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Bruce banner is the next Series 5 card joining Marvel Snap for the December 2024 season, Marvel Rivals. It is a 2-Cost, 1 Power card that reads: When you end a turn with unspent Energy, 25% chance to HULK OUT! (I don’t think I have to explain what happens when the card HULKS OUT!)
Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Bruce Banner
Spotlight Cache
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a Weekly Spotlight card, or opened as one of the featured cards in the Spotlight Caches that are found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500 (until the next new card releases the following week).
Strengths and Weaknesses
When Bruce Banner HULKS OUT to become a 12 power card for the equivalent of three or four energy (two if you have other cards that benefit from unspent energy), it’s a fantastic card.
When this card was announced, the entire community immediately made the connection with such cards in hopes that it would spark a new era of High Evolutionary decks. Or at least reinforce the Sunspot + She-Hulk duo now that The Infinaut left them to hang out with War Machine instead.
Decks with High Evolutionary
On top of that, Bruce Banner has a few extra upsides. For example, if the card gets afflicted with negative power before it HULKS OUT, it will remove those debuffs after transforming.
This is why I want to believe in the card. Unfortunately, I feel like weaknesses surrounding Bruce Banner largely outweigh these shiny propositions.
First of all, 25% is kind of low. Of course, you can’t make a “transform one power into twelve” gamble too easy to win, but if you factor in the unspent energy as well then Bruce Banner could lose you the game on its own if it doesn’t HULK OUT. For reference, you need to gamble three turns to have more than a 50% chance for the card to HULK OUT (you have a 25% chance for the first turn, 44% after two turns, and 58% after three).
Let’s say your first try is on Turn 3 because Bruce Banner costs two energy. On average, it will take two to three more turns to HULK OUT, so the card asks you to pay four or five energy for a 40-60 or a 60–40 gamble at a 12 Power card or 1 Power card.
If you consider that Hulk is a 6-Cost card, you might think that paying only five energy isn’t that bad. Sure, five is less than six, but five energy only gives you a 58% chance to get Hulk. On top of that, Hulk is a card that nobody uses outside of High Evolutionary decks, which are more part of the past than the present at this point.
In addition to this not-so-great gamble, Bruce Banner has to dodge certain cards that are popular in the current meta.
Decks with Red Guardian
Decks with Lady Deathstrike
Decks with Shang-Chi
Decks with Gambit
There aren’t that many cards that are able to stop Bruce Banner; the doctor is resilient to the likes of Cosmo, Alioth, and Shadow King. However, the cards that can stop him are all quite popular at the moment. Indeed, Red Guardian and Lady Deathstrike are gaining momentum to counter Doctor Doom 2099, Gambit is a Discard staple, and Shang-Chi is a Marvel Snap staple. Speaking of staples, Copycat is another super popular card that could make you regret slotting Bruce Banner in your deck.
The Verdict
I have no faith in Bruce Banner being anywhere close to worth the Spotlight Keys or Collector’s Tokens you would spend to acquire it. Unless I get a message from Second Dinner telling me I am guaranteed to get it in one key, I am not touching my resources this week.
I know this is extremely harsh criticism, but there are so many things that can go wrong with this card.
First, I don’t like the fact that the card is designed in opposition to the Snap and Retreat mechanic. Of course I would want to Snap when Bruce Banner HULKS OUT, but my opponent wants to Retreat when that happens. So the best outcome with the card is… to get one cube? Bummer. The alternative is to Snap in the hopes of winning a 25-75 bet, and I don’t like that either.
I feel like Bruce Banner has way too many obstacles to overcome to function properly, even if you look past the HULK OUT design. Red Guardian is a very popular card, Lady Deathstrike is gaining momentum, and Shang-Chi will never not be a thing. It doesn’t seem worth the trouble of trying to revive High Evolutionary (or some other synergy that is willing to not spend all its energy) just to be met by those cards if you actually make it.
Randomness can be fun and Marvel Snap heavily leans into that, but you have to give me a bet I believe I can win. Bruce Banner looks like a losing bet way too often for me to take the gamble.
Pre-Release Score:
Bruce Banner Decks
den
I saw various builds of High Evolutionary when I was looking online for inspiration for Bruce Banner. Magik came up in a lot of decks, but the White Widow, Luna Snow, Armor, and Red Guardian package feels stronger at the moment. If you don’t like that, you can play Magik and some other High Evolutionary cards like Misty Knight, The Thing, and Abomination.
den
Double Up has been posting decent results for the past few seasons, and, in my opinion, this is the only way Bruce Banner could ever make it into a competitive deck. To be clear, I don’t even think the archetype needs the new card—especially after it switched to the Hammer synergy recently. Still, the occasional high roll could bolster an already solid points potential.
Honestly, Double Up is much more likely to make Bruce Banner look good than High Evolutionary will.
Variants
Closing Thoughts
Last week, I said Doctor Doom 2099 released at the perfect time to shine. Well, I’m sorry to say but I believe it is quite the opposite for Bruce Banner. Not only do I not see any competitive option interested in running the card, I doubt Bruce Banner will be reliable enough to revive High Evolutionary. Double Up could fit the bill, but it would be a reach to fit the card in instead of really elevating the archetype.
The card looks like a fun gamble, but I fear we might get tired of it pretty quickly.
I hope this review of the new card was helpful. Feel free to share your opinions and excitement about the card in the comments. You can find everyone on the Marvel Snap Zone team in our community discord to have a chat or ask any questions.
Good Game Everyone!
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