Once Mephisto had captured the soul of the first lady of the Marvel Universe the Invisible woman, he decided to trade up for the soul of a homo superior: Jean Grey!

To see a 500-point force from the second issue of the only Marvel Comics series to ever headline Mephisto, follow the link.

Synopsis: As I described last week, this series focuses on Mephisto's quest to claim the souls of assorted heroes of the Marvel Universe. After seizing the soul of the Invisible Woman the fiend left a clue that directed Reed Richards to seek help from X-Factor. This was the earliest incarnation of the team, and even though it was still unknown to the public that the team was actually the original X-Men lineup, Mr. Fantastic was in on the secret and came seeking their help.

Just as Mephisto toyed with the Fantastic Four, he also manipulated this team, leading to this force build:

145 Unique (Secret Invasion 055) Mephisto
104 (Giant-Size X-Men 038) Iceman
75 (Fast Forces X-Men 002) Cyclops
75 (Fast Forces X-Men 003) Beast
50 (Giant-Size X-Men 031) Angel
50 (Danger Room 004) Jean Grey

= 499 points


The Mephisto dial is the same as we saw last week, with all its sins:

U Mephisto Points: 145 Range: 8
Team: Mystics
Keywords: Deity, Mystical

8 11 17 1

8 11 17 1

8 10 16 1

7 10 15 1

7 9 15 1

7 8 15 1

6 8 14 1

6 8 14 1

KO KO KO KO

Dark Bargain: Mephisto can use Incapacitate. When Mephisto successfully hits a target with Incapacitate, the controller of the target can choose either to give an action token to the target normally, or to roll a d6; on a result of 1-4, deal the target 1 unavoidable damage.

Prince of Lies: Mephisto can use Leadership and Outwit. When Mephisto successfully uses Leadership, only he can be given the extra action.

Mephisto brings a little more to the table this time, as the chosen Iceman, from the Giant Size X-Men booster set, has a wild card team ability that allows him to copy the dreaded Mystics team ability. I feel that is quite important to make the Iceman more playable: The figure has a great combination of powers, with the only drawback being that it is an inviting target with rather soft survival skills. As a , this figure helps with the mobility of the force as well.

E Iceman Points: 104 Range: 6
Team: Spider-Man|X-Men
Keywords: Champions, Defenders, X-Factor, X-Men

8 10 17 3

8 9 17 3

7 10 17 2

7 9 16 2

7 9 16 2

6 8 16 1

6 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

Ice Slide: Iceman can use Leap/Climb. After his move action resolves, you may place up to two hindering terrain markers in clear terrian in squares he moved through or occupied this turn. Remove them at the beginning of your next turn.

Ice Cage: Iceman can use Incapacitate. When he uses it and hits, until your next turn, the hit character's speed powers are countered, it gains "boot symbol", and that character must break away for movement purposes.

This force is using two figures from the relatively recent Fast Forces: Giant-Size X-men set: Cyclops and Beast. The dials of the characters are slightly more budget friendly than other modern versions, as well as being equipped with very classic power sets...and nice steady attack values. These figures don't bring all the awesome of other versions, but they are 20-30 points less than those other versions! I think they hit all the right notes for characters of the era of this comic.

E Cyclops Points: 75 Range: 7
Team: X-Men
Keywords: X-Factor, X-Men

8 10 17 3

8 9 16 3

7 9 16 2

7 10 16 2

6 9 15 3

6 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

Trained Together Since the Beginning: Cyclops can use Probability Control if no other friendly character has used Probability Control this turn. He can only use it during the attacks of other friendly characters with the X-Men keyword.

Notice that the powers on the damage track for this version of Beast (and to a lesser extent Cyclops) are somewhat all over the place. They share a common power that is a very conditional sort of Probability Control they can use on other teammates attack rolls: except those of Mephisto and Jean Grey. Beast's second click of Support is nicely tied to a higher move value click of Leap/Climb, but I'm not convinced that the dial is set up to maximize it's use...especially on the dial of a click-swapping team member.

E Beast Points: 75 Range: 0
Team: X-Men
Keywords: Avengers, Defenders, Scientist, X-Club, X-Factor, X-Men

9 10 17 3

8 10 17 2

8 9 16 2

7 8 15 2

6 9 15 1

6 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

Trained Together Since the Beginning: Beast can use Probability Control if no other friendly character has used Probability Control this turn. He can only use it during the attacks of other friendly characters with the X-Men keyword.

When this comic came out, Warren Worthington III had been crippled in the Fall of the Mutants and was hospitalized and about to have his wings surgically removed. Mephisto restored the wings of the 'fallen angel', but the character definitely did not have his 'Angel of Death' appearance. There are a pair of 50-point versions of the Angel with appropriate dials; I have opted for the more modern (HeroClix) version from the Giant-Size X-Men. The X-Factor of this era had not yet undergone their Simonson-fueled 'power ups', so a 'First Class' dial is very appropriate. This dial has the ability to bring a friendly figure into close proximity (via Charge and Carry) with none of the standard penalties!

R Angel Points: 50 Range: 0
Team: X-Men
Keywords: X-Men

10 9 16 2

9 9 16 2

8 9 16 1

7 8 15 1

7 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

Master Aerialist: When using the Flight ability, Angel ignores negative modifiers from using the Carry ability, and doesn't halve his speed value when using Charge.

I have two regrets about this force build. First, my figure choices did not allow me to fit the new Marvel Girl from the Marvel HeroClix 10th Anniversary set. Second, my character choices did not allow the use of the Cyclops / Phoenix duo figure from Giant-Size X-Men set as a viable Split/Merge option. I opted to use Jean Grey from the Danger Room starter because of her solid attack track. You may find that her opening Telekinesis is better used to pull back friendly figures after an alpha-strike than to try to set up an alpha-strike, since so many of her teammates have move-and-attack powers on top of relatively soft defenses.

V Jean Grey Points: 50 Range: 6
Team: X-Men
Keywords: Mutant, Psychic, X-Factor

8 9 16 2

8 9 16 2

7 10 16 1

7 9 15 1

7 8 15 1

6 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

While assembling this force, I had trouble getting all these characters to ft onto a 600-point team without having to resort to spending points on things other than actual characters. Both Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman shared some panel time (individually) with the characters, so each of those characters is a viable addition to try to inflate the build total of a force from this comic.

nice read, thanks for the idea of a new team to use. i like the addition of the fast forces figures, after takin another look they are not as half bad as i thought

One of my first comics! Love the cover. Its a really comic accurate team....but Mephisto is sooooo bad. I appreciate the work that goes into making accurate and playable as possible though.

I read this comic too. Hopefully, the new Mephisto coming out is much stronger than the SI one.

I like the GSX Fast Forces figures. While not as powerful as there counterparts from the regular set, they are evry useful when included in the right teams. (I think of them as the Experienced downgrade from the Veteran when fitting in points for a team.)

I think you guys have summed up the attitude towards GSX Fast Forces in two simple posts. The figures are clearly not the uber-dials (Cyclops, Professor X, Wolverine, Rogue) that we've seen in past sets, but in an era in which Kitty Pryde is a 111-point figure and Lockheed is another 47, a selection of 6 X-figures with respectable dials at 75 points each is a good thing.

As an aside: I've long tried to figure out what it is about the point generator algorithm that makes certain figures with the X-Men team ability so costly! It's some weird combination of the team ability and flight (with some consideration to ranged attacks and damage reducers) that makes the figures weirdly expensive when compared to other figures. Poor Iceman also gets burdened with Incapacitate (very expensive) and Barrier (not really worth the cost, given the limitations and the ability to push off it)

I really love this feature. Thanks for the great read.

Why not use the Iceman from Mutations and Monsters? I would rather have more ranged attacks them close combat, and if you like the incap, the one from M&M has two target incap, and if he gets hit, he gets a nice defense bump on his third clix. The most you lose is not copying mystics, but you gain 4 points, if that helps.

This. Change Iceman to the 100 point M&M fig. Then you have the extra 4 points for the Marvel Girl 10th anniversary fig you lament not putting on the team.

Good call, I did not look to she how much she was. You then you add a full dial of TK, support on top, and by some miracle, a chance to promote.

The Mystics is a big part of it, because part of the point of the article (at least for me) is to make Mephisto more useful. You also lose transporter, although YMMV how useful that is for your force.

My lamentation about missing on the latest Marvel Girl is more due to the fact I like to showcase newer figures when possible...but I am not a huge fan of the dial chosen as the 'classic' Jean Grey: the Veteran/LE from Hypertime (especially considering the X-Factor keyword). I simply think that they should have looked at either the Danger Room figure or even the 'First Class' dial for something a little more...inspired. My best guess is that the designers simply didn't want her to easily promote into the Dark Phoenix.

I have another (small) gripe about the 10th anniversary (pre-promoted) Marvel Girl: if she'd been 58+ points she could merge with Cyclops into the duo.

All that written, it isn't a bad suggestion to use the M&M Iceman. No version of the character has really seen that much play time IMO.

Ill be trying the team out this Saturday and honestly Im looking forward to it. I played this game since Infinity Challenge and the changes and strategies coming up still amaze me. I would have never thought to use TK to pull squishy chargers away from close combat. Its genius when used with angel who can charge from 10 squares away. Ill let you guys know how it goes.