I saw Marvel Crisis Protocol way back at Gen Con 2019 but decided I didn’t want to get into another costly miniature hobby. That lasted for about 9 months until we’re a few months into the pandemic and I was so bored and wanted to do something that brought me joy.
I started painting the core set which was mostly Avengers. I got into Asgard since Thor is really fun and I played them in season 3 of the TTS league.
And then a few months later the X-Men and Brotherhood came out. And I love both the 90s X-Men cartoon and the movies.
When they hit store shelves I immediately grabbed Magneto, Toad, Mystique, and Beast. And I put time and attention into all three.
A few months later my buddy Mike tells me about a tournament in Cheyenne Wyoming – about an hour north of Denver. I enjoyed 40k tournaments so why not try an MCP one?
For the past few years I’ve been pulling back from competitive play so I set my objective to win best painted—which I’ve never won. So I made my roster entirely out of my best painted models.
They were:
- Magneto (Brotherhood)
- Toad (Brotherhood)
- Mystique (Brotherhood)
- Beast
- MODOK
- Venom
- Spider-man
- Black Widow
- Zemo
- Valkyrie
To be honest this isn’t a very good team. I’m forced to play Magneto, Toad, & Mystique in every game. Valkyrie fits well into Brotherhood and MODOK is good in any roster but the rest of the characters don’t have a lot of synergies. But I figured it would be fun to play and maybe I have a chance of winning best painted.
Games
This was a 3 game tournament. And it was 5 months ago so pardon the lack of details. 🙉
Game 1 – Web Warriors
Game 1 was against Web Warriors and I was rusty. I haven’t played in person for a while in person. I was too used to playing on Tabletop Simulator where they track all of the power, health, and tokens for you.
I tried to take my right flank and my opponent cleverly played Inspiring Monologue. This gives that character rerolls for the rest of the round. 🛡️
I overcommitted and my opponent had defensive tech. On the other flank Magento and Toad fought Enchantress, Ghost Spider, and Valkyrie.
I unfortunately didn’t do very well in this game.
Game 2 – Black Order
This was my first game against Black Order. I played against Ebony Maw with the Mind Gem and Thanos with the Time Gem. That’s 14 threat with just 2 characters. 🤯
I had priority so I moved forward Toad to grab the central Montesi Formula objective. I hoped that Toad interacting at Range 2 would keep me safe.
I was totally wrong. Black Order still teleported me back and murdered Toad right next to their team. Thanos with Time Gem is brutal. He will usually take one move action and two attack actions. Ouch.
This is what Black Order does but I wasn’t familiar with it. This game ended quickly with my opponent getting almost all of the victory points.
Game 3 – Wakanda
This was on Gamma Waves at 15.
The final game was against my buddy Mike who I drove up with. I was hoping Venom with some power on him could Web Line people to him so my Brotherhood team could beat them up.
I had never practiced with Venom and had only played Wakanda a few times. Mike being an excellent player constantly pushed Venom out of range to do anything useful and it was over in 3 turns with Mike scoring my back Gamma Shelter a few times. Ouch.
Painting
Well it’s pretty obvious from the header image and title that something happened at this event.
Yes there were a dozen people at this event. And for the first time in my life I won best painted! 🏆🥳🎉
I’m super proud. I love painting. It was my lifesaver through the pandemic.
The only other tournaments I played are 40k tournaments and the smaller ones don’t tend to have a best painted category. And the larger ones with hundreds of people I’ve never come close.
I’m going to keep painting and trying to improve my skills. I hope as the world continues to open there will be more events like this.