Character review – New M.O.D.O.K

If you’re looking to jump into Marvel Crisis Protocol, or just need to fill out your roster with some fresh recruits or supervillains, please check out our Sponsor Board in Brum!

Today we’re going to take a look at the last of the revised cards we have seen (So far!) which is none other than MODOK! MODOK hit the table alongside Hulk shortly after the core box dropped, and has been an absolute powerhouse since! On the face of things, MODOK seems like a very strange character – With his low defences and odd stamina pool – But once you see his full tool kit and how it can be combined, you realise he is very powerful. For a long time MODOK could be seen in every list, but with some more recent releases he has become less dominant. Personally I’ve always felt MODOK would still see play as a six threat, yet alone a five – so it’s good to see him being reigned in a little with the updates. As with Cap and Shuri, we haven’t seen his unhealthy side so I’m just going to assume it changes in a very similar way to how it does currently.

Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing

MODOK’s stats on the face of things are a little odd. For five threat, you get a size four model that moves small – But as he is on a 65mm base this doesn’t actually feel too slow. With a very low defence line of 2/3/3, most three threat characters have a higher range, so it’s strange to see a five threat with such low values. However combined with his abnormally high stamina pool of ten and some of his superpowers – MODOK is extremely tanky on his healthy side. Assuming that his health pool drops down to four on his injured side like it currently does, you want to keep MODOK on his healthy side for as long as possible, as he turns into an extremely fragile glass cannon once he’s flipped.

Attacks

MODOK only has two attacks – But they are both very, very powerful and unchanged on his revised character card. His builder is Psionic Blast, and is arguably one of the best builders in the game. For zero power, you get a range four Mystic attack that throws out six dice. On top of MODOK gaining power equal to the damage this attack deals, it also has the Sap Power trigger. This means for every Wild in the attack roll, before damage is dealt the target loses one power and MODOK gains that amount of power.

The fact that this attack is Mystic means it ignores a lot of the defensive tech in the game, such as Miles’s Spider sense and Black Panthers Vibranium Armour. Mystic is also still the lowest average defence in game, so this attack will pretty reliably deal two or three damage against most targets. Combined with Sap Power, and you’ll find MODOK always has enough to use all of his superpowers and his spender whenever you want to.

Talking of his spender, MODOK’s big attack is Doomsday chair. For three power you get a range four, seven dice Physical attack, with a couple of special rules. The first is Whirling Blades, which you automatically get whenever you use this attack. After the attack is resolved, you may make an additional Doomsday Chair attack without paying its power cost. The additional attack must target another character within two of the original target, and doesn’t have the Whirling Blades special rule. This is a slightly weaker version of Flurry, but the fact that it’s automatically built in means you can plan around it. Doomsday Chair also has the trigger that if you roll a Wild in its attack roll, after the attack is resolved the target gains the Bleed special condition. Doomsday chair can be really devastating, and if you have the power to essentially make four attacks with it, clumped up opposing models need to be very careful.

Superpowers

MODOK has four superpowers, and this is where all of the changes to his card have been made. His first superpower is Bow to Will the MODOK, which for two power lets you choose an enemy character within range three and advance them small. Previously this could be used multiple times a turn, as long as it targeted different characters. It has now been changed so that it can only be used once per turn full stop, meaning you won’t be able to re arrange the entire enemy team to suit your plans. This is a lot more tame, and definitely a positive change for the game overall in my opinion. It could get very obnoxious having MODOK move your entire team around during the course of his turn, and although it is now limited it is still hugely powerful to be able to advance an enemy model for two power.

His second superpower is quite a mouthful, and it’s titled Imbecile! All the World is a Weapon to M.O.D.O.K. This is still the same as its previous incarnation, and for two power you get to choose an interactive terrain feature of size three or less within range three of MODOK, and throw it long. This is a pretty great throw that lets MODOK still sit back and use his longer ranged attacks and be able to hurl objects at his foes. The throw can be a great way for him to finish off weakened targets, and I was a little surprised to see its power cost not be bumped up to three.

Another superpower with an unnecessarily long name is Pea-Bran! M.O.D.O.K’s Genius in Infinite! This reactive superpower has a cost of X, which means you can choose to spend different amounts of power when using it. While this character is attacking or defending, during the modify dice step of the attack, it may spend any amount of power to use this superpower. For each power spent, this character may reroll one of its attack or defence dice. Previously you could use this superpower as many times as you liked, but now it has been limited to being used once per turn. This makes M.O.D.O.K a lot less tanky, as he can’t rely on just rerolling all of his defence dice to make up for only having a few.

MODOKs last superpower is Psionic Force Field, and it’s the main chunk of armor that makes MODOK hard to put down. When defending against an attack, this character changes Wild results in the attack roll to blanks. Not only does this lower the number of successes available on an attackers dice, but it essentially stops almost all special rules that rely on a Wild to trigger. With the exception of Pierce, because of timing the Wilds in attack rolls are changed by this superpower before they can trigger things like pushes and flurries. This is possibly the most frustrating part of trying to deal with MODOK, and luckily he currently loses this superpower on his unhealthy side. Hopefully he still does, as dealing with this superpower on both sides of his card could quickly become very frustrating. There have been times I’ve rolled an attack into MODOK, only to realise that without my Wilds I’ve only got two or three successes, and with his limited defence dice he’s still been able to block one or two of the damage, turning what would of been a devastating attack into very little chip damage.

With the couple of small changes that he has had, MODOK definitely feels more in line with his five threat cost. He’s still going to see a lot of play, and he definitely still has a really powerful toolkit, but now he is at least going to feel a little less obnoxious. Let me know your thoughts below, and what you think the changes mean for the hideous head that is the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing

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! If you’re interested in video content, then check out Wargaming Luke on YouTube as he shares his weekly Marvel videos!

If you’re looking to expand your roster with some new Heroes for Hire, or want to start off and take the dive into Marvel Crisis Protocol – Check out Board in Brums Marvel section here, for all the MCP goodness you need! Thanks again for reading!00

– Home
– Getting into MCP
– Character breakdowns
– First Impressions
– Events
– Roster building
– Crisis and Tactic cards
– Podcasts
– Feature articles
– Community resources



• Post
• Block

Status & visibility

VisibilityPublicPublish

Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing

MODOK stats

Attacks

Psionic Blast

Doomsday chair

Superpowers

Bow to will the MODOK

Imbecile Superpower

Pea brain

Psionic

Ugly man big head

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! If you’re interested in video content, then check out Wargaming Luke on YouTube as he shares his weekly Marvel videos!

If you’re looking to expand your roster with some new Heroes for Hire, or want to start off and take the dive into Marvel Crisis Protocol – Check out Board in Brums Marvel section here, for all the MCP goodness you need! Thanks again for reading!