Welcome back to another team build article! I want to talk about a somewhat unused chase figure in modern; that four-armed creepy guy Sugar Man.

Wizkids had some big shoes to fill with Uncanny X-Men for the chases as World’s Finest gave us Kingdom Come. Marvel has few story lines that come close to the fan base that KC has, especially with X-Men. Luckily, Age of Apocalypse was also highly desired and in my neck of the woods, it was almost as desired as the KC set. Were they as insanely good as the KC pieces? No… they were still pretty good but we did start to see a slight decline in chase power levels with Uncanny.

Of the AoA chases, of course Magneto made waves with his devastating aggression and sheer damage output. However, I feel like Sugar Man got passed up. This guy is nasty and I want to prove it. Sugar Man clocks in at 120 points, which is great when we’re considering a 300 point team because he’s not eating half our build. For that 120 points, we get a deep 9-click dial with a stop click at the very end. His values are strong, with an 11 attack for 3 clicks, an 18 defense on top-dial, and never dropping below a 3 damage (sans his stop click). What makes Sugar Man really strong is his trait:

WHAT KIND OF SLAUGHTER DO I FEEL LIKE TODAY?: At the beginning of the game, if Sugar Man was not equipped with any other item during force construction, you may choose two of these three objects as described on this card: Axe, Hammer, Sword. Sugar Man may be equipped with both chosen objects.

Sugar Man’s Weapons: When on the map, Sugar Man’s Weapons are considered heavy objects. A character in a square without holding this object may be given a power action to equip it. If not equipped, this object can only be KO’d in an object attack. A character equipped with one of these objects may use the following effects:

Axe Effect: Attack rolls of 10-12 count as critical hits.

Hammer Effect: When character hits an opposing character, after actions resolve you may give that character an action token if your attack was 10-12.

Sword Effect: Can use Blades/Claws/Fangs.

Sugar Man gets to bring his own power-ups with him to every game, which is awesome! Of course like with everything in life, there is a downside and it comes with that first line of text:

“At the beginning of the game, if Sugar Man was not equipped with any other item during force construction, you may choose two of these three objects”

What does this mean? Well, we can’t possess him with either Eclipso or Brainiac, which is a total bummer because Sugar Man has two fairly large shortcomings. The first is that he doesn’t have any type of Move and Attack, and the second is that he only has Toughness for damage reduction. He does have Sidestep and Flurry to make-up for no Charge, and has Shape Change through most of his dial to help him get out of attacks, but these are still things we have to consider. This also means we can’t use things like Hulkbuster pieces, the Symbiote, Pym Particles, or anything along those lines because he’s already equipped with an item(s).

Alright so those are the negatives to Sugar Man, so what about the items? Which ones do you choose? What’s going to give you the most bang for your buck? The Axe should always be equipped. Its power level is just too strong compared to the other two. Right there, you’re getting the 75 point Super Rare Scarlet Witch trait for free, so it’s really just a toss-up between the Hammer and the Sword, and preference really. In my honest opinion, I think the Hammer wins out 9/10 times. This makes it so when you do roll a 10, 11, or 12, it’s going to really, really hurt. The Sword has purpose because when he hits his stop click and picks up Exploit Weakness, it gives us some damage potential, but his natural damage values are so great that I really can’t see myself using Blades. Plus, I always roll poorly on Blades.

There’s no real getting around his shortcomings if you want to play Sugar Man how he’s meant to be played, so I think we have to take him with a grain of salt with competitive play. He’s an awesome piece, but I just don’t see him being played in ROC’s.

Let’s jump into the builds.

300 Points Modern Sugar Man Build, No Resources

UXM Sugar Man 064 (120 Points)

WF Superman 002 (90 Points) – 001, 017a, and 033 on Sideline

SMWW Mr. Mxyzptlk 060 (70 Points)

NFAoS FF H.E.N.R.Y. 099 (15 Points)

Nightwing ID card (5 Points) – D15-008 Nightwing LE

Build Total: 300

Sugar Man revolves around a lot of 5’s and 6’s on die rolls to either keep him alive via Shape Change, or to make sure that he maximizes damage and effectiveness. For that reason, I really can’t think of a better person to utilize Mxyzptlk’s ability to change die rolls. Prob is great and probably cheaper to field via points, but Mxy is going to give us far too much value, and he can always turn into a devastating secondary attacker/lock-down if we need him to.

The shifting focus Superman is a great candidate for Sugar Man. I wanted a way to boost S.M.’s defense as he’s already at that high 18, and the defensive form of Superman (001) gives us a +1 to defense. The Hypersonic version, 002, also has flight, so he can be our taxi with a stunning 14 movement. Once you’ve already engaged, you can swap him to his 017a form and smash face through walls with heavy damage. If range is an issue, go with 033 and Snipe people before you bring in your primary attacker to clean house. The versatility for the points is pretty great.

For the remaining 20 points, I knew I wanted either the Nightwing ID card or the Thor ID card because they can both pump out a permanent healer. I ended up with the better (and more expensive money-wise) Nightwing card because the Tony Zucco pog you get also has Perplex to help our damage. Thor works if you want to save money (which is what I’ll do because I don’t own Nightwing or his ID card), but Nightwing is the better option here. Henry seemed like a perfect fit because he just naturally boosts our damage. The Atom could work as well, but I really like boosting Sugar Man’s damage to a 5 and Superman’s damage to a 4. Plus, he’s tiny, which means anyone can carry him. Technically speaking, Superman has flight, so he can carry both Henry and Sugar Man!

Alright, let’s move on to a different build and a more competitive line-up.

300 Points Modern Sugar Man COMPETITIVE Build

UXM Sugar Man 064 (120 Points)

SMWW Mr. Mxyzptlk 060 (70 Points)

FL007 S.T.A.R. Labs Tech (33 Points)

AoU Ultron-7 Drone 053bd (30 Points)

Pandora’s Box with Wrath, Envy, and Sloth Relics (24 Points)

S.H.I.E.L.D. Level 7 ID card (5 Points) – NFAoS Nick Fury 056

Hulk ID card (5 Points) – NFAoS Hulk 052e

Wonder Woman ID card (5 Points)- BvS Wonder Woman 003 (NOT THE FAST FORCES)

Bucky Barnes ID card (5 Points) – NFAoS Winter Soldier 100

Build Total: 297 points

Mxyzptlk had to stay on the team because of how necessary dice rolls are for us, plus the “if we need it” special Pulse Wave. The rest of the team serves several purposes to make Sugar Man better.

Hat is all the support we need. He can TK out on turn 1 or 2, he can Perplex/Prob/Outwit on later turns, and late in the game he can pick up Support and heal Sugar Man back up. We save 5 points by not running Mercury and Doc Magnus, and although Jean Grey would give us two TK’s, we really need Support to keep Sugar Man alive. Hat is a great toolbox character, so let’s use him.

EDIT: It was brought to my attention that Hat can’t use Support because he takes a power action to pick up the power, so I swapped this with S.T.A.R. Labs Tech. She gives us TK, can grant Sugar Man Precision Strike to deal with Spiders, and can push into support with defend.

I chose the giant Ultron drone for one main reason; being able to carry anyone on our team. Early in the game, he can sidestep up and reposition Hat for whatever he needs to do, or he can bail Sugar Man out by letting us not worry about breakaway and just carrying him to safety.

For a resource, I went with Pandora’s Box again mainly because it has the ability to grant us Combat Reflexes or Energy Shield/Deflection. Sugar Man doesn’t have great damage mitigation, so let’s bolster his already impressive 18 defense to stupid levels. The two relics here can be assigned based on the team you’re facing, which is great. Wrath stops Shape Change to help us hit and Envy keeps Sugar Man a threat all game. Sloth is a great piece to have if you need some passive healing for just a natural +1 to defense at all times.

Regarding ID characters, as usual Nick was the number one spot as he should be. For the others, I really wanted a nice mix of good inspiration and good offense to combat only having one real attacker. Both Hulk and Wonder Woman grant +1 to attack and Charge, which your opponents will probably forget about, and they both come with huge damage. Hulk has a natural 4 damage, 11 attack, and traited Super Strength for a nice 7 damage hit. Meanwhile, the BvS common Wonder Woman has Charge, Flurry, Blades AND Battle Fury with an 11 attack as well. With Mxy holding a 5 or 6, that’s some serious damage potential, and both are fairly tough to put down. Lastly, I went with the Nick Fury Winter Soldier LE with the Bucky ID. The inspiration here is good for ignoring Shape Change, but what I really like is that you can potentially deal a butt load of ranged damage. Take a look at Winter Soldier’s trait:

DEPARTMENT X: Friendly characters with a higher point value and the scientist keyword may use Mind Control, but only to target Winter Soldier.

Isn’t Sugar Man a Scientist? Why yes he is! That can shift a turn into 2 ranged attacks if you absolutely need it, plus he can use Improved Targeting: Ignores Characters which means you don’t have to worry about Sugar Man being in the way for attacks and you could maybe get that sweet ability off that hits everyone in a direct line of fire. You could always opt for Nightwing or Thor for the pog, but I think this is a bit more unique.

Sugar Man has been a character, like Red Lantern Supergirl, that I’ve been meaning to play and just haven’t had the opportunity because I haven’t found a good fit for him. Hopefully these builds will help as I think they really break down what he needs to be functional. His damage is there and it’s quite hefty. As long as you can find ways to get him around to attack two turns in a row and keep him alive, I’m sure he’ll be an absolute nightmare.

As always, I’m curious to know if you’ve played him and what you used or what you recommend. If you enjoyed this article, please let me know and share – it’s what keeps the blog going! See you later this week!