Banner's Band of Scientists and Spies

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Scientists and Spies - (1/23 RoRS Multiplayer Campaign) 1 0 0 1.0

AncientEpithet · 750

Overview and Intro:

This deck requires some building and should be played with a focus on control in the early rounds. It's not a deck that stays in alter-ego, but it will want to flip to AE every other turn or so. I've played it through the whole Mad Titan's Shadow on Expert Campaign and it consistently defeated the villains on the first try. This deck has a lot of tools and a number of ways to play to its outs. The general idea is to use and abuse Banners genius and resource generation (Banner's Laboratory, while using Chance Encounter to recycle high impact allies like Monica Chang, Agent Coulson, Moon Girl, and Nick Fury. Rely on Homeland Intervention to create high impact turns of threat removal while still in alter ego (even when confused, as its not a thwart action). Once Banner gets his Shield setup out, it's time to cut loose and let Hulk out of his cage. With most of your supports out, your deck is mostly physical resources. Use One Way or Another to create big handed turns and hit the villain hard with Hulks high damage hero kit.

In Depth Strategy:

Hulk can be incredibly straightforward and also incredibly nuanced to play. He has a small hand size, both in Hero and in Alter-Ego, but his Genius lets him cycle through his deck to set up big turns and he has two Triple-Resources in his Limitless Strength to fuel those monster turns. Hulk wants to play high cost cards, and he often has the resources to do it. This means that card draw generally provides you a bigger bang for your buck and when playing him I recommend prioritizing the big cards and big plays where you can. That being said, this deck wants to build early. One of the best ways to build early is to stall the villain and stay in Hero mode - because it limits the amount of threat the Villain will put out. This is where Hulk's truly unique characteristic - his enormous health pool - is also a big strength. You can use that giant health pool and Hulk's high defense stat to soak a lot of blows without risking losing the game. If you're struggling to find threat removal and threat management, stay in hero form and prioritize getting out the cards you need to control the threat. If you get the threat management out early, you have more freedom to flip to alter ego and prioritize your card draw and resource generation supports and upgrades.

Once you move into the Mid-Game focus on getting the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. build on the table. You need to be able to put your Surveillance Team set out, keep them out, and use them and your other supports to fuel your threat mitigation. Use your allies to thwart as often as you can. I almost never use them for damage, unless I need to remove a tough to land a big hit with Hulk Smash. There are several resource generators in the deck - you don't need all of them. Ingenuity is one of the most important, along with Avengers Mansion, Banner's Laboratory probably comes next, then also Quincarrier. Helicarrier is the least important.

Late Game: Use the machine you've built up to fuel big turns as often as you can. Once built, the engine can give you a huge output about every other turn. Usually it comes from flipping down, digging for key cards, then flipping up to push damage. I find I focus on playing allies and managing threat in Alter Ego and pushing damage in Hero Form. I find this deck really gives Hulk space to shine in the late game.

Key Cards:

Banner's Laboratory and Ingenuity are really important to this deck. These two plus the Quincarrier give you three mental resources for playing Moon Girl when in alter ego to draw three more cards. On top of that, Banner's Laboratory improves your recovery, and since you will want to be using your health to stall the villain, you'll use the boost to your recovery fairly often.

Avengers Mansion is almost always a huge benefit. As I noted in the overview, card draw is huge for Hulk. It helps overcome his limited hand size, but he also just has some really high value cards (in the right situations) and can often do more with the cards he draws than other heroes.

One Way or Another - I've only included one copy because the deck doesn't have an enormous amount of threat removal, and if you include numerous copies, I found I either whiffed on having a target for it, or drew it on turns when I needed to be in Alter-Ego. I find that having a single copy means I want to play it when I draw it and I usually can find a good target for it when I want to play it.

Helicarrier - This is not a super high priority early game, unless you don't draw any of your other resource generators. Mid to late game, I often find myself using it just to trigger Global Logistics or Homeland Intervention.

Global Logistics is often used to counter the Villain, but in this deck its HUGELY valuable for finding cards from your own deck. Use it to help set up your big turns or to find your key build cards early in the game.

Espionage is included because you will be in Alter Ego fairly often which gives the Villain several ways to surge. Drawing 2 cards is better for Hulk than just about any other hero, and the deck runs plenty of spies to enable playing it, plus it gives Agent Coulson a target for his Response.

Key Omissions:

The Deck doesn't run Agent 13. She's expensive and more often than not, I don't actually have a S.H.I.E.L.D. support that I want to ready. I just don't find that she's worth the cost. As a result, the deck is a little light on the traditional S.H.I.E.L.D. cards.

Physical Resources - This deck does not run a plethora of physical resources. You are going to need to thin the deck a bit before you can reliably trigger his Hero cards. It's OK to play them and not get their full effect. Late-game you'll be better set to trigger their full effect and push a lot of damage through his ready effects, his Crushing Blow, his high base attack, and his Hulk Smash!

Hope you try the deck - let me know how it works for you and if you encounter any problems with it!

18 comments

Jan 10, 2023 mv2392 · 102

First time someone actually sold me on Hulk. Played solo Sinister Six Expert with Osborn Tech from the randomizer. Never played hulk before this, and I'm not sure anyone has actually played him at my table.

Won near the end of my second deck pass, even with pulling Shadows of the Past at a pretty rough time. Nicely done.

Do you think it'd be worth dropping an Espionage for a Counter Intelligence?

Jan 10, 2023 SpiderPK · 96

You should better keep the Espionage, to have your Conter Intelligence drop one of your Surveillance Team. Hulk with Shield support work good.

Jan 11, 2023 AncientEpithet · 750

@mv2392 I think dropping N Espionage for Counterintelligence is a solid adjustment, especially in solo. I found that I rarely played the Counterintelligence , and Espionage has the physical resource to fuel Hulks cards. That being said I wouldn't drop a Surveillance Team for it, but rather the Espionage.

Jan 11, 2023 takabrash · 1

Phenomenal! I just wrecked Expert Ebony Maw with Symbiote and Bomb Scare. Abomination came out very late and water a turn, but this deck is so good! Takes a run or two through the deck to set it all up, but on the last turn, I thwarted for 8 and hit for 15!

Jan 11, 2023 Fry · 254

Neat deck, reasoning for card choices seems good.

Field Agent seems a bit weak here; about the only strong partner for him is Cousin, I'd like to see at least one other target. It's only a one-of though, so it's probably fine, and it can pay for miscellaneous SHIELD events.

Bit surprised to not see Quake in here, if we're running "all the good allies" anyway.

Jan 11, 2023 Fry · 254

  • Coulson. Thanks, autocorrect

Jan 12, 2023 Matafer · 89

Great deck! As a Hulk fan this is super fun to pilot!

Jan 13, 2023 AncientEpithet · 750

@FryField Agent is a little weak. It's largely there to be a trigger for Global Logisticsand Homeland Intervention, but I have also used it to eat the consequential damage for Mockingbird, Coulson, and Monica. I think it could probably be cut, I should do some plays without it! I didn't include Quake because she's not a spy, so I can't use her to play Espionage, her low health means she can't thwart much and still stuck around, and I didn't find that I needed her damage, as Hulk has plenty of damage output. I did run her for a while but I just found I didn't play her or usually need her and I haven't missed her since I cut her!

Jan 19, 2023 bmay511 · 311

Great write-up, man! And even an improvement on the original!!! Way to look for various card synergies, while building a reliable mechanic with a very "set" strategy in mind. Good options for setting up early, and excellent counters to Hulk's 0 thwart!

Jan 19, 2023 AncientEpithet · 750

@bmay511 Thanks, man! Our Hulk chats were a big and continued inspiration!

Jan 21, 2023 bmay511 · 311

@AncientEpithet - you deserve 100% of the credit for this deck design, but if I could help in any way by inspiring, glad I could do so! Like myself, I'm glad you just didn't automatically "File 13" Hulk. I refuse to give up on him. He's not only an iconic and immensely popular Marvel character, but I've always liked him as well. Additionally, he's a massive powerhouse in the right situations, and to automatically discard the option to play him I think is a huge mistake. He can be great team support for beating the villain down and removing minions!!! He takes a little bit of work and has taken a few years for the card pool to really support him, but I think he's starting to shine if people are patient and are willing to work with the right cards. For instance, my Hulk aggression deck is 100% better than it was even a year ago for exactly this reason.

Jan 21, 2023 dr00 · 44633

love seeing hulk decks. is 1 Chance Encounter really enough? did you find that 2-3 copies were too much?

Jan 22, 2023 AncientEpithet · 750

@dr00 I did find that I was often pitching it instead of playing it. This deck is geared more towards one or two player games, and often times there isn't a side scheme out to play it on. In addition, you have to clear the scheme to trigger the card, which is not hard to do a couple of times with this deck, but in the end one just seemed to be the right number. I'd be curious if other people play with more if that works well for them. I found that I could often get one use per pass of my deck, but any more was just wasted. Also, I have found with Hulk that I want a pretty high probability of drawing at least one, if not two, big cards per turn, so I can make at least one big play per hand, even with an only 4 card hand. A high number of 0 and 1 cost cards actually reduces the likelihood of having great plays with Hulk, in my person experience, so I try not to include too many copies of the low cost curve cards.

Feb 08, 2023 BankerNot1 · 1

Smoothest playing Hulk deck I’ve used! Excellent work. And awesome write-up - Thanks!

Feb 08, 2023 AncientEpithet · 750

@BankerNot1 Thanks for the kind words! I'm really glad you enjoyed the deck and it played smoothly for you!

Feb 20, 2023 Man-is-Obsolete · 5508

I took this out for a spin recently in a 3 player game against Expert Mutagen with a couple of hard mods and had a lot of fun piloting this. Even in a 3 player game with Protection and Aggression as the other aspects present Banner/Hulk and his merry band of Surveillance Teams maintained threat very well.

Feb 21, 2023 AncientEpithet · 750

@Mikepelf I'm so glad to hear you had fun playing the deck and that Hulk was able to keep the threat under wraps! The deck can certainly struggle a little in larger player counts if there are a lot of side schemes or a lot of threat, but Green Goblin has a lot of low threat schemes, so it sounds like a great fit! The Surveillance Teams also do a great job of efficiently removing threat, ways removing exactly as much as you need!

Mar 14, 2023 Kesari86 · 25

Just tried it. This deck is gold