Marvel Strike Force: X-Men and X-Women

Welcome back to MSF Mondays!

Each week we break down one more aspect of the hottest mobile game, Mobile Strike Force!

This game is quite adept at pitting 5 toons against another 5 toons, as most games modes are just that. So it makes sense that most teams are groups of 5: Wakandans, Asgardians, Symbiotes, just to name a few.

However, as the game masters at MSF have been introducing so many new characters, some teams have exceeded 5, while others remain short of 5 total. For instance, the Sinister Six went from 5 to 7 in the past few months, whereas the Young Avengers remain at 4.

Well, it is now time to tackle the X-Men.

The amount of characters with the X-Men tag is ever expanding and soon we will have a total of 12 X-Men: Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Psylocke, Beast, Colossus, and Phoenix. Most of us should unlock Kitty Pryde during her 2 Blitz rounds, and we all are eagerly awaiting the in game release events for Iceman and Jubilee.

Bishop will be coming soon. We also have X–23 with the X-Men tag, but would only be a good use with X-Men until you unlock the rest of X-Force. We also can’t help but bemoan the absence of Nightcrawler, Angel, Rogue, and PROFESSOR X.

However, we play with what we got, right?

Speaking of which, most players have struggled to unlock Phoenix because of her particular unlock needs –6-Star Villain, Mystic, Controllers – so most people fashion an X-Men team with the other 6 characters who have been in the game for a while now. For most either Beast or Colossus are a little harder to come by early on, so then it was fairly easy to form a team, cause you may only have 5 X-Men toons, which meant all was right in MSF.

Then MSF gives us an influx of new characters to work with. However, Scopley has made it “easy” on us by creating two sub-tags, much like Wave 1 for Avengers. However, unlike the Avengers who can be put into really good Duos and Trios to maximize the large amount of toons under that tag; the MSF X-Men are a bigger mess than the X-Men cinematic universe.

My guy PaPokemon has a great video on the state of the X-Men and other mutants and you can view that here. While he gets into a little speculation in this video that dates back to November of 2020, it just reinforces the mess this tag really is. Because we know more X-Men were coming to the game, but the ones they picked are interesting, to say the least.

The Uncanny X-Men: Beast, Wolverine, Cyclops, Colossus, Storm, Psylocke, and the ever-elusive Phoenix.

The Astonishing X-Men: Beast, Kitty Pryde, and Iceman

That’s right, you have 7 for Uncanny and 3 for Astonishing, with Beast as an overlap and X-23 only has the X-Men tag. Thanks Scopley. We do have 100% confirmation on Jubilee as a Legendary (again, don’t get me started) and Bishop will be joining Astonishing, to round out that group.

So what do we do with the X-Men?

If you ask Clave, the X-Men (and all mutants really) are the most formidable group in any game mode, and well, he’s isn’t far off. Especially when you have Phoenix, you really have a meta team. However, most of us do not have Phoenix, but may hopefully unlock her in tonight’s event!

Our Alliance has also been chatting a lot about Kitty Pryde as the fresh new X-Men to join the conversation, but I think that if you can unlock 5 of the X-Men who have been in game for the longest, you will have your best group until you unlock Phoenix and round out the 2 groups – Astonishing and Uncanny.

The “Core” X-Men

(Left to Right) Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Colossus

This group has benefit in every game mode and their synergies can go boost them toe to toe with some of the best teams in the game in WAR and ARENA. However, there is investment needed and most of these toons are not plug and play outside of X-Men. So be wise on pouring resources into this team and do not forsake other teams for the characters you fell in love with in childhood, no matter what Clave says!

With carryover charges this team is also a force in RAIDS. Furthermore, this is a team that benefited a great deal from ISO 8 as it enhanced their usefulness together. I think Psylocke is good with this group, but has more usefulness apart from the team. So while you will perhaps unlock her early on, you can find other groups to plug her into.

The Leftovers

We have Psylocke and Kitty Pryde without homes right now. We also have the two X-Factor toons: Shatterstar, and Longshot. I might recommend Namor as he is likely displaced from your Fantastic Four with the addition of She-Hulk.

Once you unlock Phoenix, then you can bring Wolverine or Storm to the X-Men/Factor hybrid, until you unlock Iceman and Bishop and begin forming Astonishing X-Men. Again, this tag is a mess, but you should have a good starting point to work off of for now.

Well I hope this helps you take your Squad from a D+ to a B- Commander!

Game Radar

Blitz: Black Panther graces us during Monday’s Blitz. And then it’s back to Kitty Pryde on Thursday!

Upcoming Events: Secret Ops is going on right now – check out the post on that.

Emma Milestones continue to churn along, so keep spending that gold if you have any left.

Upcoming Legendary: Phoenix should be coming next, with 6* Villain Mystic Controllers required! There’s a calendar going on to help you prepare, so take advantage!

Black Bolt: April 27th, August 17th, December 7th (Requires Asgardians 5-star)

Shuri: May 11th, August 31st (Requires Spider-verse 5-star)

Ebony Maw: May 25th, September 14th (Requires Inhumans 5-star with Black Bolt)

Phoenix: June 8th, September 28th (Requires Mystic Villain Controller 6-star)

Star-Lord: June 22nd, October 12th (Requires Guardians or Ravagers 5-star)

Nick Fury: July 20th, November 11th (Requires Kree Minions 5-star)

Magneto: August 3rd, November 23rd (Requires X-Men and/or Brotherhood 5-star)

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