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Marvel Champions is a 1-4 player superhero game. Players take on the role of one of five Marvel heroes to battle it out against one of three villains. Play as Captain Marvel, Spiderman, She-Hulk, Black Panther, or Iron Man, and face off against Rhino, Klaw, or Ultron. Each Hero has a deck of cards. There is a mix of basic cards, hero specific cards, and aspect cards (one of leadership, justice, aggression and protection). Each Villain is also represented by a deck of cards comprising villain specific cards, basic villain cards, and a modular encounter set. This time, we'll be looking at the Marvel Champions: Ironheart Hero Pack!
During a player’s turn, they will play cards. They pay for the cost by discarding other cards from their hand. Then, activate cards and perform a number of actions all in an attempt to defeat the “big bad” and thwart his schemes. Players can also switch from alter ego to hero form once per turn. They can activate their character's special ability, as well the basic recovery, attack, or defend actions. Once a player has performed all their actions it passes to the next player. They repeat the process until all players have performed their actions.
Foul Play
Next is the villain phase. During the villain phase, threat adds to the main scheme based on player count. The villain will either attack (if you are in hero form) or scheme (if you are in alter ego form). When they attack or scheme, reveal a boost card from the encounter deck and add it to the Villian’s base attack/scheme value. Each player (in turn order) is then dealt an encounter card. Any minions in play will also attack or scheme.
Players will need to manage the number of threat tokens placed on a scheme. If it reaches a certain quantity the scheme advances to the next stage, and eventually the Villain will win by completing his scheme. In addition to the threat/schemes, players will also have to take out minions and deal damage to the Villain to reduce his health to zero and win the game.
Marvel Champions is a living card game (LCG). As such, the publisher, Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), is supporting the game with new Hero & Villain packs. These further expand the game, the combinations, and replayability. Check out a full review & final thoughts of the core game here.
Child Prodigy
Riri Williams is a 15-year-old engineering student, possibly a super-genius. She reverse-engineers Tony Stark's Iron Man suit and takes to the skies, determined to rid the world of the evil and cruelty she suffered from the death of her Step-Father and best friend. Powered with Photon Beams, Photon Blasters, and Propulsion Jets, she is a force to be reckoned with.
The Marvel Champions Ironheart hero pack comes with a precon leadership aspect, fifteen signature hero cards, and additional cards for deck building. The unique mechanism for Ironheart is the ability to “upgrade” her armour, for better and more advanced versions of her previous suit. The pack comes with three versions of the hero form.
New and Improved
Let's talk about the unique aspect of Ironheart/Riri Williams - the three hero cards in the pack. That's right… three hero cards. When in alter ego form, Riri can spend certain resources to add progress counters to her. When in hero form, if you have six progress counters, you can upgrade your suit to the next version and ready Ironheart. This interplay between the alter ego form and the hero form is brilliant. I love to see FFG playing into the alter ego form more and Ironheart really utilises this. Often, the main reason for swapping back to alter ego form with other heroes was to recover. But now, the switching of forms has more meaning/significance.
Timing is key with Ironheart. Whether to stay in alter ego form for another round or to flip to hero form to get better control of the board state. Keeping the threat under control and racking up the progress counters to make the flip worthwhile is a big part of Ironheart's strategy. Ironheart also has some hero action cards that add progress counters. Fly over removes threat, and photon beam deals damage. Both add progress counters to Ironheart.
The Marvel Champions Ironheart pack also comes with a pre-built Leadership aspect and some new cards. There are three new Leadership allies: Cloud 9, Falcon, and Patriot. Go All Out is a great Leadership card. A 2 cost event that deals damage equal to your hero’s Thwart, Attack, and Defense values. That's eight damage for a two cost event when Ironheart is fully upgraded to version three.
I am really enjoying Ironheart at the moment. The balance of being in hero form and alter ego, and the sense of progression as you level up your suit is great. I can imagine her being a really fun character to play with different aspects and there are some great new cards to add to the card pool.
