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’re covering the Defenders!
Updated 02/03/2020 to add Ancient One, Blade, Clea, Magik, and Moon Knight, and to update Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Valkyrie
That lovable group of misfits, the Defenders. A group defined by how weird their lineup is, and handling threats that nobody else can (or wants to) deal with.
Table of Contents
Background
There are two different strains of Defenders, and the MCP Affiliation blends both together. Which is fine because the group was always a kind of “heavenly hash” of membership. Even more than the Avengers, and they accepted Starfox!
The original Defenders started off in 1969-1970 with Doctor Strange, The Hulk, The Sub-Mariner, and the Silver Surfer coming together to fight some cosmic horror or other. Maybe the biggest enemy the group faced was their own towering egos, and they insisted they were “not a team,” much like those friends of yours who insist they’re not a “thruple.” The not-team had a number of wacky adventures but the Surfer and Namor left fairly early on. Then Valkyrie joined up. Then, um, Nighthawk. And eventually they had this whole “Defender for a Day” gimmick which, come on folks you’re just boosting your numbers and everybody knows it. Eventually they’re letting in folks like Gargoyle and Hank McCoy, and then really how much lower can you go?
But the ‘70s Defenders were weird not just in how random their membership was at any given time. There was a running B-Plot where, well, here, it’s easier if I just show you.
The Elf with a Gun showed up three or four times, killed people, and then left. He never crossed paths with the Defenders, never had a major story arc. Eventually he just gets hit by a truck. The End. No moral.
The other flavor of Defenders is the street-level heroes popularized by the Netflix series. Nobody was using the name anyway, and it works for what they do, so I don’t think anybody minded.
Recommended Reading
The Avengers-Defenders War (Avengers volume 1 (1963) #116-119, Defenders volume 1 (1972) #9-11). Yes, a good old “the heroes meet, have a misunderstanding, and FIGHT!” This will give you the sense of the early lineup and how much of an “outsiders” vibe they had going.
Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders volumes 3 & 4 or Essential Defenders volume 3 either one of these will give you most of the Steve Gerber run, the weirdest part of the ‘70s Defenders.
The Defenders (volume 4 (2011), #1-12) Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson take a crack at a modern revival of the team. Dr Strange, Namor, Silver Surfer, Red She-Hulk, Iron Fist. It’s got a highly weird bent and feels like Fraction doing his best Hickman/Morrison “hidden weird history of the Marvel universe and giant cosmic implications” impression. It also has Dr Strange as a super creep, which I’m glad nobody followed up on.
Fearless Defenders (2013, #1-12) Valkyrie and Misty Knight lead a team of women warriors against evil valkyries and the daughter of Morgan le Fey. A strong series cancelled too soon. Give us Misty, AMG!!
The Defenders in Marvel Crisis Protocol
The Defenders have reasonably large roster with a lot of very strong characters. As the history of the team (extremely Janet voice: not a team) has proven it’s kind of a mishmash of characters but here in MCP that’s a good thing.
Leadership
Doctor Strange is the only Leader in the affiliation so far. And he brings a great Leadership Ability to the table – once per turn any character can spend 1 Power to choose the attack type, and thus which defensive stat is used against it. Now most of the time it won’t matter a huge amount, since so many characters are just 3-3-3 or very close to that. But against someone like Black Bolt where one stat is two or more lower, or against someone Captain America who has a special defense against specific attack types this is very good. It won’t work against Ebony Maw or Magneto who get to use a defensive stat of their choice sadly, although it will force them to burn Power to activate that ability so not terrible I guess. It would just be more impressive if there was more variance in the defensive stat line.
The leadership also gives the target the Hex special condition if the attack does damage, which prevents crits from generating extra dice. Super frustrating! It also used to prevent the target from modifying blanks, but that got errataed out so don’t let anybody pull a fast one on you. Grade: B+
Team Tactics
Pentagram of Farallah allows Dr Strange or Wong (when in Defenders affiliation) to set up teleport portals that can be Range 5+1 apart from each other. The caveat to keep in mind here is that either side can use these portals, not just your squad. Which honestly is kind of hilarious. It can certainly help you get up the board quickly, but be careful not to leave an express lane to your backfield secure objective. The cost was increased as part of the November 2021 Updates so now you can’t use it first turn but it’s still really good. Grade: B+
Seven Suns of Cinnibus is a special attack for Dr Strange that costs 3 Power for a Strength 8 Beam 5 that gives the Incinerate special condition. Holy cow, that’s potent. You need to position two other allies near Strange but that should be manageable. Grade: A-
Dr Strange’s third Team Tactics card is Vapors of Valtorr. Like the Seven Suns you need to have two allies near Strange, and this gives an ally a 1 in 3 chance of being able to force an attacker to reroll. Pretty chancy for a defensive ability, and it only lasts one round. Grade: C+
Deal with the Devil brings Ghost Rider back into the game from being KO’d and potentially even flips him back to Healthy. And then it gives nearby allies the Incinerate special condition. Very nasty piece of work. Grade: A-
Highway to Hell allows Ghost Rider to drag an enemy along with him while he moves. Very useful to moving someone off an objective or out of a key position, although they’re going to be mad and Ghost Rider is right there next to them so maybe use it on someone who has already activated. Grade: B
Weapon X Program lets Wolverine throw himself Short for 3 Power and not take collision damage. So it’s Black Panther’s Pounce, but it costs more and you can only use it once? Not great. Grade: C
Agents of S.M.A.S.H. is, I think, the only Size 5 throw in the game, and you get to throw it Long. The downside is you need both Hulk and She-Hulk to use it, and that’s a lot of threat tied up in one great and one not so much character. But if you ever really wanted to throw Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum at somebody, take this card and go nuts. Grade: D
Gamma Launch is Hulk’s Fastball Special, and it’s stock has gone up significantly since Drop Off was put on the Banned list. If for some reason you’re taking Hulk, you should have this card. Grade: B+
Journey Through Limbo allows Magik to teleport another character who is within Range 2 of her to within Range 3 of its current position. And because Limbo sucks that character now has the Incinerate special condition. The card doesn’t specify ally or enemy so you can use it on either one, if the ally is willing to eat an Incinerate (or maybe is immune). But if you’re using it on an ally the Orb of Agamotto is probably a better idea. This would be outstanding if it were reactive but you’re probably inconveniencing the enemy more than anything else. Grade: B+
No More Mutants is Scarlet Witch’s card that lets her cancel an enemy’s superpower for 3 Power. It’s a great gotcha, especially as the enemy doesn’t get the Power back and can’t use the superpower again, but as you’ll see below Scarlet Witch isn’t a great choice in Defenders to begin with. Grade: B (in Defenders)
Scarlet Witch’s other card is The Whims of Chaos, which lets her heal or remove special conditions from allies and inflict a special condition on enemies. It’s a good card, but better in other affiliations without easy access to healing and conditions. Grade: C+ (in Defenders)
Building Your Roster
The Defenders
The Defenders have a deep bench so it’s not difficult to find ones who will fit your playstyle and be adaptable to many different crises. The main difficulty being that the leader, Doctor Strange, is 5 or 6 Threat so you’ll want to be very cautious about adding in other high cost characters.
Doctor Strange is a given as the affiliation’s only Leader, and that’s not a bad thing at all. He has a large toolbox to handle lots of situations. A good builder, a great spender that Staggers regardless of whether damage was dealt, a 2 Power cost superpower to give allies extra defense dice, and maybe most importantly a heal! The good doctor is a great support piece. He has a superpower that may give him one additional Power on each roll, but he may still run a little short given all his good stuff. It might not be terrible to give him the Soul Gem if you find his tank on empty a lot. Even at 6 Threat he’s still pretty good. Grade: B+
The Amazing Spider-Man is the one of two versions of Peter Parker in the Defenders, and definitely the more compelling one. Amazing Pete combines a Long move with Web Swing and a funky movement ability on his builder to really get around the board. He has good defensive stats (4/4/3) with 6 Stamina on each side, can reroll any number of defense or dodge dice, and can force an enemy to reroll one die in their attack pool. He’s got a Strength 5 builder that goes up to 7 if you used Web Line. So he’s tanky and can deliver the pain. Strange’s leadership ability kicks him up a notch further by letting you target the enemy’s weaker defenses. But he’s also 5 Threat, and in an affiliation where you already have to take a 5 Threat leader. It’s going to be tough justifying fitting Amazing Pete into your roster, but if you do he’s going to be Spectacular. Grade: B+
The Ancient One is a melee threat that will punch your root chakra so hard you’ll commune with your ancestors. Those Mystic attacks are great for getting around enemies’ high Physical or Energy defenses. Granted, anyone in Defenders can do that but Ancient One doesn’t have to spend a Power to do so. Which is good because you’re going to want to keep that Power banked for a Winds of Watoomb to shove away anyone who wants to touch you back. Keeper of the Eye and Martial Artist can only do so much with 2 Physical defense. Between Pentagrams and Ancient One’s Mists of Hoggoth this model has some great ability to jump in, grab an extract or pummel an enemy, and then get to safety. Grade: B+
Blade is a decent tank with solid damage output. His schtick revolves around giving out Bleed to enemies and then being near those enemies so he can a) get rerolls with his spender and/or b) gain Power and heal wounds for each character within Range 2 that has Bleed. He’s going to be up in the middle of the action so he needs that healing, and Strange can further help to keep him alive. You’re paying Threat tax for his Midnight Sons leadership unfortunately but he’s still worthwhile if you’re putting together a more attrition-based squad. Grade: B+
Clea can generate a bunch of Power using Descendant of the Faltine and potentially use her spender attack each activation to Slow (maybe), Stun (less likely), or Stagger (very unlikely) an enemy. She could also Daze or KO herself generating that Power. Clea can also teleport herself or a nearby ally up to Range 2, or she can throw stuff up to Size 2. But beyond that she doesn’t bring a lot to the table. Grade: C+
I’ll admit it, I’ve been a big fan of Daredevil since I was in short pants. But DD in MCP leaves me a little cold. Daredevil has the usual 3-3-3 defensive statline, and can include blanks as successes for defense so he’s tougher than he would seem. His Baton Hook builder attack ignores LOS and the benefits of cover, so you can hide him behind terrain and still smack somebody, but without any way of boosting his attack pool that and his Strike don’t have a lot of oomph behind them. But his spender, Devil’s Deliverance, is the one that has the potential to get really bonkers. It’s an AoE2 and adds 2 dice for every non-Dazed enemy in range. I’ve seen reports of people getting 70-80 total dice attacks out of that (5-6 enemies in the bubble. Thank you Gamma Shelters!). I don’t expect that would happen often in the wild, but a boy can dream.
Daredevil has one difference from his Healthy to his Injured side – his Man Without Fear counterstrike superpower swaps out for Devil of Hell’s Kitchen which gives him an extra Strike attack which doesn’t cost an action. Which again is okay but he doesn’t hit very hard. Overall Daredevil is solid but doesn’t have anything exciting to bring to the table. Grade: B
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme is in the affiliation list for Defenders, but he’s not a leader, and you can’t take him in the same squad as vanilla Strange, who you have to take. So until Defenders get a second Leader (Namor when, AMG??) you can’t take him.
Ghost Rider is all about movement and forcing your opponent to make hard decisions. With a Medium move for his 65mm base plus an extra Long move, he can cover a lot of the board. Ghost Rider has some interesting offensive abilities, wth a good strength 5 Beam3 and Penance Stare doing extra damage based on how much Power the target has and then taking away Power instead of granting it for damage. Harsh. Wicked’s Judgment also punishes enemies for attacking Ghost Rider’s nearby allies. With the boosts he got to his defensive abilities in the November 2021 Updates, Ghost Rider is going to be a beast to remove from the table. Grade: B+
Hawkeye is a glass cannon without a lot of bells and whistles. He shoots things from Range 5, maybe puts a special condition. Being able to choose whether the attack is physical or energy is sometimes a help but if he’s played in Defenders he can do that anyway for 1 Power (and also choose mystic AND possibly inflict Hex). Hawkeye’s Hook Arrow lets him be placed within Range 3, even behind terrain, and his Trick Shot means he can shoot you through that terrain. Other than a ranged counterstrike that might hopefully dissuade attacks he doesn’t have any defensive abilities and a 4-2-2 defense stat line with only 9 Stamina is why I say the “glass” part of glass cannon. Keep him secret, keep him safe! Grade: A-
Hulk got a huge bump from the November 20201 Updates, so if you need a seriously tanky bruiser in your lineup grab him. It’s a little rough taking a 6 Threat Hulk alongside a 5 or 6 Threat Strange, but being able to drop a 11 dice builder attack onto an enemy’s weakest defense will give you a warm feeling deep inside, and maybe a slight twinge of shame. Embrace it. Grade: A-
Iron Fist is a strong offensive character costing only 3 Threat. What’s not to love? He only has average defenses but he counts blanks as successes and I’m sure some math person would tell you that’s really good. The Flying Kick attack gives Danny some great mobility, basically giving him a Range 4 teleport. He gets an extra Power each round, which he’ll need if he ever wants to fire off his The Iron Fist attack, and yeah, you’re going to want him to use that if at all possible. Strength 9 is great, auto splash damage to range 3 is amazing, giving the target an Activated token if they haven’t gone yet? Find a way to get 8 Power onto this guy. Probably easier in some other affiliations like A-Force, but in Defenders he gets to choose the type of attack, which is just brutal. Grade A-
Luke Cage’s job is going to be to get up in your opponent’s face, tanking attacks, and simply not dying. He has the same Bodyguard variant as Black Dwarf that works off nearby enemies rather than nearby allies, and between his wound-reducing Unbreakable Skin and his slightly better than average Physical defense he can probably take a fair amount of abuse. With Doctor Strange nearby to use Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom and heal him up now and then he’s going to be unbeatable, although it’s going to cost Strange a fair amount of Power. Cage can dish out damage fairly well, and his appropriately named Sweet Christmas spender will toss around Slow and Stun conditions. He may need some help getting into position but again Dr Strange can help with that too. Grade: B (in Defenders A-)
Magik is a fairly tough beatstick with good Mystic attacks. She has average Physical and Energy defense and a higher Mystic. Illyana has some additional defense against Mystic on top of that from her Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo. Her Mystic builder is Strength 5 with pierce, nice, and she has an Energy builder as well that’s weaker but guarantees 1 Power. Magik’s spender is only Strength 6 but adds the fails from her roll and the defender’s to the total, which is bonkers and I love it. Lastly she has her signature stepping disks allowing Magik to spend 1-3 Power to teleport the same Range. For 3 Threat she deals solid damage with the possibility of some nice spikes and has great mobility. She’s not as stellar in Defenders as she might be in other affiliations because you’d probably want to switch her attack to Mystic, which it already is, but if she’s attacking Juggernaut or Magneto she has some flexibility. Grade: A-
I’m still not sure what to make of Moon Knight. He’s just wacky. His base attacks and defenses are kind of bland, but his Multiple Personalities might give you a boost to the attack. You won’t know until the start of his activation whether you get that or some extra Power or an extra move, so you can’t really plan too far ahead. In Defenders he can use his weaker attacks against an enemy’s worst defense so that helps him out a bit. Moon Knight has some extra help against Mystic attacks but you’ll want to keep him at a distance and hope Stealth will keep him safe from Physical or Energy attacks (which is a challenge as two of his three attacks are Range 3 or shorter). Grade: B
Really? We get Scarlet Witch in Defenders but not Beast? Well, okay, whatever. She’s a powerhouse but Defenders doesn’t really seem like the best fit. She’s already targeting Mystic defense with both her attacks so that part of Strange’s leadership isn’t as useful. She also can already drop Hex (or Bleed, Incinerate, or Poison, whichever she wants) if she gets a Wild on her builder, and her spender attack keeps the target from adding Crits as successes or using them to generate additional dice. So she doesn’t really gain much from being included, and aside from dropping a lot of special conditions with her attacks and powers, some of which are the same ones Hawkeye can generate, Scarlet Witch isn’t doing much for the team either, especially when she’s a 5 Threat character and Strange is already sucking up a lot of your available Threat. Grade B- in Defenders (A- in general)
Spider-Man (the original, non-Amazing flavor) is, like Hulk, meh. It hurts me to type those words but again, his cost is just too darn high for what you get. He has very good board control abilities that allow him to move enemies around the board fairly easily (although it’s costly to do so), and his Spider-Sense may help keep him alive but overall that’s about it. Compare his card to Daredevil above and Peter just comes up short, a victim of being early in the design process. Even AMG recognizes this with a second Spider-Man coming out very soon. Sorry tiger, you don’t hit the jackpot. Grade: C+
Valkyrie took a hit to her damage output in the November 2021 Updates, adding a Crit to the Wild required to trigger Flurry on her Dragon Fang. Even without the more reliable damage spikes she’s still a decent damage-dealer for 3 Threat, and in Defenders where you can choose which defense to target that increases her value. Valkyrie doesn’t have a lot going for her defensively so Strange’s healing and defense buffs will be much appreciated. Grade: B
Wolverine claims to be the best there is at what he does, and that may be right. He’s essentially a budget Hulk – his Healing Factor gives him effectively more Stamina, and he may spike to higher damage output when factoring in his Pierce effect, his Wild Rage, and the titular The Best At What I Do superpower. Wolverine is going to get up in the mix and wreck people. He and Valkyrie share a similar role but he’s definitely more survivable. His only real drawback is that Wild Rage prevents him from doing anything with objectives when Wolverine is on his injured side, which could be a real problem on a low model count team where you need all hands on deck. Grade: A-
Okay, so lastly here’s the thing with Wong: if he’s making an attack you’ve made a terrible mistake somewhere and should reconsider your life choices. His Strike is not great and only gives you 1 Power. If he’s near Dr Strange his defensive stats aren’t bad, but really Wong needs to be tucked somewhere safe doing the thing that he is the best at what he…does…best. Anyway, Wong is an Power battery and healbot. He can hand out 1 Power to an ally within Range 3, or as an Action he can heal an ally or remove a status effect. But while Wong has a superpower that lets him generate 1 Power for an Action, without also gaining Power from making (and taking) attacks I’m not sure he gets to a position where he’s not running on fumes. You can’t really use his support abilities as aggressively as you might want to. Still, he’s a 2 Threat character so you can’t ask for everything. Grade: B+
And Friends
You’ve already got some very strong support characters and attackers – both short and long range – in affiliation. You could always use someone who is good at squatting on objectives (despite everything comics in the 90s and 00s taught us, Wolverine can’t be everywhere at once). Taskmaster might be a good candidate for that job, or, and this is a Steaming Hot Take here, Captain America. Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom and Vibranium Shield (and later I Can Do This All Day) can really make Cap much tankier than he has any right to be.
You may also want to look at someone to help with board control, since you’re probably not taking Spider-Man. Maybe some other Spider-Friends, like Miles Morales or Spider-Gwen can help out here. Gwen can offer a degree of protection with Life Saver as well, and that’s never bad. Enchantress will be a maddening board control and objective-stealing machine.
And hey look, I made it through without mentioning Shuri or Okoye!
Are they any good?
The Defenders are a solid, well rounded affiliation with very strong support characters. Just be careful not to load up on too much support and not have anybody left to do stuff. Strange with Wolverine and Valkyrie are 12 Threat of terrifying unkillable staby action, and you can lean hard in that direction. Or go Strange/Valkyrie/Hawkeye/Miles/Taskmaster as an all-comers squad. There’s a lot of flexibility and the ability to cover whatever crises your opponent brings.
Unfortunately, given their history as loners and misfits, there’s not a lot of overlap that brings good synergy with a second affiliation in a roster. Maybe Hawkeye and Wolverine to double up with Avengers? Or use Daredevil to pivot into Web Warriors to cover the crises that want more mobility.
