It's a shame we didn't play Anon.

I'll have to roll better next time.

The suspense is killing me!

Yeah. I agree.

Still, you can't always guarantee who you get paired up against at these things. LUCK doesn't just happen on the map, but it happens in the pairings as well.

I looked around at some of the other teams... there were at least 2 Magneto teams (one with a HFC theme with Trevor Fitzroy & a HFC Guard). That would have been problematic as I can imagine Magneto hitting a support piece, then Trevor nipping Ulik and 'porting away with Mags to higher ground.

Okay, so: Round 2.

Same map (Tamatara) with a new opponent (Jacob) and his team:

Shazam
Superman (001)

Obviously, we're getting paired off by points and Jacob did well last round. I'm nervous because his team packs a mean one-two punch and between the two, the Man of Steel and the Big Red Cheese should be able to KO just about any figure with one hit.

I made it a point on looking at his team to make Superman my priority target, mostly because of the Indomitable, partly because of the range, mid dial Psychic Blast and Outwit. I knew I'd have to push to keep up with Clark. Shazam was a problem, but far more manageable.

Jacob wins map roll moving Shazam and Superman upfield, picking up two heavy objects along the way. He keeps them close together, as conventional wisdom dictates *not* splitting your forces up, and he places them among the large 2x2 squares of blocking terrain to protect them from my LoF.

However, Harry Leland doesn't care about LoF. I move up Harry & Ulik via their taxis, while Tarot rolls the Fool. On his turn, he makes an attempt to HSS and hit... someone. I remind him of Harry Leland, and he is a little shook up. He thinks about moving Superman away, but is reminded that he can only move half his speed value. He decides to park Superman next to Harry and Ulik, outwitting Ulik's CCE.

On my turn Ulik hits Superman, and Superman fails his Impervious (LUCK!). Harry is moved away via Lightspeed to be in a position to affect both HSS'ers. Tarot keeps rolling for the Devil, but ends up with the High Priestess. Ulik pushes to KO Superman.

Shazam repositions on elevated Terrain next to Harry. Harry's taxi pushes to move away. Ulik gets a Charge in on Shazam for 5 damage (net 3). And then a funny thing happens - I can't target Shazam. Shape Change - Whiff! Shape Change - Whiff! Ulik gets Evac'd to a medic, and Tarot rolls the Hermit with Shazam having 1 token.

Tarot bases Shazam, and rather than push Shazam takes Poison damage. Tarot gets Evac'd and Shazam spends a token attacking Ulik who has rejoined the fight. Tarot bases Shazam again, Poisoning him down to his last click.

My opponent then makes a crucial mistake, pushing Shazam to attack on his last click, KO'ng Shazam. However, I let him take back the action because I know he didn't mean to do something so foolish. He clears, and Ulik finally cracks both Shape Change and Imperv.

Round 2 goes to me.

Element of surprise played a big factor here, as did positioning. The fact that he only had 2 figures, and that those figures kept within 4 squares of each other really helped me.

With no points given up I advanced to the finals alongside 4 other undefeated players. I only wish I could say I did as well in my last match against Superman (001r) & Cyborg Superman. Spoiler alert: in my next post you will see how big a difference a 30 minute round is vs a 50 minute round.

Agreed. I really wanted to try my team against Magneto, if only because Ulik doesn't care about Halved Range. What was your team again?

Also:

Refresh my memory: did anyone play the In-Betweener?

No In-Betweener was played.

Your second round pairing was again as you say Luck.
Jacob may have had a good team, may have been a good player but I think he doesn't have many, if any, tournaments under his belt. First time I have seen him there. Jacob probably is more of a smash and KO aggressive type player, not knowing what H.Leland offers and probably wanted to hit Ulik, with a heavy, for 6 damage not realizing Ulik would only take 1 damage. Inexperience in dial knowledge.

I'm going to guess that you won the last game... but lost a bunch of pieces in the process this time.

Shades od Days of Our Lives..............good God Man what are you waiting for we are on the very edge of our seats and you better beleive Inquiring Minds want to Know!!!

C'mon Mouse what'll it take...will send money....will send chases.....gotta know!!!
Well maybe not money or chases but I do gotta know!

Rep for thread.

Maybe he just ate the Crit!!!!

Very interesting, I patiently await game 3!

Now I'm thinking of putting Leland on all my teams. Him shutting down people through walls like that is just awesome.

Shush! Don't give Malakim2099 any more fodder...

Jacob's team was a good tentpole buster - two heavy hitters both with support powers, capable of KO'ing someone with PC TA and damage reducers in a short amount of time.

I also enjoyed the characters on his team - it was almost a theme team just for comic accuracy. Too bad Shazam has to lug Adam around with him (when can we expect single based Shazam, eh?).

I don't deny that I was lucky my second win. As the saying goes, I'd rather be lucky than good. But sometimes that's what happens in tournaments - luck in pairings can take you a long way.

I think if Ulik could land a hit against him Mags would be finished, but I used barrier to block adjacency when I could with Klaw, who alternatively could psy blast.

Jason Blood was on the team for PC.

I think I would have initially underestimated Tarot, but between double target on Mags and psy blast with Klaw coupled with TK and decent range I wouldn't have been too scared of Harry Leland or Ulik. It's the phasing taxis that would be nasty and a tough fight for both teams.

That and I would have been pretty accurate on guessing/knowing the amount of clicks each character has.

Granted, there was the gamma bomb.

Final Round:

HCRealms member mcrounds drove an hour and a half to play in the event (compare to my two hour commute!). Now, I should point out that this is my second tournament attended this year. I live in a very rural area with next to no chance of scoring prize support unless I drop over $50 in the gas tank and spend about 4 1/2 hours in the car to get to an event.

To say I'm rusty is an understatement. I'm thinking of changing my username to tinman. Anyway, mcrounds brought:

Superman (001r)
Cyborg Superman
Crimson Gem (point filler)

Obviously he cleaned house his first two games. Looking at his team I was scared - he had two very range heavy figures, both with Indomitable. My team was going to be pushing a lot to keep up. Also Tamatara is a shooting gallery and my team has practically no range. I was in for trouble. I decided to make Superman my primary target, again - Outwit is dangerous, and boy blue gets PB mid dial.

I also factored in Cyborg's ability to heal. I knew wasting attacks early game would net me nothing and decided to wait for a few objects to be used up in attacks before focusing attention on Hank Henshaw.

I won map roll this time. This is a problem for my team due to tempo. I need my opponent to move first and take a token, so that I can, if necessary, push my taxis twice to get in close and shut down the move-attack.

Cautiously I moved the Nurse and Tarot my first turn into the blocking terrain columns. He moved up near the gem, positioned on his side of the blocking terrain columns, using the blocking terrain for cover. Mcrounds positioned both Supermen just one square outside of my taxi's greatest swing range (I would need to move 10 squares to drop Harry in to tie them up, and my taxis topped out at 9.

I rolled for Tarot and got the Hermit, hoping instead for the fool to Perplex speed. Then it dawned on me that I could move Doorman a full 9 dropping Harry in the 10th square, with blocking terrain between us. So I moved up Harry and Ulik shutting down HSS without leaving a LoF open to my team.

On his turn he tried flying out of range of Harry, but didn't realize his movement was halved. Instead he repositioned up in my grill denying my approach with positioning. Rather than attack front on, Ulik charged around the back side of the 2x2 blocking and attacked Superman. Superman rolled Imperv and Outwit my CCE. Superman attacked Ulik for 1. Doorman moved next to Superman to block LoF to Ulik who was on Superman's diagonal (with Blocking on the other side).

With CCE back and a 12 attack (having absorbed 5 damage from the Man of Steel's attack) Ulik pushed to attack Superman. Thunder roared in the canyon as the Man of Steel shrugged off the attack. Meanwhile Tarot kept trying for the Devil and failing, and Doorman evaded Cyborg Superman with the Nurse sacrificing herself at one point to prevent another attack on Ulik, while Harry and Lightspeed danced around the board away from Cyborg. With no way to bypass damage reducers Harry kept trying to Incap Cyborg, and failing due to high defense values or Shape Change.

Ulik eventually ended up on his EW clicks, which is when I usually evac him. This was a critical moment thought, because I knew I needed the EW to penetrate the Impervious which kept foiling me. Tarot moved adjacent to Ulik, and Cyborg Superman to get LoF to the troll. Ulik attacked without needing Tarot and connected - making the Kryptonian bleed from his URU bands.

Not wanting to waste the moment, Ulik pushed, finishing off the Man of Steel. A fresh Cyborg attacked Ulik putting him on his last click. At that point I knew I was going to loose either Tarot (who had two tokens) or Ulik. I had a taxi (Lightspeed) next to both but could only pull one out of the way.

If I saved Ulik and Tarot was KO'd then I would have no way of healing him and he would be useless to me. If I saved Tarot, I was going to give up Ulik, my only reliable damage dealer. I'd have to hope for the Devil then, and tie-up Cyborg with Harry while it worked.

Then I saw a way to save both. I could move Tarot with Lightspeed to open LoF to Harry Leland, who could then Incap Cyborg, buying me a round to reposition and clear tokens. So I moved Tarot. Harry tried to increase Gravity on the Cyborg, and the dark Superman made a Shape Change roll.

Cyborg shot at Ulik. Ulik dropped to the ground, along with my chances of winning. Tarot rolled onto her Death power, which also ignores LoF. I attacked with Tarot's 9av, against the 'borgs 18D having to bypass Shape Change and Impervious. Finally, some luck as I rolled a 10, connected with the 18, and he failed to evade. Cyborg took 5 damage from Tarot, reduced to 3. Cyborg moved to eat the gem, healing 2. Tarot pushed trying Death again, failing to roll high enough to hit Cyborg.

I knew the only way I would win at this point was to make a deal with the Devil, so I rolled with Tarot and got the Hermit. Blerg. Cyborg ate another object, back to full Health. Tarot rolled again, and finally got the Devil. That's when the dance started. I kept my taxis moving Harry and Tarot around denying LoF to Cyborg with Blocking Terrain. Cyborg ate another object to deal with the slow ping of the Devil.

My opponent figured out that the Blocking Terrain was trouble, and moved out into the open. Harry followed, while Tarot nipped away for 1 every round. Cyborg ate another object, back to full Health. With no objects left, Cyborg relocated to elevated terrain and was based by a pushed Harry Leland. Cyborg landed a hit on Harry's 17 defense knocking Harry to his last click. Harry was pulled back by a pushed Lightspeed, while Doorman moved in to soak up some damage.

The match ended with Cyborg Superman on his sixth (second to last) click, with Lightspeed & Tarot on their second to last clicks, Doorman on his second or third click, and Harry on his last click. Another two minutes and Tarot would have finished off Cyborg (who had 1 token when based by Doorman).

It came down to a very close point spread, with me winning by a narrow margin. At this point the venue was closing up shop, there were 3 undefeated winners taking first, second, and third place by points. And that's how Ulik, Tarot, and Harry went 3-0 at the IG month 3 at the Source.

For the record -

1st place went to Paul, a very experienced player/judge at another venue with a Nightron team (+ Nurse).

2nd place went to Sean a newer player who fielded Quasar & an A.I.M. Renegade.

If there were another round these two would have faced off and I would have been paired against someone completely different and who knows what would have happened then. I can't say for sure if I could beat Quasar. That team would give me fits based on Range supremacy. I think it might come down to his Impervious though, as Quasar can't break Ulik's defense.

Against Nighttron? I don't know. Depends on how it was played. Anyone can net-deck a team like Nighttron, but it's an individual's resourcefulness on the fly to deal with variables like Harry Leland that make for successful strategy. I wouldn't be too worried about Nightcrawler kidnapping Ulik, because - let's face it - Nightcrawler would be standing next to a 12 attack 6 damage beatstick. One failed defense roll and the Elf is squelched.