Marvel Legendary Update – 2023

(Edit: 10/13/23) – Nothing big, and no pictures, but apparently the Ant-Man & the Wasp expansion is due out on December 6.

ICv2 has also confirmed that Kang, Yellowjacket, and Ghost are the Masterminds.

It’s not direct from Upper Deck, so maybe not? But it’s probably all true.

Since this is a 200-card expansion, that’s probably why there are three Masterminds. Usually with expansions, there are two, but that’s in the 100-card ones.

(Edit: 9/8/23) – I don’t think there were any more blog posts about the What If expansion, unless I missed them.

But the release date has been confirmed as September 20!

(Edit: 7/24/23) – Another announcement for 2023. Funny how they announced 2099 for 2024 and now have made two announcements for 2023.

In this case, it’s another MCU set, Ant-Man & the Wasp. This set will have characters and cards from the Ant-Man movies in it.

Apparently (according to ICv2, anyway), it will be coming out December 6, 2023.

Stay tuned for more!

(Edit: 7/14/23) – And the BGG page is up for it!

(Edit: 7/8/23) – It looks like, prior to the 2099 expansion in 2024, there’s going to be a new Core set released!

That’s right, a core set based on the What If? MCU series is going to be coming out sometime this year.

350 cards! Of course, since it’s a core set, it’s going to require the starting decks, wounds, bystanders, etc.

Even with all of that, there are probably about 200 cards available for all of the new content they’re promising.

I’m also running out of room in the available boxes (partially thanks to the X-Men expansion not being reprinted yet) to store all of these small boxes that are coming out, so a big core box to supplement everything else would be very nice!

It says “Fall 2023” on the advertisement, but some people are hoping for GenCon. Doesn’t seem likely, but who knows?

Stay tuned for more information as it comes.

(Edit: 6/23/23) – No really hard news coming up recently, but somebody on BGG noticed a solicitation for a 2099 Legendary expansion for 2024.

Apparently Upper Deck said, in a livestream, that there are still expansions (at least one) coming out in 2023, so this may not be the next one.

Who knows what will be coming?

Stay locked on this page and I’ll let you know as soon as I know.

(Edit: 5/3/23) – A short but sweet final blog post before this comes out next week.

This one shows Lilith as one of the Masterminds, and her villain group, the Lilin.

It also introduces a new keyword (key phrase?), Hunt for Victims.

What is that? When it’s activated, one of the Bystanders currently captured by a Villain or Mastermind will be KO’d. If there aren’t any, then it will capture a Bystander.

The scheme that’s shown is a pretty devastating one, actually. It looks really tough!

Looking forward to this one…

(Edit: 4/27/23) – Another blog post!

Once again we have a returning keyword and a new keyword.

Plus, confirmation that two heroes and two villains (one villain group).

From Secret Wars 2, we have the “Patrol” mechanic, which allows you to do the effect if the city space mentioned is empty.

Returning, we have Elsa Bloodstone and a new Blade hero. I don’t think Elsa’s card name is different than her previous version, which could get confusing!

Secondly, we have a new keyword: Haunt.

Haunt will make recruiting heroes more difficult, and then you actually have to deal with the villain!

More information (and more pictures) on the blog post, but I have to say that Haunt looks interesting. And I’ve always liked Patrol.

May 10 will be a great day!

(Edit: 4/19/23) – News has been slow recently, but there’s an update on the Midnight Sons expansion!

First, the release date is May 10. Woo!

Secondly, there’s the first preview blog!

This expansion brings monsters and monster hunters into the Marvel Legendary mix.

They’re bringing back the Moonlight/Sunlight mechanic from the New Mutants expansion.

That mechanic means that if there are more odd-cost heroes in the HQ than even-cost, it’s Moonlight. Otherwise it’s Sunlight.

We also get a new keyword: Blood Frenzy.

Blood Frenzy gives you +1 fight for each different VP value in your victory pile. But also can give villains with Blood Frenzy that bonus as well!

The post shows us three new heroes and one scheme, demonstrating that most (if not all) of the heroes will have the Marvel Knights group affiliation.

Read the blog for more information, and I will be updating as they post. May 10 isn’t that far away so there will probably be one or two more previews.

I’ll update when there are!

(Edit 3/2/23) – The news is coming fast and furious (until Endgame releases, anyway). There’s a new blog post up! That was a surprise.

And it introduces the Thanos Mastermind along with the Infinity Stones villain group.

And yeah, Thanos is pretty badass.

There’s also a new scheme shown, which is Thanos’ attempt to reduce the population of the universe.

Finally, a couple more hero cards are shown, including another Bruce Banner one.

There’s also confirmation that the makeup of the Hero decks will once again be abnormal, with a 1/2/2/3/3/3 makeup from rares, uncommons and common cards.

And we have a release date! March 8 this will be available.

Of course I put it with another pre-order that won’t be shipping until July, but I still have to play the last few expansions, so the wait won’t kill me.

(Edit 2/28/23) – The Avengers: Endgame set isn’t even out yet and I just realized that they announced a while back (and there’s even a BGG page for it) the next expansion: Midnight Sons.

The information on the BGG page is from the solicit, so it’s probably true but it’s not necessarily true.

The set contains the normal 5 heroes, 2 Masterminds, 2 Villain groups, and 4 Schemes.

The heroes listed include Blade (already in the game so probably will have another affiliation), Morbius, and Werewolf by Night.

Here’s the box!

More later as things develop.

(Edit 2/23/23) – The third and final blog post is up!

This one reveals a new hero, a new villain group, and a new keyword.

The new hero is Captain Marvel (of course) and the new villain group is the Children of Thanos (which makes sense, considering Thanos was kind of big in the Avengers: Endgame movie.

The new keyword, though, sounds really interesting.

“Endgame” comes into play when the villain deck is almost depleted (most of the time).

Whenever the villain deck has 8 or fewer cards left in it, this keyword is triggered.

Sometimes it doesn’t have to be depleted, though, like when this Corvus Glaive card comes out.

If you happen to have some Endgame trigger cards in your hand, bonus!

This is the last blog post for this set. Usually this means the set’s release date is imminent, but no announcement about that yet.

Stay tuned for more when I know it!

(Edit 2/8/23) – The first edit of the year!

The second blog post for the Legendary: Marvel – Infinity Saga is up and it clarifies what exactly “Sacrifice” means.

Essentially, the keyword along with the class tag allows you to sacrifice (KO) the card and do the effect on the card.

So this Dr. Strange card will allow you to KO the card to take another turn and not have to turn over a Villain card. Combine this with the Phasing that other Dr. Strange cards have and you know something of what will be coming in that next hand.

Even one of the schemes brings a sacrifice to mind.

These look really neat and I’m looking forward to this expansion a lot.

Other cards are in the post so check it out!

More to come (and hopefully a release date!)

2022 was a busy year in the Marvel Legendary universe. A ton of expansions came out because of the backlog that was 2021.

This year, with the backlog cleared out, won’t be nearly as eventful.

But it will still be fun!

As I did last year, I’ll keep this post updated with news as I get it. Feel free to keep checking back!

This year’s first expansion release is an MCU expansion, which means it’s based on the Marvel movies with stills from the movies and not original artwork based on the comics.

Legendary: Marvel – Infinity Saga (no cover reveal yet!) will apparently be another 100-card set with 5 heroes, 2 Masterminds, 2 Villain Groups and 4 Schemes (so the standard).

From the card reveals, we definitely know that Dr. Strange and Black Panther are two of the Heroes.

If they keep to these 100-card expansions, will we ever see new Henchmen?

Anyway, there’s also no release date yet, but the first blog post is up!

The post doesn’t reveal much, but does show us that one keyword and one mechanic will be returning from previous sets: Phasing and Multiclass cards.

Phasing lets you swap it with the top card of your deck. If it’s useless to you right now (the Recruit won’t be enough to get a great card or the Fight won’t be enough to defeat anything), why not save it for next turn?

There are only two pictures in the post, so I won’t use the other one (go check it out!) but the return of multiclass cards is always interesting.

Once again, all of Black Panther’s cards are multiclass, which reflects his skill, but each Hero will have at least one multiclass card.

Multiclass cards count as both classes when you reveal them or play them.

Interestingly, the three cards shown in the post are from the Infinity War movie, and say that on the cards themselves. However, the Infinity Saga is both movies (that and Endgame).

I’m assuming any cards with stills from Endgame will say that instead?

The mind boggles!

Ok, not really. It’s almost a certainty, and it doesn’t really matter if they do or don’t.

Oh, one thing that was revealed in a stream but with no real indication of how it works is a new keyword: Sacrifice. Given the theme of the movies, it seems fitting!

Thanks to Bageltop Games for keeping the What We Know thread on BGG updated with this stuff.

He also indicated the following from earlier streams:

– 4 out of 5 Hero sets will use Sacrifice
– Sacrifice will often be paired with Phasing

I can’t imagine Iron Man and Black Widow wouldn’t be two of the Heroes, given that, though Black Widow did just get her own set so maybe not?

Anyway, stay tuned for more news throughout the year.