Opening Notes:
My Marvel Champions Box - how I build decks:
I build out all my hero decks for game night, so we just pick a hero, pick a villain, and play. As such, every hero deck is an economy deck. The decks will all evolve as I acquire different hero packs and expansions. I mostly play the heroes in their original aspects. If I want to change, it has to be a swap. I'll discuss aspect swaps as they come up.
Focus:
With these early playthroughs, I'm mostly focused on the Heroes, discussing the feel and combination of each deck. I don't care about true solo. For me, the magic is in how the heroes and aspects pair with each other. The cooperative aspects of the game are very high. All these playthroughs will be 2-player.
Early Playthroughs, Feb 2024
Spiderman - Protection + Valkyrie - Aggression vs Rhino
This is my first aspect swap (with Vision's Justice deck). Spidey has 3 Def, he's too good in Protection. Spidey was absolutely able to keep Val protected, and Val built up some major damage to burn down Rhino, but they were one turn away from losing on the main scheme. I could have thwarted for two or three, but Val was throwing out the damage, so I just let it ride. Conclusion: Protection/Aggression is a bit of a speed run to win before the main scheme completes. We had to thwart two side schemes to save the day, but if one more would have come out, it might have shifted the tide... ...Justice is going to figure more prominently in future pairings.
Vision - Justice + Hawkeye - Leadership vs Klaw
This was weird. I swapped Vision to Justice (with Spiderman's deck). Vision did great on Justice. A little more form-switching and mass-switching than I expected (I'm still getting used to form-switching), but I like how he works. I really like this aspect swap. Vision is much better in Justice. The
Intangible form is really cool, because you don't have to defend, you just reduce the damage, and keep on playing. Hawkeye is --I don't know what to do with him. His character cards are total DPS and villain control. It's like he wants to be aggression, but he only has 9 hp ==> glass cannon? Reading online, everyone likes him in leadership because then he has blockers. This works, but then he's a slow build. In this game, he only used two (explosive) arrows. --That's it--
Hey, I'm playing Hawkeye --watch out, I've got arrows! Err... And I will shoot them at you... Err... After I play twelve more cards... By the end, Hawkeye was doing 18+ damage per round with four allies and a few upgrades.
But again, not so many arrows. I think Klaw kept me more on the defensive. As it stands, Hawkeye feels like a generic leadership deck, which eventually can do some cool aggressive moves. Conclusion: Leadership can definitely sub for aggression. Several of Hawkeye's allies can thwart if they need to, and blocking is always nice, but the attack values are quite high.
Dr Strange - Protection + She Hulk - Aggression vs Ultron
Oh man! I forgot what a pain Ultron is! Those schemes move so fast! I was taking all drones at the start, trying to keep the (short) main scheme from advancing. I was maintaining pretty well, but then She Hulk had to form switch, and even though I had confusion on Ultron, the encounter cards wrecked us, and the scheme advanced. Fortunately, it's a three-part scheme. She Hulk was pretty -meh- for most of the game. She drew some decent attacks, but mostly ended up thwarting and form switching --just to draw cards. That four card hand size is really rough. I may house-rule that she gets five. By the end, she was the power who took down Ultron, doing more than 20 damage in one round with three consecutive One-Two Punches, plus all the attack boosts, plus her allies. I really used her thwart upgrades early on, even though it's only two thwart, man, that really helped. This worked pretty well, except I really felt the lack of justice cards.
Dr Strange. Okay, yeah. This guy should probably have his own paragraph. I can see why he's ranked the highest. Whew! I had at least four stuns and confuses throughout the game, and I had toughness on all players and allies. Dr Strange is amazing vs Ultron. Getting both Avengers Mansions out really helped She Hulk (draw more). So many upgrades and allies for Dr Strange. One round he drew thirteen cards. Completely OP. One the flip side, this was a tough villain, and there's no way She Hulk could have soloed Ultron, so it was nice to have some competent backup. Conclusion: Dr Strange is fine in protection. He's a great backup to heroes who are slower builds, or who have small hand sizes. I liked DS doing more supportive actions, rather than just taking over the game. She Hulk eventually got to SMASH, thanks to the utility of DS.
Spring Break Playthroughs - March 2024
I'm settling into a more organized discussion of the playthroughs. I'll be breaking each playthrough into three parts: Pairing, Hero 1, Hero 2. I won't be heavily discussing villains for a while. I'm just having fun testing out heroes.
Iron Man - Aggression + Captain Marvel - Leadership vs Ultron
This is where you really feel that Iron Man is a slow build. At the beginning, it’s all Captain Marvel… At the end –last round Iron Man did a combined 28 damage with all his events, upgrades, and allies (only needed 14). Oddly, I was able to hold off that first scheme for quite a while. I probably should have just focused on damage, but villains are volatile, and bad news stacks up fast, so I usually opt for as much board control as I can muster.
Iron Man - Aggression
Iron Man drew two upgrades early, just enough that when the main scheme was piling up, he was able to draw a few cards after switching to hero form (hand size is dependent on upgrades). I protected my allies as much as I could to deal with all the drones. Hulk is a weird ally. He’s cheap, but I really only use him as a shield (he’ll usually block twice). Some people don’t like Hulk (ally), but 2-cost for blocking 5+damage, plus keeping your hero ready? That’s worth it in my book. Iron Man mostly thwarted the whole game.
Captain Marvel - Leadership
I got Captain Marvel in a good place early. She never did get to use Energy Channel, and I only had one counter on it at the end of the game. One round, she drew both triple resource cards. That would have let me add six markers on Energy Channel, but she also had two allies in that hand, so I got the allies out ⇒ much better at dealing with drones and threat. Both heroes took some serious damage, as neither has a good defense, and I was trying to protect my allies. Ultron really mills through your deck to make those drones. One round I had five drones out. Whew! On the resource side, I really liked Iron Man’s Pepper Pots card. She would usually copy a double-resource from the discard pile ⇒ you use the double resource to build an upgrade, then the double resource is on top of the discard pile –wow. That really helps build all the tech upgrades.
Drax Protection + Spider Woman - Aggression/Justice vs Rhino
Pairing
Okay, Spider Woman is cool. I did manage to get [4 Thw / 4 Atk / 4 Def] one round by playing three different aspects. I like the puzzle of maximizing that. Drax is hilarious fun. He actually did most of the damage. It was interesting, as they both started doing some decent damage right out of the gate.
Spider Woman - Aggression/Justice
I'll be trying to slowly build cheaper aspect cards into her deck to combo with her hero powers. Spider Woman got two stun + confuse attacks on Rhino. I got super lucky on Spider Woman that she got both resource upgrades out first turn. She's definitely a hybrid build. I had no problem managing threat while plastering Rhino. Get it? Rhino-plasty? Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all night --don't forget to tip your waiter...
Drax - ProtectionDrax's small hand size is an issue early on. Those vengeance counters stack up fast though. Later, Drax hit with two (free) Knife Leaps for nine damage each. I was only bummed that Drax didn't have well-timed defenses, so Spider Woman took more damage than she should have. At the end, Spider Woman was down to 3hp, and Drax was at 6hp.
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