Marvel Champions – Thor Hero Pack (Overview, Review)

What is the Marvel Champions Thor Hero Pack

The Thor Marvel Champions Hero Pack was released March 6, 2020 (note: click here for a list of all Marvel Champions releases). It contains 60 cards:

• Thor deck cards (15 cards)
• Aggression Aspect cards (18 cards)
• Basic cards (7 cards)
• Hero card (1 card)
• Leadership cards (3 cards)
• Justice cards (3 cards)
• Protection cards (3 cards)
• Basic cards (3 cards)
• Thor nemesis cards (6 cards)
• Thor hero pack deck list (1 card)

Thor Hero Pack Description (from Fantasy Flight Games website)

With the mythical hammer Mjolnir, Thor has the power to defeat even the strongest of foes with legendary strength and power. He enters the fight wielding all the power of Asgard, challenging stronger enemies and using powerful events to dispatch them without delay.
Like all Hero Packs, the Thor Hero Pack includes a fully-playable deck right out of the box that includes fifteen Hero cards, seventeen cards from the Aggression aspect, and eight neutral cards. This deck allows you to harness the power of Thor, who is rewarded for engaging and dispatching villainous minions from the field!

Pre-built Thor/Aggression decklist

Identity Card (Odinson / Thor)

Theme

Thematically, the deck design is well done. Specifically in how they incorporate Mjolnir into the overall construction. While playing, it constantly feels like you are using Mjolnir (using Aerial ability or throwing/returning the hammer back to hand).

The setup ability mimics Thor calling for his hammer: Is he worthy? Well, at least in Marvel Champions the answer is always yes since you get to start with it every game.

Hammer Throw depends on Mjolnir being on the battlefield to play, and then returns it to your hand…essentially just like Thor would behave in comics combat. But then you also have Lightning Strike, which gets boosted when Thor is airborne (i.e., when Mjolnir is in play).

The Thor-specific cards also encompass Thor’s often urge to jump into fray. The Thor identity card allows players to draw two cards when Thor engages a minion, and then Defenders of the Nine Realms allows you to purposely seek out a minion to engage while reducing threat. Hercules also plays on the engaged minion theme, but outside of a few specific scenarios (perhaps Ultron?) I don’t see that card getting a lot of play once players began customizing the Thor pre-built deck.

Hand Size

Thor has one less card than Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel. However, after playing a few games with Thor I realize that you can often fill your hand through several different ways:

• Mjolnir – On the first turn, you effectively have six cards because you can search up Thor’s hammer. It’s important to consider whether to play the hammer or discard it for resource. The latter allows you to recall the hammer on future turns for a needed resource (or to just play eventually).
• Avengers Mansion – Provides an extra card each turn
• Defender of the Nine Realms – This is a card I skipped past when initially looking over cards in Thor’s deck. However, I have found it be an important element: 0 resource investment to remove threat and draw two cards due to Thor’s Have at thee ability. Of course, a minion enters play.
• God of Thunder – It’s not a card in hand, but it functions as an extra resource to help play cards from hand

So, hand size is definitely a disadvantage for Thor. But, the deck is well-made to overcome that setback.

Allies

The ally configuration is well-suited for Thor: Lady Sif, Heimdall, and Hercules. Lady Sif provides an extra activation (either hero or alter-ego form). Heimdall is expensive, especially for Thor who only has a 5-card/4-card hand size without help from other cards in play. However, I suspect the card could become a quality inclusion for other hero decks that can cheat his cost (e.g., Star-Lord).

Cards Included, but Not In Pre-Built Thor Aggression Deck

I have not yet started building my own decks, but my quick thoughts are:

• Enhanced Physique: May depend on the deck as to whether the extra resource is needed at the expense of a card + 2 up-front resources. Most likely not making the cut in decks.
• Under Surveillance: I’m liking this card for solo decks. Since it does not scale, it gets noticeably less useful with more players
• Teamwork: Most likely keep this on the sidelines
• Bait and Switch: Most likely keep this on the sidelines, too

My Review of the Thor Hero Pack

Pros

• Strong theme
• Valkyrie (for Aggression) and Heimdall are two good allies to add to collections
• High REC that lets you stay in hero form and take advantage of attacks

Cons

• Deck is difficult to win with once you move past easier setups (e.g., Rhino). Challenge is learning how to maximize resource generation (Mjolnir, when to switch to alter-ego)
• Low hand size
• Not may ways to thwart except for allies.

Ultimately, I could see wanting to try Thor in a different aspect shell than Aggression for solo play. But, I do look forward to pairing Thor Aggression (after making some changes to pre-built deck) with more defensive (either Protection or Justice) decks.

That said, the pack provides good Aggression cards to add to your collection. And Under Surveillance most likely makes the cut in many of my solo Justice decks.

I’m happy with my purchase. I bought it from Amazon, but check for local game stores which usually have it for comparable prices.