200 Pt. Cosmic Justice Team
Team and Article by Kevingoes
What makes this version of Plastic Man so effective is that early on in the game you can use his Stealth to move up the board and control an 8x8 area with his 4 range. Because he has a 10 attack on his first click and you have Saturn Girl to Perplex up his damage he is is a pretty effective deterent to keep your opponent from moving his pieces into that area.
After you've snuck into your opponent's territory he becomes a great strategic tie up piece. Move him to occupy an opponent's piece while Eclipso is busy taking care of someone else. His Shape Change makes attacking him just a little bit harder but secretly you want him to get just a little bit hurt.
Thre really aren't that many pieces in the DC universe that do more than 4 damage that you can play at this point scale. That means that if Plastic Man his hit his Toughness ensures that he will take no more than three clicks of damage and tow or three clicks of damage will send him directly to his clicks where he does 2 damage and he has Perplex. Not only is he a decent second combatant/finish piece at this point but he can also help Eclipso by Perplexing his damage even more.
When playing this team I usually have Plastic Man venture out first and grab a nice area near the center of the board. Saturn Girl taxis Eclipso around who takes strategic shots at your opponents pieces. Your first priority in the beginning of the game is to eliminate your opponent's Outwit. If your opponent manages to Outwit Eclipso's Impervious he could take a lot of damage and this team does not have a healer to bring him back to his first three clicks. Your second priority is to take out figures who do 3 or more damage or have Incapacitate because they could also hurt Eclipso.
Because she only has four clicks of life you have to be very careful how you play Saturn Girl. Your best bet is to make sure sure Eclipso blocks line of figure to Saturn Girl. A smart opponent will avoid Eclipso and try to attack Saturn Girl, hence depriving you of your mobility. This one of those siturations you want to use Plastic Man to tie up the piece(s) your opponent is trying to flank you with. If your opponent has a figure with Mind Control they might also Mind Control Eclipso and he can easily knock out Saturn Girl with one shot. This another case where you want to use Plastic Man to tie up that piece.
There will be occasions when you want to use Eclipso's Mind Control instead of his normal damage. In particular his Mind Control is a good way to get around taking damage from the Mystic Team ability by mind controlling your opponent's figures to attack that piece. You may also wish to Mind Control pieces that have Psychic Blast either moving them out of range or having them attack your opponent's piece.
The main weakness of the team is its vulnerability to Outwit, which, in a sense, is true of any big figure team. I was lucky enough to not have to play against a team with Deathstroke on it during the tournament but any piece with Stealth and Outwit can be very dangerous to this team. Batman in particular is dangerous becuase you have to get right next to him to hit him. After Batman has taken four damage he gaines Close Combat Expert and he has a realistic chance to do some damage to Eclipso.
If Eclipso is knocked past his first five clicks you really have no option but to run away. Fortunately Eclipso has Barrier at this point and if Saturn Girl is still alive she can carry Eclipso away while he puts up barriers to slow down his enemies. This may slow down your opponents a lot but it is not likely to work indefinitely. Hopefully, it will work long enough to finish the match.
Substitutions for Plastic Man:
I understand that Plastic Man is a hard piece to get and not everybody is willing to spend 30+ dollars on a sinlge piece. The two other pieces I mentioned above, E Black Canary and E Green Arrow, might make reasonable alternatives to Plastic Man. If you opt to use Black Canary you can even add a R Easy Company Medic to the team to give you a healer. Of course this team will play differently but that's one way you can alter the team.
About Playing this team in a standard DC tournament:
I wouldn't play this team after Indy comes out. It is highly dependent on using Saturn Girl to manuver Eclips around the board. After Indy comes out fliers can no longer carry other flyers. Saturn Girl would have to carry Plastic Man around the board and I don't think that would really work. I might try it in a friendly game and I might try playing a very different team based around Eclipso but we'll simply have to see how it comes out.
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