This is a preview article showcasing new releases for Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Want to learn more about the game? Check out our Marvel: Crisis Protocol Beginner’s Guide instead!
Excelsior, heroes, and welcome to another Meeple Mountain preview for Marvel: Crisis Protocol! Last time, we took a peek at the newest Defenders box. This time, we’ve got a double feature. Two Spider-Man-themed boxes are releasing at the same time, and it seems destined to shake up the game, so let’s swing into the preview!
Prowler Joins Marvel: Crisis Protocol
Prowler leaps into action as the only non-Web Warrior in these two boxes! But, you know, he’s Miles Morales’s uncle, so he gets included by association, I guess. Prowler is a fairly formidable 4-threat, with his long move coupled with a charge, making his threat range enormous. His melee strike is decent, if nothing too exciting, but the rest of his kit has lots of potential. Giving him an energy attack at range four that shuts down dice modification is huge – something our webbed-up heroes hate to see. His spender lets him chuck eight dice into someone, get a free move off of it, and has a pretty good chance to let him throw the enemy to boot. “You’re Right, I Can Do Better” is fantastic at helping smooth out your dice luck, allowing you to reroll everything if you get stuck with a terrible roll. Perhaps most interesting, to me anyway, is his “Custom-Designed Burglar Gadgets”, which gives him a power the first time he interacts with an objective each turn. My brain immediately went to trying him out under Mystique’s leadership, which also refunds you a power for interacting with an objective, which means he’d actually gain power from picking up an extract. That’s something, maybe! I’m excited to get him painted and see what he can do.
The model itself is pretty cool – I love it when AMG finds a way to make it look like a model is suspended in mid-air. Unlike some other models, his cape is really sturdy, so you never feel like you’re at risk of breaking him when you pick him up. I’m looking at you, Storm. I will say, I found his legs a little tricky to attach because they’re curved at a sharp angle, and the bottom of his torso didn’t have a great way to slot the pieces together, but we made it work eventually. (By we, I mean my husband did after I complained about it. Isn’t marriage wonderful?)
Like most recent models, Prowler comes with his own character-specific tactics card. “High-Tech Heist” can be played for one power in two different situations. The first lets you change any number of dice in a secure objective roll to any result. This has massive potential in pay-to-flip scenarios where you have to interact with a secure and roll dice to try to flip it to your control. A guaranteed point flip for one measly power certainly has some appeal. However, I think the primary mode of using this card is its second ability. When another character would drop an asset or civilian objective token, Prowler can pay 1 to yoink it away. Note that this could even be his own teammates, so if it’s your opponent’s turn and they go all-in to take out one of your characters holding an extract, if Prowler is nearby, he can stop them from picking it up if they successfully take your character down. Granted, the range means he has to be pretty close by, but we’ve seen how powerful pickup effects like this can be.
Spider-Man 2099 Swings From the Future
Okay, full disclosure, I am biased against Web Warriors in this game. They play a “take my ball and go home” style that I hate playing against, because my simpleton brain has one plan and one plan only: smash. So when Web Warriors grab tokens and flee to safety where I can’t hit them, it makes my lizard brain very sad. However, here comes Miguel O’Hara, hot off his popularity in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and this guy isn’t running from a fight. A lot is going on here, which is expected for a 5-threat. First off, “Web Whip” is an unrestricted character displacement that can even yoink Hulks off of points. That’s huge, and we’ve seen how powerful that can be in the game already. But offensively, this guy is pretty nuts, too. His range four attack has five dice and a pretty good chance of letting him move, and most importantly, thanks to “Future Tech Genius”, he gets to ignore those pesky stealth characters that like to run and hide and deny them cover. On top of having decent offensive output, he’s hard to kill! His “Acceleration Decoy” power lets him pay to reroll his defense dice, and after he does, he gets to place himself within range 2. This makes it difficult to displace him with attacks because he can hop back to his original position. Furthermore, even if you do manage to get some damage onto him, he can heal it all away with “Healing Factor” and his “Spider-Talons” builder. All in all, this is a cool model, and I expect to see him everywhere in Webs lists soon.
Speaking of cool models: whoa, what a rad sculpt this guy has! The tattered cape is cool as heck, not to mention those arm blades! I’m a little wary of how many Web Warrior models are posed on beams/street lights/abstract steel debris, but the Alchemax branding at the bottom at least makes this one stand out more. He was also super easy to assemble, and came with multiple head options – masked or unmasked. I, personally, want all my spiderlings to have a consistent theme, and since the rest of my roster is masked, so is Miguel.
Finally, Miguel gets his own tactics card (noticing a pattern yet?) called “Great Power”. This is a really interesting ability that lets him pay some power and suffer some damage to make an attack at a discount and add dice to the attack for each power he spent. You can use this to discount his four power spender, which could get it online as early as turn two, or you can use this to turn either his melee attack or his “Organic Web Shot” into bigger attacks. At two power, his ranged attack that ignores stealth now becomes seven dice, which isn’t nothing. With so many options for how to play it, I’m sure Web Warriors players will be noodling on this one for a while. Discounting spenders is always a really strong effect in MCP.
Miles Morales Shocks and Stuns as Ultimate Spider-Man
Look, there’s no real way around it – this character is pretty nuts. Original 3-threat Miles may win my award for most annoying models to play against because he’s just so dang good at everything. This guy might be even better, granted he’s a threat level higher. Ultimate Spider-Man is hard to attack because of his stealth, and if you do manage to get in range to attack him, he gets to reroll two dice when defending (including skulls). To top it off, if you attack him, he gets to move towards you and hit you with his “Swinging Strike”, which can also slow you and yoink you off your point. Now, that may sound like a lot… because it is… but this Miles isn’t done yet. Similar to his original version, this one can “Web Swing” and place himself at range three, which also boosts his next “Swinging Strike” with two additional dice. His spender is eight energy dice that automatically shocks and stuns you before damage is dealt, so you’ll only get one power for taking damage, with the additional effect of pinging your other models within range three for two damage a piece. Oh, did I also mention he’s a long mover? Yeah, I expect this guy to be everywhere once he’s released, and he may become one of the premier 4-threats in the game.
Ugh, this model is ridiculously cool. I love that AMG is leaning into the electricity aspect of Miles’ superpowers, which weren’t present on his initial sculpt. The raised webbing lines on his chest will hopefully make him easier to paint, as I know my first encounter painting spider patterns on models was a bit frustrating. His pose, the diving, the lightning crackling behind him… I may be concerned about his power levels as a character in the game, but I can honestly say Miles is the model I am most excited to paint later this month.
Ultimate Spider-Man has tactics cards, just like the others. “Brief Reprieve” allows him and any number of allied models to pay one power to heal or clear a condition. Then, anyone who has already been activated gets that power refunded. I really like this design philosophy of having characters that benefit less from an effect to refund power or make it more cost-efficient in some way. That being said, thank the good Lord above this is restricted to Web Warriors only, as being able to splash Miles in any affiliation and use this card would be nutty. He does share a second card with any Peter Parker in the game, which lets them move each other around to make a free attack. I’m sure this will wind up being really useful, as being able to drop Ultimate Spider-Man on top of an enemy and get a free strike into them will probably swing plenty of games. It’s worth noting that this will work with either the original 3-threat miles or the new 4-threat version, and will be compatible with any of the three Peters in the game already (Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man, and Amazing Spider-Man).
Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig, Does Whatever A Spider-Pig Does
I honestly cannot believe it. AMG has released another 2-threat model into the game. Wow. I never thought I’d see the day! And to top it off, they gave it to the Web Warriors, who were already champions of maximizing the value of 2-threats like Toad and Wong. This porker has some weird stuff going on. For starters, he’s a size one, which means he gets cover from… basically everything in the game. Luckily, he only has two defensive dice in all three types, so he’s not ridiculous to kill. Except, well, he also has damage reduction and can reroll dice when attacked. The silver lining is that all you have to do is ping him for one damage, and he drops all objectives he’s holding. He’s sort of a slot machine, where you can get a wild set of effects on his melee attack if you hit specific triggers, and he has a “Web Yoink” that lets you roll four dice and see what happens. Perhaps you’ll displace an enemy, or maybe you’ll be the one displaced! Ham seems like a really wacky model that might feel at home under Amazing Spider-Man’s leadership, but I wonder how much he fits the generic Webs game plan. All I know is, as an avid anti-Webs activist, I will be sure to complain about him no matter what! (Kidding. Mostly.)
Ham’s model fits his weird, wacky nature quite well. He’s cartoonish in style with his giant mallet and a comic-style WHACK! onomatopoeia to boot. My only minor quibble is that I feel like a mallet would definitely make a WHAM! and not a WHACK! sound, but even I’m not petty enough to argue about that. I will say, somehow, our copy of Spider-Ham came without his little corkscrew tail. I checked the bag and the sprue probably fifty times to make sure I hadn’t missed it. I even counted off the number of pieces I had snipped and found nothing was missing, so I’m not sure what happened there. I am confident it was just an error on our end and not something anyone else should expect. Also, fair warning, of all six models I put together for this article, this guy was the biggest pain. His little fiddly bits are so tiny, his arms must be ever-so-delicately placed, and that crater on the ground came in three separate small pieces. The end result looks great, but the assembly process was… not.
I don’t know why this card is called “Caught in a Ham,” so hopefully some well-read comic aficionado out there can light my way. Continuing Spider-Ham’s wacky slot machine design, this card lets Peter Porker pay two power to roll a die for every enemy character within range three. Each symbol triggers a different result, from handing out conditions to draining the enemy’s power to accidentally placing Spider-Ham away from the commotion. It’s a ridiculous card, but some of my favorite moments in Marvel: Crisis Protocol come from silly cards doing silly things at perfect moments.
Spider-Man Noir Sleuths His Way Into MCP
Even as I write this preview, I am chuckling to myself at how downright silly some of these character choices are, and I love it. Popularized in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse by none other than Nicolas Cage, Spider-Man Noir is a 3-threat with a knack for getting in the middle of things and brawling. Like most spiderfolk, he has his “Spider-Sense” rerolls to help him survive. Unlike his spider-friends, however, Noir lacks any real reliable movement tech. Once he makes it into battle, however, he can be pretty formidable. “The Ol’ One, Two” encourages him to double-tap enemies, adding dice to his second attack if it’s against the same target. His spender lets him beam a bunch of enemies, inflicting slow and shock if he’s able to damage them. He may seem a bit too squishy to be in the middle of the fight, but his range three and four attacks let him stay far enough away that he can be safer, and his defensive rerolls and damage reduction make him tankier than he may seem at first.
After the pain of assembling the pig, I was grateful that Spider-Man Noir came together quite simply. Again, AMG has blessed us with options here, giving us three options for Noir’s head… but come on, who doesn’t want the hat! The other options were just the goggles with slight variations on the mask. But let’s be real, that fedora is iconic for a reason!
Despite being a relatively simple model, Noir has probably the most interesting tactics card in the box. He automatically plays “Spider-Sleuth” at the start of the first power phase in the game. Anytime an enemy character within range three of Noir interacts with an objective token, you put an “evidence” token on the card. Whenever Noir dazes or KO’s an enemy character, you put a “confession” token. At the end of any round, if there are at least three evidence tokens and one confession token on the card, you discard it and score 2 VPs. Tactics cards that can score you VPs are always worth considering. Sometimes, they’re meta-defining, like the Inhumans and their “Terrigenesis” dominating the game right now. Other times, they’re cute but maybe not great, like M.O.D.O.K.’s “Mind Games”. The impact of this one remains to be seen. There are some setups, like on the “Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators” extract, where Noir could post up in the middle of the board and almost guarantee three evidence tokens on the first turn of the game. I’ll keep a close eye on any play this card gets to see if it becomes a staple or a dud.
Silk Spins Her Web
Finally, we arrive at Silk. Fans of the comics may recognize Cindy Moon, but she hasn’t had much crossover appeal in mainstream Marvel properties yet. However, she has been teased to appear in Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 for the PlayStation, whenever that arrives. She’s pretty much what you expect from a Webs model with a five dice strike, some triggered displacement, and some defensive rerolls. Cindy also loves to see an enemy model get slowed because she gets power from slowed enemies being near her. Luckily, she has her own beam that dishes out slow, and she’ll love to take advantage of that on the classic “All Webbed Up” turn. Her most interesting power, though, is “Caught in the Web”, which is just a refashioned version of Mysterio’s “Tricks and Traps”. Using this, she can roll four dice when an enemy moves near her, and for every critical or wild, she does damage. If she does damage, she can advance short. I love playing Mysterio solely because of this superpower, so I’m stoked to see it on another model.
After so many cool models in these boxes, Silk feels a little… uninspired. There are only so many ways you can pose web slingers in dynamic poses, but “leaping off another piece of metal” was a bit disappointing. If I had any creative skill, I might try to kitbash her onto something slightly cooler, but… alas, I am not that creative. She did have two options for her hair, though – I went with the longer hair because I liked the look, but her short hair is more well-known, so you can choose whatever suits you!
Silk comes with two cards of her own! One is “Spider-Totem: The Bride”, which lets Silk pay two power during the power phase to change her attacks to mystic for the round and gets a one-time ability to reroll all dice for her or an ally on attack or defense. This seems… reasonable? I mean, maybe not quite as impactful as something like “Recalibration Matrix” since that card can be held as a response and this one must be played during the power phase, but rerolling all of your dice to try to live or avoid a dud roll can be critical. Changing her attacks to mystic is fine; we have other cards in the game that do something similar, and they don’t see a ton of play because most teams will just bring a mystic attacker if they need one. The second card, however, may have some legs. If both Silk and Black Cat are on the same team, Silk basically gets a one-time usage of Black Cat’s objective steal. It does cost an action, and it is limited to range one, but stealing objectives is a potent effect in Marvel: Crisis Protocol, and this effectively gives the Web Warriors a fourth affiliated steal. As a note, this isn’t affiliation-restricted, so you could also use this anywhere else you might run Black Cat and Silk, like in Criminal Syndicate.
It’s Getting Sticky
There’s one final tactics card that isn’t character-specific in the box, and it’s certainly one worth talking about. If, at any point in the game, there are no leaders on the board for Web Warriors, this card kicks into effect. Essentially, it gives the whole team the “Into the Spider-Verse” superpower. This power allows all affiliated models to place themselves within range one at any time they roll a skull for attacks, defenses, or dodges. It’s important to note that this does not work on splash characters, but Web Warriors models are so strong that they don’t really need splash characters. It’ll be interesting to see if people run this as a default “Plan A” leadership without any leaderships, or if it gets taken as a backup just in case your leader gets taken off the board early. I think there’s potential here, and it certainly opens up Web Warriors’ list-building options.
Look, like it or not, the Web Warriors are one of the most popular affiliations in the game for a good reason. Spider-Man films always make a ton of money at the box office, and Spider-Man merch always sells. He’s a popular character, and according to data, has remained the first or second most popular superhero consistently for over 20 years. These models allow AMG to expand the Spider-Man line in the game without having to make yet another Peter Parker. (Just a Peter Porker. Oh, and Peter Parker from a different Earth entirely.) For a long time now, building a Web Warriors list has felt pretty solved in MCP because their models are just so good at what they do. There was rarely a reason to play Amazing Spider-Man’s leadership when Miles Morales had one of the best leaderships in the game. With these five new affiliated models and a whole bunch of new tactics cards, the number of strategic options for this affiliation has skyrocketed!
Maybe the old Web Warriors way of stealing points and running away won’t be the only way to play them. Maybe there’s an attrition version of Webs that brings in characters like Venom alongside Spider-Man Noir and Ultimate Spider-Man. Maybe Amazing Spider-Man’s leadership is more viable now with Silk and Spider-Ham in the picture. The possibilities are endless. While I like to jokingly complain about how good Webs are, I have to admit some of these new models have me really excited at the possibilities they unlock in the game.
And hey, if you’ve ever thought about getting into MCP, now is a great time if you’re a Spider-fan. Both of these boxes offer great strategic options, and AMG just repackaged several of those models together in a new box.
Until next time, heroes!
