Marvel Legendary: Messiah Complex
The Marvel Legendary - Messiah Complex expansion came out 2022, and is by date the latest Non-MCU "Deluxe Expansion", as in an expansion with 200 cards, so it's probably worth having a look at.
Posted February 20, 2025 by Jay Kay
- Designer(s): Devin Low
- Publisher: Upper Deck
- Playercount: 1-5
- Length: 30 - 90 min
- Age: 8+
Components
200 Cards in total
- 8 Heroes
- 3 Double sided Masterminds (One normal side, and one Epic side for a bigger challenge.)
- 4 Villain Groups
- 2 Henchmen Groups
- 4 Veiled or Unveiled Schemes
- 7 x 2 Special Sidekicks
- 3 Special Bystanders
Overview
The Marvel Legendary - Messiah Complex expansion came out 2022, and is by date the latest Non-MCU "Deluxe Expansion", as in an expansion with 200 cards, and todat we're having a closer look. It resolves around the X-men story line with the same name, and does indeed contain a hero or two from the X-Men faction, along with a couple of welcomed heroes for the X-Force faction, and a bunch from the new X-Factor team. As usual, it comes with a set of Masterminds, Henchmen and Villains as well. One unique thing is that this set also contains 14 Special Sidekick cards, which where introduced in the Secret Wars, Volume 1 set from 2015, and special schemes called Veiled or unveild schemes, more on that below
New keywords
- Clone. This keyword appears when recuited, as in if you can satisfy the pre-requisite, you may Clone the card, meaning you will get another copy of it from the HQ or the hero deck. It may also appear when you play a certain card, and in that case, you will get the copy of the card there and then. I was sceptical of this mechanic beforehand as it seemed very fiddly, but it actually works pretty well.
- Shatter. You may use this mechanic to slice the strength of a villain in half, and some cards even lets you do this on the Mastermind! Obviosly super useful, especially against high strenth Mastermands like Thanos.
- Tactical Formation. This keyword appears on some hero cards and says things like “Tactical Formation 445: You get +3 stars“. This means, if you have two cards that costs 4 and one that costs 5 in play/in your hand, you would get +3 stars. Some characters in this set goes very well with characters like Spiderman from the base set (Tactical formation 223 for an example...)
- Prey. A complicated keyword that appears on villains and masterminds. It usually is an ambush effect, and when it triggers, you will put the card in question in front of a player, and if noone defeats the villain before that players turn has ended, it will trigger the “Finish the Prey” effect which could mean things like KOing cards, discarding cards, or get wounds, etc.
-
Veiled or unveild schemes. These are double sided schemes that work like this; There's one "start side" and one "ending side", you will pick one scheme and use it's start side, at some point it will Transform to another random unveild cards ending side. There are 4 of these so there are 16 combinations to be found here, if our math serves us right.
Returning keywords
- Investigaste First seen in Marvel Noir, and it basically means you will check the top 2 cards of your deck to find X, where X can be a hero type, a hero with a certain cost, etc. If you manage to find one, put it in your hand.
- Chivalrous Duel I'm not sure in which expansion this first appeared, but it means something in the lines of "You cannot Fight this Villain/Mastermind with cards from more than 1 hero", as in you could use a strenth 2 and a strength 3 Hulk card to defeat a strength 5 Villain with this keyword, but not a strength 3 Hulk and strength 3 Captain American.
- When Recruited This is a effect which happens when you recruit the hero, in this expansion it is often used togheter with Clone.
New Heroes
- M -M is a member of the new faction X-Factor, all her cards costs 3 and she has Tactical Formation and Investigate that cares about cards costing 3. All in all a decent, damage focused hero.
- Multiple Man -Another X-Factor hero, and all his cards costs 4. Those are a bit expensive, sure, but all his cards have the Clone keyword, so you will end up getting alot of them for free. He also uses Tactical Formation and Investigate, much like M. I would call this guy a support hero as he lets you draw and KO cards, along with some decent damage output.
- Rictor -His super card is awesome, either lets you Shatter the Mastermind, or all the heroes in the HQ, as in halving their prices. He has blue/yellow cards with more Shatter and Investigate. A very good hero. (X-Factor)
- Shatterstar -The first X-Force hero in the bunch, and most of his cards costs 5. Most of the cards can be Cloned when buying them though, and you'll be using Tactical Formation to get the most of his cards. He also lets you Shatter the Mastermind. All in all, a very decent hero, that probably can go well with Thor and Wolverine from the base set.
- Siryn -Another X-Factor hero, and she's all about Shattering the villains, the heroes, and the Mastermind. Awesome Red/blue hero
- Stepford Cuckoos -Probably our last favorite hero(s) of the set. Their cards all costs 3 and 2, and they're using Tactical Formation and Clone on pretty much all of them, they're the only X-men in the set, and they probably go well with vanilla Spiderman.
- Strong Guy -All all in green hero with awesome attack cards, and he uses Investigate in cool ways to make him a high tier hero. X-Factor
- Warpath - His super card get stronger the more you "reveal" or "look at" cards, which is useful in combation with Investigate which he also has. He also has 4 interesting cards that does nothing except lets you draw 2 more cards next turn.... (X-Force)
Masterminds & Villains
- Bastion, fused Sentinel -A cool, medium level Mastermind that spawns another Mastermind every time you fight him, and Master Strikes also spawns a new mastermind, and makes ALL Sentinel Masterminds stronger... A very fun Mastermind that scales well.
- Exodus -The bad news is he's 32 strength Mastermind. The good news is he can bed Shattered any number of times paying 3 stars. Quite challenging, and even more on the Epic side, obviously.
- Lady Deathstrike -She's all about Preying on the players, and her villains all uses the Prey mechanic too, which in our opinion is pretty fiddly. The easiest and our least favorite Mastermind of the bunch.
There's one more Villain group that doesn't belong to a Mastermind included in the set, the Clan Yashida, which are all about the Chivalrous Duel and a welcome addition to the Villain pool.
Special Sidekicks
The set includes two copies each of 7 different Sidekicks that use mechanics from the set in a very nice way. For sure the best Sidekicks in the series so far! Two thumbs up.
OPINION
The good
- The new heroes and keywords are all in all a solid bunch. Me liksie
- Interesting Masterminds, with three different difficulty levels, and also double sided.
- The Special Sidekicks are awesome.
- 200 cards is always nice.
- Nice artwork on the cards.
The bad
- The Prey mechanic, and the Clone mechanic, to some extent, are quite fiddly.
CONCLUSION
Overall a solid expansion which won't disapoint you.
Rating: 8/10
Thanks to Upper Deck who were nice enough to send me a copy to review!
Get it at these vendors
Return to Board game news