Marvel Champions - The Card Game: Initial Thoughts, Feelings and Emotions

So when this game was announced I was really excited. As an avid player of the Arkham Horror LCG (living card game), I was super happy to see Fantasy Flight Games were going to make a similar co-operative card game using the Marvel IP. I quite enjoyed moving away from competitive games to focus more on co-operative playing games instead, as I have always enjoyed team work and being able to be more relaxed when playing games. This game is also unique as it breaks away from FFG’s usual sales tactic of only releasing enough cards in a core box to give you a taster, if you want a better experience you need to purchase multiple core sets instead. With one of these core sets, you have enough to play the game with 4 people.

First Impressions:

Well the box looked pretty standard. However, upon opening the box did I get the huge surprise to see an actual plastic insert instead of the usual throwaway cardboard insert.

In terms of content though. We have plenty of tokens, lots of cards, a rules reference guide, a quick play guide and I can’t get over that plastic insert. I was legitimately worried about storing these cards and it’s so refreshing to see the box have more use than with previous Fantasy Flight Games releases.

The one thing that did strike me here was the dials, the holes feel almost too small, and I actually think I did damage to them while putting them together, which could have been avoided. The tokens themselves feel pretty standard; I can see these lasting a bit longer than my Arkham Horror LCG tokens, if only because this game won’t see as much play as Arkham Horror LCG. However, if you are planning to really get into this game, I would consider finding some acrylic tokens somewhere to replace these ones pretty sharpish.

In terms of value for money, this game was £45 with postage. I don’t need to buy another core to get a full set and this sits just fine with me. I can pick up odd packs here and there to get specific heroes and villains that I want to play too. 

Set Up:

Well the box comes with 2 pre-built decks for you to trial the game. Spiderman and Captain Marvel are your weapons of choice. The game also comes with pre-built bad guy for you to tackle too, Rhino. I opted to play as Spiderman, only really because I don’t like Captain Marvel that much and with the bad guy being Rhino, Spiderman felt more related story wise.

The quick play guide included with the game was really well done too; I didn’t get confused or lost during the games set up, as it made everything really clear for me. The only thing missing from the learn to play guide was what to do when your deck ran out, luckily this is noted in the main rule book. The game actually looks a little bare once it is ready to go, however this was due mainly to me playing solo.

Game play:

This game certainly makes you think in terms of game play, having to discard cards to pay for cards is a challenge in itself. However does bring a level of urgency to the game, you have to decide what’s more important for your strategy at that time. I pretty much went for damage dealing abilities and abilities that let me generate resources, which worked well, for a time anyway.

The different effects in the game flip from your “alter ego” and your “hero” personas, so it’s also important you are balancing which abilities can be used with each part of your character. There was a couple of instances where I had to flip from Spiderman to Peter Parker, so I could heal up and get another couple of costly cards out. However again this feels right as it’s not uncommon for the hero to take a time out to recoup and rethink their plan when dealing with a certain enemy.

How did it all go?

Well, I lost. Ha. I would however like to say that this was so close, had I lasted one more turn, I would have won. I think this also is a nice thematically to how the stories sometimes go. The first part of the game was going so well for me, and then the encounter deck started hitting me with some nasty effects and boosting Rhino’s stats. I would have limped into another round, however the encounter deck forced me to spawn my hero specific nemesis cards and this spelled doom for me at this stage sadly.

The combination of Vulture and Rhino was just too much for Spiderman to tackle. So Rhino managed to complete his evil scheme to win the game.


I even went as far as replaying the game with Captain Marvel to see how she played out, I’ll say that I either played it wrong, or she is insanely good using the Aggression aspect. I was dealing out up to 15 points of damage in one turn, quickly disposing of Rhino and his fiendish schemes.

Final Thoughts:

Despite the first game loss, I am excited by this game; it was simple and flowed really well. It felt very thematic in terms of a comic book story or movie, and having to alter from hero to alter ego emphasised this too.

For the price you pay you get a game for 1 to 4 players, based on an IP that most people will recognise or know about. The game is really simple with the learn to play guide doing a great job of teaching you how to play and keeping it simple for new players. Highly recommended.