St-Laurent Open 2023 Battle Report
Hello and welcome back to another Battle Report! This time, I'll be convering my run at the St-Laurent Open. This is the first tournament I'm attending since the last character changes where I had time to play and test my roster before the event. I'm now more familiar with the reworked characters play patterns amd how they perform on the table.
So, here is my roster
Core
Storm: Leading the charge yet again with X-Men Gold, I think that, even though her leadership was nerfed, it still stays one of the premier scenario tools in MCP. She plays a more meaningful role on the board as a model now, compared to her previous incarnation.
Cyclops: Offering an alternative leadership in X-Men Blue, Cyclops presents an option on crisis shapes where X-Men Gold has a more limited impact.
Beast: The cheapest affiliated 50mm base for X-Men Gold, Beast also has access to very efficient displacement, is very mobile and relatively resilient thanks to his rerolls. He also brings solid opening sequences on B shapes that makes him a good specialist there.
Domino: Being the premier damage dealer in X-Men, she's very well suited under either X-Men Gold or X-Men Blue. With X-Men Gold, the absence of action compression is compensated by the leadership, and under X-Men Blue, she gets to fuel most of your team with power very often thanks to the combination of Rapid Fire and Probability Manipulation.
Colossus: The newest addition to my competitive list, Colossus has been an important part of X-Men in both Gold and Blue. With his inherent resilience, and newfound mobility he's a much more proactive team player. Under the Gold leadership, he can pick up objectives and be closer to the action than most other models and under X-Men Blue, the extra power lets him use his spender and his terrain throw more often, making him a better brawler.
Logan: Another pretty solid brawler, Logan brings above average mobility and excellent stats to play scenarios like Mutant Madmen and Spider-Portals. He's a solid, reliable model that can contribute well under both leaderships.
Rogue: Bringing a very solid toolkit thanks to Mutant Absorption and a size 4 terrain throw, Rogue is my prefered choice of affiliated 4 threat. She scales very well with the extra power from X-Men Blue and is a resilient objective holder, that denies tempo thanks to Mutant Absorbtion for X-Men Gold.
Cable: Another new updated character, Cable has been pretty impressive in testing so far. Being able to do more damage more consistently, which in turn lets him use his throw and his defensive shiedling a lot more, he's a solid support and offensive piece for the affiliation.
Tech
Magik: Intentionally playing a roster that had no options to take away extracts, I wanted a good extract chaser, and Magik with Journey Through Limbo had been a good option in that role before, was my pick for the event.
Psylocke: Feeling that I needed another brawler to round up my team, I went with Psylocke because she had some additional utility for match ups I feel my list had a hard time into like Web Warriors, Defenders and to an extent Guardians. With power denial on both her builder and spender, combined with her rerolls, she offers a pretty consistent output and that's what I was looking for to round up my team.
Games
Game #1 X-Men Gold vs X-Force, Mutant Madman/Research Station (15)
Teams: Storm, Beast, Logan, Cable vs Cable, Wolverine, Sabretooth, Toad
From the get go, I knew this was going to be a brawly game. I picked both Beast and Logan, since I knew that, without prio, I was unlikely to be able to score the Researcher round 1, but could be able to grab more Secures than my opponent. I also knew that X-Force has, besides Cable, a majority of characters with only physical attacks, so Beast would still be a solid pick.
On round 1, I manage to score the Researcher and move it towards my characters on one of the sides. We trade blows on round 2, 3 and 4 but having commited Storm, Beast and Cable to securing the Researcher, I gained enough momentum and the edge on attrition to close the game out on round 5, 20-10 after having KOed Wolverine, Sabertooth and Toad.
Game #2: X-Men Blue vs Guardians, Infinity Formula/Skrulls (20)
Teams: Cyclops, Colossus, Logan, Psylocke, Rogue vs Star Lord, Rocket, Groot, Agent Venom, Beta Ray Bill, Crimson Dynamo
This game I expected my opponent to go with a wider Guardian team in order to leverage the Infinity Formula and priority better and this lead me to choose 20 threat instead of 17 (which, with the benefit of hindisght, ended up being a huge mistake) to try and field more displacement than my team. Never having the last activation against Bill, that could throw one of my models every round thanks to the Infinity Formula and an even number of extract, put me on the backfood very early on. Which, even if I tried to make up for it by going agressively against my opponent's models, I couldn't manage to take an advantage and. We traded points back and forth to their advantage, and I ended up losing the game 15-16 on round 5. I think we both played a pretty solid game but not pivoting early enough to properly colapse on the flank away from Bill ended up forcing me into a disadvantageous position from which I couldn't recover.
