300pt Modern Age Limited Primer

 

 

 By Aaron Cantu

The 2015 ROC Season has wrapped up, a champion has been crowned, and his praises will be sung until the next ROC World Cup. If you aspire to challenge the ROC this season, it starts RIGHT NOW with a new format and some interesting changes. In this article, I will break down the new format (“300 Modern Age, Limited”) and offer my insights on some of the past Meta figures, and ponder some of the newly released sets. So, please, stay a while and read.

THE NEW FORMAT (300 MODERN LIMITED)

To kick off the new ROC season, a new build format has arrived. 300 Modern Limited breaks down as follows:

-300 point build total

-Modern Age

-No Resources

-No Relics

-No Possession, which referring to “Entity Possession”, and similar mechanics

-No Constructs

-No I.D. Cards

-No figures larger than a peanut base, or a 1×2 base

That’s a lot of stuff that isn’t allowed. At a glance, this looks very similar to the previous ROC “No Tactics” format, but there are quite a few significant differences with a closer look. Let’s take a look at what is included in the format. The following are allowed in the new format that was not in No Tactics:

-Bystanders

-Theme Teams

-ATA’s, or Additional Team Abilities

-Special Objects

-Word Balloons, which although previously allowed are worth mentioning

While looking at what is allowed, you can see that there are quite a few really interesting options when deciding what to play. Before we get into that, let’s take a look at things that could possibly translate from the previous Metagame to the current one.

THE OLD GUARD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2015’s No Tactics season, we saw a variety of interesting builds and figures, but by the end of it all, there were a few elite figures that began to really make their presence felt. At the very top you had the power couple of Super Skrull and Kyle Rayner. These two figures were the kings of their domain for a variety of reasons. Taking a close look at these figures they are similar in point cost but very different in function.

First, let’s take a look at Super Skrull. Simply put, he gets whatever power he wants, whenever he wants it, has the ability to not die, and has a very attractive dial and Improved Movement. This seems almost like a “must have” and it is an unbelievable dial, but it is not an auto-pilot figure. There are plenty of careful decisions to be made while playing him. Choosing the correct powers to respond to the current game state is critical to success. Often times, players choose poorly and that ends up being the difference between victory and defeat. This is especially true when you consider that the other big figure of this time period is more points, meaning that it has less points of support to KO. Speaking of him…

Kyle Rayner is a powerhouse with amazing combat values and a really ridiculous stop click. But, perhaps, the thing that really put him over the top was his construct trait. A figure with top dial Running Shot with an 11-Attack, 18-Defense with Super Senses, 4-Damage with Perplex, and that is seemingly impossible to KO in one hit is bad enough, but when he is given the possibility of all of the constructs out there, he can be a nightmare for anything to deal with. His most common accessory of choice is the Wall, which by allowing him to be even more defensive by placing 2 squares, makes him even more potent. Fortunately, in the new format, Kyle is a little hindered in that his point cost is slightly inflated to allow for a trait that won’t be seeing play. Keep this in mind when building with him.

The tail end of the last season also brought forth some common challengers like Proxima Midnight, Banshee, and Highfather/Takion; as well as some outliers like Jenny Sparks, who is a good way to hit Kyle past his stop click, and Question (both the chase and WK LE). With all of these things being so popular, there was one thing that wasn’t seen and it was bystander making figures like Fantomex or Captain Thunder, which brings us to the next point….

FAMILIAR FOES OF ANOTHER META

With the addition of bystanders and theme teams, we have to look at some popular figures from the Tactics meta and see where they fit in the limited format. Arguably the most potent of them all is Fantomex.

There is not a lot I can say about him that hasn’t already been said by Patrick Yapjoco in his 2015 ROC State Championships Meta game Primer article (http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=543204), but he will definitely find a place in Limited due to his powerful E.V.A. trait as well as his very awesome keywords. He is easy to build with for inexperienced players and very dangerous in the hands of seasoned veterans, even more so on a theme team. As Pat points out in his article, you can play Fantomex on a spy theme team with Agent 13 and now some of the new stuff from the Nick Fury set (more on this later) for some extra potency.

Other notables from the Tactics meta that will likely carry over to Limited are the Juston Seyfert variants with things like Ragnarok prime or Spiral; Koriand’r (especially with the ATA’s allowed), as well as all the Avengers stuff we have thanks to the last few sets from Marvel. However, the main take away has got to be theme teams.

Theme teams are not common in the most recent tactics meta (pre-errata for equipment mechanic) due to the wide usage of entities and the fact that they could, and often did, break theme teams. When there were theme teams played, they were usually team bases and were often the Zombies team base. But with Wizkids’ newest sets and their approach at targeting synergy within sets, things will likely change.

A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the last No Tactics season, a lot has changed, with new sets coming out and some popular favorites going the way of retirement (I’ll miss you, Brother Voodoo). As I mentioned earlier, these new sets take aim at synergy and semi-theme teams. The most popular figure in the recent expansions is the namesake of his set, Nick Fury.

Looking at his dial and power set, it is obvious why he is such an attractive piece in the metagame. He has the ability to shut down powers; he has decent values that can possibly be modified even higher with his trait, traited Shape Change, and some Probability Control to boot. On top of his ridiculous Improved Targeting and long range, he is an instant contender for best piece in the format (no matter what the format). Taking a look specifically at Limited, though, the things that really stand out to me are his keywords. Spy is already a popular keyword with the things that go with Fantomex, but if we take a look ahead at the new Superman and Wonder Woman set, we also see things in there that play well with Nick Fury. The one that specifically stands out to me is General Lane. General Lane shares the Soldier keyword with Nick and gives adjacent friendly characters the Superman Enemy TA. Giving Nick Fury Outwit on top of his other powers is pretty potent and could make or break a game.

Before we move too far forward in SM&WW, I have to mention all the supporting Soldiers and Spies from NFAOS such as Peggy Carter, who is a baby orange battery herself. There are many theme teams in the making between that set alone. Not to mention new stuff like Dr. Demonicus that combos well with Shatterstar (or rather his colossal bystanders do) and fellow token generators like Master Pandemonium. I would also be remiss not to mention Nighthawk Prime. His ability to stop modifiers anywhere on the map is just silly good.

Now, we can jump forward to the new SM&WW set. This set is littered with amazing support pieces as well as its fair share of heavy hitters. The two most notable figures from the set, in my opinion are Mr. Mxyzptlk and Faust.

There was already a design insight article done on Faust (http://heroclix.com/design-insight/design-insight-sebastian-faust/#axzz3q6eDMeV0), so I won’t go into too much detail with him, but with his super Sidestep and Pocket Dimension roll, he is begging to have a team made with him.

Looking at Mr. Mxyzptlk, he is a bargain for the amount of usefulness and support he brings to the table. He is my favorite piece from the set. His trait that lets him swap dice is ALWAYS useful, no matter what you roll. Making your opponent’s Shape Change rolls miss or turning hits into critical misses are just a couple of things he can do even in the safety of your starting area. Combine that with his ability to change character sizes, Pulse Wave, and his free action Phasing/Teleport to get to safety and he is a bag of tricks that is tough to plan for.

Other notables from SM&WW are Superman Blue who can protect your entire team from Pulse Wave, Red Tornado, and chase Superman, who has two stop clicks that give out tokens to your opponent while allowing him to heal back up on with Regeneration, all while having the Soldier keyword. These figures will likely show up in some capacity and make an impact on the metagame.

BUT WHAT DO I PLAY?

With everything being said and done, you may be thinking that there are too many possibilities to prepare for them all. You’re right. That being said, you can easily take any of the stuff I spoke about above by looking at their keywords and building a theme team. You can play things like Nick Fury, Banshee, and Rocket Raccoon and have a solid team that ignores elevated terrain for line of fire. Personally, I like to take a look at what is popular and try and build against it. People will likely be playing the Nick Fury SR because he can hard counter so many things like Super Skrull or even other Nick Furys. They will be playing Super Skrull because of his awesome utility, as well as Engineer and the SR Batman from Trinity War for similar reasons, and they will be playing Kyle Rayner because of his ridiculous stop click. You can counter this by thinking outside of the box and playing stuff like the new rare Lois Lane or SR Black Panther from Age of Ultron who won’t let Nick draw LoF to them using that huge range. You can drop monstrous bystanders in his face with Shatterstar and Dr. Demonicus. Use Blue Devil to take care of those pesky stop clicks. There are a number of figures that can stop Zombies from healing (including the word balloon “Broccoli! Why can’t it be meat?”). The possibilities are endless.

The main thing you have to do is play what is comfortable for you. If you don’t understand the way a figure works nor have a team that caters to your style, you will probably not do well, regardless of the money you put on the table. Fantomex teams, which can cost as few as $15 can easily trump a Nick Fury team in competent hands.  Personally, I can’t wait to field an army of Ultron Drones with Ultron-1 trying to keep them all alive. In the end, I hope this article has shined a spotlight on some of the stuff that will be competitive and helped you prepare to battle with and against them.

Until next time.