by Paul Groth
On Saturday May 15, Team HyperTucsonic hosted a Win-A-Brick 300 Modern Tournament. The event took place at Tucson Games & Gadgets in the Park Place Mall location. 10 players entered, with new faces and veterans in the mix.
My Team:
HOX 037b Emperor Vulcan 175
FFFF 044v Molecule Man 30
RE 052e Mister Oz 40
XDPS G020p Dark Phoenix 30
XDPS G010p Phoenix 25
I had really liked HOX 037b Emperor Vulcan (EV) since he was previewed, but hadn’t had a good chance to field him yet. When we learned about the new Pulse Wave, he took a hit to his viability in competitive games, but I still thought he was worth a shot. I liked his survivability, especially with the change to Perplex. His trait:
OMEGA-LEVEL ENERGY MANIPULATION: Pulse Wave. // Emperor Vulcan can reduce penetrating damage and has PROTECTED: Pulse Wave.
This meant that most figures would only be able to deal him 1 or 2 clicks of damage at a time. With his far reach, Psychic Blast, and ability to take tokens off himself with Willpower, I thought he could still cut it as an attacker and my tent pole.
I had to get my Emperor Vulcan on the secondary market, and once I did I decided to do a repaint and upgrade to his sculpt. This made my decision to use him easy, as I knew fielding him would be fun no matter what. ( To check out my Emperor Vulcan and other customs please check out www.facebook.com/hypertucsoniccustoms ).
To fill out the team I went with Molecule Man for the Outwit and terrain manipulation, Mister Oz for Telekinesis and Probability Control, Phoenix for Telekinesis and Retaliation, and Dark Phoenix for all the obvious reasons. All this gave me a +5 Cosmic theme team and a reasonable shot at winning map choice. I also was safe from Scarab by not using any equipment, and kept the Elders of the Universe off of click 0.
Swiss Rounds, Game 1
In my first game I was up against Jim, who came down from the Phoenix area. He was using Eddie Guerrero, 2 Voyagers, LE Bullseye, and Prime Wizard, with a Remaker Ring and Power Gem. I knew high damage values were Emperor Vulcan’s main weakness and the Power Gem was a problem for me. Fortunately, I was able to win the map choice and go first. I TK’d out EV and grabbed the Power Gem to keep it away from Jim’s Bullseye. I was able to send Molecule Man out behind him to provide some cover Barrier squares. He used Prime Wizard to allow Bullseye to get a shot on EV, but that just allowed Dark Phoenix to retaliate on most of his team and heal 2 in the process. In my second favorite part of the day, Jim was eventually able to KO Dark Phoenix with the Signature Move: Three Amigos. By then Eddie was all he had left, and I was able to get the necessary close attacks to KO him and win the game.
Swiss Rounds, Game 2
Next up was all around great guy, Victor Muller. He was playing 3 chase Black Widows. I lost the map roll and Vic chose House of X map Krakoa. I thought that if I was able to get a few Pulse Waves to stick I had a chance. He burned 2 of his 15 Tradecraft tokens to make my bad rolls stick, then moved all 3 halfway up the map. I decided to go for it and TK’d EV up for his first Pulse Wave of the game. Then rolled a 3. To even things up a bit, in Victor’s next turn he was only able to damage EV for 1 with 3 attacks, and had to move 1 Widow out of Stealth to get a shot. This gave me the chance to KO that Widow with a combination of Dark Phoenix retaliation, her follow up attack, and a Running Shot from EV. From that point it was Widows Recruits poisoning all my other figures to KO, and EV taking out Recruits one by one. I was able to win the game by a slim point margin.
Swiss Rounds, Game 3
I ended up playing another Phoenix area native player, Marcus. He was running a Cosmic theme with Old Man Phoenix (OMP), High Evolutionary, Astronomer, and 20 point Franklin. He also had a Power Gem on Astronomer, and another on the map for OMP. Marcus won the map roll and sent us to The Savage Land. Marcus was able to TK Old Man Phoenix up to the Power Gem and equip. (I forgot all about Mister Oz) I decided to try to get a hit on his team, and sent EV up for the shot. I hit OMP and High Evolutionary’s high defenses, but no lasting damage on OMP once he started his turn and was able to heal him back to top click. OMP KO’d Molecule Man, then both my Retaliators. I was able to KO Astronomer, Franklin, and High Evolutionary, before being caught by OMP and Flurried to KO. I was able to get enough points from Marcus and slip into the 4 seed for an immediate rematch in the top 4 cut.
Top 4
This time I was able to win the map roll against Marcus, and decided to use King’s Tomb. I thought that Molecule Man could be the difference this time, by blocking up the narrow passageways of the Tomb. Since I went first, I sent EV out to grab the Power Gem. He ended up eating a Flurry from OMP, but Marcus moved Astronomer closer to be able to use Probability Control. That allowed me to Retaliate on his team, and KO Astronomer on my next turn. From that point it was me trying to avoid OPM using Barrier and moving around. Marcus tried his best to catch my team with High Evolutionary breaking walls and Barrier to get OMP in. Grabbing the Power Gem ended up being my smartest move because late in the game OMP caught EV with a Flurry, but could only deal 4 Damage at a time, instead of the 6 he was able to deal in the previous game. I escaped with time called and being slightly up on points.
Finals
In the final game I was matched up with my Team HyperTucsonic teammate Aaron Williams. ( Check out his great content on facebook and youtube, just search Tucson Tabletop Gaming). He was also running Old Man Phoenix, so I knew I was in for a hard fought game. To go with OMP he had his own Molecule Man, Mister Oz, and Dark Phoenix, with High Evolutionary and Power Gem to finish out the build. Aaron won the map roll and put us in Ultron’s Lair. Because he went first, I wasn’t able to take his Power Gem and he was able to equip it on turn one. Aaron ended his turn with OMP, Oz, and Molecule Man on the side of the map. That left Dark Phoenix sitting in the middle, and within range of EV. I KO’d his Dark Phoenix and placed myself as far as possible away from his remaining force. His next turn he kind of regrouped more near the center of the map so OMP could have his choice of targets on the next turn. He used the free Smoke Cloud with Molecule Man to try to cover his team as much as possible. I was then able to use my Molecule Man to change the terrain markers under his Mister Oz into water terrain, Outwit his Super Senses, and KO’d Oz with Emperor Vulcan. That left my Molecule Man in the open and an easy target for High Evolutionary. I countered with a Dark Phoenix retaliation and a follow up to take out his Molecule Man. We ran out the clock with EV Psychic Blasting OMP for 4 Damage and OMP healing most of it back every turn. I was able to stay out of Aaron’s reach and win on points.
Final Thoughts
In the end it was a great day of Heroclix. Old Man Phoenix is a beast, and paired with the Power Gem is a figure to be included in any Metagame. Emperor Vulcan can pull his weight and on a balanced team can be a great point denial tentpole too. I’m glad we were able to host an event with some pretty good prizing and hope everyone had fun.
