Aspect Expressions (Junkerman's Marvel Champions Blog)

Okay, so my friend Rich of coopgestalt.com got me two more heroes from the new wave:  Silk and Shuri.  That’s strike one against my pledge to not buy Agents of SHIELD.  Then Age of Apocalypse was reprinted.  That’s strike two.  Then in an online discussion, I found out that Agents of SHIELD reprinted almost all of the Sinister Motives SHIELD cards.  Strike three… Sure enough, one of the big gaming web-sites had a sale.  I’m pretty sure this was a conspiracy.  Ahem.  I picked up both Expansions, Falcon, Winter Soldier, and even Jubilee. Now all I’m missing is Ant Man War Machine Sinister Motives SP//DR Spider Ham Except for Sinister Motives, I have a lower interest in those heroes –although SP//DR has some amazing cards in his pack.  War Machine is also out of print.  Of course, I never thought to get Hulk, but then someone gifted him to me.  With our home rules, which I may still tweak, he’s a big favorite. Anyway, so far, I l...

Looking at Shopping Spree , it’s just not that great.  It’s cool to always have a side scheme to clear and trigger some of the justice upgrades like Chance Encounter , and Skilled Investigator .  Even with economical deck building, I was able to do some of that.  I wisely added Cell Phone into her deck, just to always have an item to grab... In all of Marvel Champions, there are only two items cards which cost three.  Some heroes have no item cards.  Most items cost one or two.  So Shopping Spree pretty much saves you zero resources and often ends up costing you more for the same item. Really, you're just getting to search a deck for an item. It would be fantastic with Adam Warlock.  With other heroes?  Meh.  So far she’s helped herself and Gambit find an item... ...and Gambit never used the item she got for him –sometimes that can happen.  Overall, it’s a very mediocre side scheme.  With that said ⇒ Her hero power NEVER gets...

vs Ebony Maw Spider Woman - Justice / Aggression + Nightcrawler - Protection vs The Black Order (Avengers Tower Defense) Proxima Midnight &  Corvus Glaive This reminds me of the Wrecking Crew, how they tag-team, and they have their own schemes.  BUT, you can't kill one, until both are at 0 Hp.  We really liked the choices you have to make.  You definitely need a protection hero.  If you don't defend CG, then he damages the tower.  Then PM gets +2 ATK, or she does more damage to the tower.  We let them hit the tower a few times, which caused the tower to be weakened. Two main schemes:  This was fun to handle.  We kept both pretty low, but some crisis side schemes came out and slowed us down.  Eventually, one flipped -Boom- our Avengers Tower was flipped to damaged. Spider Woman Spider Woman did great!  She really leaned into playing multiple aspect cards to boost up.  She wants to thwart and do damage every round....

Phoenix - Justice + Cyclops - Leadership vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula Pairing: Leadership and Justice usually pair well together.  X-men tend to pair well with other X-men.  And of course, Jean Gray pairs with Scott Summers.  Tons of thwart early on.  The board state was well handled - schemes were absolutely no problem.   This was definitely a big ally game.  Utopia was used to ready Phoenix every time.  Scott’s nemesis came out and caused some problems, but Scott flipped, and Jean confused him.  After Green Goblin flipped, Cyclops dropped Exploit Weakness on him and with all the readies and allies, it did an additional 10 damage.  That’s amazing.  They knocked GG down to 4, then they did 2 retaliate –so close…  After drawing seven encounter cards, they finished him off.  GG didn’t make it through his deck, though, so that’s always a good test.   Phoenix Jean never flipped.  Early on she is g...