I've been playing Brotherhood for a good 9 months now and have spent the last 2 months playing them competitively - I've taken them to two real life tournaments and used them in Season 7 of the TTS league. Both tournaments I went 2-2 and the TTS league I was 1-3 before I unfortunately had to pull out due to other commitments.
One thing was really bothering me though, throughout my time playing them I've always enjoyed playing them with Mystique as the leader but whenever I had to flex into Magneto I never got the same enjoyment from the affiliation. I think a lot of this comes down to the fact Magneto is so threat heavy - and as such your usually having to play a tall squad which I've never really enjoyed.
I recently picked up some Spider Foes and have played a few games with them locally - I really enjoy them for the way they never seem to struggle on a given type of crisis - they can play both wide crisis such as Hammers, Riots etc. and those clustered up, attrition heavy crisis such as Gamma or Demons Downtown. Granted Foes are probably not the best affiliation at either, but they have plays in both whilst still utilising the same leader.
This gave me a bit of an idea, I wondered if I could create a Mystique Brotherhood list that was viable in both types of crisis mentioned above. Typically in the past I would have utilised a Mystique Brotherhood for the wide crisis and then flexed into Magneto for those attrition heavy, down the centre crisis. I have tried using Mystique for those down the centre crisis before, but there was just never enough attrition or survivability in the pieces I was taking as the roster was mainly built around extract play.
Now before I go on any further, I'd like to point out two things. The first, is that I have not tested this roster so I have no idea if this is even competitive - it's purely theory at this point. The second is that I appreciate that dropping Magneto from a Brotherhood roster is a big call - Magneto is a great leader and is probably one of the best leaders for attrition focused play in the game. He simply does not suit my playstyle and I don't enjoy playing him - therefore I'm trying to come up with a Brotherhood roster that suits my playstyle and is flexible whilst still utilising a single leader.
The Roster
[Characters]
- Black Cat: 3
- Gambit: 3
- Juggernaut: 5
- Lizard: 3
- Mystique: 3
- Quicksilver: 3
- Rogue: 4
- Toad: 2
- Valkyrie: 3
- X-23: 3
[Team Tactics]
- Asteroid M
- Battle Lust
- Bitter Rivals
- Blind Obsession
- Can I Borrow That?
- Deception
- Do You Know Who I Am?
- Mission Objective
- Advanced R&D
- Patch Up
[Extract Crises]
- Fear Grips World as "Worthy" Terrorize Cities [D]: 18
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park [B]: 18
- S.W.O.R.D. Establishes Base On Moon's Blue Area [C]: 14
Characters
I'm trying to keep this article fairly short so I wont go into detail about every single choice here and I'll try and stick to summarising where possible. If you've read my TTS Season 7 Roster Review - the reasons for keeping the in affiliation picks are relatively the same, Mystique is my preferred leader of choice whilst Rogue and Gambit offer us plenty of attrition whilst offering us some control. Quicksilver and Toad help with our extract game and whilst Juggernaut isn't defined as a typical attrition piece - he can help me with his extra movement all whilst taking a beating and still dishing out a reasonable amount of damage. The notable omission here is Scarlet Witch, as someone who prefers to play as wide as possible, I didn't feel like there was a place in the roster for two 5 threats in Juggernaut and Witch. Juggernaut makes the cut here on the basis he offers me more flexibility.
That leaves us with the splash characters, Black Cat and Lizard are fairly self explanatory - Black Cat brings her steals and helps the roster with extract play, whilst Lizard also offers us a lot of flexibility in extract play with his movement - he's also another tanky piece to run alongside Juggernaut. Valkyrie and X-23 are here to offer a bit more attrition potential to the roster - and at 3 threat are both low cost so should be able to slot into the squad at pretty much any threat level.
Tactics Cards
In my opinion Asteroid M is a must take in any Brotherhood roster - it's easily the affiliations best card and can be utilised as either an offensive or defensive card. Battle Lust, Blind Obsession and Bitter Rivals all add to the offensive attack output - whilst Mission Objective, Can I Borrow That? and Advanced R&D to turn on Black Cat's steal a round early, can all be used for a more extract focused game plan. Deception and Do You Know Who I Am? are pretty much auto takes for Mystique and Juggernaut respectively and Patch Up gives us access to a heal (this would otherwise be Medpack but I don't physically own the card).
Crisis Picks
Mystique's leadership pairs nicely with all 3 of the extract selections in Cubes, Hammers and Spider Infected - I go into more detail on these over on my Season 7 Roster Review.
Mystique is also strong on Infinity Formula due to the B shape crisis and on Mutant Madman due to Brotherhood's excellent all round physical defences. I've also included S.W.O.R.D here as I can play an extremely strong 14 threat team.
Example Squads
14 Threat - Mystique, X-23, Valkyrie, Gambit, Toad
14 Threat - Mystique, X-23, Valkyrie, Quicksilver, Toad
15 Threat - Mystique, X-23, Valkyrie, Toad, Rogue
15 Threat - Mystique, Black Cat, Quicksilver, Toad, Rogue
16 Threat - Mystique, X-23, Juggernaut, Gambit, Toad
16 Threat - Mystique, Lizard, X-23, Gambit, Rogue
17 Threat - Mystique, X-23, Valkyrie, Juggernaut, Gambit
17 Threat - Mystique, Lizard, Black Cat, Juggernaut, Quicksilver
18 Threat - Mystique, Juggernaut, Gambit, X-23, Rogue
18 Threat - Mystique, X-23, Valkyrie, Rogue, Gambit, Toad
19 Threat - Mystique, Juggernaut, X-23, Valkyrie, Gambit, Toad
19 Threat - Mystique, Juggernaut, Black Cat, Lizard, Quicksilver, Toad
20 Threat - Mystique, Juggernaut, X-23, Gambit, Toad, Rogue
20 Threat - Mystique, Juggernaut, Black Cat, Quicksilver, Toad, Rogue
Summary
Looking at the roster, in theory I believe the roster is flexible enough to compete on almost any crisis and at every threat level. As mentioned before I have not played any games with the roster yet, so this still needs testing. Once I've gained a few reps with the roster, I'll write a review article with the results and discuss potential changes.
I'm keen for feedback on this one, so if your reading this and have some potential feedback or ideas, please give me a shout!
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