The high-flying comic book action doesn’t stop with two new character packs coming to Marvel Crisis Protocol - including the infamously devilish Mephisto, the behemoth Abomination, and the wily Wrecking Crew! I’m currently really loving the game, with my recent review of the Monsters Unleashed character pack and my review of the Apocalypse pack and associated terrain. So let’s see how these newest packs stack up in my Marvel Crisis Protocol - Mephisto, Abomination, Wrecking Crew Review!
Mephisto
What Mephisto Does Best: Mephisto is, much like the character in comics, a very tricky individual. Firstly, he’s interested in making your opponent make hard decisions - many of his tactics cards involve you presenting a choice to your opponent, both of which kind of benefit them, but definitely benefit you. And the more “Devil’s Deal” tokens you acquire, the stronger you become (especially with your “Termination Clause” special Beam 4 attack - which adds dice to the attack equal to the “Devil’s Deal” tokens you have).
How To Run Him: With Mephisto, while he might be interesting to splash into a tricky group, I think you’ll get more mileage out of him by using his “Devil’s Reckoning” card, which allows you to turn an unaffiliated group containing Mephisto into his own Legion of the Lost affiliation (kind of like Dracula who we talked about last week).
If you do this, your opponent will have to choose one of their characters to give the incinerate condition to, and two of your characters gain one power. It’s a nifty trick if you don’t want to put him in the other affiliations he can rock with: Cabal and Criminal Syndicate.
His “Meet My Associate” superpower is also going to be very crucial to keeping him alive, as his defenses aren’t necessarily awesome for a 5 threat character. But the ability to swap a helpful ally in and soak up damage that would head his way is very useful. All in all, he’s one of those characters whose flavor outweighs their usefulness, even though I still think a lot of fun can be had by list-builders out there better than me. I’m just - at current - not seeing enough synergies to want to run him beyond the novelty of the character.
Abomination
What Abomination Does Best: Abomination, aka Emil Blonsky, is all about two things: Hitting hard and poisoning his enemies. It’s a really fun combination, and if Mephisto was a tricky character, Abomination is… not. But in my opinion, that’s not a bad thing! The simplicity of Abomination is what makes this character truly shine, as it strikes really hard, can throw size 4 or less terrain Long distance, and can blast enemy characters around him with poison (or deal out two free damage to already poisoned opponents).
How To Run Him: Get him in the fight! Don’t be worried about keeping him close to other allies like Mephisto. Abomination wants to go out and crush his enemies like little bugs - so who are we to stop him?
He only has two tactics cards - one of which “You Will Do As I Say, Monster” is actually not even his card, but a card for George Tarleton (aka M.O.D.O.K.), which allows him to throw Abomination Medium distance (for five power). I don't think we've seen a combo card like this in a while, the most recent one I remember seeing coming with Iceman allowing Emma Frost to work w/ him.
His other tactics card, “Gamma Burst,” costs three power and pushes any enemies with a poison counter on them away from Abomination, not bad if things get a little stickier than you’d like. But I gotta be real, with his tough hide (which reduces all incoming damage by 1), I don’t think things are going to get too sticky for our good friend Emil here.
Wrecking Crew
What Wrecking Crew Does Best: The Wrecking Crew, made up of Brian Calusky, Dirk Garthwaite, Eliot Franklin, and Henry Camp (gotta be the longest secret identity in the game), are best at exactly what it sounds like they’d be best at: wrecking things! Two key abilities, “Bulldoze,” and “Wrecking Bar Fling” really interact with terrain in a satisfying way, and they’re key to understanding how to use Wrecking Crew.
For “Bulldoze,” a three power superpower, you can push Wrecking Crew Medium, and any size 2 or smaller terrain doesn’t stop it (and is destroyed), then, if you reach an enemy character, they immediately take 1 damage and you stop moving. It’s a great way to scoot across the battlefield and get in close to use your other attacks.
“Wrecking Bar Fling” is an attack that costs no power, and it’s a Beam 4 attack which gains an attack die (it starts with 4) for every size 2 or smaller terrain it overlaps with. In other words, you set up this beam - destroy every phone post, car, etc. in its way to power your beam - and unleash the blast on your enemies!
How To Run Them: This character has a lot of midrange abilities that can really give them some utility around objectives, as it’s pretty easy to move around the battlefield, and you’re dishing out Stagger and Stun condition tokens liberally too. Get them into the mid-field, lock down and chuck your opponents around, and then blast them with a big beam whenever things line up correctly.
This is also a unit where you really want to think carefully when laying down terrain at the start of the game. Prioritize getting those 1 and 2 size terrain pieces down in advantageous positions, and you could really set yourself up for some major success here.
Marvel Crisis Protocol - Mephisto, Abomination, Wrecking Crew Review - Final Thoughts
This is why it’s so fun for me to review multiple character packs when their embargo opens up on the same day. For one, being able to review different characters who are doing different things allows us to see how they could complement each other, or not. But also, sometimes I just like one model more than others - and it’s fun to get to talk about the high’s and low’s of a release schedule.
And while Mephisto is by no means a “low,” I’m the kind of player who really responds well to the smash-y shenanigans you can get up to with a character like Abomination or Wrecking Crew. While it does seem fun to build around Mephisto offering bargains to opponents (imagine him with some Loki goofiness, I shudder to think), you’ll find me hurling debris and smashing scenery to eke out a victory.
For more information and to pre-order these models, head over to the Asmodee Store Page for Mephisto, and the Asmodee Store Page for Abomination & Wrecking Crew.
The products used in the creation of this review were provided by Atomic Mass Games. All images of unpainted miniatures courtesy the author, painted miniature image courtesy Atomic Mass Games.
Review Summary
Pros
- Abomination plays extremely well for his threat level, and is the standout here
- All three characters play with status tokens (incinerate, Poison, Stun) in fun ways
Cons
- Mephisto may feel a little convoluted for players who prefer a more straightforward play style
- Adversely, for players who enjoy toying with their opponents, Wrecking Crew might feel too straightforward!