Ant-Man's Avengers vs. Loki [My Personal Favorite Game]

I built this deck because I hadn't used Ant-Man in about a year, and I wanted a strong, dependable Avenger to use in my first ever game against Loki from The Mad Titan's Shadow. I knew from reputation that Loki was going to be among the hardest scenarios in the game, and didn't lose hope when I got crushed in a couple of turns the first game.

The second game was my most memorable game of Marvel Champions ever, one that legitimately gave me an adrenaline rush over the last few phases. Here's my takeaways after playing this game.

Ant-Man's Cards Are Astonishing

It's funny how much I underestimated how good Ant-Man's kit really is. Ant-Man's Helmet is one of the craziest upgrades around, rewarding you every turn after you've played it and sometimes twice when you get to play Resize, which is a best in class form changer card because it fully replaces itself. Wrist Gauntlets feels like it should be prohibitive to execute, but with Pym Particles and Wasp around it isn't unreasonable to have wild resources to go along with the Basic Doubles. Being able to stun Loki (which admittedly, you can't always do) at a key moment saved my game.

I also cannot overstate the very simple inherent value of doing something every time you change form. The Infinity Stones did a lovely job of keeping Scott stunned or confused for much of the game, but the triggered abilities of swapping from Ant-Man to Giant-Man are not affected by these status cards and helped maintain control as I finagled a safe situation to exhaust and clear those cards. Giant-Man's 1 damage on form change remains the best way to clear off Toughs I can think of, since you don't even have to risk a villain scheming to pull it off. And similarly Army of Ants is one of the best value engines around, essentially working as 3 allies that don't take consequential damage or effect your ally limit. Ant-Man is just good, but he never teeters over the edge where I feel like I'm breaking the game.

Yellowjacket is a Menace

The scariest single thing that happened in this game was getting hit with Shadow in the Past near the end of the deck cycle. Not only does Tech Theft neutralize your Helmet for at least the turn it takes to thwart it, but Size Increase is one of the most terrifying upgrades to put on a villain because you cannot remove it. I got both attached to Loki in the final turns in the game, as well as Loki's Staff and Loki's Crown, making him functionally a 20 Hit Point villain with 7 attack and 8 scheme. At that point, you can't let him scheme and you don't want to take hits, but you also accept that you're probably losing and you just have to let the cards play out.

Allies Save The Day

So I built this deck because I want to use Mighty Avengers and Captain America, cards from this set that I haven't fully explored. It became evident early on that was not going to pan out against Loki, as the Infinity Gauntlet and some forms that have 2 or 3 base attack and cards like Laufey that give insane boost value made it obvious that almost every ally I played was going to come in, activate once and chump block. Thank goodness Loki doesn't have Overkill in his kit or my day would have been ruined. Fortunately, having a full fifth of the deck devoted to allies and three copies of Make the Call, I was able to get a blocker in place almost every turn, a lifesaver when Yellowjacket's upgrades made Loki a monster. Even Stinger is worth the Call when all you need is a wall against one more attack.

So much went wrong this game. The critical mass of Upgrades on the Villain. Lauffey showing up and forcing me to use Giant Stomp as minion removal instead of making a dent in the villain's HP. The Stuns preventing me from getting value out of Giant Strength for most of the game. But I also had jawdropping moments - flipping Advance as the Boost card so the Main Scheme went to 11 instead of 12, giving me one more turn. Being forced to take this monstrous Loki's attack to the face and getting Infinite Mischief as the boost, making for two nail biting card reveals before surviving with 1 Hit Point. This allowed my Giant Stomp and Army of Ants to do the exact 11 damage I needed to beat Loki's second form and win the game.

This game is often frustrating because of how bad things snowball out of control and make you feel like you can't win. Often times, the games we win are the ones where we took control and prevented bad stuff from happening. But every once in a while, bad stuff happens, but not enough and you snatch a victory from the jaws of seemingly certain defeat.

I've played countless games of Marvel Champions, but this one will stick with me forever.