Welcome back! While we eagerly await Atomic Mass Games Adepticon news, I’m here to give you my thoughts on characters that could use a buff in Marvel: Crisis Protocol this spring. Last article we talked about the villain characters and now lets dive into the hero characters.
AMG has set out a goal for themselves to rebalance old characters to make sure they fit in the power level of the current game. One primary target for buffs are the 3 Threat characters. Older 3 Threats just don’t have the defensive tech and health pools that allow them to stick around in the game very long and make an impact. Therefore players aren’t very incentivized to bring these characters and they end up collecting dust on the shelf. With a few slight changes however we could see these characters return to the meta and even push new strategies to the forefront.
With that in mind, here are my changes that I think would help some characters see more play on the table.
The Heroes
Nick Fury & the Howling Commandos
The Howling Commandos can fill the role of a Range 4 attacker that can support your team through their ability to move models around and perform an attack when an allied character Dazes/KOs. Unfortunately they are on the weak side defensively with only a 3/3/3 defensive stat line and a 5/6 health pool with Stealth. While Stealth can keep them from getting targeted from far away, once an enemy model is up in their face, they don’t really stand a chance.
Certainly we can move their health pool so they have 6 health on their Healthy side which would help them count as a Healthy model on the Secure for slightly longer. It would also probably give them more Power for the Round after they’ve Dazed and can use that Power effectively on their card. I think they need an additional defensive tech in the form of Sniper Nest from Silver Sable’s card. This superpower would give them 2 extra defense dice against Physical or Energy attacks when they are on top of a terrain feature of size 3 or more and the attacker is not on the same terrain feature. This would enforce their identity as a long range support attacker and give them survivability.
To support their gun line identity they should be able to choose between Physical or Energy as the attack type on their Prototype Weapons attack. You could also change their Pursuit trigger to a Hit to make it more likely and help with their action economy.
Steve Rodgers
Here we have another WWII era model, Steve Rodgers, who is the least popular of all the Steve Rodgers currently in the game. Not only does he not have a really great leadership on his card like the other two Steves but he is weaker on offense and defense than both of them. They all have the 4/4/3 defensive stat line and a total health pool of 11 but WWII Steve doesn’t get to count Blanks on his Injured side. First Avenger also has the Perfect Block superpower which is strictly better than the Vibranium Shield superpower since it can also boost defense dice against Mystic attacks.
WWII Steve seemingly was designed to run into the fray and brawl; punching tyrants along the way and being tough enough to keep going. He should get to count Blanks in his defense rolls on his Injured side at least. He could also use Perfect Block as a strict upgrade to Vibranium Shield. I think a cool design space would be allowing him to count Shield results as two successes in defense rolls.
As far as his attacks go, they are arguably weaker than both of the other Steve Rodgers as well. Shield Bounce/Throw probably have better attack text than WWII Steve’s builder and they have easier trigger to get the additional attack. Changing the Stars and Stripes attack trigger to a Hit+Shield would make it easier to get the Flurry attack which is still just a 5 dice Physical attack. His ability to re-roll attack dice on his superpower does help this Steve hit triggers but it shouldn’t be necessary to prop up pretty poor attacks. To keep with this new Shield theme I think WWII Steve could also count Shield results as successes on his attacks as well.
The WWII Steve Rodgers sculpt is a great model and I want to see him played more in his affiliations – SHIELD and Mighty Avengers. Those affiliations want a brawler like this Steve could be.
Ms. Marvel
I quite like playing Ms. Marvel and I think she can be very useful on the right maps. If she can sit on a home point and attack an enemy model of size 2 she can gain Power and possibly get the Pull trigger which often enables the rest of your team to gang up on the targeted model. She definitely isn’t the most defensive with her 3/4/3 defensive dice and 5/5 health pool with her innate Inhuman re-roll.
Her unique ability to Embiggen and become a size 4 character on a 65 mm base seems like it should be more of her identity and we should lean into that design space more. I always find it awkward when I have to choose at the beginning of her activation whether I want to be using the Embiggen superpower or instead using her Power to use her Throw instead.
Futhermore, the Embiggened form has a really consistent attack with (often) re-roll 2 then re-roll 1 and it becomes a Builder so you’re usually gaining more Power from those attacks. Then you accrue all that Power and have nothing to do with it on her Embiggened side. It feels very anti-synergy. So you Transform back to her Normal side at the end of her Activation and possibly buy back into Embiggened next Round.
It would be great if she could stay in her Embiggened form for longer than her Activation, possibly only Transforming back at the beginning of her next activation or when she is Dazed. Embiggened could also be more of a benefit, giving better Physical defense so she’s a 4/4/3 with her Inhuman re-roll. Size 4 also means she isn’t getting moved around by her opponents as much.
The counterplay to this design would be that Ms. Marvel needs to get up to that first Embiggened Transform and before that she’s going to be pretty weak. She also still needs to Embiggen on her Turn to stay in that form. And when she’s Dazed she has to Transform back to Normal form and there will be an opportunity to take her out before she can activate again.
Embiggen could also use a Power sink for when she has Power to use. She has a pretty solid Throw on her Normal form when she is size 2 so an even better Throw on her Embiggened form when she’s size 4 seems thematic. It could go up to Throwing an enemy character or terrain piece of size 3 or less within Range 3 Medium. It’s strictly better because she’s way bigger.
The Ms. Marvel Embiggen model is great and 2026 is the year of having 3 Threats on 65 mm bases so I think we should be able to design her to be on the battlefield longer in her Embiggened form.
Crystal
Similar to Ms. Marvel this is an Inhumans character with pretty weak defenses and a 5/5 health pool with the only defensive tech being the Inhumans re-roll. Crystal is a Long mover with Flight so she seems like she could be an Extract runner but she’s competing with Quicksilver for that role and he’s pretty much always better at it.
Her other identity is her access to 4 different attacks and a superpower that allows her to make 3 attacks in one Turn. What if we buff her attacks and make her a legitimate Turret model at 3 Threat? Hurricane Blast could be changed to an omni-directional Push of size 2 or less which would help line up that model for a further Volcanic Surge Beam attack or an Earth-Shaker Area attack. Earth-Shaker could also be increased to an Area 2 attack since Area 1 or even Range 1 attacks are extremely rare/unique and also pretty weak in the game.
Crystal’s character card also has space being used up by the ability to block an enemy from Shaking the Slow, Incinerate, or Stun special conditions. This aura was never very powerful or impactful and AMG seems to have decided it shouldn’t be in character designs anymore. We could completely take it off her card and replace it with a more offensive ability. For example, she gets to re-roll an attack dice for each special condition the target has. It would synergize with her ability to give out conditions while also making her more lethal and a better attacker. Usually this type of effect isn’t too powerful because by the time you’ve loaded up an enemy with conditions they’re almost Dazed/KO’d anyways but it always helps to confirm the last points of damage. She could also be good loading up an enemy Hulk with conditions then pouring three attacks into him with re-rolls.
Crystal would be a kind of glass cannon where she doesn’t have much defense but is all offense. She’s used in A-Force to move She-Hulk up the board sometimes so I would like to see what those two can do together.
Shadowcat
Shadowcat is a 3-Threat mutant who is affiliated with the Uncanny X-Men and the New Mutants but just doesn’t seem to be hitting the table that much. She only have 3/3/3 defenses with 10 health and Stealth so she doesn’t have much innate survivability. She can spend 2 Power to buff an allies or her own defense dice against a Physical or Energy attack or Dodge roll with a bonus upside of being able to Place Range 1 after being Pushed or Thrown.
In reality that doesn’t seem like enough to keep her alive in the battle and she ends up being a poor Extract holder because she can just Daze pretty easily. Her Builder attack is only Range 2 with 4 dice and almost feels like you’ll be punished for using that attack because whatever model she is within Range 2 of will be able to take her out easily in their next activation. I would much rather see a Phasing Strike with Range 3 and the same text on it meaning she could get the Sidestep Wild trigger and be able to move outside of Range 3 and be safe with Stealth.
For a character who can float and move through walls the only thing on this card that really supports that identity is the Phase Rush Range 2 Place superpower. I wouldn’t even say it’s a very strong support of her superhero identity. I would rather she lose the Phase Rush superpower, gain the Flight superpower to allow her to move through terrain at will, and give her the Slippery superpower similar to Toad. Slippery says after an attack targeting this character is resolved, if that attack dealt damage, this character may spend 2 Power to advance Medium. Collectively this gives her the mobility and survivability that she needs to be useful paired with a Builder attack that makes sense with her kit.
War Machine
War Machine was always a point of fascination for me as a kid. He’s like Iron Man but he’s loaded up with weapons systems. In MCP War Machine just doesn’t have the utility or synergy that Tony Stark does. War Machine has solid defenses with a 4/3/3 defensive stat line and 10 total health with damage reduction 1. The absolutely baffling thing on his card is the Spender attack which costs 4 Power but can self-damage for your Crits.
The Spender is also the only thing on his card that he can spend Power on and there is often little incentive to use it. When he’s low on health already it makes more sense to use it but you’re still giving the actions back to your opponent that they would’ve used to Daze him. The damage you deal to yourself also cannot be reduced so it just feels bad all around.
I think he needs a completely new Spender attack, something that represent his arsenal being brought to bear against the enemy models. Make it a Range 3, 8 dice for 4 Power with a Wild trigger for an additional Metal Storm attack and a Wild+Wild trigger for an additional Rocket Pods attack. The additional attacks have to target the original character. However, since both of those additional attacks also have the ability to target more than one defender you may still be able to splash damage beyond your first target.
Rocket Pods attack could also be a Gainer attack so he can get Power more consistently and there is some additonal upside to using the Rocket Pods attack. Finally, he should also have the ability to use his Power on an active superpower. A Range 2 Place superpower would help him with action economy and lining up those Metal Storm attacks. It would definitely help him use his kit more effectively.
War Machine and Iron Man have such a great relationship and history I think they should have their own TTC card to reflect that. It could also be another place for War Machine to sink his Power into and it would be fun to see those two models on the table at the same time. We’re really filling out the list of the Iron Man super suit characters and I want War Machine to be on the same level as the rest of them.
The Original Human Torch
This is another character who does self damage on his Spender attack. It’s like AMG don’t want us throwing big pools of dice and having big thematic fights! Let us enjoy our big fire beams!
Seriously, Original Human Torch has great superpowers to use his Power on, but none of the superpowers are going to be able to take down an enemy like a Spender attack can. The spender is also exploring a design space of using a Beam 2 template for the attack, which in practice was not effective. The Nova Burst attack should be Beam 3 with scaling attack dice and give out Incinerate without a downside. When he has the 7 Power to spend and he’s in the perfect positioning this could be a really potent attack but on average I think it’s targeting 1 or 2 enemies with 5-7 dice.
He has excellent superpowers in the Hit and Run and Too Hot to Handle superpowers. Like Touching a Stovetop has been a little too restrictive and you need to rely on your opponent Pushing or Throwing this character. It would be better if it was similar to Electro’s Electrostatic reactive superpower and read after an attack targeting this character is resolved, if the attacking character is within Range 3, Pay 2 Power and the attacker suffers 1 damage and gets the Incinerate special condition.
The Original Human Torch is an android so he should get the classic robot immunities of Poison and Bleed like so many other robots in this game. Controlled Burn gives Torch extra Power but only when he ends an advance. It could be expanded to help him defensively as well so instead of after an advance it triggered at the end of his activation and for each character within Range 2 of Torch with the incinerate special condition gives him 1 Power and heals him for 1 health.
Punisher
Punisher is a model that has been around a long time but has never seen much competitive play. He just doesn’t have a lot of utility in the game and his character card is pretty weak overall. He has a 3/3/3 defensive dice with a 6/5 health pool. His Punishment token economy feels pretty weak especially because it only effects the next attack roll not the next attack action so if he uses it with his Hip Fire gainer attack then he’s only getting the extra attack dice on the first attack, not the Rapid Fire attack.
You’ll gain some Punishment tokens through the game, especially if you have Grunt characters that are being targeted by your opponent. I’m not really sure why they felt they had to limit it to once per Turn as well. It just seems overly punitive (pun not intended).
The best case scenario is using 3 Punishment tokens with his Spender attack to get a Range 5, 10 dice Physical attack for 3 Power that has Wild Pierce and on damage gives the enemy the Stun and Slow special conditions. Not a bad attack at all but you’re probably only doing that best case scenario 0-1 times per game.
Warzone can be great to confirm 2 damage on an enemy character but it can also have no targets at all making it useless. I would prefer if Punisher leaned more into his calculated, ranged identity. I think that could be represented by giving him an innate superpower that stops enemy models from modifying their defense dice. He’s thought of everything and has nullified their defensive plans.
I think he could also get Sniper Nest innate superpower to give him 2 extra defense dice against Physical and Energy attacks when he’s on top of a Terrain feature of size 3 or more and the attacker is not on top of the same feature. His Spec Ops Training could give him Wall Crawler during the Short advance giving him the ability to get on top of buildings easily. Finally, changing out his Warzone superpower with a Kill Box superpower which can explode terrain when an enemy is moving in his zone of influence forcing the enemy to make a Dodge roll for the exploded piece of terrain.
These changes would make his kit more synergistic and give him a higher utility to bring along in your lists. His Punishment token economy and his Blood Red and Personal TTC are cool effects that should go along with a good character card.
Ant-Man & the Wasp
There are cool things on each of these two character cards and the Transform mechanic has really cool implications but these were early characters and I think AMG was just too scared of the possibilities. They only have a 3/2/3 defensive stat line with 10 health. Such a small defensive dice pool makes their defensive re-rolls not very impactful and so they are just weak defensively overall. They also are forced to drop Extract tokens they are holding when they go Tiny and the rest of their card doesn’t make up for this downside. I think both of these characters need a complete redesign because it’s hard to justify having them on the table.
Nerf Black Cat
I can hear the cheering crowds now. The people are asking for a less powerful Black Cat. And the people are correct. Black Cat is one of the best 3 Threats in the game and is basically always taken in an objective focused list.
She has three extremely good blocks of text on her card in the form of her Troublemaker Spender, Master Cat Burglar steal superpower, and the Bad Luck innate defensive superpower. It means she can exert control over the battlefield by giving out automatic Stagger for 2 Power, steal Extracts from your opponent which is a swing of 2 VP, and have a huge amount of survivability since attacks going into her can’t be modified and don’t explode Crits.
Troublemaker could stand to be increased to 3 Power easily and lose the Elusive Wild trigger. This means she’ll won’t be able to Spender and Elusive outside of Range 3. When she gives out the Stagger and move away she almost always was not in danger of the crack back. Without Elusive it could be a strategic decision if you want to give out the automatic Stagger but possibly be stuck in Range 3 of the enemy model.
Master Cat Burglar could be increased to 4 Power or it could be restricted to Asset tokens. You do think of Black Cat being more of a cat burglar for precious items rather than kidnapping people.
The Bad Luck superpower is an incredible piece of defensive tech which doesn’t really have an equal in the game. I think it could be toned down. Perhaps changing it to the attacker doesn’t explode Crits and doesn’t count Crits in their successes but can still modify their attack dice. There is a lot of attack modification in the game currently and it will give attrition teams the ability to push through damage on Black Cat.
These are significant nerfs to the character but I could still see her on the table even with these changes. She just is the perfect package of abilities that objective focused teams will want.
Tactics Cards
The current state of tactics cards in the game is an embarrassment of riches. Characters and affiliations have so many options for good tactics cards. It makes for lots of variation between players for their 10 tactics cards and reinforces identity of the affiliation. I’m interested in the design philosophy AMG will use for a new Standard rotation and if they will remove some of these options for the new Tolerance is Extinction season.
I think it could be interesting to reduce the amount of tactics cards available to take but it will also engender a lot of ill will from the player base who really like having access to their favorite TTC cards. We also have very few generic TTC cards right now and some had left Standard previously that I wish were back. Kick ’em while they’re down, k’un-lun training, and trip up were a couple that I thought were a fine power level and were available to every team in the game.
Deception and X-ceptional Healing were two TTCs that were removed and replaced with pretty weak versions of themselves. I would be interested in having Deception back but restricted to the Brotherhood affiliation. X-Ceptional Healing was discussed last article in conjunction with Healing Factor. One or the other could be re-balanced and put into the game at a place where it wouldn’t be oppressive.
Conclusion
So here’s another whole boatload of characters that could use some changes. I hope we do see AMG make some deft changes this spring. So far they’ve been very good with balance and no matter what I will be excited to see what they’ve decided. What would you change about a hero model of your choice?
The AMG presentation seems to be the Friday night of Adepticon so tune in and let me know your reactions! I’ll be breaking down all the announcement and competitive implications in future articles so come back here for more MCP discussions!
You can find me playing MCP at my local shop the Fabricator’s Forge in Pittsburgh PA. If you’re in the West Virginia, Ohio, or Western Pennsylvania area check out our regional discord for MCP! If you’re looking for discounted models shop at the Frontline Gaming online store! Good luck and happy gaming!
