In the base game set of Legendary: A Marvel Deck-Building Game, Upper Deck established a core group of well-known and beloved heroes to take on equally recognizable villains. One such hero was Spiderman, arguably the most famous hero of Marvel Comics. Upper Deck gave Spiderman a Spider Friends team affiliation, even though no other hero in the base game shared that allegiance. But from day one Upper Deck promised to add more Spider Friends heroes to Legendary, and in their third expansion, following Dark City and Fantastic Four, they fulfilled that promise. This set’s all about the webslinger and his allies, along with a Marvel Knight hero who takes advantage of a keyword introduced in this expansion.

What’s in this set – 5 heroes on two preexisting teams, 2 Masterminds, 4 Schemes, and 2 Villain Groups.

New Keywords – Paint the Town Red adds two new keywords to the game, one for heroes and a nasty one for villains.

• Wall-Crawl – When you recruit a hero card with this keyword, instead of putting it in your discard pile you may put it on top of your deck. This means that you will get that hero on your next turn, rather than have to wait until your discard pile gets shuffled back into your deck. Note, that Wall-Crawl only occurs when you first recruit the card, and only if you recruit the card: if you acquire the card from some other source, you do not get to use its Wall-Crawl ability. On the other hand, if you recruit a Wall-Crawl hero and then play a hero who allows you to draw a card, you will get to play the hero you recruited immediately!
• Feast – Villains are mean. Some of them are worse. Those with Feast are evil. Feast translates as, “Fight: KO the top card of your deck.” No maybes, no choice. If you fight a guy with Feast, you lose the top card of your deck, regardless of what it is! Don’t fight a villain with Feast after recruiting a Wall-Crawl hero, unless you’re protecting something better underneath!

New Masterminds –

• Mysterio – Although not a particularly tough Mastermind, Mysterio has a habit of just making himself a nuisance. Whenever his Master Strike occurs, shuffle that Master Strike card in with his Tactics cards, where it becomes another Tactic you have to take from Mysterio in order to beat him, thus prolonging the game. If you’re unlucky, you might have to hit Mysterio nine times to win the game, perhaps even more depending on when you draw a certain Tactic that gives him more hits if it’s not the
  final one in the stack! Fortunately, Mysterio’s villain group, the Sinister Six, is not too challenging, with the possible exceptions of Kraven the Hunter and Sandman, whose attack values can vary from 1 and 2 up to 9 and 10, respectively.
• Carnage – His Attack is only 9; how hard can he be? Yeah… it’s not about the numbers, it’s the Feasting. That evil, evil keyword was designed specifically for Carnage and his villain group, Maximum Carnage. Not only does every villain in Maximum Carnage have Feast, but every single one of Carnage’s Tactics involves Feasting in one way or another. And his Master Strike: Carnage Feasts on every player’s deck, and if he happens to eat a 0-cost hero (one of the starting S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents or Troopers) this way, you get a Wound. Ugh. He may not be the strongest Mastermind out there, but facing him is still a matter for the bold and brave.

New Heroes –  Heroes in Paint the Town Red belong primarily to the Spider Friends team, but one of them rallies behind the banner of the Marvel Knights.

Spider Friends

Black Cat – If luck is on your side, you might fare well with Black Cat, but if not, well… Black Cat can manipulate or take advantage of other players’ decks, which can be an advantage if another player has a powerful deck. With her uncommon, you can reveal the top of each player’s deck, including your own, and then choose to discard or put each card back. This allows you to get weaker cards out of the way, or protect stronger cards from Feast. Black Cat’s other cards, however, don’t compare to the usefulness of her uncommon. Her lowest-costing common has a chance for a huge payoff for little cost, but relies heavily on luck. Use Black Cat as a supplement to other heroes; she doesn’t have the strength or unity to build a deck around.

Scarlet Spider – Combining high combat capabilities in his uncommon with draw card options in his commons, Scarlet Spider is a solid addition to any set of heroes. He brings the Strength, Instincts, and Covert classes to the table, allowing him to fit in with many deck builds, as well as settle comfortably in a deck constructed around him. In addition to the 5 Attack his rare offers, it also permits you to immediately draw any cards you placed on top of your deck this turn, which instantly raises the value of all cards with Wall-Crawl: every single one of his non-rare cards, for example.

Spiderwoman – If you look at just her commons, you get a sense of synergy immediately. Spiderwoman’s first common is heavy on Recruit, but requires you to put a card in your hand on top of your deck in order to play it. Her other common lets you draw the top card of your deck, but only if it has the Attack icon. Easy to work around: just put a card with Attack on top your deck to play the first common, then draw the card back with the other. Her uncommon extends this mechanic to heroes with a Recruit icon. Naturally, both of these card-drawing options work well with Wall-Crawl, too, since you’d already know what type of card you just recruited. Spiderwoman’s rare is very straightforward, but very powerful, as it permits you to simply recruit any hero in the HQ for free. Spiderwoman, while you can certainly build a deck around her, pairs well with other deck-manipulators, such as Gambit and Daredevil, and also with hero cards that supply both Attack and Recruit, such as Versatile heroes.

Symbiote Spiderman – Like the original Spiderman, the Symbiote version’s cards all cost 2 or less to recruit. Unlike the original, though, he brings a little more variety. His first common offers no immediate benefits, but allows you to look at the top two cards of your deck, and draw any that cost 2 or less. His second commons grants bonus Attack points if the top card cost 2 or less. Then, his uncommon stacks Attack points based on the number of cards costing 2 or less you’ve played this turn. Finally, his rare grants a generous number of Attack points for such a low cost, but only if you put two cards from your hand on top of your deck. So, assuming you have a deck built around him, your order of play would be: the rare, putting two cards costing 2 or less on top of your deck, followed immediately by his second common, thus gaining bonus Attack, then playing his first common to draw the cards you put on top of your deck back, and finally his uncommon, racking up a bunch of Attack for all those other cards you had. Combine him in a deck with the base game Spiderman, S.H.I.E.L.D. starter heroes, and other cards costing 1 or 2, and you can win the battle with quality through quantity.

Marvel Knights

Moon Knight – The Marvel Knights affiliation was introduced in the Dark City expansion, and Paint the Town Red added the first new member of that team since that set. His presence in a Spiderman-focused expansion seems a little odd, but the point was to take advantage of the newly-created Wall-Crawl keyword. Both of Moon Knight’s commons possess the keyword, and his uncommon gives you the opportunity to draw and play them immediately. With Moon Knight you’ll want to build your deck around Tech and Instinct cards, since that uncommon will let you draw cards of those classes if they’re on top of your deck. He also supplies support abilities in one common and in his rare whenever you defeat a villain in the Rooftops city space. A very solid yet underrated Legendary hero, as his synergy feels a bit on the subtle side. Probably best in a support role, regardless, but he could still serve as the backbone of your deck.

Next, Legendary heads out into the cosmos, enthrones another elite Mastermind beside Apocalypse and Galactus, and adds increased variety to gameplay in the Guardians of the Galaxy expansion!