10 minutes ago, Elrad said:

Hu ? Thanks for answering...

but where is it written that Ultron Drones is in play at the begin of the game ?

On side 1A of Ultron’s Main Scheme deck...

7 minutes ago, FearLord said:

On side 1A of Ultron’s Main Scheme deck...

35 minutes ago, Elrad said:

but where is it written that Ultron Drones is in play at the begin of the game ?

Side 1A of The Crimson Cowl main scheme :

Quote

Setup : Put the Ultron Drones environment into play. Shuffle the encounter deck. Advanced to stage 1B.

thank you, you two... now I feel a little more stupid than before, haha 🙂

33 minutes ago, Elrad said:

thank you, you two... now I feel a little more stupid than before, haha 🙂

Well, sorry for the duplicate answer, somehow my browser didn't update the forum page with new posts as it should have, so I didn't see them. Hope this makes you feel better. 😉

Hello guys,

sorry for necroing this thread but it helps centralizing my questions about the game.

18) After playing many games I'm still stuck with one annoying question. When it's my turn, can I play upgrades and attach them to another Identity (= player) than me when the card doesn't say it clearly . Some upgrades tell you that you can play them under any player's control, but most of them no, so I guess you can't ?

1 hour ago, Elrad said:

Hello guys,

sorry for necroing this thread but it helps centralizing my questions about the game.

18) After playing many games I'm still stuck with one annoying question. When it's my turn, can I play upgrades and attach them to another Identity (= player) than me when the card doesn't say it clearly . Some upgrades tell you that you can play them under any player's control, but most of them no, so I guess you can't ?

Correct - you can only play them on yourself unless the card says otherwise.

19) Stupid question that didn't arise until Thor was in my Hands : My friend and I will try playing a 4 vs the Wrecking Crew tomorrow and He wants to play both Iron Man and Thor. Both of them come natively with an Agressive affinity, so my question is : can multiple decks built around the same affinity coexist on the table or do we have to have a different affinity in each deck ?

Thanks.

36 minutes ago, Elrad said:

19) Stupid question that didn't arise until Thor was in my Hands : My friend and I will try playing a 4 vs the Wrecking Crew tomorrow and He wants to play both Iron Man and Thor. Both of them come natively with an Agressive affinity, so my question is : can multiple decks built around the same affinity coexist on the table or do we have to have a different affinity in each deck ?

Thanks.

You could play with 4 Aggression decks in one game, if you had the cards for it, yes.

Thanks ! an He will be a huge dps tomorrow haha...I'm backing him with Black Widow and Captain Marvel, let's see how we deal with it (or not :-D)

20) More a question of opinion than a true ruling question, but A friend and I have just played 4 Identities against the Wrecking Crew and we got insta-killed at first and then managed to get through that hellhole on a second try.

When we played our past games we usually relied on the base decks as proposed by FFG in their packs. I suddenly have begun to adjust some decks and we have played today with 50 cards decks.

Our general feeling is that it's too heavy. My friend usually play Iron Man and knows the base deck (Iron Man + Aggression + standard Neutral cards from the core box) and today he found himself struggling to get his usual srategy in play. Maybe It's due to the particular aggressiveness of the 4some, but even I did feel the game being heavier and harder to put in place.

So what is the best balance in term of deck size ? Is it better to rely on a 40 cards deck or maybe upgrade it to 45 or is there a viable way to have a 50 cards deck without feeling like struggling to move a mammoth ?

21) On a similar topic, How to manage the deckbuilding in this game ? I find myself with too many expansive cards too soon in the game and unable to play anything useful nor interesting at a reasonable pace. SO I don't know if I should focus on cheaper cards with only few good and expansive cards or if I should balance the proportion of free, cheap, average and expansive cards differently. What would you suggest ?

22) And on another topic but not so far from what has been discussed above, I feel that the fun I have playing this game tend to decrease over time. Allow me to elaborate : My friend plays always Iron Man and He always has fun at building his armour and dealing devastating damage over time like a one-man-Army.

I am, on the contrary, merely following. Not great at all, not bad either but I feel like a dust-collector going through the battlefield after the party. I know I prefer support style of gameplay with healing and protecting than being on the frontline dealing damages. But even playing characters like Black Widow or Miss Marvel (like I played today) didn't bring me as much fun as I expected. It's mainly due to a lack of skill and knowledge of those characters, and maybe a not good enough built deck. Even when playing with base decks I'm not a really good player. I often play a good card and can win something, but The overall feeling is that all the fun happens on the other side of the table where my friend is calculating everything and really enjoying himself.

I know I like this game and wouldn't play it so often if I didn't, but I would like to increase the fun of playing as a non-dedicated DPS character. I don't mind being a healer, protector, more passive class but I tend to find it less and less fun. Any ideas to increase the quality of play in this situation ?

Thanks a lot,

Elrad

20) Make sure you are only putting 1 threat on the main scheme (not 1 per player). After a couple of tries you should be able to beat Wrecking Crew with any deck size. Just strategize before hand how you want to prioritize taking down the villains which sub-schemes are the most brutal for your play style.

21) You card balance should be reflective of your hand-size (and card draw ability). For example, I dont play Avengers Mansion or Nick Fury in Thor because he cant afford it. Typically 40 card decks are stronger because they increase the percentage of your deck that the 5 double resources cards constitute. (those are your strongest 5 cards +/- other early hero signature card resource/draw engines).

22) I might recommend you vary your deck building/playing mechanisms. Some ideas follow:

• Each player is dealt two random Obligation cards and chooses 1 of the two heroes to play.
• Randomly determine your aspect.
• Build your teammates deck and let him build yours.
• Do a card-by-card team evaluation of your aspect decks. Before playing discuss with your friend why you like each card in your deck. You may find you have some overvalued cards in your deck (eg. Enhanced Reflexes), that doesnt mean you need to take them out, but an understanding of why a card is situationally good and situationally bad might help you to enjoy the playing of the game better. (For example understanding why Teamwork and Honorary Avenger are functionally similar but with slight variations might help you enjoy the game better).

@Elrad

Wanna preface this by saying I'm not a pro at this game. I do play it pretty often with my brother though, but use the shopping cart method to take what you need and leave what you don't. Also, there is a lot to your questions, so I hope you're ready for long-winded answer.

20) I base deck size on the hero I'm playing. Certain heroes like Captain Marvel and Iron Man have card draw baked into their hero and/or alter-ego abilities and hero cards. Whenever I play as those heroes, I burn through my deck multiple times a game. Those guys can justify a larger deck reaching into the 45-50 range. Other heroes like Thor can take longer to cycle their deck without some help. So a 40 card deck would be better for those heroes. Best way to find out is to experiment really.

Also, your play style will play a huge part in how many cards to include. Are you using every card in your hand every turn or are you holding on to certain cards? If you're holdings cards for later play, that affects how many you draw and subsequently how fast your will cycle the deck. Again, certain heroes with certain aspects will be better at playing all cards in your hand each turn. A general tip, don't be afraid to use your cards. The faster you use them, the faster they come around again in the recycle. Really focus on this the first time through your deck to find the key cards you need to build your hero. Use the expensive cards to buy the cheap hero/resource accelerator/card draw cards during that first time too.

In the end, I recommend 40-card decks should be the default goal until you have a comfort level in playing heroes/aspects that can justify more cards.

21) So deckbuilding is a game unto itself in LCGs and half the battle. There are two way to go about deck building for Marvel Champions imo.

First: Pick what you want your deck to do and then find the best hero/aspect/deck to fulfill that purpose. My train of thought generally goes like this: What do I want the deck to do? What's the best hero/aspect to achieve that purpose? What are the short comings of the chosen hero's kit? What cards do I need to overcome those problems and which cards do it well? How expensive are those cards and can I draw them and have the resources needed to fund them?

Second: Choose your hero first and find how to make that hero do what you want. This is probably the more difficult of the two because the chosen hero may not do what you want very well. For instance, Thor is not an inherent thwart hero, even with Justice as his aspect. He's pretty darn good at damage dealing in Aggression however. Many players enjoy the challenge of making certain heroes good in non-obvious ways. Kind of next level playing though.

Now more to your question. I tend to rarely include any 4-cost cards outside of one or two allies. There simply is not enough bang for buck to justify their cost in the overall game. Even 3-cost cards can be tough sometimes. I generally stick to the 2 and 1-cost cards to efficiently play multiple cards a turn and be able to fund them. This also helps with deck turn over from the first question you asked. Be picky about the more expensive cards you put in the deck. Make sure they're really serving a purpose and not just thrown in there because they're nice to have. Automatic rethinks should be Avengers Mansion, Nick Fury, Lockjaw and Heimdall.

22) So this may be the "stickiest" question you have. The whole premise of Marvel Champions is to pound that villain into the ground. Unfortunately, like any game, the support players are not going to get recognition compared to DPS players. Healing 5-6 damage in one round is not going to compare to dropping 30-40 damage and one-shotting a villain. Some suggestions to increase quality of play for the game:

First: Switch the roles. You play a DPS character and have your buddy play something else, maybe a heavy thwart hero. This doesn't have to be the norm, but do it every once in a while. It will keep the game fresh and you will be trying out different heroes and aspects. You and your friend may just find a new favorite hero/aspect too.

Second: Experiment more. Play one of the main, less involved, power heroes like Iron Man or Captain America. The support heroes, like Black Widow and Miss Marvel who you mentioned, tend to be more involved, require more combos and more shenanigans to really roll well. Even then, that's not a guarantee. My brother has been focusing on Black Widow of late and it's been hit or miss for him even with strategic deck tweaking and piloting. When she does hit, I'm not 100% certain he's satisfied with his play experience. He can do what she does with Captain America only much better and with much more satisfaction. Your friend is having fun with Iron Man for a reason. He's relatively easy to play and kicks major butt in attacking and thwarting.

Three: When playing a support role, find ways to still do a bit of DPS. Doctor Strange is the MVP of the "Swiss Army knife" category with his Invocation deck. Captain America is also very good at it. These heroes can easily pull off the support role beautifully while also still having cards in their kit to hit hard. These heroes are extremely fulfilling. The DPS guy will say he hit hard, but you will be able to say you had a role to fill each turn be it attacking, thwarting, healing or blocking. You still may not get the recognition, but it's so satisfying to play because you're everywhere, doing everything, and doing it WELL!

Four: Go heavy thwarting. The only other main mechanic of the game that's just as important as hitting the villain is thwarting them. If your friend is pure DPS, you be pure TPS so to speak. He may clear the battlefield and comment how much damage he did, but you will wipe all the side schemes and keep the villain at zero on the main scheme commenting how the villain never got past stage one.

Five: Get new friends. Jk.

In all seriousness though, find some new people to play with who will play different heroes and aspects and will appreciate your contributions to the game. Having multiple people to share ideas and help with optimizing your deck adds to the fun of the game.

And that's my mini book! Lol! Hope something here helps.

@The Archangel

First and most important of all : Thanks for taking the time to reply me in such details. It was a very instructive reading for me.

I'll say that I already applied your last advice. I did play with another guy and While I did play averagely well, I'll say He was helping me more. He's also a bigger player than my usual friend so He knew how to play (Playing Magic helped him a lot) and He dealt most of the DPS but He found me helpful too (playing Black panther was both new and rewarding to me by the way, I love how he does get around with his upgrades being activated a lot).

That guy taught me something you're mentioning, while paying a total different game called Epic by White Wizard Games - this game is more rough and fast than MC - and it was this : "When you have cards in Hand that you can't play, just throw them away. And like you said, It's more important to use 3-4 cost cards to pay 1-2 ones.

For the rest I've learnt many things or refreshed a lot and I think I've got a good basis to jump back even playing solo to test decks.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer me :-)

@IceHot42

And thank you to you too for answering, I've also learned some interesting things in your post, I'll test your suggestions next time I meet my friend or play with others.

I like the idea of discussing our decks compositions and having to justify why they are in the deck in the first place and what their purpose is. Good call ! thanks :-)

23) Another quick question : When you play against the Green Goblin (however the scenario) : do you put your obligations in the encounter deck or not ?

Thanks :-)

3 minutes ago, Elrad said:

23) Another quick question : When you play against the Green Goblin (however the scenario) : do you put your obligations in the encounter deck or not ?

Thanks 🙂

Why wouldn’t you?

(Only Wrecking Crew says no to that.)

24) Hum, if so, do you include the treachery card that put your nemesis into play ? Because it's confusing to me and yes, it' because the Wrecking crew did clearly mention it that I'm confusing now)

Edit : Oh and thanks for answering, by the way :-)

1 hour ago, Elrad said:

24) Hum, if so, do you include the treachery card that put your nemesis into play ? Because it's confusing to me and yes, it' because the Wrecking crew did clearly mention it that I'm confusing now)

Edit : Oh and thanks for answering, by the way :-)

Every game, you put your obligations and the whole standard deck into the villain's deck. This includes Shadows of the Past. You can add module encounters, if you want. I usually add just one, but some play with more than one, or none. There was recently an article released on the ffg page about the thematic and narrative side of Marvel Champions, where they suggested a villain deck called "the Sinister Six". Check it out if you want. Lastly, if you're playing on expert mode, add the whole expert deck. The ONLY exception to these rules, is the Wrecking Crew. So far, that is.

3 hours ago, Elrad said:

24) Hum, if so, do you include the treachery card that put your nemesis into play ? Because it's confusing to me and yes, it' because the Wrecking crew did clearly mention it that I'm confusing now)

Edit : Oh and thanks for answering, by the way 🙂

The card you’re referring to Is shadows of the past. This card is part of the 7 cards in the standard encounter set.

When you are setting up your scenario, the villains main scheme will have a list of the sets to include. If it says include the standard encounter set, then yes you include it.

This Scenario includes it.

Again, I didn't read carefully.... **** When Will I learn ? And thank to you too for taking the time to answer this stupid question....

25) Another "opinion" question : Do I need to buy multiple copies of each packs ? So far I only bought one copy of each product and didn't see the benefit of paying double to get additional copies of the cards. People told me when i bought the game that it was useless to buy two coreset because everything was already in the main box. Maybe They'll give additional copies of some cards on the long run with forthcoming packs, boxes ?

41 minutes ago, Elrad said:

25) Another "opinion" question : Do I need to buy multiple copies of each packs ? So far I only bought one copy of each product and didn't see the benefit of paying double to get additional copies of the cards. People told me when i bought the game that it was useless to buy two coreset because everything was already in the main box. Maybe They'll give additional copies of some cards on the long run with forthcoming packs, boxes ?

The additional sets always come with:

• 1 copy of each unique - You can't include more than 1 copy of a unique in your deck
• 3 copies of new cards not unique - You can't include more than 3 copies of a card in your deck that isn't unique
• 2 copies of existing cards not unique - Even though you can include 3 of these cards in your deck, if you have the core set, you already have 3 copies of this
• The exact amount of any other restrictions needed - So if a card is max 1 in your deck, 1 copy of it. Max 2 in your deck, 2 copies of it.

Because of this, you will never need more than 1 copy of any of the products in Marvel Champions for your personal use.

Thank you for answering, @DarthofZA .

26) Regarding Odinson/Thor Identity card :

I know I tend to overthink things constantly but if I found Mjolnir in my discard pile, do I shuffle my deck (guess the answer is YES) ? Second, If I found it in the discard pile, do I put back my discard pile into the deck and then shuffle it ?

Got a couple rules questions too:

1. When damage is dealt by a villain (not an attack), can allies take it since they also count as "characters" under the players control? I know allies can defend attacks but the language for taking indirect damage suggests it's possible for direct damage. Asking in regards to stage III Norman Osborn flipping and the "deal 4 damage to each player." Doesn't specify "hero," "identity," or a "character."

2. Can a hero or ally of that player attack a minion engaged with another player? The rules say an attack can be directed to any enemy but for some reason I thought I read somewhere that minions engaged with other players were intelligible.