What If...? Hybrid Heroes: Black Suit Spidey

After my first two Hybrid Heroes - created by mixing cards and abilities from existing heroes to make something new - I'm back with another one, and this time it's one that's close to my heart.  But if you're just tuning in now, let's have a reminder of what my guidelines are for making a Hybrid Hero.

1. I aim for a 7-8 split on the 15 cards in their hero deck, that is to take 7 cards from one hero and 8 from the other hero.  The whole point of this is to create fun new heroes who are going to feel new and interesting so a good mix of cards from both is a good way to ensure your new hybrid doesn't just feel like an old hero in a new pair of pants. 
   
   
2. I have a 'base' hero who is the one whose alter-ego and hero card I'm basing myself in.  I usually keep their alter-ego ability untouched but try to switch their hero ability with the other hero in the hybrid.  I do this because changing 7 or 8 cards in your deck is often not going to make a massive difference to how things feel or play, but hero abilities are always on and can really shake up the experience
   
   
3. Sometimes a card refers to their original hero/alter-ego by name (eg. Mjolnir reads "Thor gets +1ATK and gains the Aerial trait").  Any names are assumed to refer to the hero whose deck they are now in.  The same goes for Obligations/Nemesis cards.  Basically: do what the cards are supposed to do, even if that's not exactly what they now say they do.

And now for the exciting bit... I get to be Black Suit Spidey!

BLACK SUIT SPIDEY

I'm an old man now and little things like Venom and Carnage happened after I stopped really reading comics properly, but back when I was just a little kid in a set of Spider-Man pyjamas I lapped up the first Secret Wars series.  It introduced me to a whole world of heroes and villains beyond the pages of my neighbour's vintage Spider-Man collection, and then my mind was blown wide open as it went on to introduce me to a new black Spider-Man suit.

Like, seriously... this was the coolest thing.  (It was the 80s.  Life was simpler then.)

Then I got distracted by Warhammer 40,000, took my eye off the ball a bit and suddenly Spidey was back in blue and red and there was this Venom guy running around.  And then Magic: The Gathering happened and when I next checked back there was a red Venom thingy too, and then it all seemed to get a bit wierd with eight-armed Venom Spideys as villains and I kind of tuned it all out for a decade or so.

But in Marvel Champions I've got a card game with Spider-Man in, and I've even now got the Symbiote suit thanks to the Venom expansion.  I can make it the 80's all over again!

• 2x Backflip
• 2x Enhanced Spider-Sense
• 2x Swinging Web Kick
• 1x Aunt May
• 1x Black Cat

• 1x Spider-Sense
• 2x Grasping Tendrils
• 2x Savage Attack
• 2x Behind Enemy Lines
  (15 cards)

Obligation: Struggle for Control /// Nemesis: Venom

It turns out that the Spider-Man and Venom card pools merge together very nicely indeed, which I'm sure is in no small part due to the fact the Venom hero set was full of callbacks to the original Spider-Man set anyway, which means it's really easy to flip abilities in and out between the two.  For example Spidey has his Web Shooters but his symbiote suit generates its own webs so has the Symbiotic Bond ability built in to create the same effect.  Similarly the original Spider-Sense ability moves off the hero card onto an upgrade, moving in the opposite direction to the Web Shooters, and Webbed Up becomes the Grasping Tendrils, the Spider-Tracers become Behind Enemy Lines, etc.

It also helped that there's only really 7 Venom cards that thematically fit because half of his card pool is dedicated to guns, so when you cut those out the switch into Spider-Man virtually builds itself.  You pretty much just take out the Spider-Man version of something (Webbed Up, Tracers) and put in the symbiote version on almost a like-for-like basis.

That included switching the hero ability for Venom's Symbiotic Bond, and that became a key change for making the Black Suit Spider-Man play differently to the original.  One other change that really added a lot to the feel of character was bringing in Venom's Obligation and Nemesis sets, so now you're dealing with the ramifications of wearing the black suit.

What this combination of original Spider-Man and the symbiote suite from Venom achieves is making a Spider-Man hero who is much faster and more dynamic than the original, with the built-in Symbiotic Bond and no expensive or slow/conditional effects like Webbed Up or the Web Shooters.  Spider-Man flows much more quickly than you're used to.

On the flipside, though, he also suffers for that - he's no longer such an obvious Protection aspect candidate as he likes to hurt himself to play cards and you may have to wait a while to get your defensive Spider-Sense online.  The new Obligation/Nemesis also sets you back a bit, but I'm going to hold my hands up on this one... this is definitely a more powerful Spider-Man than the original, and arguably more powerful than Venom too with the addition of Backflip and Enhanced Spider-Sense making him extra hard to squish.  

He's not wacky over-powered, but to some extent it *is* a Spidey fan's power fantasy.  

Mea culpa, I guess.

I already had a Venom deck I liked that used Justice as it's aspect, so in building a deck around the Black Suit Spider-Man I started there and carried across most of that original template, with ultimately only a few changes - mainly because I was no longer a Guardian of the Galaxy as black suit Spidey.

Justice

• 3x Turn The Tide
• 1x Skilled Investigator
• 3x Clear The Area
• 2x Multitasking
• 1x Heroic Intution
• 1x Wiccan
• 1x Quake
• 1x Agent Coulson
• 2x Sonic Rifle

Basic

• 1x Strength
• 1x Energy
• 1x Genius
• 1x Target Acquired
• 2x Endurance
• 1x Ironheart
• 1x Spider-Man (Miles Morales)
• 1x Quincarrier
• 1x Nick Fury
  (25 cards)

It's ultimately giving you a potent mix of board control tools to deal with both threat and minions.  There weren't many symbiote-Spidey specific decisions to make but I'll call a couple of them out.

 

Firstly it's really unusual for me to make a deck with two copies of a card like Endurance but it seemed very important for this deck to have that extra health pool available.  Endurance feeds into the symbiote side of this deck by giving you more health to spend on being quick and aggressive at generating resources from your Symbiote Bond, and it also gives you more headroom to benefit from all the best-in-class healing that you get from Aunt May when you duck into alter-ego form.

Secondly, the symbiote's cards all ask you to pay with specific resources to activate kicker effects so adding Quincarrier (now that I was an Avenger not a Guardian) made a ton of sense.

Beyond those decisions it's just a straight forward whack-a-mole kind of a deck, with answers for almost anything the villain has planned... so long as you can keep healthy enough to let the Symbiote keep the flow of powerful Events coming.  Spider-man's own basic attack/thwart actions aren't much to write home about, it's really all about the sauce you get from having all those fantastic Events in one deck... and I'll be honest, that kind of feels really dynamic and actually a lot more like Spider-Man than the original Spider-Man deck did.

I really like this Hybrid Hero - it may not be much of a "What If...?" scenario but it's ticking a big nostalgia box for me.  And who doesn't like a new black suit?  

You know, it makes me feel... a bit funny... a bit, kinda... kinda, like... like dancing... 

What If...? Hybrid Heroes: Iron Raccoon

Hot on the heels of my Captain America/Thor hybrid hero I'm bringing you a second one.  If you missed yesterday's blog and are wondering what in tarnation is going on then you can catch up here.  

Before we start I want to repeat my principles that I've been working to in making hybrid heroes and which I've found have really helped make the decks successful.

1. I aim for a 7-8 split on the 15 cards in their hero deck, that is to take 7 cards from one hero and 8 from the other hero.  The whole point of this is to create fun new heroes who are going to feel new and interesting so a good mix of cards from both is a good way to ensure your new hybrid doesn't just feel like an old hero in a new pair of pants. 
   
   
2. I have a 'base' hero who is the one whose alter-ego and hero card I'm basing myself in.  I usually keep their alter-ego ability untouched but try to switch their hero ability with the other hero in the hybrid.  I do this because changing 7 or 8 cards in your deck is often not going to make a massive difference to how things feel or play, but hero abilities are always on and can really shake up the experience
   
   
3. Sometimes a card refers to their original hero/alter-ego by name (eg. Mjolnir reads "Thor gets +1ATK and gains the Aerial trait").  Any names are assumed to refer to the hero whose deck they are now in.  The same goes for Obligations/Nemesis cards.  Basically: do what the cards are supposed to do, even if that's not exactly what they now say they do.

Right, who's up next...?

IRON RACCOON

In this hybrid hero scenario the notoriously sticky-fingered Rocket Raccoon has somehow managed to get his paws on one of Tony Stark's Iron Man suits.  This isn't a hybrid born from a specific moment in Marvel or the MCU, more like one that was inspired by a single piece of art I googled, and that the mechanics of Rocket and Iron Man seemed like they could work nicely together as they both pivot around the Tech keyword.

As far as I could google it's never actually happened, although I did find this which suggested Rocket and Tony at least met and talked about the suit once.

When it comes to getting the two heroes working together in Marvel Champions I found that getting the balance right for how their two decks fed into a single block 15 cards was trickier than I thought.  My first pass saw me use virtually the full Iron Man suit but replacing the Rocket Boots with Rocket's Thruster Boots (so I replaced the Rocket Boots with Rocket's Boots.  Jeez, I hope this isn't going to get too confusing...).  I thought I'd nailed it first time but when I gave that deck a couple of games it really felt just like an Iron Man deck because all the cards from Iron Man's deck sat in play and did things every turn, while Rocket's cards all came and went as they were Events and Resources, or big guns I didn't need to bother playing.

Underpinning it all was that Thruster Boots just seemed to supercharge the Iron Man card pool more than I expected.  Being automatically Aerial was great for the Helmet, Powered Gauntets and Supersonic Punches I'd put in, and even the +1THW was great with the Arc Reactor.  I set out to switch back from Rocket's Boots to the original Rocket Boots (oh god, it's happening again) but then decided that gave me two other problems: the upgrades in play already felt Iron Man-heavy and I was just doubling down on that by putting his Rocket Boots back in, and Rocket wasn't an Avenger so without Quincarrier could I reliably activate the Rocket Boots to go Aerial anyway?

I changed direction and put Thruster Boots back in but then took out some of the things that were benefitting from the Aerial trait to try and balance it that way.  I cut the Helmet to make Rocket's 'I've Got A Plan' event more important, I dropped some of the Supersonic Punches for Repulsor Blasts, and finally I upped the Rocket-ness of the final armour by adding Cybernetic Skeleton to replace the Hit Points I wasn't getting from Rocket Boots.  Since making those changes the balance of Iron Man and Rocket Raccoon Tech cards in play has been much closer to 50/50 so you don't look at the table and see a sea of red & yellow that looks just like any other Iron Man deck, and while Thruster Boots is still *very* good for the deck it's definitely been pulled down a bit by losing the Helmet.

My finished 15 card deck is like this...

• 2x Powered Gauntlets
• 1x Arc Reactor
• 1x Mark V Armor
• 2x Repulsor Blast
• 1x Supersonic Punch
• 
  
• 2x I've Got A Plan
• 2x Salvage
• 1x Thruster Boots
• 1x Cybernetic Skeleton
• 1x Rocket Launcher
• 1x Particle Cannon
  (15)

Obligation: Crisis on Halfworld /// Nemesis: Rocket Raccoon

One card that I'm sad I had to leave on the sideline is Schadenfreude just because it's so much fun, but I think with Powered Gauntlets around it was a little too easy to pump it to the moon anyway.

The hero side of the equation was very straight forward, though, and I simply transplanted Iron Man's hand size ability over onto Rocket's statline, which was basically the same as Iron Man's to begin with.  You definitely notice losing Tony Stark's Futurist ability to dig through the deck looking for your key Tech cards but that's compensated for a little bit having an extra Tech card in your hero deck than before anyway.  TBH it's only writing this blog that I've thought it could have worked just as well the other way around, with Rocket's alter-ego gaining Futurist but keeping the Murdered You! way of drawing extra cards instead of the Iron Man hand size.  All the abilities on these two guys are about hand size and drawing more cards so they're pretty interchangeable... I may have to try that out too!

While I spent a fair bit of time on the mix of hero cards for Iron Rocket, the other 25 cards didn't change for me very much.  I started out by lifting my Hulkbuster Iron Man deck pretty much wholesale and applying that template here.  The main thing that I tweaked was removing the Hand Cannons (because I already had two Restricted weapons in Rocket's cards) but adding some great new Guardians-only cards like Booster Boots and Groot, which are a perfect fit for the deck, and keeping an eye on wanting Energy resources for my Repulsor Blasts.  The much cheaper card pool and addition of Salvage also removed my need to use The Power of Aggression so a few more changes were made, but it's still basically a very recognisable Hulkbuster variant.

Aggression

• 2x Looking For Trouble
• 2x "Bring It!"
• 2x Moment of Triumph
• 1x Lie in Wait
• 1x Angela
• 3x Relentless Assault
• 1x Martial Prowess
• 1x Bug
• 1x Spider-Girl
• 2x Into The Fray

Basic

• 1x Energy
• 1x Strength
• 1x Genius
• 2x Booster Boots
• 1x Endurance
• 1x Ironheart
• 1x Plasma Pistol
• 1x Groot
  (25 cards)

It's a fun deck that loves to be aggressive and pro-active, but really the heart of the deck is assembling all of the parts of your armor suit as quickly as possible then using that to control the table.  My advice for playing this deck is basically the same as it was for the Hulkbuster: 

1. Mulligan anything that's not a Tech card 
2. Stay in Alter-Ego on turn 1 so that you can build your hand size quickly
3. Stabilise the table and build your suit
4. Shoot stuff that moves until it stops moving

Without the Futurist ability I added an 11th Tech card in Plasma Pistol, just to pump my odds of seeing four Tech cards by turn 2 (and it's an Energy resource for Repulsor Blast).  The deck has worked so well and has felt just about wanton and reckless enough to be Rocket, so I'm very happy with it as it stands.  It's a neat blend of the old (Iron Man) and the new (Rocket) both in the upgrades you get in play and the powerful events you are playing.  I really enjoy the feeling of dominating the table that I get from my Hulkbuster deck so it's not a big leap for me to enjoy playing another deck heavily inspired by it, but dare I say that I'm actually enjoying this one a little bit more?

I've still got a couple more Hybrid Heroes to share in the near future, so look to the skies!

What If...? Hybrid Heroes: Captain America with Mjolnir

My last blog was all about mixing up your Marvel Champions experience by being creative and adventurous with modules in villain decks.  Well since then Steve Kimmell from the Beat D Game Youtube channel shared a great idea onto the Marvel Champions LCG Facebook group - inspired by the "What If...?" series Steve went one further and was being creative by mixing up the heroes.  

Steve shared a video of him playing his Spider-Man: Sorceror Supreme deck and I instantly fell in love with this idea.  Steve said he hoped it would open up people being creative and it worked because I've spent the last couple of weeks working on my own hybrid heroes and having a great time, which I'm going to share in my next few blogs.

If you like the idea too then you should definitely give it a try!  Firstly, there are no hard and fast rules for how to make hybrid heroes - it's your game so you can make and break the rules you're working to whenever you want, but there are some principles that I've been working to and which I've found have really helped make the decks successful.

1. I aim for a 7-8 split on the 15 cards in their hero deck, that is to take 7 cards from one hero and 8 from the other hero.  The whole point of this is to create fun new heroes who are going to feel new and interesting so a good mix of cards from both is a good way to ensure your new hybrid doesn't just feel like an old hero in a new pair of pants. 
   
   
2. I have a 'base' hero who is the one whose alter-ego and hero card I'm basing myself in.  I usually keep their alter-ego ability untouched but try to switch their hero ability with the other hero in the hybrid.  I do this because changing 7 or 8 cards in your deck is often not going to make a massive difference to how things feel or play, but hero abilities are always on and can really shake up the experience
   
   
3. Sometimes a card refers to their original hero/alter-ego by name (eg. Mjolnir reads "Thor gets +1ATK and gains the Aerial trait").  Any names are assumed to refer to the hero whose deck they are now in.  The same goes for Obligations/Nemesis cards.  Basically: do what the cards are supposed to do, even if that's not exactly what they now say they do.

With all that out of the way, let's have a look at my first Hybrid Hero...

CAPTAIN AMERICA - MJOLNIR EDITION

Steve Rogers is worthy.

Leaping straight out of the final scenes of Avengers: Endgame, this is a version of Captain America that wields the mighty hammer Mjolnir and has a good slice of the mechanics and abilities of Thor.

This turned out to be one of the most straightforward hero sets to settle on and my first attempt at his 15 cards is the one I'm still using now.

• 1x Captain America's Shield
• 1x Captain America's Helmet
• 2x Shield Toss
• 2x Shield Block
• 1x Super-Soldier Serum
  
  
• 1x Mjolnir
• 1x God of Thunder
• 3x Defender of the Nine Realms
• 3x Hammer Throw
  (15 cards)

Obligation: Man Out Of Time  /// Nemesis: Captain America

For the alter-ego and hero cards I went with my usual technique of putting Thor's hero ability onto Captain America so instead of readying he now draws cards when minions engage him.  On this occasion I also had to adjust the Steve Rogers side because I wanted to be able to search up both the shield and Mjolnir (both abilities should say to shuffle, my poor Photoshopping skills meant I cut that bit off to fit both the abilities onto the card better).  Cap's discount on allies paid the price for starting with Mjolnir.

What made this so easy was that the Asgard side of Thor's deck so clearly didn't fit the theme for Captain America: Sif, Thor's Helmet, Asgard itself... it just wasn't right.  

The only real choice I had to make was whether I wanted Shield Toss as my AOE damage then Thor's Hammer Throw as the big hit, or vice versa and bring Lightning Strike as the AOE and then keep Heroic Strike.  I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to keep both the shield and hammer as important cards so used the Shield Toss and Hammer throw, and I was also happy to get rid of the Stun portion of Cap's deck and make him more aggressive with Overkill instead.

For the other 25 cards I started by picking up one of my existing Protection templates but it quickly changed to leverage Mjolnir more.  Without Cap's ability to ready himself he was frequently exhausted on his turn so I felt like the extra +1ATK of Mjolnir was going to waste.  It got the point where I was often using Mjolnir as a resource from my hand and then shrugging and leaving it in the discard pile because it wasn't worth going to get, and just discarding Hammer Throw any time I drew it.  That wasn't why I was shattering the multiverse to put Mjolnir into Cap's hands to begin with!

A few tweaks have really transformed that and Mjolnir is now a key part of the deck, just like the shield is.  Desperate Defense will help Cap to stand back up to fight while Counterpunch will leverage Mjolnir even if Cap can't ready.  I think the final piece of the puzzle was adding Ever Vigilant, which readies Captain America (on-brand for Cap) lets him swing with Mjolnir but also triggers because I'm using Mjolnir to be Aerial in the first place.  Ever Vigilant was a perfect fit and really complements the deck.

Protection

• 3x Counter-Punch
• 3x Desperate Defense
• 2x Ever Vigilant
• 3x Energy Barrier
• 1x Armoured Vest
• 1x Unflappable
• 1x Electrostatic Armor
• 2x Hard to Ignore
• 1x Starhawk
• 1x Martyr
• 1x Luke Cage

Basic

• 1x Energy
• 1x Strength
• 1x Genius
• 1x Crew Quarters
• 1x Ironheart
• 1x Nick Fury
  (25 cards)

I'm really enjoying this deck and it truly feels unique - defensive and dealing lots of little retaliate-esque bits of damage like many Captain America decks would be, but then the addition of Thor's Have At Thee! hero ability makes a *massive* difference to how the deck feels.  You're often praying to hit minions in order to draw cards, then adding a Defender of the Nine Realms on top before Shield Tossing them all off the table with a mighty SPANG!!!

For me it's been an unqualified success and a big breath of fresh air.  Nowhere near as stale and dull as a Stunlock protection deck that we so often see from Captain America, but also more well rounded and dynamic than a typical Thor deck (and the 5 base hero hand size really helps).  Mjolnir has been an important part of the deck, with Hammer Throws and Counter-Punches often how I'm ending games and bringing down villains.  That's exactly what I was hoping to achieve when I gave Mjolnir to Cap and I'm delighted to see it's worked!  

I hope you've enjoyed this idea and maybe give it a go yourself.  I'm going to be sharing a few other hybrid heroes I've been playing with over the next few blogs.

You keep reading 'em and I'll keep writing 'em!