The ROC US Cup took place last Saturday, September 8th with the first big 300 point Modern event of the month as we build closer and closer to the ROC World Cup. Today I want to talk about the man that won the event and his team. It’s the GOAT; George Massu!

Regardless of what a lot of people believe, Modern is a pretty diverse setting right now. Roll the clock back a couple of years (or even one year ago to the ROC World Cup) and it’s been mostly 1 team with slight variations that not only take the victory, but make up the top 8, 16, or 32 spots depending on the event.

Today is much better off. X-Men are finally playable in a tournament setting. Uni-Mind isn’t the great destroyer he was last year (but still very good). Mistress Death with Mjolnir is still very good. Jakeem is almost nowhere to be found, but can still makeup an impressive JSA team. There’s so many options for players to use and it’s refreshing to see. Sure, with the only real resource, X-Men have a leg up and are proving to be the Modern team to play, but they aren’t unbeatable, and George proved that on Saturday.

I didn’t get to watch the entire event as it’s tough for me to carve out an entire day for watching Clix like I do during the ROC World Cup, but I did watch the final match. George went up against a full X-Men team. What was very different was George’s team.

George Massu’s 2018 ROC US Cup Winning Team

Right off the bat, we can see a distinct lack of theme team and what appears to be a lack of synergy on the team. Green Arrow is very strong, but with no TK, he has to hope folks come into his range. However, when played very well, Oliver doesn’t need anyone else to move him around. George did a fantastic job of proving that you don’t need 2-3 primary attackers to do well, even if you don’t have a heavy-hitter like Uni-Mind. George’s primary attacker is Green Arrow and his team is a very all-or-nothing approach.

Rather than upping protection for Green Arrow with something like the Symbiote or the Mirror, George opted for Stormbreaker, and this combination was a fantastic ace against X-Men teams that are carted around via the Blackbird. Energy Explosion is exactly what Green Arrow needs thanks to his special attack power:

KRYPTONITE ARROWS: When Green Arrow hits with a ranged attack, the hit target can’t use defense powers until your next turn. If the hit target has the Kryptonian keyword also give it an action token.

Oliver doesn’t care what he hits with or how; as long as it’s a ranged attack, he stops all defensive powers, meaning Wolverine’s fantastic STOP click which makes him so lethal is nonexistent and you’re essentially depowering them to a 50 point piece with only 3 clicks of health. Stormbreaker also increases his range to a whopping 10 along with his Nick Fury-like targeting. Against bigger single-target characters like Uni-Mind, Green Arrow doesn’t need Energy Explosion; he’s just the right tool for the job.

Two issues are raised from this though; how does the team deal with the lack of mobility for Green Arrow, and Wolverine and other popular X-Men have 3 clicks, not 2, so how does Energy Explosion KO them? Both of these questions are answered with the same piece, something that’s been starting to show back up in big events after its nerf last year: the Pym Pocket Tank.

From KO’ing colossi to disrupting swarm teams, the tank is an excellent source of disruption, and it’s here that George gets his pseudo-TK. Using Kite Man to carry up Captain America and Domino (along with the tank since it’s a placement after resolutions that doesn’t count as carrying), George can get to wherever he needs, call-in any of his ID characters, use Cap’s Perplex to up their attack, and then throw the tank towards the enemy team or even single target. With Domino sitting there ready to Prob the attack, he has a very good chance at displacing his primary target(s) up to 4 squares away. With Green Arrow’s Sidestep and now-10 range, he can hit anyone on the map rather quickly while still staying safe.

Okay, but how does he get Stormbreaker? Surely he doesn’t wait until turn 3 to Sidestep up and finally token Green Arrow to pick it up. The answer here lies in the Ape Batman bystander, and even I had to look him up to remember that these Apes come with Super Strength. Batman serves as his carrying mechanism to get the hammer back to Oliver on turn two, while providing Outwit for the remainder of the game.

As for follow-up damage, his 2 Cyclops give him stellar ranged damage, Wolverine does his typical thing of Charge/Flurry/Blades, Professor X nukes retaliators, and Chamber can Poison out real-boy characters from the Blackbird and can be a very effective sniper.

No need to dive into his retaliator choices; both Carnage and Giant-Girl are among the top picks, but I like that in the final match that I did watch, George seemed like he was using them to bait out early attacks and give chances to burn ID cards to score minimal points. If that was what he was planning on doing, it was a great tactic, and I think it’s a tool that not many of us are utilizing. They’re super valuable to do their jobs, but at only 10 points, it’s not the end of the world to use them as cannon fodder.

The final matchup was very exciting, and it was impressive to watch George throw down a tank followed up by a Green Arrow Energy Explosion to KO everyone except the Blackbird on an X-Men team in one turn. This is why George is still the best there is at the game. Practically no one would dream of playing such a high-risk team for a large event.

Did you get a chance to view this matchup or more from the day? Have more to share about other rounds that George played? What are your thoughts on his team? Let us know in the comments section!

See you guys next week on Clix Fix and here again in 2 weeks. Until then, remember, the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!