Houston-Based Web Warriors Fail to Seize Victory: Broken Hearts and Lessons Learned from the Valentine’s Day Massacre Tournament

Dear Readers,


I had the privilege of competing this past Saturday at Atomic Hobby Shop in Cypress, Texas for the second Battle for the Bayou/LVO Qualifier over the weekend. I learned a lot from this well-run tournament and look forward to my next competition. In today’s article, I am looking at my time during this tournament. If you are looking for winning strategies, then, much like many other men, I am here to disappoint you. But, if you are looking for some lessons and reflections, then please, do read on.


The List:


[Characters]


- Black Cat: 3

- Black Panther: 4

- Corvus Glaive: 4

-- Infinity Gem: Reality: 1

- Doctor Voodoo: 4

- Ghost-Spider: 3

- Moon Knight: 3

- Proxima Midnight: 3

- Spider-Man Miles Morales: 3

- Thanos, the Mad Titan: 6

-- Infinity Gem: Mind: 1

-- Infinity Gem: Space: 1

- Toad: 2


[Team Tactics]


- Advanced R&D

- All Webbed Up

- Brace for Impact

- Disarm

- Indomitable

- Medpack

- Mission Objective

- Mothership

- Sacrifice

- Spider-Tracker


[Extract Crises]


- Alien Ship Crashes in Downtown! [C]: 20

- Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! [C]: 14

- Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership [C]: 17


[Secure Crises]


- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17

- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17

- Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate! [F]: 20


As any of you noticed, I took a version of the winning LVO list piloted by Mike DeLuca and ran it into the dirt. Unfortunately, I went 2/2 in this tournament and did not achieve my goal of qualifying for LVO. However, the most important thing of losing an event (or not placing well) is to reflect on what happened, why it happened, and how to improve in the future.

Lesson One: The Juggernaut

I. Hate. The. Juggernaut. He feels oppressive to play against and, well, unstoppable (pun intended). He is absurdly fast for how slow he is supposed to be and is capable of getting almost anywhere on the map after turn 2. Every time I played into a Juggernaut, I was certain that an 8 dice attack would not 1 round Miles, and every time I paid for that mistake in logic. Even through Web Warrior and Spider-Sense rerolls, Juggernaut would one round Miles. This one rounding did come with an upside however, which I will be using when I run Juggernaut, and that is Miles coming in strong with 6 power on the following turn. Forcing Juggernaut to drop the Senator or other singular missions was a huge upside, especially when Miles is able to then pick him up and then Web Swing away. I felt at that point when fighting Juggernaut that it was a frantic fleeing scenario where I had to use terrain effectively in order to prevent him from catching Miles with the infinite Juggernaut wave dash (Miles literally had to hide on top of a building for a round to get away from this behemoth and was only able to survive due to Spider Tracker and a nearby Ghost Spider). But, on Turn 2, you are able to get at a minimum 4 small moves on a large base with Juggernaut. This does not include if you gained a massive amount of power from his builder the turn before. I avoided trying to damage him since I felt like no one on the tea could effectively hurt him and dueling with him was a no-go. All in all, I would recommend just running from him as a Web Warriors player and possibly making it to where he can’t take advantage of his ridiculous scenario play by not feeding him more power than he is already getting by just being a giant red locomotive.

Lesson Two: Play the Faction to the Scenario

Round 2 had me on Gamma Shelters against a great Spider-Foes player. It had me up 11-1 round 2. I lost that game. I think I lost the game because I picked Web Warriors for the map and not Black Order. Thanos does so much for this map by just being in the middle of it. He can go last, weather the storm of damage coming in and then throw everyone off of the points. He is easily able to get himself onto the back point with free R2 teleports. Corvus…well Corvus has the best CC in the game: Death. I didn’t play them and I regret it. I was certain that I wanted to out activate my enemy and I ended up paying the price for it. I think, in the future, I need to stick with game plans and not with what I think will work. I had a plan for pretty much every scenario and I didn’t follow my own ideas. Don’t get me wrong, my opponent played beautifully (he even used Ultron in a way that is getting my thinking hat on), but I ultimately failed this game due to not playing the scenario properly.

Lesson Three: Practice

For this tournament I was only able to get two matches of practice in. Life hit with work, family, and other things and I told myself that I didn't really need to practice that much since this will be game 60 something with Web Warriors. I should be able to pilot my main faction no matter what list it is. Wrong. I think with a list as fine tuned as the one I was running/stole, it is imperative that you practice with the list several times in order to pull the full potential of your roster to bare. Would I have done better had I practiced more? Who knows. The competition was stiff and everyone really knew their stuff. I would love to get more games in with them and continue to learn more about this game. So who is to say as to whether or not I would have been more successful with such strong competition. What I can say is that it wouldn’t have hurt and would have increased my chances of success. I had things pulled on me that were both startling and legit at the same time. For instance, I have known how strong Voodoo is for a while, we all have, but I had never been on the receiving end of a round one Brother Daniel Possession to force a dropped token and return before I could capitalize on the weakened defenses of Voodoo before. That was a brilliant play, and if I had practiced more I would have probably seen it before this event. I would have probably run into Juggernauts before and would not have had to come up on the fly for strategies. The list goes on and is too numerous about things that I could have done better, but the bottom line is that focused practice would have increased my chances of success rather than have me flop around like a wet noodle in some of my matches.

Lesson Four: Black Panther

Black Panther, as stated earlier, makes for a wonderful Web Warrior…if you play him right. I ran him into mystic attackers too often to say he made super impacts on my performance (again, practice), but Mantle + his defensive tech makes for a mean Web Head. I loved how he worked in the games he actually worked in and didn’t get blown up by Voodoo or Wanda. I wish he wasn’t competing with Venom and Voodoo in the Four Slot, but if he was any cheaper he would lose some of that kit that makes him good. I think against groups like Crime Syndicate and certain Brotherhood matches he is invaluable (he literally laughed at Magneto in one match with how little damage was done to him), but if the enemy has a Mystic attacker he starts to lose stock real quickly.

Lesson Five: Voodoo May be the Best Four Threat in the Game

Dr. Voodoo is a menace. This isn’t new. Having a power that can literally shut down some character’s whole purpose (poor Felicia) with a wiggle of his staff and infusing them with his brother’s essence is a game changer. It gets even more ground breaking when he essentially nullifies some turn one plays if he can get the power to do so (which, for some factions, is fairly easy) and then return the token to himself to prevent a counter attack is just…ridiculous to say the least. Voodoo is an oppressive force on the field that I fear is going to be Enchantress 2.0 where you have a good plan for him, play him, or both. He takes some practice to get right, but when he is done correctly he ruins game plans and forces frustration like few other characters are capable of doing. To top it off, he swims in power and has a pretty nice sized throw. He is a superb duelist in a game that sometimes forces duels. I cannot think of another four threat character that is quite as powerful and annoying as Voodoo is at the moment. Forget the Age of Ultron, we are in for a long running Spooktober.

Lesson Six: Ultron

I personally think people are sleeping on Ultron. With a range 4 Cable-esque builder in his kit, Ultron ruins Spider’s days. He is especially heinous in Spider Foes where Incinerate and the ability to force a re-roll on successful defensive dice makes for a much faster dead spider. We aren’t even looking at his throw or his spender that can change its damage output based on what your opponent is weaker to. We aren’t looking at his consistency with enemy crits or his enhanced Mystic defense in an era of increased Mystic threats. Just alone being a Four Threat on a medium base with a baby Cable builder is huge for some factions, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ultron being seen more often as a possible Voodoo counter to take down his immense defenses and defend against his Mystic attacks.

Lesson Seven: Keep Laughing and Having a Good Time

Tournaments are…stressful. You have a limited time per round to play, limited lunch time, and every round drains you more and more. You noticed small misplays and competitive minded people always have their eyes on that victory at the end that they want. It doesn’t always happen. The merit of a player is how they react to poor situations. My last match saw me fail almost every single defensive roll I was allotted. The match-up was Legacy Virus, which I was able to get all three to kill my Black Cat, and I still lost. That’s how bad my rolling was. But, we have to remember that this is a dice game. The dice sometimes don’t work with you at all. The only thing you can control in a game like this is yourself and it’s important to remember that this is still just a game. We are throwing dice at or around each other with little plastic characters that represent anything from crazy homeless/rich people to ornery space goo. If we get mad with each other and with the game we don’t grow, both as a community and as players. So, I challenge you to make bad jokes. Not jokes in poor taste, just, really bad jokes. Like “Why can’t you trust Atoms? They make up everything” or “What do you call a pig that does karate? A porkchop” or “My student loan financial status”. Anything. Cause it's better to lose while making people laugh than it is to be that player no one likes and is a detriment to the community.


All in all, the tournament was great. Opponents were great, the venue was great (seriously, if you haven’t checked out Atomic Hobby Shop I highly recommend it. The staff is great and they still put up with me), and the overall feel of the tournament was a good one. I had a blast and I look forward to making a trip to Ettin games next month for my next shot at being in the Battle for the Bayou.


Till next time Webslingers.