Small note with Spider-Ham - you cannot spend the toon counter from Clarity of Purpose on the same thing Clarity of Purpose is paying for due to the way their timing works. Also I was definitely losing my mind (and voice) by the time I got to the last few heroes, I had been recording for almost 3 hours (pre-editing) at that point! Apologies if there are any mistakes! If I do this again (help me aaaah) I'll split it up! Also, I know some people would have liked to see 'Pool properly included but it's fairly niche and the video was already very long - plus I have not played 'Pool with every hero at every player count, let alone experiment with multiple builds or team mates. So I feel it would have been less accurate than I'd like! Thanks! Whew!
@@kwisatzhaderach88 Yep, pretty much! Long story short, your Spider-Ham response to generate a Toon Counter is too late to pay for whatever Clarity is paying for.
Oops! I definitely pay that he takes damage and so immediately generates the Toon Counter. That damage taken payment then generates the Toon counter. Although in fairness I will often already have one when using the resource or pay for more than one card that turn. Best keep an eye on that!
We'll see! I'm sure people will have disagreements and, with 1,200 different aspect placements, I'm sure even myself in a week or so will want to make small changes. But overall I hope it's really helpful to people!
I played Rogue for the first time last night. 2 games in Red. 2 games in Green. Both rocked and being a noob my builds are improving. I’m realizing with the X-Men minions in the particular aspect used in a deck only really needs to be 4-5 of them. Economy set with deft focus, X-Gene, Utopia, X-Jet and Moira
This was a real treat to watch. Some thoughts: 1. I'm now really excited to someday see episodes of your favorite decks on Spider-Woman, Adam Warlock, and Spectrum. 2. I play 90% multiplayer so a series on pairings makes me excited. 3. 2027: VT finally completes his "every character in every archetype ranked" video.
I'm so glad that you pointed out how misunderstood spectrum is. When I first saw comments on her, I didn't want to play her because I didn't want to get form-locked. Now, shes easily one of my top 3 favorite heroes to play! Having access to both form flipping AND aerial makes deckbuilding so easy!
Yep, so many great cards for her! She and Rogue are both misunderstood a lot, and both have 12+ events out of their 15 signature cards. The only two who do. I just think they take a different mindset.
@@VillainTheory @RabidNinja000 I really like Spectrum as well. Even when I was relatively new with Marvel Champions (and as a solo player), I always found Spectrum to be very strong. For me personally, I've found that she excels in decks that allow her to flip to Alter-Ego regularly because you (1) get to choose which form you want when you come back to the hero side, and (2) you immediately get a benefit when you choose that form. I've never had any trouble controlling the board with frequently flipping her.
I keep coming back to this video. It's such a great resource! I totally agree about Vision. I build out my whole box for game night, so no one builds a deck on the spot. As such, aspects can only be swapped. My first "aspect swap" was Spider Man's Justice for Vision's Protection. I LOVED that swap. Spider Man in team protection is [Amazing], and Vision in Justice is so strong. I haven't had a bad game with either hero since.
Looking forward to watching this throughout the day. I'm a newer player who started up just a few weeks ago after my buddy showed me the game and your videos have been incredibly helpful and insightful to me. This game has so much depth that it feels a little overwhelming at times, not going to lie lol. Cheers, fam!
Haha! It can really seem overwhelming at first but Rome wasn't built in a day and you don't need to know everything to do well and have fun! Let me know if there's any video that would especially help you, and if you ever need a hand feel free to shout on Discord or something!
And breathe! You do an awesome job of taking a ton of pretty complex info and distilling it into something really straightforward to digest. That is a bloody hard thing to do. Bravo (as always!) 👏
Absolutely love this video and it will be bookmarked for a long time! I'm a newer player and really find this useful as I dive in deep into this game. Thank you for such an extensive video. :)
Absolutely amazing content. The amount of work that had to go into this video must have been a task and a half. And it's much appreciated. Good stuff. 👍
Hi! I have a question. What does "full card collection" means? I got the original box and some expansions, idk what is needed for it to be considered a full collection to choose aspects (since there are new things being added to the game constantly). Thanks in advance!!
Unfortunately a "full collection" really meant "has everything that was released at the time I made the video". You won't need absolutely everything for those categories to be true for most characters, but it was really me saying "and this is how it looks with no restrictions".
@@VillainTheory I understand. So I think at the moment of this video (feb 2024) "Age of Apocalypse" wasn't released yet, and the last expansion was "NeXt Evolution". That helps me narrow it down. Thanks a lot!!
Just want to thank you for the "small card count" breakdowns. I don't agree with some of the early heroes (Spidey Protection is super strong in teams), but on game night, no one wants to sit and learn how to build a deck on the spot, and frankly, neither do I, so I try to do some minor deck-building with the few extra cards that I get. I have 15 heroes, but each deck is built with limited resources, and I have only changed maybe 5-7 cards in every deck with the goal of having all decks playable at all times, so players pick a deck, pick a villain, and we play.
Nice! That's a super convenient way to do it, I wish I could just grab a deck and go! Regarding Protection Spidey, I agree that it's very strong but I do think the other aspects are even stronger. I do wonder that if, with all your allies spread perhaps a little thin between every deck kept built, your decks have less allies to block with than an "average" deck would - and so having a hero to help provide defense instead of allies is even more useful than normal? But that's just wild speculation!
Great thoughts, as usual, you've played a lot more than have I. Yes, from what I can see when streamers build a deck to play, they typically use 6 or more allies. My decks have 4 on the low end, and 6-7 on the high end (all leadership decks), all protection decks have 5, all aggression and justice have 4. The allies are spread thin --need more allies! ;-) To your point, I played a game with Black Panther-Protection, and Captain America-Leadership, and protection felt superfluous. For Spidey, I have a few extra ready cards in his deck==> Defend, draw, ready; Defend for player 2, ready, Defend for player 3... Amazing! That's way better than Venom's power to take a damage to get a resource.
This type of video is such a great resource for new players, and helpful for those of us who have been around a while but may be stuck in our ways for certain characters.
You are an absolute machine! Amazing work. This is such a great tool to help guid when playing a new character or getting ideas for new ways to play. Thank yoy!
Nice! Yeah, I’ve been a long time consumer and just now started to post decks and comment on RUclips. It’s been a lot of fun to dip my toe in the community. Y’all are all incredible
Was watching this again while thinking of switching a few heroes aspects. One odd thing I do with Dr Strange (because he's so OP that most people don't play him on game night) is that I pre-build him in Protection as more of a team-support healer and defender (with defense cards). He gets played a lot more in that role, as it doesn't feel quite so OP.
Nice to aknowledge most of us are experienced :p Very interesting video though, not just a generic categorization :) It's nice to compare the variables, especially the multiplayer games which are not the main focus of most channels.
Thanks for putting this together. Seems like a big undertaking. I do have a few small quibbles. I play almost exclusively solo or 3 player, so can't really comment on 2 or 4 very much. I've played a lot of Black Widow solo, and exclusively in Leadership and Justice. In my experience, Justice was always more consistent than leadership, which I could struggle in more. I think protection can be best for Gambit at 3 players. I've never had a character better than Gambit at defending for the entire table turn in and turn out after the first 2 or so turns, and I've tried it with several other heroes. Between Gambit himself and the amazing X-Men allies you can really let the other players focus on everything else, and you can still provide great value on your turn. Even when I dropped to alter I could block for everyone. Domino can just run all basic at 3 players! My wife ran it and she had a blast and was so good. We've played her in every aspect at our table plus all basic and she was at least as consistent in all basic as her best aspect. Thanks again, great job as always.
Thanks for the detailed reply, love it. I definitely think Justice Widow is very good solo. Do you recall what builds you were using at all or what villains you fought? I've always found it very hard for anything to keep up with Rapid Response abuse. Especially now with Call for Backup to get expensive allies in for cheap. Absolutely love Gambit Protection in multiplayer and I do think it's very good, I actually have a deck for it on mcdb. I think the problem is I think his Aggression and Leadership potential is even crazier. One by One + Attack Training X-Men builds or Uncanny X-Men is very hard to keep up with. Those can usually defend for themselves entirely while having absurdly good output, and sometimes still defend for two or more people despite the aspect. Basic Domino is very good. In all honesty, I think basic-only decks are extraordinarily strong in general - mainly thanks to all the powerhouse allies, resource generators and how good Power in All of Us is with them. Rocket, Spider-Man Miles Morales and Psylocke are some other characters I think do particularly well there. I wonder if that would be interesting to talk about on a video 🤔
I played Justice Widow through Sinisister Motives a couple times, Mad Titans Shadow and Rise of Red Skull, plus some Randoms here or there. I've done shield builds, one way or another and confuse lock/counter intelligence builds. She is my most played hero, but I haven't played her in a while because I kind of burned out on her and she hasn't received any new love in a long time to bring me back, so I haven't tried her since PSS came out. I think I'll have to try a Leadership Gambit now, it's the only aspect I haven't tried him in. An all basic heroes would be a cool video. That Domino deck is the only one my group has brought to the table. I have had quite a few decks where I'm only bringing 5ish aspect cards, so probably most those heroes would have been fine in all basic. Basic really is quite good in so many ways.
Easily one of your best videos, VT. There must have been a ton of work going into this. I don't have much else to say, other than I agree with most of your ratings on the heroes and aspects that I've played, although I will admit that there's cases where I struggle to play a certain hero outside of its most archetypal aspects (for example, playing Cyclops in anything but Leadership feels weird to me).
Truly amazing work. But surprised you have Valk in Agression as the lowest in solo. I was tearing my hair out trying to get Leadership to work with her but when i switched to Aggression and all of the red asgardian allys and I felt unstoppable.
Aha! GOT YOU. I saw a very similar comment earlier and, when I went to reply, could no longer find it! What kind of Leadership builds have you tried? I think cheap Avenger swarms or Strength in Numbers can do very well with her. Fancy builds, not so much though they are more fun (when they work). I will say that, against minion-heavy scenarios, Aggression can do extremely well - as does Valkyrie against them in general (compared to "average" scenarios). And I do love me some Bifrost.
A better way to do this in the future might be to rate the combos given the full pool only, then add in the cards that bring that aspect up to the level for the character and what packs they are in. That way you only have to do 1 rating and you are helping newer players with their shopping list.
That would be a good format. My original intention was to help people without a full collection, so I don't think that quite fits the premise, but would be great! Perhaps if I ever update it I'll do this! (Since a small card pool won't ever change much.)
Great Job, VT! Excellent analysis and breakdown. I wonder if this video would be better served being broken up into waves as separate videos on a playlist. Going forward, are you going to perform this analysis with each upcoming wave? (I'd vote for it) Also... seeing a video with a 1hr+ time length makes it very hard to prioritize it to get watched and I'm likely to forget I have it on my watch later list.
As always, I love your analysis videos. Lots of interesting food for thought here. I was surprised to see you rate Shadowcat's justice as high as aggression. I've tried building justice decks that get her to phased, then play a thwart event every turn to maximize her ability to bypass hazard and patrol. I could never get it consistent, though. I've lost most games with that deck. What sort of approach do you take with her in justice?
I don't have a deck to hand this second but the key card for her Justice deck is Lay Down the Law. Also, Ready to Rumble is really good for consistently being able to change form to the form you want. I also usually bring a couple of Stealth Strikes to make sure her Solid form resource generator gets used.
I made an exception for Deadpool since he comes with the aspect, the video was only intended to be for the four main aspects. I go into a bit more detail in the pinned comment!
Hi, just bought the core set. And found your channel, so I've been watching a bunch. I've two questions, if you wouldn't mind helping me out? The first is: does the villain get a boost card. Then an encounter, when they attack or scheme? And the second is: if there is a second scheme, does that increase the amount of threat the villain schemes?
Oh hey! Sorry I had a few weeks off youtube! Normally I'm a fairly speedy replier. 1. The villain always gets a boost card when attacking or scheming UNLESS an encounter card says not to give them a boost card. However, you only deal out an encounter card once in the villain phase unless something says to otherwise. Generally it goes like this. 1) Villain Phase begins. 2) Add threat to the main scheme. 3) The villain activates (attacks or schemes depending on what form you're in) against each player in player order - always with a boost card. 4) Any minions present attack or scheme against the player they're engaged with. 5) You deal each player an encounter card in player order. 6) Players reveal encounter cards in player order. 2. When it comes to schemes, you have "main schemes" and "side schemes". Aside from one or two exceptions in later boxes, the villain will only ever have one main scheme out at a time. If they have multiple main schemes, they form a stack. And they work through them if you fail to stop the threat going over until you lose the game. Rhino has one main scheme, Klaw I think has two main schemes, and Ultron has three. When a villain schemes, the threat is only added to the main scheme that's showing on top of the stack. If any side schemes are in play, these aren't affected by the villain's scheming. However, if they have a boost icon (the three-sided star thing!) it will boost their scheming, and if it's an acceleration icon it will add an extra threat to the main scheme at the start of each villain phase. So, in that respect, they can affect threat. Let me know if you have any other questions! We also have a New Player section on the Discord server if you want faster help from lots of great people! Invite link here if you use Discord: discord.gg/YY32budyq2
This video is going to be so helpful, it's insane! This video is the perfect answer to the question, "Which aspect should I use as (Hero)?" I can't thank you enough! Edit : I couldn't agree more on Deadpool, he is literally playing a different game than any other hero lol!
Wow. My son and I are about to embark on trying to beat the 3 core set heroes in a row on expert (except Ultron standard), with two different pairs of heroes and aspects. It looks like our only option with my Core+9 Heroes set, for our “Best” protection hero is going to be Cap!
Sorry! 🤣 Protection can be excellent on a lot of heroes still even if I don't think it's their best! And my opinion isn't definitive. If you want another Protection character then Spider-Man Peter Parker is a fantastic choice I'd recommend.
@@VillainTheoryUsing this video, we did go ahead and run the table 3-0 with our first pair of heroes (Black Panther Justice and Captain America Protection.) Our next combo to round out the 4 aspects is Wolverine Aggression and Spiderman(PP) Leadership. Adding Rise of Red Skull to my collection after we defeat the 3 core set villains on Expert again, and adding Black Widow and Hulk to our Hero options. When do you feel that a collection bridges the gap from "small" to "full" collection as regards your video? It seems to me that if I add Vision, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Scarlet Witch we will have a really really diverse set and most of the Avengers options, before we move on to X Men Waves in a few months.
@@davew1337 Awesome work! Unfortunately when I refer to "full" I really mean "has everything released up to this point". That's not to say you need everything to make heroes do better in the aspects I'm recommending with a full collection, but it really can vary per hero since I could be drawing on any cards from any packs in my evaluations. For example, Protection only becomes that strong with Iron Man with SP//dr's pack (though to a lesser extent, also with Ms. Marvel's since it also has Energy Barrier). And I only start to rate Wolverine higher in Protection with Hard Knocks from Drax's pack. Scarlet Witch's pack will do a lot to elevate almost anyone's Justice builds, though, and Ant-Man's pack is a significant boost for Leadership, but especially Avengers Leadership in combination with Cap's pack. EDIT: I've actually released a buyer's guide recently too. I think it's absolutely fine to stick with the different groups like Avengers first, then X-Men, and that will do really well. But this video offers an alternative way to get the most deckbuilding for your buck: ruclips.net/video/XMlspy5BRvo/видео.html
@@VillainTheory thank you very much for your detailed reply. It gives me a lot to think about. I do think I will simply have to not restrict myself to your “best/great” combos because I do want to play other Heroes in Protection besides just Spiderman and Cap, and I won’t have a full collection for many months or ever.
@@davew1337 Oh 100%! I think this is a good guide as a starting point but all the aspects are worth exploring on almost every character! Especially in 2+ player games.
What kinda leadership build would you use for iorn heart. I noticed in general justice doesn't scale as well once you get to 3 or more players. Have you had this problem in bigger games?
Justice is so good for her in lower counts because you can use it to turbo-boost your card draw, which turbo-boosts your progress counters, while generally still being able to commit enough resources to keeping the threat in check. When you reach 3-4 player, the threat has typically scaled up too much to do both. Ironheart needs progress counters, the group needs tons of thwarting, so choosing one or the other isn't ideal. It's still good but is no longer great. If you want a powerful and reliable Leadership build, try 3x Strength in Numbers with a bunch of 1 and 2-cost allies (until you have around 10) and the Triskelion, prioritizing any allies which draw you cards. Her 3 DEF means you can set up a board full of allies since you don't need to block with them in the early game - then the ridiculous amount of card draw will super-charge you.
With SP//dr, she's good in any aspect. She typically likes Web-Warriors, cheap cards, readying/stat boosts, and anything to keep her signature ally going. Nebula and Ms. Marvel both love flipping in and out of alter-ego. Ms. Marvel loves events, especially those that hit multiple targets, to combo with her Shrink and Embiggen. I recommend 3x One by One for her in Aggression, or 3x Multitasking and Turn the Tide in Justice. Nebula I'd say just wants a couple of confuses and, if you have them, player side schemes. That's a good starting point. Nova is pretty good in all the aspects but much like Ms. Marvel I think you're best off starting in Aggression or Justice. And like Nebula, he likes player side schemes - this is to combo with Unleash Nova Force. Try 3x Pitchback in Aggression or pretty much anything in Justice. I especially love Specialized Training on him and he's also very rich so he can afford a lot with a strong early game. You need to build the ramping and late game in though.
My friend wants to try Phoenix out so I'm trying to build him a deck. I have been finding it really hard to build a deck around her because of all the different possibilities with her traits and figuring out how to balance her unleashed/restraint play style. You got any deck ideas? Was thinking since my friend is a beginner just trying to build an aggression phonix that wants to use the extra power of unleashed and smash face but overall I don't now what the best build for her is.
Sounds like a great plan! Phoenix is fun because you can build her in so many different ways. Some ideas for Aggression would be X-Men allies with 3x Attack Training + 3x Game Time (with Utopia and possibly Danger Room) or a Honed Technique deck. Alternatively you can use her in Justice and never unleash, or at least wait until the late game and unleash to help finish off the villain, but otherwise lean into that juicy 3 starting THW stat with Utopia again to ready you up. I'm also a huge fan of Leadership with Psychic Kicker where she can really do anything. The easiest beginner build there is probably the Attack Training deck in Aggression, though you could potentially skip on Game Time and Danger Room to start with. Amazing cards but not necessary to beat some of the simpler villains you'll probably be fighting since they're new, and the deck will be much simpler and easier to grasp in their absence. If they like it, you could maybe introduce those cards in a future game.
Basically it works exactly as you'd hope! If you're in Phased form and play it? You take no damage from the villain's attack, draw two cards, and end up in Solid form - all without exhausting to defend whatsoever.
Dead By Daylight content creator known for extremely in depth videos, like a "short" 9 hour video breaking down every add on in the game. :P@@VillainTheory
I don't have an exact ratio off the top of my head but 5 or so allies (including her signature ally) is pretty solid. Clobber is probably my favorite event for her - very flexible, enables her big thwarting card for cheap with no conditions necessary. Clear the Area is probably the best off-aspect card to take for solo play.
Whats the best way in your opinion to teach someone how to play. Make them play a hero they like vs some easy villian? Play with a premade hero deck or fully optimise deck or should i just do the simple spiderman or captian marvel deck from the core set vs rhino
Some people say let them choose someone they really like. I suggest steering them towards an easier hero to grasp like Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, or Gamora. Either way, build them a deck full of straightforward events without many upgrades or supports to streamline everything. They should have things as simple and clear as possible for the first game, preferably against Rhino. Learning the overall game rules is hard enough so I think you should keep things as easy as possible in terms of cards they're playing. Plenty of time to explore more complicated characters or decks when they know what's going on
I really want to like iorn heart, but is it just me, its so slow to get to level 3 that by the time you get to it you were already almost winning that there really isn't a point to it. It feels like you spend a decent 70% of the game as level 2 which is a mid hero and only the last 10% as level 3. Do people just try to rush level 3 and stay use alter ego alot more? It might be my bad luck getting the obligation alot.
Ironheart's speed of leveling up is very dependent on the deck. One of the most popular ways to play her is in Justice with card draw, primarily One Way or Another for solo especially, to dig out all her cards that give her progress counters once played. Justice also allows her to go alter-ego more easily, also helping her mass-produce counters. I'm also a huge fan of Leadership, whether that's recurring Beast (who can find Stroke of Genius) or just card draw again. Typically I find that, once you hit level 2, level 3 isn't far behind. Leveling up really is the priority with her because late game strength is among the highest in the entire game.
I actually played her in Prot a few days ago! It was something like Web-Warriors, Night Nurse, 2x Med Team, 2x Assess the Situation, 3x Energy Barrier, 2x Repurpose, 1x Avengers Mansion, Specialized Training + Superpower Training. Generally in my experience she likes flexible cards, readying, stat boosts and Web-Warriors.
Great content & Very Awesomely delivered. Now all you have to do is "ver2" with all the way thru....sigh :) But we love it - both the game & your efforts!
Small note with Spider-Ham - you cannot spend the toon counter from Clarity of Purpose on the same thing Clarity of Purpose is paying for due to the way their timing works. Also I was definitely losing my mind (and voice) by the time I got to the last few heroes, I had been recording for almost 3 hours (pre-editing) at that point! Apologies if there are any mistakes! If I do this again (help me aaaah) I'll split it up!
Also, I know some people would have liked to see 'Pool properly included but it's fairly niche and the video was already very long - plus I have not played 'Pool with every hero at every player count, let alone experiment with multiple builds or team mates. So I feel it would have been less accurate than I'd like!
Thanks! Whew!
You mean the counter you earn from clarity right. If you already have counters you should be fine?
@@kwisatzhaderach88 Yep, pretty much! Long story short, your Spider-Ham response to generate a Toon Counter is too late to pay for whatever Clarity is paying for.
Oops! I definitely pay that he takes damage and so immediately generates the Toon Counter. That damage taken payment then generates the Toon counter. Although in fairness I will often already have one when using the resource or pay for more than one card that turn. Best keep an eye on that!
This is insane. You can count on this being referenced by people new and experienced for a long time.
We'll see! I'm sure people will have disagreements and, with 1,200 different aspect placements, I'm sure even myself in a week or so will want to make small changes. But overall I hope it's really helpful to people!
I played Rogue for the first time last night. 2 games in Red. 2 games in Green. Both rocked and being a noob my builds are improving. I’m realizing with the X-Men minions in the particular aspect used in a deck only really needs to be 4-5 of them. Economy set with deft focus, X-Gene, Utopia, X-Jet and Moira
Nice! Sounds fun and glad it went well!
Amazing work, and thank you for allllll the time that must’ve gone into this!
Ah, you know, just a couple of hours... (Thank you!!)
This was a real treat to watch. Some thoughts:
1. I'm now really excited to someday see episodes of your favorite decks on Spider-Woman, Adam Warlock, and Spectrum.
2. I play 90% multiplayer so a series on pairings makes me excited.
3. 2027: VT finally completes his "every character in every archetype ranked" video.
That 2027 video sounds like a nightmare haha. But hey... Never say never!
I'm so glad that you pointed out how misunderstood spectrum is. When I first saw comments on her, I didn't want to play her because I didn't want to get form-locked. Now, shes easily one of my top 3 favorite heroes to play! Having access to both form flipping AND aerial makes deckbuilding so easy!
Yep, so many great cards for her! She and Rogue are both misunderstood a lot, and both have 12+ events out of their 15 signature cards. The only two who do. I just think they take a different mindset.
@@VillainTheory @RabidNinja000 I really like Spectrum as well. Even when I was relatively new with Marvel Champions (and as a solo player), I always found Spectrum to be very strong. For me personally, I've found that she excels in decks that allow her to flip to Alter-Ego regularly because you (1) get to choose which form you want when you come back to the hero side, and (2) you immediately get a benefit when you choose that form. I've never had any trouble controlling the board with frequently flipping her.
Oh, I typed my response a bit soon! You essentially mentioned this in the video right after I commented!
Wow!!!! This is quite the compilation of information. Well done 🎉🎉
Thanks! It took forever! Glad you like it!
I keep coming back to this video. It's such a great resource! I totally agree about Vision. I build out my whole box for game night, so no one builds a deck on the spot. As such, aspects can only be swapped. My first "aspect swap" was Spider Man's Justice for Vision's Protection. I LOVED that swap. Spider Man in team protection is [Amazing], and Vision in Justice is so strong. I haven't had a bad game with either hero since.
Looking forward to watching this throughout the day. I'm a newer player who started up just a few weeks ago after my buddy showed me the game and your videos have been incredibly helpful and insightful to me.
This game has so much depth that it feels a little overwhelming at times, not going to lie lol. Cheers, fam!
Haha! It can really seem overwhelming at first but Rome wasn't built in a day and you don't need to know everything to do well and have fun!
Let me know if there's any video that would especially help you, and if you ever need a hand feel free to shout on Discord or something!
And breathe! You do an awesome job of taking a ton of pretty complex info and distilling it into something really straightforward to digest. That is a bloody hard thing to do. Bravo (as always!) 👏
Thank you! Hopefully it stands the test of time! As long as they don't release any more cards and heroes...
Still here viewing this video every time i ponder new hero/aspect combos! thanks again!
What a beast of a video. Perfect kind of content that I love listening to! Great job!
Thanks! I needed a break after making this one haha!
The work you put into this is amazing! Thank you for covering every base between solo and 4 player! Best Marvel Champions youtuber!!!!
Thank you! Way too kind!
Absolutely love this video and it will be bookmarked for a long time! I'm a newer player and really find this useful as I dive in deep into this game. Thank you for such an extensive video. :)
Woo! Glad it was so helpful. Thank you!
Absolutely amazing content. The amount of work that had to go into this video must have been a task and a half. And it's much appreciated. Good stuff. 👍
Thanks mate! It was a lot of work but I enjoyed it!
Hi!
I have a question. What does "full card collection" means?
I got the original box and some expansions, idk what is needed for it to be considered a full collection to choose aspects (since there are new things being added to the game constantly).
Thanks in advance!!
Unfortunately a "full collection" really meant "has everything that was released at the time I made the video". You won't need absolutely everything for those categories to be true for most characters, but it was really me saying "and this is how it looks with no restrictions".
@@VillainTheory I understand.
So I think at the moment of this video (feb 2024) "Age of Apocalypse" wasn't released yet, and the last expansion was "NeXt Evolution". That helps me narrow it down.
Thanks a lot!!
Amazing effort and content for our community! Thank you VT! 🎉🎉 Loved it! ❤🙏🏽
Thanks so much! 😁
Just want to thank you for the "small card count" breakdowns. I don't agree with some of the early heroes (Spidey Protection is super strong in teams), but on game night, no one wants to sit and learn how to build a deck on the spot, and frankly, neither do I, so I try to do some minor deck-building with the few extra cards that I get. I have 15 heroes, but each deck is built with limited resources, and I have only changed maybe 5-7 cards in every deck with the goal of having all decks playable at all times, so players pick a deck, pick a villain, and we play.
Nice! That's a super convenient way to do it, I wish I could just grab a deck and go!
Regarding Protection Spidey, I agree that it's very strong but I do think the other aspects are even stronger. I do wonder that if, with all your allies spread perhaps a little thin between every deck kept built, your decks have less allies to block with than an "average" deck would - and so having a hero to help provide defense instead of allies is even more useful than normal? But that's just wild speculation!
Great thoughts, as usual, you've played a lot more than have I. Yes, from what I can see when streamers build a deck to play, they typically use 6 or more allies. My decks have 4 on the low end, and 6-7 on the high end (all leadership decks), all protection decks have 5, all aggression and justice have 4. The allies are spread thin --need more allies! ;-) To your point, I played a game with Black Panther-Protection, and Captain America-Leadership, and protection felt superfluous. For Spidey, I have a few extra ready cards in his deck==> Defend, draw, ready; Defend for player 2, ready, Defend for player 3... Amazing! That's way better than Venom's power to take a damage to get a resource.
Right, going to get the popcorn ready this evening then sit down with this as my Friday night viewing😂Thank you
Haha! Enjoy!
This type of video is such a great resource for new players, and helpful for those of us who have been around a while but may be stuck in our ways for certain characters.
Hopefully it can help a few people!
Great even to come back and re-watch 6 months later.
Wow, amazing vid, so much work dude! Kudos!
Thanks!!
Awesome video. Really appreciate all the effort to better the community by sharing your extensive knowledge.
Glad it was helpful!
Villian! You are my favourite content creator and I love listening to your thoughts that you present with your friendly demeanor. Great video!
Thank you so much! Happy that you enjoy it! 😁
I know you do quality work so gonna thumb this thing before I even watch. What an undertaking it must have been and great info it will be!
I appreciate that! I hope it lives up to the hype!
This is incredible. Thank you so much. I can’t imagine how much work this took.
A little more than I expected, that's for sure haha! Thank you :)
You are an absolute machine! Amazing work. This is such a great tool to help guid when playing a new character or getting ideas for new ways to play. Thank yoy!
Hey thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
This is really impressive and helpful! thanks so much.
This is truly a feat that we will all benefit from. Thanks for the time and energy on this. Can wait to view all of this amazing content!
I hope it lives up to the hype! Also are you the andyr I've seen a lot on marvelcdb lately? :D
It definitely has! It’s always enjoyable to hear your perspective and analysis!
And I am that andyr…hopefully not in a bad way though 😅😂
@@mcandyr Not at all! I was just curious!
Nice! Yeah, I’ve been a long time consumer and just now started to post decks and comment on RUclips. It’s been a lot of fun to dip my toe in the community. Y’all are all incredible
@@VillainTheory also, loved that you showed Vivian at first with Vision! She is the all star in his kit
Great video! Venom's alias is Flash Gordon? No wonder he's so strong. He's a miracle!
Ahaha, I wondered if anyone would catch that!
Was watching this again while thinking of switching a few heroes aspects. One odd thing I do with Dr Strange (because he's so OP that most people don't play him on game night) is that I pre-build him in Protection as more of a team-support healer and defender (with defense cards). He gets played a lot more in that role, as it doesn't feel quite so OP.
That sounds like a great way to use him, love it!
Man, this seems like a massive undertaking. Thanks!
Haha, it was!
This is the single best video for MC to date. This is terrific.
That's a big compliment! I am glad you enjoyed it
I love the D20 callout calling valk the GOAT 😂😂😂
This was such a great video, good job VT! I also took a bit of a break after X23 came out, so this was a nice little refresher 😊
Welcome back! I thought I hadn't seen you around much!
What a video. Kudos to you Villain. Have 'Liked' and will be using this for reference.
You're welcome! And thank you!
I can see how much work you’ve put into this, brilliant!
Thank you!
@@VillainTheoryHi no worries. 😃👍
Did you mean to say Venom was Flash Gordon?
Nice to aknowledge most of us are experienced :p
Very interesting video though, not just a generic categorization :)
It's nice to compare the variables, especially the multiplayer games which are not the main focus of most channels.
I do love me some multiplayer!
Nice job man! Very helpful!
This has been a great video and kind of a dummys guide to Hero Aspects. Greatly appreciate it
Thanks for putting this together. Seems like a big undertaking.
I do have a few small quibbles. I play almost exclusively solo or 3 player, so can't really comment on 2 or 4 very much.
I've played a lot of Black Widow solo, and exclusively in Leadership and Justice. In my experience, Justice was always more consistent than leadership, which I could struggle in more.
I think protection can be best for Gambit at 3 players. I've never had a character better than Gambit at defending for the entire table turn in and turn out after the first 2 or so turns, and I've tried it with several other heroes. Between Gambit himself and the amazing X-Men allies you can really let the other players focus on everything else, and you can still provide great value on your turn. Even when I dropped to alter I could block for everyone.
Domino can just run all basic at 3 players! My wife ran it and she had a blast and was so good. We've played her in every aspect at our table plus all basic and she was at least as consistent in all basic as her best aspect.
Thanks again, great job as always.
Thanks for the detailed reply, love it.
I definitely think Justice Widow is very good solo. Do you recall what builds you were using at all or what villains you fought? I've always found it very hard for anything to keep up with Rapid Response abuse. Especially now with Call for Backup to get expensive allies in for cheap.
Absolutely love Gambit Protection in multiplayer and I do think it's very good, I actually have a deck for it on mcdb. I think the problem is I think his Aggression and Leadership potential is even crazier. One by One + Attack Training X-Men builds or Uncanny X-Men is very hard to keep up with. Those can usually defend for themselves entirely while having absurdly good output, and sometimes still defend for two or more people despite the aspect.
Basic Domino is very good. In all honesty, I think basic-only decks are extraordinarily strong in general - mainly thanks to all the powerhouse allies, resource generators and how good Power in All of Us is with them. Rocket, Spider-Man Miles Morales and Psylocke are some other characters I think do particularly well there. I wonder if that would be interesting to talk about on a video 🤔
I played Justice Widow through Sinisister Motives a couple times, Mad Titans Shadow and Rise of Red Skull, plus some Randoms here or there. I've done shield builds, one way or another and confuse lock/counter intelligence builds. She is my most played hero, but I haven't played her in a while because I kind of burned out on her and she hasn't received any new love in a long time to bring me back, so I haven't tried her since PSS came out.
I think I'll have to try a Leadership Gambit now, it's the only aspect I haven't tried him in.
An all basic heroes would be a cool video. That Domino deck is the only one my group has brought to the table. I have had quite a few decks where I'm only bringing 5ish aspect cards, so probably most those heroes would have been fine in all basic. Basic really is quite good in so many ways.
Absolutely awesome video, mate ❤
Thanks a ton!
Thank you for the small collection rating, helps me out!
That's fantastic to hear!
Wow, this is awesome.
Well done man :)
Thank you! Glad you liked it!
This is incredibly cool and a great deal of work!
Thanks, glad you liked it!
This is video is simply amazing, tyvm!
Happy that you enjoyed it, you're welcome!
This is great. Now to wait to hear about Bishop and Magik.
Thank you for creating content! I look forward to your vids!
Glad you like them!
thanks for this MASSIVE piece of work, very informative and analytical . I
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! And yeah Adam is awesome even if he was a pain in this video haha
Monumental guide! Thank you so much!
No problem! Hope it's useful!
Easily one of your best videos, VT. There must have been a ton of work going into this. I don't have much else to say, other than I agree with most of your ratings on the heroes and aspects that I've played, although I will admit that there's cases where I struggle to play a certain hero outside of its most archetypal aspects (for example, playing Cyclops in anything but Leadership feels weird to me).
Thank you so much! And hey, if you like one aspect for a hero? Nothing wrong with sticking with it
Truly amazing work. But surprised you have Valk in Agression as the lowest in solo. I was tearing my hair out trying to get Leadership to work with her but when i switched to Aggression and all of the red asgardian allys and I felt unstoppable.
Aha! GOT YOU. I saw a very similar comment earlier and, when I went to reply, could no longer find it!
What kind of Leadership builds have you tried? I think cheap Avenger swarms or Strength in Numbers can do very well with her. Fancy builds, not so much though they are more fun (when they work).
I will say that, against minion-heavy scenarios, Aggression can do extremely well - as does Valkyrie against them in general (compared to "average" scenarios). And I do love me some Bifrost.
A better way to do this in the future might be to rate the combos given the full pool only, then add in the cards that bring that aspect up to the level for the character and what packs they are in. That way you only have to do 1 rating and you are helping newer players with their shopping list.
That would be a good format. My original intention was to help people without a full collection, so I don't think that quite fits the premise, but would be great! Perhaps if I ever update it I'll do this! (Since a small card pool won't ever change much.)
Thank you for doing this!
My pleasure!
Great Job, VT! Excellent analysis and breakdown. I wonder if this video would be better served being broken up into waves as separate videos on a playlist. Going forward, are you going to perform this analysis with each upcoming wave? (I'd vote for it) Also... seeing a video with a 1hr+ time length makes it very hard to prioritize it to get watched and I'm likely to forget I have it on my watch later list.
No current plans to break it down. But doing this with each wave sounds like a great idea!
Nova justice is a monster. Unleash the nova force sometimes isn't a fair card at all when you snow ball with it.
As always, I love your analysis videos. Lots of interesting food for thought here.
I was surprised to see you rate Shadowcat's justice as high as aggression. I've tried building justice decks that get her to phased, then play a thwart event every turn to maximize her ability to bypass hazard and patrol. I could never get it consistent, though. I've lost most games with that deck. What sort of approach do you take with her in justice?
I don't have a deck to hand this second but the key card for her Justice deck is Lay Down the Law. Also, Ready to Rumble is really good for consistently being able to change form to the form you want. I also usually bring a couple of Stealth Strikes to make sure her Solid form resource generator gets used.
Thanks for the great video! Just curious, not sure if I missed it, but why is Deadpool the only one with Pool rated as an aspect?
I made an exception for Deadpool since he comes with the aspect, the video was only intended to be for the four main aspects. I go into a bit more detail in the pinned comment!
Appreciate the effort!
You're welcome! Hope you enjoy it!
Been waiting for this.
Good things come to those who wait! (And hopefully this is a good thing.)
Hi, just bought the core set. And found your channel, so I've been watching a bunch. I've two questions, if you wouldn't mind helping me out? The first is: does the villain get a boost card. Then an encounter, when they attack or scheme? And the second is: if there is a second scheme, does that increase the amount of threat the villain schemes?
Oh hey! Sorry I had a few weeks off youtube! Normally I'm a fairly speedy replier.
1. The villain always gets a boost card when attacking or scheming UNLESS an encounter card says not to give them a boost card. However, you only deal out an encounter card once in the villain phase unless something says to otherwise.
Generally it goes like this. 1) Villain Phase begins. 2) Add threat to the main scheme. 3) The villain activates (attacks or schemes depending on what form you're in) against each player in player order - always with a boost card. 4) Any minions present attack or scheme against the player they're engaged with. 5) You deal each player an encounter card in player order. 6) Players reveal encounter cards in player order.
2. When it comes to schemes, you have "main schemes" and "side schemes". Aside from one or two exceptions in later boxes, the villain will only ever have one main scheme out at a time. If they have multiple main schemes, they form a stack. And they work through them if you fail to stop the threat going over until you lose the game. Rhino has one main scheme, Klaw I think has two main schemes, and Ultron has three. When a villain schemes, the threat is only added to the main scheme that's showing on top of the stack. If any side schemes are in play, these aren't affected by the villain's scheming. However, if they have a boost icon (the three-sided star thing!) it will boost their scheming, and if it's an acceleration icon it will add an extra threat to the main scheme at the start of each villain phase. So, in that respect, they can affect threat.
Let me know if you have any other questions! We also have a New Player section on the Discord server if you want faster help from lots of great people! Invite link here if you use Discord: discord.gg/YY32budyq2
@@VillainTheory Thank you so much!
Stuff of legends.
Haha! I don't know about that! But thank you!
This video is going to be so helpful, it's insane! This video is the perfect answer to the question, "Which aspect should I use as (Hero)?" I can't thank you enough! Edit : I couldn't agree more on Deadpool, he is literally playing a different game than any other hero lol!
Thanks, I hope it is helpful! And yes, Deadpool is so strange 🤔
Just when i thought that my day was boring, saw this :) thanks villain!
Any time!
Dr..Strange Protection with a but load of readies is so OP.
Yeeeep! It's pretty good to say the least!
Wow. My son and I are about to embark on trying to beat the 3 core set heroes in a row on expert (except Ultron standard), with two different pairs of heroes and aspects. It looks like our only option with my Core+9 Heroes set, for our “Best” protection hero is going to be Cap!
Sorry! 🤣 Protection can be excellent on a lot of heroes still even if I don't think it's their best! And my opinion isn't definitive. If you want another Protection character then Spider-Man Peter Parker is a fantastic choice I'd recommend.
@@VillainTheoryUsing this video, we did go ahead and run the table 3-0 with our first pair of heroes (Black Panther Justice and Captain America Protection.) Our next combo to round out the 4 aspects is Wolverine Aggression and Spiderman(PP) Leadership.
Adding Rise of Red Skull to my collection after we defeat the 3 core set villains on Expert again, and adding Black Widow and Hulk to our Hero options. When do you feel that a collection bridges the gap from "small" to "full" collection as regards your video? It seems to me that if I add Vision, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Scarlet Witch we will have a really really diverse set and most of the Avengers options, before we move on to X Men Waves in a few months.
@@davew1337 Awesome work!
Unfortunately when I refer to "full" I really mean "has everything released up to this point". That's not to say you need everything to make heroes do better in the aspects I'm recommending with a full collection, but it really can vary per hero since I could be drawing on any cards from any packs in my evaluations. For example, Protection only becomes that strong with Iron Man with SP//dr's pack (though to a lesser extent, also with Ms. Marvel's since it also has Energy Barrier). And I only start to rate Wolverine higher in Protection with Hard Knocks from Drax's pack. Scarlet Witch's pack will do a lot to elevate almost anyone's Justice builds, though, and Ant-Man's pack is a significant boost for Leadership, but especially Avengers Leadership in combination with Cap's pack.
EDIT: I've actually released a buyer's guide recently too. I think it's absolutely fine to stick with the different groups like Avengers first, then X-Men, and that will do really well. But this video offers an alternative way to get the most deckbuilding for your buck: ruclips.net/video/XMlspy5BRvo/видео.html
@@VillainTheory thank you very much for your detailed reply. It gives me a lot to think about. I do think I will simply have to not restrict myself to your “best/great” combos because I do want to play other Heroes in Protection besides just Spiderman and Cap, and I won’t have a full collection for many months or ever.
@@davew1337 Oh 100%! I think this is a good guide as a starting point but all the aspects are worth exploring on almost every character! Especially in 2+ player games.
Is pool the best aspect for any of these characters? 🤔
What kinda leadership build would you use for iorn heart. I noticed in general justice doesn't scale as well once you get to 3 or more players. Have you had this problem in bigger games?
Justice is so good for her in lower counts because you can use it to turbo-boost your card draw, which turbo-boosts your progress counters, while generally still being able to commit enough resources to keeping the threat in check. When you reach 3-4 player, the threat has typically scaled up too much to do both. Ironheart needs progress counters, the group needs tons of thwarting, so choosing one or the other isn't ideal. It's still good but is no longer great.
If you want a powerful and reliable Leadership build, try 3x Strength in Numbers with a bunch of 1 and 2-cost allies (until you have around 10) and the Triskelion, prioritizing any allies which draw you cards. Her 3 DEF means you can set up a board full of allies since you don't need to block with them in the early game - then the ridiculous amount of card draw will super-charge you.
What are some good nova, ms marvel ,nebula and spdr builds? I have taken an interest in those characters and don't know where to start.
With SP//dr, she's good in any aspect. She typically likes Web-Warriors, cheap cards, readying/stat boosts, and anything to keep her signature ally going.
Nebula and Ms. Marvel both love flipping in and out of alter-ego.
Ms. Marvel loves events, especially those that hit multiple targets, to combo with her Shrink and Embiggen. I recommend 3x One by One for her in Aggression, or 3x Multitasking and Turn the Tide in Justice.
Nebula I'd say just wants a couple of confuses and, if you have them, player side schemes. That's a good starting point.
Nova is pretty good in all the aspects but much like Ms. Marvel I think you're best off starting in Aggression or Justice. And like Nebula, he likes player side schemes - this is to combo with Unleash Nova Force. Try 3x Pitchback in Aggression or pretty much anything in Justice. I especially love Specialized Training on him and he's also very rich so he can afford a lot with a strong early game. You need to build the ramping and late game in though.
Merci beaucoup !
You're welcome!
My friend wants to try Phoenix out so I'm trying to build him a deck. I have been finding it really hard to build a deck around her because of all the different possibilities with her traits and figuring out how to balance her unleashed/restraint play style. You got any deck ideas? Was thinking since my friend is a beginner just trying to build an aggression phonix that wants to use the extra power of unleashed and smash face but overall I don't now what the best build for her is.
Sounds like a great plan! Phoenix is fun because you can build her in so many different ways. Some ideas for Aggression would be X-Men allies with 3x Attack Training + 3x Game Time (with Utopia and possibly Danger Room) or a Honed Technique deck. Alternatively you can use her in Justice and never unleash, or at least wait until the late game and unleash to help finish off the villain, but otherwise lean into that juicy 3 starting THW stat with Utopia again to ready you up. I'm also a huge fan of Leadership with Psychic Kicker where she can really do anything.
The easiest beginner build there is probably the Attack Training deck in Aggression, though you could potentially skip on Game Time and Danger Room to start with. Amazing cards but not necessary to beat some of the simpler villains you'll probably be fighting since they're new, and the deck will be much simpler and easier to grasp in their absence. If they like it, you could maybe introduce those cards in a future game.
@@VillainTheory can you send some builds? I also wouldn't mind looking into honed technique.
This video massively feels like we have bullied you into doing our homework. Thank you.
Haha, no not at all. The only one who bullied me into it was me!
HUUUUUUUGUUUUUUGE work!!!! Thanks a lot !!!
You're welcome! 😁
With shadowcat how does quickshift work with the form changes and the rulings that defence cards now count as you defended.
Basically it works exactly as you'd hope! If you're in Phased form and play it? You take no damage from the villain's attack, draw two cards, and end up in Solid form - all without exhausting to defend whatsoever.
@@VillainTheory that's what I wanted to know if the form change happens after the villians attack
Villain Theory has become the Otzdarva of the Marvel Champions community.
I don't know who that is but I'm going to take it as a compliment!
Dead By Daylight content creator known for extremely in depth videos, like a "short" 9 hour video breaking down every add on in the game. :P@@VillainTheory
What are some good cards to use for gamora aggression. The ratio of events to non evetns.
I don't have an exact ratio off the top of my head but 5 or so allies (including her signature ally) is pretty solid. Clobber is probably my favorite event for her - very flexible, enables her big thwarting card for cheap with no conditions necessary. Clear the Area is probably the best off-aspect card to take for solo play.
Whats the best way in your opinion to teach someone how to play. Make them play a hero they like vs some easy villian? Play with a premade hero deck or fully optimise deck or should i just do the simple spiderman or captian marvel deck from the core set vs rhino
Some people say let them choose someone they really like. I suggest steering them towards an easier hero to grasp like Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, or Gamora. Either way, build them a deck full of straightforward events without many upgrades or supports to streamline everything.
They should have things as simple and clear as possible for the first game, preferably against Rhino. Learning the overall game rules is hard enough so I think you should keep things as easy as possible in terms of cards they're playing.
Plenty of time to explore more complicated characters or decks when they know what's going on
@@VillainTheory that's probably a good idea. I feel gamora gameplay wise is the easiest character.
I really want to like iorn heart, but is it just me, its so slow to get to level 3 that by the time you get to it you were already almost winning that there really isn't a point to it. It feels like you spend a decent 70% of the game as level 2 which is a mid hero and only the last 10% as level 3. Do people just try to rush level 3 and stay use alter ego alot more? It might be my bad luck getting the obligation alot.
Ironheart's speed of leveling up is very dependent on the deck. One of the most popular ways to play her is in Justice with card draw, primarily One Way or Another for solo especially, to dig out all her cards that give her progress counters once played. Justice also allows her to go alter-ego more easily, also helping her mass-produce counters. I'm also a huge fan of Leadership, whether that's recurring Beast (who can find Stroke of Genius) or just card draw again.
Typically I find that, once you hit level 2, level 3 isn't far behind. Leveling up really is the priority with her because late game strength is among the highest in the entire game.
Just to make sure im doing things right. With ms marvel i can thwart, then turn the tide then morphogenetics then turn the tide again?
Correct!
Rock Star!
Whats a good protection build for spdr?
I actually played her in Prot a few days ago! It was something like Web-Warriors, Night Nurse, 2x Med Team, 2x Assess the Situation, 3x Energy Barrier, 2x Repurpose, 1x Avengers Mansion, Specialized Training + Superpower Training.
Generally in my experience she likes flexible cards, readying, stat boosts and Web-Warriors.
😱😱😱🤯🤯🤯
So basically, justice for solo 🤔
Yep, basically...! Leadership is just as good if not better in many cases, but Justice is harder to go wrong with.
Great content & Very Awesomely delivered. Now all you have to do is "ver2" with all the way thru....sigh :) But we love it - both the game & your efforts!
Haha! I might do a separate video for 'Pool but I need to do a LOT more testing before I can rank it on every character at every player count!
Wanna hit that like button, but it's on 69.
Respectable
@VillainTheory you got the like anyway, you loveable british rogue