Cyclops

It’s worth noting that this is not the card that will come in the box. Cyclops got a handful of changes to his kit in 2023. This is the updated card you’ll want to use and it can be downloaded here. 

Now let’s start with me getting some personal bias off my chest. Cyclops is one of my favourite comic book characters. He is equal in leadership ability to Captain America and yet on both screen and in MCP, my boy Scott gets done dirty. Before the 2023 errata, his leadership was seen as the worst in the game. Now it is…marginally better. But we’re not going to focus too much on the leaderships here – that can wait for when we do a deep dive into the X-Men leaderships on offer. Let’s move swiftly onto what Cyclops brings to the table by his own merit…

Optic Blast is a really decent attack. You need the dice to show up for you for sure – but when they do, oh boy you’re going to feel like Cyclops is living up to his comic book counterpart. A Wild trigger for a Size 3 push is great. But the real juice comes from the Hit + Wild trigger for Speed of Sight. This let’s Scott fire off another attack for free, which has its own chance to generate some power and push another target off a Secure. When Cyclops hits a couple of these a game; it feels great. Trouble is, that doesn’t always happen.

He also needs to be in a good position to make the most of Speed of Sight. If there are no other targets in Range 4 of him, the trigger gets wasted. Thankfully, he has Hit and Run which can help him find the sweet spot among the brawl. After a few games with Cyclops you will start to get a feel for where he wants to stand. It’ll feel like you’ve really been putting the reps in the Danger Room with him. That feeling becomes even more of a high when you combine it with his next ability.

Field Leader is one of the most coveted abilities in the game. Out of activation movement is key in MCP. It can help get an ally into position for a double attack turn…or move a displaced ally back onto a Secure…it can even be used in fun ways like moving Honey Badger to within 1 of a target – and then shooting them now that they are suffering from her Anklebiter ability. Field Leader is the best part of Scotts kit – and when he can get the power to use it, you will really feel like you’re leading the X-Men as a well oiled unit fresh out of the academy. 

One very important thing to note here however – Field Leader can only move a character once per turn; meaning you can move multiple characters with this ability, so long as you have the power. This leads to the problem of chasing the high of Cyclops going nuts with his Optic Blast so that he can fund multiple Field Leaders every round. You’ll be chasing that high my friend…and it’ll come up once in every five games…if you’re lucky. Good luck!

Quick Draw is cute. It can help Cyclops defend himself from range which is nice. I’d recommend only doing this on small attacks (4 or 5 dice) as you risk spending his power on an okay ability – when you could just save it for some Field Leader shenanigans later.

Now the part of Cyclops’ card that people seem drawn to when they first look at it is Optic Devastation. This is a trap. Sure, a Range 5 Beam is nuts. If you can hit 3 or more targets with this, it’s probably worth the 4 power you’ll spend on it. But if you’re only looking at 1-2 targets, the 4 power can be far better spent on Field Leaders. It also has my vote for the worst trigger in the game; Suppression. You’re hoping to hit them hard with this, which will give them a lot of power. Then they’ll lose 1 or 2 because you rolled a couple wilds…big whoop…

Don’t get me wrong, under Cyclops’ leadership, Optic Devastation has some game. You want to throw out lots of attacks to get the most amount of leadership triggers, so that makes sense. But people rate this attack way higher than they should. Optic Blast & Speed of Sight are far better aspects of Scott’s skills to chase after.

Storm

This is also not the card that will come in the box. Storm had her leadership nerfed in 2023…but it came with a couple tiny but very nice buffs This is the updated card you’ll want to use and it can be downloaded here. 

As with Cyclops, we’re not going to go too in depth with the leadership here. But one thing of note with the changes they made to it is that it now stacks with cover whereas it didn’t before. This rewards X-Men players with strategic placement around terrain, as they become quite hard to take down from range once they’ve mastered the art of finding cover.

One real cool synergy with Storm’s kit is the interplay between Goddess Of Storms (also known as ‘Stealth’ on most other characters in the game) and Lightning Bolt. Storm can hit targets at Range 4 without giving them the opportunity to hit her back from the same Range. This makes her excellent at standing back and blasting from afar. Eye Of The Storm is great value too. Similar to Iron Man’s Friday AI; Storm can spend two power to boost her next attack by 2. This is great on Lightning Bolt, as she is then more likely to have the power refunded thanks to the extra damage the dice may bring, but it’s also very good on Ice Blizzard as it gives her the extra dice on every attack in the beam. For just two power!

Then we come to Hurricane. I’ll be honest, I’ve played 1000+ games with Storm and I think I’ve used this attack once. Primarily because once Storm is in a position where she’s surrounded by enemies, she probably doesn’t have long left on the table. But also because she has much better ways to spend her power (which we’ll get onto next). The guaranteed damage to enemies with Flight is extremely situational, but I can see it being useful in clutch situations. Boosting the dice for each attack in this Range 2 area hit is nice, but then we’re talking 6 power which is verging on the pricey side. Especially when she has this next part of her kit available…

Tempest is deceptively amazing. Ignore the terrain part of this throw; it’s fine, but that’s not why we’re here. Being able to grab a Size 2 character from Range 3 is huge. Mid-late game, once Storm has the power she needs, she can move off the Secure she’s been standing on since Round 1, throw an already-activated Size 2 enemy off a Secure – and then move back to where she started. This coupled with a few Range 4 Lightning Bolts she’s no doubt been sending their way, Storm can be a real nuisance.

Storm’s power as a leader also comes from the fact that she is a 3 threat (let alone the fact that it’s one of the strongest leaderships in the game). This creates more space for roster creation – and means you don’t have to feel so bad about keeping her at the back out of harm’s way. Some games are dictated by how well the first couple of Lightning Bolts go for Storm. If she builds up a good amount of power for herself, she starts to feel like a displacement machine. 

She is fragile though. You’ll probably want to avoid her getting hit with terrain throws where possible. You’ll also want to keep an eye open during deployment. Tempest is limited to Size 2 characters only; so deploying her opposite a Rhino or Lizard will be the perfect storm for Ororo getting bullied for that game.

Tactics Cards

This card is a staple for Uncanny X-Men. They are considered to be one of the pay-to-flip experts of MCP (you know…those Secures you have to pay to interact with…). This card lets them do all kinds of tricks that we won’t get into here; but primarily – it allows them to both pick up an Extract and flip a Secure in Round 1. This removes the power tax most other teams have to suffer from when playing on these Secures.

You don’t want to play this every game. The trick to understanding Uncanny X-Men comes down to knowing which games are First Class games and which are not. But a good rule of thumb can be; “How much power will this card save me?”. If it’s 1-3, it’s probably not worth it. If it’s 4+ across your whole team, that’s pretty X-traordinary and you should play it.

This card is thematic, fun and powerful. It used to be seen as a budget Avengers Assemble, but people have grown to now consider this to be just as powerful, if not better in some scenarios.

Head to VodkaBlitz’s X-Men blog to learn all about the turn 1 shenanigans that can be achieved with To Me My X-Men (especially when combined with Storm’s leadership). There’s a ton of safe midline grab opportunities with this card. But it can also be saved until later in the game for massive effect. Has Cyclops taken a beating and now has a ton of power? Have a bunch of X-Men been pushed & thrown out of position? A 3+ power To Me My X-Men can really change the board state to the mutants favour. The flexibility this card offers makes it a must take in every X-Men game in my opinion.

This card is extremely situational. There aren’t many matchups in MCP that rely on dishing out conditions (Baron Strucker’s Hydra and Apocalypse certainly come to mind however). Plus, special conditions aren’t that crippling most of the time; certainly not enough to warrant a Team Tactic Card slot just for the sake of getting 1 mutant out of trouble.

However, Stagger is a special condition and it is crippling. If you’re expecting to get Staggered a bunch (maybe they have a Black Cat or a Wrecking Crew) then this card increases in value significantly.

Children Of The Atom should definitely be in your 10. But it will occasionally and situationally appear in your 5.

Affiliations

Uncanny X-Men

These 2 are both capable X-Men leaders. Storm’s win rate has always been considerably higher than Cyclop’s, but they both have a place and offer extremely different playstyles.

Cyclops doesn’t offer Storm much for her gameplan. But Storm under Cyclops is rather interesting. The extra dice she gives herself with Eye Of The Storm makes her more likely to push through damage and trigger the leadership. It’s also worth restating that Eye Of The Storm works on her beam and area attacks, giving her lots of extra dice to help trigger the leadership. Plus Storm loves being given bonus power so she can fund more of her kit.

Both Ororo and Scott however do fit nicely under Professor Xavier. They both have cheap superpowers that can be used both during their turns and their opponents – and they both have fantastic ways to spend the extra power granted by the leadership.

Wakanda

Honouring the marriage of T’Challa and Ororo, Atomic Mass Games have given Storm her rightful place on the Wakanda affiliation list.

With the use of Spirit Of Wakanda, she can really get her gameplan kickstarted early. The extra power allows her more uses of Eye Of The Storm in combination with Lightning Bolt, which will hopefully keep her nicely powered up for the entire game.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this box has great value for any X-Men fan. While their cards don’t do the characters from the comics or cartoons anywhere near enough justice, they are both great team players and really enable an Uncanny X-Men to come alive.

First Class and To Me My X-Men are to this day; staple cards in every X-Men roster. Which says a lot for cards that have been around for a couple of years now! If you’re looking to get some games in with Xavier’s mutants, this box is absolutely the right place to start.

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