MCM #37: Team-Up Tactics

Welcome to Marvel Champions Monthly: a fan podcast about the game Marvel Champions! Join Kennedy and Amerikano as we discuss multiplayer play in the game of Marvel Champions!

Connect with Marvel Champions Monthly:

Power of… Black Panther

Welcome to Power of… a Marvel Champions Monthly spin-off series that is all about a singular hero. In this series, KennedyHawk and a rotating special guest look in depth at one hero showing off a fun deck-build with each aspect. This time we look at Black Panther decks with special guest Vardaen from Critical Encounters podcast!

Decklists

Black Panther Justice by KennedyHawk

Black Panther Aggression by KennedyHawk

Black Panther Leadership by Vardaen (link soon)

Black Panther Protection by Vardaen (link soon)

Connect with Marvel Champions Monthly:

Villainous Return – Marvel Champions Unofficial Campaign – Scenario #6: Super Villain Team-Up

Welcome to the sixth and final scenario in the Villainous Return (Volume 1) custom campaign. See the campaign overview page for an overview of the campaign procedure and then jump back here to get set-up.

Scenario #6 Super Villain Team-Up

Villain Deck :

Ultron (I), Ultron (II)

Remove Ultron (I) and add Ultron (III) for expert or insane mode.

Main Scheme Deck: Teamwork Makes Dreamwork, Back to Basic Programming, The Final Confrontation

Encounter Deck: Ultron set, Standard set. more setup prescribed in Setup below.

Add the expert set for expert and insane mode.

Setup:

Place Rhino’s Evil Team-Up*, Klaw’s Evil Team-Up*, and Ultron’s Evil Team-Up* modular sets aside out of play. Put Place each of the 1A environment cards into play on the 1A side and resolve the “Setup” ability on each environment.

Place the campaign set-up card “Cosmic Cube“ into play controlled by the first player. Place 1 activation counter on “Cosmic Cube”. Place 1 additional activation counter on “Cosmic Cube” for each loss in your campaign log.

Check your campaign log – if the recorded number of losses is:

  • 0-1 – Shuffle Doomsday Chair and Advanced Doomsday Chair* into the encounter deck. (Can be found in scenario 4)
  • 2-3 – Shuffle Masters of Evil and Advanced Masters of Evil* into the encounter deck. (Can be found in scenario 3)
  • 4-5 – Shuffle Bomb Scare and Advanced Bomb Scare* into the encounter deck. (Can be found in scenario 1)
  • Standard: No special rules.
  • Expert: Place 1 acceleration token on the main scheme.
  • Insane: Place 1 acceleration token on the main scheme. Resolve the “When Revealed” effects on Teamwork Makes Dreamwork an additional time.

Required Custom Set Print Files

Hero Hints:

  • Use the cosmic cube to your advantage in the main scheme stage 2B. Stunning an elite minion can be more effective than defeating them!

If the players win:

  • Congratulations – you and your teammate have successfully completed the Villainous Returns campaign.
  • Be sure to save a copy of the campaign log as it complete of Volume 1 offers a slight bonus in the continuation campaign – Bad Business!

If the players lose:

  • Congratulations – you and your teammate have completed the Villainous Returns campaign.
  • Despite a lose in the finale – be sure to save a copy of the campaign log as it complete of Volume 1 offers a slight bonus in the continuation campaign – Bad Business!

Villainous Return – Marvel Champions Unofficial Campaign – Scenario #5: Age Of Ultron

Welcome to the fifth scenario in the Villainous Return campaign. See the campaign overview page for an overview of the campaign procedure and then jump back here to get set-up.

Scenario #5 – Age of Ultron

Villain Deck :

Ultron (I), Ultron (II)

Remove Ultron (I) and add Ultron (III) for expert or insane mode.

Main Scheme Deck: The Crimson Cowl, Assault on NORAD, Countdown to Oblivion

Encounter Deck: Ultron set, Standard set, Return of Ultron*, Under Attack, and Advanced Under Attack* modular sets.

Add the expert set for expert and insane mode.

Setup:

Place the campaign set-up card “Ranged Support“ into play controlled by the first player. Place 1 snipe counter on “Ranged Support”. Place 1 additional snipe counter on “Ranged Support” for each loss in your campaign log.

  • Standard: No special rules.
  • Expert: Resolve the “When Revealed” effects on The Crimson Cowl an additional time
  • Insane: Resolve the “When Revealed” effects on The Crimson Cowl an additional time. Search the deck for Upgraded Drones and attach it to the Ultron Drones environment card.

Required Custom Set Print Files

Hero Hints:

  • You may be tempted to use your snipe counters on Ranged Support to get ahead early. Consider holding counters for moments when you become overwhelmed.
  • Leaving a threat near popping can have adverse effects – keep threat on the main scheme as low as possible!

If the players win or lose:

  • Record this outcome in the campaign log.
  • Each player selects one final aspect to add to their available aspects if able.
  • Proceed to Scenario #6: Super-Villain Team-Up

MCM #36: Going Solo

Welcome to Marvel Champions Monthly: a fan podcast about the game Marvel Champions! Join Kennedy, Crimson, and Amerikano as we discuss solo play with special guest Corey aka InnsmouthBear from the Solo Champions League.

Do you love solo play? Check out Corey’s website: https://www.bearoverinnsmouth.com/

Where you can find links to the discord and signups for the amazing Solo Champions League. You can join mid season or between seasons there’s never a bad time to join in! The episode wraps up with a segment from our friends at the Card Text! Thanks for listening.

Connect with Marvel Champions Monthly:

Saturday Superhero Satire – Tier List of Tier Lists

It’s been a bit but here’s a new Saturday morning cereal eating article. There’s been a lot of chatter about hero tier lists recently. Who’s in a tier of their own casting spells with ease? Who stinks like yesterday’s She-Hulk? Well, I’ve digested it all and today I bring you a tier-list of tier-lists. Which tier list is best? What are their faults and strengths find out now! Lots of creators have made tier lists, power rankings, and other ways to evaluate and survey heroes – lets sort them out into their tiers below. I judge these rankings by a very fair and proprietary criteria – you’ll probably see what it is – there may be… a trend. (Disclaimer: All of these creator’s are super awesome and put a ton of effort into their actual content. Check them out and give them some love – I know I love reading/listening and digesting their rankings every time they update!)

S+ Tier

No one – you’ll see the reasoning soon. It may have to do with how lowly everyone places a certain archer…

S Tier

Side Scheme Tier List by BananaCrapshoot

This tier list is definitely next-level thinking. Banana does a great job fostering discussion and updating his tier list constantly. The list includes many factors including: theme, power-level, fun-factor and many more topics! I love that the hero is evaluated in a holistic. Two cons that I should mention. First and foremost – Banana lists Hawkeye as B-tier which is just disgusting and not true. For this face alone – the Side Scheme tier list can’t be taken too seriously and thus is not in the coveted S+ tier. Secondly – while it’s really neat that many factors are considered it’s hard to know what the algorithm is behind combining these factors or if it’s just a gut-feel looking at these categories.

A Tier

The Dice Tower with Roy Cannaday

Roy has a great youtube video linked above overviewing his views on the Top 10 heroes in Marvel Champions. Roy is always engaging and fun and truly loves the game. I like that the video spends a bit of time on each hero explaining the thoughts on each hero. I really liked the beginning starting with Hulk and Ms. Marvel near the bottom – finally we reached #1 and foun the reason this top ten can’t be ranked higher: Hawkeye is completely absent. Despite this I think the top ten is really high quality and offers great insight. Just don’t be leavin’ Clint off next update? Mmmkay?

Community Definitive Rankings by JediGeekGirl

Wow. This list is really neat. While note a tier list per se – it’s the results of a survey showing where the community ranked heroes from October 2020 (about a month after Red Skull came out). Thankfully Hawkeye is in the top ten here but still is ranked 9th. We can’t blame JediGeekGirl for this – the blame falls fully on the community. C’mon people – vote Hawkeye or don’t vote. Not jokingly – this is a really cool resource and the bottom of the article mentions it is to be updated again after the release of Galaxy’s Most Wanted! Be sure to get out and vote early (but only for Hawkeye) ➡

Dice vs. Cards Solo / Multiplayer Tierlists

Dice vs Cards does something really interesting. They split the tierlist into two lists: one for solo & one for multiplayer. I really love this idea as some heroes may struggle in solo but shine when specialized in multiplayer or vice versa. In fact this really made me think these lists would be top tier S+. Sadly both lists put Hawkeye in the D-tier. At this point I really question peoples judgement. While I understand Hawkeye being in the same tier as the hulks (they are three of my favorites) I don’t understand the bottom of the barrel ranking. The team does give good reasoning for their rankings so it’s worth a watch!

Marvel Champions FTW! by Xplode

This power ranking is in audio podcast format. Xplode does a good job in solomode talking about the heroes he sees hit the “virtual table”. This seems to be more of an anecdotal popularity list which forces it to be a bit more leaning towards newer characters. It’s really fun to hear about what characters people are playing – and what way the meta evolves as new packs are spoiled and released.

B Tier

We needed to add this tier to show the gap before the basement losers.

C Tier

Marvel Champions Monthly Tiers or Tears

Geez – who are these scrubs? This is a tierlist that’s 9 months out of date. What the heck? Why does this even exist? Back when these newbs made this list it was picking the best aspect for each hero and then placing them in a tier grouping. This list is C-tier. Hawkeye wasn’t even released yet. But that’s no excuse… he should obviously be A-tier or higher… maybe they’ll have to make another shot at a tierboard episode again…. MAAAAAAAYYYYBE

Conclusions

Well – that’s it for today folks. The rankings / tiers / and content above are all top notch (except that last one). While you may not agree with any of the above lists they all serve a great purpose in the community – fostering discussion and talking about the great heroes in a game we all love. What is your favorite way to rank heroes? If we get sent some new spicey lists we’ll be sure to add them to our rankings in our next Tier List of Tier Lists and remember #VoteForHawkeye

Hero Heuristics: Black Panther

Welcome readers to a new and exciting series where KennedyHawk goes through each hero kit in Marvel Champions to provide some basic deck building and super synergistic insight. This hero heuristics are meant to be living documents and as more cards come out they may be updated from time to time. Once updated a change-log will appear up top so you know when the last update occurred.

For our first lesson – we’ll be looking at the King of Wakanda – Black Panther. T’Challa has been my favorite core-set identity since the game launched. He is a versatile character that works well in all situations and with all aspects. Let’s dive into his hero kit to understand the makings of this toolbox-like hero.

The Kit

Black Panther is a versatile hero with an amazingly cheap and efficient kit that can take a bit of set-up to really get rolling. This can be frustrating to some play-styles but I promise the set-up will be worth it. The hero identity comes with a solid 2 THW / 2 ATK / 2 DEF statline which is always a good start. While the ability of retaliate may not be a very active exciting ability – it’s efficient and opens up many builds for this hero.

Black Panther

Black Panther’s kit wants him to focus on his four Black Panther upgrades. They are a set of 2-cost upgrades with a lot of perks. Panther Claws is great for putting big damage on a single target, while Energy Daggers is better for spreading damage around in minion heavy scenarios. Tactical Genius can help keep threat under control and Vibranium Suit can help push damage while healing Black Panther. These upgrades by themselves do very little without the help of Wakanda Forever.

Wakanda Forever!

In your 15 cards you’ll find 5 copies of Wakanda Forever that trigger the abilities on all of your Black Panther upgrades with a boost given to the final upgrade resolved. This means early in the game you’ll be rather limited and focused but later on (with all four upgrades out) you’ll have a lot to choose from and be able to tailor each use of Wakanda Forever with proper sequencing.

Because you really need a jumpstart to get these upgrades on the board you have 3 copies of Vibranium – the perfect card early in the game for getting your Black Panther upgrades on the field ASAP.

Vibranium

T’Challa’s kit is rounded out with a few more cards. First – two Alter-Ego focused cards. Golden City – a support upgrade that allows T’Challa to draw two cards in alter-ego form is an Avenger’s Mansion on steroids. Second – a card with a lot more nuance, Ancestral Knowledge – which allows you to shuffle three differently named cards from your discard pile back in to your deck. Note: you cannot shuffle 3 Wakanda Forever’s back into your deck even with the differing resource types. The final card in this hero kit is Shuri. She is one of the strongest signature allies in the game and gets better with each release. When Shuri enters play she is able to search your deck for ANY upgrade and add it to your hand. This helps you find your Black Panther upgrades earlier but is also great for finding unique upgrades in your deck – or for deck-thinning which we will discuss in a bit.

Shuri

The Big Choice

Before going any further I want to address one of the big questions with Black Panther. What should you do or search for with his setup ability? Let’s look at T’Challa’s alter ego form.

T'Challa

Foresight allows a player to pick their first Black Panther upgrade and place it in their hand. This is done after mulligans and that is important to deciding which of the four upgrades you pick. Like most critical decisions there is no one right answer – deciding what upgrade to pick depends on many situations and I can run through a few of them here.

Are you playing solo? In this case you probably want to even out your deck – if you are running Justice with lots of thwart potential grab a damage dealing card to balance that out. If you are running an all out pummeling aggression deck – consider grabbing Tactical Genius to keep the threat under control. This all changes in multiplayer when you can focus on one game mechanic a bit more and rely on your play partner to shore up a weakness or two.

Do you have an initial problem? This is villain dependent. A lot of expert mode villains (like Rhino and Klaw) start with a scheme in play- removing that scheme (especially if it has a hazard icon) is very important. Are you going up against Ultron who is going to constantly spawn drones? Maybe you should grab Energy Daggers as a consistent way to clear the board for a player.

Energy Daggers

Does your deck depend on an upgrade? Some decks really rely on a specific upgrade. For example an Aggression deck running Mean Swing may want to grab Energy Daggers or Panther Claws as a Weapon upgrade. Protection decks that plan to defend and take damage may want to grab the self-healing contained in Vibranium Suit.

Vibranium Suit

Are you even going to play the card? Sometimes you mulligan and already have great options in your hand. Maybe you can puke an upgrade or two to the board and use the third one to play a single Wakanda Forever. In this instance grab the upgrade you care about the least and use it as a resource. Disclaimer: I try to avoid this – Shuri is unable to grab upgrades from your discard so you will be relying on Ancestral Knowledge or a full deck pass to get that upgrade back.

Ultimately – the decision you make here is likely to shape the rest of your game so consider your options wisely.

Strategy Tips

Here are some tips I’ve learned for make an effective Black Panther deck and piloting it to victory.

  1. Pitch Wakanda Forever early – don’t hold on to it! It may be tempting to play Wakanda Forever with 1-2 upgrades out. This is okay in a pinch but if resources allow it I’d much rather get another upgrade on the board. With just 1 Black Panther upgrade your Wakanda Forever plays are still efficient but not great. Once you have it up and running for 1 cost you can remove 1-2 threat and deal 4-6 damage with a bit of healing (depending on your sequence choice). At this point Wakanda Forever is one of the most effective events in the game. This leads to point 2.
  2. Thin your deck – Run lots of upgrades, supports and other board permanents. Within T’Challa’s kit you have 6 events and 3 resources – so those are 9 cards that will almost always be in your hand/discard/deck. When fully up and running aim to only have 15-18 cards left in your deck. With a bit of draw help this can set yo up to play 2+ Wakanda Forever’s every turn!
  3. Be Greedy Early – T’Challa much like Iron Man takes a long time to set-up. Use threat as a resource when you can and plan to flip back and forth a few turns to accelerate your set-up and get to the fun part.
  4. Don’t be afraid to defend – This is one I constantly remind myself. T’Challa has a stout 2 DEF – and with the healing from Vibranium Suit you can sustain hero form for a long time if needed. While giving up your 2 THW / 2 ATK action the option to avoid a villain scheme is very powerful.
  5. Plan around your final form – A lot of fun decks can be planned around your final set-up form. Whether you use a ton of allies to draw many Wakanda Forever’s with Strength in Numbers – or use multiple attacks in the sequence to trigger Jarnbjorn – Black Panther is a force to be reckoned with but keep in mind what your deck should look like in it’s final form. This is basically repeating tip 2 – but make sure every event placed in your deck has a purpose in the endgame.
  6. Vibranium Buys You Out! – Late game (and early if needed) Black Panther can use his Vibranium to discard villain attachments. With the two wild resources you are really well prepare for these villain curveballs!

Common Mistakes

Here’s a list of common game-play mistakes (or strategy mistakes) made with Black Panther.

  • Ancestral Knowledge can shuffle three different cards from your discard pile back into your deck. Those cards must have different names. So no shuffling three copies of Wakanda Forever back into your deck.
  • Shuri can not grab cards from your discard pile only from your deck. She is most powerful after a deck-reshuffle.
  • T’Challa’s foresight ability requires some foresight. It only triggers once per game right after you mulligan. Incidentally – Ultron steals the top card of your deck as a drone before you draw your opening hand. So he has reasonable odds to steal an upgrade from you.
  • While Black Panther has no attack and thwart events – stun and confuse can still prevent an upgrade from resolving. Both Panther Claws and Vibranium Suit are attacks and one will be blocked by a stunned status card. Likewise – Tactical Genius – can be blocked by a confused status card.
  • Because of the last tip be careful with enemies who retaliate. Vibranium Suit in particular is a bit tricky into a retaliate enemy as you may end up losing the hit point you healed!

Deck Synergies

Black Panther has good synergy with all four aspects. You can find really powerful deck themes and combos highlighted here.

Justice: Justice is an interesting aspect to combo with Black Panther. With an inherent 2 THW he makes an excellent basic thwarter which can be enhanced as cards become available to ready your hero. Justice also contains many upgrade you may only want 1-2 copies of. Shuri can search your deck for singleton copies of Under Surveillance, Counter-Intelligence, or Skilled Investigator.

Under Surveillance
from the Thor hero pack

Aggression: I think this aspect has become Black Panther’s bread and butter. Mentioned above. T’Challa comes with 2 weapons in his kit and can grab one with his set-up ability. This makes cards like Mean Swing very attractive to Black Panther. In addition Hall of Heroes can give you really big turns for Wakanda forever. With both Hall of Heroes and Golden City out you can begin a turn with 11 cards in hand (aka bonkers!). Don’t forget your Black Panther upgrades can trigger Jarnbjorn as well!

Mean Swing
from the Thor hero pack

Leadership: The combo of Black Panther and Leadership is also one of the GOAT set-ups. We can now get to 6 allies in play using Stringer, Triskelion, and Avenger’s Tower. With a few copies of Strength in Numbers you can begin your hero turns with 11 cards per turn and just go for face using Wakanda Forever. This takes quite a bit of set-up. Another neat trick I’ve seen a lot recently is to use Shuri and Rapid Response to constantly fish up upgrades for an ally Voltron deck. Leadership has plenty of ally upgrades that are worthwhile. Some Shuri can even find and place on herself.

Rapid Response
from the Black Widow hero pack

Protection: Again – use Shuri to find essential upgrades like Electrostatic Armor, Unflappable, and Energy Barrier. A lot of the protection defend without take damage combo pieces are events which hurt your end game efficiency with Wakanda Forever. Instead lean in on upgrades to really make your defense worthwhile.

Electrostatic Armor
from the Hulk hero pack

Basic: There are some basic cards I’d recommend you include in every Black Panther deck. Because deck-thinning provides such a edge for him I recommend 3 copies of Honorary Avenger, 1 Endurance, and 1 Downtime. For 2 cost (plus these five cards) you can get 5 cards out of your deck. Along with your Black Panther upgrades you are close to having 25% of your deck on the field for a minimal effort.

The Verdict

If you have made it this far thanks for reading! Here’s where I do something to make everyone mad. Based on my play experience I’m going to rate the hero in five categories. This combines a ton of factors discussed above but comes down to:

  • Economy – How cheap is this heroes kit? Do they have resources aplenty or some economic barrier (e.g. low hand size)
  • Set-Up Time – Is this character ready to hit the ground running? Do you need to bide time to set-up?
  • Thwart Potential – How well does this hero do at managing threat.
  • Attack Potential – How well does this hero do at dealing out crits.
  • Resilience – How well does this hero deal with what the villain throws at you (e.g. minions, extra attacks, game changing treacheries)

After crunching my propriety numbers (aka me spitballing) Black Panther ended up with 19 Onomatopoeias! Characters will be placed in a category from Great, Good, Mediocre, Meh, to Gross depending on their score. With a score of 19 Black Panther ended up in the Good hero range which is right where I think he belongs. Again, thanks for reading I hope you find my ramblings helpful! For another take on Black Panther you can check out this post from our friends at the Side Scheme.

Come back next time when I go over another core-set hero who’s at the chalkboard himself – Spider-Man!

Power of… Spider-Man

Welcome to Power of… a Marvel Champions Monthly spin-off series that is all about a singular hero. In this series, KennedyHawk and a rotating special guest look in depth at one hero showing off a fun deck-build with each aspect. This month we look at Spider-Man and how he jams with all 4 aspects in unique ways with special guest Andy-N!

Spider-Man Aggression by Andy
Spider-Man Leadership by Kennedy
Spider-man Protection by Andy
Spider-Man Justice by Kennedy

Connect with Marvel Champions Monthly:

MCM #35: Fastest Episode Ever

Welcome to Marvel Champions Monthly: a fan podcast about the game Marvel Champions! Join hosts Amerikano, KennedyHawk, Crimson as we discuss the highs and lows from the Quicksilver Hero Pack. We’ll go over the packs and talk about our favorite and least favorite cards and recommend a pack to listeners.

Connect with Marvel Champions Monthly:

Villainous Return – Marvel Champions Unofficial Campaign – Scenario #4: New Masters of Evil

Welcome to the fourth scenario in the Villainous Return campaign. See the campaign overview page for an overview of the campaign procedure and then jump back here to get set-up.

Scenario #4 – New Masters of Evil

Villain Deck :

Klaw (I), Klaw (II)

Remove Klaw (I) and add Klaw (III) for expert or insane mode.

Main Scheme Deck: Underground Distribution, Secret Rendezvous

Encounter Deck: Klaw set, Standard set, Doomsday Chair modular set, more setup prescribed in Setup below (for use of Rhino’s Evil Team-Up* and Advanced Doomsday Chair*).

Add the expert set for expert and insane mode.

Setup:

Place Rhino’s Evil Team-Up* modular set aside out of play. Put Place Rhino’s Evil Team-Up environment card into play on the 1A side and resolve the “Setup” ability. Note this entire modular set does NOT start the game in the encounter deck!

If you won at least 2 scenarios:

  • Deal each player a face-down encounter card
  • Standard: No special rules.
  • Expert: Place 1 acceleration token onto the main scheme. Shuffle Advanced Doomsday Chair* into the encounter deck.
  • Insane: Place 1 acceleration token onto the main scheme. Shuffle Advanced Doomsday Chair* into the encounter deck. Resolve the “When Revealed” ability on Underground Distribution twice.

If you won less than 2 scenarios:

  • Standard: No special rules.
  • Expert: Place 1 acceleration token onto the main scheme. Shuffle Advanced Doomsday Chair* into the encounter deck.
  • Insane: Place 1 acceleration token onto the main scheme. Shuffle Advanced Doomsday Chair* into the encounter deck. Resolve the “When Revealed” ability on Underground Distribution twice.

Required Custom Set Print Files

  • Campaign Rewards pdf
  • Advanced Doomsday Chair, Rhino’s Evil Team-Up pdf
  • Image Zip File zip

Hero Hints

  • Rhino has been recruited to join Klaw in his new masters of evil – and another modular miniboss from the core set!
  • The villain is sure to power up after you defeat the first stage – if you do this when the encounter deck is thin it’s sure to be a bruising!

If the players win:

  • Record this victory in the campaign log.
  • Each player chooses a different upgraded basic ally from the mission’s rewards and adds it to their deck. Record this in the campaign log under “Mission 4 Reward”.
  • Each player adds the corresponding basic ally card to their Restriction List. This card can not be used for the remainder of the campaign.
  • Proceed to Scenario #5: Age of Ultron

If the players lose:

  • Record this loss in the campaign log.
  • Each player chooses a different upgraded aspect ally from the mission’s rewards and adds it to their deck. Record this in the campaign log under “Mission 4 Reward”.
  • If this aspect is not included in your “Available Aspects” add it to the campaign log now.
  • Note: Choose your ally wisely. They will be added to your deck regardless of aspect selection but can also unlock a new aspect for you. Regardless of what aspect you chose for scenario 5 you will include this aspect ally in your deck. So you may choose Namor – the aggression reward ally – and include him in a Leadership deck in the next scenario!
  • Proceed to Scenario #5: Age of Ultron