TDG: Legendary: A DC Deck Building Game
Transcript
Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the discriminating gamer. You know when I was a kid I had a buddy who said that he wanted to be Batman when he grew up. I asked him if it was because of the gadgets and the money and he said no. He just hated his parents. Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to go ahead and take a look at Legendary, a DC deck building game from Upper Deck.
In Legendary, a DC deck building game from Upper Deck, one to five players are going to take on the roles of the checkmate team as they are attempting to recruit heroes. to go ahead and fight bad guys and hopefully overcome the evil of the mastermind. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is a legendary game with DC Heroes. We've had Marvel for years, but they finally brought the DC universe to the legendary game system. Now, in a game of legendary, and in this particular game, uh you start with uh 12 checkmate cards. You've got eight of them are kind of recruit cards, and four of them are attack cards. They each have one recruit or one attack each. Now on the game board, you have got the hero HQ. So you're selecting depending on the number of players number of heroes you're going to mix together in this deck and put five of these heroes out at any given time. Now again, depending on player count, you're going to create your villain deck. And your villain deck is going to have villain groups. You're going to have henchmen groups. You're going to have some bystandards mixed in there. You're going to have uh some steam twists uh and a master strikes in there as well. So, you're going to mix all this stuff together for your villain deck.
Now, you're also going to pick two very important things. You need to pick a scheme. There are different scheme. I think there's eight different schemes in this set if I remember correctly. You're going to pick a scheme, and these are kind of the unique scenario conditions of the game you're playing. And then you're also going to pick a mastermind. And this is one of the big baddies uh that is going to come and try to attack you during this game. And very first thing you do on your turn is you reveal a villain card. There may be an ambush effect which can attack players or some other kooky effect that that deals with that card. And then on your turn, you got you draw six cards. You can play your cards uh for their recruit to recruit more heroes from the HQ that go in your discard pile or your attack where you can attack the heroes or pardon me the villains that have come out in the villain group. And when you fight them, there may be fight effects that do other fun and interesting things as you fight them. And if you have enough fightability, you can actually attack the mastermind. You want to hit them four times. That's how you win the game.
But like I said, there's a lot of different interesting things going on. Out of that villain deck, you may get scheme twists. Well, if you get a scheme twist card, you refer to the scheme and it tells you what happens when the scheme twist cards come out. Again, this is a way the game kind of fights back against you. And then also, you may draw uh master strike cards, and this is what the uh mastermind is doing against you. Again, another way the game plays against you during the game. So, there's a lot of different unique and interesting combinations with the different heroes you play, the different villain groups and henchmen groups that you play, the different scheme, and the different mastermind that you play. And there is a lot more going on here besides one more thing that's new. and interesting here with this edition is you've got a track on there uh that corresponds to some of the card abilities. This is kind of a hope and fear track. Uh you have some cards that say inspire hope and some cards that say inspire fear. And essentially whenever you play these cards uh or these cards are played by the game against you, you are moving up and down on this track.
Now, if you are at the top of the track and you inspire hope, you will actually just put it back down to level two, but you'll get to draw a card. If you're at the bottom of the track and you inspire fear, you will uh set it back to number level two, and you will have to discard a card. So, that's basically how you play a game of legendary. And legendary, a DC deck building game. Now, here you have some very specific heroes and villains and what have you to the DC universe. I'm not going to get into everything that comes with it. Ray did a fantastic unboxing video for this game. Showed you every card. I'm just going to talk now about some of the some of the basic heroes here uh that you're getting. Some of the basic villains and masterminds. For instance, with the heroes, you have got Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, some of the most iconic superheroes of all time. You've also got John Stewart, Green Lantern, you've got Barry Allen Flash. Um, you've got Black Canary, you've got Zatana, Martian Manhunter, uh, Starfire. Uh, you've got a lot of really great and iconic heroes.
Green Arrow is in here as well. So, you got a lot of these great heroes. Um, the masterminds are going up. You got Captain Cold, you have got Cersei, you've got the Joker, you've got Lex Luthther. Um, oh, we've also got Cyborg as a hero, too. Can't forget Cyborg. Um, you got Nightwing. Oh, wow. A lot of great heroes. Um, then you've got, like I say, the different villain groups. You got like a Superman revenge group, the Rogues. Um, you've got Gotham Goons, you've got Oh, you got underworld, Gotham Underworld uh villain group. So, there's like a lot of different specific DC heroes and villains in this game. But you and your friends, this is a cooperative game. You are going around, you are trying to hit the mastermind. You're trying to prevent these villains from escaping the city because that triggers bad things. You're trying to make sure you're keeping your scheme under control. And if you and your friends can succeed in uh knocking out the mastermind by defeating him four times before the scheme twist allows evil to win, then you win.
Legendary, a DC deck building game. We'll get back to the review in just a moment. I want to take a minute to ask you to check out my other channel that is Cody Carlson PhD where we talk about history, books on history, military history. I even post some of my uh lectures for my classes on there. Please check that out. Please subscribe to that channel. And now back to the review.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, Legendary, a DC deck building game. Uh, let me I'm just going to start this review with one word. Wow. Um, I have been looking forward to this forever. Um, I remember, you know, because I first started playing Marvel, uh, the legendary Marvel game probably around 2013, not long after it came out, maybe about a year after it came out. I bought it. I was actually at Salt Lake Comic-Con and, um, they had it there and it was really expensive. I could gotten cheaper somewhere else, but I wanted a souvenir from Salt Lake Comic-Con, so I bought it and I took it home and I'd played it once before and I liked it and so I just started playing the heck out of that game and I really fell in love with the legendary system. And I'm always I'm always in awe when you look at all the different expansions that they've done for this game and the different iterations of this game, just how they can keep it fresh and new and exciting and interesting and add in some really fun uh mechanisms to this system.
I'm always really a fan of that. But truth be told, I've always been more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy. Now, I like Marvel. I'm a fan of Marvel, but you know, I never really read the Marvel comic books. Most of what I know from Marvel was from cartoons when I was a kid and then of course now with the MCU, but DC uh when I was a teenager, I I I first started reading Batman comic books. There was like three or four titles of Batman. Started reading the Batman books and that kind of got me into the wider world of DC. I started collecting Superman titles, Flash, Green Lantern, um gosh, several other superheroes uh that I that I collected for a while for about three or four years. Um, that's where all my allowance money went was I was buying comic books.
So, I really, really, really loved DC and I have a special place in my heart for DC Heroes. Batman in particular. DC deck building games are nothing new. Of course, Cryptozoic has a DC deck building game, which I love, which is another fantastic game. Whiz Kids came out with the DC Forever, which is kind of a fun game, too. Um, but you're always kind of in the back of your head thinking, how would DC play out in a uh in a legendary setting? What what kinds of abilities would the different heroes have? And so, I was super excited that I finally got this chance when they announced this. I don't know, maybe a year ago. I I was just thrilled to death. And I was so excited when Upper Deck sent me this copy to review. I was just ecstatic. So the other night we got together and we played through a couple of games and it was a four-player game. Now I got to be honest with you when I play a legendary game usually three is the most I like to play with because there is some downtime and three is I think usually a good cap.
I like to play solo two or three player. When I get four or five there is some downtime. But we played a four-player game and we started playing this game and I couldn't catch a break. It was tough. I couldn't even buy good heroes. We were getting real high cost cards coming out at the beginning. Um, and both the scheme we had and the mastermind, we didn't do the recommended uh setup for your first game and it clobbered us. We played a second game that night and we did a different scheme and it it was a little better. We got further. We got closer. I think we hit the mastermind a couple of times, but we still lost that game. Well, I was, you know, I knew there's a great game here, but I I I was not having really the best experiences. And that's another thing about Marvel Legendary is sometimes depending on your scheme and your mastermind and and just luck, you can have games that fall flat. Uh, that happens. Usually it doesn't, but sometimes it can. Uh, so anyway, they the next night we played it again. This time we were just playing two, it was just me and Chris. We're playing we played through a few two-player games and we played the first game we played was the setup from the recommended setup although we did mix up some of the heroes and we played that and that was awesome. We actually beat that one in like 30 minutes. Um it was it was a quick game and we we clobbered it. It was it was awesome and it was a lot of fun. And then we played the second uh
game that night and that night we were going up against the Joker. It was tough. It was really tough. And there was a while there where I think we just can't get ahead. We can't get ahead. But we are recruiting better cards. Something you got to have faith. Those cards are going to come into play and they're going to help you out. And it was tough. That was a tough one. That game came down to literally the last turn. I put the last card on the board and I had enough to take out our last joker card and we won on the last turn. And I gotta tell you, that's my favorite games when it comes down to the wire. You have played a game and it was awesome. Man, I gotta tell you, this game so far is great. I played through about maybe half the schemes. Um, played with about maybe I think three or four of the masterminds.
Uh, but it is great. I I love it. I love what this game is bringing to the table. I The schemes I played with have been freaking cool. There's one where you create kind of an alternate villain deck of villain groups. I think a few bystanders. And the scheme twist is you got to put two of those enter the city. So, it's like pushing stuff. And if I think six or the number of players times three, however many uh villains escape, that is a lose condition, right? Um so that's the one we played with the Joker. Uh but then there's also and the Joker's got a nasty master strike. It's like if you um if you can't reveal a covert card, you have to draw two more cards into your hand of six and then discard half of them down to four randomly. So, it's nasty. Um [snorts] so, we did that and that one was great. Captain Cold is a great villain, too, because he freezes characters in the HQ. So, he freezes characters in the HQ during a master strike. You turn them all upside down, mix them up, and put them out. And then you have to spend an attack to flip them. Just one attack. But it's great cuz if you're looking for a card you need and he freezes them and it's like oh you know so you kind of randomly have to decide well okay I'll spend attack here and here and here to try to flip those back up. I really like Captain Cold's ability there as well. Um there's a there's a Gotham underworld scheme which was really cool where um they're trying to corrupt different kinds of politicians and cops and stuff like that. You're trying to prevent them from being corrupted. That's fun. Tough but but it's fun. Like I say, I just I I
really have enjoyed just getting to know that aspect of the game. But the heroes here, oh my gosh, there are some really great abilities. Now, one thing too that comes with this game that I didn't mention is um some of your heroes have transform abilities. For instance, you've got say Barry Allen or Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne. And if you meet certain conditions at certain times, you can KO that card to gain kind of an enhanced version of the card. So like Bruce Wayne becomes like the Dark Knight or Superman becomes Beacon of Hope or Belly Allen I think becomes Fastest Man Alive. So you get these better cards and that's a fun aspect too. I know in DC they've got some of those transform cards and I I'm trying to remember if they have kind of transforms like this. I think they do like in the Hulk set of legendary but it's been a while since I've seen them.
But that's really cool. I really like these transforming cards. Some of the cards though from the heroes are freaking awesome. Batman has got this great card where you can lunge, meaning you can draw two more cards, or you can lurk, meaning at the end of your turn, you can draw two more cards with your with your hand. There's no attack or recruit ability on that card. It just lets you draw cards then or later. And it's awesome. It's a great ability. I gotta tell you, one of my favorite heroes and abilities from this game is Zatana. Sat Tana has some great stuff. She's got a card that when you play it, it's like a cost six card. When you play it, you draw a card from uh your deck and if it's got a recruit ability, you get four recruit points. If it's got an attack ability, you get four attack points. If it's got both a recruit and attack, you get both four and four attack and recruit for that card. That is awesome. her like best card has this deal where you've got I think three recruit and three attack, but you can spend seven recruit to create seven attack. So potentially if you wanted to do that, that card is worth 10 attack.
I mean, Zatana is freaking awesome. But they're all great. All of the the heroes here bring something very interesting. Martian Manhunard is great if you've got like I think three or more um classes his special abilities trigger. So, you want to collect a lot of different classes when you got Martian Manhunter cards. I mean, they're just great. Now, I love the artwork here generally. I think the artwork is fun and it's evocative and it's I just I love it. I think it's fantastic. My only caveat is on the mat, which is brilliant. Lot of colors. It pops. I love the game mat here. But my problem is Wonder Woman in this on the game mat. Wonder Woman looks like Sylvester Stallone. I mean, come on. She's better looking than that. She just is.
But that's my only problem with the artwork in her. I think it's great. I think it pops. I think it's beautiful and fun. And it's, like I say, it's just so much fun to play not not only play DC in this legendary system, but just see how imaginative it is and how much the designers try to tailor thematically the different cards to the different characters. Man, uh, this is a great one. This is one I'm really looking forward to playing again and again. And if I'm not mistaken, I think they've already announced an expansion for this man alive. I'm excited. I just this, you know, every time a legendary game comes out or a legendary expansion comes out, I'm always excited. I always have fun with it. Some more than others, but honestly, I can't remember the last time I was excited about a legendary game as I am about this one. It is awesome. I can't wait to see what more they bring to DC here. It's going to be awesome.
Really excited and I'm babbling now because I'm just super super stoked. Uh right now I am prepared to give Legendary a DC deck building game a nine out of 10 on the Cody scale. Uh with more play it could go up. It is great. Thank you once again for joining us today on the Discriminating Gamer. As always we'd ask you to please leave a comment for us here on YouTube, on Board Gamegeeek, on Facebook, on X. We love to hear back from you. Uh, we'd ask you to please like this video and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you really like what we do here on TDG, I would humbly ask you to click on my other channel that is Cody Carlson PhD where I talk about books on history, military history, fun things like that. I even post some of my lectures on there. It would mean the world to me if you'd subscribe to that channel as well. And if you do really like what we do here, I would humbly ask you to click on the super thanks button and leave a tip. You know, I really like Superman, but if you ask me, he's kind of incompetent.
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