In last week’s article we covered a very basic overview of the Cabal Affiliation in Marvel Crisis Protocol. Even though this Affiliation was one of the original two to come right out of the Core Set it has held up against all of the newer released Affiliations in MCP.
While not as popular as it once was, mostly because there are just so many options in the game now, Cabal is still an exceptional Affiliation with excellent Leadership abilities, a long list of powerful Affiliated character and some of the best Tactics Cards in the game. The wide array of Affiliated characters available to a Cabal player can be a little daunting at first, and knowing which Cabal characters are worth including in your Roster of 10 can be a tough decision when looking at the 22 currently Affiliated Cabal characters. The awesome thing about MCP is you could include almost any of these Characters in your Roster and when it came time to select your Team you would still be able to have an excellent chance of winning. However, just like in all miniature games, there are a few Characters in the Cabal Affiliation that stick out as clear winners. These Characters are not necessarily auto-includes in your Team, but they will be making your Roster at the very least.
First we will take a look at the two Leaders in the faction. Red Skull was covered in last weeks article, but the other Leader from Cabal was not mentioned. At first glance Sin may seem much weaker than her father, but keep in mind a Sin led Cabal team is going to play much differently than a Red Skull Cabal team. Sin’s Leadership is all about manipulating the Crisis, and since the Crisis is how points are scored in this game her Leadership can be extremely powerful. Sin’s Leadership allows you to roll one dice for each objective token contested by your team, or roll a dice to have a enemy character drop an asset token if you have an allied character within range 2. Each of these can be game changing effects, and (edit: they happen AFTER points are scored!) even though they happen after points are scored moving your opponent’s characters off of Secures, or having them drop Assets (especially if you are activating first in the next Round) can be extremely powerful. Moving an enemy character away from a Secure can cost them an action to get back into place, and in a game where each character has a limited number of actions this is very valuable. The down side to Sin’s Leadership is the random element of the dice rolls involved, but when you can roll what you need on those dice it will translate directly into points for you.
Sin’s Leadership isn’t the only thing she has going for her. Being a 3 Threat Leader, as opposed to Red Skulls 4 Threat, really opens up team building at those lower points level Crisis’, and the attacks on her card are nothing to sneeze at for a 3 Threat Character. She is extremely fragile, but with Stealth, and an impressive 6 Health on her flipped side, she can be surprisingly tough. There is no arguing Sin is harder to play than Red Skull, but once you have mastered the use of Sin’s Hit and Run she is much easier to keep on the table to benefit from her game changing Leadership.
Outside of two excellent Leader choices Cabal also has one of the best 3 Threat characters in the game. Baron Zemo comes right out of the Core Set, and is a staple in even non-Cabal Rosters. Baron Zemo is an excellent example of a character who does just slightly more than his 3 Threat value should allow him to do, and this make him an auto-include in any Cabal roster. With the ability to give BOTH an offensive and defensive re-roll to allied characters within Range 2, the ability to use Charge to move and Attack with a Long Move and his ability to move during his Steel Rush attack Baron Zemo brings an exceptional amount of utility to the table for just 3 Threat. You would actually have a hard time of convincing me Baron Zemo shouldn’t be in every Cabal team, but if you have an argument why I’m too high on this character I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
For our next choices we will cover two characters who are extreme opposites. Killmonger and Enchantress are both 4 Threat characters who are extremely effective at their roles on the table. Killmonger is a tough melee beater who can throw some of the largest attack pools in the game with his tactics card Usurp The Throne and the ability on his card to add dice to his attacks when attacking a character for a second time during the Round. With other characters like Red Skull and MODOK around, Killmonger’s damage output can dial your Cabal team up to 11 in it’s ability to remove enemy models from the tabletop.
Enchantress also comes in at 4 Threat, and while she can put out some damage, her real power comes from the control she provides you during the game. With the ability to move enemy characters with Siren’s Call, and then take Asset or Civilian Tokens from enemy characters with Amora’s Kiss, Enchantress can be extremely effective at disrupting your opponent’s plans when it comes to the Crisis. Enchantress’ defenses may look at little scary with just 2 Physical and Energy Defense, but with the Red Skull Leadership and the Asgardian ability on her card she will have plenty of power to make sure she is only rolling that 5 dice Mystic Defense.
To round out our list of auto-include Cabal characters for your Roster I would be wrong not to mention the Affiliations 2 Threat character Bullseye. Bullseye isn’t just an auto-include because he is the Affiliation’s best 2 Threat character, there are some other awesome 2 Threats out of Affiliation as well, but Bullseye brings some of the best abilities to the table on his 2 Threat card. You could do a lot worse for 2 Threat than having a character who can sit at Range 4 throwing knives at the enemies of the Cabal, and with the Red Skull Leadership Bullseye should always have enough power to use Hit and Run to keep himself out of harms way while tossing those knives.
While almost any character can be successful in MCP (that’s what makes it such an amazing game!) these Cabal characters should be staples in your Roster, and once you master the skill of knowing which Crises these characters should be picked into, and making the most of the abilities on their cards, none of those pesky good guy affiliations will be able to stop you. Next week we will cover some of the best Tactics Cards for the Cabal Affiliation to round out the Cabal overview for MCP.