Playing Sentry of Mighty Avengers!

Recently I was challenged to give a by the numbers article on playing Sentry from Secret Invasion. First, I have to admit, Sentry does offer some good stuff for his 197 points. I don't really care for his randomized hypersonic speed/charge possibility, but a 6 space charge with super strength isn't shabby. His probability control is also a nice addition for a bruiser like Sentry. That's just the start of the show for this guy. Take him a couple clicks in and he just gets meaner with 5 damage and impervious. He gets 10 clicks of life, but with one weakened click that I don't think was really necessary. So, how do you play this rerolling, flying powerhouse?

Doing this article required pulling out every Avenger I have and looking up those I don't. That's not a small amount of pieces, people. Sentry only gets two keywords, Avengers and Mighty Avengers, believe me, that's enough. If you can't build a team around an avenger, you're in trouble. It may be you just don't have any Avengers to play with. In that case, get cracking and buy some clix.

Now, 197 is a big point load for a 300 point team. I have seen Sentry pull a decent "one man army" in a 200 before. He can hold his points worth. So, let's get started and see what happened with all the combos I went through.

300: Your basic knuckle sandwich, Marvel style, hold the mayo.
-Best Duo: Put him with 103 point Wolverine for an even 300 points.
THREE WAY!!!: Put him with Ronin and Vet Echo for 293.
-Best Four: Add him to Vet Echo, Vet Mockhingbird, and Stingray for 298.

Now that you can see how I'm doing this, lets continue. And let me assure you, I spent a lot of time with my calculator adding and re-adding!

400: Superhuman haymaker.
-Best Duo: Put him with 188 point Ironman for 385.
-Best Trio: Invisible Woman (110) and black suit Spider-Man (95) for 402.
FOUR SQUARE!!: Invisible Woman (110), Ronin, and Vet Echo for 400 even.
-Best Five: Ronin, Vet Echo, Moonstone, and Vet Mockingbird at 400 even.

Invisible Woman adds a whole new spice to playing the Avengers, try her and find out! First with Sentry, that double probability control can be fatal to your opponents die rolls! The rest is cake.

500: Bringing down the house.
-Best Duo: Once again, I find myself suggesting a duo figure for a two piece team. I suggest the Ironman/War Machine figure for a total of 497.
-Best Trio: Ms. Marvel and the Ironman/War Machine duo for 501.
-Best Four: Invisible Woman (110), Wolverine (103), and double base Capt. America for 493. Granted, you can use the 105 point Wolverine if it's your preference, but that one won't be themed!
FULL FISTED (five fingers in a fist): Invisible Woman, double base Cap, Moonstone, and Vet Echo for 504.
-Best Six: Double base Cap, Moonstone, Ronin, Vet Echo, and Vet Mockingbird for 483.

600: Bringing down the whole block. (no duo here, too many open points and then it's kind of stupid not to fill them)
-Best Trio: Ironman/War Machine duo and Wolverine help him out for 600 even.
-Best Four: 188 point Ironman, Ms. Marvel, and Vet Echo for 591.
-Best Five: Double base Cap, Invisible Woman, Ms. Marvel and Vet Echo for 596.
SIX PACK!!: Double base Cap, Invisible Woman, Wolverine, Ironfist, and Vet Echo for 601.
-Best Seven: Double base Cap, Wolverine, Ironfist, Moonstone, Vet Echo, and Vet Mockingbird for 601 again.
-Best Eight: Wolverine, Ironfist, Moonstone, 50 point Spiderman, Vet Echo, Vet Mockingbird, and Stingray for 597.

700: Throwdown City.
-Best Trio: Give him Thor and Quasar for 686. This actually looks like a frightening team for just three guys.
-Best Four: Thor, Ms. Marvel and Invisible woman is back for 701.
-Best Five: Ms. Marvel, Invisible Woman, Wolverine, and for a surprise entry, Aaron Stack costing 690.
-Best Six: Double base Captain America, 95 point Spiderman, Invisible Woman, Wolverine, and Aaron Stack for 697.
-MAGNIFICENT SEVEN!!!: (That's seven figures in 700 points with a theme) Double base Cap, 95 point Spidey, Invisible Woman, Wolverine, Ironfist, and Vet Mockingbird for 698.
-Best Eight: Db Cap, 95 pt Spidey, Invisible Woman, Ironfist, Ronin, Vet Echo, Vet, Mockingbird for 688.

800: Head-busting Marathon.
-Best Four: Quasar, Thor and Invisible Woman join him for 796.
-Best Five: Quasar, Invisible Woman, Wolverine and 128 point Black Panther for 801. You can use the other Black Panther if you want to, but I feel this one has more to offer in these teams.
-Best Six: Invisible Woman, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, Black Panther (128), and armored Spiderman (111) for 798.
-Best Seven: Ronin, Invisible Woman, Moonstone, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, and Spiderman (111) for 801.
8-BALL!!!!: Ronin, Invisible Woman, Moonstone, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, Vet Echo, and Ironfist for 798.
-Best Nine: Ronin, Invisible Woman, Moonstone, Wolverine, Vet Echo, Ironfist, Aaron Stack, and Spidey (50) to add up to 805.

900: Gearing up for Armageddon.
-Best Four: Ironman/War Machine duo, Ares and Black Panther (128) for 900 even.
-Best Five: Hulkbuster Ironman, Quasar, Invisible Woman, and Ms. Marvel for 903.
-Best Six: Hulkbuster again, Invisible Woman, Ms. Marvel, Dr. Strange, and Wolverine for 892.
-Best Seven: Invisible Woman, Ms. Marvel, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, Ironfist, and Aaron Stack for 903.
-Best Eight: Invisible Woman, Dr. Strange, double base Cap, Ironfist, Aaron Stack, Wolverine and Spidey (78 point) for 896.
WHOLE NINE YARDS!!: Invisible Woman, Dr. Strange, double base Cap, Ironfist, Spidey (50), Ronin, Wolverine, and Moonstone for 893.

1000!!! The power of a million suns.
-Best Four: Quasar, Ironman/War Machine duo, and Thor for 986.
-Best Five: Quasar, Powerman/Ironfist duo, Ms. Marvel, and Thor for 990.
-Best Six: Invisible Woman, Hercules, Thor, Dr. Strange, and Ms. Marvel for 992.
-Best Seven: Invisible Woman, Vet She Hulk, Spidey (111), Dr. Strange, Ms. Marvel, and Wolverine for 1008.
-Best Eight: Invisible Woman, Ms. Marvel, Spidey (111), double base Cap, Moonstone, Dr. Strange, and Wolverine for 997.
-Best Nine: Invisible Woman, Ms. Marvel, dbl Cap, Moonstone, Ronin, Spidey (50), Dr. Strange, and Wolverine for 991.

You might notice that the full roster for Mighty Avengers isn't quite there. That's because their full points didn't fill enough of their hundred marks to make this list. Too much room needed to be filled with cards and such to make the next hundred. You also see a lot of more new pieces than old in my lists. That's because far too many of the older sets just can't compare to the newer ones. Defenses are far too low and they are underpowered in most cases. There are a few I still use because they just fill in points nicely and still have a sharp edge, like Echo.

So, grab up your clix and throw some teams together, it's throwdown night at your house! Keep clicking!

Gatecrasher's Technet

Back in Giant sized X-men, we saw a new keyword come into play, the Technet. Gatecrasher's Technet is a band of otherworldly mercenaries. They claim to take any job if the pay is right. Right now, all we have in heroclix to show for the Technet is Gatecrasher herself (with Yap on her shoulder). So what about the rest of the team?

Sadly, this team is very high on the incapacitate range regardless of which of their weird powers you put into play. That doesn't mean they couldn't be tweaked here and there for interesting effect, but in what ways?

I don't think we'll see a full roster for the Technet any time soon, but three or four more would be cool. I know exactly which ones I would like to see. I'll start with those five members.

1: Ferro: Ferro is a four armed master swordsman. I'm a blades/claws fan and he could do this with charge and flurry. He isn't suited for a really long dial (he has a tendency to die after his warranty expires) but he would be tactically useful.

2: Thug: He's a squat little alien with combat ability and super strength. He could have charge and close combat expert too. He can also take a hit so give him invulnerability.

3: Ringtoss: If there's one big weakness in the Technet's roster, it's ranged combat. Ringtoss can be seen in the above picture making a decidedly ranged attack. She also tosses energy rings around people to incapacitate them. Make her victims roll break away to get loose and you have a nicely tweaked incap character.

4: Scatterbrain: Also known as Fascination( above with Ringtoss in the pic). She has the ability to scramble peoples thoughts processes with a touch. Again, weak in the ranged department, but I could see here with a power that affects everyone in base contact with her. Since sh can also fly, she has great ability to move around.

5: Bodybag: This big reptile captures people and holds them in one of three sacks built into its back. Give him the ability to capture. Make the effect remove a captured figure from the table, but if Bodybag gets hit, he dumps them in base contact with a token on them.

As for the rest of the team? Well, they would take some serious thought. Most of the team is designed to capture.

Joyboy: Looks like a deformed giant floating baby. He can sense an opponents greatest desire and make it reality to distract or incapacitate. Maybe mind control in a way? Past that, just incap is all I see for the floating thing that gets it's but kicked in every book.

Chinadoll: This serpent woman can shrink her targets by touching them. Have her place a special marker on a character. Until Chinadoll is KO'd, that character's stats are all -1. That includes range. Or minus 2, or have it last until your next turn, whatever.

Waxworks: The pink alien with the tentacles. He can make peoples bodies turn all rubbery with a touch (still no good at range!). Give him a special power to screw up movement. Maybe he can cut in half for a turn or something. Past that, more incap!

Numbers: He's strong and can fight, but doesn't like to. He's the team's accountant. I don't want to see him as a click, thanks.

Paradok: A teleporter. Give him the transporter ability and let him carry people without penalty. Transporter's should have no penalty in the first place, but that logic will apparently never get through. So do it for this guy if he's made, but I doubt we'll see him.

Hawd Boiled Henwy: This is a yellow bird character who looks like Tweety on steroids with a ticking clock in his forehead. I could see an amusing factor in him. At the beginning of your turn, deal one unavoidable damage to Henwy. When Henwy is KO'd for any reason, deal 2 damage to all figures within two spaces of Henwy. You see, he's a self destructing time bomb type. Weird and silly, and gives points to your opponent, but who knows who he'll take with him.

Pandora: Little more than a biological weapon that incaps everything in sight. I don't see much use of her. She could do mass effect, but would be a one use and one trick deal.

So, there you have it, the Technet in all it's incapacitating glory. I think it's buildable as a team with the five I mentioned, but what kind of set would we see them in? I'll tell you about that next time!

By the Numbers: MODOK's 11

You can play all 11 of MODOK's team for 988 points, putting it in the thousand point bracket. It's a highly versatile team with four running shots, two chargers, a hypersonic that ignores most terrain, a mind controller that sees through stealth, an outwitter/perplexer with phasing, shape changing, super senses, impervious, some free blades/claws and a fair dose of psychic blast. The main drawback is that only three of them start with an attack value above 9. The rest start at 9, so that's a good thing. A couple even improve when hit, so that's helpful too. Their average ranged attack is six spaces, but two of them are higher than that. 11 figures in a thousand point match is also pretty good on numbers. It's not the best you can do for the points, but it's not absolute crud either. Use their collection of abilities right and you could be a real pain in your opponents kiester.

Now, how about in other point matches? What could you play in other point matches using MODOK and the MODOK's 11 theme? Here's my take. Opinions will vary, but:

300: use Mentallo and Rocket Racer with their leader in a 300 point match. Why? Because Mentallo ignores stealth and RR ignores all terrain for movement except for blocking. MODOK already gives a lot to his team with running shot and psychic blast, outwit, perplex and reroll. His psychic bomb ability is nothing to sneeze at either, but it comes late in the dial. What Mentallo can do is force pesky stealthers to step out into MODOK's line of fire for his heavy damage scores. Rocket Racer can hit them where ever they hide. Choice of map can get in the way a little, but smart players can get around this with patience. This combo hits 291 points. Thanks to the 1% rule you can fit an armor piercing on RR for extra damage ability. OH, and let's not forget the Hydra team ability possessed by Mentallo and MODOK and copyable by RR.

Hydra Team Ability: "When a friendly character making a ranged combat attack is adjacent to one or more characters using the Hydra team ability, each opposing character targeted by the attacker modifies its defense value by -1 for each character using the Hydra team ability if the characters using the Hydra team ability also have a clear line of fire to the target."

The target does not have be in the actual range of all the Hydra users, just in line of fire.

400: Same as with 300 but add Living Laser for his running shot and long range. Having ranged combat expert for doing up to 5 damage doesn't hurt either. He has the best range and highest running shot out of the whole group. The 9 attack levels are still kind of harsh, but proper use of Hydra can overcome that. This makes for 382 points with room for card usage once again.

500: Same people as above once again, but now add Scientist Supreme for her frontloaded outwit and perplex. She can only perplex someone with the scientist keyword but that's half your force at this point. Phasing mixed with outwit means getting into position to use outwit instantly. The only reason I wait until a 500 point match to use her is that she's 97 points. This comes to 479 points. Plenty of room for card usage now. This team could actually be really lethal. Mobility, traits and psychic blast damage and support powers. Ouch.

600: Still adding to the roster from above, we bring in Puma and the Spot. You may laugh at the Spot, but he's a scientist (perplexable by SS), a transporter with phasing and a decent 18 defense with super senses. Add his cute parlor trick of popping out of walls to flurry on people (after being perplexed for higher damage of course) and you have a real irritant on your hands. This also brings your force up in decent numbers for game presence and tactics. Puma is an obvious one with front loaded charge, blades/claws with super senses AND shape change. The dual protection makes him good.

700: Now I change it up. I like my magnificent sevens and this point range creates a different need in points. The varied points of the figures also create a challenge as point levels go up. You wind up having to look for the best mix for those points. So, MODOK, Mentallo, Living Laser, Armadillo, Puma, Rocket Racer, and Super Adaptoid. This is an outright assault team. It's loaded with move and attack goodness. It has the tactics of the 300 point team and plenty of damage ability. Super Adaptoid fits nicely here. He's a wild card in team abilities and able to use the powers of others. Living Laser makes a good taxi as well. Losing two on his movement still leaves him with 10 space traveling. This comes to 702 points, legal by the 1% rule.

800: Now we're back to adding to the previous roster, this time from the 700. Add Scientist Supreme for her abilities.

900: Now add Nightshade to that. Why didn't I use her a long time ago? You know, for her ability to give adjacent characters blades/claws? Because, frankly, Mentallo is better. He sees through stealth, has a one click longer dial, has mind control front loaded and psychic blast. Nightshade's ability is okay for minion teams and some close quarter issues. Her running shot is good too. I just found her to be too much of a one trick pony for the needs of the team. She just didn't fit the strategies until now. Am I undervaluing her? Maybe, maybe not. I know she could really help out a character that's been based by opponents. It just didn't fit my strategy style.

1000: And we put Chameleon and Spot in the mix. Chameleon will make an okay tie up piece now, but he also didn't fit the strategies above. He doesn't have enough attack and damage to him. All he can really do is hide and incapacitate. He shuts down alter ego abilities, but I've found those fairly rare. When I do come across them, I don't usually care.

So there you have it. I think MODOK's is best played as a higher point team, though maybe most effective in the middle ranges. I like the looks of 600 and 700 points especially. So, keep on clicking and we'll catch you on the roll next time.