Dream Team League (Discussion)

[XFanTim]

If a guy's got the ability to escape Silver Surfer's power (turning into mist) and the speed necessary to do so (Surfer is really ****in' fast), that's uber-level defense.

But again, the Surfer and Strange fights are not what this decision should be hinging on.

We have regs who can turn into mist. The Surfer just stupidly fired blasts at the mist rather than using any of his dozens of other more appropriate powers. Then Dracula appeared out of the mist and punched Surfer in the back of the head. I guess his Cosmic senses were on vacation that day.

Basically, this was Surfer at his most stupid.

So say it doesn't hinge on the Surfer and Strange fights, but what then? I don't see anything in Dracula's powerset besides a collection of modest reg-level powers.

 

[wiegeabo]

Also, since it's ultraviolet light that kills vampires, even if he could change the weather and make it a cloudy day, that won't necessarily protect him. Clouds don't block ultraviolet light (completely). Ask anyone who's gotten a sunburn on a cloudy day.

Although I'd love to put that in a writeup.

Storm: "There you go, Dracula. A nice cloudy day so you can fight with us."

Dracula: "Bwahahaha. Thank you Storm." *walks out and bursts into flame* "AHHHHHHHH!!!! Why?!!! It was cloudy...!!!"

 

[Nightwing]

Even though I had Ambrose on my team, I'm not really an expert on him, or any of the Wildstorm guys. I mostly picked him up because I already had Tempo (a Marvel mutant who speeds up and slows down time), and Ambrose can do that and more.

His deal is he can "distort physics" in a localized area, but so far as I know this mostly means manipulating time and gravity. He can do things like run up a wall, or make the path of bullets bend around him. He carries guns that shoot ordinary bullets as far as I know. I also had him do things like slow down time around his opponents to hold them in place for an attack, or crush them by increasing gravity around them. He eventually died because he entered some sort of artificial reality where his powers didn't work right and got shot.

That's about all I know. I'm sure someone will be able to add something if that's not accurate or complete.

What are his mannerisms like?are we talking ruthless killer here? or incapacitate via pistol whip if necessary? I wanna know if im going up against someone who lacks remorse or conscience

 

[Aristotle]

You know, given that the Turtle is uber, why isn't Ambrose?

 

[Aristotle]

I don't see anything in Dracula's powerset besides a collection of modest reg-level powers.

And the superspeed to deliver them effectively! Does anybody dispute that Thundermind is just a stack of reg- and med-powers plus the superspeed to make them deadly? There needs to be consistency on rulings.

 

[XFanTim]

Turtle can cover a much wider area, can't he? I think Turtle froze a whole city at some point, whereas I think we'd been assuming Ambrose had a relatively short range. Also, I don't know if Ambrose can slow time enough to stop the Flash, which Turtle's speed stealing could.

We've had Tempo, another character who can slow time in a small area, ranked as a reg as well. But she couldn't stop Quicksilver all the way, so she'd be totally screwed against the likes of Flash.

 

[Nightwing]

You know, given that the Turtle is uber, why isn't Ambrose?

Thats a good point however Turtle can do much more over a larger distance..but it does beg the question why isnt Ambrose medium with his power set?

 

[XFanTim]

And the superspeed to deliver them effectively! Does anybody dispute that Thundermind is just a stack of reg- and med-powers plus the superspeed to make them deadly? There needs to be consistency on rulings.

I've never seen Dracula display even Quicksilver or Spider-man level speed. I think when bios say "superspeed", they just mean "a bit faster than an ordinary human." Whereas Thundermind can circle the earth in a matter of seconds.

 

[XFanTim]

What are his mannerisms like?are we talking ruthless killer here? or incapacitate via pistol whip if necessary? I wanna know if im going up against someone who lacks remorse or conscience

I haven't really read much of Planetary (the series he was in), but I think they're kind of good guys or at least neutral. But he's definitely willing to kill, since he carries guns after all. Ambrose led the field team on missions and was pretty businesslike in his personality, from what I can tell.

This page has scans of a few panels. Ambrose is the black guy in the white suit.

 

[XFanTim]

Here I found a couple of scans of Dracula vs. Surfer. Note that Surfer just stands on the ground (not using his speed at all) and stupidly blasts at Dracula's fog. Then Dracula appears behind him (somehow Surfer's cosmic senses don't notice) and punches him in the back of the head. Surfer was still talking after the punch, though.

scan 1
scan 2

As I said, Surfer at his most pathetic.

 

[Khellendros]

So, is the bottle city inhabited for this week's fights?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Ambrose Chase is a soldier, basically. He'll kill in battle if it's the most effective way to take out a target, but he won't murder people in cold blood. The maximum range of his powers that I saw in his few appearances was around the size of a normal room--he "froze" everyone inside (probably just slowed them to the point that they weren't much of a threat). It's hard to gauge his powers against other superhumans because he only fought normal people in Planetary.

Basically, my impression of Ambrose's powers were that they were more for altering physics around himself than around others. He could knock people and bullets away by shifting gravity's direction, but I doubt he'd crush anyone with even mid-range super-strength; if he could alter gravity to that extent, I imagine he'd do it more often and allow himself to fly and all kinds of s***, but the most he does is shift its direction to run on walls or ceilings, slow his falls, etc. He can slow time but not stop it, meaning pretty much any speedster who's not a reg is perfectly safe from Ambrose. And, of course, outside of the distortion fields he's a normal human with normal human strength and durability and a pair of normal handguns that shoot normal bullets, so basically anyone who's durable enough to be bulletproof is safe from him. He'd likely delay them with his distortion field but he probably wouldn't be able to hurt them.

He's a great character, but given all the limitations on his powers I still think he qualifies as a reg. He'd get his ass kicked by most of the middleweights in here.

 

[XFanTim]

So, is the bottle city inhabited for this week's fights?

Generally the assumption is battlefields are unpopulated unless Wieg specifies otherwise.

 

[XFanTim]

One thing I want to mention that was something of a change last season:

We've formalized the idea that the voting should be based on the quality of the strategy in the writeup. Basically, you're voting on which team would win based on the strategies given. Obviously the powers of your characters matter in that they determine how likely your team is to be able to execute a good strategy. It has to be believable. And the subsequent debate of course has a role in convincing voters whether the strategies presented were believable.

The idea was in part that people shouldn't have to write an epic novel to win the match. In principle a really good lineup with a killer strategy presented as a bullet-point outline should have just as much chance of winning as a longer narrative. And while you can certainly give people props for creativity or humor, those shouldn't really be the basis of your vote.

At times last season we went further than this, saying "Keep the dialogue heavy parts in prep-time, where people can skim them, and let the writeups be brief and to the point." But I think that's probably going a bit too far (and honestly a lot of us didn't even stick to it last season). With only four matches per week this time, finding time to read it all shouldn't be too hard. I'd say people should be able to do their writeups however they like, within the general guideline "Don't make it too long." Just keep in mind, it's quality of strategy, not the epic scope of your writeup, that will determine whether you win or lose the match.

Note: That last paragraph is just my opinion, not part of the official rule. Technically right now the rules say to make battle time a "condensed description", but I think loosening this a bit is a good compromise between those who prefer to write in more of a story format and those who don't have time for that. The rule was never strictly enforced last season anyway.

 

[Franklin Richards]

Considering you're bring back a couple of old schoolers too, I wouldn't count on us NOT writing like we did "back in the day".

 

[Aristotle]

Shouldn't we have some match threads open today?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

wieg lives on the west coast, so he goes by his wonky Pacific time.

As for write-ups, I'm gonna try to keep my battles short and sweet, but I'll probably have my characters shoot the s*** a little in the prep. A big part of the fun for me has always been writing the characters so I can't sacrifice that completely, but I'll try to cut down on the extraneous dialogue in the battles, at least.

 

[XFanTim]

Shorter is nice just because no one has that much time to sit around reading them. But to those (like Nightwing, I think) who've said "How come we aren't allowed to right stories anymore?" I'd say just write it how you want (within reason) and see if anyone complains.

 

[Franklin Richards]

I think I have put together a "classic" lineup without sacrificing too much power. Whatta ya think? Glad to see Barry and Hal working together?


:gl: :gl: :gl:

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Wally and Kyle working together would pwn them.

 

[Franklin Richards]

Here we go.

I'm not so sure about that. But I'll match them with anyone who can get them on the same team.


:gl: :gl: :gl:

 

[Aristotle]

Wally and Kyle working together would pwn them.

Wally and Wonder Woman will have to do.

 

[Nightwing]

So the battleground...can you actually see the walls of the city as a giant piece of glass bottle?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It seems like Brainiac would use something sturdier than glass.

 

[Nightwing]

But it is a city that has a bottle boundary?As in there is a limit to how far they could run/fly in the city etc?