So you like a character, but don’t like the particular piece I focused on? I hear ya! Spotlight is a variant of my Team Build article series focused on building around a particular character rather than piece. Welcome the Master of Magnetism!Why Magneto: Magneto has always been a favorite character of mine, and even though the X-men comics are rather annoying in that they basically have their own continuity aside form the rest of the Marvel Universe, Magneto has always been just a badass. Magneto doesn’t want to take over the world. He doesn’t want riches or land. He just wants Mutants to be safe and unlike Charles Xavier, Magneto will do anything to obtain that goal. I’ve been liking what Marvel has been doing with Magneto lately; he’s kind of a hero, but he still doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty, or hiding the truth of his rather complicated plans and actions.

We got three versions of Erik in the Uncanny X-Men set. Unfortunately, that’s all we have for modern. Hopefully we’ll get some more versions of him in January/February with the release of Deadpool and X-Force. Luckily, each version is really great in it’s own right. As I did previously, I’ll rate each one on a scale of 1-5, and then I’ll make team builds with them.

1. UXM 029 Magneto – 50 points

This is our support Magneto, clocking in at 50 points.He’s got the Brotherhood team ability, which is nice to have on support type pieces so they can move where they need to without taking valuable actions in 300 point-level games. He’s got 6 range with a single bolt, and 5 clicks of life; pretty great when you’re paying 10 points per click. Starting with 8 Sidestep, 10 Telekinesis, 17 with a Special (Energy Shield and Willpower) and 3 damage. After his first click, he picks up his other Special power which grants hims Sidestep and Stealth, a nice addition to his powerset to keep him safe. Once he hits click 3, he gets Pulse Wave which is fantastic on a 50 point TK’er. What pushes this Magneto from okay to good is his trait. Once per game, he can use Running Shot as a free action and he has the Wing symbol (flight) for that action. If you happen to get to his 3rd click without dying, Magneto can Pulse Wave twice in one turn, or do it two turns in a row. Or you can simply use it on top dial and get 3 damage out of your TK’er. The only downside to the uncommon is he’s just a tad too much to actually run when you could use S.T.A.R. labs tech and get more use of those extra 17 points. Score: 3/5

2. UXM 040 Magneto – 90 Points

If you want an offensive Magneto, this is your guy. 90 points, 8 range, single bolt, flight, and the X-Men team ability, with X-Men being his only keyword. He’s only 6 clicks long, but this version of Erik has fantastic values to make up for it. He starts with 10 Running Shot, 11 Telekinesis, 17 with a Special (Energy Shield and Toughness), and 4 damage with Enhancement. That’s nothing to scoff at. For 90 points, this Magneto can TK or hit pretty hard early in the game. Toughness gives him some umf that the uncommon is lacking, and he has some real late-game potential picking up 11 Precision Strike, Willpower, and dipping into Ranged Combat Expert on his last two clicks with Force Blast. This Magneto has a great trait as well. You can give him a Power Action and attach his Clix FX base to ally, granting them Energy Shield as long as Magneto is on the board. That’s huge. Imagine giving a piece that’s cheap with high defense but only Combat Reflexes the added benefit of Energy Shields. Hmm… who would that benefit? *Cough* Turtles * Cough* Nightcrawler *Cough* Beast *Cough*. A very solid piece, but I can’t rate him perfect because of the next piece. Score: 4.95/5

3. UXM 062 Magneto – 150 Points

When I heard about the Age of Apocalypse chases. Not only did we get him, he’s easily the best of the chases, still fetching around $80. Coming in at 150 points, we get Flight, Indom, 8 range with a single bolt, and 7 clicks of life with no team ability. His keywords are simply Age of Apocalypse and X-Men, making it a little tough to build around, but one of his trait helps us there; when building your force, you get to pick a character of 150 points or less and they have the X-Men keyword for the game. And it’s not like we didn’t get any good support or low-cost attacking X-Men in UXM, right? On top dial we have 9 Sidestep, 10 TK, 18 Invincible, and 3 Leadership. Nothing too outstanding and his attack is pretty low for half your build, but his dial stays really strong throughout going to Impervious on click 2, picking up Pen/Psy and Outwit mid-dial, and Running Shot through the second half along with Pulse Wave and Perplex on his last two clicks. The real meat here though is his first trait. I’ll just jot that here:

THIS ENTIRE WORLD IS DEAD DREAMS AND SCRAP: If there are no Scrap Metal markers attached to Magneto, you may give him a power action to destroy up to two walls or squares of printed Blocking terrain within 8 squares and attach that many Scrap Metal markers (maximum 2). Give Magneto a free action and remove all attached Scrap Metal markers to make that many object attacks as if he was holding a heavy object.

How could you ever want something more for half your build? The issue is always getting the most of your points with damage output (and not dying right off the bat), and chase Mags certainly gets the job done. Keep in mind that with those scrap markers he can make either close -OR- ranged attacks. Simply amazing. Score 5/5

We undoubtedly have less pieces than Wonder Woman to work with, and the Uncommon Magneto is more of just a utility support piece, so I’m only going to be building two teams today; one around the Rare and the other around the Chase. I know, it’s kind of a cop-out, but I really wanted to do a Magneto article!

Remember, Spotlight is more about just using these characters, so there’s less of an emphasis on competitive here. These are going to focus more on LGS play, so we’re going to set some ground rules for the builds: 300 Points, No Resources (unless otherwise noted). This keeps things consistent as a LOT of LGS’s opt for no resources to keep things on a level playing field.

UXM 040 Magneto Build – 300 Points, No Resources

UXM 040 Magneto Possessed by Brainiac (115 Points)

UXM 054 Quicksilver Possessed by Eclipso (100 Points)

UXM 005 Emma Frost + 5 Points for Optional Trait (85 Points)

Build Total: 300 Points

I realize that this build is only 300 points, but I think it’s exceptionally strong when you break it down. Magneto is already a very good ranged attacker and he has TK with Flight, so he effectively serves three rolls of Primary Attacker, TK’r, and Taxi. When he’s possessed by Brainiac, you’re getting Impervious along with his Energy Shield and you can give him +1 to defense which makes him incredibly hard to hit from range (20 defense). Sidestep from Brainiac will let him creep up into Running Shot range while keeping him as a high-cost support early game. Plus, you get World Running Like Clockwork mid-dial. Quicksilver is just balls good and Eclipso makes him better. Once Magneto pops that FX token on Pietro, he’s going to have a 20 defense from range just like Speed Demon. The Flurry doesn’t suck either, and since Eclipso can give Precision Strike, we know he’s going to hit. Emma is a lot better than people give her credit. We’ve already got 11 attack on both Maximoffs (okay, Magneto is Lencherr, give me a break), so why not go to 12 to make sure we always hit? She can also be our dedicated TTPC’er and healer via the X-Men team ability. We’re getting a lot of side stuff here with only 3 characters because they’re X-Men. If you don’t have both possessors, you can drop Quicksilvers and give him the Civil War ATA (he’s an Avenger) to give him Plasticity or Sidestep and grab two Thugs. Side note: Carnage would be an incredible piece to give the Clix FX base to since he has 18 with Combat Reflexes and is a monster in close quarters.

UXM 062 Magneto Build – 300 Points, No Resources

UXM 062 Magneto (150 Points)

WF 048 Zatara (100 Points)

UXM 002 Nightcrawler (50 Points)

Build Total: 300 Points

Another 3-man team? Yep, but that’s because AoA Magneto is 150 points so it’s a bit harder to get more on there and keeping theme and let’s face it – with his trait, you want to stick with a theme team. What better way to use that trait than picking up an ultra support piece like Zatara? Zatara is great because not only is he a down-right deadly ranged attacker in his own right, he brings Mystics, Prob, and DOUBLE Perplex to anyone he shares a keyword with, which becomes our whole team thanks to Mags. Plus, the dude has TK, so you could effectively Perplex Magneto’s attack to a twelve, TK him out, and have him make three attacks in one turn. Brutal. Nightcrawler is on here because I searched 50 point X-Men in modern and he was the best option. You could go Kitty Pryde if you wanted to and pay for her optional trait, and it wouldn’t be bad at all. I just like that Kurt is such a fantastic tie-up piece with 188 and Combat Reflexes, along with the ability to make blink attacks. He’s a solid investment in my opinion, and he can also serve as a source of TTPC, so we effectively get two Prob pieces on a three-man team. Make sure you pick a map with a decent amount of blocking terrain!

BONUS BUILD – UXM 062 Magneto Build – 400 Points, No Resources

UXM 062 Magneto (150 Points)

WF 048 Zatara (100 Points)

UXM 066 Weapon X (80 Points)

UXM 043 Sunfire + Optional Trait (55 Points)

X-Men Blue ATA on all four (12 Points)

Build Total: 397 Points

Now that’s more like it! I figured since Magneto is only getting two builds in a Spotlight article, I would do a bonus 400 point build for the chase. We’re sticking with Zatara as our honorary X-Men just because of how many rolls he plays. Weapon X is stupid good attacker with Charge/Sidestep/Stealth, 12 attack, and 3 damage Exploit Weakness. With Zarata, we can change that to a 14 attack, ensuring Logan hits practically anyone in the game. Sunfire is a kick-ass ranged attacker, bringing Running Shot and Pulse Wave to the party, and again Zatara can help with that 10 attack value. If he dies, pop out the Prime and go ham. The ATA is on there as a point filler and if Magneto succeeds at Leadership, everyone gets +1 to their attack value. Not bad for 12 points.

There you have it; the second spotlight article. Sure it wasn’t nearly as long as the Wonder Woman article, but that’s because we have so few pieces to work with. I’ll try and keep these articles for pieces that have more of a presence in Modern. Have any recommendations? Have a character you want to see next? Let me know in the comments below!