This week it’s time to take a look at She-Hulk, probably the hardest-hitting hero in the core box! I’ll be honest, when I saw the lineup of heroes in there I was disappointed that they went with She-Hulk over Hulk (as he’s one of my favourite characters), but with a motto like ‘Hulk Smash’ he doesn’t leave much room for nuanced play. Toning the rage-meter down a little bit and going with She-Hulk seems like a reasonable decision, and it’s not like I’ve got to wait too long (about six weeks) until Hulk is getting his own hero pack…in the meantime, how does his cousin fare?
Hand Size 6 is normal for Alter Ego, but 5 Recover and 15 Hit Points are both the highest in the game (until Hulk is released, as he has 18 Hit Points…sorry, I’ll stop talking about Hulk, I promise!).
Her “I Object!” ability helps mitigate the downside of going to Alter Ego form, something you’ll likely be doing a lot of with She-Hulk based on her Hero ability and Hand Size (more on that below).
Overall, her Alter Ego form is pretty solid, especially having Hand Size 6 unlike the other sledgehammer characters who only have 5 (Thor and Hulk…damn, I mentioned Hulk again!).
One Thwart is terrible, three Attack is amazing and is the highest in the game so far (not going to say it…), and two Defence is standard. With three Attack she can take out annoying Guard enemies such as Hydra Mercenary and Goblin Thrall in one swing!
Her “Do You Even Lift?” does two damage to any enemy that you like. Since this doesn’t count as an attack, it will ignore Guard and also not trigger Retaliate.
Hand Size 4 is disappointing, but par for the course with heavyweight characters. Overall, I think her character card is quite good, even with the low Thwart stat.
Three-cost for 3 Hit Points and a 2/1 statline isn’t bad, particularly as She-Hulk will be glad to have the extra thwarting capability. Hellcat also has the Avenger trait, useful for cards like Avengers Assemble! and Quinjet.
Her ability to be returned to your hand means that you can replay her (effectively fully-healed) and thwart/attack with her again. It’s an expensive Get Ready, but if you really need that little bit of extra thwarting or damage then it at least gives you an option. You could also use her ability to give you another wild resource in hand, if you really needed it (to remove a Villain attachment, for instance). Decent ally overall.
There is one copy of this in her hero cards and it’s a character-defining event. It’s expensive, requires you to be on low health, and you’re probably only going to use it once per game, but it can deal up to FIFTEEN DAMAGE! That’s pretty much a whole stage of the Villain (in solo).
She-Hulk has 15 Hit Points, so to try and get the most out of this you’ll probably want to play a copy of Endurance in your deck. It’s also worth noting that unless you have cards in play that generate resources/reduce costs (e.g. Helicarrier or Quincarrier) or have a double-resource card in hand, you can’t actually play this card if you didn’t flip from Alter Ego form the same round due to Hand Size 4. Unlikely to be a hindrance, as this needs building towards and will probably be towards the end of the game, but worth remembering.
I really like this card and it’ll be fun making gameplay decisions with this card in mind.
There are two copies of this in her hero cards. In scenarios like Ultron (where there are lots of 1 Hit Point minions), or combined with other cards that dish out lots of damage in small doses (e.g. Hawkeye and Squirrel Girl), this will probably be good. In the majority of other circumstances, you’d probably rather have Haymaker for the same cost.
There might be a scenario where lots of enemies get a Tough status and you’ll be glad to have this, but at all other times you’ll probably discard this as a resource.
There are two copies of this in her hero cards and it’s definitely an interesting one! Discarding cards from hand is a fairly steep cost, but being able to remove threat in Alter Ego form is quite a rare ability (Black Widow’s Covert Ops being the most notable).
Even if you don’t remove the maximum five threat, taking a couple of points off the main scheme (or just enough off a side scheme to discard it) while you pop back to Alter Ego to heal might make the different between winning and losing. Combined with her “I Object!” ability, this will make going to Alter Ego less dangerous with regards to the schemes. Definitely not enough threat removal on its own (too much of a tempo loss dropping lots of cards), but better than nothing.
There are three copies of this in her hero cards and it’s a useful one. The simplest way to use it is to make another attack, which you might want to do if you have a lot of minions to deal with or want to push the Villain.
Another use would be to ready She-Hulk after taking out a minion so that you can flip to Alter Ego and Recover. This would stop the minion scheming while you regain health and cards.
If you have any way of boosting She-Hulk’s attack (such as Combat Training) you get even more value out of this event. Overall I like this event and it’s probably one that I’ll always be happy to have in hand.
There is one copy of this in her hero cards and it’s a very interesting one. It can be used in either form and changes you to the other one and refills your hand. Before you play it, you will want to use as many cards as possible (making sure that you still have enough resources to play it) in order to draw the most number of cards.
You are going to use this card so that you can change form twice in one round. Staying in Alter Ego form for more than one round is pretty risky (as the Villain and all minions will scheme again), so apart from the odd exception, you are likely to be using this while you are in Hero form.
You could use it to cycle the cards in your hand, recover (or not), then flip back (triggering her “Do You Even Lift?” ability) and carry on with a new hand of six cards. This is a great effect and makes this a card that you’ll rarely discard as a resource.
There is one copy of this support in her hero cards and it’s one that you’ll always be happy to see. It definitely helps her with her poor Thwart and it’s something that you’ll be using fairly often as you’ll likely be flipping back and forth nearly every round. The mental resource isn’t too hard to come by (Ground Stomp is a great discard target, but Quincarrier is probably the most reliable way). Great card!
There are two copies of this amongst her hero cards and you’ll want to get at least one of these into play as quickly as possible. Since She-Hulk has 15 Hit Points and 5 Recover, taking an extra point of damage here and there isn’t an issue (particularly if you’re working towards a Gamma Slam!). This card helps make up for She-Hulk’s 4 Hand Size and in my opinion is one of her key cards.
There are two copies of this in her hero cards. If you need to stun someone (probably the Villain) and deal a bit of extra damage, then this card is quite handy. I’m not a big fan of it though, as while cheaper than something like Mockingbird it’s a lot less flexible, particularly as it has a forced response, so it’s not like you can play it early and save it for later (like preparation cards). A decent card, but not high priority.
SUMMARY
- Her thwarting capabilities aren’t great (although not as bad as Spider-Man!), so you’ll need to squeeze every bit of threat removal possible out of her cards, meaning that allies will probably be used to thwart more than attack.
- Is able to defeat a whole stage of most Villains in one attack via Gamma Slam. This means that careful managing of your Hit Points will be needed.
- Due to having a great ability when she flips to Hero form and a low Hand Size in Hero form, She-Hulk will likely be flipping every round.
I think She-Hulk is an interesting character and is one that I haven’t used very much in the past, so will definitely be a challenge; one that I’m looking forward to. I hope that you have enjoyed this look at She-Hulk and her cards!
Cheers,
Tim
Tabletop Timesinks 