Doctor Strange recently had a bit of a glow up and a significant change to his leadership. The short version of it is – you are going to cover your opponents characters in Hex.

Hex prevents a character from ‘exploding crits’ i.e. adding extra dice for each crit result they roll.

Not only does this make your opponent easier to hurt, because their defence dice have all been neutered, but it also makes their attacks into you a lot less potent. You can essentially predict what the worst case scenario of damage might be when you take an attack. A five dice attack from a Hexed character can only deal at most – 5 damage. This makes a long, drawn out fight much easier to predict and eventually overcome. It’s a much stronger leadership than it reads on paper – and I recommend taking this into other teams that would like to fight you. 

Note however that it is much less useful against teams like Web Warriors and Kingpin led Criminal Syndicate who don’t intend on punching you much. Those teams tend to get by making very few attacks and focusing on displacement and scoring instead.

Doctor Strange himself however is a rather powerful 5 threat. Bolts Of Bedevilment is a very consistent attack thanks to the Pierce trigger and Eye of Agamotto (in case things go badly on the first roll attempt) and a sizeless and directionless push is extremely powerful control. 

Note – a common mistake made with Eye Of Agamotto is that it’s actually a re-roll. You don’t get to choose which dice you re-roll, you simply pick them all up and try again. You also don’t get to explode your crits – as this re-roll happens after the explode crits step in the timing chart.

Oshtur’s Revenge gives some much welcomed sustain (healing is very rare in Marvel Crisis Protocol) in drawn out fights, which couples really nicely with the leadership as mentioned above.

Crimson Bands Of Cyttorak is real fancy. A Crit, Hit, Wild trigger isn’t the hardest trigger in the world to hit – and you can always have a second shot at it thanks to Eye of Agamotto. Activating a character can be devastating for your opponent – not to mention that you can also play this alongside Iron Fist who can also activate models. No-one. Is. Safe.

Doctor Strange does come with Gem Bearer [Soul, Time], but at a price – it adds a threat to his total cost. As Soul and Time are some of the weaker Infinity Gem effects in the game, I’d advise against it. Doctor Strange makes for a very effective 5 threat, but a mid-low tier 6 threat, even with the additional abilities the Gems give him. I’d suggest you avoid that version of him, at least when first getting started with Defenders.

Everyone’s favourite blind lawyer comes swinging onto the battlefield here with another fantastic leadership for Defenders! Marvel Knights allows you to set up one amazing attack per turn by getting into the thick of it and surrounding yourself with enemies. Characters like Amazing Spider-Man, Ulik, and Hulk love this as they have abilities that allow them to get into position before punching, meaning you can pick the sweet spot with the largest number of enemy models and then get a bunch of attack re-rolls.

As this leadership works once per turn, it also applies to attacks you make on your opponents turn. Daredevil’s own ability Man Without Fear is a retaliate that will net you a bonus use of the leadership, as will other retaliate models like Dracula and Werewolf by Night. You may want to bring some of these ‘bonus’ attacks in a Daredevil-led Defenders roster to make the most of the leadership.

Baton Hook is a fantastic attack. Ignoring line of sight and no Cover or Stealth is huge. Practically no-one can hide from the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen – and if they’re Size 2, they’re likely to then be pulled towards Daredevil, potentially into a position for a follow-up attack that can trigger the leadership now they’re in a better position for him. 

Devil’s Deliverance synergises with the leadership in a terrifying way. On one of the attacks in this area attack, Daredevil can get a re-roll per enemy he’s already targeting to really make sure someone goes down. This attack is so good that I often see people happily spend a move action to get into the perfect position before pulling it off – and with a long move, he can basically always get to where he wants to be. 

Daredevil loses Man Without Fear on his injured side, however – it gets replaced with Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, which offers him a third attack during his activation. This loses the synergy for the leadership, but getting a free Baton Hook on your turn is often a fantastic addition.

While Radar Sense is a great bit of defensive tech – it’s worth noting that this doesn’t work on dodges. So Daredevil is fairly vulnerable to having a car thrown at him. I guess he didn’t see that coming.

It’s everyone’s favourite support model – Wong!

Wong is the ultimate enabler in Marvel Crisis Protocol. A common Round 1 activation for Wong is to Meditate for a power, Faithful Assistant to give someone else 1 power and then move onto a home Secure. So long as you power up the right model in this way, Wong brings a lot of value to your Round 1 plays.

In affiliation, Namor, Wolverine, Black Panther, Chosen of Bast, Hawkeye, Magik, Namor, Shang-Chi, Amazing Spider-man and regular Spider-man all massively benefit from gaining 1 extra power before their first activation. The list of non-affiliated characters gagging for 1 more power in Round 1 is even longer than that!

From Round 2 onwards, things get a little hairier for Wong. Only having 4 health means he’s often a target for enemy backpoint divers who will see him as an easy target. It’s important to remember that surviving isn’t Wong’s job – it’s supporting his team mates and soaking up enemy resources.

Pulling off a cheeky The Vishanti’s Blessing to heal damage or remove a condition from an ally is huge – and you often see Wong being used as a pit-stop for allies to jump back to when they’ve taken a beating.

Plus, while Servant To The Sorcerer Supreme does make it feel like you should only take Wong when Stephen is around, this isn’t the case. Wong fits nicely into any team that needs a bit of extra power & healing…which is most MCP teams!

Not to mention that everyone has a story about how they saw a Wong roll a lucky Strike to take down a Hulk!

Iron Fist & Luke Cage are 3 threats completely jam packed with value. I won’t go into too much detail here; as we have a Tactics article for these two which can be checked out here.

But taking either one of these guys (or both!) plus their Heroes For Hire Team Tactics Card is never a bad move in any Defenders list.

Tactics Cards

Pentagram of Farallah

Any Marvel Rivals players here? This one might sound familiar.

There is a whole meta list known as Portal Defenders that is entirely based around this card. It’s a little too complex to get into here, but in short: You play this card with a bunch of characters that can charge, then you charge in, hit your opponent, and then portal back to your team while also body blocking the portal to prevent your opponent from coming through and hitting you back. It takes a lot of practice, but can be super effective when used correctly.

I’ve seen this card used to help chase down Extracts on wider maps (D maps, Deadline to Destruction, and so on) and it’s really punishing. If you’re interested in trying it, I recommend experimenting a few times and know that it’ll take a fair chunk of games before you get your head around its usefulness. But you won’t be disappointed!

Seven Suns of Cinnibus

Did you first read this as Cinnabon? Cool, us too.

Beam 5, 8 dice with an Incinerate is pretty impressive. The fact it takes a lot of set-up (or positioning luck) and an Action makes it less impressive.

I think on the right map, this can work a treat. You need both teams to be clumped up, so I’d recommend trying this out on Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses or Wedding Party Targeted in Terrible Attack!

Vapors of Valtorr

Again with the complicated set-up. The mystic arts must be tricky to work out!

This card is a lot of fun and is super thematic. If you’re a fan of Dungeons & Dragons and the spell Mirror Image – I can see you reaching for this one.

It’s cool – but I’m not sure exactly how strong it is. Defenders have better cards than this, but I certainly wouldn’t blame you for slamming it on the table – it could come up clutch in the right scenario. Re-rolling your opponents attack dice is no joke.

Street Smarts

This. Card. Is. Awesome. Playing this at a pivotal round when your team are already stood on Secures could be game winning – especially into a team that isn’t hitting very hard already.

Strong attrition teams may just punch through this – but teams like Web Warriors likely haven’t damaged you much by the time you play this, so you can ignore a lot of their displacement by taking some extra chip damage that characters like Hulk & Luke Cage likely don’t care about.

Not to mention Wong & Doctor Strange can then go around healing up the damage taken.

It’s great; play it. 

Cover Me

Very fun and very thematic. The first few times I saw this card played – I reacted with “okay…I’ll just punch everyone else then?”. That was until this weekend just gone at Nations where I played against an opponent that played it on Luke Cage who was in range for Too Dangerous to Ignore and Heroes For Hire with enough power to do all of that.

Suddenly I had no choice but to attack Luke Cage – and paid for it by getting slapped in the face by a Hulk. That play alone won him the game and I completely changed my mind about this card.

It’s worth shouting out characters like Elsa Bloodstone & Silver Sable here too. Because of their long ranges, it’s much easier to get these bonus attacks in as they’re more likely to be in range of the attacker that triggered the card’s effect. Nice!

This card is so annoying. It’s the ultimate “I’m taking my ball and I’m going home” card. Since it can be played at any point in a Round, you can essentially wait to see who is likely to score a Secure and just switch it off if your opponent is looking to score it.

This on Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses or Wedding Party Targeted in Terrible Attack! can be crippling as they’re worth 2VP – and we’re assuming you are playing this because you have control of the other Secure.

It’s sassy and I love it.

Next Character Purchases

Now you’ve grabbed yourself the best box for getting started with Defenders – where should you look next? Well, here are some key affiliated characters that fit nicely into almost any Defenders roster.

Let’s just start here. He’s big, green, relatively indisputably the best 6 threat in the game…AND he’s affiliated to Defenders! Hulk is fantastic, especially under the Marvel Knights leadership because he can Gamma Leap to a spot where he’s surrounded by enemies and then make a massive attack with a dice pool that has tons of space for re-rolls. It’s great.

An extremely popular 4 threat in the game right now, Shang-Chi has been tearing up tables since he first released. He can basically do anything, with one of the most flexible kits in the game.

He loves a bonus power from Wong as he can get his charge off on Round 1. He has an above-the-curve builder in the form of a six dice Ten Thousand Shapes Strike, meaning he can reliably get a damage off and trigger the Judgement of the Vishanti leadership. He can really do it all.

Another character that loves being teamed up with Wong, as he can get his premium charge Imperius Rex! off in Round 1.

Being super mobile thanks to his medium base + long move, as well as having a guaranteed advance on Trident, Namor makes a great character for the Daredevil leadership as he can always get to exactly where he wants to be to trigger the leadership.

I have seen people take the Time Gem on Namor, which removes his reliance on Wong. He’s an okay 6 threat with that Gem, so I won’t knock it. But as a 5 threat, he’s one of the most taken in the game.

Not to mention he functions as a Round 1 safe grab if you deploy him directly opposite an Extract, as he can grab it in a single move action and then retreat to safety. That ends his activation on 1 power, meaning he can then Imperius Rex! all by himself in Round 2. 

Final Thoughts

So there you have it! As one of the largest affiliations in Marvel Crisis Protocol – I think this affiliation box is a superb place to start your Defenders journey with. It contains all of their most essential characters – making it relatively cheap to buy a couple extra boxes and then you have a top-tier competitive list in your hands.

Good luck out there! Go keep the streets safe.

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