On reflection, Week 1 went well! 2 games of MCP (well, 1 and a half say) with some great success! The game is all about point scoring, and I think that I’m understanding that “role assignment” is key. Looking at the learning points ahead, I need to get down what crisis cards work best for my team and who I cannot possibly live without.
Current standings for my tournament list:
Green Goblin, Lizard, Venom core at 11 points remains.
Kingpin, Bullseye, Taskmaster, Kraven, Mysterio, Black Cat and Doc Ock remain the back up.
Tactics Cards: Advanced R&D, One-Two Punch, Patch Up, Well-Laid Plans, Brace For Impact, Seeing Red, The Grand Illusion, Sinister Traps, Neogenetic Recombinator, Monkey Brain is Lizard Home.
Crisis Cards: Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (14), Mystic Wakandan Herbs (15), Research Station Attacked! (16). / S.W.O.R.D. Establishes Base on Moon (14), Gamma Wave (15), Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses (16).
I’m looking at the aggressive play, small areas of objectives that overlap each other (in some cases), but then tactics to bring health back where applicable. Mysterio plays the protector/shield with Grand Illusion, Venom getting the reactions back when old fish bowl head does get attacked, Tricks and Traps to catch opponents off guard, and Sinister Traps to get some early damage in.
With all that in mind, let's see how it all turns out as I head into Week 2!
Game 3 – 8th Feb 2022
Vs Dan (Web Warriors)
Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (14) / Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses (16)
Green Goblin, Venom, Lizard, Mysterio
Spider-Man (Miles), Ghost Spider, Black Cat, Deadpool, Bob
I was very lucky to get a re-match with Dan this week, and we actually played the whole game out! What a sloberknocker too, Dan has really gotten his MCP game on and it was a massively physical game. With the Web-Warriors taking priority, I went with the 14 threat for the game again specifically to get a 2nd go at a small team. I was totally not expecting Dan to fit 5 characters in his squad but the constant out-activating worked in my favour as I found myself going first for the majority of the game.
Mysterio is by far my current favourite. He has shot up the table in sheer damage and control, and I think I used Grand Illusion at just the right moment being able to fend off 3 activations against him (Deadpool, Black Cat, Ghost Spider) and turning all those Crits into Skulls. Very naughty but kept him alive until the end stages of the game.
Venom performed admirably towards the end, he is the perfect Achilles Heel to the Web-Warriors as he turns off their modification step in defence. Venom took out Black Cat and Ghost Spider almost single-handedly, and took Deadpool out of the game in the last round too. He finished the game on his healthy side with only 4 damage...
Goblin did exactly what he did last game, grabbed the senator turn 1 and bugged-out! He spent the entire game zipping around at the rear of the board playing tag with Miles, successfully keeping the nasty beat stick away from the main fight for 5 turns! Although, in all fairness, Dan did get his revenge with Miles smashing the living daylights out of Goblin on the last turn and securing the Senator for 2 points.
Lizard had a bit of a shocker, I played him very aggressively from Turn 1 and he got absolutely decimated. He was KO’d by turn 2 after getting 2 activations off. A positive to take away, he did take attacks away from Deadpool, Bob, and Miles to get rid of him, giving the rest of the team the breathing room to get into some decent point scoring positions.
Final score 10-2 to Spider-Foes, Turn 6
Tactics Cards worked very well. I didn’t get to play Monkey Brain (remembered to have it this time...) as Lizard KO’d too fast, and Brace For Impact was never needed due to there being 0 throws or collisions on my team. So a big tick for them this game.
14 threat worked nicely again. 2 games with it in a row, both strong wins and the synergy seems to be there. The big turning point will be on Thursday versus possibly Black Order... I shall see what lessons are to be learned there but I do have a wild card up my sleeve (more on that later).
Game 4 – 10th Feb 2022
Vs David (Black Order)
Research Station Attacked (16) / S.W.O.R.D. Establishes Base on Moon (14)
Dormammu, Doc Ock, Mysterio, Bullseye
Thanos, Corvus, Proxima
Let's address the elephant in the room right away, Dormammu.
I know, I know, not very themey for Sinister Six but with the threat of Black Order looming I kind of panicked... There has been a lot of chat within the local community about how powerful they are as a team and I have played against them twice before. I know first hand what a pain this team can be. With that in mind, and Black Cat still on the conversion bench, I threw the big guy in as a last minute “why not”!
David is going to be my playing partner at the London GT, both of us representing Duke’s Aces at MCP (which I am so happy about!), and as this was his first tournament-esque game I wanted to make sure he got to try what he wanted. I would of hands down chosen 14 threat, but he wanted 16 (for obvious reasons) ... ouch. The game was fast paced and brutal, objectives in the centre of the board and the real scoring was to be had in each other’s deployment so I had to push up the board early. Sadly, this meant Black Order one-shotting my little dudes within the first 2 turns...
If I’m being completely honest, it’s hard to enjoy a game where all the tactical play has to be done by the Black Order’s opponent, and I mean that with all the love I can give. Thanos go smash, Corvus go smash, Proxima go smash. The game play had to come from me, and I was completely unprepared if I’m honest. I was under the impression I’d be facing a lot of mystic and took Mysterio and Doc Ock specifically for that, I also did not include Dormammu’s card to bring someone back from the dead. In retrospect, drop the Doc and include the Croc. Lizard would have had more fun, Monkey Brain would have been useful and when he eventually died, Dormammu would have brought him back!
Speaking of the Dark Dimension, what an absolute tank Dormammu is! I genuinely enjoyed using him, and the sheer amount of power he generated was great! He is a very heavy power user, but as soon as it’s gone then it’s back on the card again. Dormammu’s attacks are effective, and getting Incantation of Obliteration off on Thanos to then do it on Corvus in one action was delicious. I have to remember the skulls counting in both attack and defence pools during an attack action, as that really hurt Thanos in turn 5, nearly one-shotting him with 7 damage. Just 1 more damage and that may have won me the game...
I got derailed in turn two by Med Pack and Patch Up, getting Thanos down to one health before the Mad Titan got healed right back up again, and that sneaky scoring element for K/Oing my characters allowed David to sneak ahead on the points. On reflection, yes it was a hard game but I actually feel like I am a stronger player than I once was. Fending Black Order off until Turn 5, and even then being only 5 points away from them, feels really good! I am very much looking forward to our rematch David!
Final score 16-11 to Black Order, Turn 5.
On a side note, I know I would have had him on a 14 threat crisis... just saying.
Game 5 – 11th Feb 2022
Vs Scott (Hulk Busters)
Mystic Wakandan Herbs (15) / S.W.O.R.D. Establishes Base on Moon (14)
Green Goblin, Lizard, Doc Ock, Mysterio
Hulk Buster, Angela, Black Widow, Rocket, Toad
So this was a learning point! Playing against Thanos is hard as the whole team is designed to butcher, but playing against Hulk Busters is like fighting underwater... so little amount of damage goes through! The big guy himself is a real power house, with his Meteoric Punch stopping your opponent getting power. It’s VERY frustrating as no matter who you send up against him you get the same result, a lot of damage received and no power to react or attack back with next activation.
Frustratingly there isn’t much to say about this match other than it was a pure eye-opener to the sheer nature of big guys on the field. Needless to say I missed Dormammu on this one as his extra power in the power phase and his attacking strength was needed to go against Stark. Half way through the game it dawned on both Scott and I that he was unable to utilise the Hulk Buster’s affiliation due to Rocket not being an Avenger. As Scott said “he’s in the bloody Avenger’s film!”, fair point.
I’m very grateful for Scott helping me on this tournament journey as he is very competitive minded, and more than happy to take the time to walk through play options and understand what the best play would be. I honestly don’t think I’ll come up against lists like his until London, so every game I get with him is a lesson.
Final Score 16-6 to (non)Hulk Busters, Turn 4. I now have waking nightmares of meteoric punches.
Game 5 – 11th Feb 2022
Vs Huw (Freedom Fighters)
Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (14) / Research Station Attacked! (16)
Dormammu, Lizard, Mysterio
Mystique, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Domino
Playing Huw is a breath of fresh air, the man knows how to play miniature games but specifically with MCP he likes to play the miniatures that he likes to play. As soon as I saw a Brotherhood list the colour drained from my face... I’ve faced Magneto, Witch, Speedster lists before and hated it. Unfortunately, Huw played me immediately after my spanking from Scott, so with the fear of Magneto looming and relapses of Hulkbuster I immediately decided on Dormammu. I regretted this once Mystique and Domino hit the table, as the game was going to play completely differently to what I thought and I genuinely believed I had gone too hard on Huw... boy was I wrong!
The game was very enjoyable, both Dormammu and Scarlet Witch beasted the opposition, but as we all know it’s a points based game. Quicksilver tried his best to zoom around the safe houses but it was Dormammu who grabbed the poor horrified senator. With only one health remaining on his injured side, the dastardly daemonic deity from the Dark Dimension bravely ran away from all the action, hiding on the last turns of the game to secure the win.
Final Score 16-8 to Dark Dimension.
What an amazing week of gaming. I set out to achieve at least 1 game a week, but to get 4... I am spoiled. A huge thanks to the Duke’s Gaming Community for supporting me with playing this superb game. Dan, David, Scott, Huw, it’s great to have you a part of this journey, thank you.
Key learning points this week, dropping Black Cat for Dormammu has paid off so far. Bringing a big guy has been eye-opening and seems to be essential to go up against the possibility of another big guy. Lizard and Mysterio are certainly great additions to the teams I play so certainly more practice with theses baddies is needed. It’s good to be bad.
I’m getting a feel for certain objectives and specific crisis cards. At the moment I’m playing low-cost games which swings in my favour to a degree, but games like Herbs become almost impossible to score with. Senators and Witness seem to come up more often than not, and I have a decent match up with those. Looking into next week I need to think more about what I can score and start getting points on the board earlier. The Sam Spam list is inspiring with the volume of activations, could this be rolled into Sinister Six? How much more can I push into Dark Dimension? Should I be concerned that I am deviating from my original concept of Spider-Foes? As always, let me know your thoughts!
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