“Fools taking up arms against omnipotence. They rush head-on into Armageddon. So I shall provide them with a most glorious doomsday!” – Thanos

The universe is full of both good and evil. Mighty heroes clash with dastardly villains in every galaxy, and yet one threat has risen above all the others. One being has established himself as a scourge on all life, whose power is unrivaled across all the cosmos.

Of course, we are talking about Thanos.

This time, you and your fellow heroes must challenge the forces of Thanos. This massive expansion contains a brand-new campaign featuring five thrilling scenarios pitting you against members of the zealous Black Order, including Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, and, of course, the Mad Titan himself. As with previous expansions, you can play each of these scenarios individually or as part of a larger campaign, and with a slew of new modular encounter sets, there will be ample opportunity to mix things up for all of your Marvel Champions content. Of course, a new wave of expansions means more heroes as well, and The Mad Titan’s Shadow starts it off with the mighty champions Adam Warlock and Spectrum, both of whom come with fully pre-built and ready-to-play decks right out of the box.

The Black Order

In his mad quest for the Infinity Stones, Thanos sends his subordinates to every corner of the galaxy to carry out his brutal plans. Your heroes must first face Ebony Maw (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 71) and his Attack on Knowhere (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 74B). You’ll have to deal with the Maw’s deadly spells, such as Fireball (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 76) and Pacification (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 78), and combat his powerful attachments like Abjuration (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 82) and Restrained (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 83) if you want any chance at stopping the onslaught.

Once you have saved Knowhere from Ebony Maw, you’ll need to rush to defend Avengers Tower (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 100A) from Proxima Midnight (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 92) and Corvus Glaive (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 95). These two commanders work together in their shared scenario, each of them placing threat on their own main scheme while drawing from the same single villain deck. You’ll have to pay attention to your Focused Defense (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 101) and determine which of the two villains is the bigger threat; just make sure you take them both down at the same time!

Of course, this expansion would not be complete without a battle against the mighty Thanos (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 111). It’s going to take everything you have to stop the Mad Titan and his plan to Balance the Scales (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 115A), especially as he wields the power of the Infinity Stones!

Infinite Power

You may have seen it mentioned on Thanos’s card, but this expansion also comes packed with the new Infinity Stone deck! This special seven-card encounter set can be added to almost any scenario in the game, not just those in The Mad Titan’s Shadow. The only scenarios that can’t use it are the ones with multiple villains (or no villain) in play at the start of the game, so feel free to revisit your favorite scenarios from previous Marvel Champions expansions and add the Infinity Stone deck if you want some extra challenge!

When you include the Infinity Stone deck in your game, the villain begins the scenario with the Infinity Gauntlet (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 129) already attached. The Infinity Stone deck is separate from the encounter deck, and it has its own discard pile. As the game progresses, the six Infinity Stones will cycle in and out of play as the villain wields their powers against the heroes. This means that, not only will the villain’s schemes and attacks be more potent with the Gauntlet attached, they can also overwhelm the heroes with added bonus effects, such as confusing someone with the Mind Stone (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 130) or using the Space Stone (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 134) to teleport an extra minion into play. With infinite possibilities for new levels of challenge, this encounter set will test your mettle like never before!

Heroism on a Cosmic Scale

Thanos and his Black Order are some of the most formidable foes in the Marvel universe, and they likewise bring some formidable challenge to Marvel Champions: The Card Game. Thankfully, The Mad Titan’s Shadow also comes packed with a pair of potent heroes!

Starting off, we have Adam Warlock (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 31B), the avatar of life and a powerful cosmic sorcerer. Warlock is an extremely unique hero due to his deckbuilding condition: he must include an equal number of cards from all four aspects in his deck, and he can’t have any duplicates outside of his signature cards. In exchange for this need for balance, Warlock’s pre-built deck comes packed with powerful unique or limited cards like the Living Tribunal (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 48) and Shield Spell (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 61). In addition, his hero form (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 31A) has the innate ability Battle Mage, which gives him new ways to spend the aspect cards that he doesn’t need. Combine that with Warlock's Cape (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 35) and Mystic Senses (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 36), and suddenly every aspect card in your deck becomes a way to ready your hero and draw a card!

When you play as Adam Warlock, you may find that you burn through your deck faster than other heroes. This is especially apparent with cards like Karmic Blast (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 38), which discard multiple cards from the top of your deck. This may seem detrimental, but it is all part of Warlock’s battle plan. If you need a card that you discarded, simply retrieve it with Quantum Magic (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 40), and when your deck runs out of cards, the Soul World (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 33) will reward you for your perseverance in the face of adversity. The power of a full heal is nothing to scoff at, and aspect cards like Zone of Silence (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 50) and Summoning Spell (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 55) will help you charge up a soul counter even faster.

Adam Warlock isn’t the only powerhouse to join the forces of good. As a one-time leader of the Avengers, Monica Rambeau (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 1B) comes to the table ready to rock with a pre-built Leadership deck. As the hero Spectrum (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 1A), she is able to take on the properties of three different types of energy: Gamma (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 2), Photon (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 3), and Pulsar (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 4). Each time she flips to hero form, Spectrum can decide which energy form to take on, and, by extension, which of her basic powers she wants to excel in next. Spectrum can get extra use out of her energy forms with cards like Energy Duplication (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 6) and Pulsar Shield (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 9), and if you need to change forms on the fly, simply use Speed of Light (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 10) to keep your momentum going without needing to swap to your alter-ego!

Befitting her role as a leader, Spectrum’s deck comes packed with some powerful Leadership cards to guide her team to victory. With the help of friends like White Tiger (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 13) and Kaluu (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 14), you can designate your team as the Mighty Avengers (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 15) to buff the THW and ATK of your allies, making heavy-hitters like Power Man (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 12) even stronger. Once everyone’s ATK is good and boosted, unleash on the villain with a mighty Mass Attack (The Mad Titan’s Shadow, 16); with each of the aforementioned allies in play, combined with Mighty Avengers, Power Man’s ability, and Spectrum’s Gamma form, you could deal a whopping 13 damage in a single hit. It seems these Avengers are mighty indeed!

A Universal Threat

With Thanos and his Black Order looming on the horizon, fans of Marvel Champions: The Card Game should look forward to tackling this challenge when The Mad Titan’s Shadow campaign expansion releases in August of this year—and look for more mighty heroes to join the ranks of Adam Warlock and Spectrum with the release of four subsequent Hero Packs!