Mjolnir generated a ton of talk, but it seems the Chase it comes with hasn’t seen any action. I want to change that with a somewhat serious team build for today’s article. By Odin’s Beard, it’s Chase Thor!



While Chases are difficult to get ahold of, and this one has been making waves based on how much he costs (all because of his das’t hammer), I feel like the people who have this piece haven’t had a chance to actually play him yet. His dial is strong and he absolutely has some playability, but his hammer has completely overshadowed him. This team build is aimed at those of you who own this Thor but haven’t done anything with him yet.

Like the last team build, I don’t think this is something you can take to a WKO and take the win. Thor might be strong, but I don’t think he’s in the realm of competitive. Instead, this is a piece that you can build around and probably sweep LGS events or home games. If your opponent isn’t prepared with competitive-level pieces, Thor is surprisingly tough to deal with.

Let’s take a look at the Hela-Cursed Thor, donning his Asgardian Armor.

Thor is 160 points with 7 clicks of health, not the best dial length-to-cost ratio. Thor absolutely serves as your main attacker on a build and with over half you forces cost, there’s no real way around this in 300 point matches. He has 6 range with a single target, no team abilities, a Wielder trait, another traditional trait, and he’s rocking Indomitable to make sure he can keep that pain train on schedule.

It’s important to note that while Thor’s dial length isn’t that great, especially for the God of Thunder, he does have very good powers and numbers. Thor will always be a threat as his attack never goes below a 10 and he always has good damage values to keep the pain coming.

Like all the Chases from this set, Thor has a Wielder trait, but most of you already know this.

WIELDER OF MJOLNIR: Thor starts the game with TMT #s009 Mjolnir equipped. INDESTRUCTIBLE

EQUIP: ANY

UNEQUIP: DROP EFFECT: When this character makes a close attack that targets a single character the target may be within range and line of fire, regardless of adjacency. Modify this character’s attack and damage +1 when attacking a single adjacent character. Heavy Object

Yes, we all know about Mjolnir and how broken this item is. While we aren’t getting the sheer power of Mistress Death, the hammer does still allow Thor to engage in fights from up to 11 squares away thanks to his Charge and 6 range, while also keeping him out of adjacency, meaning he won’t have to breakaway to engage other enemies.

Next up is his other Trait.

MIGHTY SON OF ASGARD: Super Strength. Thor may hold two objects, and may pick up and/or put down an object twice total during a move. When Thor is given a close object action, he may use either or both held objects.

Super Strength is always nice, especially now that knockback got a large buff, and the ability to hit with objects for maximum damage from 6 squares out really ups the damage Thor can generate. What’s even better about this trait is that Thor can run around carrying two objects, and he can use both in an attack. This lets Thor prep himself for high amounts of damage and can take away your opponents chances of using their own objects against you since he can pick up multiples.

This trait does take planning though to utilize the uptick in damage well. For example, if you have two heavy objects, you’re not really pushing him to the limit as you’ll be sacrificing an extra damage since the two objects will grant 4 damage and we still have a cap of 3. It’s usually better to either pick up two heavies and hold on to one for a second attack, or pick up a heavy and a light for maximum damage.

Lastly, Thor’s special defense ability that shows up on his first three clicks brings some extra spice.

ANTI-CURSE HEALING ARMOR: Invincible. When Thor takes damage from an attack that was not a critical hit, after resolutions heal him 1 click.

Invincible? Always good. Invincible with healing build in? VERY good. It’s already tough to peel through this reducer and the ability to heal back from the attack makes Thor a much more tanky character than he would seem. Because you’re limited to only 3 damage when you have this power, even a huge hit is going to knock Thor to his fourth click, and then the healing will trigger which will put him back into this same power. While another big hit will put him passed this power altogether, it’s important to note that Thor essentially has Invincible on his first four clicks rather than three.

Thor has a lot of aggression going for him and is actually quite tough to put down, as long as Outwit doesn’t seek him out. Mjolnir will make him a very big threat that’s hard to close distance on as he can stay fairly safe while blowing pieces up from range without triggering effects like Energy Shield/Deflection.

As usual, I want to break Thor down in my Positive vs. Negative analysis so that we have a quick way to analyze the figure.

Positive: Big damage values with his Super Strength trait. Hard to peel through his dial. Mjolnir. Indomitable. Flight. Good values throughout the dial. Self-healing.

Negative: No Outwit protection. Defense dips mid-dial. Dial length is shallow. Costly. Mediocre keywords aside from Asgardian.

Without a doubt, the biggest weakness of this Chase is Outwit as it completely crushes him. Thor relies on his defense to make his 160 point cost worthwhile since just one strong attack can borderline put him out of the game without that Invincible. If you can find a way to get around Outwit, Thor is a very destructive god that will bring fear to the hearts of his enemies.

So what does Thor need in order to bring the thunder? Obviously we need some kind of answer to Outwit as our #1 issue. Support powers are going to be pretty big for Thor to make sure he can do what he needs to, but could be argued that his stats are strong enough to not worry about them. Tie-up could be very helpful for him so that he can take pot-shots with his hammer and not worry about people basing him. I would say the thing Thor needs most is careful consideration as to how you plan out your remaining points. While that might sound like a generalization of what he needs to do well, with Thor it’s pretty important because of his shortcomings. You really have to decide what kind of avenue you want to go down with him and then commit to that plan fully. For example, a secondary attacker is always a good idea, but at that 160 point value, you don’t have too many attackers you can fit while still having a good backline of support.

For today’s build, I’m suspending the “no resources” because I think Thor can greatly benefit from them. That means our build is 300 Modern with no other restrictions. Again, I want to stress that this build is not a plug-and-play competitive team. This is a small take on a better-than-average Thor team to get the gears turning in your head.

300 Point Modern Chase Thor Build

Supreme Intelligence is a fantastic candidate for Thor because it grants him a lot that’s missing from his dial. On turn 1, we get Sidestep to help him move up into position, but the big key is the second click which grants Thor Stealth. This is our complete counter to Outwit as now Thor can hide in hindering and go on stress-free that some 15 point pog can come around and ruin his day. The other nice clicks on SI that you can access if the other team doesn’t have Outwit include Probability Control on click 5, Regen + Outwit on click 6, and Sidestep + Prob on click 9, but I probably wouldn’t go passed click 6. Regen + Outwit takes Thor to a whole new world.

I figured that Empower would be a very good power to run with Thor so that he can choose to just use one Heavy object at a time and save the other, or increase the benefits of Light objects. On his lower dial, it will allow him to buff his attack value on Close Combat Expert to ensure the hit. When it comes to Empower, Mini Shredder is probably the best piece in Modern to use. Big values, free damage to knock people into lower defenses, Plasticity, Stealth, an insanely long dial, and resurrection make Mini Shredder one of the biggest Modern staples around. This guy will do everything Thor needs from clogging doorways without blocking line of fire to inflicting multiple small wounds to your enemies.

Outwit is a big problem for Thor, and we don’t necessarily want to stop our resource from turning if we could get better powers out of it for the situation. That’s why we’re running our own Outwit, and Ape Batman is the most efficient piece you can get. There really isn’t much to dislike about 15 points for Outwit and Sidestep. The idea here is to have a counter-counter so that Thor stays safe. If they don’t have Outwit, then you can use the Ape more aggressively and take out opposing reducers, Super Senses, or Shape Change to make sure that hit.

With 20 points remaining, I figured retaliation would be the best route to go, and Carnage is undoubtedly the king in this regard. There’s simply no reason to not run this guy for 10 points, let alone 2 of him for 20 points. While you could drop 1 for ID cards since Thor does have a high point cost, these guys are serving double duty as transports for our team and creating deadly bystanders that will help churn out more damage. If you must run ID cards, at least keep 1 Carnage on the force. There’s a reason he was so prevalent at the ROC World Cup.

Thor is a tough piece to build around as that 160 point cost is actually pretty tough to navigate around and still have a decent team that doesn’t fall apart if Thor goes down. While these may not be the best pieces to pair with him, I think this team has a lot of bite to it and is pretty good at nuking a single piece each turn. It’s a tough call to make on who you target; Thor who has fantastic reducers and Stealth, or Mini Shredder who can keep chunking you down just by moving. I’ll have to take this team for a test drive to see how it performs.

What do you think of this team build for the ‘forgotten Chase’ that is Thor? Do you think it works well enough to conquer an LGS event, or does it fall short and is too easy to cripple? What pieces would you pair up with the God of Thunder to make him succeed? Sound off below in the comments section!

Good luck to those of you who will be attending a WKO this weekend! I’ll see you guys here next week.

Remember, the real fun beings when you’re Two Clicks From KO!