The ROC is under way and today I’m talking about the top 8 teams to win in Chehalis, Washington! It’s time to start planning for limited and see how the game is shifting.

Lately, the WizKids Open has been all the rage with players all over vying for a chance to compete and test their skills. As most of you know, there’s two competitive scenes in Heroclix. One is the WizKids Open and Worlds which take place roughly 4 times a year while the other is the ROC, or Realms Open Championship which takes place many times throughout the year leading to the ROC World Cup in October.

Once again, the ROC season starts off with 300 limited rather than allowing things like resources and whatnot. Limited is somewhat of a friendlier format for those looking to try their hand at competitive as there’s less to factor in since things like ID cards and Colossal Retaliators. If you’re unfamiliar with what the limited format is, here’s nice cheat-sheet:

ROC Limited Format

Not Allowed – Resources, Figures larger than a Peanut base, Constructs, Relics, ID cards, Feats, BFC’s, Event Dials, and Characters equipped during force construction.

Allowed – Theme Teams, ATA’s, Special Objects, Word Bubbles, and Bystanders.

300 Limited lasts through April of this year, so there’s still two solid months left to play in this format. Let’s take a look at the winning teams in Chehalis, Washington to help you better understand what’s seeing play.

8th Place – Andrew Place-Burtner

Doc Oc has returned to the scene, folks! With powerful ID call-in Nick Fury gone, the good doctor has a much better chance at getting those four devastating hits in to potentially nuke a piece on turn 2 (or 1 if you’re second player). Since there’s no possession allowed, Otto has to ride without a damage reducer which is a little risky as he’s fairly easy to KO with a 16 defense and Willpower. I like that Andrew is running Anarky as a way to force board control and keep people away from his team while Frog-Man can bump them into a mass of bombs at a moment’s notice and rack up a ton of free damage if he rolls well enough. Unfortunately, the bomb roll can’t be rerolled, so Mxy isn’t any help in that department, but he can certainly force out poor dodge rolls for Otto to hit, or ensure attacks on him miss. I can see that this team probably has a tough time once Doc Oc is KO’d though. Still, it’s important to note that the four-armed villain is seeing play and breaking top-8.

7th Place – Johnny Alvarado

Lookey what we have here; a Shredder Clone team in top 8! Didn’t I talk about this dude being a big deal before? Yep, there’s no denying how efficient the clone is, and with a resurrection ability in limited, he’s going to be a big, dominate force. Mini Shredder is a wonderful piece as well, so Johnny can easy deal 2 penetrating damage to whoever he wants before making attack rolls. I love the synergy with Overdrive; since he has Sidestep, he can take the two Shredder’s two squares away so that they don’t start a move action adjacent to anyone, and then they can both just Sidestep back up to where they were. This allows him to use their penetrating damage every turn. Peggy is a nasty addition, letting him pick a defense power that he wants removed and then moving her up with Overdrive so that the two Shredders can go ham. The Atom is an interesting choice, but once their defenses are lowered from all the free damage, he can easily hit for 5 damage for only 25 points. It’s a really nasty team and I’m a little surprised it didn’t get passed the quarter-finals. If you aren’t planning on fighting Shredder Clone, you need to re-evaluate your team.

6th Place – Daniel Schroeder

Two Doc Oc teams made top-8. That’s a big sign that he is indeed back and the 8th place showing wasn’t just happenstance. Unlike Andrew’s team, Daniel has two other primary attackers in the form of double Klarion, which is a really solid move. Klarion is very good for his points, offering Mystics, Prob, and Perplex via Teekl, as well as a free Blades attacker. Combined with Vanisher rather than Overdrive, there’s no terrain that can stop Daniel from getting to you and unleashing tons of attacks in a single turn. I love the Nightwing pick here for the big, bad Krang; being able to vanish within 10 range and using Outsiders to block him at his printed values is a huge counter-play, and even if it only goes off once before Nightwing bites the dust, it’s a great move and buys the time he needs to go ham. Betty has always been one of my favorite support pieces since she came out last Summer, and she’s a great use of 15 points here. What I really love about this team is how versatile it is. There’s so many things going on that it’s tough to really take Daniel out.

5th Place – David Ellis

This right here is my favorite team. Not only is David running Swagneto, a piece I absolutely love, he’s running Jakeem in a nasty two-man army. David isn’t bogged down with a 20-man team, or tons of moving parts; he’s running two incredibly efficient attackers and it’s awesome to see this place so well. Turning Jakeem into an X-Men is huge as he picks up the once-per-turn Outsiders team ability (within 6 squares instead of 10) which gives him a lot of options. If Magneto scraps and Jakeem picks up the Pym Particles, there’s a very real chance that David can throw 5 BIG attacks at his opponent in a single turn. Combined with the insane versatility that Jakeem has and this team has a ton of bite for what seems like a small package. This is a great team and it’s always satisfying to see someone play just two figures and do well.

4th Place – Chip Barnett

If for some reason you forgot about Krang, this is where you’re going to see him. Limited means there’s a lot fewer answers to the big guy, so he naturally thrives in this environment. It’s no surprise to see him this high-up. With the combination of Nighthawk Prime, it’s a very frustrating build to play against since Krang can alter his numbers as much as he wants and you get to use whatever is printed (or replaced). Rather than using the standard Baxter Stockman, Chip ran with Night Nurse instead both to make room for NHP and for a more efficient healing mechanism is Krang gets low. While Baxter is very good at healing Krang for free, Night Nurse can heal for more clicks meaning Krang is a lot harder to kill as damage won’t stick as hard anymore. I would imagine he’s using the Pym Particles to make Nighthawk tiny so that anyone can carry him and he’s even harder to hit from range. This is a nasty variation of Krang and although he and Juston are always going to be together (until rotation at least), it’s nice to see a non-cookie-cutter version.

3rd Place – Cameron McGee

Talk about taking Jakeem to the next level, Cameron played a full-roster JSA team with a whopping 6 members! Jakeem doesn’t have the monster defense that KC Green Lantern does, but 18 is still pretty nice to share amongst your allies. Cameron went with a high energy, all-in team that can dish a lot of surprising damage either from afar with run-and-gun tactics, or close with Jakeem, Hawkman, and The Atom. Again, there’s a lot of versatility here and unless Jakeem goes down first, it’s going to be tough to really stop his team from ruining your day. The Joker’s Wild JSA members might have few clicks of life, but it’s worth noting that if they aren’t KO’d, Jakeem can take support and heal them right back up to full pretty easily. Green Lantern is easily an MVP of the little guys with his borderline-broken Light Wall marker that has such a huge impact. With a +6 to map roll and 3 Theme Team Probs, Cameron probably had a lot of say-so as to where his team played and countered a lot of builds based on that. I wish we knew his map choices. This is a really great team.

2nd Place – Jason Cramer

Are we noticing a trend here? Seems that way. Anyway, Jason ran a +3 Mystical theme team and did a great job with how he filled his points after all-star Jakeem was picked. As I mentioned before, Klarion is a big tool-box, and with Jakeem’s own Probability Control, all three pieces on Jason’s team can reroll dice. That’s a big deal and makes him really hard to actually hit. With double Teekl’s, that means Jakeem gets two Perplexes as well, so he can either Pulse Wave you for 6, Flurry you for 6 on each hit, or pump his defense up to a 20 on turns he needs to rest. The Weapon Drop adds salt to the wound giving Jakeem even more powers and taking him from Swiss army knife to Swiss armory. Doc Oc with double Klarion’s was amazing, but this is downright deadly. I think this build has a lot of potential and could see some more play in other ROC events.

1st Place – Cory Henry

Oh look, another Jakeem, and he took the win. What’s this? Another Klarion as well. Cory played a Mystical theme team as well with a +5 to his map roll, but rather than running a secondary Klarion, he went with two Green Lanterns. One is already nasty – I can’t imagine facing off against two. I don’t know the ROC maps, but the WizKids Offices were probably gross to play against him as he’s basically got a Wall Construct on his force. The Lantern’s aren’t bad on their dials either; with 10 attack, 7 range, and 3 damage, they’re a reliable tertiary attacker. Cory has a lot of damage too; he might not have as much as Jason did, but he’s got more control which means a lot. He also opted for the Symiote on Jakeem rather than the Weapons Drop which in my mind works slightly better as the Plasticity is really great, and Shape Change gives you natural evasion. Auto-breakaway is big too since Jakeem has Sidestep and it allows him to make more plays and counters Hypersonic speed. I freaking love the Black Cat on here; it’s just enough to be a nuisance that will 100% pull it’s own weight if it gets a single Prob off all game.

So What Can We Learn?

There are two dominate pieces that were on more teams than any other; Klarion the Witch-Boy and Jakeem Thunder. While Jakeem has been making waves over the WizKids Opens, he hasn’t seen ROC play yet and it’s easy to see why he’s so dominant in Limited. Less options to deal with him means he’s exponentially more powerful, and there simply isn’t anything like him in modern. Klarion hasn’t seen play in some time, but limited is a healthy environment for him because of his likewise toolbox nature. The fact that they both have Mystical means they’re natural allies and a great sprouting point for people to build from. Expect to see both of these pieces in more events, especially Jakeem.

Krang broke top 8, as he almost always does. I liked this take on the build, and we have yet to see if he’ll be the dominant force that a lot of people have been saying he would be once limited hit. I guarantee you’ll see an upswing in his presence, although he still might not be something you need to counter-build against. Still, a single Outsiders is a great plan just in case you play against him and can help against number boosting Jakeems.

Nick Fury didn’t see top 8, and I don’t know if he even made an appearance. He’s another piece that had been gathering some steam as limited pushes him from really good to borderline unstoppable since less options to deal with him means he just does more damage and causes more chaos. His lack of move and attack is a big issue for him, but I have a feeling we’re still going to see him played in events.

Green Lantern is also seeing MONSTER play, and he’s a force to be reckoned with. I’ve already stated how much I dig this guy and it’s looking like he’s a sleeper pick from Joker’s Wild. If you don’t have him and are looking to play in any competitive environment, I would pick him up. I have a feeling he’s going to increase quite heavily once rotation happens.

The biggest takeaway is something I’ve been striving to teach those of you looking at these articles for guidance; versatility is king and 9 times out of 10 a team that can react and change is going to beat something that does one thing really well. If you’re looking to play in the ROC limited format, or even in a WizKids Open, try and make your team as versatile as it can be without sacrificing integrity and efficiency. These builds should be a great example of how true that is.

How did this article benefit you? Are you planning on attending a ROC during the limited season and this had you re-evaluate your team? I’d love to know! Sound off in the comments below.

See you guys next week as we’ll finally see the release of Deadpool and X-Force! I’m super pumped!