Banner's Band of Scientists and Spies

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!