You all know I’m a Marvel guy, but I do enjoy some Deathstroke. Slade has been a favorite of mine for a while, and we got three new versions of him in Rebirth. Thankfully, the most exciting of these is the common!

While I was looking through the Rebirth figures, there weren’t a lot that I wanted to build around that haven’t already been featured on other sites or experienced success already (like Black Adam). Most of the figures I like are support, because there was a handful of killer support figures in this set, are high in points like Shazam, or have your typical plug-and-play Keywords like Starfire. This left me with little inspiration to piece anything together. Then I remembered that I really, really like the new Deathstroke dial.

No, not the Super Rare. As I mentioned in my set review, I honestly think that dude is overcosted and just clunky against an experienced player. The uncommon is kind of cool, but that’s not Deathstroke to me. Thankfully, the common is. This guy is wonderful, has some killer values, and great powers to make him a highly efficient killer, which is exactly what he is.

Whether my love for Deathstroke is based on the fact that he’s part of Deadpool’s genetic make-up and led to his creation, or the fact that he was supremely badass in the old Teen Titans cartoon, he’s always been a fun character, and I’ve been sad that up until Rebirth I didn’t own any Deathstrokes because good lord does he hold value on the secondary market.

Anyway, let’s see what kind of fun we can drum up with this common!

Deathstoke is 100 points, has 6 clicks of health, Indomitable, can move through hindering, and has the Team Player team ability (a.k.a. wildcard). He’s got 6 range with a single target, a trait, and a special power, so he’s a relatively simple dial to talk about. Keywords are bountiful with Assassin, HIVE, Martial Artist, Solider, and Suicide Squad. Since we don’t get too much DC, the big Keywords for him are going to be those we can mix and match, so Assassin, Martial Artist, and Solider which are all good.

Regarding the dial itself, I’m going to change things up a bit on how I do these. I feel like explaining each stat and how it changes is weird, clunky, and wordy. Instead, I want to start summarizing the phases a dial moves through to give you an idea of how they change.

Deathstroke starts his dial off as a master of combat in all ways; his special movement power is an integral part of this:

The Best There Is: Charge, Running Shot.

Couple this with Penetrating/Psychic Blast and Exploit Weakness with fantastic values like an 11-attack and 3-damage and you have quiet the deadly attacker that is going to deal damage to anyone he hits. He’s also pretty beefy with an 18-defense and Invulnerability.

Once he hits mid-dial, he shifts to a more delicate and precise attacker with Sidestep, Blades/Claws/Fangs, Combat Reflexes, and Ranged Combat Expert. Even through his fifth click, Deathstroke is potentially going to his for a lot of damage; up to 6 in melee or 4 at range. He does become a bit more delicate with 17-Combat Reflexes, but that’s fine since he has no problem going full-melee doorbuster.

For his final click, Slade retreats into the shadows to heal up with Stealth, Blades, 18-Regeneration, and Ranged Combat Expert. Did I say retreat? I meant kicks his way through his opponents and might find time to heal his wounds. That 18-Regeneration is pretty fantastic on a common, and the Stealth can make him even harder to put down for good.

Something special to note about Deathstroke is his attack value; this common has four clicks of 11-attack. That’s remarkable!

If that last click wasn’t enough to give him a longer dial than it seems, than his trait pretty much doubles that:

Remember, We’re Getting Paid: When Deathstroke KO’s one or more opposing characters with an attack, after resolutions heal Deathstroke 2 clicks.

I don’t think he’s going to KO anyone with how brutally offensive he is, do you? Of course, that’s sarcasm. Deathstroke has so much damage oozing from his dial that he’s most likely going to trigger this trait at least twice a game (as long as you aren’t facing a tentpole). What I really like about this trait is that Deathstroke is an incredibly effective counter to the bystander meta we’ve been seeing as of late. Sure, he doesn’t completely disintegrate those teams like Vulture does, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t good.

Put all this together and you have one mean dial that’s going to stick around a lot longer than it would seem on paper. Deathstroke will excel at engaging in the fight no matter how he needs to, will annihilate lower-point figures, and stay incredibly healthy while he does so. And at 100 points, you still have plenty of room for support.

Keys to Success

Since Deathsroke doesn’t need any help with getting through reducers, I would argue that the most important power to bring with him to a fight is Perplex to raise his damage value. Empower and Enhancement work as well, but Perplex is more versatile since you don’t have to decide on which type of attack you’ll be making and keeps Deathstroke versatile. That being said, Perplex is usually a more expensive power point-wise than Enhancement or Empower, so those are great follow-up powers.

Reducers aren’t a problem for Slade (except for Invincible), but Shape Change and Super Senses are. Since that’s basically half of the big defensive powers that still bug him, Outwit will help him out a lot so that you can keep him killing.

Probability Control is of course always useful, so if you can fit that on your team you’ll do well, especially since building a named theme team will be a little difficult with what’s going to be Modern post the 2019 rotation.

Support isn’t really necessary since Deathstroke has his auto-healing trait and Regen at the end of the dial, but Leadership is. “But doesn’t he have Indomitable? Why do I need Leadership?” That’s easy; you get more chances at having Deathstroke act every turn which in turn will keep him healthy and alive. Thanks to his Indom, you don’t have to succeed at Leadership, but it makes him that much more dangerous as you do. An aggressive Deathstroke is a happy Deathstroke.

Mobility isn’t all that bad for Slade, but it wouldn’t hurt to give him a taxi or TK figure to help him get into the fight quicker. After all, if he does take some damage, he’s going to want to be up close for his Combat Reflexes to protect him.

Equipment is a great idea; why not make him even stronger? Because there’s nothing bad on this dial, you can add pretty much anything you want. If you want a more defensive figure, give him the Venom Symbiote. If you want him to be able to hit anyone anywhere no matter where he is on the dial, make him worth with Mjolnir. More free healing? Thunderstrike. Your options are open.

Finally, map choice should help him quite a bit. Something with a good amount of hindering terrain will do you well since he can easily walk through it, but you want to avoid elevation and lots of walls (although big hallways could protect him before the fight since his range is in the average-high range).

Like normal, my team today is 300 Modern, built for the 19/20 Modern Age, so nothing older than Elseworlds is present. I want these articles to last!

300 Point Modern Deathstroke Team

Disclaimer: since this is a DC team, I tried hard to use as much DC as I could (and this was also true when selecting a figure to build around today). There’s just simply more options with Marvel.

Soldier is the most diverse of Deathstroke’s three generic Keywords, so I went with that option, especially since there have been some killer Soldier teams doing well in ROC events as of late.

I decided to buddy up Deathstroke with the newest Title Captain America as these two make a fantastic pairing. Cap brings 18-Defend to the team to keep Deathstroke higher in defense if he takes some damage, and he has Perplex so that he can help Deathstroke hit for bigger damage. He’s also Indomitable so both of our attackers are able to swing 4 times before having to rest. What I really like about Cap though is that he brings a lot of utility and synergy to Deathstroke; he can allow him to move for free 1 square, can almost negate Mind Control, and my favorite – he’s incredible about hitting figures anywhere on the map for small bits of damage. Cap is the one to our one-two punch and together these two super soldiers should be able to take down pretty much anything that isn’t 150+ points.

If you’re going Soldier, you play Rare Coulson, end of discussion. My last Clix ‘O The Week article on Majestix was about Coulson, but in case you don’t have a subscription (which I highly recommend), here’s what you need to know: Coulson provides you with one of the best taxi’s, can hand out ES/D to allies, can use any damage power in the game, has Incap with great attack values, sees through Stealth while having it himself, has Leadership, and he has a STOP click with auto-healing built in. That’s incredible for only 75 points. Not only does Coulson help our entire team to get into position, pull tokens, and provide whatever support we need (hello pocket Support!), he gives Cap insane reach thanks to his +1 Title Ability, A Journey Of Failure And Redemption which lets him move up to 1 square and make a close attack. Try hiding from the team!

Oh yeah, plus Coulson has the S.H.I.E.L.D. team ability for Deathstroke to take, or he can use it himself to further increase Deathstroke/Cap’s damage.

With few points left, I decided to add the incredible Prez Rickard to the lineup over the FOOT Elite (boomerang) or anyone else with Empower or Enhancement. Rickard is going to find himself on a lot of my teams moving forward because he’s an all-star. The kid doesn’t break theme, gives us another 18-Defend, and he can remove action tokens from everyone on our team. Sure, double Leadership might be a little overkill, but that gives us some really great odds at pulling tokens off of our big soldiers, or even Coulson. The best part is that Rickard pushes into Perplex with no degradation to his stats, so you can easily push him on turn two to give Deathstroke yet another increase to his stats.

10 points left, I had to make a decision; give Deathstroke and Cap two small items each, or go big with one item. I decided on the later with the Goblin Glider. With three clicks of Running Shot and plenty of ways to get Deathstroke back to higher clicks on our team, I figured the Glider would give us even more options with Hypersonic Speed. While Deathstroke won’t be able to use his Pen/Psy or Exploit Weakness during the attack, if gives him even more reach and will allow him to get to the backline and chew up any low-cost support figures. The tipping point though was that Cap also has Running Shot on his top click, so now we have an incredible item that can work with either of our attackers based on what you’re facing off against. If reducers are big on the enemy team, give the Glider to Cap and let Deathstroke do his thing.

Other options here would be Mjolnir for 6 range melee attacks for all those tasty Blades or even more reach on Captain America, or Thunderstrike as a personal favorite to give Deathstroke layered healing effects (or to heal Captain America since he really wants to stay top-dial). Of course as I mentioned in the Keys to Success, the Venom Symbiote works well with either of these guys, so that works too.

I dig this team a lot as it’s actually pretty damn cheap to pickup with Coulson and the Glider being your two biggest purchases. As good as Captain America is, Title Characters working like Prime figures means no one wants doubles so it keeps his cost low. There’s also a good amount of damage and strike range for a team that doesn’t look that way at first glance.

What are your thoughts on this team? What would you/have you built with Deathstroke and how have you fared? What other Rebirth figures would you like me to build around before Black Panther and the Illuminati consumes us in three weeks? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for taking the time to read through this team build! Oh, hey! If you’re going to be in San Diego on Sunday, May 26th, I’m running a ROC Win-A-Map at my venue in La Mesa and I’d love to see some new faces! It’s my first big event I’m running so I’m really looking forward to it.

See you guys next week on Two Clicks From KO!