Despite having a busy weekend I was able to sneak in a few games using the All-New X-Men. I also successfully cycled through all their characters and was able to determine what worked and what doesn't. Being a new keyword this team didn't have many choices to build from, but I'm always up for a challenge. The standard almost anywhere seems to be 300 points so that was my starting point when cobbling this team together.
All New X-Men
50 FFUXM003 Angel
50 FFUXM002 Jean Grey
100 UXM036 Iceman
50 FFUXM006 X-23
50 FFUXM004 Beast
300 Total
You'll notice it's actually really similar to the team I played in the Head-to-Head a couple weeks ago minus Cyclops. It's really easy to see why these are the best of the All-New X-Men. This team offers a hard counter against teams heavy with Probability Control, has a lot of free actions to do within a turn, and with everyone toting the X-Men team ability it can allow them to keep characters on their more lethal/important clicks.
Tactics:
Probably Not: Probability Control is one the powers that every team tries to include, so by having 4 of your characters putting a stop to re-rolling shenanigans can set back your opponent as it will force them to reconsider making risky attacks.
Strike First, Strike Hard: Angel can carry around X-23 or Beast, and with his Swooping In trait allow them to strike if he can get them or himself close enough. Usually a character can't attack after being carried, so this tactic has the potential to catch opponents off guard and throw them off their game.
Coordinated Assault: The three close attackers can be assisted by Jean Grey and her Coordinated Movement special power, and remember it's usually best to use the free Telekinesis action first and then afterwards you can give her a power action to use it again. This deadly combo can potentially position two characters in striking distance in one turn.
Block Them Off or Hold Them Back: Iceman's Frozen in Place trait can do wonders. Positioning and moving and attacking are two key elements to winning games, so by negating their potential to move and ruining their positioning by keeping them in place it can cause an opponent to leave important characters out in the open. This works especially well if you catch them off guard and are able to position your free Barrier to capture 2 or more characters, so keep an eye out for groups to cripple.
Bleed 'em Dry: X-23's Slash marker would probably work best against characters with indomitable, Willpower, or no action tokens. Characters with indomitable or Willpower want to be doing something every possible turn, and by giving them the Slash marker it will force an opponent to reconsider. Those with no action tokens who get the Slash marker placed on them will come across the dilemma of not doing anything for another turn to remove the Slash marker or take 1 penetrating damage. This is what is called controlling the "tempo" of the game. I'm not that good of a player to fully explain the strategy behind "tempo", but I've played enough games to know what it is. In this case Google is your best friend, so search it when you can to learn something new!
That's it for today's Theme Team! If you feel I left something out or made a mistake please leave a comment or contact me through any of my social media platforms. Thanks for reading!
