by Jay Solomon
Hello and welcome to another installment of “Why Don’t I Play This Piece?” This week I will be going over a personal favorite piece of mine, Element Man.
Element Man has the Outsiders team ability, which reads:
Give a character using the Outsiders team ability a free action to choose a character (including itself) within 10 squares and line of fire. Until the beginning of your next turn, the chosen character’s combat values can’t be modified. Uncopyable.
This team ability is quite useful, both potentially for your own team and against your opponent’s. It will stop negative modifiers that can happen to your team, such as the Damage Depletion Modifier, Perplex from your opponent, the -2 to Speed from the carry ability, the -2 to Attack from the Move and Attack Ability, the Police/HYDRA team ability, and other special powers/abilities from opposing characters that lower friendly’s stats. Shutting down opposing positive modifiers is of course always good, especially against characters that rely on them, such as Krang.
Element Man has one trait:
METAMORPHIC: Element Man can use Plasticity, Shape Change, and Giant Reach. When he has no action tokens, Element Man can use Phasing/Teleport.
Note that as per the most recent Size Categories rules and clarifications, Element Man’s Giant Reach would be 2.:
[C]All game elements with Giant Reach not formatted with Giant Reach: X use a default X value of 2 unless the game effect specifies otherwise.
Each one of these abilities is useful. Traited Shape Change is good blanket protection for Element Man, while Plasticity makes him more of an annoyance and tie-up, which he can serve as, being only a third of your build. The Phasing gives him mobility, and good movement overall taking his top dial Sidestep into account. The Giant Reach:2 is also useful in combination with his Sidestep or Flurry, and his general focus on close combat, as his range is only 4.
Element Man has one Special power in his Attack slot:
A PERIODIC ARSENAL: Give Element Man a free action and choose a standard attack and/or defense power. Element Man can use the chosen powers until your next turn, even if this power is lost. If Element Man chose both attack and a defense power, deal him 1 unavoidable damage at the end of your turn.
This special power allows Element Man to function as a Swiss Army knife of attack powers, while also having the option of defenses as well. Pick an attack power characters tend to be good and used competitively. What sets Element Man apart is his ability to choose defense powers as well, while also having other powers of his own to go with a pick a power, unlike Engineer’s bare-bones dial.
As an overall package, Element Man has a lot to offer. His combination of his defenses and Outsiders team ability can make him a target, and one that’s very hard to hit with all 3 roll-out powers. Element Man is also one of the few characters that can get Shape Change, Super Senses, and Impervious using only what’s on the dial. His Plasticity will ensure that his target will be stuck dealing with him, while he can Pulse Wave them, taking full advantage of his short range, making single target Pulse Waves easier to pull off. Everything on his dial contributes to make him a package of annoyance and effective attacking, while his defenses ensure longevity. His end-dial spike of Flurry and Battle Fury can also be surprising and could even potentially turn a game around in the right scenario.
Element Man has several useful keywords. Justice League has a large roster of good figures, as does Soldier. Soldier is possibly the best keyword to build with Element Man right now, as Nick Fury is an obvious pairing. Outsiders is not as vast a keyword, but it has some very good figures, including Sebastian Faust and the World’s Finest FF Nightwing.
For this week’s team, I’ve decided to go without theme, and go for as much annoying factor as possible.
Element Man 100
Superman Blue 50
Mr. Mxyzptlk 70
Frog-Man 35
Atomica 25
H.E.N.R.Y. 25
This is a team that I ran myself at this year’s Semi-Finals at the ROC World Cup. It performed decently and has some good match-ups. The team deploys in two groups. Mr. Mxyzptlk does his own thing with his Pulse Wave. Superman Blue moves to wherever Element Man is to protect him from Pulse Wave, his one weakness. Mr. Mxyzptlk can make Element Man a colossal, so Krang will not be able to ignore his Plasticity, and will have to deal with his 3 roll-outs while not being able to use Pulse Wave on Element Man. Element Man will then use his Outsiders team ability to shut down Krang’s modifiers. As previously mentioned, Element Man can tie-up Doctor Octopus based teams while Mxy can Pulse Wave them to death at his leisure. The team also has surprising swing for Mxyzptlk, as Element Man can choose Telekenesis while Mxyzptlk is still tiny, followed by Mxyzptlk using his Running Shot/Pulse Wave.
That’s all I have for this week, but until next time, try out that fringe figure and make your impact on the competitive environment!
