Welcome back to Clix Bait! Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read the blog, and I welcome you to join the discussion by following this link to the Facebook page and telling us what’s on your mind. I especially welcome you to share your custom creations…I may even talk about them in blog!

This week I’m taking some time to get ready to go to Heroes and Games in Columbus for a 300 point modern tournament. It’s been a while since I’ve got to sit down and play in an event, so I’m really looking forward to the event, and doubly so, since Jay always runs a top-notch tournament! If you haven’t been to an event Jay’s run, I invite you to join us…just follow the link to the event to get all the details, and maybe even register. I had a new team idea today, but I’ve been practicing a different build, so I think I’ll stick with the one I’ve been practicing (despite not having as much practice as I might like).

My friend and I were discussing the new X-Men Rise and Fall set, and both of us share a bit of disappointment. Not necessarily over the set itself, but because it appears that WizKids is done with the idea of Sidekicks. Most of you probably won’t be too upset over this, but think about it in a larger scale. WizKids had discussed wanting to emphasize mechanics across sets, which we thought would mean at least three to four sets, but Sidekicks are being dropped after just two sets, so what does this mean for similar mechanics (such as Rally Dice)? And how long will they be sidelining powers like Perplex? To have it out for just two to three sets is not as impactful as we might have expected. I don’t have answers to the questions, but I feel like they’re questions that should be asked.

It appears that WizKids will be at GenCon, but I’m not really a fan of GenCon, so the information doesn’t excite me on its own. What does excite me is what it means for Origins later this year. An appearance at GenCon, especially one that includes live events, makes it much more likely that Origins will have exclusives and events there. I mean, nothing is certain right now, and we all need to keep tuned in to the news to figure out what the likelihood is that we will have a semi-normal con, but my plans at this point are to go. Origins has already started taking applications for volunteers, and registration is set to begin at the end of the month, so if you want to know more, be sure to follow this link to Origins’ web site.

I don’t have a lot to speculate on this week, so we’ll go ahead and get into the heart of the blog. As I mentioned last week, we’ll be updating the powers by colors series, with this week’s color being yellow. I feel like the current meta doesn’t favor tent pole teams, so I felt like examining whether or not there’s a good build for a tent pole, and I think the answer is yes. Joshua Spangler shared some of his creations with the blog, so I thought I’d share a few words about them this week, and then we’ll try and figure out what the best primes in modern are at the moment. Get ready to disagree!

This week we’re continuing our re-examination of the powers by color based on the new rules. While discussing the rules, I don’t mention how they change to save confusion, but I’ll say here that you want to pay attention to Pulse Wave, as it’s probably had the most significant change to it in the new rules. The other powers are pretty close to what they were before, if not identical.

“Phasing/Teleport – MOVE: Improved Movement – Elevated Terrain, Blocking Terrain, Characters.”

Put simply, this gives you a move action that allows you to ignore everything. When you activate the power, you don’t need to roll breakaway, because you ignore characters. It’s important to remember, however, that it has to be activated with a MOVE action, and does not allow you to ignore characters or terrain when using things like Sidestep or Charge. If you use Phasing/Teleport, you’re just moving, unless you have a special power that says otherwise.

“Pulse Wave – RANGE: Halve range, Improved Targeted – Characters, May make ranged attacks while adjacent to opposing characters. Other characters within range can’t use powers or abilities (for this action). Make a range attack targeting all other characters within range and line of fire, including at least 1 opposing character, using printed defense values for each targeted character. If 1+ characters were targeted, each hit character is dealt 1 damage instead.”

The good news is that this gets around defensive powers and Perplex (as it uses the character’s printed defense value). Characters cannot use powers or abilities until the action has completed – which means that any knockback that occurs before powers are restored. So a knockback from a Pulse Wave will not care about your Combat Reflexes or Charge. It shuts off defense powers, too, so your damage is going to hit characters with reducers ranging the spectrum from Invincible to Toughness, and shuts down Super Senses and Shape Change, too.

The down side is that you’re doing only one damage to everyone hit. Older players may argue this point, but the “1+” in the power means that if one or more characters are targeted with Pulse Wave, then the damage becomes 1. You can use Ranged Combat Expert with Pulse Wave, but know that you’ll only get the +1 to hit, and that damage is unaffected. While technically you can use Penetrating/Psychic Blast and Precision Strike with Pulse Wave, there’s no reason to, based on what these powers do (although I’m sure at some point in the future there’s going to be a strange interaction that makes this significant).

This is a RANGE action, and not simply a modifier to a range attack. What this means is that while you can use it with Running Shot, you would not be able to pair it with Hypersonic Speed. You could also not use it to destroy objects or walls, but then, since the damage becomes 1, you wouldn’t be able to destroy anything anyway.

Finally, the difference between PROTECTED and Protected is important to reiterate when talking about Pulse Wave. PROTECTED: Pulse Wave means the character can’t be targeted or damaged by Pulse Wave, and Pulse Wave does not shut off this ability like it does everything else. Protected:Pulse Wave means that that specific power (and all powers and abilities that fall within it) are not shut off during a Pulse Wave. This most often happens with defense powers on a STOP click – Pulse Wave damage would be reduced in that case, and this is why you typically cannot Pulse Wave to eradicate a group of colossal retaliators.

“Defend – Adjacent friendly characters may replace their defense value with this character’s printed defense value.”

This is another one of those powers people may discuss how it used to work. Don’t worry about that – just know that in order to use this piece’s defense value, you have to be adjacent to it. Also remember that you replace, then modify, which means that your perplexes will be added to the replaced value. For example, say you have a piece with a 16 defense and Combat Reflexes adjacent to a character with Defend and an 18 defense, and another friendly character perplexes the character with the 16 defense by one. If a character were to attempt a close attack on that character, it would have a 21 defense for that attack. First, you replace its defense with the 18, then add the perplex, When the close attack is made, you give it an additional +2 for Combat Reflexes. Note, if the perplex had been applied to the character with Defend, then the character’s defense would have only been a 20 in that scenario, since only the printed defense is shared.

One final note for Defend – adjacent characters have the option to use it, but are not required to do so. This is big in the case of characters with Support and Defend, who often have low defense values that they share during the Support action to make healing easier, but then allowing that same character to keep its higher defense when attacked by opposing characters.

“Support – POWER: Choose a target adjacent friendly character. If this character and the target aren’t adjacent to any opposing characters, roll 2d6. Add the result to this character’s attack value, and if that is equal to or higher than the target’s defense value, roll a d6. The target is healed of that result – 2, minimum 2. (This is not an attack.)”

This is very similar the making an attack against a friendly character, but as the power states, this is NOT an attack. This has two very big implications. For one, you cannot use Probability Control to reroll a Support roll. Since it is not an attack, it also means you cannot critically hit or miss a Support roll. You may, however, use Perplex to increase your attack value in order to make the Support roll easier.

That’s it for this week…next week we’ll dive into the light green powers, so if you have any special questions, feel free to post them on the Facebook page and I’ll address them in the segment.

So, right now, due to the efficiency of pieces seeming to get higher for lower point value pieces, the tent pole builds and OMAC builds seem to have slid out of favor. But that’s not saying that there isn’t the potential for the right team to do well…it just means you have to select the right piece to be the basis of the team. The options at the moment aren’t the greatest, but there is definitely one option in my mind that stands above the rest, and that’s the prime Apocalypse.

Link: Chris Cottrill – Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse is a beast, with protection from Outwit, Mind Control, and Penetrating/Psychic Blast. With Pulse Wave losing some of its bite, that make him extremely durable. He can also pick a power, so if you give him the Power Gem, he can combine Ranged Combat Expert from the gem with a chosen Psychic Blast to hit someone for seven penetrating damage and the potential for an extra point. Oh, and you have to be within five squares to target him. While you don’t have a lot of support pieces, he still gets to give them Horsemen abilities, and this includes the Peasants generated by the map, as his ability and the map both happen at the start of the game, so you can choose the order, giving you the Peasants before assigning the Horsemen powers. At 250 points, he doesn’t leave a lot of room for support, but he leaves just enough room for what I feel is the right support. Magneto helps get him where he needs to be with TK and his special placement, while Grodd can take Exploit Weakness from Apocalypse and combine it with his Leap/Climb/Quake combo. Give one peasant Poison, and have another be able to shut down healing, and you make your opponent’s day more complicated. Finally, assign the map bonus to Magneto, making him more difficult to get off the map.

The Peasants aren’t going to add much to your game offensively, but they will to some degree prevent you from being out-actioned as can happen with tent pole teams. Magneto and Grodd are only one click deep, so the Steal Energy granted by Apocalypse doesn’t help them out much, but the two of them are there to both make Apocalypse better and give the team theme team probs to use. Against Scarab teams, you’ll want to keep your support pieces away from Apocalypse of you equip the Power Gem, or you may want to just carry it around until you can deal with Scarab.

Still, Apocalypse is tough, deep, and has a lot of ways to hurt you. With two other rulers on the team, he gets access to probs, which combines with his great attack value to give you good odds to make that hit when you need it. Magneto gives him additional mobility, while Grodd can either give you a secondary attacker or Mind Control shennanigans. There’s a lot this team can do, so give it a try and see if it’s for you!

This week, I was pleased that a reader used the Facebook page to share some of his work, and so I thought I’d take a moment here to shine the spotlight on his creations. Allow me to thank Joshua Spangler for his contribution to the blog, and I hope you (and others) will keep sending me images of your creativity.

First up, we have a sculpt swap, replacing the standard Grodd with a more unique take on the character. This can add a lot of fun to your games, so if you’ve got a group that doesn’t always stress the official tournament rules, then I highly recommend doing this to make the game more colorful. Touches like this also catch the eye of people in your local gaming shop, which can spark interest and start conversations about the game, which helps us bring new players into the fold. I will say that personally, I would have used that sculpt swap with Red Ghost to make one of his apes, or possibly use it for a PHD Ape for the Krakoan Revival trait, but it still brings visual interest as is.

The Mechagodzilla is another sculpt swap, but I think this one has more of a creative opportunity than Grodd did. I say this because you could pop the dial and create a new one crafted around Mechagodzilla. And maybe find someplace to make a card, too. It might be fun to see what people would create with Mechagodzilla, which I could see borrowing the Kaiju team ability from the pacific Rim set. I always like bringing characters in from other sources that will never be made by WizKids, so taking the next step would be awesome!

If you have pieces that you’re really happy you’ve created, don’t hesitate to share them! I like including them in the blog, so you can email me at clixbait@digitaledengames.com or share them on the Facebook page, and I’ll take it from there. Who knows, your project might spark someone else’s creativity, and we’ll get pieces not only created by you, but inspired by you as well!

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This week, I wanted to take a look at something special. There’s a lot of flexibility in what you can put in your builds, but when it comes to primes, you get one. Period. And with that in mind, it can help out a lot knowing which ones are the best of the best so that you make the best of your limited resources. People’s opinions will vary, and I’ll admit to looking to some friends and teammates when putting together this list, but these are the pieces I think of when I think of the top five primes that will be legal post rotation. I’ll probably put a poll up on the Facebook page to get the community’s opinion as well.

#5 – Colossus (XDPS #G017b): I’m sure I’m going to get some argument over this choice, but hear me out – I KNOW he’s not the best prime, but he’s a lot more flexible than people give him credit for, and he can serve a valuable role on a lot of teams. With a new X-set coming our way, having an X-retaliator is not a bad option, and he’s a Barrier-buster on top of that. Even at his 25 point dial, he can still attack smaller characters, and he’s got a solid set of stats to do it with. He fits Mystical teams, too, and can fill a role to allow you to use X-Men team-up cards (most notably, with Wolverine for a Fastball Express!). He’s not who you’re building your team around, but he’s on my top 5 list!

#4 – Q (TREKRF #029b): He may not be an offensive piece in the traditional sense, but it’s hard to argue with his die manipulation ability. Plus, his special Super-Senses make him tricky to kill, and the Q team ability keeps him from being the target of Outwit. He’s only one click deep at his typically-played 30 point dial, but he’s got tricks to make that click last, and he’ll manipulate what’s going on on the map pretty well for those points. I might rate him higher, but Cosmic isn’t quite the build it once was.

#3 – Bishop (HX #003b): Bishop in and of himself is not great, but when Shard come into play, his value goes up tremendously. Limiting the range from which characters can make attacks is just an amazing ability, and even effects Scarab (though note, it only prevents attacks, so Scarab can still Outwit through objects). That protection opens up a lot of movement and placement options, making the map a safer place for all your characters.

#2 – Giganta (WW80 #037b): Two things place her this high on the list…her keywords and her durability. The damage cap on damage dealt to Gianta makes her durable, even on the 25 point, two click dial, and therefore makes her a great filler piece on Secret Six teams wanting to get past Outwit protections. Her 75 point dial is pretty nice, too, and her special Quake can cause problems for the unprepared, so those aren’t the only reasons to play her, but they are good reasons to play her over other primes. Her team player team ability gives her additional flexibility, and her giant reach stretches out the range of her Quake, so she’s dangerous at any point value.

#1 – Doppleganger (SVC #053b): He’s just brutal, there’s no two ways about it. The possibility of multiple attacks with bonus damage and possibly even extra movement combines with a full spectrum of defensive abilities and fantastic keywords to make him a bargain at 65 points. Not to mention the fact he’s going to heal when he KOs characters, and has really nice base stats to make life miserable for whoever faces him. What may get overlooked a midst the bulk of this package of awesome is that he also has Empower, making your other close combatants that much better. I may have concerns about some of my other choices, but I feel confident with him at number one!

That’s the way I see it, but if you see things differently, then you can go to the Facebook page and participate in the poll I’ve posted there. I’ll tell you how it comes out next week!

We still have a lot of colors to go, so I’ll keep updating the powers by colors for next week. I also will have information from the tournament in Columbus next week (hopefully I can tell tales of victory, but we’ll see), and maybe even a stream, so keep your eyes on the Facebook page Saturday. Thanks again to Joshua Spangler for sharing his creations, and I invite you all to do the same! I love getting to talk about things you’ve put together! Until next week, stay safe and have fun!