Mutant League Finals! - Mattbib vs The Lucky One

[Sheldon]

Welcome to the long awaited Mutant League Finals!

We have two undefeated teams matching up

Mattbib - Professor X, Karma, Phantazia, Shola Inkose, Unscione, Courier I, Boost

vs

The Lucky One - Quicksliver, Madrox, Douglock, Sabra, Justice, Penance, Mary Zero

Here is mattbib's gameplan

For the final I’m trying to be as simplistic as possible, without stretching any of my character’s abilities beyond reason, or without being too time consuming or overly complicated.

Phase I (All simultaneous and immediate)

• Shola erects a TK column around all of the X-Men, except Unuscione, to prevent quick, physical attacks from Quicksilver or anyone else. Shola’s reflexive sensory powers should also allow him to sense any attackers’ minds as they approach, so Shola will attempt to capture/swat said attackers with his TK.
• Xavier attempts to mentally control Quicksilver. This could be unsuccessful if Quicksilver isn’t prepared or isn’t immediately mobile.
• Boost jumps into Phantazia.
• Karma possesses Justice who has no psi-defenses, and she also attempts to possess Quicksilver. The dual mental attack on Quicksilver should enable Xavier to take hold.
• Unuscione powers up her exoskeleton. Even though she’s outside of Shola’s protection she should be safe for now, as I don’t see Drew making Unuscione Quicksilver’s primary target.

Phase II (All simultaneous, takes 1-10 seconds)

• Unuscione maneuvers her exoskeleton around the outside of Shola’s field in an attempt to intercept Quicksilver, Penance or Sabra should any of those three escape the below attacks and advance.
• Karma uses Justice to enclose Madrox, and anyone near him, in a TK bubble, cutting off their air. Furthermore, she uses Justice’s TK to knock out Mary Zero, who Karma is aware of thanks to Justice’s knowledge, and who Karma can sense and track psionically.
• Once Xavier does catch Quicksilver’s mind, assuming he has not already crashed into Unuscione’s exoskeleton, Xavier makes Pietro run at full speed directly into any of his ground-borne teammates, starting with Penance, then Sabra, and ultimately Warlock. Pietro may be hard to catch telepathically BUT he’s proven to be easily influenced in the past (by Maximus for instance). If Sabra or Warlock have already taken to the air they’re excluded. Xavier makes Pietro continually impact until Penance is (and hopefully the others are) unconscious. Xavier then forces Quicksilver into unconsciousness.
• Courier fires his bio-electrical energy at Warlock, whether the alien’s still at a distance or has advanced. As Courier’s powers are able to disable electronics, I expect Warlock to be similarly affected. Also, if Warlock has merged with any of his teammates, said teammate would be rendered unconscious by Courier’s blast. Once Warlock is incapacitated by Boosted Phantazia (see next bullet), Courier fires his blasts at Sabra, who is likely airborne. If Courier hits Sabra, her weaponry will be neutralized, and maybe she’ll be rendered unconscious. If not, Boosted Phantazia takes her out (see next bullet) after she’s contended with Warlock.
• Boosted Phantazia cloaks and takes to the air through the unprotected top of Shola’s TK column. She targets Quicksilver (if Xavier wasn’t able to finish him) and Warlock (after Courier’s engaged him) with an EM field. Phantazia’s powers also disable electronic devices; between her boosted powers and Courier’s, Warlock should be eliminated from the battle. Then, assuming Sabra is approaching, Phantazia expands her EM field to neutralize Sabra’s weaponry and powers. If Sabra is airborne, she crashes to the ground and, without her durability, she’s knocked out. If Sabra isn’t airborne, then Phantazia paralyzes her, swoops down unseen, and kicks her in the jaw.

Phase III All simultaneous, takes 1-5 seconds)

• Xavier, finished with Quicksilver, possesses the primary Madrox and forces him to assimilate his dupes, then shuts down his mind; OR if the battle is going more in favor of the Eclectics, Xavier and Karma forcefully possesses all of the Multiple Men and uses that army to combat the rest of the Eclectics.
• Boosted Phantazia, still cloaked and airborne generates and manipulates her EM fields to take out anyone else who may have escaped their earlier attacks. Unuscione does the same with her exoskeleton on the ground in the vicinity of the psis.
• Once Madrox is down, Karma uses Justice to capture any other Eclectic still on that side of the field. Once her use for him is expired, Karma forces Justice into unconsciousness.

The X-Men win, and invite all the other opponents, once they regain consciousness, back to the mansion for a sexy party. The end.

The Lucky One's will be in the next post.

[Sheldon]

Here is the Lucky One's gameplan

ANALYSIS: Matt drafted a very powerful and versatile team this year. In addition, he’s an intelligent guy and (even more importantly) has a strategic mind. His team is sound, but his usual advantage – his telepaths/telekinetics let him strike hard and fast – will be negated by having to contend with Quicksilver moving faster than they can react. There’s one last plan I haven’t used yet this year- if it works, I have a good chance of winning the battle; if not, well, see ya next year. As always, it’s up to the voters to decide… but if you don’t go for broke in your final battle, what’s the point, eh?

CRITICAL INFO:

• When Warlock infects someone with the transmode virus, they become a techno-organic being like him, with unlimited shapeshifting, a huge array of weapons and sensors, and the ability to regenerate themselves if one molecule remains intact. (Example: when the Magus infected Limbo, even Magik couldn’t destroy S’ym and the demons.) In addition, Warlock can transmit all of his knowledge at computer speeds, so there’s no real learning curve to speak of.
• When Warlock soul-merges with someone, they become essentially one being, with the shared knowledge/skills/powers of both parties, bounded only by physical limitations.
• The Technarch are NOT the same as the man-made Phalanx (massively downgraded versions), and yes, they can infect mutants.

STRATEGY: It’s all about distraction. Matt may have Phantazia and/or Courier try to disrupt Warlock, possibly with an EMP (he’s survived them in the past, but they do weaken him), so I’ll stop that. And he’s going to be anticipating Quicksilver coming in a full-frontal assault... but knowing about it and being quick enough to stop it are two different things. Telepaths always have a hard time with Pietro’s superspeed thinking, and since his ultimate goal is distraction, not straightforward attack, he’s free to spread general havoc without slowing down for, say, Shola to block or grab him. All I need is to keep them occupied long enough to put my plan into action; by my conservative estimates, 5-10 seconds. Sooo…

Phase 1 (immediately; simultaneous)

• Quicksilver blitzes straight for Karma, running and thinking too fast for her (or Xavier) to possess. On the way, he gyrates his arms to create 2 mini-cyclones- one aimed at Professor X, one at Shola. These won’t KO either of them, but they’ll knock them on their asses and distract them for a vital few seconds, as well as prevent the inevitable Xavier psi-link. If Shola manages to shield himself on instinct, it’ll take all his concentration (he’s got little experience and no formal combat training), keeping him from shielding anyone else. Meanwhile, Quicksilver leaps and kicks Karma in the jaw at Mach 1, putting her down; after this he speeds around causing maximum chaos.
• Justice simultaneously shields himself and “grabs” Boost and Phantazia telekinetically. He holds Boost in place (no jumping into anyone), while at the same time shaking Phantazia violently and spinning her upside-down and back again to keep her off balance. As we’ve seen, even Magneto needs concentration to generate an EMP, and she’s no Magneto.
• Sabra grabs the straps of Penance’s costume and throws her (fastball special!) straight at Courier- if Penny lands on him, great, if not, he’s at least distracted from shooting anyone until he deals with her. Diamond-hard skin means Penace won’t be hurt (though he will if she lands on him), and since she’s psi-immune (Emma Frost could never probe or read her), Xavier and Karma aren’t a factor.
• Warlock and Madrox dive for cover behind Justice, with Sabra and Mary Zero moving to either side of him right afterward to form a human wall, blocking any possible shots by Courier.
• The impact of falling behind Justice creates one dupe, which Warlock immediately transmodes into a techno-organic Madlock dupe. Again, I’m estimating this taking 5, maybe 10 seconds, tops.

Phase 2 (5-10 seconds later)

• The Madlock dupe multiplies. And multiplies. And multiplies. At this point, it doesn’t matter if Xavier (or Karma) are still conscious- telepaths always have a hard time with the computer-ish thought patterns of techno-organic beings and have never been able to hold Warlock (or the Magus) for long, let alone 40 of them. Four of the dupes zero in on the nearest power sources (probably streetlights on the city’s power grid), jack in, and begin beaming energy to their “brothers.”
• Phantazia’s EM manipulations make her the most dangerous to the Madlock army, but Justice is still tossing her around wildly. As soon as the dupes start multiplying, Sabra flies over and Justice lets go right before she connects, knocking Phantazia out for good. Or else one of the dupes targets and blasts her into oblivion.
• As soon as he’s finished transmoding the first dupe, Warlock moves to Mary Zero and soul-merges with her. In this state, they retain her regular powers – can’t be detected by any physical senses, no matter what – but also have access to Warlock’s sensors and ability to generate weapons (though not his shapeshifting). Once the psis are down, Zerolock is effectively undetectable to Mattbib’s team, and thus can pick them off at his/her leisure.

Phase 3 (15-20 seconds later)

• 10 Madlock dupes rush toward Matt’s team in a frontal assault. 15 flow underground to the other side and pop up in the midst of Matt’s team, shapeshifting to look like his team members for maximum confusion. Courier and Unuscione are blasted from below (her exoskeleton doesn’t make her immune to heat, so thermal blasts are in order), and Xavier and Boost are surrounded and taken out. Shola will be using his TK like mad, of course, but telekinetics have mentioned that grabbing Warlock is “like trying to hold water in a sieve.” He may hold the Madlocks off for a bit, but with minimal experience and training, he can’t withstand that kind of barrage for long.
• Meanwhile, 5 dupes hang back and increase drastically in size, changing colors and shapeshifting into… robot lions? They fly into the air, shifting their bodies and joining together as they rise...

Madlocks 4 and 5: “Form feet… and legs!”
Madlocks 2 and 3: “Form arms… and body!”
Madlock 1: “And Self… Self will form the head!”
All: “We are one body… we are one mind… we are Voltron!”

Then they form Blazing Sword for fun and start kicking people.

(And yes, I know this is overdoing things a bit, but the intimidation, “holy-crap-we-have-to-fight-THAT?!” factor is priceless… imagine the demoralizing effect on Matt’s team when they see something like this:



…allowing the rest of my team to quickly finish them off.)

• The last 5 Madlock dupes remaining become small, almost microscopic, and concentrate on flying into the mouths of any of Matt’s remaining team members; once there, they’ll expand and cut off their windpipes until they lose consciousness from oxygen deprivation.

And that should pretty much do it. Again, it all comes down to whether you think I can keep Matt’s team occupied for the 5-10 seconds needed to get the transmoding process started, because after that it’s all over. Even if you think his team would overpower mine under normal circumstances, could they do it within that time frame? I don’t believe so, but we’ll see how the voters feel.

(One last point: if you’re wondering whether Warlock would purposely infect anyone, even just a dupe, the answer is yes. Magik’s Soulsword was capable of purging the virus without killing the host. Amanda Sefton currently possesses the Soulsword and is on good terms with my teammates. All of them could be cured afterward, and Warlock trusts them.)

This poll will be open for 24 hours. Feel free to vote and comment! Your vote may decide who is the 2005 Mutant League Champion!

[mattbib]

Good strategy, Drew. I'm not going to really volley back and forth in this round (I'm just not up to it), but I agree that this'll come down to whose timing voters most agree with. I for one think that both Karma and Xavier together could get a hold on Pietro. And I think both of our strategies more or less hold or fall apart from there. Good luck.

[Atom_basher]

Great strategies by bothteams, i really have to chew on some things, one question, can Karma posses molre than one person at a time?+

[The Lucky One]

Likewise, Matt. I agree that we don't need to have a 5-page rebuttal war, and that the timing is what it will come down to. (Personally, I feel like while Xavier and Karma working together might be able to get Quicksilver, it'll eat up enough time to get the transmoding/duplicating process in effect.) Good luck to you as well.

Originally Posted by Atom_basher

Great strategies by bothteams, i really have to chew on some things, one question, can Karma posses molre than one person at a time?+

She can, though it divides her concentration; my thought process was that, when attempting to possess someone who thinks 100 times faster than you, you'd really need to focus on one target. ;) But again, that's up to voters.

-D

[mattbib]

A couple comments, though.

1) Xavier IS familiar with Pietro's mind, even post- Isotope E. I think this will give him the advantage he needs, and negate the time Drew thinks it'd take to possess him.

2) As Shola's powers have shown to be reflexive to his psi-awareness, I think it is likely that he'd get up a shield in time to block Quicksilver's attack.

3) Karma's not trying to actually possess Pietro, only to occupy his concentration to allow Xavier's stronger telepathy to possess him.

[mattbib]

Originally Posted by The Lucky One

She can, though it divides her concentration;

Not that it matters in this battle, but that's a bit misleading. Karma has demonstrated in the past that she can possess and control dozens of people just as easily as she can one (points to Mekanix).

[Sheldon]

Sorry about not proof reading the tag matt. I usually do before posting, I had to post this match in a bit of a rush.

Oh yes....great strategies both of you!

[mattbib]

Also, as for Quicksilver's speed, let me point to post- Isotope E incidents in which it hasn't saved him, just to show that he isn't totally unstoppable:

Magneto Rex #1 - He's stunned by Zealot.
Magneto Rex #2 - He can't move quickly enough to save a Legacy Virus -stricken mutate.
Magneto Rex #3 - Even with Isotope E, Pietro needed to be boosted by Fabian Cortez in order to dig Magneto out of the earth fast enough.
Magneto: Dark Seduction #1 - Voght manages to knock out Pietro.
Magneto: Dark Seduction #2 - Pipeline manages to transport Pietro.
Magneto: Dark Seduction #3 - Magneto is able to capture Pietro.
Avengers #44 - Quicksilver is taken out by the Presence's army.

[The Lucky One]

It's true, he's not unstoppable. Though I'll point out that leaving the top off of Shola's TK wall allows him to run up the side of it and get inside, and that not psi-attacking either Warlock or Madrox immediately allows them time for duplication/assimilation.

-D

[Atom_basher]

quicksilver isnt unstoppable, but he has been shown to be faster than TP not to mention he can probably run 100 yards in less than a second, more than enough time to reach his targets

[mattbib]

Originally Posted by The Lucky One

Let me also point out that you left the top off of Shola's TK wall, allowing Quicksilver to run up the side of it and get inside with no problem. And that you didn't psi-attack either Warlock or Madrox immediately, allowing enough time for duplication/assimilation.

-D

TK isn't visible (outside of comics anyway) so Pietro wouldn't know to start a vertical run; he'd run right into Shola's field. Plus I did say Shola's psi-senses would allow him to maneuver his TK as needed (swatting/trapping). In you have Pietro spinning his arms, not watching for potential TK fields. ;) And if my maneuver works it doesn't matter what happens with Warlock and Madrox, as Madrox would be trapped by the possessed Justice.

But I wasn't nipticking your strategy, I was questioning your character's ability. So if you're going to do that...

Your whole Phase I is a bit of a stretch.

If everyone believes that Pietro is immune to the mental-abilities of two premier psis, that's fine, but you don't account for Unuscione being prepared for him as well (which I have). And IF Pietro can get to my side without being stopped by the psis, and is stopped by Unuscione, well, you haven't KO'd, as you say, Xavier or Shola, allowing them to still act. You yourself mention Shola's reactive powers, and despite his lack of formal combat training this doesn't diminish his sheer power. You essentially have one speedster trying to take out three psis at the same time. I don't think Pietro would get so lucky.

Also, you have Justice trap Boost from 100 yards away; Justice has never demonstrated such precise abillities. He's not an adept TK like most of the X-TK's; his powers have always been used for psychokinetic bursts, forcefields, and for levitation. I'm not sure that he's ever done anything as precise and long-distance as you suggest.

So, IF voters believe that despite Pietro I can get my TK shield up, your maneuver with Penance is a sacrifice. And if they agree with that, then it's simple enough to agree that Karma did have a chance to possess Justice, thus trapping Madrox and Warlock.

Also, my team, with Xavier, has stronger ties to Magik II than yours, so I call foul on your use of her to undue your Madlox move.

[mattbib]

Originally Posted by Atom_basher

quicksilver isnt unstoppable, but he has been shown to be faster than TP not to mention he can probably run 100 yards in less than a second, more than enough time to reach his targets

That's what we've always said, but in which issue is this shown? I can't think of any example. I'm talking three psis, not one, and as I said, we're dealing with a reflexive TK who has psi-sensory, almost precognitive, abilities.

[The Lucky One]

I just don't think he can get the TK field up in time; precognitive feelings or no, he's not combat trained, and 100 yards at the speed of sound is nothing (atom's right, it's less than a second). And if the wall were up, since Pietro's mini-cyclones would hit it and stop, the air currents would tell him where to start running up. My main point, though, is that when you're attacked by someone moving that fast, it's just naturally going to throw off your concentration and cause a major distraction for everyone involved. Maybe not for long... but again, all my team needs is a few seconds.

(Matt, I know you're not really wanting to debate right now. Sorry if I accidentally kicked it off; shall we leave it?)

-D

[Siddon]

I'm going to go with Luckyone, mostly cause I think Warlock was greatly underestimated by Matt and I'm not sold on Quicksilvers elimination. I also don't buy the crying foul by Matt about Magik II.