2022 is quickly shaping up to be a banner year for all Marvel Legendary fans! We’re taking a look and bringing you our review of the latest expansion release: Doctor Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare.

Following the excellent Messiah Complex expansion, we’ll examine what new challenges you can find with Doctor Strange and whether or not we think this expansion is worth picking up.

The following review will assume that you have a basic understanding of Marvel Legendary. If unfamiliar, check out this post for an overview of this game.

Doctor Strange and the Shadow of Nightmares is an expansion with 100 new cards in the form of 5 new heroes, 2 masterminds, and 2 villain groups.

Heroes

Doctor Strange is the headliner for this hero set, and while he isn’t a new hero to Marvel Legendary, I prefer this version of Doctor Strange to the ones released in the Secret Wars Volume 1 & the Venom expansions. 

The other heroes in the set are Brother Voodoo, Clea, The Ancient One, and the Vishanti. These are all first-time heroes to Marvel Legendary, and all have a close association with Dr. Strange in the comics. My only disappointment was we didn’t get Doctor Strange’s sidekick Wong as a hero. A huge miss in our opinion, especially with his popularity in the films.

All five heroes are quite fun to play together and are designed so they work well with other heroes from previous expansions making them great to mix and match with other teams. 

The Doctor Strange expansion adds the new keywords of Ritual Artifact, Demonic Bargain, and Astral Plane. All well themed choices for these characters.

Artifact / Ritual Artifact 

The Artifact keyword was first introduced in our favorite small expansion the Guardians of the Galaxy. What makes an Artifact card special is once played it will remain in front of the player instead of going into the discard pile at the end of the turn. 

The twist of Ritual Artifacts is if certain conditions are met, players can discard their Ritual Artifact cards for powerful effects. You can definitely build a deck around acquiring artifact cards then building up for epic plays when you decide to activate all their abilities!

This creates for fun thematic hands as Doctor Strange and Bother Voodoo’s ritual artifacts are sacrificed to pull off powerful spell cards. It also creates this tension of whether or not you should discard the card this turn or wait until next time because it may be slightly more powerful.

Demonic Bargain

My favorite new keyword is Demonic Bargain. 

To make a Demonic Bargain a player must flip over the top card of their draw deck and discard it. If the card costs zero the player gets the ability of the Demonic Bargain without any negative effect. However, if the card costs 1 or more the player gains the ability and gains a wound.

Early in the game it makes sense to always take the Demonic Bargain, but as you recruit more heroes the Bargains become risky. You can lose powerful cards to your discard pile and gain a wound for your trouble. 

I definitely had some awesome decks ruined by entering into one too many demonic bargains and cluttering my hand with wounds as a result. 

Astral Plane

The Astral Plane is the most unique keyword in the set. This adds a new space for Villians to enter.

The Astral Plane is space outside the city row and can only hold one Villain at time. To defeat a Villain in the Astral Plane, players must spend recruitment power instead of attack to defeat the Villain. 

Schemes, Villians, and Masterminds will enter the Astral Plane. Since the Astral Plane can only hold one villain at a time, they must be fought quickly lest they escape and cause even more trouble.

We love how this challenges players to balance building a deck powerful in both its recruitment and attack powers. 

There are also heroes like The Ancient One that can send Villians from the city to the Astral Plane. You can build a deck centered around fighting villains in this space where you have the upper hand opening the door to new strategies and challenges. 

Masterminds and Villains

The two new Mastminds in this expansion are Dormammu and Nightmare.

Nightmare and his villain group, Fear Lords, try to overwhelm the heroes by constantly moving into the Astral Plans. Many of the villains must be defeated both in the city and the astral plane before being removed. If you play legendary competitively as we do, this opens up a fun challenge as you want to make sure you’re fighting the villains when they can be defeated and added to your victory point pile. If not, you set up your teammate/opponent for a successful take down. Yet you still have to work together otherwise the villains will get out of control.

Nightmare has a fairly low attack threshold making him easy to hit. But each attack and Master Strike moves him into the Astral Plane. In the Astral Plane, Nightmare can’t be defeated, only moved back to the city. If he escapes he destroys a non gray hero from each player which can be a massive set back.

Dormammu was my favorite new Mastermind in the set because of how he used the keyword Demonic Bargain. 

Dormammu is a more straightforward Mastermind with higher attack value with a master strike causing players to lose cards from their hand and potentially gain a wound if their bargain goes poorly.

Each mastermind comes with an epic version which increases the Mastermind base attack value and the negative effects of their Master strike are increased. Epic Masterminds are great since it’s like getting extra challenge modes for players looking for that experience.

Final Thoughts

Doctor Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare is an entertaining expansion. We enjoyed powering up our decks with ritual artifact cards to create power turns and how the addition of the astral plane added the importance of maintaining strong recruiting power throughout the entire game. If you are a Doctor Strange fan you won’t be disappointed.

For the casual Marvel Legendary player, Doctor Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare is a decent option for those looking to expand their collection. While we approve of this set, we think it settles in below The Guardian’s of the Galaxy and Fantastic Four small box expansions. 

You can pick up a copy of Doctor Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare here or on Amazon.

Find this and all our favorite Legendary expansions on our Amazon Storefront.

A special thank you to our friends at Upper Deck Entertainment for sending us a copy of Doctor Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare for review. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own.

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Messiah Complex Expansion Review
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