by Patrick Frazer
Hey guys I won worlds last month and here’s what I played:
Prime Spider-Man w/ Necrosword
Carnage Silver Surfer
Kid Thanos
Sakaarian Iron Man w/ Cloak
Mephisto
Legacy Green Lantern w/ Green Ring
Sideline: War Machine, King Killmonger, Iron Inquisitor, Ghost Goblin, Dark Phoenix, Black Skull
Tarot: High Priestess, The Star, 8 of Cups, 5 of Pentacles, 7 of Swords, Q of Wands
Maps: Krakoa, Prison (Jail Break), S.H.I.E.L.D. Holding Facility
Terrain: Shelf (2×1 Elevated), Shipping Container(2×3 Elevated), Machine (L-shaped Blocking)
Why I played it
Prime Spider-Man is one of the most brutal attackers in the game. His mobility lets you get wherever you need and you canmake 2-4 attacks per turn. Slap on the Necrosword and your opponent can’t roll out and you can get at least one damage through those reducers. His super strength also lets you knock opponents back and move terrain around. When he KOs opposing figures, he heals Carnage. Sidestep, easy to heal, long dial… It’s really good, guys.
Carnage Silver Surfer is another piece that should still be prominent in the meta. He does the shooting and can be hitting way over his 50 point value. I left him unequipped because King Killmonger is a problem.
Kid Thanos was essential for early game, but almost never returned to the map after turn 2. The MOE Chases function the same as shifting focus pieces giving you plenty of utility. Kid Thanos was used primarily as an early taxi, later shifting into a more defensive piece on my sideline.
Sakaarian Iron Man is the Swiss Army Knife. Equipped with the Cloak of Levitation to easily scoop up the initial objects and fly, SIM can move terrain, Pulse Wave off those pesky Outwits and Perplexes, or Charge Flurry. If you can dream it, he can do it. He will be missed.
Mephisto really makes the MOE Chases sing. He allows you to keep Spider-Man at the right click and with the right amount of tokens. The outwit sure comes in handy, too. You gotta have leadership and I have a hard time not bringing a ring bearer.
Legacy Green Lantern clix both those boxes for 20 points with a bonus trait that can bump up your defense.
The sideline had 5 swaps for Kid Thanos and War Machine. War Machine could have been Scrappy. Actually it could have been anything. I’ve never remembered to bring it in. Black Skull is there if I need leadership, but most of the time Killmonger or Iron Inquisitor were on the map. I brought Krakoa for Scarlet Witch teams, Prison for the mirror match and S.H.I.E.L.D. if I thought a short map was necessary. The team has very good reach so long maps often felt advantageous. Terrain has become a very important part of the game and may be overlooked. With super strength and side step, Prime Spider-Man is able to move around terrain easily. Popping elevated under opposing figures like Lockjaw and King Killmonger disrupt adjacency and holding large elevated terrain can often help defensively. If you lose Super Strength for any reason, the terrain drops in an adjacent square immediately. This has saved me from friendly pulsewaves and giant reach flurries on my spiderman. I also thought it would be nice to bring a little extra blocking as I felt I only needed the 3 objects for SIM.
My teammate, Nate White, was wrecking me in testing with this build for a month straight going into States. I had been building specifically to beat this build and could not, so I joined him. We met in the finals in Wisconsin States and he finished top 4 in Nats. With the meta being essentially the exact same for World’s, there was no reason to think the build wouldn’t work in Memphis, too.
Who I Played
Round 1
Who doesn’t get nervous for Round 1? I had Brian Estes from Phoenix Nest up first running a Sky Tyrant squad with Molecule Man. He won the map roll and took me to Wakanda. He had no ring bearer on his team and Wakanda is an outdoor map so I was pretty sure I’d be able to get a couple punches in somewhere with Spider-Man. I grabbed two objects on SIM and gave PS-M an action token all while retaining first turn immunity. Brian Barriered up in his starting area since I had full immunity. I was the able to get to Sky Tyrant on the top of turn two with Spider-Man’s Leap Climb and Super Strength. Sky-Tyrant was the main threat to P-SM and after a few missed attacks against him, I was able to get 300 points and the win.
Round 2
Next up was my guy, Jay Major, running a double Blackheart Mystical team with Mephisto and a MOE Chase. Mystics can be a problem for P-SM so SIM and CSS need to do the heavy lifting in this match. Jay won map and decided to go first, I took him to Krakoa. He was able to get the alpha but his dice forsake him on a big energy explosion. Blackheart has two stop clicks with Mastermind at the end of his dial and can heal pretty easily on this team so you really need to put it away or you’re wasting attacks.
I had SIM chose Hypersonic/ Super Strength to pop elevated under a Blackheart, punch him, then pull it away. Netting me one of the Blackhearts. Jay had transformed a few Hellfire Guards onto their dangerous click and he was able to grab some points back. When time was called, he still had a Blackheart out there but I was able to get a few guards and pull it out 250-175 avenging my loss to him in the team championships the day before.
Round 3
Dan Powell was up next running the first of many Scarlet Witch teams I would encounter. Dan is a friend and I’m sure we’ve played at every major event I’ve ever been to, so I know my opponent pretty well. I saw him go to a 0-0 against my teammate (and Reigning Chicago Clix Champion), Ken Small, so I know I cannot go first or we’ll be going to negative zone prison. Luckily, I win map and take him to Krakoa. I like the long map with very little printed blocking against Scarlet Witch. It makes it very difficult to get locked down in a rune at the top of turn 1. Dan took a defensive position in the corner bracing for my attack. Witch was on elevated, just far enough that her rune didn’t affect his pieces. I was able to get in a shot with Spider-Man thinking I would need his second attack or SIM to finish her off, but I went and rolled doubles instead. Dan probed, I think I missed, then probed myself and hit doubles again. Those are the types of breaks you need to win the big tournaments, and I was able to get Witch with just one attack. With the rune gone, and still plenty of actions I was able to get a few extra attacks in. It may not be how I drew it up, but I’m satisfied with the result.
Round 4
My math is telling me that if I win this game, I’ll make the cut. On the long drive down, I had told Nate that I was a little worried about Animals. Well that’s exactly what Robert Williams was playing to a 3-0 start. Robert had theme and decided to go first, I took him to the Prison as I thought I would be able to defend against the Maggots and Ms. Marvels.
I was wrong.
Robert pushed up far on turn one, which is a great play against me since both SIM and P-SM need a turn to sort of “power up”. I holed up in the corner and was able to escape his alpha pretty well intact. I would then return the favor by missing 4 of my next 5 attacks, killing nothing. Maybe I got an Eany or something. Big Rob decided it was enough with all the missing and crit quaked my whole squad with a Ms. Marvel. He enjoyed the fist one so much, he decided to go back-to-back with the crit Quakes. These things also happen at big tournaments, hopefully it happens before cut (and not against the 2019 Worlds Runner-up). I knew this one was out of reach and I need points. Some 2 loss teams make the cut and I had two loses when I was able to win Nats in 2019. I was able to get a couple maggots and dogs before he finished me off. L 300-155
Round 5
Last round and I have Charles Garst playing a Guy Gardner team with a bunch of ring bearers. Considering how the last match went, I wasn’t excited about seeing more Quake. I know Charles from making the best 3D printed pogs, but I don’t think I’ve ever played him and I really like his team build. I won map roll and elected to go first. He took us to Asgard Fountains, which is a great map for him to quake on. I pushed up a little bit on turn one getting the objects on SIM and grabbing a little elevated with P-SM.
I knew I was setting myself up to get quaked again, and I thought I’d be ok as long as he didn’t crit hit. He did not. He crit missed. And then missed the next attack. I had a fully healthy team and pretty decent dice and was able to get the W to finish the day 4-1 and make the cut.
Top Cut
We’re done for Saturday and the top 32 will finish the next day. 3 of our 4 teammates made cut and we were all staying in the same house. I really like prepping for opponents when given the time and Dial H had wonderful coverage of the whole event, so I was able to see most of the builds for my potential opponents. Everyone but my first opponent, Nikolas Madison. He was one of 5 builds not labeled, but don’t worry. Through a bit of internet sleuthing and borderline cyber stalking, I was able to get his build. Another Animal team.
Top 32
While I didn’t love the thought of playing against Animals again, Nikolas had less Maggots and more Ka-Zar. He was going first, I went to Krakoa (Prison didn’t work against the last animal team). Crits had been the deciding factor in my previous two games so why change?
I was able to slip elevated terrain under Lockjaw and swing big on his Marvels. I rolled snake eyes, but The Star was up. The exact same thing happened on my next attack. Some time your dice do the work for you. Or the tarot cards since my treacherous dice tried to betray me. Nikolas was able to put up a fight and Ka-Zar held in much better than I expected but the early crits gave me the game at last action.
Top 16
Adam Friedman, a fellow Illinoisian and fantastic player was up next with a fist full of Scarabs. He wins map and takes me to Morlock Tunnels. He informed me that I would not have any fun but neither would he. He continued with a Russian accent, “it is equal if we both have none.” He would keep that accent for the remainder of the game.
I move up, he sent me back with the time platform. This would go on for a while and I was definitely worried that my day would end here. I had blown a few holes in some blocking and was able to get some elevated in P-SM hands, but at the cost of CSS. I was down in points and thought I would be able to get one attack off with P-SM in Adam’s corner. It is a must hit. I Sidestepped P-SM, wall crawled forward 4, Perplexed his movement and Leap Climbed to his corner, grabbing the blocking terrain. I hit and killed a Scarab and was able to keep the momentum with a 300-70 win.
Top 8
Now I had another Witch, this time with Demon in an Armor, 2 Carnage Silver Surfers, Venom Magneto and Mad Jim in the hands of former World Champion, Paris Gordon. I win map and take it to Krakoa. Paris moved up a bit near the center of the map and I take a position on the printed elevated. Paris missed with his first CSS attack, denying him a second attack that could have damaged my P-SM, and I was able to take his Witch on the following turn. Demon really takes the wind out of SIM’s sails so it was up to P-SM and Carnage to hit their attacks, and they did for me. I was up in points when time was called.
Top 4
Another Witch! Played by Scott Cramton with a Scott Cramton pog, Black Skull, SIM Scarab and the Commissioner. I win map again so you already know we’re going to Krakoa. Scott set up in the corner and I sent most of the team up the printed elevated with SIM coming up the opposite side of the map. Scott was caught a bit off-guard thinking he would be able to use the angler to place next to the blocking of the terrain markers, however the angler only works with printed blocking.
I was able to Pulse Wave first with SIM killing his Cramton pog and bringing in Scrappy. This also reset the Outwits on P-SM giving him his powers back. I was able to take Witch with Spider-Man and get what I thought would be a comfortable lead after also getting his SIM. To my surprise, he popped the Necrosword on Black Skull and was able to mount a comeback. He got a kill on last action, leaving him 9 points shy of moving to the finals.
Finals
This will be the final Witch I ever see, teamed up with Black Skull, 2 CSS, Venom Magneto, Mephisto, and colossal Carnage piloted by Zane Gates. The only thing I know about Zane at this point is that he has wrecked everyone. I lose map roll for the first time against a Witch. This is not the time for my dice to fail! He takes me to Panther Field House, a map I was not too familiar with. I move up to the middle of the locker room with SIM, and the rest of the squad against the wall and lockers.
Zane takes a corner and runes in front of his team, making it very difficult to get to his carnages. Luckily, this was similar to a scenario that happened to my guy Nate at Nats. After struggling to get to a Mission Point team on Morlock, he realized that taking Phasing with SIM and carrying PS-M in would have been the optimal play. It absolutely applied here as well, so I took phasing and stealth with SIM, walked Spider-Man up to SIM, phased in, and flurried killing a Surfer and Venom Mags and damaging the other surfer. His Witch didn’t have an angler and Magneto was dead, so the smart move would have been to run but where’s the fun in that? I wasn’t able to put his witch away and he was able to get a few kills making it a tight match as we brawled in his corner of the map. He had a big miss with his big Carnage and I was able to take him out in the next turn. Time was called and I had the lead.
Shout out to my teammates at the Chicago Clix Mafia Nate White, Ken Small, Alex Smith, Brandon Collett and Tyler Smith are the best players, builders, and people in the game. All my opponents were wonderful people, and can’t wait to see you all next year!
