HeroClix League of Athens

200 Pt. Cosmic Justice Team
Team and Article by Kevingoes
         U Plastic Man              U Eclipso              R Saturn Girl
                       
Note: This team was used to win a 200 point DC tournament that took place before the release of Indy clix.  Furthermore, the tournament was a Cosmic Justice only tournamnet, where only characters from the Cosmic Justice expansion could be used.  I will try to address the way these two conditions may affect the playability of this team at the end of this write up.

One of the drawbacks of playing in 200 and 300 point games is that you don't often get to use those really powerful figures who cost a lot of points.  Some of those really powerful figures also happen to be some of our favorite figures like Dr. Doom and Iron Man.  Most players will tell you that building a 200 point or 300 hundred point force around a figure that costs over 100 points is almost certainly suicide.  Most of the time that big 100 plus point figure gets ganged up on by a bunch of smaller figures and quickly dies.  If you don't believe me try fielding Thanos at your next tournament and see how he fares.  As a general rule it is wise not to devote more than half or a third of your points to one figure.  However, there are exceptions.  I believe that if you follow a few basic guidelines you can build a "big' figure team.

The first guideline you need to keep in mind is:  Make sure your "big" figure is worth their cost.  There are many high point value figures who aren't worth their point cost, like Parasite or Brother Blood.  There are also many high point value figures who aren't appropriate for a low point value teams, like Thanos for example.  How can you tell if a figure is appropriate for a low point value team?  My guideline is: does that figure give your team an advantage that could not be gained by some combination of lesser pieces?  Let's use Thanos as an example.  For the same cost, you could use E Ultron, E Black Cat, and a Con Artist.  Black Cat's probability control more than covers the difference in Ultron's attack value and the Con Artist can perplex up Ultron's damage.  Thanos is not a piece I would consider building a small point team around.

So what makes Eclipso so special?  Eclipso is 108 points.  He is the cheapest figure in the DC universe who does 4 natural damage, which he keeps for his first four clicks.  He also has an attack of 10 or greater, a defense of 16 with Impervious, and Mind Control.  All on his first three clicks.  The next two clicks are pretty good with Toughness, 9 attack and 3 damage.  Beyond the first five clicks he has five more clicks of life for a total of ten and barrier on three of those clicks.  All of this with a range of 8.

Eclipso's stats are among the highest in DC.  12 attack is the highest attack value, 17 is the average high for defense (excluding The Atom, whose defense is 20), and the only figure that can beat Eclipso's natural 4 damage is the Darkseid Superman with 5 (at twice the cost and no range!).  Because Eclipso's damage is all natural it is safe (i.e. legal), to use Perplex on him as much as you wish and there's no special ability to Outwit that can change his damage.  Additionally, because his first three clicks are so consistant you can push him (a lot) very early on in the game without worrying about reducing his effectiveness.

Before we go over the other two figures that are on the team it is natural to ask:  What other figures might be worth building a team around?  In the Marvel universe I would consider V Dr. Doom, V Ironman, E Ultron, U Phoenix, and V Mandarin all to be possibilities for one reason or another (Mandarin and Phoenix come to mind because of their range).  In the DC universe the U (Dark Knight) Batman, OWAW (Our Worlds at War) LE Superman, Darkseid, Amazo and V Wonder Woman all seem to meet my criteria.  I've actually built a couple of teams around the LE Superman that have done fairly well, but that's another story.

The second principle of building a team around a high point cost figure is: Support your lead figure well.  Support figures are figures whose main pupose in the game is to make your other figures better.  The most natural case is a figure with the Support power (or healer) but I also include figures with Outwit, Enhancement, and Perplex when I talk about support figures.  Most importantly you want to include a Taxi (a flyer who carries around other figures).  Before Indy Clix comes out there are very few teams that can do well without at least one taxi.

I wanted a taxi that could move without using one of my actions per turn.  In this tournament I was limited to using figures from the Cosmic Justice expnasion.  That meant I either needed to use experienced or rookie Zatanna or one of the Legion of Super Heroes and another JLA team member.  What I finally decided on using was the R Saturn Girl.  I think Saturn Girl is an excellent support figure.  Not only is she a flier with a wild card team ability but she als has Perplex which she can use to increase the damage or attack of another member of your team.   Perplex works very well with Eclipso, because his damage is entirely natural.

Saturn Girl's main disadvantage is her very short dial.  She only has four clicks of life.  One good hit can take her out.  One push and a decent hit can take her out.  So you have to be very careful about how you position her and when you decide to push her.  Otherwise you are going to find yourself without a taxi.

I needed now to add a JLA member to the mix to take advantage of the Legion of Super Heroes team ability.  At 48 points and under my choices were E Black Canary, E Green Arrow, and U Plastic Man.  I chose Plastic Man primarily because he gets Perplex later on in his dial.  As it turns out he was very effective and interesting choice for the team.

Next Page
Home
Tournaments
Special Events
Tournament Results
For more information contact us at: donald_eric_kesler@hotmail.com