By Chris Renshaw

It’s been awhile...

It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about Marvel Champions. Honestly, it's been awhile since I’ve *played* Marvel Champions. Most of the time, I would play the game at the local store with some other fellow LCG fans, but like most of y’all, we haven’t gotten together since the pandemic started. I have the mod that lets me play the game in Tabletop Simulator, but I just haven’t felt the urge to play digitally like I have been with Arkham Horror.

Regardless, even though the game has paused it’s releases, I *still* feel behind in this game. I don’t remember the exact timing, but it feels like I just got the Thor deck prior to us going into lockdown. Now, things are open again and I have the Black Widow deck...with the Doctor Strange deck on the way very soon. I had played the Thor deck once before with Ashley, but I didn’t feel like I got a good feel of the deck. So what is the quickest and easiest way to test out a new deck? A solo playthrough of the basic Rhino deck! For these tests, we’ll be using the premade deck that comes in the Thor pack, no customizations. In this case, Thor is paired (appropriately) with the aggression aspect.

I flew all the way here and boy are my arms Thor

Let’s talk overall about the hero card himself. As anyone could imagine, this guy is a fighter. Equipping him with Mjolnir and giving him 3 ATK means you can do some serious damage to Rhino, especially in solo mode where he only has 14 health in his first stage. Having to use Thor to thwart suuuuuuuucks though. You constantly are feeling like thwarting is the worst thing you can do because he only is removing 1 token at a time. Seems like the best strategy for Thor - especially with the aggression aspect - is to hit them hard and fast before the enemy has enough time to build up threat.

As to Thor’s ability, it kinda sucks - at least in this scenario. In my game, there were not a lot of minions being engaged; most were getting discarded as boost cards. I can definitely see scenarios where this would be helpful *cough*Ultron*cough*, but in the Rhino scenario it is going to depend a lot on the luck of the draw. Or, when having 3-4 players, there are enough chances of drawing out minions that this ability will be a lot more useful when paired with Get Over Here! </mortal kombat>.

Obviously for a solo game, this card was pretty worthless. But in a multiplayer game, this will let Thor’s ability be a lot more helpful as you can take away minions from other people. Speaking of cards that didn’t come into play, didn’t get a chance to see Thor’s obligation as well. As I look at the card though, I’m not really that intimidated. Getting rid of the obligation from the game is always a good thing, but the second option isn’t nearly as impactful to the game (to me). First, you will be able to flip to the Odinson player, which means you can use his action to retrieve Mjolnir from the discard pile. Then, Thor has enough attack cards that the stun is easy enough to get rid of. Speaking of retrieving Mjolnir:

Stop! It’s Hammer Time!

Thor’s upgrades are pretty helpful in this regard. God of Thunder means that it won’t be too much of a hassle to get Mjolnir back onto the board. Plus, when we get to Thor’s attack cards, having that extra free energy helps to power up his attacks. When playing solo, Thor’s Helmet with its extra 5 hit points means that you can keep wailing on the enemy before you need to flip back and heal.

Speaking of Thor’s attacks, I *really* like Hammer Throw. Especially if you have that God of Thunder card out to bring Mjolnir back into play. Lightning Strike, however, was not as helpful with this deck and this scenario. With more people, you could have some help getting more card draw to help fuel the lighting resources. Or, if you customize your deck, you could make the deck more energy resources and/or include more card draw to help this attack. As is, I never got to really utilize this attack as I felt it was a waste doing it for 1-2 damage.

MVP of this Test

Spoiler: I lost this scenario. I couldn’t remove the threat fast enough and just got dogpiled at the end. However, I would have lost a whole lot sooner had it not been for this card. Not only does it allow you to remove threat without having to waste an action thwarting, but it gives you a minion to engage with and trigger Thor’s ability. 

Conclusion

In general: for playing solo, I would choose another hero other than Thor. His abilities and cards depend a lot on other interactions, so your success or failure would be based purely on luck of the draw. For playing with at least one other person, if you like the very aggressive “hit first and ask questions” later style of play, I could see you really enjoying playing this hero. My Dad is this type of player so I’m eager to get him to try this character (whenever I get a chance to travel down and see them again). For me, I enjoy an aggressive character every now and then, but right now I think I would reach for She-Hulk vs Thor if I wanted that Aggressive style of play.

Have you had a chance to play Thor yet? What do you think of his playstyle? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter / Facebook