Alpha Ultra Mega Speed 6 6 6 Defence 6 7 7 Brawl 6*1 7*1 6 Blast 6*2 Long 6*3 Long 6*3 Long Power 5*2 6*3 6*2 Health 5 5 5 Hypercost - 4 6 Ability Energy Cycle Energy Cycle Sprint Ability Decoy Siphon [Blast] Energy Cycle Ability Indirect Fire [Red] Weapon Master [Blast] Beat Back [Blast] Ability Terrify Decoy Indirect Fire [Red] Ability - Indirect Fire [Red] -
So lets run him through... I mean, list his negatives... I MEAN...
Oh never mind. Lets just look at his abilities.
Energy Cycle: If this figure participated in an attack that involved 2 or more action die, you may place 1 action die that missed back to the active pool.
This advantage appears on all three figures. It's good for preparing double activations. Securing a building with Shuffle (Office Building, Insurance HQ, Harbinger Comet) it gives plenty of action die for the turn.
Indirect Fire: Attacks made by this figure ignore Cover.
Ignoring Cover is great for targetting those units who are securing buildings good for your opponent. Since the ability is Red, Blasting units can take advantage of it as well.
In the All Your Base Strategy Guide, one of the "Kaiju Conundrums" involved Mogroth adjacent to two Towers of Corruption who both took advantage of Indirect Fire to use Transmutation on a pair of units adjacent to Nova ESR.
Decoy: While a faction figure is adjacent to this figure, this figure cannot be targeted by blast attacks.
This is a fairly powerful ability appearing on his Alpha and Ultra forms. Being unable to be targetted is a massive hump to get over. Not as massive as some others, but still massive enough.
How does one deviate this ability?
Considering you require a faction figure adjacent to your monster, there are a few ways actually. First that comes to mind is Explosion. While not the most abundant ability in the game, those who do have it are able to take great advantage of it and deal the singular point of damage by unloading greatly onto the poor little figure next to Mogroth. Spikodon with Bellowers make a good combination, along with Marauders and Vanguard. Multiple Explodomites make a good Explosion as well.
The only other way is through alternative attacks. Brawls or Blasts with the Fling trigger are a good example. The Swat Power Attack ignores it as well since it's not a blast. Just be warned about opponents with Annihilate or Weaponmaster on their Power Attacks, because they will still deal super damage.
Thinking about it, Chain Attack Brawl Trigger, and Fling Brawl Trigger is a cool concept. Brawl a unit, Fling it at a monster, then Power attack Swat a unit, Swat it at a monster...
Now we move onto abities that actually define each of the forms.
Alpha Mogroth struts his stuff with a confident stride, fully believing that he is completely immune to Units. This is a slightly embellished truth. Decoy makes him immune to blast attacks, and Terrify makes him (mostly) immune to Brawl units (Carnidons across the world cry out in sadness, as the only monster they thought they could beat, they can't come into contact with).
That's about as unique as Alpha Mogroth becomes. He Blasts, he waddles around, and he awaits powering up while being ignored for just about everything.
Ultra Mogroth drops his immunity to Unit Brawls for Blast triggers: Siphon and Weapon Master. As previously mentioned, he is a prime figure for double activations. With Energy Cycle he can return an action die that missed into the pool. Siphon provides more for double activations by returning a Power Die to your pool if you hit. Considering a secured building with Shuffle available, a second activation includes two additional Action die and an additional Power Die. On top of that, super damage has been dealt to your opponent. So four damage over two monster turns makes for a good profit.
Mega Mogroth drops all his defences for Maneuverability and a dangerous offensive. Beatback on a Blast attack has always been considered quite dangerous, as Rogzor has proven in history. Rogzor also has "Hit and Run" on his blast attacks, which is convenient when he hits as he can hit and then move back behind some units.
Mega Mogroth can do this too, however he has no dependancy on hitting or not. Sprint allows him to move 3 spaces at the cost of an action die. So whether he misses or not, he returns an action die from the attack and uses it to hide behind a screen of units, maybe even drop out of form and take advantage of Decoy.
But something that hasn't been mentioned yet is their Hyper Cost.
The Ultra form comes out cheaper with a cost of 4. Not your typical hyper cost for the Lords of Cthul range, who average out at a cost of 3 when excluding Mogroth. But fair enough, the abilities on the Ultra are impressive. There's only about 3 monsters that ignore super damage (Mega Armodax, Mega Mothership Ares, Laser Knight in general), and losing power dice is always aggitating. Not to mention, he still can't be targetted by blast attacks when the prerequisites for Decoy are made.
The Mega, however, doesn't keep with a sensible pattern. With a Hyper cost of 6, he trades in his abilities for a form that isn't quite worth the Hyper cost of 6, or the Alpha form that you would have lost to get into it because you couldn't afford hypering up.
What should I field with Mogroth?
I would start with an Insurance HQ. I reiterate, Mogroth does endorse double activations. Since your opponent will always be destroying buildings, you will always gain a power die for buildings destroyed throughout each turn.
Next is a Radar array. Mogroth likes long range, and Elite Spitters will not be following him around forever to extend it's abilities.
Units can be assorted willy nilly. Cthulubites are recommended in any instance, even in Guard forces for just their Multi-shot Trigger. So firing a Cthulubite into your opponents face to lower their defence is a good option.
Sun Drones and Power Pods are always good for gaining quick power die. Flaunt 'em if you got 'em, as the saying goes.
So why the hate? Why despise Mogroth for who he is? Love the pansy that he is!
The common belief is that I've had a few bad matchups. Tharsis-5 was the start of a bad relationship. It was hard to really get away from him and his beat-backing shenanigans.
At the end of that game, I came to the conclusion that I was playing a Yasheth game without a Yasheth on the field. Power attacking him wasn't very beneficial because of Armoured, and running away proved hiding is harder than originally thought.
Other matches have come down to poor luck. A game against laser Knight threw me into a Crystalline Building and an Office Building, losing my form.
Not to mention, as part of a ritual I follow I try and destroy a TV Network Highrise to gain a substantial amount of Power Die (4 to be exact). Too bad he can't hit it with his Brawl of 6*1.
Another common belief is that he's just not my style of play. I'll agree with that. I love tearing apart the town, throwing my opponent into inconvenient places and making them suffer for their actions.
It's one thing I liked about Ulgoth. He would always make an opponent regret actions taken against him.
Mogroth can't provide this. Mogroth makes for a good blast matchup, but not much else.
Not my cup of tea, thank you.
