As almost everything else these days has some kind of MCU tie-in, the folks at Looney Labs are getting into the action with the edition of a Marvel-themed version of their classic card game Fluxx.

For those unfamiliar with Fluxx, I’m going to briefly cover the rules below. Feel free to skip down to “What’s New In Marvel Fluxx” if you already know how to play the game.

How to Play Fluxx

Fluxx is a card game with ever-changing rules. It starts out pretty simple. The entire deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt three cards. The rest of the deck is placed in the middle of the table, with the Basic Rules card face-up next to it.

Here’s where people tend to try to overthink things. The Basic Rules card says, simply, “Draw One, Play One.” And that’s it. When it’s your turn, you draw a card from the deck and then play a card from your hand. Play then passes to your left. Honestly. Nothing more.

Until… the card someone plays is a new rule. That is placed next to the Basic Rules card and instantly takes effect. So if the new rule is “Draw 2,” then the person who just played it draws another card (because otherwise they will not have drawn 2), but they still only play 1 because that part of the Basic Rules is still in effect. The next player draws 2 and plays 1, and so forth.

But what’s the goal? Well, when the game starts, there isn’t one. No one can win. Because Goals are another type of card you can play, and until someone plays a Goal, there is no goal. But once one is played, it takes effect instantly as well, meaning that it’s possible to play a goal that immediately ends the game.

Most goals involve collecting Keepers, the next type of card. Keepers are cards you play face up in front of you, to keep. Most Keepers are thematic cards from whatever license or theme the deck is based on. A few have special abilities, but most just sit on the table, hoping to eventually end up being part of the right combination of cards to match the current goal.

Or, and one more thing about that Goal: unless there’s a rule in play changing this, you can only have one Goal out at a time. As soon as someone plays a new Goal, the current one is discarded. So don’t get too excited if you have one of the two Keepers you need for the current Goal – odds are good it won’t remain the goal for long.

One last type of card in the deck, and the type that will again confuse overthinkers, are the Action cards. These are played as normal but contain a set of instructions to follow. You don’t have to do anything when you play an Action other than whatever it says on the card.

Play continues like this, with new Rules and Goals constantly shifting the game while players collect Keepers and play Actions, until all of the sudden someone lucks into having the right combination of Keepers to match the goal, at which point they win and everyone else loses. I’ve played games that last only a couple of rounds and others that stretch on seemingly forever.

What’s New In Marvel Fluxx

I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot.

Marvel Fluxx is a set of 107 cards, with a Specialty Edition that includes 7 additional cards. Like all Fluxx games, there’s a set of standard Rule and Action cards, but the Keepers and Goals are all theme-specific.

So instead of generic Keepers from the original game like Sun and Rocket and Toaster, Marvel has keepers like Spider-Man and Black Panther and The Infinity Gauntlet. Unlike most editions of Fluxx that have a mixture of Keepers, there are so many characters in the MCU that almost all of the Keepers are characters. In fact, the Guantlet is the only non-character Keeper in the game.

Instead of Goals like Peanut Butter Sandwich (collect Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Bread), you now have goals like Teen Scientists (collect Spider-Man and Shuri) or Galactic Duo (Rocket Raccoon and Groot).

A few other thematic cards have been added to the regular mix, including Actions like Cosmic Cube (steal a Keeper, discard 2 cards in play, or draw 3 cards), Team Up (draw from the deck until you reveal 2 Keepers, then draw 2 more cards and play them), and Look Who’s Back (take a Keeper from the discard pile and play it). The set also contains an Action card called The Arena, which is so fun I’m going to just quote the text from the card in its entirety:

All players (other than you) with Keepers in play that represent beings must choose one for combat. Players hold a debate about which of the combatants would win in a fight, then after everyone has made their case, you choose the winner. The victorious player keeps their card while all others are discarded.

If only one player has Keepers, that player must put up two.

There is also, of course, Thanos Snaps His Fingers, where you collect all Keepers (except Thanos and the Gauntlet), shuffle them, discard half, and deal out the remainders evenly.

I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot.

The game also includes some cute new rules like THWIP! (draw and play the top card from the deck), Spider-Sense (draw an extra card and decide which cards to keep, based on the current draw rule, while putting the one you don’t want back), Heroic Sacrifice (discard a Keeper and draw 3 cards),and Move the Coin! (give the coin to the next player or, if you forget, discard a card from your hand).

Lastly, there’s a set of four Keepers that grant special abilities or place requirements on the player that has them. The Gauntlet allows you to play the top card from the deck once per turn. Doctor Strange lets you take and play a random card from another player’s hand, while Loki lets you exchange him for another Keeper in play. And there’s also Groot, which states that “while you have this in play, you can only say ‘I am Groot.’ If you fail, you must move this to another player of your choice.”

(I asked my editor if I could write this entire review as Groot, but he said no.)

I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot.

The Bonus Cards in the Specialty Edition include three new Keepers – Miles Morales, Phil Coulson, and Nick Fury – and four new goals: Spider-Verse (collect any two of Miles Morales, Spider-Man, and Spider-Gwen), Captain America’s Biggest Fan (collect Phil Coulson and Captain America), Avengers Assemble! (collect Nick Fury and any two of Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain America), and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Nick Fury and Phil Coulson).

I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot.

The final bonus item in Marvel Fluxx is a collector’s coin. This is included in both the Specialty and regular editions. It’s given to the player who goes first, and they basically hang on to it throughout the game until the Move the Coin! rule is played, at which point each player must remember to pass the coin to the next player or be forced to have a card randomly chosen from their hand and discarded.

I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot.

All in all, Marvel Fluxx adds a nice new theme to the game. I’m a bit bummed that some of the famous artifacts from the MCU didn’t make it in as Keepers, like Cap’s shield, Mjölnir, the 80s Mix Tape, or the Tesseract (or, I am Groot I am Groot), but the inclusion of things like the Arena make up for it.

Marvel Fluxx is available at Amazon and other fine retailers. The Specialty Edition is $20. The regular edition should be a bit less, but is currently also selling for $20 on Amazon.