Building Competitive Theme Teams:

By SHIELD001 (Originally by C-dog)
Theme #18: Psychic

Welcome to another edition of Competitive Keyword Theme Team Building, with SHIELD001. This week, we are going to deal with a Keyword that has a lot of brain power behind it, Psychic!

Theme Team Rules
A quick recap here. Keyword Theme Teams have all the characters on the force sharing a single common Keyword among the Keywords listed on their character cards. The force must consist of at least 3 or more characters with the same Keyword, and at least one character for each 100 points.
Theme Teams give you several perks:
1) You may have one use of Probability Control per game per every 3 Keyword characters you play (you must give a token to the figure using PC when doing so, and he can’t be part of the action).
2) You add +X (X = the number of Keyword people on your team) to your dice roll to choose map/go first.
3) You may ignore one Battle Field Condition during the game.


Enough talking -




Since this article is about competitive Keyword Theme Teams I will only be doing 300 point teams for the most part.

Psychic Hotline.


Team # 1 No Feats Floor Restricted 300 points
Map Bonus: +4
PC: 1

(M+M)Cassandra Nova 142
(Origin)Mister Mind 68
(M+M)Marvel Girl 40
(JL)Dream Girl 50


Double Mind Control, double your fun Dream Girl is Mister Mind's personal taxi, she also gives him Outwit. Cassandra should be able to get in range to Mind Control anyone thanks to Marvel Girl's TK. However, you should TK Cassandra next to Dream Girl so she has a little Mastermind fodder incase she can't change shape. Once Marvel Girl catches up she will be better Mastermind fodder. I Know Cassandra and Mister Mind go great with Mental Shields, I chose to use Marvel Girl to add a little Mobility to the team. That said, you can always sub her for a pair of Mental Shields and also add a Protected to Mister Mind or Nano-Bots to Cassandra.


BFC suggestions:
Restricted: Armor Wars, Damage Control, Inertial Interference Field
Unrestricted: Warzone , Bright Lights

With no damage reducers you can use Armor Wars to allow the figures you MC to deal extra damage. If you go with the Nano-Bots option use Debris instead of Damage Control. You might not want to use IIF because it will hurt the damage of figs you MC if you want to use there RS, HSS, or Charge.



Team # 2 Cuckoo for Cuckoos Floor Restricted 300* points
Map Bonus: +6
PC: 2 (though every figure on this team has PC on click 2 so I hope 8 PCs is enough )

(M+M)Cuckoo X 6 + (M+M)Warbound X 6 270



* you have several options for how to fill out the 30 points left
NOTE: according to the official rules, with a few exceptions like Warbound and ICWO, you have to have 1 copy of a feat for each figure you want to use it on, with a few exceptions. If you don’t it’s technically Proxying. Most Judges will look let it go (they might be upset if you only have 1 protected and want to use it for 8 figs but everything else should not be a problem)

A. 6 (M+M)Inside Information + 2 (M+M)Monster Hunter = 30 Mark the 2 with Monster Hunter so you can remember which 2 have it. ( I like this option the best because it can potentially let you use the Cuckoo’s Hive Mind for Damage without having to worry about their base 9 attack value hitting.)

B. 5 (DoFP)Nano Armor = 30 Mark the one without Nano Armor so you remember.

C. 3 (Armor Wars / M+M)Protected + 1 (M+M)Inside Information (on one that you gave Protecte ) = 28 (total = 298)

D. If you get the LE Cuckoo you can replace one of the regular Cuckoos (I think she has a SP that says she counts as a Cuckoo for the Cuckoo's SPs). Also give her (M+M/Armor Wars)Protected(8), (M+M)Inside Info(4), (M+M)Monster Hunter(3), and (M+M)Streak of Luck(5) = 30

E. 6 Lucky Breaks (Danger Room) = 30

F. Mix feats from the previous suggestions so you don't have to proxy.

Warbound really makes this team. You do need to be careful manuvering this team. The Cuckoo's can carry each other but they can't fly, which means they have to stop for terrain and enemy characters. When moving the Cuckoos hopscotch is the best policy. Basicaly this means you place the passengers in front. Without any powers like Shape Change or Super Senses upfront to protect them they will probably get hit before they make their first attack. This means someone needs to be the scapegoat. If you Lead with the Cuckoo's with the tokens they will be in more danger. When its time to attack you can use one Cuckoo to move 2 out of the way so the ones in back can attack. I was thinking of something like this:

C = Cuckoo
c = Cuckoo with token

cc
CC < = Cuckoo thats moving
CC

Use the middle right Cuckoo to carry the front 2 back and to the left. Give the token to bottom left Cuckoo. It should look like this when done:

>CC
cccC

Its also important to remember that Cuckoos can only add to one of their values with their SP. Its also affected by the rule of 3, so the best you can hope for is +3. So you could get +3 attack for some MC fun, but you can also add to range which might be a surprise to your opponent.

Watch out for Energy Explosion. Any opposing figure with EE should be a high priority target. THe best way to counter it is to have one Cuckoo go off by it self and base the fig with EE while the others peg it. If the fig with EE does not fly then you can carry a Cuckoo up to it.

BFC suggestions:
Restricted: Armor Wars, Damage Control, Inertial Interference Field
Unrestricted:Warzone , Bright Lights, Cross Winds




Team # 3 Keyword Team of the week restricted 300 points
Map Bonus: +5
PC: 1

:CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE:
Well this was last week's Keyword Theme Team of the week and it looks pretty balanced. I am not a fan of Saturn Girl but I have never played her. Its got a bit to much support for my taste, but there is no such thing as too much Outwit or PC. Vance and Johann are pieces that I have never used. Sometimes its fun to use figures that aren't commonly used just to try, and this team is good for that. I would recommend that you wait for one of those days where the prize is one of the older figs.




Team# 4
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This team is a bit light to me but 2 good MCers might be fun to try, plus Emma and the Prof become good attackers with Psy-blast. Marvel Girl can be used as a healing battery later in the game.



Team# 5

This team is pretty similar to Mr. Pilkington's team. It sacrifices a character to Upgrade Vance to Vet and give the team some good feats. I fell in love with Contingency Plan after using it just once, I recommend giving it a try if you haven't. Mental Shields is great for Mister Mind and you really should not use him with out it if you can avoid it (no its not the end of the world if you can't). Repulsor is an interesting choice, I have not used it but it could have its uses. Contingency Plan can off set the -1 attack, but it could be worth it anyway if you can knock someone off a building or into a wall.




General tips/strategy/reasoning:
Feel free to say "quit hitting yourself" since your opponent will be under a lot of Mind Control with these Psychic teams.


Well that’s it, thanks for reading. As always, please give me some feedback, any thoughts on how you’d make the teams better, specific examples would be great!




Next week will be Future


if you have an idea for a team you can PM it to me and I will probably add it to the article.


You just have to follow this format:

•They must be legal Keyword Theme teams for the Keyword(s) I have picked (next weeks is be Future). So all figs on the team must share a Keyword.
•The team must be 300 points or less.
•You must also tell me how you would use the team and what BFCs you would use with the team.
•Deadline is 01/11/07 (next friday).

I will of course give you credit and rep you.

Hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week.

If I had to face that 6 Cuckoo team..... I think I would throw up... and not play the game again for a while.....

I've played five cuckoos and it is rather sick. The one problem for cuckoos is Danger. She shuts the whole mess down.

Actually, I'm quite the opposite... if only because if Cuckoos are all you have, you're aching to be smacked around hard. They have low defense and shallow dials. A Young Superman can (with a light object) kill 1 per turn, and he can probably make a 5+ on a roll, no matter how much prob you have.

Personally, I like the Cuckoo team that I (and others) have tried:

4xCuckoo
UN Professor X + Monster Hunter + Coordination

Prof X hangs in back and coordinates the Cuckoos who stay in a 2x2 formation. Thanks to coordinate, he can Outwit and Cerebro the Cuckoos, so they can get +1 to one value and +3 to another with the Cuckoo support.

I love the very last team, wish I had emma Frost though...

I posted this team on the last article about psychics, I'll find the link to it.

http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showpo...0&postcount=11

i made a floor team with 3 cuckoos one had the inside infor feat mister mind and hector hammond with brilliant tactician and i WON the hole thing with them .

You don't need multiple copies of Warbound for the Cuckoo team.

Just pick one keyword and the feat applies to everyone with the keyword.

You cannot even run multiples of Warbound as it needs ONE keyword...

Yes, but if one Cukoo, the one with your SOLE Warbound feat gets ko'd there goes warbound.

i love cuckoos. seriously.

Pardon, but isn't Warbound assigned to ALL your figures with that keyword on the team? So really you only need one per Keyword... or so I thought. I could easily be wrong.

Now I will HAVE to send in a future team to see how well I can do with that one.

I ran Emma + Coordination, Inside Info, Protected, Cuckoo + Coordination, Inside Info, Cuckoo x3 and went undefeated. Just showing that you can build real theme teams without abusing keywords.

Professor Xavier
+mental shields
+nanobots
+protected
Hector Hammond
Cuckoo
Allen the Alien
+ protected
+ takedown
=396
my fav psychic team. X w/ the team preplex and mindcontrol. cuckoo with X-men ability and prob 2nd click (do the math). hector hammond for 2ndary attacker, preplex/outiwt, and tk for allen. allen for 2ndary attacker and tie up. takedown is sweet.