Who Are Magneto & Toad?
Max Eisenhart, Eric Lehnsherr, Magnus — he has many names. But the name that most people have grown to fear and know him by is Magneto. Powered by the near limitless ability to manipulate metal, summon force fields and at times reach out and touch the earth’s magnetic poles themselves – Magneto is a force to be reckoned with both on the page, on the screen and in Marvel Crisis Protocol.
Flanked by his loyal sidekick and character pack buddy Mortimer Toynbee; a mutant with a prehensile tongue and the ability to leap long distances – this pair make up the solid foundation that is the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Magneto
First let’s get one thing straight. Magneto brings destruction to Marvel Crisis Protocol. From his aptly named leadership “From The Ruins…” that rewards his team with power for destroying terrain, to his unique ability to throw near-infinite amounts of terrain at his enemies – Magneto is here to deal DAMAGE.
His builder Reverse Polarity is fantastic – and one of the more reliable attacks in MCP. Let’s break it down.
While within Range 2 of the target, Magneto may re-roll any number of attack dice. So not accounting for skulls, this attack ends up being something in the realm of a 8-10 dice attack when it needs to be, which for a builder is really good.
While outside of Range 2 of the target however, Magneto gets a guaranteed sizeless push in any direction. This means that if he really wants to daze or KO the target, he can use this to push them towards him so that he is within Range 2 for re-rolls next time.
If he would prefer to keep them at bay, he can push them away. It’s guaranteed. It’s sizeless. It’s awesome.
His builder is so good, I actually recommend that you ignore his spender Shrapnel Blast almost entirely. The lack of re-rolls on this means it isn’t as reliable as Reverse Polarity – and it destroys terrain that Magneto would otherwise be throwing at people. The guaranteed Stun on it is no joke though. There will be situations where you can use this attack to dish out 2+ Stuns on key models. But for 90% of the time, I think you want to be focusing on Shrapnel Blast and this next ability…
Fatal Attraction is Magneto’s ‘signature move’ and in my opinion, the biggest thematic win in the entire game. Magneto can throw as much terrain as he needs to, simply paying 1 extra power each time he does so. This is what makes Magneto so destructive. Throwing terrain is one of the best ways to ensure damage going into your opponent (and is why the Tactics Card Brace For Impact is still the #1 most taken card after all this time) and Magneto is the master (of magnetism) at it.
There is a fun game you can play when your opponent has brought Brace For Impact. Just keep throwing size 2s and 3s at them. Magneto’s Reverse Polarity is so reliable at building power for him, he can wait until Brace has been used – and then start throwing the size 3s and 4s. They can’t block them all.
Master of Magnetism is another neat trick that Max has in his arsenal. The extra defence dice are nice, but being able to save himself from being Pushed or Thrown is the real key part.
Magneto struggles greatly with displacement. You’ve spent 6 whole threat for him to be on the field – so your game plan is always going to be getting the most out of each of his activations. You want every action he spends to be making an attack into someone. If he gets displaced, then you’re going to need to waste an action moving – and with a short move, that doesn’t feel very good.
Every time you make a move action with Magneto, you should ask yourself why that has happened – and could it have been prevented?
Which leads us into probably the most important tool available when playing Magneto…
Asteroid M is a Brotherhood of Mutants affiliated Tactics Card. Most of the time (but to be honest…I actually mean all of the time) you are going to be using this to get Magneto into position without moving. This will require 2 power from both Magneto and the ally he is teleporting to. In Round 1, this is easy. Magneto starts with 2 power thanks to Master of Magnetism, now all he needs is an ally who can get 2 power in Round 1.
Option 1: Juggernaut. Cain Marko gains 2 power the first time he moves each turn. This means he can move once, gain 2 power, move again, pick up an Extract and still have 2 power left for Asteroid M.
Option 2: Use the leadership. Another ally can do their usual Round 1 activities – moving and picking up an Extract. If you then destroy two separate pieces of terrain, you can use Magneto’s leadership From The Ruins to throw 2 power their way, thus bringing Asteroid M online.
But how do we destroy two terrain pieces in Round 1? There are a couple of ways;
Juggernaut can spend the 3 power he has after moving for the first time to use Nothing Stops The Juggernaut to destroy terrain he pushes himself through.
Magneto himself can throw terrain into nothing (weird one, but yes – it can be done!). Pay 2, throw a car into thin air, pass 2 power out across the team. Magneto can also throw a size 2 piece of terrain into a size 1 piece of terrain, destroying both of them. This will generate 3 power for the team, for the cost of 2 – bargain!
Characters with terrain throws available on Round 1 are useful to splash into Brotherhood for this same trick. Lockjaw for example, starts his activation with 3 power so long as he activates within 2 of an ally thanks to Who’s a Good Boy? – which allows him to use Drop It! and generate power for the rest of the team.
There is however, strength in saving this card until later in the game. Once Asteroid M has been spent, Magneto is stuck where he is. If the opponent is able to pivot their team to the other side of the board, Magneto is going to have to spend precious actions moving to catch up with them. Here is a trick you can try in order to get Magneto swinging at someone Round 1 without having to spend for Asteroid M.
Juggernaut can move to the midline and spend his 3 power on Do You Know Who I Am? To throw a poor victim back to within range of Magneto. Max can then spend the first couple of rounds dazing and KOing that character, before using Asteroid M later in the game to get his hands on someone else.
Another neat trick Magneto has up his sleeve is what some people refer to as ‘backstopping’. In the power phase, Magneto may place one of his constructs anywhere within Range 3 of him – and with his (and ideally, your) fear of displacement, this can prove useful in keeping him in place.
Bear in mind that this is still just a regular size 2 piece of terrain…so it can be destroyed by your opponent. But it might help at least mitigate some of the displacement coming your way.
Toad
Make no mistake, Mortimer Toynbe is an absolute monster in the MCP meta. 2 threats have a strength of their own for being so cheap, but they usually have to compromise on weak stat lines and low dice pools. Toad, however, makes up for this massively with two main abilities.
Prehensile Tongue allows him to interact with objective tokens from Range 2. Gross! This allows him to grab points in Round 1 from relative safety.
He can use this to more easily grab extracts while in cover. Note that if you line it up just right, Toad can grab Extracts from behind Size 3+ terrain meaning your opponent won’t have line of sight of him. That’s the dream!
Surveying the terrain layout before deploying Toad is vitally important. The extra range he has for picking up extracts means he has a lot of opportunities to grab things safely. This is much more likely thanks to his next ability…
Slippery. This ability…is…insane. Toad is the premium extract runner in MCP and with this ability he dares your opponent to try and one-shot him. Given that he’s now sat in relative safety thanks to Prehensile Tongue, it’s already difficult for your opponent to get a attack off on him. But if they do – and they fail to daze him in one attack, he can use the power he gained from that attack to Slippery and run away. This will infuriate your opponent to no end.
It’s worth watching out for a few things though. Characters like Emma Frost and Mystique prevent all Reactive superpowers and Team Tactic Cards being used during their activation. Meaning if they go after Toad – he won’t be able to Slippery away. So try to keep him out of their reach if you can.
These awesome abilities wrapped up in a 2 threat make Toad a must take for any team that needs to score points to win. You don’t want Toad to spend any time not scoring points. That’s his job, let him shine at it. In Round 1, he should be your first activation and he should be placed in one of the annoying places detailed above holding an Extract. His job is then to hold onto that Extract for the rest of the game, with the occasional attempt to push someone off a Secure with Tongue Lash.
Don’t let his sticky, gross, henchman-like appearance fool you. Toad is one of the best characters in the game.
Tactics Cards
This card is a bit of a sneaky one. It’s great…really great, but it took me a couple of times to play it before I realised actually how great it was. First off, Magneto wants to be playing an attrition game. He’s here to punch stuff – and this card helps him and the rest of his team fend off some of the punching that gets sent back at them.
Also, this cover doesn’t get turned off by the attacker being within Range 2 of you. It’s like super cover! ALSO you can still measure off of dazed characters, meaning if Magneto gets dazed while this card is in play, it still gives cover to the rest of the team in range from his (dazed and confused) corpse. ALSO it comes back every round! This makes it a staple card for any Brotherhood squad that came looking for a fight, which if Magneto is around…should be every game.
ALSO it’s unaffiliated. So if you’re splashing Magneto into a different affiliation, he can still bring this with him (albeit for a single round…it won’t come back if he isn’t fighting for Brotherhood of Mutants that day). Which leads us nicely onto our next section…
Affiliations
Brotherhood of Mutants
Clearly, Brotherhood is Magneto’s home. His entire kit is designed around the leadership he brings, the other mutants he fights alongside love the extra power he grants them. It’s probably the best designed thematic leadership and leader in MCP. When Mystique is in charge, Magneto is a lot less effective. Mystique wants people who can run around scoring points, that is not Magneto. But again, this feels like a thematic win. Mystique steps in when assets need to be extracted, Magneto shows up when people need to get hurt.
With Magneto’s leadership, there is a cute trick that should be considered. Magneto starts the game with 2 power thanks to Master of Magnetism and the construct he places in the first power phase. With this 2 power, he can throw a Size 2 piece of terrain into a Size 1 piece of terrain, destroying both – which will then generate 3 power to dish out across the team. That’s a big deal!
Convocation
Thanks to Iron-Bound Books Of Shuma-Gorath; a staple Tactics card in Convocation, Magneto can use his whopping 6 mystic defence for a round without giving your opponent the option to pay 2 to reduce it. This coupled with the Range 1 Place granted by the Convocation leadership The Bar With No Doors ability Circle of the Cosmos gives Magneto a lot of the tools he likes to have at his disposal. Don’t forget he can bring Magnetic Refraction with him also!
Conclusion
So to sum it up, Magneto is as formidable as we see him in most forms of media, be that comic, cartoon or film. He feels strongest when fighting alongside his mutant brothers and sisters – and he has a second in command in Mystique and a loyal henchman in Toad to round it all up in this gloriously thematic and satisfying bundle.
Toad on the other hand has a couple of entirely unique abilities in his kit, wrapped up in a neat little bundle of being a 2 threat. If you plan on winning games of MCP by scoring points – you can’t go wrong with bringing a Toad along. Just…don’t mind the tongue.
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