It’s been a while since I’ve written a tournament report and I’ve missed doing them! I’m excited to have a Canadian tournament to get to write about.
Canadian Nationals was at the end of July with Studio Staja hosting in Ottawa, Ontario again. I took Friday off work for travel and carpooled with Mike and Devin, leaving just before 11 to get there late afternoon. 1st stop was checking into the hotel. This year Mike and I decided to not share with anyone else so we could have our own beds and I don’t regret that decision at all. I definitely got better sleep than when I share. We also chose the Doubletree Hilton instead of the University Dorms, and again, zero regrets. Compared to the Dorms, it was comfier beds, 1 minute walk to the venue and warm cookie at check-in?! I would definitely do that again if it’s in the same venue next year.
From there, we headed over to Studio Staja to say hi to everyone already there, pick up our convention exclusives that we purchased and decided to go to dinner before the premium battle royal. We went to the taco place across the street (that had changed owners since we were there in the winter) and I tried a quesadilla that was pork with pineapple and cheese, and a side of pico and guac. It was really good and I’m happy with my choice.
Back to the store for the premium battle royal – I signed up for the Venom one, along with Mike, Dan and Dana. We didn’t pull anything exciting, all rares, but it was a fun time. They dropped 3 LE’s instead of 2, to help compensate for lousy boosters, along with a bystander pack. I was excited that it was the Collector Trove bystanders and got to draft 2 of them that I didn’t have yet and Dan was kind to give me 1 he drafted that I was still missing too – so now I’m only missing 1 to have all the equipment. Then we headed back to the room where I had to finally narrow down my final choices of terrain, maps and sideline. I was having trouble deciding which options to go with.
Saturday morning we met up with other locals in the same hotel for the buffet breakfast before heading over to the venue. I was really happy when they announced that it was going to be 5 rounds of Swiss with cut to top 8. Huge improvement over last year and I’m glad they implemented that this time. This year I decided to continue playing a newly updated version of my Galactus team that I’ve been running. I made some changes to take out anything that was a 1 click KO, so I wouldn’t just die to a Betelgeuse poison or Tri-Sentinel ping. I love the core of Galactus, Captain America (killoseum arena), Indigo Battery, Blue Hal and then added Eternity to fill the rest of the arena. Here’s the link to the team. I was most nervous to face an opposing Eternity, as they could easily mess up my formation by spinning someone out of the arena. I was working on placements on Ancient Labyrinth with the coffin, so they had to take actions to destroy blocking in order to place anyone and played around with using Symbiote Surface slime to keep me in place, but it didn’t work fast enough, so I took that off for the Head. Turns out I never faced an opposing Eternity. My turn 1 was always the same. I have Galactus make Hal the Herald so his Defend can’t be outwitted. I take an action with the battery to give the effect of the ring to Eternity, rolling a D6 to damage the battery. I needed a 3-6 to put me on the #2 power (making it so opposing characters needed to be within 3 to target anyone) and I got it every single game on turn 1. Then Eternity carries the battery into the ring and then spins himself over to the other corner (I never faced a Betelgeuse, so I was also always able to do that and didn’t have to do my alternate set up with Eternity staying in the middle of the side). Hal carries Captain America into the arena, putting himself in the center, so he’s adjacent to everyone. Then Galactus takes a power action to place himself in the arena. Eternity uses Team Player on Mystics and depending on what the battery ended up on, if it was Perplex, I’d use that on Eternity’s defense.
Before I start the round by round, I didn’t take notes, so this is weeks-old remembering. As always, if any opponents are reading and I’ve misremembered something, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct it!
Round 1 was against Joe, playing an X-Men team. I went first and he put us on Nick Fury’s Safe House. He moved up, behind walls, 3 squares back and thinking he was outside my reach. I had Eternity break a wall, then Cap was able to both free and costed Flurry on his Beast, with the giant reach 3 from Mjolnir. Free Flurry, I hit, he rolled Impervious and took 1 from Precision, then hit and he missed Impervious. Costed Flurry I hit, going to Stop, then I think he either got his Shape Change or I missed. After resolutions, he brings out Magneto, making it so no one else on my team can do anything as they have a token and not named Magneto. His turn, my team does what it does best, lowering your attack by 2 and having 20 Defense all around, so you need 10-12’s to hit and all attacks miss. I KO Beast and he saves him with Abscissa. I outwit her toughness, give the effect of the ring to Eternity, make a Sound Wave to knock Abscissa back to KO. Everyone else has a token again and unable to act because of Magneto, so they clear. Again his attacks miss. I’m able to now finish off Beast and I think I also get Magneto off the map. From there, I got through Vecna and then Cyclops, winning for with 1-0 start.
Round 2 was with Ant, playing a Rogue team. He went first and I put him on The Tangle, not wanting to give him blocking for Tri-Sentinel. He had the perfect counter to my team. He started by TKing the Upper Body out from under my team. Then he had Perplexes for Rogues attack and giant from Destroyer Armor to reach over Captain America, so he was able to go right after Hal, needing a 7 and got it, one shotting him. From there, there’s now a hole for him to be able to get in the arena and easily take out my pieces, one by one. The only thing I was able to take of his was the Tri-Sentinel. This put me at 1-1.
Round 3 was against Justin with a team of unthemed good attackers. I went first and he put us on Cramtorium Imaginimapourium. I think he sent Reverse Flash out but it wasn’t impactful. I attacked and hit Black Panther with Eternity, letting me click the Elemental Converter, putting me on 1 and the end of turn did a click to Black Panther, Zala, Scarlet Witch and took out Copycat and Fenix. I think he took out Eternity on the next turn. I took out Zala with Galactus and had to Charge with Captain America out of the arena in order to try and damage his Captain America or Reverse Flash, only doing some damage, but not enough to KO anyone – but putting his Cap to last click and somewhere in there Reverse Flash was also on last click (I think it was mystics that helped get him down there and one of my attacks hitting). The Elemental Converter consumed zone ate the God Killer Sword and Bloodstone that dropped. He took out Captain America the next turn by having his Captain America hit, giving Anti-Venom Charge to come in to hit my Captain America, so when Reverse Flash comes in to Flurry, I have no powers. I triple target attack with Galactus and miss. He takes out Hal. I again miss with Galactus. He attacks with Anti-Venom on Galactus to take away his powers and finishes him off. Now I’m sitting at 1-2 – that game was really close and could have gone either way, if Galactus could have hit some attacks he missed with his Cap and Flash being last clicks.
Round 4 opponent was Dana, who used Vecna/Speedster team. I went first and he put us on Life Foundation Lab. He placed his terrain in such away to block off lines of fire and movement, and I added to that with my coffin. He had to come up within 3 in order to target through the walls because of the battery to try and Mind Control, but missed. I had Eternity spin Vecna through the wall for Captain America to be able to both free and costed Flurry (even with him using Fortify), I was able to take him out in 1 turn. Because of all the walls, he had to use Cap to Charge to break a wall for everyone else to make it in. I can’t remember the order or who took out what, I think it was Caveman coming in damaging Eternity and then Quicksilver and took out Eternity, with the Black Flash damage doing the KO, having Black Flash come out. I think I took out Cap with Galactus. His speedsters took out my Cap. I took out Scarlet Witch before time was called for the win, putting me at 2-2.
Round 5 match was with Daniel, playing an Avengers team. I went first and he put us on Eurpoean Castle. He moved up with Green Man, Copycat, Scarlet Witch and TK’d my upper body out from under us in the arena, came up with Zala to shoot and then outwitted Cap with Green Man and Copycat. He then Sidestepped everyone back off the edge so Cap couldn’t see them. I flipped Pym Particles to make Cap giant so he could do he could punch Green Man to take out the Outwit, then being able to free Flurry, taking out a bunch of the crew up there, between the Flurry and Galactus/Eternity attacks and then the Consumed Zone taking out the Bat and Raven. He slowly moved the others to try and make their way in, but I slowly picked them off, except for Ulysses, putting me at 3-2 when time got called. Thanks for the fun game Daniel, I’m glad you stayed to play instead of dropping.
So I ended 3-2, in the 12th position. I feel good about how I played, knowing one of my losses really could have gone either way. I knew coming in that it had its challenges, so I’m happy with my placement – making top 16 to get the Guardsman LE – even though I obviously would have preferred to make cut. I decided to hang around and watch the top 8 play their matches, rooting on all the locals who were in playing – Devin, Mike, Alex and Andrew. 3 of them went on to top 4 and 1 of them in top 2. Our GTA locals really had a great showing and played so well. Congrats goes to Isaac for taking the title again – making 2 of us now who have won the Canadian title twice.
Saturday night was the casual fellowship event called CanCon. This events main prizes go to the best theme builds and fellowship instead of round wins. The build needed to be around Canadian arts and there were some fantastic takes on the theme. I decided to make my team about Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I used Spider-Punk, Eddie Munson and Black Canary as Sex Bob-Omb along with Big Boss Hill with 4 Multiple Men as his minions for Gideon Graves, the final boss fight. My objects on the map was a Toonie, Loonie and Quarter for the coins that dropped when an Ex was defeated. My 1st round was against Rose, who played a bunch of Wolverines. 2nd round was with Zeke who had an amazing team with a great story of Innuit animals, referencing a book and some great artwork. Round 3 was with John and his bunch of Sasquatches.
Sunday was team sealed using Fight For Gotham. Unfortunatly this year I didn’t have all the ladies going to Canadian Nats for us to stick with Calm Your Clix, so for the first time ever, Devin, Mike and I teamed up. We are all such good friends, travel buddies and practice group, but we’ve never had the 3 of us together before. We called ourselves 2 Champs and a Chump. When we opened the brick, I wasn’t feeling excitement for or drawn to playing any of the pieces we pulled. We started pulling pieces out and the 1st team to build was easy with Nightwing and Batman family pieces that Mike was excited to play. Devin started putting together a range team with Ventriloquist prime, Merlin a ton of other figures – exactly his style of lots of stuff on the map. And we put chase Martian Manhunter with Flash, Dick Grayson and both B’dg’s that I ran. I’m not going to go into the round by round for sealed, but I will say that the more I played it, the happier I was with it. I kept finding more and more synergy, better placements, fun with the Martian Smoke and in the end, the way I was playing it protective around the Defend and shooting from far away, made me feel back to legacy Thanos days feelings that I loved playing. I’m super excited to share that WE WON Canadian National Teams! What an awesome feeling to win a teams event with the meta brainstorm local friends group.
All in all, a fantastic weekend. Getting to play a mix of competitive and casual games, seeing friends I don’t get to see often – including a bunch that travelled up from the US (I truly miss my US friends and travelling to see you all… one day), good food, finding a new pop-socket to replace the one that broke, my own bed, fun car chats and a brain break from thinking about work. I needed this weekend and can’t wait for the next big event – CCO incoming in a month!
Thanks as always to Studio Staja for a fantastic hosting job, Jay for judging and all my opponents for for some great and enjoyable games.
Until next time, xoxo