We have gotten the New Mutants affiliation list and it’s a bit shorter than I would have guessed.
Let’s first remind us of the leadership:
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.
With referencing this lets do a little insert about prime splashes here:
In my opinion (your milage may vary) Black Dwarf is basically an auto include in a new Mutants roster. He gets so much out of the jump due to his large base. And seeing as the affiliated list doesn’t scream durability at first glance having this massive ball of health teleport around to taunt and take attacks seems pretty legit.
In the same vein there are two 2 threats worth considering here. First and probably obvious (and a bit weird that she isn’t affiliated) Honey Badger. Gabby brings another taunt and a bubble of basically incinerate (that stacks with it). On her small base it will not be as easy to get her in taunt range as it is with Black Dwarf though. That’s why I would also take a look at Okoye. Okoye has the problem of having to somehow make three power for the ideal play pattern but once she’s gotten it she can teleport and bodyguard regardless of where the enemy is attacking from keeping a key piece of your team alive. She is also pretty good at surviving attacks and can then be used to teleport to her to maybe get to a secure or in better position to attack. Also placing in 1 of her when she survived an enemy turn means she can definitely bodyguard an attack into the character that ported to her. (As long as she has 2 power and the opponent didn’t use resources to split the characters up with a push or throw).
Back to the affiliated pieces:
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. And as we’ve said multiple times already 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 is 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) depending on threat then.
Here is an example roster I could go for (if I would have the time to get as many games in as I would like, which isn’t the case at all at the moment…):
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)
This list keeps the option of playing X-Force (which if you want to test New Mutants you probably shouldn’t do).
Crisis are pretty hard as it isn’t immediately clear which archetype (1 pure scenario, 2 scenario with the ability to fight, 3 attrition teams that can shift to scenario play of necessary to 4 pure attrition) New Mutants want to be build around. Looking at the list of affiliated characters my gut says it’s probably type 3 but I might be very wrong about this. This would put them in the same category as X-Force. Making the dual less ideal, but since it is so easy to do I’d keep it as the 15 threat plan for now.
cheers from Germany 🍻
