by Tylor Spees
Ahoy, majestix insiders! I’m here to talk about me amazing experience last weekend at pax unplugged and how my winning team works and how it performed. First the team:
Mini Shredder 90
Giganto + Namor 50
Giganto + Namor 50
Surtur 25
Groot 20
Groot 20
Carnage 10
Carnage 10
ID Cards:
ID Cards:
Harley Quinn
Wolverine
Professor x
student Jean
student Cyclops
student Chamber
Troubalerts: Firestorm, Firestorm, Wonder Woman
Maps:
Underground caverns
Sporting arena
Wizkids office
The basic ideas of the team are pressure, tempo, and map control. I move up with the Whales and Carnages carrying Mini and the Walking Woods, spreading out enough to cover all possible angles to my more important retaliators. The plan generally is to tie up the opposing team with Plasticity and apply enough pressure through Mini call-ins, Walking Wood Flurries, and colossal Quakes that they have to deal with the front line. Letting me follow up with the devastating retaliation of Surtur. Using this strategy I would say I get a Surtur retaliation in 80%+ on my games. And people on the receiving end know that it’s very hard to come back from a Surtur attack! Another thing to note is that my front line consists mainly of things very hard to kill or 0-point pogs. The only easy points I give up are the two Carnages but these can often be a trap. With the amount of pressure/attacks, I can get off on turn two, if you spend your first turn killing ten point Carnages it could put you way behind on tempo. It could also give me the opportunity to retaliate on your team. Even if you use a non-important figure to trigger the retaliation (Robo-Penguins, pogs, Joker) the secondary effect of the retaliation could still devastate your team. All in all, the team puts incredible pressure on the opponent starting on turn two. It puts you in control of the pacing of the game right out of the gate and will make your opponent feel like they are fighting off of their back foot the entire game!
I’ll take a moment here to talk about the complete lack of support powers on the main force. This can, understandably, turn people off of the build. I, personally, feel like there is a misunderstanding in the clix community regarding dice rolls. First, I want to say that nobody rolls well and nobody rolls poorly inherently. With the amount of dice we roll in clix our rolls will all fall on a bell curve. This is important to understand when building a team. If you build a team that is always attacking with a 14-Attack you dramatically reduce your chances of missing but you also make it impossible for your team to roll well. If that team rolls all 11s in a game it is the exact same as rolling all 5s. It does make the team more consistent but it doesn’t take advantage of the fact that dice will sometime naturally roll high. Also, it should be noted that you should never expect or be counting on high dice rolls. That’s a sure way to lose a game. One of the best things about the Whales is that they never need to hit an attack to be useful. They are amazing Sidestep taxis, have Leadership, and can break through walls to help the rest of the team. Then they Quake for free as an afterthought. This is a great way to take advantage of possible high dice rolls without putting your team at a disadvantage if they miss since the whales have already been extremely useful to the team. The team also tries to offset low dice variance with the large number of attacks it makes. The more rolls made by the dice in a game the closer you get to the distribution resembling a classic bell curve. If you make two attacks in a turn its possible to roll two threes. If you make eight attack (which the team can) it becomes much less likely for all your throws to be low. Im not saying that this is the right way to build a team and the rest are wrong. Just that this is a valid alternative that will have similar results with a large enough sample size.
OK, that was a lot. Let’s move into my games that day!
Round 1 – Joe Pangrazio
Clone Shredder + Ocean Resurrection
Clone Shredder + Ocean Resurrection
Old Man Spider
Toy Soldier
Dormammu
Tri-Sentinel
Joe was playing a pretty interesting build but I felt like it didn’t have enough mobility to threaten my back line so I wasn’t too worried. He actually won map and took us to Gotham Museum. Turn one he moved up slightly and passed. I moved as far as I could and did the same. Turn two he took a shot with a Wooden Soldier but missed. My turn 2 I moved in with both Whales hoping to damage everyone and at the least kill all the pogs Toy Soldier created but I missed everyone with both Quakes. Mini calls-in Wolverine who tries to Flurry Spider-Man with the Mini Empower for the kill but again he misses both attacks. I Sidestep with Mini to kill Tri sentinel then call-in a Firestorm and use him to carry Mini into Stealth and pass. Next turn joe kills Wolverine and hits a Whale. My next turn I retaliate on Spider-Man with Surtur killing Dormammu and a few pogs. I call-in Jean Grey and kill Spider-Man and Toy Soldier. after that it’s just clean up. I score a couple ids and a trouble alert plus Shark Shredder.
Round 2 – Micah Love
Clone Shredder + Ocean Resurrection
Mini Shredder
Overdrive
Mangog
Surtur
Pocket Tank
Underground and ready for a fight the Prince of Shredder comes! Micah is a great kid and I’m glad I was able to meet him at PAX!. I knew here that I would need to deal with his colossals and so I would need to move out as much as I can to stop Overdrive from coming over. I practiced this match-up beforehand and decided that Sporting Arena would be best for the match-up. Turn one I move up as much as I can with colossals carrying Mini and the Woods, then the Wood Sidesteps carrying Mini, then Mini Sidesteps into Stealth. I also made sure to cover the map completely with Plasticity so he could not get past. He moved up as far as he could but didn’t ping to avoid retaliation. My turn I call in a Jean with Mini, Running Shot to kill Mangog and carry Mini so he can Sidestep to kill Surtur. Both Whales miss Quakes but I tie up Shredders with Plasticity and kill Overdrive. It takes a turn or two but with no retaliators I’m able to wipe up the remaining Shredders.
Round 3 – Stu Kenward
Green Arrow
Title Batgirl
HAHA Joker
Penguin
FF Penguin
Terrain dial
I won map which makes this match-up heavily in my favor. Turn one I moved halfway up. His turn her makes a Penguin and kills a Carnage. Turn two I break a wall with a Whale to get a line and then call in chase Cyclops and RCE twelve for three on his Green Arrow in the back line. Sidestep in with Mini to put him on his last click and kill a pog. Move in with the other Whale to Quake and miss but I’m able to get Walking Woods in to tie him up. His turn 2 he rolls pretty poorly. I think he put one Whale to his STOP click. Next, I call in Chamber to finish off Green Arrow then do his pseudo Charge carrying Mini to hit his Penguin for 4 with Minis Empower. I hit a Quake here and cripple his team. I’m able to clean up after this with little trouble.
Round 4 – Jay Major
Mini Shredder
Claw Shredder
Peace Machine
Overdrive
Groot
From the Prince to the King! Jay is a great player and one of the people at the tournament that I really didn’t want to face. Going into this game I had never beaten Jay. I win map and again go on Sporting Arena. I do the same opening I did against Micah. Jay turn one moves up with Peace Machine carrying a Leslie pog to Outwit both my Whales Invincible and then carries up and Sidesteps with Shredders to ping both Whales and kill both Carnages. My turn I start with a retaliation on Claw needing a 5 and missing with a three! I was able to kill his Woods and pop Overdrive, though. I then kill his Groot with a ranged attack from Surtur. I call-in a Wolverine with a Mini to kill his Peace Machine. His turn two he’s able to kill a Whale and a bunch of my Walking Woods. I’m then able to kill his Claw the next turn with a Jean call-in. He then kills my otherWwhale and a Groot (he had already killed my Surtur) so it’s my Mini and Groot vs his Mini. On my turn, I retaliate onto Mini with Groot and crit miss! My Mini has to clear. We go back and forth with IDs and pings. This was a very close game. In the end, it went to time with both of us only having a mini on board and both had been reset. He scored a Wolverine and a Firestorm extra but I scored a Wolverine and a Cyclops so I was barely able to hang on 309-299! This secured my spot as top seed heading into Top 16
Top 16 – Zach Coffee
Sam Cap
Angel
HAHA Joker
Iron Heart
Kite Man
Serpent Spider-Man
Groot
Zach told me this wasn’t the team he wanted to play but he had forgotten a piece he needed so he just threw this together last minute and still made Top 16! That shows how good of a pilot he is. I win map and we to go to the Underground Caverns. Turn one I move as far as I can. His turn he kills a carnage and tries to use his team to block any spots for Surtur to retaliate. My turn I’m trying to make a path for Surtur so his one ping damage will do a lot against this team and it would lower Sam Cap’s defense one so I could try and kill her with a Jean call-in. So I move into his team with my Whale to Quake only needing a 5 to kill a Leslie pog that would let Surtur retaliate. I roll a 9! With him not having prob the 9 stands and it completely cripples his team. Coupled with he Surtur follow up its devastating. I then call-in Jean to attack Sam Cap and then use a free TK object attack to finish her off. I finish the rest off on the next turn and eventually take out Joker. I owe this win entirely to high variance Whale Quakes!
Top 8 – Jay Major (again)
Same team…
Here we go again. Same map. Same opening turn by me. The same opening turn by him except he spread out a bit more. My turn two goes better tho. I retal on Claw and hit which also kills his Walking Woods and pops Overdrive who rolls bad and is on his last click. Surtur then kills groot again with a ranged attack. Mini calls-in Jean and she Running Shots his Claw to reset him and I place him next to a Walking Wood, Outwit his Reflexes with Jean, and Flurry him for the kill. Mini Sidesteps in to kill Overdrive. At this point, Jay only has Mini and Peace Machine. He calls-in Chamber with Mini to kill Surtur. Then with the Chamber and a TK’d object from Peace Machine STOP clicks a Whale. Mini Sidesteps for the kill. My next turn I call-in Wolverine with Mini, Sidestep with Wolverine and carry Mini who then Sidesteps to ping Peace Machine. I then retaliate on Peace using Mini’s Empower for the kill. I generate a Walking Wood who Sidestep carries Mini back to Wolverine who’s been patiently waiting. Wolverine Charges Mini carrying my own Mini for the Empower. He misses the first attack but hits the second. Now Mini is on a 17-Defense with Combat Reflexes and I have two Walking Woods to Flurry with. I need nines. If I hit two of the attacks I would have ended the game but they only managed to hit one attack. Still popping him but not quite finishing. But from this position it’s not hard to wrap the game up.
Top 4 – Matt Estbrook
Uni-Mind
4x Blue Flames
Terrain dial
Uh-oh. I crit miss on the map roll but still end up winning so that’s a good start. This isn’t a very, mechanically technical match up, but it is a great demonstration of how important decision making and weighing risk vs reward is in heroclix. Matt’s only goal in this game is to kill Surtur. If he kills anything else I will most likely be able to kill him the following turn. My goal is to protect Surtur while getting off as many attacks as I can fit in a turn. since Uni has access to HSS and can shoot out of adjacency I have to keep at least 2 Plasticities on him and have a colossal in between him and Surtur at all times. I think I made about 15 attacks into Uni-Mind needing elevens and missed them all. This game was entirely about positioning. We both considered risking it on different turns but both decided to play it safe. So it went to a roll off and i was able to show true skill by winning it! Not generally the way I like to win but I think I played the match-up as best I could and it speaks to the dynamic nature of the team that it was an option available to me.
Finals – Easton Brock
Green Arrow
Title batgirl
HAHA Joker
Penguin
ff Penguin
Terrain dial
The Prince of the ROC himself! Nobody in the world can say with confidence that they are better than him. The only thing going for me is my team is very favored against him if I win map… but I lost. He takes me to Iceberg Lounge. This levels the playing field some though his team is still a good match-up for me. Turn one he moves up all his pogs and his Joker and passes. I move my team up as far as I can. Quaking his pogs to try and kill them. one Whale misses and the other hits but one Seal Senses out of it. I Sidestep Mini to kill a Penguin and a Puffin. His turn two he catches me off guard. I thought my back line was protected by blocking but he had placed his terrain dial over the blocking which turned it into hindering for LoF purposes and since he was attacking colossals the elevation doesn’t matter. This was a great play that I just didn’t see coming. He used the Joker to call-in Brood X and kill Surtur, a Carnage, and a Groot. Then he used a Brood pog to carry Joker and get Brood X off the board. On my turn, I call-in Wolverine and try to kill his Batgirl for the +1 Attacks she offers my team. I hit the first attack for four with he Empower but I miss the kill shot. I Quake twice moving Whales up but miss both attacks. I try my best to tie up his team but I can’t get to Green arrow. His turn he makes a Penguin to kill a Carnage and he uses GA to harpoon a Whale, killing it instantly. On my turn, I Sidestep in a Flurry with a Walking Wood to kill his Penguin who was hurt because he pushed the turn before. Then Mini calls-in Jean who Running Shots to hit GA for 3. She Outwits his Super Senses and I retaliate with Groot, killing him and making a Walking Wood. Mini then Sidesteps in to kill Batgirl who had taken damage from title abilities. His turn he calls-in Cyclops with Joker and kills a Whales with him and a Penguin he had left over. My turn I call-in chase Cyclops to kill his ff Penguin. Then on his turn he calls-in a Wolverine to kill my Cyclops. He hits but rolls a 2 on blade! Lucky me. After that he only has Joker left. I set up some Flurries on him and last action is called! I win by about 40 points!
Overall this event was an amazing experience filled with awesome players. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to come out and play and I’m amazed that I was able to take the team I had built and win with it. Don’t think that this is it though. Expect to keep seeing me and watch out for my next build if you decide to come to worlds next year!
