Marvel Champions: The Card Game (2019)

How to Play Marvel Champions: The Card Game

The game is played over a series of rounds.

Each round consists of:

• The player phase where the players take their turns in player order and a player can:
  • play cards from their hand,
  • attack enemies,
  • thwart the villain’s schemes,
  • use the ally, support, and upgrade cards they have in play

After everyone has taken a turn, the player phase ends and play proceeds to the villain phase:

• At the start of the villain phase:, threat is placed on the main scheme. Then, the villain activates once per player and either:
  • attacks the player or
  • further advances their scheme.

Next, the game reveals cards from the encounter deck, which adds minions, treacheries, side schemes, and attachments to make up the villain’s forces.

Once Villain Phase is complete, 1st player token passes to the next clockwise player, and the next round begins.

The game continues until either the players win as a team or the villain wins.

Marvel Champions: The Card Game Review

“Marvel Champions, for me, is the LCG that I didn’t know I wanted. I love the universe, enjoy the solo game as well as playing with others. Personally, I like the cooperative nature of it and how thematic it feels. I can see this one growing. Not just in content, but in my love for the game over the coming months/years. Just need to defeat Klaw and then Ultron and I will be ready for more villains.”

Matthew Thomasson, board-game.co.uk

“Marvel Champions is a fantastic cooperative card game. I’m not even a huge Marvel fan and I’ve enjoyed this one a lot, and so have the six people I’ve taught it to. Figuring out how to use the different heroes each game and then tweaking the decks a bit to face the expert-level villains has been a blast.

I’ve played Marvel Champions at every player count now and I think it’s best at two and three players. You get a good mix of hero skills to balance out your team at those counts and the games never feel too long (though some three-player games can run pretty long). Four-player games are still fun, but they can take 2+ hours and there seems to be quite a bit more downtime. Solo is good, too, but this one just feels like it should be played co-op.”

Ronny Alexander, coopboardgames.com

The content of this article is originally from Board Game Geek and daroolz.com. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.