So it’s been quite a while since I posted a column. It’s been pretty busy in my life. My kids thought it would be funny to start sleeping in alternating shifts and I didn’t get to write earlier in the week because the Arrow and Flash teamed up on CW and it was must see TV [EDITOR’S NOTE: Have you seen S.H.I.E.L.D. lately? They’re about to find Attilan! Maybe! And poor SPOILER REDACTED! Man, next Tuesday can’t come fast enough!]. The days are just packed.
Todays article features two different takes the same idea in both a tactics and non-tactics environment. The idea being to make your team completely un-killable. I’m not a mathematician by trade, but zero points for your opponent should make it a lot easier to beat them on points.
“Zombie Kl’rt, you have shown great love for… uh, eating other people. Which, y’know, still counts. As love. I’m not gonna lie, we’re desperate. Welcome to the Star Sapphires!“
Team Name: Zombie Super Skrull, Agent of Love
Theme: Z-virus
Roster:
GOTG062 Super Skrull
DP064 Electro
WOLR106 Power Battery (Star Sapphires)
WOLR306 Star Sapphire Ring
WOLR206.04 Wall (Violet)
WOLR206.05 Crossbow (Violet)
WOLR206.09 Nurse (Violet)
Total = 300 Points
How it Works:
This is a team that needs tactics to work. It’s based off an idea I read on the Realms. A guy [EDITOR’S NOTE: Knak12 on the Realms.] preparing for Worlds figured out that any Chase Zombies are effectively immortal when given the Mystics TA. He ended up going in another direction in preparing a Build for Worlds, but I think that was a mistake–his Zombie idea was awesome!Here’s how it works:
All the chase zombies have the same great Trait(ZOMBIE HUNGER: When Super Skrull damages an opposing character, place a Food token on this card if there are less than 5 Food tokens. When Super Skrull would be KO’d by an opponent’s attack, turn to its first KO click, remove all Food tokens from this card, and heal it that many clicks.). Now, the Trait doesn’t specify that the damage you do has to be from an attack to get the Food counter. If an opponent attacks you, he takes an unavoidable damage back via the Star Sapphire Ring-granted Mystics TA. Even if you are KOed in a single hit they will take 1 damage and you’re Zombie will thus resurrect on its last click.
While it’s not foolproof, there really aren’t many ways past this combo. Outwit is useless, but Pulse Wave can be successfully used for the killing blow on a Zombie and not trigger Mystics. This team is also vulnerable to being killed via damage that isn’t from an attack (like Penetrating Poison or Incapacitate-generated pushing damage). Your pieces can also be Captured (so be very careful with that stupid Krampus/Helspont combo team that is the absolute bane of my existence). Scarlet Witch or Iron Monger can interfere with your TA. Finally, Lydea Mallor or Catwoman can interfere with the Resource and ruin your nefarious plans. However, if your opponent didn’t come packing one of those answers, congratulations–it’s almost impossible for you to earn anything less than a tie.
“Say hello to my little… tree.”
Team Name: Zombie Super Skrull, Monster Mastermind
Theme: Monster
Roster:
GOTG062 Super Skrull
GOTG051 Groot
Total = 270 Points
How it Works:
This is a No Tactics team that I developed on my own a few months back. It’s only 270 points instead of 300. You could add a 1 click Bizarro to use up the extra points, but I wouldn’t recommend it because that would be something your opponent could actually KO and get points for. Here’s how you play it: Groot has a Trait that says “REGROW FROM A RESCUED SPRIG: Each time Groot would be KO’d, if he’s adjacent to a friendly character that shares a keyword with him, instead turn him to click #9.” Super Skrull shares the Monster keyword with him. So as long as Groot is next to Super Skrull, he can never be KOed. He can take any amount of damage and survive. Super Skrull can use any defensive power in the game via his “IT’S HARD TO EMULATE FOUR POWERS WITH HALF MY LIMBS” Trait. So he’ll chose Mastermind every turn. If the opponent hits Groot then Groot goes to click 9 (eventually), but he can’t be KOed. If the opponent chooses to focus on Super Skrull then all the damage is Masterminded over to Groot and it’s basically the same as if he was shooting at Groot in the first place.
The resource team I listed above is more powerful on offense, but this team is actually tougher on defense. Penetrating poison, Lydea Mallor, Cat Woman, Scarlet Witch, and Iron Monger don’t bother this team. It’s real enemy is Precision Strike. Try giving Super Skrull Outwit to counter it. There is also a small chance that Groot can be knocked back on click nine and thus KOed when he moves away from Super Skrull. You can stop that by keeping Groot off his last few earthbound clicks so he’ll be a Giant and immune to Knockback.
Beyond that you’ll only need to worry about Pulse Wave and pushing damage. Like I said when I wrote The Unstoppable Force, tell your opponent…
Critical Missives 
Hi, there!
This Super Skrull/Groot Team is absolutely delightful! At 300 pts I can even add a power battery and red ring to make both immortal figures poison the adversaries to death, eventually without having to roll any dice! Greeeeat!
But how can it be upgraded to 400 pts? Any idea who to include (no entities, please)?
Thanks
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Hello Krueger666! Thank you so much for reading!
I’m sure Ninwashui will have his own ideas on this, but if it were me, here’s what I’d do:
(NOTE: Based on your statement about adding a Red Battery and such, I’m proceeding from the assumption that you’re looking for an expanded Build in a format where Resources are allowed but Entities either aren’t allowed or just personally distasteful to you)
The whole point of this army is to keep your opponent from scoring any points from you, so you’re going to want to continue to add characters that are difficult for your opponent to kill. You also probably want to stick with a Monster-keyworded fig for two reasons:
1. That’ll be another figure that Groot can work with
2. You’ll still have a Themed Team.
Keeping all that in mind, my expanded 400 Point roster would look like this:
GOTG062 Super Skrull — 170
GOTG051 Groot — 100
GOTGM009R Groot — 90
Power Battery (Red Lantern Corps) — 2
Red Lantern Ring — 8
Red Decoy — 6
Red Sniper Rifle — 6
Red Wall — 10
Red Net –8
=400 (Exactly!)
How it Plays: Yup. All I added was a few Red Lantern Constructs and a Rookie Rare Groot from the GOTG Movie Set. But this new Groot remains quite hard to get rid of. He can’t be Pulse Waved to death because his Stop Click can’t be ignored. He’s a Monster, so he works with the Special Defense of his “other self” just fine. If he gets hurt, it won’t take much effort at all to get him back to his second click.
In addition, Movie Groot can destroy Blocking Terrain just by walking through it (that’ll help with any opposing Barriers, he gives you an Outwit to play with and his Plasticity stops speedsters (I’m looking at you, Speed Demon).
This addition would get you to 400 Points, still keep with the spirit of the Build (kill more of their stuff than they kill of yours by using figures who don’t/rarely did) AND give you a tertiary attacker!
Regardless of what you decided to play, If you’re playing this in an event, write back and let us know how you did!
Hope this helped.
–HypeFox
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Thank you for such a quick reply and I’m sorry for the trouble I’m giving you. You know, I missed the last 3-4 years of heroclix and I’m trying to catch up. I want to build 3-4 specific competitive teams and this is where I found the most devastating ones! And since I don’t own any modern age figs, I’m trying to buy only the ones I need for those teams. Also, I’m not familiar with modern age figs, that’s why I asked you what else to fit here. And again, as expected, your advice sounds GREAT, my friend. At first I thought to mix this team with the Unstoppable Force build, bringing 2 or 3 Grasshoppers but I couldn’t fit them right. Thank you, man, much appreciated!!
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I like Hypefox’s reply and that’s a good call. You might want to think of changing the resource involved to the green battery (to give super skrull willpower and limit opposing free actions), the white battery (for even tougher guys and the ability to automatically heal via power action), the star sapphire battery (for mystics and shape change), or the indigo battery (to protect against ranged attacks and give your team support). The red battery is good in the right circumstances, but when you are already playing two zero range characters on your team I wouldn’t be too worried about losing to a close combat centered team.
If you wanted to go 400 and not use resources then I would definitely recommend TDW015 Duhg. He has mastermind like the Super Skrull and he makes your team a non-generic keyword team which will give you access to Theme Team probability control.
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Thank you too, buddy! And thank you very much for your input! Highly appreciated! But my focus is poisoning the enemy, building up on zombie tokens and, well, probably try to win without ever having to rol… lol. And that’s why the Red ring is a must! I understand there are better batteries to use than the red, but the ring must be the red one…
Thank you guys, really!
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No prob! Welcome back to the game! Ninwashui and I were away from the game for years before we came back to it, and now we really enjoy it. And comments are never a bother–it’s always fun to respond to readers whenever we can!
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Copycat (dp038) could also take groot away leaving ZSS vulnerable and Groot KO’able due to pushing damage.
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