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 the robotic training enemy featured in the X-men's training facility known as the Danger Room!

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 Xavier’s guidance:

- High Attack, Damage, Range
- Running Shot/Psy Blast or Pulse Wave combo
- Indomitable
- Simulated Master of Magnetism
- Danger Room Construct Trait

Exploiting Danger Room Magento’s Weaknesses

Welcome back to a Pauper edition of Exploiting Weaknesses! We are taking a look at a figure who has been popular to talk about for Pauper format, which is exactly what ROC State/Provincial Championships in November will be! Magneto here is a cheap, fill in, tertiary attacker that can go in many builds. From Robot themes, Brotherhood of Mutant themes, to no theme at all – he has a valuable place in all of them. So how are we to take down a figure that is only 1/6 the cost of the team without getting blown out by the rest of the team? The answers you seek are just below; let’s take a look!

Starting off Magneto has some intimidating stats. 12 attack and 4 damage Psy Blast with running shot is powerful! We can’t afford to have something like that running around (and let me tell you, he will run around!). With an 11 move, flight, and 8 range, he is able to have a 13 square threat range where he can move through and around most anything we throw at him. On his own, he is just a little pesky. Combo that with the fact he deals penetrating damage or can use Pulse Wave later down the dial, we can see the kind of threat he is. Not to mention he has Indomitable so that means he is going to keep coming at us 2/3 turns. This all is much easier to handle when we consider his Danger Room Construct trait which I’ll address later. However, let’s just assume this is what we have to deal with as is. Getting to a map that has lots of indoor blocking will help cut off his ability to move around or even use his full range. Even an outdoor map will at least hinder his range on this. Outwit is our friend so we can take away the Running Shot or Psy Blast if we are weak to that. Problem here is the 8 range so there are ways for him to maybe even attack our outwitter or anyone else who had to move up. This is where something like barrier will be very useful or even using something like TK to get our guy back out of range again. Elevated can still be used to reduce lines of fire but Stealth may be the most effective being he has no improved targeting. ESD may be the next best thing as it may help against his 12 attack but very unlikely. Perplex, defend, and ESD combined would obviously be better but is also harder to build with and not be weak in other ways.

Focusing a little on his Master of Magnetism trait, it adds some depth to his attack presence that can shift the game away from us. This provides him with force blast and he can choose the direction of knockback. Force blast is such a good power now that we can add knockback to any attack we make – such a great change for an underused power! This will allow Magneto to knock us off elevated even if it normally wouldn’t or knock us to the side into blocking when we normally should have been stopped by a friendly character. He can even get us closer to his team and feed us to the wolves! Imagine sitting just out of range of the majority of his team, he comes in and hits us, and then uses knockback to move us 1-4 squares closer to his team. This has killbox potential written all over it (though I won’t call that strategy a comeback yet). This makes him all the more frustrating to deal with, especially with 2 targets he can do this to. Again, we can use outwit to get rid of force blast but seems like a suboptimal use. There are characters that are immobile or can give out immobile. It may be good to keep a figure that can use immobile out in front and hide your actually mobile figures behind. Not ideal either but it certainly would allow for some protection (looking at you Blob!). Using the same tactic with someone with Charge or Combat Reflexes in front would also work.

Now, revisiting the Danger Room Construct trait, we can see he isn’t as big of a threat initially. This limits his damage output to 1 damage per attack but also means he only takes 1 damage from attacks. He has this limitation for a time period but he could eventually become this monster attacker. But until then, we need to waste 5 hits on him and 3 have to get past toughness at the very least. It should be noted this trait is Protected Pulse Wave so we can’t cheat damage in this way. However, we have plenty of fun options. I like Force Blast the most because we can deal 1 damage via the attack and then 1 additional damage via knockback into a wall/blocking or 2 if off elevated. If we used outwit on toughness then we are easily getting 2 or 3 damage on him from a single action. Poison can also deal just that little extra damage in a turn so if you are already tying him up you can get an attack in and poison to get the damage to 2 (again outwitting toughness if needed). Flurry of course gets us 2 attacks in a turn so we can get 2 damage in a turn on him that way. Some characters have a ranged attack version so that could also work for us, just don’t use it on his later clicks with ESD. Lastly, Incap is a nice way of dealing a damage when he is already pushed or outwitting willpower so he still takes 1 push. Now you may be thinking he still only takes 1 damage from this and that is very true. There are some figures out there who can deal damage with their Incap so it is worth mentioning that you can cheat some extra damage this way. Especially in Golden Age (for any of you who still play the format) when you can use Stunning Blow. When it comes to his damage output though, we have some issues. He still deals 4 damage or 5 damage with a critical hit. That means our Invincible meat shield will be dealt 4 penetrating damage that we reduce to 2 damage. We take a max of 1 damage from that 2 so no matter what, we are still taking that 1 damage. He can even do this to multiple targets – hit both, deal 2 damage to each, then both take a max of 1 damage. Honestly, there isn’t much we can do about this except to negate the attacks altogether with the previously mentioned strategies.

One final mention is the discussion around his team. There are a few options but the one most people are moving toward is the Sentinel Squad One (dial below). Being a vehicle that is an uncommon, we will see this in pauper format. By having Magneto become the pilot, the sentinel is able to have Magneto’s Range, Attack, and Damage values as well as the Attack or Damage power. This is a deadly combo and get’s around the Danger Room trait we just discussed. That means there is a 6 life sentinel who can shoot from 8 range with a 12 attack and deal 4 penetrating damage instead of just 1. So be aware that this will probably be the most popular use of Magneto in pauper. The one thing that works in our favor is if we are aggressive against the Sentinel and force Magneto to pop out, we can get a free 1 or 2 unavoidable damage on Mags and get a strong start to taking him down.

#G001a Sentinel Squad ONE
Real Name: Various
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 6
Points: 70
Keywords: Sentinel, Armor, Robot, Soldier

10 10 17 3

9 10 17 3

9 10 17 2

9 10 17 2

8 9 16 2

8 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

Prime Directive: At the beginning of your turn, Sentinel Squad ONE may move 1 square. If an opposing character with the X-Men or Brotherhood of Mutants keyword is on the map, it may move 1 additional square.
Sentinel Squad ONE Bonding: Autopilot. Willpower, but only if Sentinel Squad ONE has a pilot.

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

I hadn't really thought about his two lightning bolts potentially letting him deal 1 damage to two different characters. Man, this guy can be so good for 50 points, with really good keywords.

When he was previewed, some people dismissed him, but you only have to see him in action.

I've used him effectively twice. Both times he put out a crazy amount of damage. If uncontested, he's hitting for 2 a turn through reducers.

He's also a great tie up piece, as most figures have to "waste" actions trying to kill him.

He is my favorite pilot... hands down the best

I saw the Squad One combo at teams this Worlds.

I may bring him as a non pilot at pauper.

This guy was amazing at our prerelease, like others have said. One guy even pulled the sentinel vehicle with him, and the rest was history.
The other guy who ran one at prerelease pulled him, the Sabertooth prime, and Nimrod. That was interesting, since now there wasn't an easy choice of who to shoot!
I myself have found the Beastman.exe *cough* I mean Sabertooth to be a really good tie up piece as well, just for more close encounters.

I was there. That Sentinel/Magneto combo tore me up. Granted, all I was using was a 300 point Magneto for my team.

I didn't get my Impervious even once, and that Sentineto hit me nearly every time! At least I got my revenge on that Sentinel shortly before I went down.

I thought Pauper edition didn’t include primes.

Neither Sabretooth nor Magneto have green rings - meaning they are not Primes.

They may have "prime rarity" to collect (as made up by the community) but they are most certainly not "prime figures".