by Nate White
Happy day, Apex Insiders. I’m Nate, and this is the story of how I won the Indiana state ROC championship. It is essential to me at any event at any level that I bring a team of my own design. It goes back to when I was a kid, something to do with my parents and potty training or something, I worked it all out in therapy. If I am to play in an event, it must be with one of my own teams. My favorite current team is the one I brought to this event at PJ Bolin’s metaphorical house in scenic Kokomo, Indiana:
(Cosmic Theme +5)
Grandmaster 75
Starfox 80
Unseen 65
Groot 20
Mangog 30
Jean Grey ID 5 (Marvel Girl)
Jean Grey ID 3 (Chase Jean Grey)
Cyclops ID 3 (SR Cyclops, Chase Cyclops)
Mjolnir 10
Joker’s Gas Canister 3
Iceburg Lounge map bonus 5
The team is a fairly conventional Cosmic team with a wild gimmick I call Grandgogging (because I am a dork) – 7 games out of 10 I can pull the Odinsword with Mangog top of turn 2. Usually at that point he’s killed a few things, my opponent’s jaw is a bit slack, and the odds are greatly in my favor the rest of the way. It’s a fun team to play, and the gimmick is more difficult to stop than you would think, especially if I win map. When I win map I select 2 puffins – on turn 1 a puffin moves forward (stealing a light object when possible), turn 2 (it has Willpower) it walks up to an opposing piece, I TKk Grandmaster out and force the opponent to kill the puffin, and Mangog does his thing with Starfox’s +2 to his Attack. If I lose map I use the Jean Faculty ID to give Unseen the ability to carry the consolation Emperor Penguin or a Walking Wood to a spot where I can do the trick, though it is more difficult to pull off when going second.
Match 1 – Bye
A win’s a win, though I like having a chance to score more points. Having a free round did give me a minute to look at the other teams and formulate some strategies. From the current meta I saw 2 Black Panthers (one with Lockjaw, one with Unseen), 2 full point Uni-Minds, a standard Hawkeye build, A Gotham City build, Pat Frazier’s Starro/Beta Ray Bill team, and a Mystical theme team, among other builds. Interestingly Vulture was absent, which is not something I think I’ll be able to say at many meta events for a while.
Match 2 – Andrew Krempec – Black Panther, Lockjaw, Groot, 3 Flora, Remaker Ring
Andrew, a lovely guy who had stomped me at the last Kokomo event, had a +6 Theme to my +5, but I managed to win initiative. Had I lost the map roll it would have been a very different game, but I got lucky. It’s been my experience, in having played against Black Panther or Uni-Mind a hundred thousand times, that taking away their Shape Change item is incredibly harmful to them. One less ever-present roll-out improves your chances of pulling off the win tremendously (making Iceburg Lounge one of the best map bonuses). With this in mind I called in Chase Jean Grey turn 1 to super TK Unseen out to phase to Andrew’s Remaker Ring, grab it, and hide on the other side of the terrain in the Iceburg Lounge. This forced Andrew to bring Panther to my side of the board in an attempt to get the ring back, but I equipped it on the top of turn 2, then began the assault on Panther. With Grandmaster I got him to kill a Puffin, allowing me to retaliate with Mangog. Only the second Mangog attack landed, but getting Panther off his top click is crucial. He has a short dial with no STOP clicks, and doesn’t have reducers on a few clicks, which means one big shot that gets through his roll-outs takes him out. I called in Chase Cyclops and with some help from a Troubalert Green Lantern (after a Starfox crit miss) and a critical hit, killed Panther. After that it was mostly a matter of pounding on Lockjaw with Starfox and Walking Woods, and I pulled it out.
Round 3 – Brandon Weiland – Daredevil, Alex Wilder, TMNT4 Rare Shredder +bonus, Tri-Sentinel, Raven, exospex, forgotten object
Brandon, a very cool guy whom I was playing for the first time, won map roll, and we went to the Star Trek Caverns, which is a great map, though not so much for my squad. He grabbed his equipment turn 1, and I sent Unseen up the map to try to draw him out so I could possibly still get Mangog to fire using Grandmaster, though I was almost certainly not Grandgogging that game (requires sword pull in same turn as the trick, need to maintain the integrity of term that I made up). Brandon came at me with Daredevil, but Unseen hit his roll-out. I then was able to get the GM/MG trick set up using a Walking Wood and I retaliated with Mangog. I did so in such a way as to guarantee a kill on Raven and Alex Wilder, when I might have tried to sink some damage into Shredder instead, perhaps even taking away one of his free deaths. I did so because of the board layout (this way left Mangog in a safer place) and because of the advantage I would gain by killing Alex Wilder. From this point forward, being up on points, and having Unseen’s see-through-stuff Outwit and 2-3 Probs on the table, I was able to dictate where the remaining fights took place, making sure they were statistically in my favor, and I pulled out the win.
Round 4 – Dean Ferguson – Black Panther, Unseen, 2 Skyscraper Wonder Woman, Groot, Remaker Ring, Venom Symbiote
My first match against Dean on that day saw a lot of stuff go my way, starting with the map roll. Since he had 2 objects that gave him Shape Change, my trick of using Unseen to steal one seemed less useful, so I opted instead to grab the objects with the puffins, figuring he’d have to kill a puffin to get even one back, and that if he wasn’t careful I could do my trick easily. Instead he was careful and killed a puffin with a call-in to get the Symbiote back (which is still a good trade for me). He couldn’t equip it yet, though, and, having seen my team at a previous event and knowing what I would try to do, he hid Panther in a corner with the ring, spreading the rest of his team out to minimize any potential Grandmaster shenanigans. I then Grandgogged him, pulling the sword and killing Groot and a Wonder Woman and Unseen (the trick can be really hard to stop, and Mangog’s swing is huge). The next turn he had to equip the ring, which allowed me to keep up my assault. He was badly out-action’d, and I was eventually able to chew through Panther.
Top 4 – Ethan Ferguson – Uni-Mind 275 (+Starfox, Makkari, Prime Thanos, Sersi), Remaker Ring
You might recognize my opponent’s last name – he’s Dean’s son, and he seems to make the cut at every event he attends. Full point Uni-Mind can be a real bear to face, especially if he hits his roll-outs. There are ways to mitigate that, and having won map I made sure to steal his Remaker Ring with Unseen. He then went Hypersonic to kill Unseen, ending up mid-map, allowing me to retaliate with Mangog. The big yellow guy only managed to land his second swing, then I sprinted him (with his 5 speed) toward Ethan’s starting area. I also ran in with Grandmaster to pick up the ring so Uni-Mind couldn’t just scoop it up. He opted to chase down Mangog, allowing me to equip the ring with Grandmaster, giving him only Super Senses and Impervious as potential roll-outs. From that point it was a full out assault on Uni, making as many attacks as possible, chipping away, and hoping for a good opportunity to use Cyclops. After Uni popped, Prime Thanos was a serious threat, knocking Starfox to his last click and sitting on traited Stealth to make it tough to finish him off. I was able to get him by playing ring-around-the-rosy with the island in the Iceburg Lounge, forcing him to step out of Stealth to pursue me and killing him with Grandmaster, who at 9Range, 11-ATK, 3-DMG and Prob is more than a one trick pony.
Finals Match – Dean Ferguson
Playing the same person twice at an event can be interesting. You’ve seen what they have and how they play it, and you’ve seen one possible outcome of the match-up. In our first match Dean and I had both been undefeated, and since it was the last round of Swiss, we were both going to make the cut either way the game turned out. As a consequence, we had both played a little loosely, and I figured things might go a different direction this time. And frankly, had he won map roll in either game, I wouldn’t have given myself very good odds. But I squeaked him by 1 on the roll, and the game ended up playing out very similarly to our first encounter.
It was a terrific day, and a lot of key rolls went in my favor, as I guess they usually do for whoever ends up winning. The Fergusons being the consistently-make-the-cut terrific players they are, I am not looking forward to the thumping I fully expect Dean and/or Ethan to deliver me at the next event at which we face each other.
Thanks for reading, hope to see you at an event soon!
