Here’s three more of the year’s worst.
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MAUL (Batman 024)
The WildCATs’ big man is a big failure. He starts as a modest-stat Perplexer, then “hulks up” into a more Invulnerable type. The problem is that his AV doesn’t quite hulk up with him, and he loses the ‘Plex when he could really use it. Then he becomes a giant target, still without the AV he needs to contribute more than being the game’s biggest tie-up/meat shield.
At half the price, maybe he’d be better at the role. But no — 113 points he is, and it’s 113 points you might want to split between a real fighter and a real tie-up pawn.
He might get dumber and dumber as he grows, but maybe he’s still smarter than players who use him as the brick he looks like.
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#6
MINDWARP (New 52 Justice League 015)
He’s a two-trick pony, and only the first trick is any good:
- Phasing Prob Control. OK, that’s not bad.
- IF he has no action tokens and IF he can see an attacker and IF he can see the target, the target can use Super Senses. That’s a lotta IFs, and we’re still not done with ’em: IF the target actually dodges the attack with Super Senses, Mindwarp has to base the attacker. But PCers are best used at a distance, not up close. So it kinda ends up being a wash — or worse — even if it works.
45 points is just too much to pay for this. Lose him in warp space or something.
#5
ORACLE (DC 10th Anniversary 017)
Oracle pieces have never been much for the battlefield proper — after all, she’s a paraplegic. But at least they’ve been great backfield support and, most of all, cheap.
This one? Not really.
She’s got a nifty trait that, like 2011’s #7 Top piece Professor X, allows her to draw lines of fire from fellow keyworded pals. But she’s more handicapped than her Marvel chair-bound counterpart:
- 0 Range.
- Using her complement of support powers (Outwit, Perplex, Prob Control) requires a dedicated power action…
- …to pick ONE.
- And all the oppo needs to do to shut that whole thing down is base her. She really can’t survive a hand-to-hand fight for long.
At 73 points, she needs to be a lot more potent than that.
I would make a crack here about her being crippled and having to crawl, but…oh, look….I…just did.
Tomorrow we really start bottom-feeding.