Reviewing EVERY Release for Marvel Champions Before the X-MEN Take Over!! (Part 1) 

I really appreciate the kind words and encouragement! Thanks so much for watching!!

Thank you very kindly good sir! And congratulations to you for having the top deck on MarvelCDB right now! I haven’t had a chance to watch the video yet but I’m excited to first chance I get!

Thank you very much! I hope to get it out soon!

Thank you for watching, and for the kind words! 😁

Totally agree. I just played it yesterday in fact! Love it!

Thank you so much! Coming soon!

I’m glad to hear it! Thank YOU for watching!! 😄

Oh good call on both of those. I’ve yet to try Ghost Spider outside of green but I can see how that would actually be worth it for her Thanks so much for watching!!

Couldn’t agree more! I think a lot of X-men fans are going to be very happy, and hopefully more and more start playing the game!! Thank you so much for the sub, the kind words, and for watching! I really appreciate it!

+1 for Gambit.

I both agree and disagree. I agree the hero choice was amazing.... but also kinda odd. I would have preferred one of the more mainstay xmen, like Cyclops. He is a team leader so it makes sense.

@@Teachermook that was my thinking as well! But they seem to like to put middle tier characters in the campaign boxes and save the big names for the hero packs.

@@GetUpandGame how very true. Though I will say the galaxys most wanted one did us a dirty by having rocket and groot only available through the campaign box... yet the campaign on the whole is one of the weakest.

Hahaha thanks! Sad times for sure lol Thanks for watching man, I really appreciate it!

Lol I remember when it was announced and I was the most hyped I had ever been. I was so young and naive.

@@D20Woodworking wow, that’s literally the opening line for the next part lol. I was the same way

Thanks!! Totally agree about Hulk. I get why he’s somewhat hampered, but why did Banner get short shrift?? He’s almost as brilliant as Tony, but his hand size and ability makes him feel like he’s not even close. I really like what you have to say about power creep. I agree they’ve done a good job of keeping it in check. I would say the newer heroes are starting to feel stronger, but I think it’s because their kits are more tightly designed and synergistic with fewer clunky cards, rather than the cards just straight up being stronger and cheaper. Except maybe for Miles 😂. His cards feel pretty cheap for how good they are. But from a unique-ness standpoint it’s incredible how they still all feel so different. But the villains definitely don’t feel power creep-y to me. I say it in the upcoming Sinister Motives video, but I think the designers are finally realizing it’s better to make the default setting for most scenarios on the easier side and leave it up to the players to make it harder with the myriad options they’ve provided us with. Which I like better than getting surged to death by Nebula 😅 I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, and thanks so much for watching!!

@@GetUpandGame Unfortunately, Hulk received changes to the majority of his hero kit at the eleventh hour, and those changes didn't receive the same amount of testing that gets applied to the earlier stages of development, so while he is a good thematic hero (I feel Bruce's sense of helplessness and rage!), he just isn't "the strongest one there is."

Hahaha true, sometimes I drive 12 hours by myself to a state I’ve never been to to play this non stop for 3 days with other people. OTHER THAN THAT I mostly only play solo lol

@@GetUpandGame Sounds like a good state to be in!!!

Thanks! Yeah I really wanted this to be a comprehensive overview of everything that’s been released so far, and the aspect cards are of course a big part! Plus it was fun to see when certain cards came out and deck building archetypes started to take shape. Thanks so much for watching!!

Yeah I really like her too! She’s one that keeps getting better with various cards that come out, and a recent rule’s clarification made her Superhuman Strength card a little better so that’s nice too!

Good question! Even though they’re very green and very specifically themed lol they do in fact work like any mod set so you can feel free to run it anywhere. Who doesn’t wanna see Ultron zooming around on a glider 😆

@@GetUpandGame OK now I'm imagining Rhino with pumpkin bombs and I am loving it.

@@Teachermook hahaha yes!

Haha well that worked out great! Yep I’ve started filming the next one so you should be getting some good recommendations in the near future! 😂 Thanks so much for watching!

That’s a really interesting question. I would say Yes and no. Yes, because every hero always comes with a set of 15 signature cards that make up the core of their deck (like the Special cards in a United deck). This makes the hero distinct and makes it so they always do what they do. And then you pair that with an Aspect (color) that fills out the rest of their deck. These card are more all-purpose. Some cards (and aspects) compliment a particular hero better than others. But no because the core set only has so many aspect cards available for deck building, so with that alone the decks are all somewhat similar, apart from the hero cards. But those hero cards do an excellent job of making the hero play differently than others even if they do have the same aspect cards as someone else. But it is an LCG after all, and there is a drip feed of cards that slowly improve every hero with each release. Now the cool thing though is that every hero pack comes with a fully built deck of new aspect cards, and it’s usually in an aspect that suits that hero well. And they also typically come with cards that play well with that hero. So you’re pretty close to getting a deck that brings out the best of a hero just by buying its pack. But of course there are always cards coming out that add even more combos and power to even older heroes. I hope that helps, and I’m happy to answer any more questions!

@@GetUpandGame Thank you for your detailed answer!

@@mrmeow2297 anytime! 😄

Oh it wouldn’t for sure! The earlier releases are still fantastic! This just seemed like a nice point in the game’s life to look back at everything we’d gotten so far 🙂 The card pool really developed well in the first 3 years and it was fun to go back through it all! And now that we’ve seen a good chunk of the X-men cards I’ve been enjoying going back and using some of them with the earlier heroes!

@@GetUpandGame Awesome! I am so into this game and loving the deck building series!

Good question! He’s a really nice backup to have in case you need someone to thwart or if you need a defense option. No matter what you draw you’ll be able to afford him and he’ll give you a decent activation and then take the villain’s attack for you. He’s really nice for 4 hand size heroes that are bad at thwarting like Thor and Drax. He costs 4 but it’s really one less than other 4 cost cards since he’s not taking up a space in your hand. Just pitch him for a resource when you draw him and then he’ll be there waiting when you need him!

@@GetUpandGame Thanks for taking the time to reply! I think I see, so it's like an ally with a "Make the Call" built in, nice. 🤔

@@aardvarkpepper7660 yep pretty much! And he’s definitely a little over costed for what he gives you but it’s made up for by his emergency potential

A voltron deck (named after the old cartoon about a giant robot) is built around using upgrades on an ally like Reinforced Suit, Power Gloves, and Inspired to build it up as strong as possible, then you want to ready that ally with Get Ready and Command Team, and also keep it alive using First Aid and Med Team if available. The Iron Man ally, Ronin, Cosmo, Bug, and Captain Marvel in Spider-woman’s deck are often good candidates for a fun Voltron deck. Apologies for not explaining what I meant in the video!

Haha yeah, most of my opinions are coming from a solo-centric viewpoint where he’s difficult to win with outside of a rush strategy. But in multiplayer I can see how he’d be just fine! And I laughed at loud at your Hydra comment 😂

@@GetUpandGame I do play both, and I admit in both cases the game plays really well and is a lot ofnfun, and because of how it is structured you do not have to get everything in order unlike other lcg titles, just get the ones you like. By the way, haven't watched the whole series all the way through yet, but what is the worst of the campaign sets? I honestly am predicting the thanos one, because I imagine the gauntlet will be a gimmick...

@@Teachermook the gauntlet is an interesting discussion for sure lol. On the one hand I think they did an excellent job in designing it. It’s actually a modular set that can be played with any villain, and it will make them quite a bit harder. That’s really cool! But on the other hand it can be really annoying to deal with as it’s constantly stunning and confusing you, discarding your stuff and summoning minions. So if you want a greater challenge the gauntlet will give it to you! Overall I’m pretty pleased with how they handled it in the game, and that box as a whole is really fun I actually think the Galaxy’s Most Wanted is the worst campaign. The difficulty is really all over the place, and is exceptionally hard in a few of the scenarios. It’s not terrible by any means, and it has lots of good things as well, but it’s definitely my least favorite

@@GetUpandGame damn.... ah well. Was only gonna get it for rocket anyway.

@@Teachermook if you do watch the next part of the series you’ll get to hear my full thoughts on it, but what you just said somewhat summarized it lol. Rocket is the best part for sure, but I do really like a couple of the scenarios as well. But it wouldn’t be my recommendation to run out and buy that one before others for sure 😞

Ha yeah Spider-ham and Ironheart are definitely super strong! My take on the power creep is that they’ve gotten better at designing heroes that just flow better, their cards are more integrated into their kits and there’s more synergy. Plus as the card pool expands it’s easier to build more focused decks. Not to say some cards clearly aren’t more powerful than they used to be (look at pretty much all of Miles’ cards! Sheesh) But that’s certainly not always the case as seen with Valkyrie. She feels to me like one of the weakest heroes in the game. So what do I know lol But certainly the older heroes feel a little less tightly designed. Though Captain’s Marvel and America, along with Dr Strange are still among the strongest heroes in the game. But I totally agree, the whole Sinister Motives wave felt exceptionally strong. And now weirdly the X-men so far have felt like a small step backwards in strength. All very fun to play, but not quite as powerful (which is probably a good thing) The power creep discussion is always a very interesting one, and I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

@@GetUpandGame Well said. Valkyrie was a wierd one for sure. Some older heroes can still compete, but the vast majority are average at best and seeing the game increasingly difficult you could argue that some heroes are no longer a valid option on expert which is quite sad.

I can 100% see this. I’m not a fan of Rhino being considered the “intro” scenario for a number of reasons, but that’s certainly one of them. It’s missing a few elements that should be present if you’re trying to teach players about the game. Now we know the game is designed to be modular in that you can tailor it to fit your heroes strengths, but that’s not something that’s so readily obvious at first. And of course gamers are going to play things the way they are “recommended“, and unfortunately that is not always going to provide the best, or even a very good, experience. And Thor is sooooo specific in where he thrives that you really need to curate for him the best case scenario. But it sounds like you persevered and gave the game another chance so I’m glad about that!

@@GetUpandGame Marvel Champions is one of my favorite games now, mainly because I changed my initial perspective on how to "approach" it. For me, one of the initial selling points of Marvel Champions was the fact that you could play it as a "true solo" game, with the scenarios/campaigns being designed to scale based on player count. As a longtime Sentinels of the Multiverse solo player, this was both a familiar concept and a new idea (i..e., in Sentinels, difficulty is also based on player count, but you always have to play with at least three heroes), so I was excited to play a "true solo" game with the idea that it would be smaller and easier to manage. And, to be fair, MC does provide this "true solo" experience. Indeed, a lot of the heroes work very well as true solo heroes, especially if they have been tailored to the scenario in question, have the "latest and greatest" aspect cards, etc. But not all heroes/scenarios are created equally, with many of them being very problematic if you're playing a "true solo" game (i.e., Thor, Valkyrie, War Machine, etc.), and, I would go so far as to say that most scenarios (and especially the campaigns) probably aren't even designed around "true solo" gameplay in the first place. I think this is why several "overpowered" heroes have been released through the years, along with major "buffs" for earlier heroes in the form of new aspect cards. Realizing that the game had a lot of "true solo" and two-hand solo players, FFG released several heroes that, frankly, can do everything well, while also shoring up some of the less "usable" heroes from earlier cycles. Nowadays, I rarely play "true solo" games, because I don't think the game scales well for every hero/scenario combination. I usually play solo games with 3-4 heroes (usually with expert or standard 2), and it makes for a much better gameplay experience. MC is still a lot easier to manage than SoTM, and the campaign gameplay is simply fantastic. In addition to deck composition you also have "team composition", which makes for an added layer of strategic gameplay. If I do play a "true solo" game now (which is rare), it probably wouldn't be with Thor ... but, if it was, it wouldn't be without a minion-heavy scenario or many of the later aggression cards (i.e., Into the Fray, etc.) that make him more viable. The greatest thing about Marvel Champions is its endless replayability. From the villains to the modular sets and unique hero mechanics--even custom hero decks from BGG--all of it makes for an epic gaming experience that I'm glad I came back for.

@@SuperDoggy99 hear hear! I think you’re absolutely correct that not every hero/villain is designed for every situation. The designers have been saying since the old LotR days that it’s impossible to design a game like this that is always going to satisfy every player. Some people want it easier, some harder. Some play solo, some play 4 players. And all the variants in between. I’ve always thought they’ve done an admirable job of finding enough middle ground that no release ever feels like a complete waste (even if I pretty much never play Valkyrie 😅) And so it’s up to us as the players to figure out how to make it our own, and it sounds like you’ve done just that! Man I can’t imagine playing 3 or 4 players solo. I mean, I’m sure I’d enjoy it if time and table space weren’t a factor lol but unfortunately they are, so it’s pretty much always true solo in the Get Up and Game Studios (ie the desk in the corner of my living room) 😂