Heroclixin' ...it's all about F.U.N.

Finally, the last pieces were revealed, so Heroclixin’ can present you a complete checklist. Download and print the PDF today!

AgeofUltronSLpocketchecklist

My pulls:

Alexis
Ant-Man x 2
Yellowjacket x 2
Ultron-8 x 2
Black Knight
Ultron-5
Hercules
ID Cards Machine Man and Vision

No super rares like in my two previous events from Month One [Goliath and Quasar, respectively], but the ones in green were figs I didn’t have, at least.

I was initially torn between a Masters of Evil team of Ultron-5 with the two Yellowjackets, or an Avengers squad composed of Herc, Black Knight and Ant-Man at 50 points. I tend to lean toward pieces I’ve never run. But that’s a bad idea in actual competition.

Plus, I’ve been on a bit of a MoE kick anyway. So EVIL it was:

Ultron-5 [Age of Ultron 051a] 120
Yellowjacket [Age of Ultron 007] 85 x 2
+ Avengers Round Table with Hank Pym ID card

+ Sideline Ant-Man [Age of Ultron 003] @ 50 points

= 300 points

The idea was to shrink one of the ‘Jackets each turn and use the other to taxi both the others with Sidestep each turn until an attack could be made. All matches were prescribed by the judge to occur on the Thebes map, one with lots of blocking terrain but only tiny patches of hindering.

ROUND ONE vs. Bob’s Hercules @ 130 and Machine Man + Jocasta with Iron Man ID Card. A melee team that I could get first shot on, perhaps, but could utterly maul me once he got in close.

Turning Point

• I’m always surprised at ID Card call-ins, and this was no exception. Iron Man came in after I THOUGHT I had made myself safe after a failed alpha strike. Fortunately, he missed. Later, a timely Shape Change saved Yellowjacket again. Unable to finish either Machine Man or Herc, I won by an ID card’s breadth. 1-0.

ROUND TWO vs. Brandon’s Victor Manchas — one with Jocasta — and Monica Chang, plus ID cards for Iron Man and Wasp. The TK was going to be a problem, as was Monica, the best fire support piece in the set.

Turning Point

• After a long period of cat and mouse [or, as Brandon put it, cat and cat!], he got to me with an ID card call-in Charge with Iron Man when I thought I was safe. Why do I keep falling for this? The attack crit missed, though.
• I made a nearly game-killing fumble near the end when I Sidestepped and shot with the wrong Yellowjacket, stranding my team in range of two Pulse Wavers. Luckily, the attacks failed long enough for time to be called, leading to an unlikely 2-0 record with just 15 total victory points scored from ID cards.

ROUND THREE vs. Morrison’s Black Panther, Alexis and Yellowjacket. This was a tough matchup; Thebes is full of blocking terrain, which Black Panther can use to block lines of fire drawn to him via his special power and Sidestep when he’s adjacent. I wouldn’t be able to shoot him at all, likely.

Turning Points

• I stayed way away, respectful of Black Panther’s 7-square Charge swing. Morrison flew BP next to a single square of blocking, ready to Charge me next turn knowing I had nowhere to run with my Sidestep shuffle. But in reality, I had him right where I wanted him. Perplexing one YJ’s damage, she Sidestepped and shot out the square of blocking, exposing Panther. I then got a shot on him with the other ‘Jacket.
• But it was only one damage after his traited Toughness. And he got a Leadership roll, freeing his Yellowjacket to double-team mine for a 1-2 KO shot. Thus I suddenly went from scoring first blood to dropping into a deep 85-point hole with BP back in quasi-Stealth and the rest of the squad at full health. Already backed toward my own corner, I took it to the limit and backed onto the elevated terrain. If Panther was going to press the attack, he’d have to do so without the cover of blocking or hindering.
• He did come and deal Ultron a hard blow. But he was now open to Sidestep pings from Yellowjacket, leading to the final Turning Point of the game: consecutive turns of Masters of Evil attacks while double-tokened to KO Panther. From there, it was a matter of taxiing Ultron away from a potential comeback counterattack from the remaining Yellowjacket until time was up. 3-0. And so I ended up, unexpectedly, in the final match.

ROUND FOUR vs. Charlie’s She-Hulk, Hank Pym and Wasp. 300 points of Outwit, Incap and massive melee damage on the way.

Turning Points

• It came before the match was even set: Charlie had just won a rolloff draw against a one man army of Ultron [055a] that I would have had nearly ZERO chance of winning against. So here, the odds were even.
• After a failed alpha strike on Pym, I retreated behind blocking, attempting to slow She-Hulk’s advance with Ultron’s Smoke Cloud. But Charlie closed on my team, countering the Smoke and forcing a fight. Things swung in my direction as all three characters were able to take shots on Pym and then She-Hulk due to the shrunken size of Yellowjacket and gaining Outwit as they took damage from attacks and pushing. Though it wound up being a wipe, I still lost a ‘Jacket and both my remaining figs were near dead.

But…4-0. After scoring only 15 points the first two rounds. Still can’t believe it! Makes up for Month One where I went a terribad 1-3. I’m now a close second in the standings.

A little something for the scorching days of August. The theme is obvious.

Captain Cold [The Flash 038] 100

Chillblaine [The Flash 011] 55

Golden Glider [The Flash 025] 60

Icicle [Justice League 007] 72

Mr. Freeze [Batman 048] 118

Blizzard [Invincible Iron Man 026] 75

Killer Frost [Trinity War 045] 121

Frost Giant Champion [Avengers Movie 031] 90

= 691 points.

I got to play it in a bye round against a force of Kaiju from Pacific Rim in a “silver age” event allowing all figures but banning non-object- or themed team-related tactics. It was a win for the villains, who simply managed to out-action the colossal monsters, especially as played by the inexperienced Cameron.

By piece:

Blizzard [Invincible Iron Man 026]: Pulse Wave is, as always, boss. Especially in a game against Mystics/Arachnos/Kaiju team ability. Blizzard was a key leading jab.

Captain Cold [The Flash 038]: Wasn’t really much of a captain in this game, what with failing Leadership at the key times and not having targets susceptible to his Ice Blocks.

Chillblaine [The Flash 011]: He was just along for the ride to benefit Golden Glider. But he had a role as tie-up, too, being one of the game’s best.

Frost Giant Champion [Avengers Movie 031]: His Battle Fury-inflicting ability was useless against range-less Kaiju. But he carried his weight in getting the big damage attack to set up the others. Not sure this game is won without him!

Golden Glider [The Flash 025]: Another tie-up fig mostly wasted against Great Size characters, she was surprisingly clutch with her late-game Exploit clicks.

Icicle [Justice League 007]: He was fielded for the Copsicles SP, but was useless due to the size of the enemies and lack of line of fire.

Killer Frost [Trinity War 045]: Never landed a single shot all game, despite many, many attempts.

Mr. Freeze [Batman 048]: the MVP. After the Frost Champion softened the Kaiju up, Freeze cooled them off considerably more.

––––––

This was a nice team. I’d like to see how it works against a more standard opponent. Sometime in the future, we could do a “Winter Is Coming” theme with added heroes such as Polar Boy and Iceman to replace the Golden Age figs on this force.

Back in January, Heroclixin’ revealed that the entire Authority themed team was our No. 2 favorite character[s] of 2014. In spring, after the initial flush of newness had worn off, we fielded the crew in a game. Would the team’s F.U.N. Factor hold up?

THE BUILD: 750 points Modern Age, 5 actions

Apollo @ 200
Jenny Sparks 125
Midnighter 100
Engineer @ 90
Swift 90
Jack Hawksmoor 85
Doctor @ 50
Envy relic 8

=748 points.

ROUND ONE vs. Aaron and his Age of Ultron set Avengers: Captain America [102], Thor [103] @ 150 points, Iron Man [001] @ 250 points and Hulk [008] @ 250 points. I chose Central City, a map I’m accustomed to running the Authority on. 

I holed up on one of the buildings to start since Stealth would be no defense against Avengers Initiative TA. Aaron, seeing the trap if he dared set up for an attack, positioned clear on the other side of the map, well out of my easy swing range. I used the opportunity to carry Jenny (using Swift’s free move action via Air tokens) to a better fighting zone. Aaron, in turn, got a chance to successfully use Cap’s SP Leadership to free up his whole team to re-position without pushing to make attacks on her and Swift next turn.

Uh-oh.

TURNING POINT

• Jenny made an unsuccessful attempt on Hulk and Iron Man, but I had an Air token to use Swift to get her out of retaliation range. Apollo had slightly better luck, tagging Hulk for 1 damage and forcing Big Green to drop the object he was holding with the subsequent loss of Super Strength. 
• But the real boon was Iron Man missing his leading attack on Apollo, who was then able to weather Hulk’s followup shot. With Hulk thus engaged, I TKed Midnighter into Charge range to…
• …hit Hulk in the ‘nads [Exploit Weakness] and lower his DV for the rest of the turn…
• …then Outwit Hulk’s Invincible+Regen SP for Apollo’s and Jenny’s shots. His hit, hers missed…
• …but Swift ended it with a pushing Charge against the still-countered Hulk for the win. 1-0.

ROUND TWO saw Brian field a variant of a team I had considered for this event, Green Lanterns of Earth: War of Light figs Hal Jordan [102], Kyle Rayner [107], John Stewart [105] @ 165, Jade [106] and token alien GL Soranik Natu. He also had the Net, Wall and Spotlight constructs attached. 

I set up in the same hidey-hole as before, but it didn’t go nearly as well this time: Brian had all the range his team needed to one-shot Doctor and keep my force stuck with free Net and Barrier tokens. A rather desperate shot with Jenny Sparks to cripple Kyle Rayner failed miserably and she was crippled in turn immediately after. Meanwhile, Swift kept getting shot at and only a lowish roll or two kept Kyle’s Energy Explosion from really doing my team harm.

TURNING POINT

• Having chosen not to Theme Prob Jenny’s miss left Apollo free to HSS and Precision Strike the pushed Kyle to his Ion click, right where I wanted him: based by a foe his Outwit couldn’t effectively counter. Apollo endured Jade’s and Hal’s counterattacks [and hit and miss, respectively]…
• …then Engineer and Jack double TKed Midnighter to the roof to clobber Kyle with Empowered EW (thanks to Swift) off his Ion SP for Apollo to finish off for the win. 2-0.

So far, Authority teams have had a winning record. I haven’t lost except A) to one other Authority team or B) to a Golden Age Yugioh team that literally could win without ever having to land an attack roll. The wins never come easily — low-scoring games like this one tend to be the norm — and they absolutely require careful play and determination to not give up. 

>

It’s become one of our clix goals here at Heroclixin’ to collect Masters of Evil keyword figures. Recently, we got the chance to field this massive 1500-point force:

Piledriver [Invincible Iron Man 027] @ 55 points

Bulldozer [Invincible Iron Man 014] @ 70 

Thunderball [Invincible Iron Man 039] @ 75

Wrecker [Invincible Iron Man 060] @ 90

Crimson Cowl [Invincible Iron Man 031] 57

Constrictor [Deadpool 039] 110

Whiplash [WizKids M-014] 99

Swordsman [Avengers Assemble 029] 85

Moonstone [Avengers Assemble 031a] 126

Blizzard [Invincible Iron Man 025] 75

Melter [Invincible Iron Man 034] 86

Absorbing Man [Invincible Iron Man 103] 153

Titania [Fear Itself 008] 105

Yellowjacket [Age of Ultron 007] 85

Black Talon [Deadpool 043] 60

Grey Gargoyle [Invincible Iron Man 046] 99

+ Masters of Evil ATA

This force faced Robert’s Hydra squad: Red Skull [Avengers Assemble], Red Skull [Avengers Movie 041], Deadpool and Bob, Sin and Crossbones [Invincible Iron Man 045], Richard Fisk, Taskmaster [Chaos War], Wolverine Agent of Hydra, Whirlwind [Avengers Assemble], Silver Samurai [Wolverine and The X-Men], Thule Society Priest and two Snakeroot Clan Ninja.

The Masters got map choice and selected Hank Pym’s Lab to storm.

It was a disaster.

TURNING POINTS

CHAOS. Sin and Crossbones’ trait thoroughly interfered with my team, leaving characters double-tokened and pushed at inopportune times. It would lead to trouble down the road.

CENTER ROOM OVEREXTENSION. So on this map, there’s a central area that draws a lot of the action. And there was a Thule Society Priest just ripe for the taking, so I struck [cue Bond song riff] with Thunderball. This would leave the Wrecking Crew member open to mass counterattack, if not for the Barrier-building Blizzard backing him up.

BAAAAD BARRIER. Unfortunately, I didn’t place the Barrier in the optimal spot and Robert was able to break two squares and get two hard blows on T-Ball to easily wreck him, thanks again to my central room overextension.

MERGE. Titania had taken a good amount of damage, but the notoriously hard to hurt Absorbing Man was in prime condition to initiate the Merge into the duo Absorbing Man and Titania, giving my offense a needed shot in the arm.

WRECKER IN THE WRONG. He has a trait to boost the AV of adjacent Wrecking Crew allies. So of course I never had him next to his crew while they were making attacks, largely due to the constant threat of Sin and Crossbones’ Chaos. I paid most dearly when AbsTitania missed a KO of Taskmaster by one — which Wrecker’s +1 would have totally made a hit. That started an avalanche that I couldn’t recover from, as I lost fig after fig and barely managed KOs of even the Snake Ninjas, for crying out loud.

So many things went wrong in this game, mostly mental things. But this Hydra team was pretty awesome in its own right. I highly underestimated it, and paid the price.

Still, the whole point of the game was to field the Masters of Evil en masse, and in that, the day was a rousing success. By piece:

Absorbing Man [Invincible Iron Man 103]: A good lead attacker due to his damage resistance.

Black Talon [Deadpool 043]: Essential member thanks to his friendly Mind Control skills. The mostly melee MoE needs the boost.

Blizzard [Invincible Iron Man 025]: Between his Pulse Wave and Barrier, he can be invaluable. Kept me in this game longer than I had any right to be with my poor early positioning.

Bulldozer [Invincible Iron Man 014]: Like Absorbing Man, he’s a vital lead man with his special “Head Down” trait blocking line of fire.

Constrictor [Deadpool]: His short range mostly negates his role as a shooter for the MoE.  

Crimson Cowl [Invincible Iron Man 031]: Her Leadership and Telekinesis would have been much better if not for Chaos saddling her with tokens from Black Talon’s Mind Controls. She still was the last Master standing, even getting a parting shot and scoring one of my few KOs. At under 60 points, you don’t NOT include her.

Grey Gargoyle [Invincible Iron Man 046]: He seems to work much better on paper than on the field. But Chaos was a big problem for him this game.

Melter [Invincible Iron Man 034]: Despite his wall-busting shots, Melter was mostly a non-factor thanks to an early push from Themed Team Probability Control.

Moonstone [Avengers Assemble 031a]: I misplayed her terribly by overlooking her Outwit until deep into the game.

Piledriver [Invincible Iron Man 027]: Always surprises with his dial depth for just 55 in cost.

Swordsman [Avengers Assemble 029]: A good addition to the melee-heavy MoE, he held off Taskmaster for several turns.

Thunderball [Invincible Iron Man 039]: Gone too soon, but that’s more due to user error than the piece itself. I really was relying on his Outwit and wish I’d held him back.

Titania [Fear Itself 008]: Her anti-Super Strength bonus was useless against a Hydra team devoid of the green attack power. Still an awesome brick that belongs on every Golden Age MoE team.

Wrecker [Invincible Iron Man 060]: A key to the MoE with his ability to freely break walls and supply extra objects. If I run him more effectively in this game, perhaps I’d have made a better showing of it.

Yellowjacket [Age of Ultron 007]: A rare taxi for the team, she gave the MoE a great deal of flexibility that kept it going

+ Masters of Evil ATA: This, more than anything, was a blunder. With two Outwitters and a fairly high degree of damage dealing, this large squad didn’t need the “armor piercing” effect. Better to drop this expense to upgrade one or all of the Wrecking Crew to their higher-cost, better-armored, Masters of Evil team ability using levels.

_______

Future F.U.N.

Next foray for the Masters? Probably another turf war against villains from a different universe: the Legion of Doom. We’re dropping Constrictor, Whiplash and the MoE ATA in favor of adding the Wrecking Crew ATA, Whirlwind [Avengers Assemble], Ultron-5 [Age of Ultron] and upgrading Wrecker to full cost. Look for a F.U.N. Fights report whenever that matchup happens.

Continuing the quest to get shots of all the Super Strong clix holding object tokens.

Old-school Iron Man [Age of Ultron 017] has a solid grip using his helmet and antenna.

Though phasing, Vision [031] has a surprisingly solid grasp of object tokens.

Though called the prince of power, Hercules [033] can only manage the most tenuous of holds.

Ultron-5 [041b] is not only a Master of Evil, but a master of holding this object token.

Giant-size Ultron-7 [Age of Ultron 053a and 053b] has a three-point balancing hold with the end of his fist, his wrist, and under his chin.

_________

Wave Two’s pix aren’t ready, what with the boosters being unavailable for at least a week.

This is a hold that works for Red Wolf [Avengers Assemble 051] even when Lobo is off the base.

Last time we looked at the Atlantis newcomers costing under 100 points, as well as new water-heavy maps. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 101-125 points: maneaters ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Ocean Master [Trinity War 029]: This latest version of Aquaman’s half-brother Orm brings the pain to the surface. At any time during the game, he can take a one-time double power action to permanently flood up to half the map. Now no Atlantis team need be left high and dry, ever. That’s not his only trick, though. He can also Penetrating/Psychic Blast an unlimited number of targets sitting in water within his 6 range — no LOF needed. With 11 Running Shot and 11 AV, he’s the shooter Atlantis has needed for a while. Sprinkled clicks of Prob round out this 115 point package.

Aquaman [Trinity War 201] is an Indomitable beater with 4 damage, Charge, Super Strength and Invincible, though his other stats are barely OK for his 122 points. But he’s likely being run for A) his trait to encourage foes to pick maps with at least 12 squares of water and B) his own free action ability to call up water in his own and an adjacent square. With his SP Empower and Leadership, it’s a decent combo.  

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Above 125 points: alpha predators ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sea King [Trinity War 014], the evil Earth-3 version of Aquaman, gets a decent dial. First, he gets to put 6 squares of water on the map so he’ll never be completely beached. Second, he’s an Indom Transporter with Super Strength and a respectable 11 AV. Finally, he’s got CSA TA, allowing him to use Prob and toss a token on any ally, even himself. At 135 points, he’s a little bit pricey for what he does, but again, getting that free water terrain can be worth it all for an Atlantis team that lost map choice.

Weighing in at a fairly massive 172 points, Aquaman [Trinity War 018] is not really based on any version of the character in comics. He’s closer to the guy featured in that one Justice League cartoon where he was shooting energy blasts at Lovecraftian monsters and making them run. (Or, maybe, he’s this guy, from Aquaman #41, released just last week. Did WizKids know something we didn’t when they designed this figure last year for this February’s Trinity War?) Anyhow, this Aquaman is a shooter instead of a melee brick, either using Leadership and Enhancement on allies one turn or picking Energy Explosion or PPB —both with Running Shot — on another. He also manages top dial to do the no-LOF Outwit/trick that his 60-point version must push for. Mid-dial, he gets some Sidestep and big damage potential via Close Combat Expert — no Super Strength needed — before shifting to the late Charge+BCF combo. He’s only 7 clicks, though, two LESS than the next most expensive Aquaman in the game, who’s 16 points cheaper. His fairly average DV can’t take much penetrating damage.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That wraps our Atlantis update! Look for other F.U.N. Focus articles and updates in the future. Next up will be Legion of Super-Heroes.

Continuing our quest to photograph every Super-Strong ‘clix holding an object token, Heroclixin’ presents Yugioh Clix:

Sengenjin [Yugioh Series One 013]…

…Summoned Skull [048]…

…and Amphibian Beast [001].

We don’t really collect Yugioh clix (outside of Animal keyword) so it’s going to take a while to record all these. But it will be done, eventually, maybe. 🙂

So back in early 2014, we did a Focus on Atlantis: What figs were great for building the keyword, which weren’t, etc.  It’s 2015 and a few additions have come to stir up the water. First, let’s look at maps and objects and stuff:

MODERN AGE

• Atlantis [Trinity War]: The second all-water map in the game, this one is better than the first because it A) Allows objects and terrain markers so swimmers with Super Strength and Barrier aren’t hosed, B) it has much better placement of blocking terrain so that snipers aren’t as much of a problem, and, for a while, C) poor rules wording allowed maximum freedom of movement to swimmers and virtually none for boot speed characters. But later errata would clear that up.
• Thunderbolts Submarine [Deadpool Fast Forces]: This map offers great cover for the swim team, but even better are its goofy special rules that cause misses to break the outdoor walls and flood the map with water terrain. The trick is actually remembering this rule.
• Central City/Keystone City [The Flash]: Stuck on one side of the map and buried at level one on a mostly elevated map, the water terrain on these sister maps look fairly useless. But each represents a hidey-hole that swimmers can retreat to if things get troublesome, or a spot from which flying Atlantis pieces might make an ambush. A few figures can make fantastic use of this one.
• Odym [War of Light]: With tons of water on two elevations, this looks like a swimmer’s paradise, but don’t be fooled! With zero blocking terrain, firing lanes are quite open for long ranged snipers to shoot at most Atlantis figs before the fish men can ever close in.

GOLDEN AGE

Duelist Kingdom: Water [Yugioh]: This map, like Flooded Wakanda, is mostly water with islands of dry land all about. But there are no walls for the mostly unranged Atlantis team to use as cover, so pick this map with great care, swim teams!

Pacific Ocean [Fear Itself]: Wait. Wasn’t this featured LAST time? Yes, it was, but it had a caveat that because it was all water, objects couldn’t be placed at game’s start, ironically making it an impediment to the Super Strength-laden Atlantis team. Now it’s gotten an erratum to allow objects. Impediment removed. It’s also been retired.

OK, now for the new figures since last year:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Below 50 points: shrimps and chum ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Trench [Trinity War 204]: At 25 points, these monsters are the new champs of cheapness for Atlantis. But they’re more than just filler: With Charge, 10 AV, 17 Reflexes with 2 damage Exploit Weakness and Poison, they’re the best tie-up/melee in the theme. Sure, they’re only 2 clicks long, but at this price, who cares?

Atlantean [Trinity War 007]: The modest stats [9, 9, 16, 2] don’t look like much, even at 36 points. That is, until you note that ALL those stats go +1 when in water. 5 range, 10 AV Incap, 17 DV and 3 damage with Sidestep that pushes to 18 Reflexes make these guys a bargain as long as you keep ’em soaked.

Atlantean [Trinity War 203]: The Gravity Feed version is more of a support piece as he pushes to Empower and later Enhancement. He also boasts Charge to start and can deal knock back to all foes he hits if he’s on an Atlantis team. Five clicks of life aren’t bad, either, at 40 points, though the 3 range leaves much to be desired.

The Trench [Trinity War 008]: 45 points for this piece isn’t bad. Charge + BCF offers a lot of damage potential while the Hypersonic Speed he gets in water delivers light first strike capability. TEAM UP WITH: Other Trench, especially the 25-pointers, as this one heals when any adjacent dolphin speed ally is KO’d.

The Trench [Trinity War 204]: Full-power GF Trench costs 48 points and loses the moving attack ability the others start with. So why play this one? For the Speed special that grants both Sidestep and the ability to carry other Trench (well, any other character with both Atlantis and Monster…which so far only equals “other Trench”). Coupled with his Empower, this is a lethal team player well able to contribute to the fight himself with 10 BCF.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 51-75 points: barracudas ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Aquaman [Trinity War 018] is the only addition in this bracket, and at 60 points, you really want more than 3 clicks of life. That said, He’s bringing 9 Charge, 11 BCF, 2x bolt 6 range with IT:Hindering, Indom and Transporter. If you can get his Super Senses DV to hold up or push to his “look Ma, no-LOF” Outwit/Perplex for dolphins, he can maybe pull his weight.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 76-100 points: sharks ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  

As usual, Mera [Trinity War 028] is the latest TK figure for the Atlantis crowd. With Leadership and Sidestep, she’s extra adept at the role. But for her 84 cost, you don’t needn’t settle for her being just a mobility piece, especially on the water-laden maps an Atlantis team should be swimming in — she’s a shooter. Her trait gives her range equal to the number of water squares she’s in or next to, plus one. Yep, that’s a possible 10 range before any modifications. She’s also got a mid-dial SP that nerfs nearby foes’ stats when they take tokenable actions within 3 squares of her. And with her shooting from 10 squares out, someone’s going to want to get close to shut her down.

Not to be outdone, gravity feed Mera [Trinity War 202] also brings the Sidestep TK action, this time for two straight clicks. In addition, she provides the rare-for-Atlantis Probability Control and, when in water, free 2-square Barrier — all with IT: Elevated. She’s also a Mystic. At 98 points with a shorter dial than her sculpt twin above, she’s not a slam dunk to pick. But she’s plenty solid. FIELD HER ON: Any water map with some elevated terrain in her range. Makes her a frightening sniper.

Aqualad [WizKids D15-002] is, at 99 points, not exactly great with below-average 16 DV and so-so 7 speed and 10 AV — though both the latter get a traited +2 when he’s in water. Lack of Super Strength is another problem that effectively outweighs his potential with Transporter. So why play him? It’s due to his TWO end-dial stop clicks that give him both Perplex AND Prob that he can target any Atlantis, Mystical or Teen Titan on the map with. Could be useful.

TO BE CONTINUED…