Affiliation Overview: Black Order (updated)

 

Why should you play the affiliation 

Black Order is probably the most straight up "kill them" faction in the game. If you want to play all out murder, look no further. 

How to start the affiliation 

You start with the Affiliation pack giving you staples Proxima and Corvus, including his leadership card and great tech pieces Black Dwarf and Ebony Maw. After that you’ll have to grab the big Man himself because chances are you’re into Black Order because of Thanos. And even though they are unaffiliated looking at the Gamora and Nebula box is fitting both thematically and in play style. Owning a Baron Zemo (3 threat) is also never a bad idea.

What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan? 

Be aware that Death’s Agenda changes on the backside and will probably come up more than the extra VP in my (limited) experience playing against it. On the front side it rewards you for playing the attrition game which is what you already want to do with the affiliation but it’s not exactly a build around leadership. We’ll cover Thanos’ strengths and weaknesses under characters.

This gives you an option to run Black Order without always having to pay the 8 threat cost for Thanos. The leadership is fine. Should it cost you a slot in your 5? Probably not. Should it only work on affiliated characters? Absolutely not. In a fully affiliated squad it can generate some amount of additional power though and will honestly often have a bigger impact on the game than Death’s Agenda from a pure leadership aspect.

Both leaderships are based around killing your opponents models which should give you a good indication as to what the usual game plan with Black Order will be. It’s pretty much the purest type 4 (pure attrition) faction in the game. Even going down to a type 3 will be difficult in affiliation.

Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as leaders? 

I don't think any prominent member of the team are missing. Not that outside of MCP players anybody even knows the names of the ones we have here besides Thanos. 

Rating every affiliated TTC and Character 

Team Tactics (6)
Black Onslaught

B. It’s a strong effect on two good models that can rarely see the table together in affiliation because you simply run out of threat to spend.

Blood to Spare

A. It’s a really strong effect at base level but coupled with the extremely strong attacks your affiliated models can hand out you’ll rarely not take it in your 5.

First of the Black Order

B. You’ll probably need to bring it to have the flexibility to play games without Thanks.

Mothership

A. Teleportation is fantastic and sparing any of your killing machines a move action is giant upside.

Price of Failure

B. It’s important to note that this works with any character in your squad. Sure killing your own model feels pretty bad at first glance but giving up an injured Nebula for example for 3 extra power on every other character you have on the field is a decent enough trade.

Servants of the Titan

C. You kind of lack the model count to make this card have any kind of big impact and the relatively high chance or damaging yourself doesn’t make it more appealing.

Characters (8)
Black Dwarf (4)

B. Black Dwarf is a big ball of health with damage reduction, good attacks, a size 4 character and terrain throw and taunt. He should be played and splashed more overall in my opinion but math often gets in the way here in Black Order.

Black Swan (4)

C+. At base profile Black Swan is a decent damage dealer that lacks the power to pay for all the cool stuff on her card. Luckily there’s a solution for this.

Black Swan with Power Gem (5)

B. Power Swan is a much more interesting character making everything on her kit much more accessible.

Corvus Glaive (4)

C+. As a 4 threat Corvus kind of lacks in everything. What really turns him on is this version:

Corvus Glaive with Reality Gem (5)

A. Reality Corvus is the real deal and one of the best damage dealing 5 threats in the game. The combination of the Gem and his innate damage reduction also make him much tougher than his 3/3/3 defenses appear to be.

Cosmic Ghost Rider (6)

B-. CGR got tuned down a lot with the emergency errata after LVO24 but he’s now an OK model. In BO he mostly faces the issue of every model being a high threat one which makes finding room for him quite difficult.

Ebony Maw (5)

B. 5 threat base Maw is a good character. He, once again, struggles to fit into squads but he can absolutely hold his own.

Ebony Maw with Space Gem (6)

C in BO, A as a splash. Space Maw is the best version of the character and a very good 6 threat. The problem in BO is that you have a certain other guy that wants the Gem.

Proxima Midnight (3)

A. Proxima is a very good affiliated 3, even pretty splash worthy in her own right, and her Husband and Wife mechanic with Corvus makes keeping priority so much more easy that it is kind of hard taking one without the other.

Supergiant (3)

D+. I really want to like her because her model is very cool and having another affiliated 3 would go such a long way. She also has a Well Laid Plans clone card with Maw in Psychic Shochwave that I would love to play someday but sadly she’s one of very few characters left in the game that I would say need a complete rewrite.

Thanos, The Mad Titan (6)

C-. Without Gems Thanos is by far the worst 6 threat in the game. But you’ll never play him like this anyway.

Thanos, The Mad Titan with Mind and Space Gem (8)

A+. Of course there’s room for other Gem configurations but in BO Mind and Space is usually the way to go. In combination with Cosmic Portal you use it to kidnap enemy models back into your lines where Corvus, Proxima and whoever else did fit into the threat budget will murderize them. On a little tangent I think Thanos as a model is still too strong while playing him in BO doesn’t give much benefit at all sadly. I’d prefer his free use of the Gems being locked behind BO for example to make him less appealing as a splash and more in affiliation. Apocalypse is a good example of locking a lot of the power of a big powerful being behind him being the leader and not Thanos taking orders from Red Skull being the “best” thing you can do with him.

Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation 

Nebula (2) 

A. Nebula was supposed to be affiliated in original play testing but apparently having an affiliated 2 threat broke the game (it was a very different game back then though). She gets pretty crazy with Deaths Decree as we regularly see in Thanos Cabal.

Example Roster 

Characters (10)
Black Dwarf (4)
Black Swan (Power) (5)

Corvus Glaive (Reality) (5)
Cosmic Ghost Rider (6)
Ebony Maw (5)
Proxima Midnight (3)

Thanos, The Mad Titan (Space, Mind) (8)
Baron Zemo (3)
Weapon X (3)
Nebula (2)

Team Tactics (10)
Black Onslaught
Blood to Spare
First of the Black Order
Mothership
Price of Failure
Execute
I Am A Baron, After All
Shhh…
Power of the Cosmos
Brace for Impact (R)

Secure Crisis
Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (E, 19)
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses (H, 16)

Extract Crisis
Research Station Attacked! (E, 15) (R)
The Montesi Formula Found (E, 18)
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)

That's it for today. Next Up: Cabal 

Brotherhood will come once the new characters and TTCs have been fully revealed. 

If you want to support me in what I do here and get something out of these articles you could consider becoming a Patron at www.patreon.com/sgprotocol 

Thank you for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻

Affiliation Overview: Avengers (updated rewrite)

 

Why should you play the affiliation 

Avengers are rather popular characters I'd say from their movies and comics. 😅

On the table they have a gigantic pool of affiliated models, four different leaderships and a wide variety of available play styles. 

How to start the affiliation 

If you own either core set you already have a good starting point. I like the old one (or the Avengers affiliation pack if you can't find the old core set anymore) better, but the new one is fine too. 

The first pack I'd always get for Avengers is War Machine and Captain America Sam Wilson. Sam has a very high potential of being your most played model in Avengers, regardless of if he's your leader or not. Beware that his leadership hat several erratas that aren't printed on an official card yet. Use Jarvis for an updated version. 

Next up I'd get Luke Cage and Iron Fist and afterwards Hulk. Luke and Hulk will be in basically every list and Danny Rand is a fine model to own too. 

After those it's really down to taste. I love both Vision and Cable (updated stat card) in Avengers but both come with unaffiliated box partners (Winter Soldier, updated twice, and Domino respectively). Ant-Man and Wasp are two tonnes of fun to play but are the rare exceptions of not being particularly great under Steve 1. 

What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan? 

A Day Unlike Any Other is basically an insane leadership. It makes almost every character in the game better which is why "everyone is good under Steve" (which you'll hear a lot in MCP content). It is especially great with characters that have active and reactive superpowers and even better with those that can use them to assist their allies. A typical great combi is having Steve Bodyguard an attack and Cable giving him the Shields for it as both only pay one power here. Because the leadership calls out that it works for each character. It's one of the two oldest leaderships in the game but still one of the very best. 

A Steve 1 list can be tuned to play basically every game plan which Pat Dunforts Attrition Death ball 19 threat squad of Steve, Shang-Chi, Hulk and Cable maybe being the most competitively strong option at the moment. 

All New All Different might not look super amazing at first sight. It is kind of bonkers goof in reality though. You simply get a tonne of good stuff whenever one of your models dazes or KOs which absolutely will happen during the course of any games. 

Sam teams are traditionally more of a type 2 team but they can be built to type 3 as well. 

Hulkbusters is a cool idea for a leadership but it is super matchup dependent. Against Asgard, Spider-Foes or other Avengers who all have a lot of affiliated throws it can be decent but the opportunity cost of loosing either Steve's or Sam's leadership is extremely high and probably not worth the trade off. 

The most aggressive Avengers leadership comes with First Avenger in Earth Mightiest Heroes. It works particularly well with characters that have strong triggers on their attacks like Thor, Prince of Asgards Throw. Mighty Steve teams will mostly play a type 3 game plan using the leadership to punch damage through or get the aforementioned triggers. Having a lot of displacement from triggers is also good. 

(Type 1: Pure Scenario team, as many VPs on the table as possible and try to win by scoring out as early as possible and with as little engagement
Type 2: Midrange Scenario team. Similar to Type 1 but can fight and chase if necessary
Type 3: Midrange Attrition team. Wants to be the beatdown but can shift to scenario play if the other side is clearly the beatdown.
Type 4: Pure Attrition team. Wants to murder you as quick as possible. Tabling is a possible and achievable goal here, but not the only way to win (they mostly score their points and deny yours by virtue of your models being dazed or KO'ed))

Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as leaders? 

Wonder Man would be my pick for most likely added character in the future but he's not going to be a leader. He does appear on two separate TTCs already so he must at least be on AMGs mind. 

Hercules also shows up on a TTC now and has been an Avenger but that didn't matter for Jane Foster so no guarantees here. 

Other historical leaders of the Avengers are all in the game already with multiple versions: Carol Danvers, Tony Stark and T'Challa, and we're not supposed to get more duplicates in the near future. 

Rating every affiliated TTC and Character 

Team Tactics (4)

Anger Management

D. It's expensive but at least the effect is also undesirable... 

Avengers Assemble

A+. You'll play this card in absolutely every Avengers game you'll ever play. 

Reserve Members

B+. If you have a good 3 threat splash (it's going to be Zemo, isn't it?) and some leaders in your squad the card is pretty cool. Remember that it doesn't have to be an Avengers leadership so Cable, Black Panther, King T, Invincible Iron Man etc. can all trigger the effect, too. 

Second Wind

B+. Getting rid of Stun and healing a critical Wound can be quite good even if it's not an every game card. 

Characters (38)

Ant-Man (3)

B-. Ant-Man zooms around the board at incredible speed and is decent at punching out other small threat characters but not being able to take extracts with him in tiny form is a big downside. 

Beast (3)

B+. Fast, comparably tanky and has a cheap throw. Beast is a staple in most of his affiliated places like X-Men, Inhumans and Servants of the Apocalypse. He's probably underplayed in Avengers as there's more competition for the slot here but he's a very good option to have. 

Black Panther (4)

A. Original T'Challa is fast, durable and has great damage and control. Just be aware that he is significantly worse on his back side and his push isn't optional. 

Black Panther, Chosen of Bast (3)

B. Bast Panther is a fine 3 threat. He has good attacks, is very fast with a medium base, pounce and Wall Crawler but he has to absolutely rely on Stealth to not just die. He also struggles to find his kit a lot of the time. 

Black Widow (2)

A. Fast, durable, affiliated 2 threat. 

Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (3)

B-. A fine 3 threat but overwhelmed by the other choices on offer here and, as in all her affiliations, has to also fight against her other versions. 

Blade (4)

B-. Blade is far better than his reputation but not good enough to choose him over some of the other 4s on offer here. 

Cable (5)

A+. One of the best and most reliable 5 threats in the game and with great synergy with the leaderships. 

Captain America (Sam Wilson) (3)

A+. Sam is basically an every game model in Avengers regardless of if he's the leader or not. Not featured in the 19 threat death ball but that's really the exception to the rule. 

Captain America (Steve Rogers) (4)

B-. Steve 1 is incredibly boring but good just good at what he does. You'd never play him outside his own leadership though. 

Captain America, First Avenger (4)

B. While I think his leadership is weaker (and his model terrible), Mighty Steve does do more on the table himself and it's not completely out of the question to play him under Sam instead of in his leadership. 

Captain Marvel (4)

B- under Steve 1; C under the other leaders. Carol needs a lot of power to use her cool abilities and Steve 1 obviously help with that. 

Captain Marvel, Cosmic Avenger (5)

C. Cosmic Carol does not work here because Steve can't help her get to her threshold to transform and none of the other leaderships help her either. She's not worth the 5 threat if she isn't transformed for the majority of the game. 

Deadpool (3)

A. Deadpool is a super reliable and mobile 3 threat. 

Doctor Voodoo (4)

A. While not as good as in Midnight Sons, Doctor Voodoo (updated stat card) is just extremely good at what he does (which is denying scoring, through his throw trigger on the builder and of course Possession). 

Gwenpool (4)

A-. An even worse character than Deadpool in the comics but a fantastic ball of stats on the table. She's fighting with a lot of competition for the slot here but she's probably the most tanky affiliated 4 threat after Steve 1 himself. 

Hawkeye (3)

A. I love Hawkeye. Range 5 fire power and what's basically a Web Swing make his 4 health on the front pretty insignificant and while he scores points and hands out conditions. 

Hulk (6)

A+. For the longest time Hulk (updated stat card) was by far and large the best model in the game. There may be even better models out there now but Hulk is still beyond incredible (😉). 

Hulkbuster (6)

B+. Hulkbuster would be fantastic, if Hulk wouldn't exist. If you like him, play him! His model is awesome and he's a tonne of fun on the table. He just dies very quickly (which is his main weakness). He is also by far the best user of Stark Armory (due to his 65mm base) and brings access to Helios Laser Bombardment. 

Invincible Iron Man (4)

B. iTony also gives access to the Stark TTCs, has an offensive reroll bubble and is very hard to kill. His own offensive output isn't super great though.

Iron Fist (3)

A-. Danny is fast, rather tanky, can use Heroes for Hire and has an unique threat with his spender that activates the target. 

Iron Man (3)

A. The cheapest access to the TTCs and a premier back point sitter. He doesn't feel like playing Iron Man very much but he is doing his job on the board very well. 

King T‘Challa (5)

A-. An absolute killing machine. He can die rather quickly himself though and comes in a laughably expensive pack. 

Luke Cage (3)

A+. The best bodyguard in the game and also has Heroes for Hire on top of it. Luke will basically be in all your Avengers lists. 

Ms. Marvel (3)

A under Steve 1, B under the others. Kamala needs to transform as fast as possible to be worth her threat. She very much is if she can manage it. 

Quicksilver (3)

B+. As you'd expect Pietro is your man if you need a fast objective runner. 

Scarlet Witch (5)

B-. I love Wanda but she is just too slow to make use of her high damage potential. 

Shang-Chi (4)

A++. Remember when I said, that some models might have taken Hulks crown? Shang is definitely that in the 4 threat department. Every competitive roster needs an answer to him and also has to face the question of why they play character X over him even as a splash. In affiliation there's really no valid argument outside of "I just don't want to". 

She-Hulk (6)

C+. Without her leadership She-Hulk sadly just isn't worth her threat... 

Spider-Woman (4)

A. Fast, durable, has a steal etc. Jessica Drew does everything you need her to do. 

Squirrel Girl (4)

B. Squirrel Girl is especially interesting in Mighty Steve where her mandatory place on wild on her builder becomes a much more manageable thing. You can use the leadership to reliably trigger it or, in an emergency, even turn your wild into a hit to avoid the place if it would be disadvantageous. 

The Black Widow (4)

A. One of the best characters in the game to grab a midline extract and hold on to it. She does have some offensive output, too.

Thor, Prince of Asgard (5)

A/ A+ under Mighty Steve. Underloved and underappreciated Thor 1 is a fantastic 5 threat and the single best character in the game on Major Fisk (for which you can build a great squad here with Hulk). He loves both Steve's leaderships to either reliably charge each round or get his throw trigger more often. 

Vision (4)

A-. Vision is one of the oldest characters in the game and never has been touched but also absolutely doesn't need it. 

War Machine (3)

C. Where Vision is old but absolutely fine, War Machine needs a card update desperately to be a relevant option here again. He isn't super far off, being a tanky damage dealer but his spender is terrible and he needs a way to spend power. Giving him a taunt would be cool and thematic to his character I think. 

Wasp (3)

B. Wasp is fast, hits deceptively hard and has a size 3 terrain which will catch people off guard. 

Winter Soldier, Operative (4)

B. Bucky 2 is fine. You have a lot of options for his role though and maybe cost less threat than him. 

Wolverine (4)

B. He's fine if you're on a full murder plan and/or want to be especially good at Major Fisk.

Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation 

With 38 affiliated characters (the most of any affiliation) there's not really a need to splash anyone in. Here it often is the other way around where you don't splash people in to fill a specific hole but have characters that need one of the leaderships to use their full potential. Two famous examples are: 

Heimdall under Steve 1: 

B+. Heimdalls cool kit kind of just doesn't work with the power he is building. What if he got a discount on them? He suddenly becomes a very good reroll bubble character that can also teleport his friends on his turn. 

Cyclops under Mighty Steve: 

A. It drives Cyclops fans nuts but Mighty Steve (with whom Scott has had his differences in the comics) is by far and large Cycs best home. Getting to reliably Speed of Sight makes him a fantastic character in the roster. 

Example Roster 

Characters (10)

* Captain America (Steve Rogers) (4)

* Captain America (Sam Wilson) (3)

Black Widow (2)

* Cable (5)

Hulk (6)

Doctor Voodoo (4)

Vision (4)

Shang-Chi (4)

Iron Man (3)

Luke Cage (3)

Team Tactics (10)

Avengers Assemble

Second Wind

Battle Plan

Bird of Prey

Chi Mastery

Helios Laser Bombardment

Heroes for Hire

Stark Armory

Brace for Impact (R)

Patch Up (R)

Secure Crisis

Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)

Mutant Madman Turns City Into Lethal Amusement Park (B, 18)

Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate (F, 20)

Extract Crisis

Struggle For The Cube Continues (F, 17)

Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)

Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)

Comic recommendations: 

I do enjoy Jed MacKeys current Avengers run.

That's it for today. Next Up: Black Order

If you want to support me in what I do here and get something out of these articles you could consider becoming a Patron at www.patreon.com/sgprotocol 

Thank you for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻

Rules Help: the Alter ego rule

Happy new year 🙂

Today just a short little rules article as I've seen people confused by this rule a lot lately: 

"While a Roster may contain any Crisis Protocol character, it cannot contain multiple copies of a character with the same Character Name and Alter Ego (the individual behind the mask)!" 

(Core rulebook page 9.) 

The important word here is and. What it basically boils down to is: you can't have the exact same character twice in your roster. Only the Sentinel MK4 has a special rule on its card that overrides this. 

Now what is important is that there's an additional rule for squad building (so the models you play in a game): 

"Characters in a player’s Squad may not share the same Alter Ego." 

(Core rulebook page 11.)

So while you can have multiple characters with the same alter ego in your roster, you can't play them in a game together. 

Let's use Peter Parker and Spider-Man as an example: 

Allowed in a roster: 

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 

Spider-Man (Miles Morales) 

Amazing Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 

Spectacular Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 

While it has multiple Peter Parkers and multiple Spider-Mans they are all different characters with their own stat card so it's OK to have them all in the roster. 

Not allowed in a roster: 

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 

You are not allowed to add a character with the same Superhero Name and Alter Ego twice to your roster. So no doubling up on one specific stat card (except Sentinel MK4). 

Allowed in a squad: 

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 

Spider-Man (Miles Morales) 

While both characters are named Spider-Man they have different alter egos and different stat cards. 

Not allowed in a squad: 

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 

Spectacular Spider-Man (Peter Parker)

While the two have different stat card they share the same alter ego. Which is not allowed in squad building. 

I hope this helps clear up the confusion. Feel free to ask any follow up questions 🙂

That's it for today.

If you want to support me in what I do here and get something out of these articles you could consider becoming a Patron at www.patreon.com/sgprotocol 

Thank you for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻

Affiliation Overview: Asgard (updated rewrite)

 

Why should you play the affiliation?

Some would say because winning is fun but that's really not the reason here. Asgard has a lot of cool usually high threat models with high damage potential and, most importantly, a tonne of throws which is the best thing in this game. For both fun and winning games. 

Thor is also just a fan favourite character (for good reason) and you can play: Thor, Lady Thor, Horse Robot Thor, Thor's Step Brother, Thor's former lover(s), Thor's Sister and so on. A lot of them fan favourites themselves. 

How to start the affiliation?

While there is an affiliation pack I would probably not start with that but with the newer four character pack that includes Jane Foster, Thor, Hero of Midgard, Lady Sif and Loki, Prince of Lies. It includes two leaders in Jane and Loki 2, a very good affiliated 4 threat and your very own (possibly slightly overtuned) Kaiju in Thor 2. Next you'll probably want to get Beta Ray Bill and Ulik (unaffiliated). Ulik will probably not make your Asgard roster as it's already loaded with affiliated 5s but he's a great character to own anyway. And Bill will be one of your most played models in the affiliation. 

After that I'd grab the original affiliation pack. It comes with Thor, Prince of Asgard (leader), Valkyrie, Loki, God of Mischief and Hela. Be sure to get Thors and Helas updated stat cards from Jarvis or the AMG website. Both got a nice glow up on 2023. 

Heimdall and Skurge should be next on your shopping list even though Heimdall sadly doesn't really function under any of the available leaders here. 

And lastly you can consider my absolute favourite Asgardian in Enchantress (updated stat card) and another affiliated 5 in Angela. 

What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan? 

The original Asgard leadership, Prince of Asgard, is a more durability, "anti-attrition" leadership. It keeps your models on their feet longer and makes them less vulnerable to Stagger and Stun which are Asgard's biggest enemy. 

I come bearing gifts is a very good leadership you could use for every attack, defense and dodge roll. You also don't really loose the power spent and instead "pay" it to Loki. The biggest issue with the leadership is, that the Asgardians typically want to spent all their power for their abilities. Be also aware that Loki can't use the rerolls himself. 

Renegade Thor of Asgardia is maybe the leadership with the lowest ceiling but has by far the highest floor as it is the only one without any power cost and not draining your power economy. You'll get the offensive reroll much more often than the defensive one typically because most of your models want to be in the thick of it but you won't ever be sorry to have a free reroll if you meet the conditions. 

Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as leaders? 

With three leaderships out already I doubt we'll see a new one in the near future. Odin himself would be the most likely candidate if he'd ever make it into the game as a playable model. For other characters I think the Warriors Three are by far the most likely to get released and it would surely be on a 50 to maybe 65mm base with one combined profile like the Howling Commandos or the Wrecking Crew. 

Rating every affiliated TTC and Character 

Team Tactics (7)

Doomed Prophecy

B+. This is a card that can both win and loose you the game if used at the right or wrong time and model. It takes some practice to figure it out. 

For a Limited Time Only

C. Spending 3 power on Thor 2 is already a high price considering what he can do with it otherwise and it having to be played during his activation absolutely kills the card for me personally. 

Freyja‘s Blessing

B-. It could help keep a key piece alive but defense dice can and will always betray you and you have nothing to unlock skulls. 

Heart of the Worthy

B-. You'd only ever use the card if you can guarantee another Jane activation wins you the game as you won't usually throw away your 5 threat and most likely leader for a maybe.

Odin‘s Blessing

A+++. Arguably the best card in the game. Only play it when it saves an activation though. 

Rainbow Bridge

A. Incredible movement tech. Don't try to be too smart with it though. If you have one good target for it use it.

Trickster‘s Boon

A-.  Depends on what Splashes you bring of course but for example Bullseye can make a guaranteed VP from it when there's a target in his range that has 3 wounds remaining. 

Characters (13)

Angela (5)

B-. Angela, like in basically all her affiliated places, is struggling to make it into lists because of the other in faction 5 threat choices. Here all three other options are also leaders leaving her very much dead last on that list. She does bring an affiliated safe grab which is at least something but in the end that usually isn't what you really need here. 

Beta Ray Bill (4)

A+. Some might say he is too good and while I wouldn't agree with that as his average damage output is far below 4 threat average but his defenses are also pretty far above the standard. He's a point scoring machine with some added control. Loosing Eyes on the Prize is also a big blessing in disguise for Bill as using the card with him was almost always the wrong play. He is usually just fine on the midline and has his Throw online while being somewhere relevant without it. 

Enchantress (4)

A. Unironcally Amora is fantastic. People that have known her pre her nerf might not see much in her anymore but are plain and simply wrong for it. She has a decent beam, always on Bow, a good terrain throw and a steal. She won't typically live through a lot but she'll have scored and or denied a tonne of points before that. 

Heimdall, The All-Seeing (3)

C. Heimdall's kit simply doesn't work outside a power building (or discounting) leadership. Since he even has to pay for two of the three on offer here he sadly doesn't really fit in the affiliation as is. 

Hela, Queen of Hel (4)

B-. In stark contrast to Bill, Hela absolutely hates the rotation of Eyes. She was by far the best user of the card, especially here in affiliation. Nowadays she kind of struggles for a role. She's a fine 4 threat with decent long range fire support and some added mobility. But seeing what Mummy does with his Souls makes Helas mechanic with them just sad. 

Lady Sif (4)

A. Fast, reliable, durable. She'd be a staple here and should be played more even as a splash if Baron Zero and Shang-Chi wouldn't do her job either cheaper or more efficient. Personally I frequently run her over Bill and have basically never regretted the decision but your milage may vary heavily here. 

Loki, God of Mischief (4)

A-. Classic Loki is such a pain in your opponents butt and he's got a fantastic team up card with classic Thor in Sibling Rivalry (which should have been called get Help). The roster is kind of cramped and he does fight against a leader version of himself so in reality he'll seldomly find his way into an Asgard list but you should at least consider it. I absolutely wouldn't bother sticking a stone on him though even if that makes him a safe grab. He's already weak defensively for a 4, as a 5 this gets completely out of hand. 

Loki, Prince of Lies (5)

A-. Loki 2 is a good model with a good leadership. But just like Klaw he is absolutely based around having his leadership available to him. He'll be a disappointment under the other leaders but he's very good under his own. 

Skurge, The Executioner (3)

B. You can look at Skurge in two ways: He's a bodyguard that is not tanky or he's a good damage dealer that is able to take an important punch unto him even if it kills him. He's not as much a staple of the list for me as he was before the new box but he still has his uses. 

The Mighty Thor (5)

A-. Jane is a very good character overall being tanks, relatively fast with her charge and she adds a good leadership. Her spender is a bit dangerous for your own models and she lacks guaranteed control. 

Thor, Hero of Midgard (6)

A++. Thor 2 is the single highest damage output model in the game. It's not unlikely that he will be touched soon. I think making his Builder a Gainer to avoid having him easy access to the Pounce and the Throw each round could be one way of touching him without overcorrection. He is Thor so he should be good. Just maybe not that good. 

Thor, Prince of Asgard (5)

A+. Thor 1 is awesome. He kind of does everything and is the single best model on Major Fisk, a crisis often claimed to be an Asgard counter. Erich from Austria and I always loved him and he never left our Asgard rosters and it seems that he becomes more popular again with the wider community as well as he has answers to some situations Thor 2 just doesn't. Thor 1s biggest issue was and is his dice consistency. Thankfully you have two leaderships that help with that now. He is the factions second strongest model behind his own 6 threat version and maybe the reason we haven't seen something of a multiverse TTC or something that allows you to take multiple characters with the same alter ego in the squad. Spoilers!!!: Even though that is exactly what Thor did to defeat Malekith in War of the Realms.

Valkyrie (3)

B+. Valk is fast, has decent attacks and some control. In return she has no defenses outside a 6/5 health pool. She's still the affiliated 3 threat of choice most of the time. 

Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation 

Being as they already very tall and covered for 4+ threats splashes in Asgard will usually be of lower threat. Evergreen always good characters wherever you put them like Baron Zemo and Shang-Chi work well here because of course they do. 

Wong (2)

A. While I personally simply can't play Wong well even in his affiliated places there's an undeniable synergy between him and many of the Asgardians needing exactly one extra power to have access to their best abilities. 

Rocket (2) 

B+. Rocket is super cheap long range firepower and back point sitting. He's also harder to bring kill than you'd think. 

Luke Cage (3) 

A. Luke isn't exactly a spicy pick here either of course as he's simply the best 3 threat bodyguard and can protect an important activation of your Thor (which ever flavour you like, Prince, Hero or Lady). 

Example Roster 

Characters (10)

Beta Ray Bill (4)

Enchantress (4)

Lady Sif (4)

* Loki, Prince of Lies (5)

* The Mighty Thor (5)

Thor, Hero of Midgard (6)

* Thor, Prince of Asgard (5)

Valkyrie (3)

Luke Cage (3)

Wong (2)

Team Tactics (10)

Doomed Prophecy

Heart of the Worthy

Odin‘s Blessing

Rainbow Bridge 

Giant‘s Blood

Heroes for Hire

Brace for Impact (R)

Patch Up (R)

Recalibration Matrix

Warpath

Secure Crisis

Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)

Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians (I, 17)

Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)

Extract Crisis

Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)

The Montesi Formula Found (E, 18)

Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)

Comic Recommendations: 

I enjoyed the War of the Realms event quite a bit and the current Immortal Thor run is also very good. 

That's it for today. Next Up: Avengers

If you want to support me in what I do here and get something out of these articles you could consider becoming a Patron at www.patreon.com/sgprotocol 

Thank you for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻

Affiliation Overview: A-Force (updated rewrite)

Why should you play the affiliation?

Despite her rather bad D+ show She-Hulk is a cool character and the original (and much funnier) 4th wall breaker. And here she is the main star supported by a bunch of awesome strong women that will punch out anyone who dares stand in their way (in theory). 

On the table A-Force are often focused around a bodyguard puzzle you create for your opponent. 

 How to start the affiliation 

Owning either core set is a good thing here. The first purchase specifically for A-Force has to be She-Hulk herself as she's your only available leader. Next up I'd recommend the Wakanda affiliation pack. It comes with Okoye who is basically an every game model here, Shuri as an interesting affiliated 3 threat and useful splashes Killmonger and Black Panther. The dual with Wakanda is also easily done. From here on out you have a lot of choices: 

Gwenpool and Squirrel Girl is a pack with two affiliated models. Every pack after those will come with one unaffiliated model. I would prioritise Black Cat (+ Amazing Spider-Man), Domino (+ Cable), Medusa (+Black Bolt) and Wasp (+Ant-Man) here personally. You'd end up with three universally good 5 threats (all updated in 2023, you find the updated stat cards on AMGs website or Jarvis Protocol) and a super fun to play characters in Ant-Man along with your affiliated models. 

To get an affiliated 5 threat my pick would be the Mighty Thor (Jane Foster) who does come with Lady Sif (unaffiliated but fitting the theme and play style here), Loki, Prince of Lies and Thor, Hero of Midgard. It's a great start to Asgard, too if you want to branch out that way. 

What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan?

Defenders of Arcadia might very well be my favourite leadership in the game. As long as you can force your opponent to interact with you (which can be hard to do against type 1 teams) you'll gain a massive amount of extra power over the course of a game and that simply makes every character better at what they do, which in turn makes them more fun to play. 

As for game plan A-Force are probably a type 2 most of the time but can, and sometimes have to, pivot to type 1 and play a super wide game without even bringing She-Hulk to the table. 

If they bring her your typical style will be: go grab extracts early and then bunker up and force your opponent to come into your death zone. 

The affiliated models do allow for a type 3 plan in focusing on murder first but you'll have to be prepared to loose your leadership rather quickly that way. 

Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as leaders?

Nico Minuro is the most likely character to be a second A-Force leader. Maybe Singularity herself, too.

Otherwise there isn't a clear pattern of who gets in or not here. Every new releasing female character has a chance to end up here. But A-Force doesn't struggle for good affiliated models. It does for tactical flexibility. 

Rating every affiliated TTC and Character 

Team Tactics (3)

A-Force Assemble!

A. A great card that you'll use in almost all of your A-Force games. Essential for playing a super wide squad that forgoes She-Hulk (and thus a leadership), which can sometimes be the best route to take. 

Special Delivery

A. Out of action and even activation movement and an attack for She-Hulk is always worth it. Just be sure not to drop her into her certain doom. Despite it's super good effect not an every game card. Be sure to have an affiliated flyer when you pick it for your 5! 

Stalwart Determination

A. This turns off a tonne of control for an entire round. Maybe my personal favourite TTC in the game. 

Characters (22)

Angela (5)

B-. Angela is super fast and has decent damage output against smaller targets. Her biggest issue is being rather trivial to take off the board. She is a natural safe grab though, which can sometimes be good to have and she's a Special Delivery target (one of several at 5 threat). Angela isn't bad per sé but she struggles to make a list against the in and out of affiliation competition. 

Black Cat (3)

A+. She's straight up too good. 

Black Widow (2)

A. She's a fast affiliated 2 threat with Stealth and Martial Artist. 

Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (3)

B. Maybe the best model you'll absolutely never play. Widow 2 is honestly pretty good with automatic rapid fire, stealth, a sizeless push on her spender, Interrogate and Parting Shot. Her biggest issue is being a Natasha Romanov of which you have two more in affiliation, who are both better at their jobs than Widow 2 is at hers. 

Captain Marvel (4)

B. Classic Carol has a bit of a bad reputation but she's very good here where you can funnel her the power to use her great abilities. The biggest knack I hav against her is that she feels nothing like the Carol you know from the comics and movies. Luckily there's a solution for that: 

Captain Marvel, Cosmic Avenger (5)

B. Cosmic Carol might not be the defacto better Carol but she feels very much like the one you know and love and she works never better than here where you can all but guarantee she'll transform round 2. And using Special Delivery with her Charge is a tonne of fun.

Crystal (3)

B. Crystal is a fast affiliated flyer, so good for Special Delivery, she has decent attacks but falls over dead pretty quickly. 

Domino (3)

A. A fantastic single target damage dealer who is deceptively tanky herself. She struggle to keep up with the rest of the team but that isn't a super big issue. 

Gamora (4)

B. Gamora is fast and deadly. She will not be able to handle any kind of clap back though. 

Gwenpool (4)

A. A terrible character in the comics but an incredible ball of stats in the game. She also comes with an amazing TTC in They Say Keep Your Enemies Close (also useable by Squirrel Girl). 

Medusa (4)

A. Strong offensively, offers control, is tankier than you'd think herself and has a way of moving allies which is especially nice for She-Hulk. 

Okoye (2)

A. Is basically stapled to She-Hulk. You'll never play Jen without her if you have any way to make it work. 

Scarlet Witch (5)

B-. I love Wanda but she struggles to fill a role here. She's showing her age a bit. She has big damage potential but so little action economy that it can be hard to reach that potential. 

She-Hulk (6)

B-. Sadly your main focus here is more often than not a liability rather than a strength. While her offensive output is great she will be withered down much faster than you'd like. Having 3 physical defense and no defensive abilities whatsoever with the added downside of having no injured side where dazing would stop the enemy from focusing you down and you loosing status conditions (incinerate on Jen is a nightmare), is very rough for a 6 threat leader. 

Shuri (3)

A-. A great back point sitter that offers secure control and a reroll bubble. She won't contribute to any attrition herself though. 

Spider-Woman (4)

A. Jess is fast, strong, durable and brings an objective steal on her spender. 

Squirrel Girl (4)

B. Squirrel Girl is an interesting and very unique character. She is fighting with a lot of good 4s here but I'd not fault anyone for including her. She has good attacks with her rerolls and has a built in "I don't die" mechanic which can be clutch late in the game. Her spender is great too. 

Storm (3)

B+. Often overlooked when she's not leading the X-Men, Storm is a good 3 threat in her own right. And here you can funnel her the power to more often throw and Eye of the Storm. 

The Black Widow (4)

A. One of the best characters in the game to run onto the midline and grab an extract and simply not die or at least not having the opponent take it. 

The Mighty Thor (5)

A. Jane and Jen are a new dream team. No other affiliated Flyer will be able to charge earlier in the game. A top of round 2 For Midgard Charge that has a She-Hulk Special Delivery'ed into the enemy face sounds rather nice. 

Valkyrie (3)

B+. Valkyrie is fast and has a high damage potential and some control. She will die rather quickly though. 

Wasp (3)

B+. A super fast, cheap flyer with more damage output than you'd think between her awesome spender that doesn't give power and the size 3 terrain throw. 

Popular splash characters for the affiliation

Basically every character that is designed around not having enough power to use it's full kit loves this leadership. Some of my favourite here are: 

Sabretooth, Apex Predator (4) 

A+. Apex has a fantastic kit including a pounce, a throw and great attacks. And here is able to use it constantly. 

Frankenstein's Monster (4)

B+. I love Frank but he really struggles to pay for his abilities. This leadership turns him on a lot more. 

Abomination (5) 

A+. ABomb is fantastic on his stat card alone. He's based around having Gainers so once again the leadership increases his ability to use his full kit. 

Spectacular Spider-Man (3)

A+. Notice a trend here? Spectacular is based around having awesome superpowers and Gainers making him super reliable but usually unable to use everything on his card. 

Example Roster 

Characters (10)

She-Hulk (6)

The Mighty Thor (5)

Spider-Woman (4)

Gwenpool (4)

Medusa (4)

Wasp (3)

Black Cat (3)

Domino (3)

Shuri (3)

Okoye (2)

Team Tactics (10)

A-Force Assemble!

Special Delivery

Stalwart Determination

Double Agent

Pym Particles

They Say Keep Your Enemies Close...

Brace for Impact (R)

Patch Up (R)

Recalibration Matrix

Survival

Secure Crisis

Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)

Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians (I, 17)

Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)

Extract Crisis

Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)

Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)

Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)

The roster is based around central fighting mostly and simply try and kill them before they kill you. Which quite frankly, can be hard to do with A-Force. 

That's it for today. Next Up: Asgard

If you want to support me in what I do here and get something out of these articles you could consider becoming a Patron at www.patreon.com/sgprotocol 

Thank you for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻

Characters appearing on TTCs that aren't in the game yet December 24 edition

 

Since the original AtB post is lost forever it seems I'm redoing the list. If you can spot one I missed, or can fill in blanks for me please comment and I'll update. I have not included characters that we know are coming soon like Avalanche even though he isn't in the game yet. 

A-Force Assemble!: America Chavez

All Webbed Up alt art: Scorpion, Silk

All Webbed up (Rivals Panel alt art): Spider-Ham

Brand New Day: Mary Jane Watson

Brace for Impact alt art: Monica Rambeau

Call the Pack: Lady Deathstrike

Children of the Atom alt art: Marrow

Children of the Atom (Alt art): Banshee

Chi-Mastery: Is that Danny Rand or someone else? Update: Steel Serpent

Clean Up: Shocker (confirmed for May 2024) + Scorpion

Clone Saga: Kaine 

Comrade's Keeper: Red Widow

Custom Upgrades: Stilt Man! The Tinkerer (I think)

Dark Aura Manifestation: Wonder Man

Dark Past: Fishhook Guy ??? Update: Harpoon

Devil's Reckoning: Wonder Man

Execute: Red Hulk

Fall Back: Iron Heart  

Fan Club: Whirlwind.

Freyja's Blessing: Freyja

15. Gamma Burst: Hercules

16. Gamma Drain: Red She-Hulk, Leader

17. Galaxy's Greatest: Phyla-Vell, Moondragon

18. Giants Blood: Sutur?

19. Go get 'em Tiger: Mary Jane Watson

20. Hold Still: Nimrod

21. Hood's Gang: the Owl, Madame Masque, Grizzly, Deathlok

22. Immortal Servants: Ozimandayus

23. Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath: Shuma-Gorath

24. Makin' a Ruckus: Black Tom Cassidy

25. Masked Menace: Jonah J. Jameson

26. Midnight Phantasmagoria: Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes)

27. Mystic Ward: Blackheart 

28. New Mutants: Mirage/Danny Moonstone, Cannonball, Wolvesbane, Magma, Cypher?

29. No Escape alt art (rotated): Scream and various other Symbiotes

30. Odin's Blessing: Odin

31. Odin's Blessing alt art: Throg

32. Patch Up alt art: Rescue

33. Practice Round: Wolfsbane? Magma, Cannonball 

34. Preserve the Dream: Forge, Shard

35. Red Widow's Reckoning: Wonder Man

36. Sibling Rivalry alt art: The Warriors Three

37. Scorpion Clean Up: Scorpion

38. Sitrep: Quake? 

39. Strategic Retreat: Hydro Man

40. Strength and Cunning: Vampire guy? Update: Morlun? 

41. The Black Bifrost: Frost Giant

42. The Invaders: Wizzer, Black Marvel

43. Tomorrow's Soldiers: Warpath, Cannonball, Danny Moonstone, Boom-Boom, Siryn

44. Trickster's Boon: Absorbing Man

45. Well-Laid Plans alt art: Spider-Ham, Spider-Punk

46. Winter Rush: Vostok

47. Xavier's Dream: Artie Maddox and Leech

48. Surprise Webhead: Scorpion, Hobgoblin 

These are the ones I have found but I'm sure I'll have missed a couple. 

Thanks to BastiT, Disorder1991, CaptHolmes42 Feuer, Tarnium, kw3553, Independent-End5844 and Bloondie for their help. 

That's it for today. 

If you want to support me in what I do here and get something out of these articles you could consider becoming a Patron at www.patreon.com/sgprotocol 

Thank you for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻

how to build a roster part 5, Accounting for the meta (Salvaged AtB repost)

Across the Bifrost Nexus

A collection of content for Marvel Cri

Welcome back to SG Protocol, where we continue our roster building series with the topic of according for the meta today.

What even is the “meta”. Luckily it doesn’t have anything to do with Mark Zuckerberg 😉

What we call the meta is basically the sum of players and rosters you encounter. Be that at your local store / club, a particular event or TTS. So metas can differ based on where you play. Thanos might be very popular and often played in your area while you don’t encounter him once in a TTS event for example. Predicting the meta is especially difficult because basically all events only lock the lists a couple of hours before they start or not at all like in the main TTS league.

That said there are three things you can always try to include in your roster unless your game plan would be actively hindered by them.

1. Safe grabs

What is meant by safe grab is having a character that can move to the center line of the table, pick up an extract and retreat back to relative safety. Core argument here is, that you can’t just stand on the center line and expect to live. This will often but not always be true. Here are some ways you can include a safe grab in your roster with varying levels of safety and commitment.

The cheapest and easiest safe grab is Toad:

Toad can interact from range 2 so he can stay further from the midline than other characters after spending two movement actions. His slippery power also let’s him retreat further to safety if he gets damaged. So while being the cheapest it’s also the least safe.

Only costing a character slot as well but this time coming at a hefty 5 threat cost are Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) and Angela.

These two are the only characters so far with L movement on medium bases (50mm) which means if they deploy directly opposite a midline objective they can move, pick up the extract, and move again.

Next we have a play you can use with a couple of characters which uses the tactics card Eyes on the Prize:

It makes one of your characters Toad for an activation basically. New Baron Helmut Zemos leadership lets you use it on any character (the leadership refunds 1 power after paying for a tactics card) or you can use it with someone who generates 2 or more power natively like any Asgardian (or Asgard adjacent character), Iron Fist, Ancient One or Supreme Strange.

The best users of the card however are characters with multiple power per power phase on a medium (or large) base with M movement. Those are for example Beta Ray Bill and Supreme Strange, who are the two most popular users for this strategy as they can also fly. That’s because those characters can play Eyes, move once, pick up the extract and move again if deployed right opposite of the objective. (There are some more characters to do that with like Ulik, She-Hulk, Hela and Red Skull Master of Hydra though he has to damage himself to do it. Malekith and Hulkbuster could also do this but that’s quite the investment).

These are the common ones but there are some team specific ones:

Both Hulks under Steve 1 can Gamma leap for 2 and have a power left to pick up the extract to get it and retreat.

Also Wakanda can help Ancient One and Viper to get safe grabs with a very special turn 1 play. It needs the Tactics Cards Advanced RnD as well as Spirit of Wakanda.

Ancient One activates first and as she has 2 power natively she plays Advanced RnD and gives a power to any Wakandan character (my favourite targets here are M’Baku and Okoye). That character then plays Spirit of Wakanda. Assuming you deployed your models within 2 of the Spirit playing character Ancient One spent 1 but gained 2 power having her on a sum total of 3. Now she can walk, spent 2 for her placement superpower, pick up the extract and retreat to safety again. Viper can potentially do almost the same as she has she same place as AO but she doesn’t build two power natively so she can’t be the character playing Advanced RnD for it to work. Meaning she can’t be your first activation giving your opponent the option of grabbing the extract you want to get with her before you.

There might be more faction specific ways to do it but those are the ones I know of.

So let’s move on to

2. Extract steals

Once again it has something to do with extract objective tokens. Steals have been in the game since Miles Morales was first released but the number and importance of them has increased heavily in recent times.

With steals we have different versions which can broadly be placed in three different categories:

Spender attacks, superpowers and Team Tactics cards.

Miles falls in category a):

Miles’ Venom blast has the target drop all objective tokens it is holding. Spider-Woman has a similar spender that does the same thing.

Superpowers we have to further categorise into b1)

Superpowers that make opponents drop objective tokens like the spenders. An example of that can be found on the Original Human Torch:

Be careful though as it is Assets only so no dropping of Skrulls or Senators.

b2) are superpowers that not only make the enemy drop the token(s) but also automatically pick them up for themselves. Most infamously Black Cat:

Enchantress can do the same thing but is neither as fast nor can she do it without spending an action for it:

For Enchantress being able to steal is a nice to have feature that will honestly very seldom ever come up. For Black Cat it may be good enough a reason to include her in your roster.

Having a steal that also prevents the model that lost the extract to contest or interact with secure tokens? Sounds pretty good right? It’s the main reason why Doctor Voodoo is considered one of the best characters of his threat level:

c) is with a tactics card. The two most commonly used at the moment are the fantastic This is a Robbery:

And Pyrotechnics

Now why do you want to include an extract steal in your roster? It helps you swing VP parity in your favour often by not only denying your opponent VPs but in the best case score them for yourself instead.

Are steals only good for scenario focussed teams? No. Having a steal in an attrition focused roster can be really valuable too, as a way to stop your opponent to outscore you before you’ve taken their models off the board. Of course there you have to way up if having the steal outweighs giving up a bit of attrition opportunity cost. Which will be a case by case decision and just needs practice.

Now we come to our last point for today:

3. Dealing with high threat models

From Malekith over Hulk, Immortal Hulk to new hotness Cosmic Ghost Rider. Many list will include some big nasty high threat model. Dealing with those without having a plan can feel really overwhelming. And while we can’t cover how to play against each high threat model in every situation the one thing you should always try to do in some way or another is to have them bad activations. Playing a high threat model means it is an investment that has to pay off. Here we want to find ways to hinder that. A fantastic way is to Stagger them:

So characters with Stagger triggers or even automatic Stagger (like Black Cat ☝️) are great here. Even better (and much less common) is giving them an activated token which characters like Ulik and Doctor Strange can with a bunch of dice results on their spender attacks or Iron Fist whose is automatic (but costs a whole lot of power accordingly):

Danny’s The Iron Fist also hints at a great combination: Stagger plus displacement. Having the big guy (or gal) spend one action to shake the Stagger and then having to walk back hurts a whole lot. It also shows where we go if we can’t get a reliable source of Stagger into our roster:

Displacement. Having size 4 (or unrestricted) character throws or pushes is extremely helpful. Throws you can even use to use your opponents big center piece model as a bowling ball to throw it into their other models. And both pushes and throws help you get a “pseudo- Stagger” as they will have to reposition.

Beta Ray Bill is a fantastic value model with a size 4 character throw:

Another way to make a high threat models turn worse is to tax their superpowers. There are two ways to do this. First the root special condition:

Some characters can hand that out but most prominently Pyro:

Firewall not only hands out Root but also Slow continuing our theme of making the opponents turn less efficient.

Similar to Root is the innate Superpower to Loki “God of Mischief”:

Loki’s biggest weakness is his very average defensive stat line and his below average health pool for a 4 threat character. What helps is that you can use “I am a God” on defense rolls and that “God of Mischief” gets even worse for your opponent on Loki’s flipside. So maybe that means they will avoid dazing him, or spent more resources than they should in taking Loki fully of the board. Either way is a win for you. If you feel the disruption is worth the 4 threat cost of Loki will once again be a case by case decision.

The best counter to Loki are characters that deny the use of any enemy reactive superpowers or tactics cards during their activation like Emma Frost and most popular Mystique:

Though it still can’t deny the “Aura” of God of Mischief.

Shapeshifter and similar abilities can also help deal with a big target. Hydra can basically give it to an unaffiliated character with the Sleeper Agent tactics card:

A popular user for the card is Beta Ray Bill for his size 4 throw that the opponent now can’t do anything against.

Another popular user of Sleeper Agent and the lead in to our last point for today is Hulk:

The idea here is a classic fight fire with fire, or if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, tactic in that to deal with opponents “big bads” you just bring in your own one. Not everyone will like this plan (I’m not too big a fan of it myself) but it’s always worth to try different things. Being the high threat models controller also helps you to understand what can be best done against them.

And that’s it for today.

Thanks to Darkhaine, the creator behind Jarvis Protocol where all the cards here are from.

Next time we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of dual leaders and dual affiliations in your roster.

See you then and cheers from Germany 🍻