Real Name: Ultron
First Comic Book Appearance (non-named cameo): The Avengers (July 1968)
First Comic Book Appearance (first named appearance): The Avengers (August 1968)
Affiliations in Comic Books: Lethal Legion, Masters of Evil
Marvel United Appearance: Marvel United Core Set (July 2020)
Marvel United Team Decks: None
Movement
BAM!
Civilians
Thugs
How Ultron Plays: Ultron races the heroes. Beat him before he floods the board with thugs and civilians.
Villainous Plot: When all Locations are fully occupied by civilians and thugs, the Heroes lose.
BAM!: Add 3 thugs to Ultron’s Location and deal 1 damage to each Hero there.
When Ultron uses his BAM! effect, it isn’t accompanied by adding any additional thugs and civilians. But 3 thugs at Ultron’s location is no joke. Ultron adds these thugs even if he doesn’t deal any damage to heroes.
The damage isn’t too bad, but a KO will cause Ultron to BAM! again and add another 3 thugs. Ultron also has Clone Henchmen who will also add thugs whenever Ultron uses his BAM!.
Overflow: If a civilian or thug token can’t be added to a Location, add that token to the next Location clockwise instead.
Note: Unlike Taskmaster’s Overflow (and its adding of a Crisis Token), Ultron’s Overflow effect triggers each time a civilian/thug token cannot be added. You will always add the number of tokens. If you can’t, the heroes lose
You need to keep an eye on the locations. One or two Locations filling up will cause Ultron’s Overflow to occur and then you could have four or five filled Locations. Ultron specializes in thugs. Only two of Ultron’s cards add civilians for a total of 7. Keep this in mind when looking at your starting civilians. If you need all (or even most) of Ultron’s 7 additional civilians and the starting civilians, you may consider defeating thugs instead.
Threats
Ultron has 2 copies of 3 different Threat Cards
Ultron Clone (Henchman)
Health: 4
BAM!: Add a thug to this Location. Heroes in this Location may prevent this effect if each of them takes 1 damage.
Of the core set villains, Ultron has the fewest BAM! effects in his deck (5). But if both “Ultron Clones” are in play, they’ll be adding 5 thugs each time Ultron does BAM!.
Duplication (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Triggered Effect (Ultron finishes movement on this Location): Heroes Add a thug in this Location
This only occurs if Ultron finishes his movement at a Location with this Threat card, but this effect triggers in addition to any other effect that adds thugs. “Duplication” continues Ultron’s theme of adding thugs.
Ultron Virus (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Constant Effect: Heroes starting their turn in this Location must ignore 1 action symbol of their choice.
Unlike other cards of this type (Threats that negate an action or require an extra action), “Ultron Virus” doesn’t specify an action. You could ignore a Move, Heroics, Attack, or even a Wild symbol. Don’t choose a Wild. “Ultron Virus” makes players consider whether they want to finish their turn on its Location or not.
Master Plan Deck
Movement:
All the core set villains have the same total movement, their movement predominantly shows up in three cards. The rest of each villain’s movement is 1 and 0 with a couple of 2 thrown in. Since this is the case, Ultron (like the rest of the core set villains) is predictable in terms of movement.
Civilians:
Of the core set villains, Ultron adds the fewest civilians.
Thugs:
Ultron can add a crazy amount of thugs, not so much with the physical symbols that show up on his cards, but with his BAM! effect.
BAM!:
Of the core set villains, Ultron has the fewest amount of BAM! effects in his deck.
Special Effects on Cards
1) Mesmerize: Give 1 Crisis Token to each Hero in Ultron’s Location and adjacent ones. Place a thug in each Location without Heroes.
Placing thugs is nothing new; it keeps with Ultron’s theme. But Ultron’s two special effects (“Mesmerize” and “Encephalo-Ray”) are a 1-2 combo. “Mesmerize” is most effective when Ultron plays it first. Crisis Tokens only have an effect when “Encephalo-Ray” enters play.
2) Encephalo-Ray: Deal 1 damage to each Hero for each Crisis Token they have. Then, 1 Hero of your choice takes 1 Crisis Token.
Yikes! Depending on how many Crisis Tokens a Hero has on them, “Encephalo-Ray” can deal 3 damage to one hero and instantly KO them (reminder, Heroes discard cards whenever they receive damage and a Hero’s staring hand is 3). Keep in mind that villains BAM! every time a Hero gets KO’d, and this can cause a cascading effect. But “Encephalo-Ray” can become less effective if both are played before “Mesmerize.”
Crisis Tokens will cease to mean anything if both copies of “Encephalo-Ray” have been played.
General Strategy
Ultron floods the field with thugs, so Heroes who are great at Attack are great options. But just being great at Attack may not be enough. Hulk’s “Hulk Smash!” (and other abilities like it) thrive against Ultron because they target every thug at a Location. This makes the Defeat Thugs mission easy to complete.
If there aren’t at least 9 civilians at the start of the game, you may want to skip the Rescuing Civilians mission. Ultron only has 2 cards in his deck that will add additional civilians.
So, clearing 4 Threats may be the better second mission to finish. Clearing these threats (specifically defeating the “Ultron Clones” and “Duplication”) can reduce the number of thugs Ultron adds each round.
Core Set Heroes
Ant-Man
Black Widow
Captain America
Captain Marvel
Hulk
Iron Man
Wasp
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