Overview

Legendary is a semi-cooperative deck building game set in the Marvel universe. Players recruit heroes from a shared HQ to build powerful decks, then use those heroes to fight villains and ultimately defeat a Mastermind. The game fights back via a Villain Deck that sends villains into the city and triggers Scheme Twists. Players cooperate to prevent the Mastermind’s evil scheme from succeeding while competing for the most victory points.

Components

• Over 500 cards including:
  • Hero cards (14 hero sets with multiple card types each)
  • Villain group cards
  • Henchmen group cards
  • Mastermind cards (with Mastermind Tactics)
  • Scheme cards
  • S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent starter cards
  • S.H.I.E.L.D. Trooper starter cards
  • S.H.I.E.L.D. Officer cards
  • Bystander cards
  • Master Strike cards
  • Scheme Twist cards
  • Wound cards
• Game board (HQ and City spaces)
• Rulebook

Setup

1. Choose a Mastermind and place with its 4 Tactics cards underneath.
2. Choose a Scheme card. Follow its instructions for adjusting the Villain Deck.
3. Build the Villain Deck: Shuffle together the specified Villain groups, Henchmen, Bystanders, Master Strikes, and Scheme Twists.
4. Shuffle 5 Hero decks together to form the Hero Deck. Deal 5 hero cards to fill the HQ.
5. Each player starts with a deck of 12 cards: 8 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents (1 recruit each) and 4 S.H.I.E.L.D. Troopers (1 attack each). Shuffle and draw 6 cards.
6. Place S.H.I.E.L.D. Officers in their own stack.

Turn Structure

On your turn:

1. Play Hero Cards: Play cards from your hand to generate Recruit Points and Attack Points.
2. Recruit Heroes: Spend Recruit Points to acquire Hero cards from the HQ. Recruited cards go to your discard pile.
3. Fight Villains: Spend Attack Points to fight Villains in the City or the Mastermind.
4. Draw: Discard played cards and remaining hand; draw 6 new cards.
5. Refill HQ: Replace any recruited Hero cards from the Hero Deck.

Villain Deck (at start of each turn)

Before the active player takes their turn, flip the top card of the Villain Deck:

• Villain: Enters the Sewers (rightmost city space). Push existing villains left. If a villain is pushed out of the city, it escapes (negative effects).
• Master Strike: The Mastermind attacks all players.
• Scheme Twist: Advance the evil Scheme.
• Bystander: Captured by the villain in the Sewers (or the Mastermind if no villains present).

Actions

• Recruit: Spend Recruit Points to buy Hero cards from HQ (cost shown on card).
• Fight: Spend Attack Points to defeat Villains (attack value shown) or the Mastermind (attack value shown).
• Rescue Bystanders: When you defeat a villain holding bystanders, you rescue them (1 VP each).
• Fight Mastermind: When you have enough Attack to fight the Mastermind, you claim one of its Tactic cards (which has an effect and VP value). After all 4 Tactics are claimed, the Mastermind is defeated.
• Use Superpower abilities: Many Hero cards have abilities keyed to specific hero classes.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Cooperative Victory

• Defeat the Mastermind by claiming all 4 of its Mastermind Tactic cards.
• Prevent the Scheme from completing (each Scheme has specific loss conditions).

Competitive Scoring (after cooperative victory)

• Count VP from: defeated Villains, rescued Bystanders, Mastermind Tactics in your victory pile.
• Subtract VP for Wounds in your deck.
• Highest VP wins.

Loss Conditions (all players lose)

• The Scheme completes (varies by scheme).
• Too many villains escape the city (scheme-dependent).
• The Hero Deck runs out (some schemes).

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• City spaces: Sewers, Bank, Rooftops, Streets, Bridge (5 spaces). Villains enter at Sewers and push left.
• Escaped villains: Each has an Escape effect that triggers when pushed off the Bridge.
• KO’d cards: Removed from the game entirely (not shuffled back).
• Wound cards: Clog your deck. Can be KO’d by certain hero abilities.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. Officers: Always available to recruit for 3 Recruit Points (2 Recruit value card).
• Hero classes/teams: Cards may have synergy bonuses when played with same-class heroes.
• Solo play: Control all hero recruitment but play against the game system.

Player Reference

Turn Summary:

1. Flip Villain Deck card (villain enters city, Master Strike, Scheme Twist, or Bystander)
2. Play Hero cards from hand
3. Recruit Heroes (spend Recruit Points) and/or Fight Villains/Mastermind (spend Attack Points)
4. Discard hand and played cards; draw 6
5. Refill HQ

Starter Deck (12 cards):

• 8 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents (1 Recruit each)
• 4 S.H.I.E.L.D. Troopers (1 Attack each)

City Layout (villain movement): Sewers -> Bank -> Rooftops -> Streets -> Bridge -> ESCAPE

Mastermind Defeat: Fight Mastermind 4 times (once per Tactic card) = Mastermind defeated = players win