Hit-Monkey Counter Guide
Welcome to our first installment of “How to Counter,” featuring the new battle pass card, Hit-Monkey. Hit-Monkey will be a hot card with the new season, and if you like ruining people’s day, this is the guide for you.
Hit-Monkey incentivizes decks to run low-cost cards to make the most of his effect. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to throw a wrench in these plans. As the meta develops, be sure to stay up to date with our Full Deck Tier List to see how Hit-Monkey has affected the meta.
If you haven’t already, be sure to also check out our guide on How to Play Hit Monkey.
Let’s get right into the guide.
Hit-Monkey Effect
On Reveal: Gain +2 Power for each other card you played this turn.
- Colorist – Ryan Kinnaird
- Artist – Roberto Di Salvo
Hit-Monkey Counters
In this section of the guide, I’ll be going over many cards that can help you counter Hit-Monkey. I won’t be covering full decks in this article, as many of these decks are known or on our Tier List.
Sandman
Ongoing: Players can only play 1 card a turn.
Without a doubt, Sandman is the first card that comes to mind. Hit-Monkey wants to play as many cards as possible, and Sandman completely shuts that down. If you can Electro Ramp into Sandman on turn 4, Hit-Monkey decks are basically rendered useless.
That being said, Sera Hit-Monkey decks that run Enchantress can stop Sandman, so keep that in mind.
Galactus
On Reveal: If this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.
One of the downsides of Hit-Monkey decks is the fact that they don’t have much disruption. Like Sand-Man decks, you can simply Electro or Wave on turn 3, Galactus on turn 4, followed by Doctor Octopus on turn 5. It’s quite unlikely that Hit-Monkey can do anything to stop you while doing this, unless they happen to hit Cosmo where you play Galactus.
To be fair, a lot of decks can’t win against a perfect Galactus curve, but Hit-Monkey decks in particular lack disruptive tools like Debrii, Polaris, or Aero to really stop you.
Storm
On Reveal: Flood this location. Next turn is the last turn cards can be played here.
Storm is another decent counter to Hit-Monkey. Hit-Monkey decks are incentivized to hold off on playing their power cards, and Storm can win one location early in the game.
It is risky, as a beefed up Angela can outcompete your Storm lane, but overall, location lockdown is pretty good into Hit-Monkey as it limits what they can play overall.
Killmonger
On Reveal: Destroy ALL 1-Cost cards.
Killmonger is another sort of soft counter to Hit-Monkey. If the Hit-Monkey deck is running a lot of 1-cost cards like Ant-Man, The Hood, etc, then Killmonger can get a lot of value. Even still, Hit-Monkey decks can still overpower you with a buffed up Angela, Bishop, and Monkey, so keep that in mind.
Leech
On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all cards in your opponent’s hand.
The devs didn’t touch Leech last patch, and maybe that was because Hit-Monkey was coming. If Hit-Monkey becomes a problem, then Leech turns him into a 2 for 0 with no effect. In She-Hulk builds, Leech also stops She-Hulk from reducing her own cost.
Leech is great at countering just about every card in the game, but Hit-Monkey is especially vulnerable to Leech.
Wave
On Reveal: Next turn, cards in both players’ hands cost 4.
Wave is another great counter card against Hit-Monkey. If you play Wave on turn 5, most Hit-Monkey decks will only be able to play 1 card on turn 6. Even if they have a Sera on board, they only get to play 2 cards. Because of this, decks that can utilize Wave well (like with She-Hulk or Death) will have a much easier time against Hit-Monkey.
Shadow King
On Reveal: Set all cards here to their original base Power.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, absolutely talks down about Shadow King. For the most part, people are correct when saying he’s a bad card. However, if Hit-Monkey decks absolutely take off, Shadow King can become an amazing counter. He will revert Hit-Monkey back to 0 power, revert Angela to 0, and Bishop to 1.
There is a chance that Hit-Monkey decks can adapt to include cards such as Luke Cage, but Shadow King may have a short period of time to shine.
Conclusion
That wraps up my quick article on countering Hit-Monkey. Once again, I didn’t include deck lists in this guide, but more so counter cards that may see an uptick to counter Hit-Monkey.
Hopefully this guide gave you some good ideas, and have fun climbing and snapping in the new season!
