What an amazingly fun weekend! This year Worlds was being held in Graceland. We had rooms right in the Graceland Guest House hotel and the event was held at the exhibition centre across the street that was about a 10 minute walk away or you could take the free shuttle over. It was fantastic being it’s own event of only Wizkids games and not in a Con this time. I really hope they continue with it this way.
Thursday, 7 of us from Toronto travelled together – all on the same flight even. Our little flight of 50 seats was less than half filled and over half the passengers were either Heroclix or Dice Masters people. 
We got our free shuttle to the hotel, got our TCB packages (included were Storm LE, Raven LE, random 2018 LE – mine was Shadowcat, a battle royal voucher and a voucher to take the tour of Graceland and exhibits – all for only $49, it was a fantastic deal!), headed up to the room and then out for dinner. When we got back we went to one of the sitting areas and played board games with the Jersey boys. I had a blast observing – I truly have just as much fun watching them all play and have fun so I always let others play and just watch.
Friday was teams. This year Calm Your Clix (usually Amber, Aja and myself) picked up Devin because Aja was unable to make it (you were missed girl!). Devin played a Brotherhood team, Amber played a Robots team and I played a random team of Onslaught, Archangel, Scanner, Friends of Humanity and Proteus retaliator.
Round 1 I faced Micha. He was playing Dark Phoenix, Jean Grey, Cyclops, 
Cable and Colossus. I kept trying to take out his Dark Phoenix but she kept healing up and I couldn’t take her down. We both misplayed with positioning so much in this game as we were learning our figures and we joked that round 1 is for learning our team. 0-1 for me and 1-2 for the team.
Round 2 I was playing with Mike. His team was Dark Phoenix, Wolverine, Rogue, Beast and Cable x2 (one with the trait). Because of Archangel, he had to reveal which Cable was the real one. Again, I was unable to take Dark Phoenix down as she just kept healing up, but at least I remembered my free Barrier on Proteus this game. 0-2 for me and 3-3 for the team.
Round 3 my opponent was Jevon. He was playing Nimrod and Sentinel. My dice were on my side this game. I managed to roll high enough to actually get through his Nimrod. First I took out the Sentinel. He’d rolled the Stealth click but my Onslaught sees through hindering. I’m grateful I had 2 probs on my team to help make my attacks hit and most of them were high enough that he wasn’t able to roll higher. We didn’t realize until after the game that Archangels trait isn’t optional, so I should have been needing to rage out… but I also could have just been using the free TK on Onslaught to bring him back each turn to get him out of range to prevent him from having to rage, so it still could have worked. 1-2 for me and 6-3 for our team because we all won this round! Much better place for us.
Round 4 was against Alex. He was playing Magneto (Danger Room), Mesmero and Juggernaut. He put us on Underground and the first bit was just positioning to get into place. He eventually made it over to come Quake and took out my Friends of Humanity. I retaled and followed up with attacks from both Onslaught and Archangel. I tried to get his Mesmero but he kept rolling Shape Change on him so my attacks all went to Juggernaut. I had him really hurt so he chose to run away, which was definitely the correct choice and I couldnt make back the points before time was called. 1-3 for me and 7-5 for the team.
Round 5 was with DJ. He was playing Mojo, Beast x2, Legion and Scanner. He pretty much just stayed back and collected tokens on Mojo as I was missing attacks. He had all the perplex in the world and prob to make his attacks stick. I did a bunch of damage on his Legion and almost KO’d him but I couldn’t get enough damage in. 1-4 for me and 8-7 for the team.
Devin totally carried us by winning every single game. If only I could have won 1 or 2 more games and we probably could have made the cut. As is tho, we ended 23rd, which is the best placement Calm Your Clix has ever had and our goal is always to do better than we did the year before – mission accomplished!
I played 2 battle royals after the cut to keep playing and then we went for dinner, drinks then back to the room to fill out our build sheets for the next day.
Saturday is singles. I had my qualification from Canadian Nationals so I had my seat. Again, sticking with the Vulture but added the Spider-Mobile instead of the Kate Pryde ID card. It turned out that the ID card would have been better based on my matches, but hindsight is 20/20.
Round 1 was against George. He was playing a Mystical team of Black Adam, Daredevil, Alex Wilder, Tri-Sentinal, Sheriff Strange, Exospex, Zero, Symbiote and IDs. We’d played some practice games on roll20 and had about a 50/50 against each 
other so we knew it was going to be a good close game. He put us Underground and we both inched up. He did a call in to take out my Wesley. Once I was close enough, I was about to get to his team if I could get my 2nd Sidestep but I wasn’t able to roll it. The next turn however, I was close enough to make it a GO turn for Vulture to take out his Tri-Sentinal because I couldn’t get to anyone else the way he had barriered in. He then called something in to try and take down my Vulture but he couldn’t get a prob on it and missed. Time got called and I won 36-15. 1-0.
Round 2 was with David. He was playing Ultrachase Thanos, Lockjaw, Q (prime), Flora, Soul Gem and ID’s. He stayed back in the starting area and I creeped up until I was in strike zone. On my GO turn I was able to take out Flora and Q (he had a 3 on him) and I missed my charge over to Thanos. He Perplexed Thanos to a 6 and my defense down to a 17 and put his Ego gem into attack. He needed a 4 to hit and rolled a 3 with no prob. Then he called in Wolverine with Lockjaw and needed a 6 and rolled a 5. I have no idea how Vulture survived that suicide mission. I retreated with Vulture back to the team and tried to support him back for the push but failed. He came closer to me and called in Beast to try and take out Unseen and crit missed. Dice just were not on his side. I was able to take out Beast between a Walking Wood and Vulture and then time was called and I won 121-8. 2-0.
Round 3 was against Matt. He’s still rocking the full point Uni with the Invisible Jet. I gave him a Leslie Evans and he was Sidestepping with Uni, carrying around Leslie. I actually won map and chose Underground to try block his range lines. I creeped up until I could get to strike range without having to perplex my movement. I got to 14/5 and went for it. I know I need to do as many attacks as possible so I took out Leslie and went for my 2nd attack on the Flurry and he rolled his Shape Change. That was it for me. If I could have gotten those 3 attacks in, I would have been in a good place but instead he was able to pick my pieces off one by one until I was left with only Unseen and Lockjaw on the map. I tried everything I could, but it wasn’t enough to wittle him down. I lost 0-128. 2-1.
Round 4 opponent was Matthew. Another Uni but this time with Lockjaw, Groot, Flora, Invisible Plane, Nightbringer, Remaker and IDs. He has a Walking Wood bring over the Remaker and equips. Then he takes a move action with the other Walking Wood and Leslie. I equip and Sidestep up. He pushes a Walking Woods and Leslie to death then moves his Flora into the corner, carrying Uni. I Sidestep up some more to get everyone clear. He pushes his Flora to death so I can’t stack a Charge up on him and moves his Groot and the other Walking Wood to the opposite corner. I go to 14/5 again and make it over to the Groot. He misses his Shape Change so I’m able to get both Groot and the Walking Wood with gives me enough movement with 2 Charges to make it over to his Uni but just like in my last game, he rolls his Shape Change. He’s able to take out my Vulture. I retal with Groot and miss. He takes out my Groot. I use call ins to try and get him down but I’m not successful. Time gets called and he wins 78-36. 2-2. I know some 3-2’s will make it in but I have no where near enough points to make it in, but I still stick around and play out round 5.
My last opponent is Chris. He’s playing a Cosmic Elders team of Trader x2, Gardener x2, Tigra,, Groot, Flora, Zero and ID’s. He puts us on Kings Tomb and I’m glad I get to try out this map. Man, is it ever restrictive! Because he was playing Elders, I decided to try equipping the Bloodaxe instead of the Octopus Arms because it’s usually better against Elders. But it ended up hurting me because of all the walls and the Barrier he was able to put up. There would have been a chance for me to get to him if I would have had the giant reach. He moved over to near my starting area and there was a spot for me to get at him through a wall with a Cyclops call in to hurt a Trader. Then the next turn I was able to do it again with my other Cyclops but I miss counted the dial in my head and put a Perplex into attack instead of Damage and just got him to regen instead of KO. He was able to take out my Groot. I had a turn that again, if I could have gotten my 2nd Sidestep I could have reached someone on his team to get there with Vulture, but didn’t roll it and wasn’t able to do it. I couldn’t get to him at all the rest of the game and when time was called he won 28-0. 2-3.
I ended up 79th overall, the same placement I had at US nats. Time to tweak the team again, or come up with a new idea I think. I had a lot of fun and played the best I could. I just couldn’t take the points against the teams I faced. Time for more battle royals, got 2 more games in before we went for dinner and drinks.
Sunday was the top 8 of singles, which means a full day of battle royals. They were running them until 3, so I had enough time to get 4 games in. I’m so grateful that all the people in the pods I was in were super friendly and not over competitive so every single game was fun. There’s no pressure when you’re really not concerned about the con prizing and really don’t care about coming in 1st when you’re just trying to collect the new set. In the last game, huge cheers when up when Issac won worlds – congrats! So well deserved, he’s such an amazing player. 
They stopped sign ups for battle royals so I went over to observe the Skirmish format that was being tested out. It looked like everyone was having a great time playing it. When they were done, we headed back to the hotel and Jason, Amber and I went down to the pool/hot tub. Lindy, Mike and Alyssa also came down to join us. We hung out there for while before heading to a bbq dinner in a pink limo shuttle. 
OMG the food was so good! I’m glad that Jay and I split our meal (as usual). We got to try the pulled pork, brisket, ribs, mac and cheese, coleslaw, green beans and onion rings and then we split a dessert with Amber after. Then back over to the Jersey boys for more games before heading to bed.
Monday is home time. Our flight wasn’t until 4 tho, so after we checked out at 11, we used our voucher to go check out Graceland. First stop was to go see the airplanes then a shuttle over to the Mansion. 
We went through fairly quickly, not stopping to look at each detail of everything so we could make it back to get our shuttle to the airport, but we spent about an hour and got a bunch of good pictures and learned a bunch about Elvis. I’m glad we had the time to fit the tour in because we usually have zero time to do anything except playing when we go away. The flight back was nice and easy and again was half empty with half the passengers people we knew again. I think I slept the whole way back from exhaustion.
Once again, a fantastic trip away with friends from all over. I wish we all lived closer so we could all see each other more often because this is such an amazing community of players. Every time I go away I get to know more and more of them so it feels like a growing family. Thank you everyone for all the great games, conversations, hugs and laughs.
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Until next time, xoxo