Character review – Rogue

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Now that we’ve looked at Ms. Marvel and Magik, one of the other Uncanny X-Men whose cards we got to see during the Ministravaganza was Rogue. Today we are going take a dive into her character card, and see what she can bring to the table!

Rogue made her first comic appearance in the Avengers Annual #10, where she appeared as a Villain. Not long after she joined the X-Men and has been associated with them ever since! In case you didn’t know, Rogue has the ability to absorb and sometimes also remove the memories, physical strength, and superpowers of anyone she touches, whether she wants to or not. Rogue tried for a long time to restrict all physical contact with others to prevent this – You could say that she considers her powers to be a curse.

The Rogue we’ve seen revealed shows Rogue after she has both absorbed and killed Carol Danvers – Captain Marvel!. This explains some of her superpowers and abilities, which we’ll touch on later after looking at her stats and attacks!

Rogue

Starting off by looking at her stats, for four threat you get six stamina and an average set of defences. 4/3/3 is a pretty common defence line for a four threat, but having the higher defence fall in physical is always nice as it is still the most common damage type in the game – And is used for dodging. A medium move and being size two is the standard for most characters, and on a small base this is pretty good and gives Rogue a decent amount of manoeuvrability.

Attacks

Rogues first attack is Absorbing strike, a range two, five dice Physical attack that costs zero power. As far as builders go – It has a bunch of special rules. First of all you get to choose whether the attacks type is Physical or Energy – Which is always great for picking the targets weaker defences or vulnerabilities. Secondly, after the attack is resolved, Rogue gains power equal to the damage dealt. Being able to pick the weaker defences means this attack should let Rogue quickly build some power when she needs too, as well as doing some damage. The final rule is a Wild trigger – Sap Power. Before damage is dealt, the target character loses one power for each wild in the attack roll, and Rogue gains that amount of power. Needless to say, this only adds to Rogues power economy, and once she is in range two she should be able to easily start stacjing Power.

Rogues ‘Spender’ is Southern Hospitality. This is again, a range two attack, that rolls seven dice and is Physical. It costs three power, and although it doesn’t have many special rules- The one it does have it pretty good. After the attack is resolved, if the target character is size 4 or less, they may be thrown Small. This means Rogue can use this to throw every character that we currently have (Except for Dormammu) which means she will even be able to throw Hulk out of position or into an unlucky team mate. I think this is a really strong attack – The fact that the throw is automatic and doesn’t require a Wild trigger means that it can even catch M.O.D.O.K out.

Superpowers

Rogue has a lot of superpowers on her card, that give her a really interesting tool kit to use on the battlefield. Her first Super power is Charge. Charge is one of the best superpowers in the game in terms of action efficiency.

Hee second superpower is Marvellous strength – I think the name is a clever nod to Captain Marvel. For three power, Rogue can choose an interactive terrain feature of size four or less within two, and throw it medium. This is a great throw, and size four terrain turning into five damage that needs to be dodged for your opponent can be pretty scary. Being able to use this throw to clear terrain that your opponent might plan to use is really useful as well, as if lined up this can remove two big terrain features – Really ruining Magnetos day.

Mutant Absorption is a really interesting Superpower that thematically fits with Rogue being able to draw on the essence of others. Rogue can choose an enemy character within two and spend two power to use this Superpower. Rogue rolls five dice, and the chosen character loses power equal to the number of Hits, Crits and Wilds. If the chosen character would lose more power than it has, it suffers one damage for each power it could not lose. The target doesn’t gain power for damage dealt this way.

This Superpower looks to be pretty crazy in my opinion. You’ll normally be sapping two or three power with this, which is great in itself. The ceiling for this ability is really high – If you spike and get four or the full five, your either going to be getting rid of a huge chunk of enemy power or dealing some pretty serious damage. Using this power to finish off a target will be great in the right situation – Sapping there power to zero and dazing them, so they only come back with the power for the turn. I think this powers going to really catch some people out, and cause serious issues in opponents power economies on top of her Sap Power basic.

Kree-Mutant Physiology is another nod to Captain Marvel. This is essentially the same superpower as Corvus and Proximas Invulnerability – When this character would suffer damage from an enemy effect, reduce the amount suffered by one, to a minimum of one. Rogues pretty average defences are suddenly boosted up, as this really helps her survivability. Innate damage reduction is great, as it will always have some use in every game. This really rounds Rogue out as a strong mid table brawler for four threat, who can throw the big guys about and still take a punch.

Finally Rogue has Flight and Immunity Poison. On top of what Rogue already has, flight means she’ll be able to move where she wants to be without worrying about terrain in the way. Immunity Poison is quite useful, in Terrigen gas or against certain characters it can prove useful to keep Rogues power gain up. With her builder, she should always have the power for what she needs anyway.

Overall Rogue looks really strong. She’ll enjoy the places thar she gets in X-Men Gold, and always having cover outside of range two will make her a real unit. Outside of her own affiliations, I think Rogue will actually be really good in Web Warriors and Brotherhood. She’ll love the defensive reroll from Web Heads, and in Brotherhood her size four terrain throw will be useful for gaining power from the leadership, and she’ll be able to lean into the aggro Brotherhood plays. Rogue stood next to Magneto, and both of them just throwing size three and four terrain at you, will be a very hard storm to weather. It’s going to be interesting to see what she brings – She has such a varied toolkit that she will be able to fill plenty of different roles.

As always please leave a thumbs up if you enjoyed reading, or a thumbs down if you didn’t! Please comment with any thoughts you have on Ms. Marvel and where you might be trying her out! Board in Brum still currently has some sales on, including the Inhumans leader Black Bolt and his wife Medusa, which you can find here!

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