Atomic Mass Games have graced our screens (and our printers) with a haul of new character cards.

We’re going to cover the biggest changes here; but as a fair amount of them are wording tweaks/bug fixes, we encourage you to also check out their official transmission here.

Toad

My boy! What have they done to my boy?! Well…turns out…not too much. Toad has lost 1 health from his healthy side, but gained 1 on the injured side. This evens him out a bit. A good Toad game is usually dependent on him surviving Round 1 after grabbing an Extract, partly due to how easy he is to sway away on his injured side. His health now being 4/4 helps him stay relevant for longer, while also calming down his oppressive Round 1.

He’s also lost the push on his Tongue Lash which is a pretty big deal. It’s been replaced with Poison, one of the least influential conditions. So now his sole focus is grabbing an Extract and running away with it for the rest of the game. Not much change there.

He’s still the absolute best 2 threat at scoring VPs thanks to Slippery. He’s just a little fairer now.

Bullseye

Take that Benajmin Poindexter! This guy has been a menace for far too long if you ask me! He started out as a disappointing 3 threat, had a few stat tweaks and became the #1 best attrition 2 threat in the game.

I Never Miss is his trademark superpower, so thankfully that has been left untouched. The only change here is the range on Throwing Knife is now Range 3. A small tweak but I think it’s impactful enough for Bullseye to not be quite as effective as he’s always been. I suspect he’ll have to move off his back point to get into range for a Throwing Knife and then Hit and Run to get back into position. He’s still the best 2 Threat for killing teams, but like Toad – he’s now a bit more ‘fair’. 

Gambit

Fans of the X-Men have been gagging for our good friend Remy to get a tweak since he first released. He never quite felt like he really ‘worked’. His good games were too few and far between.

He’s lost Accelerated Charge, meaning he can’t boost his attack dice anymore, but he does now count Wilds as two successes for attacking, defending and dodging. Which is very cool and thematic. 

This means Gambit’s average is now higher. I won’t bore anyone with the dice maths, but it essentially makes Gambit a bit more consistent, while also potentially going OFF in some games where he rolls a number of Wilds. The Cards Always Be In My Favor coupled with A Little Something Extra is going to help Remy out a lot here.

Colossus

Here we are again with Piotr Rasputin. This is his second tweak since release; let’s hope it gets him a little closer to everyone’s favourite metal mutant from the comics.

He’s had the previously-boring trigger replaced on Strike; it’s now a Size 4 Push, which is great. He also now has a Size 4 Throw on his spender, which is really great.

But the real money here comes in the form of an additional sentence added to Big Brother. 

Colossus Version 1 had Bodyguard, meaning he could protect allies within 2 of him. That was great, but unfortunately it was replaced with a Taunt with Colossus Version 2, meaning he now has to be within range 2 of the enemy attacking an ally. This means Colossus is much more susceptible to displacement, as it essentially switches this ability off.

Big Brother can now be used when an enemy within Range 4 makes an attack, to give Colossus a chance to move short towards them – hopefully allowing him to Taunt an attack later. Where he’ll get all the power for this stuff is still up for question, but this will certainly help get him where he needs to be.

Magik

Ever since Illyana was given a leadership for New Mutants, people have been grasping for a tweak to her kit. Having a 3 threat leader is great, but not when they have 5 health and very little defensive tech. She falls over very easily – leaving their awesome leadership vulnerable to being removed from the table.

Well here it is…a whopping 1 extra health. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this was a bit disappointing. She’ll still Daze easily for a 3 threat, meaning she’ll need to spend more of her time at the back of the board. A Hex trigger has been added to Bolts Of Oshtur, with laughably bad odds. She now also has a commonly-requested immunity to Incinerate…cute.

Dr. Strange

Big old list of changes here! Let’s dive in (through an orange sparkly circle thingy):

• 1 more health on injured side
• Pierce trigger on Bolts Of Bedevilment
• Eye Of Agamotto now works on dodge rolls
• Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom now also works on dodge rolls
• Oshtur’s Revenge increased to Range 3

There isn’t any particularly interesting hot take here other than…it’s just more good. Bigger numbers, more opportunities for good dice; it’s a solid improvement across the board for the good doctor.

Now, the leadership has changed completely. It’s no longer about switching up attack types, but instead you are dishing out Hex. The addition of this being guaranteed against characters of 5 Threat or more makes for an interesting effect. Over the course of a long fought attrition game, this leadership is going to tilt the dice odds in the Defenders’ favour. Hex is real annoying for characters that like to attack – and immunity to it is very rare.

Defenders come out looking very healthy after yet another errata! The streets suddenly feel a lot safer.

Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme

On the other mangled-surgeon-hand…this flavour of Doctor Strange has a much shorter list of changes.

Eye Of Agamotto now also works on dodge rolls.

Nice.

Clea

Did you remember that Clea is in Marvel Crisis Protocol? LIAR!

She’s gained 1 more health on her healthy side. Cool! Plus Descendant Of The Faltine can now only deal 2 damage, instead of 1 damage per skull. So it’s a bit more predictable. Great!

Her builder Demon Claws Of Denak has been boosted to Range 4. Plus she now has a new ability in the form of Talons Of Farallah. This ability allows Clea to add dice to attacks made within Range 4 of her, with a trigger that echoes the new Dr. Strange leadership that applies Judgement. A very rare but powerful status condition.

Overall, if this means we’ll now see Clea at least close to being put on the table, I think that’s a big win.

Carnage

Bet you didn’t see this one coming! A Carnage buff! Everyone’s favourite red and sadistic symbiote boy can now add 2 dice to the attack granted to him by Paint The Town Red. This in combination with 1 extra health (8 health?! 8?!) on his healthy side, Carnage is really moving towards being a scary monster on the table – as he should be.

Carnage is a much swingier character than most. His highs are extremely high, but his lows are very much still present (a 5/1/1 stat line). There will be some games where he simply doesn’t get the job done. But these changes certainly help address that, giving him a bit more space to take that swing.

X-23 & Angela

Minor change here – but the timings on Frenzy and Angelic Assassin have been fixed. When X-23 or Angela activate with fewer than two power, if they Daze or KO a target with their builders, they can now gain power equal to damage dealt – and then use Frenzy or Angelic Assassin. 

Previously, they needed to have the power available to spend before the attack, which was a bit silly.

X-23 has also lost her Adamantium Skeleton superpower (I guess someone at AMG read the comics and realised that didn’t make sense), making her less of a punishment when thrown into her allies.

The biggest buff here really is the incredible artwork from my favourite MCP artist – Patrick Brown!

Heimdall, The All-Seeing

Heimdall can now see a little further, with All-Seeing Eyes going to Range 4. 

Bishop

Bishop no longer dazes himself in the Power Phase, resulting in him missing an entire round. He now does it in the Cleanup Phase. Insert slow clap.

Nightcrawler

Teleporting Strike now requires damage to be dealt in order to give out Stun, further widening the gap between Shang Chi and every other 4 threat character in the game…

Conclusion

Some interesting and exciting changes here from AMG. It’s good to see that tweaking characters is something they are still keen to do now the game has been out for a few years.

All of these new cards are now available for print-and-play here.

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