Thanks For The Powers, Floating Sparkle Monkey: Building A Modern Pool Captain Team

Welcome back to part six of the Deadpool Chase Series here on Clix Fix! It’s high-time we amped up the man himself and turned him into a tool of ultimate destruction. Let’s get cosmic-freaky with Pool Captain!

Wow, we’re already on the 6th article of Deadpool Chase Month here at Clix Fix; if you haven’t seen the others, you can find them in the blog section. We only have a few more to go once this build is wrapped up. I still have yet to review the two newest OP Kits which I plan to do real soon, but for now, let’s leap to the stars.

Pool Captain is Deapdool possessed with the Uni-Power, and takes our mercenary to new heights as he takes on the power set that we’d typically find on cosmic beings in clix. He’s got the largest point cost of the chases, and is arguably the most deadly if you can manage to fit him into your lineup. What’s neat about Pool Captain is that he’s really easy to figure out in that his dial is quite simple, yet incredibly effective.

Image result for pool captainPool Captain comes in at an incredibly high 275 points, meaning this guy eats almost your entire build. He’s got 9 range with two targets, Flight, 9 clicks of health, and the Power Cosmic team ability. Already we can tell that Pool Captain isn’t messing around. Unlike his fellow chases, Pool Captain has only one trait, no special powers, and some fantastic improved targeting, in which he ignores everything but blocking terrain, much like Nick Fury. His keywords aren’t anything to write home about with just Deadpool Corps and Cosmic, although you most likely won’t be building a theme team with him.

The dial on this guy is what makes him a powerhouse. Movement starts out at a monumental 12 with Hypersonic Speed, goes to 11 Running Shot on second click dropping to a 10 on fifth click, and moving into 10 Sidestep on click six. He keeps Sidestep for the rest of his dial and goes to a 9 on click seven and an eight on his last click. His attack is mostly powerless, but starts out at a 12, drops to an 11 with Pulse Wave on click three, drops attack to a 10 on click five, and remains a 10 with no powers through the rest of his dial.

Defense is killler with 19 Invincible up top, dropping to an 18 on click two. Click three shifts to Impervious and drops to a 17 on click five. From click seven until click nine, he drops down to 17 Invulnerable. Damage is pretty good but could be better; 4 Shape Change to start, increasing to a 5 on click two. This repeats on clicks three and four. Click five changes to a 5 Outwit, dropping back to a 4 on clicks six and seven. His last two clicks have 3 Ranged Combat Expert.

While he might have low damage out put for a 275 point piece, the fact that he consistently will deal at least 4 damage throughout his entire 9 click dial, he’s got incredible reducers forever, and has Shape Change to dodge attacks on his first four clicks makes him a total menace. The reason why Pool Captain is so strong though is the ability to shoot through everything but walls with a 12 Hypersonic and 9 range. This guy can bump you for 4 damage 11 squares out and risk nothing doing it. The only problem is that he’s going to go through every reducer/evasion in the book trying to actually deal damage. Still, that’s nothing to scoff at in that he can just keep doing this over and over again. If you manage to get a lucky shot on him, he’s more likely than not ending up on an 11 Running Shot with 11 Pulse Wave and 4 or 5 damage.

Regarding traits, he’s just got one that we know like the back of our hands by now:

DO YOU SEE THE COMIC PANELS TELLING ME WHAT TO DO?: At the beginning of your turn, if Pool Captain has no action tokens, you may attach a comic panel to him, removing an already attached one. He can use the listed effect.

I would argue that the Comic Panels push this guy into stupid-levels of amazing. Think about it; 19 defense is sweet, but it’s not impossible to reach. 21 defense on the other hand is. And with Power Cosmic, you’re not going to counter out his defense; you have to deal with that Invincible. Making his defense higher is just gravy, and 9/10 times, ES/D will be your friend. The other big one is Stealth. With his supreme mobility, there’s just no way he can’t dart into hindering terrain once he’s done shooting your face off. Stealth makes him a piece that you have no choice but to close the gap on. Then you’re stuck right next to him when he gets Pulse Wave. The Comic Panels are a free option to make him stronger, which we need with his incredibly high point cost.

That was a pretty quick dial to get through, which means we need to analyze Pool Captain and figure out his Positive VS Negative assets.

Positives: Incredible range and reach. Improved targeting with virtually everything. Solid values on his entire dial. Flight gives great mobility and carrying. Power Cosmic protects him. Comic Panels make him that much stronger. Shape Change on a one man army can be incredibly strong.

Negatives: 275 points. Lack of penetrating damage. 275 points. Lower damage for a one man army. 275 points. No Regen or Steal Energy make him dangerous if he takes too much damage. 275-freaking-points.

As you can see, there’s a glaring weakness with Pool Captain and that is his ungodly point cost. Although he’s pretty strong and can take pot shots all day long, you’re not getting much of anything else on your team for 300 points. For 80 points less, you get Championpool who can deal more damage than Pool Captain. Sure, you have to invest in points to adjust for his mobility, but you have 80 more points to do that with. Pool Captain is still very good, I just don’t think he’s viable in 300 points.

Image result for deadpool vs thanos #4

Normally I use this section to talk about what the piece in the article needs in order to do well. We can’t really do that with Pool Captain because we only have 25 points to work with. Instead, I’m going to talk about hypotheticals and take points out of the equation completely. The biggest thing Pool Captain needs is more damage and a way to break through reducers or cut out Shape Change. The Precision Strike Comic Panel will get around Super Senses (for now). but we need something to make his damage stick. Outwit is going to be his best friend, and Can’t Use effects will make him take his pants off. Perplex is another big one to increase his damage values. Unfortunately, most ‘double-Perplexers’ like Zatara and Tin can’t choose damage as their source. Luckily, TK and mobility are probably the last thing Pool Captain needs as he’s already got a stupid-high mobility.

I don’t want to cheat you guys out if you only play 300 points so I’ll include one of those builds first. However, because there will only be 25 points worth of other stuff to talk about, I’m going to feature two 400 point teams today. All teams are going back to the format I started this series with – Limited.

300 Point Modern Limited Pool Captain Build

Like I said, this will be very quick. With 25 points, there’s really not much that can be done. I ended up settling with Betty Brant as my main choice for -1 movement to opposing fliers, Perplex on click two, and Defend/Support on click three. Since Pool Captain is going to be doing all the lifting, we have no actions to ‘waste’ in pushing her, so we’re good there. Early in the game, she can raise damage to a 5 or 6 so that Pool Captain hits harder and late game, she can heal him up and keep him in the fight. Ideally, I’d love to run two, but we just don’t have the points.

For 10 points, you really can’t buy much. Items came to mind like the Hulkbuster Arm that grants Exploit Weakness, but nothing on Pool Captain’s dial encourages him to get in close enough to use it. Outwit simply doesn’t exist for 10 points. Thug was an option, but it seems Koi Boy does virtually the same job but a little bit better. If you manage to get onto a map with lots of hindering, Koi Boy can keep people in place while Pool Captain continually shoots at them. He’s also a good body to protect Betty from demise.

Like I said, the build isn’t much to talk about as it’s mostly just Pool Captain. Feel free to tweak those 25 points into whatever you’re more comfortable with. Let’s move on to the real builds.

400 Point Modern Limited Pool Captain Team

I knew I wanted Can’t Use with Captain Pool as that’s the one piece he needs to be completely brutal and gut anyone that poses as a threat. Peggy does this incredibly well and only costs 60 points, so she was absolutely making the team. While regular Outwit could be helpful here and save a little points or allow us to use something a little different than a specialist, Peggy will make sure that nothing stands in our way. She’s also a very good secondary attacker with decent values and Energy Explosion. Once she gets closer to the opponent’s starting area, she’s just money.

I wanted a way to get Peggy into the thick of things to shut people down, and ideally I wanted someone with Sidestep so that she could get out of harms way once Pool Captain did his job. I wanted to go with Renet Tilley for the incredible Probability Control, but 55 points is a lot on a build where we only have 125 points to work with. Instead, I went with Overdrive as he’ll serve the same purpose (sans Prob) for 20 points less. Also, he can carry Captain Pool, so if you need absolutely need to get the hell out of dodge, he can do it.

For the last 30 points, I went with a double Betty Brant set-up. I knew I wanted Perplex and Support to help out like I did with the last build, and Betty is just tops for doing this. With two of them on your force, you can get damage up to a 6 or 7, and easily push one of them to try and heal Pool Captain when he gets low as you won’t lose all of your support.

With Overdrive, Peggy, and two Betty Brants, you have a nice little guerrilla warfare group to travel around and mess stuff up before the big wrecking ball comes in to completely ruin everything. If support isn’t your gig and you feel that Pool Captain is going to be strong enough on his own, keep Peggy and drop off Overdrive and the double Betty’s. This gives you 65 points to work with which can easily get you a decent secondary attacker, preferably someone that can scale elevation.

I hope you’re ready for this next one. You’re not ready. Here we go.

400 Point Modern Limited Pool Captain Team

Woah, just two pieces in 400 points? Are you mad?! Nope. Like I said, Can’t Use is the best thing for Pool Captain and there’s simply no better piece out there an Mr. Balls himself, Nick Fury. With Nick on your team, not only are you able to completely neuter any opposing piece and lay tons of freaking damage on them, you also have two pieces that ignore everything but blocking terrain. If you can win map roll and stick these two on a map like Friendly Neighborhood or Chemical Plant with lots of elevation, your opponent is going to hate life.

If you carry Nick to the Pym Particles on first turn, you can now make him tiny and keep him in Pool Captain’s pocket which neutralizes Nick’s downside in that he has low mobility. You won’t be able to attack with Nick in the same turn, but you can absolutely Can’t Use something offensive like their Running Shot, Charge, or Hypersonic Speed.

I realize that this build is a big gamble, but damn does it sound fun and dirty to play. I think if it plays against something like Krang, it has a decent chance of wrecking shop. Pool Captain can completely disintegrate Juston Seyfert in a single action which makes Krang cry in the corner. I can’t wait to try this one out and see how it does. It’ll either be marvelous or a damn train wreck.

That wraps up this Cosmic Edition of Deadpool Chase Month! Let me know what pieces you’ve either used or are looking to try with him. I’m sure someone has done something neat with this big brick that I haven’t thought of yet. The higher points you go, the more nonsense this guy will get. Can you imagine a 500 point Cosmic Theme Team of him and Nick with 105 points of support? Yes please!

I’ll see you fabulous folks next week as we bring in the last of the chases with Pulp Deadpool and Venompool. Have a great weekend!

3 thoughts on “Thanks For The Powers, Floating Sparkle Monkey: Building A Modern Pool Captain Team”

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    1. I mean, it’s chase month and he’s an Ultra Chase, so I don’t know if he really qualifies.

      The month isn’t over yet though and you still have a few more pieces to go 😉

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