OBJECTIVE OF MARVEL LEGENDARY: Work together to defeat the mastermind 4 times. Earn victory points through the game to be the most legendary hero.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 to 5 players
MATERIALS:Legendary game board, rule book, 560 playing cards.
TYPE OF GAME: Deck Building Card Game
AUDIENCE: 14+
OVERVIEW OF MARVEL LEGENDARY
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- Easy to learn, with fast-paced gameplay
- Features incredible original artwork of Marvel heroes and villains
- Game consists of nearly 600 cards, Full color Game board & Color Rule Book
In Marvel Legendary all the hero players must work together to best the villain four times before time runs out. Only then will the evil be vanquished. Players will also be earning victory points throughout play. At the end of the game when the mastermind is defeated, the player who has earned the most victory points is crowned the most legendary hero!
To defeat the villain, players must build up their decks with various heroes, save innocent bystanders from the chaos of the fight, and work together with other players to prevent the villain’s schemes.
If players fail to stop the mastermind in time, then they will complete their scheme and evil wins! All the heroes will lose and the mastermind will escape.
SETUP
To set up Marvel Legendary, make sure that the playing map is out and laid on a flat surface.
PLAYER DECKS
Each player will receive their own PLayer Deck. The base player deck is composed of 12 cards, 8 S.H.I.E.L.D agents and 4 S.H.I.E.L.D troopers.
BOARD DECKS
There are three decks of 30 cards each that need to be added to the game board faceup. These are S.H.I.E.L.D officers, Wounds, and Bystanders.
SCHEME DECK
A mastermind should be chosen at random. The four tactic cards that go with the mastermind are shuffled and placed facedown on the mastermind section of the board. The mastermind card is placed faceup on top of that.
Next a scheme card is chosen. It is placed on the space for it on the board. The Scheme will have a setup section on it and players will follow the rules on the card for setup. It will also tell you how many scheme twist cards are needed for the villain deck.
VILLAIN DECK
For the villain deck add all the scheme twist cards, then add 5 master strike cards to the deck. Next Villain groups, Henchmen, and bystanders must be added. A table in the rule book tells you how many of each for the number of players.
When adding villain groups, the first added will always be based on the mastermind card. The other should be chosen randomly.You will add all 8 of the cards for each of the villain groups chosen.
Next the henchman groups should be chosen randomly. All 10 cards of each of the henchman groups should be added.
Add the number of bystanders needed to the deck. The remainder stay on the bystander spot.
Shuffle the finished deck and set it on its villain deck spot.
HERO DECK
To make the hero deck, 5 heroes (6 in a five player game) will be chosen at random. All 14 of the hero cards for each hero are added to the deck. Shuffle it, place it on the hero deck, and flip 5 hero cards face up in the HQ spots.
After the hero deck is finished players will shuffle their decks, draw six cards, and begin the game in a clockwise order from the first player.
GAMEPLAY FOR MARVEL LEGENDARY
On a Player’s turn three main actions are taken. First the player flips and plays the top villain deck card. Secondly the player plays cards from their hand in order to recruit and fight. Third and finally, a player will discard the remaining cards in their hand and draw 6 new cards for their next turn.
PLAYING FROM VILLIAN DECK
At the start of a player’s turn they will play the top card of the villain deck. There are four possible outcomes, a villain card, a bystander, a scheme twist, or a master strike.
VILLAIN CARD
If the card played is a villain card, it enters the city! The new card will be placed in the space closest to the villain deck, the sewers. If there are already villains in the city you will move all villains to the right before adding the new villain.
If a villain moves past the final 5th city space, they have escaped. An escaped villain will be put in the escaped villain’s pile and one of the heroes with cost 6 or less is Knocked Out (KO) of play and put in the KO pile and a new hero is flipped.
If the escaped villain had any bystanders then each player must discard a card from their hand. If the villain has any escaping effects, do them now.
Finally if the new villain has any ambush effects, they are done now.
BYSTANDER
If the drawn card is a bystander then the bystander is placed under the villain in the sewers. If there are no villains in the city the bystander is placed under the mastermind. The bystanders under a villain will move with them through the city. If you defeat a villain or the mastermind with bystanders, the player will collect the bystander cards into their victory pile. A bystander is worth 1 victory point each.
SCHEME TWIST
If a scheme twist card is drawn, the twist effect on the scheme card goes into effect. Unless specified to do otherwise, move the scheme twist card to the KO pile. A special effect when scheme twist 1, or 5/6 is drawn may happen.
MASTER STRIKE
When a master strike card is drawn, players will perform the effect on the mastermind card. Then place the master strike card into the KO pile.
PLAYING FROM HAND
There are two types of cards that will be in your player deck. Heroes and wounds. Wounds do not count as heroes and make your deck weaker. You have the ability to heal wound cards in your hand with certain abilities.
When playing cards on their turn a player will play one card at a time. All of the card’s abilities must be completed before a new card can be played. Once all cards from your hand you want to play are played and completed you will have a number of requiting points and a number of attack points.
SUPERHERO ABILITIES
There are certain cards in Marvel Legendary that have superhero abilities. In order to get these special abilities to activate, you will need to have played a card of the same hero class or hero team. Heroes of the same hero class will share an icon and have the same border color. Cards with the same hero team will share an icon in the top left corner of the cards.
RECRUITING HEROES
When recruiting heroes you may choose one at a time. You can choose heroes from the HQ or S.H.I.E.L.D officers. To recruit you must have enough recruit points to pay the heroes cost, which can be found in the bottom right of the card. Once a hero is taken from the HQ, for any reason, a new hero replaces them immediately. You can recruit multiple heroes if you have enough points. Once a hero is recruited it is put in that player’s discard pile.
ATTACKING VILLAINS
To fight villains you must have enough attack points to do so. The needed number is in the bottom right of the card. You may fight villains one at a time. Once fighting a villain, follow their fight abilities on their card if they have any, then subtract the number of attack points from your total. Once a villain is defeated, put it, and any bystanders under it, into your victory pile. If you have enough attack points available you may fight another villain. You can also fight the mastermind, see below for more detail.
DISCARD AND DRAW
As the last action on a player’s turn they will discard all the cards played in front of them this turn and all remaining cards from their hand. The player will then draw 6 new cards. If a player does not have enough cards to draw the full 6 cards, then their discard pile is shuffled and forms a new deck. Only shuffle your discard pile when you need to draw a card or reveal a card and you have no cards left in your draw pile.
MASTERMIND
To defeat the mastermind you have to defeat them 4 times. To fight the mastermind, you must have enough attack points, if you do then you will pull one random tactics card from under the mastermind. This tactic card will be placed in your victory pile, along with any current bystanders under the mastermind. Follow the fight instruction on the tactics card. You may fight the mastermind multiple times in your turn.
END OF GAME
The game ends once the mastermind has been defeated 4 times. All players win. There is an optional Final Showdown at the end of the game if players wish to implement it.
FINAL SHOWDOWN
After defeating the mastermind, the player will discard and draw as usual. Starting with the next player, the showdown begins. Players on their turn will play the cards from their hands only. Instead of recruiting or fighting all recruiting points and attack points are totaled together. This total will be the player’s showdown score. The player with the highest score gets to take the mastermind card into their victory pile.
If there is a tie, then the tied players have another showdown until a victor is found.
Players then total all points in their victory piles, the player with the most points is crowned the most legendary hero.
SOLO PLAY
To play Marvel Legendary alone a few changes need to be made to the game and decks. For the hero deck, three heroes are used. Ignore the villain group on the Mastermind card, and choose all villain groups randomly. Two schemes cannot be used, Super Hero Civil War, and Negative Zone Prison Break. The villain deck will be made up of the following, once random villain group, 3 henchmen of the same group, 1 bystander, 1 master strike, the number of scheme twists listed on the scheme card for solo play.
When you finish a scheme twist you will KO a hero from HQ.
If you win then you may score your victory. Add up all your victory points and subtract 4 points for every bystander you did not save, subtract 3 points for every scheme twist that occurred, and subtract 1 point for every escaped villain. This will be your final score.
EXPANSIONS AND ADD-ONS
In the base game the difficulty of play can be increased using the table in the back of the book. There are also a total of 33 expansions for the game, and an additional 2 stand alone games in the series as well.
Below we will discuss the top three Legendary expansions.
INTO THE COSMOS
Leave the restrictions of Earth with this expansion. You will expand your game into space, adding new fun heroes, and even more powerful villains to Marvel Legendary. This expansion comes with a total of 200 new cards and a rules sheet for the new material. This includes 9 new heroes, and 3 new masterminds, and much more.
WORLD WAR HULK
Bring on the chaos with this larger than life World war Hulk expansions. It has 400 new cards to be added to Marvel Legendary. This includes 15 new heroes, such as She-Hulk, Hulkbuster, and Gladiator Hulk! There is also trouble on the horizon with 6 new masterminds waiting to complete their schemes.
VENOM
Venom may be the smallest of the expansions at 100 new cards, but it still packs a vicious punch. This expansion introduces Venom and Carnage into the Legendary universe, and brings new challenges such as Symbiote villains and extreme violence. This expansion comes with 5 new heroes, and 2 dreadful masterminds. See if you can protect the city from the spread.
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