Marvel Champions

Aside from general rules stuff, which it sounds like you're doing alright on, I would recommend generally building up your board then focusing down the villain. Early turns are usually you getting buried in nastiness and trying to not let things get too out of hand while you get upgrades, supports, allies etc on the board. During this setup phase you will generally be managing threat and minions and whatnot as best you can, but mainly focusing on getting your key cards in play. Damaging the villain at this point is secondary. A turn one Avengers Mansion is infinitely better than a turn one Swinging Web Kick, for example. Once you're set up to your liking you can get the board under control, and once that's done you can burn the villain down with big attacks every turn. Harder difficulty villains and scenario setups will make it harder to get out from under the BS that builds up while you're setting up, but that's generally the flow you're looking for.

Edit: also is you're playing with the core set, Protection sucks and Aggression is kinda bad too if memory serves. Try Justice and Leadership decks.

Edit edit: also true solo is the swingiest player count, where it's easiest to just lose from a bad villain draw. Lots of people play that way, but personally I much prefer 2 handed.

I'm looking at the MC forum over at BGG, and came across a potentially helpful comment:

"-Many people exhaust there heroes for all manner of things that don't actually exhaust: only exhaust your hero for Basic powers and if a card explicitly says "exhaust".
-Many people deal everything a boost card, but only the villain gets boost cards.
-Many people deal an extra card to *everyone* for Hazard icons, and deal them immediately: they only deal 1 extra card per icon, and they only deal the card the *next* villain phase."

These are all things that I am apparently doing wrong.

1. I don't exhaust a hero like Spider-man just to play a card like Web-Shooter or Aunt May, but I do exhaust him if I am playing an action card like that 8pt kick. Apparently I am only supposed to exhaust him if he is doing one of the three basic powers of Atk/Thw/Def or if a card explicitly requires me to exhuast him.
2. Rhino always gets a boost card, but a minion like Shocker or Sandman does not get a boost card when attacking or scheming.
3. When I have a Hazard icon (+ card icon) in play, I have been dealing an extra villain card against each hero each turn. Apparently I am only supposed to deal an extra card to the First Player hero.

oh, wow, yeah on #1 that would be a huge drag on your game.

For an easy way to see if you're playing generally correctly watch a gameplay video on YouTube by Dale The Casual Gamer. He has lots of playthroughs up, and following along is probably the best way to note things you're doing incorrectly.

Edit: or we could play a game on TTS, which would be both fun and informative

Besides playing those three rules wrong, the other thing that I was doing wrong was a strategic error. Instead of building up towards the next stage of Rhino's scheme and then taking him down fast, I was using up my expendable resources pretty casually.

So I just played another game of Spider-man and Captain Marvel against Rhino, and did everything right, and got a solid win. It probably helped that the excessive difficulty of my previous games made me very efficient at the cardplay and tactics.

Not giving a boost card to minions is also a huge difference maker. Giving them a card makes them much stronger, but it also means you go through the deck much faster than normal.

You can still end up losing to Rhino because of an unlucky draw when he's scheming, but by changing the rule above and by not exhausting your hero all the time, I think you'll stand a better chance.

m.twitch.tv/videos/879057040

Had a pretty nice game last night. Definitely some rules goofs here and there, but overall not toooo bad. Justice Cap Marvel + Leadership Cap America vs Expert Kang + Temporal. This one really shows the power of leadership/chump blockers. Never felt particularly threatened. Kang is fun and thematically very cool, but just kinda long and fiddly.

Edit: I got a triple use out of buffed Goliath (Inspiring Presence+ Rapid Response) for 15 dmg, which felt really nice

I wasn't planning on buying any more games in the near future, especially since I have diversions like Cyberpunk 2077 and Thousand-Year Vampire awaiting my attention. But I just happened to be on Amazon and just happened to search for Marvel Champions. I found new copies of several expansions on discount: Red Skull ($32), Wrecking Crew ($15), and Green Goblin ($17). And I also grabbed Cap, Thor, and Ant-Man for full price.

One of us one of us

Ant-Man kicks ass. Folks that only ever get one thing should get Ant-Man, it is awesome. I would say Ant-Man and Spiderwoman are the best add-ons for the game space.

Shellhead wrote: . I have finally come to realize that Nick Fury is overpriced, given that he is only good for one immediate effect, plus one more attack/thwart/meatshield sacrifice that same turn before he is discarded.

It also feels like an ally is almost always a better buy than a support card like Tac Team (or the spy guys who do thwarting), because the ally is more flexible. The only advantage of a support card like Tac Team is that they don't get incidentally wiped by widespread damage like the Shocker or the Hulk.

Nick Fury is expensive, but draw 3 cards (or one of his other effects) + atk/thw 2 + block a villain attack is a whole bunch of good stuff to get. I don't think he's overcosted for what he does.

Also, allies are generally the best card type by a not small margin. That's why Leadership is so good!

Nick Fury is a bailout. He’s 4 because you are paying a save your ass surcharge.

This game is so addictive. I repeat that I don’t think it’s the best card game I’ve ever played and there are some pretty clunky elements, but it’s tremendously playable and -fun-. Not surprised that Shell is following my path and buying it all. I’ve decided that I do prefer it to Aeon’s End if only because I can knock out a full game in the time it takes to set up AE at this point.

Speaking of which- through a stupid error I have an extra core set, Ms. Marvel, Captain America, and Green Goblin. $65 for all of it shipped

Just did a couple of rounds with Ant Man and Thor. An L versus Wrecking Crew and a W on standard Klaw (super close). Agree with Jeb, Ant Man is awesome. Can’t wait to get Wasp and blast It Takes Two through a game. Thor is OK I guess, I like his raw damage output but everything else in his deck is kind of meh unless I’m just doing something wrong. I’m mostly playing stock decks with a couple of adds here and there. I’m not sure why the Wrecking Crew is regarded as “bad”, I think it’s really fun and it mixes up the format.

Ultron can bite a giant metal shit log, im not sure if fighting him is a fun challenge or a PITA slog. Sometimes it’s both. But I’m like 0-4 with him

Love Green Goblin and so far the Red Skull stuff rules. Black Widow and Cap just walked right over Crossbones though, I need to run that one back on expert.

Going in there now to give it a go with Spider-Woman and She-Hulk, probably versus expert Rhino since I’ve not played either of them yet.

I’m interested in taking that off your hands. PM on the way!

Michael Barnes wrote: Nick Fury is a bailout. He’s 4 because you are paying a save your ass surcharge.

This game is so addictive. I repeat that I don’t think it’s the best card game I’ve ever played and there are some pretty clunky elements, but it’s tremendously playable and -fun-. Not surprised that Shell is following my path and buying it all. I’ve decided that I do prefer it to Aeon’s End if only because I can knock out a full game in the time it takes to set up AE at this point.

Speaking of which- through a stupid error I have an extra core set, Ms. Marvel, Captain America, and Green Goblin. $65 for all of it shipped

Just did a couple of rounds with Ant Man and Thor. An L versus Wrecking Crew and a W on standard Klaw (super close). Agree with Jeb, Ant Man is awesome. Can’t wait to get Wasp and blast It Takes Two through a game. Thor is OK I guess, I like his raw damage output but everything else in his deck is kind of meh unless I’m just doing something wrong. I’m mostly playing stock decks with a couple of adds here and there. I’m not sure why the Wrecking Crew is regarded as “bad”, I think it’s really fun and it mixes up the format.

Ultron can bite a giant metal shit log, im not sure if fighting him is a fun challenge or a PITA slog. Sometimes it’s both. But I’m like 0-4 with him

Love Green Goblin and so far the Red Skull stuff rules. Black Widow and Cap just walked right over Crossbones though, I need to run that one back on expert.

Going in there now to give it a go with Spider-Woman and She-Hulk, probably versus expert Rhino since I’ve not played either of them yet.

Thor's prebuilt deck is very bad, if memory serves. He's fine if you tailor a deck to him, and assuming you're playing a scenario with enough minions to give him a steady supply of extra cards.

Wrecking crew is considered not great because theres basically no pressure of losing to threat ever, which makes it pretty easy to handle. The main scheme gets 1 threat a round period. Plus it's fiddly with so many decks and whatnot, and it doesn't use any modular sets or anything so it's always the same.

You tried Ms. Marvel yet? Her and Ant Man are my favorites. I can't remember what get prebuilt deck is, but she balls hard with Aggression.

Wrecking Crew can be pretty tough for Black Widow, because they neuter her Villain turn effects by tossing the Active Villain aspect around so much. She sets up big effects with all her spycraft, but the effects aren’t big if they get shared by three members of the crew.

I’m glad folks are having a good time with this. As Barnes notes, it’s not the best card game I have ever played, but it’s the best card game I have played -lately- and the easy theme and puzzleplay turns are so perfect for me right now.