This weekend I attended a 2 day event in a nearby city. I went there with a group of my more competitively inclined locals. We were all there to have a good time, play some games and try to perform to the best of our abilities.
So let's take a look at the list I chose for this event.
Core
Storm: She's the most common leader for the Uncanny X-Men with X-Men Gold. She serves as a great pivot for her leadership and as a mobile piece with displacement.
Beast, Domino, Logan, Rogue: Those are the characters which I consider the best to form a base of flexible models that can play both brawl in a pinch and play the scenario well within the affiliation. Beast and Logan are both relatively resilient and mobile, with access to displacement and are great at taking control of secures. Domino brings an incredible amount of muscle with her kit and is the biggest offensive threat in the affiliation. Rogue rounds up the team with her much needed size 4 terrain throw, resiliency and Mutant Absorbtion.
Tech
Pyro: With above average damage and range for his threat cost, Pyro helps bring more firepower and some excellent control against bigger models thanks to his Firewall superpower, which severely limits their output.
Mystique: One of the most popular 3 threats at the moment. Mystique has some unique appeals in X-Men. Having either the choice of Cover or Martial Artist, she becomes a lot more resilient than normal. She brings some additional terrain destruction with Expert Sabotage together with her Tactic Card: Deception. She also brings her much needed long move for some of the scenario plays X-Men can set up.
Doctor Voodoo: Back in my roster after a leave of absence, Doctor Voodoo is still one of the prime scenario models in MCP. The extra reach granted by the X-Men leadership makes him a terrifying force to reckon with when he needs to possess a model and run away with extracts.
Trials
Psylocke: Still wanting to give Psylocke more table time, I chose to keep her in my roster to also see how and X-Men team would play with only a combination of 3 and 4 threats in the roster. I also wanted to give her Tactic Card: Crimson Dawn more table time since I hadn't played with it very much so far.
Games
Game #1: X-Men vs Inhumans, Spider-Portals/Senators (19)
Teams: Storm, Beast, Domino, Mystique, Magik, Doctor Voodoo vs Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Lockjaw, Black Dwarf
My first game was an interesting one as I wasn't expecting the lineup my opponent brought, but they said they wanted to try something different and rolled with it. Having priority and a much more mobile team, we ended grabbing 3 senators each but, thanks to First Class. I ended up winning 3 of the Spider-Portals on round 1 and managed to keep a combination of Spider-Portals and Senators long enough for me to secure the win 18-12 on round 3.
Game #2: X-Men vs Hydra, Deadly Meteors/Paranoia (17)
Teams: Storm, Domino, Logan, Rogue, Mystique vs Red Skull, Master of Hydra, Spider-Woman, Bob, Agent of Hydra, Nick Fury Sr, Mystique
When we were setting up the board, my opponent admitted to not having played against X-Men very much, with this scenario combination, I felt pretty advantaged. Not having priority meant I could have Logan try and flip the Meteor furthest from my board while also being able to score the extracts. I end up grabbing a 5-3 lead on round one. After a brawly round 2 where I got to daze both Mystique and Red Skull, grabbing the 4 extracts and scoring the 3 secures, giving me a huge 8 point swing on round 2. Afterwards, my opponent took their chances but couldn't recoup fast enough, giving me the win 17-8.
Game #3: X-Men vs Wakanda, Spider-Portals/Research Station (18)
Teams: Storm, Logan, Psylocke, Rogue, Mystique vs Black Panther, Shuri, Okoye, Rhino, Angela
Going into this game, especially against Wakanda, I wanted to give Psylocke some table time and take the opportunity to play Crimson Dawn, figuring it would be relevant against Black Panther and Shuri. I think besides Psylocke, I didn't pick the right squad for this match up. While Mystique was a fine choice, the 4 physical defense with cheap displacement from Beast to help score the extract more often would've been a more reliable pick. Psylocke should've also been replaced for Doctor Voodoo, as it would've allowed me more control over the scenario and additional terrain throws. I have a strong start with control of a majority of Spider-Portals and the Researcher, but my opponent made sure to pressure my models in the center of the board to then take control of the Researcher and with their greater amount of models left on the board, outpace me on the secures. I end up losing a pretty tight game 17-19 on round 6.
Game #4: X-Men vs Avengers, Infinity Formula/Alien Ship (17)
Teams: Storm, Beast, Domino, Rogue, Doctor Voodoo vs Sam Wilson, Luke Cage, Doctor Voodoo, Black Panther, Baron Zemo
Usually I consider Avengers to be a rough match up for X-Men, as they have a good amount of very efficient characters that can do very well into them like Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Hulk and Doctor Voodoo, but from my opponent's list, I knew that since they only had Sam Wilson as leader, I would be in a significantly better shape to play the scenario and outscore them as Sam's leadership isn't at its best when they're behind on the scenarios and have to engage the opposing team. I end up safely grabbing 2 of the 3 extracts and 2 secures on my side of the board. By pivoting early enough with my team, I was able to keep my scenario lead and close the game on round 6, 20-11.
This ends up closing out the first day of the event. With a final score of 3-1, I secure my position in the top 16 with the 6 other friends and locals that attended the event with me.
At the start of Day 2, we were lucky enough to not have to face each other at the start.
Game #5: X-Men vs Black Order, Spider-Portals/Researcher
Teams: Storm, Beast, Logan, Rogue, Voodoo vs Thanos (Mind), Corvus (Reality), Proxima and Supergiant
Not wanting to repeat the same mistake in squad selection I made on day 1, I went with Beast and Voodoo to bring additional control and resiliency. On round 1 I make a significant positional mistake and place Storm forward of my home Spider-Portal, which lets Thanos use his Cosmic Portal and Mind Gem to bring her to the middle of the table. She then gets her dazed with attacks from both Corvus and Proxima. Luckily for me, Doctor Voodoo moves forward and makes a builder into Proxima, dazing her, which lets me possess Thanos and score 3 of the Spider-Portals, putting me ahead 5-1. Thanks to a boosted Death's Decree, Proxima KO's Storm at the top of round 2 which puts me drastically behind with the loss of my leadership. I then use Logan to KO Proxima, which puts my opponent down to 3 characters. With Voodoo's possession, I can take away Corvus's ability to play the scenario which only lets Thanos and Supergiant interact with Spider-Portals. With that, I use my more mobile characters to make sure I control and outpace the scenario, managing to win the game in round 4, 19-5.
Game #6: X-Men vs Hellfire Club, Infinity Formula/Spider-Infected (17)
Teams: Storm, Beast, Rogue, Mystique, Doctor Voodoo vs Emma Frost, Rhino, Beta Ray Bill, Black Cat, Bullseye
With all 6 of my locals advancing to the top 8, we were bound to play each other, so I get paired against one of my regular sparring partners and there is little surprises from both of us about what the other player is bringing. Luckily for me, even with losing priority, we end up with was probably their worst secure and my best extract for the match up. Thanks to Spider-Infected and X-Men's extract plays, I end up 3-2 on the extracts with 2 secures. My objective is to close the game as soon as possible, aiming for round 3 but knowing it would probably be round 4. Correctly identifying that they have to chase me very aggressively, I didn't have time to pivot fast enough to have my models be far from the action but thankfully, I get excellent blocs that grant me enough time to pivot away and secure the win 20-14 on round 4.
Game #7: X-Men vs Avengers (redux), Mutant Madmen/Paranoia (16)
Teams: Storm, Beast, Domino, Mystique, Doctor Voodoo vs Steve Rogers, Iron Fist, Hulk, Black Cat
I was surprised to see my opponent pick 16 threat and felt pretty confident in my squad. With 5 models against 4 and the X-Men advantage on extracts, I was able to take the lead by having more models to pressure the secures while keeping my extract lead and using Voodoo to steal the remaining tokens. Consolidating my advantage and pivoting fast enough to lock the game on round 4, 20-8.
Game #8: X-Men vs Shield, Infinity Formula/Montesi
Teams: Storm, Beast, Domino, Rogue, Voodoo vs Nick Fury Jr, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Agent Venom, Luke Cage
Winning priority against Shield on a scenario with an uneven number of extract, I knew I was advantaged and had to play a very mobile and cagey game if I wanted to win so I choose a squad that could control the board and deny resources from my opponent. Against Shield, Rogue's Mutant Absorbtion is one of my favorite tools to hurt Nick Fury's ability to use Eyes in the Sky. I manage to keep my models relatively safe on round 1 and 2. I think my opponent overcommited to one of their flanks and had some of their best characters into X-Men, Hawkeye and Agent Venom, on the same side of the board. Recognising that, I pivoted my extract holders to the other side of the board to safeguard them as much and as long as possible. With the additional scenario pressure from Voodoo, Beast's displacement and my defensive layers, I was able to put enough scenario pressure to win on round 4, 16-10, winning the event altogether.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with my performance and with the roster I brought. Even though Pyro was the only character in my roster to not see the table this weekend, he still merits his spot as an answer to big characters like Malekith. I would say that my biggest takeaway from this weekend is that I really didn't need four 4 threats in my roster so I think I'll be looking to replace Psylocke for another model at a different threat.
I would also like to take the time to thank the organisers and the other players that participated in the event, it was super fun even though there were some logistical issues, the overall experience was very nice.
Thanks for taking the time to read this piece and as always, don't forget to have fun!
