The Ghost of Irresponsible Speculation Is Back With a Look at Modern Marvel/DC stories That Would Make Great Heroclix Sets!! (Or, The Ninth Night of Clix-Mas!!)

December 22, 2017December 21, 2017 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to Clix-Mas 2017, wherein we here at Critical Missives rather foolishly try to provide you with twelve different articles in twelve days, all brought to you by either the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, or the Ghost of Christmas Future! If you need to catch up with our intro to all of this, the first Night of Clix-Mas 2017 can be found right here! And we announced a new Holiday Scenario for our local venue on Night Two! And the Ghost of Christmas Past named a few of his favorite things from the past Clix year right here! On Night Four, the Ghost of Christmas Present left us his Top Ten Figures from Star Trek: Away Team!! Then, the Ghost of Christmas Future gifted us some Irresponsible Speculation about IndyClix!! Later, the Ghost of Christmas Future came back and talked about licensed properties that would make great Clix sets! Then the Ghost of Christmas Present gave us a presentation of the Top Eleven most valuable Heroclix released this year! Finally, yesterday, the Ghost of Christmas Future published an editorial on the putrid state of Marvel’s publishing division and why that makes IndyClix sets even more important to Wizkids!]

Justice League: Trinity War showed how one plot line from the comics can form the backbone of a regular set release, not just Storyline OP’s.

Welcome to Night Nine of The Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas, our annual event where our little operation here tries to churn out fresh content for twelve straight nights!

After yesterday’s semi-editorial about the woeful state of Marvel publishing, I thought today would be a great day to look at three recent (read: published in the last five years) Marvel or DC stories that would form the basis for great Heroclix sets (or even just great sets in general)!

So without further ado, let’s dive right in!

1. DARK KNIGHT: METAL:

From the last five years?! How about a story that’s ONGOING RIGHT NOW! Now, Wizkids might have to make a slight title change for marketing purposes–maybe something like “Batman: Metal” or “Justice League: Metal,” although it’s not impossible that they’d be just fine with the name as is.

But this set would allow Wizkids to give us:

–All new versions of the Justice League;

–Cool, creepy generics like Jokerized Robins; more Court of Owls pieces;

–Alternate Earth versions of DC heroes and villains;

–Primes:

Common Prime: Jokerized Damien Wayne;

Uncommon Prime: Joker of Earth-22;

Rare Prime: The Superman of Earth-1 (renegade Superman who the Batman of that world killed by becoming the Devastator);

Super Rare Prime: Nightmaster;

–Chases:

The Dark Knights (The Red Death, The Devastator, The Drowned, The Dawnbreaker, The Merciless, The Murder Machine, The Batman Who Laughs) and Barbatos.

I think a set like this would have DC Heroclix fans really excited, and it would synergize well with this year’s Elseworlds and Harley Quinn sets!

2. TIME RUNS OUT:

This was the lead up to Secret Wars, but that encompasses like two or three years worth of comics!

–You’d have entire teams of alternate Earth Avengers you could draw from;

–Strange, never before seen POWERFUL generics like the Black Priests;

–Ultra powerful Chases like Doctor Strange as the leader of the Black Priests; a new Black Swan piece; Thanos leading the Cabal; and Doctor Doom as Rabum Alal.

All of which would lead us into…

3. SECRET WARS (2015):

This could even be a Storyline OP, right?

But we would get:

–The members of the 616 life rafts;

–The long awaited return of the Fantastic Four, although not quite as we remembered them;

–Any number of alternate versions of all of the Marvel Heroes and Villains–you could cherry pick from your favorite tie-in Battleworld series;

–A Colossal Thing as “The Wall!”

–More Thanos!

–A Chase Molecule Man, Chase Black Panther (with Infinity Gauntlet), or even…

–An Ultra-Chase God-Emperor Doom!!

So yeah, there are still plenty of other great stories from Marvel and DC out there for Heroclix to adapt!

Which ones would you like to see?

Sound off in the comments below!

Why IndyClix Matter!! (Or, The Ghost of Christmas Future Is Back With an Editorial!!) (Or OR The Eighth Night of Clix-Mas 2017!!)

December 21, 2017December 21, 2017 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to Clix-Mas 2017, wherein we here at Critical Missives rather foolishly try to provide you with twelve different articles in twelve days, all brought to you by either the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, or the Ghost of Christmas Future! If you need to catch up with our intro to all of this, the first Night of Clix-Mas 2017 can be found right here! And we announced a new Holiday Scenario for our local venue on Night Two! And the Ghost of Christmas Past named a few of his favorite things from the past Clix year right here! On Night Four, the Ghost of Christmas Present left us his Top Ten Figures from Star Trek: Away Team!! Then, the Ghost of Christmas Future gifted us some Irresponsible Speculation about IndyClix!! Later, the Ghost of Christmas Future came back and talked about licensed properties that would make great Clix sets! And finally, the Ghost of Christmas Present gave us a presentation of the Top Eleven most valuable Heroclix released this year!]

And so we’ve made it to Night Eight, which means we’re two-thirds of the way through The Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas, 2017!!

So tonight at my local venue we were playing the Holiday Havoc Scenario (from Night Two) and in between rounds I was talking to one of our regular players about Marvel comics. It turns out that neither of us had read much from Marvel in the last two years (for me, nothing really since Secret Wars, which was, what, like 2015?). And the more people I asked, the more I got the same(ish) answer.

Now, I don’t want to get into any of the corporate politics at Marvel or why their books have pretty much gone off the rails in terms of sales–there are plenty of other outlets that have been covering Marvel’s ongoing publishing death spiral (and whether the recent ascendance of new Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski will turn things around) for the better part of a year.

Actual internal sales document from Marvel…

What I’m more interested in is the effect this fallow period might have on Heroclix. It’s tough to make a game based on a comic book license if the comics themselves have no following. And when you consider that Marvel sets make up the bulk of the Heroclix product line, this has the potential to become a huge issue.

Hell, Wizkids almost went out of their way this past year to create Marvel sets that had nothing to do with current or even rectent storylines in the comics. Let’s look at the Marvel set releases (minus the MCU sets which, obviously, were based on movies and not comics):

Deadpool and X-Force: Okay, this took from both old and somewhat recent Deadpool comics. Fair enough.

Avengers/Defenders War: Uhhhh… what? This story was decades old. And the main Sub-Theme, Marvel Knights, primarily–yet unofficially–revolved around all of the Marvel Netflix heroes.

What If… ?: Again, an older series about alternate versions of superheroes that I don’t think has been published by Marvel in years. There were a few newer figs (like the Young Avenger versions of the Runaways), but not many.

The Mighty Thor: Among all the classic Thor stuff, I think there were maybe five or six pieces pulled from the last three years worth of stories, like Jane Foster Thor, Angela Prime and Colossal Ms. Marvel, among others. Out of more than seventy pieces!

So what does all this have to do with Indy Clix? Well… I think this is part of the reason why Wizkids has been pursuing other licenses like TMNT and Star Trek. Furthermore, I think it’s at least part of the reason why those sets are all Modern Legal, where previous Indy sets like Kick-Ass 2 or Pacific Rim or Iron Maiden were not.

Could we ever get to a point where Wizkids is releasing mostly MCU, DC and Indy sets in a calendar year?

Heck, the fact that Star Trek: Away Team was a 5-figure booster set instead of a Gravity Feed was almost shocking! Could this have been a stealthy “proof of concept” for Wizkids to show that the game could survive without the need for strong Marvel-publishing-based sets?

Well… no. I think that’s all just conjecture that I made up literally while I was typing the last couple paragraphs.

But! I think Marvel’s sales numbers HAVE to be concerning to Wizkids. I think they welcome the fact that Infinity War is coming out next year and that they have a chance to again revisit some old cosmic Marvel stories from the 90’s as a result!

So that’s all I have for today. But I don’t want to be all doom and gloom–tomorrow we’ll look at a few Marvel and DC stories from the last 5 years that could be adapted into great Heroclix sets!

The Ghost of Christmas Present Presents… The Top Eleven Most Valuable Figures of 2017!! (Or, The Seventh Night of Clix-Mas!!)

December 19, 2017December 19, 2017 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to Clix-Mas 2017, wherein we here at Critical Missives rather foolishly try to provide you with twelve different articles in twelve days, all brought to you by either the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, or the Ghost of Christmas Future! If you need to catch up with our intro to all of this, the first Night of Clix-Mas 2017 can be found right here! And we announced a new Holiday Scenario for our local venue on Night Two! And the Ghost of Christmas Past named a few of his favorite things from the past Clix year right here! On Night Four, the Ghost of Christmas Present left us his Top Ten Figures from Star Trek: Away Team!! Then, the Ghost of Christmas Future gifted us some Irresponsible Speculation about IndyClix!! Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Future came back yesterday and talked about licensed properties that would make great Clix sets!]

It’s Night Seven of the Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas!!

Today, just for poops and giggles, we’re gonna look at the Heroclix secondary market and determine which figures were the most valuable pieces released this year!

Now Heroclix usually follows the secondary market pattern of most other collectible games: high prices upon release; a big price dip two to four weeks after release; and then usually a tiny rebound that flattens into a plateau thereafter.

But every now and then, some pieces buck this trend, and it’s not always related to how competitive a piece is.

This is the story of the twelve most valuable pieces released by Wizkids in 2017.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: A quick caveat: there’s hundreds, if not thousands of places to buy Heroclix out there. For today’s purposes, we’re going to narrow it down and just compare prices from two of the larger outlets: eBay and Troll & Toad. Beyond that, your mileage may vary.

Finally, obviously this pricing research is current. If you’re actually living in the future and looking back at this article, just think of it as a snapshot of where the Heroclix secondary market at the end of 2017!]

11. DXF065 Pirate Deadpool — $63 – $89.95 on eBay; $54.99 on Troll & Toad;

Deadpool and X-Force was a big hit when it came out in March. The Chases all have synergy with each other, and after the release dust settled, Pirate Deadpool turned out to be the most valuable of the Chases (well, sort of–keep reading for the exception).

Having said that, Pirate Deadpool is a good piece that doesn’t specifically have any Meta implications. This valuation seems to be mostly fueled by the piece’s scarcity combined with the fact that it’s Deadpool in a pirate outfit (which, granted, is pretty cool).

10. EW050 Superman — $64.99 – $109.95 on eBay; $59.99 on Troll & Toad (1 left);

The Dark Knight Returns Chases from Elseworlds were all great pieces; this particular Superman is an absolute beast. His value is also helped by the existence of the Thor equipment, which gives him viability as an essentially one-man army (Thunderball’s Wrecking Ball or Thor’s Mjolnir make this Supes ridiculously deadly).

9. TMTG004 Carnage — $55 – $100 on eBay; $64.99 on Troll & Toad;

Almost all of the Colossals from The Mighty Thor are great; this one combines an absolutely murderous dial and power set with the fact that it features one of Spidey’s most popular villains in a way that we’ve never seen him before in the game.

8. EW049 Green Arrow — $73 – $109.95 on eBay; $79.99 on Troll & Toad;

Another Dark Knight Returns Chase from Elseworlds. This piece was going to be popular regardless; the fact that he’s among the best Call-In characters in the game meant that his value shot up into the $80’s and pretty much sat there. I don’t think it’ll come down until he rotates in 2019–and even then, he may not come down a ton.

7. TMNT3035 Shark Shredder — $??? on eBay (none for sale); $89.99 on Troll & Toad (also Out of Stock);

This beastly Chase was immediately popular with Turtles fans. It’s a great piece in its own right; it’s also needed for the Ocean Resurrection Trait on the Rare Shredder Clone (which is another great piece).

This valuation seems to be a combination of both character popularity and competitive usefulness.

6. TMNT3033 Mini Shredder — $88.00 – $99.99 on eBay; $99.99 (Out of Stock) on Troll & Toad;

See above. Mini Shredder has shown up on a lot of ROC teams on his own.

5. HQ062 Batman, God of Knowledge — $103.36 – $117.53 on eBay; $99.99 (Out of Stock) on Troll & Toad;

Haven’t seen him make a huge difference in the Meta right now. His possible application as a Uni-Mind “silver bullet” seems fine in theory until you look at the rest of his dial and compare it to his point cost.

Still, it’s a Batman Chase, so demand should continue to be high.

4. ADW067 Hawkeye — $94.99 – $124.99 on eBay; $124.99 (Out of Stock) on Troll & Toad;

His Movement Special (RAPID-FIRE TRICK SHOOTING: Hawkeye can use Running Shot. Each time Hawkeye hits an opposing character with a range attack, after actions resolve, he can use Running Shot again as a free action, but only to target a character that wasn’t attacked this turn.) makes him very useful for his points. It’s also a cool sculpt.

3. TMT061 Thor — $119.99 – $153.95 on eBay; $106.99 -$124.99 on Troll & Toad;

While I’ve decided that this particular Thor is better than I initially gave him credit for, this value is being completely driven by the broken Mjolnir equipment that comes with him.

2. HQ063 The Flash, God of Death — $110 – $147.98 on eBay; $139.99 on Troll & Toad;

Probably the most useful of the recent Darkseid War Chases. Still, when Harly Quinn’s prices finally drop a bit, I expect his value to sag enough for Thor to take back the #2 slot.

1. DXF069 Deadpool — $??? (none available) on eBay; $229.99 (Out of Stock) on Troll & Toad;

Deadpool on a unicorn. What more needs to be said? This Ultra-Chase is among the most valuable pieces Wizkids has ever made!

And don’t forget to park it right back here tomorrow for more of the Twelve Night of Clix-Mas!!

The Ghost of Christmas Future Is Back for More Irresponsible Speculation!! (Or, The Sixth Night of Clix-Mas 2017!!)

December 19, 2017December 19, 2017 / HypeFox / 2 Comments

Welcome back! It’s Night Six of The Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas, and we’re continuing yesterday’s Irresponsible Speculation by pondering which non-Marvel, non-DC licensed properties out there would make a great Heroclix expansion!

As always, we’ll start with the obvious…

Image Credit: geekgirl137 (@byntp137)

TRANSFORMERS:

Why It’d Work:

Giant robots in disguise? Hell yeah!

A Heroclix set based on the 80’s cartoon and toy line would kick serious butt. It would also tick all the boxes on the unofficial “Heroclix Licensed Property Checklist.”

–Property with large awareness and appeal to target audience;

–Long roster of BOTH heroes and villains from which to pull figures from;

–Plenty of characters with powers/abilities that would be easily adapted to the Heroclix format;

In fact, this is such a no-brainer THAT IT’S ALREADY BEEN DONE... sort of!

An amateur creator going by the handle “geekgirl137” actually created a whole Transformers Heroclix set and sent two bricks of it to the folks at HyperRPG’s “Indomitable” show! Check it out!

Will We Ever See It?

I’m inclined to say no, for three reasons.

First, I have no idea how much the Transformers license would be, but I’m guessing it might cost more than some of the other licensed properties out there. Also, part of the core business of Transformers is selling action figures, which isn’t in the same category as Heroclix, but isn’t that different at the end of the day.

Also, from a design standpoint, virtually every piece in the set would have the Robot keyword, which could technically lead to Themed Teams of figures that have no business being Themed together.

Finally, these characters are, for the most part, giant robots. Dramatizing that as an actual 3D sculpt that doesn’t look ridiculous next to normal Marvel and DC Clix yet still fits in a Gravity Feed or five figure Booster Pack is definitely going to be a logistical challenge.

G.I. Joe:

Why It’d Work:

The G.I. Joe universe is practically as close as one can get to Marvel or DC without actually being them. Plenty of great, colorful heroes and villains to bring into Heroclix, all with distinct abilities (read: power sets), iconic costumes and cool codenames. Duke, Flint, Gung Ho, Snake Eyes, Quick Kick, Scarlet, The Baroness, Destro, Cobra Commander… this set practically designs itself!

Will We Ever See It?

Look, we’ve gotten the Turtles already. One could argue that this would be the next logical step! While I doubt there’s anything in the works, I could definitely see this happening at some point.

STRANGER THINGS:

Why It’d Work:

Because it’s a hot, modern property!

Stranger Things doesn’t have the breadth of content that the previous two entries on this list have, but it certainly has enough to fill out, say, an 18 piece Gravity Feed set and a Starter.

If nothing else, this set would give us a great Map or two!

Will We Ever See It?

This would be really out of the box thinking. The folks in charge of Stranger Things have been licensing the bejeezus out of the property recently, but I don’t think this would interest Wizkids. Usually, when we see an unexpected property adapted in Heroclix, it’s a film (Kick-Ass 2, Pacific Rim), not a television series. Star Trek: Away Team is kind of an outlier in this regard.

Agree? Disagree? What properties would YOU like to see adapted by Wizkids? And would you like to see an expanded version of this article at a future date? Sound off in the comments below.

And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more Clix-Mas goodness!!

The Ghost of Christmas Past Wants to Talk About His Favorite Things From 2017!! (Or, The Third Night of Clix-Mas!!)

December 16, 2017 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

Wait, why does this Ghost of Christmas Past look like Jim Carrey?!

Welcome to Night 3 of Critical Missives… ‘s… “The Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas!!”

Tonight, the Ghost of Christmas Past is going to tell us a few of his favorite things from the Clix year that was, starting with…

THE MOST UNEXPECTEDLY META SET:

This set released all the way back in early February of this year, and it came close on the heels (just 3 months after, really) of its underwhelming predecessor, TMNT 2: Heroes in a Half Shell.

And yet, this set had hit after hit, from the Rares to the SR’s to the Chases. Almost all of the following characters have seen play in (at the very least) the Top 16 of a ROC:

—TMNT3023 Shredder Clone

—TMNT3028 Leonardo (Space Leo who screws with equipped items)

—TMNT3030 Savanti Romero

—TMNT3031 Wyrm

—TMNT033 Mini Shredder

—TMNT035 Shark Shredder

The Space Turtles were all pretty good, really, as were all of the Shredder Chases. For a set with only 35 pieces, an inordinately large amount of those pieces ended up being really powerful!

This set actually made fans excited for more Turtles sets. Quite the feat considering a lot of folks were having Turtles fatigue heading into its release. We’ll see if Wizkids can keep the momentum going when TMNT: Unplugged releases next March.

THE LONGEST-AWAITED STARTER SET IN HEROCLIX HISTORY:

Sooo… before this was released in August, Heroclix KINDA had rules. In that, there was a rule book, but it was old, and most of it still applied, but there were always some weird interactions, and SOMETIMES Wizkids would address these online, but sometimes they wouldn’t, and in those cases yourguessisasgoodasmineandAAAGGGHHHH!!

This Starter FINALLY debuted the new rules for Heroclix going forward, and the updated wording actually did resolve (and/or prevent) a lot of rules ambiguity. Even if some of the new rules seemed bizarre or needlessly revised (See: Improved Targeting: Blocking; Mind Control; etc.), at least we finally had some guidance from on high. So the actual contents of this Starter hardly mattered beyond the new rules. Buuut…

Holy crap are these good pieces!! This was one of the best Loki’s we’ve ever gotten, and the Hulk piece is also pretty extraordinary (50 Points for free 4-Damage Quake?! Sweet!). And they gave us a 5-Click Cap for 50 Points that comes with Charge, ES/D, Combat Reflexes and CCE! Plus he pumps the Attack of adjacent friendly characters!

This would have been a top-selling Starter if it just had the new rules and 6 trash pieces. Instead, Wizkids put in some good design work on these figures AND included an Asgardian Shield! One of the best products they put out this year.

MOST UNDERRATED SET OF THE YEAR:

What If… ? and Elseworlds sounded great in concept, but by the time Elseworlds debuted in July, the best piece in What If… ? (Goblin King) had been nerfed, half of the Chases were down to about $25 and shops were stuck with bricks that no one really wanted any more.

Also… it’s tough to invest much in full sets of Heroclix that are released in consecutive months! It’s even tougher when those sets reuse sculpts as if Wizkids had to make a 56-piece set out of, like 14 different molds.

Having said all that… Elseworlds is an infinitely better set than What If… ? was.

First of all, the source material (particularly The Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come) is simply better and more popular the What If… ? source material. As a Marvel guy, it hurts to say that, but it’s true. It just is.

Secondly, this set has great pieces at all rarity levels.

–More Shifting Focus Batman and Superman pieces at the Common level (I never loved those pieces, but Ninwashui does and they have shown up intermittently in the Meta);

–Figures like Nekhrun, the Bat God and “Drained Power Battery” Green Lantern at the Uncommon level (I mean, Running Shot/Pulse Wave with Flying, a 7 Range, Indomitable and a TWENTY Defense from range seems fair for 60 Points, right?);

–Kingdom Come The Ray, Green Oracle and The Drummer at the Rare level;

–The very Meta Al Jhor Dan and the extremely efficient The Flying Batman (seriously, compare this piece at 140 to the dials for the Movie Superman or Movie Batman dials from the BvS Movie set last year);

–And a 4-figure murderer’s row of Chases from the Dark Knight Returns. Green Arrow, Superman, Robin… even the Batman piece is really good for his points.

I can’t think of another set that has such a bad reputation while simultaneously being chock full of good pieces.

Well, that’s all for today–I don’t want to step on our annual January “Simply the Best” column–but be sure to tune in tomorrow for some more Clix-Mas!!

The Ghost of Christmas Future Presents: An Upcoming Game!! (Or, The Second Night of Clix-Mas 2017!!)

December 15, 2017December 15, 2017 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

“And that tiny speck, way off in the distance? That’s the day the Marvel/Fox deal clears regulatory hurdles and the X-Men can finally join the MCU!”

Welcome to Night Two of the Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas, 2017!

Today, we going to peek into the future by… well, by about five days!

Have you ever wondered what would happen if all the different holidays started fighting each other for supremacy? No? That’s weird… anyway…

This is the next scenario I’m going to be running at Comics & More in Madison Heights, MI on December 20th at 6:30pm!

THE GAME: Holiday Havoc!!

THE BUILD:Each competitor will field a 400 Point Golden Age team aligned with one of the Holiday-Themed factions listed below. Each character on a force must have at least ONE of the required keywords OR meet the Alternative Requirement.

HOLIDAY FACTIONS:

CHRISTMAS:

Keywords:Mystical, Deity. Alternative Requirement:The Snowfall Team Ability.

Christmas Wish: At the beginning of the game, place a single d6 set to the number 6 on your Sideline. Once per game, you may remove the d6 from your Sideline and replace any rolled die result with the d6 removed from your Sideline. That die result cannot be further rerolled.

HALLOWEEN:

Keywords:Mystical, Monster. Alternative Requirement: Translucent ORANGE somewhere on the character’s sculpt.

Trick or Treat: Once per turn, choose a friendly character. Modify that character’s Attack OR Damage by +1. If an opposing character has been dealt damage this turn, instead modify the chosen character’s Attack AND Damage by +1.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY:

Keywords:Mystical, Translucent Green somewhere on the character’s sculpt.Alternative Requirement:The Tiny symbol.

Kiss Me, I’m Irish: Once per turn, you may give a friendly character an action token. That character can use Enhancement, Empower and Probability Control until the start of your next turn.

VALENTINE’S DAY:

Keywords:Cosmic, Deity. Alternative Requirement:Any two characters who have been romantically linked in their comic book source material (Note: Must field BOTH characters).

Love Hurts: At the beginning of the game, choose an opposing character. Whenever a friendly character is dealt damage by the chosen character, they can use the Mystics Team Ability.

ADDITIONAL RULES:

—No Team Bases;

–No Resources;

–No Relics or Weapons UNLESS they’re specifically brought into play by a character;

–No ATA’s;

–No Possessors;

–Themed Team Rules ARE in effect for Map Choice ONLY! No Themed Team Probs.

ENTRY FEE: $5

PRIZES:Aplenty! This will be our last game of 2017!

NOTES:Yes, I know there’s plenty more holidays to choose from, but I decided to start with these four. If things go well, maybe we’ll bring this game back with updated Holiday Factions come Valentine’s Day!

That’s all for now! If you have any comments or questions, leave them below. Otherwise, come back soon for Night Three of the Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas!!

Yup! It’s the Ghost of Christmas Present, Back Again!! (Or, The First Night of Clix-Mas 2017!!)

December 14, 2017 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

Welcome back to the gimmick that never dies!!

Yup! It’s our annual Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas event, wherein we try to bring you twelve articles in twelve days, or ~~die trying~~ feel really bad about ourselves!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Some quick rules clarifications: this doesn’t necessarily mean one article a day. Some days might have none, some might have two or three. The goal is twelve articles in twelve days!]

Will we succeed? Probably not. We’re batting like 1-3 with these things.

But we will have fun? Uh, … hopefully?

This year, we’re going to separate each article into a “Ghost” subcategory: either Past, Present or Future. What exactly that means will be explained as we go on…

Still, all of us here at Critical Missives want to thank each of our readers and supporters for another great year of content!

Here’s to a healthy and happy 2018!

See ya tomorrow!

I Was On Vacation…

May 4, 2017 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

… so until I’m caught up with work and ready to post again (or until Ninwashui manages to get his Avengers Defenders War Top Ten together… ), enjoy this little video I shot at the Toledo Zoo & Aquarium!

Merry Christmas!! (Or, The 11TH Night of Clix-Mas!!)

December 25, 2016 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

spidey-christmas

Merry Christmas!! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!!

Thank you so much for all of your support this year! Critical Missives continues to grow, and we have our readers to thank for that!

We hope this Holiday Season finds you all safe and prospering, and we look forward to all the excitement–Clix and otherwise–that 2017 will bring!

We’ve got one more Clix-Mas article coming (hopefully) tonight (Ninwashui’s DC Core Set Thought Experiment!), and sometime next week HypeFox will publish his Second Opinion on Joker’s Wild!

Until Then, Stay Safe, and Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire!!

Simply THE REST, Part 2!! (Or, With Apologies to Tina Turner Once More!!)(Or OR The Tenth Night of Clix-Mas!!)

December 25, 2016 / HypeFox / Leave a comment

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Okay, lemme see if I can remember all this: Ahem! Once again (and this time, with feeling!), we are shamelessly unleashing the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas! Tonight is Night 5! If you missed The First Night of Clix-Mas, you can read what it’s all about right here! Night 2 was the nascent edition of a new holiday scenario we’ve been cooking up and can be found… here-ish! Night 3 took a brief look back at Horrorclix. Night 4 was the debut of a new feature called “Overlooked” which examined some pieces from World’s Finest that don’t see quite as much play as they seemingly should… . And Night 5 was Part 1 of a brief 3-part series that examines how Heroclix would look if there were a Core Set released every year or two… And Night 6 saw HypeFox Theory-craft his own Marvel Heroclix Core Set! Night 7 saw Ninwashui calling an audible and promising to throw his hat in the ring and finally write an article! Night 8 featured Ninwashui ACTUALLY writing an article, although, strangely, not the one he promised… Night 9 subverted our old “Simply the Best” gimmick!]

Why wait ’til sometime after Clix-Mas to finish this article when we can do it right now?!

Without further ado…

WORST SUB-THEME

The Nominees:

Court of Owls (Joker’s Wild)

“A Cadre of Characters of a Mystical Origin” (World’s Finest)

Morlocks (Uncanny X-Men)

AND THE CRIT MISS GOES TO…

The Court of Owls saga in the Batman books has drummed up a lot of interest in the Batman books since its inception a few years ago. Considering this, the Court gets surprisingly short shrift in Joker’s Wild.

For their first appearance in Heroclix, the Court gets… four figures (and only 3 different dials). To put that in perspective, Marvel’s jokey “Secret Empire” faction from Deadpool HAD THE SAME NUMBER OF DIALS!!

This seems like a wasted opportunity.

WORST FIGURE TO PULL IN SEALED (Rare, Super Rare, or Chase)

The Nominees:

WF043 Mercury — Rare — 25 Points

JW065 Bizarro Aquaman— Chase — 50 Points

UXM061 Colossus — Chase — 120 Points

AND THE CRIT MISS GOES TO…

At the end of the day, pulling a middling (for the points) close combat attacker WHO NEEDS ANOTHER CHASE TO USE HIS BEST ABILITY seems like it would be a tad bit disappointing, no?

Mercury is actually a solid piece for 25 Points, but he’s in a set where someone could potentially pull a World’s Finest Duo piece and play it at 300, if you pulled Mercury in your pack, good luck to you!

And we’ve already touched on why Bizarro Aquaman sucks so much.

WORST SET OF THE YEAR

The Nominees:

Joker’s Wild

Batman v Superman

Uncanny X-Men

AND THE CRIT MISS GOES TO…

Outside of the Target Exclusive Supes, which has recently seen Meta play with the Brainiac ship (altough that has come to an end via a recent Wizkids ruling that’s too odd to go into here), there was really nothing in the “must-have” department for this set. Which is unusual for a movie tie-in set.

Part of the problem is that it was designed with no original Chases, even though every Marvel Movie Set has had one. Big missed opportunity there.

Joker’s Wild is really top-heavy, but overall it’s a better set than BvS. Same thing with Uncanny X-Men.

Okay!! There you have it. Those were the initial Crit Misses for 2016! I look forward to putting this list together next year! Until then, Stay Safe, Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire and meet me right here tomorrow night for more Clix-Mas goodness!

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