This won’t win me any fans from the Millennial generation but Deadpool is the worst. This is true in comics books and it’s true in Marvel X-Men United from CMON Games, which as a company is barely less worst than Deadpool, due to their dastardly handling of their Kickstarter campaigns.
Dastardliness aside, I have the full Marvel X-Men United Kickstarter and I am here to tell you that the worst villain is indeed Deadpool. The character’s farcical nature grates thin after :30 seconds and that is true in the comics, on the screen, and within the Marvel United: X-Men board game as well.
But that’s not a problem because Marvel United: X-Men has a couple dozen other villains that are wonderful. Here are those I feel are the best 7.
The 7 Best Villains from Marvel X-Men United
7 Apocalypse
A few of the best villains for Marvel United: X-Men are considerable, expansive affairs. For example, Apocalypse earned his own expansion for the game and it is entirely worth it.
The expansion features Apocalypse and his Four Horseman, as it should. It’s not just a few X-Men against a single villain, it’s a team against an entire plot that feels substantial. Sometimes you want a quick, easy play and sometimes you want to roll up your sleeves to dive into to something a little deeper.
Apocalypse gives you that in the game and, as I mentioned in my look at the heroes of Marvel United: X-Men, this greater flexibility is one of the reasons that Marvel United: X-Men operates at a higher level than the first base edition of the game.
6 Nimrod
Nimrod is in a similar category as Apocalypse, in that it’s an entire expansive to the game. But I enjoy it even a titch more.
Nimrod works alongside 3 giant Sentinels and is themed off the classic Days of Future Past storyline. As a result, it comes with a Wolverine figure as well.
Gameplay features battles with the 3 Sentinels while a Nimrod activation advancement track threatens in the background.
5 Sebastian Shaw
Sabastian Shaw is featured as a villain versus identifying the villain as the Hellfire Club. But you obviously can’t feature Sebastian Shaw outside of the Hellfire Club.
As a result, the gameplay is centered on the Black and White Rook, Bishop, and Queen as a Henchman at each location. It works great; players know their objective is to tackle Henchmen quickly and that gives the villain scenario a unique tone in the game.
4 Mojo
Mojo’s objective is to get his ratings up of course. The Ratings Track is a pretty standard villain plot as far as the game goes. If ratings hit 15, the X-Men lose.
But what the villain scenario lacks in creativity, it makes up for is creepy silliness, which fits Mojo to a T.
3 Arcade
Arcade is thematic in the sense that when heroes enter a location, they trigger a “trap,” just as you’d expect with Arcade and his Murder World. That means the core play style with Arcade is to clear these traps without getting KO’d. Because getting KO’d adds a Crisis Token to Arcade and when he hits 4 of those, it’s lights out for our heroes.
2 Brotherhood (Toad, Blob, and Pyro)
The Brotherhood plays so fun because Toad, Blob, and Pyro each have their own BAM! as well as Threat cards, making their villain scenario feel the most like a classic team versus team battle.
1 Mister Sinister
Mister Sinister is super glam in the comics and he’s super glam in the game. His gameplay centers on DNA tokens that are distributed among the players.
As a bonus, dive into a little Sinister lore here.
I really couldn’t escape recommending villains that required additional expansions to play. Many of those expansion villains are just too fun to not recommend. But don’t feel like it’s the only way. The base game is a lot of fun. Get it here. You won’t regret it and if you love it like I expect you while, you can then add expansions later.
Now, let’s look at the 7 best heroes for Marvel United: X-Men.