Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Avalanche, Exodus, & Lady Mastermind Rules Preview
The Brotherhood of Mutants is getting new members in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. It’s time to see what these three characters can do!
It’s a good time to be a fan of the Mutants in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. If you’re a fan of the Brotherhood, that is! With the impending arrival of Avalanche, Exodus, and Lady Mastermind, the Brotherhood of Mutant ranks are growing with some much needed reinforcements.
Today, we’re going to examine what each of them can do for you on the tabletop. To kick things off, we’re starting with the one who can make the concrete jungle rumble: Avalanche!
Avalanche
Checking in with his defenses first, Avalanche has a respectable 4/3/3 on both sides and a stamina stat of 6/5. So it does drop when he gets injured. He’s also size 2 with a movement of medium all for a Threat 3. So far, he’s at least a little tougher than some of the other Threat 3 characters. But what about his attacks?
His builder is Seismokinesis. This is a beam that is range 3 and hits for 4 dice. It gives Avalanche 1 energy per attack that is resolved instead of based on the amount of damage done. It can also stun on a wild, which is kind of nice. If you can line up a good shot, you can potentially get a nice boost of energy. And then spend that on his spender, which is Epicenter of Destruction. This is an area attack of range 2. It hits for 5 dice and costs 3 energy. This ability just straight-up causes stun after each attack is resolved.
His other two superpowers are Landslide and Beware of Falling Debris. Landslide costs 2 and can push enemy characters of size 4 or less away short. Useful for shoving them off objectives. Beware of Falling Debris costs 3 and must be triggered when an enemy character ends an Advance within range 3 of Avalanche. You basically get to cause a collision with a terrain feature of size 3 or less within range 2 of the target enemy character. It’s sort of like a weird throw, to be honest.
Normally, I’d wait to talk about the Team Tactic cards until later, but I think it’s important to include them now for context. Avalanche seems like a decent Threat 3 character overall. But I think with access to these cards, his value does go up.
The first card, Faultline, is a great one to bring if you’re including Pyro with Avalanche. These two go together like peanut butter and chocolate. It allows for both of them to pay 1 during the Power Phase, and now their basic builder attacks are B5 attacks! If you can plan for that, it’s totally worth doing.
The next card is just more evidence that the Brotherhood really wants to bring a heavy hitter with a bunch of “goons” to feed them juice. The pawns go first, allowing all your threat level 3 characters and below to pay 1 energy during the end phase. Then, for each character that paid the energy, you can choose a Threat Level 5 or greater character within range 3 of each of them to resolve one of the options listed. It’s movement, healing, and energy redistribution all in one.
Lady Mastermind
Lady Mastermind is a Threat Level 4 character with a stamina of 6/5 and defensive stats of 3/3/4. She’s a size 2 character with a medium move. So far, she’s sounding similar to Avalanche, right? Well, that’s before you get to her powers. She’s packing mystic attacks, and they are pretty funky. So let’s go over them.
Deadly Illusions is a massive range 5 and 5 dice attack. It’s her builder, and it only gives her 1 energy after it’s resolved. Additionally, it can only cause 1 damage at base. However, if the target has at least 2 special conditions, you can choose to remove 2 of them and cause an additional 2 damage.
Note the wording here, though — it’s not 1 damage per condition. You have to remove 2 to cause 2 damage. You can’t remove 1 and cause 1 damage. However, for each wild in the result, you get to cause a special condition on the target. Either Bleed, Poison, Shock, or Incinerate.
Mass Hallucinations is her spender attack. It’s A2 and 6 dice for 4 energy. On a wild, you get to Advance each target short. This one is really short and sweet.
Now, her superpowers are also pretty funky. Your Reality Is Whatever I Want It To Be essentially allows Lady Mastermind to make an attack with a target’s own attacks. I could see this being super useful on any characters with an area or beam attack in a “bad” spot. Depending on the target’s mystic defense, this could be really cheap or really expensive! So watch out for this one.
Brain Fog is another interesting power as it basically shuts down reactions to Lady Mastermind’s actions. Mental Lock is one we’ve seen before, and it allows her to always use her Mystic defense against attacks unless the attack pays an additional 2 energy. Finally, we have Try A Little Harder Next Time, which grants her an energy anytime an enemy character rolls and gets 1 or more skulls in the result.
Mirage is the Team Tactic Card for Lady Mastermind. It’s another funky one. As a reaction, she can spend 2 energy when an ally is attacked within range 3 of her. This happens during the modify dice step so you can see the dice, too. For each Skull in the roll, you can flip them to a blank. Then, for each die that was flipped, the attacker loses 1 energy. Additionally, if 1 or more dice were changed in this way, the defending (aka the friendly target) gets to Advance short.
It’s not quite a “get out of jail” card, but it could be pretty handy. That’s kind of how I feel about Lady Mastermind right now. She’s not an auto-include for me (yet), but I can see her being really pivotal in the right setup. She’s a dangerous mystic threat for sure.
Exodus
This is already getting to be quite a long read, so I’ll try to fly through this part. And speaking of flying, Exodus does have Flight as well as Healing Factor 1, and Immunity to Poison. Defensively, he’s 4/4/4 on both sides and has a stamina of 7/7. He’s size 2 and moves medium and all that for a mighty Threat Level 5 character.
Attack-wise, he’s got three options. He’s actually got 2 builders. The first is Psionic Vampirism, which has a range of 2 and 6 dice. It generates energy equal to the damage and also heals Exodus for 1 after the attack. For each wild, he also drains 1 energy from the target and gains that himself, thanks to Sap Power. His other builder is Psionic Concussion. It’s range 4 and 5 dice and generates 1 energy after the attack regardless of damage. Also, on a wild, it triggers Pull — this causes a Push towards Exodus on targets of size 4 or less.
Now, both of those attacks were mystic, but he’s also got a spender, which is an energy attack. You Can Do Nothing But Fall is an A2 attack for 7 dice and cost 4. It also causes incinerate on the targets of this attack. Toasty!
Superpower-wise, he’s got a bunch of them to cover. My Faith Can Move Mountains is essentially a terrain throwing power with a cost equal to the size of the terrain being thrown (up to size 4). Teleportation allows for him to spend 3 to be placed within 2 of his current position. Telekinetic Shield costs 2 but grants an extra 2 dice to himself or an allied character within 3 being targeted by an attack.
Finally, we have Psionic of the Highest Order, which gives him an additional 1 power each Power Phase. Based on his kit, he’s going to need that, too!
Okay, you know how the Brotherhood was wanting you to take a bunch of cheap characters like Pyro, Blob, and Avalanche? Well, this wants you to also take both Exodus and Magneto. That’s 11 threat between the two of them. But this card lasts the whole game and helps you gain 1 energy per turn when a character of Threat 4 or less takes a damage from an enemy effect.
Overall, I think this trio is going to be a nice addition to the Brotherhood of Mutants and the game in general. I’m already baking up some Brotherhood lists myself!
This boxed set is currently up for pre-order from Asmodee and has a release date of August 31, 2025.
Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Avalanche, Exodus & Lady Mastermind $49.99
CP173 includes a variety of Brotherhood of Mutant characters to expand and showcase more X-Men villains and characters. Bringing thematic gameplay to the table, with new abilities and rules, these new characters are an exciting addition to the Brotherhood of Mutants.
These characters work great with existing Affiliation Packs and Characters packs, expanding the roster of available characters and bringing more options for gameplay.
Magneto and Exodus…who else can I squeeze in that list?
