Marvel Mission Arena is the TCG dedicated to superheroes presented by Cicaboom during the last Lucca Comics & Games. The deck of cards signed by Cicaboom offers the beauty of 216 cardsto which two packs of 56 cards each are added.

A collection for Marvel superhero fans

Currently, the Marvel Mission Arena "Launch Pack" contains the first expansion of the TCG, consisting of 216 cards, along with two 56-card introductory decks respectively and a series of exclusive stickers released during the two fairs where Cicaboom presented the Marvel Mission Arena, ie Lucca Comics & Games and the Milan Games Week + Cartoomics 2022. Hence the Starter dish is particularly richand will delight comic fans of the House of Ideas.

Obviously, i Marvel Mission Arena protagonists They are superheroes and villains from Marvel. The first two thematic decks are in fact dedicated respectively to the Avengers and the Spider family: in the first we will therefore find Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Co., while in the second we have space for Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Venom and Spider-Man, Girl, among others. Each deck contains a holocard in one Swimming pool of two while each community card is presented with one playsets complete so you don't have to push yourself to buy more than one copy of the deck before you start playing. The starter decks are available for 19.99 euros each or in a bundle of 2 together with four sticker packs for 58.99 euros.

Let's move on to the actual collection, the first expansion, as we said, has just over 200 cards, but of those only 192 are numbered: however, the rest (from 193 to 216) are not included in the numbering and are referred to as "Secret Rare" or "Holo Diamond". Next to Secret Rares, Marvel Mission Arena cards are divided Common, Uncommon, Rare and Ultra Rare: These last two rarities are also called Holo Laser and Holo Sparkle due to the special lamination of the stickers. Each TCG pack contains 10 cards (4 Commons, 3 Uncommons, 2 Rares and an Ultra Rare or Secret Rare) and is sold for 4.99 euros, while it is possible to buy one booster boxes of thirty packs (ie a total of 300 cards) at a price of 139 euros.

A full list of heroes and villains

The Marvel Mission Arena collection is relatively easy to complete: A booster box should be enough for you to complete the entire first expansion, provided you are willing to double trade with your friends. On the other hand, the choice to have alternate cards for each starter deck (Thor and Hulk holo for the Avengers deck; Spiderman and Miles Morales holo for the Spider Family deck), effectively forcing a Buy each deck twice to have a complete collection. Not bad, also because on the Cicaboom website the two variants of each deck are clearly separated, so nothing can go wrong.

If there's one side that the Cicaboom collection excels at, it's this Crowd and variety of different superheroes present since the first expansion: like the base decks, the latter focuses primarily on the Avengers and Spider family, but also includes the Guardians of the Galaxy and their enemies. Each hero is represented in several poses and in different rarities while there are cards to team up between different characters that allow you for example make up the team of the Avengers and the Guardiansor to provide two villains side by side. A good choice, especially for a first expansion: obviously the game designers didn't bother too much with it lore Marvel and are still missing the big names, like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Blade and Daredevil (to name a few), but we're sure many heroes have been "kept aside" for them set to afterward.

Instead, let's suspend judgment on the Style taken from Marvel Mission Arena, which tends to standardize all of the TCG's characters to the hand of the same artist (or a small team of artists), without resorting instead to the variety of pens that have succeeded one another over the years at the Casa delle Idee. An almost opposite choice compared to that made by Marvel Snap, for example, which hits instead Marvel illustrates his workhorse. For a first expansion, this trend toward consistency is understandable (and very reminiscent of the very first Pokémon TCG sets), though it remains to be seen how the style of the cards will evolve in the future, in the hope that Cicaboom decides to go bolder this point of view.

Play Marvel Mission Arena

In addition to the collecting side, there is also the playful side. In this case, Marvel Mission Arena is incredibly simple to learn and can be played by both the youngest (the TCG is suitable for players from the age of six) and experts card game, also thanks to the core rules inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. Each deck must consist of 56 cards, so as of today the only "archetypes" that are actually plausible are Swimming pool of the available cards are three, ie those of Avengers, Spider-Family and Guardians of the Galaxy. But obviously the 216 cards of the first set to of the game allow you to customize your decks to the maximum and create some interesting mixes between one strategy and another that sometimes work quite well.

Reading the cards is easy: all elements are easily recognizable while the There are three main colors: blue, red and grey, representing the "good guys," the "bad guys," and the "neutrals" (like Loki and Venom), respectively. Each card also has a system of weaknesses and strengths, called it Be able: le Be able However, they can even be removed from the game entirely to make it easier. Every card has associated with a score of defense, offense and resistance, along with an effect and a certain number of hit points and mission points necessary to win the game. In addition to the "normal" cards, there are also the to team upidentical to the previous ones and which can only be played when the two (or three or four) protagonists of the team are on the field.

The playing field resembles a cross between Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, since in the first round you must both draw 10 cards for your hand and place five of them on the corresponding mission field. The five mission cards represent the game turns: whoever gets the most mission points wins during the game. To do this, you have to let the superheroes fight, which you place in the active area of ​​your playing field from round to round. In summary, the game seems simple, but it actually boasts one thing really unbelievable technical and tactical depth: If you want to learn more about the round and match structure of the Marvel Mission Arena, we refer you to an in-depth video from Visio TV that explains how the game works.

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One of the best parts of watching anime is how many times a show can surprise you. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. But if the Otaku know one thing, it's that anything is possible.

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