Greetings everyone, and happy holidays to you all! December is typically my fun month and I’m continuing that with a pretty different team build today. Rather than center around a specific character, we’re going for an effect: KNOCKBACK!

Writing today’s article worked like it does every other time I make a team build: I look through the most current set in the units section and pick out characters that I like that I haven’t built around yet and would actually be a good article. Unfortunately for me, that means a lot of characters that aren’t terribly unique under, say 50 points, aren’t good candidates, so it sometimes leaves me with little to build around as the weeks stretch by.

While looking through Secret Wars: Battleworld on the Realms, I thought about the Release Day LE She-Hulk. I never get around to playing Jen and she’s been treated very well in the last couple years, and I just played the LE last week (and she did WORK), so I figured what the heck, I’ll build around her! Instead though, I thought about building around one of her nifty powers like I normally do, which is a pretty brutal version of KNOCKBACK:

BOWLING PINS!: Quake. When She-Hulk uses Quake, the number of squares characters would be knocked back is doubled.

That’s just asking to be abused, so I started to think about ideas of how to make a team around this, and I quickly came to the conclusion of why not just build a team dedicated to throwing people across the map like crazy? It’s a good option and can be brutal since you can set up a lot of plays with the right positioning. Honestly though, the fuel for this team build that lead me to pursuing it over just building around She-Hulk is the fact that we have the best map for knockback in Modern right now with Jotunheim lake. It has this really unique rule:

ORANGE SQUARES ARE ICE SQUARES

They are clear terrain.

When a character occupying an Ice square would be knocked back, double the number of squares it’s knocked back.

And here’s what the map looks like:

Now before I get carried away, no, this isn’t a lifted article from HCRealms; this is about building a team and utilizing this map, not breaking down how to abuse this map in general. Although I do highly recommend reading the map reviews on the Realms – they’re quite good!

Anyway, all of the terrain on the 1st level of elevation are all orange squares meaning knockback is doubled there, and the giant ice pillars around them are blocking terrain. This can be a little confusing when you look at the map because the orange and brown are so similar, but it’s a bit easier to tell from a top-down view online. Because most of the map is made up of these special squares, it’s really hard to not engage on the ice. The rim of elevation 2 is so small and the blocking terrain on the ice makes it hell for snipers to try and pick off their targets.

So the idea is that with the LE She-Hulk, you get to quadruple your knockback effects from her. If she hits for 4 damage with a single-target Quake, she’s going to throw them 16 squares (4 doubled the first time is 8, doubled again is 16), which means they’re getting body slammed into terrain and they better prey they have a reducer. Of course, you can just stick with her normal double and pick a map with lots of elevation changes so that she gets more damage off when they fall since they take 2 damage instead of 1.

She-Hulk also ignores blocking terrain and destroys it on movement, so you can’t hide from her unless you sit up top in the snow.

Obviously we want to build a theme team so we can have as large a bonus for map roll we can and travel to the frozen lake, and She-Hulk has the wonderful Avengers keyword, so that’s the route we’re taking.

Without a figure to really highlight, we’re going to jump right into the team build (hey, this article length is a lot like my original articles on Clix Fix before figure reviews were built in!). Remember, my Modern articles now are no-holds-barred: if it’s Modern, it’s fair game.

300 Point Modern Avengers Knockback Team – 18/19 Modern

The idea behind this team is to position around the blocking terrain to hide our guys until the time is right and then smash our opponents into our own figures and play pinball, never needing to move out of our comfort zone.

She-Hulk starts us off with a big 10 movement Charge and the ability to break blocking terrain, so she has a pretty easy time getting to our opponents, especially with Indom. With 18 Invincible, she’s tough to put down, and her 11 attack, 4 damage with Perplex and her Bowling Pins! attack power I covered earlier, she’ll be the primary target for our opponents to neutralize, which is fine. There’s not a huge use for her Wild Card other than Avengers, but honestly that’s the last thing I look at when I want to use her. I like that She-Hulk ages really well with good reducers all the way through, Outwit mid-dial, and a terrifying final click.

If you’re going with a Knockback Avengers team, there’s no reason to leave out the movie Hulk. Sure, he doesn’t have a way to engage into the fight via Charge, but he does have probably the best trait for this team:

ALLIES IN THE GLADIATORIAL ARENA: KNOCKBACK. FREE: Make a close attack, but only to target an opposing character that was already knocked back at least one square by another friendly character this turn.

So he never looses knockback which is good, but the big deal is the FREE attacks he gets to make on characters that were already knocked back by your allies in the turn. Hulk doesn’t need Leadership; he needs people to fight! Thankfully, we don’t need Charge because with his Sidestep, he should easily be able to get to characters that were knocked back for free, activate Close Combat Expert to put on a big hit, then swing for FREE once their defenses are lowered. This guy also ages remarkably well as his first click is honestly his worst. He’s a steal at 75 points.

For our final knock-around dude, I had to include probably the dumbest 62 point combo in the game right now with the Fast Forces Hulk at 50 points along with Exospex. If you don’t know about this combo, prepare for dumb. Hulk has a fantastic trait, appropriately called Hulk Smash, and it reads:

HULK SMASH: When Hulk moves, after actions resolve he can use Quake at no cost.

The idea with Hulk is you use his 11 movement Leap/Climb (+1 from Avengers team ability) to jump into the fight and then use Quake with a single target, utilizing his 12 attack and 4 damage. His 18 Impervious is good, but chances are he’ll go down quick since he only has 3 clicks of health. The important part of this trait is that it specifically says the trigger is when Hulk moves, NOT when he’s given a MOVE. When Hulk is equipped with the Exospex, a set of equipment that lets you pick any standard movement or attack power and lose everything else in that slot, you can give him Hypersonic Speed, which makes him stupid with the new wording on that power:

HYPERSONIC SPEED BREAKAWAY +2. POWER: Halve range, improved movement OO> , Passenger 0. Move, then make an attack, then move up to ‘your speed value minus the number of squares just moved’.

So here’s the combo: Pick Hypersonic Speed. Move up to your target, triggering Hulks’ trait. Make your attack with your 12 attack and 4 damage. Breakaway and move the rest of your movement value, triggering Hulk’s trait. Once Hypersonic Speed resolves, both instances of Hulk Smash resolve, giving you two uses of Quake at no cost. That’s 12 damage from 62 points. The best part? KNOCKBACK triggers from taking damage, NOT after resolutions, so you can smack a target with Hypersonic Speed into the rest of your team, then have Hulk run back over and continue pummeling the same exact target in the safety of your guys. This makes the Fast Forces Hulk your initiator and will honestly take all the heat off of She-Hulk once your opponent sees what you can do, or experiences it for the first time. Like I said, it’s supremely stupid.

Wasp seemed like a fantastic addition to the team, mostly because of her +1 ability that doesn’t see too much play and frankly is NOT the reason most people play her:

(+1) KEEP THE AVENGERS WORKING TOGETHER LIKE CLOCKWORK: FREE:Each time an opposing character is hit this turn, after resolutions modify that character’s defense value by -1 this turn.

With all the free attacks we’re already making, this is going to make your team start hemorrhaging damage. Her other abilities aren’t bad either, giving our Hulks Giant or Colossal so they can hit from farther away (hello Movie Hulk), retaliate, and heal all our Hulks up to make them even more impossible to put down.

Filling out the rest of the team are a pair of Fast Forces Giant-Girls. They’re must-haves on Avengers teams when you need map selection since they’re only 10 points each, and they give us some nice protection against snipers while also carrying our hulks into safety. However, there’s some added synergy here (of course). Giant-Girl has a shared trait with all of the Fast Forces figures from Avengers: Infinity:

KEEP IT MOVING, AVENGERS: Once per turn, when a friendly character with the Avengers keyword hits an opposing character, after resolutions you may move Giant-Girl up to two squares.

Once we start getting into the fight, if our Giant-Girls survive that long, they’re going to be moving a lot of squares for free, giving us more protection and possibly getting up into our opponents to force breakaways, or burn actions taking them out instead of our Hulks.

As a final word, keep in mind that these three colossals that have Sidestep gives us a way to equip the Fast Forces Hulk on turn 1 with the Exospex. They can move up to the 4th square adjacent to the item, pick it up (it’s light), and then sidestep back, dropping it in his square.

Is this team easy to beat? Sure! Is it overkill? yep. Is it fun? Oh god, I can only imagine! Teams like this are something that I find really amusing. You aren’t worrying about filling every hole like bringing Outwit, Prob, or even having a ranged attacker; you’re picking a mechanic and just exploiting the hell out of it. Once I get ahold of that movie Hulk, I can’t wait to give it a go! With 3 points open, you can drop in a Student ID, too. I like Synch since he can copy any speed or attack power if he’s within range to whoever has the Exospex!

What are your thoughts on this different take and fun team? Are you going to give it a try? What other figures do you think would excel on this force, or have you tried something similar? Let me know in the comments section!

See everyone next week on Two Clicks From KO for my FINAL article for 2018, and again here next year! I hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year’s!