Last week I played in my first 5-box challenge. The 3-box challenge is a pretty common format for Marvel Crisis Protocol. The goal is to help new players get into the game by limiting how many boxes all of the players can bring. So players like myself who have dozens of boxes can’t take the best characters, crisis, and tactics cards.
This is the 5-box challenge. Same idea just a progression. The store, Total Escape Games, ran the 3-box challenge a month prior so it was time to expand.
My Roster
I love the Hulk and I just finished painting my She-Hulk a few weeks prior. It’s finally time to show off She-Hulk to my local store. So I brought an Avengers & A-Force list.
My five boxes were:
- CP01 – Main box
- CP04 – Hulk
- CP28 – Angela and Enchantress
- CP39 – She-Hulk
- CP63 – Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver
Game 1 – Kevin
My first game was against Guardians of the Galaxy. We played on Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? and Mutant Extremists Target US Senators at 14 threat.
I thought I’d bring Captain Marvel since she’s immune to incinerate, Hulk, & Captain America.
Round 1 my opponent found the senator with Gamora. I was pretty worried by this point since it’s such a low scoring game and my opponent has 2 points a turn unless I can get the senator off Gamora.
Round 2 Gamora moved closer and I was able to take her out and Hulk took the senator. This turn felt pretty good to me. But with 20/20 hindsight having a Hulk with a senator (-1 defense die) and incinerate (-1 defense die) meant he went down way too quick. 
I had Mission Objective and maybe should have played it to put the senator on a different character like Captain Marvel. That would have made her the target instead of Hulk and he might have survived to do more smashing.
Great job Kevin! 
Game 2 – Shaun
Game 2 also against Guardians of the Galaxy! I played 100% of the guardians at this event 
We played Fear Grips World as “Worthy” Terrorize Cities (extract) and Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (secure) at 18 threat which is great for Hulk. He gets stronger with the hammers and the Guardians have a harder time playing their tactics cards.
My opponent played aggressively with Angela so I brought Hulk into her early in the game so he can take her out before she has the chance to use her Heven’s Wrath attack.
Probably my favorite moment of the game was Iron Man moving into a building round 1 for cover. Angela threw the building at Quicksilver so Iron Man is now in the open. Rocket moves up, grabs a hammer, and blasts Iron Man doing 7 damage which is enough to take him out in 1 shot.
At one point Rocket and Groot became separated and they couldn’t protect each other. That’s probably where the game swung into my favor.
You can see in this photo that My opponent used Loveable Misfits which is a really random tactics card. Sometimes it’s phenominal and you get a bunch of extra attacks. In this case my opponent handed out a bunch of stuns to Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow. I was fortunate Hulk was just out of range of the stun. 
My opponent was ahead all game. I KOd Star-Lord on the last turn for the win. Pfew!
Game 3 – Kris
Game 3 was against Asgard. We played SWORD Establishes Base on Moons Blue Area and Mutant Extramists Target US Senators at 14 threat.
I unfortunately had priority in this game and my opponent kept getting the advantage in the last activation. Gah. I desperately wished I could have gone 5 wide at 14 threat.
But with my roster construction it just wasn’t possible. I could only go 4 wide and match my opponent. That means my opponent always went last and was able to revert control of the Sword objectives.
He also found the senator in round 1 and my Quicksilver was on the other side of the board. 
I did well but lost because I didn’t have a plan for Sword at 14 threat.
Wrap Up
Overall I went 1 and 2. 
Not exactly a great record but I had a blast. It’s always fun to play MCP in person and I did get to see my Hulk rampage across a few tables which is a good consolation prize.
I was a little dissapointed by the roster I could construct at 14 threat in round 3. So I ended up buying the Shuri and Okoye box so I’m prepared for Sword the next time. 
Thanks to the organizer TseungTsu from Across the Bifrost.
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