Marvel: Crisis Protocol – ‘Sunspot & Warlock’ Preview Showcases The New Mutants
Atomic Mass Games is showcasing the New Mutants with Sunspot and Warlock rule previews for Marvel: Crisis Protocol.
It’s time for the next generation to step up for the Mutants! This time, it’s the New Mutants leading the charge with Sunspot and Warlock. It’s going to be interesting to see how this Affiliation develops. For now let’s see how these two will handle themselves on the tabletop!
Sunspot
“Roberto Da Costa is a wealthy Brazilian mutant who uses solar radiation to empower himself as the hero Sunspot. When Da Costa’s abilities awoke, he was targeted by mutant haters and rescued by Professor X, who enrolled Roberto in his school. Sunspot joined the New Mutants as one of its founding members leveraging both his mutant abilities and family wealth to influence the world.”
Kicking things off, Sunspot is a 6/6 stamina threat 4 character with a respectible defensive stat line of 3/4/3. He’s on a larger base and has a movement of Medium. Based on his pose, you’d think he’d also have flight — but he does NOT. At least, not initially. Before we dive into the rest of his card we really need to cover his bread-and-butter super power: Flare State.
After Sunspot ends a movement (that counts for any movements including pushes and throws) he gains a Flare token. When he would be Dazed or KO’d he can spend all those tokens to blast every character within range for 1 damage. That range is based on the number of Flare tokens spent. While that’s nice, that’s not really what you want to use the Flare tokens for.
Sunburn is a special Superpower costs 2 energy. This allows him to advance his speed. And then immediately make an attack action — now this is basically a charge like we’ve seen on other characters. Except the difference is he has 3 Flare tokens. If he has 3, he can advance Long and then gains Flight! That’s quite the boost of speed followed by an attack.
As far as attacks go, his basic builder is a range 2, 5 die attack called UV Strike. If you get a wild and a hit, he also gains a Flare token at the end of the attack. Dark Solar Blast is his spender attack. It’s range 3, 7 dice, and costs 3 energy. However, if you get a wild and a hit, it triggers Thermokinetic Concussion. Every character within range 2 of the target suffers 1 damage. Additionally, characters don’t gain an energy from that AoE hit. Sunspot is immune to this damage.
His other two super powers are also pretty nice to have. High Energy Conversion costs 2 energy but allows him to throw terrrain or characters Short. The side is based on the number of Flare tokens. And Thermokinesis doesn’t cost any energy to use — instead you Spend those Flare tokens to add 1 die to your attacks. And if any Flare tokens were spent, that attack also tosses out Incinerate, too!
I think Sunspot is going to be a staple in any New Mutant lists. I’m also wondering if he’ll be available in X-Men lists, too. Either way I’m looking forward to dropping him in for sure!
Warlock
“Warlock comes from a race of beings that battle their parents to prove their right to exist. When Warlock realized he did not want to be part of this, he recognized himself as a mutant and fled, crashing through Asteroid M and landing near Professor X’s school. He came into conflict with the New Mutants before they learned to communicate, which ultimately led to him joining the team.”
Warlock is a Threat 3 character. He’s got another solid defensive stat line of 3/3/4 and has a health pool of 5/5. Note that he’s size 3 and also moves medium. He’s also immune to Bleed and Poison. His basic attack is the T-O Talons. These are range 2 and 5 dice which is fairly common for a builder. What’s nice about this attack is that one wild can give the target both Bleed and Poison. His other builder is Buster Cannon. This is range 4, 5 dice, and only gives 1 energy when used. However, it can cause Shock on the target if you get a wild.
For his big spender attack, Warlock has Self Must Protect Selffriend. It’s range 3, 7 dice, and costs 4 energy. What’s cool about this attack is that you can basically “consume” a terrain feature within range 3 and add dice to the attack based on the size of the terrain feature that is destroyed. Plus, if you get a wild, you can then throw the character away short if they are size 3 or less.
Techno-Organic Absorption is a super power that costs 2. It allows Warlock to destroy a terrain feature in range 3 or size 3 or less and then heal damage equal to the terrain feature’s size. Transmode Virus Infection costs 2 energy but combos really nicely with T-O Talons. While Warlock does take 2 damage from using this attack, all enemies within range 2 that have poison immediately take 2 damage. I can see this being fairly effective with some setup!
And finally, Warlock also has Unstable Outline to help with the ranged defense. It allows him an extra defense die vs physical or energy attacks from outside range 3. This is a different way to do “Stealth” without the all or nothing aspect of it.
Considering Warlock has some good ways to sustain himself and brings a few status effects with him I could see a case to bring this threat 3 character along!
New Mutants Incoming
And in case you couldn’t tell, the New Mutants are going to be a new Affiliation coming soon. Here’s a look at two of their team tactic cards. You’re going to want to bust out Magik (aka Illyana Rasputin) to lead this team, too!
Sunspot and Warlock are currently up for pre-order for $39.99. They have a slated release date of September 13, 2024.
New Mutants…I wonder who else they could bring in.
