I look at this piece with the new rules and I see nothing but wonderous lights and a sea of happy thoughts.

For less than a hundred points, this is what you too can have at home:

V Psylocke + Vault + Stunning Blow + Heightened Reflexes 98 points

Now it looks nice, but what does it REALLY get you?

Well, she starts off with stealth, 10 attack with Incap, 17 defense with Combat Reflexes, a 3 attack with Exploit Weakness. She also has an 8 range and the X-Men ability.

We also know she's not just a top heavy figure. She keeps her stealth for a full four clicks, and she later moves into perplex and CCE.

So what happens when this figure is on the board?

Well, anything short of Trick Shot or Superman/Ultimates ability, you're going to need to hit her up close, and up close is NOT where you want to be with this figure.

Psylocke has options against any figure foolish enough to go up against her. First off, they're going to need to roll a 19. You can certainly hit that, but it's going to almost definitely going to cost you more than 98 points. Even at an 11 attack, you're going to have to roll an 8. And if they manage to roll an 8, they're still going to have to avoid your roll of a 5 or a 6. At this point, some cheap probabilty control would go a LONG way.

Now let's assume that they miss their attack. Psylocke can do a couple of things.

If the character coming after them has say, Willpower, your best option is a Stunning Blow. 3 clicks of damage and that extra token. If they have Impervious, you'll be best suited with an Exploit Weakness attack.

Another thing to consider here is your X-Men ability. You're probably going to be tempted to push her. Your best option is to have a cheap wildcard or X-Men figure to swap clicks with. Maybe even an activation click from a certain big, steel skinned Russian.

There are a ton of cards you can use on her that I didn't even mention. Protected, Nanobots, and ICWO are obvious choices, but for a 75 point figure, you have around 200 points for support pieces, and that's not bad at all.

Discuss.

Oh come on now, you KNOW this is a solid tactic!

You are of course refering to post Danger Room qualifiers? Because this qualifier will not have the new Combat Reflexes rules in effect.

It's definately hard to hit, but I feel that post Danger Room, the robot Superman will be the piece to beat in the qualifiers.

Wizkids has retired Black Adam only to immediately replace him with his less-expensive counterpart. The Robot, at 100 points can also load up on ICWo (getting his AV to the same level as Black Adam), Nanobots (which he can use on his 3rd click, healing back to full) and still be 30 points cheaper then Adam.

Add to the fact that he's got an 8 range with Superman Ally, I think he'd eat V psylocke for lunch for roughly the same investment.

Oh come on now, you KNOW this is a solid tactic!

The problem with the robot is that he's not pushable. True, Psylocke gets eaten by him, but if we can assume that Psylocke can get in range of an incap attack and manage to dodge the robots HSS attack (I get the super senses light against you), the match could effectively be over if I land a stunning blow.

Granted, if you were to hand the both of them to me and say "Pick one and I get the other." I'm going to take the robot. But Psylocke does have a chance. The other thing to remember is that people won't be expecting Psylocke to be a problem. People will be much quicker to target the robot though.

I could also load a Protected on her and make it so that even if you do slam her with HSS, I can avoid the damage and still be in the game. A little prob control, maybe ICWO playing Oracle to gain outwit, etc. I just have to dodge that attack one time and get within range of you. Maybe Clarice Ferguson to TK my Psylocke up to get in range after you miss an attack.

This is all speculation, but the point is there's a lot we can do with this piece.

What about Pulse Wave? Ignores Stealth and the new CR changes... Psylocke's that much easier to hit at range, especially by all the nova blasting teams. Sure V Psylocke has a lot going for her, but with all the feats you've equipped at around 100 points there may be better ways to spend those points. Yes she is a beast, but she needs backup. It's hard to evaluate without knowing what her supporting attackers/defenders will be.

I pulled the V Psylocke as part of the Armor Wars pre-release. She was a BEAST. I had her taxied around by U Shathra, and Shathra would just stick her in Stealth and hide behind her. No one in Armor Wars could see her while she was Stealthed, and she was a hard-fightin' close combat machine as well. She wiped out a U Sentry (badly played, mind you, but still) nearly all by herself.

Huh, I should look for more opporunity to play her!

I like the tactic. Shows some planning for the future and a shift in the game.

Keep working it out. Playtest it a couple of time to see where there might be weakness that can be shored up. It looks good on paper but "put her in the Danger Room" so to speak and lets see what she can do.

P.S. Robot Superman is going to be an absolute terror. I look forward to punking him.

I am sick to death of hearing this!

For the last time: PULSE WAVE KILLS EVERYTHING! It's the ultimate trump. We get it.

How does my under 100 points figure handle pulse wave? She doesn't. She cries!

I swear, everytime I post a strategy, that's always in there.

Could someone point me to this change in CR? I couldn't find it at the Wizkids site, but I didn't look very hard...

You basically get +2 defense against any close combat attacks.

I agree that Psylocke is awesome, particularly in a 300 point game. Melvin, I think you have some good ideas for teams and I value your opinion. I posted this team in a thread but I didnt get a good response. What do you think? I think it'll be nasty post-danger room.

E Mach 3 with thunderbolts (to MOE), shellhead, nanobots, and ICWO: 112
R black suit spidey with pounce, heightened reflexes, camouflage, nanobots, ICWO: 104
R Ragman with pounce: 40
R Dr. Midnight: 24
Rip it up: 20

Let’s assume you ICWO mach 3’s attack to 10 every turn. He will running shot (ripping up an object) for 10 attack and 3 damage. When he pushes, he loses SS and drops the object on himself, nanobotting to his first click. Since he’s pushed he has 19 def. Next turn, you do the same thing (as he is Tbolted to MOE). He can do this every turn without need of a separation field generator (as he only has one click of SS).

But why not base him? Well, if you try to get near him, my pouncers come up to you. Spidey is an absolute beast—ICWOing his attack to an 11 atk, 5 damage beatdown. Now he has SC, HR, and camo if he’s next to a wall (which cannot be outwitted as he will copy batman ally). Next turn you can push to LC away, ripping up an object. This will push to the 3rd click, allowing a nanobot to the first click.

Ragman pounces for clean up. Dr. Midnight heals when needed. I know I don’t have PC, but my nanobotting will keep me pretty healthy, and ragman is hard to take out as a 3rd attacker.

So, whaddya think?
I’d definitely use poor teamwork, and maybe telekinetic strain or something.

It's a fine idea and here's a team that I came up with using Psylocke.

V Psylocke 75; w/Vault (5) Stunning Blow (10) Heightened Reflexes (8) - 98
E Domino 46
E Vixen 38; w/pounce (15) 53
V Echo 38; w/swingline (10) 48
V Vanisher 25; w/passenger (5) - 30
R Dr. Mid-Nite 24

= 299

What about it? All you have to do is make sure you don't group up and mess with line of sight.

put ambush on her and she is a beast to people with 17-18 DV

Sorry, a little off topic, but I wanted to reponsd to the Pulse Wave argument. Pulse Wave does not trump everything. It does not trump Outwit, and it does not trump Barrier.

There's no PW to be done at all, if it is Outwitted. Also, PW does not go through blocking terrain.

In a 300 point game, V Magma would be great to use with Psylocke. She's a teeeensy bit pricey at 51 points, but she can provide the Barrier, or the X-men TA so Psylocke can push. Plus, she gets better when she takes damage. I used her in the AW marquee, and she survived every round and dealt major damage, because 30 minutes into the game no one could hit her on her last two clicks of 17 defense (18 in hindering).