Marvel Crisis Protocol Affiliation Spotlight: Criminal Syndicate

In this series for newer or casual players we introduce the various Affiliations in Marvel Crisis Protocol, dip into their comic book history, and talk about building a roster around them. This week we look at the scum of the underworld – the Criminal Syndicate!

Note: Updated 01/20/2022 to include revisions to Bullseye, Green Goblin, and M.O.D.O.K., and to add The Hood and Omega Red, and on 02/03/2022 to include Shadowland Daredevil

Table of Contents

Background

Marvel Crisis Protocol Criminal Syndicate — A group of legitimate businessmen. Credit: head58

The Criminal Syndicate isn’t a group that exists per se in the comics – they’re just a bunch of crooks, thugs, gangsters, and mercenaries who more or less do street-level crimes as opposed to taking over/destroying the world/galaxy. Some of them have worked together before, some haven’t. Let’s find out who they are:

Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin is the big crime boss of the Marvel Universe. He worked (killed) his way up through the ranks of the New York mob to the top of the heap. Fisk relies on his wealth and connections to pull the strings, but as a trained combatant he’s not above getting his own hands dirty if need be.
Black Cat is a master thief. A former paramour of Spider-Man sometimes she’s with the good guys, sometimes the bad guys. All depends on the profit to be made and that pesky conscious that pops up awkwardly now and then.
Bullseye is an assassin with nearly superhuman aim. He butts heads with Daredevil mostly, often being hired by Wilson fisk. Killed Daredevil’s girlfriend Elektra once, but she got better. Also killed Karen Page, but she didn’t.
Everybody’s favorite MCP core box character, Crossbones is a mercenary but is usually hanging out with the Red Skull and dating the boss’s daughter, Sin. He was trained by Taskmaster and was the one who killed Captain America a few years back (he got better too. It’s a comics thing).
Green Goblin we’ll talk about more in a few weeks when we cover Spider-Foes but he’s a big time Spider-Man enemy, and other than hiring thugs to work for him now and then doesn’t really fit the whole “Criminal Syndicate” vibe, I don’t think. As Norman Osborn he has been a very wealthy businessman, the director of a military agency for hunting down superhumans, and the leader of a team of replacement Avengers which included Bullseye masquerading as Hawkeye. This guy’s been around.
Killmonger (“Don’t call me Erik, mom!!”) we’ve met before. A mercenary who was exiled from Wakanda. He’s butted heads with Fisk and Bullseye in the past but hey, who hasn’t?
If you don’t know (and love) M.O.D.O.K. I don’t know what you’re doing reading this column. Again not really a crime boss kind of guy but he does love to hire mercenaries and supervillains.
Mysterio is a master of illusions, and usually a Spider-Man enemy. He doesn’t have any actual powers himself but relies on gadgets and stagecraft. Criss Angel in a fishbowl helmet.
Sin is Red Skull’s daughter and a chip off the old fascist block. She’s teamed up with Baron Zemo now and then, and sometimes leads Hydra when dad’s away. Sin is like Harley Quinn but far less annoying, but she’s a Nazi so that’s a trade-off.
Taskmaster’s power is photographic reflexes; anything he sees someone do – live or on video, he can replicate immediately, allowing him to copy the fighting style or other physical abilities of heroes, such as Zemo’s swordsmanship, Bullseye’s throwing accuracy, or Captain America’s ability to use a shield. He most often puts his talents to work as a mercenary, although he has worked as an instructor for the Avengers farm league, for S.H.I.E.L.D., and the US government. Also, great costume or GREATEST costume, amiright? Rob’s Note: You are absolutely right, though I also don’t hate the more modern take on it.

The Green Goblin Marvel Crisis Protocol — The Greed Goblin. Credit: head58

Criminal Syndicate in Marvel Crisis Protocol

The Criminal Syndicate is an affiliation that has a slightly higher skill-floor than many others. There are a lot of moving parts and compared to say Asgard it doesn’t rely on beating your enemies senseless as much as it does in playing to scenario.

Leadership

Kingpin’s leadership ability is maybe the best in the game. Characters can spend 2 Power to hand off an Asset or Civilian to an allied character within Range 3. Okay, great, so you can pass the token around and keep it safely away from enemies, great. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Each Healthy character contesting an objective counts as two characters. So the leadership gives you a great advantage on both the secure and extract scenarios, which is how you win the game. Super nice. Grade: A

Shadowland Daredevil keeps with the theme of doing funky things with objectives. Allies who are holding or contesting an objective get to reroll one attack die, and can reroll Fail results. Holding or contesting objectives is how you win the game, so you’re probably going to be doing it anyway. This ability is just pure frosting on that. It’s not as flashy or exciting as Kingpin’s but you’re not paying any Power for it either, and who doesn’t like a reroll? Grade: B

Team Tactics

All According to Plan is a very good Tactics card, and should probably be in your eight. All the characters with the actual CS affiliation pitch in toward 10 Power and you can take the Priority token. Which can be devastating in the right situation but 10 Power is a LOT and your non-affiliated characters can’t contribute. You need to plan ahead for it and bank up that Power, and your opponent will probably see it coming if they know their stuff. If you can pull it off and get back to back M.O.D.O.K. activations, that may clinch the game right there. Grade: B+

Cruelty can be used when one of your CS characters has damaged an enemy with an attack. For 2 Power your character gets to make an additional attack specified on the card. It’s 5 dice and Mystical, but your dice can’t be modified other than by Crits. This is very useful because there aren’t a lot of Mystical attacks on the affiliated characters and a free attack is always good. Grade: B+

Cruelty Team Tactics Card Marvel Crisis Protocol — Credit: Atomic Mass Games via mcpdb.com

Shadow Organization lets any CS members pay 2 Power to gain super-Stealth (can’t be attacked from outside of Range 2). This can be very helpful for keeping your characters alive when they are squatting on objectives or running for their lives and your opponent has someone like Hawkeye sitting on the back line picking you off. Grade: B

Illicit Tech is a special attack for Crossbones or Sin. It only costs 1 Power and gives a range 5 Strength 6 Energy attack that also splashes Incinerate onto enemies within range 2 of the target. If you’re bringing either one of them this is definitely worth considering, as they don’t have any really long range attacks and this can be very useful at just the right moment. Grade: A-

Those wacky lovebirds Crossbones and Sin also have To Ash and Cinder, which puts down a Demolition token that goes off in the Cleanup phase. A great way to keep your opponent away from a good chunk of the board, but keep in mind the card just says “all characters” gain Stun and take damage, not “enemy characters.” Not so useful for clearing enemies away from an objective so you can score it, unless you don’t mind getting blowed up. Grade: B

You know Usurp the Throne, right? You know that if you have Killmonger in your roster you put this in your eight, and if he’s in your squad you put it in your five, right? Good. Nuff said. Grade: A

M.O.D.O.K. has a Tactics card that allows him to control his A.I.M. Lackeys, giving an ally an extra move. If you have the Power available this can be key in getting slow movers like Crossbones into a key position. M.O.D.O.K. often has more pressing uses for that Power though. Grade: B

MODOK Marvel Crisis Protocol — M.O.D.O.K. Credit: H.E.A.D.5.8.

Psychic Fortress is another M.O.D.O.K. card that gives him and allies within Range 4 cover this round. Extra protection is good but again M.O.D.O.K. tends to play by the rule of “you don’t need defense against a KO’ed enemy” and would rather use the 3 Power on his Doomsday Chair attack. It’s right there in the name: Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing, not for Kover! Grade: C+

Hood’s Gang lets an allied character reroll an attack die if the target is holding or contesting an objective. Hood has to play it during his activation but anyone can get the benefit during that round, and it doesn’t cost anything. What’s not to love? Grade: A-

Carbonadium Synthesizer allows Omega Red to remove all special conditions and heal a Stamina for each condition he had. Pretty sweet, but if your opponent knows you have this guess who’s never going to get a special condition? Grade: B+

Building Your Roster

The Syndicate has a decent number of affiliated characters, most of whom are going to be hard as heck to shift off objectives, as well as some really hard hitters for a little offensive oomph.

Criminal Syndicate

Kingpin leads off the parade of tough as nails characters. He’s got slightly better than average physical defense but a truckload of Stamina, and he can spend Power to shrug off a point of damage without the usual “to a minimum of 1” clause. Fisk is no slouch offensively either, and has two different throws available to him. He only moves Short but is on a 50mm base to mitigate that a little. It’s going to take Kingpin a couple rounds to get where he’s going but once he’s there he’s not going anywhere. Grade: A-

Kingpin Marvel Crisis Protocol — Kingpin. Credit: head58

Shadowland Daredevil is one of the first characters who can summon minions, so he’s going to be a little complicated. Any time he uses his builder attack if there isn’t a ninja on the table you can add one. The ninjas are pretty squishy but can grab extract tokens and Hand them off (see what I did there?) to an ally. That’s their main job, they’re not going to do too much with their Strength 4 attack, but who knows, they may get lucky! Woop Woop Ninja!

As for Evil Daredevil himself, he has two decent builder attacks and a good spender that goes up to Strength 9 if there is a ninja nearby. Like the original version, Daredevil’s Radar Sense lets him count blanks as successes against Physical or Energy attacks. This version also has Stealth and a defensive profile more fitting for a 4 Threat character. On his Injured side, DD’s spender becomes Mystic and he can spend 3 Power to make it Range A2. That’s going to leave a mark! Overall Shadowland Daredevil seems to be a step up from his previous version for the same Threat cost. Grade: A-

Shadowland Daredevil stat card for Marvel Crisis Protocol — Credit: Atomic Mass Games

Black Cat fits in purr-fectly with Criminal Syndicate. She’s your hyper-mobile character who can grab Assets and Characters away from enemies. She will frustrate your opponent if they try to get it back from her with a combination of Stealth, Bad Luck (so they can’t modify attack rolls) and a lot of movement options to stay out of reach. Grade: A-

Bullseye can crank out a couple points of autodamage each round, but he’s going to spend as much Power triggering I Never Miss as he earns from his builder, making it hard to save up for his decent spender. He might last a round or two and plink for a few points, but not do much else. Which is sad even for 2 Threat.There’s just nothing to really recommend Bullseye, especially here in CS. Grade: D

Meanwhile, Criminal Syndicate and more recently Sin have breathed new life into Crossbones himself. Sure, he’s still slow as molasses uphill in January but that molasses he will wreck everything in his path and stick around (ehh? EHH?!). He has the same limitless damage reduction and decent physical defense as Kingpin to keep him on his Healthy side and taking advantage of the leadership power to double-squat objectives. His new synergy with Sin (see below) is also fairly ridiculous. Grade: B (in Criminal Syndicate), B+ (in CS with Sin), C+ (in other affiliations without Sin. I mean really, what are you thinking?)

Crossbones Marvel Crisis Protocol — Here comes a special boy! Crossbones. Credit: head58

While Kingpin and Crossbones are holding down objectives I guess you could take Green Goblin to run away with extract objectives that Black Cat hasn’t already grabbed. He’s only got a Medium move but he’s on a 50mm base so that’s going to cover more ground, and he’s the only character with Fly in the affiliation. Goblin’s got the usual 4 Physical defense on his Healthy side, although he drops to 3 when he is Injured and his Mystic defense goes up to 5. But you don’t really want him on the Injured side because he can’t interact with objectives. Goblin’s builder attack was increased to Strength 5 on the Healthy side and 6 on the Injured side in the November 2021 Updates, which helps. But his Leadership tax is real, and unless your opponent is dropping Peter Parker, Goblin is a little sparse in CS. Grade: B (in Criminal Syndicate)

The Hood is another in the current fad of characters with two different forms. In normal human form Hood is pretty decent – both his attacks are Mystic and have funky effects that make them stronger than they may seem at first glance. He can also heal allies, although since he’s a villain and all it also gives that ally the Bleed condition. But once Hood is damaged by an enemy effect he can transform into his possessed form, which has stronger attacks and greater resilience but is vulnerable to Mystic attacks. So maybe leave this guy on the bench against Convocation. But Hood is a 3 Threat with very good damage output and a heal, you really can’t ask for too much more. Grade: B+

Killmonger doesn’t have terrific defensive tech other than his 4 Physical defense, so he’s probably not the one to leave holding an objective by himself or to throw into the middle of a cluster of enemies. But if you want a lethal character to pick off enemies who stray away by themselves he’s good for that. Or for keeping your opponent from getting too close to an objective that he’s holding with someone else. Or to pass an asset token to and dare anybody to come and grab it. Grade: B+

Kraven the Hunter adds more damage output to the Syndicate, primarily via his Expert Tracker power. Choose an enemy and everybody in the squad gets an additional attack die this round? Nice! He’s also fairly mobile due to the advances on both his attacks (both are builders) – and give him Climbing Gear to really light up his Spear Thrust. He’s also got some control utility in his Corner the Beast but the Power to activate it is usually better spent on Expert Tracker. Grade: B

M.O.D.O.K. is another very killy character (again, it’s right there in the name) and with a Mystic builder attack he fills a niche that CS sorely lacks. Yes, he’s 5 Threat, but you get a LOT for that price. Even the nerfs he received in the November 2021 Updates don’t take a huge amount of wind out of his sails. The attacks are great, his throw is great, he can advance enemies Short, and he changes Wilds in attacks against him to blanks. This last one makes up for his rather inadequate defensive stats by changing the odds of a hit on each die from 50% to 37.5% and also turning off any extra abilities that trigger on Wilds like Rapid Fire or special conditions. M.O.D.O.K. has 10 stamina on his Healthy side, and you want to keep him there because boy howdy his Injured side isn’t great (he loses Psychic Forcefield and only has 4 Stamina. Time to run away!). Grade: B+

Mysterio is a challenge to put on the table to be sure. The first thing you notice about him are his 1s in Physical and Energy defense. Yikes! But he has 5 Mystic defense, forces attacks to target that unless the attacker spends 2 Power, and Stealth so position him very carefully to keep anybody with a pile of Power at a distance. Fortunately Tricks and Traps may keep enemies from wanting to get too close. He only has a Short move but he gets to move the attacker Short if his builder attack does any damage – and it’s Mystic so there’s a fair chance as many characters have lower defense there – hopefully out of range to attack again (or move the attacker within 3 to trigger Tricks and Traps). All that together and Mysterio can hold an objective fairly well – he may not want to be on a central secure objective where he gets dogpiled but hand him an extract and move him away a little bit and he can be fairly safe. Grade: B

Mysterio Credit: Atomic Mass Games — Mysterio. Credit: Atomic Mass Games

Omega Red is a 4 Threat bruiser with some neat tricks and an over-reliance on the Poison special condition. His builder drains a Stamina from the target and heals him, while his spender can drain Power. A neat combo. Red dishes out Poison to any enemy ending within Range 2 of him, or anyone he ends his activation within Range 2 of. And then if anyone near him has Poison, Omega Red can trigger 2 points of autodamage. Oh, and are they not close enough? Ensnare can drag them in. He’s a decent package overall, until he runs into someone with Immunity: Poison and then he’s sad. But have him squat on an objective and your opponent will think twice about coming close. Grade: B

Sin has the potential to make up to four attacks per activation, which is nuts even if her builder is only Strength 4. If I learned anything from playing Orks in 40k it’s that large piles of dice can sometimes make miracles happen. If she gets off her second Make It Personal attack it’s Mystic rather than Physical so that’s even better. Sin is fairly fragile although her Mystic defense is better than average, so play to keep her safe. The best thing about her though is her combo with Crossbones, allowing for these two to activate right in a row. Or if you can combo this with All According to Plan to finish out the prior round and start the new one with four activations in a row to really pull off your master plan. Grade: B (B+ with Crossbones)

Taskmaster is another tough character you can rely on to hold a secure objective, and his Photographic Reflexes may dissuade anyone from even trying. He only has average defensive stats but gets to count blanks if the attack came from within Range 2 (great synergy with Shadow Organization there for a key round) and add extra dice if an enemy attacks him twice in the same turn. Taskmaster isn’t a fast or tricky character but he is a solid one. Grade: B

And Friends

Criminal Syndicate wants to play an objective game, and they have characters tough enough to squat on objectives (Kingpin, Crossbones, Taskmaster, maybe M.O.D.O.K.) but they could use some help in running around and grabbing the extracts. Miles Morales would be almost perfect here, especially with his ability to make enemies drop objectives. Add him in and suddenly you’re playing Guild Ball (RIP to a real one)! Enchantress can similarly make things very frustrating for your opponent. And Quicksilver will be a nightmare to deal with, especially with his Can I Borrow That? Tactics card.

You may want a couple 2 Threat characters as always for rounding out your squads, and Toad fits in perfectly here as well. His ability to take an asset or civilian from an ally combined with Illicit Network letting him then hand it off to someone else can move an objective Range 5 plus Range 2 plus a Medium move in one activation.

But to get a little weird here, and hear me out, I’m going to suggest Doctor Strange as an add-on to your Criminal Syndicate. He can buff defense rolls or heal characters, making your already tough ones nigh-invulnerable, ~~and with~~ ~~Pentagrams~~ ~~he can get your slow movers into position very nicely~~ (NOTE: no, dummy, Pentagrams is Defenders only). He’s costly for Threat and he’s fairly Power hungry like many of the CS members but he brings a lot of utility to their play.

If you’re looking to do a double affiliation roster almost all the Criminal Syndicate members are also in Cabal so you’re most of the way there with Sin or you could take Red Skull. Since Taskmaster is a Rogue Agent he can help you toward any other affiliation too – maybe with Black Cat and Miles for Web Warriors or Green Goblin and Kingpin for Spider-Foes

So Are They Any Good?

Criminal Syndicate are very good but fairly complex. If you’re the kind of player who likes thinking a number of moves ahead you may excel with them. Most of the characters in the affiliation are 3 or 4 Threat so you can shoot for a 5 or maybe even 6 character squad for most games, and that can let you spread out to cover B, D or F maps well. Mirror matches or Webs are going to be tough because they’re playing the same game that you want to play but you have the tools, both offensive and defensive, to hold your own.

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Marvel Crisis Protocol Affiliation Spotlight: Criminal Syndicate

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