Splash! Characters

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So I wanted to find out from the community what kind of articles would be useful and one of the first things I got was from @Schuurthing on Discord, asking for an article about Splash characters. Not who you should take as them, but how to decide on what to look for in Splash characters and what should influence your choices. As always these are just my opinions and thoughts, so if you have any ideas about it or disagree then please comment below!

What is a ‘Splash’ character?

To me, a Splash character is essentially any model you take that isn’t in your own affiliation. You basically ‘Splash’ them in as they fill a gap or a role that you don’t necessarily have affiliated access to – Or that they are just better at that role than the affiliated option. To explain this, I’ll use my own roster as an example. As you’ll see, only half of the models in my roster are Web Warriors affiliated

Characters
Miles Morales (L), Ghost Spider, Venom, Moon Knight, Black Cat, Corvus Glaive w Reality Gem, Proxima Midnight, The Hood, Doctor Voodoo and Toad

So the last five characters are all what you could call Splash characters. Corvus and Proxima bring a damage-dealing duo that has access to priority manipulation. Toad fills the role of a two threat, and is a cheap objective runner. The Hood helps fill out some threat values, and brings Healing abilities that amplify the resilience of the rest of the roster. Voodoo doubles down on the objective play and control elements of the team, as between him and Black Cat no objective is safe

How should you choose Splash characters

Each affiliation is after different things for their play style. Like in many other games, you can break these things down into categories. For Marvel Crisis Protocol, I’ve heard lots of different terms and phrases for describing playstyles. I would personally break it down into Control, Aggro, Tall, Wide and Attrition. Each affiliation crosses over between these groups, with some having one as a main focus. Some affiliations are very linear in their play style, whilst others can really do lots of different things. Web Warriors are notoriously a control faction, although I’ve had success with playing them very Aggro as well. Without going off on too much of a tangent, here is a quick breakdown for those who might not be that familiar with the terms

Control
– Has options for moving the opponents models with pushes and throws
– Can steal/pass around objectives 
– Can waste enemy actions with conditions like Stagger, or fully activating models

Aggro 
– Wants to focus on damage output and dazing/KOing enemies
– Will generally take more centred secures, like Gamma Waves and Demons
– Takes slower scoring missions so the game can last long enough to daze/KO the opponents team

Tall 
– Teams where you have fewer models but each one is a higher threat value 
– Relies on a few very meaningful activations rather than lots of smaller characters 
– Having less models gives these teams the option to manipulate and control priority

Wide
– Brings higher numbers of models to the table – Generally aiming to take lots of lower threat characters
– Likes missions with lots of separate Extracts and Secure points, like Spider Infected and Mutant Madmen

Attrition 
– Teams that shut off a lot of enemy effects and want to outlast in order to outscore
– Can take a beating with things like damage reduction or Innate healing

So now that we know roughly the different play styles, we can look at how splashing in different models can fill gaps or amplify strengths. Some players may prefer to double down on their strengths, whereas others will take Splash characters to fill roles they don’t have access to or to cover their weaknesses. Every affiliation is very different in what they need when looking who to add on to their core.

What to look for when choosing

Stacking similar abilities is always very useful. For example, both the Web Warriors and X-Force have access to their respective rerolls. So, brining in characters with their own in built rerolls then stacks and amplifies this. As well as this, characters that count things such as blanks when Defending will really benefit from the WW reroll, as you get more bang for your buck as your rerolling with a higher success chance.

At the same time, it’s important to look at what your Affiliation may fix for your Splash characters. Characters that are notoriously bad for power problems will really feel the benefit of Magneto led Brotherhood or A-Force. So when considering characters you may bring in, sometimes it is worth looking at characters that are sometimes not used as often – As you may be able to fix the one thing holding them back

Certain Tall rosters may feel the need to Splash in lower threat characters in order to fill out certain threat values. Because of the nature of most Tall rosters, bringing a cheaper model with a mechanic like Bodyguard or an aura of Rerolls can help to make sure you get the most out of your big threat characters. And, if you end up having to play a wider mission, this then gives you the choice to go a little wider.

It’s always worth considering the character specific Tactics cards when looking at Splash characters. Having access to some of the more niche Tactics Cards that come locked behind characters can be really useful, and when combined in the right affiliation can be very powerful. At the same time it is worth looking at characters that synergise well with your affiliated Team Tactics cards. Cards like Siege of Darkness and Wakanda forever will really feel the benefit of having a model that can hand out conditions such as Hex or Incinerate before playing those cards.

Counter play is very important when building rosters too. If you come up against an opponent that has leant heavily into rerolls, then having models that you can’t modify dice against is a great way to shut this down. At the same time, if you come against a roster of Defenders or Guardians of the Galaxy, you may want to swap out an affiliated character with really low Energy defence for a different character that won’t be punished as much. If you come against a team that has lots of Pushes and throws, characters that can negate this will be really powerful too.

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 Brum’s Marvel section here, for all the MCP goodness you need! Thanks again for reading!