We Have A Hulk - Early Thoughts on the Hulk Deck for Marvel Champions

I wanted this post to be my initial look at the new Thor Hero deck for Marvel Champions that released last week. However, I haven’t had the chance to get it to the table just yet. Luckily for me, Fantasy Flight Games had a stream where they teased the upcoming Hulk Hero pack that should be coming out in the June time frame. Just like I did for Black Widow and Doctor Strange, let’s take a look at the cards that were teased from the FFG stream and announcement post.

Images taken from the FFG stream and announcement post.

The Bulk that is Hulk

Let’s start with the Bruce Banner/Hulk hero identity. If you look at just the Bruce Banner side, it would seem fairly typical and in line with a lot of the other alter egos that we have seen for this game. Bruce’s ability to draw a card and then choose and discard a card is a bit more limited than other alter egos like Tony Stark, but at least Bruce has a higher health recovery than a lot of heroes. Speaking of health, the first sign that Bruce/Hulk is a very different hero is when you look at his Hit Points - 18!! That’s double the amount of health that Tony Stark has when you start the game. Of course, this is the Hulk we are talking about here, so it makes sense that he is so tough.

Speaking of Hulk, when you flip to his hero side, none of these stats are really that surprising. He has 0 thwarting ability, while packing a 3 on attack and a 3 on defense. That means with upgrades from Protection or Aggression, he could be at 4 attack and/or 4 defense on a regular basis. That is some serious muscle to be adding to the game. Even though the pre-made deck is based around an Aggression aspect, I could easily see people building a Protection Hulk deck. Lastly, we have Hulk’s ability, which is that he discards his hand whenever his turn ends. This is terrible in a gameplay sense, but absolutely perfect when it comes to the theme, which this game excels at. There is no “planning” with Hulk. You deal with what’s right in front of you, then you move on to the next moving target. Hulk is just a giant force of nature that your teammates can aim at targets and let loose on them.

The Strongest There Is

The FFG Stream mentioned that 14 out of Hulk’s 15 character cards have physical resources on them. This seems like another “duh” moment, as that is what the character is all about, but this is reflected on the ability text of Hulk’s cards as well. Like the most predictable card in his deck: Hulk Smash. I’m pretty sure just about every Marvel/Hulk fan could have predicted that there would be a “Hulk Smash” card in his deck, and wow does it pack a punch. It gives you +10 attack on a basic attack, and gets overkill if you paid for the card with only physical resources. In any other deck, this might be hard to pull off, but not for Hulk, especially with cards like Limitless Strength. You might only be able to play this card in hero mode, but it gives you 3 physical resources to play with.

To round out the teased Hulk character cards, we have the aptly named Unstoppable Force & Immovable Object cards. Unstoppable Force lets you ready Hulk for more smashing, giving you the benefit of an extra card if you used a physical resource. Immovable Object is an upgrade that turns Hulk into even more of a power house with 4 extra hit points (gives him a max of 22 HP), plus a retaliate to damage enemies back with. As I’m sitting here typing this, I’m just thinking of the various scenes in the Hulk movies where you just see Hulk running at the villain with punches at the ready.

I’ve Already Paid For That

On the stream, we were only shown one of the aggression aspect cards in Hulk’s deck: You’ll pay for that. This event is one of the only ways that Hulk will be able to help deal with threat right out of the box. When you play this card, you will have taken a bunch of damage but the card allows you to take one threat off a scheme for each damage that was dealt (up to 5). Again, I’m getting movie flashbacks of the Hulk vs. Hulkbuster Iron Man battle from Age of Ultron when Hulk spits out a tooth and snarls at Tony and Tony goes “I’m sorry!” (immediately leaves to go rewatch that fight). 

Ok, I’m back. The other aspect card shown made me giggle a bit: the Beat Cop. The reason I giggled is that “Beat Cop” is a card in the Arkham Horror LCG that has become a joke for our group. Typically when we are playing Arkham, the Beat Cop gets sacrificed quickly when things start to spiral out of control, so it was funny seeing him pop up in Marvel Champions. This version is no joke, however, allowing you to pile up a bunch of threat onto him and then deal it out all at once on a minion. Reminds me a lot of a tamer version of Energy Channel.

The Opposite Side of the Gamma Bomb

Now that we’ve seen what Hulk’s deck is all about, looking at his nemesis will make complete sense. That nemesis is Abomination, which to be honest was a big surprise for me. Mainly because when I saw the artwork for Abomination, I got confused with A-Bomb, who has been an ally for Hulk in more recent comics. In my head, I was thinking that Hulk’s nemesis would be Thunderbolt Ross or The Leader, but at the same time I’m kinda glad that they didn’t use Ross because it means I hold out hope for a Red Hulk deck, which would be AWESOME. 

Getting back to Abomination, who is pretty much just as powerful as Hulk but straight up evil. This means that while others may have come to mind, he makes perfect sense as Hulk’s nemesis, especially when you see his abilities. While Bruce/Hulk is trying to get cards and use the cards they have on hand, Abomination is there getting rid of cards before you can use them. Since most of Hulk’s character cards are physical damage, Abomination’s extra ability to deal an extra 2 damage is going to trigger a lot for Hulk.

Going along with creating problems for Hulk is his obligation card: Inner Demons. Unlike other obligations, this one REQUIRES you to change form instead of giving you the option. Also, there is no way to remove the card from the game, it can only be discarded back into the encounter deck. The “good news” is that if you are already exhausted from a defense, then this card won’t have much effect on you. The bad news is that changing between forms randomly can be disastrous at the wrong time (i.e. when you desperately need to heal or really need to smash some baddies). Just like some of Hulk’s other abilities, I love that FFG has gone all in on the theme for this deck. One of the core themes among Hulk’s comic book and movie appearances is his lack of control of his transformations, and this brings that aspect to life.

It Aint Easy Being Green

This deck looks AWESOME. Every time I see one of these decks, it impresses me how much they combine theme with the game mechanics and use those to create a unique experience. Every deck has its own playstyle, and Hulk continues this trend. This deck looks powerful, but it’s got some major downsides that could bite you if you aren’t ready for them. For instance, this would be a hard deck to play in a solo scenario, unless you just worry about hitting the enemy hard and fast before they get a chance to build up threat. Even in a two player game, this could be a problem, unless the other deck is built around keeping threat off of schemes.

We’ll see for sure when the deck releases in June. What do you think? Anyone else with me in that while the comic wasn’t the greatest, a World War Hulk*s* (not the singular World War Hulk story) campaign box with a lot of other gamma heroes and villains would be super fun to play? Let me know in the comments below, or follow me on Twitter and Facebook and let me know of your thoughts there! Next month I’ll actually have the opportunity to compare a deck with my initial thoughts of it, so stay tuned!