Game Overview

Game Name: Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Publication Year: 2019
Designers: Michael Boggs, Nate French, and Caleb Grace
Artist: Uncredited
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game

A superhero features their core cards, along with 1 of 4 aspects for a fully customized deck. Meanwhile, a villain and main scheme provide an ongoing challenge to overcome before time runs out. It’s all an exciting battle with many possibilities and plenty of content to explore!

Fun with Binders

Before I began, there was an entire bindering system to update. That’s right: I keep these cards organized!

Every hero has their cards laid out across 2 pages. Some are consolidated depending on the set, but they will always span these pages so I can see every unique card.

Wait a moment… Looking at this, I’m now wondering if I could go more for a double-sided route so every hero would only take up a single page. Hmm. Interesting.

My organization system is always evolving, but the main point is that I know how to navigate through the cards!

Exploring More Cards

For the basic and aspect cards, I separate these by type, then alphabetize by sub-type. So allies, events, resources, support, and upgrades are all categorized neatly.

Each pack requires some shuffling around, so it’s not perfect. No system ever is! Yet this made it easy to build a deck from the physical cards as I considered the options.

Websites are definitely more efficient when constructing decks, but again, I’m not one to be perfectly efficient!

There’s just something so fun about flipping through pages of cards, admiring the artwork and reading the text.

A Slight Problem…

So after getting every card into its proper place, I realized I needed another binder. This one features all the superheroes, basics, and aspect cards. That’s a lot!

Villains, side schemes, and the like are stored separately and have plenty of room. But I went ahead and made the call to move the superheroes into their own binder.

This isn’t a solution that will work for everyone. It’s heavy. So heavy! And definitely more old-school.

Yet if it interests you, I use Ultra Pro 9-Pocket Trading Card Pages (Platinum) and Case-it 4-Inch Binders. Yeah!

Where to Begin?

I debated this question endlessly as I figured out how I wanted to start. In the end, I decided to start with the core set but allow any cards for constructing my deck.

Peter Parker it was! Or, as we all probably know him better, Spider-Man. Keep in mind I have very little knowledge of any superhero stuff, but I was still excited.

The next biggest choice was which aspect to use. I settled on protection because I saw a card I liked. A good reason!

Actually, every hero is designed to work with each aspect. Some combinations are just easier or harder to win with.

A Rampaging Rhino

The villain choice was a little simpler, since I knew I wanted to start with the first recommended one. Enter Rhino! I played against him years ago. Hello, old friend.

I stuck with the standard difficulty level and didn’t make anything more complicated than it needed to be.

For a new game, it takes me some time to get into it. And it’s never bad to dive in slowly. I had no clue what I was doing, and my deck was probably a slight dud. No worries!

Most importantly, I found myself really excited to play as Spider-Man and get into character. Away I went!

Making Moves

Slowly, I went through the rules to make sure I knew what was going on. This one really isn’t all that complicated, especially when focusing on the core set.

Spending cards for resources added interesting choices, but I had my first move figured out! Peter Parker became Spider-Man and showcased his strength right away.

Take that Rhino! 5 damage was a great way to start. I may have been making sound effects and yelling a bit…

There was also a random playlist of superhero movie soundtracks in the background. I was there!

Unbroken Defense

I saw the back-and-forth play with exhausting Spider-Man for defense, too. Yet I wanted to make sure to manage any damage, so the first round was all about defending.

A-ha! Rhino’s boost card brought his total attack to 3, but that went absolutely nowhere. Spider-Man dodged, weaved, and webbed Rhino’s worst punches. Not today!

Granted, I wasn’t playing any cards here, but it all felt pretty thematic. And without a story, actually.

I was worried this would feel way too mechanical, yet the artwork, card titles, and flavor text all worked together.

A Thematic Charge

Even an attachment drawn by Rhino featured Spider-Man, which was quite nice! Actually, many of the cards have small nods to lots of superheroes. Very clever!

Charge reminded me that no allies had come out yet, and I wondered if I hadn’t put enough in my deck.

Still, with a limit of 3 out at any time, I didn’t want to go overboard to rely on them for a lot. Spider-Man was the main star, and would get the help when allies arrived!

It all seemed to be going decently well. Rhino was taking damage, and the threat remained low. So far, so good!

Black Cat to the Rescue

On the subject of allies, I drew Black Cat and saw a great opportunity to bring her in to start helping out!

Based on her ability, I stacked my deck with a slightly higher percentage of cards with the mental resource. Luckily, it paid off as I immediately picked up a card.

Yet again, it seemed very thematic! She arrived to do her part, providing enough cover for Spider-Man to up his defense in the future. Fly, Black Cat, fly!

I also enjoyed her attack, which had no consequential damage. She was solely focused on Rhino for the moment.

Sudden Problems

Much as Peter Parker wanted to focus on the trouble with Rhino, it was a blasted eviction notice that brought him back to reality. And piled on all the other problems!

These encounters all had surge, so although not much happened, the end result was Rhino healing up.

And yes, my good sir, I do think I can stop you! This was no joke! I’m fairly certain I yelled at this card with similar sentiments. I really should record my solo plays…

Things were starting to unravel a little bit, and I suddenly saw how I was taking far too much time to move ahead.

Building Threat

That was one of the highlights of how this play went… Defeating Rhino was the main goal, but the growing threat added tension and took me down another path.

I love games that feel wide open and safe at the start. That can go for any type, too, and doesn’t just involve games surrounding battles or skirmishes.

That sense of things slowly closing in can be a lot of fun when done well. And here, it was excellent.

Threat was pretty low… Until it wasn’t! Then I had to look at changing tactics and thwarting instead of attacking.

A Powerful Defense

The protection aspect gave me plenty of reasons to defend, often since Spider-Man earned extra bonuses.

Hard to Ignore was out, which reduced threat from the main scheme when no damage was taken after defending.

With the proper use of Jump Flip, Spider-Man avoided any damage from a rather tame attack by Rhino. But there was another trick up my sleeve with this exciting event!

Since I paid for it with an energy resource, even more threat was removed from the main scheme. In total, this defense removed 3 of 4 threat. Hard to ignore me!

Across the Spider-Verse

Part of the fun was also seeing how my custom deck worked. I had some ideas about the various combinations, yet there were subtle sequences I hadn’t remembered.

Across the Spider-Verse worked wonders! I had a Web-Warrior support card that didn’t do much during a turn, so I exhausted it and paid the 2 resources for this event.

Calling all Web-Warriors! It was Spider-UK who answered the call. Plenty of help from him, especially with my cards.

This was a neat moment, even if I didn’t have the resources to repeat it. Another turn to look forward to!

Anticipating Moves

At this point, I was struggling to keep up with Rhino. Side schemes proved to be quite challenging, and thwarting the main scheme was necessary to keep Spider-Man alive.

However, I had some tricks up my sleeve! When a horrible surprise attack threatened, Spider-Man calmly flipped out of the way. Enchanced Spider-Sense, Rhino. Take that!

I enjoyed how these events could turn the tide of battle, but weren’t a guaranteed thing with their costs.

The walls were closing in, and Rhino was in a pretty good position to make some more moves. But onward I went!

Ghost-Spider’s Arrival

My main issue was how Spider-Man’s allies were spread out so much. I may have even used a few for their resource costs… Lesson learned for the future, indeed!

Yet with a properly played card used while Peter Parker was resting up, Ghost-Spider entered the fray.

Her ability was more about when she left play, so it would take a few turns to see her help out. But I had the perfect card in mind that I knew was fluttering about in the deck.

Again, I appreciated the fun of finding so many card combinations. Many of these were multi-step, too!

The Trouble with Rhino

Alas, I could see where everything was headed. In many ways, gameplay felt like a puzzle I needed to solve. And with so many villains, I had high hopes for the future!

Rhino continued to pull off multiple treacheries, courtesy of the Breakin’ and Takin’ side scheme. That gave me 2 encounter cards to deal with each round. Why, thanks!

False Alarm was terrible for Spider-Man, but I enjoyed it from a thematic standpoint all the same.

I pretty much knew I would lose. Yet I was having a great time, and still felt like a few turns could pan out.

A Worse Situation

See all this? Just a complete disaster! I still knew I was going to lose, yet I wasn’t frustrated nor upset. The fun continued in learning about my deck and Rhino’s abilities.

I think that’s an important thing to call out. There was no way for me to win, and I had no inclination to quit.

For as I discovered, the overarching goal was to win with Spider-Man, but I was playing for the story. Those cool moments when the cards worked out were the highlights!

On a side note, I continued to love some of the flavor text: “Rhino is breaking things and taking them.” Ha!

Moving to Rhino II

Just before the inevitable end, Spider-Man finally dealt the last damage to Rhino I. Rhino II was his final form, and sort of represented another stage of the battle.

My downfall was never advancing him quickly enough, even though I had a lot of attack damage sources.

There were other card combinations I saw, too. Many of those had been discarded or used in sub-optimal ways. My deck definitely had potential… Even if I didn’t. Ha ha!

I felt like I was playing as Spider-Man, and that was all I hoped for. Such a fun and exciting play!

Session Overview

Play Number: 11
Expansions: Many for Deck Construction
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Spider-Man / Protection vs. Rhino
Outcome: Loss

Not surprisingly, Rhino succeeded in stealing the vibranium… This time! I learned a lot about this new deck. His general play style was familiar once again, and I was ready to make things work. I had an awesome time living through cinematic moments and watching a story take place. Can’t wait to play again for a Rhino rematch!

Affordability

Price & Value

9

Functionality

Challenges & Mechanics

8

Originality

Design & Theme

7

Quality

Components & Rules

9