[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… . And Night 5 was Part 1 of a brief 3-part series that examines how Heroclix would look if there were a Core Set released every year or two… ]

Okay! Yesterday, we talked about what a Core Set is and why Heroclix could use one. Today, I’m gonna put together a mock Core Set for Marvel Heroclix to see what the concept would look like in action!

Here’s how I’m gonna put it together!

–The set would be distributed via 5-figure Booster packs, with 10 Packs equaling a Brick, and 2 Bricks equaling a Case (no change from a normal expansion).

–The set would contain 70 figures; 16 Commons + 1 Prime; 16 Uncommons + 1 Prime; 16 Rares + 1 Prime; 12 Super Rares + 1 Prime; and 6 Chases.

–All figures would be reprints EXCEPT the Primes and the Chases. The reprints would primarily come from all the Marvel sets that rotated out of Modern from the previous year (with the exception of certain “Micro Sets” like the Movie tie-in Sets and Fast Forces, although regular set Gravity Feeds should be fair game) with just a few older pieces. So, for this Core Set, we’d mostly be choosing pieces from Wolverine and the X-Men, Invincible Iron Man, Deadpool and Guardians of the Galaxy, with just a few exceptions.

–With the Primes and Chases, I would try to add to or even finish Sub-Themes from the rotated sets so that the new pieces fit right in with the reprints.

–Some figures might change rarity. I would make a rule that nothing can move up in rarity (for example, I would never let an Uncommon in a prior set suddenly become a Rare in the Core Set), but figures can move down a tier (a Rare in, say, GOTG could thus become an Uncommon in the Core Set).

Okay! So what would my Marvel 2017 Core Set look like? I’m glad you asked! I present to you…

THE THEORETICAL 2017 MARVEL HEROCLIX CORE SET!!

COMMONS: 

MC17001 Thule Society Priest (formally FI001)(Meet one of the exceptions! This guy comes from Fear Itself, obviously, but he was a well-designed, well-balanced piece that deserves to come back for a year!)

MC17002 Rescue (formally IIM002)

MC17003 Mantis (formally GOTG003)

MC17004 Secret Empire Number 9 (formally DP204)

MC17005 U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. Soldier (formally DP005)

MC17006 Dreadnought (formally IIM006)

MC17007A Weapon X Scientist (formally DP007A)

MC17007B William Stryker (Our first new piece, this would brind Stryker into the Modern Age–he was last seen years ago in Giant-Size X-Men. Given how many mutants will be running around in 2017, we probably need more X-Men villains and, after all of his X-Men movie franchise appearances, Stryker is one of the most well-known X-Men villains.

MC17008 Colleen Wing (formally DP008)

MC17009 Misty Knight (formally DP009)

MC17010 Lady Deathstrike (formally WXM210)

MC17011 Justin Hammer (formally IIM008)

MC17012 Tana Nile (formally GOTG012B)

MC17013 Recorder #451 (formally GOTG013B)

MC17014 Bulldozer (formally IIM014)

MC17015 Tony Stark (formally IIM015)

MC17016 Nebula (formally GOTG016)

 

UNCOMMONS:

MC17017 Yondu (formally GOTG024)

MC17018 Alpha Primitive (formally GOTG018)

MC17019 Captain Marvel (formally GOTG207)

MC17020 Weasel (formally DP020)

MC17021 Flatman (formally WXM021)

MC17022 Talon (formally GOTG022)

MC17023A Black Cat (formally DP023)

MC17023B Mink (Another new figure, both for this set and for Heroclix, Mink hails from Mark Gruenwald’s wonderful Squadron Supreme run. Although she wouldn’t have the Squadron Supreme keyword herself, I could imagine her having a Trait that would keep her from breaking Theme as long as she was on a force with a character named Nighthawk. Which should be possible with the Squadron Supreme of Earth-712 ATA, once Mink’s Trait was worded properly.)

MC17024 Number One (formally DP024)

MC17025 Flag-Smasher (formally DP025)

MC17026 Crystal (formally GOTG026)

MC17027 Piledriver (formally IIM027)

MC17028 Ebony Maw (formally GOTG025)

MC17029 War Machine (formally IIM029A–was a Rare, now Uncommon)

MC17030 Star-Lord (formally GOTG030)

MC17031 Gambit (formally WXM031–was a Rare, now Uncommon)

MC17032 Punisher (formally DP032)

 

RARES:

MC17033 Forge (formally WXM033)

MC17034 Legion (formally WXM038)

MC17035 Killraven (formally GOTG035)

MC17036 Bullseye (formally DP036)

MC17037 Iron Monger 2.0 (formally IIM037)

MC17038 Maximus (formally GOTG 038)

MC17039 Big Bertha (formally WXM039)

MC17040 Thunderball (formally IIM039)

MC17041 Deathurge (formally GOTG041)

MC17042 Grasshopper (formally DP042)

MC17043 Black Bolt (formally GOTG036)

MC17044 Silver Samurai (formally WXM044)

MC17045 Shriek (formally GOTG044)

MC17046 Black Dwarf (formally GOTG036)

MC17047A Thanos (formally GOTG047A)

MC17047B Thanos (Another new piece, this would be our Rare Prime, and it’s… Marvel Zombies Thanos. Why he wasn’t made as a Chase piece in the original GOTG set, I don’t know. But we’ll fix that right here! He won’t be a SwitchClix, but he will have the Z-Virus keyword!)

MC17048 Supergiant (formally GOTG048)

 

SUPER RARES:

MC17049 Corvus Glaive (formally GOTG049)

MC17050 Proxima Midnight (formally GOTG050)

MC17051A X-Man (formally WXM051)

MC17051B Nate Grey (The final new Prime for the set, this version of Nate would carry the Age of Apocalypse keyword and represent the character from when he debuted during the A0A event.)

MC17052 Wrecker (formally IIM050)

MC17053 Speed Demon (formally DP053A)

MC17054 Arnim Zola (formally DP054)

MC17055 Iron Man (formally GOTG055)

MC17056 Shaman (formally IIM40)

MC17057 Iron Doom (formally IIM042)

MC17058 Groot (formally GOTG051)

MC17059 Rocket Raccoon (formally GOTG052)

MC17060  Thane (formally GOTG060)

 

CHASES:

(For the Chases, there are just so many AoA characters who have either never been Clix’d, or else haven’t been Clix’d in YEARS. So I would finish the Core Set off with more AoA Chases!)

MC17061 Prelate Scott Summers (AoA version of Cyclops, missing an eye.)

MC17062 Jean Grey (AoA version.)

MC17063 Prelate Alex Summers (AoA version of Havok.)

MC17064 Dark Beast (AoA version of Beast.)

MC17065 Nemesis (AoA version of Genocide. Also known as Holocaust. Hasn’t been Clix’d since Giant-Size X-Men.)

MC17066 Apocalypse (AoA version, obviously. Sculpt would be similar in stature to Tyrant’s from GOTG.)

 

And there you have it. Now imagine a set like this being available all year long to be used with upcoming releases and tournaments! You would crack one of these and one pack of any current Marvel set–or even a new set during launch!

So do you like the idea of a Core Set yet? Sound off in the Comments below! And tune in tomorrow for a look a theoretical DC Core Set!