Mutant Genesis* is the fifth expansion for Marvel Champions: The Card Game*, and oh boy, we were looking forward to this one! The X-Men animation from the 90s was the joy of our Saturday mornings, and this box follows the same storyline that the cartoon adapted for its initial episodes, with Jubilee taking her first steps into the world of mutants, Sentinels, and Magneto’s schemes. Let’s take a look and see if this box ruined our nostalgia, or made my inner child want to play X-Men again.
The Heroes in Mutant Genesis
Shadowcat is a complex and fun powerhouse, shifting between phased and solid to deal with whatever threat pops up, while avoiding taking any damage. Shadowcat is easily one of the most complex heroes in the game right now, and that makes playing her well both challenging and deeply satisfying.
Colossus, on the other hand, suffers from what I like to call “the Groot problem”. His kit revolves entirely around having tough and gaining tough, which means it’s very easy to… not have tough when you actually need it. Colossus isn’t bad by any means, but he’s definitely weaker than Shadowcat and a lot of other heroes.
The Villains in Mutant Genesis
Sabretooth
Sabretooth honestly made me very scared of this expansion when we first pulled him out. He’s a gimmicky encounter where you have to constantly save Senator Kelly from being murdered by the villain (putting yourself in harm’s way to do so). Once you figure out how to stop this from happening, Sabretooth gets easier, but he’s not particularly fun before or after you solve the puzzle.
Fun Rating: 2/5 | Difficulty Rating: 4/5
Project Wideawake
Project Wideawake immediately restored my faith in Mutant Genesis, as a fun slugfest between mutants and Sentinels that is absolutely what I want from a game of Marvel Champions. The villain is dangerous while being predictable and not hugely unfair, his minions are challenging enough to dedicate resources to them, and the main gimmick of the fight is removing a side scheme to get access to some powerful abducted allies, allowing some lesser-known X-Men characters some time in the spotlight. This battle is essentially the first episode of the 90s cartoon, where Jubilee has to be saved from the Sentinels, so that made us have a lot more fun with this scenario than perhaps it deserved, but it’s still extremely solid, and a scenario I’d gladly set up again.
Fun Rating: 4/5 | Difficulty Rating: 3/5
Master Mold
Master Mold is another Sentinel-heavy scenario, and maybe putting it immediately after Project Wideawake was a little bit of a misstep on the part of the designers, because that meant we didn’t have nearly as much fun with this scenario during the campaign as it perhaps deserves. This is one of those fun minion-heavy scenarios like Zola, where the threat is getting overwhelmed by powerful minions, more than it is the villain themselves. Overall this scenario is pretty fun, and the difficulty will fluctuate heavily with your ability to take down big minions. Perhaps not the most replayable, however, as Master Mold cares specifically about Sentinels, making him weird with other modular encounter sets.
Fun Rating: 3/5 | Difficulty Rating: 3/5
Mansion Attack
Mansion Attack is widely regarded as one of the most fun, replayable scenarios that they’ve released, and it’s immediately obvious why. You’re tasked with fighting different villains across different locations around the X-Men mansion, leading to a constantly-shifting brawl that’s just honestly very fun to play. Mansion Attack is a masterclass in fun scenario design, and it’s one we’ll definitely come back to in the future.
Fun Rating: 5/5 | Difficulty Rating: 3/5
Magneto
Magneto is a fantastic end-of-box villain, and honestly one of the few who actually feels challenging but not unfair. He’s strong enough to feature in our list of the most dangerous villains in the game, but not in a way that makes me want to pack up the game for a few weeks when we lose due to random nonsense out of nowhere. Magneto is a challenge on all fronts, requiring you to progress through his scheme to defeat him, and allowing them to actually tell a story during the fight, which is something that up until now has been somewhat neglected. Overall, while Magneto doesn’t max out the fun scale, I would honestly regard him as one of the best “hard” villains they’ve printed to date.
Fun Rating: 4/5 | Difficulty Rating: 5/5
Modular Sets in Mutant Genesis
Let’s take a quick look at the different modular sets that ship with this expansion:
- The Brotherhood are all challenging elite minions that you really don’t want activating against you, and they’d make a great addition to most villain decks to give them more of a minion-oriented threat. Difficulty Rating: 3/5
- Marvel’s worst mother figure, Mystique is honestly just deeply annoying and frustrating. I don’t want to add her to any deck ever, and she’s regularly more of a problem than the villain is. Difficulty Rating: 4/5
- Zero Tolerance is pretty nasty in a scenario that involves Sentinels, but loses some of its bite otherwise. It honestly feels a little incomplete and I’d be reluctant to add it to a deck alone. Difficulty Rating: 3/5
- Sentinels are scary, but honestly I’m not super sure why the Zero Tolerance and Sentinels sets are separate modular sets. I’d be tempted to add them to decks together, as together they make a significant threat, but alone without other sentinels, they’re a bit underwhelming. Difficulty Rating: 3/5
- Acolytes are a nightmare. Thankfully the change to the Teamwork keyword neuters their horrifying power somewhat from their printing, but minions that do nasty things when they are defeated is a really scary combination. Too strong to leave up, but problematic to kill. Difficulty Rating: 5/5
The Mutant Genesis Campaign
Campaign mode in Marvel Champions can be a little… hit and miss. In Mutant Genesis, however, campaign mode is a definite hit, allowing you to mix in a few extra cards from a different aspect based on your role – brawler, commander, defender, or peacekeeper. As the campaign progresses, you get additional cards tied to these roles, offset by additions from the Future Past modular set. In addition, there are additional side schemes that award extra bonuses when defeated, which work really well as an additional problem to deal with in exchange for fabulous prizes.
The campaign mode for Mutant Genesis is one of the strongest we’ve seen so far, with fair and balanced additions, and we hope campaigns continue down this path in the future.
Our Thoughts on Mutant Genesis
Overall, Mutant Genesis* is a complete slam dunk, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to people over the vast majority of expansions that came before it. Sabertooth is a bit of a rocky start that puts some people off, but once you’re over that hurdle, the rest of the box is absolutely fantastic. My inner child loves it as much as my outer adult, and it’s not just X-Men fan service, it’s a genuinely well-designed experience. My only other real complaint is that I’m really not impressed with the modular sets that come with the game. I wouldn’t want to add anyone but perhaps the Brotherhood to another scenario as a standalone setup option.
It’s definitely worth picking up Mutant Genesis, and if you do buy it, why not pick it up from our affiliate retailer Zatu games*? We get a small affiliate fee (which won’t cost you anything!) from any purchases made after clicking one of our links with the star, and that helps us to keep the site online.
* Affiliate link to a product
If you found this article helpful,
please consider donating to support us.
Or you can use any of our affiliate Zatu links.