Canadian Nationals this year was just outside of Montreal, Quebec in St-Eustache.
I decided I wanted to make a long weekend out of it and Jay and Dan joined me on it. We drove up on the Thursday and went exploring Old Montreal by walking around, doing the ferris wheel (Dan and I were both nervous and decided to step out of our comfort zone and do it scared) and grabbing dinner. Friday was a day that was full of super long traffic delays because of a busted water pipe flooding – but we did it while having great conversations in the car after grabbing Lucas from the airport. Once we finally got checked in to our respective Hotel/Airbnb, we met back up to go for dinner, adding John, at a Brazilian Steakhouse. It was my first experience going to one and I had a great time with great company.
All day Saturday and Sunday were full of Heroclix events. Saturday evening we played in team sealed using the not yet released Masters of Time set. My team was with Mike and Devin and we came in 3rd. Sunday was a different format of Pulp +SR. I decided to just play 300pt Chthon on the map. It didn’t go great for me as I missed every single Shape Change and Impervious roll in my first 2 games and almost all of them in the next 3. In the end, I went 1-4 and had a great time playing, despite fading fast. But these side events isn’t why you’re here – you want to know about the main event, Canadian Nationals.
I was stoked when I found out that Canadian Nationals was scheduled on my birthday. I kept joking that I had birthday magic working in my favor. Ever since I saw prime Colossus spoiled, I knew I wanted to build around him. I started with prime Colossus, Kong and both Porters and kept tweaking from there. This team also started by being nervous about the Ivy builds and wanting to focus around people who had defenses that could reduce penetrating (Colossus, Kong, Inquisitor). Because Ivy’s ended up being not so prevalent, I took the MOE swap out and ended up settling on:
Prime Colossus with Motorcycle
Kong with Khonshu
Butterfly (Murn, Death Metal Wonder Woman and Cosmo as Butterfly swap-ins)
White Shirt Porter with Yellow Ring
Black Shirt Porter
10pt Daredevil with Trick Arrows
10pt Daredevil with Billy Clubs and always put Chthon on him
Maps: Major Brocks Bunker, Bloodstone Maze, Terra Verde
Sideline not noted above: Search for Ammuts Tomb
Terrain: Traffic Barrel, 1×2 blocking, 1×3 blocking
Tarot: The Heirophant, Charge +2, Mind Control extra damage, Willpower, 1st Perplex +2 and Poison after moving
Some notes to mention that is common amongst all rounds. I was playing this as a defensive shell that hits hard. I started the Daredevils both on Charge every game. I had them go out and punch a piece of blocking to put Ammuts Tomb to 4 and the Billy Clubs/Chthon one always picked up the Traffic Barrel – this also made him take a click of damage, which gave me an extra perplex. I had them positioned to be body blockers for the rest of the team. Out enough squares that a Kong couldn’t punch over them to the back row and 2 squares apart so no one could walk between them because of the barrel.
I had a mission that I was going to try and pull off, but unfortunately the occasion never arose for me to do it. I was really looking forward to maybe surprise someone with it. If I was in place already with the Trick Arrow Daredevil or if the Poison Tarot Card was up, I wanted to get in and make an attack on someone that if I flipped Too Dangerous and put them to last click with no reducer (for example, a Porter), the damage from Too Dangerous would also do damage to me because I’m also adjacent and Too Dangerous doesn’t say it only hurts opposing. This would give up the 10pts from the Daredevil and I’d flip him to the Plasticity/Poison click to finish them off. It unfortunately didn’t come up at all in any game, but I did get to do a similar but different thing in one of the top cut games, which I’ll talk about when I get there. Just know I was excited that I got it to happen.
I ended up making different choices in the event than I did in playtesting – after watching the streamed games from US Nationals. Initially I didn’t have Butterfly on the team and just had Wonder Woman on the main force with Trick Arrow Daredevil at 20 points. After seeing Murn in action, I decided I really wanted him as an option as something to bring in. That is what I play tested at the end, bringing Murn in over Wonder Woman. But in the event, I ended up choosing Wonder Woman every round. I also play tested almost always putting the Motorcycle on Free Move 1, Improved Characters and Combat Reflexes. At the tournament, I actually ended up always choosing the Charge and Super Senses click every round. I was a lot more aggressive with the team in testing and decided to play it more defensive the day of.
I didn’t keep very good track of who won Initiative or who chose to go 1st, but I’ll note what I can remember about the games. I also didn’t take the best notes for what happened in games but I’ve reached out to some of my opponents to help fill in gaps of my memory – thanks for the assist friends, they were very much needed! We did 4 rounds of Swiss, cut to top 16 and had 34 players. We were also playing with pre-watchlist, as they published it on the 15th and our event was on the 17th – so the watchlist wasn’t going into effect until the 19th so we could play what we had been practicing and not have to change up the day before. Thank goodness for that because I was already in Montreal when the watchlist changes went up and would have had nothing with me to change it up!
Swiss round number 1 was against François who played prime Colossus, Ghost Rider with motorcycle, Kong with Ammit, Blackheart and white shirt Porter with Indigo Ring. He put us on Harley’s Rooftop and I chose the elevation 3 side of the map with the letters across the top. I got my Tomb to 6 and stayed back, with Daredevils in position to block. He brought Kong and GR forward and got a token off a Daredevil and those were the only points he got off me. I got the Tomb to 8 then took out Kong. He retreated back with Blackheart back to where Porter and Colossus were. Next turn took out GR. He had trouble getting back to me with Colossus with where he had started him, on the single row of elevated, no where near stairs. So he put out a stop sign and hoped for the best. I got over with Colossus and took out his Blackheart and time got called. I’m realizing now as I’m trying to figure out how the points added up that I actually took out 200 pts but we counted 150 at the time. We must have missed counting one of the 50’s, either that or I was about to take out Blackheart and didn’t. So 150-10, 1-0.
Round 2 was with Daniel playing Man-Thing with Taweret, Death Metal Wonder Woman with Soul Sword, Kong, Blackheart with Blue Ring and he put Chthon on him, Jennifer Kale with Pink Ring and white shirt Porter with Yellow Ring. We played on Major Brocks Bunker. I think he moved up and quaked my Daredevils because he got 20 points off me. I think I took out Kong with Colossus after resolution damage after taking out white shirt with his Kong. I am foggy with what happened on how I got out more of the team, but I definitely don’t forget what happened when I took out his Blackheart. He chose to bring in Chthon to try and get some more points but unfortunately when he went to attack, he missed (I want to say he rolled a 3) and the game ended with me getting 300-20, 2-0.
Round 3 opponent was Dan who ran Butterfly with options of Pegasus Cap, Major Logan and prime Spidey. Blackeart with Trick Arrows, Kong with Khonshu, Kong with Ammit, Jennifer Kale with Bucky’s Arm and black shirt Porter. We played on the Bunker map. He swapped into Major Logan for Butterfly. He came in to go after the only target, Daredevils but only got 10 pts because I got a successful Super Sense with 1 of them. His 2nd action with Kong was moving back away from my team with Blackheart. I KO’d Blackheart with Kong then hit his Kong with Colossus to take out Kale and hit his other Kong. He came in with Major Logan to try and hit Kong but missed the 1st attack, hit with the 2nd. His Kong went after my white shirt and KO’d him, I revived him and he used his 2nd Kong attack to take white shirt out. I hit again with Colossus and the rest of the team is now gone. I take the win with 300-35, 3-0.
Round 4 was against Giordano. His team was prime Colossus with Khonshu, Butterfly with option of Murn only, Death Metal Wonder Woman, King Killmonger, both Porters with the Yellow ring on white shirt. He put us on Bloodstone Maze. I did a great defensive set up. He did some positioning and I believe made a stop sign to help limit me getting in. I repositioned a little and passed. He did similar. I could tell that he wasn’t going to come forward so I decided to just see what he would do if I moved my Kong up a little, knowing we were both 3-0 and were in the top cut regardless of what happened in this game, so lets feel it out. He needed to really over extend to get there, to get around the barrel making things more difficult, but he did come forward with Colossus and was able to take out Kong just before time was called. I lost this one 0-60, 3-1.
Just realizing after typing it out that I only gave up 125 points in all of Swiss rounds. They announced the standings of who made it into the top 16 and I was 8th seed. We broke for an hour dinner and I had to force myself to have a little something to keep me sustained because I really didn’t feel like eating anything, and I’m glad I did.
Top 16 I played against Zeke, a super awesome 12 year old who’s fantastic at this game. He played prime Spidey with the black Symbiote, Ghost Rider with Soulsword, Carnage Silver Surfer x2, Madame Web and Timebreaker x2. We played on Bunker and he put me on level 1 side. He positioned his Surfers in one of the small rooms with the Timebreakers, brought Spidey a little closer to give him an action token. This game I didn’t just punch walls for the tomb, I double quaked the whole side I was on of that wall just before the elevation change, filling it all up with debris. He moved up Ghost Rider to blow up the 1×2 blocking I’d put in the little room with the stairs to get down to elevation 1, that was making it hard for him to reach my team and then charged in with Spidey to bust the wall along the elevation by my Daredevils. Then he used Crime Fighting to attack my Daredevils, taking the 10 pts on both of them. I flipped them both to the Poison click when resetting. I went in with Colossus to Mind Control Spidey and he missed his Super Senses. This put him on the Senses click so the Daredevils both used Poison, which took out Spidey with the extra from the Tomb. With now having 4 Timebreakers on the map, my people count was lower so I moved up Kong with 1 action and then Quaked most of the Timebreakers and Surfers. He still had 1 Timebreaker left so he made another and vooped a Surfer through the wall to help position him to take a shot at Colossus and I got my Imperv, then made the follow-up attack and missed. Next turn I got a Surfer to last click and didn’t have a way to immediately finish it off. He used that hurt Surfer to make an attack on his only option of Colossus and crit missed, which took out his Surfer. He still had Ghost Rider, 1 Surfer and Madame Web on the map when time was called. He put up a good fight, but the lack of prob really hurt him on his many missed attack rolls (he kept Madame Web in a far corner to try and keep her safe with Rally dice and I never made my way over to her) and I won 205-20 when time was called.
Top 8 I played against my teammate Devin. His team was prime Wonder Woman with the Utility Belt and Green Ring, Murn with Trick Arrows, Calendar Man with Pumpkin Bombs, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, both Porters – white shirt with Yellow Ring and Moonstone with Khonshu. We played on Bunker and I believe he went 1st and put himself on the higher elevation side. He did his what his team was meant to do, helped by flipping the Psychic Blast Card on turn 2. He SHIELD’s Wonder Woman up to 6 damager, brought up Calendar Man to take away Impervious, got all his probs and SHIELD into place for prime Wonder Woman to Running Shot in and took out both Kong and white shirt, making me use my Wonder Woman revive. He groups up defensively and passes turn. After game reflection, he wishes he had made a stop sign here. I went in with Colossus to go after his white shirt because that was my only option with how well he had positioned and I missed my attack. I also went in with Trick Arrow Daredevil and also missed that attack. Devin blew up a 1×3 piece of blocking and positioned to go after Colossus, taking him out, and took the 10 points off that Daredevil. Lucas looked over and saw I’d lost Kong and Colossus and I think everyone who would have looked at this match in that moment would figure it was over for me. I started my next turn flipping the Poison tarot card. I went in with Chthon Daredevil to punch whatever I could and missed, but the important part was that he was already hurt and on the Perplex click, so when I got the action token, it made me KO myself and take off his 10 points and I reset him to the Plasticity/Poison click. In this moment, everyone has reducers so I don’t activate the poison just yet. So then I TK in white shirt who can then Sidestep into position and proceed to Pulsewave his whole team, who are all standing on/by debris, so it’s doing the extra Ammuts Tomb damage. This is where we both made an error. When clicking his figures for the Knockback damage, he added extra for the Tomb but shouldn’t have. The difference being that both Calendar Man and black shirt should have been on last click and not KO’d. He brought in War Machine from the damage. However, from that Pulsewave, prime Wonder Woman was now on her Senses clicks and still adjacent to Daredevil who then used his Poison to finish her off – and this would have worked regardless of the Knockback error. Lucas looked over again and saw the drastic change in game-state with a shocked look on his face about now. On Devins next turn he uses War Machine to put my white shirt on last click and then he Pulsewaves with his white shirt to take out both my Daredevils and my white shirt – however, because he had Chthon on his white shirt who was on last click, it also KO’d his white shirt so he brought in Scrappy. My next turn I brought in Death Metal Wonder Woman with a TK from black shirt, who was full health from just having hung back and banking on if he tries taking her out, they’re going to take double Mystics from the Tomb and if they do hit me, it’ll put me to STOP where if they hit they’re taking Mystics and if they miss they’re taking Miss damage from the special in her STOP. And that’s exactly what happened – he hit me to STOP and then missed me on the STOP so that was the game and I won 300-175. More after game reflection from when we were chatting on the podcast, I never healed from KOing from Ammuts Tomb and Devin forgot Suicide Squad TA and realizing he should have either used the hydrant to take out that piece of blocking or just moved off of it.
Top 4 was with Lucas. His team was Titania, Kong x2 – one with Khonshu the other with Ammit, KEVIN with Tawaret, both Porters – white shirt with Yellow ring. We played on Bunker and I went first. I did my usual set up with the Daredevils. He got his Tomb to 8 with both Kongs Quakes and punches while also using it to reposition to have them body block the little guys and one of the Kong’s also picked up his barrel. I saw a play that I could still get around with Colossus to Mind Control a Kong. I started with moving white shirt into position to be able to prob in case I needed it. I was able to get Colossus in to Mind Control his Kong and moved him to take out his white shirt. The after resolution Mind Control damage KO’d his Kong because of the Tomb and the look on Lucas’s face was a bit of surprise, not initially realizing the extra Tomb damage was going to take out his Kong. Now that Colossus is in there, he attacks with Titania to try and get a Copyright token on him. I thankfully have Super Senses from the bike and somehow roll it successfully 3 times in a row because he made me re-roll it twice. Once with black shirt and once with KEVIN. I think his Kong went after my white shirt this turn to take him out because he had flipped the Pulsewave card. I revived him after the 1st hit and then his 2nd hit KO’d him. I went after Titania with Colossus for a Mind Control because I didn’t want to breakaway. I hit her successfully, used her to take out his black shirt and put her to 2nd last click with the after resolution damage. This turn Lucas flips the Hanged Man and hangs Titania. He rolls Willpower with his Kong and both rolls are 1’s and doesn’t get to clear his Kong. He had his hanged Titania attack me again and this time was successful, hitting me for 6, but he’s unable to finish Colossus off with his Kong not being able to act. I finished off Titania the following turn. It was down to Lucas just having a Kong and KEVIN for a while, until I eventually got him out. I won 300-190. More after game reflections, I realized I never did heal from KO’s again and also was forgetting black shirt heals on my hurt Colossus. Lucas mentioned he forgot about his Poison that could have been doing damage to all my little guys. It was a long day ya’ll!
Finals was against my last round of Swiss opponent, Gio. He won initiative and decided to pick map and put us on Bloodstone Maze so I wouldn’t put him on the Bunker. I decided to set up the same defensive way I did the first time. He changed it up a little this time and decided to make a butterfly swarm pog. He was trying to figure out how to get it in with the barrel shutting off the improved movement so it couldn’t fly over the walls. He ended up charging in his Wonder Woman to break a wall so it could get through. He brings it up to the only target it could get to, one of my Daredevils and successfully Mind Controls it and has it hit the other Daredevil and I get my Senses so he only gets the 10 points for the Mind Controlled Daredevil for the after resolutions damage because he had the Mind Control card up on his tarot deck. My turn, I Charge and punch another wall to max out my Tomb and then take out his butterfly pog to even the score 10-10. I think I shocked him with that, not realizing I’d get points for taking out his pogs. He plays pretty defensive and just stays back on his next turn. I make a butterfly for the 1st time all tournament and send it after the Wonder Woman in the middle of the map to Mind Control her. I was successful and sent her back to try and hit his Scott but miss. Gio stayed back again the next turn. I made another butterfly and moved it out to the middle of the map, as far as I could. He moved in Colossus to take out the butterfly, but now he’s standing there. So my next turn I make another butterfly and bring it out to Colossus to Mind Control him and bring Colossus back to his team to also try and take out his white shirt but I miss, even using his Khonshu prob. It was so hard for me to stay back and stay so defensive, but I knew the second I moved anything, he’d capitalize and I’d be done – from what happened in the Swiss round against him. So in my head, I’m ready to go to a 10-10 roll off. Then the unexpected happened. I think he realized time was running short and he decided to make a move – TK his Colossus to come in and try to get some more points. He was unsuccessful in that mission and I decided to try and completely take out his Colossus. I start with a Mind Control and deal 6 because he’s next to debris, so he takes 4. Then I Pulsewave with white shirt, dealing 3 more (2 from the PW next to debris and then 1 knockback because we know better now). Then I punch with Kong, he misses Imperv, to finish him off. He revives with Wonder Woman and rolls to heal him 2 clicks. I use my Daredevil with Chthon, who will do 5 damage with Tomb added, to punch him and he again misses Imperv and it’s just enough to take him out for good. As he’s clicking the dial to KO him, last action gets called and I win 110-10.
This definitely was a really fun and exciting day – being the 1st person with the Canadian National title twice, still the only woman with a national title and winning on my birthday – all that birthday magic! My opponents were really enjoyable and tough to play against and I loved getting to meet some new people and seeing people that I don’t get to see very often. It was great that we had people travel to be there too. We had folks from Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, USA and even France! Huge thanks as always to Jay for judging. Thanks to Marc Andre for hosting and building food breaks into the days. Thanks also to my play testing buddies, without the reps I definitely would not have done as well and also thanks to my friends from all over who I have strategy talks with. Getting ideas and thoughts from others always gives me more perspectives I hadn’t thought of myself. Appreciate you all!
Next up, Worlds! Who am I going to see there? Comment below and let me know!
And as always, feel free to subscribe if you’re interested in getting an email whenever I put up a new post. Wanna hear me talk about the day on podcasts? You can find me as a guest on both JSA Clix Podcast and Clixed Off – the episodes are already out!
Until next time, xoxo