Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting edition of REPLAY VALUE, where we look at a character and examine their theme team options, how they contribute to those theme teams, and how those teams did when put into play.

Recently, the guys and I struck up a conversation about our early days in HeroClix. We all fondly reminisced on the pieces that we played over and over again in an effort to get into the game. Some gravitated to favorite characters. Others used good dials to help themselves win games. Afterwards I realized that this would be a great kick off for this edition of Replay Value, where I'll talk about one of my old crutch pieces from the Secret Invasion days, Dr. Strange.










Dr. Strange has four great named keywords to pick from: Avengers, Defenders, Illuminati and Midnight Sons. These keywords let the good doctor play with a nice variety of characters from the Marvel Universe, and I'll do my best to show you some of those options in the teams that follow.


One of my go to teams for this Dr. Strange was always the Avengers.

149 SI033 Dr. Strange
70 SI004 Iron Fist
77 SI041 Spider-Girl
92 AV024 Black Panther
50 SI001 Spider-Man
64 AV056 Hawkeye w/ Thunderbolts
94 SN090 Wolverine
596




One of my favorite things about this Dr. Strange was his team ability. And when Secret Invasion came out there was no shortage of Avenger wildcards, so I decided that it might be fun to play them all together and see what kind of combinations I could come up with. One of my favorites of that era saw me play with as many wildcards as I could, pairing them up with the Super Rare Hawkeye from Avengers for some wildcard/Thunderbolt shenanigans. There are tons of ways you could play this team differently today, but here I have highlighted a team using only pieces available when Dr. Strange was new. The versatility of Thunderbolts lets you play this team any number of ways: from Stealth busting to Mystics, it can do it all. And I added a Wolverine into the mix for some great healing options and to round out the points. (How have they never made a wildcard Wolverine?!)



My second team for Dr. Strange has him leading a small group of heroes, trying their best to protect the Earth as its Defenders.

149 SI033 Dr. Strange
200 FFGGA002 Silver Surfer
128 GG207 Hulk
100 GG203 Namor
16 ATA084 Defenders x4
593






I typically wouldn't play this few characters on a team this large, but for this group it just feels right. One of the drawbacks of this team is that none of them have the actual Defenders Team Ability. But that is where Dr. Strange comes in, sporting the second of his features that I love so much: the top dial 18 defense with Defend. Many, many teams got played huddled around this guy, benefiting immensely by that great shared defense. And when I was putting this team together, I figured since the team will be using Dr. Strange's defense boost, they might as well also use his great 11 Attack Value as well, something that is facilitated by the Defenders ATA. Silver Surfer benefits greatly from the boost, as does the Hulk if you can position well enough to use it. And keep in mind that Hulk and Dr. Strange are both wildcards, so if the opportunity comes up to borrow and heal using Namor's X-Men TA, use it. You've only got four guys on the team. Keeping them at their healthiest will be important.



For my third team I brought back another classic from back in the day, Illuminati.

149 SI033 Dr. Strange
150 SI045 Namor
100 SI101 Mr. Fantastic
125 M10A009E Iron Man
150 FFGOTG001 Black Bolt
123 GX036 Professor X
797





This team really breaks the bank when it comes to point value. But when you're building a team around some of Marvel's best, brightest and most powerful characters, you really shouldn't scrimp. I really like the mix of old and new characters that this team allows you to play. You have the classic Secret Invasion trio of Dr. Strange, Namor and Mr. Fantastic, of which the latter two dials are still the benchmarks for those characters in my eyes. Then you have the unquestionably great GSX Professor X and incomparable Marvel 10th Anniversary Iron Man. And then you round out the team with the newest of the bunch, Black Bolt, whose Running Shot/Precision Strike combo will be most welcome.

What this team really has going for it is heaps and heaps of Perplex. Not the least of which is Dr. Strange's third amazing attribute. His special Perplex power that allows you to modify values up or down by 2 will be immeasurably helpful. He and the rest of these brainiacs will not let you down.



The last team of the month was by far the spookiest of the bunch: The Midnight Sons!

149 SI033 Dr. Strange
133 ASM028 Morbius
145 ASM046 Ghost Rider
113 ASM009 Daimon Hellstrom
85 ASM004 Blade
107 ASM013B Hannibal King
55 ASM013A Frank Drake
81 ASM015 Werewolf By Night
77 ASM035 Jennifer Kale
14 CT107 Rachel Van Helsing
40 ATA088 Midnight Sons x10
999

This was a team that, at the time of his release, was pretty much impossible to play in a satisfactory way. All you had to use were various versions of Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider and Blade. With an odd Rachel van Helsing thrown in for kicks. But that all changed when the (amazing) Amazing Spider-Man set came out. All of a sudden there were great new options to make this team work. And the variety of figures made the team playable at a wide variety of point costs. As you can see, I opted for the deluxe model when I put this together.

Another thing this team uses that wasn't available when Dr. Strange was new is the Midnight Sons ATA. This will keep lines of fire from being drawn to just under half of this team, while giving stealth to the rest of them. And with this many characters on the team, Dr. Strange will get a lot of mileage out of his last, and possibly best, trick. You see, the good doctor here is basically the grand daddy of Improved Targetting. He ignores the effects of Hindering Terrain and Characters when drawing lines of fire. So feel free to rush your opponents with the rest of these monsters. Dr. Strange will have no trouble using his deep 10 Range even while the Midnight Sons are out in front battling the forces of evil.




Lessons Learned

I've been playing this figure for years. He is honestly one of the most reused pieces in my collection. He has all sorts of tricks. The Team Ability, Defend, Perplex and the Trait are just the pieces to the puzzle. When you play him and you realize the kinds of options he has, you may still find yourself surprised by what he can do. One of my favorite moments with him came during a game where I had decided it prudent to push off his amazing top dial. I was hesitant to do so, knowing what I'd lose. But then I looked at his second click and realized all that I'd gained. I found myself in a perfect position to use his second click Outwit to counter the defense of a GSX Professor X who was huddled among a group of Web of Spider-Man Researchers. One Outwit and a well placed Energy Explosion attack later and I was one step closer to winning that game. Dr. Strange continues to amaze.

Does Dr. Strange have Replay Value?

Undoubtedly. Sure, maybe he's not quite as impressive as he once was. There are lots of pieces that can do what he does these days. But sometimes its nice to take a classic out for a spin. And with the wide variety of options that this piece has under his hood, you won't be sorry that you did.


So that wraps up this week's Replay Value. We’ll see you next time when TheRunningShot checks back in to let you know if our next character has great replay value!

I used this guy once and he was MVP. For some reason I always go for GotG rare Dr Strange. Even though he constantly fails me. I'm not very smart. I should cut the 40 points use this guy and throw Wong in as backup.

Players at my venue got tired of my constant use of him back when he first came out. He was the power source to the connon with PD, Enhancement, and SHIELD all around him.

I remember playing him in a mystical team with a wall of mindless ones in front of him, in a larger game I also included the Inbetweener. Ah, good times. Good article, thanks.

One of my all time favorite pieces and my favorite from that set. The sculpt is so awesome. Still use him often and he's still my go-to Strange.

As alluded in the article, I feel Secret Invasion set the benchmark for many characters, few of which have been bettered. With the current FF "embargo" by Marvel and therefore WK/NECA, it will probably be a lllooooonnnngggg time before FF figs than from SI.

I like to also include GF GG Dr Strange as a sort of mystical helper; Strange created a simulacra or somesuch. ESD + Perplex makes for a nice boost to the Main-Strange.

Dr. Strange + Brilliant Tactician was an unstoppable combo back in the days of feat cards. Would hold up quite well in a golden age game.

love this click, seeing him and Clea out fighting together when they first came out brought my comics to life

Back in the day, I managed to surprise my opponents by pairing CM#095 Hulk with the aforementioned Dr. Strange and starter set Mr. Fantastic. My main strategy was to have Strange taxi the big guy around and use his top dial Defend to shore up Hulk's less-than-stellar defense values while Hulk served as the good doctor's bodyguard should a cagey opponent manage to get within close combat range.

What really took my opponents by surprise was Mr. Fantastic's ability to double perplex Hulk due to both of them having the scientist keyword. (This fact also makes Hulk a good piece to pair with Giant-Size X-Men Professor X.)

Aside from the lackluster defense numbers, one other downside to this Hulk is that he doesn't qualify for an ATA on his own due to his only named keyword being Pantheon (a keyword that NO other figure in the game currently possesses) and the fact that there is no ATA for Hulk's only other keyword: scientist.

He still made for a fun team up that I hope to try again the next time my venue decides to run a Golden Age scenario.

Members of a generic theme team can use any ATA they like, the same as a named theme team. The ATA doesn't have to correspond to the keyword of the theme team.

While I agree there are other newer figures capable of doing what he does, the reason I Keep going back to figures like him, HoT Ultron, and GSX Storm is range. Newer figures may have the same goodies, but sacrifice the golden era long ranges.

A very valid point. And in Dr. Strange's case, it is a 10 range that is almost completely unencumbered.