Greetings Marvel fans!
My name is Phil, and you may remember me as the author of the Brawlmachine Primer Series. Having recently been bitten by the radioactive spider that is Marvel Crisis Protocol, I’ve found myself drawn deeply into this game of superhero battles. Now as a reoccurring Line of Sight content creator, I hope you’ll join me as I explore these Heroes, Villains, and the Crises they face.
For my 1st article it seemed appropriate to tackle something related to the most recent June 2022 update. For most of the new releases over the past two years, the majority trend has been for Tactics Cards to be character specific rather than unaffiliated. The new rotation format doubled down on this by rotating out many of the most popular unaffiliated cards from the Core Box plus early releases.
While it may be easy to just build a roster with only affiliation cards plus character locked ones, there is still merit in bringing some of the remaining unaffiliated options. These cards inherently have more flexibility in that anybody can use them, plus they don’t become worthless when characters get KO’d early. In addition, including “generic” cards in your roster can often help shore up weaknesses that your roster/affiliation may have and give you better play into disadvantaged matchups.
So today I bring you my top 5 unaffiliated Tactic Cards, in alphabetical order, that I think you should look at the next time you build a new roster.
Fall Back
Where to find it: Hulkbuster Box
What does it do: Lets a character backup to avoid multi-attacks
When to take it: When opposing Team has strong Rapid Fire attackers
At first glance this card doesn’t seem very good because you still take damage from an attack. However, where it shines is in it’s ability to let you avoid getting focus fired to death. Characters like Winter Solder build a gameplan around positioning for a quad-tap with two Rifle shots each with Rapid Fire. Playing this card after the first shot lets you move away and only take the most minor of damage
Inspiring Monologue
Where to find it: Core Box / Card Pack 2022
What does it do: Gives one character defensive dice re-rolls for an entire round
When to take it: When you need to keep an important character alive
Defensive re-rolls are great, and getting them for an entire Round is even better. This card is useful for any Roster that has a lynch pin character. This can be your Leader model or even a big 6+ Threat attacker that needs to do a lot of work (Hulk, Malekith, Thanos). As a bonus, this card used Power off of other characters so doesn’t hamper the Power economy of the character you are trying to protect.
Escort to Safety
Where to find it: Core Box / Card Pack 2022
What does it do: Pushes a character towards an ally to avoid an attack
When to take it: Opponent has a big crippling attack or takes Helios Laser
In a way this card is just a more complicated, as well as more powerful, version of Fall Back. As such you need to a character with 3 Power in the proper location to effectively use this card. When it works though, you can evade big cost attacks like the one on Iron Fist or even those granted by a Tactic Card such as Helios Laser. If your roster doesn’t have ready access to things like Bodyguard to mess up the opponent’s plan, then consider adding this to your list.
Psychic Shielding Device (P.S.D.)
Where to find it: Vision & Winter Soldier Box / Card Pack 2022
What does it do: Creates an aura of bonus Mystical defense plus immunity to Mystical Advances/Pushes
When to take it: Opponent is playing multiple Mystical attackers
If you see a bunch of Wizards across the board, then this card helps your Team avoid their spell slinging onslaught. A more niche use is to keep your objective sitting characters from being mentally moved by the likes of Modok or Enchantress. While you can spend 5 Power and make a super big aura for this card, it’ll likely function better as a small 2-3 Cost bubble to protect key parts of the board.
Sucker
Where to find it: Core Box / Card Pack 2022
What does it do: Strips Power from an Injured enemy Character
When to take it: Opponent is relying on taking damage to fuel important attacks/superpowers
The stronger you hit your opponent, the bigger the counter punch will be next turn after giving them loads of Power. Of course you can just focus fire these enemy characters, but you wont always have attackers in position or with enough Power themselves to pull off such a play. This card lets 2 of your own characters share the power load to neuter an enemy retaliation potential. With a generous range of 3, even your support characters could participate without getting too far into the danger zone.
Honorable Mention
Kick ’em While They’re Down
Where to find it: Luke Cage & Iron Fist Box
What does it do: Gain re-rolls for a round against an enemy character with conditions on them
When to take it: You have a team that likes to stack conditions on enemy characters
The final card today is an Honorable Mention due to it being so roster dependent. If you try to throw this card into most lists, it may result in 1 or even 0 re-rolls if you don’t apply enough conditions. However with the right list (Looking at you Hydra Affiliation) that can easily throw out conditions like Poison, Bleed, Incinerate, then it’s pure gold and can help your team burn down even the toughest of targets.
Conclusion
That’s all I have for today. Hope you enjoyed this snapshot of a few unaffiliated Tactics Cards that may spice up the next MCP roster you bring to game night.
As always, if you want to read more content about Marvel: Crisis Protocol, Conquest, or Warhammer: 40,000, there are many articles to be found on this very website! Consider subscribing to the Line of Sight Youtube, and joining the Discord! Finally, if you want to support this content directly, check out the Line of Sight Patreon where you can help influence the very course of the podcasts! Thanks for reading, we’ll see you next time!
Thanks for reading!