Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

Edition and decks: Use the 2012 First Edition core box with one Mastermind and four Tactics, plus a Scheme. Include its Always Leads Villain or Henchman group before filling the remaining required groups. Each chosen Hero contributes all fourteen cards: five Heroes make seventy cards for 2–4 players, while five players use six Heroes and eighty-four cards. Reveal five HQ cards. The box has separate solo setup, but this entry covers 2–5 players and does not import the 2026 Second Edition sequence.

Starting decks and counts: Each player shuffles eight Agents and four Troopers and draws six. For Villain groups / Henchman groups / individual Bystander cards, use 2/1/2 with two players, 3/1/8 with three, 3/2/8 with four, and 4/2/12 with five. The final number means single Bystanders, never groups. Add the Scheme’s stated Twists and five Master Strikes, apply its setup exceptions, then choose first player and proceed clockwise.

Villain step: At the start of the active player's Turn, reveal and resolve the top card of the Villain Deck. A Villain enters the city space closest to the deck, the Sewers. If that space is occupied, the new Villain pushes its occupant forward; this can create a chain reaction, and the Villain pushed past the fifth city space escapes. The city has five spaces, normally holding one Villain each. An escaping Villain resolves its Escape text; Scheme Twists and Master Strikes resolve their own Scheme or Mastermind text, usually going to the KO pile. A Bystander is captured by the closest Villain or by the Mastermind if the city is empty.

Playing Heroes: After the Villain card resolves, play Heroes from your hand in any order and resolve their abilities as they are played. Some Superpower abilities require that you previously played a qualifying Hero of the indicated class or team this Turn. Heroes generally provide Recruit Points, Attack, or both; follow the wording on the card for other effects. Players can spend resources during the card-play sequence instead of waiting until all cards are played.

Recruiting and HQ: Spend Recruit Points to gain a face-up Hero from the five-card HQ or a S.H.I.E.L.D. Officer when allowed. A recruited card goes to your personal discard pile, not directly into your hand. Refill an HQ card as soon as it is recruited; the replacement may create another option in the same Turn. Recruit Points are not Attack, so unused Recruit Points cannot be spent to fight a Villain or Mastermind.

Fight and Victory Pile: Have at least the target’s Attack before spending it to defeat the enemy; remaining Attack can fight other city Villains regardless of location. Put the Villain and held Bystanders in your Victory Pile, then resolve Fight. This follows the publisher’s 2014 common Fight sequence to interpret the conflicting 2012 sentence; it does not allow an unaffordable fight to generate its own missing Attack. Pay the Mastermind’s Attack to take a random remaining Tactic into Victory Pile, resolve its Fight and rescue all held Bystanders. Multiple fights are allowed; all four Tactics must fall for team victory.

Escape and Bystanders: A Villain pushed beyond the fifth space escapes. The active player must KO a Hero costing six or less from HQ and refill immediately. If any Bystanders escaped with it, every player discards exactly one card total, not one per Bystander; put them in the escaped pile. Resolve additional Escape text before the new Villain’s Ambush. A generic rescue-a-Bystander ability takes from the supply, not from a particular city Villain. A drawn Bystander, Twist or Strike does not itself push the city.

End of Turn and reshuffling: After recruiting, attacking, and resolving card effects, put your played cards and any unplayed cards in hand into your discard pile, then draw 6. Shuffle your discard pile into a new deck only when you need to draw and your deck is empty. Defeated Villains and rescued Bystanders go to your Victory Pile rather than back into your deck or the shared KO pile; their printed Victory Point values count toward your personal score.

Team result and individual winner: The team wins after defeating the Mastermind four times and removing all four Tactics. If the Scheme's Evil Wins condition is fulfilled, all players lose regardless of personal points. If the Villain Deck or Hero Deck runs out before the Scheme is completed, finish the current Turn and follow the First Edition exhaustion ending: good and evil are tied, but the player with the most Victory Points takes the individual victory. After a normal team victory, players also compare Victory Pile totals. Final Showdown and other challenge modes are optional.

KO and Wounds: KO puts cards in the shared out-of-game pile, distinct from personal discard and Victory Pile. Your Heroes normally means hand or cards played this turn, not deck or discard; KOing a played Hero does not undo resources it already produced. Wounds are not Heroes and provide no resources; ordinary gains go to discard. Healing can KO all Wounds in hand on a turn without recruiting or fighting Villains. An instruction to KO a Hero cannot KO a Wound. Exhausting Bystander, Wound or Officer supply alone does not end play or retrieve replacements from KO.