Marvel Champions: The Card Game rules refresher

Read the refresher

You and the other players are trying to defeat the villain by knocking out every stage of their villain deck. You do that by attacking as your hero, while thwarting the villain's schemes to keep threat off the main scheme, and recovering as your alter-ego when you get worn down.

For setup, each player puts their identity card down on the alter-ego side and sets their hit point dial to the starting hit points on that card. Then pick a first player and give them the token. Set aside each hero's obligation card and their whole nemesis set. The nemesis cards stay out of play unless an encounter card calls for them, but the obligations get shuffled into the encounter deck. Shuffle your player deck, put the villain deck in stage order with the first stage on top, and set the villain's dial to the hit points on the villain card multiplied by the number of players, wherever you see the per player symbol. Put the main scheme into play with its starting threat and resolve any setup instructions on it. Then everyone draws up to their hand size, and may mulligan by discarding any number of cards and drawing back up. Those discards are not shuffled back in. Finally resolve any setup text on identity cards.

Each round is a player phase and then a villain phase. In the player phase, players take full turns one at a time in player order. On your turn you may do any of these, in any order, and repeat them as often as you can pay for them: play ally, upgrade, and support cards; use a basic power; use allies you control; and trigger Action abilities on cards in play, on encounter cards, or by playing an event card with such a trigger from your hand. The one thing limited to once per turn is changing form. When everyone has taken a turn, each player in player order may discard cards and must discard down to hand size, then everyone simultaneously draws back up to hand size and readies all their cards. Then the villain phase happens, and at the end of it the first player token passes clockwise.

Costs are paid by generating resources. You do that by discarding cards from your hand, each card giving the resource icons printed in its bottom left corner, or by using a Resource ability on a card. Any extra resources beyond the cost are lost. Wild covers any type. Allies, upgrades, and supports enter play ready in your area. Events resolve and go to your discard pile. You may control at most three allies. If you already have three and play a fourth, you immediately discard one of the previous ones.

Basic powers are on your identity card and cost you exhausting that character. In alter-ego form, recovery heals up to your REC value, but never above your maximum hit points. In hero form, basic thwart removes threat equal to your THW from one scheme, and basic attack deals your ATK to one eligible enemy. Basic defense is different: it is only used when a hero is being attacked, and you may exhaust your hero to reduce the incoming damage by your DEF value. You can defend yourself or another hero.

To use an ally, exhaust it, declare attack or thwart and the target, resolve the damage or threat removal, and then deal the ally any consequential damage shown under the value you used. Damage on allies and minions is tracked with tokens and defeats them at zero hit points. Damage to heroes and to the villain moves their dials.

The villain phase runs in five steps. First, place threat on the main scheme equal to its acceleration field, plus one for each acceleration icon on side schemes in play. Second, the villain activates once against each player, in player order, and after each activation the minions engaged with that player activate too. If that player is in alter-ego form, the enemies scheme, placing threat on the main scheme equal to their SCH. If that player is in hero form, the enemies attack. For the villain only, deal it a facedown boost card from the encounter deck, then flip it: each boost icon gives plus one to the villain's SCH or ATK for that activation, and a star in the boost field gives no bonus but triggers the starred ability on that card. Then discard the boost card. Minions get no boost cards. When the villain attacks, the attacked player chooses whether to defend by exhausting their hero or an ally; if they decline, any other player may defend with their hero or an ally. A defending hero reduces the damage by their DEF and takes the rest; a defending ally takes all of it; if nobody defends, the hero being activated against takes all of it.

Third, deal one encounter card facedown to each player, plus an extra card in player order for each hazard icon on a side scheme in play. Fourth, reveal and resolve those cards one at a time in player order. Minions enter play engaged with the player who revealed them. Treacheries resolve and are discarded. Attachments attach to the villain. Side schemes enter play near the main scheme with threat already on them, and are discarded when their threat reaches zero. A side scheme with the crisis icon must be cleared before any threat can be removed from the main scheme. Resolve When Revealed abilities as cards enter play, and if a card has surge, immediately draw and reveal another encounter card. An obligation goes to the hero named on it, who resolves it. Fifth, pass the first player token and start the next round.

Threat on the main scheme is checked continuously. The moment it equals or exceeds the target threat in the top left corner, the scheme advances to the next stage, and the old threat is removed. If the final stage of the scheme deck advances, the players lose immediately. The players also lose if every player is eliminated, which happens to a player when their hit point dial reaches zero. When the villain's dial hits zero, that stage is defeated and you set the dial for the next stage. Defeat the final villain stage and you all win.

A turn, played out

Two players, and you hold the first player token. Your hero is in hero form with THW 2, ATK 3, DEF 1, and 6 hit points left. The main scheme holds 7 threat toward a target of 10, with acceleration 1. Beside it sits a side scheme with the crisis icon and 3 threat, so nothing comes off the main scheme until it is cleared. You play an ally costing 3 by discarding two cards that each show 2 resource icons. That makes 4, so 1 resource is simply lost. The ally enters ready. You exhaust it to thwart the side scheme with its THW of 1, dropping it to 2. It then takes the 1 consequential damage printed under that value, leaving it on 1 hit point. Next you exhaust your hero for a basic thwart of 2. The side scheme hits zero and is discarded. You stay in hero form. After the player to your left takes their turn, you both draw up to hand size and ready everything. In the villain phase the main scheme climbs from 7 to 8. The villain activates against you, and because you are a hero, it attacks. Its boost card shows 1 boost icon, so its ATK of 2 becomes 3. Defending with your ally would put all 3 damage on it and defeat it. Instead you exhaust your hero, block 1, and your dial drops from 6 to 4.