I know all of you were anxiously awaiting a follow up article on “Mitigating MODOK’s Madness”, but She-Hulk was a Special Delivery from Atomic Mass Games and I want to take a few moments and talk about her. If you still need help with MODOK be sure to check out Vincent’s video for some tips on how to beat him. What about She-hulk is such a big deal? Well everyone is super excited for her in A-Force. She’s got a huge stamina pool, and very impressive short to mid ranged damage potential. While we don’t yet know if she’ll be in any other affiliations, lets see how she fits in them.
Asgard
So Asgard doesn’t bring any tactics cards to help She-Hulk. But the Affiliation is very nice. With her ability to short advance after being attacked, status effects appear to be one of the main ways to slow her down. She’s also got a ton of stamina points to heal. I think Asgard is definitely worth considering if you’re looking for a non A-Force She-Hulk team! The rosters are a bit clunky, but if you want an elite team with few models this might be it. With Angela on the horizon too this could easily be a dual affiliation A-Force/Asgard.
Avengers
This isn’t a news flash, but obviously characters with reactive and active powers benefit the most from this Affiliation. While She-Hulk does have “Legal Defense” I don’t see her using it terribly often. I think the biggest benefit of this affiliation is making her throw active without any additional power gain. Clear the Court is an incredible throw and this might make it worth it…but I think there are better options.
Black Order
Hmm we have a tale of two affiliation abilities here. She-Hulk is a monster when it comes to damage output. Super nasty aforementioned throw, a great builder with 7 dice, and a really nasty spender for a 9 dice attack. So in theory she’d be great to help Black Order layer on the pain and score using KO’s.
Death’s Agenda is actually kind of tasty. She has a HUGE stamina pool to Stamina and it doesn’t do you any good having her end a match with 20 Stamina vs 14. In a vacuum I actually like her as someone to levage this otherwise underwhelming leadership.
That being said, she doesn’t get Mothership, and by leaving A-Force we’ve lost Special Delivery. So she suffers from the same things Black Order already had issues with, being controlled around the board. Now maybe you think Gamma Transfusion making her more resilient to pushes is enough. But Black Order isn’t hurting for models to dish out pain. Coupled with her cost, 6 on top of the “Black Order Good Stuff (Thanos+mind, Corvus+reality, Proxima)” cost of 15 means she can’t fit in any match. Maybe you drop a gem for her… but even still it’s only available in 20 threat games. So in a vacuum I like her with their leaderships, but in the real world I can’t see it working too well.
Brotherhood of Mutants
Let me start with I don’t think there is any synergy with Freedom Force, so I’m going to focus on From the Ruins.
But I think From the Ruins is really interesting. She fits the “I want to throw all the terrain” strategy. She definitely can spend any power she’s given. She’s faster than Mags and can hold the other flank. Her and Mags together is a TON of threat, but it will win any flank you want and then Mag’s can Asteroid M to the other side with She-Hulk finishes cleaning up. Magnetic Refraction on her makes her even more daunting to go into…so does this have legs?
MAYBE? Mag’s, Mystique and Toad come in at 11, so this would be min viable at 17. For me Brotherhood rosters are already very tight and clunky to build around so I’m not sure she makes it in here. But I am tempted to play a “Godzilla” type game with 2 giant pillars on the table. I think it’s worth exploring!
Cabal
More power from Master of Evil, Master of the Cube, and Cosmic Invigoration. This is very tempting. She fits into the existing smash the world plan some Cabal rosters have leverages since the game launched. She can sub in for MODOK, or be played with him in lower model count games. I think this has potential to be very nasty, am I’m curious what the cabal wizards out there come up with. Definitely worth exploring!
Criminal Syndicate
Hmm well She-Hulk will always count as two people when securing. And that alone is saying something. You’ll need to incentivise your opponents into attacking her and camping a high value scure might be enough. It’s also interesting to move other Assets or Civilians onto her. Criminal Syndicate is very strong right now and excels at brawling in the middle of the table, which She-Hulk also enjoys doing. In my head I can see this working, but I want to get it on the table more. I don’t have a ton of games piloting Criminal Syndicate so I’m hesitant to speak too much more on them. Worth exploring for sure though!
Defenders
Mystic Empowerment and a Portal? Mystic Empowerment is never bad, and does allow her to attack with something other than physical. The Portal is really interesting. Getting her aggressively up the table is very valuable, but she has something like that already in Special Delivery. I think on paper this sounds better than it plays out. Strange+Gem is 6 and She-Hulk makes that 12, we’d need one of the 3’s(Hawkeye or Valk) to play 15, upgrade the 3 to a 4(Daredevil, Wolverine and Peter Parker) to play 16, and 17 we have slightly more options but only if we have Wong. The more I think about it the more I don’t like how clunky this makes the roster.
Guardians of the Galaxy
I’ve been very vocal about how much I don’t love this Affiliation leadership. But that aside I do think She-Hulk makes good use of it. You’re trying for her to make multiple attacks and she has no innate dice fixing. In addition she can use these in a pinch if she’s being focused down. She does also provide a strong character for the GoTG crew to wheel around, she’s easy to fit into their list building and not as clunk as the more expensive affiliations we covered early. While not the best, I could certainly see any GoTG fan playing She-Hulk and enjoying having the biggest badass on the table for once.
Spider Foes
The affiliation that has made the smallest splash in the pool, I don’t hate. Oscorp Weaponry isn’t amazing but it’s a great way to spend some more power to fish for extra damage. The real reason I’m curious about this is Well-Laid Plans
While it’s not technically a Spider Foes card it does use their leader and one of their affiliated characters. One of the largest pitfalls of She-Hulk or any large threat character is your board presence. Well-Laid Plans can help mitigate your lack of board presence. Now is this worth leaving A-Force for? Well that’s up to you, but it would be surprising!
Uncanny X-Men
So X-Men have two options here. Let’s start with Blue. This does in theory open up early The Defense Rests. This is a gnarly range 3 9 dice attack that costs 5. It can slow/stun or even stagger. Now this would require 3 power from other characters. So while this is an interesting and unexpected open. I don’t think it’s a good use of an affiliation.
Gold is a whole different story. Placing She-Hulk forward is always good. We can use Beasts big base and get a lot of distance here. Big fan of this obviously. Next She-Hulk also gets cover! If they are within 2 I feel pretty good as that means I’m able to use Sensational Uppercut. If they are poking at me from distance I get cover now, and she can Gamma Transfusion forward if they do get some damage in. I really like this combination for any character, and She-Hulk definitely makes great use of both aspects of this leadership. Couple that with Storm, Beast, Wolverine being a 10 point core I think this has potential. And expect to see it on the table so people can us “all the new models”.
Wakanda
Using this on the defensive side seems the most valuable. Losing out on 6 threat of Wakanda forever hurts. Players like Travis from Strike Better have made good use of Thanos in Wakanda. But I think he fits what they want to do a lot more. However Wakanda is still very strong, and adding a behemoth of a beating is always appealing. Maybe Shuri/BP can control the crisis long enough for She-Hulk to grind down any central objectives. Shuri/BP/Okoye is only 9 so She-Hulk would be playable on Gamma. You should never underestimate Wakanda!
Web Warriors
Web Warriors like adding a single high threat monster to their rosters, and She-Hulk is that. She doesn’t have a way to reroll so the reroll skulls only innately helps with the rerolling of the defense die. A few web snares also can be used to pull characters into double attacks from her. In addition Life Saver plus Legal Defense sounds annoying. All of that being said I don’t think she helps with Web Warriors biggest issue, which is their generally slow start.
When I started writing this article I didn’t think it would take this long. WHO KNEW there were so many affiliations? I hope this gives you some ideas on where She-Hulk could shine outside of A-Force. Now is it worth giving up the very enticing A-Force leadership and Special Delivery? Well that’s up to you but I’d love to hear what non A-Force lists you come up with. If you’re looking to preorder She-Hulk both Discount Games Inc for US customers and Black Gate Games for UK customers have her up for pre order!
Thanks again for reading, till next time cheers and happy gaming.