by Jay Solomon
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Why Don’t I Play This Piece? This week, I will be discussing the gravity Feed Rag Doll from the Flash set. Last time I went over the common Rag Doll of the same set. While my fellow Meta Lab member Tom prefers the common, I prefer the one that I will be going over this week.
But before I get into Rag Doll, I have two things to note. As this article series focuses on trying out these fringe pieces in competitive play, I will try to get some use out of these figures myself. When I use these pieces in a competitive tournament, I will report back with my results afterwards, at the end of the article. This week, I will be reporting on how The Wizard did for me.
I will also note that from this point on, through when the ROC shifts back from Modern Limited in May, I will be doing the teams that I write about in these articles in the 300 point Modern Limited format. As a reminder, the Limited format is:
Not allowed – No resources, no figures with a base bigger than a peanut, no constructs, relics, ID cards, feats, BFCs, Event Dials, or Characters Equipped during Force Construction.
Allowed – Themed teams, ATAs, Special Objects, Word Balloons, and Bystanders.
Rag Doll has one trait and one special power.
YOUR FAMILIES ARE MY HOSTAGES: When Rag Doll is KO’d by an opponent’s attack, that character modifies its attack value by -2 for the rest of the game, even if this ability is lost.
This trait is a big part of why Rag Doll is so useful. Although he can seem like easy points to your opponent, the negative effects of KO’ing him can be crippling to a primary attacker. This trait also makes him especially annoying tie-up, as you can force your opponent to run away from Rag Doll, to avoid having to attack him so as to not suffer the negative consequences of this trait. His Plasticity later in the dial works well with the trait as well.
CULT LEADER: Rag Doll can use Exploit Weakness, Leadership, and Outwit.
While he only has this power for one click, it still helps him be so good 
for the points. In the current environment, there are a fair amount of characters that are used that Rag Doll will be able to take tokens off of, such as FF Atomica, Juston Seyfort, Night Nurse, and a fair amount of bystanders or other 0 point characters. Outwit is always useful, and although he only has 1-damage printed, Exploit Weakness can ensure that his damage will stick, as close combat is his primary option.
His standard powers combo with the trait and special power to make Rag Doll a very effective harasser that your opponent will either want to avoid, or trade off the -2 attack for the opportunity to get points, crippling one of their attackers in the process.
Rag Doll’s dial comes with good damage output for the points along with a good stretch of Exploit Weakness, a fair amount of Plasticity, and some Regeneration at the end of the dial to stick around as long as possible. The main thing to keep in mind with Rag Doll is to ensure that an important opposing character KO’s him, and when doing so, does so with an attack. Poison is not very common right now, but it is something to consider. Pulse Wave would also ignore the trait.
Unfortunately, as with The Wizard, I must admit that the Secret Society of Super-Villains keyword is not a great one to build around, and the ATA is not worth using on a low point piece like Rag Doll. He will have to shine on non-themed teams. For Rag Doll’s team, I wanted to maximize all of his capabilities, while he is able to provide backup for an effective offensive force that could use his specific skills.
The Team:
GF Rag Doll 50
Overdrive 35
Nick Fury 120
General Lane 40
Atomica 25
Ultron-18.2 (Drone) 30
On this particular team, Rag Doll’s skills can be used to do multiple important things. Extra actions will be important for this team, so his and General Lane’s Leaderships will be very important, as in one turn, the team could want to take as many as 4 non-free actions. There are also low point characters on the team that will want tokens taken off of them as much as possible, including Atomica for her CSA tokens as well as the Charged Up Bystander, so it can move as much as possible without KOing and damaging Overdrive. The Charged Up will be able to take Empower from Overdrive, so Rag Doll will be able to deal even more close combat damage with his Exploit Weakness.
The Ultron 18.2 serves 2 main purposes on this team. Primarily to serve as anti-Nick Fury tech, but also as a backup taxi and good way to get Rag Doll in the opponent’s face as quickly as possible. It also has a very useful second click with Enhancement and Mind Control, the Enhancement being especially useful with Nick Fury already having help in that department from General Lane. Once Rag Doll is in position to harass and keep the opposing team occupied, Nick Fury will have the help of General Lane to keep going turn after turn. Also, even if the opposing team can base Nick Fury, the Empower from Charged Up will also be useful to Nick. Whether Rag Doll is using his Leadership, Outwit, Exploit Weakness, or his trait, he should contribute more than enough to make his points back and more.
Last weekend, I used this team with two Wizards at a local ROC Win-a-Map event:
Loki 115
-Brainiac 25
The Wizard 50
-Monster Society of Evil ATA 5
The Wizard 50
-Monster Society of Evil ATA 5
Pandora’s Box (Full) 40
The Atom ID Card 5
S.H.I.E.L.D. Level 7 ID Card 5
Sideline: The Atom (colossal), The Atom (OP LE Ray Palmer), NFAOS uncommon Winter Soldier 95, Peggy Carter, NFAOS Hulk 100
I ended up placing Top 8 at the event, which was satisfactory for me, having used a fringe piece, and multiple copies nonetheless. I learned that The Wizard may be better in Limited than in 300 modern, as the Wrath Relic hurts him too much in modern. This event was also a learning experience for me, realizing that when playing point denial, the ideal is to play pieces that can’t die. This led to my Loki/Resurrection Man team that I wrote about here, and am planning on using competitively.
With all that being said, I thank you for reading this article, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours to take your opponent by surprise with that fringe piece.
