Marvel Champions Late Adoption?

I’ve been regretting not getting into the game back in 2019. I don’t trust big franchise games in general. And it was hard to get ahold of at first and even then quite expensive.

But…

  • Splendor Marvel doesn’t scratch the thematic itch.
  • I sold Marvel Love Letter unplayed when I discovered it wasn’t just re-themed but turned into a fiddly 1 v all
  • I have a hard time giving endless amounts of money to CMON for Marvel United for minis I won’t paint.

So Marvel Champions seems to be the game to get for a more complex Marvel experience and as a bonus it seems to be one of the top solo games around.

My questions are…

  • does it makes sense at all to start getting stuff for it now?
  • Does anyone follow the game enough to know if all the content is going to be available?
  • Are there going to be big box editions?

I don’t want to buy the base game now only to discover that there is a new edition in the works… BGG didn’t seem to have any info on that except for a thread suggesting they might be making boxes that contain several of the character packs.

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As far as I know, there is no reason not to get into it now if you wanted to.

The Core Set is FFGs most generous offering of any of their LCGs and should definitely give you enough of an idea whether or not you enjoy it. It contains 5 heroes and 3 scenarios with two difficulty levels for each scenario.

Based on what I’ve read, it is expected that there are at least another couple of cycles of X-Men releases coming, which would mean FFG plans to support the game for at least the next year.

The only slight doubt in my mind would be that one of the two lead designers, Michael Boggs, left FFG about 9 months ago (he moved to South Korea to be closer to his wife’s family if I remember correctly) and the other, Caleb Grace, was lead designer on FFG’s recently released Star Wars Deckbuilding Game. However, when Michael Boggs left he was replaced by Tony Fanchi, so I don’t think there is any evidence of FFG winding Marvel Champions down and I’ve not heard any rumours of a Second Edition.

As you’ve seen, it looks like the next product announcement will be all the first cycle packs gathered together into a single release so I don’t believe there is any reason to be concerned about getting hold of content.

I’ve bought all of the boxed expansions (these contain two heroes and five scenarios) and none of the individual hero or scenario packs, so I don’t have any first-hand experience of how hard products can be to track down - I imagine retailers are more likely to keep the boxed expansions in stock.

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To my knowledge, there are no “out-of-print” hero or scenario packs. The only time I had trouble hunting anything down was shortly after the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy packs, but even then I was able to find them after a short time.

As @Assussanni says, MC has the best core set of FFG’s LCG’s since you don’t need to buy two of them to construct effective decks. And on top of the mention of five heroes and three scenarios, there are the four Aspects that you can use when you construct a deck, meaning you can play Spider-Man in four rather different ways. There are also modular encounter sets, which each scenario has a recommended one, but you can throw in a different one if you want. Both of these add more variety to the game. Though to be honest, I’ve had a good time with just playing the preconstructed decks of every hero I have tried. Sure, they can be improved, but I would rather be playing the game rather than tinkering with the decks in my free time. That meaning, you don’t even need a huge pool of cards to enjoy the game (unless, of course, the deckbuilding is a greater part of your enjoyment).

And because there are not really “must have” cards scattered across a bunch of expansion content, you can just focus on heroes and scenarios that interest you. The box sets are a better value, containing two heroes and five (linked) scenarios, but again, just focus on the content that interests you.

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I realise that this isn’t what you asked, but have you considered Sentinels of the Multiverse? As someone who doesn’t care about the Marvel brand I get more game for my money because I’m not paying the IP tax.

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To push this further off your cliff there’s so little game there. If I surmise correctly and you want something to solo, engage the brain in some above trivial decisions then Marvel United is not for you. I’ve only seen non-gamers have fun with it. It’s not no decisions but they are definitely more engaging without a bunch if games under your belt. I’d say it’s exact match in weight and decisions is Guillotine

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Start with the core box, it’s very good. You only need one, unlike some FFG Lcgs (Game of thrones 2nd ed I’m looking at you).

You can pretty much just buy extra heroes / villains as you like. You don’t NEED any of the other scenario box sets or a specific hero pack, so buy according to which heroes you’re excited about.

There is a mechanic where teams sometimes get cards which help others of the same team (recruiting Avengers cheaply, for example) but this isn’t too important. The teams so far are (roughly) Avengers, Guardians of the galaxy, Spider-folks and X-Men.

The only box I’d avoid is “Galaxy’s most wanted” - it’s insanely difficult and the heroes aren’t anything special.

A couple of heroes stand out: Black Widow works the opposite to most, laying traps ahead of time. Doctor Strange and Wanda are Mystics with unique cards (very powerful so far). I’d say to try them out if you like the core set.

Spider-woman gets to include more colours per deck than anyone else, so is a bit advanced until you get into deck building.

It plays great, and is perfectly balanced for two heroes, so I tend to run two even when soloing.

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Possibly related: one of the reasons new-Sentinels is having only big-box expansions is apparently that retailers really prefer it.

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From talking with a couple of retailers who were also big fans of the Arkham Horror card game, when FFG switched that from the old “small box + 6 blister pack” per cycle format to the “2 boxes” per cycle format there was much rejoicing.

Small boxes tend to get overlooked because they are often in another section (possibly hanging on a wall nearby… But not always close enough)

Being able to organize shelves logically with all expansion content makes it much easier to move product.

Add to that that most publishers will tell you, it seems, that expansions don’t sell nearly as well as base games or expand-alones

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Makes sense. It must be much easier to just deal with two product numbers for an expansion cycle rather than seven. Easier to present on shelves, as well. And I know how frustrating it can be as a consumer trying to find all the Mythos packs for one when a couple may be between print runs.

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Marvel Champions is awesome! It’s also unique among LCGs in that you can get into it any way you like; there are no strict “cycles” that you have to purchase in order, so you can get as much or as little content as you want without worrying about holes in the product availability. That said, as far as I know, there aren’t any particularly hard-to-find products right now; the latest big-box expansions can sometimes be thin on the ground for a month or two after release, but that’s pretty much it. And the game hasn’t been around nearly long enough to warrant a second edition, especially considering the core set introduced by MC was already the model for the re-release of Arkham Horror and Lord of the Rings.

My only warning would be that, according to a leaked post here (Héroes reunidos - Fantasyflightgames.es), FFG is going to release a box containing all six initial hero packs. It stands to reason they’ll do that for each set of heroes, so you might want to start with the big-box expansions (which are the best value for money anyways) before buying individual hero packs.

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I have at some point played Sentinels on the app.

So anyone who has played both how do they compare? Because I did not enjoy myself a lot with Sentinels back then and dropped it quickly. Maybe because I didn‘t like the look of the art a whole lot

One of my geek-buddies also mentions that you have fixed decks in Sentinels for your characters? I thought there was some deck construction in Marvel Champions which is part of the draw for me.

Plus Marvel. We have enjoyed the movies and series for the most part…

I’m in the same boat. Maybe it is different with the physical product, but after a couple of games of Sentinels on the app, it just didn’t click for me.

Each hero in MC has 15 (?) fixed cards that they always have to include. Then you pick an Aspect (Aggression, Justice, Protection, or Leadership) which is used to construct the rest of their deck. And for the most part, the cards you will find in those aspects fit. Leadership involves lots of allies and boosts for them. Aggression has a lot of direct damage. Protection has a lot of defensive cards. And honestly, I’m not even sure what Justice specializes in at the moment (maybe Threat management?), as it’s been a while since I played that aspect.

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The new Definitive Version of Sentinels looks way better than the original version (maybe even better than Champions in my opinion, with the commitment to its old-fashioned art style), but I did not enjoy the gameplay at all. It does have a similar structure to Champions, but the flow is much more clutchy and staccato, the decisions aren’t as deep, the engine/tableau building isn’t as fun, and the upkeep is nigh-unbearable without an app keeping track of everything. Sentinels also does have fixed decks, which helps with setup, but makes each hero deck much less dynamic and replayable than the constructible decks in Marvel Champions.(It doesn’t help that almost every hero in Sentinels feels like a Marvel or DC hero with the serial number filed off…)

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As I recall, this is the dude who was “saving” Netrunner, via Kitara and Reign & Reverie, before they lost the license. Sounds like an Ace in the hole and his departure could mean things for the future of the game. But the past is a known quantity?

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I think Sentinels and MC play very differently. There are things to enjoy about each, but people tend to love either one or the other. I didn’t get on much with Sentinels. For both I’d say “spend the minimum money to find out if you like it, you’ll probably know for certain after just one game”.

Marvel Champions is a very deliberate entry-level LCG, aiming to be as accessible as possible. It’s not as complex as Arkham Horror LCG, for example, but it’s not trying to be. That doesn’t mean it’s not thinky or deep, as there’s decisions to make each round with any hand of cards, because you play some and pay for them with the others, so you’re always sacrificing something. It’s also got LOADS of opportunity for deckbuilding - there are pre-made decks that you can play straight out of the box, and after that you can mix from literally any pack you own.

The big achievement is that the heroes really do work like the characters they’re based on - “Captain America can do THIS, and works like THIS” - and that theme actually making a gameplay difference is a huge plus.

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I admit Sentinels is a side note to this thread so I don’t want to take up much space with it.

  • old Sentinels and new Sentinels (DE) have the same artist throughout, but he has 12 years’ more experience now. :slight_smile:
  • I find the upkeep (card X there has effect Y on card Z over here) much easier to keep track of in DE than in old Sentinels. It’s still a thing.
  • Yes, no deck-building. Generally if you want a substantially different approach you play a different hero with their own set deck. There are hero variants, but that’s a different character card (therefore with diffrrent a core power you always have available) plus the same standard hero deck.
  • there’s a PBF you could read. :slight_smile:
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I asked my partner… „this is a game I was always interested in, why don‘t we have this?“

So I guess that seals it :wink:
But not right now. With all the Kickstarter deliveries arriving last week and today and tomorrow… But I‘ll put it on my watchlist to see if I can get a good deal somewhere. It looks like the German version is significantly cheaper here and availability for it and the big box expansions and a lot of characters seems good. If characters come in groups I‘d appreciate it…

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