Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game is one of my favorite games. I’ve written reviews of the base game and all the expansions elsewhere on my blog, so I thought I’d do something a bit different today and talk about my top ten heroes. The game is a deck-building game, so as it progresses you are taking better and better cards into your deck to hopefully defeat the mastermind, their villains and henchmen, and whichever scheme is in play. It’s tremendous fun and there are almost 50 heroes to choose from. I mostly play one, two, or three player so I’m using anywhere from 3-5 heroes in a game, so the combinations are endless. Some heroes work well on their own while others are good to support other heroes and make them more powerful. These are my favorite ones to use. I tried to take into account the all-round abilities of the heroes rather than just how cool their rare card is, otherwise Iron Fist would have made it in (spoilers).
# 10 – Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic is more of a support hero as many of his cards are about drawing more. One of my favorite things to do in deck building games is to get cards that allow me to draw extra (so you may be wondering why the versions of Spider-Man aren’t on my list, well, that’s because they’re quite dependent on the cost of the heroes, so they aren’t always going to be effective). Mr. Fantastic offers a lot of flexibility as his focus ability is to use recruit points to draw more cards, which means that in the early game you can use them to recruit heroes then, once your deck is streamlined, you can use those same cards to work through your deck. Very cool, and his rare gives a decent amount of attack with the ability to increase it if you fight the mastermind, AND it lets you ignore a fight effect, which could be huge!
#9 – Drax
A new entry from the most recent Guardians of the Galaxy expansion, Drax is the one that stood out the most. I still would like to see how the group interacts with the other characters but I’ve taken an instant like to Drax. He’s all about power. He has artefacts that give you an attack each turn, cards which you can use to discard and potentially KO other cards, and his rare doubles your attack. Simple but effective, especially when you’ve been collecting loads of shards. Doubling attack is massive, and I anticipate it making short work of many of the masterminds
#8 – Elektra
Elektra is just good at everything basically. She has a 1-cost card that gives you two attack if it’s the first card you play on a turn, and I always love the 1 cost cards. Her other cards are powerful, and a couple allow you to draw extra cards. Her rare is recruitment focused, which is a nice change as many other rares are attack-focused, and it lets you put the next hero you recruit into your hand, again basically giving you an extra card. This isn’t as amazing as it sounds because usually by the time you get a rare you’re not really looking to add to your deck, but for her all-round play Elektra definitely makes my list, the rare is just cool because it gives you potentially 7 recruitment on its own, so you could get another rare straight away.
#7 – Angel
Speaking of drawing cards here’s the master. Angel is all about cycling through the deck, and a lot of times I buy his cards not for the recruitment or attack they offer, but for the ability to move through the deck. Yet he offers the ability for some recruitment or attack power too, so he’s just a solid hero that can help you achieve some cool combos.
#6 – Spider-Woman
I debated the order of my number five and six, but ultimately Spider-Woman comes in at number six. She has the wall-crawl ability on a number of cards, which I just love. Her other cards let you draw cards based on whether they have attack or recruit icons, which lends either a bit of risk-taking, or an opportunity to plan if you have cards that allow you to place cards on top of your deck. Her cards are pretty powerful too, and I love her rare, which allows you to just recruit a hero for free. As with Elektra’s you might end up getting this card too late to make a significant difference, but if you get it at the right time and there are some other rares available, it’s an incredible card to play.
#5 – The Thing
I do love the powerful heroes, so Hulk and Colossus were ones I heavily considered as well but The Thing has a bit more diversity as a number of his cards give you recruitment, along with the ability to focus your recruitment into other paths. But here is a hero where the rare card just amazes me and I always try to get it whenever I play with him. A five attack anyway, which is good in its own right, but then plus THREE for EVERY other strength hero played? I need to play with a Drax-Thing combo soon. Insanely powerful. I love The Thing.
But there are four I love more!
#4 – Nick Fury
Nick Fury is a character I don’t play with as often as I should, but as I was preparing to make this list I got him out and remembered how much I like him. His strength is based around the other S.H.I.E.L.D heroes, and since you start with 12 of them he’s going to be powerful. So many of his cards are cool, you can KO an agent to gain a Maria Hill to your hand, which is basically a free increase to your recruitment ability, and pumps up the stage for his rare. Another card gives you +1 for each S.H.I.E.L.D hero played, and then his rare allows you to defeat a villain or mastermind whose attack is less than the number of S.H.I.E.L.D heroes in the KO pile! Crazy stuff. I mean, it’s always satisfying to get rid of the starting cards anyway, but now they can actually add to your attack. Fury also makes Maria Hills useful; I basically never use her unless I bring Fury out.
#3 – Iceman
Iceman. Bobby Drake himself. Some heroes combine well with others, some only really work with themselves. Iceman combos amazingly with himself but also works great with others. Most of his cards allow you to draw extra, and then if you combine with ranged heroes you get stronger and stronger. And his rare gives SEVEN attack, which is crazy. If you group him with other ranged heroes (I’m thinking powerful combos would be Thor, Iron Man, Storm and others), he’ll be insanely powerful, and if you go with more instinct and strength heroes (Elektra, Daredevil, Punisher etc) he’ll still be able to combo with himself and the other heroes can work around him. Whenever I play with Iceman he’s always the backbone of my deck.
#2 – Rogue
Ahhhh mon cherie, as Gambit would say. Rogue is just awesome. With her own cards she has a lot of strength anyway, but the main reason she’s my #2 is because of her ‘copy’ cards. I think it’s so cool just to copy another card you have and use its ability. It offers you so many options and gives you a number of strategies to pursue. The rare even lets you copy other players’ cards, which is great fun, especially if you combine another copy card with it. She has the power and the variety that I love, so she fits in with any group of heroes and almost made it to the top of my list. But she couldn’t quite beat out…
#1 – Domino
Domino. Funnily enough I have never actually read a comic involving Domino, so her placing with this list has nothing to do with my affection for the character it’s all about her abilities in the game. She came along in the Dark City expansion along with the Versatile keyword, which allows points to be used for either recruit or attack. I adore this ability as it offers so much flexibility and basically means that instead of buying a card for attack and a card for recruit you can buy one for both, leaving your deck that little bit more streamlined, and making it easer to get to the good cards quicker. She has some 1-cost cards, which could get your deck rolling if they come out early, and soon enough you’ll be using her versatile ability. Her more expensive cards let you get +4 for recruit or attack depending on what icon a discarded card has, so you could get +4 for both if you discard her 1-cost. And then her rare, which lets every versatile ability you use that turn generate both attack and recruit points. I love the combination of affordable cards, flexibility, and power Domino offers. She’s been my favorite ever since Dark City and she’s never let me down.
So that’s my top ten Legendary heroes. I’d love to hear if you agree or disagree with me, and which heroes you’d choose in your own top ten list.