Real Name: Otto Gunther Octavius
First Comic Book Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (July 1963)
Affiliations in Comic Books: Cosmic Champions, Hydra, Master of Evil, Roxxon, Sinister Six, Thunderbolts

Marvel United Appearance: Marvel United: Return of the Sinister Six (July 2020)
Marvel United Team Decks: Sinister Six

Movement

BAM!

Civilians

Thugs

How Doctor Octopus Plays: Doctor Octopus can win in a couple of manners: dealing damage to Heroes and destroying Locations, which plays into his Villainous Plot. He deals damage through his BAM! and card effects and by his Henchmen. He destroys Locations by adding enough Crisis Tokens, so he will add plenty of Crisis Tokens as well through effects like his Overflow.

Destroyed Locations are removed from play and every remaining Location is considered adjacent to the closest Locations on the board. Any Threats on a Location get discarded with the Location, so it is possible to not have enough Threats to finish the Clear Threats Mission.

Villainous Plot: The Heroes Lose if 4 or more Locations are destroyed.

Special Rules: When a Location has 3 Crisis tokens, it is destroyed. Remove it from play (if Doctor Octopus is there, he moves clockwise. Any Heroes there move to an adjacent Location of their choice). Locations adjacent to a destroyed one are considered adjacent to each other.

BAM!: Deal 1 damage to each Hero in Doctor Octopus’s Location and place 1 Crisis token there.

Doctor Octopus has average damage for a Villain, but his ability to add a Crisis Token gets him closer to victory. Destroyed Locations have a double effect. Not only is Doc Ock closer to his 4 destroyed Location goal, but any Threats and Civilian/Thug tokens on those Locations are discarded, which could make finishing Missions difficult.

Keep in mind, if a Hero becomes KO’d, Doctor Octopus will BAM! again. If that happens, make sure you resolve his first BAM! effect before activating the next one.

Overflow: If a civilian or thug token can’t be added to a Location, add 1 Crisis token to that Location.

It doesn’t matter how many tokens can’t be placed due to Overflow, Doctor Octopus will add 1 Crisis Token to a Location that Overflows. That’s one small mercy.

Threats

Doctor Octopus has 3 copies of 1 Threat Card and 1 copy of 3 different Threat Cards (Henchmen).

Mysterio (Henchman)
Health: 3

BAM!: Deal 1 Damage to 1 Hero in this Location. Add 1 Civilian and 1 Thug to this Location.
Mysterio’s effect may not seem like much. A henchman dealing 1 damage to a Hero in this Location is standard fair, but adding 1 Civilian and 1 Thug to this Location can induce Overflow. And Overflow can get deadly, especially when combined with other effects that can add Crisis Tokens. With these two effects, Mysterio has the highest priority of the henchmen when Clearing Threats.

Sandman (Henchman)
Health: 4+

BAM!: Sandman gains 1 Health. Deal 1 damage to each Hero in this Location.

Sandman adds Health over time. Since his Health reads 4+, he can exceed his starting Health of 4. He deals a standard amount of damage. Sandman’s variable Health makes him another high-priority Threat to clear. If you do choose to defeat Sandman, do so as quickly as possible because he will heal whenever Doctor Octopus uses a BAM! effect which will be 75% of all turns. If Sandman’s Health reaches 6 or higher, I advise you to ignore him unless you’re playing Heroes with a lot of Attack.

Vulture (Henchman)
Health: 4

BAM!: Deal 1 damage to 1 Hero in this Location. Then, move this card to the first clockwise Location without a threat (if possible).
Again, Vulture deals a standard 1 damage to 1 Hero in his Location. His second effect gets tricky. It’s rare, but it’s an effect that could benefit the Heroes. Players could clear a Threat at one Location only to have Vulture move toward them in a future turn. Since Doctor Octopus will destroy Locations over time, Vulture’s odd movement could come in handy. Despite his interesting second effect, Vulture has low priority when clearing Threats.

Endangered Civilians (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Constant Effect: Each Civilian in this Location requires 1 extra Heroics to be rescued.

“Endangered Civilians” makes Rescuing Civilians less effective at this Location. This is a standard Threat and has the lowest priority when clearing Threats. Unless of course, you’re trying to complete the Clear Threats Mission or you’re playing Heroes with a lot of Heroics.

Master Plan Deck

Movement:
Doctor Octopus averages 2 Movement each turn. He is 33% faster than any of the core set villains. His movement varies. He only has 1 card with speeds of 4 and 5, 3 cards with speeds of 3 and 0, and 2 cards with speeds of 1 and 2. Doctor Octopus also has a couple of cards that will move him toward the nearest Heroes. Doc Ock may be one of the most unpredictable villains in terms of movement, tending to head toward Heroes and apply pressure.

Civilians:
Doctor Octopus adds more civilians than the core set villains. And he does have a few nasty cards that can add 5 in a single turn.

Thugs:
Doctor Octopus adds as many Thugs as Civilians and has a few cards that will add 5 in a single turn.

BAM!:
Doctor Octopus has a BAM! effect on all but three of his cards. Two copies of a card that doesn’t include a BAM! effect “Master Planner” deals damage to a Hero and adds a Crisis Token to a Location, which improves Doc Ock’s chances to complete his Villainous Plot.

Special Effects on Cards

1) Master Planner: Deal 1 damage to each Hero in any Locations with any Crisis tokens. Then, place 1 Crisis token in Doctor Octopus’s Location.

Since Doctor Octopus can place Crisis Tokens quickly, “Master Planner’s” damage can add up because each Hero in any Location with any Crisis Tokens receives damage. The first effect is bad enough because a KO’d character could trigger a BAM! effect which could deal more damage and will add another Crisis Token, but “Master Planner’s” second effect makes certain that Doc Ock will add a Crisis Token this turn. The more Crisis Tokens in play, the easier it is for Doctor Octopus to win.

2) Tentacles Grasp: Move all Heroes 1 Location closer to Doctor Octopus. Then BAM!.
Special Movement accompanies both copies of “Tentacles Grasp,” which makes avoiding damage impossible this turn. Doctor Octopus will end his movement at a Hero’s Location. He will then move Heroes closer to him if they aren’t already at his Location, and then trigger a BAM! effect. If Doctor Octopus manages to draw more Heroes to his Location, “Tentacles Grasp” will deal extra damage, since every time Doc Ock uses a BAM! effect, he deals damage to each Hero at his Location. Yikes!

Special Movement: Doctor Octopus has one card in his deck, “Tentacles Grasp” that moves him to the next clockwise Location with any Heroes.

General Strategy

Doctor Octopus thrives the more Crisis Tokens exist on the board. If you choose to complete the Clear Threats Mission, you’ll want to do that before Doctor Octopus has a chance to destroy too many Locations. Mysterio has the highest priority, followed by Sandman for the Henchmen, while the “Endangered Civilians” Threat could be a good choice if you’re playing Heroes with a lot of Heroics.

You’ll want to keep the number of in-play Crisis Tokens to a minimum. The best way to do this is to prevent Overflow effects from occurring. Keep the Location cards as free from Civilian and Thug Tokens as you can. You may have to take a turn to mitigate the number of tokens at various Locations, but reducing the number of tokens will also get you closer to completing the Rescue Civilians and Defeat Thugs Missions. Doctor Octopus places a lot of Thugs and Civilians, so you’ll most likely be able to complete both Missions if you don’t let the board get too full of tokens which will result in Overflows.

A mixed team of Heroes who have good Attack and Heroics work well with Doctor Octopus because he places a similar number of Thugs and Civilians and has an equal number of Threat cards that require Heroics and Henchmen (which need Attack). Staying on theme with the heroes from Enter the Spider-Verse is a good choice. Miles Morales can delay the villain’s turn-one card, which can come in handy. Ghost Spider can manipulate where Threat cards are located. And Spidey can clear multiple Civilians and Thugs in a single turn. If you choose to go off-theme, the core set Heroes Captain America and Iron Man generate a lot of tokens, while Hulk can clear a Location in a single turn with “Hulk Smash!.”

I recommend playing with three Locations from the core set. S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters allows players to discard Crisis Tokens, which is very useful for a battle with Doc Ock. New York Police Headquarters and Times Square allow players to Defeat a Thug or Rescue a Civilian if the Heroes end their turn at those Locations. If you want to stay on theme, Enter the Spider-Verse has a few Locations that grant extra tokens at the end of a turn, and Brooklyn Bridge allows Heroes to add 1 Civilian and then rescue 1 Civilian from Brooklyn Bridge.

Remember to time completing the first and second missions as close together as possible to avoid the villain speeding up too soon.

Other Return of the Sinister Six Villains

Electro
Kraven
Mysterio
Sandman
Vulture

Sinister Six Team