[EDITOR’S NOTE: Once again (and this time, with feeling!), we are shamelessly unleashing the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas! Tonight is Night 5! If you missed The First Night of Clix-Mas, you can read what it’s all about right here! Night 2 was the nascent edition of a new holiday scenario we’ve been cooking up and can be found… here-ish! Night 3 took a brief look back at Horrorclix. Night 4 was the debut of a new feature called “Overlooked” which examined some pieces from World’s Finest that don’t see quite as much play as they seemingly should… ]

Welcome to Night 5 of the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas!!

Tonight is also Part 1 (of 3) of a brief series wherein I ask the question, “Does Heroclix need a base set?,” attempt to answer that question, and then take a look at what a Marvel base set and DC base set would look like.

First, though… what is a base set?

Well… I’m specifically talking about a Modern Age set that would (primarily) contain figures from recently rotated expansions that would give newer players a slightly easier entry into the game than going full bore into the lastest booster set. Additionally, it would allow veteran players a second opportunity to use select pieces from retired sets in Modern Age games as the Meta moves forward.

If this is starting to sound a little familiar, well…

Yup! Magic has already pioneered the Core set concept. I’m just blatantly stealing from them. In fact, most successful TCG’s have used some form of this idea at some point. Heck, even Heroclix has had a set of reprints before–Marvel Classics, anyone?

Except I think it’s time for Wizkids to take it to the next level. If I were them, I would release one Marvel Set and one DC Set every year that featured pieces from every set that just rotated out, and I would keep each piece at the same rarity level–Common, Uncommon, Rare or Super Rare–that it was in its original set. But then I would create all new Primes and Chases! And it would all be Modern Age.

This would open up the Meta to awesome new Build possibilities every year while still allowing long time players to feel like all–or at least some–of their old pieces have value beyond just the occasional Golden Age tournament at their local venue.

From Wizkids’s perspective, they would be able to add another two full set releases to the calendar, yet those releases would have cheaper overhead to produce since 80-90% of the release would feature re-used sculpts.

Currently, Wizkids schedules big expansion set releases for February, May, August and November. I would push each of those releases back a month so that we get sets in March, June, September and December, with the normal January dead zone now becoming the month every year where Wizkids releases their new Core sets.

Now, what would those sets look like? I’m glad you asked!

Because that is tomorrow’s topic!

Until then, stay Safe, and Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire!!