Avengers League 10/02/2007 AM Game 10: Cthulhudrew vs. Joe Acro

[mattbib]

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

Go here (http://www.geocities.com/mattbib/avengersleague2007rules.html) for rules on voting.

And now on to our fight...

In the first corner we have Cthulhudrew's The Fix Is In (Starfox, Jack of Hearts, Starhawk, Atlas, Fixer, Slapstick)

vs

In the other corner is Joe Acro's Forces of Nature...with Flatman (Crystal, Sandman, Major Victory, Living Lightning, Texas Twister, Martinex, Doorman, Flatman)

Both participants have submitted strategies:

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

[mattbib]

As the teams arrive on the battlefield, Slapstick twists himself around the Fixer, to provide protection against any attempts by Living Lightning to short circuit his tech-pac.
• If Lightning tries to zap the entwined pair, then Slappy will absorb the electricity and Hulk-Out, at which point he bounces towards Major Victory and plays “Hammer Time,” pounding away until Vance can’t stand.

Simultaneously, the Fixer will configure his tech-pac into rockets, and jet off towards Texas Twister, bombarding him with hypersonics (like in Tbolts #106), blowing out his eardrums and disrupting his sense of balance so that he can’t use his powers effectively. Slapstick will then knock out the disabled Twister with his hammer.

Starfox, Starhawk, and Jack also take to the air, as Atlas grows to 60 feet, stomping the ground repeatedly (leaping towards the other group), and hopefully disrupting their footing, throwing them off-balance- chiefly Crystal, whose

Starhawk creates a solid sphere of darkness around Sandman, trying to trap him and keep him out of the fight, while flying around and dodging Sandy’s attacks.

Starfox flies at Doorman as swiftly as he can, and tries to take him out with one quick blow. If Doorman phases, Starfox will fly straight through him and zero in on Flatman, again, trying to take him out with one swift punch (like Mach-5 did in TBolts #15). Whether he succeeds or fails, Starfox will continue on to fight Major Victory. His speed will help him dodge Vance’s psychokinetic bursts, and he’ll weave and dodge, hitting Vance when possible.

Jack of Hearts will shoot at Living Lightning, counting on his Zero Energy blasts being able to affect even Miguel’s bioelectric form. He will also attempt to absorb Miguel’s energy form, if at all possible.

At this point, Texas Twister (and hopefully either Doorman or Flatman) will be out of the fight. Atlas will have covered the intervening distance by now, and will swat at Crystal with one giant hand, and grab Martinex with the other- at which point he will casually toss the alien off into the distance, removing him from the fight. Crystal will probably be pelting him with earth, or trying to trap him (he’ll just pull free). If she tries to cut off his oxygen, as an ionic being he doesn’t need to breathe, so it will have no effect.

Slapstick will separate from the Fixer and will put jump in on the fight with Crystal (if she’s managed to avoid Atlas). Her powers can’t affect his electroplasmic form, and he’s virtually impervious, so he should be able to put forth a counteroffensive against her that she can’t stand. Again, the double team of Atlas and Slappy will be tough to beat.

The Fixer, meanwhile, will use the information on the Darkforce Dimension that he gleaned from Blackout (in TBolts/Masters of Evil) and configure a ray from his tech-pac that will disrupt Doorman and turn him solid (if he’s still in play). He will taser him or drop knockout gas pellets to drop Doorman at that point.
If Doorman is already out of play, the Fixer focuses on Flatty, targeting him with a bioelectric shock that will disrupt his control over his rubbery form and knock him for a loop.

With Crystal down, Atlas will help Starfox with Vance if he’s still around. Slappy will move to help Jack with Living Lightning- keeping him occupied while the Fixer configures a disruption ray (using concepts learned from studying Jolt) to turn him human. At that point he’s toast.

Sandy should still be trapped by Starhawk, and I believe that should take out Forces of Nature?

[mattbib]

Start:

Simultaneously, Crystal launches a fissure toward the other group, specifically targeting Atlas; Texas Twister summons a twister on the other group, specifically aiming for Starfox and Starhawk; Doorman and Living Lightning fly toward the other group with Flatman wrapped around Doorman's leg; Martinex runs inside Sandman.
Major Victory and Sandman run interference for Crystal and Twister. Major Victory uses his psychokinesis to make localized force shield if an opponent tries to shoot at them. If they are low enough, he will block with his shield. If needed, Sandman turns his fists into glass contructs to deflect the energy.


Middle:

Living Lightning heads after Fixer. The plan is to blast him with large quantities of electricity in order to short-circuit his equipment.
Crystal and Twister stop their actions so that their teammates can act. They move into position for their next attacks.
Doorman and Flatman go to deal with Slapstick. It's a battle of hilarity as the industructible, stretchy cartoon Slapstick faces off against unkillable Doorman and stretchy Flatman! They're mainly fighting him to stall him. If they can find a way to beat him (like suffocating him until he goes unconscious), so be it.
Sandman takes aim at Jack of Hearts and expels Martinex from his system, launching his ally at Jack. He fires heat and ice as he flies. If he can grab hold of Jack, he will. If not, he'll roll with it(probably literally) and attack Jack as he can. If he hits him with enough ice, it should slow him down.
Major victory moves to distract Starhawk. Using a combination of this power and his shield, he should be able to hinder Starhawk's movement. Both of them have plenty of prior knowledge on each other. Major Victory's tactical knowledge should give him the ability to stall long enough for Texas Twister to swoop in with a small tornado. The plan here is for Twister to disorient him, drop the tornado, and then let Major Victory pound away at him. Victory will move out of the way long enough for Twister to start the cycle all over again.
Crystal works to topple the giant Atlas, who has probably recovered from the opening disorienting barrage. She pulls up water from subterranean levels to limit his traction. She strikes him with wind and earth fissures to make him lose his balance. Once he's down, it's only a matter of sinking him into the ground and then turning it solid to trap him, without killing him.
Sandman finds Starfox and works to force his sand down the Titan's throat. Starfox's strength shouldn't be a problem for him, though the flight might be. Sandman will work to weigh him down if that becomes a problem.


Finish:

Living Lightning will join Martinex in confronting Jack of Hearts as soon as he's shorted out Fixer. Lightning is a faster flyer than Jack (as he's made of light), so he should be able to halt Jack in place with a few containing motions. It should also give Martinex the opportunity he needs to get in hard shots.
If Doorman and Flatman cannot defeat Slapstick on their own, they'll work him over to Major Victory so that he can blast Slapstick with a few mental blasts to knock him unconscious.
At that point, it becomes a regrouping effort to take down the remaining forces, a recovering Fixer and both weakened Stars. Martinex will work to freeze Fixer in place while Flatman and Sandman tie up the others long enough for an ally to deliver some knockout blows.

[Brian M.]

I like both strategy's...not sure who I'm gonna vote for.

[Shyft]

a toughie. Leaning towards Cthuldrew at the moment, his Slapstick electricity absorbsion and Atlas tactics are impressive.

[Joe Acro]

I originally had a plan to use Slapstick's energy absorption against him, but couldn't ever get it to work right. Ah well. Ille vita est.

In any case, I would hope that those two would become affected by the twister. Assuming they don't, wouldn't Fixer still go down when Slapstick jumps off to go deal with Major Victory?

[Shyft]

I originally had a plan to use Slapstick's energy absorption against him, but couldn't ever get it to work right. Ah well. Ille vita est.

In any case, I would hope that those two would become affected by the twister. Assuming they don't, wouldn't Fixer still go down when Slapstick jumps off to go deal with Major Victory?

hm, good point. whats to stop fixer from just getting a second quick zap after Slapstick leaves? Living Lightning doesnt get dealt with straight away.

[Fatguy]

lol this is the ultimate B-list/C-list showdown.

[Cthulhudrew]

In any case, I would hope that those two would become affected by the twister. Assuming they don't, wouldn't Fixer still go down when Slapstick jumps off to go deal with Major Victory?

I was thinking that by that point Jack might have taken the offensive against Lightning, having LL's initial attack being spent.

I didn't realize until now that TT could create those tornadoes away from himself- I thought he could only do Whirlwind "self-tornado" type things, but from what I see (at least on Wiki) I was wrong. :p

In any event, you've just got too many dang people on your team, Joe! That was my biggest strategic difficulty. You've got a lot of middle of the road types like I do, which make it pretty even in and of itself, but then you throw in all the other guys that may not be impressive on their own, but just bulk up the team with sheer numbers.

[Joe Acro]

I was thinking that by that point Jack might have taken the offensive against Lightning, having LL's initial attack being spent.I suppose that's up for the voters to decide.

In any event, you've just got too many dang people on your team, Joe! That was my biggest strategic difficulty. You've got a lot of middle of the road types like I do, which make it pretty even in and of itself, but then you throw in all the other guys that may not be impressive on their own, but just bulk up the team with sheer numbers.It is true. I have a lot of people. You should've seen last match! 16 people on the field! You've got too many energy-absorbing people on your team. That was the hardest thing I had to work around.

I'm wondering at the moment if the dark sphere around Sandman could be counteracted by Martinex's fire.

And since Flatman is either wrapped around a part of Doorman or wrapped around Slapstick, I do think Starfox will miss both of them.

[Bob-el]

I've just about got this broken down as to who takes out which opposing character when down to the end strategies but I hit a sticking point and will require a clarification of Cthuludrew's strategy.

Will Starhawk have to spend the whole fight holding Sandman inside a bubble? Can he make the bubble and then go on to do something else (for example, fight Major Victory as Joe describes) or does he have to stay there continuously?

I don't see him participating later in the match in some other way so I'm led to believe he's got to stay put or let Sandman go. I'd like to know who Cthuludrew pictures it.

[Cthulhudrew]

Will Starhawk have to spend the whole fight holding Sandman inside a bubble? Can he make the bubble and then go on to do something else (for example, fight Major Victory as Joe describes) or does he have to stay there continuously?

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I know that in the past Starhawk's shown himself to be a pretty powerful guy (as I recall he held his own against the Beyonder, at least for a time). Then again, he's got so few showings, it's tough to say. Especially when it comes to his shadow powers, which only were in evidence for a couple of issues before the GotG cancellation (and if Valentino's goals had been met, he wouldn't have even existed as a character for much longer).

For instance, I'd love to have him do some Darkforce stuff, but it's not clear if his powers are Darkforce related (I'd assume they are, sort of the reverse power of the Quantum Force, which I assume he used to use, as Quasar's kid).

So I erred on the side of caution and assumed he had to maintain his bubble around Sandman's attempts to escape and couldn't do much else beside fly.

He could possibly at least fly defensively, which might help him evade the landbound Victory, though (not sure of the range of his Psychokinetic bursts).

(I've also avoided using his Cosmic Awareness- or more properly, Incarnation Awareness- as I don't believe he's ever really used it in combat as a sixth sense or anything. IMO, though, he could better use it for such a purpose than Captain Marvel could use his Cosmic Awareness for the same- as it's a much more localized version; just his memories of everything he's lived through in his lifetime.)

[Joe Acro]

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I know that in the past Starhawk's shown himself to be a pretty powerful guy (as I recall he held his own against the Beyonder, at least for a time). Then again, he's got so few showings, it's tough to say. Especially when it comes to his shadow powers, which only were in evidence for a couple of issues before the GotG cancellation (and if Valentino's goals had been met, he wouldn't have even existed as a character for much longer).

For instance, I'd love to have him do some Darkforce stuff, but it's not clear if his powers are Darkforce related (I'd assume they are, sort of the reverse power of the Quantum Force, which I assume he used to use, as Quasar's kid).

So I erred on the side of caution and assumed he had to maintain his bubble around Sandman's attempts to escape and couldn't do much else beside fly.
I really do wonder if the intense heat and light from a heat burst from Martinex could disrupt the bubble. Better still, if it is conceded that Texas Twister is still standing, could Starhawk maintain the bubble under such an assault?

It's hard to say, especially since as you say Starhawk's powers in the regard are minimally defined.

[Bob-el]

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I know that in the past Starhawk's shown himself to be a pretty powerful guy (as I recall he held his own against the Beyonder, at least for a time). Then again, he's got so few showings, it's tough to say. Especially when it comes to his shadow powers, which only were in evidence for a couple of issues before the GotG cancellation (and if Valentino's goals had been met, he wouldn't have even existed as a character for much longer).

For instance, I'd love to have him do some Darkforce stuff, but it's not clear if his powers are Darkforce related (I'd assume they are, sort of the reverse power of the Quantum Force, which I assume he used to use, as Quasar's kid).

So I erred on the side of caution and assumed he had to maintain his bubble around Sandman's attempts to escape and couldn't do much else beside fly.

He could possibly at least fly defensively, which might help him evade the landbound Victory, though (not sure of the range of his Psychokinetic bursts).

(I've also avoided using his Cosmic Awareness- or more properly, Incarnation Awareness- as I don't believe he's ever really used it in combat as a sixth sense or anything. IMO, though, he could better use it for such a purpose than Captain Marvel could use his Cosmic Awareness for the same- as it's a much more localized version; just his memories of everything he's lived through in his lifetime.)

That's kind of what I was afraid of. Starhawk used to be the powerhouse of the Guardians. I have to admit that I lost interest in the mag in its later days and don't really know how big a threat he is at "current" power levels. Without going into too much details I score it as Crystal, Martinex and Major Victory left to fight Starfox. At that point, I would assume that Starhawk would have to drop the bubble to help his last standing ally. That would make it the Stars versus those three plus Sandman.

There was a time that I would have said that Starhawk taking down his teammates Vance and Martinex would be a foregone conclusion, but know I just don't know. Joe and Cthuludrew, if this was how things stood at the end do the think you would prevail and how?

[Joe Acro]

There was a time that I would have said that Starhawk taking down his teammates Vance and Martinex would be a foregone conclusion, but know I just don't know. Joe and Cthuludrew, if this was how things stood at the end do the think you would prevail and how?Well, of course we're both going to say our side would win.:D I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that those would be the ones remaining, but I suppose that doesn't matter.

I'm not really sure how the battle would go. I see Martinex fighting Starhawk because as an Eternal, Starfox wouldn't be as susceptible to his blasts. I suppose by that logic, then, it would be better for Crystal to fight Starhawk, too. So that leaves Sandman and Vance to fight Starfox. That would pretty much just turn into a slug-fest. But with Sandman's malleability and Vance's shield, I feel they could outlast him.

Crystal could take over wind manipulation duty to mess with Starhawk's flight, somewhat providing Martinex some open shots. With a few well placed freezing shots, Starhawk should be weighed down enough that Crystal doesn't have to use to wind, as he'd be grounded. Martinex is strong, so he might be able to hold him. Crystal can move the Earth, so she might be able to trap him.

I really don't know how that last one would come out. There's too many variables.

[mattbib]

Congratulations, Joe Acro. You continue in the upper bracket, facing Brian Moranor & Flight next Monday morning, October 8, in Game 13.

Cthulhudrew, good job. You continue in the lower bracket, facing Tater next Thursday afternoon, October 11, in Game L7/8:L10.

Good luck!

[Joe Acro]

That was a great match, Cthulhudrew! I wish you luck in the future of this tournament.

[Cthulhudrew]

Thanks! You, too, Joe. You picked a pretty good team (and Flatman and Doorman). Crystal, Lightning, and Sandman were really strong and I think underestimated contenders. I wish I'd paid more attention to Twister's powers, too- not realizing he could project those whirlwinds really hurt my strategy.

Of course, after this round, I came up with a couple of really good tactics that I hope to employ in the next game or two, so that's a bonus. :)