Bruce BannerBruce Banner | Art by Tommy Arnold

Have you ever wondered what Thrasios, Triton HeroThrasios, Triton Hero would be like if it cost one mana less? And, just to entertain the hypothetical, if it could also be a combo piece itself - not just an infinite mana outlet?

Well, folks, Magic's next Marvel crossover has come to answer exactly that question. May I present to you Bruce BannerBruce Banner, a one-mana legendary creature that packs all of Temur into its color identity.

So, let's get to building this commander for cEDH.

What Does Bruce BannerBruce Banner Do?

On the front side, Bruce Banner is a legendary 1/1 Human Scientist Hero creature for with two activated abilities. First, ", : Draw X cards. Activate only as a sorcery," and second, ": Transform Bruce Banner. Activate only as a sorcery."

On the reverse side, Bruce Banner is The Incredible Hulk, a legendary 8/8 Gamma Berserker Hero with reach, trample, and the triggered ability "Whenever The Incredible Hulk is dealt damage, put a +1/+1 counter on him. If he's attacking, untap him and there is an additional combat phase after this phase."

Additionally, borrowing some card design technology from Spider-Man, you can cast The Incredible Hulk as the reverse side for . That's right, this is a transforming MDFC.

So, what does this whole package do in a cEDH context? Well, starting with Bruce Banner, it's eerily similar to Thrasios, Triton HeroThrasios, Triton Hero. Bruce is a cheap infinite mana outlet that enables commander-dependent spells really early - all good things in a Temur deck. It's super unfortunate that the ability to draw cards can only be activated as a sorcery, but considering that it costs half as much as a Thrasios activation, that seems like a fairly reasonable tradeoff.

Looking to The Incredible Hulk, things get a little murky. cEDH isn't exactly know for its stompy green decks, and that's the role The Incredible Hulk is trying to fill. Additionally, having The Incredible Hulk in play means that you don't have Bruce Banner in play - a tradeoff that cuts you out of one more possible value engine you would've had otherwise.

However, as we'll see later on, there's a combo to be found with The Incredible Hulk that makes this all worth it.

Key Cards for Bruce BannerBruce Banner

Ability Cost Reducers

Starting out with some cards ripped straight out of Thrasios, we've got activated ability cost reducers. Each of these two cards reduces the cost to activate Bruce Banner's abilities by (unless it would reduce the cost to just , in which case it only reduces it to ). That means that, with one of these effects in play, you can draw one card for , or two cards for , or three cards for ...you get the idea.

In long games, this amount of value can snowball insurmountably, turning Bruce Banner into one of the best engines in your deck.

Artifact Tutors

While tutors are nothing unique to any particular commander, Bruce Banner does pay more attention to artifacts than most other Temur cEDH decks do. All three of its combos use an artifact in one way or another, and these three cards make sure that you can reliably find your combo pieces game after game.

How Does Bruce BannerBruce Banner Win?

Infinite Mana

Starting off with the deck's premier infinite mana combo, it's the classic pair of Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyKinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Basalt MonolithBasalt Monolith. Pairing these two together allows for infinite colorless mana production, as Basalt Monolith will add and only require to untap itself. With that mana, you'll draw your deck thanks to Bruce Banner, and somewhere in there you'll see a whole bunch of creatures and Finale of DevastationFinale of Devastation. Cast all the creatures, then cast Finale of Devastation for some arbitrarily large X value. It doesn't matter what, if anything, you grab - all that matters is that X is large enough to boost your newly-hasty board's power to lethal.

Hulk Combo

On to the star of the show: the one-card combo with The Incredible Hulk: CaltropsCaltrops.

For , Caltrops is an artifact that, whenever a creature attacks, deals one damage to that creature. Wouldn't you know it, whenever The Incredible Hulk is dealt damage, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on it. Additionally, The Incredible Hulk will see that this damage happened while it was attacking, untapping it and creating another combat step. Thanks to the +1/+1 counters, The Incredible Hulk won't die from the damage, and thus triggering Caltrops, for an infinite number of combats.

Underworld Breach Combo

Last but not least, what would a red cEDH deck be without Underworld BreachUnderworld Breach? You know it, you love it (or maybe you hate it): cast Underworld Breach, cast and then sacrifice a Lion's Eye DiamondLion's Eye Diamond to add , then escape Brain FreezeBrain Freeze from your graveyard, targeting yourself. You'll mill a bunch of cards, be up from where you started, and be in the perfect situation to restart the cycle.

Keep going until you have as much mana as you need and see as many cards as you need, then either execute one of the other two combos or just mill out your opponents by casting Brain Freeze with an arbitrarily large storm count.

Bruce Banner // The Incredible Hulk cEDH Deck List

Wrap Up

Bruce Banner may be a sorcery-speed only engine, but it's still a one-mana engine in a world where having access to your Commander early is often a huge advantage. To top it all of, in the late game The Incredible Hulk has real combo potential - artifacts aren't too hard to tutor for in blue, and Caltrops is pretty cheap to cast considering it can end the game the turn it resolves.

Only time will tell how much staying power the deck really has, but one thing's for sure: it certainly has potential.