Welcome back to SG Protocol.
On the back of the popularity of Ultron, Metal Tyrant and Captain Marvel, Cosmic Avenger as well as my own desire to try a different 5 threat in my Asgard list I’ve decided to do another comparison post.
This time it’s the 5 threat Energy attackers and there’s now quite a lot of them. We will go through their cards in alphabetical order and list their strengths and weaknesses.
Black Bolt is a long range gun turret that can use his spender for a great control turn. Getting bodyguard on his front side was a cool buff in the character updates as it helps you to get him on his injured side. And if you get that injured side Whisper of, it will be a bad day for your opponent for sure. He now gains two power per power phase which is also a big boost.
He is only affiliated in Inhumans where he brings a very strong, while taking practice to get perfect, leadership. As a splash I think he is good if you need back line support and have someone you want to body guard some of the time.
Black Bolt does not have a personal Team Tactics Card (TTC).
Pros:
2 power per power phase
Very strong builder with pierce and his Inhumans reroll
Size 4 character throw and place on his spender (has to deal damage to trigger the throw)
1 power body guard on his front side
Incredible spender beam on his injured side
Can shield himself
4/4/3 means good stats for P2F secures and Skrulls
Cons:
Small Base, Medium mover
Only movement tech is the place on his spender
Best attack is only on his injured side so he’s worse at securing
Bodyguard is only on his front side
14 total health but 5/9
Will I try him in Asgard:
Yes. While he generates 2 power a turn which would be important for my P2F plan I think he would probably wouldn’t always make squads where I draw my secures. We can help on the E shape secures and/ or Research Station where he can blast people from the back, use Master Punch to get into the middle and Beam the entire enemy team once he is flipped. Not having too much stuff to spend his power on aside from his spenders and a good builder to get power means he should be able to use Thor’s leadership relatively often.
Cable has the longest range on the list but works much better at Range 3 where his rerolls turn on. He is very mobile if he has the power to body slide, can throw terrain Medium from Range 3 (power equal to the terrain features size) and can shield himself and allies. He also gets two power per power phase.
Cable is a mid range hunter that has the range to reach you even if you try to get away from him.
He needs a lot of power for his full kit to work but has a reliable way of building it.
Cable is the leader of X-Force as well as a member of the Avengers and the Uncanny X-Men. He is really good in all his affiliations and definitely has to be considered as their affiliated 5 threat. But what about unaffiliated? He gives good long range and very good midrange damage support as well as handing out incinerate and defense dice for his allies.
Cable doesn’t have a personal TTC.
Pros:
Rerolls in Range 3 on his good builder
2 power per power phase
Very good terrain throw
Range 2 place to keep in range
Shield for himself and allies
Incinerate on his builder
14 total stamina with 7 on both sides
Cons:
Medium base, Short mover
3/3/4 defenses base are 3 threat stats and make him worse at P2Fs and Skrulls
will I try him in Asgard:
Yes. His support, terrain throw and two power per turn make him an interesting piece for me. He gives long range fire support while being mobile enough to stay relevant.
Cosmic Carol is often described as a 4 threat in normal and 6 threat in binary form. And it is a fitting description with normal form not even being a particularly good “4 threat” at that. She is all about her binary form where she can be an absolute monster and has great action economy between her 0 cost charge and the Range 2 place on her spender with a size 4 character or terrain throw on top of it.
She feels like you’d want your Carol Danvers to feel: an absolute force of nature. But you have to find ways to keep her in binary form so she doesn’t slot in to every list naturally.
She is affiliated in A-Force, arguably her best home and Avengers.
Cosmic Carol has two personal TTCs:
While it gets you a “free” attack in your activation spending 5 power on Carol is a whole lot when she has so many great ways to spend it otherwise. If you ever have her and Hulkbuster on the table and Busty sits on the middle Gamma Shelter it will rock the world but otherwise not really a competitive card choice in my opinion.
The BFFs card and one of the better team up cards in my opinion. She effect is potentially great but the cost is high for two models that both have so many good ways to spend power. But it can help keep both in optimal position and when it works it really does.
Pros:
In Binary basically a 6 threat with fantastic action economy
A great set of immunities
Reverse pierce against Energy and Mystic attacks
Cons:
Very underwhelming in Normal form
No defensive tech against physical attacks
Will I try her in Asgard?
No. Thor’s leadership and my primary game plan both are power drains and you want to avoid those as much as possible with Carol.
OG or Defenders Strange as he is often referred to makes this list because of his energy builder at Range 4. It has a push on damage for great control. His spender doing an auto stagger with the potential to hand out an activated token doubles down on that while his super powers can heal and shield himself and his allies.
He is probably the most defensive character on this list and helps any team he’s in with his control and healing.
He’s affiliated in Defenders (leader), Midnight Sons and Convocation.
Strange has a three of personal TTCs but not all would really be relevant here to be honest. So we only focus on one:
The conditions are hard to meet but an 8 dice Energy Beam 5 is nothing to sneeze at.
Pros:
Healing and Shields for himself and allies
Push on damage on his builder
Can auto stagger
Medium Base, Medium Mover with Flight
Cons:
Only one power per power phase
Only 12 total stamina
Will I try him in Asgard?
Maybe. He would move up my priority list a lot of he’d generate more power per power phase (like his Supreme version does).
One of the fastest models in the game (unless he faces a board with a lot of size 4 and 5 terrain) and pretty different from the other candidates on the list so far is Johnny Blaze. He generates power well if he faces the right opponents. He doesn’t like Web Warriors very much for example as he wants his allied to be targeted as often as possible for his own power generation. Like Cosmic Carol he comes with a great set of immunities and hands out the rare but extremely strong Hex special condition. As well as an Incinerate Beam.
His Penance Stare can be absolutely back breaking if he gets it off before a model with a lot of power has the chance to use it.
Ghost Rider is affiliated in Defenders and Midnight Sons.
Displacement is always useful but the cost is high especially considering you either need to spend an action to move or another 3 power for Hell on Wheels. It can be immensely impactful if the situation is right but that will probably come up way less than you’d hope for a TTC.
Not as stapled to GR like some character cards are but pretty close to it. If you have a healthy 2 or 3 threat somewhere on the board that isn’t impacting the game in a way that you’d actively hurt yourself to play it you’ll make the trade in a heartbeat.
Pros:
Can punish opposing attrition very hard
Is extremely fast with Hell on Wheels (terrain dependent)
Big base, Medium mover
15 total stamina
Can be brought back to life with TTC
Cons:
Only Range 3 builder
3 physical defense and no defensive tech at all
TTC to bring him back costs you a model
Only 1 power per power phase
Will I try him in Asgard?
No. He looks fun and my new casual roster I want to try is Midnight Sons where he will see the table I don’t think there is a lot of synergy between Blazing Johnny and the Asgardians.
The living sound has come to steal your vibranium and blast some people on the way. Klaw is an interesting beast. He’s probably the character on this list seen the least on the table but he has a lot of stuff going for him. His spender can be fantastic in the right circumstances and both Reconstitute Form and Soundwave Barrier are extremely good superpowers to have. Absorb Vibrations is a cool way to keep his power economy up and counters pushes from energy attacks specifically which are more and more these days (we’ve seen one in this very article).
Klaws pretty glaring weakness is his 3/5/3 stat and no special defensive tech against Mystic attacks. He loves seeing energy attackers on the other side of the board though so he would probably enjoy a deathmatch with all the candidates here.
He is affiliated in Criminal Syndicate (leader) and Cabal.
Klaw brings a personal TTC:
It costs 5 power just like his spender but increases the already enormous B5 to an A5 meaning almost noone on the field (including your allied models) will be safe from it. It had one of the coolest names for a TTC giving it extra credit points but ultimately he can do almost the same without a TTC (with more dice but no Stun).
Pros:
Healing
Control at the end of enemy characters activations
Power denial
Good set of immunities
Can’t be pushed or advanced by enemy superpowers and energy attacks
5 energy defense
(the last two combined make him decent into CGR, at least on the defensive side)
Cons:
Small base, Medium Mover
Only Range 3 on builder
Only 1 power per power phase
Will I try him in Asgard?
No. Klaw really likes leaderships that help him get in range without spending actions on moving. He is immune to a lot of conditions and can heal himself. He doesn’t bring any support aside from having good energy defense for the P2Fs and his threat range (the physical distance on the board) is already covered good enough in my list.
The biggest of big boys coming in at a mighty Size 5 Mr. Prime is an (almost) immovable object you park on a secure, pull people off points and hand out rerolls to the rest of the team. If he has his power rolling his builder also becomes more interesting. Power Matrix helps him fund the rerolls he hands out but doesn’t help in his own activations.
Immunities to Bleed and Poison are nice but Flight is more of a downside here honestly as he already moves Short anyway and with his size 5 he wouldn’t be hindered by most terrain anyway.
Counting double wilds against mystic attacks and ignoring pushes and advances by mystic attacks and superpowers is helpful. He has one glaring weakness though in his 3 physical defense with only his rerolls as defensive tech. He does come with a mighty 18 (10/8) total stamina to kind of make up for that.
Prime is only affiliated in where he is the leader.
SP4 doesn’t come with a personal unaffiliated TTC.
Pros:
Size 5 (very few models can displace him)
18 total stamina
Range 4 reroll bubble
Good power generation at the end of his activation (front side)
Range 4 pull
Cons:
3 physical defense and no defensive tech aside from rerolls (which cost power)
unexciting attacks
Unreliable power generation on his injured side
Big Base, Short mover
Will I try him in Asgard:
No. But maybe I should. Handing out rerolls while having more average power and longer range than Heimdall could help the notoriously swingy Asgardian attackers offensively. And he can hold so a side of the board often enough. His slowness combined with only R3 attacks make him unexciting for my game plan though.
Ultron 2 for me has become the new gold standard of this entire class. He isn’t specialized like others here but instead just has a list of fantastic attacks and superpowers. Add in his Grunts for the potential for two additional attacks and you’ve got what to me is the most well rounded package on display here.
Always has fantastic ways to spend power and getting a turn of: 2 Grunt attacks, Builder, Spender, Throw, “Bow” (advancing an enemy model) isn’t really uncommon for him. He isn’t especially scenario orientated but with his Medium base, Medium Move and Flight he (and his drones) is rather fast and can shift to it if necessary.
His stats are great at 4/4/5 and counting double wilds against mystic attacks. He adds in 8/6 for a total of 14 stamina making him rather survivable.
Ultron has two personal TTCs:
It’s a card that gives your opponent a choice which isn’t ideal. But it costs nothing (well a spot in your 10/5) and is still pure upside for Ultron either damaging close by enemy models or stealing their power and as we saw above he spends that power very well. Most people are pretty down on this card but I think it can be decent it is just outshone by the other Ultron card…
Make sure to have 8 power when you’re about to be KOed with Ultron. I’ve never been able to actually use the card in any of my games with either version of Ultron but it has a big psychological effect on your opponent who often puts let’s effort into Ultron than s/he probably should for fear of Ultron coming back healthy.
Pros:
Fantastic terrain throw
Character throw on spender
“Bow”
Grunts
Can come back from the dead with TTC
Cons:
Only one power per power phase
Not a lot of defensive tech outside of TTC
Grunts have no scenario play
Will I try him in Asgard?
Maybe. He’s the character on this list I’ve played most so far and he’s never let me down. His stats would be great for P2Fs and his mobility too but he spends power so well and he doesn’t wants to move if he can attack instead that the synergy probably isn’t the best. All my throws make it pretty likely that I could bring the Grunts back reliably though. But he’s the model on this list I would most advocate for being good enough to work in every list you make.
So that’s it. Who’s your favourite character on this list and why? Who would you play in Asgard?
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