The August Update part 4

 

After we went through the 173 characters in the three PDFs for the last three days in today's final reaction post to the August Update we will look at the changed TTCs, Core Rules, FAQ, Apocalypse and the Affiliation list. 

TTCs: 

Are You Sure You Want to Remember?: Leadership updated to generate 2 memory tokens per Daze/KO. Tokens put on the card instead of the character.

 

While still not in the running to be my favorite leadership It Was YOU!!! Now at least mechanically works and is not dependent on your leader not being dazed. Gaining two memory tokens back per daze/KO is also helpful. Sad that it is still only useable by affiliated models (but I do get the thematic reason for it)

C+ 

Asteroid M: Changed timing to Power Phase and if a character has an objective they can drop it now instead of not being able to be placed.

This maybe feels like a straight nerf and it is intended to stop turn 1 shenanigans but I think it will end up being mostly a side grade. It's still very much an every game card for Brotherhood, but the way you use it will change a bit. 

 

A-  

Mothership: Changed timing to Power Phaseand if a character has an objective they can drop it now instead of not being able to be placed.

It's word for word the same card as Astroid M and the same things are true here as well. 

 

A- 

First of the Black Order: Changed so that all allied characters gain Power instead of other Black Order.

This finally opens up splashes in Corvus Black Order, even if they still can't trigger the leadership themselves. They, and the character that caused the Daze or KO, can now recieve the Power now, making the leadership much better and more interesting. 

 

B-  

Spirit of Wakanda: Third effect changed from allied characters gaining 2 Power to allied characters placing themselves within Range 1.

 

Changed to allow less turn 1 jank even though that wasn't really a big thing with it anymore anyway. Probably Futureproofing. It is still a good and versatile card but not an every game one. 

 

B 

 

You Will Do As I Say, Monster: Decreased from 5 to 4 power.

 

 

 

This card has lost a lot of its, already not super high, value ever since the collision changes. Cost and effect aren't at a good rate, even after the reduction, especially since Abomb does take damage from the (possible) collision but doesn't even gain Power from it as it is an allied effect. 

 

C

 

 

Horsemen Cards: 

 

Master of the Horsemen:  Gains 1 Evolution token during the Cleanup Phase instead of the Power Phase. Can no linger reroll attack and dodge rolls with Evolution Tokens. 

 

War: Fury updated to once per Turn

 

Famine: No changes 

 

Death: Created to End reduved to 2 Power from 3

 

Pestilence: Consuming Blight increased to 3 Power from 2

That was quite a bit more than just a „slight adjustment“ of the leadership. I do like the timing change for the automatic Evolution token and thematically it makes more sense to only being able to use it defensively. Dodges could’ve maybe stayed possible for my taste as those could also fall under “Survival of the Fittest “. War once per turn was pretty much expected and the increase to Pestilence with the decrease on Death could breathe a bit of fresh air into the squad building now. 

While from a leadership perspective Servants of the Apocalypse are certainly worse now a lot of their models also got better. I liked what I heard on a podcast: Apoc is now not anymore turning bad models into great ones but rather good models into slightly better ones. He’s going to be fine. 

 

 

Core Rules Addition:  

This makes official what I think many people were already doing. Just good for ease of playing. 

 

They also removed the suggestion that terrain should be Range 2 from each other from the rulebook. 

 

 

FAQ Addition:  

 

This is huge for already buffed Ultimate Spider-Man, who can now push models regardless of wether or not they are slowed. 

 

Finally Nebula is in Black Order. This was originally intended but ended up breaking the game. But the game is very different today compared to 5 years ago and Black Order on a very different step on the power ladder as well. Opens up Squad Building a lot mire now. Just generally a good move. 

 

 

My headcannon is that this is specifically for Jeff Troast as a sportsmenship reward for what he did at last years WTC. 
It would have been nice to see some more updates to Scarlet Witch but this is still huge for her and Convocation. It opens up a new way to built squads (some even without a Doctor Strange) and access to the strong affiliated Models only TTCs (like Astral Ring, Wand of Watoomb and especially Book of Agamotto) for Wanda. It is now up to Jeff to prove it makes a real difference. 

I was hoping this would be the case but it's nice to now have confirmation, that Danni Moonstar (Mirage) is the second New Mutants leader. Also Honey Badger, with her update, should give them a little boost as well. Good News overall for the New Mutants. 

Onslaught is a one man affiliaiton. We'll have to wait and see how excatly his leadership will work. 

Also the Sentinels are now officially part of the Sentinels.  

Mirage is in SHIELD, which is a welcome surprise (not in Asgard though which could have a claim too). 

Havok, Jubilee and Multiple Man are all in Uncanny X-Men so that box will be a very interesting pick up for all X-Men players probably. 

X-Factor not including Jubilee or Mirage from their pack is a bit of a surprise. We also now have the final confirmation of something we've basically known since Adepticon 25, which is that both Havok and Multiple Man are leaders. Overall the affiliaion list looks a bit weird so far, but I'm still very much looking forward to it's rules. 

Mirage in X-Force means a dual with New Mutants is extremely easy to do now with Sunspot, Warlock, X-23, Honey Badger, Cable and Mirage all being part of both.

Edit:

Two weeks after the initial drop of the new documents a forum post cleared up some of the mistakes and apparently this was one in the Affiliation document. Spider-Foes finally have female member! Black Cat got nothing in the update so that's a relative nerf but the couldn't even see the curve for her role at 3 threat anymore because she was so far above it. She is incredibly fast, has an automatic Stagger on a Stick, has a Steal (which isn't nearly as good as it used to in the current Challenger Rotation, but still better to have it than not) and the best combination of defensive mechanics of any character in the game. She's still A tier even without a Stamina buff. Now how does she fit into a Spider-Foes game plan? Under Green Goblin I don't see a lot of synergy personally. She can't move enemy characters to trigger any traps and her attacks aren't really meant to deal damage either. I think she'll feel much more at home under Doc Ock, where she's been played as a splash before a lot as well. Attacking her is often pointless unless you can overwhelm her defenses with pure numbers of dice (but those attacks will usually be kind of wasted against a 3 threat) and Ocks leadership triggers on being targeted so she may not get a lot of power through it but can sometimes to help fund her incredible kit. And then she just does her job of running around, Staggering enemies and scoring points while being unreasonably tanky (though that part is a bit less true now). 

 

And that is everything we've gotten out of the biggest update ever. It's a brand new world out there and I am very excited to get playing and to figure out my WTC roster. On here I'll slowly start the process of updating all the Affiliation Overviews, but it will take some time to do this. 

 

Thanks for reading and Cheers from Germany  🍻