The recent Ministravaganza presentation by Atomic Mass Games dropped some immediate new changes to the game, both structural and character changes. Beyond the basic buffs to specific characters, what do these changes mean for the game and the competitive meta? Here we’ll discuss the deeper changes that I think will happen in the game, both the Winners and the Losers. Take these changes into account for your next game of Marvel Crisis Protocol.
Loser: Turn 0 game plans
AMG introduced a second Priority roll between deployment and the first Turn of the game. Now you can’t build a team and deploy with perfect knowledge of who will have Priority for Activation in the first Turn of the game. Gone is the Medium-base Long-move safe grabs or other shenanigans.
The implication of this change is to encourage flexible teams and make for less efficient Round 1 play. You may now have a stranded model out in the middle of the field or an Extract runner who doesn’t get to grab their preferred Extract. Flexibility also means long-moving models who are able to get to different parts of the board quickly are going to be better now.
Winner: 3 Threats
Part of the changes announced were a smattering of health pool increases to current characters in the game. In interviews AMG has also said this is a larger philosophical change to bringing up the health pools of 3-Threat characters overall. Newly released 3-Threat characters will fall in line with this change as well as AMG updating older characters over time.
An increased health pool will mean surviving longer on the table so they can enact change to the game and feel like they matter. Higher health pools also mean they’ll gain more Power since they’ll be taking more damage and they can spend this Power on their superpowers and Spender attacks.
Over time MCP has become more lethal and efficient so keeping 2-Threats and 3-Threats still relevant is good for the game.
Loser: Characters with high cost Throw superpowers
One of the major changes to the rules come in the form of changes damage table for Throws and Colisions. Now every Dodge roll will be against a flat 3 damage, no matter the size of the terrain or character being Thrown. In the previous iteration, characters were paying a premium to Throw Size 4 pieces of Terrain and sending big damage (5 damage against a dodge roll!). In the new rules, those Size 4 pieces are equivalent to a Size 1 piece, so they are paying more Power than a character who has a 2-cost Throw and sending the same damage.
It isn’t strictly worse, because unlocking the ability to Throw Size 4 Terrain will be impactful when that is the only Terrain within Range to be Thrown and you’ll have the advantage over an enemy model who cannot Throw Size 4.
This core rule change to Throw damage should also change the terrain layout on competitive MCP boards. There can now be more Size 4s on the table without the threat that they’re huge damage spikes waiting to happen and there should be less Size 1 pieces which represent a cheap source of 3 damage Throws.
Winner: Characters with cheap Throw superpowers (Magneto, Exodus, Cable)
Three characters have the ability to spend Power based on the size of Terrain they want to Throw. With the advent of flat 3 Damage Throws, now they want to be spending a single Power to effect a 3 damage Throw against an enemy model. This is an efficient superpower and source of damage, and it will afford them more Power to use on their other superpowers or Spender attacks.
These 3 characters all went up in their competitive impact and therefore their affiliations are now stronger as well. Magneto and Exodus are both Brotherhood affiliated and we might see marginally more of them in the future.
Finally, Magneto is the true winner of this Throw damage change. Now he can repeatedly Throw Size 1 pieces of terrain at low cost and effect 3 damage every time. This can be very effective if he’s facing multiple enemy models at low health. It can save him overall Power as well.
3 damage Throws will probably be a source of chip damage and they will be overall less powerful into tough enemy models.
Winner: Models that can reduce damage or re-roll Dodges
3 damage Throws are especially weak into models that can either reduce enemy damage or re-roll Dodge rolls. Now, a character with 3 Physical defense can expect to take 1.75 damage from something Thrown into them. With damage reduction by 1 to a minimum of 1 that expected damage is reduced to 1.12. Since this damage reduction means they will only take a maximum of 2 damage, they can be absolutely safe from Dazing from a Throw at 3 or more health.
A character with 3 Physical defense dice and 2 re-rolls into dodges will only expect to take 1.23 damage from a Throw. If they can re-roll Skulls then that expected damage is even lower.
Furthermore, Throwing terrain into a character with 4 or even 5 Physical defense dice, especially if they have re-rolls or any form of damage reduction, is often not going to be a very effective source of damage. Throws are still powerful because they represent a confirmed source of damage outside of attack actions, but they definitely have a lower ceiling for damage now, and you should be aware they will probably no longer chunk out an enemy model.
Loser: Bringing and playing your best Crisis
A major update to the game came in the form of Crisis selection. Now a player brings 5 Secures and 5 Extracts to a game and the first Priority roll gives the winner the choice of playing their Secures or their Extracts, with the other deck coming from the opponent. First the player with Priority shuffles their 5 card deck and draws 2 Crises. The opponent gets to choose which of the 2 they want to play on. After the first Crisis is chosen, only then does the same drawing of 2 from the opponent’s deck happen and the Priority player gets to choose one of the two.
First of all, please direct new players to the AMG website where they can find Crisis cards to print out for free so they can build their desired Crisis decks and be prepared to play a game of MCP.
Second, this Crisis selection change is a paradigm shift in how we want to choose and get the Crisis cards that are best for our competitive roster strategy. Before, you often wanted to choose from your own deck that held your most competitive crisis. (Alternatively, you want to dodge your opponent’s deck that held their most competitive crisis.)
Now you have to bring 5 Crisis cards of each type, meaning you’re having to bring the 4th and 5th best Crisis for your roster. The design philosophy is to force players to be more flexible and play a wider range of Crises. However, as a competitive player I still want to try and play my best Crisis as often as possible.
Assuming my opponent picks my least favored Crisis from the two presented to them, there is a 0% chance I get my best Crisis from the two I present to my opponent. There is only a 10% chance I get to play my second best Crisis, 20% chance I get to play my third best Crisis, 30% my fourth, and 40% I play my least favored Crisis in my deck.
The strategy I am starting to play with is looking for my best Crisis in my opponent’s 10 Crises. Especially if they have a deck with multiple of my favored Crises, I have a very good chance of getting to choose a favorable Crisis for my roster. At the very least, if I can get one Crisis I play very well that will be better than playing a Crisis combination that I’m very average at.
Winner: some room for rules that increase collision damage?
After the change to flat 3 damage for Throws, this was also a nerf to characters who can Throw themselves (aka Pounce) into other characters and were size 3. This was a great superpower that could effect damage outside of an attack and it could re-position at the same time. Especially recently, the release of Tigra had a rule that let her count as size 3 during her Pounce superpower if she was moving off of a terrain feature during the Throw.
Thankfully they errata’d Tigra’s superpower to still allow her to do a 4 damage Pounce superpower, opening the door for future Throw and Pounce superpowers to do more than flat 3 damage. Hopefully this opens the door for size 3 characters to do 4 damage. Notably, Wolverine counts as Size 3 when Thrown and it would be flavorful for him to do 4 damage when Thrown because of his adamantium skeleton.
Winner: Inhumans playing Civilian Crises
The Inhumans TTC Terrigenesis gives them a very big advantage on Civilian Crises. The card can do damage to an enemy model holding a Civilian Extract and score extra VP if it Dazes or KO’s the model. Basically this means Inhumans want to play on Civilian Extract Crises as much as possible. Now with the inclusion of Jailbreak, there are 5 Civilian Crises in the game to coincide with the new rule to take 5 Extract Crises in your roster.
As an Inhumans player, this means I want to take those 5 Civilian Extracts and if I win priority, choose to take my Extract deck every time. It won’t give my opponent the option to dodge the Civilian Crisis and it will give me a big advantage in the game.
As an Inhumans player, I am also happy about the new Crisis selection method. In the event I don’t get to take my Extract deck, it should still be likely I can get a Civilian out of my opponent’s Extract deck. Even if they have a single Civilian Crisis, there’s a 40% chance I can play on it. If there is two Civilian Crises then that raises to a 70% chance I have the option to play either one. I think this scenario is fairly likely and give Inhumans even more opportunity to be playing Terrigenesis.
Right now there does seem to be a consensus that Terrigensis is one of the best TTCs in the game and it should be rotated out. I cannot disagree with this sentiment but since it’s still in the game, it got even better with these core changes.
Winner: Psylocke and Crimson Dawn TTC
Psylocke was already a pretty good 4 Threat and then she received an extra point of Stamina on her Injured side in this update. Usually Stamina on the Injured side is less relevant than Stamina on the Healthy side where you can Contest better. However, Psylocke has a specific Injured side TTC that just got better with this change.
The Crimson Dawn TTC for Psylocke lets her play it when she flips from Healthy to Injured and it gives her a pretty big benefit. She gets a Range 1 Place at the start of her Activation and after each action she performs. This should help her always be in the position she needs (including helping her stay within Martial Artist range of enemy models) so she can maximize the effectiveness of her actions. She also gets Healing Factor 1 which is also more effective with a high health pool. She has quite a few defensive tech options (Stealth, Martial Artist, re-rolls) that will synergize with both of these effects.
Psylocke isn’t really a splashed model, but she is taken in her affiliations which includes Apocalypse. Psylocke getting better and Crimson Dawn getting better may increase her stock in the places where she already is found.
Winner: the Cabal affiliation?
A big Marvel bad guy is coming to the game in the form of Kang the Conqueror. He’s such an anticipated release they put him on the front of the rules document! We haven’t seen his character card yet but we know one of his TTCs is Cabal affiliated. He has some very new mechanics on his card and it seems like he might be a character with game design we have never seen before.
It is in AMG’s track record to push some big bad characters to the top of the meta (Thanos, Malekith, Ultron, Red Skull) so we might be seeing an absolute powerhouse coming to the game. The box seems packed full of value with the reveal of Rescue and Iron Monger so this might be that high level of quality and more. This could be doubly true for Onslaught, which should be a powerhouse. I would start dusting off my Cabal models in anticipation.
Winner: Sentinels affiliation
Sentinels got some life restoring changes both in character card updates and in upcoming models. The Sentinel Prime, the Mk4s, and Cassandra Nova got changes that made them much better on the table. I’ve played with Prime and Cassandra since the changes and I can say that they will be competitive.
We also know that they have models incoming that will double their affiliated roster. The Dawn of X box will contain Bastion, Nimrod, and Omega Sentinel. The Zero Tolerance card pack will also contain a pair of human sized Sentinels that will have similar rules to the Mk4s (you can take the pair and they are identical characters).
I think Sentinels became much more competitive in the new year, but it will be dependent on the new Crises that come in the Zero Tolerance pack. Sentinels are immobile and a spread-out Crisis is difficult for them to rotate on. I would start dusting off these models as well though!
Winner: teams with high mobility
Speaking of new Crisis pack, the two Crisis we’ve already received feature slower scoring and emphasizing moving around the board in order to score VPs. The new Secure (Lockdown) has 4 points but starting in Round 2 only 3 of those points are able to be Contested. The point also changes randomly every Round so you’ll have to be ready to rotate to different points during the course of the game.
Jailbreak is also has the Cell points that need to be interacted with every Round since the Extracts disappear in the Cleanup phase. It seems unlikely you can stand on a Secure and the Extract Cell point at the same time so you’ll need to be moving around the board or dedicating a model to pick up a Prisoner every Round.
If the philosophy of the new season will be consistent with these two new Crises, then mobile teams will be much better in the meta. Charge will be a great superpower. Web Warriors with their Range 3 Place will also be very effective.
Winner: Tricks and Traps effects
Speaking of mobile teams and the need to move around the table more, the teams that can prey on that playstyle will also become better. Characters with Tricks and Traps effects will have more opportunity to damage enemy models and possibly effect out of activation damage and Daze/KOs. Spider-Foes have lots of options for preying on enemy models moving around the table and punishing enemies who are interacting with the Crises.
Conclusions
There are a lot of implications for these new rules. Not only do we get to learn and play them, we get to learn what plays best with them. I’m excited to put new models on the table and try out new play styles. Attrition could be more competitive again!
We have three events left in the Appalachian Cup. Come out and play some competitive MCP in the West Virginia/Ohio/Western PA area! You can find me trying new stuff out at my local game store, the Fabricator’s Forge outside Pittsburgh, PA. Now is a great time to jump into the game. Check out the FLG online store for discount models. Good luck and happy testing!