C3G Strategy - April 2018

Posted April 19th, 2018 at 06:23 AM by HS Codex

C3G Strategy Guide
Mister Sinister
By: Ronin

Analyzed Statistics

Left Box Breakdown
Species – Mutate (Synergy)
Uniqueness – Unique Hero
Class – Telepath (Synergy)
Personality – Manipulative
Size/Height – Medium 5

Mutate synergies don’t amount to much—effectively, Sinister can be chosen as the Jackal’s Experiment, if you’re really worried about keeping him alive. You most likely won’t want to leverage that unless you’re playing in a pretty high-point arena, though, since there are better ways to maximize Sinister’s value. Telepath synergies can be pretty nice, however—Sinister can get into a couple of factions that way, and there’s lots of overlap between mutant and telepath synergies, which Sinister likes. Leaders like Captain Britain, Sage, and Cyclops are all very much worth exploring in combination with Mister Sinister.

Statistics Breakdown
Life – 6
Move – 5
Range – 5
Attack – 4
Defense – 5
Points – 340

Sinister’s got good stats across the board, plus pretty high life. His points are through the roof, though, so you know we’re getting some good stuff in the special powers.

Powers Breakdown

Genetic Manipulation 14
Start the game with 6 numbered black DNA Markers on this card. After moving, instead of attacking, you may choose one Unique Hero adjacent to Mister Sinister that is not an Android, Construct, or Undead, and choose either the unaltered Move, Range, Attack, or Defense number on the chosen Hero’s Army Card. Roll the 20-sided die, adding 4 to the roll if the chosen Hero is a Mutant. If you roll 14 or higher, place the numerically lowest available DNA Marker from this card on the chosen Hero’s card, replacing the chosen number on that card with the number on that DNA Marker for the entire game. After you have placed four of your DNA Markers on the same Hero’s card, if that card is controlled by another player, remove any Order Markers on that Hero’s card and take permanent control of that Hero and that Hero’s Army Card.

Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here—more on that in the strategy sections below. This might be the single wildest power in C3G. To save you the trouble of scrolling back up, Sinister’s markers are numbered 3 – 8. Sinister can modify the stats of friendly or enemy unique heroes, but he has to start by handing out the 3 and work his way up to the 8. The fact that he needs to get adjacent obviously encourages handing markers out to friendlies, but you can modify an enemy’s stats in a pinch. That’s important to remember, even though I won’t touch on it too much once I get into the army-building, since it’s best employed as more of a reactive strategy than a proactive one. It’s unwise to fling Sinister into combat, relying on his ability to nuke the opponent’s stats, but there is definitely a feeling of satisfaction when the enemy throws their best beatstick at you and you take its defense down to 4.

There is the potential for investing four markers in the same enemy figure to take control of it, but that’s more of a corner case than something you can build an army around—unless you’re fighting mutants. In that case, modifying enemy stats can be pretty tempting. Otherwise, keeping Sinister alive on the front lines long enough to get four successful Genetic Manipulation rolls can be tricky. Not undoable, but too much of a long shot to rely on.

Healing Factor
After taking a turn with Mister Sinister, remove 1 Wound Marker from this Army Card.

Pretty simple and straightforward: Sinister’s a lynchpin for your army, and this helps keep him alive to dispense markers.

Super Strength

And finally, Super Strength. You know this one. Standard keyword power with some nice immunities.

In-Depth Analysis

Genetic Manipulation is a lot to talk about, so let’s get right into potential army builds and go from there:

340 Mister Sinister
190 Cyclops
60 Jubilee
280 Wolverine
120 Yukio
990 Total

The Cyclops/Sinister/mutant sidekicks schema is one of Sinister’s most efficient army models. Cyclops’ leadership powers let you drop an order marker on Cyclops and move Cyclops (or one of the other mutants), take a turn with Sinister, and then take a turn with one of the mutant sidekicks. It’s easy to get Sinister a lot of turns to dispense DNA markers, and you’re also giving him some great targets for Genetic Manipulation—figures like Wolverine, Jubilee and Yukio can benefit from even the lower-numbered DNA markers, and if Sinister gets into the upper markers, bumping Wolverine’s attack stat can make him terrifying. Well, more terrifying. And of course, the fact that Wolverine’s a multi-attacker means he gets more leverage out of an attack boost than most. That’s generally the kind of figure you’re looking to genetically manipulate with Sinister: someone with low-to-moderate stats but great special powers that enhance the value of those stats. If said figures can be mutants, all the better.

You can do a lot of variations on this army—there are other mutant sidekicks, and loads of other beaters for Sinister to soup up. Of the mutant sidekicks, Wild Child is of particular interest—he can really do some damage if Sinister gives him range.

If you want to put Sinister into a pretty standard keywordesque order marker hub type army, telepath status opens him up to Excalibur builds:

340 Mister Sinister
285 Captain Britain
90 Angel
275 Cable
140 Falcon
60 Lockheed
1,190 Total

Nothing fancy, but again, you’ve got some low-stat mutants that make good receptacles for low-numbered markers, and in Cable, a great heavy hitter to throw a higher-value DNA Marker on. You’re probably going to want to spend most of your early turns trying to distribute those low-number markers instead of pursuing the opponent too actively. This is generally the case for Mister Sinister, and it puts some pressure on the opponent to come to you. It meshes fairly well with Captain Britain’s leadership style, since he can’t be a great order marker hub until he can be attacking people on the regular, so it doesn’t hurt to give the opponent time to present some targets. Of course, Sinister could also give Captain Britain a little range, making it easier for Braddock to dish out attacks (and therefore, Excalibur Commander activations).

Something less conventional and less in the mutant mold that you might want to try is something like this:

340 Mister Sinister
100 Dazzler
170 Tomoe Gozen
160 Merlyn
170 Raphael
255 Hand Ninja x3
1,195 Total

The various ninja and assassins hanging around this build aren’t mutants, so you’re working at a disadvantage there, but they do all really like what Sinister has to offer. Merlyn gets a lot out of attack boosts, Raph can get downright scary when you start amping his range and attack, and Tomoe benefits hugely from tweaks to her range, attack, and defense. Lots of worthy targets here, and the Hand Ninja offer some order marker management, allowing you to respond to the opponent flexibly, depending on who Sinister’s managed to upgrade. Dazzler is just sort of a cheap burner mutant, admittedly.

And that’s an all-too-brief rundown on Mister Sinister, and some of the army-building possibilities he provides. If I can hammer one thing home: bring low-attack units with attack-centric special powers!

For more information, check out the Book of Mister Sinister.

Comments 5

Total Comments 5

Comments

	Awesome write up! I really enjoy these articles, great job.
	Posted April 19th, 2018 at 06:30 PM by L0B5T3R

	Cool. I like Sabertooth as an option. You can drop his normal attack but still have his Pounce.
	Posted April 19th, 2018 at 06:59 PM by Tornado

	Thanks, guys. Let me know if you have any requests for the next article.
	Posted April 23rd, 2018 at 07:38 PM by Ronin

	Great article, Ronin - I've always liked the look of Sinister's card and I've always liked the character, but I've never had a clue what to do with him.
	Posted April 24th, 2018 at 04:02 PM by Lazy Orang

	Lady Shiva for next article!
	Posted April 25th, 2018 at 03:31 PM by Tornado

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