After a somewhat disappointing debut for this team, I decided to drop Mantis to make extra feat room (and to make it a true Guardians of the Galaxy #1 team, as she was not a field operative of the team). She filled her role on my team as a decent L/C tieup piece and meat shield, but was otherwise just lost points.

This was for a 1000-point 50% Hammer of Thor floor format.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

V Drax 184 + Protected 8 + Unstoppable 5 + Cannonball 4 + Alias 3
Adam Warlock (Secret Invasion) 160 + Contingency Plan 12
Phyla-Vell 138 + Elite Sniper 20 + Protected 8
Moondragon (Hammer of Thor) 134
Star-Lord 90 + Contingency Plan 12
Gamora 73 + Protected 8 + Maneuver 8
Rocket Raccoon 65
Bug 44 + Vampirism 12
= 988 points.

FIRST MATCH I missed because I was late.

…which, I’m again noting too late, was an illegal team (1012 points AND less than 50% Hammer of Thor).

I put us on the Prison map from the Sinister set to cut down on his Telekinesis advantage. The close quarters worked exceptionally well for me, cutting off Destiny’s ability to force rerolls with Probability Control and giving my Sharpshooters Star-Lord and Phyla-Vell plenty of targets. A.B., an inexperienced player, also played too conservatively, never committing Wonder Woman or RagSurtur to the fray (after maybe overextending with Ulik). I only KO’d Ulik, though Hercules and Malekith each were a single hit from defeat by the end. I lost only Gamora’s Protected.

Thor (Hammer of Thor) 226
Heimdall 149 + Fortitude 25 + Repulsor Shield 25
Enchantress (Hammer of Thor) 141
Ulik (Hammer of Thor) 118 + Fortitude 25 + Repulsor Shield 25
Sif 93
Malekith 91
Thor Girl 81

He picked the Days of Future Past map and I started outdoors, setting up the Kinetic Accelerator behind some blocking terrain to guard against early Running Shots from Thor. It almost didn’t help, though, when the Indomitable Thor took a pushing Running Shot anyway. Fortunately for me, it was a critical miss.

Now Thor was open to fire from Phyla, Moondragon and Star-Lord. Gamora, though, was stuck unable to attack thanks to Heimdall (who’s immune to most move & attack powers) blocking one route and poorly-placed hindering terrain on my part blocking the other.

I took an early lead by KOing Ulik but subsequent losses of Star-Lord and Bug and an inability to finish off Thor made this a much closer match — two points! — than it appeared. Still, ugly wins still = wins. Got a Blood Oath feat as the sole undefeated player and brought the GotG overall record to 3-2. But I’m not done yet…!