Welcome back to Chase or Pass, a series that talks about the expensive pieces from sets and whether or not you should chase these pieces down or pass them up. While X-Men The Animated Series: The Dark Phoenix Saga is a gigantic set with some amazing figures, there hasn’t been much talk about these Chases.

Hey, we’re back to a full Chase theme for Marvel! Aside from Earth X, things have been a little strange in the Chase theme department, but it looks like trends have settled and we’re back to a full line-up of the same idea (for now). However, that theme might not be what people were hoping for as it’s the Hellfire Club. These puritan-esque people are long-time foes of the X-Men and have had their hands in the bad guy Kool-Aid for quite some time. While they weren’t exactly the Chases people may have wanted, it’s understandable since this set is more like an X-Men villain set than hero. Plus, both Jean Grey and Emma Frost have been members which means you get some crossover.

What’s odd about these Chases is that they don’t exhibit tough dials with overwhelming power for the most part. These individuals aren’t your fully powered Magneto’s or Apocalypse and his Horseman (two things that can’t be printed for some reason); no, this group of baddies is more subtle and about dominating their opponent’s through strategy and politics. Their dials reflect this as well, and it’s the first Chase set in a long time that you could play the entire group together for a relatively low-cost team at 500 points.

We’ve all read these articles before, so let’s just dive right into it. As a quick refresher, Casual is all about playing with your friends and occasional game nights at your LGS whereas Competitive is for ROC’s, bigger events at your LGS, or even Nationals/Worlds.

One quick note: as of this writing, we still don’t have the figures in the units section of the Realms, so you’ll need to consult the set spoiler which you can find right here.

Donald Pierce 044

100 Points, 6 Clicks, 5 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Hellfire Club, Reavers, Robot, and Scientist Keywords.

A melee-focused dial with some surprisingly powerful ranged applications thanks to Donald’s limited pick-a-power. This guy can adapt to whatever he’s fighting against with multiple melee power options like Super Strength for big 5-damage hits and Precision Strike to guarantee some hits. While Pen/Psy is the obvious choice for ranged attacks in a pinch, his short 5-range is a great pair with Pulse Wave giving him a small burst that’s easier to single-target. Donald is no slouch, either; he’s rocking 17-Invulnerability for 5 clicks making him much harder to KO than it seems on paper, especially since larger-point characters can’t deal penetrating damage to him and he has PROTECTED: Outwit. If he does manage to get into a beef with a larger-point character, he’s going to handsomely reward you with token removal, healing, and better stats. Perhaps the best part of his dial though is his STOP click which replaces him with an object (his head) and gives you a chance to resurrect him. It does require you to grab his head before an opponent can and run through the obstacles, but if you can pull it off, that’s a big save. As with all the Chases, Hellfire Club is a much stronger Keyword now, but he has the excellent Robot and Scientist Keywords as well to help fit him on a lot of teams.

The issues with Donald is that in today’s game, 101+ point figures aren’t common at all. That might change when this set drops as a lot of the bigger characters are excellent, but I doubt that happens. In casual, this isn’t an issue but it’s a serious one for competitive. He’s also working with some sub-par values for his 100-point cost; 5 clicks of Invulnerability with STOP and PROTECTED: Outwit are great, but not so much when you’re only getting a 17-defense the entire way through. As for the object he drops to prevent him from being KO’d, that’s somewhat more of a curse. Chances are he’s getting dropped when it isn’t your turn which means your opponent can easily scoop up the object and destroy it in an attack. Even if they don’t and you end up with it, you have to march it back to your starting area and give someone a DOUBLE POWER action to resurrect him. It’s neat, but it’s probably not going to happen.

Casual: Absolutely a stellar casual figure that will be a nuisance to deal with. Better odds of resurrecting him in this setting and his stats-for-point cost is an easier pill to swallow. The biggest factor is seeing 101+ point figures in this format to get mileage out of his traits.

Competitive: It’s a pretty safe bet to assume Donald won’t be finding his place in competitive. With Kobik as the upper limit of teams at 100 points, Pierce doesn’t come close.

Harry Leland 045

50 points, 5 Clicks, 4 Range (Double Targets). No Team Ability. Hellfire Club Keyword.

This is quite the odd Chase and most likely he’ll be considered the “dud” of the group. Harry presents a new approach to locking characters out of attacking your team, thoroughly punishing opponent’s for using any move-and-attack power (or Sidestep for that matter) that puts them within 4 squares of him with a hefty -2 to attack. He doubles this up with flat-out stopping characters from being placed from the map within 4 squares of him as well, meaning retaliation can’t come anywhere near him, nor can figures be carried or TK’d into his sphere of influence. Harry has some steady defense values with nothing smaller than an 18 (and two clicks of 19!), along with a double-target Incap, Empower, and a special Outwit making him a decent support figure.

For every step Harry takes forward, it’s either one or two steps back. Dropping combat values on opponents is great, unless they have anyone on their team with 5 or more range which is higher than average when you’re not considering 0-range brutes. Stopping placement within 4 squares is also very good, but his trait specifically says from elsewhere on the map, so you can easily still call-in an ID character and do whatever you want. Double Incap? Good luck with 9-attack. Empower? One 6-damage hit and this guy is toast. Outwit? Perhaps the most limiting ever as he can only hit black powers (one of which he can’t even attempt because Stealth), or special powers. If there’s a nifty power attached to a trait, this guy can’t touch it because that’s not a special power. My biggest problem with Harry is that he does so much to influence this 4-square bubble, but anyone with 5-range can double-tap him into oblivion. One could argue that this is taking 2 hits from the rest of your team, but what exactly are you getting for the trouble? Amazingly, this guy only has the Hellfire Club Keyword, so it’s with his buddies or bust.

Casual: If Harry is ever played, casual will be his forever home. You certainly aren’t going to get any nonsense from your buddies for playing this guy and if you do, they need to lighten up.

Competitive: No way. Not enough Keywords and simply being outclassed by other characters that stop opponent’s from doing things (Beta Ray Bill, Spiderling, Unseen, etc.) makes Harry a rock.

Emma Frost 046

75 Points, 6 Clicks, 6 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Hellfire Club and Ruler Keywords.

We’ve seen a lot of different version of Emma in the last few years, and I would argue that this is her best dial. WizKids has pulled out all the stops on showing how strong of a telepath she is with some excellent 12-attack Mind Control from range at a discount price, and allowing her to target any number of opposing characters she can see if they’re lower points than she is, a majority in today’s game (and a massive counter to retaliators). Emma laughs in Harry’s face as she flat-out stops attacks for ALL friendly characters from any character more than 6 squares away, forcing your opponent to fully commit to the fight. Her kit is quite good, too; PROTECTED: Outwit with Mastermind, Energy Shields, and Stealth make her annoyingly difficult to try and attack (and chances are you won’t successfully close the gap thanks to Mind Control), and she has her own Outwit up top to make life easier for her and her team. After she takes a hit, she lands into a decent Sidestep+Pen/Psy section before returning to her original setup sans ES/D. Not quite the Keyword selection of Donald, but getting a generic Ruler is a nice option.

Emma isn’t without her faults though; her lack of Willpower and any improved movement means that she’ll need either a taxi or TK figure to help her get into the fight so she can start abusing her Mind Control powers. She also needs allies to stick with her so that she can take advantage of that Mastermind, which is a bigger weakness as it seems. Her traited Mind Control is fantastic, but with the limitation of 75 points turning it into regular Mind Control, you’re bound to get into some games where she’ll never get to multi-target. Still, it’s better than Donald only gaining a benefit from pieces over 100 points. Finally, Emma will completely drop when someone does close the gap on her. 11-attack is still very good, but it’s not a 12 which is one of the reasons why she’s so efficient. If the enemy team has a lot of Battle Fury or PROTECTED: Mind Control, Emma becomes completely worthless.

Casual: An excellent figure for casual that depending on the situation might warrant some responses and calls of “broken”. In swarm games, Emma will decimate the ranks. In high-point games, she’ll be worthless cannon fodder.

Competitive: Emma will most likely sit on the sidelines for the next year as a possible ID summon, but even that is a rarity as Professor X is just better in every way. As a main-force character, Emma is too slow and doesn’t have the protections necessary in competitive to stay alive.

Jean Grey 047

75 Points, 6 Clicks, 7 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Hellfire Club, Phoenix Force, Cosmic, and Ruler Keywords.

A lot of folks might be immediately discouraged thanks to Jean’s complete lack of defensive powers or protections. There’s no Stealth, Shape Change, Super Senses, Mastermind, or even Perplex to help her out of a bind. However, these can be added or worked around quite easily as Jean is only 75 points. Not quite the Mind Control piece like Emma, Jean has some monstrous ranged capabilities for her cost and can be abused thanks to her willingness to be Mind Controlled by friendly characters. Hitting with 11-attack and 4-damage multiple times is very good, especially when you build a Mind Control heavy team and see an opposing force with low values, or one that turtles. Most of her dial plays out exactly the same, and thankfully she has a great defense value of 18 most of the time to offset the lack of any powers there, so with some Perplex she’ll be difficult to hit. The best part about this dial though is that once Jean does take a hit, she lands on a powerful STOP click that gives her Power Cosmic, Invulnerability, Flight, and immediately does 3-damage to every character within 6 squares. This forces her opponents to put her down immediately else she transforms into the Dark Phoenix on your next turn and potentially heal back up into a destructive force. Unlike the other Chases, Jean is also rocking some amazing Keywords like Phoenix Force (LE Magneto anyone?), and most importantly, Cosmic.

While it’s easy to equip Jean with something or use Perplex to get around the lack of defenses, that does increase her point cost softly. You’re not paying 75 points for Jean; you’re paying 75 points + X where X is equal to whatever figures or equipment you bring to the table to offset her squishy dial. This can be offset fairly easily though with something like The Venom Symbiote or the Remaker Ring to give her Shape Change for 5 or fewer points, so it’s not all bad. You’ll also need to get ahold of not just a Chase, but probably the second-most desired figure in the set with Dark Phoenix. Thankfully she’s only a Rare but remember that the giant figures usually go up one tier of rarity due to their ratios, so her value is equal to a high Super Rare. That’s a lot of monetary value you need to make this character work to her full potential. These are small issues with an otherwise stellar dial though, and I find it a bit odd that people are so hung up about her defenses.

Casual: Jean’s rage will depend on a few factors: did you bring Mind Control to abuse her and do you have Dark Phoenix? If you answered yes on both of those, she might be a little bonkers and busted for her cost in casual games. Still not Kobik levels though.

Competitive: I think Jean could see a potential future in competitive games. Starro is a fantastic Mind Control figure with Cosmic and she could add some fantastic grit to that team with high damage values and a hard-to-KO figure. I’m not completely sold on her competitive levels, but I could see her in some ROC games.

Jason Wyngarde 048

75 Points, 5 Clicks, 8 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Brotherhood of Mutants, Hellfire Club, and Ruler Keywords.

Jason is one strong dude hiding behind a rather unassuming dial. At first glance, this looks like a total passable Chase dial with his powers alone, but once you read through his three traits you realize how powerful this guy is for such an extremely low cost. Jason is perhaps the strongest Mind Control figure we’ve ever seen as he can chain his attacks and potentially hit every single opposing character in a single action making him a frightening opponent. Once he sees you, if he gets to act first, you’re probably going to do a lot of harm to your own team. But Jason doesn’t stop there; he also has the ability to generate bystanders from characters on your Sideline of 150 points or less, twice per game (as long as that character is on their highest-point line). While you won’t be able to cheat Walking Woods from Groot, there are a ton of fantastic bystanders out there that Jason can thoroughly abuse simply by adding those characters to your sideline for no cost. The fun still isn’t done because Jason has PROTECTED: Outwit, and a special Leadership that can remove tokens regardless of adjacency traited. Willpower ensures that he can Mind Control your entire team for 66% of the game, Shape Change that you can’t Outwit with 18-defense makes him tough to deal with, and late-dial Mastermind/Super Senses makes him hard to put down if you don’t one-shot him. He’s also rocking one of the strongest Keywords now thanks to this set with Brotherhood of Mutants.

Like Jean, Jason doesn’t have anything in his early defenses to help him out like reducers; he’s relying on one roll of Shape Change to keep him safe. That’s still much better than her, but it’s worth mentioning as his protections really aren’t that much better. His values aren’t the greatest either once he takes a single click of damage; pulling off a team-wide Mind Control is much harder when you have a 10-attack. Not impossible, but you’ll feel that single click of damage making Jason very vulnerable to Poison, much like his other Hellfire Club members (most). As long as you can keep him healthy though, he’ll pull a lot of weight.

Casual: Jason is probably a bit too quarrelsome to bring to a friendly game. His offensive capabilities can quite possibly end a game in a single turn, or at least completely turn the tide to your favor very early in the game.

Competitive: Smaller events will be Jason’s home turf. His ability to produce bystanders is what could break him into bigger competitive events, but I’m skeptical because of his dial and his Keywords.

Sebastian Shaw 049

125 Points, 9 Clicks, 0 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Hellfire Club, Politician, and Ruler Keywords.

If there’s one thing no one can disagree with about Sebastian, it’s that his dial is completely different from every other member of the Hellfire Club and looks a bit more like what you expect from high-costed, high-rarity figures. Sebastian is all about tanking damage for days and then turning that damage back onto his opponents with the upgrade(s) of his choice with an extremely long dial with massive reducers. He might start off incredibly weak for 125 points, but once he takes a hit, he’s most likely going to end up mid or end-dial where his values skyrocket and his defenses become so much better. Sebastian isn’t about tricks like his brethren; he’s about sheer force and this dial echoes that nicely. If he ever accumulates 6 Energy tokens and removes them all, he’s going to be a powerhouse with Willpower, Charge, Flurry, Super Strength, +1 to all combat values, and Regeneration as FREE to help heal him back up and counteract the damage he’s taken. The special Leadership helps a lot too since he’s a whopping 125 points.

However, this dial isn’t as great as it looks on paper. The biggest problem with Sebastian is that for 125 points, he’s a Perplex/Leadership figure and… that’s it. Slow and easy to ignore, there will be plenty of games where he never gets touched and his opponent dances around him after wiping out the rest of his team and letting the game go to time to never deal with his power. He’s also sorely lacking PROTECTED: Outwit that some of the other members have which is a massive hole when you look at his dial and see how important those reducers are, more so than most figures in the game as he relies on them to not burn through his one strength; a tough dial. No Willpower unless he’s damaged by a hit, no Outwit protection, no move-and-attack without Energy – Sebastian is a big dummy that won’t do anything most games if your opponent is smart. At least he’s a decent ID battery, but if you’re going that route, save the 25 points and get a better Keyword with Kobik.

Casual: The only place I can see Sebastian having any grounding at all. He’s a great tank and decent ID summoner, but he’s so easy to just ignore.

Competitive: No chance. There’s simply not enough on this dial to give Sebastian any hope of making an impact in competitive Heroclix.

What are your thoughts on these Chases? Do you think I hit the mark or did I make a complete goof? Let me know in the comments below!

See you all next week on Clix Fix as I delve into a new reader requested Team Build, and here again in two weeks for the revival of ID Card Roundup! Until then, remember that the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!