Marvel Champions Home Rules

Note: I started collecting my home rules.  These are mostly for more fun / faster play + fixing character or play issues.

Marvel Champions Home Rules

Mulligan:

Players can shuffle mulliganned cards back into their decks if they choose.

Players can play out of order.  

Technically the game has a limited form of this, Calling for Actions.  If I’m first, I can coordinate with others to ask for an extra card from that Avenger’s Mansion, or whatever so long as it is an Action.  The second player couldn’t then ask the first player to kill a minion, because the first player is done.  This could be achieved by planning out each player’s turn in order, but it takes longer.  Playing out of order is somewhat chaotic, and breaks a few rules, but saves tons of time in coordinating the hero phase.  Time saving and fun are the priority here.  Situationally, this can give the players a small advantage, eg. player four playing Maria Hill to give everyone an extra card for this round, vice the next round.

Note that I really like playing in order in Sentinels of the Multiverse. I think this rule helps more in 2-player. In 3-4 player, it saves a ton of time, but I really like playing in order better to watch what others are doing. It takes longer, but it's part of the fun.

Floating Resources: a double resource card can pay for two 1-cost cards.

Basic (Aspect) Resource Generators, including Enhanced Reflexes, Enhanced Awareness, and Enhanced Physique are all accessible by the team, the same as the Helicarrier or Avenger’s Mansion. 

Stun and Confuse: can be cleared by taking 1 damage and 1 face down encounter card.  I almost never do this, but I love having the option.

Surge: max once per player per villain phase.  No more endless surge chains --oh, I'm looking right at you, Nebula...

Shadows of the Past variant: This prevents player nemesis and side schemes from dumping all at once. Shuffle the Nemesis decks for all the Heroes in the game together, and set that aside as an extra deck. At the start of each villain phase, shuffle the top card of that deck into the encounter deck.  Shadows of the Past is removed.  Optionally, add Expert Set to this deck.

Multiverse Rule: Ignore the unique icon on cards (for the most part).  Someone playing as Spider-Man - Peter Parker doesn’t keep another player from being able to play the Spider-Man - Peter Parker ally.  However a player can’t include the Hawkeye - Clint Barton ally in their deck if they’re playing the Hawkeye hero.

Team up cards: are played as an upgrade which remain in play until their team-up ally is played (unless someone is playing that team-up hero), then the team-up card can activate and discard. See my custom Team-up cards.

Caught off Guard (standard I): now reads, "Exhaust an upgrade or support you control. If no cards were exhausted, this card gains surge."

Heroes: Most heroes are fine, I only have 5 which give me any problems, and only 2 have major problems. She Hulk, Drax, and Ms Marvel are easy fixes. Adam Warlock and Hulk are the big problems. The goal of these fixes is fun. I've tried to make minor changes, so we're not increasing the power, so much as fixing the annoyances. If someone picks She Hulk, I want her deck to feel good. As such, I listen to my groups on game night for their ideas, and do research online for ideas.

She Hulk:

Gamma Slam is now an Upgrade which starts in play (like Valkyrie’s Death Glow) and it still costs 4 to activate.  When activated, it goes out of play. 

Legal Practice adds that if you maximize by discarding all 5 cards for 5 thwart, you replace Gamma Slam.  (Too much paperwork makes you angry)

She Hulk & Drax 4-card hand size problem (hero side).  These solutions are modeled after Captain America, Black Panther, Hawkeye, and others who add an important card to their hand on setup.

Drax adds DWI Theet Mastery to his hand at the start, because his 4-card (hero) hand is underpowered, but a 5-card hand would make him overpowered with DWITM, and because he draws cards when the villain attacks (after he has 3 vengeance counters).

She Hulk adds one Focused Rage to her hand at the start --to enable a 5-card (hero) hand from the outset, but not to overpower her by just increasing her base hand size.

Adam Warlock: I have three house-rules with Adam.  

First, Quantum Magic is an upgrade, not an event.  These always show up in the opening hand, and they’re worthless, but they’re super important for Adam.  He needs to be able to access those cards. 

Second: the Cosmic Entities scale with player count (they activate once for each player).  ⇒ Eternity lets everyone draw a card.  This makes them 10x more fun and interesting to play.  Most players don’t include them in Adam’s deck, because they are too expensive and weak.  Thematically they’re amazing; they just need a scaled effect to make them fun and worth it.

Third: he has a setup Support (Location) card called Counter-Earth relating to his origin story.  Hero Response: when he discards more than three cards for an event, he gets to shuffle one card back into his deck.  This includes Summoning Spell or Shield Spell so long as he discards more than three cards.  This is really necessary for him to survive.  Adam needs his upgrades, and it’s very easy to lose them to the discard pile.  Alter-Ego: this lets you discard a Basic Card (vis-a-vis Battlemage) to draw one card out of the discard pile and place it on top of your deck.

Ms Marvel: Six of her hero cards are worse than aspect cards. It plays fine, but it has a terrible feel. You want your heroes to be heroic. Sneak By and Big Hands have been nerfed as a "tax" because Shrink and Embiggen are too good. We fiddled with these, but I settled on leaning into Ms Marvel's hero power. So we added to Sneak By, "If this is the second time this card has been played this round, add 2 thwart." And we added to Big Hands, "If this is the second time this card has been played this round, add 2 damage." They don't get used all that much, but having options makes the card more fun.

Hulk: oh boy, he's maybe worse than Adam. I have a TON of custom cards for Hulk. The basic fix is to add 1 to his hand size, but again, that feels less thematic. I'm like the Mythbusters: if it doesn't work, I want to make it work. The thematic elements of Hulk are really high, so I tried to go that direction with all my fixes.