Marvel Champions: Captain America Hero Pack
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Description
When Steve Rogers was deemed too frail to enlist during World War II, he took part in a secret government program to transform him into the world's first Super-Soldier. With the help of a revolutionary serum, Rogers emerged from the experiment as the embodiment of physical perfection. Now in peak condition, Rogers served as a special operative and a bastion of freedom in World War II until an accident near the end of the war submerged him in ice for decades. Discovered by the Avengers in the modern era, Captain America continues to fight for the American Dream. A man out of time, but never out of courage.
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the Captain America Hero Pack for Marvel Champions: The Card Game!
With his iconic shield made of pure vibranium, Captain America can lead the charge against even the most fearsome of foes, inspiring those around him with legendary valor.
Like all Hero Packs, the Captain America Hero Pack includes a fully-playable deck right out of the box that includes 15 Hero cards, 17 cards from the Leadership aspect, and 8 basic cards. Additionally, look for Captain America's signature obligation and nemesis set, and three copies of one new card for each of the other aspects! This deck brings Captain America to the forefront of the action with his trusty shield, as he assists the heroes around him while calling on new Avengers to join the fight!
Marvel Champions has been getting a lot of buzz recently. Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) seem to be supporting their latest living card game with expansions and new card packs. As a huge fan of the game and the IP I am very excited about this. One of these new packs is Captain America hero pack which I will talk about in more detail here. If you want to read more about the base game then check out the review here.
Captain America, the patriotic American hero, equipped with his iconic vibranium shield, he is ready to lead the fight against the Marvel Villains. The Captain America hero pack is a new playable hero that can be added in to the base game of Marvel Champions. Straight out of the pack is a pre-constructed deck with 15 hero cards, 17 Leadership aspect cards and 8 basic cards. As with the other Heroes Captain America comes with his own obligation and nemesis set. The pack also contains three identical additional cards for the other aspects in the game as well as three identical basic cards.
Final Thoughts
Captain America was never my favourite cinematic hero, that title goes to Iron Man. But I am loving playing the pre-constructed hero deck. It is so much fun and feels very thematic. Captain America also plays differently to the other heroes and FFG have continued to create unique feeling characters that are thematically tied to their cinematic counterpart.
His Hero action allows players to discard a card from their hand to ready Captain America (once per round) allowing him to do double actions in a round. The Shield block card can negate all damage dealt by exhausting the card. And probably my favourite card in the whole game is Captain America’s shield toss. This is a hero action (attack) which allows you to discard X cards from your hand to deal 4 damage to X enemies and return Captain America’s shield (an upgrade card) to your hand. I just see myself throwing the shield, knocking out some enemies and the catching the shield ready to go again. Feels so good and very “Captain America”.
The Captain America hero pack is another great addition to the core game. The pre-constructed deck is great straight out of the pack but can also be used to deck build your own custom deck. To top it off it is a super fun deck to play with.
Marvel Champions is a 1-4 player superhero game. Each player takes on the role of a Marvel hero 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 is represented by a deck, consisting of basic cards, Hero-specific cards, and aspect cards. Each Villain is represented by a deck of cards, comprising villain-specific cards, basic villain cards, and a modular encounter set.
Marvel Champions is a Living Card Game (LCG). As such, the publisher, Fantasy Flight Games, is expanding the game with new Hero & Villain packs all the time. If you’re inclined, check out a full review & final thoughts of the core game here.
Set-Up
To set up the game, each player will select a Hero to play and place their identity card, alter-ego side up in front of them. The identity card will number the hit points they have and these are entered into the hit point dial. Each Hero will have an obligation card and a set of Nemesis cards which are set aside for the moment. The player then shuffles their player deck which will consist of Hero specific cards, basic cards, and aspect cards. Hero decks come pre-constructed but players are free to build their own decks whilst complying with the deckbuilding rules.
Next, a Villain is selected and is placed on the table along with the Villain’s main scheme and the Villain’s main deck. The Villain’s hit points are entered into the Villain’s hit point dial. The main scheme may have some setup instructions which are followed and resolved at this stage. The relevant encounter cards and modular sets and the Heroes obligation cards are added to the Villains the main deck and shuffled to form the encounter deck.
Each player then draws a starting hand of cards as detailed on their identity card and can discard any number of cards, drawing back up to their hand limit. If a Hero has any setup instructions these are resolved and followed now.
The game is played over a number of rounds, alternating between the player’s turns and then the Villains turn. On a player’s turn they can perform a number of actions:
- change form from alter ego to Hero or Hero to alter ego but only once per round,
- play cards from their hand paying the relevant resource costs
- Use their Heroes basic attack or thwart ability (only in Hero form and exhausting their identity)
- Use an ally they control to attack or thwart (exhausting the ally)
- Activate an action card they control (and exhausting the card if applicable)
- Use their alter-egos recovery ability to gain hit points (only in alter ego form and exhausting their identity)
Once a player has performed all of their actions they pass, the next player performs their actions until all players have passed. At this stage players can discard any remaining cards in their hand (if they want) and draw up to their hand limit (This may change depending on the form they are in) Each player then readies all of their cards (identity, allies, action cards).
Next is the Villain phase. At the start of the Villain phase threat is placed on the main scheme as detailed on the main scheme card. The villain and any minions then activate against each player. If the player is in Hero form the Villain attacks. If the player is in alter ego form the Villain schemes and adds a threat to the main scheme. Each time the Villain activates they draw a card from the encounter deck and add the number of boost icons to his base attack or scheme value. The Villain then deals each player an encounter card face down and in turn order, each player reveals and resolves the encounter card.
The first player token then passes to the next player and the player’s start the round again.
The game continues this way until the Villain has been defeated by reducing his hit points to zero for both stages and the player’s win. Players lose if the Villains scheme threshold reaches its maximum or they all have their hit points reduced to zero.
Strategy
What I love about Marvel Champions is the way the Heroes and Villains play differently. The key to success is figuring out how the Heroes play, their strengths, weaknesses, and how to best utilise them to take down the Villain. Certain Heroes require a certain amount of setup to become strong. He is best left in alter ego mode as he builds up his suit, armour, and weapons. Once he is up and running he can be a formidable character.
Figuring out when to stop building and when to take the fight to the Villain comes with practice and experience but it is worth that time investment. Where it might seem that you are not making progress by hitting the enemy it’s wise to learn the “arc” of the Hero and play into that. Being efficient with your cards and trying to not have any cards left in your hand at the end of the turn is a good idea.
The board state needs to be managed very carefully. Often the best move is not necessarily just smacking the villain in the face. Controlling the minions and the side schemes that can mount up is often a better move. Keeping an eye on the main scheme threshold is also key. Knowing how the Villains play and what’s in the encounter deck can help you decide how best to defeat them. At some point you will have to start dealing damage to the Villain but knowing when to push and when to hold off and control the threat/minions is critical. Like the Heroes, each Villain and modular encounter set has a different feel. Knowing how to handle them is essential. The timing of when to defeat one stage and advance to the next is often a critical step.
Aspects
There are four aspects in the game that all have their unique playstyles.
Aggression, as the name suggests, is all about hitting the enemies hard and fast. Generally, aggression based Heroes are not great at thwarting and removing threat from a scheme. Subsequently, t is often a race against the threat build-up and taking the Villain down
Justice is more focused on removing threat from schemes. Justice based characters are good at managing threat and keeping things under control however they are not typically hard hitters.
Protection is all about defending, preventing damage, and healing. It can react to incoming attacks, prevent that damage and sometimes cause reactive effects based on that.
Leadership is a very versatile deck and can do a lot of things but is mostly about bringing out Allies.Allies can be good for attacking, thwarting and defending and is a good all purpose aspect if used with a large selection of ally cards. Protection is reliant on these allies so Villains that target allies can make this aspect weak.
Deck building is a big part of Marvel Champions. You can customise your Heroes deck around the Villain you’re facing. There are great resources online such as www.marvelcdb.com
Zatu Score
You might like
- Added variety in to the core game
- Thematic cards/actions
- Interesting combinations and card play
Might not like
- Benefits from knowing the deck and multiple plays