A Celebration - I’ve Played all 55 Heroes

Hey all - just wanted to celebrate a bit and give some thoughts on the game after 55 heroes and 306 logged victories. I started playing in November of 2023. Special shout out to this sub that has answered every question that there has ever been and for also being one of the few non-toxic corners of the internet. Just a bunch of guys and gals being respectful and sharing the enjoyment of something fun, and that’s really cool.

How I play: true solo. I’ll probably play more two handed at some point, but part of what I love about MC over other LCGs is how quickly I can play a round. Two handed goes longer than I would like, but I’m still interested in diving more into the synergies that can come out of playing two handed.

Standard vs. Expert Probably half of the victories I have are in expert, but I’ve come to find that I enjoy standard difficulty much more. I switched back to standard probably 40/50 rounds ago and I’ve noticed that it allows me to focus on fun over efficiency, both with deck construction and play style. It also doesn’t really seem to change the difficulty in a super dramatic way for most villains - I still lose occasionally and find myself getting into trouble still, so it’s not just easy clean sweep victories. To each their own on this, but I’m saying this just in case anyone feels like they are supposed to be good enough to only play in expert.

Favorite Wave of Villains: I really love all of the boxes, but Rise of Red Skull is my favorite. Maybe it’s nostalgia because that box really cemented what this game could be. Age of Apocalypse is really close, but doesn’t quite take the spot. I love how there are unique mechanics but nothing too fiddly. It’s really challenging still (Zola’s a mf) and holds up incredibly well.

On Campaigns: I don’t really have much interest in playing them, but I still wish there was more to them. It feels like they’ve gotten lazier and lazier with the design as time has gone on. I think Rise of Red Skull and Sinister Motives are probably my favorites, but again, I very rarely play campaign mode.

If I force myself to pick a favorite hero from each wave: She-Hulk, Black Widow, Spider Woman, Drax, Nebula, Ironheart, Shadowcat, X-23, Magik. I’m not committed to any of those answers because most of them have a very close, plus it’s hard to remember how much I enjoyed playing some of them. I hope to take better notes for my next cycle of playing through the heroes.

Side note: I just realized that I selected almost exclusively female heroes above, which I 100% would not have guessed to be the case. Are the girls better than the boys??

Least Favorite Heroes: Starting with the usual suspects…

Thor: I’ve heard rumors that some new cards have really improved him, so I’m excited to give him another go. To be the God of Thunder and feel like you can’t really get going is super frustrating.

Valkyrie: Was able to make her work, but the design is frustrating. Beefing up Annabelle as the main strategy helped a lot, but she still wasn’t very fun to play as.

Hulk: No surprises here, though I was able to get through a full wave of Villains finally and it was an interesting (not necessarily fun) puzzle to solve. The only way I was able to make him work was to spend an entire deck cycle building. No attacks, only keeping things at bay and building him out, and then SMASH on the second run through his deck. I will say though that having Magik control an impossibly powerful Hulk ally cured all of my sadness about Hulk hero being lackluster.

Scarlet Witch: Controversial pick probably but I just struggled making her work. I felt like this was a me problem so I’m excited to play as her again with a different aspect and a fresh set of eyes.

Spectrum: She does nothing interesting at all. Her forms just manipulate her basic powers, her upgrades generate resources, events are just basic attacks/thwarts/defends. She’s just very vanilla.

More random thoughts:

Spider-Ham: Not quite as OP as I was expecting, even with Clarity of Purpose. Top tier for sure, but Venom Goblin gave me a run for my money still.

Pool Aspect: Lame. I’ll give it another look at some point, but I can’t see myself using it very much.

Can’t Wait For: It’s wild to me that we still (in theory) have Fantastic Four and Daredevil universe to look forward to. SHIELD looks super fun too, can’t wait.

Heroes I Want Most (mechanically): Moon Knight and Jamie Madrox. I feel pretty confident that we’ll get Moon Knight and his multiple personalities, but Madrox may just be a fever dream unless there is another X-Wave. I feel with the lack of Professor X specifically (Beast was an Avenger for a long as time, so he could fit in there), there’s probably more X-stuff to come at some point down the road.

Up Next: Until Agents of SHIELD drops, I’m starting over. Each hero again in a new aspect against a wave of villains they haven’t fought.