I’m back! I took a 4 month break from playing Heroclix as I worked on my mental health. I just didn’t have the mental energy to build, practice, research or play. In a step to getting back to living an enjoyable life, I made the decision to sign up for ROC online nationals and back to playing the tabletop game I love so much. In this age of COVID and not playing in person, this year was online play instead of where it would have been in Columbus. I’m absolutely comfortable with online play on roll20 and Alex made some amazing tokens to help have more of the information on the board so there is less need for checking out another site to see the stats as often. Day 1 was a bit of a learning curve, with the time between rounds taking quite long, but it was much smoother for day 2. I’m confidant that it will be even smoother next week for teams – which I have also signed up for – so look out for another tournament report next week too!
My biggest takeaway is that I was not as practiced as I should have been and I caught many things that I could have done different or did wrong. I now have a few better placements ready for set up if I lose map on both a regular starting area and an extended starting area on how I can better protect myself against the mirror so that it’s not just a 1 turn eat the whole team turn anymore without some extra effort. These games really made me see more of what I can do with my team and seeing as I’m playing basically the same thing for teams next weekend, I’m much more prepared. You’ll see me highlight things in these matches that I caught that I could have done different after the fact.
Let’s get into my team! I only had about a week from when I decided to play to when my build needed to be submitted. I first was playing around with a robot team, but it didn’t do what I wanted it to do and the figure I had built around was the weak link. Then I wanted to play around with a ping/knockback team – and while it was fun, again, it didn’t do enough to stand up to what’s all out there being played. When I was practicing with my friend Josh, he was playing a Vulture team – and you all know how much I love playing Vulture – so I decided to take his team and tweaked the sideline to be what would fit my own style of play. Here’s what I ended up with:
Vulture (Octopus Arms)
Jason Wyngarde
Mr. Oz
Tri-Sentinel
Everett K Ross
Wesley Crusher
Cadmus Labs Scientist
Valeria Von Doom (Spin Ring)
Sideline: Mister Sinister, Green Lantern, I.S.A.A.C. Miles and Gwen, Captain Marvel, Machinesmith, Brainiac, Black Vulcan, Firestorm
Maps: Ha-Ha Hacienda, Regency Laboratory, Necropolis
Round 1 – My opponent was Scott Cramton and he was playing a similar team of Vulture, Jason Wyngarde, Trader, Valeria Von Doom, Proteus, Dark Phoenix, Spin Ring, Octopus Arms and sideline. Scott won map and I just wasn’t set up to protect myself right. He was able to do what Vulture does and get through my whole team on turn 2. 0-300.
Round 2- I faced Tony R. He was playing a Latveria team of Doom 2099, Dr Doom, Doombot, Franklin Von Doom and Valeria Von Doom. He won map and moved up a bit. I totally forgot about my Oz when he TK’d a figure out to his object until my turn started and I caught it too late, as my turn was starting. I was able to come in with Vulture and got 2 Doombots, hurt Franklin and got 2099 to his last click. Again, I missed that I could have come in and blown up the square of blocking he was next to, to finish him off and didn’t catch it until his turn when I realized it. 2099 regened up and healed a click and Franklin KO’d Vulture. I mind controlled with Jason to KO a Doombot. Here, I made another error that neither of us caught. I used Jason to make a Robot Dupe and copied Franklin – which I couldn’t have on the click he was on, because he was colossal – not standard, and I missed that completely. It wasn’t until I was talking about it after the game with someone else who pointed out my error. I missed with the attack that turn. He colossal pushed Franklin to try and attack and missed. I attacked with the Dupe and hit this time. Time was called shortly after and I won 300-115. I didn’t wipe his team, but because of the extra Doombots I KO’d, I got the 300.
Round 3 – I got to play against Chip. Another similar team to mine of Vulture, 2x Jason Wyngarde, Oz, 2x Billy Batson, Octopus Arms, Reality Gem and sideline. Chip won map and put us on Ha-Ha Hacienda. I tried to protect myself with some barrier in the corner and just sacrificing Valeria, Oz and Trisentinel, but they were too close and he built up 2 charges at the same time and he was able to use one to break a barrier and the other to continue using flurry. He got through my whole team on turn 2 and that was that. 0-300 and again, I now have a better placement prepared so the double KO won’t happen.
Round 4 – I was against Clinton. He was playing ANOTHER similar team of Jason Wyngarde, Vulture, Oz, Magneto and Dr. Fantastic. I won map this time! Huzzah!! This did not keep me from making mistakes though. I stupidly forgot to activate my Cadmus Labs dude to give battle fury to Vulture before going out for the alpha. I was able to get everything but Jason (who of course rolled shape change successfully because of my error) and Dr. Fantastic (but I did get a hit on him, so he wasn’t full dial anymore). He called out Stellerax and missed his attack. He outwitted my charge, but not the full special power. I was able to sidestep and get in giant reach area of both Jason and Dr. Fantastic. I sidestepped and took out Stellerax with my first attack and hit Dr. Fantastic off the outwit with the 2nd hit and was able to then get my charge back to finish the Dr off and then Jason, who missed his shape change this time. 300-0, putting me at 2-2 and needing to win my next match to even have a chance.
Round 5 – I faced Travis R who was playing a JLU team of prime Batman, Dr Fate with 5 clones, Stargirl, Billy Batson, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Twins. He won map and put us on WWE Arena and I chose the side that’s clear without the obscuring terrain. I equipped the octopus arms, sidestepped everyone so they were within 4 squares across and made a Lord Gaea pog to make barrier in front of everyone. He stayed back and tried to be defensive, however he went to place blocking terrain on the obscuring and I reminded him that barrier needs to be placed in clear terrain. He wasn’t able to adequately protect his team and I was able to Vulture through it for the win in a turn 2 wipe of my own. 300-50 – he ended up scoring Vulture because of all the mystics damage I had to take from all the Dr Fates.
That was the end of Swiss rounds, so now it was time to wait to see if I’d made the cut. I knew that about 8 or 9 people with a 3-2 record were going to make it into the top 32. I am now sitting at 3-2 with 900 points, so it was a waiting game for the last round to end and the scores inputted to see if I had enough points to make it. It turned out that I did! I ended up in 31st, which means I’d be facing the 2nd seed seat.
Top 32 – my opponent was Adam Friedman. Here we go with another Vulture/Jason team. His version had Valeria Von Doom, Magneto, Proteus, Dark Phoenix and Shield Diplomat. I actually won map, so I felt like I had a chance here. I knew that his team was better equipped to barrier up and hide – he had built his team specifically to be able to handle the mirror match better than I did. He was able to get everyone except the colossals behind barrier and split up his colossals so they were far away from each other enough to not build up multiple charges at once. I had some major misplays here, that I would do different if I could do it again. I moved up Trisentinel, carrying Jason, to make a Chaos pog to break the square of barrier in front of Valeria. I had to use 2 of my perplexes in movement to get him there. Oz TK’d Vulture over to Magneto and I KO’d him to get to the hole in the barrier to get Valeria (I chose to not go for Dark Phoenix or Proteus because they both had roll outs). Because I didn’t have my attack perplexed as much as I should have (because of those perplexes going to Trisentinels movement), I ended up missing Valeria and my turn fizzled. He retaled with Dark Phoenix and then attacked with her, KOing Vulture. I tried to KO his Vulture with a blades attack from Jason and then Chewie, but rolled 2’s on my blades and it wasn’t enough to take him out. He worked his way over to the support of my team and when time was called, he won 215-60. If I had it to do over, I would have made sure to sidestep Jason to be adjacent to Trisentinel on turn 1 – that way I could sidestep with him after being carried and wouldn’t have needed to use those perplexes into Trisentinels movement and they could have gone into Vultures attack. I also would have made a pog with perplex on the first turn so I’d have an extra perplex ready to go on turn 2. I think I would have hit Valeria if I had that extra 2/3 perplex. I do like that Adam didn’t see that play coming though! I consider that a win in and of itself! He thought I was going to go for Magneto, then Dark Phoenix, then Proteus, then break a barrier – and that would have been 3 hits, which I could have then called in a Trouble Maker to try and get Valeria that way instead.
All in all (even with the mistakes I’ve now learned from), I’m super proud of how I played and how I placed. I think I was the only Canadian to make it into the 2nd day! Congrats to Adam, who ended up taking it all the way to the end and winning. I’m excited to see how much smoother I play my team this coming weekend when I play it again in teams – with some minor tweaks so my team mates can use some of the sideline figures on their main force.
Did you play in the online nationals? I’d love to hear how you did!
Until next time, xoxo
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