Caught Off Guard (Standard I) Home Rule

This card needs to be changed. Maybe it could be an expert card.

Home Rule: we changed this to “Discard an upgrade or support you control, or pay one resource plus the cost of the card to keep it in play. If no cards were discarded, this card gains surge.”

One of the big problems with Marvel Champions is how many scenarios end quickly. A common complaint is, “just when I get my hero built, the game is over.” The [getting built out] part is often the struggle.

I used to hate Stuns because the complaint is “I didn’t get to do anything.” Usually, you can clear them, BUT more importantly, they slow down attacks, which gives you more time to build out. So now I kinda like them for pacing.

Caught Off Guard adds to the pacing problem, and prevents the fun of building out. This home rule fixes both problems.


It's only one card, does it really “need to be changed?”  

Well, it’s the Standard I modular which gets added to almost every scenario because Shadows of the Past is a base game element.   “Needs to be changed” refers, of course, to base game pacing.  Breaking hero build-outs on the base game leads to late build-outs which are often not economical to play + game is over next turn, so you might not get to experience the full (or near full) build-out.  


But Overwhelming Force is way worse.

Overwhelming Force is Standard II (which many people don’t play because it’s just punishing and worse than Expert 1).  As it stands, most consider that S1 < E1 < S2 < E2.  We played S2 once, and threw it back into the box.  If I cared about S2, I’d probably change that card. That may be for a future project, but I think we’re all more okay with overly difficult cards in harder modulars.  


What even are Upgrades and Supports?

The Upgrades and Supports are kind of weird anyway.  Did Vision lose his cape?  Thematically, “suiting up” tends to match “powering up” for a villain fight (especially with stage 1 feeling like an initial villain fight and stage 2 feeling like the final showdown).  I mind cards like Caught Off Guard less in harder scenarios, but for learning the game –come on.  That’s not learning, that’s just robbing players of the full experience.  Why have a deck, if you can’t play it?  


Hero Decks

I would argue that the hero decks are the most fun part of the game.  Lots of people spend a lot of time building them.  It’s no fun if your cool deck gets broken by one overly powered card in the base game.  In contrast, do players painstakingly build custom villain scenarios with different modulars?  Not as much (with notable exceptions).


What about those Alter Ego abilities?

Is this too cheap? Does it eclipse heroes like Hawkeye who have a built-in mitigation for this card.  It would normally cost Hawkeye one total resource plus flipping to get his bow back, or he could pay one resource right now and draw another encounter card.  Thor could flip and get the hammer back for 1 cost, or he could pay 2 total resources and draw another encounter card to keep Mjolnir in play.  Options are great.  This has the effect of letting the player choose to have a resource set back plus another encounter card, or a full deck and re-shuffle setback.  This retains the usefulness of those Alter Ego abilities.


Have you tried it?

We've played maybe 20 games with the home rule, but we've only used it once. Usually, we just discard an affordable upgrade. But as my friend Rich said, "it's more fun to have the option." It's like insurance: you hope you never need it. Just knowing you have the option makes you feel better about discarding, because you chose to do it. The home rule lets you pick your poison.


Cycle 9 New Cards:

Front Organization. This is from the Agents of SHIELD expansion. It took nine cycles for FFG to realize that Caught Off Guard is a problem. It may be because the 6-cost supports from Maria Hill make CoG overpowered. I think this home rule still does not break the game, and Front Organization is definitely still worth playing, because those 6-cost supports would cost 7 + an encounter card to keep in play. Even in the new cycle, I don't think this option breaks the game.

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