What? New Crisis Cards?!
Introducing…the War Of Kings box! But what is it exactly?
Well…it’s the Gladiator character box: Another stompy 6 threat who’s here to steal your lunch money. But what I’m most interested in talking about is the chunky set of shiny cardboard that comes along with him.
In this box, we are getting a whopping five new Extracts and five new Secures to play with. Now how these will be added into the game is currently unclear. Will they be in addition to all of the Crisis cards we currently have? Or will they serve as replacements? We do not know. But you can read more about it (and the story of War Of Kings that goes alongside it) here.
So join me now as we break down the handful of cards that have been revealed – and get our speculation and conspiracy hats on!
Scientific Samples Found In Discovered Universe
Right, so here we have a good old familiar D map. It’s the same shape as everyone’s favourite Extract, Fear Grips…otherwise known as HAMMERS. We like D maps extracts. They’re nice and fair…most of the time both players are going to grab 2 of them…nice and simple.
Speaking of familiarism: It’s 17 threat. Nice and fair, down the middle. Most teams enjoy a good 17 threat.
Now, the effect. The first Skull a character rolls per turn grants them 1 power. That includes dodge rolls…interact rolls…and rolls that occur on your opponent’s turn. Anyone who has played Beast or Shuri or Doctor Voodoo knows that this ability converts to a great amount of power throughout a game. Plus this stacks with those effects!
Then there’s the real interesting part. If all of a player’s Extract holders end the round within 2 of a Secure, a bonus point is scored. There is a very clear statement being made by AMG here. Do not run your characters to the corner of the board with an extract. It’s every attrition player’s nightmare…we saw them limit the effectiveness of this in the last Crisis Card rotation…and here we are with more of it.
Anyone who has played me knows that I am a huge lover of running away to the corner of the board. But playing a ton of Paranoia Pummels Populace! has taught me that 1 bonus point a round can swing games. So I’ll certainly be encouraged to stand and fight when this Extract hits the table.
Where this Extract falls on the Attrition vs Crisis scoring spectrum is an interesting one. There are reliably 3 points up for grabs…(2 Samples + the bonus point) making it about as fast scoring as Senators (where you split 6 points with your opponent, 3 each) – but if any one of your Extract holders gets thrown off a point, you’re down 1VP. This makes me think it’s actually a very fair and equal Extract for all teams. Good job AMG!
Now do I think it will replace any existing Extracts? I think no. The closest one to it is Hammers…which everybody loves. My suspicion is that AMG are adding another Hammers-like Extract to the mix, this time with an interesting point scoring aspect.
Who Does This Affect the Most?
Toad! My boy! King of grabbing an Extract and running to the corner of the board. While he is still one of the best in the game at doing this; Scientific Samples Found In Discovered Universe means he needs to stick around a little closer to the danger than he would like. Sorry Toad!
Ship Security Breached In Royal Rescue
This one is on the lesser known J map, but most people know it as the Skrulls shape (the only other Crisis we’ve seen on this map). Skrulls has surged in popularity recently. My guess for why would be for a couple reasons…
- It’s 20 threat. People love 20 threat. More toys!
- It’s an even Extract. Not many teams or characters have the ability to go 3-1 on a Skrulls shape…meaning if you lose the Priority role and your opponent chooses your Extracts (which they tend to do 90% of the time), you’re not at a massive disadvantage.
Now this has a very interesting interaction rule. While holding an Extract – you gain 1 power when you interact with an objective token. This is only really relevant on Pay To Flip Secures.
Note: It also works on Intrusions…but you’ll then drop this Extract so was it really worth it? Meh.
While holding 1 of these Extracts, you’ll be able to jump around Pay To Flips for free. That’s cool! But it isn’t going to come up in most games you play with this Extract, so for the most part – this is the same as Skrulls but without the scary risk of your opponent pushing you around.
Will it replace Skrulls? Well…maybe. I’d be surprised if we see Skrulls get rotated out seeing as it’s raised in popularity recently…and doesn’t really get complained about much (as I said above…it’s pretty fair). However, will AMG be okay with 2 near identical Extracts being in the game? Both at 20 threat on a J map? Maybe not? Time will tell.
Pay To Flip Secures are a much-maligned part of Marvel Crisis Protocol. I suspect that this Extract might be AMG’s way of injecting a bit more fun into them by helping teams who struggle with power generation on those Crises. Just a thought!
Who Does This Affect the Most?
X-Men…bloody…LOVE this card. They’re one of the few teams that can make this map shape turn into a 3-1 advantage (Medium base + To Me, My X-Men = stealing your opponent’s Extract) and 90% of the time they’ll be playing this on their Pay To Flip Secures.
That means you can grab your opponents Extract with the above play…have NO risk of getting pushed like you would with Skrulls…and then move back safely to a Pay To Flip, to then flip for free. Doing all of that after playing First Class means your favourite medium base X-Men character (it’s Angel isn’t it…I knew it!) has now impacted 2VPs and STILL HAS 1 POWER?! X-cellent stuff.
Guardians Save Shi’ar Empress In Style
Well I’ll be damned. This is a new map shape! It’s a love child of Scoundrels and S.W.O.R.D Base. Scoundrels being many crisis teams favourite map…and SWORD base being a bit more “Stuck in the middle with you”.
The threat is 17 and it’s a Pay To Flip that doesn’t rely on your defence stats. All of this combines into leaving me with one word to sum up this Secure…FAIR. It’s not too much of a fight in the middle…it’s not too much of an attrition teams nightmare either…it seems pretty…FAIR.
I feel like this could play similar to Mutant Madmen. Teams like X-Men & Spider Foes will have fun running around with fast & beefy characters flipping points. Killier teams like Servants Of The Apocalypse and Blade’s Midnight Sons may enjoy it because they can wipe out 1 side…flip the points and then collapse on the other flank.
Now will this replace S.W.O.R.D Base? Maybe. They’re pretty similar…and there has been a distinct lack of 15 Threat Crises in these reveals so far. Which may be an indication of it replacing its Pay To Flip brother.
Note: One of the most complained-about aspects of Crisis Cards in MCP is the existence of 15 threat. When the latest 15 Threat trio show up, they tend to storm the meta. Many people are guessing (and hoping) for the removal of 15 threat in this potential Crisis card reshuffle.
Who Does This Affect the Most?
Doc Ock’s Spider Foes players tend to flip between E maps (big fights in the middle) and spread out Pay To Flip maps (Mutant Madmen, S.W.O.R.D Base etc). I suspect Guardians Save Shi-ar Empress In Style to perhaps be the exact kind of middle ground they’ve been craving. Characters like Rhino & Lizard will be able to run around flipping points effectively; while also surviving the attacks that come in from ranged attackers standing on points.
In Conclusion
Despite AMG being very tight-lipped on exactly how these Crisis Cards will roll out and change the current selection – I think that these reveals show enough similarities and ‘fixes’ to problems people currently complain about to safely assume that we will be losing at least some of the current selection.
Will these Crisis address the commonly complained about play style of running away into a dark corner with an Extract? Will there be less groaning when a Pay To Flip Secure hits the table? Only time will tell.
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