Earlier this summer Atomic Mass Games teased one of the most gorgeous models they have produced this far. Malekith the Accursed, immediately after seeing his model I knew I would be playing him as much as possible for the second half of the year, especially after reading War of the Realms last year. We finally have his rules. I was concerned he was going to be a lackluster character and I would have to find a way to make him work anyways, however AMG delivered a great looking model with amazing rules as well.
Malekith has a lot going on with him. His base-line defensive stats are very solid but they better be for the first 7 threat characters (with the exclusion of thanos). 4 defense against all types with a total 18 health will make him relatively beefy. A medium move with a 65mm base also makes him quite mobile. His attacks and super power suite continue to impress. His builder will consistently do damage, he has a beam so even if he is out of range to do crazy damage with his builder he can throw out some mystic damage. His final attack is a giant attack with some movement and conditions tacked on, but usually he has better ways to use his power. His super powers bring the whole kit together. Ferocity is a charge that gives solid displacement tools which gives him a leg up on other high threat pieces that solely do damage. His other abilities help improve efficiency and survivability. Cloak of shadows allows you to turn skulls into crits. His last power conqueror of the 10 realms gives him a second power which allows him to guarantee his charge, and denies rerolls to opponents attacking him. He also has a very strong leadership for cabal.
Alright so malekith is a very expensive, but very good murder master. So with that in mind he has some specific strengths. His builds will focus on leading a strong attrition advantage and use that to slow the opposing scoring and eventually win out through a mix of attrition and extremely mobile pieces. However high threat pieces with very limited control like this need to do a crazy amount of work to be worth their points. As such malekith with his charge throw and very consistent damage from his attacks he can reliably get at least one daze per round. Due to this high threat and great action economy, ways to avoid getting staggered is paramount for malekith and as such characters like black cat are incredibly dangerous to the malekith plan.
Now onto building lists focused on malekith. He can perform well in a ton of crises, however there are a couple that give me pause. All of these are a lot more playable at higher threats (18+) but at lower than that can cause issues to arise. SWORD base, mutant mademen, spider portals, and spider infected are the crises that concern me. All of these crises share the fact that they incentivize playing at least 5 characters. You can build a very aggressive game plan and try to just daze your way to victory in these crises, however I think the more reliable plan is to bring a secondary leader to help in these plans. My favorite plan for these is either ShadowLands Daredevil Criminal Syndicate or Sin led Cabal.
I’m going to focus on my list building with Malekith roster with an option to play sin as a secondary leader. Her leadership allows you to excel on the extracts I already prefer for malekith anyways. Hammers and Montessi spell books, both of which malekith can really punish opposing teams on. Then for secures I would build towards centralized secures. Demons downtown and Intrusions are both great for the threat value and the shapes they force. The third crisis can be a couple of things, Gamma Waves or Deadly Meteors are my suggestions.
For character selection cabal has a premium selection of very good 3 threats: mystique, baron zemo, hood etc. I start with 3 affiliated 3’s to give you a good core of characters, then next I go to decide my two threats. After that there are 2 things specifically want to fully facilitate malekith, the first is a way to allow malekith to double attack turn one. There are several ways to accomplish that. I would pick 2 from these options; heimdall, enchantress, deception, or space loki. Secondly I want a character with an angelic assassin like ability (carnage, angela, or X-23) that allows for incredible repositioning.
My current preference is angela due to allowing better hammers play. I assume I won’t have priority so my plan for that is angela on one flank with malekith on the other, angela can walk, attack and throw at whoever picks up the hammer on her side. While mystique or enchantress can pull the person from the otherside forward into range for malekith to get two attacks into them.
On to some tactic cards. For affiliated cards the only required one is dark reign for when you absolutely must kill something. After that I’m looking at cards that improve Malekiths efficiency in different ways. I like Black Bifrost as a midgame reposition on spread out crises such as fisk witnesses or cosmic invasion. I also like to bring one defensive card. There are many to choose from, fall back, escort to safety, and inspring monologue are at the top of my list. If you find malekith needs to do even more damage, smash is really the only card to cover that hole and it turns his beam into a real threat. The next card helps with Malekith having minimal control, Midnight Phantasmagoria is a huge pulse of healing and pushing. Phantasmagoria also helps solidify the strength of Malekiths team on E secures like gamma waves or research station. The last tactic card I feel is needed is follow me this helps maintain priority as you daze multiple characters in a single turn.
Here is what I am currently playing with malektih. Hopefully you guys found this helpful. Until next time!
Characters: (10)
Baron Zemo (Helmut Zemo) Threat: 3
Bullseye (Benjamin Poindexter) Threat: 2
Hood (Parker Robbins) Threat: 3
Enchantress (Amora) Threat: 4
Malekith The Accursed (Malekith) Threat: 7
Mystique (Raven Darkholme) Threat: 3
Toad (Mortimer Toynbee) Threat: 2
Angela (Aldrif Odinsdottir) Threat: 5
Sin (Sinthea Schmidt) Threat: 3
Heimdall, The All-Seeing (Heimdall) Threat: 3
Tactics: (10)
The Black Bifrost
Dark Reign
Brace for Impact
Follow Me
Smash
Escort to Safety
Midnight Phantasmagoria
Deception
Illicit Tech
Advanced R&D
Secure Crisis: (3)
Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians (Threat: 17)
Intrusions Open Across City as Seals Collapse (Threat: 19)
Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (Threat: 19)
Extract Crisis: (3)
The Montesi Formula Found (Threat: 17)
Alien Ship Crashes in Downtown! (Threat: 20)
Fear Grips World As “Worthy” Terrorize Cities (Threat: 18)