Welcome back to SG Protocol.
We continue our reactions to Ministravaganza 2023 with the Defenders.
No new stuff was shown off for them but we’ve gotten a lot of character updates for the Defenders including the one we are going to start with finally being a leader:
Finally you don’t have to run Shadowland Daredevil to have Matt Murdock on the table and not feel bad about it. Defenders leader Matt is all about getting in people’s faces and punching in their noses. He is a great choice of leader when you are facing wider enemy rosters which also fits the fluff quite nicely. His area spender is a bit cheaper and much stronger now making it an actual alternative. Man without fear now grants him an S move making it so much harder to play around it. I’m a huge DD fan and am delighted to be able to put him on the table in his red rather than black suit now too. And now we can play the street level Defenders team so many of us were craving. And I think both Hulk versions will like the leadership very much too. As might Supreme Strange who now can actually be fielded in a Defenders Roster. Big big win from AMG here and the hope remains to see Jessica Jones some time in 2024…
A small but important change to Matt’s on again off again girlfriend here in making Ancient Throwing glaives a flat gainer. Also her physical defense got buffed up to 4 making her much more survivable. Probably still not going to be a major staple but certainly improved.
Throwing Glaives gaining the hit Pursuit trigger ups Blades action economy which was often his problem before. I don’t think you will see him outside of being the Midnight Sons leader anyway but he is flat better anyway. MS/ Defenders is also incredibly easy to dual affiliate so you might end up with a DD/ Blade leadership dual as both also like the leadership of the other quite a bit.
Another faction leader in the mix and he got a big glow up in his problem area of power generation. Gaining a power each time he rolls at least one crit on any roll is gonna go a long way to making his awesome kit that much more useable. Witty banter being reduced to 1 is fantastic as well. He now feels like a much more worthwhile 5 threat. And someone who will do fine in basically any place you put him in. Which as I said in my hot takes about Spectacular Spider-Man is more important for Peter Parker than for any other character in Marvel.
Technically another faction leader (Convocation) gets a bit of a glow up in an increased physical defense as well as the superpower Servant to the Sorcerer Supreme now actually working on Supreme Strange which was very weird before. Personally I was hoping Wong might get an R4 4 dice 0 power mystic attack but I shouldn’t complain too much I think.
Wolverine is another Defender who got a glow up but we already looked at his updated card in part 2: Mutants of the series. Check that one out of you haven’t already.
Also Punisher, after over two years being the only unaffiliated model in the game, got added to the Defenders as well. It’s probably not gonna have the biggest effect but helps when you like him in your roster and have a lot of splashes I guess.
Next up we will look at the Inhumans and more importantly how 5 meta Terrors got taken down a bit.
See you then and cheers from Germany! 🍻