What we learned from the Post Adepticon Fury's Finest Interview with Will Shick

 

Right at the end of Adepticon Will Shick had an Interview with the (fantastic) Fury's Finest Podcast. If you have the time go listen to the episode yourself, it's always worth listening to Jesse and Chris and it's also always fantastic to hear Will Shick talk about the game. That should be enough reason right there 😉

Find it here 

With that out of the way let's see what we learned from the interview: 

Adam Warlock: 

As expected he is confirmed to be the second Guardians of the Galaxy leader with his leadership being called "Infinity Watch". With his release there will be updates to the Gems and, just like Thanos, he'll be able to hold two of them. And he's going to get a special Soul Stone that only he can hold. 

Quasar and Moondragon: 

These two will have some synergy with each other (as they should), but not a Husband and Wife mechanic. Shick also talks a lot about how the sculpt of Moondragon came to be and that's a lot of fun to listen too. 

Kang: 

Kang will be a leader for an "existing Affiliation that would make sense for him" so it's mostly likely going to be Cabal. His leadership will be similar to Recalibration Matrix as that's how time is shown in the game already. 

Iron Monger: 

Is confirmed as a Member of the Cabal and the Criminal Syndicate (no big surprises there). 

Tigra: 

Tigra will have a special version of Pounce as she's a cat person. 

Echo: 

Her model has been designed around the time Shadowland Daredevil was designed. Probably explaining why they look so similar in poses. 

Ronin: 

Will be a close combat specialist (who would've thought 😅). 

Spider-Man 2099:

Spider-Man 2099 was originally supposed to come out alongside Miles and Gwen. He's been postponed "a bit". They specifically aimed at him being a very different 5 threat than ASM for the Web Warriors. 

Ultimate Spider-Man: 

Miles 2 probably doesn't have a leadership as Shick talked a lot about them wanting to push ASM leadership. 

Spider-Verse TTC: 

Shick confirmed there's going to be a Spider-Verse TTC in this pack but not what exactly it does. I'm very sure it will allow you to double up on alter-egos in some way. 

Silk: 

Is combining the abilities of some Spiders already in the game (similar to Scarlet Spider probably) 

Spider-Ham: 

It was not planned to ever make another 2 threat but Ham ended up being a candidate for it and they feel they got him right. 

Spider-Noir: 

Unlike Silk he'll bring a very new mechanic where he collects clues and those help you in the game. Not sure what that means exactly. 

Nimrod: 

He'll be very strong with good attacks, defenses and ways to suppress superpowers (maybe a root aura in the style of Loki 1?)

Tolerance is Extinction was set as the next crisis pack before X-Men 97 came out. Bastion is the favorite character of Art Director Josh Colón. 

X-Factor Investigations: 

The new affiliation will immediately start with two leaderships. Multiple Man will have one that reminds of the effects that Spider-Noir will use. The other leadership is most likely on Havoc. 

Clea:

She's been specially called out to get a very big update in May. 

That's it for today. 

If you'd like to support me you can do so at patron.com/sgprotocol 

Cheers from Germany 🍻 

March 2025 stats

 

Welcome to the March 2025 stats article. As always this article will have two parts: the stats from all events (AE) and rated singles events (RSE). While a few games of the old crisis rotation were still played, the new rotation made up the absolute majority of games. Let's dig right in: 

All Events: 

Wakanda, on the back of a very strong month for M'Baku, takes first place. Their play rate isn't super high but also not on the level of the least played affiliations. 

Feb: 4th. +3 

Many voices in the community thought the crisis rotation would be great for the Servants of the Apocalypse. They were right apparently. The affiliation is also very popular.

Feb: 5th. +3

Each and every SHIELD leader had a good month which in total gets the affiliation into the top 3. 

Feb: 19th. +16

While Kingpin has had a very good month with more than double the amount of games Shadowland Daredevil has had the real eye opener month for the Criminal Syndicate. 

Feb: 15th. +11

Web Warriors were good and popular as always. 

Feb: 6th. +1

While dropping a few spots down on the list Convocation still has had a pretty good month. 

Feb: 1st. -5

Weapon X was very good unless it was played under Logan, the Wolverine. Play rate also increased significantly from last month. 

Feb: 26th. +19

On the Inhumans side of things both Maximus and Medusa prove themselves to be capable leaders while Black Bolt still leads the faction in the absolute majority of games. 

Feb: 2nd. -6

Dormammu's Dark Dimension holds on for a top 10 spot which probably few would have predicted. 

Feb: 17th. +8

Avengers are back with a force, especially on play numbers scratching 1000 games in a single month. Sam is their best, though second to last used, leader as usual and classic Steve takes up the biggest bunch of games played. 

Feb: 9th. -1 

Professor X and Storm had good months but Cyclops drags the overall numbers down below 50% for the X-Men.

Feb: 21st. +9

Guardians of the Galaxy, who, as per the Will Shick Interview with Fury's Finest at Adepticon (go listen to it after reading this post), will finally get their confirmed second leader in Adam Warlock, just missed the 50% mark while boosting more games than X-Men. Nova is just that cool of a character both in the lore and the table 😉

Feb: 16th. +4

People are still trying and mostly failing to fully figuring out Elsa Bloodstone Midnight Sons, while the Blade version continues to be an absolute top tier faction in the game. 

Feb: 12th. -1 

Daredevil posted up good numbers for the Defenders but Doctor Strange drags the affiliation to below 50%. With his re issue in the Defenders affiliation pack we can only hope he'll get a little glow up to be more interesting as an option again. 

Feb: 13th. -1 

The Brotherhood of Mutants is becoming more popular again and Magneto even scratched at the 50% mark. 

Feb:  14th. -1

For Hydra we have a pretty even split in games played between the factions two main leaders but neither Red Skull nor Baron Strucker were able to reach 50%

Feb: 24th. +8

Spider-Foes see a decent increase in games played but not really in win rate. 

Feb: 10th. -7

Asgard remains pretty popular after the Thor 2 nerf but struggles to find it's footing again. Jane and Loki are at or close to 50% though which shows the Affiliation is very well balanced now. 

Feb: 18th. Even 

Cabal has had somewhat of a down month but Master of the World did just fine. 

Feb: 8th. -11

The Thralls of Dracula have beaten out the LotL for the first time. 

Feb: 22nd. +2

New Hellfire Club, who sadly didn't get anything announced at Adepticon aren't super far off from reaching 50% but are a far cry from where they used to of course (which is good). 

Feb: 20th. -1

I run out of things to say about X-Force in these articles... Apparently wide attrition with claws for hands people just functions better under Weapon X leadership. Don't know why. 

Feb: 23rd. +1 

A-Force just won Adepticon mostly through being played by Mike DeLuca (congratulations Mike!) as part of his triple affiliation list (where he played A-Force the entire Top 8 cut) and with Jane as an every game model. Overall numbers for the faction show though, that it is still a hard faction to pilot well. And I think She-Hulk would deserve a little buff, specifically an increase to 4 physical defense. It's the only change I would make. There would be an argument to split up her 20 health into a healthy and an injured side but that might be too much. 

Feb: 3rd. -20

Not a lot of good news for the Winter Guard. Their reissue is scheduled for Q3 2026 so very long off for buffs. 

Feb: 28th. +4

Legion of the Lost haven't really found a footing in the new crisis rotation. 

Feb: 7th. -18

With only Dany Moonstar being announced at Adepticon it's still going to be a while before we can take New Mutants seriously as an affiliation in this game. 

Feb: 11th. -15

Black Order hasn't recovered from the Thanos and Reality Gem nerfs. 

Feb: 25th. -2

Q2 2026 will be the Sentinels time to shine. That's still very far away but at least there's hope now. 

Feb: 27th. -1

Rated Singles Events 

Servants of the Apocalypse were both very popular and super successful in RSE this month. 

Feb: 11th. +10

Not boosting as high of a play rate but comparable success is Wakanda.

Feb: 4th. +2

Both Namor and iTony post a 60+% win rate in March in RSE and Fury isn't super far behind thus securing a top 3 spot for SHIELD. 

Feb: 18th. +15

Shadowland Daredevil and Kingpin both appear to very much like the new rotation while MODOK2 does struggle a bit. Overall an absolute top performance for the Criminal Syndicate. 

Feb: 12th. +8

Hellfire Club down and out after the changes? Nope. A top 5 finish in March (on the back of very few games to be fair) shows that it's still got potential. 

Feb: 21st. +16

Web Warriors, as usual, were popular and strong. 

Feb: 8th. +2

Once again not being played particularly much but with a positive record was the Convocation. 

Feb: 3rd. -4

Dormammu's Dark Dimension seems to quite enjoy the new crisis rotation and is solidly above 50%. 

Feb: 9th. +1

The amount of games played for each of Maximus and Medusa leadership is too low to fully assess them, but the indications are that they are extremely good, especially Medusa. And with Black Bolt, who still leads the vast majority of games, posting good numbers as usual it's been a good overall month for the Inhumans. 

Feb: 1st. -8

Avengers boost a very high play rate and overall good success on the back of Steve 1 and some Sam games, which nets then the final top 10 spot in RSE. 

Feb: 7th. -3

Red Skull 3 posted absolute top tier numbers but Sin, Red Skull 1 and most of all Malekith have dragged the Cabal down and out of the top 10. 

Feb: 6th. -5

It's the typical stat block for Midnight Sons ever since Elsa released: Blade led they are a top tier faction but Elsa drags down the overall stats. 

Feb: 20th. +8

Perceived to be the biggest winners of the crisis rotation X-Men made mostly good on those predictions when led by Storm and also Professor X and very much not so when led by Cyclops. 

Feb: 26th. +13

Guardians of the Galaxy have been extremely popular lately (obviously thanks to Nova 😉) but couldn't quite meet a 50% win rate. 

Feb: 22nd. +6

Asgard remains pretty popular in RSE even after the Thor 2 nerf and it has been working out fine with Jane, pretty good with Loki 2 and not all that much with Thor 1 (wo as a character should see the table a lot under Jane now, without being a leader). 

Feb: 17th. +2

Thralls of Dracula got close to, but couldn't quite reach, the 50/50 mark in more RSE games than expected. 

Feb: 19th. +3

Weapon X worked decently well when led by X-23 and not so well led by Logan. 

Feb: 15th. -2

Red Skull 2 had a rather bad month in RSE whole Strucker was somewhat close to the 50/50 goal for Hydra. 

Feb: 16th. -2

Brotherhood of Mutants couldn't carry over their great February numbers into March but aren't as far from 50% as they used to be either. 

Feb: 10th. -9

In Defenders leaderless is played more often than in any other affiliation so it's hard to really judge what Daredevils numbers are as people also often don't mark their leaders correctly. 

Feb: 14th. -6

While also not reaching 50%, Green Goblin continues to outplay Doc Ock in RSE for the Spider-Foes. 

Feb: 13th. -8

Thanos really had a decent showing in RSE for the Black Order showing it's not all doom and gloom for the faction. 

Feb: 24th. +2

Cable and his X-Force have their hard core fans and it's not like they don't win any games in their tries, just pretty far off from the exact half. 

Feb: 23rd. Same

Legion of the Lost must find a new composition to make the most out of the leadership and of course Mephisto himself. 

Feb: 5th. -19

Mephisto wanted to show up twice apparently. 

As a whole A-Force's numbers don't look encouraging but as Mike DeLuca proved they can definitely perform at a top tier level if piloted right. 

Feb: 2nd. -22

New Mutants is still just half of a real affiliation. Let's hold out hope that Dany isn't the only addition to their roster in the foreseeable future. 

Feb: no rating for too few games played

Sentinels edge out Winter Guard to not be stuck at last place. Their future is very bright with four new characters on the horizon (well a year from now off, but still...). It's grim times until then though. 

Feb: 25th. -2

Winter Guard takes last spot in RSE. Unlike for the Sentinels help doesn't appear on the way any time soon. 

Feb: 27th. -1

 

That's it for today. Thanks for reading til the very end! 

 If you'd like to support me you can do so at patreon.com/sgprotocol

 

Cheers from Germany  🍻 

Adepticon 2025 Reveals evaluated

 

The big AMG Adepticon Panel has come and gone and I've had some time to digest everything and will give my opinions and of course I'll compare the reveals with my predictions. 

(As always click on the images to enlarge them)

Gambit has gotten a much needed update: 

His Gainer lost a dice but changed to Energy. 

His Spender has the trigger changed to a wild Stun. 

He can now walk in any direction with his reactive superpower instead of just away from the character that attacked him. 

He lost the superpower to add dice to his attacks. 

He has gained an incredible innate superpower that lets him always count wilds double while attacking, defending and dodging. Very thematically fitting and cool. 

Is that enough? Yeah I think so. He's kind of a 3 threat slot machine now where his wilds mean so much, that rerolls (offensively and defensively) are fantastic with him. His TTC Dark Past remains the strongest argument to play him still though which is why I don't find him especially interesting in X-Men even after the updates. He's going to be good in his other affiliated spots Brotherhood and Servants of the Apocalypse now and Steve 3 was often called out to be good for him, too. My favorite spot for him is Shadowland Daredevil Criminal Syndicate, as it offers the most rerolls and doesn't cost any power. 

As predicted by me here all older models will be re released into translated bigger packs. Weirdly Nightcrawler and Bishop are among them though. AMG has looked at every character in these new packs and has given the characters an update if they decided it was necessary. That's also the reason for the Gambit update. Of these characters here we know Bullseye has been touched. Magik and Colossus were other names mentioned for that. More on this whole topic later. 

Starter Sets: 

My prediction was that Brotherhood and Web Warriors would also get the starter set treatment. FALSE, but Shick said the X-Men pack (which honestly is a Brotherhood pack itself with 6 affiliated models) will be a permanent addition while Spider-Foes will be in this pack for a limited time and then be split up again. Asgard was confirmed as getting this treatment in the future. 

Phoenix looks strong. Having a size 5 character throw on demand and not on a Spender is something really unique and strong. Her Spender is very expensive but has an AoE heal included which is pretty cool. Once transformed though Unleashed has basically one activation where she has to win the game. She will have three Phoenix Force tokens at least and if she has five at the end of her activation she dies in a big explosion. She also gains one for each 0 cost attack. Only through dazing / KOing enemy characters and failing to do so with the Spender can she get rid of them again. You shouldn't plan to have her for more than one activation in this form. 

No new information on this pack but (awesome looking) painted minis. 

This is somewhat of a surprise as 2099 isn't in the pack here. I predicted Ham and Silk but thought they'd drop alongside Spider-Punk instead of Noir but maybe Noir was simply deemed more interesting on the table. 

As for the card reveal Spider-Ham looks like a pretty good 2 threat without being so good that he has a chance of ruining the game. Importantly Shick said the intention was to not release another 2 threat ever but Ham just came out to be fitting in threat. 

Instead of the expected 4 pack Miguel O'Hara shares his pack with Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and Prowler (not Miles' uncle). 

Shick said 2099 was supposed to drop with the original Miles and Gwen (which is probably why he has no leadership) but got stuck in development for quite some time. The Prowler here is more of a Web Warrior than a Spidet-Foe according to the reveal. 

As for the revealed stat card I quite like Spider-Man 2099. He's quite mobile, has good displacement and strong attacks with a unique ability to always ignore Stealth and Cover, but he is less reliable defensively than other Web Warriors. 7 health, healing factor and a healing trigger on his builder help mitigate the fact though. 

Exodus looks fun and good. I really like that he got the variable terrain throw like Cable and Magneto. That's where most of his damage will come from probably. He's also tough and mobile while not looking over tuned at all

Will Shick introduces a personal favorite chat of his into the game with Blue Marvel alongside a character that was bound to come out since she was on the art of Brace for Impact in Spectrum. These introduce a new affiliation called the Mighty Avengers. Historically Luke Cage has been the leader of that version of the Avengers so it's going to be interesting to see who will be the leader and who else will be affiliated. 

The Warriors Three get the all on one base treatment we expected and Valkyrie (not Brunhilde) comes with her Pegasus Elendil on a base. 

By far and large my favorite announcement as you can probably imagine. All three characters are vital members of the original Abnett/ Lanning Guardians and I'd preorder them today if I could. 

They look even better when painted. 

A pack that Shick admitted himself to be rather weird. The connection here is that all these characters use Stark Tech. Iron Monger he confirmed to be Cabal and Criminal Syndicate affiliated but no more information about where the others will land. Iron Lad and Kang share the same alter ego though. 

These three will release alongside the 2026 Tolerance is Extinction crisis card pack which will also introduce Omega Prime Sentinels (naming is confusing with Marvel). 

Only Nimrod yet on display painted but looking extremely awesome. 

This is certainly a pack I didn't expect in this way. Dani Moonstar is a needed addition to the New Mutants but I was sure she'd come out alongside more members of that affiliation. Instead we are getting another new Affiliation in X-Factor Investigations. Probably led by Multiple Man but possibly by Havoc. 

The rest of the year mostly sees the translated re releases of older models into bigger packs. 

But of course we will most likely still have a Ministravaganza so the schedule might of some additions still. 

AMG was nice enough to let us know when each existing character (on this list) is going to be touched and re released. As we've seen with the Guardians and Midnight Sons affiliation packs that doesn't necessarily mean they will get changes if AMG didn't feel they needed one. 

We will also get all the 2025 releasing cards with changes as a free download in May. 

How will these packs combine the characters, aside from the packs shown off? Here's my guess: 

Q3 2025:

Convocation Affiliation Pack 

Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme

Clea

Baron Mordo

Ancient One

Q4 2026: 

Inhumans Affiliation Pack: 

Black Bolt 

Medusa

Lockjaw

Crystal

Q1 2026: 

Sentinels Affiliation Pack: 

Sentinel MK 4 

Sentinel Prime MK4 

Cassandra Nova 

SHIELD Affiliation Pack: 

Nick Fury and SHIELD Agents

Black Widow, Agent of SHIELD 

Hawkeye 

War Machine 

A-Force Affiliation Pack: 

She-Hulk

Wasp

Gwenpool 

Squirrel Girl 

Avengers Affiliation Pack: 

Sam Wilson Captain America 

Ant-Man 

Ms. Marvel

And Dormammu will re release in a single pack with his UE and terrain. 

Q2 2026: 

X-Men Affiliation Pack "Psychic dominance" 

Professor X 

Emma Frost 

Jean Grey 

Psylocke

Brotherhood Character Pack: 

Juggernaut 

Blob 

Scarlet Witch 

Quicksilver 

The best evil Mutants in the lore Pack: 

Omega Red 

Mr. Sinister 

Shadow King 

Q3 2026: 

Winter Guard Affiliation Pack: 

Crimson Dynamo 

Darkstar 

Red Guardian 

(Ursa Major? He doesn't show up on the slide)

Criminal Syndicate Affiliation Pack: 

Shadowland Daredevil 

Klaw

Elektra 

Silver Sable

Avengers Affiliation Pack: 

Hulkbuster 

Vision 

Winter Soldier (will loose Rogue Agent in the update which will be his 4th making him the most changed character in the game - this is my take and not an information AMG gave)

Maybe an additional member not showing up on the slide? 

Defenders Character Pack: 

Hulk

Namor 

Shang-Chi 

Black Panther, Chosen of Bast 

And then for some reason Pyro is here instead of with the other Brotherhood models. He doesn't fit into any of these packs thematically so my guess is he'll join a new release pack. If that is a good idea is a different question though. 

And now for my predictions and what turned out to be true or false: 

Prediction: 

Full stat card reveals: 

Phoenix and Phoenix Unleashed. 

Here we get the confirmation (again) that she is a transformation character and will see the reserve keyword appear on a stat card for the first time as Phoenix Unleashed will spawn Grunts after the transforms. 

We'll get at least three more reveals of the front side of the stat cards for the June releases. I'm guessing it's going to be Exodus, Avalanche and Ronin but it could be any of the six. Highly unlikely to see all of them though. Probably a TTC from each pack will be revealed alongside them. 

We're also going to see them fully painted for the first time. 

What really happened: 

While at the panel only the normal form was shown off players of the Worlds tournament all got a golden Phoenix stat card that has the transformation on the back side. The Constructs are terrain though and aren't the ones that introduce the Reserve keyword. 

Of the other releases only Exodus has had his card shown which was unexpected. 

Prediction:

Spider-Verse pack. 

We already know that Spider-Man 2099 is going to be in the pack and that there will be more inside. I'm predicting: Spider-Ham, Spider-Punk and Silk. All of them showed up on TTCs already. 

2 out of 3 correct. And it's two 3 character packs with unexpected additions Ultimate Miles and Prowler. 

Predictions:

New Mutants pack 

It will contain Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Danny Moonstone and Magma. And make the New Mutants an actual affiliation. 

Sebastian Shaw 

With the changes to Hellfire Club having an actual affiliation list it is only a matter of time for the Black King to show up and bring some affiliated TTCs with him. 

Both false. We will get X-Factor Investigations instead as new mutants. 

Prediction:

Nimrod 

We know he's in the pipeline and Sentinels are in desperate need of help. 

True and even more Sentinels come out with him. 

Prediction:

Scorpion

Being the main villain in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man only means he's gotten more famous lately but it's already very obvious that he's in the pipeline for the game appearing on multiple TTCs and the box art for Just the Parker Luck. 

False. Spider-Foes get their Starter Set with all reprints for some time before they will be broken up again. That will probably be Scorpions chance to finally join the game. 

Prediction: 

The Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom 

Yeah you can all finally stop asking after this panel. They might not come out until Q1 or 2 2026 but the FF and Doom will have finally been greenlit by Marvel with the movie coming out shortly (and yes that is the reason they aren't already. Marvel has to greenlight every character AMG wants to use first. There's a reason the FF also don't show up on any TTCs for example when many characters not yet in the game do). 

Sorry but False. There's still Ministravaganza...

Prediction:

Shard and Forge

Two new members for the X-Force and Forge will be confirmed to be the second leader. 

False

Prediction:

Bastion 

He's only going to show up as an art piece at the very end of the panel (or the MCP Part at least) and he's going to be the model in the 2026 X-Men 97 focused crisis card pack. 

True but even with his model shown and the express confirmation of the 2026 crisis card pack being Tolerance is Extinction. 

Prediction:

Single Person starter sets 

We learned at the trade show GAMA that there will be single person starter sets containing some reprinted characters as well as dice and range/ movement tools. Shown off, without spoiling their full contents were X-Men and Spider-Foes. I think it's a pretty safe bet to expect Brotherhood of Mutants and Web Warriors to be in the mix for this kind of deal box at the very least. Maybe even more. 

False. Asgard and Guardians of the Galaxy were mentioned by Will Shick to get this treatment in the future and Brotherhood was kind of injected into the X-Men starter set. 

Prediction:

What I don't expect: 

Updates to existing characters. Ben Ransom said those would happen "at an event you'd expect something like that to happen" which to me sounds more like Ministravaganza as that always brought the big changes. 

False. It's coming over the course of two years now with a digital release of every character being touched this year made available in May. 

Thanks for reading and Cheers from Germany 🍻 

If you want to support me you can do so at patreon.com/sgprotocol