Welcome to another edition of Clix Bait, and I hope you are having a great day! Me? I started my vacation this week, and I’m ready for the best week of the year! There’s a lot going on this week, and if I miss anything, I may post it to the Facebook page, so follow the link and join the group! I’ll also be posting some video soon to the YouTube Channel, so go here and subscribe today.

Speaking of YouTube, I was planning on doing an unboxing earlier in the week, but my case got rerouted to Denver, so it delayed when I could do this. Still, with me being on vacation, I should be able to do it when it arrives (which I’m hoping is Monday or Tuesday). I’ve never done an unboxing video before, so hopefully I don’t bore you or go off on a tangent.

And since I will be off to magical Columbus on Wednesday, it had better arrive before then! I swear to you guys, this is my favorite week of the year…I love Origins. It’s more than just Heroclix, although there’s a lot of clix to be had this week – I love games in general, and Origins has so much to offer. I always walk away from the con with a cool new game, and a great experience.

This year’s Origins is going to be extra special, however. The field is now set for the Pauper Circuit Championship, so Thursday night we’ll be deciding the first ever Pauper Circuit champion! I’ll be streaming some of the matches on the YouTube channel, so you can see what everyone is playing, and how the new set has changed the look of Pauper.

I’m also getting excited about the chance to play on some of Jordan Hoffee’s 3D maps that he’s bringing to Origins. He’s going to be set up near the WizKid’s area, and he has full size and battle royal maps laid out for the event. They look amazing, as you can see, and I’m hoping to stream a game or two played on the maps while I’m there. I’m going to be busy with my camera!

I also plan to do a live feed Q&A session, though I’m afraid the details still aren’t set on the when and the where. Sadly, I have to wait to scout out a location once I’m there, so it will probably be Saturday night when I do this. I will post an announcement on the Facebook page once I know the when and where, but it will probably be Wednesday or Thursday night when I make the announcement.

My time was short this week, so I’m just going to go ahead and dive into the meat of things. We’re going to look at the first Collector team I;ve seen, which has made it’s way to online play. We’re also going to look at the make-up of your sideline. Sadly, I didn’t hear back from Goldeeh Hon as I had hoped for this week’s miniature mutations, so we’ll have to postpone that and look at something else interesting before thinking on something fringe-worthy. So how about it?

Team of the Week – Cosmic Collector

With the plethora of equipment hitting the tables these days, it was natural that a counter piece would get some attention. I had looked at Catwoman on the fringe, but then Black Panther hit, and brought us the new hotness that is the Collector! So a lot of people have been looking at builds for him, but sometimes keeping it simple is best, and Dan Powell has taken a proven formula and tweaked it for newfound success.

Link: Daniel Powell Cosmic Collector

I don’t think we need to talk about Uni-Mind and the sideline choices involved with the piece as most people are pretty familiar with the options there. Cosmic themes are pretty solid, and while his number isn’t huge, it will still get him initiative over teams like undying and most versions of alpha strike. The best part about the team is that if he does win initiative, he’s taking your best piece of equipment and getting out of the way afterwards. How, you may ask? Perplex Collector’s range to eight, TK him out six with Mister OZ, then place two more squares forward. That allows him to be able to reach row 18, which is the closest starting equipment will be on the map. Since his attack power allows him to take the equipment as a free action, he can still use his phasing to back up eight squares. That’s a pretty solid opening. Even if he doesn’t win initiative, the threat of the TK/special incap to steal equipment will force most opponents to be wary of their approach, and that’s not even thinking about Uni.

It appears to me that he wanted his call-ins brought in by Collector or Mister Oz, so Cyclops is an obvious choice. I can also understand wanting the options afforded by two student call-ins over a faculty ID or Asylum card, etc…, but I’m not sure I would have gone with the same choices. Initially I questioned Rusty, until I remembered he’s got barrier on his main set piece, and the fast forces piece has a limited prob, so that gives you good options. Jubilee, on the other hand, I’m not as sure about unless there’s a bystander swarm that I’m not aware of that was of concern. My personal leaning would be to go with the fast forces Beast to get an outwit from a competent attacker. But then, I’ve been running Wolverines a lot, which depends on low-point call-ins, and so I’ve played around with a wide variety of options in that range.

Whatever the reason, I can’t argue with success, which is what Dan found in the online tournament he ran it in. And if the biggest negative I can throw out there is a complaint about his choice of call-ins, then it’s a pretty good build. Groot can give up some points, and I’m sure a lot of people will gun for the shallow dial on Mister Oz, but these are things that you can plan for and either protect or effectively retaliate (not in the colossal sense, but rather making the opponent pay for going after the low-hanging fruit) against, so I would watch out if you’re looking at this build across the table.

Strategy Bytes

Nine spaces. That’s all you have for those pieces that aren’t starting the game on the board, so you need to be sure that you use those slots well. Actually, I should suppose I should say nine CHARACTERS, as there are other things you can have ready to place on the board that don’t count towards your sideline, and effective team planning includes knowing what you can have available to bring in at a moment’s notice (or at the beginning of the game, for that matter).

So let’s start with what ISN’T part of your sideline, so you know what I mean by that last statement. Equipment doesn’t count as part of your sideline, so you can have as much of that at the ready as you’d like. This is important for characters like The Hood:

“POWER IN THE PALM OF MY HAND: FREE: If The Hood is equipped with an [ABPaI] Infinity Gem, remove it from the game without scoring it, then equip him with a different [ABPaI] Infinity Gem from outside the game.”

So, you can have all the gems tableside ready to go in for whatever the situation calls for. Other characters have similar abilities, so while you may have something you generally prefer to work with, always remember that options are good, and the more you can have, the better off you are.

Options are also good when you consider what goes with your IDs. Remember, you don’t have to commit a certain piece to a certain ID, which is why you’ll see many teams have multiple versions of Cyclops on their sideline even if they only have the one ID. In most situations, one may be the logical choice, but the other pieces might bring something to the table that a particular match-up could benefit from. Now, that’s not to say that simply because there are other options that they should be on the sideline just in case. Wolverine is a prime example…you COULD have the Wolverine from Deadpool on your sideline, but there is no scenario where he would be a superior choice to the Xavier’s School version.

And even if you have only one or two IDs, and can fill those slots with a variety of pieces in order to give you those options, never forget that you may have other, better or more important uses for those slots. Uni needs sideline pieces for his Blue Flame trait, and while there aren’t a lot of them seeing play, shifting focus pieces require space on the sideline as well. I think it goes without saying to make sure your main force needs are taken care of before you even consider your ID choices. You may further wish to reduce your ID options by instead having Trouble Alert pieces ready to come in. Sometimes it’s a tough choice between having the chase Cyclops available, or having Firestorm that can come in if a turn goes poorly. Be sure to think about the odds – what are the odds that I will roll what I need to bring in the Trouble Alert versus the odds that having this particular figure ready to be called in will win me a game?

Sideline slots are a limited resource, just like any other in the game, and taking some time to truly think about the choices that you’re making rather than making the assumption that because “other players are doing it this way must mean it’s good,” and therefore must be on your sideline can seriously increase your odds of winning. As with choosing the right IDs for your team, choosing the right sideline should be the product of significant thought, playtesting, and tweaking.

Miniatures Mutations

Sorry…this is rushed tonight, as my original plan fell through. I tried to track down some wrestling customs to celebrate the upcoming WWE pieces, but sadly, there was only one that I could find. I don’t know who the modder was, but this is a really well done custom of the Ultimate Warrior. Sorry for the slim pickings this week…I’m looking forward to having some pictures of some cool custom bystanders from the action at Origins for you next week!

View From the Fringe

I suppose it should say something about the quality of the set when I look at the upcoming piece as a fringe piece, but there are a lot of strong choices out there, and this one will probably not see a lot of meta play. Still, Elektra gives us some interesting options.

So this is one of the few characters that I recommend for the end dial rather than the front end…and to be honest, I probably should be talking about all three of the Elektras, but I have time to talk about one, so I’m going to talk about how she fits into a game plan. You might not think of her on an undying team, but the trick to her is that when one of the others hits late dial, you shifting focus to her to regen back as high as you can. If that doesn’t work, and you get KOed, then you have a second opportunity to get away and save points by bringing in one of the other two versions to finish the game. It’s not the best way to look at undying, but that shifting focus gives you a lot of options, and it’s worth looking at in my opinion.

Her top dial stats are not what I’d like to see, but if you’re on that side of the dial, you should have one of the other versions in anyway. The hardest thing to swallow is that she doesn’t have indom, so you may find yourself forced to push when you regen in order to save the piece. I’m not in love with the keywords, but if you do run her on undying, you’re not running theme anyway.

OK…I don’t love her, and I’m talking about her because I heard some other folks talking about her during battle royals. I can admit when I’m rushing and not fully committed to the piece I’m talking about. There is potential there, but this is digging a bit deep if you’re trying to fill out a team that’s soon losing the likes of Ha Ha Joker. Sorry, gang!

So that’s it for this week. Next week may be late, as you might expect, as I will be heading back from Origins. If you’re there, don’t be shy…say hello and let me know what you think of my blog. I’m always looking for ways to improve, so hearing from you can tell me what I need to know. Having said that, have a good week, and…