Hulk Home Rules

Hulk Home Rules

Oh boy.  I had been avoiding Hulk.  His cards annoy me so much.  He does have some fantastic aspect cards in his pack --Beat Cop, Martial Prowess, Electrostatic Armor, and Inspiring Presence.  Those will definitely help some of my (economy) decks.  But...

Inner Rage + The Green Door:

These are just some custom card ideas that another contributor thought of.  I printed them, but so far I don't have any plans to use them.  I'm just including them in case these home rules don't quite do the trick.  ==>  And they might not.  Like who needs a villain?   I'm still battling Hulk's cards.  Inner rage might be a good replacement for Martial Prowess.  I might just edit Inner Rage to say "Martial Prowess can be used for any Hulk card."

Hulk Sucks!

Okay, some heroes aren't the greatest, but they're fun.  Hulk is fun, right?  Ugh!  Hulk is 90% frustrating to play.  He is maybe more annoying than Adam Warlock, and his cards feel worse than Ms Marvel's.  This home rule affects 11 cards.  That's how bad he is.  Some of the cards are viable, but as Boomguy says, they feel terrible.

Let's just think about how backward Hulk's deck is: it comes with Martial Prowess.  What a great aspect card for Hulk!  It generates a Strength resource for an attack event.  That's perfect!  Almost all his cards have a strength resource requirement.  Wait...  ...Hulk only has 2 attack events in his kit --that's right, he comes with a resource generator that he can BARELY use.  Oh no, it gets better; he gets another resource generator --Banner's Lab, which you can only use on Alter Ego, and it generates a mind resource, which is needed by NONE of Hulk's cards.  Wha?  Who designed this?  It's an absolute train wreck of deck.  

I'm very tempted to play him in Protection for the cheaper cards and the tanky / retaliate theme.  I could swap him with Quicksilver or Spectrum, but I'm trying him in aggression first.

Hulk + Bruce Banner

Right off the bat, both Hulk and Bruce Banner are completely handicapped.  You know those cards which eliminate the text box of a minion?  We need a card which eliminates the text box of a Hero --just for Hulk.  I get that Enraged is thematic, but it's also completely broken with a 4-card hand size.  Bruce has the Genius and Scientist traits, but only a 5-card hand size?  Even more telling, on VillainTheory's "Worst Card" series, they joked that Hulk's worst card is Hulk.  This was only a joke, because they weren't counting Hero Identities, but Hulk is the only hero where they said that.  On a podcast, the Hulk creator admitted that Bruce should have had a 6-card hand size.  That has been done here, plus I increased the card draw, and changed the discard requirements to make flipping to Alter Ego a much better option.  

I liked the thematics of Hulk's hero "handicap" from Enraged.  It's like you can't plan with Hulk; Hulk just sort of happens.  So I only added a minor extra ability, Wreckless.  This will make Hulk do (minor) damage if he has left over cards.  It's not fantastic, but it feels a LOT better when you have a triple strength card, and you can still only play one card, because both remaining cards cost more than one.  Ordinarily, the triple strength would be completely useless in that scenario (which is super-frustrating), but now it at least adds two damage from discarding both extra cards.  I thought it would be thematic for Hulk to ditch plans for damage, plus thematic for the player being frustrated by Hulk's Enraged handicap, and also enjoying a little extra damage.

Bruce really needed an upgrade.  Along with the creator's comments about hand size, I wanted him to rival Tony Stark, in how Iron Man can end up with a 7-card hand size.  Hulk flipping down isn't what he normally wants to do, although it could be exploited in Leadership with more cards you can play in Alter Ego.  But I think he's a little like Iron Man, in that he wants to flip a lot in the early game, then just do what Hulk does best.  So I added an extra card draw, and gave an option for where to discard.  This feels a lot more sciency and strategic for Bruce.  He basically ends up with a 7-card hand size, and can set up one good card for the next (4-card) hand or he can dump a bad card into the discard pile.

Crushing Blow

This is not a terrible card.  Hulk is very weak against stuns and toughness.  He needed a little kick, and this card was basically a cheaper Quickstrike except it has the ubiquitous Strength resource requirement.  Inspired by some of the BGG home rules for Hulk, I decided to add a piercing kicker for an extra resource.  Usually, you won't need it, but it's nice when you do.

Sub-Orbital Leap

I really hate this card.  I mean it's better than She Hulk's Legal Practice on a point-for-point efficiency, but you have to think about how every 3-cost card in Hulk's deck is his entire turn.  So in that sense, it's worse than She Hulk's card, because it has a resource requirement, and you can only play it on hero side.  This custom card was also inspired by a BGG contributor --similar to Black Widow's Dance of Death.  It feels more thematic with several leaps plus a kicker for confuse.  I much prefer the idea of getting something extra for the resource requirement rather than making it feel terrible if you can't fulfill the resource requirement.  Is this OP?  For the same price, it's a little better than Crisis Averted, because of the confuse.

Thunderclap

Thematically, this feels like it really needs a stun.  I thought of different ways to add it, but in the end I just went for the similar Strength requirement to add a kicker for the stun.  I really want it to stun like three minions, but that might be OP.  I might change this to be: 3 damage to all enemies engaged with 1 player, and stun an enemy for each fist icon used to pay for this event.  If it's OP, I could lower the damage, or just make it stun minions.

Unstoppable Force

This needed to be one cost cheaper or it needed to draw two cards.  I went with drawing two cards to be more unpredictable.  I mean Captain America can ready for one resource all game long.  This was overpriced -again, especially considering Hulk's low hand size.  It's just one more example of how Hulk's cards have a terrible feel.  They feel like they're working against you, like who needs a villain?   I'm still battling with Hulk's cards. 

Boundless Rage

Because this can get discarded, I really liked the idea of adding a toughness to it.  That way, it stays around one round longer, and it's worth it to play again on the next shuffle.  Note that Hulk's obligation gets rid of this as well.

Banner's Laboratory (no house rule)

I'm really iffy on this one.  I didn't make a custom card for this.  It's useful for allies, supports, and upgrades, if you flip to Alter Ego, which Hulk never wants to do.  The main reason I didn't change it is because I gave his Bruce Banner side a better hand size and a much better power, so that makes it much more tempting to flip down.  In that case, I think Banner's Lab is okay.  If I ever go back to original rules Bruce Banner, then I'd probably change the Lab to have some sort of different effect on hero side...