The core of a roster

Even though I’m well known for playing Web Warriors, I have spent a long time looking at different rosters and roster building. One of the main things I notice when looking at other people’s rosters is that they have a huge spread of threat values across their Crisis cards. Some people I know take scenarios with only one or two mutual threat values – So they end up having scenarios from 14 threat all the way up to 19 and 20.

Although I don’t think this is a bad idea necessarily, personally I think the best way to build a roster is with an intentionally smaller spread of Crisis. This helps you to control the threat value you play at, but also use characters you are more comfortable and familiar with, which can go a long way in tight situations. 

If you win priority, you’re guaranteed to be able to choose to play at one of your chosen threat values. Even if you lose priority – There’s a chance your opponent picks one of your threats, or chooses one of their own within your range anyway!

This is why I try to only have a spread of three – Such as 18 – 20 or 14 – 16. There are currently 22 Crisis cards, and as more are released it will be easier to have a smaller spread. Because of the small spread in threat values, I can reliably have a core that I will use at all of those threat values – Which I can then get lots of practice with for tournament games. It additionally allows me to get the most out of my tactics cards and be able to use them all, as I will be mostly using the same builds of characters.

I think it’s fair to say that the majority of affiliations now have a ‘Core three’ that they will reliably want to run in every mission, which gives them their affiliation bonus. A few of these, in my opinion, are 

Wakanda 
– Black Panther (L), Shuri and Okoye – 9 threat.

Web Warriors
– Miles (L), Ghost Spider and Venom – 10 threat

Defenders
– Doctor Strange (L), Soul Stone, Luke Cage and Iron fist – 12 threat 

Brotherhood of Mutants
– Magneto (L), Toad and Mystique – 11 threat

There are going to be arguments that these aren’t the best three, or the three you would take, for each affiliation, but they are all good shouts.
This is just how I would do it personally and I do think it’s a pretty good way to try and build a roster. Obviously you need to be able to play at all threat values – As it is always a possibility that the opponent can win priority and pick one their own. So once I’ve built a core I then want my roster to be able to also play at all possible levels.

A lot of my local group always take a two threat character just to be able to make each threat value, but by doing it this way I’ve never needed a two threat character – I already know what to play at each level and have options. This isn’t me saying that two threat characters are bad – I’ve just never taken one myself.

As Web Warriors is what I play, that’s the roster I’ll use to explain what I mean. So now that I’ve got my core three, as these are 10 threat, I need to know what I need to make each threat level.

– 14 threat – One four threat
– 15 threat – One five threat 
– 16 threat – Two three threats 
– 17 threat – One four and one three threat 
– 18 threat – One five and one three, or two four threats
– 19 threat – One five and one four 
– 20 threat – Two five threats

So the minimum I need is two three threats, one four threat and two five threats. 

That takes me up to eight characters. Two of the best characters I think to take together are Corvus and Proxima (For obvious reasons!), especially if you have space in your roster for the reality Gem. In my current roster I have two spare slots, so this works perfectly for me. These give me my first three threat and five threat characters, as I don’t really run Corvus without the stone.

For my second three threat character, I have Baron Zemo. He is possibly my favourite character at this cost, and is great in Web Warriors, with a long move and a bunch of re rolls he and his friends can use. Since I’ll always be running Corvus with the stone, I still need a four threat, the perfect choice here for me is Killmonger. When I first got into the game, he absolutely dominated the ring, wracking up kill tokens galore. I still think he has a place in the competitive scene and I really like him – Especially with the Usurp the Throne tactics card. With lists running multiple high threat characters, the choice of which one to try and snipe for 2 VPs can be very useful. 

The only character I still need is a second five threat. For a long time I was running Angela – As she played well into my style of play and roster. However, Scarlet Witch brings some very much needed Mystic damage to my roster, and is extremely good for her threat. 

This leaves me with one slot for my roster. I decided in the end to take Daredevil, as he is a second four threat character who is also affiliated for cards like All webbed up. Not only this, but his long move and area attack are great reasons to take him in my roster. 

So now I have my core and the characters to make each threat value, I’m left with my final roster – Where I know what I’ll be using and can get plenty of reps in with my core. Hopefully this helps some of you guys when building your rosters! 

– Miles Morales (3)
– Ghost Spider (3)
– Venom (4)
– Corvus Glaive (4) 
– Proxima Midnight (3)
– The Reality Stone (1)
– Baron Zemo (3)
– Killmonger (4)
– Scarlet Witch (5)
– Daredevil (4)

As always please leave a thumbs up if you enjoyed reading, or a thumbs down if you didn’t! Please feel free to comment with any thoughts you have, and follow the blog if you want to see future posts! Thank you all for reading!