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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: Rogue 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.
Touched
Anna Marie, cursed with the ability to absorb the powers and memories of anyone she touches, ran away from home as a teenager. With nowhere to run to and no-one to turn to, Professor X offered her a place at his school. Here she learned how to control and harness her powers for the greater good. Now, Rogue is a strong member of the X-Men.
The Rogue Hero Pack comes with a pre-built protection deck and sixteen signature hero cards. The pack also contains an additional modular encounter set. With her “touched” upgrade her powers will change, gaining overkill, retaliate, aerial or stalwart if the card is attached to a minion, villain, ally or hero respectively. She is surely going to be bringing the fight to the villain and cause mayhem wherever she is.
The Rogue Hero pack also comes with Gambit as her signature ally. Rogue’s Jacket combos well with her “touched” upgrade card giving her +1 thwart or +1 attack if touched is attached to a friendly character or enemy characters respectively. Her “Goin’ Rogue” event card also plays into this as well as this will not only remove three threat from a scheme but also provide additional threat removal, cause confusion or draw a card if she has aerial, retaliate or stalwart, respectively. Not stopping there “Southern Cross” also plays off her traits with the card dealing six damage as standard but then two additional damage, stunning the enemy and drawing card if she has aerial, retaliate or stalwart, respectively. There are some very powerful combos and satisfying turns to be had with Rogue.
Additional Protection allies such as Iceman, Karma and Armor are part of her deck along with some new protection cards like Judoka Skill and Not Today (as well as some repeats from previous packs).
Rogue and Gambit have history. There is a love interest there and the Beauty and the Thief team up card works similar to the Ant Man and Wasp Team up Card, triggering a powerful ability.
Rogue is a fantastic character to play. When you pull off a multi-card combo that does a bunch of damage or thwarts a bunch of threat it feels good. There is, at times, a bit of “building” to get to this point but it is worth it in the end. There is a lot to explore with Rogue and some interesting gameplay moments that keep me coming back for more. Another fab addition to the Marvel Champions roster that is worth the pick up.
