Legendary- A Marvel Deck Building Game

Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

Designed by Devin Low for Upper Deck Entertainment.

Our Outside the Cube review crew sat down for a game of Legendary recently, and that session proved that board games really can be addictive.

The game plays with 1-5 players and is suggested for ages 14 and up. On an average, a game will last about 45 minutes, not counting some setup.

Setup

The setup is fairly simple. Each player gets a deck of 12 cards consisting of 8 SHIELD Agents and 4 SHIELD Troopers. The player shuffles the deck and draws a hand of 6 cards. There are also cards called SHIELD Officers, Wounds, and Bystanders. Place those cards in their designated areas on the board. Next, pick a Mastermind card and place it on the board with its 4 Mastermind Tactics cards placed beneath it. Also, look to see which villains the chosen Mastermind always leads. Following that you'll set up the Villain deck by adding villain groups designated by the number of players you have.

Play

Playing the game is a two-fold task. As gamers play Legendary and fight villains throughout the city, they're also building the optimum deck. Ultimately, the best deck will win the game. Here's how it works: If you recall, each player starts with their deck of 12. They aren't going to start with any known heroes, but it'll be a handy stack of cards that can either recruit heroes or help battle enemies. The first player will start by turning a card from the villain deck. If it's a villain, it goes in the city section of the board. They will then play the cards in their hand. Again, the first hand will only consist of the basic SHIELD guys, but SHIELD Officers give recruitment points and the SHIELD Troopers offer attack points. So players could either recruit a hero from the hero section of the board or attack the villain, or possibly do both depending on how points of each they had in their hand. As recruitment takes place throughout the game, the deck grows from 12 SHIELD agents, to a larger deck of mixed superheroes and SHIELD agents. With this larger deck, players will find it easier to defeat some villains and they may even decide to take a shot at the Mastermind. Once the Mastermind is attacked 4 times, the game is won by the players. If events that are listed on the Mastermind's Scheme card are completed, the game is won by the bad guys. Players might start by recruiting their favorite hero team from comics, but they may also discover that forming a deck based on whatever special abilities certain cards have is the best strategy.

Review

Sitting down to play Legendary, I'll admit, I was a little worried about the complexity of the game. It sounded busy and easy to get lost in all of the various dynamics. I had nothing to worry about. It's a simple set of steps that flow easily: Flip a villain card, play your hand, recruit or attack, next player. The fun comes from collecting your team of familiar characters as well as going after familiar villains, and from defeating the Mastermind as a group. Legendary is definitely a cooperative effort while remaining a competition of “who has the best team.” Outside the Cube absolutely loves this game. The team combinations are countless, and there are ability combos within those teams that are also countless. The game could be played time and time again and never get the same outcome. And here's something for the really competitive gamer who has to know who the real winner is: Where this is a cooperative game and everyone plays to defeat the Mastermind, each player can add up the points of the individual villains they've defeated and decide who is the real winner. This game has something for everyone.

Extras

Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game has a handful of expansions. For those who like the basic Marvel Universe, the standard game is great. But sets like Civil War, Fantastic Four, Dark City, and Captain America 75^th Anniversary can bring in more obscure but well loved character favorites as well as darker more sinister Masterminds.

Pick up Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game at Blaqk Door, in the heart of historical Fort Bragg, California. If you're a fan of comics, cards, or just having fun... you won't be sorry.