For CS you really have to decide which leadership(s) you want to focus on to decide where to start. That’s why we change the order of the article around a bit today.
Which leaderships are available and what is the typical archetype
Illicit Network is a very good scenario leadership where the first part is often forgotten because the second is so strong but it is also a very good ability. The leadership has some crisis combinations, like Pay to Flips where it just doesn’t really work though so Kingpin usually needs a second leader to take over on these. It is also rather popular to have Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist there for that role as Spider-Foes and Criminal Syndicate have a lot of overlap anyway and the Ock leadership likes P2Fs much more.
With Kingpin in your roster you are probably aiming at a type 1 (pure scenario) game plan first.
Shadow War is an incredible attrition leadership. Possessed Matt Murdoch really likes characters in his roster who have ways to attack more than two times per turn like Beams, Area attacks and especially Rapid Fire since the leadership is not once per turn.
Picking crisis and archetype for him is a bit tricky as he faces the dilemma of wanting a lot of VPs on the table to be able to have the leadership rerolls on basically every target but not so many that type 1 or 2 teams can outrun and outscore him faster than he can kill them.
It’s usually going to be a type 3 for his roster where you try to kill your opponent but have enough ways to play scenario to win against teams you simply can’t out fight.
A.I.M. is the most balanced leadership available for CS. It gives you a flat buff to your offense and defense when you’re playing the game. It works particularly great with Pierce characters turning the one Wild in your role into 2 additional damage.
In terms of archetype a MODOK CS list can be tuned to the entire spectrum but probably lives best at type 3 or maybe 2.
Where A.I.M. was the most general Black Market Entrepreneur is the most specific. It may be the most selfish leadership in the game only affecting your leader. It makes Klaw a lot better at his job (and arguably makes him worse as a character if he doesn’t have it). It’s pretty niche and requires a roster that is build specifically for him. It will probably follow a type 4 full attrition game plan or maybe a type 3, but you definitely need center of the board fighting crisis for Klaw to shine.
How to start the affiliation
First of you pick up the leader(s) you want to focus on first. Kingpin and MODOK 2 come in singles boxes and Shadowland Daredevil and Klaw each comes with a decent affiliated 4 threat in their respective box so none of them give you any characters you’re not going to use which is obviously great.
Another singles box you’ll definitely want to pick up regardless of leader is Rhino. And Black Cat, who comes with Amazing Spider-Man, who doesn’t fit too well thematically but does in play style for some leaders, has to be on your buying list, too.
Bullseye as the affiliated 2 threat should probably be on your mind too though sadly Daredevil doesn’t really feel great in any of the leaderships here.
The new Abomination and Wrecking Crew box comes with two very good affiliated characters and is probably a good pick up regardless of leader too.
Another box coming with 4 affiliated models is CP156 with Electro, Sandman, Shocker and Vulture. It’s a cool box but none of these are really core to the affiliation.
For the next pickups will divide this by leader:
Kingpin:
I would think about picking up Ulik and Beta Ray Bill. Ulik is a strong affiliated 5 who is very fast and good at scoring secures while Bill is a tough to kill splash 4 working great in the leadership.
Shadowland Daredevil:
Hood and Doctor Voodoo is a good pick up for Shadowland as Rapid Fire is particularly strong with his leadership and Voodoo is just a great character to own anyway. Winter Soldier and Vision is only a box worth picking up here. While neither is affiliated Bucky is a Rouge Agent and the play with Soldat Activated is very good especially on Hammers.
MODOK, Scientist Supreme
I absolutely love Gwenpool under the A.I.M. leadership so her and Squirrel Girl would probably be my first pick up here. Otherwise it’s basically down to personal taste.
Klaw
He loves Electra or Sandman in his squad for the Grunts to constantly die giving him leadership triggers.
Rating every affiliated TTC and character
Team Tactics (6)
All According To Plan
A. Stealing Priority can be game winning. The price of the card is definitely high enough to not have it break the game though. There’s usually not many games you won’t take it but be aware of that when you already have prio to start the game and you’re facing a very wide list that is unlikely to ever get prio from you like Web Warriors.
Bounty Hunters
D. It’s very much in competition to be the worst card in the game. It’s trigger is much to hard for the effect.
Cruel Tutelage
B. It can be very good but also bite you in the a**. Definitely better in SLDD where you have an ability to reroll out of the first Skull. Great used on a character you expect to be dazed or KOed later in the round anyway.
Cruelty
B+. It’s an action less additional range 5 Mystic attack and the card can also be used by Splash characters. It has never secured me the kill I needed but that’s probably more of a statistical anomaly than then the rule.
No Mercy
B. 3 free power is good and it can be used to pay for Frenzy triggers like on X-23, Angela or Carnage as it gives them the power before their step 14a.
Shadow Organization
B. The effect is very strong but the cost is also very high. It is definitely a mistake to have a strict plan like ” I’ll always play it in round 2 with anyone who can”, because it will severely hurt your power economy. It’s best use is to protect extracts carriers later in the game to secure a win.
Characters (32)
Abomination (5)
A. One of the newest members of the affiliation Emil Blonsky is an affiliated “Mini”-Hulk and should play well in all but Klaw Leadership probably. Come to think of it he absolutely helps killing the enemy so he’ll be good there too, just not that likely to trigger a lot of Klaw moves.
Black Cat (3)
A+. Black Cat is a “bit” too good and you’d have to really have a specific reason to not at least have her in the roster even if you don’t plan on using her every game. Great under any leader.
Bullseye (2)
A. Having an affiliated 2 is always great and Bullseye is the most balanced one in his threat range.
Crossbones (3)
C. Classic Crossbones isn’t unplayable but you can just do better with your threat. For example with:
Crossbones, Merciless Merc (3)
B+. Crossbones 2 is great. Aggressive and Hit and Run along with his Beam and flat damage reduction make him faster and more durable than his raw stats would suggest and his own damage output is also nothing to sneeze at.
Electro (4)
B-. Electro has a weird kit. He can move around the board rather fast with his teleport but he can’t hold an extract then. His builder is decent, his spender mostly a trap. He mostly creates an area of the board your opponent has to be careful to walk into.
Elektra (4)
B-. Electra isn’t bad but very reliant on her dice to show up as her, very important to her kit, teleport is reliant on her gainer to do damage. Without it she can get stranded and quickly taken of the board then.
Green Goblin (4)
B-. Norman brings long range fire and condition support on his front side and more damage potential but less scenario play on his back. He might be a forgotten piece in CS sometimes but can have some play especially under SLDD.
Gwenpool (4)
A. Gwenpool is a raw ball of good stats that just work. She also comes with a great TTC in They say keep your enemies close.
Hood (3)
B. Mystic Rapid Fire and a heal can be very handy. In Demon form he also becomes quite tanky and faster.
Killmonger (4)
B+. I love Killmonger even though he can just die when you don’t protect him before he can go off.
Killmonger, Usurper (4)
B-. KM, U is also a decent model but him not having acces to the Usurp the Throne TTC while the other version does kind of kill him for me here.
Kingpin (4)
B+ in his leadership. C- under any other. If you bring Fisk you bring him as your leader. His kit is very good but he’s just to slow to use it a lot to be worth the 4 threat into him outside his own leadership.
Klaw (5)
B+ In his own leadership, B- under other leaders. Without his own leadership Klaw is often too easily controlled and you’re very sad if you have to use one of his actions to move.
Kraven the Hunter (3)
B. Offensively Kraven is very good and can hand out an additional die against a specific target for your entire team but he also falls over dead quite easily.
Loki, Prince of Lies (5)
A. Loki is a menace but at least here he isn’t fed power by the team constantly so it is a bit easier to play around Oh my what a pity.
M.O.D.O.K. (5)
B. Classic MODOK still brings very good attacks and control. Just keep him on the front side any way you can as he’s basically a none factor injured.
M.O.D.O.K. Scientist Supreme (4)
B+ as a leader, C as a character otherwise. You can simply do better for 4 threat in my opinion.
Mephisto, Lord of Temptation (5)
B+. Another very new addition. Mephisto is hard to evaluate without having seen him on the table yet. He’ll like SLDDs leadership and Hand Ninjas to constantly shove attacks into very much.
Mysterio (3)
A. Mysterio isn’t an every game piece but on central fights he can dominate the game especially with his excellent TTC the Grand Illusion.
M‘Baku (4)
B. M’Baku has a very high ceiling in terms of damage output and can add good control to it. He is very swingy though and his floor is rather low. He loves SLDD and especially MODOK leadership to make his important triggers more likely.
Omega Red (4)
C+. I love Omega Red as a character but his MCP version is showing his age a bit. If he wouldn’t hurt himself with his Poison AoE superpower he’d move up a lot but as is it is hard to use. He’s still absolutely playable and can work well especially under Kingpin but the competition at 4 threat is getting tougher and tougher.
Rhino (4)
A. The much needed power increase to This is a Robbery hurt him a bit but he’s still one of the fastest models in the game and relatively hard to take down. He’ll probably be in every CS list you build regardless of leader.
Sandman (4)
B+. I absolutely adore Sandman. It is very rough to loose both Grunts when you daze but aside from that he just puts in so much work. He is also a great counter if Thor 2 ruins your day, where you just trap him within the Sand Constructs, who don’t suffer collision damage. Add Kingpin, M’Baku and Rocket and Thor will cry himself to sleep.
Shadowland Daredevil (4)
B+. As a leader. B- as a character. Shadowland Daredevil kind of doesn’t do all that much himself. Being able to throw something from Stealth range is nice and he’s good at guarding a secure and having Grunts on the table is always better as not having Grunts.
Shocker (3)
B. I love Shocker. He’s just so annoying for your opponent and that brings me joy 😀.
Silver Sable (4)
B. Her abilities are good but paying 4 threat for a back point sitter is always tough. You have to really get the most out of her Shot Caller.
Sin (3)
C. Sin is just too fragile on her front side to make any great plays. At least with Crossbones 1 she can manipulate priority a bit and she brings good TTCs with her.
Taskmaster (3)
B+. Taskmaster is tough, has good attacks and fits any game plan you need him to. Just a very good overall model.
The Wrecking Crew (4)
A. Will Pagani, who made the core design for them must’ve really liked the Wrecking Crew as they are absolutely great and also come with two fantastic TTCs. They aren’t particularly durable though but you basically can’t go wrong with them under any leader (probably the least in Kingpin).
Ulik (5)
A. Fast, tough, great attacks, good control. Uliks biggest competitor nowadays is Abomination who plays a very similar role and had the advantage of coming in a box where both characters are CS affiliated. It’s really down to taste with these two as they are very similar overall.
Vulture (3)
C+. Vultures kit looks cool until you realise that his builder is somehow only Range 2 and he absolutely never wants to spend anytime in Range 2 to any enemy model as he has the defenses of a piece of paper. His dream turns are being able to Spender and also hit and run with Abduct are fantastic but he’ll probably only be able to pay for them once after his been flipped.
Who could be added to the affiliation in the future especially as leader
Who knows at this point. Characters like Loki or Ulik weren’t on anyone’s mind as being affiliated here probably. It’s unlikely they’ll get a fifth leadership anytime soon though, but otherwise any villains character has a chance to end up here.
Example Roster
This roster takes a balanced approach between Kingpin and Shadowland Daredevil to show the diversity of the affiliation. Competitively it’s probably best to specialise more into any one specific plan.
Characters (10)
Abomination (5)
Black Cat (3)
Bullseye (2)
Hood (3)
Kingpin (4)
Mysterio (3)
Rhino (4)
Shadowland Daredevil (4)
Taskmaster (3)
The Wrecking Crew (4)
Team Tactics (10)
All According To Plan
Cruel Tutelage
Cruelty
Shadow Organization
Mystic Menace
Stronger Together
The Grand Illusion
This is a Robbery
Brace for Impact (R)
Fall Back (R)
Secure Crisis
Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses (H, 16)
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)
Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate (F, 20)
Extract Crisis
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)
Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)
Struggle For The Cube Continues (F, 17)
That’s it for today. Next up: Dark Dimension
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