Fear No Evil

“Crime is on the rise—and with it, our profits.” –Kingpin

Everyone knows the Avengers and how they save the world on the regular. But for every cosmic tyrant threatening the planet, there are six superpowered criminals threatening the streets. It’s these day-to-day villains that most often endanger the people, especially when they organize beneath a powerful ringleader. To take on such a dastardly team of criminals, the city needs a team of fearless Defenders.

Fantasy Flight Games is thrilled to announce Fear No Evil, the next campaign expansion for Marvel Champions: The Card Game!

Taking place on the streets of New York City, this campaign sees our heroes taking on the city’s superpowered criminal underbelly, resolving various crises as they work up to a face-to-face confrontation with the man behind it all. This expansion stands out from its peers by having six scenarios instead of the usual five (a Marvel Champions first), and not only that, but five of those scenarios can be mixed and matched with different villains from the box to create a unique experience with each playthrough. Like past campaign expansions, each of these scenarios can be played individually or in variable order as part of a larger campaign. This box also kicks off a new wave of playable heroes for the game, beginning with Echo and the long-awaited Daredevil, both of whom come with fully pre-built and ready-to-play decks from the get-go.

Today, we’re providing a first look at the scenario content for this expansion. We’ll go over the heroes in their own dedicated previews in the near future. There’s a lot to cover for this box, so without further ado, let’s take a look at the story of Fear No Evil!

Five Underlings, One Kingpin

As we mentioned above, Fear No Evil breaks new ground for Marvel Champions by being the game’s first campaign expansion to have six scenarios instead of the usual five.

The story of this expansion sees the rise of a new crime spree in New York City, orchestrated by Kingpin and carried out by five of his greatest underlings: Bullseye, Electro, Hammerhead, Purple Man, and Typhoid Mary. As you may have guessed, each of these five underlings can be fought as standalone villains, and each of them is deadly in their own right.

Take Bullseye (Fear No Evil, 65), for example. This bloodthirsty assassin adds an extra boost icon to every card in his deck, making his attacks a bit stronger and his schemes a bit trickier than you would normally expect. This, of course, stacks with amplify icons on cards like Deranged Bloodlust (Fear No Evil, 73), and it gets even nastier when a card already has several boost icons of its own, such as Unerring Desire (Fear No Evil, 75).

You may have noticed an additional effect on that last card: if you choose not to give Unerring Desire to Bullseye as a boost card, you are forced to remove one of your Persona supports from the game. Bullseye is an assassin, after all, and he knows how to hit his enemies where it hurts most: their friends and family. Unerring Desire is bad enough, but Bullseye can take things a step further and go after your allies with Raise the Stakes (Fear No Evil, 69) and Incessant Pursuit (Fear No Evil, 71), gradually whittling down your forces until it’s just you and him left. Bullseye isn’t all offense, either; after revealing Bullseye’s Stage II, he gains access to his Adamantium-Laced Spine (Fear No Evil, 68A) for the rest of the game, significantly reducing the amount of damage you can do to him in a single instance. You’ll have to either rely on multiple small hits to get anything through, or hit him hard enough to flip the attachment to its Damaged Spine (Fear No Evil, 68B) side, giving yourself the opportunity you need to finish the job.

Bullseye is already a tough customer on his own, and he’s just one of five underlings on Kingpin’s payroll. Francine Frye, also known as Electro (Fear No Evil, 76), is another one of those underlings, and her dangerous electrical powers are only matched by her explosive temper. She begins the game with Electric Charge (Fear No Evil, 79) in play, stacking two per player charge counters on it to represent her initial electrical buildup. Electro gains additional boost cards on her attacks by spending charge counters from this attachment, and she adds additional charge counters whenever she schemes or her Charging Up (Fear No Evil, 82) side scheme is defeated.

Thankfully, the heroes are able to remove charge counters from Electric Charge at the cost of a few resources, and this is definitely something you’ll want to do. Dealing with extra boost cards is already bad enough, but if you aren’t careful, Electro can devastate your entire team with a burst of Chain Lightning (Fear No Evil, 83). The most efficient way to clear charge counters is through the use of printed “energy” resources, but holding onto too many of those in your hand can make you susceptible to an Energy Overload (Fear No Evil, 84). Even if she can’t punish you directly for negating her charge, Electro can always leave your upgrades Drained of Power (Fear No Evil, 80), forcing you to make a hard decision on where you’re spending your extra resources.  

Crime Spree

By now, some of you may have noticed that we have yet to reveal a main scheme for either of these villains. That’s because neither of them actually has a main scheme of their own—in fact, none of the Underling villains in this box do. Instead, each of the scenarios in this expansion (with the exception of the last one, which we’ll get to in a moment) exists independently of the villains, and you can mix and match them to your heart’s content!

One of these scenarios is The Getaway (Fear No Evil, 128B), which sees you and your fellow heroes engaging in a classic high-speed car chase with the chosen villain. The goal of this scenario is to keep the main scheme clear of threat, since every bit of threat on it represents distance that villain pulls ahead of you. In that vein, the villain gets a head start by beginning the scenario Out Front (Fear No Evil, 129A), which turns all the damage you would deal into threat removal off the main scheme. Clear all the threat off the scheme, and you’ll pull up Alongside (Fear No Evil, 129B) the villain, allowing you to take a few swings at them before they drive away again. Just take care not to get run over in the process!

As the scenario progresses, the main scheme will gradually build up “speed counters” to represent the…well, speed of the chase. These don’t do anything on their own, but much of the rest of The Getaway’s encounter set scales to the number of counters on the main scheme. For example, the treachery Burning Rubber (Fear No Evil, 132) can cost you a lot of resources (or place a lot of threat) if there are lots of speed counters on the main scheme. Similarly, Pedestrians (Fear No Evil, 133) can force you to slam on the breaks, which only gets rougher the faster you’re going.

Another scenario you’ll have to deal with is a Protection Racket threatening New York’s local shops. This scenario has multiple crimes going on at once, which means the heroes will have to divide and conquer if they want to bring the chaos to a halt. Each player has their own main scheme to deal with, each one representing a different shop to protect, and they all have certain conditions that add additional threat to them. For example, excess damage while dealing with a Bull in a China Shop (Fear No Evil, 135) can end up destroying the shop’s wares. In a similar fashion, Hung Out to Dry (Fear No Evil, 136) takes place in a cramped laundromat, which means the more combatants are present, the messier it gets. And while it might be tempting to grab something off the shelves to smack your foes with in the Pawn Shop Showdown (Fear No Evil, 137), you have to remember that that’s the shop’s inventory! Even beyond the shop itself, you’ll also have to protect the Proprietor (Fear No Evil, 139) from getting caught in the crossfire, and if things get especially hectic, you may suddenly find yourself in a Change of Venue (Fear No Evil, 141).

Heroes can still assist each other by thwarting main schemes other than their own, and they’ll definitely want to do so, since if any of these main schemes complete (or if any hero is defeated), the players lose the game. Any game effect on a card you resolve that refers to the “main scheme” specifically will only work on your own main scheme, but any effects that target “a scheme” will still work on any main scheme. This means you’ll have to be strategic about what thwarting abilities you use and when you use them, and depending on what encounter cards each player has to resolve, you might find one person’s main scheme building up threat faster than another’s! Thankfully, anytime an enemy schemes (including both the villain and their minions), they only add threat to the main scheme of the player they’re activating against, which means you still have a fighting chance even if things take a turn for the worse.

Speaking of fighting, the last of these interchangeable scenarios that we’ll show you today is The Raft Breakout (Fear No Evil, 142B). As you might have guessed from its name, this scenario revolves around a mass breakout from the S.H.I.E.L.D. supermax prison, the Raft. This prison is chock full of enemies that you took down in previous Marvel Champions campaign expansions, and they’re all itching for a chance at some payback.

First up is our old friend Rhino (Fear No Evil, 149) from the Marvel Champions core set. As strong and tough as ever, Rhino’s ready to do more breaking than taking this time, and his attacks hurt. Hailing from Sinister Motives is the dangerously crafty Mysterio (Fear No Evil, 147), whose illusions will dish you extra encounter cards for as long as he’s outside of his cell. Jumping ahead to a more recent foe, we have Baron Zemo (Fear No Evil, 145) from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who cunningly manipulates your allies into turning against you. These are just three of the six Elite minions this scenario pits you against, and that’s not even taking the villain’s own encounter set into account! Assisted by the Master Key (Fear No Evil, 143), which is attached to the villain during setup, you’re going to have to fend off an unrelenting torrent of escaped convicts if you want any chance of quelling the chaos at the Raft.

The Man Behind It All

Finally, we have the one responsible for the surge in crime in New York: Kingpin (Fear No Evil, 159A).

As the final boss of this expansion, Kingpin’s scenario breaks convention in a few different ways. A master of manipulation with unending influence and connections, Kingpin starts his scenario off by immediately calling in each player’s set-aside nemesis minion. You read that right: from the very first turn of the fight, you’ll be dealing with not only Kingpin’s schemes, but your worst enemy fighting alongside him! There’s no Standard set used in Kingpin’s scenario; instead, cards from his own encounter set can bring more of your nemesis’s cards into play. For example, Kingpin’s Influence (Fear No Evil, 173) can bring in your nemesis side scheme, while Bag of Tricks (Fear No Evil, 175) can gradually reveal the rest of the set.

As if dealing with your nemesis wasn’t bad enough, Kingpin himself can’t even be touched. If you want to be able to bring the big boss down, you’ll have to garner Public Support (Fear No Evil, 163A) first. The citizens of New York have had it with this crime spree, and if you can take down enough of Kingpin’s minions, then the people will have your backs in the final fight. Get Public Support flipped to its “high” side (Fear No Evil, 163B), and you’ll cause Kingpin (Fear No Evil, 159B) to flip as well, letting you finally take him on directly and bring an end to his schemes.

Of course, Kingpin’s not going to just sit there idly. Armed with his Bear Hugs (Fear No Evil, 164), his Cane (Fear No Evil, 166), and his Mountain of Muscle (Fear No Evil, 167), Fisk is more than happy to demonstrate why he is a man to be feared. Even once you’ve dealt with your nemesis minion, Kingpin still has plenty of other Underlings on his payroll, such as the tricky Spot (Fear No Evil, 171) and the reluctant Black Cat (Fear No Evil, 169). At least in Black Cat’s case, with some careful convincing, you can have her join your side as an ally—just keep in mind that her villainous keyword will still work even while she’s on your side! This is due to a rule change that Fear No Evil introduces for the villainous keyword, allowing it to work with friendly characters as well. One has to wonder why we did that…

Heroic Defenders

As with all campaign expansions, Fear No Evil marks the beginning of a new wave of playable heroes. Since today’s article is focusing on the scenario content for the box, in the coming weeks, we’ll preview the two heroes that come in this box: Echo and Daredevil!

The talented martial artist Echo enters the fray with a pre-built Protection deck, and her playstyle revolves around mimicking the techniques of her allies and fellow heroes. Meanwhile, the long-anticipated Daredevil joins the battle with a pre-built Justice deck alongside a special “Sense” deck that lets him double up on his actions. Both of these heroes are core members of the Defenders, and we’ll be seeing the rest of the team join in the months to come!

We first teased the hero packs for the Fear No Evil wave back in November during our In-Flight Report. In case you need a refresher, the remaining heroes for this wave are: Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Elektra, and Iron Fist!

We’ll share more details of each of these heroes (plus the Shadowland Scenario Pack that we also teased in the In-Flight Report) on a later date, so stay tuned!

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

Crime is on the rise in New York City, and Kingpin and his underlings are to blame. Can you put a stop to all the chaos and restore peace to the Big Apple? Take on Kingpin and his criminal underworld when Fear No Evil arrives in July!

You can pre-order your own copy of Fear No Evil (MC60en) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!

 

Written by Peter Schumacher