by Jay Solomon
Hello and welcome to another iteration of “Why Don’t I Play This Piece?” This week, we will be looking at a favorite piece of mine, Elongated Man from the Flash set.
Elongated Man possesses Improved Movement: Ignores Elevated and Hindering Terrain, along with the Justice League Team Ability, which reads:
JUSTICE LEAGUE – When you give a character using the Justice League team ability a move action, it does not count toward your available actions for the turn.
This Team Ability could be useful, as a lot of the non-free actions that Elongated Man will be doing are move actions, as will be explained below.
The first thing that sticks out about Elongated Man is his trait:
GINGOLD SODA: Elongated Man can use Plasticity. Opposing characters within 2 squares and line of fire treat Elongated Man as adjacent for movement purposes.
This ability is a very useful tie-up mechanic. Combined with his top-dial Stealth, he is mostly immune to being attacked. Close combat characters without Giant Reach will be unable to attack him as they will be stuck 2 squares away from him. He is also able to tie up characters easier, as he will not to roll break away, as the characters that he is able to affect with his trait are not actually adjacent to him for his movement.
He also has a special damage power starting on his first click:
MY NOSE IS TWITCHING: Elongated Man can use Outwit as if he had a range value of 8 and Improved Targeting: Ignores Elevated Terrain, Ignores Hindering Terrain, Ignores Characters.
This special power is the second part of Elongated Man’s total package that makes him work so well. This special power allows him to use a long range Outwit with Improved Targeting that ignores everything except Blocking Terrain (resembling Nick Fury in that way).
Finally, he has a special defense power that he picks up on his second click:
CLOSING IN ON A SUSPECT: Elongated Man can use Barrier, Combat Reflexes, and Willpower.
This special power is quite useful as it goes well with his Stealth and 18-Defense, to make him a formidable 20-Defense in close combat, where he thrives. The Willpower is also useful, as this is his best click, defensively, and it is ideal to keep him on it as long as possible. Barrier can be useful as well.
Elongated Man also picks up Sidestep in his Movement slot. He has no Attack powers. He starts off with Super Senses in his Defense slot, which then turns into his Special Defense Power. In the damage slot he gains some Perplex in addition to his Special Damage Power.
Elongated Man’s most notable stats are his very good defense numbers, especially taking that second click 18-Defense with Combat Reflexes. His mobility is very respectable with decent movement numbers, his Plasticity, and Improved Movement: Ignores Elevated and Hindering Terrain. Elongated Man is costed like a support piece, but he can also attack and serve as a tertiary attacker. The combination of his mobility and Outwit special power allow him to cover a lot of ground and make sure that he will be able to use that Outwit effectively. His Justice League Team Ability will allow him to re-position as needed for his Outwit and Plasticity while not costing you any of your actions from the action pool. Overall, he is a very solid package, doing things that no one other character does. He definitely deserves recognition and to be seen more than he is.
While there are no other figures that have been recently retired that Elongated Man replaces, he serves as a possible counter to a figure previously mentioned in this very article, 056 Nick Fury. Elongated Man has his Outwit Special Power with similar range to Nick Fury, along with the same Improved Targeting. The main difference between Nick Fury and Elongated Man is that Elongated Man’s special power is Outwit, meaning that he can use it to counter combat abilities. Elongated Man can use Outwit to counter Nick Fury’s improved Targeting, while Nick Fury will be able to do anything in return, as Elongated Man also has Stealth. Without his Improved Targeting, A Nick Fury opposing Elongated Man will be in a bad situation, as his Improved Targeting is one of his abilities that makes him work as a potent package, ignoring most of the map.
Elongated Man’s Plasticity is also a great hindrance to the Hypersonicspeed that is out there, including Mary Marvel’s, who has been making herself well known in the competitive scene, such as in the recent Canada Cup, where she was in the 1st place team, among others.
As far as making themed teams go, Elongated Man has one very notable keyword and some that are less useful. Detective has some variety, but nothing that works particularly well as a competitive themed team. Justice League is a very strong keyword with great numbers and options. Justice League International has a few good pieces, but nothing going on in the modern competitive environment. Finally, Opal City has only 3 characters that are Modern. Nothing going on there.
To go along with Elongated Man, I have built the usual 300 point modern competitive team, with the Justice League, as it is the strongest keyword that he has.
Elongated Man 81
Superman 90
-Kryptonian ATA 2
KC Superman 35
-Kryptonian ATA 2
Batman/Superman Robot 25
Atomica 25
JLTWR101 Pandora’s Box (Full) 40
300
(Sideline: All Shifting Focus Supermans)
The idea of this team is focus on defenses while building up to the god click on the Box resource. The characters on this team have solid defense numbers as is, and all of the Sins from the resource give some sort of defensive number bonus via Combat Reflexes, Energy Shield/Deflection, or the +1 to Defense from Sloth. This is further helped by the defensive Shifting Focus Superman’s Special Defense power:
DEFENDING THE HELPLESS: Superman can use Invincible. Modify the defense value of adjacent friendly characters by +1. This power can’t be countered.
The Shifting Focus Superman will be the primary attacker on this team, with the Colossal Retaliation and KC Superman serving as back-up. The Wrath Relic will be very helpful to the Shifting Focus Superman, as the lack of Willpower is his main issue.
Elongated Man’s tie-up abilities can be quite useful in making your opponent unable to attack your important characters while you set up. I would put the Gluttony relic on him, as blocking terrain is the only thing he can’t see through, so he will be able to use his Outwit unimpeded once he eats whatever blocking terrain is getting in his way. KC Superman’s Incapacitate is also helpful to keep your opponent’s characters unable to make actions to attack your more important characters.
That’s all for this week, and until next time, give that underused character a second look!
