Another Friday, another Three Box Challenge! This time: Convocation!
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 10)
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 article series is somewhat akin to a budget/beginner’s MCP guide, focusing on a different faction each time.
A quick bit of bookkeeping – the Three Box Giveaway vote IS complete, and we will be announcing the winner SoonTM. Keep your eyes peeled to the site for updates!
Back to the challenge at hand we are talking about the Convocation – the greatest team of wizards in the MCP universe.
Masters of the Mystic Arts, the Convocation consists entirely of members with primarily (or often, entirely) mystic attacks, some of the best mystic defenses in the game, and to put a neat bow on it a fascinatingly unique collection of utility effects. To further enhance their uniqueness is their leadership:
Taking up a tactic slot in your roster (though not one of the 5 in your team), you choose your leader from all of the Convocation members you bring to the battle, and can choose which side to use from turn to turn. Despite temptations to put it on Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme it is usually best to identify which character will stay the furthest out of the fight and put it on them, lest your leader gets hunted down and KOed to take the benefits from you.
The Convocation is also special for having a MASSIVE 8 affiliated tactics cards, first and foremost is the Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath:
Turning your consistently poor physical defenses into a non-factor for a round is a huge boon, especially when you play it on round 2, and get it back in time to get a second round of value out of it.
For our core two boxes we’ll be grabbing the two boxes most filled with Convocation goodies:
Between these two boxes you get:
- 4 Convocation members
- 7 Convocation tactics (including the leadership card)
- A new Secure to add to your collection
Which is by itself is one of the most efficient 2 boxes you can buy for a three box challenge if you don’t like what’s in the core box.
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme is the “main carry”: with 3 power/round, a powerful attack suite, and his signature superpower – the Scalpel of Strange:
Many convocation games can be defined by how deftly you use the Scalpel to place your characters (and displace enemies). Ancient One is a powerful tank/dps in skilled hands, and the three threats in Mordo and Clea are focused on supporting the rest of the team. But a powerful 5 threat, a tanky 4 threat, and two supporting 3 threats does not a roster make. Enter the first option for expanding your Convocation horizons:
The most obvious choice off the bat, Voodoo and Hood is the third box of the wave (although Hood is not Convocation affiliated). Both since their release have been attractive pieces regardless of affiliation and they both fit in excellently into Convocation’s game plan, especially when you take into account the affiliated tactic in their box:
Similar to Cabal’s Dark Reign, Plane of Pohldahk lets your mystic attackers (bolstered by the strong on offense Voodoo and Hood) can absolutely melt even the toughest of targets. Consider the following roster:
[Characters]
- Ancient One: 4
- Baron Mordo: 3
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Widow: 2
- Clea: 3
- Captain Marvel: 4
- Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme: 5
- Doctor Voodoo: 4
- Hood: 3
- Ultron: 4
[Team Tactics]
- Astral Ring
- Bane of Damballah
- Book of Cagliostro
- Brace For Impact
- Disarm
- Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath
- Orb of Agamotto
- Plane of Poldahk
- The Bar With No Doors
- Wand of Watoomb
[Extract Crises]
- Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership [C]: 17
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Intrusions Open Across City as Seals Collapse [C]: 19
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17
For the next box, we’re going to go in an appropriately… Strange direction:
A bit more of a controversial option (but still valid in my opinion), original Doctor Strange is a neat foil to his Sorcerer Supreme counterpart. Instead of an incredible attack suite and the mighty scalpel, this iteration is focused more on defense and control. Between push on damage built into his builder alongside his defense boosting and healing he can drive an opponent up a wall with ease. And his right hand man Wong is similarly Convocation affiliated, bringing healing and even extra power (though don’t expect him to contribute much to a fight). Do note that despite how we all feel it SHOULD work, Servant to the Sorcerer Supreme on Wong only works with Doctor Strange and not Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme.
You can even technically run this as a dual affiliation roster with Defenders, although after the nerf to Pentagram of Farallah preventing you from having enough power to play it on round 1 makes that suspect.
Instead I included a signature card Doctor Strange (though not Sorcerer Supreme Strange) can use even in Convocation, the Seven Suns of Cinnibus
which can unleash a significant amount of pain if your opponent isn’t careful with their positioning. In addition you add another extract crisis to your collection:
[Characters]
- Ancient One: 4
- Baron Mordo: 3
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Widow: 2
- Clea: 3
- Captain Marvel: 4
- Doctor Strange: 5
- Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme: 5
- Ultron: 4
- Wong: 2
[Team Tactics]
- Astral Ring
- Bane of Damballah
- Book of Cagliostro
- Brace For Impact
- Disarm
- Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath
- Orb of Agamotto
- Seven Suns of Cinnibus
- The Bar With No Doors
- Wand of Watoomb
[Extract Crises]
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
- The Montesi Formula Found [E]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Intrusions Open Across City as Seals Collapse [C]: 19
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17
And for our final roster we’ll round things out with the last Convocation member on the market:
The final Convocation member at this time is Ilyana Rasputin AKA Magik. Who just so happens to come with an excellent tank in the form of her brother Piotr, who you all probably know better as Colossus. While Colossus’ signature card isn’t worth much without Wolverine (an expansion project into Xmen for after your Three Box Challenge?), but the other two cards in the box:
Are both flexible and excellent. And without any further ceremony, I present the final roster for this week:
[Characters]
- Ancient One: 4
- Baron Mordo: 3
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Widow: 2
- Clea: 3
- Colossus: 4
- Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme: 5
- Magik: 3
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker): 4
- Ultron: 4
[Team Tactics]
- Astral Ring
- Bane of Damballah
- Book of Cagliostro
- Brace For Impact
- Indomitable
- Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath
- Journey Through Limbo
- Orb of Agamotto
- The Bar With No Doors
- Wand of Watoomb
[Extract Crises]
- Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership [C]: 17
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Intrusions Open Across City as Seals Collapse [C]: 19
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17
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:
That will wrap us up for this Three Box Challenge article here on acrossthebifrost.com! Also make sure to check out the Roster Doctor on Facebook, Youtube and Twitch!
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