Welcome back to another edition of Clix Bait! I’m happy you’ve chosen to take the time to read the blog, and I hope you’ll take some time to follow the link to the Facebook group and share your Heroclix thoughts with us, both gaming and modding!

I’ve been spending a bit of my long weekend trying to get caught up with the House of X news, and there’s certainly a good amount to catch up on! Here are some convenient links to some of the more interesting bits I’ve come across, and what I’ll be talking about below:

Marvel Heroclix House of X Dial and Evidence Thread

Marvel HeroClix: X-Men House of X (Miniatures Improvements)

Design Insight – The Return of the Team Up!

Design Insight – Krakoan Revival!

I’ll admit, I kind of expected to see more dials in the Dials and Evidence thread, but there are really only two pieces that have gotten my attention. I’ll talk about Psylocke in Strategy Bytes today, but I’m also interested in Sage. For 50 points, this piece can curb the use of many popular support abilities, and can do it from the starting area. Worried about someone pumping Vulture up with multiple Perplexes before sending him down to wreck your team? Well, he only gets one Perplex now! While the piece primarily has X keywords, it also has Scientist, which is strong right now. The 50 points for four clicks may seem pricey, but that kind of board altering ability makes it more than worth it in my mind. Best yet, this is a Fast Forces piece, which means it’s going to be easily acquired, and legal in Pauper!

As a collector and a modder, I find the article on the upgrade to the minis to be pretty nice, as well. They are trying to bring more detail to the pieces, not only in the techniques they’re using to paint the minis, but also my increasing the scale of the minis as well. This increased scale will most likely make modding easier as well, as the details will become more defined, and faces should be larger, making the details easier to repaint. What we won’t know until we get our hands on the pieces is how well paint will adhere to the new pieces – will we have to prime our mods, or will this new attention to detail lead to new paints and materials that allow us to easier repaint the pieces? I’m anxious to find the answer to this question.

Team-ups are coming to a Marvel set, but I will have to admit to a degree of disappointment with their timing. I mean, this is better from a game perspective when I really think about it, but I grew up reading Marvel Team-Up, which was almost always Spider-Man and someone else, so from a comics perspective, it’s sad not to see it in a Spider-Man set. On the other hand, I think that last set gave Spider-Man enough love, and the set didn’t need anything else there to make a Spider-Man Family team even more appealing. And I suppose it’s not completely out of character, as all those X-teams have constantly shifting rosters, with characters flowing from one team to another based on whatever crossover happens to be going on this month.

Before I move on, there is a Pauper event coming up! I’m a bit sad that it’s a little outside of my travel arc, but I am happy to let you know that From the Ashes Gaming in Wernersville, PA will be hosting an Eastern Division Pauper Circuit event. If you want to learn more about the event, feel free to follow this link to the event’s listing on the WIN!

Anyway, let’s get to the bulk of the blog. I’m a bit slow on this, but I’m going to break down Adam Friedman’s World Championship team this week (to the best of my ability), and then I’ll dig in to the Psylocke discussion in Strategy Bytes, just to clue some folks in on how she could conceivably break the game, and things that might slow her down. Since yesterday was Halloween, I thought it’d be nice to find some custom zombies to share with you, although my search leads me to difficulties in finding the artists behind the pieces, so I apologize if I miss the correct person to credit. And since soldiers have become better with 1776, I’ve got a little soldier fringe for you this week. Are you ready to do your part?

Team of the Week – World Champion Mash-Up

Some people may have been surprised that despite how easy it currently is to build a theme team for the event, the championship build was not a theme team. While there are advantages to building theme, this just serves as a solid reminder that if you have strong pieces that have good synergy, theme is really just a bonus, and you should focus on what it takes to win the game. And let me tell you, when you look over the build list, you just see a bunch of all-stars!

Link: Adam Friedman – Championship Mash-Up

So yeah, you look at the team initially and think, “Oh, another Vulture team,” but really, I’m seeing Vulture as a trigger, and not the real heart of the team. Yeah, you want to equip Vulture with the Octopus Arms and TK him out (preferably with Chaos’ Autonomous TK), then stretch the TK out one more square with Magneto, and let him do his second turn pain. But based on his comments and my thoughts on the team, he plans to lose Vulture after that salvo, and just plans to make it so that Vulture takes out more points than the 60 points he’s giving up. Or, if not up on points, close enough that he can retaliate with Dark Phoenix and either heal her up to where the opponent can’t score her, or again, score more points than he gives up. At that point, his opponent is forced to approach his team, where Spin and Magneto will combine with Valeria for some cheap and easy damage, and Jason can chain some Mind Control to further weaken your response. And let’s not forget Spider-Man 1776 is acting like an action funnel, limiting that response further. And when you do get down there, Spidey is also pretty good at close combat, especially with Magneto and Spin helping to make sure your opponent is in a prime position for your attack. Also, you have Proteus and Marvella there to drop barriers to protect the team while you focus on your chosen target.

There are a lot of shallow dials on the team, but the biggest threat to those dials is a coordinated alpha strike, and Valeria complicates that significantly. Vulture doesn’t have quite the same Perplex that several teams have given him in the past, but if Valeria hits her Leadership, she can give him Outwit before sending him off to do his damage, which can go a long way in stretching his damage potential. The lack of theme is going to keep you from winning map much, which may cost you equipment at some point, but the team is obviously strong enough to weather that particular storm, and means you’ll need to be more selective with your Perplexes on Vulture.

Admittedly, I didn’t see any of the matches Adam played, and some of my analysis is based on comments that I’ve read from him after the event, so I may have misunderstood how aspects of the team work, but even if I don’t see all the angles, I can see it’s a really potent build, and I can completely understand how he took home the cup. I can also say that I will never be able to afford the team, myself! So I’ll be sticking to my fringe builds for the foreseeable future.

Strategy Bytes

So, there has been a lot of talk regarding the new Psylocke and her potential infinite combo with the chase Jean Grey from X-Men: Dark Pheonix, and it deserves a bit of examination. At the core of it, those two pieces make the gimmick work, but they need some help to get it started, and more help to make it useful (to my mind). A lot of what I’m going to discuss has come from my thoughts after reading the thread on the subject on Clixed Off (you can follow the link here and read for yourself), but a lot of that is confirming how it works, and then using that information to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the idea.

So at the core is the interaction between two abilities. For Psylocke:

“PSYCHIC MINDBLADE: Blades/Claws/Fangs. // When Psylocke hits with a close attack, after resolutions she can use Mind Control at no cost.”

Then Jean Grey:

“JASON WYNGARDE HAS SHOWN US THE WAY: Sidestep. Other friendly characters can target Jean Grey when using Mind Control.”

So, since you can Mind Control as a close attack, then Psylocke can chain those Mind Control at no cost so long as she can stay adjacent to Jean. Which leads to where they both need a little help. For Psylocke, she doesn’t have Mind Control to start with, so she needs something to give it to her. The first choice is the Mind Gem, as a success with a result of 10 or greater on the dice let her stack more uses of Mind Control. As was pointed out in the thread, a cheaper option is the Liar, if your overall build needs the extra five points. Jean needs to be able to carry Psylocke to keep her close to keep this going, so the Beetle Pod looks to be the preferred choice, giving her both Toughness and +2 to Speed, and it’s cheaper than the alternative. That alternative is the Space Gem, which gives Passenger: 2, +1 to Speed, and a possible placement effect on a roll of 10 or greater.

Another thing I think the team will need help with is Psylocke’s attack. Her base 11 versus Jean Grey’s 18 defense isn’t a sure thing, so Perplexes to bring Psylocke’s attack up to a 14 wouldn’t be a bad idea. That also means that you’re probably not going to have Perplex to spare for Jean’s attack or damage, but her 11 attack is solid, especially considering the number of shots she’s likely to get, and the four damage doesn’t need much help either. So, 143 points for the core needs of the team, and then find your Perplex (which Beast should be one of those, to give the +2 Perplex for Psylocke). That puts you at 193…Give yourself another Perplex and action limitations by adding Spider-Man 1775 at 50 points, and 243 points still leaves room for some more utility (probably a couple of Barrier pieces like Marvella). With that, unless you are very unlucky, you move the pair up the board, take out a piece or two, then move back to your home base and force your opponent to come to you. Nasty, right?

Well, it’s not a theme team, and would require some significant sacrifices to make it a theme. This is important, because a lot of theme builds have plans for getting rid of equipment, especially equipment that are light objects, and if you lose that Mind Gem (or Liar) then you’re going to have to find a new way to start your combo. Black Widow teams that win initiative can also prevent Psylocke from using Mind Control, assuming they have a taxi that can get her into position to shut it down. Since most are paired with Captain Marvel, that taxi is readily available, although Barriers are going to make it more difficult for Widow to draw line of fire, so that’s not necessarily the strongest answer.

As for things that will help regardless of initiative, Sage will limit how much you can upgrade Psylocke’s attack (although with Beast, you’ll still get the +2 to attack, so it’s not that great a counter in this case), and Barrier is more effective against the strategy than you might initially think. I didn’t mention Jean’s Psychic Blast in the merit of the build above because with Mind Control, she won’t be able to use it…for the same reason, she can’t do a destroy action. Both require a RANGE action, and you just get a vanilla attack out of the Mind Control. The four damage allows her to whittle through defenses, but walls from a favorable map and Barriers are going to cause her some problems. Granted, the combo’s movement potential will give you a lot of options to try and get around those walls and Barriers, but it may restrict your placement, and force you into Valeria’s area of effect, meaning your carries will be potentially damaging to Psylocke. This is actually a smaller chance that other defensive strategies, however, since her ability requires line of fire, and most players will place Psylocke such that Jean will block line of fire. In this scenario, Venom Groot will be a piece that is more troublesome.

So, based on what I know, I’m not sure I agree with everyone’s call for this to be put on the Watch List right away. I think there are enough tools in the tool box to counter the build without having to plan just for this team in order to do it. Granted, it will be annoying as hell if someone pulls off the big run on the combo, simply because you’re going to feel like you didn’t get to play, but Barrier alone is prevalent enough to make it difficult to make the gimmick work. And I’ve seen plenty of teams in the field running two Marvellas, so while it’s fun to talk about, ultimately, I don’t think it’s going to change the landscape much. Feel free to tell me how I’m wrong!

Miniatures Mutations

So I can’t think about Halloween without thinking about zombies…in fact, I had to watch Night of the Living Dead last night (especially since I couldn’t go out and celebrate Halloween properly!), and while I heard, “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!” I knew I had to share some customs zombies in this week’s blog. Considering that I mentioned the movie, a great place to start is with a colossal base for Night of the Living Dead, that was made by eBay user KKL1984. I didn’t include it here, but they also made a dial and a character card for the piece, so kudos for seeing the project through to the end!

Of course, recently plenty of super heroes have received the zombie treatment, as well. Not just in comics, but from the mod community! Pojo gives us a look at Marvel’s first family in all their undead glory. This looks like it took a lot of sculpt manipulation, I especially like the Thing’s skull coming through on the sculpt. I wish I could have found a better picture, as I’d love to be able to see the level of detail on the painting, but from here, it looks (pardon the pun) fantastic!

Of course, DC did its own zombie take in DCeased, and I’m sure that’s what inspired this Wonder Woman by ToyChop (I saw another post that may have attributed the sculpt to Alex Power, but I can’t confirm that). While the skull looks absolutely beautiful, my favorite aspect of this mod is how they changed the lasso to entrails. It’s a clever and gruesome touch that’s frighteningly appropriate for this very cool piece. Below, you’ll see that this is not just a one-off piece – they did an entire set of Justice League zombies, but I really wanted to make sure to spotlight this Wonder Woman because it’s my favorite of the batch. Of course, everyone is different, so maybe you have a different favorite from this group?

If so, feel free to email me at clixbait@digitaledengames.com. More importantly, if you have your own custom creation you want to share with the world, let me know, and I’ll try and help you make that happen!

View From the Fringe

With Spider-Man 1776 being an omni-present piece of the meta, I’m always browsing through pieces with the Soldier keyword to find new and interesting tricks. There are a lot of duds out there, but there are some ideas that deserve a second look, and this week, I give you one of those ideas with the Shifting Focus Captain America.

There are, of course, more than one of the Shifting Focus Caps, but the one that got my attention was the rare version. For a change, I’m going to start with what I don’t like about him, which is pretty obvious when you look at his dial. He’s 75 points for just a 10 attack and six clicks that start with Sidestep for his move and attack. His five range is limiting as well, although some of this can be fixed shifting him to another piece.

But combine his trait with his special Leadership, and he can have a significant impact on the game. He can essentially make it so he only misses a Leadership roll on a one, and then give your friendly characters within five squares a +1 to anything but damage. Well, those that share a keyword, but with Spider-Man 1776, he fits on a Spider-Man Family team. And now you have someone giving the team a boost to defense or attack depending on what the situation calls for. And because of the wording on the power, that +1 also applies to the Shifting Focus pieces on your sideline, so you can swap him out and get the bonus for that piece too (which would give the common Cap a 13 attack).

There’s potential there for a nice combo, but I recognize the biggest problem is that he’s 75 points. With him and 1776, you’re looking at 125 points, which still leaves a lot of room to build with, but it does make it tight enough that you’ll need to be really judicious on how you build. But then, every build has you struggling to maximize the use of your points, so it’s always nice to take the time to look at new ideas.

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything you’d like me to talk about next week, feel free to let me know, either on the Facebook page of through an email at clixbait@digitaledengames.com, because I’m always looking to give you information that you’ll find both entertaining and enlightening. See you next week!