Ready to throw down with one of the most ruthless, street-level powerhouses in Marvel Crisis Protocol? Then step into the shadows of this organisation…
Today we’re breaking down the man himself: Wilson Fisk, also known as Kingpin. We’re looking at what he brings to the table, and what kind of leader of the Criminal Syndicate Affiliation he is.
Let’s get down to business.
Kingpin
Wilson is widely known for his leadership – so we’ll get onto that a little later. For now, let’s focus on what he brings to the table with his own kit.
First off, 7 health with Intense Physical Conditioning AND Intense Physical Conditioning makes for an extremely tanky build. Kingpin is hard to take down and displace.
The downside is his Short move of course. Kingpin wants to stand at the back and not have to move around too much. If your opponent has a way of displacing Size 3 characters, you’ll want to deploy Kingpin on the opposite side from that. God forbid he gets thrown Medium – as he’ll then need to double move back to where he was. Headbutt has great triggers and Hail To The King has incredible, guaranteed triggers. I see people using Cane Laser a lot, but I think it’s a mistake. You want to be generating power to use this amazing spender attack and superpowers.
I played a lot of Kingpin when Asgard were terrorising the meta. His kit is perfect for dealing with big scary, high threat models. There aren’t many that like being Stunned, Staggered and thrown into their friends.
This is a wild take, but I think if Kingpin was released today, people would complain about how overpowered he is. His leadership is what most people reference when bringing him up, so I feel that more love needs to be given to the big man himself.
Anyway…onto the other 90% of the article that talks about his leadership.
Illicit Network
This is my go-to leadership for anyone that wants to learn how to play the crisis half of Marvel Crisis Protocol. Bored of rolling dice and punching stuff? Start here.
The first part of this leadership is often missed. You can essentially pass Extracts around at Range 3, which is crazy value when you consider who you’re taking in a Kingpin roster. Big tanky models that stand (like Kingpin) that struggle with chasing down those pesky Extract holders, paired with Extract stealing models like Black Cat & Rhino. Send a thief in, grab an Extract and then chuck it back to a tank, readying yourself to go forth and steal more. Very criminal.
The Secure part of the leadership is what really gets talked about. Each of your models counts as 2 when determining who controls a Secure during the Cleanup Phase. This massively puts your opponent on the back foot from Round 1, as suddenly you are applying scoring pressure on Secures that your opponent isn’t used to needing to think about (i.e. their home Secures). A fast model like Black Cat or Abomination can double move from deployment to an opponents home Secure and surprise them by scoring it.
Some things to note however…
- This doesn’t work on Pay-to-flip Secures. So much so that people often recommend having a different leadership in your roster (usually Shadowlands Daredevil) to switch to if you’re ever forced to play on a Pay-to-flip
- This leadership effectively switches off for Injured characters. One common counter-play against Kingpin is to systematically Daze as many of his models as possible to switch off this half of the leadership.
It’s a relatively simple leadership that serves as a great entry-point to crisis players in MCP. So now, let’s get into building a Criminal Syndicate roster for Kingpin.
Carbs
Otherwise known as ‘potatoes’, these characters are the backbone of any Kingpin roster. These are models that make your opponent sigh whenever they pick up an Extract. They’re hard to displace, they can take a beating and you don’t mind firing them up the board to go stand on a back Secure and claim it for the Criminals.
Abomination & Ulik
These two big fellas work great in a Kingpin roster. They’re great at getting around the board and chasing people down, but are also tricky to take down because of how tanky they are.
Ulik brings the ability to activate a character before they get a turn, while also displacing Size 4 characters off of Secures.
Abomination brings a sizeless push and a 65mm base with a medium move.
Black Cat
Black Cat’s insane usefulness in MCP isn’t limited to just Web Warriors. She absolutely sings under Kingpin.
You can deploy her bang in the middle of the board and have her double move to either of your opponents home secures at the end of Round 1 to sneakily score an extra VP they weren’t expecting. She has an Extract steal in the form of Master Cat Burglar. She’s insanely tanky for a 3 threat thanks to Bad Luck plus Stealth.
If your opponent has brought models that are good at Dazing your Criminals, then Black Cat can help there too with a guaranteed Stagger trigger on Troublemaker…which only costs 2 power by the way…so she can easily do it twice and remove 2 actions from 2 different scary models.
Crazy value; best 3 threat in the game; surprise surprise she fits really well into a Kingpin roster.
Rhino
He’s big, he’s tanky and he’s here to steal your Extracts!
Crashing into any Kinpin Criminals roster with ease is Rhino, along with his Team Tactics Card This Is A Robbery. This allows him to steal an opponent’s Extract, throw them away like a discarded candy wrapper and then run away.
Rhino is deceptively mobile thanks to the place trigger off his Gore attack. He can basically get to anywhere on the table with the help of Stampede, making him perfect for chasing down those pesky Extract holders on the opposing team.
Prowler
Relatively new to this crime scene is Prowler. He brings a Long move and Stealth to the table, making him Black Cat esque. But more importantly he brings his own Team Tactics Card; High-Tech Heist.
The first half brings a nice answer for Pay-to-flip Secures, but as we mentioned earlier – you probably shouldn’t be running Kingpin specifically on those.
The second half is what feels especially potent under Kingpin. Should your opponent finally chase one of your Extract holders down and then punch through their potato defences, this card can really ruin their plan by having it drop straight into Prowler’s hands, allowing him to then run away with it.
It also works on enemy Extracts that are being dropped too though. Let’s say Rhino got some lucky dice and has Dazed someone holding an Extract without the need of This Is A Robbery. His hands are full! He can’t be the only one putting in the effort today. Now he can use This Is A Robbery on a target that is within Range 2 of Prowler – who can then play this card to grab the Extract for himself. Very sneaky!
Final Thoughts
Whether this is your first foray into the world of racing to 16 VPs before your opponent does in Marvel Crisis Protocol…or if you’re a seasoned criminal looking to make a name for yourself in this town…hopefully this article serves as effective first steps into a life of crime for you!
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