Character/Special Usage
4: Mr. Fantastic, Scarlet Witch, Invisible Woman, The Inhumans/Crystal (2/2 split)
3: Spawn, Thor, Dr. Strange (1 old), Silver Sable
2: Professor X, X-Man, Onslaught, X-Babies, Namor, Thing, Hulk, Sentinels/Bastion (1/1), Beast/Beast:The Brute (1/1), Old Magneto, Reavers/Donald Pierce (1/1), Old Spider-Woman
1: Marauders, Ghost Rider, Phoenix, Hawkeye, Dark Phoenix, Captain America, Black Widow, Lex Luthor, Beyonder, White Queen, Heroes for Hire, Iron Man, Marrow, Brood, Wolverine
Analysis
Right off the bat, it is worth noting that a seventeen person tournament is a fairly small sample size. So while we can't necessarily form any predictions about the "universal" Overpower metagame, there is still a great deal of entertaining information and insight to be gained from the descriptive statistics of a singular event. What stands out to me the most from the raw character data is the omnipresence of energy characters. Energy based decks have always been overrepresented, but it seems that the new special cards for Dr. Strange and The Inhumans have shifted the needle even further in that direction. I'm surprised to see only one H4H deck (the main check to Any Hero decks lacking rock solid defense), but again it's a small sample size. Similarly, not a single deck chose to run The Starjammers! This speaks to the great character diversity present at this event, despite the fact that there was an incentive to run more competitive builds based on the nice prize pool.
8 Stat Characters
Number of decks with zero 8 stat characters: 1 (Win Percentage: 63%)
Number of decks with one 8 stat character: 4 (Win Percentage: 50%)
Number of decks with two 8 stat characters: 9 (Win Percentage: 51%)
Number of decks with three 8 stat characters: 2 (Win Percentage: 63%)
Number of decks with four 8 stat characters: 1 (Win Percentage: 50%)
Analysis
Based on this, you were more than twice as likely to face a deck with two 8 stat characters than you were any other configuration. The fact that it has such an average win percentage (again, ignoring the small sample size) speaks to the high representation of dual 8 stat decks. It is noteworthy that the two most successful decks (the 7-1 outliers) were both running two 8 stat characters. Both of the decks utilizing three 8 stat characters were Four Freedoms Plaza builds, which skews the numbers a bit.
Negates
Seven decks opted to not run an AO user, while the remaining ten all featured one character with a negate. There were no dual negate decks present. The most common was Scarlet Witch, and the most successful win% negate character was Beast. Scarlet Witch has a long history as the best negate character in the game, since she brings upwards of 6 playable specials for 17 points and has a game winning inherent ability. However, with the inclusion of The Marvels, the Beast family becomes more attractive. Stars and Garters is a nice enough OPD, which brings Beast's playable special count up to 5. When you factor in the off stat teamworks (6F for Brute, 6F for Dark, and 6s for regular), you have an amount of unique/non-duping cards that is comparable to Scarlet Witch. If someone has the patience to delve deeper into the data, I would hypothesize that the non-negate decks suffered against the Onslaught's Citadel decks.
Reservists
Of the sixteen fully listed decks, eleven of them featured a character that can play special cards from reserve. Other decks were either restricted in a character choice due to using a homebase (2), ran a backup 8 stat character that wasn't Dr. Strange (1), or ran a clone character that could play the same special cards as a frontline teammate (2). Interestingly enough, neither of the clone based decks opted to run the KO event. The most common reserve characters were Dr. Strange and Silver Sable.
Before The Marvels, your reserve character was either someone to back up your stats, or someone who could play special cards from reserve. Being able to play special cards from reserve is extremely powerful, as it allows for a deck with less duplicates as well as giving a wider access of options during an actual match. With Dr. Strange's AD, you no longer have to choose between the two. He backs up your 8 stat to give you more resilience in a game that goes to the power pack, while chipping in with extra team defense and keeping your deck from needing to add too many low venture cards. Silver Sable has also risen up the ranks thanks to The Marvels, and has likely usurped Spider-Woman as the defacto reserve character. It will be interesting to watch their usage moving forward, as they both have certain strengths over each other depending on the rest of your deck. The Flash and Velocity were nowhere to be seen, which isn't that uncommon. Small sample size aside, it was interesting to see only one Hawkeye present. He was already a solid choice pre-Marvels, and now he has access to a non-avoidable OPD that wins venture.
Battlesites vs. Any Heroes
There was a roughly even split of nine Any Hero decks versus eight Battlesite decks. They both had a 60% win rate, which doesn't really tell us anything. If someone is willing to reference the excellent round by round results, it would be interesting to see the head to head matchups featuring Any Heroes vs. a Battlesite. It is of note that both 7-1 decks were using Any Heroes.
Individual Deck Analysis
Prof X/Fantastic/Beast/Silver Sable
This is a very hardy team. Professor X was always an underrated character, and his support role here is exactly the kind of thing he excels at. Beast was used over Dark Beast to bring the extra 6 strength teamwork, since Silver Sable can play the 6F from reserve. Even running the most expensive version of Beast, this build was still under the sum deck total by three whole points. With Dual 8 stats and Any Heroes, I would expect this deck to be stronger in the late game. However, Mr. Fantastic does bring a venture winning OPD that must be negated, and Telepathic Coordination can similarly win a round (through concession) in a deck with this many teamworks. At it's core, this is a teamwork based deck with an acceptable amount of defense. It is important not to underestimate the value of running an Intellect based deck, as it is immune to the more commonly played hate cards (though not many of them were present at this event). An alternate build could opt for Dark Beast over Silver Sable, giving access to the KO event (which is the lineup I ran in a JLA era Regional all the way back in 1997). As for its weaknesses, I would expect H4H based decks to be a headache for this lineup.
Thor/Inhumans/X-Babies/Dr. Strange
The other 7-1 team is a much gaudier contrast to the calm stability of the winning build. It has more defense, a game winning venture gimmick, and some flashy offensive specials. This is a rock solid build that can shift modes into a variety of match-up dependent strategies, and it has a wide range of tactical choices to quickly win the game. As far as weaknesses, it has a large susceptibility to common anti-energy cards, and it may be punished by level 10 teamwork followups due to the lack of a Battlesite/EE. If Thor is KOed before getting off Viking Pyre, you may gain virtual card advantage due to making the events mostly irrelevant.
H4H/Iron Man/Beast:Brute/Spider-Woman
Spawn/Reavers/Marrow/Silver Sable
These are two nifty lineups, each following the same general skeleton of 8 stat + negate + team defender + reserve defender. Marrow and Iron Man both guard their 21 point team leader with defensive specials that can draw a card, and there is more than enough defense to be able to go without a Battlesite. The contrast of Spawn and H4H is always interesting, since they both bring an 8 and a 7 for only 21 points. H4H is the epitome of offense, and Spawn can augment team defense to the point of feeling impenetrable. These are both great decks!
Onslaught/Spawn/X-Man/Old Magneto
This really tickles the old school player in me, as it is about as straightforward as you can get. I've recently used an extremely fun build Onslaught/Prof X/Brainiac/3 stat Magneto with Any Heroes and the KO event for maximum redundancy, but this build brings a little more new school flavor. What it gives up in consistency, it gains in team defense from Spawn, X-Man, and the use of a Battlesite.
Phoenix/Ghost Rider/Marauders/Hawkeye
Of course, this is the most combo oriented lineup that ignores convention and goes for maximum synergy. Phoenix works very well with Vertigo, as you can move every hit to her and continue fighting, or shift things around to make her LO come online. Ghost Rider provides an HQ as a prime Malice target, and also maximizes Vertigo by allowing extra hits to be shifted on him with his inherent. Hawkeye and Onslaught's Citadel gives you access to a multitude of ways to claim venture after stacking hits on Phoenix, with Apocalyptic Minion, Merciless Conqueror, and Hawkeye's Action leader. Ghost Rider has a ton of playable cards and brings another non-avoidable venture winner, but The Ray, New Warriors, or Mr. Fantastic may be superior choices for this slot.
Other things of note:
-It was great to see Stark Enterprises used, as it gains a lot from The Marvels.
-The same deck was also running Maximum Carnage, which has Symbiotic Hero Captured as a nice alternative to Gods of Stone for a Battlesite deck without a lot of OPDs.
-The classic Beyonder chain (played by its inventor) is seemingly the strongest deck on paper, though it doesn't gain much of anything from The Marvels.
-I love the idea of Lex Luthor on the frontline (as opposed to his normal reserve role) - maybe in the future he can become the backbone of a pseudo Viking Pyre/New Lease on Life deck that ignores energy hate. Luthor's pittance of special cards (especially compared to Thor) may be offset by the fact that he frees up a front line slot for a non-8 stat character. Luthor, Donald Pierce, _____, Silver Sable leaves you room for 22...
If we were to follow the average guidelines of all decks with a winning record in the tournament, and then apply that to the most chosen characters in a given role (8 stat, negate, etc), it would look something like this:
Mean K2: Mr. Fantastic, Scarlet Witch, Thor, Dr. Strange
A seemingly powerful lineup that I've never considered before!
Thanks to BlueFire for a comprehensive listing of results (found here (http://www.beenhereandthere.com/SMF/where-to-play/spring-break-2014/90/)), and congratulations on a successful event.
thank you for the analysis, it was a great read :)
Quote from: Onslaught on March 19, 2014, 09:59:54 PM
Other things of note:
-It was great to see Stark Enterprises used, as it gains a lot from The Marvels.
-The same deck was also running Maximum Carnage, which has Symbiotic Hero Captured as a nice alternative to Gods of Stone for a Battlesite deck without a lot of OPDs.
I only chose Maximum Carnage so I can look kick-ass.
(http://i.imgur.com/HGer41V.jpg)
QuoteOnslaught/Spawn/X-Man/Old Magneto
sounds so evil
Just wondering if there is any info on the Friday night tourney.
what were the rules, who used what and who won?
page 7 of the thread has all the details.
http://www.beenhereandthere.com/SMF/where-to-play/spring-break-2014/
Yes sorry. I meant the Friday tournament the sealed deck or pack draft tournament. In one of the video's I noticed they are using only 3 heroes to a team and seem to be playing specials for characters that no one is using. I was wondering what the draft rules and process were and who won that night.
Friday's event was a draft, we each received a bunch of packs from Original, Powersurge, and Mission Control.
After opening a pack, we were allowed to choose one card, then had to pass the pack along, receiving a different pack from another player until all packs were empty. We had to build our teams from the chosen cards.
All specials were treated as Any Hero, and our rosters consisted of three characters with no reserve.
They were battle matches, so no conceding and no venture.
There were three tables, each table played a round robin.
I won at my table, Zippa-Head won at his - but I forget who took the prize at the third table.
Clearly I should have gone so I would have gotten a custom writeup on my deck!
The field was varied, though it is was lacking many top decks. However, I would've liked to have seen more rogue decks make an appearance.
Props to Phil for running my Phoenix deck in my absence (did you find the fatal flaw?)!