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Writer's pictureAstrodar

Villain Vibes: Categorizing Scenario Styles

Updated: Oct 25, 2023

Continuing mankind’s obsessive need to shove everything in a box, I have grouped the scenarios into categories that share a similar feel of play. This isn't saying that each scenario in the category plays exactly the same. Nor is this categorization based exclusively on the mechanisms of the scenario, though you will see a strong influence from that. Instead, the goal of this categorization is to present similar styles of scenario to help a player or play group determine which scenario they may want to play. For example, if you have just completed the journey that is Hela, perhaps you’d like to play another “adventure style” scenario. Take a peek at the Adventure category, and you'll find Hela alongside some other similar scenarios.


Below you'll find a short list of the categories. If you want to skip ahead, click the link to the category you're interested in. You'll find a blurb on what the category is, and I give a brief comment on each scenario in the category. These comments are not intended to give you a synopsis or review of the scenarios, but rather to justify their inclusion and to point to some interesting play.


  • Fisticuffs: Roll up your sleeves, because this is a fistfight.

  • Attrition: Death by one thousand cuts.

  • Swarm: It's like a clown car, but the scenario is the car and minions the clowns.

  • Boss: Queue the cut scene, we've got ourselves a boss battle.

  • Adventure: Buckle-up Bilbo, you’ve got an adventure ahead of you.

  • Guardian: We’re the Guardians of the… Senator or Tower or you know… whatever.

  • Thief: Hey! That’s my stuff!

  • The Hood: Variety is the spice of life.


Methodology

Before we dive in, I want to include some of the thought processes behind these categorizations. I am taking a very general approach to the scenario. I am accounting for the required modular sets, but not for the recommended modular sets. If the recommended modular sets make a notable difference in how a scenario feels to play, I’ll be sure to note it. Otherwise, any modular sets you add will be adding their own flavor*. For example, the Swarm category features scenarios with a lot of minions. A high minion mod like Band of Badoon is going to make any scenario feel more like a Swarm scenario regardless of which category the scenario is in. I also am not specifically considering Standard or Expert. If there is a notable difference between the two, I’ll comment on it. But generally the scenario as a whole has the same general vibe.

*I have my own categorization of mods in the works, but in the meantime, check out Get Up and Game's modular set breakdown on BoardGameGeek! This can be a helpful guide in how modular set choice will influence the scenario's style.

 

Fisticuffs

I would point to this category as being the quintessential Marvel Champions experience. These villains are straight up bruisers. You’ll be duking it out with the villains, and their main focus is knocking you down. They tend to hit hard and hit often.

Juggernaut

This scenario is so focused on defeating you, that it removes one of the main loss conditions in Marvel Champions: losing to threat. Instead, each time the main scheme threshold is met, you’ll simply get attacked by Juggernaut, regardless of your identity's form. You’ll have to manage his helmet carefully, as with it, his attacks have overkill, restricting the usefulness of having allies block for you. While Juggernaut does include a secondary loss condition with Hope Summers, there’s surprisingly little in the scenario that actually focuses on her. But since it is there, we’ll also give Juggernaut an Honorary Guardian categorization (see below).


MaGog

One of the few scenarios that offers an alternate win condition, MaGog is nothing but a duke-it-out fist fight. You can only win the scenario by impressing the crowd, but the primary way to do that is by defeating MaGog again and again. Just as mentioned with Juggernaut, MaGog also removes threat as a primary loss condition. Instead the scenario shifts scheming out to progressing MaGog’s secondary loss condition: winning the crowd’s favor.


Rhino

For many players, Rhino was the first experience with Marvel Champions. He is built to hit hard, and with some of the more recent modular sets, he can be buffed out to be quite the threat. He is the quintessential Fisticuffs scenario. (Yes, I realize I've already used 'quintessential' twice. I'm going to use it some more, so learn to deal with it, bucko!)


Ronan

Ronan the Accuser has some high pressure across the board, but his primary focus is knocking you silly. He has five activation treacheries in his scenario, meaning that once you include Standard cards, he has eight different treacheries that give him extra attacks. On top of the extra activations, he has a permanent hazard icon, meaning you’re seeing more encounter cards each round. He is a tough fight, and easily the most difficult in this category. For this reason, you’ll also see him over in the Boss category.


Venom

With a unique twist on the format, Venom’s attacks are made powerful by extra boost cards that pile up each time you damage him. When he hits, you’re going to need some strong support or blocking. Those boost cards can really build up, pushing some incredible damage and triggering some rough boost abilities.


Wrecking Crew

The first of the multi-villain scenarios to make the list, Wrecking Crew doesn’t bring anything particularly different than the other Fisticuff scenarios beyond having multiple villains. The main scheme pressure is limited, and the active villain is very much just looking to hit you hard.

 

Attrition

While the villains in these scenarios can still hit hard, they come along with many smaller effects that either apply pressure across multiple fronts or lean into one particular front, like indirect damage. These scenarios can be a lot more disruptive than your Fisticuffs scenarios, handing out status effects, exhaustions, encounter cards in your deck, and more.

Absorbing Man

Keying off the environment cards Absorbing Man is mimicking, the treacheries in this set have a wide range of abilities, each adding a bit more pressure on the players. Keep an eye out though, because he can hit decently hard if given the chance.


Brotherhood of Badoon

Surely this one is an error. This is one of *the* premiere minion scenarios. I hear you. You are not alone if you think that. But, take a moment and hear me out. And don't call me Shirley.


Drang’s invasion offers a multitude of ways to add pressure. First, he will be occasionally raining down some indirect damage from his Badoon Ship. As the scenario progresses, the indirect damage will come more frequently. Beyond that he taxes your access to the Milano through a bunch of side schemes and treacheries. The scenario as a whole generates a lot of threat to deal with. Now... this is one of the scenarios where the recommended modular set can make a huge difference. The recommended mod is Band of Badoon, a set with ten minions in it. By itself, that modular set will make any scenario feel like a Swarm scenario (see below). However, if you play on Expert, Drang III’s “When Revealed” effect can throw a bunch of minions on the board for a huge tempo change. It is a lot of fun, and if you’re looking to preserve that, ensure that you use minion heavy mods. Because of that stage III ability, Brotherhood of Badoon gets an Honorary Swarm categorization. However, that stage III ability is the only thing in his set that pertains to minions. And it can completely whiff, even with a big minion mod. If you swap out the recommended mod for something else, you completely lose the Swarm vibe.


Crossbones

Crossbones has one main approach: pull the trigger. He’s going to be dealing a lot of small damage packets with Crossbones’ Machine Gun, his Full Auto treachery, and Hydra Bomber. However, he also features 3 modular sets, and he can gain a lot of variety from those inclusions.


Ebony Maw

The spells cast by Ebony Maw can be really disruptive, but you can see them coming. This lets you play around the effects to a point, shifting to ensure you’re prepared for the upcoming effects. You’ll see extra damage, exhaust effects, ping damage, and ping threat. As a point of interest, 8 of 17 encounter cards in his set have surge on them, which means you’ll feel the modular sets you add a lot more than most scenarios.


Klaw

Klaw can really let modular sets with boost abilities shine! His own encounter cards are fairly varied in effect, and they all lean into being fairly disruptive. He heals himself, stuns and exhausts heroes, and forces discards from hand among other things.


Mysterio

Mysterio is the king of annoying little sting effects. You could say... wait for it... it's the quintessential Attrition experience. He will seed your deck with encounter cards, forcing you to deal with them as extra encounter cards later. Many of his cards deal small amounts of damage or place small amounts of threat. However, they recur often, building pressure as they go. As the number of encounter cards in your deck builds, you can feel each card draw become more tense.


Risky Business

The majority of Risky Business focuses on forcing a flip back and forth between Norman Osborn and Green Goblin, dealing a lot of damage along the way. Lots of the effects on the encounter cards are small, pushing Green Goblin toward flipping back and Norman Osborn further from flipping.


Sandman

Sandman’s attacks deal indirect damage, preventing you from effectively blocking with allies and punishing you for damaging your hero. His City Streets environment burns through the encounter deck, forcing acceleration tokens to build faster than usual. Many of his effects are small, but they spread out the damage and build permanent threat pressure through the acceleration tokens.


Taskmaster

With a lot of small effects like retaliate, damage from flipping to hero form, rebound damage, and forced discards from hand, Taskmaster really fits the bill for Attrition. In addition, he offers the players plenty of help by offering up allies that have been captured by HYDRA.

 

Swarm

These scenarios feature a lot of minions or minion-like characters. There are two subcategories here. First is the Overlord category, where one main villain pumps out minions. Second is the Gang Up category where there are potentially multiple villains, some with minion counterparts that show up again and again. So why not split them into two separate categories all together? Partially because I decided to do subcategories semi-last second, but was too lazy to rewrite a few things. And partially because I want to retain a category that is minion focused. The difference between the two subcategories is distinct, but both do focus on minion (or minion-like) characters.


Swarm: Overlord

Master Mold

Master Mold will produce a Sentinel minion every time he schemes. Additionally, you’ll start the game engaged to a minion, and all Sentinel minions have guard. This really amplifies their inclusion in the scenario, because you simply can’t ignore them. The minions in the scenario and required set are also pretty beefy, so you’ll have to put some effort into defeating them.


Mutagen Formula

There are twelve minions built into this scenario, and ten of those can enter play from their boost effect. This scenario truly feels like a swarm as Green Goblin launches minions out at you.


Bonus tip: If you like Band of Badoon and don't mind bending the rules a bit, you can make a similar modular set using the goblins in Mutagen Formula. To make this Goblin Army modular set, you can just take any ten goblins (or all twelve, I won’t judge). However, I recommend the following:

  • 1x Goblin Knight

  • 4x Goblin Soldier

  • 4x Goblin Thrall

  • 1x Monster

Toss them in anywhere, but I find they work really well with Klaw (go boost go!), Venom (yay boosts!), Zola (beefy goblins!), and Brotherhood of Badoon.


Ultron

Why bring your own minions when you can just create some from the players’ decks? Ultron can really churn out minions in the form of drones, but Ultron II in particular amps it up. While the minions in this scenario will be quite small, there is a continuous stream of them during the game.


Zola

The Mad Doctor also has a minion producing ability, churning out a new minion roughly every three turns. In addition, you’ll find two other side schemes that produce a minion when defeated. Tying this to the nine minions in his scenario and a bunch of attachments that surge if a minion isn’t in play, you will have a constant flow of minions to defeat.


Honorary Overlord: Brotherhood of Badoon

There is really only one ability in this scenario that interacts directly with minions, and it only happens once. However, it is a such a volatile and fun moment when Drang III's "When Revealed" ability triggers, that Brotherhood of Badoon with a minion heavy modular set earns an Honorary Overlord title. The recommended set is Band of Badoon, and it is one of the best. However, there are some mods and mod combinations that can create a similar effect. I've listed some below, noting how many are minions (minions/total cards). There are definitely more fun combinations than this, but these do a great job at seeding the deck with enough minions.

  • Kree Militants (8/9)

  • Menagerie Medley (9/9)

  • Sinister Assault (6/6) + Beasty Boys (2/4)

  • Hydra Assault (5/6) + Hydra Patrol (5/6)

  • Black Tom Cassidy (5/7) + Mutant Insurrection (4/5)

  • Goblin Army (I mention this in Mutagen Formula's comment.)


Swarm: Gang Up

Mansion Attack

In this assault on Xavier's school, you’ll see a number of enemies show up as both the villain and as minions. The scenario features a variety of ways to pull the minion versions into play, causing you to fight these enemies over and over throughout the course of the game. This scenario is widely variable, but one of the main through lines is seeing the Brotherhood minions pop in and out of play.


On the Run

This is one that may feel like an odd inclusion here, so I’m going to back up my “vibes check” with some numbers. Within the scenario there will be multiple points where the Marauder minions are pulled into play. First, you will put one into play with each player during setup. Then, you will do this again after defeating the villain the first time. In the encounter deck, there will be 6 minions and 5 encounter cards that put those minions into play. That means on Standard, 11 out of the 24 encounter cards can put minions into play. Once you include the two modular sets (assuming 6 cards each), you’re still at about one third of the deck being minion focused, even if you only use mods with no additional minions (the recommended setup sits between 45-50% of the deck being minion focused). And that is on top of the two times a game where each player is guaranteed to get a minion.


Rest easy. I’m done with numbers! The above is all to say that you’re going to see a lot of minions here, and because a lot of them will end up gaining Guard, they’re going to feel like a big part of the scenario. And I haven’t even mentioned yet that being engaged with a Marauder minion will cause the villain to scheme instead of attack!


Sinister Six

Surely this is a mistake! You've copied and pasted into the wrong spot! I didn't, and I told you not to call me Shirley.


While this scenario has very few actual minions in it, the Sinister Six villains are all minion-like in their ATK, SCH, and health. They will be popping into play repeatedly, always giving the feel of a minion target being available. You still have to make some adjustment here though, as a minion-focused player deck will not have adequate targets in the scenario, despite it being a Swarm scenario.


 

Boss

These are the scenarios that feel the most like a boss fight. There are some pretty major effects to go along with big attacks and schemes, and there is generally pressure coming on every front. This is the one category that is more indicative of difficulty. It’s also the category that kind of builds itself, as you’ll notice each of the final villains from the campaign boxes are in this category.

Loki

Sporting the Infinity Gauntlet, Loki has multiple forms of himself that pop in and out of play. These different forms have a variety of strengths, meaning you have to answer for anything that may show up. Additionally, the pressure from the Infinity Gauntlet is amplified by some of his encounter cards. This scenario is even more deserving of the Boss category at Standard, as with the exception of the three Expert modular set cards, it is exactly the same difficulty as Expert right up until you win.


Magneto

Magneto takes you through multiple schemes during the battle against him, adding an adventure like element to his scenario. His recurring ability to pull magnetic cards from the discard pile add a lot of pressure, and you can feel the added tension as you watch the magnet counters tick up. All in all, he very much feels like a boss battle.


Nebula

One of the few scenarios in this category that aren’t the conclusion of a campaign box, Nebula sneaks into the Boss category based on her more difficult games. Surge can create huge tempo changes in her favor, and between both her techniques and evasion counters vying for your resources there is a lot of additional pressure in the scenario. That said, she can be quite variable. You can luck into some good draws that avoid building up her techniques, making the scenario much simpler.


Red Skull

With his unique mechanism that focuses on side schemes, Red Skull pumps out a lot of threat you need to deal with. You’re essentially playing each round with a permanent hazard icon that exclusively pulls side schemes. There are a few mods that can really send Red Skull over the top, such as the infamous Legions of Hydra.


Ronan

Making his second appearance in this article, Ronan certainly deserves to be in the Boss category. He applies a lot of pressure across all fronts, but first and foremost he is looking to attack you.


Stryfe

Stryfe is one of (if not the) most disruptive villains in the game. The way that he messes with your play area and the cost of your cards can really create a unique Marvel Champions experience. At times you feel almost sluggish trying to overcome the tax on playing cards. Additionally, with his ability to have a massively boosted attack, his attacks do actually feel threatening. All in all, he joins the ranks of final campaign box villains as another boss battle.


Thanos

To me, Thanos is the quintessential boss battle. The scenario is really quite simple. He focuses on activating against you, triggering the Infinity Gauntlet, and hitting you really hard. While there’s really not much else going on beyond that, the scenario feels grand.


Venom Goblin

If there were any of the bosses that got Honorary Attrition, Venom Goblin would be it. There are a ton of small effects that build up over the absurd number of encounter cards that he can throw at you. The main scheme specials are triggering all over the place, each putting just another bit of pressure on the heroes. However, he still feels like a sprawling battle, forcing you to really manage the board state and be prepared for huge tempo swings.


 

Adventure

These scenarios feel a little less like a fist fight and more like an adventure. There are defined stages where the scenario progresses along in its story, though those stages may be through schemes, villain stages, or other methods.



Escape the Museum

As you race out of the museum, you’ll find the Milano, dodge the Collector’s ship, and thwart your way to victory. There is a clear progression of stages here, and you feel like you’re working your way through an adventure.


Hela

The scenario that defines the category*, Hela has you trudging through Hel looking to save Odin and defeat Hela. You’ll work your way through three beefy mini-bosses and three locations before rescuing Odin and dealing with Hela directly. It’s quite the romp, and well deserving of the Adventure category.

*That was my clever way of not saying quintessential.


Kang

The progression of this adventure has you moving through time and space as you battle against various versions of Kang. In the second act, you'll move into separate play areas, each player facing off against a separate Kang. While defeating the Kangs is the focus, this still feels very much like an adventure.


Honorary Adventure: Mojo

You’ll battle your way across various shows in the Mojoverse as you work to defeat Mojo. While this scenario is far more variable than the others in this category, the progression here still provides unique stages of the game, and as the show environments swap, the game changes significantly. The reason this only lands in Honorary is that you may never see the progression, as it isn’t tied directly to the win condition. Instead, it is a progression toward a loss condition as the encounter deck runs out.


 

Guardian

In these scenarios, there is a secondary loss condition involving some entity you need to protect. Be it a person or a building, you must protect it to complete your mission.



Mister Sinister

On the final main scheme stage of Mister Sinister, every time he attacks, he will attack Hope Summers. While you can go entire games without him reaching this third stage, Sinister puts a lot of pressure on the main schemes and really pushes toward that final stage. Since it becomes the full focus of the scenario at that point, you must be prepared to defend Hope multiple times, something that merits Mister Sinister being a Guardian scenario.


Morlock Siege

During the villain phase of Round 3, Morlock Siege introduces the Morlocks. These are the characters you are working to protect, because they are your secondary loss condition. If you lose all the Morlocks, you lose. Since there is a delay in their introduction, you can conceivably win games before they ever show up. However, most of the time the focus of the scenario will be on attacking the Morlocks you control.


Sabretooth

A recreation of the classic X-Men event, in this scenario you need to rescue and then protect Senator Kelly. If you control Robert Kelly and don’t defend Sabretooth’s attack, the damage will be dealt to Senator Kelly. If he is defeated, you lose the game! Make sure you keep him in play!


Tower Defense

As you square up against Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, you’ll need to defeat them before they destroy Avengers Tower. There are some encounter cards that damage the tower unless you have an encounter card cancel, but for the most part, you’ll be making a choice each activation that will either prevent or result in damage being dealt to Avengers Tower. Left unchecked, the villains will destroy the tower and you will lose the game.


Honorary Guardian

Both of these scenarios have Hope Summers as a required mod, meaning there is a character that you have to protect in order to not lose. However, neither of them have much by way of encounter cards that actually threaten Hope, which is why they’re just getting the Honorary Guardian title.


Juggernaut

Juggernaut has two copies of one card that targets Hope. If you are in Hero form when you reveal Trample, Juggernaut will attack the ally with the fewest remaining hit points (which may be Hope). As a boost card, it will deal 1 damage to an ally you control (which may be Hope). The two copies of this card can certainly lose you the game, but it is more of a “be prepared” thing than the whole scenario being focused around it. You can quite literally remove Hope Summers from the setup and have zero impact on the rest of the scenario. If you want more on Juggernaut, you can reference his Fisticuffs entry.


Stryfe

Stryfe has one card that targets Hope (Mental Transferal), and it only targets her during the first portion of the scenario. It’s a pretty easy card to work around, assuming you can come up with a source of 1-2 damage. This is another scenario with a secondary loss condition that isn’t integrated enough to justify full inclusion into the Guardian category. However, it still deserves an Honorary Guardian. If you want more on Stryfe, you can reference his Boss entry.


 

Thief

These scenarios feature villains that are trying to take your stuff (and sometimes their own stuff, those low down fools). You need to defeat them before they get everything they’re looking for.

Infiltrate the Museum

He takes your stuff. He takes his stuff. This dude has a fever, and the only cure is more stuff. Infiltrate the Museum was the first scenario to introduce a secondary loss condition, and it is a rough one. Any time a card leaves play to go into a discard pile, it is added to The Collection, which has a measly 5 per player limit. You can dig cards back out, but each player can only do this once per round by exhausting your hero or spending 2 resources. This can be a tough fight, especially if you’re not specifically building decks to handle it.


Project Wideawake

This scenario is essentially the offspring of Infiltrate the Museum and Taskmaster. Project Wideawake also features a "Collection" through Operation Zero Tolerance, though it has a smaller limit of only 3 more than the number of players. Alongside this smaller limit are much more relaxed conditions for adding cards. The first condition is that allies that have been defeated by an enemy attack will be added here. Second, breaking the threat threshold is removed as a loss condition. If you break the threat threshold, you will be adding a card to Operation Zero Tolerance. From Taskmaster we see the shared genetics of rescuing allies by defeating side schemes, though the allies we see in Project Wideawake are a little muted by comparison.


 

The Hood

Your experience with these scenarios are defined more by the modular sets you chose to include than by the scenarios themselves. A better category name might be something like Variety Show (lots of different mod combinations) or Scenario with No Personality that Just Takes on the Personality of the Person They're Dating* (self-explanatory). However, I find The Hood funny, so here we are. These scenarios offer a lot of options and variety, but due to that, the experiences can vary widely.

*Okay, this doesn't really work, because the scenarios do have their own feel and personality to them. But why let reality get in the way of a joke?


The Hood

Modular Set: The Villain… I mean... The Hood is a scenario that will really be emphasizing some or all of the seven modular sets chosen at the beginning of the game. Some organized and thoughtful groupings can make the scenario to fall into many of the categories above. Alternatively, random groupings can give you variety that falls all over the place. Ultimately your choices are going to influence how this scenario feels to play. Below I’ve included a few modular combinations that can help make The Hood land into the Fisticuffs and Swarm categories.

  • Fisticuffs: For these, you’re looking for extra activations and ways to boost the power of the activations. Almost any villain attachment mod does that second part.

    • This Isn’t My Final Form!: Experimental Weapons, Flight, Goblin Gear, Osborn Tech, Super Strength, Telepathy, Weapon Master

    • 1-2 Punch: Symbiotic Strength, A Mess of Things, Weapon Master, Goblin Gimmicks, Brothers Grimm, Ship Command, Goblin Gear

  • Swarm: Really any assortment of minion mods work, but Ransacked Armory is fantastic for Swarm builds. It comes with 2 minions, a card that surges if there are no minions, and 4 cards that either attach to a minion or pull a minion if there isn’t one in play.

    • Alien Invasion!: Armies of Titan, Band of Badoon, Black Order, Children of Thanos, Kree Militants, Menagerie Medley, and Space Pirates.

    • HYDRA!: Hydra Assault, Hydra Patrol, Legions of Hydra, Ransacked Armory, Captain America Nemesis Set, Black Widow Nemesis Set, Spider-Woman Nemesis Set

Spiral

While Spiral certainly shares a lot of lifeblood with Risky Business, Spiral actually contributes very little to the encounter deck. There are only 6 Spiral cards in the encounter deck, and two of those have Surge. This means that outside the baseline feel of chasing Spiral through the different shows, your games are going to be far more impacted by the Show environments and modular set encounter cards you are dealt. Spiral is restricted to 3 of the 6 show modular sets included with MojoMania. That means there are 20 different combinations that she can run, giving plenty of variety. As a variety reference point, Mister Sinister only has 3 combinations of his required modular sets.


Mojo

Just like The Hood, Mojo will drip-feed modular sets into the game, but unlike The Hood, he makes sure you see and feel those sets immediately. First, the environment will swap out, changing the board-wide effect. Second, the first player is dealt two cards from the set, and the rest are placed on top of the encounter deck, ensuring those are the next cards you see. While Mojo’s variety isn’t as unrestrained as The Hood, there is still a lot of variety that comes with six show modular sets in MojoMania. If you’re looking for some more variety, check out the Mojo Cinematic Universe, an unofficial modular set from Con of Heroes 2023. You can find it and many other print-and-play modular sets from the convention here!


 

Conclusion

Hopefully this is a helpful guide for picking out scenarios you may enjoy playing next or maybe even help you assemble a custom campaign of similar or different styles of scenarios. As more scenarios are released, I'll be coming back to update this list. Who knows, over time we may see categories get added or split to encompass all the new stuff.


Thanks

Thank you as always to Unicorn for allowing me to use the card scans from the Cerebro project. Thanks to the discord hive-mind for the lively discussion on this topic. In particular, thank you to Andy N, Fernafalej, Journeyman2, Markzilla, MegiDolaDyne, SCOE, thearguerandtheclueless, and Theorel.

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Nguyen Trong Nghia
Nguyen Trong Nghia
Oct 27, 2023

I saw 666 views...Mephisto is watching!

This Villain Vibes is too great to read.


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