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Marvel Champions is a one to four-player superhero game where 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 is represented by a deck of cards made up 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: Psylocke hero pack.
During a player's turn, they will play cards. (paying 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 to thwart his schemes. Players can also switch from alter ego to hero form once per turn. And activate their character's special ability as well the basic recovery, attack or defend actions. Once a player has performed all of their actions it passes to the next player. They repeat the process until all players have performed their actions.
Bring The War
Next is the villain phase. During the villain phase, threat is added to the main scheme based on player count. Then 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 a boost card is revealed from the encounter deck and added to the Villain'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 amount of threat tokens that are placed on a scheme as if a certain quantity is reached 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) and as such the publisher Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) are supporting the game with new Hero & Villain packs to further expand the game, the combinations and replayability. Check out a full review & final thoughts of the core game here.
Psionic Abilities
Betsy Braddock (aka Pyslocke) is a formidable member of the X-men. With the ability to manifest and and focus her telepathic power she can wield her Psi- Knife and Psi-Katana with brutal efficiency.
Pyslocke is one the latest Marvel Champions hero packs to be released for cycle 7 which focuses on the X-men the Mutants. Psylocke has a hero interrupt which allows you to flip one of the Psi-energy weapon cards when you use a basic power. Wielding her Psi-knife grants her +1 Thwart and allows the generation of a resource. When the card is flipped to its Psi-Katana side it gains +1 attack and piercing, making those villains with tough, cower against her power. Psylocke really leans into her ability to manipulate the Psi-knife and Psi-katana cards for combos with other cards such as Flurry of Blades. This deals two damage to an enemy and confuses the enemy for each Psi-knife and two additional damage for each Psi-katana. Mental Detection removes one thwart with each Psi-knife removing an additional two threat and each Psi-Katana allowing you to draw a card.
Carefully planning your actions and flipping the weapons upgrades is paramount to success with Psylocke and you can create some amazing and powerful turns. Combine this with cards like Weapons Training (retaliate plus one) and you will have some fantastic fun with this character especially with her signature ally Angel by her side she is a strong addition to the Marvel Champions line up.
I have had a blast playing with Psylocke and exploiting her abilities and Psi-energy cards either with the pre-built justice deck or with custom decks. There are a host of possibilities that makes Psylocke a very interesting character to play.
