by Randy Carter
Jakeem resurrected
I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! Mine was chalked full of fun and lots of clix. It started with a last minute decision to make an 11 hour round trip drive to play heroclix. Me and my fellow CWO teammate, Chris Cottrill, left Friday afternoon and drove 3 hours to Columbus, OH to play in Jay Major’s Black Panther & the Illuminati pre-release. I didn’t get the best of pulls in the event but Chris did manage to win it so I was happy for him. Afterwards, we drove another 3 hours to our hotel destination in La Grange, KY. After winding down from a very interesting team building talk we finally called it quits around 2:30am.
I don’t do well on less than 8 hours sleep so needless to say the next morning was a little rough. We departed for Owensboro, KY, The home venue of Daniel Powell, around 9:15am. I was torn the whole 2 hour drive to Owensboro about what team to play for the event. I had been experimenting with none other than Jakeem Thunder for the last few weeks, but with mixed results. I knew he had some potential especially against a few of the most dominate teams in the meta like Hawkeye & Vulture. However, with not having any real luck with Jakeem I had some doubt he still could compete in the current meta.
After arriving at Big Bang Comics I got my build sheet and sat down to fill it out. Decision time! I pulled out all my Giant Girls and started putting together a team that I thought could compete in a Regional event. After just a few minutes though my heart just wasn’t in it and I said to myself you need to play Jakeem one last time and prove one way or the other if your idea was a good one or one that needs to locked away in the annals of bad team builds.
So Jakeem it was! My exact team build was Jakeem, Lockjaw, Surtur, Tri-sentinel, Exospex (JT), wanted poster Wolverine, Harley Quinn ID, Student ID’s Jean Grey & Cyclops. I didn’t expect to win map but just in case I chose ROC Underground and Hedge Maze maps. I also used 2 Heavy objects to provide the possibility of Stealth for Jakeem. The whole concept for the team is very predictable but effective. Jakeem chooses Mastermind and then Masterminds any damage off to Lockjaw. Yes, I know he can be Outwitted. However, by equipping Exospex and choosing Stealth I avoided being Outwitted the entire event.
(Click to Buy!)
140 Jakeem Thunder
75 Lockjaw
25 Surtur
30 Tri-Sentinel
12 Exospex
5 Wolverine ID (Bounty)
5 Harley Quinn ID
3 Jean Grey ID (Student)
3 Cyclops ID (Student)
Sideline:
XXS053 Wolverine
HQGG049 Harley Quinn
XXS065 Jean Grey
XXS063 Cyclops
XXS052 Cyclops
Maps: ROC Underground, Hedge Maze
ROUND 1: JAKEEM VS. WOLVERINES
After spending 8 hours in a car with a teammate the last thing you want to do is have to face that teammate in round 1. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Chris and I had to play each other. His team consisted of 4-50pt Wolverines, 2-Lila Cheney’s, 2-Mudmen, Boxing Ring & rest in ID cards. It’s a team I really was worried about due to the sheer number of attacks. In addition, Chris pilots the team great and has had great success, including a Top 8 finish at ROC Cup last year. He drew first blood and KO’d my Surtur & Tri-sentinel. However, I managed to recover and goad him into fisticuffs that, believe it or not, favored Jakeem. By Choosing Flurry & Mastermind with Jakeem and Impervious with Lockjaw I was able to stave off his onslaught of attacks and slowly but surely KO 2 Wolverines and Lila and ultimately win the match.
ROUND 2: JAKEEM VS. BLACK PANTHER
In round 2 I faced Zach Frazier from Clixed Off and his 150pt Black Panther team that included Lockjaw & Daredevil. I was definitely a little nervous and unsure how Jakeem would fair against the Wakandan King. It was a tight game with some tense moments but the difference was Jakeem’s ability to choose Flurry & Battle Fury when BP had 2 action tokens and thus limiting his roll outs. When BP had 0 or 1 action tokens I obviously kept choosing Mastermind to protect Jakeem. Jakeem KO’s Black Panther and wins round 2.
ROUND 3: JAKEEM VS BLACK PANTHER:
I took my only loss of the event during this round. I had to play Jason Alvey and his full 250pt Black Panther. I won map for the first and only time of the day and chose the ROC Underground. My thinking was it would help protect my Surtur & Tri-Sentinel and also Tri-Sentinel’s ability to do penetrating damage after destroying blocking could be pivotal. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a bad choice and hampered my ability to use range combat against BP and after killing my two colossals he played keep away the rest of the match and won.
ROUND 4: JAKEEM VS. UNIMIND:
This was another example of me not being sure how Jakeem would handle my opponent. It was the dreaded Full point Uni-Mind! I had faced a full Uni in our Regional in Lexington, KY just a few weeks earlier and barely lost. That gave me some confidence that I could possibly win but some things had to go right for that to happen and they did. I was able to base Uni and use the same tactic I did earlier while facing 150pt Black Panther; Flurry & Battle Fury. It made all the difference and I ultimately popped Uni and killed his Eternals. I did have some good dice rolls too, hitting a high defense, which always helps. I’m now 3-1 in a 4-Round Swiss event and make the cut for Top 4.
ROUND 1 TOP 4 CUT: JAKEEM VS. BLACK PANTHER (AGAIN LOL)
This was a rematch from earlier between me and Zach Frazier and his 150 Black Panther team. I hate rematches in which I won the earlier game because it seems I usually loose the second time around. However, lady luck was on my side and I managed KO Black Panther again and squeak out a hard fought game against a great player and a very good team. I didn’t make it easy on myself though! After Black Panther missed a HSS attack on Surtur I chose Perplex with both Jakeem and Lockjaw. Perplexed up Surtur’s damage to a 5 and retaliated. I missed, but wait I Prob that with Jakeem to save the day. Crit Miss…… 4-1 overall now.
CHAMPIONSHIP: JAKEEM VS. HAWKEYE
In the championship match I had to face one of the best players in heroclix and also one of the nicest people you will ever meet, Sam Powell. As most of you know she has been playing the Hawkeye team for awhile and having great success. It was the usual Hawkeye build so I won’t bore you with the details. However, this is exactly why I brought back Jakeem and built the team in the first place. I won’t lie I was actually a little giddy that I got to face a Hawkeye team this late in the event. I would finally get to prove whether playing Jakeem was really worth it. The recent ruling on the WIN concerning Hawkeye vs. Mastermind also gave me lots of confidence. Sam fired out first doing what Hawkeye does. However, I did manage to make her burn through a few theme Probs which was very helpful later. On my turn I blasted Hawkeye with Jakeem for 4-damage. I then called in Harley Quinn with Lockjaw for a follow up EE that finished off Hawkeye and also a Giant Girl.
Sam brought in some Giant Girls next turn for colossal retaliation but bad dice rolls and the Mastermind combo kept Jakeem safe. On my next turn I started picking off Giant Girls and expanding my lead. She was then forced to bring Starfox into the fray but an untimely Crit Miss during a HSS attack stalled her efforts (No theme probs by this point in the match). She did manage to get Lockjaw down to 1 token left but I landed on click #6 and was able to re-gain a token which ultimately kept Lockjaw alive. In the end the Mastermind combo worked and Jakeem proved he was worthy for a second go around in competitive play.
After the event was over Chris and I drove another 3 hours back home to Lexington, KY arriving at around 10:30pm. The 11-hour road trip was complete. My mind and body was exhausted and I slept like a baby. However, being the heroclix junky I am I did manage to sneak in another Pre-Release event the next day at the Rusty Scabbard, my home venue. We always do battle royales for Pre-Release and similar events. To my astonishment I pulled the Ultra Chase Thanos! Jackpot!! However, we don’t live in a fairy tale and wouldn’t you know it I end up losing the BR and thus not getting to keep Thanos. I’m still crying. All in all a great clix weekend though so I won’t drown myself in misery for too long. Thanks for reading and hopefully you enjoyed my version of the ROC Regional tournament breakdown.
