Marvel Champions LCG’s next big expansion stars Groot and Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy
Spaced out.
Guardians of the Galaxy Groot and Rocket Raccoon are the Galaxy’s Most Wanted in the next major expansion for the Marvel Champions LCG.
Based on the Guardians of the Galaxy comics - rather than their appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films - Galaxy’s Most Wanted sees one to four players facing off against several intergalactic antagonists as two of the titular Guardians: the benevolent plant alien Groot and the snarky mutant Rocket Raccoon, who join the roster of playable heroes. Adding to the core Marvel Champions box, the expansion includes five new scenarios to tackle as a team.
The expansion to the living card game features a new set of schemers for players to confront, including the influential Collector and intimidating Ronan the Accuser, as they speed across the galaxy to quell each new threat in the Guardians’ spaceship, the Milano.
As a plant being that can suffer damage and regrow itself, Groot has the ability to gather growth tokens on his character card, which can be used to reduce any damage taken when Groot is in hero mode. Playing off of the character’s iconic catchphrase, all but one of Groot’s event cards are titled “I am Groot”.
Rocket Racoon’s alter-ego and hero abilities are equally fitting for the character: namely, being incredibly aggressive and having a knack with impressive weaponry. In his hero form, Rocket can draw a card whenever he deals excess damage to an enemy, and as his alter-ego Rocket can discard a tech upgrade in order to draw two additional cards.
Being an expansion, players can use the cards, heroes and villains in Galaxy’s Most Wanted in combination with any existing hero decks from the core Marvel Champions: The Card Game set - which includes Avengers such as Iron Man, Spider-Man and Captain Marvel - and any characters released as separate hero packs since, including the likes of Captain America, Black Widow and Doctor Strange.
The original Marvel Champions has players working together as a team of heroes to thwart the schemes of several villains. Each hero has a set of cards that reflects their unique abilities, offering a different play experience depending on how the deck is built. Players take turns to weaken their chosen antagonist by preventing their schemes and damaging them directly. However, they must also withstand attacks from minions and the antagonist themselves if they want to survive long enough to win.
Galaxy’s Most Wanted for Marvel Champions was announced during publisher Fantasy Flight Games’ recent In-Flight Report event. As well as the big-box expansion, several new hero packs were announced for release from October, starting with Ant-Man and being followed by Wasp, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
A brand new game based on the Marvel universe was also revealed. X-Men: Mutant Insurrection is a co-op game similar to Elder Sign that sees players teaming up and rolling dice based on various mutants from the beloved comic series.
Marvel Champions: The Card Game - Galaxy’s Most Wanted is set to be released in February 2021 at a retail price of $40 (£30).