One of my all-time favorite characters was released in Black Panther and the Illuminati, and he was made even more special as being one our first previews from WizKids, so naturally the first team build for this new set is none other than Mr. Tony Masters – the Taskmaster!

I’ve always liked Taskmaster a whole heck of a lot. When I wasn’t reading comics, seeing this dude in a white cloak and a skull for a face who would routinely kick everyone’s ass made a big first impression. Then I started reading comics, and my first real exposure to Tony was in Deadpool Issue 2, (Vol. 1, 1997) where Deadpool infiltrates his school for henchman and fights Tasky one-on-one. Here I learned what Taskmaster’s potential was, and learned about his photographic reflexes; anyone he sees fight, he can immediately mimic those movements making him the ultimate fighter (although he still doesn’t have the strength of the people he replicates, so Cap can still beat him although not all the time). It’s only until Deadpool figures out that he doesn’t even know what he’ll do next that he beats Taskmaster.

From there, I was instantly impressed by the character, and later had similar moments with his run in the fantastic UDON Agent X books where Taskmaster got a sweet new makeover (I happen to LOVE his outfit in that series and believe these to be my personal pinnacle for comic line work), and his limited solo series where Marvel revealed just who Taskmaster really is and his tragic past.

Seriously, this suit and mask are freakin’ SWEET.

Oh, and for those of you who don’t read; no, his face isn’t a skull. It’s a mask. A really good mask.

Anyway, I was a firm believer that the Civil War Taskmaster was the perfect representation of his character and that we’d never see a better dial for him. Boy was I wrong! This dial is incredibly impressive and has me sold as the go-to dial for Tony Masters. Let’s see what kind of tricks we can play with him.

This is an excellent dial, although it is a tad shallow for his whopping 100-point cost. But that’s okay because a skilled player won’t let Taskmaster ever take a hit, and the Indomitable helps pull some of that weight (as does the Leadership with his point value).

The first bit I want to cover is just how perfectly thematic Taskmaster is in terms of not being associated with any particular group; the dude is a mercenary and just happens to line up with villains more often than not, but he did start out with S.H.I.E.L.D. This is represented in two ways; he has the Team Player team ability (wildcard), but more importantly, his first trait. Just Because You Hired Me, Doesn’t Make Us Friends feels like a direct reference to his appearance in Cable & Deadpool in regards to the name, and the trait perfectly shows how Taskmaster plays. You can play him on a regular theme team, or you can hire him for 100 points and stick him on any team and he just doesn’t count. That opens him up for a lot of different strategies, and also makes his 100-point Leadership very good. Sure, he can’t pull tokens off of a big Iron man on an Avengers team, but he can absolutely pull them off of most of the other members.

Of course, the bread and butter to this guy is his second trait that focuses on his photographic reflexes; I Memorized Moves From Dozens Of Chumps, Take Your Best Shot! This gives Tony a list of 12 powers which he can pick 2 every turn to use, but it doesn’t stop there. If Taskmaster simply targets someone with an attack, they can’t use either of the chosen powers. This opens him up for a ton of counter-play and is somewhat better than Outwit as he can shut down figures with Power Cosmic or Quintessence (hello, Starfire! Wonderful Running Shot you have there!). I’ve gotten to use Tasky once so far and targeting a Starbrand and picking Close Combat Expert and Charge while I tossed my shield from 6 squares out was magical.

These powers are quite good as well. You have both Charge and Running Shot (with his Sidestep giving him a pretty good swing of 6-squares in melee or 12 for range, and Flurry for movement powers. No matter what his target, he can adapt with Incapacitate for taxation, Pen/Psy for tank killing, and Precision Strike to hurt anyone no matter what in the attack slot. Need to go more defensive? No problem, he can pick up both Combat Reflexes and Energy Shield/Deflection. Finally, for damage, he can get through reducers with Exploit Weakness or dish out a big hit with either Close Combat Expert or Ranged Combat Expert. Taskmaster can do it all!

While I do still believe the mechanic of turning his dial with the Civil War Taskmaster was very good and gave him some fantastic counterplay options, I think this is a superior dial that makes Taskmaster feel more like a threat than a nuisance.

TOOLS FOR SUCCESS

At 100 points, you probably aren’t building a team and then saying, “I have 100 points left over, who should I include that’s themed?” So, I believe the first question you should be asking yourself when you want to run him is do you theme him or not. He might not count against theme teams, but he certainly can build one himself.

Going the route of non-themed, you can get some nice benefits by adding characters that require a theme team to work, like the new A.I.M. squad members that work much better if they’re part of a themed team. You can also get Theme Team Probability Control while still getting this awesome attacker on your force by flooding your points with cheap members, like a Giant-Girl swarm on an Avengers team, eliminating the liability of eating up 100 points of your theme build. You also gain access to pretty much any team ability you want in the game, sans uncopiable.

If you go full-themed with Taskmaster himself, you aren’t getting the benefit of his trait, but he can play more easily with characters that require Keywords to match, his Leadership becomes standard, and he gains access to Theme Team Prob himself (although you most likely won’t use it with him). Either option is good, but it comes down to what team you want to run around him.

For his dial, movement is going to help him a lot via TK or a taxi. He’s not the toughest character around with 18-Toughness to keep him alive (Combat Reflexes and ES/D will help when he’s not in the thick of things), so giving him the ability to move around the map without tokening himself down will give you more uptime on his damage potential. I prefer a Taxi since he can Leadership their tokens off.

Perplex is a great option as you can bump one into his defense to bring it up to a 21, up his damage for a nice Flurry attack for 8-damage, increase his movement/range for even bigger swings, or just improve his attack value to guarantee that hit. Probability Control is a no-brainer as well.

A good team ability (see above) is going to change how Taskmaster plays dramatically. Batman Ally for Stealth will be a huge benefit to him, and the Sidestep will make sure he isn’t tripped up while hiding. Avengers Initiative is another great option to let him bust Stealth. Suicide Squad can give him some free healing to combat that dial, or Defenders/JSA can be a great option to make sure he’s always rocking a high defense value.

Support is a good power to bring as Taskmaster doesn’t have access to Regeneration or Steal Energy (he’s a normal dude), so someone that can help him heal up will offset that dial.

Giving him more power options is also a great option to bring. Something like the Common Phil Coulson from the Captain Marvel Gravity Feed can give you access to Pulse Wave, Steal Energy, or any other attack power, so look for synergies that he can pick up from non-themed allies that he can cheat his way onto their force.

Equipment is an amazing asset for Tasky as it gives him even more powers to work with. My favorites would be the Time Gem for Probability Control, the Remaker Ring for Shape Change and Poison, the Venom Symbiote again for Shape Change as well as Plasticity and auto-breakaway, and Mjolnir to give him a lot more options in how he deals damage (and up his stats in melee).

As usual, I’ll be working with a 300-point Modern build today, although it’s been some time since the last Team Build here on Two Clicks From KO (February!), so all my builds are now for 19/20 Modern Age meaning Elseworlds is the oldest set I’ll use.

300 Point Modern Taskmaster Team – 19/20 Modern Age

As I mentioned in the Tools for Success, my first mission was to look through different teams that Taskmaster would work well with, mainly highlighting team abilities and who fits on those teams, shooting for something he themes with. Of those, I looked into S.H.I.E.L.D. utilizing both the common Phil Coulson to give him more attack powers, the rare Phil Coulson as a stupid-good secondary character, and Everett K. Ross for the double Perplex, but there isn’t much more that’s worth running. After searching some others, I settled on Hydra. Oddly enough, none of these characters have the Hydra team ability, but that’s because our pool of those in Modern is… not good.

Hydra has a super taxi in the form of Falcon with his awesome Passenger: 4, big movement (10), and Indomitable to stay quite mobile. He also has the Share Through The Hivemind trait giving everyone on our team within 6 squares of him +1 to defense against ranged attacks, something we’ll want as it pushes our opponent to engage in melee where Taskmaster can just butcher them. He’s also got some sweet end-of-dial Flurry for a good counterattack once he’s hit.

For a secondary attacker, I went with a pair of Winter Soldiers from the new set. This version of Bucky is just dumb for his points giving us a 6-range attacker with Running Shot, 11-attack, and 3 damage, Regen at the end of the dial, some disgusting Ranged Combat Expert clicks mid-dial, and a “downside” trait that’s not even an issue because the odds of it happening are practically 0.

Filling out the support points is an A.I.M. White Squad and Red Squad. While the norm is to run these guys on Avengers teams, they only care if they’re part of a named theme team, which Hydra works. The White Squad will give us both Outwit and Perplex and pushes into a fantastic Support figure with 15-Defend and Support while the Red Squad gives us a +1 to all damage with both Empower and Enhancement. We don’t have the points for the superior Blue Squad, but I think running a Red and White is better than just one Blue. Now our Winter Soldiers are hitting for 4-damage for just 45 points, and Taskmaster can dish some serious damage if he’s next to them as well.

I finalized the build with Mjolnir for Taskmaster giving him 6-range Close Combat Expert or Flurry strikes, or massive stats in adjacency with 12-attack and 4-damage without any powers chosen, or support from the A.I.M. goons. Tasky can also pick it up on turn 1 as Falcon can fly him out to Mjolnir and then he Sidesteps to grab it, equipping on turn 2.

It’s a bummer to not have any team abilities as Hydra would have been awesome to further help the numbers, but instead we’re getting Outwit in addition to Taskmaster’s own countering, Perplex, Support, Empower, Enhancement, a Taxi, +1 defense for all ranged attacks, and two very lethal secondary attackers who don’t mind taking the hits.

HOWEVER, lets say you want to have a team ability to pick from, or even two. I would modify the team this way:

ABPI061 Taskmaster | 100 Points

EAX026 The Hydra (Falcon) | 50 Points

– ABPI016 Winter Soldier | 45 Points

– ABPI016 Winter Soldier | 45 Points

ABPI022 A.I.M. White Squad | 30 Points

ABPI005 A.I.M. Red Squad | 20 Points (Not in units section at time of writing)

(Not in units section at time of writing) + ABPI100 Winter Soldier | 70 Points

+ ABPI005 A.I.M. Red Squad | 20 Points (Not in units section at time of writing)

TMTS009 Mjolnir | 10 Points

Hydra Theme Team: +6

Build Total: 300 Points

By removing the two common Winter Soldier’s and adding in the LE instead, you get access to both the Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. team abilities making Taskmaster a wonderful character to have adjacent to Bucky. You drop down to just two attackers, but you gain a seriously good secondary attacker with the LE Bucky instead. This guy is a much bigger threat, has some evasion built-in, and busts Stealth all on his own.

Since you’re also getting a second A.I.M. Red Squad, you get some huge number boosting, and since Winter Soldier can use Ranged Combat Expert or basically ranged Flurry, here’s the numbers on your attackers when grouped up (Taskmaster, Winter Soldier, both A.I.M. Red Squad adjacent to each other):

-Taskmaster: 7 range, 11-attack, 5-damage. Ranged Combat Expert can push to 12-attack/6-damage. True melee with Mjolnir and Close Combat Expert can push to 14-attack/6-damage. Ranged attacks, -1 to enemy defense.

-Winter Soldier: 8-range, 11-attack, 5-damage. Ranged Combat Expert can push to 12-attack/6-damage. Two ranged attacks hits for 10-damage. Close Combat Expert can push to 12-attack/6-damage. Ranged attacks, -1 to enemy defense.

This is without factoring in the Perplex that A.I.M. White Squad brings to the party, and keep in mind on those RCE/CCE, you can increase the attack all the way to ensure that both Tony and Bucky hit their targets every time.

The downside to this setup is that one good strike can put you deep into the hole as you only have two guys to work with and this version of Bucky doesn’t have Regeneration. But if your opponent lets you get the first hit, good god are you going to blow them up.

I would opt for the first build as I think it’s a bit safer. It might not have the blow up potential, but you have a better chance of controlling the board thanks to three attackers, but the second build would be a lot of fun.

What are your thoughts on this team (and its variation)? Would you have picked a different route for Taskmaster? What have you played him with that did well? Let me know in the comments section below as I’d love to see what other people are coming up with for ‘ol Skullface.

Thanks for joining me today for our first Team Build in months! I miss doing these and hopefully the units section will be updated all the way so I can keep doing them – there’s just so much in this set that I want to build around that I could probably keep making teams through the end of the year with this set alone!

If I have the time, next week I’ll go over the top 8 teams from Nationals. If not, I’ll return with another team build. Whichever direction I go in, you’ll be able to read over on Clix Fix next Tuesday at 10AM PST. Until then, remember that the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!