Heroclixin' ...it's all about F.U.N.

No. 7 [tie]

War Machine [Age of Ultron 026]

With the ability to pick any one of his attack powers — Pulse Wave, Precision Strike, Energy Explosion or Penetrating/Psychic Blast — at any time on his first several clicks, he looks really good on paper.

On an actual map, though? Not so much. Here’s why:

• He’s got just 17 DV
• with a single click of Impervious
• no Indomitable
• and just 7 range.
• That means he’s going to be easily based by enemy tie-up, making his Energy Shield/Deflection trait utterly useless.
• Worse still, when thus based, his range powers are almost completely shut down because he lacks Sharpshooter.

So, realistically, he’s going to get a single shot with his SP granting Prob Control when he targets multiples. Then he gets based, utterly out-actioned and ends up being a 200-point gift for your opponent.

Pretty bad. But we noted another that seemed just as terrible for a similar amount of points:

Ex Nihilo [Avengers Assemble 056]

He appears to have great potential for his ability to bomb anywhere on the map, to create extra hindering terrain and to deal no-roll-needed damage to those in and near hindering. But then you look closer.

The bomb has a delay. Unless timed just right, the enemy will scatter before taking the damage. Oh and it hurts friends, too.

He makes the hindering with one SP but the one that allows the “attacks from hindering” only shows up later, and sporadically. And when it does…

…he’s probably lost all his armor. Seriously, he’s nearly 200 points for just three front loaded clicks of Invincible and Invuln. ahead of five soft clicks of Barrier, Defend and Regeneration.

No matter which you run, this is the likely result. Please play responsibly.

No. 8

Blue Marvel [Age of Ultron 048]

What’s not to like about a Stealth-busting Power Cosmic Hypersonic brick with 11 AV Super Strength and 4 damage, you ask?

Click No. 3. has 9 AV. No 230-point clix should be stuck with a 9 AV on click no. 3, and none do in Modern Age* — except him.

Starting with just 17 DV Impervious means Blue Marvel will easily land on that bad click above with 2 penetrating damage or the average 4 damage hit.

He’s saddled with three clicks of 2 damage — or less! In fact, he’s one of just three figs in Modern Age over 220 points that has any clicks of 1 damage.

He has a trait, “Mighty Avengers,” that can boost his DV when those who share the trait are within 4 squares.

Not one figure exists with the trait that fit with him on a 300-point team.

No. 8 worst figure of 2015.

*(Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends have a 9 AV on click 3 but it has a SP granting RCE and CCE. Alpha Class Sentinel has 8 AV on its Defense dial.)

No. 9

Firebird [Avengers Assemble 011]

She appears to start out fine with Running Shot and Probability Control and Sharpshooter with Poison. Super Senses isn’t the best defense, but it’s OK. Click 2 looks even better as the Poison and Senses tag out for Pulse Wave and Energy Shield/Deflection.

Then click 3 happens. The 10 AV drops to 9 Poison and she’s stuck with Battle Fury, making the Sharpshooter ability useless.

Click 4 is little improvement as she’s Earthbound/Neutralized — making Sharpshooting impossible AGAIN. Pulse Wave is cold comfort.

Click 5 doubles up on BOTH “penalty powers.” There’s Regeneration, but odds are she heals to one of those terrible clicks above.

Her last click brings back the Running Shot+PW+Prob combo along with Regen. So which do you choose? Fighting as long as her paltry 15 DV holds out? Or pray for more time with Regen?

It all begs the question: How the hell does a dial with this much Battle Fury AND Earthbound still run over 100 points? Unbelievable.

Filthy.

No. 10

Viper [Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD 045]

Like the Test Subjects mentioned last time, Viper here suffers from randomness. Though she has a good chance of landing on the ever-useful Perplex or Outwit, she still has a 33% shot at getting stuck with Mind Control which, at her paltry 4 range and with her lack of Willpower, may not do the most good.

She’s a backfield supporter with unreliable traited powers but she’s got the actual dial of a close combat fighter with alternating Flurry and Plasticity with a midrun of Poison. But her defenses are unremarkable Toughness and then, two clicks of Energy Shield/Deflection.

What? And this 5-click mess is an entire 100 points?

No wonder she was shot.

In the modern game of HeroClix, there are no terrible dials anymore, really. Not the way there used to be.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few stinkers made. For the next few days, Heroclixin will look at the bottom of the barrel and make its picks for the least playable figs of 2015.  Let’s start with the ones that weren’t the worst ever, just the worst except the VERY worst.

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

Arcade [Avengers Assemble 044] is straight god mode when you can win map and run him on Murderworld. But the plain fact is that you have to build your team to account for the map loss as well. Just so hard. And not worth it.

Test Subject [Avengers Age of Ultron 004] — So what could be a nice cheap little filler is ruined by the inability to plan at all for the random dials. There are far, FAR better choices for LESS points.

Wraith [Superman/Wonder Woman 051] — For 175, you want more than Toughness. But that’s all you get, even if it is traited. The Absorption ability can’t keep up with the damage he’ll take.

Dr. Light [Trinity War 007a] — There are better Enhancers and shooters to be had for the points. So USE those points for those pieces.

Signalman [Trinity War] — Actually not so terrible — IF you run him with other Mind Control pieces. But alone, he’s going to have to push to get to anything useful. Maybe he’ll get one Outwit before he’s pasted. Or maybe you just don’t field him at all. For Secret Society of Super-Villain keyword themed teams ONLY.

Blight [Trinity War 060] — Terrible range and no moving attack until mid-dial means he’s almost as bad as they come in his weight class. Almost.

Stay tuned this coming week for at least 10 of the worst figs you could’ve played last year.

No. 1

Nick Fury [Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD 056]

Heroclixin’ calls this the “easy mode” figure of the meta game right now. Here’s why:

• A titanic 9 range.
• That sees through hindering.
• And over buildings.
• And characters.
• That works with his better-than-Outwit SP to deny use of powers or abilities.
• And his Probability Control from the same SP to force rerolls of your dice.
• From the safety of Stealth [in addition to the aforementioned seeing through all that other stuff]
• Also with Shape Change. TRAITED.
• Which also gives him +1 attack and damage — PENETRATING — against the highest cost enemy.

His only weaknesses are that walls/blocking terrain cut off his view and he has a short 6-click dial for his 120 points. But with his ability to make much of any outdoor map a total killbox and lacking so much as a single bad click and being able to singlehandedly take on any of the other figures on this Top Ten series…he’s Heroclixin’s No. 1 HeroClix of 2015.

OK, we’re taking a short breather before our next Top Ten list: The most awful figures of 2015.

This Top Ten was super-difficult to pick. There were so many good choices. Here are Heroclixin’s honorable mentions for best figures of 2015.

Koriand’r [WizKids D15-003] has one huge weakness: Lack of Running Shot on top. While her combo of Outsiders and Move And Attack serves to mostly mitigate the matter, the fact that she can’t use the latter when based can shut her down pretty well at the worst times. Add to that her complete lack of armor and you see how she JUST misses top status. Especially in a year in which…

…Wonder Woman [ 033] also missed the cut. She’s a durable, high-damage Mystic brick resistant to most forms of Outwit and Prob Control, the banes of many a tentpole. If she were just a little cheaper than her 200 points, she’d have been a near-lock for the Ten. But there was also her rival child of Zeus, Apollo who shares the same price point and resistance but offers a ranged attack component.

Juston Seyfert — Despite making showings in both HeroClix Worlds and Realms Open Championship finals, he didn’t rate on Heroclixin’s Top Ten because he requires a very specific set of teammate to work at all. But to the degree that he makes any Robot rock the house means he’s got to be mentioned here.

Jewel — In the early days of HeroClix, the Rookie Infinity Challenge Black Panther was THE source of free-moving, cheap Outwit. And though the black damage power has lost some of its former bite, it’s still great to have for as low as 25 points.

Thor [Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD 050] — She got very close to carving her spot among the immortal 10 with her power to electrify rooftops. Her low 17 DV for her points cost her.

Superman Blue — Granting immunity to Pulse Wave is an ability that will get SuperBlue onto many meta builds in 2016. But he’s so short-lived at 50 points and lacks the Willpower punch at 125 to rate top status.

Clark Kent — At a light 55 points, he offers Prob, then Outwit, then his SuperPog. His trouble is that he’s got to get far too close to the action to really levy his anti-power action trait.

Rick Jones — Endless pog minions and TK and long range help him make bitches of many a team. He’s possibly the most honorable of these mentions, despite his soft skin and some outright wasted points with 2 damage and THREE targets top dial.

Gluttony — A Mystic who only takes 1 damage at a time, he’s unkillable but also so immobile for his price that he really can’t gobble his way onto the list proper.

30-point Ultron Drones — All dangerous, these make great filler. But their real honorable mention status is that they’re even better at using ID cards — and that dependence ran them afoul of our “Can’t require resources/relics/whatnot to be top-tier” rule

Green Arrow [Trinity War 208] — May be the game’s best pure shooter. Though Hawkeye [Avengers Age of Ultron 009] could be the game’s OTHER best shooter. But GA lacks the Willpower and Sharpshooter ability he needs to truly leverage his extreme versatility while Hawk’s defense is rather poor. Both are soft.

The rest of the OMAs: A number of characters had solid figs that can perform solo against 300-point swarms. Some, like Black Adam [Trinity War] and Ultron (Future) [Age of Ultron 052a] weren’t good on their defense numbers, others had soft spots (see Hulk [Avengers Assemble 064] and King Thor), mobility issues (Iron Man [Avengers Assemble 062] and Ultron (Phalanx) [Age of Ultron 055], or wasted points (the SHIELD TA on Hulk [Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD 052] at full strength) . And either a vulnerability to Outwit or a lack of stop clicks were enough to immediately disqualify a OMA in a year when Outwit resistance or KO insurance was in good supply. Of the other also-rans, Superdoom [Superman/Wonder Woman 059], Superman [Superman/Wonder Woman 065], and Superman [Trinity War 050] each had a good chance of making Heroclixin’s Top Ten. TW Supes’ ability to auto-heal almost made up for his Outwittability and lack of stop clicks, but that and the fact that at 250, he wasn’t quite a true OMA kept him from the slot. Red Son Superman has two of the very best stop clicks in the game coupled with Regen, and Superdoom adds a strong layer of Outwit resistance to make his case. The former lacks that resistance, though, and the latter has a troubling lack of opening move+attack followed by a lot of range-killing Battle Fury. And so they couldn’t quite unseat Hulk 008 from his No. 6 slot representing the One Man Armies of the year.

No. 2

Mr. Mxyzptlk [Superman/Wonder Woman 060]

So Mr. M has a trait where he can roll a die and store the result on his card to replace a later die roll just about any time, anywhere. The ability to take the random away from die rolls is unbelievably strong. There’s simply no bad result.

• 1-2: Swapping an opponent’s die for one of these numbers will almost always turn a hit to a miss. Possibly a critical one. And it’ll blunt a Blade roll.
• 3: Good for cursing enemy d6 rolls or getting that must-heal-SOMETHING Regen on your part
• 4: Need that breakaway or Regen? This’ll do. A 4 also helps nudge those attack rolls to success.
• 5-6: Guarantee that Leadership, that BCF damage, that Support/Regen, that must-land Super Senses/Shape Change.

He needs no line of fire or range to use this trait.

Mr. Mxy also stays on the move with his Quintessence TA and Phasing/Teleport SP with the ability to use that free when he’s got two tokens. That is, if you don’t just have him carried by larger characters. On every other click, he can Pulse Wave that only tokens hit characters of his choice or make a character within 3 squares any size.

But all that is just gravy. Mr. Mxyzptlk’s ability to screw with the dice makes it difficult to lose a game when running him. That’s why, despite his lack of real offensive skills, he’s Heroclixin’s clear choice for No. 2 clix of 2015.

Before we announce our not-so-surprising No. 1 selection, we’ll share Heroclixin’s Honorable Mentions: Figs that flirted with making the Top Ten but fell just short.

No. 3

Felix Faust [WizKids D-027]

Back in summer, Heroclixin’ did a Top Ten list of figures too good for the character, and Felix here topped the list. After all, he’s like having 25 Rookie Black  Panther Jewel [Age of Ultron] pieces able to swarm and Outwit a ton of powers each turn. Let’s look at how his d20 results break down opposing squads:

• Seek The Books of Magic: Only being able to do ranged actions effectively counters all movement and about 3/4 of the Powers and Abilities Card.
• Green Bell of Uthool: Only being able to do move actions effectively eliminates attack opportunities and counters about 3/4 of the Powers and Abilities Card.
• Wheel of Nyorlath: Only being able to do close combat actions effectively counters all movement and about 3/4 of the Powers and Abilities Card.
• Red Jar of Claythos: Not being able to remove action tokens effectively means losing a turn.
• Project Thaumaton: Only being able to do free actions effectively counters all movement and about 3/5 of the Powers and Abilities Card.
• Mystical Trap: Pity the foe with a Mystical character on her force. This freezes that character and one of its allies in place.
• Red: Warp all teams back to starting areas. RESET THE BOARD
• Orange: Energy Dampener tokens go on every enemy, preventing power actions. Combined with any of the named d20 powers above, this can be devastating.
• Yellow: As a ranged combat action, Felix can hit anyone on the board. SEVERAL anyones, in fact. No LOF needed.
• Lime: All allies can carry, and can take move actions after being carried. RESET THE BOARD….AGAIN
• Green: All allies can move freely through hindering. This is the only actual bad result.
• Cyan: Felix can use Barrier that forces breakaway for ranged tie-up.
• Blue: All characters are locked at 3 speed, effectively rendering movement impractical.
• Purple: All pals get Willpower.
• Pink: Hey! you get to reroll a die each turn.
• Brown: Enemy mods or replacements are banned except for halving. Bye-bye Defend, RCE, CCE, BCF and a number of TAs.
• Black: Felix gets Outwit and allies with Outwit can counter TAs.
• Grey: you can go over the action total this turn by stealing the enemy’s actions when you do.

Finally, while there’s only a 1 in 18 chance of any single result, there’s a “wild card” result allowing one to choose a power. And there’s a strong probability of landing on SOMEthing that will completely destroy the opponent’s tempo. Tempo is the key to this game.

Leaving aside all that, Felix is also a Psychic Blasting Mystic with Willpower and Perplex. Not bad with his 7 range and Improved Targeting: Characters, Hindering.

The only reason this character is only No. 3 on the list is that his dial is very short for his 80-point price and he lacks the moving attack skills or survivability to endure the attacks enemies will concentrate on him at earliest chance. This wasn’t an issue for him pre-errata, when he could affect the entire field from the back row of his starting area, but now his strongest effects only have a 7-square range. He needs his IT:Character ability to maintain some semblance of safety.

No. 4

Batman [Trinity War 051]

Here’s another Heroclixin’ griped a little about mid-year. Boasting stellar stats for 150 points, Bats’ ability to pick the attack or damage power he best needs puts him over the top, what with his already available Outwit, Perplex and, sometimes, Probability Control.

• Need a taxi for other teammates? Use Telekinesis.
• Need to attack that Mystic? Select Pulse Wave or Incapacitate.
• Need to get around Senses? Precision Strike.
• Need an extra medic? Support.
• Double-tokened (because he’s Indomitable) and based? Poison.

And so on and so forth. Plain and simply, this Batman is the best fig one can field at his price tag and that’s why he’s Heroclixin’s No. 4 pick on the Top Ten of 2015.