Good news everyone! After a long hiatus from Team Builds, they’re back! Rather than jumping into The Mighty Thor and picking a Chase or Super Rare, I want to build around the very good Uncommon Jane Foster Thor. For Asgardia!

You might notice something a little different about the heading for today’s article in that “17/18 Modern” portion. I realized that while all my articles with the “Modern” designation in the title over the passed year don’t distinguish when that build was actually Modern. So, moving forward, builds that I intend to be Modern will have the last two digits of the year or season that they’re legal. Based on this, the 17/18 designation means that this build was created after the 2017 rotation, but prior to the 2018 rotation. This will help you as the reader figure out whether or not the build is still Modern at a moments notice. Another nice aspect of this is that all articles that have this designation will be using the new rules, so it’s a nice point to see when my articles started to incorporate the new play style as it’s a bit different. ANYWAYS…

The Mighty Thor did quite a number on us, and warranted a grand total of three separate reviews (I did two on Two Clicks From KO and one here). Not only did the set have amazing new colossal pieces and outstanding equipment that will fundamentally change how teams are built, it brought new rules pushing us all to somewhat relearn the game. I sincerely hope you took a moment to actually read through these new rules. In this bloggers personal opinion, Thor is the best set that’s been released in a good two years, possibly even longer, but that’s how long I’ve been back in the game.

While there are brilliant pieces in every rarity, I really wanted to look at the Uncommon Jane Foster Thor. She got quite the bump in rarity compared to her last piece in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., she’s certainly not a terrible figure. Let’s take a look at Thor before we dig into the build.

Side note: I freaking love Jane as Thor. She’s one of my favorite characters that Marvel has done since I’ve been reading comics.

Thor is an even 100 points with six clicks of health, Flight, 7 range with a single target, and no team ability. Only six clicks might seem like a bit of a shallow dial for her point cost, but she certainly makes up for it as we’ll see when we get to the dial. Her Kywords are actually pretty good with the newly freshened up Asgardian, Avengers, Diety, and Warrior. She does possess one trait that takes her from vanilla character and really spices the dial up.

Her numbers are pretty strong for an Uncommon and do help to warrant her higher point cost. She starts us off with 9 Charge, dropping to an 8 on click two, swapping to Sidestep on clicks three and four, and switching back to a 7 Charge for her last two clicks. Attack starts very strong with an 11 Quake for two clicks (remember, this got heavily buffed), dropping to a naked 10 on three, a low-point 9 on click four, and then climbs back to 10 Pulse Wave on five, and ends on an astounding 11 Pulse Wave. Her defense is pretty strong with 18 Impervious top-dial, which drops to 17 Invulnerability on click two, dropping to a 16 on click four, and then climbs a bit with 17 Toughness on five, and ends on 18 Toughness. For damage, we have no powers at all, and starts with 4, drops to 3 for two clicks, hits a low of 2 on click four, then climbs back to 3, and finishes on 4.

Based on this setup, it’s best to keep Thor off her fourth click as that’s undoubtedly her weak point, although the big reducers will help with that. She’s got a pretty strong setup and can deal a surprising amount of damage on every other click. While the Charge + Pulse Wave combo certainly is a head scratcher, it does give her multiple threats when she’s about to go down for the count.

As for her singular trait, that’s the real money maker here:

GODDESS OF THUNDER: Force Blast. Once per turn, when Thor hits one or more opposing characters with an attack, after resolutions she may make a range attack targeting a single character that hasn’t been attacked this turn.

Force Blast is good as knockback is quite a bit better now. The big deal here though is that when she hits with an attack (any attack), she gets to follow up with a ranged attack against a different target. Thanks to the Damage Depletion Modifier being a thing of the past, that means that Thor can deal 8 damage on top-dial, and a respectable 6 on almost every other click. This is also good because the knockback from Force Blast will help Thor stay somewhat safe and melt targets as long as they don’t possess Charge or Combat Reflexes. Keep in mind that she can use her Quake as well if she goes into a group, smash everyone for 2 damage knocking them back, and then snipe another figure for 4.

Obviously, there’s a lot of damage to be had for just an Uncommon, and is the reason why she’s so good. If you can keep her healthy, she’s a very good figure and pulls more than her weight. With her excellent Keywords, it shouldn’t be any trouble building a solid team that can keep her safe or put her on a map that really helps her do her job (preferably one with lots of elevation to really take advantage of falling damage).

I’m sure you know what part is next; yep, the Positive VS. Negative analysis! Let’s break Thor down part by part to see what we do to make her click.

Positive: LOTS of damage potential. Good movement values. Flight. Good reducers. Threat options on 2/3rds of the dial. Great keywords. High range. Two ways to cause knockback.

Negative: Shallow dial for the points. Dead click on four. 100 points with no Willpower. Immunity to knockback is a hard counter.

There’s really not too much bad news for Thor, and it’s easy to see the positive aspects outweigh the negatives. For an Uncommon, she’s pretty damn good, and just takes some careful play to really make her thrive.

With all this info we have, what do we need in order for Thor to ride the lightning? TK would be great to help her get into position, but neither Asgardian or Avengers really have low-point TK in Modern. Outwit is a huge factor now, and since Charge and Combat Reflexes really counter her, that’s a great option to bring. Support is probably a very good pick as her dial is shallow and will help her stick around seeing as it’s a bit harder to one-shot characters these days. Perplex would probably be my pick of choice to really uptick her damage and make the other player sting from her double strike.

For the build today, I want to go with 300 Modern with no resources, as I usually do. Everyone is still getting used to the new rules, and this will help keep things a little easier without having to worry about which resource pairs with her. If you have to go that route with Thor, I would recommend either the Supreme Intelligence for Stealth and Willpower, or the Justice League Teleporter as her 100 points make her a pretty good ID summoner (and man did that thing get a huge buff).

Up first, let’s take a look at an Avengers team with her, with a relatively low cost-to-play build!

300 Point Modern Thor 017 Avengers Team – No Resources

There’s a lot of stuff on this build, and the only somewhat rare pieces are an OP kit Invisible Plane, a Super Rare that’s dropped in price quite a bit, and a generic weapon from the new set. Rather than going over every piece in order, I’ll talk about my line of thought as I was building the team.

Before I looked at any supporting cast, I wanted an item for Thor that helped her out and took away the unfortunate counter that is knockback immunity. Initially, I wanted to use the new Mjolnir, but that thing is like $40 right now and impossible to find, so I went with the Spear. Giving Thor Giant Reach is a big deal as now we don’t have to worry about her actually becoming adjacent to her target and potentially not knocking them back. What I really like about the Spear is that if we want more damage in an attack, we can burn it and add a +2 damage for range or a +1 damage for close. It’s all about options. While it does slow down your initial play as you’ll have to spend your first three turns picking it up if you don’t want to push, it will help Thor be able to take advantage of her trait. You can always just ignore this if the opposing team doesn’t have Charge or Combat Reflexes.

With the delay in picking up an object and the lack of cheap TK, I figured a good tie-up piece should be next, and the new starter Hulk is incredible. While he only has three clicks, he does a stupid amount of damage and has a crazy sphere of influence. Get Thor onto the Spear on turn 1, watch where your opponent moves on their turn, and then have the Hulk just smash in and either single-target Quake, or hit their entire team. If there’s a huge counter to melee on their force, keep Hulk back as a tie-up in doorways or as a Theme Team Prob piece.

Healing was a necessary for the build, and although it’s weird having two versions of Jane on the team, the new Support piece is just fantastic. Indom, defend, and the ability to heal while adjacent to opponents makes her a very strong medic, if not the best in Modern. Oh yeah, she also has immunity to ranged attacks of characters 75 points or more. Oh, and she can also transform into another Uncommon Thor, doubling up on our main piece. Yeah, there’s no way she wasn’t going on the force.

One of the great things about Avengers teams is that Outwit got such a huge boost and the team has the utter amazingness that is Common Black Panther. There’s simply no reason for any Avengers team to leave him off of the force. Now that any power is subject to counter, this is a 30 point silver bullet that will move mountains and nerf anything that posses a threat to the team.

I knew that the team was lacking another real attacker, and virtually everything was melee based, so I opted for the incredibly strong Dr. Strange title character. Pen/Psy, a high attack value, and Prob on top dial is a great kit to help our team out. He’s also got Flight and Sidestep, so he can be a nice transport for either Black Panther or our medic. His +1 title ability also boosts Thor so she can deal 10 damage in a single turn, his -1 ability will make it terrifying to actually engage the team, and his ultimate ability is perhaps the best of all the title characters. Back-dial Outwit is just cash.

For the final 5 points, I figured special terrain would be a great option. One of the issues with these new pieces of equipment is your opponent coming and snatching it before you get a chance to equip it. With the plane, you can park it 6 squares out in the middle of the map and place your item behind it. This gives you some really great cover and imposes a difficult area for a melee based team to engage in. The best part is that our team doesn’t really want to move very far out, so if you stick around the plane and it does explode, you get a free 2 clicks of healing.

This team has a lot going for it and a lot of different options for damage. With three attackers and a possible fourth attacker coming out of Jane Foster, it’s tough to completely eliminate the threats here. The low cost-to-play makes it friendly for folks who don’t have too much but still want a fighting chance. I like the build and I’m eager to play it.

What are your thoughts on this team? Do you think there’s something better that could have earned a spot? What changes would you make? Better yet, what pieces are you looking to pair with Thor? Sound off in the comments below!

Thanks for joining me today, everyone. I know there was just one build today, but there will be more coming in the future. I want to move back into team builds for a while, and with the final calm between releases, there’s plenty of time to do them. I’ll cover quite a bit of the Thor set before we move into the next set coming in October.

I’ll see you on Thursday on Two Clicks From KO. Until then, take care!