Who Are Sunspot & Warlock?

Roberto Da Costa discovered their mutant abilities during a football match where he accidentally threw a fellow player across the field. Coming from a wealthy Brazilian family, Sunspot primarily spends his time in Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, learning to control his powers to absorb and channel solar power into physical strength.

Now Warlock’s origin is a wild one. Strap in. Born as part of an alien hive mind and sentient form of techno-organic organic life known as the Technarchy on the planet Kvch–

You know what, let’s not be here all day: Thanks to a mutation within him in the form of the mutant X-Gene, Warlock found himself exiled and fled to Earth (while crashing into Asteroid-M on the way in).

Sunspot

First, let’s start with the Flare Tokens mechanic granted by Flare State. This is a neat little mechanic that gives Roberto his own mini-game in managing these tokens throughout the game. For the most part, you always want 2-3. You can spend all three of them with Thermokinesis for one big attack, but he starts to feel a little inept when he has zero tokens, so spend those wisely.

Having three tokens gives Sunspot the ability to throw Size 3 terrain for just 2 power thanks to High Energy Conversion, which is great value. This means there is some good timing that must be learned to get the most out of Sunspot.

Step 1: Have three tokens.

Step 2: Use Sunburn to get the long move charge to within Range 2 of ideally both a Size 2 and Size 3 terrain…

Step 3: Spend 1 Flare Token to boost the next attack by 1 dice and give out guaranteed Incinerate.

Step 4: Hope to hit the trigger on this attack to get the Flare Token refunded.

Step 5: Throw some terrain (hopefully the Size 3…because you now have 3 Flare Tokens. right? Right?!)

Step 6: Decide between a second attack to finish the target off – or a medium advance away from danger because…

Sunspot is going to die. A 3/4/3 stat line without any other defensive tech isn’t very desirable. Especially on a 4 threat. He’s going to get hit and fall over fairly often. You may be tempted to reach for Flare State when this happens in order to cause some damage to nearby enemies. I would advise against this however (unless you’re going to get a cheeky daze or KO on an unsuspecting victim) as Sunspot coming back next round with zero Flare Tokens is awful.

Sunspot is best played as a hit and run character (albeit, one that lacks the ability Hit and Run). You want him to charge up with Flare Tokens, jump in, deal some damage, throw some terrain – and dip out again to avoid the risk of any form of stiff breeze coming your way.

Warlock

Warlock is weird. Both in character and in MCP. But being weird isn’t always a bad thing.

One thing that New Mutants sorely lack is terrain throws. They’re also almost entirely made up of characters with small health pools which means they are extremely susceptible to stuff being thrown at them. Warlock helps soften this blow however with Techno-Organic Absorption. You can treat him as a vacuum cleaner, walking around the map eating all the terrain that would otherwise be thrown at you. Deploy him on the opposite side of the map to Sunspot so as not to eat terrain that he might otherwise throw, though!

The rest of Warlock’s kit feels like it is split in half. Buster Cannon is a good gainer from Range 4. Dishing out Shocks will help keep the other New Mutants alive – and being able to gain power from a distance is great for a 3/3/4 model with 5 health. Unstable Outline also helps with keeping this part of his kit feeling right.

The other half of Warlock’s kit is all based around the Poison special condition. The Infection trigger on T-0 Talons is great. Once Warlock finds himself in the fight, he can use this coupled with Transmode Virus Infection to start dealing some real damage. 2 guaranteed damage is no joke in MCP (just ask Mystique) and can really punish your opponent for getting in close. Unfortunately, once Warlock gets in this close I fear this is when his clock starts to tick down to zero, especially given that Transmode Virus Infection also deals this damage to himself…

Tactics Cards

This card is fantastic. It’s free, it synergises with the New Mutants leadership perfectly (they both trigger after an attack is resolved, meaning you can use the leadership and then immediately play this card) and it serves as a way to keep the squishy little mutant kids alive.

The card Fall Back is one of the most taken in the game (there’s a reason why it was recently added to the Restricted list!) for this reason. It prevents your opponent from double attacking one of your models. Survive The Night does exactly the same thing, when timed right (and when used on a target that doesn’t have the ability to place or charge back into range…that would be awkward). Also – when used by Sunspot, he may choose to spend Flare Tokens on it for additional dice and an auto incinerate. Just make sure you shout “BACK OFF” when you play it!

As we mentioned previously – once Warlock is in the fight, his time is likely almost up. So why not go out with a bang?

If Warlock (somehow) survives an attack while in the middle of a scrum, he can play this card to spread Poison among the surrounding characters. If he can then get an activation from the same position, Transmode Virus Infection is going to deal some serious guaranteed damage. If the Poison half of Warlock’s kit is something that excites you – I can see this card getting a lot of use. Especially when coupled with Omega Red or Baron Strucker who also bring their own versions of a Poison bomb.  

Affiliations

New Mutants

“If every New Mutants affiliation squad doesn’t take Sunspot, we’ve probably missed the mark on Sunspot” – Atomic Mass Games

I hate to break it to you, AMG…but you’ve missed the mark. Sunspot certainly has a place in New Mutants, but not in every game. He excels at bullying people smaller than him. He’s okay at charging in, hitting someone, throwing terrain and then running away…provided he’s just hit someone that can’t easily chase him. But if he gets stuck next to most 3 threats with a grudge…he’s likely to take a beating and fall over.

The leadership does grant him a Flare Token though, as it counts as a movement. So there’s that. The problem is, I don’t think you necessarily want him closer to the action given his tendency to…well…melt. But of course the leadership can be used to teleport in a bodyguard of some sort (Luke Cage, Black Bolt etc), which Sunspot desperately needs…so long as he survives the attack that triggered the leadership…

X-Force

Sunspot is affiliated to X-Force and the re-roll granted by Wetworks can help him push through some extra damage or maybe get a trigger or two.

It also means he is able to play Preserve The Dream in Round 1. This extra movement allows him to attack someone on the midline Round 1 – as well as giving him an extra Flare Token.

Place a Honey Badger on the midline and dare your opponent to attack them with a 3 threat or higher model. Then bam, Preserve The Dream, move your team up the board, get the fire started early.

Hydra

Baron Strucker is always on the lookout for models that can dish out status conditions thanks to his leadership Hydra High Council. 

Warlock can be deceptively tanky when he hasn’t been one-shot thanks to the healing granted by Techno-Organic Absorption – and the Hydra leadership grant him another source of healing. Warlock can bust out a lot of conditions for a 3 threat which is exactly what Hydra are into. This coupled with Baron Strucker’s Deathspore Virus can set up a massive guaranteed-damage bomb with Transmode Virus Infection.

Conclusion

Sunspot & Warlock mark the start of the New Mutants affiliation – which is a bit of a fan favourite among mutant lovers such as myself. They both bring interesting bits of tech that we haven’t seen before, which is fun! How they fare competitively is yet to be seen., but hopefully it’s just a case of someone figuring out the New Mutants game plan and where this duo could fit in.

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