How to Play Marvel Champions solo

[Music] the grouchy nerd all right you anti-social weirdos let's learn a game that can play at the ideal player count one marvel champions the card game designed by michael boggs nate french and caleb grace and published by fantasy flight games is a deck construction hand management game so your deck will be set when you start and the cards in your hand can either be played or used to pay for other cards your goal in marvel champions is to defeat two stages of a villain before they can complete their evil scheme or defeat you it's also a living card game from fantasy flight meaning the game has ever expanded big box campaign expansions feature new villains and scenarios as well as two heroes scenario packs bring new baddies into the mix and hero packs which will feature new marvel heroes and their unique character cards as well as new player cards that can be used to customize any deck it's also worth noting that these hero packs come with pre-constructed decks that are able to be played right out of the box and that faint wailing you hear is your wallet crying out in despair the good news is these packs are set they all contain the same cards so there's no hunting down rare cards the bad news is fomo foe show on those packs as recommended by the book for your first setup i'm just going to be looking at the pre-constructed spider-man deck in addition to the 15 player cards that are unique to that hero each deck is made up of 25 to 35 other cars from any one of four heroic aspects leadership aggression justice and protection as well as grey basic cards for a total of 40 to 50 cards the pre-constructed spider-man deck uses the justice aspect the book has recommended starter decks for each of the included heroes but i am also going to be looking at the rules for customizing a deck which will be the last segment of this video in addition to hero cards and player cards are the villain cards and modular encounter sets encounter sets will be added to the villains deck and we'll see more about that in the setup now there are two ways to play this game solo true solo meaning one hero against the villain or multi-handed meaning you're going to be controlling more than one hero i personally prefer to play this game true solo as i usually drink while i'm playing and i can really only keep track of so many things at any one time this symbol here is going to pop up a lot and it means per player but if you're playing solo multi-handed read it as per identity you're controlling that means there's going to be math involved and i think we both know you're on your own for that one in general if rules on a card appear to contradict other game rules the rules on the card are going to take precedence choose an identity for now set the identity card the obligation card and the nemesis cards aside each playable character has a two-sided identity card with one side being their hero form and the other side that heroes alter ego form some actions and effects can only be used while in the specified form for instance spider-man's swinging webkick is an event which specifies that it is a hero action where the support aunt may has an alter-ego action so only spider-man can do the kick and only peter parker can go to ant-man ask for help your hero side has basic stats of attack thwart and defense which we'll go over more in a bit there's also that hero's special ability traits hand size and hit points set your identity card to its alter ego side and place it in front of you the alter ego side also has a basic stat this one recovery alter egos may also have special abilities or setup instructions and traits note that sometimes the traits are different on each side notice too won't you please that the hand size on the alter ego side is different than on the hero side shuffle the remaining hero cards with the rest of the cards in spider-man's pre-constructed deck or a deck you've customized to form your deck player cards are made up of allies events supports upgrades and resource cards each player card has a name a cost its card type traits and the resource that this card will generate if you choose to use it to pay for another card rather than play it this symbol means the card is unique so there can only be one copy of it in your deck and only one copy in play at a time so if multiple decks have a nick fury and one of them is in play no other deck can play nick fury until the one that is in play leaves play resources come in four types mental physical energy and wild which can count as any of the other three allies have basic attacks and thwart stats which we'll talk about later and hit points allies are played to your player area and will help you in your fight unless augmented in some way you have a standard limit of three allies in play at any one time supports and upgrades are also played to your player area and give you ongoing bonuses like being able to draw an extra card each turn like on avengers mage and are not limited unless otherwise stated on the card also like avengers mention no that limit is the number of avengers mansions you can have in play not the number of supports you can have in play ally supports and upgrades are played to your player area and will remain there until they are depleted defeated or in some other way removed whereas events are played for their effect and discarded though it is important to note that events and actions that are interrupts or responses can be played even when it's not your turn even during the villain phase as long as the conditions are met all cards can be used for their printed resource but energy genius and strength count for two resources as shown here take a player hit point dial and set that dial to your chosen hero's hit points as shown on their identity card gather the status cards in all tokens and place them near your play area the confused status card will negate the first scheme or thwart from the character it's attached to stunning works much the same but for attacking important for stun and confuse on you this counts for basic thwart or attack or any action on any card that says it's an attack or a thwart action a tough status negates the first damage done regardless of how much damage is done at that time so if an enemy ends up with a tough status card you're going to want to clear that with a small attack before you go in with the swinging web kick or something which is just going to be wasted if a tough status ends up on you or an ally it's a free block one more note on status cards discarding the status card happens instead of whatever action it's negating so if a stunned rhino tried to attack spider-man spider-sense would not go off discarding the status happens instead of the attack so the attack never initiates any character can have multiple status cards on them but no character can have multiple copies of the same status card damage tokens track damage on allies and minions threat tokens mark threat on schemes and these are for any other kind of counter or token you may need throughout the game these are acceleration tokens which represent escalating threat that may mount these are bad tokens we do not like these tokens if you're playing true solo the first player token can go back in the box otherwise choose an identity to begin the game as the first player select the villain you wish to face for your first game use rhino each villain has three stage cards easily identified by their purple backs but you'll only use two of them for standard play use stages one and two when you start to get a bit too big for your britches or tights you can use stages two and three as well as the expert encounter set for an expert game villains and minions like heroes and allies also have basic stats attack and scheme villains hit points are listed on their card and are multiplied by the number of identities and minions hit points are on their card in the same way allies are the villain will also have one or more main scheme cards stacked in order a side up in rhino's case there's just one main scheme card the break-in the villain's goal is to accumulate threat on the scheme if the number of threat on a scheme is ever equal to or in excess of this number the scheme will advance if you're on the last stage of a scheme or in rhino's case on the only scheme and this number is reached the villain immediately wins the game this number is the amount of threat that must be placed on the scheme during setup in this case zero this number in what is known as the acceleration field is the amount of threat that will be added during the first step of each villain phase in this case one per player though this number can increase throughout a game note that excess threat on a scheme does not carry over if that scheme advances so if you're on ultron's first game which has a threshold of three and you must put five thread on it the scheme immediately advances but the leftover threat just goes away however acceleration tokens persist until the end of the game set the villain's health dial according to the villain stage card follow any other setup steps listed on the main scheme and flip the top card of the scheme deck to the b side create the encounter deck by combining the remaining cards for the villain your hero's obligation the standard encounter set and one or more other encounter sets the a side of the villain's main scheme will have a recommendation for which encounters set or sets to use in rhino's case it's the bomb scare encounter set keep your heroes 5 nemesis cards out of play for now shuffle the encounter deck and place it near the villain and main scheme draw up to your hand size as indicated on your identity card at this time you may perform one mulligan discard any number of cards and draw back up to your hand size you may only do this once and do note that the cards that you discarded do not immediately get shuffled back into the deck this is just the beginning of your discard pile last if your chosen identity has any setup instructions resolve those each turn plays thusly beginning with the player phase play cards from your hand by paying that card's cost in resources these resources can be generated in a number of ways like peter parker's alter ego ability or spider-man's web shooters but you'll mostly generate these resources by discarding cards from your hand each printed resource symbol counts as one resource most cards will have one but certain cards may have two or even three printed resources generated resources must be used when they are generated to pay for something this means that for instance peter parker cannot use his special ability to generate a mental resource and then flip over to spider-man to spend it because flipping form counts as a separate action and you have to complete one action before you can move on to another one so you generate the resource pay for something then you can flip it also means that if you use a strength which generates two resources to pay for a spider tracer which only costs one resource the remaining resource is lost you do not get to make change for the most part the types of resources used won't matter and any combination of resource types can be used to pay for something though there are some card effects that may become more powerful if a specifically called for resource is used and some enemy effects will require you to pay specific types trigger actions on cards you have in play or by playing events events are paid for resolved and discarded they do not go into play remember that when triggering actions anything that's listed before an arrow is part of the cost of that action for instance captain marvel's hero ability is to spend an energy resource and heal one point of damage to draw a card but notice that the heel 1 damage is before the arrow this means that healing that damage is part of the cost so she's not able to trigger this action and draw a card unless she has a point of damage to heal if there are multiple players or identities you can also trigger actions on cards you have in play or play events from your hand even if it's not your turn for instance peter parker may exhaust his avengers mansion to allow captain marvel to draw a car allies supports and upgrades may be played regardless of which form your identity is in hero or alter ego but remember that some actions on those supports and upgrades as well as many events can only be triggered if you're in the correct form and once per turn you may change that form by flipping your identity card to the other side in either form you may exhaust your identity card to use one of your basic abilities thwart attack defend or recover thwart removes threat from one scheme equal to your thwart value attacking does damage to one enemy equal to your attack value defending an attack will prevent damage to the hero equal to the hero's defense value in alter ego recovering will heal that much damage from your identity's hit points but may not be in excess of the identity's total hit points allies work much the same way you may activate an allies basic ability by exhausting them and either dealing their attack value and damage to an enemy or removing threat from a scheme equal to their thwart value however if the basic ability on your allies has this symbol that ally must take a point of consequential damage for helping you out meaning that they can only help you so many times note that black cat a spider-man ally takes no consequential damage for attacking an exhausted character may not trigger any other basic ability or do anything else that requires exhausting until they are readied or unexhausted so if you use spider-man's basic attack you may not then flip to peter parker and use the basic recovery because both of those actions require you to exhaust you can however use your basic attack as spider-man then flip to peter parker generate a mental resource and pay for something because that ability does not require exhausting remember that responses and interrupts are optional unless they say forced in which case they must be done once you've done everything you can or want to do move to the next identity in clockwise order or end the phase by readying all exhausted cards and drawing back up to your hand size before you draw cards you may choose to discard any cards you did not play this turn remember that if you've changed forms your hand size may be different than when this turn started this is a long one i should have brought a drink of course i did now the villain gets to respond all your heroic shenanigans first add threat to the main scheme based on the acceleration field remember that the scheme will advance if at any point you meet or exceed the threat threshold in player order so in the same order that you played the player phase if applicable the villain and any minions you're engaged with will now activate against you if you're in alter ego form the villain in each minion will add threat to the scheme based on their threat value for the villain draw one card face down from the encounter deck as the boost card for this activation flip the card face up and check for boost icons in the bottom right corner of the card boost icons look like this for each boost icon add one to the value of the villain scheme stat and add that total threat to the main scheme if you're in hero form you're going to do all those same steps but you'll take damage equal to the villain's attack stat plus the boost icons also if you're playing spider-man and you're in hero form draw a card because the villain just initiated an attack against you before revealing the boost card you may declare a defender either your hero or an ally a hero may choose to defend that attack by exhausting and reducing the damage done by the attack by the number in that hero's defense stat or by triggering an ability marked defense like spider-man's back flip or the protection event counter punch also different identities and their allies may defend for each other though spider-man might use backflip to defend against an attack on him and then still exhaust and use his basic defense to help out captain marvel you may also exhaust an ally to defend against an attack that ally will take the entirety of the attack no matter how many hit points they have left note that you're still the target of the attack and the attack initiated against you so something like spider-man spider-sense would still go off it's just that the ally defended for you also an attack can only be defended once so you and an ally cannot both defend something you can't have mockingbird take the attack and then also use a counter punch if there's a star icon rather than a boost icon it won't add anything to the threat or attack values but there will be text on the card also marked with a star that you must resolve in addition to the activation if there are no icons or only star icons the attack or scheme will use the basic stat number ignore all other text on the boost card in this step you're literally just looking in the corner for boost symbols or the star symbol the boost card is then discarded after the activation remember that the villain gets a boost card any time it attacks or schemes against you even if it's not in this step next each minion you're engaged with will also scheme more attack depending on your form though minions do not receive boost cards next deal one face down encounter card to each player or identity in player order reveal and resolve and counter cards these may be treacheries which are resolved and discarded minions which go into play engage with whichever identity drew them attachments which attach to the villain and make them more powerful in some way and side schemes that go into play when a side scheme is revealed add threat based on its starting threat seen here side schemes may also feature one of three icons which are there to ruin your day the crisis icon means you must defeat this scheme before you're able to remove threat from the main scheme note that it does not prevent removing threat from other side schemes just the main scheme the acceleration icon adds one to the acceleration field of the main scheme so you'll add one more threat per player every round that this side scheme is still in play the hazard icon makes you draw an extra encounter card during that step of the villain phase do note that this is one extra card not one extra card per player so in true solo there's no difference but only the identity with the first player token will get an extra card some encounter cards may have different effects depending on your form the word surge means draw and resolve an additional encounter card after this one if a character's obligation is drawn by any player or identity it goes to the indicated character though that character will still have to draw their own encounter card if a card ever instructs you to do something that you cannot do do as much as you can so if a treachery ever made you lose a health point and discard a card but you don't have any cards in your hand you're just going to ignore the discard part and still take the damage last if applicable give the first player token to the next identity in clockwise order and begin again at the hero phase if at any time the encounter deck runs out shuffle the discard pile and reset it and add an acceleration token to the main scheme this adds 1 to the number of the acceleration field meaning that more threat per player will be added to the first step of the villain phase if at any time your hero deck runs out shuffle the discard and reset it and deal yourself a face down encounter card this encounter card will remain face down until the next resolve and counter card step in the villain phase so that's a big one that people miss so i'm gonna repeat it encounter cards that you may get throughout the course of the game stay face down in front of you until you get to that step in the villain phase when you deplete the villain's health reveal the next stage remember to check for any when revealed text that must immediately be resolved and reset the villain's health dial according to the new stage card excess damage done to the end of one stage of the villain does not carry over to the next stage however attachments and status cards do play continues in this way until you defeat both stages of the villain and save the day otherwise if at any point the threat on the main scheme is equal to or in excess of the threat threshold the villain wins or if the hero's hit points are reduced to zero the heroes lose further explanation of some of these rules can be found in the rules reference guide but this should be enough to get you going for now so you may notice that the pre-constructed decks the heroes come with are usually not great customizing a deck and trying different combinations of heroes and aspects are where this game is going to really start to shine and building a deck must follow certain rules your deck must have at least 40 cards but no more than 50. each hero has 15 unique hero cards that must be included meaning you have 25 to 35 other cards to play with your hero's identity card obligation and nemesis cards do not count toward that limit choose one aspect justice aggression protection or leadership the remainder of the cards in your deck can be from this aspect or gray basic cards no more than three copies of any non-unique aspect or basic card may be added to your deck though certain cards may specify that you can only take two or even one unique cards work a little well uniquely anything with this symbol by the name is unique which means for one thing you can only have one copy of it in your deck it also means that there may only be one card with that name in play at any time the ally mockingbird is basic so any deck can take her so there's a better chance that multiple players or identities decks have included her but only one could have her in play at a time captain marvel can't put her out while spider-man already has her out until spider-man's copy of her is defeated or removed then carol can go wild all right now this next bit is something that you're not going to run into with just the core set but it's important information so i'm going to go over it anyway a card is unique by title unless the title has different subtitle or alter ego cards with alter egos are unique by alter ego so peter parker spider-man may co-exist with the ally miles morales spider-man but not ally peter parker spider-man back to that mockingbird example hawkeye's signature ally is a different version of mockingbird bobby morse but the unique rules would still prevent him from adding the basic mockingbird ally to his deck because he must take all of his hero cards and he cannot take more than one card called mockingbird bobby morse do we need more examples i am being told emphatically no that was already too many examples okay the very last thing i'm going to say about deck building is cheat cheating is awesome there's a website called marvel cdb and people go there and they post their decks that they've already worked out all the math go try to find one that has a good write up of why they included what they included and that will help you get better at the game and teach you how certain cards interact with each other there's also deck building tools there where you tell it what packs you have and it will only let you see the cards you have access to which is fantastic it's marvel cdb.com it's marvel champions database it has nothing to do with the boring part of weed also i have a whole other playlist on this youtube channel where i go through new packs as they come out i look at the hero cards i look at the new aspect cards i don't look at reprints because that's boring and it's they've been they've been talked about ad nauseam so that's how to play marvel champions now get out of my deck [Music] the grouchy nerd get out of my deck that's the best we could come up with i don't know it's the entirety of marvel get out of my storied universe with rich characters and epic yeah you're right get out of my deck

Channel: The Grouchy Nerd

Views: 24,090

Keywords: board games, board game, how to play, card game, marvel champions movie, marvel champions the living card game, marvel champions board game, marvel champions lcg, marvel champions ffg, marvel champions card game rules, marvel champions rules, solo play, lcg, marvel champions the card game, fantasy flight games, grouchy, nerd, nerdy, grouchy nerd, grumpy, marvel champions

Id: f7G0q04YHV0

Length: 20min 35sec (1235 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 02 2022