Superman (Kal-El) (Justice League)

[IAmBatman]

Superman (Kal-El)



Card PDF

NAME = SUPERMAN
IDENTITY = KAL-EL

UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
SPECIES = KRYPTONIAN
CLASS = CHAMPION
PERSONALITY = VALIANT

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 7

MOVE = 7
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 7
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 460

TRUTH AND JUSTICE
Allied Champions are added to the Justice League faction. During setup, place 1 Justice Marker on this card for each Justice League unit on your team, up to 3. Once per round, after an ordered activation with Superman, you may remove a Justice Marker from this card to activate up to 2 allied Unique Heroes, after which your turn ends.

SUPERMAN TO THE RESCUE
If an ally in clear sight of Superman would receive 1+ wounds, you may roll a d20. On a 14+ place Superman adjacent to that ally and inflict 1 wound on Superman instead.

MAN OF STEEL
When Superman defends against an attack from a figure that is not a Kryptonian and does not have Magical Affinity, all blanks count as blocks.

FACTION = JUSTICE LEAGUE
PUBLISHER = DC
KEYWORDS =
SYMBOLS = FLYING, SUPER STRENGTH

WORLDS COLLIDE: Even a monument of might like Superman can't always save the day alone. Luckily he has inspired countless heroes to follow in his footsteps. The finest of them join him in the Justice League!

Resources and Rulings

• The suggested figure for this unit is a Heroclix figure: Icons #046-048 / Superman
• See this card's wiki page for synergies and strategies!

Credits

• Legacy design: IAmBatman
• Playtesters:
  • IAmBatman (additional tests)
  • Ericth74
  • japes and Kid Arachnid
• Card art: Arkham
• Comic creators: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Updates

• N/A

[IAmBatman]

I kept the d20 effect for the rescue ability because I like how it ties to the d20 part of the faction, and because 14+ is far from guaranteed. Yeah it can stack with other abilities in the faction, but I think the can be accounted for, and I kept him with getting 1 wound, so you won't just use it on everything and there is a cost. Your opponent should feel like they're still making progress but he's got a chance at keeping his squishier allies around.

I put Man of Steel in the everything but Kryptonians/Magical Affinity place again and dropped his defense to 6. We'll see how it feels in testing.

Everything else is pretty much the same. Went with Superman to the Rescue for the title of the middle ability. His cost is a bit up in the air. Still aiming for 1000 when he and Batman join Wonder Woman, but flexible in how that's divided up.

[Yodaking]

If points are coming in high, I would make the marker burn for 2 ally turns an instead of an ordered activation ability rather than after and ordered activation. I'd also consider lowering the d20 roll to 11+. Since you are giving him a W to do it, and Superman is generally hard to W, I wouldn't think you would be opting to use the power too freely. So when you do opt to use it, it would be more fun it worked.

[Yodaking]

I withdraw my suggestion to lower the d20 roll. Was just reminded that GL has a 14+ ignore death power already, so him teamed up with Superman would give him two chances to avoid a killing blow.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

I withdraw my suggestion to lower the d20 roll. Was just reminded that GL has a 14+ ignore death power already, so him teamed up with Superman would give him two chances to avoid a killing blow.

Plus JL Zatanna and JL John Stewart are likely going to have their defensive abilities carry over. So, yeah, stacking was definitely a concern there.

Fiddling with the activations is definitely something to look at if he's coming in too strong. I did like the Trinity effect of getting the triple turn three times, though, so I want to at least give it a try before tweaking it any.

[japes]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Plus JL Zatanna and JL John Stewart are likely going to have their defensive abilities carry over. So, yeah, stacking was definitely a concern there.

Fiddling with the activations is definitely something to look at if he's coming in too strong. I did like the Trinity effect of getting the triple turn three times, though, so I want to at least give it a try before tweaking it any.

with step one being "once per round" before giving up on it completely. Agree I saw that trinity word play as well.

[Yodaking]

The 3/3/3 symmetry is pretty cool, just worried about cost after seeing it drive MM's price up pretty high.

Japes idea of once per round is a good one. Along with WW 3 markers, each lasting 1 round they should be a pretty potent combo.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, once per round would bring it back to being more like Martian Manhunter JL-I in 1.0.

[Arkham]

Which nobody should want to do.

[LordVenoc]

I kinda find it hard to believe this will come in at only 440
Just looking to Superman Family Superman as a comparison point for 10 points less, you have:

1. 1 less life and 1 less defense, but in a faction where he will typically actually be at 1 more attack and same defense.

2. Bonds with 2 figures in a far wider pool with no real restrictions outside quantity of times it can be done (and where it can be factionally recharged).

3. Has a defensive power that is potentially a better Heroic duty, may be relatively comparable to the defensive rerolls, but turning multiple wounds into 1 is real strong when it works.

4. Has a better Man of Steel.

5. Has Stealth (which I don't like adding here for multiple reasons, 1 if which is just basically getting rid of 1 of the powers Steel was bringing to the table for the faction).

If it winds up at 440, cool. But I just have a hard time believing this is only a 10 point improvement from a fairly similar Superman.

[Arkham]

Your opinion is valuable, but I guess I don't understand why in key spots where you mention things are weaker, or limited, you invalidate it by saying he'll be played with a booster, or a recharger, so on and so forth. Aren't those other figures paying for those things? And aren't they just one option for him, thus not receiving those benefits in most scenarios? Heck, Wonder Woman and Hawkwoman would exceed 1000 points with him at 440.

So I'm a little confused why all those reasons speak to his cost.

Better MoS is subjective. Not all armies or decent figures have SAs to begin with. And there's a lot of Magic figures out there.

Your disliking of Stealth isn't something I was aware of. I guess that's reason to not include it here, even though this isn't Superman Family stuff?

[LordVenoc]

It's true the optimal of whatever isn't necessarily going to be the play typically. I guess I was more just trying to say that the "downgrades" are easily ignored with the Army building, especially by picking very usually picks for that faction.

I personally believe that things made after boosters of that sort are impacted somewhat by that cost if that makes for an optimal situation.

It is better. The pool of magic figures is smaller than Special Attacks. Less figures breaking through it is better. Because you can similarly argue that a lot of those Magical figures won't have the attack to break through anyways, like some of those special attacks.

Stealth is one that I'd have a hard time seeing put on one version of a character and not another when it is about their innate ability. So this is setting a precedent for other Supermen and Kryptonians in general, so decisions here are impacting a lot of things.