Marvel Champions Complete Villain Difficulty Ranking 2024

[@VillainTheory]

Note the information on screen is focused on Standard difficulty! That's why Mutagen Formula's Starting Pressure is "low" - on Expert it's extreme!

[@spinningspray2607]

You have no idea how much I wanted to see such a list, especially since the villains tiers videos on YT are quite old in internet age. And this one is even coming from you, so even more reasons to love it. Thanks for your effort, I really appreciate it. ❤

[@VillainTheory]

Glad you enjoyed it! It took forever!

[@WinningHandPodcast]

This is an incredible undertaking! Love that you're setting the bar high in between sipping tea.

[@VillainTheory]

Cheers mate!

[@onsentapedequijesuis8231]

Best Marvel Champions youtuber. Ever

[@WinningHandPodcast]

*second best LOL

[@VillainTheory]

I don't know about that but thank you!

[@tmmw1975]

It is interesting to see that the difficulty isn’t just constantly increasing as the card pool becomes deeper, that was one of my fears that it would start to cater more and more to hard-core players with each expansion. It’s nice to see they’ve maintained a pretty good balance overall.

[@VillainTheory]

Definitely. They received a lot of backlash with how difficult Galaxy's Most Wanted is and I don't think we'll ever see the difficulty ever actually get back to Ronan levels.

[@2006louisb]

Massive thanks to you, Nelson, and D20 for all the amazing content that led me to check out this game that had been sat on my shelf for way too long - now have everything produced due to be delivered tomorrow so this video is perfectly timed for what feels like Christmas eve 😂

[@VillainTheory]

I think I can speak on behalf of all of us when I say: that's awesome! Have fun with it!

[@jrfenkart1006]

What a tremendous amount of work! Thanks, Villain, for the list and as always in depth analysis!

[@VillainTheory]

You're welcome, and thanks!

[@Anondod]

Excellent video! I'm very happy you evaluated the villains sans their recommended encounter sets as that has a huge impact on the difficulty.

[@johnmcgrawrules]

What an endeavor! I really appreciate the ambitious nature of this rating task. I think you've provided a great resource to the community. If I had one addendum, I'd recommend playing 4-hero wrecking crew again. Because the side-schemes don't scale with player count and the small villain decks run out and produce tons of acceleration counters, it's an order of magnitude more difficult on Expert 4-hero than Expert 1-hero. With 4 heroes on Expert, it's one of the 5 hardest scenarios in my experience.

[@VillainTheory]

Interesting! I'll throw it on the list to play again sooner than later and see how it goes.

[@en4crcdn]

Incredible list! Bravo giving such an amazing breakdown of all the villain rankings.

[@VillainTheory]

Thank you!

[@markblant]

Great analysis as always VT, I really enjoyed the video. I usually play three-player through the campaigns and we defeated Loki, Venom Goblin and Magneto first time but really struggled with Sabertooth who took three attempts. I think this was partially because he's the first scenario and we were all playing unfamiliar heroes (as opposed to refining our playstyle over four previous games of the campaign), but mostly his healing mechanic was brutal in multiplayer. The third time we all stacked up our attack events so we could blitz him in a single turn, but it took a lot more coordination that most other villains we've played against!

[@VillainTheory]

That's really impressive defeating Venom Goblin and Magneto first time! Loki at least is at his easiest in the campaign. Sabertooth is a strange one that definitely requires some strategy and coordination. Glad you managed to defeat him at least!

[@Rey_Plays_Games]

This is brilliant! Loved listening to, whilst driving home.. now going to listen again but watch video too so I see all the graphics...! Keep up the stellar work!!

[@VillainTheory]

Thanks Rey, that means a lot! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bryantstewart8280]

This is a very impressive list. Thank you for the time you put into it and then the time to get it to us.

[@VillainTheory]

Thanks!

[@charlesng553]

Goddamn, VT knocks it out of the park again. One of the best creators for MC! Thanks and I hope you gain more success

[@VillainTheory]

Too kind! Thank you!

[@boardgametime3727]

Love these so much. Thank you so much for all your content, villain!

[@VillainTheory]

My pleasure!

[@korhankaya6637]

Thank you for all the great content!

[@VincenzoSolazzi]

Good work man, as always. A very detailed and explained tier list. I'm glad to see in so "high position" Nebula and The collector (solo expert mode) compared to other youtube lists: maybe are so underrated 'cause are not fun Villains to face and don't be played very often. Nebula can be very variable: easily win or loss depending on how much she surge...they are the only 2 Villains that I don't like to play in Heroic mode, especially The Collector, auto loss in expert/heroic mode for a lot of Heroes.

[@VillainTheory]

Thanks! I will admit as I think I say in the video, I don't play Collector 1 a lot, but solo is just a huge nightmare for him especially. I actually quite like fighting Nebula fairly often though!

[@mikehall9240]

Wow! This is amazing! Going through it now and so helpful for me being a newer player and trying to figure out who to play with my level right now. I love these videos! THANK YOU!

[@VillainTheory]

You're very welcome! I really appreciate the kind comments!

[@LeroyJJenkins]

I play almost exclusively Standard, and I think you did a pretty good job considering you don't play too much yourself! Biggest outliers in my eyes are 4 horsemen being much lower, probably a 5, and En Sabah Nur being a bit higher at like a 7. I also think Unus is much easier, probably a 2 or 3, because you take much less damage in standard. It means that you need chump blocking much less, and his core mechanic of gene pool scaling is much easier to manage by either defending or just flipping and recovering. Among my group, we have never really struggled with him at any player count. I do think in standard playing "slow" is a little bit more effective than in expert, and this may lead to different evaluations of villain difficulty. Either way, thank you for putting this and the modular rankings together; they are a huge asset to the community!

[@VillainTheory]

Oh that's fantastic feedback. We'll see how we go but I'd love to refine this list in the future. Interesting how it's the new scenarios, which are definitely the ones I have least experience with on Standard by far. Although I have played Four Horsemen at least twice on Standard and it felt pretty tough both times. Worth noting these are without their normal modulars, and Four Horsemen's modulars are easier than their own encounter cards etc. But great feedback all the same and curious to see what everyone else thinks!

[@kesm3758]

You do such amazing and thorough work! Thanks!

[@VillainTheory]

Thank you so much!

[@kesm3758]

@@VillainTheorymy wife and I have played this more than any other game since it came out, so we are always interested in content like this to help us systematically control the difficulty to exactly what we want.

[@javgoro]

The best villain tierlist for marvel champions out there, because it covers all player counts, and is highly analytical about it instead of being based on vibes. You've outdone yourself with this one, VT. One thing that's maybe worth analyzing in a future video is how are certain villains difficult (even though you kind of covered it with the strengths and weaknesses part). Let me explain: I think that Venom Goblin is harder than Ronan in terms of mechanics. How many things he throws at you at once, how much pressure he puts on you, and how many things you have to do well to survive at the same time (as well as the ticking bomb of the three main schemes). Meanwhile Ronan is simpler and does less stuff, but he just throws big numbers at you. Bigger attacks, more attacks, side schemes with a lot of threat... At the same time, someone like Nebula is dangerous because of surge chains, more than anything inherent to her kit. So with this in mind, I think there's room to break down each villain in a short-ish video, where those inner workings are analyzed. You could even call it something catchy, like... Villain Theory? 😜

[@VillainTheory]

Haha! Villain Theory would be a funny title or thumbnail - maybe I should actually do it! I like the video idea too. So many ideas, so little time, but I'll keep it in mind and we'll see what happens!

[@prufrock1977]

Amazing work. Thank you!

[@VillainTheory]

Glad you liked it!

[@sergioflores5787]

Great video! As a newish Champions player, I’m going to use this as a guide. One thing I may be dense about, what is the “VT Recommends” referring to? Love your Champions content, keep up the great work.

[@VillainTheory]

Basically almost every scenario recommends 1-3 modular sets. A lot of them only ask for 1 however, but you are actually allowed to put additional sets in if you so choose to. VT Recommends is me, VillainTheory, recommending how many modular sets you could include with this in mind. Most scenarios I recommend the usual amount (more sets can dilute the villain's own cards that interact with the scenario mechanics) but some don't lose anything or even gain from extra mod sets. So that's what that means 😁

[@less_than_vince]

Wow, nice job!!!!!!!

[@LosdominiosdeKang]

Yeah! Very good ranking. I may disagree with you but it is insignificant. I loved the way you split between expert and standard and again between solo and multiplayer. Brilliant!!!

[@VillainTheory]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@shanepheeney9029]

Great content of such a pretty mammoth task. Love the basis of Encounter deck + Mandatory Mods (Exc. Recommended Mods) Pretty good on most the call outs of differences in 'player counts'. But... Yes, mostly those with a trigger "after step 1 of villain phase, add **1**" are easier in 4up, and harder in 1up. But those triggered off 'activations'/'enc-cards' don't change difficulty on player count (PC). If the villain has steady/stalwart, then it's probably actually worse in 4Up, as 'status lock' is NOT an option there. RE: Collector 1 & Tower Defense: would fall under the above disagreement of 'PC' issues. But agree with those pointed out for Zola & Ronan. RE: Venom The Bell Tower is next to useless in 4Up. There are 'non-treachery' Enc-card that just "strip **ALL**" tokens (as well as the cards that just remove a couple). And in 4Up that happens too often to bother with using it as a "reliable" meaningful mechanic. {To be noted, She-Hulk with the +1Atk/-1Thw campaign upgrade, can just punch the bell tower on T1, rather than do nothing or activate his innate. 😀 And promptly have her tokens removed by previously stated Enc-card/s #HappenedThisWeek}

[@adamnowicki1425]

My kind of hot take is that Loki isn't that difficult, but I play only on expert. Probably most people will agree that the biggest difference between standard and expert is that on standard you can build up when you start with pretty low stat villain before you go to phase 2, on expert that's how you start and Loki has same stats in standard and expert, so once you are used to that difficulty Loki is quite annoying but he is max 7/10 in terms of difficulty

[@VillainTheory]

Totally fair. I only play him on Expert as well but I find him pretty dangerous compared to most villains. If anything I think having the same stats as Standard means he's just particularly nasty on Standard. His stats are still bigger than most Expert villains.

[@drcolossus1]

I came here to say exactly this. I most commonly play 3 player and think we have won every time we have played Loki. Compared to Ultron & Magneto where it took us numerous attempts and real specific/strong deck builds to defeat. And then there’s Nebula/VG & Ronan I still don’t think we’ve ever beaten 😂

[@adamnowicki1425]

@@drcolossus1 I have beaten Nebula and Ronan expert while playing 3-handed, but it was Captain America+Strange+Antman with very strong decks (it was long time ago, before release of MTS), probably the strongest thing I could put together by myself at the time, you need to tech for them and everyone MUST have Target Acquired in their decks Between the 2 I think I dislike Nebula more, Ronan is simple, he hits like a truck, his encounter cards kill you and then surge but that's it, Nebula at the other hand basically deletes 1st player turn, between removing her stupid counters and her effects stunning/confusing/discarding cards from hand first player usually has it the worst, if it's 3 player game it's somewhat manageable, but I usually play solo and as such consider her unplayable I have very mixed opinion about VG, basically if he does not destroy me in first 3 turns I am usually ok, but nasty encounter cards on first turn can end game there already, also my advice: let the scheme that makes you discard cards fail, it's the worst one by far

[@YourTamedLion]

Makes me feel a little less bad about getting rolled by a Nebula that runs through her entire deck in her first turn - when I played her two handed.

[@VillainTheory]

Nebula is pain and you should not feel bad whatsoever!

[@YourTamedLion]

​@@VillainTheory I did beat her after that one. And today I beat Ronan on expert on the first attempt ( after Triple checking to setup everything correctly) with Starmora. And I must say it was the best and most exciting Marvel Champions experience so far. Because Ronan lets me do my thing and is just strong himself with respects to his output in stats of Minions, threat on side schemes and lots of attacks. Nebula on the other hand kept stealing so many cards with her techs and her pirates on top of other stuff that already steals cards like Star-Lord's nemesis Deck cards. And Nebula has a very powerful protection at the same time, like the "cannot take more than 5 dmg" Tech. And both of those strengths directly counter my Starmora Sliding shot OTK. Ronan died when he was at 72 HP after I had worked through his Deck one time and multiple Decks of Starmora. Now I am sleeving Ebony Maw, because ( after maybe a few adjustments) TMTS is next.

[@VillainTheory]

@@YourTamedLion Amazing work! Very impressive. Now enjoy MTS! Have you chosen heroes for it?

[@YourTamedLion]

@@VillainTheory not 100% sure yet. It's either Starmora again or Thor+Guardian ( probably venom). Starmora because they proved themselves and it is still the same storyline. But since there are also Asgardians to defeat and recruit as Allies Thor feels like a perfect choice thematically. But preparing Thor+ venom would take me extra time.

[@dontberash]

I play exclusively on Expert and I have lost to Absorbing Man way more than I care to admit. I always let my guard down due to his reputation and then regret it.

[@blackdaz3]

Another Herculean endeavour. Kudos Villain, both entertaining and useful… with the right amount of Venom too 😂

[@VillainTheory]

Haha! I don't know if you noticed but I snuck Venom into the background of the thumbnail. And just you wait for the next Every Hero's "Worst" Cards video...!

[@blackdaz3]

@@VillainTheory Venom worst card is of course the plastic container it comes with :P

[@cheesiecharlie1918]

After taking 4 attempts for my Partner and me to finally beat Hela on Standard as Cap/Thor it really hurts to see her at Medium 😂 Great Video! Do you recon the campaigns make the villains easier since you tend do get some upgrades? Especially asking for GMW, since it would be next on my list 👀

[@VillainTheory]

Ahhh! Don't worry about it at all. Hela is a weird one. She destroyed me and my buddy when we first played her years ago - but once you get the hang of manipulating her schemes and things, and using her huge main scheme threshold, she's not so bad. This is also rating her without her recommended mod sets and the Frost Giants are pretty tough. As for the campaigns, it genuinely changes between campaigns. I don't play the campaigns a lot as I much prefer standalone mode, but from what I recall Rise of Red Skull, Mad Titan's Shadow, MojoMania and NeXt Evolution campaigns help the player - while Galaxy's Most Wanted, Mutant Genesis and Age of Apocalypse make things a little more difficult. Sinister Motives makes things easier as I recall - until it doesn't! If you know, you know... (If anyone else is reading this and plays the campaigns more, feel free to jump in!)

[@scottpaton-iv5jm]

Could you make a video on alternative mod sets for villains that improve their difficulty or leans into their theme more. My attempts at customised mods do not add anything.

[@VillainTheory]

Absolutely, it's in my plans to do that already! Hopefully in the next few weeks some time.

[@TheAdiposeTV]

I think the taskmaster info might be wrong? It says 3 main schemes with limit of 14. I don't think this is right? Great video though. Useful resource.

[@VillainTheory]

Great catch, that was probably from a different villain and I forgot to tweak it. Oops 😅

[@IIIXouIII]

Klaw become easier the most player you add, the main scheme minion doesn't scale, starting with one big minion in solo can be really hard but isn't a problem at 3 or 4.

[@VillainTheory]

Yep! Good point. I took this into account but I didn't think it changed his ranking - do you think it moves him up or down a tier at any player count?

[@neojaw2192]

I’m going through my collection, campaign by campaign, and so far the only memorable villain was… Ronan… I was lucky to beat him with Starlord and Drax by was rushing him in 3 rounds, and almost got defeated (I had luck of the draw and Drax died)

[@VillainTheory]

Star-Lord and Drax is a crazy team 😁 Campaign mode Ronan can be brutal too

[@SoAmazinglyBad]

Mutagen formula starting pressure low? There is a lot of pressure from round 2... I feel this is early/starting pressure

[@VillainTheory]

I should have said it but the information on screen is based around Standard mode. On Expert mode it's very high pressure which is most of what I talk about. I'll go put it in a pinned comment.

[@addisontaylor5979]

I enjoy this game and can’t wait to play with my children

[@ТарасХуторный]

How you think, if expert and standart mods are in one ranking, how many tiers up in average will difficulty increase?

[@VillainTheory]

Great question! Probably at least 2-3 tiers for the most part

[@DrMcFly28]

Why is level 10 not just named "Ronan"

[@monoludico6166]

30:55 this must be a mistake. How could it be harder on standard? Also, Thanos is waaay more difficult with 2 players than in solo.

[@VillainTheory]

I talk about it in the video - basically I don't think he scales up as much as most villains when you make the jump to Expert. To elaborate, he already hits like a truck, has a lot of hp, and the helmet he starts with on Expert is super low pressure. Expert is definitely a good bit harder, but no more so than I think most villains are harder on Expert. The tiers are relative to their own mode. But you could say I put him at the bottom of Very Difficult on Standard, and the top of Difficult on Expert. Also I mainly play 1 and 2-player, I haven't noticed any significant difficulty leap between them. His schemes don't scale much and two people gives much more protection against Avatar of Death. The Infinity Stones are less predictable but you can also "choose" who they go off against by defending for the other player if wanted, which is another level of agency that you can use to your advantage.

[@royaviles5004]

Me, always struggling with Risky Business: 👀😵

[@VillainTheory]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that! Like I say at the start of the video, there is a baseline difficulty in Marvel Champions and some scenarios like Risky Business take getting used to. Keep Norman as Norman, build up your board with upgrades and allies etc, then prepare to flip him. If you can line it up with a couple of attacks in your hand, you can really burst him down quickly. Basically make use of being immortal while he's Norman so that, when you do choose to flip him to Green Goblin, you're unstoppable!

[@royaviles5004]

@@VillainTheory Yep, it definitely does take getting used to. I always want to flip to Green Goblin as quickly as possible or I feel like the Criminal Enterprise counters get out of hand and I’m having to waste a big attack just to flip him. But it’s still a fun challenge. Great video btw, I appreciate the amount of effort you put into your analyses

[@FrancisPatricia-y1x]

Emmanuelle Ford