Month: January 2015

Trinity War – Deathstorm Figure Review

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~ Amber

Once upon a time Martin Stein was a Nobel Prize winning physicist who merged with a High School student to create the Super Hero Firestorm but in the twisted parallel universe of Earth 3 he’s a mad scientist who experimented on a corpse and became Deathstorm.

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

This sculpt is beautiful. You’ve got a rush of flames keeping Deathstorm a flight, while he holds a fireball ready to strike. This is a much more powerful and imposing sculpt than we saw during Deathstorm’s first appearance in the War of Light set last year. Although that was the Black Lantern embodiment of the Firestorm Matrix not Earth 3 Stein. This version of Deathstorm comes from the Nu52 universe alongside others of the Crime Syndicate.

The Dial

Deathstorm is 150pts for 7 clicks of health with Flight, a Range of 7 with two Targets and the Crime Syndicate Team Ability (man I love this team ability, check out Ultraman’s review for a look at what the team ability does) He has the named Crime Syndicate and the generic Scientist keywords. He has Improved Targeting: Ignore Elevated and Ignore Hindering. You know what’s really awesome? Ignoring Elevated for Probability Control!

Top click Deathstorm has 11 Movement with Running Shot, 10 Attack, 17 Defense with Invulnerable and 3 Damage with Human Experimentation. Basically Deathstorm is a Dick to support figures. His Special Power allows him to use Perplex normally however if he’s targeting a character (friendly or opposing) that’s 75pts or less he gets to modify them by +2 or -2. It’s a great way to boost up anyone little on your team or really mess with your opponent’s support figures.

His stats don’t dip too badly and his Attack stays pretty solid his entire dial. His Movement power flip flops between Running Shot and Phasing/Teleport. By click 3 he picks up Energy Explosion which he keeps for three clicks. His Defense turns to Toughness for two clicks before he gains Absorb your Energies, which is gross! This Special Power gives him Energy Shield/Deflection alongside that Toughness and if that click is revealed after he took damage from a Ranged Attack, after actions resolve, roll a D6 and heal him that much. *insert Amber’s shocked face at awesome powers here* I don’t think we have ever seen a D6 healing that did not have some kind of reduction to it. This power first shows up on click 4 which means he has a 2 in 3 chance of getting back up to the top of his dial.

EDIT: A recent Rules Clarification just made this power even more awesome. That being the difference between turning to a click (the click you land on after damage is taken) and revealing a click (clicks that are shown even if they are passed by) What this means for Deathstorm is that he doesn’t have to land on one of those three clicks for his power to activate. So long as one of those clicks were shown while taking damage and that damage came from a Ranged attack, he’s going to be doing some healing.

Then his final click gives him Regeneration. He also has two clicks of Outwit after losing his special Perplex power.

Overall this character is great and I can’t wait to play him. I’m super stoked to have the Evil Trinity back (Ultraman, Super Woman and Owlman) but I think he’s my most anticipated Crime Syndicate character so far. He’ll be decent enough to pull in sealed and he’ll do great on a Crime Syndicate theme team. Basically just keep him at a distance and he’ll treat you right.

Trinity War – Firestorm Figure Review

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~ Amber

Burn Baby Burn. Firestorm is next up for our Trinity War Previews.

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

Reminiscent of the sculpt we saw in The New 52 Justice League, Firestorm gives us a fun, powerful sculpt, showing off some of his powers in an enraged pose. While listed on his card as the convergence of Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch, this particular sculpt has Ronnie dominant over their shared body and sporting the yellow costume we first saw Jason wearing when Firestorm was first rebooted for the Nu52 universe (Firestorm being one of the few storylines that they decided to build from scratch rather than leaving their origins in place)

The Dial

Firestorm comes in at 140pts for 7 clicks of health with Flight, 7 Range and two Targets and the singular named Justice League of America keyword. He has a single trait that some of you may find familiar. We saw this trait nearly word for word on Marvel 10th Anniversary Iron Man (although Iron Man had protection from relics as well) The CH2=C(CH3)CH=CH2 trait says that when he would take damage from a character assigned a resource, he ignores that damage and instead rolls a D6. On a 1-3 he takes 1 unavoidable damage and this power can’t be ignored. In today’s game where nearly every team has a resource on it (so long as the format permits it) this gives him a fair amount of protection – although he doesn’t have that extra layer Iron Man has with Impervious. It’s also fairly safe to assume any rulings that were made for Iron Man will hold true for Firestorm (not causing an opponent’s Book of the Skull to spin or possibly taking extra damage on Mystics)

On his opening click he has a 9 Movement with Running Shot, 10 Attack with Hydrogen? That’s an Easy One which is Precision Strike and Energy Explosion (beautiful combo), 17 Defense with Invincible and 3 Damage with Outwit. On his next click we see Running Shot turn to Phasing/Teleport, Invincible turns to Toughness and Outwit turns to Perplex. His Attack and Defense also getting higher, just to drop again the following click where we see his Running Shot and Outwit return. On click 4 his Attack jumps up again but his Special Power is traded in for Poison. We also see Phasing/ Teleport come back for two clicks and Ranged Combat Expert shows up for the majority of the rest of his dial. Clicks 5 and 6 see an appearance of Energy Shield/Deflection. On his last two clicks Poison is exchanged for Pulse Wave but he also gains Earthbound/Neutralized which will keep him from using his Flight. On his very last click he has Regeneration.

Overall this a very nice dial with his trait making him a little harder to kill in certain formats. He’ll definitely be more dangerous in constructed than sealed and may just find his way into the Meta, though with Batteries being the primary resource at the moment it’s a little easier to have a resource assigned to your team and still be able to deal some damage to him.

Trinity War – Tim Hunter Figure Review

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~ Amber

The mystical and the magical are coming to Trinity War and are joined by the boy wizard Tim Hunter. Yet another character from DC’s darker Vertigo line that got folded into the franchise wide reboot of Nu52. Hunter is now seen alongside a vast array of other magical characters in Justice League Dark.

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

For all intents and purposes this sculpt is pretty bland. For a character who has access to magic they could have done at least something more. Although having the stack of books in the background is a nice touch and keeps it from being just a random guy standing on a base. Also the only thing to say, yes this is Justice League Dark Tim and not Books of Magic Tim is his blue sweater (which I think is kind of funny)

The Dial

Tim comes in at 58pts of mediocre stats, with 6 Range, the named Justice League Dark keyword and generic Mystical keyword. Tim is one of those characters where you need to have his card for him to make any kind of impact. What I mean by that is, so much of his potential comes from his trait and his special powers that his stats come across as easily dismissible.

His trait, Expelled Unnatural Magic, makes it so that himself as well as any adjacent friendly character with the Justice League Dark keyword can’t be targeted by opposing characters’ Probability Control. This is a huge ability. Any time you can have control over an opponent’s powers makes a big impact on a game. Stopping a character from being ability to use a power just by existing is incredibly useful. Not to mention that this is a trait, something that’s not going to be countered.

On his top click he has Phasing/Teleport, although given his trait he’s likely going to be carried around more often than not. We also see both his Defense and Damage Special Power. His Defense power, Everyone’s Annoyingly Concerned for my Welfare, gives him a situational form of Defend. Before any Attack Roll is made (Not specifically against him, which will help him if he gets caught in the AoE of an Energy Explosion) he can replace his Defense Value with an unmodified Defense Value of an adjacent friendly Justice League Dark character. Once again you see the need to keep him close to other JLD characters.

Then you have his Damage Power, Mentored by the Trenchcoat Brigade, which allows you to give him a Free Action to copy all the powers possessed by a friendly adjacent Mystical keyworded character, so long as they have one or more action token, until the beginning of your next turn. Important thing to note on this is that you are copying the powers possessed by that character. You aren’t going to copy anything they are getting from outside sources, like relics, resources, entities, etc. It also stands to reason that you will copy Special Powers in the same way that Hope Summers does, where any instance of Character X’s name will be replaced with Tim Hunter.

These powers are present for three clicks, which is the majority of his dial. On his final click we see some impressive looking stats and power combinations. He has an 11 Movement with Running Shot, 12 Attack with Destined to be the World’s Greatest Magician, 18 Defense with Impervious and 4 Damage with Perplex. To top that all off his Special Power there gives him Energy Shield/Deflection, Probability Control, Pulse Wave, Super Senses, and Willpower. This is a whole whack of excellent powers making this Tim’s God Click. However if not played carefully, you may never see this click given the fact that he only has 4 clicks of health and the average character nowadays does 3 or more Damage.

Overall Tim can be a great support click but he’s really only good on a Justice League Dark theme team. So many of his powers and his longevity in the game are solely dependent on the team you put him on. He is not the character that you want to see in your pack during a sealed tournament

Trinity War – I, Vampire Figure Review

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~ Amber

Justice League Dark has come to Trinity War along with it comes I, Vampire. This is one of those 26 figures that are making their Heroclix Debut.

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

This figure is great looking. I love the action pose, our little vamp ready to pounce. This is making me seriously nostalgic for Horrorclix. Much like what seems to be par for the course for this set, this version of Andrew is modeled after his run within Nu52, young topless twenty something looking beast rather than the original run from the 80’s where the character looked to be in his forties and hadn’t bought a new suit since the 19th century.

The Dial

Interestingly I, Vampire doesn’t have the ‘Vampire’ dial we got used to seeing with several Marvel characters (Dracula, Black Queen, Jubilee) and instead has an alternate KO dial. An alternate KO dial is when a character is defeated by reaching a certain condition rather than revealing a KO click. In I, Vampire’s case this happens on his lower 75pt dial when he crosses the red line.

I, Vampire can be played at either 75pts for 6 clicks of health or 170pts for 9 clicks of health. With Flight and Indomitable, I, Vampire has the named Justice League Dark keyword and the generic Monster Keyword. His singular trait, Rise of the Vampires and Beyond, explains how he is defeated for each of his point levels.

The dial is decent enough off the top click with 9 Movement Charge, 10 Attack Blades/Claws/Fangs, 17 Defense with Toughness and 2 Damage with Exploit Weakness. This is a great power combination. You get to move in and deal penetrating damage at either his printed 2 or roll for that Blades (which at a 1 in 6 chance of doing worse, there’s not much risk for that roll)

His powers come in waves of two. He keeps that top combo for another click before switching to two clicks of Hypersonic Speed, Steal Energy and Close Combat Reflexes. His stats don’t drop too dramatically and the maneuverability of his Hypersonic allows him a better chance to get that Steal Energy off before getting blasted himself. His next two clicks have Phasing/Teleport, Steal Energy, Super Senses and Outwit. This is the weakest his dial gets and puts him more into a defensive position. If you paid 75pts for him, this would be the end of his dial.

At his highest point value he has access to three more clicks of awesome to represent gaining the Vampire Horde at the end of the Rise of Vampires storyline. He becomes the Ultimate Vampire, giving him Hypersonic Speed (with an 11 Movement) the Mystics Team Ability and his powers can no longer be countered. He’s Empowered by Cain’s Demise, which is his Stop Click that will stop his dial from turning when this click is revealed due to taking damage from an opposing character’s attack and can’t be ignored (no pulse waving past this one) alongside an 11 Attack, an 18 Defense with Impervious and 5 Damage with Resurrection Energies. This final Special Power gives him Probability Control as well as being able to heal each adjacent friendly character of 1 Damage with a power action. This is not the kind of click you want to see pop up on the other side of the table.

He loses his stop click on his last two clicks (which doesn’t make him as much of a threat as Sodom Yat was with a dial like this) in favour of Steal Energy but his stats still stay high and he’s still got that Mystics to punish you for hitting him.

Overall I, Vampire is a great addition to Justice League Dark. He may not be ideal at his 75pts, though he may fill in some space on a Monster team at that point level. His big draw is his top dial and the punishment he’s prepared to dish out once he becomes the Ultimate Vampire. He’ll definitely be one to look out for in sealed (won’t be as much as an auto play as Sodom Yat was) and can make for some nasty Monster teams. Steal Energy for the win.

Trinity War – Doctor Light (a and b) Figure Preview

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~ Amber

Our next Trinity War Preview gives us a look at the first previewed Prime for the set – Arthur Light aka Doctor Light. This is also one of those rare times when the a and b of the Prime set are actually the same person (outside War of Light, War of Light doesn’t count) The main version appears to be Arthur while working with the Justice League of America whereas his Prime is the concentrated light form of him after his apparent death that appears in Forever Evil.

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

Doctor Light seems to be one of the few DC characters who’s costume didn’t get a major overall during Nu52 just a bit of modernization and this is the first time we’re seeing this version of his costume in Clix form. This is actually a really nice model of him, his hand in the air showing some use of his powers while his cape billows behind him.

The Dial

Doctor Light is 56pts of awesome support, giving more evidence to Jason’s theory that we’re seeing a resurgence of the Pit Crew. Sporting a 7 Range and Improved Targeting: Ignores Hindering, Doctor Light has the named keywords A.R.G.U.S and Justice League of America as well as the generic Scientist keyword.

There’s not too much to his dial at only 5 clicks of health and no traits or Special Powers but that just places him nicely into the support category. While he’s best utilized for his enhancement he can still get a few good hits in with his Penetrating/Psychic Blast, though that 9 Attack does leave something to be desired these days. By his third click he’s traded in his Penetrating/Psychic Blast for a combo of Running Shot and Pulse wave and click 4 and 5 his Energy Shield/Deflection and Enhancement become Regeneration and Shape Change.

Overall not a bad little Clix. He’s great support to other Ranged Attackers and gets a little offensive himself when he picks up his Running Shot/Pulse Wave combo. He’s also got that late dial regeneration to keep him in the game a little longer.

Now let’s move onto his Prime.

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

Much like any Prime, this is the same figure model as the A version of Doctor Light. However this version is made solely of translucent plastic giving him the look of being made of concentrated light. The pose like the above version is still a nice subtle action pose, showing him using his power. However this version being translucent doesn’t give the full effect of his costume that the painted version does.

The Dial

The Prime version is easily the more powerful of the two, coming in at 108pts for 6 clicks of health with Flight, Improved Movement: Ignores Blocking Terrain and all the same keywords as his regular version. His trait, Bouncing Around the World at Light Speed, gives him a big boost to his Movement. At the beginning of your turn roll a D6 and then replace his speed value with the result plus his printed speed value. There are two very important things to keep in mind when using this trait, the first being that combat values aren’t calculated until they’re used and all replacements happen simultaneously and are made in the order the active player chooses. Why is this important? It gives this Doctor Light the potential of a 19 Movement Running Shot (best case scenario)

On his opening click Doctor Light has a 10 Movement. If you roll a 6 on your beginning of turn D6 his first replacement value becomes 16. Now let’s say your team is also packing some serious Perplex and modify his Movement by +3. Doctor Light takes an action to Running Shot, under the Golden Rule of Replace then Modify we resolve all his replacements first. His Movement will be halved from Running Shot making it a 5, then we replace it again with the number from his trait making it a 16 and finally add in the modifiers to the final result of 19. Then you add in his 8 Range and he has the potential to cover the entire map. Now that’s not to say that we won’t see a clarification or errata on this one but as it stands (and based on the Flash who has a similar trait) this is how it works right now.

Looking at the rest of his dial this Doctor Light is a pretty decent figure. He starts off with 10 Movement Running Shot, 10 Attack Penetrating/Psychic Blast, 17 Defense Super Senses and 2 Damage Shape Change. This click alone gives him two separate chances to shrug off an attack. His stats stay pretty steady and even ramp up for a couples of clicks. By click 3 we see a shift in powers, his Running Shot becomes Phasing/Teleport, his Super Senses becomes Invincible and his Shape Changes turns to Ranged Combat Expert. The click after his Penetrating/Psychic Blast becomes Pulse Wave. On his last two clicks he gets Shape Change back while gaining Reforming Myself for the first time. This Special Power gives him Energy Shield/Deflection and if he had been given a move action that turn he can use Regeneration as a Free Action. Given the fact that he has Phasing/Teleport on that click (along with his boosted Movement from his trait) it should be easy for him to get out of trouble to try and heal back up.

Overall this is a great piece. He’ll do well both in sealed and regular constructed play though I think it may be too early to see what kind of effect he’ll have (if any) on the Meta game – especially if any changes get made to the way his trait and Running Shot work together.

Trinity War – Vandal Savage Figure Review

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~ Amber

Continuing on with our Trinity War Previews we take a look at the immortal villain who has lived many lives and conquered just as many Empires – Vandal Savage. This is only the second time we’ve seen him in Clix and his previous iteration in Origins was not the best representation of the character.

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

This time around Vandal Savage does look the part of the formidable foe. The ‘Come at me Bro’ pose actually kind of a works for a man who has seen it all and fears little. His outfit is well designed, modeled after his elegant look in Trinity War when he joins the Secret Society of Super Villains rather than the barbarian get up he’s seen in during Demon Knights.

The Dial

Given the nature of this character, a man of ancient origins who claims to have been Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Vlad Tepes amongst many others we could have very well seen him sporting a mechanic similar to that of Bizzaro’s Orazzib tokens or the Beyonder’s Corporeal Form tokens. Instead we’re seeing a take on what is colloquially referred to as a Bizzaro Dial with a random assortment of powers – though this is not a true Bizzaro dial, as the stats don’t increase in a steady progression.

Vandal can be played at either 250pts for 11 clicks of health or 160pts for 6 clicks of health. He has indomitable and the named keywords Demon Knights, Injustice Society and Secret Society of Super Villains along with generic Past and Ruler.

He has two traits, the first being Seemingly Immortal which allows him to heal 1 damage if he has two actions tokens after you’ve cleared for the turn. This is a fun trait. There was a Red She-Hulk in Fear Itself that did this and I can’t tell you how many times I had her pushed to heal her of that 1 damage. Given the fact that he’s Indomitable there’s no real fear to pushing him and it allows him to heal 1 when you do, however with how random his dial is it might not always put you in the best position.

His second trait, I Was Alexander, Genghis, Vlad . . . is similar to Superman’s Inspiring Hero, except this is only a bonus to Attack on a successful Leadership roll. However where he one ups the Man of Steel is that this is a trait, something he’ll have his entire dial and won’t be outwitted. This gives you a 1 in 3 chance every turn of Vandal having +1 to his Attack (as well as every other friendly character) There really is no downside to this and should be rolled every turn regardless of whether you can use the other benefits a successful Leadership roll will give you.

His powers, like I mentioned, are everywhere. His Movement flip flops between Charge, Flurry, Stealth and Plasticity with no discernible pattern. His Attack switches between Super Strength and his Special Power Trained in Every Style of Fighting, allowing him to use Close Combat Expert and Probability Control (but only for that specific action) and two clicks of Steal Energy late dial. His Defense powers have the closest thing to a pattern, starting at Toughness, then switching to Invulnerability and finally Invincible before ramping back down in reverse order (except for click 10, just to be a jerk) Finally his Damage powers switch between Shape Change, Tactician That Won a Thousand Wars, and Outwit. His Special Power there allows him to use Outwit and Perplex at a Range of 8 and Improved Targeting: Ignore Characters.

With his smattering of traits and powers it’s easy to see why he’s as expensive as he is though with his dial being as inconsistent as it is there may be better options out there for 250pts. Even at 160pts his dial isn’t exactly trust worthy and there’s nothing that really sets him apart that’ll see him at higher level tournaments. However he does have a nice mix of Keywords (including the brand new Demon Knights which we’ve only seen on Etrigan so far) which could see him played in some Theme Teams.

Trinity War – Hawkman Figure Review

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~ Amber

The next preview on the docket is the Master of the Skies, Hawkman. This is the sixth time we’ve seen Hall within Clix – though it’s hard to say whether or not any of the precarded iterations were actually Katar Hol, while the newer ones based on Nu52 are technically both Carter and Katar (yay retcon)

Courtesy of Heroclix.com

The Sculpt

Hawkman is one of those characters that you just want to see flying. They’ve gotten really good at making dynamic looking flying sculpts over the last few years and it always feels like a shame when they don’t use them on characters you instantly associate with flying. That being said he still looks great, decked out in his full Nth Metal armour. The costume is taken right from the pages of Savage Hawkman though he seems to have traded in his new Battleaxe in favour of his traditional Mace.

The Dial

Hawkman is a solid 115pts for 7 clicks of life. He has Flight, Indomitable and the Justice League Team Ability. He’s got the named Justice League of America keyword alongside generic Past and Warrior, which leaves him open for some fun theme teams.

Starting off on his top click he has 10 Movement with his I Own the Sky Special Power, an impressive 12 Attack with Precision Strike, 17 Defense with Energy Shield/Deflection and 3 Damage with Close Combat Expert. That Special Power allows him to Charge at his full 10 Movement and on a successful hit he can then use Side Step that turn. This can either let him get out of the fray in order to utilize that Energy Shield/Deflection or put him next to another opponent for his Close Combat Expert (granted he successfully breaks away)

His stats stay pretty decent as his dial begins to turn. By click 3 his Energy Shield/Deflection is traded in for Close Combat Reflexes which he keeps for the rest of his dial and on click 4 his Close Combat Expert becomes Battle Fury (which in the age of the Star Sapphires has become an invaluable power) By click 5 we start to see him weaken with a switch to his power set. He loses I Own the Sky and gains regular Charge and his Precision Strike becomes No Matter the Odds, They Will Fall Before Me. This allows Hawkman to use Quake and if he’s a part of a Justice League of America theme team he can use Quake as a Free Action after having been given a Move Action. This may be the only time you actually use his Team Ability.

JUSTICE LEAGUE When you give a character using the Justice League team ability a move action, it does not count toward your available actions for the turn.

Now in a game littered with Free Actions this Team Ability just doesn’t get used (if it was ever used before) but you may find yourself using it in this case. Sure, Hawkman is still going to take that action token for having moved but it’s not going to count towards your action total for the turn and he does get to use that Quake as a Free Action afterwards.

Overall this Hawkman is very useable for his points. He obviously excels in a Justice League of America theme team, making sure to utilize all his powers but with that opening click I wouldn’t be turning my nose up at him in a sealed either. His major down fall is his lack of damage reducers, one good smack with a heavy or ultra heavy object can quickly cripple him but he does have those bonuses to his Defense to make that much harder to accomplish.