Marvel Champions is an Easy to Understand, Hard to Master Living Card Game

When it comes to card games, I’m very familiar with those that come in a box with instructions (ala Dominion) and those that come in secret packs (ala Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, Disney Lorcana).

I am very much not familiar with Living Card Games, where the cards are all predetermined in each box, but the decks you create can be varied and of your own personal desire. My father-in-law and I took Marvel Champions for a spin last night for a few games, and here are just a few of my early thoughts!

Simplicity is Key

While not the easiest game I’ve ever played, when you pair the predetermined starting decks for your first game and the How to Play guide, learning the ins and outs of Marvel Champions could not be easier. The How to Play guide walks you through all the steps necessary to play your first game with Spider-Man and Captain Marvel facing off against Rhino!

Each deck required for your first game is nicely packaged separately from the rest of the cards (and there are many) and the game does a great job walking you through what you need to know using those cards. Understanding how to fight, how to defend, how to thwart the villains scheme, and more, sounds like a daunting task as I write them – honestly, I’m not sure it could be much easier than it is.

What I love here is how the game flows, and before you know it you won’t even be referencing the How to Play guide anymore, and instead will just be focusing on the turn-to-turn actions you are going to take. In a two player game, at least, the game moves very fast and there is little-to-no downtime as you and your partner make decisions.

Some Depth You Don’t Expect

The thing is, the two games we played were against Rhino, the easiest villain in the box. With a few villains to choose from, and different combination of villain cards to use, we played the easiest two scenarios the box comes with, and finished both with just a few hit points and scheme tokens to spare.

What some players might not be ready for, however, is that the starting decks the game creates for you are probably not good enough to win the harder fights the box includes.

See, there is a similarity between Trading Card Games and Living Card Games – both revolve around players building decks they think can win, and that means creating synergies between the cards you choose to make the most out of all your turns. There are a ton of cards included in the main core box, but you’ll need to figure out how to best build your decks in order to beat some of these villains.

Yes, for those with little-to-know knowledge of deck building, or for those that simply don’t want to spend the time, there are AMAZING resources online that will help you build good decks – if you go that route, you take a lot of the challenge out of the game completely. For those looking to really test themselves, however, building your own deck is a daunting, yet rewarding, experience.

I tried my hand at building a deck for our third fight, and I failed miserably. I wasn’t discouraged though (although some people may become), and I quickly began going back through my deck to see what cards I should eliminate and perhaps which cards I needed to add. Tweaking a deck in both TCGs and LCGs is something almost everyone is going to do a handful of times – that is definitely going to be the case with Marvel Champions.

Conclusion

I will have a lot more on Marvel Champions in the future, but safe to say I’m having a blast with all the contests in the core box. There is a lot of things to love about this game, but there are two things to consider if you choose to pick this up.

Number one, I would suggest getting lots of sleeves for your cards. You will be shuffling a lot, so sleeving up those cards is probably a really good idea. And number two, the game has slots for dividers for your cards but no dividers are included. This is an oversight in my opinion, but there are great options online you can check out!