Today I want to talk about the common Prime from the Deadpool & X-Force set, which kinda got left out during the flurry of team builds I posted. This guy is neat and I’ve heard some demand from you all to do this article.

I wrote an awful lot about the last Deadpool set, but I forgot to touch on one piece which I feel deserves an article before moving on to the gigantic set that is Avengers Defenders War. I’ll be sure to cover a lot of that set as I seem to be one of the few who seems to really like the set (if you visit HCRealms at all, you’ll see quite a lot of people that aren’t too keen on it). You’ll probably see a decent amount of team builds for AD War on the new site I’ll be writing for. Anyway, for now I want to take a look at the common Prime from the Deadpool set.

Primes are always tricky to look over as you can’t just look at their cost to see if their dial is worth it. 9/10 times, it will be, but remember that you’re limited to one Prime on your force. That includes your sideline, so one is all you get no matter what. Because of this, you have to take a look at all the Primes that are available to you and understand that you’ll be giving up every one of them. With a piece like Dreadpool, you obviously have a primary attacker, so it’s not a big deal to lose things like Jakeem. However, you’ll need support, so you can’t run pieces like Nighthawk Prime or Wiz Kid. Just some food for thought.

Dreadpool is 130 points, which is a lot. These days, you can’t help look at points and see how much worth you get compared to Jakeem. It’s inescapable and proves quite the problem for team builds on a blog like this. For only 10 points less, Dreadpool has a lot to live up to. Thankfully, we aren’t really worried about building a team that you can run into a WKO or ROC and win with. Remember that these builds are tuned more for LGS play, and a lot of players will choose to skip insane meta pieces so that other people have a chance (or that they themselves are challenged). With that in mind, let’s dive into this Prime.

So, Dreadpool is 130 points, has 8 clicks of health, 8 range with 2 targets, is Indom, and has a single trait. Already, this package is pretty good. 8 clicks is a good amount, and even at 130 points you’re getting somewhat of a bargain. It seems that once you surpass 5 clicks, they get exponentially more expensive, so 8 is a decent deal. 8 range is also very good with the average falling around 5 or 6 in today’s game. Sure, Nick Fury will still out-range him, but he’s Nick freakin’ Fury.

Dreadpool has some very solid numbers, starting off with a 12 attack and only dropping to a 10 on click four. What’s weird about Dreadpool is that his dial is so wacky and shifts powersets so drastically. Because of this, rather than detail the dial in text, I’m going to just include a screenshot.

Like I said, it’s a very wacky dial. What’s really great about Dreadpool is that not only does he have solid values up front, he’s got Perplex as well, meaning he can either have an ungodly 13 attack, a solid 19 defense, or a decent 4 damage. Heck, you could even bump his movement or range up so he can hit from farther away. Options are always great, and Perplex is one of my favorite powers on bricks. It’s also solid to note that he dips between Running Shot and Charge for his first four clicks, making him a solid threat, but a little unreliable. His late dial ensures that he’ll have a chance to get himself out of trouble and heal back up before jumping back into the fight.

Keywords are pretty strong on him; he’s got Agency X, Assassin, Deadpool Corps, Martial Artist, Weapon X, and X-Force. Of those, only Agency X is really unusable in today’s modern.

Dreadpool does have a single trait to back him up, and it’s what makes his point cost truly worth it.

DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED: Dreadpool can use Steal Energy. At the beginning of your first turn, choose a named keyword an opposing character possesses. At the end of your turn, give Dreadpool a free action to make a close or range attack targeting a single opposing character with the chosen keyword if he has not attacked any character with the chosen keyword this turn.

This trait might seem like it’s only good against Themed Teams, but it’s actually good against both themed and non-themed. Let me demonstrate.

Against Themed: Dreadpool will get to make an attack against someone on the force every single turn no matter what. When fighting against a themed team, there are no limitations as to who he can gun for making him a much greater threat. He also won’t lose the ability to attack for free once a single figure with that keyword is KO’d making his trait last longer. While you won’t be able to double-up on attacks, you’ll arguably get more mileage out of this.

Against Non-Themed: Your selection will have to be a bit more careful because chances are there will only be a single figure you’ll be able to gun for. Of course, now you’ll have the option to attack twice every two turns, and once on turns you have to clear tokens. This will be make Dreadpool more aggressive and risky, but depending on counter-play, he’ll run out of gas quicker, making him a much more costly attacker.

Both of these options are good in their own way, and can deter how your opponent risks their figures. Let’s face it, free attacks are always good, even when they’re conditional. What makes this ability over the top is that it doesn’t specify any condition of the attack. Since it’s free, this makes Dreadpool very good with highly mobile taxi’s. You can move into position on one turn, take a free shot (which you can Perplex up his damage for), Running Shot the following turn while making a second attack at the end, and then make two more attacks on the next turn. There’s a lot of damage potential that this trait offers up.

Oh, I almost forgot the very first part of the trait: Steal Energy. Having that on his entire dial means that he’s going to be a lot harder to put down, and once he has the ability to get into the fray and start attacking for free, he’s healing for potentially 2 damage on each of your turns (1 on turns you have to clear).

When you combine all these parts together, Dreadpool is a lot better than he seems for such a steep price. His single greatest weakness is a lack of reducer, and at 130 points, it’s a bit steep to include something like a possessor on him.

So what does Dreadpool need in order to get the job done? At almost half your build, we can’t afford too much more in the way of attackers. There’s a decent chance of getting one more on there, but it will have to be fairly cheap. A taxi is 100% a good idea, but perhaps you can combine both; giants are a great way of carrying someone and also provide the role of secondary attacker. As I mentioned above, a reducer would be the best bet for Dreadpool because he is rather squishy, and he needs time to get into the crowd to start his Steal Energy craze. TK is always a good option, but I think a taxi will be fine for him since we’ll already be taking free attacks. Theme teams could be very strong for him as it’ll let us pick a map that doesn’t have too many places to hide. 8 range is nice on free attacks, but won’t do jack if we can’t hit anyone.

For the teams, I want to go two different routes. One will be 300 Modern Limited while the other will be 400 Modern Limited. I’m sure you’re all aware how much I like to dodge resources for these builds and I feel that we should have a higher point option for a 130 point piece to really get some bang for our buck.

300 Point Modern Limited Dreadpool Team

5 figures on a 300 point team with one of them being 130 is a pretty tall order, but I think this build works pretty damn well.

I though a giant would be a great touch with Dreadpool, and I originally wanted to run Goliath from Civil War, but at 90 points, that’s simply too much of the build. Enter Bat-Knight. While it’s true this guy is expensive to get, he is insanely strong with Dreadpool. Not only does he provide a 9 movement taxi service along with Sidestep, he’s got Stealth from his team ability to keep safe and Empower to buff Dreadpool on any melee attacks. He’s also got the ram ability which means you can line up a shot, ram everyone within 9 spaces in a direct path while carrying Dreadpool, set him down, then make a free attack against whoever has the Keyword you picked. Bat-Knight becomes our taxi and secondary attacker and does it superbly.

I figured it would be super fun to have not one but two perpetual motion attackers, so I went with Batroc from the new set as my tertiary attacker. 5 clicks is already a deal for 40 points, and his stats are actually quite good. Due to his special movement power, he can attack literally every single turn, just like his pal Dreadpool. This is how it works:

Turn 1: Move up 8 squares, receive an action token. Attack for free. Sidestep into safety.

Turn 2: Sidestep up. Attack again with your action token. Sidestep into safety. Clear tokens.

Turn 3: Repeat process.

Thanks to his improved movement getting around everything but blocking, he can easily keep up with Bat-Knight and get a nice 3 damage from the Empower.

I knew I wanted the full support suite, so I went with Doop for Prob so that Batroc can carry him around while he does nutty things, and Iron Heart from the new set for Outwit and also secondary taxi service. For 55 points, you get a lot of value out of these two pieces and now we can remove any power we don’t want to deal with and have a Prob in case we need it. I’ll gladly pay 55 points for every support power and mobility for my team.

The last piece is the Hulkbuster Torso, which I think is absolutely necessary for Dreadpool. While it’s true that we have no TK to get him there to equip first turn and it’s adding 10 more points to his cost, it gives him a good reducer for his entire dial, making his Steal Energy that much more valuable and he stays an even bigger threat.

This team has a lot of damage that it can put out and has extreme mobility without the use of TK. Our two main attackers are Indom and our tertiary attacker can go every single turn, so the damage is almost non-stop and should be able to outrace just about anything that’s thrown it’s way (sans meta teams of course).

Let’s move on to the bigger build.

400 Point Modern Limited Dreadpool Team

I thought it would be really fun to punish Theme teams, so I opted for a piece that hasn’t been discussed to heavily anywhere; Stryfe.

I knew I wanted TK, but I didn’t want to go with the same pieces everyone uses, and thought Stryfe would be a great option as he can use TK twice in a turn in the same way, yet combos really well with Dreadpool. Not only can he TK instead of just carrying, he can bring our reducer to Dreadpool, let him equip it, and then throw him out for a free attack, all on the first turn. He’s also got Leadership and Ouwtit, and at just 5 points higher than Dreadpool, he can continue to pull tokens off of him all game while countering out defense powers so that we hit harder. He has no move and attack until late dial, but that’s not really an issue with this build. Finally, when he’s KO’d, he does massive damage to everyone with a named Keyword. He really pushes the theme of punishment for theme.

I figured with these two, Empower and Enhancement would work really well, and there are two figures that do that in Modern on the cheap. The first is H.E.N.R.Y. which I’ve used before so there’s no point in explaining him, and the second is the new rare Dr. Strange who also happens to have Shifting Focus. Not only does he have both Empower and Enhancement like H.E.N.R.Y., he also has a unique modifier that buffs the attack value of his ally by +1 when using it. This means that Dreadpool gets a 13 attack and 4 damage next to Strange while Stryfe gets an 11 and 4. Oh, and when Strange shifts to his common form, he can carry both of them around, as well as H.E.N.R.Y., giving us a mobile battle station, complete with free TK and a free attack with tons of damage. With this setup, Dreadpool can hit for 6 on his first attack and 5 on his second attack due to DDM.

The team absolutely needs some defense, so I went with the tried and true Green Lantern. Not only will his wall token eliminate Stealth and drop defenses, he can also protect Dreadpool or Stryfe if they need to make a risky play. Oh, and with his already decent stats, if he gets next to Strange and the monkey, he’s shooting with an 11 attack and 5 damage for 35 points.

For the last character on the force, I went with the Fast Forces Penguin. The loyalty token on Dreadpool will bring him up to a 13 attack and 9 range, which just further escalates with his party. If Dreadpool really doesn’t need the stat buff, have one of your other pieces attack him and give Stryfe or Strange the buff so you have another very strong attacker. Green Lantern can pretty much be his dedicated taxi so you’re never leaving him behind to give free buffs to the enemy team.

Again, I went with the Hulkbuster Torso because it’s cost is much better than a possessor (and it’s also Limited), and with a TK’er on our force, it’s much easier to equip it.

This version of this build seems like it’s really nasty and pull out a very large amount of surprise damage, and your opponent won’t notice until it’s too late.

I’m excited to try both of these builds as I haven’t actually gotten a chance to use Dreadpool yet. What did you think of these two teams? Feel I could have done something better, or did I flat-out miss a stellar interaction out there. Sound off in the comments below!

I’ll be back next week as we start to kick off some Avengers Defenders War content and hopefully I’ll have a new banner. Look for more information soon about the return of the Two Clicks From KO blog! Ciao!