Title's mostly self explanatory. Thinking about giving Phoenix a try, I normally play teams built around 2 or 3 attackers with some support, rather than single, tent-pole figures.

I'm assuming I'd go for maps with lots of hindering terrain, hypersonic out, pick three targets and deal damage to the most dangerous one I hit. Maybe use TK to take out anyone in stealth.

Will her support special power work without a target?

Anybody have advice or stories of their own to share?

Her special support power will not work without a target. She needs to heal someone to be healed.

I haven't tried Phoenix yet but I'd recommend tossing on a healing vine.

I beat her when I faced her in sealed and went 1-2 using her in same. Read my blog for the details, but the short version is that Psychic Blast eats her lunch AND takes her money.

I have not yet played Phoenix, but I did face her with a Hellfire Club team in a Golden Age 300-pt event.

My opponent made a couple of tactical mistakes early on, but ending up suckering-me into following him down the narrow alley on the Madrippor along one long edge of the map; I was trying for a quick KO with a Running Shot attack by SR Storm followed up with a Running Shot attack by LE Norman Osborn, but was unable to put Phoenix down.

I was saved by poor dice rolling by my opponent, who stayed on the Laser Turret while trying to Regen, yet failing several times. The Laser Turret almost carried the day for him, though; it smacked into Storm several times, but I was able to Mastermind the damage onto R Hellfire Guards.

My advice to my opponent after the game was to make better use of the buildings and blcoking terrain. With a 12-Speed, Phoenix can Hypersonic down the "main street" of Madripoor for 6-7 squares of movement, shoot 3-targets at a range 5, then dash over the building / blocking to make a return attack very difficult.

Unless the Judge is running non-standard rules, you do not need to wipe-out your opponent's entire team to win a 300-pt game. KO a low-point figure, then continue to hit-and-run over the building and blocking. You have 2 clicks of 12-speed HSS on top of her dial, so even if Phoenix rolls a Critical Miss, she should still be able to duck behind cover and get to the Vine, as Morand suggested.

Good write-up, rep to you!

I agree with your blog entry, tentpole HSS attackers need to be very patient, often passing-up an attack in favor of positioning.

i beat her in a sealed event as my last match...i kept her based with beast and psylocke...psylocke special with storms tk and pings from beast....3-0...she is a tough one to beat!!!

She's a tough one to beat. You got to keep her based and hit her hard.

I've used her twice. Once in a one round tournament against Juggernaut and Storm, and a second time in a sealed tournament.

Against Juggernaut and Storm, we were on Krakoa and my opponent kept leaving Juggernaut in hindering terrain. i took out Storm pretty easy and was able to out maneuver Juggernaut, letting the island damage him 2-3 times from being in hindering when it switched to blocking.

In the sealed, two of my games were really tough. First game was against Cable/Deadpool. My opponent turtled and kept passing until I was within range and LoF of their teleport duo attack power. What did me in though was that I missed a crucial attack towards the end of the game. Oh, and he rolled 2 crit hits against me.

Second game I decimated.

3rd game was against Prof. X, Wolverine, and 50 pt Angel. I forgot Angel had a 10 speed charge with a carry ability that doesn't modify his speed. I parked Phoenix on the elevated away from the rim and was immediately based by Angel and Wolverine. 2 dmg psy blast from Prof. X took away her HSS so I had to choose between breaking away or hitting the guys in front of me. I took out Angel early on. Hitting Wolverine posed a problem though as it puts him on his flurry/blades clicks. In the end, terrible regen rolls and missing breakaway 3 times did me in.

Had I remembered the charge on Angel I would have picked better positioning for my first turn and would have had much more success.

I had a feeling someone was going to play her in our floor-300 event, so I went for an anti-Phoenix team.

I played Psylocke, Elsa Bloodstone, Roulette, Trevor Fitzroy, and Cypher.
This team rocked. I used Psylocke to TK and position Elsa, then would run Trevor next to her...us Elsa to attack, then if the opponent was still alive, use trevor to hit AND reposition Elsa until she cleared.

I faced Phoneix in the last round, and won map choice. Picked Space map (was looking for a good indoor/outdoor map to exploit the can't attack from out to in rule). Good positioning allowed me to get off the first hit with Elsa (and penetrating damage). Bad positioning on account of my opponent allowed me to use Psylocke to TK Elsa AND charge in again...used both my pc and rolled a 4 for blades. Phoenix ran. Elsa cleared. I used Psylocke to push again and got her to her 11 attack, EW/BCF SP click and moved Elsa to base Phoenix...
Elsa pushed and nailed Phoenix for a hit with a roll of 10. Rolled 6 on blades which would have KOed Phoenix, but her trait kicked in and she came back on click 8, THEN took knockback into a wall to put her on her last click.
TKed the shield disruptor close to Phoenix and tried to finish her off with Roulette, 3 chances to roll a 7 and missed! Lol
Well, Phoenix regenned, rolled a 45, I PCed it and made it a 6, so she got 45 back. Cleared Elsa. Next turn, hit with Elsa rolled 54 for BCF, game over.

Never even got to attack with Psylocke. By the way, this team easily destroyed a couple of X-teams, as well.

As was written above, you simply have to play her very patiently by herself.

Since she's so very susceptible to EW/PB, and as a tentpole she could easily be crippled by a high-damage attack with an object, you have to be careful to avoid being in a position where you can easily be attacked by such things.

When I played her in sealed, I spent early rounds destroying objects and relying on the HSS to stay away from trouble.

The other thing I will suggest: don't waste her attacks on figures with regen. I had a very frustrating game with GSX Phoenix against the common GSX Wolverine because I simply could not put together two attacks against him for a KO...and an equally frustrating game against Aaron Stack.

The GSX Phoenix is not an auto-win figure by any means, but nor is it an auto-lose.

Played at a Con 2 weeks ago, 19 players. The guy who won played Phoenix and went 4-0. He took every piece he faced.
I also finished 4-0, Since we didn't get to go 5 rounds I didn't face it.
I did face her in a 600 modern. Based her with Wolverine and Sabretooth, and took her down hard..

I played her a couple of times. once in a sealed and once in floor, then just as a one man army. I didnt get to finish my sealed, I went against a Magneto, Elsa, and a purifier. Built to kill me, but I lucked out and he missed twice with Elsa and I just ran circles around him. It was a Math game at that point you know.

In floor, we had two magnetos so I stowed my mags team and ran phoneix and storm, went up against phoneix the first round with mindless one for backup. He got first move but chose not to do anything, I tk'ed out and got first blood. The match ended with me killing his mindless one and he killing storm, but our phoneix's never died. I took more points. Second match was x-factor, I beat leech like he owed me money. After that strong guy gave me some difficulty on his last couple of clicks. Third I had to fight the same guy from the first fight. He ran mags, storm, warlord, and mole men. Same thing as first, I took more points than he could.

It's not bad in 300pt constructed, I fear the reavers though. My wife hit 9's with Skullbuster more often than I botched, but I still managed a victory, but she did get me to the revive trait. Not a bad piece, just kinda eliminated the overall strategy for me.