Earth X is here and this set was a lot more exciting than it looked! Today I’m kicking off team builds with perhaps my favorite figure from the set, someone who looks like they could make a big splash in competitive; Prime Vulture.

I have come to the conclusion that Spider-Man and his Rogues Gallery is perhaps my favorite family in Marvel and in Heroclix. I love Pete and his villains so much that they were my second and third articles ever on Clix Fix and helped jump-start my writing. Needless to say, you’ll be getting a new Sinister Syndicate team build, but that’s for another day!

Out of all of Spidey’s villains, I dislike Vulture the most. That is until Spider-Man: Homecoming came out and completely relaunched the character making him a certified badass (note: he’s certified badass on rotten tomatoes). Adrian has gotten a bad rap in Heroclix because he always tends to do the same thing; he flies and… that’s about it. He’s either too expensive for what little he brings to the table or his stats are rubbish for the points; there’s always something wrong with him.

Well, Earth X kind of changed that with the Uncommon Vulture. Wait a minute, aren’t we talking about the PRIME Vulture? Yeah, that’s right. Okay, I guess screw Adrian Tomes because he got the short end of the stick again. His dial might not be too bad to be honest, but good lord is he outshined by the Prime version, one Blackie Drago.

When I saw this figure in spoilers, my mind immediately started racing, putting together different combinations and how best I could abuse this figure. It took some time to come up with a good build, but I think I have it.

But first, let’s see what makes this guy so special.

Vulture is 50 points with 6 clicks of health, which isn’t so uncommon these days but still incredible value. He has Flight, 0 range, and just two Keywords with Brute and Maggia. No team ability present here which is kind of a bummer, and he has a single trait and special movement power.

Stats and powers aren’t anything special, certainly not Prime-worthy compared to those we’ve gotten in the past. His movement is rather slow for a guy in a bird suit with 9 speed and his special power oh his top two clicks, 8 Sidestep on clicks three and four, 7 Sidestep on five, and 6 Earthbound/Neutralized on click six. Attack starts pretty strong with 11 Super Strength, dropping to a 10 on click two, dropping any powers for the rest of his dial on click three, and finishing out at a 9 on click six. His defense isn’t bad, but not as strong as it would have been a year ago; 18 Toughness up front dropping to a 17 on click two, swapping to Combat Reflexes on three and four, and mirroring his opening with 17 Toughness on five and 18 Toughness on six. Damage is very consistent with 3 up front, 2 Close Combat Expert on three and four, and back to 3 for the rest.

As I said, nothing too special here, certainly not to warrant a Prime rarity. Thankfully that all changes with his trait and special movement power, but mainly his trait. Speaking of which:

TIME TO MAKE MY GETAWAY: When Vulture KO’s a character, after resolutions he can use Charge at no cost.

Those of you not too up-to-date on rules will probably look at this trait and go “okay, he gets to Charge after he KO’s someone each turn. neat.”, but I’ve got news for you; it’s as many times as he can trigger it. Remember that “at no cost” and FREE are two different things. FREE retains the old wording in that these abilities can only be activated once per turn whereas “at no cost” means it can be activated as many times as you want, barring you have the ability to do so.

That means that each time Vulture KO’s a character in a turn, he can use Charge. Bystander army getting you down? KO ’em all in one action. Support team super thick? KO ’em all in one action. Sure, the stipulation is that Vulture has to KO them in order to activate Charge each time, but that’s easy enough to do.

The best part about this though? It’s his trait, not his special power. That means the only way to truly stop this guy is to KO him before he can KO you and everyone you ever knew. Technically one could Outwit Charge and nerf him into the ground, but if they do that, they’re spending resources to lock down 50 points.

Wouldn’t this just be dreamy if he had a way to engage early on…

LET’S SEE WHAT THIS SUIT CAN DO: Charge, Sidestep. When Vulture uses Sidestep, you may roll a d6. 4-6: He can use Sidestep a second time

Oh look, Charge on clicks one and two. Oh, and you get Sidestep that has a chance at activating twice in a turn. To be honest, he didn’t even need this special power; he could have just started with Charge and he would have been fine thanks to that trait, but this makes him so much better. Double Sidestep can be used in so many ways; it can help him move further into the fight, it can be used to taxi multiple people in a turn, or even equip something on turn 1 if you’re lucky (hint!). It’s not a flashy power, but it’s a good one.

Vulture is easily one of the best alpha strike pieces in the game. He’s Kryptonite to swarm and bystander teams. Load him up enough and he can take down a freakin’ army of super people.

Tools for Success

At only 50 points, you have a TON of room to build around this guy, and it’s up to you whether you want to devote a team to him and try to break him, or run him strictly as another gear in your team. For the sake of today’s team build, I’m going with the former.

Support powers are going to be the breadwinner for a supporting cast for Blackie. While Probability Control isn’t going to do much since we want to attack as many times as possible, Perplex is going to be a freaking godsend, amplifying his numbers so he can hit easier and hit harder, furthering the chance at KO’ing characters. Outwit is also going to help a lot as it’ll help you get through Shape Change, Super Senses, Invincible, and Imperious, all powers that hold up a stop sign to his shenanigans. I would pack as much Outwit and Perplex as you can.

Positioning isn’t really an issue for Vulture so TK isn’t needed, although it could be nice if you find one with Perplex to give you even more reach. A taxi is most likely going to be worthless as you won’t be able to carry this dude because of his flight, and frankly it’s too slow to worry about. Sure, you could go with a giant or colossal, but it’s not an ideal situation.

Empower could be a huge power for him, especially on someone he can carry around with him. Like Chase Hawkeye who used to carry H.E.N.R.Y. around, Vulture can take someone along for the ride during every Charge he activates. Any figures that have abilities based on adjacency will work wonders with him.

A big primary attacker could also work well with Vulture to soften targets for him. It might seem counter-intuitive to run a bigger point figure on a team built around Vulture, but it can help to draw fire away from him and they can be used to punch holes in big tanks before loosing Blackie into the backline.

Perhaps the best thing for Vulture is equipment. Since he’s granted Charge rather than something like what Mind Control does (move, then make a close attack), that means you can trigger CLOSE off of every attack. That opens up a world of possibilities. Let your mind wander and think about how you want to abuse him most. If you’re planning on playing against huge bricks, bring that Enchanted Crowbar. If you want him to live longer than one assault, the Blood Axe is a great option. However, one easily outranks the rest. You’ll see…

This team list is rather long, so bear with me:

300 Point Modern Vulture Prime Team – 18/19 Modern

Woo, that has to be the biggest team build list I’ve ever made! I apologize for how much is there but it all comes together quite well. Since there’s so much, this is going to take a bit, so let’s just dive right in.

Before I get to any figures, the absolute best thing on this team for Vulture is the Octopus Arms from Earth X. These things are flat-out insane as they give improved movement for hindering and elevated (which we don’t care about), Giant Reach: 2 (okay, that’s nice), and FLURRY. Just attaching these to Vulture gives him another square on his reach and lets him hit each of his targets for 6 damage by himself. If you can get through reducers or guarantee that he hits, this can completely change him from bystander and support killer to all-around team destroyer. No other item is going to pull so much weight for Vulture than the arms. Those equipment I mentioned earlier? Cute. Leave ’em at home. Run the arms. Trust me.

Now then, on to the supporting cast.

The first thing I looked for was the most efficient way to boost Vulture’s values so that he has an easier time hitting and chunking for more damage, furthering his chances at one-action KO’ing. Because he’s a Prime, we can’t take advantage of the best there is with Red Leader. Instead, I went with President Osborn. Osborn has to be within 4 squares for Vulture to be able to get +1 to two different values, but that’s not a problem at the beginning of the game, and this team is built to not last longer than 3-4 turns, max. Norman bumps Vulture to 12 attack and 4 damage on offensive turns and shells him to a 19 defense on others, and his Leadership will help with the massive list of figures we’re running. The bystanders he can pump out will also help as tie-up pieces and moving traffic where we need it, otherwise known as forcing the enemy to group up.

Next, I looked for someone who Vulture could carry into battle that would benefit him the most. I considered Dr. Killebrew as he can achieve the same as Osborn, giving +1 to attack and damage, but he was easily outshined by Samantha Captain America. She’ll be rotating out of modern this year, but she’ll be stunning on this team. She brings Perplex to the fight so she can bump up that attack value on Vulture to a 13 to pretty much guarantee that he’ll hit his targets. She also has the amazing effect of giving him +3 to speed every time he carries her. Now Vulture can Charge for 7 squares every time, making it almost impossible for enemies to hide from him and Samantha. Lastly, as we all know too well, she’s potentially the best ID summoner in the game. Once Vulture picks off all of the smaller targets, he can finish up with a Flurry to the big guy, then have Samantha drop an X-man like Wolverine off to finish the job, or even just go in for a hit herself.

Sitting at 13 attack and 4 damage is pretty good, but I knew I could go higher, so I opted for Shifting Focus Dr. Strange, another figure rotating this year. Strange can shift into his rare version and give Vulture yet another +1 to attack and damage, bumping him to 14 attack and 5 damage, which should theoretically KO any figure other than those with more than 1 STOP click. He’s also a pretty decent ranged attacker with Pen/Psy and he can boost either Captain America or whoever she decides to pop-out with an ID card.

I knew I wanted another way to deal damage so that if Vulture did happen to go down early, the team wasn’t completely dead, but I didn’t have many points left as I knew I needed ID cards. Groot is a superb choice, and he’s actually probably the best since this team can easily deal with the Leslie Evans bystander. Popping out two Walking Wood bystanders gives us even more damage potential and control thanks to their Flurry and Plasticity. Dr. Strange can carry these two in on turn 1 or 2, and then shift to his Rare form, ready to be picked up by Vulture after the initial attack. Groot also gives a backup source of Leadership, and serves as a taxi/Mastermind fodder for Norman. And if things get really bad, he can jump into the fight if Vulture manages to go down.

Getting to the Ocotopus Arms on turn 1 is crucial, enabling the team to lighting in on turn 2, so I went with Ape Batman. At only 15 points, he’s not a huge commitment, he has Super Strength so he can pick them up as they’re heavy, and he has Sidestep, so he can bring them back to Vulture when the game opens up. After that, he’s pretty much a disposable Outwit figure that can taxi in with Strange over a Walking Wood to nuke out a lynch-pin figure’s defenses.

Before I get into the ID cards, I have to talk about the clutch pick on the team; the Pym Pocket Tank. This little war machine managed to evade one of the biggest rule changes in the game; the ability to carry someone smaller than you in addition to another character. See, the tank has an ability that lets it be placed adjacent to a figure that started next to it at the beginning of their movement. That means that the tank can move around with Vulture wherever he goes without being carried. It also can trigger off of any attack, not CLOSE or RANGE, meaning Vulture can trigger it on either hit of Flurry (which he’ll need to use the first and hopefully not KO them with the tank). This allows us to mass hit a group of enemies, displace the, and destroy walls in an indoor map that’s hard to move around in. With Vulture sitting at a 14 attack, the -1 to activate the tank is barely anything to complain about.

Lastly, ID cards. Rather than going through a paragraph on each of these, I’m going to list them in bullets and jot down a quick note on each.

Wolverine Bounty – Old Man Logan – Brings Empower for more damage if needed and a 12 attack with Blades. Easily swappable with another SR Wolverine.

Wolverine Headmaster – Wolverine SR – The best modern call-in. 11 attack with Flurry, Blades, and Charge.

Cyclops Student ID – Cylcops SR – A great Pen/Psy sniper that can benefit well from Dr. Strange. Can be swapped out for the Chase (which I don’t have).

Iceman Student ID – Iceman Chase – Pulse Wave or a big ranged attack and he spits out a fantastic bystander to stick around.

Jean Grey Student ID – Jean Grey Chase – TK for free, Pen/Psy, and Outwit. A great combination for finishing someone, and with her TK, can blink off the board.

Leech Student ID – Leech – What’s better than Outwit? How about MEGA Outwit. Depending on the enemy team composition and strategy, you could theoretically use Strange to carry in Sam Cap first, drop Leech to counter powers on everyone, and then KO everything with Vulture.

Chamber Student ID – Chamber – Poison is a fantastic option against characters who didn’t quite die without reducers. Good ranged attacker as well, and Force Blast for options like knockback damage.

Amazingly, this team worked out to have 7 characters on the starting force without the walking wood bystanders, so we can use all 7 ID cards.

This team is incredibly efficient and uses every point to make sure nothing goes to waste. There’s no fat to trim here and while I don’t think it could have a good shot at competitive play, it could do some serious work at a WizKids Open or completely dominate a day at your LGS. You’ll need a freakin’ trailer to bring all these pieces with you, but you’ll feel like a god once you turn up the heat and start slaughtering the entire enemy team in one turn. Just make sure you utilize your Outwit options. Shape Change can completely destroy your team, so I highly recommend blowing that up first. Pick your targets well in a good order and you’ll be in heaven.

What are your thoughts on my take at a Vulture Prime team? Do you think I could have picked some better support pieces? What would you play as a team with Vulture as a surprise attacker rather than the obvious offensive tank? Let me know in the comments section!

I had a lot of fun creating this team build. I know there’s a lot of expensive figures in the team, but I really wanted to make Vulture just disgusting and I think I’ve succeeded. I’m not sure what I’ll write about next week on Two Clicks From KO (maybe a Captain Marvel Gravity Feed set review?), but once I return to Clix Fix on March 5th, it’s time for a new Sinister Syndicate team build, baby! Can’t wait!