This week we are looking at Captain Marvel.  I’d used her a fair bit during the Core Set-only era and found her to be very powerful, so I’m interested to see how she does now that more cards and heroes have been released. However, first I’m going to take another look at all of her cards.

Hand Size 6 is normal for Alter Ego, 12 Hit Points is slightly above average, and 4 Recover is average.  So far, so good.

Carol’s Commander ability is great; it’s basically an Avenger’s Mansion!  That’s a card that I’ve stopped putting in my solo decks as I’ve found it to be too much of a tempo hit, but I’m not going to complain about one for free.  In multiplayer, this is even better as you can use it to help out your teammates.

Since you start the game in Alter Ego, you are basically going to have seven cards to begin with.  Carol Danvers is probably one of the best Alter Egos in the game.

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Two Thwart and Attack are both solid.  One Defence is rubbish but can be boosted by her helmet if you feel the need.  Hand Size 5 is normal for Hero mode, so no issues there.

Her Rechannel ability is great.  Healing one point of damage allows you to stay in Hero mode a bit longer and drawing a card is always good.  Most of the time you’ll be discarding a card from hand to activate this effect (although something like Quincarrier could be used instead), but you can use it to cycle through your deck for more important cards (Alpha Flight Station also helps with this, more on that later).  All in all, a solid Hero mode.

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2 Thwart, 2 Attack, and 2 Hit Points for three resources is okay.  Her enter play effect is the main reason you’ll play Spider-Woman.  The ideal situation is to play her just as you want to go to Alter Ego mode so that the Villain isn’t doing much that phase.  2 Hit Points is a bit low, but if she had three then she’d probably have to cost more, as removing threat is valued higher than dealing damage in Champions.

There’s been some minor controversy about Captain Marvel having Spider-Woman as her ally because Spider-Woman will be released as a playable Hero in The Rise of the Red Skull box.  The grumbling has come about because if someone is playing as Spider-Woman, the Captain Marvel player then cannot play her as an ally, relegating the card to simply being a wild resource.  While this is an awkward situation, it’s only going to arise more often as more heroes and allies are released.  I could definitely see War Machine or Black Cat getting full Hero versions in the future for example.

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There are three copies of this in her hero cards.  To get the Aerial trait, Captain Marvel needs to have at least one copy of Cosmic Flight in play.  This isn’t too difficult as there are two copies of that in her hero cards, and it’s a pretty handy card to have as an emergency bit of damage prevention (something you’ll appreciate on Heroic difficulties!).

If you don’t have the Aerial trait, I don’t rate it very highly, but with the Aerial trait, if you’ve got side schemes to deal with this is really helpful.  Aspects that don’t have much access to thwarting will really appreciate this.

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Captain Marvel has three copies of this in her hero cards.  At least as good as Uppercut and most likely to be the equivalent of a five-damage Haymaker.  Not much to say other than it’s a simple but effective card!

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Captain Marvel has two copies of this in her hero cards, and at the moment it is the only triple resource card in the game (Hulk will be getting two copies in his hero pack).  She loves energy symbols, as it enables her to quickly charge up an Energy Channel, or simply to play more expensive cards easily.  This card means that I probably won’t include any of the Power of cards in my Captain Marvel decks.  Another simple but great card.

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At the very least this will allow you to cycle cards, but in Alter Ego mode it will actually gain you a card.  This can really help dig for that energy resource you might need or just a more useful card in general.  Simple but effective seems to be a recurring theme for Captain Marvel!

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I really dislike this card (probably because I don’t rate defence builds for solo), but if you are intent on making a defensive build, it’s not hard to get the +2 that this card offers, which along with Armored Vest can give you a respectable four Defence.  I think that in multiplayer defence builds have a place, but I’m not sold on them for solo at the moment (happy to be convinced though!).

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She has two copies of this in her hero cards.  The Aerial trait is important for Crisis Interdiction and Captain Marvel’s Helmet, making getting one of these into play a worthwhile aim.  When you have to use this card for the damage prevention you’ll be happy that you had it in play!

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There are two copies of this card in her hero deck and in my opinion it’s the most character-defining.  Unleashing a fully-charged Energy Channel into the Villain is a rewarding experience and definitely one of the bigger plays in Champions.

What’s nice about this card is that you can drip-feed it spare energy resources over several rounds until you are ready to use it.  The ten damage it can deal will often be a major contribution to defeating a stage of the Villain (especially in solo).

Since you are likely to be playing a decent amount of energy resources in a Captain Marvel deck, it’s not too difficult to pull off some big hits with this card.

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SUMMARY

• She will want a decent number of energy resources to help with her Rechannel ability, Photonic Blast, and Energy Channel.
• Has great abilities in Alter Ego and Hero mode, so able to flip between them as the situation dictates.
• Capable of removing threat and dealing damage, meaning that she probably will be pretty good in any aspect.  Only gap in her abilities seems to be dealing with swarms of minions.

Captain Marvel has a great character card and lots of good hero cards.  I honestly think that she is one of the best heroes in the game and can do pretty well in any aspect.  I’ll guess we’ll find out in part two published later this week.

Cheers,

Tim