Hulk solo

By vmoss, in Marvel Champions: The Card Game

I find it challenging so far (1 win, 2 loss). To learn I am thinking starting with a first turn with no villian phase. Your thoughts?

Thank you.

Edited by vmoss
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Do you have a link to your deck? I'll be playing my first game tomorrow, and will likely go with a standard justice deck.

Sorry no link. I generally just make up a new deck for each game. I rotate my heroes and aspects a lot. For example I have been lucky enough to beat each core villain and wc 2x each with all aspects for both captains (a and m).

Thank you.

I think, if you want to play Hulk in Aggression, do yourself a favour and play 2-handed. I’ve found he’s pretty good in this format with only a few deck tweaks from his standard. I’ve won on Expert vs Rhino and Klaw with Captain Marvel so far (as opposed to 5 straight losses with the prebuilt in true solo vs Expert Rhino, including 1 where Rhino was on 1 health and I had the retaliate upgrade and all I needed was to defend and for him not to flip a 3 boost...)

If you really want to play him solo, the Hall of Heroes guy has a really interesting Leadership deck linked on the Hulk section that I want to try. It looks like it could really handle things well.

Since the pack released, I've seen a lot of posts asking for help with Hulk Aggression Solo, and most of the responses are 'try him double handed' or 'try him with another aspect' which is frustrating!

I'm 0-6 with Hulk Aggression Solo so far. I think that's down to a few factors:

  • I was playing against Rhino Expert - which might be a tough start with a new hero and deck. Rhino Expert is probably the worst scenario for poor Thwarting characters due to one scheme, low threshold and Advance
  • I was using the deck as it comes. It's probably one of the worst pre-cons - it's full of lots of good aggression cards, but lots of them are bad for Hulk and too expensive
  • Hulk is unlike most heroes and after 150+ solo games it's hard to pivot to a completely new playstyle. Normally in solo, regardless of your hero & aspect combo, you're largely trying to set up whilst not losing, stabilise as soon as you can and then go after the villain's HP as the lowest priority.
  • Hulk flips that on it's head - it seems like you want to get going with damage immediately and shouldn't really spend any time, resources or card slots on 'set up' cards.

I saw this Hulk Aggression Solo build - https://marvelcdb.com/deck/view/41224 and it looks like quite a unique and fresh take on it. I'm going to give it a spin.

3 hours ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

Since the pack released, I've seen a lot of posts asking for help with Hulk Aggression Solo, and most of the responses are 'try him double handed' or 'try him with another aspect' which is frustrating!

I'm 0-6 with Hulk Aggression Solo so far. I think that's down to a few factors:

  • I was playing against Rhino Expert - which might be a tough start with a new hero and deck. Rhino Expert is probably the worst scenario for poor Thwarting characters due to one scheme, low threshold and Advance
  • I was using the deck as it comes. It's probably one of the worst pre-cons - it's full of lots of good aggression cards, but lots of them are bad for Hulk and too expensive
  • Hulk is unlike most heroes and after 150+ solo games it's hard to pivot to a completely new playstyle. Normally in solo, regardless of your hero & aspect combo, you're largely trying to set up whilst not losing, stabilise as soon as you can and then go after the villain's HP as the lowest priority.
  • Hulk flips that on it's head - it seems like you want to get going with damage immediately and shouldn't really spend any time, resources or card slots on 'set up' cards.

I saw this Hulk Aggression Solo build - https://marvelcdb.com/deck/view/41224 and it looks like quite a unique and fresh take on it. I'm going to give it a spin.

My experience completely mirrors yours haha

I must be playing him wrong, on standard with his default deck I blasted through the three core villains and risky business and was literally one boost icon less away from winning mutagen lol.

I haven't had success with him so far as a solo aggression. I've consistently pulled Shadow of the Past in the first 3 rounds, and every card from his nemesis to his obligation are 3 boost icons. I also insisted on playing with Scorpion (Stun is brutal is solo with insufficient allies), then Electro, then Ronin.

I'll try him against Rhino with less hostile modular sets.

That said I almost exclusively solo 2-handed, so I won't try too many more times with a lone Hulk aggression deck.

Just tried Hulk playing solo vs Rhino (I&II) with bomb scare - keeping it nice and easy.

I'm at 0-4. Not even close to a win.

The lone solo win I got with Hulk I was able to get Enhanced Physique & Martial Prowess out early. Stayed in Hero form the whole time and was able to play more than 1 card a turn in a race.

3 hours ago, Janaka said:

Just tried Hulk playing solo vs Rhino (I&II) with bomb scare - keeping it nice and easy.

I'm at 0-4. Not even close to a win.

Did you try just punching face until Rhino doesn’t have one?

8 hours ago, Janaka said:

Just tried Hulk playing solo vs Rhino (I&II) with bomb scare - keeping it nice and easy.

I'm at 0-4. Not even close to a win.

Is that with the pre con? If so, trying making a new deck from scratch. The pre con is pretty bad for Aggression Solo. There’s good cards in there for the Aspect, but most of them are a bad fit for Hulk or too expensive for him.

I went 0-6 initially with Hulk with my only wins coming since I abandoned the pre-con.

Also try someone other than Rhino. A threat threshold of only 7 plus Advance makes that a really swingy luckfest. Klaw gives you twice as many rounds to play with!

Hey guys,

I've built two lists for solo expert play. They are linked below.

This list has defeated everything but Ultron on expert with recommended modular sets. https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/2462/the-immortal-hulk-solo-protection-1.0

This list has defeated everything except for Klaw on expert. One change to the list is -1 combat training, +1 hall of heroes. https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/2622/to-****-and-back-solo-aggression-1.0

I'm always looking for feedback or suggested tweaks but if you are wanting something different to play this weekend aside from the excellent leadership list ( https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/2432/hulk-leadership-smashes-heroic-1.0 ) on the db give these a go.

5 hours ago, Derrault said:

Did you try just punching face until Rhino doesn’t have one?

Yeah. Took out Rhino I in a single hit with 17 damage in one game. Hit him for 14 damage in a single turn in another.

The problems so far are that Rhino is no slouch himself when it comes to dishing out the damage. I need to stay in hero mode as I cannot allow Rhino to scheme and so soon enough I need to start defending. Without flipping you can't recover. Once you start defending Hulk no longer gets a basic attack as he's always exhausted at the beginning of his turn. It's a downward spiral from this point.

Also, in three of the four games I played I pulled the card that stuns your hero if Rhino does damage. Bad luck I know.

Going to try him in a three player today. My boys have already started arguing over who gets to be Hulk and shout Hulk Smash!!! 🙂

33 minutes ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

Is that with the pre con? If so, trying making a new deck from scratch. The pre con is pretty bad for Aggression Solo. There’s good cards in there for the Aspect, but most of them are a bad fit for Hulk or too expensive for him.

I added three low cost resource generators (Resourceful x2 and Enhanced Physique x1) as Hulk discards his hand I thought these might be useful to get in play. Also added Skilled Strike x1, as its zero cost for more damage. Apart from that its the pre-con. I'm not a deck-builder and like to play decks straight out of the blisters. I don't even change aspects. Deck-building is not that appealing to me. You should see how many Arkham Horror lcg games I failed to start because it took me so long to construct a player deck and that I ran out of time to actually get a game started!

Pre-con hero decks are my saviour.

30 minutes ago, Janaka said:

I added three low cost resource generators (Resourceful x2 and Enhanced Physique x1) as Hulk discards his hand I thought these might be useful to get in play. Also added Skilled Strike x1, as its zero cost for more damage. Apart from that its the pre-con. I'm not a deck-builder and like to play decks straight out of the blisters. I don't even change aspects. Deck-building is not that appealing to me. You should see how many Arkham Horror lcg games I failed to start because it took me so long to construct a player deck and that I ran out of time to actually get a game started!

Pre-con hero decks are my saviour.

You may well struggle then. As I say the Hulk precon isn’t great for Hulk himself and is even worse if you’re playing solo.

Sentry and She-Hulk are too expensive. 3 Drop Kicks are excessive. Toe to Toe isn’t a great fit in solo, because as you say you stay in Hero mode for almost all the game and you don’t want to accelerate the villain against you and Hulk isn’t wanting for damage. You don’t want 3 Martial Prowess and Hulk doesn’t actually have that many Attack events anyhow.

If you don’t like deckbuilding you can avoid it whilst still seeing a lot of the benefits by copying decks from marvelcdb

39 minutes ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

You may well struggle then. As I say the Hulk precon isn’t great for Hulk himself and is even worse if you’re playing solo.

Sentry and She-Hulk are too expensive. 3 Drop Kicks are excessive. Toe to Toe isn’t a great fit in solo, because as you say you stay in Hero mode for almost all the game and you don’t want to accelerate the villain against you and Hulk isn’t wanting for damage. You don’t want 3 Martial Prowess and Hulk doesn’t actually have that many Attack events anyhow.

If you don’t like deckbuilding you can avoid it whilst still seeing a lot of the benefits by copying decks from marvelcdb

Isn’t it “frustrating” when people say they want to play with the pre Con decks, but all the advice is that they’ll have a better time if they deck build?

😂 😜

39 minutes ago, FearLord said:

Isn’t it “frustrating” when people say they want to play with the pre Con decks, but all the advice is that they’ll have a better time if they deck build?

😂 😜

Haha. Sure - a little bit of a false equivalency though.

4 hours ago, Janaka said:

Yeah. Took out Rhino I in a single hit with 17 damage in one game. Hit him for 14 damage in a single turn in another.

The problems so far are that Rhino is no slouch himself when it comes to dishing out the damage. I need to stay in hero mode as I cannot allow Rhino to scheme and so soon enough I need to start defending. Without flipping you can't recover. Once you start defending Hulk no longer gets a basic attack as he's always exhausted at the beginning of his turn. It's a downward spiral from this point.

Also, in three of the four games I played I pulled the card that stuns your hero if Rhino does damage. Bad luck I know.

Going to try him in a three player today. My boys have already started arguing over who gets to be Hulk and shout Hulk Smash!!! 🙂

Ah, yeah, I like to prioritize Drop Kicks to keep Rhino in check; if you do that you’re looking at 7 damage per turn, no response from Rhino.

I have yet to solo Hulk to a win.

Two-hand solo, I have a comfortable win streak with him. My favorite wins have been with Thor against Ultron, with Ms. Marvel against the Wrecking Crew, and with Dr. Strange against the Wrecking Crew. The first win against the Crew was over too fast for Hulk to go through his deck. With Strange, I went in reverse order of kills (Wrecker > Thunderball > Bulldozer > Piledriver) as I always target the reverse. They had 3 acceleration tokens and removed my best upgrade/supports on the regular (in addition to making my fly through my deck via milling). Protection Hulk never left hero mode and Leadership Strange only changed to offset Confusion tokens he placed on the villains. I think I had 11 threat on the main scheme a one point. Really enjoyed it. (Now I have to try start Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.)

I'm not sure true solo Hulk is viable for a greater than 50:50 with the card pool. Maybe a tailored Justice Hulk, but I'm not holding my breath. He's just too hard to get set up with a hand size of 4 and being unwilling to revert to Banner for scheming. Sub-Orbital Leap is amazing when you pull it off, but there are only 2 in his deck and it takes 10 rounds (baseline) to go through your 40 card deck, playing only 1 or 2 cards each turn. Fantastic in high player counts though.

It's a shame Hulk had to follow Doctor Strange. Going from consistently drawing 5 to 9 (sometimes even 12) cards per turn to Hulk's 4 cards and only playing one or two of them from hand just feels like you're moving like pond water. I haven't cracked his code yet, but I never gave up on Thor so I won't give up on Hulk either.

It took me several tries but I beat Rhino Expert with the pre-con deck. I drew Abom (Shadows of the Past) on the second turn of each of the first 3 games either naturally or off way too many surges.

I couldnt beat Klaw Expert until I modified the aggro deck... cut 11 cards (including She-Hulk, Sentry, Av Mansion, 1x Martial Prowess to prevent resource flood) and added...

3x Chase Them Down, Jarnbjorn, Valkryie, Counterattack x1, Combat Training X1, Mockingbird, 1x Hall of Heroes, and Relentless Assault x2 (I should have put Tigra in as well but left her out for some strange reason, perhaps hiding somewhere in the Thor deck.) I would cut the Hall of Heroes for Tigra.

When I did beat Klaw I somehow survived the last 3 turns with 1 health and 7 threat.

Ill try to tackle Ultron tonight (after Hockey), but I expect infinite losses.

Edited by IceHot42

You are better at this game then me. :)

Yeah, the minion swarm is a killer. Ultron is such a mean guy. Give me Mutagen Formula any day over him.

1 hour ago, Ywingscum said:

You are better at this game then me. :)

Luckier perhaps (or maybe playing until my luck pans out). The luck that worked for me...

Against Rhino (expert): I hard mulliganed for a double or triple resource and hopefully 1x resource accelerant, although the hand that started it was a double thwart and Brawn which removed the Breakin and Takin. I got the accelarant out on turn 2 and went full smash after that. Then basically Rhino drew his weaker matchup cards in the late stages of the game (Toughness against Brawn, Confuse, Horn, Charge when stunned, late bomb scare side-schemes and ignorable mercs)

Against Klaw (expert): Klaw opened with a flop of both Advances and then a guard. Brawn and Chase them down picked off the Immortal Klaw. Followed by a lot of smashing and stabilizing. The end game was some combination of...Sub-orbital, attack flip to heal next turn (get lucky on the scheme then get exhausted by the encounter card). Thwart with Valkyrie (so I dont lose) and block with her (get exhausted by encounter card and lose upgrade on surge). Sub-orbital again, flip to heal next turn (get lucky on scheme but then get flipped by Obligation card) , Brawn to not lose and block with Brawn (draw a minion to ignore). Play big damage and win.

The key strategy for me is to keep playing until the encounter deck breaks my way. 😃