After nearly a month of no Three Box Challenge, we are BACK! This time – Black Order. Before we go any further I just want to give a BIG shoutout to SoCal MCP-er and TTS West Bracket head honcho Fingerguns for the consultation on this. He’s been super passionate about Thanos (and by extension, Black Order) for a while now and he’s been pushing for a Three Box Challenge on them big time. Since its been a while and people might not remember the Three Box Challenge at this point lets refresh on the article format:
What is the three box challenge, you may ask? It’s simple – what affiliated rosters can you put together with just the core set plus three boxes of your choice. I know a lot of us obsessively purchase every single box, but I think a huge part of why this game is so great is you can pick up a core box, and a couple boxes of what appeals to you and you could take that to a game night or tournament and do OK.
If you’re coming to this article without having any MCP experience whatsoever and are doubting the value of the Core box, I’m here to tell you that it is worth it. For $100 you get:
- All the dice you should need
- All the measuring tools you will need
- ~Half a tournament board’s worth of terrain
- 10 characters (a standard game requires a roster of 10)
- 20 tactics (you’ll need 8)
- 3 secure crises and 3 extract crises (you’ll need 3 of each to play)
Compared to other big wargames like 40k/AOS and WMH, its really impressive what you can get for ~$200. So, this is somewhat akin to a budget/beginner’s MCP guide, focusing on a different faction each time.
And this time, we’re covering Marvels premier cosmic bad guys – the Black Order.
Black Order rosters have taken the latest season by storm, putting up some of the only numbers comparable to Wakanda’s nutty 65% winrate. How do they work? The simple answer is Thanos and Corvus Glaive. Thanos between his ability to drag people in with portals and the Mind Gem and Corvus’ unrivaled ability to throw enemies in a blender allows for an incomparable attritional advantage while maintaining some amount of scenario play with Thanos displacing foes. Admittedly I’m a bit leery of their long term prospects with people looking to go 6-7 wide in a variety of ways but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the MCP meta it’s that it’s always ready to surprise you. And a sufficiently dedicated pilot can find victory with whatever their favorite characters are.
To start the core purchases we’re going to start with the obvious: Thanos and Corvus/Proxima:
This gives you access to the 3 characters you’ll use in the vast majority of your games, all the gems, and some solid tactics. Blood To Spare can lead to some WILD plays with Corvus, throwing out a Death Blow into a Stike and finally moving to where you’re going to want him for the start of next round.
For a full breakdown of the awesomeness that Black Order can be, I highly recommend fellow ATB authors Fingerguns’, Ulysses’ and UtilityCookie’s 5 part treatise on how to play them:
And once you’ve had your eyes opened to the genius of Thanos we can talk about our first box option:
The obvious expansion in some ways, this gets you every Black Order member in the game. Admittedly these two are comparatively unpopular next to daddy T and the power couple, but they do have their place. Ebony Maw BO teams at 14 threat have shown some promise at times (Thanos Thesis author Ulysses went 6-0 in Central this season with Ebony Maw in his roster specifically for this reason), and Black Dwarf is a solid tank in higher threat games. More importantly they come with a VERY important tactics card:
Being able to teleport Corvus/Thanos to exactly where you need them on top of 2 can be absolutely crucial on certain split board situations. Holding it for lategame after you see which flank is starting to crumble is also valuable. TBH Mothership (if you have it) should go in pretty much any Black Order roster you make. And Marked For Death is a solid tech card into Web Warriors – which with the advent of Amazing Spider-Man and Black Cat are going to be the new hotness.
Something to watch out for in all of the lists you’ll see today, the core Extracts suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck for Black Order. Spider-Infected and Struggle for the Cube in particular are… less than ideal for the narrow teams Thanos & co. like to field. If you have any non-core extracts from outside the challenge purchases, take a serious look at upgrading.
[Characters]
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Dwarf: 4
- Black Widow: 2
- Corvus Glaive: 4
- Ebony Maw: 5
- Infinity Gem: Mind: 1
- Infinity Gem: Reality: 1
- Infinity Gem: Time: 2
- Proxima Midnight: 3
- Thanos, the Mad Titan: 6
[Team Tactics]
- Blood to Spare
- Brace for Impact
- Disarm
- Escort to Safety
- Execute
- Marked For Death
- Mothership
- Patch Up
[Extract Crises]
- Skrulls Infiltrate world Leadership [C]: 17
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth [D]: 16
- Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians [C]: 17
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0! [D]: 17
These two are a common perennial in Three Box Challenge options. Miles is a solid way to hunt runaway extract holders in a 3 threat body, and Gwen brings a lot of mobility and support tools to augment your game plan. Go in hard with Corvus, then if anyone tries to take him out as revenge you just yoink them back to safety!
All You’ve Got is also the main attraction tactics-wise, doubling up on Corvus’ murder potential is always welcome. Make sure to understand that the All You’ve Got daze won’t trigger Blood to Spare (I’ve seen people get tripped up before, and with the rise of daze triggers like Sam’s leadership and Jean! that don’t care about who did the dazing its going to get muddier).
And finally, Portals Overrun City With Spider-People! allows for a more comprehensive D force on secures giving you a range of solid threat values to play on to best fit your desires. I know some people don’t love flip&go secures with Black Order but personally in my own dojoing I’ve enjoyed being able to leave points with my limited body count and focus on the fighting. Obviously a bit annoying if your opponent can get around you to flip the points themselves but at that point they should be close enough they’re just free snacks for Thanos & Corvus.
[Characters]
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Widow: 2
- Corvus Glaive: 4
- Ghost Spider: 3
- Infinity Gem: Mind: 1
- Infinity Gem: Reality: 1
- Infinity Gem: Time: 2
- Proxima Midnight: 3
- Spider-Man (Miles Morales): 3
- Thanos, the Mad Titan: 6
[Team Tactics]
- All You’ve Got
- Blood to Spare
- Disarm
- Escort to Safety
- Execute
- Mission Objective
- Patch Up
- Trip Up
[Extract Crises]
- Skrulls Infiltrate world Leadership [C]: 17
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth [D]: 16
- Portals Overrun City With Spider-People! [D]: 18
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0! [D]: 17
Okay, I know I’m going to get some flack for this one. Gamorra is one of the worst 4 threats in the game. Nebula is… Nebula. But Medpack is one of the better tactics cards in the game, and combining it with Patch Up makes Thanos entirely impractical to kill. And Nebula has a bit of a home here. Her reroll all dice against defenders doing scenario stuff scales INCREDIBLY well with Death’s Decree.
[Characters]
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Widow: 2
- Corvus Glaive: 4
- Doctor Octopus: 3
- Infinity Gem: Mind: 1
- Infinity Gem: Reality: 1
- Infinity Gem: Time: 2
- Nebula: 2
- Proxima Midnight: 3
- Thanos, the Mad Titan: 6
[Team Tactics]
- Blood to Spare
- Disarm
- Escort to Safety
- Execute
- Medpack
- Mission Objective
- Patch Up
- Trip Up
[Extract Crises]
- Skrulls Infiltrate world Leadership [C]: 17
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth [D]: 16
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing! [B]: 17
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0! [D]: 17
As a personal note before I go, I want to plug the newly revived NorCal MCP discord group we’re trying to revive as we come out of lockdown. If you’re in the top (better) half of California come join the Discord as we try and get game nights going everywhere from San Jose to Sacramento!
If you have a local community Discord/FB group you want me to plug in future articles feel free to reach out to me on whatever social media you see me on and I’ll do a similar spot for your group!
And FINALLY, if you’re not supporting your FLGS for MCP, I would like to bring your attention to our sponsors for your wargaming needs in both NA and the UK:
NA:
https://www.discountgamesinc.com/
UK:
https://blackgategames.co.uk
That will wrap us up for this Three Box Challenge article here on acrossthebifrost.com! As this is a new article format, please let me know what you liked and what you think can be improved for future Three Box Challenge articles. Also make sure to check out the Roster Doctor on Facebook, Youtube and Anchor.Fm!
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