(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.
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 🍻
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