Chapter I
The Design
what this deck wants
Hulk Smash is a Temur (GRU) +1/+1 counters midrange deck built around the modal commander Bruce Banner // The Incredible Hulk. Early, Bruce is a card-draw engine ({X}{X}, {T}: draw X). Once you can afford {2}{R}{R}{G}{G}, you transform into The Incredible Hulk — a reach/trample beater whose Enrage turns incoming damage into +1/+1 counters, extra combat phases, and untaps when attacking. The deck pours counters onto fat creatures with doublers (Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, Kalonian Hydra), draws absurd cards off big power (Return of the Wildspeaker, The Great Henge, Bruce himself), and closes with trampling haymakers — or goes infinite with Caltrops + The Incredible Hulk.
Win Conditions
Written by the Familiar from this decklist
Chapter II
Vital Signs
power, speed, and what the deck is made of
- Power
- 8.2 / 10
- Above its bracket · bracket 3
- Speed
- medium
- first threat on board around turn 7, meaningfully pressuring by turn 5–6
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Lands
- 38
- of 100
- Avg. MV
- 3.02
- nonland
- Spells
- 62
- nonland
Power is the Analysis tab’s score. The six deck-health scores below are the same ones the deck page and the Familiar use.
Deck health · the same six scores as the deck page
Computed from deck data
Chapter III
The Arsenal
the cards that carry the deck
The whole deck. Early a repeatable draw engine; transformed, a trampling Enrage beater that untaps and gains extra combats — and half of the deck's infinite combo.
Doubles every counter you place and halves opponents' — a nonlinear multiplier on the entire counters theme and on Enrage triggers.
Grows off every spell anyone casts in a spell-heavy counters shell — an early threat that quickly demands an answer.
One mana saves your entire board from a wipe or removal — critical given the deck's low finisher count and weak protection pillar.
Indestructible damage-redirector and fight engine — survives your own Pyrohemia/Blasphemous Act and pings opponents, while fight can feed Enrage.
Repeatable damage to every creature and player — a pseudo-wipe that doubles as an Enrage/counter trigger for your own Enrage creatures.
Draws a card per counter-bearing creature and gives them indestructible — simultaneous refuel and protection tuned exactly to this engine.
Ramp that scales with your biggest creature's power plus a draw engine — perfectly aligned with a big-power counters deck.
Instant-speed massive draw off your biggest non-Human creature — your main burst refuel once counters stack up.
Computed from deck data
Chapter IV
Sequence
how the game unfolds
EARLY: play a land and a mana dork (Birds of Paradise, Bloom Tender, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Sol Ring) and land Bruce Banner early so his draw ability can start refilling. You rarely want to transform turn 4 — Bruce as Banner is a draw engine first. MID: deploy a counter doubler and a hydra or Managorger, protect them, and start converting into card advantage with Return of the Wildspeaker, The Great Henge, and Bruce's draw. Transform into The Incredible Hulk when you can swing and immediately pressure, or when you have a damage source (fight spells, Pyrohemia, Brash Taunter) to feed his Enrage. LATE: stack counters with Kalonian Hydra attacks and doublers, grind extra combats via Enrage, and either trample someone out or lock the table with Caltrops + Hulk for infinite combats.
Ramp is the app's second-strongest pillar and it's real and repeatable (15 pieces): dorks Birds of Paradise, Bloom Tender, Fanatic of Rhonas, Delighted Halfling, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu; rocks Sol Ring and Arcane Signet; land-fetch Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farseek, Kodama's Reach, Ranging Raptors; plus The Great Henge and The Vision and Scarlet Witch. Burst mana is zero — no Treasure, no rituals — so you can't spike a single explosive turn; your acceleration is the slow-and-steady kind that makes every future turn bigger, which matters because transforming Bruce costs {2}{R}{R}{G}{G} and wants doubled-pip mana. Curve is low-to-mid (avg 3.02; 11 one-drops, 16 twos, 16 threes), so you can deploy ramp and payoffs on-curve; the few 5+ drops (hydras, The Great Henge, Blasphemous Act) are payoffs the ramp is designed to reach.
Ramp
Written by the Familiar from this decklist
Chapter V
The Opening
what to keep, what to ship
Keep 2–4 lands with at least one green source and one accelerant (Birds of Paradise, Bloom Tender, Sol Ring, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Arcane Signet). The deck wants a counter payoff or engine piece too — a hydra, a doubler like Hardened Scales/Branching Evolution, or Bruce Banner himself to draw off of. Ship hands that are all lands with no engine, or two-landers with no dork and no cheap play; expected lands in seven is ~2.7 and the goldfish sends back 25% of openers, so don't be shy. You don't need the red-green double pips in hand turn one — transforming Bruce is a mid-game goal, not a turn-4 plan.
Ramp
Written by the Familiar from this decklist
Chapter VI
The Close
how it ends
- Trample beatdown: pile counters with Kalonian Hydra (doubles all your counters on attack), Managorger Hydra, Ouroboroid, and doublers (Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider), then crash in with trample for lethal.
- The Incredible Hulk as a one-creature army: transform, attack, and feed him damage (fight spells, Pyrohemia, Brash Taunter) to trigger Enrage — each hit adds a counter, untaps him, and grants an extra combat phase, snowballing into repeated trampling swings.
- Infinite combat / infinite counters: Caltrops + The Incredible Hulk — Caltrops pings the attacking Hulk each combat, Enrage adds a counter, untaps him and makes another combat, which Caltrops pings again, looping into lethal trample.
- Card-advantage grind into haymakers: use Bruce Banner's draw, Return of the Wildspeaker, and The Great Henge to outdraw the table, then overwhelm with a board of counter-stacked fatties.
Utility
Written by the Familiar from this decklist
Chapter VII
Assemblies
pieces that lock together
Bruce Banner // The Incredible Hulk + Caltrops → infinite combat phases and infinite +1/+1 counters on The Incredible Hulk
- Resolve Caltrops and have Bruce Banner // The Incredible Hulk transformed into The Incredible Hulk (pay {2}{R}{R}{G}{G} as a sorcery).
- Attack with The Incredible Hulk — Caltrops triggers and deals 1 damage to him as he attacks.
- Enrage triggers: put a +1/+1 counter on Hulk, untap him, and add an additional combat phase after this one.
- In the new combat, attack with Hulk again — Caltrops pings him again, Enrage fires again, netting another counter and another combat.
- Repeat for arbitrarily many combats and counters, then let the last combat connect for lethal trample (make sure you have a legal attack each loop).
Written by the Familiar from this decklist
Chapter VIII
Handling
counsel and common errors
- Don't rush the transform. Bruce as Banner is a draw engine — leave him up to draw X until you actually have a reason to swing or a damage source to feed Enrage; the {2}{R}{R}{G}{G} transform is sorcery-speed, so plan the turn.
- Sequence Enrage carefully: The Incredible Hulk only untaps and gets the extra combat if he's attacking when dealt damage — fight spells, Pyrohemia, or Caltrops need to resolve during combat with him attacking to loop.
- Protect your few finishers. The deck page flags protection as weakest — hold up Heroic Intervention/Tyvar's Stand before committing a counter-stacked hydra into open mana, and equip Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots on your key beater.
- Lead counter-placement through doublers: put counters on when Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, or Vorinclex are already out, and attack with Kalonian Hydra after the board is wide for the biggest multiplication.
- Your wipes are asymmetric — Brash Taunter is indestructible under Blasphemous Act/Pyrohemia, so you can sweep opponents while your Enrage creatures soak the damage into counters.
- No burst mana means no explosive catch-up turn — respect that you're a grind deck. Spend early turns ramping and drawing, and don't overextend into an unprotected board before a known wipe.
Board Wipes
Written by the Familiar from this decklist