Another year, another Adepticon in the books. While the whole four-day event in Milwaukee is a giant ball of gaming goodness, it’s particularly notable for being one of the few events officially attended and hosted by AMG. Moreover, Adepticon is the time and place for one of AMG’s twice-yearly Roadmap panels, in which they show off what the community can expect in the coming months across their various games.
Between that and the MCP World Championship, there was lots to learn for Marvel Crisis Protocol players. From meta takeaways to new characters and teases of future updates, here’s what you need to know about what went down at Adepticon 2026.
MCP World Championship & The Current Meta Monsters
credit - Brushwizard
This year, Adepticon hosted the second-ever MCP “Word Championchip” comprised of an open qualifier on Friday, where players competed for a spot in the top 64 (along with GT winners) and were then paired down to a top-8 finals and an eventual overall winner.
No one event can offer a comprehensive view of the game’s meta, but there are definitely some interesting points to take away from what went down. First, if it wasn’t clear from Carlcon in February, the Defenders list featuring Soul Strange, Blue Marvel, and friends is here to stay - at least for now. In the top 64, Defenders were the most played affiliation with 11, followed by a three-way tie between Avengers, Criminal Syndicate, and Servants of Apocalypse (9 each). Moreover, half of the top-8 rosters had Defenders - one mono-affiliated, one dual-affiliated with Avengers, and two dual-affiliated with Criminal Syndicate.
Defenders being so prominently represented isn’t a huge surprise - it’s a strong list being piloted by strong players, and it’s seen some high-level competitive success. Given its performance here, I’d expect to see Defenders well-represented in future big events, too - at least until the Crisis and character updates coming in a few months.
But what about Criminal Syndicate? The affiliation - specifically the Kingpin-led version - has been relevant in the meta for years, but the big man hasn’t taken down many large events recently. That, of course, changed with this year’s world champion, Nathan “Sooner5” Stickney, taking first place with a Kingpin/Defenders dual (and playing the CS half in all three top-8 games).
Is Criminal Syndicate that good? Well, yeah. But more specifically, they’re particularly well-suited to blitzing into the Defenders list that wants to play a slower, grindier game. Note, though, that while the top 3 players all had KP in their list, they were also all dual-affiliated with Defenders. Moreover, while it’s debatable whether it mattered in the top 8, the short round timers that unfortunately plagued Adepticon with unfinished games gave at least a slight edge to teams who could jump to an early lead.
A New Reveal Philosophy & a Batch of Character Cards
I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of each individual character reveal and what I think about them, because that’s just outside the scope of this overview piece. You can read AMG’s full collection of presentation slides, including new character cards, on their website
HERE.
However, to touch on Sentinels briefly, it’s exciting to see that the mutant-hunting machines are getting fully fleshed out with a wide spread of threats (their affiliation was previously only 4s and 5) and a much clearer affiliation identity. Bastion’s leadership decreases the amount of power enemies gain when being attacked, and a bunch of the new Sents can easily drop Root. This means a whole bunch less power, which not only seems strong but is a thematic slam dunk for the group interested in suppressing mutants. And there are still six Team Tactics cards yet to be revealed in the Bastion box and an indeterminate number that could be in the Operation: Zero Tolerance Crisis Pack.
Beyond that, roadmap viewers may have been surprised that AMG didn’t reveal a single new character in the pipeline that we didn’t already know was coming. This breaks from previous tradition, but it was no accident. As touched on by Will Shick in an impromptu Discord question and answer session, the studio is reining in how far out they're revealing boxes to let them drop more surprises throughout the year and focus on what’s coming out soon instead of over a year from reveal. While that may have meant the 2026 roadmap presentation was a little bare-bones compared to previous ones, it means the studio’s preferred timeline for hype and discourse is now in order. Look for more reveals outside of roadmaps moving forward.
New Affiliations Are Coming
While the Sentinels were the stars of the show in terms of character card reveals, AMG dropped some juicy info for Onslaught, Red Hulk, and The Leader, too. We don’t know anything about their specific kits, but we do know that each one will be the leader of a brand-new affiliation.
Onslaught is poised to lead the Onslaught’s Grip affiliation. What exactly does that mean? We’re not sure, but the name sparks thoughts of an open Affiliation that can take anyone, themed around Onslaught, mentally compelling others to do his bidding. We also know through some post-Adepticon interviews that Onslaught was inspired by Apocalypse. Not in terms of specific rules, but in that he’s set to be a powerhouse in his own affiliation that may struggle a bit when splashed. So fret not - Onslaught may be popular, but you likely won’t see him popping up as a splash all over the game.
We know less about Red Hulk and The Leader except that they’ll be leading the Thunderbolts and Intelligencia, respectively. Red Hulk’s Thunderbolts are mostly already present in the game - namely Deadpool, Elektra, Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Agent Venom - and AMG will likely affiliate other notable villains and anti-heroes who were present on other iterations of the team. We also know that their leadership is called By Any Means Necessary, but the mechanics are still a secret. As for Intelligencia? Expect a mish-mash of the top evil minds in MCP. However, we’re not sure who will be invited to the brain trust beyond a strong tease that MODOK, Scientist Supreme will likely be involved.
What to Expect from the 2026 Character Balance Update
Image courtesy of Atomic Mass Games
Also teased but not fully revealed at the AMG Roadmap Panel is the next wave of character updates, and it’s set to be a doozy. We’ve got to wait until sometime in June to see it, but the big reveal was that 80-85% of characters in the entire game will get some kind of tweak. AMG creatives have previously talked about the desire to increase time to kill by upping HP across several models, but few expected the boosts to be quite so sweeping. I’d expect the vast majority of that 80-85% to just be an added HP or two, but we also know that characters such as She-Hulk, War Machine, Mister Sinister, and a select few others will be the beneficiaries of more traditional updates beyond hit points.
It’s difficult to predict the impact this will have on the game. If enough characters are getting slightly tankier, will any individual model seem like a big winner? Almost definitely, but it’s hard to predict who. Is there concern that a world of tankier characters will see combat-focused teams struggle? Maybe. Alpha-strikes may be harder to pull off, but attrition teams that get more tanky themselves should remain strong performers, able to come out of brawls on time. They might just have to think about scenario a bit more as they do it.
A Look at New Crises
In theory, the next batch of Crisis Cards and the accompanying rotation should be landing right around the same time as the character updates (the Sentinels four-pack is slated for May, but Operation: Zero Tolerance does not have a solidified release date as of the time of this writing).
While AMG didn’t show off much of the upcoming Crisis pack, they did reveal one new Secure and one new Extract. Surprise Assault! Mutant Homes Destroyed is the second Source Extract to enter the game (behind November 2025’s Lockdown), and Assault Ship Makes Sweeping Search! looks set to be a future attrition favorite with its tight shape and bonuses for attack rolls.
While those are the only new Crises we saw in full, the reveal image showed the threat values of all 10 Crises in the box. Interestingly, it’s a perfect sequential run for both Secures and Extracts, with one Crisis each at every number from 16 to 20. 15-threat lovers remain losing (good!), but those who thought the War of Kings was too 17-dominated should be happy to see a wider variety here.
More Information on Alliances
Finally, a whole lot more was shown off about Marvel Crisis Protocol: Alliances following the reveal trailer last month. This isn’t the place to get into every detail, but AMG showed off the next two boxes set for release after Night of the Goblin. A Sentinels-themed box will feature Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, and Rogue vs legions of mechanical ne’er do wells, while Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Iron Man will face off against Kang and his variants.
And that's it for Adepticon 2026! Fortunately, more big news should be dropping in a few months, as new Crises and character updates once again shake up the Marvel Crisis Protocol meta.
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