Hello all and welcome back to Part 2 of my exploration of Marvel Crisis Protocol.
Guest Writer: John Paul
Marvel Crisis Protocol Rosters are composed of ten members. Each time players commit to playing a game, they draw from various “Crisis Event” cards that dictate the mission parameters and the threat level (points value) of the individual squads. Players then build a squad based on that threat level using models from their roster. More of than not, squads consist of 5 members, but there are certainly builds out there that involve more or less. To count as playing an affiliation, a squad has to have more than 50% of their roster drawn from that affiliation (so 3 out of 5, usually). Affiliation bonuses tend to be fairly worthwhile, so it’s wise to play an affiliation over not playing one. In the last article, I discussed how I decided on picking up X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants. For my first roster, I decided on Brotherhood of Mutants for a few reasons. Firstly, I like that each model appears to be fairly specialized. I play Aeldari in 40K and like units/models that are very good at one task; I’m a fan of the “sum of its parts being greater than the individual” type of armies. Because my buddy and I are still relative novices, we decided to just draw up 5-member squads for now. We’re going to slow grow into full rosters, but our initial focus was on developing a fixed squad that we could pit against one another as we explored some of MCP’s greater nuances.
Because the Brotherhood of Mutants affiliation is only just now being explored, this made the process easy. Currently, there are six available members: Magneto, Toad, Quicksilver, Mystique, Scarlet Witch, and Sabertooth. So, my first step was determining how to construct my list from those potential members. What I ultimately settled on was Magneto as my leader, Toad, Quicksilver, Mystique, and Sabertooth. I played around with a variation in which Mystique acted as my leader and I dropped Magneto for Scarlet Witch, but that would leave me at 17 threat level, so I would have had to swap out other models elsewhere to make it work. I elected against that, though Wanda Maximoff will definitely fit into my larger 10-member roster once we’ve reached that stage.
Magneto as leader is interesting. He’s a rare 6-threat model, but he definitely shows it on the table. His leadership ability lets him dole out power to his fellow teammates for every piece of terrain destroyed, which adds up very quickly given the ease with which he can hurl terrain at his foes using his magnetic draw. He is admittedly slow, but he is a quintessential leader: empowering the rest of his squad while also doling out tons of pain. His “builder” (an attack that generates power) has some great built in flexibility, either allowing him to push/pull his enemies or reroll all of his attack dice depending on their proximity. In my games with him, I use Magneto as a bully in the center board. His versatility in both defense and offense makes him the lynchpin of my force and my most reliable heavy-hitter.
Games are won and lost on objective play, and Quicksilver and Toad specialize in these. Toad, being only 2 threat, is predictably weak offensively and defensively. He makes up for it with his movement shenanigans and ability to grab objectives from his teammates. Between Hop and Slippery, Toad has a lot of out-of-activation movement that can help him get across the board sneaky fast. He has worked very well as a nuisance character for me, but he absolutely disintegrates once he’s been dazed once. Quicksilver similarly has a bunch of interesting movement shenanigans along with a long move to boot. In all of my games so far, he has specialized in getting to a secure objective, snatching it, and then getting out of dodge thanks to cyclonic punch’s built-in movement component. Quicksilver also has a Team Tactic card that permits him to outright steal objectives from the opponent’s characters, an ability that is incredibly powerful when timed right. Like Toad, he’s a bit soft, but he offers speed, speed, and more speed.
Mystique is the character that I’m struggling with at the moment. She has great utility and her Deception Team Tactic card is very strong (it pulls an isolated character towards her for no cost at all). That said, however, she tends to run out of stuff to do in my lists. Both her builder and her spender attacks are pretty “meh,” and she has little else to spend power on. Her ability to detonate terrain to put damage on those that would hide to close against it is definitely powerful and syncs very nicely with Magneto’s leadership (more power!), but she is the model that doesn’t seem to pull her weight for me.
Sabertooth is last but not least. He is, simply put, a scalpel. He’s fast as lightning and hits with animal ferocity, but he’s not such a brawler that he wants to be in a scrum at the center of the board. I find he can reliably go up either flank and leap on an isolated model rather than trying to go toe-to-toe with other enforcers. His X-Ceptional Healing (reduce damage taken to 1 on a single attack) and Weapon X (throw him into an opponent and suffer zero damage) Team Tactics cards are really strong and allow him to operate pretty independent of the rest of the group. Contrary to his teal ally, Mystique, Sabertooth wants to be sitting on oodles of power so that he can charge claws-first into an enemy and start ripping them to bloody bits.
That, currently, is the list I’ve been running, and it’s done all right. But, I need to think about where to take it from here, especially as I eye-ball doing a 10-man roster. The biggest weaknesses of the list are simple: I don’t have a true tank or a true beater. Sabertooth is kind of a finesse piece that is high-risk, high-reward. Likewise, most of my stuff relies on trickery for defense rather than relying on pure stats and abilities. I also don’t really have anyone that offers much in the way of buffs or dice manipulation, so that may be a route worth exploring.
I have a few solutions in mind for these shortcomings. Juggernaut is due to arrive in Q1 of 2022, and he seems to be a perfect addition to solve both issues (he’s an insanely hard hitting tank, after all). Likewise, Scarlet Witch offers some great offensive potential and a bit of indirect buffing by making it extremely hard to shake status effects of enemy models near her. Omega Red and Mr. Sinister also seem to be a good fit for the 10-man roster. Neither has the Brotherhood of Mutants affiliation, but they were frequently allies of the group in the comics and cartoon. Likewise, both have ridiculously characterful models and rules that beautifully align with the lore surrounding them. Both have unique rules that will force an opponent to rethink tried and true strategies. Their additions put me at 9, which leaves a slot open to consider what else might fit. All of my additions are high threat level models (4s and 5s), so adding another 3 or even 2 threat model would be ideal. Gambit fits the bill and did brief stints in the Brotherhood at various points in the comics. X-23 is another that would fit, though she may be fairly redundant with Sabertooth. This slot will bear more thinking in the weeks to come as I continue to hone my roster.
That’s all I have for you this week. Thank you for reading, be safe, and get painting!
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