by Kaleb Redick
What’s up Majestix people! This is Kaleb Redick here with and article talking about my trip to the Majestxccg Qualifier/Invitational 2024 in Union City at Majestix Games NorCal which is ran by the awesome host Jeff Bullard and fam. The event started with the qualifier on Friday for those who haven’t yet qualified for the main event Invitational on Saturday. The rule was you could use a different team between Friday and Saturday but had to at least go 2-2 to qualify for Saturday. The most important thing to consider with this venue: it is in a warehouse and is FREEZING. Dress appropriately. I thought I liked cold…I was proven wrong. Shorts and thin hoodies do NOT pair well with sub-zero temperature. Alas, let’s review the team I went with for the qualifier (and spoiler alert…also the main event)
Scientist Theme:
Sakaarian Iron Man (cloak of levitation)
Demon in Armor (captain carter shield)
Black Skull
The Flash
Teen Lantern (FREE green lantern ring)
Molecule Man
Scott Porter (FREE sinestro ring)
Scott Porter
Tarot Cards:
-High Priestess (reroll any 1 D6)
-The Tower (all misses are crit misses)
-Nine of Pentacles (sidestep 3 instead of 2)
-Three of Cups (defend is printed +1)
-Three of Swords (pulse wave 2 damage instead of 1)
-Queen of Wands (+1 to a single D6 roll)
Maps:
-Wakanda 2×2
-Blitzkreig
-WWE Backstage Arena
Sideline:
-Destroyer prime
-Eddie Gerraro
-Dark Phoenix
-King Killmonger
-Ghost Goblin
-Iron Inquisitor
Team breakdown: I have been playing defensive shell type teams for awhile and I figured with Scott Porter being so rampant, most teams have attack values of 13+ with all the bonuses and perplexes. So, I figured defense with Demon in Armor severely limits the current meta. The last several defensive teams I have used haven’t been themed, so having theme gives me a few bonuses: I can have Scott Porter (black shirt) community token reroll the King Killmonger rollout, I get a good chance of winning map roll with a +4, and the scientist keyword gives me access to one of the MVPs of the team which is Molecule Man. I was the only person using this fig surprisingly. He just does so much. Giving 3 free barrier, power action barrier, and being able to flip terrain (which includes the gamma bomb). The other figures just round out defense: Sakki is the main attacker with a nice WWE fig on the sideline to give him access to WWE powers (thanks Paul Cote for the idea), Flash and Teen Lantern for the best transport in the game, and Scott Porter (white shirt) giving yellow constructs/perplex/prob/ and pulse wave/force blast. The tarot card selection included rerolling D6, increasing D6 results, increasing defend, making all misses into crit misses, making pulse wave 2 damage instead of one, and side step 3 instead of 2. And with that, lets get into the qualifier!
Round 1: Ryder
Ryder is the youngest player in the event and had a strong team. He was using Quad Carnage Silver Surfer along with Scott Porter (white shirt). The surfers were all equipped with either possessors or mandarin rings (I didn’t write equipment down so maybe missed some). The problem with Surfers is they don’t deal with barrier very well. So, this game I made sure barrier protected me on the move up, then went with the pulse wave force blast or pulse wave sling shot combinations. Got this one 300-0. So now 1-0 just need to win one more to qualify.
Round 2: Jonathon
He was playing a non-theme team with Ghost Rider 048, prime Nighthawk, Scott Porter (black shirt), teen lantern, and Sakki. He was very defensive, but mine was more mobile. I was able to move up and outwit Nighthawk’s special SC (he was the only fig not next to Ghost Rider), and snipe with Sakki making him delete the Time Platform. At this point, I was able to start picking figures away and eventually got the Nighthawk prime. I can’t remember what all was killed, but the end score was 195-80. With this win, I was 2-0 and automatically in for Saturday, so I could rest easy and relax the next two games.
Round 3: Raybikem (AKA Ray)
He was using a black lantern team with Nekkron and grand prize Apoc/Genesis, Mister Sinister equipped with Black Hand (giving Apoc the black lantern keyword), Sakki, and both Scott Porters. This team is built to bring that Apoc of 35 points up to 295 due to Nekkron’s ability to heal black lanterns. His first turn he healed up, I moved up and set up defensively, and waited for the Apoc onslaught. He came in and one shot Molecule Man with Apoc after separating him from the squad using elevated carried by Sakki and picking super strength. After this, I ran over and started picking away at his team. Apoc kept missing after that thanks to Killmonger. I got this game 65-30. This put me at 3-0.
Round 4: Shawn
He was using a similar type of team with different figures: Deathstroke, Genesis, Nekkron, Giganta prime, both Scott Porters, death metal Wonder Woman, and Fulcum Abominus. The first turn was similar with him healing and my moving up and playing defensive. I then used Sakki to shoot at Fulcum which he healed with Wonder Woman. Then I moved over and was aggressive knowing it didn’t matter if I lost. He was able to get around Killmonger with pulse wave (the odds were crazy…he was showing the rerolling D6 card and I was showing the increase D6 roll). I missed the 3-6 three different times. After this, he just picked apart the team. I lost 27-165. This made my record 3-1.
Something I had to consider: do I keep this team or swap to another? I always bring two and my second was based around double Carnage Silver Surfer. I went with my gut: defense wins games. I have way more practice with it and I definitely dig the Molecule Man. So, this was my pick! Let’s jump into the main event. To get to top 8, you needed at least 4-1 for a guarantee or 3-2 with high points.
Round 1: Patrick
He was using the bane of my existence: Merlyn. My team has so many free actions it really dampered my team. My first turn I miscounted my free actions and had to leave Black Skull in because it is a free action to swap. He took full advantage and used Ghost Rider 048 to kill Teen Lantern and then the ATA with free attacks to KO Molecule Man. After this, I went with Sakki picking pulse wave sling shot and went for his holed up defense setup and crit hit! He then went to prob with Ghost Rider since Iron Inquisitor perplexed him the time before and since Ghost Rider laughs at pulse wave, I was not able to keep the crit hit. After a couple more back and forths, I ended up barely winning 70-60. This makes my start to the day low scoring but with a 1-0 record.
Round 2: Alyssa
She typically goes with animals based around Maggots and Lockjaw, but she switched to a Kamo based team paired with Apoc/Genesis, Venom Mag, and Dario Agger. I set up as defensive as I could with barrier and she was still able to get Kamo around the back side and tried to one-shot Demon in Armor needing an 8 and missed. After this, I was able to keep perplexing Kamo’s attack down, picking away at the other figures. I used Sakki to mind control Kamo and have him attack Apoc/Genesis, which was great because it KOed the equipment. I ended up winning this game 145-80. This brought my record to 2-0.
Round 3: Brandon Weber
He was using a very similar team to Alyssa’s with Kamo, Captain America on Pegasus, Apoc/Genesis, both Scotts. His strategy was the same: come in and try to one shot Demon in Armor, which he missed. Then I took out Captain America, the Porters, and kept perplexing Kamo attack down and using mind control to have them attack themselves. I was able to wipe the team and won 300-10. This makes me 3-0 but not confident with enough points to get in, so I needed to win at least one more of the next two games.
Round 4: Raybikem (AKA Ray)
This was a rerun of the game from yesterday with him using the same black lantern healing team. I did the same initial setup except I used Molecule Man to delete his elevated terrain on my movement. He healed up Apoc and came over with a swing and missed now that Killmonger could roll out. I then ignored Apoc and went for the rest of the team. After all was said and done, I won 95-0. This makes me 4-0 so definitely in for Sunday. Time to have a relaxed game in round 5, or so I thought.
Round 5: Anthony Barragan
He was using a mystical theme with new Blackheart, Iron Inquisitor, both Scott Porters, Kazaar, three Wendigos, and a Trisentinel. One thing I should have looked at: Blackheart special move is not a power move, it is a free. So, I went defensive, moved up a bit, and kept in Iron Inquisitor for another perplex/prob for Wendigos onslaught. OOPS. I then got pulse wave force blasted into oblivion, with Wendigo following up with like 234598 attacks. He was able to KO Flash, Molecule Man, and damage everyone else. My next turn I knew if I didn’t try to get the back line colossals, I would regret it. So, I picked pulse wave precision strike with Sakki, used both Iron Inquisitor and Scott Porter (black shirt) to TK him out, side step up, and pulse waved everyone, which ended up being a crit hit! After this I just picked off his MoE chase, Blackheart, and Kazaar. It was a huge back and forth game that ended with me winning 235-195. With that, I was top seed going into top 8 on Sunday!
Top 8: Nikolas Madison
He was using the same figures as Ryder: Quad Carnage Silver Surfers with Scott Porter (white shirt). I think the items were the same for the most part, but one of the Surfers was possessed by a different entity. The initial move was the same: move up, set up barrier, and wait. He sent in Surfers after deleting some barrier with fire hydrant, but Killmonger just rolled out. I used Sakki and Scott to do some pulse wave force blasting/sling shotting, and was only able to KO one of the Surfers, but as long as I was up on points it didn’t really matter. So, I won this game 63-0.
Top 4: Raybikem (AKA Ray)
This was the THIRD time playing him. My biggest down fall for the team: not having a small, open, indoor map. I did the same setup as before, put up barrier, and waited. He used his Nekkron to take a pot shot at Molecule Man since he ignores stealth and is not equipped. He was a 12 on the 20 defense and ended up killing him. I knew I had to then be as aggressive as possible since I was losing a big chunk of my defense. I went with pulse wave sling shot, used flash to carry everyone up and blow up the barrier blocking his back line, moved everyone away with the second charge, and with Sakki pulled everyone out except Nekkron. I was able to KO Minster Sinister with the follow-up free attack with sling shot. After this attack, he brought in Destroyer prime. His next turn he hit Demon in Armor and one-shot with blades, KOed Flash with Destroyer, and I was able to bring in Destroyer prime after all that. Time was actually called at the start of his turn and since he went first, we both got two full turns. After his was done, he had brought in Scrappy and I needed to KO both Scotts and Scrappy to win the game by 10 points. I did not have leadership because Flash was gone. Sakki was double tokened and he had outwitted willpower. I was able to map out my plan to accomplish this: it required Scott Porter to pulse wave force blast KOing Scrappy, hitting Scott and Sakki poisoning, bringing in Ghost Goblin for poison and destroying barrier, carrying Teen Lantern, shooting other Scott to stop, and making a green boot to free knock back for the KO. What I SHOULD have done was use Teen Lantern to free barrier in front of Apoc to not pulse wave with Scott, which I did not. He was on his top click, so Scott pulse wave to stop and after that action resolved, the yellow ring was KOed. This meant that after I KOed what I needed, the game would be tied. There was nothing I could do. The points from him bringing in War Machine from the sideline were not scored because I only hit him with pulse wave, I did not have another action to destroy his Scott Porter’s yellow ring, and I only had 3 costed actions that round. So we went to a roll off and he rolled the nuts with an 11 and I rolled a 5.
Top 2 were Ray and Anthony with Anthony taking the win
Overall, it was a really great experience and I would go back for more for sure. I will definitely dress warm and bring layers. I was literally the only person there with shorts and not even a thick jacket just thin-ish hoodies. Great venue. Jeff Bullard did a solid job with the event. Thanks Majestix for running the event and I look forward to more! I’d say third place for my first big Majestix invitational tournament is a solid run. Thanks for reading and until next time! Congrats Anthony Barragan for a big win!
