DEEP DISH THEMES:
By The Slice:

ORIGIN: During his first few years as Green Arrow, Oliver Queens heroic reputation found itself capturing the attention of another experienced bowman known as Arthur King, who was also taking up the stage name called Merlyn the Magician. Openly challenging Green Arrow to an archery duel, Merlyn found himself shocked when Green Arrow bested Arthur in the match. This was also a loss where Arthur couldn’t accept properly and was never seen again by the public after the match. But Arthur’s experiences with the bow took another turn when using his skills as a hired assassin, also sharpening his skills to be the greatest assassin and if he ever came across the Green Arrow again. By the time his reputation grew, Arthur took on the assassin name of his former alias, Merlyn and later found himself recruited into the League of Assassins. It would also be noted that during his time with the League, Merlyn was one of Cassandra Cain's tutors who taught her the art of of archery under strict conditions.



PROS: This is perhaps one of the best snipers that the game has ever seen or will ever see again. For the majority of his dial, he's just an average character, but when you look at his range value (An INSANE 10 RANGE) and combine it with his Ranged Combat Expert on clicks one and two, you have a piece that is hitting far above his weight class. A ten range these days is practically unheard of. Even Godlike characters rarely get it. Now factor in that he has Stealth on those same clicks that he has Ranged Combat Expert, and you can park him on some hindering terrain and see a good portion of the map for cover fire. Sure, Stealth isn't the stress-inducing power that it once was. There are a LOT of ways to bust it these days...Ranged Combat Expert is even better than it once was, though, so all in all, this is a figure that has aged VERY well as he needed to concede certain uses over time, but he's picked up new tricks as well. After those first two clicks he gains Penetrating/Psychic Blast, Leap/Climb, and a special power that allows him to perplex himself, but he can only use it on Attack, Damage, or Range. He remains an effective attacker for pretty much his entire bargain of a dial.

CONS: If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times...what a suck of a team ability Injustice League is...why has this NEVER been changed?! I wonder what his point cost would have been without it, because in times past it always seemed to inflate a character's point value by at least a decent amount. It's really about the only blemish on an otherwise awesome dial. He could have a little better stats overall on his dial, but again, he is an not an enhanced human. He's just a regular guy with some serious skills like the Green Arrow himself. His stats COULD be better, but overall, I'm happy with what we have and know that they could also be a LOT worse.

Other Players' Comments/Reviews: Using the Inline dial system, just click on the word bubble next to the character's name and it will take you to the units section comments!

KEYWORD THEMES: (Named Keywords are in bold)

League of Assassins: I'm going to try to restrain myself on this one. I kept it to ONLY 700 points for this theme team. I so love generics (As many of you know and many of you are finding out with my new article series Hordes for the Holidays) and my ability to play a team that features them and keep it in control are largely at odds. I'd add many more generics given the opportunity to expand the point total, but for this theme, we'll keep it where it's at. Given Merlyn's amazing range and potential for damage already, I would totally make David Cain Merlyn's mentor so he could use Enhancement and Perplex on the already existing Ranged Combat Expert. Merlyn could have as much as a 13 attack or as much as a five damage from that MASSIVE 10 range that he has. The rest of the team is a who's who of the League of Assassins. I sure hope we get a new Ra's Al Ghul in the Joker's Wild set, though...I'm tired of using old ones since the newer ones they've made don't fit my idea of what he should be...

Force Build 8744138 0
Set	#	Name	Team	Pts	Value
IO	049	Ra's al-Ghul		79	$2.99
JL	019	Merlyn		55	$0.63
SOG	039	Lady Shiva		67	$5.99
SOG	038	David Cain		76	$6.48
TT	204	Red Hood		107	$3.14
JL	032	Bronze Tiger		60	$0.83
BB	026	The Sensei		70	$0.50
BA	018	Talia		20	$5.98
DKR	002	Shadow Assassin		35	$3.50
DKR	002	Shadow Assassin		35	$3.50
BB	011	League Elite		33	$1.25
BB	011	League Elite		33	$1.25
BB	004	League Assassin		22	$1.25
Force Total:				692	$37.29

NON-KEYWORD THEMES:

Injustice League
Killer Elite
Legion of Doom
Leviathan
Secret Society of Super-Villains
Seven Men of Death
The 1,000

DEEP DISH DO-IT-YOURSELF:

In this section, I share with you my own homemade dials for these poor characters that have only ever had one or two versions of themselves realized. I'll try not to get too fanboyish with them, but I'm not making any promises! I also invite any of you who like to make fan dials to please share your versions of these characters as well by using the DIAL GENERATOR in the units section on HCRealms.

#045 Limited Edition Merlyn
Real Name: Arthur King
Team: Calculator
Range: 7
Points: 75
Keywords: Assassin, Injustice League, League of Assassins, Legion of Doom, Secret Society of Super-Villains

8 11 17 3

8 10 18 3

7 10 17 2

7 9 16 2

8 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Targeting: : Ignores Hindering Terrain, Ignores Characters
Seven Men of Death: Merlyn can use Stealth. If Merlyn made an attack this turn, after actions resolve, you may remove one action token from him if he KO'd one or more characters
League of Assassins training: Give Merlyn a Free Action. He may choose to use either Combat Reflexes or Energy Shield/Deflection. He may use the chosen power until he chooses again or until this power is lost.

This wraps it up for this installment of Deep Dish Themes: By the Slice. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to read it and thank you to for nominating this character! Feel free to post what you think about the article and just like regular Deep Dish Themes, feel free to nominate a character for an upcoming edition of Deep Dish Themes: By the Slice! Join me on 10/19 when I plant a little ear-worm in your head...or is that a real worm?! It's Deep Dish Themes: By the Slice: MR. MIND!

A must for League of Assassins teams and a strong contender for any "Archer" team or generic villain team.

Pair him with David Cain and it os just obscene.

Yup.
This is the LoA team I played a few months back




and the LoA ATA for everyone
So the Cain family reunion + Merlyn
On the Daily Planet they rolled through ant opposition (luckly I did loose an initative roll through the tournament).

He so needs a new fig!

"My bow shoots farther than your Kryptonian heat vision. Nyah nyah!"

Would love a Malcom Merlyn figure from Arrow!