Some notes about the set:
- These wrestlers are more effective than they have any right to be in Heroclix. They can do a Flying Leap that hurts Superman. They can Body Slam Galactus. They can put the Living Tribunal in a Submission Hold. When I wrote Wizkids for an explanation about how plausible this was, they replied saying “I need you to get all the way off my back about this.” Apparently this set was designed by the writer from the Pitch Meetings series on You Tube.
- The WWE Rules and Grand Entrance are what put these guys over the top (pun intended).
WWE Rules: This character can’t be the target of range attacks or Outwit if: they’re on click #1, they’re on a click with a blue click #, -or- they’ve already been targeted by a range attack this turn. Protected: Pulse Wave.
Grand Entrance: During your first turn, if this character is in your starting area, they have “FREE: Move.” (Grand Entrance is great for picking up Equipment.) - I think that in order to be meta, you’ll need to splash these guys onto generic keyworded or non keyworded teams. I don’t see entirely WWE teams making it too far in a modern tournament.
- In a lot of sets I usually like the lower dials on figures better than the full point dials. In this set I can’t find a single lower dial I like better.
- John Cena is on this list, but just like the wrestler himself you can’t see it.
Now on to our Honorable Mentions that just missed the cut:
Pedigree
3. WWE003 Triple H (85 points) – The Cerebral Assassin was just a nickname, but Wizkids went ahead and gave him the Assassin keyword (along with Politician.) His Special Power makes him a great leader for those keywords. It reads “
Numbers Game: Empower. Friendly characters that are adjacent or share a keyword with him besides WWE can use Empower.” Beyond giving his whole team Empower his signature move Pedigree is very good. It gives him +1 Damage, adds an action token to whomever it hits, combines with his stun to give a hit target -1 to Attack and Damage next turn, and works in conjunction with Charge. Down dial he gets Slam (my favorite WWE power) to add action tokens followed by some additional clicks with the combination of Flurry and Outwit.
Sweet Chin Music!
2. WWE106 Shawn Michaels (75 points) – Shawn Micheals is mostly a one-trick pony, but it’s a heck of a trick. At 75 points his damage value maxes out at 2 and he doesn’t have charge or any starting attack power. He does have a Perplex power that he can use to help out your team while remaining safe from ranged attacks due to his WWE team ability. Then once every 4-5 turns he builds up enough “Tuning Up the Band Counters” to make his signature move Sweet Chin Music absolutely deadly. It reads, “
Signature Move: Sweet Chin Music: CLOSE: Improved Movement: Characters. If Shawn Michaels has 1 action token, move him up to half his speed value and then make a close attack, modifying attack and damage +1 for each Tuning Up The Band token. After resolutions, remove those tokens.” So Shawn Micheals can move 2 squares from sidestep, then 1 more from Nimble, and then 5 more from Sweet Chin Music before hitting attacking someone with a 14 att value and 5 damage! It’s obvious to see why they didn’t give a higher starting damage than 2, but it sure makes playing him feel super uneven. The other thing that makes him hard to put on a team is that he is one of the few characters in the set to not have any generic keywords that would let you easily include him on a non WWE team.
Chokeslam
1. WWE0014 Kane (100 points) – Kane has great keywords and on the right map *cough* Wakanda *cough* he’ll be attacking up to four people at once. However, in my opinion he gets out shined a bit by his brother the Undertaker. His “Fiery Posts” Special Power is very map dependent, but when it works it really works well. It reads, “ Fiery Posts: POWER: Choose up to 4 opposing characters within 6 squares that are adjacent to 2+ Ropes.Make a close attack targeting all of them regardless of adjacency. Each hit character is dealt 2 penetrating damage.” He doesn’t have a starting support power, but he does have a 9 click long dial with 4 starting Damage. On the back end of his dial he has Charge, Reversal, Toughness, and Prob Control all at once. His signature move, Chokeslam, can do up to 7 damage if your dice are lucky, but an opposing character needs to start the round adjacent to Kane when Kane has one action token. Most opponents will see that coming. A fun fact Hypefox told me is that Kane has the Politician Keyword in Heroclix because he’s a Mayor of a town in Tennessee in real life!
[EDITOR’S NOTE: I believe it’s Knox County, Tennessee!]
Here’s my Top 5:
Mr. Socko
5. WWE102 Mankind (75 points) – Mankind is an effective tough combatant that will just keep coming back for more punishment thanks to his 7 clicks of Toughness and the healing from his Special White Power. It reads “ Cactus Jack or Dude Love: FREE: Choose one: Mankind can use Perplex until your next turn -or- heal Mankind 1 click.” He doesn’t hit for a lot of damage, but whenever he does hit most of the time he will also give that hit character an action token. That comes from him having both Slam and a Signature Move that gives action tokens. It reads, “ Signature Move: Mr. Socko: CLOSE: If Mankind has 1 action token, make a close attack. After resolutions, a hit target gains Immobile and is given an action token.” Both Slam and his Signature Move also work with his top dial Charge.
Flying Elbow
4. WWE0010 Macho Man Randy Savage (100 points) – He was one of the greatest guys to ever shoot a promo before a fight (Ohhh Yeahhhh). Wizkids gave him a special damage power to reflect that. It reads, “ ONE OF THE GREATEST TALKERS IN WWE HISTORY: Perplex. When Macho Man uses it to target himself, he may modify a value except damage +2 instead of +1. When he uses it to target an opposing character, until your next turn that character can’t use Outwit or Perplex.” So he can give himself a 20 Defense, or 13 Attack, or he can give someone like the Unimind -1 att and completely block that character from using Outwit or Perplex (not that Outwit works against WWE figures most of the time anyways). Defensively, he starts with Reversal and Super Senses that along with his high defense from Perplex makes him a frighteningly effective tie up character. If you are the opponent, you’ll have to get through his 20 Defense and Super Senses that’s Immune to Outwit and you only are able to break away on a 6 thanks to Reversal. If you miss, or if he rolls Super Senses, or if you try to break away and fail then Macho Man gets a free attack on his next turn due to Reversal. Macho Man’s Signature Move the Flying Elbow is a harder to pull off version of Kane’s Choke Slam that can do up to 6 damage if your dice are lucky, but only if he starts the move next to at least two ropes (printed hindering or blocking not on a diagonal square).
The Three Amigos
3. WWE017 Eddie Guerrero (70 points) – He’ll lie, cheat, and steal just one of your opponent’s attack dice with his special take on Prob Control. It reads “ Lie, Cheat and Steal: Probability Control, but you may choose to reroll only one die.” At his point level that combined with his WWE TA might be enough right there to justify playing him. However, he also is one of only 2 figures in the set to have a stop click and his signature move The Three Amigos can be deadly. It reads “ Signature Move: Three Amigos: If Eddie Guerrero has 1 action token, Flurry. When Eddie Guerrero uses it, he can make 3 close attacks instead of 2 and his maximum damage value is 3.” Unfortunately, Eddie doesn’t have much ability to move and attack so characters with powers like Hypersonic Speed will be real tough for him to handle without help.
The People’s Elbow
2. WWE001 The Rock (90 points)- For 90 points the Rock brings starting Charge, Slam, Invulnerability, and Perplex. That’s everything I want in a starting click for a WWE figure and he has a 9 click long dial that features Slam (my favorite WWE power) on most of it. His signature move The People’s Elbow is one of the few in the set to add to both attack and damage value. It reads, “ SIGNATURE MOVE: PEOPLE’S ELBOW: CLOSE: Improved Movement: Characters. If The Rock has 1 action token, move him up to 2 squares then make a close attack, modifying attack +1. If he hits, friendly characters modify damage +1 when attacking that hit character this turn. (Including this attack’s damage)” And because it’s a close action it can be combined with Charge. So he can move up to 6 squares and make a close attack with an 12 Attack Value that will do 4 damage if it hits (this doesn’t include his Perplex).
Tombstone Piledriver
1. WWE013 Undertaker (100 points)- I actually like the Rock’s dial a little better than the Undertaker’s (though he’s no slouch), but the Undertaker will be on more successful teams due to his popular Monster and Mystical Keywords. In all of the Pauper winning teams over the past few weeks, the Undertaker has been the most popular figure. He’s most often seen with fellow monster Onslaught.
The Undertaker’s starting dial features Sidestep, Submission Hold (similar to Poison with Immobile thrown in), Invulnerability, Outwit and 4 Printed Damage. He has the only stop click in the set besides Eddie Guerrero and it stops his dial on a blue click number which (like his starting click) make him immune to ranged attacks and Outwit. That’s really helpful for preventing a KO when he’s that far down his 9 click dial. Beyond that his signature move Tombstone Piledriver is really good and can give him up 14 Attack and 6 Damage depending on the circumstances. It reads “ Signature Move: Tombstone Piledriver: CLOSE: If Undertaker has 1 action token, make a close attack. Modify attack and damage +1 for each action token on the target, and an additional attack +1 if the target has Immobile.“
That’s enough to make the Undertaker the Heavy Weight Champion of this set.
But wait what’s this?
My gawd King!
A new contender has entered the ring! He’s saying that he’s actually going to be the most popular piece from the set. It’s turning into real slobber knocker. The Undertaker is down! He rises from the dead… And gets knocked down again. He’s out cold.
We have a new Heavyweight Champion of this set!
It’s…
1. WWE111 WWE Ring (5 points) – This will definitely be the piece from this set that you will end up seeing the most. It’s as powerful as the boxing ring in a slightly different way.
It reads:
Ropes exist along the edge of the Ring. (When you knock a character back into the Ropes, you may choose that their knock back path continues in the opposite direction back along that same path.)
Once per turn, you may reroll the close attack of a friendly character in the Ring.
Once per turn, you may reroll the range attack of an opposing character outside the Ring that’s targeting a friendly character inside the Ring.
Consolation: “At the beginning of the game, choose a friendly character. Once per game, you may reroll that character’s attack. Once per game, you may reroll an attack targeting that character.”
So if you take a powerful long range attacker like 125 point Onslaught and put him in the ring then you get a free use of Prob Control ( that can’t be outwitted or otherwise stopped – even by pulsewave) when anyone outside the ring shoots at him. If they get in the ring with him then Onslaught gets to reroll his own attack rolls when he targets that figure with a close attack. That’s huge advantage for only 5 points.
That’s it for this set review. Leave a comment below to let me know what you thought of my picks (including my suprise #1.)
Critical Missives 