Marvel Champions – The Board Gaymer

Ya’ll know we love games in our house, but today I wanted to share about one of my favorites, and the game in my collection that I have played the most times… Marvel Champions!

A few months ago I had the chance to try out Marvel Champions for the first time and instantly fell in love with the game. From the quick set up, to how I can get a solo game played in 30ish minutes, everything about this game was perfect for me! The Marvel theme was just a perfect added bonus!

About Marvel Champions

Marvel Champions is a living card game that allows you to play as your favorite Marvel hero trying to defeat an infamous villain. 

The aspect of Marvel Champions that is unlike other games that I have played is how you are able to fully customize your decks for each game. For example, if you are playing as Spider Man from the core box, but have cards from other expansions, you are able to build out your deck with these new cards, making Spider Man even stronger than before. This customization doesn’t stop at the hero level, however, as you are also able to customize your villains’ encounter decks. With this mechanic, if you have the appropriate expansions you can play the scenario as if Ultron had the infinity gauntlet, which is just crazy to think about!!!

Expansions

There are a ton of ways to expand your collection of Marvel Champions, from hero packs with a new hero and prebuilt deck to boxed expansions with 2 heroes and multiple new villains to play against. Personally, I prefer the boxed expansions because they add the most diversity to the game, but the hero packs and encounter decks are an awesome way to get the heroes you want to play as into the game for a lower price point. 

Civil War Expansion:

This Civil War expansion is one of my favorites so far! I have always loved the concept of Marvel’s Civil War and with this expansion I am able to play against a few of my favorite heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Spider Woman! These encounters are pretty layered, one of my favorite aspects being Captain America’s shield which bounces back and forth between him and the players. 

The heroes in this box are also really fun to play as. Tigra is powerful once you get her basics down, and Hulkling is great at shapeshifting into new stats when you need him to. 

Lastly, this expansion brings in a new PvP mode to Marvel Champions which has to this point been a cooperative game. I have not yet tried this PvP mode, but I am excited to get it to the table!

Falcon Hero Pack: 

I was very impressed with the Falcon hero pack! As somebody who doesn’t know much about Falcon, besides what I have seen of him from the Avengers movies, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed playing his hero pack. One thing about his pack that I learned in my playthrough was that he is really good at surviving. While I didn’t win with him, it took way longer for him to lose than it has with other heroes.

Silk Hero Pack: 

I am a huge fan of the webbed warriors so I was already expecting to really enjoy the Silk hero pack. I loved her hero pack, especially since she is one of the most puzzle driven heroes I have played as in this game. A lot of her gameplay revolves around anticipating which cards are left in the deck, and I absolutely love that!

Black Panther Hero Pack:

I was very intrigued to see how Marvel Champions would be incorporating Shuri into the game, especially since there is already a Black Panther hero deck in the core box, and I was very happy with how it turned out! One of my favorite things about Shuri’s hero deck is all of the upgrades! Something I learned about halfway through my first play with her was that you can’t be afraid to discard these upgrades. They are useful, but knowing when to discard them can save you the game!

Winter Soldier Hero Pack: 

I’ll cut to the chase, the Winter Soldier hero deck is one of my favorite hero decks in the entire line of Marvel Champions heroes! He is powerful and just overall super fun to play as! The thing I love most about this pack is the amount of combos you can pull out in the game. It is so satisfying to have everything line up and knock it down!

Where Do I Start?

If you’re new to the Marvel Champions scene, I would recommend starting with the base game before making any extra purchases. The most important thing is figuring out if Marvel Champions is a game you will enjoy, and the core box has more than enough game to make that decision. The core box comes with 5 heroes and 3 villains… which means a lot of variation before any expansions are even added. 

After you play the base game, if you determine that you want to purchase more Marvel Champions Content, here’s exactly how I would do it. I would start off by getting a boxed expansion with heroes and villains that you would enjoy playing with. These are a great option as they offer the most “bang for your buck” in my opinion. After that, I would look into the hero packs available and see if there are any of interest. These are great since they introduce a new hero into your games, as well as new aspect cards, which help to make your decks more customized. Last but not least, I would find an encounter pack that calls to you. There are a ton of these packs available for villains from The Avengers all the way to X-Men. These decks add new villains to the game and are a great option if you want to balance your hero to villain ratio. 

My most important bit of advice is to try the base game before you expand, but once you know you like the game, get as much as you want. It’s also important to note that you do NOT need to buy everything that has been put out for Marvel Champions! After you get the base game, everything else is optional. I’m a huge fan of the game and have A TON of Marvel Champions content, but there are heroes I haven’t bought yet because they aren’t my favorites.

At the end of the day, Marvel Champions is one of my favorite games, and I recommend it to anybody who is looking for a new card game to get into. It is such a fun game with more replayability than I can even explain. Each hero has their own special abilities and the asymmetry involved in the game just adds so much more replayability! 

If you have any questions about Marvel Champions, feel free to drop a comment here or on my socials (@TheBoardGaymer)!

Thank you so much to Fantasy Flight Games for sending over these Marvel Champions goodies for me to try out!!!

About The Board Gaymer:

Joey is a student, board gamer, and content creator based in Atlanta, Georgia—most days, he’s somewhere between a study session and a cardboard filled game night. When he is not spending time with his partner or family, you can find him sharing about his favorite board game moments on social media as @TheBoardGaymer. One of Joey’s favorite accomplishments was being named one of Best Self Atlanta’s 40 Under 40 Inspiring Innovators alongside his partner.