Uncanny Beginnings

 

Hello and welcome! In this article, I'm going to cover what I think are good starting principles when picking up the Uncanny X-Men in Marvel Crisis Protocol, which characters to start your journey with, and some general gameplay tips.

First, let's start with 

Leaderships

X-Men Gold is Storm's leadership and arguably the strongest available to X-Men. To get a better understanding of how it works, let's divide it into two distinct parts. The first one, which is usually referred to as the X-Men Jump or Hop, lets one active model, that is not holding an objective and is within R2 of another allied model, pay 1 power and place themselves within R1 of the non-active model.

Here we have a visual example of how it works and how far it reaches. On the left, we have Wolverine, within R2 of Cyclops, then in front of him at R1. The movement tool next to them shows just how much distance it covers using the smallest parameters with two 35mm bases. On the right, we have Storm doing something similar but jumping over Beast, which has a 50mm base. The leadership scales better the bigger the bases of the models involved in using it. 50mm and 65mm bases will let your models go further and are something worth keeping in mind when building a list with Storm's leadership. Because of the mobility granted by X-Men Gold, it is restricted to once per round, as it can functionally often replace a move action and sometimes more. 

The second part of X-Men Gold's leadership grants a reroll on defense, whenever your models are attacked from outside R2. This shares a range restriction with most forms of cover and can be very useful when combined together to make your models fairly resilient. While a defensive reroll only converts to a success 37.5% by default, it can still make a difference, especially on models that can count blanks, failures or have other defensive abilities. Combined with the movement half of the leadership, this puts a squad led by Storm, in a very good position to grab extracts and run from the opposing team, leveraging terrain and the defensive reroll to stay alive.

Overall, Storm's X-Men Gold provides a very tactical leadership, in the sense that, by granting one model per round additional movement, it makes positioning an integral part of leveraging it, and that poor positioning will be more detrimental here than with other leaderships or affiliations as it can make the leadership far less impactful if not taken into account. It is probably the X-Men leadership that has the hardest learning curve to it but mastering it can be very rewarding.

X-Men Blue is Cyclops's leadership and serves as the second leadership available to X-Men.

X-Men Blue is looking for characters that can enable the leadership, meaning that they can reliably do 1+ damage when they attack, and models that scale well with extra power and ideally both. This means that you're looking for characters that have dice fixing (like rerolls, counting particular faces as successes, a pierce trigger etc...), can attack multiple times (like characters with Rapid Fire, Beam or Area attacks) or have large dice pools. Because the leadership has a range restriction (even if the distance covered is pretty wide), Cyclops led X-Men team still tends to want to play relatively closed ranged maps or position your characters to make sure you can leverage the leadership as much as possible. It shares a characteristic with X-Men Gold, in the sense that the position of your models on the board shapes the impact and strength of the leadership, and makes a significant difference. 

Now, onto the characters themselves.

Character boxes

The affiliation box provides the perfect opportunity to pick up X-Men. The box comes with 4 affiliated characters, 3 affiliated Team Tactics Cards in First Class, To Me, My X-Men and Children of the Atom and some generically useful ones like X-Ceptional Healing. For a more in-depth look at the leaders and affiliated Team Tactics Cards, you can read another article going over them here. 

Storm and Cyclops are two of the three available leaders for the affiliation, as well as being solid and relatively well-rounded characters. Beast and Wolverine complement these leaders well, as Beast is a very good 3 threat model under Storm's X-Men Gold thanks to his mobility (being on a 50mm base), his inexpensive displacement and resilience. Wolverine brings a strong bruiser under Cyclops's X-Men Blue by having a good suite of attacks and scaling very well when given extra power from the leadership.

Next, we have a variety of affiliated boxes to choose from and, thankfully, X-Men has a very solid character pool to choose from. So let's review them one by one and try to make an informed choice.

Cable and Domino

Cable and Domino is a pretty interesting box to start with. Both are very solid offensive pieces and fit very well into X-Men. Even though, at first glance, they might indicate being geared more towards an attrition plan and Cyclops's leadership, they have both proved themselves as very dependable models under Storm too. Thanks to her Probability Manipulation and Things Tend To Go My Way superpowers, Domino is a very resilient objective holder. Cable provides a fair share of offensive output thanks to his gun and his throw. He brings a 50mm base under Storm's leadership and has inherent mobility with Body Slide By One. His  Plasma Rifle, especially when he has access to his rerolls, is a very effective weapon to chew through opposing models. With a size 4 terrain throw and the ability to give defense dice to allied models, he also scales very well with the extra power provided by the leadership of Cyclops. An additional benefit of this box is that it opens up X-Force, by providing their leader with an affiliated 3 threat in addition to Wolverine. 

Magik and Colossus

The Rasputins are an interesting pair to complement the starting X-Men. Colossus brings a very resilient model that can help take attacks away from the rest of your team with the Big Brother superpower. He brings damage reduction on a model with above average health and additional defensive tech which makes him very hard to take off the board. Magik brings a mobile but fragile assassin at 3 threat and is the most inexpensive mystical attacker available in affiliation for X-Men. Colossus also brings with him the iconic Fastball Special, which, if you play both Wolverine and Colossus, is a strong and fun card to play, putting Wolverine rapidly into the action. Magik also comes with Journey to Limbo, which lets her reposition a model. Colossus brings a 50mm base for X-Men Gold, and Magik is a pretty effective assassin who benefits from Cyclops's leadership and helps her move around more often and hit harder. 

Rogue and Gambit

The loveable southern power couple, Rogue and Gambit present another box of affiliated characters with interesting tools. Rogue acts as a resilient brawler, with the ability to drain and take away power from a model with Mutant Absorption, potentially crippling their activation. She also brings some additional form of control by being able to throw size 4 terrain with her superpower and size 4 models with Southern Hospitality. This makes Rogue a very solid model under X-Men Blue, as her output increases substantially with extra power, and her innate resilience makes her a solid objective holder under X-Men Gold, that can move, drain power from a model, and move away to safety. Gambit is probably the most fragile of the X-Men, but he can pack a punch. Thanks to his superpower A Little Something Extra, he can fairly regularly inflict a solid amount of damage on closeby models with the explosive trigger on Kinetic Ace. This makes him a solid candidate for X-Men Blue as his output also scales very well with extra power. Something noteworthy, both are affiliated with the Brotherhood of Mutants, making them an interesting box of overlapping characters for the affiliations.

Honey Badger and X-23

This duo of aggressive sisters brings with them a very solid, resilient and complementary toolkit to the X-Men. Honey Badger is, at the time of writing, the only 2 threat in affiliation, which gives her the ability to help fit more expensive non-affiliated characters in your squads. Honey Badger brings interesting utility with Anklebiter and Too Dangerous To Ignore, which help her reduce defensive dice of nearby models and can redirect big attacks to herself instead of a key model. She also shares a superpower with her sister, which helps reposition one of them when they're damaged. As for X-23, much like Magik, serves as a mobile assassin thanks to her inexpensive spender (Claw Rush) and her Frenzy superpower. Both are more attrition focused models and are easy inclusions for X-Men Blue, but X-23 has been a fairly popular model in affiliation since she was released for her resilience thanks to her Healing Factor and access to the Tactics Card X-Ceptional Healing. Both characters included in this box are also affiliated with X-Force and Weapon X, with X-23 being one of the characters that can lead Weapon X.

Emma Frost and Psylocke

This iconic duo of psychic mutants reinforces the available list of characters of the Uncanny X-Men. Emma Frost beings a unique suite of abilities that are more matchup dependent than what most characters offer. Which makes her an interesting technical piece or pick if you expect certain interactions on the board or have issues with the particular types of models she works against. Her transform mechanic also makes her harder to play, as it presents more decision points than most characters. Emma also brings an affiliated Team Tactics Card with Headmistress which, similarly to To Me, My X-Men, provides an excellent respositioning tool. As for Psylocke, she brings a different type of brawler than Rogue, where Rogue is more resilient, Psylocke stands on the more aggressive side with a superpower that increases the dice pool on her builder, and innate dice fixing. Emma Frost also comes with the leadership card for Hellfire Club, which lets her lead a wide array of models. Psylocke is another affiliated member of X-Force who has the unique trait of bringing mystic attacks for the affiliation.

Bishop and Nightcrawler

Next up we have an eclectic duo of characters with the time-traveling Bishop and the teleporting Nightcrawler. Bishop provides a solid support kit thanks to his attack suite and immunities while bringing solid displacement with his throw. He can be somewhat fragile as his defensive tech is not reliable, and you have to be mindful of Overload but after some games, it should be easier to manage. As for Nightcrawler, his kit makes him one of the most mobile characters in the game thanks to his combination of BAMF and Puff of Smoke, which lets him move around the board with ease. The stun trigger on his Teleporting Strike also makes him surprisingly disruptive as the ability to inflict stun almost on demand can cripple certain models. This makes yet another box where a member is affiliated with X-Force, which, as you can see, most of them are also members of the Uncanny X-Men.

Iceman and Shadowcat

One of the newest boxes of affiliated characters, Iceman and Shadowcat both bring interesting options to the affiliation. Thanks to his 50mm and his ability to slow models often, Bobby Drake offers a solid mobile and scenario piece for X-Men Gold by both helping your models move around and diminishing the ability of opposing models to move around the board. In X-Men Blue, his beam attack can make sure you trigger the leadership often through volume if he's positioned well. As for Shadowcat, she is the first affiliated long mover, which makes her a very inexpensive choice to make aggressive and far-reaching scenario plays. Thanks to Stealth and Can't Touch This, she can be harder to chase if she's running away with extracts. Under X-Men Blue, having two attacks that deny opposing crits makes her more likely to damage opposing models, making her a relatively reliable trigger for the leadership, in addition to scaling well with extra power.

Jean Grey and Cassandra Nova

The first of the split boxes, this one brings two powerful 5 threat psychics; Jean Grey and Cassandra Nova. Both share some characteristics in being control pieces but are pretty fragile for their threat cost. Jean Grey has an excellent terrain throw and a very strong spender to complement her more niche superpowers. Like Emma Frost after her, Jean has Shield Mind which, thanks to her innate power generation, she can use at the start of every turn. Cassandra Nova brings a more proactive control model thanks to her attack Mind Possession and her Biokinesis superpower to displace and slow opposing models. Jean and Cassandra also share a very strong Team Tactics Card in Mental Domination, which, for 3 power, moves a model and gives you a free attack (as it doesn't count as an action). Both models offer fairly unique toolkits but tend to have a hard time fueling them and benefit a lot from power generating leaderships like X-Men Blue or Xavier's School for the Gifted.

Weapon X Program

The second split box and, worth mentioning, the most expensive of the ones on this list, has some solid options. Logan, the Wolverine has been a staple of competitive X-Men lists since he was released. Thanks to his innate mobility (he places on both of his attacks) and size 3 character displacement, which X-Men doesn't have a lot, he brings a reliable scenario piece that most X-Men lists can leverage well. He also has excellent stats to play Pay to Flip scenarios which makes him a great model under X-Men Gold. One thing worth noting is that Logan has benefits from being further than R3 from allied models, which can make him awkward sometimes in X-Men and takes some practice to avoid and leverage well. Sabertooth Apex Predator is the second model that comes in that box. Much like Jean and Cassandra Nova, he has a very strong suite of superpowers but a hard time building power well without outside help, which makes him an excellent candidate for brawlier lists under Cyclops or Xavier. Finally, as named on the box, it comes with the Weapon X affiliated Tactics Cards and 2 affiliated models. Picking up this box and the one with X-23 and Honey Badger will give you most of the Weapon X affiliation and access to most of its leaders. 

Professor X and Shadow King

Last but not least, the box containing the iconic Professor X, without whom we wouldn't have the X-Men. Xavier brings with him the third X-Men leadership, which lets you give power to an allied model the first time each turn you use a superpower that costs power. Xavier brings a very strong leadership to the table and some interesting options. He has conditional control on his Mental Suggestion attack and the ability to reroll attack or defense dice on other allied models within R4 of himself. With his defensive profile, Xavier is a pretty fragile character who prefers to stand further away from the action. He brings a 50mm base for Storm's leadership and works well under Cyclops by giving rerolls to your models to make sure you trigger the leadership, as well as benefitting a lot from the extra power given by the leadership (which in turn can help you trigger it again). As for Shadowking, much like Cassandra Nova and Jean Grey, is a pretty fragile psychic with an impressive toolkit that he has a hard time fueling. With his 50mm base and short move, he benefits a lot from Storm's leadership as it helps him attack more often (his base attack being incredibly strong) and keeps him somewhat safe with the defensive reroll. Under Cyclops, he's able to use his displacement more often and threaten a wide area with his Nightmare Visions.

Where to begin?

Now, having done a quick overview of the character boxes, I'll go over my reasoning and why I'd prioritize certain boxes over others. This constitutes my opinion and is my personal suggestion of where to start when getting into the Uncanny X-Men. This is obviously very subjective but where I'd advise people to start. 

#1: The Affiliation Box

While this might be obvious, but, getting 2 out of 3 leaders and two of the key Team Tactics Cards in First Class and To Me, My X-Men makes for an excellent starting point. With Storm and Cyclops come two affiliated models that both have seen competitive play and work pretty well overall.

#2: Cable and Domino

Especially after the latest wave of errata, Cable and Domino are a standout box for many reasons. Both models work very well with all 3 leaders and are pretty self-sufficient and powerful both as scenario and attrition pieces while also opening up another avenue thanks to Cable's X-Force leadership.

#3: Iceman and Shadowcat

Similarly to Cable and Domino, Iceman and Shadowcat are two models that work well under all 3 leaders. Both models each bring something a leader is looking for, be it a 50mm base or a long move, good attacks or inexpensive superpowers. Another big contributing factor in my opinion is that Xavier's Dream, the 4th universal Uncanny X-Men card (and a very strong tactics card overall) comes in that box. 

#4: X-23 and Honey Badger

Honey Badger and X-23 make for a very solid pair of characters that synergize well with each other, in addition to being good pieces independently. While both models tend towards a more aggressive and attrition driven playstyle, X-23's mobility and Honey Badger's ability to protect important models also give them a role in scenario oriented teams. Honey Badger also serves as the only 2 threat in affiliation which can help make some threat costs easier to manage.

#5: Nightcrawler and Bishop

Nightcrawler and Bishop are both characters that fit very well under both Storm and Cyclops' preferred playstyles. Nightcrawler is incredibly mobile for Storm's scenario plays and brings a very inexpensive spender to both trigger and benefit from Cyclops Leadership. Bishop is a somewhat static model that's helped by his 50mm base, which Storm leverages very well to place him into the action and get him going earlier. Under Cyclops, he brings a reliable source of incinerate to weaken opposing models as well as an excellent throw and potentially devastating spender. 

#6: Rogue and Gambit

Rogue and Gambit bring an interesting pair to the affiliated models available for X-Men. Rogue is a pretty tough model that can play well under Storm thanks to her damage reduction and Mutant Absorption to deny tempo and benefits more than most from the extra power given by X-Men Blue. While Gambit stands on the more fragile side, he gains a lot from both Storm's and Cyclops' leaderships but suffers from the abundance of excellent 3 threats available to X-Men and has a hard time carving himself a spot.

#7: Emma Frost and Psylocke

This box is where things start to muddle a little more. Psylocke, much like Bishop and Wolverine, is yet another brawling model. She does bring a different type of attacker and is more resilient than some of her counterparts, but isn't doing anything else that differentiates her from other affiliated models. As for Emma Frost, her toolkit and Tactics Card provide solid options, but she is somewhat unreliable as a control model and a big part of her toolset is niche with limited applications.

#8: Magik and Colossus

The last of the fully affiliated boxes, Magik and Colossus are an interesting pair. Magik provides a mobile, mystic assassin, and Colossus a resilient bruiser that can redirect attacks to himself. I think the biggest reason why I wouldn't suggest this box as one of the first to pick up is that neither characters bring something completely unique to the affiliation. They have tools and options available elsewhere or on other models.

#9: Professor X and Shadow King

The first of the split boxes on this list brings on the 3rd leader of the X-Men. As a character, Professor Xavier brings a long range mystic attacker much like Emma Frost and some dice consistency with his rerolls. Shadow King is a very interesting and unique model that brings a lot of displacement on a somewhat power hungry model, which can make him a good pick for any of the 3 X-Men leaders.

#10: Weapon X Box

The biggest one on this list, the Weapon X box opens up the Weapon X affiliation, which has in common Domino, X-23 and Honey Badger. Logan is a very solid scenario piece that can pivot to aggression in a pinch, which makes him fit well with mostly Storm but still be decent under Cyclops and Professor X. As for the second model in the box, Sabertooth, Apex Predator is mostly an attrition model that is relatively power hungry, which makes him a very good model under both Cyclops and Xavier, complementing Logan very well. 

#11: Jean Grey and Cassandra Nova

Last but not least, the box contains some of the strongest psychics available in Crisis Protocol. While both Jean and Cassandra are solid characters, they both lean towards the more niche side. Jean and Cassandra are also fairly power hungry characters, so they'll shine more under Cyclops and Professor X than under Storm by having the power to fully leverage their kits.

This concludes my coverage and overview of the boxes available to the Uncanny X-Men. Hopefully, it will help make a more informed decision of how and where to start with the panoply of choices available.

Thank you for taking the time to read this piece and as always, don't forget to have fun!