Chaos & Confetti

Thunderbolts*, dropped last weekend, and I decided to finally get back to creating Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game scenarios around the latest installments of the MCU (Between us, I did actually make some for Deadpool vs. Wolverine and Captain America: Brave New World, but I never finished writing them up).

Anyways, Thunderbolts* is a fantastic move that pulls from many corners of the MCU yet still works on its own merits.  It hits the right balance of taking its story seriously while still adding just enough Marvel humor to lighten the mood. It delivers on action while also aiming to make its plot about more than “punch the bad guy.” Consider me hyped for the coming MCU projects: The Fantastic Four and Avengers: Doomsday.

Back to the main reason we’re here.  I did my best to translate the latest Marvel movie into a scenario of one of my all-time favorite board games: Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game.

Warning: There will be spoilers for the movie ahead

Here we go!

The Setup:

 Heroes:

• Winter Soldier (Captain America 75th Anniversary)
• Yelena Belova (Black Widow)
• Red Guardian (Black Widow)
• Steve Rogers (Captain America 7th Anniversary)
• Apocalyptic Kitty Pride (Secret Wars Volume 1)

Scheme: The Mark of Khonshu (Secret Wars volume 2)

Mastermind:

• The Sentry (World War Hulk)

Villain Groups: 

•  Aspects of the Void (World War Hulk)
•  Elite Assassins (Black Widow)

*other groups you may consider if playing with a larger group:

• Avengers (Villains)

•  Demons of Limbo (New Mutants)
• Lords of the Netherworld (Doctor Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare)
• Task Master’s Thunderbolts (Black Widow)

Henchmen: 

• Khonshu Guardians (Secret Wars vol 2)

*If you need another henchmen group consider: Cape Killers (Civil War)

I have included sidekicks and new recruits as possible buys.

Setup Rationale:

The Sentry as the mastermind just made sense. He/The Void are the “big bad” that the Thunderbolts had to deal with at the end of the movie. The harder part was finding a scheme to represent the nightmare maze they had to battle through as a team. After some thought, I went with “The Mark of Khonshu.”  That might be odd at first, but looking beyond the name, the scheme just fits.  Putting the Sentry hero cards in the villain deck as someone that needs to be fought but who then can join your fight against himself lines up with the movie pretty well.  I also liked that the Sentry cards would gain and love power as they moved through the city.  At times the Sentry would feel impossible to beat, however, finding the right way to approach and take him on might lead to victory.

Of course, picking a team of heroes seemed like a no brainer as well.  Yelena, The Red Guardian, and The Winter Soldier were all auto-includes. Then, selections became a bit harder.  I easily cut Taskmaster and Bob from the lineup because one is also playing the role of the main villain and in the villain deck, and the other doesn’t last long in the movie.  For U.S. Agent, John Walker, I had a slew of Captain Americas to decide between.  In the end, I went with (Stever Rogers, Director of SHIELD because he’s a Cap that is no longer actually Captain America.  I did consider Captain America, Secret Avenger because he’s a character that thrives off teamwork, but wouldn’t actually fit in while with the other heroes in this group.  I went with Director of SHIELD though because while Secret Avenger fit better thematically, I feared I’d be shooting myself in the foot too much.  Finally, for Ghost, I picked Apocalyptic Kitty Pride because she has phasing powers but also more of an edge over normal Kitty Pride.

Filling out the villains deck proved a bit trickier.  In the actual Thunderbolts* movie, there aren’t too many minor villains.  The team mostly fights itself and normal grunts before eventually coming together against The Sentry. Cape Killer henchmen could stand in for the grunts, but I went with Khonshu Guardians because they are required by the scheme.  So, I just pretended the guardians represented the fears and trauma of each character. The villain group Aspects of The Void were another auto include due to set up requirements.  Finally, I threw in Elite Assassins because we have a team of assassins and at the start of the movie Valentina Allegra de Fountaine has the assassins trying to kill each other.

As always, the specifics of the set up get a little messy thematically, but with a squint a little imagination, everything fits perfectly.  

The Game:

The threat in this scenario comes on two fronts.  First, I could lose by letting seven Khonshu Guardians escape, which the Sentry cards count as.  The other risk is having the villain deck run out. If I spend too much time cleaning the city up instead of fighting the mastermind, I might just lose for being too slow.  

At first, I felt my bigger threat were the escaping Guardians.  They started hitting the board quickly, and I didn’t quite have the attack power to deal with them.  I racked up four Guardian escapes early, but by the end of the game, I only let five.  What changed?

I immediately focused on attack over recruit.  I purchased a few hard hitting cards, and mostly recruited focus cards so I had some deck synergy.  One of the Apocalyptic Kitty Pryde cards let me start culling my deck and the Khonshu Guardians only helped with that.  Before long, I had a hard hitting, streamlined deck.

Normally, sacrificing recruit power so heavily would backfire on me, but with the Sentry hero cards entering the city, every time I beat one, I gained them to my deck.  My deck was powered by hitting and brute, which I felt fit the Thunderbolts team to a degree.  

The Sentry cards really supercharged my deck and they were what allowed me to start taking out multiple threats in the city or start hitting the mastermind.  The drawback to The Sentry cards is that they are slower because of the transform mechanic.  They will stomp villains but they tend to need a turn of set up first.  Normally, that might not be too bad, but my second threat was the villain deck running out.

Playing a style closer the Golden Solo variant, I had two cards from the villain deck flipping over very turn, and the scheme twist played even more villain cards quickly.  The villain deck started draining quickly.  Again though, I couldn’t hone in on the mastermind because Guardians were also rushing through the city.  Even when I started getting enough attack power, I had to spend turns clearing city spaces or the guardians would have ended the game.  

Eventually, I got to a point where I could hit the mastermind while strategically deciding which villains to let escape.  

In the end, I had three cards left in the villain deck, so I had some breathing room but not a lot.    

Final Results: 

Chaos’ Score: 53 points

• 1 bystander points
• 7 henchmen points
• 11 villain points
• 4 undercover hero points
• 30 mastermind points

Chaos’ Final Thoughts:

This turned out to be a high pressure but fun scenario set up. At first, I thought the guardians had me, and then it felt like I would lose to time (no more villain deck).  This did a good job of capturing the hopelessness of the fight against Sentry.  However, like in the movie, the path to success wasn’t through just punching the Sentry but getting him to my side.  

My initial hero purchases felt worthwhile (sorry, U.S. Agent, I never got any of your cards) but the Sentry cards are what got me across the finish line.  Though to be fair, so much focus on focus-cards actually synergized with a few of the Sentry cards well.  

Overall, I would recommend giving this scheme a try. It definitely takes some luck and good time to beat, but who isn’t into a good challenge, right?