Who Are Rogue & Gambit?

We’re all familiar with the X-Men animated series. Even more so now that X-Men 97 has come crashing onto our screens to really showcase what the Marvel Mutants are all about. Two characters that take centre stage in that show, as well as the comics are Anna Marie LeBeau (Rogue) and Remi LeBeau (Gambit). Yes…that means that in AMG’s timeline, these two finally tied the knot. Isn’t that lovely!

Rogue’s innate mutant super power gives her the ability to absorb the energy (and superpowers…more on that later) of others. She’s also gained access to super strength and flight thanks to an encounter with none other than Captain Marvel, but I’ll let you go to the comics to find out more about that. 

Fun Fact: Rogue’s first appearance in the comics featured her taking down the Avengers single handed!

Gambit on the other hand has the ability to manipulate kinetic energy, turning inorganic objects into explosives. Which he uses to charge playing cards and a bo staff…obviously. Gambit is a showman first and foremost. Now let’s take a closer look at their kits.

Rogue

Rogue has a lot of great abilities she can spend power on. So let’s start with how she primarily generates power. Absorbing Strike is a great builder for the sake of funding the rest of her card. The Wild trigger Sap Power helps her steal a bit of power from her target (note that this happens before damage is dealt, so make sure her target actually has a power for Rogue to sap before attacking).

Southern Hospitality is a fantastic attack. A 3 cost, guaranteed size 4 throw is no joke. There are lots of Size 4 characters in the game now. Throwing them into their friends will be sending a guaranteed 5 damage at your opponent to deal with.

Charge is always good. You want Rogue in the mix so that she gains lots of power. Charge lets her achieve this without wasting actions on moving.

Mutant Absorption gives Rogue the much sought after ability to drain that targets power. So Rogue can Charge in, deal some damage (granting the target power equal to damage suffered as per usual) and then drain some of that power. If she rolls well on this, it can feel awful for the opponent. They’ve just taken some damage and are now missing out on the thing that makes MCP so good, the ability to then clapback with a powered up character. It’s dice dependent, so Mutant Absorption can be a bit hit & miss. But when it does hit, your opponent is going to be very unhappy.

There are some abilities you can reliably turn off with a clever use of Mutant Absorption (the maths suggest you should expect to drain ~2 power on average). Brace For Impact (at the time of writing, the most taken Team Tactics Card costs 1 to play. Mutant Absorption can reliably drain that power, allowing Rogue to then follow up with Marvellous Strength, meaning the target can do nothing to stop it.

This tactic also works for characters like Cable, Nightcrawler & Captain America to prevent them from paying 2 power to add 2 defence dice.

Affiliations for Rogue

Rogue needs two things to shine. Good dice and extra power. Two affiliations come to mind for this.

Avengers, but more specifically – Captain America, First Avenger. Using the leadership to ensure that Rogue is hitting her Wild trigger on Absorbing Strike will usually also result in her dealing 1 extra damage. This should help Rogue fund the rest of her powers nicely.

Brotherhood of Mutants. With Magneto in charge, his team tends to be swimming in power. Rogue is always a good target for the additional power being passed around thanks to his leadership. Not to mention the absolute thematic win for this if you’ve seen X-Men 97.Last but nowhere near least, Uncanny X-Men and Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters. Professor X helps his students by rewarding them with bonus power each time they use a Superpower. You can use this to charge up Rogue Round 1 with as much power as you want. 1 extra power brings Charge online. 4 extra power lines up the double move, Mutant Absorption, followed by Marvellous Strength at an opponent that probably can’t Brace For Impact now. Great for catching pesky Toads.

Gambit

Unfortunately, I think we need to start with this; Gambit falls a bit flat. For such a fan favourite in both the TV show and the comics, Remi’s suave, athletic prowess doesn’t exactly leap off the page here. Most games, he struggles to make a name for himself.

However, there are some fun parts to his kit when he manages to get them off. Bo Staff having a Wild trigger, size 3 push is pretty great. It’s a shame it’s at Range 2, as that feels far too close to the action for Gambit.

Enhanced Agility is nice. It can get him out of danger, but you also risk moving him out of Range 3 for his own turn. If you’re escaping an attacker that only has Range 2 attacks, it’s nice. But that’s rare. You should also beware of the power you are giving the attacker by dealing a damage to them. Some characters will be able to use that to Charge or Place towards Gambit and hit him anyway, making you feel a bit silly.

52 Card Pickup (anyone remember this voice line from X-Men Mutant Academy? No? Just me then) is a Range 4 beam where Wilds count double. This coupled with A Little Something Extra is nice. You essentially pay 1 power for 1 extra damage. You’ll want to go with Accelerated Charge before using 52 Card Pickup, as the two extra dice you add will apply to the whole beam. Let’s say you get 2 targets in this beam, to pull the above off you will need 9 power on Gambit. Not impossible…and when you pull it off, it will feel real magnifique, mon ami. But it’s probably a once in every three games kind of moment.

Affiliations for Gambit

But wait, there may be salvation for poor old Remi…and its name is Apocalypse. Gambit can be the Horseman of either Death or Famine. So let’s take a look at what additional Superpowers this grants him;

Death gives Gambit the ability to finish off an already damaged enemy. Big dice pools are pretty good for Gambit, as it gives him more chances to roll his Wild triggers. Gambit may get the odd Daze/KO because of this, which will generate Evolution Tokens for the rest of the team to use. Unfortunately, I think the more likely scenario here is Gambit getting caught out of position and getting beat up himself…but at least this generates Evolution Tokens I guess?

Famine on the other hand brings something very interesting to Remi’s kit. A place. For 2 power (or a combination of power and Evolution Tokens), Gambit can place himself within 2. This really helps him get into the positions he wants. Maybe you use it to get back into Kinetic Ace range after running away from someone on a previous turn using Enhanced Agility. It can also be used to set up a sweet 52 Card Pickup beam. Just remember, Gambit’s power economy is super tight already, so you’ll want to spend Evolution Tokens on using this ability so that you can use his power on the rest of his tricks.

Brotherhood of Mutants are also worth shouting out here. Gambit is affiliated with them as we saw with Rogue, Magneto loves to drown his teammates in power. Getting off the perfect 8-10 power Gambit activation feels a little more in reach here.

Tactics Cards

Rogue & Gambit come with some very thematically cool Tactics Cards. Competitively, they all leave much to be desired. But if you’ve just finished bingeing X-Men 97 and want to recreate some comic accurate scenes, then these are the cards for you.

As we mentioned before, Rogue wants to be in the action gaining power. She is somewhat tanky thanks to Kree-Mutant Physiology, so she can certainly take a hit for some of the squishier X-Men she tends to hang around with – and we know she can do a lot with the power she’ll get from getting damaged by this!

This card wins the award for Most Thematic and Flavourful Card in MCP in my humble opinion. I can’t help but read its name in the voice of Lenore Zann, I love it.

If you’re playing alongside a bunch of X-Men, Deadpool or Magneto, I guess this card will have some use. Hilariously, if you’re playing against a bunch of X-Men, Deadpool or Magneto it will also work, while damaging them.

If you like the power denial side of the game with Rogue, then targeting Deadpool with this card is more of that. Targeting Wolverine gives you Healing Factor [2] that activation, which is also decent.

It’s a shame this card can only be used once per game as I think this being part of Rogue’s kit would be a lot of fun and not too powerful.

We’ve mentioned previously that Gambit needs a lot of power. This card helps with that. It’s a shame it only works on enemy characters, as I think Gambit works best when he is well away from the fight.

Now this card is interesting. We know that Shadow Organization is a good card in Criminal Syndicate. This is like a less good, harder to pull off version. If you ever have an extract lead and have managed to get them away from the enemy team, I think you’ll be pretty happy that this card exists. Try it out!

I do love a team-up Tactics card…and this one might be the most spray and pray one I’ve seen to date. Gambit and Bishop are both X-Men affiliated, so no problems there. But 6 dice isn’t a lot, especially when you’re relying on hitting these crazy triggers. Much like Gambit, when this goes off, you’re going to have a great day.

Conclusion

Both of these characters and their Team Tactics Cards are brimming with flavour. They’re both fan favourites, so I wouldn’t expect anything less!

They both will take a couple of games (and perhaps affiliations) to work out how to make the most out of their kits. But when everything falls into place for them, it’s going to feel amazing. Have fun, sugah!

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