Saying Good-Bye to Marvel Champions

I recently wrote a post about saying goodbye to Torchbearer. That post was an attempt to say that I found Torchbearer objectively fine, but not my cup of tea, something that I regret. That is not the case with Marvel Champions. I think it's got some foundational, objective flaws, which have slowly poisoned my enjoyment of the game, to the point to where I do not wish to play anymore. If you still like the game after reading the post more power to you. While I've no vitriol in mind I will not pull punches either. If I think something wrong I will say it.

Let's give the props where it's due: Marvel Champions is a fantastic pick-up LCG. The rest of my critiques need to be taken in this context. This is a good enough game, mechanically speaking. It is fun to play and can be quite engaging, particularly in a group setting. As the game ages and as the designers get the villain design down we're going to see some truly spectacular things from this game. And that's great! But I won't be along for the ride.

For the record, most of my comments come as a solo player of this game. If your response to any of my points is "But it doesn't work that way in a group!".... first off I doubt it, as I'm talking about some pretty foundational stuff. But second off, I've already given the disclaimer: because of logistics I've mostly played this game solo.

The number one, biggest problem, is that I find deckbuilding unsatisfying. The tricks just do not seem to matter to me. There isn't that kick of adrenaline for the vast majority of the game. It's feels too simple for me: do damage, remove threat and that's it! There's not enough dials for me to tinker with. Remove threat. Deal damage. Rinse. Repeat. And the tools just don't do it for me. The only aspect that I really connected with, Protection, just seems to be so hampered by... well... everything. Quicksilver finally did something substantial to address the issue, but it's something, not an actual fix. Regardless of whatever little boondoggle you've done the very next turn that threat will go up and possibly damage may be healed. It just doesn't feel like I did anything. Because there's only two things to really muck with it's hard to feel like I'm making progress.

And that brings us to actual scenario design. Again, there are only really two ways to interact with said design: keep the threat down while knocking the dude out, twice. 

Yes, yes, three times for Kang. 

Thank you, but that's not a substantive enough difference for me.

Given that there's no real way to interact with the game beyond threat and damage, you can't really do very much. Norman Osborn's scenario is a great idea... until you realize you have to beat him to a pulp, and that's all you can do. Ooh, there's scheming tokens or whatever? They go away when you deal damage. Goody, not only have you not invented a mechanic to deal with this unique and great idea, but you've made player's cards feel less effective because it's not even doing what it was designed to do. And that may be a bit mean, but considering just how discouraging it is to essentially waste your time because the designers wouldn't reach a bit more out of the box?

I don't like that. And I don't think it unreasonable to do so.

But the ultimately damning thing for me is that this is all the designers think Marvel is about. Marvel is about people being heroes, despite themselves. No, really, that's it. If you disagree, tough. Because that's what Marvel has been about since Lee and Kirby and Ditko started churning out their amazing stories. Period. Yes, if you disagree you're wrong. Flat. Tough if you don't like it.

Now, part of that formula includes kick-ass action. That is absolutely true. And I want that in a Marvel game, don't get me wrong! That's part of it. But what makes those villains compelling has so much more to do with them as people. Doc Ock is an abused child looking for respect. Red Skull wants his golden age back. Rhino is heartbroken from losing his wife and is trying to find purpose again. The Masters of Evil are common thugs who just want to pull off their big score. Kang wants a proactive approach to the problems of the world. Spidey doesn't punch his problems most of the time, he solves them with science and heart. Captain America is struggling with feeling irrelevant. Tony is an asshole who doesn't want to be one.

Okay, that last part was a bit mean.

Oh well.

Point is. 

I feel like the most important part of Marvel is missing. No, having Obligations doesn't cut it. Having cute little alter-ego cards isn't what I'm look ingfor, either. What makes a Marvel hero work is who they are under the costume. There needs to be more levers in alter-ego than healing and a few cute tricks surrounding supporting your super hero form. But that would require more going on with the villains than what they have. Which would require a significant amount of tweaking with the base system.

And that's really what I'm left with. The base system is myopic. I don't care about the fights if character isn't involved. And the thing is that card games can do this. It's not outside the realm of possibility. The game can be fun, but the lack of goals beyond threat and damage really hurts the game. A lot more can be done with this property. And it could have been. And it wasn't.

The Rise of the Red Skull: Red Skull (Solo Expert) and Campaign Thoughts

 

The ending post is going to be a bit of a mixed bag. Keep in mind that, until this point, my thoughts on the box have been more or less positive. With the exception of Absorbing Man I've loved every single villain in this box, Red Skull included! We'll get to him in a minute, don't worry! He completely and utterly destroyed me. Red Skull is not the problem with the box, cause he's a fantastic time. The problem is the problematic Expert campaign mode, which will ultimately prove to be a lightning rod for people who may still be on the fence about this game, for better or worse.

Red Skull 

Dear God that was nuts. Just, incredibly insane. Red Skull's stats on Expert level, with that 3 SCH, made me stop, pause, and throw out the Spidey Aggression deck I've been touting around the for the last few posts. I knew there would be no way I could keep up with Red Skull once he got going, and I didn't even really bother trying with the Spider-Blitz deck. I turned around and built a Justice deck, focusing on capitalizing on getting rid of side schemes as quickly as possible, as well as killing minions. 

And y'know what? It was working.  I drew two Swinging Web Kicks right off the bat after setting up my two web shooters and knocked Red Skull off the first stage within three turns. Oh my gosh that felt great. Yeah, Red Skull's threat was a little high, and yes one of the side schemes had an extra encounter card coming out next turn, but I'd just done 16 damage and was mostly through my deck, thanks to Red Skull milling my deck twice, as well as me ending my turns with completely empty hands. I figured I could cycle through very quickly and put the Skull down for good.

First came the Sleeper, with his Guard and Toughness

And then Vulture, which threw my hand into disarray.

And then damnit if the Red Skull's encounter deck just kept exhausting all my allies, while pulling out shittons of minions.

Beaten and bruised I switched back into alter-ego form, trying to heal up with Aunt May and then come back to finish off the Sleeper so that way I could finally take Red Skull down from the 11 hp he was at. I was 10  threat away from losing, but figured I could take that and then flip back and finally nova my way through this thing.

Oh how stupid I was. Red Skull schemed for 7 threat . And then I drew Advance. Twice.

 

My jaw hit the floor. 

 

What a ride, right?? That was great!! I'd like to do it again.

 

Oh wait.

The Campaign

Now, one would think that my stink has to do with the rule that if you lose once to Red Skull that's it, the game is over. But that's just low hanging fruit, folks. No no, I found the whole campaign on Expert to be thoroughly uninspiring. The Obligations don't provide compelling choices, the campaign itself is too long, and the upgrades were ultimately unsatisfying.

 

Carrying over hp between rounds would have been fine, if the Obligations weren't so punishing that I never wanted to take them. There was no choice on that front: you couldn't afford to take the Obligations and that was that. I essentially just limped between rounds, never looking at Obligations more than once, when one of my kind readers reminded me of how badly I'd be hamstringing myself. Taking some form of disadvantage for full hp was a great idea!! I would have done it with a legit choice before me! Why not just have it to where you can take a penalty to the next game: 2 cards discarded at the top fo the game for every hp restored?

This leads me to my next point: the campaign is just too long. You've got one or two too many villains, in my opinion. And that's sad, because the vast majority of the villains in this box are amazing. I had a blast with all of them, except Absorbing Man who is... surprise... more tied into the campaign mode. But the whole thing is essentially a long gauntlet. I play Arkham Horror, folks, and I don't want this game to be like that game, but a gauntlet mode really isn't what I would have liked. Putting in some branching paths would be pretty easy: if you lose a fight you have to side track to one of the side villains and then take a number of delay counters equal to the number of rounds you took to beat that villain. That's freaking tense!

The upgrades were... I found them underwhelming. Why invent cards for upgrades and whatnot when you already have the greatest asset in your possession: a box full of cards? Just allow people to grab, like, three cards from one aspect on the first win and two on the second, while giving possibly another card for the lost fights. It sounds broken, possibly, but it may work if failure is harsh enough..

I dunno. I'm not saying my solutions are inherently good, but I do think them a better fit for the modular nature of this game. That and if you're going to criticize something at least say what you think would fix it. And ultimately I found that the campaign rules went against the modular nature of the game the designers were trying to expand upon. 

Wrapping It Up

The individual pieces of The Rise of The Red Skull are almost too good for the money I spent on them. Four out of five of the villains are just fantastic and I am going to enjoy playing against them for a very very long time. The new character decks are serviceable at worst, which is certainly no small praise. I would love to introduce people to this game via this box, on Basic, over and above the Core box. The Expert Mode begins to fall apart, as the mechanics the designers introduce aren't just bad but feel incomplete. And that's a real shame, because the rest of this box was most definitely worth my money and then some. 

Would I recommend the box? Well, if you're looking for a compelling story mode then definitely not. This ain't it. But if you like the modular nature of this game? Oh man, not a question. Absolutely get it! I might even recommend it over the Core box for beginners, the villains are that good. This box dramatically increases the value of this game as it is: a modular rock-em sock-em  LCG. I can't speak for you on that. But me? I'm going to go and do a round two with The Red Skull. That dude got the drop on me. And it won't happen again. Hope springs eternal and all that.

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The Rise of the Red Skull: Zola (Expert Solo)

This is the villain I was really nervous about. See, Zola's got a lot of villains, which should really hurt this deck. And boy, did it not disappoint. Zola is an intimidating opponent, with enough minions to overrun anyone. But it's his freaking Scheme value that scared me the most. Draw just one Advance, just one, and it's possible to lose, flat out. Which meant that I had to swap out stuff in my deck to be able to keep the pressure up, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

Oh, and Tough's a jerk. A big fat orange jerk.

Spider-Blitz 

Allies

Brawn

Valkyrie

Black Cat

Spider-Girl

Support

Aunt May

Helicarrier

Hall of Heroes

Avenger's Mansion

Upgrades

Spider-Tracer x2

Web-Shooter x2

Webbed Up x2

Downtime

Martial Prowess

Events

Press the Advantage x2

Drop Kick x2

Enhanced Spider-Sense x2

Backflip x2

You'll Pay For That! x3

Toe to Toe x3

Relentless Assault x2

Swinging Web Kick x3

Resources

The Power of Aggression x2

Energy

Strength

Genius

Campaign

Laser Cannon

Basic Recovery

Zola

I lost three games, right in a row, all right before I would have won. Zola's scheme value trashed me whenever I swapped back to heal, which wasn't very often, due to the sudden availability of Aunt May acrost all four games. The real trip up for this deck, however, was Defensive Programming: +2 hp and Guard, which blocked my access to Zola, while making sure that practically anything I had short of a Swinging Web Kick couldn't one shot the minion who got it. Toughness also came up fairly often, slowing down my machine further. I cannot emphasize this enough: if this deck does not get its Swinging Web Kicks in ASAP real problems begin to emerge.

I'm not kidding when I say that every loss happened with a Swinging Web Kick in hand, Zola at 7 or 8 hp in his last stage, waiting for the next turn. Either I'd get swarmed or schemed out. So I took to social media, hitting up the fine folks on the interwebs  for some quick advice. I got some responses that were really good: take out all but one of my You'll Pay for That! for two Piercing Strikes and one of my Toe to Toes for a third Relentless Assault. This would allow me to kill off the minions and end guard, meaning the Swinging Web Kicks could get through faster.

As a quick aside, I love fan communities for this sort of thing. Like I've said before, this game hits a lot of weak spots in myself, particularly the more logical and analytical aspects. It's so nice to be able to go and jump onto Facebook and Reddit to see what other people are doing and get advice. No community is perfect but it's been so nice for this game and Arkham Horror in particular to get in and see what other people have been doing.

I ended the game at 10 hp, which is just as well, considering that Red Skull is up next. Eep!

Conclusion

Zola was the toughest foe I've faced in the expert campaign so far. Toughness and minions with guard are just incredibly rude aspects of his deck and Zola makes excellent use of them. The jerk just throws you under a pile of amplified minions and then schemes you into the ground when you go back to heal. One of the things that I habitually don't notice is the increased scheme value of a villain. That's usually cause I'm playing Protection or Aggression and am not used to seeing a lot of scheming, but the simple fact of the matter is that a Scheme of 3 trips me up pretty badly. 

Y'know, not to mention all those asshole minions. And Toughness. Evil orange Toughness

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The Rise of the Red Skull: Taskmaster (Expert Solo)

I've been very frank about my skill level on social media. I am not the best Marvel Champions player. I've never done Heroic and I've no real intention to, at least for the foreseeable future. I like the game because it challenges my more analytic and patient side which is... underdeveloped. I'm not good at just sitting down, taking a deep breath, and evaluating threats based on reason, as opposed to gut. And my gut is almost always wrong about this game. Taskmaster hit this weak spot and really made me stretch and grow, and I love him for that.

Spider-Blitz 

Allies

Brawn

Valkyrie

Black Cat

Spider-Girl

Support

Aunt May

Helicarrier

Hall of Heroes

Avenger's Mansion

Upgrades

Spider-Tracer x2

Web-Shooter x2

Webbed Up x2

Downtime

Martial Prowess

Events

Press the Advantage x2

Drop Kick x2

Enhanced Spider-Sense x2

Backflip x2

You'll Pay For That! x3

Toe to Toe x3

Relentless Assault x2

Swinging Web Kick x3

Resources

The Power of Aggression x2

Energy

Strength

Genius

Campaign

Laser Cannon

Basic Recovery

Taskmaster

Oof, this one gave me trouble. A lot of trouble. The first two times I had swapped out Downtime for Combat Prowess and originally had the Basic Attack instead of Basic Recovery, but found it just didn't do me any good. I started the game with 4 hp from last time and quickly found that a key component of the deck was to be able to recover quickly, so that the beat down could continue. Without starting at a higher hp count and a good recovery my offense did me very little good.  So  I swapped out to the configuration you see above in the third game.

Taskmaster himself works against my deck. I have a habit of being risky with my hp, edging on death so that I can get the last hit in. This doesn't work out too well if your hp is already low and you're facing a guy who punishes you for flipping into hero form, not to mention the constant pinging of damage every round. So the second time around I opted to taking the extra threat... and Taskmaster completed his scheme. Arg. 

The third time is when I finally went with Basic Recovery, which turned the fight against Taskmaster... at first. But when I got attacked twice in a turn I found that I was in deep trouble. Taskmaster was at 10 hp on the second stage, with 11 threat(!!!) on the scheme! So freaking close! I'd burned through all my stuff and had no way to clinch the win from events. I got lucky: my allies came to the rescue. I'd built up my machine of Martial Prowess, two Web Shooters, and Helicarrier, which made it possible to play Brawn, Valkyrie, and Spider-Girl, who managed to put Taskmaster down. I am not a fan of allies, but I can't deny they really came through. I didn't see a single captive in the whole game. I ended the game at 7 hp.

Conclusion

This is the first time I could say the campaign really affected what I was doing. Taskmaster is terrifying in his own right, but the carrying over of hp from previous games really forced me to change up what I was doing, which I found to be a welcome change of pace. Taskmaster really challenged my playstyle of blitzing an opponent, flipping to recover and stall, and then finishing off the villain. Taskmaster challenges me by punishing the routine that I love so much at every opportunity, forcing me to slow down and rely upon my allies. I'm a bit sad I didn't get to do the captive stuff, but that'll come up on future campaigns. And I really intend to keep doing campaigns. But that's for later.

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The Rise of the Red Skull: Absorbing Man (Solo Expert)

So, at the behest of one of my readers I decided to not take the Obligation card from last time; I entered this fight with 4 hit points.  Other reviews about Absorbing Man on expert have since come out, with most opining that Absorbing Man is the easiest of the villains in the box. It's not hard to see why this is: Absorbing Man intentionally takes time to get rolling, and if you're quick you can shut him down pretty quickly.

Oh wait that means I don't need to modify my deck at all, right?

Spider-Blitz

Allies

Brawn

Valkyrie

Black Cat

Spider-Girl

Support

Aunt May

Helicarrier

Hall of Heroes

Avenger's Mansion

Upgrades

Spider-Tracer x2

Web-Shooter x2

Webbed Up x2

Downtime

Martial Prowess

Events

Press the Advantage x2

Drop Kick x2

Enhanced Spider-Sense x2

Backflip x2

You'll Pay For That! x3

Toe to Toe x3

Relentless Assault x2

Swinging Web Kick x3

Resources

The Power of Aggression x2

Energy

Strength

Genius

Campaign

Laser Cannon

So the idea around this deck is to go out on an all-out offensive, almost all the time, with some backups in case that is denied. Webbed Up gives you freedom from two attacks and also plays into Press the Advantage (get a card for hitting a stunned foe). You just keep drawing and drawing, looking for Spinning Web Kicks to eat through hit points. If somehow you don't murder the opponent within three or four turns the fact that so many of the cards are permanents will help you cycle through the deck faster the second time around, hopefully landing you on those big power shots.

Absorbing Man

So this didn't quite go as well as I'd hoped. I had a Swinging Web Kick right out the gate and decided to hell with healing, I was going in! And then I somehow managed to get my Backflips and it was looking great! Within two turns I'd gotten Absorbing Man to his next stage. But then the stuns started coming in, along with indirect damage that almost wiped me out in a turn. I knew I'd overextended and flipped to heal... only to have two Advances draw out and almost end the game immediately. I had to flip back and use two You'll Pay For That! to take the frickin' threat back down to something manageable. 

And that's when what I consider to be Spider-Blitz's main issue (minions) started showing up.  That went a lot better than I thought, thanks to a lucky Relentless Assault. But I looked at my remaining Swinging Web Kick for a long minute, wondering if I needed to spend it on the jerk with Guard or not. That's an issue that I'm going to have figure out, come Zola. I didn't have to do it this time, but I'm pretty worried about trying the deck as it is. Ultimately I took Absorbing Man out in six turns, but I may have been able to do it sooner. I ended with 4 hp and picked Basic Attack Upgrade to see if I could curtail the incoming minion explosion.

Conclusion

Absorbing Man on Expert still isn't the toughest thing I've ever faced, nor do I find him the most entertaining. He's a villain who needs you to wait around to be able to do some of his more terrifying things. I don't want to take that long and I can make decks that circumvent that. I get his campaign function, but that doesn't change that this particular villain just doesn't seem to work very well. That being said, I don't think Absorbing Man isn't the worst scenario in the game. He most certainly isn't my favorite. If I were to do the campaign again I would swap Absorbing Man out for someone else, while keeping the delay counters for fighting The Red Skull. Others may disagree with that opinion and I welcome their disagreement, as well as their comments, because your opinions in particular interest me. I may not like the character but it would be good to hear from people that do, because maybe I'm missing something. And even if I'm not it's always good to hear from those who disagree with you.

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The Rise of the Red Skull: Crossbones (Solo Expert)

 

I've been trying to get Spidey to work to my liking since the day this game started. Justice just didn't do it for me, mostly because it was too simple: thwart and Web Kick. I tried Protection, but found that I just don't have a very good handle on Protection yet. My deckbuilding for that aspect was really good (trust me, I checked!) but the cardpool for Protection just isn't quite where I want it for Spider-Man, not yet. Hint FFG: make a card that lets you use a character's Defense for an Attack and you'll get me back to that aspect with Spidey. When I saw all the raw draw power of the character cards in Spider-Woman's deck a lightbulb went off in my head, and I drafted the following deck. For those of you who are wondering, I do not have the ability to access online deck databases while writing; firewalls are evil. So this is what I got. Hope you don't mind.

Spider-Blitz

Allies

Brawn

Valkyrie

Black Cat

Spider-Girl

Support

Aunt May

Helicarrier

Hall of Heroes

Avenger's Mansion

Upgrades

Spider-Tracer x2

Web-Shooter x2

Webbed Up x2

Downtime

Martial Prowess

Events

Press the Advantage x2

Drop Kick x2

Enhanced Spider-Sense x2

Backflip x2

You'll Pay For That! x3

Toe to Toe x3

Relentless Assault x2

Swinging Web Kick x3

Resources

The Power of Aggression x2

Energy

Strength

Genius

So the idea around this deck is to go out on an all-out offensive, almost all the time, with some backups in case that is denied. Webbed Up gives you freedom from two attacks and also plays into Press the Advantage (get a card for hitting a stunned foe). You just keep drawing and drawing, looking for Spinning Web Kicks to eat through hit points. If somehow you don't murder the opponent within three or four turns the fact that so many of the cards are permanents will help you cycle through the deck faster the second time around, hopefully landing you on those big power shots.

Crossbones

Crossbones himself becomes a bit of a pain. Starting out with a machine gun looked fearsome, but we'll get to that in a minute. Most of Crossbones doesn't change that much from his Basic form, and his stage three (deal out out another experimental weapon) doesn't scare me with Spider-Man all that much. That being said, the increased hit points, however slight, is still a speed bump that has to be handled.

I immediately got a Webbed Up along with an Avengers Mansion and got the Webbed Up out, reasoning that would keep me alive for two turns while I got everything together. Turns out I was right. What proceeded was a very speedy set up. I literally did two Toe to Toes in the same turn, defending against one of them, which about destroyed Crossbones, especially when he was coming out of stun. I almost always blew out my hand, while drawing into all my energy support cards (Web Shooters and Martial Prowess), which let me nova almost half the game. 

Also, forgive me if I'm wrong, but the way that the machine is worded it sounds like Backflip avoids all that damage, which includes the indirect damage. That meant that Spidey could (and did in my case) render the machine gun useless. I mean, it says all damage. Even if that's not true it would have only added a turn or two, I think.

By the time I was done, four turns later, Crossbones was a broken man. The one thing I was afraid of- minions- hardly came out, and I found that my deck was well-suited to getting through Crossbone's low hit points. But it wasn't all positive: I ended at 4 hit points, which means that I will be taken an obligation card to reset my health. I'll need to be a bit more respectful of that in the future, but for a first outing? I'm really happy with the deck and had a blast exploiting Crossbone's weakness as fully as I could.

EDIT: One of my intrepid readers has convinced me to start against Absorbing Man with 4 hp, no Obligation. I think he made a good case for it. Should this not be the case I will be blaming him the rest of the campaign! W00T FOR DEFERRING RESPONSIBILITY!!! THAT'S SO SPIDER-MAN!

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The Rise of the Red Skull: Red Skull (Solo Basic)

 

Constraints of Review

I am using the prefabbed decks that come with the box to see how they handle solo play. I do not have the option to do group play by and large, so please take everything you read here with the knowledge that I have no idea how it relates to group play and probably won't for months. When I do get to do group play I'll let you know what I think then. Because I will be playing with everything out of the box, as-is, I will be doing the whole thing on Basic difficulty. I'll go through the box again on Solo Expert and will write up something for that, then.

What is This?

This is the first major expansion for Marvel Champions the Living Card Game. It includes five villains (Crossbones, Absorbing Man, Taskmaster, Zola, and Red Skull) and arranges them in a campaign format. Fight the villains in order, upgrading your deck with campaign cards. pretty simple set up, but simple can be very good. We'll see.

Last Time...

Spider-Woman and Hawkeye both did equally poorly against Zola, both losing a game before finally bringing the victory home. Zola. Is. An. Asshole.

The Red Skull

The star of the show did not disappoint, not in the slightest. Red Skull, like Zola, juggles a ton of things that eventually funnel back into a problem that you just can't help but shake your head at.  First off, there's the side scheme deck, which begins with "The Red House", which blocks all damage to Red Skull while its out. Fortunately you can attack it instead of thwart it! Obviously, this then leads into the central problem of Red Skull's deck: all his side schemes are in their own deck, which then plunks out a new side scheme each turn. Red Skull's attack is equal to the number of side schemes. This gives a completely different level of complexity, as I scrambled to get rid of the side schemes as soon as I could, while dealing with the rest of the nonsense in Red Skull's deck.

The problem, of course, became that my resources were needed elsewhere. Red Skull has a ton of minions, including the Sleeper, who has Toughness and Guard and is linked to a side scheme so you know that jerk is coming back soon (the side scheme deck cycles).EDIT: The Sleeper and his related scheme are removed from the game after defeat, they don't cycle. And thank God. Thanks to TD1215 on Reddit for catching that!  But the real MVP of Red Skull's deck are all the freaking toughness cards that get thrown around. Almost all the minions have toughness. Red Skull has a bunch of cards that grant toughness to himself. I think I drew them all. The sheer amount of orange being thrown around made me feel like I was in a prison cell. Fortunately Red Skull's hit points are pretty low, meaning it's possible to burst damage him if you get the chance. But you will have to earn that friggin' chance.

Spider-Woman took him out in one game and I've absolutely no clue how that happened. The campaign rules made me just completely blow through phase one of Red Skull's scheme: I was hopelessly outmatched. Or so I thought. Pheromones is a great card. But two Pheromones is the best thing ever. I was able to stall Red Skull long enough to get some better cards, turn around, and just punish him. There was a flurry of readies, piercing strikes, and venom blasts, which resulted in a very dead Red Skull. And not a moment too soon: there was an army of tough minions coming my way, which would have probably resulted in a schemed out or dead Spider-Woman.

Hawkeye had a significantly easier time, at least at first. Spider-Woman's base kit is so freaking flexible that she had made up the difference of her bad start. Hawkeye could not adapt the way Spider-Woman could, and so I found myself on the second stage before I knew it. But the issue of having to dance around multiple toughness cards in a row did not present the same issue to Hawkeye as to Spider-Woman, and that is entirely because of Vibranium Arrow and The Black Knight. Being able to just outright ignore Toughness makes The Black Knight an absolute necessity in dealing with Red Skull's nonsense. Somehow I managed to get Toughness on Red Skull three turns in a row, and each time The Black Knight knocked it off, allowing me to finally put down the menace for good.

Conclusion

The namesake of the box is a true threat, throwing around side schemes like they're rumpled up paper, hitting like a truck if you're not careful, and laughing off your feeble attacks to hurt him. The preconstructed decks are able to take him, provided you use them both to their full potential. As much as Spider-Woman's deck was hampered she managed to shine in a completely different way than Hawkeye did. It should be safe to hand this to a complete newbie and let them stumble around with it. This was an amazing ride. I can't wait to get started on the Expert side!

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Rise of the Red Skull: Zola (Solo Basic)

 

Constraints of Review

I am using the prefabbed decks that come with the box to see how they handle solo play. I do not have the option to do group play by and large, so please take everything you read here with the knowledge that I have no idea how it relates to group play and probably won't for months. When I do get to do group play I'll let you know what I think then. Because I will be playing with everything out of the box, as-is, I will be doing the whole thing on Basic difficulty. I'll go through the box again on Solo Expert and will write up something for that, then.

What is This?

This is the first major expansion for Marvel Champions the Living Card Game. It includes five villains (Crossbones, Absorbing Man, Taskmaster, Zola, and Red Skull) and arranges them in a campaign format. Fight the villains in order, upgrading your deck with campaign cards. It's a pretty simple set up, but simple can be very good. We'll see.

Last Time...

Spider-Woman finally did better against Taskmaster than Hawkeye, finishing him in a game. She rescued White Tiger. Hawkeye took Taskmaster down in two games, getting Moon Knight as an ally.

 

Zola

Oh my goodness this guy was fun. Zola's shtick is multi-layered: he has Retaliate 1, kidnaps an ally of yours, and also starts building minions, which leads to Zola milling his own frickin deck. The minions take three rounds to build... most of the time. Zola has cards that can speed that process up unexpectedly. Every time I turned around Zola's deck was appreciably smaller, ratcheting up the tension as that extra encounter card came roaring down the tracks at me. The constant Retaliate is also further augmented by the side-scenario Under Attack, which can bump that up to Retaliate 2, which essentially means game over if you don't take care of that immediately. Zola also buffs all his minions with some of the nastiest upgrades in the game, throwing around Guard like its cotton candy, buffing hit points, and making his minions scheme and hit harder.  I don't remember any of the buffs being removable other than just killing the minion, which can be quite a chore. Literally the only way I found I could win was to try to make each individual hit as big as possible  so as to get pinged for one hit point less often and then to know when to weather a dogpiling form Zola and his minions so I go all in for burst damage. Zola is tense and is probably the best time I've had so far... but I haven't played Red Skull yet.

Spider-Woman actually had a marginally easier time with Zola. Yes, I lost the first game, but I found that Spider-Woman's core card set made her versatile enough to deal with a lot of Zola's shenanigans. But then again I never ran into minions who'd both been upgraded to have Guard and 7 HP, so maybe that's not the fairest thing to say of my experience. Spider-Woman dealt with the constant threat build up really well, had higher HP than Hawkeye, and dealt big enough burst damage to be able to survive the second fight without needing to flip back.

I think Hawkeye got the rougher end of the deal, game-wise. For whatever reason a lot more minions came out, stretching my early game resources past their limits and giving me choices that I found truly impossible to figure out. While having Hawkeye's bow meant that he didn't take damage from Retaliate I found that to be a small comfort, as Spider-Woman's amped HP was almost one and a half times Hawkeye's. There are a lot of minions in this deck and Hawkeye just doesn't deal with that sort of thing very well at all, even with his explosion arrows, since these are easily the toughest minions in the game. I lost the first game because of two Guard minion jerks with 7 HP, who gunked things up so badly that I couldn't get the burst damage that I had out at Zola. The second game I prioritized bursting and ignored my allies; they couldn't deal enough damage fast enough and definitely couldn't take enough hits against the oncoming horde, so why bother? I loaded up all the arrows and just shot and shot and shot and shot until Zola was a charred confused corpse.

Conclusion

Out of the four I've fought so far Zola has definitely been the most intense. There's multiple plates juggling, almost all of which eventually funnel into powerful minions who laugh at your feeble attempts to kill them. Retaliate 1 means you have to be more judicious about landing blows when everything in you wants to just ping this dude to death. And watching Zola deck himself lent a unique feeling of dread. Playing against Zola on Basic reminded me of Expert Green Goblin: there's always all this crap going on and you're wondering if you can truly handle it all. I look to the future Expert run with true dread and excitement.

Rise of the Red Skull: Taskmaster (Solo Basic)

Constraints of Review

I am using the prefabbed decks that come with the box to see how they handle solo play. I do not have the option to do group play by and large, so please take everything you read here with the knowledge that I have no idea how it relates to group play and probably won't for months. When I do get to do group play I'll let you know what I think then. Because I will be playing with everything out of the box, as-is, I will be doing the whole thing on Basic difficulty. I'll go through the box again on Solo Expert and will write up something for that, then.

What is This?

This is the first major expansion for Marvel Champions the Living Card Game. It includes five villains (Crossbones, Absorbing Man, Taskmaster, Zola, and Red Skull) and arranges them in a campaign format. Fight the villains in order, upgrading your deck with campaign cards. It's a pretty simple set up, but simple can be very good. We'll see.

Last Time...

Hawkeye and Spider-Woman took out Absorbing Man, each doing it in one battle. Once again Hawkeye had the easier time of it, his deck being overall better; he got four delay counters. Spider-Woman had an easier time with Absorbing Man than she did Crossbones, but she did get nine delay counters. I prefer her character cards by a good degree to Hawkeye's, but the deck is overall is just a pain in the rear to work with. Spider-Woman has a bonus to her defense and more hit points, while Hawkeye has 

Taskmaster

I couldn't find the rules for Taskmaster's hostages anywhere in the rulebook. Maybe I'm just an idiot? I dunno? (EDIT: IT'S ON THE 1A SIDE OF THE CARD OY) It wasn't until I found the side scheme that said specifically says the hostages are supposed to be put off to the side and then put under the "Captured by Hydra" side scheme that I really knew what to do with them. If you found it in the rules? Please lemme know where I missed it. If you're also scratching your head you're definitely not alone here. If you can't find it either put the captives off to the side for the "Captured by Hydra" side scheme! If you defeat that side scheme you just rescued that captive and now have them as a part of your deck. It's pretty dang cool. Y'know, provided you actually know what to do.

Taskmaster himself has some interesting permutations to him. He either gains two threat at the beginning of his turn or he gains a threat and you're dealt a damage. That crap adds up! And he only has one scheme, at twelve threat, which gives you about six rounds if you stay in hero form and don't change back. But the thing is that each time you switch from alter ego to hero mode you take damage, which means that if you're going to swap forms you need to make sure your healing wasn't undone by flipping back into hero mode. But the asshole card of the deck is Photographic Memory: it reflects whatever damage you were going to do back onto you. I found that to be a really interesting challenge to work around, especially considering that my attempts to buff my heroes would then turn against me.

Spider-Woman actually did really well against Taskmaster. Being able to stun and confuse turned around some of the more tense situations, not to mention being able to heal in hero mode, which helped her not get smacked around as much. She could get out a consistent damage output on most turns, which helped with Taskmaster's mediocre hit points. I was still tripped up by her deck but fortunately the core mechanics are good and fun, allowing me to compensate when necessary (which was often). I got White Tiger out of this particular game.

Hawkeye on the other hand lost once. And it was close. Hawkeye got tripped up by Photographic Memory a lot more than Spider-Woman, as he had no way of mitigating the damage with the default deck. Hawkeye's default kit also could not handle the rapidly escalating threat that Taskmaster could throw. I had to rely heavily on my allies to handle the threat, and ending my second battle with a grand beatdown that killed all my allies, but resulted in 17 damage at once. It felt amazing and it was the first time I actually had fun playing this deck. Moon Knight was rescued in this game.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed Taskmaster. He presented unique challenges that I felt like I needed to approach in a different way. And being able to gain a little bit more for the next fight really good. Had I been a bit more daring I may have decided to stick around to get the rest of the captives, but I'm still futzing around and would like to run the campaign a few more times before I start kicking around like that. Overall this is has been a really enjoyable experience so far. It's not Arkham Horror complicated, but I'm finding that I don't care about that as much. 

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Rise of the Red Skull: Absorbing Man (Solo Basic)

Constraints of Review

I am using the prefabbed decks that come with the box to see how they handle solo play. I do not have the option to do group play by and large, so please take everything you read here with the knowledge that I have no idea how it relates to group play and probably won't for months. When I do get to do group play I'll let you know what I think then. Because I will be playing with everything out of the box, as-is, I will be doing the whole thing on Basic difficulty. I'll go through the box again on Solo Expert and will write up something for that, then.

What is This?

This is the first major expansion for Marvel Champions the Living Card Game. It includes five villains (Crossbones, Absorbing Man, Taskmaster, Zola, and Red Skull) and arranges them in a campaign format. Fight the villains in order, upgrading your deck with campaign cards. It's a pretty simple set up, but simple can be very good. We'll see.

Last Time...

After four grueling fights Spider-Woman finally took down Crossbones. She grabbed the laser bazooka. Hawkeye did it in one. Yeah. Grabbed the tactics card (lets you draw five cards). These cards are one shot and then gone. 

At the end of this game I get a bonus card that helps boost a basic option from my character, like thwarting, attack, defending, etc.

Absorbing Man

So Absorbing Man seems pretty normal, at least at first, with the exception of these delay counters, which get played at the same time as when you're putting down threat at the beginning of the villain's round.  You're just sorta minding your business and all that... and then environments come out. There can only be one environment at a time (thank goodness), and these bastards lay down additional crap atop an undefended attack against you. And a bunch of the encounter cards key off of those delay counters, meaning that the longer the fight goes on the worse some of the encounter cards get. They don't come out terribly often, but they pack a really mean punch.

Spider-Woman took out Absorbing man in nine rounds. The laser bazooka definitely came out and fried a bunch of minions. I definitely didn't have anything to deal with guard or anything like that. Fortunately Pheromones came through, stunning and confusing, allowing me to survive much longer than I had any right to. The default deck really pinched this time. I'm tempted to abandon it, but let's see how crap with Taskmaster goes tomorrow. I wound up grabbing the Defensive boost, as Spider-Woman can defend really well and I keep finding that I need a higher defense.

Hawkeye took Absorbing Man out in four rounds. Four. Half the time. Once again Goliath made things a lot easier, although he came out because I sacrificed my tactical upgrade and got the cards necessary to play him. That bow really needs more ways to be readied, which Leadership just can't give Hawkeye. That being said I was able to pump out a ton of damage, quickly. And, of course, I gave him the attack boost at the end, which would make Hawkeye even more dangerous than he already is.

Conclusion

Absorbing Man didn't quite wow me as much as Crossbones did, but that may have been because I had learned the player decks better. I wasn't too happy with not being able to get rid the environments. That would be an interesting mechanic, I think. That being said, the variety is nice and I could easily replay this scenario and get appreciably different results each time, thanks to those freaking environments.

Okay, let's be fair: I won in one on both because of the laser bazooka. Spider-Woman would have lost the first time otherwise. Hawkeye too, probably.

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Rise of the Red Skull: Crossbones (Solo Basic)

You are going to have to forgive my rage. I had typed up what I thought was a really good review of Crossbones.... and then Blogger ate the whole post. The whole. Frickin. Thing. I honestly felt so bitter about it I almost rage quit right there. I still might. So here's take two! Here's hoping Blogger behaves. Yes, I know I could just use a Word Doc. You're absolutely right. But something about being able to see the pictures and the formatting helps me focus more than if it was simply a Word Doc. Pick your poison, right?

Alright, rant over.

Constraints of Review

I am using the prefabbed decks that come with the box to see how they handle solo play. I do not have the option to do group play by and large, so please take everything you read here with the knowledge that I have no idea how it relates to group play and probably won't for months. When I do get to do group play I'll let you know what I think then. Because I will be playing with everything out of the box, as-is, I will be doing the whole thing on Basic difficulty. I'll go through the box again on Solo Expert and will write up something for that, then.

What is This?

This is the first major expansion for Marvel Champions the Living Card Game. It includes five villains (Crossbones, Absorbing Man, Taskmaster, Zola, and Red Skull) and arranges them in a campaign format. Fight the villains in order, upgrading your deck with campaign cards. It's a pretty simple set up, but simple can be very good. We'll see.

Crossbones

We're finally at the main event, the man himself: Crossbones! What a delightful pain in the ass I found him! Crossbones specializes in weapon attachments, which bring him passive bonuses and other abilities that turn him into a constant threat if you aren't discarding the appropriate resources. Crossbones has a side deck that brings out additional weapons with each advance made in his scheme. Respect these weapons and prioritize them, otherwise you'll end up like me, facing a monstrosity of a villain who will just chew you up and spit you out like you were bad breakfast. His second character stage in particular is nasty, allowing him to pull out a machine gun and deal just loads and loads of damage. I found that when he went to second stage I had to pick and choose my fights very carefully, as he could one hit either Spider-Woman or Hawkeye with ease. Fortunately, Crossbones has a glaw jaw, with the lowest hp for any villain so far. So it's possible to nova him as well, you just have to be smart about it.

I had a very hard time with Spider-Woman, losing three times in a row before I got the trick and finally won. Spider-Woman doesn't have a whole lot of damage mitigation in her deck and no interrupts, which means that I had very little to actually protect me. That being said, her Pheromones card (Stun and Confuse!) let me switch back pretty often without taking a lot of threat. That being said, I was too conservative on switching back: it's a three stage scheme, so it's not like you can't retreat a bit if you need to. 

With Hawkeye, however, I won on the first game. That may be because I played him after Spider-Woman and got wise to the tricks that Crossbones has? I don't know? What I do know is that it's good to have Allies (read: chump blockers) to deal with Crossbone's evil ways. You have to be able to ride out the bursts of stupid amounts of damage to deal with Crossbones, which Hawkeye's deck is able to do very well.

Conclusion

I know the community has been talking about the lack of villains for a long time. It's been warranted. But if Crossbones is any indication of the quality of this box I think I can safely say the wait has been worth it. Crossbones was a lot of fun to play against, with some really interesting spikes and weaknesses that made fighting him a really entertaining prospect. And that's after five games, in a row. They were short. Intense. Powerful. But man, I liked fighting him.

I'm really excited for the rest of the box.

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The Dunwich Legacy: The House Always Wins

There had been no time to celebrate after Pete and Duke had returned with Professor Rice to Pete's friend, Professor Armitage: Pete was immediately sent out by his elderly friend to find Dr. Francis Morgan. "If Professor Rice was in trouble then Dr. Morgan is definitely in trouble", was what Prof. Armitage with a bit of a sniff. Prof. Rice was known for frequenting shady locales, particularly The Clover Club.

Professor Rice, grateful for being saved from the slaughter at Miskatonic University, had volunteered to go with Pete and Duke, to help however he could. He had been the only person to survive the wholesale killing from that night, including Georgia. Georgia was a student at the Miskatonic University. She had tried to help Pete find Prof. Rice, only to leave to go fight that... thing... that had escaped from the Science Department. There had been no hesitation, no fear, on Georgia's part. Pete wished he could have said the same. Had he avoided the fight with the monstrosity on the campus out of pure cowardice? Had he really been focused on getting to Prof. Rice as much as he said he had? Pete had asked himself that question then, although he refused to acknowledge it. But when they'd left campus Pete had seen her... what was was left of the pieces of Georgia, scattered about the ground. And all because Pete hadn't gone with her.

Duke growled, but Pete didn't hear him. All he saw was the door to the Clover Club. A man in a pinstripe suit watched them with the sneer of the mob.

The growl turned to a bark.

The sneer turned to terror.

There was a skittering up Pete's leg, little pins in his calf. One yelp and a shake later revealed an enormous rat. Pete stomped and immediately wished he hadn't; the guts of the creature stuck in the holes of his shoes. He heard the skittering and squeaking behind him and felt ice water in his veins. Duke, on the other hand, charged the oncoming horde, snarling, rending, throwing rat corpses the size of terriers aside like they were so many torn paper bags.  The horde fled, vanishing into the darkness with their squeaks of rage and impotence.

The pinstripe suit was trembling. ".... again... not again.. I can't stand those... Can't. Can't. Mamma couldn't..."

The only thing Pete could see was Georgia's mangled pieces. There were flies crawling out what was left of her mouth. Already. Things rot so fast.

All of a sudden Pete was back with the man in the suit. "These... these aren't the first?" he asked with a shudder. The suit shook his head. "How... how bad is it?"

The suit looked up. "We've lost a lot of customers. It's been this way the last few weeks. Whole hordes of vermin.... and I know worse? But I just hate rats."

The thing had ripped her scalp off; blood pooled behind her head.

"Duke and  I can help with the rats. And... and whatever else."

Professor Rice started. "That's not why we're here. We came to-"

"Shut up. Duke and I. We got this."

Duke was bristling. Pete knelt next to him, stroking his fur, shushing him, whispering sweet nothings into those long and floppy ears. Slowly Duke stopped bristling. And then they all walked into the Clover Club.

A man in a solid midnight suit was on them like white on rice. "Excuse me, the mutt-"

"- can help us with our pest problem, boss" chimed the pin-striped suit. "He made real good work of another one of those mobs."

"Oh," he stared at Pete and Duke "You're here to help with our... problem?"

Pete held out a hand. "Yessir. I'm Aschan Pete. I manage for Duke over there." Duke, slobbering and panting, looked over at the barren tables.

The midnight suit shook Pete's hand. "Jimmy. Pleased to make yours and Duke's acquaintance." Pete nodded. "Knock yourselves out," Jimmy said, handing Pete a fire axe. "Just in case."

Nothing else seemed amiss in the lounge, apart from it being almost completely empty. So Pete went to the bar. As if on cue, the squeaks and swarming started. Pete and Duke scattered them after a few minutes of swings and bites. Pete was happy he had the axe; no more rat guts in his shoes! There was a glass of whisky on one of the tables. Pete drained it in a gulp, swallowing around the incoming fire. Duke was happily breaking a dead rat's back, whipping it from side to side in his jaws.

There was a skittering in the room just beyond, followed by screams. Sighing, Pete grabbed the axe and rushed into the adjoining card room. Duke charged ahead of him. Squeals, screams, barks, and the falling of an axe followed shortly thereafter. Exhausted, Pete slumped back against a table. A blackjack dealer was cowering atop it, shaking like a leaf. There was another glass of whisky next to the shaky dealer. Downing the fire, Pete poked the shaking boy; he fell off the table with a yelp. "I'd like to play a round, if that's arright with you, Pete slurred. Trembling, the dealer leaned against the table and stood up.

10.

"Hit me"

3

"Hit me"

King

"DAMNIT!! Pete roared and hit the table, causing the poor boy to jump. "That never works for me!"

Screams were heard from the lounge. Duke had begun to move a split second before that.

A looming white monstrosity was coming out of a hole in the floor; there were no breaks in the floorboards, which looked dissolved. Duke lunged; he squealed as he was batted aside like a ragdoll, trashing a nearby table, sending chairs flying into the nearby walls. Jimmy came running up and was dragged back down into the hole, screams echoing in the ears of the survivors. Pulling  back into the bar with everyone else, Pete hid next to the door. a few minutes later the pale thing looked in, cautiously.

The world lost all color. Warmth. All that moved. And began to swirl around something... else. Duke squared up, growling, at the roiling colors and warmth, oblivious to the black and white world he was in.

Pete buried his axe into the white thing's head.

He saw Georgia's face a second before the axe buried itself in it. Pete fell backwards, screaming into the world of black and white and grey and cold.

A few barks and growls and the world went back to warmth and color. Pete grabbed a random glass nearby and chugged. "GAH! VODKA! Blech!"

After a minute Pete and Duke went back into the lounge. The yawning abyss stared back up at them. "You ready boy?" Duke whined. There was no color in the tunnel Pete found in the abyss. Duke sniffed in the black and white and grey gloom. 

The color was back up above, in the- around - more spheres. One of the men charged in at them, at whatever it was. Pete and Duke charged up and out, ripping and hacking the thing apart. Color returned to the world.

The man who had swung at the color draining spheres clapped Pete on the shoulder. "I'm Peter Clover, owner of the club you trashed." Pete's face fell. Peter Clover laughed. "Oh c'mon, I'm just joking! You saved my life! I could never begin to repay you for that."

Dr. Francis Morgan was nowhere to be found, try as they might. He was gone.

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