Who Are Colossus & Magik?

Piotr and Illyana Rasputin are a brother & sister duo of mutants who spend a lot of their time fighting alongside the X-Men.

Piotr has the mutant ability to turn the tissue of his body into an organic, steel-like substance that grants him super strength and increased tolerance to pain. He was first discovered by Professor Charles Xavier when his powers manifested after protecting Illyana from a runaway tractor. Piotr was invited to leave the Soviet collective farm called the Ust-Ordynsky Collective in Siberia to join the X-Men, where he was given the field name of Colossus.

Illyana’s story takes more of a strange turn however. At the age of six, Illyana was kidnapped and taken to Limbo (another dimension filled with demons). Long (and awesome) story short; she was trapped there for many years before managing to escape – now equipped with a Soulsword that she learned to conjure for herself. For Illyana, many years had passed and she was now 16 years old, while only a few seconds had passed on Earth. She was now old enough to join the X-Men at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, much to the dismay of bigger brother Colossus.

Magik’s powers allow her to teleport through time and space. Unfortunately for her, the demonic corruption she experienced in Limbo means that her mutant ability is now intrinsically linked to Limbo, so her teleportation involves going via the fiery demon hellhole. Magik also managed to become the Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo during her time there; so she also has a strong aptitude for the mystical arts.

TLDR; Colossus is a big strong metal boy. Magik is a sword wielding, mystical teleporter with demons.

Colossus

It’s worth noting that this is not the card that will come in the box. Colossus got what we generally consider a ‘buff’ in 2023 (more on that below). This is the updated card you’ll want to use and it can be downloaded here. 

Colossus is a big old hunk of stats. Let’s go through some of the highlights first.

• ✅ Medium base, medium move. He’s fast.
• ✅ Defensive stats of 4/3/3
• ✅ Damage reduction to a minimum of 1
• ✅ Can’t be Pushed by enemy effects (niche but useful)

Quick side note for my personal gripe: Big Brother used to be a ‘bodyguard’, meaning he could take a hit for an ally within Range 2 of him. This felt thematic (basically every comic run will have a moment where Colossus busts through a wall to stop something hitting one of his friends) and really helps Uncanny X-Men in particular as they’re all quite easy to beat up. This was changed when Colossus received a ‘buff’ to more of a ‘taunt’, meaning he now has to be within Range 2 of the attacker to take the hit.

In today’s meta this is far less useful. The kind of models who are going to be gunning for Piotr’s squishier friends are much more likely to have ways of getting around this. If you stand Colossus within Range 2 of an attacker, chances are they can charge past him, throw him away or place themselves outside of his range before making the attack. Colossus may read like a model that can protect your team (and he can at times!) but it’s much harder to pull this off now he can’t stand at the back, within 2 of his allies…and with his lack of mobility.

Colossus’s attacks aren’t great. Fishing for a Wild trigger Stagger on X-Slam is fine if you have the power and are already in position for some Big Brother plays. But often the most effective Colossus activations are double moving him into a position where he’s scoring points or protecting allies. He’s a great Extract holder as he can be tricky to take down. When he is attacked, be careful about how much power you spend on Bozhe Moi as you don’t want to end up with not enough power for Big Brother. Adding two defence dice is fine, but it’s usually not as important as preventing an ally from taking an attack they can’t survive whereas Colossus can.

When your opponent manages to churn through Colossus’ defences and flip him to his injured side, things get more impressive. He keeps his damage reduction, but gains 1 additional health and Bozhe Moi now counts blanks for free instead of adding 2 more dice. This makes him a fair bit harder to take down and leads me to believe that a good game plan for Colossus is to put him in a position that essentially dares your opponent to put resources into damaging him (which is why giving him an Extract is a good idea) as he comes back both powered up and tankier.

All in all, Colossus is okay. When reading his card you may think that he’s the perfect fit if you’re in the market for a tank that protects his allies. Unfortunately, with characters like Honey Badger (so long as she is alongside X-23 for the extra movement granted by Lil’ Sis) and Luke Cage (with Heroes For Hire), there are better choices for this role for less threat.

Magik

Often when people are discussing Magik on the table, the term ‘glass cannon’ is brought up. Magik has defensive tech against mystic attacks specifically thanks to Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo; something that is colloquially known as ‘reverse pierce’ and it’s great. However, a vast majority of attacks in Marvel Crisis Protocol are physical or energy – Magik has zero defensive tech against. This results in Magik getting dazed and KO’d often. Like…all the time.

But what can Magik do with all that power she now has after being beaten up? This is where the cannon part comes in. Darkchylde is a fantastic attack. For the cost of 4 power – you can count both yours and your opponents skulls in the attack. It’s also Range 3, which is nice.

Limbo Step allows her to teleport herself either Range 1, 2 or 3 depending on how much power she spent. This makes it much easier for Magik to get herself into range for Soulsword, which is also a fairly consistent attack thanks to the Wild Pierce trigger.

Mini rant: Why does Ghost Rider’s Hell On Wheels superpower let him travel further/faster than Magik & Nightcrawlers teleports do? I know his motorbike is fast…but teleporting is instantaneous surely?!

This means Magik can reliably expect this pattern of play;

• Round 1: Stand on a back point
• Round 2: Likely get dazed by someone
• Round 3: Activate with lots of power, hope to deal some damage OR double move and limbo step to safety (preferably holding an Extract)
• Round 4: Probably get KO’d
• Round 5: Celebrate that she made it this far

Because of this it feels like the way to get the most out of Magik is to expect her to daze and KO at some point in the game. She is still a 3 threat, so that’s probably okay. She does bring mystic attacks to the table which usually turns off a lot of defensive tech like Spider-Sense and Martial Artist – which is a big deal into the right match ups.

Tactics Cards

Everyone loves a team-up Team Tactic Card. They’re fun, thematic, and it doesn’t get much more flavourful than Colossus yeeting Wolverine at some poor unfortunate soul. Paying 1 each for this card is great value. The target rolling fewer defence dice is great. Wolverine is size 3 when he is thrown meaning you’re sending 4 guaranteed damage at your opponent and then giving them the Bleed special condition. It’s great.

It can also be used for objective play if you are running these two in Uncanny X-Men.

In Round 1, when using the Team Tactic Card First Class, Wolverine can move to within 2 of Colossus and get thrown towards an Extract on the midline. He can then grab it for free thanks to First Class – and then move back to safety with his remaining action. It’s not exactly what this card was intended for, and X-Men already have a ton of safe grabs available to them, but it’s good to know nonetheless!

Journey Through Limbo is a great card both thematically and strategically. Sending a target to Limbo and back, with them returning on fire feels very much like Illyana’s vibe. But there are some extra juicy parts of this card to note;

• This can work on allies. If someone has been put out of position, Illyana can use this to bring them back into the fight. Sure, they’re now Incinerated, but hey, maybe it’s Beta Ray Bill she’s bringing back in? He’s immune to Incinerate!
• This card doesn’t care what size the target is. Size 3+ models are trickier to displace in MCP, but this card doesn’t care what size you are. Use it to put Sentinel Prime MK4 back in its place!

Magik hits hard when a) she has the power and b) the dice go her way. Once she has been dazed (which will happen a lot) she likely has the power to play this card and Darkchylde someone who is now Incinerated. The maths would indicate that this is a good chunk of damage coming their way.

There is another cool synergy available here with fellow mutant Pyro. The guaranteed Incinerate means Magik can use Journey Through Limbo to place a target within Range 3 of Pyro, who can then use their trademark card Pyrotechnics to force them to drop any Extracts they are holding. Because Pyrotechnics does not need to be played during Pyro’s turn, this allows Magik to pick up an Extract and run away with it. Fun right?!

Affiliations

Uncanny X-Men

As mentioned in our X-Men: Blue, Gold or Gifted? article, Storm loves a medium base on the squad. Colossus provides this, as well as offering the team some much needed tankiness (something which X-Men rosters severely lack).

Cyclops rosters tend to want to be in fights more, so having a tanky bodyguard in the form of Piotr is a welcome addition. We often see Wolverine here too, meaning Fastball Special fits in a Cyclops roster more than most.

Magik, however, fits more nicely in a Professor X led X-Men roster. Charles wants his students to be using superpowers as often and as early as possible. Magik can do this immediately with the use of First Class. As the first activation in a round, she can move to a midline extract, grab it for free (thanks to First Class) and then pay 1 to Limbo Step backwards. This acts as a pseudo-safe grab skin to Toad, as she is a bit further back than she should be, making it a little harder to attack her Round 1. The Limbo Step will of course then trigger the leadership, allowing someone else to do some round 1 shenanigans.

X-Force

Much like his dad Cyclops, Cable wants his X-Force to be in the fight. Being affiliated, Colossus finds a welcome home here.

Convocation

Magik is also affiliated to home of the wizards and mystic arts: the Convocation. Their leadership is somewhat unique, in that it can be assigned to any affiliated Convocation member. Being a 3 threat leader is a great strength in itself, although you will want to keep Magik towards the back and out of trouble so that you don’t risk losing your leadership ability too early in the game.

New Mutants

One of the newest affiliations to hit Marvel Crisis Protocol at the time of writing is New Mutants! Magik has been elected as their leader and comes with a very interesting leadership ability:

A lot can be discussed with this leadership that is probably best saved for a New Mutants affiliation overview, but in short, there is a lot of emergent play to be uncovered with the ability to move allies around this much. 

Want your Hulk or Magneto to get stuck in? Use this to teleport them in to help the baby mutants defend themselves.

Need to get Magik and her friends out of trouble? Use this to disengage and get them to safety.

It’s a new leadership with a ton of possibilities, so we’ll leave the rest for a future article.

Conclusion

In short, the thematics of the Rasputin duo is pretty cool. While Colossus has impressive defensive stats, he drastically lacks out of activation movement or ways to displace enemy models…making him more often than not feeling like he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On the other hand, Magik really shows us the meaning of the phrase ‘Glass Cannon’. Easy to squish, scary to suffer a retaliation from. Her lack of dice consistency often leaves her feeling like she emphasises the ‘can’ part of cannon a little too much…but 1 in every 3 games with her, you’ll really see how she claimed her title of Queen of Limbo.

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