Love the Write Up! What a great fig for 10 points.

We played 600 point Battle Royale last week and here was my team:

Baron Zemo 90 (Emma)
Night Hawk 120 (Magik)
Boomerang 110 (Cyclops)
Jack O'Lantern 60 (Namor)
Thug x8
Phoenix Force (Colossus Attached)
Thunderbolts (Mystics)

Thugs with mystics is annoying, but giving them a 13 attack with Zemo and Night Hawk turns them into a double edged sword. I didn't end up winning but it was a fun game all around

This is EXACTLY what I thought of when I saw the sculpt and when GreenMan made his comment!

I think you might have been playing them wrong. At least I can't see any way for the Thugs to get the Sinister Syndicate TA. They can totally benefit from the ATA, but rule of three should prevent them from bumping them up to 14 attack like you mentioned.

As you can't replace values or use any of the pilot's powers with the new Hank Tanks then a Thug is pretty much the optimal pilot for these. Tank commander thugs

Pushing the Defenders to be more proactive: Nighthawk and friendly characters that share a keyword with him may replace their attack value with the unmodified attack value of an adjacent friendly character sharing that same keyword.

Yea that Thunderbolt team with Zemo and Nighthawk and truckload of Thugs totally works, but I was quoting the guy who ran them in a Sinister Syndicate team. That's where I couldn't see how he'd made it work.

Howling Commando Thugs - 14 pt models with Support.

With the ATA?

I must learn to not rely on memory.

A Howling Commando Thug would be 13 pts - 10 for the Thug, and 3 for the ATA