“Welcome to the X-Men. Hope you survive the experience!” – Shadowcat

The world is always in need of heroes. In order to truly achieve peace, there are times when we must put aside our differences and focus on doing what is right. That is exactly what the X-Men do, and their story is all about their fight to protect a world that hates and fears them.

With this expansion, the X-Men are finally coming to Marvel Champions! Face off against the X-Men’s classic foes, such as Sabretooth, Sentinels, and the Master of Magnetism himself, Magneto. This expansion comes with five brand-new scenarios, and as with previous expansions, you can play each of these scenarios individually or as part of a larger campaign. With an extraordinary spread of new modular encounter sets, there will be ample opportunity to enhance all of your Marvel Champions games. Mutant Genesis also kicks off a new wave of playable heroes for the game, starting with two iconic X-Men: Colossus and Shadowcat, both of whom come with fully pre-built and ready-to-play decks right out of the box.

Exceptional Enemies

The X-Men have a long list of foes that they have battled over the years, and the campaign in Mutant Genesis sees them facing off against several of them. The story begins with the X-Men trying to foil an assassination plot carried out by the aggressive Sabretooth (Mutant Genesis, 60).

This scenario sees you protecting the senator Robert Kelly (Mutant Genesis, 66) from Sabretooth’s assault. By the time you arrive on the scene, Kelly is already being Stalked by Sabretooth (Mutant Genesis, 63B), so you will need to Find the Senator (Mutant Genesis, 65A) as quickly as possible in order to protect (Mutant Genesis, 65B) him from the villain’s rampage.

Once you take down Sabretooth, you won’t have time to rest on your laurels, as you’ll next have to deal with Project Wideawake and the menacing threat that is the Sentinels (Mutant Genesis, 84). These massive, mutant-hunting robots come in many forms, and their Abduction Protocols (Mutant Genesis, 100) will constantly demand your attention during the chilling Night of the Sentinels (Mutant Genesis, 87B). Fortunately, you’ll have the opportunity to rescue some captive X-Men allies, such as Boom Boom (Mutant Genesis, 90) and Cannonball (Mutant Genesis, 91). You’ll be glad to have them, because the severity of Operation Zero Tolerance (Mutant Genesis, 104) means you’ll need all the help you can get!

The threat of the Sentinels doesn’t end there. Once you put a stop to Project Wideawake, you’ll need to tackle the towering Master Mold (Mutant Genesis, 109). This scenario has you taking on The Sentinel Factory (Mutant Genesis, 112B) itself, forcing you to carve your way through swaths of Sentinels in order to take on Master Mold. By outfitting its “children” with Unit Upgrades (Mutant Genesis, 115) and Stun Beams (Mutant Genesis, 116), Master Mold can build a terrifying army in no time.

Both the Project Wideawake and Master Mold scenarios draw on modular encounter sets to fill the battlefield with Sentinels, with models ranging from Mark II (Mutant Genesis, 101) to Mark VI (Mutant Genesis, 106), as well as potent attachments like Energy Barrier (Mutant Genesis, 103) and Targeted for Elimination (Mutant Genesis, 107). These robotic fiends are not to be trifled with!

The Brotherhood Strikes

After a hard-fought battle to defeat Master Mold and his Sentinels, the X-Men will have no time to catch their breath when the Brotherhood of Mutants attacks the X-Mansion!

This team of villains is loyal to Magneto, and they should not be underestimated! Avalanche (Mutant Genesis, 121A) deals heavy damage and exhausts your allies, Blob (Mutant Genesis, 122A) stuns everyone he hits, Pyro (Mutant Genesis, 123A) torches everything with indirect damage, and Toad (Mutant Genesis, 124A) snatches away cards from your hand. You will only face one of them at a time, and how many of them you need to defeat to win is determined by your chosen difficulty, but each of them is formidable in their own right.

When The Brotherhood Strikes (Mutant Genesis, 125B), you and your fellow heroes will need to fend off their assault in various parts of the X-Mansion in order to Save the School (Mutant Genesis, 130). Both the villain you face and the part of the mansion you’re fighting in is determined randomly; for example, you may have to battle Avalanche in the Atrium (Mutant Genesis, 126B), chase Blob out of the Cafeteria (Mutant Genesis, 127B), dunk Pyro in the Basketball Court (Mutant Genesis, 128B), or catch Toad in the Courtyard (Mutant Genesis, 129B). If you let the Brotherhood overrun too many parts of the mansion, it’s game over, so you’ll have to stay on your toes!

Once the Brotherhood of Mutants is beaten back, it’s time to face the final boss of the campaign: Magneto (Mutant Genesis, 138), the Master of Magnetism himself. Magneto is a powerful villain with designs for human subjugation, and his scenario is a race against time to sabotage his plans before finally defeating the villain himself. With Asteroid M (Mutant Genesis, 141B) serving as the battlefield, you’ll have to deal with Magneto’s constant onslaught of Magnetic cards, such as Magnetic Bubble (Mutant Genesis, 149), Wrapped in Metal (Mutant Genesis, 150), and Electromagnetic Blast (Mutant Genesis, 153).

Magneto is a mighty foe; defeating him will test all of your skills and determination as heroes. Are you up to the challenge?

Uncanny Heroes

In order to properly face threats like Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants, you will need a team of skilled X-Men. Fortunately, Mutant Genesis comes with two mighty mutants ready to leap into the fray from the moment you open the box.

First off is Piotr Rasputin (Mutant Genesis, 1A), better known as Colossus (Mutant Genesis, 1B). This kindhearted aspiring artist has the ability to transform his skin into Organic Steel (Mutant Genesis, 6), and with that comes unparalleled toughness! Unique among heroes, Colossus can have an extra tough status card on his identity, allowing him to shrug off enemy attacks while also using the status cards as his own unique resource. For example, he can discard a tough status card from himself to fuel Made of Rage (Mutant Genesis, 7) or Steel Fist (Mutant Genesis, 8), then draw a card with his Iron Will (Mutant Genesis, 4). You can rapidly power up with Bulletproof Protector (Mutant Genesis, 9), and while you have at least one tough card remaining, Titanium Muscles (Mutant Genesis, 5) becomes a steady source of “physical” resources.

Befitting his role as the ultimate defender, Colossus comes prepackaged with a fully-built Protection deck. His signature card Armor Up (Mutant Genesis, 10) synergizes incredibly well with cards like Perseverance (Mutant Genesis, 16), allowing Colossus to nab two tough status cards just in time for the villain’s activation. Then, as the enemy moves in to swing, Colossus can punish them with a Powerful Punch (Mutant Genesis, 14). Meanwhile, Polaris (Mutant Genesis, 12) can help keep Colossus’s defenses ironclad and Professor X (Mutant Genesis, 19) can ready him after a villain phase spent defending. If your team finds themselves in dire straits, call upon an X-Men ally with Mutant Protectors (Mutant Genesis, 17) to take a hit, then give that ally some Protective Training (Mutant Genesis, 13) to keep them on the board longer.

Joining Colossus on the battlefield is Kitty Pryde (Mutant Genesis, 30A), better known as Shadowcat (Mutant Genesis, 30B). This plucky mutant has the ability to phase her body and the things she touches through solid matter, allowing her to ignore all of the villain’s attempts to slow her down. Representing this power is Shadowcat’s unique mass form upgrade; while she is Solid (Mutant Genesis, 31A), Shadowcat can generate an extra resource for attack and defense events, and while she is Phased (Mutant Genesis, 31B), she takes no damage when defending! That said, every time Shadowcat attacks or defends while phased, she switches back to solid form, so you’ll have to plan your strategy accordingly.

The rest of Shadowcat’s kit plays off her mass form and her innate Selective Intangibility. Being able to ignore guard, patrol, and the crisis icon is useful on its own, but when paired with cards like Acute Control (Mutant Genesis, 34) and Intangible Interference (Mutant Genesis, 35), Shadowcat becomes a master at slipping through the enemy’s defenses. Use your Solid form’s resource to help pay for a Shadowcat Surprise (Mutant Genesis, 37), which flips your mass form to Phased, then smack the enemy with a Phased Strike (Mutant Genesis, 38) to get rid of an annoying attachment. If you find yourself facing a hefty villain attack, Quick Shift (Mutant Genesis, 40) out of danger, and then make the enemy Phased and Confused (Mutant Genesis, 36) on your next turn!

As a hero with formidable martial prowess, Shadowcat blitzes into battle with a pre-built Aggression deck. Call on Magik (Mutant Genesis, 42) to teleport a pesky minion back into the encounter deck, and with some Attack Training (Mutant Genesis, 43) equipped to Wolverine (Mutant Genesis, 41), you’ll have a high-powered ally that can rip through your enemies for a good long while. When you’re feeling confident, mark a minion as a Gatekeeper (Mutant Genesis, 44) to set up some threat removal; Shadowcat can ignore the patrol icon while she’s Phased, so your allies can take the minion down while you focus on the villain’s schemes. Then, when you’re ready to go all out, hit the villain’s forces with a Team Strike (Mutant Genesis, 45). With both Magik and Wolverine in play and each of them equipped with Assault Training, plus Shadowcat herself, you’ll have 9 damage to spread out among enemies however you wish!

Incoming X-Men

As with every Marvel Champions campaign expansion, Mutant Genesis heralds the beginning of a new wave of hero packs. However, this time around, there will be six hero packs instead of four. On top of that, the first two of those heroes—Cyclops and Phoenix—will release on the same day as Mutant Genesis!

This means that you will be able to take on this exciting new story with a full team of X-Men right out of the gate. Look forward to hearing more about Cyclops and Phoenix in their own respective announcement articles in the future, as well as all the X-Men that come after them!

Mutant Protectors

The wait is finally over: the X-Men have arrived on the scene. Fans of Marvel Champions: The Card Game won’t want to miss out when Mutant Genesis launches early this fall, with the Cyclops and Phoenix Hero Packs releasing alongside it and four more heroes soon to follow!