So I'm very excited to have finally gotten my hands on DP18-001 Starro and his Justice League Minions, but I'm kind of struggling with what the best way to play him might be. It seems like his 200 point starting line might be the way to go and throw on Green Lantern Minion at 50 points and Superman Minion at 100 points. Then add a couple of lower point support pieces for some Perplex and Prob Control. But I'd love to hear what other folks would suggest. What starting line for Starro do you recommend? What Minions do you think are best to play and at what starting line for them? Are there any other pieces that mesh well with Starro and his crew?

I have had success with

100 Starro
75 Lockjaw
80 Starfox Chase
20 AI Groot.

The team does mesh well together. You have picked out the best of the minions IMO.

The Big Fish's (I know, it's an echinoderm, but Big Fish sounds cooler than Big Echinoderm.... ) 100-pt dial is IMO just too darned efficient to go with any other dial. The 100-pt dial also feels more like the character: the titles I've read w/ Starro rarely see it resort to physicality, it almost always used mental powers.

I had good luck (and a lot of fun!) with this build:

100 WKDP18-001R Starro
125 WKDP18-003 Superman (Starro's Minion)
75 WKDP18-004R Wonder Woman (Starro's Minion)
50 WKDP18-002R Batman (Starro's Minion)
50 WKDP18-005R Green Lantern (Starro's Minion)
Total = 400

Generate Starrophytes immediately for Batman and Superman to carry forward, while GL carries WW. Use Bats and WW to block LoF to GL and Supes, since the TK + Charge/Flurry will go a long way to determining if the Fish Squad will win. Keep pushing forward and carry Starrophytes to get them adjacent to opposing figs that Starro can Mind Control from across the map, and watch chaos and panic ensue...

One HUGE lack this team has is Probability Control, so include prob-ers as soon as the build allows. SWBW main set Nico is good, as is BtAS common Joker, Title Batgirl, and the other usual suspects.

Thanks for the replies, y'all! Bat-Phreak, would you drop Superman to 100 and add a 25 point Prob Control piece?

That's not a bad idea, but it depends on how confident you feel about your dice. 125-pt Supes has an 11-AV and 2 x more clicks of life while 100-pt dial only has a 10-AV; that +1 to AV can be huge. You are also starting to run out of Actions, and with only Supes and GL having your mobility is nothing to write home about.

YMMV, but I would tend to take Supes @ top-dial.

Thanks again, Bat-Phreak! What do you think of dropping Wonder Woman for a piece with Prob Control and still a pretty good dial? Or is it simply worth enough to have another Starro Minion on the map?

I was thinking about maybe one of these:

75 FFDFX006 Domino
75 BTAS041 Robin
75 JW003b Anarky
50 SWB039 Red Wolf
50 HQ053 Zatanna

WW @ 75-pts I would use primarily for board-control with Plasticity, can help protect the other Minions from HSS and Charge w/ . Plus, to me it's more thematic to only field Minions + The Big Fish, but having a PC fig makes the team MUCH more effective.

EDIT: in fact, if you do not want to keep a pure Starro Minion team, use one of the TK+PC figs below in place of Green Lantern. Of all the Minions, Superman is the main attacker, you can bring in more cost-effective pieces.

HQ Harley is awesome, cuz you get the Rabbit, too! If you use FF Domino, I would go w/ the 25-pt dial and bring Zatanna, Constantine AND Domino!

If you want PC, some of my favourites are:

Stealth + Sidestep is nice, and the ability to use IT:Hindering for PsyBlast is nice. The 18-Defend can be very helpful, too.


Sidestep + TK + PC + Perplex + BATS is wicked-good. The Bats can also carry the Starrophytes, although with a 2-Speed the Bat is not going very far.... Still a very good piece.


Stealth + TK + situational Sidestep is very good for the points.

Those are some great choices! And I happen to have all of those pieces! Thanks for the tips! I hope I get to play one of these teams soon.

I'm looking at running the following today (300 point match):

100 WKDP18-001R Starro
100 WKDP18-003E Superman (Starro's Minion)
50 WKDP18-005R Green Lantern (Starro's Minion)
50 BTAS061e Zatanna

The idea being you get the much needed Prob Control with Zatanna and she gets a Perplex to boot! Not to mention, her special Justice League Unlimited trait could be quite helpful too. Additionally, she can also land a hit in a pinch. Lastly, her Mystics TA might come in handy too.

The alternative would be:

100 WKDP18-001R Starro
125 WKDP18-003 Superman (Starro's Minion)
50 WKDP18-005R Green Lantern (Starro's Minion)
25 JW029 Vicki Vale

Here, we've maxed out Superman and still get a Prob Control with Vicki. Her The World Needs to Know: Your Comment trait is useful if you want to get her out in the thick of things (I don't know that I do). But she's pretty useless in combat and really, other than her Prob Control, doesn't offer much in my eyes.

Thoughts?

I would lean toward Option #1

100 WKDP18-001R Starro
100 WKDP18-003E Superman (Starro's Minion)
50 WKDP18-005R Green Lantern (Starro's Minion)
50 BTAS061e Zatanna

I would love to use Z at her 75-pt line (the Bats work great as a Starrophyte delivery system!) but at 300-pts I like having GL as a 4th figure even better.

If you want to go with Supes on his top dial, I would replace Vicki with FF Domino on her 25-pt line; hard to find a more efficient PC character for the points....

Thanks for the tip, Bat-Phreak. And I would TOTALLY use Domino for 25, but I neglected to mention that we've placed DC-only parameters on the match.

Another option for DC PC, but not Perplex is Nightshade.

TRAVEL THE LAND OF NIGHTSHADES is dependent upon the map, but if Hindering terrain is available you can place Starro adjacent to Nightshade so Starro's "leading edge" is 7-squares from where it began. Combine with Sidestep, and that gives the Big Fish a 19-square swing with Mind Control. Can be a very cool/nasty surprise for your opponent....