Welcome back to another installment in my running Deadpool Chase series! Up today is the dope that Deadpool tricked and left stranded a few times; that lovable elder of the universe Tyrco Slatterus, AKA Championpool!

If you didn’t catch the last one, this is the second article in a series of team builds around the glorious Deadpool chases in Deadpool & X-Force. I figured that A) I freaking love Deadpool so I’m making an exception about building around just chases and B) If you want all the comic panels, you pretty much need all these dudes anyways, so it would be nice to actually use all of them. So yeah, April is Deadpool Chase Month! There’s still going to be other content for reviews of things like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but I’m having fun with this.

Championpool is among the strongest of the Deadpool chases. Unfortunately, he’s got horrible artwork thanks to the tremendous, um, talent (?) of Rob Liefeld drawing most of his appearances as he was exclusively in Deadpool Corps. Because of that, I’m going to show as few images as possible. Let’s take a look at this guy and why he’s one of the best chases in the set.

175 Points is a lot to pay, especially after coming off of 150 for D.E.A.D.P.O.O.L. last time, but you get a lot more bang for your buck. Championpool has 0 range, no targets, is giant-sized, had 9 clicks of health, and the Power Cosmic team ability, along with two traits and a Special Attack power. 9 clicks is a lot, and the Power Cosmic team ability is usually pretty expensive for the point formula which I’m sure still exists (he said sarcastically), so 175 points isn’t too bad for this setup. His dial is what really makes Championpool strong. Regarding keywords, he’s got a lot with Brute, Cosmic, Deadpool Corps, Elders of the Universe, Pirate, and Warrior, so there’s a good chance of making a decent theme team.

Speed is by far his weakest attribute and continues the theme from the last chase of ‘slowness is a way of life’ (shout out to my boy Turtle!). He starts with 6 Sidestep, drops to 5 Flurry on click four, and drops to 3 Flurry on click seven. That’s god-awful movement and there’s a distinct lack of move and attack via Charge. Luckily, the rest of his dial is just candy. Attack starts with a big 12 Super Strength and doesn’t drop to an 11 until his fourth click. On click six, he keeps the 11, but picks up his Special attack power, and finally drops to a 10 on click seven, while keeping his Special until the very end. His defense is monstrous with 19 Invincible up top, dropping to 18 on click two. Click four, he jumps back to a 19 but gets Impervious, which again drops to 18 on click five. Click seven, he does this again; 19 Invulnerable for a single click, then two final clicks of 18 Invulnerable. Damage is very steady; 5 Leadership up top swapping to Battle Fury on click two (which lasts his whole dial) and drops to a 4 on click five.

The Champ is very strong just from his dial alone and has the potential to really hit hard. He can deal 8 damage on his first four clicks, and 7 on click five. Hell, his sweet spot is on click four where he has both Super Strength, Flurry, and 5 damage. If you meet the conditions property, he can swing for 13 damage in one freaking action. With his high defense, he’s going to live for a long time and he’s going to get to you.

Let’s take a look at his Traits and Special Attack power. First up, the trait we’re going to be very familiar with:

DO YOU SEE THE COMIC PANELS TELLING ME WHAT TO DO?: At the beginning of your turn, if Championpool has no action tokens, you may attach a Comic Panel to him, removing any already attached. He can use the listed effect.

Yep, 8 of the 9 chases have this ability, so I’m not going to talk about it much. I will highlight that with his 19 printed defense on a whopping three clicks, those Combat Reflexes and ES/D panels are going to be pure butter for him. Also, single-based giant with Stealth? Yes please! Okay, how about the stuff that makes him different? Trait #2, what do you do? (hehe, that rhymed!)

I WILL NOT FALL FOR YOUR TRICKS YET AGAIN!: Championpool’s combat values can’t be decreased below their printed values.

Now we see why Championpool is one of the best chases in the set. With his already incredibly solid combat values, there’s no getting around his strengths. You can’t Pulse Wave him through modifiers, and you can’t Perplex him down. You’re GOING to deal with that 19 whether you like it or not. He’s GOING to hit you for 5 if he lands the hit (or more if he’s got an object). This right here combined with Outwit protection from Power Cosmic makes Championpool a gem of a tentpole.

Lastly, let’s look at that Special power.

I FIGHT BETTER ALONE!: If Championpool makes the first attack of the turn, modify his attack value by +1. When he does, you may modify his damage value by +1 but if you do, no other friendly characters may attack this turn.

This only shows up on his last four clicks, but it’s a killer way to make him go down swinging. Attacking first isn’t an issue, so it’s basically like he never drops under an 11 attack. However, if you want to increase his damage back up to a 5, you have to sacrifice all other attacks for the turn. The good news is that with Flurry on all three of those clicks, this is going to pay off heavily. On his last click, he can Flurry with an 11 attack and 5 damage… That’s a 10 damage output on click nine. Holy cow.

Now that we know his dial in-depth, let’s do the Positive VS. Negative thing!

Positives: Incredibly high values. Can’t decrease his values. Power Cosmic gives him lots of protection. TONS of damage throughout his entire dial. Comic Panels adds a lot of strength. Good keywords like Warrior and Cosmic.

Negatives: Incredibly slow. No Charge. Giant Sized, so you you can’t carry him by normal means and can’t TK him, and easily draw lines of fire to him. Battle Fury on lots of clicks means no mobility at all.

As you can see, the negatives that really effect him all stem from his Giant Size. While it gives him further reach, it makes it to where he’s incredibly difficult to move around. With a low movement value and only Sidestep on three clicks, you’re most likely going to be forced to slowly creep him up which means people can run from him. TK isn’t an option which really sucks as you can’t surprise people with his reach. However, his dial is so uber-strong that the mobility is worth it in my eyes.

With this information, what do we need to make him work? Well, we only have 125 points to work with in a typical format, so there’s not much room for a secondary attacker which means support. We need some way to move him around, so colossals or giant’s with flight seem like a good idea, at least to get him into the fight as he’s either KO’ing everyone or going down fighting. In that regard, there’s no point in having a medic as he’s always going to be next to someone. Perplex seems okay as we can boost him even higher (and get that movement up), but that’s a lot of investment when he’s already got great values otherwise. The best thing for Tryco is going to be something to move your opponent’s pieces around, whether that be TK’ing them to you, using Force Blast, or any other game effects that can place them. Tie-up will also be useful to keep the enemy in place while Championpool marches down the field.

For these builds, I’m going to abandon Limited for the 300 point team as he needs some transport. I’ll address each in the titles as I normally do, but Championpool needs some different setups to thrive.

300 Point Modern Championpool Team – No Resources

This build opts for no resources, my go-to for builds that have a little bit of everything since Resources just complicate things and most LGS’s don’t allow them unless it’s a competitive day. The big reason I abandoned limited was for the transport of choice.

War Wheel is absolutely the best way to move Championpool around in Modern. With it’s 9 movement and Sidestep, it can carry Championpool to wherever he needs to be, drop him off in hindering terrain (which he use the Stealth panel), and essentially roll off to do whatever as he’s done his job. You’re only paying 15 points to get the Champ into the game. It’s not the end of the world if Champ gets knocked to click 2 and Battle Fury prevents the wheel from carrying him as it’s almost always going to be a one-way trip, and with this combo, you should never wait for your opponent to take a shot and either blow the wheel up, or ping Championpool for 1.

Mystique is my answer to moving their pieces around. I thought about Frog-Man and Speedfreek as viable options, but both are a little dangerous. Frog-Man is dainty and can easily be sniped off which negates his use, and as soon as they see what you’re doing, that’s exactly what will happen. Speedfreek is really neat, but he’s 70 points and has a horrible 10 attack, meaning we’d have to put more points in to get that up to something that’s reliable. Instead, Mystique has all the protection in the world, doesn’t take your actions to move, and is one of the most annoying pieces to ever come out. She will 100% get the job done and move people closer to Championpool while he creeps up to smash.

Tie-up is another strategy I wanted to use, and although I had the points for Hank Pym and his morphing ant tokens, I though Penguin would be a better option. Unlike Hank, the Penguins can actually deal quite a lot of damage on their own, so this gives us not only hallway clogging and bodies to force breakaway, it gives us secondary attackers in case Championpool needs some help. Penguin is the cheapest pog producer that’s around, and I haven’t used in quite some time. I think he works well here.

With 10 points remaining, I thought about the Hulkbuster Torso for Penguin to keep him safe, but we want him making Penguins as soon as possible, so I scraped that idea. I ended up going with the Pym Particles for Mystique. Instead of going Tiny, make her Giant so that she can ignore terrain for movement. This gives her more utility as people can’t hide on buildings, and she already can’t be targeted so we don’t care that it would technically be easier to hit her.

I ran a variation of this team with Fenris and the Fast Forces Domino at 25 points and although it was strong, it really didn’t need the Prob or the extra damage with Fenris. This build devotes everything to letting Championpool do his thing which is deal ass-loads of damage.

Next up, we’re upping the point cost a little and dropping to Limited! There have been some 400 point ROC Limited events, so it’s fair game!

400 Point Modern Championpool Team – LIMITED

I’ve received a lot of messages and comments about not using Miss America in my builds for these slower characters that can get sniped on approach (Dead Girl got a lot of requests and people were surprised I didn’t use America Chavez there). Championpool seems like legitimately the best piece in Modern to benefit from her. With her special portal power, once she makes a hit, she can create a square that anyone on your team can blink next to before making a close attack. They don’t have to move or anything (I mean they can, but they don’t have to), which is perfect for Championpool. Now his speed isn’t an issue whatsoever as he’s the one getting placed. America is also really strong with Flight, Charge, 11 Super Strength, good reducers, and 4 damage. She’s a welcome addition to the team.

Next up is Madcap, yes Madcap! Because multiple characters can use the portal in a single turn, Madcap is another piece that sucks to use before he gets to his target, and then ROCKS. Aside from his cost, he’s next to Bizarro Joker as the ultimate tie-up piece, and that’s exactly what he’ll do for Championpool. However, he goes one better in that he forces people to attack him. Once he gets to click 2, he gains Perplex meaning he can up the Champs damage or lower their defense for maximum crunching potential. Notice that I specifically picked 004b over a – that’s because the b version, or Deadpool Corp version, has a special trait:

I’M THE DEADPOOL… BRAND MERCENARY YOU HIRED: Once per action for all characters with this trait, when another friendly character with the Deadpool Corps keyword would be KO’d, you may instead turn that character to its last non-KO click, then heal it 3 clicks. If you do, KO one friendly character with this trait.

This means that if Championpool somehow manages to take damage (even though Madcap should force attacks on himself) and again somehow is KO’d before Madcap, the trickster can sacrifice himself to put Championpool on his sixth click. Remember what that one does? Flurry, 12 attack if he’s first, and 5 damage on each hit if no one else attacks. I think that’s a pretty nice backup plan we have there. Either kill Madcap (stupid hard and annoying), or suffer through Championpool and have him resurrect.

The last slot on the team goes to Alfred from the Batman V Superman movie set. Alfred might seem like a shocker for 30 points, but he’s actually quite good. His trait allows him to once per game choose one of your characters and one opposing character within line of fire (not range), and they can’t target each other until your next turn. This can happen at any time, even after the person you picked has made an attack, so Championpool can smash some skulls, then be totally safe for a round. Or he can protect Miss America on her approach or after the first target so the combo can trigger again. Alfred also picks up Empower on click two which helps everyone on the team, and 14 Defend with Support on his last two clicks. How about Champ resurrecting from Madcap and then Alfred healing him back to full? He works for the team on every click but his first.

Although 400 points gives way to much bigger threats, Championpool seems like he can be a pain in even huge-scale games. Although America and Champ can team up in 300 points, leaving 25 points open is a little risky. If you don’t like the Madcap/Alfred picks, they’re both Cosmic so feel free to try and have a go at Cosmic-theme. I’m looking forward to testing this build as I think it’s going to completely destroy if it goes off.

Championpool might be a slow bastard, but he’s incredibly strong and has some real potential with the use of the Comic Panels. As long as you can find a way to get him into combat, the game should be a breeze. What did you think of these builds? Not strong enough or creative and different? What pieces would you recommend to offset his turtle-speed? Let me know in the comment section! Also, how are you liking this series?

That wraps up Clix Fix for this week. Come back on Tuesday as we review the next chase on our list, with a rather old-school version of Wade; Golden Age Deadpool! Ha, that’s not really a thing! (I mean it is, but it isn’t? Ugh, you’ll see!)