March Madness: Some Round One Results

Round One Match Results

Decks piloted by Captain Spud, Gamerette, Gdaybloke.

After two sessions, we’ve knocked over fifteen of the first round matches. Seventeen more to go before we can advance to the second round, but you don’t care about that, do you? All you want to know about is the results so far! Do I even get a please??? Impatient mongrels, the lotta ya!!

… Fifteen games, fifteen results… including some popular teams knocked out of the competition already, and some victories that surprised us as much as I’m sure they’ll surprise you.  

Read on, dear Lost, read on. 

Doom wins over Fantastic Four -  Despite the Fantastic Four pulling out their toys and having enormous stats, they just didn’t have an answer to Doom’s board control tactics, falling victim to Mystical Paralysis and the like. The game did go to turn 8, but constant exhaustion kept Marvel’s First Family from doing… well, almost anything to their traditional nemesis. Doom came, saw, controlled.

Hellfire Club wins over Squadron Supreme (No Break) - The squadron’s curve started fine, but as the game developed it became apparent that there was to be no Peace In Our Time. Nor was there the chance to escape to Utopia Isle, and with none of their thematic support cards, the Hellfire Club just threw their money, and their weight, around. Shinobi Shaw proved just too big and unpleasant for the Squadron, especially since Redstone was nowhere to be seen.

The New Brotherhood wins over Outsiders - Starting right out of the gate with a The New Brotherhood in the opening hand meant the damage was flowing from the word go. The Outsiders put up a valiant fight, swarming at every opportunity, but the stunbacks started taking their toll, especially when the Brotherhood started swarming out themselves. Get It Done’s were present in multiples, but they just weren’t enough to let the Outsiders… get it done. The New Brotherhood may not be so new anymore, but they’re still advancing into round two.

Anti-Matter wins over the X-Men - A game with the potential to prove highly entertaining - Gamerette ended up piloting the X-Men, while Spud had an Anti-Matter build the likes of which he’d never had his hands on before. That’s right, Anti-Green Lanterns pumped up with Sinestro Corp Rings. The sheer amount of damage from the Anti-Green Lanterns slammed through the X-Men’s defenses, for a turn four win as Chomin sacrificed Xallarap for the 3 pts needed to shunt the X-Men to 0.

Teen Titans win over Darkseid’s Elite - The battle of the Substituters. Both teams were running Titans Of Tomorrow and Furnace of Apokolips to help with card draw as they switched in character after character. Turn five may have seen the most, with four substitutions taking place for Darkseid’s switchers before their main recruit. The game took a break before turn 6 for pie, which may or may not have affected the final standings. Everyone knows that teenagers perform better after pie.

Secret Six win over X-Statix - A team that loves to be attacked, fighting a team that loves to sit back and wait for its alternate win condition. The publicity hounds tossed their weight around, but a hidden early board teamed up with House of Secrets kept the Secret Six’s endurance happy as the game progressed. In the end discarding a Mad Hatter to feed Ragdoll’s Vengeance gave the Secret Six the extra body they needed, and the Secret Six were indeed Victorious. 

Marvel Knights win over B.P.R.D. - Pancakes don’t mean diddly unless your opponent’s hungry. Despite immense amusement as three copies of Surprise Attack ate 13 END from the Marvel Knights over the course of the game, the loss of 4-drop Hellboy to an equipped Punisher meant the BPRD just didn’t have any answer to the volumes of damage pouring through the visible area. Hannibal King even got an extra 5 burn in - Mmm burning.

Kree win over Morlocks (No Reinf) - The second closest game played thus far, the Kree swarm ate a lot of damage through Morlock Justice’s reinforcement removal but thanks to a Penal Colony and a Remnant Fleet or two, the Press engine was out in full effect. Missing their 1, 4 and 6 didn’t help the Morlocks either. With that much less damage being done each turn, the Kree tide swept over the Morlocks like… a… tide of Kree, I guess.  

Horsemen of Apocalypse win over Inhumans - Possibly the biggest upset of the round, this game proved that sometimes you just can’t draw pumps to save your bacon. Despite having the early pieces of their puzzle, the Inhumans faltered as Apocalypse and his homeboys collected more and more +1/+1 tokens to the point where they were just too big to deal with. Karnak, clearly, was off having a brewski somewhere, while the Horsemen managed to topdeck their 4, 5 and 6. 

League of Assassins win over Unaffiliated - Mojo couldn’t find his Mojo as the League knocked the unaffiliated crew around. Bane managed to nab a couple of free KO’s, allowing the League to get a board advantage with they then pressed as they game advanced. Turn eight rolled around, and 8-drop Ra’s… took away all of the unaffiliated decks affiliations. Underwhelming, yet amusing. 

Thunderbolts win over Birds or Prey - The Birds of Prey maintained consistency nicely, but in the end, there’s only so much you can do when Melissa Gold grabs ahold of some Team Tactics. Slamming into 6-drop Dinah with 104 attack put the Birds in a bind; Lady Blackhawk was able to come out and reinforce, but of course that just left her open to be stomped on by Charcoal. Could the Thunderbolts be the big threat in the Pudding bracket?

Avengers win over Legionnaires - Cosmic team attackers fighting against Reservist team attackers; sad as it is to admit it, this one was pretty much a foregone conclusion. The Avengers reservist build is remarkably strong in this format, and showed up in full force. The Legionnaires just didn’t have sufficient answers to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. 

Skrulls win over Morlocks (Evasion) - Remeber that Inhumans game, where we learnt about not being able to draw pumps? The Morlocks had most of their act together, but only managed to pull a single Shrapnel Blast, and a single Last Stand. The Skrulls, on the other hand, nabbed multiples of each of their pumps. Callisto, Marrow and Storm warring for leadership of the Morlock clan clearly distracted them while the Skrulls worked with their hidden agenda to further their secret invasion of Earth’s superhuman community.

Crime Lords win over Sinister Syndicate - The Syndicate got a nice start out of the gate with their huge ATK/self burners in play while the Crime Lords started slowly with no evident reinforcement effects, but the curve started to tell as the Syndicate kept drawing characters instead of pumps, while Masked Marauder stalled things long enough for Kingpin: Overboss to take the field. From there on Kingpin just shunted stuns and then kicked the low-DEF Syndicate around for being disrespectful on his turf.

Revenge Squad win over JLI - This was, hands down, the closest game of the round played thus far. Despite being almost written off from the word go, the JLI pulled out all stops and hit their curve nicely, beating the Revenge Squad in the face over and over despite the burns and stunbacks. How close was it? Final scores: Revenge Squad -2, JLI -4. One more pump would have made all the difference. The Revenge Squad, assumed by many to be a shoe-in, barely managed to get their act together… but they still advance.

Aaaand here’s a link to the bracket, for the curious.