The Tyrant's Throne
Previewing the Third Scenario of the Age of Apocalypse Campaign
The Apocalypse is nigh! As we approach the onset of Marvel Champions: The Card Game’s latest expansion, we want to provide a deeper look at each of the scenarios in the Age of Apocalypse campaign.
Today, we’re showcasing the campaign’s third scenario, which features the titular Apocalypse himself!
Stop the Apocalypse
As we touched on in the Age of Apocalypse announcement article, Apocalypse is a nigh-invincible tyrant that cannot be defeated through normal means. His villain card has four different stages, and which one he starts at depends on your chosen difficulty. For an easier game, he will start at stage I (Age of Apocalypse, 101A); for standard difficulty, he starts at stage II (Age of Apocalypse, 101B); and on expert, he starts at stage III (Age of Apocalypse, 102A). Unlike most villains, Apocalypse advances his stage each time the main scheme completes, gradually working his way up to stage IV (Age of Apocalypse, 102B). Each advancement to the next stage is a permanent transition, which means once Apocalypse powers up, there’s no going back.
Simply dealing damage to Apocalypse won’t be enough to stop him. His main scheme, The Age of Apocalypse (Age of Apocalypse, 103B) fully heals him each time you would defeat him, though you do get to remove his attachments (more on those in a moment) alongside some free threat removal. In order to defeat Apocalypse for good, you’ll need to prove that he’s no longer fit to rule. If only it were that easy…
Just getting to Apocalypse’s throne is challenging by itself. You and your fellow heroes will have to make your way to the Heart of the Empire (Age of Apocalypse, 104A) to ascend The Towering Citadel (Age of Apocalypse, 104B), and only then can you reach The Tyrant’s Throne (Age of Apocalypse, 105A); clear the throne, and you’ll make Apocalypse No Longer Worthy (Age of Apocalypse, 105B). However, each step of the way, your progress is halted and hounded by one of Apocalypse’s Prelate minions: Mister Sinister (Age of Apocalypse, 179B), The Shadow King (Age of Apocalypse, 180B), Abyss (Age of Apocalypse, 181B), Sugar Man (Age of Apocalypse, 182B), and Mikhail Rasputin (Age of Apocalypse, 183B). You’ll face a random Prelate at each step of your journey, and you can’t proceed to the next step until you’ve taken them down.
Not that you can ignore Apocalypse during all this either. As the battle unfolds, the tyrant will upgrade himself with Superpower attachments, such as Cyberpathy (Age of Apocalypse, 106), Biomorphing (Age of Apocalypse, 107), and Molecular Control (Age of Apocalypse, 108). The only way to get rid of these attachments is to reduce Apocalypse’s hit points to 0 (triggering the main scheme’s effect), which means the longer you let him gather power, the more difficult he’ll be to take down. He can also power up his minions with The Fittest (Age of Apocalypse, 109), and he may respond to your challenge of his rule with The Apocalypse Solution (Age of Apocalypse, 111). It’s clear that this is one tyrant who does not like to lose!
The threats don’t stop there, either. To aid him in taking you down, Apocalypse calls upon The Dark Riders (117). This fanatical team can hammer you with a relentless assault as more and more of them are revealed, and each of their attacks comes paired with a nasty effect. For example, Gauntlet (Age of Apocalypse, 112) can discard your upgrades, Barrage (Age of Apocalypse, 113) can hit you with a…well, barrage of damage, and Hard-Drive (Age of Apocalypse, 114) can put threat on the main scheme and side schemes alike. These abilities trigger regardless of if the Dark Riders actually deal any damage, so you’ll need to work together with your allies to send them packing!
Speaking of working together, the Age of Apocalypse expansion also brings about a rule change regarding how the teamwork keyword works in all Marvel Champions products. In the past, whenever a minion with teamwork entered play, it would cause every minion on that team to activate at once. With the release of Age of Apocalypse, the keyword will instead cause only the minion that just entered play to activate, so long as they have at least one teammate in play. In a way, this means the teamwork keyword now functions similarly to the quickstrike keyword, except the minion could attack or scheme, depending on the form of the player they engaged with. This scales more fairly in higher player counts than before, while still giving you incentive to stop the minions from assembling their team.
No Longer Worthy
Just getting to Apocalypse is no easy task, and actually defeating him is a trial of its own. You and your fellow heroes will have to bring your A-game if you want to bring the tyrant down and claim victory at last.
That said, this scenario is only the midpoint of the campaign. What could be coming next? Keep your eye out in the coming weeks for the next Age of Apocalypse scenario preview!
