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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
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
- 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!
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