Over the last few years as I’ve been diving into Marvel Crisis Protocol I’ve played a variety of characters & affiliations. I’ve probably played with 2/3 of characters & affiliations. So for a while I’ve while I’ve wanted to hunker down and learn one affiliation really well.
When I heard about Nick Fury, his grunts, and his 10 tactics cards I decided to play Shield. So I’ve played them for a few weeks now and I’m finally starting to understand how they work. So today I’m going to share exactly what my Shield roster is. And how I plan to change it after these games.
I played two games today. The first with my buddy Mark and the second with my buddy Sean. I’m going to focus on the 2nd game since that’s where a lot of ideas for change came from. Onto the roster!
My Roster
Characters
- Nick Fury Jr* – 4
- Iron Man – 3
- Winter Soldier – 3
- Black Widow – 2
- She-Hulk – 6
- Hulk – 6
- Black Panther – 4
- Shuri – 3
- Venom – 4
- Ghost-Rider – 5
Tactics Cards
- Eye in the Sky
- Battlefield Medicine
- Shield Mobile
- The Initiative
- Sitrep
- Reposition
- Brace for Impact [Restricted]
- Mission Objective
- Deal with the Devil
- Lethal Protector
Crises
Secures 
- Mutant Madmen (18)
- Gamma Wave (15)
- Infinity Formula (17)
Extracts 
- Spider-Infected (17)
- Struggle for the Cube (17)
- Deadly Legacy Virus Cured (19)
Game with Mark
First game was Intrusions and Spider Infected at 17 threat. I had a core of Nick Fury, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man. For splashes I took Shuri and Black Panther.
My opponent took Black Order led by Corvus. He also had Proxima, Supergiant, Hood, and Magik.
Shuri was the MVP for me. She pushed Corvus back a few times. Dazed Hood and saved Nick Fury with rerolls.
I won round 4. My opponent had an advantage on Spider-Infected early on. Eventually I got the objectives off their characters and my agents picked it up and could run away.
Game With Sean
My second game was Senators and Infinity Formula at 14. I took Fury, Winter Soldier, Iron Man, and Venom. I avoided Panther because I always play him and I was worried about mystic attacks.
My opponent had Strange Supreme, Wong, Voodoo, and Mordo.
My opponent won priority so he deployed first. I positioned Nick Fury and my Agents to explore 2 agents tokens turn 1.
He moved his Baron Mordo on my right and found the senator on the first try. Darn! It was a good reminder to me that you should always have a plan for your opponent finding the senator on turn 1. I only had M move characters (knew I should have taken Black Panther!).
Fury and his agents didn’t even have a chance. 
So I decided I’d try to damage Mordo this turn. Maybe I can get lucky. But I’ll at least do some damage and move Venom up as far as possible so he can Web Snare and eat Baron Mordo turn 2. 
Iron Man moved and did 3 whole points of damage. Great start! Strange Supreme killed the grunts. Not too bad for me.
On the other side of the board my opponent was too cagey so Winter Soldier and Fury both moved to the Infinity Formula for extra power on turn 2.
At this point I was behind 4 – 2. Ouch.
Turn 2
At the start of Turn 2 my opponent played Iron Bound Books with Wong and I knew I had to have some luck.
Mordo used his 4 dice builder twice and with a 5 damage spike on the first attack he only needed 2 damage on the next and Venom went down fast. 
I had some hope maybe Iron Man could get lucky but I used Homing Missiles so I could shoot Mordo who is now at range 5. He was able to turn those to mystic attacks and take maybe 1 damage.
Strange Sorceror Supreme moves and attacks Venom and Iron Man in an area attack. 
Venom takes 0 damage from the first attack. I decide to use Lethal Protector to take the hit for Iron Man (who has 3 damage on him). I figured 6 health on the back he should be fine.
…Five damage later. Venom makes a So Many Snacks attack. He wiffs and only does 1 damage. Strange KOs Venom with an energy attack.
On the plus side I remembered to use the Shield Leadership! It goes from 4 to 3. Only losing by 1 now.
Not much happened on the other side of the table. Winter Soldier Hydra Tactics off of Nick Fury to hope to get lucky and daze Voodoo with a hopeful 4 attacks. I missed the rapid fire trigger once and rolled poorly. I only did a damage or two with a bleed. Fury moved half towards Voodoo and half towards the middle. He shoots but misses Voodoo.
Voodoo takes Winter Soldier down to 1 health. And moves to contest my home infinity formula.
Turn 3
I realized turn 3 that with Venom down and Iron Man failing I had to take a risk to not let the game run away from me.
Nick Fury used the Shield Mobile for a long advance across the map. Then used a medium move. He was just in range for a Fury Special which did 3 damage dazing Mordo. Finally some luck!
Fury deployed his agents and picked up the Senator. Bad ass.
I held the senator for turn 3 and 4. We traded models back and forth. They dazed Iron man and Winter Soldier.
I KOd Mordo and dazed Voodoo.
The end of the game was when Strange Supreme teleported towards Fury on a point and (a new set of) agents holding the senator. He blasted the grunts and picked up the senator to win.
Well done Sean! 
Conclusion
This game started rough. Losing the senator and then my heavy hitter getting taken out top of turn 2. Nick Fury saved the day start of turn 3 with his long haul across the board.
I almost pulled it back but finally lost 16 to 12 turn 5. It felt good to almost come back from an early spike.
We did play Iron Bound Books wrong (recycled it after a daze) so he got extra turn with the card. Might have made a difference but it’s too hard to rewind. Will keep an eye on it for my next game. 
So What Did I Learn from These Games? What Can I Do Better?
Black Panther & Shuri ruled in game 1. They are splashable in any affiliation. But I find they can fill some specific gaps this roster has. Panther has a long move and he’s tanky. Shuri gives much needed control – blasting Corvus twice on it’s own is worth it. And she also gave crucial rerolls to Fury to keep him alive.
I really wanted to try Venom for game 2. And as I’ve experienced in other lists he can be too easily controlled and a dice spike can take him down. And he can make deployment tricky. If you see an energy attacker on one side you usually want to deploy as far away as possible. I should seriously consider a new 4 threat.
I also wish I have a few more energy attackers in the roster to fight against an Iron Bound Books turn. They’re so defensive. 
Iron Man is okay but obviously can let you down.
I also wish earlier on I didn’t have to run Fury across the board. I have the Helios Laser card IRL. I need to remember it’s a great backup plan for any single extract crisis. Especially Senators. It’s always good to have a backup plan.
I should have used Battlefield Medicine in game 2. I kept having characters with 2 damage on them and not using the card. Sometimes it’s nice to wait for the perfect 3 damage and 1 condition. But sometimes you miss on a good opportunity and are left with no opportunity.
I could also consider dropping Infinity Formula. Sean loved the extra power all game. And besides the shape I’m not sure it helped.
Changes
- Dropping Venom – 4
- Adding Rogue – 4
- She has invulnerability. Which might have saved her where Venom died
- She has physical or energy attacks. Perfect to fight against Convocation and generally good
- Good counter to Juggernaut
- Dropping Lethal Protector
- Adding Helios Laser
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