Greetings everyone and welcome back to arguably the most popular article on Clix Fix for the year. That’s right, it’s the annual Worlds Top 8 Breakdown! Check out what teams took the top spots and what the current competitive pulse is.

This was a big year for competitive clix as WizKids booked a venue for themselves and ran the event rather than taking place at a convention, or ROC running the event. Typically the ROC Cup takes place in October, but things change and mostly that’s for the better.

UPDATE: It looks as though the ROC Cup is still a separate entity and will take place in October as usual as shown here. This does affect small pieces of information throughout the article, but doesn’t change the overall report.

The other big change was that since WizKids was running the event, they were broadcasting games themselves. If you recall from previous ROC World Cup’s, it’s usually a stream done by revolving players that either can’t play in the main event or take turns hosting as they’re eliminated. The great aspect of WizKids running the event is that they did a great job of providing a gaming table that was exactly the same size as a map with some added room for additional game elements on the side, and the microphone was strong enough to pick up most players voices – a feature we’ve wanted for quite some time without requiring players to be mic’d up.

Of course, there’s always room for improvement as well. As much as we appreciate the stream, there were some issues. For starters, there wasn’t a lot of information available as to how and where the stream was going to be held. I had guessed Twitch, but that didn’t happen as WizKids used Facebook Live. This was fine, although Facebook doesn’t let a Live stream take breaks, so you had to refresh the page after games quite a lot to make sure you didn’t miss the beginning of the next match. Just a little bit more information ahead of time would have worked a bit better, and perhaps using a different service than Facebook so that you can keep your same webpage open with live coverage for the day.

The biggest issue was more of an unfortunate circumstance as I’m sure WizKids didn’t mean for this to happen. The camera they had brought just didn’t want to participate and it constantly overheated, skipping the end of a few games and completely missing others. This was most noticeable on Sunday as the Top 8 was supposed to be streamed, but we only saw the final matchup (which thankfully went off without a hitch). Again, I’m not mad at WizKids. They did a great job with what they had. I’m hoping these are issues that they can work out for future events as streaming is really important for those of us that can’t make the event.

I will say that Kennie Pena did an awesome job and his presence was great, constantly adding build sheets in the chat, confirming different things people were asking, and hosting post-game interviews. He did a great job representing WizKids and I hope we see more of him in the future! I give WizKids a solid B for their coverage this year, with some extra credit as the biggest issues weren’t in their control.

Now then, let’s take a look at the top 8 teams. Since we didn’t get to see any of these games (sans the final matchup), I can’t speak to plays that were made, but I can go through the teams as normal.

As I normally do with these articles, I’m not going to link dials as that’s quite a large task with an already long article, and I’ll start with 5th through 8th and work my way up to the winner of the event.

5th – 8th – Patrick Frazer

ABPI069 Kobik | 100 Points Hi, I’m Kobik | 15 Points

ABPI050 Trader | 45 Points Bearer of an Infinity Gem | 5 Points

SWB063e Sheriff Strange | 50 Points

TMTG006p Mangog | 30 Points

TMTG001p Surtur | 25 Points

MP19-s110 Zero | 5 Points

ID Cards (Wolverine Faculty, Beast Student, Jean Grey Student, Cyclops Student, Cyclops Faculty) | 19 Points

Sideline: XXS053 Wolverine, WCR003 Beast, XXS052 Cyclops, WCR102 Cyclops, XXS065 Jean Grey, Troubalert Flash, Troubalert Firestorm

Maps: Stark Towr, Underground Caverns

Patrick won U.S. Nationals with his Vulture/Hawkeye team, and this is quite a departure from that build. It’s easy to see that Patrick built around the favorite from that event with Kobik as his primary character on his force. We did get to see Patrick play during Swiss on the first day of the event, and it was pretty clear that his team functions a lot like those we saw flood Top 8 from Nationals. He has the typical Kobik/Trader combo to permalock tentpole figures like full-point Uni-Mind and can call in some large figures thanks to Kobik’s 100-point cost.

The differences with Patrick’s team is how he spends the rest of his points with a massive addition in Sheriff Strange. Isaac used the Sheriff at Nationals and took 3rd/4th place with a very similar build and it’s easy to see why. With Kobik’s 100-point cost and the overwhelming prevalence of ID cards, this duo gives Patrick a big swing with ID call-ins by forcing his opponent to double token to summon (which is more about tempo control than trying to push characters) while he has access to larger kill-shots. Strange is also a great tertiary attacker with Ranged Combat Expert and Precision Strike, brings Leadership and Perplex, and has Mystics with a STOP click.

With more Mandarin Rings available, we can start to see how stupid Trader becomes; Patrick utilized the favorite Zero ring which allows you to generate 1 square of barrier per turn as a FREE action. Since Barrier markers don’t go away when you lose the power, you can activate the FREE action, then “trade” the ring to someone else who can use the power as well to get a second marker. Basically Trader with the Zero ring gives you a Wall Construct, but the two markers don’t have to be adjacent.

Retaliators are the other big aspect to competitive clicks, and we see the typical Surtur played as a massive counter to defensive figures (like Kobik), but we also see Mangog come back out to play. Most of the games that were streamed from the weekend did include a Mangog, and it’s exciting to see this Kirby-era villain make a return before his retirement in July 2020. Mangog is a massive threat as he can deal 7 damage to every opposing character within 2 squares of him (4 damage to everyone within 3 squares), and his 19-Impervious on STOP makes him miserable to KO, especially once you start Perplexing his defense.

As for Patrick’s ID cards, he played a lot of the normal figures that we’re used to with the cards we all know by now. However, there were some new additions since these figures became legal; Regenesis Beast and the month 1 LE Cyclops. Beast was played a lot, just as I had predicted as he’s an incredibly versatile character for only 40 points. He can either pop out and Outwit a power so that you can KO someone and earn big points, or more importantly he can gain Battle Fury and +1 to all combat values for a massive 5-square Charge with 11-attack and Quake and 4-damage. Many times we saw people Perplex up his stats for a staggering kill shot with such a tiny character.

Cyclops isn’t bad either; at 100 points, just enough for Kobik to call in, he has a massive 12-attack with 8-range and 4-damage, along with Energy Explosion. Cyclops also has PROTECTED: Mind Control, Outwit, and Pen/Psy, AND he has a STOP click, so he’s an incredibly safe ID summon as the odds are he isn’t getting KO’d.

Patrick’s team is an evolution of those we saw run rampart at Nationals, and it did take him pretty far.

5th – 8th – Tylor Spees (Monster Theme Team +7)

D17-006 Skeets | 115 Points

AIG017e Giganto and Namor | 50 Points

AIG017e Giganto and Namor | 50 Points

TMTG001p Surtur | 25 Points

AI025p Groot | 20 Points

TMTG004p Carnage | 10 Points

TMTG004p Carnage | 10 Points

Iceberg Lounge Location Bonus | 5 Points

ID Cards (Rusty Student, Jean Grey Student, Cyclops Student, Cyclops Faculty) | 14 Points

Sideline: XXS014 Rusty, XXS065 Jean Grey, XXS052 Cyclops, XXS063 Cyclops, XXS052 Cyclops, WCR Cyclops, Troubalert Wonder Woman, Troubalert Firestorm

Maps: Underground Caverns, Iceberg Lounge, Poison Ivy’s Greenhouse

Mr. Monster was back at it and once again made the Top 8 with a build very similar to what he’s been running for a year now. That will save us some time as you can read about his previous team from Nationals here.

The biggest change to Tylor’s team was running Skeets at the full 115 points now that Mini Shredder is no longer modern, and boy is that a big change. Since Skeets is a relatively older LE (2017), I’m sure most of you don’t know or don’t remember what this little guy does, so here’s his dial:

Skeets gains the Monster keyword at 115 points so Tylor can keep his theme team healthy and… gives Enhancement? One might be wondering why this was Tylor’s replacement eating both the Shredder and a Carnage, but some of you are already seeing why this was a great choice.

Three STOP clicks with increasingly high defense values, tiny size, a massive point cost, Enhancement, +1 attack to adjacent figures, and the PD team ability makes Skeets a massive ID summoner. He passes the magic 100-point number you need for the biggest summons out there right now and gives so much additional hurt. Once you see this little guy in action, you’ll probably wonder why he wasn’t on the team sooner (because Mini Shredder was probably still a bit better). If the opposing team does take a swing at Skeets, he turns into a colossal tank that spits out 12-attack, 4-damage hits and needs another 3 hits to take down.

Most of Tylor’s ID cards were devoted to big ranged attacks with a number of Cyclops’ (again with the Regenesis LE), full-point Jean Grey, and Rusty, all of which become potential single-hit KO’s with Skeets next to them.

The big question is can Tylor keep this team going or will the competitive scene continue to evolve to deal with the monsters at the Top 8 level? I’m still surprised that Captain Venom hasn’t made it onto the team yet, but I’m sure Tylor has attempted that and found it lackluster. I’m eager to see how the team does evolve though and more importantly, will it see it’s demise once rotation 2020 hits and he loses 90% of the team.

5th – 8th – Lucas Van Holland (Mystical Theme Team +9)

SWB063e Sheriff Strange | 50 Points

MP18-G001p Tri-Sentinel | 30 Points

MP18-G001p Tri-Sentinel | 30 Points

MP18-G001p Tri-Sentinel | 30 Points

MP18-G001p Tri-Sentinel | 30 Points

MP18-G001p Tri-Sentinel | 30 Points

MP18-G001p Tri-Sentinel | 30 Points

SWB031 Alex Wilder | 25 Points

RE026e Billy Batson | 20 Points

MP19-s110 Zero | 5 Points

ID Cards (Skids Student, Rusty Student, Beast Student, Cyclops Student, Iceman Student) | 15 Points

Sideline: WCR013 Iceman, XXSFF005 Rusty, WCR003 Beast, XXS052 Cyclops, SSX015 Skids, Troubalert Batman, Troubalert Firestorm

Maps: Hedgemaze, Underground Caverns

I love this team. Let me say that again. I love this team. Lucas didn’t go with Kobik, Vulture, Uni-Mind, or any other massive competitive figure. He went with 180 points of Tri-Sentinels as a massive counterstrike team capable of whipping out a team in no-time.

In case you don’t remember what the Tri-Sentinel does, it’s three-fold:

Traited Energy Shield/Deflection for a massive 20-defense from range with PROTECTED: Mind Control. Plasticity, but more importantly, whenever he destroys one or more pieces of blocking terrain, he deals 1 penetrating damage to each opposing character adjacent to one or more of the destroyed pieces. Retaliation with Pulse Wave that destroys all blocking terrain within 3 squares.

This setup ensures that Tri-Sentinel will put out a metric ton of free damage without having to roll dice. Lucas can simply use their actions to blow up blocking terrain from across the map and deal penetrating damage to everyone around. Most competitive teams tend to turtle together as they move up, so this puts an entire team in jeopardy multiple times per turn with no rest as he has 6 freaking sentinels to revolve actions with. Sure, they’re not that difficult to KO if you can hit their defense, but that’s fine because they aren’t worth much and chances are they’re dish way more damage than you just did since there’s 5 more waiting to jump into the fight.

Sheriff Strange does the same thing as on Patrick’s team; slows ID cards which is crucial because characters like Brood Xavier is still a powerhouse against multiple retaliators. Alex Wilder and Billy provide some much needed Perplex (as does Sheriff Strange) so that Lucas can jump a Sentinel in with a massive 13-attack so that he guarantee’s a hit, or shifts to defense and can give three of his bots 21-defense from range every turn.

The biggest aspects of his team though are the Zero Ring, Iceman, Skids, and his maps. Zero gives him reocurring blocking terrain so that he always has options to deal free damage, even if he’s destroyed everything on the map, while Iceman and Skids both have access to blocking markers as well. His maps are crucial as there’s simply no way to escape being adjacent to blocking terrain, so it’s imperative that he wins map roll, which he should always do thanks to a massive +9.

These are the teams I enjoy most because they’re so different from everything else out there, and they look super cool. WizKids had a blast throwing photos of Lucas’ team on their social media accounts for the event, especially with X-Men Animated right around the corner.

5th – 8th – Dan Powell (Cosmic Theme Team +4)

TMT058r Uni-Mind | 165 Points Forged in Blue Flame X3 | 15 Points

AI043 Unseen | 65 Points

AIG025 Groot | 20 Points

TMTG008 Flora Colossus | 10 Points

AIG015e Spider-Mobile | 5 Points

ABPIs001 Realty Gem | 10 Points

MP19-s101 Remaker | 5 Points

MP19-s105 Nightbringer | 5 Points

ID Cards (Storm Bounty, Jubilee Student, Jean Grey Student, Cyclops Student) | 14 Points

Sideline: SWB007b Thanos, TMT046 Makkari, TMT057 Sersi, XXS052 Cyclops, XXS063 Cyclops, XXS065 Jean Grey, XXS026 Jubilee, M17 Storm, XXS034 Storm

Maps: Amok Time, King’s Tomb, Poison Ivy’s Greenhouse

Dan wasn’t able to take a third straight victory for the World Cup, but that’s fine as he’s still the only back-to-back champion. And if there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that Dan will play Cosmic for the big event if history repeats itself.

While 2018 saw the rise of Starro for Dan and others dominating the event, he went back to his old pal Uni-Mind for one last hurrah before rotation in July next year. It’s easy to see why as no one in the game can play Uni-Mind quite like Dan does. We’ve seen countless builds using the cosmic force and continually changing Eternals join the ranks, but he settled with Prime Thanos, Makkari, and Sersi, the strongest trio you can run at this level.

The team overall is very similar to what we’ve seen evolve for Uni-Mind; Unseen makes a return appearance as perhaps the best support piece on Cosmic teams, Groot makes more attacks and has Leadership with a substantial retaliation click, Flora helps to win map roll and is mobile blocking terrain – these are all familiar to Uni-Mind players. What’s new though is Dan’s assortment of equipment and the Spider-Mobile.

The Reality Gem is a great pickup for Unseen, granting TK and Perplex to help out his team, and if he does make an attack, a roll of 10 or higher will let him generate objects and make more free attacks. Granted, he’s probably not hitting thanks to that 0-attack value, but it’s still a last-ditch effort if needed. Dan also completely changed what equipment he gave to Uni-Mind. Normally we see the Venom Symbiote for Shape Change some other protections, but Dan went with a double Mandarin Ring build as they specifically allow a character to equip two at a time. Remaker gives him the Shape Change he wants (along with Poison to make him a bit more scary to base), while Nightbringer gives him 2-square Smoke Cloud as a FREE action along with Stealth. Now Uni-Mind doesn’t have to pick Stealth from Sersi and stick to hindering terrain on the map; he can just hide wherever he wants while also dropping attack values of people who do base him. It’s a strong setup and if he can take the time to equip both (which results show that probably happened a lot), it sets him up for a brutally hard character to take down.

Special note here; Remaker is much better on Uni-Mind right now because of Poison. Kobik has become the go-to counter to Uni-Mind as she can just base him and double token him every turn, but Poison lets him hit back while Unseen can call-in support to KO her.

The Spider-Mobile is perhaps the oddest piece on Dan’s build, but it makes sense. It’s a smaller piece of terrain that won’t take up as many squares that provides hindered lines of fire for Uni-Mind and Unseen on their approach to grab items. On King’s Tomb and Ivy’s Greenhouse, the buggy can also be setup to block a lot of movement and make it that much harder to approach his team. While some people would say “why not the Dune Buggy” for that -2 to attack, that can bite you back while the Spider-Mobile can’t.

I’m curious to see how Dan’s teams evolve once Uni-Mind is gone next year. It’s been his staple character and much like Tylor, there’s a large void in predicting what will come next. There’s still plenty of Cosmic characters to choose from, so I feel that Dan will still be in good hands, and he certainly has the capability of dominating with nearly any team.

3rd – 4th – Dustin Seeders (Cosmic Theme Team +6)

AI043 Unseen | 65 Points

ABPI050 Trader | 45 Points Bearer of an Infinity Gem | 5 Points

ABPI050 Trader | 45 Points Bearer of an Infinity Gem | 5 Points

ABPI049 Gardener | 45 Points Bearer of the Time Gem | 5 Points

TMTG006p Mangog | 30 Points

AIG025 Groot | 20 Points

MP17-007 Pym Pocket Tank | 8 Points

MP19-s105 Nightbringer | 5 Points

ID Cards (Cyclops Faculty, Harley Quinn, Beast Student, Jean Grey Student, Cyclops Student, Iceman Student) | 22 Points

Sideline: WCR003 Beast, XXS052 Cyclops, XXS063 Cyclops, XXS065 Jean Grey, HQGG049 Harley Quinn, XXS064 Iceman, Troubalert Batman, Troubalert Firestorm, MP17-006 Pym Particle Tank

Maps: Prison Tier, King’s Tomb

Dustin returns to the top 8 with a team that will look very familiar to those that caught some of the streams and especially the final match. This is the first team on the list that’s running the powerful trio of double Trader with Gardener, with the stress on Gardener. This guy proved to be a dominating presence at World’s this year and it’s pretty easy to see why; the guy has monumental alpha strike capabilities thanks to his FREE attack against anyone in terrain that he created.

The mobility of double Traders with the Space Gem is outright insane and you can swap items two times in one turn, giving you access to all kinds of shenanigans. Assuming Trader is on click #0 (which is a good assumption since pretty much every single team at this level has additional game elements), you have 9-speed with Phasing/Teleport, Sidestep, and Passenger: 2. That means you can move a Trader up 9-squares carrying two people (9-speed minus 2 for carrying, then Sidestep) through any terrain for 7 of those squares, trade the gem to your other Trader which can then Sidestep and carry your first Trader and whoever else was carried back to safety. Thanks to Gardener’s ability to hit anyone with a close attack within his range of 7 thanks to the Time Gem and his own Sidestep, you can hit someone 19-squares away, or 17-squares away and then retreat backwards thanks to the other Trader Sidestepping Gardener back behind a wall.

But wait, there’s more! How on earth does Gardener generate terrain that far away? Nightbringer. Remember that this ring can generate Smoke Cloud for FREE, but only with two squares of terrain. When you start trading that around though, you can keep activating that ability and potentially drop 6-squares of smoke in a single turn. That’s when you’re on defense though. On offense, it works a little differently. Once Dustin carries Gardener up that far, one of his Trader’s can swap out the Nightbringer ring for Gardener’s Time Gem so that he can pop out some Smoke markers 6 squares away (now that his range drops), and then make a free attack.

This overwhelming reach means that Gardener has become potentially the strongest alpha-strike figure in the game that doesn’t really need anything else to be good. Unlike Vulture/Hulk teams that rely on equipment to work properly, the Gardener/Trader/Trader team already starts with everything they need with no opportunity for your opponent to take your items away from you. Because Gardener’s attack is close, that also means he doesn’t need to draw lines of fire making it so much harder to hide from him. Stealth? Not an issue. ES/D? That’s fine. Body blocking? Not in my world.

Usually we see the Space Gem and Reality Gem on these teams, with Space being an obvious choice now that you know how the team works, and Reality to gain Perplex to help Gardener hit for big damage. Unseen and a Perplex from Reality can help improve that already substantial 11-attack, 3-damage click, and you have two Prob’s to make sure you hit allowing you to take a little bit of a gamble and go for 5-damage strikes. However, you can always double Perplex the attack so that you have some good odds to throw that Pocket Tank, another piece that will rotate in 2020. Since the Pocket Tank is placed after an adjacent friendly character moves, Dustin can cart this around for free and use it when he needs to, destroying swarm teams. While the game wasn’t streamed, Dustin did face Lucas’ Sentinel Swarm team in the Top 8 first round which forces Lucas to spread his team out completely for fear of instant deletion of his Sentinels.

Everything else on the team is pretty basic and makes sense if you’re this far in the article; Mangog for retaliation that can sweep teams on proper placement, Groot for more attacks/body blockers/Leadership/Retaliaton, and a batch of the standard ID cards with a surprise Harley Quinn appearance. I’m surprised Harley didn’t see more play.

3rd – 4th – Easton Brock (Cosmic Theme Team +7)

ABPI069 Kobik | 100 Points Hi, I’m Kobik | 15 Points

AI043 Unseen | 65 Points

TREKRF029be Q | 30 Points

AIG025 Groot | 20 Points

TMTG008 Flora Colossus | 10 Points

TMTG008 Flora Colossus | 10 Points

TMTG008 Flora Colossus | 10 Points

BTAS005 Suited Henchman | 5 Points

ABPIs001 Reality Gem | 10 Points

Wakanda Map Bonus | 5 Points

ID Cards (Iceman Student, Rusty Student, Beast Student, Jean Grey Student, Cyclops Student, Jean Grey Faculty) | 20 Points

Sideline: XXSFF005 Rusty, WCR003 Beast, XXS052 Cyclps, XXS019 Cyclops, XXS065 Jean Grey, XXS065 Jean Grey, XXS064 Iceman, Troubalert Superman, Troubalert Firestorm

Maps: Wakanda, Bifrost, Campsite

The Prince of ROC once again made it so far, yet fell just short of winning it all once again. Easton is by far one of the best players the game has ever seen, yet the big win has eluded him the last few times.

This team is a lot like his Nationals build with almost the exact same setup; Kobik, Unseen, Groot, and a Suited Henchman which will make this team a little quicker to talk about since I went into the details earlier this year. The differences are the replacement of Q Prime taking the slot of Collector with two more Flora’s joining the party, replacing the Remaker Ring for the Reality Gem, and a few ID card swaps, as well as paying for the Wakanda Location Bonus.

Q has been wildly praised for his ability to make a team so insanely hard to stop and he proved worthy of the mantle. This guy adds a lot to Easton’s team and while he does lose the ability to steal items away from opponents, it makes Kobik so much harder to KO if you don’t have Poison or Pulse Wave and makes attacks against her nearly impossible to land.

Remember that the Suited Henchman is around so that Kobik has a dead-weight team ability to trade off for something like Power Cosmic to stop opponents’ Willpower and protection from Unseen, and he also counts as another body for ID cards. Speaking of which, the increase in Flora’s do that as well giving Easton a maximum of 8 ID cards, more than anyone else on this list, even though he only used 6. The other interesting thing about Easton’s team is that he has two Jean Grey ID cards with a double-up on the Chase which is dominating at full points and has her own ability to “blink” off the map once she’s done attacking.

At the end of the day, the name of the game with this team is “you score ID cards, I score your team” as this setup is very tough to take a shot at. The added benefit of the Wakanda re-rolling for Super Senses brings yet another layer of protection for his guys. With a great player like Easton commanding this team, I can see how difficult it would be to score any points, let alone come away with the win before he takes a quick lead and just runs away with it.

2nd – Robert Williams (Cosmic Theme Team +7)

AI043 Unseen | 65 Points

ABPI050 Trader | 45 Points Bearer of an Infinity Gem | 5 Points

ABPI050 Trader | 45 Points Bearer of an Infinity Gem | 5 Points

ABPI049 Gardener | 45 Points Bearer of the Time Gem | 5 Points

TMTG006p Mangog | 30 Points

AIG025 Groot | 20 Points

TMTG008 Flora Colossus | 10 Points

MP19-s105 Nightbringer | 5 Points

ID Cards (Sprite Student, Rusty Student, Beast Student, Jean Grey Student, Cyclops Student, Wolverine Bounty) | 20 Points

Sideline: WCR005 Kitty Pryde, XXS014 Rusty, XXSFF005 Rusty, WCR003 Beast, XXS052 Cyclops, XXS063 Cyclops, XXS065 Jean Grey, Troubalert Batman, Troubalert Firestorm

Maps: Prison Tier, King’s Tomb

You might be looking at this team with Déjà vu, and that would make sense because Robert’s team is nearly identical to Dustin’s which took 3rd/4th. There were only two differences in their builds; Robert played a Flora while Dustin played the Pocket Tank, and their ID cards will slightly different.

Not much to cover here as it’s pretty much the same write-up as Dustin’s team, although I will highlight something I really like about this team, and that’s the Sprite ID with Regenesis Kitty Pryde. ID summons that can generate bystanders are great options as they allow you to gain another body to make attacks (or support like Tony Zucco did), and All-New Wolverine would be a much bigger force is 100 points wasn’t so difficult for most competitive teams to bring in these days. While Kitty can’t spit out a hard-to-KO wolverine, she does bring a dragon with Energy Explosion, a powerful ability when teams don’t expect it because they either don’t see it on the field, or they don’t think of it when they see her on the sideline. Like Beast, she can be called in at just 40 points making her very easy to bring out and deposit Lockheed into the battle while also providing Enhancement for her allies.

We got to see Robert play twice on stream and he’s a great player. What’s intriguing is tat Robert had to play Dustin in the semifinals which would have been a very fun game to watch as mirror teams rely on who makes the better plays and how the dice favor you. I don’t know what the score was or how the game played out, but that would have been a great game to see on stream.

1st – Isaac Arnold-Berkovits (Cosmic Theme Team +6)

ABPI048 Astronomer | 75 Points Bearer of an Infinity Gem | 5 Points

ABPI050 Trader | 45 Points Bearer of an Infinity Gem | 5 Points

ABPI049 Gardener | 45 Points Bearer of the Time Gem | 5 Points

TREKOS044 Trelane | 50 Points

TREKRF029be Q | 30 Points

AIG025 Groot | 20 Points

DP17-008 Boxing Ring | 5 Points

ID Cards (Jubilee Student, Iceman Student, Beast Student, Jean Grey Student, Cyclops Student) | 15 Points

Sideline: WCR003 Beast, WCR Iceman, XXS052 Cyclops, XXS065 Jean Grey, XXS026 Jubilee, Troubalert Superman, Troubalert Wonder Woman

Maps: Amok Time, Underground Caverns

Here’s your World Champion – Isaac walks away with his second World Cup victory! He has the mantle of the youngest player to ever win at 11 and now has two world titles with so many more to go.

Isaac played a trio of Elders, ditching the second Trader for Astronomer which proved to be a massive influence for his team. Astronomer brings Probability Control, 11 range that sees through hindering and elevated, and two TK’s a turn that give +1 defense to someone if he places a friendly character with the Cosmic Keyword or Power Cosmic Team ability (which is his entire team). While the double Trader/Space Gem combo gives you some great mobility, the Astronomer/Trader combo gives you nearly the same while also giving you some bigger defenses, more re-rolling, a fantastic back-up sniper, and placing your characters that can immediately act (like calling in ID summons). Astronomer proved to be a massive boost for Isaac, but based on the final match that was streamed, he wasn’t the lynch pin, merely a part of it.

The big advantage Isaac had was the combination of Q and Trelane. There were rumors of people starting to play a lot of dice-substitution figures on the same team and Isaac has proved that there’s something special with this setup. With both Q and Trelane, along with the Prob from Astronomer and the Time Gem, Isaac has so. many. ways. to change your rolls (or his) to make every hit calculated and brutal.

When you couple this with Gardener, Issac’s team has the ability to hit you wherever you are with every element going towards doing the most damage he can with each hit. With the odds stacked so far in his favor for dice rolls, chances are his Gardener is going to rip your team apart and there’s nothing you can do about it as he can quickly pull his team out of any danger.

The Boxing Ring is a fantastic option for Isaac as well. Since he has so many ways to position himself, he can easily mitigate the ropes and this gives him even more protections against teams as his defenses soar while goading you into approaching his massive threat range. This also makes his Walking Woods very dangerous as they can tie you up around the ring and bring a lot of basic characters to practically 0 mobility.

Isaac has already proved to be among the best players to ever play the game, and giving him the ability to change every odd in his favor and remove more and more of the element that is chance and randomness means he’s going to be an incredibly difficult player to beat. It was an amazing game to watch and as usual, I highly recommend you go watch as well. Perhaps the biggest upset from that game was Robert’s miss on Mangog for a potential winning retaliation strike that would have dropped a lot of Isaac’s figures. Again, the sheer amount of re-rolls and replacements gave Isaac that massive advantage that made even huge attack values risky plays.

Insights From Worlds

Cosmic is once again the most powerful Keyword in the game with a dominating presence of 5 of 8 teams in the Top 8. Set after set continues to roll-out incredible figures for this team, but what will the future hold come rotation in 2020?

Gardener was overwhelmingly the biggest figure this year. Not only did he make a huge showing in the Top 8, there were tons of other teams that ran the Elder.

Trader had a drop off with only 4 of the Top 8 teams running the smaller Elder, yet he was played more than Gardener because of how many copies people were running with multiple teams running 2 (not just Top 8).

than Gardener because of how many copies people were running with multiple teams running 2 (not just Top 8). Ultra Chase Thanos didn’t make it to Top 8, so we can assume he’s not quite the powerhouse that people were thinking he would be. That doesn’t mean he’s out; he still has roughly 2 years to make his presence felt, but he’s just too costly right now and Kobik and completely shut him down.

Regenesis had a massive presence with ID cards; 6 of the Top 8 teams had the common Beast, 2 had LE Cyclops, 2 had Iceman, and 1 had Kitty Pryde. While the last few don’t seem like a big showing, Beast is the real winner here taking a dead-weight ID card and making it pretty much required for competitive.

ID cards had a fairly wide spread, yet Cyclops and Jean once again dominated: 8 Cyclops Student, 3 Cyclops Faculty, 7 Jean Grey Student, 1 Jean Grey Faculty, 6 Beast Student, 4 Iceman Student, and 4 Rusty Student. Other ID’s present were on just one or two teams.

As usual, retaliation was important with Groot surging ever more than Nationals with 6 in Top 8. Tri-Sentinel actually tied that number, but since that was on one team, it gets an asterisk as tied for the most played. Flora was second with 5, Mangog with 4, Carnage with 2, and Surtur with one lonely spot.

I mentioned in my Nationals Top 8 article that ABPI was going to grow in the competitive scene and that’s absolutely true. 26 game elements from that set were in the Top 8 whereas only 16 were at Nationals. That’s a big increase in a short amount of time.

was going to grow in the competitive scene and that’s absolutely true. 26 game elements from that set were in the Top 8 whereas only 16 were at Nationals. That’s a big increase in a short amount of time. X-Men teams saw some play! I’m among the group of people that feel X-Men had a very short lifespan as a competitive option, but they were back! There were two X-Men teams that were streamed; one your typical Wolverine/Lila Cheney team while the other was wild with two Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s and the older LE Forge. Will XMA:DPS be able to push them back into the metagame?

be able to push them back into the metagame? Vulture went from the winning figure at Nationals to a no-show at Worlds. I wonder what the people urging for an errata are wondering now?

The final match was actually a perfect example of how this game can be played without ID cards. For 95% of the match, neither Isaac nor Robert called in a character; they only used what they had on the board. When an ID character was summoned, Isaac did so near the very end to clean house and take a total win rather than going to time, but they were NOT instrumental in his gameplay. Sure, the threat was there, but he and Robert both did their work without ID characters. This is a big reason why I recommend you watch this game.

With Worlds finished up, the Heroclix train is pulling into the Fall/Winter station where larger events go on the back burner. However, to me this is the most exciting time. ROC events across the country will open up to experimentation. If history repeats itself as it has for the last 3+ years, the big name players will look into other strategies and see if some figures they’ve been eye-balling have what it takes to win events. This is the season of innovation in my mind and I can’t wait to see what comes of it. Hopefully we see even less Kobik’s, but what will be the answer to the dreaded Q/Trelane combo?

I’m also really interest to see what happens with the competitive scene once rotation hits next year. As I brought up in my Nationals article, we lose a lot of competitive aspects as we should lose The Mighty Thor, Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls, X-Men: Xavier’s School, and Avengers: Infinity. What will happen with the competitive scene when most ID cards are gone and retaliators take a big hit? Every retaliator on this list (sans Tri-Sentinel) will be gone, and the new breed from XMA:DPS are quite different in how they work and the amount of utility they bring to the team. However, this could be a big swing for X-Men has they will have some of the most powerful in the game (*cough* STORM *cough*).

Did you get a chance to watch the games that were available? Do you know some of the unique teams that were at Worlds? What are your thoughts on the current metagame? Let me know in the comments!

Next week will be Chase or Pass for XMA:DPS as my usual follow-up to a set review over on Two Clicks From KO. My plan after that is a reader requested Team Build with the LE Hulk with the squid on his head (though that might transform into a 2019 Con LE build article with shorter descriptions on characters, we’ll see), and then ID Card Round-Up after that on Two Clicks From KO.

See you next week!