by Patrick Yapjoco
Alex Rosado
As we enter the hall on Saturday morning, the nerves are starting to get to me just a little. I am calmed a bit when I realize I’m playing with two of the best players I know, Kevin and Clay. We register and wait. I am now more relaxed as more people come by and chat with us. Again, the interaction with all of these great people (and players) is what always keeps me relaxed and happy. The KO’lorado Kings (from Denver with a slick team name, by the way) are sitting in our table in their matching blue and orange shirts… hmm, is it a coincidence that they’re wearing the same colors as the Denver Broncos? I think not. They are definitely one of the favorites as Sealed extraordinaire Alex Rosado is leading the charge there.
We get our boosters (it’s 6 Uncanny X-Men boosters again) and we pull decently, but not like the day before. We do get Uncommon Juggernaut again as well as another SR Iceman, and a whole mess of X-Men and Marauders. I immediately pull all of the X-Men pieces over my side and I decide on a similar team:
C Cyclops 50
C Storm 50
C Nightcrawler 50
C Emma Frost 80
Prime Kitty Pryde 65
The team is almost identical to my first team, with the Emma and Kitty taking the place of Sabretooth and Wild Child from the previous team. It looks a little more potent as I have a crazy Perplex and another character that can be very disruptive in Kitty Pryde. Clay decides to go with a R Iceman and SR Iceman and Professor X for a control team and Kevin opts for a Juggernaut-based team. We have decent teams, and I think I can pull off another undefeated run barring any crazy teams. It’s 2 rounds of Swiss with a cut to Top 8, so we basically cannot lose a round. Pairings go up and we are matched up with a family of 3 (father and his two sons).
Round 1
R Sabretooth 90
Prime Kitty Pryde 65
C Emma Frost 80
C Colossus 50
This is almost a mirror match. I win the map and we just play on the Arcade’s Arena that’s already on the table. We do the same thing first; we just move up our teams. After some clearing on both sides, I just Sidestep Cyclops up and move Storm, carrying Nightrawler, closer towards him in the middle of the map. He makes a mad dash for me moving as close as he can to me, moving his Sabretooth to base Storm, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler. He Perplexes up the entire team’s defense.
I Perplex up Kitty Pryde’s Attack +2 with Storm and Emma and go for his team with her. I roll an 8 and the entire team is essentially Incapacitated. They all push and take damage. I fail a Sidestep with Cyclops, but I send Nightcrawler after Colossus, hitting him for another 1. After he clears and Perplexes up their Defenses, I go after Sabretooth. Cyclops is able to Sidestep and blast Sabretooth for 3-damage, and I push Kitty to try and hit his team again. She hits again, but Emma rolls her Super Senses.
On his turn, he tries to use Sabretooth’s Sidestep power, but fails. He tries to breakaway, but fails and pushes. He pushes Kitty Pryde to X-heal Colossus. Colossus fails his Sidestep breakaway and just tries to hit Nightcrawler’s insane defense value and misses. I take this opportunity to KO Sabretooth with Cyclops and move Emma to a more centralized position so she can see everyone. After some clearing and missed attacks on my side, he sends Kitty to run through my team. She hits and my guys all get tokens. He leaves Kitty right in the middle of Storm and Emma.
On my next turn, I push Cyclops to KO his Colossus and send Nightcrawler after Emma and hit her for 2. I end up KO’ing his Kitty with Storm and Emma, and it’s just Emma left against my team. The game ends quickly after than when my overwhelming numbers were too much for his Emma. Win (285-0).
Kevin loses his match, but Clay is able to win behind the lockdown of the Icemans and Professor X’s Outwit. The Attilan map was too much for his opponent’s Juggernaut to get around.
Round 2
SR Beast 100
Riptide 45
Pixie 75
Emma Frost 80
This team was one of the hardest teams I have had to go up against. It has 2 Perplexes, a good taxi, Pulse Wave and the super-Outwit from Beast. Oh, and it’s also very hard to deal with Pixie and Beast between the Mystics team ability and defensive values and powers from Beast. I win the map and we go on the indoor Gaming Convention premium map (we were chosen!). We do our usual moving up, but he is able to move Beast close enough to turn off Kitty Pryde’s special power and Storm’s special power.
I decide to take a pot shot at Beast since I rolled Leadership (to give Cyclops PC) and hit Beast for 1-damage. He pushes his team to base Storm and Riptide Pulse Waves everyone around (his other guys and my Emma Frost, Storm, and Kitty Pryde. I send in Nightcawler to hit his Emma Frost for 2 and just try and break away with Storm, to no avail. After Cyclops took a shot at Beast and missed, I moved Emma and Kitty Pryde away from the fray.
He takes down Cyclops pretty quickly and sends the team over to Kitty. Riptide Pulse Waves my Emma again. My Emma takes down Riptide with a Perplexed damage. Nightcrawler eventually takes down his Emma. Pixie and Beast are busy keeping my Kitty locked down but cannot get through her defense. She eventually gets a shot off at Beast for 1. He decides that Pixie should go after Emma. He moves there, then pushes the next turn to try and KO my Emma. Crit Miss(!). Emma takes her down next turn, but lives, which is important. I have Kitty keeping Beast at bay while Nightcrawler slowly makes his way back into the battle. Eventually, my three characters are too much and Beast succumbs. Win (300-100).
Kevin loses his match, but Clay is able to pull off a victory. With a 2-0 record, we go to the Top 8 and we are the 2nd seeded team, behind the KO’lorado Kings. Top 8 is announced at the Canadian team barely made it as the 8th seeded team and it was awesome seeing them rejoice. Jason, Tom, and Mike all deserve it. They do so much for the community and it’s nice to see people like them rewarded for their play and dedication. Matchups are announced and we paired up with Team Lucky Dice Games! Clay immediately laments that he has to play against Easton, so mentally, he already lost. It’s up to Kevin and I to pull through.
Top 8
UC Juggernaut 150
C Colossus 50
C Nightcrawler 50
Brood 50
The King himself, Howard Brock
I played Easton Brock in the Top 4 the day before in Nationals, now I have to face the patriarch of Team Lucky Dice, the man himself, Howard Brock. He has a pretty solid team and I am worried about Juggernaut. Luckily, I win the map (+5 to Map Roll helps) and we are once again chosen! I remember Kevin telling me that the outdoor elevated map works pretty well against Juggernaut so I immediately go for that map. My plan is to try and KO everyone but Juggernaut and only give up a figure or 2 at the most, since no two figures is more than the 3 figures I hope to KO on his end.
I move the team towards the bridge, with Emma hanging farther back and Storm carrying Kitty. Howard does the same, but moves Brood on the lower level. I go for an attack with Kitty with a Perplexed up Attack and hit Brood. Brood pushes, takes 1, and I land two squares away. I try and set up Smoke Clouds to hinder his team, but Juggernaut’s trait just moves through them, as he based Emma. I am able to get away with Cyclops and Storm and fly to the lower level, leaving Emma up top. Emma takes a beating from Juggs and Nightcrawler is in hot pursuit. Colossus makes his way across but is hindered by Storm’s smoke.
I eventually fly back up to the bridge and KO Brood with Cyclops, and use Kitty to lockdown Colossus, who is trying to cross the bridge. I use Nightcrawler tie up Colossus as well and set up Smoke Clouds to further make it difficult for Howard to maneuver his team and/or attack my guys. I get a break away and I run Emma downstairs, away from Juggs. He gets to her, along with Nightcrawler, but Emma is surprisingly resilient as I roll a Shapechange and he misses two attacks on her. This gives me enough time to KO his Colossus and set-up a hit-and-run tactic. He eventually KO’s Emma, but the round is dangerously coming close to an end. I use Storm to fly back and forth from the bridge to the ground, while I use Kitty to take pot shots at Juggernaut, trying to slow him down. I also use Nightcrawler and port from corner to corner. Eventually time runs out and I pull out a victory, without attacking Juggernaut once. Win (100-80).
Clay loses his match to the Prince of the ROC, and Kevin is able to pull a victory over Warren Ginn. We advance to the Top 4. Easton’s parting words, “even when I win, I still lose against you, Pat!” Best quote of the weekend.
Top 4 – Tyler Martin
Chase Magneto 150
R Iceman 100
C Storm 50
We meet up with the vaunted KO Kings from Colorado, and I have to play an old friend, Tyler. He is running a brutal X-Men team with Chase Magneto as the tentpole. I am worried as I don’t know how to approach this match. We are once again chosen and I stupidly choose the Gaming Conventin map… Magneto is just salivating at this point.
Tyler Martin
I do my thing and creep up. He puts the scrap metals on Magneto, busting some blocking terrain on his end. He moves up with Storm and uses Iceman’s free Barrier to basically tie up Kitty and Storm. After some clearing and Sidestepping, I take a pot shot at Iceman and hit him for 2-damage, but not before burning 2 of my Themed Team PCs. He comes right back and ties me up with Storm and Iceman, and here comes Magneto. He tries to hit, but misses my high Defenses. I KO his Iceman next turn with Nightcrawler and cripple Storm. He pushes with Magneto to put more scrap metals and dusts Cyclops and Storm just like that. I take out Storm and it is quickly Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Emma Frost against a full power Magneto.
However, he is pushed and I do manage to hit for a couple. I actually hit him to click 4 when he beefs up (stats go up!) and he starts to wail on my guys again. Between his Outwit and high damage output, Emma Frost and Nightcrawler are gone in two turns. I cannot hit the 18-Defense anymore with Kitty Pryde even though I have Exploit Weakness. Magneto makes short work of her eventually and he takes the match. Loss (150-300).
This is actually my first loss in Sealed for the weekend, and ask anyone, I don’t like Sealed that much. But it’s interesting because in Sealed at Worlds last year I was 5-1, the year before 6-2, and 6-1 this year. Maybe I’m coming around to it? I’m not willing to say that just yet, but I will say it was a TON of fun, and I really like the Team Sealed aspect as it’s more on team-building and skill than luck of the pulls as you have to construct 3 solid teams out of your 6 boosters.
Chase and Prime set!
As fate would have it, Kevin and Clay both lose their matches as well, so we go out with an 0-3 loss. Still, we finished 3rd and we were able to get a boatload of stuff, including a complete Chase/Prime set from Uncanny X-Men. It was a pleasant surprise as we thought only the Top 2 teams got that. With that done, it was break time and Kevin and I went to Double Comfort restaurant for some Chicken and Waffles! It was even better the second time. With time to kill until Worlds Singles starts, I check out the various tournaments that are running on Saturday, which also included a $2500 VS2PCG tournament. If you aren’t familiar with that game, let me tell you that Thanos is BROKEN. He was a full 1/3 of the field and ended up basically 1/3 of the Top 8, and the two decks in the finals were Thanos decks. Go figure. Anyway, I make my way over to the WK Registration booth and I get my build sheet and start writing down my team… I took a picture of my build sheet the day before so I just copy it word for word (clever, right?). I’m done in less than ten minutes and we are ready for the Main Event.
