“The end is near – the time of testing that I appointed. The weak shall be winnowed from the strong. Only those who prove worthy will survive the Apocalypse!” – Apocalypse

The end of the world has come. After defeating the likes of Magneto, Mister Sinister, and Stryfe, the X-Men and X-Force have returned home expecting some well-deserved rest. Instead, what they found is worse than anything they could have imagined: Professor X is dead, the world is in ruins, and a ruthless tyrant rules over what remains of humanity with an iron fist. Brace yourself, heroes, for the Age of Apocalypse has arrived!

As the conclusion of the “mutant trilogy” of expansions, this campaign expansion sees the X-Men and X-Force team up to take down one of the most powerful mutants in history, Apocalypse! Age of Apocalypse comes with five brand-new scenarios, and just like with all other campaign expansions, you can play each of these scenarios individually or sequentially as part of a larger campaign. This box also kicks off a new wave of playable X-Men heroes for the game, beginning with Bishop and Magik, both of whom come with fully pre-built and ready-to-play decks right out of the box. This foe is unlike anything our heroes have faced before, so you’ll need to pull out all the stops to take him down. Do you have what it takes to survive the Apocalypse?

An Age of Despair

The story of Age of Apocalypse picks up right where NeXt Evolution left off: at the grave of Charles Xavier. Our heroes barely have time to grieve when the first prelate of Apocalypse strikes: Unus and his squad of Infinites!

Unflinchingly loyal to his master, Unus (Age of Apocalypse, 59) enters the fray with a legion of Infinite Soldiers (Age of Apocalypse, 69) under his command. Unus and his minions draw strength from the Gene Pool (Age of Apocalypse, 71), which accumulates threat whenever the heroes’ allies are defeated. The Gene Pool grants both Unus and the Infinites several new abilities depending on how much threat is on it, and Unus can add more threat to it through the likes of his Prelate Sidearm (Age of Apocalypse, 63) and the effect on the main scheme, Hunting Gene Traitors (Age of Apocalypse, 62B).

Unus is a dire threat to the heroes on his own, but he is not the only prelate of Apocalypse at large. While playing the Age of Apocalypse campaign, the heroes must rely on their allies to handle special “side missions” around the globe! These missions take the form of special Mission side schemes, such as Evacuate Survivors (Age of Apocalypse, 167A), which can only be thwarted by the allies that you send to take care of them. These allies form your Mission Team (Age of Apocalypse, 171A) and won’t be able to help you deal with the main villain while they’re away (they also don’t count toward your ally limit).

Side missions come with their own special rules and mechanics, as well as Overseer minions—such as the bizarre Sugar Man (Age of Apocalypse, 182A)—that get in your way. It can be challenging to defeat them, but the effort is worth it. In addition to special campaign rewards that can aid you in later scenarios, you also get an immediate benefit depending on the current side mission. For example, when you defeat Evacuate Survivors, it flips over (Age of Apocalypse, 167B) and lets you pull any card you want from your deck or discard pile and add it to your hand. It also flips Mission Team to its other side (Age of Apocalypse, 171B), granting your party some additional card draw for the rest of the scenario. We won’t go into too much detail on the ins and outs of side missions today; just know that they do a great job of making each of the campaign’s scenarios feel like global threats!

Speaking of threats, there’s a new Standard encounter set in this expansion as well: the Standard III set. This set serves as a “side-grade” to the original Standard set by changing how nemeses enter play. Instead of the Shadow of the Past treachery from the normal Standard set, this set provides the permanent environment Pursued by the Past (Age of Apocalypse, 75A), which builds up “pursuit counters” over time until it eventually flips (Age of Apocalypse, 75B) to summon a nemesis set into the game. The rest of the Standard III set has various ways of placing pursuit counters, with cards like Dark Designs (Age of Apocalypse, 76), Sinister Strike (Age of Apocalypse, 77), and Evil Alliance (Age of Apocalypse, 78). The Standard III set is roughly the same difficulty level as the original Standard set, so be sure to give it a try if you want shake things up!

Harbingers of Doom

After defeating Unus, the heroes will have to deal with the most notorious agents of Apocalypse, the Four Horsemen!

This scenario pits you against four villains at once: War (Age of Apocalypse, 81A), Famine (Age of Apocalypse, 82A), Pestilence (Age of Apocalypse, 83A), and Death (Age of Apocalypse, 84A). Similar to previous multi-villain scenarios, only one member of the Horsemen will ever be active at a time, but in this scenario, none of the Horsemen will be defeated until you reduce all four of them to 0 hit points! Soaring above the battlefield on their Golden Horses (Age of Apocalypse, 90)—or on Metal Wings (Age of Apocalypse, 91), in Death’s case—these Rough Riders (Age of Apocalypse, 96) bring devastation everywhere they go!  

Of course, even the Four Horsemen pale in comparison to Apocalypse himself! This tyrant is nigh-invincible, and he only grows in power the longer the fight goes on. Beginning with his first stage (Age of Apocalypse, 101A), Apocalypse gradually upgrades to stage II (Age of Apocalypse, 101B), stage III (Age of Apocalypse, 102A) and finally stage IV (Age of Apocalypse, 102B) each time the main scheme, The Age of Apocalypse (Age of Apocalypse, 103B), is completed. This same scheme also prevents him from being defeated. How could our heroes hope to win against such impossible odds?

Thankfully, there is a way. In order to defeat Apocalypse, the heroes must first make their way to the Heart of the Empire (Age of Apocalypse, 104A) in order to reach The Towering Citadel (Age of Apocalypse, 104B). Once they’ve climbed the tower and reached The Tyrant’s Throne (Age of Apocalypse, 105A), the heroes must prove that the villain is No Longer Worthy (Age of Apocalypse, 105B); only then will they be able to end his reign!

We’ll reveal more information about the fourth and fifth scenarios on a later date, so brace yourselves for what’s to come.

Heroes of Hope

The might of Apocalypse is staggering, and the threat he poses is unlike anything our heroes have faced before. Thankfully, Age of Apocalypse adds two new X-Men to the roster, each of them packing some serious power.

First off is Lucas Bishop (Age of Apocalypse, 1B), a time-traveling soldier with the ability to absorb and rechannel energy. This is represented in Bishop ’s (Age of Apocalypse, 1A) hero ability, Energy Absorption, which allows him to discard cards from the top of your deck after being attacked and add any discarded resource cards to your hand. If you’re lucky, you could wind up with a bunch of Stored Energy (Age of Apocalypse, 10) in your hand after taking a big hit from the villain!

Naturally, Bishop comes with several cards in his kit that make special use out of all those resource cards. His signature allies, Malcom (Age of Apocalypse, 2) and Randall (Age of Apocalypse, 3) can both be readied and healed after discarding a resource card, while Bishop’s Rifle (Age of Apocalypse, 4) and his Uniform (Age of Apocalypse, 5) both scale to the number of resource cards in your hand. Discard extra resource cards to build up power on Super-Charged (Age of Apocalypse, 6), or use them to pay for a Concussive Blast (Age of Apocalypse, 7) to dish out some damage and ready Bishop for another round.

As a battle-tested field commander, Bishop is a natural fit for the Leadership aspect, which is what his pre-built deck uses. As we said before, Age of Apocalypse is all about the X-Men and X-Force coming together to take on Apocalypse, and Bishop’s pre-built deck reflects that. Strong X-Force allies like Cable (Age of Apocalypse, 11) and X-23 (Age of Apocalypse, 12) command similar abilities to their hero versions, while new additions Legion (Age of Apocalypse, 20) and Marrow (Age of Apocalypse, 21) provide some extra burst utility. Once you’ve built up a team, use the Advanced Suit (Age of Apocalypse, 14) to boost any X-Men or X-Force ally and keep them on the board longer. If your hero has an identity-specific ally that you really want to keep around, make them your Sidekick (Age of Apocalypse, 15) so you can fight with them Side-by-Side (Age of Apocalypse, 16)!

Joining the fight alongside Bishop is Illyana Rasputin (Age of Apocalypse, 30B), better known as Magik (Age of Apocalypse, 30A). As both a Mutant and a Mystic, Magik has access to a wide variety of powers, and her ability allows you to treat the top card of your deck as if it was part of your hand! You also get a discount when playing a card from the top of your deck, so if you strategically use the power of Limbo (Age of Apocalypse, 32), you could pull off some impressive feats for cheap.

Most of the rest of Magik’s kit interacts with the top of your deck as well. Her Crown (Age of Apocalypse, 33), Armor (Age of Apocalypse, 35), and the Soulsword (Age of Apocalypse, 34) all grant a stat boost depending on what resources are visible on the card atop your deck. With that in mind, you can use Magik’s signature Stepping Discs (Age of Apocalypse, 37) to warp a card from your discard pile back on top of your deck in order to give yourself the buff you need. Still not enough control for you? Then do some Scrying (Age of Apocalypse, 36) to stack the deck (and net yourself a card in hand). And if you’re worried about Magik taking damage while you’re still getting set up, call on her brother Colossus (Age of Apocalypse, 31) to take an incoming hit.

With her impressive versatility, it’s no surprise that Magik is a fierce fighter. This is reflected in her pre-built Aggression deck, which doubles down on that versatility while also allowing her to dish out some serious damage. Call on Goldballs (Age of Apocalypse, 41) to deal the exact amount of damage you need, and use Tempus (Age of Apocalypse, 42) to stop the villain from scheming. Whenever Magik takes down an enemy herself, you can tap into Blood Rage (Age of Apocalypse, 43) to net yourself a card, then use Attack events like Full-Body Charge (Age of Apocalypse, 45) to build up counters for Test the Defense (Age of Apocalypse, 44), allowing you to take down tougher foes with a one-two punch! Befitting her status as a Mystic, Magik’s deck also features the Bloodgem (Age of Apocalypse, 50) and the multi-use Basic Spell (Age of Apocalypse, 51) as even more sources of versatility. It seems that this hero can do a little bit of everything!

Heroes on the Horizon

As with every Marvel Champions campaign expansion, Age of Apocalypse heralds the beginning of a new wave of hero packs. Like the previous wave, there will be four hero packs this time around, each of them featuring a member of the X-Men. We’ll reveal each of them in time, but for now, here’s a sneak peek of what’s to come:

Can you save the world from the Apocalypse? Witness the epic conclusion to the mutant trilogy of expansions when Age of Apocalypse arrives in March 2024!