So, The Marvel Multiverse set finally materialized! See The Expansion Absorption Explosion for more! This week, we are just looking at the standalone box: Multiverse: Marvel United. In order to play any of the many many expansions we got during The Expansion Absorption Explosion, you need at least one of the standalone Marvel United boxes.

There are four standalone boxes!!! See above!! Which one do you want? If you like Avengers, the original (top right) Marvel United is your best best. If you like the X-Men, the X-Men Marvel United (bottom right) is probably for you. If you like Spider-Man and the animated movies, Spider-Geddon Marvel United (upper left) is for you! Finally, if you like Marvel Multiverse shows on Disney+ (like Loki and What IF?), the Multiverse Marvel United (bottom left) set is probably best for you.

So, why would you want this Multiverse box? We’ve discussed all the other standalone boxes somewhere else: you might consider looking at those posts before moving forward: Marvel United (see here and here), X-Men Marvel United, (see here), and Spider-Geddeon Marvel United (see here)!

Let’s take a look at the Multiverse version of the game!

Unboxing

This is the same size as all the other standalone boxes: see Coke can above for scale.

The production is very similar to the others: there’s two giant token sheets (this is one of the reasons you need a standalone version of the game: so you can get the tokens).

The miniatures for this game are just as good as any of the standalones!  Se above as the villains (red) rest with the heroes (blue) and one anti-hero (purple)!

There’s a bunch of new Locations, thematic to the heroes and villains we have in this set (another reason you need a standalone box: every game needs 6 locations).

It’s the cards that you need to play: there’s a deck of heroes, and a deck of villains!  And, something new … Equipment cards!

The equipment cards are new thing we’ll talk about below.

There’s 7 new heroes: Captain Carter (from What If?), Loki (a good guy: from the Loki TV show), Spider-Man 2099 (from the comic), IronHeart, Mighty Thor, Black Panther Suri, and Cosmic Ghost Rider!  See their decks above!

The new villains (with their threats) are Immortus, Emperor Doom, Maestro, and Cosmic Ghost Rider!

Each of the new Villains is very different: we’ll talk more about them below!

Overall, this looks great, just like every other standalone Marvel United box!

Equipment

This is a brand new thing: equipment cards.  See above!  Most (but not all heroes), can get some equipment cards!   Captain Carter gets a shield, Mighty Thor gets Mjolnir, Loki gets a Sceptre, Black Panther Suri gets a spear, and Cosmic Ghost Rider gets two things: A Hell Cycle and a Hellfire Chain!

Equipment is optional: if you want to take your equipment, you have to take your double-double wild card out of your deck … for game balance.  See above as Captain Carter and Loki trade out their double-double wilds for equipment!

Equipment has an active and inactive side: when active, you can use it effects listed: see Captain Carter’s shield above on the active side.

Once you use it, it becomes inactive, and has to be recharged to flip back over.  Typically, some hero cards can recharge it, or you can take the recharge action on the card (see above).  This is why you have to get rid of your double-double wilds: the items can be used multiple times!

Even if you don’t get a “specific” item, there are generic equipment cards that any hero can get (at the cost of a double-double wild card).  See above.

Interestingly, there are Equipment cards for heroes from OTHER sets: see some Equipment for Wasp and Spider-man, and others!  If you have the original Marvel United with Wasp, you can use these equipment cards!  

Overall, Equipment cards are my favorite new thing in the Marvel United system: the cards give you more choices during your turn!  And they make the heroes feel even more thematic (well, the specific equipment does).  Loki’s Scepter doesn’t feel that great, until he uses it to bash Maestro from across the board and take him down! It’s just like him to misdirect …

Playthroughs

Over about 2 weeks, I played through all 4 villains of the game, with a wide assortment of the heroes (usually a different pair of heroes per game).  Mostly, they were solo plays, but there was one cooperative play as well.  We’ve talked so much about the gameplay for Marvel United elsewhere (from the Expansion Absorption to any of our reviews), we’ll just concentrate on all the villains!  And along the way, we’ll take a look at the heroes in here!

Cosmic Ghost Rider vs. Captain Carter and Loki!

Cosmic Ghost Rider is the recommended first villain: he does seem the easiest.   

The Cosmic Ghost Rider is collecting the souls of evil men (the thugs), and if he gets enough souls (his track goes high), he wins!

I chose Captain Carter and Loki to battle Cosmic Ghost Rider.

Good times: Loki and Captain Carter didn’t have too many problems taking out Cosmic Ghost Rider, but they showed the power of their equipment: see above as Loki takes out Cosmic Ghost Rider with his Scepter from afar!

Good times.  We also got to see the flavor of Captain Carter: that shield makes her much more interesting! It can be used as defense or offense as needed: very thematic!! And Loki’s special effects are so interesting and thematic: he can redirect damage to somewhere else, or … the best bit … he can redirect a moving villain to any Location!  It totally fits with his trickster persona.

Captain Carter is probably my favorite Hero from this set ..

But Loki, with this Tricker abilities, is a close second!

It’s clear: the equipment cards work and they work well.  I am not sure I will ever play without them if I can.

Immortus vs.  Captain Carter and Loki

Immortus is an interesting villain: he’s an immortal, so you can’t “kill” him! All you can do to win is to complete all three missions: see a winning game above!

I liked Immortus: it changed up the gameplay enough to get around the normal arc the game takes (almost do two missions at the same time, so you can defeat the villain but get three turns as long as possible); in this case, you are working on all three missions all the time!

Immortus wasn’t hard or easy: he was a good challenge.

We stayed with Captain Carter and Loki for battling Immortus: they are my favorite combo!

Maestro vs. Cosmic Ghost Rider and Mighty Thor!

Maestro is by far the hardest villain in this game!

He heals ABOVE HIS STARTING HEALTH whenever a Hero is KO’d or an Overflow happens!  And the KO’s happens a lot, because Maestro Does 3 Damage to 1 Hero!! BAM!

At first, Mighty Thor’s Mjolnir equipment wasn’t that great (because it can only summon 2 cards). I almost reverted her back to having her extra double-double wild.

Cosmic Ghost Rider was an absolute blast to play! His two equipment cards give even more options when playing! And he babysits a baby Thanos! Cosmic Ghost Rider is probably my third favorite from this set.

The Maestro destroyed us in three games: see above as he moves to us and KO’s Mighty Thor!!

The problem is that the Maestro has a ton of hit points by the time you have to take him out (8? 9? 10?)  And you just can’t do enough damage!!!

Oh! And Rick Jones has to be on the same Location as The Maestro  (this is so thematic: this comes right out of the Comic book: Future Imperfect! ) or Maestro IGNORES the first two damage you do to him! See Rick Jones above!  He’s just a token …

We finally did defeat Maestro with Mjolnir!  We kept Mjolnir summon card at the bottom of Mighty Thor’s Deck when she was KO’d … so when we needed the full power of Mighty Thor and her hammer, would could summon her!!  Our fourth and final game resulted in a win!

Without a doubt, The Maestro is the hardest villain from this set.  He may even be harder than Galactus!  (See our review of the Coming of Galactus from a few weeks ago!).

Mighty Thor is great with her hammer … if you can use it right.  It may take a few plays before you get the hang of how to use the Mjolnir card.  Cosmic Ghost Rider was just fun to play with his equipment: you always felt you could do something interesting on his turn.

Emperor Doom vs. Captain Carter and Loki

I asked Sam who he wanted to play … he wanted to play Loki!  So, I played Captain Carter and we played a two player cooperative game against Emperor Doom!

Emperor Doom was a challenge: his little Doom tokens take over everything! If you don’t do something about them, you will lose!  Me and Sam squeaked out a win.

Emperor Doom is probably the second hardest villain of the bunch; we probably should have lost.

Conclusion

What If? is probably my favorite show out of the newer Marvel Universe stuff, and Captain Carter makes a great showing in that universe!  She is my favorite character by far in this set! Loki  redeems himself (in his Loki TV show), becoming a good guy! His hero character is so thematic with his trickster capabiltiies!

Most people probably don’t care as much about Mighty Thor and Black Panther Suri and Spider-man 2099 and some of the more obscure characters in this set (it’s not like Captain Carter is known outside of What If?).  And, if I were recommending a base Marvel United, it would be a hard sell to start with this one.

And yet, I think Multiverse Marvel United is my favorite of the standalone Marvel United titles!  The Equipment cards really enhance the game thematically and mechanically, given each Hero more flavor and more choice!

This set contains an odd assortment of characters, but if any of them speak to you personally, I would recommend Multiverse Marvel United.  For example: My friend Derek and I both loved What If? and Loki.  We’d have long discussions about the shows when the episodes were out.  He is a more recent board gamer, and if I were to try to get him into Marvel United, I would probably start with this set; I think these characters would speak to him.

The Equipment Cards are that cool: I think we’ve gotten to the point where Multiverse Marvel United has entered into 9.5 or even 10 territory.  I  love this game, and the Equipment cards make the game that much better.