Let’s kick off our Xavier’s School content with a fresh new team build. Old Man Logan is a big fan favorite and we finally have a version that isn’t a convention exclusive. This guy has a nasty dial and is fully committed to causing trouble. What can we do with this old dog?

I’m a big Marvel Comics fan; I’ve been reading since 2004 religiously and only read Marvel, but I’ve never called myself a fan of Wolverine. The character has never really done anything special for me, but I enjoy reading books that he makes an appearance in and enjoy seeing Jackman play him on the big screen. However, Old Man Logan was superb, and the monthly comic with the same name that’s been ongoing since Secret Wars has had me on board. I really dig this version of Logan because of the fantastic character growth that he’s gone through. You don’t need to know everything Wolverine has gone through in his past; just the events of Old Man Logan and that makes him easily approachable.

He’s also a character that translates well to Clix because he doesn’t have to have an insane fanboy dial. Everyone that knows Old Man Logan is aware that he’s not what he used to be; he’s tired, his healing factor borderline sucks, and doesn’t really want to fight or kill. While the last OML dial translated the resistance to fighting well, this version reflects Logan’s transition to the regular 616 universe where he’s time-displaced.

Old Man Logan costs 75 points and has 7 clicks of health, just like our last team build with Title Joker. Again, this is pretty average with the dial length bordering on the longer side for the points. He’s got standard combat symbols, except he’s bringing Indomitable to the fight, which he should. He’s got the typical Wolverine treatment with 0 range with a single target, and he has no team ability as this guy is pretty reluctant to actually join present-day teams. Keywords are very light to reflect that with just Future and X-Men. Luckily, we got a huge boost to X-Men with this set.

Right off the bat, the first thing that you probably noticed is Logan’s incredible attack values. 12 attack for three clicks, and then 11 for the rest of his dial? That’s craziness and reflects all the pent-up rage that he’s carrying with him both from his past and the will to stop that timeline from happening. While that attack value is phenomenal, his other stats and powers are pretty lackluster. A single click of Charge with low speed along with low defenses the entire way through does a fantastic job of showing Logan’s age. He’s not the agile fighter he used to be, so he takes hits pretty easy and has trouble getting into the fight after his first click. Thankfully his damage is consistent through the dial even after he loses Blades.

Logan’s first trait is really great and I think has some extreme tech built in:

The Longest Road Trip: Once per game, if a friendly character that can use this trait is KO’d in an opponent’s starting area, you take an extra turn after your next turn.

While we only have this single character with this trait, it does give us evidence that OML’s partner in the dystopian future, Mr. Clint Barton, will probably be getting an Old Man dial in Infinity. That’s okay thought because you don’t need anyone else to make this trait useful. If Logan can make it to the opposing starting area and camp out there, he’s going to be an incredibly large risk to put down. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any piece that grants you another turn in the game before, but like many games out there, this should practically win you the game. That’s pretty powerful to have attached to a very nasty melee character that’s easy to hit.

Logan’s next trait is dedicated to his very poor healing factor:

Broken Healing Factor: Regeneration. When Old Man Logan uses it, he heals 1 less.

It seems like WizKids always tries to come up with a new way for characters with healing factors to heal, and a lot of those just don’t work or are too broken. This is a great way to reflect a healing factor; just give them Regeneration on their entire dial so that they can heal when they need to. While it’s obvious that this is a worse version of just having Regen on every click because of the negative aspect, you can’t argue with giving such a brutal piece a way to heal on literally every click.

Rounding out Logan’s kit is his special damage power, which is another great tool in his arsenal:

Mentor the Young: Empower. Adjacent friendly characters of less points can use Combat Reflexes. If they already can, modify their defense +1 instead.

I’ve always been a fan of figures that can buff others, and Logan doubles up on this with both an increase to characters that dive in with him and a defense boost as well. The only downside here is that the power says they have to be less points, and there are a ton of great melee dials at exactly 75 points. I would really have liked to see this say ‘equal or less’, but it’s still very good.

Old Man Logan has a very efficient dial to bring lots of pain while having a fantastic backup plan if he manages to go down in the fight. He might be easy to chew through, but the combination of the offense of his dial and the boost he gives to allies’ means you’re most likely going to suffer heavy casualties doing so.

If you didn’t see my note on Clix Fix, I’m ceasing the Positive Vs. Negative analysis as I think it repeats a lot of information and makes my articles tend to go longer than they need to. Instead, I’m shifting to a new section.

Tools for Success

In order to gain the most mileage out of this dial, you should 100% take advantage of this damage power to boost fellow melee pieces. Logan needs to be teamed up with a decent amount of low-cost figures, preferably those with melee-focused dials to make the Combat Reflexes worthwhile. The only other part of Logan’s dial that requires something special would be his KO trait to give you a second turn. You’ll want some way to get Logan and his friends to the enemy starting line, so someone who can travel far is a great bet. Telekinesis works too if that’s the direction you want to go, but you won’t make it to the other starting area with just TK.

Support powers are always good, but none of them are really that necessary with him. Outwit is nice for things like Shape Change or Super Senses so that he can land attacks, however his Blades and Exploit Weakness give him ways to get through reducers so it isn’t completely necessary. Perplex is almost pointless with him since there’s really no where to improve him. His attack is glorious, he’ll never need more movement if he’s not on his top click, a single Perplex isn’t going to save his defense value, and Blades offsets any boost you would give on damage. Likewise, Prob isn’t really going to do much for him. He’s almost always going to hit, and the ease of smacking him back means it’s not as useful defensively. Since you can’t reroll Regeneration anymore, it further reduces Prob’s use. I’m not going to say don’t use Probability Control… just don’t make it a priority.

Equipment will be very strong on Logan. Something like the Bloodaxe give him ways to keep him healthy and a way to break through some defenses. With his low cost, you have plenty of room to boost him.

For my team today, I’m going to build a 300 point Modern team with no resources. While we are in Limited right now, this build takes advantage of the Headmaster trait which grants free Student ID cards, so I want to open up the build for ID cards.

300 Modern Old Man Logan Team – No Resources

The first step I took looking for pieces to utilize with Old Man Logan was low-point X-Men. I wanted a theme team because map choice is going to be a big deal for him. We need something that can keep Logan and his team safe on their approach while he marches to the opposing starting area.

I love the irony of having the SR Wolverine on a team with his older self, and it actually makes a lot of sense in context of the damage power, as he’s mentoring his younger self. You take a lot of risk running a 3-click 50 point dial, but Wolverine does a great job of taking advantage of Old Man Logan’s kit. You get great stats, Combat Reflexes on his lackluster defense, Flurry since you’re in the opponent’s starting area, and you get free attacks since your whole team is made up of X-Men. Sure, he can go down in two hits (thanks to that STOP click), but what 50 point piece wouldn’t? Wolverine also does a great job of taking the heat off of the old timer as he can put out more damage. Oh yeah, and how about Leadership to pull token’s off of his older self and Perplex to help either one of them out? It’s my opinion that this is probably the best piece you can pair with Old Man Logan.

Next up for dive partners is X-23 from the Fast Forces set of Uncanny X-Men. You get another 11 attack with Blades on this dial, along with the ability to slap a bleed effect on her target to plink more damage into them or stop their tempo. Picking up the Combat Reflexes from the old guy will give her 19 defense, just like the SR Wolvie, and the Empower will give you a nice 3 damage to decide whether you want to risk the Blades roll or not. Regen at the end of the dial will keep her around and with three self-healers, your team is going to get really stupid really fast.

Next up, I wanted a way for Logan and crew to get into an opposing starting area, and Lila Cheney is 100% the way to go. For 25 points, you get 4 clicks with 4 passengers for X-Men teams, and 14 Phasing/Teleport. So with 11 movement per turn thanks to the -3 from carrying (if she carries three or four people), you’re in the opponent’s starting area on turn 2. And since she’s going to carry everyone, your opponent will have no choice but to come to you, especially if you pick a map with some good cover in starting areas.

For the final 100 points, I wanted a secondary squad so that if we have to make some ranged attacks, we aren’t screwed.

I wound up taking on the SR cyclops at 50 points, and like the SR Wolvie, he’s very fragile. However, he puts out a ton of damage for those points. With both Pen/Psy and Precision Strike, there aren’t many figures that are going to shrug off a hit from Slim. He also brings another Perplex, ID card, and Leadership to the party, making it incredibly easy to boost your values to heavy levels and remove tokens from your Weapon X trio if you need to. And if you can tie-up their force, Cyclops can make a free attack when anyone else on the team is attacked, so you’re getting a ton of free damage between him and the SR Wolverine.

For the last member, I went with the Rare Storm. She can serve as a personal taxi for Scott at first, and provide TK to move people around if we need to. Heck, she can TK enemies into your Weapon X force so that they can get butchered! Once Storm pushes or takes a single click of damage, she turns into quite the ranged attacker herself with Sidestep, 10 attack, and 2 damage with Ranged Combat Expert. Oh, and she brings yet another Perplex, ID card, and Leadership to your team.

For ID cards, I went with the same three I used on Clix Fix last week. Leech gives you a mega-Outwit which the team could use, Chamber can be called in Old Man Logan while next to Cyclops in situations where melee won’t cut it for a double-up ranged attack while boosting Cyke through Enhancement, and Synch can come in and pick up Flurry through the SR Wolverine while getting the +1 to damage from Empower on Old Man Logan. The Perplexes on the team will do a great job of making Synch a deadly call-in option.

This team has a TON of number boosting even though it really doesn’t need it, 3 ways to remove tokens, 5 attackers, and a lot of mobility. Make sure you put yourself on a map with a lot of blocking terrain to protect you from snipers while you make your approach. Since Scott can shoot through blocking, you have no downside on a cramped map. Something like the WizKids offices or the new Star Trek cavern map would be great choices.

I really like this team and it’s persuaded me to pick up the SR Cyclops even though I was going to pass on him until he dropped in price a little, but I really want to try this build out. There’s just so much going on that it’s tough to prioritize targets.

What are your thoughts on this team? Are there figures that you think would be killer with Old Man Logan? I’d love to hear your ideas, so list them below in the comments.