A superhero is only as interesting as the villains they clash with, so it’s no surprise that Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis is among the most iconic miscreants in the Marvel canon. Embodying the classic trope of the evil businessman but kicking it up to an extreme level, the Green Goblin perfectly pairs an iconic visual design with several chillingly classic storylines within the pages of Marvel Comics and on the silver screen.
Norman Osborn was one of Marvel Crisis Protocol’s earlier character additions, first dropping in late 2019 along with the original leadership for the Spider-Foes. Perhaps a product of his time, Goblin has since received a slight but meaningful character card update, keeping him more than relevant and capable of strong play in the modern age of MCP.
What’s in the Marvel Crisis Protocol Green Goblin Box?
Green Goblin Character Card
2 Team Tactics Cards
10 Tokens
Spider-Foes Affiliation List (Outdated)
Green Goblin: Attacks, Superpowers, and Basic Stats
Before getting into too many specifics, the first thing to note about Green Goblin’s character card is that it’s either outdated or contains important typos if you’re using the version provided in the Green Goblin solo character box or the more recent Spider-Foes affiliation pack. The original character card was updated in the 2021 character balance pass to give him one more die on his Healthy and Injured-side builder and to make his leadership free instead of costing one Power. However, the second printing of his card in the Foes affiliation box incorrectly maintained the original pay-to-use leadership and five dice builder on Goblin’s injured side. Atomic Mass Games has since provided an updated version of the card, which is free and legal to print on their website under “Rules.”
At first glance, Green Goblin’s Healthy-side statistics seem solid if relatively unexciting for a 4 Threat model. 4 Physical, 3 Energy, and 3 Mystic defense is a bit below the curve, but an above-average 7 Hit Points partially makes up for it. Moreover, the Medium move is made more impressive because Goblin is on a 50mm (Medium) base, so he can scoot around the battlefield and get where he needs to go.
Pumpkin Bombs and Night of the Goblin are respectable attacks with the possibility of dropping conditions on the opponent. His builder requires a wild to do so, but choosing the most relevant between Incinerate, Bleed, and Poison and between making the attack Physical or Energy makes it potent. Night of the Goblin eschews Bleed from its effect, but the trade-off is that it applies both Incinerate and Poison simultaneously, with the only pre-requisite being damage. The drawback is that Night of the Goblin costs 4 Power. It’s useful when Goblin is flush with Power or when it’s very important to sneak a bit more damage or the conditions through, but Norman is likely to use Pumpkin Bombs much more regularly.
Moving down Goblin’s Card reveals a suite of diverse superpowers that help Norman get around the battlefield and threaten enemy models with extra damage. Hit and Run is very straightforward and makes good use of Goblin’s 50mm base, and Trick or Treat functionally acts as an out-of-activation terrain throw that can threaten to daze opposing models on their own activation. Arch Nemesis: Peter Parker is an incredibly niche ability given it doesn’t do anything unless the opponent has a Peter Parker on the board, but allowing Green Goblin to re-roll any dice is powerful, and the mandate that his first action must be an attack if Peter is within Range 3 lets it delay Stagger as it temporarily overrides the effect.
On Green Goblin’s flip side, his Hit Points go down, his defenses shift, and he gains a suite of new attacks and abilities. Pumpkin Bombs increases to 6 dice, Night of the Goblin gets one Power cheaper, and Hit and Run is replaced by Glider Ram, which throws Green Goblin Medium. Norman also gains Unstable Psyche, which lets him roll dice for extra Power in the Power Phase at the cost of becoming unable to interact with or hold Objective tokens (though he can still contest).
Spider-Foes Leadership: Oscorp Weaponry
The last, and arguably most important, thing on Green Goblin’s card is his leadership, Oscorp Weaponry, which was the Spider-Foes affiliation’s sole leadership for several years. In its current, post-2021 update form, the leadership lets the Foes player reroll one opposing defense die once per turn. It’s simple in concept, but it can push through a reasonable amount of extra damage if every character uses it during most rounds of the game. The math is this: three of the eight sides of an MCP die are successes for the defensive player, so making them reroll one has a 5/8 chance to push through one extra point of damage. Keep in mind, also, that the leadership working once per turn means that characters like Venom, who attack during enemy activations, can use it on their counterattack. Conversely, any character with grunts (like Sandman in affiliation) can only use it once between parent and grunt as they activate during the same turn.
Given that Green Goblin doesn’t have any displacement on his card, he’s generally going to want to sit back and take advantage of his Range 4 builder to do damage and lay conditions onto enemies. His Trick or Treat ability also means that he generally wants to hang out within Range 4 of terrain features to blow them up. Goblin’s attack range makes him particularly suitable for B-shaped Secures like Infinity Formula and Mutant Madman, and he can also punish the midline from afar quite well on Es.
While Goblin generally likes to sit back a bit, it’s important to predict when he will daze to take advantage of his powerful Glider Ram. If he’s too far back or sitting behind terrain, he won’t be able to use it, neutering his hit-back turn after daze. He also has significantly worse defenses on his Injured size, and he loses Hit and Run to help him get to safety, so balancing offensive output with keeping Goblin alive to keep playing the game can be a challenging but crucial strategic consideration.
Team Tactics Cards
Green Goblin comes packaged with two Team Tactics cards in his solo box, though only one is currently legal in Standard play. Blind Obsession has been rotated out, though the Spider-Foes card Custom Upgrades (found in the Electro, Sandman, Shocker, and Vulture box) is almost identical in practice.
Well-Laid Plans, however, remains a powerful and important card for Spider-Foes players. Its effect is simple – if Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus each pay three Power, the Spider-Foes player rolls five dice for each enemy character holding an Objective token in turn. After each roll, the designated character takes one damage for each Crit or Wild rolled, and if they took damage this way, they drop all Objective tokens they were holding.
This can create massive swing turns in favor of the Foes player. Note that the card doesn’t have to be played during either Green Goblin or Ock’s turn, so it can be dropped whenever makes the most sense – perhaps when an ally is in position to scoop the dropped extracts or perhaps at the end of a round to prevent scoring even if no Foes character is there to pick them up right away. This is particularly useful when Foes players find themselves behind on Extracts or when tough-to-take-down characters like Thanos, Hulk, etc gobble up Extracts.
However, the huge potential benefits come with risk. Six total power can be hard to come by at the right time, and savvy opponents can try to keep one of Ock or Goblin Dazed or KOd to prevent playing the card. It’s also reliant on dice, so it’s possible to spend the power and simply not roll any Crits or Wilds. However, while hitting every enemy won’t happen every time, the odds of missing them all are low if two or more characters are being rolled for. Also, don’t forget that if any of the rolls have a Crit, Doc Ock gets one Power from Scientific Hubris (all the rolls are collectively one effect, so he doesn’t gain more than one Power if more than one roll has a Crit).
Note: Because Well-Laid Plans says Doctor Octopus and not Otto Octavius, the four-threat Doc Ock Sinister Scientist from the Earth’s Mightiest Core Set cannot play it.
Closing
Green Goblin is an iconic Marvel villain, and Marvel Crisis Protocol does a great job translating his penchant for psychological warfare and violence with unconventional superpowers and a strong leadership. While Norman is also included in the Criminal Syndicate affiliation, he doesn’t see much play there, and his best home is undoubtedly with the Spider-Foes he leads. Goblin plays well with all his affiliated allies, given that his leadership is generic and doesn’t require specific synergies to get value out of. Whether players want to enact a more fight-y game plan or try to lean more into scenario play, Goblin is an effective and fun character to put on the table.
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