Do You Know Who I Am?

Since his first appearance in X-Men #12 to the Oscar-worthy portrayal of him in X-Men: The Last Stand by esteemed character actor Vinnie Jones, Juggernaut has been a fan favourite enemy of the X-Men.

Cain Marko, the half-brother of Professor Charles Xavier, first got his powers when he became the Avatar of Cyttorak, an extra-dimensional being hailing from the Crimson Cosmos (comic books, right?). He isn’t a mutant! You’d be forgiven for assuming that he was given that he often pops up in X-Men related stories, smashing buildings and cars at the side of Magneto and the rest of the Brotherhood of Mutants.

Family feuds are powerful motivators it seems – enough for Cain to spend most of his time wearing a helmet made of thick mystic metal strong enough to block out his half-brother’s telepathic powers. Besides this, super strength and extreme durability, Juggernaut’s power generally manifests itself as one of his favourite catchphrases; ‘Nothing Stops The Juggernaut’. So let’s see how all of this translates into Marvel: Crisis Protocol.

Juggernaut

First thing’s first: Do not underestimate the Short move Cain has on his profile. He is sitting pretty on a 65mm base, the largest you can get in MCP. That translates to a surprising amount of distance each time he moves.

So let’s get into that movement. Unstoppable Momentum is the first key to Juggernauts unstoppable kit. The first time he moves each turn, he gains 2 power. This means that Juggernaut has no problem generating the power he needs to do his thing. This also grants him 3 extra dice on his next attack, meaning a standard turn for Juggernaut is to move once, and then launch an 8 dice attack at someone. This will generate him power equal to the damage he deals, unlocking the next part of his kit…

Nothing Stops The Juggernaut. I mentioned this phrase in the intro – and for good reason. This is where Juggernaut absolutely shines. For 3 power, he can push himself short, damaging the first character he hits. He also destroys all Size 3 or lower terrain in his path, but we’ll come back to that later. Sounds cool right? But here’s the part that makes this ability truly unstoppable: IT ISN’T LIMITED TO ONCE PER TURN! Juggernaut can do this for as long as he has power, which he will have no problem gaining thanks to what we spoke about earlier with Unstoppable Momentum.

Fun Fact: Juggernaut is often played on Mutant Extremists Target U.S Senators because Nothing Stops The Juggernaut isn’t a move action, meaning he can move multiple times while holding the Extract.

Juggernaut can easily get from one side of the map to the other with the right amount of power. Moving grants him 2 power – and with an 8 dice builder which is likely to gain him some more, you’ll find that a turn where you ask yourself “Can Juggernaut get there?”, the answer is much more often than not – YES.

Nice Punch is also a key part to Cain’s kit. He can spend 1 power to reduce damage suffered by 1. Yes that goes to zero – and yes that can reduce damage from non-enemy effects. Has he been thrown into something? Pay 1 to take nothing. Is he holding a Cube in the Cleanup Phase? Pay 1 to take nothing. This, plus a huge health pool of 8 on both healthy and injured sides all adds up to Juggernaut being a real nasty piece of work to try and take down.

Next we have the creatively-named Helmet superpower. This is yet another thematic win from AMG translating Marko into the game. While on his healthy side, Cain cannot be the subject of many effects from mystic attacks or superpowers. This makes him much harder to control, meaning yet again…nothing (or at least…not much) can stop the Juggernaut from doing what he needs to do. That is of course until he ends up on his injured side…

I tend not to speak much about the injured side of characters in MCP. But Juggernaut is absolutely worth speaking about. In the cartoons and comics, the way to take Juggs down is to remove his helmet – and this has been translated masterfully into MCP in the form of this side of his card.

First off – Helmet is gone. Juggernaut can now be pushed and advanced by enemy superpowers (for some reason, spiderwebs now work on him…), is subject to special effects from mystic attacks and perhaps worst of all, his mystic defence is now down from a respectable 5 to a measly 2.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. He does gain a new superpower in the form of Avatar Of Cyttorak. A size 3 medium throw for either terrain or character is a very handy addition here. Plus it’s for 3 power, which we already know is an easy amount for Juggs to rack up, thanks to Unstoppable Momentum.

Tactics Cards

Juggernaut comes with two tactics cards, but we’re only going to focus on one here – as it’s a phenomenal card that you will want to bring with you every time you take Juggernaut…and that card is;

As we’ve seen a couple times so far, getting 3 power on Juggernaut is no problem at all. 1 from the power phase + 2 from making his first move action means paying the cost for this card is trivial. Throwing terrain with this card is fine. Size 4 terrain getting thrown Long is pretty huge. However, I think that the real strength of Do You Know Who I Am? shows itself when you throw characters.

Deploying Juggernaut in line with an Extract you expect your opponent to pick up means you can move twice to the midline and end up in Range 2 of them. Because Juggs gets his 2 power for his first move action each turn thanks to Unstoppable Momentum, he now has the power to immediately play Do You Know Who I Am? and throw them long back towards the deployment line, ready for your team to claim that Extract for themselves.

Do You Know Who I Am? can also be used to throw a scary model far away from your team. Scared of Hulk doing Hulk things? Throw him away Long.

Worried about Iron Fist activating you with The Iron Fist? Throw him away Long.

Models with ways to place themselves or with a charge won’t be as affected by this. So it’s important to know who you’re throwing and why. But a key bit of displacement like this at the right time can be game winning.

Affiliations for Juggernaut

This first one’s easy – Brotherhood Of Mutants is clearly where Juggernaut was built to be played in for several reasons.

He loves to smash the place up. Under Magneto, whenever any terrain is destroyed, the team gains power. Juggernaut sliding himself through terrain with Nothing Stops The Juggernaut means he can trigger the leadership reliably – and often, while he’s on his way to do something else. He essentially can always space a moment  to smash a lamppost on the way through.

This also gives Juggernaut a neat little trick on Round 1. If he activates first, he can move once towards the midline, which will gain him 2 power. He can then spend 3 power for Nothing Stops The Juggernaut to crash through some terrain (any size, it doesn’t matter – but you might want to save the size 3s for Magneto to throw at someone later) which will trigger the leadership. Pop a power on Juggernaut which he can now use to pick up the midline extract he just pushed himself towards. But guess what…he has an action left! He can now move back towards safety – and your opponent can now say goodbye to that Extract for a good few rounds.

Note that this can also be achieved when using Mystique’s leadership: 1 power is refunded after Juggernaut pays 1 to pick up an Extract. Meaning move, move & pick up will result in Juggernaut having the 3 power he needs to push himself back to safety. No lamppost destruction required.

Another key to Brotherhood of Mutants that Juggernaut helps activate is Asteroid M;

Making the most of Magneto is key. He is one of the most reliable 6 threat damage dealers in the game. We can’t have him wasting his actions moving when he could be crushing homosapien skulls instead. Juggernaut is a great partner for Magneto to Asteroid M to – as he can make it possible in Round 1 without any outside assistance. Juggs can move twice to the midline (arriving there with 3 power, as we know), pay 1 to pick up an extract – and then hold onto the remaining 2 power until the time is right to bring in the master of magnetism.

Another affiliation that welcomes Juggernaut with open arms is Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngers (Uncanny X-Men). It feels like Cain & Charles have rekindled their brotherly love here – as this is nothing short of a dream pairing.

Professor X likes it when people bring superpowers they can use every turn. He LOVES it when people bring superpowers they can use on your opponent’s turn. Juggernaut has both! Utilising Nothing Stops The Juggernaut alongside Nice Punch makes him an absolute battery for the rest of the team.

Another affiliation that is worth highlighting for Juggernaut here is Kingpin’s Criminal Syndicate. When contesting Secures under Kingpin, healthy models count as 2 for the sake of scoring. So simply put, Kingpin likes big tanky boys who are hard to displace. Juggernaut tickets all the boxes there.

Conclusion

Some common mistakes are subjecting him to an Energy attack beating, using Do You Know Who I Am? to throw terrain instead of characters – and viewing him as an attrition piece whose job it is to deal lots of damage. Marko’s true role in MCP is being a mobile tank who gets to where he is most needed on the board.

If you manage to avoid these traps, then it’s only a matter of time until you feel that Juggernaut truly is an absolute powerhouse that requires a fair amount of effort to take down. His ability to fund the power cost of his kit by himself makes him a reliable splash in any affiliation – and a key piece in the affiliations that he synergises well with.

Nothing. Stops. The. Juggernaut.

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