Author: mcmpod-admin

Hey all,

KennedyHawk here! I wanted to provide a brief update on the next Volume of Villainous Returns! You may recall the first volume focused on injecting some new life into the Marvel Champions coreset. The strive in this series is to provide campaigns with monthly content (about 4-5 months on and 2-3 months off) that enhances the awesome cards that FFG puts out. Remember – this is complete custom and fan-made but integrates in a fun way with official Marvel Champions content. The content provided via Villainous Returns is always freely available as print and play either here or on the MCM Discord!

As we prepare to launch Villainous Returns Volume 2 I was encouraged to provide some designer insights – so I’ll be doing 1-2 articles a month to preview the content and let you know what’s coming up. I couldn’t complete This first article without giving people something to print and play – so I’m also previewing and releasing a stand-alone mode set at the bottom of the article. For this Volume of our custom campaign I’m teaming up with infamous fan/custom developer Designhacker. So expect to see his beautiful aesthetics along with his truly ingenious design all throughout the campaign!

Villainous Returns Volume 2 intends to add content that intermingles with the first two scenario packs and the first campaign box. You’ll find yourself fighting against both Green Goblin Scenarios, the Wrecking Crew, and a few villains from the Red Skull box. Just like Volume 1 heroes will move onto the next scenario win or lose, so you won’t be stuck fighting the same villain over and over. Today’s article focuses on the villains in the first mission – the Wrecking Crew. As always the card you see here may not be the final version we are still testing the scenario out and going through an internal and external wording audit!

One common complaint about the Wrecking Crew is that the players have TOO much control. They can almost decide who the active villain is and belittle the scenario. The first scenario Wrecking Crew Redux intends to fix that. Setup begins like normal but the crew is trying out some new tactics as they are Breakin’ & Escapin’.

The threat threshold is lowered to a reasonable number for player counts 1-4. In addition there is a new mechanic the Redux deck. This is created by the environment Wrecking Havoc which is placed at setup. This environment creates a deck of 4 cards – one associated with each Wrecking Crew member. Each card provides a different static buff to the active villain and these cards act as a randomizer to determine the active villain each round. You’ll never quite know which crew member is coming at you each round. Each villain has 3 different passive buffs (one for each villain is shuffled into the Redux deck). This allows players to customize their experience with the easier or harder buffs or fully randomize it by selecting one random environment for each villains.

So this seems like things could get out of control pretty quickly. Next Sunday I’ll have another article highlighting the campaign reward system and what new toys our heroes will get to fight these pumped up villains. In the meantime be sure to play and complete Villainous Returns Volume 1 as each player will earn their team a bonus just for having played the last campaign (win or lose)! Expect Volume 2 to kick off in full in mid-to-late August!

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Alright – that’s enough about the upcoming campaign. I wanted to offer players something to sink their teeth into. Unrelated to Volume 2 of the campaign I’ve been working on some “helper” modular sets and this first one focuses on how to help players out during Galaxy’s Most Wanted. It’s a seven card modular set that is ready to print and play and allows any character to team-up with Captain Marvel on a Cosmic Adventure! This set is available for print and play right now in this PDF.

The goal here is to give player’s a fighting chance against some of the tougher villains. You’ll start with an ally in play Captain Marvel (Cosmic Force). She will move around the table with the first player token much like she’s flying outside the Milano but can also aide players in the Collector’s museum! Carol is a powerful ally with 2 ATK and 2 THW. She can even block in a pinch but be careful; if she takes too much damage you’ll be forced to flip her to a weaker state and deal yourself an encounter card (this card goes to Captain Marvel’s controller the first player).

In addition to this ally you’ll shuffle 6 cards into the encounter deck. These cards all offer a bonus to the player controlling Captain Marvel and sometimes offer a double-edged sword (such as stunning both the revealing player and the villain. Carol is there to help the heroes and give them a better Warning. just before a villain attack or surge occurs. Be careful though Doctor Minn-Erva is here and prepared to stop Carol but she will provide a burst of power to the first player when this minion is defeated.

Wait! What is a player going to do if they want to play as Captain Marvel from the core [email protected] Well, luckily the amazing writers at Marvel have created a whole multiverse of sorts and the Captain Marvel in this modular set can just come from a different multiverse. Dang variants! This modular set will hopefully breathe some new life into your Galaxy’s Most Wanted campaign as you await both the official Mad Titan’s Shadow release and the release of Volume 2 of our custom campaign! I hope you enjoyed this look into my brain as I cook up fun custom/fan sets to enhance my Marvel Champions experience!

Hey all,

Courtesy of our friends at FFG we have been provided with a spoiler card to show for this weeks release of Agent Venom. Yes, I know cards have squeaked by Nick Fury’s SHIELD task force but we still wanted to provide a typical source of fun as we do with all our spoilers from FFG.

Thanks to FFG for this opportunity – I’m glad it’s a tradition we get to continue. If you haven’t yet checked out the Venom hero pack talk to your FLGS or check out the Asmodee webstore!

Without further ado let’s get to our spoiler – the only new Justice ally – Jack Flag!

Beyond having some wicked cross-dimensional lizard blastin’ art this card is something new and excited for Justice players all around. We’ve been waiting for #Justice4Justice and has Venom’s pack brought that to us? This beefy ally costs 4 resources with only 3 health but an ability that means you’ll get more than just three triggers. With Jack Flag you’ll be able to thwart with him and place an ammo counter. Then, later remove an ammo counter and exhaust him to deal 5 (typo edit: 2) damage. This means without any assistance you can get around 5 uses our of Jack: whether it be -> Thwart-Thwart-Pew-Pew-Block, or Thwart-Pew-Thwart-Pew-Block, or even finish out with a final Thwart. For 4 resources Jack can remove 4 threat, deal 4 damage and soak an attack. There’s a couple other things we wanted to highlight and we couldn’t think of a better more guardians centric way than a – meme off

We’ve taken some of our favorite meme format’s and gave them a Jack Flag makeover. First, let’s take a look at the inner workings of typical Justice ally development. This is an ally card – so it’s gonna need to be legit to compete with the likes of Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and other mainstay Justice allies? It needs to be able to thwart big and take a chump at the end like all good allies do… Wait? Jack is an offensive powerhouse too? That’s odd for a Justice ally… or is it? Lots of allies in the yellow aspect have damage abilities: Daredevil, Quake, and Wiccan to name a few. Jack seems to have the highest output of those options but also take the longest to get his damage out.

Alright, so we are going to veer away from typical Justice design but keep things still feeling good with a nice 2 THW. What else does Jack bring to the table? Remember when a few people said that maybe the Guardians wave when completed will help against GMW?

Maybe in a weird way it has. Jack has the ability to be a useful ally for many turns even against on of the most ally-hated scenarios Collector 1. You can invest in Jack and reap benefits for 4 rounds before using him to chump or having him take up a dead ally slot. That’s a long term investment sure to be helpful. I do worry a bit that an ally that takes 5 turns to get full value needs to be played really early or the game may be won/lost before you reap your reward.

Next, let’s not forget that Jack can go beyond just his base stats. While, Justice doesn’t have any ally healing or tough all aspects have access to First Aid which can be used to heal Jack for 2. Those 2 points of healing can turn into 4 thwart and 4 damage (again it’ll take 4 turns to deal this all out). That’s huge. Let that sink in. 1 resource investment, for a For Justice and a pumped up Haymaker. Wicked. You’ll be asking players all over the field to please use their First Aid and Med Team on Jack.

If you are willing to pay for it – Jack can be a perpetual source of damage. He’s almost like a red ally that got painted yellow to fill out Venom’s pack.

So, we may be thinking that Jack is one of the many tools instilled in the Venom hero pack to bring Justice back to it’s coreset glory. Wait, hold my spacebeer (spacebar? Who is typing this?). Jack is the only justice ally in this pack. Meaning even after the 3+0.5 hero packs we’ve recieved of Justice we only have 8 allies to choose from when deckbuilding. Leadership now has 18 (as expected), Protection has 13 (counting all 3 Multiple Men), Basic has 13, and Aggression has 12! We have seen in the Nebula preview that we are getting at least 2 new allies with her hero kit. So maybe someday we’ll have enough friends to bring along – but for now – just like in real life. Justice allies and players don’t have enough friends.

Regardless of Justice being behind the rest of the pool Jack Flag is a unique and exciting new style of ally for Justice. Combined with Quake you can now see an array of allies in Justice you may want to keep on the board. Here is what Attercop! had to say about Jack:

Jack has had it rough in the comics. He’s been dead, then not dead, dead again, then not dead and he’s currently… Dead? Secret Empire did a number on him. Thankfully, that didn’t reflect in this ally. Jack’s a little pricey, but seems like a lot of fun, and lets you decide when you need a decent attacker and an eventual chump block in the same turn with only 1 HP left. Hopefully he gets a chance to be alive, then dead, and alive more times than the opposite when we get a chance to field him.

Regardless of what your space-mom, or adopted Mary Poppins like father may say – you definitely need some Jack Flag to spice up your Justice deck-building. Until the next spoiler season be sure to check out the Venom hero pack at your favorite retailer!