You've seen it for Brotherhood, and now we're back with another Deep Dive series! I've recently moved on from the Evil Mutants and picked up some slightly less evil mutants recently in the form of Weapon X! In this first article, we're going to be looking at the Apex Predator himself, Sabretooth. As he's also affiliated to Brotherhood, this article will also double up as a Brotherhood Deep Dive.
Logan once counted Sabretooth among his few friends as the pair fought beside one another on a covert team, but Sabretooth’s unshakeable bloodlust tore the team apart, and now they face off as bitter rivals.
Character Card
Let's start by looking at Sabretooth's stat card and we'll start on his healthy side. 4/3/4 defences and 7 health is really solid for a 4 threat character, if you combine these with his healing factor aspect he's going to take a bit of effort for someone to daze him. His medium move and small base is fairly average, he's not slow but not particularly quick either.
Claw Slash is Apex's builder, which at 5 dice and range 2 looks fairly average at first glance. However, with both a Bleed and Pierce on a wild (which is a really common theme with the rest of the affiliation) this really helps get a bit of extra damage through. For a 2 power spend, Sabretooth can use Bloodthirsty Onslought, which is a range 3, 6 dice attack with a range 1 place at the end - which is really useful for helping with his action economy - not having to move before he attacks can really help him out. Again, this attack has a pierce and a bleed which helps with additional damage.
His superpowers is where Apex really shines, and he can do a LOT with his power. He has his "Catch Runt" throw with the ability to throw Size 3's medium, his primal pounce where he can throw himself medium which is great for both his action economy/movement and throwing himself into a target for additional damage - note he's also Size 3 so he has the potential to be doing up to 4 damage from the pounce. And then he has his Stop Squealing and Die to add 3 extra dice to a Claw Slash or Bloodthirsty Onslaught if you want to kill something that little bit more.
All in all, he's a very very killy boy.
The only difference between the healthy and injured sides is the health pool, where he drops to 6 health instead of 7. Still very respectable!
Tactics Cards
Next up we're going to look at the Tactics Cards that are included in Sabretooth's box. Now, there's a lot of cards included in this box, so I'm only going to look at the cards that are available to be used by Sabretooth, this is a character review dedicated to him after all.
This card probably needs no introduction - X Ceptional Healing, one of my favourite cards in the game. I love nothing more than taking a huge amount of damage, only for my opponent to forget I still have this to play and I watch their face drop and as I reduce it to just 1. I'd just like to point out here I don't win many games so I have to find enjoyment somehow...
This card makes an already hardy Apex that bit more tougher.
Moving on to Dossier, and arguably one of the wordiest cards I think I've ever laid eyes on in MCP. Essentially, one of Logan, Sabretooth or X-23 can play this card. Your opponent then gets a token that they can place on 1 of their characters (this can include a grunt). Whoever played that card, then gets full re-rolls (including skulls) on their attacks against the character that is holding the token. When the token is dropped, this can be picked up by any of your Weapon X affiliated characters - it doesn't need to be the character that played the card, but it can't be a splash, they MUST be affiliated. Whilst one of your allied characters is holding the token, they get a long move and two extra attack dice. A point to note here, whilst this is on an enemy character, they do not get any benefit from the token, they do not get the added movement or the extra dice.
I personally think this is a really strong card, especially on C and E maps where it's going to be relatively easy to chase down. It's a bit of a controversial opinion as I know others don't hold it in the same regard, but this card has won games for me. If Sabretooth picks this up (or any Weapon X character in general), it makes him even more deadly, and two extra attack dice on his builder can really help with his power generation.
I'm really on the fence with the Call the Pack. Removing damage from yourself is quite easy in Weapon X as most of your affiliated characters have healing factor and out of activation movement is a really strong mechanic in the game. I just feel however, that the range 3 stipulation and the fact the advance must be towards the character that played the card means this it becomes really situational. I do think there is some untapped potential here though and there's some really cool and interesting plays that can be made with this card.
The final card in the box that can be played by Apex is Happy Birthday Runt and this is another card I'm not sure about. The main pro to this card, is that it doesn't take up an action, so you can potentially make 3 attacks with Apex in a single activation with this card. I feel there's more downsides to this card though, the 3 power spend being one of them. Is it worth spending the 3 power over a pounce or a throw? I personally don't think so. The biggest downside for me though, is that you can only make this attack on someone who already has an activated token, limiting it's use and effectiveness considerably. I personally leave this one at home.
Strength's and Weaknesses
In this section we'll take a quick look at some of the things Apex does well, and some areas where he might struggle.
Strengths
High defence and high health pool combined with healing factor means he can be difficult for your opponent to take off the board.
Between his attacks, pounce and throw he has lots of ways to inflict damage and provides a lot of flexibility.
His pounce and the place on his spender means he often doesn't need to waste an action moving which gives him a really positive action economy.
Weaknesses
As a good proportion of his damage potential comes from his superpowers, he can often feel lacklustre when he has little to no power.
Outside of his builder he has no other way of generating power for himself, so if he whiffs an attack this can often leave him short on power.
Where Does He Fit in Affiliation?
There's a really simple answer here, if you want a 4 threat that's going to kill things, whether you're playing Brotherhood or Weapon X, I don't think there's anyone better for the job than Sabretooth, Apex Predator. There is a but here though, as mentioned in the section above, he can feel a bit lacklustre when he's short on power so there will be games that go by where he doesn't contribute an awful lot. But when he's stacked with power, either from his own doing or if you're reading this and you're a Brotherhood fan, the Master of Magmatism can really help him out here, he has the potential to remove anyone from the table.
As always, thank you for reading, and please check out our sponsor www.protechgames.com for all your MCP needs.
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