Canadian Nationals was finally here! It was scheduled much later in the summer than it usually has been in previous years. We’re usually the 1st one to have it, but this year we’re one of the last.
If you’ve been reading along on my previous posts, you’ll know that for the last year I’ve been playing an Apoc at 145 team. I decided after Ontario Provincials that I was ready to switch it out and play something different. I’ve been following the Bradcast tournaments and was loving the prime Spidey team that Jack has been playing and dominating with and decided to try it out. Know what I love about it? It reminds me of my friend Vulture that I so enjoyed playing.
This year, Canadian Nats was being held just outside of Montreal at La Boutique Tabletop – the store of the Tabletop Teacher on YouTube. Our Ottawa friends did a great job of finding a Airbnb cottage to rent and had space for the Toronto crew to join in with them. Super appreciative of that and loved having the extra time to hang out with them.
Jay, Devin and I left super early on Friday to both beat traffic and be there to see friends for longer while away. Kaleb and Mike were also flying in Friday afternoon, so plans for them to join us for dinner were also formed and of course introduced them to poutine.
I slept terrible Friday night. I kept tossing and turning and every time I did, my fitbit lit up and I kept seeing that it was an hour later each time. I was really hoping to get a solid sleep before a super long day of playing.
Saturday was Canadian Nationals and time to defend my title. 8am registration with 8:45 start time. So early! I’m glad I had everything packed and ready to go and my build sheet already filled out and printed. As soon as I walked in the door, John found me right away and handed me a box from his brother Justin, with super awesome lunch boxes for Jay and I. He did the 3D printing for the inner parts and added some sweet goodies of terrain markers and bystanders. I absolutely love the vinyl customization he did as well with my …withemily logo in it too. Thanks Justin! Feel free to reach out to him on Facebook if you want to grab one – or you can get the files to 3D print it yourself if you join Clix Nexus as a $20 Patreon.
The venue had space for 32 and all the tickets sold out, so it was a full space. We played 4 rounds of swiss with a cut to top 16. Before I get into my rounds, let me share what exactly I played. It’s very similar to Jack’s team with just a minor tweak. Let me also share here that I’m super grateful for friends that loaned me pieces. I literally own zero of the Master of Evil chases personally.
Main force was Prime Spidey with All-Black Necrosword, Sakaarian Iron Man with Cloak, Iron Inquisitor, Venom Magneto with Yellow Ring, Mephisto and Commissioner.
Sideline was Scrappy Doo, War Machine, King Killmonger, Dark Phoenix, Black Skull and Ghost Goblin.
Maps were Construction Site, Wakanda and Fountain of Asgard.
Terrain was 2×3 elevated, 1×1 elevated and standard object.
Tarot deck of The Star (my friend!), The High Priestess, Page of Penticles, Three of Swords, Queen of Wands and Eight of Cups.
Round 1 was with local friend Dennis. He was playing prime Spidey with Necrosword, death metal Wonder Woman with Golden Armor, Rocket Raccoon with Pumpkin Bombs, Guy Gardner with Red Ring, and Ch’p with Green Ring. I won initiative roll and chose to go first. Spoiler – I won initiative roll every match in swiss and always chose to go first. Dennis put us on Limbo. My first turn was wiggling Spidey, making Rookie, making a Spotlight and TKing it out so it could sidestep off the map and both sidestepping and moving with Sakky to get his 2 objects. I decided to move Sakky halfway up the map with the movement into a spot between 2 1×2 pieces of blocking and the edge of the map – so even if he moved everyone with Ch’p up to him, he’d only be able to put 1 thing adjacent to do anything to him. Dennis flipped the Poison tarot card and decided to move the crew up and put Guy next to Sakky to poison him. I chose flurry and steal energy with Sakky and outwitted Guy’s combat reflexes and took him out. Dennis revived him with Wonder Woman. I used Rookie with a running shot to take him out and also have him closer in place for the prob when coming in with Spidey. Venom mags brought Inquisitor and Mephisto into place to also have another prob in place. I had Spidey come up and take out his Spidey with a flurry and crime fighting. I swapped Inquisitor to Killmonger to heal Spidey and take a token off him. He had Rocket come up and energy explode. He was able to take out Mephisto with that attack. Ch’p also made a chainsaw to make some attacks on Sakky. I think he missed those attacks. From there I did more Spidey things and was able to finish off the team. 1-0, 300-30.
Round 2 was against Benjamin who was running prime Spidey with Necrosword, World’s Finest with Utility Belt, Polaris with Cloak, Batman and Catwoman, Saint Walker with Blue Ring, Commissioner and Carnage. He put us on Construction Site. I did the same first turn, but didn’t move Sakky up so he would keep 1st turn immunity and triple perplexed Rookie’s defense. He moved up about halfway up the map, by the map edge and did some positioning and barrier with the Stop Sign. I flipped the pulsewave tarot card and it was super easy for me to get into position with Sakky to get almost his whole team for 2. I think Bat/Cat and Polaris were the only ones I couldn’t see. Then I came in with Rookie with a running shot and then with Spidey. I took out a good chunk of his team. He came over with Bat/Cat to get an attack off on one of my support people but didn’t get them out. I finished the rest of the team off and won 300-0, 2-0.
Round 3 was with Isaac. Fun mid game story. We were at table 1 and 2 and both finished our round 2 pretty quickly so we were chatting. I noticed that he didn’t have nail polish on this time and I just happened to have some of my Color Street samples with me and he let me do his nails quick between rounds. He was totally sparkling after that. Anyways, he was playing a team of Spidey with Necrosword, Iron Inquisitor, Sakky with Cloak, Venom Mags, Mephisto, Saint Walker with Blue Ring and Scott Crampton. He put us on Morlock Tunnels. I was pretty stumped with what to do on this map. I hadn’t practiced at all on it and had no clue what to do. I ended up doing a similar first turn and moved Sakky up a bit with the move while grabbing the object. He did a protective turn of double barrier and stayed back. I flipped the pulsewave card again and called running shot pulsewave. I didn’t know if I could get in, but I wanted to have it in case I could figure it out. I couldn’t. I moved up Rookie carrying Commissioner to closer to the middle, did more barrier and passed. He moved his crew out some this turn and was pretty protected. I called pulsewave running shot again and hit his Saint Walker and Venom Mags with it. I had Rookie follow up to take them out. I think I came in with Spidey but didn’t accomplish much with him. He finished off my Spidey and did a lot of damage to Sakky, putting him on last click. I tried to attack with Rookie and Sakky and didn’t accomplish anything. He was able to easily finish off my Sakky before time was called and took the match. 75-130, 2-1.
Round 4 was with Gio. His team was prime Spidey with Necrosword, Sakky with Cloak, Doom Supreme, Mephisto with Blue Ring, Venom Mags and Star Sapphire with Pink Ring. He put us on Construction Site and I did my usual first turn. He got defensive and did a bunch of barrier, double thick. I did a running shot with Rookie and shot one of the pieces of barrier. That let me get in with Spidey, who picked up a piece of the barrier as he charged in. I was able to get into his team to take out his Spidey and get damage off on Sakky and something else. I don’t remember the specifics of the rest of this match but I was able to take everything else out and he wasn’t able to finish off anything of mine, so I won 300-0, 3-1.
They announced the top cut and I was in the 3rd seed. We broke for a lunch break before continuing with top cut. A bunch of us walked across the street to the Metro grocery store and just grabbed something quick from the ready prepared area. I knew from the announced names that I’d be coming back to face Aja. Always sucks to know you’re going to be facing a friend and teammate.
Top 16. Ajà was playing SP//DR with Skybreaker, Switch with Darkhold, Sakky with Cloak, Venom Mags, Madame Web and Marvella. Ajà won initiative and chose to pick map and took us to Wakanda. I did my usual first turn, keeping immunity. She TK’d Switch out towards the right of the map and put up a Rune marker. Then moved the rest of the crew towards the left of the map and put up some barrier. I started with a running shot with Rookie and brought Commish along then went in with Spidey and took out Venom Mags, Madame Web and I think did some damage on her Sakky. She got Destroyer out. I made an error here and had forgotten to pick powers with Sakky (would you believe this is the first team I’ve piloted with him on it?!). I was able to sidestep with him though and get a shot off on Destroyer. She perplexed up her attack and running shot with Switch, while staying in the Rune, to take out Rookie. As soon as she finished the attack, she said she had messed up her intentions as she was wanting to now outwit Commish’s stealth so she could shoot him with Destroyer and was now 1 square out and had used her perplex already. She moved Marvella away to separate her team a little. I finished off Sakky with a costed action flurry then used crime fighting to take out Marvella and get a hit off on SP//DR. She was successful in finally getting Commish out and time was called. I won 130-25 and move on to top 8.
Top 8 I’m paired with Kaleb. He’s playing a defensive team of Demon in Armor with Captain Carter’s Shield, Sakky with Cloak, Iron Inquisitor, The Watcher with Pumpkin Bombs, Ch’p with Emod, The Flash and legacy GL with Green Ring. We played on Construction Site. He got his Sakky objects and used Pumpkin Bombs to blow up my 2×3 blocking. I did a usual first turn with some positioning moving around. He came over into my starting area and did some attack and knockback damage on Sakky. I use poison with Mephisto on GL and I think The Watcher. I came in with Spidey and took out Demon and the green stop sign. Sakky had his attack miss from Killmonger rollout. Here’s where things get sketchy in my brain. I think he got out my Venom Mags and Commissioner on the next turn. I took out The Watcher. He had outwitted Spidey’s movement power so I wall crawled and giant reach punched down at him. I think I used crime fighting to take out Flash. I think this is where he took out Mephisto. I swapped into Black Skull to charge flurry, but forgot to bring Mephisto back in when I did that. That outwit and prob from Mephisto definitely could have helped my turn be more successful than it was. He outwitted Black Skulls senses and shape change and took him out and then had Ch’p carry Sakky and Killmonger away. I think I went in with Spidey and I think Killmonger rolled out and he took out Spidey for the win. 145-300 and knocked out. No success for me in back to back national wins. Congrats again to Kaleb for winning the event and becoming the new Canadian National Champion!
That evening we played in a neat sealed event. I didn’t write down what I faced or what place I came, but I’ll talk about what the event was. Everyone got 2 boosters of SMBA to build a 300 point team and play 3 rounds of swiss. My team ended up being Electro, Boomerang with Pumpkin Bombs, Mary Jane, Uncommon Spidey, Kingpin and Matt Murdock. I won my 1st game, lost my 2nd game and won my last game. Then everything that everyone pulled from their boosters, along with some extra prizing, was put into the prizing and we snake drafted the whole thing. I ended up getting an Iron Spider (which I didn’t yet have), Peter the Hunter legacy card and some hand ninjas.
Back to the Airbnb for a quick shower, reorganize and pack my bags, and bed – Sunday was also an 8am start. Thankfully I had a more restful sleep this time.
Sunday was the Silver Pulp event. Stipulations were that you had to use 2×2 maps and things on the silver watchlist were also considered banned, not just the banned list. Silver pulp is kinda nutty with being able to use colossals. My team was Blue Marvel at 50, Mister Sinister, Wanda Maximoff, Dazzler, Teen Lantern, Dark Phoenix, Hellfire Club Guard, Dr Moira MacTaggart, Marvella and Friends of Humanity with Skrull Spy and Sentinel on the sideline. Maps were Construction Site, SHIELD Holding Facility and Wakanda. I used 3 standard blocking terrain markers as well. This event had I think 29 players and we were doing 5 rounds, no cut and draft prizing. I don’t have quite the detailed match memory for these games, but I’ll share what I can remember.
Round 1 was against Jabin who was playing Karima, Invisible Woman (who he swapped into Human Torch), Valeria Richards, Cyclops, Tempo, Teen Lantern and Adolf Impossible. He had a Dark Phoenix on the side to recruit in, but I didn’t attack anyone to give him that opportunity. this was a game with a lot of barrier to protect and to block off, for both of us. I ended up taking out Human Torch and Adolf Impossible and he took out Dazzler and Teen Lantern. I won 90-65, 1-0.
Round 2 was with Logan who played Dark Phoenix, Police Officer (he told me this was supposed to be a Wendigo but didn’t realize watchlist stuff was banned), Maria Hill, Manifold, Onslaught, Deathstroke. I got in with a pulsewave on his whole team, wanting to take Onslaught off top dial to take away the shape change and Dark Phoenix finished off something. He took out my Hellfire Club Guard. I was able to pick off the pieces one by one and I won 295-25, 2-0.
Round 3 opponent was Ajà playing Mister Sinister (at 80), Daken, Pyro, Storm, Tempo and Dr Moira MacTaggart. I moved out Friends Of Humanity as bait. She moved up Storm to knock him back to KO him, without triggering retal. She joked that it’d be funny if that was the only points she got. I moved up Blue Marvel to be ready to get in next turn and shot at something with Dark Phoenix. She came in with Daken and successfully hit Blue Marvel. I rolled imperv to reduce the damage to nothing, but it still gave me a poisoned token. She proceeded to miss every attack roll that she tried for the rest of the game as I was able to pick stuff off. In the end she still had Sinister standing and had fulfilled her prophecy of only KOing the Friends of Humanity. I won 220-5, 3-0.
Round 4 was with John with a team of Onslaught, Maria Hill, Wanda Maximoff, Dark Phoenix, Manifold, SHIELD Agent and Superman (robot). This was a really fun game. I honestly can’t remember exactly what each of us took out, but my Dark Phoenix was really healed up when time was called and half of the clicks of healing were from his mind controlling her to take out my pieces and heal herself in the process. But in the end I had taken out more points than he did and I won 130-95, 4-0 and going undefeated into the top table.
Round 5 was against Isaac playing Onslaught, Mister Sinister, Red Widow, Prodigy, Dark Phoenix and Dr. Moira MacTaggart. I won initiative and took us to a mostly indoor map to try and protect Dark Phoenix. He found a way to bust a wall to take out Teen Lantern to stop half of my barrier possibility and prob. This opened up for me to shoot his Dark Phoenix and I missed. He came in and retaled, taking out my Dark Phoenix. I made a critical error here by forgetting to mastermind to the Hellfire Club Guard – his whole reason for being there and the first opportunity for me to do it in any game. I of course remembered too late after a bunch of other stuff had happened. I think I got a pulsewave off with Blue Marvel but he was able to then take him out. That left me with almost no damage output and he was able to easily pick off my other pieces one by one. I was only able to finish off Red Widow. I lost 45-300, 4-1.
I ended 5 seed for drafting prizes and chose the Tri-Sentinel, to fill that hole in my collection after not getting back the one I had loaned out.
This whole weekend was ran fantastic. Everything went smoothly and on time at a great store (only wish would be closer to a major city for easier travel). Thank you Marc-André for hosting and Jay for judging. As always, if you were one of my opponents and remember details better than I did, feel free to help fill in the gaps or correct what I’ve misremembered!
It all ended mid afternoon and away we went for the carpool travel home, with a stop to get bagels to bring home – that’s a must when in Montreal – and all home by midnight to crash before having to get up for work in the morning.
Coming up next, Worlds! At the time I’m writing and posting this, it’s 2 weeks after Canadian Nats and 2 weeks until Worlds. Definitely need to get more reps in with the team, decide if I’m going to play it as is or make tweaks or play something completely different. I know from the games I played where I need to work on and find plans for. I also need to start thinking of what I want to play for both Pulp and Theme events, in case I decide to jump in on any of those games too.
Who all am I going to see in 2 weeks at Worlds? Comment below and let me know if I’m going to get to hug you!!
Until next time, xoxo