Cardboard Corner: Review of "The Mad Titan's Shadow" deluxe expansion for Marvel Champions: The Card Game

The first two deluxe expansions for Marvel Champions: The Card Game, “The Rise of Red Skull” and “Galaxy's Most Wanted”, showed a clear upward trend. Regardless what the player thinks of the IPs, the game's potential was revealing itself. While many people take this for granted with FFG's living card games, it's still worth pointing out given not all survive so long. Which means the question still exists: does the third deluxe expansion, “The Mad Titan's Shadow”, continue the upward trend?

“The Mad Titan's Shadow”, like the deluxes before and after (at least as of the writing of this review), gives players two new heroes (with complete decks), five new villain scenarios, puts everything within the game's rule framework, while adding interesting little bits here and there to flesh out the expansion. In other words, the game continues to provide fresh content while evolving gameplay—exactly what regular players want. The rest is in the details.

The first new hero is Spectrum, who plays with form for varying effects. When switching to her hero side, players must decide which form will be needed: more attack, more thwart, or more defense. On top of being more powerful in these forms, Spectrum's cards allow players to manipulate them toward additional bonuses and effects. When players get her form right, Spectrum is a powerful hero. One of the most versatile heroes to date, Adam Warlock is what I call a 1,000 Papercut hero. He does a little here and a little there, and before you know it, he's done a lot. His special ability allows players to choose a resource symbol, spend one from their hand, and depending on the resource, do something special—deal damage, draw cards, etc. I have seen Warlock haters online, but we found him to be solid—an effective 1,000 Papercut hero.

The five villains may be the best five yet—not for renown in the wider cultural context, rather their implementation in-game. Things kick off with Ebony Maw. One of the most difficult opening scenarios to date, he continually slings Spell cards at players. The spells have timers so players know that, for example, one will trigger in two rounds. But that doesn't stop them from being powerful when they do trigger. The second scenario is something that I hope designers will do more of: make an environment-based scenario rather than pure villain-based. A literal tower defense, players must protect Avenger's Tower while two villains attack it. The cards arranged on the board in thematic fashion, this may be the best feeling scenario in the campaign. The third villain is Thanos himself. Wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, he hits like a tank. Players must be prepared to take big chunks of damage, and sometimes it's just too much. Hela is the penultimate villain. Another shake-up of the typical villain encounter, players will spend the majority of their effort just getting to her. Hela putting powerful boss minions at the gates of hell, players must run that gauntlet just to earn the right to face her. And lastly is Loki. 100% thematic yet 100% frustrating, Loki can entirely change based on the flip of a card, meaning little can be planned for except sudden disappointment as players' efforts become in vain. The ultimate love/hate final boss, luck plays the biggest role, which is entirely fitting to the character and mythology.

And lastly the campaign elements, which by now do not warrant much comment given Marvel Champions is a hero vs villain game, not a narrative-based game. “The Mad Titan's Shadow” plays with cards and effects between scenarios—similar to but slightly different than previous deluxe expansions, but overall does not do anything earth-shaking or radical. Such are the limitations inherent to the game, as is.

I have not watched any of the recent Marvel films, so cannot comment on their relevance to “The Mad Titan's Shadow”. But I can comment on the expansion's place in the growing legacy of Marvel Champions: The Card Game. This expansion is at least as good as “Galaxy's Most Wanted” if not a hair better. In “Galaxy's Most Wanted” designers seemed to figure out that mixing up the villain scenarios, as opposed to the A-B-C-D-E lineup of the core box and “The Rise of Red Skull”, is a good thing. With tower defense and gated-scenario progression being a part of the campaign, it does not feel repetitive and gains theme in the process—something the game lacks. Narrative continues to be an overarching issue, but will always be an issue unless FFG changes first principles (or more smartly, creates a Marvel game in the vein of Arkham Horror). The two new heroes Spectrum and Adam Warlock, like all heroes in deluxe expansions, are a mix that will appeal to some and not to others, nothing objectively wrong or bad about them. In short, “The Mad Titan's Shadow” represents Marvel Champions in full, swinging stride. As good as it gets? We'll wait and see...