15–1000 Point Rampage)

February 1, 2015February 1, 2015 / ninwashui / 1 Comment

So on 2/11 Comics’n More is having a 1000 Colossal Rampage. I have a family thing that I need to attend and can’t make it. However, I didn’t realize that until I had already designed 3 teams (eh, it happens). So here is what I would have been playing…

The Format: 1000 point Rampage! Oreo Age. (Which includes Superman and any sets which came out later – except for Star trek and Yu! Gi! Oh! Because having Iron Fist knock out the Enterprise is too weird and because Yu! Gi! Oh! has always sucked.) Each team should have a Colossal, if possible. Otherwise, bring your best giant slayers.

My Team (s): (One of which I would have played at the event)

Medieval Dentistry.

“There Is Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself… and This Team.” (Asgardian Themed Team)

FI026 Kuurth
FI024 Greithoth
FI107D The Serpent
ATA072 The Mighty
Total= 1000 points

How it works: Greithoth will want to try and hit someone with Invincible or Impervious (like an opposing Colossal) right away so that his trait EXTREME ABSORPTION will let him use that power on all 8 of his clicks. He’s got Running Shot so he has a 9 square attack range. (move 5 shoot 4) If he lands exactly on click 5 you should Revert him to IIM103 Absorbing Man. On click 6 or 7 revert to IIM033 Absorbing Man. Being a giant he is also the taxi that carries Kuurth in battle. Try and picture that in your head.

Kuurth is great against smaller, squishy characters that can be carried. His opening Movement lets him charge 6 squares and still attack. That can surprise some people–especially if Kuurth is running through a wall to do it. If he lands on click or 6 or 7 you can consider Reverting to IIM032 Juggernaut, but Kuurth has a 10 click dial so you may not want to Revert at all.

The Serpent needs to build up Fear Counters as fast as possible. To best way to do this is to use Running Shot along with his printed 3 Bolts to target your opponents weakest pieces 3 at a time. Divide up your 7 damage to do at least 1 to everyone. That’s 3 Fear Counters a turn. It will only take 2 turns of that to build up a enough Fear to take multiple actions every turn. While rolling all those attacks with the Serpent you could roll doubles to activate the Mighty ATA. If you do, then your force will have a serious advantage. You will gain 10 counters which you can use to modify the next 10 attacks against your team by -1. That should be a serious advantage.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Only a person with a dark, dark soul would even think to play The Mighty ATA during an event like this...]

The best game of Hollywood Squares – ever.

“Pop Quiz” (Cosmic Themed Team)

GOTG047AE Thanos
GGG002C Ziran the Tester
Total= 1000 points

How It works: If you’ve ever played (or played against) Ziran the Tester then you know about his (her? its?) TESTING Trait. For those of you who are new to this figure, the TESTING Trait allows you to do up to 6 damage to an opposing force before the game even starts. Thanos brings a lesser version of that with his CHOOSE – THE GAUNTLET OR THE TRIBUTE Trait. Both of these Traits can be used to damage an opposing character like a Colossal without needing to make an attack roll and before the game even starts.

Once the game does start your opponent’s attention should be focused entirely on the 12 range, 13 attack, 6 damage, Psychic Blasting, Multi-Attacking Ziran the Tester. That distraction will let Thanos make the most of his A BLOODY PATH TO FIND MY SON Trait. People largely panned this character when he came out, but I believe they were wrong. At the 200 point level he can lead himself and if he’s not the opponents main target, he can use Outwit to dish out a bunch of damage.

Having given up their dreams of destroying the universe Shuma Gorath and Dormammu make the natural transition to - gangster rap.

Having given up their dreams of destroying our universe, Shuma Gorath and Dormammu make the natural transition to gangster rap.

“Welcome to the Defenders – Shuma Gorath!” (Mystical Theme Team)

ASM005 Dr. Strange
ATA088 Midnight Sons
AVX006E Scarlet Witch
WXM034 Magik
ASM008 Doctor Druid
WKM-G001E Shuma-Gorath
Total= 1000 points

How It works: In a game where you know the other team is most likely going to be centered around a large point character, Shuma Gorath’s EMERGE THROUGH YOUR GREATEST CHAMPION should go a long way towards keeping him healthy and in the game. The last thing you want to face is someone with the Mystics TA that can automatically heal. Do your best to put Shuma within 5 spaces of the enemy team so that you can use Flurry (and later, his Special Incapacitate)

Dr. Strange will use his GATHER THEM: SECRET DEFENDERS OR MIDNIGHT SONS Trait give everyone the Defenders Team Ability. That will let Shuma Gorath share his 19 Defense Value with the rest of your team who (except for Doctor Strange) can add their Energy Shields for a total Defense of 21 against ranged attacks. The team all need to stay adjacent to make this work, so line them up in front of Shuma. Further complicating your opponents attack strategy is the Mystics TA and the fact that your team has 4 Probability Controls!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Including “No More Mutants” Scarlet Witch in this team is just sick and wrong. You are a troubled, troubled man…]

“Ninwashui’s ‘A Clixmas Carol'” (Or, the Eleventh Night of Clix-Mas!!)

December 25, 2014 / ninwashui / 5 Comments

[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, Night 5, Night 6, Night 7, Night 8, Night 9 or Night 10 just by clicking the preceding links!]

“A Clixmas Carol”

by Ninwashui

“This is what me and HypeFox actually look like, FYI…“

It’s late at night on Christmas Eve and I am sitting here in front of my PC, with HCRealms.com up, planning teams. No, actually, that’s a lie. I am actually obsessing over a recent loss at a tournament.

A guy played 4 Wall Constructs on a 4 person team. I was piloting a Red Lantern team and when we met in battle and I got a few shots in, but it wasn’t nearly enough. He used Pulse Wave to quickly KO two of my men. I was left with 2/3 of my build, but only one character with a natural 3 damage showing and the other people left on team didn’t have move and attack abilities left on their dial. Even though I had all these characters on the board I was no longer capable of attacking his team. All these pieces left on the board and no matter what dice rolls I got or what strategy I used, from that point forward there was nothing to be done except lose.

So I am sitting here. Plotting. Obsessing. Planning team upon team. I should be lying in my bed, getting a decent night’s sleep so I can enjoy Christmas morning, but instead I am just sitting there planning. Plans of immortal Groots and Poisonous Grasshoppers are running through my head and I’m rejecting them all. They’re not good enough. None of them are good enough. And then my head starts to nod… and I am asleep. No, I’m awake! Asleep. Awake…

And then I hear it.

Someone–or more accurately some THING–creeping down the hallway, each step echoing like plastic parts rattling around in a cardboard box. Fearfully I turn my gaze to the door. Slowly now, ever slowly, it rounds the corner to my office and it’s… a man. Carrying several huge tackle boxes full of HeroClix, all stacked on top of each other in front of his face.

Trembling, I summon what courage I have left and ask, “W-who are you?” He–it’s a man, now, I can see his silhouette–he starts to reply in a deep jagged voice I don’t recognize. “Kyrphlxx.” Then he coughs and reveals himself by putting the boxes down on a chair.

In a familiar voice he bellows, “It’s me–your brother, HypeFox.”

“What are you doing here? Christmas isn’t until tomorrow.”

“You, Ninwashui, you… have brought me here,” and he points a bony finger in my direction. “You’ve forgotten what’s important. both in HeroClix… and in life. Will you be at my house on Christmas Day? Or will you still be here trying to figure out how to beat he who defeated you not a fortnight ago?

“You don’t understand! I’m so close!” I point at the Builds I’ve collected on the screen. “I’m SO CLOSE TO FIGURING IT OUT!”

“And once you finally figure out how to defeat that Build, Ninwashui, will someone else not find another Build that’s even more powerful? And will you not be right back where you started?”

“No,” I reply. “I can beat that guy. I’m going to buy some Entities off eBay. and I can always search the Forums on the Realms for strategies. I can beat that guy next time. I can beat them all!”

Hypefox sighs.

“I’ve been where you are. I’ve spent too much money and time on HeroClix. You need to learn what I could not before it’s too late. You need to remember that HeroClix is supposed to be a game, not an obsession. It’s not real life. I need to get that through to you before it’s too late. Now, you’re dreaming and it’s almost Christmas, so I’ve arranged something festive for you. Tonight you will be visited by three people. Without their help you cannot hope to shun the path you tread. Expect them tonight. But be warned: while the first two are friends, the last is one of the greatest enemies of fun the world has ever known. He will tempt you… but his is a path that leads to ruin. And years of obsolescence. Y’know what? It’ll make more sense after you meet him.” And just like that his giant tackle boxes fall over. I glance at the pile for just a moment, then turn back to HypeFox–but he’s gone. And now so are the tackle boxes. I am alone again. Or at least I thought I was…

Standing behind me I suddenly notice a tall figure. I turn and it’s my friend Scott. I’m startled, but he immediately cuts off my gasp and says, “I’m here to remind of your HeroClix past.” Suddenly we’re not at my house anymore. Instead, both of us are watching our younger selves in my parents basement. It’s 11 years ago. We had just stated playing HeroClix about a month earlier. Hypefox, Scott, and I were having a battle royal and sitting around an early map trying to figure what was hindering terrain and what was blocking. I noticed my team had Rogue and the Juggernaut. They weren’t very good, but they were some of my favorite characters from the comics and I just loved playing them for that reason.

Then something occurred to me. I turned to the older version of Scott that had brought me here. “I understand why you brought me here. You wanted me to remember why I play HeroClix. You wanted to remind me of why I thought it was fun. I get that. But, why are you here tonight? You don’t play HeroClix anymore.” He took a few seconds to think and replied, “That’s true. The way the game progressed didn’t follow my interests. Once they invented white powers the game was a little a more complicated than I liked for something that’s just a way to pass the time with friends. But, that’s not the case for you. You like Chess and you love playing complicated games. That’s how you have fun. Even though we have fun differently we can still have fun together–as long as it’s fun and not winning at all costs. That’s why I’m here tonight. Remember that and we’ll always be friends.” And then a mini Juggernaut comes flying through the air. I turn to look for who threw it, but I’m not there anymore. I’m back at my desk. But I’m not alone…

Standing there is my friendly rival Andrew from my local HeroClix venue. It seems that no matter how many people are at Comics & More on a particular night, we always end up playing each other. If I’m doing badly then I will see him at the losers table. If I am doing well then I see him in the Finals. The last time we played we were both competing to not be in last place at a Flash Sealed event. I won that round fielding a team that wasn’t good, but slightly less-worse than his. The time before that he won the day when he “Krampus’d” me.

He started addressing me as soon as he saw me. “I don’t have to take you far to show you what I need to show you tonight. What do you remember about playing HeroClix against Brian, the judge at our venue?”

“Well he’s very good. I’ve probably lost more than half the times I’ve played against him. I noticed he loves playing theme teams and usually they aren’t very good. I mean the pieces he uses aren’t the most powerful, but he plays them well and usually ends up beating me or at least playing me close. I’ve never had a blow out win against him. I know he got 4 Entities playing War of Light events. Maybe that means he’ll start using them on some really over-powered teams.”

“I know exactly what he’s doing with his Entities. Here let me show you.”

“Are you going to teleport me to his house?” He looks at me like I’m nuts.

“Wow. That’s creepy. I’d rather not, if that’s fine with you. Why would you even–”

“It’s been a long night.”

“I mean, how are we suppose to teleport, exactly? You know teleportation isn’t real, right? You know what? Just pull him up on Facebook. And then we’ll agree that we never had this conversation.”

I look up Brian, our venue judge, on Facebook. Just like Andrew said, his Facebook page shows all the unimaginably-evil plans for the Entities he owns. Actually, when I look closer the plans he has are the opposite of evil. The exact entry reads “I need X-Mas money! Make me an offer for these Entities.” He’s selling them all off to buy Christmas gifts for his family! He wasn’t really interested in making cutthroat teams–his Clixing would be just fine without the Entities. I turn to ask Andrew about it, but he’s gone.

But in his place is someone I sense is decidedly more evil…

Behind me is a figure in a black cloak, his countenance obscured by shadows from his large, billowing black hood.

“Your friends have shown you the weakling you are. But I can show you something else. Something… different.” His voice is strange. Each syllable drips with venom, but there is a hollowness to him, an emptiness that almost echoes against the walls. “I’ll show how to never lose a game of HeroClix ever again.”

Just like that his cloak opens up like a black hole and sucks me inside! It’s total darkness. When I can see again I’m looking at… myself. But I’m older. At least 5 years. I’m at very nice long wooden table. I look around at the room and it’s Comics & More. But it’s very different. The toys are gone and the comics are down to just one small bookshelf. In their place are row after row of nicely polished playing tables and some giant shelves with HeroClix for sale. There’s a slogan on the wall that says “Winning Means Never Having to Feel Like a Loser.”

I look at myself and notice that I’m arranging pieces for a tournament. I’m alone so I must be planning out my team before everyone gets there. I look at some of the things that I have displayed in front of me. I see at least 10 different Chase Primes. I see a new type of Possession Piece called a “Multiverse Alternate Reality Incursion Entity”. I see a new Infinity Gem Resource. I see a Quinjet. I even see two Team Bases with Galactus and the Spectre on them on them! All of these things must have come out in the next 5 years and it seems like I have them all!

The hooded figure speaks. “In your future HeroClix rides a wave of popularity generated by a new breed of player. The type of player that will win at any cost. Six months from now WizKids hires a new CEO. One they know will be able to get every last dime out of a well established successful brand. He’ll start by introducing new revenue streams such as needing a to pay for a special license just to purchase packs of HeroClix. Then he’ll make all of the most powerful figures more rare and hard to find with each passing set. The power level will increase so much from set to set that almost every figure in the previous set is useless as soon as the next set comes out.”

I look at all the pieces in front of me.

“Am I the new CEO?”

“No…” replies the hooded figure. “I am. But you’re the first and best of the new win at any costs HeroClix player base. You could even be the most successful Clix player ever. You just have make the right choice tonight–the choice to embrace your destiny.”

Then It happens. I was so busy looking at all of the HeroClix figures on display that I missed seeing the piece of paper on the table in front of my future self. I see it now, and I know that my future self has taken a dark path. The paper is a tournament flyer. It reads, “Come face the best HeroClix player in the world. Tournament hours 8-midnight on Christmas Eve.” I’m not alone at Comics & More because it’s early before a tournament. I’m alone because it’s Christmas Eve and everyone else is with their families tonight.

I point at the paper and turn to the figure in Black.

“I know now what kind of person I am in the future. That man has gone down a dark path. The only question now is who are you? Who is the CEO that is so determined to get every bit of profit out of his fanbase that he invented things like a pack license and the Prime Chase rarity?”

Slowly the hooded figure laughs and removes his hood. “My name? Oh, I think you know my name, Ninwashui. I think you’ve known it all along!”

The next CEO of WizKids

“I’m former University of Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon.”

I wake up screaming at my keyboard, with Dave Brandon’s empty laughter ringing in my ears.

I look around. It’s morning. It’s Christmas. I look up at my screen and during the night I’ve created the most evil team I’ve ever seen. It exploits timing rules and a broken combo to KO an opposing team before they’ve left their starting area. This could beat anything wall guy could throw at me. I’ll be the best player ever. Then I look closely at it. A casual player wouldn’t even get an attack off against this team. It would win every game 300 to nothing. Before I even realize it I am pressing delete. I take a minute to send a simple text about my night to HypeFox and get ready to go see him. Somewhere he’s reading what he’ll soon tell me is the most confusing back-t0-back texts he’s ever seen.

“Hey HypeFox. It turns out I’m not evil.”

“Also, screw Dave Brandon.”

I stretch and stand. I head to the bathroom for a quick shower, but as soon as I look at the mirror, I’m startled by another visit from Phantom HypeFox.

“You know, Ninwa, I’ve been thinking–if you had used an Orange Power Battery, you could have prevented the Wall Guy from–”

I wave my hand to cut him off.

“Not today, HypeFox.” And I notice now that for the first time in the last couple days I’m actually smiling. “It’s Christmas, and I’ve got somewhere I gotta be.”

From Hypefox and Ninwashui to all of our readers:

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Saving People – In a Flash! (Or, A Top Ten Set Review for Flash!!) (Or, The Third Night of Clix-Mas!!)

December 16, 2014December 17, 2014 / ninwashui / 11 Comments

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to Night Three of the 12 NIGHTS of Clix-Mas here at Critical Missives, where we’re providing 12 straight nights of ‘Clix content! If you missed Night One, click here! The Second Night of Clix-Mas can be found here.]

“So we’ve had sets for Superman, Batman and the Flash. Do I need to start a KickStarter for an all Aqua-set? Who’s ready for a Piranha-man Chase?! Anyone? Hello? Is this an audience or a watercolor painting? But seriously… “

Some General Notes About the Set:

Uh, did everyone else catch the irony of the HeroClix set centered around the fastest man alive arriving like three weeks late? Or that my Set Review is equally as late?

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Eh, this is about the elapsement of time from release to review as our GotG Top Ten Set Reviews, so I’m going to say its more of an editorial choice than pure laziness on our part.]

Some Flash Facts about the set:

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Uh… are all the italics supposed to make the words seem faster?]

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Yes. And it’s totally working!!]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Actually… that’s not a bad gimmick for this.]

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thank you. Now shush!!]

This set brings a new “Speed Force” shared Trait, but the effectiveness of the Trait varies greatly by character. For example, FL001B Rival gains Impervious, the ability to deal Penetrating Damage, Energy Shield/Deflection and Hypersonic Speed after gaining just 3 Speed Force tokens. FL202 The Flash can literally run off the edge of the map to the other side AND BACK AGAIN by removing just a single token. Meanwhile, FL003 Jesse Quick needs three Speed Force tokens just to get Toughness and Super Strength. You can see a real difference there. Something else to consider is that by the time you’ve built up enough Speed Force tokens to use some of the bigger powers, the game might well be over. Professor Zoom has a power that requires ten freaking tokens. In a 300 point game you will probably have either lost or won before you have more than 3 tokens. Most opposing teams won’t last long enough for you to get 5 hits in with a single character.
Flash has some real stinkers (FL002 Max Mercury) and some real winners (FL046 Harley Quinn). Overall, most of the set is pretty playable. With only 2 characters in the 200 point range it seems like it should be great for Sealed, in particular.
The set delivered a bunch of Hypersonic pieces, but it also delivered a lot of anti-speedster figures as well. FL028 Tarpit and FL049R Midnighter will stop a speedster or keep him in place, respectively. FL042 Fallout and FL015 Rag Doll punish Hypersonic attackers in particular. FL044 Savitar will cripple anyone who relies on the Speed Force as a way of life and FL031 Turtle will cripple any strategy that doesn’t involve going really, really freaking slow (or using a lot of TK to move around the board).
On the negative side, wouldn’t it have been fun if they had more of a Black Lantern sub-theme in this set to go with FL206 Captain Boomerang and FL053B Zoom (Black Lantern)? FL051 Elongated Man was already in this set. There was space at the end of his dial for a Black Lantern resurrection the similar to what Captain Boomerang has on his dial. It’s a real missed opportunity. It also would have been a great way to include several characters in the set that needed Modern versions. They could have had 2 point costs with a normal dial and then a Black Lantern dial at the end. Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Firestorm come to mind right away. These could even have filled in the “missing” chase slots. [EDITOR’S NOTE: I LOVE this idea!! A Black Lantern Chase sub-theme definitely would have had me buying more packs. I hadn’t thought of this, but now that you bring it up, it’s probably all I’ll be able to think about during my next Flash Sealed Event. Damn! I mean, did we really need more Trinity of Sin versions ONE SET BEFORE THE TRINITY WAR SET?! Man. I also like this idea because Flash was such a huge part of Blackest night. Ninwashui, this might be your best idea ever.]

“Hello! We should have been your Chases!“

5 HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Elongated Man: “One time I disguised myself as a vase. For 3 days!“
Booster Gold: “No, you didn’t.”
Elongated Man: “Okay, maybe not. Who’d want to anyway?”
Booster Gold: “Plastic-Man. Usually in a women’s bathroom.”

5. FL051 Elongated Man – This guy is surprisingly good for his points. Admittedly he won’t be on next year’s Worlds team and you may never see him KO anyone, but he can be a fun support piece. He doesn’t have Willpower, so push through his first click to get him into position. His second click is where the magic happens. That’s the click you’ll use to tie up the opposing team. He shares a power with Groot from the Guardians movie set that lets him tie up characters that aren’t adjacent to him. Combine that with his super Outwit that let’s him draw lines of fire almost anywhere and there are some close combat characters that will be completely powerless against him. For example, if you are facing FL019A The Flash, you simply have to move within one space of him and then you can continuously Outwit Hypersonic Speed. Without outside help, it’s likely Flash won’t move again for the rest of that game.

4. FL052 Captain Thunder – This guy has a long dial, lots of damage reducers, and a Stop Click, and each of those attributes go well with his Mystics TA. Unfortunately, in HeroClix it’s very difficult to field a piece that costs 200 points or more that doesn’t also have Outwit protection built-in. Zero range also makes him even more of a risky play. However, in an environment where you aren’t likely to see much Outwit (like Flash sealed), he can really shine.

“Uh, how can we miss you if you never leave?“

3. FL025 Golden Glider – For only 60 points she makes 6 squares of hindering terrain every time she moves. These hindering markers last until this character is KOed. You can use this for your team to hide in and your opponent can never make use of these squares at all. Beyond just being normal hindering terrain, they require an opponent to break away when they are adjacent to one of these squares. In a long game your opponent’s movement options could be very limited. If you can find a way to let her ignore characters for movement she could be really nasty. Also, she gets bonus points for being Captain Cold’s brother. I’d forgotten about that.

Yup. This is what Google gave me when I asked for a picture of a S.T.A.R. Labs Technician.

2. FL007 S.T.A.R. Labs Technician – Pop quiz. Who is the cheapest TK figure in Modern HeroClix? It’s this guy. Okay, now, who is the best cheap medic in modern HeroClix? That’s actually DOFP016 Moira MacTaggert, but I would say this guy on click 2 is in second place. Add to that his ability to give someone Precision Strike and we have a real winner in the support category.

Hmmm… why wasn’t this the sculpt?

1. FL030 Thorn – With a first click that has Charge, Flurry, BCF, Combat Reflexes, Shape Change, and Stealth for only 65 points she was an easy inclusion on this list. The fact that her Shape Change gets better and starts healing her once she takes a hit is just gravy. The only thing keeping her out of the top 10 is that FL046 Harley Quinn is also 65 points and fills a similar role.

Sadly, there are still some Flash characters that have yet to be clixed…
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Sadly?]

My Top 10 Figures of the Set:

10. FL048 Apollo – Any time you see a printed 19 Defense for under 300 points, you should pay attention. Apollo also brings Outwit protection that is sorely needed given his high cost. What sets him apart is that he has Hypersonic, Improved Targeting, Precision Strike, Invincible and Super Senses on his first click. The lack of Willpower on a 200 point character is frustrating, but you could do a lot worse than a team up with FL049R Midnighter.

“Boys, my ocular units are up here.“

9. FL060R Engineer – With her ability to choose her own powers, she makes a wonderful support character. Running shot and Pulse wave or Hypersonic and Super Strength are great on offense. On defense you can still use Stealth and Shape Change to go along with her Toughness. I recommend the 90 point version over the 175 point version due solely to the existence of GOTG062 Super Skrull. At that 170+ point level Super Skrull is just better.

8. FL050 The Flash – This guy can have up to a 20 Movement and he’s dangerous all the way through his dial. With Willpower and his incredibly high Movement there are characters who literally won’t be able to catch this guy. His double attack up front also helps justify his point cost. He’s good on his own, but with some Perplex to his Damage value he should end games very quickly. He’d make a real good Puddin’ for Ms. Harley Quinn.

Pssshh. Rainbow Raider was Geoff Johns REAL inspiration for the War of Light!!

Pssshh. Rainbow Raider was Geoff Johns’s REAL inspiration for the War of Light!!

7. FL026 Rainbow Raider – For a character with 7 range, a full dial of Stealth, and 7 clicks of life, he’s very cheap by today’s standards. I think he plays best by Pushing to click 2 off the bat and being a ranged sniper. An 11 Attack and 3 Damage Value is great for sub 75 points. And then there is his Trait. If I told you that he gave your best figure a mostly permanent +1 to all stats, you’d be wondering why he isn’t on the watch list. Consider that what he really does is give your opponents best figure -1 to all its stats and you’ll see that his Trait is just about as good as the crazy broken Trait I just made up. Then he really gets nuts when you realize he might affect your opponent’s whole team.

6. FL061 Jenny Sparks – She is a capable attacker for her point cost, but it’s her Trait that really gets my attention. She is the one way in this game to get past powers that “can’t be countered or ignored“. Think about how often you see that phrase on really good powers that are on really good figures. The IIM103 Absorbing Man that is made of Uru metal folds like tin foil against this piece. WOL107 Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern) and WOL026 Sodam Yat might not ever see their Ion clicks when they are facing Jenny Sparks. That’s right, she disables all Stop Clicks! Think about that. I mean, really, THINK ABOUT THAT!!

"Man... why does every portal end on top of Batman?"

“Man… why does every portal I go through always end on top of Batman?”

5. FL045 Etrigan the Demon – If you are paying 135 points for just the six Demon Clicks, he’s not that impressive. At least not until you realize the Demon’s self healing potential. Your opponent might see those 6 clicks several times over and take Mystics damage for every hit. No matter how hurt the Demon gets, if he is alive, he can be back to full health in 2 turns. When you consider that he has Invincible to start, your opponent will need to focus fire or risk not being able to KO the Demon at all. Best of all, the sculpt kicks butt.

4. FL046 Harley Quinn – With Combat Reflexes, Super Senses and Stealth, she has great defensive options at her disposal. She is also the second cheapest figure in the game to start with Penetrating Poison (behind only Red Lantern Recruit). She also has Outwit with 5 Range, so you could try to stay hidden and make them come to you. Best of all she falls in love easily. Her ability to make anyone her Puddin’ turns a very good figure into an outstanding figure.

3. FL038 Captain Cold – When you look at his dial without his Trait you see 10 Attack and 3 Damage and you’d think that was a pretty good 85 point dial. Then you do look at his Trait. Then you realize the Ice Block Markers don’t go away. What? I’ve played against him once where I was fielding a Hydra Team lead by DP103 Wolverine, Agent of Hydra. Captain Cold moved into Range and ice blocked Wolverine without needing to make an Attack Roll. Wolverine never moved for the rest of the game. There are a lot of characters out there who can literally be Ice Blocked and just plain ignored thereafter. Captain Cold is well worth his 100 points.

2. Prime Speedsters (FL053B Zoom (Black Lantern), FL037B Dark Flash, FL001B Rival) – Listed in order from best to worst. I cheated a little with this entry but it’s not like you can ever play them all on the same team. And if I had listed them separately they would have all made my top 10 and pushed other figures out. Here they are in a Flash:

FL053B Zoom (Black Lantern)– The best all around Prime. He has three ways to heal himself and Willpower for only 120 points. He also has great offense when you can remove a token. He also has the great monster and Black Lantern Keywords. His major weakness is that you’ll want to remove a Speed Token for the extra damage every attack and that will make it impossible to save them up for better Speed and Regeneration.
FL037B Dark Flash- For 110 points you lose Willpower but you gain 4 top dial Damage. He has the best starting dial without Speed Tokens and only 2 tokens makes all his Damage Penetrating. He also has the best keywords with Teen Titans and Justice League. He doesn’t need to remove tokens for attacking, but he will for Regeneration. His major weakness is that if he has to Regenerate more than once he will likely lose his Penetrating Damage.
FL001B Rival – For 105 points he is the hardest of the Primes to get started. He has the best defensive powers, but with starting Charge he practically requires a support figure with TK to put up a good fight. Once he gets that first token things change for him quickly. Hypersonic Speed and Energy Shield/Deflection really bring up his power level. If he can make it to 3 Speed tokens then he additionally gains full Penetrating Damage and Impervious! If he’s still on his first click at that point he has Super Senses, Shape Change, Impervious, and Energy Shield/Deflection. Just to hit that guy you’ll need to plow through an 18 Defense with Energy Shield/Deflection, and Rival’s controller still gets 3 shots at rolling a 5 or a 6 to nullify your attack! Rival is the hardest of the three Primes to start with but is also the most powerful when he has Speed Tokens.

1. FL064 The Question – Let me compare this version of the question to the last version (WKD-008 Question), because that is still one of the best pieces in the Modern age.

One of the reasons the last version of the Question was so good was because you could sub in a power that appeared anywhere on his dial in place of one currently there. He could only use 4 powers at a time, but one of the 4 could be tailored to the situation. The new Question can’t pick powers to add, but his first click has 8 Standard Powers on it! Toughness, Charge, Shape Change, Stealth, Poison, Precision Strike, Super Senses and Outwit. Do you really need to pick more powers if you already have that many?

The Stats and cost are similar between both the old and new version of the Question. I love the older versions double Perplex that prevented the other teams from using Perplex, but the new version has the power to subtract an action token from itself every time it uses Outwit. The other team might not be playing anyone with Perplex, but most teams run at least 1 figure vulnerable to Outwit and that could let this figure act every turn! In addition, the new version has Traited Toughness, and if he is played with the Phantom Stranger he gains Quintessence as well! All this makes the new figure superior to the old figure, which should easily make it the best figure in this set.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: And that will do it for Night 3 of Clix-Mas here at Critical Missives! We’ll see you right here tomorrow for a look at some potential issues with the game and what we’d do to fix them!!]

Team Ideas!! (Or, The Immortal Super Skrull)

December 5, 2014December 6, 2014 / ninwashui / 7 Comments

So it’s been quite a while since I posted a column. It’s been pretty busy in my life. My kids thought it would be funny to start sleeping in alternating shifts and I didn’t get to write earlier in the week because the Arrow and Flash teamed up on CW and it was must see TV [EDITOR’S NOTE: Have you seen S.H.I.E.L.D. lately? They’re about to find Attilan! Maybe! And poor SPOILER REDACTED! Man, next Tuesday can’t come fast enough!]. The days are just packed.

Todays article features two different takes the same idea in both a tactics and non-tactics environment. The idea being to make your team completely un-killable. I’m not a mathematician by trade, but zero points for your opponent should make it a lot easier to beat them on points.

"Zombie Kl'rt you have shown great love for... eating other people. Welcome to the Star Sapphires."

“Zombie Kl’rt, you have shown great love for… uh, eating other people. Which, y’know, still counts. As love. I’m not gonna lie, we’re desperate. Welcome to the Star Sapphires!“

Team Name: Zombie Super Skrull, Agent of Love

Theme: Z-virus

Roster:

GOTG062 Super Skrull

DP064 Electro

WOLR106 Power Battery (Star Sapphires)

WOLR306 Star Sapphire Ring

WOLR206.04 Wall (Violet)

WOLR206.05 Crossbow (Violet)

WOLR206.09 Nurse (Violet)

Total = 300 Points

How it Works:

This is a team that needs tactics to work. It’s based off an idea I read on the Realms. A guy [EDITOR’S NOTE: Knak12 on the Realms.] preparing for Worlds figured out that any Chase Zombies are effectively immortal when given the Mystics TA. He ended up going in another direction in preparing a Build for Worlds, but I think that was a mistake–his Zombie idea was awesome!Here’s how it works:

All the chase zombies have the same great Trait(ZOMBIE HUNGER: When Super Skrull damages an opposing character, place a Food token on this card if there are less than 5 Food tokens. When Super Skrull would be KO’d by an opponent’s attack, turn to its first KO click, remove all Food tokens from this card, and heal it that many clicks.). Now, the Trait doesn’t specify that the damage you do has to be from an attack to get the Food counter. If an opponent attacks you, he takes an unavoidable damage back via the Star Sapphire Ring-granted Mystics TA. Even if you are KOed in a single hit they will take 1 damage and you’re Zombie will thus resurrect on its last click.

While it’s not foolproof, there really aren’t many ways past this combo. Outwit is useless, but Pulse Wave can be successfully used for the killing blow on a Zombie and not trigger Mystics. This team is also vulnerable to being killed via damage that isn’t from an attack (like Penetrating Poison or Incapacitate-generated pushing damage). Your pieces can also be Captured (so be very careful with that stupid Krampus/Helspont combo team that is the absolute bane of my existence). Scarlet Witch or Iron Monger can interfere with your TA. Finally, Lydea Mallor or Catwoman can interfere with the Resource and ruin your nefarious plans. However, if your opponent didn’t come packing one of those answers, congratulations–it’s almost impossible for you to earn anything less than a tie.

Wait 'til you get a load of my little... tree.

“Say hello to my little… tree.”

Team Name: Zombie Super Skrull, Monster Mastermind

Theme: Monster

Roster:

GOTG062 Super Skrull

GOTG051 Groot

Total = 270 Points

How it Works:

This is a No Tactics team that I developed on my own a few months back. It’s only 270 points instead of 300. You could add a 1 click Bizarro to use up the extra points, but I wouldn’t recommend it because that would be something your opponent could actually KO and get points for. Here’s how you play it: Groot has a Trait that says “REGROW FROM A RESCUED SPRIG: Each time Groot would be KO’d, if he’s adjacent to a friendly character that shares a keyword with him, instead turn him to click #9.” Super Skrull shares the Monster keyword with him. So as long as Groot is next to Super Skrull, he can never be KOed. He can take any amount of damage and survive. Super Skrull can use any defensive power in the game via his “IT’S HARD TO EMULATE FOUR POWERS WITH HALF MY LIMBS” Trait. So he’ll chose Mastermind every turn. If the opponent hits Groot then Groot goes to click 9 (eventually), but he can’t be KOed. If the opponent chooses to focus on Super Skrull then all the damage is Masterminded over to Groot and it’s basically the same as if he was shooting at Groot in the first place.

The resource team I listed above is more powerful on offense, but this team is actually tougher on defense. Penetrating poison, Lydea Mallor, Cat Woman, Scarlet Witch, and Iron Monger don’t bother this team. It’s real enemy is Precision Strike. Try giving Super Skrull Outwit to counter it. There is also a small chance that Groot can be knocked back on click nine and thus KOed when he moves away from Super Skrull. You can stop that by keeping Groot off his last few earthbound clicks so he’ll be a Giant and immune to Knockback.

Beyond that you’ll only need to worry about Pulse Wave and pushing damage. Like I said when I wrote The Unstoppable Force, tell your opponent…

Local Tournament Report: War of the Light Month 5 (10/29/14 @ Comics & More)

November 3, 2014November 6, 2014 / ninwashui / Leave a comment

The Format: 400 points, Sealed, one Pack of WOL Wave 1 and one pack of WOL Wave 2. In addition Lantern Resources, Rings, and Constructs may be used, but they must match what has already been given out as tournament prizes. The means the only allowable constructs are: Crossbow, Decoy, Catapult, Scissors. The Constructs, Ring, and Battery may be of any color.

What I Pulled:

WOL002 Red Lantern Recruit
WOL005 Green Lantern Recruit
WOL011B Hal Jordan (Blue Lantern)
WOL015 Arisia
WOL018 Munk
WOL023 Mongul
WOL026 Sodam Yat
WOL030B Guy Gardner (Red Lantern)
WOL044 Fatality
WOL059A Zilius Zox

What I Played:

WOL023 Mongul
WOL030B Guy Gardner (Red Lantern)
WOL059A Zilius Zox
WOLR102 Power Battery (Red Lantern Corps)
WOLR302 Red Lantern Ring
WOLR202.05 Crossbow (Red)
WOLR202.06 Decoy (Red)
WOLR202.08 Scissors (Red)
Total = 393 points

Round 1!

Versus:

WOL035B Sayd (Blue Lantern) (w/WOL066P Butcher)
WOL020B Laira (Green Lantern)
WOL003 Sinestro Corps Recruit
WOLR300 Green Lantern Ring
WOLR100 Power Battery (Green Lantern Corps)
WOLR200 Shield (Green)
WOLR200.08 Scissors (Green)
WOLR200.07 Catapult (Green)
Total = 399 points

This game(like every game tonight) was played on the indoor map “Nok”. Also, in every game I equipped the Scissors on Zilius Zox, the Decoy on Guy Gardner and Crossbow on Mongul. I always did this the first three turns of the game.

Game 1 was against a fairly new player so the start of the game went slowly. Entities are a lot to think about for new players. I had an entirely close combat team and his featured Sayd, who sported a 9 range. I was at a disadvantage approaching his team. I sent Zilus Zox up the center and had him stand on an object. Mongul and Guy Gardner went into room and hid behind some blocking terrain in little room at the center of the map. He responded by moving his team to the outside of that room and it was back to my turn. I cleared. He moved Laira up to the entrance of the room. He then used Sidestep with Sayd to get into range and then (after using Probability Control) he hit Zilius Zox from 9 spaces away for 3 clicks of damage minus toughness. His Sinestro Corps Recruit was lurking on his side of the map nearest to Laira.

On my turn Guy Gardner was in range to Charge Laria and he did so, but he missed both Flurry attacks. Mongul moved adjacent to her and Zilus Zox moved adjacent to Sayd. Sayd was able to hit Zilus Zox again and knock him to click 5, but the rest of his team was pushed and cleared action tokens to end his turn. On my turn the penetrating Poison damage started. Laira took two clicks right away. She additionally got damaged from Mongul’s attack.

That was pretty much how the game went from that point forward. Mongul and Gardner took out Laria quickly. Then Mongul helped Zilus Zox KO Sayd and Gardner took out the Sinestro Corps Recruit. In all of that only Gardner took any additional damage and that just knocked him into penetrating Poison.

Round 2!

Versus:

WOL009 Controller Construct
WOL013B Tomar Tu
WOL029 Brother Hymn
WOL042B John Stewart (Indigo Tribe)
WOLR103 Power Battery (Orange Lantern Corps)
WOLR200.05 Crossbow (Green)
WOLR200.06 Decoy (Green)
WOLR303 Orange Lantern Ring
Total = 393 points

As I closed with my opponent I hid in that same little room. My opponent used Running Shot with Tomar Tu and John Stewart both targeting Mongul through the side entrance of that room. Tomar hit and Stewart rolled a 3 and missed. Because of a Perplex from Brother Hymn, Mongul takes 2 damage. Tomar Tu is too close to John Stewart to use Outwit. On my turn, Mongul uses the Red Crossbow to target John Stewart and rolls a 4 to miss. That would be the only ranged attack my team makes all tournament. Zilus Zox goes into “open space” between Tomar Tu and John Stewart and attacks Tomar Tu. Tomar Tu hits his Super Senses roll. Because of the “open space” special terrain feature of the “Nok” map, Guy Gardner (who doesn’t fly) can charge only next to Tomar Tu. He rolls a 7 and then a 12 on his two Flurry rolls. His Precision Strike allowed him to ignore Super Senses and get a 2 hit instant KO on Tomar Tu.

Everyone clears. Mongul and Zilus Zox double team John Stewart. Guy Gardner moves next to the Controller Construct. On my opponents turn, Brother Hymn moves to help John Stewart and John Stewart shoots Guy Gardner in the back for 2 clicks of damage. Poison from Mongul and a strong penetrating Blades attack from Zilus Zox KO John Stewart in short order. Guy Gardner knocks the Controller Construct to it’s last click, but can’t finish the job due to Knockback into open space terrain.

The game ends shortly after with Mongul Poisoning Brother Hymn to death and Zilus Zox hunting down the Controller Construct.

Round 3!

Versus:

WOL015 Arisia
WOL025 The Weaponer of Qward
WOL004 Indigo Tribe Recruit
WOL001 Orange Lantern Construct
WOLR100 Power Battery (Green Lantern Corps)
WOLR200 Shield (Green)
WOLR200.05 Crossbow (Green)
WOLR200.06 Decoy (Green)
WOLR300 Green Lantern Ring
Total = 395 points

This third game is against a very experienced player who loves to use Telekinesis to make strategic strikes. He’s a great guy, but on the HeroClix battlefield I consider him my personal nemesis (or at least my personal nemesis who isn’t named Hypefox). Besides, I still owe him after he “Krampused” me the last time we met.

So the game gets going and I’m in that same little room in the center of the map again. Zilus Zox and Guy Gardner are up front. His characters are still huddled around his Lantern in his starting zone except for Arisa who is about 5 squares up and the Orange Construct who waits just outside the room. The Weaponer chooses Psychic Blast and moves up 6 spaces to declare a ranged attack on Zilus Zox. Zilus Zox makes his Shape Change roll, but unfortunately Guy Gardner doesn’t. Just like that Guy Gardner is on his last click. Then he uses Arisa to TK the Weaponer back to his starting area and I have no chance to strike back.

On my turn I know I have to do something desperate or I will lose this match without scoring any points. I take Mongul and move him his full twelve range to base Arisa on the side opposite the Weaponer, but Mongul is now double tokened. This freezes Arisa in place within 3 of the Weaponer and now she can’t use her Outwit. Zilus Zox and Guy Gardner clear. On my opponents turn he misses with Arisa and the Indigo Recruit uses Sidestep to move the Weaponer and himself away from Arisa.

Unfortunately for my opponent, moving the Weaponer around moved him within 11 spaces of Zilus Zox and on my turn Zilus Zox bases both him and the Recruit. Guy Gardner engages the Orange Construct and Mongul can’t attack, but he Poisons Arisa for 1. On my opponents next turn Zilus Zox makes a Shape Change roll against the Weaponer and the Indigo Recruit misses. Arisa clears. Back to my turn and more penetrating Poison damage is dished out by Mongul and Zilus Zox. Mongul finishes off Arisa. Zilus Zox hits an Exploit Weakness attack on the Weaponer for 4 damage.

The Weaponer eventually hits Zilus Zox onto his 4th click. The Recruit tries to break away unsuccessfully for several turns. Zilus Zox strikes back by knocking the Weaponer to his last click. The Recruit finally breaks away and carries the Weaponer to the Battery to be healed. He returns to click 6. The next turn he is surrounded by the weakened Gardner and Zilus Zox. He uses Flurry to knock them both out in one turn, but now he’s double tokened. Mongul Charges him and knocks the Weaponer to his last click. On my opponent’s turn, the Recruit misses two break away rolls and there is nothing he can do after that. He can’t use Regeneration because he’s double tokened and he can’t use Support from the Battery because I’m still next to him. On my turn the Weaponer is KOed via Poison and Mongul knocks out the Recruit with an attack.

What I learned:

Red Penetrating Poison is extremely strong! I did almost as much damage with that as I did with attacks.
I’m going to make sure to play Arisia if I pull her in Month 6. Her TK plus Outwit and her ability to be a decent secondary attacker are great for her point cost. I’d love to pull my own TK Shenanigans in month 6.
It’s been a while since I played against a Weaponer of Qward. He’s still ridiculous.
Laira and Tomar Tu are both good for their point cost. Both are worth playing if you pull them.
Mongul was good, but his range drives up his point cost and I only made one ranged attack all day. I also had chances to use the Black Mercy special, but in every case I deemed his natural 4 damage to be the better option. If I was playing more figures that had damage reducers then maybe I’d feel differently. The way I used him today it was more wasted points.
Guy Gardner and his mobility were great for his point cost. He could move up to 7 squares and still make and attack. His 12 attack value was awesome.
Zilus Zox was the star of my team. His great Defense and off the charts offensive abilities are worth every point. The penetrating Poison on his first 4 clicks is the best among all the reds who typically don’t get penetrating Poison until later in the dial. Throw a red Scissors on him and watch him take down figures twice his point cost!

A Really Long Reply: Skye’s Father and Other Random Thoughts…

October 27, 2014October 28, 2014 / ninwashui / Leave a comment

This started off as a really long comment/reply to Hypefox’s last Mid-Weekly Roundup. With everything he brought up, my reply ended up being long enough to be it’s own article.

What follows is in no particular order…

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D:

–I read an article today theorizing that the Inhumans are coming to Agents of S.H.I. E.L.D. . The author theorized that the blue alien that healed Coulson was a Kree and that Skye was an Inhuman. That’s why Skye shared some DNA with the blue alien (being that the Inhumans were the result of Kree genetic experiments on humans). They also theorized that the obelisk is actually a Terrigan Crystal. Various characters in the series have also mentioned several times that Skye and her father were from the Himalayas. That was the original location of the home of the Inhumans (before it moved to the moon and before it blew up). Now, the author of the article thought Skye’s father would either be Mr. Hyde (retconned to now be an Inhuman), Maximus, or the Unspoken! The first one would make Skye into “Daisy” from Marvel’s Secret Warriors and the last two would actually make Skye part of the Inhuman royal family!

My guess?

I think it will turn out that Mr. Hyde will be Skye’s father. There is talk of an Inhumans movie and if that’s true then Mr. Hyde would be the least likely character that would be needed for such an endeavor, which in turn would mean that the showrunners would have free rein to do whatever they wanted to with the character. That’s why I think Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t feature more recognizable super people–they didn’t know which characters would and would not be needed for MCU films in the near future. Having a major villain debut on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pretty much ensures that character won’t make it into the movies (at least not in any meaningful way, i.e. the primary antagonist).

Can you imagine if, say, a Hawkeye movie featured as the main villain someone that Phil Coulson’s team fought (and ostensibly beat) during an episode of MAoS? There could definitely be a feeling of ‘been there, done that’ to the proceedings, which could cause ticket sales to suffer, which is just about the last thing you would want for a tentpole flick that would cost a minimum of $150 million to produce.

However, if the MCU movies used some of the characters who were first established on TV (or, say, one of the upcoming Netflix series) to fill in the edges of some of their stories, well, that could be really cool. For example, if, say, Absorbing Man showed up as bit player in the next Avengers movie then I think that would drive the up popularity of both media, and would make the TV series “matter” in the movie universe. Can you imagine Avengers 2 opening with the already-established-on-Agents-of-S.H.I.E.L.D.-Absorbing Man fighting the Hulk in Times Square before the opening credits? Then Ultron reveals him himself after the Avengers assemble post-fight back at the tower. I don’t think they’ll do it, but it’s awesome to think about. Really, the possibilities for this sort of thing are endless…

Celebrate-Gate…

The Detroit Lions – These guys have been known in years past (really every other year previous to now) to lead fans on and make them start to believe only to yank the football away at the last second like Lucy does with Charlie Brown. Their defense this year will be remembered as one of the best the team has ever had. The offense will likely not be remembered at all. They won their latest game in incredible fashion, or more accurately the Falcons lost their latest game in incredible fashion. On the plus side this week no major player injured themselves celebrating, and our field goal kicker proved he can actually make a field goal if you give him a free do-over. Seriously I would love it if Jason Hanson came back. I think the Lions are getting kickers from the same place that the Tigers get closers.

Marvel Cartoon Series – I don’t have any new news here. I just wanted to bring these to your attention in case you haven’t been checking them out. When Marvel connected everything in their movie universe by releasing the Avengers, the cartoon universe made that same move. In 2013, the current (at that time) Avengers cartoon was based off of the comics. It was replaced by Avengers Assemble, which started in episode one with the events of the Avengers movie. From there it diverges wildly (like adding falcon to the team in episode 1), but it’s nice for new viewers to have the movie starting point. Being in cartoon form also allows them to do things that wouldn’t fly in the movies – like having Dracula (yes that Dracula) be a reoccurring villain. Avengers Assemble also connects with Ultimate Spider-man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. in the same cartoon Universe. This allows them to guest star characters frequently between series and keep the same voice actors for characters regardless of show. For example, Iron Man is always voiced by Adrian Pasdar (who is also Glen Talbot on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) regardless of which of the shows he’s appearing on at the time. That inter-connectedness makes it cool.

On Blu-Ray this month – I’ve got kids so I miss a ton of movies in theatres. I took a chance and rented Godzilla this week. I loved Pacific Rim and I was hoping this would be similarly fun. That ended up not being the case. The director made the incomprehensible decision to shoot the movie with realistic lighting conditions. Like maybe the monsters would be a lot scarier if you couldn’t really see them. Except in other movies that do that there is something else for the viewers to watch. This was just dark and hard to see. Can you imagine if the original Star Wars used realistic lighting conditions and you could barely see the Death Star the whole movie? Ridiculous. The plot also was absurd and that’s coming from someone who thought the Mathew Brodrick version was decent. HISHE has a wonderful spoof on this movie. The part with the “let them fight” line was dead on.

I’m hoping to rent The Edge of Tomorrow and 1000 Ways to Die in the West soon. I have higher hopes for those movies.

The Entire Flash set Versus Speed Demon – They’ve revealed five Hypersonic Speed-based character dials for The Flash set so far. While they each have some interesting powers, they all require you to hit an opponent before you can really do anything special. There are faster pieces in this set, but so far it looks like Speed Demon will remain the best Hypersonic HeroClix character [EDITOR’S NOTE: All characters get better with Entities, obviously, but he is damn near broken! Ion is great with him; Ophidian might be just as good, if not better (keep in mind, if you can find a way to give Speed Demon Sidestep, his Trait still activates! So in addition to your normal attack and first Speed Cyclone Uplift victim, if you’re careful enough with your positioning, you would have a 1 in 6 chance to do another 1 damage to an opposing figure. That’s three freaking chances to deal damage to opposing figures, and two of them don’t even need attack rolls. Sick, sick SICK!!]

On an unrelated note, FL204 Central City Police Captain has a power that reads “LAW ENFORCEMENT CONSULTANT: When building your force, all characters with the Police keyword have the Central City keyword.” With the Batman and Streets of Gotham sets still being legal, Police teams might be a thing again. As always, stay tuned…

Team of the week – I’ve had reason to study the Krampus/Helspont combo recently and I’m finding the only teams truly resistant are teams that feature a tent pole that costs over 199 points (because Helspont can’t switch with them). To that end I put together this quick team.

“Deadpool is Just the Man to Teachethetheth Thee.”

DP055 Deadpool (w/DPW003 “4th Wall? What 4th Wall?”)
TDW011 Fandral
FIR100 The Book of the Skull
FIR107 Angrir’s Hammer
Total = 299 points

If someone tries to “Krampus” this team they won’t be able to touch Deadpool due to his point cost. That leaves Fandral. Fandral can use his perplex to raise his defense by one and then Krampus would need hit a 20 defense to get his Capture. It’s still very possible Krampus makes that roll, but it’s a certainly not a “lock”. That’s not really even the worst part for the Krampus player. If Helspont switches with Fandral, he’ll end up double tokened next to Deadpool. Deadpool has outwit, pulse wave, and an attack of 14. He’s not going to miss except on snake eyes. Helspont will be near the end of his dial very quickly.

Against non-Krampus teams, Deadpool is still a killer and Fandral is still a very competent backup attacker. If Fandral rolls low on Blades then Deadpool gets a free close combat attack via Fandrals’s Feint special power . If Fandral rolls high on Blades, then he rolls high on Blades. Isn’t that enough?

The approach on the battlefield against other teams might hurt because Deadpool only has a six range, but once you close with another team you will be incredibly deadly.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Any team using the Yellow Power Battery has the possibility to give Krampus fits as well, provided your figures are over 79 Points. The Hal Jordan Parallax team from the first “Let’s Be Lanterns” should be able to mop the floor with a Krampus/Helspont team. Having said that, yeah, there’s not a lot that effectively counters Krampus/Helspont. Props to you again, Andrew!]

Well, that’s it for now. Man, that was a lot of randomness that I just scribbled down. I feel like Larry King! Now if only I got paid like him…

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Sorry. Not gonna happen.]

Damn.

Local Tournament Report – 10/15/14 Comics & More

October 18, 2014October 30, 2014 / ninwashui / 5 Comments

Okay! Here are the results from The Build 6, the game I had been preparing for earlier in the week!

The Format: 300 points, Modern Age, Anything Goes. Although those who play too much cheese will henceforth be shunned and be nicknamed “Limburger”.

Where is a robotic fly swatter when you really need it?

“Hmmm… I see my 3D graffiti project is already ahead of schedule.”

What I Played: “A Superior Way to Die”: (Scientist Theme)

DP060 Superior Spider-Man (w/ secret Avengers ATA)

IIM037 Iron Monger 2.0

(Sideboarded) DP099A Spider-Bot (Mark 2) * 2

(Sideboarded) DP099B Spider-Bot (Mark 1) * 6

Total= 300 Points

The bloodiest game of basketball ever played.

Round 1: Facing DP050 Wolverine and X-23 (Magik shard) , DP007B The Professor (Emma Frost Shard), DOFP011 Destiny, AVXR100 The Phoenix Force (all shards).

An indoor map was chosen for this battle. I started this match the way I would start every match tonight: by adding two Spiderbot Mark 1’s to Superior Spider-Man’s base on turns one and two, which gave SSM +2 to his Super Senses rolls for the remainder of the game.

Early on, it was a standoff. My opponent slowly moved up his Duo Figure and The Professor. He had no range, so he couldn’t hit me, but the Duo’s Trait (SNEAK AND KILL: Wolverine and X-Men can use Sidestep and Stealth. Unhindered lines of fire drawn to Wolverine and X-23 during an opponent’s turn are blocked unless Wolverine and X-23 have 2 action tokens or are adjacent to an opposing character not on its starting click.) combined with the Professor’s Defense Special Power (SECRET MASTERMIND: When adjacent to a friendly character, The Professor can’t be targeted by opposing characters.) meant that I couldn’t target his figures with a ranged attack either.

As he advanced, I retreated. I tried to hold Wolverine and X-23 in place with a Plasticity-sporting Spiderbot. Poison from the Phoenix Force made that a non-issue. Finally, I saw an opportunity. He was placing his figures in such a manner that I couldn’t shoot past the two that were advancing and hit destiny. However, I was able to roll a 6 for spider-bot creation and place it so that it could move and tie up destiny the same turn. That kept Destiny out of the fight for almost the rest of the game. Unfortunately, that put me close enough to his other figures that I knew I was going to get Charged that next turn.

The Professor moved up next to me and to tried to Outwit Superior Spidey’s Super Senses. I reminded my opponent of my ATA, and he did nothing with The Professor’s Outwit at that moment. Then he Charged and used Blades/Claws/Fangs with Flurry with his duo figure. Both attacks missed! Wow! I didn’t even have to roll Super Senses. That is some bad luck for my opponent. On my turn, I struck back and hit with a heavy object I was holding and the Duo took 3 (because of the Colossus Shard) That was my second action token. Then, on his turn, Superior suffered double Poison from both The Professor and W/X-23. They missed two more attacks due to Super Senses and then also missed their healing roll with a 1! Now that Spider-Man was injured I could ignore W/X-23’s hiding trait and attack them from range. Iron Monger did just that and hit them for two more damage. I took the Action Tokens off Superior.

On my opponent’s turn, Superior took two more Poison damage and healed for one click. When control was ceded back to me, Superior Rid Himself of That Weakling Parker (RIDDING MYSELF OF THE WEAKLING PARKER: Give Superior Spider-Man a free action and roll a d6. Once per game, on a result of 3-6, for the rest of the game modify Superior Spider-Man’s attack and damage by +1 and damage dealt by him can’t be reduced below 2.) via a Special Attack Power and proceeded to Flurry W/X-23 for the KO. Unfortunately, he took Mystics damage for it and was down to his final click. Iron Monger mopped up The Professor on the next turn taking another Mystics damage in the process. He was left on click three.

Meanwhile, Destiny had finally evaded my Plasticity bot and was on the run. It took several tries but my team finally cornered her, with Iron Monger ready to attack. Superior used Perplex on Iron Monger–then my opponent reminded me of Destiny’s IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN AGAINST THE FUTURE Trait (IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN AGAINST THE FUTURE: After an opposing character within 8 squares uses Outwit, Perplex, or Probability Control and actions resolve, deal that character 1 damage if it has not already taken damage from this effect this turn.). Yup! I had just KOed my Superior Spider-Man by using Perplex! Smart. Veeeerrrry smart!

I KO’d Destiny shortly after that, but what should have been a rout turned out to be very close in points.

Who is Krampus? He destroys hopes and dreams. Especially mine it turns out...

Who is Krampus? He’s a Christmas monster who destroys hopes and dreams. Especially mine, it turns out…

Round 2: Facing WKWK-002 Krampus (w/Utility belt), SLOSH042 Helspont, DP018 Blind Al, NMLR100 Utility Belt w/NMLR101 Gas Pellets/Smoke Grenade. FYI: This was the best combo team I have ever seen.

The game started off innocently enough. I made a Spiderbot, attached it, and moved up towards my opponent. Then the combo struck…

My opponent used Blind AL to do one damage to Helspont. Helspont used his I INFILTRATED YOU LONG AGO Movement Special (I INFILTRATED YOU LONG AGO: Give Helspont a double power action and select an opposing character of a lower point value. Place Helspont and the chosen character in each other’s squares, and after actions resolve, Helspont may be given a close or ranged combat attack as a free action.) to switch places with Iron Monger 2.0. He’s now next to Superior Spider-Man and he gets to make a free attack. He misses but that’s not the bad part. Iron Monger is now next to Krampus. Krampus is obviously still in his starting area. Krampus uses Capture (with +3 to attack due to Blind Al’s Perplex, the Belt’s bonus, and a Perplex from Helspont). Iron Monger is captured. I haven’t even had my second turn yet and I’ve lost half my team…

The rest of the game plays like any normal game. It’s mostly a one-on-one with Helspont versus Spider-Man. I attached a second Spiderbot to Superior’s base. Over the next ten turns we exchanged attacks back and forth. I had a good streak going of hitting my Super Senses rolls. He wasn’t landing anything. Plus I had spawned some extra Mark I Spiderbots and at least twice they were able to use Exploit Weakness to do damage to Helspont. Unfortunately, for every attack that landed the next attack was stopped short by a Shape Change roll and when Helspont hits Shape Change, he automatically heals one click. All of my characters were only hitting for one at a time and he managed to heal as much as we were hurting him.

At one point Spider-Man lands on click 5 and it looked like he could finally turn things around by Ridding Himself of That Weakling Parker, but then Spidey missed Super Senses for the second turn in row and was KOed shortly after. Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecccch!!!

This is what it’s feels like to face a first turn Krampus capture.

So… that happened.

"Obviously, the embodiment of Will is a floating space shark fish. With crazy, shimmery fins. What the $@#& were YOU expecting?"

“Giant glowing space sharks. Why does it always have to be giant glowing space sharks?“

Round 3: Facing M10A009E Iron Man (Possessed by WOL068P Predator) and AVX102 Lei-Kung the Thunderer (Possessed by WOL062P Ion). Entity Theme Team. The entire game the Entities gave only some minor stat bumps. However, the powers they granted were ridiculous. Ion granted Lei-Kung Impervious, TK, and Outwit. Predator granted M10 Iron Man Shape Change along with the Quintessence and Mystics Team Abilities.

I started the game by attaching two Spiderbots to Superior before we closed in on each other. My opponent got in the first shot by using TK to move up Iron Man. Iron Man targeted Iron Monger 2.0 and missed. Due to elevation Iron Man had been forced to come close enough to my forces that I could make a Plasticity Spider-Bot adjacent to Iron Man. I did that and passed turn. My opponent responded by moving up Lei-Kung to Outwit Plasticity, and Iron Man tried to break away for a Running Shot. He missed the break away roll and was now double tokened. And then it was my turn.

Spider-man Charged in for a hit with a heavy item on Iron Man, but Impervious reduced the damage to just one. Iron Monger took a ranged shot and missed Iron Man. While it was still my turn I created another Spiderbot adjacent to both Lei Kung and Iron Man. My Opponent realized he was now stuck, but in short order he wisely figured out that he could use Lei-Kung’s Quake to push the bots away before they exploded, but each turn I was remaking them as fast as he could Quake.

That’s pretty much how the game went. Spider-man eventually took enough close combat damage from Iron Man (and pushing damage) to get to click 5. Once there, Doc Ock Rid Himself of That Weakling Parker and things really looked bad for my opponent. Iron Man was KOed by a Flurry the next turn. Then it was my team versus Lei Kung. At one point it looked like he would KO Spider-Man with Precision Strike, but he missed and I used Outwit to counter that power for the rest of the game. Lei Kung stuck around for a quite a while using Quake and Impervious to hold me off, but I was able to KO him just as time was being called.

The Result: My team managed to take second place out of the 6 people attending. With no Resources, Entities, or Team Bases, I was proud of that result.

What I Learned:

There now exists a combo that can ruin your team before your second turn. I checked and in the other two games that team played the combo didn’t quite work. In the first game Speed Demon crossed the board in two turns (which he had since Krampus had to double token to try his Capture maneuver) to KO Krampus before he could remove a Captured Iron Pharoah from the game. In the other match, Krampus actually rolled a three and missed the Capture roll. However, in my game the combo was completely deadly and unstoppable. Assuming the best Hypersonic character in the game isn’t left free on the board and your opponent can roll better than a three, I don’t know how you stop this combo. It can even take out a 200 point team base in one shot. It’s stupid and broken. Don’t get me wrong, I think my opponent was a genius for playing it, but I am kind of bummed something like that exists in HeroClix at the moment. [Editor’s Note: I actually kind of love it. It’s creative, and there’s still a lot that can go wrong–especially if you’re up against a good Hypersonic piece, as you pointed out. And with Flash on the horizon, we’re about to get a bunch more good to great HS pieces. Also, wouldn’t Super Senses and Shape Change also potentially throw a huge monkey wrench into that combo? So, y’know… seems fair to me. Especially since it worked out for me but not for you. Ha!]
It thought Helspont was well worth his points during my Slosh Review, but I had never seen him in action before. It turns out I was right.
Superior Spider-Man was well worth his points. I want to try him again soon with some other figures on his team. Maybe with Zola next time. The one thing I would never do is play him without the Secret Avengers ATA. That is absolutely required to get the best out of him.
Iron Monger 2.0 was only okay for his points. The threat of exploding Spiderbots was neat, but it really happened only once the whole day. Without his Trait getting much use he’s really just not worth the points.

Oh the Inhumanity!! (Or, The Build 6–Comics & More 10/15/2014!!)

October 11, 2014October 17, 2014 / ninwashui / 1 Comment

The Format: 300 Point Modern Age. Anything goes. I am limited only by my desire to be cool and my desire to avoid being cheesy. I will likely bring several teams and try and field one appropriate to the level of cheese in the room. I don’t want to give away wins by having an under powered team, but I don’t want to blow everyone out all night with no chance of them winning either. I like to play for the experience and not the prize.

My Team Choices (Listed in Order of Cheese):

This is why Black Bolt won’t let his brother watch the Matrix – ever.

Inhumanity: (Inhumans Theme)

GOTG018 Alpha Primitive

GOTG037 Lockjaw

GOTG038 Maximus

GOTG060 Thane

GOTGS101 Terrigen Crystal

(Sideboarded) GOTG018 Alpha Primitive * 2

Total= 300 Points

I tested the Alpha Primitives recently in a game versus the Black Order and they were well worth their points. In fact, they usually were doing so much damage to the Black Order that they were KOing themselves (via the Black Order Trait). Is doing too much damage a downside?

Lockjaw is there for tie up and transport. Use his Perplex on his own Defense and you’ve got a 19. Add his Probability Control to that and even a figure with a 12 attack is more likely to miss than hit him.

Like I said in my GOTG set review, Maximus is what really makes the Alpha Primitives deadly. He provides Outwit, Perplex, and a Mole Man-style Mind Control. When you consider that he can make two Alpha Primitives himself, after the game has started, you get to play 360 points versus your opponents 300 point team.

Thane has the best Support power I think we’ve ever seen (INHUMAN HEALER: Thane can use Support. When he does he and/or the target may be adjacent to an opposing character. Once per game, Thane can use Pulse Wave as a free action. When you do, he can’t use Support for the rest of the game.). If you are willing to sacrifice him–or at least leave him vulnerable to a counter-attack [EDITOR’S NOTE: Bleeeccch. With Thane having top dial Invincible, without Outwit there’s really no way to even counter-attack him effectively if he cripples your best attacker]–then he can also dish out more punishment in one turn than any character we’ve ever seen near his point cost. He makes a great support piece, but an even better Primary Attacker– especially if you are able to spare a Perplex or two for his Attack Value. Assign the Terrigen Crystal here.

This was likely the team I was going to play, until some guy wrote this exact team up on a FB forum I follow today. I spent money and bought the pieces I didn’t have. Now it seems like I am copying. Sigh…

Where is a robotic fly swatter when you really need it?

A Superior Way to Die: (Scientist Theme)

DP060 Superior Spider-Man (w/ secret Avengers ATA)

IIM037 Iron Monger 2.0

(Sideboarded) DP099A Spider-Bot (Mark 1) * 2

(Sideboarded) DP099B Spider-Bot (Mark 2) * 6

Total= 300 Points

The idea is to make Superior Spider-Man nearly impossible to hit by equipping him with two Spider-Bots (Mark 1) and making his Super Senses rolls only miss on a one or a two. Secret Avengers ATA helps keep his Defense from being Outwitted. So does Spidey’s native top dial Outwit and Iron Monger 2.0’s top dial Damage Special Outwit that can’t be countered.

The battle plan here is to send Spider Man up close and keep Iron Monger 2.0 at maximum range. When you get close enough to an opponent, make a Spider-Bot and use it to tie up the opposing piece. If they spend an action to blow up the Spider-bot then Iron Monger’s trait says they take a damage. The best part is that that’s their action for the turn and you can make a new Spider-bot as a free action next turn.

HypeFox made this a team of the week once in a Weekly Round-Up after I gave him the idea [EDITOR’S NOTE: Yeah, but I thought up the Team Name, genius, which is, like, 90% of the work!]. I recently acquired the pieces I need to play it. It’s a strong contender.

"James Howlett, you have a great capacity for compassion. Welcome to--waaaaiiit, did you just stab the $#!t out of someone? I don't think you understand how this ring works. "

How not to open a can of red paint.

Hydra Relic Acquisition Commission: (Hydra Theme)

DP006 Hand Ninja

DP054 Arnim Zola

DP103 Wolverine, Agent of Hydra

FIH002 Warbot (Rocket)

FIR100C The Book of the Skull (with all hammers except Nerkkod’s Hammer) [EDITOR’S NOTE: Oooooo, I hope we play on a heavy water map!]

Total= 300 Points

This team is pretty simple. Equip Zola with Nul’s Hammer and then use Willpower to make a Gwen Stacy clone once every other turn. Repeat until your opponent makes you stop. In the mean time you can use the Book of Skull and your three remaining characters to give your team power cosmic. When the opponent gets close, engage with everyone except for Zola. The more Gwen’s the better.

He’s poppin’ tags.

As Long As Our Love (And My Head) Survives: (Hellfire Club Theme)

WXM035 Black King

WXM020 White King

WOLR106 Power Battery (Star Sapphires)

WOLR306 Star Sapphire Ring

WOLR206.08 Scissors (Violet)

WOLR206.09 Nurse (Violet)

Total= 300 Points

Originally posted here. I proved my team building superiority by making it the greatest Lantern build ever (well, except for my Blue Lantern build [EDITOR’S NOTE: Do not play that damn Blue Lantern Build. I ain’t trying to deal with a 4% chance of damaging your &^(&^& Superior Spidey, which I never should have traded you.]). HypeFox glossed over it in the article and neither of us has fielded it yet so it might be time to test just how bad-@$$ this team really is. I also may change the team name to “Quit Hittin’ Yourself.”

There's a new HeroClix set out -today's going to be a wonderful day!

If I were addicted to winning I would play this team.

Patrick Yapjoco New Mutants: (New Mutants Theme)

WXMT004 New Mutants (All characters)

DP038 Copycat

NMLR100 Utility Belt

NMLR103 Grapnel Gun

NMLR105 Rebreather

NMLR106 Handcuffs

Total= 300 Points

Patrick Yapjoco won a ROC qualifier with this team so you know it’s power level is top notch. I can’t tell you more about playing this team because I’ve never done it. However, the fact that Copycat gives HypeFox nightmares makes me want to play it for that reason alone. I’ve named it most cheesy of the teams today due to the simple fact that it has a resource, a team base, and it’s a known tournament winner.

So there they are–all my choices. Look for a ~~special recap section in the Weekly Roundup for the week of 10/19/2014~~ BATTLE REPORT to find out how I did!

WE are Groot. (Or a Second Opinion on the Guardians of the Galaxy Comic Heroclix set)

September 27, 2014September 27, 2014 / ninwashui / 3 Comments

“Well he don’t know talkin’ good like me and you, so his vocabulistics is limited to ‘I’ and ‘am’ and ‘Groot,’ exclusively in that order.”

So I am in the unusual position of HypeFox having given his Top Ten Set List first. The last time we did a top ten was for Deadpool. I went first that time and the process created the most popular article our site has ever published. I think HypeFox is feeling the pressure this time because this is my…

Second Opinion!!

Some General Notes About the Set:

“None of us made this list, but damn we look heroic!”

Here’s some things HypeFox was actually right about. He said:

“There is a metric Poop-Ton of generic figures in this set… which, for once, is actually awesome!” – These packs had two chances of pulling a good figure. Every pack has a rare, but now some also have a unique version of a generic that is usually very playable (AKA Tana Nile instead of Rigellian Colonizer). For example, I got a pack containing my 3rd Killraven (ugh), but it also contained my first Recorder #451. I ended up feeling that that a was pretty good pack. Bravo Wizkids.
“In terms of Overall Power Level, Guardians is NOT Deadpool” – Agreed. There are less uber-powerful figures in this set, but everything seems remarkably playable. Great for sealed play with seemingly less figures that would give you an auto-win in sealed (like ThorPool).
“…the Chases in this set SHOULD have been the Black Order…” – Agreed in that they seem more Chase-like (think Prime’s Titans). However, on the plus side, I own a Thanos now and I wouldn’t own one if he were a Chase. So I guess it worked out in the end.
“Zombie Skrull is really just a waste of everyone’s time” – Zombie Skrull is the worst Chase I have ever seen. Ever. I would almost rather never pull a GotG Chase than open that Flaming pile of poopfarts.

Here’s something he was wrong on:

“The Inhumans didn’t turn out so hot, in my opinion” – There were some stinkers (Gorgon), but in general I like their inhumanity trait. That perplex brings a lot of value. Hypefox loved the same power on IIM002 Rescue when it was called “I’M NOT LETTING YOU TURN ME INTO A WEAPON“. Why is he suddenly hating on it now? [EDITOR’S NOTE: I have no problem with the Inhumanity Trait. I just don’t like any of their dials outside of maybe Thane. Either way, I think the only way to settle this is with an 800 Point Black Order vs. Inhumans Throwdown with a GotG Pack on the line!!]

Now then, on to:

5 HONORABLE MENTIONS:

“Yes, I ‘dare.’ Honestly, being the fifth Honorable Mention isn’t that bad, Volx.”

5. GOTG010B Dire Wraith Queen – She brings Pen/Psy, Perplex, Stealth, Energy Explosion, Toughness, and Prob on her first click. In addition her crazy Traited Shape Change makes her hard for opponents hit. She reminds me a lot of SLOSH042E Helspont, but with less impervious and more stealth. What’s keeping her from being higher on this list? She needs slightly higher stats and the basic Dire Wraiths just aren’t that good.

“This job is not worth $2.13 an hour plus tips… “

4. GOTG013B Recorder #451 – He’d be decent on his own, but his Trait is the real reason you’ll ever really want to field him. He brings a fun new spin on some pieces that would likely have not seen as much play otherwise. Time to dust off your IIM001A Iron Man!

“Don’t touch which button? And what’s a ‘remote detonation’ now?”

3. GOTG008A Raptor – Sporting Stealth, Flight, and Sidestep, these members of the Brotherhood of Raptors make great taxis for the Armor and Shi’ar-keyworded figures of the world. Remember the Shi’ar? WatX wasn’t that long ago, was it? Remember armor teams? IIM, wasn’t it? … You get the idea.

“If do right, no can defense.”

2. GOTG028 Karnak – A solid close combat piece similar to Shang-Chi and Cat. His inhumanity trait is what pushes him over the top. It essentially gives him +1 to attack or +1 to defense that turn depending on your needs that turn. But the real kicker here is his trait and the awesome combo ability it brings. Imagine him with poison from a phoenix shard. Now imagine a penetrating quake from a hammer dropped from the book of shadows!

This sculpt wasn’t creepy enough for Shriek so it was rejected and replaced with the version we have now.

1. GOTG044 Shriek – She would have made my top 10 except that she needs a lantern construct to be really good. Combine her with the sniper rifle and you’ve really got something there. Everything within 10 range gets battle fury. That means that with good positioning your team can’t legally be targeted by a ranged attack all game by 99% of the figures out there. Even Bullseye won’t be able to touch her. Plus she can mind control anyone in 10 range regardless of line of fire. She severely limits what you can play yourself (maximum carnage or close range figures only), but I think she can be the lynchpin of a successful team.

Alright, now that we’re done with the warmup, here are:

He just found out he didn’t make the top ten…

My Top 10 Figures of the Set:

10. GOTG038 Maximus AND GOTG018 Alpha Primitive – I made these two figures one entry because the effectiveness of both pieces are closely tied to each other. [EDITOR’S NOTE: This seems an awful lot like cheating.]

They are either both effective or both not. I’ve been arguing with HypeFox for a few weeks now about this guy. I think he has a future in tournaments. HypeFox doesn’t. I think everything the Alpha primitives bring to the table make them well worth 30 points. (especially the Mind Control and free move) When you consider that Maximus can create 2 of them and add that 60 points to your force, then it’s really like you get the remainder of the Maximus dial for 15 points. That seems like a great deal to me.

"Y'know what? Let's just skip Father's Day this year. And, y'know, every other year. From now on."

“You know what? Let’s just skip Father’s Day this year. And, y’know, every other year. From now on.”

9. GOTG058 Mentor – Like a buffed up version of SOG038 David Cain – this guy is a sniper instructor just looking for the perfect student. He brings a lot of offense to the table himself, but his real value is transforming a high-range, low-offense character from zero to hero. If you make sure to keep him our your side of the map, he won’t go down easy.

8. GOTG208 Ronan the Accuser – This guy is the perfect sniper. You’d be hard pressed to find this much ranged offense in another character his point level. 9 range, 12 attack, and Pen/Psy make for a deadly character. As a bonus, he’s the glue you need to put together a great Kree team. All the Kree Generics are lacking is will power. This is how they can get it.

“Alright! I’m almost finished with my Voltron costume!”

7. GOTG059B Doctor Spectrum – I this guy over GOTG059A Doctor Spectrum because he has a better offensive roll to play and costs less points (Plus Rokk isn’t very good). His Trait will make sure you almost never miss. Energy Explosion with 3 arrows will punish anyone standing next to your target. Just watch out for when your opponent starts shooting back, because his low-ish Defense Value makes him pretty squishy.

“Longest. National. Anthem. Ever!”

6. GOTG011B Jason of Sparta AND GOTG011A Spartoi Elite – Remember the Shia’r? Wait I said that already. This is another group of figures that you don’t want to play separately. Consider that one Spartoi Elite will give Jason 18 Defense and a Perplex to waste on whatever he wants. 3 will give him 20 Defense and 3 Perplexes to use on offense! Plus thanks to ship he can carry them all around at the same time. That’s 159 points total for that Defense/Perplex ball. In 300 you could throw in WXM023B Cerise and WXM022 Korvus and still have 17 points to share. Alternatively, Jason and a single Spartoi Elite could bring WXM048 Warstar along to pack a serious punch. You could even make a bunch of Raptor and Spartoi Elite pairs. Lots of options here.

5. GOTG062 Super Skrull – You can look at his dial and wonder why it costs 170 points. What you need to do is imagine that he has a full dial of hypersonic speed, steal energy, and impervious. If I ever play him on my team that’s exactly what he will have. I was a big fan of WXM038 Legion and the Super Skrull brings that idea to a whole new level.

“Ugch. I have got to start washing my hands after using the bathroom!”

4. GOTG003 Mantis – For a mere 56 points she brings Prob, Mind Control usable on friendly Guardians, Combat Reflexes, Close Combat expert and Regeneration for when she’s taken a good hit. She’s a support character that can also handle herself in a fight. I’d love to say I originated the love for this piece, but it’s rated 5 stars on HCrealms and Patrick Yapjoco won the ROC championship with her. Consider me a band wagon fan.

“Hey, Marvel, let’s ease up on the ‘Holocaust’ references, eh? It sounds like your comparing the horrifying ordeal of Jewish POW’s in WWII concentration camps to the plight of FICTIONAL CHARACTERS!”

3. GOTG007B Captain Marvel – A defensive ability only seen before on 175 point Mon-el Prime now comes on an 82 point piece? And it can’t be countered? What the what? On Offense his penetrating damage ranged UNI-BEAM attack can keep any character he’s able to hit from attacking at all on the following turn. This well rounded piece has it all.

2. GOTG060 Thane – A month ago, Hypefox and I played a game with the Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Starter pieces. He tried to use the starter set Starlord to attack my character once normally and then once with a free action Hadron Enforcer. That seemed way too powerful for me to believe it. We stopped and read Starlord’s card and I was right. If you use the special action Pulse Wave power, then that is your one action with that character this turn. They will never make a character that can do both in one turn, because that would be stupid.

So the next set comes out and we get Thane. Thane can do exactly the trick that Hypefox tried to pull on me last month. He can attack and then once per game do a free action Pulse Wave in the same turn! That’s potentially 9 clicks of damage to a single target in a single turn and all of it would bypass Impervious! Even discounting his Trait, his dial is very tough and deadly. 3 clicks of Invincible up front for only 115 points? That’s almost enough to be the best character in the set.

1. GOTG050 Proxima Midnight – This is the best character in the set. For only 100 points you get a long 7 click dial and every click of it is deadly. Her Defense of 18 plus Combat Reflexes was called revolutionary when it originated on SOG039 Lady Shiva. It’s no less effective here. Her nine range and 11 Attack with Pen/Psy is deadly and the unique damage over time feature for hit targets is great. Sharpshooter means she can make ranged attacks while based with her opponent. 4 clicks of Steal Energy should allow her to get back into the fight when damaged. If all else fails she will least do some damage on the way out with her CULL OBSIDIAN trait. This is not a 100 point dial, but that’s all you will need to pay for it!

Team Ideas – The Unstoppable Force

September 12, 2014September 12, 2014 / ninwashui / 9 Comments

See that? Lightning shoots right out of my hand. You should give up now.

See that? Lightning just shoots right out of my hand. You can’t beat that.

So it’s been quite a while since I posted a team ideas column, but I think the wait was worth it. I’ve got a great team idea for today’s article that is completely original to this blog right now and very tournament worthy. Without further ado here’s the team:

The Unstoppable Force

IIM037 Iron Monger 2.0

DP042 Grasshopper * 4

WOLR102 Power Battery (Red Lantern Corps) [Writers Note: Battery color and construct color don’t matter that much, just make sure the ring is red.]

WOLR302 Red Lantern Ring

WOLR202.03 Mallet (Red)

WOLR202.06 Decoy (Red)

WOLR202.11 Bulldozer (Red)

WOLR202.13 Stop Sign (Red)

Total= 299 points

The most powerful character ever is a Great Lakes Avenger? You bet it is! This team works much better than you might think it does because of timing rules. When multiple effects happen at the start of your turn, you choose the order in which they happen. So the idea is to put a Red Construct on each of your Grasshoppers, which–in addition to the normal effects of the Construct–grants penetrating poison to each character. Once everyone is equipped, use all three actions to Maximum Jump and remove three grasshoppers from the board. They will be double tokened and they will each take a pushing damage. That sounds bad, but stick with me.

Maximum Napalm!

On your next turn the Grasshoppers hit the board like virtual napalm. Because of beginning of turn timing rules they can land and then do penetrating poison damage to every adjacent opposing figure immediately. That’s 3 penetrating damage dropped out of the sky with no attack rolls and probably hitting multiple opposing pieces at once. The Grasshoppers are still double tokened, but they haven’t taken an action this turn so they will clear at the end of the turn. And then if you need them to they can maximum jump again next turn with the same bad effect for your opponent. Since you’ve done all that damage on your turn but haven’t taken any actions you can use Maximum Jump on your last unused Grasshopper and even get a standard attack in with Iron Monger. But who likes rolling attack dice? Boring. Just keep doing automatic penetrating damage. That’s so much easier.

Then comes the hard part for your opponent. Every turn a Grasshopper survives next to an opposing character is another Penetrating Poison damage it will do the following turn. Depending on tokens, the number characters he’s playing, and positioning your opponent may not be capable of eliminating them all in one turn. Which means more Poison damage next turn. Just to make it harder on your opponent I’ve included Iron Monger 2.0 on this team. Iron Monger 2.0’s trait says that if your opponent kills a Grasshopper he’ll avoid taking a penetrating poison damage to every adjacent opposing figure next turn, but he’ll trade that for a penetrating explosion damage to every adjacent opposing figure right now! It’s a real lose-lose situation. Don’t knock out a Grasshopper? Take penetrating one damage for every one left alive. Knock out a Grasshopper? Take penetrating one damage for each one you kill.

After your opponent figures out what’s going on, this could be his response.

Something else to keep in mind is that the first Grasshopper that gets KOed resurrects itself for free in your starting area due to it’s Trait. Being in your starting area doesn’t really matter when you are moving around with Maximum Jump and the construct that was on the KOed figure simply returns to the battery to be redeployed on the resurrected figure. It’s really like you are playing 5 Grasshopper napalm bombs, but only paying for 4.

You’ll need a few turns for deploying constructs to get maximum effectiveness out of this team. Waiting until turn 4 is ideal. You can use the fact that this is a theme team to win map roll and make it a map that’s hard to traverse from one side to another. Wundagore Mountain anyone? Then if you need to you can use Iron Monger and any Grasshoppers that are ready to engage the other team for a turn or two from a distance. After taking all those Battery actions early, it should be pretty easy to get to the end of the dial. Which means that if all Grasshoppers are eliminated your opponent will likely still have to face down an Iron Monger 2.0 with Shape Change, Penetrating Poison, Plasticity, and +3 to all stats.

It takes a special kind of crazy to run Lethal Legion at a ROC...

Artist’s rendition of what it looks like when Iron Monger 2.0 gets plus three to all stats.

If you surprise people with this team by taking it to you next constructed tournament, there is really only one thing to say to someone trying to beat it.

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Critical Missives

News and opinions about gaming and pop culture filtered through a HeroClix lens!!

Author: ninwashui

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