Hulkbuster Armour Mark II

Mark II Design Notes: I'm really enjoying playing this deck and it's battle proven now, having taken down villains like Expert Red Skull (alongside Spider-Woman) and Expert Ultron (alongside Black Panther). I've made a few modifications from the original list I published so in the spirit of Tony Stark I just decided to make an official 'Mark II' version now that I think I've settled on the improved version. It's 41 cards and that makes me feel a little bit sick, but in trying to weigh up which of Martial Prowess or Endurance to cut I ultimately came to the conclusion that the deck is better with both in. Also I'm not allowed to cut War Machine, which is the card I'd really like to cut to get down to 40.

The rest is what I said about the Mark I version of the Hulkbuster, which all still applies...

Confession time - Iron Man was one of my least-favourite heroes. He's one of the first I tried when I first got into the game and the whole need to hang around in Alter-Ego for a while just turned me off him. I returned once I learned about the Protection version with Electrostatic Armour and Energy Barrier as extra Tech to help him build his Hero hand size faster, but then I learned that I also don't like a really defensive and patient Protection deck. So Iron Man Protection was my least favourite style of deck played by my least favourite hero!

I like this deck, though. Hand Cannon has given Iron Man a new suite of supporting Tech cards and so I can replace the slow Protection deck with a more proactive and aggressive deck instead to take the fight to the villain... much more my style!

• STEP ONE: Mulligan HARD for your tech. You have 6 cards, your mulligan for up to 6 more cards, you're almost certain to stay in AE on turn 1 so then you see another 6 cards, plus two shots of Tony Stark's Futurist ability. That's as many as 24 cards in your deck that you'll see over two turns so you have a >85% chance to see & play 4 Tech cards so you can jump into Hero form on turn 2 with a good normal hand size.

• STEP TWO: Stabilise the board and improve your armour. Because you were in AE on turn 1 the chances are you need to play catchup, especially on threat. Into The Fray and Looking For Trouble can help with that and you've lots of cheap attacks to remove opposing minions. You also want to keep expanding your armour whenever possible on the first pass through your deck so you can build to the max 7 card hand size. Don't be too precious about your minions, they're just meat shields for you to keep you upright and firing Repulsor Blasts.

• STEP THREE: Bust some Hulks. On your second pass through the deck you should have your armour set up and a big hand size. With your upgrades out in play you're going to be drawing a lot of firepower every turn and it's time to take the fight to the villain. The combination of Angela/Looking For Trouble with Relentless Assault/Into The Fray and then Moment of Triumph as a kicker on top should be able to keep you healthy. Your Hand Cannons and Powered Gauntlets make it easy to set minions up for some big overkill hits and recovering a lot of health from Moment of Triumph.

• STEP FOUR: I dunno. I saw a good Shwarma joint a couple of blocks from here...