COH 2026 Article 3- Spoilers For Con Of Heroes

Hey folks!

One bonus article and a packing list update! Today’s article takes a deeper dive into the new Standard set, featuring your chosen Leader Ally.

We’ll cover:

1. The new Standard set (previewed briefly before)
2. The 8 options for your chosen Leader Ally
3. Packing list updates and sleeve counts

Not-So-Standard Standard!?

I feel strongly about the role of the Marvel Champions Standard set. Knowing that extra villain activations (or enemy leader activations?) are always lurking keeps the game moving, and even those familiar Standard cards can still be game-breakers.

Each year at the Con, we’ve introduced a new custom Standard set built around a theme or mechanic:

• 2022 – New Standard: Standard cards focused heavily on hand disruption
  • Feedback: Very hard. Learned a lot about designing better, Kennedy!
• 2023 – Standard Rivalry: Standard cards interacted with nemesis minions
  • Feedback: Super fun, but lots of searching and shuffling
• 2024 – Standard Decisions: Standard cards forced players to make meaningful choices, like keeping a minion alive to avoid an Assault
  • Feedback: Hit this one right on the head—didn’t get much critical feedback because it landed so well
• 2025 – Symbiote Standard: Each player began with a Symbiote Suit ally that could transform into a minion
  • Feedback: Allies weren’t used enough; people feared triggering the minion

This year, we’re adding a new twist: Standard Leaders.

As the setup card explains, you’ll choose a Leader Ally from the Leaders set, then build a 4-card Leader Ally deck using the new Basic / Leaders cards combined with any Basic / <Leader Name> cards from your favorite Civil War expansion.

Spider-Man, I Choose You!

Next, let’s look at the leaders. There are 8 leaders to choose from, each with its own hook and mechanical identity. These leaders pass around the table with the first player token, and if they are defeated or leave play, the players lose the game.

You’ll notice these leaders have more hit points than last year’s Symbiote Standard allies, along with some fun deckbuilding hooks for the table.

• Become Team Tech with Iron Man
• Lean into readies and optimization with Captain Marvel
• Or maybe you just want to go face-to-face with She-Hulk

I can’t wait to see these 8 leaders at your tables. You’ll need to find the right balance between using their abilities and protecting them—because yes, the encounter cards will attack them.

Stretched Thin is this year’s new version of Assault, but it directs the attack straight at your Leader Ally. Protection players may become the stars of the show, keeping that ally alive. After resolving it, you’ll also add one of those set-aside Leader Ally deck cards to your hand—more on that in a moment.

Our new Advance equivalent, Can’t See Me Now, works similarly, and both boost effects can ping your Leader Ally.

You may be thinking about loading your Leader up with upgrades—and that’s a fair strategy—but beware: the new Standard set is designed to dismantle any Voltron build you assemble.

You may want to pack a Target Acquired or two, because the final three cards in the Standard set all discard upgrades from your Leader Ally. Watch out for Packing Heat, and It’s Clobberin’ Time! Both can dismantle your leader quickly.

Special note: the new Shadows of the Past brings your Leader Ally’s nemesis into play. So you’ll want to bring the nemesis minions for each leader ally as well.

How Do We Support Our Ally? The Leader Ally Deck

You may already be thinking about bringing First Aid, Target Acquired, or other support cards—there are lots of ways to keep your Leader Ally standing. It starts with your Leader Ally Deck, assembled during setup.

Choose your Leader Ally, then build a 4-card deck using:

• Their Civil War Leader basic cards
• New cards provided by the Con for the Standard Leader set.

A note here: some of the Civil War basic cards may not always make perfect sense in every build—but at worst, they’re wild resources.

The Con-specific cards are all 0-cost events designed to help keep your ally afloat, so you’ll always have meaningful choices to make.

This Looks Wild! What Should I Bring Again?

First, bring the essentials:

• Playmat
• 3–4 Hero decks
• Tokens
• Some stamina

For scenarios to play in all events this year, you’ll want:

• Any previous COH content you already own
• The Trickster Takeover Scenario Pack
• At least 1 Registration and 1 Resistance customized scenario

For the campaign, bring 4 villains:

Recommended:

• Ultron
• Klaw
• Juggernaut
• Mutagen Formula

Also pack

• The 8 Leader Ally nemesis minions
• Their associated Leader Basic cards

You’ll also want some sleeves! This year’s con pack contains 126 cards. You’ll see the quantities based on card back below so you can bring the right sleeves for your collection (parenthesis is what I use – Kennedy)

• 126 cards
• 12 double sided (Clear sleeves)
• 84 Encounter Backs (Orange Sleeves)
• 20 Player Card Backs (Blue Sleeves) 1
• 10 Villain card backs (or encounter cards you want to not shuffle into the main deck) (Purple Sleeves)

I can’t wait to see you there for what may be the biggest Con of Heroes yet. I’m sure many Leader Allies will fall over the weekend—but hopefully most of them will help carry your table to a big W.

Cheers,
COH Planning Team 2026