Dear Readers,
Adepticon has come and gone, and below you will find the top lists from the event.
There is one issue with this list, and I will tell you up front that if you look in Longshanks that The top cuts were Avengers, X-Men/Black Order, Midnight Sons/ Black Order, and Avengers while on this list the fourth place has gone to Spider Foes and Criminal Syndicate. Unfortunately, sources report that the fourth place Avengers player was called away to repel an incursion of steampunk robots and giant alligators. Luckily, our valiant Crucible Guard came back alive, but was unable to staunch the tide. More information as it becomes available.
In today’s Friendly Neighborhood Web Warrior, we will only do cursory analysis of these lists and more focus on trends, what’s being brought that is surprising, and whatever else really comes to my mind.
Edit: I have been informed that Omnus took third and Aaron second. I have also been informed that the Dr. Voodoo Mafia has put a hit on me. More at 11.
Adepticon Champion: Avengers
[Characters]
– Black Cat: 3
– Black Panther: 4
– Bullseye: 2
– Captain America (Steve Rogers): 4
– Doctor Voodoo: 4
– Hulk: 6
– Iron Man: 3
– Loki, God of Mischief: 4
— Infinity Gem: Mind: 1
– Luke Cage: 3
– Vision: 4
[Team Tactics]
– Advanced R&D
– Avengers Assemble
– Blind Obsession
– Field Dressing
– Heroes For Hire
– Indomitable
– Marked For Death
– Medpack
– Mission Objective
– Ricochet Blast
[Extract Crises]
– Fear Grips World as “Worthy” Terrorize Cities [D]: 18
– Research Station Attacked! [E]: 16
– The Montesi Formula Found [E]: 17
[Secure Crises]
– Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest [E]: 15
– Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park [B]: 18
– Portals Overrun City with Spider-People [D]: 18
Nate Jarrad of Gamers Guild wins this year’s Adepticon with a fun, thematic Avengers list. You can find his own breakdown of the list here. I really like this thematic list as it looks to Steve to lead the team and take the team through Value Village to the big time. The list is overloaded with characters that can make fantastic use of Steve’s leadership and character. I love the fact that Black Panther is able to become a murder machine with Mantle every single turn, Iron Man is now consistently shooting people for D6 energy attacks, and Hulk…smashes. I really love this list and am actively trying to resist changing my current Avengers list to better reflect it.
Adepticon Second Place: Midnight Sons and Black Order
[Characters]
– Black Cat: 3
– Blade: 4
– Corvus Glaive: 4
— Infinity Gem: Reality: 1
– Doctor Voodoo: 4
– Ghost Rider: 5
– Iron Fist: 3
– Proxima Midnight: 3
– Thanos, the Mad Titan: 6
— Infinity Gem: Mind: 1
— Infinity Gem: Space: 1
– Vision: 4
– Wong: 2
[Team Tactics]
– Bitter Rivals
– Deal With The Devil
– Execute
– Heroes For Hire
– Indomitable
– Marked For Death
– Medpack
– Mothership
– Sacrifice
– Siege of Darkness
[Extract Crises]
– Alien Ship Crashes in Downtown! [C]: 20
– Research Station Attacked! [E]: 16
– Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership [C]: 17
[Secure Crises]
– Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth [D]: 16
– Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? [E]: 19
– Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse [C]: 19
Aaron “Spellshock” England brings a hellishly brutal list to the top cut in Midnight Sons and Black Order. Are you seeing a trend here, Black Order butting its nose into heroic business. Are they employed by Luke Cage and Danny Rand? Anyway, Vision finds his way into another top cut list and I presume that it is due to his ability to not be pushed while defending against the most prevalent attack type in the game. Ghost Rider is still riding around being a menace and Black Cat also makes her way back to top boards. I, myself, have not had an opportunity to play Midnight Sons, but I think I will use this list as a starting point.
Adepticon Third Place: X-Men and Black Order
[Characters]
– Beast: 3
– Black Panther: 4
– Corvus Glaive: 4
— Infinity Gem: Reality: 1
– Domino: 3
– Proxima Midnight: 3
– Rogue: 4
– Storm: 3
– Thanos, the Mad Titan: 6
— Infinity Gem: Mind: 1
— Infinity Gem: Space: 1
– Toad: 2
– X-23: 3
[Team Tactics]
– Brace for Impact
– Climbing Gear
– Disarm
– First Class
– Indomitable
– Marked For Death
– Medpack
– Mothership
– Sacrifice
– To Me, My X-men!
[Extract Crises]
– Fear Grips World as “Worthy” Terrorize Cities [D]: 18
– Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
– Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
– Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians [C]: 17
– Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park [B]: 18
– Portals Overrun City with Spider-People [D]: 18
One thing that I have noticed is the rise of X-Men, and Omnus from over at Omnus Protocols delivered that in spades. This is completely different from what I had assumed would happen considering how hot Brotherhood of Mutants has been recently, but when you have good players piloting good lists you get good results. We have seen X-Men in the top cut of this season’s league for TTS and now they take second with Black Order at Adepticon. In fact, Brotherhood does even show up until 19th place. I feel like I am taking crazy pills. But, having played a lot of X-Men lately, I can see how this happens. What I didn’t expect was a lack of Honey Badger. Toad, of course, takes the place of the 2 threat in the list, but I had assumed X-Men would run Gabby and Jonathon. But, I think that is the great thing about X-Men, you don’t have to run them standard. This list forgoes Cyclops (yay!), Wolverine (Meh!), and Gambit (Boo!), but keeps arguably the best X-Men in Rogue, Domino and X-23 (YMMV). I am definitely going to have to try this list at some point so that I can live the dream of running 20 threat with Thanos, Proxima, Corvus, and Rogue. It’s just a giant murder ball with DR1 across the board and I am here for it.
Adepticon Fourth Place: Spider Foes and Criminal Syndicate
[Characters]
– Black Cat: 3
– Bullseye: 2
– Doctor Octopus: 3
– Green Goblin: 4
– Hood: 3
– Juggernaut: 5
– Kingpin: 4
– Lizard: 3
– Mysterio: 3
– Toad: 2
[Team Tactics]
– All According to Plan
– Climbing Gear
– Do You Know Who I Am?
– Field Dressing
– Indomitable
– Medpack
– Monkey Brain is Lizard Home
– Sacrifice
– Sinister Traps
– Well-Laid Plans
[Extract Crises]
– Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? [C]: 19
– Fear Grips World as “Worthy” Terrorize Cities [D]: 18
– Research Station Attacked! [E]: 16
[Secure Crises]
– Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
– Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park [B]: 18
– Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate! [F]: 20
I have struggled with creating an effective Spider Foes list that wasn’t given to me, and this list made by Nick “Waffle” Jolliff is on the next “try it because you don’t know what you’re doing with your arch-nemesis” faction. There is a lot under the hood here (get it?) and it looks like parts are so easily interchanged that takes great presence of mind for what you would need to get things done to get this going. The list has all the staples of a good foes and syndicate list. I am missing Venom, but I think Juggernaut takes his place well and creates headaches for people who try to run from him that Venom cannot consistently replicate. There is no running from the Juggernaut, and it doesn’t hurt that he can pay for DR to keep him in the fight while being immovable to most effects on his healthy side. Good list, would try.
The Fourth Place Avengers List
[Characters]
– Angela: 5
– Black Widow: 2
– Captain America (Sam Wilson): 3
– Doctor Voodoo: 4
– Hulkbuster: 6
– Iron Fist: 3
– Iron Man: 3
– Luke Cage: 3
– Toad: 2
– War Machine: 3
[Team Tactics]
– Advanced R&D
– Avengers Assemble
– Bird of Prey
– Blind Obsession
– Brace for Impact
– Disarm
– Heroes For Hire
– Indomitable
– Medpack
– Ricochet Blast
[Extract Crises]
– Research Station Attacked! [E]: 16
– Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
– Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
– Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest [E]: 15
– S.W.O.R.D. Establishes Base On Moon’s Blue Area [C]: 14
– Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate! [F]: 20
I was able to procure this list last minute, and boy oh boy am I glad I did. This list is unlike anything I have seen before. It has all the hallmarks of traditional Sam Spam – durable characters, needs for movement, general annoyance, and ratchets it even higher with characters with high defense across the board, acrobatic skills, and giant robots. The core 17 threat characters are Captain America (Sam Wilson), Luke Cage, Iron Man, Dr. Voodoo, Black Widow, and Toad with changes to fit based on what is needed. I think I would need to play this list to really get a hold of its essence as there is so much movement here it makes Web Warriors look slow while boasting some of the most durable characters in the game. It also does something that the other lists don’t do – S.W.O.R.D. as a mission. I think that the swarm style of play is great with this group as you can effectively run Sam, Warmachine, Luke Cage, Iron Man, and Black Widow at 14 and have a durable list that can effectively help other points or easily get into position to take advantage of beams at all times.
Take Aways
Black Order is so easy to splash that it isn’t a bad idea to just leave out 3 characters and a TTC in your roster to accommodate them. This isn’t a huge cost to pay for one of the most impactful factions in the game as they change the dynamic of how things are played in that an objective based game can quickly be converted into team death match by just being in the roster. Obviously they are not unbeatable, but I think it is telling that they were able to take 50% of the top cut as to how powerful they are.
Next, Dr. Voodoo. Ya’ll had some great opinions on the good (?) doctor ranging from he is fine to agreeing with me on his impact. Of these five lists, he shows up in 60% of them. Granted, these are all affiliations he belongs in, but it is also hard to get to much information when most lists were not submitted to Longshanks (can ya’ll please submit your lists so I can write content and feed my dogs with my internet monopoly money that I print out to make myself feel better?). Of the lists I could glean from top 16, he does show up 3 more times, 2 of which are out of factions. So, without additional data points, I will just leave this as it stands and say that Voodoo is a menace.
I look forward to next year’s event, and, who knows, maybe your Friendly Neighborhood Web Warrior may make an appearance to get some games in. Who knows what the future holds. What surprised you in these lists? Is Voodoo A-Ok? Should we sacrifice Juggernaut to Cytorakk? Will Black Order continue to plague top tables? I want to hear what you have to say and I hope you all have a great night or day, depending on when you read this.
Till next time Webslingers
