The Battle Realm format is being put through its paces. Not only do we have the Xavier Protocols Invitational coming up, but there are currently 71 players taking part in a 4 week league online. They have submitted their rosters, and this is what the stats look like:
Affiliations
One of the recent discussion points about the Battle Realm format has been single vs multiaffiliations. Of the 71 rosters submitted, the overwhelming response has been for multi affiliation:
| Affiliations | Rosters | % |
| 0 | 1 | 1% |
| 1 | 3 | 4% |
| 2 | 16 | 23% |
| 3 | 32 | 45% |
| 4 | 15 | 21% |
| 5 | 3 | 4% |
A pretty even distribution around 3 different affiliations, with one brave soul planning always to play unaffiliated.
| Affiliation | Rosters | % |
| Asgard | 33 | 46% |
| Cabal | 28 | 39% |
| Wakanda | 28 | 39% |
| Brotherhood of Mutants | 25 | 35% |
| A-Force | 23 | 32% |
| Avengers | 15 | 21% |
| Criminal Syndicate | 13 | 19% |
| Web Warriors | 10 | 14% |
| Defenders | 9 | 13% |
| Inhumans | 8 | 11% |
| Uncanny X-men | 7 | 10% |
| Black Order | 5 | 7% |
| Spider Foes | 5 | 7% |
| Unaffiliated | 5 | 7% |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | 3 | 4% |
Asgard has proven to be the most popular roster. I can see that off the back of three characters: Valkyrie, Enchantress and Angela. Any one of those characters could make a compelling first pick in the Battle Realms format, so I’m not surprised to see Asgard rank highly. Wakanda has proven repeatedly to be a top tier faction with characters at home in a lot of affiliations, so again there isn’t a big surprise to see them so high.
The current “received wisdom” around Battle Realm rosters is that high overlap is desirable, so it’s not surprising to me to see a lot of rosters that appear to build around either the A-force, Wakanda, Asgard trifector, or the Cabal, Brotherhod, Criminal Syndicate trifector.
This table shows how often an affiliation was chosen with another affiliation. The darker green diagonal line down the middle shows the total number of that affiliation.
You can see a clear clustering around those archetypes I outlined above. Every Criminal Syndicate roster also brought Cabal; nearly every Brotherhood roster did. The most common second affiliations in Wakanda are Asgard and A-force. The most common in A-force and Asgard and Wakanda. This may go some way to explaining the popularity of triple affiliation rosters.
Characters
| Characters | Rosters | % |
| Okoye | 57 | 80% |
| Enchantress | 55 | 77% |
| Valkyrie | 54 | 76% |
| Angela | 46 | 65% |
| Toad | 46 | 65% |
| M.O.D.O.K. | 39 | 55% |
| Shuri | 36 | 51% |
| Taskmaster | 36 | 51% |
| Thor Prince of Asgard | 36 | 51% |
| Black Panther | 35 | 49% |
| Medusa | 34 | 48% |
| Baron Zemo | 30 | 42% |
| Red Skull | 30 | 42% |
| Mystique | 29 | 41% |
| Black Widow | 28 | 39% |
| Magneto | 28 | 39% |
| She-Hulk | 26 | 37% |
| Lockjaw | 25 | 35% |
| Loki God of Mischief | 24 | 34% |
| Hawkeye | 19 | 27% |
| Sabretooth | 19 | 27% |
| Captain America | 16 | 23% |
| Ghost Spider | 16 | 23% |
| Killmonger | 16 | 23% |
| Kingpin | 16 | 23% |
| Wolverine | 16 | 23% |
| Crossbones | 15 | 21% |
| Spider-Man (Miles Morales) | 15 | 21% |
| Venom | 15 | 21% |
| Vision | 14 | 20% |
| Crystal | 13 | 18% |
| Beast | 12 | 17% |
| Storm | 12 | 17% |
| Doctor Strange | 11 | 15% |
| Daredevil | 10 | 14% |
| Infinity Gem: Mind | 9 | 13% |
| Wong | 9 | 13% |
| Black Bolt | 8 | 11% |
| Captain Marvel | 8 | 11% |
| Spider-Man (Peter Parker) | 7 | 10% |
| Corvus Glaive | 6 | 8% |
| Doctor Octopus | 6 | 8% |
| Green Goblin | 6 | 8% |
| Proxima Midnight | 6 | 8% |
| Rocket Raccoon | 6 | 8% |
| Thanos | 6 | 8% |
| Ant-Man | 5 | 7% |
| Bullseye | 5 | 7% |
| Ghost Rider | 5 | 7% |
| Infinity Gem: Soul | 5 | 7% |
| Ininity Gem: Time | 5 | 7% |
| Winter Soldier | 5 | 7% |
| Cyclops | 4 | 6% |
| Hela | 4 | 6% |
| Hulk | 4 | 6% |
| Infinity Gem: Reality | 4 | 6% |
| Nebula | 4 | 6% |
| Punisher | 4 | 6% |
| Drax the Destroyer | 3 | 4% |
| Gamora | 3 | 4% |
| Groot | 3 | 4% |
| Ronan the Accuser | 3 | 4% |
| Star-Lord | 3 | 4% |
| Wasp | 3 | 4% |
| Black Dwarf | 2 | 3% |
| Black Widow Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. | 2 | 3% |
| Infinity Gem: Power | 2 | 3% |
| Ebony Maw | 1 | 1% |
| Iron Man | 1 | 1% |
| Infinity Gem: Space | 0 | 0% |
| Ultron | 0 | 0% |
A whole lot of not-very-many surprises here. The characters we are used to seeing at the top are at the top. The ones we are used to seeing at the bottom are at the bottom. Taskmaster, as the Rogue Agent of choice, has cracked the top 10 however, though his rifle-toting alternate still languishes in just 5 rosters. Possibly unsurprisingly, Corvus Glaive is nowhere near as popular with the potential to stop him using the reality gem, and a commensurate fall for Proxima Midnight is also seen. In their first showing in roster analysis, we get confirmation of the community’s ranking of the Inhumans: Medusa > Lockjaw> Crystal > Black Bolt, with nobody taking Black Bolt without the intention of playing Inhumans. I also shed a single tear for Ultron.
Crises
| Extracts | Rosters | % |
| Fear Grips World as “Worthy” Terrorize Cities | 59 | 83% |
| Struggle for the Cube Continues | 50 | 70% |
| The Montesi Formula Found | 47 | 66% |
| Alien Ship Crashes in Downtown! | 43 | 61% |
| Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! | 37 | 52% |
| Panic Grips City as Evacuation Efforts Continue! | 35 | 49% |
| Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan | 34 | 48% |
| Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership | 29 | 41% |
| Mystic Wakanda Herbs: Fact or Fiction? | 24 | 34% |
In a complete shock, that nobody could possibly have predicted [/sarcasm] Hammers is the most popular extract. I was a bit surprised to see Montessi third, but I guess it’s the fifth fastest if you want to speed up the scoring and the fifth slowest for those teams that want to slow it down, so a lot of teams may be taking it as the least bad option left. I might be doing it a disservice: Angela is great grabbing a middle book and moving back. Alien Ship also had a high showing: on the back of it’s high threat value, I suspect. Making a team at 20 threat in Battle Realms is a lot harder than at 15, as the dismisses become a lot more powerful if you are forced to pick 5 or even 6 characters.
| Secures | Rosters | % |
| Infinity Formula Goes Missing! | 49 | 69% |
| Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest | 46 | 65% |
| Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? | 44 | 62% |
| Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 | 39 | 55% |
| Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusment Park | 36 | 51% |
| Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians | 35 | 49% |
| Terrigen Cloud Sweeps Over City | 31 | 44% |
| Portals Overrun City with Spider-People! | 28 | 39% |
| Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnessess | 24 | 34% |
| Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Sweeps Across Earth | 23 | 32% |
The main surprise for me here was the lack of popularity of Mayor Fisk, but maybe with unrestricted access to tactics cards, few people (outside of those playing Criminal Syndicate) feel they have have a good advantage on that crisis. We continue to see pay-to-flip/RNG secures polling below the more traditional type.
Xavier Protocols 