Since the game's genesis there has been an ongoing conversation in which the community evaluates and discusses cards and effects, comparing them one to another. This conversation can be overwhelming to join, as it not only builds on everything released since the Core Set, but also pulls jargon, mathematical proofs, philosophies, and more from older gaming behemoths like Magic the Gathering. You’ll hear values quoted for what rates are good for damage or bad for threat removal. Players will make vehement declarations that 40 card decks are the only correct choice. You’ll see reviewers and content creators break down hero packs, passing judgement card by card. And in some very dark corners of the discord community, leaked cards will be lamented before they even have a chance to be released.
(I say that last bit lovingly. We're an incredibly passionate bunch.)
Premise
The point of this article is to lower the hurdle of joining the Great Marvel Champions Conversation by bringing players up to speed on the discussions involving efficiency. The goal is to give players a point of reference for the values used throughout the community, as well as give them the tools needed to understand how and when those values are applicable.
A lot of the evaluation of efficiency is not something that needs to be done constantly. However, it is a part of learning the value of a card and how it fits into the wider card pool. It is not the sole measure of a card, but a valuable gauge nonetheless. These efficiency benchmarks matter more for out-of-game discussions as opposed to in-game decision making, as the in-game evaluation is entirely board dependent. If the main scheme is only one threat away from you losing the game, almost* any thwarting is efficient (*see below). In this article we want to establish some rough benchmarks for what is currently an efficient use of resources for a variety of effects.
Benchmarks
For some players this article will feel like a math lesson. If you’re interested in the results, but don’t care to see how the sausage is made, feel free to skip to the end. I have all the benchmarks outlined there. That said, there are a lot of caveats that a list can’t contain, so I highly suggest diving into the article if you want a wider picture.
Point in fact, we’re going to start with a massive caveat. We are working with small, whole numbers. Decimals are meaningless in the game, because there is no way to remove half a threat or deal partial damage (unless you’re talking about the partial damage dealt to my soul every time I draw Advance). Because of this, there is a lot of wiggle room on how ratios get rounded or on what constitutes efficiency. I find the following rule of thumb valuable: Any benchmark can have both its resource and expected value increased or decreased by one and still be on par with the original benchmark. By that I mean 2 resources for 3 threat is on par with both 1 for 2 and 3 for 4. The difference in rounding is essentially accounted for within the conditions and restrictions placed on the card.
Effective Resources
To evaluate cards against each other, we need an indication of the true value of a card. It points to how well designed the game is that it is so difficult to compare the true costs of abilities and effects. One difficulty in comparing different abilities derives from their different types of costs. One may require an additional cost of exhausting your hero, while another may require dealing damage to your identity. How do you compare the value of the exhaust to the value of the damage you took? Another hurdle is that some non-resource costs come with an opportunity cost. For example, if you have to exhaust your hero for a card ability, you’re giving up the opportunity to use their stats with a basic activation. Despite these hurdles, we can still get to a rough baseline comparison point by simplifying the value of each effect to something called “effective resources” (ER). This is an estimation of the resources needed to get a particular effect.
First, let’s discuss playing a card with no additional costs in the ability. When playing a card from hand, you lose both the cards spent to cover the cost and the card you just played. If you start the game with 6 cards, you will only have 3 cards in hand after playing a 2 cost card. The effective cost of playing the card was 3, as you are now down 3 resources. When playing a card from hand, its effective cost is one higher than its resource cost. This will be a foundational part of the ensuing points.
Damage
Next, let’s hit the two fundamental pieces of the game: damage and thwart. Swinging Web Kick is essentially the center for all damage discussions. It has a cost of 3 and deals 8 damage. Since it is an event you’re playing from hand, you have 4 ER for 8 damage, which reduces to 1 ER for 2 damage. A good benchmark for efficient damage is 1 ER for 2 damage. We can see this value show up across a number of abilities like Jarnbjorn and Plan B. However, these are not only more conditional than Swinging Web Kick, they also have upfront costs to put them into play. This conditionality must be factored into the wider conversation regarding the value of a card, but the examples given do well enough to point out our benchmark. A more realistic rate you can expect for low or non-conditional damage outside of hero kits is something around 2 ER for 3 damage. Cards like Clobber and Uppercut point to these values.
Thwart
Threat removal is more expensive. It tends to be more conditional than damage, meaning there are either more modifiers through kicker abilities (like For Justice!) or there are smaller windows in which to play it (Lay Down the Law). A good benchmark for efficient threat removal is 2 ER for 3 threat removed. Some examples are Cable Arrow and Crisis Averted. As a reminder, these small, whole numbers widen the uncertainty of our benchmark. The 3 ER for 4 threat removal on For Justice! is essentially on par with the 2 for 3.
Ready
Next we can visit another common and potentially valuable effect: readying your hero. A good benchmark for an efficient hero ready is 2 ER. This is based on cards like Always Be Running, Justice Served, Battle Fury, and Ready to Rumble. I really want to emphasize here that this is an efficiency benchmark for a hero ready, not a value statement for exhausting or readying your hero. The opportunity cost of exhausting your hero is the loss of the ability to use their ATK, THW, or REC with a basic activation. The value of these are inherently different based on hero, build, and game-state. As an example, Spectrum exhausting in her Photon form has a 3 threat removal opportunity cost, whereas Ms. Marvel has a 1 threat removal opportunity cost. Yet their opportunity cost for damage in this same game-state is the same at 1 damage. The value of the ready or exhaust is part of that wider conversation beyond direct card comparison.
Status Effect
I hope you're not confused at this point, but if you are, I likely only spent 2 ER. A good benchmark for an efficient status effect is 2 ER. There are a lot of sources here, so to make things simple, I’m just going to bullet list it. I’ve broken out the status effects from the rest of the abilities to show that we are left with effects that match our other efficiency benchmarks.
Sonic Rifle (4 ER for 2 Confuse)
Wrist Gauntlets (2 ER each status)
“Think Fast!” (2 ER and a damage for 1 Confuse)
Concussive Blow (2 ER for 1 Confuse, 2 ER for 3 villain damage)
Electric Arrow (2 ER for Stun, 1 ER for 3 damage)
Tackle (2 ER for Stun, 2 ER for 3 villain damage)
Hard Knocks (2 ER for Tough, 2 ER for 4 damage)
Perseverance (2 ER for a Tough)
These are all either conditional, have additional effects, or are restricted in some way. However, they all point to a rough benchmark of 2 ER for a status effect. Again, it is worth noting that the value of the status effect is entirely separate from the efficiency benchmark of the status effect. A Confuse is often more valuable than a Stun due to the ability to access alter-ego’s larger hand size and alter-ego effects. However, that is again something that will be scenario and hero dependent.
Healing
Healing is surprisingly hard to evaluate in Marvel Champions. Much of identity healing is tied to alter-ego Support cards that have no additional costs beyond exhausting them once they are in play. However, a few of the cards we can look at here are First Aid (2 ER for 2 damage), Med Team (4 ER for 6 damage), Second Wind (4 ER for 5 damage), and Momentum Shift (3 ER for healing 2 and dealing 2 damage). These are a bit harder to nail down, but they show us we should be looking roughly around 2 ER to heal 2-3 damage. A good benchmark for efficient identity healing is 2 ER for 3 health.
Allies
I will note that ally health is more expensive at 1 ER to heal 1 damage. Inspiring Presence, First Aid, and Reboot point us to this rate. A good benchmark for efficient ally healing is 1 ER for 1 damage. It is the same rate to ready an ally. Get Ready and Command Team both point this rate. A good benchmark for an efficient ally ready is 1 ER.
General Trends
In addition to the benchmarks listed above, there are some trends regarding efficiency that are worth pointing out. Hero cards tend to be the most efficient and least restricted cards. Aspect and Basic cards tend to be balanced against the benchmark by either locking the efficiency behind some condition (a la Multitasking), being more restrictive on who can use it or how it can be used (such as "Thinking Fast!"), or by reducing the overall efficiency (like with Uppercut). In addition to the impact of a card's classification, the card's efficiency will be impacted by how general the ability is. The more general it is, the less efficient it is expected to be. The more conditional or restricted the ability is, the more it is expected to have higher efficiency. As an example, Always Be Running is a hero event. It is exactly 2 ER to ready your hero, and it can be played any time you can play an Action ability. Ready to Rumble is a Basic upgrade that also readies your hero for only 2 ER, hitting our benchmark. However, you can only trigger it immediately after changing to hero form, meaning the ability to trigger it is more conditional.
With that said, the above ratios are effectively the benchmarks that are referenced when comparing and evaluating cards. Now that you know them, throw them away.
Context Matters
These are not the end-all-be-all values for what makes an effect efficient. In fact, these benchmarks have extremely limited use regarding actual gameplay. While they give us a comparison point when evaluating cards, they are being compared in a vacuum. When building your decks, your hero and deck strategy will inform you on if a conditional effect will be useful or not. Lay Down the Law has great efficiency that is conditional on changing form. If you’re not changing form often, it’s not a good fit for your deck despite its efficiency. Crisis Averted is a poster-child for efficient thwart removal in an aspect, but if you are playing solo, you will rarely need 6 threat removed from a scheme all at once. Multitasking and Clear the Area have the same efficiency when their full effects are realized. Yet one requires two schemes and benefits more from boosting effects (like Shrink!), while the other cycles your deck, giving you access to more of your cards sooner. Which of these is better? (It's Multitasking, because you should be playing more Ms. Marvel).
Conclusion
In a future article we'll dive deeper into card and ability evaluations. We'll look at the wider picture of what makes a card valuable beyond its efficiency. For now, I hope this article helps give you a strong basis to begin evaluating cards as well as give you a foundation for joining discussions in the community. I look forward to seeing you out there!
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Summary
Here is a quick summary of the benchmarks established above. It is important to remember that these are a small part of the picture when it comes to evaluating cards. It is worth glancing above to see some of the caveats. These are loose benchmarks.
Efficiency Benchmarks
1 ER to deal 2 damage
2 ER to remove 3 threat
2 ER to ready your hero
2 ER to heal 3 identity damage
1 ER to heal 1 ally damage
1 ER to ready an ally
Efficiency Caveats
±1 ER and ±1 statistic is on par with the benchmark
Efficiency is expected to go up as restrictions and conditionality go up
Hero kits tend to be the most efficient and least restricted.
Aspect and Basic cards tend to maintain balance relative to the benchmark by one of the following:
Increasing conditionality
Increasing restrictions
Reducing overall efficiency
Thanks
Thank you to the discord brain trust and everyone who helped to poke and prod at the assumptions here. In particular, thank you to Fernafalej, Josseroo, journeyman2, MegiDolaDyne, Schmendrix, Theorel, and VJakson.
Thank you to Unicorn for allowing me to use the scans from his Cerebro project.
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