Marvel Champions: The Card Game

2019

Immerse yourself in the Marvel Universe with Marvel Champions: The Card Game. Play as iconic heroes, thwart villainous schemes, and save the world in this thrilling cooperative card game.

90
minutes

1 - 4
player(s)

14+

Medium

About the game

Marvel Champions: The Card Game is an exhilarating and immersive cooperative game that draws you into the dynamic and exciting world of Marvel superheroes. In this game, you will join forces with your friends and step into the shoes of iconic Marvel heroes, working together to thwart the nefarious plans of some of the most notorious villains in the Marvel universe.

The game is set in the vivid and diverse universe of Marvel comics. From the bustling streets of New York City to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, the settings are as varied as the heroes and villains themselves. Whether you’re slinging webs as Spider-Man, smashing through obstacles as Hulk, or soaring through the skies as Captain Marvel, each game offers a unique adventure that immerses you in the rich lore and riveting action of Marvel comics.

Game components Unboxing the fun!

In the board game ‘Marvel Champions: The Card Game’, there are numerous components that players interact with to play the game. Each component serves its own purpose and interacts with other parts of the game in different ways. Here are the components:

1. Hero Cards

Hero Cards are the main characters that players control during the game. Each hero has unique abilities, health points, and a specific set of cards related to their character. The hero cards can be flipped over to reveal their alter ego side, which has different abilities and interactions with the game.

2. Nemesis Cards

Each hero has a unique Nemesis that can enter the game under certain circumstances. These nemesis cards represent villains that heroes must defeat. They have their own set of abilities and health points.

3. Encounter Cards

In the game, Encounter Cards are drawn to determine the actions and events that occur during the villain phase. These can include attacks from the villain, introduction of minions, or triggering of schemes.

4. Villain Cards

The Villain Cards represent the main adversary that heroes must work together to defeat. Each villain has a unique set of abilities, health points, and scheme cards.

5. Scheme Cards

Scheme Cards are associated with the villain and represent their evil plans. Heroes must prevent the villain from completing their scheme to win the game.

6. Resource Cards

These cards are used to pay for other cards or abilities. Resource Cards come in different types, and some cards require specific types of resources to be played.

7. Status Cards

Status Cards represent various conditions that can affect heroes or villains during the game, such as being stunned or confused.

8. Upgrade Cards

Upgrade Cards can be used to enhance the abilities of your heroes, providing them with new skills or increasing their stats.

9. Ally Cards

Ally Cards represent other characters from the Marvel universe that heroes can call upon for assistance. They have their own abilities and health points and can attack and defend against the villain.

10. Obligation Cards

Each hero has an Obligation Card that represents personal responsibilities or challenges that they must face during the game. When drawn, the hero must deal with the obligation card, often causing them to switch to their alter ego side and potentially disrupting their plans.

11. Event Cards

These are powerful one-time use cards that can have a variety of effects, such as powerful attacks, healing, or card draw. Event Cards represent significant moments in the game and can often turn the tide in the heroes’ favor.

Game setup Lay it out, line it up, let’s go

Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a cooperative card game in which players take on the role of iconic Marvel heroes and team up to stop infamous villains. Here are the step-by-step instructions to set up the game:

Step 1: Choose Your Hero

Each player selects a Marvel hero to play. Each hero has a unique deck of cards that reflects their powers and abilities.

Step 2: Set Up Player Area

Each player places their chosen hero card, deck, hit points dial, and status cards in their player area. The player area is your personal space on the table where you will manage your cards and game resources.

Step 3: Choose the Villain

The players collectively choose a villain to face. Like heroes, each villain has a unique deck of cards that represents their powers, minions, and schemes. The villain card, deck, hit points dial, and scheme cards are placed in the middle of the play area, within easy reach of all players.

Step 4: Set Up the Encounter Deck

Shuffle the villain’s specific cards, standard encounter cards, and any modular encounter sets chosen by the players to form the encounter deck. This deck is placed face down next to the villain card.

Step 5: Determine First Player

Determine the first player by any means. This player takes the first player token and begins the game.

Step 6: Preparation of the Hero Decks

Each player shuffles their hero deck and draws a hand of cards. The number of cards drawn depends on whether the hero starts in alter-ego or hero form (the back of the hero card indicates this).

Step 7: Set Up Resources

Each player’s resources are represented by the cards in their hand and the specific resource icons on those cards. Players will use these resources to play cards from their hand.

Step 8: Incorporate Random Elements

In Marvel Champions, the main random element is the encounter deck. This deck is shuffled at the beginning of the game and will dictate the villain’s actions throughout the game. Players do not know what the villain will do until they reveal cards from this deck.

Now, you’re all set to start playing Marvel Champions: The Card Game. Remember, communication and teamwork are key to thwarting the villain’s schemes and saving the day!

Game flow Round and round we go

Marvel Champions: The Card Game is an engaging cooperative game where players embody Marvel Heroes to prevent the villainous plots. The game’s structure revolves around a set of rounds, each subdivided into phases. Here’s a detailed account of how these rounds and phases work:

1. Player Phase: The game begins with the Player Phase. During this phase, each player, in a clockwise order, performs actions until all players decide to pass consecutively. The actions they can perform include:

Play a card from their hand: To do this, players must pay the card’s cost by discarding other cards from their hand.
Trigger an Action ability on a card in play: This requires fulfilling the action’s stipulations.
Use a basic power of their hero or alter-ego: These include actions like THWART, ATTACK, or RECOVER.
Change their identity: Players can flip their identity card once per round.

2. Villain Phase: After the Player Phase, the Villain Phase takes place. It consists of two steps:

Place Threat on the Main Scheme: The villain places threat on the main scheme equal to their scheme value times the number of players.
Villain Activates: The villain activates once per player in clockwise order. If the player’s identity is in hero form, the villain attacks; if in alter-ego form, the villain schemes.

During the Villain Phase, Encounter cards are also dealt to each player, who reveal and resolve them one at a time.

3. Cleanup Phase: This phase comes after the Villain Phase. During this phase, players ready all of their exhausted cards, draw up to their hand size, and pass the first player token to the next player clockwise.

After the Cleanup Phase, a new round begins, starting again with the Player Phase. The game continues in this manner until the players have either defeated the villain or the villain’s scheme has succeeded.

Players'turn One turn to rule them all

Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a cooperative Living Card Game that sees players step into the shoes of Marvel heroes attempting to thwart the schemes of iconic villains. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what happens during a player’s turn, including all possible actions and strategic choices.

Each player’s turn consists of the following potential actions:

Play a Card:
Players may play a card from their hand by paying its resource cost. This can be an ally, upgrade, support, or event card. These cards can provide additional actions, improve a hero’s abilities, or offer one-off effects that can change the tide of battle.
Activate a Card:
Players may activate a hero, ally, or support card already in play. Depending on the card, this could involve attacking an enemy, defending against an attack, thwarting a villain’s scheme, or activating a special ability.
Trigger an Action:
Players may trigger an action ability on a card in play. This typically provides some form of advantage, such as dealing extra damage, healing damage, or drawing extra cards.
Change Form:
Players may change their hero’s form once per turn, switching between their alter-ego and hero forms. Each form has its advantages: the alter-ego can recover damage and has a higher hand size, while the hero form can attack and thwart schemes.
Discard a Card:
Players may discard a card from their hand at any time during their turn. This is often used to free up hand space for more useful cards or to pay for the resource cost of other cards.
End Turn:
Once a player has taken all the actions they wish to or can take, they end their turn. They then draw back up to their hand size and ready all of their exhausted cards. Any unspent resources are lost.

Strategic choices can significantly affect gameplay. For example, deciding when to switch between forms can be crucial, as it affects not only what actions a player can take but also how the villain behaves. Similarly, choosing the right time to play or activate cards can mean the difference between successfully thwarting a villain’s scheme and suffering a devastating attack. By carefully managing their resources and cards, players can work together to overcome even the most formidable foes.

End of the game All good games must come to an end

Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a cooperative game where players work together to defeat the villain before they complete their scheme. The game ends under two conditions:

Villain Defeat: If the players successfully reduce the villain’s hit points to zero, they win the game.
Scheme Completion: If the villain completes their scheme, the players lose the game.

Each player’s victory is contingent on the collective success of all players in defeating the villain. Given that this is a cooperative game, there is no individual scoring or winner. The entire team either wins or loses together.

Before the game ends, players must ensure the following actions are taken:

Final Attack: If a player is attacking the villain and their attack reduces the villain’s hit points to zero, the game ends immediately after that attack. No further actions can be taken.
Final Scheme Progress: If the villain completes their scheme, the game ends immediately. The villain’s scheme progresses at the start of the villain phase. If the scheme deck runs out of cards, the villain’s scheme is considered complete.
Health Check: Ensure all player’s health points are above zero at the end of the game. If a player’s health points drop to zero, they are eliminated from the game. However, the game continues unless all players are eliminated.

It’s important to remember that in Marvel Champions: The Card Game, cooperation and strategic planning are key to achieving victory. It’s not just about individual strength, but also about how well you can work together as a team to defeat the villain and prevent them from completing their scheme.

Scoring Did you outsmart your rivals?

Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a cooperative card game where players work together as Marvel Heroes to stop infamous villains from enacting their devious schemes. The game ends when the players have either defeated the villain or the villain completes their scheme.

Unlike other games, Marvel Champions doesn’t have a traditional scoring system based on points. Instead, the objective of the game is simply to defeat the villain before they can complete their scheme. Success is binary – you either win by defeating the villain, or you lose if the villain completes their scheme.

While there is no formal scoring system, some players like to use their own scoring systems for measuring performance across games. Here’s an example of how such a system might work:

Victory: 10 points for defeating the villain.
Remaining Health: 1 point for each remaining health point of your hero at the end of the game.
Thwarted Schemes: 2 points for each side scheme in the villain’s deck that you managed to thwart.

In a multiplayer game, if you are using a scoring system like the one above, you might also include provisions for tie-breaking. Here are some options:

The player who delivered the final blow to the villain wins the tie.
The player with the most remaining health wins the tie.
The player who thwarted the most schemes wins the tie.

Remember, these scoring rules are not official and are just one way to add some extra challenge to your games of Marvel Champions: The Card Game.

Particular Cases and Exceptions Wait… is that legal?

‘Marvel Champions: The Card Game’ is a dynamic cooperative game that requires strategic deck building and careful management of resources. While the game rules are straightforward, there are a few rarer rules, exceptions, and clarifications that might help you to understand the game better:

1. Boost Icons:

When a boost card is drawn, only the boost icons in the bottom-right corner are considered, not the card’s printed text or abilities.
Boost icons on status cards do not contribute to an attack or scheme.

2. Encounter Deck:

When the encounter deck runs out, you do not reshuffle it immediately. Instead, you wait until you need to draw a card from it. At that point, reshuffle the deck and give the villain one acceleration token.
When a card is revealed from the encounter deck, resolve its ‘When Revealed’ abilities, if any, before proceeding to the next card.

3. Obligation Cards:

Obligation cards have a unique rule. They cannot be discarded by any means other than fulfilling the obligation. They are not considered ‘in play’ and therefore not affected by effects that target cards ‘in play’.

4. Hero Form and Alter-Ego Form:

Your hero’s form can have a significant impact on gameplay. The villain will either scheme (if you’re in Alter-Ego form) or attack (if you’re in Hero form) during the villain phase.
You can only change form once per round, and this can only be done on your turn.

5. Status Card Restrictions:

Stunned and Confused status cards prevent the next attack or scheme respectively, but they do not prevent the triggering of other abilities that occur ‘after’ the hero attacks or schemes.

6. Timing of abilities:

When multiple abilities are triggered at the same time, the first player decides the order in which they resolve.

Remember, the golden rule in ‘Marvel Champions: The Card Game’ is that if a card ability contradicts the rulebook, the card ability takes precedence.

Tips and tricks Play smarter, not harder!

Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a cooperative Living Card Game set in the Marvel universe. To succeed in this game, players must team up and plan their strategies carefully. Here are some advanced strategies, beginner tips, common mistakes to avoid, and ways to optimize gameplay.

Advanced Strategies:

Manage your hand carefully: Always think about how to maximize the effectiveness of the cards in your hand. Don’t just play cards because you can, but because it’s the most efficient use of that card.
Utilize hero abilities: Every hero has unique abilities that can be leveraged to great effect. Don’t forget about these abilities and make sure to use them strategically in each game.
Work cooperatively: Remember, this is a cooperative game. Communicate with your teammates and coordinate your moves to maximize your effectiveness.

Beginner Tips:

Understand your hero: Each hero in Marvel Champions is unique and has their own playstyle. Spend some time understanding your hero’s strengths and weaknesses before jumping into a game.
Learn the villain: Just as you should understand your hero, you should also understand the villain you’re up against. Each villain has unique mechanics that you’ll need to overcome.
Keep an eye on the threat: The threat level is a ticking time bomb. If you let it get too high, you’ll lose the game. Always keep an eye on the threat level and take steps to manage it.

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

Ignoring the side scheme: It’s easy to focus on the main villain and ignore the side scheme. However, side schemes can have significant consequences if left unchecked.
Not managing resources: Like any card game, managing your resources is key. Don’t waste cards or resources unnecessarily.
Not utilizing alter-ego form: Your hero’s alter-ego form can be just as important as their hero form. Don’t forget to use your alter-ego strategically.

Ways to Optimize Gameplay:

Balance your deck: Your deck should have a good balance of attack, defense, and utility cards to handle any situation.
Communicate with your team: Good communication is key in a cooperative game like Marvel Champions. Always communicate your plans and coordinate with your team.
Adapt your strategy: No two games of Marvel Champions are the same. Always be ready to adapt your strategy based on the current game state.