to whether you will get it when you really need it.

5. Do not expect to burn through your deck. A discard is likely never to be seen in the game again. Plan for that especially when you flip down to Banner loosing Boundless Rage for the rest of the game.

6. While not really an option vs Rhino (Solo) with Klaw and Ultron flipping between Banner and Hulk is a viable strategy (Standard - haven't played Expert yet). You need that extra card plus the replacement card Banner offers.

7. Thunderclap is Hulk's best weapon against multiple minions. Even upgraded Ultron III Drones (3 HP) will disappear before Thunderclap.

8. Resourcing - Martial Prowess is useful but unlike God Of Thunder or Super Soldier Serum Hulk can only have max of 1. Getting that and Helicarrier into play will help Hulk pay for his expensive 4 cost cards. Get Avengers Mansion as well and Hulk really opens up but that requires a lot to fall into place to happen.

9. Threat management. This is the hardest thing Hulk has to do. Sub-Orbital Leap is great (if taking 3 resources) to remove 4/5 threat. To the Rescue costs 2 to remove 2 threat which is a questionable exchange but you might have to do it to stave off defeat. You have to make the decision whether to try to blitz the villain, hoping to not be stunned or encounter Tough villains or Guard Minions Or you take a more controlled approach and play the thwart cards when they appear to manage the growing threat. NOTE: Hulk does not have a way of removing threat from multiple schemes so as more side schemes appear the likely hood of winning becomes more difficult.

10. Solo he can win Standard against any villain. Expert takes a bit of luck but is still a lot of fun. In a team of three or more I think he will work very well. In a two player team the other hero has to be able to thwart well (so Justice or Leadership) and best either Captains America or Marvel, Black Panther or Black Widow . Dr Strange is an interesting team up but as he can't thwart if he casts his spells most of the time it will be more challenging (but a nice team up between the founding members of the original Defenders - bring on Namor and Silver Surfer!). Spiderman, She-Hulk and Ms Marvel aren't as good thwarters although with Justice that can be mitigated enough to allow Hulk to do his job. Iron Man is a real interesting question. If he builds his armour quickly then no problems. If Iron Man doesn't come in for four turns the game could be over. Iron Man will likely have to look to come in on turn 2 regardless of how much armour he has to thwart.

11. Overall this plays like Hulk should, able to do massive amounts of damage with thwarting only coming and the cost of expending most of your hand.

I'm wondering if you could afford doing a "build up turn", staying in Alter-ego turn one and flipping turn 2? Remove the accumulated threat with a Suborbital or an Aggression "You'll pay for that"? Just don't know. I only got one game in yesterday, a 3 player expert Wrecking Crew, and spent most of the game stunned because my Night Nurse got discarded, never to be seen again.

Mine arrived today! Not played him yet though.

Just finished my second game with Hulk. I took a chance during the first game and stayed in alter-ego mode, for the first two rounds, to try and build, and that paid off. Managed to get Sentry and She-Hulk out as allies and they were able to thwart while Hulk did some serious damage. Despite winning it was pretty close. Second game I tried the same tactic but ran into an Advance and that was that. Lots of fun, was able to do around 18 damage, with both allies, in one round, but I think I'll try and tweak the deck later to try and have more options to remove threat.

I'd like to clarify that I was playing Hulk exclusively Aggression, which solo is not one of the best aspects to play. The fact that I was able to beat Standard Rhino and Klaw playing Aggression is pretty good in my view. It took 8 games for me to beat Rhino with Thor (Solo). Like Thor Hulk is more a team player. He can do the damage for two heroes sometimes . I'm playing him in combo with Black Widow Justice and its going very nicely. Natasha thwarts with a little minion control while Hulk can focus on hammering. Its a nice team up. I can also see a Protection hero working with med teams keeping Hulk in combat longer by healing him - Dr Strange and Captain america come to mind but also Ms Marvel. Oh for a quick game Hulk and Captain Marvel (Justice or Leadership) is hilarious. I can imagine the villain just looking at these two and just giving up. The amount of damage these two can bring in a turn is amazing.

Hulk has a lot of damage potential but his main weaknesses are hand size and thwarting.

The best way to help his hand size is through resource generators, either from yourself or a Mansion/Helicarrier from a teammate. These allow him to curve out evenly and play out his hand efficiently.

And so long as you partner with a Justice deck or a thwart heavy Leadership, you should have threat covered.

If you do those things, then he will do work and he is pretty fun to play also.

Just a quick question regarding discarding your hand at the end of your turn. Do you discard and then draw your 4 handsize or do you draw up to your 4 handsize and then discard it?

5 minutes ago, urloony said:

Just a quick question regarding discarding your hand at the end of your turn. Do you discard and then draw your 4 handsize or do you draw up to your 4 handsize and then discard it?

You don’t draw at the end of your turn, you draw at the end of the hero phase. So at the end of Hulk’s turn, any cards left in hand are discarded, and then when the hero phase is over (all players have taken their turns), you draw up to your hand size. Otherwise, Hulk would never have cards in his hand which wouldn’t be very fun.

1 minute ago, pkreynolds said:

Otherwise, Hulk would never have cards in his hand which wouldn’t be very fun.

Thanks. Playing mostly solo, I don't pay attention to the different player phases as much as I should.

On 8/6/2020 at 11:31 AM, HirumaShigure said:

My first impression of Hulk was: On my first turn, I dealt 17 damage to Rhino and stunned him.

That was an awesome draw though. 18 health feels like a lot which tempts me to take hits on the chin more often but I think not defending with him is a trap. Once your health gets in the single digits, it feels a lot harder to get your recovery going cause you can't risk the threat going up for being in Alter-ego that much.

I've been most successful with the Hulk Aggression build. I took Toe to Toe out of his pre-built and ran Skilled Strike instead. Hulk needs attack actions in his deck if for no other reason than to bump stun so you can get back to working toward the win condition. I feel like Hulk is a "full speed ahead" hero where you want to KO the villain as soon as possible.

He feels so much better when you have some cheaper allies to thwart for him. I think building into the all physical resource type is a "trap" which made me not put time tested good cards in the deck just because they weren't physical.

The most fun I've had so far has been Hulk Leadership. I've played 3 games focusing on using Quinjet to bring in my Avenger allies, but only won once. I've been "defending for my allies" not using them to defend so they can do their jobs. Strength in Numbers and Get Ready (both physical resources btw) can then make Hulk have huge turns once you get allies out.

He feels like he has some of the same problems I initially had with Thor, but more satisfying cause he can consistently put out greater damage than Thor IMO.

Very similar experience, I just cracked the pack open and did a test game on Standard, turn one 18 damage dealt (4 more than needed) from a combination of Hulk Smash and Toe to Toe. The remaining stage took...maybe 3 turns and a heal. I like his allies, they're all very good at THW to keep the main scheme in check.

Here's the two decks I've been messing around with in solo. I'm much more excited to play him in multiplayer as I feel with the current card pool you have to compromise on deck intention to ensure adequate thwarting.

https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/2462/the-immortal-hulk-solo-protection-1.0

https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/2622/to-****-and-back-solo-aggression-1.0