In our previous installment we discussed what makes Brotherhood tick, from chucking trucks at your enemies with Magneto to running around the board capping objectives with Mystique. In this installment, we will delve into missions that suit Brotherhood's needs best, no matter which side you choose.
So how are we going to hash this article out without being a series in of itself? Brotherhood is fairly unique to have 2 completely separate playstyles within one affiliation. I'm going to assume you are running a more floater list, focus on mostly affiliated characters but talk about playstyle differences based on your Leader choice. There will, of course, likely be team combos that run both Magneto and Mystique, in those cases you may have to look at the missing half to see which affiliation works for you in that specific scenario. With the New World Order targeted crisis plans have gone way down, and now crisis lists more work into their plan, but are victim to threat by their opponent. So here we go:
I Won Priority, Now What?
I've said a bunch of times that Crisis Selection is probably the hardest part of List Building. and in particular aside from a clear cut situation such as Criminal Syndicate, what you choose can be based on your set and your plans. Knowing your opponent helps, but in general:
Magneto: Pick Extracts
Mystique: Pick Secures
Why? If you are pushing Magneto, you're going to want those Single Extracts or low scoring Extracts that likely sit in your 3 and you definitely don't want to get caught on something like Spiders or possibly Cubes (though Cubes isn't as bad)
Mystique loves Cubes and Spiders, but works well on others as well. Single Extracts aren't damning for her, but things like flip secures don't work for her leadership, it also gives you access to SWORD, which is a problem for some teams straight up.
Now these are very brief tips, Mystique lists can just as easily pick extracts and vice versa with Magneto depending on what you're playing against. Brotherhood in general really requires you to understand your enemy list in order to make the right decision.
See why this is so hard? And we haven't even discussed Threat Ranges yet.
So lets do that...
14 Threat
Magneto: Senators is potentially fun and depending on Secure you can possibly go hard with Magneto and the Twins. However, Senators puts you into RNG hell and Priority matters a lot here due to getting 2 shots at the Senator. SWORD is another story, and likely your opponent ripped SWORD and picked 14, you probably want to try to stretch into at least 4 characters, but you really want 5.
Magneto, Lizard, Mystique, Toad
Mystique: Mystique is actually the opposite, not only do you want to run SWORD, you want to be lucky enough to lose Priority and rip SWORD 14, because as I've mentioned before, look at this list:
Mystique, QS, Toad, Sam Wilson, Lizard
That's a lot of movement and displacement. I'm undefeated so far with this list on specifically SWORD 14, but SWORD is also pretty great for Mystique at higher threats as well, because you can bring Wanda to delete people. Senators is doable for Mystique but she doesn't care for it, you might want to run Black Cat or another resource for dropping objective tokens.
tl;dr, Mystique is running SWORD, Magneto is running Senators, neither really want the other but Mystique can handle it better than Magneto can
15 Threat
Magneto: Oddly enough Magneto likely thrives on Herbs since we aren't actually playing Marvel Crisis Protocol anymore, but be careful because if your opponent has some kind of gimmick to get the Herb around you are screwed. Black Cat and QS can steal the other player's Herb and deny scoring. So if we got drug into Herb 15 we could go:
Magneto, QS, Toad, Sabertooth (or Rogue, maybe Gamora if you wanted to use my list)
You absolutely want QS and Toad for Herbs. I wouldn't take Herbs because I think that scenario is the devil, but it's better to have a plan.
Gamma is always an odd duck, on one hand it's a brawler scenario forcing you into the center, but it's also high scoring if you can nab the back points while protecting your own home point. Swap out QS for another L mover (maybe Mystique) and you can threaten the back pretty well.
Mystique: Mystique Brotherhood has a great deal of L movers that could do Herbs, but again, the devil and all...
Oh, alright, Mystique doesn't have a lot of tricks, but we can use Deception to get their Herb bearer into punching range, also Black Cat and QS like described above. I could see a list like this on 15:
Mystique, QS, Toad, Black Cat, Sabertooth
Gamma is ok, I wouldn't run it even though it's fast scoring but you can certainly handle it.
tl;dr Herbs are the devil because you can randomly lose on T0 so don't run it, and Gamma is potentially good for both teams.
16 Threat
Magneto: 16 is, odd, for Mags but certainly doable. There's a generic comp of Magneto + Twins + Toad which gives you some fast characters for objectives, but based on the selections you either don't have an extract to play with, or you're dealing with secures on 16, so I don't think I can recommend that line up, you might want to go leaner. You also want some beef for both Fisk and Research Station, likely to be Syndicate powerhouses on normal cases. I could see:
Magneto, Rogue, Lizard, Gambit.
Two things. First welcome to this article Rogue and Gambit, since they are about to come out we are going to start spitting some theory about where they fit in. If you missed my Affiliation update article, you can check it out here!
Second thing, I don't like 16 for Brotherhood at least for Magneto, so this list could work, I'm not sure you'll get a great result, but for brawling points this is something I could see running.
Mystique: The issue of having no room is gone here. I can run a core of Mystique / Toad / Rogue and have a whole 7 points to play with. Quicksilver could fit here and be your extract runner depending on scenario so your standard core can still apply. This might look pretty good under these circumstances.
Mystique / QS / Toad / Rogue / Sabertooth
(I'm still a Sabertooth Stan, after all)
You definitely have a lot more flexibility with Mystique in this setup, but you also want to be aware of how much Brotherhood you're taking, because sometimes you might pigeon hole yourself into a certain roster because of the variance of point values you have.
tl;dr I'd leave Magneto at home on 16, but depending on matchup, he may be able to squash certain lists.
17 Threat:
(Sorry, I'm not linking 7 cards, you know most of them and can look it up if you want)
The most common Threat. Here you will see 3 Secures and 4 Extracts, and all of them offer slightly differing gameplay. The two Map F entries are going to be good for Mystique as characters can grab 2 cubes or any spider they want. Secures have a wide range of things you can do so here I'm just going to spit out a couple basic lists for a few situations. You're either likely running some of these or will have to face them, so having a good 17 is handy.
Magneto
Magneto / Wanda / Rogue / Toad
Wanna punch things really hard? Want to guarantee priority so you can eliminate an easy target? This list will likely get the job done.
Magneto / Quicksilver / Toad / Gambit / Lizard
This list is a little more balanced. You have QS/Toad as your objective runners, and Lizard can sit on a point and be annoying while Gambit and Magneto do some damage. Lizard being the only unaffiliated character usually means he will be alone but that's perfectly alright.
Mystique
Mystique / Juggernaut / Toad / Lizard / Rogue
Yeesh, this list could be completely nasty but I would need more testing to see if it really pans out.
Mystique / QS / Toad / Sabertooth / Wanda
The "classic" that I ran quite a bit. 2 Objective runners plus some sticky people and muscle.
You have a lot of flexibility at 17 including the possibility of going 6 wide:
Mystique / QS / Toad / Gambit / Sam Wilson / Lizard
As I wrote in my Affiliation Article, I'm not sure I like Gambit in a Mystique list, but he might work in this idea.
tl;dr Have a plan for 17.
18 Threat:
We're beginning to enter the "fun zone" for Magneto.
First a word about Hammers. Hammers has some great synergy with characters with rapid fires like Mystique and Cap, but you need to make sure you aren't giving your opponent too much extra offense. Mags pushes hard and Mystique teams have deceptive amounts of damage, so just be aware of your meta before you sit down at the table. I flip flop often having it in my 3.
You're dealing with 2 flip secures, so while not the worst, it's not usually something you want to run Mystique up against. I have been known to play Mutant Madmen quite a bit, but know that it's a nonbo for Mystique.
Magneto
Magneto / Mystique / Toad / Rogue / Gambit
Magneto / Wanda / Rogue / Gambit
Mystique
Mystique / Rogue / QS / Toad / Lizard / Sabertooth
Mystique / Juggernaut / QS / Toad / Wanda
tl;dr Flip Secures not best for Mystique, but there's definitely things to play with.
19 Threat
I originally was looking at these and forgot we used to have 4 (RIP Panic, but not really)
I'm going to do less sample lists and more strategies on these, because if you get 19 you can pretty much play what you want.
Legacy Virus is one of my favorite extracts for both lists. It's pretty slow for Magneto but QS and Toad can lick up all 3 to make it the definition of speed.
Demons Downtown is the quintessential "I want to punch you harder" scenario. Magneto loves it, it's nice and slow and you can generally cap what you want with Magneto not getting incinerated. You're probably asking "well Magneto has 6 defense normally, what difference does one die make?" to which I say "clearly you've never played a dice game before". You want to give Magneto all the tools he needs to succeed, and that includes keeping him on the table potentially longer so he can keep dishing out damage.
Seals in the relatively new one, and looks fine for Brotherhood in general but they probably don't need to teleport all too often due to their potential speed, but it can be nice.
20 Threat
Yes, fun indeed here!
Alien Ship is great with Magneto, not as great with Mystique!
Map F Secore? Sounds like a goldmine for Mystique!
Terrigen Clouds is a bigger badder Fisk. Poison hits hard but some characters are immune (Rogue, just Rogue)
Mystique on 20 can easily push 7 characters, which can be fun. Magneto can run some absolutely bonkers combinations, especially if you are teaming up on Wanda and Juggernaut.
What Should You Play?
In the Old Times I'd say force SWORD as much as you can, but that's just not possible now. I still like it for Mystique but you will rarely get SWORD 14 again.
Magneto Focused:
I like things like Alien Ship, Skrull, Senator, anything to keep scoring low, but also like things like Legacy Virus or Montesi Formula to get a little more scoring with some fun mechanics.
For Secures Demons Downtown is the big one, then possibly Extremis / Infinity Formula. You can run Fisk/Terrigen but I don't really like them and some factions LOVE them.
Mystique Focused:
Higher Scoring, ALL THE F MAPS (Cubes/Spiders/New One). Also Secures like Infinity Formula are great as well as Legacy Virus. SWORD is excellent for Mystique and other extracts like Hammers can be good as well.
Split:
Some of these scenarios overlap, and some don't. The key is understanding how much you want to lean to one side and build that way. You can't really "force" anything anymore except maybe force a Map with 66% chance to do so. I personally think split lists work the best since you get the best of both worlds and you are the most adaptable to any situation.
Whew! That was a lot, but we still got one more entry to talk about. Team Tactic Cards! Join us next time as we delve into all the cards we can fit into only 10 slots.
-HavoKDarK
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