It's been a long time since I've seen/used anything off this team. Today I got a question for a golden age wildcard team using Sidewinder.

Now that Serpent Society refers to the ATA, instead of directly giving phasing/teleport and ATA's can only be used by theme teams: Does this mean a non-themed wildcard could no longer sit in stealth during the opponents turn and then phase away during it's owners turn?

The actual team ability is not removed , its just never been re-issued on newer figures. So a wild card figure on a non theme team could use copy the team and use the phasing/teleport ability to move away on its owners turn. I don't remember them giving stealth of any kind, but if the wild card figure had stealth it could viably do your scenario.

The stealth comes either from the figure itself or batman TA.

Thanks for the quick reply.

This is incorrect. There is no longer any team ability associated with that Serpent Society team symbol. You must have the ATA assigned to your force to get any benefit from that symbol.

Boo. When in doubt I always use the most restrictive ruling and I had a hunch this was the case anyway.

Thanks.

Doesn't that screw up the value / point cost of the figure? Are the figures errata'd with new point costs?

There are only 4 different characters with that team ability. I think there are only 2 morlocks off the top of my head, which had the same thing happen. Really I've never seen these used except to give all wildcards phasing, and only a few people even use them then. Really not much reason to go back and fix stuff no one uses anyway.

Sidewinder + Lois Lane + Alfred Pennyworth = 47 points

That is Stealth, Phasing, and IT: hindering applied team wide on a wildcard team. I'm going to let the guy run it against me (phasing taxi's are amazing), but let him know that it doesn't work in the official rules now.

Not particularly. The ATA costs 0 if you have the symbol.

Think of it like playing any number of characters who key off of another character.

It screws up the point value if you aren't playing the ATA, though.

But not necessarily moreso than any other change made after a character is released.

And that's my point about figures with some sort of symbiotic relationship.

Look at any Minion power.
"When Minion Guy is withing 4 squares of a friendly Leader Man, Minion Guy can use Willpower."
You can choose to play Minion Guy without Leader Man, but you are paying points for something which cannot be used.
This TA is {now} pretty much like that.

Warriors Three, Falcon, Brothers Grimm, Brother Royal, Multiplex, etc. All of these have effects which you pay for that you only get to use if your build follows some structure.

Right. My point was that the team ability originally did NOT require that symbiotic relationship, and now it does, making it strictly worse.

Also, Sidewinder has no keywords at all other than Serpent Society. Unless you like having Wizkids build the team for you, there is no way to actually use the printed TA anymore. Warriors Three works no matter what else is on the team, so long as the warriors are present.

Unless a Serpent Society member joins the Legion of Superheroes! (q.v. Welcome to the Legion)

There's also Femizons and Six Pack theme teams.
Circus of Crime may be a stretch though.

Just use Nightwing and Gandalf to...oh, wait.