Let’s Make (Nick Fury’s) America Great Again!! (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Prob!!)

nick-furys-america

I’m gonna build a wall of Probs, and I’m gonna make Hydra pay for it!!

Hello Again!! I know we’ve been radio silent for a little while, but today we’re back with another brief Team Idea article before we delve into some TMNT 2 Top Ten love!

So it’s not a secret to point out that Nick (Balls of) Fury is, well, really freaking good. We’re not breaking new ground there.

But with so many Call-In teams dominating the Meta, folks have gotten away from Nick in recent months. Well, this is just completely unacceptable to us PATRIOTS who were enjoying the Howling Commando’s time in the (Meta) sun!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, we are aware of the irony in referring to NFAOS056 Nick Fury as a Howling Commando when it’s one of the only comic-based Nick Fury pieces in the game that DOESN’T have that keyword. Carry on.]

So we came up with a team designed to leverage the temporary, all-in nature of a Call-In team to your advantage. The theory behind this build is to make actually hitting your characters as obnoxious as possible for your opponent. How do we do that? By stacking this team with a bunch of high defense values and evasion abilities and A METRIC TON OF PROBABILITY CONTROL!!

And not just any Probability Control. CHEESY Probability Control. And not just any cheesy Probability Control. We’re talking about the overly processed, double-stuffed, chewy-melty-Taco-Bell-Nachos-Bell-Grande sort of cheese here. We’ve just slathered it all over this roster.

To wit:

cheesy

Team Name: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Prob!!

Theme: None

Roster:

NFAOS056 Nick Fury          — 120 Points

(w/ JLTWR101B Sloth Relic)  — 4 Points

SMWW060 Mr. Mxyzptlk 70 Points

TMNT2029 Renet Tilley    — 55 Points

(w/ JLTWR101F Wrath Relic) — 4 Points

WF066R Spectre                   — 35 Points

JLTWR101 Pandora’s Box   — 12 Points

Total:                                         300 Points

Builder’s Notes: This team uses Pandora’s Box, so I’ve noted in parenthetical which Sins I would suggest playing on each character–your mileage may vary. And since timing is always crucial when using Pandora, I would start the game with Fury next to Renet Tilley (pretty obvious), give Fury a power action to equip the Sloth Relic and THEN have Renet ‘port everyone to where you want to set up camp.

Pushing Renet onto Click 2 to equip Wrath will give her Willpower, Combat Reflexes and put her on her best Click (the one that lets her Prob from anywhere on the Map).

And you’re off!

But enough about starting moves. Let’s go over this roster in a little more detail, and really dig in to why it can be so frustrating for your opponent, shall we?

Nick Fury Original Sin

Nick Fury is your Primary Attacker, obviously. He sports an 18 Defense, Stealth, Shape Change and a Prob that can be used from 9 Squares away and sees through Elevated and Hindering Terrain and also Characters. So, for someone to take him out or even significantly damage Fury with a Call-In piece, that figure would have to be able to see through Stealth or be placed adjacent to Fury, hope Fury misses his SC roll and then hit an 18 Defense twice.

Except–

Fury’s gonna have the Sloth Relic, so now you’ve got to hit a 19 Defense Value TWICE

Except–

Spectre 2

Tower Defense Mode Spectre is ALSO on this team, and his Damage Special (I SET THIS WORLD ON A DIFFERENT PATH: Spectre can use Probability Control to target a character regardless of line of fire.) along with his 12 Range means that as long as you place him correctly at the start of the game (i.e., somewhere near the middle of the map), he can cover pretty much the entire board with his Prob.

So now you have to hit Nick Fury’s 19 Defense THREE times. Which would start to get silly…

Except–

renet-tilley

Renet Tilley is ALSO on this team, and once you get her to her second Click (which should take you til all of turn 2 to accomplish) she picks up a Damage Special of her own (SCEPTER OF THE SANDS OF TIME: Renet Tilley can use Probability Control regardless of range and line of fire.) that ALSO lets you Prob anyone from ANYWHERE ON THE MAP!

So now you have to hit Nick Fury’s 19 Defense a completely unreasonable FOUR times!!

Except–

MrMxyzptlk

Mr. Mxyzptlk is also on this team, so it is entirely conceivable that even IF you manage to get through Fury’s Stealth, Shape Change and FOUR different Probs to actually hit his 19 Defense, Mr. Mxy can still make it all go away… (stop me if you’ve heard this before… ) FROM ANYWHERE ON THE MAP!!

Now, we haven’t even delved into the fact that if you let Mxy loose on his second Click, he can conceivably tie up your opponent’s entire team with his Special Pulse Wave (ZEROING THE PLAYING FIELD: Mr. Mxyzptlk can use Pulse Wave, but deals no damage when doing so. Instead, give each hit character up to 2 action tokens.).

Or the fact that Renet Tilley is actually a pretty darn good Tertiary Attacker!

But what if my opponent looks at all the odds and decides to attack someone else? Good question!

The Spectre has an 18 Defense with Energy Shield/Deflection and the KC TA, so hitting him (again with all the Probs floating around) isn’t exactly easy. And because of the nature of his special, you can often times tuck him behind some Blocking Terrain that makes him extra hard to get to for your opponent (depending on what Map you end up on, that is).

Mr. Mxyzptlk has a 18 Defense Value with Tiny Size and Super Senses, so he’s no walk in the park either.

And Renet Tilley (once she has the Wrath Relic) is also a 19 Defense no matter how your opponent chooses to attack her (unless they can get close enough for a Pulse Wave, that is).

Now, there are also a few variant versions of this build worth talking about.

First, if you choose to put, say, Greed on Mxyzptlk instead of putting Wrath on Renet Tilley, and then choose Path of the Hunter at the start of the game, you can actually add a FOURTH Prob to your arsenal for roughly 50% of your turns once both Sin Relics are in place. And since Mr. Mxy has a native 9 Range, that’s huge!!

 

But there are probably some of you who think that that’s too much Prob and want to pump up your damage output a tiny bit…

Team Name: Stop Worrying 2: Electric Bugaloo!!

Theme: None

Roster:

NFAOS056 Nick Fury                   — 120 Points

(w/ JLTWR101B Sloth Relic)           — 4 Points

SMWW060 Mr. Mxyzptlk          70 Points

(w/ JLTWR101D Greed Relic)          — 4 Points

TMNT2029 Renet Tilley              — 55 Points

(w/ JLTWR101F Wrath Relic)          — 4 Points

FFNFAOS099 H.E.N.R.Y.            — 15 Points

(w/ JLTWR101G Gluttony Relic)  — 4 Points

JLTWR101 Pandora’s Box            — 12 Points

(w/ remaining 3 Relics)                 — 12 Points

Total:                                         300 Points

This allows you to get all Relics out, although it costs you one Prob. And lil’ H.E.N.R.Y. with Sidestep, Combat Reflexes and a 17 Defense w/ Super Senses (before the CR) can either pump up your Damage Output OR act as a pretty damn reliable tie-up piece!

So while none of these teams are perfect against every Meta build out there (what build really is), you should at least have at least a puncher’s chance in every round!!

Okay, that’s all for today, but we’ll be back soon with a TMNT 2 Top Ten, along with the beginning of our Joker’s Wild coverage!!

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

 

I’m The Best There Is at What I Do… And What I Do Is Lose to the Best!! (Or, Local Tourney Report: ROC Super Qualifier – Eternal Games in Warren, Michigan 10/01/2016)

ROC

While I still play every week or so, in general my family duties don’t allow me to attend some of the bigger HeroClix events. However, on the night before the ROC SQ in Warren, Michigan, I was able to rearrange my schedule to where I had a mostly free day on Saturday.  My only real problem was that I needed to make an ultra-competitive team for a big field of Meta players and I had only a few hours to dream something up.

Still, I had a few ideas floating around in my head:

  • A Pro-Registration team with CWSOP102 Iron Man, CWSOP008 Wasp, and CWSOP020 Jack O’Lantern. I figured if I threw Jocasta and Eclipso on the first two they would be nearly unkillable and Jester was just there to gum up the works. Add in a full Pandora’s Box and that’s 300. [EDITOR’S NOTE: How is “Nearly Unkillable” NOT the title of a straight-to-video Steven Seagal and/or Jean-Claude Van Damme movie? It’s not. I checked. But it definitely SHOULD be!]
  • A Wild Card Team with SFSM049 Spider-Man, AOU007 Yellowjacket, SMWW055P Eclipso, FFJLTW007 Atomica, WF062R Batman and a full Pandora’s Box to make 300. Yellowjacket at full size is a surprisingly capable Taxi. Each attacker had Perplex and Batman could suck up a CSA Team Ability action token each turn with no ill effects.
  • A Soldier team with SMWW065R Superman, CWSOP101 Captain America, UXM057P Proteus, NFAOS062 Captain America’s Motorcycle, SMWWG006P War Wheel (or the Atom), and a full Pandora’s box to make 300.  Sadly I didn’t have a War Wheel or Atom that I could get my hands on in time…
  • The Sinister Syndicate Team I detailed in my Top 10 Article for The Superior Foes of Spider-man. Nearly that exact team took second in an ROC Qualifier down south a few weeks ago.

While I felt those were all at least viable builds (“viable” meaning I’d at least have a chance against most matchups I’d see), I ended up going a different way. So who did I play?

In a way I was forced into the final roster I chose because the only Colossal Retaliation Figure I owned was Titano and I felt Colossal Retaliation would be big on the competitive scene (as it turned out, I was right–Colossals literally LITTERED the field). Since I wanted to play Theme, I was slightly limited by Titano’s keywords. Probably a backwards way into army building, but that’s where I was.

I wanted something that would be really fun for me to play, too. Well, my favorite two HeroClix mechanics are token generation and Stop Clicks. I also wanted multiple attackers and in my opinion Klarion is far and away the best figure in the 60-90 point range I was looking at for the Animal theme. I’d argue he might be the best 70 point figure ever. Still, I needed a Primary figure with the Animal keyword to anchor the Klarions and Titano around.

Arriving at the SQ:

I saw a lot of interesting teams when I showed up. A guy from my venue had a combo team with Black Swan (which seemed like a good idea, but I heard did not go that well). Another guy used some borrowed pieces to play a team centered around CWSOP101 Captain America and CWSOP102 Iron Man (he mentioned later that he didn’t suffer many KOs in his games, but the games were slow and low scoring.) Looking around the room I saw a team made almost entirely of Ultron Drones along with 3 SMWWG003P Brimstone, and a SMWWG004P Solaris. The Colossals were lined up like missiles (just like I talked about doing way back in my Superman Wonder Woman Top 10 article). In general Colossals were on most teams, there weren’t as many KC figures as I would have thought, and one particular figure showed up on a lot of teams… including mine!

devildinosaur

It turns out SFSM054 Devil Dinosaur was on a lot of the top teams. Part of that could have been the fact that the entire world championship team that designed him showed up and was playing him, but in general he was on a lot of different teams. As the day went on I could also see that he was on a lot of teams that WON, including the eventual overall winner. I barely remember seeing Devil Dinosaur in the standings of the last ROC.

So, my final roster was:

Team Name: Pokémon Trainers (Animal Theme)

WF046 Klarion the Witch-Boy

WF046 Klarion the Witch-Boy

SFSM054 Devil Dinosaur

SMWWG005P Titano

JLTWR101 Pandora’s Box (Full)

Total = 300 Points

And off I went!

rules-lawyering

Round 1 VS. A new player from Flint, MI (name unknown):

I remember talking to this guy after we finished our match and he was a real nice guy. He’d only started playing about 6 months previous to our match. Unfortunately, things didn’t go his way. His team was good and his tactics weren’t bad, but this was a bad matchup for him. That combined with good dice for me and bad dice for him meant that I took the win. I score 300 points for the round.

This was actually my first big HeroClix tournament in forever. Before this I had only done local shop play and Battle Royals. In the back of my mind I was worried that all I would face would be “rules lawyers” all day. So this was good friendly opening match to get rid of any nervousness.

aquaman

Or just unite two of me!

Round 2 VS. A Younger Player from Toronto, CA (name unknown)

This round I faced a team with BVS006 Aquaman, FFBVS004R Aquaman, three 30 point Ultron Drones, and a Round Table. In my wildest imagination I never believed I would face an Aquaman today, much less 2. The Drones and Round Table were more of what I expected.

If I had won Map Roll (I had +4 to my roll versus his nothing), this would have been a much easier game. Of course I lost. So now I am fighting 2 Aquamen on a map of entirely water terrain that gives swimmers improved movement and +2 speed.

His force came at me in two waves. The Aquamen came at me first while the Drones slowly advanced. To start off he did a couple of hit and runs with Hypersonic Speed versus the Klarions and Devil  Dinosuar. He made it hard to strike back by using free action Barrier with the other Aquaman to block himself into a corner. He couldn’t attack Titano because of Titano’s Plasticity. It took me a few turns to remember that Devil could see right over the barrier since he was a giant and we were on an outdoor map. So I popped out both Teekl’s and used their Perplex to pump up Devil’s Damage Value to 5 and had him attack the Hypersonic Aquaman directly.

It was near that time that the Ultron Drones got in range and popped out a Nick Fury. Nick took away Devil’s defensive ability and hit him for 4 damage. I forgot about Devil’s second type of stop click on click 4 and clicked him to click 5 instead. Then both Aquamen followed up and KOed him.

I responded by dropping an angry Titano on the Ultron Drones the next turn. That didn’t go as well as I had hoped. After his first attack dealt 1 damage to each drone, Titano was KOed by future Ultron’s power, “SPIKES AND CRACKLING ENERGY: Ultron can use Poison and deals penetrating damage while using it. If Ultron possesses this power after taking damage from an attack, deal the attacker 1 unavoidable damage.

Thankfully even after Devil Dinosaur was KOed, the Klarions (and one Teekl) empowered by the Box were able to mop up the entire opposing team. In fact, I don’t believe they took any damage after that point. I score 300 points for the round.

Zatara 2

Round 3 VS. Tom Kerr from the Meta Lab

Tom was the eventual first place finisher and he played like it. He was very methodical, but also still very friendly. I lost, but didn’t feel bad about it.

His team was SFSM054 Devil Dinosaur, FFUXM002 Jean Grey, WF048 Zatara (played forward), War Wheel, and a Full round table. Of course I lose map roll. So he takes us to a map with the smallest amount of hindering terrain I have ever seen on a map. Almost none for my Klarions to hide in.

Turn one he has Devil call in Nightwing who brings out Tony Zucco and this advances the Round Table. Then he uses the Wheel to carry his Devil up. I respond by equipping a Klarion with Wrath and then passing. I was thinking that he was going to have to come to me. I was wrong.

On turn two he uses Jean to TK out Zatara. Zatara calls in Green Arrow and uses his Perplex to up green arrows attack to 14. Tony Zucco ups his Damage by one. Green Arrow uses running shot and easily KOs Titano, hurts Devil, and a Klarion. Then Jean Grey simply teleports Zatara back to the starting area. It’s then that I realize the situation I am in. He doesn’t have to come to me. He can hurt me while most of his characters are in his starting area; I have to take my team and go to him or I will lose the game without making an attack.

I move my Klarions up at full speed and my Devil Dinosaur moves up slowly. His Devil Dinosaur is now in the middle of the map and it makes tokens that together with the figure make an incredibly effective roadblock. As I kill his tokens that just advances his table a click or two each KO. He doesn’t really need need them to do damage. They just need to get in the way.

Two turns after the Green Arrow attack Hawkeye shows up and takes out my healthiest Klarion with the exact same starting area TK trick. Somehow I get all the way to his starting area and can attack, but he is already well into power 2 on the Round Table. It states, “I CAN’T GET THERE, BUT I CAN ADVISE: At the beginning of your turn, you may choose an ID Card attached to this resource that you didn’t choose last time. Until your next turn, friendly characters can use the Inspiration of that ID Card.” That combined with the inspirations on the Superman and Wonder Man cards means all of his characters can use Invincible their entire dial every single turn. So even if I had hit Jean Grey I couldn’t have done much. Not that it mattered because my dice revolted on me at that point. My opponent suggested that I throw them out after the game. I should have listened.

My Klarions and Teekls die before Devil Dinosaur can effectively threaten the other team. So it’s just him versus the entire other team. I have some fun taking on his Devil Dinosaur token army versus my token army, but after a couple of turns of that his round table clicks to the end and he spits out a full point Martian Manhunter. I end up only KOing the War Wheel, some Devil tokens, and Tony Zucco (after missing him once). I score 45 points for the round.

arcade

Round 4 VS. Local Player Adam

Adam is well known in the SE Michigan area and I have seen him at every major event I ever attended. He even helped judge the Battle Royals at the Gen Con I attended. He’s very friendly. The winner of our match would make the top 16. The loser might not.

He was playing SFSM054 Devil Dinosaur, a 30 point Ultron drone, UXM018 Vanisher, SMWWG004P Solaris, AVAS044 Arcade, and the Round Table (featuring Nick Fury, Green Arrow, and Spider-Man).

He had an interesting trick built into his team that quite frankly I would like to copy in the future. We did the map roll and he lost. Arcade is pretty bad when he is not on his own map so Adam used a Round table power I have never seen used before, “I’M BETTER SUITED FOR THESE FOES: After revealing your force but before placing characters in your starting area, you may replace a friendly character on your force with an ID Character of equal or less points from your sideline. That character is no longer an ID Character and its ID Card is removed from this resource.” Suddenly that nearly useless arcade was a CWSOP108 Spider-Man.

The Map I picked had lots of walls and made moving up difficult. I stayed near my starting area and kept putting on Sin Relics. I was able to equip 4 before the battle started in earnest. He used Vanisher to take Spider-Man and 3 Devil tokens and they all based my Titano. My devil was close enough to spawn Homocide Crabs, but I was not careful with how close I placed one to Titano and my attack KOed him while it did 1 damage to to the 5 opposing characters. That was my first placement mistake this game.

I had taken out the tokens and a teekl took out vanisher without an issue. When his Solaris retaliated a low roll meant I only lost one crab Token. Unfortunately at that point my rolls turned on me again and they would stay awful for the rest of the game. I spent two turns with my whole force just missing Spider-man. By then his devil was close enough to Call in Green Arrow and that was the turning point. Green Arrow did 1 to my devil and 3 to each of the Klarion hiding in stealth right next to him. That was my second placement error this game.

A turn later his Devil summoned some Rockabilly Modoks and hit my Devil past his bystander summoning clicks. Fearing a Nick Fury Call in next turn I charged in with my Devil and took out his Ultron Drone. That’s where I made my third placement mistake. I could have based all three Modoks and denied him Psychic Blast, but I missed it. On his turn his Devil attacked me and knocked my Devil past Invulnerability and his unbased Modok put my Devil on his last click. I had Regeneration and a use of Probability Control from Teekl. I rolled two 1s in a row and the next turn my Devil was KOed.

After that his Table reached power three and Nick Fury came out and KOed a Klarion. We battled back and forth and as time was called I just had a Teekl left and he had a heavily injured Devil Dinosaur. I scored 190 points just missing out on Devil and two cards.

Conclusion:

At the end of 4 rounds I had scored 835. They posted everyone’s scores and cut the tournament down to just the top 16 at this point. I was ranked as #17. The 16th ranked player had 845 points. I lost by 10 points.

After that I dropped and played Jay Solomon (Meta Lab, Married with Clix, 2 Clicks from KO) and George Massau in the first battle royal of the day. The bad rolls continued and I finished fourth. The good news? HypeFox showed up right after my Battle Royal, won the Battle Royal he joined (by pulling, of all things, a Devil Dinosaur)… and actually ended up with worse prizes winning his heat than I did by losing mine.

superheroes-laughing

Takeaways:

  1. My biggest mistake was made in building my team. As the 3rd and 4th rounds proved the Round Table is far superior with Devil Dinosaur and I think just superior in general.
  2. At any major tournament anyone plays in the near future I will need to have a plan for Devil Dinosaur. Calling in Green Arrow and Nick Fury worked the best today.
  3. I am totally going to use that Arcade trick soon (Thanks Adam!).

A Superior Review of the Top Ten Figures in the Superior Foes of Spider-Man!!

Hey everyone! It’s me, Ninwashui! I’m back!

Where have I been? Well, my family life (a.k.a. my kids) occupies a large chunk of my time now, but this set was simply so hot that I just… haaaaad to neglect them all for a few hours and put together my Top Ten list!

With Great Power

That’s me, Mr. Responsibility!

And look, just to be clear, I would never ACTUALLY neglect my family… unless there was a great set that had just come out. I mean, you didn’t see me wasting any father daughter time on Uncanny X-Men, did you?

(Oh, you still want an Uncanny X-Men Second Opinion? Here is what my Top Ten would have been: Iceman, Iceman, Iceman, Proteus, Common Storm, Mystique, Pixie, Quicksilver, Prime Kitty annnnd Iceman! Bleeeeccch. There were, like, three really good pieces in the whole set. Next!)

Anyway, I was very impressed with the dial designs this time around and the Sealed event at our local shop was great–lots of really close games. So let’s get right to it with…

Some Thoughts About the Set:

  • The Super Rares and Chases in this set are awesome. With the exceptions of Ares, Morlun, and Spider-Man 2211, there could be an argument made that all of them deserve to be on this list. Ares is just alright. Morlun and Spider-Man 2211 don’t have a place on any constructed team that I can think of.
  • The Primes kinda suck. There aren’t many bad pieces in this set and even the Serpent Society has their uses (I can envision a Rattler constructed team.).
Rattler

“Hmmm… should I revolve my team around Rattler this evening?

However the Primes in this set just aren’t good. A Prime is supposed to be (theoretically) extra-powerful for the points that’s why you can only ever have one on a team at a time. Even if I ignored that restriction I don’t see myself ever playing any of these guys. If they are going to keep making Primes like this they should just stop making them.

  • The Call in Help From the Spider-Verse Trait is really powerful and fun. I used it to great effect at the Pre-Release and it allows you to chain together attacks from across the map like never before.
  • They are continuing the trend from UXM: point costs are lower (with only a few 200 pointers in the SR slot), almost no one gets Indomitable, almost no Improved Targeting, and a lot less Improved Movement then they should have had in a set full of spider people. I love this new direction the game is heading. It’s nice that Willpower, Phasing, Leap/Climb, Leadership and Stealth are much more useful now.
  • The sketch variants are super cool. I will always buy or trade for a sketch piece over a standard painted one. Not sure why some people don’t like it; doesn’t hurt the game in any way. But hey, that just means more for me.

But enough thinking! Let’s get to…

My Top Five Honorable Mentions:

Miles

5. SFSM031 Spider-Man – 18 Defense with Combat Reflexes and Shape Change makes this guy a top choice for engaging the opposing team’s best figure in close combat. His special white power PARALYZING VENOM STRIKE lets him deal damage AND gives any opposing character hit and action token. That action token doesn’t deal pushing damage, but it still keeps the opposing figure from taking actions. So it’s great in my book.

When you want to tie someone up, this guy is the one you want to call in from the Spider Verse.

Scarlet

4. SFSM017 Scarlet Spider – Another character whose attack deals damage AND gives any characters hit by a ranged attack an action token. The difference is that this character has Running Shot and two targets. He also has a lot of improved movement options. A Defense of 18 with Super Senses which is just fine for his point cost. His real weakness is getting tied up in close combat. Thankfully he has the Spider-man Family keyword so any other character that you have with the CALL IN HELP FROM THE SPIDER-VERSE trait can transport him out of adjacency and safely back to ranged combat.

Cloak 2

3. SFSM036 Cloak – Sure he’s at his best when played with Dagger, but for 35 points Cloak brings enough to the table that he is worth using without her.  He has Stealth, Improved Movement of every kind, the Spider-Man TA, and the Carry ability. What really puts him over the top is his 18 Defense with Defend. Use him to carry a character into battle and then move him around as needed to keep your teams defense consistently high.

Doc Ock

2. SFSM055 Doctor Octopus – Half Superior Scientist, half Weed Whacker.  This guy is delicate in close combat and is fairly vulnerable to Outwit, but he’s still well worth his points. He has a special power up front that allows him to make far more attacks than any 80 point character should ever be able to make in one turn. It reads, “MENTALLY CONTROLLED TENTACLES: When he makes a close combat attack Doctor Octopus can use Giant Reach: 3 and Improved Targeting: Ignores Characters. Give him a power action to make 4 close combat attacks that deal 2 damage. After actions resolve modify the defense value of any character hit more than 2 times by these attacks by -2 until your next turn.” Your opponent is going to see this coming a mile away and target him first, but if you somehow get Doc Ock to make an attack in the middle of the opposing team then it will all be worth it.

SPidey 001

1. SFSM001 Spider-Man – This is a well rounded Spider-Man. 18 Defense, Charge, Super Strength, Close Combat Expert, and a better form of Super Senses are a good value for 70 points. Where he really shines is when he’s Called in from the Spider Verse. If you can call this guy in and have him appear adjacent to an opposing character, then he can combine his Close Combat Expert with a heavy object and make an attack with 12 attack value and 5 damage! It’s got to be the right circumstances, but that’s exceptional for 70 points.

Which brings us right to…

The Top Ten Figures in the set:

Speedy Demony

10. SFSM040 Speed Demon – He’s not as good as his previous version from the Deadpool set that essentially let you move opposing characters around at will, but he is still very good. He has a lower point cost, much better Defense, and Willpower. If you are playing Sinister Syndicate or Thunderbolts he is almost a lock for those teams. Try this team:

Team Name: Need for Speed

Keyword: Sinister Syndicate

  • SFSM040 Speed Demon
  • SFSM029 Overdrive
  • SFSM056 Chameleon
  • WKM16-001 Doctor Octopus
  • 35 points for ATAs, Resources, Thugs, Etc…
  • Total = 300
  • Strategy Tips: Have Chameleon disguise himself as Jester. Start an Alpha strike up to 11 squares away by having Speed Demon run in, attack, and end up one space back from the target after actions resolve. Give Doc Ock the Power Action to double Flurry. Have Overdrive carry Doc Ock and Jester next to Speed Demon. Share attack value. Give Doc Ock 4 attacks. After those resolve have Jester make Jester Bots to tie up the opposing team. Hopefully do it all again next turn.

Betty Brant

9. SFSM007 Betty Brant – It took thirteen damn years, but they have finally made a worthy replacement to the Rookie Con Artist from the X-plosion set in 2003. Anyone who played HeroClix at that time will know this piece. Betty is admittedly 4 more points than the Con Artist, but those extra points give a second useful click where she can heal your team if needed. She also gets a Trait, “I’LL PROVE MY HUSBAND WAS NOT THE HOBGOBLIN IF I HAVE TO RETRIEVE EVERY GLIDER!: UNIQUE MODIFIER. Opposing characters with “Wing Symbol” modify their speed values by -1. If that character is named Hobgoblin, instead modify all of that character’s combat values by -1.” That might not seem like much, but moving one less space can be the difference between making an attack or not.

Moon Knight.jpg

8. SFSM037 Moon Knight – This is a Secondary Attacker that continues to get more dangerous the longer he is ignored. Moon Knight has a great Special Power that helps him land hits and a Trait that essentially gives him a Stop Click at the end of his dial for every two hits that he lands. And SPOILER ALERT: the last Click on his dial is his best click with 11 attack 18 defense and 4 damage. He should have no problem finding a place with Marvel Knights, Mystical, or Soldier teams. 

 

The Battle of New York. We've seen it, and we covered it.

“The Battle of New York. We’ve seen it, and we covered it.”

7. SFSM006 J. Jonah Jameson – I wanted to come up with something witty here, but user MarcSpectre from hcrealms said it best: “He’s the Spider-man Family insurance policy. He knows a thing or two because he’s seen a thing or two.” If you are going to play with any Spider-Man Family pieces you’re going to want him on your team even if he is going to break your Theme. +2 to Defense on the already high defenses of the spider family is just too high to hit for a lot of teams.

Spider-Man_noir

6. SFSM061 Spider-Man Noir – This is actually one the better ranged attackers in the Spider-Man Family. That and his low 75 point cost makes him one of the best for setting off the CALL IN HELP FROM THE SPIDER-VERSE Trait.

His combination of 6 Range, 11 Attack and Sidestep combine with his Stealth and Outwit to make him a well-rounded figure. He alternates between Outwit and Ranged Combat Expert so you can easily switch his function depending on your need. His 18 defense with Super Senses is perfectly acceptable for his point cost. 

Chameleon

5. SFSM056 Chameleon – HypeFox and I both love this guy. I’ll be very surprised if Chameleon is not high on his list. His flexibility is hard to beat.

Some of our favorite characters so far to use as disguises: CWSOP022 Jester, WKD15-010 Miss Arrowette, SMWW003 Batman, WF034 Batman, UXM047 Mystique, AVAS013A Triathlon, and WKD16-007 Captain Cold. That could actually probably be an article on its own.

Anyway, once he’s hit, if Chameleon’s on click 3 or 4  you could choose to be SMWW026 Clark Kent and start throwing out Hypersonic Superman tokens. Or if you are on exactly click 4, going to JLTW055 Tim Hunter can be a game breaking play. It’s going to be tough limiting this guy to just three options a game…

Spider-Gwen

4. SFSM052 Spider-Gwen – She’s got 18 Defense with Combat Reflexes, just like SFSM031 Spider-Man. But unlike him, she also gets Indomitable. Add that to her Super Strength, Improved Movement, a Traited Super Senses that is impossible to bypass with Precision Strike and her last click that may well send you back to her top dial.

There’s no secret combo with her, she’s just that good.

Thug

3. SFSM005 Thug – This guy is the best ten points you can spend on a Themed Team right now. You will be seeing him abused in multiples and en masse in tournaments very soon. Sure he doesn’t get a Themed Team Prob, but he does get to use ATAs. Pick any good ATA and build a team around that. For example, the Wonders of the World ATA which states, “Give a character using this team ability a power action to heal an adjacent friendly character 1 click. Heal 2 clicks instead if the adjacent character has the Wonders of the World keyword. Deal the character given the action 1 unavoidable damage.” Suddenly any thug you play is a heal battery for your real characters. The Sinister 12 ATA is also a good choice, “When you have more characters on the map than each opponent, modify the attack value of each character using this team ability by +1.

They are also really great to fill out keywords that don’t have enough pieces, or enough good pieces, or enough low cost pieces. Want to make an Amazon army? Here are your soldiers. The same can be said for Asgardians, Atlantians, and White Lanterns. The list is endless.

They are also great in situations where a special power on a figure affects your whole army. JLTW050E Superman’s leadership, UXM005A Emma Frost‘s perplex, and SMWW064 Green Light‘s Empower a Brigade Trait are all good examples. And certainly they are some of the best Mastermind fodder out there. You could even take someone with the Green Lantern Team Ability and fly 8 of them up to tie up the opposing team for several turns.

Try this example team:

Team Name: Thunder Thugs

Keyword: Thunderbolts

  • SFSM040 Speed Demon (w/thunderbolts ATA)
  • SFSM051 Baron Zemo (w/thunderbolts ATA)
  • 4* SFSM005 Thug (w/thunderbolts ATA)
  • Full Pandora’s Box
  • Total = 298
  • Strategy Tips: Set The Thunderbolts ATA to Mystics. The Thugs and Speed Demon also get +1 attack and Sidestep from Zemo. Add to that the Relics from Pandora’s Box and you’ll end up with a gaggle of Thugs with some pumped-up kicks. With 6 people on the team it should be fairly easy to distribute all of the sin relics by turn 7. Use Sidestep to edge ever closer to battle when you are low on actions.

Spider-Punk

2. SFSM062 Spider-Punk – This is the best of the Spider Chases and a pretty straight forward pick. His Improved Movement, Charge and Flurry with 3 starting Damage makes him a great choice to teleport in with the Spider-Verse Trait. In addition, his Super Senses and Shape Change along with his 18 Defense makes it hard for opponents to strike back. And if an opponent DOES manage to damage him, then he gives you your choice of Pulse Wave or Close Combat Expert to go along with his Sidestep. He’s a real steal at 75 points.

Spidey 048.jpg

1. SFSM049 Spider-Man – This guy fills a completely different role, but he is Nick Fury-level good. With the Perplex on his dial and his Super Strength, he can pick up an ultra-heavy object, pump up his Attack to 12, Hypersonic 9 spaces and hit someone for 6 Damage. This isn’t Spider-Man, it’s Superman in disguise.

He has Willpower (unlike most of the rest of the set) and the same hard to bypass Super Senses that Spider-Gwen has, but even better. The web Tokens he puts out by hitting people are even more effective here than on other figures because of his Hypersonic Speed. He has Improved Movement and the best keywords of any of the Spider-Man Family (Avengers and Reporter keywords!)

He only has Hypersonic Speed on his first 3 clicks, but on his last three clicks he has a Special Power that states, “LAST DITCH EFFORT: Spider-Man can use Precision Strike. Give Spider-Man a free action to make a close attack.” So he can still move his full movement and use Outwit! And then he can free action close attack. And then call in someone from the Spider-Verse.  And give the hit character a Web Token.  And then Side step away without having to break away (because of the Web Token).  So even his three “weaker” clicks aren’t actually that weak.

 

Okay! That’s it for me today, but keep it tuned to this space. We’ve got a lot of content in the pipeline!

See ya real soon!

 

Dial “M” for Mutant Massacre!! (Or, a Top Ten Set Review of Uncanny X-Men!!)

Morlock Massacre

Hello Again!! Been awhile, hasn’t it? I blame Ninwashui. Doesn’t matter though. Because today I’m back with an overdue look at the best pieces from the recent Uncanny X-Men set!

In fact, let’s just jump right in with…

SOME NOTES ABOUT THE SET!!

–This expansion continues the smaller-point, simplified wording and mechanics trend that started with TMNT (and continues unabated with the Civil War OP set). While you’ll find an occasional beater (UXM053B Phoenix is 250 Points… of something), the majority of this set sits between 60 and 110 Points.

–Also like TMNT, you really have to look hard to find any sort of Improved Targeting. Stealth means a lot more in UXM Sealed than it has in previous sets like World’s Finest or NFAoS. Which is fine. But it also puts a lot of these figures at a possible disadvantage in the Meta…

–Speaking of (well, not the Meta necessarily, but venue play), I wonder if shops will start running what would typically be standard Modern Age events as “TMNT-on” events. By which I mean, there was a definite shift in design and a scaling back of power creep when Turtles was released. TMNT, UXM and Civil War (both the Movie Set and the OP) all seem like birds of a feather in terms of power level, so they’re almost begging to be played without the added complication of, say, KC Chases from World’s Finest or Balls of Fury.

Alright then! Without further ado, let’s get into the…

TOP TEN FIGURES IN UNCANNY X-MEN!!

Sugar Man

9. UXM064 Sugar Man — 120 Points — Chase: Sugar Man is a hard piece to evaluate, because so much of what he does is ethereal text outlined in his monstrously-long-winded Trait (WHAT KIND OF SLAUGHTER DO I FEEL LIKE TODAY?: At the beginning of the game, if Sugar Man was not equipped with any other item during force construction, you may choose two of these three objects as described on this card: Axe, Hammer, Sword. Sugar Man may be equipped with both chosen objects. Sugar Man’s Weapons: When on the map, Sugar Man’s Weapons are considered heavy objects. A character in a square with our holding this object may be given a power action to equip it. If not equipped, this object can only be KO’d in an object attack. A character equipped with one of these objects may use the following effects: Axe Effect: Attack rolls of 10-12 count as critical hits. Hammer Effect: When character hits an opposing character, after actions resolve you may give that character an action token if your attack was 10-12 Sword Effect: Can use Blades/Claws/Fangs).

But his other powers start to get a lot more interesting if he has, say, B/C/F and all of his rolls of 10 or more are Crits. His Stop Click (SHRUNK MYSELF INTO YOUR BOOT: STOP. Sugar Man has Tiny Symbol and can’t be healed. When this click is revealed, place any equipped objects onto the map adjacent to Sugar Man. When an adjacent opposing character moves or is placed, after actions resolve you may place Sugar Man adjacent to that character.) and 8-Click long dial also give him lots of longevity for someone under 150 Points.

As Secondary Attackers go, he’s not elite, but he does offer just enough to make him really interesting if you get lucky with some rolls. If you can get him next to a potential victim and roll two 10’s with Flurry and B/C/F and hit two 6’s, you could deal 14 damage from one attack.

On the other hand, unless you’re packing TK, it’ll be tough to get him where you need him (he’s only got Sidestep top dial), and while his 11 Attack Value is a tick above average, it’s hardly a guarantee that either Flurry attack will hit, and he has no built-in way to counteract Impervious, Super Senses or Shape Change. Which means that even after doing all the work to position him for a big strike, there’s a half-decent chance that you may still end up dealing no damage or missing entirely, even IF you make your Attack Roll.

Nightcrawler

9. UXM002 Nightcrawler50 Points — Common: Kurt Wagner gives you five solid clicks for 50 Points, and if you can get him next to a key opposing piece, he can tie them up with his 18 Defense (with Combat Reflexes) and give them fits with his Precision Strike on offense.

But the reason he’s in the Top Ten is because he can do what almost no other figure in the history of the game can do thanks to his Damage Special (*BAMF*: Give Nightcrawler a power action and place him in any square within line of fire. If that square is within 4 squares of the square he began this action in, he may make a close attack.).

Yup. He can zip across an entire map (if it’s the right map) if he wants to. There’s not another piece I’m aware of yet that can do the same thing.

Sunfire Prime

Yup. Even I’m an Avenger.”

8. UXM043B Sunfire — 120 Points — Rare PRIME: Honestly, all THREE versions of Sunfire from this set (are there that many Shiro Yoshida fans out there? Did we really need three versions of him? Especially since NONE of them have the Big Hero 6 keyword?!) are extremely good.

I decided to spotlight the Prime, who is almost impossible to hit from range (20-21 Defense), essentially has Mystics if you hit him with a close attack and sports Running Shot, Pulse Wave, Poison, Energy Explosion AND a natural 4 Damage top dial. That’s a hell of a lot going on with a figure who is still cheap enough to just be a Secondary Attacker.

And the best part? This iteration has the Avengers keyword, so he fits on a metric poop-ton of different teams.

Scarlet Witch

7. UXM055 Scarlet Witch 75 Points — Super Rare: And now we start a run of Super Rare pieces that are 75 Points and awesome!

Ol’ Wanda here has five clicks of support-y goodness including her Damage Special (WINDS OF MAGICK: Scarlet Witch can use Enhancement and Probability Control.) and a Trait (HEX MAGICK: Give Scarlet Witch a power action to attach the Hex Magic marker to a character within range and line of fire, removing it from anywhere else. If that character is friendly, when that character attacks, a Critical Hit is an attack roll of 10-12. If that character is opposing, when that character attacks, a Critical Miss is an attack roll of 2-4. When Scarlet Witch is KO’d, remove the Hex Magic marker.) that can drive grown men to cry.

Quicksilver!

“Nope, Not what we meant by ‘gun control,’ Pietro.”

6. UXM054 Quicksilver75 Points — Super Rare: We can’t spotlight Wanda and not showcase her brother, right?

His Movement Special (FASTER THAN YOU’LL EVER BE: Quicksilver can use Hypersonic Speed. When he does he can automatically break away and he can use Flurry as a free action instead of the close attack.) makes his somewhat fearsome except that his top damage is only three. However, if you can Perplex that up (or equip him with, like, Proteus), pretty soon you’ll have a guy who can cover most of the board–actually, with his Trait (IT’S LIKE I’M EVERYWHERE AT ONCE: When Quicksilver moves through a square, you may immediately place the Speed Shadow marker in it, removing it from anywhere else. Whenever Quicksilver makes a close attack, he may target characters adjacent to the Speed Shadow marker.), he pretty much CAN cover most of the board–and gets to attack twice with a 12 Attack and 4 Damage.

Another case of a Secondary Attacker who can put up Primary Attacker damage.

Malice Polaris

5. UXM059 Malice — 75 Points — Super Rare: This set seems to be chock full of entities who can possess people [EDITOR’S NOTE: There’s, like, two. That’s hardly a “chock.” Whatever that is.].

This is Malice right after she took control of Polaris, as represented by her Attack Special (STILL FIGURING OUT YOUR POWERS: At the beginning of your turn, roll a d6. Until your next turn, on a result of 3-4: Malice can use Force Blast. 5-6: Malice can use Telekinesis.) and Damage Special (WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET: Malice can use Perplex and Shape Change.).

Those two Specials combined with the rest of her dial make Malice a solid Secondary Attacker for a very reasonable point cost, but she has one last trick up her sleeve. Her Trait (I’M DONE WITH YOU, PRETTY: When Malice would be KO’d, you may equip her to another friendly character. EFFECT: Character can use Perplex and Shape Change.) means that even if your opponent takes Malice out early, well, that’ll only make your Primary Attacker that much better.

Pixie

For what basically amounts to a group of ‘gifted’ high school students, you guys sure seem to encounter and then murder a lot of aliens. I mean, like, a LOT.”

4. UXM056 Pixie — 75 Points — Super Rare: Yeah, she’s only got five clicks of life, but those are five pretty darn efficient clicks! She’s probably one of the best hybrid figures of the last few years, in that she fills three roles for your team for the price of one.

First, she starts with a 12 Movement Value top dial along with a Special Power (TELEPORTATION SPELL: Pixie can use Phasing/Teleport. When she does she may carry characters with “wing movement symbol” and may carry 2 characters. She may carry 4 characters instead if they all have the X-Men keyword.) that makes her a damn fine taxi if you’re not playing an X-Men Themed Team and a RIDICULOUSLY GOOD taxi if you are.

She also is a half-decent supporting piece since she offers Perplex on her first 3 Clicks and her Trait (PIXIE DUST: Pixie can use Smoke Cloud as a free action but places only 1 hindering marker. Characters occupying this hindering marker modify their defense values by -1 in addition to attack values.) can either help shield friendly Stealth-ers OR essentially Perplex down two more values on an opposing piece.

Finally, with a starting 3 Damage and a second Click that offers B/C/F AND Precision Strike, she’s got the Damage Output potential (hell, she might one-shot a piece that has top dial Super Senses!) AND the defensive moxie (Super Senses to evade attacks and the Mystics TA to make it hurt if your opponent does connect) to be an effective Secondary Attacker as well!

 

Kitty Pryde Phased

Winner of the “2016 Han Solo in Carbonite” modeling award…

3. UXM023B Kitty Pryde65 PointsUncommon (PRIME): Okay, so a couple years ago, Ninwashui wrote a piece wherein he made the case that Incapacitate was one of the worst powers in Heroclix. At that time, there were two types of figures with Incapacitate. Either it was a high-cost piece that you’d rather try and deal damage with anyway (so Incap was useless), or it was a low-cost piece that either had a bad Attack Value or a really thin dial so that they died before they were useful.

Well, Prime Kitty Pryde here doesn’t have Incapacitate–but she does have a Special Movement Power (PHASING ATTACK:  Kitty Pryde can use Phasing/Teleport and Stealth. When she uses Phasing/Teleport, after actions resolve she may make a close attack targeting all characters whose square she moved through. Hit characters are given an action token instead of normal damage.) that’s even better than Incap. All for just 65 points.

There’s no better way to get me excited about putting action tokens on my opponent’s pieces than giving me a weapon that potentially puts tokens on ALL my opponent’s figures at once instead!

And if you can find a way to give her Willpower…

Mags Proteus

Pink is the new purple, not the other way around!”

2. UXM057P Proteus35 PointsSuper Rare: It seems like a steep price to pay for an off-the-board +1 bump to all stats, all while risking a click of damage to the bumpee every turn, but in a world where all of the War of Light Entities have gone to pasture, Proteus is poised to become the new hotness.

There’s already a lot of theorycrafting on the best figures to break with his special Possession Trait (BURNING OUT HOST BODIES: EFFECT: Modify the combat values of the equipped character by +1. At the beginning of your turn, roll a d6 that can’t be rerolled 1-2: Deal the equipped character 1 unavoidable damage.); Taskmaster from Civil War OP works like gangbusters, and I tested the Sentry LE from the same set with Proteus just the other day and had positive results. Even Rage from Avengers Assemble seems like fun.

And when you get right down to it, his 35 Point off-the-board cost actually isn’t that steep, for a few reasons. First, of course, that stat-bump is huge. But secondly, consider the fact that his other Trait (HE’S USING ORDINARY PEOPLE LIKE PUPPETS!: When building your force, you may pay 35 points to equip Proteus to a character of 100 points or less. When the equipped character is KO’d, equip this to another friendly character of 100 points or less. If you can’t, place him on click #10 into the square of the last character he was equipped and he can’t be healed.) means he’s the first Possessor in the game who can hop from piece to piece as your army is KO’d AND the fact that he can actually pop onto the battlefield as a 11 Attack, 4 Damage Pulse Wave-r with Prob once he runs out of hosts. Yup! He’s the first Possessor who starts off-the-board but has a way to actually come into the game, so those aren’t just 35 dead points if your Possessed character gets KO’d!!

Even if you hate the X-Men or planned on skipping this set, this is a piece you’re gonna want for your collection going forward.

Iceman 1

So thaaaat’s where that sculpt came from…

 

1. UXM051 Iceman110 PointsSuper Rare: A deceptively deep dial that keeps turning up new ways to terrorize your opponent.

First, since he flies and Ignores Characters on movement, there’s not much on the map that’s gonna impede his mobility.

Second, his first Trait (FROZEN SOLID: When Iceman moves, after actions resolve you may make a close attack targeting a single opposing character whose square he moved through and didn’t target with an attack that action. If you hit, attach the Ice Wall marker to that character, removing it from any other character. As long as the Ice Wall marker is attached, that character can’t be moved, placed, given actions, or targeted with an attack. At the end of the next turn, remove the Ice Wall marker.) basically gives him a shot at two legit attacks each turn. No, he does not come with Willpower or Indomitable, but you’re really not losing out on actions since he can do so much in one turn.

Third, even though ICEMAN doesn’t lose out on actions, that doesn’t mean your opponent won’t. Iceman’s Special Damage Power (ICY FATE: When Iceman hits an opposing character, after actions resolve you may give that character an action token.) means that on top of tagging his targets with damage, he’ll also keep them locked down with tokens–and that’s not counting the other piece he’ll be locking down with “Frozen Solid!”

In a set of smaller, efficient dials, Bobby Drake stands taller than the rest.

 

Well, that’s it for today. Lots of Builds to discuss, but I think we might wrap up our Uncanny X-Men coverage (finally–and less than a month before the next set drops!) with a spotlight on the WORST figures in the set. Keep it tuned right here, as that should drop later this week!

 

Team Ideas: Let’s Kill Nick Fury!! (Or, How to Deal With the Most Dominant Meta Piece in the Game Right Now!!)

Lets Kill Nick Fury

Greetings once more, friends of the blog!!

Today we’re going to discuss the heaviest hitter in the Meta right now… Nick “Balls of” Fury!

Why? Because we’re coming up on WizKids Open Weekend, and if you’re going, you’ll be seeing a lot of him!

(And probably a lot of Mary Marvel, but one problem at a time!)

I checked in with Ninwashui to see what he would play this weekend if he was going (he’s not–family obligations), and I thought what he had to say was interesting and creative enough that it should really be it’s own article! So take it away, Ninwa!

Ninwashui

Before you take his advice, just know that this is the last known photograph of Ninwashui…

NINWASHUI:

“Okay, so I would go with a team that had extreme mobility, so I could bum rush Nick Fury (or whoever the Primary Attacker is) at a time and place of my choosing. To do so, I’d run a little team I like to call…

We're back!

Team Name: Revenge of the Nerfed 3.0Hit and Rann

Theme: None

Roster:

WKD-025 Adam Strange100 Points

(w/WOL063 Ophidian Possessing) — 25 Points

DP018 Blind Al13 Points

WF046 Klarion the Witch Boy70 Points

WXM010 Shatterstar73 Points

WOLR103 Power Battery (Orange Lantern Corps) — 2 Points

WOLR303 Orange Lantern Ring6 Points

WOLR203.03 Mallet (Orange) — 4 Points

WOLR203.12 Spotlight (Orange) — 6 Points

Total:                                                  299 Points

 

Why I’d Play This: If you’re a longtime fan of the blog, you know that sometimes I get on a kick where I like to “rehabilitate” nerfed characters from the Heroclix Watchlist, just like this article and this article show.

Now, for this Saturday’s Wizkids Open,  it’s come to my attention that a lot of people are planning to run teams where the pieces just move across the map one square at a time and from one side to the other. Those players will in fact have to spend time counting spaces, deciding their route and remembering to subtract two when they carry someone. So boring!

What they need is a real change of pace! Why move your figures in the manner dictated by rules and conventional thinking when you can simply just have them appear where you want them to appear and attack that same turn? Hindering terrain? So what. Elevated terrain? No problem. Walls? This team doesn’t even notice them.

How does it work? First, since Ophidian is Possessing Adam Strange, you can pump up either his Attack or Damage Value by one and also give him Sidestep or Pulse Wave. Your first move on the Map is to use Blind Al’s power to deal one damage to Strange and push him out of your starting area.

Adam Strange

If I were a Thor character, I’d be Zeta Ray Bill! Geddit?!”

Now look at Adam Strange’s Trait (ZETA-BEAM: Give Adam Strange a power action. Place a Zeta Beam marker in the square that Adam Strange currently occupies, removing any other of these markers from the map. When you do, place Adam Strange in any legal square on the map and he may then make a ranged combat attack as a free action. After actions resolve, roll a d6 that can’t be rerolled. On a result of 4-6, immediately place Adam Strange in the square with the Zeta Beam marker and remove it from the map. During the beginning of your turn, if the marker is on the map, roll a d6 that can’t be rerolled and on a result of 4-6, place Adam Square in the square with the Zeta Beam marker and remove it from the map.).

This means that you can easily deploy Adam Strange to pick off your opponent’s best supporting pieces OR take a potshot at your opponent’s Primary Attacker, then have a 50% chance to return Adam Strange to the relative safety of your side of the board.

But since that’s not always gonna happen, we’re pairing Adam up with Shatterstar and Klarion the Witch Boy. If you send Adam out and he gets stuck on the other side of the universe board, simply activate Shatterstar’s Trait and escort Klarion to the other side of the Map, where Klarion can unleash Teekl (as a free action!) for some righteous Charge/Blades action!!

(And I haven’t even gotten to the fact that your Orange Battery can be used to take away annoying opposing powers that get in your way!)

Imagine taking out an opposing Fitz or Jason of Sparta before you opponent can use them to properly place a Nick Fury (or two). All of the sudden, Nick becomes a bit of a sitting duck (and his Stealth won’t help him against an Orange Spotlight-wielding Adam Strange!), and you are well on your way to a Match Win!!

HYPEFOX:

I have to say, I was a bit skeptical of this Build until I piloted it against Ninwashui himself in one of our house games. He wasn’t even playing Nick Fury and I still tore his KC Chase Captain Marvel AND 75-Point World’s Finest to shreds (I wiped him pretty quickly while only losing Klarion)! This is a legit team–if you pilot it right!

That’s all for now–I hope everyone has a great Open weekend! Come back here soon for some dueling Uncanny X-Men Top Ten Set Reviews!!

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.]

Hot Shots Part Deux

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!

2015 Q2 WATCHLIST:

AKA “The Felix Faust” Watchlist! Who, it so happens, is our first corrected piece to review! Let’s take a look:

Felix Faust

  • 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!

Doc Strange

  • 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.

Avengers Age of Ultron Scarlet Witch

  • 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

  • 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!!

Who Watches the Watchlist? (Or, The 6th 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!]

Watchmen by monkeybiziu.

Uh… the Watcher? Banner art by monkeybiziu.

Welcome back to the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas!!

Tonight, we’re gonna go back and look at the first Watchlist that dropped this year and the changes that it brought with it. Did those changes make the game better? Did they course correct too far in some cases? Let’s take a look!

(And yes, we’ll take a brief look at the most recent Watchlist from this year very soon in one of the coming 12 Nights of Clix-Mas articles!)

2014 Q4 WATCHLIST:

Ah, come back with me now, back to last January. It was a time when men were men, and Entities still transferred all of their keywords to the piece they were possessing! Yup! That was the main reason for the Q4 Watchlist: the Entity issue! Let’s go point by point and see what worked, and what didn’t!

Ion War of Light Butcher Entity

  • Entities: The main change here was that Entities would no longer transfer all of their keywords–particularly the “Entity” keyword. All they would transfer from here on out was their Lantern Corps keyword. Verdict: This was actually a very successful change that brought a bunch of balance to the game. The Entities were already powerful enough; by allowing them to transfer the “Entity” keyword to the piece they were Possessing, it allowed power players to make really overpowered Themed Teams out of characters who should never grant Theme when paired together. Entities were still played heavily after this change, but the playing field was leveled just a bit, which is exactly what a Watchlist fix should do. Selfishly, I wish that they’d still let them transfer their “Cosmic” keyword as well (all but Black Hand have it, I believe), as that would have kept a few more interesting Build options available, but that’s a small complaint when so much good was accomplished here.

bill-agent-of-aim

  • Bill, Agent of A.I.M.: The reason most people played him was his Special Attack Power (MY HIGH-ENERGY FINDER THING:Give Bill, Agent of A.I.M. a power action and choose the highest-point opposing character. Until your next turn, that character can be targeted with a ranged combat attack by one friendly character without line of fire to that opposing character.) that shows up on Click 2. This power was changed so that the character getting the benefit of Bill’s technology has to be adjacent to Bill. Verdict: This was a pretty reasonable change, and while it did make Bill slightly less useful, his power was still good enough to keep Bill in the Meta rotation.

Iron Pharaoh cover

  • Iron Pharaoh: This one really hit me hard. His special Trait (GOLDEN FALCON, SOARING: When Iron Pharaoh is first placed on the map, place a Falcon special terrain marker in an adjacent square. Give Iron Pharaoh a free action to move this marker up to 3 squares. Iron Pharaoh can draw lines of fire and count range (up to 3 squares) from the Falcon marker using Improved Targeting: Ignores Hindering Terrain, Ignores Elevated Terrain, Ignores Outdoor Blocking Terrain, Ignores Characters.) was just absolutely gutted. After the Watchlist, the Pharaoh had to choose to either move OR attack, something the figure was never really designed to do. Verdict: While Iron Pharaoh was certainly a powerful force in the Meta, an occasional ROC win doth not a broken piece make. But even if you accept that Iron Pharaoh was a problem piece (and ignore the fact that within a year, WizKids would have published several silver bullet pieces for the Pharaoh, like Jack Hawksmoor), the official change really destroyed this piece, to the point that he was almost unplayable afterwards. This particular change was probably WizKids’s biggest overreach since they’d been publishing a Watchlist.
This is how Iron Pharaoh owners felt after the Watchlist dropped.

This is how Iron Pharaoh owners felt after the Watchlist dropped.

Bizarro

  • Bizarro: This was another pretty simple pair of fixes. WizKids decided that he could only be played in 25 Point increments up to 150 Points (as opposed to playing him all the way up to 300). Also, it was decreed that Bizarro could ONLY be healed through the use of Support. Verdict: This was another winner. It’s hard to describe how dominant Bizarro was in the Meta back in 2014 if you’re a newer player, but he was everywhere. He still turns up on certain Meta teams to this day, so he’s still a quality piece, but at least he’s fair now.

Proxima Midnight

  • Proxima Midnight: Proxima was reviewed, but it was decided that she was working as intended. Verdict: Sanity prevails. There’s nothing wrong with being a good piece–it’s when a piece becomes gamebreaking that a designer really needs to get involved. If only they’d been as levelheaded about Iron Pharaoh…

Well, that’s all for tonight! And yes, we’re running a few days behind if we’re gonna get everything out by Christmas. Just stay tuned, though, and we should have articles coming fast and furious in the next two days!

Wait… That’s Not Superman!! Actually, It’s More Like 16 of Them… (Or, a Top Ten Set Review for Superman/Wonder Woman!!)

Oh, so you didn’t think there were enough versions of Superman in SLoSH, eh?

Oooooh, it’s good to be back. Today, we’re going to dive into the just released Superman/Wonder Woman DC Heroclix set! We haven’t seen much from the DC side of things in a little while (even for a huge Avengers fan like myself, this summer featured perhaps a bit too much face time for the ever-assembling heroes), but that’s about to change as the first of two straight DC-focused sets has just dropped!

Before we get into the individual pieces, though, let’s discuss…

Some Notes About the Set

Some General Notes About the Set:

–While there are some individual standout pieces (who we’ll obviously get to in a moment), Superman/Wonder Woman is definitely a step backwards in terms of overall power level. Not that this really comes as a big surprise–I think WizKids has been deliberately doing this for a while now, starting all the way back in May with Avengers Assemble. It seems like WizKids has been making a concentrated effort to dial back the game’s Power Creep, and with that in mind, Avengers Assemble featured a ton of 9 and 10 Attack Values, as did the Limited Edition Age of Ultron Organized Play set that proceeded it this summer.

(Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was the outlier–that set was absolutely LOADED with Meta power pieces. Holy $#!t was that a dynamic set.)

Superman/Wonder Woman goes about containing Power Creep in a different way, I think. You see Attack Values of 10 or 11 quite often, and many pieces start with 4 or even 5 Damage top dial (I mean, it’s called Superman/Wonder Woman, so you’d expect some decent Damage Values). But if you look closely, many of the best pieces have simple Standard Power sets on their first click, and don’t get any elaborate, gamechanging Special Powers until Click 2 or Click 3.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Less Special Powers on Common & Uncommon pieces is another conscious design decision by WizKids, and it’s something we should see more of going forward–but they’re doing that to sort of clean the game up a little bit and make it less complicated, not so much as a counter to Power Creep.]

Let’s do a quick case study with NFAOS056 Nick Fury (a Super Rare from the last set) and SMWW064 Green Light (a brand new Red Son Chase from Superman/Wonder Woman).

Nick Fury SR

Nick Fury’s got great stats for his cost (120 Points), every sort of Improved Targeting you could realistically expect and an absolutely killer Trait. Beyond that, his Special Damage Power (WATCHER’S EYES TO SEE SECRETS: Nick Fury can use Probability Control. Give Nick Fury a free action and choose a power that an opposing character within range and line of fire can use. That character can’t use that power until your next turn.) appears right there on his top Click. Fury is already a Meta staple and will stay that way until he rotates out in two years (assuming WizKids doesn’t find a way to nerf him between now and then).

Green Light

Green Light has decent stats for his cost (90 Points) and a somewhat useless Trait unless you are planning on putting together the swarm team to end all swarm teams, but he’s also been blessed with an unbelievably powerful Special Attack Power (Box Within A Box Within An Infinite Number Of Boxes: Green Light can use Barrier. When he does, instead of placing markers normally, you may choose a single base opposing character within range and line of fire and place a blocking terrain marker in each unoccupied square adjacent to the character. That character gains earthbound/neutralized until your next turn. At the beginning of your next turn before removing the markers, give the chosen character an action token if it’s adjacent to at least three of these markers.).

That’s a power that could quickly eat someone’s lunch; it’s a power that’s so useful that apparently WizKids had to make sure that you can’t access it until Green Light’s 3rd Click. Keep in mind, Green Light has a 17 Defense with just Toughness top dial, so it’s not impossible for someone to hit him so hard that never really gets a chance to use it.

This is a common theme throughout this expansion. If you look at a character’s card from this set and see an awesome Special Power, I’ll guarantee that that character doesn’t get to use said power until they’re at least halfway to being KO’d.

–In that same vein, there’s a lot of great Common dials in Superman/Wonder Woman that look great when examined as a whole, but when you look at that starting Click, they give you kind of a sick feeling in your stomach. What?! Common Superman has an 11 Attack with Super Strength, 18 Defense with Invincible and the JSA Team Ability and 4 native Damage top dial?! AND he has 8 clicks for just 100 Points?! Sign me up!!

Well… he also just has Leap/Climb for Movement (doesn’t even have the Wing Symbol) and no Willpower of any kind. He also doesn’t have the Justice League keyword, either, so he’s not the easiest guy to throw in a Build.

It seems like some of the recent rules overhauls are trending towards making it very difficult to play both an Entity and a Resource Attachment on one character (although your guess is as good as ours at this point as to what WizKids really intends to do there), so fixing things like “no move-and-attack top dial” are going to be a little more difficult going forward.

–Or not. Did I mention that NO ONE IS QUITE SURE EXACTLY HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME AT THE MOMENT?! I actually tried explicitly asking whether Entities and Resource Attachments could be used by the same character at the same time on the WizKids Event System Rules Forum, and instead of posting an answer, their rules folks just e-mailed this:

Morpheus 2

Seriously, someone might want to get on that.

–From an aesthetic point of view, the sculpts are more subtle in this set. It doesn’t have the abundance of translucent flash that, say, Flash had, but the articulation is phenomenal. It seems like WizKids gets better every set at depicting motion–just look at Krypto’s lil’ cape if you don’t believe me!

Alright! Enough notations. Let’s get into the…

Top Five HONORABLE MENTIONS: 

This seems excessive...

The fire seems excessive…

5. SMWW019B BrutaalUncommon Prime175 Points: Very much a “does what it says on the box” sort of figure. His top Click is absolutely murderous (Running Shot, Pen/Psy, Invincible AND Shape Change), but he only has conditional Willpower via a Trait (basically, you have to be on your opponent’s side of the map–not always easy, but hardly impossible). His Attack Value also stays consistently high throughout his entire dial (once the game gets going, it’s not hard to keep him at a 12 Attack unless your playing against Nighthawk Prime), and his third Trait makes him really tough to Outwit (SPAWN OF APOKOLIPS: Brutaal can use Super Strength. Opposing characters can’t target him with Outwit unless it is granted by the Superman Enemy team ability.).

The only thing I really don’t like here is that even at 175 Points, Brutaal is REALLY top-heavy; pushing him to Click 2 is fine, and Click 3 is still misery for your opponent, but if Brutaal ends up on anything after that, his effectiveness goes way down unless you are very close to your quarry–there is a HARD transition from heavy ranged hitter to close combat beatstick when you get to Click 4. There’s things you can do to compensate for this when building your team of course, but it’s something you will have to be mindful of as you’re playing him. Having said that, his nigh-unOutwittable top dial Invincible should help keep him in that first-3-Clicks-sweet spot long enough to put a serious hurt on whoever you’re playing.

Yes, occasionally Green Lanterns sneeze, and no, it's not pretty...

Yes, occasionally Green Lanterns sneeze in space, and no, it’s not pretty…

4. SMWW035 Green LanternRare180 Points: His dial is actually somewhat similar to Brutaal’s, except Green Lantern turns into more of a gunner down dial. His main advantage over pieces like Brutaal is that he can resurrect himself via his awesomely-named Trait (THE GREEN WILL NOT LET ME DIE: The first time each game that Green Lantern would be KO’d, instead turn him to click #5, then for the rest of the game when Green Lantern clears action tokens, you may heal him 1 click. This ability can’t be ignored.).

Lana Lang

3. SMWW029 Lana LangUncommon50 Points: Lana makes this list just for her sheer value. You get three Clicks of support-y powers like Empower and her Special Attack (THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW: ALL THE SHOCKING DETAILS… FULL COVERAGE AT 8: At the beginning of your turn, you may choose an opposing character within 4 squares and line of fire. Until your next turn, that character’s combat values can’t be increased or replaced with a value higher than its printed values.) THAT IS EVEN BETTER THAN NIGHTHAWK PRIME’S TRAIT*, since it also stops replacement values!!

(*This statement assumes that Lana Lang starts her turn within four squares of the opposing character you wish to shut down. Oh, and it also assumes the targeted character doesn’t have Stealth, and isn’t hiding behind another character, or a wall, or is sitting on a different elevation, since Lana needs line of sight, and–oh, wait a minute. Lana can only do this to one opposing character, whereas Nighthawk stops your opponent’s entire force from increasing stats… SIGH. Okay, I guess it’s not nearly as good as Nighthawk Prime’s Trait. But it’s still pretty damn useful.)

So that’s a decent amount of supporting abilities–maybe not entirely enough to justify her 50 Points, but not bad. But then, if she takes just three damage (whether through pushing damage or just absorbing enemy attacks, which would be even better), she morphs into a pretty good tertiary attacker with Wing Symbol, Charge, B/C/F, Super Senses and Toughness, which she keeps FOR FOUR MORE CLICKS!! That’s right, you get 7 quality Clicks for the low, low cost of 50 Points! It’s like they pulled a dial from Hypertime into the future, made it more useful but kept the point cost the same.

"Yep. Just out here in deep space... posing."

Yep. Just out here in deep space… posing.

2. SMWW013B Captain AtomCommon Prime130 Points: The good Captain here offers a top Click that is almost identical to Brutaal’s (the Movement Value and Damage Value for Captain Atom is 1 less) first Click, except that Captain Atom adds in Indomitable and he costs 45 Points less!! Brutaal does have some built-in Outwit protection, but not 45 Points worth. I mean, before you get too wrapped up in the fact that Brutaal does 1 more Damage than Captain Atom, remember that you could actually play, say, Captain Atom and Fast Forces Fitz (who brings lil’ H.E.N.R.Y. with him) for just about the same amount of points!

Clark Kent

1. SMWW026 Clark KentUncommon55 Points: One of my favorite pieces from the set. Clark has a pretty good Reporter Trait (THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW: YOUR PLANS: At the beginning of your turn, you may choose an opposing character within 4 squares and line of fire. Until your next turn, that character can’t be given power actions.)–and remember, he has the Superman Team Ability so he can see through Stealth–he starts with Stealth and Prob and, on his back half, has the ability to summon a Superman Token with Hypersonic Speed and Super Strength.

WizKids has done an awesome job designing these “Token Creator” pieces, and I hope this is a sub-theme they continue in the future!!

Okay! That’s a solid group of honorable mentions, which can only mean that it’s time to start counting down the…

Top Ten Twelve Figures in SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN:

So, while there isn’t necessarily as many Meta pieces in this set as there were in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., there are twelve more figures worth spotlighting. And hell, it seems like I can never just narrow it down to ten anyway. So like Tony Stark likes to say… here goes nuthin’!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Wrong universe, moron.]

Concept art from Peter Jackson’s studio-thwarted ‘King Kong 2: Electric Bugaloo.'”

12. SMWWG005R TitanoSuper Booster75 Points: On a different character, Leap/Climb and Close Combat Expert would be a pretty sub-standard power mix. But with the new Giant Reach rules established just a few days ago by WizKids in their DesignInsight column, Titano here now has the ability to make a close combat attack from 3 squares away. Which means he can activate Close Combat Expert from three squares away. Suddenly your 75-Point investment essentially has the equivalent of the ability to Charge 4 Squares with a 10 Attack and 3 Damage AND activate CCE on top of it.

But we’re not done. Throw Lois Lane on your team (she’s only 45 Points, shares the Metropolis keyword with Titano, brings a Stealth-busting Outwit, a 6 native Movement Value, is REALLY tough to target at range AND has a Stop Click if you’re also playing a Superman) and suddenly, because of Titano’s first Trait (MONKEY SEE LOIS, MONKEY DO: When a friendly character named Lois Lane moves, after actions resolve Titano can be given a move action as a free action to move up to the same number of squares. When a friendly character named Lois Lane makes an attack targeting an opposing character, after actions resolve Titano can make a close combat attack as a free action.), you have a Colossal Robot Gorilla who can cover up to 9 Squares in a turn and STILL activate Close Combat Expert!!

Let’s see what this looks like as a Build:

Titano 2

Team Name: Metropo-lease Put Me Down!!

Theme: Metropolis

Map Choice Preference: Nothing specific, although the easier it is for Lois to actually move around on her own–remember, she can’t have lines of fire drawn to her by opposing characters unless they’re within 2 Squares or she’s adjacent to a friendly character, so you don’t have to worry about ranged attacks picking her off–the easier it will be for Titano to move and attack.

Roster:

SMWWG005R Titano – 75 Points

SMWW047 Lois Lane 45

SMWW049 Superman 175

=295 Points

What This Build Does: In a no-Resource environment, this should be a pretty competitive Build. You can actually split Lois and Superman up and be fairly confidant nothing will happen to Lois. Just make sure that when Lois grants Titano a free movement, DO NOT finish Titano’s move action with him adjacent to Lois if you can help it. Other than that, feel free to move Lois up, Outwit any bothersome dampeners on opposing figures and then bring the boom with Titano, all in the same turn.

The SR Superman from the same set is a close combat beast with one problem (well, one main problem, at least. There are several others that combined to keep him off of this list.)–he only has Sidestep for move and attack on his top Click. After you split him off just a bit from Titano and Lois, if your opponent choses to come after Supes, no problem–he possesses  a long dial, great stats and the “Odds Are Against Me” running Trait that lets him build up tokens he can cash in for free attacks. Plus, as we stated, Lois and Titano can cross a map in a hurry.

If they come after Lois first, assuming they can even get close enough to hit her, her dial ends on a Stop Click that lets you physically place Superman in any adjacent Square AND lets that Superman use Defend.

As far as Lois goes, she just barely missed the cut on my list, particularly since this was the only Build I really liked her for. I know, the same could be said about Titano–they kind of need each other–but Titano’s really doing the heavy lifting here between the two of them, and his Stop Click (COLOSSAL INDIFFERENCE: Titano can use Toughness. If Titano began the game on the 20-point starting line, he can’t attack smaller characters except via Colossal Retaliation. When this power is revealed due to damage taken from an opposing character’s attack, stop turning the dial. This power can’t be countered or ignored.) can’t be countered or Ignored AND his Attack Special grants you at least one last smackdown (COLOSSAL RETALIATION: TWO-FIST PUNCH: Give Titano a free action if no other Colossal Retaliation power has been activated this turn and choose an opposing character that attacked Titano or damaged a friendly character since your last turn. Place Titano such that he can make a close combat attack targeting the chosen character, then make two separate close combat attacks targeting the chosen character each with an area of effect that includes all other characters within 2 squares of the target. Hit characters are each dealt 3 damage instead of normal damage.).

(Btw, if you actually have Chase Red Son Superman, go ahead and disregard everything I said about the SR Superman and just use him.)

I can NOT believe our Tommy Guns are not taking down this gigantic tank!

11. SMWWG006P War WheelSuper Booster15 Points: War Wheel is here because it has my favorite Colossal Retaliation power, which just happens to be it’s only Trait: (COLOSSAL RETALIATION: CRUSH WITH GIANT SPIKES: Give War Wheel a power action if no other Colossal Retaliation power has been activated this turn and choose an opposing character that attacked War Wheel or damaged a friendly character since your last turn and occupies the same row or column as War Wheel. Place War Wheel in any 4 squares in the same rows or columns that contain both all of War Wheel and the chosen character. Make a close combat attack whose area of effect is all characters in those rows or columns between where War Wheel began this action and the squares it currently occupies. Hit characters are each dealt 2 penetrating damage instead of normal damage.) It’s also here because it costs just 15 Points. 15 freaking Points!! But beyond the Trait, hell, just try finding a Bystander Pog with Indomitable and a 10 Attack Value for 15 Points. Now find one with Sidestep, Toughness, 3 Damage and a 7 Range!! Go ahead, find one. I’ll wait.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Actually, I will not wait. We’re like 2500 words in and still have a lot of ground to cover. On to Blazing Atomic Skull!]

Atomic Skull

10. SMWW054 Atomic SkullSuper Rare150 Points: For 150 Points, you kind of get exactly the sort of stats and power mix you might expect. Running Shot with a mediocre Range (6). 11 Attack, which is fine, but nothing you haven’t seen before. 18 Defense with a dampener. Pretty standard. 4 Damage top dial is nice, but certainly not unheard of. Then you read his one Special Power, which sits in his Attack slot for his first four Clicks (IONIZING RADIATION: Atomic Skull can use Energy Explosion, Poison, and deals penetrating damage.). Wow! He’s the first character I can think of that deals Penetrating Damage with no ifs, ands or buts.

You want to give him a Bulldozer Construct and have him blow someone with Impervious off a rooftop? All of his Knockback damage is penetrating. That vanilla Poison his Special grants him? He might as well be a Red Lantern, cuz that’s all Penetrating damage. Any attack or effect you can think of with him deals Penetrating damage, which basically means he doesn’t have to be afraid of anyone.

Krypto

9. SMWW050 KryptoSuper Rare50 Points: Possibly the most efficient character in the set for his cost (#2 on this list might have an argument, but we’ll see). Need to bust some opposing Stealth? Krypto has the Superman Ally. Super Senses? He comes packing Precision Strike. Shape Change? His Special Damage power sniffs that out (KRYPTONIAN NOSE: Krypto ignores opposing character’s Shape Change.).

His Trait (LOYAL COMPANION: When a friendly character named Superman, Superboy, or Supergirl within 8 squares takes damage from an attack, after actions resolve you may place Krypto in a square adjacent to the attacking character.) is mildly helpful depending on whether or not you’re building a literal Super-team around him, but his Movement Special (SIC ‘EM, BOY!: Krypto can use Charge and Plasticity.) not only allows him to go on the attack when you need him to, but it also adds Hypersonic Speed to the list of opposing abilities that Krypto takes a bite out of.

No, I’m not ‘Apokolips Bane!’ I’m Brimstone, dammit!

8. SMWWG003R Brimstone Super Booster75 Points: 7 Clicks, Sidestep, 6 Range with an incredible top dial Pulse Wave Special Attack Power (THROWING FIREBALLS: Brimstone can use Pulse Wave. When he does you may choose an unoccupied square within 6 squares and line of fire and he can use Pulse Wave as if he occupied that square.), Penetrating Poison and the obligatory Colossal Retaliation and Indifference powers.

The Pulse Wave is what earns him this spot though; we’ve seen similar versions of this sort of Pulse Wave before (the GOTG Movie Starter comes to mind), but it’s always been limited in some way (usually it’s only usable once per game). The fact that he can do it every turn puts him at #8.

The least

The least “creeper-ish” image of Vartox. Yes, I said the least.

8.  SMWW052E Vartox Super Rare150 Points: This is where the Meta-relevant pieces really start. At 150 Points, Varty gives you Hypersonic Speed, Probability Control and the chance to do a boatload of damage (7) with his Super Strength. His Trait (THE REST OF THE HYPER-POWERS: Give Vartox a free action and choose a standard speed, attack, or defense power that you didn’t choose during your last turn. Until your next turn Vartox can use that power instead of the power in that slot on his dial.) also gives him a wide amount of sneaky versatility. Oh, your opponent just got three damage through on him and thinks he doesn’t have to worry about Hypersonic Speed anymore? Sorry, Vartox can get it back whenever he wants. And so on.

He’s not Zombie Super Skrull, but he’s not far off either, and he saves you 20 Points in your Build, which could be the difference in a Meta-Build between playing a Resource and not playing a Resource. If you can manage to keep him top dial, he will be a nightmare for your opponent.

No, seriously, any second now, I’m totally gonna fly!

6. SMWW065E SupermanChase175 Points: Hypersonic Speed, 11 Attack with Super Strength, 18 Defense with Impervious and 4 Damage top dial. His Trait (CRIMINALS BECOME “SUPERMAN ROBOTS”: When Superman hits an opposing character with a close combat attack, put a Lobotomy token on its card. Give Superman a power action and remove any number of his Lobotomy tokens to have Superman use Mind Control as a free action targeting those characters that had at least 1 token removed, regardless of range or line of fire.) lets him Mind Control characters he’s hit FOR FREE and, if none of that works, he has TWO Stop Click Specials (WINTER PALACE: Superman can use Barrier, Regeneration, and Super Senses. When this click is revealed due to damage from an opponent’s attack, stop turning the dial, and after actions resolve give the attacker an action token. If you can’t, deal that character 1 penetrating damage.) that actually token the attacker that hit you, which should give you time to actually USE your Regeneration.

Unless your opponent is able to finish Supes off with Pulse Wave, the Red Son is almost impossible to kill.

First Born

5. SMWW037 First BornRare200 Points: So all article we’ve been talking about all the great changes WizKids made to Giant and Colossal characters, and the fact that First Born is Giant-Sized helps him out immensely. He doesn’t fly, but he’ll still have no problem with elevation.

He Charges up to 6 Squares on his first Click, and his Giant Reach gives him the ability to cover two more. He starts with 4 Damage and both Super Strength AND Exploit Weakness, so now he has a Threat Range of 8 Squares and up to 7 Penetrating Damage (assuming he picks up an Ultra-Heavy on the way).

First Born is also the beneficiary of the Divine Aura running Trait (DIVINE AURA: First Born can’t be targeted by Outwit or Probability Control from opposing characters unless the targeting character has a higher point value or has the Deity keyword.) that many of the Deity-keyworded figures in this have, which means that unless your opponent built their team around NFAOS050 Thor (the only Meta-worthy Deity piece I can think of at the moment, although I’m sure I’m forgetting a few) AND found a way to give her Outwit, First Born’s powers aren’t going anywhere (trust me, your opponent isn’t crazy enough to play a piece that costs more than 200 Points, unless he’s going with a Team Base or something, so the first clause of First Born’s Trait isn’t really gonna matter most of the time). And with two Clicks of Invincible right at the top, First Born can soak up Damage like nobody’s business.

His second Trait (SCION OF HATE: All characters within 3 squares can use Battle Fury. Friendly characters adjacent to First Born modify their attack values by +1.) is interesting as well. He becomes even MORE intriguing when you play him with a Resource like, oh, I dunno, the Indigo Power Battery. If you give First Born the Indigo Wall Construct, depending on what Map your using, you can make it almost impossible for First Born to be shot at from range. Which makes it that much more likely that the 8-Square, 7 Penetrating Damage Charge I mentioned earlier might just be an Alpha Strike. It’ll be like playing Ghost Rider  in the Meta of mid-2013 all over again, only First Born might even be BETTER.

Eclipso

4. SMWW055P EclipsoSuper Rare25 Points: Even with the new Equip rules and all the chaos that has caused, Possession is still a Meta-worthy enhancement. And of the two Possessors in the set (Red Son Brainiac also Possesses), Eclipso is the best.

Right off the bat you have access to Stealth, Precision Strike, Impervious or Shape Change. Those are all great powers. Eclipso’s stats are also pretty good, as you might expect, since you’re gaining access to a 250 Point dial. Down dial, turning onto some Pen/Psy or Probability Control could be the difference in a game that’s running long.

Red Son Wonder Woman

3. SMWW066 Wonder Woman Chase165 Points: Quite simply, Chase Red Son Wonder Woman is Point-for-Point the best Primary Attacker in the set. For only 165 Points you get Hypersonic Speed, Super Strength, a 19 freaking Defense Value with Invincible and she deals at least 4 Damage when she hits.

She also has a Stop Click and a Trait (COMMUNISM IS SOCIAL JUSTICE: When a friendly character with a lower point value than Wonder Woman is targeted with an attack, modify the attacker’s attack and damage values by -1.) that’ll do wonders in terms of keeping supporting characters alive.

A brutally efficient package.

The 90's are back, and they brought their Superman with them. (Artwork by Sassophilaco sassophiliaco.deviantart.com)

The 90’s are back, and they brought their Superman with them. (Artwork by Sassophilaco sassophiliaco.deviantart.com)

2. SMWW041AE Superman BlueRare 50 Points: Oh boy, do I love me some 50 Point Taxi/Supporting Characters. Supes Blue is definitely that, but he has Secondary Attacker power sets and stats, too. He also can protect anyone he Carries from Pulse Wave, which is not nothing in the Meta.

While your opponent will need a 20 to hit him from range top dial, Supes Blue can always be pushed onto his second Click, where he has Hypersonic Speed, 3 Damage and Perplex!

He very much reminds me of a slightly more expensive Fear Itself Loki. Sometimes, big things come in small (mostly white and blue) packages, and this 50-Pointer is a gem.

Oh look–you missed another roll! Guess I’m only giving out Tricks this year, which is a Treat. For me.

1. SMWW060 Mr. MxyzptlkSuper Rare70 Points: I know. You thought WizKids learned their lesson about making pieces that offer ridiculous levels of board control for under 100 Points. Well… they didn’t.

Mxy here is not as broken as Felix Faust was this summer, but that doesn’t exactly mean he’s fair, either. His ridiculously useful Trait (MESSING AROUND WITH THE ODDS: At the beginning of the game, roll a d6 that can’t be rerolled and place the rolled result on this card. Give Mr. Mxyzptlk a power action if there is no d6 on this card, roll a d6 that can’t be rerolled and place the rolled result on this card. Whenever any dice that can be rerolled are rolled (including as part of a 2d6 roll), you may remove the d6 from this card and replace one of those die results with the rolled result from the d6 removed from this card.) essentially means that every d6 or 2d6 roll goes through you. I cannot emphasize how much paralyzing stress this puts on your opponent’s decision making, particularly if you’re sitting on a 1, 5 or 6.

With a 5 or 6 showing, anyone on your team with either Shape Change or Super Senses has a backup d6 roll that will automatically allow that ability to succeed. Need to really hit that Leadership this turn? You’re golden. Roll a six and a one and just miss? Sub in that 6 sitting on Mxy’s card and all of the sudden you have a Critical Hit.

Conversely, your opponent will be DEATHLY afraid of attacking anyone if you have a 1 showing. Normally, you would have about a 1 in 36 chance (roughly 2.78%) of rolling a Critical Miss. But if you are able to change either of the d6 rolls to a 1 with Mxy, suddenly those odds shoot up dramatically (each d6 your opponent rolls has roughly a 16.6% chance of ending up on 1),

And these are just the most basic and obvious uses. Even a 3 or a 4 can be gamechanging if it guarantees your opponent misses that Super Senses roll or subs in for a 1 to make sure you hit with an attack. There’s really a bunch of sneaky plays you can make with this guy–and we haven’t even talked about his 18 Defense with Super Senses, his Quintessence Team Ability or any of his 3 Specials, including his Pulse Wave Special Attack Power on Click 2 that allows you to completely incapacitate any opposing characters you hit while avoiding giving any damage or tokens to your own folks.

This is the best figure in the set, and it’s not close.

 

Agree? Disagree? Post your opinion by leaving a comment, and let us know which pieces are in your Top Ten!

Back to the Future… Imperfect!!

Oh boy. Here we go again...

Oh boy. Here we go again…

So, yesterday was “Back to the Future Day,” and, perhaps in keeping with that spirit, WizKids seems determined to revisit certain Clix mechanics that have caused problems in the past and streamline them for the future. According to some, however, their fixes have actually exacerbated those issues and made the future Meta much more cloudy.

WizKids published two articles yesterday. The first one was a continuation of their popular “Design Insight” pieces that unveiled the new Eclipso and–perhaps more importantly–debuted the new “Possession” mechanic rules. Just as vehicles got a streamlining of their rules with the release of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., so too did this mechanic with the (pre)-release of Superman/Wonder Woman.

Among the key passages from the article:

Equip” will be a new term going forward to indicate when and how a character can be assigned a game element.  A character with such a game element on their card will be “equipped” by that game element. Once equipped, the equipped character can use the effects as described on the item’s card.  Most importantly, by default, a character can only be equipped with one item at a time (unless a specific game effect says otherwise).  During force construction, a character can’t be equipped with more than one game element. During the game, if a character is equipped with a second item, the previously equipped item will be KO’d and scored for your opponent if appropriate.

The reason for this change in wording to what we have seen on previously released figures with similar mechanics is that the new term “Equip” will serve as a key term to describe this particular game mechanic without having to write out the underlying rules for it on each character’s character card.  The “Equip” term, it’s restrictions and game effects will be included in the next HeroClix rulebook—but for now, we have included explanatory text on special powers/traits that utilize this mechanic in parenthesis:

To equip, place this on the standard character’s card. The character can use its effects. If the character is KO’d or equipped again, KO the previously equipped game element.”

Okay! And what constitutes an equippable “game element,” you might ask? Good question. The closest the article came to defining that is this passage:

In general, a game element that is equipped to another character is still whatever the game element normally is (Relic, Resource Attachment, Special Object, etc.).”

Hmmm… so, like, does that mean that Resource Attachments (like, say, the Green Crossbow?) are now considered “game elements” that must be equipped? Because if so, that also means that Entities can no longer be used with Resources. This would be a potentially HUUUGE change–particularly in the Meta–that seems to have just kind of quietly been slipped into the game by WizKids.

Or has it?

Since this is 2015 and we have the internet which allows us to look up everything ever in seconds, Ninwashui ventured onto Facebook to find a clear and concise answer as to whether or not things like Entities can still work in conjunction with a Resource like, say, the Green Power Battery.

Actually photo of Ninwashui venturing into the Internet...

Actually photo of Ninwashui venturing into the Internet…

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, I know WizKids calls it the “Power Battery (Green Lantern Corps)” or whatever, but that’s a mouthful. It’s the freaking Green Power Battery.]

Basically, responders to Ninwashui’s post quickly divided into two camps:

FIRST CAMP: As summarized by user David Newsom: “Guys, a game element must have the Equip mechanic, or Equip rules written on it to fall under this [new ruling]. You’ll still be able to have multiple constructs. They are not equipment.

SECOND CAMP: As summarized by Ninwashui: “Well I think now it’s an Entity or a resource attachment, not both.

The First Camp is basically contending that WizKids would not slip a potentially huge, Entity-nerfing ruling into a Design Insight article like that released today, or, if they did choose to do it like that, they would put it right at the top, in bold, so there would be no confusion. At the very least, if they intended for previously released Resources and their attachments to not work with Entities, they would have issued Errata for those Resources that changed their “Assign” verbage to “Equip,” in the same way that the article mentioned the forthcoming Entity Errata (which, as it turns out, was the subject of the second article WizKids released yesterday).

The Second Camp points to what was actually written in the article and has extrapolated what little clarity is there and come to the conclusion that Resource Attachments are now supposed to be Equipped. In a roundabout way, they feel, this passage–

“In general, a game element that is equipped to another character is still whatever the game element normally is (Relic, Resource Attachment, Special Object, etc.).”

–establishes that Resource Attachments are in fact an equippable game element in addition to being, well, Resource Attachments. And if Resource Attachments are equippable, than they can’t be used in conjunction with another equippable game element such as a Possessor (as equipping a second game element to a character would KO the first equipped game element unless there is specific card text saying otherwise).

Submissions to the Rules Forum have been made regarding this quandary, and I will update this post if the Powers That Be ever respond, but at the moment, we’re pretty much on our own.

Much more to come on this later this week…

Team Ideas – The Lazy Mirror Master

A few weeks ago I happened across an article reviewing the “Lazy Stranger” team that Alex Avila used to win the Ohio state Championship. You can view the original article on hcrealms here.

I don't have a picture of Alex Avila, but this is what I imagine it would feel like to face him in HeroClix.

I don’t have a picture of Alex Avila, but this is what I imagine it would feel like to face him in HeroClix.

Here is the team Alex used:

  • FL063E Phantom Stranger (w/JLTWS102 Sloth)
  • JLTW063 Sloth
  • FI001 Thule Society Priest
  • FI001 Thule Society Priest
  • WOLR102 Power Battery (Red Lantern Corps)
  • WOLR302 Red Lantern Ring
  • WOLR202.02 Axe (Red)
  • WOLR202.13 Stop Sign (Red)
  • WOLR202.11 Bulldozer (Red)

Total=300 Points

After the article user SevenBlueSeven  commented, “An insulting team that is useless to most players. Two chase figures plus a Red Lantern Power Batter[y]? How much $$$ was wasted to make this team? Give us something interesting that a common player can build and play for a LOT less $.” User Tyrant318 stated, “this team isn’t even modern legal” (although it was at the time of States–you gotta love the Internet).

So, taking that feedback into account, my challenge today is to build a team that is built around the Mystics TA and Penetrating Poison like Alex’s Build, but it must use cheaper pieces and it must be Modern legal.

Mirror Master of Earth. You have great rage in your heart. You belong to the Red Lantern Corps.

Mirror Master of Earth. You have great rage in your heart. You belong to the Red Lantern Corps.

That brings us to my version of the team:

  • WKD-027 Felix Faust
  • FL020 Mirror Master (80 points)
  • 3 * FL020 Mirror Master (30 Points)
  • WOLR102 Power Battery (Red Lantern Corps)
  • WOLR302 Red Lantern Ring
  • WOLR202.02 Axe (Red)
  • WOLR202.03 Mallet (Red)
  • WOLR202.10 Boxing Glove (Red)
  • WOLR202.11 Bulldozer (Red)
  • WOLR202.13 Stop Sign (Red)
  • AVASAVID-001 Black Widow
  • AVASAVID-002 Hawkeye

Total=300 points

Cost: Admittedly, WKD-027 Felix Faust is still fairly expensive. At the time of this article you can get one delivered to your door for $24.00 including shipping. He’s come way down in price since he was nerfed by Wizkids and you might be able to find him at an auction for quite a bit less. If you need a lower dollar cost then you can remove Felix and a 30 point Mirror Master for FL054 Abra Kadabra. The Red Lantern battery is approximately $41.00, but I had to include it because you really can’t do Penetrating Poison damage without it. Four copies of Flash uncommon FL020 Mirror Master can probably be found via very easy trades. You can probably bring some tacos to your next local event and find eager takers in a “give me a Mirror Master for a taco” trade. [EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m in.]

Let's take extra care to follow the instructions or you'll be put to sleep, and don't forget Taco Tuesday's coming next week!

Let’s take extra care to follow the instructions or you’ll be put to sleep, and don’t forget Taco Tuesday’s coming next week!

Playing the Team: When playing this team we’ll be following Detroit Pistons Coach Stan Van Grundy’s most famous strategy: We’re going to “form an f-ing wall!” Specifically we will be keeping the four copies of FL020 Mirror Master in front of WKD-027 Felix Faust. Faust has Willpower and no real defensive ability, but he sees right through characters so being behind the rest of your army doesn’t slow him down at all.

The Mirror Masters make particularly strong generic pieces at 30 points a piece. Unlike the 21 point generic FI001 Thule Society Priests used on Alex Avila’s team, they are strong combatants and not just tie up pieces. On defense they have Shape Change, Super Senses, and Themed Team Prob (since this is a Themed Team). On offense they have 10 Attack, Precision Strike, 2 targets, 5 Range and 2 Damage. They also have the awesome combination of SideStep and Penetrating Poison. When you consider all four Mirror Masters have the Carry ability AND that they can be carried themselves, you can do a lot of side stepping before surrounding an opposing character for a ton of automatic Penetrating Poison damage at the start of a turn.

You should also remember that all of the Mirror Masters are Wild Cards that can use Felix Faust’s Mystics TA to give an opposing character 1 Damage every time they are hit. So even when you opponent KOs one to avoid taking more Poison Damage, he’ll still take damage back from Mystics. It reminds me of my Grasshopper Team (which, Tyrant318, is still Modern Age legal).

Felix Faust was recently nerfed by Wizkids and most of his abilities were limited to a range of 7. This could pose a problem, unless you have a very good distraction that would allow you to get Felix Faust near the opposing team untouched. I feel that 4 rage filled Mirror Masters just might garner the majority of your opponents attention.

Once Felix is close enough then the Wizkids nerf is rendered moot. He will be back to the figure who spoiled Nationals this year and your opponent will see why he was the subject of the fastest Watch List nerfing that we have ever had. With powers like GREEN BELL OF UTHOOL: (Give Felix Faust a free action. Until your next turn, opposing characters within 7 squares may only be given move actions. Felix Faust must roll his d20 on his next turn.) AND PROJECT THAUMATON: (Give Felix Faust a free action. Until your next turn, opposing characters within 7 squares may only be given free actions. Felix Faust must roll his d20 on his next turn.) – he should give you total board control. Opponents will just be standing there unable to do anything and taking Penetrating Poison from all of the Mirror Masters (or from Felix if he is close enough).

The last two components of this team are the two ID cards I included in the team list: AVASAVID-001 Black Widow, and AVASAVID-002 Hawkeye. I chose those cards because I knew that AAOU106 Hawkeye and AAOU013 Black Widow were both good Call-In figures in the 80 points or less category.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Are they the best ones to use? I honestly don’t know. There isn’t a list anywhere that has all of the available Call-In figures by point cost. Hmmm…

Felix Faust can call in either of these ID card figures because he is 80 points and so can all of your Mirror Masters because their Trait states, “Mirror Master is considered 80 points for all game effects except victory points.” So any member of you team can call in any ID Card character that is 80 points or below!

That’s all for now. I think my next Article will revolve around that list that I mentioned didn’t exist for ID card call in characters…