I attended my local stores monthly MCP event on Sunday 17th April - this is Pro Tech's third event which has been growing each month - and this month was the largest yet with 18 players. I wrote an article about the first inaugural event but decided that because these events were happening monthly, that I wouldn't write a tournament review after every event to avoid repetitiveness on the blog. I've decided to write an article about this months event as I decided to take a new affiliation for this months event.
I've taken Brotherhood to the last two events, but I've recently been playing with Spider Foes as they're an affiliation I've wanted to try for a while. I only had about 10 games with them prior to this event - so they're still relatively new to me. I always like to set myself a target when I go to the Pro Tech events, obviously it goes without saying that the main aim is to have fun, but the last two events I've also aimed for a 2-2 finish. Given the fact Foes are not considered to be a top affiliation right now and the fact that they were still new to me, I thought 1-3 would be a fair target to aim for. I'd already seen a lot of names who were already signed up for the event, and there were some really strong players attending, so I don't think I was doing myself short in aiming for a 1-3 finish.
The Roster
[Characters]
- Black Cat: 3
- Carnage: 4
- Doctor Octopus: 3
- Green Goblin: 4
- Juggernaut: 5
- Kraven the Hunter: 3
- Lizard: 3
- Mysterio: 3
- Toad: 2
- Venom: 4
[Team Tactics]
- Advanced R&D
- Brace for Impact
- Carnage Rules
- Lethal Protector
- Mission Objective
- Patch Up
- Sinister Traps
- The Grand Illusion
- Well-Laid Plans
- X-Ceptional Healing
[Extract Crises]
- Fear Grips World as "Worthy" Terrorize Cities [D]: 18
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park [B]: 18
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17
I've gone with a fairly standard Foes roster utilising all of the affiliated characters with the exception of Kingpin. Goblin, Venom and Carnage are all 4 threat and I really don't feel the need for four 4 threats in the roster. I see Kingpin as filling a very similar role to Venom - both short movers, both can take a hit and both can pack a punch - I just like Venom better as a character so it's Kingpin who misses out.
Juggernaut compliments Foes extremely well, he adds in to their great movement - he has a high physical defence, huge health pool and he can pack a punch - he's a great option for higher threat games. I typically don't like playing single extracts so Black Cat is in the roster to give me some leverage in case any single extracts come up - she's a really simple way of getting an extract back. Toad is my 2 threat of choice - it was a hard decision between Bullseye and Toad but I tend to play more of an extract focused game so Toad makes the cut because he's the two threat that fits my playstyle.
If there was one big negative to Foes it's that they currently do not have many available Tactics Cards in affiliation. Sinister Traps being the only affiliated card I'm taking here as it's the only affiliated card that holds any sort of value. Well Laid Plans is a fantastic card and doubles up well with multi extract crisis. Carnage Rules, Lethal Protector and Grand Illusion are all stapled to their respective characters and I'm bringing X-Ceptional healing as Lizard is my main central extract grabber so this will help him survive any potential round 1 spike attacks. Advanced R&D is in the roster for Black Cat enabling her steal a round early and Mission Objective is a staple for any extract focused team. Patch Up and Brace for Impact are my two restricted cards of choice, I do prefer MedPack in here but I don't physically own the card.
My playstyle involves a lot around getting ahead early and then trying to see out the game, so all of my extract crisis are high scoring. The multi extracts also gives Well Laid plans a lot of value as I can use it as a bit of a bail out if games are not going my way.
The secures were a bit more of a struggle, Mutant Madman is an obvious choice as Foes have a lot of high physical defence characters - Infinity Formula and Riots make it in the list as those are two secures I've played a lot with my Brotherhood and I'm comfortable playing. I often see Foes as an affiliation that are OK at everything but masters at none - I haven't come across a crisis they cant play yet so playing two crisis that I'm comfortable with make sense here.
Game 1 - Dale De Andrade - Avengers
This was the first time I'd met Dale. He's fairly new to the game with only a couple of games behind him but he's local, so hopefully we can play a few more games together in the future. We roll off for priority and I win the roll. Dale's secures are very similar to mine all with the exception of Deadly Meteors so I choose to take extracts. I pull out Hammers and Dale pulls out Deadly Meteors. Dale picks 17 threat.
My Squad: Green Goblin, Venom, Doc Oc, Mysterio, Lizard
Dales Squad: Cap Rogers, Sam Wilson, Dr Strange, Iron Man, Black Widow
So straight after deployment I realise I've made a huge mistake - I don't play Deadly Meteors often and it was only when I looked at the card before we started our first turn that I remembered it's flipped on energy defence and I've taken both Venom and Mysterio in my squad with their 2 and 1 energy defences respectively. This game just got infinitely harder.
I start the game by moving Doc Oc onto the left flank to pick the Hammer up, but then Dale makes a mistake in not collecting the other hammer on the opposite flank and instead goes for his back hammer. I then move Lizard out to the right flank to collect the hammer - and I end up with 3 hammers and the portals at the end of turn 1 with the score at 6-1.
This is where the game went downhill for me - I manage to hold on to the portals for the majority of the game - but Dales dice started heating up (including a one shot on an injured Venom) and left me with only an injured Mysterio holding two Hammers and a healthy Lizard with a hammer and he still had all 5 of his characters left on the board by the end of Turn 4. I had priority this turn so ran away with Mysterio, though his short move and short base size meant I couldn't go much further back than just outside my original deployment zone. Dale then correctly committed a couple of characters into KO'ing Mysterio, but when Black Widow finally dazed him, she didn't have enough power to pick up either hammer or flip a portal in his favour. This then left me to retreat to the back of the board with Lizard, and Dale simply couldn't get to him to be able to daze him and he couldn't get to one of the two portals he needed to flip to stop me reaching 16 VP's.
The game ends 16-12 in my favour, but I honestly came out of that game wondering how I'd won - if I hadn't scored 6 VP's in the first turn I wouldn't have been able to reach 16 VP's before Dale swung the game.
I realised at the end of the game I forgot to use my Sinister Traps - I remind myself I must do this in the next game!
Game 2 - Andy Pryzbyla - Black Order
So this was the second time I'd been drawn to Andy at a Pro Tech event. We played each other in the last event where Andy's Guardians tabled my Brotherhood so I knew this one was going to be a tough game as he'd brought Black Order for this month's event. We had a good laugh last time so I was looking forward to this game, I know Andy is a huge fan of the blog too!
We roll for priority and Andy wins the roll, he takes his extracts which leaves me with my secures. He pulls out Hammers and I pull Mutant Madman - I don't get an option to select a threat level as both crisis are 18 threat.
My Squad: Green Goblin, Juggernaut, Doc Oc, Kraven, Lizard
Andys Squad: Thanos (Space and Mind Gem), Corvus, Proxima, Honey Badger
Andy starts the game by unsurprisingly taking a pass. I then move Lizard out to pick up the Hammer on my right flank. Andy then activates Thanos, who uses the gems to pull Lizard into his deployment zone where he inevitably got minced by the trio of Corvus, Proxima and Honey Badger - and Proxima in turn picks up the hammer. Crucially for me though, Andy chooses to focus Lizard and only flips one of his home secures. Andy then KO's Lizard in the next turn - but I then move Juggernaut up to take his home secure that he chose not to take. I know from this point that Andy now needs to make a decision on whether he totally focuses on killing my characters or whether he tries to focus on some of the secures - as I'd be going ahead on VP's each turn. From this point I fan the rest of my characters out across the board to make it difficult for Andy to focus anyone down and I just look to see out the game.
Andy did manage to get one of the secures back late in the game - but by this point I'd already secured enough VP's to see the game out. Andy didn't manage to KO any more of my characters - had he done so I think this game goes in a different direction. I win this one - JUST. 16-14.
Game 3 - Quinn Duggan - Wakanda
In round 3 I got drawn to Quinn who was another player who I'd never rolled dice with before. I knew who Quinn was as he's a regular feature on Rich Mid's Youtube channel but we'd never met in person before. I knew Quinn was an extremely good player before going into the game - and because of results earlier in the day - the winner of this game was going to the final.
Quinn wins priority and selects his secures and he pulls out SWORD - this game just got even tougher - and I pull Spider Infected - naturally I wasn't picking 14 threat so selected 17.
My Squad: Green Goblin, Lizard, Juggernaut, Toad, Doc Oc
Quinn's Squad: Black Panther, Killmonger, Ghost Spider, Shuri, Sam Wilson
The first turn Quinn commits Ghost Spider early down my left flank alone and takes the left SWORD base but leaves the home Spider Infected - I capitalise on this and take his home extract with Lizard. Quinn commits again to the SWORD base with his next turn so Toad moves up to take the central Spider Infected. Quinn then commits to the third base with his next turn but Shuri cant quite make it and then Green Goblin steals his other home extract. Quinn then takes my home extract with Sam Wilson and I end the first turn 4-1 up as Doc Oc manages to flip one of the two bases Quinn controlled to deny him the 3 VP's. My plan moving forward through the game is to retreat with the extracts and force Quinn to commit characters to move off the SWORD base to chase me down.
Unfortunately Quinn had priority in turn 2 and Killmonger had other ideas - dazing both Doc Oc and Green Goblin in a single activation - gaining a Spider Infected back in the process. There was an added element to this game whereby the middle SWORD base was sat on a Size 4 piece of terrain. Because of the shape of the terrain - it meant the SWORD base could only be accessed from one side of the terrain - and standing on it was difficult - only small based characters seemed to be able to get onto it comfortably without any overhang and this really affected me as I had no small based characters other than Toad on my squad and Quinn controlled the board side that accessed the central console.
Quinn managed to control the SWORD base for most of the game - as Toad failed a couple of crucial rolls when contesting the base and the terrain in the centre of the board really affected my ability to contest it. Quinn takes this one 17-14.
Game 4 - Dead Steve - Black Order
Steve is another face that I have never met before but he's another local that's just got into the game, so hopefully he's another one to add to our growing local MCP group.
Steve wins priority and selects his secures - he pulls out Demons Downtown and I pull out Spider Infected - I select 17 points as the threat level.
My Squad: Green Goblin, Kraven, Lizard, Doc Oc, Venom
Steve's Squad: Thanos (Space and Mind Gem), Corvus, Proxima
I end the first round of the game holding 3 spiders and securing 2 of the 3 demons giving me a 5-2 lead. My tactic here is the same as when I played Black Order earlier in the day, I'm leading in the game and I hold more extracts - so the onus is on Steve to come towards me - he'll either have to commit someone to staying on the back point - which isn't ideal when he only has Thanos, Corvus and Proxima on the board - or move off the point and lose the VP's and hope he can swing the game and claw them back later.
Steve decides to do the former and leave Corvus on the back point to my relief - and chooses to bring Proxima and Thanos up the board. I retreat Lizard back from the mid point and fan out across my side of the board leaving Venom on the home secure. Fortunately Steve only managed to daze Doc Oc before the end of the game and I see this one out. Another win for Foes 17-13
Overall I was really happy with how my Foes performed. 3-1 is my best ever tournament result and I managed to take 4th place and I've done so whilst taking a new affiliation. I'd like to thank my four opponents for making the day so enjoyable and to the Pro Tech Games staff for TO'ing the event. The final leaderboard can be seen below.
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