by After your first few Marvel Crisis Protocol games with the core box characters, you’ll soon want to create your own roster. However, the game offers some 200 characters, almost 30 affiliations, and no fewer than 350 tactical cards. Numbers that can make a beginner’s head spin. There are many ways of approaching the subject. However, I’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you create your first roster. This will give you the opportunity to review a few concepts you may have already heard, but don’t fully understand. ( Please note that the examples given below are valid as of November 2024).
Choosing an Affiliation
To begin with, because you have to start somewhere, I suggest you choose your affiliation. While it’s entirely possible to play an unaffiliated roster, it’s sad to create a roster with this in mind. It will prevent you from taking advantage of much of the game’s depth. Playing as an affiliate does give you access to certain cards dedicated to affiliation, but above all, it allows you to benefit from the “leadership”. Many characters can be linked to several affiliations. But at first, I’d clearly advise against trying out the multi-affiliation roster, as the cases where this choice is relevant are quite rare and far too complex for a first roster.
To help you make your choice, you can start by asking yourself which Marvel characters you’re particularly fond of. Or ask yourself about the miniatures you like and/or already own. If you’re interested in more than one, make a list in order of priority, it’s not impossible that you’ll be able to play them all.
Once you have your character list, take a look at the affiliations of which your characters are members. You can rely on the official AMG Affiliation List document, or use the excellent Jarvi’s Protocol application. If no affiliation suits you, don’t despair – you can always “splash” your character, but we’ll come back to this point later. Otherwise, don’t worry, you’re bound to play several affiliations over the course of your MCP “career”, so leave yourself room for error, your figures will be used one day.
In our example, several choices are possible, so we’ll choose Defenders, an affiliation that includes the Hulk and Spiderman. (Please note that this article is not a tactica on how to play Defenders, and all the choices made here are only there to illustrate the point. I’ll leave you alone to judge the relevance of the choices and the effectiveness of this roster.)
Choosing your leader
If you haven’t managed to choose an affiliation, don’t worry, there’s still a solution. Some leaders offer “catch-all” affiliations where your entire team will be affiliated by default, like Hellfire Club, Dark Dimension, or more recently, Thralls of Dracula, for example. However, having all the references to consider may make things a little more complicated if you’re new to the game.
Many affiliates have access to several “leaders”. In the first instance, it’s advisable to choose just one. Making a roster that fits several leaders is much harder than it looks. To help you, take a close look at the different affiliation powers and the associated profile. Beware, some leaders are very expensive, i.e. with a high threat level. These include Malekith(7), She-Hulk(6) and Magneto(6). Expensive leaders are very interesting on paper, as their ability to cause harm on the table is great, and their leadership is often very good. However, they’re not necessarily the easiest to start with, as some crises will require you to be able to cover the ground effectively, so you’ll need to choose a team that favors numbers. Generally speaking, an expensive leader is going to handicap you in the creation of your team.
The Leadership Cards
Some affiliations have tactical card leadership. Once again, Jarvis Protocol is your friend. Leaders are identified by a small star next to the relevant affiliation, and a small two-colored star if he can be a leader with a card. Note that card leadership takes a tactical card slot in your roster, as well as in the 5 cards selected when you created your team.
In our example, we’ll be choosing Dardevil over Dr Strange.
Choosing your Characters
For your first roster, it’s best to take as many affiliated characters as possible. In fact, when you create your team, if you want to have access to the affiliation and leadership cards, you’ll need more than 50% of your affiliated characters. In other words, on a team of 6 characters, for example, you’ll need at least 4 affiliated characters! Having too many unaffiliated characters in your roster can seriously complicate your task. In tournament, I’ve seen more than one beginner forced to play an unaffiliated team for lack of a satisfactory combination for the required threat level.
If your affiliation benefits from a limited choice of characters, the operation will be simplified. On the other hand, if your affiliation benefits from a wide choice of characters, you’ll need to start thinking about how best to make the most of your affiliation power. The first step is to identify your characters’ strengths and weaknesses. You’ll need to focus on these 2 axes.
The first: characters whose shortcomings are compensated for by leadership. For example, a character who has a great “toolbox” but no reliable way of generating power, will see his shortcomings erased in an affiliation where super powers are paid for less. Alternatively, a character who is very strong but a little slow will benefit from being in an affiliation that allows free movement.
Second: characters whose leadership accentuates their qualities. In fact, this is generally the preferred line of thought. For example, a character who hits very hard will benefit from being in an affiliation that offers re-rolls on attack rolls, for example. This makes certain combos very powerful indeed, but it also makes your game less versatile and more predictable.
Threat 2 Characters
There are a number of threat 2 characters in the game, they’re just not that common. If your affiliation is lucky enough to have 1, take it. Some are far too strong, but the others will always be interesting, especially in their affiliations. If you’re lucky enough to have 2 in your affiliation, it’s up to you, but take at least 1.
As defender, we have Wong.
Threat 3 Characters
You’ll need Threat 3 characters. Threat 3 are very common characters, and your affiliation will inevitably include some. They’re often highly specialized and have fairly low stats, and this is where you’ll need to think about the profile’s interest and possible synergies with the affiliation’s power. Some 3 will be of very limited interest to you, while others will increase their potential in your affiliation. In general, I recommend including at least three. This gives you greater flexibility when creating your team
Valkyrie, who is able to charge every turn with her power generation and range 2 attacks, will make the most of the leadership, and since she has no defensive mechanics, she’ll be well advised to eliminate her direct opponents quickly. Black Panther, Chosen Of Bast, with its range 2 attacks, will also be highly relevant in this affiliation. Iron Fist needs a good source of power generation to be really annoying, so we prefer Luke Cage, who’s particularly at ease in the thick of the melee and can spare your other characters from the biggest attacks.
Threat 4 Characters
Threat 4 characters often have better basic stats than the 3, and are also more versatile. The choice of your 4 will bring a little more impact to your roster. Some have a very strong orientation, and their choice can significantly influence the way you play your roster. It also happens that some 4s are integrated into rosters just to cover certain types of match that would otherwise be difficult to manage. To help you see the strengths and weaknesses of your 4s, I suggest three questions:
Is he mobile (big movement / replacement / action compression)?
Can they generate power easily (auto power generation, efficient builder)?
Can he show “control”? (throw / auto push attack…)
For our roster there’s Spiderman, he’s on our list. L movement, capable of control with the Web line, and spider-sense which can increase his life expectancy. Unfortunately, like many Web Warriors, he’s likely to have trouble generating power; fortunately, apart from one Web-Line per turn, we won’t be asking much of him.
We’ll also be integrating Shang-chi, who ticks all the boxes. His power-generating “builder” attack is extremely effective. He’ll never be short of power.
Of course, we’re not forced to choose only those characters who answer all three questions in the affirmative. For example, Wolverine has no control, but is much more lethal, so it’s up to you to decide what you prefer.
Threat 5 Characters and above
From Threat 5 onwards, we move on to characters with an important stat base. The priority here will be to find a character with the greatest possible impact on the table, thanks to the synergies offered by your leadership. If your affiliation offers you interesting “Bigs”, so much the better! On the other hand, if you don’t fall in love with them, you can happily splash out on a big plus.
In Defenders, we’re lucky enough to have the Hulk. Hulk being “the” Brawler, he’ll make the most of the affiliation power. Then there’s the choice of Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost rider or one of the two Dr Strange… As an example, let’s take Namor: the re-rolls he grants to allies within range combine perfectly with leadership. Note that some characters, like Namor, can carry one or more Gems. Each gem increases your character’s threat level by 1. In our example, we won’t equip Namor and leave him at a threat level of 5.
Splash
“Splash“ is simply the term used to define an unaffiliated character in your roster. It’s quite exhilarating to realize how many possibilities there are when you realize that every character in the game can be integrated into your team. So now’s the time to pull out your list of favorite characters from the beginning. You also need to ask yourself what kind of game you want to play. If your leadership encourages you to play “Wide”, i.e. a lot of “small” characters, you may want to take advantage of this step to integrate threat 3 or 2 characters. On the other hand, if you’re planning to play “Tall”, i.e. with few but very strong characters, you can take advantage of this to integrate the game’s biggest “tunas”. To begin with, I’d advise you to create a fairly versatile roster.
So we’re going to include Deadpool, with his native re-roll and interesting triggers, multiplying the chances of getting the Stab, Stab for exemple.
To validate your roster, I encourage you to simulate the different teams at all threat levels. If you want to go further, make sure you have a solid “15”. That is, a coherent team at threat level 15, typically to play on Gamma Wave. And then to see if you can field something interesting in 20, typically on “Super-Powered Scoundrels”. And yes, don’t forget that only one of the 2 crises played will be from your roster.
In our case, we have in 15: Dardevil, Namor, Hulk, which seems more than satisfactory. And in 20 we have: Dardevil, Valkyrie, Black Panther, Luke Cage, Shang-Chi and Deadpool. That sounds about right too.
The Tactical Cards!
In addition to your 10 characters, your roster must include 10 Tactical Cards.
Don’t forget, if you’ve chosen an affiliation whose leadership is on a card, you only have nine slots left for your other tactical cards.
Cards in rotation
First of all, if you want to play in Timeline: Standard like most competitive events, but also friendly games. It’s important to know that a large proportion of the TTC are “Rotated”, i.e. unusable. This is a mechanism used by AMG to balance and evolve the game. The list of Rotated cards changes regularly, so be sure to check whether your cards are currently usable on the Challenger Event Document. If not, a good use of the filters on Jarvis will save you from having to ask the question.
Restricted Cards
First of all, let’s start with “restricted” cards. Your roster can only contain 2 of these. These are often very strong cards, so it’s a shame to do without them. The “restricted” cards change every season. You can find information on the online Banned and Restricted List document. Please note that some gems are restricted. If one of your characters is equipped with one, this will reduce the number of restricted tactical cards you can choose from. The number of restricted cards is very small, so choosing 2 shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
In our case, we’ll choose Brace for impact, by far the most-played card. And we’ll take Sacrifice.
Affiliate Cards
It’s time to delve into your affiliation cards. Once again, the filters in Jarvis Protocol will come in very handy. At first, I advise you to take them all. After a few games, you’ll be able to sort them out.
Cover me, Mystic Ward, Pentagram of Farallah and street Smarts.
Dedicated cards
You’ll need to review the tactical cards dedicated to your characters. Some have none, and some have several. You’ll probably have to make some tough choices at this stage. Once again, time and experience will enable you to make this choice much easier.
In our example, many of our characters have no cards at all. But we do have several very interesting cards: Luke Cage’s Heroes For Hire, Shang-Chi ‘s Chi Mastery and Namor’s Prince’s Protection.
Non-affiliated Cards
Finally, if you still have room, you can take a look at the cards that are not dependent on a character or faction. There aren’t that many of these cards, so choosing one shouldn’t be too complicated.
Let’s choose Recalibration Matrix. It smoothes out a dice roll that’s too “off stats” and could end your chances of win the game.
Crisis
Crisis are without doubt the most difficult choice for a beginner. It’s very difficult to anticipate the strengths and weaknesses of your roster. Especially as these strengths and weaknesses are all relative: you may find a crisis very interesting for your roster, until you realize that 50% of the opposing rosters are more comfortable in it than you are. Nevertheless, I’d like to offer you a few guidelines to help you make your first choice.
You’ll base your choice on the number of points the crisis allows you to score per turn, as well as the position of the objectives on the field (close-up or split).
We also need to go back to the notion of Tall and Wide. If you play Wide, you’ll need to give priority to crises with a lot of points. On the other hand, if you’re playing Tall, you’ll need to choose crises with few points. Generally speaking, if your aim is to play attrition, you should opt for crises where you score as few points as possible. If you have 10 points to score each round on the table, your opponent may be able to win on turn 3. Three rounds isn’t enough time to take advantage of attrition.
What’s more, some rosters are very good at grabbing or dropping objectives for extraction. In this case, prioritize “extract” crises with lots of points. Some Wide rosters are very good at control, in which case you’ll be very strong on “secure” crises with lots of points.
Beware of “Pay to Flip” crisis, secures where you have to pay for a power and often roll dices to control the point. Strong teams on P2F are not the same as strong teams on classic “secures”. So when selecting your crises, don’t rely solely on the number of points. Be sure to read and understand your seizures. Some objective effects may synergize well with your roster, while others may not suit you at all. If the choice seems too complicated, proceed by elimination.
Secure Crisis
For our roster, I’m going to choose Gamma Wave (15). A scenario that encourages fighting in the middle, our characters and our affiliation power will give us an advantage. What’s more, our “15” is very strong, especially in this kind of crisis. Otherwise, our Pentagram of Farallah could spring a surprise and allow us to finish the game favorably. Conversely, I’m not going to choose Deamons Downtown. Central scenario too, but with no character immune to incineration, you risk giving your opponent an advantage. Just as we won’t choose Cosmic invasion. Which could allow our opponent to move us and thus take us out of the range 2 so dear to our game mechanics.
Our picks are Deadly Meteors, Gamma wave and S.W.O.R.D.
Extract Crisis
For “extracts” crises, using the same procedure, you can start with an Alien Ship, Fear grips, and Montesi Formula.
As mentioned earlier, you may quickly realize that some of your choices don’t give you complete satisfaction. As a result, your roster is likely to evolve considerably over the course of your games. I hope, however, that this guide will help you to structure your approach and avoid being overwhelmed by the avalanche of data offered by the game.
