Marvel Champions Card Game: A Round from Start to Finish

Setup

1. Each player chooses one identity and places it alter-ego side up.

2. Each player sets their hit point dial to the starting hit points printed on their identity card.

3. The group chooses a first player. Each player sets aside their obligation card and nemesis cards, then shuffles their player deck.

4. Choose a scenario and place its villain deck and main scheme deck in the middle of the table. Set the villain’s hit points to the value printed on its card.

5. Build the encounter deck using the encounter sets listed on side 1A of the main scheme, along with the obligation cards set aside earlier.

6. Put any cards with the setup keyword into play. Resolve the main scheme’s setup text, then flip it to side 1B and resolve its When Revealed text.

7. Each player draws up to the hand size shown on their identity card. Then each player may discard any number of cards and draw back up to that size once.

Turn by turn

• Player turn options

  On your turn, you may change form once, play cards from hand, use a basic power, use allies to attack or thwart, and trigger Action abilities, in any order. Most options can be repeated if you can pay for them.

• Basic powers

  In hero form, you can use your hero’s basic attack and basic thwart. In alter-ego form, the basic recovery heals damage. Allies use their own attack and thwart values.

• End of the player phase

  In player order, each player discards down to hand size, or discards more if they like. Then everyone draws up to hand size and readies all their cards at the same time.

• Villain phase: threat

  Add the threat shown in the main scheme’s acceleration field, plus one for each active acceleration icon or token.

• Villain phase: enemies activate

  In player order, the villain activates against each player, followed by each minion engaged with that player. Enemies attack heroes and scheme against alter-egos.

• Villain phase: encounter cards

  Deal one encounter card to each player, plus one for each hazard icon in play. Then each player reveals and resolves their cards in order, and the first player token passes clockwise.

End of the game and scoring

Key rules

• Hero form and alter-ego form

  Each identity card has two sides. The side you show determines your hand size and available powers, and whether the villain attacks you or schemes against you.

• Enemy attacks and boost cards

  When a villain or villainous minion attacks, give it a facedown boost card from the encounter deck. Flip the card, add its boost icons to the attack, resolve its boost ability, then discard it.

• Defending

  A player may exhaust a hero or ally to defend against an attack. A hero’s basic defense reduces the damage dealt by its DEF value.

• Threat and scheming

  When a villain schemes, add its SCH value and any boost icons as threat to the main scheme. Players remove threat with thwart actions.

• Resources

  Cards cost resources to play. Discard a card from your hand to generate its resources. Any resources beyond the card’s cost are lost.

• Status cards

  The game uses stunned, confused, and tough status cards. The rulebook says to keep them within reach, along with damage, threat, and acceleration tokens.

• Obligations and nemesis cards

  Each identity comes with an obligation card to shuffle into the encounter deck and a nemesis set to leave aside during setup.