by Devin Owens
Last weekend I became the first Canadian to win Wizkids Canadian Nationals. It was a hectic and awesome weekend spent with my teammates from the Meta Lab/Married With Clix family, Team Pusheen, and the Four Points guys. From Thursday until the event started I slowly whittled a list of about 6 teams down to one team, an Elders of the Universe team inspired by one played by Dustin Seeders in the Roc Online Win-A-Map Last week.
(Click below to Buy!)
The Team:
-Trader With a Gem 50
w/Space Gem
-Trader With a Gem 50
w/Time Gem
The linchpins of the team, the Traders were incredible all day. One was a taxi that could make any other one of my figures (generally the other Trader) into a taxi as well by trading the Space Gem and the other was a Perplex/Prob that also served as the main method to get the Nightbringer Ring onto Gardener. They also served an important purpose in dealing with opposing Kobiks by stealing their Cube and double tokening them. They also helped manage my first opponent of the day, my teammate Emily, who plays a very scary Vulture team with both the Bloodaxe and the Octopus Arms so that opponents can’t deal with both. I was able to equip the Arms to my Collector and trade a Space Gem for the Bloodaxe so that she got none of her objects, making the match-up much better.
-Nightbringer (Mandarin Ring) 5
It’s hard to overstate how important having the extra large reach free action offence from Gardener with the Nightbringer Ring was in my games. My team was certainly not a dedicated alpha strike team, but the ability to move that far and then make an attack was extremely important for allowing the team to deal with retaliators and other threats it would otherwise have had difficulty beating.
I chose to play Collector primarily to deal with important opposing objects since I was worried about my Vulture match-up in his absence, but he also brought a Telekinesis and extra Perplex in a large enough body to call in Cyclops that was not put down easily due to his heavy reducers.
Mangog is such a threat if he gets to retaliate that opposing teams are forced to deal with him first. Since my team is quite aggressive in its positioning it was extremely difficult for my opponents to get around the rest of the team to kill Mangog without opening themselves up to a devastating counterattack.
Groot is the best 20 points you can spend in the game.
The Flora Colossus provided +1 to Map Roll and body blocked for my other retaliators, that’s all it really needed to do
The tank’s usefulness can not be overstated. It deals with Mr Oz, Multiple retaliators and anything else that does not have a heavy reducer, but don’t be afraid to just not use it in any particular game, it can lose you a lot more points than it gains if you’re not judicious with its use.
-Cyclops Faculty ID 5
Cyclops (Super Rare #052)
-Cyclops Student ID 3
Cyclops (Super Rare #052)
Cyclops gave my team reach, he was my main tool to deal with retaliators and opposing Traders before coming across the Map, a typical Turn 2 was calling in Scott to deal with one threat before carrying forwards, making a free attack with Gardener and either retreating or trading for a threatening opposing object.
-Rusty Student ID 3
Rusty (Fast Forces #005)
Rusty was the only ID that could be called in by the non-Collector Elders, I only brought the main set Rusty, but Poison in relevant enough in the environment that dropping a Troubalert to have the option of the Fast Forces one probably would have been a better idea.
-Wolverine Faculty ID 5
Wolverine (Super Rare #053)
I chose the Wolverine ID because one click of healing is always relevant, but I used it extremely rarely and I think that a Professor X would have been a better choice for a backup Outwit/way to throw the Tank or to deal with multiple retaliators with Brood X.
3 Troubalerts:
I never brought these in, I crit missed twice, but both were in games where it didn’t make sense to bring them in
299
Swiss
Round One – Emily – Vulture/Unseen/Lockjaw/3xBig Tony/Groot/Octopus Arms/Bloodaxe – Map W/Metal Arena:
I traveled to Montreal for Canadian Nationals and my first round was of course against my most frequent playtesting opponent and teammate Emily. Most of the reason that Collector is on this team is to help deal with teams like Vulture that rely fairly heavily on equipment. I stole her Arms turn one and then Traded a Space Gem for the Bloodaxe on turn two and killed her Groot with a free attack from Gardener with the Nightbringer. She knocked my Gardener to last click, but without either of the objects was unable to finish him off, I retaliated with Groot and hit Vulture down two, killed two Big Tonys with the Walking Wood and finished off the other one with a free attack from Gardener with the Bloodaxe after he regenerated, also allowing him to heal further with Steal Energy. It took me a number of turns after that to manage to finish off Vulture as well, but she ended up killing only my Mangog and Groot.
W-126/53
Round 2 – Abdul – Unseen/Starfox/Groot/Mangog/Infinity/Mjolnir – Map W/Metal Arena
My second round was against last year’s U.S. Nationals finalist Abdul. For the second round in a row I moved out to steal an object, Mjolnir this time, with Collector and then retreated to a safe distance. He moved around the top elevation to try to get at my colossals and I killed his Mangog with a Cyclops call-in. He tanked my Flora/Groot with Starfox and called in Cyclops to try to finish off Mangog as well, but missed and was unable to poof him. I retaliated and killed Cyclops and then Sidestepped and killed Infinity as well. He killed my Mangog with his Groot, I killed his Groot and his Tank and we positioned for a few turns before the game ended.
W 228-68
Round 3 – Jason H – Kobik/Trader/Collector/Mister Oz/Groot – Map W/Metal Arena:
My Third round was against another American player and was my first Kobik/Trader match of the day. I moved up, my Collector got hit by a Cyclops and I tanked his Groot and Mister Oz. He killed my Collector by Mind Controlling my Gardener and I called out a Rusty to hit his Trader before carrying across the map and clearing the rest of my characters. He had to clear his Kobik and had no call-ins that his other characters could use so he had to just position and clear. I killed his Trader with a free Gardener attack, stole his Kobik’s blue Cube and double token’d her. He couldn’t see with Collector and I was able to give him Battle Fury with Gardener attacks until I killed him while keeping his Kobik double token’d and eventually finishing her off as well.
W – 300/68
Round 4 – Mike White – Kobik/Unseen/Mr Oz/Groot/Mangog/Beetle Pod – Map W/Underground Cavern
My Fourth Round opponent was my friend and teammate Mike White for the first time in the day. Winning Map Roll is extremely important in the match-up, if the reducers of my Elders can be consistently Outwitted like they would be on an open map the match-up is much more difficult. I positioned so that I could make a call in to take out a retaliator, he equipped his objects. I called in Cyclops and tanked his whole team except Mangog, he moved up and hit Collector with a Jean Grey. I moved up and stole the blue Cube and double token’d his Kobik, dealing one penetrating damage to take her to the first Energy Shield click. Mangog retaliated needing 8s and missed before carrying Kobik away. I killed Kobik with a free attack from Gardener and killed Mangog with a normal attack from Gardener. He killed my Tank and I finished off his Unseen the next turn.
W – 299/55
Round 5 – Scott Cramton – Astronomer/Astronomer/Mister Oz/Groot/Vulture/Octopus Arms – Map W/Underground Cavern:
My Fifth round opponent was THEE Scott Cramton, playing one of my favorite teams at the event. I won map and had an extremely difficult decision to make, his team thrives on open maps due to the Astronomers, but it doesn’t hate closed maps either since that prevents opponents from stealing Vulture’s Octopus Arms. In the end it came down to deciding that the two Astronomers were more threatening to my team than the one Vulture. I moved up a long way on turn one, he called in Harley to double token my team, but only dealt damage to the Tank due to the Invulnerable on the majority of my team. He left his Vulture just within range of the free hindering marker from Gardener and I Perplexed his Damage up to 6 to knock Vulture to last click and then retaliated with Mangog, failing to do damage but making an effective wall between my team and his. He killed Mangog and Gardener with a Groot retaliation and an attack from Astronomer and I called in Cyclops to finish off his Vulture and killed his Groot with a retaliation from my own before moving forwards and trading the Space Gem for the Power Gem. He Tanked my team with Mister Oz to disrupt me, deal damage to the Trader who was on Toughness and killed my Groot with a Walking Wood. Then we traded attacks back and forth, he managed to finish off one Trader before the other Trader and Collector with the benefit of his Power Gem managed to kill the rest of his team.
W – 300/173
Top 8
With the win over Scott I was the one seed and only undefeated going into the cut. There were only 3 Canadians in the cut this year, Patricia Lam, Mike White and I, which is one down from last year, but we were still confident that one of us could win and finally bring an end to the American dominance of Canadian Nationals.
Top 8 – John Hafford – Kobik/Sheriff Strange/I.S.A.A.C/Mister Oz/Tri-Sentinel – Map L/Bifrost:
My Top 8 opponent was John Hafford from Maine. He does a little bit of setup in his first turn, I move up so that I can make an attack the next turn, he throws Kobik out to call in Jean to try to get rid of Mangog, she misses all of her attempts. I retaliate with Mangog and kill both Jean and Kobik putting me up by a lot of points very quickly. The next turn he retaliated with the Tri-Sentinel and pings my team and then crits with a double target attack to take out my Groot and Mangog. I kill the Tri-Sentinel with a free attack, throwing the cube at him with a Walking Wood first to score more points. The rest of the game is trying to clean up the rest of his team since he had very little move and attack and no call-ins usable by the rest of them. I kill Mister Oz and Sheriff Strange after eventually getting through super senses and he gets my Collector before time is called.
W – 300/118
Top 4 – Patricia Lam – Kobik/Trader/Unseen/Groot/Flora/Flora/Suited Henchman/Spin – Map L/Metal Arena:
All of the Canadians who made Top 8 also got through into the Top 4 so at this point there’s at least one in the Finals. I lose map in one of my scariest match-ups, an open map makes it very hard for me to hang back and the Kobik/Unseen combination makes it hard for my Elders to survive being aggressive either. I end up deciding that I have to try to be aggressive so I run across the map and kill her Groot with a free attack from Gardener. She kills my Gardener with a Wolverine call-in. I steal her Kobik’s cube and double token her and then kill her Trader with a Rusty call-in. She uses a Jean Grey call-in to kill one of my Traders, I’m down by about 30 points with very little way to kill anything and catch up. I retaliate on her Jean with Mangog, needing an 8 to hit Kobik after Perplexing her Defense down with both Collector and Trader. She misses her Shape Change, I roll an 8, prob, 8, prob, and I crit, instantly killing her Kobik and Unseen and miraculously winning me the game.
W – 300/98
Finals – Mike White – Kobik/Unseen/Mister Oz/Groot/Mangog/Beetle Pod – Map W/Underground Cavern:
The finals was a rematch against my friend Mike, we were both extremely happy since this meant that we finally had a Canadian Canadian National Champion. I won map and chose Underground Cavern which was extremely important in the match-up. Given that he had lost to his entire team being double token’d in our Round 4 game he chose the orange Cube this time. I moved up, he equipped and moved his Groot so that I couldn’t Tank off of him. I called in Cyclops and killed Mangog and then carried forward and killed Groot with the free attack from Gardener. He called in Jean and brought my Collector down 3, I Sidestepped forward and tried to kill Mister Oz with a free attack from Gardener, but missed. He missed with a Cyclops call-in and moved Unseen to threaten my Retaliators. I moved over and stole Kobik’s Orange Cube and killed Mister Oz with a free attack from Gardener. He had to clear and I chose Battle Fury off of the orange Cube after he forced me not to choose Poison, hit Kobik to her Energy Shield click and then finished her off with a free attack from Gardener. He used his remaining call-ins to kill Groot and I slowly moved over and killed his Unseen to finish the game.
W – 300/23
And with that I was the new Canadian National Champion. Thanks to Dustin Seeders for the team inspiration, Scott Cramton for the playtesting game and to my teammates, especially Mike White for some great games.
