Greetings, friends! Welcome to the first Team Build of 2020! Captain America & The Avengers has released and this set is surprisingly very good and responsible for some crazy power creep. Among all the amazing figures is a Super Rare Prime that seems to be hitting the same levels of Jakeem Prime in term of desire and pricing, but what makes this guy so good?

Thanks for joining me for another team build; I know it’s been a long time since I’ve built a team and posted for you all, and I figured with the new structure of the show going bi-weekly and Aaron and I rolling out articles on the off-weeks, I figured I would take up a small sliver of time I have to write up a team build for you guys. About time, right?!

Anyway, what’s the deal with this Punisher War Machine? Why is he so rare and worth so damn much? As of this writing, I’m seeing him go for over $100 which is pretty crazy. Then again, many of the Super Rares in this set are going for $40 or more with Immortal Hulk hitting upwards of $60. What is going on?! I digress, this article is about Punisher War Machine, not these other pieces. So why is he so popular? For one thing, this is from a really great comic where Nick Fury Jr. hands Frank an old War Machine suit to deal with an Eastern European threat he can’t handle due to all the red tape. Even if you didn’t read that run, it’s freakin’ Frank Castle in a walking tank. His dial is also incredible for such a small cost that it makes him very playable.

Let’s see what kind of build we can come up with for him.

6 Clicks might not be a lot for 90 points, but look at those values and powers! A single click of 10-attack, huge movement values, great defenses, fantastic range with two targets, Indomitable, and Stealth-busting. Right off the bat without looking into his traits or powers, this is a pretty efficient dial. A 12-square reach that can hit pretty much anyone with 12-attack and 4-damage is a great deal, not to mention he has the S.H.I.E.L.D. team ability to help his allies out as well.

His first trait gives us a “shell-pop” moment where Frank ditches his armor before it crashes and rolls to safety, denying points for your opponents for at least another action. While the selection of Punisher’s in Modern is only one and he’s not so great, this is a trait that I believe will get so much better with time. If you’re playing Golden or Silver Age, it’s already very good (Hello Civil War and Avengers/Defenders War Punishers!)

Frank’s second trait is perhaps the best part of his kit which not only gives him colossal stamina, but the ability to attack for FREE when he has two action tokens. That’s a lot of damage that Frank is going to be pumping out, and that’s without factoring number pumping into the mix. This trait does a fantastic job of highlighting that this isn’t Rhodey or Tony in the suit; it’s Frank, and he doesn’t care if the armor is destroyed because he’s on a mission, just like in the comics this click is from. Colossal stamina does an excellent job of portraying this. Don’t forget that you can give him a second token to use Running Shot (or make an attack), then use the FREE action to attack, use the same FREE action again on the following turn, clear, then start over again. This gives Frank two attacks on most of his turns.

But we’re not done – his special attack grants him Energy Explosion and KNOCKBACK which is way better than it seems on paper. With two targets, Frank can fire off two missiles and knockback a ton of figures dealing a ton of damage. The KNOCKBACK is great as well as Frank can just multi-target and apply damage as needed to move his targets. It’s some great versatility. Finally, Frank has Perplex, but only to target opposing characters. This might seem limiting, but it’s a great way to once again reinforce who’s in the suit, and it doubles-up by singling out an enemy and basically saying “I’m going to KO them.”

Put all this together and you have one hell of a ranged attacker that your opponent can only stop one way: kill him before he can kill you. Frank doesn’t stop, and he never should stop attacking because he’s just so good at it. Even when Frank does take a beating, he’s still shelling out hits with 11-attack and 4-damage until he hits that final click.

Tools For Success

The biggest kryptonite for flying ranged attackers is a map with lots of walls, or something indoors that they can’t move around freely. Thankfully, Frank is rocking some great Keywords with Armor, Marvel Knights, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Soldier, and his cost is very easy to work with, so I highly recommend building a theme team with him, preferably S.H.I.E.L.D. since that Keyword got some big buffs with this set.

Perplex is perhaps Frank’s best friend. Since he’s already rocking a 12-attack up front, you can pour all of your stat bumping into his damage and pretty much nuke anyone you’re fighting against. Perplex will also help to bump your defense if you’re sitting across from something stupid like Ultron.

Other support powers like Outwit and Probability Control are also of course very good, and for once I would prioritize Outwit and leave Prob for last if you can fit it. Building a theme team will help with Probability Control, and the one trick Frank doesn’t have is getting around reducers.

Speaking of support, Support itself is very good with Frank as you can offset that colossal stamina. Too bad there’s no way to give him Steal Energy with ranged attacks, huh…

Enhancement is also a great power to bring to the team as Frank can carry someone around and gain even more damage. If you can combine that with someone with the Hydra team ability, that’s even better as you’ll essentially get two modifiers for the price of one character.

Since Frank has Flight, a taxi isn’t really going to work for him unless you’re packing a figure with Great Size and I don’t think you really need it. Telekinesis would be a good option though to help Frank yo-yo or go even further to kick the party off quickly.

Just because he can push every turn doesn’t mean he has to; Leadership is another great option to offset the cost of unavoidable damage. Removing a second action token from him gets you two attacks in that turn but without burning through his dial.

Finally, Equipment is a fantastic option to bring to the table to offset some of the incredibly small shortcomings Frank has. Of course, something like Exospex is stupid, but I would recommend the Soul Gem as it increases his defense and gives him Steal Energy with any attack which means he can self-sustain through the colossal stamina.

The Team

Whenever the year changes, I try and include as few clix as possible that have a good chance at rotating out in the summer, which I believe will cut off at Batman: The Animated Series as our oldest set this year. Thankfully, I didn’t need to pull any older figures for this team, so it should be rotation-safe!

300 Modern Punisher War Machine Team

I know what you’re thinking right off the bat; how the hell is that a S.H.I.E.L.D. theme team with Eitri on there? Some of you know the answer. For everyone else, patience. I guarantee it will make sense.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is by far the best team for Punisher War Machine as it’s full of really cheap figures, lots of Perplex and Outwit, and ample support powers. It’s much easier to build a named theme team than Marvel Knights and as I mentioned in the Tools for Success, S.H.I.E.L.D. got an enormous buff this set.

First up is Captain America, Resilient. While he doesn’t have the S.H.I.E.L.D. team ability, he does have the keyword, and this guy is a fantastic melee figure to pair with Frank for all of our offense. Easy to transport with Frank and the ability to make a free attack after landing via his Plot Points make alternate Steve a great figure to bring. He’s also rocking Perplex and an 18-defend to help out where he needs for the rest of the team, and his +1 ability to move your entire team 1 square can help in a pinch. My favorite part about this Cap though is his ability to teleport anywhere on the map and make an attack, which can easily be broken with tons of Perplex, and then reactivated again. With Punisher’s fantastic damage up front, these two should be able to one-two punch just about any character in the game to KO.

Next is Steve Rogers, perhaps the best S.H.I.E.L.D. figure we’ve ever seen, and this is where Eitri comes in. He’s got this incredible trait that completely breaks any team he’s part of:

WE’LL TAKE ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET, IF YOU’RE WORTHY: Leadership. During force construction, you may choose a standard character of 50 points or less. That character loses its printed keywords (for the entire game) and then gains either the Avengers -or- S.H.I.E.L.D. keyword (choose one).

This is how we cheat Eitri onto our team, and since this is during force construction, he counts as part of our theme team. While most people will be using Steve for dumb options like Vulture Prime, we can’t go that route since Punisher is our Prime. But he’s still incredible for cheating characters onto your theme team.

Steve isn’t worthless either; he comes with yet another Perplex, decent stats, and he has to be KO’d twice thanks to his Living Legend trait. Oh yeah, and he has traited Leadership thanks to the team cheating trait.

Perhaps one of the best new S.H.I.E.L.D. support figures is Sharon Carter, and exponentially so if you have Captain America or Steve Rogers on your team. While Title Cap doesn’t count because he isn’t exactly named Captain America, Steve Rogers does. The big reason for including her is for her outstanding damage ability that gives her Perplex, but if she uses it to target a friendly S.H.I.E.L.D. character, they can use Outwit until your next turn. Up Punisher’s damage and gain Outwit? Seems good to me! Sharon also has Stealth with ES/D to make her actually pretty tough to deal with. Speaking of having Steve on your team, what does that do? Oh, just increases their Leadership rolls by 1 if she’s adjacent which should be easy to keep.

Why Eitri? If I can cheat anyone onto the team of 50 points or less, why not Trelane, Q, Wolverine, or other totally busted figures? Because Eitri brings a lot of value. He brings yet another Perplex to our team and he can cheat in another equipment. If for some reason the Soul Gem isn’t cutting it and we need something with a little more firepower, we can do that. If you need more evasion via Remaker or the Venom Symbiote, we can do that, too. And even if the Soul Gem works, we can cheat something into the game for Steve to keep his glass jaw a little safer. OH yeah, and Eitri can heal characters with the Armor keyword for free!

This team has a whopping four Perplexes that can target our own figures and another with Frank that can target opposing characters. On defensive turns, Frank can sit at a 21 and Cap can sit at a 20, and when you need to go to war, you’re hitting for 7-damage twice a turn with Frank, and then a follow-up 4-damage from Title Cap, anywhere on the map. The team can get to practically any opposing character on the map and just annihilate them. Retaliators? Cool, get Frank into mid-field on turn one, pump Steve’s plot points, then launch a 3-attack volley and nuke that back line.

There’s probably some other really dumb stuff you can do with Frank, but I think this is a great concept for him. While I did try to fit Everett K. Ross onto the team for double Perplex, I think this team is overall a bit stronger and doesn’t have the downside of potentially self-KO’ing your big booster.

What are your thoughts on this build? If you have Frank, how are you planning on using him? What figure would you cheat onto this team with Steve to help Frank? Let us know in the comments below!

I hope you all enjoyed this team build – I apologize that I haven’t been able to post regularly, but I’m hoping to pump out at least one article a month here on our site, and join Aaron for some of the shows. To be honest, working on the show again has done a great job of getting me back into Clix. I wasn’t going to get more than 5-6 figures from this set just in case I stayed in the game, and I found myself looking for a good 20+ figures. So I hope to keep this up for you guys!

See you all soon(ish). If you do give this team a go, please come back and comment with how it performed – I never get any results on these teams and I would love to hear how they do since I don’t get to test these like I used to.

Until then, remember the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!