Set Breakdown: Captain America: Civil War

Regardless of how you feel about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movie gravity feed sets always have some awesome pieces in them, who can forget the Black Widow/Captain America Duo fig from Winter Soldier, or Agent 13 from the same set, not to mention either of the Hulks from Age of Ultron. Needless to say, these sets almost always contain some useful pieces and some fantastic figures, so let’s take a deep dive into all that is Civil War.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: Traits

Almost every piece in this set, and ever piece in the starter has one of two traits.

+5 I’m with Cap: When targeted by a ranged combat attack, ________ can use Shape Change

OR

+5 Iron Man is Right _________ can use Plasticity.

These traits both cost an extra 5 points on top of the point cost of the character, giving you even more options for team building. Both ranged Shape Change and Plasticity are worth the 5 points, but depending on the character they might not get the same mileage with those powers.

Let’s take a look.

#001 Captain America

I don’t really know how to feel about this dial. It’s not bad at all, but it’s a little lackluster, especially at the higher point value. Cap’s big trick here is his special Leadership that allows him to give a +1 boost to a friendly characters Attack and Defense when he succeeds with Leadership. This is a weaker version of JLTW 050 Superman’s Leadership which gives the boost to every friendly character, but it’s still a decent ability. The best thing this Captain America has going for him is his damage values. He starts out with a high 4, and only falls to 2 when he gets Close Combat Expert to back it up. His other values don’t fair so well, his attack only staying at an 11 for his first click, and the rest being 10’s and 9’s, and his defense value is never higher than a 17, which is a cause for concern. Cap also never gets Energy Shield/ Deflection which is a shame, but his trait does give him a little more defensive potential from a distance. Movement wise it’s a mixed bag as well. He does have the ability to move and attack on every click, but most of that is relegated to Sidestep. His top click on his highest dial gives him the most potential with Running Shot, Precision Strike, Invulnerability and 4 damage. The best thing to say about him is that he never gets so weak as to become useless. He’s entirely playable, but he doesn’t over any of the tricks I want from a Captain America. Where’s the shield bouncing, or the Energy Shield/Deflection? If you’re going to play him, his lower value does seem a lot more interesting. There aren’t too many lower point Avengers, but even if he can’t use the taking off action tokens, part of his special Leadership, he can still buff allies. In relation to the Trait, you should almost always pay for it, as Cap will be targeted from range most of the time, as Heroclix is still a range heavy game.

Strengths: Is threatening on all of his clicks, Special Leadership.

Weaknesses: Is never a huge threat on the field, Lower than average values.

Final Score: 3/5- This Captain America isn’t bad. He’s a decent leader for any Avengers team, he just misses anything really special to make him an interesting piece. He’s entirely average.

#002 Iron Man

Iron Man is a mirror image of the Captain America. They both have two starting lines at 125 and 60, and both have the same values down their dial, and both are fairly uninteresting takes on the already massively represented characters. Iron Man offers a special Leadership that’s the reverse of Cap’s, as he reduces opposing characters attack and defense values by -1. In general this is worse than Cap’s, but has one benefit. When you would normally Perplex down a characters defense, the Perplex would disappear after that character had been hit, but because this isn’t a Perplex the -1 stays until Iron Man’s next turn allowing for multiple attacks to take advantage of the reduced defense. Regardless, these only activate 1/3 of the time, making it a nice bonus, but not a reason to play the character.

Outside his special Leadership, Iron Man doesn’t really hold many surprises. For some reason he doesn’t have Willpower, and on top of that, his dial is not push friendly. His top click is the only click with a good amount of power, featuring an 11 attack and 4 damage. Compared to Captain America he has 1 more range, and reducers down almost the entirety of his dial, starting with Impervious, followed up with 2 clicks of Invulnerability and finally getting Toughness, before a click of Regeneration. Mobility wise he has Running Shot on two clicks, and Sidestep on the rest, which is decent for a 7 range, ranged attacker. Captain America also beats him in attack powers, as Iron Man only features Energy Explosion on his first two clicks, and then a bare attack slot for the rest. With 1 target, you aren’t getting a lot of value from that Energy Explosion, so it is a little lackluster for an Iron Man.

If you’re playing this Iron Man than I have to suggest playing him at his higher level as it just gives him more things to do. On his lower level he’s going to be there to use Leadership, and pick off enemies, before getting killed himself. The lack of Willpower hurts him on both starting lines, but when you have 4 clicks of life, taking that 1 damage is just so much more painful.

Iron Man’s trait is almost pointless on his dial. He’s completely a ranged attacker, and giving him Plasticity isn’t giving him a lot of value besides the ability to breakaway easier. There are situations in which it will benefit him, but most of the time if you’re keeping in mind his positioning, Plasticity will be wasted.

Final Score: 2/5- The lack of Willpower is just such a hit to this character that’s supposed to keep up with your smaller team members and take tokens off of them that I just can’t recommend him. Where the Captain America isn’t particularly flawed, just lacks anything remarkable, this Iron Man suffers from a serious flaw that keeps him from holding his own.

#003 Black Widow

This is definitely a strange dial for Black Widow, and if you’re going up against any of the other pieces in this set, she’s going to suffer. Her first three clicks have Willpower, Stealth and a special damage power that gives her Exploit Weakness and Shape Change, which, on-top of the possibility of Plasticity from her trait, gives her a few options. But, in a set that’s almost completely full of characters with the Avengers Initiative team ability, her Stealth cannot keep her alive. Luckily her defensive values are very high for a 60 point character, starting with an 18 on her first click, and only falling to a 16 when she gets Combat Reflexes. Black Widow wants you to play her as a spy, getting deep into enemy cover with her Stealth before being hit to her close combat monster clicks, where she has Flurry, Outwit and Precision Strike, allowing her to get through anyone’s defenses. Those first three clicks are a little daunting to play with though, forcing her to get up close in order to deal any damage, and not being able to rely on any move and attack does make her more of a finesse piece. I wish her dial was reversed, starying with 2 clicks of Stealth and then going on to the Flurry, because she is just so much more playable when she is flurrying than when she’s hiding, and there is the danger that she’ll be killed before getting to her more dangerous clicks.

If you’re going to use her, you have to use her Trait. She needs to be up close to be really effective, and if you aren’t able to hold someone there when she’s smacking them. She needs the Plasticity granted by her trait, even if it’s just to be a hindrance to their mobility.

Final Score: 3/5- She’s interestingly designed, but she’s not going to win any awards. She can always do some work, especially with her trait, but you need to be acutely aware of threats to her well-being.

#004 War Machine

War Machine is a continuation of the Iron Man dial without the Leadership ability. He’s a fairly strong ranged attacker, with some issues with mobility, and no Willpower. Once again, his ability to get Plasticity is a little unnecessary, as he’ll want to stay as far away as possible from any opponent, but unlike the Iron Man, he gets Pulse Wave, requiring him to be a little closer, possibly making it a useful power for breakaway. In the same vein as the last three figures, he’s not bad, he’s just not particularly great. He’s a very simple representation of Rhodey, but he has all the necessary tools to be effective, outside of Willpower. For the majority of his dial he has useful attack powers, switching between Precision Strike and Pulse Wave, giving him more offensive power than Iron Man. His defensive powers mimic Iron Man’s but he doesn’t have the Regeneration on his last click. There’s really not much to say about him, his values are decent and his powers are good, he just suffers from the lack of Willpower, and doesn’t gain a ton of benefit from his trait.

Final Score: 3/5- I like this War Machine a lot more than the version we got in the Age of Ultron event, just because of his lower point value. He might not have as many tricks up his sleeve (since he has none), but it’s just a simple, solid dial that’s easy and fun to play.

#005 Ant-Man

I have a huge soft spot for all of the Ant-Man’s from the comics, and last year was a fantastic year for Ant-Man figures with the Legacy of Hank Pym set, and the Hank Pym’s in Age of Ultron. This Ant-man breaks the curse of mediocrity in this set, creating a fun new take on a character. The first thing you’re getting with this Ant-Man is the ability to turn adjacent standard characters Tiny. This is super helpful (especially considering the Hawkeye coming up next), as it allows a character who couldn’t usually be carried to be carried, and gives them a +1 defense from range. At first that doesn’t seem like much, but it completely accelerates your mobility, halving the number of actions you need to move that character. The other benefit it offers is shrinking a character who would otherwise break your line of sight, allowing you to shoot over their head.

Ant-man offers a surprisingly strong dial on-top of that awesome trait, even if it is only 4 clicks long. Because he’s tiny, his mobility isn’t too much of an issue, and he offers some fantastic powers for anyone who carries him. On his top dial he has Sidestep and Outwit, giving him a lot of things to do after he’s been carried. In combat he has pretty good values, starting with a 3 damage, 10 attack. His defense is pretty solid at the start with a 17, (18 from range) and Super Senses. Paired with the Shape Change from the Cap trait, he’s going to be hard to hit. Later in the dial he loses the Super Senses in favour of combat reflexes, and loses the Outwit for Perplex, still giving him a lot of support options. His damage and attack fall a lot though, making it harder for him to deal any damage. To make up for that he gets Incapacitate, making sure he can still be of use. His 4 range is going to see a lot of use, because there’s not a lot of need for him to get up close, and he’s not going to be tying anyone up as a tiny. The last tool in his belt is his attack power on his first two clicks. It’s definitely more interesting in theory than in execution, and it allows him to turn any character he hits into Tiny Size or Giant. There isn’t too much use for Tiny Size unless it’s a character that is tying up a bigger piece, or blocking a line of sight. Giant Size offers a much more interesting opportunity, as it makes that piece a huge target, even allowing them to be shot over elevated terrain.

With Ant-Man the trait is a must. For 5 more points it makes him so hard to hit from range, giving him an 18 defense, and Super Senses and Shape Change.

Final Score: 4/5- Ant-Man just offers a lot of interesting choices every turn, making him a character that’s fun to play and also really effective.

#006 Hawkeye

This Hawkeye is just so lackluster, especially compared to the really good Hawkeye’s we got in the last movie set. Now, he’s definitely not a bad figure. He just lacks a lot of synergy on his dial, especially on his first 3 clicks that mix Energy Explosion and Ranged Combat Expert, two powers that can’t be used together. To round out those powers he also has Leap/Climb and Toughness making him strangely tough to damage for a Hawkeye. He eventually loses Leap/Climb in favour of Running Shot, and he also picks up Penetrating/ Psychic Blast and Energy Shield/Deflection. Where Hawkeye shines is his values. His attack starts off at a solid 11, with 3 damage. With Ranged Combat Expert that gives him a lot of flexibility in dealing damage, or hitting high defense characters. His range is a higher than average 8, with two bolts, allowing him to do something with the Energy Explosion, but he’s missing the level of accuracy most Hawkeye figures have. He doesn’t have any Improved Targeting outside of his team ability, and he’s missing Sharpshooter, making him a solid, if boring ranged attacker. I just don’t look at that dial and think, this is Hawkeye, and while, sometimes its nice to get simple versions of characters, I don’t think this one particularly shows off the skills of Hawkeye like the two version in Age of Ultron did.

This Hawkeye has two traits. The first allows him to launch adjacent friendly tiny characters with the Avengers keyword, (aka Ant-Man). This has really great synergy with Ant-man’s ability to make characters tiny, giving Hawkeye a little bit of a fun factor. His other trait modifies the defense of hit characters by -1 until the end of the turn, With two targets and Energy Explosion, this offers some flexibility, but it really doesn’t seem very Hawkeye. Outside of my gripes with it in relation to his character, it’s a fairly useful ability, rewarding you for proper placement of Hawkeye.

Giving Hawkeye Shape Change is really useful as his defenses are very solidly average. Assuming you’re keeping him out of close combat, the 1/3 chance to avoid being hit is really really useful, so that he can either shoot his tiny friend to tie up a character, or weaken an enemy to allow someone else to come in and smash them.

Final Score- 3/5-If his dial wasn’t so basic, and he had some more Improved Targeting I would like this version of Hawkeye a lot more. But when you compare him to the versions from the AAOU set, it’s harder to compare. His traits offer him some neat tricks, so he can be really fun to play, but his dial is just a little plain to be enthusiastic about it.

#007 Red Wing

Red Wing is an interesting piece, if not always a particularly useful one. For 20 points its allowing you a Perplex to an opponents defense, and a piece to potentially tie up your opponents, (even though it’s only tiny). Redwing offers really great synergy with the previous Hawkeye, as he can fire it on his arrow, modifying the defense of the hit character by -2 (with Redwing’s power), and Ant-man, who can be carried quite far by this little robotic bird. Redwing is a tool for you to use, not so much a figure, and so it’s hard to discuss it. I don’t think it’s the most effective use of its points compared to the generic Mystical figures from World’s Finest, but it’s offering something that can’t be found anywhere else, and for that it deserves some recognition.

Final Score: 3/5- It’s not really pretty or impressive, but it can be really useful and annoying in its own right, making it a better piece than it might at first seem.

#008 Falcon

Falcon gives Team Cap a taxi, and not a whole lot else. He varies between a ranged and close combat attacker, with a wavering damage value that moves between 2 and 3, giving him less effectiveness against tougher armour. His first click gives him a 6 movement Running Shot which is an above average speed, but it’s held back by the lack of attack and damage powers. He also has an average to low attack value that’s made up by his ability to use Probability Control on his own attacks, it’s just too bad his attacks aren’t that effective. Falcon doesn’t have enough range to keep away from being tied up, and he doesn’t have enough protection to survive a drawn out fight, making him a figure that requires a lot of finesse.

Later in his dial he does get Exploit Weakness and Combat Reflexes, allowing him to stand a better chance against heavily armoured foes, as long as he gets up close to them. Falcon feels a little less impressive than the previous pieces in this set because he’s lacking a significant way of making his damage stick. He has attack on the lower end, average to poor damage and no attack powers to help him out. His ability to decrease tiny characters defense by -1 isn’t something that will come up a lot, and when it does, it’s just negating the bonus they get for being tiny if he’s attacking from range. He’s not worth playing solely for that effect, as the tiny defense bonus so rarely has a dramatic effect on the game.

You might as well give him the trait, any protection he can get is helpful. Sadly, it’s not going to be as much use as the game winds down, and he relies on getting in close to use Exploit Weakness.

Final Score- 2/5

#009 Winter Soldier

Now, while this Winter Soldier is like the other figures in that it’s simple, his dial is fantastic He has 8 range, putting him in the same category as Hawkeye as a ranged attacker, this is further cemented on his 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th clicks. He starts with a similar set-up to Hawkeye, with Ranged Combat Expert, 11 attack and 3 damage, on-top of that he gets Sidestep and Precision Strike, which both pair wonderfully with Ranged Combat Expert. On his last 2 clicks he becomes a Running Shot, Penetrating/ Psychic Blast using ranged attacker. Unlike Hawkeye, he has the ability to fire out of adjacency, or shoot adjacent characters, making him a bigger threat.

What makes Winter Soldier both really interesting, and possibly less effective is his two middle clicks. They morph him from a ranged attacker into a close combat monster. He sticks with sidestep, but picks up Super Strength, and Close Combat Expert, making him really dangerous. He has a 10 attack, and 3 damage, with Close Combat Expert and Super Strength that can go as high as 12 Attack for 5 Damage. The best thing about Winter Soldier is his values. He has an incredibly solid dial, with attack that never falls below 10, and a solid defense of 17 down the entire dial. His defensive power switches between Toughness and Combat Reflexes, giving him enough protection, but not a ton.

This Winter Soldier makes a name for himself in another way as well. He’s the only Winter Soldier with the Hydra keyword, giving him a really good reason to grab him. His Shape Change trait is great as it gives him more defense, but it’s not entirely necessary if you’re slim on points.

Final Score- 4/5- He may not be an incredibly exciting piece, but he has all the right values and powers to make him dangerous on the field.

#010 Giant-Man

Giant-man certainly doesn’t feel particularly powerful. Looking at his dial he has front loaded Charge, Super Strength and Invulnerability, giving him some close combat prowess. His values aren’t great, but they’re balanced enough to not be a downside. After those first two clicks he loses those powers in favour of a special attack power. This power is actually pretty good, giving him a pseudo Quake without the knock-back, and increasing the damage to adjacent characters to 3. He also gains Close Combat Expert giving him some variability, so that he can choose to punch through a character with heavy reducers, or smash a bunch of smaller foes. His values are all really great, and his attack reaches a 12 on his last click, making it easy to hit almost anyone. The best thing about Giant-Man is that he can do work on every single click of his dial, making him really good to push, and forcing your opponent to kill him, instead of just putting him on a bad click, to remove the threat he creates.The lack of move and attack really slows him down after his first two clicks, but being a giant does help this a bit, let me explain.

Because of his size, Giant-Man has Giant Reach, allowing him to punch people up to 2 squares away, and his size allows him to carry and ignore hindering and elevation. Even though Giant-Man can’t move and attack, he can carry regular sized characters for free (because they’re tiny compared to Giant-Man), making him a great taxi. Giant-Man has the ability to carry someone like Black Widow, placing her adjacent to an enemy tying them up, while also putting Giant-Man in range to strike with his Giant Reach, but keeping him out of range of his targets close combat attacks. Giant-Man is a really fantastic taxi, except for one thing, being giant sized makes him a target. With the new size rules, he ignores elevation when he’s targeting, but this also applies in the reverse. Any character ignores elevation when targeting Giant-Man, giving him a lot of trouble keeping out of the line of fire, and making him an easily brought down target.

Thankfully Giant-Man can use the I’m with Cap trait giving him an extra layer of protection from ranged attacks, and making him a lot better at getting in close.

Final Score: 3/5- This may be a bit of a shock, seeing how much I liked Giant-Man, but he doesn’t really excel at anything. He’s a good piece, but he’s a little ways away from being a must have piece, especially with the great Giant-Man figures in AOU.

STARTER SET

I’m going to spoil it right now, I love this starter set. All of these versions of the characters I think completely crush their counterparts in the main-set. Confusingly, these pieces are often more complicated, making the starter harder to recommend to new players, but I feel that if a new player does pick this up, these figures can really grow with them, offering new tricks to learn and put into play as they figure out more and more about Heroclix. I love how each of the figures has two starting lines, allowing you to play between 3 and 6 figures for a 300 point game. That flexibility is basically unheard of in Fast Forces. Due to the point values of each figure in the set, the traits are basically an auto include, making their point costs more even. The nice thing about this, is that if these are the first figures a new player gets, having 4 different point values allows them to fit into almost any team, on-top of that they’re all really decent versions of the figures, skirting the line of simplicity and usefulness.

There are a few commonalities shared between each figure. At 100 points they have 6 clicks of life, at 50 they have 3. This is a little on the low end, but isn’t particularly bad. Their damage values are almost always 3 until their last two clicks. This means at 50 points you’re dealing with 6 figures capable of putting out damage to get through reducers, and when they’re off their first click 5/6 of the figures have a way to counter powers, or increase their damage to insure they’re still dealing that damage.

001 Captain America

This Captain America is going to be the work-horse of your team. His special Leadership allows him to get some extra actions in, making him a threat even if he has two tokens on him. An issue with this Leadership is that all the other figures in the set share the same point values as him, forcing you to play him at 100 if you want to benefit from Leadership’s ability to remove tokens from other characters. Captain America loses a little bit of the utility of the main set, as he doesn’t have Running Shot, but otherwise plays almost identically, just for a lower point cost. His values are steady, but drop off towards the end, similar to his main set counterpart.

The biggest difference between the two is just how much your investing. For 50 points you’re getting a lot of value with solid values and the ability to get past reducers, as well as, being able to take tokens off himself at his first click, and at 100 you’re getting a lot steadier values, and even more use of his Leadership power. This Leadership power definitely is a selling point. Yet still, this Cap feels a little weaker than some of the previous ones, and lacks anything representing his shield. I guess my feelings towards this Cap, compared to the main-set one come from it’s placement in a starter set. It looks like an exciting piece to play with for the first time, it offers a lot of flexibility, and being able to take tokens off of him keeps him constantly going. Even though statistically he isn’t much better than the main set version, The lower point cost puts him in the lead.

Final Score: 4/5

002 Iron Man

This Iron Man is really good, but still suffers from a strange lack of Willpower, making him a little lackluster compared to Captain America. His Leadership power is unbelivably good, and that’s what’s going to make Iron Man really playable at 50 points, and has great synergy with his trait. Iron Man fixes the main flaw I had with the main set figure, trading Energy Explosion for Penetrating/ Psychic Blast. This gives you some reason to play him at his higher point value, as he can tear through bigger targets.

Taking down big targets is what this Iron Man is made to do. If he can get into range he can not only hit them for a big hit, but can potentially token them next turn with his Leadership. A free Incapacitate is never a bad thing, but one that doesn’t require an attack roll is even better. Paired up with Plasticity, Iron Man can really slow your opponents forces down. This also gives him a lot of value on turns where he doesn’t feel like pushing, because this Iron Man doesn’t like to push. He loses the Running Shot on his first push, and Penetrating/ Psychic Blast on his second. This is what is going to make him a little bit worse. He really needs to be in the middle of things, but he suffers for actually going there.

Final Score- 3/5

003 Black Widow

This Black Widow is less of a finesse piece, but still requires some thought to play. Her big trick is lowering the attack and defense of adjacent characters with tokens, giving her more of a support role. This special power works really well with the Plasticity from her trait. She’s no slouch in combat though, sharing similar values to both Captain America and Iron Man, as well as constantly having either Shape Change or Outwit. She’s going to be played a lot if you’re running the starter because of her ability to Outwit, but this also causes an issue when playing her at 50 points.

At her lower starting value her first click features both her special attack power, and Shape Change, but not Outwit. Pushing her to click 2 offers that Outwit, but you’re losing her power to reduce attack and defense of adjacent characters. This makes Black Widow very pushable as she doesn’t lose a ton of effectiveness as she takes damage. She’s really solid on all of her clicks, her values never drop too far, and her powers are generally excellent except for the leap climb on her last two clicks. For 50 or 100, you’re going to find a use for her.

Compared to her main set doppelganger, she plays a lot more straight-forwardly, but also offers a much more complete set of powers. She loses the Stealth in favour of a more straight foward beat down set of powers, while maintaining the finesse with her special attack power. She suffers from being fragile, but makes up for it by being a real pain in the ass for your opponents to deal with.

Final Score- 3/5

004 Falcon

Falcon is just a little bit more mediocre than the rest of the characters in the starter set, but he is a lot more focused than the Falcon from the main set. He’s single-minded in his attempt to be a ranged combat piece, but does nothing to distinguish himself from the crowd. If you’re playing him at 100 points its for his front-loaded Perplex, which definitely helps with his average values. He does keep a 3 damage for a majority of his dial, keeping him competitive in the current environment, but sadly, Falcon is built to be a Taxi and not much else. His damage powers (Perplex and Enhancement) both lead him towards a support role on the battlefield; compounding on the fact that Iron Man is the only other flier, this forces Falcon into being a run of the mill taxi. When he gets Defend, it’s almost useless with his 17 defense, as very rarely do any of the other figures in the set drop below that, he also loses his biggest positive in Running Shot for the less spectacular Force Blast, really slowing down Falcon, and keeping him from being any help. He’s just so lackluster compared to Iron Man, who can taxi around others, and holds his own in combat. A few extra clicks of Running Shot, and some supporting powers, the best of which he only has at 100 points, is less than stellar.

Final Score- 2/5

#005 Winter Soldier

Winter Soldier makes up for Falcon’s lackluster performance with a incredibly deadly dial. He is able to simultaneously be threatening up close and at a distance with Ranged Combat Expert and Blades/Claws/Fangs, mixed with his excellent 8 range. When he doesn’t have Ranged Combat Expert he gets Flurry and Outwit. Clearly his biggest issue is a lack of mobility, but when he’s that dangerous it’s just something to work around. At 50 points his first click can deliver 4 damage up to 8 spaces away, with an 11 attack. Pushing Winter Soldier also doesn’t phase him, as all of his clicks are incredibly solid. The Regeneration on his last click gives him a lot of survivability. I’m going to be honest though, the 50 point dials are rarely going to end up on anything but their first clicks unless they push. It’s just the state of the game today, a 3 click long dial can’t stand up to the amount of firepower most figures carry around with them, and someone like Winter Soldier who has no reducers can really feel the pain from powers like Energy Explosion and Poison. On the other hand, this Winter Soldier makes up for it with his combat acumen, potentially even being worthy of fielding on a more competitive team. Just be warned he is the definition of a glass cannon, and you need that extra protection from range from the Cap trait.

Final Score- 4/5

#006 Black Panther

In almost every fast forces and starter pack there is one figure that makes the whole thing worth while. In Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, it was Fitz and H.E.N.R.Y, and in Trinity War it was Atomica. In this starter pack Black Panther is that piece. At first you might look at him, and wonder what I’m thinking due to his low defense value, but Black Panther makes up for all of that. If you’re playing him, you’ll want to play him at 50, as it gives you access to his best powers, and makes him surprisingly hard to hit. Understand this, Black Panther might look like a secondary attacker, but he’s anything but. He’s a support piece through and through, and that all comes down to his special power.

Come June, Black Panther will be the only figure in Modern Age that can shut down multiple free actions. While his way of doing it is far more limited than Agent 13, or the Green Power Battery, it’s still a really good power to have, especially when going up against pieces with Pick-a-Power. But even if you’re just in a friendly match with low power figures, not being able to Perplex and then Running Shot can really screw up a turn for a character. Now, when Panther pushes off that click, he gets Perplex, still allowing him to help out the team. Now as I mentioned before, his defense value is a very low 16, but with his printed Combat Reflexes and his traited Energy Shield/ Deflection, Black Panther has an 18 defense from both close and ranged combat.

On top of that, He has the ability to be a decent attacker if it comes down to it with Charge and Blades/Claws/Fangs, and later Flurry and Precision Strike. Black Panther also has the only Improved Movement in the starter set, and the improvements he gets are fantastic, as he ignores Elevated, Hindering and Characters for movement. He can get in position to use Tactical Takedown, regardless of the map choice. He’s just a very solid piece, and a steal at 45 points.

Final Score- 5/5

The rest will be updated when the target exclusives actually come out. Hope you enjoyed this!