By this point I’m ever so very slightly bored with Champions mainly because of the fact that I’m tired of seeing Rhino on the table. But I had a mission and I accomplished it. Try out and understand all of the starter decks included in the core set before I got down to deckbuilding. Now that I’ve done it, I can move on to the next part of my master plan, but first, here’s my thought of the start decks.
Aggression Captain Marvel
One of the two starter deck lists included for Captain Marvel. The other one is Leadership, but I’ll talk about that one later. This deck comes pre-built and is one of the two recommended decks for the “first time playing” instructions. On my first game with the deck, I won, but barely. It was slow, weak on dealing with the schemes and Rhino almost won. But then again, that was also my first game of Champions ever, so I was struggling to understand the game. After having tried out the other recommended deck I went back to this one because now I was sure I could understand how the game worked. And man-oh-man did I wipe the floor with Rhino. A game usually takes me about 40 minutes or so. The game was done in under 20 minutes. Definitely works.
Justice Spider-Man
This one’s the other pre-built starter deck included in the core set. It’s also one of the suggested ones in the rules booklet. Which I found odd because Captain Marvel has a different pre-built deck and suggested starter deck, but whatever. This deck works nicely. Keeps the Threat points low on the Scheme fairly easily while Spidey and company can slowly whack away at Rhino. What I really like about the deck is that it makes perfect thematic sense. Spider-Man is supposed to be all about justice and order, or at least that’s what I know of him; and the Justice aspect comes with two fellow New Yorkers as allies, Jessica Jones & Daredevil.
Leadership Captain Marvel
This one was a doozy. Lost two or three times with it before actually pulling off the win. Thing is, a change in mindset was necessary in order to win with this one. I played those games thinking it was me (Captain Marvel) and my buddies against Rhino. And I still believe that’s how it should be, but that wasn’t the way I won. I had to switch to thinking of it as me helping my buddies while they went up against Rhino. I spent nearly the entire game in Alter-ego mode so I could keep drawing with Carol Danver’s Commander ability. Then used the Captain Marvel upgrades as resources to play cards. Except for Cosmic Flight that I equipped for the Aerial trait, but I never actually changed into Hero mode. This had any and all allies I played have to be the ones to get the job done, removing Threat and damaging Rhino. I won. It was interesting. But I’m not as much of a fan as I thought I’d be. The idea of the Leadership aspect reminded me of Dofus’ Osamoda class. A beast tamer that would capture monsters and use them to fight while it buffed and healed them. I’ll give the aspect some more runs. Maybe it’ll grow on me.
Aggression She-Hulk
This was impressive. Definitely the heavy hitter of the five heroes, at least in terms of basic attack strength (both Iron-Man and Captain Marvel have one-off cards that can deal devastating damage). I really liked this deck because even though it’s fairly strong and aggressive, it also has multiple ways of removing Threat. Which is quite thematic as Jennifer Walters is a lawyer. On top of that, if handled correctly, you can stay in Hero mode for a few turns and not take any damage (at least if you’re playing solo) because there’s also a couple of cards that can stun. So as long as you can hit the main villain with that “stunning” attack (eh? eeeh?), you won’t get hit back, at least not for a turn.
Protection Black Panther
This guy… This was the slowest, yet smoothest win. Once the Black Panther suit was on the field, he became nearly un-defeatable. Can deal decent damage, life leach and remove scheme points all in one turn. Add the fact that he takes little to know damage when attacked because he’s constantly defending, and it’s crazy. I had allies on the field simply because I didn’t want to keep drawing them, because I sure wasn’t using them! It was slow, but steady and relentless. At the end of the game Black Panther was at 10 HP (max being 11) the lowest he ever got to having been 7 and Rhino was down for the count. Either this is too good or I got really lucky. Not sure which is worse.
Aggression Iron-Man
This one was tough. Don’t get me wrong, he’s absolutely awesome. But there were a couple of times there where I was sure I was going to lose. You have to stay in Alter-ego form as much as possible in order to get his Iron-Man armor on because if not your draw power is, basically, non-existent. But while you do, those threat point keep rising. Then, you find yourself forced to switch over to Hero form with barely any upgrades on and now you can barely draw. You have barely any choices when your turn comes around. It’s nerve wracking. By the time I was able to have sufficient upgrades on to have a decent hand size while I was in Hero form I barely had any health. So I HAD TO go to Alter-ego form in order to heal. But there go those pesky Threats again, pushing me to Hero because if not Rhino’s going to complete his Scheme. *sigh* Somehow I was able to juggle it all and win.
None of what I said though means he’s a bad character to use, at all. He’s the hero with the most actions per-turn. Between all of his armor upgrades and the fact that he can ready himself mid-turn, it’s crazy. But it seems that’s exactly the way he’s meant to be played, by himself. Which is likely on point for the genius philanthropist.
Now what?
Time to move on to custom decks! After trying all the heroes out with their starter decks I have an idea of how they function and what I’d like to see them do. Eventually, I’d like to make a deck for each hero in each aspect, but first, I’m gonna use them in the aspects that I think they’ll shine the most or will be good for their play style. My ideas are as follows:
- Aggression Captain Marvel
- Protection Captain Marvel
- Justice Spider-Man
- Justice She-Hulk
- Protection She-Hulk
- Aggression Black Panther
- Protection Black Panther
- Justice Iron-Man
Did I repeat some of the aspects that were in the starter decks? You bet I did! I think those aspects work very well with the hero. But the decks are just starter decks after all, so I’m looking forward to tweaking and optimizing them.
Playing the Legends 