Hello and welcome back!
As we are getting near the end of 2023, I wanted to do something special to wrap up the year. So I reached out to some of the most experienced X-Men players out there to do a retrospective on the X-Men in 2023. In this series, I'll be asking open questions about characters, Team Tactics Cards the state of the game and what's coming on the horizon. In today's article, I have the pleasure of hosting Joemanji.
Section 1: New Releases
X-Men received a few characters in 2023, namely Logan, Emma Frost and Psylocke. What are your impression of them, what they bring to X-Men and their place overall in the affiliation?
Logan
In my opinion, Logan is still one of the best models in the game. Both his floor and ceiling are so high. At the low end, just throwing, say, Kingpin, off a point every turn whilst not dying is amazing, and sometimes he gets to win games solo with a spender. He's also perfectly statted and designed for Pay to Flips. The noise has died down a little with him recently but I still think he's really good. The thing about him is that sometimes he Yahtzees and wins you the game, but even when he doesn't he's still very much worth his threat.
Emma Frost
Seemingly pre-nerfed because Hellfire exists, she doesn't see much play in X-Men for me. She looks to be a bit better under Scott though so that's something. There are enough good 4s in affiliation that are at least a little better than her that it is tough to include Emma. Overall her kit is a bit too awkward to make work, as in the majority of games she will effectively have zero superpowers. Her action economy is also dreadful. Even when Shield Mind is needed vs Thanos we probably still take Jean because it is so important to have it online round one.
Psylocke
I was surprised about good Psylocke felt on the table, as I initially didn't think her card looked that good. The attack typing ability is super useful, as so many models are vulnerable to at least one of Energy or Mystic. Her action economy is lovely too, and auto stun before damage for some reason seems very relevant. Unfortunately I think the leadership change on Storm really hurt her as she can feel very fragile at times. More of an X-Force model now for me, who have much less competition in the 4 slot.
Headmistress
Absolutely amazing card that is gated behind Emma being a bit limp in faction. I have seen a few players do absolutely wild things with it though, and with Scott's leadership the opportunity to get this off round one without Advanced R&D or Wong are so much higher. Really interesting card now and something to explore further.
Positive Standout
Logan is a top tier model that sees splashing in a wide variety of places, so having him affiliated is a massive boon.
Negative Standout
Emma is a bit on the weaker side and a massive thematic miss too unfortunately (she is not a telekinetic lol).
Section 2: Errata and current place in the meta
Going over the changes to both X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue with the recent character overhaul, how do you think the errata changed the affiliation?
Storm's leadership nerf dramatically weakens the power level of the affiliation, but they still seem decent under her. Shooting down Storm whilst buffing Guardians & Webs (who were already a touch better) was certainly a decision. The biggest change though is Scott's leadership and the errata'd characters giving such a variety of teams for us to use. Before it had become a vaguely solved puzzle under Storm, but even now a couple of months later I have no idea what is going on with X-Men. Which is wonderful.
How does the latest errata shape the affiliation and your roster building overall?
I tried Scott but I don't really enjoy him, and I tried keeping Voodoo and he's still good under Storm so... not much? Most of the errata'd characers are good but not quite displacing existing models in the end, so my Storm roster looks fairly similar to what it did before. The main difference is looking at splashes that better suit her new leadership. Models like Pyro are still good but boy do they die a whole lot quicker now.
How have you found the updated characters overall?
They are all very playable, but none of them are good enough to raise the ceiling of our affiliated models. We now have very few bad models but the overall power level of X-Men in terms of winning games has still gone down because of the Storm nerf.
Is there any positive standouts?
Cable is suddenly a real character. His changes seemed small but that are remarkably effective on the board. He's now a model I'd happily play in either leadership even without worrying about an X-Force dual. He's really efficient and effective now.
Is there any negative standouts?
Storm's leadership nerf was a lot. Losing the cover is a huge downgrade. It would have been fine if other 3 threat leaders like Sam, Miles and Star-Lord also got a touch but this being the only leadership nerf at all seems like a lot, and one that was not supported by the data.
What would you say is the biggest gain and loss X-Men made this year and why?
Power level Logan. Fun level all the new characters. For the loss, Storm's leadership nerf.
Section 3: Things on the horizon
With what we know of what's coming in 2024, what are your initial impressions of the characters and TTC that were spoiled so far?
Nightcrawler
People are losing their minds but he looks like a 3 threat with a Yahtzee spender to me. If you take the Stun and spender off him he's worse than X-23 so those two things need to be doing a whole lot of work for him to be worth the threat. They may well be, a lot of people disagree with me here so maybe I'm wide of the mark. I reckon he'll just die though (and this has been the situation the couple of times I've seen him).
Shadowcat
Looks really good, if a little predictable in how she'll play. Mostly you'll just be looking to line up spenders. Having an affiliated long mover is going to be insane though for unlocking new round one nonsense, so she will be plenty of fun in that regard. Stealth seems like it will be really relevant since 3/3/3 with 5 health is insta-dead in today's Guardians meta. I'm interested to play her to see how effective all her small triggers will be. There are a lot of incidental things on her card that will need reps to get best use of. For example being able to block pushes on allies with Can't Touch This.
Cerebro
It's not bad but I can't imagine it being good enough to warrant the opportunity cost of not having a better card. Cards that add 2 dice to an attack (or 1 here twice) are really poor. If I'm going after Webs I'll probably just pack Marked For Death still.
Xavier's Dream
Going to be amazing but not broken. The limit is how many allies you have, some of whom might be dazed or even have zero power. Likely best case scenario this will stop 4 damage so plenty of attacks will still be able to spike through it, unlike X-Ceptional. Still going to be super clutch though, especially if you can use it on a builder to deny power gain to deny further damage from spenders or throws.
I would like to thank Joemanji for taking the time to answer my questions and give feedback on what's been a pretty busy year for the Uncanny X-Men. I'd also like to thank you for taking the time to read this article and as always, don't forget to have fun!
