Clayface is the stretch-limo of lock-down pieces, with virtually everything you need to be a total pain in the arse to anybody but a Giant. The only real question is "how many Outwits does your opponent have" to either block his Poison or make an attempt to kill him. With two 2/3 gates to pass through on the opening 2 clicks, an opponent with an average 10 attack still faces daunting odds when attacking him, and there aren't many ways to simply remove him in one shot. The downside is, his Poison is somewhat unreliable and more so if your target is a big one. He's best deployed against soft targets, speedsters and anyone whose mobility is a problem for your team.

The UC definitely needs a taxi to get him around and into close combat. He's just not nimble enough on his own and won't make much of an impact, especially considering how unreliable his poison is.

Man-Thing (with his 1,2 or 3 damage poison) and a 8 square teleport is my taxi of choice. If you don't mind breaking theme, Clayface with Big Barda is kind of hilarious, jumping in for a Barda psyblast and sticking UC into close combat with an unfortunate group of the opposing.

It's beautiful to see this Clayface eating alive spidermans.

So I was playing against this guy about a month ago and the judge made the call that when you do your close combat attack and his suction "succeeds" then as your action ends you do NOT do any damage to clayface. I disagreed but I always go with the judges rulings during an event without fuss (cause I have been on the other end of that)...but now I am curious, do you folks think that that is how the power works?

@leermo2

Your judge was wrong. It states, after the "attack resolves", which includes damage dealt as well. I myself asked this sorta question a few weeks ago. The Suction trait's main use is for HSS speedsters, for when they try to hit and run. If they roll a 1-3, they're stuck there after the attack. So Flash HSS next to CLayface; Flash hits him, Clayface rolls his Imperv. and fails. Takes 1 damage. Flash now must roll for Suction; rolls a 3. fails, so he's stuck next to CLayface. Makes sense?

Yep, thanks for that. It's what I figured, but I would rather lose a match than be labeled a troublemaker. I will bring it up politely at a later time though so that others don't play it that way.

With the new PAC is Suction now a worthless trait? Due to the change to Plasticity....

Nope, it will still be useful. Charge, for instance, still allows for a close combat action (note that unlike HSS, the free action is given when the movement ends, not while still moving). Plasticity won't prevent that.

Its still very useful as plasticity can be ignored by certain characters and outwitted. It also stop flurry or double close combat attacks. Once the attack resolves not the action. Ur opponent may be forced to outwit another power with plasticity being more useful so they can attack another of your characters.

I've ragged on him in the past, but GOOD LORD he does a fine job of screwing over team bases!!!

How does that work? I find his short movement very... "challenging" when using him...

Pretty high point/cost though for a 300-pt Arkham Asylum team... Can't fit the Joker and Harley in there... :(

The Poison is pretty good though, opponents seem to find it necessary to Outwit it.

At 130 points he doesn't hit very hard but he KILLS Hypersonic/Imperv bricks with that Suction/Burning Touch combo. They come in close and then get stuck and take penetrating poison which usually knocks them off the HSS. A very good (but expensive) tie-up piece.

Hypersonic/Imperv bricks usually have at least 2 range (or belt, +2 stats) to perform a ranged attack on him that ignores his abilities.

Moreover, his suction power is kinda useless vs Hypersonic Speed, since he already has an un-ignorable plasticity that completely shutdowns any close-combat HSS attack BEFORE making the attack and without needing to roll for 1-3 afterwards.

This is not so good for that much cost...

if his speed power gets outwitted he has his Trait for back up. I've seen ppl plenty of times outwit my clayface movement and superman try to smack up with hyper sonic (sometimes impervious will kick in) or a Quick Silver(chaos war set) with flurry hypersonic.

One of my favorite Bat Villians! I love this guy the trait is pretty cool to go with the new plasticity rules thats 2 times they would have to roll to get away from this guy. The Shapechange/Impervious combo is pretty cool as well 2 possibilities to avoid damage is always welcome. You would need multiple outwits to deal with this guy unless of course you just keep blasting him from range! lol. He and ASM Man-Thing have the coolest poison specials in my opinion just to have a chance to deal penetrating when he is most likely going to be fighting brawlers with damage reducers anyways. My complaint is that he could've had one more click with invulnerability. I wish Mud Pack wasn't a dead keyword. :{