Spring Break 2025 Playthroughs
One Year Later: Rich got me into this, so I blame him. BLAME! You've been blamed, buddy. Rich liked the game, and gave me a copy for Christmas. Then he started giving me extra hero packs. He was taunting me with my favorite heroes. Most of my friends got heavy into Sentinels of the Multiverse, and I still like that game, but I've had a real up-and-down, love-hate relationship with it. Spring Break 2024, I had nothing to do, so I sat down and started playing the core set. I loved that you could have some control over the decks, and I loved the idea of aspects giving each hero a role to play in the battle. I started emailing Rich about my playthroughs. "This playthrough was awesome!" "I learned something new!" "These aspects work great together!"
Rich must have had enough of my silly emails, because he finally replied, "Dude, write a blog already." So here we are.
Just as a note, I'll be playing other villains soon. But I love comparing the initial plays against my baseline test deck, which is moderately difficult. I usually favor getting built out over Aggressive plays, so I can see how the heroes play when they're fully built.
Magneto - Leadership + Rogue Protection vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula
Magneto: The Magnetic Pull ability was so-so. It gets you an extra card every round, but you end up discarding some important cards. Once you get his Helmet into play, you're very tempted to play a magnetic card every round. I think that's smart hero design. Erik played his New Recruits side scheme early. This is the first hero side scheme I've ever played. It worked fine. The extra allies were very helpful. I also liked the Wrapped in Metal card. He threw one out early game, and it sat there for several hands until I drew Magnetic Missile. This waiting actually helped GG, as several villain cards are boosted by the number of goblins on the board, but it worked out just fine. I never used You Got This, or Noble Sacrifice. I don't like the way they work, and there never was a need to double down on an exhausted ally, but I left one of each in his deck just because it seems so thematic for Magneto to use his allies for his own purposes...
Rogue: So many fun choices --play two upgrades, or max-out Southern Cross? I'm so glad I added Deft Focus to her deck. She really started throwing the cards around. She's super versatile. She used her allies and toughs and Bulletproof Belle for defending early. Twice, she pulled Metal Shards out of Erik's discard pile to kill a heavy minion and gain a tough. I love her abilities, she has so many options when paired with an aerial hero. I'm leaving her in Protection to keep Dauntless --for the free retaliation trait, because maxing out her powers is so cool.
Gambit - Aggression + Shadowcat - Protection vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula
Pairing: Protection + Aggression is a more natural pairing, and this worked great. These two took very little damage the whole game. They both used hero cards to handle the thwarting, with Shadowcat using readies to thwart some more. The initial scheme never advanced. Shadows of the Past came out late on Gambit and Belladonna got squashed, along with the Assassin's Guild. Last round, these two combined for tons of damage.Shadowcat: I added Deft Focus to her deck, and it's so helpful. She did most of the damage in the early game with Powerful Punch. When she gets rolling on defense, she's almost untouchable. She had the same tough status for 3 rounds, and she only flipped once to take advantage of a confuse on the villain. I love the attack / defense cards which cause her to switch forms and defend without exhausting. Her ally cards are built around Mutant Protectors. Most allies come in with a tough or a confuse or something which activates. Those are perfect for her. Because she stayed ready, she thwarted a lot this game. She has a lot of readies. Last round, she did 15 damage from three Shadowcat Surprise cards in the same hand (2 ATK + 3 SS) x 3... Then she readied two more times just to put the nail in the coffin. This might be a good Flow Like Water deck. I may make some changes.
Gambit: Flipped every round, so the X-Mansion got tons of use. I always used Mutant Education for grabbing his double-resource cards (for extra charges). I never used his Thief Extraordinaire ability. He started with Bootcamp, playing mostly allies and upgrades in the early game. These worked great with X-Mansion. Dust was upgraded with Attack Training, and hit the whole board for 3 damage, clearing three minions. I used to think she sucked, but she gives you way more mileage out of the upgrades. Gambit was using Honed Technique. The last three rounds, he did most of the minion slaying + damage to the villain. He charged a Melee for 10 to two targets. Then next round he finished the game with Royal Flush for 15 damage total. All the charges and boosts are what make Gambit fun.
- Royal Flush = 0 + 0 + 0
- 3 Charges = 3 + 3 + 3
- Warrior Skill = 4 + 4 + 4
- Aggressive Energy = 5 + 5 + 5
Wolverine - Aggression + Angel - Protection vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula
Pairing: This was a slower build, then a big smash up at the end. Wolverine would probably pair better with Justice or Leadership, because he mostly wants to get hit so he can draw more cards. Angel started out blocking for him, but once Wolverine got Berserker Frenzy up, then it was each to his own. GG had 5hp on the first stage. Soon as they flipped him, Wolverine threw two boosted Slice and Dice attacks for 10 damage each. Angel flipped to Archangel and readied twice to hit for 6 plus a 4 attack event, then all 6 allies did the rest. They both handled the schemes, and Angel's side scheme came out to heal everyone at a good time. Containment Strategy seems better suited for player side schemes, because most villain side schemes you don't want to leave sitting.
Wolverine: Logan opened by taking 3 damage to play Melee, taking out both Goblin Thralls. That was a fun opener. One round they had to come up with 22 damage just for minion. Green Goblin definitely swarms minions. I didn't need Downtime or Recuperation. Wolverine seems to have plenty of heals, so I decided to take those out of his deck, but I'm leaving Endurance in for comfort. Warrior Skill paid off in the middle and in the end. I added Toe to Toe and You'll Pay for That.
Angel: Spent much less time in Archangel mode this game, mostly for thwarting. Elixir, Cannonball, and Psylocke stick around because they heal so much. I love the aerial cards. Team Building Exercise is perfect for Warren.
Cyclops - Leadership + Iceman Aggression vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula
Pairing: Oh yes, I'm crazy. I had to answer the question of whether they would help each other, or whether it would be too much control and not enough damage / thwarting. Honestly, this was more complex than I thought. Both Heroes have cards which interact with certain upgrades, so you have to plan it out. I also missed that on Iceman, he freezes when he attacks OR defends. This was a slower game. They got hit in waves: 3 schemes at once, 4 minions at once. It was tough. They did manage to keep the main scheme from advancing past stage A. That was a bit of work. This was an ally-heavy game.
Cyclops: didn't get a good shuffle and had a hard time playing to his full potential. He did alright, but had to pass up some allies when they all showed up in one hand. I like that he always goes first, but of course, we don't usually play in order. In 2-player, this matters less, but I think we might switch back to turn order for 3-4 player. Takes longer, but I like the way it plays in Sentinels of the Multiverse.
Iceman: oh man, I really want to play him in Protection. He's so good with Frostbite while defending. He could ready and freeze all over the place. I quickly figured out that his Snow-Clones can attack for free for the whole game if he can keep the Freezes coming. It's a free 4 damage every round. I also forgot to trigger his card draw from Cryokinetic Perception, as well as shuffling the Ice cards in on Alter Ego. Those are supposed to work together for extra readies --more Freezy powers!
Storm - Leadership + X-23 - Aggression vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula
Pairing: OMG! This felt like a RUSH strategy. Neither hero got through their decks. Green Goblin was maybe halfway through his deck. This was brutal. Granted both heroes had amazing starts, but neither hero got built out all the way. The whole game, Storm only played four allies (counting one she played twice). GG would throw tons of problems out, and at the end of the hero turn, the whole board would be clear. They ran out of things to do. What else do you do? Smash the villain! This is maybe the strongest pairing I've seen so far. This was so fast, they only thwarted the main scheme once (with X-23's side scheme for 10 thwart). I've never even seen that before.
X-23: Moderate risk, high reward. She takes damage right and left, but every time she takes damage, she readies (once per phase). But also, when her ally Honey Badger takes damage, X-23 readies. Also, I threw in 3x Battle Fury, just to have fun. I also threw in "Now I'm Mad," which she activated twice. With all her readies, she can pick her moment to flip down. Laura can defend for free as long as she takes damage. At the end, she didn't even have Combat Training up yet, but she still attacked four times for 5, 7, 7, and 7 damage with Honey Badger doing another 2:
- Base ATK: 1
- Claw Mastery: 3
- Now I'm Mad: 4
- Thunderstorm (attack): 5
- X-23's Claws (ready): 7
- Honey Badger (ready):7
- Utopia (ready): 7
Storm: She did great with her weather deck helping every round. The X-men leadership supports are amazing. Plenty of discounts, boosts, readies, heals, and resource generators. Ororo flipped between Thunderstorm (+1 ATK), and Hurricane (Retaliation), since X-23 kept defending and readying. At the end, Lightning Bolt came out for 10, her allies did 8, she did another 3. X-Mansion helped keep Honey Badger in the game, just to add more readies on X-23. Then Utopia came out --and added ANOTHER ready for X-23.
Star Lord - Leadership + Adam Warlock vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula
Pairing: So funny how their stats are opposite. This played a little better. Star Lord is great with other Guardians, because his ally upgrades can only be played on other Guardian allies, and Welcome Aboard can be played for other heroes, so it works almost 100% of the time. This is great synergy. I realized too late that I had avoided most of Adam's mystic discard events. He went slower through his deck and didn't build out fast enough. Both had a great start, but then GG also had a great start, and they were on the ropes. Star Lord was down to 1 hp. The main scheme flipped early, and they started building back. Last round, GG flipped. They had 6 allies out, and Star Lord had one Sliding Shot + two Daring Escapes in his hand. Both heroes combined for over 50 damage. It was a slow build (because Star Lord really adds risk), but once again the last round is where the power comes out. They both handled schemes and minions. It felt pretty equal while building up.
Star Lord: The main reason I played him is that I finally added the three basic resources into his deck. So helpful! I didn't use Star Lord's "What Could Go Wrong?" ability every round. The reason GG had a great start was because 3 Goblin soldiers came out at the same time --no thanks to Star Lord for drawing extra encounter cards. Nevertheless, I really liked how their cards paired very well together. He definitely pairs better with other Guardians.
Adam Warlock: I think the reason I didn't use Adam's mystic "discard" cards was that he was playing some very good allies early on. He is classified on many lists as a support hero, and playing allies really helps with that, but it slowed him down. Last round, he did over 20 damage. I may try to pair Adam Warlock with a protection deck, and see what happens.
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