Legendary
In Legendary, players take on the roles of Marvel heroes, including the Avengers and X-Men, and team up to defeat an evil Mastermind. The players have to defeat the likes of Magneto, Loki, Dr. Doom, or Red Skull to win the game - if they do, the players are ranked by the most Victory Points accumulated during play.
Over 500 cards with original artwork, full color game board & color rule book. Over the course of the game, players will recruit powerful hero cards to add to their deck in order to build a stronger and stronger deck of ultimate Marvel superhero combinations! Innovative “mastermind” mechanics allow the game to fight back against the players and if players are not careful, villainous Marvel masterminds like Magneto, Loki and Dr. Doom threaten to accomplish dark schemes and defeat all the players at once!
User Reviews (7)
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After the disappointment with King of Tokyo (wife really hated it), and the trouble getting my wife into Eaten by Zombies, I wasn’t sure what would happen with Legendary. At first glance, and considering my wife likes some of the superhero movies but couldn’t care less about comics, I wasn’t sure this would go over so well. Throw in the 60 dollar price tag, and things didn’t look so good.
My gaming group, however, is full of Marvel fans who also like deckbuilders, so I figured for them it was a no-brainer. Easy. The surprise came when I sat down with the wife and kid, to teach it to them, and they both immediately latched onto it and fell in love.
Everyone plays as a “recruiter”, with identical starting decks. 8 Shield Agents that can recruit Marvel Heroes from the “HQ” spot on the board (always five out at a time, replaced when one is bought/removed), and 4 Shield Troopers that deal 1 attack each to a villain or henchman when they are played. Players work to defeat villains from escaping the city (5 spaces on a very nice included board) while building their deck up to become stronger and beat the Mastermind (Loki, Magneto, Red Skull, and Dr. Doom) 4 times, before the Mastermind is able to complete his evil scheme.
Both my wife and daughter caught on quick to the simple nature of the 2 currencies (fight and recruit), as well as starting to recognize combos/synergies between certain cards/heroes. Every turn a card is drawn from a villain deck, which can be a villain to enter the city and be fought, a bystander that gets captured, a Master Strike (the Mastermind attacks, usually dealing wounds and possibly causing other “damage” to players decks), and Scheme Twists. Enough Scheme Twists enter play, and evil wins.
Our first family game vs Red Skull, we were 2 scheme twists away from a loss, and it wasn’t looking good, until we finally started pulling better fight hands. We won, but the next villain card would have been another scheme twist that would have given us all 3 wounds! Had that come out 2 cards earlier, we may not have survived. Was very intense and fun. Defeating villains and rescuing bystanders also nets you victory points, so as to declare the “most legendary” hero at the end. I won with 15 pts, wife had 14, daughter had 11. Close game!
Components are top notch. Art for each character is the same on all of their cards, but that didn’t bother me. Each character has 8 common cards (2 diff. types, 4 cards of each type), 3 uncommon cards, and one rare. There are 15 heroes in the base game, we had five in the 3 player game (Hawkeye, Spiderman, Cyclops, Wolverine, Iron Man).
There are 60 dividers for separating/organizing cards, which is way more than enough. Box insert holds sleeved cards fine, with plenty of/room for expansions. There is also a nice quality board with rules reference/turn order and spaces for all the cards in play. Very nice to have.
Overall, this is the most fun we’ve had with a card-based game since Cutthroat Caverns, which we also enjoy a ton. To be honest, Legendary kind of reminds me of that in the sense that while everyone has to work together to ensure the “game” doesn’t win, you also have opportunities to trip up/hinder other players so that you come out the most legendary hero of the battle (like Iron Man bragging on how it was him who saved everyone’s hides, and Cap arguing back that if not for his calm, level headed leadership no one would have made it. We really liked that, adds some tension and all to the game.
Highly recommended for fans of deckbuilders like Ascension, fans of superheroes/Marvel.
Legendary is a Marvel themed deck building game made by Upper Deck. The setup includes a Mastermind that the superheroes need to thwart first, and then once they know that the mastermind is defeated, they brag about it over Shawarma and compare kills for an individual victory(just kidding about the shwarma.).
I would compare the deck building portion of this game to Dominion and Ascension, those of you who are familiar with both. Each hero represents a certain theme of cards that will be put into the deck. For example, Gambit gives cards that can manipulate the deck and Deadpool does things that could hurt the party but are ultimately for his benefit. You pick five random heroes and this forms the hero deck that you will be using to draft cards.
There is also a villain deck that is formed by 2 random groups and 1 group selected by the Mastermind card. Random things are also placed in this deck such as Masterstrike, Scheme Twists and Civilians. This deck is used to progress the Mastermind’s scheme and has a possibility of having the Mastermind win, in which the hero team loses and no winner is selected.
Pros:
- The Mastermind, Scheme and Villains are the saving grace to this game in my opinion. It gives a nice feel of villains actually invading the city and trying to stop them. Schemes also change what the superheroes need to do to stop them.
- If you actually randomize the setup process, no game will be alike. The superhero deck can change as well as the villains, constantly changing the combos available and also changing how you thwart the Super Villain.
Cons:
- Setup is a disaster. Yes, having options to randomize the game is pretty cool, but the setup and tear down is very annoying. Hero deck is 5 random heroes that you shuffle together and later need to separate so you can pick 5 random heroes for next game. Villain cards are 3 groups of villains + Masterstrikes + Scheme Twists + Civilians, that also need to be shuffled and separated when you are done. If that wasn’t bad enough, Upperdeck doesn’t provide slots for card separation, they give you an empty squares with big cardboard dividers to separate the groups.
- You don’t identify as one of the heroes. Heroes only signify the card type that you are putting into the deck, but anyone can get any mix of cards.
- Co-op is almost nonexistant. Yes, technically the group can lose if they don’t step up to defeat the Mastermind but the entire time you play, you are thinking how to get yourself more points before everyone else by the end.
- While there are several pieces of art for this game, you feel robbed on the heroes because they only use one art work for all the cards of that hero.
Overall, I like that the game has options and fighting off the villains/mastermind is a nice different twist to deck building games. However, I have to admit that having both DC and Marvel deck building games, the DC Deck Building game gets way more playtime than this game does for the fact that it has an easy setup and as a comic fan I like that I can identify as a hero, where as in Legendary you never get that feel.
I would recommend this game to those who play deck builders and are looking for more options/features out of a game. But if you do decide to invest, please be weary of the annoyance is setting up and putting the game away.
Legendary is one of those games that gets better with each play. The first time I played it was when a friend brought it out at my Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS). Out of the three players, I was the only one who hadn’t played the game before. Within a round, I was up and running and feeling as if I was an old pro. That speaks volumes for a game that has some thematic differences from deck-building games such as Dominion.
Here are the rudimentary basics: You are recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to thwart a master villain’s bid for city-wide domination. I would say worldwide domination, but the henchmen and sub-villains make their way through a single city, so that master villain must be using this unnamed city as a testing grounds prior to world domination. Anyway…you have a Villain deck in which villains and henchmen are revealed each turn and move up a track that starts in the sewers, moves into the streets and, if you’re unlucky, escape to wreak havoc somewhere else. Included in this deck are innocent bystanders who can be captured by the villains and dragged along as hostages. There’s also a hostage deck that from which some villains take hostages or from which you can save them and gain points. Also in the villains deck are Scheme Twist cards which make bad things happen to you, or Master Strike cards that activates the Master Villain and his dastardly destructive powers.
Each game has a scheme, a storyline if you will, that determines the conditions in which the game beats you. Each Scheme Twist drawn draws you ever closer to losing the game. Your victory condition: Defeat the Master Villain four times. Simple as that.
Marvel Legendary is, at its core, a deck-building game. So, on another track on the massive playing board that comes with the game, your heroes are revealed. You can purchase heroes to give you extra attack or purchasing power from this track. Or you can purchase S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that give you extra attack power. As your deck increases, so does your power and ability to beat the bad guys before the city is overrun.
OK. That’s the game in a nutshell. Reveal a villain. Play your hand of cards to purchase and/or fight. Stop the villains from escaping the city, while trying to contain the scheme and ultimately defeating the Master Villain.
With over 500 cards, Legendary is, well, almost legendary in size. You randomly choose the cards that will make up the hero and the villain decks. And, as the latter begins to dwindle down to nothing and you still haven’t defeated the big bad guy and your one or two scheme twists away from losing, the pressure mounts and you feel the tension increase. Making this game so durn fun!
Downside: With over 500 cards that you really want to protect, buying deck protectors will cost you an added $60+ or so. And, with the game already at a pretty hefty price (between $60 and $70 on average), that puts this at the high end of gaming experiences.
On the Upside: Great artwork. Great theme. Great components (it’s an Upper Deck product, and it shows!). Hulk, Green Arrow, Captain America. Thor. And the box has plenty of room for the expansions that are sure to come.
Marvel Legendary is a great game, giving a strong storyline to the deck-building genre, adding depth to the game play, and making you want to play over an over and over again. This is not a game that will gather dust on your shelf.
For the beginning I have to say: Getting this game here in Germany was really a pain in the a…! Because of the licensing of Upper Deck it is not available in Europe and I had to order it in US with quite high shipping costs, taxes for the import and few weeks of shipping time. But enough of that. Finally it arrived and I was able to play it. An what can I say. It is as good as I hoped it would be.
Components:
Unlike most other Card Games/Deck Building Games it comes with a board which makes playing a lot nicer and more fun. The board of good solid material and not too overloaded with graphics and text. Just enough to know where everything goes and what to do.
The art on the cards is beautiful and as far as I know specially designed for this game. The cards themselves seem to be a little thinner as cards in other games but still very good quality.
Gameplay:
I don’t want to explain all the rules here so I’ll make it quick. In a normal 2-5 player game you choose 5 heroes from the 15 who come in the Box, an evil Mastermind, villain groups and a scheme for the Mastermind. As in all deck building games you start with a bunch of weak common cards in your deck (staff of S.H.I.E.L.D) and as time passes by you can afford and buy real heroes. Every turn a villain card gets turned over an most of the times this means a villain enters the board and starts his rampage through the city. As you get better cards you are able to fight these villains, stop them from escaping the city again and maybe even attack the evil Mastermind controlling these monsters. After attacking the Mastermind 4 times (and of course winning these attacks) you defeat him and victory is yours.
The game comes with 8 different schemes which all have a different influence on the the winning or losing conditions, the difficulty and even the gameplay.
One last thing: Unlike in other deck building games a hero is not just one card. For example Iron Man consists of 14 cards which represent different kinds of his abilities. So during your turn you aren’t playing Iron Man itself as a one card but you are playing different moves he does during a battle. This gives the feeling of a great teamwork when different heroes do “their different things” in the battles.
Replay Value:
Because of 15 different heroes, 11 different villain/henchman groups, 4 Masterminds and 8 schemes which all can be mixed there is an uncountable number (ok, i’m just too lazy to do the math) of varieties to the game. This gives a great Replay Value and no game should be like any other.
Pros:
- great artwork
- gameplay mechanic is a little better than most other Deck Building Games
- really transports the superhero feeling
- great replayability
- insert and dividers for sorting your cards properly
Cons:
- the use of just one picture per hero on the cards
- because every villain has two copies of him in the deck it is possible that one villain (for example: Sabertooth) can be at two different locations at one time
- cost and shipping-time to europe
Last Words:
As you can see in my review I really love this game. I’m a fan of the Marvel Universe and being able to play these heroes and fight super villains is a lot of fun. If you are a fan of Marvel Comics and/or Deck Building Games I highly recommend this game for you.
I hope Upper Deck won’t wait too long until we see an Expansion for this game with more heroes and more great villains.
Best wishes,
Blaine101
A semi-cooperative game where everyone drafts from the same pool of heroes and fights off hordes of villains. You have to defeat the Mastermind 4 times in order for the game to end, or it can end in a draw or the evil can win on certain conditions.
I like a lot of what this game does. It’s easy to teach and is pretty simple. Unlike most games, after reading the rules, there wasn’t a whole lot I could mess up. The few times I had questions, they were answered concisely in the rule book. So how do things average out?
Pros:
Easy to play, simple to learn, quick to teach.
There are good potential strategies in this game, especially trying to get your cards to work together. When your strategy comes together it can be a beautiful thing.
The theme, what isn’t to like about recruiting super heroes to fight super villains? Great theme.
The mechanics work well together and everything makes sense. Feels fun once it gets going and you start putting that deck together. You really get antsy to use that new hero you just recruited.
Cons:
Makes you want expansions immediately!
The luck of the draw. It can be frustrating, just like in a lot of deckbuilders, when you draw all your weakest cards in a hand and can’t do anything or much that turn. Especially if you get it on the last turn.
Only 5 heroes at a time, sometimes you just want a tad more variety. I get that you wouldn’t really want to do more with how the way the game works. Sometimes the combinations of heroes can be frustrating, especially with some of the Master Strikes that villains launch. If you didn’t have any X-Men and you’re going against Magneto, it can be frustrating just as an example.
The cards wear down quickly, especially the edges show wear right away!
They should have/could have made the villain deck cards with a different color on the back.
Clean-up and set-up take FOREVER!
Overall I like the game, but it does feel like the game is just missing a few things. But the fun factor makes up for it. There’s limited interaction and there are times when the game feels like it is playing itself. Then again, when villains start escaping the city and all looks lost and you come back, that can be really fun too. So mixed feelings in some aspects, but it is fun. Looking forward to picking up a future expansion if they make some to see if it adds even more life to the game.
I must preface this review with a little fact about my son. He’s 12 and he thinks of himself as a great gamer. Unfortunately, when we break out deeper games, he loses focus and gets bored. This often leads to an “epic loss” (in his words)…and on to the review…
Our family has taken well to deck building games, so this game quickly hit the wish list of my 12yo this past Christmas (2012). Using money from multiple gift sources (the price for this game is not for the weak!), he decided to purchase it. For the record, he has NOT been disappointed. I know that others say setup is a con of this game; but from the perspective of a 12yo, he gets to “play” (don’t tell him I called it that) with some cards with beautiful artwork as he sets them up. In his mind, randomizing the decks is part of the game. Once the game is set up, he calls the rest of us in to play and the fun continues. The mechanics are easy to learn and the replayability is high because of the random setup. As a family game, it’s a hit!
Speaking as a person who’d not spent too much time with other deck builders, I have to say that it was the theme that first attracted me to this. And, from that standpoint, the game does carry itself proudly. However, and I would wager that this is a problem that runs throughout the entire DBG sub-genre, it is possible to build up some pretty uber-powerful combinations, which definitely weighs the game heavily in favour of the player; don’t get me wrong, it is still fun, but once you get to the point where you can pretty much clear the board of all five active villains AND the mastermind in one well-drawn go, then the game does lose a lot of its edge.
That said, there is still plenty of variety in the core deck, so having nigh-*ly combinations is not a thing that will happen in every game, rather 1 in 3.
I’d love to see some mechanisms put in place to give the game an extra level of challenge, and hopefully that comes with the upcoming expansion.