Continuing with the theme of pieces that have caught my interest, today’s article is about building around that alternate reality Hal Jordan, Green Light. Special shout-out to zstrong24 on reddit for the request for this build!

I feel like Superman/Wonder Woman (which should have just been called Superman and Sometimes Wonder Woman) set a new establishment for ultra-themed chases in a while. Sure we got the Sins in Trinity War, but take a look at the record since SMWW. SMWW got Red Son. World’s Finest got Kingdom Come. Uncanny X-Men got Age of Apocalypse. Superior Foes of Spider-Man got Spider-Verse. Wizkids has been on a roll with their chase lines lately, but it sort of feels like KC took the spotlight away from how cool the Red Son chases were.

Green Light was an especially cool chase. I like him because he’s only 90 points, so he doesn’t eat half your build total like a lot of chases do. At the same time, he brings a unique build tool with him that helps you in creating an awesome team. Let’s take a look at his kit and what we have to work with.

For 90 points, we get 6 clicks of life; not the best in the world. We get 7 range with a single bolt, and the Flight and Indomitable symbols. For his powers, he starts with the wonderful 9 Running Shot/10 Penetrating-Psychic Blast combo, along with 17 Toughness and 3 Perplex. After two clicks, he drops to Sidestep with a special attack power and Energy Shield/Deflection. His last click is around Bystander levels with nothing but a special defense power. Like I said earlier, his trait is really where it’s at.

EMPOWER A BRIGADE: Friendly characters of 40 points or less can use Toughness and the Flight ability.

Talk about a team player! Flight is great, giving your teammates the ability to just ignore terrain of all types and fly over other characters, but the real treat is Toughness. Think of all the small pieces you have that would benefit from a damage reducer.

So you’ve got a ranged attacker that is pretty mobile and helps keep your team alive. What’s even better is his how strong he gets as he takes some damage via his special attack power:

BOX WITHIN A BOX WITHIN AN INFINITE NUMBER OF BOXES: Green Light can use Barrier. When he does, instead of placing markers normally, you may choose a single base opposing character within range and line of fire and place a blocking terrain marker in each unoccupied square adjacent to the character. That character gains Earthbound/Neutralized until your next turn. At the beginning of your next turn before removing the markers, give the chosen character an action token if it’s adjacent to at least three of these markers.

Now that is a Barrier I want to use. Not only do you get to block a character in and stop them from doing anything on their next turn, you also get to toss them an action token if they don’t manage to break down at least one those walls and escape, meaning you’re burning two of their actions for yours. This makes Green Light a valuable asset through his entire dial. His last click has that special defense power, which is basically a stop click and grants Super Senses that lets him heal if he succeeds. However, it CAN be countered or ignored, so Pulse Wave is still going to wipe Hal off the map.

So what do we want to do with Green Light? Obviously, the best use of him is to play him with a lot of small point characters, and Bystanders come to mind. Typically characters that can create these tokens will do so with decent stats, and you end up not paying a ton of points while getting somewhat vanilla/weak dials. Plus, Bystanders have a 0 point cost so they will always qualify for his less-than-40-point condition.

Let’s jump into the builds, shall we?

300 Point Green Light Build – No Resources

SMWW 064 Green Light Possessed with Proteus (125 Points)

CWSOP 111 Namor (110 Points)

SFSM 029 Overdrive (35 Points)

SMWW 029v Lana Lang (20 Points)

SFSM 005 Thug (10 Points)

Build Total: 300 points

This build is really focusing on boosting tokens. The thing I love about pieces that produce Bystanders is that typically the token’s actions’ won’t count against your total (or at least their movements won’t). I always tell people that if they’re going to play a swarm team that they’re going to run out of actions fast and that will seriously hinder their plans.

Namor is the type of piece I’m talking about. Able to spawn a total of 6 Atlanteans that can move without using our allotted actions and giving them a +1 boost to attack is really quite good. With the addition of Green Light’s trait, now they get Toughness on top of their 16 Combat Reflexes (yay for Poison immunity!) as well as Flight, giving them the reach they need in order to really do some damage. Namor also has traited Leadership, so he’ll most likely help us to keep our attacks going for quite some time. And hey, if he gets knocked down to his lower dial, he becomes a melee monster.

Overdrive is just so great. I know I play him on a lot of teams, but he’s honestly the best choice here for a taxi. Because we’re giving all our characters Flight (okay, not Namor), none of our pieces would be able to be carried via traditional means. Vehicles ignore movement symbols, so the Charged Up Bystander isn’t effected by this. Not to mention that now the car gets Flight meaning that only indoor maps will be a hindrance. Oh, plus the Empower is golden for the Atlanteans. EDIT: I didn’t realize that they are granted flight, not the wing movement symbol, so they can choose to not use flight and just be carried via traditional means. His points are still prefect for the build and Empower rocks.

Lana Lang provides the same thing as Overdrive: really cheap Empower. With these two next to our Atlantean army, we’re getting a +2 to damage and they already have Close Combat Expert. These things are getting out of hand! It certainly doesn’t hurt that Lana can more or less Outsiders any opposing character, but also stops replacements as well. Not bad for 20 measly points. Thug is here because he’s just a great 10 point asset. Who can complain about 4 clicks of life with Toughness, Flight, and 2 damage? Not me!

Before moving on to the next build, I want to briefly talk about Proteus in this line-up. This guy is nuts on a team like this. Green Light is already a solid piece with decent numbers, and he already has Perplex to help him out. However, once we put Proteus on him, we get 10 movement, 11 attack, 18 defense, 4 damage, and 8 range… and we still have Perplex to use! On click 2, he keeps all that, but his attack goes up to a printed 11, so we’re at a whopping 12 attack with Pen/Psy! What I really like about Proteus on him though is that it’s a means to get Green Light to his special attack power. Once you’ve shot your way through a couple people, odds are that Proteus will burn you down 2 or 3 clicks. Usually a piece with Toughness at 90 points won’t live long enough to see the use of a 3rd click Special power, but thanks to this purple energy freak, we may actually get to use it. If Hal dies, throw Proteus onto your Atlaneans and just buff them up. You have plenty of stuff to juggle him on. The options here are just endless and I really dig it.

Okay, so how about a competitive build for Green Light? You got it!

300 Point Competitive Green Light Build

SMWW 064 Green Light Possessed with Proteus (125 Points)

SFSM 054 Devil Dinosaur (100 Points)

SFSM 029 Overdrive (35 Points)

Avengers Round Table/Justice League Teleporter Resource (5 Points)

6 ID Cards of choice (30 Points)

Build Total: 295 Points

C’mon, if you’re going to run a token producer in modern competitive, you play Devil Dinosaur. Namor is great, but Devil makes three tokens each time and he’s an absolute monster with the Round Table. Also, the Toughness from Green Light will give the tokens that all-so-necessary damage reducer that will protect them from tiny hits, knockback damage, and Poison. Just like Namor, DD’s tokens can move without burning our action total, but we do lose the traited Leadership.

The reasoning behind Overdrive was stated in the last build. I also kept Proteus because I honestly feel that his 35 points just turn Green Light into a beast. With the addition of ID cards, we can get someone like Nightwing who can pop out a healer and take a stab at keeping ol’ Hal alive and kicking.

In case you aren’t aware just why the Round Table is great with Devil Dinosaur’s tokens, it’s because they soak damage and turn your table so you can get to the oh-so-rare final power that lets you call in HUGE pieces permanently. Want King Thor in a 300 point game? This is the only way you’re going to do it. The key here is that the tokens need to be assigned 3 or more damage in order to get extra clicks of the resource, and Green Light’s Toughness will push people to attack with higher natural damages (yes, I know a 2 damage can still KO one once it has Toughness, but it eliminates the ability for pieces with 1 damage to take them out).

For ID cards, it’s really up to you what you’d want to run. My recommendations would be to get Fury on there, probably Nightwing for the Tony Zucco pog, maybe The Atom for retaliation, and one or two BIG pieces like King Thor. Inspiration can really help here (Swordsman is a great option for Flurry on the Drop Bears), but maybe look into pieces that are lower than 90 points so that Green Light can call people in if he needs to. There’s nothing wrong with total versatility.

There you have it, the first true fan request team build. I hope you guys like what I’ve done with Red Son Hal Jordan and what pieces I’ve paired him with. As usual, I’m sure there are better options, but try and remember that I unfortunately haven’t played in ROC’s or high-level tournaments, so everything I piece together is strictly theoretical. If you have some other cool ideas, jot them down in the comments! This piece isn’t just about me and my thought process after all! I’m sure zstrong24 will want some other perspectives!

Catch you next week!