Hello and welcome back!
As we are getting near the end of 2024, 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 2024. 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 Ghostdeer!
Section 1: New Leadership
In 2024, the Uncanny X-Men recieved, with the release of Charles Xavier, a brand new leader to supplement Storm and Cyclops. What are your thoughts on this new leadership and how it fits in the overall affiliation?
I think the leadership is incredible, the effect is crazy strong and it really opens up new list building potential. It's kind of like a different Steve1 leadership, where it's worse than his on Turn 1, but then equal or better on the following turns. Which, to be fair, is a big difference, because free power effects like this one are always stronger earlier in the game, but still I think this one is very strong and very fun.
Section 2: Character reviews & team tactic cards
X-Men received a lot of new characters and team tactic cards in 2024. What are your impression of them, what they bring to X-Men and their place overall in the affiliation?
Professor X
I think he's clearly the worst X-men leader and at best in the middle of the pack overall. Taking into account all the positives I had for the leadership, his kit as a character is just so underwhelming. He's decently fast and Mental Suggestion is a fine attack, but the rest of his card is pretty bad. The bad spender and his inability to reroll his own dice means that his own output is quite bad for a 4, which compounds his issue of being a priority target for your opponent to kill. Diving him aggressively pays out even harder when his clap-back is this bad! If the rerolls were less clunky (why once per turn? why not himself?) I could maybe get on board, but as is, I find him hugely underwhelming.
Bishop
He's like the very definition of fine (bordering on Dunford Fine). The throw is incredible, the builder is good, the spender is situationally great or terrible. I wish he was a little more durable, though I care less about the self damage than most because it's not that hard to work around it. But his stats and HP aren't great for a 4 and his reverse-pierce thing is too swingy to be reliable. I think he's a good pickup for some other mutant factions like X-Force who have less options at the 4 slot, but he's not holding up to Nightcrawler/Logan/Cyclops.
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler rules! He's an excellent complement to Logan as another hyper-mobile 4 threat with good damage and good-enough durability. His spender can be incredibly swingy and the games where you miss the trigger constantly feel terrible, but the rest of his kit is often just good enough that it can be okay, especially on a Pay to Flip. I wouldn't want to play him in a down-the-middle brawl, but any shape where he can get value out of his mobility, he's gonna feel great.
Iceman
Iceman is good in the right situations, which means his inclusion in a roster is going to be pretty situational. He's at his best on a D shape where he can easily rotate between points but anyone chasing him will have to deal with the automatic slow, which can be so incredibly crippling on that shape. That said, the rest of his kit is fine but not great. The spender is cool if you hit the wild, of course, but fairly unreliable. I think I'd only look to play him when the Slow is going to be super relevant and otherwise, look elsewhere.
Shadowcat
Hey look, we got a long mover in X-men and it's not the end of the world. Who woulda guessed? (Me. I would. People were way too worked up over this idea). Kitty is a character I wanted to like more than I do, but find that she struggles in one key area. She's great when things are going well or the game is roughly even between her great mobility, decent attacks, and the situationally useful defense boost, but she really feels awful when you need to dig yourself out of a hole. All of her attacks are somewhat predicated on being reliable ways of doing >0 damage but bad at spiking, which is the opposite of what you want when you're behind. If we weren't spoiled for good 3s, I'd probably look at her more, but as it is, she just doesn't make the cut.
Angel
Angel rules and if you don't think so, you haven't played enough Angel. He's definitely the second best release we got this year (after Kurt) and feels like the perfect complement to Beast. Now, a thing to keep in mind with Angel is that you'll never use all of his card in a turn (or even in a game) and that's perfectly okay. Expected, even! I think I've used Air Lift on him once in all the games I've played him. But man, his spender is one of the best in the game for his threat cost and it's power cost. A guaranteed Size 3 throw from RNG 3 is incredible. Yeah, it costs an action, but that's fine. Him double spendering can do a crazy amount of damage if you have two models to throw into each other and makes for a great un-daze turn. And Hostile Takeover is such a great thing to have in faction. Being able to pull big models off a point (like a Rhino) while rotating to a different point can unlock big VP swings and opens up even more of a control game than we had. Play more Angel.
Cerebro
Mind Wipe
When this came out, I thought it was hot trash. Having sat with it a bit, I think it might be okay-ish-but-probably-bad. It's very easy to envision situations where it wins you a game, but in practical application those are more rare than you might expect. If I liked Prof more, I might be more on board with this one, but as is I remain unimpressed.
Xavier's Dream
It's perfect, no notes. I just wish I didn't have to hear about how broken it is while Vince is playing Siege of Darkness to make his 5th and 6th attacks of an activation. Lots of cards are dumb, this definitely belongs in the pantheon, please move on.
Section 3: Current place in the meta
How impactful have you found the new leadership to be for the affiliation?
It was a lot of fun figuring out lists and shenanigans with it (and Mass Transit), but ultimately I decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. Prof needed to be a better model to keep me on board, but I wouldn't be shocked if someone else found some gold I missed.
How have you found the new models impact your list building and how you approach the affiliation?
Kurt rules, Angel rules, Dream super rules. Couldn't be happier with those additions to the roster, though the overall plan remains the same (be a mobile crisis-focused team that's excellent at pay to flips).
What would you say is the biggest gain X-Men made this year and why?
Dream. I've always been of the opinion that while To Me and First Class are good, they're not as good as other faction defining cards. So I'm stoked that we finally have one that hangs in that group.
What would you say is X-Men's biggest loss this year and why?
Gimme Sunspot and Warlock. It's insane they're not considered X-men and they would have been totally compelling options competing for roster spots.
I would like to thank Ghostdeer 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!
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