Dear Reader,
Today we are looking at one of the newest members to the Black Order roster, Super Giant. Super Giant in the comics was an omnipath of questionable stability and a psychic parasite who eats the intellect of others. Is she worthy of her fearsome reputation on the table top? Who knows, but we are here today to give some insights on how I see her playing out.
The Stats
3 Threat is a comfortable place for Black Order and puts her in direct competition with Proxima Midnight with the ability to bump her threat to 4 in order to equip the Soul Stone which may be a pretty interesting option (more on this later).
Her 5/5 Stamina pool is nothing to write home about and her 1/3/4 defenses are decent but falls just short of the rule of 9 I see happen more often than not (this is where the defensive spread equals to 9). One of my big concerns is her short movement. Short movement may make you immune to slow essentially, but it also means you are always slow. It will take a bit more to get Supergiant where she needs to go and to do the things she really wants to do.
However, she is a bit more durable than she first appears. That 5/5 stamina pool makes a lot more sense when she has Ethereal. Ethereal is a ridiculous power in my opinion and makes her a premiere secure holder as she will only ever take 1 damage from the most common attack type in the game. She can also bait herself as a target using this ability by putting a civilian token on herself and forcing your opponent to chase her in the hopes of making her autodrop it. But if they are hunting Supergiant, then it gives Black Swan, Thanos, Corvus, or any number of exceptionally hard hitting characters to do what they really need to do: acquiring skulls for Death’s fancy new skull throne that Thanos is making to try to impress her (I think it may gain the attention of someone else though). This especially creates interesting scenarios where fighting physical juggernauts like Hulk, Corvus, and, well, the Juggernaut, makes her an ideal duelist. Hulk will have a hard time shifting her and killing her and she can just tell him I am not getting pushed today. She actively is rewarded with power when Corvus gets a crit and will still only take 1 damage from his most devastating attacks. Juggernaut can push into her and then punch, but that's still only 2 damage a turn from a character slinging 8 dice.
Her attacks are interesting to say the least. She has a drain life and mid range mystic attack that will always net her 1 power, which should make Kuyo over at the Black Order Podcast happy. The fact that she tanks physical attacks so well in addition to healing 1-2 damage a turn is amazing for what she wants to be doing. As for her spender…well it’s a lot to take in.
Devastate Intellect doesn’t actually deal damage. For 8 power you would expect it to deal damage. Why doesn’t it deal damage? Ghost Rider gets to deal damage. Instead, it drains power from the target and gives status effects. Stun is always nice and Stagger is one of the best status effects in the game. However, if you can pull off the royal flush, she can just daze a character or outright kill it if it's Hulk or She-Hulk. This is, of course, easier to do with a bit of dice fixing or adding, which Black Order has in the form of Thanos. In all honesty, I do not think you will go to this spender very often as it is very costly and I don’t really see this expensive spender as your go to item for one of your activations.
Personally, I think Supergiant is going to do a few things really well: support your team and hold points. She isn’t going to obliterate your opponents like Corvus or Black Swan will, but she will create some headaches for teams that rely on pushes like Web Warriors by just being alive. In fact, I would argue she is a direct Web Warrior counter as she ruins a good chunk of the game plan that a Web Warrior player brings to the table and is nearly immune to any damage that they may bring considering she only takes 1 damage from the bulk of their attacking type. She also protects you from people like Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther, and many more. If you give her the Soul Stone, which is something I plan on heavily testing, she is now generating more than enough power from your opponents to fuel her strengths. Her bubble of crit generation is wide enough to consider for most maps and Soul Stone gives her additional power on top of that. I would also presume that most players would be wary of diving into their super powers and, subsequently, her to hard in fear of her spender. Again, I am not the biggest fan of her spender, but it does have uses. A fully fueled Hulk, Thor, Thanos, or any other heavy hitting does not like their precious power taken from them, even if they will get it back next turn. But taking said power does ruin plans, which is a nice thing to do on your end.
I feel that Supergiant brings a conundrum for your opponent: leave her alone to hold a point and possible long range steal a civilian whilst taking minimal damage from physical or crash into her headfirst and whittle her down while the rest of the team stabs you in your sweet cheeks. Obviously, you don’t bring her for every map as she doesn’t have the universal tools necessary to be a consistent threat in a faction that is all about being consistently threatening. When she shines I feel like she is going to shine brightly and when she doesn’t you will have wished you had brought Proxima. She is going to play super well into factions like Web Warriors, which generally give Black Order headaches, Brotherhood and Samvengers lists, while factions that rely more on energy and mystic attacks will overwhelm her quickly.
In the end, I think Supergiant hits the field when you need her to not when you want her to. She is a scalpel in a faction that likes hammers, so if you are going to bring her along she needs to have a very specific purpose.
Till next time Webslingers
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