by Howard Brock
Heroclix starts with team building and team building starts with a concept. Two weeks before the World Championship, I sat down at my computer to build my team. Alone. I looked at several figures, ranging from Goblin King to Superman to Jakeem. I thought out some combos but I kept coming back to the Goblin. Playing in ROC events throughout the year, I had a concept of what I wanted my team to be and one that fit my style of play. I wanted my team to be hard to kill, resilient, greedy in giving up points, and one that could counterstrike hard. That was the basis for my team.
So let’s break the team down:
Mercury: There are better TK figures out there but none cheaper. He enabled me to equip Goblin first turn and offered more movement to whatever I needed later in the game. He has Super Senses so there’s no guarantee to KO him, but most importantly, if lost, he is only 25 points.
The Atom: One of the best Retaliators in the game but he is also a great taxi among other things. If he was lost, it was only 15 points.
The Tank: I don’t need to explain this one to anyone as everyone played one. I will say though that I won some games by not throwing the tank. Its only 8 points as a tiny and 50 points if KO’d after being thrown.
HAHA The Joker: Here is a figure that is just hard to take down and starts with Outwit. 18 clicks minimum to KO him, if you can get through his Super Senses and if I do not heal him. Early in the game, he was always around Goblin so that he could protect from single target Pulse Wave. If you do KO him, you get 30 points.
Ironheart: Ironheart is a great figure. She starts with Outwit, Flight, Sidestep, and 9-Movement. Mostly, she carried the Joker around and protected Goblin. Having two figures with Outwit that were mobile really made a difference at times. Ironheart was able to Sidestep carry Joker 9 squares forward, placing Joker in front, who then could Sidestep up two more squares. That gives mobility for an Outwit to be placed 12 squares up. That really helped when I wanted to outwit Bizarro Green Arrow in a few matches. Once again, if you did manage to KO Ironheart, you gained 25 points.
Lastly, I want to mention that I had three Call-Ins and I do not think they need any explanation as to why I chose them, Nick Fury, Cosmic Spider-Man, and Nightwing. If I could make one improvement on my team, it would be to change Nightwing for Chase Hawkeye.
Okay, I had my team built, so the next thing I needed to do was play test and run it by some of my mates. That mate was Warren Ginn. Warren spent a few days at my home before we drove up to Columbus. When he first arrived, I showed him my team and I also showed him some possible alternate figures. Those were Jean Grey, Peace Machine, Ameridroid, and some entities. We play tested and decided the original build was best. Team Stratagem was over at the house, off and on, for the next three days and we did more play testing, leaving me satisfied with my team build and that is what I took to Origins.
I played in Nationals and I played the same team I played in Worlds. I was already qualified for Worlds prior to Nationals starting so there was no pressure on me at all. In fact, I will say that Nationals enabled me to win Worlds. I was only 3-3 in Nationals but I attribute the last two losses to lack of playtime that was given to us by WizKids. Our last Swiss game was only 30 minutes in length. I was winning that game despite having zero points. My opponent’s team was damaged badly and I had my call-ins plus a healthy Goblin and other figures. In one to two turns, I felt I would have taken out half of his team or more. Despite being 3-3, I felt more confident in my team when nationals ended. My losses all could have been wins as they were all close games. I faulted my play and not the team build. Nationals let me look at teams that were being played, play on different maps and become more comfortable with my own team. Nationals propelled my run in Worlds.
Alright, let’s move forward to the big day, the World Championship. To win, you had to play 5 Swiss rounds, make the cut and then play 5 more games. My most relaxing game of the day was my 5th Swiss game against Markus Wade. We were on table 4 and we both had a lot of points. As long as we both scored points (we did) then we knew would both make the cut. So we played a little loose, I think. He was running a near mirror team to my son’s team with Jean Grey, Jakeem, Goblin at 75, and the tank plus Call-Ins. We had a good battle with me having the upper hand most of the game but I had a damaged Goblin on his last click. On my turn, I chose to not Regen and instead play defense surrounded by figures. He was able to maneuver Jakeem over for a multi-target Pulse Wave that he hit, taking out the Goblin. That won him the game but again I didn’t really care. I made the cut and that’s all I wanted.
Now comes the real tournament where every game matters. Every game is now an elimination game. My first game was against an alpha strike team that frankly had a bad match-up against me. My second game was tough! It was against John Burgess. He was running a mirror of PJ Bolin’s second place team from Nationals. The team is good, with Faust, Overdrive, 75 point Goblin King, and AVD Chase Cap, but what gave me real fits was the map we played on, Mount Olympus. In the middle of the map, this huge mountain cannot be destroyed or shot through, seriously handicapping my team. I had to slide across the map, trying to get in position to make an attack. While I was trying to position, he rolled on Faust and jumped back and forth across the map attacking me. This was a slow game and I used too much time trying to count out positioning squares, but I finally got off an attack and KO’d his Goblin. That put me up on points. A short time later, the game ended and I moved on to the next match.
My Top 8 match was a rematch against Markus Wade but it obviously had different results. I KO’d Markus’ Goblin and 50 point tank. I had full health on Goblin vs. his Jakeem. I played defense and this time, I Regen’d when Goblin took a little damage. Markus was never able to overcome the deficit. I never threw my tank and did not offer up Call-Ins that he may have KO’d.
My Top 4 match was against Alan Mason. Alan is a player that I have never played before although we have played around each other several times. Alan is an extremely good player and sees lines of fire and attack on the map very well. The game started with me taking out his Goblin King with Spider-Man and him taking Spider Man with Nick. We went back and forth but I ended up having a good point advantage that he was unable to overcome.
I want to point to out that my son, Easton Brock, was also in the Top 4. He lost his game but we were one game away from facing each other for the World Championship. Wouldn’t that have been something?
My last game was against Matt Greichunos, who was playing a Faust, Jakeem, Tank, Green Lantern team. Matt’s strategy was to play on the Manhattan bridge map and sit on top of the building where he could hardly be attacked and the tank could not be thrown at his team. As his opponent’s team came across the map, he rolled his Faust dice hopefully damaging his opponent on the way. I 
chose to slowly slide across the map and I paid for it. Matt rolled yellow three times and took out some of my team. If playing again, I would move across the map quickly and just wait until I could attack. Anyway, my main figures finally made it across the map and I was able to one shot his Faust with a call-in Nick. This gave me a great lead and forced him to come down off the building and start playing to make up the points. He called in Nick with the tank and attacked my Goblin King. If he hits, the game is over but he missed three times and the Goblin lived. That led to me making a mistake. I called in Spider-Man to take out his Green Lantern who also missed. Matt promptly took out my Spider-Man with his Spider Man. I retaliated with a single target pulse wave on his Jakeem that hit. Now the chase was on as Matt had to run with Jakeem. Matt shot across the board and I did a running shot doing two more clicks of damage. Jakeem missed a regen roll and, if I got another attack in, he would be KO’d. Matt, at this point, forgot that my Goblin got free break-away so he tried to base me. Finally I got my turn. Goblin ignored break-away and did a single target pulse wave KO’ing Jakeem with 30 seconds left! Game over and celebration begins!
I want to thank WizKids for running an excellent tournament, Team 
Stratagem, my good friend and mate, Warren Ginn, my son, Easton Brock, Leslie Del Valle, and a special thanks to my wonderful wife, Tracy Brock who makes my life the best. I want to thank all of the people that were rooting for me. I specifically want to thank all the people that applauded me the following day and gave me a standing ovation. You touched my heart. Thank you everyone and I hope to see you at the ROC Cup, if not sooner!
