We see a lot of Super Rares that get a Prime version cast off as the black sheep, and often times they aren’t talked about at all. Hela is one of those cases, and I wanted to actually challenge myself to build around her as I think she’s better than she seems. Join me, foolish mortals!

Yes, Primes returned in The Mighty Thor, and they did so in a big way. We got Red Leader, one of the best support pieces we’ve seen in a long time and a resurrection mechanic making him insane on Thunderbolts teams. We got Skurge, who I talked about on Thursday on Two Clicks From KO. We got Odin the Destroyer, perhaps the newest Prime to make its way into the competitive environment and his rather stupid ability to use 2 ID cards in a single turn. Lastly, we got Angela, a piece that’s extremely efficient and brutal, whom I’m still trying to figure out how to best abuse her (seriously, I want to make her work so badly but I keep getting hung up).

Compared to their counterparts, Hela is arguably the ‘worst’ of the A sides of these characters. Leader is still a functional double-Outwit piece, Executioner is one of the most cost-effective melee pieces in the game, and Destroyer is a great piece at destroying much of this set making him a valuable addition right now. Hela on the other hand is 150 points, taking up half your team and she looks rather lackluster compared to her Prime counterpart (who also happens to be the one who kicked her ass out of Hel).

But is Hela as bad as players make her out to be? I don’t think so. I think there’s some real neat tech with Hela that can make her a decent play. Is she a piece that you should run out and buy? Well, maybe if she’s under $10, but this is more for the folks that pulled Hela and are stuck in what to do with her. I’m hoping this team build lights a fire of passion in your heart and pushes you towards playing her in your next event. Heck, I like this build so much, I might actually pick her up.

As I mentioned above, Hela takes half your build at 150 points and has 8 clicks of health; pretty substantial. She comes equipped with 6 range with a single target, Flight, Indomitable, and the Mystics team ability. She’s got some really good Keywords with Asgardian, Diety, Mystical, and Ruler, has a single trait, and two special powers.

Dial-wise, Hela is actually pretty decent aside from one aspect. Movement starts with 10 Phasing for two clicks, drops to 8 with her Special Movement Power on click three, and finished on clicks seven and eight with 10 Stealth. Her attack is quite strong with 11 Pen/Psy on her first two clicks, moving to 10 Poison for three clicks, dropping Poison on click six, and then climbing to 11 on seven, and 12 on eight. Defensively, Hela starts strong with 18 Invincible for two clicks, 17 Super Senses from click three to six, and 18 Regeneration on her last two clicks. Her damage is 3 across the board with Probability Control on clicks one and two, Outwit on three through five, and her Special Damage Power on clicks six through eight. The big downside to Hela is her lack of move and attack for 150 points, but her Indom will help her position as it’s a much more rare sight these days.

Her trait is the namesake of today’s article, and sets her up as a very interesting team player:

RELEASE THE SOULS OF HEL: When a non-bystander character is KO’d, heal Hela 1 click and you may generate a Warrior Soul bystander normally (in an adjacent square) or in that character’s square.

This ability seems very good as it generates a pog with Phasing, 10 Blades, and 17 Super Senses whenever one of your teammates someone is KO’d, and also heals Hela 1 click. However, this only activates when a non-bystander is KO’d. Seeing as Hela is 150 points, you’re probably only going to get this to activate a couple of times a game, unless you play a swarm team which won’t really do Hela any favors and doesn’t synergize that great with her.

Her Special Movement Power that shows up on most of her dial is pretty fun and powerful:

OBEY THE POWER OF DEATH: Mind Control. When Hela uses it, she has a range value of 9, two lightning bolts.

Mind Control got a huge buff (or nerf depending on your stance), and a 9 range with two targets and Outwit on those same clicks is very strong. If circumstances happen to line up, you could Mind Control an opponent on their last click, smack one of the opposing characters who has Mystics, and get another bystander/heal to Hela just from her Mind Control. Not to mention that the ability to take two separate characters is very strong.

Hela’s Special Damage Power is by far the best portion of her kit, and it’s unfortunate that it’s on the end of her dial:

ASGARDIAN GODDESS OF DEATH: Exploit Weakness, Shape Change. When a character of 200 points or less would take damage from a close attack made by Hela that is a critical hit, instead immediately KO that character.

Exploit Weakness and Shape Change are always good, but it’s the second portion of this trait that’s money. If Hela manages to Crit hit an opponent while on her last three clicks, they’re done. It doesn’t matter if they have Invincible or Super Senses (remember, a character that is critically hit ‘becomes hit’); they’re gone and immediately scored. While it’s a bummer this is on the end of her dial, she does have great attack values here and it gives her a chance to cause absolute chaos on her way out. Is it likely to happen? Oh heck no, but there’s a chance and that’s all she needs.

Once you look over Hela and really break her down piece by piece, she really isn’t that bad. Mystics with built-in healing is actually very brutal, and her Willpower through Indom will make sure that you aren’t really missing Running Shot. Her Keywords are fantastic as well which makes her easy to build around for a themed team to pick a map that really works in her best interest.

I think a Positive Vs. Negative analysis will go a long way on a character like this as she’s very up-in-the-air about how well she performs.

Positives: Indomitable. Flight. Mystics. Good Keywords. Fantastic opening clicks. Lengthy dial. Self-healing. Generates bystanders with Blades. Fantastic Mind Control. Can potentially one-shot any piece under 200 points.

Negatives: No move-and-attack. Completely squishy after click two. Mediocre values in mid-dial. Trait won’t trigger much at half your build. Damage power is gimmicky as it probably won’t happen. No Outwit protection at a high cost.

There’s a lot here as Hela isn’t just your typical Hulk or Iron Man figure. She requires planning and careful placement to make a solid impact. If you can get her into place without her being countered and gun downed, she will have a pretty big impact on the game. The biggest weakness I see with Hela is that when she’s on her mid-dial, she’s not all that great with only a 10 attack and 17 defense with just Super Senses to defend her. It seems that’s the sweet spot to knock her into (which is where she’ll land with Invincible) as she can pretty much just aim for Mind Control and hope she rolls well. Thankfully, the Shape Change at the end of her dial actually makes the back half very strong.

With all this information, what key aspects does Hela need to conquer Asgard? Movement would help her so that she can get into position easier, but that’s tough to include with only 150 points remaining on your force. Perplex could be a very big benefit to her as he numbers aren’t great, and you can keep her healthy by upping her defense. Low-point allies is what Hela really needs to make her worthwhile so that you can easily generate more attackers and heal her. Outwit would be good to pack to proactively counter out any opposing Outwit, or Invincible/Shape Change/Super Senses since those are the only abilities between her and damage. More than anything, Hela needs a player who is ready for the long haul as she doesn’t really have the capabilities herself to take down huge threats.

As usual, the build for today will be 300 Modern with No Resources. I really feel like the three resources we have available in Modern don’t offer a wide variety of what’s possible, and two of them are convention exclusives, so it’s not really fair to add those in. Not to mention that aside from ID cards, Hela really doesn’t benefit from either the Punisher Van or Supreme Intelligence all that much.

300 Point Modern Hela Team – No Resources

This build started because of the amazing interaction with the common Loki, and it’s a good one. Most every character in Modern that generates pieces continually does so with Bystanders… except for Loki. Each time any common Loki succeeds on Shape Change, be it the real one or illusion, you add another onto the board. Because these characters aren’t bystanders, each one of them that dies will generate a Warrior Soul bystander and will heal Hela of 1 damage. This means your taking an already really nasty combination of annoying Phasing/Incap/tie-up pieces that can potentially create more copies of themselves to the next level by replacing them with a 10 attack Blades piece if they happen to be KO’d. You’re effectively doubling your money that was already worth so much to begin with. Not to mention that the two illusions you start with add to your theme team, making Loki a +3 to theme for 85 points. Oh yeah, and the best part is that when the real Loki hits his STOP click, every single illusion that was out will turn into a warrior soul and Hela will heal that amount.

Jane Foster is a no-brainer in this situation. Sure, she’s a fantastic healer that happens to have our Keyword of choice (seriously, she belongs on pretty much every Asgardian theme team ever), but the real caveat here is that when an adjacent friendly character is KO’d by an attack, she can turn into Thor, and we have TONS of opportunities for this to happen. You have two choices with her; sit her next to Hela along with a solemn Loki to keep her healthy (or heal your main Loki passed his STOP click for even more shenanigans), or you can have her wade out into the battle with your Loki’s and gain an early secondary attacker.

Retaliation is another obvious pick here as one-click characters are another way to trigger Hela’s trait. Surtur seemed like the better option between himself, Ymir, and the Frost Giant because he does the most amount of damage, and I mentioned that damage is lacking with Hela. Sure, he’ll probably only get one hit off before he’s KO’d (or maybe not with all the Incap from our Loki’s), but if that happens, BOOM; another warrior soul and more healing for Hela. She flat-out makes retaliators so much better. If you aren’t worried about theme, Carnage would be an absolutely stupid pick here.

For the final portion of the build, I went with Jarnbjorn, and yes I know it’s a Chase weapon. Once you get passed that though, it’s easy to see why I included this. Not only does this give Hela more damage through her entire dial, it synergizes extremely well with her Special Damage Power. This brings you from a 2% chance of landing this ability to 11% which is a huge difference! With Surtur carrying Hela to the axe and then her equipping it on turn two, you have a very deadly piece that has a pretty decent chance at ruining someone’s day on turn three.

Loki combined with Hela is almost guaranteed to make your opponent either rage or become frustrated with how annoying your team ends up being as they won’t be able to wade through the nonsense that lies in every corner and will continue to grow. This build completely commits to generating a crap-load of warrior souls and keeping Hela healthy throughout. The best part is that if your opponent does manage to get to Hela and hit her, that Mystics damage is going to sting, especially with Jane Foster right behind her, and automatic healing whenever one of her pals goes down. This is potentially my favorite build I’ve made in months and it all came from a character that I initially felt was garbage.

How did you like this week’s build? Is there a different route you would have taken? Would you have sacrificed theme for a specific piece? Have I changed your mind regarding Hela? I would love to hear from you in the comments section!

Thanks for taking the time to read another one of my team builds. There were so many things to review from Thor that I missed these, and I feel like creating these builds are helping not only me but you all as well understand the new rules and how to utilize certain aspects. No guarantees as to when I’ll move to different content, but I know there’s only so much more to build around in Thor. Maybe it’s time to look at the chases and actually utilize them. We’ll see.

Take care and I’ll see you all on Thursday on Two Clicks From KO. OH! Happy Halloween Month!