If you have not seen X-Men: Apocalypse yet and are planning on watching it, then you might want to reconsider reading this article as I am going to present my reasoning behind some of the choices I made when making these two teams. A lot of the reasoning refers to parts of the movie and might actually spoil it for you if you haven't seen it yet. Let's begin with Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen:
Apocalypse and his 4 Horsepeople:
199 WKM-002 Apocalypse
189 GX053 Magneto
99 WXM067 Archangel
107 WXM065 Storm
62 WKM-020 Psylocke
10 IIMR100 Power Plant
2 IIMR006 Ice Blast
2 IIMR009 Electro Blast
2 IIMR101 Disintegration Beam
2 IIMR007 Matter Rearranger
2 IIMR002 Vortex Beam
2 IIMR004 Flame Blast
12 JLF007 Contingency Plan
10 MUF005 Outsmart
700 Total
Why these Horsemen?:
I wanted to use the Avengers vs X-Men version of Magneto, but I don't feel his dial captured what he was doing in the movie. There was a scene where he was covered by an impenetrable force field, and I feel the Giant-Size X-Men's "Magnetic Field" trait and "Magnetic Mastery" captured what he was accomplishing in the movie. Storm has several options to choose from, ultimately the Wolverine and the X-Men version is balanced enough to capture her movie version. She can hit hard as Apocalypse had upgraded her powers in the movie (Lightning Attenuation trait), she had just been taken off the streets as a thief (Stealth), and she is pretty straightforward with no Leadership or Close Combat Expert that her comic versions usually have and her movie-version doesn't portray any of those characteristics. I had to make an exception for Archangel for him not being too movie-accurate. My reasoning was that Apocalypse needs Mastermind fodder and this Archangel can take a solid hit upfront with his Invulnerability and follows it up with Toughness. Psylocke was an easy decision as each version, except the one I chose, had something thematically wrong with the character in the movie. She never used Telekinesis, Mind Control, and had a smallish range, so while the OP kit version has 0 range it can easily be fixed with the Flame Blast ring.
If you like it, why don't you put a ring on it?
Speaking of rings, why the Power Plant? For one it resembles the pyramid Apocalypse constructed to try and absorb Professor X's powers, and each ring was chosen to buff a character to resemble their movie version. Ice Blast represents the way Apocalypse would trap people into the earth/walls, Electro Blast resemble the upgrades he gave his horsemen, Flame Blast makes Psylocke and Archangel be more movie-accurate, Vortex Beam gives Apocalypse and Magneto Telekinesis, Disintegration Beam and Matter Rearranger are two natural powers that Apocalypse has anyway. Plus the Power Plant's ability to "Drain a Ring's Power" also captures the upgrades Apocalypse gave them, and it kind of looks like a pyramid, right?
Amazing Feat of Strength:
The 2 feats were a little tough to settle on as it could go in several directions. Ultimately I narrowed it down to Nanoarmor, Camouflage, and Protected or Contingency Plan and Outsmart. If you want to make Apocalypse more durable, go with the first 3, otherwise use the ones I chose which are more team-friendly. Contingency Plan just adds to my theme of buffing the Horsemen, and Outsmart gives the entire team some defense against Outwit since they will almost always be outnumbered. On to the X-Men:
Sweet Dreams X-Men Team:
123 GX036 Professor X
140 UXM053A Phoenix
75 UXM054 Quicksilver
97 WXM062 Beast
75 FFGSX002 Cyclops
82 DOFP018 Mystique
28 DOFP016 Moira MacTaggert
80 DOFP009 Nightcrawler
700 Total
Sweet Teams Are Made of These (Characters):
I made this team with the last battle scene in mind. After Professor X was rescued he was hidden from sight and battling Apocalypse in the Astral Plane. This particular version prefers to stay in the starting area, hidden from sight, while still helping out the team. Fox's Quicksilver is superior to Marvel's Cinematic Universe version, and this version of Quicksilver is far and away the best version of Quicksilver released to date. With Beast, if I had the points I might have chosen the Beast from the new Uncanny X-Men, but at the same time movie-Beast has not come into his own on the battlefield. Comparing the two, the Uncanny X-Men version seems a little more powerful than the movie version, and I don't feel movie-Beast is quite there yet. Cyclops alongside Nightcrawler were the most inexperienced ones, so the Cyclops I chose can't do much with his Leadership but still contributes with his Probability Control, Enhancement, X-Men team ability, and 3 damage scattered throughout his dial. Nightcrawler had no in between characters to choose from. I didn't want one with Blades/Claws/Fangs since he was mostly teleporting people around the battlefield, so that left me with 2 options, the version from Web of Spider-Man or the Days of Future Past version. Needless to say the Web of Spider-Man version is TOO good to represent the movie-version, and I'm not saying the Days of Future Past version isn't too good either but it was the lesser of two evils. Moira was easy since it's the only non-bystander version of her we have, and Mystique needed Leadership as that is her role in the movie. Her new 60 point version wouldn't be able to lead much, and at 82 points she can help all but 3 members of the team. Finally, the big spoiler herself, Phoenix. Jean Grey unleashes the Phoenix in the movie, and I really wanted to use the new version in a bigger battle to really test her out. Last time I used her she went to town on the Brotherhood in a 300 point game, and I am looking for a repeat performance.
Head to Head:
Look for the upcoming Head-to-Head featuring these two teams which should be up tomorrow. As always if you spot any mistakes, or have any suggestions feel free to chime in, in the comments section below. Visit my Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter to stay up to date with the latest articles too!
