Mutant League 01/16/2008 AM Game 5: TShark82 & The Lucky One vs. Flâneur & Toboe

[mattbib]

Greeting fight fans! Welcome to the first fight of the day!

Please review the rules on voting here.

And now on to our fight...

In the first corner we have TShark82 & The Lucky One's The Clash At Demonhead:
Karma, Rogue (Exiles), Mary Zero, Mysterio III, Decibel, Riptide, Sabra

vs

In the other corner is Flâneur & Toboe's Brides of Wakanda:
Meggan (3), Northstar, Hellion, M, Nocturne

Both participants have submitted strategies:

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

[mattbib]

Strategic analysis: The Brides of Wakanda have plenty of power and speed, but their most powerful character, Meggan, has an empathic nature that makes her sensitive to telepathic control, and Northstar was recently brainwashed as well. That, combined with their fewer numbers, is the key to defeating them.

Phase 1: immediate, pretty much simultaneous

• Northstar will probably launch himself at our team, most likely Karma. But Jean-Paul doesn’t live his entire life in super-speed the way Quicksilver did… he has to consciously shift into “fast mode.” That reaction will only take a fraction of a second, but during that period Decibel has time for a reaction of his own, immediately erecting a hard sound bubble around the Clash at Demonhead.
• Just in case, with three times normal human reaction speed, Sabra jumps in front of Karma to protect her.
• Northstar will either slam into the sonic bubble (possibly breaking it), try to use an explosive thermal energy attack (which the bubble and/or Sabra should block), or try to blind everyone with a flash of light. But the first two options will force him to slow down… and now that he’s in range, Mysterio grabs him with his mind control powers, making him land. (If it’s a blinding flash, Mysterio’s helmet will protect his eyes, still allowing him to exert the mind control.) Rogue immediately kisses Northstar for 5-10 seconds, stealing his speed and knocking him out. If Northstar for any reason doesn’t attack, Mysterio simply teleports him to our side and mind controls him into remaining still while Rogue kisses him.
• If Meggan doesn’t immediately start flying, Karma grabs control of Nocturne and forces her to dive inside Meggan, making it Karma possessing Nocturne possessing Meggan. If Meggan DOES lift into the air, Karma targets her directly. Either way, even if M tries blocking it with her telepathy, Meggan’s very vulnerable to control and Karma is the strongest possession psi in the world… she’ll win before long. If M tries a direct telepathic attack on Karma, Karma’s psi-shields will block it, and M won’t have time to concentrate on it for long before…

Phase 2:

• Riptide and Mysterio take Sabra’s place in front of Karma, guarding her… if any attacks come her way, Riptide’ll whisk her out of the way while Mysterio masks their movement with smoke bombs and teleports foes inside buildings in the X-Men’s ghost town, slowing them down. The only exception is if somehow Karma has been taken out already, Mysterio instead uses his own mind control powers on Meggan in Karma’s place.
• If the hard sound bubble is still up, Decibel drops it, and super-speed Rogue, Sabra, and Decibel fly toward Hellion and M. Rogue concentrates on M… since this is Exiles Rogue, whose powers include super-strength enough to stun Iron Man, she hits M with a flurry of blows at Northstar speed, too fast for M to fight back, until she’s knocked unconscious.
• Meanwhile, Decibel and Sabra double-team Hellion. He’s powerful but inexperienced, and Sabra is class 50, strong enough to break through Justice’s teke shields back when she fought he, Firestar, and Speedball to a standstill. She’ll keep hammering away at Hellion’s shields while Decibel nails him with sonic screams to break his concentration, and he’ll fall before long.
• If Karma possessed Nocturne and THEN Meggan, she uses Meggan’s elemental powers to help Rogue fight M, buffeting M with gale-force winds and enhanced strength. If Karma possessed Meggan directly, she attacks Nocturne, creating earthquakes to keep her off-balance (helped by T.J.’s unreliable stroke leg) and hitting her with energy blasts from a distance.

Phase 3:

• Everyone should be taken care of by now, with Meggan (and maybe Nocturne) possessed by Karma, Northstar’s powers stolen by Rogue, and everyone else beaten. If any Brides of Wakanda haven’t been taken out yet, Mysterio teleports to that side of the playing field and mind controls them, making them repeatedly hit themselves in the face until unconscious; unless it’s M, in which case he teleports a chunk of rock directly into her head.
• If ALL else fails, Mary Zero has hung back- as long as M and Meggan are taken out, there’s no one on the other team who could conceivably sense her presence. If Northstar, Hellion, or Nocturne somehow take out everyone else, Mary waits until they land, walks up and hits them in the head with one of the many rocks littering the Outback until they’re knocked out.
• With the match over, the Clash at Demonhead wake up the Brides and take them to that Outback bar the X-Men used to frequent. Northstar and Karma discuss the X-Men’s prejudice against gays while everyone else gets rip-roaring drunk. Mary Zero contents herself with stealing drinks from other people’s tables.

[mattbib]

NOTE: Unless otherwise specified, all moves within a section begin simultaneously.

SECTION 1:

1.1 NORTHSTAR - In the name of justice, gay pride and spicy cajun buns I shall punish you!

"Her body responds to her within a hundredth of a second. But to the the twins, at their current power levels -- that's a window as wide as the world." [X-men #190, Carey, 2007]

Northstar flies toward Xian at close to his top speed, which is considerably faster than any person's reaction time so he gets to her before an eye can even blink. Using the knowledge gained from the Hand he renders her unconscious with a punch to one of the many weak places in the human body.

This should also create a brief vacuum around around Xian so if Rogue is trying to absorb her she'll be blown away.

1.2 MEGGAN

Meggan does the next three actions simultaneously:

1. Release an electro-magnetic pulses. As stated by Night Thrasher [New Warriors Volume 4 #07]; most of the current New Warriors devices are forgotten hand me down inventions from the Avengers Mansion and most Stark gear has proven very susceptible to EMPs. It then stands to reason that Decibel's powers have just been neutralised.
2. Using her adapting nature, Meggan becomes black so as to be a superior life form and challenge x-ploitation in modern society. Also, being black, her skin contains a great deal more melanin so as to be more resistant to the cancerous effects of the harsh Australian sun. Additionally, as shown in early issues of Excalibur [Excalibur Volume 1 #08] being black gives her superior aim.
   Lastly, she becomes infinitely more alluring to asian lesbians, which gives her the edge should Karma regain consciousness somehow.
3. She flies into the air.

1.3 NOCTURNE - Stroke Girl Rules!

Nocturne fulfills her inner lesbian; penetrating and dominating M's mind and body with the sum of her indomitable stroke girl will.

1.4 M - For Wakanda!

M, predictably, gets possessed and let's out a slight moan as she is dominated by Nocturne.

1.4 - Hellion - I <3 X-23. Bestiality 4evar!

Our very young but surprisingly sexy telekinetic Hellion ERECTS (haw haw, hai gurlz) a TIGHT force field around Riptide, PINNING HIM TO THE GROUND and thus preventing him from spinning and blocking Riptide's shurikens and his horrid pink perm (what WAS he thinking?!). This shield will also prevent Rogue using Riptide's powers. At the same time Hellion levitates.

NOTE: the above section should have taken maybe a couple of seconds, less in Northstar's case.

SECTION 2:

2.1 Northstar

Once our sexy Quebecois finishes with Xian, he shifts his focus onto Mysterio, assaulting him with his super speed martial arts until we have a knock out or at least something close to it. Northstar, given his speeds, should be able to neutralise Mysterio before he can teleport out. The vacuum around Mysterio will throw Rogue around if she's trying to drain him.

2. 2 M/Nocturne

Our lovely scissor sisters fly toward Sabra, with the intent of engaging her in battle.

NOTES:

1. Despite us being completely incapable of confronting Mary Zero, all the team members are air borne, so she is utterly unable to effect us.
2. The above should take less than a moment.

SECTION 3:

3.1 Meggan

Our adorable Wakandan Queen decides to show our mostly ground based enemy what she's made of and releases a series of powerful earthquake; temporarily disrupting the axis of motion that Riptide is using to spin (should he somehow have become unshielded), making the powerless Decibel fall over and disrupting the ground based Rogue. Mary Zero, should incidentally be falling all over the place, not that we'd know of course.

3.2 M/Nocturne

At this point in time M/Nocturne will have engaged Sabra which should prevent Sabra from healing any of her comrades.

3.3 Hellion

Our resident twink Hellion will at this point of time blast Rogue with his powerful teke, which should keep her down for the count, given she has no natural invulerabiity. If she has managed to absorb from Sabra, then he'll blast her at as close to full capacity as possible.

3.4 Northstar

Northstar does one of the following:

A) If Riptide is managed to send out some Shurikens before he was neutralised, Northstar becomes a super fast garbage collector and grabs all of the shurikens that were thrown and throws them in non-lethal attacks on others if they look like they're at risk or;
B) If Mysterio awakens, then he shall pick him up and fly at near top speed with him, damaging his body and equipment as well as creating something of a vacuum so Mary Zero may be caught in the vacuum and thrown about or;
C) If Rogue is still mobile he will speed toward the blasted Rogue and flash her [HAW HAW ], which should neutralise her completely or;
D) If none of the above apply, he'll make sure Decibel is knocked unconscious.

NOTE:

1. As mentioned in other sections, this section shouldn't take more than a couple of moments.
2. The status of our enemy should be as follows: Karma; incapacitated, Riptide; neutralised, Decibel; neutralised, Mary Zero; neutralised (incidentally), Mysterio; incapacitated/neutralised, Sabra; engaged, Rogue; neutralised

Section 4:

4.1 Nocturne/M

Our lovely scissor sisters should be gaining the upper hand here as M's natural flying ability gives her greater maneuverability and her invulnerability prevents Sabra's paralytic quills from penetrating her skin. Additionally Nocturne is the most skilled fighter in this pairing as she was the most skilled fighter in her weight class on a world of gladiator trained superhumans [Exiles Volume 2 #8]. Given their mutual invulnerability this fight should take a while but should Sabra at any time seem to be gaining the upper hand M/Nocturne will use M's telepathy and hurt her by making her revisit memories of her dead son as well as physically with fists, kicks and hex bolts.

Section 5:

5.1 Nocturne/M/Hellion

Once Sabra is down for the count, M/Nocturne flies over to where Riptide is pinned. M gets into position to hold him down and once she's securely in place Hellion drops the shield and M/Nocturne has Riptide pinned. Nocturne then makes a body jump into Riptide without knocking out M and right after jumps out of Riptide, knocking him out for 24 hours [Exiles Volume 2 #3]. M then picks up Nocturne and flies into the air.

Section 6:

6.1 Hellion

Hellion levitates all of the unconscious opponents into the air, in a bubble, if any of them should awaken then they're locked into the bubble.

6.2 Meggan

Meggan focuses the utter totality of her elemental powers so as to create a localised Big Wet - a time in the Australian outback where floods run through usually arid areas and erode much of the land, this is typically a point in time where desert amphibians breed, certain wallabies, geese etc. This is also a period of renewal for the land, so Meggan is merely catalysing a recurring and necessary natural phenomena . The flood should hit should hit all of the weakened ground units, neutralising them if they weren't already.

Meggan also sings the Circle of Life, as homage to her Wakandan pride.

Section 7:

Considering our fighters are probably wet, despite being airborne, they decide to have a celebratory orgy in the sky. This causes Meggan to have incredible multiple orgasms due to her empathy, incidentally increasing the Big Wet. ;)

FIN.

[Flâneur]

Originally Posted by mattbib

Phase 1: immediate, pretty much simultaneous[list][*]Northstar will probably launch himself at our team, most likely Karma. But Jean-Paul doesn’t live his entire life in super-speed the way Quicksilver did… he has to consciously shift into “fast mode.” That reaction will only take a fraction of a second, but during that period Decibel has time for a reaction of his own, immediately erecting a hard sound bubble around the Clash at Demonhead.

1. As mentioned in our strategy, Decibel's sound equipment is neutralised by Meggan's EMP thus negating the wall.

[*]Just in case, with three times normal human reaction speed, Sabra jumps in front of Karma to protect her.

2. As we quoted from X-men, Northstar's speeds are incredible, to the point that Sabra may as well be moving at a snail's pace or slower compared to him. She can't block Northstar. Additionally,Northstar moves toward Karma, doesn't mean he moves in a straight line so he can just go around any block attempt.

and now that he’s in range, Mysterio grabs him with his mind control powers, making him land. (If it’s a blinding flash, Mysterio’s helmet will protect his eyes, still allowing him to exert the mind control.) Rogue immediately kisses Northstar for 5-10 seconds, stealing his speed and knocking him out. If Northstar for any reason doesn’t attack, Mysterio simply teleports him to our side and mind controls him into remaining still while Rogue kisses him.

Again, as quoted, once he activates, Northstar's speed pwns any reaction times e.g the White Queen's and your move with Mysterio requires Northstar to already be in superspeed mode so as to get near you. So Mysterio is removed by Northstar's attack. You also don't have him teleport so he's right where he needs to be to get taken down by Northstar.

If Meggan doesn’t immediately start flying, Karma grabs control of Nocturne and forces her to dive inside Meggan, making it Karma possessing Nocturne possessing Meggan. If Meggan DOES lift into the air, Karma targets her directly.

Karma is out, Sabra and Decibel won't have protected her so she cannot possess Meggan.

[pryde15]

From the quote provided by Flâneur & Toboe at the beginning of phase 1 of their strategy. I would say Northstar takes out Karma long before Decibel, Mysterio, or Sabra can do anything about it.

With Karma out of the picture, that leaves a hole in The Lucky One's strategy, since a big part of his plan was to have Karma control Meggan and/or Nocturne. and I would see neither happening now.

Right now I am giving the advantage to Flâneur & Toboe, but I will be waiting before I vote.

[lockerogue]

Flan strat is very good and entertaining. Aside from that I do like the idea of Meggan creating a Big Wet and having Northstar take out Karma.

[Shyft]

Originally Posted by Flâneur

1. As mentioned in our strategy, Decibel's sound equipment is neutralised by Meggan's EMP thus negating the wall.


2. As we quoted from X-men, Northstar's speeds are incredible, to the point that Sabra may as well be moving at a snail's pace or slower compared to him. She can't block Northstar. Additionally,Northstar moves toward Karma, doesn't mean he moves in a straight line so he can just go around any block attempt.

Again, as quoted, once he activates, Northstar's speed pwns any reaction times e.g the White Queen's and your move with Mysterio requires Northstar to already be in superspeed mode so as to get near you. So Mysterio is removed by Northstar's attack. You also don't have him teleport so he's right where he needs to be to get taken down by Northstar.

Unfortunately for your tactic, Decibel is one of the few new Warriors who actually HAS powers. He was re-powered by Apocalypse some time ago. So the tactic to shortcircuit him is null and void, causing Northstar to crash into the sound shield, and giving Mysterio plenty of time to possess him. This major over-sight,means Northstar is open to being mind controlled/stunned by the sound wall and attacked by Rogue, and Karma is totally safe, free to possess your team. With Rogue using Northstars Powers, Northstar out of the fight, and Karma taking up both Nocture AND Meggan. i'd say most of your tactics fall apart without Northstar as your speed-power house and Meggan and Nocture doing their thing.

[Swashbuckler]

The Clash at Demonhead:

You're battle starts intelligently by guessing the speedster opponenet would attack first, and you deal with him in multiple ways. You stumble shortly after though. Karma suddenly takes possesion of Nocturne? A) Nocturne can also posses people, so wouldn't she have natural defenses about being posessed herself? B) Has she ever been posessed? C) You also claim Karma is the strongest posessor in the world, but where is this info coming from? Surely Shadow King is stronger then her since he did take control of her for a while. You then have Nocturne posessing Meggan, but this seems very flimsy. You're stretchin Karma's control of people and making too many bridges, esspecially when one bridge is against another posessor nd the other is against Meggan, whose mind is unstable as hell. On top of all this, you mention Nocturne's stroke, and with Karma's lesbianiam, the stroke and posessions I thought I was reading a Claremont story. That's bad. Very bad.

Hellion seems to be beaten too easily, esspecially considering he just got a power boost and you also have Rogue using her absorbtion powers, although, technically, have we seen that she has this abilit in Exiles? I know she's covered from head to toe, but she's never absorbed anyone from Exiles. M is also treated as mediocre by not being able to withstand Karma's psychic powers and getting nailed with a rock to the head by Mysterio ( a truely cheap blow).

My main concern is most of your battle being won by Karma's posession of Nocturne, and then the posession of Meggan, who has a rapport with the earth that I think would help keep her in control. Not just anyone can control those forces.

Brides of Wakanda

First off, you get props for using Meggan very well. The EMP is genious and turning black is a cute reference that shows you know the character, and that issue rocked. My first problem is that you ignore half of the opponents right from the start. You leave Sabra, Mysterio and Mary Zero free to roam for at least a few seconds, giving them time to act.

You do, however, take care of the remaining characters quickly afterwards. My main question is, why have M be posessed by Nocturne? To limit the opponenets targets? To avoid Nocturne's stroke malfunctions? why?

[Nyssane]

I don't think Northstar would be able to grab Riptide's shurikens. Even at super speed, grabbing them with your hands would cut them up pretty badly. But I'm still reading...

[pryde15]

Originally Posted by Shyft

Unfortunately for your tactic, Decibel is one of the few new Warriors who actually HAS powers. He was re-powered by Apocalypse some time ago. So the tactic to shortcircuit him is null and void, causing Northstar to crash into the sound shield, and giving Mysterio plenty of time to possess him. This major over-sight,means Northstar is open to being mind controlled/stunned by the sound wall and attacked by Rogue, and Karma is totally safe, free to possess your team. With Rogue using Northstars Powers, Northstar out of the fight, and Karma taking up both Nocture AND Meggan. i'd say most of your tactics fall apart without Northstar as your speed-power house and Meggan and Nocture doing their thing.

I would say since Northstar current levels are higher than before, that he would be able to get to Karma before the sound shield is up. but I would also say by the time he gets in and hits Karma, the shield would be up, so I doubt he would be able to get out of there, leaving him open to being attacked by Rogue.

One thing I noticed is, that it was stated that Karma has psychic shielding that could stop Monet. Never have I heard of Xi'an's shielding, so I would think if M had done that, she would have prevailed.

[Shyft]

Originally Posted by Swashbuckler

The Clash at Demonhead:

You're battle starts intelligently by guessing the speedster opponenet would attack first, and you deal with him in multiple ways. You stumble shortly after though. Karma suddenly takes possesion of Nocturne? A) Nocturne can also posses people, so wouldn't she have natural defenses about being posessed herself? B) Has she ever been posessed? C) You also claim Karma is the strongest posessor in the world, but where is this info coming from? Surely Shadow King is stronger then her since he did take control of her for a while. You then have Nocturne posessing Meggan, but this seems very flimsy. You're stretchin Karma's control of people and making too many bridges, esspecially when one bridge is against another posessor nd the other is against Meggan, whose mind is unstable as hell. On top of all this, you mention Nocturne's stroke, and with Karma's lesbianiam, the stroke and posessions I thought I was reading a Claremont story. That's bad. Very bad.

Hellion seems to be beaten too easily, esspecially considering he just got a power boost and you also have Rogue using her absorbtion powers, although, technically, have we seen that she has this abilit in Exiles? I know she's covered from head to toe, but she's never absorbed anyone from Exiles. M is also treated as mediocre by not being able to withstand Karma's psychic powers and getting nailed with a rock to the head by Mysterio ( a truely cheap blow).

My main concern is most of your battle being won by Karma's posession of Nocturne, and then the posession of Meggan, who has a rapport with the earth that I think would help keep her in control. Not just anyone can control those forces.

Brides of Wakanda

First off, you get props for using Meggan very well. The EMP is genious and turning black is a cute reference that shows you know the character, and that issue rocked. My first problem is that you ignore half of the opponents right from the start. You leave Sabra, Mysterio and Mary Zero free to roam for at least a few seconds, giving them time to act.

You do, however, take care of the remaining characters quickly afterwards. My main question is, why have M be posessed by Nocturne? To limit the opponenets targets? To avoid Nocturne's stroke malfunctions? why?

You criticize for the karma possess Nocture Possess Meggan part; Tshark/Lucky clearly give the possibility of Karma JUST possessing Meggan, and i think their reasoning for her being easy to possess is good. Just because Meggan has a link to the earth doesnt mean she is beyond possession; you yourself state she is mentally unstable.

You praise the Meggan using the EMP tactic, but it wouldn't work. Decibel's powers are natural, provided by Apocalypse sometime after Jono was depowered. And even if Northstar DOES get past Decibels attack, Mysterio is right there, ready to manipulate his mind. Northstar is NOT fast enough to get across the distance between the two teams, knock out Decibel AND Karma AND Mysterio before Mysterio OR Decibel hits him with something.

[Brian M.]

Gotta love another reaction time debate. We really should establish a ruling on that becuase so many opening moves come down to wondering if Player A can do Move A before Player B does Move B to block Move A.

I also wonder can Nocturne be taken over by Karma? I thought for some reason that blue lesbian was immune that kinda attack?

[Pach!]

Originally Posted by Nyssane

I don't think Northstar would be able to grab Riptide's shurikens. Even at super speed, grabbing them with your hands would cut them up pretty badly. But I'm still reading...

I don't agree if Northstar is that fast than the shurikens in comparison are incredibly slow and should be able to be grabbed without harm.

[Shyft]

Originally Posted by pryde15

I would say since Northstar current levels are higher than before, that he would be able to get to Karma before the sound shield is up. but I would also say by the time he gets in and hits Karma, the shield would be up, so I doubt he would be able to get out of there, leaving him open to being attacked by Rogue.

One thing I noticed is, that it was stated that Karma has psychic shielding that could stop Monet. Never have I heard of Xi'an's shielding, so I would think if M had done that, she would have prevailed.

Even if Northstar did get close to Decibel, Mysterio is standing by to mind-control him.

And although it isnt the best resource, Wikipedia DOES list Karma as having developed psi shielding.

[Pach!]

Originally Posted by Shyft

You criticize for the karma possess Nocture Possess Meggan part; Tshark/Lucky clearly give the possibility of Karma JUST possessing Meggan, and i think their reasoning for her being easy to possess is good. Just because Meggan has a link to the earth doesnt mean she is beyond possession; you yourself state she is mentally unstable.

You praise the Meggan using the EMP tactic, but it wouldn't work. Decibel's powers are natural, provided by Apocalypse sometime after Jono was depowered. And even if Northstar DOES get past Decibels attack, Mysterio is right there, ready to manipulate his mind. Northstar is NOT fast enough to get across the distance between the two teams, knock out Decibel AND Karma AND Mysterio before Mysterio OR Decibel hits him with something.

Decibels power are not given by Apocalypse, the machinery he uses is shown in the latest issue of New Warriors.