“This way” “NO THIS WAY!”

The saying two heads are better than one is a very true statement. If you put two heads together, then you have two different perspectives on something and you can both come to a conclusion and agreement of the best course of action.

This doesn't always work, as brothers of like mind consider one smarter than the other. Twins usually end up conspiring. And Siamese twins tend to get on each others nerves after a while. That leaves us with Blastik-Rukivall, the Subterran Uprising's Blastard Monster. I just want to call him “Not Mogroth”. But that would be silly. So I'm going to nickname him Noggins.

Fiends in previous history haven't been the most impressive Blastards, *cough* Mogroth *cough*, but Noggins stands out like a guy with two heads in neon lights amongst an Awkward of Emos. Thats my definition of a group of Emo Kids, btw: An Awkward of Emos.

Lets examine him.

He starts with a modest speed of 5. While it's not the greatest of movement scores, he makes up for it being a blastard and he has Burrow anyway.

Excuse me.
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He what? But isn't he...
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Right. I see. Thank you.

On behalf of the staff of I Hate Mogroth, I would like to sincerely apologise for the lack of proper inspection into the figures abilities column. Blastik-Rukivall does not, I repeat NOT, have the ability Burrow. The staff here are deeply embarrassed at this misinformation.

Moving on. He has a Defence of 6. This isn't great... but it isn't bad. It's just out of reach of 2 units making a combined attack and hitting, but just easy enough for a monster to hit. Unless you're fighting another Blastard, you won't have to worry about Power Attacks in a hurry. A sensible player would put himself into a box that prevents a Power Attack, while gives a good position to fire from.

As part of the change to the Fiends Agenda, the Subterran Uprising have brought forth Blue Abilities, and so far they have been good defensive bonuses along with Ultra Drillnose's Dubious blue bonus to the Black Out Factory, a rumoured Series 6 Agenda Building. With series 5 standing underneath our feet and waiting for release, Noggins has a nice Blue ability to share across his forces.

Shelter: This unit gains +1 DEF against brawl attacks.

Now admittedly, it isn't game changing. At least, not in my opinion. I can't complain about a Defence 5 Mollok Brutes can I. But the only fault is that the armies I face don't usually brawl my units. *Shrug * C'est la vie. If I do face a force with lots of brawlers, then I have an edge.

Moving on we have three more stats and abilities to look at. We'll begin with Brawl and Power. They're not bad stat scores, with 6*1 and 7*1 respectively. The 6*1 is good enough to take out the Office Building at the start of the game to give you a Power Die boost, or for the emergency Power Die you need when you're coming close to the end. And the Power Stat is good enough for the Super... excuse me a moment.

There's no Super “Insert Power Attack” here!
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Really? This guy is really out of the loop.
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Righto.

Ahem. Sorry. The Power Stat is good enough for that one Body Slam, Smash, or Throw needed to take out a target for 3 damage. The only benefit that either of these attacks have is the Advantage Energy Cycle.

Energy Cycle: If this figure participated in an attack of 2 or more A-Dice, you can return 1 A-Die that rolled a miss to the active pool.

So you save on a dice as you go and with the mid-range number of action dice available to each stat, you can make for double activations with ease. Throw a secured Insurance HQ or Office Building for the Shuffle Ability and you can go Activation after Activation after Activation.

That's the theory, at least.

Conveniently, the Energy Cycle Advantage applies to Blast Attacks, and this is where Noggins really excells. To start, he has a decent Blast score of 6*3, giving a very nice bonus to the attack to begin. And then, he gets his triggers. That's right Ladies and Gentlemen, we've finally come to the Blast Triggers.

Behind door number 1...

Siphon: If target monster is hit, gain +1 P-Die. That monster’s controller loses 1 P- die.

With this trigger ability, you can regenerate your power base continually making for a good double activation bonus, while draining your opponent of their own power base!

But that's not all! Behind door number 2...

A BRAND NEW CAR!

What now?
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Seriously?

The Staff of I Hate Mogroth would actually like to apologise for false advertisement. If you look through that door, that would actually be my roommates car, which is not for sale or being released as a door prize.

Behind Door number 3 had best be something awesome...

Blitz: Once each turn, advance this figure up to 2 spaces even if it has advanced this turn. You can roll another attack of the same type against a different target with dice in play.

This is actually on him? Yeah? Cool bananas.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Blitz. You make two attacks using the same dice against two different targets, and move two squares at the same time! Double activations get better! You shoot a Monster, gain a power die, move two squares, shoot a building and gain another Power Die! Two if you destroy a monument!

So Alpha Noggins thinking power is defined in two statements:

“Shoot dis one” “NO DAT ONE!”

Now we move on to Ultra Noggins (I really like this nickname) and everything except his health gains a boost for the lovely Hyper cost of 4! Speed 6, Defence 7, Brawl 6*2, Power 8*2 and, most impressively, Blast 9*4. His Ability bar also gets a rehash and changes to three different Blast triggers and a different blue ability.

Force Field: This unit gains +1 DEF against blast attacks.

So I mentioned before that Shelter wasn't too fantastic an ability due to my opponents units being Predominantly blasters anyway. Well now I have Defence 5, maybe even 6 with cover, against units, monsters and even buildings who want to target my Mollok Brutes with Blast attacks. Game on!

Remember that thinking power I mentioned before? Where they wanted to shoot everyone and everything? Well Ultra Noggins puts his Noggins together and focus on one thing: The destruction and submission of one target.

Bumping up to 3 Blast Triggers, and the new title of MR Noggins, he starts off with a classic Trigger.

Beat Back—Move target monster 3 spaces in a straight line in a direction chosen by the attacker. That monster moves through and collides with buildings, units, and hazards in its path. It stops moving if it collides with another monster.

This is a classic trigger from the Series 1 days, when Ultra Rozgor and Mega Zor-Maxim were the most formidable on the field (And Mega Zor-Maxim is still a terror to behold). And with maps that have a metric butt-tonne of buildings on them, you either have to consider where you're standing, or you take a pineapple where the sun don't shine.

Traditional to most monsters, there's a similarity between their alpha and ultra version. Or at least something you can claim is similar. On alpha noggins you'll find siphon, where they lose dice as you gain dice. Mr Noggins pushes the subject in one direction: Badly for the opponent.

Power Strike: Target monster’s controller loses a number of P-Dice equal to the number of super strikes you rolled in the attack.

The potential for a super strike in an attack is 1 in 6. All dice have a super strike, and the more dice you put into an attack, the more chance you have of rolling at least one super strike. With a Blast Stat of 9*4, you have a good chance for a few super strikes. And on that lucky day when you hit and get 10 super strikes, your opponent bows his hat and reconsiders the entirety of his monsters limited existence. On the unlucky chance that you roll no Super Strikes, you can take solace in that you've just beat him back into a building or two. Lastly on his list of triggers is...

Demolish: Choose 1 enemy figure adjacent to target building. The chosen figure takes 1 damage.

Consider Double Activations for a moment, theorising your situation as the upper hand. You've Blasted your opponent into a cluster of buildings with a large number of super strikes, and he is forced to taking a unit activation to re-establish the power base that he lost. It comes back around to your turn, and he's secured one of the remaining buildings on the adjacent corner of the monster. Now, you have two choices. You can beatback the monster and destroy his current form, situation depending. Or you can get rid of part of his power base and still deal 1 point of damage while aiming for a smaller defence.

Okay, so it's a silly thory. But it's something that Mogroth Can't Do. And that just makes me giddy.

Friday: Don't you wish your Monster was Hot like Mine