When I started playing Marvel: Crisis Protocol I made a list of all the characters I hoped for. It started with the MCU characters, then went into the most popular characters, and finally I added characters I wished for, but there was no chance of them ever making it to the game. Dracula was first on that last list.
I grew up on classic monster flicks, renting them from Blockbuster over and over, absorbed by the fascinating yet slightly goofy monsters. When I found out that Dracula was a repeat X-Men villain in the comic books it combined all of my favorite childhood hyperfocuses and forced me to start hunting those issues at my local comic shop. Now that Dracula and friends have joined MCP, I’m finally able to recreate those memories on the tabletop at my LGS.
The box is on the larger size, using the same proportions as the Star Wars Shatterpoint boxes and fits two large frames with two characters each. There is only a single customization option, consisting of an alternate Dracula head with fog or mist swirling from his eyes.
Overall, the assembly was very easy and each character oozes individuality and fits their classic movie monster theme. As with many of Atomic Mass Games’ recent sculpts, there was almost no mold lines and cleanup was mostly a breeze. There were some slight mold lines that were difficult to clean on the Living Mummy’s torso.
To most, Dracula is the star of the show here. He’s THE movie monster most people will think of first, and has long been an unbeatable big bad to various Marvel heroes. At 5 threat, he boasts impressive durability with 7 health on both sides and multiple ways to heal himself. From my early take, the best power he has might be Eternal Hunger, however. For 2 power he can counterattack against an enemy within range 3, without a limitation on the attack. For 6 power this lets him attack with 8 dice and heal that much damage, and maybe even throw the attacker away and prevent a second attack! Another impressive strength is his Shapeshifting, allowing him to Long Move, gain flight, or heal 2 and all special conditions.
Dracula comes with a Team Tactic card leadership that allows him to take any characters, potentially opening up a very powerful team of any characters you choose. The leadership allows any character to pay one power and give bleed to an enemy. It’s important to note that the wording of the damage removal only allows it to be removed from Dracula, as it says “This character” and the special rule is on Dracula, not his Thralls. An unfortunate wording that makes it a little less impressive than before, but could still be useful. I’m more excited about making the entire world bleed, then healing Dracula and Blade myself!
Jack Russell (lol) is the old school version of Marvel’s reluctant Werewolf at Night character, filling the role of a cheesy monster movie since his original appearance in 1972. On the tabletop, he serves as a versatile beatstick that’s hard to put down. His Healing Factor plus the pounce help him get in your opponents face and threaten enemies with the possibility of counterattacking with Midnight Massacre for 3 power. Unearthly howl gives him a fun way to attempt to remove power while also applying slow or root.
Phases of the Moon gives Jack Russell one of two effects that last all game! If you choose New Moon his counterattack goes up to 4 cost while letting him reroll a defense die for each special condition the attacker has, while Full Moon stops you from using Extracts but lets you reroll one attack die for each condition the target has. I feel like many players might ignore Full Moon in favor of New Moon, due to the massive downside of a 5 threat character not being able to effect half of the crisis points, but regardless it’s a very cool thematic effect.
Get ready to say, “Frankenstein is the scientist, not the monster!” This is Adam, the original creation of the mad Dr. Frankenstein and grown into his own here on the tabletop. Adam is an amazing toolbox character with 2 of my favorite effects for a character to be truly impressive, a charge and a throw. The main downside of his card is that his main way to generate power is to be attacked (which kind of makes sense with what kind of plodding monster he is.)
Hey look! It’s Heroes for Hire! Seriously though, this card is great whatever character can use it, especially considering Adam needs to be attacked to be a real threat.
N’Kantu the Living Mummy seems to be strongly designed around being a 3 threat version of Hela, and I am here for it. He collects Captured Soul tokens just like her, but he can use them to count skull results as wilds in an attack roll.
He can also expend them in his Service to Anubis Team Tactic Card.
This card allows N’Kantu to make a big area attack equal to the number of Captured Soul tokens with power equal to the number of power spent on the attack itself. What’s really interesting is that the attack doesn’t use up the souls until the end, meaning you can spend the souls as you attack and potentially gain more if you daze/KO any enemies. How strong is an AOE 3 Power 10 mystic attack that can count skulls as wilds? Pretty dang good, I bet!
If you’re playing a casual game, the box even includes a custom one-shot card and tokens to play with Dracula’s Servants that gives an edge to the Thralls of Dracula affiliation. While these might not be your cup of tea, they’re just another piece that shows AMG really put a lot of love into the box.
The four team tactics cards even fit together to show the amazing piece illustrated by Nestor Ossandon.
All together, this is an incredibly thematic box set that introduces a whole new affiliation in Thralls of Dracula and adds several great new choices to Midnight Sons. What do ya’ll think? Are Dracula and Blade new best friends? Is Frankenstein’s Monster going to replace Luke Cage in anyone’s lists? Is Service to Anubis going to deal more damage than Helios Laser Bombardment? I, for one, say yes to all of these.
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