Rogue and Unlimited X-Man team

Introduction

We are witnesses to the major activity from Scopely. Things in Marvel Strike Force are changing and progressing fast. I am eager to say that Scopelly has decided to bring MSF to an entirely new level. They are really determined to provide a better gaming experience for MSF loyal community.

The sole fact that Scopelly is announcing every change (no matter how unimportant it is) and trying to hype the community is a crucial improvement. I don’t wanna jinx it, but they are on the right track.

The Second Horsemen

As I already said, things are moving fast, and the second Horsemen is revealed. It may not be a character that was expected or anticipated but Rogue will have a serious impact on the game, Cosmic Crucible in particular.

As for Morgan Le Fay, we will have to compete in Famine Scourge for a chance to unlock Rogue. Event mechanics will be similar. There will be 10 nodes. Nodes 5 and 10 will require special teams, in this case, Inhumans, A-Force, and Young Avengers. Players will choose between 10 levels of Event difficulty while being able to add negative effects to their teams for improving their final score.

Anna Marie

Anna Marie aka Rogue fled home as a teenager because she was overcontrolled by her Aunt Carrie. Finding out that she has Mutant abilities changed her life and brought her interest in other Mutants.

At first, Anna couldn’t control her abilities but with the help of Mystique, she learned how to utilize her amazing powers. Rogue’s ability to absorb others’ energy and skills just by physical contact was heavily exploited by the Brotherhood of Mutants. Mystique herself was not originally evil and her teachings weren’t all bad.

However, Rogue’s true potential wasn’t unlocked before she encountered Captain Marvel in combat and absorbed her memories. Only then she does realize that she is fighting for the wrong side. That led her to Doctor Xavier and X-Men who helped her to find a true purpose.

Unlimited X-men

In MSF, Rogue is the leading member of the deadly Unlimited X-men, and she has a Protecting role. Unlimited X-Men will be specialized for Cosmic Crucible but with Rogue they will be good options for other features as well.

Basic Attacks

Rogue will be the first character to ignore and clear the enemy Barrier. She will do that with her basic attacks which open several strategic options. Knowing that many current Meta teams actually rely on Barrier this ability will be OP by itself, especially since all those who don’t have Barrier will be brutally punished with an additional heavy attack.

Special Ability

Her special ability will focus on single targets that will be literally crippled after. Rogue will place all existing negative effects except Blind and Stun before striking them and reducing their Speed Bar by half. At the same time, she places all existing buffs (except Regeneration) on herself and fills up her own Speed Bar by half.

This is, without doubt, the strongest single-target attack in Marvel Strike Force and it costs six Energy. In Cosmic Crucible it will be almost impossible to resist any of the negative effects and AI will always target the enemy with the highest Speed ignoring Stealth and Taunt.

Honestly, I am really afraid of seeing Unlimted X-men in CC defense. It already gives me a headache.

Ultimate

Rogue’s ultimate is a decent AOE that will Stun the primary target. Additionally, it will copy and clear two positive effects from each enemy. Enemies with Evade or Block won’t be able to mitigate incoming damage.

Unfortunately, the ultimate cannot be executed at the start of combat but that is not a flow. By the time she can use ultimate, Rogue will already be fully buffed and more importantly, enemies will try to protect selves right in time to be removed from any buffs. Knowing that Focus is permanently increased for this ability is just another plus.

Protector

As a Protector, Rogue’s main purpose is to make the rest of Unlimited X-Men well-defended. Her excellence will be seen in this aspect as well. She will grant them Defense Up at the start of combat and will focus the enemy’s attention on her when allies are in danger.

In Cosmic Crucible she will also grant Safeguard to all allies at the start of combat. On top of all this, Rogue grants 40% Drain ability (10% per member) to all Unlimited X-Men allies. To understand how powerful this skill is, just check Symbiots and their main strength.

Outside CC

As you can probably see Rogue’s strength will be almost equal outside of Cosmic Crucible. The benefits she has in CC are only meant for CC defense and don’t crucially affect her potential to make Unlimited X-Men new META for other features as well. It is too early to fully judge that since we lack information about the 5th character.

However, with the information we have, it is obvious that full Unlimited X-Men will be amazing. We can conclude that their strength will be equal to 8W, WX, and even Darkhold. Normally, they will not prevail against Darkhold in the Arena but neither Darkhold will prevail against them in CC.

Important: the theory craft is made according to the official information that can be changed before the final release.

Shiro Yoshida aka Sunfire

Shiro Yoshida aka Sunfire is Japan’s greatest superhero. He was born with mutant abilities and at first, he was a villain. He used his ability to convert solar radiation into plasma against both X-Men and Avengers.

His powers allow him to fly, fire plasma bolts, and transform his own body into flames generating a powerful damaging shield (some would say that he is Human Torch’s brother from Japan).

After several years of wickedness, he finally realized that being selfish wouldn’t make him what he wanted to be. At that moment, he realized that only joining X-men or Avengers and fighting against the enemies of Earth will help him to be recognized in the manner he wants – as one of the world’s greatest superheroes.

In MSF, Sunfire is a Hero Mutant Blaster who performs all his attacks under the effect of Offense Up.

Basic Attack

His basic attacks cause immense Piercing damage and places Bleed dots depending on the number of Offenses Ups on him.

Special Ability

His special ability costs 10 Energy but it can be used at the start, and it grants 5 new energy immediately after using the skill. With this skill, Sunfire places Offense Up and Counters to all allies while receiving 2 Offense Ups and 2 Counters himself. Most importantly his special fills his Speed Bar completely allowing him to play another turn in quick succession.

Ultimate

Sunfire’s ultimate causes moderate Piercing damage against all enemies and debuffs them for 2 turns with Defense Down. The damage is further increased depending on the number of Defense Ups on him. Ultimate cannot be dodged but unfortunately, it clears all Offense Up on Synfire.

Passive ability

Passive ability grants Sunfire Offense UP at the end of each turn. It also boosts his damage while he has Counter and additionally increases his Speed when he gets Speed Up. The only change in Cosmic Crucible is that Sunfire gets Offense Up on Spawn, but this change makes all the difference in the world.

Power of the Sun

I will try to explain how powerful and game-changing Sunfire will be.

First and for all, all his attacking skills are powerful Piercing attacks executed under the effect of Offense Up – in short, he will slice through opponents with unbelievable damage potential. The synergy between his special and ultimate is definitely OP. Since he can use his ultimate in the first Turn and his Special offers an immediate new turn, he’s able to use his Ultimate one after another in the first 2 turns of combat.

However, I must say that only in Cosmic Crucible both ultimates will be executed under Offense Up. Unfortunately, in other game features like AW, Blitz, Arena, or RTA, Sunfire’s initial ultimate will not be harmless but also it won’t be battle-changing. Nevertheless, Sunfire’s initial bursts can only be compared with Ikaris’.

Gambit

Gambit is an extremely powerful character even outside the CC. At the end of every enemy turn, he punishes the lowest HP target with decent Piercing damage placing the Heal Block in the process. In other words, if Gambit is alive every healing is prevented, and dangerous enemies are exposed regardless of available protections.

This passive ability is even more powerful in CC where Gambit fills 20% of his Speed Bar at the end of every enemy turn. This practically means he will play twice as often compared to any other character with the highest Speed.

Gambit is kinda squishy but nevertheless, killing him will be a very hard task. With every critical hit, he places Evade on himself and other Unlimited X-Men allies. Below 50% HP, he becomes buffed with prolonged Stealth during which he has significantly increased critical chance and power Drain ability.

His active skill set is almost fully AOE-based. His basic attacks cause heavy damage against primary targets, followed by a free piercing attack against the lowest HP enemy. His special can place Ability Block and Bleed on the primary target and just Bleed on adjacent targets. The skill is like Ghost Rider’s special but obviously more powerful, especially in CC where Gambit places PSeed Up on allies as well.

His ultimate is one of the most powerful full AOE-based abilities. If X-Men surround his allies he will place Disrupted on all enemies and cause immense damage. In CC he flips up to 2 buffs on each enemy.

It is impossible to avoid being hit by Gambit’s ultimate by anything including Evade and Deflect. Gambit is a META material without a doubt, and he is currently the tip of the spear for the Unlimited X-Men synergy.

Fantomex

Fantomex is a Mutant Blaster whose role is to protect his allies (like Bishop). That is why he is extremely tough for a Blaster. His base damage is below average but that’s compensated for with his active skill set that grants piercing attacks with almost every ability.

At the start of combat, he buffs all Unlimited X-Men allies with Evade. While he is under the effect of Def Up, he retaliates against every attack. Additionally, he ignores Evade and Deflect during combat and is fully immune to Bleed. Upon Death, buffs his entire team similarly to Groot.

His active skill set relies on continuous Piercing attacks against single targets during which he puts debuffs such as Def Down or Offense Down. He can Taunt all enemies into hitting him for two Turns. Unlike other characters who Taunt he also puts Taunt on the designated target. That prevents dangerous enemies from being protected.

The damage output of his ultimate is doubled in Cosmic Crucible which should allow early assassination of squishy targets.

Fantomex has real synergy with Gambit’s passive, and he speeds up killing most injured enemies. This is essential against some META teams who lack options to protect their damage dealers.

Dazzler

Dazzler is a Mutant Controller whose main role is to minimize the enemy’s damage output by placing Offense Down and Blind debuffs.Dazzler’s presence on the battlefield grants a powerful Barrier to all Unlimited X-Men allies and immunity to the Blind. Also, her Speed Bar is slightly filled up whenever a negative effect lands on her X-Men allies.Dazzler’s active skill set flips Defense Up with her basic attack and places Blind with each critical hit while using it. Her special lowers the Speed Bar of targets and Blinds them in the process. It also boosts the existing barrier for all Unlimited X-Men members. Dazzler can initiate the fight with her ultimate

puts Ability Block on the primary target and cause considerable damage against all enemies. Besides that, her ultimate flips negative effects on the Unlimited X-Men trio into positive ones.

Since Dazzler is very slow (that’s not logical for a dancing queen, I must admit) she’s ready to take advantage of initial enemy debuffs.

Dazzler fits perfectly in Unlimited X-Men synergy and with Gambit’s and Fantomex’s help. She is an unsolvable enigma for almost all teams in Cosmic Crucible.

Conclusion

At this point, it seems that every single Horseman will have their META team specialized for a certain feature in MSF. Well, honestly, that is my wish – I would find it really annoying that any of the Horsemen become obsolete with the introduction of the new one.

I am really enjoying the game so far, after the pause I’ve made. I have a feeling that this is a completely new MSF. The pause of 6 months took a toll on my progression but my roster was good enough so I can continue where I left off without problems.

It seems that I was not the only one who made a pause because the last two months of my new activity past extremely fast as I am playing a different game. The only explanation for that is that Scopely understood perfectly well why players are leaving and that they did everything to bring them back. So far, they are doing a good job in my opinion.