I recently got to play at the Akron Brew Brawl Spring Edition with a competitive Marvel: Crisis Protocol tournament which also happened to be the final tournament in the Appalachian Cup 2025-2026 season. I wasn’t able to travel to all the events this season so this last tournament would be my final chance to score enough points to make it to the year end Appalachian Cup championship invitational.
This was a great tournament held at Missing Falls Brewery in Akron, Ohio and I really enjoyed my time (Longshanks link). There were events for lots of miniature games so if you’re in the area I would recommend checking this event out. This space will also be the venue for the App Cup Invitational which will be great for a year-end tournament.
Man, this was a really tough and competitive tournament with lots of the top players from Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Everyone was playing their best and every opponent was also great to play against. I finished the tournament with a record of 2-2 and was able to hold on to one of the last spots to qualify for the Invitational. Here are a couple of my takeaways from the event and some things to look forward to in the future of MCP and of the App Cup.
My roster
I brought a roster I was pretty familiar with, a Kingpin Criminal Syndicate and Web Warrior dual roster that plays an objective based strategy and tries to win before being KO’d off the table. This list has a lot of mobile, tough characters that play on objectives really well.
Kingpin’s strategy is to stand on all the Secure objectives and try to score out as quickly as possible while also using a variety of Extract objective steals to swing the VPs in my favor throughout the game. Criminal Syndicate with Web Warriors offers models that are fast enough to get onto every Secure in Round 1 and then weather the storm to score them through the game.
The objective steals I have access to are:
- Rhino’s This is a Robbery
- Black Cat’s Master Cat Burglar
- Silk and Black Cat’s Protege
- Iron Monger’s Aggressive Acquisition
- Miles Morales’ Venom Blast
It can definitely feel bad when you can’t get the Extract objectives off your opponent’s models because your dice just won’t get the damage through so guaranteed steals are a great way to get those Extracts scoring for your team. Only Iron Monger’s steal is based off a trigger. Also all of these steals are attached to pretty good 3 and 4-Threat characters already so I’m feeling really strong taking them in a game.
The back-up plan to this list is playing the Web Warriors leadership in games where we pull a pay-to-flip Secure Crisis or my opponent is full-on attrition game plan. The Web Warriors do a lot better in these scenarios and they can cover the weaknesses of the Kingpin gameplan.
Probably the only downside bringing this list is that I haven’t been playing it a lot recently and could use a little more experience with it. I ended up being 1-1 with Kingpin and 1-1 with Miles Morales but I got some tough Crisis pulls and had to fight against some aggressive affiliations so I think this list has a lot of potential and I will be playing it more.
Tournament takeaways:
Iron Monger is an exciting(-ish) new model
Iron Monger is the clear competitive winner out of the recent box that included Kang, Rescue, Iron Lad, and Iron Monger. Iron Monger is a 3 Threat affiliated with Cabal and Criminal Syndicate. His strengths include that he’s on a big base (65 mm), he’s a size 4, he has damage reduction, and his Spender can steal an Extract from an enemy on a trigger.
Iron Monger seems to fit with objective-focused play and Kingpin loves what this model can bring to the table. His average activation won’t be incredibly interesting but his innate ability to be a large, tough, and hard to move model with a Range 1 Place will score you points through the game. Getting additional Power to re-roll some dice or use the Spender will be a way you can make sure he will impact the board on his Turn.
Iron Monger was tied for the 7th most brought model in the tournament. He’s not a flashy as Rescue or Kang but I think he has enough inherent value that doesn’t depend on dice or triggers that he’s a great addition.
I used his Spender less than I expected to but it’s honestly not necessary to get full value out of him during a game. I ended up playing Iron Monger almost every single game and plan to keep using him in the future. I think he has a bright future for Criminal Syndicate.
Overall this guy says objective focused play and he fits right in to the Criminal Syndicate strategy with Kingpin. He’s pretty unexciting to play with a pretty basic Builder attack but he brings so much inherent value that he’s a great model to have on the table. His basic stats are just a great package that will give some opponents difficulty dealing with him. With the Throw change you can also feel better about taking a size 4 character in case he gets Thrown at an allied model. I brought Iron Monger myself and played him almost every single game. I definitely need practice on the best placement and movement with him but I think he has a bright future for Criminal Syndicate.
Playing against Sin leadership was tough
My first round opponent was against a top player in the Appalachian Cup and he brought a list I had never seen before. He had Kang as a Cabal leader but could also play Sin as well. This list felt like a great counter to the Kingpin strategy (or any objective based strategy) and I will have to keep a wary eye out for it in the future.
My opponent used Sin as a leader and while she’s very weak defensively, I couldn’t convert damage into her and her leadership did a lot of work to stop me from scoring VPs. Overall I think Sin can be a viable leader but I would still want to see her get some buffs in an upcoming character update.
The rest of his list played heavy with control. MODOK 1 and Red Skull 3 were able to move my characters off of points and away from him team. Quicksilver was able to steal on Round 1 with a Can I Borrow That? Baron Zemo gave him speed and re-rolls.
Cabal can be a very attrition focused team but they also have the tools to stop their opponents from scoring VPs in order to prolong the game or just get ahead in VPs. I’ve also seen a similar list use Ultron Metal Tyrant in a similar manner. It seems like a very strong strategy and having the 3-Threat Sin can be a benefit early on and even if she gets taken off the board, a leader-less Cabal with these tools can definitely finish out games.
Inhumans are still a top-tier competitive affiliation
There were 2 Inhumans players who all performed very well at the event (finishing second and third overall). Recently, their TTC The Great Refuge was rotated out of Standard play but that hasn’t stopped them from competing at the top levels. However, while Great Refuge is now gone, Terrigenesis remains and gives them a huge edge in games with a Civilian extract. Indeed, they won all of their games with a Civilian extract.
The Inhumans finishing in top spots showed that they are competitive. There was an even split between the players using Black Bolt or Maximus the Mad as the leader. The inherent re-rolls that Inhumans get and the strength of their models is a great combination. The only downside I can see for picking up this affiliation now is that they probably will fall behind as new models get released and other models get buffs. I don’t envision any new Inhumans characters being added to the game this year and if they lose Terrigenesis in a Standard rotation it will make their games tougher.
Don’t let that stop you though! Inhumans reward experience and game knowledge. They will also feel very consistent with their re-rolls. I hope we can see them continue to thrive in MCP during 2026.
Kingpin has favored Crisis and performs very well on them; avoid at all costs
The winner of the tournament was a Criminal Syndicate Kingpin roster. This player got very favorable Crisis set ups for the first 3 tournament rounds, playing 20 Threat on Super-Powered Scoundrels each game. If you’re facing off against Kingpin, you should do anything in your power to not play on this exact Crisis and Threat pairing.
You will most likely lose to Kingpin in this scenario and that’s what happened each game here. The Kingpin player was able to score out (16+ VPs) in 3 Rounds each time. The new Crisis selection should mitigate the ability of a roster to play on their best Crisis at the best Threat. You should basically never choose to play Scoundrels against Kingpin if offered it in their two Secure Crises. As a Kingpin player I’m basically hoping my opponent has it in their Secures and I get the 40% chance to play on it.
The winner of the tournament did not bring a second leadership in his list and instead said that his models were good enough to play leaderless in games where Kingpin would not be of use.
(I do think playing leaderless of any affiliation can be a choice and you can consider it. You can still bring all of your affiliated TTCs and your strongest characters.)
The meta was very healthy; a great sign of the great design of MCP
16 affiliations were entered for the event, with 14 of those being played in a game. (The ones that weren’t were Legion of the Lost and Mighty Avengers.) Perhaps Mighty Avengers hasn’t taken in the competitive meta yet or people aren’t familiar with them enough yet. I do think multiple of the Mighty Avengers characters are expecting a buff over the course of 2026 so keep an eye on this affiliation.
Each of the other 14 affiliations were played at least 3 times. By a large margin the Criminal Syndicate was brought by the most players (7) and played in the most games (22 compared to the next highest Web Warriors in 9 games). Good news is that even within those affiliations, there was a healthy mix of leaders and characters. Criminal Syndicate had MODOK 2, Shadowlands Daredevil, and Kingpin represented in the tournament with the final table being a showdown between Shadowlands and Kingpin. Criminals certainly can play the attrition or objective focused game.
The Web Warriors games used only Miles Morales as their leader, which speaks to the power of the model and the leadership, although one player did bring the Web of the Spider-Verse TTC leadership in their list and I brought Amazing Spider-Man for niche match-ups.
Inhumans also had diversity with 4 games being played with OG Black Bolt and another 4 being played with Maximus the Mad leadership. Inhumans have a generically good game play with the build-in re-rolls (and additional Maximus re-rolls) and they have a suite of strong TTCs.
Cabal saw 4 leaders being played, with Sin, Malekith, Red Skull 1, and Kang being played in games. It doesn’t look like there’s one “best” way to be playing Cabal right now and they have lots of opportunity to innovate.
It was a great showing for the health of the meta. I played against four different affiliations, and flexed into playing two different affiliations myself.
Conclusions
This is all to say that the game is in a good place right now but also going to shortly experience a big change. We are nearing the end of the Standard rotation that is the War of Kings Crisis pack that was released in March 2025. We should be very soon getting the Tolerance is Extinction Crisis pack that will shake up the game and the Crises available. With Adepticon coming up I think we’ll see a reveal of a rotation of TTCs to keep the game fresh, with also an update of some characters cards. They have stated a goal of refreshing old characters and bringing old 3 Threats health pool up so we should have a whole new set of possibilities.
The Tolerance is Extinction pack is a Sentinels vs. Mutants theme so I hope we see some interesting focus on those affiliations. We know we’re getting new Sentinel models and Mutants as well.
Finally, we know that the Young Avengers affiliation is also on its way. Will that make a bigger splash than the Mighty Avengers?
What affiliations are you looking to play? There are robust options in the many affiliations discussed in this article!
I will be addressing what I want to see from Adepticon reveals soon, but AMG has been doing a great job with keeping the game fresh and balanced so I will probably have no complaints about whatever we get! Let me know what you have seen on competitive tables in your local meta and what you’re looking forward to most! You can always find me playing at the Fabricator’s Forge in the Pittsburgh, PA area. Join the Appalachian Cup discord for updates on next season’s events! Check out the FLG online store for discount miniatures! Good luck and happy gaming!
