The Team-Up
The goal here is to milk 'on field' effects for all they're worth. The problem with these 'on field' effects is that you then have to get the die dead, fast, and hopefully not into your used pile to be lost for several turns until they can roll back around. What's better than to kill your dice yourself?! It might seem counterintuitive at first, but sometimes this can be really brilliant.
We don't get to use Hawkeye as a defender almost ever (except when he rolls his level 3 side), but we do get to use him as 3-4 direct damage to a character every time he fields. We bring him in (usually for free), he deals 3-4 direct damage to a target character (depending on what side is up), and then he dies, ready to be exploited again next turn. Hawkeye basically averages out to 2 free power bolts a turn! You can, admittedly, only use that damage on characters, but you're going to take out a lot of characters this way. I'll also note this is a great way to get rid of opposing characters like Beast who need to block to have their ability work; instead you can send them to your opponent's prep area, and they won't be able to bring them back until next turn.
It might be that sometime in the future there will be more cards like Hawkeye that suit this model, but nothing really jumps out yet. Storm: African Priestess and Black Widow: Killer Instinct both can be auto-killed in their level one, which can be pretty nice. The minus here is if you wanted to use Storm: Goddess of the Plains or Black Widow: Tsarina you've lost a character face you can use.
Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom is really the core of this team-up. One thing to note is that this is not a combination that you're building your deck around; it is, instead, a way to compliment Doom as a character you intend to bring. Doctor Doom: Reed Richards' Rival is a card that has a few really exciting applications, and if you are going to use him, you need to make sure you have your own house in order to not get screwed over by his effect.
Doom is BRILLIANT against Gobby decks. Those sidekick dice go away immediately and your opponent can't get that back out. This card is going to be a good, clean non-Loki: Gem-Keeper answer to the Gobby deck: he's a common, and he totally shuts down sidekicks.
Doom is also a fairly solid blocker, with his defense going from 6-8 depending on which level he is. He also has strong offensive stats at 3-5, so he's going to have a good chance of knocking out the smaller characters he blocks. All told, he's a pretty good die to have as part of your back line, and Reed Richards' Rival only costs 5 shield energy to get into your bag.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye's job in this team-up is a little different. Longbow is also a common, and he costs 4 bolt energy to get into your bag, but his job is to keep you safe from some of the slightly stronger threats until you can get Doctor Doom out onto the field. Hawkeye: Longbow is one of the characters we are calling an 'assassin' type; he is capable of dealing a nice chunk of direct damage, or otherwise knocking out a specifically targeted character, rather than leaving it in your opponent's hand to block with or get knocked out. Thus, his purpose is to keep you safe, even if it just means picking off a sidekick or Beast whenever he comes out.
Hawkeye is also cheap to field (TFC: 1) which means he'll most frequently come out for free, a bonus when you're still trying to set up your offensive and defensive house. He's going to clear the way for you to bring in more attackers who are actually going to penetrate your opponent's defensive line to score you damage on your opponent, and that's a very important skill set.
Other Characters to Bring Along for the Ride
Other characters who you might want to consider here (more 'characters that play well with Doom') are Venom: Angelo Fortunato (to completely destroy your opponent's lines) or, interestingly enough, some of the Mystique cards. She'll get to copy the DIE your opponent is using, and if you have Doom and Venom debuffing she'll be much stronger than your opponent's character; pretty cool!
Potential Downfalls
Some of these characters are slow, there's no denying that. Doom is 5, so you won't have him out quickly, and Angelo (a nice addition) is 6. You want a strong dice engine when you're playing with more costly characters, so make sure you set up a strong set of low-cost characters to support bringing out these big guns. You're probably looking at Mystique: Shapeshifter or Magneto: Former Comrade as your finishers. With so many villains on your side do not bring Magneto: Holocaust Survivor or Sonderkommando unless you want to be sad when your opponent makes you reroll them and they go away.
Common Mjolnir is also pretty scary, since it deals 6-8 damage to all villains. It's not going to be a popular draw unless villain decks become the norm, though, and I don't think anyone in their right mind would bring it to a hybrid constructed tournament.
Closing Thoughts
Doctor Doom is a great facilitator of Villain teams, without a doubt, but you need to keep in mind that we only have a handful of them right now, and most of them are on the expensive side. That means you need to look to the hero side to find people who are going to compliment your villains and not mess up your own offensive momentum. Hawkeye helps with this, serving as a strong assassin in the early game, and some quick direct damage and still a strong assassin in the middle and end game. The team up also ties into something you're going to hear us saying more and more: there are a lot of times when you're going to be looking to get your guys killed off, so don't shy away from a strategy that might send someone to the prep area.
Doesn't the magneto global that allows you to re-roll villains basically destroy this in 10 seconds? I would love to play a villain deck, but if someone is running that global... it's game over. And if villain decks become popular everyone is gonna be running it. In fact, everyone should be running it just to block Loki. I kinda feel that global in and of itself absolutely kills the viability of any villain heavy deck and I think it's kind of a bummer because villain decks are fun. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteCommon Mjolnir can be a danger too. There are counters to just about anything - it's always a danger.
DeleteMatthew, we definitely talked about the issues of Common Mjolnir in our first podcast! I actually mentioned it as a card I thought would shape the meta. Magneto uncommon and rare definitely make this deck idea cry, though, I will grant you that, but by the same token, Storm makes decks cry similarly with her own abilities. It's all about the risk/reward.
DeleteHi Katie, thought the first episode was great. Mjolnir and Storm are definitely powerful against the right deck but Magneto is a global, so you don't even need to buy the die. Just kills villains. I'm a bit puzzled at the moment why it's in the game. Are the villains really that overpowered that there needs to be an easy way to destroy them? Kinda makes it not very fun to play villains. Imagine if there was a global that let you re-roll Avengers. It would kill the game. I dunno, just something I've been thinking about in my recent games.
ReplyDeleteIf you brought Magneto, then there's something else that you didn't bring. You had to spend at least one die in that slot, and it screws up any villains that you yourself might want on the team. There are about as many cases where he's useless as there are when he's useful. There's a risk/reward to bringing him to the table.
Delete"I'll also note this is a great way to get rid of opposing characters like Beast who need to block to have their ability work; instead they go to the used pile and your opponent doesn't get to take advantage of his bonus effect."
ReplyDeleteHey guys. *waves* Can we get an explanation of what you mean by this comment? Where I play at we understand the rules to say that any character KO'd through ANY damage effects is placed in the Prep area as a knocked out unit, unless the card specifically states otherwise. Looking at the above cards, I am confused as to how the original statement says it sends them to the Used Pile.
Thanks!
Katie tells me it was a misspeak on her part, actually - when hit by Longbow's ability, Beast (or whatever) will go to prep if it's enough to knock them out, but doing so then rather than in combat means they won't get the chance to generate dice via the 'on blocking' effect (which was the part she wanted to emphasize). Sadly you'll probably have to deal with him again next turn.
DeleteOkay, right, that I understand. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't misreading something as we start to learn the game here. Sorry Kate, didn't mean to call you out. :(
DeleteLoving you guys and your insights, btw! Keep up the great work!
Totally alright! I deserved to be called out. I'll fix it up when I get home.
DeleteA nice compliment to Hawkeye Longbow would also be Human Torch "Johnny Storm". Given that everything happens simultaneously, consider this:
ReplyDeleteTwo of Hawkeye Longbow's sides have a defense of 1. When fielded he deals his attack damage to knock out a character. Also, when fielded, Human Torch does 1 damage to Hawkeye essentially knocking him out (as long as he's not level 3) and your opponent. This is an ALMOST guaranteed way to keep Hawkeye's dice moving and constantly delivering 1 point of damage to your opponent.
Thoughts?