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Marvel Champions is a one to four player super hero 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.
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 characters 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. Here, we are talking about the SP//DR pack!
Grand Larceny
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 is 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.
SP//DR Command Of The Spider
SP//DR is another hero pack that has been released by FFG following on from the Sinister Motives campaign box. Anyone that has watched into the spider - verse will be familiar with this character. An alternative version of Spiderman, Peni Parker, inherits her Father's spider suit after his mysterious death. Peni and her arachnid co-pilot, which she is psychogenetically linked defend the citizens of New York.
Alongside her seventeen signature hero cards this hero pack comes with a pre built protection deck as well as various additional cards for more deck building opportunities.
So what is the main hook? It is, of course, this Spider Suit. The hero card and alter ego cards are separate. Flipping your alter ego gives you an upgrade which forces you to flip your SP//dr suit support card (inactive side) to its hero side. When doing this you "attach" the two cards together. With this card play it feels like you are really jumping into your spider suit and getting ready for action. Yet again, another thematic gameplay feeling that FFG seem to time and time again bring to this game.
In Hero form, you have a 2 thwart, attack and defence which is not too shabby. SP//Dr has three upgrades, physic link, speed metal alloy and web fluid compressor, each giving +2 to one of the basic stats when using the respective basic power. With all these out SP//DR becomes a 4 attack, thwart and defence hero. Couple that with the basic hit points of 14 and you have one powerful spider. SP//DR is a blast to play with and with some deck building can be a powerful hero who is fun to play.
SP//DR also has some cool events, such as Rapid Deployment and Web Trap which can remove a decent amount of threat and deal a good amount of damage as well as stunning the enemy. For only 2 resources these cards can really help control the board and dish out some serious damage. Host spider which is a three cost upgrade allows you to ready SP//DR suit for some cool and fun turns. There is nothing new, as such, with you the signature hero cards but they can combine together in interesting ways, especially with other cards available in the deck building pool.
Overall, SP//DR is another thematic Hero to add to your collection. Playing alongside Ghost Spider, Miles Morales and Spider-Ham you can have some and thematic Spidey action