Marvel Champions is a cooperative card game where you and your friends play as your favorite heroes, facing off against epic villains and scenarios from across the Marvel universe. Published by Fantasy Flight Games, it’s a Living Card Game, meaning new content is continually released.
Marvel Champions Card Game includes a ‘Learn to Play’ booklet designed to guide players through their first game, ensuring they understand the mechanics and rules before diving into the gameplay.
What is the Marvel Champions Cooperative Living Card Game?
Marvel Champions is a cooperative card game, meaning you work together with other players to defeat a scenario. It supports 1-4 players and works very well as a solo game.
While it isn’t particularly story-driven, it is highly thematic. The heroes are familiar figures from across the Marvel universe—including the Avengers, Spider-Verse, and the X-Men. Each hero has unique abilities and a playstyle based on their skills and abilities from the comics.
The game manages to be highly customizable, with tons of expansions and an ever-growing card pool for deck building, while still remaining accessible to new players.
You don’t need to play through everything in order—you can just pick up the heroes and villains that interest you. And since each hero comes with a prebuilt deck, ready to play out of the box, you don’t need all the cards or to keep up with the latest meta. You can simply shuffle and play. Players can switch between their hero side and alter ego side during their turns, emphasizing strategic decision-making.
Key Features of Marvel Champions Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Game is a cooperative living card game that brings the excitement of the Marvel universe to your tabletop. One of the standout features is the wide range of iconic heroes you can play, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles. Whether you’re a fan of Captain Marvel’s cosmic powers or Spider-Man’s agility, there’s a hero for everyone.
The game is designed for 1-4 players, making it perfect for solo play or a game night with friends. You’ll work together to stop infamous villains from enacting their devious schemes, using a variety of card types and mechanics to achieve victory. The modular board and five hit point trackers help keep the game organized and engaging.
With over 350 cards in the core set alone, Marvel Champions offers endless replayability and customization. The living card game format means new content is continually released, keeping the game fresh and exciting. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or new to card games, Marvel Champions is a fantastic addition to any collection.
Getting Started
To get started, players need the core set, full review here, which includes three scenarios and five iconic heroes—each with a prebuilt deck ready to play: Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and She-Hulk.
Once players select their heroes, they’ll pick one of the scenarios from the box—either Rhino, Klaw, or Ultron—and set up the villain’s deck. The scenarios are easy to run and essentially consist of flipping over cards and taking the actions on those cards.
You win by reducing the villain’s health to zero, but the villain can win in two ways: either by reducing all players’ health to zero or by completing their scheme by adding enough threat tokens.
Heroes must manage this by clearing threat, defending against attacks, and damaging the villain.
The game comes with dials to track health and tokens to track damage and threat.
Deciding where to focus your attention and how to build decks to accomplish these goals efficiently is what keeps this game engaging. Every scenario is different and requires a new approach. The game is very tactical, requiring you to think through every hand and round with fresh eyes.
It’s a fairly simple system, but within it lies incredible replayability.
Heroes and Characters
One of the most exciting aspects of Marvel Champions is the diverse range of heroes you can play. Each hero comes with their own strengths and weaknesses, allowing for a variety of playstyles. You can choose from iconic characters like Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and She-Hulk, each bringing their unique flavor to the game.
Each hero has a hero form and an alter ego side, adding a layer of strategy to the gameplay. In hero form, you can attack and thwart the villain’s plans, while in alter ego form, you can heal and avoid direct attacks. This duality allows for dynamic gameplay and strategic decision-making.
Heroes are also divided into four aspects: Leadership, Aggression, Protection, and Justice. Each aspect comes with its own set of cards and mechanics, allowing you to tailor your deck to your preferred playstyle. Whether you want to lead a team of allies, focus on dealing damage, protect your team, or control the board, there’s an aspect for you.
Villains and Schemes
Marvel Champions features a wide range of villains, each with their own unique schemes and minions. Players must work together to stop these villains from completing their nefarious plans. The game includes villains like Rhino, Klaw, and Ultron, each presenting different challenges and requiring different strategies to defeat.
Villains are divided into different cycles, each with its own theme and set of cards. This adds variety and depth to the game, as each cycle introduces new mechanics and challenges. Whether you’re facing off against a brute like Rhino or a mastermind like Ultron, you’ll need to adapt your strategy to succeed.
The cooperative nature of the game means that communication and teamwork are key. You’ll need to coordinate with your fellow heroes to manage threats, defend against attacks, and ultimately bring down the villain. The strategic depth and variety of challenges make every game a unique experience.
Gameplay Overview
Playing the Game
On each player’s turn, they can take as many actions as they can afford. Cards in hand each have a cost to play, which you pay for with the other cards in your hand. Some cards have immediate effects, while others remain in play with ongoing or triggerable effects.
The game is also well-suited for playing solo, allowing players to experiment with different decks and strategies without the need for additional participants.
Players can exhaust their hero to either thwart (remove threat) or attack (deal damage). Some effects can ready your hero, but generally, you can activate only once per turn.
You can also play allies with their own attack and thwarting capabilities. Allies can also block damage for your hero.
Something unique to this game is the alter-ego feature. Players can flip to their hero’s alter-ego to heal or avoid being attacked. You can flip once per turn, but the form you are in controls how the villain behaves. If you’re a hero, they will attack you; if you’re in alter-ego, they will advance their scheme, adding threat.
Card Types and Mechanics
Marvel Champions features a variety of card types, each with its own unique mechanics and abilities. Hero cards represent your character’s abilities and actions, while villain cards dictate the actions of your adversaries. Event cards provide powerful one-time effects, and upgrade cards enhance your hero’s abilities.
Ally cards allow you to bring other characters into the fight, providing additional attack and thwarting capabilities. Support cards offer ongoing benefits, and resource cards help you pay for other cards. The game also features a variety of mechanics, including combos, deck-building, and card synergies, adding strategic depth to the gameplay.
Deck building is a key aspect of Marvel Champions. While the prebuilt decks are great for beginners, more experienced players can customize their decks to suit their playstyle. You can use cards in your hand as energy to pay for other cards, leveraging the mechanic of hand cycling to achieve victory. This allows for endless creativity and keeps the game fresh and exciting.
By integrating these new sections, we provide a comprehensive guide that covers all aspects of Marvel Champions, making it easier for beginners to dive into this fantastic game.
Deck-Building and Strategy
Deck building is not required to enjoy the game. The prebuilt decks will get you started, and you can play with them for a long time before experimenting with different combos.
Eventually, to improve your decks and take on more challenging scenarios, you’ll want to experiment with different card combinations.
The deck building in Marvel Champions is fairly straightforward. Decks can be 40-50 cards, with 15 of those being the hero’s unique cards.
For the remaining cards, you choose from basic cards and cards from your chosen aspect. There are four (now five) aspects in the game—Aggression, Leadership, Justice, and Protection.
As you expand your collection, you’ll unlock interesting combos and new abilities, allowing for creativity and keeping the game fresh.
Difficulty
The core set comes with two difficulty modes: standard and expert. One of the great things about this game is the number of ways to adjust the difficulty.
Different villains offer different challenges, and heroes have different power levels. Each encounter is composed of the villain’s cards and the standard or expert cards, but also includes a modular set that can be swapped out for easier or more difficult scenarios.
As you expand your collection, there are even more ways to control difficulty. It’s one of the game’s hallmarks.
Expansions and New Content
While the core set offers a lot of replayability on its own, there’s a ton of expansion content available.
You can buy additional hero packs that include a new playable hero and more aspect cards. There are also scenario packs, which provide new scenarios to face.
The best bang for your buck is the campaign expansions, which include five new scenarios, two new heroes, and a story-based campaign.
That might sound intimidating, but check out our buyer’s guide for help. The truth is, you can’t really go wrong. Just buy the content that interests you—pick a box that matches your favorite corner of the Marvel universe, and you’ll have a great experience.
Community and Resources
There are a few important resources for players of this great game. First, our site has reviews and guides on all the game’s content, so check out our library for more info.
For deck building, visit Marvel CDB, which features community-created decks for inspiration or to help you build a great deck. It’s a vibrant community with new decks posted daily, and there are great creators building some fun decks.
Support creators on YouTube and other platforms that post playthroughs and reviews. Watching playthroughs is probably the best way to learn.
There’s also a great community on Reddit that is quick to answer questions or celebrate your latest success.
Tips for Success
Start with the core set and get familiar with the gameplay mechanics before adding new cards to your deck.
There’s no shame in using the preconstructed decks to get started.
Experiment with different deck builds and strategies to find what works best for you.
Don’t hesitate to ask for help or advice from more experienced players.
Conclusion
Marvel Champions is a fantastic game with infinite replayability, a vibrant community, and more expansions coming all the time.
You don’t need to feel intimidated—just jump in and get the content that interests you. It’s an incredible (though challenging) solo experience and great in multiplayer as well.
Excelsior!
We have lots of content on this game across the site. Get started with our Marvel Champions buyers guide or our list of Marvel Champions expansions with links to reviews of all the products.
FAQ
What do I need to start playing Marvel Champions?
To begin playing Marvel Champions, you need the core set, which includes five iconic heroes (Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and She-Hulk) and three scenarios (Rhino, Klaw, and Ultron). Each hero comes with a prebuilt deck, so you’re ready to play right out of the box.
Can Marvel Champions be played solo?
Yes, Marvel Champions can be played solo. The game scales well for 1-4 players, and many players enjoy it as a solo experience due to its tactical gameplay and flexible difficulty options.
Do I need to build decks before playing Marvel Champions?
No, you don’t need to build decks to enjoy Marvel Champions. The core set provides preconstructed decks for each hero, allowing you to jump right into the game. As you become more familiar with the mechanics, you can start experimenting with deck building to customize your heroes and strategies.
How does difficulty work in Marvel Champions?
The core set offers two difficulty modes: standard and expert. You can adjust the difficulty further by choosing different villains, modular sets, or expansions. As you expand your collection, you’ll find even more options to tailor the difficulty to your preference.
What expansions should I buy for Marvel Champions?
The best expansions depend on your interests. You can start with hero packs to add new characters, scenario packs for more challenges, or campaign expansions that include multiple scenarios and heroes. A good strategy is to choose expansions featuring your favorite Marvel characters or storylines to enhance your experience.