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Marvel Champions is a one to four-player superhero game where players take on the role of one of five Marvel heroes to battle it out against one of three villains. Play as Captain Marvel, Spiderman, She-Hulk, Black Panther or Iron Man and face off against Rhino, Klaw or Ultron. Each Hero is represented by a deck of cards made up of basic cards, hero specific cards and aspect cards (one of leadership, justice, aggression and protection). Each Villain is also represented by a deck of cards comprising villain specific cards, basic villain cards and a modular encounter set. This time, we'll be looking at the Marvel Champions: Gambit Hero Pack.
During a player's turn, they will play cards. (paying for the cost by discarding other cards from their hand). Then, activate cards and perform a number of actions all in an attempt to defeat the "big bad" and to thwart his schemes. Players can also switch from alter ego to hero form once per turn. And activate their character's special ability as well the basic recovery, attack or defend actions. Once a player has performed all of their actions it passes to the next player. They repeat the process until all players have performed their actions.
Bring The War
Next is the villain phase. During the villain phase, threat is added to the main scheme based on player count. Then the villain will either attack (if you are in hero form) or scheme (if you are in alter ego form). When they attack or scheme a boost card is revealed from the encounter deck and added to the Villain's base attack/scheme value. Each player (in turn order) is then dealt an encounter card. Any minions in play will also attack or scheme.
Players will need to manage the amount of threat tokens that are placed on a scheme as if a certain quantity is reached the scheme advances to the next stage and eventually the Villain will win by completing his scheme. In addition to the threat/schemes, players will also have to take out minions and deal damage to the Villain to reduce his health to zero and win the game.
Marvel Champions is a living card game (LCG) and as such the publisher Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) are supporting the game with new Hero & Villain packs to further expand the game, the combinations and replayability. Check out a full review & final thoughts of the core game here.
Explosive Kinetics
Gambit, the lovable rogue, is a master thief and skilled fighter. He was raised in the seedy underworld of New Orleans as part of the Thieves Guild. Remy LeBeau eventually leaves his life of crime behind and sets out to join the X-Men. With his ability to charge objects with explosive kinetic energy he can manipulate his deck and create some powerful attacks.
The Gambit Hero Pack comes with a pre-built justice deck and fifteen signature hero cards. The pack also contains an additional modular encounter set. With his ability to thwart in alter-ego mode and his “charge” ability in Hero form he is certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with and a great addition to your roster of Heroes. Alongside Gambit also comes Rogue as his signature ally card.
Equipment
Gambit comes with a few equipment cards such as Gambit’s Staff and his Guild Armour. The staff allows damage to be dealt to the enemy when they attack and the armour allows him to refresh after an attack. There are some cool event cards such as “Charged Up” and “Royal Flush”. Charged Up does four straight damage but also gains an ability such as ranged, piercing or overkill depending on the number of charge counters you remove from Gambit. The flexibility of this is fantastic and can really turn the tide of the battle and helps to control the gameplay state. Royal Flush is great for dealing damage against multiple enemies but needs to be used in combination with the removal of the charge counters. Effectively managing the charge counters and deciding when to use them and when to wait is a big part of Gambit’s overall strategy and gameplay.
His deck also comes with some Justice allies such as Bishop and Dazzler adding more cards to the pool for deck building opportunities. There are some other justice cards as well like Operative Skill and Breaking and Entering as well as basic cards that add more variability to the game
I personally do not know much about Gambit as a character, but what I do know is that he is pretty fun to play with. He feels like a character that is able to react to the game state and adapt his strategy accordingly. I guess this is kind of fitting considering his background. Gambit is another great addition to the Marvel Champions card game and one that I have been enjoying playing a great deal.
