Marvel Champions: The Green Goblin Scenario Pack
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Awards
Rating
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Artwork
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Complexity
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Replayability
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Player Interaction
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Component Quality
You Might Like
- A lot of content for the money
- Both scenarios play different
- Varies the way villains play from the core game
Might Not Like
- Risky Business can be tricky to get to grips with
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Description
To many citizens of the Marvel Universe, Norman Osborn is an eccentric billionaire. A man who has put his demons behind him. The truth of the matter is Norman Osborn is always teetering on the brink of a relapse into the villainous Green Goblin. With advanced technology, superhuman strength, and regenerative healing, the Green Goblin is one of the Marvel Universes most frightening villains, and a longtime nemesis to Spider-Man.
But Norman Osborn rarely makes public appearances as the Goblin. As one of the richest men in the world, Osborn himself is virtually untouchable, making his human just as effective as the sadistic goblin. Can any team of heroes truly stand up to the might of Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin?
Continue your adventures in the Marvel Universe with The Green Goblin Scenario Pack for Marvel Champions: The Card Game! This 78-Card pack introduces two new scenarios and four modular encounter sets showcasing the devious Norman Osborn and his sadistic alter-ego, the Green Goblin.
Marvel Champions has been getting a lot of buzz recently. Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) seem to be supporting their latest living card game with expansions and new card packs. As a huge fan of the game and the IP I am very excited about this. One of these new packs is The Green Goblin scenario which I will talk about in more detail here. If you want to read more about the base game then check out the review here.
Norman Osborn, an eccentric billionaire, a man who is practically untouchable, a man who is teetering on the edge of relapse in to the Green Goblin. Advanced technology, superhuman strength and regenerative healing makes the Green Goblin a worthy adversary, especially to his arch nemesis Spider Man.
The Green Goblin scenario pack comes with two new scenarios – Risky Business and Mutagen Formula, as well as four new modular encounter sets – A Mess of Things, Goblin Gimmicks, Power Drain and Running Interference. This scenario pack sure offers a lot of additional and varied content for the base game.
Final Thoughts
The two main scenarios – Risky Business and Mutagen Formula – play very differently to each other. These scenarios, once again, show how FFG are expanding on the core rules set out in the base game.
Risky Business has the interesting alter-ego/villain mechanism that is seen with the heroes. Norman Osborne is the alter-ego and can’t be attacked himself. You need to remove tokens from the Criminal Enterprise environment (by attacking) to draw out Green Goblin. At which point you can attack and reduce Green Goblins health. Norman Osborn/Green Goblin will keep flipping back and forth and makes for some very interesting choices as the health can only be reduced when Green Goblin is active.
The Mutagen Formula has affected the population who have gone in to a rage and started to attack the heroes. This scenario focuses on bringing out lots of minions and allows them to attack the heroes immediately. Keeping the number of minions under control is essential but diverts time and resources away from the main threat of Green Goblin. These minions are not tough but strength in numbers can be an issue if left unchecked.
Players can choose which encounter sets they want to add in to the either of the main scenarios and they increase the way the game plays out. I think that this scenario pack offers a lot of extra content for the money. The modular sets alone can be added to the encounter sets in to the base game injecting extra life to the core schemes. On top of that there are two main scenarios that can be played with. The Green Goblin scenario pack is very good value for money and a must buy for anyone looking to expand their core game
Marvel Champions is a 1-4 player superhero game. Each player takes on the role of a Marvel hero 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, consisting of basic cards, Hero-specific cards, and aspect cards. Each Villain is represented by a deck of cards, comprising villain-specific cards, basic villain cards, and a modular encounter set.
Marvel Champions is a Living Card Game (LCG). As such, the publisher, Fantasy Flight Games, is expanding the game with new Hero & Villain packs all the time. If you’re inclined, check out a full review & final thoughts of the core game here.
Set-Up
To set up the game, each player will select a Hero to play and place their identity card, alter-ego side up in front of them. The identity card will number the hit points they have and these are entered into the hit point dial. Each Hero will have an obligation card and a set of Nemesis cards which are set aside for the moment. The player then shuffles their player deck which will consist of Hero specific cards, basic cards, and aspect cards. Hero decks come pre-constructed but players are free to build their own decks whilst complying with the deckbuilding rules.
Next, a Villain is selected and is placed on the table along with the Villain’s main scheme and the Villain’s main deck. The Villain’s hit points are entered into the Villain’s hit point dial. The main scheme may have some setup instructions which are followed and resolved at this stage. The relevant encounter cards and modular sets and the Heroes obligation cards are added to the Villains the main deck and shuffled to form the encounter deck.
Each player then draws a starting hand of cards as detailed on their identity card and can discard any number of cards, drawing back up to their hand limit. If a Hero has any setup instructions these are resolved and followed now.
The game is played over a number of rounds, alternating between the player’s turns and then the Villains turn. On a player’s turn they can perform a number of actions:
- change form from alter ego to Hero or Hero to alter ego but only once per round,
- play cards from their hand paying the relevant resource costs
- Use their Heroes basic attack or thwart ability (only in Hero form and exhausting their identity)
- Use an ally they control to attack or thwart (exhausting the ally)
- Activate an action card they control (and exhausting the card if applicable)
- Use their alter-egos recovery ability to gain hit points (only in alter ego form and exhausting their identity)
Once a player has performed all of their actions they pass, the next player performs their actions until all players have passed. At this stage players can discard any remaining cards in their hand (if they want) and draw up to their hand limit (This may change depending on the form they are in) Each player then readies all of their cards (identity, allies, action cards).
Next is the Villain phase. At the start of the Villain phase threat is placed on the main scheme as detailed on the main scheme card. The villain and any minions then activate against each player. If the player is in Hero form the Villain attacks. If the player is in alter ego form the Villain schemes and adds a threat to the main scheme. Each time the Villain activates they draw a card from the encounter deck and add the number of boost icons to his base attack or scheme value. The Villain then deals each player an encounter card face down and in turn order, each player reveals and resolves the encounter card.
The first player token then passes to the next player and the player’s start the round again.
The game continues this way until the Villain has been defeated by reducing his hit points to zero for both stages and the player’s win. Players lose if the Villains scheme threshold reaches its maximum or they all have their hit points reduced to zero.
Strategy
What I love about Marvel Champions is the way the Heroes and Villains play differently. The key to success is figuring out how the Heroes play, their strengths, weaknesses, and how to best utilise them to take down the Villain. Certain Heroes require a certain amount of setup to become strong. He is best left in alter ego mode as he builds up his suit, armour, and weapons. Once he is up and running he can be a formidable character.
Figuring out when to stop building and when to take the fight to the Villain comes with practice and experience but it is worth that time investment. Where it might seem that you are not making progress by hitting the enemy it’s wise to learn the “arc” of the Hero and play into that. Being efficient with your cards and trying to not have any cards left in your hand at the end of the turn is a good idea.
The board state needs to be managed very carefully. Often the best move is not necessarily just smacking the villain in the face. Controlling the minions and the side schemes that can mount up is often a better move. Keeping an eye on the main scheme threshold is also key. Knowing how the Villains play and what’s in the encounter deck can help you decide how best to defeat them. At some point you will have to start dealing damage to the Villain but knowing when to push and when to hold off and control the threat/minions is critical. Like the Heroes, each Villain and modular encounter set has a different feel. Knowing how to handle them is essential. The timing of when to defeat one stage and advance to the next is often a critical step.
Aspects
There are four aspects in the game that all have their unique playstyles.
Aggression, as the name suggests, is all about hitting the enemies hard and fast. Generally, aggression based Heroes are not great at thwarting and removing threat from a scheme. Subsequently, t is often a race against the threat build-up and taking the Villain down
Justice is more focused on removing threat from schemes. Justice based characters are good at managing threat and keeping things under control however they are not typically hard hitters.
Protection is all about defending, preventing damage, and healing. It can react to incoming attacks, prevent that damage and sometimes cause reactive effects based on that.
Leadership is a very versatile deck and can do a lot of things but is mostly about bringing out Allies.Allies can be good for attacking, thwarting and defending and is a good all purpose aspect if used with a large selection of ally cards. Protection is reliant on these allies so Villains that target allies can make this aspect weak.
Deck building is a big part of Marvel Champions. You can customise your Heroes deck around the Villain you’re facing. There are great resources online such as www.marvelcdb.com
Zatu Score
Rating
- Artwork
- Complexity
- Replayability
- Player Interaction
- Component Quality
You might like
- A lot of content for the money
- Both scenarios play different
- Varies the way villains play from the core game
Might not like
- Risky Business can be tricky to get to grips with