March 21, 2025 • 40 mins
Welcome to Road to Knowhere, a Marvel Champions LCG podcast. This episode's guest is Dristin. This is the third in a series of conversations about the MODOK League Season 03 draft: preparation for the draft, drafting strategy, and hero matchups against the four scenarios. Please go listen to Episode 55---or visit the league website linked below---for a more detailed overview of the season.
MODOK Season 03 League website: https://modokleague.wordpress.com/modok-league-season-03-big-bads-season/
MODOK League Discord server: https://discord.gg/6b4zBfchhA
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Hey friendos, welcome to the Road to Nowhere, a Marvel
Champions LCG podcast. Today we're talking about the
Modoc League season 3 draft. Modoc League is a Marvel
Champions organization designed only for couples.
Modoc it is a two hero team league where people can play
with a partner or two handed on their own.
(00:30):
This season is played with a modified version of expert using
standard three with the twist that an extra pursued counter is
put on pursued by the past at the start of each villain phase.
So we have 4 challenges this season, Ultron with Under Attack
and Infinity Gauntlet, Strife with Hope Summers, Personal
(00:50):
Nightmare and an Acronauts. This is a Con of Heroes
challenge from last year. Red Skull with Hydro patrol,
State of Emergency and Brothers Grimm Mojo with Black Tom
Cassidy, Super Strength flight and telepathy.
And this season features 2 divisions, A10 team real time
(01:11):
division that drafted live and anine team turn based division
that drafted asynchronously over2 days.
Each team drafted against the other teams to pick 4 heroes,
one from each of four different groups.
Leadership was banned. And if you want more details on
the season, I recorded episode 55 as a preview to this.
(01:34):
You can go listen to that, get alittle bit more on the details.
I'm your host, Josh Saru, and it's time to take you to my
conversation with Tristan. And joining us is Tristan.
Tristan, how are things going today?
These are going good. Just got home from work.
Excited to just talk about some Marvel champions.
Get my work out of my mind for the weekend and.
(01:55):
OK. Talk about how excited this
draft was. A little severance action for
you. So yeah, so today I wanted to,
you know, learn a little bit about your preparation for the
draft and then, you know, you know, once you had your heroes,
how you're thinking about deploying them for for the
various scenarios. Really.
(02:15):
So, and why don't you start us off with how you're preparing
for the draft? For whatever reason, I'm not
sure why, I got hyper focused onround one Ultron for my draft
strategy. Because it's the first one.
It's the first one, and also maybe talk about it a little bit
later. The other scenarios I haven't
really played a whole lot other than maybe once or twice.
(02:38):
So I really don't have kind of asense of what they can bring.
Even on Expert. I think I've only played them in
standard. So it would seem like almost
every hero I was going to pick or I did end up picking was
centered around dealing with those drones in the first
rounds. I knew I needed something for
that and actually my first pick was not that far up on my list.
(03:03):
But once it got to me and I saw some other other topics being
taken, I think Cable's been number one on my list for every,
every season we've done this. So I wanted to get him, but he
always goes pretty quickly. And then once it dropped out of
me, my initial thought was I wasgoing to go with Rocket right
away because of his his upgradesand his weapons that he can use
(03:27):
to pretty much clear the board. But with being pretty low in the
draft order, I knew I was going to have two picks so much
back-to-back, so Rocket was likely to be there anyways.
So I went for the one that was almost banned with my first pick
with Nova right? Because that's enticing.
Yeah, so. When I, when we had the
(03:48):
discussion on the Discord about banning potentially him as a
hero, I started to look a littlemore deep into why is he going
to be banned? What, what does he offer that
others don't offer? And then I remembered back in
the solo Champions League where people were getting one turn
wins with him because of a justice bill that the people
were taken advantage of. And so I thought, you know,
(04:10):
let's try that. Let's see if that'll work.
And so let me just real quickly,just for the listeners, so that
you were participating in the real time draft, you were 9 out
of 10. And so this was kind of, you
know, 9th pick first round, you're looking at it and you're
saying Nova. Yeah, yeah.
(04:32):
Of the of the kind of heroes that were left that were those S
tier heroes, I don't know if he'd really be considered an St.
hero because he kind of needs the perfect scenario for him to
be that way. Or you can get a lot of minions
out or you can get a lot of sideschemes out, but every, every
turn with Ultron, you can have aminion on the board if you want.
(04:56):
And so it landed himself pretty good to be able to take care of
that. So and I just, I, my real
strategy for the draft was I want some heroes that are going
to participate well in it, but Ialso don't want to play a bunch
of heroes that I don't get to play very often.
So we're we're we're getting deep into the Marvel Champions
(05:18):
where if you have everything andif you're not playing every day,
there's probably a lot of heroesyou haven't touched like I have.
And there's still some that I'vemaybe got one playing with and
that's about it. So I really want to play those.
And that's what I use SCL for. That's what I use Modoc for
personally, is to just play moreheroes that I don't get a chance
(05:38):
to play. I think outside of that one one
round and solo Champions League,I haven't played Noble a whole
lot. So it's just interesting to take
a hero potentially could be verygood for this match up and just
see how good he can actually do.Yeah, I I like that a lot.
(05:59):
And then you, as you said, you also kind of like rock it for
for being able to do this in part because the the the drone
minions have piddly health and so it's pretty easy to trigger
his murdered you ability. Yeah, especially once I started
to kind of rework the decks and think about how can I get is
(06:21):
they both have that one attack. So for Rocket to trigger his
murder Ubility, he needs that extra attack.
So adding him in aggression and adding in the combat training
definitely helps to be easy for him to get that.
If you can hit him with that, that the rocket launcher that
does 2 damage everything, you'regoing to be drawing a lot of
cards really quickly. So I think I just with round
(06:47):
two, I continue the trend of let's pick somebody that's going
to do well against Ultron. For whatever reason, I didn't, I
wasn't sure if Nova was going tobe able to handle it on his own
if he needed some help because Ihadn't tested any of these
heroes before the draft. So I continue to just pick
anybody that might potentially be beneficial against Ultron.
(07:12):
Again, Rocket somebody that somebody that I haven't played a
lot. I've played him through, you
know, the Galaxy's Most Wanted and got wrecked the first couple
of times I played him because that's a that's a difficult box,
as everybody knows. But I haven't played him much
since then. I think it kind of turned me off
when you're going through all those scenarios.
I was like, I don't really like Rocket that much.
(07:33):
And then playing him and againstother villains he he's become
quite fun. Yes, I adore Rocket, so I
endorsed. So then I get a long yeah.
Go ahead. And I get a long wait till my
next pick. And I think that's where kind of
things spiral. A lot of control for what was
(07:55):
available left. Because I really like a lot of
people have talked about so far,they kind of prioritize which
group they wanted to focus on. Like looking at, oh, there's a
lot of heroes in this group thatI'd be OK with taking even if it
was the last pick, or I was justlike, I'm going to rank all my
heroes from 1 to 44 and I'm going to try and take the ones
(08:16):
towards the top. Then I had to wait a while and I
almost didn't get my next pick because somebody picked it
earlier, but I think they had too many people in one group.
Some people seem to be down on Colossus, but I have a lot of
(08:37):
fun with him. I've played him a couple of
times. I've gotten to play with more.
Some of my friends here in the area.
You know, I've played Colossus when we did like an X-Men
campaign of just all X-Men. I took Colossus because he was
the probably the more difficult of the ones to play.
I'm the one that has a little bit more experience than than
the people that play in my play group and they play whenever I
(08:59):
bring it, But that's about it, right?
You know, we're talking solo Champions League and Modoc.
You're getting a lot of games inif you've been around a while a
while like I have So, but I wasn't really again, wasn't
thinking of future match ups, but it looks like Colossus might
(09:19):
work out well for some of the like Strife, for example, where
you want that low hand size. It could be very beneficial.
And then my last pick went with Gamora again, because any time I
trigger a Thor event, I get to do that one damage and that's
the potential to take out another drone.
And we're getting to the end of the draft.
(09:39):
And I think I had to pick somebody out of Group 2.
I had Gamora ranked pretty high,but there were definitely some
good heroes in Group 2 that werestill left.
That may be. Thinking back, I might have
redrafted somebody else like an Adam Warlock.
Would have been fun in this scenario too.
(10:01):
Oh, right, yeah, so rogue. Yeah.
So I'm just looking at this, it looks like Rogue, Adam Warlock,
Nebula, Valkyrie were those are all available to you as well as
Gamora. So it almost looks like I tried
to plan out a lot of Group 2 would be left.
(10:23):
I'd have a lot of a lot of picksthere, but it was not a plan or
a part of my strategy. But just listening to a lot of
the other people talk about whattheir strategies were, it's
interesting to see how much depth they put into planning out
the draft and how how prepared they were for it.
(10:44):
It's definitely something I'll have to up my game for next
season. Yeah, do you?
Do you picture yourself being a person who would make this
highly detailed 19 column spreadsheet?
I don't. Know if I'll go that that far.
It's it's a little tough with myjob right now, but I get the
summers off because I'm a teacher.
(11:04):
So if the next the next one falls somewhere near the summer,
I could definitely have some time to prepare a little bit
more in depth. But it definitely, I think I, I
think one of the the key things that may be my downfall because
I did not consider at all how much, how often we would be
seeing our nemesis in these games.
(11:26):
And so thankfully I didn't take something like Phoenix.
But you know, considering, you know, Colossus is going to have
that big juggernaut come out at some point during the game and
I'm going to have to deal with that no matter what.
It's going to be rough in some games.
And Nebula is also very annoying, yeah.
(11:47):
Laura, at least with Standard three, I can kind of see it
coming. So I can make sure that that
Nebula, the Nebula ally is not out and just doesn't get wiped
off the board like it has sometimes when I've been played
just regular Standard. At least I can kind of see it
coming or at least have an indication of when it might come
up. So that if there's around 3
(12:09):
counters on on that blanked on the name of the card right now,
the Nemesis, the one that bringsout the Nemesis, If there's
three counters on there, I couldjust, well, I'm just going to
use Nebula as a resource. So she's definitely, definitely
difficult to deal with when she comes out, even without wiping
the the ally off the board. Yeah, So what have you decided
(12:37):
you're going to do in terms of who you're going to take to
Ultron now? Because you, I mean, Colossus
doesn't seem like a very good Ultron matchup, obviously
because all the little pings, you know, death by 1000 cuts.
Yeah, I might. I actually think I I might.
I'm going to test out a Colossusdeck here soon with Nova,
(12:58):
because I did. I have been running Nova Justice
and Rocket Aggression and I justfound that if if I can make sure
that I get unleashed the Nova Force on my hands, nobody else
has to worry about a minion on the board ever.
Yes, yes. And so I really don't need
rocket. What I what I really need is
somebody that can absorb that first big Ultron hit as I found
(13:20):
in the in the games I played. If I can survive the first
rounds, I really don't take any more damage from the decks that
I have built because I'm throwing out, you know, a decent
number of allies to just be blockers and do a couple things
over here. But Nova is really doing the
brunt of the work, especially ifI can get miss Marvel out and
(13:40):
just keep recurring that unleashthe Nova force.
I'm actually looking forward like every time I'm picking to
put minions on the board when I have a choice for afters part
after adding from what is the stage 2 when you have to make
that decision to add to threat or one minion.
I'm choosing that every time because it just gives them a
(14:01):
Nova more card draw and more opportunities to ready, more
opportunities to pay for things.I don't know that some some
people mention his side schemes are so bad that Nova is happy to
take those side schemes where itdrops more minions onto the
board, especially if he's set upwith that unleash the Nova
force. So what I think I might do might
(14:24):
I haven't tested the classic deck, but I'm going to try and
see if getting colossus too tough that first round and he
just takes both both attacks first round as the first player
and then hopefully give him sometime to build and flip back.
And with Nova, being able to flip back and forth, what I've
kind of been doing is everybody,somebody's been flipping almost
(14:45):
every turn. For me, when I'm going against
Ultron, as long as I can get that, that Unleash the Nova,
Force down, keep that in my hand, I'm going through my deck
about every two turns with Nova.So it's pretty fun, but it's a
lot. It's there's a lot of steps to
do all the little things right in the right order with Nova,
(15:05):
which can be difficult at times.You were saying in that case
that you might go Clausus as as first player.
So then you have to make sure you clean up those other drones,
right? If you do that, yeah, if you
make him go second, you can makeit so you didn't even have to
clean up his drones. Right, yeah, I was just more
(15:30):
thinking that if I make him go first, then he can he can
technically block Ultron's attack without having to to
defend essentially and then he could defend for Nova as well.
As long as I've I choose not to take the the drones on Colossus
side, I could just add the two thread and hopefully clear that
(15:51):
off with Nova the next turn. At least that's the strategy.
I've found that a lot of times my strategy sometimes sound good
in practice and then you get it to the board and try it out and
it blows up in your face sometimes and we'll go from
there. I have gotten, I have, I have
gotten a win with with Nova and Rocket against just in practice
(16:12):
against Ultron. So that is always a backup if I
want to fall back to it. I just found that Rocket wasn't
really doing anything. His attacks are so low as well
that he's really and his economyis not great either.
Sometimes when you're flipping back and forth that you can get
rid of some of those weapons. It works out well.
But I just could never get his board state built like I could
(16:34):
somebody else. Nova is pretty much set up and
go, so it was really hard for meto get Rocket to actually
contribute to the to the round. It's a bit of a duplication of
of effort, right? If, if, if you're wanting nobody
to take care of all the minions,what is Rocket supposed to do?
Yeah, I I tried, I tried a little bit to leave some minions
(16:55):
for Rocket, especially the ones that he's engaged with.
With some I think it's bring it hitting him to draw some cards
that way and then overkilling some minions to help him draw
some more cards. But it was still a lot for him
to get down and just whatever I was doing at the economy was
just not working for Rocket to get him up and running and be
like super aggressive like he should be.
(17:17):
Right. So have you, have you started to
think about any of the other matchups?
Yeah, and it's kind of it's a little bit all over the place
where I know that I mentioned Strife Colossus would be good
either and I can get protection like a good protection deck
against Strife or a good justicedeck against Strife with
(17:37):
Colossus because he does like toflip back and forth to get those
tusks back on him. I think it's definitely going to
be Colossus going against Strife.
But in terms of who else I'm going to take, you know, if I
can get some rocket overkill to avoid the strife on his stage 3,
I think would would bypass his force response.
I think because it says after you attack Strife.
(18:00):
So if you overkill on a Strife, it should not trigger that force
response. I know there's some good.
If there's some good over, I know there's some good overkill
decks with Rocket. So he's he's probably a
potential if I, if I don't choose to bring him an
aggression with with Ultron, he's he most likely is going to
do an aggression overkill deck with Strife.
(18:21):
And then Colossus will just be there because the, the, the
limiting of that, you know, the plus attack that Strife gets
whenever he attacks them based on the number of cards in your
hand. The the interesting thing with
those two is that each of them can get one of their base stats
up to three because rocking can get his forward up to three and
(18:42):
then Colossus can get his attackup to three.
And so that you can use that to to also leverage hope in that
scenario. Yeah, yeah.
And that's another thing that other people have mentioned that
I'm not really consider is how can we how but definitely with
those two would be really good to get at some point.
You know, on turn on the turns where she's with Colossus, she's
(19:02):
attacking and on the turns she'swith Rocket, she's thwarting and
basically taking care of a lot of the stuff that basically
acting like almost another hero in those in those cases in terms
of necks with Red Skull on it seems like you would almost have
to go justice with somebody withhim is what my thought is.
(19:25):
What do you think? Yeah.
And well, and it it is one of those ones where you're a bit
less inclined to just kind of let those side schemes build up
so that Nova can clear a whole bunch at once.
So Nova might be despite the fact that there's going to be
lots of side schemes, Nova mightnot be the automatic choice.
(19:47):
Yeah, I mean, if I if I take Nova, it would probably be
aggression with adding some heroic intuition for him from
somebody else being justice. Like I think Gomorrah could fit
really well, but she doesn't necessarily have to go justice
if I don't want her to. But it does give her, it does
give her an upper hand in helping dealing with those side
schemes. And even when she is dealing
with those side schemes she's thwarting, she's also pinging
(20:09):
those. There's huge amount of Tufts
that are going on the Red Skull anyways, so I think there's some
good synergy there with her going justice, thwarting a lot.
Doing those single damage thingson on Red Skull would probably
be pretty good. Because I was really, once I
drafted her, I was really kind of struggling of like, where do
I fit Gamora into this whole league?
(20:31):
I got to use everybody at least once.
I think Red Skull would be a pretty good spot for her.
Yeah, she has great base tests. And just like with everybody
else, I talked about drafted, it's been a long, long time
since I've played Gamora. So it's it's going to be every,
every round for me is like a relearning experience where I
(20:52):
have to relearn how to do these heroes and have to figure out
what is their best option, like who are they going to be best
against. I think it's a good little
mental exercise for the for the for the season.
Yeah, I like that. I guess then you got mojo.
(21:17):
Yeah, I was jotting down some things before we got on and I,
you know, I've only played him once.
I think it was in standard. So I don't even think that I've
seen the full capability of Mojo.
I played through, you know, the little card pack that they came
in, the Mojo card pack. I played through everybody and
(21:39):
that was one of the bad things for last season when I drafted.
I think that's why I had such a focus on round one for me this
season because round one last season kind of killed me based
on the heroes. So I took 2 heroes who wanted to
take damage a lot. I had Wolverine and I had
Bishop. So when you're thinking about
Magog not wanting to do any damage, kind of got a little bit
(22:02):
of shell shock when I started playing.
It's, oh, he's going to be adding two counters every turn
because with my heroes want to take damage.
But Mojo should be interesting and should be interesting to
see. Just get him to the table,
testing him out. Possibility of just doing a
complete rush strategy if I still have some aggression left
for some of the heroes. Just doing 2 aggressions and
(22:23):
just running at it and seeing what happens and leaving the
thread on the board that stays on the board.
Yeah, well, there's there's quite a Oh, sorry, go ahead.
It is one of the lower health poles of the of the villains
we're going to be facing. So yeah, there's a little bit of
potential of the rush, but. Because the timer is is also
(22:49):
based on how many of the extra modulars have been put in, you
know, so it matters how fast you're going through his deck.
You always have the option to flip down.
Where you don't, you don't actually take that, you know,
discard four or five cards, partof it all.
So there's there's an opportunity to kind of do a
(23:09):
pseudo rush, but you're actually, you know, keeping the
threat slightly under control while you're doing all the
damage. Yeah, I like the challenge.
You know, all the all these heroes that they're at the end
of their boxes or scenario packsare all, they all have their
unique things. They're all extremely different
from each other. Do you have to really plan for
(23:32):
each one of them? You, you pretty much have to
build your deck around those villains.
Even if it was something like, Iknow we don't have Ronan, but
you really have to, you really have to plan.
You can't just say, oh, I'm going to take just this random
deck that I have played against this villain.
You have to, you have to plan for them.
(23:53):
I know you mentioned that you'vebeen testing a little bit.
How have your test games been going so far?
Oh, thanks for asking. Well, we, we've, I, I don't
think anything has changed sincethe last time I was talking
about that. So we, we started playing
against Mojo just to make sure our game plan against Mojo
seemed like it was going to work.
And then we played a little bit of we played a couple games
(24:15):
against Ultron now I guess, and we were trying to see if we
could get a A6 turn win against Ultron and unsuccessfully.
So we got, we got an 8 turn win,but not a six turn 1.
So I maybe I've played one more game since I last spoke about
it, but I like it feels like we have a good, a good plan of
(24:35):
attack. But you know, it's one of those
things after you play a game, you start brainstorming other
ways you could have done it. And then you're like, oh, maybe
we should try all these other things before we actually lock
in our choice. I think the the first time I
played against Ultron, we're testing with Nova and rocket
they I was things were going great and I actually looked like
(24:55):
I was going to have a six turn win.
And then I forgot that when I flipped him, he adds a hit point
to those drones. And so Nova, even with even with
unleash the Nova force had no answer.
Those two hit point drones. So I think that's why in the
next whoever I get paired with, Nova has got to go aggression so
I can get that combat training down so that he does have the
(25:18):
ability to just basic attack for2:00 every single time and wipe
those drones out. That is kind of the same
experience we had in our first game as well.
We we, we got to the second stage or the third stage very
quickly and then and then kind of stalled out after all of a
sudden everything felt so easy against the one health drones
(25:39):
and then felt so much more difficult against the two health
ones. I noticed that today, was it
today that you added all the allthe thoughts on the next season
for? So you've added quite a bit of
of options here. What do you think is?
What do you think is the most interesting choice that people
(26:01):
are going to be voting on? I don't know, this is just,
yeah, kind of I've been brainstorming some future
seasons and thinking about, you know, you know, the very, the
very first season was just a bunch of kind of somewhat nasty
scenarios I had been playing around with in my brain and
cooking up. And then the second season I
(26:24):
took the creative constraint of saying, well, I'm going to make
all the added modulars just be nemesis sets because that's a
really a really fun way to get to interact with those things in
a different way. And then so you know, I took all
the nemesis sets and started to think, or maybe I went through
the villains, I can't remember which order.
But anyway, you know, I did somemixing and matching to see where
(26:47):
where things would match up. And so then, you know, kind of
some similar things like that with in this case, you know, do
a similar thing with back of thehero pack modulars that are ones
that most of us have definitely played far fewer times than any
of the other modular sets. And then, you know, some other
resources for scenarios that areout there, like Astrodars
(27:10):
community suggested scenarios that he's been curating or even
the con of heroes challenges that are often pretty nasty.
So as kind of good starting points for for some of the
different types of scenarios we could we could be doing.
Did you, did you have a look through or is there anything in
there that's feeling especially enticing to you?
Yeah, I was able to glance at ita little bit today.
(27:32):
I think the one that pops out tome just because we mentioned a
little bit before is the redeeming Galaxies Most Wanted.
Taking out some of those rough edges just because I feel like I
never got a good handle on that box and I have never conquered
that box. Like I feel like I can run
through some of the other boxes pretty easily even on expert
mode. But it's, it's, it's a struggle
(27:53):
for me with Galaxies Most Wanted, even a struggle to
convince myself to get it to thetable, unless it's one of these,
unless it's Modoc League or SCLI, don't really get those
scenarios to the board very often.
So I'd like to, I'd like to see what what you have in mind for
how the redeeming qualities, howwe could, you know, fix those
(28:13):
rough edges on that to kind of make it a more enjoyable
experience. Yeah, or make make the
difficulty come from a differentplace than it currently is.
I think is part of how I'm, I'm thinking about it, right?
Because ultimately these, you know, the MOTOC leak scenarios
tend to be pretty high difficulty.
(28:34):
So oh, go ahead. I think even with just the
simple thing of removing some ofthose surges on specific cards,
because there are some cards that I think the way they
intended surges, this card is going to provide you with
something, but it's not an immediate threat.
So we're going to surge and makeyou see another encounter card.
So there is an immediate threat for a lot of the ones on the
(28:57):
Galaxies Most wanted that have that.
Serge or no, we're going to giveyou an immediate threat right
now, and we're going to make youdraw another card.
Which is kind of the standard two problem too, right?
Yeah, I think they, the designers kind of took to heart
the the idea that things have gotten too easy and Marvel
(29:18):
Champion. So they they kind of threw
together what I would say is thehardest box and it was only the
second expansion. So yeah, they kind of, they kind
of backed off on some of the difficulty and gone more.
So the Let's make everything unique, which I I tend to enjoy
a little bit more, is making every scenario feel different.
(29:38):
Agreed. Yeah, I think, you know, I think
some of the other frustrations honestly with with things in
that box are just some of the some of the conditions that are
things that are hard to dig yourself out from.
Like nebulas, I forget what the counters are called, but the
counters that nebula accumulatesor with the collector and the
(30:00):
collection that there's a limit on the number of times that you
can decrease those things in a turn per player.
And even even just lifting that restriction could just make a
world of difference in terms of how it feels like you could
actually tackle those things. Yeah, because especially with
the collector, you're using resources to do those things.
It's not just something you get to.
(30:21):
I mean, you do get to just, you know, tap your hero to do it.
But maybe if you the tapping part, which should be the
restriction. But if you wanted to spend 2
resources as many times as you wanted, I don't think that
would. I don't think that would make
the scenario any less more any less difficult.
(30:42):
No, it's it, it, it feels almostlike an artificial constraint.
Yeah, right. Because you're, you're choosing
to spend all your tempo on trying to solve this problem on
the board. It doesn't feel like there
should be any major constraint on that.
But yeah, so I have some, I havesome thoughts about that one.
(31:03):
You know, some other things, people.
I also proposed something is missing one where you do things
like play without standard expert sets, you know, kind of
substitute in some some other things that can do some of that
work, but not necessarily the exact same thing.
So just changing how some of these scenarios feel at a much
(31:27):
more, you know, base level. So that might be in that might
be a real opportunity for some fun creativity.
Yeah, you definitely come up with some unique things with
these scenarios. Just the simple, like you said,
just the simple thing of skipping state, skipping stage
one of the of the scheme for Ultron this season.
(31:50):
It's just you don't have to worry about it.
Whereas a lot of people would bereally like, especially in solo
Champions League where you have a threat threshold of three,
it's almost impossible to keep it at 3 when you're just doing
it single player. Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, it it is. It's fun to figure out, kind of
(32:13):
look at those and and see where there might be opportunities
just to just to turn a little dial a bit to make it a little
bit more difficulty or a little bit more difficult.
Yeah, I definitely. I definitely appreciate those
more than just saying let's playon a heroic and deal extra
everybody an extra counter card.I'd much rather tweak the little
things that we have. You know, the designers are kind
(32:37):
of limited as well because they have to come up with something
to make things harder. Whereas you as you're making it,
you can just, I'm going to, thisis the way it's going to work
and just everybody has to pay attention to that.
It's not really something that designers of the game can do.
Yeah, well, and we have had somemore recent modular sets.
(32:59):
You know, I mean, I, I think I like the Infinity Gauntlet way
more than most people do. But you know, the Infinity
Gauntlet is a great example of the other set you can just
include and it increases the difficulty without question.
And then the strength, telepathyand light from Mr. Sinister are
other ones that for the most part you just add those into any
(33:24):
scenario and it increases the difficulty.
I think my biggest hang up with the Infinity Gauntlet is that I
forget to do it sometimes. Yeah.
So I feel like I've cheated through it sometimes.
I feel like I've gone through some scenarios that have had it
with that box with Loki and Lokiand then I'm just like, oh wait,
I haven't done the Infinity Gauntlet in like 3 turns.
(33:45):
I should have probably lost by now.
Yes, this is where I'm really happy.
I have a 19 year old brain that I don't have a 19 year old
brain. I'm playing the game with a 19
year old brain sitting across the table from me, paying
attention to these things that my old and atrophied brain
often. Forgets.
(34:05):
Yeah, because we, I mean, you, you've been around solo
Champions League for a long time, just like I have.
And, you know, sometimes we don't even read the text on the
cards anymore. We've played them so often.
But we'll go back and look at it.
Oh, I've been playing this card wrong the entire time I've been
playing Marvel Champions becauseI never read the card.
(34:27):
You know, or I read it when I had a different understanding of
the rules. Yeah, it's, it's definitely I
have to take teach myself to slow down a little bit,
especially playing two handed where everything I'm just think
I almost have found, you know, watching some people play on
YouTube. It's just taught me if I just
talked myself through it out loud, it's a lot more of those
(34:50):
mistakes as well. Even though I'm just sitting
there, you know, people that walk in the room might think I'm
I'm crazy and talking to anotherperson that I'm imagining, but
it is it helps slow down the game.
I think, and I think that's my biggest problem when I'm playing
by myself is the reason I make those mistakes.
I'm just going too fast because I everything is just clicking
fast in my head and I'm not slowing down to realize the
(35:12):
mistakes I'm making. Yeah, fully agreed.
That's how I usually do my solo Champions League rounds.
I I actually just sit down and Irecord them and I talk through
my turns and then at some point if I ask myself, oh crap, did I
remember that Infinity Gauntlet?I can pause the video and rewind
(35:34):
and double check and that sort of thing.
Yeah, I've, I've not gotten to the stage where I'm recording
things, but I just, I don't havethe equipment or the capability.
But it's definitely something that would be interesting to
watch yourself play because whenyou see other people play, I've
watched some YouTube videos about it and you know, you can
(35:56):
see, oh, how would I do this differently?
Or I would have done this instead and listen to people
talk through their process. I think that's one of the things
that when you ask for suggestions about the solo
Champions League podcast, that that aspect of it like reviewing
the rounds, I think that's why Isuggested.
I just want to hear people talk about what they're what they did
(36:16):
as kind of a confession. I am a terrible deck builder.
Any, any deck building game I'veever played, It's been me
learning from other people is how I get better at the game.
And me taking other people's decks and tweaking them to fit
the scenario is how I actually do better.
(36:38):
Because I played some deck voting games in the past where I
just, I put something together and it's been a competitive deck
voting game and it's just blown up in my face.
Well, I mean, I, my, my experience has often been, you
know, that I haven't necessarilyhad the time to invest in
(37:00):
knowing the card pool as well asyou need to, to be a really
highly effective deck builder. So you kind of become a tweaker,
like you're saying, where you, you take people who have been
investing all that, and then youfigure out how to adapt those
things to your specific playstyle or the, you know, the
situation that this deck is being taken up against or
(37:21):
anything like that. And I still get great joy out of
that. Yeah, I just looking and that's
that's kind of how I start my deck building process.
I'm going to go on Marvel CDB. I'm going to find a deck that
kind of is at least the aspect that I'm looking for and the
hero that I'm looking for. Read especially the ones that
(37:45):
have been quite the the deck builders and people who've been
quite popular on their finding their decks, seeing what they
do. I love how there's a good
community on there that writes out what their strategy for the
decks are and kind of gives you an insight and you know, is I
can remember, I think the, the one that we're finally clicked
on me that people are doing somereally different things that I'm
(38:07):
doing is where people started toexplain the, the Nick Fury
recursion with the leadership card, rapid response,
understanding that you could usethat during the villain turn to
draw again more cards to recur him again.
And then he's also another blocker again if the the villain
attacks again. Like those types of things I
(38:29):
would have never thought of on my own.
Well, and thank you you you mentioned you had made a
suggestion about doing kind of just talking to people about
their decks in solo Champions League, because the the scoring
in solo Champions League has haschanged and kind of threw me for
(38:52):
a bit of a loop for how I was approaching doing the show.
So I've, I've recorded some conversations with a couple
people that I'll post an episodefairly soon that is just kind of
having those conversations abouttheir their deck.
So I very much appreciate Tristan that you, you made that
suggestion because that was a fun way to sit down and spend
(39:12):
some time chatting with people about Marvel Champions.
It was a slightly different way than I've been doing it before.
Yeah, and that's kind of way theway you have begun a lot of
those recaps of the solo Champions League with the rounds
as you start off by talking about how did they do?
And you know, those are the things I really tune into when
listening to the the episode is how did people do something
(39:34):
differently than I did? Because there's plenty of people
that score better than I do evenwith a new scoring system.
I've been kind of not trying to min Max everything as much as
possible anymore in solo Champions League.
I just kind of want to play a deck and see how good I can do
and if I do good, I do good and if I don't, I don't.
(39:54):
I'm not trying to stress and make a perfect deck to anymore.
So I like to hear from those people who do put the time in
and try to make those perfect decks to the people that you
have on the podcast. Beauty.
Well, you know what, I think that's probably a great point to
end on. Thank you so much for coming on
(40:15):
and telling us about, you know, your approach to the draft and
how you're thinking about your heroes.
Yeah, it was. It was fun.
I enjoy coming on. It's always a fun time always
hearing other people's insight too, and hearing how what what
crazy things you're going to cook up for future seasons.
Yeah, yeah, my, my son actually really enjoys hearing people
(40:36):
talk about how mean I am. He gets a kick out of that.
And, and thank you dear listeners, for for tuning in and
hopefully we'll see you in the next episode.
Hey friendos, welcome to the Road to Nowhere, a Marvel
Champions LCG podcast. Today we're talking about the
Modoc League season 3 draft. Modoc League is a Marvel
Champions organization designed only for couples.
Modoc it is a two hero team league where people can play
with a partner or two handed on their own.
(00:30):
This season is played with a modified version of expert using
standard three with the twist that an extra pursued counter is
put on pursued by the past at the start of each villain phase.
So we have 4 challenges this season, Ultron with Under Attack
and Infinity Gauntlet, Strife with Hope Summers, Personal
(00:50):
Nightmare and an Acronauts. This is a Con of Heroes
challenge from last year. Red Skull with Hydro patrol,
State of Emergency and Brothers Grimm Mojo with Black Tom
Cassidy, Super Strength flight and telepathy.
And this season features 2 divisions, A10 team real time
(01:11):
division that drafted live and anine team turn based division
that drafted asynchronously over2 days.
Each team drafted against the other teams to pick 4 heroes,
one from each of four different groups.
Leadership was banned. And if you want more details on
the season, I recorded episode 55 as a preview to this.
(01:34):
You can go listen to that, get alittle bit more on the details.
I'm your host, Josh Saru, and it's time to take you to my
conversation with Tristan. And joining us is Tristan.
Tristan, how are things going today?
These are going good. Just got home from work.
Excited to just talk about some Marvel champions.
Get my work out of my mind for the weekend and.
(01:55):
OK. Talk about how excited this
draft was. A little severance action for
you. So yeah, so today I wanted to,
you know, learn a little bit about your preparation for the
draft and then, you know, you know, once you had your heroes,
how you're thinking about deploying them for for the
various scenarios. Really.
(02:15):
So, and why don't you start us off with how you're preparing
for the draft? For whatever reason, I'm not
sure why, I got hyper focused onround one Ultron for my draft
strategy. Because it's the first one.
It's the first one, and also maybe talk about it a little bit
later. The other scenarios I haven't
really played a whole lot other than maybe once or twice.
(02:38):
So I really don't have kind of asense of what they can bring.
Even on Expert. I think I've only played them in
standard. So it would seem like almost
every hero I was going to pick or I did end up picking was
centered around dealing with those drones in the first
rounds. I knew I needed something for
that and actually my first pick was not that far up on my list.
(03:03):
But once it got to me and I saw some other other topics being
taken, I think Cable's been number one on my list for every,
every season we've done this. So I wanted to get him, but he
always goes pretty quickly. And then once it dropped out of
me, my initial thought was I wasgoing to go with Rocket right
away because of his his upgradesand his weapons that he can use
(03:27):
to pretty much clear the board. But with being pretty low in the
draft order, I knew I was going to have two picks so much
back-to-back, so Rocket was likely to be there anyways.
So I went for the one that was almost banned with my first pick
with Nova right? Because that's enticing.
Yeah, so. When I, when we had the
(03:48):
discussion on the Discord about banning potentially him as a
hero, I started to look a littlemore deep into why is he going
to be banned? What, what does he offer that
others don't offer? And then I remembered back in
the solo Champions League where people were getting one turn
wins with him because of a justice bill that the people
were taken advantage of. And so I thought, you know,
(04:10):
let's try that. Let's see if that'll work.
And so let me just real quickly,just for the listeners, so that
you were participating in the real time draft, you were 9 out
of 10. And so this was kind of, you
know, 9th pick first round, you're looking at it and you're
saying Nova. Yeah, yeah.
(04:32):
Of the of the kind of heroes that were left that were those S
tier heroes, I don't know if he'd really be considered an St.
hero because he kind of needs the perfect scenario for him to
be that way. Or you can get a lot of minions
out or you can get a lot of sideschemes out, but every, every
turn with Ultron, you can have aminion on the board if you want.
(04:56):
And so it landed himself pretty good to be able to take care of
that. So and I just, I, my real
strategy for the draft was I want some heroes that are going
to participate well in it, but Ialso don't want to play a bunch
of heroes that I don't get to play very often.
So we're we're we're getting deep into the Marvel Champions
(05:18):
where if you have everything andif you're not playing every day,
there's probably a lot of heroesyou haven't touched like I have.
And there's still some that I'vemaybe got one playing with and
that's about it. So I really want to play those.
And that's what I use SCL for. That's what I use Modoc for
personally, is to just play moreheroes that I don't get a chance
(05:38):
to play. I think outside of that one one
round and solo Champions League,I haven't played Noble a whole
lot. So it's just interesting to take
a hero potentially could be verygood for this match up and just
see how good he can actually do.Yeah, I I like that a lot.
(05:59):
And then you, as you said, you also kind of like rock it for
for being able to do this in part because the the the drone
minions have piddly health and so it's pretty easy to trigger
his murdered you ability. Yeah, especially once I started
to kind of rework the decks and think about how can I get is
(06:21):
they both have that one attack. So for Rocket to trigger his
murder Ubility, he needs that extra attack.
So adding him in aggression and adding in the combat training
definitely helps to be easy for him to get that.
If you can hit him with that, that the rocket launcher that
does 2 damage everything, you'regoing to be drawing a lot of
cards really quickly. So I think I just with round
(06:47):
two, I continue the trend of let's pick somebody that's going
to do well against Ultron. For whatever reason, I didn't, I
wasn't sure if Nova was going tobe able to handle it on his own
if he needed some help because Ihadn't tested any of these
heroes before the draft. So I continue to just pick
anybody that might potentially be beneficial against Ultron.
(07:12):
Again, Rocket somebody that somebody that I haven't played a
lot. I've played him through, you
know, the Galaxy's Most Wanted and got wrecked the first couple
of times I played him because that's a that's a difficult box,
as everybody knows. But I haven't played him much
since then. I think it kind of turned me off
when you're going through all those scenarios.
I was like, I don't really like Rocket that much.
(07:33):
And then playing him and againstother villains he he's become
quite fun. Yes, I adore Rocket, so I
endorsed. So then I get a long yeah.
Go ahead. And I get a long wait till my
next pick. And I think that's where kind of
things spiral. A lot of control for what was
(07:55):
available left. Because I really like a lot of
people have talked about so far,they kind of prioritize which
group they wanted to focus on. Like looking at, oh, there's a
lot of heroes in this group thatI'd be OK with taking even if it
was the last pick, or I was justlike, I'm going to rank all my
heroes from 1 to 44 and I'm going to try and take the ones
(08:16):
towards the top. Then I had to wait a while and I
almost didn't get my next pick because somebody picked it
earlier, but I think they had too many people in one group.
Some people seem to be down on Colossus, but I have a lot of
(08:37):
fun with him. I've played him a couple of
times. I've gotten to play with more.
Some of my friends here in the area.
You know, I've played Colossus when we did like an X-Men
campaign of just all X-Men. I took Colossus because he was
the probably the more difficult of the ones to play.
I'm the one that has a little bit more experience than than
the people that play in my play group and they play whenever I
(08:59):
bring it, But that's about it, right?
You know, we're talking solo Champions League and Modoc.
You're getting a lot of games inif you've been around a while a
while like I have So, but I wasn't really again, wasn't
thinking of future match ups, but it looks like Colossus might
(09:19):
work out well for some of the like Strife, for example, where
you want that low hand size. It could be very beneficial.
And then my last pick went with Gamora again, because any time I
trigger a Thor event, I get to do that one damage and that's
the potential to take out another drone.
And we're getting to the end of the draft.
(09:39):
And I think I had to pick somebody out of Group 2.
I had Gamora ranked pretty high,but there were definitely some
good heroes in Group 2 that werestill left.
That may be. Thinking back, I might have
redrafted somebody else like an Adam Warlock.
Would have been fun in this scenario too.
(10:01):
Oh, right, yeah, so rogue. Yeah.
So I'm just looking at this, it looks like Rogue, Adam Warlock,
Nebula, Valkyrie were those are all available to you as well as
Gamora. So it almost looks like I tried
to plan out a lot of Group 2 would be left.
(10:23):
I'd have a lot of a lot of picksthere, but it was not a plan or
a part of my strategy. But just listening to a lot of
the other people talk about whattheir strategies were, it's
interesting to see how much depth they put into planning out
the draft and how how prepared they were for it.
(10:44):
It's definitely something I'll have to up my game for next
season. Yeah, do you?
Do you picture yourself being a person who would make this
highly detailed 19 column spreadsheet?
I don't. Know if I'll go that that far.
It's it's a little tough with myjob right now, but I get the
summers off because I'm a teacher.
(11:04):
So if the next the next one falls somewhere near the summer,
I could definitely have some time to prepare a little bit
more in depth. But it definitely, I think I, I
think one of the the key things that may be my downfall because
I did not consider at all how much, how often we would be
seeing our nemesis in these games.
(11:26):
And so thankfully I didn't take something like Phoenix.
But you know, considering, you know, Colossus is going to have
that big juggernaut come out at some point during the game and
I'm going to have to deal with that no matter what.
It's going to be rough in some games.
And Nebula is also very annoying, yeah.
(11:47):
Laura, at least with Standard three, I can kind of see it
coming. So I can make sure that that
Nebula, the Nebula ally is not out and just doesn't get wiped
off the board like it has sometimes when I've been played
just regular Standard. At least I can kind of see it
coming or at least have an indication of when it might come
up. So that if there's around 3
(12:09):
counters on on that blanked on the name of the card right now,
the Nemesis, the one that bringsout the Nemesis, If there's
three counters on there, I couldjust, well, I'm just going to
use Nebula as a resource. So she's definitely, definitely
difficult to deal with when she comes out, even without wiping
the the ally off the board. Yeah, So what have you decided
(12:37):
you're going to do in terms of who you're going to take to
Ultron now? Because you, I mean, Colossus
doesn't seem like a very good Ultron matchup, obviously
because all the little pings, you know, death by 1000 cuts.
Yeah, I might. I actually think I I might.
I'm going to test out a Colossusdeck here soon with Nova,
(12:58):
because I did. I have been running Nova Justice
and Rocket Aggression and I justfound that if if I can make sure
that I get unleashed the Nova Force on my hands, nobody else
has to worry about a minion on the board ever.
Yes, yes. And so I really don't need
rocket. What I what I really need is
somebody that can absorb that first big Ultron hit as I found
(13:20):
in the in the games I played. If I can survive the first
rounds, I really don't take any more damage from the decks that
I have built because I'm throwing out, you know, a decent
number of allies to just be blockers and do a couple things
over here. But Nova is really doing the
brunt of the work, especially ifI can get miss Marvel out and
(13:40):
just keep recurring that unleashthe Nova force.
I'm actually looking forward like every time I'm picking to
put minions on the board when I have a choice for afters part
after adding from what is the stage 2 when you have to make
that decision to add to threat or one minion.
I'm choosing that every time because it just gives them a
(14:01):
Nova more card draw and more opportunities to ready, more
opportunities to pay for things.I don't know that some some
people mention his side schemes are so bad that Nova is happy to
take those side schemes where itdrops more minions onto the
board, especially if he's set upwith that unleash the Nova
force. So what I think I might do might
(14:24):
I haven't tested the classic deck, but I'm going to try and
see if getting colossus too tough that first round and he
just takes both both attacks first round as the first player
and then hopefully give him sometime to build and flip back.
And with Nova, being able to flip back and forth, what I've
kind of been doing is everybody,somebody's been flipping almost
(14:45):
every turn. For me, when I'm going against
Ultron, as long as I can get that, that Unleash the Nova,
Force down, keep that in my hand, I'm going through my deck
about every two turns with Nova.So it's pretty fun, but it's a
lot. It's there's a lot of steps to
do all the little things right in the right order with Nova,
(15:05):
which can be difficult at times.You were saying in that case
that you might go Clausus as as first player.
So then you have to make sure you clean up those other drones,
right? If you do that, yeah, if you
make him go second, you can makeit so you didn't even have to
clean up his drones. Right, yeah, I was just more
(15:30):
thinking that if I make him go first, then he can he can
technically block Ultron's attack without having to to
defend essentially and then he could defend for Nova as well.
As long as I've I choose not to take the the drones on Colossus
side, I could just add the two thread and hopefully clear that
(15:51):
off with Nova the next turn. At least that's the strategy.
I've found that a lot of times my strategy sometimes sound good
in practice and then you get it to the board and try it out and
it blows up in your face sometimes and we'll go from
there. I have gotten, I have, I have
gotten a win with with Nova and Rocket against just in practice
(16:12):
against Ultron. So that is always a backup if I
want to fall back to it. I just found that Rocket wasn't
really doing anything. His attacks are so low as well
that he's really and his economyis not great either.
Sometimes when you're flipping back and forth that you can get
rid of some of those weapons. It works out well.
But I just could never get his board state built like I could
(16:34):
somebody else. Nova is pretty much set up and
go, so it was really hard for meto get Rocket to actually
contribute to the to the round. It's a bit of a duplication of
of effort, right? If, if, if you're wanting nobody
to take care of all the minions,what is Rocket supposed to do?
Yeah, I I tried, I tried a little bit to leave some minions
(16:55):
for Rocket, especially the ones that he's engaged with.
With some I think it's bring it hitting him to draw some cards
that way and then overkilling some minions to help him draw
some more cards. But it was still a lot for him
to get down and just whatever I was doing at the economy was
just not working for Rocket to get him up and running and be
like super aggressive like he should be.
(17:17):
Right. So have you, have you started to
think about any of the other matchups?
Yeah, and it's kind of it's a little bit all over the place
where I know that I mentioned Strife Colossus would be good
either and I can get protection like a good protection deck
against Strife or a good justicedeck against Strife with
(17:37):
Colossus because he does like toflip back and forth to get those
tusks back on him. I think it's definitely going to
be Colossus going against Strife.
But in terms of who else I'm going to take, you know, if I
can get some rocket overkill to avoid the strife on his stage 3,
I think would would bypass his force response.
I think because it says after you attack Strife.
(18:00):
So if you overkill on a Strife, it should not trigger that force
response. I know there's some good.
If there's some good over, I know there's some good overkill
decks with Rocket. So he's he's probably a
potential if I, if I don't choose to bring him an
aggression with with Ultron, he's he most likely is going to
do an aggression overkill deck with Strife.
(18:21):
And then Colossus will just be there because the, the, the
limiting of that, you know, the plus attack that Strife gets
whenever he attacks them based on the number of cards in your
hand. The the interesting thing with
those two is that each of them can get one of their base stats
up to three because rocking can get his forward up to three and
(18:42):
then Colossus can get his attackup to three.
And so that you can use that to to also leverage hope in that
scenario. Yeah, yeah.
And that's another thing that other people have mentioned that
I'm not really consider is how can we how but definitely with
those two would be really good to get at some point.
You know, on turn on the turns where she's with Colossus, she's
(19:02):
attacking and on the turns she'swith Rocket, she's thwarting and
basically taking care of a lot of the stuff that basically
acting like almost another hero in those in those cases in terms
of necks with Red Skull on it seems like you would almost have
to go justice with somebody withhim is what my thought is.
(19:25):
What do you think? Yeah.
And well, and it it is one of those ones where you're a bit
less inclined to just kind of let those side schemes build up
so that Nova can clear a whole bunch at once.
So Nova might be despite the fact that there's going to be
lots of side schemes, Nova mightnot be the automatic choice.
(19:47):
Yeah, I mean, if I if I take Nova, it would probably be
aggression with adding some heroic intuition for him from
somebody else being justice. Like I think Gomorrah could fit
really well, but she doesn't necessarily have to go justice
if I don't want her to. But it does give her, it does
give her an upper hand in helping dealing with those side
schemes. And even when she is dealing
with those side schemes she's thwarting, she's also pinging
(20:09):
those. There's huge amount of Tufts
that are going on the Red Skull anyways, so I think there's some
good synergy there with her going justice, thwarting a lot.
Doing those single damage thingson on Red Skull would probably
be pretty good. Because I was really, once I
drafted her, I was really kind of struggling of like, where do
I fit Gamora into this whole league?
(20:31):
I got to use everybody at least once.
I think Red Skull would be a pretty good spot for her.
Yeah, she has great base tests. And just like with everybody
else, I talked about drafted, it's been a long, long time
since I've played Gamora. So it's it's going to be every,
every round for me is like a relearning experience where I
(20:52):
have to relearn how to do these heroes and have to figure out
what is their best option, like who are they going to be best
against. I think it's a good little
mental exercise for the for the for the season.
Yeah, I like that. I guess then you got mojo.
(21:17):
Yeah, I was jotting down some things before we got on and I,
you know, I've only played him once.
I think it was in standard. So I don't even think that I've
seen the full capability of Mojo.
I played through, you know, the little card pack that they came
in, the Mojo card pack. I played through everybody and
(21:39):
that was one of the bad things for last season when I drafted.
I think that's why I had such a focus on round one for me this
season because round one last season kind of killed me based
on the heroes. So I took 2 heroes who wanted to
take damage a lot. I had Wolverine and I had
Bishop. So when you're thinking about
Magog not wanting to do any damage, kind of got a little bit
(22:02):
of shell shock when I started playing.
It's, oh, he's going to be adding two counters every turn
because with my heroes want to take damage.
But Mojo should be interesting and should be interesting to
see. Just get him to the table,
testing him out. Possibility of just doing a
complete rush strategy if I still have some aggression left
for some of the heroes. Just doing 2 aggressions and
(22:23):
just running at it and seeing what happens and leaving the
thread on the board that stays on the board.
Yeah, well, there's there's quite a Oh, sorry, go ahead.
It is one of the lower health poles of the of the villains
we're going to be facing. So yeah, there's a little bit of
potential of the rush, but. Because the timer is is also
(22:49):
based on how many of the extra modulars have been put in, you
know, so it matters how fast you're going through his deck.
You always have the option to flip down.
Where you don't, you don't actually take that, you know,
discard four or five cards, partof it all.
So there's there's an opportunity to kind of do a
(23:09):
pseudo rush, but you're actually, you know, keeping the
threat slightly under control while you're doing all the
damage. Yeah, I like the challenge.
You know, all the all these heroes that they're at the end
of their boxes or scenario packsare all, they all have their
unique things. They're all extremely different
from each other. Do you have to really plan for
(23:32):
each one of them? You, you pretty much have to
build your deck around those villains.
Even if it was something like, Iknow we don't have Ronan, but
you really have to, you really have to plan.
You can't just say, oh, I'm going to take just this random
deck that I have played against this villain.
You have to, you have to plan for them.
(23:53):
I know you mentioned that you'vebeen testing a little bit.
How have your test games been going so far?
Oh, thanks for asking. Well, we, we've, I, I don't
think anything has changed sincethe last time I was talking
about that. So we, we started playing
against Mojo just to make sure our game plan against Mojo
seemed like it was going to work.
And then we played a little bit of we played a couple games
(24:15):
against Ultron now I guess, and we were trying to see if we
could get a A6 turn win against Ultron and unsuccessfully.
So we got, we got an 8 turn win,but not a six turn 1.
So I maybe I've played one more game since I last spoke about
it, but I like it feels like we have a good, a good plan of
(24:35):
attack. But you know, it's one of those
things after you play a game, you start brainstorming other
ways you could have done it. And then you're like, oh, maybe
we should try all these other things before we actually lock
in our choice. I think the the first time I
played against Ultron, we're testing with Nova and rocket
they I was things were going great and I actually looked like
(24:55):
I was going to have a six turn win.
And then I forgot that when I flipped him, he adds a hit point
to those drones. And so Nova, even with even with
unleash the Nova force had no answer.
Those two hit point drones. So I think that's why in the
next whoever I get paired with, Nova has got to go aggression so
I can get that combat training down so that he does have the
(25:18):
ability to just basic attack for2:00 every single time and wipe
those drones out. That is kind of the same
experience we had in our first game as well.
We we, we got to the second stage or the third stage very
quickly and then and then kind of stalled out after all of a
sudden everything felt so easy against the one health drones
(25:39):
and then felt so much more difficult against the two health
ones. I noticed that today, was it
today that you added all the allthe thoughts on the next season
for? So you've added quite a bit of
of options here. What do you think is?
What do you think is the most interesting choice that people
(26:01):
are going to be voting on? I don't know, this is just,
yeah, kind of I've been brainstorming some future
seasons and thinking about, you know, you know, the very, the
very first season was just a bunch of kind of somewhat nasty
scenarios I had been playing around with in my brain and
cooking up. And then the second season I
(26:24):
took the creative constraint of saying, well, I'm going to make
all the added modulars just be nemesis sets because that's a
really a really fun way to get to interact with those things in
a different way. And then so you know, I took all
the nemesis sets and started to think, or maybe I went through
the villains, I can't remember which order.
But anyway, you know, I did somemixing and matching to see where
(26:47):
where things would match up. And so then, you know, kind of
some similar things like that with in this case, you know, do
a similar thing with back of thehero pack modulars that are ones
that most of us have definitely played far fewer times than any
of the other modular sets. And then, you know, some other
resources for scenarios that areout there, like Astrodars
(27:10):
community suggested scenarios that he's been curating or even
the con of heroes challenges that are often pretty nasty.
So as kind of good starting points for for some of the
different types of scenarios we could we could be doing.
Did you, did you have a look through or is there anything in
there that's feeling especially enticing to you?
Yeah, I was able to glance at ita little bit today.
(27:32):
I think the one that pops out tome just because we mentioned a
little bit before is the redeeming Galaxies Most Wanted.
Taking out some of those rough edges just because I feel like I
never got a good handle on that box and I have never conquered
that box. Like I feel like I can run
through some of the other boxes pretty easily even on expert
mode. But it's, it's, it's a struggle
(27:53):
for me with Galaxies Most Wanted, even a struggle to
convince myself to get it to thetable, unless it's one of these,
unless it's Modoc League or SCLI, don't really get those
scenarios to the board very often.
So I'd like to, I'd like to see what what you have in mind for
how the redeeming qualities, howwe could, you know, fix those
(28:13):
rough edges on that to kind of make it a more enjoyable
experience. Yeah, or make make the
difficulty come from a differentplace than it currently is.
I think is part of how I'm, I'm thinking about it, right?
Because ultimately these, you know, the MOTOC leak scenarios
tend to be pretty high difficulty.
(28:34):
So oh, go ahead. I think even with just the
simple thing of removing some ofthose surges on specific cards,
because there are some cards that I think the way they
intended surges, this card is going to provide you with
something, but it's not an immediate threat.
So we're going to surge and makeyou see another encounter card.
So there is an immediate threat for a lot of the ones on the
(28:57):
Galaxies Most wanted that have that.
Serge or no, we're going to giveyou an immediate threat right
now, and we're going to make youdraw another card.
Which is kind of the standard two problem too, right?
Yeah, I think they, the designers kind of took to heart
the the idea that things have gotten too easy and Marvel
(29:18):
Champion. So they they kind of threw
together what I would say is thehardest box and it was only the
second expansion. So yeah, they kind of, they kind
of backed off on some of the difficulty and gone more.
So the Let's make everything unique, which I I tend to enjoy
a little bit more, is making every scenario feel different.
(29:38):
Agreed. Yeah, I think, you know, I think
some of the other frustrations honestly with with things in
that box are just some of the some of the conditions that are
things that are hard to dig yourself out from.
Like nebulas, I forget what the counters are called, but the
counters that nebula accumulatesor with the collector and the
(30:00):
collection that there's a limit on the number of times that you
can decrease those things in a turn per player.
And even even just lifting that restriction could just make a
world of difference in terms of how it feels like you could
actually tackle those things. Yeah, because especially with
the collector, you're using resources to do those things.
It's not just something you get to.
(30:21):
I mean, you do get to just, you know, tap your hero to do it.
But maybe if you the tapping part, which should be the
restriction. But if you wanted to spend 2
resources as many times as you wanted, I don't think that
would. I don't think that would make
the scenario any less more any less difficult.
(30:42):
No, it's it, it, it feels almostlike an artificial constraint.
Yeah, right. Because you're, you're choosing
to spend all your tempo on trying to solve this problem on
the board. It doesn't feel like there
should be any major constraint on that.
But yeah, so I have some, I havesome thoughts about that one.
(31:03):
You know, some other things, people.
I also proposed something is missing one where you do things
like play without standard expert sets, you know, kind of
substitute in some some other things that can do some of that
work, but not necessarily the exact same thing.
So just changing how some of these scenarios feel at a much
(31:27):
more, you know, base level. So that might be in that might
be a real opportunity for some fun creativity.
Yeah, you definitely come up with some unique things with
these scenarios. Just the simple, like you said,
just the simple thing of skipping state, skipping stage
one of the of the scheme for Ultron this season.
(31:50):
It's just you don't have to worry about it.
Whereas a lot of people would bereally like, especially in solo
Champions League where you have a threat threshold of three,
it's almost impossible to keep it at 3 when you're just doing
it single player. Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, it it is. It's fun to figure out, kind of
(32:13):
look at those and and see where there might be opportunities
just to just to turn a little dial a bit to make it a little
bit more difficulty or a little bit more difficult.
Yeah, I definitely. I definitely appreciate those
more than just saying let's playon a heroic and deal extra
everybody an extra counter card.I'd much rather tweak the little
things that we have. You know, the designers are kind
(32:37):
of limited as well because they have to come up with something
to make things harder. Whereas you as you're making it,
you can just, I'm going to, thisis the way it's going to work
and just everybody has to pay attention to that.
It's not really something that designers of the game can do.
Yeah, well, and we have had somemore recent modular sets.
(32:59):
You know, I mean, I, I think I like the Infinity Gauntlet way
more than most people do. But you know, the Infinity
Gauntlet is a great example of the other set you can just
include and it increases the difficulty without question.
And then the strength, telepathyand light from Mr. Sinister are
other ones that for the most part you just add those into any
(33:24):
scenario and it increases the difficulty.
I think my biggest hang up with the Infinity Gauntlet is that I
forget to do it sometimes. Yeah.
So I feel like I've cheated through it sometimes.
I feel like I've gone through some scenarios that have had it
with that box with Loki and Lokiand then I'm just like, oh wait,
I haven't done the Infinity Gauntlet in like 3 turns.
(33:45):
I should have probably lost by now.
Yes, this is where I'm really happy.
I have a 19 year old brain that I don't have a 19 year old
brain. I'm playing the game with a 19
year old brain sitting across the table from me, paying
attention to these things that my old and atrophied brain
often. Forgets.
(34:05):
Yeah, because we, I mean, you, you've been around solo
Champions League for a long time, just like I have.
And, you know, sometimes we don't even read the text on the
cards anymore. We've played them so often.
But we'll go back and look at it.
Oh, I've been playing this card wrong the entire time I've been
playing Marvel Champions becauseI never read the card.
(34:27):
You know, or I read it when I had a different understanding of
the rules. Yeah, it's, it's definitely I
have to take teach myself to slow down a little bit,
especially playing two handed where everything I'm just think
I almost have found, you know, watching some people play on
YouTube. It's just taught me if I just
talked myself through it out loud, it's a lot more of those
(34:50):
mistakes as well. Even though I'm just sitting
there, you know, people that walk in the room might think I'm
I'm crazy and talking to anotherperson that I'm imagining, but
it is it helps slow down the game.
I think, and I think that's my biggest problem when I'm playing
by myself is the reason I make those mistakes.
I'm just going too fast because I everything is just clicking
fast in my head and I'm not slowing down to realize the
(35:12):
mistakes I'm making. Yeah, fully agreed.
That's how I usually do my solo Champions League rounds.
I I actually just sit down and Irecord them and I talk through
my turns and then at some point if I ask myself, oh crap, did I
remember that Infinity Gauntlet?I can pause the video and rewind
(35:34):
and double check and that sort of thing.
Yeah, I've, I've not gotten to the stage where I'm recording
things, but I just, I don't havethe equipment or the capability.
But it's definitely something that would be interesting to
watch yourself play because whenyou see other people play, I've
watched some YouTube videos about it and you know, you can
(35:56):
see, oh, how would I do this differently?
Or I would have done this instead and listen to people
talk through their process. I think that's one of the things
that when you ask for suggestions about the solo
Champions League podcast, that that aspect of it like reviewing
the rounds, I think that's why Isuggested.
I just want to hear people talk about what they're what they did
(36:16):
as kind of a confession. I am a terrible deck builder.
Any, any deck building game I'veever played, It's been me
learning from other people is how I get better at the game.
And me taking other people's decks and tweaking them to fit
the scenario is how I actually do better.
(36:38):
Because I played some deck voting games in the past where I
just, I put something together and it's been a competitive deck
voting game and it's just blown up in my face.
Well, I mean, I, my, my experience has often been, you
know, that I haven't necessarilyhad the time to invest in
(37:00):
knowing the card pool as well asyou need to, to be a really
highly effective deck builder. So you kind of become a tweaker,
like you're saying, where you, you take people who have been
investing all that, and then youfigure out how to adapt those
things to your specific playstyle or the, you know, the
situation that this deck is being taken up against or
(37:21):
anything like that. And I still get great joy out of
that. Yeah, I just looking and that's
that's kind of how I start my deck building process.
I'm going to go on Marvel CDB. I'm going to find a deck that
kind of is at least the aspect that I'm looking for and the
hero that I'm looking for. Read especially the ones that
(37:45):
have been quite the the deck builders and people who've been
quite popular on their finding their decks, seeing what they
do. I love how there's a good
community on there that writes out what their strategy for the
decks are and kind of gives you an insight and you know, is I
can remember, I think the, the one that we're finally clicked
on me that people are doing somereally different things that I'm
(38:07):
doing is where people started toexplain the, the Nick Fury
recursion with the leadership card, rapid response,
understanding that you could usethat during the villain turn to
draw again more cards to recur him again.
And then he's also another blocker again if the the villain
attacks again. Like those types of things I
(38:29):
would have never thought of on my own.
Well, and thank you you you mentioned you had made a
suggestion about doing kind of just talking to people about
their decks in solo Champions League, because the the scoring
in solo Champions League has haschanged and kind of threw me for
(38:52):
a bit of a loop for how I was approaching doing the show.
So I've, I've recorded some conversations with a couple
people that I'll post an episodefairly soon that is just kind of
having those conversations abouttheir their deck.
So I very much appreciate Tristan that you, you made that
suggestion because that was a fun way to sit down and spend
(39:12):
some time chatting with people about Marvel Champions.
It was a slightly different way than I've been doing it before.
Yeah, and that's kind of way theway you have begun a lot of
those recaps of the solo Champions League with the rounds
as you start off by talking about how did they do?
And you know, those are the things I really tune into when
listening to the the episode is how did people do something
(39:34):
differently than I did? Because there's plenty of people
that score better than I do evenwith a new scoring system.
I've been kind of not trying to min Max everything as much as
possible anymore in solo Champions League.
I just kind of want to play a deck and see how good I can do
and if I do good, I do good and if I don't, I don't.
(39:54):
I'm not trying to stress and make a perfect deck to anymore.
So I like to hear from those people who do put the time in
and try to make those perfect decks to the people that you
have on the podcast. Beauty.
Well, you know what, I think that's probably a great point to
end on. Thank you so much for coming on
(40:15):
and telling us about, you know, your approach to the draft and
how you're thinking about your heroes.
Yeah, it was. It was fun.
I enjoy coming on. It's always a fun time always
hearing other people's insight too, and hearing how what what
crazy things you're going to cook up for future seasons.
Yeah, yeah, my, my son actually really enjoys hearing people
(40:36):
talk about how mean I am. He gets a kick out of that.
And, and thank you dear listeners, for for tuning in and
hopefully we'll see you in the next episode.
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