Another medium base being added to X-Men is no joke. Not to mention his superpowers costing 2 power each. That makes Angel a great fit for either Storm or Professor X led X-Men rosters. So let’s dive into what he can do on the table.

Starting with Flyby, this attack is deceptively effective. Anyone who has played Logan or Iron Fist knows that deploying a character with an attack like this opposite a midline Secure can feel real good. Once an enemy stands on one of these Secures, Angel can move once, attack them with Flyby and be on the same Secure thanks to the guaranteed place. This generates a guaranteed power, which synergises nicely with the rest of his kit.

Air Lift combined with Hostile Takeover are what defines Angel’s job as a displacement machine, for both enemies and allies. Air Lift can move an allied Size 2 character closer to the fight, get them out of harm’s way or even get them back onto a Secure they’ve just been pushed off of. Especially under Professor X, where Angel can get hold of an extra power in Round 1 to get this ability online.

Hostile Takeover is sizeless displacement. Which is huge. It’s a much sought after ability and only costs 2 power. But now onto the problem with all of this…

Both Air Lift and Hostile Takeover require a Move Action. This means that for Angel to really achieve his job, most of the time he needs to move into position and then move again in order to use one (or both) of these abilities. Sure, being a medium base + medium move really helps with that, but there aren’t many (are there any?) characters in the game that are fine with using all their actions just moving for an activation. It feels…boring…not to mention that once you’ve done this, Angel is likely standing on a Secure himself near an enemy character ready to hit him back. It’s a shame these abilities aren’t triggered off the placement trigger from Flyby. Plus, defenses of 3/3/3 and 5 health means basically every character in the game has a chance of taking him down without much trouble.

Healing Factor is nice, especially if you want to grab a Struggle For The Cube with Angel. The extra power certainly helps. Unfortunately this will put a target on his back, giving your opinion a relatively trivial problem to solve to grab a VP off you. If Angel survives long enough to benefit from Healing Factor, you’ve done well.

Here he is…the Horseman of Death himself. This version of Warren is a surprising amount of people’s favourite character in Marvel. He’s gone through a ton of great storylines in the comics, but how does he fair on the MCP table?

Well, if you like hitting things really hard and don’t mind gambling for it…then he’s likely right up your street! We’ll start with Chosen Of Apocalypse. This superpower can easily turn an average attack roll into a great attack roll. Note that you may change 1 dice to a hit per Wild in the roll, making the ceiling for Archangel’s damage a lot higher than you’d expect.

Razor Wing Strike however is where things get a little less reliable. Range 3 and 5 dice is fine when you take Chosen Of Apocalypse into account. So no complaints there. This paired with Charge means that Archangel can really get around and hit the people he wants to hit with relative ease. The problem with this attack comes from Overwing. A crit trigger is unlikely enough for this to not be used as movement tech, which is a shame considering the Angel version of this character has a triggerless place on his attack. The other part of the feels bad comes from the fact that Overwing is not optional. Anyone who has played Beast will know the pain of this kind of trigger. You can’t rely on getting it when you want it – and you may end up having to move your character when you don’t want it. It makes for a super unpredictable activation for Archangel.

Toxic Flechettes is cute. Bleed or Poison are both fine conditions to dish out, but it’s 1 condition per wild. So I guess the Horseman of Death isn’t quite as good at infecting people with ailments as a robot like Ultron, Metal Tyrant, who can apply both conditions with a single wild. It can be more exciting however when paired with Avatar Of Death. If the defending character has Bleed and Poison AND you get a wild on this attack, you will activate them. Super strong, but highly unlikely. In the 20+ games I’ve played with Archangel, I’ve never gotten this off. But if you plan on teaming him up with a robot like Ultron, Warlock or even Green Goblin who can help apply these conditions – then maybe it becomes a more viable strategy.

As a back-up plan though, charging to the edge of Range 3, using Avatar Of Death on a big scary model, giving them Stagger and then moving away from them is a very strong way to avoid getting hit.

Which brings us onto his defenses. 5 health on a charging 4 threat is low. He can spend 2 power to add 2 defence dice with Wing Shield, but in my experience, you’re better off saving that power for hitting things. This makes Archangel very much a glass cannon. Which is fine – so long as you’re willing to accept the unreliability of the cannon part of his kit. If you struggle to roll wilds here, you’re going to have a rough time.

Tactics Cards

Sacrifice is a great card. It’s been on the Restricted list for a while now – and for good reason. Redirecting the right attack at the right time onto the right target can be game winning. Well, here comes Ultimate Sacrifice.

With a similar effect to Sacrifice (Angel has to spend 2 power here, so it isn’t necessarily always going to be online), Angel can take an attack instead of an ally. Thankfully, Angel has a tendency to fall over when faced by a stiff breeze, so it’s pretty reliable to have him Daze/KO and heal the person you just protected for a whopping 3 damage. This could absolutely be game winning if used at the right time. I think if you have space to take it and are planning on bringing Angel, you 100% should at every opportunity.

This card is COOL! Is it competitive? Maybe not. But upgrading your 3 threat to a 4 threat is no joke. The problem here however is that Archangel is pretty easy to KO on his injured side, but since this happens during the Cleanup Phase (I hope you’re listening Phoenix Unleashed…this is how you protect yourself from getting KO’d too soon) – so long as you have priority, you’re likely to get at least 1 meaningful activation from your new 4 threat.

As we’ve mentioned before, Angel dazing is pretty much a guarantee. So you’d be forgiven for taking this card if you feel like your team may want a dose of attrition towards the second half of the game in the form of Archangel.

Death From Above is a cute design space in my opinion. I love the idea of attacks doing better when made from the top of terrain, especially on a model with big old flashy wings. It’s a lot of fun.

Is it competitive? Meh. 2 dice isn’t really enough for the super niche criteria this card requires. It certainly isn’t worth a Team Tactics Card slot. It’s a shame it isn’t just on his card while Wing Shield is.

I’ve said this a lot but…THIS card is COOL. Psylocke is a highly underrated model – and they’re both affiliated with X-Force and Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (I am also part of the crowd that is confused why Archangel isn’t affiliated to Uncanny X-Men).

Archangel brings a lot of mobility with his kit while Psylocke brings an impressive 0 cost attack in the form of Telekinetic Katana with unlimited re-rolls thanks to Telepathic Precognition. This can also be used in the middle of a Charge from Archangel. It’s actually a great card, especially for being a team-up card which are often on the weaker side.

I tend to run this on Infinity Formula (for a cool Cat And Mouse play that I’ll mention later) and Deadline To Destruction as you can do some really cool flank swaps with this card. It’s fun, it’s good, I love it.

Affiliations

Uncanny X-Men

As previously mentioned, Angel brings a lot of tech that both Storm and Professor X are looking for in their rosters. You can read more about that here.

Angel and Ultimate Sacrifice scream Uncanny X-Men to me. Mutants tend to be on the squishier side, so Angel coming in with a well timed use of this card and healing a character like X-23 or Logan, who can then activate and use their own Healing Factor can feel pretty fantastic.

Angel also benefits massively from the extra power generated under Professor X, while also triggering the leadership easily on his own turn. He doesn’t have a way of triggering it on your opponent’s turn however. So you’ll want to bring at least a couple models that can, to make up for that.

We all knew this one was coming and we’re glad it’s here! Archangel can be either the Horseman of Death or Pestilence.

We’ve already discussed the potential ceiling that Archangel has. Created to End really ramps that up to 11. The bigger the dice pool, the more space he will have to benefit from Chosen Of Apocalypse (remember that if you roll skulls, you’ll be locked in and may not benefit from modifying your dice thanks to rolling some wilds). This power makes Archangel a much scarier threat in my opinion; it’s great.

Plus, it’s thematic! Archangel has only ever been the Horseman of Death in the comics. I wouldn’t be surprised if this role was designed with him in mind.

The role of Pestilence may not come to mind when you initially take a look at Archangel’s card. But he actually fits it really nicely.

Being a medium base, medium move means an activation where Archangel double moves and then spews out a bunch of conditions with Consuming Blight is more than acceptable. Plus, both of his attacks give out conditions (Bleed, Poison & Stagger), so he has a good chance of generating a nice amount of tokens for Horseman of Pestilence.

DOUBLE PLUS, Consuming Blight giving out Poison means Archangel now only needs to roll 1 wild on Razor Wing Strike to give out Bleed – and you’re now in the realm of being able to activate a model with Avatar Of Death.

Again – I wouldn’t be surprised if these cards were designed with Archangel in mind for both of them. He fits the affiliation perfectly.

We’ve covered Archangel’s dice reliance. So getting an extra re-roll on his attacks from the X-Force leadership is very welcome. But the real reason I want to shout out X-Force here is…

Ask any X-Force player and they’ll almost always tell you that Cat and Mouse is for Cable only (maybe sometimes Psylocke, if you’re feeling creative). But I’m here to tell you that on Infinity Formula you may want to play this on Archangel.

As Infinity Formula gives out bonus power during the Power Phase, that means you can place Archangel onto a point at the start of the game, meaning he starts with 2 power. He can then play Battle Bound on his first activation and take Psylocke with him, potentially hitting the enemy team on their back point a couple times with two of your models now standing there. It’s cool, it’s fun, it’s sometimes effective. Have fun with it!

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