#017 John Greycrow

For a 60 point figure, John Greycrow brings a lot to the table. 7 Range is way better than average, and when paired with Running Shot, and a 9 Speed he has a very impressive swing. Furthermore, his trait that lets him get powers from objects gives him a ton of ways to deal with bigger characters, and the ability to switch gives him even more options every turn. Both Precision Strike and Penetrating/Psychic Blast allow him to get through every major defense outside of Stealth and Shape Change. Outside of his trait, John Greycrow is still a statistically fantastic attacker, with high attack and high damage when assisted with Ranged Combat Expert. His defense is a little lacking, especially with Willpower on his first click, but all this means is you’ll have to be more thoughtful about his placement, which isn’t too hard with his very high range and Running Shot. Generally, John Greycrow is a fantastic ranged attacker, with the interesting ability to gain useful attack powers. He’s a little fragile, but with the right team, which he can support with his Leadership that can be useful in a Marauders team, he’ll always carry his weight. He’s also possibly the best user of the Mutant Massacre trait with his enlarged range and Running Shot, allowing him to almost always have access to opposing characters to hit when the trait is activated.

Final Score: 4/5

#018 Vanisher

Vanisher is a simple value proposition. Would you like to pay 40 points to carry 3 of your characters regardless of their keywords? If your answer is yes (and it certainly should be), then Vanisher is the figure for you. He’s the best taxi in the entire game now, and there’s more to him than just that, but there really doesn’t need to be. He brings so much freedom in who he can carry that he really doesn’t need to be any more than his first two click, but instead they felt giving him Probability Control on his last two clicks would be fair, and I’m not complaining. He might not take hits well, or do much damage, but being able to carry 3 characters, especially with the Brotherhood of Mutants Team Ability so that it doesn’t take an action from your action pool, makes him one of the best pieces in the game. Remember how Mercury from World’s Finest started showing up all over the place, because of his cheap access to Telekinesis? Vanisher is as good a piece, but focusing completely on carrying. He also makes every single Marauder, many of whom suffered from a lack of mobility (Blockbuster, Arclight, Prism), hugely more competent, especially Riptide who can Sidestep and Pulse Wave after being carried. Yes, this means you could carry 3 Riptides up, drop them off, and have them Sidestep/Pulse Wave on a single turn, and it wouldn’t cost you a single action from your total.

Final Score: 5/5

#019 Warpath

Warpath’s claim to fame is Exploit Weakness on his first 3 clicks. Aside from that one power, he’s not offering anything significantly different than Colossus. He’s not bad, but he doesn’t fill much of a role in this set. His offensive potential is good on his first three clicks, but it drops off on his last two, which gives him an 18 Defend and Empower. Overall, he’s just a little less of an effective attacker than the other 50 point close combat pieces, even though he’s not inherently bad. His trait is useful in sealed, but outside of this set it’s probably never going to see play, as the X-Men team ability just isn’t commonly used. Warpath isn’t bad, he’s just outclassed by the other 50 point pieces.

Final Score:2/5

#020 Wolverine

The second Wolverine in the set is almost as sub-par as the first one, and comes in at more than double the point cost of the 50 point Wolverine. Instead of healing when he clears, or having Regeneration, Wolverine gets heal tokens that he can remove to heal a click. The thing to notice about this is that it’s not just damage dealt by opposing characters attacks, but all damage including pushing, basically giving him a more limited version of Willpower. It also gives him a psuedo stop-click by removing 3 Heal tokens, giving him a little more survivability. If you have 6 tokens, that’s going to allow him to do it twice, but with the low defensive values and Toughness, there’s a big chance that he’s going to be getting to that last click very quickly. Offensively he’s not even close to being the best there is, with very mediocre attack values and being forced to rely on Blades/Claws/Fangs for damage, which is not something you want to have to rely on at 115 points. Even Exploit Weakness only shows up when he loses Charge, this isn’t a Wolverine that I’d want to play, and I don’t think it properly represents the character. This Wolverine is overly expensive, vulnerable to attacks, and is a surprisingly mediocre close combat attacker. His special healing power helps him stay alive, but doesn’t give him enough control of his dial to remain alive.

Final Score: 1/5

#021 Cyclops

The first of three Cyclops doesn’t disappoint. His dial seems a little bare, especially in the defensive slot, but he makes up for it with powerful ranged attacks. Like the 50 point X-Men before him, Cyclops’s dial is split into two sets of powers. Unlike Storm or Nightcrawler where the shift between the two power sets is drastic, Cyclops just changes the way in which he goes about his ranged combat. His first power set has restricted movement, relying on Sidestep to get in range, and Ranged Combat Expert to insure he’s hitting his target, and dealing a good amount of damage. His last two clicks gives him Running Shot and Penetrating/Psychic Blast, which, with 7 range, gives him a good fairly good swing, and his values actually increase when he gets to this clicks, keeping up his good offensive capabilities. Defensively he’s not winning any prizes, but like the other figures, 5 clicks for 50 points gives him enough life to survive most attacks. His trait also gives him extra supporting capabilities, even though currently his Leadership can’t help the other characters on his team, getting an extra action is useful, and getting Probability Control 1 out of 3 times really helps him support the rest of his team, while still keeping up his ranged barrage. Cyclops is a really good ranged attacker, and the potential Probability Control isn’t dependable, but very helpful when it happens.

Final Score: 4/5

#022 Beast

Beast has a lot going on in this dial. He starts out with Outwit which pairs well with his traited Leap/Climb, allowing him to get into position to Outwit, followed by 3 clicks of Close Combat Expert goodness, and ends with two strange clicks of Support, giving him a ton of things to do for your team. Beast’s biggest problem is that he’s just not as good at doing those things as cheaper characters, making his 75 point investment kind of steep. Overall he’s just a little bit lackluster for 75 points, especially with some of the better close combat pieces, but he does get a little bit better when considering his trait. I personally think that Probability Control is by far the strongest support power in the game, and not being able to target a character with it can render some support characters virtually useless. Beast works better as a secondary attacker, due to his Outwit and ability to get into position with Leap/Climb, but his jack-of-all-trades approach with Support means that you’re either going to need to know every click of his dial, or you’re going to have to be very lucky to insure he’s in the right place to use the powers on his dial.

Final Score: 2/5

#023a Kitty Pride

This Kitty Pride is kind of disappointing. You’re basically paying 50 points for a really good Leadership power, and after you lose it, Perplex. Without the ability to carry, or move and attack, she’s not a great attacking piece. Defensively, she’s a little confusing, featuring Energy Shield/Deflection for her first three clicks and Willpower for her last two, allowing her some protection from range, but not a lot of protection from where she actually wants to be, up close and personal. Her Leadership is really powerful for All New X-Men teams, as taking a token off of every character adjacent to her is actually incredibly powerful. If you’re not running an All New X-Men team then she’s a waste of points, but if you are, she’s provides a service.

Final Score: 2/5

#023b Kitty Pride

The Prime Kitty Pride is way better than the Uncommon, but she still doesn’t live up to the Kitty I’m looking for. Her most useful tool in her kit is her Phasing + Incap power, but with 9 movement, and an 18 defense with Super Senses, she can be left vulnerable when moving her out to use that power. The redeeming factor for her is her incredibly cheap 65 point cost. With a lot of assistance, Kitty Pride shines, especially when the enemy is grouped up together. Her use is diminished against teams with less characters, or players who position their units with the intention to limit your use of her. She’s best as a disrupting character who forces your opponent to adapt to her position, but there’s the danger that she will have a very limited affect on the game if your opponent builds in a specific way.

My favorite thing about this Kitty Pride is the Guardians of the Galaxy keyword, where her 18 Defense pairs well with the GotG #030 Star-Lord, who shares that 18 with the rest of the Guardians on your team. Overall, she’s more of an interesting piece than an effective one, but she has high enough values, and enough potential to make a difference in a game.

Final Score: 3/5

#024 Cyclops

Two Cyclops in one rarity does seem like a bit much, but I’ll allow it due to the fact that they’re both really decent. The first thing of note on this Cyclops is traited Force Blast. Having Force Blast is always useful because of how important positioning is in Heroclix; one space further away from their target can be the difference between being able to reach them and being forced to waste a turn and an action moving up, and re-positioning. It’s even more effective when you’re dealing with characters without reducers so you can increase the damage through knock-back. Aside from that, Cyclops has an 11 range swing, with an 11 attack and 3 damage. He also has Enhancement so that he can assist the other X-men from range (or perhaps a Prism?). Of course, the elephant in the room is his special attack power, not only because it’s confusing, but because it’s really not too great, so lets go over it quickly. The first thing you have to do is choose a vertical and horizontal line from Cyclops. This means you choose either in-front of him, or behind him, and the left or right of him. Then you target all characters within that arc, creating a quarter slice from Cyclops and make an attack dealing 1 penetrating damage to all characters within that arc, and within 5 squares and line of fire. It’s a cool sounding power, and really flavorful, but in use, it’s not great unless you’re going up against swarms. Dealing 1 penetrating damage for a Power Action to a very specific place on the map isn’t very strong. Thankfully, Cyclops makes up for that weak power with solid stats, the inability to be targeted by Probability Control and traited Force Blast.

Final Score: 4/5

#025 Jean Grey

At the high cost of 100 points, you would hope Jean Grey brings a lot to the table, but sadly she’s just not worth the points unless you’re playing an All-New X-Men team. She brings a lot of useful powers with her, but at strange points to make them less useful, like her Pulse Wave which appears alongside Mind Control. Her first two clicks are her best, featuring Sidestep, Telekinesis (one of the only figures in this set with this power), and a special Perplex that lets her target the other All-New X-Men without drawing a line of fire or having range to them. She’s a useful support piece, but 100 points is too much to spend on a support figure.

Final Score: 2/5

#026 Chief Magistrate

Looking at Chief Magistrate is frustrating to me, It’s a cacophony of powers that don’t fit together in any logical way, but having them on a 40 point figure is fantastic. In some ways I like the concept of giving really useful powers to low cost figures by limiting their use on the dial and putting them in conjunction with other non-synchronous powers. Chief Magistrate is probably going to end up being played competitively, not too often, but often enough to be mentioned. For 40 points you’re getting 5 clicks of life, and on three of those clicks Penetrating/Psychic Blast, and on the other two, Pulse Wave. That’s pretty insane value, what’s strange about this figure is the other powers it gets. In conjunction with Penetrating/Psychic Blast is Close Combat Expert, which then is replaced by Leadership. Having Leadership isn’t very useful on a 40 point figure, but having it on it’s last three clicks is just strange. Movement wise it’s going to be getting places with its Phasing/Teleport. Of course Chief Magistrate also has unbelievably good values to go with those powers, having a 10 attack that dips to 9 on 2 clicks, and surprisingly good defense powers on its first three clicks. Having the Police Team ability never hurts either.

Final Score: 4/5

#027 Brood

Brood is a surprisingly good generic especially on his 30 point starting line. At his higher point cost, he gets 2 clicks of 5 range charge, Flight (including the ability to Carry) and a really good special Blades/Claws/Fangs that allows him to put a token on his target on the role of a 4-6. His attack is a pretty average 10 throughout his dial, only falling to a nine one his last two clicks. If you’re playing him at 50 points, you’re doing so to make use of his ability to carry other people, which mixed with that surprising offensive offering, makes Brood a really awesome secondary attacker. His 30 point dial does lose the ability to carry, but a 10 attack, Blades/Claws/Fangs with a 4 charge for 30 points is astounding, and he brings more variability to the table when he pushes to get Plasticity, Combat Reflexes and Exploit Weakness. Brood is as good as any of the 50 point X-Men, and offers two separate, but equally good starting lines to tear apart your opponents.

Final Score: 4/5

#028 Caliban

Caliban’s role is to carry people up, and then assist them with targeting the opposing force, by granting Improved Targeting: Ignores Hindering Terrain. His value is tied to how useful you think this is, and if you can build a team that takes advantage of it. In terms of dial length, he’s giving you 5 clicks for 40 points, but i’m not sure that he’s worth that. If you’re playing him you’re probably not playing Vanisher, and you’re trading the ability to carry 2 more units for Improved Targeting. Ignoring Hindering terrain is actually really good, look at how effective the Superman Team Ability is, especially when you’re going up against teams featuring Stealth. Overall he’s just a little bit overpriced, especially when he’s sharing the uncommon section with Vanisher. If you’re struggling with hindering terrain, I’ve got to recommend the AVAS Jarvis over Caliban, although his only works in Indoor Terrain. Overall he’s decent, but just outclassed by Vanisher.

Final Score: 2/5

#029 Magneto

For 50 points Magneto is a fantastic secondary attacker and support piece, and is a huge threat to every piece on the table. He starts out with Telekinesis and Sidestep making him a great Telekinesis piece, but his real strength comes from his Trait. Free action Running Shot is unbelievably good, even if it’s only once per game, especially when paired with Pulse Wave, allowing him to Running Shot/Pulse Wave and then use his action to attack again or use Telekinesis. In terms of values, he’s pretty decent, with a 3 Damage and 10 attack on his top click, both of which only fall by 1 by the end of his dial. 2 Damage is a little bit of a concern, but Magneto offers enough other utility to make up for his potentially low damage, having Pulse Wave doesn’t hurt either. Overall he’s a decent Telekinesis figure with the potential to be a surprise threat on the battlefield, but his lower values definitely limit his offensive potential.

Final Score: 4/5

#030 Juggernaut

Finally we get a Juggernaut that feels like a Juggernaut. The most interesting thing about him is his Trait that allows him to charge in a straight line. This initially seems really open, but you’ll soon learn just how restrictive this is. You can’t end your movement in a space occupied by an opposing character, as they only move away after you’ve made your attack. Having Sidestep really helps Juggernaut get into position, but having Telekinesis really helps him. Now I don’t tend to advise extending a character that far into opposing territory, but Juggernaut’s helmet trait makes him potentially unstoppable. He’s assisted with Impervious on his first few clicks, and cannot be Outwit or hit with Penetrating/Psychic Blast making ranged attacks against him tough. When he’s hit with a close attack, if you do hit his 18 defense, you have to struggle to get that helmet off before you can even do anything about hurting him. Even then, his 4 printed damage is going to be hard to beat in a roll off unless you’re opponent is fielding something as big as him. When his helmet comes off he’s not worthless, but he loses a lot of his power, and basically all his survivability. Overall I think Juggernaut is incredibly flavorful and balanced, offering some fun and useful abilities and a really strong body to use them with. He’s a little expensive at 150 points but he crushes opponents who can’t get his helmet off.

Final Score: 4/5

#031 Sabretooth

Sabretooth benefits from a really strong attack value. He starts with an 11, which after a push, ends up as a 12.The worst thing about Sabretooth is his point cost. At 75 points you’re paying a lot more instead of a cheaper Blades/Claws/Fangs piece like Wolverine, but you also get a much better version of Blades/Claws that hits all adjacent characters. This power can be either game changing or absolutely useless depending on the team build and placement of your opponents. Any teams that require adjacency in order to function can be torn apart by Sabretooth’s charge, but against a larger figure, he’s running around with the basic Blades/Claws/Fangs. Sabretooth’s other values are all pretty average, his speed falling to a low 8 on his second click. After his first three clicks he loses Charge for Leap/Climb, really lowering his mobility. His last 2 clicks give him a chance to heal with Regeneration, but his low defense and lack of Willpower makes him pretty vulnerable, and forces you to try to protect him while he regenerates. Finally, the Mutant Massacre trait can really keep him alive, but also doesn’t function as well with his special Blades/Claws/Fangs, because if you do manage to kill more than 1 enemy, his triat only activates once.

Final Score: 3/5

#032 Super Sabre

Now it’s time for a new Sabre. This one features the effective power combination of Hypersonic Speed and Force Blast allowing for some really fun displacement of opposing characters. Sadly, his values really let him down, especially when, for 5 points more, you could be playing Quicksilver. Defensively Super Sabre is solid, with mostly 17’s but an 18 on his second click and mixed with Energy Shield/Deflection. His last 3 clicks he picks up Precision Strike allowing him to insure he’s hitting everyone for something. The Freedom Force trait also is great on him due to his high speed value, giving him a lot of range to move and use Force Blast. If his attack was a little higher, and his damage more dependable than a 2, he would be a lot better. As it stands now, he’s a fun Hypersonic figure but is just too weak to compare to the Quicksilver from this set, or even the Flash from the prize support.

Final Score: 2/5