The short answer is "no."
The best answer is "probably."
The nonsensical answer is "Beyonce likes pizza."
I see this question pop up regularly, so I figured I might as well write out my suggestions for players looking to get into the game. So do you have to buy the Core Set, or can you start with another release?
To avoid burying the lede, you can buy into the game and play it without getting the Core Set. It’s just a bit more work. I'll go into it in full below, but here's a link to the end of the article where I have my final recommendation.
What You'll Need
You’ll need to gather together the following fundamental pieces in order to play.
player cards
scenario cards
standard set (for standard difficulty)
expert set (for expert difficulty)
threat tracking method
damage tracking method
counter tracking method
acceleration tracking method
status effect tracking method
The Core Set provides all of the above in a neat little box, ready to go. By design, this is the best place to start. It provides you with the following items so that up to four players can play the game.
5 heroes
3 scenarios
Enough player cards to have 4 decks built
Standard modular set
Expert modular set
threat tokens
damage tokens
counter tokens
acceleration tokens
status cards
4 hero health dials
1 villain health dial
Like I said, this is the best place to start. I cannot emphasize that enough. The Core Set heroes are a lot of fun, and they still hold their own against recent releases. On top of that, there are three solid scenarios in the box. If you want to get into Marvel Champions, I absolutely recommend getting the Core Set.
“But Astrodar!” you say. “I simply cannot abide Spiderman. He’s a criminal, that’s who he is. A vigilante! A public menace! What’s he doing in my Core Set?!“ If the Core Set Avengers theme or whatever else about it doesn’t speak to you, you can start elsewhere in the releases with a bit of finagling.
To state the obvious, if you want to play the game, you will need to buy at least some of the game. The player cards and scenario cards you will get with whatever hero, scenario, or campaign expansion you decide to buy. However, there are only a couple expansions that have a standard and/or expert set, and you’ll generally be looking at third party solutions for all the tokens.
Standard and Expert Sets
At a baseline, you need to get a standard set. This is pretty non-negotiable, because the scenarios are designed around this set’s inclusion. Namely it provides extra villain activations and a way for your hero’s nemesis set to enter the game. There are two places other than the core set to get a standard set.
The Hood scenario pack
Age of Apocalypse campaign expansion
The Hood scenario pack includes Standard II, which is an alternative standard set meant to be used in place of the original standard set. However, it is also meant to be more challenging. It boosts the villain’s stats during their activations, makes blocking the attacks harder, and gives the villain a keyword (Steady), which means some of your hero’s abilities won’t be as strong against them. The rest of the pack contains a single scenario, the Expert II set, and a plethora of other modular sets. Personally, I find the scenario decently fun, but with a lot of randomness that can escalate the scenario quickly. To be frank, this is not a favorite among the online community. All in all, this isn’t my preferred suggestion for getting a standard set.
The Age of Apocalypse box is the third box of the mutant waves and the seventh campaign box overall. It contains Standard III, another alternative standard set. Standard III has become my baseline choice for a standard set. It mirrors the original standard set in a lot of ways, but it also provides a “count-down” to your nemesis set coming out. Each time a card from Standard III is revealed, you get closer to your nemesis coming out, making it less “will it come out?” and more the inevitable “when will it come out?” If you’re looking to skip the Core Set, this is the expansion I would start with.
Expert is a little bit different. The Expert set is just 3 cards. Each provides some pretty intense pressure. However, a good portion of the Expert difficulty comes not from the expert cards, but from using the more difficult villain stages which are included with the scenario. While your games will be different, you can get away with skipping these cards altogether and still jump up to expert difficulty.
If you do want an alternative expert set without getting the Core Set, you can again look to The Hood. It has a 4 card Expert II set, which like Standard II bumps up the difficulty compared to the original sets. Personally, I actually really like Expert II, so I use it in place of Expert I in a lot of scenarios, usually alongside Standard III.
Tokens
The tokens and tracking methods are much easier to proxy. Many people just use dice, myself included. I have a number of 12 mm dice in red, green, and yellow to represent damage, all-purpose counters, and threat. Additionally I have one black die that I use to track acceleration tokens. While I would suggest getting three different colors of dice, you can get by with fewer. I suggest a minimum of two different dice styles for counters, because there will be many times when two types of counters are on one card (like an ally with damage and all-purpose counters). There is a scenario where you can end up with all three types of counters on a single card, but that’s easy enough to work around for one scenario. I would recommend just a single unique die to track acceleration tokens. A six-sided die works fine for the majority of scenarios.
For the villain, the damage totals are quite high, especially in three and four player games. Dice can be used here as well, but it gets a little unwieldy. A health dial is pretty handy, and I suggest picking one up. There are lots of health dials available on sites like Etsy or through companies like Gamegenic. If you plan to play four player games often, you’ll want to make sure your dial can go into the triple digits. A few of the villains can pop over 100 health. Hero health is also easier to track with a dial, but dice can be used just fine here. Even using all the health increases available, the values are generally going to be under 30 health for the majority of heroes, with only a few having access to cards to jump them higher than that. This is where I remind you that you get four player dials and a villain dial in the Core Set. It’s a pretty sweet deal. The health dials are the only tracking method I haven’t upgraded, because they work so well. As a completely budget-friendly option, there is always pen and paper to track life totals.
Status effects are the final missing piece to playing the game. There are three status effects that you need to be able to track: Stunned, Confused, and Tough. The core set provides cards to track these (Can you tell I really think you should get the Core Set?). However, you can use additional dice or custom tokens. When I’m traveling light or simply too lazy to grab the tokens I use for status effects, I simply use a die set to 1 and placed next to the stat the status corresponds to (i.e. I put a die set to 1 next to my THW stat if my hero is confused). Also, these never have to be shuffled, so you could just write it on a small piece of paper to create some budget status effect cards.
If you are one who likes to get premium tokens, many of these issues can be solved by using third party solutions. Some of my personal favorites are Buy the Same Token and Burger Tokens.
Burger Tokens is the more budget friendly option, as they provide stickers meant to go on pennies (or hardware washers). They are easy to assemble, and you can get a full set of tokens for something like $30 (plus shipping).
Buy the Same Token is a premium solution, offering a range of basic tokens and custom tokens to mark keywords or specific counters. However, it will run you over $100 for a full set of Core Set tokens. Again, I’ll be frank… if you’re shelling out the money for Buy the Same Token, just buy the Core Set first. You can get the fancy stuff later.
I mention these two specifically, not because I have any direct relation with the companies. They are simply the two that I have personally tried and enjoyed. There are a lot more options out there on sites like Etsy, and you can always make your own if you have access to something like a 3D printer or laser cutter.
Conclusion
All in all, I’ll reiterate that the Core Set is a fantastic product. I highly recommend picking it up. But if you are looking to skip, just make sure to do the following:
Get a Standard set from Age of Apocalypse or The Hood
Get a way to track things, such as using dice, third-party tokens, or whatever else.
For your final, “I’m just a solo player that wants to really go light” suggestion, you can just get a hero pack and The Wrecking Crew scenario pack. This is the only scenario in the game that doesn’t require a standard set. Together these will run you about $40 at MSRP, which is halfway to getting the Core Set.
My personal suggestion for jumping into the game without the Core Set:
Age of Apocalypse
3 sets of 12 mm d6 dice (different colors) for token tracking
1 unique d6 for acceleration tracking
Pen and paper for tracking villain HP (or just use the dice)
This gives you everything you need for two players to jump into the game. Grab some hero packs or another campaign expansion if you want to do three or four players.
I hope this was helpful for anyone looking into the game! If you have questions, feel free to ask! Fair warning, my answer may just be “buy the Core Set.” If you have suggestions for new players on ways they could skip the Core Set if they wanted, let us know that as well!
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