This weekend I participated in the first Viennese Marvel Crisis Protocol Championship. I brought my Web Warriors / A-Force (/ S.H.I.E.L.D.) roster:
Round 1: Bartul (X-Force) – Hammers / Scoundrels
I was torn between A-Force and Web Warriors. Both like both Crisis. Both don’t like the damage potential of X-Force. I went with Web Warriors (Miles, Black Cat, Spider Woman, Nick Fury, Beta Ray Bill).
To no one’s surprise Cable pisitioned in the middle on the hammer. Bill grabbed a hammer and retreated on the right. Toad did this on the other side. Spider Woman grabbed the center hammer and went left. Fury with grunts and Miles also placed left, threatening Toad. Like that, Cable didn’t have a target round 1 (he picked the hammer and went to the center). As my last activation I moved Black Cat next to Domino on the far right point for a 4:4 state after round 1.
Round 2 started with Wolverine trying to No Matter the Cost Spender Charge Cat. I turned that off with Eye in the Sky though. So another walk attack with Wolverine. No damage and I deliberately rerolled into 1 damage for extra power.
I tried to take out Toad but neither Miles nor Fury nor the Grunts nor Spider Woman did damage. At least it drained Cable’s power so his activation just killed my grunts. Colossus tried to set up a Fastball Special for next round. Bill hit him and threw him away. No real damage and 8:8 after round 2.
In round 3 the hurt started. Wolverine now did his thing against Black Cat. 3 Damage and a throw which retrospectively made my deliberate wound in round 2 a bad choice. She dazed. I was still afraid of Fastball Special and Bill displaced Wolverine.
Now Cable hopped over to Spider Woman and dazed her (also taking my Brace for Impact). Now he had 2 hammers which is a real menace. Miles went for Toad but he was just impossible to even damage in this game. 10:12.
Now I needed Spider Woman to shine. All Webbed up Spender into Cable for 1 damage. But at least he dropped the hammers. Unfortunately I didn’t check my power before I started. Because I only could pick up 1. No reason to stay here, she ran away.
Miles miraculously survived the Cable activation. He then let Toad drop the hammer with his spender (because damaging him is just impossible) and retreated. I don’t exactly remember what happened on the right flank (I think Bill dazed, Domino retreated with the hammer and Black Cat stole it back) but I wasn’t able to score enough points and lost 14:17.
Tough start losing round 1 when you were looking forward to doing well on a tournament. But it was a good game against a great opponent and in hindsight there was definitively room for improvement on my play so nothing to complain about.
Round 2: Justin W Webb (Avengers) – Hammers / Intrusions:
This was going to be a killy game, so it was easy to pick A-Force (She-Hulk, Cosmic Carol, Black Cat, Beta Ray Bill).
Black Widow picked up the hammer to the left. Cosmic Carol took the right (and got pushed off point from Iron Man). She-Hulk picked my center Hammer and went to the center where she got punished and pushed from her hammered cousin. Black Cat went to the right. Bill took an advanced R&D power from She-Hulk, went next to Black Widow and threw the size 4 for a round 1 daze (but no power to pick it up unfortunately). 3:2 for me.
Bill took the hammer, hit Widow for 0 damage and retreated. There was quite some punching going on after that. A-Force Leadership helped Cat to get to 5 power so she could portal. She failed but my opponent was kind enough to put her within 1 of Hulk, exactly where she wanted to be. So she stole the hammer and retreated next to She-Hulk.
She still dazes though throws and Hulk gets the hammer but I manage to deal tons of damage on the other models, throw Hulk next to Cat (for a next round steal) position well. 7:4 after this round.
Cat steals and retreats next to Carol. Hulk hunts her down and k.o.s her. But now Carol is fueled and furious. Warhawk into Hulk for some damage, placement and throw into the wild. Charge-Delivery-Warhawk on Baron Zemo for the daze and explosion (leaving Iron Man on 1) and an Iron Man throw for the daze. Captain Amerika retreats next to Hulk. Bill takes a point. She-Hulk has nothing to punsh and just positions. 12:6
Zemo insta dazed again and then there was nothing more my opponent could do. Hulk tried a hail mary portalling (even giving up a hammer) and dazed She-Hulk. But he didn’t have power to pick up the hammer. So Bill just grabbed it and scoured for the win.
Round 3: Emplate (Web Warriors) – Cubes / Scoundrels
17 threat, so I picked Web Warriors (Miles, Black Cat, Spectacular Spider Man, Spider Woman, Nick Fury). 20 might have been interesting for A-Force.
There was a very convenient size 3 in the center. So Spectactular Spider Man picked the cube and placed in relative safety. Fury placed on the left and his Grunts took the left cube. They got hit (for 1 damage) and pulled from Gwen. Spider Woman picked up the opposing Cube on the left. Venom hit her for 1 and reeled her in for Spectacular Spider Man to completely miss. Miles and Black Cat chilled out on the right. Agent Venom went to contest the center. 6:3, great start!
The Grunts dazed to the cube damage. But that was actually pretty convenient. I placed the cube on a spot for picking up on the way home for Spider Woman. She wasn’t planning on staying in enemy terretory after the fist activation anyhow.
Agent Venom dazed Peter. But he didn’t have power to pick up the cube afterwards. So I moved Nick up. I just wanted the power from his gainer, but I guess 3 damage on Agend Venom is fine too. Then he placed the Grunts for a free pick up. Of course they dazed again but it took my opponent quite some ressources to kill them and pick up the objective. Miles dazed Agent Venom and Black Cat stole the other Miles‘ Cube. 12:6. Not too bad!
Agent Venom started round 3 by dazing Spider Woman who was severely harmed by all the cube she carried around. I used Fall Back so he couldn’t pick them up. Then I used Spectacular Spider Man to double move to the cubes, pick them up and Web Swing as far away as possible. Bad Miles tried to kill Black Cat (without success) before she ran away as far as possible (staying on 1 health). Venom tried to reel in Miles (my fourth cube) but Miles then just double moved and hopped away.
Final hail mary was to double move Gwen to pull (full health) Peter in to get one attack from bad Peter for the kill. But Spider Tracker prevented that. 16:12 after 3 rounds.
Round 4: David Hell ier (X-Force) – Paranoia / Intrusions
X-Force again. This time it was obvious, I can’t play this crisis combo with Web Warriors, so I took A-Force (She-Hulk, Cosmic Carol, Okoye, Black Cat and Miles).
Cable starting in the middle is pretty terrifying! Toad grabbed a center, Miles the left, Wolverine the right (Healing Factor is very helpful in Paranoia). I dared not take the second center so Psylocke got it. I put Cat left and Okoye right to at least get most of the secures. Cable moved and portalled to Miles hitting him a bit. That gave She-Hulk the power she needed to go to the center, throw Bishop off the point (into Toad) and deny the secure. 4:4 after round 1.
Now the hurt began. Cable started by dazing Miles and putting some damage into Cat. Also I played Brace. Jen answered by throwing terrain into Toad (Brace) and hitting (but not dazing) him. He slipped away, so she also put some damage into Psylocke before she ported to the right.
I don’t remember the details but the round ended with a big scrummage in the middle where Psylocke and Wolverine had some damage, Okoye lived on 1 and Carol was on full health and enough power for next round. Bishop managed to daze Cat (who stole Cable’s Paranoia) but had no power for picking up. 5:8.
Now I had prio and a very angry Carol Danvers. She did a Warbird on Wolverine and threw him into Psylocke. Wolverine dazed, Psylock tanked. Carol picked up the extract and threw Psylocke into Toad dazing him. Transform back and builder into Psylocke for no damage.
Cable went for Miles. He didn’t die on the first attack and used Fall Back to survive. Cat got hit but survived. So she picked up one of the Paranoias and went for it to the far right. Later Bishop joined her there and left her on 1 health.
She-Hulk tried to portal to the center but was put to the left. So instead of hitting something twice, she just had one attack into Psylocke, which was enough though. She took a Paranoia. There was still one Paranoia left. Miles took it and swung back on the point. 11:9. Great comeback!
Wolverine activated, took out Okoye and put some damage into Carol. She gladly accepted the power, transformed into Binary, Warhawked Cable for a bit of damage, picked up She-Hulk for the delivery charge into Cable finally dazing him with the last throw.
Psylocke tried to take out Mile but left him on 1. He used Web Swing to take out Toad and cuddle next to She-Hulk for her bodyguard. Bishop took out Cat and portalled to the center. There was an opening just big enough for Bishop to throw a car at Miles. But he took it like a spider and tanked it, sealing the deal before my final activation with She-Hulk where I just maximized points.
Round 5: Ivor Perculija (Hellfire Club) – Legacy Virus / Scoundrels:
I brought Web Warriors (Miles, Cat, Peter, Spider Woman, Bill and Crystal).
Bill did a save grab on the left. Ghost Rider went right for the middle. Crystal picked up the right. She got hit once from Emma and once from Red Guardian for 2 damage. I put Miles next to Crystal for potential Mission Objective. I put both my stealers next to Ghost Rider and Peter to the left opposed to Black Widow and Quicksilver. 5:3.
Crystal tried to push (failed) Guardian and retreated. She got thrown to the center from Emma. Miles used Web Sling to hit Emma (she transformed) and threw her away. Quicksilver borrowed Crystal’s Virus and ran as far as he could. Spider Woman hit Ghost Rider (Shock) for 2 and used her Spender to steal the Paranoia. Spider Woman got dazed in return but she used Mission Objective to give her Virus to Black Cat. Cat retreated.
Bill went next to Black Widow. She ran to the far right. Zemo went for the middle. 9:6 after round 2.
Now it was time for the clap back. Zemo activated and Miles was marked for death. But he just refused to die. Spider Woman webbed the entire team and ran away. Miles tried to execute Black Widow. He was bleeding and decided to live instead of trying to take Widow’s last wound.
With everything slowed and having the lead, I just retreated everything to the left, handing out staggers with Cat to further minimize my opponents Options. Nothing he could do to prevent me from scoring out turn 4.
Overall I placed 4th (out of 10). But this has to be taken with a grain of salt. Since we had players who travelled quite far for the tournament, we prioritized pairings to not play against locals. This meant I was „paired down“ a lot, dodging the „tougher“ opponents (who I play on a weekly basis anyway).
It was great fun and hopefully word travels and we can fill the 30 slots we were aiming for next year!