Another… Friday, another First Impressions? Is anyone getting deja vu? This time: Magik.
Normally I don’t put out two articles in one day, but with Ministravaganza happening all rules go out the window (you can check out Hulkbuster and Ms. Marvels reviews at their respective links). Today we were gifted a few sneak peeks at tactics cards but the piece(s?) de resistance were the character cards. Since I don’t want to put out THREE reviews in one day we’ll do Magik today and save Rogue for tomorrow.
Illyana Rasputin is the sister of fan favorite Colossus, and in addition to being a powerful mutant is a master swordswoman and the Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo. While she might be supreme in Limbo, is she supreme in MCP? Let’s find out!
French vanilla stats for a 3 threat here, with the emphasis in Mystic. It has some important synergies with her Mystic-specific defensive passive, and in general is a healthy place for a 3 threat that isn’t supposed to be a generic tank to be. Two thumbs up.
Nothing to write home about, just a solid backup builder. My only complaint is that it comes before Soulsword on the card because I feel somewhat strongly that you should sort by cost, then range (short to long), then alphabetically rather than by cost then alphabetically. You won’t be going to this as your first option with the other cool attacks on your card but when you don’t have easy targets you’ll be glad to double tap someone with this to power your Limbo Step to stay relevant on scenario (more on that later).
The true builder on the card. Ever look at Blade and say to yourself “Man I love that builder but I don’t want to pay 4 threat just for a dude with a cool builder”? Well the answer is to knock off the auto-bleed (and a bunch of other cool stuff) and you end up with a discount Blade (with some upside) for 3 threat. This attack SLAPS against targets without Mystic tech, especially because unlike energy/physical pierce there’s no blank counting for Mystic (except for Loki of course). This right here is the main attraction to taking Magik – use her mobility to reliably do this twice every round, while weaving in some of her other attacks. If you can get her into the action her Soulsword will do serious damage.
For when you’re overflowing with power, the Darkchylde is the perfect spender. Get dazed and flip with priority? Darkchylde into Soulsword into Limbo Step away from retaliation. Need to set up a target for your allies to focus fire down? Darkchylde to get some Incinerate out and lower their defenses. And with Dormammu’s passive built in, you can spike people out of nowhere if they have exceptionally bad rolls (or lots of rerolls!).
This is the glue that makes you want to play Magik. Being able to pay 1-3 power to place within 1-3, a “spend as you need” mobility trick is so cash money. Use it like a flex between Charge and Hit & Run, move in to start or yo-yo on a point. Got an extract and need to get away? Limbo step. Trading with another character at r4? Double tap Limbo Step out of range of their attacks. Trading with a Midnight Sons character at r4? Limbo Step out r2 so they can’t keep up with just Bump. Tap someone at r2, place r3 away where they can’t even charge to get back to you. This will absolutely screw up the trading patterns of dedicated r2 fighters without a charge or range tool (which admittedly aren’t super good to begin with but you get the idea). I love how such a simple tool will actually lead to a lot of complex decision making.
And finally we get a toned down version of Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme’s defensive passive that only works against Mystic. Nothing tricky here except it pushes her Mystic defenses from above average to QUITE solid.
All in all I am VERY pleased with Magik. Whatever affiliations get her I would be glad to play her as a 3 threat affiliated slot dedicated to fighting. But anywhere else remains to be seen. Baron Zemo can do similar things with similar amounts of power and has his reroll passive so you have some differences to work out which you want more, and it might even come down to specific synergies and taste. And with all of the recent releases I have to caution about the proliferation of Mystic attacks and Mystic defensive tech has the potential to make Mystic attacks value drop precipitously. So make sure you know the lay of the land before opting into such a mystic heavy fighter.
Finally a shout-out to our partners who always have the best deals on MCP online:
NA
https://www.discountgamesinc.com/
UK
https://blackgategames.co.uk/product/marvel-crisis-protocol/
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