Board 8 > X-Men Draft Round 3: Gold Division

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rules:

1) Players are divided into two divisions. Each round, players will face one opponent in two categories. These categories are: "Fight" and "Pitch".
2) "Fight" matches should be voted on with the following criteria: "Who would win in a fight?"
-Characters are expected to have the abilities (and limitations) from their last living appearance.
-All fights will take place on a habitable uncolonized moon of Saturn where there is a temperate climate, water, air, flora, fauna, etc.
-Teams are kept in an isolated, impenetrable chamber prior to the beginning of conflict and are unaware of their opponents until the fight begins.
-The only directive supplied to these teams is that they must defeat their opponents. If the do not attempt to do so, Earth will be destroyed.
-Voters should consider the potential conflicts within teams as a factor (can characters with negative relationships work together), as well as the intelligence of the characters, resourcefulness, etc.
3) "Pitch" matches should be voted on with the following criteria: "Which pitch would make a better series?"
-All pitches must feature rosters in the Marvel Universe (616). No alternate realities or future skips, etc. It must take place alongside the rest of Marvel continuity.
-Voters should consider team name, roster, cohesiveness, quality of concept, and whether the team fits with the concept, among any other criteria they wish to consider.
-Pitches are all a voter must consider; they should cover the entire series.
-Voters should NOT consider whether a dead character is suddenly alive in this pitch. Voters SHOULD consider other aspects of team status; if characters would make sense working together, if characters have abilities that are mutually exclusive, etc.
-Pitches should be one paragraph (No more than two).
-Players can rewrite/rework their pitches between each round.
4) Anyone who is not involved in a specific match can vote for either team in either category. The player with the most votes in one of the categories will get a win in said category.
5) After each player has faced seven opponents, the players with the best "Fight" records in each division will face off and the players with the best "Pitch" records will face off.
6) Rosters each week will be made up ONLY of 6 members of the team. Every character must be active against at least three distinct opponents. Every character must also be inactive against at least three distinct opponents.
9) Between rounds, players may make one-for-one trades with any other player.
10) Rosters must always house exactly ten members.
11) You have 72 hours to vote.

Rosters:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oMXJ7yV_srLGwN7WBO1YgGAIzobC2ZgHohGI5jz5y-E/edit?usp=sharing

Quick Pick Form (Bold your Choices):
Fight
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
Pitch
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken

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Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo

MLA: Mutant Liberation Alliance
With incredible new powers and no longer speadheading the X-Force, Theresa Cassidy goes out in search of a new team to lead to fill the void left by Jamie Madrox. She happens upon a lone Cloak who is desperately searching for his suddenly missing partner Dagger. Together they form the Mutant Liberation Alliance, a group of like-minded mutants with the mission to independently free any mutant under duress or being held against their will. Siryn brings together her previous teammates Sunspot and Darwin while Cloak contacts previous teammate Iceman, as well as a handful of young mutants including Jimmy Hudson, the son of Wolverine looking to find his place in the world, and Wind Dancer, a young woman Siryn takes a special interest in as a sort of protege, who is herself lost after the disbanding of the New Warriors.

Meanwhile, Siryn brings in a mysterious mutant with incredible powers simply going by the name Reflection, whose identity is a slowly unfolding mystery to both the team AND to the reader. Over time it will be revealed Siryn has located and hypnotically seduced the cruel Sebastian Shaw, secretly utilizing his vast array of resources while keeping him disguised. With Siryn and Cloak using their teleportation to lead the way, the team goes out in search of both Dagger and any other missing or captured mutants.

Fight Lineup:
Sunspot
Sebastian Shaw
Darwin
Northstar
Cloak
Jimmy Hudson

X-treme
After returning from a dystopian future where psychic invaders have decimated the human and mutant populations, Gateway teleports to the Xavier School to make contact with Charles Xavier. Upon learning of this dark future Xavier promptly gathers former and current students in order to address the situation. However, Gateway isn't the only individual to notice the imminent danger and both Crusader X and Longshot approach the Professor to inform him that the invaders responsible for this devestation aren't just incomming, but some advanced scouts have already arrived. As the first of the incoming invaders began to land Proffesor X lead a team consisting of Mimic, Triage, Longshot, Monet St. Croix, and Crusader X. Unfortunately the battle didn't go well and team had to retreat. But, the fight is not over and X-treme is ready to return to the fray.

Fight Lineup:
Copycat
Gateway
Sprite
Wild Child
Longshot
Professor X


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MartinFF7 vs. banananor

Brotherhood of Righteous Mutants

A dead Magneto; a defeated X-Man; a depowered Tempus. Three events, seemingly unconnected, were the portent of an omniversal crisis. It was immediately clear that their victim wasnt the real Magneto he was identified as King Erik Magnus, of the House of M reality! He traveled to their world for a reason that would remain unknown as, before he could reach anyone, security footage of his final fight revealed him being ensnared by an alternate-reality Gaia before a shadowy figure executed him with an energy blast meanwhile, X-Man was found in a smoldering crater on Quadra Beach, with no clear memory of what had happened. All he knew was he had been ejected from his Age of X reality, which was now destroyed and Tempus powers were seemingly reduced in the past day as she could now only shift time in mere seconds, which made her role as part of The Five impossible and put their great mutant dream in jeopardy. Vulcan Cyclops Krakoan-reborn brother was uniquely positioned to identify what all three victims had in common: with his powers, he could detect the remnant of an energy signature in each of them, one that was unique relative to anything he had encountered before.

Cyclops was tasked with finding and dealing with the source of these crises through whatever means necessary. His team included, among others, the aforementioned Vulcan and his girlfriend and former teammate Petra; X-Man, desiring revenge for the annihilation of his beautiful, perfect reality; Gaia, to assist with the inevitable confrontation with the other Gaia; and Tempus and Elixir, her seeking full restoration of her powers and he, a fellow member of The Five, as her guardian and protector with his healing/resurrection power. A final member of the team was required: Erik Magnus had a bracelet which allowed for his dimension-hopping, but was locked and keyed-in on his DNA signature such that only he - or a genetic match - wearing it could operate it. Magneto, not wanting to deprive Krakoa of his leadership at that difficult time, had an alternative in mind; Joseph, his clone who was in custody and awaiting sentencing for violation of Krakoan Law #2, was given the irrefusable offer of amnesty in exchange for his full assistance in their endeavor. With the series playing out as a cross between Lost and the anime Monster, the team first sets out to the House of M reality and then others, gradually unravelling the web of mystery and solving various crises that arise along the way before the final epic confrontation with the one behind it all!

Fight Lineup:
Vulcan (Gabriel Summers)
Elixir (Joshua Foley)
X-Man (Nate Grey)
Tempus (Eva Bell)
Petra
Vanisher (Telford Porter)

Mutant Intent
Mutant Intent is ultimately a radical power trip about personal stakes and finding catharsis. This comic leans into both camp and edge whole-heartedly.

A "typical" episode starts with a strong hook, almost like a heist- get in, get revenge (sorry, 'find catharsis') for a member of the team, and get out. And over the remainder of the series, we might learn what we become after catching our white whale. Emma Frost brought this team together in Juggernaut's wake. Ironically, every member's values of independence and freedom has led them to work together again and again.

And sometimes, their shared success involves guaranteeing there is a better world to be free in.

Fight Lineup:
Firestar
Velocidad
Wither
Synch
Random
Stringfellow


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redrocket vs. Wicklebee

Rocket X
Weapon X. For decades they have been a scourge to mutantkind. Wolverine, X-23, Deadpool, and many more, the list of victims and atrocities committed was long. Now, rumors have surfaced that Weapon X has returned in a new secret base to continue theirtwisted experiments. X-23, aka Laura Kinney, has assembled an elite team of mutants to destroy the base and put an end to Weapon X once and for all.

Fight Lineup:
Marvel Girl
Sabretooth
Darkstar
Cannonball
Bling!
Lockheed

eXcalibur
eXcalibur
It was discovered that King Arthur's crown had jewels that were taken and spread throughout the world, so Captain Britain wanted to build a team to retrieve them. He requested the aid of Valerie Cooper, a U.S. adviser and psychologist for mutants. She brought together old friends of Captain Britain and former Excalibur members along with a team of Mutants and a school teacher who just wishes to find her children. The espionage of Pete Wisdom and thievery of Gambit working together with various other skills could very well find it. The school teacher, however, hides a secret from the group, including some hatred of the leader of this new eXcalibur.

Fight Lineup:
Captain Britain
Gambit
Pete Wisdom
Valerie Cooper
Gentle
Wolfsbane

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IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken

(Wir Sind) X-Kin
The troubles started when Kitty Pryde went missing two weeks ago. First, she was simply MIA, then days went past and no one could contact her, and then... people began denying having ever known her to begin with. James Howlett, Charles Xavier, even Peter Rasputin expressed confusion, even saying they'd never even heard her name before. Then others began to disappear, the people that had loved them paying no mind, as if they'd been erased from existance. Kurt Wagner, otherwise known as Nightcrawler, his daughter, T.J, or Nocturne, are visited by others that are discovering that their compatriots and families are forgetting them as well, even when they're with them.

This started from Layla Miller, whose visions of the future are being corrupted by people hat once prominently featured in them vanishing, to Karasu, whose brother no longer acknowledges her, to young Gabby Kinney, whose adopted sister, X-23, is beginning to not remember who she is, although both are fighting to stave off the Vanishing. A situation that Kurt, to his horror, is starting to realize is beginning to be mirrored with T.J. They gather those four, along with six others with smaller social circles that are also at risk of Vanishing. Can they discover the cause, and who's responsible in this 12 issue series? *

*This is being pitched as a 12 issues series because Nightcrawler has never had a starring/leadig role in a series that went past 12 issues, and I am managing expectations.

Fight Lineup:
Cypher
Butterfly
Nocturne
Honey Badger
Lifeguard
Karasu

Mutant Underground
Amanda Sefton is a witch and one-time ruler of Limbo. One day a magical vision struck her: Mutants in cages, Xavier's dream dead. Only through assembling a specific team of shadow operatives could the terrible future be averted. Doop, Kitty Pride, the undead Ororo Munroe, Revanche, Omega Sentinel, Warbird, Blink, Feral, Callisto. Amanda gathered this squad, dedicated to aiding mutants who slipped through the cracks. The Mutant Underground would see them to safety.

The only catch is, Amanda also envisioned that the end of this road would be the death of the entire group, including herself. Only in that way could Xavier's dream ultimately be saved. Amanda Sefton has not shared this fact

Fight Lineup:
Doop
Shadowcat
Bloodstorm
Revanche
Omega Sentinel
Blink


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...I built my team assuming Juggernaut and Emma Frost would both be present, now that neither's here, ah well.

Brotherhood fight-takes:

Without a psychic on this Mutant Intent fight squad, X-Man is better positioned to tear through. Tempus's time powers can deal with the speedster, Elixir is the better version of Wither (already easily killing him once before), and the Vanisher/Elixir tag team I elaborated on last topic - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78194210/930680209 - still applies here too. Stringfellow has a pretty disruptive ability but requires some proximity to use so he would ideally be dispatched by Petra, Vulcan or X-Man before he gets the chance.

Brotherhood pitch-takes:

Same problem I had last week but even worse, I fleshed out a full concept in my head for like a 30-35 issue run, that can't be cleanly boiled down in a quick paragraph. "Mysterious figure" is an existing character and hints would be dropped along the way. I liked what I originally wrote out, compressing it made it lose most of its lustre, but there's no way to make my team work without elaborate setups so that's how it goes. Not expecting any wins here the rest of the way.

I'm just terribly amused by the opposing pitch involving the disappearance of Kitty Pryde when she's right there on my team
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The funny thing, is I picked Kitty because I specifically wanted to avoid any other character that was in my block, and wanted to choose someone that people actually cared about and I forgot Shadowcat was ever an alias of hers. Just used to thinking of her as Kitty.

And, in fairness, she's dead at the end of your pitch's story *anyway*, so roughly the same effect.
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Fight
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
Pitch
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor ...The Lost thing actually somewhat works against you here, because I have an irrational hatred of the show as a whole. I'm not entirely sure why to this day, but prefer it to mI, even so. Still like MI as an episodic thing, but...
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
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Tomorrow is the final day to vote.

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Fight
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
Pitch
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken (New names for both of these teams, huh. Mutant Underground isn't the best but at least its better than X-Angels).

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Pitch Voting:

MLA vs X-Treme

All of MLAs problems remain as he hasnt even tweaked his stuff. His stars are relegated to minor roles, the overall gist of the book is strong and has a definite direction....which is more than can be said for X Treme
Johnbobb

Brotherhood vs Mutant Intent
Brotherhood.....this is an improvement but it's still SUCH a mess. Ultimately a choice needs to be made I feel between Vulcan and X Man as there is just so little common ground here.

Also your book is now intensely focused on mystery solving which is not a role Cyclops fits well. This is a team that need either like Beast or some X Force Investigations peeps to bring it home.

Mutant Intent meanwhile is so threadbare but simple.

Ultimately....Bananors book is still the one Id rather read but this was a poor matchup

Wickle

Red has chosen not to address his books problems while Wickles is still amazing.

X-Kin vs Mutant Underground

First of all these are both much more compelling than last week.

X-Kin sounds AMAZING. I know you won't ever get her from Rocket but X-23 would turn this book into a long term fan favorite. As is still a really excellent pitch.

Mutant Underground is really starting to come together with just an excellent roster but much like johnbobb you are just burying your only actual drawing card. Still super intrigued about where your book would go.

I give CPU the edge albeit barely.

Fight:
Chichiri
redrocket
Martin
DC

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Pitch
Johnbobb
banananor
Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU

Nothing really to say about these pitches that hasn't already been said, as they haven't changed much from last week aside from Martin's which I feel has become less intriguing with this attempt to summarize it. It's gone from a "wow this could be funny to watch implode" to a simple "why are they teaming." I'd honestly probably lean into the team imploding and try to build an appealing story from that instead.

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I completely forgot to keep up with this this week

will get back to try and vote later
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Fight
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
Pitch
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
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Fight explanation time. MLA cheat sheet:

Fight Lineup:
Sunspot - Flight, superstrength, superspeed, concussive blasts, solar-absorption and redirection that makes all his other abilities stronger. Also absorbs light, heat, radiation, etc.
Sebastian Shaw - Extreme energy absorption and redirection. Every hit makes him stronger with little to no upper limit
Darwin - Hey another person that can survive pretty much every hit, as well as like any condition. His whole thing is being basically unkillable
Northstar - Light blasts and manipulation, flight, extreme superspeed
Cloak - Teleportation, darkness manipulation (pairs extremely well with northstar), intangibility, and most importantly can drag people into the dark realm, where they'll experience their worst nightmares and slowly drain their life force
Jimmy Hudson - Wolverine, but stronger and with shapeshifting

Fight Lineup:
Copycat - excellent shapeshifter, but ultimately doesn't contribute anything to this fight
Gateway - Cloak-level teleporter, but unlike Cloak doesn't have combat abilities beyond just teleporting
Sprite - Has wings, is physically strong
Wild Child - Healing factor. Kind of like Jimmy, but weaker in every other aspect
Longshot - Domino-like luck powers. We'll come back to him
Professor X - y'all know who this is

Ok, not to dismiss the enemy team, but the only real threat here is Professor X. Strength and ability-wise, they're completely outmatched, with Copycat and Gateway not particularly contributing much, and Sprite and Wild Child just being signficantly weaker versions of powersets already on my team.

The issue with Professor X is that it's all or nothing, and everyone on the team knows that, especially brilliant strategist Sebastian Shaw. Charles is the most well known person on the enemy team and doesn't exactly blend in among the others. Unfortunately for Charles, there is Cloak, someone who can instantaneously teleport close to him and literally drag him off the battlefield into the dark realm, where there are no mind games to be played. Charles' psychic powers are great but he has no physical way to defend himself, especially against a superspeedster and a teleporter.

Then there's Longshot, who is tricky primarily for his luck, but that only goes so far against extreme power like Sunspot, Northstar and Shaw. But in addition to that, there's an important thing to note in Longshot's power set: "should he give up hope, his powers will fail to function or even backfire, giving him bad luck." So what could make him give up hope? Perhaps Cloak, the man who can transport him into a realm where he will experience his worst fears while his life force is drained. If that's not the definition of hope-stealing, I don't know what is.

And at the end of the day, there's just not much way to hurt this team. Shaw, Darwin, Sunspot and Jimmy are all particularly notable for how damn hard they all to kill (especially Darwin, who has literally survived being touched by the god of death).

AND THEN there's friendly fire. Friendly fire on my team that is. Shaw's energy absorption is nothing to fuck with, and here we've got Sunspot, who can redirect the energy of the sun, and Northstar, who can move at almost light speed, and when that amount of solar and kinetic energy hits Sebastian fucking Shaw, you can consider the enemy team all but nuked.
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Change my Fight vote to JJohnbobb

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Fight
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
abstain
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken

Pitch
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
abstain
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken

Quick Pick Form (Bold your Choices):
Fight
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken

Pitch
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo

MartinFF7 vs. banananor
This is so much better, its not fully polished yet but it has so much more intrigue.

redrocket vs. Wicklebee
Less is more for Wickle, it didn't go on and I was happier for it. It retained my interest this time that I'd want to read it

IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
I miss Doops X Angels fun level. This just has no reason for 90% of the roster to be involved, their will always be a few characters out of tune but you have Blink here. And shes a foot note in a story involving alternate realms and possibilities.
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Copycat isn't just a shapeshiter, she is an ability copier. And let's actually list Longshots powers shall we.

Superhuman Speed
Superhuman Agility: He possesses the equivalent musculature of a human male,
Superhuman Reflexes
Superhuman Endurance
Regenerative Healing Factor: He has displayed an advanced healing rate, being able to heal at a greatly accelerated rate.
Superhuman Attractiveness: He has some degree of supernatural attractiveness which tends to compel women to fall in love with him upon first sight.
Psychometric Insight: He can also telepathically "read" the recent memories of a person by making physical contact with him or her.
Psychometry: He can read "psychic imprints" that people leave on objects that they have handled and sometimes can even look into the future of the person or object he touches.
Probability Field Manipulation: The mystical augmentation gave him the ability to affect probability fields through psionic means in order to give himself "good luck" in his activities. His mystical transformation is related to his concept of his place in the universe and where he fits best in it. This allows incredibly unlikely events to happen in Longshot's favor. This ability is tied into the positive aspects of his personality: should he attempt to use his powers for a selfish or evil act, or should he give up hope, his powers will fail to function or even backfire, giving him bad luck.
Reality Warp Resistance: Because of his probability field manipulation power, Longshot is shielded from the reality-warping powers of others. He was able to resist the reality-warping effects of House of M Proteus, while aiding the Exiles.
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Fight
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
Pitch
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken

Match 1: Fight vote was closer than the pitch; I think there's compelling arguments both ways there. As for the pitch, since MLA hasn't been updated my problems with it persist, but it's certainly still better than the retread idea that is X-Treme and it's buoyed by having the much better roster.

Match 2: I'm in agreement with everyone that the Brotherhood pitch is greatly improved, but I'm also in agreement with Ed that the Cyclops involvement doesn't really speak to me. It's not a huge problem, but it's enough that it loses out to a pitch that I happen to really like this round. Fight vote is obvious, though.

Match 3: I wish Rocket would take the time to refine his pitch, because I do think there's something good there somewhere. The fight, again, seems pretty clear-cut; Rocket's got too much raw power on his side.

Match 4: Another easy fight vote. Pitch is way tougher. I like both of these a lot, but since I can nitpick Mutant Underground a little bit where I can't so much X-Kin, I'll go with the latter.
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Few hours left

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Fight
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken

Pitch
Johnbobb vs. ChichiriMuyo
MartinFF7 vs. banananor
redrocket vs. Wicklebee
IhatethisCPU vs. DeathChicken
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