Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Criminal Syndicate Updates

Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Criminal Syndicate Updates

We’re back at it again with another article looking at the updates to Marvel: Crisis Protocol characters! This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last, so if you need to catch up on the latest transmissions head here to see what the Guardians and Core Set crew have been up to.

Once you’re done playing nice over with the good guys, we can get to the real meat of today’s event: the goings-on of our not-so-friendly neighborhood Criminal Syndicate.

Perhaps a good king is always seated last, but nobody ever accused Wilson Fisk of being “good”. Up first is the Kingpin himself:

Aside from a spiffy new card, you won’t notice terribly much different about the Kingpin. The only update is that Hail to the King now contains a size restriction on the throw: only characters Size 3 or less can be flung by this attack. While Fisk is strong (and indeed, sports a Solid Frame), his physical might is not up to the task of tossing around characters of Size 4 or higher. We feel this tweak brings him back in line without taking away anything an honest criminal needs to dominate the battlefield.

Not to be outdone, the Green Goblin will be joining Kingpin at the leader’s table to boast about his newest updates. Some of you might have seen a coy game played on stream involving our favorite Halloween pest, but for the rest of you, feast your eyes!

Glorious, is it not? Let’s break it down.

Starting at the top, Green Goblin’s signature Pumpkin Bombs are now Strength 5 on his healthy side, and up to Strength 6 when Injured. This tweak gives him better access to his kit, a higher chance to damage, and makes the healthy side of Goblin a little harder to ignore. As a Leader in one affiliation and a nuisance in others, we felt good old GG deserved a tune-up to help get him out the gates and in the opponents’ face like other 4-threats.

Looking beyond mere attacks, even a Criminal Syndicate player must admit that destroying Spider-Man is a worthy goal. As such, the Oscorp Weaponry now no longer costs Power to use. That’s right! A corporation giving away free goodies…. What could go wrong?

Hopefully nothing, at least for the Spider-Foes. Oscorp Weaponry was previously a Leadership with a slightly higher opportunity cost than we would have liked, so this simple change should bring even more spider-smashing fun to the game.

But that’s enough of the big shots. Every villain needs lackeys!

And by “lackeys”, we mean M.O.D.O.K., a Threat 5 control freak we would absolutely never call an underling to his face. Soak in the glory of M.O.D.O.K.’s visage!

As is due of a character as magnificent as M.O.D.O.K., many of you have already seen this card. Imbeciles! Look upon it again, and despair! For there is no escaping discussion of M.O.D.O.K.!

Bow to the Will of M.O.D.O.K.! is now only usable once per turn. This is because a being as mighty as M.O.D.O.K. does not NEED to use it more than once! Fool! (It’s also because we saw this power being abused in ways that made the game unfun for opponents, and even at Threat 5, we needed to tone it down.)

Next, if your puny eyes are perceptive enough, you will notice that Pea-Brain! is entirely reworded! You’ll see this new wording appear across reactive superpowers that contain rerolls. Functionally it is no different, but it makes the timing much clearer to players, which is always an improvement to the game! You may also notice, if your pathetic attention span lasts long enough, that at this superpower is now ALSO only usable once per turn. For the exact same reasons!

Last in the lineup and first in the fire, we have a true-blue henchman to do the dirty cleanup work. Take a look at the man who never misses, Bullseye!

We saved a bit of a surprise for last; a gift to you loyal readers who stuck it through to the end. While it might look like a bit of a low blow, we are confident these changes will help Bullseye sneak into your Rosters (and maybe your hearts? Hopefully not).

Bullseye has been brought down from a Threat 3 to a Threat 2. This comes with a couple of small changes; he’s now down to 4/4 Stamina and 2 Mystic defense, and his Throwing Knives generate a single flat Power. But with the rest of his kit still intact, we think this lower-threat Bullseye serves his affiliation much better. An affiliated Threat 2 gives more flexibility when building around different Crisis values, and for the lower cost, you can bet Poindexter will give you a bang for your buck.

That’s all for today’s updates! You stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted on the future of Marvel: Crisis Protocol.