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Marvel champions the card game review

Marvel champions the card game review


What I will cover in the review 
  • A brief gameplay overview.
  • Replay ability.
  • Theme / story.
  • Is marvel champions good?
  • Should you buy marvel champions?
  • Marvel champions the board game final rating.

A brief gameplay overview

In marvel champions you will play as one of the hero’s from the massive cast of characters in the marvel universe. It is frankly insane how many different heroes are in this game. Each characters mechanics all feel true to the character. On your turn you will draw a hand of cards. You can do a couple of things, play cards from your hand, use actions on your hero card - and other cards you have already played-  or initiate a basic power. You can do these action in any order. 

To play cards from your hand you will have to pay their resource cost. You pay that cost by discarding other cards from your hand for their resource. Some of the cards will stay in play and give you extra actions, improve your hero’s ability’s or give your hero specific effects. Your hero has 3 different abilities attack (damage), thwart (mitigate the villains scheme in) and the you can defend (block damage). On the villain turn the villain will take three actions  

1. Scheme 
2. attack
3.deal an encounter card.

 Scheme refers to the villain placing threat on the main scheme which has a threshold and if the amount of threat on the scheme surpasses that threshold then the players lose the game. The next action the villain will drake is attacking when the villain attacks they will deal damage to you equal to their attack value. The last action is playing an encounter card which changes the game and bolster the villain. You win the game by decreasing the villains health down to zero, the villain wins if they complete all their main schemes or if they can deplete all the hero’s health down to zero.

Replay ability

This game has a lot of replay ability. It is by far the most played game in my collection. At this point I have played the game over 300 times and even though I play it in less volume now than I did back when I first got it but I have never not enjoyed a play through of this game. The reason this game is so replay able comes down to its lcg (living card game) format. For those who don’t know the lcg format is an alternative to the trading card game. Instead of buying booster packs , you will get a pack or expansion, you know exactly what comes in each pack and there is no rarity system. This format of card games was created by fantasy flight games after the massive success of their first lcg anachronism.
This type of game make marvel champions so replay able because the developers don’t worry about issues like not having the correct cards for a new mechanic or not having enough cards to play a certain game mode, since they have control over all the cards you get.

Theme / story 

As you can probably tell from the title of the game it’s based on the marvel universe so it has all the characters and villains. A lot of the story telling in this game is based on the events that happened in the comic books, but if you really want to experience any theme or story you are going to have to buy one of the big box expansions because those will provide you with a 5 scenario long campaign that has its own story and characters. My favourite gaming experience was when I played the mad titans shadow ( the mad titans shadow is one of the big box campaigns ), I wont go into too much detail but I will say that if you want the best marvel champions experience buy one one of the big box expansions. Unfortunately if you choose not to get any of the big box expansions you are going to struggle with the story elements in the game because there basically aren’t any other than for some flavour text. So if you are looking for a really thematic story narrative rich game then instead by the other lcg by fantasy flight called Arkham horror the card game( check out my review for Arkham horror as well).

Is marvel champions good

Marvel champions is a great game that I can confidentially recommend to everyone even if you don’t like marvel universe. The game has a lot of complexity and depth. If you take the time to familiarise yourself with the games systems it is very rewarding. The biggest downside of the game is that if you want to have the best experience you have to sink a lot of money into expansions. 

This game is a masterclass in how you can use simple mechanics and turn them into a complex deep system. Marvel champions has everything I look for in a cooperative card game. Strong gameplay, a lot of player interaction, a low level of entry but a very high skill ceiling, difficult scenarios and the game is very customisable. 

Should you buy marvel champions

The answer to the question on whether or not you would want you buy marvel champions is yes 100%, this game is incredible and is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. For anyone looking for a superhero themed game this is my number 1 recommendation. The only issue you will run into playing this game is the way fantasy flight releases expansions. They release them so frequently and they add so much new content to the point where you feel like you have to buy the most recent expansion pack or campaign box so if you don’t like that this is not the game for you.

Final rating

8.7 / 10

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