Marvel: Crisis Protocol – New Update Drops The Hammer On Thor, Hero of Midgard
Atomic Mass Games made some pretty big changes to some key characters in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. The Hellfire Club is back, baby!
There is a brand new February Update out for Marvel: Crisis Protocol and it’s got some pretty big nerfs in it. Both Thanos and Thor have received a stern looking at. Plus, the Hellfire Club got some love and might actually be a real Affiliation worth taking now! There’s a full article you can check out about these changes. Additionally, you can download the updated cards Here. So let’s get into the changes to Thor, Thanos, and the Hellfire Club!
Thor, Hero of Midgard Hit With The (Nerf) Hammer
Thor, Hero of Midgard has been updated to reduce the Strength of Odinson’s Ire from 7 to 6 and range from 3 to 2. Have at Thee! has been updated to increase its power cost from 3 to 4. In addition, Brothers in Arms has been banned in the Standard Timeline. Taken together, Thor was able to reliably do more damage than any other character in the game starting in Round 1. With these changes, Thor’s offensive output has been brought back into line with the rest of the game.
There’s been a lot of discussion floating around about Thor, Hero of Midgard (aka Thor 2). He’s been a popular pick as a Threat 6 character and has been a sort of boogey man. With good reason! He was super efficient at delivering the pain very quickly. If you read the commentary from AMG it’s pretty self-explanatory. He’s been dialed down quite a bit but I think he’s still a heavy hitter. But these changes might dissuade people from taking him just because he was so over tuned previously.
Thanos, The Mad Titan Updated. Again.
Thanos got another rework. First up, he now has the Peerless keyword. This is another power that’s been added to the Core Rules (which have also been updated). It basically means that this character cannot be included in a Squad with another character that also has the Peerless superpower.
Personally, I think this might be a good way to fix the “Kaiju” problem that has been bubbling up in the community. Having more characters with Peerless could cut down some of the cross-Affiliation additions. But that’s another topic. Let’s focus on Thanos.
“In the most recent changes, Thanos has been changed to work best as the leader of the Black Order. That was done by moving his use of Infinity Gems out of his superpower, Being of Immeasurable Power, and into his leadership, Death’s Agenda. Additionally, Thanos has been changed to decrease his movement of enemy characters by making the Throw trigger on his Strike less likely and removing the option for Cosmic Portal to affect enemy characters. “
I think this is an interesting fix for Thanos. Moving the Infinity Gems to his Leadership means that he has to be the leader to use them. Or at least use them for free. That also limits the “free” power to the Black Order only. You can still take him with two gems out of Affiliation, but he won’t the same benefits.
Hellfire Club Becomes A Real Affiliation
Previously, the Hellfire Club was a very barebones Affiliation. I’ve poked fun at it before as it was really just Emma Frost:
But after “My Hellfire Club” was moved to the restricted list there didn’t seem to be much use for running Emma for the Hellfire Club. Until now. With the February 2025 update, the Hellfire Club now has a REAL roster and “My Hellfire Club” is back on the menu.
“Finally, My Hellfire Club has been changed to require affiliated characters, a group of characters have been added to the Affiliation List, and My Hellfire Club has been taken off the restricted list in the Standard Timeline. The effects of White Queen’s Pawn’s, Emma Frost’s leadership in Hellfire Club, are strong enough that being able to take the most synergistic characters became more problematic with every character released. The requirement to take affiliated characters breaks up that optimization and puts down thematic roots for Hellfire Club.”
Overall, I think these changes were fairly positive for the overall health of the game. I am still a fan of Thor 2 and even as a fan I could tell he was a *tad* OP. I’m glad to see Thanos get a rework that still allows him to be very potent but also thematic. The Hellfire Club change also seems like it could be laying the ground work for some other characters in the future as well.
What do you think of the February update to Marvel: Crisis Protocol?
