by Jay Solomon
Hello and welcome to another iteration of “Why Don’t I Play This Piece?”. This week, I’ll be looking at a character that is incredibly annoying to KO. This week, we’ll be looking at Swarm.
ONLY THE QUEEN MATTERS: Unless the attack roll is doubles, Swarm takes no more than 1 damage from attacks.
This trait is what makes Swarm notable. Most of the time, Swarm will only be taking one damage from a successful attack. It’s not absolutely reliable, but for the most part, it will make Swarm quite annoying to KO.
ORPHAN SWARMS: Each time Swarm hits an opposing character, after actions resolve put a Bee Swarm bystander adjacent to that character unless there already is one.
This top-dial special power allows Swarm to press the advantage after successfully hitting, placing Bee Swarms adjacent to each hit character. It’s worth keeping in mind that due to the timing, if Swarm KO’s the hit character, no Bee Swarm will be placed.
The Bee Swarms have this special power:
Bee Swarm’s actions do not count against your action total.
The new rules for Poison also work well with these bystanders, as they will be able to use it after being generated and being placed where it will be most effective. They are just enough of a nuisance to make your opponent want to deal with them, but their Super Senses is also a deterrent from being attacked.
Swarm has an overall annoying dial, with Super Senses and Shape Change to avoid attacks, along with Running Shot and two targets to make up to two Bee Swarms at a time. His Defense numbers may be low, but his trait makes up for that. Also, the low Defense numbers allow him to be easily healed by Support, even with the 9-Attack on Tony Zucco. This is especially good now that Support has a minimum result of 2.
Both of Swarms keywords are effective. In Sinister Syndicate Swarm can have such allies as Doctor Octopus, Stilt-Man, Overdrive, and Chameleon. Other Scientists include the previously mentioned Doctor Octopus, Armaggon, Red Leader, Ameridroid, Iron Heart, and the Lex Luthor & Joker duo. The team that I’ve built with Swarm this week is Sinister Syndicate themed, to get the maximum amount of damage output with Doctor Octopus:
120 DXF054 Swarm
-25 SMWW063 Brainiac
35 SFSM029 Overdrive
80 WKM16-001 Doctor Octopus
5 WFR100 Justice League Teleporter
-5 NFAOSNFID-007 S.H.I.E.L.D. Level 7
-5 NFAOSNFID-011 Bucky Barnes
-5 WFWFID-004 Green Arrow
-5 WFWFID-009 Power Girl
-5 WFWFID-020 Nightwing
-5 WKDCID-003 Dr. Fate
5 WKDP17-008 Boxing Ring
300
Sideline: NFAOS056 Nick Fury, ADW067 Hawkeye, TMT052 Hulk, NFAOS Winter Soldier, EW049 Green Arrow, WKD16-004 Green Arrow, WKD17-002 Power Girl, WKD15-008 Nightwing, JW042 Dr. Fate
This team is built to deal with Uni-Mind in some ways. The Doctor Fate inspiration will help shut down Uni-Mind’s very important Perplexes every other turn once you reach power 2 on the Teleporter, which the bystanders and the sheer number of attacks that Swarm can take will enable, along with Swarm calling out characters. Brainiac will either give Swarm Impervious for three roll-out defensive powers, or the very useful Outwit, depending on what you need, along with a stat increase in almost any of his combat values. Doctor Octopus will be able to make at least one bunch of attacks before being KO’d, and Swarm will live an annoyingly long time, using the Teleporter to clean up whatever is left after Doctor Octopus has attacked. Sinister Syndicate theme granting a +3 to the initiative roll should help choose a map that works well against Uni-Mind, since Uni-Mind teams tend to not be themed.
That’s all I have this week. Thanks for reading, and remember that whether you’re playing an established competitive character or a funky fringe piece, practice makes your team better.
