What’s big, metal, has a terrific sculpt, and a rad hammer? Okay, yes the Super Rare Prime Destroyer Thor does, but I’m talking about the lesser desired Super Rare with the same name! Think the Prime is better? I SAY THEE NAY!

NOTE: This article has been edited due to an error in ruling.

I always feel like the Super Rare a-side of a figure that gets the Prime treatment is always considered crap and usually gets thrown out because “Ooo shiny Super Rare Prime! So efficient. Much rarity. Wow.” I mean just look at these kids:

Batman, Caped Crusader non-Prime ( Batman: The Animated Series )

H.A.R.D.A.C. Batman Prime

) Hela non-Prime ( The Mighty Thor )

Angela Prime

) Hammer non-Prime ( Deadpool and X-Force )

Wiz Kid Prime

) Johnny Thunder non-Prime ( The Joker’s Wild )

JAKEEM THUNDER PRIME

) Kraven non-Prime (Superior Foes of Spider-Man)

Kraven Pr – okay lemme stop you right there.

While you get the odd-man out with pieces like White Queen where neither the a or b side are particularly good, it seems that the Prime version of a Super Rare almost always wins out on having a fantastic dial. Sure, it’s a Prime and they typically are stupidly undercosted and insanely strong (Odin the Destroyer anyone?), but that doesn’t mean the a-side is bad. In fact, I feel like these a-side figures are considered bad Super Rares and their value drops more because of the dumb Primes.

Today is another case of that with Destroyer Thor. While he has the same name as the Prime, he’s a different character altogether as he fits in to the theme of Battleworld whereas the Prime version doesn’t. Because this is a somewhat generic Destroyer Thor, that means we don’t have to throw in every bell and whistle and can, ya know, actually play the dude without eating most of our team build.

Let’s see what we can do with the big fella.

Destroyer Thor comes in at 125 points or 75 points which gives you either 7 clicks or 5 clicks, not the beefiest dial, but not terrible either. He has 6 range with a single target, Flight, Indomitable, Giant, and the Police team ability. Keywords are quite good with Armor, Asgardian, Battleworld: Asgard, Police, and Robot. He also moves through blocking terrain and destroys it when he does so.

Most Destroyers in the game are slow as they’re hulking masses of death, and this guy is no different; He starts with 8 movement with his special power, drops to a 7 on click two, moves to Charge for clicks three through five, completely swaps to 6 with his special on click six, and drops to 5 for his last click. His attack clicks are strong kicking things off with 11 Pen/Psy, swapping to Super Strength on click three, dropping to a 10 on click five, and losing powers on six and seven. Defense is steady with two 18 Impervious to start, swapping to Invincible on click three, dropping to 17 on four, and swapping to Invulnerability on six and seven. His damage is huge to start with 5 Enhancement, dropping to a 4 immediately after, swapping to Exploit Weakness on click three, dropping to 3 damage on click four, and picking up Ranged Combat Expert on clicks six and seven.

The unknown Destroyer Thor has two traits, one of which is pretty nifty, the other is a balance for his shallow cost for that dial.

CRACK THE CASE: Once per turn, when an opposing character within 4 squares and line of fire makes an attack, give Destroyer Thor an Evidence token. // FREE: Remove two Evidence tokens to make an attack.

All of the Thor Corps (why is this not a keyword again?) have this trait that is a somewhat reverse version of the Bombshells mechanic from Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls. While they accumulated tokens for simply declaring an attack, the Thors are about gathering their evidence for a case of violence. This is better and worse. In order to get these tokens, you’re going to have to risk your guys. However, if you’re running more than one of the Thor Corps and they’re all within 4 squares and line of fire, they each get a token meaning you can redeem them a lot easier than Bombshells (unless of course they brought Zatanna to the fight…). Both the Bombshells and the Thors have the same reward: remove two of these tokens and make an attack.

The great thing about Destroyer Thor here is his Giant Size. As long as he’s within 4 squares of someone making an attack, he’s getting tokens. It’s pretty hard to hide from him. That tacks on to the other good part of his dial; the PD team ability with Enhancement. These three aspects put together make him a fantastic flex attacker that does a great job boosting your teammates and hitting hard if they’re attacked.

So this is all looking very good, which means we have to look at the bad trait.

BETRAYED BY AN UNTHINKING MACHINE: Once per game per opponent, when Destroyer Thor would hit a character on that opponent’s force, that opponent may choose to have the hit become a miss instead.

That’s pretty huge. Negating a hit for 5 penetrating damage from range (or 6 penetrating from close on the 75 point dial) automatically miss once per game is ruthless and has discouraged a lot of people from this dial. However, it really isn’t that bad. It’s not saying that this can’t be rerolled afterwards, so as long as you’re packing Probability Control, you’ll be fine. His attack values are high enough that you have a good chance of hitting anyway, so just make sure you bring that along. It’s only once per game, so treat it like a band-aid, and save your item until you know you can hit!

This is actually incorrect and I apologize that the information was presented this way. Sometimes I make mistakes and this was the case here. Because the attack becomes a miss, you can’t reroll it as it bypasses the time period for Prob to work.

Finally, Destroyer Thor has his special movement power. Good, let’s not end his review on a negative aspect!

PURSUIT OF JUSTICE: Flurry, Sidestep. If Destroyer Thor hasn’t used Flurry this turn, he can use Sidestep a second time, but then can’t use Flurry this turn.

Flurry is good! Not ideal on a range dial, but still good. Oh what’s this? He can use Sidestep twice in a turn if he doesn’t use Flurry?! Holy crap! That means that on an indoor map, Destroyer Thor can step out from a wall, take a shot for 5 penetrating damage, then step back into safety. It makes him insanely mobile before the fight starts. And that Flurry? How about hitting the person who bases you to stop those cannon shots takes 10 damage in a turn? Oh you’re going to make one of my attacks miss? No problem, I have another loaded up for you!

Even with his negative trait, Destroyer Thor is a monster for his points. I like that all three “modes” of his dial are viable. Early game, he’s a ranged sniping terror that makes your opponent scared of not only him but your other ranged guys who can also taxi people in 4 squares a turn. Middle game (or early at 75 points), he’s a melee terror, charging in 4 squares and hitting for 6 damage with fantastic reducers. Late game, he resets to a brutal sniper that can pummel once again for 5 damage, or make himself hit for less on a bigger defense tank. There’s a lot going on this dial and I really like what it has to offer.

Tools for Success

Transportation is honestly this guys biggest strength, so a taxi or TK isn’t necessary to get him around. I actually really like that before the battle starts, he’ll work wonders as a taxi for your other team members and he’ll do it with brutal efficiency.

Support powers are going to be a big deal with him, with Probability Control being the strongest among them. You’re going to want to have plenty of options to negate that trait for whenever your opponent decides to cash it in. Perplex is going to do a lot of good for him since his defense isn’t the biggest in the world and a single Perplex to his attack can work wonders. If you Perplex that damage up, you’re going to hit for a metric ton of damage. Outwit is always good, although you’ll really only need to take out Invincible, Shape Change, or Super Senses and he’s going to town.

Map choice is going to be a big point of contention for Destroyer Thor, so a theme team is probably best. I would say your ideal choice is going to be an indoor map so that there are walls he can hide behind with his double Sidestep, but not covered in them so that once he’s in the fight, the opponent can’t really hide. Since he moves through blocking and destroys it, you don’t have to worry about using your actions to make space for him. Just focus on what the middle of the map looks like so he isn’t stuck with no targets to hit.

If you’re playing him at full points, you’re 100% going to want ranged attacks on your team to take full advantage of his PD team ability and Enhancement. The two of those together is a lot more brutal than it seems on paper, but you want to make sure you don’t go overboard and sink another 100 points into a single ranged attacker.

At 75 points, I would recommend a dive buddy with him, probably someone with Plasticity. Since he’s giant-sized, you don’t have to be adjacent to make a melee attack, so he can Charge in and drop off his tie-up piece adjacent to his target. This will give him the room to maneuver freely and stop any opposing characters near him from making ranged attacks.

For the teams today, I’m going crazy! There’s just so much to do with this big guy! I have two builds at his 125 point level and two at his 75 point level, with both point values operating pretty differently. Remember, my builds are now Modern with no restrictions!

300 Point Modern Destroyer Thor Full Points Build – Robot

I wanted to make sure I had a very strong ranged attacker on the team, so I opted for Starshine. She’s surprisingly good for only 90 points. Great stats, huge movement with 8 range and Hypersonic Speed, Shape Change to avoid hits, and Invulnerability if you can keep her in range combat rather than close (which should be too hard with your giant Thor robot in the way). The Indom and flight also help a ton so that she can double tap and avoids all the hindering terrain we’ll make while Thor marches through the battlefield.

This doesn’t give us a whole lot of points left to fit in another attacker, so our next team player is Skeets, a fantastic support piece for 35 points. This little guy has Indom to help him get around, and he has the PD team ability and Enhancement to provide the same effect as Destroyer Thor. Plus, his special attack gives adjacent friendly characters +1 to their attack values. Since Skeets is Tiny, he can be carried in by anyone on our team (unless Starshine uses Hypersonic Speed) and he won’t block lines of fire. With his 17 ES/D and tiny size, he’ll be relatively tough to KO and the hurt your opponent will suffer for doing so will pretty much be enough to take out any figure.

With Starshine and Destroyer Thor sitting next to Skeets, we’re getting some big buffs for our team:

Destroyer Thor: 12 Attack, 6 damage Penetrating

Starshine: 13 attack, 6 damage Precision Strike

I figured more number boosting would rock, and Robot has one of the best perplexers with Irma. She’s 25 points which is a little hefty for just Perplex, but she also doesn’t block lines of fire for your own characters. Destroyer Thor can easily Sidestep in carrying Irma, and then drop her off a little ways off, which then she can Sidestep next to your opponent and act as tie-up while Starshine shoots through her. If Destroyer Thor closes the cap, now you’re using Flurry with 6 damage thanks to her Perplex.

I figured it would be a good idea to add some Outwit to the team with only 50 points remaining to help us break through defense powers if we need it or to stop opposing Outwit or Pen/Psy to cripple our defenses, so I went with the non theme-breaking Ape Batman. I’ve included him on builds a lot, so we know what he does; 15 points for Outwit. Good stuff.

The Boxing Ring is actually really good with Destroyer Thor since he’s giant sized and doesn’t care about terrain, and it protects him on the approach, effectively giving him +2 to defense. Anyone foolish enough to get into the ring with him will suffer from his Flurry, and the double Sidestep gets him out quickly if they choose to stay outside of it. Starshine likes it too since her Flight will allow her to practically ignore it for Hypersonic Speed and boost her 17 defense for ranged defense.

For the last 5 points, I went with the Cyclops ID as he gives us more ranged damage. You can go with either option; the 50 point Headmaster for 11 attack 3 damage Penetrating damage (that will go up to basically a 15 attack next to Skeets and the 2 PD team abilities from him and Thor with 5 damage thanks to the Enhancements), or the Fast Forces version for the same stats, but taking on Ranged Combat Expert instead of Penetrating damage and a situational Prob. Since the PD team abilities will essentially give a -2 to defense, it offsets the Ring quite nicely.

Next up, Armor!

300 Modern Destroyer Thor Full Points Build – Armor

This team is all about throwing lots of ranged damage out and controlling the board with our good friend, Mr. Freeze. He’s a bit scary as his values drop heavily and his reducers aren’t all that, but he’s included on this team to basically make whatever target you want useless. When Freeze hits, he gives out action tokens, gets to attach the Ice Wall to one of his targets giving them a -2 to defense and stops them from being moved or placed, AND it hits them for 1 penetrating damage if the opposing player doesn’t spend an action to remove it on another character.

Next up is a character people have been asking me about since the Spring, Golden Skull! I actually really like him on this team because he acts as a pseudo-Headmaster a la X-Men with Leadership and Perplex, the first of which will give us token removal on Mr. Freeze since he lacks Indom or Thor for gratuitous damage, and the later for boosting as I talked about in the last team. Golden Skull also ups adjacent characters attack values by +1, so tack on even MORE boosting to our team. Finally, the Skull also brings two Deathbots at the start of the game with Sidestep, 9 Pen/Psy, Toughness, and 2 damage. While he’s on the board, they gain Automous, so we can plug away shots for free with them every other turn, and the Sidesteps will allow them to keep a pretty quick pace. Next to Thor and their master, they’ll basically have 11 attack and 3 damage penetrating, for free!

For support, I turned to Iron Heart, perhaps the best all-around support piece in the game right now for just 25 points. She kicks things off with Outwit which will help a ton, but she serves a secondary purpose as being Golden Skull’s personal taxi service as well as dedicated Mastermind Fodder since she has a good chance of living through a lot of attacks. Iron Heart will be a lynch pin in this team.

With 10 points remaining, I decided to say screw it and buff Freeze more rather than defending him like I normally would, and I did that with Scarface. This synergizes so well with him because now we get Ranged Combat Expert which pairs nicely with Sidestep for complete chaos and almost guaranteed hits, or Energy Explosion to give out tokens to an entire army, like X-Men teams. It gives Freeze all the tools he needs to take out any team be it tentpole or swarm.

I can’t decide which of these new versions of teams I like better (they were MUCH different yesterday based on my screw-up). The Robot team has two big hitters and the boxing ring to protect them, but the Armor team has 4 attacks and a lot of options, with basically 6 actions a turn. I’ll have to pick up the missing pieces I need for both and try them out.

Okay, let’s move onto the 75 point builds with our first named theme team!

300 Modern Destroyer Thor 75 Points Build – Asgardian

There is literally no better Asgardian to pair with Destroyer Thor than Hogun. The amount of raw damage you’re going to get out of this 165 point combo is insane. Hogun has a pretty neat power called Warriors Three, Hogun Leading the Charge which of course grants him Charge, but also says that if he hits, any friendly Asgardians he started the action next to can use Charge as FREE for the turn. Destroyer already has Charge and with Super Strength and Exploit Weakness, he can throw out a TON of damage thanks to Hogun. This basically gives you Flurry on Destroyer Thor, except that you can hit two different targets in a pretty large area (thanks to Giant Reach), and since he’s a Giant, he won’t have much of a problem breaking away if he wants to. You’re basically getting Charge/Flurry/Super Strength/Exploit Weakness in one turn, not to mention that Hogun will give this Charge to anyone else he’s next to.

I wanted a way to pull Hogun out of trouble if he needs it since every time I use him, he gets targeted immediately, so I went with Heimdall from the movie set. His powers are a little light for 60 points as just a taxi for Asgardians (that doesn’t go that far at all), but with Hogun’s power, he can Charge in and then teleport away behind a wall, protecting Hogun from the counter strike. He won’t be able to pull Thor as he’s a Giant, but that’s okay because Thor can soak up some damage just fine since he goes into Flurry.

If you’re going to have a taxi for your Asgardians, why not jam some token removal in there? I’ve talked about how much I love this Loki Odin in Asgardian teams before and he fits in very well here. Leadership to pull tokens from either Hogun or Destroyer to keep the tempo going and he ups their attacks by +1 after their first attack that hits. It’s a little slower than Perplex, but it’s global for only 25 points. He’s also got Mastermind, so Heimdall can keep him close and then have attacks transferred to him and hopefully land on his Blades/Claws/Fangs clicks for the free Charge from Hogun. Make sure you know you can’t use Super Senses if you Mastermind onto him as he becomes hit.

With few points remaining, I figured a retaliator would be best, and thankfully Asgardian has the best one; Surtur. Holy crap is this dude insane. Did they manage to poke Thor or hurt little Hogun? Oh that’s nice because THEY’RE DEAD. Surtur is the bet retaliator because no matter what’s on that characters dial, if he rolls well (with that 12 attack baby!), they’re taking 3 damage, and then he’ll splash 1 penetrating damage to everyone around him. While 6 speed isn’t the best to get him out, on the right map he’ll be able to find some cover. This is a huge insurance plan to keep your guys healthy.

What a minute, did I say that you should have some Plasticity for Thor to carry into battle if he’s lower points? I got you covered with the Mud Man bystander. Since bystanders don’t count against Theme, we can easily add him on, and he’s the best tie-up piece in the game because of that. Traited Plasticity, Sidestep, Shape Change, and Super Senses with his Life tokens that requires him to be KO’d THREE times makes him insanely good for just 20 points. Thor can carry this dude in and just make life hell as he ties down anyone around him and is almost impossible to take down. He also has Quake, so he can force a disengage if he wants, or just hit everyone for 2 damage. Make sure you note that the dial on HCRealms is incorrect.

With just 5 points remaining, you could go with an ID card, but I opted for the Shield for Heimdall to keep him a little more safe from range. It’s a flex pick, so use your best judgement on what you think the team needs.

For our final team, we’re going back to another generic team with Police!

300 Modern Destroyer Thor 75 Points Build – Police

First up is Ultimate Thor. This guy is pretty neat at 100 points. While you lose the Outwit from his 125 point line, you get access to the real reason to play him; his special movement Mr. Ultimate Thor which gives him Charge and the ability to be placed next to someone on your team with the Asgardian Keyword and “Thor” in their name. Destroyer Thor checks that box, so place away! He serves as a great dive-buddy to Destroyer since he can spend the early game grabbing a Heavy object, then place next to the big guy to charge in and deal 6 damage on a hit, or he can do run and gun tactics by Charging in by himself and then placing next to a hidden Destroyer to keep him safe. He does also have 6 range, so you could even use him as a ranged attacker and utilize the PD team ability from Destroyer. Oh yeah, he has PD as well, so they can both shift to ranged attackers if you need!

Dino-Thor works well with both of these guys and brings, you guessed it, another PD team ability, giving opponent’s a -2 against any ranged attack we’re making. Dino-Thor plays the best run-and-gun tactics on our team with Hypersonic Speed, but it’s his Scales of Justice power that really has me giddy. If he’s next to an opposing character and a friendly character, he can lower all their values by 1 and increase your buddies values +1. That’s a massive swing in power, and it persists to your next turn. Here’s how I see the ideal turn working: Destroyer Thor Charges in and swings for a big 4 penetrating damage. Ultimate Thor is placed next to Destroyer just 1 square away from the opponent. Dino-Thor Hypersonic Speeds in stopping next to both of the others and makes a ranged attack with 3 range, reducing the targets defense by -2 and hits for another 4, and then stops between them and Ultimate Thor. He pops his Scales of Justice and juices Ultimate to give him 12 attack and 5 damage, who then Charges in with a Heavy object and hits for 7. That’s 15 damage from 3 actions. Woof!

For tie-up, I added Renee Montoya. I really like her as she acts like she’s everywhere within 3 squares for breakaway and while she doesn’t have Sidestep, there’s still a 50/50 shot they fail. I’ll take a huge area of breakaway as a runner up to Plasticity. Renee also has PD, so that means a -3 to defense when anyone on our team attacks (making her own 10 attack not so bad), and she has Enhancement so that Dino-Thor can hit for 5 in the above scenario, or we can just play more of a firefight game. She’s a great piece to drop down right in front of Destroyer Thor before the big fight.

For the final 5 points, I figured it would be a good idea to give Ultimate Thor a piece of equipment since he passes it on for free when he’s KO’d. I opted for the Christmas Present because it gives him free abilities so we aren’t taxing the team anymore. Free Incap is fantastic and can help to token down a different piece to stop them from hitting you back after you nuke someone, and if you roll really well, you completely shut down the enemy team (since you’ll be in their face the range of 6 won’t really matter)… all for free. With that nifty placement power, Ultimate Thor can go equip this on turn 1 and chill in the back until he’s summoned by his cop buddies.

Oh and I almost forgot; all three of our Thor’s have the Crack the Case trait. IF your targets don’t die from your alpha strike, or the enemy team has an alpha strike team of their own, go ahead and double all that damage I talked about because we’re going to get a LOT of free attacks.

This team is a little more versatile than the Asgardian team since it can do both range and melee quite well, leaning a bit more towards melee since there’s no Running Shot or Sidestep on Ultimate Thor or Destroyer Thor.

All four of these teams are quite interesting and they all do something a little different. I think that’s why I like the non-Prime version of Destroyer Thor so much more than the Prime; he has two very easy-to-play point values and they play so differently meaning you’ll get a ton of mileage out of the piece. I really want to try fusing some of these teams together in 400 point games. I can see how stupid Destroyer at 125 would be with Hogun; since he has Flurry, he can trigger that off of the FREE Charge. That’s 15 damage from one dude in a single turn. Oof! A little too rich for 300 points though.

What are your thoughts on the onslaught of teams I built? Which one was your favorite? How would you build around this guy? How pissed are you that I put false information in here the first time and had to completely redo two of my teams and a portion of the article? Let me know in the comments section!

If you didn’t see the update to the home page, I did write my annual ROC Cup Results and Musings article, but Patrick tapped me and asked for it to be a select article on Apex Insiders. If you’re a member (which I highly recommend if you want to up your gameplay for just $3 a month), you can find it there.

See you guys next week over at Two Clicks From KO as we dive into Chase or Pass, Battleworld edition!