Ever face a figure or team you can't seem to take down? Then this is the series for you. We take a deeper look into those problematic pieces and Exploit their Weaknesses! In this edition, we take a look at a figure that is making its second appearance and not only brings the fun factor back but can also hold its own in many ways!

Click "Full Story" below as we analyze this awesome figure and Exploit its Weaknesses

Thanks for joining me in another installment of Exploiting Weaknesses! As with the other articles' precursors, Pulse Wave will not be discussed as it is almost always effective. If it isn't effective, I will point out why.

Here is the dial for reference,



Things that tell me I may need to find Christopher Robin to help:

- Catch a tiger by the tail trait
- Hypersonic with good stats and IM: Hindering/Elevated
- Super Senses/Shape Change combo
- Cursed Blades trait

Exploiting Alopex's Weaknesses

Alopex here isn't going to be your primary attacker. It plays the perfect secondary attacker and harasser role. Get Alopex running around and soon enough, everyone is going to start asking for the Tiger Balm as opposed to the Tiger Claws.

Starting off with a trait (Catch a Tiger by the Tail), we are met with a great way for Alopex to have more success against the more stout competition. This will allow her to get a +1 when attacking and defending against a single chosen figure on your opponent's team. This is more helpful against your tentpole style teams so if you suspect Alopex will be an issue, maybe diversify a little more. It will give her a nice 11 attack against your figure but keeps a 10 against everything else. Not super great, just average, but can still be harmful to your team based on the second trait (which we'll cover later). This would also provide a 19 defense situationally so keep that in mind too. Any stat buffs we can apply on either end are going to help us - Defend, CCE, RCE, Combat Reflexes, and Perplex are always going to be good here to keep you safe.

Her Hypersonic with Improved Movement is pretty potent. 11 movement is pretty solid and then she can go over mountains, down hills, and through the trees to get to you! Choosing a map with lots of Blocking is going to help you or toss some barrier up. Not just because she can't ignore it but because it will give you places to hide from the rest of her team as well as use up more of her movement when using HSS. If you can get within range of her, a small outwit will totally do her in as she has no range to at least shoot you with so she is a sitting duck...I mean, tiger! You can also get someone to be a pseudo tie up piece, as long as they have Plasticity, and stand them between you and her (but not adjacent). The reason for this is to stop her before she gets to your main force as Plasticity will stop her HSS movement. She also makes it a little tougher on you in that she has Precision Strike. That means you aren't reducing all the damage and you have less of a chance at avoiding via Super Senses. Again, outwit can help but you should use that on HSS first anyway. Other than that, high enough stats to withstand the attack or grabbing some Shape Change will be about the only ways you'll get away safely.

She also has a very good defensive set that help her stick around longer than any secondary attack should. Shape Change and Super Senses - the personal bane of my existence. Not a ton of hard counters and you'll need too many outwits to get rid of everything. Sure, precision strike will help and battle fury too, but those are the only hard counters outside pulse wave. My favorite way, and toughest based on her power set, is poison or some power that replicates that effect. Dust for example deals a damage to figures adjacent to her smoke. Knockback can be fun as well since she can't ignore those effects. Knock her off elevated for 2 damage or into a wall for 1 - either way is good. You could use some Energy Explosion and target someone else because she would become a target automatically and bypass the Shape Change. Then you are free to outwit the super senses.

There are some good things about the end of her dial but nothing we don't know how to take care of so I will end us with the gem of her traits - Cursed Blades of Vengeance. This is what makes her so fun to play with on your team but what also gives us a hard time as an opponent. Any time she hits someone, they get a curse token. This token reduces their attack value by 1 and any time they miss all targets of their attack, they critically miss! Holy Smokes that is a bad deal! Some characters can't have their combat values modified lower or you can utilize Outsiders TA. This won't stop the second part of the trait but at least makes it so you aren't hindered more for trying to attack. Using the same stat boosters from above, we can help combat this modifier as well. But the best thing we can do is Probability Control. This is one of the best and only ways to get out of the second half of the trait. Granted, you'd be using this anyway but I mention it here because if you are planning on attacking with a character with a cursed token, keep that Probability Control available during that attack just in case. If you attack with that figure first on the turn and you hit, then you still have Prob Control to use on the rest of your turn.

That's all I have this time! Until next time, always look for the chinks in the armor and Exploit your opponent's Weaknesses!

While I do love Alopex, I'm rather surprised she made it into this article series. She's not particularly threatening most of the time. Base 10 attack plus lack of Willpower make her struggle to be effective. I do want to point out though, that as far as I'm concerned, Alopex is a 100 point piece with range due to Scarface, or the Hulkbuster Right Arm outside of Modern. Giving her a minimum 4 range (which applies after halving 0 from HSS) allows her to attack with 0 risk of getting caught on breakaway.

All the more reason she should be included don't you think?

Just because she doesn't give you much trouble doesn't mean she hasn't for someone else. That's the aim of this series. Take figures that can and have given someone somewhere issues and dive right in. It has never been just about what is popular in the ultra competitive or even moderately competitive scene.

She is just one of my favorite pieces of all time. I love her so much I even did a Deep Dish Themes: By the Slice about her! My venue is sick of seeing her and groan whenever she hits the table!

http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=599825

She's definitely tough. Especially when paired up with Lord Chaos/Master Order.

she's an amazing piece that to me costs 102pts cause she'll always have the exospex. giving her stealth will help keep her alive. also, steal energy will help keep her going turn after turn. flurry will help if swarmed too.

her traits are just amazing because of all the support we have in the game now. it's pretty lethal. i like teaming her with evil uhura, and let her have her way with a big hitter.