Marvel: Crisis Protocol – The Shadow King Is An Astral Threat
The Shadow King is coming to Marvel: Crisis Protocol but is he dangerous or is his Astral Projection a bit inflated?
We’ve already taken a look inside the box for Professor X and The Shadow King. We’ve even taken a look at Professor X’s rules. Now it’s time to take a villainous turn and see what the Shadow King will bring to the tabletop.
A threat whose true history is hidden in shadows, a being whose telepathic powers rival the strongest of mutants, and an entity without conscience, remorse, or empathy. These are some of the nicest things that can be said about the Shadow King. Amahl Farouk is the first confirmed physical form for the Shadow King and was noted for involving himself in a plot to overthrow the English throne alongside none other than Baron Strucker. The Shadow King is not limited to existing in the physical plane, however, and can survive as an extremely powerful ethereal being that stalks the astral plane.
Enter The Shadow King
Kicking things off we have a closer look at Amahl Farouk aka Shadow King. Stat wise, he’s got good defenses but really shines vs mystic attacks. He’s also a Threat 5 character! But does he do the work to earn that Threat? Hit kit has some interesting things in it. We need to check those out before we make that judgement call.
Mental Shackle is his builder attack. It’s a range 3 6 die attack which is already good for a builder. Naturally, he gains energy equal to the damage this attack causes. If you happen to score any wilds, he also causes Root which is a nice ability and adds some utility to his kit. And even if you don’t score any wilds you can still Advance the target Short. Keep that in mind for later.
His big spender attack is Astral Disintegration and this one punishes the target if they have a lot of energy. Starting at range 2 with 5 dice isn’t really that impressive, especially for a 4 cost attack. However, you can get up to an additional 5 dice on this blast AND the target can’t reroll or modify any defense dice during this hit. That’s a nasty wombo-combo of abilities…provided you can get those extra dice rolling.
Shadow King has three rather interesting superpowers that can cause a cascade of effects. First up, his signature thing is Astra Fiend. This allows you to toss out a Projection token within Range 3 of him. He can then measure his attacks or superpowers from that Projection token. Essentially, this extends the range for his abilities quite a bit. And yes, Nightmare Visions is a superpower, so that effect can trigger from the Projection. It can only be targeted by mystic attacks as well. Unfortunately, it does cost 3 energy and gets removed during the Cleanup Phase.
We already mentioned Nightmare Visions so let’s dig into that a bit more. This is effectively a area denial ability. If you get too close to Shadow King (or his Projection) he can trigger it to get some damage and maybe even Advance the target Short. It’s also a fairly large area, too. The major problem I have with this power is that it costs 4. Even with Omega Level Multi-Versal Entity giving him additional power every Power Phase, his abilities seem to cost a LOT.
And finally, he’s got Immortal Essence which allows you to remove up to 3 damage for spending 3 energy. This could be good in a pinch to help heal if nothing else.
Personally, I think he’s got potential as a utility piece. With some of the movement penalties he can inflict on the enemy he could be bad news. Unfortunately between his Threat 5 and high costs powers, I don’t know if he’s really worth the price of admission. It’s a shame, too. His model is really cool! I think he’d be fun to take out in more casual games but I don’t know if he’s going to cause a major ruckus in the meta. Not that everyone plays super competitive all the time — I certainly don’t. He could be a fun addition to your collections and if you find a better use for him then kudos to you!
Professor X and Shadow King are available for Pre-order and will hit stores in March.
Still a cool miniature and sculpt!
