This low-cost version of Cyclops represents "Slim" in the leadership role he sometimes assumes with the X-Men. His personal combat stats aren’t great, but his ability to coordinate attacks is second to none!

A team attack is a group attack by two or more characters from the same team against a single opposing character. It works almost the same as a regular attack, but instead of declaring one character to make an attack, you declare multiple characters to make an attack at the same time against a single opposing character. This tactic is a great way to take down a foe that none of your characters would be able to in mano-a-mano combat. It’s also a worthwhile move if you think your opponent might have a defensive combat trick up his or her sleeve. It’s a tough beat to watch one of your characters make a seemingly “sure thing” attack, only to be rebuffed by a clever plot twist play. Team attacks can provide insurance that you’ll take down a character when you really need to. Be sure that your team attack isn’t doing only the minimum required to take down the defender—the only thing worse than a spoiled solo attack is a spoiled team attack.

When the team attack resolves, the attackers’ combined attack values are compared to the defender’s defense stat. The defender gets to strike back at just one of the attackers, not all of them, no matter how big it is. Since team attacks are usually low-cost characters up against a single higher cost character, this is a great way to ensure that your opponent loses more endurance than you do this attack, since each player will only take stun endurance loss. That’s right—you don’t cause breakthrough during a team attack against a character. Your team surrounds the defender and closes in instead of overrunning it.

Cyclops goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that your team attacks never fail. He gives a +2 ATK and +2 DEF bonus to each of your team-attacking X-Men. That’s a great bonus, and it can allow two 1-cost characters to take down a 3-drop or occasionally a 4-drop. The best part is that Cyclops doesn’t need to be in on the attack to give the bonus. He can direct and encourage the team attackers while safely out of the combat.

When your endurance total is precariously low, sometimes you can’t afford to have any of your characters become stunned. Cyclops helps here, too. Let’s say you have two 5-cost, 9 ATK, and 9 DEF characters against an opposing 5-drop with 9 ATK and 9 DEF. Either one of your 5’s could take down his 5, but you’d get one of them stunned in the process, and you’d lose 5 endurance. However, if you make a Cyclops-directed team attack, both of your 5’s are safe from the opposing character's 9 ATK, as your DEFs will both be 11. You won’t do breakthrough, but your opponent suffer 5 points of stun endurance loss, and both of your characters will be safe and sound.

And remember, while team attacks against characters don’t cause breakthrough, they work just fine against players. So if your opponent has an empty board, even with a couple of cheap characters like Cyclops and Banshee, you’ll get to force through that extra endurance loss.

Tomorrow, we'll look at another way for teammates to coordinate their efforts . . .