A tie-up figure [TUF] needs these things to best function as such:

Mobility [to easily base the target foe], Utility [to affect either that foe or the battle at large], Survivability [to not be an easy KO] and Expendability [because a TUF is probably going to be a KO anyway]. 

How well these figs rate on Heroclixin’s MUSE meter determines their spots on the Top Ten.

No. 10

Mob Rule [The Flash 210]

MOBILITY: Mob Rule has none: No IM, no Charge, just 8 Speed with one opening click of Plasticity. This looks like a Fail.

UTILITY: He sports Empower and, later, Precision Strike. Other aspects, such as 3 range, are useless in close combat.

SURVIVABILITY: His 16 DV is not imposing, even with Toughness, though it and his 5-click life will take at least two hits to KO. No, you’re running Mob Rule for his trait that, on a 5-6 roll after damage, brings in 30-point Mob Rules into the game to help make him (and them) great TUFs. The new Mobsters, depending whether you pull in the 009 or another of this 210 one on click #3, bring more 16 Toughness or 16 Combat Reflexes respectively to the role. And both start on Precision Strike.

EXPENDABILITY: Though very economical to start at 40 points, the price for extra tie-up ramps up 30 points for every bit of Mob help he brings in. Still, he’s cheap enough to claw onto the Top Ten.

 MUSE METER LEVEL: 4 of 10

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No. 9

Murmur [The Flash 043]

MOBILITY: Murmur brings 9 Charge along with the prerequisite Plasticity, so he can be an attacker. But this, and his lack of Improved Movement, detracts from his use as a TUF.

UTILITY: That melee ability could come in handy when tying up Outwitters, Perplexers and PCers, because he gets Flurry and a huge +2 attack against those pieces. Late dial, he’s Sidestepping, Willpowered medic, which runs counter to use as a TUF.

SURVIVABILITY: He’s immune to Poison and bears a solid 17 Combat Reflexes. With 6 clicks of life, he’s sure to absorb at least two attacks.

EXPENDABILITY: At a not-so-light 65 points, Murmur is not points to toss away. He’s also a bit too effective a fighter to be a classic TUF. Finally, tied up is not the best place for a medic to be.

MUSE METER LEVEL: 5 of 10 

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No. 8

Agent 13 [Captain America: Winter Soldier 013]

MOBILITY: Like many on the bottom half of this list, she doesn’t rate well on this part of the acrostic. She only clears the basic prereq of having Plasticity and 8 Speed.

UTILITY: Here’s where she starts to shine; she’s got a deadly SP on click 2, so feel free to push her to base a tie-up target whose defense slot powers you need gone, because they can’t use them when she’s adjacent. She a TUF that not only stalls the opposition but helps hurt it.

If she’s on a themed team, she also picks an enemy keyword at game’s start and those foes can’t make multiple free actions per turn.

SURVIVABILITY: She not only starts with 17 DV with Combat Reflexes, but also bears Shape Change for all-important protection from enemy range fighters trying to shoot her off her mark. She takes a small hit in this slot for having to push to her SP and losing a point of DV in the process.

EXPENDABILITY: At 55 points, she’s about right for the TUF role. But her trait and SP are so good and game-making that sacrificing her hurts. She doesn’t rate well in this slot.

MUSE METER: about 6 of 10

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Visit next time for the No. 5-7 TUFs in ‘Clix

Been a while since the last Top 10 article series [since JUNE?!? Wow.] To get the once-monthly feature restarted, we’re revisiting one that was all set for back in spring 2013: Top Ten Tie-Up Figures. Heroclixin’ had a list ready to go, but then two things happened.

1. A shot of Fear Itself’s Monkey King’s first click was teased, and he was already better than about the whole bottom half of the original list. So Heroclixin’ shelved the TUF list until more of the then-secret set was revealed.
2. Then…Plasticity got its major overhaul in the 2013 Powers And Abilities Card. That tore the list of TUFs into little bitty pieces.

Now, though, we’ve gotten a little distance and perspective and can finally make our call on this, at least for Modern Age figures.

Tie-up figures need these things to best function as such: Mobility, utility, survivability and expendability [MUSE].

MOBILITY

The point of using tie-up is to restrict the opponent’s options. More concretely, you’d like to keep, say, an enemy sniper from raining fire down on your 0-range brawlers. To do that, a good TUF needs to be able to reach and base the shooter. It’s also good to have the ability to leave one spot and tie up another square. Therefore, most figs on this list will have at least 8 Speed and some sort of Improved Movement.

UTILITY

Once in position, the ideal TUF will keep the opponent there. That’s why Plasticity is all but a required power now for the role. Additionally, what’s the TUF to do other than sit there and die? Or before it gets there, does it have any purpose? This is a consideration, but not the key one, thanks to the final criterion.

SURVIVABILITY

If you’re using a TUF right, an opponent’s top priority will be getting rid of the thing. The more attacks and actions burned against a TUF, the better. Therefore, it needs to be able to absorb or deny big attacks that would otherwise be turned on more vital figs on your force. Armor, 6+ life, Combat Reflexes, Super Senses and Shape Change are found on the best of the best TUFs.

EXPENDABILITY

In the end, a TUF is on the team to die so that others may live. That means it needs to be relatively low-cost — no more than 70 points and ideally well under 50 — and not be otherwise vital to the team’s function.

With these factors in mind, here are some excellent TUFs that still don’t QUITE make the Top Ten.

Grymm [Teen Titans 016]: Bearing both Plasticity and Reflexes with Poison for extra use, Grymm nevertheless slips off the list for his short life and 16 DV. But at 53 points and 9 Speed, he’s still great for the role.

Bruce Wayne [Batman 202a]: Only 3 clicks of life dooms him. He’s also a bit too useful as a Telekinetic Perplexer to risk as a TUF. Sometimes, though, sacrificing his 50 cost is the difference between losing a lot more.

Batgirl [No Man’s Land 002]: Stealth can guard her against shooters trying to end her tie-up threat. But she’s nearly 70 points and really functions more as a main or secondary fighter than a dedicated TUF.

Gamora [Guardians of the Galaxy 001]: Also much more of an actual fighter than mere tie-up, though her 55 cost is fairly ideal for the role. Lack of Plasticity and extra attack avoidance cost her spot in the top TUFs.

Shatterstar [Wolverine and the X-Men 010]: He’s far too pricey to make the list, despite a superb 17 DV Reflexes and the unparalleled ability to get into position once per game without restriction — and bring a cheaper pal. He also lacks the Plasticity a top TUF needs.

Monkey King [Fear Itself 003]: No Plasticity and no opening defense aside from Combat Reflexes ironically keeps this fig that first derailed Heroclixin’s 2013 take on the subject off the eventual list. Otherwise, his Flight, 17 Reflexes, 45 cost and dial sprinkled with Shape Change, Toughness, BCF, Flurry and CCE make him one of the best anyway.

Golden Glider [The Flash 025]: Improved Movement: Elevated almost gets her on the list despite a 60-point cost and lack of extra defenses. But she also misses by not having IM: Characters. That would make her ability to drop Plasticity-bearing markers in squares she moves through supreme for tie-up. As it stands, she still works well enough as a TUF to get this honorable mention.

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Keep an eye out this week for the list of Top Ten TUFs in earnest.

Welcome back to an occasional series Heroclixin’ likes to call Fighting Fire with F.U.N. Here, we try to help players figure how not to have games ruined by overpowered mechanics.

WizKids just came out with another Watch List, and again some was expected while other items were surprising — and still more was missing. Here’s Heroclixin’s take on each.

Entities (War of Light 060-068)
Heroclixin’ actually thinks these act like rather balanced, properly costed resources. But they have become as ubiquitous as resources lately, so we think they could use a fix. Heroclixin’ suggests recategorizing the “Entity” keyword from being a named one to generic. That one small change, we think, takes some of the teeth out of this tactic.

Hmmm…tactic. Perhaps, also, using the Possessed ability at 25 points could be reclassified as a tactic. It certainly affects the game like one!

Bill, Agent of A.I.M. (Deadpool 102)
What’s at issue is Bill’s ability to open one-way lines of fire on the highest-cost foe. This allows fellow shooters to get safe, easy shots on targets, taking positioning out of the game — AGAIN [see Spiral from last year].

Heroclixin’s idea is twofold: that it either A) be restricted to both Bill’s and his beneficiary’s range values or B) it’s a once-per-game effect.

Iron Pharaoh (IIM #051)
Heroclixin’ readers will recall this fig on our list of the year’s most needed changes. We stand by the call: Limit Iron Pharaoh to one action with locked damage value. He can Outwit, he can shoot, but he can’t do both.

Bizarro (Superman and the Legion Of Super-Heroes 039)
Fighting Bizarro can be a supremely frustrating experience, because he renders damage values virtually pointless. That’s a big part of the game to blithely ignore. So how about one of these as a fix: Either A) he can’t be healed or B) each token yields 25. For the reward of disregarding damage, Bizarros should run a little more risk.

Proxima Midnight (Guardians Of The Galaxy 050)
This is the one that baffled many. And it may be that she’s only a problem in conjunction with other figs [see Bill, above]. But her ability to hit once then possibly KO with no other hits is bonkers. Heroclixin’s fix: Tracer tokens return to her card after dealing their damage.

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What’s still missing from the Watch List? THIS:

Science Police Officer [SLOSH 004]: That anti-free action special power needs to not be stackable. Here’s Heroclixin’s rewrite:

“TACTICAL DEPLOYMENT: When an opposing character within 8 squares is given a free action, if that character has been given a non-free action this turn, after actions resolve, deal that character 1 unavoidable damage if it has not already taken damage from this effect this turn.“

It’s free damage and supreme board control. One damage is enough.

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Check in Monday for the return of Heroclixin’s Top Ten series. We’ll be looking at the 10 best tie-up specialists in the Modern Age game. Until then, have F.U.N. clixin’!

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. So what is Heroclixin’ grateful for? By no means an exhaustive list, here’s a few things we appreciate:

• A vibrant game. When Heroclixin’ launched, WizKids was closed and, as far as we knew, HeroClix was dead. So for all its flaws, it’s very good to have it around!
• So many fantastic characters. The dials have never been better. Not only have favorites been clixed more accurately than ever, but some powers and abilities are so neat that they made new fans of us.
• Great players to have F.U.N. with. Although like anywhere else, HeroClix has its jerk players, I’m continually gladdened by how nice the majority of us are, from the excited newbie to the Worlds champions. Maybe the fact that the game actually awards us for sportsmanship has a little to do with that.
• The Watch List…showing that the game makers care something about the way the game goes. (And you know Heroclixin’s going to have an opinion on the latest round just announced yesterday!)
• YOU!!!!! This little blog that started just as a way to write occasionally about this great game has endured for five years, and I’m genuinely glad for your readership.

Happy Thanksgiving.

“Wait,” some reader is saying. “Didn’t you cover all the Flash set’s Super Strength pieces in last week’s installment of this ongoing photographic record of HeroClix sculpts that can hold object tokens without assistance?”

Yes, we did think so. But we missed pair of pieces with interesting abilities to temporarily gain Super Strength. So here they are: super rare figs Abra Kadabra and Engineer (The Flash 054 and 060, respectively)

AK’s hold is very secure, but in truth he’s unlikely to use Super Strength often if at all; when he’s got the special power allowing him to choose a standard power, he’s also got Phasing/Teleport instead of Charge or Running Shot, and he loses the picked power too soon. Engineer, on the other hand, can select a combination of powers that work great with SStrength via her trait.

It’s been some time since we updated this feature photo-documenting how figs hold their tokens. (We were busy moving the site to its current home, using a new computer system and a new camera phone instead of the old digital camera.) Some may need a refresher on the whys and wherefores.

The Flash set, which just released last week, is so speedster-heavy that there’s not much in the way of Super Strength. Heroclixin’ was able to get shots of every single SStr fig in the set this past weekend with ease.

In order: Tarpit [The Flash 028] , Gorilla City Soldier [008], Gorilla Grodd [056], Girder [014] Apollo [048] and Rainbow Raider [026] all have holds ranging from tenuous to rock solid.

Some, like Captain Thunder [052] have more than one hold:

…and that’s all, folks, for The Flash set!

In upcoming weeks, look for us to play catch-up on stuff we missed from Deadpool, Guardians and War of Light!

A new HeroClix set means another new checklist.

FLASHchecklist

Download, print and enjoy!

Longtime readers know I love running the Guardians of the Galaxy in clix. I’m not the only one. Similarly longtime clix buddy Lenny is a GotG fan, too, and he played the team in a recent event. I’ll let him tell about it in his own words below!

 This Past Sunday I had an opportunity to play a thematic Guardians of the Galaxy team using several of my favorite Guardian characters. I was excited when some of the figures were previewed last year, especially when one of the figures was a new Mantis (my favorite female comic character.) I knew the Guardians had good synergy, but I didn’t realize just how good until I played them in the tournament.

The Format: 600 points modern age, you must have exactly 6 figures on your team.

My team:
 Star-Lord [Guardians of the Galaxy 030] 110 points 
 Mantis [Guardians of the Galaxy] 56 points
 Yondu [Guardians of the Galaxy] 76 points
 Major Victory [Guardians of the Galaxy] 95 points
Rocket Raccoon [Guardians of the Galaxy 052] 80 points
GROOT! [Guardians of the Galaxy 051] 100 points

 I played the Green Lantern Power Battery with the Green Ring and 6 constructs. All 3 games were played on the War of Light Korugar map.

Round 1: My first opponent was Thomas, who was playing Fear Itself clix Ms.Marvel, Tyr, Speedball, Monkey King, Raizo Kodo with Jennifer Kale. In keeping with his Fear Itself theme, he played a nearly full Book of Skulls.
I used Star Lord’s  trait to allow the entire team to share Major Victory and Groot’s 18 defense. Thomas moved his force up the map, and I grouped mine together on top of one of the buildings. Unfortunately, he moved Ms. Marvel up a little too close, as it put Ms. Marvel within range of a psychic blast from Major Victory that effectively nullified her as a threat.

Raizo and Tyr still remained dangerous, but before I could deal with them I had to worry about my opponent’s Monkey King who based 4 of my characters in an effective tie-up move. Rocket Raccoon’s ability to ignore elvated helped me take out Monkey King, while Yondu’s Precision Strike and Major Victory’s
Psychic Blast eliminated Raizo and Tyr. Jenifer Kale was the last to be KO’d. 1-0.

Round 2: My second opponent was George, a very good player who is always a formidable challenge. He also played a Guardians themed team: Iron Man [Guardians of the Galaxy 055] at 150 pts, Martyr, Moondragon, Gamora, movie common Rocket, and Mantis.

I used the power battery to put the shield construct on Major Victory, (I was counting on being able to share HIS 18 defense with the rest of the  team moreso than Groot’s) then the  Decoy on Yondu. I positioned my team on top of the elevated terrain and waited for him to advance. Although I struck against Martyr, outwitting her defense with Star Lord and hitting for 3 damage, she retained her hypersonic speed and my opponent was able to retaliate by using his Mantis’ friendly mind control to full effect, effectively giving his Iron Man extra actions and using him to wound Groot, then later knocking my Mantis to ground level and KO’ing Yondu.

As Martyr continued weakening Groot with Hypersonic hit and run in front of the elevated terrain, I moved
Mantis into position near Iron Man and got Groot close to Martyr in the hopes of further weakening her with one last attack before Groot fell. Then I saw an opportunity to use Mantis’ mind control to turn the tide of battle.

I perplexed Mantis’ attack up 1 and pushed her, successfully mind controlling Iron Man, who then made a successful breakaway roll (another of his characters was adjacent to Iron Man) and made him psychic blast his teammate Martyr for another 3 damage. Star Lord then finished Martyr off.

Major Victory’s psychic blast hurt Iron Man, but the enemy Rocket and Moondragon took Groot and
my Rocket down. Iron Man flew up on top of the building where Star Lord and Major Victory were making their stand. But he missed his pulse wave attack, which left him easy prey for Star Lord’s retaliation.

With Iron Man down, the Guardians scored with a critical attack that knocked Moondragon out and ultimately won me the game on points. A hard fought victory against a very worthy opponent. 2-0.

Round 3: My final match of the tournament was against Steve, another very good player who was using 2 Entities. His team was War of Light Krona, prime Captain Mar-Vell, Void from Streets of Gotham, and the new Gravity Feed Flash 202. The Entities were on Flash and Mar-Vell.

This time my opponent stayed on the buildings on his side of the map, taking advantage of Flash’s high speed value and hypersonic speed, combined with Krona’s long range. I made the mistake of leaving Major Victory within Krona’s range, and he was hit for 5 damage.

I switched out the Shield construct for the Nurse, and was able to regen the Major back to his 2nd click. I moved Star Lord down to ground level to make an attack on Flash, but the entity gave him shape change and he made all his shape change rolls. I moved Groot and Rocket closer to make a possible attack on Krona, but he moved Krona back from the edge of the roof.

I was able to use Rocket’s improved targeting ignore elevated terrain special to hit Captain Mar-Vell, then used Yondu’s Yakka arrows to finish him off. Steve then used a combination of ranged attacks from Krona and hit and run attacks from flash to cripple Major Victory again, and phased Krona to rooftops MY side of the map along with Void and Flash to the rooftop next to Krona’s. He also managed to deliver a KO blow to Groot, but I had Rocket adjacent to him so Groot regrew from a Sprig! I even regened him a few clicks!

I used Star-Lord’s outwit to get rid of Void’s supersenses, prob, etc. power and shot her for 3, while Major Victory did some damage to flash with a pulse wave. Rocket’s targeting special again came in handy, as he finished Void off from the ground. Nothing else of consequence happened and I won another tough battle on points, going 3-0 and winning the tournament!

Star-Lord –  His trait that allows everyone on the team to share the defense of the member with the highest printed defense makes the Guardians a competitive theme in today’s meta, and his being able to outwit through other characters as well as ignore hindering terrain for targeting purposes is the icing on the cake. A must play for competitive Guardian builds.

Major Victory – Free action TK, leadership, perplex, and psychic blast make him a solid choice, if not a must play, but be careful because penetrating damage is the Major’s bane.

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Nice write-up, Len! You’ve learned the Heroclixin’ battle report style well!

Heroclixin’ welcomes battle reports from its readers. Feel free to share brief ones in the comments sections, or if you have more to say, email us at heroclixin@yahoo.com

We wrap up our look at the horror of resources with the latest (but alas, not the last):

POWER BATTERY

A distressing and growing problem seems to have cropped up where resources are concerned: How does one defeat them?

• How do you beat the Gauntlet? Beat the character before he becomes a god. Good luck with that.
• How do you beat the Belt? Beat the character, IF you can find her Stealthed next to a wall. Not easy.
• How do you beat the Book? Beat the ones with hammers, if you don’t get hammered first. Unlikely.
• How do you beat the Plant? Hope they burn out the rings before you die. Depending on your opponent to overreach is NOT a winning strategy.
• How do you beat the Phoenix? Beat every last one of them. There’s just no other way.

No wonder facing resources can be such a horror.

With the Power Battery, it appears that WizKids is trying to give players a way to fight back against resources directly. Not only is it designed to give itself damage, but the Battery actually exists on the map and can be damaged by enemies.

But it’s still a horror.

First, it’s all the way over in the enemy start zone. That’s a dangerous path to travel.

Second, it’s pretty difficult to deal enough damage to get it off the board. It doesn’t take damage like characters (’cause it isn’t one) and you can’t fight it on the move with the moving attack powers (Charge, HSS and the like).

Third, in the meantime it’s granting any number of extra stuff to its Corps Members via constructs, making them extra dangerous. Maybe you better fight them instead.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s one more wrinkle: because the Battery isn’t a character, it isn’t even affected by Pulse Wave! So it’s the first resource that can’t even be fought THAT way, even.

Sigh. Even when they try to make it better, they make it worse.

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Resources don’t HAVE to be horrors. As we saw a couple days ago, the Power Plant really isn’t so bad. And there are a couple more out there:

THE BATCAVE

Although it’s pretty strong, it’s also very expensive [85 to 100 points] and, like the Power Battery, it can be directly fought if one desires.

THE PENGUIN

Unlike every other resource, this one is fraught with actual risk along with its benefits, when used. It should be the template by which resources are designed in the game.

__________

But the simplest answer to the horror of all resources is a small upgrade to an existing power: OUTWIT.

Give this character a free action to counter a power or a combat ability possessed by a single target opposing character until the beginning of your next turn. Any game effects with a duration specified by the countered power or combat ability are removed. A character using this power must be within range (minimum range 6) and line of fire to the target and can counter use of an attached resource or relic as though it were a combat ability.

Outwit has lost some of its teeth lately, what with “can use” powers showing up more on traits rather than special powers, and worse, resources granting such powers to whomever. But this small change to the black damage power suddenly brings resources’ power in line with their very-low-for-their-benefit cost and, more importantly, makes them an actual risk to field instead of the “no-risk-all-reward” ratio they offer now.

So c’mon, WizKids. Resources are here to stay; they’re great for enabling flexible teams at the highest levels of play. But they should not be able to be played without a great risk to go with their great reward.

OUTWIT RESOURCES.