The Future of Marvel Champions - What We Need in Wave 8 

My call for Standard III aged well. I'm taking full credit.

Back mid-wave (per Jubilee release, still gambling on the forth hero identity) to see how on point VT was. Ten seconds in, I see "Standard III".

I'd love to see a new standard/expert set that is just different, not necessarily meant to increase the difficulty. That's a great idea! Reprints: yes, all the ones you mentioned I agree with. I would also like some cards that interact with, and boost, some older heroes. I don't think we'll get it though.

I floated this idea to Tonee. I always felt we needed a “combo” trait card. The more “combo” traited cards you play in your turn, the more powerful they become. Ex- they could have 3 actions, when you play a second “combo” card that phase you can resolve 2 things on that card. I’d love it for Adam , playing combo cards from different aspects. Eventually get “team combo” cards, adding another piece to the puzzle when requesting an action out of turn

Great video, agree with all points. Would love to see more cards that shake-up older heros and scenarios in some way

I never knew that about Slice and Dice only getting piercing on the first attack. I've never played it that way and will likely never play it that way because it doesn't make any sense lol

I think the next set will be more X-Factor focused (or possibly mixed X-Factor/Excalibur). Iceman and Beast were founding members of X-Factor, and Nightcrawler was in Excalibur. EDIT: I think a good scenario pack that creates a mini-campaign is something Hellfire Club related.

I share every single take you have on what to DO and what NOT to do next :p Very good ideas :)

Excellent points! Would love it if the designers took note!

I hope next expansion will be about Street level with Kingpin, Hamerhead, Maggia, etc. and Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Cloak, Dagger, Punisher and Moon Knight after that meybe some venture into fantastic four with Galctus, Abihilus, Moleman, Namor and Doom! And then we get Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, The Thing, Silver Surfer, etc.

I want Magik sooo bad. To be honest, I’m not a big comic reader but from what I understand her mutant ability is to create portals to different spaces, times, dimensions, etc. She got stuck in a dimension and enslaved by a demon who taught her magic, but eventually became the sorceress supreme of that dimension and escaped. If she doesn’t show up in wave 8 she’ll still have some hope if they do a Midnight Suns wave (which is probably my most wanted team). I’d love to get more mystic support.

Great video, it was good to hear your thoughts on the state of the game and what may need addressing in the next wave. I'm interested to hear your perspective on Aggression some time soon because I have the opposite view on it, I strongly believe the Aggression is the weakest of the four aspects and is in the worst position. In my experience the number one reason a game of MC is lost, especially at higher difficulties, is because there was too much threat on schemes. Most identities have the damage necessary to kill minions as they're revealed, outside of certain very heavily minion focused encounters like Ultron, and steadily chip away at the villain. You don't start to really get into trouble until the main scheme starts building up threat or side schemes start to stack up and that's where Aggression struggles. Thwarting is almost always helpful because removing threat from schemes either removes an effect from the villain or gets you further away from losing to the main scheme completing. Dealing damage to the villain on the other hand doesn't help the players until the last point of damage is dealt to the villain, as long as the villain has at least one health left they're every bit as dangerous as they were at full health. This is where the core problem of Aggression comes in because it's primary focus is dealing damage which, outside of killing the occasional minion, doesn't actually help prevent the villain from winning. Each of the other aspects has solid ways of thwarting in their game plan, Aggression only has a few options and each of them tend to be heavily situational. I appreciate that it's important for each aspect to have it's identity but in my opinion Aggression's current identity is too far from what a deck actually needs to win a game, especially in the higher difficulties. I have some hope for the future with the introduction of the Assault keyword and more instances of it coming in X-23, but in the game's current state I think it needs a lot of help. I'll be interested to see how your video addresses Aggression's place in the game, maybe you can change my perspective on it.

Unrelated question. I am building decks on marvel card databse, and I wanted to add an image to the description, but when I use the normal markdown format it doesn't load. How do you get images into the description?

Agreeing in all points. And yeah, I am waiting for Nightcrawler since MG was announced, I WANT that guy to have his cards. And I would like to see Magik or Armor over Jubilee, Armor I see could be problematic because Colossus exist, but Magik I think could be even with Nightcrawler in one wave, because while they both has teleportation I think they are very different in nature - NC is a fast, blink-like teleporter that more inline with ninja stuff, he uses them in combat A LOT to attack, to dodge attacks and to save others. While Magik is more traverse-focused teleport-wielder that as I know usually not teleport while fighting but to me her power definetly seems more long-range and, well, they are because she is capable of teleporting through time itself. Her power is more portal-like that is slower, but more powerful and if I am correct - she is even more like "open portal in Limbo from when I could get you anywhere" then "teleport away with a blink of an eye". And fighting-wise they are different too, while NC is more agile, ninja-like fightier, Magik is a default two-handed-sword knight, she feel slower, but more robust, she is more armor-magic based then "teleport before I get hit" protected and, again, she has A BIG MAGICAL SWORD! And she is magic-user so she has powers like scrying and all that stuff that NC, again, doesn't have. So... Magik would be cool. Especially because that how MC worked for me - before them I, in example, couldn't care less about, IDK, Hawkeye or Wasp. But for some reason this game has some kind of ability to make me interested in characters that I play, I for some reason doesn't watched Guardians, idk why, but after playing couple games with Rocket and Drax I, well, watched all trilogy and enjoyed it a lot... So, again, I am waiting for a cool heroes! :D But maybe... maybe if they ARE gonna release Jubilee - I could love her too... Again - cool video!

Great video VT! I agree that better reprints would be nice. Limitless Stamina, Power In All Of Us, and Deft Focus especially. And reprints of the new player schemes. As for villains - I have enjoyed most of the Xmen baddies. Tho I felt like Sabertooth and the Morlock scenarios felt like escort missions in video games. I have been enjoying the bonus modular sets they have been popping in the hero packs. For heroes - feeling like we'll get Beast, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, and Professor X. Tho I am still a little irked they didn't give Angel the X-Men trait. I hope we get one more Xmen themed Scenario pack before they move onto the next wave.

Great video as usual!! It would be so cool to have a medium box (like Deadpool) hero/scenario pack which includes both Mystique hero and a scenario pack with Mystique as the villain.

I'd like to see more Side Schemes with an icon that also have a When Defeated effect. I love the "lesser of two evils" choice that comes with those designs.

As someone who has to support an entire play group (at this time), having solid reprints would be great. Digging Deep is going to be an in demand reprint until it happens.

14:25 the funny yellow tokens has me dying

Magneto and Xavier or Mystique as the two heroes in the Apocalypse box would be a thematic slam dunk. Magneto has helped the X Men fight Apocalypse before in the 90s cartoon and the movies. Magneto holding Asteroid M together to keep it from crashing into Earth (Strained card) shows that even in the Marvel Champions story, he values saving the world more than defeating the X Men. I think Magneto, X, and Mystique are also the only 3 characters that have been in all 7 of the mainline X Men movies, so they deserve their own hero cards for sure.

Here's what I'm hoping for for wave 8....no more mutants. Perhaps they finally give us Daredevil? Or maybe even come out with a Marvel Villains set where we play as the villains trying to complete a specific task, have a handful of heroes in the encounter deck that will take away threat. Just like with the heroes, most villains have an alter ego. So we can flip to ego side, heal and maybe get to do something that helps prepare us to go back to villain form. We win if we either complete our main objective (Goblin moving his specialized weapons to other bad guys, Lizard turning the city into lizard people, Magneto fulling his dreams of opening a junkyard) or we knock out the hero.

Justice definitely needs some help, though Float like a Butterfly is a good start. That card changed Justice for me.

One mechanic I'd love to see done away with is the "Discard cards from the encounter deck until you discard X. Reveal X." Mainly because it forces you to add certain modular set in to balance the amount of cards you discard, or you run the risk of discarding half the encounter deck before you get the card it asks for. Also they really should try and simplify the 'Defense' rule. As it stands now it takes up 3/4 of an entire page in the rulebook which is pretty unfriendly to newcomers of the game. Overall though you made some good points, especially about the reprints which i never thought of before!

We need aspect cards like No Quarter that promote more devotion to each given aspect: I am hearing players online as well as seeing my own table who feel the game is now supporting more the concept of playing basic cards only because they are so good. I am a protection player predominantly, so I am not experiencing this as much and enjoy the strong variety of protection event cards, but I recognize it is an issue that needs to encourage aspect play. Sometimes however, I do build cheap donate multiplayer builds to empower and refine down to hero cards only, like with Captain America or Nebula, for instance, and this should be studied in playtesting what new cards could help refocus back onto playing strong aspects, especially encouraging aspect events. Another idea is a cheap aspect support or upgrade card that gains cumulative tokens for playing hero kit cards, and then potentially discounts or improves an event for its own aspect color.

Agreed pretty much on all counts. Another thing that I think would be nice is to lessen the emphasis on thwarting a little bit. It's already the most "bang for your buck" action in most cases, and most of the latest scenarios feel very thwart heavy. A good example of how to do this is Spiral, where the scenario permanent side scheme can be thwarted in an alternative way.

I feel like surge should have been split into a rule and a keyword. The rule would be that anytime you reveal an encounter card and it has no effect on the game state, you reveal another encounter card. That rule would save space on cards, and prevent the game from being too easy if the villain keeps failing to do stuff. The keyword would be for minor effects that do maybe half as much as a normal card, and would cause you to reveal another encounter card, but it wouldn't chain.

I feel like FFG really should have made some of those X-men supports aspect cards. It would have really helped with the problem of them being always includes that clog all your mutant decks. Off the top of my head some things I’d like to see as justice archetype… - cards that revolve around excess threat removal sort of like overkill. Basically if you have more threat removal than you used you get something for each point of remaining threat removal. 1 heal, 1 villain damage, 1 main scheme threat removal, etc. I’d love a justice version of No Quarter. - more justice AE only stuff since justice is really good at flipping down - scrying and deck manipulation. - maybe they take another crack at hero cards that get mixed into the encounter deck and try to make them good this time haha.

Since it's the close out of the trilogy, I'd love to see a scenario pack tie into the next set, like Kingpin or some street level scenario. The Hood didn't feel connected to anything and I think that can be fine if the scenario itself is really solid.

I was in the same position about Jubilee until I read up on her some to see if I was missing something. Calling her power fireworks is actually a severe understatement of what she's capable of, it's just that most people don't know about it. Agreed on campaign mechanics being forced on the normal encounters. I really dislike when this kind of stuff happens. Lastly, while I doubt it will happen, I hope they do another 8 hero wave to finish up X men. There's so many good ones to pick from and it sounds like it's questionable if they'll be able to revisit it.

Magik could also be a good tie-in if they want to eventually do a Midnight Sons scenario and add the likes of Blade, Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, or Moon Knight. Speaking of Moon Knight, I fully agree with the logic of how they could still add Jubilee since that would work very similarly to how you could still add the Heroes for Hire like Shang Chi, Moon Knight, and Elektra despite them being in Taskmaster's scenario. That set is surely coming soon since we still don't have Daredevil, and the archetype has been around since the first expansion.

I really want another Limitless Stamina set. I can’t play 4 handers without it and since I only have enough for 1 I can’t dual hand them. I really want more encounter sets that make things easier like Hope’s. It’s currently easy to make too easy scenarios harder but it would be nice to make too hard scenarios easier or to help a hero take on a villain ill suited to them like a stun/confuse hero against stalwart. I pretty much agree for with your expected list except change out Mystique for Magik. You obviously haven’t read a lot of Jubilee. She is one of my favorites and hasn’t been an annoying teen for years. She took over leadership of Gen-X from Emma and Banshee and became a single mom to a kid who can shapeshift into a dragon. She also spent time as a vampire and her fireworks have the potential to reach nuclear blast levels if she wanted For scenario pack I would love Hellfire Club/Dark Phoenix. I really want Emma Frost to become the new Nebula and fill all the roles; Nemesis/minion, Signature ally (For Jubilee), Hero, villain, aspect ally.

I just want one more Spidey block(which I hope is very soon) before they close up shop on the game(which I hope isn’t anytime soon) just so I can get my Eddie Brock Venom man. After that they can release whatever they like. I’d love FF next, but hope they squeeze a surprise in between a la my Venom. Maybe a surprise Maximum Carnage campaign block with Cloak/Dagger as the box characters, then Venom, Iron Fist, Deathlok, and Morbius or Firestar as the individual releases

The biggest reprint I want is of standard 1

I want a phoenix basic so I can use soul sisters in storms deck

Since you are not about to write essays in reply to YT videos... Ha 1:00 is pretty much "cards I have got photocopies of". I chuck them in sleeves with a spare Genius etc. Crap reprints are poisonous. TPIAU is the most egregious as it always comes in 2s and has no reprint. I tend to agree about Justice. It was my favourite for ages as a solo player crutch. but it never developed. Too many of the early cards were unconditionally good (or conditionally great and OK the rest of the time - Clear the Area and Multitasking). It is very easy to have too much thwart power in solo play so those cheap events are all you really need and Justice good stuff was my go to archetype. There were some minor tweaks - using faction specific allies could change the feel - but it's been much the same. SHIELD has added a different archetype but that one pretty much builds itself so it's fun & effective but still does not allow any more creativity. I think there may be a confuse archetype - useless against some villains of course and some cards might be good in multiplayer. Team investigation is not super efficient but with Overwatch and player side schemes it may be? On the other hand Protection has gone from my least favourite to my most favourite aspect. It has several distinct ways to play it though these are sometimes strongly suggested by the hero of course - Repurpose Rocket is just great. Leadership overtook Justice as it was the first to really have multiple distinct play styles, however the draw a card with nobs on ability is so crushingly dull I get tired of it. A card draw swarm can support any hero so I like to use it to crutch soft heroes like Hawkeye rather than push Dr Strange to more ludicrous levels. I expect them to stop Mutant supports. FFG have a habit of taking a very long time to develop their archetypes so I am glad they got these all out quickly. There are probably too many though :) New formula, or revisiting older ones would be great. I really do not like going fast so hate Mojo but that's just one guy, I can live with a few more. Conversely gating the pacing, like Hela, suits me exactly and other ways to do that would be great. (Magog is a good example, though he is still mostly damage) I'm indifferent to campaign mechanics in standalones ; they are just mechanics, noone is going to know if you muck about with them. New core cards that are not surge spam / stalwart might be nice. I do not mind surge on minor effects like a small heal or tough or on Under Fire making it the big bad encounter card but putting it everywhere is annoying, random and diminishes the uniqueness. Interactive encounter cards seem good as too many minions or side schemes have effectively blank text. OTOH they are inherently more dangerous so they need to watch the balance. They have a mini surge in a way. They tend to be more nasty in MP than solo as there is more chance for interactions, with one another that is. Good stuff has got me excited about what is coming next!

I would like less supports and upgrades, and way more focus on events. When there are a ton of cards on the table, it’s just stops feeling like a card game and more like a board game

What i wanted is that scenarios become more complex like ones in AH: LCG. These boss battlers just feel the same. I was hoping so much that theirs new card game in star wars theme would be more like AH: LCG, but they do CCG again. Bleh.

I need playable Rachel and playable Erik.

We absolutely need all the side schemes reprinted multiple times alongside a whole bunch of other cards that you've mentioned. Also if we don't get Magneto as a hero option, FFG have blundered hugely.

Cool video but I disagree with one point... All teens are, in fact, annoying😎