In this series, I will be discussing my Servants of the Apocalypse list building and presenting battle reports as I relearn MCP after a very long hiatus and learn to play the Servants of the Apocalypse affiliation.
Before playing any games with the Servants of the Apocalypse. I first had to build an initial roster. This means selecting crises. In MCP, crises a intrinsically linked to what gameplan that you think is optimal for you roster. As discussed in the previous article, Apocalypse squads bring the ability to reposition, using powers like Vanish Into Dust and Celestial Technology. They also bring the ability to apply conditions almost at-will from Consuming Blight, attack triggers, and other superpowers. The conditions of particular note are Poison, Root, and Slow. Poison and Root can massively hurt the power economy of enemy characters. Slow can massively hurt the action economy of enemy characters. Fortunately, there are a set of secures where all of these are a benefit.
Secures
The Servants of the Apocalypse like wide pay-to-flips. Pay-to-flips allow Apocalypse to win one side of the board and rotate while still scoring the side that is being left. The Slow condition makes it difficult for enemy characters to adjust their positions to counter the rotation. Enemy characters needing to spend power for the pay-to-flips further taxes their power economy. One thing to also note is that pay-to-flips combo very well with Beast’s Disconcerting, Yet Provocative!, since if he rolls a skull the interact cost is refunded. After the Challenger 2025 Crisis Pack release, a few secures stand out.
Guardians Save Shi’ar Empress in Style has all the characteristics for a great Servants of the Apocalypse secure. Additionally, it is 17-threat. This is one of the Servants of the Apocalypse’s most advantageous threats, since it allows for taking Apocalypse, Toad, and three 3-threats and upgrading a 3-threat horsemen to a 4-threat horseman may not gain that much realtive value.
Mutant Madman Turns City Into Lethal Amusement Park meets all of the stated criteria. 18-threat allows for upgrading one 3-threat, often allowing us to bring Psylocke.
M’Kraan Crystal Gets Heroes Home! is a pay-to-flip. However, it is not as wide as might be preferred. 19 threat is okay, since it opens up a lot of different options.
Extractions
As with secures, Apocalypse likes extracts that split your opponent up and have them have to later collapse to the fight. If you have priority, Toad can make relatively safe first activation midline extract plays with Prehensile Tongue and Slippery. Having a 65mm base, Apocalypse can deploy within Range 1 of a home extract. All of this makes D-shaped extracts ideal for Servants of the Apocalypse
Scientific Samples Found in Discovered Universe has a lot going for it. Not only is it D-shaped, but it is also 17-threat, one of the Servants of the Apocalypse’s strongest threats. However, it is not without its draw backs. The power gain from holding an extract does counteract some of the power economy difficulties that Servants of the Apocalypse squads can be trying to inflict. Regardless, it is often the first extract that Apocalypse players select for their roster.
Although Fear Grips the World as “Worthy” Terrorize Cities, often known as “Hammers,” is D-shaped and has a reasonable threat of 18, it is not seen in every Servants of the Apocalypse roster. While Apocalypse likes having extra dice, increasing Team Tactics Card costs by one can be debilitating. Apocalypse is often the allied character that most often plays Team Tactics Cards. Makes The First One, Immortal Servants, Recalibration Matrix, Sacrifice, and Brace for Impact cost more power can be back-breaking. Despite this drawback, some Servants of the Apocalypse players think that the pros outweigh the cons of Hammers. Testing will be required to figure out which path I will ultimately take.
While not D-shaped, Unexpected Guests Crash Royal Wedding does place does have a wide extract placement. It also has a threat of 17. Also, a lot of the extract steal superpowers and Team Tactics Cards, such as those brought by Namor and Quicksilver, cannot steal Civilians. Since we are not bringing any such steal abilities, this is only a positive. The placement affect must be played around, however. Likely one of our extracts will be on Toad, who’d like to just sit on a secure with an extract. I’d hesitate to prioritize Apocalypse picking up one of these extracts since his positioning can be key to victory. Despite the placement affect, this is a premier extract for Servants of the Apocalypse lists.
Inhumans Deploy Advanced Weaponry offers another extract that can force your opponent to split up their characters. It also can force your opponent to leave a character with an extract on the midline. The combination of Apocalypse’s 65mm base, the Range 2 place from Vanish Into Dust, and his Range 3 builder attack can allow an Apocalypse that was deployed directly in-front of a midline extract to double attack an enemy character that picked the extract up and had to stay within Range 1 of the midline. However, there are common midline extract grabbers that do not have to do this, Toad and Namor for example.
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? is not only a thematic extract for the Servants of Apocalypse to take, but also an extract that combos well with multiple superpowers on key affiliated characters. Toad can easily grab one of the midline objectives with your first activation. He can also later take extracts off of other allied characters, giving us greater potential to get all three Legacy Cures on Toad and, thus, gaining 6 VPs. Celestial Technology can also be used to force allied characters to drop Legacy Cures, giving another way to more easily get all three extracts on a single allied character. Depending on your character selections, 19-threat may not be ideal, but it is a very playable threat for Servants of the Apocalypse.
While the above extracts can work in the vast majority of Servants of the Apocalypse rosters, there are some extracts than can be taken if you plan to play wider. This often means including Bullseye and/or Pyro. It is of debate whether playing for higher-threats with wider squads is the correct play for Servants of the Apocalypse. I personally tend to prefer to play at the lowest threat that my main tools become online, which is 17 threat for Servants of the Apocalypse. This line of thinking leads me to believe that there are other rosters that scale better to 20 threat. However, other players have had success with the wide style.
While an uncommon extract in Servants of Apocalypse rosters, the affiliation can have play on Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators!, particularly when playing Bullseye. As with Unexpected Guests, these extracts are civilians. Toad and Iceman, and to some extent Bullseye, bring safe extract plays. It also incentivizes your opponent to bring characters within striking distance of Apocalypse. I, personally, prefer to spread my opponent’s characters out. However, having them clumped up can lead to excellent Consuming Blight plays.
While Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership is spread out, does have midline extracts, and is civilian-based, this extract may not be ideal. The potential push can be devastating for high-threat, position-dependent characters like Apocalypse, who often is in an opportunity to pick up an extract. Playing this extract incentivizes you to have Pyro and Pyrotechnics in your roster. Although, Iceman can safely grab the closest extract and Apocalypse and Famine Magik with Journey to Limbo are good at threatening the midline extracts, so Pyro is not necessary.
Epilogue
The secures for Servants of the Apocalypse rosters are mostly the same with almost all of them containing Guardians Save, Mutant Madman, and M’Kraan Crystals. The extracts, however, widely vary between rosters. Some target 17- threat and play Scientific Samples and Unexpected Guests. Others plan on playing wider and include Senators and Skrulls. Hammers and/or Legacy Virus. are commonly sprinkled in to taste. I will likely try to find someone willing to bypass the standard crisis selection process and just play on these with their secures to select between them.
The next article will be a battle report covering my first game back after my long hiatus and my first Servants of the Apocalypse game. As always, if you have any comments or critiques please reach out to me on Discord at professor_ulysses.
You Caught Me Monolouging 