14 @ Gamers Gauntlet (War of the Light Month 4)

September 7, 2014September 12, 2014 / ninwashui / 2 Comments

It’s been a little while I wrote a solo article. I’ve been having a mini vacation while at the same time submitting superior Lantern builds and beating Hypefox at his own article. Vote for me in his poll. It’ll be awesome.

In the meantime I attended War of the Light month 3 at Comics N’ More. I sat next to HypeFox as he pulled the only entity… again. Between that and my round one battle (which was the slowest game of HeroClix I ever played – Lost 0 points to 40) I just didn’t have the heart to write the month 3 battle report. The one good part of that was that I got experience playing Sodam Yat. On my team, he wasn’t KOed the whole tournament. Unfortunately, opponents kept knocking him to his 9 attack value click and ignoring him. A trick I would remember.

This is what War of the Light Month 3 looked like for me.

Gamers Gauntlet in Clinton Township is not my usual venue, but I thought it would be nice to try for a change. Turns out there are some great guys there. I’m still loyal to my regular venue, but I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to Gamer’s Gauntlet again. Special thanks to Dan for letting me borrow his White Battery and constructs when I came with none of my own. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Seriously? You forgot your Power Battery again? My God, man!]

LOCAL TOURNAMENT REPORT!!

The Format: Each participant is given 1 boosters of the limited edition War of Light DC Heroclix wave 2 set and another of a recent set. From the figures contained within the two boosters, competitors must make the best 400 Point army they can and compete in 3 Rounds of competitive play. You can also include standard objects and any war of the light constructs and resources you’ve acquired so far.

What I Opened:

SLOSH002 Saturn Girl

SLOSH007 Shrinking Violet

SLOSH028 Lightray

SLOSH034 Starman

SLOSH046 Superboy

WOL006 Star Sapphire Recruit

WOL014 Rankorr

WOL022 Katma Tui

WOL024 Saarek

WOL036 Bleez

My Jujitsu works on Ion. That’s right… I’m a ninja.

What I Played:

SLOSH007 Shrinking Violet

SLOSH034 Starman

SLOSH046 Superboy

WOLR101 Power Battery (White Lantern Corps)

WOLR306 Star Sapphire Ring

WOLR201.05 Crossbow (White)

WOLR201.06 Decoy (White)

WOLR201.07 Catapult (White)

WOLR201.08 Scissors (White)

WOLR201.09 Nurse (White)

That’s right I went to a War of the Light event and played a SLOSH team. The team abilities were just too good to pass up. Shrinking violet could share her 19 defense using by copying Starman’s JSA Team Ability OR she could Outwit through Stealth using the Superman TA. Having a team with 19 base defense across the board in sealed doesn’t happen very often. Starman also has an exceptional defensive abilities. Add in shared Willpower from Superboy, and then everyone gets Shape Change and Mystics from the Battery when I use the Star Sapphires ring (which, as far as War of Light rings go, is severely underrated). This team would be considered “great” in constructed and I was playing sealed. I’d hate to be facing it.

Fun fact: in HeroClix you can outwit Medusa with a Gallon of Conditioner.

Fun fact: You can render Medusa powerless with a Gallon of Conditioner.

Round 1 versus WOL026 Sodam Yat, GOTG039 Medusa, and a WOL002 Red Lantern Recruit. I won map roll and we played on the Black Mercy Map. That meant there was no elevated and no blocking terrain to hide behind. My Range focused team had a huge advantage. I don’t remember all of the details of this match, but I do remember the ending. I had KOed everyone but Sodam Yat and surrounded him with my team. Between my Shape Change and his Decoy and Impervious the game ended up looking like we were playing dice masters. I counted at least 6 turns going by with no one able to land an attack even though everyone was based. We just started rushing through turns and they lasted 20 seconds each. The game still almost went to time. It was ridiculous.

She was secretly in the final running to become the new Captain America.

Round 2 versus SLOSH033 Stargirl possessed by ION, WOL030A Guy Gardner (Star Sapphires), WOL038 Dex-Starr, WOL002 Red Lantern Recruit, WOL006 Star Sapphire Recruit. We played on the same Black Mercy map that gave my team a huge advantage in round one. I moved up the board unafraid and my opponent was almost completely unable to hit my defense. I started off by hitting the Red Lantern Recruit from Range not wanting to face his penetrating Pois0n. Next I outwitted the special power on Guy Gardner and the Star Saphire Recruit so I didn’t take Mystics damage. I was then able to pick them off at will. As much as my opponent was missing me I also couldn’t touch his remaining characters. Dex-Starr had two Unoutwittable defensive abilities and Stargirl usually had Unoutwittable Impervious and Energy Shield Deflection.

I still hadn’t taken any damage up to that point and then Dex-Starr Pushed to hit for 2 on Starman. Thankfully that was the exact opening that I needed. Starman got Pulse Wave after being hit. The next turn I moved all my characters away and used Pulse Wave to KO Dex-Starr. I had done 4 damage to Stargirl and I was aiming for the kill on the following turn when the judge called time.

In one form or another I ended up fighting this guy all night.

Round 3 versus WOL026 Sodam Yat, WOL016 Soranik Natu, a Green Battery, various constructs, and a green ring. This turned out to be a really good game. No more Black Mercy map. This map had elevated to block my LoF. I started off by moving to the middle of the map and putting the crossbow on Superboy. My opponent used TK to move up Sodam Yat. Sodam then activated Charge, grabbed and Ultra-heavy object, and KOed Shrinking Violet just that fast. My remaining two characters had Running shot so I took two shots at Sodam Yat. Unfortunately the Shield and the ring combined to give him +3 to his ranged defense and I missed. He assigned the Decoy to Soranik and cleared Sodam. I assigned the Nurse to Starman and cleared. He charged and attacked Starman and missed. Starman’s trait added another token to him (awesome). On my turn I hit him for 2 damage with Starman and knocked him to click 3. He cleared. On my turn again Superboy missed again and Starman knocked him to Click 5. On his turn he activated Hypersonic, hit Starman for 3, took a Mystics damage, and ran Soranik away. We all cleared on the next turns. I used the Nurse to Regen Starman for 2. Seeing that I could heal to full, my opponent used Hypersonic and ran back to attack Starman. He missed and this time the second token gave him a pushing damage.

We each continued to damage our respective Lanterns by using powers and soon we each got each other’s Batteries to the end of the dials. I was on click 19 he was on click 20. Suddenly all of the stats on the characters in play went up by +2 or +3. The rest of the game went fairly quickly after that. Sodam Yat took a couple of hits right away and was on his last click. He couldn’t KO Starman without be KOed by mystics damage so he ran. I went after Soranik. She did 6 damage to Superboy, but he only took three due to invincible. Soranik was KOed the next turn. Sodam Yat tried to KO my power battery to even the odds. Unfortunately the power battery takes printed damage minus 2. In this case it was only one damage. It survived. The following turn Superboy KOed Sodam Yat with a running shot.

Conclusion: I won all of my matches, but I actually took second place on points. Thankfully, that was still enough to earn WOL112 Atrocitus.

What I Learned:

Anyone with a star rod is awesome. I mean SLOSH034 Starman and SLOSH033 Stargirl. Star-lord doesn’t count. Both had Traited defenses that were just killer in the games I played tonight. Stargirl was helped a lot by being possessed by Ion, but it seemed like she is able to add energy shield deflection almost at will and the was my teams “Kryptonite” tonight. Starman’s jujitsu that adds a token happened at least three times tonight. That’s so disheartening for your opponent, especially when it happens to their 250 point WOL026 Sodam Yat.
WOL026 Sodam Yat is good as long as you pay the full point value, but his offense isn’t that great until you get to the Ion clicks. I remember playing him several times in month 3 just wanting opponents to do damage to him so that I could play the Ion clicks and finally be able to KO someone. I turned the tables and gave my opponents that feeling this tournament.
People have been saying WOL038 Dex-Starr isn’t worth the points he costs, but after seeing him in action I tend to disagree. His defenses are top notch and his Penetrating Poison starts with an easy push to click 2. Add to that the fact that he can be carried by just about anyone and Dex-Starr seems like a winning piece to me.
I didn’t give SLOSH046 Superboy the credit he deserved in my SLOSH top 10. He’s a very competent attacker and his ability to grant Willpower to adjacent figures can make teams like the one I played much better. 18 with invincible to start with is very good. I’d definitely play him again.
Apparently the SLOSH set was the most over powered set to come out recently. Doubt me? Ask the ROC Champion or the HeroClix World Champion (You’ll definitely get the same answer from both since they are the same guy).

Local Tournament Report – 7/23/14 Comics and More (War of the Light Month 2)

July 27, 2014July 29, 2014 / ninwashui / 1 Comment

The Format: 400 point Sealed with two boosters of War of the Light. No outside anything, except we can play any rings, batteries, and constructs from month 1. The judge also let us include the green ring and shield construct from the scenario pack. I didn’t have those.

What I pulled:

WOL003 Sinestro Corps Recruit

WOL005 Green Lantern Recruit

WOL007 Blue Lantern Recruit

WOL009 Controller Construct

WOL027 Graf Toren

WOL029 Brother Hymn

WOL039 Kryb

WOL053 Swamp Thing

What I Played:

“Oh look, that ‘Lost Lantern’ is standing next to two other people. They found him!”

WOL007 Blue Lantern Recruit

WOL027 Graf Toren

WOL053 Swamp Thing

WOLR100 Power Battery (Green Lantern Corps)

WOLR200.05 Crossbow

WOLR305 Sinestro Corps Ring

Total = 386 points

Round 1: Facing WOL021 Lyssa Drak, WOL037 Karu-Sil, and WOL035A Sayd (Orange Lantern) = 396 points

This match went slow. We were both playing characters we were unfamiliar with. I had created my team hastily and it took a couple of times reading through Swamp Thing’s card to get the gist of his Sort-Of! Hypersonic Attack. Apparently, he’s essentially FULLY Hypersonic and leaves Hindering Terrain wherever he goes. Wow! Of course, the small print will tell you that if your opponent is already sitting in Hindering Terrain then Swamp Thing’s Hypersonic 2: Electric Bugaloo-ish attack can’t touch them. Which makes about as much sense as the Hal Jordan Parallax not being able to fly (talk about the ring being a crutch). But whatever.

My opponent was trying to think of useful things to do with Sayd and Lyssa Drak. He may still be wondering at the time of this writing. This ended up being a mostly one sided affair, although the score would likely have been higher had we moved a little faster.

The action started out with both of us moving our teams out 8 spaces and then clearing. I equipped the Crossbow onto Graf Toren. My opponent had the first turn and moved his Sayd within firing range (9 squares) of my Graf Toren. His Karu-Sil and Lyssa Drak stayed back a few spaces further. Karu-Sil popped out her Pack and the turn ended. On my turn I went all out. I used the Blue Latern Recruit to TK Graf Toren into firing position on Sayd (since his range was shorter). Not wanting to miss, I used the Blue Latern Recruit’s Perplex and the Crossbow’s Ranged Combat expert to pump my attack up to 14! I would have also Outwitted Sayd’s Defense with Graf Toren‘s Traited Outwit, but Sayd’s Team Ability prevented me. At the time I had hoped that this encounter would be the last time I saw that TA this tournament because a lot of Graf Toren’s usefulness is based upon that Outwit. Sayd had 18 defense and was sitting in hindering terrain. Graf Toren’s 14 attack value meant I had no problem hitting Sayd; unfortunately, I rolled too well, knocking him back two squares. Sayd moved to click 3. It was then that White Lantern Swamp Thing entered the fray.

Sayd was still in hindering, and Karu-sil was too far away, but Lyssa Drak was within Swamp Thing’s Movement range and he slogged through the map until he was adjacent to both her and Karu-Sil. It was an easy 4 clicks of damage even after her traited Prob reroll.

On my opponent’s turn, he shot back with Sayd and missed Graf Toren who was in Hindering. The Pack used Sidestep to attack Swamp Thing, which moved to bog monster to Click 2 after all the dice rolls. Karu-Sil missed, but she did Perplex down one of Swamp Thing’s combat values, which also decreased his speed by three. Lyssa Drak then created a Barrier around herself that–unsurprisingly, given how useless her dial is–didn’t protect any of the other characters. I’m going to omit her from the rest of this battle report because, while she wasn’t KO’d, she never took a meaningful action for the rest of the game. Such is life for Lyssa Drak. Don’t blame me, I didn’t create her.

On my turn, Blue Lantern Recruit TK’ed Graf Toren, who then attacked Sayd again. This time he hit for 6 which caused 3 real damage. Swamp Thing attacked Karu-Sil and missed. Both teams cleared over the next two turns.

One my opponent’s turn The Pack and Karu-Sil both dug into Swamp Thing and knocked him down to his Regen/Stop click. Then it was my turn and the judge called time. I finished my turn by having Graf Toren knock Sayd to her last click and then Swamp finished her for the games only KO.

Round 2: Facing WOL025 The Weaponer of Qward, WOL025E The Weaponer of Qward, WOLR100 Power Battery (Green Lantern Corps), WOLR200 Shield, WOLR200.05 Crossbow, and WOLR300 Green Lantern Ring = 374 points

Seriously? Two freaking Weaponers? Who gets that lucky? I mean, besides HypeFox last month. Actually, now that I’m remembering HypeFox’s pulls last month, two Weaponers seems reasonable. Regardless, on paper, I would have given this match to my opponent easily. Then again, this game isn’t played on paper. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Actually, it kinda is.)

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Shut up. I’m on a roll. Oh, and your proctologist called–he can see you Monday at 3:00pm to get that MAGICAL HORSESHOE PHYSICALLY REMOVED FROM YOUR POSTERIOR!!)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re trying to imply that luck had anything to do with–)

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hey, who’s telling this story? Me or you?)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: <sigh> Continue.)

Thank you. What I was trying to say was that anything can happen in HeroClix. And I knew that the more expensive Weaponer was an incredible threat. I had never faced one before, but I had read about him online. My opponent went first. We both moved up and cleared. He moved both his guys about 11 squares away and put the shield on the more expensive one. That was opening I needed. I used the same TK, Perplex, RCE trick that I had pulled on my opening shot in game one, but this time I could use Outwit. I hit his 20 ranged Defense and he took four clicks of damage. I got smart and had Swamp Thing throw up a Barrier between me and the Weaponers. Rather than use both of his characters just to try and get one attack through, my opponent just cleared.

On my turn Graf Toren hit again for 4 more clicks of damage. Then Swamp Thing gained Shape Change, moved in, hit for 4 damage and tied up both characters. My opponent got a couple of turns in a row and did manage to knock Swamp Thing down to click 5, but that was it. After that, Graf Toren knocked each Weaponer to their stop clicks and my other characters got the KOs. It’s a odd sight to see a Blue Lantern Recruit KO a Weaponer of Qward, but it happened. This game just happened to break my way, and I was lucky that I didn’t miss when I found that first opening.

Round 3: Facing WOL003 Sinestro Corps Recruit, WOL013A Romat-Ru, WOL041 Parallax (Hal Jordan), WOLR100 Power Battery (Green Lantern Corps), WOLR200.05 Crossbow, and WOLR303 Orange Lantern Ring = 395 points

So this match really came down to two pieces and their (mostly) one on one duel. Oh, and this was me and Hypefox in the final.

My opponent moved Parallax close enough to my forces that I got in an alpha strike with the same plan I used in the first two games. I couldn’t use Outwit, but I hit easily. He made his Impervious roll, so I did no damage! Swamp Thing couldn’t base him because he was too far away and instead moved halfway to Parallax. Parallax of course easily hit Graf Toren on his turn. Parallax’s allies just moved closer and in fact wouldn’t do much for most of the game.

I got another turn with a weakened Graf Toren and took a shot. It was a hit! Then Parallax used his top dial Probability Control and it turned my beautiful hit into a #$^#($^ Critical Miss!! I thought about basing Parallax with Swamp Thing, but he would be double tokened then and Parallax’s Pulse Wave would make short work of him. I cleared the rest of my forces.

Parallax scored another hit and knocked Graf Torn down to his last click. On my turn I tried to get him back to the battery or hide him with TK, but there just wasn’t much I could do. Parallax had been in Hindering Terrain this whole time so Swamp Thing was having trouble attacking him. I put Graf Toren in a place where Parallax would have to move out of Hindering for the KO.

“Oh, baby, I am SO out of my MIND right now! I’m’a go $@#%-up a Swamp Thing! I saw him on my way into what’s left of Coast City when I WASN’T FLYING, apparently!”

Everyone cleared and then Parallax moved out of Hindering and shot Graf Toren for the KO. On my turn I struck with Swamp thing and… missed horribly. I ended Swamp Thing’s movement next to my Power Battery hoping to use its Support to stay in this game. And that’s the way the game stayed. Parallax KO’d the Blue Lantern Recruit next. Swamp Thing probably got in 5 Ranged attacks before the game ended, but he couldn’t beat Parallax’s Defense and Probability Control. The game ends about 10 turns later (Stop Click + Regen +Support) and I haven’t done a single point of damage to his team. I was, however, once again able to capture every one of my attempts to damage Parallax on video. Here, then, is a repeating loop of every time I attacked Parallax this game:

This horrible defeat sent me from the penthouse to the outhouse as far as this tournament’s outcome was concerned. Because I was not just beaten, but beaten down to the point where I captured no points of my own, I found myself sliding from second place (and competing for a possible tournament win) to fifth (and, well, competing for nothing–which is exactly what fifth place awarded me!).

What I Learned:

WOL053 Swamp Thing is darn tough and had a few tricks opponents wouldn’t expect (Barrier, TK, etc.). However, once an opponent realizes the benefits of keeping figures on Hindering Terrain, Swamp Thing’s offensive punch drops a lot. I would play him again on a team that could really make use of the “forest” of Hindering Terrain markers he makes. Batman Allies, or Poison Ivy maybe?
WOL007 Blue Lantern Recruit is well worth his points as a Scarlet Witch/Enchantress/Mercy type of support figure. I’ll be playing him again soon.
WOL027 Graf Toren was good but not great. If he can’t use his Outwit then he is a waste of points.
In a set full of ranged centered offense and defense, WOL037 Karu-Sil and her pack are well worth the points.
The full point WOL025 The Weaponer of Qward is scary. The lesser pointed one is only just “good”.
HypeFox beat me again with a high point high-powered character. (WOL041 Parallax (Hal Jordan)) Apparently I need to tell him the wrong day if I want to win the next WOL event. Or just pray that he gets, say, one month where he doesn’t pull a bomb that has all the specific TA’s and Powers that I’m trying to avoid.
The participation prize for this week (WOL104 Guy Gardner (Green Lantern)) is really quite good for the points. I think with all the high point characters in the set people are looking past him. I’m looking forward to using him in constructed. (EDITOR’S NOTE: I second that emotion. His dial is great, and he’s the best Turn One Taxi in the game!)
WOL021 Lyssa Drak is still useless. You could graft an Entity on her, and she’d still be useless. She’d suddenly be worth another $100, but she’d still be useless. Scientists in Luxembourg have just confirmed that Lyssa falls right before Kim on the K.U.S. (Kardashian Uselessness Scale). I may have made up the last 3 points, but I think you get my drift.
The WOL039 Kryb that I pulled and didn’t use doesn’t look much better. Honestly, I read the Blackest Night TPB and the War of the Green Lanterns TPB in preparation for this Storyline Event, and I don’t remember this dude/gal/thing/creepfestival from any of those stories. UPDATE: I just Wiki’d her. Apparently it’s a her. Also apparently, her body just happens to have a cage where her back should be, and she goes around stealing the children of Green Lanterns, which begs all SORTS of questions. First of all, for the other members of Kryb’s species that don’t have access to a cosmic-level powerful, wish-granting ring, what exactly do they keep in the cages in their backs? As in, what sort of biosphere exists on their planet of origin that necessitated (or, really, even allowed) for the adopted adaptation of built-in back cages? Secondly, exactly how powerful are Yellow Lanterns (sorry, “Sinestro Corps. members”) in comparison to Green Lanterns? Because if she’he’it has taken as many Green Lantern children as she’s constantly depicted to have taken (I mean, every picture of her has legions of floating limbs sprouting from her back), wouldn’t some of these pissed-off parents (who, remember, ALL WIELD RINGS THAT BRINGS THEIR WILDEST, MOST OUTLANDISHLY CREATIVE THOUGHTS TO LIFE IN THE FORM OF GREEN ENERGY) have banded together and straight up murdered THE ALIEN PSYCHOPATH THAT HAS BEEN STEALING THEIR CHILDREN?! I know most Lanterns aren’t the killing type, but doesn’t all that go out the window when your kids are being stolen? Yet when they finally catch up with her, they send her to Zamaron to be rehabilitated? Uh, no. All of which leads to my last question: Are there big Kryb fans out there? I’m just wondering who you are and what you’re doing with your life.

Team Ideas – An Army of Gwen

July 13, 2014July 14, 2014 / ninwashui / 3 Comments

DP054 Arnim Zola was one of the most interesting pieces to come out in the Deadpool set. He’s got a combo of Running Shot and Pulse Wave that AVX014 Magneto showed us was really good. Except Arnim doesn’t have Magneto’s defenses, or really his offensive firepower. Wait, why do I want to play this guy again? Oh yeah it’s his Trait:

YOU CLONED WHO?!?: Give Arnim Zola a free action to place a Gwen Stacy Clone bystander token as described on this card adjacent to him on the map. If there is already 1 friendly one on the map, this is a power action instead. If there are 2 or more friendly ones, this is a double power action instead.

I prefer to think of Gwen Stacy Clones as Fembots. Groovy baby. Yeah!

Basically this trait can let him pop out a couple of XP001 Con Artists pretty effortlessly. Except, the Gwen tokens don’t need to be pushed to get to their Perplex and they don’t give the other team points when KOed. Pretty Cool. Unfortunately, the downside is that if you have two on the board, Arnim Zola needs a double power action to make another one. Because he lacks Willpower, a double action token means pushing damage. Can you imagine if the AVM016 Red Skull was still in modern? Between their two traits. you could set up a mad science lab in your starting zone.

That brings us my first (Silver Age) team:

Little known fact: this is how Michael Jackson would have looked in another 10 years.

Why is my doomsday device filled with all these young women?

Team Name: H.D.D.D. (Hydra Doomsday Device Division)

Theme: Hydra

Roster:

DP054 Arnim Zola

AVM016 Red Skull

AVM040 Hydra Technician

FIB003 Damaged Warbot

Total = 300 Points

That’s a total of 4 Perplexes (two Gwens, two techs), two Enhancements, a Leadership, and Outwit. That’s a lot of support. The Warbots are there to hold off the other team while you are building. Backed up by that much support they can be dangerous. If The Red Skull can finish his doomsday weapon, then the other team is in for some real trouble.

Now that team was fun, but Arnim would take pushing damage if he tried to have more than two Gwen tokens on the board at once. If you could counteract the problem of Arnim taking damage from a double power action, you could flood the board with Gwen Stacy tokens. There would be no theoretical limit. 3? 6? 12? You can keep making them in your starting area until your opponent’s team shows up to make you stop. How many Gwen Stacy Perplexers would it take to give the mugger that murdered Uncle Ben a fighting chance against Spider-Man? With Arnim Zola you can find out.

There are two ways to offset the damage Arnim takes from his double power action:

Granting him Willpower (Nul’s hammer, Bat belt, AVX007 Black Panther, SLOSH046 Superboy, WOL065P Parallax)
Healing the damage he takes (WOL061P Entity, DOFP016 Moira MacTaggert, DOFP007 Franklin Richards, IM3008 Aldrich Killian, FFBM005 Alfred Pennyworth, BM031 Alfred Pennyworth)

Sadly, using Black Talon or Tony Stark to mind control him wouldn’t work because per the rules, “A double power action can’t be given as a free action.”

So when you put these pieces together with Arnim, you get a team like this:

Sometimes his chest TV shows his face, other times it shows Game of Thrones.

Gwen Stacy will be the model T of my clone Assembly line!

Maximum Gwen

DP054 Arnim Zola

FIB003 Damaged Warbot

DOFP016 Moira MacTaggert

Total = 298 points

With two Armin Zola’s you can pump out an average of one Gwen a turn. Moira is there to offset pushing damage. Unfortunately when the other team finally does come to find you, your mobility isn’t great and your primary attackers have only on click of running shot and no willpower. If you have a lot of Gwen tokens out, you should have a shot at taking down anyone. Good luck.

For a team I might consider taking to a tournament try this one:

For the glory of Wakanda we shall crush our foes with an army young women!

“Though I was loathe to employ someone as nefarious as Arnim Zola, I am proud to report that he has secured the future of Wakanda by creating an army of high school girls!”

Arnim Zola, friend of Wakanda

DP054 Arnim Zola

AVX007 Black Panther

M10A004 Green Goblin

Total = 300 Points

Green Goblin can carry Arnim Zola around and help you avoid the other team a little longer. The longer you avoid them the more Gwens you have. With enough Perplex Green Goblin makes an awesome primary attacker. Perplex his attack by +3 and there is nothing he can’t hit. Perplex his damage by +3 and there will be not much left of whatever he does hit.

Good luck with your Arnim team, and, as always, may the Gwen be with you

The Build 5!! (Or, What I’d Play At The 6/28/14 ROC at Gamer’s Gauntlet!!)

June 26, 2014July 13, 2014 / ninwashui / 1 Comment

So Gamer’s Gauntlet is the first (and maybe only) place in Michigan to hold a ROC tournament. As you can tell from my ROC top ten article, I’m a big fan. Now I have a chance to go to one that’s only a few miles from my house. HypeFox can’t go because he has a family event. Ha-ha! The bad news… we’re in the same family. So unfortunately the article below will be what I would have been playing because I also won’t be able to attend. Bummer. Ah well, on with the article.

The Format: 300 point modern. Anything goes. The meaner the better. Resources. Entities. Shuma Gorath. Galactus. Cop Cars. Sentry and Void… Yikes.

My Team: (That I would be playing)

We’re back!

Revenge of the Nerfed 2.0

WXM042 Fantomex
WXM010 Shatterstar
DP043 Black Talon
WOL063P Ophidian (possessing Fantomex) (If I had access to the Parallax Entity, I would use that instead.)
Total = 300 points

This team is more than it appears at face value. It’s hides two powerful power interactions. The first power interaction is one that I published here first in March. Shatterstar was nerfed so that the person he teleports can’t take an action the same turn he teleports. Fantomex can get around that by having WXM042BT E.V.A. take the trip with Shatterstar. That means Shatterstar can teleport E.V.A. and Fantomex can make a surprise attack on anyone anywhere on the board. This combo was designed to cross the board even faster than the Iron Pharaoh’s Falcon and Assassinate him. Shatter Star can’t attack, but hey it’s still pretty cool.

A few weeks ago a guy on hcrealms posted a team he went to nationals with and lost. His team featured two cool combos. WOL067P Adara and WOL099 Despotellis together give any adjacent team members 20 defense. Pretty awesome, but I’m not using it here. His other combo was Shatterstar and Black Talon. If Black Talon mind controls Shatterstar he can then give Shatterstar the once per game teleport to move anywhere on the map. Then because Shatterstar hasn’t taken an action that turn there is nothing keeping him from attacking. So Imagine teleporting across the board next to someone like SLOSH057 Lydea Mallor and just opening up with Blade/Claws/Fangs and Flurry. That’s likely a kill shot.

Now think about combining those two power interactions I talked about. On turn 3 Black Talon mind controls Shatterstar. Shatterstar teleports E.V.A. across the board. E.V.A. uses outwit, Shatterstar uses BCF/flurry, and Fantomex uses RCE before your opponent has a chance to do anything. In a 300 point game, what is your opponent going to have left after that? And using Ophidian (again, I’d prefer Parallax, but Ophidian works nicely too, and he’s who I’d have access to) actually gives me access to Pulse Wave. So if I Charge with Shatterstar to get him out of the way, I can Pulse Wave if there’s a particularly hard to hit fig that I’m just dying to reach out and touch! At the end of your first attack, even if everything goes wrong and your opponent KO’s everything you teleport over to him, you’ve still only lost 73 points. Fantomex and Black Talon were never really there and those two pieces together make a hell of a plan B in a 300 point game.

Writing this article makes me wish I could attend, but it’s just not in the cards. If anyone does get a chance to go, post a comment and let me know. I’m curious as to what teams will show up in the top 4.

Local Tournament Report – 6/18/14 Comics and More (War of the light Month 1)

June 24, 2014June 25, 2014 / ninwashui / 2 Comments

An early artists concept drawing of the Guardians…

The Format: 300 point Sealed with two boosters of War of the Light. No outside anything, except the judge let us include the green ring and shield construct from the scenario pack. I didn’t have those.

What I pulled:

WOL003 Sinestro Corps Recruit

WOL005 Green Lantern Recruit

WOL011B Hal Jordan (Blue Lantern)

WOL013A Romat-Ru

WOL015 Arisia

WOL019 Bedovian

WOL021 Lyssa Drak

WOL029 Brother Hymn

WOL045 Brother Warth

WOL047 Ganthet

WOLR305 Sinestro Corps Ring

Ok… now I’ll post my SR and Chase figs…

None.

What I played:

This is what the Oans looked like before they evolved into the Guardians.

This is what the Oans really looked like before they evolved into the Guardians. They don’t like to talk about it.

I considered strongly doing an all blue team (WOL011B Hal Jordan (Blue Lantern), WOL029 Brother Hymn, WOL045 Brother Warth), but that wouldn’t give me a good attacker or let me use my yellow ring as effectively. I also considered a yellow team (WOL013A Romat-Ru, WOL019 Bedovian, WOL021 Lyssa Drak), but I didn’t think Lyssa Drak was very effective. In the end I went with WOL019 Bedovian, WOL047 Ganthet, and WOLR305 Sinestro Corps Ring for a total of 294 points.

Round 1 Facing:

Note to self – Do not take this guy on with a Smurf and a Rock.

WOL057B Superboy Prime (Red Lantern)

WOL029 Brother Hymn

WOL063P Ophidian

Total = 300 points

What? Did someone bring a nationals team to a sealed event? What soulless monster would even play these pieces together having pulled them? Oh yeah, it’s my writing partner HypeFox.

The game starts out with me winning the roll to go first. That was about the only good thing from this game. I notice both sides of the map have tons of elevated to hide behind. I pick the side that doesn’t have all the elevated around one starting area. I’m already underpowered this game I don’t need to also go uphill. I start out moving up with Bedovian out front to block Line of Fire to Ganthet.. We close on each other in the next few moves. At that point I realize he has hypersonic speed and I have no movement abilities at all. I’m not about to base him just to have him punch me and run away. I perplex up my defense and sit there. He places Brother Hymn to use perplex and prob. Superboy Prime makes a close combat attack and rolls a 4 for a miss. Unfortunately Superboy Prime makes it to elevated terrain while I am grounded. I have no shot at him. I could push Bedovian to take a pot shot at Brother hymn, but I figured the game would be won or lost based on knocking Superboy Prime off his hypersonic clicks. I have a token on both my characters on my turn so I just sit and clear. He (thankfully) gives Superboy Prime a second action token and give him an action to hit Bedovian with a heavy object. Hit for 5 damage (EDITOR’S NOTE: You’re welcome?). Brother Hymn shoots Bedovian and misses.

Now I actually have a chance to hit back. I base Superboy Prime with both my characters. He clears his characters on his turn. I get to make an attack! I start by having Ganthet hit with his special incapacitate. 4 damage and a token. That got rid of the Hypersonic Speed on his dial! Then he points out that Ophidian picks up Hypersonic Speed on click 4, and with Ophidian Possessing Superboy, nothing really has changed. Bedovian pushes and misses.

I give both characters a second token and then I read the new powers Superboy Prime has. Exploit weakness and penetrating poison. I have both my characters double tokened and adjacent to him. You can guess how the rest of this goes. Bedovian dies in two turns before he can take another action. Ganthet gets poisoned to his third click and takes a damage from Brother Hymn before he can take an action. At that point he has Pulse wave and running shot. I try to break away so that I can use pulse wave for max damage on just Superboy Prime. I roll a 1. Ganthet is KOed by prime the following turn.

Ouch.

Round 2 Facing:

A bye (we had 9 people). But hey this ended up being my best game of the night. During this time I watch Hypefox playing a team featuring Swamp Thing. He missed a good opportunity to use barrier to prevent Prime from getting hit. I hope he loses. He doesn’t, but I had hoped he did.

Round 3 Facing:

Rage Ball!

WOL013A Romat-Ru

WOL021 Lyssa Drak

WOL059A Zilius Zox

WOLR307 Blue Lantern Ring

Total = 278 points

This was a brand new player. I mean new as in brand new that day! He was a Green Lantern fan and wanted to find out what HeroClix was.

I helped him every turn with strategy and rules. I’m not going to go into the synopsis on this one because he mostly did exactly what I suggested every round as he was learning how to play and in essence it was like me playing me. Having said that, here are the highlights:

WOL059A Zilius Zox faced off against Ganthet pretty much one on one. It did not go well for Ganthet thanks to his old friend penetrating poison.
Bedovian finished off Zilius Zox from range, but faired poorly after that because the two remaining Sinestro corps members could perplex his printed damage down to zero.
WOL021 Lyssa Drak doesn’t really seem to do that much (zero range), but it didn’t really matter.

In the end the help I gave the new player gave him his second win ever. I wasn’t about to do anything good this tournament, so that was the best possible outcome.

What I Learned:

HypeFox has a soul as black as midnight (EDITOR’S NOTE: How many tourney wins against you in a row is that now? Man, I’ve lost count…).
The entities like Ophidian are the real deal when possessing a character. Expect them to be mainstays at every major tournament until they are retired.
WOL021 Lyssa Drak is not worth the points. If you are one of those players who just has to field an aloof, half-naked blue-skinned psychic vampire, well, y’know, then go for it. Just don’t expect her to do much except stand there half-naked and occasionally show her casual disdain for everyone else by Perplex figure’s stats down. That’s about all she does.
WOL047 Ganthet needs to be played with care. His “Perplex the whole team” power is cool, but at his point cost he pretty much is most of the team. He would do much better with TK or a hammer.
If I had a chance to get a WOL059A Zilius Zox I would definitely do so in the future. Nasty lil’ big-headed bugger.
I would say WOL057B Superboy Prime (Red Lantern) is above average in constructed, but top notch in this sealed environment. Half the defense powers in this set are Energy Shield, so a close combat attacker with Hypersonic does really well here.

Team Ideas – The Bridge to S.H.I.E.L.D.

June 12, 2014June 13, 2014 / ninwashui / 3 Comments

Among the other competitive pieces to come out in the Deadpool set (detailed here and here), we got a new figure that falls into a category of pieces that I refer to as “recruiters,” DP041 G.W. Bridge. Like TDW015 Duhg and SLOSH201 Cosmic Boy, DP041 G.W. Bridge has the ability to give any character a keyword that they didn’t have before. In a correctly built team, he can give any character the Six Pack, Weapon X, or Solider keywords. Just one problem… those are boring. Reasonable but boring. And they aren’t worth all the hoops you have to jump through to get them. That leaves the S.H.I.E.L.D keyword. That’s more fun.

So what does it take to get that keyword in a 300 point army? Well G.W. himself is 68 points, and the cheapest S.H.I.E.L.D generic, AVM003 Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., is 19 points. Together the 4 generics required and G.W. are 144. That means I can give the S.H.I.E.L.D keyword to any character 156 points or less. So I can easily create a team like this:

Little known fact: Red Skull’s appearance is actually the result of the world’s worst nose job.

Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D, Director Skull

DP041 G.W. Bridge

CATWS014 Agent Sitwell

CATWS002 S.H.I.E.L.D. Soldier

AVM003 Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

AVM016 Red Skull

Total = 296 points

See that was way more fun than the Six Pack keyword. Let’s try Another one for those of you who saw the latest Captain America Movie:

My face, now in HD…

Arnim, Head of the I.T. Department

DP041 G.W. Bridge

AVM206 Agent Coulson

AVM003 Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

DP054 Arnim Zola

Total = 300 points

Now I know what you’re thinking, that’s fun but not all that competitive. Is there any way giving someone S.H.I.E.L.D. keyword actually helps you in battle other than giving you a theme team bonus? Just one. It’s this guy: CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. I’ve tried this guy out in battle and he’s the real deal. Just about any attack aimed at the pieces you care about get redirected to this guy and you lose a 36 point character instead of your 100+ character. Alpha Strike? Just stand there and take it. If they swoop in for a hit on your team that just means they’ll be in a great position for you to hit them next turn. To bump it up a notch the special mastermind power on CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent also works with CATWS106 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent because they share the same name. That means you would only lose 25 points of your force to an attack instead of 36. Even better.

The downside of having six S.H.I.E.L.D. characters on a team in a 300 point game is that it will take you all of your actions just to move them around, much less make any attacks. S.H.I.E.L.D. keyworded figures aren’t know for flying. What a S.H.I.E.L.D. team really needs is something to carry them. There is no helicarrier in HeroClix (currently), but I thought of the next best thing. Here’s my final (competitive) team:

The ring is the mightiest weapon in the universe… and it gets HBO.

Hal Jordan, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

DP041 G.W. Bridge

CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent

CATWS106 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent

TT033E Green Lantern

Total = 300 points

TT033E Green Lantern is exactly what S.H.I.E.L.D. needs. He can carry your whole team. That means moving all 6 guys in 1 action. He’s a virtual helicarrier. The offense on this guy is great. He’s got 8 range, perplex, and he can choose to gain Close Combat Expert, or Ranged Combat Expert as the situation warrants. Since the rest of his team all has the S.H.I.E.L.D. TA, that will allow him to turn his range up to 11.

This is actually what it looks like to turn a Green Lantern ring up to 11…

DP041 G.W. Bridge is very similar to TT033E Green Lantern offensively as he also can gain Close Combat Expert, or Ranged Combat Expert as needed, but instead of perplex he has outwit. Additionally, they both strikingly similar defensively – which means they both have a lousy defense. That’s their weak point. At least it was until they got to this team. With two CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, and two CATWS106 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, it’s likely the first four times your team takes a hit neither Green Lantern or G.W. Bridge will take any damage at all. They will just be able to sit there and take pot shots with their RCE and willpower while any living S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents enhance their damage with the S.H.I.E.L.D. TA. The other team isn’t going to out range you with all the S.H.I.E.L.D. TA floating around and even if they base you, your damage dealers can get Close Combat Expert and your two CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents have empower! That’s a no win situation for the opponent. The only things you need to fear are Precision Strike, Pulse Wave, and Energy Explosion. You have an outwit to help nullify those powers.

Just like with my Iron Pharaoh team, I feel my Green Lantern S.H.I.E.L.D. team is very capable of competing at an event like the ROC and I haven’t seen anything like it published anywhere. It’s original to me right here and now. It’s designed to win in a no resource allowed tournament and will need to be changed for a tournament where resources are allowed. If you get a chance to play this team at a real tournament, leave a comment here and let me know how you did.

ROC’ing the Meta… Just like Shuma-Gorath Did!! (Or, A Look at the Top Pieces for ROC Super Qualifiers!!)

June 8, 2014June 9, 2014 / ninwashui / 3 Comments

Welcome Back!

Can you smell what the ROCK is cooking?

So I’ve continually talked about how the ROC’s are great source of information for the current Meta. Well, on a whim (and somehow finding myself with some rare time to kill) I decided I should tally up all of the Top 4 finishing teams from the entire history of the ROC to see who the Top 10 most popular figures are. Why? Well, if you’re thinking of entering a ROC tourney near you, this might give you an idea of which army you want to build; but even if this doesn’t give you an idea of what to play, it should (perhaps even more importantly) give an idea of what you’ll be facing in the finals if you make the Top 16.

Welcome… to the ROC! (How many ROC puns will I make today? I dunno, but that’s prolly not my last).

For the record, there are 21 tournament results posted. Four teams from each would be 84 team results to work with, but one tournament only posted the top two teams. All of which means that I’m pulling data from 82 Top 4 teams total.

In the interest of total transparency, the picture below should illuminate the primary methodology I used to determine the following results.

$"Me calculating the ROC results for my article. Damn, I'm a handsome beast!"$

Showing my work.

Before getting to the actual figures, here are the ranks for the most popular:

Resources:

1. FIR100C The Book of the Skull
2. NMLR100C Utility Belt
3. IIMR100C Power Plant
4. AVXR100 The Phoenix Force
5. IGR101C Infinity Gauntlet

The Book of the Skull is my favorite Resource, so this pleased me. HypeFox is more of a Phoenix Force or Infinity Gauntlet guy.

Actually, Gen13 came in last in terms of frequency of use, just after the nonexistent Great Lakes Avengers Team Base.

Actually, Gen13 came in last in terms of frequency of use, just after the Great Lakes Avengers Team Base. Which is not a real thing. Better luck next time, Fairchild!

Team Bases:

1. WXMT004 New Mutants
Tied for 2nd. TTT002R Justice League, WXMT001E X-Men: Blue Strike Force, WXMT006 Hellfire Club: Inner Circle

No other team bases have made a Top 4 table, which surprised me. Would have thought Trinity of Sin would have shown up at some point.

Bystander Tokens:

1. FIH002 Warbot (Rocket)
2. FIB002 Skadi’s Warbot
3. FIB003 Damaged Warbot
4. FIB005 Super Fan
5. FIB018 Store Clerk

Skadi’s Warbot coming in second is the upset here.

And now without further ado here’s…

The Top 10 Figures of the ROC.

Tied for 10th place. WXM023B Cerise – Cerise is the only representative from the Wolverine and the Xmen set and one of only 2 primes to make the list. She arguably would have made it even higher on this list except for popularity of the other prime and the fact that they can’t be played together. For 60 points, she’s one of the most efficient Soldier and Police keyworded figs around.

Tied for 10th place. SLOSH008 Phantom Girl – When Phantom Girl phases through opposing characters she gets to target one of them with a close combat action. Every other figure with a similar power gets a close combat attack (like all those characters with hypersonic speed). The fact that she gets a close combat action gives her unique ability to use the bat belt and NMLR106 Handcuffs to handicap opposing figures. From SLOSH039 Bizarro to WKM-G01R Shuma-Gorath, she can wrap them up tight.

Tied for 10th place. IIM051 Iron Pharaoh (1500 BC) – This blog has done plenty to hype this piece (here and here) so it’s inclusion on this list is no surprise. What is surprising is that no other piece from the Invincible Iron Man set made this list.

Tied for 10th place. GG026 Mole Man – How did this make the list? WKM-G01R Shuma-Gorath is the biggest reason. He is set to be retied by July 1 2014 and it seems like WizKids made DP043 Black Talon as his replacement.

9th place. JL52016R Enchantress – The 2nd best way to spend 50 points in modern. She is not only support, but a decent secondary attacker as well. Especially with a resource.

8th place. SLOSH057 Lydea Mallor – The best of the Chases from SLOSH. Lydea is one part Out-of-the-Shadows Batman and one part relic stealing Cat Woman. Her Regen stop click at the end of her dial is just icing on the cake.

7th place. M10A009E Iron Man – If you absolutely know your opponents are playing a resource, then this is their kryptonite. His dial is very efficient for it’s cost, but his trait is the only reason people ever play him.

Tied for 5th and 6th place. SOGV003A GCPD Motorcycle (Autopilot) – This is never played without the GCPD ATA. If you’ve played this without the GCPD ATA, you did it wrong! Combined the cycle and ATA allow to carry two characters regardless of stat symbols 4 squares a turn as a few action. That police motorcycle is a steal for it’s point cost.

Tied for 5th and 6th place. SLOSH039 Bizarro – HypeFox once told that this should be my favorite character in the whole game. I love stop clicks and for this guy every click is a stop click. Depending on point value this is the toughest character ever made.

4th place. FFCW006 Scarlet Witch – She very similar to JL52016R Enchantress, but slightly better. She’s been a popular piece to play when she was first introduced due to her combination of perplex, probability control, and barrier on the same character. She is set to be retied by July 1 2014 and it seems like WizKids made FFDP006R Mercy as her replacement.

3rd place. GG014 Astral Dr. Strange – This is a great way to spend 13 points. The free move definitely puts it over the top. However, a lot of the play this piece has seen lately is with SLOSH048 Tellus. The combo is free move this 13 point figure into range and then have your whole team shoot through it. On your opponent’s turn the only thing in range is this 13 point figure.

2nd place. ASM017B Brother Voodoo – Brother Voodoo is the most popular prime character to date. He’s also my pick for most powerful character (for the points) ever. He’s made the top teams from the very first ROC all the way through the most current one. It seems like a lot of top 4 teams start with Brother Voodoo and fill in the rest from there. Think about this-of the 82 published top 4 ROC teams, this character was on 24 of them (EDITOR’S NOTE: DAAAAAMMMMN)!

1st place. FI301 Splitlip – With 25 total top 4 ROC appearances it’s the most popular figure. How did it get there? Of all of the teams I looked at that used the book of the skulls, all of them included Splitlip. There are a few teams out there that played him without the book, but no one played the book without him. The fact that he’s the cheapest source of enhancement in modern shouldn’t be forgotten either.

So there you go! If you go to a ROC, expect to see some–if not most–of these characters across the board from you. Thanks for reading.

And keep on ROC’ing! Okay, that was my last pun…

Heroclix – Now with extra Deadpool (A set review for Deadpool)

May 30, 2014June 12, 2014 / ninwashui / 3 Comments

About the Set:

I really liked the 12 attack Assassin subtheme (DP036 Bullseye, DP057 Tiamat, DP201 Deadpool) and 12 attack martial arts sub theme (DP031 Elektra, DP047A Shang-Chi, DP047B Cat). Actually, I like 12 attack on exceptionally skilled characters that have great story reasons for being that skillful or powerful.

Plus I hate missing.

The Chases are cool to have, but not so uber that my team of scrubs has no chance. Which is how they should be. There are some characters that are sub-par (DP002 Headpool), but for the most part it’s a very good set for sealed. Not too many unusable characters like I thought were in the Incredible Iron Man set. Even the weird ones that I’ve never heard of (DP024 Number One, DP025 Flag-Smasher, DP040 Doctor Bong) seem playable for their costs.

A Note on the Current Meta:

The current meta seems to be:

1. Play Shuma Gorath, Mole Man, and a power plant.

2. Play Splitlip, and the BOS.

3. Play Phantom Girl and the belt.

4 ????

My 5 Honorable Mentions for Best Figures in the Set:

*DP041 G.W. Bridge would have made the list here, but look for a different article featuring him soon.

5. DP059 Kingpin – I wouldn’t play this piece without a plan (like including DP021 Outlaw, FIB002 Skadi’s Warbot, SOG038 David Cain to make a good 300 point team). You need to use his white power a lot to make him worthwhile to field. A fun piece to build a team around, especially since he has the assassin keyword.

4. DP020 Weasel – The Weasel in the Deadpool set (who isn’t Pauley Shore – I double checked) is really just a walking relic. In fact, think of him as a hammer that walks next to your primary attacker instead of being equipped. The bonuses he gives are +1 to range, +1 to damage, and essentially +2 to attack! All for 27 points. He’ll mess up your theme team, but for what he brings to the table it’s worth it. Imagine playing two or three of him. Try using him to build (and then power) a doomsday weapon for AVM016 Red Skull.

Not that weasel…

3. DP038 Copycat – Mess up your opponent’s theme team. Grab his SLOSH048 Tellus. Have your opponent’s DP019B Evil Deadpool fight right next to yours. The more powerful your opponent’s figures are the better you will get In exchange. Anything under 101 points is fair game.

2. DP048 Blink – To make the most of her powers, the rest of your team needs to share a keyword with her. If they do she will be your team taxi and then your teams close combat expert. She has a way of moving around the board that is unique to her in all of HeroClix. If she had indomitable, she would be in my top 10.

1. DP202 Daredevil – He’s not too flashy, but he is very well rounded with both improved targeting and movement. He is also the only piece for the entire Deadpool set to have made a top 4 team at an ROC tournament.

The top ten figures from the Deadpool set:

10. DP019A Deadpool – Every time I have faced this guy in combat he has done well. Especially when equipped with this his DPW003 “4th Wall? What 4th Wall?” word bubble. He has great up front stats and a long dial. His RIDICULOUS REGENERATION looks confusing, but it’s really just improved super senses (no damage on 4-6) that can’t be countered or bypassed with precision strike. I call that a great power. Compare him to similar IIM029A War Machine and you’ll see you get a lot more for that extra 10 points.

9. DP060 Superior Spider-Man – After a few turns of making and attaching DP099A Spider-Bot (Mark 1), the Superior Spider-Man is going to have +2 to all super senses rolls. (missing only on a 1 or 2). After that you can make DP099B Spider-Bot (Mark 2) for free and use the plasticity to hold opposing forces in place until Doc Occ has a chance to deal with them.

Electro: For when you ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY HAVE TO ZOMBIFY EVERY M*TH*RF*CK*R IN THE ROOM–ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!

8. DP064 Electro – Electro is the best of the zombie chases because of his unparalleled ability to spread the zombie plague and earn food tokens for himself. Left unchecked your opponents forces will look they are in the Thriller video very quickly.

7. DP043 Black Talon – When SLOSH048 Tellus came out I said there was a way to break him and I just don’t know what it is yet. The same thing goes for this character. He’s very similar to the soon to be retired Mole Man, except he works with ANYONE. Want to get that wrecking crew team off the ground that’s never been powerful enough before? This is your answer. The same goes with just about anything else. Two actions in a one turn is really powerful when it can be used on anyone. For extra fun use him with DP019B Evil Deadpool whose low defense and high damage potential are perfect to be mind controlled.

Don’t forget he can also mind control your opponents characters at an 8 range. And with his trait even your opponents KOed characters are potential targets. I actually used his charge and BCF to KO an opposing character in sealed, but it felt like I wasn’t using this guy to his full potential that turn.

6. DP057 Tiamat – With Tiamat fronting your team I can see you winning 300 to nothing in short order. I can also see you whiffing the first couple of attacks and losing in short order. At his point level he is the whole team and if he doesn’t hit (and attack twice) then you could be in big trouble. On the other hand, his ability to mow down characters with soft defenses is nothing short of obscene. I played against him in sealed and lost 300 to nothing. You experiences may vary.

5. DP031 Elektra – HCrealm’s ‘Snake Eyes Again’ jokingly gave her the following trait, “Fanboy frenzy: Elektra can use every standard power in the PAC.” He wasn’t far off. On her 4th click she can use Charge, Flurry, Stealth, Blades/Claws/Fangs, Incapacitate, Precision Strike, Close Combat Expert, Exploit Weakness and Ranged Combat Expert. Add to that her improved movement and the fact that the first time she is KOed you can resurrect her and you’ve got a winner. She and four DP006 Hand Ninja are 287 points. That sounds like a lot of fun to me.

4. DP019B Evil Deadpool – You get a lot here for the cost and that’s the key. At 100 points he is likely your secondary attacker. If he gets a chance to regenerate even once then he’s worth far more that that. If you want to make this guy really work for you, you need to control the damage he takes to get him to his regen clicks and not past them. Mastermind looks like a good way to do that. Once Evil Deadpool takes enough damage stop sending it his way for a turn. It seems like IIM042 Iron Doom would make a good partner for this guy.

3. DP055 Deadpool – I took a while comparing this guy to DP049 Deadpool and Bob and in the end decided he brought more to the table. AVX014 Magneto showed me how fun running shot is with Pulse Wave. This guy has a better attack, decent defens and built in prob with his DPW003 “4th Wall? What 4th Wall?” word bubble for those times your opponents actually hit an 18-19 D. Magneto’s starting defenses are better, but “Thorpool” is much more dangerous mid to late dial.

2. DP047A Shang-Chi – With Improved movement, an awesome trait, and more offense this guy is just plain better than SOG039 Lady Shiva. He needs other close combat attackers around to get the best use out of his empower (like AVX102 Lei-Kung the Thunderer), but his stats and power level are unmatched in his price range.

1. DP051 Banshee – If he was 50 points more he would still be darn good. Banshee’s stats are great for his price range and his trait is very good, but the real reason to play him is his improved targeting: ignore elevated. That power is super rare and it’s never been on a figure even half this good. Imagine blasting someone from the other side of Wundagore Mountain while ignoring the mountain completely. That targeting advantage is what makes this character the best in the set.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: And for a slightly different take on the Deadpool set, be sure to check out HypeFox’s Second Opinion article!)

Local Tournament Report – 5/14/14 Ninwashui’s Kitchen Table

May 18, 2014May 19, 2014 / ninwashui / Leave a comment

There’s a new HeroClix set out – today’s going to be a wonderful day!

The Format: Ninwashui and Hypefox each bought two boosters of Deadpool the day it came out because they are like addicts and can’t wait until their normal venue has a sealed tournament next week. They decide to justify their purchases by saying they are “practicing” for next week’s Deadpool 400 point sealed event at Comics n’ More. No prize, but the loser will receive a large helping of shame for not being able to win a tournament with only two people in it. Because of the unusual venue there are battlefield conditions that will affect play. Namely my kids who think HeroClix figures look like toys. The game is delayed for about 20 minutes after team construction while the kids steal figures and run off with them. Concentration is difficult under these circumstances.

What I played:

DP011 Silver Sable

DP022 Kidpool (DPW005 “Broccoli! Why Can’t it Be Meat?”)

DP023 Black Cat

DP028 Siryn

DP048 Blink

Total: 397 points

This was actually a picture of normal Cyclops trying to light his grill. Ouch.

Round 1 Facing:

DP003 Dogpool (with DPW002 “I’m Going to Lick Your Hand”)

DP019A Deadpool (with DPW003 “4th Wall? What 4th Wall?”)

DP032 Punisher

DP058A Typhoid Mary

Total: 400 points

My opponent is the recent champion of my venue’s AvX and earned the Dark Phoenix Cyclops. He’s fresh off his big win, possibly over confident, and easily distracted by my children. I’m fresh off coming in near last place in that series, hungry for some payback, and exceptionally skilled at ignoring my children. That came out wrong, but you know what I mean.

FIGHT!

We fight on the K’un Lun map from the AvX Month 4 kit. I have my team move to the elevated terrain on the left hand side. Blink carries Kidpool. Siryn carries Silver Sable. I leave my whole team out of danger away from the edge, except for Siryn who has energy shield deflection. On his turn My opponent sends Dogpool and Deadpool up the center. Punisher and Typhoid Mary stay on elevated terrain. Deadpool has exactly enough range and movement to juuuuust get a running shot off on Siryn. I sit back confident knowing he is more likely to miss than hit. Deadpool rolls a 10. Instant hit for 4 damage. Siryn is on her second to last click. On my turn I realize no one on my team has will power and I don’t want to push. That leaves me only Kidpool and Silver Sable. Kidpool runs to base Deadpool so he doesn’t get another shot off and KO Siryn. Silver Sable outwits Dogpool’s see-through-stealth-Perplex to avoid the embarrassment of standing in front of the other team with no Stealth while covered in doggie drool.

Ninwashui’s worst nightmare is facing this lil’ guy directly across from his Stealthed characters on a Heroclix map.

On my opponent’s turn Typhoid Mary outwits Kidpool’s Shape change and shoots him for two damage… with knockback. Deadpool is suddenly free. He takes a shot at Siryn. She (of course) misses her super sense roll and is KOed. Dogpool opts not to push and Punisher doesn’t as well. On my turn Black Cat bases Dogpool. Blinks “blinks” in to attack Dogpool. She rolls a 4 and misses. Silver Sable Shoots Typhoid Mary for 3 and after taking two Typhoid transforms to Bloody Mary. I point out her transformation power is useless in sealed because you need her other half until Hypefox snickers and shows me that it came in the same pack as a separate base. Yep, Typhoid Mary… is a switch click. Very cool. Silver Sable then outwits Deadpool’s toughness and Kidpool charges in with blades/flurry/precision strike. I roll a 5 and then a 3 to miss twice. Kidpool takes a click of pushing damage and is on his last click. Things aren’t going well.

On my opponent’s turn he uses Dogpool’s perplex to outwit black cat’s stealth. Punisher proceeds to do 4 with a running shot. Dogpool attacks her but misses. Deadpool KOs Kidpool. The other pieces clear. On my turn Black Cat uses blades/flurry to take Dogpool from full to KO.

And it’s then that battlefield conditions take over, which is to say my 3 year old climbed on Hypefox’s head and stayed there for a good five minutes.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: By “five minutes” I assume you mean THE REST OF THE GAME.)

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: I wish I had a picture.)

It looked kinda like that…

From there everything changed. Our luck reversed. He started rolling threes and I started rolling tens. Bloody Mary charged Black Cat and took her out. Silver Sable shot her again and turned her back into Typhoid Mary on a poison click. She based Silver Sable and used poison to do a damage and cancel Stealth. Punisher not wanting to miss gave himself 12 Attack, but only hit for 2. That gave Sable her Stealth back. She unloaded on Mary for the KO. While that was going on, Blink decided to “Blink” over and tie up Deadpool They both missed each other for several turns. After KO’ing Mary, Sable hit Punisher for 4 and then Blink swooped in to finish him off before opting to return to her original place keeping Deadpool based. Deadpool keeps missing. When my team next clears Sable hits Deadpool for 4 from range and Blink hits twice with flurry for the KO and the win.

What I learned:

All casual games needed to be played with my kids around from now on. They just love their Uncle Hype.
I knew Deadpool’s dial was tough, there was a reason I left him for last. He’s good on offense and defense (especially with his word balloon).
Kidpool was unimpressive and his word balloon was useless.
Siryn died too quickly to learn anything, but seems like she should be promising.
Typhoid Mary was nice. Bravo to WizKids for including her switch click in the pack with her.
Punisher seems promising if you don’t have a kid on your head and can remember his trait. Great Offense. Average Defense.
HypeFox forgot about Punisher’s Trait. In his defense, it’s hard to remember that a character like the Punisher would have a Trait called “The Guilty Must Be Punished.”
Silver Sable did quite well even after taking a hit.
Blink was great. I would definitely play her again.

Local Tournament Report – 5/07/14 Comics & More

May 8, 2014May 8, 2014 / ninwashui / Leave a comment

The Format: (Directly from the judge’s post on HCrealms) 300 point Modern Age, no relics/resources/team bases/colossals. There are a couple of newbies showing up next Wednesday, so let’s try not to be too “Smashmouth” with our teams (EDITOR’S NOTE: At our venue, not constructing teams who are too “Smashmouth” is a somewhat odd yet surprisingly common build stipulation. Essentially, it means that you can’t use any characters who, in the comics upon which the figure is based, are powerful enough to walk on the actual sun, since, of course, “Walkin’ on the Sun” was the first hit single of the American Ska Punk band Smashmouth. This condition would preclude the inclusion of characters such as virtually any version of Superman, Hyperion, or even someone like, say, King Hyperion–hmm? What? Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… Wait are you sure? No, you’re right, that makes sense. I guess. Uh, gimme a second. I’ll be right back–).

(EDITOR’S NOTE REGARDING THE PREVIOUS EDITOR’S NOTE: Please, y’know, disregard it. I’ve just been informed that not only is that NOT what the Judge meant when he used the term Smashmouth, that’s actually NEVER been what ANYONE has ever meant when they used the term “Smashmouth.” Informed in a rather rude manner, by the way. Just throwing that out there. Not looking for sympathy, just wondering why everyone here at Critical Missives can’t show each other just a little bit more respect. People make mistakes. Please Keep Calm and Carry On.)

(EDITOR’S NOTE REGARDING THE END OF THE PREVIOUS EDITOR’S NOTE THAT CLARIFIED THE FIRST EDITOR’S NOTE: I was referring to ninwashui with my general plea to Keep Calm and Carry On, because he gets pretty crabby when I “ruin” his columns with my wonderful EDITOR’S NOTES. He was the rude person I was referring to, in case it wasn’t clear. Not trying to throw him under the bus, but–

(WRITER’S NOTE ABOUT THESE #&$^%#$% EDITOR’S NOTES: GOOD GOD, WE GET IT!! OKAY? CAN I CONTINUE? OR DO I NEED TO INVENT A NEW AND BIGGER CAPS LOCK BUTTON SO YOU CAN TELL HOW LOUDLY I’M SHOUTING AT YOU?)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Carry on.)

(WRITER’S NOTE: Thank you! Good Lord.)

Anyway:

The Builds I Considered:

DC Trinity: FFJL004 Wonder Woman, D10A001 Batman, D10A021 Superman, ATA080 Justice League *3 (Three 5 star figures on one team!)

Movie Avengers big three: AVM204 Captain America, IM3001R Iron Man Mk 7, TDW018 Thor (Thor next to Cap has 19 defense!)

Captain America TWS Movie inspired: CATWS003 Black Widow, CATWS015 Nick Fury, FI201 Captain America (Cap takes Mastermind damage and dies. Makes another figure better.)

Marvel Soldiers: IM3005 Extremis Soldier *2, CATWS006 Falcon, CATWS012 Captain America (Pretty balanced team. Push Extremis Soldiers to click 2 and they are awesome!)

Assassins: SOG038 David Cain, SOG039 Lady Shiva, SOG040 Deathstroke, ATA078 Birds of Prey *1 (Deathstroke can copy the Birds of Prey ATA. It’s one of the best in the game. This team was a real contender.)

Servants of the great Darkness: SLOSH058 Kalibak, SLOSH005A Daxamite (Was in the running until I realized I didn’t actually own the common Daxamite!)

Welcome to the Legion…Splitlip: FI301 Splitlip, SLOSH047B Black Witch, SLOSH202 Saturn Girl (Use Black Witch’s trait to add FIS106 Nul’s Hammer and GGS102 Cosmic Cube to the game in a no relic format!)

Quadruplicate Girl: SLOSH006 Triplicate Girl * 4, ATA038 Legion Lost * 4 (She is very powerful when there are three or more of her. If there are less than 3 she is almost useless.)

Just Plain Wrong: GG026 Mole Man * 2, SLOSH060 Orion (This would likely have gotten me kicked out of the venue.)

The Exact Team My Second Round Opponent Played: (And I thought I was being original.)

The Exact Team My Third Round Opponent Played: (I’m apparently very suggestible.)

What I Actually Played (Minus the Captain America Photobomb):

Pretty sure this isn't too "Smashmouth."

Pretty sure this team isn’t too “Smashmouth.”

IIM001AE Iron Man

CATWS003 Black Widow

CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent

Total = 300 Points

Round 1:

New Deathstroke! Now, with 100% more assassin-y goodness!

Facing:

SOG040 Deathstroke

DP201 Deadpool (With “Single File, Its Polka Time!” word balloon)

Total = 296 Points

Aww… generic theme means no theme probs for Black Widow to steal. Each of us made our three objects into a wall to hide behind in the center. We both move in to the center to start off the game. Deathstroke got the first shot off by doing a Running Shot from an object. He Perplexed the damage up to four, targeted Iron Man, and hit. That meant 4 damage went straight to… the generic S.H.I.E.L.D. agent! My opponent stopped to read the Agent’s card. Yep it worked like that. I had lost a 36 point character and Deathstroke was now double tokened in front of my team. Deadpool’s Sidestep wasn’t enough for him to get a shot in around Stealthy Black Widow.

It was my turn. Outwit defense. Iron Man Hits for Deathstroke for four. A second Attack from Black Widow scores the KO. On His turn he was side step over enough to get a shot off on Iron Man. Iron Man is hit for 4 damage (takes two after Invuln). My team clears. On his turn Deadpool clears his own token via the trait. He attacks Iron Man, but missed due to a theme team Prob from the Widow. On my Turn Widow Hit for 3 (2 after toughness). Iron Man misses. On my opponents turn he heals one.

Between some bad dice roles and another theme team prob, my opponent doesn’t get in any more damage this game. However it still ends up being a long game due to Deadpool’s 8 clicks and his healing ability. It probably took me at least 13 clicks of damage to get all the way through that 8 click dial because of all the healing.

Deathstroke was the weak link here. That sounded weird saying that.

But hey, at least Deadpool liked my recap:

Round 2:

Kinda unladylike to fart out a whole Legion of superheroes. Like, one or two is fine, but not a whole legion.

The Quest for Cosmic Boy? How about figuring out why space is suddenly ORANGE first?!

Facing:

SM010R Supergirl

SLOSH001 Cosmic Boy

SLOSH003 Lightning Lad

ATA009 Legionnaires * 3

Total = 300 Points

To start off this battle I moved about a 3rd of the way up the map behind some blocking terrain. That was enough for my opponent to use his Cosmic Boy’s double TK to get the alpha strike on me. Supergirl hit Iron Man for four and it was all transferred to the CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent for a KO. Luckily Lightning Lad misses his attack. One my turn Iron Man outwits Lightning Lad’s defense and hit’s him for four. A follow up running shot from the Widow gets the KO on Lightning Lad. Both of my characters are pushed. The death of Lightning Lad untokens both of my opponent’s characters due to their ATA.

Supergirl hits Black Widow for 4 with knock back despite a theme team prob and a shape change roll. Cosmic boy flies up to join her. On my turn Widow sidesteps out of range and I clear tokens. On his turn my opponent flies Cosmic Boy up to some elevated terrain and Then uses a free action TK to bring Supergirl next to him.

On my turn Iron Man gets off a 4 damage hit (two after Invuln) with Knockback on Supergirl. Cosmic Boy removes actions tokens and Supergirl grabs an object and hides behind Blocking Terrain waiting for a chance to charge next turn. On my turn I remind my opponent that Iron Man shoots through Blocking Terrain. I outwit Super Girl’s defense and 4 damage scores a KO. Black Widow attacks Cosmic Boy and misses.

One my opponent’s turn he KOs Black Widow with an attack from Cosmic Boy. I clear Iron Man. He clears Cosmic Boy. I Outwit his defense and score a hit for 4. He misses. I finish off Cosmic boy with another hit for 4.

Round 3:

“Wait, didn’t we just do this?”

Facing:

SLOSH001 Cosmic Boy

SLOSH002 Saturn Girl

SLOSH003 Lightning Lad

ATA038 Legion Lost * 3 (set to mystics TA)

Total = 300 Points

My opponent is near the center of the map. I’m a third of the way up in hindering. No one has tokens on them. My opponent starts with a double TK. He sets up Saturn Girl with a clear line of fire to Iron Man. Lightning Lad has to use Running Shot. At this point my opponent stopped to consider whether he should use his Mind Control or Psychic Blast first. I was afraid he was going to Mind Control Iron Man and KO my Agent. Instead he did the Running Shot first doing three to the Agent via Mastermind. The Agent lost his Mastermind power, but was still alive on his last click. Then he used Mind Control on Iron Man. Iron Man did a close combat attack on Widow that hit for 4.

On my turn I started by having Widow try to Incapacitate Lightning Lad. She missed. I had Iron Man Outwit his defense. The Agent used a power action from his TA to increase damage and combined that with his Enhancement to send Iron Man’s damage to 6! He shot at Lightning Lad and KOed him in one hit. Iron Man took a Mystics damage in the process. The next turn Saturn Girl KOed the Widow, but during her time alive Widow was able to use all three of my opponent’s theme Probs!

We each needed some time to clear tokens. The next action was Saturn Girl using Psychic Blast on Iron Man for 2 damage. Iron Man used Perplex to up his defense and cleared. Saturn Girl pushed and missed. Iron Man rolled Regen and got a 6! Full Health! Saturn Girl cleared. The Agent was still alive and used Enhancement on Iron Man. Precision Strike ignored Saturn Girl’s Super Senses and it was another 1 hit KO. He took 1 Mystics damage in return. Next turn Cosmic Boy KOed the Agent while Iron Man had to clear. Cosmic Boy then hit Iron Man for 3 (2 damage after toughness). Iron Man was back on Regen. On my turn I tried Regen and rolled a 1 to get no health back. Cosmic Boy missed on his turn. I opted to not push to Regen. Cosmic Boy had to clear. I tried Regen again and got another 6! Cosmic Boy hit me for 1 damage (after Invuln). I hit him for 3 and took 1 back. He hit me for 2 more (after Toughness). I was back on Regen again, but this time I shot Cosmic boy instead of using Regen and that scored the KO.

I originally thought it was a mistake not to use Mind Control to KO the Agent and then have that damage done to Iron Man instead, but the more I think about it – I think my opponent was right. The stealthy Black Widow was far more dangerous to his team of three ranged attackers.

What I Learned:

IIM001AE Iron Man is a paper tiger. Great on offense, but his defense is poor for a character of his point range. I would hesitate to play him again without a CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent (or two) on my team.
CATWS005 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent was my M.V.P. He absorbed my opponent’s alpha strike every game for my higher value pieces. In the last game he only took 3 damage and his Enhancement and TA were letting him contribute even on his last click. I would use him again any time I was playing a Shield character over 75 points.
CATWS003 Black Widow was good but not great. When she could steal theme probs she was great. Without that she was only good. Her attack value was low. Her ability to Outwit a stealthy figure is very good, but didn’t help me much this tournament. I would like to use her again to see if I can get better results.
SLOSH001 Cosmic Boy is the real deal. His double TK all but guarantees you a double first strike.
DP201 Deadpool was extremely tough, but his offense wasn’t great. My opponent kept getting stuck on clicks 3 and 4 that have a natural 2 damage showing. That’s not good on a 149 point character.

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Critical Missives

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

Author: ninwashui

Local Tournament Report – 9/03/14 @ Gamers Gauntlet (War of the Light Month 4)

Local Tournament Report – 7/23/14 Comics and More (War of the Light Month 2)

Team Ideas – An Army of Gwen

The Build 5!! (Or, What I’d Play At The 6/28/14 ROC at Gamer’s Gauntlet!!)

Local Tournament Report – 6/18/14 Comics and More (War of the light Month 1)

Team Ideas – The Bridge to S.H.I.E.L.D.

ROC’ing the Meta… Just like Shuma-Gorath Did!! (Or, A Look at the Top Pieces for ROC Super Qualifiers!!)

Heroclix – Now with extra Deadpool (A set review for Deadpool)

Local Tournament Report – 5/14/14 Ninwashui’s Kitchen Table

Local Tournament Report – 5/07/14 Comics & More

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