Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game – Messiah Complex
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game – Messiah Complex Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Clone Heroes
Multiple Man and the Stepford Cuckoos are literal clones. M and her sisters can transform into copies of each other. Shatterstar is genetically engineered from cloned DNA. All of these use the new Clone keyword, saying things like "[yellow Hero-class icon]: Clone".
- Clone means: You may gain another copy of this card from the HQ. If there are none in the HQ, you may gain a copy from the Hero Deck and shuffle it.
- "Gain" means "put it into your discard pile."
- If you a Clone a S.H.I.E.L.D. Officer or Sidekick, search and shuffle that stack instead.
Note: the printed sheet reads "If you a Clone a S.H.I.E.L.D. Officer"; the word "Clone" after "you" appears to be missing from the print, and it is transcribed as printed.
"When Recruited" Clones
Some Heroes say "When Recruited: Clone". This means Use the Clone ability immediately when you recruit this Hero. (Do this right after you put the recruited Hero in your discard pile, after you refill its HQ space.)
- Use a "When Recruited" ability only when you recruit a Hero, not when an ability causes you to "gain" a Hero or "put it in your hand." So the copy you gain from "When Recruited: Clone" won't make you gain more copies.
- Some Heroes say things like "When Recruited — [red icon]: Clone." Use this ability only if you have played a [red icon] Hero this turn before recruiting this card.
Clone Villains
On a Villain, "Ambush: Clone" means: Search the Villain Deck for a copy of this Villain, and it enters the city, ignoring any further Clone effects. Shuffle that deck. When you Clone a "Predator X" Villain, just use the first "Predator X" you find in the Villain Deck. If you can't find a Clone copy of a Villain (or Hero), just move on.
Shatter
Rictor's earthquake powers, Siryn's sonic shrieks, and Shatterstar's bioelectric shocks can Shatter even the strongest defenses. Some Heroes say things like "Shatter a Villain in the Sewers."
- This means "Halve that enemy's current Attack. (round up to the nearest whole number.)" This effect lasts until the end of this turn.
- You can shatter the same Villain multiple times, halving their Attack (rounding up) each time.
- "Shatter a Villain" can't be used on a Mastermind.
- "Shatter the Mastermind" lasts for one fight against one Mastermind.
- A few cards even let you Shatter a Hero in the HQ, halving their current cost (round up) the same way.
- Technically, the Villain gets -Attack equal to half its current Attack. For example: Pestilence has 5 printed Attack. Apocalypse says "Four Horsemen Villains get +2 Attack." Shattering gives her -3 Attack, from 7 to 4.
Tactical Formation
X-Force is known for precise strike force tactics. X-Factor Investigations likewise plans their missions to the finest detail. With this new keyword, some Heroes say things like "Tactical Formation 445: You get +3 Attack."
- You can use this ability only if you have two Heroes that cost 4 and one Hero that costs 5.
- You can count the "Tactical Formation" card itself.
- "Heroes you have" includes Heroes in your hand and Heroes you already played this turn (unless they have been put somewhere else, like the KO pile or bottom of the Sidekick stack.)
Investigate
This keyword represents X-Factor Investigations looking into mysteries and searching for evidence and allies. It appeared in Legendary®: Marvel Noir and Dimensions.
- Some cards say things like "Investigate for a [green fist] card."
- That means "Look at the top two cards of your deck. Reveal a card with a [green fist] icon from among them and draw it. Put the rest of those cards back on the top and/or bottom of your deck in any order."
- Other cards let you investigate for cards with certain costs, teams, icons, or other traits.
Prey
Some Villains say things like "Ambush: Prey on the fewest [card icon]." After this Villain enters the Sewers, each player reveals their hand, and you check which player has the fewest [card icon] cards. (The current player decides how to break ties, including ties of 0 [card icon] cards.) Put this Villain in front of that player, "Preying" on them.
- Any player may still fight that Villain as normal. However: if no player defeats that Villain by the end of the preyed-on player's turn, use that Villain's "Finish the Prey" ability against that player, then that Villain enters the Sewers, ignoring its Ambush effects.
- Important: Do the "Finish the Prey" ability after that player draws their new hand at end of turn. Some players like to lean the Prey Villain on their deck as a reminder to Finish the Prey then.
- After Lady Deathstrike Finishes the Prey, or if you fight her while she's Preying on a player, return her to the Mastermind space. You still take one of her Tactics if you fight her while she's Preying.
- Multiple enemies can prey on a player at once.
Chivalrous Duel
This keyword represents how Clan Yashida samurai hail from a realm of honorable single combat. You can't gang up on an enemy in a Chivalrous Duel – you have to pick just one Hero Name to duel the enemy. This keyword debuted in Legendary®: Ant-Man.
- To fight an enemy with "Chivalrous Duel," all the Attack you spend must come from a single Hero Name.
- For example, to fight a 3 Attack Villain with Chivalrous Duel, you can spend 3 Attack from two different Shatterstar hero cards. But you can't combine 2 Attack from Shatterstar cards and 1 Attack from a Siryn card.
- If a Hero has no Hero Name listed, (like S.H.I.E.L.D. Trooper, or any Sidekick, or a Villain that became a Hero) then its Hero Name is the same as its card name. So you can play three S.H.I.E.L.D. Troopers then fight a 3 Attack Villain with Chivalrous Duel. But you can't spend 2 Attack from Shatterstar cards and 1 Attack from a S.H.I.E.L.D. Trooper to fight a Chivalrous Duel.
- You can't use Attack from anything that's not a Hero card, so no Shards from other sets. You can use Attack from Hero Artifacts if they have the right Hero Name.
Special Sidekicks: X-Students
This set comes with 14 new "Special Sidekicks": X-Men students, X-Force recruits, and X-Factor. When you set up, shuffle them face down into a Sidekick Stack. Once per turn, a player can pay 2 Recruit to recruit a Sidekick from the top of the Sidekick Stack. When you play any Sidekick, return it to the bottom of the Sidekick Stack.
- You still "played" that Sidekick and can use Superpower abilities based on its Hero Class. However, since it's gone, it's not one of "your Heroes" or "Heroes you have" anymore.
- When a card says "gain a Sidekick," put the top card of the Sidekick Stack into your discard pile. That doesn't count against the recruit-one-Sidekick-per-turn limit.
- If you have Sidekicks from other sets like Legendary®: Secret Wars Volume 1 or Legendary®: Civil War, shuffle them all into a single face-down Sidekick Stack.
Veiled and Unveiled Schemes
The enemies of mutantkind often hide their true goals until it's too late. All 4 Schemes in this set are "Veiled Schemes." They say "Unveiled Scheme" on the reverse side. When you use any of these Scheme cards, start with the "Veiled Scheme" side face up. At a certain point, it will say "This Scheme Transforms into a random Unveiled Scheme." This means you remove the Veiled Scheme from the game and replace it with a randomly selected "Unveiled Scheme" from all the ones you own. You might randomly select the reverse side of the Veiled Scheme you started with, or you might randomly select the Unveiled Scheme side of a different card.
Game Contents
Rules insert and 200 cards:
- 4 New Clone Heroes of 14 cards each (Each has 2 copies of a rare and 4 copies each of three different commons, to play better with the Clone keyword.)
- 4 additional New Heroes of 14 cards each (Each Hero has 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 5 of one common, and 5 of another common)
- 14 New Sidekicks (2 copies each of 7 types)
- 4 New Villain Groups of 8 cards each
- 2 New Henchman Groups of 10 cards each
- 3 New Double-Sided Epic Masterminds (Each has 1 Mastermind card and 4 Mastermind Tactic cards)
- 4 New double-sided "Veiled & Unveiled Schemes"
- 3 New Special Bystander types (1 copy each)