by Sam Powell
Hey everyone, this is Sam Powell again writing about my Super Qualifier win on May 27th in Kokomo, Indiana. I am a huge fan of the weekend before retirement, and I always try to attend some sort of tourney if available. I love seeing the old with the new for only 1 week! So for this tourney, I went in just wanting to play a fun team with both old and new pieces, and as it turned out…it was actually good. After 5 rounds of Swiss, and going into Top 8 as the 4th seed, I was able to come out victorious!
Team:
069 Captain America
TMNT 3 Shredder Clone (Ocean Resurrection)
NFAOS 059b Nighthawk
AI 008 Pip the Troll
WK Boxing Ring
Full Justice League Teleporter
SHIELD Level 7 ID Card (ADW 067 Hawkeye)
Tigra ID Card (AI 047 Tigra)
Wolverine ID Card (XXS 053 Wolverine)
Superman ID Card (WK DP17-003 Superman)
Spider-Man ID Card (WI 038 Cosmic Spider-Man)
Wonder Woman ID Card (SMWW 033 Wonder Woman)
Maps: Genosha, ROC Underground, Wonder Woman Belgium Battle
So my thought for the team going in was I wanted to have one more go with the move out/alpha strike team…which is what Sam Cap was for. I utilized Pip the Troll as my transporter for two reasons. He has phasing, so no worry about walls/jet terrains, and also his trait that when he is ko’ed he can pass his phasing/carry trait to another friendly. It was only relevant in two games in which I was able to give Shredder Clone the ability to have Phasing to be able to carry Sam Cap. The Nighthawk play was only because he was on my very first tourney team. I felt that I needed to give him one last ride before he went into the retirement box. I decided to play both old and new ID cards for this event. Two ID cards that differed from many of my opponents is that I decided to play the Tigra ID and the Wonder Woman ID. I knew with retirement just days away from the event, I had to play the Wonder Woman card one last time and I wanted to play the Tigra ID because we really haven’t had a decent Tigra to call in until now!
Round 1: Robert Amick (Sam 25- Robert 10)
Robert was playing a version of Uni-Mind/Lockjaw/Groot with some ID Cards. He won map and chose to take me to Harley’s Apartment. First turn, he moved out so on my turn I was able to move 14 squares up, call out Hawkeye and take a shot on his Groot. Missed terribly! So I had to utilize another ID card to take out the Groot. I was trying to tie up his Uni-Mind with my Shredder Clone. He was able to have some hot dice rolls and was able to get Clone to his last click. I decided to take a turn to regen clone, and then move away to my side of the map to regroup. I knew at that time in the game, I was up 20-10 and time was about half over. I knew that I needed to be more defensive at this time, due to not having the time to take out either a Uni-Mind or a Lockjaw with 6 tokens. I was able to outlast him, and came away with a Win but with very little points.
Round 2: Mark Fewell (Sam 298- Mark 75)
Mark played a very creative and interesting team that I don’t think anyone was expecting. He played a JSA theme team with Johnny Thunder, Dr. Fate, Wonder Woman, Sand, Thug, and Leech ID card. He won map and chose to take me to the Wiz Kids Office. During my first turn, I moved out, called out Hawkeye and hit his Dr. Fate, but he used the JSA trait to give Dr. Fate Super Senses and rolled a 6. He phased over with Sand and was able to use force blast as a free action, so he chose to force blast my Shredder Clone into a wall away from my team. I did not mind this because I was able to then sidestep up and ping most of his team the next few turns. We went back and forth with dice rolls, but ultimately I came away with the win.
Round 3: Chad Birdsall (Sam 300- Chad 20)
My next opponent is such a fun and entertaining guy who is someone to always have on your radar as a top contender. Chad played 2 King Sharks, Lockjaw, Tribbles, ID Cards, Blood Axe, and Thunderstrike. Of course he won map with his theme team and took me to the Water Treatment Plant. So, first turn I knew he was going to do one of two things. Either move up and equip his objects or run over to my side of map to get closer to my Nighthawk. He chose to equip his objects, so I was then able to move 14 squares out, and use Hawkeye to essentially hit the King Sharks. I knew the sharks were going to come attack me next turn, so I knew I was going to just take the damage and hope to be in a position to retaliate with a call in. He came up and missed every attack. From there I was able to call in Superman and Wolverine in the next few turns and cleaned up the sharks and Lockjaw for the win.
Round 4: Randy Carter ( Randy 185- Sam 130)
Round 4 was my only loss of the day. Randy has been making such an impact with his creative teams. He played Giant Girl at 180 pts., HaHa Joker, Groot, Sword, Full Teleporter. I won map and chose to take him to Genosha. I wanted an outdoor wide open map because he was playing a high point colossal. He moved up on first turn after I passed, so again I moved up and called out Hawkeye and missed again! He was able to retaliate with Groot and he then called in Red Tornado to move over to my Shredder Clone to free force blast him into a wall. I knew this game was going to be very close, so I chose to go after his Red Tornado to score the 95 pts. I called in Wolverine to charge flurry the Red Tornado. I critical missed my first attack, hit my second and knew I had to roll blades to even have a shot to score the points, and I rolled a 6 on blades! Randy and I went back and forth with dice rolls and I knew I had the Giant Girl almost dead. I took a shot with Nighthawk and knew if I hit I could KO the Giant Girl. I missed the 7, to which he was then able to move away and capitalize on the lack of time left. It was a very close and exciting match, that even though I lost, I had a blast!
Round 5: Jorge Masson ( Sam 300- Jorge 50)
Last round I again had to play against one of the Lex Men. Jorge played a semi alpha strike team with Overdrive, Hulk, Sam Cap, Riddler, Nighthawk, Boxing Ring and ID Cards. I won map and again went to Genoa due to both of us having an alpha strike team. His first turn, he moved up into the 3rd level of elevation and positioned perfectly so that I could not get a good Hawkeye and or any shot off with anyone else. I moved up into my Boxing Ring and waited for his strike. He moved and essentially used Hulk to single quake my Shredder Clone and put him on his last click. He then removed the Riddler box and said I could not use “Willpower”. With a token on Shredder clone and not being able to push him, I knew I was needing a perfect turn. I rolled inspiration on Clone and rolled Wolverine so I was able to free heal him a click, which then allowed me to call in Superman and take a push. I rolled break away with my Sam Cap and utilized her perplex on Superman’s attack. I flurried his Nighthawk with Superman, and knew then with my stats, it was going to be rough for Jorge. We went back and forth with some attacks, but I was able to move my Nighthawk onto elevation 2 to use his outwit on defenses which gave me a huge advantage. I was able to clean the rest of his team to secure me a spot in the Top 8!
Top 8: Vince Palm
Going into top 8 as the 4th seed, I had to play the 5th seed which was Vince. This was Vince’s FIRST ROC tourney and he made the cut. He played such a threatening but very fun and awesome team. His team was an X-Men theme team with 150 pt. Wolverine, Lila Cheney, Moira, Darwin, Cyclops and ID cards. He won map and chose to go to the ROC underground. I knew he had such great reach with his Lila so I placed my boxing ring near my side of the map. He moved up and I moved over near him to utilize Hawkeye again. I hit his Darwin, but missed against Lila Cheney. He had two leaderships and hit one, so he took the next turn to phase all the way over to my starting area surrounding my Nighthawk. I knew I was in trouble, so I took a turn to call in chase Tigra with my Nighthawk and utilized her phasing to phase/carry my Nighthawk away from the Wolverine. After some regrouping, he killed Nighthawk and I killed his support of Lila, Moira, Darwin. I hit power 3 on the teleporter and knew then I could work on the 3 stop clicks of Wolverine. I moved Pip and Sam Cap away from danger and called out SMWW 033 Wonder Woman to flurry the Wolverine and utilize the Pen. damage from Clone to kill the Wolverine in two turns. This was by far my most favorite match of the day. It was a very close match until the very end, and Vince played the team perfectly!
Top 4: Daniel Powell
It’s never fun to play against a Teammate especially if it is your husband. Daniel and I know that these times will come, we just don’t like it. Daniel played a Uni-Mind (3 Flames), Lockjaw, Supreme Intelligence, Symbiote, Groot, and ID cards. I won map and chose to play on the new buyable map from ROC, the Wonder Woman Belgium Battle. I knew I had to come full force and put the pressure on at all times, so I came out and hit his Groot and Lockjaw with my Hawkeye attack. He moved over closer to my Nighthawk and it was there that we exchanged many rounds of attacks/dice rolls. I called out Boxing Superman to flurry his Uni-Mind but missed both attacks. He then killed Clone to bring out the shark. I had Uni-Mind to his STOP click, so Daniel chose Flurry off of Starfox and had Steal Energy from Uni-Mind. He attempted to kill Shark Shredder but missed every attack roll. From there I had 3 Outwits on the board, and with a restock of Hawkeye, I was able to pop the Uni-Mind and then deal with Lockjaw. Daniel and I had practiced this match-up so many times and Daniel has always won. I just got extremely lucky with dice rolls that allowed me to move on to the Final match.
Finals: Steven Clark Jr.
The final match was pretty much a mirror match. Steven played Renet Tilley, Mini Shredder, Sam Cap, Surtur, Groot, Giant Girl, and ID cards. He won map and chose to take us to the Bank Heist map. I knew he had an alpha team and so did I, so it came down to who was going to get the first hit off. He passed first turn, so I decided to move up to have better position for my strike. He moved up, called out Tigra to flurry and critical missed twice in a row. I then wanted to take out the colossals because I did not want to deal with the crazy amount of damage they can provide to his team. I had a shot to kill his Hawkeye, but missed as to our shared ROC dice did not like either one of us. He moved over to my Nighthawk and killed him. We took a few turns to catch up to each other and we both missed some crucial attacks. Near the end of the game, all I had was Shark Shredder and he had Mini Shredder. I hit power three on the teleporter and called out my Wonder Woman to Flurry his Mini Shredder. Time was called and after many recounts of points I came out victorious 210-205.
This was my second Super Qualifier win of the season, and it was definitely one of the hardest to obtain. Thank you PJ Bolin for running such a fun event. I am so thankful to have such great Clixed Off teammates that keep making me a better player!
