Marvel: Crisis Protocol – New Rules Update For The Black Order
The crew of Thanos has gotten a rules update from Atomic Mass Games. Time to shake things up in Marvel: Crisis Protocol for the Black Order!
Atomic Mass Games is back with another rules update and this time they are targeting the Black Order! We’ve seen the core heroes get a rework and now it’s time for the bad guys to get their time under the spotlight. Plus, there is an update to two of the Infinity Stones as well.
“When we began work on Crisis Protocol, we knew that we didn’t want to wait very long to get Thanos into the game. Not only is he one of the biggest and, these days, most well-known threats to loom over the Marvel Universe, he was also the perfect character to build what would become known as Ultimate Encounters around. Combine that with the inclusion of the Infinity Gems as a new mechanic that we could introduce shortly after launch to help give players a taste of just how big and bright the Crisis Protocol future would be, and everything was in place to have the Black Order be a huge foundational pillar for the game. “
From their initial inception to release, the Black Order has been a potent force on the battlefield of Marvel: Crisis Protocol. They pack a punch in a tight package and while they may have trouble with scenario control, they offset that by scoring points off of KOing other characters. And they are pretty good at wiping the floor with their targets.
Fast forward to now. Atomic Mass Games has been updating the rules of previous released characters and it’s been an interesting process to watch happen. They have put out these design updates and they explain their changes based on the lessons they’ve learned from the game and the community’s feedback so far. With that said, this update shines the spotlight on these villains and even updates a pair of the Infinity Stones.
Corvus Glaive & Proxima Midnight
Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight are still a powerhouse couple. It’s hard to talk about one without mentioning the other. So let’s put her cards up here, too:
The first big change for this deadly duo is that both Husband of Proxima Midnight and Wife of Corvus Glaive now have a Power cost of 1. This might not seem like a huge increase but it does add up. Plus, you’ve have to actually manage that Power a tad more than before.
“Additionally, we have reduced the Range of the superpowers from 4 to 3. With both Corvus and Proxima having attacks that provide quite the burst of mobility the restricted range requires players to more carefully plan the characters’ activation and makes it much more difficult for the pair to benefit from the superpower and still reliably contest objectives in more spread-out Crisis”
One final thing to note is that the “perfect 4 attack turn” with Corvus got a bit more unpredictable. There is now a trigger requirement for his Death Blow Flurry to activate.
Ebony Maw
This is a character that got toned down pretty hard during play testing. According to AMG:
“Maw found himself absolutely destroying opponents during playtesting, requiring several adjustments to bring his powers in line with the rest of the pack. Unfortunately, as can be the case with characters developed and designed early on, his dominance was partially contingent on the smaller pool of characters, limiting his opponent’s ability to answer the questions he asked of them in game.”
But as the character pool grew, those same issues started to become less of a problem. Maw actually needed to be boosted back up to keep up with the power curve. He’s now got some harder hitting abilities and increased durability, too.
“While pure stat bumps certainly helped push his durability, we also wanted to fix Maw’s play pattern problem of never being able to comfortably spend power on all his offensive kit. “
To accomplish this, AMG reworked Mind Over Matter. It now works exactly like Enchantress’s Enchanting innate superpower.
“This forces characters who rely on physical or energy attacks to have to spend 2 power or have Maw roll 6 defense dice against them.”
He also got a new superpower called Telekinetic Deflection which helps out with those pesky pieces of terrain getting flug at him!
Infinity Stone Updates
The Space and Time Infinity Gems (or Stones depending on who is writing them) also got a rework. The Space Gem went down to 1 Threat. Hopefully this makes it a bit more enticing to take. And the Time Gem got a complete overhaul. It’s now 1 threat and has a different power altogether.
Overall, this is a pretty large update to the Black Order. Check out more about this update directly from Atomic Mass Games HERE.
What do you think of these updates?
