Welcome back to SG Protocol.
Over the next few days we take a look at everything we’ve got from Ministravaganza 2023. Since it is so much I decided to split up the series in multiple articles. And following a good suggestion from Brother B. I’m gonna split by affiliation. Starting with Wakanda today.
We have two new stat cards shown to us in King T’Challa and Killmonger, Usurper. Both from the upcoming rivals panel.
King T’Challa comes in at a mighty threat 5, which is great because we already have three 4s, two 3s and a 2. Both his attacks seem really good, especially as the throw is the only dice dependent trigger; push or rerolls are only dependent on the range and the advance on the spender is automatic.
Where he differs from his older version is that he can’t pounce to do direct damage with the collision but placing in two can be better if terrain blocks the way. And it makes his R3 builder an incredible 8 dice attack. Gaining power for damaged allies is also fantastic as any A-Force player will tell you.
What he completely lacks are any defensive superpowers. Royal Rebuke can hurt characters that attacked him but doesn’t increase his own survivability. He instead relies on his 4/4/4 statline and 7 health on either side.
Probably most interesting is his new Wakanda leadership.
It has obvious synergy with Shuri and her auto push. And it would be great on Black Panther but that’s obviously out of the question. King T’Challa has to be careful to stay outside of 2 to still be able to trigger it but then it also pushes towards him and hitting terrain that way might be significantly more difficult than with Shuris away push. M’Baku has a great push but on a more difficult trigger (wild, hit). Outside of those no Wakandan has any push effects sadly. Let’s hope for a 6 threat Storm, Queen of Wakanda in the future maybe 😉
If you read the article on leadership types this one is definitely a build around one. Unlike Black Panthers which is just generally useful for any model for this leadership you want as many models with pushes as possible. Especially good are those that don’t require a trigger. Sam Wilson and Doctor Strange are good examples. Having Strange and King T. on the board would make the roster quite tall though.
Predictions: I think King T’Challa will see the table quite often but more so as a 5 threat brawler under either M’Baku or Killmonger, Ursurper. His leadership has fantastic synergy with Shuri and in theory his other self but you need to look outside of affiliation beyond that and with the slate of fantastic Wakanda tactics cards it’s quite the opportunity cost to splash too much. As always I’m happy to be wrong about this 🙂
New Killmonger is a very interesting beast. He stays a 4 threat meaning he competes not only with his former self but also with M’Baku and Black Panther for a spot in your roster and especially squad. So what are his pros and cons:
Unlike his other version he has a ranged attack which is also a gainer. His spender doesn’t have the stagger or placement making it a more pure damaged focused attack rather than the movement and control. Pounce can situationally be better or worse than charge, but is often a nice extra source of damage. It’s also more flexible in its use as you aren’t forced into using it before an attack action. Meaning attack, attack, pounce is an option.
Attacking after being attacked is an awesome ability and something you should always try and keep online with a couple of power. Personally unlike with classic Killmonger I would not try to use the spender particularly often.
Usurper brings the second three token leadership to the table and fittingly for him it’s a pure attrition leadership. The secondary effect is something you might seek out with high health, power hungry models in the first round when they might not have gotten into range to use the additional attack dice yet. King T. and M’Baku wouldn’t mind it too much in affiliation and Apex Predator would be a great user of the leadership from outside.
He doesn’t have the extra dice and rerolls for attacks on the same target or Kill counts. He also doesn’t have access to Usurp the Throne (he already did usurp it, that is the jist here). So for me his biggest competition is his own other version and I think both have their distinct strengths and weaknesses. Classic Killmonger is pretty much a homing missile. He does one job, but he does it incredibly well. Usurper on the other hand is less reliable in flat damage output but more flexible in his play patterns. His leadership is also great for a tall “Killkanda” kind of list.
Predictions: In a polar opposite to King T’Challa I think Usurper will mostly see the table if you want him to be your leader. His kit is a bit more flexible but seems less reliable to me than his other version, which brings access to Usurp the Throne which he hasn’t. So I think outside of his leadership most people will prefer original Killmonger over him.
Also in the Wakanda theme we got the first two “one shot” cards:
Undestroyable but still throwable terrain in the Hauler sounds funny at the very least. Though some of the best throwers in the game in Magneto and Ultron, Metal Tyrant would be a bit sad about not gaining their benefits from destroying terrain.
Returning the Vibranium has a very good effect but holding one during the power phase is effectively poison (which is the intend here I would think) which can be devastating for some characters. Especially considering you had to spent a power to pick it up in the first place. For me personally the reward seems not really worth the hassle here…
This takes the games central come back mechanic and increases it if you are careful with your positioning. I would really like it, if it didn’t bring the dreaded 14 threat back to table. But of course these are optional fun rules so not too big of a worry there.
There’s more to come in Ministravanganza to come for me at time of writing and there is a whole bunch more for SG Protocol where we will next look at the Mutants and that’s gonna be a really long article. We’ll take a look at the shown off new stat cards for Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Shadowking. The tactics cards we were shown as well as all the updated character stat cards from the September 23 update.
Stay tuned for that. Until then Cheers from Germany 🍻