Playing Poker with Puny Banner

Bruce Banner has finally managed to control his anger through 'meditation,' BUT 'one way or another' Hulk is going to come out.

The thing about Hulk is that he just doesn't have enough card draw to be any fun. So why not sit back in alter-ego for a minute, set up an engine, and then set up big turns where we swing for 20-plus damage. Play tested against the three core box villains on expert, so here's hoping it can get the job done for you.

Early game: Mulligan and use Banner's ability to get your yellow cards; ditch your Hulk cards for now. You'll want to use Meditation to play your Beat Cops and Quincarrier and use your double resource cards to play Surveillance Team, Counter Intelligence, and, critically, Under Surveillance. This, along with your allies will keep the thwart down for the rest of the game. You'll have a lot since you'll be sitting in Alter-Ego, so this is critical. Bruce's Laboratory is also great, but only if you can play it early.

The goal is to be reliably clearing 3-5 threat a turn, so you can turn your focus to Hulking. Save your Beat Cops, as long as you can, but don't be afraid to cash one in to knock out a nasty minion (Abomination is always a good target if he enters play).

Mid-game: You can afford to flip up any time (in fact, the first turn often makes sense if you don't get a CounterIntelligence down), especially to avoid a scheme that might sink you, but instead of always attacking in hero form, consider using One Way or Another and (especially) Limitless Strength to get your engine cards on the table.

Flipping up after playing Nick Fury is best case scenario, but you don't need him; you can take the damage. You'll have plenty of opportunities to recover in AE, so don't use your allies to block if you can spare them. You need their ping damage and thwarting, especially with the extra side schemes from One Way or Another, so better to kill them with consequential damage until your are ready to Hulk out.

Late Game: Use Bruce's ability to set up your hand for big Hulk turns. You want to flip up with One Way or Another and a bunch of Hulk Cards in hand. A perfect turn will set you up with 8 cards in hand (you'll need to trigger Skilled Investigator) and two resource generators (Quincarrier and Deft Focus). Since your deck is thinned, you should be seeing solid turns like this each time you flip up, with Hulk Smash and Limitless Strength both appearing frequently. It won't always work, but when you end up with dead cards, you have Machine Man, Blade, and Lockjaw to soak up the unused resources.

You'll generally want to flip each turn for the rest of the game, because alter-ego sets up for the best turns. But you can also rush the Villain in Hero form at this point too, and you should have the Thwart potential to back it up.

Props due: This deck obviously owes it's basic concept to Playing Poker by IlEmperatore and there's a bit of parallel thinking going on here with D20 woodworking's new Hulk deck, so check those out as well.

Let me know if you have any edits. I do think some of the new shield cards in Sinister Motives will make this approach even better, so I'll probably revisit once it's out.