Dear Reader,
These savage combatants have been stalking the frozen Canadian wilds in search of answers and prey. Equipped with teeth, claws, and guns, this group of grim hunters and wise cracking doofuses are an aggressive addition to the game that I have recently fallen in love with.
Today I will be looking at Marvel Crisis Protocol’s newest faction: Weapon X. We will be going over their strengths, their weaknesses, what my current list consists of, and how I personally play them.Strengths of Weapon X
- Hyper Aggression: The units of Weapon X, especially Logan the Wolverine and Sabretooth - Apex Predator, have a propensity for murder that is top tier. When I think of a character’s ability to put pain on a character I feel like they need a few things: range, dice fixing, volume, stickiness. Range is how far your characters can reach out and touch someone and pretty much all of our characters have this in some form or fashion. Logan has R3 on all of his attacks, Sabretooth and X-23 have R3 on their spenders, Domino is R3 and Deadpool can use Bang! From R4. It is a nice place to be when all of your characters are capable of attacking outside of your opponent’s general R2 range of attack. Dice fixing is changing the dice in some form or fashion, and, again, the vast majority of Weapon X has this through the use of Pierces and Domino’s pseudo Reality Gem ability. Volume of Dice comes in with how much we can hit our opponent, and while D5 attacks on the vast majority of our members isn’t the heaviest hitting thing in the game, it is amplified by the amount of bleed and throwing we can do on the vast majority of the game. Finally, stickiness is the ability to keep pressure on your opponent. Weapon X has 4-5 characters with some form of movement shenanigan. Logan and Sabretooth have a place, X-23 and Honey Badge have their sisterhood of the traveling stabs ability, and Deadpool can maximize his effort. All of these things together create a highly mobile and aggressive force that has a lot of innate dice fixing at the disposal in order to punch holes in your opponent’s models.
- Healing Factor - 5 of the 6 models have healing factor and I cannot stress how cool that is. 3 of the characters have healing factor 2, which means if your opponent is not just blowing them up, they are exceptionally hard to take off of the board. In my last match, Logan himself healed back 6 damage throughout the game due to smaller hits. It was literally the difference between him dazing and him continuing to be a menace on the board. This also opens up our usage of X-Ceptional healing which creates headaches for your opponent. When you have only one character that can use that TTC you can stall out a player’s TTC slots by just leaving that one character alone. But, with Weapon X, everyone has it and just leaving them alone generally means you are getting stabbed a lot with no repercussions.
- Surprise Defense - The leadership of Weapon X is one where you are always asking yourself “Should I?” when you get attacked. The leadership has 4 major components: It is a TTC leadership that takes up a slot and can be placed on Logan or X-23, 3 tokens that give +2 defense dice when you use one and can only be used on Weapon X characters, a Small advance if your opponent deals no damage, and you get one back if any of your characters is dazed or KO’d. This leadership is both exceptionally versatile while also being exceptionally limiting. But, there is something to be said about Logan, who has 2 mystic defense, out of nowhere having better than average mystic defense to save himself, or Sabretooth becomes Physical Defense 6 out of nowhere. It keeps a different kind of pressure on your opponent because now they have to ask themselves if the attack is actually worth their time because it will either do less damage or, even worse, no damage and give your characters free out of activation moves, which then has the potential to continue the pressure on them. In addition, Domino can prevent crits from exploding on her, can turn her skulls into crits, and both Deadpool and X-23 can re-roll a defense dice. It is very nice to say the least.
Weaknesses of Weapon X
- Limited attacking types - As you may expect from a group of people that use claws and bullets, Weapon X is limited to primarily Physical attacking type, which is one of the more common attacking types to be attacking into 4 defense dice or have some special ability to count blanks or have re-rolls. Is this something that can be mitigated? Yes. There are several splashes that can take care of this issue easily. Is it annoying? Also, yes. But, nothing is perfect and the pressure that can be created with all the pierces is still something for your opponents to fear.
- The TTC Leadership restriction - This is one of the few times I will truly complain about character/faction design. I. Hate. TTC. Leaderships. As. They. Are. Now. 2 of the 3 have major issues: they take up a TTC slot and they are exceptionally limited in scope. The first is an issue because it literally limits what I can do in the game. I can take my 2 restricted cards, X-Ceptional and 1 other card, or 1 restricted, X-ceptional, and 2 cards, but it feels so confining as a player that it almost completely turned me off to the faction to start. Second is how limited in scope it is. There is only 1 other leadership in the game at the moment that is more confining in what you can do than Weapon X’s and that is First of the Black Order, and even then it is only by a small margin. It is a huge hurdle to overcome when you look at other leaderships that just work for nothing. Web Warriors always get 1 re-roll, on everyone, always, and gets even better when you have an objective. Stevevengers, quite possibly the strongest leadership in the game at the moment, works just only on your turn but your opponent’s turn as well, always. But Weapon X works 3 times until someone dies and only on affiliated characters. It hurts a lot, and requires so much more planning than other factions to make it run that I am legitimately surprised that the state of TTC was even able to make it off the cutting board much less into the game. Because, let's face it, no one likes to be told they are getting less for more effort, and that is what this feels like. Hopefully they change it in the future, but for now we are SOL.
- So Many TTC so Little Space - to piggyback off of weakness 2, we have a lot of cards that we need or work well and so little space to use them. If you want to use our leadership you are already behind in the TTC department. X-Ceptional Healing almost seems mandatory and No Matter the Cost is a close second for me in the “Do I Need to Bring It” department. We haven’t even touched our actual affiliation cards like Dossier yet. We haven’t touched fantastic cards like “Gotta Get Some Air” and “Happy Birthday, Runt” yet. We haven't even touched our Restricted cards yet. And already, we are having to fight for space in our roster. I won’t even talk about staples like Mission Objective, Face Me, and Recalibration Matrix. Our TTC slots are so limited that I have heard people just scoff at the faction overall because of it, so keep that in mind as you go forward.
- Limited Leadership Leads to Limited Options - Because our Leadership is so limited in what it actually affects, you are now going to have one of three options: accept your fate, go full hog Weapon X, and lament your life decisions and not use it. None feel great to be honest. If you lean into Weapon X only then you are limited in your attacking types and means that your core is generally going to be 14 from how I play (Logan, Sabretooth, X-23, Domino) or 13 if you want to exchange Domino for Honey Badger, which is an expensive core in and of itself considering Stevenengers can generally get away with a 10 point or 9 point core to allow for more toys. If you accept your fate and splash as normal you are limiting your ability for your leadership to work. And, if you forgo the leadership, then what was the point considering some of the best cards are tied to characters not faction and the only one I consider worthwhile for faction is Dossier. As I said earlier (and I feel like I may be ranting, so I will stop after this section), limited Leadership only limits your options and, in this limitation, makes your life way more difficult in the long run. I find in this game that more options means better flexibility which leads to better results if you are playing well at turn 0. But, when your options are no leadership, some leadership, or just play faction models to have the full-ish benefit of your leadership, it is a hard place to be.
So, we have some great strengths and some god-awful weaknesses, but what can we do to shore up our weakness and make the snow red?
- Splash for Incinerate - First, why incinerate? For a group of murder hobos who want nothing more for your characters to have an intimate relationship with their weapons, lowering your opponent’s defense is one of the easiest ways to get this done. And, while Domino has incinerate on one of her spenders, I would rather keep her shooting and manipulating her probability rather than utilizing her grenades. This means I would like for someone else to pick up the slack. Enter Cable and Pyro. These two men make my squad for their ability to just reach out and burn someone with R5 and R4 Wild incinerates respectively. Pyro is also able to spread the incinerate status while giving slow and root to your opponent’s models, thus making your opponent’s jobs way harder.
- Splash for Mystic - Captain America, Shadow Lands Daredevil, and Black Panther laugh at us. They mock us with their blanks. They take from us our pierce. And, they give us nothing back. They laugh at us. So, we must blow up their minds and souls. When so much of your force is predicated on piercing your foes to keep damage high, having a half chance to block damage while taking pierce away from your opponent is a huge thorn in your side. This is why I put both Magik and Voodoo in my list. Magik has the ability to chase, keeps pressure with a mystic pierce attack, and brings a TTC that can teleport an enemy while giving them incinerate (see point 1) in order to make fleeing models not run like cowards from the hunters. Voodoo is just good. R3 mystic attacks that can steal power, a throw, and Brother Daniel, make for a terrible time for your opponent.
- Splash for Grunts - the less the Weapon X crew has to worry about objectives, the more they get to stab or shoot things. Grunts also are a fantastic way to get back your memory tokens and act as a miniature Jonathan if you dislike the card. They also play a pivotal role in getting a first turn Gotta Get Some Air off, which gets Logan online earlier. I find that I always want to be going first with Weapon X, and having a separate body on the field that can pull some weight while also limiting my activations is excellent. At the moment I am running Red Skull 2 as my grunt machine since his grunts can activate Logan and then run onto a point and hold it while Red Skull himself brings a tanky nature to Mystic or Energy attacks while also bringing a Mystic or Energy high powered attack with a possible throw attack of his own and a R3 6 dice attack that can push and allow him more movement.
- Splash for Grabs - While having the stickiness of Weapon X is amazing, sometimes you are just out of range to get your work off. So what is a poor berserker to do? Bring friends with long reach of course. Pulling the enemy towards you is a massive boon for Weapon X as it further prevents your enemies from running from you and allows your more offensive models to do what they need to do. This also brings something that Weapon X is sorely lacking - control. As you know, I started this blog as your Friendly Neighborhood Web Warrior, and while I was a bit more aggressive in my play, the lists have been control lists at their hearts. This allows you to better control the workings of your opponent while also giving you the opportunity to mess with your enemies plans or prevent bodyguards from going off (I see you Steve). My people of choice for this slot are Ghost Spider, Venom, and Omega Red. Ghost Spider is more utility with no true offense. She does sport a throw on her spender or a push towards with her Webline, but she also brings Life Saver to the party, which can help pull Honey Badger into people or save a unit when you are out of memory tokens or X-Ceptional Healing. Venom plays right into our strengths with no modification of defense dice, auto bleed on R3 attacks, self healing, a beefy size 3 throw and a medium pull. Omega Red brings the same pull as Venom but also offers up healing on his R3 builder, poison spread to limit enemy power generation and Death Factor. I am not, at the moment, running grabs, but it is something always at the back of my mind as something that is monumentally beneficial for this faction.
What is my Current List?
Weapon X
Characters:
Domino (Neena Thurman) Threat: 3
Honey Badger (Gabrielle Kinney) Threat: 2
Logan, The Wolverine (James Logan Howlett) Threat: 4
Sabretooth, Apex Predator (Victor Creed) Threat: 4
X-23 (Laura Kinney) Threat: 3
---Cable (Nathan Summers) Threat: 5
Pyro (St. John Allerdyce) Threat: 3
Magik (Illyana Rasputin) Threat: 3
Doctor Voodoo (Jericho Drumm) Threat: 4
---Red Skull, Master of Hydra (Johann Schmidt) Threat: 5
Tactics:
Are You Sure You Want To Remember?
Dossier
Gotta Get Some Air
Brace for Impact
Sacrifice
X-Ceptional Healing
No Matter the Cost
Pyrotechnics
Face Me
Journey Through Limbo
Secure Crisis: (3)
SWORD Establishes Base On Moons Blue Area (Threat: 15)
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (Threat: 17)
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (Threat: 15)
Extract Crisis: (3)
Alien Ship Crashes in Downtown! (Threat: 17)
Research Station Attacked! (Threat: 15)
Paranoia Pummels Populace! (Threat: 16)
I have been playing nothing but Weapon X since they have come out and this is my most current iteration of the list. You will notice a definitive lack of Deadpool in this list. I don’t think he pulls his weight if I am being honest. Sure, he has some good points like Healing Factor 2, R4 bullets, and counting as healthy on his dazed side, but I find that he is easily replaced with Pyro or Magik, or Cable or Red Skull if I am not taking Honey Badger. If he works for you I say go for it, but I find what he does is replicated much better elsewhere. I run 2 5s for different scenarios. Cable is a monster on SWORD and he hands out defensive buffs, which either supercharge a memory turn or act as additional memory tokens if I don’t want to move. He also gives long ranged support incinerate and a throw, which comes out to a deceptively large amount of damage. Skull, however, works on closer maps where I just want a character sitting back and holding points and I see my opponent’s options for offense are limited to only 2 types or they have a lot of throws.
Is this the end all be all of lists? No. But it is a good starting point for those of you wanting to start with the faction. So, if you want to stab your way to victory with a durable hyper aggressive list, give Weapon X a shot.
Till next time Web Slingers.
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