We had 12 players, several were out with the flu. 8 of the 12 teams had the Yuan-Ti/Cosmic Cube combo. The following is the breakdown of the Top 4 teams and those match-ups.

1st Place Team, piloted by Russell Arge O'Neal. It went undefeated in the event.

Dice: Dice: Dice: Dice: Dice: Dice: Dice: Dice: Use: 3 Use:3

Cosmic Cube - Energy of the Beyonders

Elf Druid - Greater Order of the Gauntlet

Kobold Trap — Lesser Trap

Heimdall - The All-Seeing

Parallax - Fear

Shriek - Dark Empathy

Xandala Cimber - Destined for Greatness

Yuan-Ti Pureblood - Epic Humanoid

I mprovised Weapon

Resurrection

Yuan-Ti/Cube is the obvious win con with Elf Druid and Xandala as back-up if Yuan-Ti gets blanked. Parallax was a great add to get around Scarlet Witch or to pull out of a bad roll. Several opposing players overlooked the availability of this global (see my article on Reconnoitering Your Opponent to avoid this situation). The Heimdall global set up the available energy for a next turn purchase of 1 cost Action dice to trigger Attune/Cube damage.

2nd Place Team, piloted by Ron Hopkins. Its only 2 losses in the day were to Russell's team above.

Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Dice: 4 Dice: 4 Dice: 2 Use: 3 Use:3

Blob - Appetite For Destruction

Captain Cold's Cold Gun - Frozen Firearm

Dwarf Wizard - Paragon Zhentarim

Madame Masque - Nefaria's Schemes

Norman Osborn - Don't Call Me Gobby

Oracle - Clock Tower Surveillance

Scarlet Witch - Careful What You Wish For

Shriek - Sonic Beam

Blink-Transmutation

Villainous Pact

An Uber-control team, which was piloted very well by Ron, used the various elements to clamp down on opposing win cons then bring in 'Nobby' for the kill. Since most of the opposition was Yuan-Ti teams, which did not rely on attacking to do damage, Ron was able to build a wall of dice then strike at the right moment. Having most of his dice in the field meant a light bag for quick churn. Madame Masque was a sleeper that surprised a few players when they needed to field their Shriek.

3rd Place Team, piloted by David Spencer. It went 3-2 in Swiss (beating 2 Yuan-Ti teams).

Dice: 2 Dice: 3 Dice: 2 Dice: 4 Dice: 3 Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Use: 3 Use:3

Blob - Appetite For Destruction

C aptain Cold's Cold Gun - Frozen Firearm

Harley Quinn - Tough Cookie

Malekith - King of the Dark

Norman Osborn - Don't Call Me Gobby

Scarlet Witch - Careful What You Wish For

Shriek - Sonic Beam

The Collector - Taneleer Tivan

Unstable Canister

Villainous Pact

This was the second non-Yuan-Ti team to make the Top 4. A Villain-Control archetype, the 'Nobby'/Malekith combo was the path to victory. This is one build that benefitted from opposing Yuan-Ti teams missing key rolls in the early game. Once David got that opening, he deftly shut-down his opponent's long enough to set-up his win con, which was overwhelming once it hit.

4th Place Team, piloted by Michael Le. It went 3-2 in Swiss, losing only to Russell and David's teams.

Dice: 3 Dice: 3 Dice: 2 Dice: 4 Dice: 3 Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Dice: 2 Use: 3 Use:3

Casey Jones - Mutant Hunter

Cosmic Cube - Energy of the Beyonders

Dwarf Wizard - Paragon Zhentarim

Fenthaza - Dreams of the Black Opal Crown

Half-Elf Bard - Apprentice Order of the Gauntlet

SP//dr - Arachnid CPU

Shriek - Dark Empathy

Yuan-Ti Pureblood - Epic Humanoid

Blink-Transmutation

Mutation

While this is another Yuan-Ti build, Michael fused in several elements that kept opponents off-balance. This team is a great example for an opponent to take a few minutes before the match to study. Fenthaza's ability, paired with Casey Jones, provided several damage inflictions to unwary opponents and SP//dr was instrumental in blunting Cold Gun and dealing reciprocal damage. Half-Elf Bard provided protection from blanking that many players did not initially realize and helped gain Michael a turn or two to establish his win con.

T op 4 Match-Ups (we had a top 4 vice a top 8 because of the number of players)

Ron vs. Michael

Game 1 Michael went first and bought into his Yuan-Ti. Ron responded by purchasing Oracle to set-up his control of Michael's anticipated Cube purchases. Michael purchased SP/dr on turn two, followed by Ron purchasing Shriek. On turn 3, Michael could only field a Sidekick and purchased DWiz. Ron was able to field Shriek and tagged Yuan-Ti. Both players continued to position themselves with Ron clamping down on Michael with Blob and Cold Gunning Michael's control pieces. It finally ended with Ron getting Norman in position to deal the lethal blow, but it was close as he only had 4 life left. Win to Ron .

Since Game 1 took about 40 minutes there wasn't much time for Game 2 and it expectantly went to an extension. Both players set-up their engines, but Michael purchased Fenthaza in turn 2 to attempt to set up some extra damage with a dual Casey Jones strike. Since most of Ron's team was Villains, Casey could clear the way for a big strike. Michael had to win Game 2 outright (i.e. bringing Ron to zero life) in order to sent this match into sudden-death, Ron only needed to prevent that from happening . It came down to Michael's last draw. He had a Cube and Villainous Pact die in his bag, with Yuan-Ti, Fenthaza, Casey Jones and a few other dice in the field. He missed pulling either Action die but drew a second Casey Jones. However, he did not have enough damage for lethal and the tie meant Ron advanced to the championship round.

Russell vs. David

Game 1 Russell went first purchasing Xandala to set-up his Attune front. David purchased Shriek and Villainous Pact global a Sidekick. Turn 2, Russell could only purchase 1 Yuan-Ti and David purchased Blob and Villainous Pact global again. He now had two control pieces in churn. On turn 3 Russell fielded Xandala and purchased 2 Cubes. David was able to field Shriek and he blanked Parallax, since the global on that card was an effective tactic in other games. Russell was eventually able to get Yuan-Ti and Elf Druid fielded and even though David got Blob to clamp down on Yuan-Ti, eventually Russell got a multiple Cube roll and hit David for lethal with the Attune abilities from Elf Druid and Xandala. Win to Russell .

Game 2 was text book rolling by Russell. Russell went first again and purchased Elf Druid. David purchased Shriek and Resurrected. Turn 2, Russell purchased Yuan-Ti, Heimdall global and Resurrected - he had 3 Sidekicks in Prep. David was able to field Shriek (good draw) and he blanked Parallax again, purchased Scarlet Witch and Villainous Pact global. Turn 3, Russell fielded both Yuan-Ti and Elf Druid, bought 2 Cubes (inflicting 2 damage from the Attunes on these two dice) and Resurrected. David purchased Blob and Resurrected. Now for the climax: turn 4 Russell made a great draw (2 Cubes) and rolled 5 dice - 3 Sidekicks and 2 Cubes (one Sidekick from the previous turn Resurrection). He rolled wild and fist energy on the Sidekicks, a double bolt on one Cube and the Action face on the other Cube. He activated the Cube, doing 6 damage - David was now down to 12 life - and purchased 2 Improvised weapons (triggering Yuan-Ti's ability for 6 damage) and 2 Kobold Traps (for another 6 damage) and putting David at zero life.

Championship Game: Russell vs. Ron

This was a match-up I was eager to watch. I won't go into detail on Game 1 because it was another 4-Turn kill by Russell. Similar pattern as the second game in the match against David, Ron, who went first, couldn't match the speed to set-up his control elements, even though he was able to Shriek Russell's Yuan-Ti in turn 3, Russell was able to Cube combo in turn 4, KO'ing Shriek to set-up the chain purchase of Action dice to inflict lethal damage with Yuan-Ti and Xandala. This game was over in less than 10 minutes. Win to Russell .

Game 2 was much slower, by comparison. Ron chose to go first and purchased Shriek. Russell purchased Xandala and fielded a Sidekick. Turn 2, Ron purchased Oracle and Villainous Pact global a Sidekick. Russell purchased Yuan-Ti and Heimdall global + Resurrection. Turn 3, Ron fielded Oracle and Shriek, blanking Yuan-Ti, and Resurrected. He now had some Control elements in place. Russell fielded both Xandala and Yuan-Ti and purchased a Kobold Trap. Turn 4, Ron purchased Scarlet Witch and Villainous Pact global. Russell fielded a Sidekick and purchased Elf Druid. Turn 5, Ron purchased DWiz, Villainous Pact and Resurrection globals. Russell purchased 1 Cube and fielded a Kobold Trap (doing 1 damage from Xandala). Turn 6, Ron fielded Scarlet Witch (another Control element in place), purchased Blob and Villainous Pact global. Russell purchased Shriek and also Villainous Pact global. Turn 7, Ron fields DWiz, tagging Yuan-Ti (compounding the blanking of Shriek), but triggers Russell's Kobold Trap because DWiz was at level 2. Russell moves a second Yuan-Ti die to the Field Zone from the Kobold Trap effect. Ron finishes his turn with a Villainous Pact global. Russell fields Elf Druid and a Sidekick and Villainous Pact/Resurrection globals. Turn 8, Ron fields Blob, tagging Russell's Shriek and resurrects.

I'm going to pause here to review the game state: Ron has Oracle, Shriek (blanking Yuan-Ti), Scarlet Witch and DWiz (blanking a Yuan-Ti die) and Blob (impacting Shriek). Russell has Xandala, Elf Druid, 2 Yuan-Ti dice (blanked by Shriek and DWiz), and 3 Sidekicks fielded. Russell has 2 dice prepped from the previous turn (a Cube and a Sidekick).

Russell draws a Kobold Trap and 3 Sidekicks. On his first roll, the Sidekicks come-up energy, the Trap rolls an action face energy and Cube rolls an energy face. The second roll, which Cube cannot be re-rolled and the Trap must be re-rolled because of Scarlet Witch, the Trap rolls its action face again. Russell then pays for a Parallax global to reroll to the Cube, which circumvents Scarlet Witch's effect, and the 3 fielded Sidekicks getting an action face on the Cube and energy on the Sidekicks. Russell uses the Cube, inflicting 3 damage from Xandala's Attune ability on Ron's Shriek, KO'ing it and removing the blank on Yuan-Ti, and 3 damage from Elf Druid's Attune ability on Ron's DWiz, KO'ing it and removing the other blank on Yuan-Ti. Russell fields the Kobold Trap inflicting 9 damage (from the Attunes + Cube on Xandala, Elf Druid and the now unblanked Yuan-Ti dice) - Ron is now at 10 life - and purchases the last three Kobold Traps and a few improvized Weapons with the 6 remaining energy from the Sidekicks, dealing enough damage from multiple triggers of the Yuan-Ti + Cube combo. Game and Match to Russell, the 'Call of the Wild' WKO SoCal Champion.

I extend my deepest thanks and appreciation to Comic Hero University and Enrique Munoz for hosting and to all the players who joined us (one as far away as Utah) to make this a competitive but enjoy-filled event.