So since they spoiled the new characters I've been deep diving into Inhumans. Inhumans were already the highest win rate faction since the card update the 30th september last year but they had some weakness, especially in the three threat slot and relied on splashes there. This made them unappealing out of a World Team Championship mentality and yes my whole year is a build up for that one tournament.
So I was very excited when they got two new three threats that are incredible good. Karnak is a meditate bot and I play him in all my Inhumans games. Gorgon is a big game hunter and I play him in about half my games. I especially look for him if I know my opponent is going to play some big size 4 character that I can throw around.
For the leader I always play Black Bolt. I playtested Maximus 3 times. The first time pre nerf Thor2 killed him brutally. The second game Hydra Sleeper-Hulk killed him. Third game pre nerf Thanos got the trigger on four attacks in a row and tossed my own models into him until he died. I know that is a bit of a skewed image of the meta but still he's just not good enough was my takeaway. I want my leaders to either be tanky or be happy sitting on a back point while Maximus wants to be in the action with his 3 range bubble of influence and he dies to random throws.
As for Medusa leadership well... I like my tactics cards and that leadership isn't good enough to make me want to lose a tactics card for it. So I always play Black Bolt and then I build around that leadership. I'm not saying it's impossible to build around the other leaders but it's not how I have found success with the affiliation. I'm sure other players pull good numbers with the other leaderships.
The Current list:
Characters (10)
* Black Bolt (5)
Gorgon (3)
Karnak (3)
Lockjaw (3)
Quicksilver (3)
Beast (3)
Hulk (6)
Doctor Voodoo (4)
Black Cat (3)
Toad (2)
The core characters of this list is Black Bolt, Karnak, Lockjaw or Quicksilver, Toad and Voodoo. The rest are easily replaced but those 5 is the 17 plan I often go for.
On 16 Voodoo gets traded down for Gorgon.
On 18 Toad gets traded up to Quicksilver but I try to avoid playing this point total.
On 19 I generally play six wide with Toad, Which means Black Bolt, Karnak, Lockjaw/Quicksilver, Gorgon, Beast and Toad.
On 20 you add Grogon to the 17 plan.
Which is a good basis for the plan but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy so it's important to understand when to flex into your other slots. As mentioned before Gorgon is there to stagger and throw away big things.
I don't think you should play Lockjaw and Quicksilver in the same squad but I think both are important for different scenario plans so I'm going to dedicate a bit of time for when to play Quicksilver later but in general, I play Quicksilver with prio on F and D extracts. Otherwise I play Lockjaw. He's also sometimes the safe grab upgrade to Toad on 18 but generally he's there to pick stuff up and nothing else. I almost never play Quicksilvers steal card.
Team Tactics (10)
Brace for Impact (R)
Patch Up (R)
Inhuman Royal Family
Terrigenesis
Recalibration Matrix
Survival
Attilan Rising
Royal Guardians
Can I Borrow That?
The Great Refuge
I always play Brace, Patch Up, Inhuman Royal Family and The Great Refuge. If I'm on a civilian then I play Terrigenesis otherwise I play Recalibration Matrix. I would be happy with just these six cards but you have to use all ten so then it's some very niche cards that might be played once in a blue moon. Survival is there in case I fight against a tall team that can pull in one character, like pre nerf Thanos. Attilan Rising is good to guarantee spenders in shorter games. Royal Guardians is protection against getting pulled out but it's too expensive for what it does and I have more uses for the power in other ways. Can I Borrow that is a steal if I can't bring voodoo or Black Cat but I always do and I only bring Quicksilver when I steal opponents stuff with him so it's not very valuable to me.
Secure Crisis
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)
Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 (D, 17)
Cosmic Invasion! Black Order Descends on Earth (D, 16)
I want to play my extracts, so I want to pick secures that no one wants to play but at the same time I don't want to end up on the same secures as someone else because then they'll just be better than me at those secures and they can pick their extracts for free. Therefore I landed on Webs extracts since I have a very good matchup against Webs and they often play Senators and Spiders so it decreases the risk that I have to play Extracts that are bad for me.
Extract Crisis
Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! (L, 19)
Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership (J, 20)
Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan (F, 17)
Inhumans want to play Civilians because Terrigenesis is just such a good card that it's worth it to play that card. The new pack gave a new civilian but I didn't enjoy the being pushed extra out of position if you get tossed or pushed by the opponent mechanic. While the first turn push is generally more favorable to me than my opponent and I have the ability threaten their extract with Lockjaw Shenanigans. Which is very powerful.
The senators plan:
On senators I prefer to play Doggo over Quicksilver, this since you can port up Black Bolt and someone else to your Senators and then opponent can't pick up their senators or they get double tapped and most models don't survive double taps from Black Bolt.
So generally Toad starts by picking up some senator where he can stand safely. Then next activation doggo sends up two characters while Karnak feeds Voodoo. Next turn the filler character picks up, maybe throws an attack and just walks backwards. Then Black Bolt picks up a thing, does an attack and walks to a point or double taps depending on the situation. Then Karnak walks up, stays within 2 of the doggo to baby sit it for turn two and meditate to feed voodoo more power. Finally Voodoo goes last and steals an opponents Senator and all of a sudden I have a 4-2 senator lead and I also have the option to stand on points more since I can walk after picking up. This gives Inhumans a big lead in the early game and then it's just about riding out the rest of the game.
A thing to note is that if the opponent doesn't have any frontline threat then doggo can send up Black Bolt and then port himself up, steal a power and pick up himself. This is good on lower threat totals against scenario teams where you can't take a turn off to not pick up.
If your opponent have a lot of front line threat then you can also safegrab with Doggo and Black Bolt can use The great refuge to safe grab. Together with Toad that means Inhumans can pick up 3 senators very safely but that's extremely expensive on resources and not something I would recommend.
The F plan:
The F plan is a bit more dynamic and needs to be divided into two categories. With Prio I think you want Quicksilver. So turn 1 Toad picks up the middle, and Karnak passes a power to Quicksilver. Then your opponents pick up one of their extracts. Then Quicksilver steals another power from someone and now has 3 power to Speedster, then walk again and steal their other extract and walk long back which is generally good enough to be safe in the current environment. Thereafter Karnak walks up and meditates and picks up an extract. Black Bolt picks up your other extract.
Important to think about in this plan is that you should be able to punish a player that dives your extracts back against you. This is often done with Voodoo and Black Bolt on either extract to make it very unappealing for the opponent to jump your things.
Without prio I prefer to play Lockjaw over Quicksilver.. Important in this plan is to place Toad where he can double walk and pick up an opponents extracts if they grab the middle. Then Lockjaw sends up Voodoo and Black Bolt and you feed Voodoo enough power to steal their thing. While Black Bolt plays The Great Refuge to jump their other extract carrier and get a lead that way.
The Skrulls plan:
If you have prio and you're on a run away type of matchup then you can just play the F plan with prio because Quicksilver can get the opponents Skrull and then walk back to safety, which generally leads to a 3-1 lead. Which is enough on most scenarios.
But if you need to really get the game over with early, then we can go for the Lockjaw plan here as well. Toad picks up the side extract, Followed by Beast picking up your home extract and walking back home. Karnak meditates and gives out some power to Voodoo. Then Lockjaw sends up Voodoo and Black Bolt. Black Bolt then plays the great refuge and hunts one of their extract carriers while Voodoo hunts the other. This can often make the game end early with a 4-0 lead and even if you get someone dazed the other characters just run away with the extract lead and turtle up on your back point to hopefully win the game before your opponent can hunt you down.
The Screw You plan:
Lets say you're in a bad matchup on a crisis combination you don't like. This is when the Screw You plan comes into play. Lockjaw steals a power from someone, generally Karnak but not always, then he ports up Black Bolt and Bloodhounds the opponents character you want to kill the most.
Now they have to run that character away from the fight OR the turn afterwards you play The Great Refuge with Black Bolt and reach any character in their deployment. Now two 7 dice yellow with wild pierce and a reroll have to be enough to put that character down into the dirt.
If you're not scared of them running away, because they for example safe grabbed with Namor and walked him backwards so he's now the target, then you can walk up Karnak and meditate and give him a power to be able to count 2 Skulls which increases the odds of a successful two tap by a lot. If you're super desperate you can also use Inhuman Royal Family to guarantee the daze but I prefer using that on the flip side to KO the character. There are some characters that are so much tougher on the front side that it's worth it to invest the cards to get the daze, Modok is the example that jumps to my mind. There's always an exception that confirms the rule, but generally I prefer to save Inhumans Royal Family to get KO's.
There aren't a lot of characters that can take a double tap from Black Bolt and generally killing an opponents leader before they get to activate is good enough to win the game, even if it's a bad matchup.
The SUPER Screw You plan:
This plan starts like the last one but Karnak and Toad goes first which feeds Lockjaw 3 power before he activates. Now the plans work the same as above but you can also send up your threat of choice. I think Gladiator is the best choice currently and that works on 19. This since you can feed him power with Black Bolt and body guard any attacks that come for those all important confidence tokens.
Gorgon is one of the other options on lower point totals. The important part is that you now get 2 killers into the opponents deployment and can daze two people and if they're good at it you can KO both characters top of two. Which is just a little bit rude. I personally don't like this plan because it's extra dice dependent and if you only kill one of the characters then you've given the opponent one extra super charged up character to hit you back with and they can go after the character that didn't activate between Black Bolt and your killer.
These are the some of the plans for Inhumans but as always remember that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Those dastardly bastards always got a plan of their own. So improvise well and kill the suckers! Just remember, you can't solve all the worlds problem but you can be the problem :D
Example game: The F plan.
I had the luck of being matched up with Hugo in the semifinal of the Wong X tournament. He's playing Wakanda with a Sam splash. I got prio and pick my extracts. Pulling Spider Infected. He pulls Intrusions and picks 19 threat.
Which means I go with Quicksilver, Beast, Gorgon, Karnak, Toad and Black Bolt. While he plays King T, Namor, Okoye, Luke Cage and M'Baku.
Turn 1 goes according to plan. Toad Takes the middle, Quicksilver steals one of this extracts. Black Bolt and Karnak pick up my home extracts. While Gorgon and Beast make sure I win the middle.
For Hugo Namor picks up his extract and King T does some damage into Gorgon and otherwise place himself to be in the action turn 2. While Okoye keeps Namor safe.
This ends the turn 6-2.
Namor starts the turn by putting down Gorgon.
Toad then runs away to stay safe at the back of the table and gives his power to Beast.
Okoye double walks over into the middle to keep her team safe.
Karnak the walks over to that intrusion and meditates for extra power.
Then M'Baku walks over and jumps through the portal to end up with Karnak and give him a smack, which randomly does 3 damage and pushes Karnak off the point.
I think long and hard if it's worth it to Patch up Karnak but I decide he's not on a point and it doesn't save me anything. So Quicksilver just walks over to the point and stands there.
Luke then double walks and tosses a size 2 into Karnak. Once again one victory point isn't worth my Brace. So I just roll it and go down. Which gives Luke the Spider.
Black Bolt walks over to the point and stand there to save Quicksilver if I have to.
King T jumps to the portal and tries to go through but fails so he's placed on the wrong side. He then walks back and puts a smack into Beast softening him up and pulling him off the point, while being in a good position for next turn.
Beast then does two attacks into Okoye hoping to the get the daze and the wild to then toss Namor of the point. I get the daze but not the wild. So I just toss Luke into Karnak for another damage.
That ends the turn 4-4 for a 10-6 game.
Hugo starts the turn by Wakanda Forever and KO's Gorgon and Karnak while dazing Beast. Which wasn't exactly happy times but I guess that's what you get when your opponent plays two premium killers.
I go into salvage mode, which means I just need to score 2 points twice and then I can get off a Terrigenesis for the win. So Toad double runs to the end of the table.
Namor Charges over to Black Bolt but fails to do damage. Then he jumps through the portal leaving behind his token as he runs away.
Quicksilver walks up to Okoye and does a spender into her which does two damage and lets him run to the other corner compared to Toad.
Then Okoye jumps through the portal and puts a shot into Toad who takes 3 damage and runs away. She then walks over and picks up the spider left by Namor.
Black Bolt sees his golden chance to get off a clean Terrigenesis but I spike super hard and just kill Okoye. Then I just walk away.
Luke waddles back to the middle.
Last M'Baku jumped through the portal and walked over to Toad. He tossed the size 3 into Toad who braced. Then he rolled the 5 damage and got the 2 damage he needed. He also gets the movement trigger to move the eight of an inch closer that is the difference between M and pick up range.
Which ended the turn 2-4 for a 12-10 game.
Beast started with a spender into Luke Cage, with the help of Inhuman Royal Family, hoping to do the 3 damage needed to get him down to one and then Terrigenesis him to death but he spikes and just dazes him. So I pick up the objective and just run away.
King T jumps trough the portal and tries to kill Black Bolt but fails. So he walks back to the portal with the spender move and jump out.
Toad tries to just desperation spender M'Baku and does 3 damage and incinerating him to do some more. At the same time Quicksilver Patch Up Black Bolt to heal the damage from King T.
Namor jumps through the portal and walks over to Beast to desperation spike him but fails.
Black Bolt just walks over to the corner his work done.
M'Baku kills Toad but doesn't get the trigger and since he had to walk a bit closer to pick up he's not in range of standing on the point. So Quicksilver double runs to the point and I score four points.
For a 16-12 game.
It looked a bit scary when I was 6 threat worth of characters down turn 3. With the rerolls and the ability to count skulls from Karnak I thought I would be a bit tankier there but Wisdom of the Ancestors and Wakanda Forever lets King T pack quite a punch.
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