Let’s take a look at some of the newer product that’s available via Organized Play events. Today I’m reviewing the Justice League OP Kit from August and the Alpha Flight OP Kit from September of 2016.

I know that last week, I reviewed the Civil War SLOP, but that was more of a ‘what’s actually good and worth getting in this set’ type of article rather than a review of the pieces. This time, I’m going to go over each of the pieces for these two new Organized Play releases.

What are these pieces, you might ask? How do I get them? I’m fairly certain most people reading this know how to acquire these special kits, but for those that do not, your LGS (local game store) probably runs Heroclix events. Every month, Wizkids develops 3 new figures to send to stores that hold events to draw players in and have a chance to win some of these unique pieces that you can’t get anywhere else (okay, maybe you can buy them on the secondary market). They’re basically an incentive to get out there and play and help support your LGS.

Since I just started Clix Fix, I missed the August OP Kit (and also missed getting any of them as I was gone for half the events at my LGS), so let’s start there:

August 2016 Justice League OP Kit

wkD16-010 The Atom – 75 Points – The Atom is mainly a highly-mobile Outwitter that shifts into a somewhat close combat piece after his top click. He’s got traited Stealth, which is always good, along with a 19 defense with Super Senses while also being Tiny. The point here is that The Atom is going to be tough to hit, almost always. Sporting Precision Strike on his top click, and Outwit on his top two clicks, he can absolutely make his 2 damage sting, or open a spot for a friendly to dish some damage. He’s also got a special movement power that allows him to teleport between unheld objects on the map on his first and last click, which makes way for Charge on every other click. The thing is, He’s only 5 clicks long and doesn’t really serve a unique purpose on your team. If you want a decent Outwit, you can get a much better piece in something like USM 015 Scrambler, or TMNT 003 Donatello. Heck, you can go with WF018 Batman and pick up Shifting Focus while you’re at it, and these guys are all cheaper than The Atom.

Bottom Line: The Atom might seem decent, but his point value is just too high for what he does and brings to the table. 2/5

wkD16-011 Aquaman – 100 Points – Talk about a close combat heavy hitter, this version of Arthur doesn’t play around. Sporting 6 clicks of health, Aquaman starts out with an impressive first click of charge, 11 attack Super Strength, 18 Invulnerable, and 4 Leadership. He keeps this suite (sans Leadership) for 3 clicks and transfers into Sidestep, Blades, and Toughness, and only dropping to a 9 attack on his last click. He sports the Dolphin movement symbol because of course he does. His dial makes him a pretty decent tank, but his traits really set him off. The first lets you place 7 squares of water terrain if you went second and your opponent picked a map with no printed water. These don’t have to be adjacent to each other; just 7 squares anywhere you want. His second trait synergizes with this as when he’s in water, he can use Combat Reflexes, Willpower, and LoF drawn to him is blocked if the person trying to see him isn’t in water themselves. So not only does he reward you with water in places on the map, he gets incredibly stronger when he’s in said water.

Bottom Line: I really dig him. 100 points ensures he can use Ultra Heavy objects, and being able to always have water makes him a great piece for the points. 4/5

wkD16-012 Firestorm – 115 Points – Now this is what I’m talking about! Firestorm is probably one of the best OP pieces we’ve had in quite some time. Sporting a whopping 12 movement with Running Shot (complete with flight and 7 range, double bolts), he has a huge threat radius. He also has 11 Energy Explosion, 17 Energy Shields, and 3 with Perplex. How good is that? Firestorm is great because he already has incredible stats for the points, yet he can tweak anything he needs based on what’s on the board. On his third click, he loses EE and Perplex, but picks up Toughness before transitioning into his second form, which has Sidestep, Precision Strike, Toughness, and Ranged Combat Expert. The 9 attack hurts here, but the RCE makes sure he can keep high values for low clicks. His last click sports Phasing/Teleport, and Regeneration, which gives him the opportunity to get out and heal up. What I really like about Firestorm is his trait, which lets him turn any object that’s equipped/held by his target into a standard light object. Possessor? Gone. Symbiote? Gone. Ultra Heavy? Gone, baby! Sure, he deals no damage, but that’s incredibly strong.

Bottom Line: Absolutely fantastic. The threat on this guy is nuts, and the fact that he’s 115 makes him a perfect ID character as Ultron Drones need people of 120 or less. 5/5

September 2016 Alpha Flight OP Kit

wkM16-013 Vindicator – 100 points – Vindicator feels like she wants to be a kind of all over the place ranged attacker. Possessing flight is wonderful, and like Firestorm, she has 7 range, but only a single bolt. Her top click has a 10 Running Shot, a naked 10 attack, 17 with Toughness, and 3 with Leadership, so her top click is pretty mediocre or average, if not a little expensive. Then she shifts a bit, going from Running Shot to Sidestep, picking up a special attack power for two clicks, and shifting to ES/D on her fourth click. Her last two clicks give her Force Blast, ES/D, and Perplex with a 9 attack and 2 damage, so decent even to the end. The special attack gives her a little bit more threat as it lets her shoot a jet of blocking lava terrain anywhere within 6 squares and on the lowest elevation of the map, penetrating people in that square for 1 and she can use poison from that square. A pretty great power, but it does require a power action to use, and with no indom, it does effect her threat. She does have a solemn trait which grants her a force field that you can plink away at when she takes damage and effectively neutralize hits of up to 3 damage (Toughness). That trait gives her a bit more teeth. She seems like she could be useful on certain teams, but nothing outstanding.

Bottom Line: It seems she doesn’t know what she wants to be between aggressive ranged attacker and terrain specialist with poison. A little too rough for my liking, but her trait makes her useful. 3/5

wkM16-014 Aurora – 65 Points – Aurora here seems like a somewhat cheaper version of the CWSLOP Speedfreek. A somewhat vanilla dial, she sports a special movement on her first three clicks that grants her Hypersonic and when she hits with a close attack, she can deal no damage and place the hit target adjacent to her with an action token when she’s all finished moving. With a 10 attack, she matches Speedfreek (as well as the three damage), but she doesn’t have Precision Strike like he does to cut through quick enemies. The rest of her dial is pretty bland, with Toughness on her top two clicks, going into Super Senses for the last three, and shifting to Flurry on her last two clicks. I like that she gives a token, but I feel that Speedfreek is just better at what they do. Where I can see her being great is on themed teams where he doesn’t fit, or on large point games where you may need multiple people to pull in your enemies. Then again, you could just play more than one Speedfreek as he’e only 5 points more than Aurora.

Bottom Line: It’s a shame when a piece comes out that is immediately worse than something for so little more. If you have Speedfreek, don’t worry about her. 2/5

wkM16-015 Northstar – 65 Points – Northstar is nearly identical to his sister Aurora, in that he has a special movement power that grants Hypersonic on his first three clicks, that goes into Flurry for his last two. His defense is reversed as he has two clicks of Super Senses, which goes into Toughness on his last three clicks. Unlike his sister, Northstar’s special movement gives him a different effect. When he uses Hypersonic, if he traveled in a direct line, before the close attack, he knocks the target back equal to half the squares he moved and gives them an action token. That might seem pretty good, but without indom, he has to spend turns to set up a direct line (or get TK’d into place), which then your opponent can react to and move. It’s another fun little gimmick, but I don’t see it really being used when you can simply just use Hypersonic with 12 movement, 10 attack, and 3 damage for 65 points. He’s much better as just a cheap, simple speedster.

Bottom Line: A smidge better than his sister because he isn’t trying to do something someone else does directly better. Skip the gimmick and just use him as a cheap speedster. 3/5

So it looks like the Justice League set has two pretty good pieces while the Alpha Flight set is pretty moderate and could be skipped. Think one of these pieces is better/worse than what I rated them at? Let me know why in the comments below!

Thursday, we’ll jump back into another build as we haven’t done one since the Devil Dinosaur piece from two weeks ago, and I think you guys like the builds a bit more than reviews. Join me then!