Opening Moves With Brotherhood

Regardless of leader, Juggernaut and Toad provide excellent safe (safe-ish) extract plays T1.

Juggernaut under Mystique

Juggernaut under Mystique does not require a lot of thought to get safe T1 plays. With Mystique's leadership you are refunded the power spent picking up an extract the first time you pick up an extract with that character each turn. This allows you to double move and "Nothing Stops the Juggernaut" afterwards to move back to relative safety.

Later in the article we'll explore specific layouts and edge cases.

Juggernaut under Magneto

Under Magneto the safe plays require more fore-thought. Instead of double move then slide you need to move once, slide, then you can safely move back. You need to position Magneto closer to Juggernaut and spawn his construct in front of Juggernaut so that his slide breaks the construct, generating the power needed to get the extract prior to moving. Let's see that positoning below.

Practical Example, Skrulls

Let's examine a practical opening with Juggernaut by "stealing" our opponents Skrull.

You can see here the position of Juggernaut at the start, after 1 move, after 1 slide and finally where he can go after taking the opponents Skrull. This is a solid opening that is somewhat risky but worth it in my opinion.

On other maps you can take safer approaches but be sure to understand your opening placement to safe grab. For example, on C extracts you can position in between 2 extracts and you have a choice of either to take. alternatively, on Hammers you have to line up straight across to safe get the hammer.

Toad Openings

Toad, unlike Juggernaut cannot reposition himself after an extract grab. Being able to extract from range 2 along with slippery gives Toad a pseudo-safe grab in many situations though. Consider the image below.

Here we can see that a medium base medium move, range 3 attack is out of range of Toad when interacting on a far Skrull from range 2. This means that a Logan, Voodoo, BRB etc.are not going to punsih your toad for getting a midline extract. You'll still get crushed by Malekith but you're relatively safe to most opponents.

Alternative Opening: Murder

Another common opening is not safe at all. Juggernaut moves twice, picks up an extract and offers himself to the opponent. This allows a guarenteed Asteroid M round 1 to bring in Magneto.

There are absolutely times when doing this is a good idea but it takes time to know when that is. It's not my go-to opening with Magneto Brotherhood but it is an option. I prefer safe extract play with Juggs, give 1 power from the construct to Apex or Rogue, and then asteroid M to their position round 1. I'd rather not give a SHIELD or Cabal 2-3 attacks minimum into any character if I can avoid it.