Mutant League 2013 - Game 5: Justin K. vs. wolvie616

[Royal Flush]

Week 1 The Mall

Justin K.
Darkstar 2, Fabian Cortez 1, Mr. Sinister 3, Gambit 1

vs

wolvie616
Wolverine 2, Apocalypse 5

As this the first week a reminder on 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 for the entire duration of the League. If more than one member of a team votes in a match, all votes by that team will be disqualified. This has happened in every match so far and I cannot stress this point enough.

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. If at any time we feel this is not being followed (such as voting prior to both strategies being posted) the vote will be disallowed as well as all future votes.

[Royal Flush]

Flashback: 1997

Move Over!

1) Darkstar starts things off by taking to the air with Gambit, having a clear visual of my opponents, and creates a dome of dark-force around both Wolverine and Apocalypse. The purpose of the dome is to slow down Apocalypse and Wolverine and make it easier to pinpoint their location. Simultaneously, Darkstar generates multiple dark-force structures meant to shield the civilians, herself, and Gambit.
1) Mr. Sinister has had plenty of interactions with Apocalypse and Wolverine. Because of that, Sinister is prepared for and ready to survive the Apocalypse. Sinister has Cortez give himself a boost without overloading him.
*Cortez has done so with Magneto, allowing him to be super-powerful in the moment and be exhausted later on.

2) A boosted Mr. Sinister will use his telekinesis to toss Cortez at Apocalypse and repel Wolverine. Two birds, one stone.
2) Darkstar drops the dome around Apocalypse and Wolverine, if they haven't broken it down or teleported out, and forms an armor of dark-force around Cortez, covering every part of his body, except his hands.
*Gambit, Darkstar, and the civilians will still be shielded.

2) Cortez will grapple Apocalypse and amps his powers to the point of overloading him. Apocalypse will lose control of his megamorphic powers resulting in his body composition becoming unstable, and all the other various energies generated by Apocalypse escaping from his body.
*As long as Cortez has any physical contact with Apocalypse, this move is guaranteed to work.

2) Gambit will fling his charged cards at Apocalypse, aiming for his face.

3) Darkstar pulls Cortez out of the fray towards Gambit where Cortez will give Gambit a slight boost. Gambit will use his amped up powers to generate bigger explosions from his cards and sends the whole deck at Wolverine. Darkstar contains the blast, and Wolverine is down for the count.
3) Mr. Sinister will finish off a severely weakened Apocalypse by tearing him in half with his amped up telekinesis. Apocalypse is no more.



Victorious: The Nastier Boyz!
Humiliated: The Plain Nasty

After our match, we go shopping! Darkstar buys some fantastic boots, Mr. Sinister goes to Hot Topic, Gambit picks up some chicks, and Cortez hands out pamphlets, preaching the word of Magneto while everyone avoids him.

[Royal Flush]

Phase 1: Bombs away
First off, I want to note that Apocalypse is a Darwinian and 90’s Wolvie would kill enemies. As such, the civilians are meaningless to Apocalypse, and honestly, there’s not much Wolverine can do to stop him...

Apocalypse starts off by teleporting Wolverine and Himself at top speed at his opponents.

Wolverine is going to literally rip open Fabian Cortez’s chest cavity, shredding his entrails and killing him in the process due to blood loss and trauma. Without Fabian’s power amplification abilities, there’s literally no way that anyone on Justin’s team has the power to stop Apocalypse.
Of course, Justin is no idiot, and so he’ll more than likely have Darkstar or Sinister guard Fabian. So for added insurance, whilst Wolverine is in the process ofeviscerating, Apocalypse is creating a Giant assed spiked mallet that will crush/perforate the entire area of my opposing team. He’s going to also alter his body to create rockets on the other end of the mallet, adding propulsion speed to his already Hulk-Like strength, and making sure the mallet comes down too fast for anyone, except maybe Darkstar, to dodge.

This should crush and instantly kill Fabian Cortez and Gambit, maybe kill Darkstar, and wound Wolverine and Sinister at the very least.

Now It’s also possible that Justin throws everything he has at Apocalypse immediately. This is irrelevant, since Apocalypse has been able to resist both Jean AND Professor Xavier’s TP in the past, as well as tank some incredible power. In this pre-90’s instance, he’s tanking everything that X-Factor, Rachel Grey, AND the Inhumans (including Black Bolt’s scream). And let’s be honest, if he’s tanking Black Bolt, Iceman, Archangel, Askani, Cyclops, and more, is there REALLY anything Justin’s team can throw at him?



Results: Gambit and Fabian Dead, Darkstar Possibly dead, Wolverine and Sinister injured.

Phase 2: Clean up.

Apocalypse will then teleport to Darkstar, temporarily leaving Wolverine and Sinister, assuming that they’ve managed to recover this fast, to Duke it out for a few seconds to a minute. Apocalypse will continuously teleport or stretch if she runs away so that he’s always right in front of her. He then uses his strength and malleability to Punch a hole in her or any construct she makes, and then spikes his fist out of her, tearing her to shreds/making her darkforce self explode. Darkstar is dead.

All that leaves us is Sinister and Wolverine. Assuming Sinister or is back up on his feet in the short timespan it takes Apocalypse to kill Darkstar, let’s look at the match up

Sinister was given his powers by Apocalypse. in AoA and in 616, he’s had to create people like Nate Grey or rely on People like Cable to help him defeat Apocalypse. He knows that no matter how powerful he is, he is nothing compared to the might of En Sabah Nur. As such, Apocalypse wades through Sinister's TP/Energy assault, Pimp Slaps him so hard it breaks Sinister’s neck, Teleport into space, where Sinister cannot breathe, and Punt him into the vastness of the abyss. Apocalypse can alter his molecular structure to make it so he can live without oxygen, and he’s been shown to survive the pressures of space long enough to literally throw Sinister into the void, as seen here. (Bonus Points for him bitch slapping the High Evolutionary, another Sinister Level player!)




Game, set, and Match for the Cash Cows!

[Royal Flush]

2 points I would like to make before this match gets too far in as I will be unavailable for a large part of the day.

The image of Mr. Sinister ripping apart Apocalypse was created by Justin to illustrate his point and not actual on panel proof.

Part of the rules for matches states "Players cannot leave the battlefield unless to do so is necessary to utilize a character's powers (i.e. teleporters, etc.). Beyond that use your imagination." I see no reason to not allow wolvie's strat based on his final move although it breaks one of the rules of battle. There are many new voters so I wanted to ensure they were aware of this. Whether you chose to have this affect your vote, merely negate that final move, or have no impact on your decision is entirely up to you.

[Justin K.]

I won't be able to discuss much until I get home from work today. If anyone has any questions or concerns, ask away.

Best of luck to you wolvie... you'll need it ;)

[wolvie616]

1) Darkstar starts things off by taking to the air with Gambit, having a clear visual of my opponents, and creates a dome of dark-force around both Wolverine and Apocalypse. The purpose of the dome is to slow down Apocalypse and Wolverine and make it easier to pinpoint their location. Simultaneously, Darkstar generates multiple dark-force structures meant to shield the civilians, herself, and Gambit.

This move is rendered useless due to my immediate use of teleportation.

1) Mr. Sinister has had plenty of interactions with Apocalypse and Wolverine. Because of that, Sinister is prepared for and ready to survive the Apocalypse. Sinister has Cortez give himself a boost without overloading him.
*Cortez has done so with Magneto, allowing him to be super-powerful in the moment and be exhausted later on.

2) A boosted Mr. Sinister will use his telekinesis to toss Cortez at Apocalypse and repel Wolverine. Two birds, one stone.

So Justin basically is sending Fabian to his death, even if this happens before they're all crushed by a Rocket-powered spiked mallet coming from a Hulk Level superstrength like Apocalypse.

2) Darkstar drops the dome around Apocalypse and Wolverine, if they haven't broken it down or teleported out, and forms an armor of dark-force around Cortez, covering every part of his body, except his hands.
*Gambit, Darkstar, and the civilians will still be shielded.

This move is negated due to teleportation and Fabian's Death

2) Cortez will grapple Apocalypse and amps his powers to the point of overloading him. Apocalypse will lose control of his megamorphic powers resulting in his body composition becoming unstable, and all the other various energies generated by Apocalypse escaping from his body.
*As long as Cortez has any physical contact with Apocalypse, this move is guaranteed to work.

Also a useless move, considering my instant targeting of Fabian

2) Gambit will fling his charged cards at Apocalypse, aiming for his face.

Assuming that Gambit isn't killed immediately, considering Apocalypse's tanking feats, I can honestly say I believe that this is a non Factor.

3) Darkstar pulls Cortez out of the fray towards Gambit where Cortez will give Gambit a slight boost. Gambit will use his amped up powers to generate bigger explosions from his cards and sends the whole deck at Wolverine. Darkstar contains the blast, and Wolverine is down for the count.
3) Mr. Sinister will finish off a severely weakened Apocalypse by tearing him in half with his amped up telekinesis. Apocalypse is no more.

Darkstar is instantly targeted by Apocalypse, and Sinister has to recover from being crushed and stabbed by apocalypse. Even if he does is quick, Wolverine has a better healing factor circa this Era and will distract him long enough for Apocalypse to kill Darkstar and Gambit, at which point it's game over.

Again, if Iceman, Cyclops, BLACK BOLT, and more can do nothing to Apocalypse, I really don't think Gambit can per this strat

[Askani's Flame]

In this pre-90’s instance, he’s tanking everything that X-Factor, Rachel Grey, AND the Inhumans (including Black Bolt’s scream). And let’s be honest, if he’s tanking Black Bolt, Iceman, Archangel, Askani, Cyclops, and more, is there REALLY anything Justin’s team can throw at him?

Still thinking on this match, it's really well thought out by both.
But as a point of reference, Rachel wasn't involved with the depicted battle. ;) Not that it has any relevance on just how powerful Apocalypse USED to be....

[Dr. Sonic]

Apocalypse is a tough opponent and I'm not looking forward to facing him if my quad ever goes up against Wolvie's team.
It seems that every time Apocalypse has been defeated in the comic stories themselves, there has been some sort of extraneous circumstance that has acted to in some way deplete his powers. The cool, photoshopped image of Sinister tearing Apocalypse apart notwithstanding, I'm having a hard time buying that Sinister could pull off such a feat.
Still, both very good and well-thought through strategies. Great work.

[Drax1981]

Can Apocalypse create the rocket powered mallet the way Wolvie described?

[wolvie616]

Can Apocalypse create the rocket powered mallet the way Wolvie described?

Apocalypse has complete control of his molecules, and can shapeshift into anything, as well as augment himself with just about any physical superpower. He's been shown turning himself into a spaceship


If he can do that and shoot energy blasts, I think he can do what I described

[The Complicated]

The main thing with Apocalypse is that besides the Age of Apocalypse story (which I don't know if it counts in this tournament) he really spent most of 1992-1997 severely depowered and out of action (From the end of X-Cutioner's Song to Onslaught) so the question for me is: How strong was he really during that time? He got destroyed by Stryfe and had to go to Cable for help against Onslaught. Is he really the same dude that could tank the X-Factor and Inhumans in terms of power?

[wolvie616]

The main thing with Apocalypse is that besides the Age of Apocalypse story (which I don't know if it counts in this tournament) he really spent most of 1992-1997 severely depowered and out of action (From the end of X-Cutioner's Song to Onslaught) so the question for me is: How strong was he really during that time? He got destroyed by Stryfe and had to go to Cable for help against Onslaught. Is he really the same dude that could tank the X-Factor and Inhumans in terms of power?

If I remember correctly, these characters are as they USUALLY would be

[Dr. Sonic]

The use of the term 'giant assed spiked mallet' is really what decided things for me in terms of this match.

[HellFrost]

If I remember correctly, these characters are as they USUALLY would be

But if he was severely weakened for 5 yrs... well, that's a chunky time period and could possibly turn things around concerning the power level of the character you chose.

[wolvie616]

But if he was severely weakened for 5 yrs... well, that's a chunky time period and could possibly turn things around concerning the power level of the character you chose.

I'll be the first to admit that I was born in 1994, so I missed X-Cutioner's Song through Onslaught. At the same time however, Justin stated that it's all appearances UP to 1997, meaning that we can take into account everything from his first appearance to then. Going by that, and the fact he was given a 5, and I think we can assume he's at regular power levels. Even so, this is the guy that even when weakened wiped the floor with Iceman, Storm, Colussus, Beast, Archangel, and Quicksilver in under a minute