Black Order

CP81 Black Swan

It’s always nice to expand your horizons and explore new places… at least, it is when you aren’t forced to by a multiversal incursion into your world that leaves you the last survivor of an entire planet.

This time on From Panel to Play, we’re looking at the dimension-hopping princess and sole survivor of an alternate Earth: it’s Black Swan!

Black Swan was once a princess who lived in the Hidden City of Earth-1635. When interdimensional invaders attacked her home, she was able to escape into the Library of Worlds. There she was found by the Black Swans, and raised to be a dimensional duelist of limitless potential.

Black Swan has powers ranging from potent optic blasts and flight to telepathy and superhuman strength—she has quite a toolbox of abilities!

Her basic Strike can push her opponents back, perfect for knocking them away from vital objectives, and she can sear them at a distance with an Eye Beam that leaves them burning and can pierce through their armor. For a devastating one-two combo, Everything Dies lets her slam into an opponent with a Strength 8 Physical attack, possibly fling them away a short distance, and while they’re tumbling through the air, follow up with a free Eye Beam that ignores Range and Line of Sight!

Black Swan will be able to get in close to use her attacks, thanks to the synergy of her Flight and Charge superpowers. A Charge leading into Everything Dies can mess with your opponent’s plans if you have the Power to spare.

And that’s not the only way Black Swan can unravel the opposing team’s tactics. She has a pair of reactive superpowers that can manipulate the Modify Dice step of an attack—one for when she’s defending, and the other for when she attacks. Midnight Field allows her to respond to an attack with a befuddling energy field that lets her spend any amount of Power, converting a Wild into a Blank for each Power spent. On the flip side, she can use a Telepathic Suggestion when she is on the offense, subtly manipulating her opponent into leaving an opening to her strike and forcing a reroll of one of their defense dice!

That’s it for our first look at this interdimensional terror. Be sure to check back for yet another installment of From Panel to Play, the series where we give you your first look at how your favorite characters transition to the tabletop in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Pre-order your own copy of the Black Swan & Supergiant Character Pack at your local game store or through our webstore today.

Until then, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!

CP159 Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Black Order Updates

Today’s article continues our look at character rebalances, with Thanos’ fearsome Black Order getting their turn in the spotlight.

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.

While there are more stories that could be told about the design and development of these characters and their affiliation, the short version is that the Black Order identity was the first to be largely based around the idea of KO’ing characters as their primary mode of winning the scenario battle. The Black Order has a significant lack of scenario control compared to many other affiliations. Additionally, it is an affiliation that brings a lot of power in a relatively small package, often having fewer activations than their opponents. All of this, however, plays well into their game plan of having to carefully control the front end of the game to ensure their opponents don’t jump out to a huge initial lead, while they do the job they were made for and whittle down their opponent’s numbers, all while scoring VPs for each KO they make.

With this in mind, it seems a perfect time to discuss the first two characters seeing changes, the husband and wife duo of Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight.

Since the couple’s release, there has been plenty of discussion about their unique Husband and Wife superpowers, especially with how it allows them to really excel at what the Black Order in general want to do: maintain priority and Daze or KO a single target before it can react. Even without his beloved wife at his side, Corvus has certainly shown that himself to be a fearsome boogeyman in Crisis Protocol, and a character whose name most often appears in discussions about how to deal with him. While there will always be characters that sit on the high end of their threat value and the pack of characters in general, after carefully watching these characters since their release, it was clear that their play pattern was a little too automatic.

First things first. You’ll see that Husband of Proxima Midnight and Wife of Corvus Glaive now have a new Power cost of 1. While this may not seem like much, it does mean that players will have to be more mindful of managing each character’s power if they want to ensure that they can double activate. 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. While undoubtably still a powerful piece of the characters’ kit, these changes allow several more opportunities for opponents to counter play, whether by using abilities to reduce the pair’s power or using throws and pushes to make it harder for them to be in range to trigger the Husband and Wife abilities.

Additionally, you’ll see that we added an additional trigger requirement to Corvus’ Death Blow Flurry. Depending on which order you’ve read these articles, this may not be a surprise, or this will be the first in a trend to come as we look at future character adjustments. Given the high strength of Corvus’ attacks, the requirements to achieve the perfect 4 attack turn was just a bit too low. This change again makes having the perfect Corvus turn just that much less predictable and therefore rewards players for having contingency plans should they miss one of the triggers.

Next up is the psychic powerhouse of the Black Order, Ebony Maw. While Corvus and Proxima have been terrorizing tables since their release, Ebony Maw unfortunately hasn’t quite lived up to the hype of his initial preview. Similar to characters like Hulk and Gamora, 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. As such, he found himself left more and more behind, which was a shame not only for a very cool character, but also because he was meant to offer a different play pattern for the Black Order, providing them with several control elements between his impressive Black Tongue’s Sinister Influence and the throw on his Herald of Doom attack.

The first thing to note is that the strength of Black Tongue has gone from 5 to 6. Not only does this put its damage potential better in line for a modern-day Threat 5, it also significantly increases the chance of Sinister Influence triggering. While the increase to Maw’s damage output is useful, where Maw really struggled was in his durability. Mind Over Matter allowing him to use his 6 Mystic defense against any attack type was impressive, but ultimately led to a play pattern where Maw was forced into not using the rest of his cool kit so that he could bolster his rather weaker defenses. With this in mind we made several adjustments to both make Maw more durable and more thematic to the disrupting force he embodies in the comics and on the tabletop. The first thing we did was boosted his energy defense from 2 to 4, reducing his primary weakness to only Physical attacks. Next, we increased his Stamina on his injured side from 4 to 6.

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. Mind Over Matter was completely overhauled to not only solve this problem but also add more of thematic punch to Maw as a character. Instead of being a Reactive and costing 2 power to use, Mind Over Matter now is innate and 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. The second we put this on the table we loved how it played perfectly into Maw’s whole theme of disruption. In addition to the Mind Over Matter change we also added a new superpower Telekinetic Deflection. While this will cost Maw power defensively, it provides him with some critical counterplay to pretty much every Mystic character’s primary weakness, having terrain thrown into them. Having access to this power in the right situation really makes Maw feel like a true Threat 5, who will not be easily removed without significant effort and resources.

Rounding out this look at the Black Order, it seems only fitting that we also take a look at the two Infinity Gems that are seeing rebalances.

The first one to go over is pretty simple, the Space Gem is getting a reduction in cost from 2 Threat to 1. Our hope is that this small adjustment makes the Space Gem a more interesting choice for characters that can take it, especially compared to the Mind Gem. Additionally, we expect that the change to the Time Gem we are about to look at will also increase consideration for the Space Gem as well.

From the start the Time Gem was the most difficult of the Infinity Gems to both reflect its power and balance in the game. After a lot of consideration, we decided to rework the gem from the ground up because, while the original ability was fun and flavorful, it opened too many negative first turn play patterns when it came to Crisis design. Rather than having to restrict or even ban the gem, we felt this was a golden opportunity to remake the gem to still have a powerful and thematic effect free of the issues that have come to light with its original design. As a bonus, we were also able to reduce its cost as well, meaning that all the Infinity Gems are a standard 1 Threat.

We hope you enjoyed this look at the changes coming to the Black Order. Be sure to join us next time as we continue our look at more of the rebalances coming to Marvel: Crisis Protocol officially later this month!

CP25 Thanos

This time on From Panel to Play, we’re going cosmic. That’s right, we’re taking a look at the madman with the fanciest glove in the universe. It’s Thanos!

The last of the Eternal Titans, Thanos is indisputably one of the most powerful beings in the universe. So great is his power that some choose to worship him as a god. So great is his menace that he counts almost every hero alive as his enemy.

If his personal might was not impressive enough, Thanos pursues a campaign of terror to secure all of the Infinity Gems, artifacts of unfathomable power that he can wield to reshape the very universe to match his twisted vision.

Thanos views freedom as a facet of chaos. Seeking to do away with both, he rules the Endless Resurgence empire with brutal leadership. Thanos’ empire sweeps across worlds, forcing them to be a part of his ruthless empire.

Thanos’ miniature conveys all the power, menace, and arrogance you’d expect from the Mad Titan. Posed in mid stride as he descends from his throne to put the hurt on a world’s defenders, Thanos’ expression is a haughty grin. He’s holding up the Infinity Gauntlet as if to show his foes the instrument of their demise. Each of the Infinity Gems picked out on its back are a perfect opportunity for painters to add the finishing touch to their paint scheme and beg for extra attention.

As you would expect from someone with Thanos’ bone fides, the Mad Titan’s rules make him a powerhouse on the tabletop. With sturdy defenses and plenty of Stamina, Thanos can confidently hold a battle line against other characters. His attacks also pack plenty of punch. His Cosmic Blast attack is a Range 3 Energy attack that Thanos can pump up to Strength 8, with the added bonus of the special rule Titan’s Will that can hurl an opponent back and leave them Slowed.

Thanos also has a full suite of powers to help him achieve his insane agenda. As the ruler of the Endless Resurgence, he has a leadership ability that affects all the members of the Black Order, granting them victory as they tally up their defeated foes, while the Death’s Decree power makes his minions fight with greater ferocity for the cost of 2 Power.

Of course, Thanos desires nothing more than to possess the Infinity Gems and wield their incalculable power. His innate superpower Being of Immeasurable Power represents not only his great personal strength but also his resolve and ability to control the gems. Being of Immeasurable Power reduces the damage Thanos would suffer from enemy effects by 1, as well as allowing the Mad Titan to take two Infinity Gems at once and use their active and reactive powers without paying the cost.

Perhaps even more terrifying is what happens when Thanos becomes injured. In his Injured state, the Mad Titan becomes even more horrifying to confront, gaining extra Stamina and modifying his Death’s Agenda Leadership ability to grant members of the Black Order affiliation the ability to reroll dice of their attacks—at a cost.

For those brave enough to face the Mad Titan’s full fury, keep an eye out for Thanos’ Ultimate Encounter, Infinity Gauntlet, coming out later this year. In it, Thanos, the Chosen of Death will put their strength and skill to the ultimate test.

That’s all for our look at the big, bad, purple menace from outer space. Be sure to check back when we take a look at our next Panel to Play focus, when we take a look at someone who isn’t a world-destroying space tyrant of incalculable menace.

Until then, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off.