I decided to try my hand at playing in another qualifier (#2) to see if I could win and get the seat into Worlds. I stuck with the same team of Vulture/Jason from Nationals with another tweak of removing Firestorm to add the Yaphit pog for some poison and I swapped out a map for the Campsite. This tournament had 14 players so they did 4 rounds of Swiss and a cut to top 4. As usual, I’m going to go into my matches with as much detail as I can remember – but I didn’t take as good of notes as I usually do. So if you’re one of my opponents and I’ve misremembered or left something out, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct it. Here we go into the Swiss rounds.
My first round opponent was Steven Sw from Georgia who was playing a robot team of Tri-Sentinel, danger room Magneto and Sinister, Steampunk Peni, Amazo with Flash team up, Cyclops Sentinel, Superman, Marvella, exospex and spin ring. He won map and put us on the Sentinel Factory, chose leadership and ESD with Amazo and equipped. I equipped and did some sidestepping. He held back and put up some barrier to protect his single based figures and split up the colossal figures to opposite sides of the map and up just a little. I perplexed up Vulture and saw with his set up that I could get Cyclops Sentinel, then over to Amazo (who I was able to one shot because he hadn’t re-chosen powers to have anything that Vulture could use) to be able to get in to Superman/Peni who could then get me into Marvella, then over to Tri-Sentinel and back over to the danger room guys, who I was even able to get Magneto because I put 2nd attacks into him where I had a KO on the first one and the last one I positioned so I could knock him back off the elevated for a KO there when I was out of built up charges. So Vulture got everyone on that first action except sinister and just worked to chip at him until I managed to make enough hits. He got my Tri-Sentinel after I brought him over for a retal but wasn’t able to get anything else. I won 297-30.
Round 2 was against Jon M who was playing 2×2 Magneto, 2x 1776, Punisher War Machine, Spider Pharoh, Mary Jane Watson and a carnage symbiote. He won map and put us on Poison Ivy’s Greenhouse – a map I don’t mind at all because I love extended starting areas. I put my objects up instead of out so he couldn’t get to them. He just turn 1 equipped the carnage symbiote on PWM and did nothing else. I blanked and forgot about 1776’s and used Oz to TK the arms instead of making a Chaos, like I would usually do. I equipped the arms and used free movement with Valeria to get closer to the spin ring (but not right to it because I only rolled a 1). This was my first time playing against PWM, so I got to see exactly what he does – which was to have Pharoh carry the 1776s and MJ to the middle elevated for the Shield TA and then had Magneto TK PWM up so he could running shot next to all the Shield guys into my starting area – using energy explosion with knockback to basically hit my whole team. This KO’d most of the support. Now he had 2 action tokens, which allowed him to make a free attack and targeted Vulture with that attack where he crit hit. I think the only thing I had left after that was Valeria, a hurt Jason and hurt Everett. I did I mind control chain with Jason and hit a few targets but none of the attacks there did anything and eventually missed when he rolled a super sense roll. Made a Robot Dupe with Jason and copied Pharoh because I wanted that precision strike against all his super senses but I missed that attack. He basically did the same thing with the energy explosion to take out the rest of the team and I didn’t manage to get any points from him. If I had it to do over, I would have put up barrier, the way I do against a Batman prime team to protect that first turn – now I know better for next time. I lost 300-0.
Round 3 was with Joe G who was once again playing 2x 1776, Vulture, Jason, Magneto 2×2, Oz and octopus Arms. I was excited to play against him again to see if my plan for a new map if I win map or my protection if I lose map would do. I ended up winning map and put us on the Campsite. I made a Chaos to get the octopus arms to Vulture and equipped them and then free moved Valeria to the spin ring and equipped that for my limited 2 actions. He equipped and made a Gaea to barrier. Because of the map I put us on, he wasn’t able to barrier in such a way that it could completely protect his team. I was able to get myself to Magneto who from there got me into the team behind the barrier, where I was able to get everyone except for one of the 1776’s who rolled a super sense roll. He tried to get a hit off and missed. I attacked again with Vulture and crit missed on the first attack so I called in a Black Vulcan to poison. It went a few turns but I eventually got him and won 300-0.
Round 4 I played Nate. He was playing 2x 1776, 3x Marvella and some fantastic four pieces that he swapped out and ended up with Chase Sue Storm and Valeria Von Doom. He won map and put us on WWE Arena and I chose the clear side. He did a thing with Sue that with a perplex to range, he was able to place a barrier such that she could use TK through it to TK away my octopus arms into oblivion. He sidestepped up and put up some barrier to try and protect the team, but it had to be out past the obscuring terrain. I perplexed up Vulture and used Chaos to TK Vulture up and then Valeria to further TK up so I could get in charge range to a Marvella. I got all the Marvella’s and Valeria and was able to get a hit on Sue, also knocking her back into the edge of the map (Nate messaged me a few hours later to say that we both forgot about first turn immunity and I wouldn’t have been able to hit Sue because she hadn’t yet left the starting area – oops! The rest of the figures had moved out of the starting area though – I’m just not used to actually doing the alpha on first turn and completely forgot, sorry Nate!). He was able to get Vulture and moved up a little. I tried to put in work with Jason mind controls but he was able to keep healing up with either Minions of Doom or Fantastic 4 TAs. He placed a barrier next to Tri-Sentinel to punch through it to KO him and put him up on points. I TK’d Jason over near a 1776 and made a Chewie to try and finish one off. I hit the first attack and put him to Stop click but he rolled super senses on the second attack. He retreated back a little to try and protect the hurt 1776. I gave Valeria a move action to walk near to where he was and rolled just enough with the free movement to make it over to be able to see him to spin him for the KO, putting me back up on points just before time got called and he wasn’t able to get the lead back – giving me the win of 130-90 and getting me into the top cut.
Top 4 was a rematch against Steven Sw and his robots team. He did more of a typical robot set up this time and I should have seen it coming to barrier up, but I didn’t. He did the move of TKing Magneto over to pulsewave/knockback off the elevated and ended up KOing Oz and hurting Valeria and Vulture. I surprised him by bringing out Kyro to support Vulture and got him back to click 2. Unfortunately for me, I missed my attack on Cyclops Sentinel so my alpha ended up fizzling. I tried a retal with Tri-Sentinel and ended up crit missing with him. I also tried a mind control chain with Jason but it failed too. Steven was able to keep picking away at my pieces until he got right through me. I think the only successful attack I ended up getting was a perplexed up Wesley crusher to hit sinister for a click, lol. I lost this one 300-0 and there ended my day.
Congrats to Jon who ended up going undefeated and winning a spot into Worlds. Thank you as always to my opponents for some great games.
Until next time, xoxo