The Book of Merlyn

[IAmBatman]

The Book of Merlyn

C3G DC WAVE 12
LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT

Comic PDF

Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Justice League set.
Its model number and name are #019 / Merlyn.

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Character Bio - "Years before Oliver Queen would become Green Arrow, he was inspired to take up archery by the amazing archer, Merlyn "the Magician." Once Green Arrow began to become famous, the two met again, as Merlyn challenged the hero to a public archery contest and defeated him. With that victory under his belt, Merlyn vanished for years, only to resurface as a member of the League of Assassins. Merlyn and Green Arrow faced again as Merlyn tried to fulfill a contract to assassinateBatman. Green Arrow was able to deflect one of Merlyn's arrows with an arrow of his own, saving Batman's life. Merlyn admitted that Green Arrow had become the better archer, but escaped before he could be captured. Unable to return to the League of Assassins, he became a freelance assassin" (wikipedia.org, 2011).
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received

Classic:

• N/A

Marvel:

• N/A

C3G:

• Merlyn receives a range bonus for every Order Marker placed on a Unique Archer Hero's Army Card. Unique Archer Heroes include: Green Arrow (Connor Hawke), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen).
• As a Unique Human Hero, Merlyn may be healed by Alfred Pennyworth's Field Medic special power.
• As an Assassin, Merlyn may be take a turn with Hand Ninja's Ninja Assassin Bonding special power.
• As an Assassin, Merlyn may take a turn with Kingpin's Organized Crime special power.
• As an Assassin, Merlyn receives movement bonuses from Lady Shiva's Assassin Training special power.
• As an Assassin, Merlyn can be moved and deal damage via Ra's al Ghul's The Demon's Head Special Power.

Synergy Benefits Offered

Classic:

• N/A

Marvel:

• N/A

C3G:

• As a Human, Merlyn allows adjacent friendly Civilians to roll an additional attack and defense die due to their Strength in Numbers special power.
• As an Assassin, Merlyn can add 1 to Talia al Ghul's Attack number via her Divided Loyalty special power.

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-Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses-

Immunities

• N/A

Benefits

• N/A

Weaknesses

• N/A

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• Despite having strong Assassin synergies, some of Merlyn’s best builds aren’t found there. Because of his high range (which allows him to stay near cheerleaders) and Deadly Shot (which benefits tremendously from attack boosts), Merlyn is one of the easiest heroes to boost.
• Merlyn pairs well with units like Enchantress, Bane, and Captain America (both the official Marvel and C3G version) who can boost his attack, making his Deadly Shot even more deadly.
• Height advantage is another natural boost to Deadly Shot, and Merlyn’s high range allows him to hold it; but his walking move of 5 makes it difficult for Merlyn to claim high ground. Consider partnering Merlyn with units like Angel, Beast Boy (Pterodactyl), or Green Lantern (John Stewart) who can carry him to high ground quickly.
• Of course, putting too much of a focus on a single, 4 life/4 defense hero is risky, so consider drafting units like Jocasta, 5th Precinct Beat Cops, Alfred Pennyworth, and Bizarro to increase his survivability.

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: (IAmBatman)
• Second playtest: (Skeeter700)
• Third playtest: (Zettian Juggernaut)
• Fourth playtest: (Karat)
• Art by tcglkn (originally Good Pig)

[IAmBatman]

NAME = MERLYN

SECRET IDENTITY = N/A


SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ASSASSIN
PERSONALITY = ARROGANT

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 8
ATTACK = 2
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 160

ARCHER RIVALRY
At the start of the round, add 1 to Merlyn's Range number for each Order Marker placed on a Unique Archer Hero's card up to a maximum of +3 for the Archer Rivalry special power.

DEADLY SHOT
When attacking with Merlyn, each skull rolled counts as an additional hit.

[tcglkn]

I gave you my feedback last night. This design doesn't have a ton of flashiness, but I think it works.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, definitely going for short and sweet on this guy. He's a major Green Arrow nemesis and a member of the League of Assassins at some points in his career, so I wanted to represent all of that.

[Good Pig]

Archer Rivalry is cool.

Worried about other figures stealing Deadly Shot. Aka Dr. Doom.

[IAmBatman]

I guess I feel like that's Doctor Doom's problem (unless we're really planning on taking Deadly Shot off the table forever, which would stink, IMO). At the very least if you're drafting against Doctor Doom against this guy you have room to put some Hand Ninja in with him to screen Doctor Doom for a while. And Doom's power stealing is conditional enough that if you get a turn or two to go ape crap with a deadly attack, so be it.

[IAmBatman]

[Good Pig]

Taking Deadly Shot off the table does stink, but I think it's necessary. Dr. Doom is the first of many power stealing figures to come. You can always make the x2 effect as part of a special attack like Winter Soldier.

[A3n]

Yeah I think it stinks also that we are going down a path where can never alter the norm attacks like this.

[IAmBatman]

I wonder if Griff has any thoughts on this topic ... ?

[Griffin]

1 - It has to be an opponent's figure
2 - He has to roll 14 or higher
3 - After succeeding, he can't roll for it again for the round, so he can't stack other power
4 - His power steal only lasts till the end of round
5 - He costs a lot (nearly 400)
6 - Doom would have to kill Merlyn or he runs the risk of Merlyn taking him out with his Deadly Shot too, so with Merlyn gone, Doom won't get the power over an over again and so the power stolen from Merlyn will likely be used on Merlyn

I don't think there is anything to worry about that we didn't already worry about when we designed Doom.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Griffin

1 - It has to be an opponent's figure
2 - He has to roll 14 or higher
3 - After succeeding, he can't roll for it again for the round, so he can't stack other power
4 - His power steal only lasts till the end of round
5 - He costs a lot (nearly 400)
6 - Doom would have to kill Merlyn or he runs the risk of Merlyn taking him out with his Deadly Shot too, so with Merlyn gone, Doom won't get the power over an over again and so the power stolen from Merlyn will likely be used on Merlyn

I don't think there is anything to worry about that we didn't already worry about when we designed Doom.

1. Makes it easier to avoid issues by not drafting figures to go against that you don't want to have to face against yourself if he steals their powers.
2. After being adjacent to him, so by keeping Merlyn in the background it makes it harder for Doom to get adjacent to him. Could have teammates like Blob, Electro or Doc Oc adjacent to Merlyn to make it less enticing for Doom to engage him.
3. Attack of 5 with Deadly Shot would be bad enough, no stacking required.
4. Would have to get lucky with d20 to keep getting it again in other rounds.
5. Yeah, he costs enough that Merlyn can have other teammates to help occupy or tempt Doom.
6. Don't agree here, Merlyn's not that dangerous to Doom that he would have to kill him right away. 4 skull max w/o height not such big deal if Merlyn has more dangerous teammates for Doom to tackle.

He'd get 4 attacks of 5 if he took Doc Oc's powers. He could boost his attack to 11 (with a range of 5) if he took Absorbing Man's power and rolled 7 or higher for Power Absorb. From other cheaper figures like Captain Boomerang or Boomerang, he could get Returning Boomerang to get second chance of wounding with his ranged attack of 5.

Doom can do a lot of damage when taking many powers. Don't let him get adjacent to your figures or have a lot of less expensive figures to act as interference or have lots of lower cost Heroes against him so he can't kill a 400 point figure after stealing a power. If he kills a 150 point figure, not as big a loss.