Marvel Crisis Protocol Learning From Legends: Web Warriors With Zach Cohen

Welcome to Goonhammer’s Marvel Crisis Protocol: Learning From Legends article series! In these pieces, we interview top-tier MCP players to find out what they’re playing and how to get the most out of their affiliation of choice. You can read our other articles in the series by clicking the links below:

No, the title isn't a typo. Zach Cohen, who previously shared his expertise on Convocation, is back to talk about Marvel's resident Web Head. As of this writing, Zach holds the honor of being the top-ranked Web Warriors player on Longshanks. Moreover, he recently won Austin, TX's Don't Table Flip 2026 event with a perfect 6-0 run.

Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and the rest of Marvels' arachnid-themed heroes have been a meta staple in MCP for years. While rarely considered the single best thing at any given time, their scenario-focused gameplay and unconventional durability translate the Spider-Man vibe to MCP extremely well, resulting in a big affiliation that's both fun to play and extremely effective at winning.

Image Credit: Troy Alanis

Spider-Man isn’t just popular; he’s arguably the most popular superhero in the entire world. As such, I don’t think picking up Webs is ever really a surprising decision, but what drew you to them, Zach? Playstyle? Love of the characters? Both?

Definitely love of the characters. Spider-Man is my favorite superhero by a mile. I wasn’t really too into superhero stuff before the MCU came around, except for Spider-Man. That whole web-slinging corner of the Marvel universe is my favorite part of their world. The playstyle certainly kept me hooked, though; they’re a blast.

I think that's probably true for a lot of people. Let's jump into it - what's your Web Warriors list looking like right now?

Eight-Legged Freaks

Characters Red Skull, Master of Hydra Beta Ray Bill Shang-Chi Spider-Man (Miles Morales) Black Cat Ghost-Spider Spectacular Spider-Man Spider-Man Noir Baron Zemo Toad

Team Tactics Cards Brace for Impact Fall Back All Webbed Up Aunt May's Wheat Cakes Spider-Tracker Spider-Sleuth Chi Mastery Cosmic Obliteration I Am A Baron, After All Recalibration Matrix

Secure Crisis Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth (16) Deadline to Destruction (16) Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 17) Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate! (20) Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (17)

Extract Crisis Scientific Samples Found In Discovered Universe (17) Struggle for the Cube Continues (17) Terrigen Canisters Fuel Doomsday Device (17) Unexpected Guests Crash Royal Wedding (17) Fear Grips World as "Worthy" Terrorize Cities (18)

Image Credit: Troy Alanis

Correctly or not, Web Warriors rosters have a reputation for being sort of “solved” in that their core of 3-Threats are so good that lists haven’t changed much in years. Your list seems to support that to some degree, but there are a few inclusions and omissions that I think people will find interesting.

But let's start with the classics. Discussion about your five affiliated 3-Threats is pretty well-worn at this point, so we don’t need to spend too much time on them. However, let’s just briefly get into some basic Squad building right off the bat. Besides your leader, which of those 3s are hitting the table most consistently? Which are more situational, and what goes into deciding which Affiliated models to play?

Gwen, Cat, and Spectacular are all hitting the table as often as possible. I’m a big fan of going 6-wide in most cases, and those are the ones I reach for most. Gwen really makes the classic Webs style of “what if I just displace all of your models” sing, but I’ll leave her on the bench often for crises like Intrusions or other extremely tight fighty ones.

Spectacular is a tremendous all-rounder. He has great mobility and displacement, although he often has to choose between those in a given turn, and his attacks are reasonable for getting things done. I can rely on him to do things independently on a flank for the most part and take more than his threat to deal with.

Cat is decent at sitting on the midline or going and aggressively snatching up extracts on my opponent’s side of the board, and her stagger is, of course, valuable against single threatening targets. Noir is more niche for me. I play him heavily on Deadline, but being newer, I don’t have the same reflexes with him, and he’s usually the one I reach for the least.

While we’re talking about affiliated models, let's touch on what’s not here, which is maybe surprising to some people. Of the five Web Warriors that came out in late 2025, the only one who made the cut in your list is Noir. Also, you aren’t bringing the Spider-Verse “Leadership” as an option. You don’t need to touch on all of those things, but could you speak to some degree about your testing with these new tools, why they ultimately didn’t make the cut, and if any are close or bounce in and out of your list?

I just don’t think any of the new stuff comes close to matching the raw efficiency of the 3s I’m bringing. I was actually really down on Noir in my original testing, but I’ve come around on him. I think he’s still fairly overrated by the community at large, but he’s a solid piece. I typically rely on splash models to play important roles in my squads, so playing Web of the Spider-Verse (WSV) is losing me value there, and Webs have great TTCs that it’s competing with. The affiliated models just don’t pull the same amount of weight when I need a specific job done as Zemo, Shang, Bill, Toad, or Skull 2.

I wasn’t super impressed with Ultimate Spider-Man. While he does feel like a 1-threat upgrade to Miles 1, and his spender is absurd, I think the 3-threat Miles actually has better damage output due to the throw on the builder. Plus, Venom Blast is a points-scoring utility that’s hard to give up. Not to mention, his leadership is just solid. It’s not flashy, and a defensive reroll isn’t the most reliable tool, but unlocking skulls for your Spider Sense models, Zemo, and Shang for cover (letting him count 6 faces defensively!) is huge.

In testing, Silk felt really reliant on having one big turn where she invests two TTCs, and she otherwise walked around making one or two 5-die attacks. I still think she’s bad. Ham is fine, but I generally want my 2 to be an extract monkey for this team so my other models can save their power for reliable displacement effects. Ham can barely hold an extract and doesn’t reliably displace, so he just isn’t doing as much of what my list needs as Toad is.

2099 has come in and out for me. He’s cool, and I was experimenting with some double 5-threat Squads, but in general, he just wasn’t reliable enough at hitting for my tastes. While Web Whip is great, that’s not really the job I want a 5 threat for in my squads.

credit: Brushwizard

Let’s continue that line of conversation for a minute. One of the hopes for the new Web Warrior boxes was that they would offer an alternative play style with competitive viability. Even though you’re not leaning into that with your list, do you think it’s possible to build an effective Webs list that leans more into the Spider-Verse pseudo-leadership or goes more brawly? Did the new releases succeed in that regard, in your opinion?

I think WSV is extremely cool and gives you a lot of options, but it isn’t reliable enough to use as a plan for positional tricks. It sometimes lets you pull off very big-brained moves, or fix positional mistakes, but in my testing, I mainly either hit the skull and was already positioned where I wanted to be, or missed the skull and sat there sadly thinking about the cool play the dice didn’t let me do.

So, combining that unreliability with the new models being, in my opinion, generally less efficient, I still think Miles’ leadership is the best way to play Webs. It’s certainly not the only one, and I do think Ultimate Spider-Man and Silk have a place in Amazing Spider-Man-led squads, but I still don’t think either of those archetypes is particularly brawly. They’re playing a different kind of scenario game, but Great Responsibility is the only leadership that really directly improves your offense by allowing you to have skull-unlocked attack modifications (which you need to splash for).

Thanks for the perfect transition to splashes. Your splashes are basically a tier list of “Good MCP Models” - each one being among the most played models in the game. I don’t think we need to get into why Shang-Chi is great, for example, but is there anything specific here that makes these models a particularly good fit in Webs? When are they hitting the table?

Toad is doing Toad things. I already mentioned the role of a 2 threat in my list, so he’s just a guy that can pseudo-safely grab an extract and be obnoxious to get it off. Shang plays into the classic Webs displacement game while also rotating very well and hitting hard - the usual Shang stuff. Also, the Miles leadership really makes him nigh-unkillable, and being able to modify skulls for Chi Mastery is occasionally very helpful.

Zemo is also pretty self-explanatory; he does all the usual Zemo stuff with the benefit of unlocked skulls, and also, that isn’t a role I have affiliated (efficient 3 threat killer). Bill is also doing standard Bill things; he picks things up on the midline and doesn’t die with them for a while. But he’s also my only tool for moving a size 4 away from me, which is very valuable when I want them out of position for attacks and not just off a Secure (Gwen can do that part).

My default scenario- and opponent-agnostic 17 threat team is Miles, Gwen, Cat, Spectacular, Zemo, Toad. There are situations where I’ll go 3 Webs 3s, Shang, and Bill, such as against Apocalypse, but those situations are a little less common now. It used to be somewhat priority-based, and now you don’t know that when selecting your squad.

Let’s look at Red Skull, Master of Hydra a bit more specifically. As mentioned, he’s a very popular splash, but I think many people will be surprised to see him in Webs specifically. Why Skull? Is he coming out for specific matchups, threat levels, or Crisis combinations?

There’s a myth that Web Warriors don’t fight. They do, and they aren’t even as bad at it as many people assume they are. But they don’t have a pure, natural killer in affiliation, much less one that allows them to retain the secure benefits of going wider instead. One of my favorite places to play him is on Deadline, where my 16 can be Miles, Noir, another 3 of choice based on extract and opponent, Toad, and Skull. I’m still 6 wide as far as scoring bodies go, and he will reliably win fights for me on those tighter maps. I like him when I get stuck on lower-scoring extracts as well, since my other models can handle the secure game, and he can do his classic thing of making a Legacy cure really unappealing to pick up round 1, for example.

I usually like to ask a few questions about TTCs and Crisis Selection, but I think most of what’s here is going to be pretty unsurprising - you’re playing wide and fast Crises, and you’re mostly taking the “standard” Affiliation and Character cards you’d expect for Webs and these splashes.

So, instead of diving into specifics, let’s touch on the semi-recent changes to Roster construction and Crisis draws. Previously, it was pretty easy for Webs to slam two D secures and Scoundrels (or something similar) and call it good to go. Has the increase to five changed any other elements of your list, such as characters or splashes?

It hasn’t changed the rest of my roster, no, but there is a noticeable dropoff in secures Webs like after the three you named and Infinity Formula. Extracts have more good options for them, but as a team with a polarized gameplan needing to pick more crises isn’t great for them.

How about the new Crisis draw system (draw two, pick one)? Do Webs feel noticeably different when you and your opponent have more agency?

Yes, it’s awful. While I still think Webs are great, they feel more punished by this system than most other teams. You basically don’t ever get to play your Ds or Scoundrels. I often find myself picking my opponent’s Secures with priority if they have two secures I like so that I can try to choose a D or something.

I’ve played so much of my least-good scenarios since the change, and it’s a stark difference from when I’ve been playing Guardians or Convocation, who are far less picky than Webs about the crises they play on. Webs get to play their plan A far less often now than before this change, and the fact that I’m a Webs player and was mainly playing them when the change occurred is probably a big reason why I’m still so down on this change.

Related to Crises, with such high-quality, low-threat models in Affiliation, what’s Webs’ sweet spot for threat value? Do you tend to pick high or low, or is the list flexible enough to try and force whatever you think your opponent will have a harder time with?

17 and 20 are my favorites. I mentioned my default 17 above; at 20, it’s typically Miles, Gwen, Cat, Spectacular, Shang, Bill. Against most teams, I’ll default to 17, since going wide with such efficient models is more than many teams can handle, but there are always exceptions to the rule. I’d rather not give Apocalypse 17 if I can help it, but it’s better than 18 there. Against Inhumans, I’m often maneuvering to make it hard for them to play Voodoo in threat choice. Other roster-specific considerations come into play in that vein.

Speaking of changes to MCP, the other big one was collisions. How do webs feel about that? You don’t have many throws in your list bigger than Size 2, so your own damage output hasn’t really gone down. Defensively, more terrain on boards probably means more cover/hiding. You aren’t worrying about 5 incoming damage from a Size 4, but you might have 3 coming in more often. With Spider Senses working on Dodge, do Webs like the throw changes?

I think it’s more positive than negative for them for the reasons you listed, yes. My predominantly 5-health models not being able to be one-shot is nice. Bill is less reliable as a damage piece, and Miles loses a little bit when kicking size 3s into their friends, but Webs are relying on those throws far less often than other teams for damage and are more often using them for pure displacement or for pinging someone for 1 by throwing them into something.

I always like to end with a wish list question. Given their popularity, Webs are lucky enough to get relatively frequent releases. Who would you be most excited to see next?

It’s never going to happen, but one of my favorite Marvel characters is Spider-UK. He was the original leader of the Web Warriors during the first Spider-Verse comic event, and I found him a really compelling character for whatever reason. Spiders-Man is a very silly concept that really tickles me - a swarm of sentient spiders that think they’re Peter Parker. Mayday Parker/Spider-Girl, Araña, Penni Parker and SP//DR, and Spider-Punk all feel much more likely, and SP//DR would be something very different sculpt-wise than the rest of the team, which is nice. New versions of old favorites are always fun for me from a fluff perspective, and Venom is at the top of my list for that category.

Kraven leaping off a car at Venom in MCP

Kraven leaping off a car at Venom in MCP

If people want to talk with you more about Webs or MCP in general, can they do that? Do you have a Discord handle and any MCP servers you commonly hang out in?

I mostly hang out in the Taco Truck Discord server and some local Texas servers, and I just go by Zach in there, so feel free to hit me up and chat! I’m on a lot of other MCP servers, so you can search for me on the Unofficial Fanserver or the TTS server if you want to DM me, but I’m not active there.

Finally, any podcasts, YouTube channels, Twitch channels, or MCP tournaments/events that you'd like to promote?

Don’t Table Flip 2 just wrapped up recently, and I’ve been releasing commentary videos from that event on my YouTube channel every Friday at 10 AM. Then I’ll go back into content-making hibernation until the next DTF.

Join the Alfredo's Size 3 Taco Truck Discord server HERE

Join the MCP Unofficial Fan Server HERE

Check out the Don't Table Flip recordings playlist on YouTube HERE

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Tags: Marvel Crisis Protocol | MCP | web warriors | learning from legends