Avengers League 09/26/2007 AM Game 5: Jessica Drew & Sean Whitmore vs. Will.S

[mattbib]

Greetings, fight fans! Welcome to the first fight of the day!

A reminder about voting:

Participants and spectators may vote in each match. All voters should use the poll included in each match thread, and vote solely on a team's strategy and defense. The voting polls will remain open for 24-hours. NOTE: To prevent unfair ballot-stuffing, only votes from posters with 50 or more posts will be counted. Additionally, votes from posters with matching IP addresses will be disqualified.

Participants may question each other's strategies and offer retorts during a match so long as they stay civil. Spectators may also question the participants. However explanations may not contradict or embellish the posted strategy. Voting should not be based on any potential that characters possess or on any other moves that a voter might want to interject on their own. All voters should feel free to comment on why they've voted for a specific team.

To maintain fairness across the board, teams with two or more participants will only be allowed one vote in any match. If more than one member of a team votes in a match, only the first vote from that team will be counted.

Additionally, while encouraging friends or family to vote in the tournament is allowed, encouraging others to vote specifically for you is against the rules and is grounds for disqualification. Friends and family are expected to read both strategies and make a decision based on what is presented; not based on allegiance to a particular participant. All voting should be done without bias.
__________________________________________________ _____________

And now on to our fight...

In the first corner we have Jessica Drew & Sean Whitmore's team (Quasar, Anti-Vision, Scarlet Witch)

vs

In the other corner is Will.S's Team Awesome (Sersi, Wonder Man, Speed, Songbird, Jocasta, Arachne)

Both participants have submitted strategies:

Please do not post or vote until both strategies have been posted and read.

[mattbib]

Stage One

Anti-Vision flies over to attack Songbird, firing solar beams at her carapace, or—if that doesn’t work—turning intangible to dodge the others and puts his hand through her chest, turning it partly intangible, causing her to go into shock and knocking her out. If he’s attacked, he phases through.

Quasar teleports himself and the Scarlet Witch, both tightly surrounded by Quasar’s usual formfitting force field and both standing on a shield construct above the head of Sersi. When he arrives, he plays defense long enough for….

The Scarlet Witch casts a hex sphere over Sersi, which re-directs any of her powers (transmutation, eye blasts, etc…) back on her, just like Wanda did to incapacitate Lady Lark in Avengers #85 and the Enchantress in Avengers #83.

Stage Two

Anti-Vision flies to duel Wonder Man, a “man” with whom the original Vision battled to a draw in Avengers #158.

Quasar, with Wanda in flying invisible force field construct tow, creates a gigantic jai alai caste (the wicker scooper), uses it to scoop up Speed, Jocasta, and Arachne, and throws them toward Wonder Man. Anti-Vision, who knows of this strategy, will turn intangible so that they won’t hit him.

Wanda rests, but is prepared to defend if necessary, and prepared to hex Sersi again if the previous hex didn’t work completely.

Stage Four

Wanda, still under Quasar’s protection, hexes Jocasta, causing her innards to short circuit (ala Ultron).

Anti-Vision takes a moment from the battle with a now-distracted Wonder Man to knock out Arachne and then fire his solar beams to knock out Speed (though both should be knocked out by this time, or at least Speed should, from not only the collision, but from also falling to the ground. If, perhaps, Arachne constructs a “web” softening their fall, then the Vision acts on Speed first, and Arachne second.

Quasar constructs a gigantic Grim Reaper to knock Simon for a loop.

Stage Five

Anti-Vision takes care of any stragglers among Speed, Arachne, and Jocasta (using the phasing technique on the latter two, and pummeling Jocasta). HOWEVER, if Sersi is still conscious and kicking, then Anti-Vision flies over and partially phases his arm through her head, and holds it there long enough to knock her out (exactly like he did in Avengers #360).

Wanda hexes Simon, causing his ionic energy to fluctuate and fritz, making him—for all intents and purposes—to become nauseous (just like Wanda did to the much more powerful Count Nefaria).

Quasar constructs a larger-than-life Ultron, which he uses to taunt the doubled-over Simon.

Stage Finale

Quasar has his Ultron pound on Simon, while Wanda leans against the Anti-Vision, hand draped all over his chest, nibbling his ear, telling Simon (in between blows from construct Ultron), and “You see this Simon?” WHAM! “You wish this was you, don’t you?” WHAM! “Well, it can never be, dear, ahem, brother.” WHAM! “Know why?” WHAM! “Cause the Anti-Vision, though a synthezoid AND a copy of a copy of you—is more man than you’ll ever be.” WHAM! –and Simon goes down for the count, his will dissipated. Wanda cries about it, asking Wendell why he made her do it, but Q don’t care, because he’s a badmuthaSHUTYOMOUTH!

[mattbib]

JD and Sean's best bet is for Quasar to shield himself and Scarlet Witch so that she can start busting out some spells and keep Anti-Vision phased. I know this because that would have been my exact strategy with those three characters as well, it's a good thing I have Sersi.

:evilsmile

If JD/Sean's team use this defensive tactic:

Sersi casts illusions on Scarlet Witch making her believe that Quasar is Ultron and that Vision is Cthon.

Despite the fact that Quasar is herald level or above, he's still vulnerable to magic. In this case, chaos magic so Wanda uses her hexes on both Wendell and Vision and turns them into wooden trees effectively killing two birds with one stone.

Wendell as a tree in particular has the Quantum bands hanging on his branches.

After SW uses her hex magic to take care of both "threats", Speed blindsides her with a flurry of punches enough to knock her out but not kill her.If for some reason none of this works or isn't viable in lieu of another tactic here's "Team Awesome!" battle tactics.

Offensive strategy (simultaneous actions):

Step 1

Songbird locks contructs with Quasar and is joined by Wonder Man as back-up thus making Wendell multi-task.

Sersi transmutates Anti-Vision into a substance that prevents him from phasing, moving, and altering his density.

Speed runs interference on Scarlet Witch by not letting her cast a spell. Punches and small scale hyper kinetic vibrations to keep her off balance.Step 2

Songbird and Wonder Man are beginning to buckle under Quasar's superior constructs but help is coming along the way.....

Speed, runs away from SW setting up the next move for Sersi. She casts an illusion on Scarlet Witch to make her believe that she's fighting alongside her fellow West Coast Avengers against Quasar who she now thinks is Ultron.

Scarlet Witch hexes away Wendell's quantum contructs believing them to be Ultron's encephalo effects and area blasts. Songbird creates a pincer construct to hold Quasar in place for Wonder Man to dive bomb Quasar from above into a TKO.

Jocastam Speed and Arachne begin to synchronize their attack on Scarlet Witch.

Directly after Scarlet Witch hexes Quasar, Jocasta, Arachne, and Speed triple team Scarlet Witch. Speed whizzes around SW just within enough time frame for Arachne to envelop Wanda in her psionic web. Jocasta shoots her eye beams at full intensity towards Wanda who's still entangled which knocks her out for the count.Own3d!11

[unkiedev]

After careful thought and much debate I have voted for Jessicadrew and Sean Whitmore AND HERE'S WHY:

YES Will S. did as good a job as dear departed Destiny in predicting JD/Sean W.'s opening move. I mean DAMN, good job Will S! The only problem is it doesn't help in this case.

While he predicted who and how JD/SW would attack he didn't have a good defense FOR that attack. The Scarlet Witches opening move of placing a Hex Sphere in Sersi's way would double Sersi's initial moves (Ultron Illusion, Tree Transforming) back on herself. I also think JD/SW's Anti-Vision tactics would work against Songbird.

...and without Songbird or Sersi Will S.'s strat falls apart.

It really all comes down to the first few seconds of the game. Quasar and Scarlet Witch teleport at the very beginning. Might this throw Sersi off in time for Scarlet Witch to cast her Hex Sphere before Sersi fires her illusions?

Yeah. I think so.

I still cannot stress how impressed I am with Will S.'s precognitive skills.

[Brian M.]

Very good match, great job on Will.S predicting the moves. I'm kinda in the line of thinking w/ unkiedev here though. I'm not gonna vote yet b/c I wanna give both participates a chance to defend their strat, but I'm leaning towards Whitmore/Drew.

[da noble savage]

Doesn't seri have some superspeed if so then she should be able to launch her attack before wendal can teleport them. Don't know for sure duh well wait for feedback before voteing.

[TotalWorldDomination]

The Question is, would the Hex Sphere be activated in time to prevent the Illusions from slipping out... This is another tough one.

[Flâneur]

I'm leaning toward Jessica Drew and Whitmore. While I think Will. S did a good job predicting scenarios he didn't really capitalise on his predictions. I'm also slightly disappointed he didn't use what, imo, were some of the obvious Wanda pwners on his team.

I'll wait and see what Dagger thinks about this before voting though.

[Fatguy]

LOL I havent voted yet, but...Will S. predicting the tactic is genius!

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm in agreement with Unkiedev. I love Will S.' predictive ability, but then he goes on to determine actions for the other team, which may or may not be in line with what they'd actually do.

Like others, I haven't voted just yet- want to think about it some more, but that would be my main criticism at this stage. Otherwise, both strategies are pretty good (and I like how Jessica and Sean used issue numbers for documentation. Very Busiek-like! ;))

[Shyft]

Ive gone with Will.S, for a few reasons. One was his predictive abilities, two because he acknowledges his own teams weaknesses, and 3 because JD&SW' main tactic for dealing with the superior numbers is to throw them at each other. Aside from the fact that i cant see a group of heroes (who have between them flight,super-speed, super agility) being "scooped up" that easily, i also dont see how a body-pile up is going to do anything other than confuse the bundled squad for more than a few seconds. I also think the way that Speed and Arache just get "knocked out" as if they are both easy targets to hit, is unrealisitc.

[Adam C]

This was tough, but I think Will's probably the better constructed strategy. He simply managed to predict Sean and Jessica's strategy while coming up with an alternate if the defensive strategy wasn't considered workable. (Which in many ways, is much like the Sean and Jess' strategy, it relies heavily on turning the team against each other with magic.) Sean and Jess' strategy also fails to account for Wonderman in the first stage, which gives him time to act. Will's second strategy manages to credibly account for all members of the opposing team and makes good use of Speed's powers to counter the opposing team's resident magic user.

[Harlock]

This was tough, but I think Will's probably the better constructed strategy. He simply managed to predict Sean and Jessica's strategy while coming up with an alternate if the defensive strategy wasn't considered workable. (Which in many ways, is much like the Sean and Jess' strategy, it relies heavily on turning the team against each other with magic.) Sean and Jess' strategy also fails to account for Wonderman in the first stage, which gives him time to act. Will's second strategy manages to credibly account for all members of the opposing team and makes good use of Speed's powers to counter the opposing team's resident magic user.

This is pretty much how I felt and why I voted for Wil here. Good work by both parties but Wil's total prediction nudged it in his favor in my mind.

[Jessica Drew]

JD and Sean's best bet is for Quasar to shield himself and Scarlet Witch so that she can start busting out some spells and keep Anti-Vision phased. I know this because that would have been my exact strategy with those three characters as well, it's a good thing I have Sersi.

:evilsmile

You're precognitive predictions are working about as well as Sister Mary's does down the highway from me. Yup, Quasar keeps the Scarlet Witch shielded, but we don't keep AntiVision phased throughout (or even for much of) the match. Batting .500 is still pretty good, though.

If JD/Sean's team use this defensive tactic:

Sersi casts illusions on Scarlet Witch making her believe that Quasar is Ultron and that Vision is Cthon.

Despite the fact that Quasar is herald level or above, he's still vulnerable to magic. In this case, chaos magic so Wanda uses her hexes on both Wendell and Vision and turns them into wooden trees effectively killing two birds with one stone.

Wendell as a tree in particular has the Quantum bands hanging on his branches.

After SW uses her hex magic to take care of both "threats", Speed blindsides her with a flurry of punches enough to knock her out but not kill her.If for some reason none of this works or isn't viable in lieu of another tactic here's "Team Awesome!" battle tactics.

Wooden trees...that's pretty funny, Will. I laughed at the bands hanging from the branches (great visual there, too), and I also laughed at how ridiculous this is (as Will knows) because Wanda (pre-Disassembled) doesn't possess that level of magical power.


Offensive strategy (simultaneous actions):

Step 1

Songbird locks contructs with Quasar and is joined by Wonder Man as back-up thus making Wendell multi-task.

Sersi transmutates Anti-Vision into a substance that prevents him from phasing, moving, and altering his density.

Speed runs interference on Scarlet Witch by not letting her cast a spell. Punches and small scale hyper kinetic vibrations to keep her off balance.Step 2

Songbird and Wonder Man are beginning to buckle under Quasar's superior constructs but help is coming along the way.....

Speed, runs away from SW setting up the next move for Sersi. She casts an illusion on Scarlet Witch to make her believe that she's fighting alongside her fellow West Coast Avengers against Quasar who she now thinks is Ultron.

Scarlet Witch hexes away Wendell's quantum contructs believing them to be Ultron's encephalo effects and area blasts. Songbird creates a pincer construct to hold Quasar in place for Wonder Man to dive bomb Quasar from above into a TKO.

Jocastam Speed and Arachne begin to synchronize their attack on Scarlet Witch.

Directly after Scarlet Witch hexes Quasar, Jocasta, Arachne, and Speed triple team Scarlet Witch. Speed whizzes around SW just within enough time frame for Arachne to envelop Wanda in her psionic web. Jocasta shoots her eye beams at full intensity towards Wanda who's still entangled which knocks her out for the count.Own3d!11


1. Quasar hasn't thrown any constructs toward Songbird, and he's not where he was at the very beginning, so Songbird's constructs interlock with air. Even if Songbird and Wonder Man do get an attack in after the teleportation takes place, then we've got Quasar playing defense, and he could--as you admitted--handily handle (heh) Wonder Man and Songbird for a few minutes.

2. Sersi can't transmute what she can't hit. In over twenty Avengers issues I read last night, in every single instance Sersi used either blasts from her eyes or her hands to transmute molecules. Her blasts can't hit AntiVision if he's intangible. AND, as noted in our strategy, he goes intangible IF necessary in that first stage. He'll still attack Songbird after Sersi is out.

3. Speed can't fly, and Wanda's in the air.

4. Wanda's in a force field AND standing on a shield construct (and Q's constructs have been strong enough to withstand blasts from the Hulk and others, all at the same time...and if need be, I can get you a visual on this) AND is standing above Sersi AND is surprising her by doing so (as Will's strategy didn't foresee the teleportation) AND Quasar's bands and constructs are impregnable to psi attack; so, IF Sersi gets her illusion-o trick off in time, then it's not going to work; if Wanda hexes Sersi immediately upon arrival over her head (as stated in our strategy), then Sersi's illusion-o whammy would be reflected back at her.

More defense coming after I spend some family time with Simon, Vizh, Wanda, and the twins....

[Mike Smash!]

This is irrelevant to my vote mostly, but for the purposes of this and future matches, is the Scarlet Witch in this game yet suffering from any mental illness?

[Will.S]

You're precognitive predictions are working about as well as Sister Mary's does down the highway from me. Yup, Quasar keeps the Scarlet Witch shielded, but we don't keep AntiVision phased throughout (or even for much of) the match. Batting .500 is still pretty good, though.
Thanks, but your strategy with Scarlet Witch's reversal of Sersi's power was something I could not predict my good Jessica Drew & Sean so nice wild card move there. I also liked the annotations of previous Avengers moves myself, you've certainly done your research.

:D

Wooden trees...that's pretty funny, Will. I laughed at the bands hanging from the branches (great visual there, too), and I also laughed at how ridiculous this is (as Will knows) because Wanda (pre-Disassembled) doesn't possess that level of magical power.
Hah, well the wooden trees idea was something inspired by Neil Gaiman's recent Eternals book. As far as Wanda's power levels go, I tried my best to gage her in between Disassembled and the stuff she did previous to that. I can see her being powerful enough to affect Wendell but not the bands themselves since they're so durable and haven't been messed with until recently in Annihilation.

And onto your points raised:

1. Quasar hasn't thrown any constructs toward Songbird, and he's not where he was at the very beginning, so Songbird's constructs interlock with air. Even if Songbird and Wonder Man do get an attack in after the teleportation takes place, then we've got Quasar playing defense, and he could--as you admitted--handily handle (heh) Wonder Man and Songbird for a few minutes.

2. Sersi can't transmute what she can't hit. In over twenty Avengers issues I read last night, in every single instance Sersi used either blasts from her eyes or her hands to transmute molecules. Her blasts can't hit AntiVision if he's intangible. AND, as noted in our strategy, he goes intangible IF necessary in that first stage. He'll still attack Songbird after Sersi is out.

3. Speed can't fly, and Wanda's in the air.

4. Wanda's in a force field AND standing on a shield construct (and Q's constructs have been strong enough to withstand blasts from the Hulk and others, all at the same time...and if need be, I can get you a visual on this) AND is standing above Sersi AND is surprising her by doing so (as Will's strategy didn't foresee the teleportation) AND Quasar's bands and constructs are impregnable to psi attack; so, IF Sersi gets her illusion-o trick off in time, then it's not going to work; if Wanda hexes Sersi immediately upon arrival over her head (as stated in our strategy), then Sersi's illusion-o whammy would be reflected back at her.

More defense coming after I spend some family time with Simon, Vizh, Wanda, and the twins....
1) I see that you're referring to my 2nd offensive strategy. The second strategy was pretty much built for an unorthodox attack from your team that doesn't go into a defensive position. For instance, a direct clash between an offensive Wendell and an offensive Wonder Man and Songbird.

The first strategy I have there is basically the main one so it's up to the voters here in the situation of:

"Quasar teleporting Scarlet Witch WHILE maintaining a defensive shield AND Wanda does a reverse power hex on Sersi VS simply Sersi casting the illusion on SW."

Our whole strategies really depend on how our opening moves play out. I personally think Sersi could have cast the illusions on Wanda before Wendell teleported + shielded up since that seems to be more time consuming with all the micro managing there.

2) Ah, another referral to the 2nd strategy. But notice that in your and Sean's Stage 1 strat, that your Anti-Vision hasn't gone intangible yet. That would give Sersi the opportunity at that point to transmutate Anti-Vision while he's taking on Songbird.

3) The 2nd strategy is assuming that Wendell has his hands full with Wonder Man and Songbird. At that point Wanda would be open for Speed since Quasar wouldn't be shielding her, leaving her and Anti-Vision to their own devices but in my first and main strategy I fully bank on her turning on Wendell leaving them all out in the open.

4) Very good points JD. However it inevitable turns into a conflicting battle of how fast Sersi and Quasar can throw out their shields and illusions respectively. As I said, I think Sersi can pull it off so that even if Wendell has the shield up and running he's stuck with a mind tricked Scarlet Witch but it's ultimately up to you guys.

[Jessica Drew]

Doesn't seri have some superspeed if so then she should be able to launch her attack before wendal can teleport them. Don't know for sure duh well wait for feedback before voteing.

Yes, I believe she does, but she shouldn't be able to hit Wanda from 100 meters before she and Quasar instantly teleport.

[Jessica Drew]

4) Very good points JD. However it inevitablel turns into a conflicting battle of how fast Sersi and Quasar can throw out their shields and illusions respectively.

Thanks, and you made some good points, too. Sersi is a beast, and I didn't realize how much of a beast she was until I did my reading last night. She's ferocious, and she was very difficult to plan around; in fact, Sean and I debated back and forth about the best possible way to defeat/sidestep whatever opening spell she might cast, and we planned for what we thought would be the quickest way, and we (of course) believe that Sersi can't hit Wanda with her illusion spell before Quasar can surround and teleport Wanda.

I think there's pretty much no use in either of us debating anything else, 'cause like you said, the match pretty much falls on that opening point. Let the voters see it as they will and vote accordingly.

[Will.S]

BTW Jessica/Sean don't forget to vote for one of yourselves as well.

[Flâneur]

3. Speed can't fly, and Wanda's in the air.
Given the speeds Speed moves at, a running jump would quite easily boost him high enough to hit Wanda.

[Pwood]

Given the speeds Speed moves at, a running jump would quite easily boost him high enough to hit Wanda.

I'll agree with that. That sounds reasonable to me...

[Brian M.]

I voted for Whitemore/Drew. While they have less characters...that doesn't mean they are at a disadvantage. I liked how Will.S predicted some of the moves but I don't think his characters are strong enough to do what they did and w/ Quasar/SW hovering, protected above just picking them off it seems to me it would work.

[Jessica Drew]

Given the speeds Speed moves at, a running jump would quite easily boost him high enough to hit Wanda.

True, but she's protected by Quasar's force field.

[Jessica Drew]

BTW Jessica/Sean don't forget to vote for one of yourselves as well.

Thanks. I'd actually forgotten about it.

[Mike Smash!]

Well, Matt... you're up. Crush someone's hopes and dreams. :)

[Flâneur]

I totally forgot to vote for Drew/Whitmore. :o:(

[Pwood]

Well, Matt... you're up. Crush someone's hopes and dreams. :)

Actually, 2 of the voters, Qoorl and rajincajun689 do not meet the vote prerequisite...

That should break the tie...

I guess that makes me the dream crusher...sorry...

[mattbib]

Congratulations, Will.S. You move on in the upper bracket, facing Mike Smash! & Ragnarok_2012 4 next Wednesday morning, October 3, in Game 11.

Jessica Drew & Sean Whitmore, good job. You continue in the lower bracket, facing Stewy4429 next Wednesday afternoon in Game L5/L6.

[Qoorl]

Dadgummit... din read the 50 post thing... guess I gotta go post a bit...

[Will.S]

Wow this such a narrow victory, it's almost like spliting hairs here. It really could have really gone either way.

Jessica Drew/Sean Whitmore, you guys put up a superb strategy together so I enjoyed this match a good deal. You guys aren't out by a longshot though so we might even fight each other again. I wish you guys the best of luck in your next match!

[Sean Whitmore]

Great strat, Will! Losing to you brings back fond memories of last year. ;)


SEAN