A few weeks ago, I shared the story of my latest trip to a WizKids Open event. Typically, my experience in this level of competition has been … checkered. My first round of this one was the perfect storm of utter IMperfection. Every possible way to fail at this game, from minor misplays to dice to colossal, illegal screwups, I did. It was so bad I didn’t even have a Round 2, suffering the bye win.

Though I strongly considered dropping, I didn’t want to just sit around for the next four hours while my carpool and Heroclixin’ bud Sceritz continued his bid at the top cut. So I endured. And my team still wasn’t trash:

Jakeem Thunder + Hulkbuster Torso

Engineer

Fast Forces Jean Grey

SHIELD Level 7 ID card (Fast Forces Nick Fury, Jr.)

Ant-Man ID Card (Fast Forces Ant-Man)

 

ROUND THREE I faced Ray and his Jakeem Thunder+Brainiac equip, Green Lantern [Joker’s Wild], Green Lantern [World’s Finest] and Mercury. He picked Hank Pym’s Lab. It started pretty dire for me when he Barrier’d up the middle room pretty tightly. I saw I’d have to bust a pair of walls to maybe have an access way. But to set up, I Sidestepped too far forward AGAIN and left Engineer to get shot at AGAIN and lost her in one attack AGAIN. Though it left Ray’s Jakeem overextended, he had Prob and equipment-dial Impervious to protect him from my counterattack.

But I had him exactly where I wanted him now.

Jean called out Nick Jr. and my Jakeem picked Charge+Flurry. Nick landed a solid attack despite Prob Control and, most crucially, got past the Impervious roll so he could use his Special Power:

FIGURE OUT HOW YOU’RE DOING THAT, AND STOP IT: When Nick Fury, Jr. damages an opposing character and actions resolve, choose a power or team ability that character can use. That character can’t use that power or team ability until your next turn.

Nick thus nixed the Brainiac-granted Imperv. With no armor and no Prob, Ray’s JT fell easily to my JT’s next action. And that was that; Ray scooped, as the Green Lanterns just didn’t have the firepower to have a prayer against Jakeem.

 

ROUND FOUR: My opponent was using Krang, Juston Seyfert, FF Jean and the Rock of Eternity resource. He chose a WizKids premium map I don’t recall the name of. It’s got a block of elevated in the middle and on side, some squares of blocking, a strip of hindering.

He chose to power up Krang with the Rock rather than come right at me, so once I got cleared, I sent both my fighters out to HSS to first KO Juston then knock Jean off her free TK. It barely helped, as Engineer got one-shot AGAIN and JT was crippled by Krang’s counterhit. I had to flee to my side of the map and try to Regen as I helplessly watched the wounded Krang heal via Sloth. Fortunately, I got a good Regen roll and went back the fight. Selecting Energy Explosion and Precision Strike, I scored a lucky crit hit in the final seconds that KO’d Jean for the margin of victory.

 

In ROUND FIVE, my luck would absolutely end, as I faced Wes and his Ultron 18.2 drone, OP Dr. Octopus, FF Atomica, Overdrive, 40-points of ID Cards+Round Table and Felix Faust, whose d20 roll absolutely kills Engineer, who needs a free action to even pick powers that she might not even be able to use. My late game error of choosing Regen with Jakeem WHEN HE ALREADY HAD IT ON DIAL only sealed my fate (honestly, I was so gobsmacked at the utter helplessness of my squad that I barely even noticed what click I was on). It was probably the worst possible draw I could’ve had in the whole tourney, to face a mobile Felix.

But I wasn’t upset. After the worst single round of clix I’ve had in years to open the event, I managed two earned wins and an official winning record of 3-2.

Lesson learned: Never give up!