Happy Retirement!

Happy Retirement!

A wise Star Trek villain once said “Time is the fire in which we burn.” While Dr. Soran was referring to the literal fire in which Picard’s family died, this weekend is an opportunity to examine his words in a metaphorical sense, as four Heroclix sets melt away in the inexorable flames that are retirement.

Honestly, I’m happy to see a lot of it go. Nobody needs more than one Scarlet Witch, Crisis Sinestro is too daggone expensive, and don’t even get me started about objects. Yet there were gems in the early modern age sets and the environment will be far less interesting without them. Without further ado, here are my top five barely-modern-legal figures:

5. Rampaging Hulk
I have a lot of respect for this guy; great sculpt, strong dial, and the SP all Hulks should have, at all times. His only general drawback is his lackluster AV, and only specific drawback was rolling two crit miss quakes against my team on Wednesday.

4. Batgirl
Cassandra Cain Batgirl is seventy points of awesome powers. Her only real drawback is her damage value, but if you can push to charge and leave her in close combat she’s deadlier than a barrel of skrulls and twice as attractive.

3. Danger
I don’t read many comics. Partly because a good portion of my favorite creators are dead, but also because I’m mostly an X-men fan. I enjoyed Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run, and was floored to see Danger in clix form so soon after reading it. Her SP is interesting in that the only reason she was defeated was because both Professor X and Shadowcat Outwitted her, but also because it was that rare convergence of strength, balance, and creativity that all SPs should be.

2. Iron Widow
Avengers was the Sodom and Gomorrah of Heroclix. The lord looked out over the set and saw that the figures had become flaccid versions of a lackluster universe. He saw them forced to wield tepid special powers in a vain attempt at depravity; inserting powers like Smoke Cloud into the defense slot. He saw the shameless greed of five weeks of sealed play, and the lord was angry.
He summoned forth his cloud of everlasting lava rain and a skillet of pop secret, and settled in on the couch in his snuggie.
But then Lot said ‘Hey, what about Iron Widow?’
And the lord paused.

1. Darksied
Crisis Darksied is one of the all-time great Terminal versions, a Terminal version of a character being a figure so close to perfection (in terms of play strength and comic accuracy) that further versions of the character are doomed to clix in the Terminal character’s shadow forever. If you want to win your pre-retirement tournament this weekend, pair him with Gypsy and fight on Krakoa whenever you get the chance.

Honorable mentions go out to Gambit, Stardust, and Stingray. The latter especially has completely slipped under the radar since GSX (pro tip – he’s a scientist!), and is about to slide back into obscurity once more. To that end I leave you with the team my roommate used to win last week’s 300-point modern age tourney, and wish you good clixing:

Professor X 123
Stingray x3 87
Researcher x3 45
Ben Reilly 38
Crimson Gem of Cyttorak 5
298

And the worst GSX character is...

Last Wednesday my local venue held a tournament that combined two of the weirdest formats known to clixkind; the Reverse Dial and the Team Swap.  For those unfamiliar, Team Swap is where you build the worst possible team and trade it for your opponents at the start of each match.  In Reverse Dial, each character begins on their final click and takes damage clockwise.  Also, they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people!

I'm not sure why they chose to fuse both formats as either makes for an interesting team-building challenge, but thankfully we made it Modern Age, 400 points.  There was no lmiitation on how close you had to build to the total; while someone could conceivably field a lone Stingray, it is tough to beat a second 3-0 player with 87 total victory points.  I eventually settled on this:

Mr. Mxyzptlk 107
GSX Iceman 104
WL Ice 94
MU Cyclops (AoA) 75
Violet Lantern 5
385

I had no words the first time I opened Iceman back in the days of Xplosion.  It was incredible, the first sculpt molded entirely of clear plastic, and all the miniscule details from his shade, to his facial expression, to the icicles clinging to his ice trail were perfect.  Then I put him on the table and despite his Vet designation one hit from Colossus took him out.  Since then all icemen have known the inner torment of a tier 1 sculpt shackled to an unplayable dial.

Who is to blame for this conundrum?  The writers?  The designers?  And why aren't characters with fire powers cursed as badly?  Well, both, and neither, and fire pretty much does one thing.  Ice powers are troubling from a design standpoint because they Do everything.  Bobby simulates flight by leaving a trail of ice, carrying groundpounders into the fray.  He puts up walls.  He freezes Burglers in place.  Using the moisture in the surrounding air he crafts a frozen rose, passing it surrepititiously to the attractive power-stealing classmate while the teacher isn't looking.  And when you add up the point costs for all these minor abilities the result is the overstuffed ice bag that is GSX Iceman.

Fortunately, there is a simple fix:  The next time Bobby's card comes up don't design him as if he were Iceman.  Design him as you would a Green Lantern.  Lanterns also suffer from a vague deus ex machina power spread, yet DC75 proved the versatility of the design team across the entire spectrum.  But, here and now we have GSX Iceman, and while we all have a general idea about how lackluster his dial is, I set out to prove this empirically.

The other three figures on the team don't require much explanation, although I enjoy the fact that Mr. M- costs three point more than the only other potential Superman Enemy.  I actually respect WL Ice, but there is a reason her Live! click is one turn away from death.  AoA Cyclops is bad at all times, in all formats, in perpetuity.  Most of the other players brought teams of 12+ characters.  Muggers, Researchers, Thugs, etc.  This is not how you win a Team Swap tournament.  Given that all characters are terrible you have to build with action advantage in mind.  Yeah, Mr. M- has that click of 18DV/SS/PC, but if I'm out-actioning you 4:1 each turn he's going down eventually.  I wanted to cut it to three characters, but I had foolishly traded away my Abominations, Parasites, and Super-Adaptoids for a Shazam!/Black Adam duo.

I sweep the first round on the back of BaB Ra's Al Ghul, who it turns out is a monster on the back half of his dial.  The second round I was unfortunately paired up against my roomate, Zach, who had built a pretty great mind control team (Mad Hatter, JL Deadman, Jackal, a single Cuckoo, and Vigilante and Black Hand for extra hilarity).  I landed an early double-target mind control with Mad Hatter, walking Mr. M- back to his starting area and Cyclops into punching range.  While I was struggling to hit his 13DV, Vigilante and Black Hand based the rest of his team while the rest took shots, and I only end up losing Vigilante and Mad Hatter.

Third round I played against Liam, one of our better players and all-around good dude.  He had a swarm team with people like Knot Top, Lilah, and the entire Power Pack.  He had been playing on Krakoa all all evening, and although I won the map roll I eventually chose to stay there.  Now, I loathe Krakoa.  Despite only playing on it twice the Island has always sided with my opponents, but between five Power Pack FF TA heals I knew that I could ignore Mr. M-, deal a few clicks to the other figures, and let Earthquake do the rest.

Liam advanced up the middle with Mr. M- and Cyclops, while I shuffled my team up in waves.  We roll a few earthquakes as well as a five that does nothing, and my Cave Carson and Dominator miss slam-dunk rolls against Cyclops.  Liam rolls a six and takes out a minor character, but my big break comes when he advances Ice and Iceman onto the elevated terrain on my side of the board.  After an earthquake, Liam didn't notice that Gee had been damaged onto TK until he tossed Mass Master adjacent to Ice.  The ensuing Critical Hit with CCE shattered that most fragile of White Lanterns.

From there it was all downhill.  Liam immediately rolls the six he needs for Krakoa to take out Gee, and I hit Iceman and Cyclops once each for the rest of the game.  Mr. M- dies to the same earthquake that takes out every other character on my team except for Energizer, who is on her second to last click.  Cyclops and Iceman are each at the green line when the latter caps Energizer for three, ending it.

Therefore GSX Iceman is good when he's on his top click, attacking Energizer on her second to last click.  If you ever find yourself in that situation, Bobby's the man.

Around the Dial: GSX Professor X

This post was originally slated as a GSX release day tournament report; I would have examined my sealed pool, gone over all the teambuilding options in detail, and taken you through each round with expert analysis and commentary.  Then I opened Magneto, Trevor Fitzroy, and a Hellfire club guard.

While I’m used to making treasure from trash, handing me a ready-made theme team in sealed is like locking Chuck Norris in a room with a bunch of knife-wielding street toughs and giving him a Machete.  And an MP5.  I went 4-0, my only tough round against a Phoenix who missed both of her Impervious rolls as well as a few attacks against Trevor.  So, rather than recap four rounds of Magneto throwing around engine blocks and not taking damage, I thought I would talk about the other extremely broken mutant in the set: Professor X.

With all the chatter about the giants, Magneto, and Gambit/Rogue being able to Psychic Blast five times with one activation Professor X has slipped under the radar, at least around my area.  But his ability to act from any square one of his keyworded allies can see is unheard of in clix, marrying the devastating consistency of Lockjaw with the reach of Nightcrawler.  Wednesday evening kicked off our tournament season with a 300-point Modern Age contest for Deadpool, and since I knew everyone would be gunning hard for him it would be a great opportunity to see if this new Xavier had the stuff.

Xavier’s only drawbacks are his combat values and keywords.  Outwit/Psychic blast is a power combination that can deal with almost any figure, but with only two damage and a mediocre AV he really needs support from his allies.  I considered New Mutants, but Xavier + Cannonball + Tabitha Smith + Cypher is 301, with the rest of the options lacking mobility or more than three total characters.

If you really want to demoralize your opponents, use the Scientist keyword.  Three Researchers in your starting area takes care of your damage problem as well as giving you theme re-rolls, while Iron Man, Flash, or even Living Laser takes the fight to your enemies.  This is perhaps the only time I have ever or will ever recommend using Stingray in multiples to win a high-profile tournament.

Lacking Researchers, I decided on an X-Men theme:

Professor X 123

Psylocke 74

Angel 50

Cyclops (MM) 50

297

Even within what should be one of the most diverse keywords it was still tough to add three effective figures (why oh why isn’t Domino an X-Man?), but this team has mobility and range.  Also, Psylocke is a monster in close combat even when she isn’t a channel for Xavier’s assault.

Round 1: Sentinel Mark II

Unfortunately for my opponent, the ruling that colossal figures can act each turn a la Masters of Evil was handed down the next day.  With only one action per turn and Psylocke slicing away from an adjacent square of hindering terrain it doesn’t take long before Mutant-kind is one Sentinel safer.

1-0 (300)

Round 2: Magneto, Madrox, Vector

I win the map roll and choose Madripoor, starting out on the boat.  After a few rounds of positioning, Angel and Psylocke are positioned in the crates along row 16, while my opponent’s team is in the alley along column P, between the elevated rooftop and the bronze monkey saloon.  Cyclops took a running shot against Madrox (spawning an adjacent Jamie Madrox), and then Xavier shot the original Madrox.  Fortunately it knocked him off his support powers and did not spawn an adjacent Madrox.  Angel followed up with a charge against Jamie, knocking him down to his Regen click.

Magneto did not have a token, and since I couldn’t tie him up in base contact I decide to pass with Psylocke in hindering terrain, forgetting to outwit Jamie’s Regeneration.  I am unsurprised when he rolls a five for it.  Magneto and Vector relocate to the edge of the docks (while Madrox bases Cyclops).  Since Xavier began the game on the corner of his starting area instead of behind the blocking terrain where a good player would place him, I am forced to push angel to base the rest of his team, Outwitting Vector’s Kinetic Control.

Cyclops KO’d Madrox and started in on Jamie, but Jamie eventually landed on his CCE click and finished off Cyclops.  What followed was a bit of divine intervention; while Xavier took ineffectual shots at Magneto and Vector, Angel both dodged attacks as well as made a few Super Senses rolls.  By the time Magneto imploded him in a cloud of iron and feathers, Psylocke was able to make her way across hindering terrain, pushing to base Magneto and Vector.  After a few more rounds of misses by the worlds’ two most powerful mutants, Psylocke finished off Vector and time was called shortly after.

2-0 (464)

Round 3: War Hulk, Mindless One

My opponent wins map roll and chooses Krakoa.  Crap.  My reservations about the map are justified on the first turn; after moving up Hulk and placing the Mindless One to block my line of fire, he rolls a four for Krakoa, knocking Xavier off Outwit.  Crap.

I compound my increasingly worsening position by moving Cyclops towards the center, placing Angel beside him.  Angel set Psylocke directly behind him to keep her out of the line of fire, but this turns out to be a terrible move as Hulk has exactly enough movement to base them both.

While Psylocke tries to reposition, Professor X starts taking shots at Hulk while Cyclops is reduced to a perplexed damage value in close combat.  Angel again makes a disgusting number of Super Senses rolls while Krakoa Earthquakes again, and Awakes once on each side.  Psylocke takes three damage from an Awakening roll, while I miss the Hulk with mine.

Krakoa battered Psylocke onto her Psychic Blast clicks, but when she tries to flank the Hulk the horseman of War tosses Cyclops into the water next to her.  I burn my second theme team PC to make him miss, pushing Psylocke, and another Earthquake roll finishes her off.

By this time Hulk is down to his Regen clicks, and while Professor X is still blasting away with his mediocre single damage, Mindless One finally manages to KO Angel.  Cyclops retaliates with his RCE, taking out Mindless One, while an Earthquake roll finishes him off at the end of the turn.

His X-Men decimated, Xavier cranked up his hoveround, moving out of the starting area in order to outwit Hulk’s regeneration.  Nothing happened Krakoa-wise.  Hulk Lept onto the other side of the volcano and Krakoa Earthquaked, knocking Xavier onto his final click and KOing Hulk!

At the end of the day the only threat to GSX Professor X is Krakoa, and even though he came away with Deadpool I don’t see him trying to recruit the island again.

So Magneto and Xavier are stone cold clixers, but what about their psychic progeny Onslaught?  How does he hold up in a 600-point environment?  Will he fold to a swarm of Elsa Bloodstones?  Will he KO himself if he faces his doppleganger?  Find out next week when Around the Dial returns.

How to win your GSX release event

The GSX release party at Four Horsemen Comics and Gaming begins mere hours from now, and while I can’t wait to crack open some super boosters I haven’t been this excited for a sealed tournament since Origin.  I enjoy sealed because while on the surface the key to victory seems dependent on the luck of the draw, in a well-designed set winning comes down to making good teambuilding choices as well as skillfull play.  GSX is no different.  What follows are some general tips for success with specific highlights from my favorite Heroclix set to date.

1.        Build a balanced team.

I don’t like to play less than four characters in sealed.  The power level of everyone’s sealed pool will be roughly equivalent, so the only way to gain an advantage is to build a team that maximizes your actions.  If you can’t decide between playing a 140-point character or two 60-80 point characters, it is almost always correct to play the two characters because it will give you more actions per turn.  Tentpole teams are not as strong in sealed because most of the time your opponent can park a low-point character in an adjacent square while their important figures take shots at their leisure.  Tentpoles also run without support powers, of which there are plenty of good options in GSX.

That being said, would I play Vulcan or Phoenix?  No and yes, depending.  Both characters have the mobility, range, and damage that can offset the disadvantages of being out-actioned, but the amount of psychic blast in this set makes playing either a huge risk.  Vulcan’s movement power spread in particular gives me pause because if he rolls a crit miss he will most likely stop in an awful position, and because it almost forces him to attack an opponent’s Mindless One last.  Finally, both of them will likely lose map choice to a keyworded team, and for Vulcan or Phoenix to be successful they need to take their enemies to Madripoor.

2.        Know the environment.

Now that you have your team set, the other half of sealed success is maximizing the effectiveness of your actions.  How many clicks of damage does it take to KO Madrox?  How many Clicks of Combat Reflexes does Caliban have?  If Juggernaut charges Vulcan, should he pick up a light or heavy object?  The answers are Five, Three, and Light.  Although these may seem like nitpicky details, knowing them will mean the difference between keeping Vulcan based or wasting damage when you split targets.  It would be a good idea to review the dials of the generic characters before your tournament, as they are the most likely figures to show up round after round.

Finally, here are Five Non-Magneto characters that you should automatically include on your team/quake in fear of:

1.  Psylocke.  As one of three sources of Telekinesis in the set, Betsy is not only brutal in close combat, but should have no qualms about pushing to move her comrades around.

2.  Skullbuster.  Running Shot Psychic Blast is strong, but Indomitable really pushes this guy over the top.  For 84 points he is a common answer to every high-point monster in the set.

3.  Domino.  Stealth, Uber-Criticals, and a high enough AV that she won’t need to waste her PC on herself.

4.  Elsa Bloodstone.  She’s like Warlord, only somehow more broken.

5.  Professor X.  Finally, a Cerebro version!  With the proliferation of X-Men/Hellions in GSX, Xavier is an unstoppable monster.

Until next time, have fun at your release events!

GSX LE Review

I have been an X-Men fan since I was a teenager when my parents found and burned the only X-Men comic I owned, so I am understandably stoked for a new tournament season with GSX LEs.  Here is a short review of each, with links to their dials.

Cable and Karima

Archangel and Deadpool

Psylocke

1) Cable

Playability:  Cable’s late dial HSS upswing reminds me of Rookie Shazam, in that a competent opponent will never let you see those clicks.  One of my friends pointed out that this is not necessarily a barrier to winning a number of national events, but the difference is that Cable lacks the front-loaded mobility as well as the inexplicably unbalanced Mystical keyword.  That being said, Cable is still a strong figure with solid damage output.  His mid-dial Charge/CCE clicks seem inefficient, but he will most likely be knocked onto them after your opponent hits him in close combat, enabling him to swing back for four.

What sets him apart:  Cable doesn’t fit squarely into a teambuilding role.  On a 300-point team you will have to assign him a taxi so he can keep pace with other primary attackers (which can be good if the taxi is GSX Angel), and as a secondary attacker I’m hard pressed to think of a non-theme reason to field him over AN Deadshot + Warlord.  Except that Cable is awesome.

What you should bring to the tournament:  Cable is one of the hotter LE’s, so while you won’t necessarily have to break out Nightcrawler, bring a strong team and be prepared to slog through brimstone-scented fog to get him.

2) Karima

Playability: Karima joins a handful of modern age figures with front loaded pseudo-Impervious (Groot, Iron, White Martian, BD Martian Manhunter, WL Hal Jordan, and sometimes SI Iron Man), and Running Shot/Indomitable make her a very competent frontline attacker.  Of course, in an environment defined by figures like WL Flash, JL Batman, and Nightcrawler competence is not necessarily a reason to put a figure on the table, but she’s better that most people give her credit for.

What sets her apart:  While lackluster as a primary attacker, Karima is the muscle Police and Detective teams have been waiting for.

What you should bring to the tournament:  You know that brilliant U-Foes team you’ve been sitting on, waiting patiently for an opportunity to field it without being snickered at incessantly by your peers?  That time is now.

3) Archangel

Playability:  Stealth is a rarity on fliers, but whatever advantage Archangel derives from the best ranged defensive power on the PAC is diminished by his Quake, four range, and Combat Reflexes.  As a finesse piece, how you play him will change from turn to turn, although he has no shortage of quality teammates for him to ferry around.  Wolfsbane, Psylocke, or X-23 are all solid choices, although you could always blow your opponents’ mind and team him up with Tabitha Smith.

Uniqueness:  Although this is the third version of Warren in GSX, all of them have an interesting mix of powers and fill slots on different teams.

What you should bring to the tournament:  Despite his limitations Archangel is a very cool figure, and is my #2 want aside from Psylocke.  Build a solid non-Mystical theme team and have fun this week

4) Deadpool

Playability:  Most of Cable’s limitations regarding mobility also to apply to Deadpool, at least in 300-point environments, although Deadpool has the added advantage of being re-written each game.  The correct choice for Deadpool’s New Writer SP is RCE/CR unless you see Ultimates/Superman Ally across the table, because Wade doesn’t need two defensive powers.

What sets him apart:  Like Cable, if you want to play Deadpool you have to win it, open a chase duo, or field a horrible Mutant Mayhem version.  In this case, you could always trade a picture of Ulysses S. Grant for it.

What you should bring to the tournament:  Start preparing for this tournament now.  Inscribe your victory on an oak rod, and then burn it with your offering to the Roman goddess Fortuna.  Build a team with two Nightcrawlers.  Bribe the judge to look the other way.  Track down an old pair of loaded Mechwarrior faction dice.  If you must rely on this ‘fellowship’ thing, Bake Cookies (If you’re in the Morgantown area, Chocolate Chip with walnuts).

5) Psylocke

Playability:  Throughout clix history Psylocke has always been a strong, well-designed figure, and this LE is no different.  My only complaint about her is that her AV is low for someone with so much martial talent, but her powers aren’t tripping over each other and she can affect figures many times her point value no matter what click she’s on.

What sets her apart:  Mind Control alongside Stealth is unique not only to this version of Betsy but to Clix in general; people underestimate it now because they’ve never seen it on such an efficient secondary attacker, and will continue to do so until they experience it firsthand.

What you should bring to the tournament:  Although Betsy will most likely be the fourth least expensive LE monetarily, tactically she is the best, and she’s on the top of my wants.  Bring your power team and hope everyone else has taken the week off.