Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Defenders Showcase and Analysis

Ben is back with a deep dive and miniature showcase for one of the larger Affiliations in Marvel: Crisis Protocol – It’s Defenders time!

Today I’m delving into one of the largest affiliations in Marvel Crisis Protocol. If you’ve been following my Crisis Protocol posts, you’ll know that my ultimate goal since the beginning has been to get to this point. I started with Midnight Sons, then moved to Convocation as I expanded my forces. 17 models later and I’ve finally painted all the Defenders.

Now that I’ve gotten a bunch of games in, I’m going to share what I’ve learned.

Team Tactics Cards

Crisis Protocol affiliations are basically defined by Team Tactics cards and Leadership Abilities. Lets start with the former. It took me awhile to get the hang of the Defenders’ Tactics cards. For the first two affiliations I’d played I basically wanted to use all their cards whenever possible. But the Defenders’ cards are much more situational, being extremely useful sometimes and not worth taking others. You’re going to need to have a good knowledge of MCP to make the right choices of which to bring. There are only four of them so why not have a peek at each?

Mystic Ward

I’m starting here since it’s probably the most widely useful.  The only time you might not want to bring Mystic Ward is if you have a good reason to think your opponent is bringing a purely offensive game, totally focused on wiping you out. If you’re convinced they don’t care about objectives at all, something more defensive might be a better choice.

Cover Me

This can be one of the strongest cards in the Defenders’ arsenal but only if you have models in range to use it. If you bring a team of range 2 experts it might turn out you never get to take advantage of it. Additionally,  your opponent may try to push or place your models in such a way that this benefit is negated. That means the next card can be extra useful to take along with it.

Street Smarts

Outside of the usefulness mentioned above, this card is one of the most situational of the bunch. It’s probably best to hold onto for when you’re facing an Affiliation with a ton of pushes like Web Warriors. If not your opponent will just focus extra hard on hurting any models that played it. It combos well with Cover Me to help keep your models from being pushed too far from their allies for anyone to get their retaliatory attacks in.

Pentagram of Farallah

I put this one at the bottom because I often have the hardest time trying to figure out whether or not to take this card. Doctor Strange and Wong are both really going to want all the power they have use their super powers so when this card does make my list I often find myself not wanting to use it. Not to mention the fact that any model can travel through the portal. After a bunch of games trying it I’ve decided its most useful to use several turns in. Later in the game it can have a lot more impact and help you set it up where you can get more use out of it than your opponent. And it can be great to help you hunt down models like Black Cat or Black Widow that like to grab tokens and run off and hide with them.

The Defenders

As with my past articles I’m going to do my best to rank these in order of which is most likely to make it into a roster. Not just any roster mind you but a pure Defender’s roster. It’s harder than ever for me to rank these with so many more models than previous Affiliations. Plus this is based entirely on what has worked best for me personally. I’m sure other people will have their own takes.

Doctor Strange

If you’ve been following these articles you might be surprised to find Doctor Strange at the top. He was dead last in my first article in this series, though, for what it’s worth, I still wouldn’t put him at the top in Midnight Sons. Really goes to show what a difference experience makes though. I’ve had a lot of luck playing him in low model count games with Hulk and Namor. While it can be risky, I find it’s best to put him somewhere dangerous – he’ll need to take some damage to generate the power he needs. Then he just spends that power on Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom to help defend whoever he can. It works best when he uses it on himself though since he can reroll all his defense dice with Eye of Agamoto. When his health gets a little low he activates and heals up with Oshtur’s Refuge. If everything goes according to plan he can tank a ton of damage and stay standing for multiple turns. Of course you’re saying: “since when does everything go according to plan?” Well, frankly never, but this has been one of the most reliable strategies for me.

Additionally, if you can manage to spare some power from all the Hoggoth’s you’ll probably be casting, Strange can try to buy a Crimson Bands of Cyttorak attack. With the re-roll he gets from Eye of Agamoto, you get two chances to trigger the Mystic Binding ability and maybe lock down a really dangerous character for a turn.

His Leadership Ability is also really good. The power to change an attack’s type is strong, but it’s really the ability to hand out hex tokens all over town that makes him powerful. Without exploding crits, your opponents will never get any of those really dangerous damage spikes that can be so unpredictable and hard to counter.

Daredevil

As the other Defenders leader, Daredevil is taking second place. While I prefer Strange, the Doctor has some bad matchups. Some Affiliations have access to easy condition removal and will wipe away all his wonderful Hex tokens with hardly any effort. This means you will definitely want Daredevil around. He has a great leadership ability too, although it does tend to make you want to play up close – maybe even to the point that you find yourself only wanting to pick range 2 brawlers to go along with him. The problem with Daredevil is that he’s very squishy with somewhat low health and only average defense for a TL 4. His Radar Sense makes up for it admirably, right up until the very moment someone makes a mystic attack at him. There was a time when mystic attacks were few and far between but lately they seem much more common, and they’re always sending my Daredevil to an early grave.

Outside of his role as Defenders leader it seems like Daredevil’s purpose is to head up the table in a hurry, take a serious beating, then hit back much harder on his next activation with a big Devil’s Deliverance attack that can hopefully Daze or KO multiple targets. This rather suicidal playstyle is a bit too risky for a leader in my humble opinion, so I always feel like I’m not getting my full value for DD when he’s in charge of a Defender’s force.

Fortunately he combos great with Strange so I just don’t see any reason not to put him in a roster. Even if he’s usually not in charge.

Hulk

Outside of leaders, Hulk is probably one of the most important models you can take. He can already take a beating and when Doctor Strange is around with Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom and Oshtur’s Refuge he’s just that much tankier. Make sure to leave him with some power so you can combo that tactic with his Hulk Not Puny Banner ability and make him nearly impossible to bring down. I love him for Extract crises where a character can load up on multiple objectives. Then when he’s got a few it’s time for Cover Me. If things work out this can create a beautiful loop of Doctor Strange zapping people with Bolts of Bedevilment when they attack Hulk, thus giving him more power to keep on casting Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom, just for Hulk to never die so you can keep throwing out more Bolts from Cover Me. Too bad it only lasts for a turn.

Painting note: this was the first MCP model I ever painted and he was supposed to be an entry into Atomic Mass’s The Worthy painting contest. That was in 2020 and we all know what happened that year… Once it became clear Adepticon wasn’t going to happen, I didn’t bother building the scenic base that would have had the raging fires meant to be the source of the glowing orange OSL on his legs and left hand. Four years later I suddenly found myself playing Marvel Crisis Protocol and I wanted to use this guy in games. I didn’t want to repaint the OSL portions and it looked really weird to have them on there absent of a light source so I sculpted a smaller fire that fit on the base. The bluish tint on his shoulders was going to be from a sparking electrical wire that I decided would be unnecessarily awkward to sculpt onto a model I planned on gaming with.

The Immortal Hulk

Since I have a very set playstyle in mind, I keep Immortal Hulk around for when the games run a Threat Level higher than with standard Hulk. I prefer original Hulk just because it’s harder to get that initial KO against him and so he works better for the goal I have in mind. But Immortal Hulk is still an absolute nightmare. He is nearly impossible to kill permanently as long as you’re using the same strategy to keep him alive as for standard Hulk. There are a few things that can do it though, like Cosmic Ghost Rider or a Helios Laser Bombardment. But that’s why a low model count is key to this strategy. Maintain priority so you can heal him up with Oshtur’s Refuge and maybe even Patch Up before your opponent can really swing hard at him. And try to keep a Hex counter on Tony Stark so he can’t explode any Helios crits. Too bad Cosmic Ghost Rider is immune to those.

Namor

Namor is super useful in both Doctor Strange and Daredevil lists so he’s probably going to be in any Defenders roster I come up with. He is more crucial to my Doctor Strange builds though as the third must-include character – which I find quite fitting since Strange, Hulk, and Namor are the original Defender’s lineup. He has no shortage of useful things he can do. His “builder” attack will force a model to drop any objectives its holding, he has an ability that lets him place a Stagger token if he does any damage, and of course there’s that little aura that grants rerolls to nearby models. So far I’ve refrained from taking him with the Time Gem as the extra point limits the number of games where I can bring all the models I want. If only you didn’t have to assign gems during roster building…

Shang Chi

Shang Chi is in the number 6 spot as he is another model I’ll definitely want to bring with either Doctor Strange or Daredevil. He’s my go-to in Doctor Strange lists to replace Namor if I find myself playing a 15 TL game. With Daredevil he’s pretty much an auto-include. Like Namor he has a lot of useful tools – including a potential Stagger from one of his basic attacks. Otherwise it’s all about unexpected moves and throws. By far he shines brightest when he’s counter-attacking while another model is under the effect of Cover Me. If he’s in range to use his Rising Powers Kick he can place himself within 1, and likely use Ten Thousand Shapes Strike when the model make its next attack. Then he can use Five Elements Fist to push the attacker away – likely when they have no actions left to do anything about it. Or he could advance Short… maybe towards the next model you suspect will be making an attack… or maybe just towards an objective you want to hold. It’s all so insanely disruptive it will likely have your opponent second guessing every move they’re about to make. Finally, he tends to store up a lot of power, so he’s great to have if you bring the Patch Up Team Tactics Card.

Wong

For the first time, Wong finds himself in the bottom 5. That’s because, as stated, my preferred playstyle with Defenders is low model count, low threat level. If I find myself playing at 18 TL though, you can bet Wong will be there to give Namor an extra power with Faithful Assistant so the Atlantean can charge turn 1, or to remove a Stagger token from Hulk with The Vishanti’s Blessing. And it never hurts to have an extra body to hold a point.

Ghost Rider

The reason Ghost Rider should always be in your roster is Penance Stare. Its ability to pull power off heavy hitters like Apocalypse or Immortal Hulk is phenomenally handy. So if you think you’ll be facing them or someone like them, make sure he hits the table. Ghost Rider is even more useful if you are planning to make Pentagram of Farallah part of your strategy because it lets him line himself up for a Flames of Hell attack without having to move. And don’t forget to use Spirit of Vengeance so he’s all powered up all the time.

Iron Fist

Iron Fist makes the roster because, well, The Iron Fist. Its a 9 die attack that can cause a model to become activated. He also has a great Team Tactics card with Heroes For Hire that lets him take a hit for a friendly model, and move up the field. Which is where he wants to be so he’s in range to hit things. And since he has the Master Martial Artist Ability, he likely won’t suffer too much damage from the hit he tanks.

Hawkeye

I keep Hawkeye in my rosters because I like to have one model that can reliably attack at range. It’s also nice he can pay some power to ignore cover or make a range 3 place. And he can pick the power type for his bow attack.

The Other Defenders

You can only have 10 models in your roster so that means the ones below didn’t make the cut. They’re all good characters and it may just be that they belong in other affiliations. Rather than rank the others I’m just going to cover them in alphabetical order.

Additionally, I’m cheating a bit as I would never run an all-affiliation roster. So some of the above 10 probably wouldn’t make it either. I’ll save the out-of-affiliation picks for the end.

Amazing Spider-Man

Amazing Spider-Man almost made the roster. He’s super great but Ghost Rider took the spot because Ghost Rider does something only Ghost Rider can do. There are a few reasons I like Amazing Spider Man. He’s 5 TL so he helps when I want to make a low model count and have priority. He’s a long mover so he can cover a huge amount of the table. And that’s not even accounting for his Web Swing super power that allows him to place himself within 3 – and add two dice to his Spider Strike Attack. And both his attacks can allow him to place himself so he can just move all over the place. He also has a defense re-roll super power that he can use on himself or any model in range 3. And since he can already reroll his defense dice he can be very hard to kill indeed. His attacks are also a lot stronger than they might seem as they often incorporate collision damage.

Ancient One

I tried Ancient One in a few Defenders list and it made me wish I’d taken her in Convocation more. She has a ton of great tricks and hits like a truck, but without the Iron Bound Books of Shuma Gorath Team Tactics card (it can only be used in Convocation) she’s so very squishy with only 2 physical defense.

Black Panther, Chosen of Bast

This character is really well loved and I think many if not most other Defenders players would have him in Iron Fist or Hawkeye’s slot. His biggest advantage over the latter is the extra damage he can cause throwing himself into people. I guess my preference for the other two just comes more from personal experience. By all means don’t let me talk you out of putting him in a roster.

Blade

Blade has some cool things going for him but there are better characters for Defenders to take in the 4 TL slot. Blade is great in other Affiliations though. Midnight Sons for sure since his Leadership ability there is fantastic. There’s also good potential for him as an Avenger in a Captain America list. He can pay one less power to power to use Supernatural Senses. Which can make him super tanky if you use it along with Cable’s Telekinetic Shield. Which also costs one less power to use with Cap. Or take him with Captain America, First Avenger (the one that comes in the new core box) so he can pay a power to get guaranteed wild rolls on all his attacks. Now his Katana is always causing Bleed, and his glaives are always allowing him to make short moves.

If there is a reason to put him on a Defenders roster it’s Half-Blood Physiology. If you think your opponent is bringing a list with a lot of conditions on it (looking at you Apocalypse), having a character who can shake one for a power is nice to have around.

Clea

Clea can do a lot of cool things but being such a generalist ends up hurting her. I still think it’s unfair that she’s regarded by the community as possibly the worst model in the game but lets look at what she does… Her attacks are objectively poor. She can give herself more power but she’ll probably hurt herself – super risky given how squishy she is. Her teleport is cool but not really game-changing. Her best ability by far is that she can perform a throw on a size 2 character or terrain piece. Which is really only noteworthy because she is only a 3 TL character. I feel like most people want to pick character that can do something reliable. “Swiss army knives” are generally harder to justify slotting into a roster. If she belongs anywhere it’s in Convocation where she can get 4 def every other turn with the Iron Bound Books of Shuma Gorath Team Tactics card.

Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme

Rather than go over all the stuff I like about the Sorcerer Supreme again I’ll just link to my Convocation Article. The problem with him in Defenders is just that I want the other Strange.

Elektra

I wish I’d played a few more games with her before writing this article. She combos well with both leaders too so it’s definitely worth a try. Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom goes with Martial Prowess to give her 7 Defense Dice, drastically increasing her chances for dealing that retaliatory 2 Damage. And of course she likes the attack re-rolls from Daredevil. As it stands she’s just competing for a highly competitve 4 TL slot like Blade. One of the best things she has going for her is her massive Impale attack. But it has a big drawback: it’s only range 1. Even though she has Assassin’s Step to get closer to her target, it costs 2 power meaning she’s unlikely to be able to pay the 5 needed for Impale until a few turns in. She might do better in an Affiliation with some way to get a free move. I wish I’d tried her out in New Mutants when I was trying them out a few weeks back.

Elektra’s Hand Ninjas

The other great thing about Elektra are the Hand Ninjas. Daredevil’s Leadership reroll(s) increase the odds of them damaging someone or getting the Bleed effect off on their Ninja Weapons. But they shouldn’t be attacking. You should always send them after Extracts so your other characters are free to do important stuff.

Luke Cage

Luke Cage is another phenomenal 3 TL character with a throw, a bodyguard-type ability, and added resilience with his Unbreakable Skin. But most of the characters I’m taking are already pretty tough, and this guy just doesn’t do anything someone else on the team doesn’t do already.

Magik

I’m not going to waste anymore time writing about Magik when I said it all here. Unfortunately I just don’t see any use for her outside of leading the New Mutants.

Moon Knight

Moon Knight is another decent 3 TL model that just doesn’t bring anything I really need to the roster. One of his most useful abilities is Chosen of Khonshu which makes him very difficult to move. It’s made kinda redundant by the Street Smarts team tactics card.

Punisher

Punisher has some interesting stuff going on but in my few games with him he was too squishy to really accomplish anything awesome. It’s his Blood Red and Personal tactics card. It gives you a VP for each model you KO on the turn he uses it, meaning it can really turn the tide in a game. This means my opponents are always trying to kill him before their team is weak enough for me to get any easy KOs and score points from it. He’s usually in harms way since his rifle is only range 3, and that’s too close for a model with average defensive stats and no way to reduce incoming damage.

He’s more than just a clutch tactics card though. His Warzone ability is also very useful. It’s unusual for a model to be able to destroy terrain of a size lower than their Threat Level so this makes Punisher a cheap model to dispose of annoying buildings that might be in your way. Since Warzone causes a flat 2 damage it can’t be reduced by Brace for Impact or certain other abilities that affect collision damage. And it works just as well on small terrain so even those little garbage cans can really hurt. I think he might work really well with S.H.I.E.L.D in an Invaders list with lots of defense and attack rerolls. S.H.I.E.L.D only has two in-affiliation models that can throw terrain so he can make up a little for that shortcoming too. Or you could use the “Some Assembly Required” team tactics card to bring him into an Avengers list where he might be getting 5 dice on all those Hip Fire attacks.

Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch doesn’t make the roster simply because there are already three TL 5 models in there and I don’t see where to fit a 4th. She can be extremely dangerous but is slow and suffers terribly when she’s up against anyone with access to easy pushes that can force her out of range and make her waste an action moving back up again. She does have one insanely useful Team Tactics card in No More Mutants which can really screw up your enemy’s plan but it isn’t quite enough to get her in the roster.

Silver Sable

Silver Sable is already competing for a long-ranged support slot with Hawkeye but she’s one higher Threat Level so she’s a little harder to squeeze in. Her super powers and abilities are definitely useful enough to make up her worth the higher cost, but her main attack only gets her one power – not power equal to damage dealt. This means she’s usually low on power, only getting to use one ability per turn, and her big attack very rarely. It all adds up to a model that just hasn’t worked very well for me with Defenders. Maybe I’ll find a place for her in another Affiliation.

Spider-Man

Yes this is Spider-Man you’re looking at here – it’s just the one from the Rival Panels box, not the one from the Web Warriors Box. I think most MCP players would agree with me that Spider-Man really suffers from old model syndrome. He’s been around since the beginning of the game and could use a few tweaks to make him a bit more competitive. If that wasn’t bad enough there are two other incarnations of Peter Parker that are extremely good so this one is hardly ever taken.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie is an extremely good Threat Level 3 model with a Throw, a Charge, and the Warrior of Legend Super Power that makes her attacks even more dangerous. You wouldn’t do wrong to put her in your list, but for me Iron Fist takes priority in the roster because of that devastating attack of his. I went for a Thor Ragnarok look with this Valkyrie.

Wolverine

Despite growing up reading his comics, I’m not the biggest fan of Wolverine in MCP. He doesn’t hit nearly as hard as you’d expect with those adamantium claws. Additionally he doesn’t have any useful abilities to help your game out. He just hits stuff. With 7 health and Healing Factor 2 he can be a little hard to take down if your opponent doesn’t focus hard on him. When his card flips he gets a little more interesting. He adds all the damage he’s taken to his attacks meaning he can toss out an absolutely devastating 12 die Berserker Barrage when he’s sitting at 1 health. The only problem is he can’t interact with or hold objectives on his damaged side, so he’s only going to be scoring points from securing. This means I just won’t be putting him on the table if one of the missions is an Interact. And that means there’s not much point in putting him in the roster at all.

Out of Affiliation Picks

Alright MCP vets… notice anything in common with these three models? That’s right, they can all attack on enemy model’s turns. This means they all go great with Daredevil since they’re just getting attack re-rolls all the time. Gwenom gets bonus points because if she makes a Symbiote Spider Technique attack on a turn she’s been placed, she can advance Long after the attack is resolved. So hopping through a Mystic Portal makes her super mobile, allowing for two attacks and moves in a turn.

As for good Doctor Strange picks, well, my favorites to run him with are all Defenders so I hadn’t thought about it much. Maybe Crimson Dynamo? He can combo his Disruption Field with Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom to make someone nearly unkillable. Also Taskmaster could be fun as he could theoretically use two shield throws to get the hex conditions on four people in one activation… assuming he’s in range and gets a wild on both the initial throws. Really I’m just throwing stuff at the wall here…

Sample Roster

This sample is a competitive roster that I think I would bring if I was planning to run Defenders at a tournament. That means I had to leave out some models I really like. It’s meant to play to my strengths so it’s fairly low model count since I find myself doing better with fewer models.

Characters

Daredevil (4)
Doctor Strange (5)
Hulk (6)
Blade (4)
Black Cat (3)
Namor the Sub-Mariner (5)
Wong (2)
The Immortal Hulk (7)
Gwenom (4)

Team Tactics

Cover Me
Mystic Ward Pentagram of Farallah
Siege of Darkness
Street Smarts
Bats the Ghost Hound
Brace for Impact (R)
Patch Up (R)
Deal With the Devil
Recalibration Matrix

Secure Crisis

Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians (I, 17)
Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (E, 19)

Extract Crisis

Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)
The Montesi Formula Found (E, 18)
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)

I said Blade wouldn’t make a pure Defenders roster, but you’re not limited to that and options are important for competitive play. Since there’s so much crossover with Midnight sons and Defenders I’m going to want to be able to play both if I can. I’ve also got both leaders since they’re useful in different matchups. My only real reservation is bringing the two Hulks. I can’t help but think one of them would be better switched out for Shang Chi. But that one point difference between the two Hulks is actually really helpful for being able to adapt to different Threat Level games so they both made the final roster.

What’s Next?

I’ve reached my first goal of collecting all the Defenders, but I’m still eager for MCP. With the rosters I’ve painted so far I now have half the Web Warriors, so I think I’ll be working on them next.

~ Hope you enjoyed the pics and maybe found the write-up helpful. Do you disagree with any of my takes? Tell us why in the comments!

Ben Willimans is a Professional Painter and Columnist at Bell of Lost Souls. He has been involved in the hobby and art side of miniatures and the tabletop gaming industry for over 20 years. He has won multiple national painting awards.

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