My personal wishlist for new characters

 

Today I'll shamelessly steal an idea from Lexa White and show you my most wanted list in three separate columns: 

Top 10 non-mutant characters 

Top 10 mutant characters 

Top 10 alternative versions of existing characters 

I'll also add where I'd think they'd land on the affiliation list and how likely I think they'll be in the game anytime soon. Full on Adepticon predictions will be out closer to the event. 

These might contain some comic spoilers. 

Let's get to it then: 

Top 10 non-mutant characters 

1. Black Knight 

I already have a painted mini of him on my shelf as he's one of my favourite characters. He'd be an Avenger most likely and could be part of an upcoming Excalibur affiliation. There's nothing so far that would hint at him being in the making sadly. I think from a design perspective he could be very interesting where if he dazes or KOes enemy models he gets stronger but maybe looses access to affiliated TTCs or even the leadership to represent the Ebony Blade taking over. 

2. Adam Warlock 

You'll quickly learn that the Abnett Marvel cosmic is my favourite part of Marvel together with the mystic and horror side of Moon Knight, Doctor Strange, Blade and Hulk (so basically Midnight Sons and adjacent). Adam Warlock is a key part of the original Guardians of the Galaxy and could be very interesting on the board. He'd be a Guardian of the Galaxy for sure and has a pretty high chance of making the game in the foreseeable future. 

3. Mantis 

In the Comics (unlike the movies) Mantis is not only a super potent telepath but also a masterful Martial Artist that can more than hold her own in a fight. There is at least a chance she makes the game. 

4. Annihilus

A real big bad for the cosmic side. Name giver for the Annihilation wave and Annihilation War where Nova (Richard Rider) rose to defend the universe with the help of Star-Lord, Drax, Ronan and Gamora which ultimately led to the founding of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Annihilius would be another big Kaiju character and should come with an Ultimate Encounter. He wouldn't fit with any existing affiliation either. I think the chances here are pretty slim. 

5. Phyla-Vell 

Another founding member of the Guardians and she appears on TTCs for them. She's probably already in development. 

6. Nico Minuro

Nico is getting more famous by being Peters best friend in Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, but she's been a fan favourite long before that, too. She'd probably be a Midnight Sons affiliated character but more importantly would have a pretty high chance of being a new A-Force leader. Her chances are pretty high I would say. 

7. Cosmo

While not really a part of the Guardians Cosmo is very much on their side and a very good boy. He'd also have to be very strong on the board. I think he (or she if they go the MCU way) has a high chance of making the game at some point. 

8. Knull

Another character I already have painted on my shelf. Knull is just a really cool big bad character that once again should come with an UE and could bring a Symbiotes leadership to the game. Will Shick himself said they barely scratched the surface of Symbiotes yet. If Knull comes at any point hes bound to be the spearhead for more Symbiotes in the game overall. 

9. Scorpion 

It's only a matter of when not if for Matt Gargan. He appears on multiple TTCs and on the cover for Just The Parker luck. 

10. Red Harpy

Betty Banner-Ross in her newest Gamma design is very cool. She's been a Defender with Doctor Strange for a short run. She might be too new to be in consideration yet. 

Honorary Mentions: 

Super Skrull, Moondragon, Blastaar, Cloak, Dagger, White Widow, Hollow's Eve (Bloodhunters Affiliation!) , Scream 

Top 10 mutant characters 

I have to prefix this by saying the majority of my favourite mutants are already in the game.

1. Sauron

Sauron is the best dumb idea anybody at Marvel ever had. A Wer-Pterodactyl is so weird and random that it ends up being pretty rad. His power set is also very interesting. He's not very likely to be in the pipeline though. 

2. Legion (David Haller)

I absolutely love the Legion TV show. It is up there for me with the very best overall Marvel content. On the board Legion might be too difficult to design though. Unlikely to come out. 

2. Havok

Cyclops cooler brother that lived in Space for a while and also became a zombie for a bit recently. I like him a lot. Low chances of coming out.  

3. Multiple Man 

A Grunt character for the mutants. As far as I know he's never been on an X-Men team but could be the leader of a new X-Factor affiliation. I'd say he has good chances of making the game soon.  

4. Sebastian Shaw 

With the changes to Hellfire Club I'm absolutely certain Shaw will be shown off during the Adepticon Panel. No predictions on how far he is away but we'll see a render of his mini as a bare minimum. 

5. Polaris

Magnetos daughter is very likely to come out at some point. Not making the new Brotherhood pack could mean it will still take her some time though. 

6. Forge

The man bound to be the second X-Force leader is surely on his way already. 

7. Goblin Queen (Madeline Pryor)

There's probably a very slim chance to ever see Madeline in her full on Goblin Queen form in the game. It's her most interesting form though. 

8. Emperor Vulcan 

He's supposed to be the main bad guy during the War of Kings but honestly Black Bolt and the Inhumans aren't much better in that conflict. Vulcan (another brother of Cyclops) is a straight up villain though. There'd be no place for him to really fit unless a Shi'ar Empire affiliation would be started. 

9. Azazeal 

Nightcrawler's "Dad" or at least the inspiration for Mystique to turn into to impregnate Destiny (Comics are weird 🙂) would probably not be too different from Kurt as his power set is pretty similar. Maybe less shenanigans and more raw damage. Highly unlikely to ever come out. 

10. Nimrod

Of course Nimrod is basically the opposite of a Mutant but he's an absolute necessity to come out rather sooner than later to give Sentinels some much needed help. He's in the pipeline already and I wouldn't be surprised to see him releasing later this year. 

Top 10 alternative versions of existing characters 

1. Non Green Goblin Norman Osborne 

Norman would be a cool new Cabal leader or even start his own dark Avengers (or possibly Thunderbolts) affiliation while not being an especially strong character himself. It's probably most likely he'd come out as Iron Patriot though.

2. Clea Strange, Sorceress Supreme

Cleas current form definitely needs a facelift but it's still her more "damsel in distress" form anyway. Clea's been an absolute bad ass in Death of Doctor Strange, Clea Strange and the latest Doctor Strange run. 

3. Moon Knight, leader of the Midnight Mission 

I often said that Moon Knight is one of my two favourite Marvel characters (the other being Nova) and while his current form in the game is fine it doesn't really capture the feel of the character when his best play pattern in sitting on stealth and throwing cresents. 

4. Symbiote Suit Peter Parker

This is clearly only matter of when not if. Will Shick made comments on it (without confirming anything of course) during his Fury's Finest interview. 

5. Vampire Miles Morales

Part of the (excellent) Bloodhunt event vampire Miles would be a cool twist on the character that might be a stronger fighter but could have some negative effects representing him fighting the blood lust. 

6. Goddess Storm 

While Storm is good and by far the best leader in X-Men her 3 threat version doesn't really represent the extreme power she shows in many comics and the TV show. Having a 5+ threat version of her would surely be cool. 

7. Leader of the Phalanx Ultron 

Phalanx would be great as an everybody is on affiliation, because they infect and mind control other people. 

8. Wolverine (Laura Kinney)

Laura has earned the title and a better physical model even though rules wise she's very good already and probably wouldn't be all too different. 

9. Falcon Sam Wilson

Not much to be said there. Non-leader and maybe more damage focus than Cap Sam?

10. Black Panther (Shuri) 

While Wakanda really needs characters with new alter-egos this one is pretty much bound to happen at some point. 

That's it for today. I'd be interested in your lists as well!

You can find all the Affiliation Overviews here.

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: Hellfire Club (rewrite)

 

Why should you play the affiliation 

Emma is awesome and here she brings a group of misfit mutants that are mostly found in the greyish area of good and bad and combines them under a very strong leadership. 

How to start the affiliation 

Your first pick up here has to be Emma Frost and Psylocke. Emma is your only leader option at the moment and Psylocke is an affiliated killing machine, that will probably see the table quite a lot so it's a good starting point. It gets complicated immediately after those two though. I'd grab Angel and Archangel next but you can of course never play them together on the field as it's the same alter ego. Archangel brings a strong team up card with Psylocke but Angel is probably playing more to your usual game plan. Grabbing the Brotherhood affiliation pack and playing the affiliation as a dual affiliated list is probably also a decent idea. It comes with affiliated Magneto and Mystique (who are both Brotherhood leaders) as well as premier splash character Toad and role player Sabretooth who honestly works quite well in Hellfire Club. Mister Sinister is a fantastic character in the lore, a great sculpt and a decent, if not especially great, character in MCP that has a good home here. Basically all of that is true for Omega Red as well. 

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

White Queen's Pawns is a fantastic leadership. Once upon a time it allowed every character to be affiliated and that was so strong that the card had to be restricted. Now with HFC having an actual affiliated roster it is still amongst the best leaderships in the game but no longer restricted. 

It, combined with the native strengths of the affiliated models, promotes a type 2 list build most. 

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? 

Sebastian Shaw is the big an obvious answer here. And I'm 75% we'll see him in the Adepticon reveals and he'll bring more affiliated TTCs. 

I'm also a bit sad, that AMG decided to keep it a mutant only affiliation when all of: Norman Osborne, Tony Stark, Wilson Fisk, Ophelia Sakrissian (Vipers alter ego most likely spelled wrong) have been members of the club for example. 

Rating every affiliated TTC and Character 

Team Tactics (1)

My Hellfire Club 

A. It's your leadership and it is incredibly good. You're not too mad about it taking a slot in your 5. 

Characters (12)

Angel (3)

B+. Angel is fast, can displace and has a healing factor. He's also got a Sacrifice style TTC. Personally I'd run him in every HFC game .

Archangel (4)

B-. Archangel is also fast, can hit like a truck but also dies rather quickly. He's got a fantastic team up card with Psylocke but I feel you can use that trick better in Servants of the Apocalypse or X-Force. 

Cassandra Nova (5)

B-. Cassandra is a fine character. Her biggest issue is mobility which the affiliation doesn't fix however. 

Emma Frost (4)

B+. Emma is a great back point sitter and mystic blaster. Don't even bother to bring her diamond form mini and stat card though. You'll be better off for it in 9 out of 10 times. 

Magneto (6)

D. Magneto needs his own leadership to at least barely work. With E shape secures leaving the game completely he's in desperate need for a glow up. 

Mister Sinister (4)

B-. Sinister is often considered a bad model and I simply don't agree with that. He isn't the best and needs additional power to really work but that's exactly what the leadership gives him. He's also as fast as Angel and the toughest model on the list here. On top of that he brings reliable displacement. 

Mystique (3)

B-. Raven is very fast while Stealth and Martial Artist makes her rather tough. She's pretty much always loaded on power anyway so this isn't her best home here. 

Omega Red (4)

B-. Omega Red is slow but super tough and the leadership helps him quite a lot. 

Psylocke (4)

B+. Psylocke is a fantastic killer with great mobility as well as Stealth and Martial artist. Probably a staple in most of your games here. 

Shadow King (5)

C. My favourite sculpt in the game but sadly probably over corrected after initial play test to be too far below the curve overall. He does fit the overall style here though being very tanky and offering some form of displacement. 

Storm (3)

B+. Storm is just a good 3 threat overall. Her role is a bit filled by Emma already but you won't be mad having her on the table most of the times. 

Sunspot (4)

C+. Sunspot is a fun character to play when you can give him flare tokens at least semi reliably which sadly you really can't here. 

Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation 

Toad (2) 

A. Toad is great in any team that wants to focus on objectives first and this is no exception.

Rhino (4) 

A. Rhino is fast and tough which is Emmas favourite kind of model to have. 

Example Roster 

Characters (10)

Angel (3)

* Emma Frost (4)

Mister Sinister (4)

Omega Red (4)

Psylocke (4)

* Storm (3)

Shadow King (5)

Iron Man (3)

Gladiator (6)

Luke Cage (3)

Team Tactics (10)

Carbonadium Synthesizer

Helios Laser Bombardment

Heroes for Hire

Mind Transfer

My Hellfire Club

Protector of the Empire

Stark Armory

Ultimate Sacrifice

Brace for Impact (R)

Sacrifice (R)

Secure Crisis

Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)

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

Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 (D, 17)

Extract Crisis

Scientific Samples Found in Discovered Universe (D, 17)

Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (L, 19)

Struggle For The Cube Continues (F, 17)

You can find all the Overviews here.

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 🍻

War of Kings Crisis and new rotation

 

So we've got all the crisis cards from War of Kings spoiled and AMG being the heroes that they are just went on an posted the rotation of legal crisis cards for standard play from March 28th as a transmission within 24 hours. And of course it took drakhaine basically no time to have the new cards in Jarvis Protocol, too. 

I'll go through all the new crisis, with a mark when they aren't challenger legal and at the end will look at the full rotation and what it means. 

Let's start (you can always click on the photo to enlarge them): 

Samples as it will most likely be commonly called is an extract I like a lot. It makes every character into a mini Beast/ Shuri gaining a power once per turn for a rolled skull in any dice roll. But the big thing here is that it rewards players for not having their extract carriers running from a fight. 

A. I like this crisis a lot for all my three main teams these days: Guardians of the Galaxy and Inhumnas because it helps them chase the extract carriers of the opponent and also Midnight Sons who can use their mobility to score the extra point. 

A new F shape extract and a very punishing one at that. Which is a great combination in my mind as it give scenario teams a lot of VP on the table but helps attrition teams to catch up with them. 

B. I think this is a crisis which isn't great for anyone. Inhumans probably like it the most still as most of them are Poison immune and they have some ways of mitigating the Slow. 

Wedding Guests is another great one. Here extract carriers that try to hide will be pushed towards any secure. It doesn't have to be the closest one either. 

The classic B map is also universally well liked and this is the first time we've seen an extract with this layout, which is similar to B but closer in the middle from each side (range 5 from the edge instead of range 4). 

A. 

Inhuman Weapons brings a very new and unique map that I like a lot. While every extract here is on the midline having two on each side very close together means there bound to be a brawl sooner rather than later. And the extract itself can help with that brawl. Importantly just like with Montessi Formula you can't explode crits when using the Beam here (as that is adding additional dice). 

B+. I can absolutely see why some teams might not like this crisis and the Beam will rarely matter until it really does just like with Montessi. But the shape is so unique that it gets extra points for that. Definitely one of the extract that fighty teams want to look at. But unlike the others here it doesn't help with catching extract carriers. 

Keycards is the least interesting crisis of the bunch and AMG actually deemed it too boring to qualify for standard timeline. It's basically Skulls without the push and doing absolutely nothing on a majority of the secures. 

I honestly wouldn't have minded it getting in but with Skrulls staying (spoiler) it's understandable it's not. 

B-. 

D2D has a cool new shape and a very interesting interact option. I feel like this might be a new staple for type 3 and 4 teams. I certainly like it a lot for my Guardians for example. 

I can see how it can be quite punishing for type 1 teams though. 

B+. 

I believe this crisis will be called Guardians by most but for the sake of having clear names (looking at you Weapon X and Timeline) for things I lobby for Shi'ar Empress. It's the replacement for SWORD Base and much better overall. Sad that it reintroduces the feels bad of missing an uncontested flip though. 

B-. 

Strike Team is another Pay to Flip and one on a D shape too. It gives a nice incentive to stay close to a flipped Generator though which is nice. 

This is the secure that didn't make it into Standard timeline. Which I think is fine. I have no strong feelings one way or the other on this. 

B. 

(M'Kraan) Crystals takes over SWORD bases interact where you check for enemy characters (no matter if they are injured or healthy) and have a 50/50 chance of getting it then or automatically getting it when it's uncontested. 

It also rewards extract carriers for staying in the fight. 

B+. 

Wedding Party is probably my favourite of the new secures. Which shouldn't be a suprise considering I also love Major Fisk which this is very similar as but far less punishing. 

It is good for fighty teams as it's two separate brawls most likely but it's also decent for type 1 and 2 teams because being displaced off of the secures is very costly here and the fight isn't as concentrated in the middle like it is with Fisk. 

A-. 

Now I've eluded to it a bit above but here is the full list of legal crisis cards in Standard rotation after the release of the pack: 

Alien Ship is maybe a bit of suprise here though not really. It's a C shape extract which might now give you the incentive to pick extracts with priority especially as rather surprisingly Legacy Virus also stays in. 

The biggest suprise on this part of the list is definitely Mayor Fisk as Wedding Party appeared to be a clear successor of it. 

Intrusions staying in will probably annoy some people but it's really not the worst I think. 

Riots survives purely for being a core set crisis card. It fits right in with the explanation for why the other crisis cards where taken out: they supported on style of play over the other over proportional. 

Not making the cut are Gamma Wave, Demons, Researcher because they favour fighting too much, while SWORD, Spider Portals, Paranoia and the new Strike Team don't make the list because they favour running around and not fighting too much. 

Overall a lot more crisis cards are staying in for now than initially expected. Which is probably a good thing as it creates more diversity in roster selections. And they can always take out problematic crisis with this system now very quickly. 

Cheers from Germany 🍻

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Evaluating the new changes

 

AMG listens and gives us what we asked for. That's the biggest takeaway from the changes made yesterday and honestly not surprising me in the slightest. This company has it's finger on the pulse of the game like no company I've seen before. 

Now let's dig into each change in more detail: 

(Click on the picture to enlarge it)

Oh happy day 🎉 Thanos has taken quite a big hit to be honest: 

- throw on the builder now needs a double trigger

- using his Gems for free is now part of his leadership. Exactly what we had asked for 👍

- Cosmic Portal is now allied character only. This was a suprise, but a welcome one

- gained the new Peerless* keyword. It means only one character with that keyword can be selected for a squad 

+ His leadership remains the same on his injured side now 

Reality Gem gets a much needed quality of life change that is also quite a heavy nerf. Before it would constantly check for a skull in your roll making it very complicated. Now it's very easy to understand. But weaker already and also taxed with a power cost now. Corvus doesn't like this change at all of course. Makes Time and 4 threat Corvus more interesting options now I'd say. 

Black Order got hit rather hard here. Thanos absolutely got what he deserved and should now be much less splash appealing which is only fitting for him. They learned from Apocalypse and made him best in affiliation now. Which we all asked for. 

The biggest and by far and large biggest nerf and honestly the one I expected the least is the reduction of the builder to range 2. This limits his output immensely more than the reduction to 6 dice. 

His "pounce" now costing 4 power further limits his play pattern. It combines to getting him down to acceptable levels. 

What does that mean for Asgard? That squad building becomes an actual decision again. As an enjoyer of the affiliation even long before the newest models were out this is great news. You can play this or the criminally under appreciated Thor 1 based on threat level and situations. 

Will Asgard loose a tonne of players? Absolutely. Are they still a very strong faction? Absolutely. 

Yes! Didn't I just recently complain, that Hellfire Club  didn't really make sense as an "everyone is in" affiliation from the fluff? 

MYHFC is no longer restricted and gets this affiliation list: 

It's an interesting though not especially competitive list on first view. It contains three of my favourite mutants in Mister Sinister, Omega Red and Shadow King, but they could all do with just a little push. I'll go into much more detail with a full Hellfire Club Affiliation Overview rewrite soon. But overall I think you'll aim for an affiliated core where I see Angel as an almost every game model for the affiliation now. I'd have liked to see some none mutant characters in the affiliation that were members of the club at some point. Viper, Kingpin and Tony Stark in any form would've been interesting for example. 

I hereby predict that Sebastian Shaw along some affiliated TTCs will be featured in the Adepticon Panel. 

I'll update the Asgard and Black Order affiliation overviews soon, once I've finished the Inhumans update and the HFC rewrite. 

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 🍻

Predicting the crisis rotation after the two AMG Podcast interviews

First of all, if you have the time to listen to the interviews Will Shick had with Fury's Finest and together with Ben Ransom with Across the Bifrost listen to them. They are fantastic. It's always great to hear these guys talking about the game. 

Now what have we learned from it? 

I'll devide this into clearly stated facts first and then some predictions of my own about what the new crisis rotation will be based on hints they gave during the interviews. 

Facts: 

There's going to be a minimum of 1 new crisis pack every year from now on. 

You'll never be forced to buy those packs for competitive play. There's always going to be a print and play version of the cards chosen for the challenger rotation (more on that in a second). Shick outright said: we're a miniatures company not a card game company. You'll buy the pack if you like the miniature inside, not for the cards. 

Not all crisis cards in War of Kings are going to be in the rotation for Challenger events.

The total number of crisis cards in challenger will decrease and be an even split between extracts and secures. 

Updates to existing characters are coming "at an event you'd expect something like this to happen" which probably means Adepticon or Ministravaganza but no confirmation if it's going to be this year or not (but I'm sure it is). 

They are very aware of what the community sees as a problem but nerfing takes some time as the nerfed version needs to be tested and tested against the stuff coming out next that we don't know about yet. 

Research Station will definitely be rotated out. 

The new rotation will only go live after Adepticon. 

There will be new map lay outs that will be "not too close together but also not too far apart"

Predictions: 

Both Will and Ben often remarked that some typical play patterns will be taken care off per the new crisis rotation. What they hinted at repeatedly is that you won't be able to stock up on a certain map type anymore. So my prediction is: there's going to be 9 extracts and 9 secures with a unique shape each (so 9 maps in total and no two extracts and secures are the same layout). 

With them saying not all new crisis will be the challenger rotation I predict 3 new secures and 4 new extracts will make the cut. Leaving 6 existing secures and 5 of the existing extracts.

Here are the ones I'm sure will go: 

Secure Crisis

Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)

S.W.O.R.D. Establishes Base on Moon‘s Blue Area (G, 15)

Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 (D, 17)

Extract Crisis

Research Station Attacked! (E, 15) (R)

Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)

Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan (F, 17)

These are the ones I could see reasonably not making the cut: 

Secure Crisis

Mutant Madman Turns City Into Lethal Amusement Park (B, 18) (but I'd be sad to see it go)

Portals Overrun City With Spider-People! (D, 18)

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

Extract Crisis

Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18) (even though Fear itself is one of Will Shicks favourite comic story lines of all time)

Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)

These ones I expect to be in:

Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth (D, 16)

Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses (H, 16)

Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians (I, 17)

Guardians Save Shi‘ar Empress in Style (M, 17)

Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)

Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (E, 19)

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

+ 2 new ones from War of Kings. One on the J map and one with a completely new shape. Maybe one similar to a D but closer together a bit. 

Extract Crisis

Paranoia Pummels Populace! (K, 16)

Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)

Scientific Samples Found in Discovered Universe (D, 17)

Struggle For The Cube Continues (F, 17)

The Montesi Formula Found (E, 18)

Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (L, 19)

Ship Security Breached in Royal Rescue (J, 20)

+2 more new ones from War of Kings. On on the new M shape and one completely new. 

What this will do is make list building and going all in on one strategy and archetype much harder as you'll have to be able to adapt to a much larger variation of crisis. This in turn will do something that many people have asked for a lot of times: make midrange more viable and don't help the extremes by giving them enough favourable crisis too stock up on them.

What do you think? 

The Inhumans update is currently being done and should be out during the course of the weekend. 

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 🍻

January 2025 stats

Welcome to a new monthly series where we look at the Longshanks stats of the past month. We'll always check the overall global stats first and then just the rated single event stats where we'll also look at the most taken characters and crisis cards let's get to it then (you can always click on the images to enlarge them): 

All events affiliation stats:

Asgard remain both: extremely popular and strong with Jane slowly but surely becoming the main leader. 

Webs can somewhat rival Asgard in popularity and also success rate. 

Black Order have had a surprisingly strong month. 

Inhumans were strong as usual and with the new characters coming out soon there's nowhere to go but up for the faction. 

Weapon X is in the top 5 and the best mutant faction. It seems Weapon X (the character) and Maverick had a strong influence on the affiliation after all. 

The wizards are pretty unpopular at the moment but have had good results in the few games they were played in. 

Second best mutant affiliation and decently strong ever since they've been out are the Servants of Apocalypse. 

Guardians have gotten a boost with Nova and Yondu and are going well again. 

Sin and OG Red Skull are the best Cabal leaders while Malekith is struggling. What a time to be alive. 

Criminal Syndicate make top 10 on the back of Kingpin and MODOK while Shadowland (please remove the s at the end LS it is not supposed to be there) Daredevil and Klaw aren't doing so hot. 

In SHIELD land Namor has officially taken over as the defacto leader and Invincible Iron Man is unpopular and unsuccessful. 

In Wakanda M'Baku is very much established as the leader now and he, with the help if few but very successful games under King T, keeps the affiliation above 50% even with KM, Us terrible record. 

Dormammu reaching a perfectly even split in wins and losses is honestly impressive. 

Hulkbuster 💪 he is the statistical best leader of the month with at least 10 games played. Who had that on their bingo card? Steve 1 is back as the most popular Avengers leader, Sam is  untypically struggling a bit and First Avenger drags down the affiliation stats. 

Midnight Sons were by far the most popular affiliation of the month having almost 100 games more than Asgard played. And they did perfectly average with them. People who have tried Elsa leadership haven't seen a lot of success so far though. 

Defenders are just below 50% and here it is very possible that the leaderless games were actually played as such as that is often done in Defenders. 

Norman Osborne takes his affiliation back but is dragged down to only 48% win rate for the Foes overall by Otto Octavius. 

Legion of the Lost are quite popular for a very new affiliation but not super successful yet. 

Hydra has had a rather bad month with only Helmut Zemo reaching a winning record but in only 5 games played. 

Seeing Hellfire Club, a top 5 staple for months and months dropping all the way to #20 is a genuine suprise. They weren't popular either. 

Brotherhood players will be overjoyed to see that they sit a spot above the X-Men. But not because BH did particularly well themselves... 

X-Men, as usual sitting amongst the most played affiliations, had a rather bad month in the overall statistics with even Storm dropping to 47%. 

Thralls of Dracula were both, the most taken and least successful of the four everyone is in affiliations. 

Winter Guard need a new release. They are unpopular and unsuccessful. 

The same can be said for New Mutants who simply feel like just half of an affiliation. For them I fully expect the reveals of Wolfesbane, Cannonball and Danny Moonstone at Adepticon. 

When a giant and usually beloved faction like A-Force falls down to being the least played affiliation overall something needs to be done. Hopefully the new crisis cards will at least help them a bit... 

X-Force had an absolutely forgettable January. I can't really explain why with them as they consist of strong models with a good leadership. It doesn't seem to come together at all right now though. 

And finally Sentinels remain a none factor and joke of an affiliation... Nimrod come and save us! 

Rated Singles events only: 

 

Asgard who? Weapon X take the crown here but of course with only 58 games played. 

Webs remain a force to be reckoned with. 

Black Order have had their great month mostly in rated singles events surprisingly enough. 

Apoc is faring exceptionally well in rated singles. 

Asgard, while not the #1 here are still very good which shouldn't surprise anyone. Thor 1 naysayers have to acknowledge him to be the most successful leader however (but with just a fraction of the games of course).

Red Skull is back with a vengeance? Apparently so but Master of the World is the defacto leader of Cabal nowadays and did very well too. Even Malekith gets to 50/50 here. Sin keeps a positive record which is most astonishing. 

Move over Namor, Steve Rogers is the best statistical Invaders and SHIELD leader (with all of 5 games played)! Here it is even sadder for iTony having played 4 games and only achieving one draw in them. 

Convo played very few games but came out to a positive record in them. 

Criminal Syndicate was very popular and successful with MODOK and Kingpin and very bad with SLDD and Klaw. Without the latter two the affiliation could have probably gained a couple of spots. 

Hulkbuster! Didn't quite reach 10 games but did exceptionally well in the 9 he played. Sam was much better here and Steve was also good getting the affiliation into the top 10. 

Defenders reached a positive record too on the back of Daredevil and some leaderless games while Strange continues to struggle. 

Guardians were pretty much perfectly even. 

Even in rated singles Dormammu keeps his 50/50 record. 

Inhumas drop heavily from their overall stats above. 

Midnight Sons are the most popular affiliation here too but fall to below 50%. 

Storm apparently only performed in rated singles this month where she was still below her average but above 50%. Cyclops had another bad month though. 

Hellfire at #20 is really mind-blowing for me. 

Hydras month was even worse here than above, especially for Baron Strucker. 

Thralls were really popular but not super successful just like above. 

Brotherhood was very much flat out terrible. Let's hope their new release which is just around the corner will give them a decent boost. 

New Mutants aren't really an affiliation yet as mentioned above. 

Spider-Foes couldn't carry their success from overall into rates singles apparently. 

A-Force remains the least played affiliation here. 

With 27 affiliations, many more leaderships including 4 "unaffiliated" ones I just don't really understand why you'd ever go fully unaffiliated in today's game. It worked out 5 times but didn't do in the other 9 games making it overall a statistically bad idea. 

Poor X-Force aren't any better in rated singles than overall. 

And hats off to the players who decided to play Sentinels. It's not like they didn't win any games. Just one third of them when aiming for half is still rather bad. 

Let's see now which characters and crisis cards were popular in January of 2025. This is also only from rated singles: 

So we have 853 lists to gather our data from. I'd really love it if every event forced MCT codes but that's not the world we live in. 

Baron Zemo edges out Shang-Chi cleanly for the top spot while Shang also has 9 more uses than Toad on third. 

None of the names here come as any suprise honestly. 

Hulk appeared to have seen his usage decrease recently but he can claim spot 11 here so that seems to have changed again. The rest here are often staples of their affiliations while also being splashable. Immortal Hulk is not a great splash but really shines in his home of Midnight Sons where he doesn't have to compete with regular Hulk like in Defenders. And Sons were the most popular affiliation of the month. Beast being tied with him probably comes from his many affiliations where he's never the star but never a bad 3 to run either. 

More staples of popular affiliation.  Bobby Drake is finally getting some well deserved table time it seems. 

Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider often fight for the affiliated 5 threat slot in Midnight Sons and there perfectly even on usage here. 

Crimson Dynamo has dropped quite heavily on usage. Maybe a result of Research Station being restricted (and soon rotated out as we know now).

Brace and Recall are on top of the pack here to none ones suprise. Honestly none of the cards here come as any suprise.

It's gonna be interesting to see which of these will survive the coming rotation and which won't.

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Thank you for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻