Well you’ve known it would only be a question of time not a question of IF we’d do this article.
Welcome back to SG Protocol and the third and final installment of what wasn’t even supposed to be a series but has developed into one nonetheless.
We will take a third and last look at the 5 threat options in the game and this time it’s for the physical attackers. Right out of the gate they have it the hardest to shine with having the worst attack type. Unless you only play against Convocation then these guys will be fantastic for you!
As always we’ll go through the character cards one by one and if they have a TTC to them we will mention it too.
Calling Amazing Mister Parker an “attacker” is kind of a stretch here as that really isn’t his main job on the table.
What he does do is getting around the board quicker and anything else in the game. Even with an inbuilt midline safe extract grab. Witty Banter is great to keep his friends safe and Mastered Spider-Sense makes him really survivable too.
And while he doesn’t like being stuck in a fight he can dish out some amount of hurt per the two extra dice on Spider-Strike after web swinging.
ASM brings the speed and a 4/4/3 statline while gaining a power if he has at least one crit in any dice roll he makes, to make him absolutely fantastic at playing P2Fs.
Amazing Peter is affiliated in Web Warriors (leader) and Defenders. His leadership is commonly seen as very hard to learn to use right but also very strong once you’ve figured it out. In (Daredevil) Defenders he helps to keep his allies standing with Witty Banter and adds a great deal of mobility to the roster.
Peter has two team up cards and one just for himself:
Personally I’m not a fan of the card as for me getting to use it, even with this 5 threat Pete, is locked behind a trigger you have not a lot of control and reliability to meet. The effect is really strong so it’s not a bad card per se. The opportunity cost is too high for me though.
Pros:
Long Move, Medium Base
Natural center grab
Full defensive rerolls
gets a power whenever he rolls at least one crit
Good P2F stats
Witty Banter to help your team staying alive
Cons:
Below average offensive output for a 5 threat
No displacement (aside from his leadership)
Terrain throw only as a trigger on his spender and only size 2
12 total Stamina is below average for a 5 threat
Right after ASM we have the other natural center line extract grabber in Angela. But where he’s more of a defensive focused character Angela is all about putting out the hurt and zooming around the board while doing so.
She can use her energy mini spender and hope roll a hit a safe move actions and the place on her range 2 builder can cover a lot of space on top of that. Heven’s Wrath is only ever going to be worth it attacking Size 4 or 5 models and having some source of rerolls for it.
The best thing on her card aside from the Long movement is her incredible Size 4 Medium terrain throw for only 2 power.
Angelic Assassin can be situationally fantastic but she needs to have the power before the attack is resolved which can sometimes mean you can’t use it when you hit the trigger.
Her defensive tech is a 4/4/4 statline, not allowing rerolls against her and blocking movement through her. Against teams that rely on rerolls that can be pretty decent but in reality I often find she is just grinded down by small attacks anyway and of course: defense dice are not to be trusted.
Angela feels like an All-Star team to me. Every single part of her kit is great on his own but to form this into a winning team you need a good coach. I decided to trade her out of my Asgard roster because I wasn’t that coach at all (which is entirely my fault I know).
Speaking of Asgard, her three affiliations are: Asgard, A-Force and Guardians of the Galaxy. And she is a core piece of… non of these really… She’s never going to be a truly bad character on the field but it takes a lot of skill and investment in her to make her pull the weight of her 5 threat as a mobile objective runner that at the same time is attrition focused.
Angela doesn’t have a personal tactics card.
Pros:
Long Move, Medium Base
Range 2 Place on builder
Long range attack with pursuit trigger
Fantastic size 4 Medium terrain throw for only 2 power
Asgardian (2 power per power phase)
Very good P2F stats
Cons:
Not a lot of defensive tech
Difficult to play well as her tool kit feels contradictory
13 total health is only OK for a 5 threat by today’s standard
Juggernaut is an interesting beast. His attack suite is really unimpressive for a 5 threat even if you count the fact that he can increase his builder to 8 dice, because that comes at the cost of an action. Where Juggs shines is his immense speed on the table and even more his toughness. 8/8 health with pay to reduce damage by one to no minimum makes him incredibly hard to put down. Add his 4/3/5 defenses and the immunity to pushes and places against enemy superpowers and mystic attacks on his front side and of course his Nothing Stops The Juggernaut superpower and you have an absolute scenario All-Star. He looses 3 points of mystic defense and his Helmut superpower but the consolation price is a Range 2 Size 3 Medium character or terrain throw for 3 power which comes in handy. And since Juggernaut gains two power if he made a move action in his activation you can threaten it every time you activate him.
His unique ability Nothing Stops the Juggernaut is what makes him extra mobile. Because while it is only a Short push his 65mm base covers a lot of ground and most importantly: it isn’t once per turn. So an average Juggs turn sees him move, slide (you gain 2 power for moving), attack and possibly slide again (if you generated 3 power per the builder or had extra power in the first place) covering a massive amount of the board.
Juggernaut is only affiliated in Brotherhood where is an absolute staple. Close to an every game model under both Magnetos and Mystiques leadership.
Juggernaut has two personal TTCs:
At first reading the card looks great. Out of activation movement and an 8 dice attack on top of it? Wait no. That doesn’t work as the movement isn’t in Juggs activation so no extra dice. But still moving and attacking in your opponents turn is always great. I think leaderships with once per turn rerolls, like Daredevil Defenders should really give this card a second look. It really isn’t a bad card but it can be hard to fit it in because if you bring Juggernaut you bring:
This card is 100% stapled to him. I mean read it. What’s not to love? And remember it doesn’t even have to be used in Juggs activation.
Pros:
Mobility
Toughness (16 total stamina with pay to reduce)
Extra power for moving
Superpower push isn’t once per turn
“Helmet” superpower on front side.
Size 3 Medium terrain or character throw on injured side
Cons:
Non reliable damage output
Unexciting attacks for a 5 threat
Lots of changes from front to back side (with positives and negatives depending on matchup)
Johann Schmidt’s 5 threat version is often referred to as a Glas Canon and looking at his card you can definitely see why. Offensively he is probably the most reliable damage dealer on this list thanks to Empowered Gauntlets. His Grunts can sometimes chip in some damage too but their main job is to constantly score a back secure. Remember that they continue to contest (and possibly secure) a secure objective token even when Red Skull is dazed. They only gain an activated token.
The glas part of him comes from having only average 13 total stamina (7/6) and his Leviathan Armour being a decision at the start of the round that can bite you if you’ve chosen wrong. And also his All consuming Obsession, which you often want to do in the early rounds to be able to Empowered Gauntlets, usually gets him down to 6 in his first activation.
Getting to the 5 power to spender is often hard with his main attack being a gainer that you more often than not even want to spent two power on. But if you get to spender and get the wild it’s really good.
Red Skull Master of Hydra is affiliated in Hydra (suprise 😃) where he is a leader and Cabal, where he has a lot of competition for his spot but was a staple of the infamous “Catdog” list with Malekith and Lockjaw that has dropped out of popularity after the character update to Malekith.
Red Skull 2 has 5 TTCs but 3 of them are Hydra only so we’ll only look at the unaffiliated ones:
This card is well… Not something you’d put in your tournament roster. But probably fun on the kitchen table. Suffering damage to play it is already bad on a character not especially famed for being survivable but also suffering Stun if he dazes or KOs a model with the beam is really terrible.
The newest card and by far the best of the bunch (including the Hydra affiliated ones not shown here). The first part (removing all special conditions) would already be worth it for a center piece model like RS2 but handing out the three best conditions to enemy models on top of it makes it a very good card. Sometimes it will be backbreaking for your opponent; sometimes it only removes a single condition from Red Skull but it will be usable in every game you play with him and should be strongly considered if you have him in the roster.
Prost:
Extreme damage output
Arguably best Grunts in the game. Inarguably easiest Grunts to bring back from the dead
Potential action economy with the triggers on his gainer
Medium Base, Medium Mover
Cons:
Average 13 total stamina
Either 2 energy or mystic defense. Especially susceptible to characters that can choose between attack types (like Psylocke)
Action economy is reliant on triggers
My Main faction leader and much improved from his character update, Thor still lives or dies by his dice. His ceiling is immense and when he goes off, he can absolutely rock the world but if he whiffs offensively or even worse defensively he can feel to be hardly worth his threat.
With Thor it is important to learn when to For Asgard! In and when to throw a hammer instead. And you use the Size 4 Medium terrain or character throw every chance you get. An ideal turn for Thor sees him For Asgard charging something, connecting with the attack for at least 3 power and including a wild in the attack roll (this staggering and throwing the target). Throw someone off of a point (ideally into a friend) or terrain into them and then decide what to do with the second action: hitting someone in melee, throwing a hammer (if you have the power left) or move if necessary. In very niche cases you can even use God of Thunder then, which turned from a bad joke to a very decent attack in the right situation.
Defensively Thor relies only on his 4/4/4 statline and his 15 total stamina (7/8) which is very susceptible to opposing damage spikes.
Immunity to both Shock and Stun are very welcome but are both there to keep his offense rolling rather than making him more survivable.
Without his leadership Incinerate is very scary for him and Stagger is obviously bad but For Asgard! can at least somewhat soften that blow.
Thor is affiliated in Asgard (leader) and Avengers.
He has no less than 4 personal TTCs but all 4 are team up cards: one with Tony Stark, one with Beta Ray Bill, one with Captain America (so Sam or Steve 1 would work here) and one with Loki. Check Jarvis Protocol if you’re interested in the details. Sibling Rivalry is a must take if you have Loki and Thor on the board but that will rarely happen outside of Asgard. The others aren’t great.
Pros:
Action economy with For Asgard!
Fantastic throw + throw trigger on builder
Range 5 attack with auto shock
Decent A spender
15 total stamina (7/8)
2 power per power phase
Cons:
Small Base, Medium mover
Only 4/4/4 as defensive tech
Extremely dice dependent offensively and defensively
One of the most fun models to play on this game Ulik jumps around the board pushing people off of points and hands out Stagger (or even activated) tokens whenever he can.
Defensively he come with 4/3/4 defenses, 14 total stamina (7/7) and automatic damage reduction to a minimum of 1.
He packs always welcome two power per power phase (making him a valid candidate for Eyes on the Prize central grabs) and very good terrain throw.
Key to using Ulik is to get good value out of crushing leap which, importantly, isn’t a once per turn superpower.
Ulik is affiliated in Cabal and Criminal Syndicate.
He has one personal TTC:
It’s a pretty good effect but it’s not a huge range advantage over crushing leap so I personally don’t use it with him.
Pros:
Giant threat range
14 total stamina plus damage reduction
Push trigger on his builder (may)
Size 4 terrain throw
Stagger (or activated token) on spender
Medium Base, Medium Mover
2 power per power phase
Cons:
Only physical attacks
The Gem-ing 5s:
Aside from the “natural” 5 threats there are some 4s that can carry an Infinity Gem to bring them to 5 threat. Two of these could also have been categorised as energy attackers but quite honestly: I forgot about them last time. We’ll look at them as 5s here and you can decide for whom you think the threat upgrade is worth it.
5 threat Ronan comes with a nice 3 power per Power phase on a medium move medium vase character making him an eyes on the prize candidate. 14 total stamina is definitely 5 threat territory and his attack suite is also decent. But Ronan doesn’t actually do a lot with the power the Gem gives him outside of the Eyes play. In the right circumstances Judgement on a stick can be devastating for your opponent though.
Ronan is affiliated in Inhumans and Guardians of the Galaxy.
He has no TTC.
Pros:
3 power per power phase
Stagger and stun on slender
Size 4 Throw trigger on builder
Size 4 Push trigger on ranged attack
Judgement condition
cons:
3 physical defense
No defensive tech except for The Accuser
Doesn’t do much with the added power from the Gem.
No action economy
Power Swan has very good action economy since her charge should usually always be online with it.
She has incinerate on demand which is always useful but builder is pretty unexciting for a 5 threat. But the trigger for a size 4 push is obviously welcome here.
Her main strength comes from her incredible spender: 8 dice make the wild you absolutely want to get at least pretty likely. It triggers a size unrestricted and omnidirectional throw. If you get the hit on top of it you get another free attack on the target that doesn’t cost power and ignores LOS and Range. The target is then also going to get incinerated if it survives the onslaught.
Defensively Swan comes with below average 12 (6/6) total stamina for a 5 threat (it’s decent if you’d play her as a 4). But she has a very good defensive ability in Midnight Field that can change attacking models wilds into blanks to not only negate damage (unless the attacking model counts blanks) but also get rid of the nasty wild triggers the attack might have. Black Swan spends power so well on her own turns that I’m not sure how often you’re going to be able to use it though.
Speaking of spending power on her turn: Telepathic Suggestion is basically Green Goblins leadership for a power and not limited to once per turn. It can help to make the 5 dice builders connect better and with Eye Beam the synergy is great when you already pierced a defensive success into a blank.
Black Swan is only affiliated in Black Order.
She has one TTC but it’s Black Order and a team up card with Black Dwarf so not really relevant for us here today.
Pros:
3 power per power phase
Charge (action economy)
Fantastic spender
Auto incinerate attack
Can negate wilds when attacked
Can reroll defensive successes when attacking
Very good displacement on triggers
Cons:
For me personally: she is the only model on this list I don’t own (yet)
Small base, medium Mover
12 total stamina (6/6)
below average builder for a 5 threat.
displacement on per attack triggers
More than with any of the other candidates here Corvus has the Reality Gem basically stapled to his stat card. (So much so that I just realised he can also carry the Time Gem, which no we will not even discuss here). He feels very much not worth it without it and is clearly designed around having it. On face value he seems like an extreme Glas Canon with below average for a 3 threat 3/3/3 defenses and only 12 total stamina (average for a 4 threat). But his damage reduction and the Reality Gem increase his actual survivability a lot. He’s still not going to stand up to a lot of punishment thrown his way but at least he doesn’t fall over dead when someone blows some air on him.
His actual best defense is offense: And once again on pure face value his attacks seem fine but not all that exciting. Until you factor in the Reality Gem and his potential to count blanks if he can spend the power for Glaives Edge. It leaves only Shields and the second (or more) Skull as non successes so he will most likely to something with it.
One of his main strengths, especially in Black Order his only affiliated place, is his Husband and Wife mechanic with Proxima Midnight but fitting both in as splashes isn’t really possible in most affiliations.
His TTCs are all Black Order affiliated (including one that can make him a leader).
Pros:
Medium Move, Medium Base
2 power per power phase
The two combined mean he can be an Eyes on the Prize candidate
extremely reliable damage output with Gem and counting blanks
Damage reduction
Cons:
Low defenses
No action economy
12 total stamina (6/6)
Gem Loki comes with 3 power per power phase making his Trickster and I Am A God! superpowers more easy to use. He adds either displacement or teleportation for himself and his allies per the Gem.
The God Of Mischief bubble is incredible and gets even better on his injured side. Which he will reach fast with on 10 total stamina (5/5) with 3/3/4 defenses (even counting blanks with I Am A God! will not keep him standing for too long if he gets focused).
Loki is pretty much a control only piece and giving him a Gem increases this even more but it also means that you spend 5 power on a character that won’t do much in terms of fighting. Which might be fine if that is what you are looking for.
Loki is affiliated in Asgard and Cabal.
His only TTC is the team up card with Thor which is fantastic but will probably never see play outside of Asgard.
Pros:
He is a God. Says so right on his card.
Very good control
Best innate superpower in the game (God of Mischief)
Either displacement or movement for your team depending on which Gem you choose
3 power per power phase
Can count blanks on attack or defense rolls
Cons:
Far below average attacks
Below average defensive stats
Far below average stamina (10 total split 5/5)
So there we have it. If you combine this article with the ones about energy:
and mystic attackers:
You have all the 5 threats available at time of writing today (December 17th 2023).
Pick your favourite plug her/him into your roster, play some games and let me know how it went !
Until next time, cheers from Germany 🍻
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