How to start the affiliation
Your first two purchases have to be Magic (leader) and Colossus (unaffiliated) as well as Sunspot and Warlock, who come with all affiliated TTCs including the leadership card for Magik. I would absolutely grab Iceman (unaffiliated) and Shadowcat next and both Cable and Domino (unaffiliated) and Emma Frost and Pyslocke (unaffiliated) have to be in consideration as that is your entire affiliation list right there.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan
Cry for Help is a very good leadership on the face of it but your opponent has some control over it. It is reliant on the characters you want to get hit getting hit so having taunts and bodyguards in your list (of which none are affiliated) should probably be a priority for you.
Neither the leadership nor the affiliated characters make a clear statement for game plan and you can probably build to your own liking. I would stick to either side of the midrange coin with a type 2 or 3 plan here because you lack the control pieces and steals for a full on scenario type 1 plan but also the full on killing machines to go pure murder type 4. Personally I’d go for type 3 so trying to kill with some scenario play against teams I know I can’t out fight.
Who could be added in the future especially as new leaders
Wolvesbane and especially Mirage (Danny Moonstone) stand out as the big missing two we can already see on the TTCs. Cannonball is another core member of the team and in the movie. As for leaders you could make an argument for Cable, Professor X and Sunspot who are all already in the game but can’t lead the team. Currently it seems unlikely they’ll get a new leadership soon but with the card calling for Ilyana Rasputin, not Magik, a new version of her would instantly be a new leader option for the team.
Update: It was brought to my attention that Mirage and Cannonball were usually co-leaders of the team. That could be an interesting rules quirk maybe. Thanks TentacleV from Reddit!
Rating every affiliated TTC and Character
Team Tactics (4)
New Mutants
B+. It is a good leadership that does have some counter play and can be no sold by teams that try to interact as little as possible with you like Web Warriors.
Practice Round
B. Rerolling any dice including skulls is good but since you can’t have rolled a crit the spike potential is pretty heavily tamed.
Survive the Night
A. The counter attack isn’t particularly great here but the size less automatic push can be massive and something your opponent has to respect.
Tomorrow‘s Soldiers
A-. It’s free power for every affiliated character. What’s not to love? Currently you simply won’t have that many affiliated characters but the value of the card will only increase when the affiliation will inevitably get more members in the future.
Characters (7) (the following is mostly reposted from my original look at the affiliation list of the New Mutants in September)
Magik:
Ilyana is the leader of the New Mutants per the TTC so we don’t really need to discuss if you should include her. Magik has really good attacks but is pretty fragile. She also has pretty good action economy with her Range 1-3 place and a fantastic TTC in journey through Limbo. But with how much your opponent will go after her it might be too much to have another character specific card for her in your 4 remaining cards. Definitely something to try out.
Ilyana can be a good user of the leadership to maybe get out of the range of enemy attacks when they do you the favour of attacking someone who is a bit more out of the fight. If she lives through an attack she really likes teleporting a (splash) bodyguard or taunter to her.
B.
Cable:
Cable is just a good character. What he brings to the affiliation is a reliable middle and long range damage dealing, defensive shields for himself and his friends and good action economy. He likes the leadership to get in range 3 for his rerolls and to increase his area to hand out shields. None of the New Mutants is particularly durable on his own so having defensive help is really necessary.
Cable is just too good on his stat card alone to not have him in the roster. A. He also opens up the very real possibility of a dual affiliated roster.
Emma Frost:
This inclusion feels pretty weird honestly. I’m not aware of Emma ever being in the New Mutants but here we are. She doesn’t jump out as someone who wants to teleport around to her acquaintances, but having someone jumping in to protect her might be helpful. What she offers are long range mystic attacks which can be very helpful in for example the Web Warriors matchup.
C. Seeing as how the affiliation list is quite small I don’t see a big enough reason to not include her for her silver bullet role currently but she might find herself on the cutting block sooner than later. Dual affiliating with HFC seems too high an opportunity cost with MYHFC now being restricted and the affiliated New Mutants all not really being great in there.
Shadowcat:
Kate is great. She a fast objective runner that hits surprisingly hard. She also helps with the teams overall survivability. Kitty is already really fast and the access to the leadership just doubles down on this. She definitely makes it into a New Mutants Roster for now. B.
Sunspot:
Probably the reason you want to play New Mutants in the first place, Roberto is still really hard to evaluate for me not having played with or against him yet. He absolutely loves the leadership as it does give him flare tokens. Will Shick said that if New Mutants players don’t play him every game then they did something wrong, so I guess start with having him as your every game piece and evaluate.
A. (Probably)
Warlock:
Warlock as a character in the comics is absolutely awesome. It is extremely difficult to represent him as a mini as he constantly changes his form and the one we got doesn’t exactly sit atop of what AMG has produced but that’s really his only minor downside. Otherwise he appears to be an extremely cool 3 threat that is great at guarding a home secure. Which honestly makes him probably a better X-Force Member than a New Mutant at first glance as he isn’t super likely to be in range to use the leadership. He also doesn’t want to ever get close.
B. He’s not super synergistic with the leadership in my opinion but he’s a really good 3 threat overall that you aren’t mad at for having on the board.
X-23:
Loosing both X-Ceptional Healing and No Matter the Cost was really rough for Laura. But she’s still one of the most killy 3 threats in the game and the leadership increases her already good action economy. I think she’s close to an every game piece here.
A.
I would usually start my New Mutants squads with Magik, Sunspot and X-23 and add others and splashes (particularly Black Dwarf for his huge base and taunt) depending on threat then.
Example Roster
Characters (10)
Cable (5)
Emma Frost (4)
Magik (3)
Shadowcat (3)
Sunspot (4)
Warlock (3)
X-23 (3)
Black Dwarf (4)
Honey Badger (2)
Deadpool (3)
Team Tactics (10)
Cat and Mouse
New Mutants
Practice Round
Preserve the Dream
Survive the Night
Tomorrow‘s Soldiers
Brace for Impact (R)
Sacrifice (R)
Journey Through Limbo
Fall Back
Secure Crisis
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)
Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth (D, 16)
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Extract Crisis
Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)
Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (L, 19)
Paranoia Pummels Populace! (K, 16)
That’s it for today. Next up: Sentinels
Cheers from Germany 🍻
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