Yeah I know everyone MCP content creator does these currently but you know what? I’m gonna join them anyway 😃
Let’s start with the most interesting character (and arguably best miniature, though both Ultrons and Carols are excellent, too) in the Box which is obviously:
Dock Ock, Sinister Scientist
If you’ve read the blog before on the old site you might know that Spider-Foes is by far and large my favourite faction in Marvel and Ock is also a favourite character of mine. And while his previous incarnation isn’t nearly as bad as people think he wasn’t exciting. Also Goblin Leadership had no impact in such a great number of games for me.
So what does 4 threat Otto bring to the table? He gains an all important 6th point of Stamina on the front and changes his defense line from 4/3/4 to 4/4/3 making him a better pay to flip character but a little more susceptible to Mystic attackers.
His Arm Lasers going from Spender to R4 Beam with wild Incinerate is absolutely fantastic. Sure it’s only a 4 dice attack but on tight maps that will hurt a lot of people. Also his strike is now 5 dice while keeping the wild flurry.
Scientific Breakthrough is a fine spender handing out a tonne of good conditions. I don’t really plan to use it a lot though.
He keeps his Scientific Hubris making the Beam even better and his throw got buffed up to Size 3 characters and terrain.
From this kit alone I would be excited to try him but as Will Shick correctly said: we would have his head it this new Otto didn’t have a Leadership and it’s an interesting one.
The first part is the big one. Foes love being fast, annoying and durable and this rewards them for doing exactly that. The second part is a nice little extra bonus. Importantly you gain the power for being targeted. Of course you’d have to choose one model in an Area or Beam attack.
In the discords his new tactics card also showed up and someone put it into Jarvis Protocol using the one below all art. I’ll switch in the original as soon as it is available.
This card is fantastic. For me it has basically joined my every game cards almost immediately. Foes are already excellent at playing the extract game while being rather hard to kill and this disincentives your opponent even more from going after your extract carriers.
So what do I think of the new Ock? I can’t wait to try him out on the table and of course get my hands on the excellent sculpt. I’m 100% going back to playing Foes in the TTS leagues once he is out and legal there whereas currently I have decision paralysis like a 3 year old in a candy store (it’s between sticking with HFC or switching to Wakanda… or Midnight Sons,… or Shadowlands… or Winter Guard… or Hydra…. or A-Force… or Steve 1, or… No that’s it currently).
So how does Ock2 fit in the Roster? He gives us the 10th affiliated character until the excellent Foes expansion with Sandman’s (I’m so excited for him!), Shocker, Vulture and Electro comes out, so in theory we could have those 10 be the roster, but that leaves us with 6 4s and 4 3s. Also as much as I love Kingpin he might not be the best choice here. Here’s hoping we see Sandman and Electro be 5s and maybe either of Shocker and Vulture be a 2? Vulture being an affiliated 2 threat Long moving flyer would be awesome even he basically had no worthwhile attacks at all.
I would absolutely go the route of keeping Goblin in the Roster and be flexible with the leadership although I gotta say that Ock’s is gonna be my default plan from now on.
Do you keep 3 threat Otto and Well Laid Plans? New Ock can’t play it so it’s really a question of how stretched the tactics card slots will get.
So my new Real Life Foes Roster will probably look like this:
Characters: (10)
Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist (Otto Octavius) Threat: 4
—Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) Threat: 4
Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich) Threat: 4
Carnage (Cletus Kasady) Threat: 4
Venom (Eddie Brock) Threat: 4
Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius) Threat: 3
Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff) Threat: 3
Lizard (Curtis Connors) Threat: 3
Mysterio (Quentin Beck) Threat: 3
Bullseye (Benjamin Poindexter) Threat: 2
Tactics: (10)
The Grand Illusion
This Is A Robbery
This Is Our Day
Well-Laid Plans
Lethal Protector
Carnage Rules
Sinister Traps
Patch Up
Indomitable
Recalibration Matrix
Secure Crisis: (3)
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (Threat: 17)
Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park (Threat: 18)
Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 (Threat: 17)
Extract Crisis: (3)
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (Threat: 20)
Paranoia Pummels Populace! (Threat: 16)
Struggle for the Cube Continues (Threat: 17)
It not a Leadership you can “abuse” but it’s a bit similar to A-Force so characters that shine there like Apex will like this leadership, too though your opponent has more control here than in A-Force.
Finally: Affiliation predictions:
Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist will be Spider-Foes only like Ock1 was.
I’m quickly gonna run through what I think the other core 2 box models will have.
Captain America, First Avenger (deemed mighty Cap): Avengers only (might be Shield)
Invincible Iron Man: Shield + Avengers
Captain Marvel, Cosmic Avenger: Avengers + A-Force
The Black Widow: Avengers + Shield + A-Force
Spectacular Spider-Man: Web Warriors + Defenders
Red Skull, Master of the World: Cabal only (maybe Hydra)
Baron Helmut Zemo: Hydra + Cabal
Crossbones, Merciless Merc: Hydra + Cabal
Ultron, Metal Tyrant: Cabal
Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist: Spider-Foes
Winter Soldier, Operative: Hydra + Shield
Obviously I could be wrong about Skull and Steve here but something Will Shick has said about people having to learn to leave a character home right from the core set has me feeling Bucky might be needed to be either Shield or Hydra affiliated.
So that’s it for today. Next up we’ll take a look at the most important model in the box from a “bringing new people into the game” perspective with the single most beloved comic character of all times: Spider-Man. This time the Spectacular Spider-Man who is the 3rd incarnation of Peter Parker and the first one that is only 3 threat.
So until then Cheers from Germany 🍻