by Dustin Seeders
Howdy folks! A wild and crazy World Championship just went down in Philly with Tylor Spees winning it all with his whale build. I’m gonna give you guys a quick rundown of the team I built for this event. I wanted to play something different for this one, so I did! I borrowed a few ideas from an amazing team I saw being piloted by Emilio Gutierrez in one of the Majestix Qualifiers and came up with something a little bit different. But before I get into the strategy, let me go ahead and give you a look at the team.
50 JW060 The Joker
15 HQ044 Kite Man
45 SFSM046 Mephisto
15 WKMB001 Serpent Spiderman x2
15 WKMB002 Serpent Punisher x2
20 FFTMNT4 Mud Man
25 TMTG001 Surtur
20 AI025 Groot x2
10 TMTG004 Carnage
4 TMTS024 Sword
3 JWS100 The Joker’s Gas Canister
5 Hahahacienda Joker Location Bonus
21 ID Cards
Professor X ID
Wolverine Bounty ID
Cyclops Headmaster ID
Cyclops Student ID
Rusty Student ID
Sideline:
XXS037a Professor X
XXS037b Professor X
XXS053 Wolverine
XXS052 Cyclops x2
XXSFF Rusty
XXS014 Rusty
BTAS072 Firestorm
BTAS065 The Flash
The Joker – What can I say about this guy that everyone doesn’t already know? At 50 points he isn’t worth attacking for most opponents because he just won’t die, he can call-in almost everything you need in the current meta, and the traited Sidestep makes him surprisingly mobile. Give the guy a Sword for Blades and all of a sudden his dial becomes extremely offensive, especially with a constant +1 Attack from The Joker map bonus. Probably the best figure for his point value in the meta right now.
The Serpents & Mud Man – These guys are just way too good for the points! I decided to go with two Spider-Men and two Punishers. They both have Indomitable and Improved Movement: Hindering and solid base values. The Spider-Man has Hypersonic and Super Senses with the Punisher having Sidestep, ESD and RCE. These guys are the majority of the offense for this build. Serpents whiz around killing retaliators, Punishers get into position to hit hard and often with the RCE. They get to do this with very little fear of being attacked because of the retaliators lurking. Mud Man is on the build mostly to tie up, but with the number of bystander generators I expected to see I also thought he would do very well using Quake to kill multiple pogs, rack up extra lives and eventually get to the source.
Mephisto – PROB!!! I needed it for this build. I don’t have a way to increase my call-ins values so I’m relying on hitting with base attacks. Mephisto fills this role perfectly. He is somewhat of a double edged sword because I am also giving my opponents a source of Prob but I decided it was a necessary evil. He also brought an 8-Range Perplex to the table which helped on a team lacking support powers. Last but definitely not least is his special speed power, which allows me to place an opposing character within range and line of fire into a square adjacent to their current square. This power is huge in a meta full of Mastermind, Stealth and taxis.
Kite Man – This guy was necessary to make up for my lack of flight on the build. The Joker and Mud Man needed a lot of help getting around on certain maps. Kite Man fills that roll perfectly and for 15 points he doesn’t put too much of a dent in my build total.
Surtur & Friends – These guys were the armor for the team. Once the Groots generate their Walking Woods my team is up to NINE bystanders coming at you. That means I can usually make 3-4 attacks every turn. That’s a ton of pressure from bystanders and usually an opponent’s response is to just kill them but with Surtur, Carnage and double Groot waiting that becomes a risky maneuver. Triggering a Surtur retaliation is a death sentence for many figures in the meta at the moment. The Leadership from Groot was essential to maximizing my actions each turn. Carnage having Sidestep also helped me to keep Mephisto on the run, at 45 points he only has 2 clicks and was a pretty big target.
Overall, the team performed perfectly. I played very aggressively and I could tell my opponents felt oppressed by the sheer number of attackers all over the map. The Serpents and the Retaliators were the MVPs all day. It all came down to a gritty, back-and-forth game with Easton Brock and his Gotham City squad in Top 16 in which I took a narrow loss. But I am far from disappointed as I felt the team had a legitimate shot and I played the best game I could against Easton. Be on the lookout! I will probably bust this one out again with Exospex sometime soon!
Dustin Seeders
