CHARACTER SUMMARY: GREEN GOBLIN (Norman Osborn)

Many in the MCP community, myself included, are currently rejoicing as we are expecting to get our hands on the Green Goblin pack next month rather than next year. A classic Spider-Man villain, Green Goblin is absolutely iconic. So, how have AMG tackled the massive task of translating Norman Osborn’s villain into the game? Let’s see.

STAMINA – Just like Groot and Venom, Green Goblin comes out of the gate swinging with a robust 7 stamina. Vey, very nice.

MOVEMENT – Goblin is on a 50mm base and has a medium movement, which makes him pretty mobile. To be expected really considering he is flying around on a glider.

SIZE – 3, and as he can fly (obviously, he’s on a glider), this makes him a good candidate for some Drop Off shenanigans, but more on that later.

THREAT – 4 threat, which seems fine enough for a character with 7 stamina.

DEFENCES – It’s been a while since we had anything other than 3, 3, 3, so it is nice to see that Gobbo has 4 physical defence dice, and 3 for energy and mystic defences respectively.

ATTACKS – GG has 2 attacks, both of which are physical (sort of). The first attack is Pumpkin Bombs which has a range of 4, strength of 4 and power cost of 0. Before choosing a target for this attack, however, you can choose whether this is a physical or energy attack. Also, power equal to the damage dealt is gained. And, roll a wild and you will be able to trigger Bag of Tricks which allows you to give the target character either Bleed (take 1 damage at the end fo its activation), Poison (lose 1 power in the power phase), or Incinerate. Incinerate is a special condition which we have not come across before in the game, but states that the character removes 1 die from its defense rolls. Simple, but brutal – especially against characters like Miles Spider-Man and Ghost-Spider who only roll 3 defence die. This is a nifty little attack, but a strength of 4 always hurts to see – that 1 fewer die just makes such a big difference. Still, being able to switch between a physical and energy attack type is strong, and range 4 is no slouch.

Goblin’s second attack is called Night of the Goblin and has a range of 3, strength of 7 and power cost of 4. Again, before choosing a target you get to choose whether this is a physical or an energy attack. Additionally, if this attack deals damage then after it is resolved the target character gains the Poison and Incinerate special conditions. Poison is especially nasty for a character who can’t gain additional power during the power phase, as you effectively cripple their economy for a round unless they spend an action to shake the condition. This is a stong enough attack that doing damage is pretty likely, especially as it is flexible in its attack type. I can see Goblin throwing these conditions out a lot, as long as he can get the power to pay for this attack, which could be tricky given that his basic attack only has a strength of 4.

LEADERSHIP ABILITY – Green Goblin is the leader of a new affilition (man, these are really piling up), namely the Spider-Foes team. The leadership ability is called Oscorp Weaponry and states that once per turn while an allied character is attacking it can spend 1 power when modifying opposing defence dice. If it does it may reroll 1 opposing defence die.

This is a really interesting leadership ability, and I am very much looking forward to seeing how the the other members of the Spider-Foes team (revealed by AMG to comprise Green Goblin, Carnage, Doctor Octopus, Kingpin, Mysterio and Venom) play into this. Being able to lay out both attack and defence die and then being able to decide to pay 1 power to reroll an opponents defence die seems really good, and a nice way to break through opponents defences. Remember, modifying opposing dice is the last step of an attack before successes and failures are calculated, so you will get to see how the attack is going to pan out fully before deciding whether to take this reroll or not. Nice.

SUPERPOWERS – Green Goblin has many superpowers, the first of which is active, is called Hit and Run and has a power cost of 2. As an action GG makes an attack followed by a move action, once per turn. This is kind of like an inverted charge, and is nice to see. Goblin has good range on both his attacks, so he can fire one off then leg it out of harms way, maybe even positioning himself to fire off a second attack and dole out those nasty special conditions. It is always nice to see a new twist on an existing mechanic.

Superpower number 2 is reactive and is called Trick or Treat. When an enemy character ends an advance or is placed within range 4 of GG he may pay 3 power. If they do so then you may choose an interactive terrain feature of size 3 or less within range 2 of the enemy character that just advanced or placed. Destroy that terrain feature and the enemy character suffers a collision as if the terrain feature had collided with it. Basically, a throw without actually throwing it. I am assuming this is meant to represent GG setting off a bomb in the building as the character passes by, which is pretty cool. I really like this superpower because it provides a little bit of push-back against that perenially used and highly powerful team tactics card Drop Off. You might fly in and dump a character nearby, but you’re going to get a building explode in your face if you do.

GG’s next superpower is innate and is called Archnemesis (Peter Parker). This superpower states that when attacking Peter Parker, Green Goblin may modify or reroll critical failure results and may reroll any number of attack dice. Also, at the start of GG’s activation if there is a non-dazed enemy Peter Parker within range 3 of it, then GG’s first action must be an attack action targeting Peter Parker, if able. So, a whole new area of design space which is being opened up with this character, and I have to say, I LOVE it. This superpower is absolutely dripping with theme – Green Gobllin HATES Peter Parker. Let’s start at the end – having to attack a non-dazed Peter Parker within range 3 at the start of Goblin’s activation (if able) is a bit of a drawback, but hey, you were going to attack someone anyway weren’t you. Looking at the first half of this superpower, modifying or rerolling critical failures is pretty mega, and beng able to reroll any number of attack dice is huge. Basically, when Green Goblin is on the table, it really sucks to be Peter Parker.

Goblin’s last superpower is nice an simple – it is innate and is called flight. We all know what this does by now so I will just move on.

INJURED SIDE – AMG were clearly listening to Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” whilst coming up with GG’s design, for they have made a change, it feels really good, and it’s gonna make a difference. Green Goblin’s injured side has all the changes. Let’s dig in.

Firstly GG’s stamina drops from 7 to 5. Then his defence dice pools change, going from 4, 3, 3 to 3, 3, 5. Pretty awesome against the growing number of mystic attacks in the game.

Then, Pumpkin Bombs strength increases from 4 to 5, and the Night of the Goblin attack’s cost drops from 4 power to 3. No complaints here!

Next, GG loses his Hit and Run superpower and instead gains the Glider Ram superpower. This superpower states that GG is thrown medium. It does not suffer damage if it collides with another character or terrain feature. So, the same as Black Panther’s Pounce and Gamora’s Assassin Leap, except 1 power more to move medium rather than short. Pretty amazing mobility for an already pretty mobile character (50mm base remember!). If you’ve played Black Panther or Gamora then you will have seen how powerful this type of superpower is, and to be able to move medium over short is a big deal.

Next, we lose the Trick or Treat reactive superpower. Wah, wah, waaaaaah.

Last one now – GG also gains an entirely new superpower which is named Unstable Psyche. This is an innate superpower and stated that Goblin cannot interact with or hold obejctive tokens. During the power phase, roll 5 dice. For each critical hit, wild and hit rolled, GG gains 1 power. We have seen the objective denial play on Nebula, and rolling 5 die to gain power we have seen on Red Skull, but here we don’t have to take any damage and we don’t get a set amount of power. Green Goblin basically just becomes a hitting machine on his injured side, forgetting the objectives (except secures which he can still contest) and just running around causing damage – fun!

SUMMARY – What’s not to love on Green Goblin? Fun attacks that dole out conditions, an attack and move action combined, exploding buildings, “pounce” superpowers, and Peter Parker hate. Great stuff, and I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of the Spider-Foes (Mysterioooooooooooooooo).

AFFILIATIONS – He has his own affiliation, and so running him in that affiliation makes sense entirely.

An Avengers affilaition could be fun for Green Goblin, cheapening his costed superpowers and making them very affordable, plus Avengers are lacking in larger base models, so having a mobile cahracter on a 50mm base as part of the team could be valuable. But then again, the Avengers affiliation is already chock full of affiliated characters.

Cabal could be a good team for GG, especially once he flips to his injrued side and starts running around throwing out attacks. Plus, giving characters the incinerate special condition plays nicely into the Cabal desire to cause pain as it reduces the defence die of enemy characters.

Wakanda/Guardians of the Galaxy would make GG’s attacks more consistent, making the special conditions more likley to be dished out, and also helps to smooth out his defences a little.

Asgardian could be good, especially if your opponent keeps trying to give Goblin special conditions like slow, as he could just pay a power to ditch the condition, but using the Asgardian ability to heal may not play into your GG strategy, as you may be keen on flipping him to his injured side so you can use him to throw out more damage. It all depends on how you are planning on playing Green Goblin I guess.

Green Goblin could fit into a Black Order affiliation as he is quite mobile and, like I mentioned in the Cabal paragraph earlier, he fits into the “hitty hitty” desire of this team. However, he is 4 threat and the Black Order team is very threat heavy. Still, he is mobile, has good damage potential, gives out special conditions, and considering Web Warriors is shaping up to be a very popular affiliation it may be worth running GG just to fight back against the imminent Peter Parker resurgence, K.O’ing him quicker and gaining that previous 1 victory point for doing so.

If running Green Goblin in a Web Warriors affiliation he would have acces to a defence die reroll which is very nice, however he would only half benefit from the affiliation ability to modify and reroll critical failures whilst holding or contensting an objective token, as he can’t hold or contest objective tokens once injured.

TEAM TACTICS CARDS – There are 2 team tactics cards that come with the Green Goblin pack, and AMG have, albeit quite by accident, spoiled one. The card is called Well-Laid Plans and is unaffilaited. It states that Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus may pay 3 power each to play it. Costly! When this card is played you roll 5 dice for each enemy charater holding an objective token. The enemy character suffers one damage for each critical hit and wild rolled. A character damaged in this way drops all obkective tokens it is holding. The player playing this card chooses the order in which enemy characters are affected. This is an expensive card, but i’m sure many of us are happy to see another new way to make enemies drop objective tokens. Objectives earn points and points win games after all. Plus you get to cause a bit of damage? Winner! This is going to be one heck of a fun card to pull out in a game. Well done AMG!

As for team tactics cards which are currently available, some stand out as being good to consider if running Green Goblin. Battle Lust makes its triumphant return to my character summary articles, as for the cost of 3 power GG would get to add 3 dice to an attack made after a move action, and push the target character away short after the attack resolves, if damage is dealt.

Doomed Prophecy could be good, giving 4 dice to Goblin’s attack rolls for a round, making for an 8 die Pumpkin Bombs attack and an 11 dice Night of the Goblin attack. That is no small dice pool!

GG is size 3 and has flight, so running Drop Off is somewhat of a no-brainer. GG is so darn mobile and at size 3 he can carry a significant portion of the character pool across the board.

Given how different the 2 sides of Goblin’s character card are, you may wish to consider running Field Dressing, if you are keen on keeping access to his healthy side abilities for a little longer.

Any of the cards that add dice to GG’s attack pool could be used to boost Goblin’s Pumpkin Bomb attack – cards like One Two Punch, Unearthly Rage and Heavy Firepower.

Lastly, No Matter the Cost is a fun card that could work well on Goblin. As his stamina is so high he can afford to take the 1 to 3 damage to play this card. If he took 3 damage he could pull off a turn 1 Night of the Goblin. Ouch! Or alternatively, wait until Golin is on his injured side and pull this attack off for free. If need be you could always heal the damage back up with Medpack or Patch Up.

So what do you make of Green Goblin?  Will he make it onto your roster?  Comment below!