Please Initial Here

Another constructed format brought to you by the Calgary Crew. These all seem to be born from off-hand comments. Last week, someone joked that we should make Teams using only our initials. Why not?

This week, that is exactly what we played. The names of the characters, actions, and BAC’s had to start with a letter of your initials. Middle names were included in this. With names that had more than one word in the title could be used as long as one of the words started with one of your initials. Otherwise, you were free to use anything (Golden).

Thank you Mom and Dad for giving me two middle names. This gave me four letters to work with (M-B-P-J). I immediately decided that SR Mimic would be my first choice as I could copy whatever else was out there and use that instead. Zombie Magneto was the second pick for a couple of reasons: 1. I have not played with him in a while, and 2. He is a great control option against weenie teams. From there I was a little stumped to be honest. I sat there trying to decide on an actual win-con of my own. I was also trying to figure out some Ramp options. Man, I wish I could use something like Professor X.

Wait… Professor X starts with P! I have one of those letters to work with. Professor X is on. SR Mimic is off in favour of his C cousin. Now I have Ramp for days. Still no win condition, but as I stared at my Team I noticed an unintentional theme developing. Maybe I could go with an X-men build with this.

What Did You Play?

The Team: M-B-P-J.

So, with the theme in mind I focused solely on the X-men from here on out. Jean Grey is a card that I have always wanted to use but never really had a chance to. I decided to give her a go as she could give me reasonable board control. Bishop was my next pick in case I came up against a Burn Team. Control and Ramp, but still no real win condition.

Jubilee was the obvious add in here. She pairs really well with the Mimic-nPXG engine, and can help to soften up my opponent with burn damage. She is good, but is not going to work on this Team alone. This is where The Blackbird came in. Jubilee and Jean Grey have some decent stat lines. Hopefully my opponent does not save the energy and I can swing in with some bodies.

One character/action slot left. I went for the LOL’s here and put one Marvel Girl. I love coming up with excuses to use the same dice on the same Team. Also, her ability was not too bad to get a bigger body while also gaining life.

For BAC’s, I chose Mutation to help with Jean and Marvel Girl. Keep Marvel Girl lower to trigger her ability and get Jean high to maximize her effectiveness. The second BAC was basically a throw away slot for me. I used Midgard because… reasons? Honestly, I messed up the rules of the build and thought the card had to start with the initials and not just have one word that started with it. My pool would have been much more open if I had realized this.

Not a terrible build with the limitations put in place. Let’s see how it ran.

Game 1:

B-Y-E were the letters across the table… wait… that spells BYE. I win!

1-0

Game 2:

A-G-R were the letters on this Team. UC Grodd was going to be the big issue, along with Zombie Gladiator and lots of mask characters. Mimic and Jubilee were the early purchases and I started the burn train. I also ramped myself to an early 3 bag burn (Mike would be proud). That let me get to Magneto somewhat quickly to turn off his weenies. In particular, Tabaxi Rogue, who was going to wreck me with Mimic doing his thing. I built my board to the point where I had both Jean and Marvel Girl out with Jubilee. His board was looking equally scary with a monkey and lots of bodies. I started to use Jubilee to thin out Sidekicks and Mimic copied a level 3 Magneto for the stats. I bought all of my Blackbirds and it took longer than it should have to roll them. I did manage to get them to go when he could not afford to pay for the blockers.

2-0

Game 3:

Z-Q-M were the letters on this Team. He was using some of the new Warhammer stuff, and the main annoyance was actually Might of the Astartes. This messes with my fielding costs, and they are already on the crappy side. Also the GDM was there to keep my Field really limited. Mimic/Jubilee as planned, except Mimic missed his first time through… and there is the big weakness of Mimic Ramp. I immediately doubled down on Mimic and purchased another. I did get Jubilee in the Field which was good because I was only managing to roll Sidekicks. While I burned, I eventually managed to get one of my Mimics out. This led me to make a decision. He had already bought the GDM so my spammy Field could not be so spammy. I went for Jean for her stats and to help keep his Field thin. I got nailed by the first GDM but managed to keep Jubilee. From here on out, I used Mimic to copy the largest stats on the Field and keep swinging with him. I got Jean up to level 3 and kept the smaller things off the Board. My opponent forgot that I had bought a Blackbird and that it was in my bag. I rolled it the next turn and had just enough X-men to get lethal.

3-0

Post-Mortem:

This was an interesting limitation in building. I was lucky with the letters that I had to work with and the fact that I had one more letter than everyone else tonight. I keep forgetting how good MImic actually is. Ramp early and a potential big body later. He could be one of the best utility cards in the game. Zombie Magneto is excellent shutdown for the small characters. Again, I forgot how effective he could be.

Jubilee was what you would expect her to be. A great tool to burn or clear as needed. Jean Grey was actually pretty fun to use. She kept the little guys off the Field fairly effectively, but the 6 cost does hurt her. Marvel Girl was actually kind of neat on this Team. I only got to use her ability once during the night, but it was an easy was to get 2 life back. I really wish the life cap could be removed from this Game. Life gain is an underutilized mechanic.

The Blackbird was the star though. If the opponent knew it was coming, it could mess with their purchases. If they didn’t, or didn’t save enough energy, there were plenty of stats to swing in with.

This was a fun X-men build that fit within the limits of the challenge. Definitely, there were other pieces I could have included here… but I wanted to try out some different tools tonight.

What are your thoughts on the Format? What would you have built with the letters you have available? Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

– jourdo