Marvel Champions: The Card Game - Core Set

Heroic Actions

"The best thing we ever did was getting together in the first place.  I was so new to the armor, to the adventure, and when this team got together... I said to myself 'this is worth doing, this is important.'"
   – Iron Man, Avengers vol.3 #504

Every game of Marvel Champions invites you to play as an iconic Marvel hero, complete with their own 40-50 card deck. Just one Core Set allows four players to team up with their own heroes, and gives you a complete playset of cards right out of the box!

Once all players have selected their hero, they choose a scenario—taking on a nefarious Marvel villain and their matching scheme. Although each villain brings their own allies and tactics to the scenario, these scenarios can also be customized with additional modular encounters to increase the challenge of a fight or mix up the forces arrayed against you.

Each villain and scheme has multiple forms, shifting the momentum and the rules of the fight as the villain continues to enact their plans and the heroes attempt to defeat them. Let the scheme advance enough times and the heroes will lose the game. But if you can fight through the villain’s various forms and completely deplete their hit points, your team of heroes emerge as champions!

The game is played over a series of rounds consisting of two phases: the player phase and the villain phase. During each player's turn in the player phase, players thwart the villain by taking a variety of actions, including:

• Playing an ally, upgrade, or support card from their hand.
• Using their alter-ego’s basic recovery or their hero’s basic attack or thwart power.
• Using an ally card they control to attack an enemy or thwart a scheme.
• Using an Action ability on a card in play or an event from their hand.
• Asking another play to trigger an Action ability on a card they control.
• Flipping their identity card to its hero or alter-ego form. (This option can only be performed once per turn.)

Although you're a hero at heart, you won't spend the whole game in your hero form. Marvel Champions: The Card Game places just as much emphasis on your character's alter-ego as it does on their heroic identity. Many cards in your deck aren't based on your hero's powers, but on their life outside their costume. As the leader of a nation, T'Challa has unique advantages, compared to the more stealth-and-tech oriented Black Panther. For example, only T'Challa can call on his Ancestral Knowledge  (Core Set, 42) to find the proper course of action. But having a life outside the mask also entails a certain sense of danger. Each of these alter-egos has their own obligations and responsibilities that your adversaries can use at the worst possible moment!

With the exception of flipping your identity card, you can use these options as many times as you want during your turn, provided you can pay the cost that many of them demand. 

To play a card from your hand, you must first pay its resource cost, seen in the upper left corner of the card. These resources are most often generated by discarding other cards from your hand—every card has a number of symbols in the bottom left, indicating how many and what kind of resources are generated by that card when you discard it. Perhaps the discarded cards represents the mental fortitude needed to invent a new repulsor ray on the fly, or the physical prowess to deliver a devastating web kick. This makes every turn of Marvel Champions a difficult strategic decision. Will you forgo using your Legal Practice  (Core Set, 23) to deliver a massive Gamma Slam  (Core Set, 21)? Or give up delivering a One-Two Punch  (Core Set, 24) to thwart the villain with your Superhuman Law Division  (Core Set, 26)? 

Although you're giving up cards and options to payhis also means you'll always have the oppurtunity to perform amazing feats on your turn. You refill your hand at the end of every player phase, meaning you'll always have the resources you need to make an impact in the fight, and you never have to "sit out" for a turn, creating fast-paced action with a mix of strategic decisions. Marvel Champions is always about reading the field, working with your teammates, and prioritizing the best course of action.

But your hero is far from helpless, even without the support of additional cards. On your turn, you can directly battle the villain using your attack (ATK) value, taking the fight to the villain mano a mano, or remove threat from a scheme by using your thwart (THW) value to outsmart the villain with tactics and ingenuity.  If your character is in their alter-ego form, you can use their basic recovery (REC) value to recover hit points while your allies attack and thwart the villain!

These three values represent your hero's awesome natural abilities!

Your hero also has access to their supports and upgrades in your play area. Many of these cards have Action abilities that can be used during your turn, or even during another player's turn if they ask for help. You may use your Superhuman Law Division  (Core Set, 26) to remove threat from a scheme or channel your energy to attack the villain with Superhuman Strength  (Core Set, 28)!

Finally, you can ask another player to use an Action ability on a card they control or on an event card they might have in hand. Marvel Champions is a cooperative game by nature, and it takes proper teamwork to bring down the villain. By allowing players to act during each other's turn, the strategic possibilities are endless. Simply by using Action abilities at just the right moment and calling on your teammates for support, you can thwart schemes and become a champion in the Marvel Universe!

In addition to all of the different actions that you can take on your turn, each hero's deck can be constructed in very different ways to unlock distinct possibilities and new strategies. Each hero has their own unique set of fifteen cards that truly define their hero. These are then mixed with cards from one of four aspects (Leadership, Protection, Aggression, or Justice) to construct a 40-50 card deck. Add in basic cards that any hero can use and Marvel Champions provides a solid base for your deck while still providing plenty of customization options if you enjoy deckbuilding.

Nefarious Schemes

"Ultron. We would have words with thee."
   – The Mighty Thor, Avengers Vol.3  #22

After each of the players have taken a turn, they'll draw cards up to their hand size, ready their characters, and prepare for an assault from the villain. The villain begins their turn by placing more threat on their scheme. This threat represents a ticking clock, bringing the villain closer to completing their objective and ultimate victory. Whether you’re facing the monstrous Rhino or the terrifying Ultron, this means bad news for our heroes.

If seven threat per player is placed on The Break-In!, the heroes lose the game!

When the amount of threat on the scheme reaches its threshold, the villain's plan advances, represented by moving to the next card in the scheme deck. Or, if that scheme was the final card in the scheme deck, the heroes are defeated!

After threat is placed on the scheme, the villain activates against every hero still standing. If your character is in their hero form, they'll suffer a brutal attack, but staying back from the fight in your alter-ego allows the villain to place even more threat on their scheme! Each of these activations is bolstered by cards from the villain's encounter deck, so you can never be quite sure exactly how much damage your hero is about to take, or how much threat is about to be placed on the scheme. Fortunately, your hero can exhaust themselves to prevent damage equal to their defense (DEF) value.

The different ways that the villain can act forces the heroes to think ahead during their turns. If every hero is in their alter-ego form, there's no one around to stop the villain from scheming and bringing his dark plans to fruition. But if everyone is taking a direct hit from the villain, that may put the heroes in an even worse situation. You’ll have to work together and prioritize your objectives every turn if you have a hope of finding victory!

Just like the heroes, villains have natural abilities. Unlike the heroes, they use them for pure evil!

Finally, each hero draws a card from the villain’s encounter deck. This deck represents the villain's powers, tools, and minions, and also includes your hero's unique obligation, shuffled in at the start of the game. During this stage, Rhino might find a new ally in the form of the Shocker, Klaw might deliver a mighty Sonic Boom, or Ultron could call in his drone army.

These cards make your job harder, but the Marvel heroes are experts in overcoming adversity! If you can withstand the villain's schemes and attacks, the heroes enter another player phase, ready to jump back into the action. Do you have what it takes to defeat the villain and save the world?

Look to the Future

As a Living Card Game, Marvel Champions offers frequent releases of product, but the types of products will notably work a little differently compared to our other Living Card Games. Here are some future products you might see coming to Marvel Champions:

• Hero Packs – Each Hero Packs of a cycle will introduce a brand-new hero to play from the Marvel Universe. Each 60 card Hero Pack features a playable hero with a new identity card and a 40 card deck that can be played right out of the pack. Some of the cards in this Hero Pack are specific to the new hero, whereas others can be mixed and matched with the rest of the card pool. As with the heroes in the Core Set, this pack also contains a side quest and rival villain for the featured hero.
• Standalone Scenarios – Standalone Scenario Packs introduce a new scenario, with a new villain and their scheme, to your games of Marvel Champions, complete with its own encounter deck! These scenarios are perfect to purchase when you’re looking to take on a new challenge, and discover a different way to play Marvel Champions: The Card Game.
• Campaign Expansions – The larger campaign expansions introduce a series of three to five linked scenarios that let you live out your favorite comic book stories! These boxes contain both new heroes and villains to expand your game of Marvel Champions!

However you choose to play, Marvel Champions: The Card Game lets you feel the power of a Marvel hero. Can you balance power and responsibility, and save the world in the process?