Welcome to the first Team Build since the 2018/2019 rotation! While we’re already right around the corner from two more set releases, it’s time to get some Avengers: Infinity teams in. Who’d have thunk I’d choose Adam Warlock as my first character?

I mentioned in an article recently that I was a little intimidated by Infinity for team building because of just how many factors there are to build around. We have your typical grouping of amazing CUR’s, some excellent Super Rares, Unique Chases, Colossi with all different types of point values, Vehicles, AND Special Terrain. There’s just so much to cover for builds that it’s just daunting! So for the first team build, let’s keep things a bit simple with a Super Rare from the set, one that is actually pretty easy to get ahold of.

It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen Adam Warlock clixed, and with the return of the Infinity Stones to the game (leading into Marvel’s big Infinity Stone story this year and the movie), fans of the books knew that he was going to show up. Warlock has had a somewhat rocky past with Heroclix, and come to think of it, so have a lot of cosmic beings with high power levels when it comes to Marvel. Case in-point; Silver Surfer. I was excited to see what kind of representation we would get from Warlock this time around. I won’t say that I’m excited or disappointed; Adam continues his tradition of a bit of a headscratcher in terms of value to points. However, there’s some fun that can be had with him.

Adam Warlock comes in at 125 points with 6 range, single target, 7 clicks of health, Flight, and the Power Cosmic team ability. His Keywords are super light with just Cosmic and Infinity Watch, so the odds of constructing a theme team with him is pretty difficult, although this set did help a lot in the Cosmic area. Adam has one trait, one special attack, and a special damage to round out his kit.

While the Warlock does fly, he is rather slow; he starts off with just an 8 movement with Sidestep, but does switch over to Running Shot on click two, dropping to 7 on click three, swapping back over to Sidestep for two more clicks, and finishes up with Phasing/Teleport. His attack is average as well with 11 up front along with the special attack power, weirdly dropping to a 10 on click two before going back to an 11 on three, going back to a 10 on four while dropping all powers, and falling to a 9 on six and seven. Defense is another average with 18 Toughness for two clicks, 17 Super Senses for three clicks, and a pair of Regeneration clicks with a 17 and then 18. He does pack a punch starting off with a 4 and Leadership, but that immediately drops to a 3 with his special damage power, before ending up on 2 with no powers on clicks six and seven.

His trait is shared with the other four Infinity Watch members (for some reason, we didn’t get a Thanos from the Watch), but with the all-to-familiar Soul Gem, helping him quite a bit:

SOUL GEM CHOOSES ITS BEARER: Steal Energy with close or range attacks. // When Adam Warlock is KO’d by an opponent’s attack, choose a friendly character. For the rest of the game, that character can use Steal Energy.

This absolutely helps with his rather short and dainty dial as he can heal from any attack and keep himself in the game a lot longer than he seems. Dealing 7-8 damage on a single hit is a bit harder today as it was a year ago when Ultra Heavy objects were around. The fact that the gem donates off to someone is fantastic and makes him more valuable than he seems at first, although it’s nowhere near as good as Gamora’s Time Gem.

For a special attack, Adam brings the pain:

KARMIC BLAST: Penetrating/Psychic Blast. When Adam Warlock uses it and hits, give the hit character a Karma token. // When an opposing character with a Karma token makes an attack, after resolutions remove all Karma tokens from its card and deal it penetrating damage equal to the number of tokens removed.

Pen/Psy is very good with 11 attack and 4 damage, and helps Adam punch into his weight class of 100+ points. The real treasure here though is the Karma tokens that punish characters that Adam hits for making any kind of attack to any target. I like pieces that can have an impact when an opposing character takes a certain kind of action, regardless of their intentions.

Perhaps Adam’s best ability is his special damage power:

OUTSIDE OF ETERNITY, CHAOS AND ORDER: Outwit. FREE: Choose a target opposing character within range and line of fire. Until your next turn, that character can’t use PROTECTED: Outwit and its powers lose Protected: Outwit.

Outwit on big point pieces is very good since they can get around evasion or other reducers, and when combined with Pen/Psy, it gives Adam quite a deadly impact. The better part here though is that Adam can completely strip away Outwit protection on a character and all powers they possess., and since this is a FREE action, he can do so before he uses his own Outwit. Of course this isn’t as brutal as Nick Fury but it’s damn close since Adam doesn’t care about Power Cosmic, Quintessence, or any other factor that blocks other Outwit fodder like Black Panther or Ape Batman.

All of these are very nice, but there are some big questions regarding Adam’s dial that limit how good he is and frankly will completely stop him from ever seeing competitive play. Why does he start with Sidstep rather than Running Shot when his first click is his most offensive click? Why does he only have Toughness when he’s 125 points? His damage power is obviously why you want to play him, but you need to push to get there, sacrificing your top-dial 11 attack and 4 damage; why not just give him his second 11 on click 2? There are absolutely some issues here.

Keys to Success

The biggest factor that Adam Warlock needs to get around is how frail he is. While the Steal Energy on close and ranged attacks is great, it’s not going to help if he’s knocked down to his last clicks. I would opt for some kind of Equipment to keep him safe, or a way to move attacks away from him.

Thankfully, Adam brings his own Outwit, so you don’t need to worry about hitching your wagon to cheap sources of Outwit just to make sure you have the power. Even with his frail dial, it’s really nice to have your source of super Outwit tied to your mainstay that you want to keep alive. That frees up some space for other figures that could help or misdirect.

Adam certainly isn’t going to get the job done alone. Unlike other characters in this point range, Adam needs a good cast of allies to help him manipulate the board or stop opponent’s from taking shots at him. Tie-up is a very effective strategy with him so that you can control who he fights with. Since you’ll want equipment and he only has Sidestep with a 6 range, it’s in your best interests to have a rather slower game start. Thanks to his Leadership on his top click, you can max out your team with 4 characters or more to control the flow of battle.

Map choice would be fantastic so that you can choose something with a decent amount of blocking terrain by starting areas, but open in the middle once Warlock can get into the fight. That’s a bit hard to do with his limited Keywords, but again not too tricky since Cosmic got a big help.

Last up is supporting characters. Adam will latch on to any support he can get. While a taxi won’t do much since he has Flight, Perplex, Probability Control, and TK will be his saving grace. Support can also work in his favor, but I would rather devote those resources to making sure he can hit since he can heal himself up with the Soul Gem.

Now that rotation has hit and most resources in the game are gone, I’m moving into having all team builds* be a nice, easy 300 Modern Age with no restrictions. That asterisk is because every once in a while I might go for something different like more points for all these colossali.

300 Point Modern Adam Warlock Team

Unlike my other team builds, I want to talk about the strategy I took with the team overall first and then get into each figure.

Usually with a figure like Warlock, I’ll pick a portion of their kit to focus on, be it a solid starting click, an activation click, or some gimmick that makes them brutal if they stick around. Adam doesn’t really have that. Instead, he has his Karmic Blast power that gives out Karma tokens. Because these tokens return penetrating damage after making any attack, whether it actually goes off or not, I figured it would be really fun to build a team that my opponent couldn’t hit, thereby making it frustrating to actually try to make attacks against. The best way to do that is with Shape Change, Super Senses, or both!

For equipment on Adam, the Symbiote is absolutely the best option now that the Hulkbuster parts have rotated out along with possession. You can just throw reducers onto a character anymore, so the Symbiote and Mirror are the best defensive options to add. The Symbiote gives Adam Shape Change to help him on every click (and make him super annoying in his middle dial with Super Senses), while also giving him freedom to break away from anyone so he can attack targets that matter. The Plasticity isn’t that big of a deal, but the other two benefits are huge.

For a secondary attacker, Starshine ended up being my favorite bruiser with Shape Change. She hits well-above her weight class for 90 points as she rocks the same 11 attack and 4 damage as Adam on her top click, but also brings 12 Hyerpsonic Speed, Flight, and Indomitable to help her be a major threat. The downside to Starshine is that she only has a 17 defense, so she’s not the hardest character to hit if she fails her Shape Change roll. That’s why I added in the Asgardian Shield. This will give her a 19 defense in range, which she’ll always be in because of the 12 Hyper and 8 range.

I wanted a tertiary attacker, so I opted for Mercury. I’ve talked about how terribly efficient she is for just 35 points, and with the Shape Change + Super Senses combo as well as Plasticity, she’ll be a great option to carry over with Adam’s Sidestep and then plant next to a tentpole. I love that she has 3 range as it give her the option of shooting for 2 damage with Precision Strike if she really needs to.

TK is absolutely necessary to help Warlock both get to the Symbiote and manuever around the board, so I went with Lt. Kyle. While he doesn’t have either Shape Change or Super Senses, he does have Sidestep, so he should be able to stay in relative safety. Even if he is attacked, he’s only 25 points and takes the focus away from our big guns.

Last up is Carnage. While other retaliators could possibly work better with Warlock, Carnage spawns Symbiotes with, you guessed it, Shape Change and Super Senses. Carnage will do a great job of punishing anyone who actually breaks through our defenses and then spawning a Symbiote to chunk more damage in.

With 5 points left over, I opted for the Dune Buggy for terrain. Unlike other terrain, you’ll want to drop this guy in the middle of the field or closer to your opponent’s starting area. Since Adam is a ranged fighter and Starshine is best as a sniper, the only character on your force that will be hurt by the -1 to attack is Mercury (and Symbiotes if you spawn them), and Carnage doesn’t care because he doesn’t have to hit to summon a Symbiote like Groot does. You can easily swap this for a different piece of terrain if you like.

This team fully commits to feedback damage provided by Adam Warlock thanks to his Karma tokens and will be very frustrating to play against. True, Outwit does hurt the team as anyone but Warlock can simply have their evasion countered out, but the more attention you pull off of Warlock the better.

What are your thoughts on this team? Do you think there are better options or characters that work better with Adam? What are your thoughts on his dial? Let me know in the comments section!

I’m going to keep chugging along with Team Builds before we move into the next two sets that will be coming out in the next month, so hopefully I cover something you’ve been wanting to see. Feel free to recommend a piece from Avengers: Infinity that you’d like to see a build around.

See you next week on Two Clicks From KO!