Marvel Champions in about 3 minutes 

And we are back with our first recap in a month. Baby Anne is doing a lot better and some normal is returning to our lives. As for Marvel Champions, i can see why people like it, but it wasn't for me.

This game is one of the best of my lifetime. I am obsessed and been playing strong for over a year!

I'm not a huge Marvel fan, but this has quickly become one of my favorite solo games. This is a great overview! A minor note: most heroes can still use their printed ability while exhausted unless the ability specifically requires you to exhaust the character card to activate it.

1:34 Heroes don't need to be untapped to use their printed ability unless the card specifically says so. So Captain Marvel could use her ability to spend a resource to heal even if she was tapped. Same as her alter ego ability. Other than that I agree with a lot of the other posters, this game is really enjoyable in quick bursts and is a good remedy to Arkham LCG if I cannot get a long form campaign going, though I am also getting burned out of LCGs after Netrunner and Arkham

I played Arkham and wasn’t fan but Champions is one of my favorite games. The Race for the Galaxy style card play of spending cards in your hand to play cards from your hand leads to tough and interesting decisions every turn. As for Sentinels, I found it much better as an app than as a card game. The card game gets too bogged down by all the stuff you have to track.

Just got the base box for this a week ago and have already ordered more stuff. This is also my first LCG. Only been into the hobby for about a year and a half. I'm sorry so many seem to be tired. I am personally finding this game to be super fun. I can play it with my wife and son, but also chill and play solo when everyone is busy. I actually canceled my Sentinels of the Multiverse pledge for their ultimate edition to get into this instead. Seems very friendly to new comers. Have not started the building of my own deck yet. Who knows maybe I'll grow out of it and move on, but for now this game is fantastic.

Thanks for the review, I've been pestering you since it's release to do one and you did not disappoint. Glad your family is safe and happy!

This game is amazing. The core box has so much replayability compared to arkham lcg and expanding on it ends up being way cheaper, as you dont have to buy everything from each cycle (ends up being the same price if you get everything).

Looks like solid board game for the fans of Marvel. Yet only the expansions of new characters are really costy thing, when just one separate of them costs 20 EU.

Been playing this with some family members who are less than savvy when it comes to complex board games. There's a lot of little things to keep track of and the strategy can get somewhat complex. Personally I love the game, picking up some of the addons has really expanded the deck options. Family members enjoy it well enough but the theme may have something to do with that.

I bounced off of it myself, multi-player rounds seemed quite long. For me it played like 3 concurrent solo games with a lot of time between bursts of interaction.

One thing to note about hero printed text (not basic powers) that wasn't particularly clear in the video is that your hero can use their special ability (printed text) once per round, regardless of tapping status. You can even use your alter ego's ability, flip, use your hero's, and then attack or thwart, all in the same turn

What perfect timing. I just picked this up a week ago. I do prefer Sentinels but this has been a nice alternative

Im a huge Marvel Conics fan. I was enjoying Champions but kept finding it to fall a little short if my enjoyment for the narrative presented in Arkham LcG. Played up through the Red Skull expansion. Then I got Marvel United and that scratch’s my itch for a quick marvel throw down, and allows me to focus on the Arkham Deckbuilding instead of splitting that cerebral energy on two LCGs. Still think it’s a good game, but it does st quite hit the table very much anymore.

I like Champions for the same reason I like Netrunner, it's so replayable! One hero can have multiple playstyles and you're just itching to try out new combos, particularly in 2 players. As much as I love Arkham, I always feel a bit wary of replaying cycles as I already know what will happen or at least a part of it (which is fine as the game centers on narrative rather than replayability I guess), and trying silly or unique combos in Arkham usually led to a negative experience for me as a player. I still like Arkham more as an overall experience of course but I'm glad Champions went for a different focus, so I usually end up getting both to the table quite often.

I own and love both Arkham and Netrunner. I'd definitely not turn down a game of this but also have zero desire for adding another LCG to the collection. Always thought this looked pretty solid and probably a little less faff than Arkham to setup but without the narrative there's not enough to grab me.

I Really love the game, but I have to admit this wasn’t a love at first sight thing. Core box was fun but didn’t quite “wow” me (as didn’t the first 2 heroes mechanics wise). However with the steady supply of new heroes and scenarios it is definetly won me over.The fact that every hero has its own little (thematic) engine which varies both in complexity and difficulty really entices me. When playing Quicksilver for instance I swing at the villain multiple times in a single turn, beating up the villain. But just like in any good superhero movie or comic...there’s that moment the villain just snatched that blur out of thin air and leaves my speeding hero hanging on by a thread. Or having Bruce Banner sculpt my hand knowing that whenever he turns mean and green these cards are either played directly or discarded as Hulk just acts on impulse and irradiated rage. This combined with the somewhat modular encounter sets and more “gamey” (as in thematic yet not completely narrative) approach just work for an hour of fun running whatever deck and hero against a scenario. Mind you I play solo mostly :)

I like Champions far more than Sentinels primarily for the solo play but also for the deck building and some of the play dynamics. Sentinels does not do solo play well, you need to play multiple heroes which is draining if they are the more complex ones, so I have played Legacy a lot. Deck building is something I fund fun - fun enough to make a new deck for a new hero and run it through all the scenarios. Not fun enough to try to tune a deck to beat a specific scenario on super hard mode. Too many Sentinels decks feel like bad magic decks and have many 4 offs just to get hold of a card you need then Dawn just blows them all up. There is a reason Nightmist is my favourite - drawing 3cards >> drawing one. That is the another element that so many of the heroes in Sentinels are dysfunctional and only work once every so often and have long set up times. Absolute Zero is immense fun one game in 5 when he sets up the rest of the time not so much. (this is actually mitigated solo as one of your heroes is likely to work) Champions is designed so that you usually get set up with your defining cards after one pass through the deck and games take a couple or three passes. A lot of the time Sentinels can feel like you are just a cog in a machine processing steps and triggers. This can be there in champions but far less. I do not think either of them are very deep games and I like them both far more than I would expect to based to on ticking off a list of features but Champions is currently way more fun for me. AH is definitely a much richer narrative game and the campaigns work well - the champions campaigns feel pretty lazy and are not very satisfying either in gameplay or narratively. I prefer AH 2 player to solo and since I play with my mate's cards and we've only played each arc once it's hard to evaluate re-playability or real longevity.

Does anyone know how to duel a player? I’m not talking about the duel option when you click the players icon, but being able to duel someone in real life time..

nice looking deck of cahds

This has become my number one favorite game to play particularly solo. I got into it because it doesn't require you to construct decks to play. For a quite a while I played that way with the recommended deck loadouts which works fine on standard difficulty. I did eventually take the plunge into constructing decks and I don't regret at all now. It's a big win over Sentinels of the Multiverse for me particularly solo, because in MC I can play a single hero which can't be done in Sentinels. Playing this way makes me feel more like a hero rather than a team lead. Also Sentinels has so much cognitive load of keeping track of all the buffs/debuffs and that it became a turn off for me. In all fairness, when you start to play MC multi-handed it gets to start feeling like Sentinels forth both good and bad :) I enjoy the pay for your cards with cards mechanic a la San Juan/Race for the Galaxy which can lead to some tough decisions each time you draw up a new hand. The designers also have a done a fantastic job making the heroes feel very thematic for each character.

Thanks for the review, been waiting to hear your opinion. :). I’ve been holding off purchasing this game as it is a big investment to collect yet another card game... But I’m looking forward to Sentinels DE.

Funny, I took the plunge on this game 2 weeks and have been playing it obsessively ever since. It's truly incredible. I'm a bit disappointed at your opinion, as I'm a long-time tactical turn-based gamer and find myself continually challenged and impressed by this game. How many games did you play? Did you try Ultron? Expert mode? Each of those makes things significantly more difficult

Venom!

Fully agree with the final statement. Loved the game conceptually, but found the gameplay to be pretty bland and not very deep compared to something like AH:LCG.

Marvel Champion has a much higher score than Sentinels, for a reason.

Men always though this game sucked for me Glad you didn't like it as well Its another lcg of ffg, I'm sick of lcgs after playing 3 (agot, 5rings and LOTR) I'm out