I guess we can agree to disagree (although there's nothing wrong with that).

I personally believe that while a non-theme team can be well built enough to still function under BFCs, over the course of a long tournament, the non-theme team will eventually get hit by a BFC that will hurt it enough for a theme team to win.

Of course, in any large tournament, I believe not only do you have to have a strong team and strong playing skills to win, but you need a strong dose of luck as well (having favorable matchups, dice rolls, what BFCs you're hit by, etc.)

Oh, on the Spy keyword, my experience with it in Floor was that yes, it can suffer from mobility somewhat, but when you open it up to the full restricted list, that problem goes away (you have great pieces like Ghost Widow, Iron Widow and imo, the best taxi in the game currently, r. Green Flame, open to you).

WK has made it almost necessary to play theme teams in the constructed events. I really wish they would rethink the power of the keywords and theme teams. I know it won't happen, but it is as close to being broken as anything. They introduced BFC's in Mutant Mayhem to change the game up and now they are forcing people to resort to using similar teams every week due to the restrictions of the floor and the power of the theme team.

If every figure had a keyword and they would have dispersed them more sparsely across figures, say instead of giving 75% of the new Marvel figures the 'mutant' keyword, then it could have worked, but I'm not sure it was well thought out.

It is, however, a great idea and makes things interesting, I just wish that there weren't so many 'martial artists' and 'mutants'...

Not much of a problem, as I built the team to survive it. Early on, Shazam took the Malice click to activate. From then, it's just a matter of alternating any of the three attackers every turn (since Marvel Girl is able to TK someone immediately). In a real pinch, the pog can take the damage.

The only thing that's necessary to play HeroClix is the use of your brain.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of Malice. It's great if you can get your opponent down to few figures and massively outfigure them, but other than that, I don't think it's incredibly effective unless you're running some sort of run away team.

I think older BFCs such as Exhaustion and Communication Breakdown often get forgotten in favor of new BFCs.

I feel the non-Theme team you listed would be in serious trouble trying to handle any Mystical keyword Shazam teams especially if you already used your one Ordinary Day, to use one example.

I've actually been playing a Mystical Shazam team this week:

105 r. Shazam
8 +Protected
25 +Fortitude
53 e. Question
8 +Protected
33 r. Icemaiden
5 +Construct
35 Scarlet Witch
0 +Alpha Flight
20 Warbound
=292 (wanted to fit a second Construct, for Scarlet Witch, but couldn't get a hold of one).

Pretty standard idea of having Shazam whacking someone with an object (usually dumpster) every round, warbounding onto the Question. This variant of the team uses Icemaiden to barrier every round as well to protect Shazam while he gets activated and if he can actually make it back to the team.

On the New York map, it's been particularly brutal because of all the blocking and elevated Shazam has available to hide behind.

Well, you usually need some figs, a map, and some dice too.

Agreed. I actually ran Malice on a non-theme team just to get a reaction out of people I played against and see how they react. Most people were like "wow that's crazy." Never hurts to try to get in someone's head at any point in the match, I don't mean like be a jerk to them and mock them, but playing Malice on a non-theme makes people start to question your sanity hahaha.

I think one of the keys to using a non-themed team in an environment where you know a lot of themed teams are going to be played is manipulating BFCs in your favor. Always pack that Ordinary Day.

If you're going up against Malice, remember that you can move your whole team into position on the first turn and leave one guy in his starting position. Choose to deal the damage to the figure in its starting position; he can't be damaged, so Malice is pointless on the first turn, and now you're primed to open fire the next turn (in most cases).

It all comes down ultimately to playing your opponent. In any game of strategy with a little bit of luck involved, it's all about playing your opponent, measuring his or her next move. Poker, chess, Heroclix; it doesn't matter. Manipulate the situation in your favor and you can come out on top playing non-themed against themed. There are always games you won't win, but those games should more often be the direct counter to your team.

I'm not saying that it's not possible for a non-themed team to win against a theme team.

I'm saying that I believe that a theme team has a much better chance at winning a large tournament than a non-theme team does because a non-theme team is inherently more succeptible to BFCs than a theme team is.

Can a non-theme team get lucky and get great matchups throughout an entire tournament? Sure. However, I believe that in a tournament of high level competative play and over the course of many rounds of play, the larger selection of figures available to a non-theme team will not outweigh the BFC ignoring benefit of a theme team.

I'd much prefer to field a non-themed team in a large point game than a themed one regardless of BFCs. There's a lot more potential for abusive strategies... wild card teams, one or two man firing squads (my personal favorite is Thundering Blow on Thanos with two V Badoon Commanders for Enhancement, if anything survives that round, it's Doomsday or someone with big damage reducers all the way down), and you can go on and on. Those are just two types of teams I've wiped theme teams out with quite handily in larger point games.

I haven't given non-theme vs theme teams in unrestricted overly much yet, but my gut feeling would have to go with the theme teams overall again.

Yes, while non-theme teams can have nice teams, the BFC's they'll have to face are also much nastier (Disbanded, Power Dampening Field, Earthquake, Crosswinds, Overconfidence, etc.). I would think that you could still probably build a nasty wildcarding theme team in unrestricted and not have to worry about those BFCs.

Not if you have a good imagination!

Non theme teams do fine in my area. But i think as a whole we're not a "highly competitive" lot.