Hercules: Like Tears in Rain

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die." -Roy Batty, Blade Runner

Amadeus Cho is, in my opinion, one of the best signature allies in the game. Set him up with a bodyguard and he'll be around most of the game to give you card draw. This is where the androids come in. Victor Mancha and Protector are perfect bodyguards for two reasons: They both mitigate damage to themselves by one, and they are both valid targets for Reboot, which keeps them healthy when they take more than one damage. Getting Victor out early is your main target because he's cheap and his damage reduction is automatic, but Protector will also work and can serve as a backup, with Quincarrier generating the needed resource to keep her damage down.

The Reboot also has a secondary use: It can ready either Victor or Protector after they have defended, making them useful fuel for Earth's Mightiest Heroes to ready another Avenger. If you give Amadeus an Honorary Avenger upgrade, he becomes a target to ready for drawing multiple cards. Or you can choose to target Hercules, who is always happy to ready for another attack or thwart, especially if you have out at least one Lion of Olympus. A third use for it is for the late game: ready Machine Man for multiple attacks. By the end of the game, this deck doesn't have a lot to spend resources on due to the cost curve being so low, so multiple attacks or thwarts from a pumped up Machine Man are not at all out of the question since he makes an effective and thematic resource sink. Olympus alone gives him max stats for the big damage push in the late game since you have almost nothing else in the deck on which to spend the three resources it generates.

A big chunk of the deck is really aimed at giving Herc more basic activations. Limitless Stamina, Son of Zeus, and Indomitable are all more or less straightforward ways of readying him for multiple basic activations, which will almost always be used for attacking with his impressive 3 ATK. If you've got at least two gifts out, Son of Zeus increases that for multiple swings by allowing you to ready Golden Mace, pushing him to a basic 5 or 6 ATK (up to 7 or 8 if you have out one or both Lions of Olympus). Then of course you've got the aforementioned Reboot Avenger androids paired with Earth's Mightiest Heroes and you've got several ways to keep Herc up and punching.

The last few pieces are cards like Bait and Switch and Counter-Punch, which also do multiple things. In the early game these are great ways to help out with Herc's labors. Bait and Switch can help generate multiple attacks in a turn to reduce the time spent getting rid of Protect Humanity while also keeping threat on the main low, and as an attack Counter-Punch can help you do more damage on the minion attached to Defeat the Hydra. The downside is that you have to defend to use it, but this is where Herc's Helm can come in clutch, even if you've already exhausted Herc himself to defend against a villain attack. That little (defense) keyword gives him insane flexibility with how he can defend. Ready for a Fight is in here to give you the ability to use Herc's Atonement ability to flip down to grab a second labor in the same turn, which would otherwise mean you are stuck in AE until the next player phase.

Cards that can be considered in place of Bait and Switch and Counter-Punch are Powerful Punch, Momentum Shift, Fighting Fit, or Hard Knocks, but all will be more expensive and harder to use in the early game before you have Olympus out and a couple of gifts on the table. Another consideration for the deck is Face the Past, which is yet one more ready, along with card draw.

This deck is a lot of fun to play, and is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It's thematically interesting (a Hercules and Blade Runner crossover isn't exactly on anybody's 2026 bingo card), while also being surprisingly effective. It works really well in standard, but can get a bit bogged down in expert, especially if you draw Defeat the Hydra first and your only valid target is the Lernean Hydra.