by Dustin Seeders, Brandon Shasteen and Matt Donham
This year at Origins Game Fair Wizkids held the first ever Team U.S. National Championship. Brandon Shasteen, Matt Donham and myself had some great pulls, built three nasty teams and managed to win the thing! We are going to go over our pulls and team-building process.
First off, the pulls! After the dust had settled we were left with three super rare colossals, Living Tribunal and two Infinitys as our best pulls. We decided to build our teams around these three figures. All three have big range, Power Cosmic team ability and offer plenty of support for whoever we decided to pair with them.
The first team we put together was Infinity at 150 and rare Nova at 150. Both have Hypersonic speed and outwit protection, that combined with Infinity’s trait was a huge advantage. Maximizing reach with Nova and reducing the opposing characters ability to catch up. Nova’s Leadership was also a factor, keeping Infinity clear with a little luck. This is the only team we built that did not have access to probability control. However, it’s mobility more than made up for the lack of Prob.
The second team was also built around an Infinity, but this one at 75. We decided to use Drax at 100, Gamora at 65, Pip the Troll at 40 and a SHIELD Flying Car Terrain Dial for 5. Infinity was the focal point of the team, the trait making everyone faster, her speed power lets us slingshot Drax and Gamora out for a 9-square reach with Charge. With Pip we had a Phasing taxi and decided to use the Terrain Dial to hinder any opponents who didn’t have any improved movement. Another key to this team we Drax, Gamora and Pip’s traits and the ability to pass the gems to other characters on the team on they were KO’d.
The third team was Living Tribunal at 150, Her with Kismet sidelined at 100 and Mantis at 50. This allowed two attackers who both had Prob plus an Outwit and the biggest range in the entire set. Also, Her and Mantis both have support later in their dials to hopefully heal Living Tribunal if needed. Her having the Kismet trait forces the opponent to devote an extra action to breaking the object if they want to put Her down for good, which draws fire from the big guy. Living Tribunal is the primary offense on this team. The 13-Range, Outwit, 4-Damage and Energy Explosion if needed were a great combination for sealed play.
All three teams performed very well throughout the day. Our final record through the Swiss rounds was 8-4, which earned us the 5th seed. Top 16 was no easy task, having to get through The Land, Lucky Dice, Four Points and then Team Pwnage in the finals. We won some hard-fought matches along the way and managed to come out with a win and a ton of great prizes. We loved the format and are excited to compete again next year.
Dustin Seeders, Brandon Shasteen and Matt Donham
