by Jay Solomon
Hello, and welcome to another iteration of Why Don’t I Play This Piece?. This week, I will be focusing my attention on 3-D Man, another Prime who hits like a primary attacker while being costed like a secondary attacker.
3-D Man possesses Improved Targeting: Ignores Hindering Terrain and Characters. He has one trait and one special power.
SEE A PERSON’S TRUE FORM AND INTENT: Opposing characters within 6 squares and line of fire can’t use Shape Change or Stealth. Friendly characters within line of fire may modify their defense values by +2 when targeted by Mind Control.
This trait is quite useful, especially in the Limited Format, with Nick Fury being played as a normal character more often, and both Shape Change and Stealth being his main defenses. Nighthawk Prime’s main defense is Shape Change as well, and is one of 3-D Man’s
THREE TIMES PEAK HUMAN: 3-D Man can use Perplex, but only to target himself. He can use it up to 3 times per turn, but can’t modify his damage value more than once. When he uses Perplex (no matter how many times), at the end of your turn, roll a d6 and on a result of 1, deal him 1 unavoidable damage.
This special power takes his combat values, which are reasonable, and cranks them up to 11. Although he can only up his own damage once, he can still use the other 2 Perplexes to either have a 13-Attack, 20-Defense, or 12-Attack and 19-Defense to be defensive while helping to ensure a hit. His attack value potential means that he will be able to hit Krang reliably, Krang being the major threat in Limited.
3-D Man has Hypersonicspeed, and his trait and special power allow him to deal with the threats that are prevalent in the format, while also helping other friendly characters, such as turning off Stealth for other characters to use Outwit. Even without that, he is a very good attacker for the points, along with having the very versatile Avengers keyword to maximize his theme team possibilities. The Initiative keyword is not viable, and the Agents of Atlas keyword is almost non-existent.
The Avengers keyword is absolutely viable, and it also has a fair few ATA options to go with it. The one that is most notable and useful to 3-D Man is Civil War, which can give him Sidestep to help his HSS swing. The team that I’ve built for 3-D Man uses this ATA:
90 AVAS013B 3-D Man
-5 ATA121 Civil War
75 AVAS017 Falcon
-5 ATA121 Civil War
58 AVAS037 Manifold
-5 ATA121 Civil War
50 AOU044R Giant-Man
-5 ATA121 Civil War
6 SFSMS101 Symbiote
Sideline: AOU001 Hank Pym, AOU003 Ant-Man, AOU022 Yellowjacket, AOU043 Goliath, AOU201 Hank Pym, AOU204 Yellowjacket, AOU205 Ant-Man, AOU206 Wasp, AOUG200 Giant-Man
The basic game plan is to morph Giant-Man into an Ant bystander making Hank Pym, most likely. Carry the rest of the team with Manifold, giving 3-D Man a 21-Defense with all of his Perplexes. On the next turn, Manifold will push to re-position himself for the Probability Control that he will gain. Falcon will then do his free move action to set up his attack, with whatever Hank Pym option you have setting up an Outwit. If the desired target has Stealth, 3-D Man will use Sidestep and Hypersonic Speed to attack and shut down the Stealth and/or possible Shape Change. The mobility of this team along with the versatility of Hank Pym and his ants will help 3-D Man deal the damage out.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on another fringe character. As always, when trying out that fringe figure or any other competitive team, practice makes your team better.
