Pow! Avalanche (Days of Future Past #004)

Usage / Summary
Avalanche certainly isn't the most sexy character to field on your team, but looks can be deceiving, because what's really important is the dial. For the points, he's an excellent secondary close combatant that can deal up to 5 damage on his first attack thanks to Close Combat Expert and a touch of Precision Strike to boot.




Pros
A close combatant he's very good. As we mentioned, he can dish out 5 damage on the first click and has a reasonable 17 defense with Toughness.

Key Feature
Take a close look at that Earthen Tidal Wave feature. First of all, there is no line-of-fire needed, so you can hit people on the other side of the wall! Also note that he has Precision Strike for 3 clicks -- with that Quake trait, you can deal unavoidable damage to multiple characters if you position him just right (and they can't evade with super senses either!).

Cons
His damage reduction is nothing to write home about and lack of move-and-attack will hurt his mobility. What's really concerning, though, is his drop in attack values later in the dial.

Theme / Keywords
As a Brotherhood he'd be great on Magneto teams. Having a Probabilty Control-er like Destiny in there would be easy enough to do, and you shouldn't have a hard time finding a good tent-pole piece, even in a 300 point game.

Cost
At 72 points he's not bad. You can do better in some respects, but 3 clicks of Precision Strike and 2 of Close Combat Expert makes him top heavy. The good news is that he has a touch of Perplex in the middle, which helps justify the cost a bit. But overall it's probably a tad on the costly side.

Teammates
His lack of mobility really hurts, even though he has the Brotherhood TA. What he really needs is someone to with flight to Carry him or someone with Telekinesis to move him into position. Also remember that Avalanche has that Quake trait -- and Quake causes 2 squares of Knockback. So he's a great figure to keep next to your ranged attackers -- if an opponent gets too close, just use quake to knock them back, allowing your ranged attackers to fire and forget.

Related: Slade Files: Giant Size X-Men Magneto

On a 300 Point Team
Good for sealed games, and very good in constructed games. He's useful, but can be hard to use. That Quake ability is really powerful at 300 points.

On a  400+ Point Team
He's weaker in 400+ point games because he can easily be shot by tentpoles and other characters, especially with all the power creep going on. The lack of anything beyond toughness makes him an easy target.

Final Rating:  B-

As a secondary attacker he's pretty good, but only if you can get him into position. He's very top heavy, but can be useful if you can get a couple good hits in. He's definitely for advanced players only. His biggest saving grace is his Quake-Trait coupled with Precision Strike (which is actually a pretty big deal), which makes him ideal in 300 point games.

On Facebook, Jason Z. had this to add: "Brutally devastating on a proper Brotherhood team. Mags TKs him up and he wrecks face. Definitely pick a map with elevation changes. If you are into resources, nobody else gets as much use out of Angrir's hammer."