Sorry for the clickbait… I couldn’t resist the title. Although Jarvis and Alfred are on the Team, they were not the centrepieces. Jarvis proved to be more valuable overall, but we will get to that later. The Sam/Spot Team has made the rounds in my local scene since its accidental discover a few weeks ago. You can re-read the origins here. I have not had a chance to pilot this build and have been looking forward to it. Here is my version of the build.
What Did You Play?
The Team: Sam/Spot v.4.0.
This is the fourth iteration of the Team that I have seen. Ever since I saw the original build, I felt this Team had to have Jubilee on it. So, let’s break it down. Samantha Wilson and Spot were the churn mechanic… and oh what a mechanic they are. Every Sidekick that was fielded would yield 2 extra dice to roll that turn. Jubilee was added to increase the punishment for fielding Sidekicks (1 damage per ‘kick). Professor X was put in there in case I completely whiffed my rolls and needed that emergency Sidekick (this did come up a few times) to get the ball rolling.
The rest of the Team was increasing the Sidekick pool. Wong is still the best Sidekick in the game, so he was an easy add. Alfred is unkillable, so he was on there. Also being a shield would help with Sam’s Global. Aunt May was there for pure comedy value. Getting killed by a little old lady is just funny to me. There may have been more efficient parts, but I had no choice but to include her. Jarvis, at least on this Team, is excellent removal. You will be fielding a whole lot of characters each turn and Jarvis will be able to take out almost anything.
Big Entrance was to get everything cheaper, and Team Up was for the final blow or an alternate win condition. The plan was T1 Big Entrance, and then buy up Sam, Spot, and Jubilee as fast as possible in whatever order the dice allowed. Then start adding in the Allies.
Let’s see how it ran.
Game 1:
This game was against a pretty classic Villains Team. Nobby and Black Manta were the big problems. Hush was also on the Team, so I knew Alfred was going to sit this game out. I couldn’t risk the Retaliation damage by auto-KO’ing Hush with Alfred on the field. I got the Big 3 (Jubilee, Sam, and Spot) onto the field pretty quickly and instead of combat damage, I went for burn. I got the Ally cycle going and use Jarvis to remove Manta a few times. Basically, Jubilee did all the work in this game. Paper-cut City.
1-0
Game 2:
Jubilee (SR) vs Jubilee (UC). If you remember the Teen Titan/Giganta infinite damage combo, you will get this Team. The same basic parts. Promo Robin and a cheap Wonder Girl were the Titans. Jubilee was given the Titans Affiliation with the Infiltrate BAC. Once the pieces hit the table at the right time, it would be game over. This game would be a race to see who hit first. Again, I got the Big 3 out relatively quickly. However, I could not burn him down fast enough. Everything came into place and once his Jubilee was given the Titan Affiliation, it was infinite damage to me.
1-1
Game 3:
This was against the creator of the Sam/Spot combo. He knew I planned on playing this tonight, so I was expecting something to stop me dead. It wasn’t quite that, but I could see what he had planned for me. Basically characters that got buffed by opposing Villains (Conner Kent, Mystique, etc). He also had Martian Manhunter from GAF that prevented Villains from blocking. The final piece, was good old Rare Danger Room. If that hit with Manhunter in the field, his big hitters would be unblockable. Again, I had to work fast. The Big 3 were not a problem to get out. I tried to keep my field fairly light to try an minimize the damage if it were to happen. Jarvis came in handy removing the Martian on his level 3 face (8D). Yes, on this Team, I fielded enough characters to allow Jarvis (well two technically) to punt the big butt off the field. Jubilee burn did the bulk of the work here until I outnumbered his side for lethal. I missed Team Up when I needed it. One thing that saved me here, and neither of us noticed this, was that he could have pinged off Spot at any time with the Danger Room Global. He forgot about it. Lucky me.
2-1
Post-Mortem:
Having now seen multiple versions of this Team, this is a fun mechanic to run with any version. I really liked Jubilee here, and I did think Cube for a minute… but I like these guys and didn’t want to be THAT guy. If I were to do it again, I would put more dice on Jarvis. He shines on this build.
If I moved away from the comedy, I would say that Aunt May could have been a different accessory piece of some kind. I am not sure what to be honest, but she was not really something needed on the Team. Alfred is nice and works well. I would keep him as an unkillable defender and a source of shields if necessary. Wong is Wong and he will always be a good choice for a Sidekick based Team.
Jubilee is a must add in my opinion. She is made for this Team. Also, if I came up against blankers that she would be a big target. Win-win. Professor X was great for what I called “Emergency Sidekicks”. His Global came into play a few times where I missed my rolls but managed to have a mask.
I focused more on burn than combat damage tonight, but I would keep Team Up here. It is a good piece to have if Jubilee gets taken out.
Final comment: If you have not tried the Sam/Spot machine, I cannot recommend it enough. The speed at which it can fly is just amazing. Try it! Share your changes in the comments below.
As always, thanks for reading!
– jourdo