The Magneto Manifesto Part 5.5: A STANDARD Hand for Mutantkind

     

    Greetings Friends,

     It's been a while hasn't it?

    For those curious, I've been working on an X-Men series that is still in the planning phases, but I feel with the news today about Timeline we cannot leave the Magneto Manifesto completed, as now the game has changed.

    So we are going to go over ALL the changes and how this affects, you, as a Brotherhood player.

Crisis Cards: WAKANDAN HERBS BANNED

    I said in my original Crisis Article (link here: https://mcpthemutantagenda.blogspot.com/p/the-magneto-manifesto-part-4-crisis.html) That Herbs, while having some cheeky plays with you as Juggernaut, can potentially also lose you the game on Turn 0 without much you can do about it.  You may have a good plan, but if your opponent's plan was better, you just lose.

    This is a good day for Brotherhood, now you don't have to try to counter this strategy, or even adhere to it, we get to play MCP again, and this is a good change.

    Team Tactics Card Shakeup: LOTS OF THINGS

    Ok, there's a LOT to digest here, so lets start with the basics:

    New Restricted Cards: 

    These cards are legal, but now face the Restricted Rule (can only run 2 in a Roster), and there's some REALLY interesting choices and a direction AMG is facing, without further ado:    

    Reality/Space 

    To me, the shocker of the reveal. This blow hits Corvus visiting other teams very hard and puts a stopper on just jamming Thanos into lists as well. As a Brotherhood player this is a good change for you as you wont have to constantly have to deal with these two threats outside of Black Order itself.

    Advanced R&D

    This card suffered through a nerf (only active character can dump power) but is now straight up restricted. AMG is trying to remove T1 gimmick plays and this card still held that title in spades. Brotherhood rarely plays this card, but may impact some Magneto players, but overall doubtful.

    Disarm

    I spoke about this card a lot in my other Tactics article (again, link here:  https://mcpthemutantagenda.blogspot.com/p/the-magneto-manifesto-part-5-winning.html) about my love for Disarm. The card is surprisingly effective, but this card being Restricted can hurt Brotherhood since we lost a couple other great cards (more later). This card's restriction is coming as a shock to a lot of people but I think people were so enamored about Bitter Rivals they forgot this card existed.  This card, to me at least, was a must include if I was looking for a defensive generic card to fill out my 10.  I didn't always bring it, but it was a nice card to have.  Being Restricted definitely hurts my ability to run this card for sure, but we should talk about that a little bit later!

    Indomitable

    If Disarm was a shock, Indomitable shouldn't be. This card was being pushed as a second Brace for certain things, and after completing a game where my opponent had both Brace and Indomitable, as well as Medpack, let me tell you how much mental calculus I had to go through to win that game (He also had Shhh.... which made things even more menacing). This card was an easy include as it stopped different things and was a huge impact on the game. I could still see taking this card over Brace as a Restricted card, but you no longer get to stack your deck with a bunch of "no" effects.

    Sacrifice

    I honestly don't have a big opinion on Sacrifice, but a timely Bodyguard is very good against specific strategies that I can see this card's inclusion to the Restricted List. 

    Card Removal

    There's a lot of cards that went away, but for Brotherhood most are inconsequential, so I'll be covering the Brotherhood specific heavy hitters.

    Bitter Rivals

    An understandable change, this card simply warps the landscape of a turn into something particularly nasty.  I talked about this card a lot in my Tactics article (I wont link it again since you should have it up already) but the ability to reduce a defense 3 character to 1 via incinerate and BR seems very oppressive and the best way to try to handle it is counter the Bitter Rivals, move the character or some other wacky play. This card was in my list and I will have to replace it.

    Medpack

    As I talked about before, this card "erases" a bad roll, and is self sufficient, well those days are gone. You simply have to rely on Patch Up if you want some healing, and you will need to bunch up a little more to utilize it.  Mystique Brotherhood likely comes out of this unharmed but Magneto might need to think a little more about character placement. I do think Patch Up is acceptable enough to run in Brotherhood as a healing replacement, or you can possibly run without.

    Field Dressing

    If you've read my articles, well, you know my thoughts on this card.  I still think it's a noob trap and a card with a VERY high skill floor but potentially higher skill ceiling, that being said I'm glad it's gone.  No more tricks with this card and I'm happy to not have to play around or see this card anymore.

    Climbing Gear/Extreme Conditioning

    Both of these cards rotating hurts some Magneto plans, either by giving free moves or giving your L moves. They aren't huge for Mystique lists since they already have lots of movement, but maybe you have to hitch your wagon back to MODOK to get AIM Lackeys?

    Potential Replacements

    So now that we as Brotherhood players have to suffer through some changes, where do we go?

    If you want Healing, go from Medpack to Patch Up

    Pretty simple, we have to play Patch Up if we want healing, so it may change your strategy somewhat, but if you leaned on the idea of healing, you might want to give this a shot for a while.

    If you want a Movement Card, and play MODOK, consider AIM Lackeys

    It grants a bonus move which can be huge, but it means you are playing MODOK, and he has to have power to play the card, it's very restrictive, but can be used well.

    Want anti-attack? Try Trip Up

    Trip Up is similar to Disarm in activating, but if you deal damage they get Stunned and Staggered, a great way to slow a character down or de-power a character for a turn.

    Monkey Brain Is Lizard Home

    If you are playing Lizard (and if you aren't, have you read my articles??) you should play this card. This card is FANTASTIC for bunch situations, lets you affect the board late and is stapled to a character who is already hard to move around and easy for you to get where he belongs.

 

    Don't forget about other Character Cards!

    I know there's not a lot of insight here, but it's because I have to test things too!  Start playing those marginal before cards that may have a bigger impact now. Pardon Me Sugah may be a playable card now, or Dark Past. Stop relying as a crutch of the cards everyone takes and try to think outside the box.

    That's what I got for right now. I hope everyone is doing well.  Check out the rest of my articles on Brotherhood (most of which still hold up today) on the right. And if you have any questions, comments, or rants, let me know in the comments, in social media, or wherever you want to voice your opinion to me.

Until next time

-HavoKDarK