Wait Until The Edges Get Dark

So The last two weeks I’ve been in class learning about Combatives(hand to hand fighting). Hence the complete lack of posts in the last two weeks when we’ve gotten some amazing cards. We learned arm bars, chokes, and other nonlethal means of finishing the fight. One thing they told us at the beginning of the class ‘Don’t just tap because they get a choke. Try to break it, wait until the edges start getting dark’. For the most part, we tapped after they got the choke and we failed to fight it off. Normally we didn’t let the effects of the choke actually take hold.

The last day I made a small mistake. You have to understand, one of my classmates had been doing Judo for over 30 years and he took the time while we were rolling to teach me, not just win because he was the superior opponent. The last time I got the pleasure of rolling with him, I steeled my nerves and decided I was going to wait until the last moment to tap. I was going to go balls to the wall and at least not lose even if I couldn’t win. I believe the word that best describes that feeling is ‘Hubris’. He got a cross collar choke on me while I was in his guard. I pushed past it and went for a leaning choke(Those of you who are familiar with MMA are probably wincing… I know… bad idea). The edges got black and I thought ‘I’ve almost got him’. When my brain was working 60 seconds later, he checked to make sure I was OK, laughed a bit, and patted me on the back for not breaking down even if it wasn’t the most intelligent way to do. I was so embarassed to actually pass out, even if it was for such a short amount of time.

This little story does have a point: Act of Vengeance. You play it so that you can redirect any stun on Red Skull to another person. This combined with Red Skull, Johann Schmidt and Vengeance or Invulnerability characters makes for a nasty, nasty mid-late game scenario. Oh delicious Irony: the two best teams for this scario: Revenge Squad and Team Superman. While I’m no fan of TS, I think Revenge Squad is a bit too obvious a choice.

There’s an easy set-up: Maggie Sawyer behind Red Skull, two Invulnerable people on both sides of Red Skull. You drop your Acts of Vengeance, and all the sudden you don’t take damage when they hit Red Skull. Why? Maggie reinforces him, prevent break through. You redirect the stun to say… Superman, Man of Tomorrow. He takes the stun, I take no stun loss, and I burn my opponent for 5.

But wait, Kenpachi, what about ‘winning’. Sure you’re going to be burning people for 5-10 a turn once Red Skull drops, so it should end by turn 7 when combined with your counter attacks… but how do you keep from being whelmed, or even OVER whelmed by the fact that you’re getting beaten on without hitting back? Well, to those haters I proffer two thoughts:

-The 3 Drop Crime Lords Bucky. If I have to explain more, I don’t believe you deserve to know.

-Red Skull can be equipped with +ATK type stuff, along with Team Superman defensive pumps, Nasty Surprise, Etc. He counters people who attack him, redirects the stun, giggles… etc. Think about it: Your 5 swings into my 5. It’s a mutual. Acts redirects the stun to Man of Tomorrow. My opponent burns for 5, then they take 5 counterstun. If I don’t have a way to counter the attacker I can Flying High their attacker, then throw Bucky back on the top of my deck to stun the attacker I can’t counter. Those foolish enough to raise arms against me are punished, God is in Heaven, all is good in the world.

It’s a janktastic combo, but incredibly powerful. My pushing past the choke you can reverse it and make your opponents suffer for their hubris. Or you end up staring at your opponent thinking ‘Where the hell am I, I should get up’ over and over again. *sigh* At least I learned something from it.