by Sam Powell
Hello everyone, this is Sam Powell coming from Evansville, IN with my tournament report from the Super Qualifier at Frontline Games in Clarksville, TN. The field of 30 players was filled with many top tier heroclix players from around the Midwest region. I was lucky enough to bring home the win, but it was not an easy day. Before going into details about my matches from the day, I would like to take a minute to outline my team. For those that are unaware of what I played, here it is:
The Team
170 Krang
65 Bat-Mite
30 Baxter Stockman
40 Juston Seyfert
20 Night Nurse
35 Overdrive
40 Perry White
2 Ultra Heavy; 1 Light Object
Maps: Arcades Arena, Mount Olympus, Wiz Kids Office
This team is an alpha strike team that allows both safety and mobility for Krang. Krang was my only attacker, so I had all my eggs in one basket. Like any other Krang/robot team with Juston Seyfert, Juston’s ability to have his “sentinel” move and make a free attack is a huge advantage to take down many different teams. Juston allows for a full map alpha strike to happen turn one if you choose to. Bat-Mite was vital to my team because he is able to recall Krang back to my other pieces, which were all support for Krang. Baxter Stockman and Night Nurse provided the healing factor for Krang. The free heal from Baxter Stockman was vital for many of my games. If I wasn’t able to heal Krang with Baxter’s free heal, I would use his ability to increase Krang’s attack and speed by one. This allowed Krang to easily have a 13 movement with at 14 attack during my first alpha strike if I went colossal.
As for Overdrive and Perry White, they had very different roles on my team. Overdrive provided mobility. Overdrive was able to carry all of Krang’s support to wherever he was. The ability to carry up to 4 pieces 11 squares away was a huge advantage when dealing with close combat pieces and the Shredders. Perry White was a piece I decided to play for many different reasons. For those not familiar with Perry White, you should definitely look him up. I believe he is a solid 40 point piece that added so much to my team. He provides options of barrier and a special perplex power, but he real reason I like Perry White on this team is his special trait he has. Basically, I choose a character 150 points or less at the beginning of the game and that chosen character cannot ignore pushing damage. Now the only disadvantage to this is that if the chosen character is 100 points or more, and they chose to take the pushing damage, Perry White would take damage.
Round 1 – Evan Horad
80 Doctor Octopus
50 Kingpin
35 Overdrive
65 Stilt-man
30 Isaac Pog
50 Mysterio
70 Chameleon
Original Sinister Six TA
Immediately seeing that I had to play Evan in round one, I knew it was going to be a fun game. Evan is a great player and he is always coming up with some team that no one ever thinks about. Evan won the map roll and took me to an indoor/outdoor map with a lot of walls to deal with. I knew I was going to have to deal with a colossal retaliating Stilt-man throughout the game, which was not fun. I killed his Doc. Octopus during turn one and then held on for dear life. He brought over Stilt-man and decimated all of Krang’s support. I was able to move Krang away which allowed me to get a single target pulse wave off to take out the pesky Stilt-man. Overall, it was a fun and intense match that came down to two dice rolls that sealed me the victory.
Round 2 – Howard Brock
80 Venompool
140 Jakeem Thunder
70 Merc w/ the Mouth Deadpool
50 Jean Grey
35 Green Lantern
It’s always a pleasure to play against the King of ROC himself. Howard is a great player and as well a wonderful competitor. I won map and took him to Arcades Arena. I was able to alpha strike first and take out his Jean Grey and Venompool. Since I took out his component to alpha strike my team, I was able regroup and work on taking out his other pieces as he moved across the map. I was unable to take out Jakeem but ended up with the win.
Round 3- David Gauselman
140 Jakeem Thunder
150 Doctor Strange
35 Green Lantern x 3
Upon learning I had to play David in the third round, I knew this was not going to be fun. It’s never fun to play a teammate in such a big tourney. I knew either way I was going to be happy with the outcome because a Bluegrass Guardian was coming out victorious. It was my first ever match on the live stream so my nerves were high. David won map and took me to an indoor multi-level map. His team was a tough team to practice for because if he rolls hot with the D20, my game was done. I was able to alpha strike and take down a barrier with Juston’s attack and then take out a Green Lantern to get the lead. I knew I needed to work on taking out the Doctor Strange as soon as I could. David then rolled what I was most worried about on the D20. Energy Dampeners! This was not fun for my team because at this moment all I could do was move to get them off. I was lucky enough that David decided to stay back in the starting corner and not push the pace. Once I was able to recompose from having to move around, I was able to take down Doctor Strange with a couple precision strike attacks. David moved up with Jakeem and a couple turns later he took a crucial shot that if he was to hit, Krang was going to die. David missed both rolls, so I was able to move away and shortly after that time was called. Again I did not kill the Jakeem but came out with the win.
Round 4 – Dustin Horad
75 Deadpool (Shifting Focus)
40 HaHa Joker
45 Bizarro Joker
70 Stilt-man
35 Overdrive
100 Devil Dino
15 Betty Brant
Hulkbuster Torso & Weapon Drop
Going into round 4 I knew I was in for a hard match up. Dustin is such a great player and his way of creating teams is from some other world. I already faced his brother with a Stilt-man so I knew this time I was not going to get as lucky as I did before. Dustin’s use of HaHa Joker and Bizarro Joker made this match really hard. I was able to kill off Deadpool in my first turn, but I knew what was coming next….Stilt-man! I missed my Bat-Mite roll which allowed Dustin to place Krang where he needed him for the most destruction. After that roll, I was basically a sitting duck and Dustin’s dice were hot. It did not take long for Dustin to dismantle my Krang which then in turn took out my whole team. His team was very good and was a hard counter to what I was playing. I took my first and only loss of the day 75-400.
Round 5- Dustin Craven
60 Bat-Knight x 2
120 Nick Fury x 2
40 Juston Seyfert
So now it is the last round of Swiss. I knew going in, I had to win or at least score a lot of points. I won map and knew that I had to take him to the Wiz Kids office. Now I knew going in that this map was going to hinder my movement and alpha strike, but I did not want to give his Nick Fury’s a wide open map. This match didn’t really go Dustin’s way. I was able to kill a Bat-Knight and Juston turn one. He had to take a turn to move his Nicks over so then I was able to take them out one at a time. Dustin’s dice were not his friend because at one time he had the chance to kill Krang but missed. I was able to capitalize on the placement of barriers and walls to single target pulse wave his last Nick Fury to death. I won the match 400-0.
Top 8 – Matt Greichunos (aka Matti Spice )
170 KC Green Lantern
140 Jakeem Thunder
35 Green Lantern x2
6 Symbiote
8 Weapon Drop
Going into Top 8 as the 5th seed, I was forced to play the 4th seed which was Matt. I knew going in that this was going to be a tough match, because Matt is such a high caliber player in the heroclix community. He won map and he took me to the Wiz-Kids office. That was such a good call because it does limit my ability to alpha strike and he was able to capitalize on using the walls to help place his barriers. We went back and forth both missing crucial dice rolls throughout the match. In the end I was able to move Krang and Juston across the map away from Jakeem. I was able to heal up my Krang with Juston’s support power which allowed me to get Krang up to top dial. So now it’s near the end of the match and it is down to Krang vs Jakeem. Matt and I went back and forth taking jabs at the other character. I had hit his Jakeem to his last click and he severely wounded Krang. Matt decided to take one last shot on Krang and push his Jakeem to death. He chose close combat expert to increase his attack and damage by one. Matt’s dice failed him on that roll and I was able to outlast a Jakeem one more time. This was such an intense but fun match.
Top 4- Marshall Lawing
170 Krang
30 Baxter Stockman x 2
65 Bat-Mite
40 Juston Seyfert
35 Overdrive
30 KC Green Lantern
Going into my first Top 4 match I knew this was going to come down to whoever won the map roll. We tied on the first roll and I won the reroll. So with Krang vs Krang I wanted to take him to Mount Olympus to give me the opportunity to kill two pieces in the first turn. I passed my first turn to make sure I secured my first turn immunity. On the second turn I moved over and killed his Juston and a Baxter Stockman. Marshall knew he had one shot to take a good hit on my Krang. He moved his Bat-Mite over to give Krang the range to make an attack, but he missed his recall which allowed me to place his Krang outside range to my Krang. Marshall knew at that moment that was game and I came out victorious to move on to my first Final 2 match. Marshall is such a great competitor and the way he plays Mr. Mxyzptlk amazes me.
Final Match – Kyle Cooney
55 Renet Tilley
65 Nighthawk
25 Nightwing
90 Mini Shredder
90 Claw Shredder
90 Clone Shredder
In my first ever final match I had to face not only a teammate but also a great friend. I knew I was going to be happy with whatever happens in this match because no matter what Bluegrass Guardians were taking the top two spots home. Kyle and I practiced so many nights leading up to this event. We even joked about how we were going to face off in the finals. I knew going into this match it was going to be a difficult one for multiple reasons. First, he had nighthawk on his side, which hampered my Krang to an extent. I knew I had to be very mobile during this game because of the Shredders and the potential to produce a lot of damage with no dice rolling. I won the map roll and decided to take him to arcades arena to allow maximum area for movement. Since we had practiced so many times he knew my tricks and I knew his. I knew my first move was to take out Nighthawk. I had to leave Baxter and Juston behind to die after getting across the map, because that was going to give me a couple turns to heal up my Krang away from his Shredders. After many turns moving around the map outside the reach of shredders they finally caught up to me. Kyle and I exchanged some dice rolls and we were left on my side of the map in my starting area. Krang is wounded and I only have Bat-Mite, Night Nurse and Overdrive left to help Krang. He has based me with Mini Shredder, who has plasticity, so I know I need to move Krang away for me to even have a chance of surviving. Time was called during my turn so I knew that Kyle was going to have a whole turn to kill Krang if I did not move him away. I did not want to go colossal due to that possibly killing my Krang after taking two damage. So I chose to stay normal size, and roll break away with the charged up vehicle. I knew deep down that if I hit it, I was going to win, but it was by far the most intense moment in any heroclix match I have ever had. I said a quick prayer and rolled the dice. I rolled a 6 which allowed me to pick up Krang and move him 11 squares out of reach of both Mini Shredder and Claw Shredder. Kyle took his last turn to clean up Night Nurse and Bat-Mite but knew that there was no way he was going to be able to reach and kill my Krang. Again, Kyle is a teammate of mine and I would have been just as happy for him if the dice went his way. It was pretty cool to play my first final match with such a great guy.
Overall, the day was a success and the whole event was ran very well. Frontline Games did an awesome job hosting the event and I have to give a shout out to Lane Miller for being a very knowledgeable and responsive judge. To my teammates/friends of the Bluegrass Guardians, I thank all of you for helping me practice and to try new teams all the time. You guys have taught me so much this past year. To my wonderful husband Daniel Powell, without your drive and persistence I would not be the player I am today. Sincerely Thank YOU!
I know now that practice really does pay off. Although I have not been playing this game that long, I am honored to be the first female to win a U.S. ROC Super Qualifier.
-Samantha Powell
