Another weekend, another States/Provincials. This weekend was Ontario and we played in Oshawa at 3D Shoppe. Andrew did the carpooling to get our crew out there. We made sure to stop for a quick breakfast to sustain the day and got there plenty early to settle ourselves.
We had 17 players which means 5 rounds of Swiss with cut to top 8. I decided to not play Darkseid again as I knew a lot of people building ways to handle him, but we did end up with 2 of them in the top 8. I never did face any in my run today though. I did have a plan for it, and I’m curious how it would have worked out. I was going to Butterfly into Griever and body block him well with using my probs/community rolls/Saturnynes to make the Darkseid attacks hopefully miss and then mind control him to go back and kill his support with him. Leading up to these events, I was building a few teams – using either Starro or legacy Thanos. I ultimately decided I liked the Starro over the Thanos so I went in that direction. However, I found when play testing that Starro at 100 (old card), it never really did all that much for me. So over the last week I decided to tweak it. First I removed Groot, Weasel and a ring to add a 2nd Saturnyne. Then I decided to lower Starro to the 20 point line and use the Legacy card version, add Groot back in as well as a 3rd Saturnyne and a bunch of equipment. In the end, the team ended up being a Ruler theme team of:
Prime Colossus with Captain Carters Shield
Butterfly with swap options of Death Metal Wonder Woman, Griever, Murn, Cosmo legacy and Elsa
Saturnyne with Liar and Spectral
Saturnyne with Indigo Ring
Saturnyne with Cloak of Levitation
Jennifer Kale legacy with Remaker and Spin
Black Shirt Porter with Darkhold
Starro legacy with Khonshu
Groot
Terrain were Machine 2x and Ice Patch
Maps were Sanctuary, Kings Tomb, Major Brocks Bunker
Tarots were The Tower, TK, Mind Control, Defend, Support, Battle Fury
I’d decided to go with a 6 card deck because I was able to have 15 cards on the sideline between all the Saturnynes so I could take out the Battle Fury or Support card if I wanted one of the others – but I never did swap out any on any game. It was just fun to have this huge pile there. Looking back, I would probably take the Battle Fury one out and just have the 5 card deck.
Usually I get all kinds of practice games in before an event and for the first time ever, I’m going into this even without having ever put the team on a map even once. So I don’t have the reps to know when it’s better to heal Starro or leave him on the 20 point line. I also didn’t have all of the positioning down to get everyone into formation within the actions while also healing. I was definitely learning as I went. The first few games I was forgetting to make Starrophytes when hitting, but got better at that as the day went on. So many moving parts on the team!
I’m going to say my typical 1st and 2nd turn here, which was power swapped dial with Starro and have both Black Shirt and Indigo Ring Saturnyne power heal him and mostly just kept 1st turn immunity with everyone except Walking Woods and Butterfly pog, which usually sidestepped. I also would choose prob on the Darkhold with Black Shirt. 2nd turn I’d do the double power healing again and get everyone in position around Colossus for the 20 defend and either position the pogs around the team as body blockers or out a little further to be closer to start some mind controlling. Usually by turn 3, Starro would be max healed, especially when the Support tarot card flipped early. In case it’s not clear what I’m doing here – Colossus with Carter’s Shield is giving everyone on my team 20 defense with the defend, Black Shirt Porter is making it a 21 because we all share a keyword. Groot would be a 22 because he’s not part of a Guardians team and Starro would usually be a 22 because I’d use my perplex on his defense. Jennifer Kale was right at the back, in the middle, making my opponents attacking anyone in this bubble use their printed values, which usually meant needing a 9+ to hit me. Having 3 Saturnynes means I can make it so they have to crit hit to successfully hit me.
Round 1 was against Andrew who played legacy Apoc, Kamo prime with motorcycle, Butterfly, Venom Mags, Black Shirt with Zero and Spin, Groot and Surtur (old card). I went 1st and he put us on Flashpoint Flood. We both Butterflied into Cosmo. I did my typical first 2 turns. He’d turn off mind control with Cosmo and then kept sending pogs my way and I kept sending pogs back his way. This turned into just a pog on pog match. Neither of us brought out actual figures that we both kept back in our starting areas. I was using my Cosmo to mind control with my butterfly pogs. I got my 1st 5 points when he attacked and missed with one of the Apoc pogs while the tower was out so it turned into a crit miss. I got my 2nd 5 points after having butterfly pogs go next to the shark and an Apoc pog to take out another Apoc pog while mind controlled. The fact that I was able to get points off his pogs and he couldn’t off my pogs was what tipped this my way for sure. I was careful to not make any actual damage attacks with my protective group to avoid getting a Surtur retal and time got called with me winning 10-0. 1-0.
Round 2 was with David C. He had legacy Starro at 80, Colossus with a motorcycle on senses, chase Jean with Beetle Pod, Saturnyne, Ace (old card) and The Skull with Mini- Slayer. I went first and he put us on WWE arena. I Butterflied into Death Metal Wonder Woman. I did usual 1st turn. He moved up Colossus 2/3’s up the map and had Skull mind control Jean to move her forward too and she came up to base Starro. I did the healing Starro thing then used Starro to shoot Jean for 3 and then mind controlled with Colossus to move her away from my team and over by his Colossus to have her blow up by him. He came in with Colossus to try a mind control and missed. I had my Colossus mind control his Colossus to deal after resolution damage. The next turn the mind control tarot flipped and and my Colossus was able to finish off his Colossus with the double after resolution damage. He ended up conceding at this point and I win 400-0. 2-0.
Round 3 my opponent was Aleister who ran Darkseid (JLU knockback mission point one) with Influence and Remaker, Kalibak with Trick Arrows, Fulcum Abominus, Black Shirt with Liar, and Parademon x2 with Absorbing Man on the sideline. I went 1st and he put us on Avengers Tower. He brought Darkseid to the middle of the map and knockbacked a Walking Wood for the mission points. I sent a Butterfly pog to Darkseid and hit with mind control, which he had Kalibak become the target of, so over he popped. Starro took out Kalibak. He took out Groot and got another knockback off. I used Butterfly pogs to move his Absorbing Man markers away for the rest of them game, keeping 1 of them in a far away corner. The next 3 attacks were all trying to get the Parademons out but they kept coming back from the GOON trait. It took me a few turns to finally take them off the map. I ended up getting the Spectral ring Saturnyne to roll the 4-6 to take away his Influence ring to stop the free knockbacks. Once it was down to just Darkseid, I mind controlled with Colossus to get him off the invincible and then shot with Starro. Time got called before I declared the mind control on the next turn, so I don’t get a chance to finish him off. I end up winning 160-80, 3-0.
Round 4 was against Devin. He played a drop ship team of Wrecker prime with Khonshu, Kate Bishop with Trick Arrows, Cosmo with Emotional Modifier, Maggot with Influence and Zero, Ch’p with Broadsword, Duke Thomas, Saint Walker with Blue ring, Flash with Cloak of Levitation and legacy Ant Man. I go first and he puts us on Terra Verde and I Butterfly into Death Metal Wonder Woman. I know he needs a turn to set up everyone in place around Flash, so I healed and also broke first turn immunity to get people into formation. He does his set up and sends a Wrecker pog over to break a blocking terrain to get a mission point. Between his MOE team ability, EMOD on -1 defense, poison, boot/Maggot ring knockbacks, he was best equipped to deal with my team. He took out Groot by turning off toughness with Cosmo and the poison got him, opening a space to the side of my team, giving him access to WW and Liar/Spectral Saturnyne and got Saturnyne out easily. He had a bunch of really high rolls that I couldn’t do anything about, including some 11’s becoming crit hits because of Saint Walker. I used my porter heal on WW and used the spin ring to put her next to Saint Walker and Flash to flurry, taking them both out. Then between a Colossus mind control and Starro follow up, I finished off Wrecker. This is where I started remembering to make Starrophytes. He got a great trick arrow off with Kate, using Too Dangerous, taking out Kale, Black Shirt and putting Indigo Saturnyne to last click (knocking back into a figure, keeping her alive) and dealing 1 to Colossus. He also got out WW this turn as well by outwitting her senses, including the revive and Butterfly, with his knockback fun. I had Indigo Saturnyne support heal Colossus back to top dial then used Cloak Saturnyne to sidestep onto the dropped Darkhold to equip it and drop the Cloak so I could choose outwit to outwit Maggot’s senses to go in with a mind control with Colossus to take it out. Starro did another attack, dealing the damage to Kate, but hitting 3 figures so dropping 3 Starrophytes. I have them next to Ant Man to take him out, dealing the free damage with Starro. He finishes off Indigo Saturnyne and I take out the rest of his team, winning 400-235 and putting me at 4-0.
Round 5 was with Mike who played a Spider-Man Family team of Colossus with Motorcycle on senses, Butterfly, Spider Pharaoh with Motorcycle on running shot, Saturnyne, Venom Magneto, Jennifer Kale with Remaker and Zero, Madame Web and Black Shirt Porter with Spin. I went 1st and he put us on Daily Bugle. I Butterflied into Wonder Woman, he went into Cosmo. He shut off support with Cosmo and Pharaoh carried him with Kale and Madame Web so Cosmo was in range to shut off the support of both Black Shirt and Indigo Saturnyne and his Saturnyne phased to join them. I TK’d Colossus closer to where they were behind a wall and charged in, breaking terrain so Starro would be able to see in to where they were after my mind control on Cosmo to have the after resolution damage take him out. I was then able to do my double support with Cosmo gone. Starro was unsuccessful in his follow-up attack, trying to take out Butterfly and trying to hit Pharaoh. He moved the crew into the middle of the map, having Pharoah running shot and missed. Then he had Colossus charge in to try and get Starro or a Saturnyne I think, but missed. I charged in with Colossus to break another wall to hit Kale and successfully got her out. All other attempts at taking anything out by either of us was unsuccessful and I won 40-0, 5-0, undefeated in Swiss and ending top seed.
Top 8, all 4 in our carpool made the cut and are on the same side of the bracket, so all 4 of us had to face each other. Devin vs Mike and me vs Andrew. You’ve already seen Andrew’s build in round 1 of Swiss. This time Andrew went 1st and I chose to put us on Sanctuary. He Butterflied into Cosmo again and I went WW this time. He chose the closed off side of the map and I used my Machine terrain markers to block off both sides of the map. He ended up breaking a piece of the wall to get through. We started off similar with a bunch of pogs in the middle of the map between us, but we both got more aggressive with figures this time. I decided to play a little differently this time and had Starro make an actual attack for damage on some Apoc pogs and KO’d one of them. I figured he’d be a 12 on my 21 for the retal and would need a crit to get him, and I had prob and community roll before even needing to use Saturnynes. He was unsuccessful in that hit, but the after resolution damage took out my Groot. I had Colossus take out Surtur. He came over to retal with Groot and the Tower was up, so he KO’d when he missed the attack and it turned into a crit miss. I took out 1 more Apoc pog and time got called, with me up 55-20. We definitely had more action in this match than the 1st one. He knew he needed to get in and Hail Mary try something this time.
Top 4, Mike won the match against Devin, so we face again. Again, you’ve seen his team from the round 5 of Swiss. I went 1st and he put us on Daily Bugle again. I Butterflied into WW and this time he went into Elsa so I couldn’t support and heal Starro in this game. This was a very different match from the first time as he went super defensive and was ready to take it to a roll-off if I couldn’t get in to him – and he made it really hard to do that. He went into a corner and used barrier to protect himself. I worked to send Butterfly pogs and Walking Woods over and eventually made it close enough for Walking Wood to break a wall for the Butterfly pogs to get in for a mind control. It was unsuccessful. He took out all those pogs of mine and continued to barrier. I slowly got the other Walking Wood over with 3 Butterfly pogs to do the same thing and this time managed to successfully mind control Colossus, Pharaoh and Elsa. I had Pharaoh try to punch Kale but she got her shape change and I failed the breakaway roll. I had Elsa punch Kale and was successful, so I got Kale KO’d and again failed the breakaway. I had Colossus punch someone but they got their senses and I also failed that breakaway roll, so I wasn’t able to move any of his figures closer to me for a potential shot with Starro for another mind control. Now that I’d gotten in and taken points, he came out aggressively to try and take some points back but wasn’t successful before time got called and I won 40-0.
Top 2 was against Alex who played a Monster team of Swamp Thing with Ammit, Blackheart with Bucky’s Arm, Butterfly, Sky Tyrant with Power Gem, Black Shirt Porter, The Commissioner with Reality Gem, Groot and prime Hulk with Hellcycle on sidestep. I went first and he put us on Robinson Park. I Butterflied into WW and he went into Mr. Oz. I had the perfect order of Tarot cards come out in this game. 1st was the free support card, allowing me to get 4 support rolls on Starro and keeping 1st turn immunity on everyone but the bystanders. He sidestepped with Hulk to break a barrier to heal and rolled a 1. Then power action moved to break another and rolled a 2. He sent Sky Tyrant my way to go after a Walking Wood and Butterfly pog to try and get some Reincarnation tokens. I Saturnyne’d down his attack so he missed the 1st one and the I got shape change with the walking wood on the 2nd attack so he was only able to get the Butterfly pog for 1 Reincarnation token. I flipped the Tower this turn. I think I retal’d with Groot and used a Walking Wood to take Sky Tyrant out. He got a successful leadership with Blackheart and got a Guard. He sidestepped Hulk again through a barrier marker and again, rolled a 1 for the healing. He TK’d Blackheart out and sacked his Guard but missed on his attack, taking crit miss damage from the Tower being up. He moved up Hulk and Swamp Thing down the edge of the map towards the middle of the map. I flipped the defend card next. I triple targeted with Starro, doing 1 to Blackheart to put him to stop and sunk the rest into Hulk. This got me Starrophytes that I put next to Blackheart to take him out from the free damage. He brought the Commissioner, Rookie and Black Shirt Porter closer and was going after my pogs and doing more sidestepping Hulk through terrain to heal more and finally rolled a 5 for some real healing back. This is when he comes in with Hulk and Swamp thing to try and go after something to get some points but was unsuccessful with the attacks. I flip the mind control tarot and break formation with Colossus to mind control Swamp Thing. I had him punch Hulk and then the double after resolution damage KO’d him. I finished off Hulk with a Walking Wood. I had Starro triple target the 2 Guards and something else and had him do 2 each to the Guards and then the Starrophyte damage finished them off and did 1 to The Commissioner. He was down to basically just support pieces on the map when time got called and I finish the day with the win.
I still can’t believe I went undefeated with a team that I had never put on the map before that day and only gave up points in 3 of the 8 matches. Starro also got to full after the power heal in every game except when Mike went into Elsa. What a run of a day! Thank you to Jay for judging and Ryan’s assistance for the record keeping. The day ran really smooth, once we got started. Thanks to the 3D Shoppe for hosting and bringing in lunch to make it easy to keep it going. Thanks for snapping some pictures too and Jocelyn as well for pictures. I wouldn’t have any pictures to add here if you both didn’t share them.
Unless we get something local before March, my next planned trip away for clix will be the ChampionClix Open.
Until next time, xoxo