THANOS.
There was a lot of bellyaching about Nightcrawler (Web of Spider-Man) and his ability to kidnap a target to a prearranged killbox far away from its backup. That misbegotten mechanic suddenly made soft, immobile characters and tactics like Metron and the Shield Disruptor top-level stuff. But there were ways to slow the elf down: super turtling in the start zone or rushdown so the killbox can get overwhelmed immediately after its done its worst to Nighty’s victim.
That #$%#$ don’t work when the kidnap tactic works from the STARTING ZONES. On TURN TWO.
Thanos (Galactic Guardians 049) can do just that, isolating your top two figures some 20 squares away from anyone friendly, giving his killbox IN THE STARTING AREA (no need to actually, y’know, position) easy free shots on them.
And lest you think “Well, he just made it easy to counterattack him,” he can swap your guy’s usually high Attack Value with the usually lower Speed Value.
Meanwhile, the rest of your team is likely at LEAST two rounds from being able to effectively help out.
At least that’s a chase piece, and thus not all over the place. Unfortunately, the regular Super Rare Thanos (Galactic Guardians 046) is as torrid in his own way, thanks to this trait:
“AVATAR OF DEATH: Other characters can’t be healed.”
Steal Energy, X-Men/Titans TA, Regeneration, Support…all useless until he’s gone. And with his sky-high stats, self-healing and powers, that’s a tall order for a lot of teams.
Neither of these match up to Thanos the Colossal (Infinity Gauntlet 008), regardless of which “Issue” you’re “reading”:
- Multi-Attack and a choice from THREE 150-point figs to add to your force AFTER seeing what the other side’s packing AND deal half the team free damage;
- Double-Incap a foe and dump ‘im in their start zone;
- Kill the other team’s keywords and, if in base, team abilities…and oh yeah, a free 100-point brick/Perplexer in Terraxia;
- Nerf a successful attacker’s stats -1;
- Penetrating damage is just regular damage.
I mean, sheesh. How torrid can you get?
As it turns out, even more so. Stay tuned.