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Marcolian Beginners Guide
Introduction
Written By
freetipscout
October 23, 2024
So it turns out you’ve just made a pretty significant discovery. You’ve recently learnt about an exciting sci-fi card game called Parallel and you can’t wait to start playing it.
In fact, the hope is to not only play it but actually get good at playing it one day too! However, you’re relatively new to the game and have limited knowledge about which faction or ‘Parallel’ as they are referred to in the game to start playing with.
With a total of five different Parallels to choose from in the game and each playing completely different from one another, the choice can be a daunting one especially for newcomers to the game.
That’s why to kick this series off, we are going to take you on a journey where you’ll learn everything you need to know to start playing with one of the most popular Parallel decks in the game - Marcolian.
Who are the Marcolians?
Marcolians or ‘Marco’ are a race of humans who fled to the harsh rocky environment of Mars following a catastrophic event on Earth 10,000 years ago and transformed their desolate new home into a mega metropolis to be marvelled at.
The Marco way is one of military and technological supremacy combined with an unwavering resolve to conquer no matter what the odds, which kind of makes Marco the Parallel equivalent of the Roman Empire!
Strength in numbers defines this civilization with its people hardened through years of sacrifice and struggle born from terraforming their baron world into a beacon of power.
And it’s this display of power which Marco brings with them on their warpath to defeat any race who stands in their way as they now set their sights on reclaiming Earth.
What is the Marcolian strategy?
The Marcolians relentless pursuit to dominate through power and numbers is not only central to their story but is also the key characteristic for how the Marco deck plays.
Marco players are incentivised and rewarded greatly when they play on the front-foot and attack the opponent directly instead of targeting enemy units because this triggers a powerful mechanic called Assault which is unique to Marcolians in Parallel.
Assault allows Marco players to benefit in a variety of ways such as bolstering their numbers on the field, gaining more cards in their hand to give the player card advantage or even damaging and destroying enemy units of their choice!
This style of play makes Marco primarily an aggro deck where the goal is to reduce the opponent’s health down to zero as quickly as possible either by overwhelming them through dealing tons of damage directly or swarming the board with too many units for the opponent to deal with in time.
Pick a Paragon
Marcolians are an ambitious, aggressive and relentless race of humans making them a formidable foe for anyone daring enough to meet them on the battlefield.
But how is that gritty, toughened nature reflected in this deck’s leaders or ‘Paragons’ as they are called in the game, so it feels like you are battling and hopefully card conquering in the Marcolian way?
Well, just like each of the other four Parallels in the game you will have three different Paragons to choose from when playing with a Marco deck and each Paragon requires a slightly different approach to get the best out of their abilities and your cards.
Lemieux, Master Commando
Lemieux, aka ‘Lemi’ is one of the most starter friendly Paragons for Marco with his whole play style revolving around constant deployment of low cost / power units on the board in order to outnumber the opponent and ultimately overwhelm them.
Marcolian Commandos are fierce fighters to be feared in battle and Lemi’s Evasive ability allows him to slip through enemy lines with ease and attack targets of his choosing by ignoring Defenders attempts to stop him.
And when Lemi’s forces trigger Assault it paves the way for the Master Commando to enter the battlefield and perform three powerful actions at once which can win the battle in a blink of an eye.
Active
Evasive.
Muster: Choose one:
- You may destroy target damaged unit.
- Put a unit from your waste into your hand.
- Friendly units +1/+0 this turn.
Assault: Do all three.
Passive
Start the game with a 1/1 Vanguard Infiltrator on the field.
Catherine Lapointe, The Mad General
Catherine, aka ‘Cathy’ lives up to her reputation on the battlefield as a ruthless and fiery leader who relishes combat and even seeks it out at every opportunity.
This impulsiveness is reflected perfectly in her Paragon ability which sees the Mad General enter the field and attack a random target at the end of the turn!
Cathy’s fearlessness to fight not only strikes fear and panic into her opponents but emboldens her troops too with the second unit deployed on the battlefield per turn gaining +1/+1 to their attack and health thanks to her inspiring passive ability.
Active
After you end your turn, this unit attacks a random enemy.
This unit can't attack on your turn.
Passive
The second unit you play each turn gains +1/+1.
Armored Division HQ
The last remaining Paragon for Marco is none other than Armored Division HQ which has the promising potential to be a strong deck choice for Marco players in the future once additional cards are released in Parallel.
This Paragon’s abilities are purely focused on vehicles which gain the ability to attack on the same turn they are deployed and can even draw cards for the player each turn when a vehicle does damage directly to the opponent which is a powerful combo.
And with each friendly vehicle gaining a random ability at the end of the controlling player’s turn as well, it shouldn’t be too long before Armored Division seizes its day to dominate the battlefield in Parallel.
Active
Shielded and can't attack. Friendly Vehicles have Battle Ready. The first time a friendly Vehicle deals damage to a player each turn, draw a card.
Passive
At the end of your turn, each friendly Vehicle gains one ability at random:
- +1/+0
- +0/+1
- Shielded
- Evasive
- Armed
Beginner Decks
The beauty of a game like Parallel is that there are no right or wrong decks to play with as you are offered the freedom to use your imagination and experiment with different card combinations to see what works well and what works maybe not so well for you.
Parallel provides a deck building starter point for newcomers to their game in the form of Starter Decks which are a standardised set of 40 digital collectible cards for each of the five Parallels in the game.
These Starter Decks are an excellent introduction to some of the ‘core’ cards but with every Starter Deck for a specific Parallel consisting of exactly the same cards and also missing some key ones too it will only get you so far in competitive play.
To better assist on your journey into this game we’ve created our own beginner Decks combining our experience and expertise to give you the best possible start in Parallel.
These Beginner Decks introduce you to a wider selection of cards that will remain competitive and relevant in the long-run and are available for you to play with through the Paragons Alliance. Let’s begin!
