Howdy all and welcome back to mech overview. This week we are looking at what is one of the more obscure mechs currently available in plastic, the Mercury! A mostly extinct design outside of the hands of Comstar and the Word of Blake, the Mercury is no one’s favorite but is canonically very important for a few reasons, none of which have to do with its quality as a light mech. I am going to level with everyone: I have never once put a Mercury on a table personally, but I know someone who is completely obsessed with the thing so clearly it is doing something right.

I will say that I do love the “just a little guy” energy of this model. He is coming to beat you to death and commit crimes. A fun fact about the Mercury is that the small lasers that this thing has for some fucking reason actually end up creating the Omni-Mech in the lore. They built them to be modular and connect up on the fly for easier repairs, and Clan Coyote would later refine that modular system to accept other weapons and equipment, which led to the Omni-Mechs we all know and tolerate at Thanksgiving despite their problematic views. I just wish Uncle Battle Cobra would stop ranting about how all Spheroids deserve death and that the only way to remain pure as a society is to kill anyone who was exposed to the taint of Spheroid culture. Really makes it hard to focus on the stuffing.

Chassis

The Mercury is a 20 ton certified little guy, a real ankle annihilator. All variants are set up as scout mechs more than line combat units, and the overwhelming majority of them are fast as hell. A few of these are actually fast enough that they were caught by a ban intended to hit the Fireball XF at the tournaments I have run. The way I usually see a Mercury used is as a heat seeking missile, skirmishing a bit with its lasers before going on a 12+ hex long bomb charge run into the back of any assault or heavy on the board that can’t run from it. I don’t think that this is the best usage of the mech, but hey, it is extremely cheap so go nuts. There isn’t a ton of variation between variants, so let’s get into it.

Variants

These mechs have all been reviewed based on a standard F through S scale, which you can find described on our landing page here (along with all of our other ‘mech reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).

MCY-99

Get ready for a wild time because I can’t do these variants in a sane, alphabetical order. Comstar just names a few of their variants with model numbers lower than the base model, because fuck me in particular and fuck my nice number list. Really inconsiderate of those FASA writers like 30 years ago to not think about how this decision would effect me, personally. Bastards.

At 586 BV we are in the mega cheap zone, and it is easy to see. The 99 is a 20 ton light mech and has about the same armor as a space Toyota Hilux, blowing up the second something bigger than a single SRM pack or a medium laser hits it. It moves 8/12[16]/0, a pretty okay amount for the price, and carries 2 medium lasers and 2 very canonically significant small lasers. The right torso has no crits in it, so enjoy taking even more CT crits than you normally would, not that it matters because most things that will crit a side torso on this mech will just, you know, kill it in one shot. Or at least maim it. Leave it with a limp and a wistful urge for the time before it tried to 1v1 an Atlas while blitzed on White Claws.

Below about 700 BV you enter the mega cheap zone. At these prices, basically anything is good because it exists and is that cheap. Grading against the competition, mighty Wasps, Stingers, and converted Industrial Mechs, the 99 is quite good. It has great ground speed, very high TMMs compared to the competition, and exactly enough gun that your opponent has to shoot at it. And if you see an opening, it can do about 30 damage on a rear arc charge if you get Blake’s perfect runup on the back of a Longbow or something.

A Locust would kick the shit out of this and it wouldn’t be super close though, and that rocks. Love this idiot potato robot, I need to get one.

RATING: C+, cheap is as cheap does.

MCY-98

Fuck it, we are going in canonical release order. It’s more pure and honest to the experiences of people at the time, waiting with baited breath for more Mercury variants. A TRO would come out with lame mechs like the Bushwhacker, Stone Rhino, Dire Wolf, and Mad Cat, and people would cry out, “Where is Mr. Mercury! WE WANT THE MERCURY!”

So the MC-98 is a Succ War variant. It is a bit cheaper at 553 BV, and trades the MASC for armor. So you only move 8/12/0. I mean its just a Locust 1E, but it has worse armor allocation with only 8 points in the CT, and doesn’t have the ability to flip its arms, for nearly the same BV. No wonder this thing died out and people stopped making it; when you are heavily and genuinely outcompeted by a fucking Locust you need to very seriously rethink your design. Makes complete sense that the factory stopped making these, what a pointless little potato of a mech.

RATING: D; just get a Locust 1E, it is literally the same mech but better.

MCY-97

We are still counting down. This one was made by the robe boys before the band broke up, and boy it sure does feel like a Clan Invasion era “Upgrade”. This thing is only 466 BV, a lot cheaper than a 99, but it has literally half as much firepower, trading off one medium laser and one small laser to get an active probe. The active probe is only really useful in narrative games or with optional rules, so this is a downgrade in most games. If you are out there regularly playing games with the full detection, double blind, and hidden units rules, respect honestly. Shit sucks to actually game out on the table. But you, specifically, Gregory from Idaho, might like this as an upgrade. Literally no one else on earth would see this as an upgrade though.

This does still have the same funny charge as the 99 for cheaper, so it has that going for it, but if you just want a charge bot there are much better options for this price.

RATING: Bad. D+

MCY-102

Oh shit oh fuck we skipped 100 and 101. I guess the radical breakaway phone boys had some numerology shit going on with those numbers being unlucky. Maybe Stefan Amaris shot 100 AT&T Executives and the one remaining Ouya fan on earth during the coup.

I mean this is still just a little guy, costing 510 BV, but at least this one has a role to play. It carries an ER medium laser, an ER small laser for some fucking reason, and a C3i system. C3i is very powerful, but only if you build your whole force around it. The 102 is a pretty cheap and effective spotter for a C3i force, but if your opponent has ever played against C3i before they will just shoot the spotter dead the moment you close in, or they will have ECM, firmly dunking you into the core of the earth as they turn off your massively expensive force gimmick for no real cost at all.

I mean, if you like C3i it isn’t bad, and also I hope that Operation SCOUR is going well for you. I heard that Apollyon said that if he throws more cyborgs at the problem surely Devlin Stone will negotiate and let the Wobbly Boys keep ruling Terra. He might also reform the Star League and give all Blakist Manei Domini some really sick Heelies. Take this Inferno SRM and meet us over by Port Howard on Towne, we must win, those Heelies are really nice.

RATING: Bad. D-ish in a regular force because there are better options for similar BV; probably a low B in a C3i force if you are good and your opponent forgot ECM.

MCY-104

Mostly identical to the 102 but-wait what the fuck? Why did we skip 103? What did 103 do to these Blakist weirdos and why are they skipping all over the place with these model numbers? I hate it here.

So at 683 BV the 104 is a bit pricy for a Mercury, but does have some decent traits. It upgrades to an XL engine, which is purely an upgrade on a mech like this because you are already dead if you get hit, might as well turbo-mega fucking die instead of just regular dying. The weight from this goes towards extra armor, an extra ER medium laser, and a TAG. If you are playing a game where C3i and TAG are both good, you are a terrorist. TAG only really helps homing Arrow IV and SG LRMs, both of which are so massively toxic to play against that most groups outright ban them. This is more expensive but not really much better. 683 is starting to scrape the top of the mega cheap zone, and I really do not think it is remotely worth the BV cost. Just get a 99; the 99 is fine. Unless you are doing C3i stuff, then it’s cool, I guess.

RATING: Bad. C- ish in a regular force because there are better options for similar BV, probably a B+ in a C3i force if you are good and your opponent forgot ECM. A if you can use TAG to help with SG LRMs or Homing AIV, but also fuck you if you are doing that to people.

MCY-105

Good god finally a linear increase to model number. 105 is a safe number I guess. At 795 BV you are competing with actual mechs, and you are losing with this. It moves 12/18/0 due to an XL engine, and carries 2 ER medium lasers and 2 ER small lasers for tradition reasons. Shockingly mediocre stats for the price, but the value of being able to move 18 hexes without a MASC or Supercharger test cannot be overstated. This is nearly Fire Moth fast. That said, a Fire Moth P will mop the floor with this RAF fuckup for only 50 more BV. The Fire Moth P might be one of the best mechs in the entire game and an unfair yardstick to measure against, but even without that mech this mech just isn’t worth the price. I do like this mech, and I want it to be good, but it just isn’t good. It is a friend though, and that does count for something.

RATING: C is for Cereal.

Conclusion

Let’s be real, you own a Mercury or 2 because it came in the same box as the Highlander and King Crab. If you are going to use it, run it as a 99 or 105. They can do very funny things and even the massively overpriced 105 is still less than 800 BV. At the price range that the Mercury occupies, it is hard to be unplayably bad. As a cheap activation, the Locust and Panther are better, but since, you know, everyone already has a couple of these bouncing around the bottom of a box but might be out of Locusts and Panthers, it is a decent add to your light mech force. Taking a full lance of light mechs is a genuinely great idea in any game, and the Mercury will fill in adequately and not disappoint you too bad, it isn’t an Urbanmech or anything.

Also, I do know that the MCY-100 number is taken by the Mercury II, and the 101 might be taken by the Coyotl, but why would Comstar/the Wobbies feel any need to respect the variant numbers that the fucking Clans took 200 years ago?

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