Evil’s Minions #3: The Dangers of Support

Most players use the same old back up crew for all of their support Powers. We’ve all seen them (and used them). Paramedics for Support, Con Artists for Perplex, R Mandroid or R Jean Grey for TK, R Black Panther for Outwit, R Destiny for Probability Control, the Alfred Bystander Token to lend the Bat Ally Team Ability to another Wildcard figure, or the Alicia Masters Bystander Token for the Fantastic Four Team Ability.

There’s no denying that there’s a certain utility in using the least expensive figure that gets you the Power you’re looking for. It gives you more points to spend on your attack figures, the ones who you’re going to help out with all of those nifty supporting Powers.

However, there is a danger to using those figures, too. You can end up with too many supporting figures and too few attacking figures. If you build in too many ¡§support figures¡¨ you might find that your opponent only has to deal with one or two attackers to have essentially defeated your entire team. In today’s HeroClix, with figures like Ult Thor, KC Superman or any of the other powerhouse figures, having two attack figures and six supporting figures is asking for trouble.

So this week, I’m going to build a team that includes all of the standard supporting Powers that we all like to use, but I’m not going to use the Usual Suspects. Instead, I’m going to make sure that every figure that has a supporting Power is also an attack piece. That way you get all of the Powers, AND you’ll be able to out-attack your opponent’s team!

(pleae click on Comments below to continue...)

Weekly Poll: Shold the default point total be changed?

Step 1: Identify Powers

We’ve already mentioned the standard Powers we’re going to want on the team, Perplex, Outwit, Support, TK, and Probability Control. What else do we need? Well, Willpower will be an asset. If you’re going to have mostly attack figures instead of support figures, then being able to attack more often means more damage to your opponent. I don’t think I’m going to specifically look for figures with Willpower, but if it shows up on any of the figures I’m considering, that will be a bonus. For specific attack Powers, well, we’ll see what kind of attack Powers come along with our Perplexers and Outwitters and TKers and Prob Controlers. Defensively, as usual, I like SuperSenses and Barrier.


Step 2: Identify Figures

Perplex: Perplex is a great, if completely overused and much maligned Power. I’m not going to get into any of the debates that have raged since its introduction, and I’ll ask that you don’t either. But I WILL say that if you include a few figures with Perplex on your team, and they’re actual CHARACTERS, even hard-core anti-Perplex folks won’t gripe as much as normal.

REV Mystique, Brotherhood team 34/41/53pts: Mystique is just a GREAT Perplex figure. She’s got a solid 6 range on all three versions and a few clicks of Stealth to help hide her from enemy fire. Her Rookie starts with an 8 Attack value and 2 damage, and gets a click of Energy Explosion mid-dial. Her Exp increases to a 9 Attack up front, keeps her natural 2 damage for an extra click and gets an additional click of Perplex. The Vet really shines with a 9 Attack value and 2 damage on her first two clicks.

REV TwoFace, Batman Enemy Team, 41/51/61pts: TwoFace is one of the Arkham gang who is actually fairly well-done. He has a solid 6 range, 8 starting attack value on the R and Exp and a 9 on the Vet, and two or more clicks of natural 2 damage. TwoFace is protected on his Perplex clicks by Mastermind, allowing him to shrug off damage to an underling. The Vet really shines when his Willpower and Perplex clicks overlap and he’s still got a solid 8 attack and 2 natural damage.

V Gambit, XMen team, 51pts: Gambit’s got a 9 attack value, 2 natural damage, 6 range, an impressive 17 defense and of course, Energy Explosion. His Stealth will protect him from some attacks, and if your opponent is playing Ultimates or Bright Lights, then you’ve STILL got a 17 defense, 18 in hindering terrain.

EV Venom, no team, 67/84pts: Venom’s a great attack figure, as we discussed last week, and really shines with the Pounce feat. For a strong attacker who also sports Perplex, Venom’s a good choice. I’m going with the Exp or Vet here since they have two clicks of Perplex. That means that you can use a Pounce attack and still have Perplex on the figure after the push damage.

E Batgirl, Bat Ally team, 58pts: I know Batgirl doesn’t start with Perplex, but again, as I noted last week, she’s also a great Pounce figure, and she’ll land right on her starting Perplex click after making one Pounce attack.

REV Deadpool, no team, 65/72/85pts: Deadpool is a great attack figure, with good attack values, a double ranged attack, BCF for up close, and natural 2 damage for his whole dial. He’s also got several clicks of Regeneration if you want to use the Automatic Regeneration feat with him.

REV Rasputin, BPRD team, 68/90/111pts: Rasputin is getting a little pricey, but he has a Wildcard team ability, Psychic Blast, Stealth and Mind Control, Willpower that gives way to Toughness and natural 2 damage for most of his dial.

Outwit: The only Power that’s caused MORE grief than Perplex, Outwit is a very handy Power to have around, even in this day of White Noise, Fortitude, Darkness and Deep Shadows. Again, I won’t get into any of the Great Outwit Debates, but I will point out that there are often a lot better uses for Outwit getting rid of your opponent’s defensive Powers, especially now that different Powers are required to use different Feats.

REV Deathstroke, no team, 40/50/58pts: Deathstroke is an awesome attack figure. He doesn’t do huge damage, but with his good attack value, good range and Energy Explosion, he can be much more dangerous than your opponent will give him credit for being. Add in a few clicks of Stealth and then some Leap/Climb, and most importantly, Willpower, and you’ve got a serious threat.

REV Cable/Soldier X, XMen team, 76/96/106pts: Cable’s a pretty solid threat with his 10 attack values, natural 3 damage, and Running Shot on the Exp and Vet.

EV Blockbuster, Batman Enemy team on the Vet, 117/135pts: Blockbuster changes things up for a brute. He’s got Charge, Superstrength, 4 natural damage and Invulnerability. But he’s also got two clicks of Outwit up front and then two clicks of Probability Control. If you’re looking for an attack figure who can also bring some pain, Blockbuster’s your guy.

REV Batman, Various teams and points: Batman’s the original Outwit attack figure, and he’s still one of the best. With a new REV you can find a Batman of the right team and abilities to suit your needs.

Telekinesis: TK is one of the essential move/strike Powers in the game, however, since the TK figure isn’t usually the one making the attack, people often use the least expensive, and least effective attackers to get their TK. But in today’s tournament environment, having a capable attacker that can ALSO TK when necessary opens up your options a lot more than before. And there are certainly figures to fill the role now.

REV Johnny Alpha, 2001AD team, 41/53/64pts: Johnny is a favorite TK/attack figure, and it’s easy to see why. Solid attack value boosted even higher with his team ability, 3 natural damage, Stealth and Supersenses, Alpha’s a very efficient and dangerous figure.

RV Polaris, XMen team, 50/76pts: Polaris steps it up a notch with 4 natural damage. The Rookie has an 8 attack and 6 range, the Vet has a 9 attack and 8 range. She’s dangerous no matter what.

EV Selene, no team, 59/71pts: Selene’s got a good attack value and natural 2 damage, and a natural range of 6. She also sports MindControl. So you can either attack for damage, throw an object for damage, TK a friendly figure to make an attack or make a Mind Control attack. Those are a lot of options for 59 or 71 points.

EV Marvel Girl, Ultimate XMen team, 53/65pts: Marvel Girl is a much better figure than the old Jean Grey. She’s a flier, she’s got TK then either Energy Explosion or Pulsewave, and she’s got Ranged Combat Expert with a 6 range on the Exp or an 8 range on the Vet.

Green Lantern (Hal): Running Shot, Ranged Combat Expert, Willpower PLUS TK, and the stats to make him a real threat.

U Ultrahumanite, no team, 80pts: the Ultrahumanite is a surprising TK figure. As an attacker, he’s got a good attack value and good damage, but no range. He’s got 3 damage up front with Outwit. But best of all, he’s got a full dial of Leap/Climb, which means today that after his first click, he can use Pounce for the rest of his dial.

E Fatality, no team, 62pts: another oldie but goodie, Fatality has a nice 9 attack value, 8 range and 2 damage + RCE, in addition to her TK of course. Fatality also has two clicks of Supersenses followed by two clicks of Barrier.

Probability Control: we all know how useful it is, and we have a lot better options now than plain old Destiny.

REV Domino, none/Xmen team, 35/46/52pts: Stealth, Supersenses, a solid attack value and natural 2 damage. Domino is an inexpensive and worthwhile figure.

REV Jinx, Calculator team - 44/48/54pts: we’ve talked about Jinx before. She brings Probability Control plus Psychic Blast with aWildcard team ability.

E Doctor Fate, JSA team, 113pts: a little more expensive here, Doctor Fate can be a real asset to your team, IF you build around his weaknesses, namely, a low attack value, and low damage for his cost after his first click.

Support: If we want figures with front loaded Support that also have some sort of attack capability, the list is pretty short.

V Checkmate Medic, no team, 19pts: 8 attack, 2 natural damage, 6 range. V Checkmate Medic is one of the best inexpensive attacking medics. Even though his attack value drops to 6 on his second click, his 2 damage up front means that not only can you carry him along for a strong secondary attack, but you’re also in good shape if someone plays the War Zone Battlefield Condition, which only allows figures with Support to heal their base damage.

V Easy Company Medic, Police team, 19pts: 8 attack on the first two clicks, 1 damage, 4 range. The V Easy Co Medic is slightly less effective as an attacker even with his more consistent attack value. But he can provide a nice back up attack that your opponent isn’t really expecting.

U Xorn, XMen Team, 94 points: In really high point games, you may want to try out Xorn as a serious attack figure who ALSO has front loaded support. And yes, he does fit the theme of this week’s team, but still, 94 points is a LOT and his dial drops of VERY fast.

Hmm. Not a lot of healers who know how to throw a good punch, it seems.

Step 3: Integration

Well, the above list of figures has a lot of good attack options in it. And all of the figures were selected specifically because they could fill double rolls, ie, attacking AND using their support Powers. That doesn’t help us narrow down the list much.

So let’s start by looking at common building requirements. We’re going to want to be able to pierce Invulnerability/Impervious characters. We’re going to want to be able to prevent/avoid taking big damage from your opponent. We’re going to want mobile pieces, with Powers like Running Shot, Charge or Pounce. And if available, we’ll try to throw in an unexpected attack option, like Mind Control or Force Blast or Poison or Quake or Psychic Blast.

Also, I’m going to try to fit on two of each of my target Powers in case one figure gets taken out quickly.

E Venom 67 pts + Pounce = 82pts: I still like Venom because of his great Mobility and his ability to do really big damage with a heavy object.
E Mystique, Brotherhood team, 43 pts: Mystique is a good mid-point ranged attack figure with three clicks of Perplex.
=125 pts

So we’ve got a close combat and a ranged combat Perplexer, and one of them has a move/attack Power/Feat. Now let’s put on a Probability Controler.

E Domino, XMen team, 46pts: another solid ranged attacker. She’s got several clicks of Prob Control, so even if she gets hit and misses her SuperSenses, she’ll still have her Power.

I think I’ll stick with just the one Prob Controller here. Jinx is cool and brings Psychic Blast, but we used her on my first team and we can give some other figures a try, right?

So let’s put on an Outwit figure. I like Ultrahumanite for that role. For this team, he’s got some really good aspects. First of all, he’s got both TK and Outwit. Second of all, I’m liking that full dial of Leap/Climb coupled with a Pounce card. Monky-man is in.

So that gives us:
E Venom 67 + Pounce = 82pts
E Mystique 43pts
E Domino 46pts
U Ultrahumanite + Pounce = 95pts
= 266pts

That’s a little expensive, but it’s a solid team so far. Let’s put on another Outwitter and see what we get.
Since we’re watching points and we may not be able to optimize our action/figure ratio with only 134 points lefts, lets go for a mid point Outwitter. Deathstroke fits the bill nicely and his Willpower should be a real asset.

E Deathstroke, no team, 50pts: Stealth then Leap/Climb, Willpower, Outwit and Energy Explosion
Total Build = 316

We’ve got 84 points left. Let’s put in the medic to make sure we can fit him in.

V Easy Co Medic, Police team, 19pts: I’m choosing the Easy Co Medic even though he does less damage than the Checkmate medic because his attack value is much more stable.

So that makes our team:
E Venom 67 + Pounce = 82pts
E Mystique 43pts
E Domino 46pts
U Ultrahumanite + Pounce = 95pts
E Deathstroke 50pts
V Easy Co Medic 19pts
= 335 pts

With the remaining 65 points, we’ve got a few options. We can put in another Probability Controller, we could put in another TK figure. But whoever we put in, we should use this opportunity to put in one of the non-standard Powers that we mentioned, like MindControl, Psychic Blast, Poison or Quake.

I also see that we don’t have a flyer yet. We don’t necessarily need one, but we also have a few figures without good mobility Powers (Mystique, Domino and Deathstroke). So I’m thinking that another TK figure would be good, and I see on our list we have a TK figure who’s also got MindControl.

E Selene, no team, 59pts: TK and Mindcontrol

That brings the total build to 394 pts. For the remaining 6 points, I look at upgrading one of my figures first, but that doesn’t really work here. All of the figure upgrades would take more than 6 points. Next I’ll look at Feats.

Most are too expensive, but I do see the Passenger feat for 5 points. I could add that to several figures on my team, and since I don’t have a flyer, that might really help my mobility.

I could add Passenger to either Venom or the Ultrahumanite, but they’re likely to be making Pounce attacks deep into their dial. I could add it to Selene. She gets Phasing on her last two clicks. But that doesn’t seem too likely. I think I’ll put it on Deathstroke. He’s got Leap/Climb for the second half of his dial. So if he gets hit, he can evac to the medic and bring someone along with him.

So the final team is:
So that makes our team:
E Venom 67 + Pounce = 82pts
E Mystique 43pts
E Domino 46pts
U Ultrahumanite + Pounce = 95pts
E Deathstroke 50pts + Passenger = 55pts
V Easy Co Medic 19pts
E Selene, no team, 59pts: TK and Mindcontrol
=399pts

Well, we didn’t get two Probability Controllers, and we ended up with only seven figures, which is one or two fewer than I would usually like for a 400 point team. However, we do have Deathstroke, with Willpower, and every figure on the board is an attack figure. So we should be okay on actions.

As for Powers, we’ve got 2 Perplexes, 2 Outwits, 2 TK figures and 1 Probability Control and Support. We’ve also got 2 Pounce figures who can do big damage. We’ve got Supersenses and Stealth and Willpower. And the Powers are well represented on figures who can use them well. So I think we’re good on Powers.

It’s a little worrisome that I don’t have any flyers, but I do have two TK figures and two Pounce figures and the Passenger feat. So theoretically, that should work out okay.

Step 4: Playing the team

Move out Ultrahumanite, Deathstroke, Mystique and Domino into sniping positions. Make sure that Domino and Mystique both have line of sight to the rest of the team so they can use their Perplex and Prob Control. Next turn, move Selene and Venom toward any opposing figures who have come out into range, and see if you can get off a ranged attack with Deathstroke. Move the Easy Co Medic up next to Domino or Mystique so that he can lend his Police Team to their attack values.

Use Ultrahumanite and Venom to make strong Pounce attacks against the same opposing figures to quickly eliminate them from the game, and use your snipers to soften up your opponent’s other figures. Use Selene to MindControl your opponent’s toughest figure and use it to wipe out his own supporting cast, which will probably be pretty weak.

Your strength with this team is the redundancy of Powers (2 Perplex, 2 Outwit, 2 TK, 2 Pounce) and that fact that everyone, even the Medic, is a threat. So even if your opponent takes out, say Venom, you've still got 6 other attacker figures, which should give you the edge to out-attack and out-damage your opponents team, round after round.

Intriguing ideas. I made teams like this (all attack figures), but never with the build in support as the theme. Im definitely going to try it.

The main advantage of low support figs is that its hard for the opponent to waste time attacking them. Many times I run R Destiny out as bait. Sure the opponent can toast her with Ultimate Thor but then I get to hammer on Thor. Many times the first player to get the first big hit on the others main attack piece wins the game.

Blood

Yeah , Support pieces who attack.
I love using 4-Eyes b/c people don't expect his 6 range and decent attack.

I've had 4-Eyes put the finishing blow on Despero, Captain America, and Sabertooth.

Hadn't fully digested the article yet, but what a great idea about using Pounce with Ultra-Humanite. Splendid game plan for him mid-dial since he gets Super Strength.

That team is just begging for an earthquake.

A couple other characters that may fit well into this type of team are V Kid Flash and V Blink. Kid Flash has 12 movement, HSS, 9 AV and perplex on his first click. Blink has Supersenses, AV of 9, and 3 natural damage on her first 2 clicks, with TK and phasing on her first 4. Pair these two together and you have two attack pieces, perplex, TK, and the ability to attack almost anywhere on the board. Also, Blink can pick up Passenger to carry Kid Flash out of trouble or to position him in a good spot to use a key perplex, without him taking an action token

Great Idea! I wonder why hardly anybody uses Ultrahumanite.

Another idea for Support would be V Beast (XP). True he gets it at the end of his dial, but between the X-men TA and the fact that he gets L/C after charge (allowing him to Pounce), it is relatively easy to get him on his Support clix. Also factor in that Perplex at the top of his dial and he is one of my favorite secondary attackers/support pieces.

hmm... with that last 65 points, I probably would have used V Marvel girl to get a second TKer, as well as a flier.

How can you have the greatest Outwiter in the Game not on the list !!!!

Abby Chase !!!

Danger Girl with Super Sences ?? Energy Explosion !!! 2 natural Damage, I pick over Deathstroke every day of the week !!!! Plus the Vet has a 8 range, which suprises people alot with Energy explosion...

And she's much cuter that the Stoke dude. :-)

We need attack pieces for this type of team, and unfortunately, Abbey Chase's 8 attack just doesn't cut it in my book.

Don't get me wrong, I love the figure - but she's not an attack piece (until your opponent's figures are down to a 13-15 defense).

Which isn't too hard to do, considering the other figures.

Also, I use the V Batgirl over the E anyday of the weak. That late-dial outwit is spectacular. Of course, I know her dial well enough to get her on it and still be in stealth after pouncing for a finishing blow on a figure.

Sure, her perplex is 2 clicks in as opposed to the 1 on the E, but if she pushes to pounce, she's right on it. Time it right to kill a figure and land her in a stealthed position, and she can support her friends with that perplex.

Mr terrific could have been used, the exp has 9 atk 2 targets with incapasitate (man my spelling sucks) 2 dmg, and outwit and willpower, though the outwit becomes PC after 2 clicks. (plus you could through stunning blow on him so he can do dmg when he incaps someone)

also you could have given some of your TKer/super strength ppl large object for 3 points each.

raven could have been used too shes got PC and gets support plus regen and 8 range with 2 dmg (dont remember how fast it goes down) though she might only have an 8 atk, (cant remember)

but I like your idea/suggestions for the rest of the figs

I want to add Blink into the capable attacker with TK section. EV/LE all have Super Senses, 9 attack, and 2 damage, IIRC. Also 6 range and two targets, late dial EE, phasing with big movement, pink skin, how can you not love this figure?

In an unrestricted game, Vet Doc Ock rules!!!

10 move l/c
11 attack (ss after a hit or two)
17 def (wp!)
2 dam (perplex)

this little beastie has caused much grief for my opponents.

all this for 66 points, not including the wonders of "pounce"!!