I didn’t want to dive into chases so quickly from Avengers Defenders War, but I feel that I have to cover this chase before World’s takes place. Let’s build around the stunning Samantha Wilson Cap!

Of all the chases in Avengers Defenders War, I honestly feel that Samantha Wilson is going to be among the best. If you read my set review, I talked about how this figure breaks a fundamental rule of the game that was implemented long ago. With World’s coming up this month (holy crap, where has the year gone?), I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll see Sam pop up.

Let’s cut the intros and get right into this, shall we?

Sam clocks in at 70 points, which is a modest price tag to pay for a chase. She’s got standard combat symbols with Indomitable, 4 range with a single target, and 6 clicks of health. She rocks standard powers and a single trait. For keywords, she’s a little lacking with only two, but they are strong with both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Soldier, so it’s pretty easy to build a theme team around her. She doesn’t have any improved movement or targeting of any kind, so what you see is what you get.

Regarding her dial, she starts off with a 7 Charge, which drops to a 6 Sidestep on click four and runs through the end of her dial. Attack starts with three clicks of 11 Super Strength, drops to a 10 with no powers on click four, and finishes out with a basic 9 attack on her last click. Her defense is a little worrisome with 18 Combat Reflexes up front, which shifts to a 17, then back to an 18, and drops again to a 17, finally ending on 16 Regeneration. For damage, she has 2 across the board with two clicks of Perplex, three clicks of Probability Control, and a final click with no powers.

Something special about this dial that I want to highlight; she has both Charge and Indom for under 100 points. That’s becoming a rarity these days as we see a lot of figures (including chases) getting either a move-and-attack power or Indom, but not both. With the way the game is shifting and pieces are built, you’re going to get more bang for your 70 point buck with Samantha. Still, until we get to her trait, nothing is really too explosive to make her a hot item. Let’s look at that trait now.

WWII PILOT: If Captain America is being carried, modify the carrying character’s speed value by +3. If Captain America has no action tokens, she can be given a non-free action after being carried.

Yes, Samantha here breaks the rule of “no action after carry” and makes her an insane value. Not only does she get to take any action (not just an attack), she adds +3 to the movement of whomever is carrying her. While the current rules will only give that figure a +1 (-2 for carrying, +3 for her trait), this will actually be better with the new rules as each figure just gets a -1 for each character they’re carrying.

That’s all there is to her, but don’t let her simplicity fool you; Samantha is the complete package. The damage potential and reach this figure has is outstanding and your opponent will be hard-pressed to find a safe space on the map under the right conditions. In order to properly gauge Samantha, it’s time to kick her to the Positive Vs. Negative analysis.

Positives: Breaks a fundamental rule and can be given an action after carry. Charge + Indom. Good defense in close combat. Perplex and Prob give her lots of utility. Regen on final click. High attack values. Increases her taxi’s speed. Good keywords.

Negatives: Low movement. Squishy. Low damage values. No team abilities. Lack of improvements (movement/targeting). Pin cushion for ranged attacks.

Realistically, Cap is a piece that you either need to hide her until the time is right or you need to strike immediately and KO/heavily wound the piece that’s going to do damage to her. Keep in mind that although she has Super Strength to help out with her low damage value, you can’t carry someone who is holding an object. This will force you to think carefully about where you place items and commit to certain ‘heat points’ on the map. Lastly, with the rules changing this summer, Cap will be a little easier to keep alive thanks to her last click of Regen that will now guarantee at least 1 click of health (and back into Prob).

So what does Samantha need to succeed? No doubt about it, you need a taxi. With a trait like this, there’s simply no reason to not use one, and there’s no reason to use TK. Other bodies would probably be very good to tie ranged attackers up and block line of fire to Sam. More Perplex could be a great option to offset her low damage in case you can’t get to an item, or increasing her movement so that she can get to one easier. A dive partner would also be a very good idea, preferably someone with Empower. Outwit would also be particularly strong so that her hits deal a lot of damage.

For the builds today, I’m going back to 300 Modern, including resources and possession. This is the staple format for the rest of the year, so Limited builds don’t really work anymore. Does that mean all my teams will have resources? Of course not. If you read my article last week regarding rotation, you’ll know that we only have 3 different resources to choose from, and they need the right pieces to be added. Anyway, onwards!

300 Point Modern Captain America (Samantha Wilson) Team

This team completely throws the rules back into WizKids faces with not one, not two, but three pieces that can attack after being carried. We’ve already talked about Sam in depth, so let’s cover the rest.

I’ve used Doctor Octopus a ton and for good reason; the guy is just nutso for 80 points. With 4 attacks, Outwit, and Willpower, the amount of damage he can pour out is pretty crazy, and with Giant Reach: 2, he can hit pretty much anyone he wants without forcing himself into being based. With two of these jerks, we have two uses of Outwit to counter out defense powers (or retaliatory movement powers), and 9 attacks in a single turn (4 from each Doc Oc and one from Sam Cap). With these two, Cap would probably save her Perplex and add it to one of the Doc Oc’s so that he raises to an 11 and hits just about everyone on their team into their later dial so that the other two can clean everything up.

I wanted to use Overdrive, but I came across a problem while building the team. With only 3 actions, we don’t have enough to activate both Doc Oc’s and take an action with Samantha. Enter Vanisher. Although he doesn’t move as far as Overdrive does, he does have Phasing and the Brotherhood of Mutants team ability, meaning his move actions don’t count against your action total. He’ll suffer -2 to his movement for carrying, but Sam will pump that back up to a 13 movement which rivals Overdrive and we can still activate our firing squad.

For the last 30 points, I wanted either a source of Perplex to help the other Doc Oc out or Prob to ensure that we nail a hit that we really need if we miss (or crit miss). I opted for Prob as we do already have a Perplex on the team with Sam, and Domino is the best you can get for under 30 points. You can creep her up into Stealth so that she can see all the action and provide support from afar. While she will take your actions to get into place and we can’t carry her as we’re maxed out on Vanisher, this team won’t strike until the time is right, so you can move her on your first and third turns to get into position.

With 5 points remaining, an ID card is an auto-include, and I went with the Level 7 card with the new Chase Hawkeye. It’s pretty nice being able to call someone in that can also hit everyone on the enemy team and can mix things up if we need it. Also, all three of our big characters can call him in, so we aren’t relegated to just our highest point figure having to decide if they want to call someone in or attack.

This team throws caution to the wind and just throws everything it can at the opponent with a full-on Blitz strike. What I really like about this setup is that a lot of the bigger staple pieces out there aren’t immune to it. Jakeem can take Combat Reflexes to make it harder to deal with, but once the new rules change and Outwit gets stronger, that isn’t the case. Bizarro Green Arrow cries in a corner as he becomes completely useless with this build. Even if you miss half your attacks, you’re still landing 4-5 strikes in a turn.

The next build doesn’t have any resources and possession, so I suppose you could say it’s Limited, but I’ll still keep it under just Modern.

300 Point Modern Samantha Wilson Team

This build isn’t as crazy as the other as it doesn’t throw all it’s eggs into one basket and hopes that it doesn’t get hard-countered. Instead, this build is more balanced although it does lack a dedicated ranged attacker.

When I thought about taxi’s, I still liked the idea of Overdrive, but then I remembered the insanely good Golden Age Deadpool! This dude can carry two characters as long as they’re lower points than him, and he has Defend traited with an 18 defense. With the Comic Panels and 10 movement, he’s a great candidate for getting Captain America into position. He’s also got indom, meaning both of our primary attackers don’t need to rest as often. He solves our problem of lacking a ranged attacker on clicks two and three (which pairs nicely with Captain America’s Perplex), and also has Regen at the end of his dial. He fits really well with Cap. For comic panels, make sure you bring Combat Reflexes, Energy Shield/Deflection, and Stealth at the very least.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted Peggy Carter or the common Michelangelo for the other character that we can carry, and the lack of Outwit pushed me towards Peggy. There’s not much to say about her that I haven’t covered before. Mass power countering is a big deal and can really turn the tide. She’s also a decent ranged attacker and will be relatively safe since Golden Age Deadpool will be able to carry her into enemy territory, giving her Stealth and Shape Change.

I knew the one thing the last build lacked was tie-up pieces. I figured something that could produce a lot of tokens would be a great bet, but Penguin is a little slow and Devil Dinosaur is too expensive. I opted for Pizza Face as the Living Pizza bystanders have both flight to get anywhere they need and Plasticity to further make people stick around. Since they’re tiny, they won’t block our own lines of fire for Peggy, and their Poison will be gross against the lack of reducers being handed out these days. Pizza Face also gets a really neat Mind Control that can help a ton.

For my support line, I went with Night Nurse and Henry. The Nurse will keep our attackers healthy as they retreat from battle so that we can get them top-dial, and H.E.N.R.Y. serves as our all-around +1 to damage to all our guys. While we’ll have to either burn actions to get him out there or have someone else carry him, he’s still a very valuable asset. Unfortunately Deadpool strictly states that he can carry up to two figures, so we can’t get him out there with both Cap and Peggy.

Like I said, this build isn’t quite as brutal as the last team, but it has more staying power. Again, no resources and no possessors. I would love to add a possessor to Cap, but she’s so efficient that it might not really be that necessary, although Proteus could be very good on her.

What are your thoughts on these builds? Is there something I missed with Captain America, perhaps a great dive buddy with her? Have you built an awesome theme team with her that you wish to share? I’d love to hear from you! Leave your comments below.

That wraps up this week for Clix Fix! Join me Thursday on www.TwoClicksFromKO.wordpress.com as the second article will go live, and check Apex Insiders this month as I’ll be posting something leading to World’s. Take care everyone!