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Tabletop Tactics: Side by Side with Legendary Marvel

Tabletop Tactics: Side by Side with Legendary Marvel

 

Since recruiting heroes plays a big part in Legendary Marvel, I’d like to take a look at 2 different cards to put you into different scenarios that could occur when you’re playing this game. This article is intended for those that are familiar with Legendary Marvel’s rules and are looking to get a better understanding on some of the recruiting strategies you should consider when building your deck. Point values are assigned based on the number of copies they have. If that card has 5 copies, the advantage is worth 3 points. The cards with 3 copies are worth 2 points and the “Legendary” version is worth 1. I rated them this way as you’re more likely to run across the cards with more copies more often than the others, meaning they could possibly have more impact on your deck throughout the game. The 2 cards we’ll be looking at are Iron Fist and Groot. 

“Surviving Sprig” Groot vs “Focus Chi” Iron Fist

Early Game: You should usually be ramping up on heroes that have recruiting power early on, so it seems that Groot’s Surviving Sprig is at an apparent disadvantage in that scenario. Surviving Sprig will compensate itself the following turn by drawing an extra card, but again early in the game you’re usually working with weaker starter cards. Advantage: Iron Fist 3 points 

Late Game: Surviving Sprig can draw some more powerful cards, but its 1 attack may not go very far in the late game. Iron Fist’s Focus Chi can produce a lot of recruiting power allowing you to recruit multiple heroes or higher costing ones. Advantage: Iron Fist 3 points

“Prune the Growths” Groot vs “Wield the Iron Fist” Iron Fist

Early Game: Groot can get to work early by pruning your starter deck. It does require another “Might” hero, but 11 of his 14 cards are “Might”. Iron Fist will suffer as early on you’ll usually only have 0 cost SHIELD Agent’s and Troopers giving you a similar attack value that Groot has minus the pruning ability and subsequent Shard. Advantage: Groot 3 points

Late Game: Wield the Iron Fist can single handedly KO villains with the right combination of cards late in the game. However, he is dependent on a little bit of luck to get some different costing heroes. Groot on the other hand will rarely become useless as pruning abilities are a great tool to have in your deck early on, and the Shard you gain each time you activate his ability adds up over time which works great late game. This was a tough one as both cards are reliant on other cards in the deck. I give the edge to Groot as he can help make your whole deck more efficient late game. Advantage: Groot 3 points

“Groot and Branches” Groot vs “Ancient Legacy” Iron Fist

Early Game: It’ll be tough to get Iron Fist’s Ancient Legacy going early on. Drawing the card is nice, but early game usually means you’ll be drawing SHIELD Agent’s or Troopers. Groot however, gives you the real versatility of the 2 cards. The 2 Shards you gain can be converted to recruiting power to give your deck a jump start. Advantage: Groot 2 points

Late Game: It’s possible to pull off Ancient Legacy Iron Fist late in the game, but Versatile 2 may not go very far. Similar to Prune the Growth, the Shard gaining ability of this card can contribute to a devastating total if hoarded. The other half of his ability can also help the team as you can help other players gain attack power before the Mastermind wins. Advantage: Groot 2 points

“I Am Groot” Groot vs “Living Weapon” Iron Fist

Early Game: Assuming you’re able to grab one of these cards early on we have to remember that your deck may just consist of SHIELD Agents and Troopers at this point. That means Iron Fist will probably only be drawing you 2 starter cards. Which is still not that bad as his 8 attack alone can crush most villains and contribute to an early Mastermind KO. Looking at Groot I can see him easily gaining 5+ Shards as the SHIELD Agents will just add to the total recruit power . Overall though, Groot may be too dependent on having high recruit cost heroes available at the HQ causing his Shard contribution to fluctuate. Advantage: Iron Fist 1 point

Late Game: Realistically I am Groot can get 6 Shards on some turns. While Living Weapon will have a solid 8 attack every time he’s drawn. Tack on his ability to draw cards and he can get out of control very quickly with the right deck. Advantage: Iron Fist 1 point

Results

So what were the totals? Groot had 10 points and Iron Fist ended up with 8 points which gives his deck a slight advantage over Iron Fist’s. Granted that there are several other factors that may contribute to actual deck building like which Mastermind or Scenario are in play, but this is meant to look at only 2 major factors for the sake of simplicity. Let me know what you think about my rating system and if you have suggestions on how to improve it. I’d also love to hear your cases on which ones you may disagree with. Thanks for reading!

 

About Me:  I’m a video/tabletop game reviewer, content creator, and game member of the Drop the Spotlight Gaming Crew. If you have questions about any of my content, reach out to me at maurogarcia@dropthespotlight.com. You can also view our gaming content on our FacebookTwitter, & Instagram pages, check out our gaming podcast on Anchor FM, and our videos can be viewed on the Drop the Spotlight YouTube.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Charles

    Interesting analysis, but it’s probably more appropriate to do this with two cards from the same set and the same fraction because there are WILDLY variable factors that the determine the utility of a hero/card. So much of it depends, as you said, on the mastermind but moreso on the other heroes you recruit. Maybe compare heroes and include other hero cards that they would effectively synergize with. Just my thoughts.

  2. Mauro

    Thanks for your input, Charles. I’ll consider keeping future comparisons to the same set or factions. With this series I am trying to capture the random selection feature similar to when you’re playing the game. I do make mention of your other concern towards the end of the article where I make sure to state that other factors can alter how useful a card can become, but I wanted to keep it simple and focus on 2 important game stages (early and late game recruiting). I could write forever if I begin to consider other factors 🙂

    I like your idea of including heroes that synergize with them. I could actually make this a multi-part segment where in the next segment I look at cards they work well with, the Scenario’s that may affect them, or the Mastermind’s they may be effective against. Thanks again!

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