Last weekend I got to play in another full day of Heroclix, this time it was ROC Online Team Nationals. Because it was online, it was constructed instead of sealed – but they made it extreme highlander, meaning that each figure/object/map can only be used between the whole team only once. As with previous years, I was on team Calm Your Clix! Usually the team consists of Amber, Aja and myself – but this year Amber was not able to join us so instead Steven joined me and Aja as our third.
I played basically the same thing as I played last weekend for ROC Online Singles Nationals – you can find my write up here – the only difference is no Captain Marvel on my sideboard for Chewie because Aja wanted to play her main force, so I instead added Stegron to my sideboard for dinosaurs with battle fury that might help against all the shape change in case I needed that. Aja played a Cosmic team with some Elders of the Universe and Steven played a Fantastic Four team. As always, I’m remembering how things went down to the best of my ability but I’m sure I’m forgetting parts – so if any opponents read this and remember things differently or more details, feel free to jog my memory!
Round 1 – I was against Jason. Hilarious that we got paired up with locals in the first round. Jason was playing a Latveria team of God Doom, Dr. Fantastic, Valeria Richards and uncommon Dr. Doom. I don’t think I’ve laughed more in a game and it seems I always end up doing that when I face Jason. I perplexed up Vulture to come in for the alpha. First attack of the flurry was a crit miss. Second attack hit, but I didn’t choose the right target and wasn’t able to KO anything to keep going. This was definitely a case of not knowing the figures from the new set to know best the order of figures to target. Because of the crit miss though, I was able to bring in Firestorm to try an energy explosion on the team and he missed his attack so he used probability control to re-roll it and wouldn’t you know it, he crit missed too. Jason used God Doom to KO Vulture and got the over kill with a crit hit back and he also took out Firestorm. I tried some mind controlling with Jason Wyngarde to have his figures do some work on each other, but it wasn’t enough to KO anything. Jason finished up the game just before time was called by coming in with God Doom to KO Valeria. I lost, 0-155 so I started off with 0-1 personally and Aja won her game, so our team overall was 0-1 for the first round.
Round 2 – I faced Brian from Nashville. He was playing Captain Marvel, Black Widow chase, Black Widow shifting and Happy Hogan. He started off by stealing my Spin ring with a recruit and tying up pieces in my starting area. I did some set up and KO’d the recruit. Chase Widow took out Everett then Marvel attacked Vulture, then pinged Vulture then a recruit poisoned Vulture to KO. Marvel brough out Chewie, who KO’d Oz. I called in Miles for the outwit and outwitted shape change on the recruit and quaked to hurt her and KO Chewie. In retrospect, I should have called in one of the dinosaur pogs instead, with the battle fury. It would have had the same effect, but they have indom, so could have acted more often then Miles was able to. Valeria spun the recruit to KO it. Chase Widow took out Trisentinel and hurt Valeria. Brian was able to get through my whole team and I only got those 2 recruits, so I have another loss of 50-300, 0-2 personally and all of us on the team lost our matches so we’re now at 0-2 for the rounds.
Round 3 – My opponent was David M. He was playing a don’t die team of Danger Room Magneto, Sinister and Sabertooth, Lockjaw, Daredevil, Symbiote, Venom Harness and Exospex. He came up to the middle of the map so I decided to just come in for it and get as much damage off to try and hurt as much as I could. I carried up Jason with Trisentinel and made a Lord Gaea pog to have Trisentinel blow it up next to Magneto, Sinister and Lockjaw. Then I had Vulture come and Flurry on Magneto. I don’t remember the middle of this match – but I know that he called out a Black Manta who I KO’d, and I also KO’d Magneto. He KO’d Valeria. The last minute of the game was what decided who won. He had gotten Jason down to his last click and had made 2 attacks against him (one as time was called) that both hit and I managed to roll a 5 on the super senses for both attacks. So I won 60-35, putting me at 1-2 personally and Steven won his match, so we won this round putting the team at 1-2.
Round 4 – I was against Julien from France. I love that this tournament allowed people from all over the world to play. Julien was playing the same team that I faced in round 2 of Chase Widow, Shifting Widow, Captain Marvel and Happy Hogan. This was a crazy super close game with a whole lot of back and forth. He came up near the middle of the map so I equipped and called in a Lord Gaea to barrier and protect how I could. I used Vulture to get some damage in and got a recruit, Happy and Chewie and put some damage in on Captain Marvel. He got Trisentinel, Valeria and Everett with Chase and Marvel. I made a Gwen pog for the extra perplex and tried to close combat expert with Vulture for 5 damage on shifty Widow but missed. He was able to get Vulture with a recruit between attacking and the poison. I perplexed damage on Gwen then attacked with Gwen on last click Captain Marvel and managed to roll the 9 I needed to hit to KO her. I also managed to get the other recruit. I still had Gaea on the board so I used it to put barrier around Wesley to keep him alive because I knew the game was going to end soon and the points were super close. We both thought the other won and when time was called we had to add up the points 3 times to be sure – but I ended up winning 205-200, putting me at 2-2 personally and Aja won as well, putting our team also at 2-2. If we can get enough points with all of us winning the next round, we could potentially make the cut.
Round 5 – I was playing Nicholas from Florida. His team was Exodus, Jason Wyngarde, Danger Room Magneto and Sabertooth, 2×2 Magneto and Exospex. This was a case of everything going exactly as planned for Nicholas. First turn he equips DR Mags and sidesteps around a bit. I do my usually equipping and feel like I’m out of reach – but boy was I wrong. He rolls a successful leadership with Exodus and gets himself +3 stats. This allowed him to be able to running shot up and energy explode my whole team. Then 2×2 Mags TK’d DR Mags up, who also chooses energy explosion and follows up hitting my whole team and knocks them back for more damage. I’m left with only a hurt Vulture, full Jason (he wasn’t adjacent for any of the energy explosions) and last click Valeria. I call out Kyro with Jason to heal Vulture back up and make the crazy decision to push Valeria to death to TK Vulture up to try and KO something. I miss my attacks and he takes out Vulture. I end up calling out Chaos and do some damage on Exodus, but not enough to KO. He runs Exodus back so I can’t KO him and starts work on Jason and eventually gets him. Even tho I lost 0-300 and putting me at 2-3 personally, it was great to see that team in action. My team mates also lost their games, putting us at 2-3 as a team.
It was great meeting and playing against some new people. Even though we didn’t do well enough to make the cut, I’m so glad that I teamed up with my friends Steven and Aja to play in teams. It was the first time they played online, so it was a great learning experience for them and hopefully they’ll want to play in some more online tournaments. I can’t wait for the world to open up and we can see each other in person for tournaments again, but in the meantime, I’m glad we’ve got this option to keep the game going. The tournament itself was much smoother than last weekend and we were done our 5 rounds at a much more reasonable time. The organizers and judges did a fantastic job.
Did you play in teams? I’d love to hear your experience and how your team fared.
Until next time, xoxo
