This is a preview article showcasing new releases for Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Want to learn more about the game? Check out our Marvel: Crisis Protocol Beginner’s Guide instead!
Excelsior, heroes, and welcome to a Meeple Mountain preview for Marvel: Crisis Protocol! Recently, Atomic Mass Games has pivoted to a model of releasing groups of characters all at once, rather than their original single- and double-character packs. This means that more models will be released at once, giving the game plenty of new life with every release cycle.
This brings us to our current trio of combatants, so let’s dive into what’s in the box!
Cat Attack! Tigra Joins MCP!
Tigra is a 4-threat long mover with a bit going on under the hood. She’s a physical attacker who can inflict the “Hex” condition, rendering her opponent’s critical strikes ineffective. This makes her the only physical attacker in the game that can give out hex on their basic attack from outside melee range. Beyond her basic attacks, she can also throw herself into enemies to cause collisions for additional damage! She does have a unique conditional effect in that she counts as a larger character if she throws herself from large terrain, which goes nicely with her conditional “Stealth” superpower that only works if she’s within range 1 of terrain. Finally, she allows her allies to reroll defense dice while also shutting down enemy offensive rerolls when she’s being targeted.
Tigra’s model is on a small 35mm base, leaping forward from the head of a broken lion statue. Fitting the statue head together just right was the most tedious part of assembling her, but honestly, it’s a broken statue, so you can justify making it look however you want. Everything else was simple to assemble, so you shouldn’t even need assembly instructions.
Tigra also comes with her two tactics cards! The first, “Totem of the Tiger God”, lets her pay two power to change her attack type from physical to mystic for the turn, while also letting her place herself after dealing damage. This can turn on her mobility to allow her to reposition after an attack for any number of reasons: to get on an objective, get in range of an ally to give them defensive rerolls, or even get her in range of a different enemy for a follow-up attack. That’s not all, though: she also brings with her “The Night Life” tactics card! This one is a team-up effect with Moon Knight. They each pay one power for various effects: Moon Knight gets to pick which personality he’s in for the round, and Tigra gets to place within range 2. Both of these cards feel like very narrow use cases, with “The Night Life” especially requiring Tigra and Moon Knight to be within range 3 of each other to activate, but I’m sure people will figure out cool ways to leverage them to surprise their opponents.
Echo Charges Into Battle!
Echo is the model I’m most excited about from this new box. It’s hard not to compare Echo to Baron Zemo, who is still the premier 3-threat in the game. They both have long moves with charges, enabling them to zip across the board and attack most things. They both have spenders that let them move afterwards, further increasing their insane mobility. Echo, however, has the nasty ability to shut down your opponent’s critical hits. Not only do they not count their crits with her spender, they don’t get to explode them either, meaning they don’t get the additional dice criticals usually provide. To top it all off, her “Death Dancer” superpower means for every one of your opponent’s criticals, she gets to change one of her dice to a success on both attack and defense. While I’m not a big Defenders or Criminal Syndicate player, which are her home affiliations, I am particularly excited to splash Echo in other places and see if I can unlock her potential. X-Force is calling my name again.
Echo’s model was the easiest to assemble from the box. Her whole torso and leg come in one giant piece, so it’s simply a matter of attaching her head, arms, and the other leg. Maybe the easiest model I’ve ever put together for MCP, and that’s saying something!
Finally, Echo brings along her own tactics card. “Parts of a Hole” lets Echo, who is famously deaf, team up with Daredevil, who is famously blind. The thematic function of this card is to let them cover for each other’s perceived weaknesses, with Echo gaining Daredevil’s “Radar Sense” and Daredevil gaining Echo’s “On the Prowl”. I actually really like it when AMG releases new cards that impact older characters, so it’s cool to see Daredevil get some love. It makes sense – the card is named after a comic book arc of the same name.
Clint Barton Sulks His Way Into MCP as Ronin
Finally, Ronin arrives in MCP! Not to be confused with Ronan the Accuser, who is already here, or the other Clint Barton, who is Hawkeye. It’s cool to see him represented in a different way here with Ronin. He joins as a 4-threat model with a bunch of abilities we’ve seen elsewhere before, but not in this combination. His melee attack has both pierce and bleed on it, just like X-23. His basic ranged attack lets him hit from range 4 with a wild bleed and a short advance on a hit, just like Blade. His spender hits in a beam and pierces, then places him at the end of the beam, much like Logan. He’s got a grappling hook just like, well, Hawkeye, and a martial artist just like a bunch of models, and dice modification and… yeah, you’ve probably seen this all before. However, we haven’t seen them all together like this, and it makes Ronin a formidable model to see on the table. He has so many ways to get around the board and chase you down, and his pierces will blank out your defensive successes, making him a pretty threatening force.
Ronin’s model is definitely the most complicated from the box. There are multiple options to select while constructing the model. There are three head options: hooded with his mask, unhooded with his mask, and no hood/no mask. You can also select whether his left hand is holding a bow or a sword. I initially assembled it with the sword, but then thought thematically about how a sword-only character would have a long-range attack, so I swapped it to the bow. And, of course, if you’re using a bow, you have to have a quiver. The most challenging aspect of assembling his model is the finicky nature of the terrain. Both of his feet actually have spots to connect to the terrain pieces, which can be a bit difficult to set correctly, but all in all, it was a pretty quick assembly.
Ronin’s dangerous methods are embodied in the “Extreme Measures” tactics card. He can spend three power to give both of his basic attacks rapid fire triggers for the round. This means if he hits a wild on his melee or simply a hit on his ranged attack, he gets to make another attack targeting the same character. This isn’t the worst, but as a very risk-averse player, I would hate to spend three power and a tactics card slot for the possibility of getting extra attacks. In the games where you hit the triggers and you get, say, two extra builders into someone, that’s going to feel amazing. But the games where you whiff both attacks and don’t get any triggers? The card will feel awful. How excited you are for this card will directly depend on how much you like to embrace the randomness of MCP dice.
Street Level Heroes
In closing, this is a pretty exciting box of MCP! The Defenders have had a bit of a glow-up recently, with Doctor Strange’s leadership getting a rework, not to mention the rework of Daredevil’s leadership back in 2023. Defenders have a solid roster of affiliated characters, totaling 32 models and including meta menaces such as the two different Hulks, Shang-Chi, and Namor. If you’re looking to get started with Defenders, picking up this new box alongside the recently-released Defenders Affiliation Pack will bring you to 8 affiliated models with plenty of tactics cards and multiple leaderships. I’d say the future is bright for Defenders in MCP, and now’s as good a time as any to start!
