~ Amber

With this preview we’ve now seen all four Prime Sets for Trinity War, with John and Nick being the Super Rare Prime Set.

The Sculpt

I personally really like Constantine’s sculpt from Justice League New 52 with the big glowing Magical Ward behind him though this one makes for a beautiful action pose with John ready to strike someone down with what looks to be the Hand of Glory (not sure if this is an artefact that actually shows up in Justice League Dark) He has his signature trenchcoat billowing out behind him though I’m sure fans would have loved to see a cigarette hanging from his lips – an affectation we haven’t seen since Clobberin’ Time.

The Dial

Constantine is 90 pts for 5 clicks of health with 4 Range and the Mystics Team Ability. His has the Generic Mysical keyword and the named Justice League Dark one. His singular Trait gives him Stealth as well as giving it to any adjacent friendly JLD keyworded characters.With the introduction of Improved Targeting: Ignore Hindering, Stealth feels like it’s lost so much of it’s effectiveness.

Constatine’s stats are mediocre at best. They start off average enough but drop into danger zones a little too quickly. His top dial he has 7 Movement with Ultimate Con Man, 10 Attack with Telekinesis, 17 Defense with Energy Shield/Deflection and 2 Damage with I Make My Own Luck. With his Special Movement Power once per turn you can choose either Outwit or Perplex and John can use that power. Then if he targets an opposing character with the chosen power they can’t use that power until your next turn. This power can’t be countered. So basically if you choose Outwit and use Outwit, the guy you Outwitted can’t use Outwit. Wash, rinse, repeat for Perplex. It’s interesting to say the least but will only be used with the Minimum Range given by the powers themselves which means John will have to be relatively close in order to use them.

His Special Damage Power gives him Probability Control that he can use twice per turn. All regular restrictions apply. One of the interesting things to note is this power’s application in Battle Royales, or a format where you’d have more than one opponent.

PROBABILITY CONTROL Once during your turn, this character allows you to reroll one of your rolls, ignoring the original roll. A character using this power must be within range (minimum range 6) and line of fire to the character for which the original roll was made. Using the same rules, once per round during an opponent’s turn, this character allows you to force that opponent to reroll one of their rolls, ignoring the original roll.

The key wording there being that [normally] you can use Prob once per round on an opponent’s turn. The wording on John’s power here would allow you to use it twice each turn, which would allow it twice for each opponent you’re facing.

On his second click he keeps Ultimate Con Man but loses Telekinesis, keeps Energy Shield/Deflection and gains Exploit Weakness. This is another one of those contradictory clicks, you want to keep him at Range but Exploit Weakness only works at Close Combat. On his following click he gets Phasing/Teleport, Penetrating/Psychic Blast, keeps Energy Shield/Deflection and regains I Make My Own Luck. Click four shows only Ultimate Con Man and Exploit Weakness without any Defense powers. His final click has Phasing/Teleport, Penetrating/Psychic Blast and I Make My Own Luck.

Overall, I’m not really sure how I feel about this one. This is the kind of figure that makes you wonder just how much certain powers cost. There doesn’t really seem to be anything that accounts for how much he costs. 90 pts is a third of a modern age team and when you can get a figure like Engineer at the same cost it’s hard to find a place for him.

The Sculpt

Nick is one of those Primes that is the same sculpt with a new paint job. He’s got that awesome show of power that John has, where he’s controlling the power of some magical artefact. Nick is sporting a black suit which makes him look more like Marvel’s Pete Wisdom. Though I think the blue translucent plastic looks nicer than the fiery orange one.

The Dial

Nick is the more costly of the pair but not by much coming in at 111pts. He has 5 clicks of Health, 8 Range, the Mystics Team Ability and Improved Targeting: Ignore Hindering and Ignore Characters. He has a singular trait, I Thought We Were Friends, which allows him to use Stealth and a mini pact sort of like Highfather’s although Nick’s pact only keeps the opposing character of his choosing from targeting him (not others) unless either one of them are the last character on their respective forces.

Nick’s stats aren’t that much different than John’s though he has a higher steady attack throughout his entire dial. On his top click he has 7 Movement with Phasing/Teleport, 10 Attack with Penetrating/Psychic Blast, 17 Defense with Mastermind and 2 Damage with Taught you Everything You Know. His Special Damage Power allows Nick to use Outwit. He can also be given a power action to target a character within Range and Line of Fire and that character can’t use Combat Abilities (Flight, Carry, Indomitable, Improvements) or Team Abilities and their combat value can’t be greater than their printed values until your next turn. This ability is HUGE mainly because it uses the wording Can’t Use. Can’t use trumps nearly everything, this will shut off anything that can’t be countered or ignored, this will shut down someone with Power Cosmic or Quintessence, opening them up to be countered by another character (or Nick Himself) not to mention it keeps them from having combat values greater than their printed values. This is going to not only shut down Perplex, but Energy Shield/Deflection, Combat Reflexes, Ranged Combat Expert, Close Combat Expert, Blades/Claws/Fangs and most importantly Defend.

As his dial turns we see this power set for two more clicks though his stats do start to drop. On click four he has Sidestep, Precision Strike, Mystical Artifacts are Drawn to Me and Perplex. This Special Defense Power is a situational stop click. You’ll stop turning the dial if the click was revealed due to damage dealt by a character assigned a relic or resource attachment. Then your opponent has a choice, they can either deal their attacker 3 unavoidable damage or Nick heals one and that relic or resource attachment is removed from the game. While this won’t help him in a No Tactics format this will definitely be advantageous in a standard Modern Age game. The most important thing to note on this power (and what puts it ahead of those like it IE Cat from Deadpool) is the wording Resource Attachment, which at the moment almost exclusively refers to Constructs (although whether or not they are still considered Resource Attachments when brought in from the Construct Trait is yet to be seen) And finally his last click has Sidestep, Precision Strike, Regeneration and Perplex.

This is a character who’s strength is almost entirely within it’s special powers which can be a good thing and a bad thing, mainly because Special Powers can be countered. At his price point he may not make a lot of teams in Competitive play though his opening power may be enough to squeak him in (not to mention his potential stop click) He’s definitely above what John does for that extra 21 points and will be the one I’ll be seeking out of this pair.