Is Hulk Smash actually a good deck?!
Modern forum
Posted on April 14, 2016, 2:13 p.m. by vomdur
I have been play testing with friends for the last couple days with Hulk Smash and dominating them. I may just be getting extremely lucky but is the deck actually good? I understand that it can't become a large part of a meta because hardcore graveyard hate is a thing.
They are playing
Boggles (basically a free win pre board)
affinity
Abzan company (if the don't find scooze I win)
kiki chord (I combo quicker and can actually beat their inf life by killing off all their creatures then them)
grixis control (hardest matchup)
U/W/R Delver (another one that is a bit trickier)
Living End (really easy)
For those that haven't ever heard of the deck (I hadn't heard of it before last week) It runs a combo in the form of Protean Hulk Footsteps of the Goryo Body Double Reveillark Viscera Seer and kills with Mogg Fanatic
Basically you use a looting effect to get the Protean Hulk into your graveyard then Footsteps of the Goryo to revive and kill it that turn. Search up a Body Double and a Viscera Seer have the double clone the hulk sacrifice the cloned hulk to the seer search up Reveillark and Mogg Fanatic then loop Reveillarks and Mogg Fanatic for inf damage.
This thread was moved to a more appropriate forum(auto-generated comment)
April 14, 2016 2:28 p.m.
Yeah I've played against the deck multiple times and never lost to it. It has a crucial problem. The deck needs to find a Hulk and get it into the graveyard. It then needs to find a footsteps and cast that. It's a complicated sequence of cards that requires a decent amount of mana investment and a decent number of pieces found.
Early Scavenging Ooze kills it.
Tempo decks that can counter the reanimator spells whilst beating down can kill it fairly easily.
Good aggro decks can have you dead before you find your pieces.
So those are the problems:
1) Casting a 3 mana reanimator card
2) Getting a Hulk into the GY.
Personally (playing Abzan) the deck just totally folds to Path to Exile and Scavenging Ooze.
April 14, 2016 2:43 p.m.
My issue with it is you played against non interactive decks once you start playing against counter spells discard spells and instant speed removal spells it gets a lot worse
April 14, 2016 2:59 p.m.
Generally Grishoalbrand is more consistent, potent, and resilient. Not as much of a "what" factor, but better.
April 14, 2016 3:32 p.m.
The "what" factor is what makes it fun to play against though, lol
April 14, 2016 4:12 p.m.
I agree ChiefBell and EmblemMan that the main reason i'm having success with it so far is non interactive decks but isn't that the majority of the format?
I think the "what" factor is helping a lot so far as well! I have been running it with Simian Spirit Guides and lots of looting with very little protection mainboard and it has been amazing how often I have been able to get a turn 2 combo off. Though that's just a lot of luck.
April 14, 2016 5:03 p.m.
Can I check out your list? I'd be curious to see how it looks in full
April 14, 2016 5:14 p.m.
I mean the deck doesn't just fold to killspells because obviously it's a reanimator deck so stuff in the gy isn't a problem.
April 14, 2016 5:15 p.m.
Having sac outlets is also resistant to path. Not too hard to get a seer on board first.
April 14, 2016 5:23 p.m.
Hulk Smash! thats where it started. I think we made some changes on paper that i haven't put in there yet.
Yeah kill spells are annoying but you can deal with them but the big problem is Rest in Peace some of the guys were running that in their SB. The bit of a sideboard ive got going for it is a bunch of protection in the form of Swan Song Pact of Negation cheap easy counters and a few things to bounce permanents.
I guess i shouldn't have gone all buzzfeed style and said that it's a "good deck" more a tier 2?.5?. It will get some wins but don't expect to win big tournaments
April 14, 2016 5:26 p.m.
I run Relic of Progenitus, and Anafenza, the Foremost exactly due to living end and decks that use the gy
April 14, 2016 5:49 p.m.
Yikes yeah that version of abzan would have a free win against this deck most games
April 14, 2016 5:57 p.m.
I run 1 Anafenza and 2 relic in my sideboard for living end. It's a surprisingly difficult MU
vomdur says... #2
ah crap clicked the wrong modern forum. Meant to just put this in the Modern area not the modern deck help
April 14, 2016 2:15 p.m.