Who Is Phoenix?
The Phoenix Force is a powerful cosmic entity in Marvel Comics. It is the embodiment of life, death, and rebirth. The Phoenix Force has a tendency to possess individuals, most notably Jean Grey, amplifying their powers to godlike levels.
When it bonds with Jean, she becomes the “Dark Phoenix,” a dangerous and unstable version of herself. In Marvel Crisis Protocol, this is represented by Phoenix Unleashed. So just exactly how close to godlike cosmic entity do we get with this new 6 threat?
Phoenix
Let’s start with the stat line. Having 7 health with a defence of 4/4/5 is very nice. Considering part of Phoenix’s job here is to Daze and become UNLEASHED…this is an amusingly solid defensive stat line. She won’t be falling over as easily as she does in the animated series, or as easily as her 5 threat counterpart Jean Grey usually does – that’s for sure.
Two power in the power phase is a shame, considering 5 threat Jean gets 3 power a turn. So there aren’t many turn 1 shenanigans on offer here. Bolts Of Flame and Firestorm are fine attacks. Nothing to write home about (except the fact that they’re Energy and not Mystic…that feels a bit odd?). There’s a nice heal on Firestorm, but at a whopping 6 power – and with the Unleashed part of this character, I don’t think you’ll ever want to use this attack (spoiler, you need Phoenix to become Unleashed with at least 6 power to get the most out of her).
Rejuvenating Flames is great. It feels very thematic to have Jean running around supporting her X-Men allies and I’m really glad they’ve shown this on a 6 threat. Healing comes few and far between in Marvel Crisis Protocol – and this is an awesome heal as it also removes one condition. Great great great, love it.
Cosmically Empowered Telekinesis. FINALLY we have some sort of reference to the X-Men throwing Sentinels into each other! This is the first reference to “enemy character of size 5 or less” and it’s likely been written in that way to give Phoenix access to a Size 4 terrain throw, without breaking the game with a Size 5 terrain throw. It being Range 2 is a real shame. I feel like we’ve established telekinesis/superpowers that aren’t just brute strength as being able to grab terrain from Range 3 away. Magneto can do it, Storm can do it, Doc Ock can even do it with his big old arms! It’s a real shame that Phoenix can’t do it.
Burning Resolve is a bit of a staple for Jean. It’s arguably the best part of her 5 threat kit, but this one costs 3 power which is a shame. I suspect it’s to make it harder to have online in Round 1, because god forbid there be some sort of defence to being kidnapped by scary attrition teams.
There’s also a nice side effect with these characters not having an injured side – it means they are always healthy for the sake of contesting Secures. Phenomenally powered cosmic entity…scoring the odd VP here and there. Nice!
Now…I Am Fire And Life Incarnate…before we get into this, I want to highlight the absolute #1 tip I have for playing Phoenix. Get her on the table and play her before judging her. There have been many characters in the history of MCP that have looked mediocre on paper…but completely transform into something amazing once they hit the table and people learn how to play them (shoutout to Rhino & Nightcrawler). I got the Phoenix-Phoenix-Unleashed rules wrong in my first two games with Phoenix, after reading the card a good 10 times over. You really need to see it all in motion to understand how it works. But I’ll do my best to at least sum up the VIBE for you here.
The long and short of it is that Phoenix is going to become Unleashed. There’s no way around it. If you focus down Phoenix and daze her, she becomes Unleashed. If you ignore Jean and daze/KO her teammates, she becomes Unleashed. The only way to stop her from becoming Unleashed is to not daze anyone, ever. Which for an Uncanny X-Men roster, now equipped with a fantastic healing ability from Phoenix, is absolute X-Men animated series intro music to their ears.
The main downside with this guaranteed Unleashiness I’ve found is that Phoenix often ends up transforming a little earlier than she would like — sometimes at full health! Having 7 health on your 6 threat disappearing can feel like a painful resource loss, but let’s hope the Unleashed side makes up for that.
Now…let’s get into Unleashed.
Phoenix Unleashed
You’ll be forgiven for going on a rollercoaster of emotion when reading this card.
10 health?! … Oh but 3 mystic now.
Range 4 builder?! … Oh it’s not a builder.
Beam 4 with 8 dice?! … Oh it costs 6 power.
Then we get to Untamed Cosmic Entity. This is an ESSAY of rules and caveats. So I’m going to do my best to sum this up for you – but remember…you really need to get Phoenix on the table to see exactly how this all plays out.
Phoenix token = bad. We don’t want them. Try to view them as a different type of damage Phoenix is taking. When you hit 5, you’re going to lose your 6 threat. When you daze/KO enemies, you lose a token, that’s good! When one of your allies is dazed/KO’d, you gain a token, that’s bad.
Molecular Disintegration = release valve. This is Phoenix’s only reliable way of removing Phoenix tokens. The weird ruling acrobats on the card here essentially translates to “Phoenix loses a Phoenix token per target in this beam”. Getting off this attack and hitting a good amount of targets is key to Phoenix’s survival.
Phoenix Blast = insurance. Using this attack will give you a Phoenix token (that’s bad, remember) but it will let you place a Flame Pillar in the perfect spot for a beam.
All of this means a good Phoenix Unleashed game needs to go something like;
- Phoenix becomes Unleashed when she has 6+ power (or less, as she then gains power equal to Phoenix tokens when she is Unleashed…I’ll let you do the math) and you place Phoenix Unleashed on the table.
- Phoenix Unleashed does a sweet Molecular Disintegration beam, purging herself of as many Phoenix tokens as she can. Potentially using a Phoenix Blast + Flame Pillar combo to get the beam placed in the perfect position beforehand.
- You HOPE that your opponent will start to damage Phoenix, giving her another 6 power for her next activation to then repeat Step 2.
- If your opponent refuses to power up Phoenix Unleashed (I wouldn’t blame them) and she activates with less than 6 power, she’s now stuck. She has no way of generating power – and without the beam, she has no way of losing Phoenix tokens. If you find yourself in this position, drive it like you stole it and do what you can to give Phoenix a suitable last turn before she KOs herself.
It’ll take a fair number of games to determine whether you like this play style. It can often feel like the fate of Phoenix is in the hands of your opponent – but she does offer them an interesting choice. Focus down your 6 threat monster and incur the wrath if you fall short – or ignore her and let regular Phoenix run around healing up teammates and throwing large characters & terrain.
One thing is for sure, AMG have jumped through a lot of hoops here to allow Phoenix to have ONE HUGE TURN. I’m yet to find a way that can be countered by your opponent, so I think they’ve nailed it. Displacement will be key, so Team Tactic Cards like Warpath or Indomitable might be worthy considering to get the most out of Phoenix.
I feel like games will be won and lost depending on how Phoenix Unleashed’s first activation goes. If that beam gets enough targets and rolls high enough, it completely disintegrates teams. But it is still just 8 dice (with optional re-rolls…at the cost of a Phoenix Token). There will be games where the beam doesn’t convert and Phoenix will feel like 6 threat of fiery lumpy lameness. But some games I have played with her have come back from the brink in a single beam. It all feels very…Phoenix-like.
Tactics Cards
This is cute. Big old explosion, hands out Incinerate, it’s free. But it is a Tactics Card. You’d hope that Phoenix had already started passing out the Incinerates before she Dazes, as both of her attacks give it out. Pushing all characters sounds nice, but this also affects allies. She’ll be displacing and Incinerating everyone around her. 50% of the time this will be either weak or actively harmful for you. I’d be skeptical if it were on her card for free, let alone it being a Team Tactic Card.
Affiliations
Uncanny X-Men
Storm
It’s been said a thousand times (mostly by me) that Storm loves a big base. Phoenix lacks movement and you really want every single one of her actions to be attacks. The Storm leadership can help get Phoenix into a better position for attacking. I suspect this is where we’ll see her most.
We’ve seen Dracula & Red Skull, Master of Hydra utilise this leadership to fix their lack-of-mobility. Now we get to see it from an actual X-Men character.
Cyclops
Cyclops needs damage to be dealt. The end.
Incinerates help dish out more damage, which Phoenix is all about. We already know that she lacks power generation on her Unleashed side; Cyclops and friends can help with that. This seems like a great (and thematic) home for Phoenix.
Professor Xavier
Again, power generation is a problem for Phoenix Unleashed. If Xavier’s students can help throw some power her way for that all important 2nd Unleashed activation, it would be huge. A great home for Phoenix.
Wow…have AMG made an X-Men affiliated character that works perfectly under every leader X-Men leader?! I think they have!
Brotherhood Of Mutants
At last! Some love for the best X-Men movie there is, X-Men The Last Stand.
Phoenix fits nicely into a Magneto led brotherhood. She can be thrown a power in Round 1 to turn on her fantastic terrain throw. She can help mitigate Magneto’s vulnerability to displacement with Burning Resolve. The Brotherhood can also help feed her power in her Unleashed form for the same reasons as mentioned above.
Conclusion
As a Jean fan, AMG have nailed this in all of the best and painful ways. Phoenix has an uncanny ability to get killed, just like Jean. But there will be games where you feel the full untamed cosmic entity that is the Phoenix Force, and so will your opponent as they peel their characters off the board.
Lots of games are needed to understand how this character works. Just don’t give up hope when Phoenix doesn’t immediately show up for you…just like Scott.
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