Happy New Year!!
(And no, this doesn’t count as one of your three missing Clix-Mas articles.)
See you soon for more Clix-ness!!
–The Staff at Critical Missives
Holiday
Upcoming Games: Red Vs. Green!! (Or, the Ninth Night of Clix-Mas!!)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Once again, we are shamelessly unleashing the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas! Tonight is Night 9! If you missed The First Night of Clix-mas, you can catch up right here! Night 2 is here. Night 3 is here, you can find the 4th Night of Clix-Mas by clicking here, and Night 5 went down right here! Night 6 is now up, and can be found here. Night 7 showed up right about… here, while Night 8 came stumbling through the door over here.]
Can’t tell if cosplay or real footage…
Another quick local game announcement for SE Michigan Clix’ers…
At 6:15pm on Wednesday, December 30th at Comics & More in Madison Heights, we’ll be playing: Red Vs. Green!
This is a holiday-themed, 400-Point Golden Age game with an entry fee of $5.00.
We will be playing for figures from the “Suicide Squad” monthly LE kit: Deadshot (new sculpt), Amanda Waller (new dial) and Captain Boomerang (new dial), with the winner getting their choice of any of those pieces!! However…
IMPORTANT PRIZE NOTE: IF WE GET THE WIZKIDS ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN HOLIDAY KIT IN TIME, WE WILL AWARD PRIZES FROM THAT INSTEAD!!
The Stipulations: Each entrant will construct two teams: one team shall be comprised of figures whose primary sculpt color is Red; the other team shall be comprised of figures whose primary sculpt color is Green.
Once everyone is paired each round, players will roll for Map Choice as per usual. The winner of the Map Roll shall choose which colored team he or she wishes to play; their opponent must play a team of the opposite color.
Resources, Relics, Bystander Tokens, Constructs and ID Cards are not allowed as part of your Force Build. If a character BRINGS a Relic or Bystander Token with them into play at the start of the game, however, that IS allowed (Emerald Empress and Rick Jones come to mind as examples, although Rick Jones’s sculpt would disqualify him).
In the same vein, Entity Possession is NOT allowed UNLESS the possessing figure started the game on the map (for example, if you paid 185 Points to add Butcher to your Red Team Build, if he’s KO’d, you may then have him Possess another friendly character as per normal; you may NOT field his 25-Point dial).
Colossals and Vehicles are allowed, provided that they are primarily red or green.
A Quick Note About the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas (2015):
“HypeFox and Ninwashui… YOU HAVE FAILED THIS BLOG!“
Well, tonight is Christmas, and, as I’m sure you’ve probably noticed, we’re only on Night 9! Yup. We fell three entries short of our 12-entry goal this. Looking back on things, it’s crazy that we actually accomplished our goal last year–the first year we tried to publish 12 articles in 12 days. This year was a big year personally for both Ninwashui and myself, and we just weren’t quite able to reach the finish line.
Nevertheless, even though we didn’t finish in time this year, that doesn’t mean we won’t finish! You will get your remaining 3 Clix-Mas articles before the clock strikes 2016, so keep checking back with the main page for more new content!
I truly hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season, and we look forward to bringing you more Clix content in the year ahead. Thanks to all of you, we’ve experienced quite a bit of growth this year (more on that on Night 12), and we really appreciate all the great feedback!
Until Then, Stay Safe, and Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire!!
Who Watches the Watchlist: Part Deux!! (Or, The Eighth Night of Clix-Mas!!)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Once again, we are shamelessly unleashing the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas! Tonight is Night 6! If you missed The First Night of Clix-mas, you can catch up right here! Night 2 is here. Night 3 is here, you can find the 4th Night of Clix-Mas by clicking here, and Night 5 went down right here! Night 6 is now up, and can be found here. Night 7 showed up right about… here.]
Hello again!
Two nights ago, we reviewed the Watchlist changes from the beginning of the year. Now we’re gonna take a look at the most recent Watchlist from July 27th of this year. Did these changes make the game better? Or did they go too far in some cases? Let’s take a look!
AKA “The Felix Faust” Watchlist! Who, it so happens, is our first corrected piece to review! Let’s take a look:
- Felix Faust: There were two main changes wrought by Faust’s World Championship dominance. First, all of Faust’s nastiest d20 abilities now have a maximum effectiveness range of 7 squares. What’s that, you say? 7 squares is still pretty damn good? Well, normally I’d agree, but considering that before the Watchlist these shutdown abilities had an effective range of THE ENTIRE MAP, so I supposed I’d have to say that this was a step in the right direction. Pieces that are meant to shutdown the opponent’s pieces are always going to be hard to balance. In this case Faust was just ungodly for his measly 70 Point asking price. The second change that came in the wake of Faust running roughshod over THE WORLD is that d20 rolls can no longer be rerolled. Yup. Rerolling d20’s was a thing in the summer of 2015, since it enabled you to lock your opponent down completely. No more! Verdict: Having played against Mr. Faust since these changes came down, I can say that they probably didn’t do enough. He’s still able to dominate a game if his controller has ANY kind of dice luck!
- Doctor Strange: No changes to the good Doctor, which isn’t that surprising given that Doctor Strange here costs about 80 more points. Verdict: This was the right call. Why Faust was so much cheaper is beyond just about everyone.
- Scarlet Witch: This one’s a little harder to discuss, since her problematic ability is written like a phone book. For the record, this is how her power now reads: HEX MAGIC: Once per turn, after an attack roll has been determined, Scarlet Witch may give the attacker up to 3 Hex Magic tokens if the attacker is within range. A character may not be given Hex Magic tokens if they would have more than 3 Hex Magic tokens on their card. For each token she gives the attacker, reduce the attack total by 1. Opposing characters may be given a free action to remove a Hex Magic token and modify any friendly character’s attack value by +1 this turn. Basically, they added the “A character may not be given Hex Magic Tokens if they would have more than 3 Hex Magic tokens on their card” bit. Verdict: Her ability was worded veeerry loosely originally, so I’m not surprised it got changed. Pretty moderate change, too. And definitely necessary.
- Yellow Power Battery: No change. Verdict: Nor should there have been. This Battery works just fine.
- Orange Power Battery: Ditto. Verdict: Ditto.
And there ya go! This Watchlist wasn’t as packed as the last one. Does that mean WizKids has learned their lessons and taken the appropriate measures to make sure we’ll never have to deal with another Watchlist ever again?
Uhh… no. But that’s okay. At least WizKids is quicker to own up to a huge failure now and do whatever it takes to fix it. It seems like they’re making a concerted effort to achieve a modicum of transparency.
Having said all that, I’ll see ya tomorrow night for the 9th Night of Clix-Mas!!
Merry Christmas… Eve!! (Or, The Seventh Night of Clix-Mas!!)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Once again, we are shamelessly unleashing the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas! Tonight is Night 6! If you missed The First Night of Clix-mas, you can catch up right here! Night 2 is here. Night 3 is here, you can find the 4th Night of Clix-Mas by clicking here, and Night 5 went down right here! Night 6 is now up, and can be found here.]
And now for something completely different!!
While we still have a bunch of Heroclix content in the pipeline, tonight we’re actually taking a night off from Clix content to bring you one of my pet projects. It’s a series of comedy shorts on the web called Suburban Heroes.
The Premise: In a world where superheroes exist, two slackers decide to form a superhero team to get their hands on grant money from the government so they don’t have to get real jobs. But in order to qualify for the funding, they must have a team member with a real power, so they decide to recruit one in the most natural way they know: while filming the whole thing as a reality TV show.
The Trailer: Can be found right here.
The Pilot: Check it out right here!
And we’ll see you later for more Clix-Mas 2015!!
The Ghosts of Clix-Mas Future Part 2: Electric Bugaloo!! (Or, The 4th Night of Clix-Mas!!)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: We are unleashing the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas! Tonight is Night 4! If you missed The First Night of Clix-mas, you can catch up right here! Night 2 is here. And last night’s article (Night 3) is here.]
Welcome to the 4th Night of Clix-Mas! Last night we took a look at the Clix we know we’re getting in the first six months of 2016. Tonight, we’re gonna put our thinking caps on and speculate at what we MIGHT be getting in the second half of the year.
JULY 2016:
‘Murica!! F-yeah!!
AUGUST 2016:
I have no idea who took this photo, but it’s awesome. I found it here.
Looking back, there were even MORE Marvel sets before August last year (or at least it sure seems like there were), and August brought us Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and some brand new Vehicle rules. So this really could go either way.
Here’s how I would handicap it:
If it’s Marvel, this has to be a Spidey set, right? The two things we haven’t seen in awhile from Marvel Clix are a ton of Spideys and monsters, both generic and otherwise. Both were prominent in the recently rotated Amazing Spider-Man, and monsters aren’t going to sell a set on their own.
If it’s a DC set, then this could really be anything, then, but let’s narrow it down based on what we know. We know WizKids likes making money (this may shock you, but most businesses work like this); we know that WizKids likes to headline sets with major characters in the set name and/or on the box, even if they barely show up in the set itself (coughSLoSHcough), because it tends to boost sales.
(At the risk of starting a Marvel/DC flame war, you could argue that WizKids has been a little more adventurous with their Marvel license having based sets around Deadpool, GotG and Nick Fury in the last two years alone. Hmmm…)
We also know that DC has pretty much thumped the Trinity drum to death the last year and a half with sets based on, well, the Trinity (Trinity War), Superman (Superman/Wonder Woman and the upcoming World’s Finest), Wonder Woman (see previous examples) and Batman (again, see previous examples).
While it’s still possible we’ll see an all Batman set, it’s almost as likely that we’ll see something Green Lantern related, especially if War of Light rotates out of Modern (which would be aggressive on WizKids’s part, but not inconceivable, given how much trouble the Entities caused). With sub-themes that could fit in the Lantern framework, this would be a decent way to go.
But.
If WizKids was ever going to base a set on a non-Trinity, non-Justice League IP, this would be the perfect time to unleash a Suicide Squad set. While that would have been unthinkable even three years ago, we got Guardians of the Galaxy in August of 2014 because of the movie that was being released at the same time; well, Suicide Squad is in theaters starting in early August of 2016.
The final prediction and handicap:
A DC Suicide Squad set: (I’ll give it as high as 3-1 odds)
Runner-Up: A Marvel Spider-Verse set (which I’d put at about 5-1 odds)
SEPTEMBER 2016:
Again, just a Monthly OP kit. Which could really be anything.
OCTOBER 2016:
Of course we’ll get another Monthly OP kit, but I could also see WizKids sneaking in a second Turtles Gravity Feed here if the first one sells as much as it seems like it will. Yu-Gi-Oh! is always a possibility, too.
NOVEMBER 2016:
Another Monthly, but the main draw here will be the last set of 2016. And based on everything we just discussed (remember, I predicted Suicide Squad for August), I’m going to say that in November, Marvel takes a chance on another character not named Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk or Spidey:
Doctor Strange!
Yes, this could still be a Spider-Verse set, but there is going to be a ton of marketing dollars thrown around for this movie, so if WizKids wanted to switch things up, this would be the time to do it, since those marketing dollars will mitigate a lot of risk!
Plus, we could see a Secret Wars Chase sub-Theme (with Strange as the leader of the Black Priests, Ultimate Reed as the Maker and maybe, just maybe we’d even get a Rabum Alal Doom!) or even a monsters-as-Howling Commandos sub-theme (which would open the door for a lot of monster Clix updates!).
(5-1 Odds)
DECEMBER 2016:
The Monthly OP kit will feature another Holiday-themed figure. Gonna guess it’ll be either ol’ Saint Nick himself, one of his reindeer or a Snowman.
Well, there you have it. Tons of needless speculation about what may or may not come in time for Christmas 2016!
And for more crazy Heroclix discussion, check this space tomorrow!!
The Most-Wanted Ghosts of Clix-Mas Future!! (Or,What We Want to See in 2016!!) (Or Or, The 3rd Night of Clix-Mas!!)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: We are unleashing the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas! Tonight is Night 3! If you missed The First Night of Clix-mas, you can catch up right here! Night 2 is here.]
“No, look even farther into your own timeline. Farther still. There? Do you see it? That speck floating on the horizon of a distant future? Yup! That’s the next time they’ll update the Heroclix PAC and rulebook!“
Welcome to Night 3 of the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas!!
Tonight I’m gonna take a look at which sets we know are coming in the first half of 2016 and what I hope we’ll get when they arrive!
FEBRUARY 2016:
World’s Finest:
–We already know we’re getting in the Lex Luthor/Joker Duo Figure a cooler piece than anything I could have suggested. Having said that, I have to say I’m not overly excited for the known Sub-Themes: Metal Men, Doom Patrol and, uh, magical characters.
I know there are a few Metal Men fans out there, but those characters don’t really move the needle much for me. If we’re getting New 52 Doom Patrol (which we almost have to assume we are, right?), those will be more figs I don’t have to collect. And we pretty much got every DC magic-user I’d ever want in Trinity War. Zatanna and John Constantine are great characters, but I doubt WizKids will think they’re popular enough to warrant inclusion here so soon after their last appearances. That usually only happens for the main Justice League characters (really just the Trinity) and, like, Lex Luthor.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Tell that to Bizarro and Felix Faust, who seem to be showing up in every DC set lately… ]
–I would have also wanted another Resource at some point in the upcoming year, and now we know we’ll be getting the Justice League Teleporter as a case incentive (not unlike the 2 Resources that debuted with Trinity War earlier this year) AND that it will utilize all the Justice League ID Cards that will come in this set.
Getting another Round Table-style Resource so soon after getting, y’know, the Round Table, is kind of odd; at the same time, you knew this was coming at some point, and I’ve actually found the ID Cards to be kind of fun.
–I really enjoyed the Super Rare Kingdom Come Flash update from Flash last year, and I’d love more updated Kingdom Come figures here. While we don’t know what the six Chases will be, I’d be surprised if they did a full KC Chase run.
Still, I’ve heard rumors of a possible Bat Sentry update, which would be welcome news. Perhaps WizKids could even give us just one KC piece a set, in the way that they’ve been trickling out Squadron Supreme Primes in every Marvel set for the last three years.
Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Movie Tie-In Set):
–So we’re finally getting a DC Movie set with actual Chases and Target Exclusives and the whole nine yards? This actually has me pretty geeked!
–We actually know a good deal already about who will be in this set based upon what we know from the movie news that’s already leaked AND the roster list for the Starter Set! That roster includes:
Batman (sure). Superman (obviously). Wonder Woman (well, she was all over the trailer, so that’s to be expected). Lex Luthor (ditto). Mercy Graves (?! We knew she’d be in the movie, but we weren’t even sure if they’d be doing a version of her with powers.) Annnnd… Aquaman? Apparently Jason Momoa is in more of this movie than we thought.
–Bats, Supes and Wonder Woman should all have Common versions in the main set. Lex and Mercy could be Commons or Rares. I’m guessing Aquaman will be a Rare. Doomsday’s been spoiled now, so he could be a Rare or a Chase. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a Bats/Supes Duo as a Chase as well. We shall see in… good Lord, in like two months, right? Man this is coming up quick!
MARCH 2016:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Set 1):
–I’ve already gotten my big want for this set: that it would be Modern Age legal! Beyond that, I was always more a fan of the cartoons growing up, so as long as we get the Turtles, April, Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady, I’ll be a pretty happy camper.
APRIL 2016:
Captain America: Civil War Movie Set:
–My biggest want from this set would be a MCU Black Panther piece (I love the character, so I’m excited for his MCU debut), and since we know he’s in the Starter, we know he’ll also be in the set!
–Even more so than Dawn of Justice, this set has no shortage of figure possibilities. We know Cap, Iron Man, Black Panther, Black Widow, Hawkeye, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier will all show up, and all (except maybe Vision?) are pretty safe bets to get at least one figure in the 18-figure main set. So if everyone we just mentioned gets a slot, that’s ten figures right there. We also know Ant-Man and Spider-Man will both show up, and General Thunderbolt Ross is back for the first time since The Incredible Hulk (and may or may not turn into Red Hulk–my money’s on “not,” but whatever). Brock Rumlow is also back, this time as the villainous Crossbones, so he’s a good be to be Clix’d again, too.
–Having said all that, I think a MCU-debuting Spidey would make for an awesome Chase; I just don’t think we’ll get it. May not even get a Spidey at all (although I’d be pretty bummed if we didn’t get a Scott Lang Ant-Man as well, since Wizkids sat that movie out). I’m betting the Chases will be (yet another) Iron Man/War Machine and Captain America and the Winter Soldier Duo figs. Which I’d be fine with, but would seem like a lost opportunity to blow our minds with Spidey or Ant-Man.
MAY 2016:
Civil War SLOP:
–Introducing Battle Royals into a SLOP event could either be really fun (if implemented correctly) or really muddled (if implemented incorrectly). The sculpts we’ve seen so far look cool, and I’m interested to see exactly how the Bounty Card system will work. Doesn’t seem like there will be any Chases, which I find a bit disappointing but I know others would prefer, and the set overall seems a bit small, so I’m very interested to see the roster for this release. And the Grand Prize, which still isn’t clear.
“Finally… the X-Men have come BACK… to HeeerrroooClix!“
Uncanny X-Men:
–Wolverine and the X-Men and Deadpool were both so good, I don’t know what I want from this set!
–It would be great to get some of the classic characters in their iconic 80’s uniforms again, and Chases based on a classic event like “Fatal Attractions” would be great. But I think what EVERYONE seems to be asking for, and what WizKids seemed poise to deliver before the unofficial shutdown on the X-Men license, is an…
Stop teasing us, WizKids…
–Age of Apocalypse sub-theme! It’s one of the greatest Marvel storylines that has never been fully exploited in a Clix release.
MISC.:
–And of course we also know we’re getting more cool monthly prize kits featuring:
The Sinister Six; White Lanterns; Gamma Smash! (Red Hulk, She-Hulk & A-Bomb); The Brave & The Bold; Guardians of the Galaxy (Sweet!); and the Injustice League.
What will the last six months of 2016 look like? Well, that will require a lot more speculation… and another Night of Clix-Mas!
See ya tomorrow!
Thoroughly Modern (Age) Millie! (Or, The First Night of Clix-Mas 2015!!)
I think this actually happened…
Welcome to the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas, 2015!! We had so much fun with this gimmick last year [EDITOR’S NOTE: I said it was “insane and fun,” not “insanely fun.” There’s a difference!] that we’re going to try it again this year!
For those who missed last year’s festivities, every night for the next 12 nights, we’re gonna post some sort of Heroclix-related content. Might be as little as a couple of funny pictures, or as much as a 4000-word essay on the state of the Meta. Each night will bring something new!
Tonight we’re gonna briefly discuss the recent revelation that the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set will be Modern Age legal and what this might mean for “OtherClix” sets going forward!
Wizkids Prexy Justin Ziran recently granted the Comic Shenanigans podcast a three part print interview. Part One was released here; Part Two can be found here; as of this writing, we’re still waiting for the publishing of Part Three.
But there was plenty of great stuff to talk about stemming from just the first two parts of the interview. In a follow-up forum on HCRealms.com, Justin Ziran responded to a poster by straight-up declaring TMNT WILL be considered Modern Age, thus immediately making that set relevant to just about everyone who plays Clix.
This is now tournament legal. Prolly not gonna get theThemed bonus, though.
Art by Mike DeCarlo.
I for one have been waiting for WizKids to do this for quite some time. There’s no doubt that my excitement for certain side sets (read: LotR) dissipated almost immediately when I found out that none of the pieces were Modern Legal. It’s the main reason I didn’t buy a ton of Pacific Rim, even though I loved most of those pieces.
Assuming TMNT hits, hopefully we can expect this sort of treatment on most if not all “OtherClix” sets going forward. I’ve loved that the Movie Sets (Avenges: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, Man of Steel, etc.) are Modern Age tourney legal, since it gives folks many more options to explore when creating a team. Well, this is taking that concept to the Nth Degree, and I personally believe it will only help the game grow.
What good is it trying to draw in more players with a Movie Tie-In set if once they get hooked on the game THEY CAN’T USE ANY OF THE PIECES THEY JUST GOT?!?!
I hope WizKids won’t be shy now about acquiring some great one-off licenses to augment the main Marvel and DC game. Star Wars? World of Warcraft? Starcraft? Hell, if Halo-Clix had been Modern Age when they came out, I would have bought a metric poop-ton.
Do you think making all “Otherclix” sets Modern Age in the future is a good idea that will lead to Build versatility in the Meta? Or will it just make things more confusing? Sound off in the Comment Section below!
And come right back here tomorrow for Night 2! We’ll be taking a closer look at what sets, intellectual properties and characters YOU want in the upcoming year!
Until Then, Stay Safe, and Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire!
Coming Soon… Again!! (Or, We Rip Off the 12 Days of Clix-Mas Gimmick… Again!!)
So, Christmas is sneaking up on us, and once again, Ninwashui and I are mixing our metaphors, flying high with our training wheels off and jumping into the deep end without a net.
Yup. We’re gonna try doing the whole “Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas” all over again this year. That means that one of us will post an article every day for twelve days straight, with the last one appearing on Christmas day.
This, of course, is assuming that our fingers don’t fall off as we keep typing for 12 straight days.
(To see how it all ended up, here’s the last entry from 2014. It contains links to every article we wrote during the first “Clix-Mas” last year.)
Some articles will be short little rants or observations; a few may be long continuations of some of our popular staple columns; many entries will fall somewhere in-between.
So we’ll see you right back here real soon for the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas!
God help us.
(Every one.)
Until then, Stay Safe, and Watch Where You Draw You lines of fire!
Trick or Treat!! (Or, Happy Halloween!!)
( LukeRadl via now defunct lifeisamovingslideshow1993.tumblr.com)
Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!
Critical Missives will be back next week with a Top Ten review of Superman/Wonder Woman. We’ve also got a few other articles cooking in the fire; more on those when there a liiiiil’ bit closer to being done!
Until then,
Stay Safe! And Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire!
Patriotic Ant-Man!! (Or, Happy 4th of July 2015!!)
The Fourth is here once more! A Happy Holiday is wished by all of us here at Critical Missives to all of you out there celebrating! And, for our non-American readers, we’d like to once again wish you a Happy Saturday!
We’ll be back on Sunday or Monday with a look at some of the better Avengers ID Cards, and Ninwashui has been cooking up even more Team Ideas as well.
So we’ll see you soon! Until then, as always:
Stay Safe (especially when shooting off fireworks!), and Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire (um, again, ESPECIALLY when shooting off fireworks!)!!
Critical Missives 