Welcome to this newest Battle Report from the 2024 edition of MCP's World Team Championship! Because of the nature of the event, being a 5 players' team tournament, I'll go over both the pairing process and the games themselves. Before we get to cover the games, I'll go over the list I brought to the event and some inclusions and exclusions made for the event.
Characters
Storm: The usual suspect. Storm has been the mainstay leader of Uncanny X-Men in MCP since her release. The movement provided by her leadership and defensive reroll continues to make the affiliation a strong player in the game. She lets X-Men, an affiliation comprised of mostly brawly models play the scenarios or threat project by creating and leveraging opportunities provided by her leadership.
Cyclops: The second leader of the list. His main function is to provide an alternative plan to Storm's scenario plays. As Cyclops wants to play a more midrange game, he taps into affiliated models' strengths and his leadership provides additional value by generating extra power to leverage the tools they have available. He also stands as a solid model under Storm's leadership thanks to his attacks, mobility and support he provides.
Beast: Another classic of most X-Men's lists. Beast's mobility, resilience and control, effectively packaged, make him a mainstay. His 50mm base also opens scenario plays under Storm and on wide scenario shapes.
Domino: Another affiliated all-star. Domino's damage and resilience stand above and beyond most models of her threat level. Under Storm, she serves as an excellent extract carrier and lets you bring some heat when needed. Under X-Men Blue, she helps trigger the leadership fairly consistently while not needing extra power herself.
Iceman: One of this year's new releases, Iceman has been surprisingly effective at both control and damage. With Cold Snap and his beam, he denies areas of the board, especially in wide and spread scenarios, by slowing models and getting in chip damage whenever he can. He also brings an additional 50mm base at 3 threat for Storm's leadership.
Shadowcat: Much like Domino, Shadowcat's presence in this list serves a dual purpose of being a relevant piece under both leaders for different reasons. Her mobility (thanks to her places and long move) is amongst the best in X-Men, which lets her be a very relevant scenario model on spread-out maps under Storm's leadership. Under X-Men Blue, her attack suite provides a reliable way to trigger the leadership in addition to being a model that benefits a lot from the extra power provided by the leadership.
Bishop: The first character that sees play mostly under Cyclops. Bringing a strong attack suite, a guaranteed incinerate to help trigger the leadership and a very strong throw, Bishop brings both damage and control but is usually hungering for more power which X-Men Blue thankfully provides him with. With other models that can increase his defense dice, his Mutant Energy Absorbtion becomes a lot more effective and keeps him threatening the board longer.
Nightcrawler: Kurt has been an incredibly strong release for X-Men. With his unmatched mobility and the guaranteed stun on his builder, he can threaten to be anywhere he wants to be. Given extra power, he can Brimstone Blitz successionally and pressure big models.
Cable: The last of the affiliated models. Cable brings a very strong offensive output, an excellent terrain throw, innate mobility and defensive tech for brawlier match-ups. Given extra power under Cyclops, he supports the more fragile offensive models like Bishop and Shadowcat. Under Storm, his mobility gives extra scenario options as he helps survive attacks to score out the game.
Pyro: The only splash in my list for this event. Pyro is yet another model that works extremely well under both leaders in my list. Thanks to Firewall and Pyrotechnics, he brings excellent control tools. Given extra power, he also brings a lot of heat to the table with Stoke the Flames on his beam, to trigger Cyclops's leadership and give other models extra power.
Considerations
Doctor Voodoo: Usually one of my favorite models to play in X-Men, Doctor Voodoo was unfortunately for me a concession of the team format. Having a Midnight Sons player in our team meant he had priority for that model.
Angel: The newest release for the Uncanny X-Men. Because of his late release, I didn't have enough games with Angel to add him to my list even if he looked like a model I would've been interested in adding to my list. The additional constraint of having him painted on a short schedule meant it would've been hard for my painter to get him done in time.
Sunspot: Even though he's only been released recently, he's a model that immediately has strong synergies with both Storm and Cyclops with the additional movement they provide. He also brings another inexpensive throw for my list and solid offensive output. I felt I had enough practice games with him to add him to my list, but couldn't get him painted in time for the event so I had to leave him at home.
Games
Game #1
Pairings: For this round, we felt we only had 2 match-ups we really wanted to dodge; our Web Warrior player into the mirror, because they were better teched for it, and the X-Men mirror because I didn't have Doctor Voodoo, which, in some of the practice games I did for the event, was the biggest tiebreaker in the mirror match. Thankfully, we won priority and managed to set up match-ups we were all comfortable with. So I end up playing against Inhumans.
X-Men Blue vs Inhumans, Intrusion/Senators (19)
Teams: Cyclops, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Cable, Pyro vs Black Bolt, Ms Marvel, Lockjaw, Iron Fist, Black Swan (Power Gem).
Going into this game, with Intrusion as the secure, I brought a squad with which I could fight but that was still fairly mobile. Thanks to some early damage from Cyclops, Pyro and Cable, I managed to take a lead on attrition round 1. On round 2 and 3, we trade attacks but unfortunately for me, I fell behind on attrition, leaving a lot of my opponent's models on very low health. Thankfully for me, I was sufficiently ahead on VPs, that, with a few well placed attacks, I daze most of my opponent's team and manage to score out the board 16-10.
Thanks to the efforts of my teammates, we claim this round 3-2.
Game #2
Pairings: We were again faced with a similar scenario than the one the round before, where I was hoping to dodge the mirror because of Doctor Voodoo, and our Web Warrior player because of Hellfire Club. We manage to get a good handle on the pairings and I end up facing Defenders.
X-Men Blue vs Defenders: Gamma/Skrull (15)
Teams: Cyclops, Domino, Cable, Pyro vs Daredevil, Immortal Hulk, Wong, Nebula
When I was going through my opponent's team, I noticed that they had given Hulk to their Asgardian player, which meant that if I was to see Immortal Hulk at 15 threat, my opponent would either have to play a 4 treat, likely Shang-Chi, or go with Wong and Nebula, both options I felt comfortable with especially because the table we were playing on had a lot of size 3 terrain that was accessible for me to throw. So I went with a very brawly team, chose not to pick up any of the side extracts early on and focused on removing key activations and models early to score out later in the game. Thankfully for me, that's exactly how it played out, I managed to get good damage early on into Immortal Hulk to then daze and KO him in rounds 3 and 4. With him off the table, I made good work of the rest of my opponent's squad and scored out 19-11.
Yet again thanks to our pairing and the work of my teammates, we win this round 3-2.
Game #3
Pairings: For the last round of the day, I once again have to dodge the mirror with Voodoo and our Web Warrior player his mirror because of Shang-Chi. We yet again managed to safeguard our most sensitive match-ups and going into the round we were feeling pretty good about it.
X-Men Blue vs Asgard: Demons/Skrulls (20)
Teams: Cyclops, Domino, Bishop, Cable, Pyro vs The Mighty Thor, Thor Hero of Midgard, Lady Sif, Beta Ray Bill
Going into this game, I knew I had to play a more fighting game again. I managed to get a strong attrition lead on rounds 1 through 3, but after that, Thor, Hero of Midgard started chewing through my models pretty effectively. My opponent gets their Brothers in Arm turn on round 5, and manage to KO both my Cable and Bishop in a single activation, effectively removing almost all my models from the board, and leaving me unable to score out the game. I end up losing 11-12.
Unfortunately for us, we end up losing two other games by very slim margins, giving our team it's first defeat on the last round of the day 1.
Game #4
Pairings: For the first round of the second day, we're feeling pretty confident about this round's match-up, having only our Web Warrior player to shield from the Avengers match-up. So I end up playing against Avengers.
X-Men Blue vs Avengers: Scoundrels/Skrulls (20)
Teams: Cyclops, Bishop, Nightcrawler, Cable, Pyro vs Sam Wilson, Hulk, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Black Widow, Bullseye
When I was picking my squad for this game, because there were 9 VPs on the board, I expected my opponent to pick a midrange team with Sam, Voodoo, Shang-Chi and Hulk to try to outscore me, so I brought a team with which I thought I could fight against that. Into the game, I managed to get ahead on VPs by getting a few key attacks and incinerates with Pyro, but my opponent's attacks were really punishing my models and I ended up losing too many extracts at a key moment of the game, losing 17-19. With hindsight, I think I made the mistake of trying to fight my opponent too much instead of playing the scenario when I had the advantage and picking a team too tall for how fast the game was going to be.
Luckily for me, my teammates managed to win their respective games, and we win this round 3-2.
Game #5
Pairings: Going into round 5, we were not feeling super confident about our ability to dodge all the hard match-ups from the opposing teams. We do manage to make the most of it, by having me dodge the mirror with Voodoo, which our Criminal Syndicate player also wanted to avoid, and the Web Warrior mirror for similar reasons. So I get paired up with the opposing team's Web Warrior player.
X-Men Gold vs Web Warriors, Mutant Madmen/Spider-Infected (18)
Teams: Storm, Beast, Domino, Iceman, Shadowcat, Pyro vs Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man (Miles), Black Cat, Ghost-Spider, Wong, Black Widow
X-Men vs Web Warriors has been a match-up that puts a lot of weight on the player winning priority and getting the scenarios they want. Thankfully for me, we ended up on a scenario combination I'm very comfortable with. After grabbing the central extract, my opponent used their Amazing Spider-Man to move and dive one of my home extracts, in front of Pyro. This lets him get a good attack into him, and Firewall him to both Slow and Root him, to make sure he's not able to run away with the extract effectively on the next round. Thanks to a dice spike from Beast, I also manage to get good damage in and am able to flip the opposing Mutant Madmen trap early on to get a good VP lead. Luckily for me, my opponent also didn't bring Aunt May's Wheat Cakes in their tactics cards, which let Iceman slow a lot of opposing models and let me rotate my models to collapse on the extracts better than they could, giving me a pretty decisive lead and wrapping up the game 23-13.
Thankfully, my teammates continue to perform well and we take yet another round 3-2.
Game #6
Pairings: Going into this round, we knew we were in for a hard time, none of the match-ups from the other team felt advantageous into ours, so we had to do damage control. We managed to get match-ups we thought we could work with but were not feeling very confident of our capacity to handle the opposing team. I end up getting paired against Web Warriors again for the final round.
X-Men Gold vs Web Warriors, Spider-Portals/Paranoia (16).
Teams: Storm, Beast, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Pyro vs Spider-Man (Miles), Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost-Spider, Black Cat, Toad
This is yet another match-up and scenario combination where I was missing Doctor Voodoo, I think having conditional extract drops that were harder to set up meant I had to try to close out the game faster than my opponent. Unfortunately for me, overextending my Nightcrawler ended up costing me VP parity and my opponent made quick work of the rest of the game, wrapping it up 11-18.
My teammates ended up in a similar situation, and we got completely swept 0-5 in the final round.
After the final scores, we ended up 7th out of 42 teams, which was above my personal goal of having our team end up with a positive record. Globally, I think we did pretty well but there are a few lessons I've learned both as a player and captain that I'll hopefully be able to put into practice next year.
On a personal level, I'm not super satisfied with my personal performance, I think there are a few pretty significant mistakes that I made that I could've avoided, and in roster building, I feel like I underestimated just how pivotal not having Voodoo was in the pairing and match-up process, which ended up having the unfortunate consequence of having my team shield me from certain match-ups. Another thing I think I could've changed in my approach for this list is to focus on dealing with some of the attrition match-ups, as they represented a vast majority of the field. I feel like some alternative teams like Servants of Apocalypse could've helped my team perform overall better and not be as taxing on the match-ups.
All in all, I'm very glad of how well we did as a team and of my time spent at the WTC. It was incredible to get to see and meet so many other skilled players and friends made through this game over the years. Hopefully, I'll get to see them again next year and do even better than this time!
Thanks for taking the time to read this piece and as always, don't forget to have fun!
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