With the introduction of Gladiator and the War of Kings box, we have been hit with a whopping ten new Crisis cards. Various interviews with Atomic Mass Games in the lead up to this release have revealed that perhaps not all of these Crises will be added to the ‘Standard’ timeline. It has also been confirmed that some of the older Crises will be rotated out (Research Station Attacked! has already been confirmed for removal, which comes as little to no surprise considering it was added to the Restricted list in late 2024).
While these Crises are designed to be played in pairs (you can read more about the story that inspired these pairings here) – we will be reviewing them in isolation as that is how most players will experience them when they first hit the table in March.
We previously reviewed a handful of these cards that were revealed early; you can view those here. As always, a big thanks to AMG for providing a copy for us to look over. Our painting guide for Gladiator himself is coming soon!
Without knowing the full rotation of Crisis cards that will follow this release (AMG have confirmed that this won’t happen until after Adepticon, March 30th 2025), we will need to make some assumptions and educated guesses with how these cards will fit into the Standard timeline.
Deadline to Destruction
A new map shape! Crisis teams tend to love a good old D map, which this new shape is clearly inspired by. However it’s a lot closer together. There’s some good space to run around to dodge incoming attacks, but that’s where the Interact comes into play. You essentially Pay 1 power to give your opponent a tricky decision to make. Drop the Extract, or take a damage. This effectively reduces the health pool of all Extract runners by 1, as you can now either finish them off if they survive on 1 – or get them to drop the Extract you’re trying to nab off them anyway.
Teams like Web Warriors and Uncanny X-Men are going to have a tough time here. They have small health pools and rely on their defensive re-rolls and Team Tactics Cards to score points. But with Deadline To Destruction, they’re going to quickly feel like their time on the board is slowly ticking down…
Inhumans Deploy Advanced Weaponry
At first, this Extract looks strange and a little confusing – until you realise it’s essentially The Montesi Formula Found on a new shape and with one more point up for grabs.
As with Montesi, the attack that this extract gives you rarely comes into play. It’s a straight up 6 dice beam that doesn’t explode crits or benefit from re-rolls. So it’s a bit of a spray and pray. I very rarely see it get used.
The lack of a mid-point here is interesting. Everything is across the midline, but not like Fear Grips where some teams have ways of cheesing both side hammers in a single activation (looking at you Nick Fury). This feels more fair, which is a running theme in these Crises.
M’Kraan Crystal Gets Heroes Home!
S.W.O.R.D Base! It’s S.W.O.R.D Base…but without the double feels bad of going down on points and then getting pushed around by your opponent. It also has the much-loved function of auto-claiming a pay-to-flip when there are no enemy characters contesting it. Please AMG, make this a standard across all pay-to-flips. It feels so much better than missing a roll after successfully removing your opponent’s model from the point.
Another thing non-pay-to-flippers complain about is having their power drained when trying to score VPs. The bonus power M’Kraan Crystal gives you when you’re also holding an Extract addresses this problem nicely, while also letting teams like Uncanny X-Men & Spider Foes keep their pay-to-flip specialisation intact.
If I were a gambling man, I’d say that M’Kraan Crystal is here to replace S.W.O.R.D Base once and for all. They’re likely too similar for AMG to be okay with us running both in a single roster – and this feels like a straight upgrade from one of the more controversial Secures in the game right now.
Strike Team Secures Shield Relay!
Another pay-to-flip, but this time it unfortunately has all the hallmarks of a ‘feels bad’ MCP pay-to-flip.
You roll your physical defence, so that immediately makes a percentage of characters crap here (hey there Professor X, Cassandra Nova & Enchantress) and you have to roll even if there are no enemies contesting that Secure. I play Uncanny X-Men, so I bloody love pay-to-flips. But so many games have been soured because my opponent has failed to flip an uncontested Secure because of this rule, it’s a real shame.
One defensive re-roll when within two of a Generator you control is a really nice touch though. Miles Morales-led Web Warriors are going to love this, as will Storm’s Uncanny X-Men. I suspect this could be a replacement for either Riots Spark or Spider Portals in Standard Timeline. The shapes are identical and they both favour Crisis teams. I very much doubt AMG will let Webs & X-Men get away with this one.
Terrigen Canisters Fuel Doomsday Device
An F-shape Extract! We don’t see these played much at the moment thanks to almost everyone bringing Namor for the midline grab. This Extract seems to be trying to address that. Giving out Poison to certain teams can be crippling. Web Warriors have famously loved F shape Extracts up until now, however I fear that this could be awful for them as their power economy is already a delicate balance. Poison would ruin that.
The Slow however may affect them slightly less, what with all the web swinging. But I tell you who probably loves this Extract – Inhumans and Sentinels. All Inhumans are immune to Poison (these canisters are clearly filled with Terrigen Mists, bravo AMG) and so are Sentinels. Plus, Sentinels are already moving Slow. So there!
I suspect this will replace either Struggle For The Cube or Spider-Infected, as they’re an identical shape. My bet would be on Cubes getting the cut, as Spider-Infected at least has the “get over here” push to help attrition teams catch those pesky Extract runners.
Unexpected Guests Crash Royal Wedding
It’s nice seeing a ‘fair’ Extract (an even number) on a B map. No midline grabs here, which evens things out a bit. Medium base, medium movers can still deploy directly opposite your opponents Extracts and double move to grab them – so look out for that. But I like this Extract. It feels nice and simple. Good, honest MCP!
The push back into the action on this is great in my opinion – and I’m one of the premiere ‘run away with Extracts’ players in my meta. A short push means I can still run to the corner of the map if I want, but my opponent now has some hope of getting a hold of me in order to lay the smackdown. Again – this feels fair.
I also like that the push is towards any Secure. So you don’t necessarily have to push your opponents models back into contesting range of a secure, with some smart measurements. Very nice!
Wedding Party Targeted In Terrible Attack!
Wedding Party is screaming out to replace Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses, which is currently a bit of a controversial Secure. If you don’t have a plan to bring Stun Immune characters, then it quickly starts to feel like a have vs have-nots kind of game. It also tends to end up feeling somehow more fighty than Demons Downtown, which divides a lot of players.
Wedding Party feels like a fairer alternative to Mayor Fisk. The points start wider apart on the board. You drain 1 power rather than Stun models. This effect is triggered from Range 2 rather than Range 1, meaning you can affect your opponents models while also preventing them from starting the round already contesting the Secure.
Also, it’s 20 threat and each Secure is worth 2 VPs. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Secure specialist teams taking this like Web Warriors or Avengers. Lots of displacement could quickly rack up the VPs here.
Again, this feels fair. I’d wager that this will replace Mayor Fisk.
Conclusion
One word comes to mind when looking over these cards – fair. Research Station, Gamma & Spider Portals are on the extreme edge of the spectrum when it comes to attrition vs crisis teams in Marvel Crisis Protocol. At first glance, none of the extreme is present here – so I suspect AMG are trying to bring things more into the middle in order to give more affiliations a shot at being competitive. Which feels great!
Every Extract here is 1 per character. There is no 15 threat. No E Maps. No Intrusions-esque teleporting around. Things feel calmer and more…well…fair.
Time will tell exactly how much this could affect the meta. Most importantly – we need to see which Crisis cards are staying and which are going, which we should get more info on by March/April time.
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