Marvel Champions Review with Bryan

Bryan takes a look at the newest LCG from FFG based on Marvel!

00:00 - Introduction
01:34 - Game overview
08:07 - Final thoughts

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[katsuroe]

I appreciate that’s this is good alternative to Arkham. FFG has been finally exploring the spaces it ignored back when they started this style of LCG co ops.

[tylerbrown]

The art, from what I can tell, is from the comics more or less.

For example, Iron Man's helmet is Salvador Larroca art from his run with Matt Fraction. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it.

[Table.Fables]

Nice review Bryan! Have you tried Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game? If so, how does this compare?

[VictoryConditionGaming]

I’ll have to give this a play. Hopefully some of the folks around here will get into it so I can try it out with them first.

[Atlas-FM]

Jim Lee is actually responsible for some of the most iconic X-men designs. A lot of the stuff in X-men the animated series is based off his art; Gambit, Cyclops with hair, rogue with her green and yellow jumpsuit and leather jacket, etc.

[DukensteinA]

I’m torn. Sometimes the narrative investment required from Arkham horror lcg and lotr are a little too much for spontaneous, casual play. But that narrative is the appeal to me. I may still give this a try.

[crytonchronicles]

I just came across this review after discussing the game with a friend and finding an FFG article about it and I was curious, how many times was this game played before the review was made? While like another poster mentioned, the forgetting of the game's name was irksome to me, though there is the Contest of Champions (both mobile and board game) and I know it can sometimes be easy to mix names up (or hard to pronounce, same as developer/designer/etc names), so I blew that off.

However, they seem to not know what heroes and villains are in included (granted once going over Iron Man shortly thereafter and seeing the other hero cards they were all eventually named off, but I think an unplayable villain was named? Is Yon-Rogg a villain set up?) From my understanding, there are only 5 heroes (Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, She-Hulk, Iron Man) and 3 villains (Rhino, Klaw, Ultron), but this was based off what a friend told me and what I recall from the article, not having the product right in front of me, so not knowing those seemed odd to me. And again, this is having limited info myself. Also, I don't count characters present as an Ally/Nemesis in decks to be seen as viable Vs. option. Vulture is only in the game when playing Spider-Man, as a/his Nemesis, so you couldn't say, play Vulture Vs Iron Man as a scenario.

On that topic, I was confused when it was stated the game was more like a One-off comic of X vs X, but listed Captain America vs Killmonger. Captain America isn't included in the game as a playable character (except maybe as an ally or support card, as I've not seen the entire card list, but I feel that wouldn't count as it's not a scenario set up?), but will be in a Hero Pack down the road, yet I wouldn't associate it with the core set review myself. Spider-man Vs Doc Ock? Is that a playable scenario in the core set? It's in this part of the review where they mention "mashing up" your favorite heroes vs your favorite villains where I was curious it didn't trigger possibly forgetting how to even design your deck.

I believe to even play the game you have to build a deck from a set of Hero-centric cards with a set of Aspect-centric cards (and maybe some neutral Basic cards) "mashed" together, a fairly popular mechanic(?). Those sets of Aspect cards (Protection, Aggression, Leadership, Justice) are a major part of the game, determining your role and how you play your character. In most reviews/scoring I'm familiar with, this basic set up would be explained. But also, "replayability" is an important consideration and these Aspect sets are a major component in facilitating that, along with enemy difficulty adjustments (which I believe were mentioned). Are Aspect cards not used during the Starter setup? I couldn't find any information on that.

Lastly, I'm not sure why it seems more comparable to Legendary (aside from being Marvel?), but to be completely candid I've only played LotR and Arkham Horror LCGs once or twice each, so there's that. Most seem to feel it follows along the LCG iterations, but this is all personal perception too, so likely a moot point. I am just really into Legendary and didn't find it necessarily in that vein.

I want to make sure to point out that I have seen previous videos by this reviewer that I enjoyed and believe they were accurate in explaining many elements of the game (including resource payment/usage, which someone claimed they erroneously described), but that maybe it was rushed? Maybe a little unorganized? I believe in a response they said they review upwards of 80 or so games a year and they don't extensively research a game before hitting the table. Yet some of these are basic gameplay that wouldn't require such efforts.

And so I was curious given how many reviews they do in a year, how many plays of a game are done before giving a full review of it? Especially considering the fact that these reviews influence people buying (or passing on buying) said game.

[GameWeekendChalbie]

I’m excited for this game. It’ll be my first LCG.

[Nayr]

Thanks for the review Bryan! Have you ever played Sentinels of the Multiverse? I've been hearing comparisons with this and Sentinels, so I'm wondering if you had thoughts on that.

[boardjamesgeek]

LOTR and AH are not similar. Im confused why you think that. Marvel Champions seems more like an evolution from LOTR

[christofferthormannjensen]

I really enjoy playing flip/roll & writes solo, just a short little puzzle for my brain, where I try to make the best options with what I'm given.
Those I enjoy the most: Tiny Towns, Cartographers, Welcome To and That's So Clever.

[stephenferzetti]

Thanks Bryan, you answered the question I wanted to know. I was looking for something a bit more story driven. I've been playing the LOTR card game released to steam and really enjoying But their content is releasing too slow. So I was considering jumping Think I'll pass.... Unfortunately, arkham horror is a bit of a pass thematically. Right now the only game I pull out to play solo is Robinson crusoe. (which I enjoy tons) hope things are going well.

[KSweeney]

I prefer beat your own score in solo games.

[Magar]

Does the Dice Tower take any money/benefits from the publishers for shilling? I need to know whether I can trust their views, or if they are $hilling. Anyone know? In any case, why not just say at the beginning of each video: "We are paid by the sponsor"/We are not paid by the sponsor".

[Sammo]

No clue how Captain America wasn't in the box as a hero :D

[esmeraldadevries]

I can't see the cards 🙁 You keep flashing them in and out of the shot. Also too much of a wide angle shot to actually see what you're talking about. Sorry, this video was too chaotic for me.

[aaronrisinger]

Announced back in August but knows nothing about the hero inside the box or even the named the game. Doesn’t realize special resource cost is in card texts not at the top of cards. Couldn’t make it more then 5 minutes into this video.