Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Shocker Rules Preview Shakes Things Up For This Spidey-Foe
A classic Spider-Man villain is coming to Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Shocker is ready to get to work with his custom vibro-shock gauntlets.
Not every single character in Marvel: Crisis Protocol needs to be a world-ending threat. There’s lots of “street level” characters that can unleash plenty of havoc. Today, we’re getting a look classic Spider-Man villain who brings some streetsmarts to the tabletop. Enter the one and only Shocker!
Herman Schultz was a poor orphan who became a criminal to make ends meet. Unfortunately, for him, he was never good at it and often got caught. However, it was during one stay in prison that he was sent to the workshop and managed to use the resources within to create his signature weapons–the vibro-shock gauntlets. He escaped prison with these homemade weapons and soon encountered Spider-Man while breaking into a safe for some much needed cash. This battle ended in a win for Shocker who escaped with the loot.
Shocker Rules Preview
Kicking thing off, Shocker isn’t too wild in the stats department. He’s a threat level 3 character however. His defences are 4/3/3 which isn’t groundbreaking, but honestly not terrible for a TL 3 character. He does only have 5 health on both sides of his card with a medium movement. Again, nothing to write home about — but he’s relatively cheap. Attack-wise, he’s got a chance to Stun with his Vibro-Shock Strike. It’s a basic builder attack with range 3 and 5 dice. But it nets you energy based on damage and that’s what you’d expect for this guy.
Shocker’s big spender attack is Shake’em Down. For 4 energy you get a range 3, 7 die attack with the possibility to Stagger. Both Stun and Stagger can be kind of annoying to deal with, too. So don’t discount them!
Now, as far as what makes him special, Shocker also has Vibrational Shield. This reactive power is 2 energy but allows him to add 2 dice to any physical or energy based attacks — that gives him a respectable 6 or 5 dice defending. He also has If The Ground Is Rocking… which is surprisingly effective. It just makes enemies roll 1 less attack die when they are within range 2. Keep in mind, they don’t need to be targeting Shocker either.
You could theoretically toss him the mix just for that debuff to help protect your other characters. But let’s be real: he’ll probably get bodied pretty quick if you do that. Then again it’s not un-super villain like to toss another character in the way of that pain train to save your own skin.
Again, Shocker’s stats and attacks are all rather straightforward. But that’s not uncommon for a Threat Level 3. At least he can still hold objectives and cause a good distraction while the rest of your crew does the heavy lifting. I think he’s going to find some play especially with the new Sinister Six (Spider-Foes) Affiliation.
Personally, I kinda hope all the Sinister Six are relatively cheap so you can bring ALL of them into the mix for lots of the missions. I don’t know if a swarm of cheap characters would be super effective, but it could be fun nonetheless! Especially with these classic villains all teaming up.
You can pre-order the Electro & Sandman & Shocker & Vulture Character Pack now from Asmodee. It’s due out May 17, 2024!
Are you surprised? Or should I say a little Shocked?!
