On Friday, February 7, Atomic Mass Games dropped some unexpected updates to Marvel Crisis Protocol. As opposed to their vaguely annual updates that affect a wider array of character cards, Team Tactics Cards, and/or Crisis cards, this update is a more surgical strike to tone down some of the most problematic elements of MCP. However, no changes exist in isolation. While the tweaks themselves can be found in AMG’s update PDF (here), the Banned and Restricted list (here), and the Affiliation Document (here) – in addition to some new keywords added to the rulebook that hitherto do not affect the game – they’ll undoubtedly ripple out to affect a larger swath of the competitive scene. Here are the biggest winners and losers from the update.
What Changed?
- Thanos nerfed
- Thor, Hero of Midgard nerfed
- Reality Gem nerfed
- Hellfire Club no longer an open affiliation
- Brother In Arms banned
- Two New Keywords, Peerless and Reserve, added (no current gameplay effects)
Loser: Thanos
While Thanos isn’t the only thing to take a direct hit in this update, he seems to have been taken down the most (while also receiving some very small buffs).
What Changed with Thanos?
- Thanos can only use active and reactive superpowers granted by Infinity Gems for free in the Black Order affiliation (the effect is now part of his leadership).
- The throw trigger on Thanos’ builder changed from Wild to Hit Wild.
- Cosmic Portal can now only affect allied characters, not enemies.
- The timing of Death’s Decree has changed to be when the attack dice pool is created, not when an ally targets an enemy with an attack.
- Thanos now has his healthy-side leadership (1 VP for KOing an enemy model). However, it no longer triggers when KOing grunts.
Oh, Thanos. Few people likely disagree that Thanos deserves to be a powerful force in Marvel Crisis Protocol given his general popularity and influence in Marvel Comics and the MCU, but AMG has had an incredibly difficult time getting the Mad Titan to feel right on the table. This is his fourth nerf – first, AMG changed what the Infinity Gems do and how they work in rosters, then they restricted two of the most popular Gems, then they nerfed Thanos directly, and now he’s gotten far sterner changes. While these changes probably see Thanos largely disappear from the competitive scene (unless more Black Order updates come later this year), it’s hard to argue that going a bit too far isn’t the safer option than doing too little for the fourth time. After all, a model under the curve is undoubtedly disappointing to fans of that model and its affiliation(s), but a broken model does more harm to the overall health of the game.
While his changes are fairly self-explanatory, the end result is that Thanos now has a significantly tighter power economy, and he simply can’t do everything he used to with regularity. Moreover, the change to Cosmic Portal means he can no longer kidnap enemy models on round 1 to the same degree. He can still Mind Gem them in if he has it, but gone are the days of using Space Gem and walking forward once, then using Cosmic Portal to pull in an enemy, then using Mind Gem to do it again, then still getting to punch them.
Will the free Gem use in Black Order be enough to keep him viable there? Maybe, but the Cosmic Portal change is still reasonably damning, and another change discussed later hurts another part of the Black Order roster.
Winner: Apocalypse
The Servants of the Apocalypse is a powerful affiliation, and it’s led by the intimidating, 6-threat Apocalypse himself. While the affiliation has seen success in the competitive scene, the previous meta was, unfortunately, hostile to the First Mutant. While Apocalypse hits hard on offense, his defenses are underwhelming for his threat. However, this is mitigated by a superpower that lets him heal one damage after an attack targeting him is resolved or after he’s given a condition he’s immune to. That’s a wonderful superpower when defending against a high number of weak or medium-strength attacks, but it doesn’t do much against huge dice pools.
Thor, Hero of Midgard, was great at dunking Apocalypse with attacks, and Thanos’s Death’s Decree let many other models do the same. With both models toned down in this update, two of Apocalypse’s best natural predators will likely see far less play. The Age of Apocalypse may indeed be upon us. Speaking of Thor…
Loser: Thor, Hero of Midgard
Thor: Hero of Midgard has been dominating the competitive scene since his release last year, and to most, his nerfs have been a question of “when” and not “if” for months. Well, they’re finally here, so is the God of Thunder still worthy?
What Changed with Thor?
- Odin’s Ire builder dropped from 7 dice to 6 and from range 3 to 2
- Have At Thee! superpower cost increased from 3 to 4
Thor’s nerfs aren’t large in number, and reading the bullet points paints a pretty clear picture of how he’ll be affected. He’s got to get much closer to hit people, and when he does he doesn’t hit quite as hard. Moreover, the cost of his self-throw going up means it’s a more significant investment to pull off.
A big change to Thor’s play pattern will be that he can no longer put significant pressure on the midline without help. Formerly, he could move once, attack with 7 dice, push the enemy if he rolled a Hit and Wild, then throw terrain or himself at the enemy (or both if he rolled particularly hot). Now, a range 2 attack won’t allow that and he’ll need some help from Loki to move up before his activation. Moreover, when he gets there, throwing one fewer die means he’s slightly less likely to afford the other things on his card right away.
However, Thor is still scary. Once he gets his power economy going and he’s staunchly up in the brawl, he will essentially feel the same outside of throwing one fewer die on builders. Thor will likely continue to see very regular play in his home affiliation, where he also benefits from some exceptional TTCs but will be a more limited splash elsewhere.
Winner: Hulk
With Thor sitting in a fairer place and Thanos taken down quite a bit, the list of splashable 6+ threats looks quite trim. I’d still expect to see several of them make regular appearances in their home affiliations, but it seems likely that big, impactful five-threat splashes may become more popular. However, Hulk remains one of the best models in the game and is versatile enough to help out several list archetypes.
Moreover, it’s not just that Hulk has lost competition – he’s also lost two models who were very good at taking him out. Thor could go toe-to-toe with him in a brawl, and Thanos could both throw him into his allies and empower other characters to hit Hulk harder. With two natural enemies out of the way, Hulk may step fully back into the spotlight once again.
Loser: Hellfire Club
Hellfire Club was the second “open affiliation” in MCP, and the ability to take any model they liked, paired with a compelling leadership, gave them an unusually high win rate – even if their play rate never completely took off. However, AMG has unexpectedly given them an actual affiliation list.
Make no mistake: they’re undoubtedly worse off now. HFC can pretty easily splash the most effective models that they used to play, but their affiliation list doesn’t have much that supports that plan. As such, they likely shift a bit more midrange with some of their fightier models. With the update, AMG also unrestricted the leadership card, so they do get access to one more restricted TTC. However, the trade-off still puts them behind where they were overall by a decent margin.
Winner: Sif
Sif is a great model who’s been overshadowed by other excellent characters in her affiliation. Specifically, with Brothers in Arms requiring Bill and Thor and still showing up in many Asgard lists after being restricted, Sif was often the second choice at her threat level. Given the affiliation is stacked with high-threat models, it wasn’t super common to see two 4s on the table at once. Now that Brothers and Arms has been banned, Bill will likely see a bit less play in Asgard, opening the door for Sif. Fortunately, with solid defenses and great offensive output, she’s far from a consolation prize.
While those may be the biggest winners and losers, the effects of AMG’s February Update will undoubtedly ripple across more of the meta. Read on for more voices from the Goonhammer team about how they think this shake-up will play out.
WakeDrannor: Boy, this is a real kick in the teeth for Black Order, huh? Nobody thinks Thanos was fine in his pre-nerf form, given the way we always seemed one innovation away from another list centered around the big purple galoot terrorizing tables everywhere, but this is probably a step too far. He’s gone from being in conversation as the game’s premier splashable control piece to likely lacking the ability to effectively exert the level of control he needs to in his own affiliation. The bottom line is that Thanos at 8 threat (with two gems) feels to me like he’s going to struggle to do 8 threat worth of work, even in Black Order- his control is so much worse and his contribution to the team’s damage output outside of the niche change to Death’s Decree didn’t increase at all. If this had been accompanied by buffs to some of the Black Order models who haven’t been seeing play (obviously Supergiant, but you could argue Black Dwarf and the now-Reality Gem-less Corvus Glaive wouldn’t have minded a touch or two), this might work out in the wash, but it’s almost all nerfs to an affiliation we already weren’t seeing a lot of. I don’t think that changes here.
The people I think make out like bandits in this new environment are the recently surging Midnight Sons, who sit unscathed watching the other two lists generally considered to be at the top of the heap taking pretty hard knocks (and given their weakness towards energy attacks, they especially like seeing Thor2 take a hit). Immortal Hulk is going to get his chance to be the new biggest and baddest kaiju on the block (though OG Hulk is going to have a thing or two to say about that as well)- we’ll see what he makes of it.
Another dark horse potential winner I want to call out is Mephisto and his Legion of the Lost. Now stay with me- he’s one more threat than Emma Frost, and his leadership is no “My Hellfire Club” in terms of its applications. However, he’s also now the likely king of the “just take a collection of the best models in the game” affiliations. Is that enough to make him a threat? Time will tell. The ongoing balance problems with “no affiliation list” affiliations that AMG (correctly) identified in their article about the errata certainly potentially apply here, too- and in Dark Dimension and Thralls of Dracula, although those are certainly a bit more cumbersome/less powerful respectively. It will be interesting to see if they feel down the line that they need to adjust these as well for the same reason they had to address Hellfire Club.
Finally, I think it’s just worth mentioning, the biggest winner of all here may be roster construction- prior to these updates, every roster of any competitive merit had to start with “How do I handle Thor2/Thanos?” and contort their choices to address those mega-threats. A lot of roster design real estate has opened up here, and that’s both good for the game and an enormous quality of life improvement for the player base. It’s an exciting time to be building rosters!
Between this and the scenario pack changes AMG has recently unveiled, it seems pretty clear their intent is to get away from an attrition meta while also reining in the wildest excesses of some of the scenario teams. We’ll have to see!
Alfred_Pharius: It’s an exciting time to be playing MCP at the moment. As Wake mentioned it seems that AMG wants the game to move from pure attrition and pure scenario to a more midrange focused environment. When looking at the affiliations as a whole the majority fit into this midrange definition in one way or another. Teams that were pretty good at fighting but not the best like X-Force and Defenders can suddenly compete when they were pushed out by Thanos and Asgard before. Similarly Web Warriors lose a little with Paranioa Pummels Populace rotating out of standard though they haven’t lost as much as the attrition teams so time will tell if they become more of a problem.
What I particularly like about some of these changes to Thor and Thanos are that their best home is in their own affiliation rather than as splashes elsewhere. Thanos gets access to his gem powers in Black order and Thor has access to Asgard’s great team tactics cards like Odin’s Blessing and Rainbow bridge.
My slight criticism is that there are more characters than these two that need a balance pass. I’m hopeful that this round of changes were just a band aid for the most problematic ones and that we get another set of character balance later in the year to even the playing field. Sin and original crossbones have been sat on my shelf for far too long…
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