Why should you play the affiliation
Defenders are a giant affiliation containing both the more mystic focused Defenders of Doctor Strange and also the Marvel Knights which made up the Netflix show Defenders.
On the board Defenders have a super deep roster with a tonne of great characters and some variety in play style.
How to start the affiliation
Update: In Q2 2025 AMG releases the Defenders affiliation pack which uniquely comes with five models in Doctor Strange, Wong, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. You have to pick this pack up first and absolutely should.
After that I would first pick up Shang-Chi and Silver Sable followed by Hulk and then Namor and Black Panther, Chosen of Bast. You have your core very much there.The affiliation is very deep and has a lot of good characters but with those mentioned you have your probably most used models in hand already. Also all of the affiliated TTCs. Just note that Pentagrams of Falafel (let me have fun with this) was updated in the 22 card pack to cost 3 power.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan?
May 2025 Update Doctor Stranges (new) leadership Judgement of the Vishanti is pretty cool. It's a bit matchup dependent as it gets much stronger the more high threat characters your opponent brings to the table (Asgard wets their beds thinking of this). Since it castrates their offense and in turn buffs your defense there no clear cut way which Game Plan is favoured. The Defenders roster is weighted a bit more towards fighting though, so I'd probably start with a type 3 with the option of maybe going type 2.
Marvel Knights is a great leadership for central brawling and especially fitting in style for Matt Murdock himself.
It’s not particularly hard to see which archetype Daredevil prefers. His team can be build to full on type 4 but the roster is definitely deep enough to make type 3 your default.
A dual of the two leaders is very possible and probably a good idea nowadays.
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?
Jessica Jones. Give us the full Netflix Squad please AMG 🙏
Rating every affiliated TTC and Character
Team Tactics (4)
Cover MeB+. You need a big beefy target for this card to be worth it. Luckily you have a couple of Hulks affiliated.
Mystic WardA+. Turning of a secure at will is game winningly strong.
Pentagram of FarallahA. You have to learn how to use the card from Erek Wong but he’s had incredible success with it.
Street SmartsA. Being able to just stop being pushed or thrown is absolutely worth the 1 damage you have to take for it.
Characters (26)
Amazing Spider-Man (5)
A-. Amazing Pete is the king of P2Fs, super durable, a natural safe grab and can help keep your team on their feet. Sadly all of that doesn’t really further your typical game plan here.
Ancient One (4)B. Ancient One is a perfectly fine Mystic Brawler that can displace enemy characters on their turns.
Black Panther, Chosen of Bast (3)B-. Bast Panthers kit looks great but it doesn’t really come together in my experience.
Blade (4)
C+. Blade is a fine character that has very little chance of beating out the competition for the affiliated 4 threat slot here unless you just like him and want to play him.
Clea (3)B-. After her update Clea has become a more interesting character to put on the board again. She offers a unique set of support Superpowers and is fine at guarding a back point. Still probably not the first choice for a 3 here but more of an option at least.
Daredevil (4)
B. Matt is fast, more durable than he looks and his spender, especially after waking up after dazing is amazing. He’ll also have games where he misses every trigger and annoy the hell out of you.
Doctor Strange (5)
B+ Original Doctor Strange has gotten a glow up with his re release and is now a worthy inclusion. He's a great support and Control model. Just don't expect him to have a lot of damage output.
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (5)A. Supreme Strange is a fantastic control and damage 5 threat. He doesn’t use Daredevils leadership particularly well though.
Elektra (4)B-. Elektra is the only way to get in affiliation Grunts which is always relevant but her kit is too reliant on her dealing damage with her Gainer.
Ghost Rider (5)B+. Johnny Blaze is key to the Pentagrams plan and decent outside of it.
Hawkeye (3)B. A reliable back point sitter that has rather high damage potential and decent objective play with his place.
Hulk (6)A+. Arguably still the best threat for threat model in the game. You’d have a hard time to convince me to not have Banner in your Defenders roster.
Iron Fist (3)B+. Heroes for Hire is obviously a big draw to Danny and his The Iron Fist spender brings a unique control element making him an interesting option at 3 threat.
Luke Cage (3)A. Just slot him into your roster. You’ll probably won’t regret it.
Magik (3)B+. Magik is good. She is mobile with good damage output and is a bit more survivable after her latest update.
Moon Knight (3)A+++ for being my favourite earth based character in Marvel. Sadly not in MCP though. Realistically he’s a B. His best, but rather boring, play pattern is throwing Cresents out of Stealth range.
Namor the Sub-Mariner (5)A. Someone said Namor is the second best character at everything in the game or something like that. Which means he is pretty great overall.
Punisher (3)
B-. Frank isn’t bad. Automatic Rapid fire and a superpower advance are great but he doesn’t really like either leadership a lot which is a shame.
Scarlet Witch (5)B-. As always Wanda has high damage potential but suffers from the lack of action economy.
Shang-Chi (4)A. Shang is maybe the most well rounded 4 threat nowadays and having him affiliated almost makes him an auto take. He’s also just really fun to play.
Silver Sable (4)B. Sable has a cool kit she struggles to pay for. It's great for her that Strange leadership is now free and Auto Hex from Range 5 sounds pretty great.
Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (4)C+. If you want a lot of displacement and basically no offensive output look no further. Honestly nowadays just use Scarlet Spider instead if you want this type of kit and can afford the splash space.
The Immortal Hulk (7)B-. iHulk just kind of compares badly to his 6 threat version. You don’t really get that much of an improvement for the extra threat you paid (expect for the much nicer physical sculpt).
Valkyrie (3)B. A fine fast damage dealer with some control. Probably under explored in Defenders but the competition for slots is also very hard here.
Wolverine (4)B. Especially nice if you want to bring Mayor Fisk as a Crisis where he can dominate together with Hulk.
Wong (2)A. I love Wong but hate playing him. He is good nonetheless and essential to the Pentagrams plan.
Elsa Bloodstone (4)
B. Elsa is a good, mobile, long range Damage Dealer making her a good fit for Strange led Defenders.
Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation
Defenders are so big and really cover all the bases of the game that they don't really need to splash in anything particular. Maybe bringing in an extract steal character like Black Cat, Miles Morales or Doctor Voodoo would be a good idea though.
Example Roster
Note that, as always, this isn’t a competitively optimized roster but here to show of the affiliation. Especially if you want to focus on Pentagrams as your main plan you’ll want to switch out some characters and look at some splashes.
Characters (10)
* Doctor Strange (5)
* Daredevil (4)
Clea (3)
Hulk (6)
Luke Cage (3)
Man-Thing (3)
Namor, the Sub-Mariner (5)
Shang-Chi (4)
Wong (2)
Wolverine (4)
Team Tactics (10)
Cover Me
Mystic Ward
Pentagram of Farallah
Street Smarts
Chi Mastery
Heroes for Hire
Journey Through Limbo
Brace for Impact (R)
Fall Back (R)
Recalibration Matrix
Secure Crisis
Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses (H, 16)
Mutant Madman Turns City Into Lethal Amusement Park (B, 18)
Wedding Party Targeted in Terrible Attack! (R, 20)
Extract Crisis
Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)
Inhumans Deploy Advanced Weaponry (O, 18)
The Montesi Formula Found (E, 18)
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