So Gamer’s Gauntlet is the first (and maybe only) place in Michigan to hold a ROC tournament. As you can tell from my ROC top ten article, I’m a big fan. Now I have a chance to go to one that’s only a few miles from my house. HypeFox can’t go because he has a family event. Ha-ha! The bad news… we’re in the same family. So unfortunately the article below will be what I would have been playing because I also won’t be able to attend. Bummer. Ah well, on with the article.

 

The Format: 300 point modern. Anything goes. The meaner the better. Resources. Entities. Shuma Gorath. Galactus. Cop Cars. Sentry and Void… Yikes.

 

My Team: (That I would be playing)

 

Revenge of the Nerfed 2.0

• WXM042 Fantomex
• WXM010 Shatterstar
• DP043 Black Talon
• WOL063P Ophidian (possessing Fantomex) (If I had access to the Parallax Entity, I would use that instead.)
• Total = 300 points

This team is more than it appears at face value. It’s hides two powerful power interactions. The first power interaction is one that I published here first in March. Shatterstar was nerfed so that the person he teleports can’t take an action the same turn he teleports. Fantomex can get around that by having WXM042BT E.V.A. take the trip with Shatterstar. That means Shatterstar can teleport E.V.A. and Fantomex can make a surprise attack on anyone anywhere on the board. This combo was designed to cross the board even faster than the Iron Pharaoh’s Falcon and Assassinate him. Shatter Star can’t attack, but hey it’s still pretty cool.

A few weeks ago a guy on hcrealms posted a team he went to nationals with and lost. His team featured two cool combos. WOL067P Adara and WOL099 Despotellis together give any adjacent team members 20 defense. Pretty awesome, but I’m not using it here. His other combo was Shatterstar and Black Talon. If Black Talon mind controls Shatterstar he can then give Shatterstar the once per game teleport to move anywhere on the map. Then because Shatterstar hasn’t taken an action that turn there is nothing keeping him from attacking. So Imagine teleporting across the board next to someone like SLOSH057 Lydea Mallor and just opening up with Blade/Claws/Fangs and Flurry. That’s likely a kill shot.

Now think about combining those two power interactions I talked about. On turn 3 Black Talon mind controls Shatterstar. Shatterstar teleports E.V.A. across the board. E.V.A. uses outwit, Shatterstar uses BCF/flurry, and Fantomex uses RCE before your opponent has a chance to do anything. In a 300 point game, what is your opponent going to have left after that? And using Ophidian (again, I’d prefer Parallax, but Ophidian works nicely too, and he’s who I’d have access to) actually gives me access to Pulse Wave. So if I Charge with Shatterstar to get him out of the way, I can Pulse Wave if there’s a particularly hard to hit fig that I’m just dying to reach out and touch! At the end of your first attack, even if everything goes wrong and your opponent KO’s everything you teleport over to him, you’ve still only lost 73 points. Fantomex and Black Talon were never really there and those two pieces together make a hell of a plan B in a 300 point game.

 

Writing this article makes me wish I could attend, but it’s just not in the cards. If anyone does get a chance to go, post a comment and let me know. I’m curious as to what teams will show up in the top 4.