The first round of the Fall WizKids Open took place across the country (and apparently the globe) this previous weekend. Join me as I take a look at some of the new team builds.

As I stated a while back, the Fall WizKids Open was going to be really great because it followed so closely on the heels of the ROC world cup and had the same build format. Joker’s Wild still hasn’t officially released which means we didn’t see any new product between the two major events, so players were forced to stick with what they knew/already owned. Unlike my other Meta articles that cover winning team comps and whatnot, I’m not going to give each team it’s own segment. I’m sure you’re all tired of reading about the same Quinjet builds, so instead I’ll keep any reoccurring information brief.

We also haven’t seen every winning team yet. Depending on what else we see, I may do a part 2 to this article, but that really depends on when (and if) we see more winning builds.

Ready to Play Trading Cards – Cayce, SC

Easton Brock took the win with literally the exact build he took second place in during the ROC world cup. Can you blame him? If you read my two ROC world cup articles, you probably know that Easton could have won with the build and due to some rather… unfortunate event rules, he came up short by a hair. It’s no surprise that Easton took a win this weekend.

Sci-Fi Factory – Lake Worth, TX

Look at that, the other winning team of the ROC world cup took a victory. Following Ed Berkovits’ build to the T, Matt Demand took the win with the devastating combo of Quinjet + Faust. Again, no surprise here. Winning the ROC world cup will absolutely lead to folks trying to capitalize on that build.

Carta Magica – Ottowa, Canada

Well, here’s something a little different. Mike Payne ran a pretty unique team to take the win in the Great White North. Here’s his build:

CON LE Loki + Brainiac | 115 points + 25 Points

Felix Faust + Eclipso | 80 Points + 25 Points

WF Black Cat | 13 points

Pandora’s Box Resource (Complete) | 40 Points

We were bound to see Faust all over the place, but Mike ran the CON Loki and a Black Cat for a Mystical theme team, and ran a possessor on Faust to keep him out of harms way and able to survive some hits. With the CON Loki, Mike has a primary attacker that can’t have lines of fire drawn to him, along with double target Incap and 7 range. Throwing sins on all his characters ensures he can start powering up Pandora’s Box and achieving the higher-tier powers if you’re willing to pay the full 40 points and spend 7 turns tokening your team. The Black Cat is pretty easy to kill, but I can almost guarantee Mike kept the kitty in the back, just using it for Sins to help build up his resource. A nice twist and new team.

Dice Dojo – Chicago, IL

Adam Friedman took a new direction with Juston Seyfert robot builds and opted for the Batman/Superman Robot at 150 points over Krang. Let’s take a look at his build:

Batman/Superman Robot | 150 Points

Felix Faust | 80 Points

Juston Seyfert | 40 Points

Pandora’s Box with Wrath and Sloth | 12 Points + 4 points + 4 Points

Green Arrow ID Card – JLTW GF Green Arrow | 5 points (135 Points)

Nightwing ID Card – LE Nightwing | 5 Points (100 Points)

The Batman/Superman Robot is no slouch; it’s got 10 Hypersonic with 11 Super Strength, along with 18 Impervious and 4 Shape Change. That gives it a lot of damage and 2 ways to roll out of attacks. Combine that with the Stealth and Stealth Busting of the two team abilities and this thing is a mean primary attacker. With Juston, he can attack for free and keep tokens off the robot to call in Green Arrow at the most opportune time, or just go ham and double up on attacks. Faust is icing on the cake as we all know at this point. The sin choices are pretty standard; Sloth to keep one of his pieces alive and Wrath to let the robot ignore Shape Change when attacking.

Guardian Games – Portland, OR

Chip Barnett piloted JLTW Lex Luthor to victory, using the strategy of 200 points of untouchable ID call-in action, and it payed off for him. His build was pretty standard for TW Lex with Jarvis for free ID cards, The Atom for the best retaliation in the game/taxi service, and a lone Thug, which I can only assume is there to clog doorways. We haven’t seen Lex do anything for a few months, so it’s a little surprising to see him pop up again and take a win.

Games & Stuff – Glen Burnie, MD

The 2015 ROC world cup winner Issac took the win at Games & Stuff with a full-point Quinjet along with Faust, Jarvis, and a Thug. I like that this Quinjet team opts for less on-the-board pieces so it’s a bit easier to manage and seems like it would take less time to decide on what you’re going to do as you really only have 2 pieces that your maneuvering at any given time. Of course, without drones this drops down the amount of pieces that can call-in your ID characters, but with Faust and the full jet, I don’t think that’s too much of a problem. I do like that Isaac included options for one of his Level 7 ID cards in the form of AoU Quasar. That’s a neat addition and he’s a great Pulse Wave piece.

Game Empire – San Diego, CA

Ah, my home town. Unfortunately I was away at Blizzcon so I couldn’t attend. Matt Esbrook went to the final match with Patrick Yapjoco and took the win with his really neat twist on the unkillable comp. Let’s take a look:

CON LE Doop | 95 Points

CON LE Resurrection Man | 92 Points

UXM Mystique | 60 Points

Pandora’s Box Resource (Complete) | 40 Points

Green Arrow ID Card – LE Green Arrow | 5 Points (85 Points)



Hawkeye ID Card – AoU 106 Hawkeye | 5 Points (75 Points)

Man, I really like this team. At first glance, I had to really analyze just what Matt was doing and how he scored the win as I knew Patrick was traveling down to play. Sure enough, Matt played Patrick in the final match and he came out victorious! The point of this team is to really capitalize on the ‘can’t die’ build that was played at the ROC world cup. Doop has a trait that says when he is dealt damage from an attack, he flat out ignores it and takes 1 unavoidable damage instead. Because this is a trait, Doop is safe from the likes of Nick Fury and other ‘can’t use’ effects, so it makes him a very good piece since he has Running Shot, Precision Strike, he’s tiny (can be carried by anyone), and he’s 95 points so he can bring ID characters out. Once you slap Sloth on him, Doop is almost impossible to kill, unless someone unloads 4 attacks into him and manages to stick to his now 19 defense (18 on his last two clicks). Matt can just swoop in on your support line, eat ’em up, and then sit back with his points and stop you from taking anything. This is a really great solution to some of the teams that are seeing play.

What can we take away from these team builds? We already know that the Quinjet and Faust are a big deal and they don’t seem to be running out of steam. Devil Dinosaur seems to be out in terms of winning events. That doesn’t mean that he’s not still relevant or wasn’t seen in top 8, but he’s got the Krang symptom going on of showing up but not taking the win. I think Devil is still a major player so don’t count him out just yet. CON LE Loki took a win for the first time in a while and it seems players are favoring not being able to draw lines of fire to their characters(Midnight Sons ATA does this as well).

I think the biggest impact though is Doop. There are a few pro players out there that are looking at the Cosmic Pickle and we may be looking at a resurgence. I haven’t mentioned the other aspect that makes Doop so good in the current meta-game which is his other trait.

I DESTROY REPUTATIONS AND TOPPLE NATIONS: Once per game, give Doop a double power action to remove a resource or relic assigned to an opposing character within 6 squares and assign it to another opposing character within 6 squares.

Relics aren’t seeing much play these days outside of the sins via Pandora’s box. However, do we know any resources that are assigned to one character that completely negates what it’s about? Yes, Doop here is quite the counter to the Quinjet. If Doop gets into range (which is easy to do since being tiny means he can be carried by anyone), he can move the Quinjet’s resource dial onto any other opposing character within 6 squares completely nullifying it’s effect. Wizkids has ruled that in order for the resource dial to be used, it must be assigned to the jet, so Doop does in fact counter it. When you combine this with the inability to burst Doop down, you run into quite the problem. There aren’t many ID characters out there that can take him out before he does what he needs to do. And with Sloth on him, if you don’t knock him down multiple times in a turn, he’s going to heal back up essentially wasting your actions and your time.

Since Doop seems as though he’s going to see more play, I would imagine Quinjet teams and anyone who is threatened by him to take measures to stop him, and there’s a pretty easy way to do that. Shang-Chi recently got a really nice LE that allows him to attack over and over again taking a -1 to attack for each consecutive roll (remember, rule of 3), until he misses. With a 12 attack, it’s not too tough for him to hit Doop with and 18 or 19 via Sloth. Sure, the second strike is a bit harder as now you’re looking at 11 to 19, but it’s still doable. The issue with Shang-Chi is his lack of health as he’s only 4 clicks long. Thankfully there’s a Shang-Chi ID card, so that means that Quinjet teams can call him in and essentially nuke Doop in a single turn. If they’re running the World’s Finest Fast Forces Nightwing at 25 points, now they have a cheap Outsiders team ability to make sure Shang-Chi stays at his 12 attack for every strike, and this only costs the team a grand total of 30 points to effectively counteract the Doop plan.

So are we going to start seeing a huge rise in Doop? Perhaps. He might make a showing for a little bit, but keep in mind that the only big events for the next few months are ROC events, and those are limited meaning the Quinjet won’t be there. Even if we do see a slight rise in Doop play, once people remember how to counter play against him, he’ll probably do what other specialized pieces do and crawl back into hiding making small appearances here and there.

I hope you enjoyed this report on the WizKids Open. Based on what shows up in the next week, I might do a follow up with more teams but that entirely depends on how much information we get. Remember, ROC events are moving to limited! If you’re planning on taking part, these team builds probably aren’t as relevant.

See you all next week!