Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a superhero-filled adventure that brings the Marvel Universe to your tabletop games. Picture yourself teaming up with iconic characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Widow to thwart the villainous schemes of infamous foes like Red Skull, Ultron, and the Green Goblin.
As a player, you’ll assume the role of your favorite Marvel hero, using their unique abilities and decks to fight evil, protect innocent bystanders, and, most importantly, have an absolute blast doing it.
Whether you’re a die-hard Marvel fan or just looking for a fantastic tabletop experience, Marvel Champions delivers exhilarating battles, unexpected twists, and the chance to save the world in a way that’s so much fun, you’ll feel like you’re right in the heart of the Marvel Universe.
What’s included in Marvel Champions: The Card Game
- Hero Decks: Each player chooses a hero and assembles a hero deck, consisting of hero-specific cards, such as hero cards, events, and supports. They also select an identity card, representing the hero’s alter ego.
- Villain Deck: The game comes with various villain decks, each featuring a specific supervillain, their minions, and schemes.
- Encounter Cards: Shuffle and prepare the encounter deck, which includes encounter cards and modular encounter sets. The villain-specific cards are used in each game, while modular sets add variability.
- Tokens: Prepare various tokens, including damage, threat, and status tokens.
- Playmat: The game includes a playmat that helps organize the game and provides spaces for cards in play.
How to play Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a cooperative Living Card Game (LCG) that immerses players in the Marvel Universe, allowing them to take on the roles of iconic superheroes and work together to defeat powerful supervillains. Here’s a detailed guide on how to play:
Setup
- Select a supervillain to face off against and place their villain deck, identity card, and activation token in the play area.
- Shuffle the encounter deck and reveal an encounter card. This card’s threat level determines the starting threat in the game.
- Each hero chooses their hero deck, identity card, and sets their hit points equal to their hero’s health value.
- Draw six cards from your hero deck. This forms your initial hand.
- Place threat tokens on the main scheme card as indicated by the encounter card revealed earlier.
Rules for Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Marvel Champions is played in a series of rounds, with each round comprising several phases:
1. Villain Phase
- Reveal the top card of the encounter deck and resolve its effects. This often includes adding threat to the main scheme, engaging minions, or triggering special events.
2. Hero Phase
- Players take turns in player order, each performing the following actions:
- Play Cards: Spend resources to play cards from your hand, including allies, supports, and events.
- Use Abilities: Use hero-specific abilities and actions on cards.
- Thwart or Attack: Remove threat from the main scheme or attack enemies in play, respectively.
- Defend: Exhaust your hero to defend against incoming attacks from the villain or minions.
- Recover: Return to your alter ego form, heal damage, and draw cards.
3. Villain Activation
- The villain activates once per player in player order, often attacking heroes or carrying out other nefarious deeds.
4. End of Round
- Check for victory or defeat conditions. If the main scheme reaches its threat threshold, players lose. If the villain runs out of hit points, players win.
Winning and Losing: To win, players must defeat the supervillain while keeping the main scheme from reaching its threat threshold. If any hero’s hit points reach zero or the main scheme threat is met or exceeded, players lose.
Campaign Play: Marvel Champions also supports campaign play, allowing players to customize their decks, gain experience, and face a series of interconnected scenarios.
The game’s strategic depth comes from deck construction and hero synergy. Players must manage their hand, balance hero and alter ego forms, and make tactical decisions about which cards to play and when to use their hero’s abilities.
Overall, Marvel Champions offers an immersive and dynamic superhero experience where teamwork, strategy, and cooperation are key to saving the day in the Marvel Universe.
For the official rules, see the link below:
All heroes from the base game
- Captain America: The patriotic super-soldier with a versatile playstyle focusing on defense and leadership.
- Iron Man: Genius billionaire Tony Stark, who suits up as Iron Man to blast enemies with advanced technology.
- Spider-Man: The friendly neighborhood web-slinger, known for agility and web-slinging maneuvers.
- Black Widow: A skilled spy and martial artist who excels in espionage and sneak attacks.
- Hulk: The gamma-powered behemoth, known for smashing through enemies with brute force.
- Thor: The Asgardian God of Thunder, who wields Mjolnir and uses lightning-based attacks.
- Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, who uses mystical spells and artifacts to manipulate reality.
- Scarlet Witch: A mutant with reality-altering powers, capable of chaos magic.
- Ant-Man: The size-shifting hero who can grow or shrink at will, utilizing both forms strategically.
- Wasp: Partner of Ant-Man, she specializes in aerial combat and shrinking to tiny sizes.
- Ms. Marvel: A polymorph with the ability to stretch and change her body, she uses shape-shifting attacks.
- Black Panther: The Wakandan king with enhanced senses and combat skills, featuring a unique resource system.
- Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers, with cosmic powers like energy projection and super strength.
- Star-Lord: Leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, known for tactical leadership and space-themed abilities.
- Hawkeye: The sharpshooter with trick arrows and precise ranged attacks.
- She-Hulk: Jennifer Walters, cousin of the Hulk, who balances her lawyer and superhero personas.
- Thor (Jane Foster): A new take on Thor, featuring unique abilities and a different playstyle.
- Rocket Raccoon: The tech-savvy raccoon from the Guardians of the Galaxy, known for gadgets and firepower.
Villains you’ll be facing
- Rhino: Known for his superhuman strength and armored suit, Rhino charges into battle, making him a formidable opponent.
- Klaw: This sonic-powered villain can manipulate sound and energy, posing a sonic threat to heroes.
- Ultron: A sentient AI with the ability to create drones and evolve over time, Ultron is a relentless adversary.
- Green Goblin: The mastermind behind many schemes, Green Goblin is known for his glider and his explosive Goblin-themed attacks.
- The Wrecking Crew: A group of four villains (Wrecker, Piledriver, Bulldozer, and Thunderball) each with unique abilities and strengths.
- The Rhino: A second version of Rhino with a different playstyle and abilities from the first.
- Klaw (Expert Mode): A more challenging version of Klaw with additional abilities and a higher difficulty level.