Building My Team

Building a Team for Marvel Crisis Protocol.

Welcome back folks :-)

For this installment I've decided to make it a post rather than a page on its own. This is more of an informal way of looking into list building and the like. Well more accurately its perhaps a way of looking at my list building thought process. Hopefully this might help people as a sort of guide to making their own choices. 

Assemble App. 

First of all I should be clear. I use the Assemble app for list building. It's amazingly good, it's free, it has all the cards on it and I highly recommend it. Its a great tool for new players and experienced alike. It can be found here https://acrossthebifrost.com/category/assemble/

You download the .apk file and install it 3rd party. It's safe and secure, no worry there. Obviously it's not obligatory in any way, I'd just say it's a worthwhile tool. 

My current list, Inhumans/A-Force

So, my current list. I'm a creature of being easily distracted and over the last 9 months of playing the game I've jumped onto a lot of affiliations and a lot of characters. Up til the turn of 2020-2021 I was using predominantly Brotherhood of Mutants, Criminal Syndicate and Spider Foes. The start of the year I changed to Avengers and A-Force. Having played Inhumans at the weekend and had a look at the rosters I feel there's some potentially good crossovers in the two factions with Medusa, Lockjaw, Okoye and Valkyrie being strong contenders. My plan is to go through each one, explain my choice and go from there. I'd also add, at this early stage, that I'm still not fully settled on my 10 members as you'll see when we progress. 

Black Bolt. 

Black bolt. Leader and King of the Inhumans. His first reason for being here is he is the leader and has the leadership ability. Giving him a large advantage over his fellows :-). In all honesty I'm not hugely blown away by his leadership ability, spend a power to transfer a power, but situationally it could be useful. His defensive stats are meaty in the Physical and Energy range, but his Mystic is woeful. He does have a super power that allows him to bump up his defenses which does make him somewhat tanky but he needs the power to do it, so he has to either get the alpha and power from his builder, or he needs to take a punch to get some power and at 5 health I honestly am not keen on him taking punches early doors.

His basic free attack is strong, his Master Punch is also decent and he can pump up his dice pool with the Focus Power ability. Being inhuman he can also reroll a dice in his attack pool which I do like. 

Wounded side is far more interesting. He jumps from 5 to 9 health which is obviously an incredible change, an 80% increase in stamina while retaining his stats and his ability to add in extra defensive dice to the pool. He obviously retains his previous two attacks but also gains Whisper. A brutal 9 dice beam attack that also destroys small terrain pieces. Add in his booster and that's a whopping 11 dice with a free reroll and stagger on a wild. Brutal. 

As an inhuman he also has immunity to poison which gives a bit of free resilience. Having flight is handy and a nice sweetener. As far as my list building goes I'd likely only run Black Bolt as an inhumans leader, rather than as a squad member on another team.

Crystal. 

Crystal up next. Unfortunately I don't have huge amounts to say about Crystal yet in regards to performance. She got taken out quite easily in the last game I played but she did square up against MODOK. 

Stats wise she is fairly normal, 3s across the board with 5 hp, pretty OK for a 3 cost character. She is a L mover with flight which is great as it makes her viable in A-Force to trigger SheHulks special delivery. As an inhuman she is also immune to poison which again is good, she also benefits from the inhumans reroll ability. She has 4 attacks all cost 0 which I do like. One A1, two range 4s and a Beam 3. I think the A1 is least likely to be used given its ridiculously short range. She is a mistress of putting out status effects and I did consider running her alongside the 3 cost Black Widow given the status effect situation. Super powers she has an ability to trigger a free attack if she spends 4 power, so if you have the range she could effectively attack 3 times in one turn which isn't to be sniffed at. Her Elemental Empowerment ability I think is both an asset and an issue. It's great because it stops some egregious status effects from being cleared, but then also makes her a target because of it. She can be focused down without too much effort. 

Wounded side no changes at all and remains the same. I lie Crystal. She is a solid B choice in my inhuman team depending on scenario. And in A-Force she is a good solid 3 coster for dropping off SheHulk, added in that SheHulk can throw out slow on her builder means that you can't clear that off right away. On some characters an S move is very sad to see. 

Lockjaw. 

Where to start with Lockjaw. He is the first of the Inhuman S/A tier characters (in my opinion). Rocking in at cost 3 which I like already, combined with 6 health and 3s across the board stat line is great. Meaty, cheap and can take a punch. It's when you start looking at his super powers and abilities that his true worth comes out. 

With Drop It! he has access to a throw which is size 3 or less and throw M. That's pretty damn good on a medium sized base mini. Inter-Dimensional Blood Hound is amazing and isn't limited to any range; choise your victim, go punch them with an extra dice all round with all attacks. Teleports is straight forward but incredibly strong, likely why it costs an action to do so you can only ever do a maximum of 2 of these. It's cheap at cost 2 and it moves range 3 which is huge. Arguably one of his strongest abilities which he can bring to any squad regardless of affiliation. His last ability, Who's A Good Boy, is also great. Turn 1 and turn 2 he will usually always benefit from this, after that it kind of comes down to where he is needed and where everyone else is. As like the other inhumans he is immune to poison and gets the reroll. He has one attack which is OK, its not really much for your opponent to worry about but you're not bringing him for his offensive output. 

His wounded side he loses a point of health but otherwise is unchanged. Ultimately a really amazing character, combined with his Last Minute Save TTC lockjaw can completely redefine how you run a team. 

Medusa. 

Medusa, aka Mrs Boltagon, the Queen of the Inhumans. Initially when she was first released I was kind of "meh" about her. After playing her and properly reading her rules I was mindblown. Easily the strongest of the inhumans, an S tier character and arguably one of the best 4 cost models in the game. There is so much to talk about with her. 

Her stats are initially middle ground, the same as lockjaw 3s across the board with 6 hp at cost 4. That's ok. Nothing mind blowing. But, she has a passive superpower (so it's always actively working) called Living Strands. The first part of that ability stops people moving through her when making an advance, similar to Angela. The second part is the strong part, enemy characters cannot change or reroll dice while targeting Medusa with an attack. Boom, mind blown. That makes her 3s stats even stronger as your opponent is basically relying on whatever they roll rather than being able to fix bad rolls. 

Her attacks are incredibly strong.  Her builder is braid bash. She smacks you with her hair, that's her thing. It's like a usual builder: damage caused power gained. Nothing new there. But it's 5 dice which makes it good, it's range 3 which pushes it up and it's also got flurry on a wild WITH an optional push. So her builder 1) builds power 2) is slightly longer range 3) potentially gives you another attack and 4) has a control element. Bearing in mind she is an inhuman so gets access to poison immunity but also the reroll ability meaning her chances of getting a flurry go up. If she is able to attack with both actions she is potentially getting 4 attacks, and the flurry doesn't have to attack the same character as the primary. That's downright amazing. She also has access to an A2 attack with a place in Split Ends which has the bleed special condition. It's a decent attack if you're surrounded by personally I'd just take my chances with Braid Bash and getting the flurry.  She has Hair Flip which is a handy throw that can throw characters size 3 or less distance S. Im always a fan of throws, even if they are short distance ones. 

To add the final cherry on top she has Royal Decree: an ability that can place her or someone near her. Straight forward great ability for getting to the action without wasting an action point, or dragging a friendly to safety. 

Her wounded side has no changes. Medusa, like Crystal, has a crossover affiliation with A-Force making her a strong selection in both inhumans and aforce. Honestly, like Lockjaw, Medusa is a solid option in whatever affiliation you put her in. 

Ronan, The Accuser. 

Ronan is an interesting one. Im not fully settled on him and have only recently rotated him into the line up. Part of the reason is his The Accuser ability linked with Lockjaws Last Minute Save. Seems like there could be some fun shenanigans there having Ronan KOd, the accuser kicks in, he moves and attacks then is saved from being KOd by Lockjaw. 

In regards to what he does he is pretty solid. Cost 4, 6 hp, and a 3-4-4 stat line make him a interesting one to deal with. He is also size 3 so he isn't as easy to throw as a size 2 character. His primary physical cost 0 attack is great as it has a throw on it which can throw size 4 characters. There isn't much in the game that can throw size 4 and especially not from a melee attack. His Universal Weapon attack being energy type is great and having a nice long range with the ability to apply shock is not to be ignored. Kree Justice is a strong close range attack with 8 dice and also applies Stagger and  Stun with explosive added in to top it off. Part of Ronans "charm" is his superpower Judgement. If you damage a model near him or Ronan himself he can put the judgment status effect on the offending model. This is a status effect which is unique to Ronan in which it stops the enemy model gaining power from dealing damage. Being an inhuman he has immunity to poison but doesn't have the reroll ability like the other inhumans. He is, however, a gem bearer and can take the Power Stone if you want some extra juice. 

His wounded side is much the same, no changes. As far as his inclusion in my team goes I have yet to decide if he is a permanent addition. He has some strong qualities and some cute tricks, but I don't know if that's enough to keep him on board. We will see. 

SheHulk. 

SheHulk, the leader of A-Force and the model Hulk wishes he was :-). SheHulk has a lot going on for her. She is a leader and her leadership ability is decent, although it is directly connected to you taking damage which obviously isn't always a good thing. But "free" power isnt always a bad thing in this game if you take the right characters. She is cost 6 with a whopping 20 health but obviously no wounded side, when she is down she is out. A 3-4-3 stat line isn't awful either, especially with the little boost on energy defence. She can also decide to take the hit for a weaker character with her super power Legal Defense.

Her attacks are as you'd expect from a member of the Banner family, brutal and physical. Her builder is range 2, 7 dice with an automatic slow built in to it. Horrendous to deal with, some characters strongest attacks aren't hitting 7 dice base. Her second attack, The Defense Rests, is equally, if not more so, frightening. Again range 2, costs 5 power but 9 dice. It inflicts slow and stun and IF you already slowed you get staggered instead. Absolutely horrendous to get dished with that. Also add into the mix that on either attack she can use Superior Weight Training to add dice to the attack equal to the target size makes her scary even for the likes of Modok and Banner-Hulk. 

As expected, she has a throw. She can throw either terrain or characters of size 4 or less. It is short range at 2 but she will likely be all up in your business anyway so it's potentially not an issue. Slowing you, stunning you, staggering you then throwing you into a building just seems upsetting. Most characters, if they survive that, prob aren't able to retaliate due to the stagger condition. 

To finish her off she has Gamma Transfusion, which gives her 1 additional power in the power phase and if you hit her with an attack she can advance towards you S. So don't make her angry ;-) this rule also details what happens when she has 0 hp left. As one last little caveat she is also immune to poison. 

SheHulk is one of my favoute characters in the game. Strong, reasonably quick, hits like a train and can throw things around. Great leader piece and isn't too awful outside of her leader role either. 

Angela. 

Angela, daughter of Odin. Another character I misjudged when I first looked at her rules. I should really learn to read rules rather than glance at them :-). So Angela comes in at cost 5, 6 HP but with 4s across the board for defence which automatically pushes her up the board. And speaking of up the board, she is a medium base model that moves L with flight: she really can move up the board. Tanky and fast. How about her attacks though? 

Well thats no let down either. Her primary physical builder attack, Xiphos, is range 2 with 6 dice and also has a built in place, just to get her even further across the table. She has an cost 1 energy attack, Blades of Ichor, which has a pretty long range on it at 4 with the wild trigger giving her a free S move toward the target. Her last attack, Heven's Wrath, has the potential to be brutal. Range 3, 4 dice and cost 3 but it gets dice equal to target size so it means she is getting almost 6 dice guaranteed on most targets. It's extra clit comes from the trigger cleave. It needs 2 crits AND a wild to go off but if it does you get to make a second Heven's Wrath attack for free on the same target. 

Being an Asgardian Angela always gets 2 power during the power phase. Her abilities are very strong to match her attacks. With Odinsdottirs Might she has access to a cheap throw that can throw up to size 4 terrain pieces M. Angelic Assassin is one of my favourites, it allows her to make a S move and an attack if she KOs or Dazes another enemy character. Always a fan of extra attacks for cheap cost :-). Similar to Medusa she has Living Ribbons which stop models moving through her with an advance which mean they have to go around. 

Her final bonus, on the top, is that she has flight. Giving her better terrain control and another possible target for SheHulks special delivery TTC. 

Her wounded side she gains an extra HP, similar to Thor but not quite as much, but otherwise no other changes. 

I really like Angela. In the games I've played her she has been solid. She is 5 points though which means between her and SheHulk that's eating 11 points of your threat level, but on the right scenario that's 11 scary points of threat.  She is also incredibly mobile having a base movement of L with other movement triggers amongst all her abilities. 

Okoye. 

Okoye! The first of my cost 2s. And what an amazing cost 2 she is. 3s across the board defensively, with bodyguard as a super power and she can reroll a dice in her attack or defence rolls. She also has martial artists which means if you're within 2 she gets to include blanks as success on her defence rolls. 

In regards to attacks Okoye is definitely not to be underestimated (as I frequently tend to do). She has a straight forward short range 4 dice physical builder. She also has a range 4 energy attack which automatically gains her 1 power regardless if she does damage of not. Her cost 4 Vibranium Spear Thrust is a strong attack combining Pierce and Flurry on a wild trigger. Along with her reroll ability Okoye can sometimes punch way above her "weight", taking down much stronger characters. 

Her wounded side, like most characters, is unchanged. 

Okoye, for me, makes it into almost every 10 man roster I've made. She is great to leave sitting on a secure objective, she can follow and protect models with bodyguard and she has the ability to scalpel out damaged enemy characters. Would always recommend Okoye to anyone making a roster up. 

Wong.

Wong, the second of my 2 coaters and also another new addition to my line up. Having a couple of 2 costs in the ten man roster isn't a bad choice, especially given the strength of some of the 2 cost options. Wongs strength, and usefulness to me, lies in his The Vishanti's Blessing superpower. He can remove a status effect or heal a model for 2 damage. Healing in this game I've found to be be very strong, hence why the healing TTCs are mostly restricted, so having a healing battery which can keep SheHulk or Angela a threat for longer is good. 

Stats wise he isn't awful, not amazing either. 2-3-3 stat line, unfortunately in this roster he will never the bonus from his Servant to the Sorcerer Supreme ability so he is stuck with this stat line. At 4 HP along with his stats he is on the weak and squishy side, but he is usually a back line character and should be hard to get to. 

Wong also has the ability to send out his own power with Faithful Assistant, and he can also generate extra power with Meditate but it does cost one of his action points. 

His wounded side is the same as his healthy, no change.

Ive played Wong a lot since I got him last year. His ability to heal has gotten me out of some tight spots and he usually ends up somewhat like a power battery so he is often a good target for using Advanced R&D. How he will do in this line up I'm not sure as he isn't affiliated to Inhumans or A-Force so he loses out on TTC bonuses. I've yet to try him out but I'm hoping he will be a good inclusion. More healing can't be a bad thing surely. 

Valkyrie. 

Valkrye. Last but by no means least of my 10 man roster. She is considered one of the strongest cost 3s in the game and for good reason. 6 HP with 3s across the defensive board already makes her stand out. Her physical builder attack is range 2 with 5 dice alongside her Dragon Fang attack which is also range 2, cost 3 and 7 dice with inbuilt bleed and flurry on a wild. Those rules along make Valkryie stand out amongst the 3s but add in the Warrior of Legend ability turns her melee output up to 11. Being able to potentially nullify blank results or change any result to a hit is very strong against characters like modok who nullify wild successes. Alongside Warrior of Legend she has a charge super power, pretty standard: move and attack attack at the cost of an action. When you consider what she can do with Warrior of Legend it makes charge event more potent. To finish off her super powers she has Asgardian Might, a throw ability. Throw a size 2 chardcter or terrain feature S. As I said before I love throws, and Valkyrie comes with one :-). As an Asgardian she also benefits from 2 power in the power phase to help fuel her abilities. 

Her wounded side she loses a point of health, but otherwise remains unchanged. 

I love Valkyrie. Consistently a strong piece on the board for me. Always a threat and like Okoye she can punch above her weight, in Valkyries case even more easily. Being able to manipulate her own dice aid her ability to deal with characters like Modok and she makes a great addition to not just A-Force, but almost any affiliation you put her in. 

So, that's the end of one of the longest posts I've written. I could go into depth with TTCs and Crisis choices but I'll save that for another post. There's already a lot to digest in this and if you are a new player, I wouldn't like to overload your information input. I hope you enjoyed reading this, as much as it is bulk loading of information I did enjoy writing it :-)