[EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is part of the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas, an ongoing Critical Missives Clix celebration wherein we’re trying to publish new content for 12 straight days. If you’ve missed anything, you can check out Night 1, Night 2, Night 3, Night 4 or Night 5 just by clicking the preceding links!]

So, Ninwashui’s already told us which Flash figures he thinks are the best. But what about the other end of the spectrum? Which figs from the new set should you avoid at all costs? I’m glad you asked! Ninwashui prepared a whole list…

 

Ninwashui’s 5 Worst Figures in Flash:

 

5. FL204 Central City Police Captain – This guy can add all the Central City Keyword guys to those cool Police teams that were winning tournaments back in the Streets of Gotham days. That’s a huge boost, right? Wrong! Of the 17 Central City-keyworded Dials in Modern, 7 already have the Police keyword. That leaves you with mostly sub-par speedsters like FL002 Max Mercury, FL003 Jesse Quick, and FL035 Impulse. It’s true that the Prime Dark Flash is a viable option, but I don’t think that the Dark Flash along with the CC Police Captain and 150 points of police characters from the 2.5 year old Streets of Gotham set are going to get you many wins.

4. FL034 Amanda Waller – For it to be worth going to the trouble of using Waller to add a character to a the ranks of a the Suicide Squad, Suicide Squad has got to be a great keyword, right? I mean, you should be able to assemble one hell of a Themed Team right? Well… not so much. In the Flash set there are 4 other squad members and the Fast Forces has three. Some of these are good. None are great. Three of the (only) seven available Suicide Squad figures in Modern are named Captain Boomerang, but the Squad doesn’t even get his cool Black Lantern version. All of which is to say, without more Squad members to choose from, Amanda here is… pretty useless.

3. FL018 Steve Trevor – For 54 points you get one good click with no Willpower. And that’s assuming you can find a good use for his Psychic Blast with a 5 Range before an opponent bases you, breathes on Trevor and gets 54 easy points. Steve also has a Special Leadership power, but that will only allow him to lead the worst characters in the set. As an added bonus, his Justice League of America keyword only appears on two other figures in Modern. I mean, it’s almost as good as the West Coast Avengers keyword!

2. FL005 A.R.G.U.S. Agent – I really feel like this was a personal slap in the face by WizKids to me. We finally get a silver bullet to deal with Iron Pharaoh and it’s this guy. Sure he can remove the Falcon from the game, but he has to be on his second click and within 4 squares AND survive long enough to be given a power action. It seems pretty unlikely that this will ever happen. Even worse, if your opponent isn’t playing Iron Pharaoh or Captain Cold, then fielding this guy is just a complete waste of time.

1. FL003 Jesse Quick – This piece isn’t worth 90 Points. Even if she started with 3 Speed Force Tokens, I’m still not sure she’d be worth 90 points. She starts with Charge and a bare bones Defense which makes it harder to get Speed Force Tokens with her than any other Speedster piece. Even if you WERE to get three Tokens, the payoff is minimal. If you somehow got five while she was still on her top click, well, sure, THEN she is worth her points. I would play the 65 point FL001A The Flash over her 10 times out of 10. I was a fan of Jesse’s original piece back in the day and I would love for more playable JSA pieces, but sadly this one is just the worst.

 

BUT WAIT!! WE CAN’T END THIS ARTICLE WITHOUT A… SECOND OPINION!!

 

HypeFox’s 2 Worst Figures in Flash:

 

Why two? Because these two “pieces” are in a class by themselves. A.R.G.U.S. Agent is not great, Amanda Waller is really limited, and Jesse Quick straight blows. But these two figures are far and away the worst in the set!!

 

“Yeah, Steve, you can go. We won’t be needing your services any longer.”

2. FL018 Steve Trevor – 54 Points – Uncommon: If anything, Ninwashui might have been too kind. Now, his first Click is not terrible. For his points. And, that’s the end of the good.

His Leadership is useless. Why? Exactly how many 53 Point or less characters can you fit on a 300 Point team? While still being able to field a proper Primary Attacker? To make good use of his Leadership Special, you need to field at least two. So your Build is at 160 or more already. Oh, you’re using Tactics? Like Entities or a Resource? Congratulations. You have less than 100 Points for your Primary Attacker. Which means, his Leadership is so bad that it’s actually affecting how you build your team. Which in turn means, he would be better off with just straight Leadership. Also, Empower is okay; Enhancement would be better.

Also, ANY OTHER LEADER would be better.

1. FL019B Bizarro Flash – 111 Points – Uncommon Prime: At, like, 81 Points, Bizarro Flash would be intriguing. Unfortunately he costs 30 more Points than that. And to some people, he’s the best Prime in the set. I think those people are insane, but they’re out there (Bizarro Flash currently has a five-star rating on HCRealms.com–I repeat: 5 freaking STARS!!). Bizarro Flash takes all the drawbacks of the Speed Force mechanic and amplifies them by making them all take even longer to be earned.

He starts with Sidestep. Which means you’d better be packing some major TK support pieces to get him to where he needs to go, or you can forget about building up Speed Force tokens. It’ll be turn 4 before you get even one. His dial is set up backwards, so that his best stats and powers are at the end. Now, I’m am not the smartest man who ever lived, but just about EVERY piece that’s ever been set up in this manner NEVER lands on it’s best end-dial click–unless it has a Special Stop Click. Which Bizarro Flash doesn’t have. Which means that, even with 8 clicks, chances are he can be 2-shotted right off the map. Of course, he doesn’t have any source of Willpower either, so you can kind of push him to where you need him to get to. Eventually.

A lot of people online are making a lot of noise about how awesome his Specials are (one even shuts down Hypersonic Speed), but again, he has to have a Speed Token to make any of them work, and it’s remarkably tough for him to get those. His second Trait gives him a Speed Token if he MISSES with all of his attacks in a turn, but not until the end of turn, when you can’t do anything with it. And that also supposes that he somehow was adjacent (or within 2 squares) to someone that he could actually attack.

Now, in a Tactics environment, you can fix some of what ails him with Entities or Resources, but I could say that about most figures in this game.

With no named keywords, fitting him on a team and not breaking Theme is difficult. And worst of all, he takes up your Prime slot, so you can’t actually play a useful Prime. Don’t believe the hype; Bizarro Flash may sound like a cool concept, but field him and you’ll put yourself at a massive disadvantage.

 

And that’ll do it for the Sixth Night of Clix-Mas!! Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tomorrow for more ‘Clix madness!